Podcasts about encyclopedia britannica

In this episode, Payton explores the mysterious disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, a vibrant teenager living within the walls of Vatican City. After she vanishes without a trace one evening, her family turns to the police—only to uncover whispers that the Vatican itself might be hiding something. Links:  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Twitch: twitch.tv/throatypie Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intothedarkpod/ Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbh-B5Or9CT8Hutw1wfYqQ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7 Case Sources: Vatican Girl – documentary series Catholic News Agency - https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/260765/vatican-confirms-existence-of-secret-file-on-vatican-girl-emanuela-orlandi  CNN - https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/15/europe/italy-vatican-girl-case-intl-cmd/index.html The Catholic Herald - https://thecatholicherald.com/emanuela-orlandi-to-be-back-in-the-spotlight-in-2024/ The Washington Post - https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-15-year-old-vatican-girl-vanished-the-mystery-still-haunts-italy?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us  Encyclopedia Britannica - https://www.britannica.com/place/Vatican-City  Hersch Secure - https://www.hirschsecure.com/resources/blog/the-worlds-most-secure-buildings-the-vatican-secret-archives   New York Times - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/world/europe/emanuela-orlandi-vatican-vatileaks.html  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/25/world/europe/pope-vatican-girl.html   https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/20/world/europe/vatican-bones-emanuela-orlandi.html  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Emperor Meiji of Japan’s reign began in 1867, and it marks a time of significant change in the country’s history. After the emperor and his consort died in the early 20th century, the Meiji Jingu shrine was built to memorialize them. Research: Atsushi, Kawai. “Prefectures, Power, and Centralization: Japan’s Abolition of the Feudal Domains.” Nippon.com. Aug. 27, 2021. https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g01159/ Bernard, Rosemary. “Shinto and Ecology: Practice and Orientations to Nature.” Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. https://fore.yale.edu/World-Religions/Shinto/Overview-Essay Cali, Joseph and John Dougill. “Shinto Shrines: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan's Ancient Religion: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan’s Ancient Religion.” University of Hawaii Press. 2015. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Charter Oath". Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Mar. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/Charter-Oath The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Meiji". Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 Jan. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Meiji The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Treaty of Shimonoseki". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Apr. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Shimonoseki Furukawa, Hisao. “Meiji Japan'sEncounterwith Modernization” Southeast Asian Studies. Vol, 33, No. 3. December 1995. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/tak/33/3/33_KJ00000131881/_pdf Huffman, James. “Land Tax Reform Law of 1873.” About Japan. https://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/content.cfm/land_tax_reform_law_of_1873#sthash.qp6fLxcO.dpbs Huffman, James. “The Meiji Restoration Era, 1868-1889.” Japan Society. June 11, 2021. https://japansociety.org/news/the-meiji-restoration-era-1868-1889/ Meiji Jingu site: https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/en/ “The Meiji Restoration and Modernization.” Asia for Educators. Columbia University Weatherhead East Asia Institute. https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1750_meiji.htm “Discover Meiji Jingu: A Shrine Dedicated to the Spirits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.” Google Arts and Culture. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/discover-meiji-jingu-a-shrine-dedicated-to-the-spirits-of-emperor-meiji-and-empress-shoken/OQVBs7hVH09QJw Meyer, Ulf. “The Spirit of the Trees.” World Architects. Feb. 3, 2021. https://www.world-architects.com/en/architecture-news/products/the-spirit-of-the-trees#:~:text=The%20Meiji%20Shrine%20is%20the%20most%20prominent,in%20Japan's%20capital%20for%20this%20hatsum%C5%8Dde%20worship.&text=The%20famous%20architect%20Ito%20Chuta%20designed%20the,Japan's%20shrine%20a%20touch%20of%20national%20identity. “Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 6, 1910.” United States Department of State. Office of the Historian. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1910/d705 “Russo-Japanese War: Topics in Chronicling America.” Library of Congress. https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-russo-japanese-war Steele, Abbey, et al. “Constraining the Samurai: Rebellion and Taxation in Early Modern Japan.” International Studies Quarterly. 2017. 61, 352–370. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/pegroup/files/constraining_the_samurai_9.15.pdf “The United States and the Opening to Japan, 1853.” U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/opening-to-japan Wojtan, Linda S. “Rice: It's More Than Food In Japan.” Stanford Program on International and Cross-cultural Education. November 1993. https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/rice_its_more_than_food_in_japan#rice See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bubble gum is more than just a chewy treat — it's a pop culture icon with roots that stretch back thousands of years. In this guest-hosted history-sode, Amelia unwraps the surprisingly sweet story of how ancient tree sap turned into the pink, stretchy, bubble-blowing favorite we know today. From ancient Greece to a Philadelphia accountant's happy accident in 1928, you'll learn how bubble gum went from practical chew to global sensation.This episode is read by Amelia - an AI generated voice through ElevenLabs. She is helping out Auntie Jo Jo while she takes some sick leave from the library. Sources:Smithsonian Magazine: The Invention of Bubble GumNational Geographic Kids: The History of Chewing GumAmerican Chemical Society: The Chemistry of Chewing GumWalter Diemer Obituary, New York Times Archives (1998)“Gum” entry, Encyclopedia Britannica

Meg tells how Mariel Boatlift refugee Abel Mendez's unlikely friends made his American Dream come true. Jessica explains how Reagan's trickle down economics gave birth to the clock-watching office temp. Please check out our website, follow us on Instagram, on Facebook, and...WRITE US A REVIEW HEREWe'd LOVE to hear from you! Let us know if you have any ideas for stories HEREThank you for listening!Love,Meg and Jessica

Believe it or not, that's the question which has turned into a full-blown debate not only on the internet, but also around the watercooler. People have been passionately posturing over the hypothetical scenario. and even the Encyclopedia Britannica posted a study pack about this crucial issue. To delve into this more let's hear from one of the world's best-known wildlife experts for his opinion. Ron Magill from Zoo Miami talks Jesse through the science.

This installment of eponymous food stories is entirely about fruits. We’ve got a berry, a pome, and a citrus, all with varying degrees of documentation. Research: “A Guide to the United States’ History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Algeria.” Office of the Historian. U.S. Department of State. https://history.state.gov/countries/algeria#:~:text=Algeria%20under%20French%20Control%2C%201830,Algeria%2C%20Oran%2C%20and%20Constantine. “Anaheim Pays Last Respects to Park Superintendent Rudy Boysen.” Anaheim Gazette. Nov. 28, 1950. https://www.newspapers.com/image/866864789/?match=1&terms=rudy%20boysen “ANAHEIM WILL PLANT 4400 TREES IN CITY.” Los Angeles Times. January 22, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/380543208/?match=1&terms=%22rudolph%20boysen%22 Bartlett, Thomas Edward. “The Bartletts. Ancestral, genealogical, biographical, historical. Comprising an account of the American progenitors of the Bartlett family, with special reference to the descendants of John Bartlett, of Weymouth and Cumberland.” Stafford Printing Co. New Haven, Connecticut. 1892. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/bartlettsancestr00bart Brown, L. Carl, Zaimeche, Salah, Sutton, Keith, Chanderli, Abdel Kader. "Algeria". Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Mar. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/place/Algeria Caramanna, Carly. “The Tangled History of the Boysenberry.” Paste Magazine. March 21, 2022. https://www.pastemagazine.com/food/history/history-boysenberry-pie-knotts-farm The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "boysenberry". Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Jun. 2015, https://www.britannica.com/plant/boysenberry Hendrick, U.P. et al. “The Pears of New York.” State of New York—Department of AgricultureTwenty-ninth Annual Report—Vol. 2—Part II. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46994/46994-h/46994-h.htm#illus-0124 “Horticultural festival.” New England Farmer. Oct. 10, 1832. https://www.newspapers.com/image/404574942/?match=1&terms=%22enoch%20bartlett%22 “Horticultural festival.” New England Farmer. Sept. 25, 1829. https://www.newspapers.com/image/404563194/?match=1&terms=%22enoch%20bartlett%22 “Horticultural Premiums.” New England farmer. Dec. 26, 1832. https://www.newspapers.com/image/404576179/?match=1&terms=%22enoch%20bartlett%22 Karst, Tom. “Clementine and Mandarin Category Continues to Soar,” The Packer. January 31, 2023. https://www.thepacker.com/news/produce-crops/clementine-and-mandarin-category-continues-soar Kayal, Michele. “Clementines Darlings of U.S. Fruit Crop.” Cape Cod Times. Jan. 2, 2008. https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/lifestyle/food/2008/01/02/clementines-darlings-u-s-fruit/52691796007/ Laszlo, Pierre. “Cirtus: A History.” University of Chicago Press. 2007. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780226470283/page/24/mode/1up?q=clementine “Memorial Day Program to Honor Nation’s Dead.” Anaheim Bulletin. May 28, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/966752153/?match=1&terms=%22rudolph%20boysen%22 Mendonca, Melissa. “Berry Delicious.” Enjoy Magazine. April 26, 2024. https://enjoymagazine.com/2024/04/berry-delicious-2/ Munch, Daniel. “U.S. Citrus Production – An Uphill Battle to Survive.” Farm Bureau. April 25, 2023. https://www.fb.org/market-intel/u-s-citrus-production-an-uphill-battle-to-survive “New Type of Orange Grown in Valley; of Hybrid Origin.” Bryan-College Station Eagle. Sept. 30, 1932. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1000979455/?match=1&terms=clementine%20orange “Parnet of Clementine Orange Tree Lives.” The Daily News-Journal. May 10, 1937. https://www.newspapers.com/image/358917936/?match=1&terms=%22clementine%20orange%22 “Rudy's Original Boysenberry -- The 100 Year Journey.” Boysen Berry farm. June 25, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijVK-I1A2AM “Toastmasters to Foster Oratory.” Anaheim Bulletin. Jan. 18, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/966818953/?match=1&terms=%22rudolph%20boysen%22 “Tree Planting Now Underway in City.” Anaheim Bulletin. Feb. 14, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/966748082/?match=1&terms=%22rudolph%20boysen%22 “Week to Honor Creator of Famed Boysenberry.” Los Angeles Times. June 14, 1959. https://www.newspapers.com/image/380671622/?match=1&terms=rudy%20boysen White, Joan S. “’Rudy Boysen’ Garden at Palm and Water Still Bears Berries Developed by Famed Hosticulturalist.” Anaheim gazette. May 29, 1952. https://www.newspapers.com/image/866195421/?match=1&terms=rudy%20boysen “Who created the Boysenberry?” Rotary Club of Anaheim. March 1, 2021. https://www.anaheimrotary.org/who-created-the-boysenberry/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is selling telling or is it asking questions?  Actually, it is both.  The point though is to know what stories to tell, when to tell them and how to tell them.  We uncover the opportunity through asking the buyer questions about what they need.  Once we know what they need, we mentally scan our solution data base to find a match.  This is when the stories become important, as we explain why our solution will work for them.  What we don't want is having to scrabble together stories on the spot and then make a dog's breakfast of relating the details. These stories have one purpose and that is to give credibility to our solution.  The content should have elements of the context of the solution and evidence of where this has worked for others.  Buyers may not be familiar with your company in detail, so the background of the company told in two to three minutes is a micro story we need ready to go.  Longevity or fresh innovation are the two spectrums.  Either we have stood the test of time and you can trust us or we have come up with something new, that will be a game changer and you need it. Often though salespeople don't know the detail of the company or even if they do, they have never spent any time weaving this into a brief narrative for the buyer.  This requires practice to ensure the micro story is kept tight and packed with credibility.  We cannot go on and on about our own company or the buyer will switch off with disinterest.  They are only going to listen if the background of the company has some strong relevancy for them.  This is why we have to craft that story specifically for them, before we talk to them Our systems, products or services all need explanation about how they will help the buyer.  Just leafing through the five kilo, tome like product catalogue is not enough.  Pitch salespeople will do this.  They will go through the catalogue hoping to snag some buyer interest by using this shotgun pitch approach.  When I had my first sales job selling Encyclopedia Britannica door to door, that is what were taught to do.  We all learned a canned twenty minute walk through the pages of the book, introducing all the cool features.  Not recommended! If we have asked the right questions, we know exactly which few pages in the catalogue to show or which sections of the flyers we need to introduce.  This is where we want our micro story about how this solution was created, including legendary moments of daring do by the R&D team or genius manufacturing breakthroughs or whatever that sounds amazing and clearly differentiates us from the competitor rabble. These have to be short, sharp and terrific.  That means delivery practice. They have to be customized and then memorized for the best content and cadence for that particular buyer.  There are often too many products in a catalogue though, so being able to remember all of them may be unrealistic.  Over time however, there will be a smaller group most important to most buyers and so we can work on remembering the stories associated with these products or services. We definitely need to include client stories there as well.  Telling the buyer what the widget will do is not enough.  What are the benefits the widget will bring to their business. How have other buyers applied the benefits of the widget and what were the results.  Often salespeople never get beyond the widget features and yet we all know we don't buy the features, we buy the benefits, but that doesn't stop a lot of salespeople dwelling on the wrong thing.  The story needs to have included the location, season, characters involved, some drama around an issue the buyer needed to fix and the triumphant outcome resulting from our solution.  We need the context placed in the perspective of the prospective buyer.  What is the conversation going on in the mind of the buyer and how can we meet them there through our narration of our brief story. Sales raconteurs were part of the furniture in the pre and postwar periods, prior to the modern switch to consultative selling. We have moved on from just telling amusing stories and jokes to entertain the buyer.  We have also gone beyond pitching products. Contemporary selling skills means asking clients excellent questions.  This is now a high tech, time poor world and the buyers are busy, busy people.  Our stories are important because they grab the attention of those with short attention spans, by adding some colour to the solution explanation.  Relevant, well delivered stories help us to deepen our engagement with the buyer.  Today we all need to master the art of micro storytelling.  Does your sales team have their micro stories ready to go?  

Vandalism at draft board offices as U.S. involvement in Vietnam was escalating was deeply divisive. Opponents of the war were stereotyped as dirty hippies and sanctimonious white college kids, but the anti-Vietnam-war movement in the U.S. was really broad. Research: "Statement: the Boston Eight" Newsletter. ULS Digital Collections. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735058194170 “Draftees ‘Lost’ in Raids Immune for January.” Boston Globe. 12/10/1969. “Draftees ‘Lost’ in Raids Immune for January.” The Boston Globe. 12/10/1969. “Hardy Rites Tomorrow.” Camden Courier-Post. 10/4/1971. Arnold, Hillel. “Draft Board Raids.” https://hillelarnold.com/draft-board-raids/ Associated Press. “Testify FBI Had Role in N.J. Break-in.” De Moines Register. 5/21/1973. Astor, Maggie. “Their Protest Helped End the Draft. 50 Years Later, It’s Still Controversial.” New York Times. 5/19/2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/catonsville-nine-anniversary.html Berrigan, Frida. “50 years later, the spirit of the Catonsville Nine lives on.” Waging Nonviolence. 5/16/2018. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2018/05/catonsville-nine-50-years-later/ Cassie, Ron. “Trial by Fire.” Baltimore. May 2018. https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/historypolitics/50-years-ago-catonsville-nine-sparked-national-wave-of-vietnam-war-resistance/ Dear, John. “The Camden 28.” National Catholic Reporter. 9/18/2007. https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/camden-28 Enoch Pratt Free Library. “Fire and Faith: The Cantonville Nine File.” 2005. http://c9.digitalmaryland.org/ Fisher, James T. “Debating 'The Camden 28': A scholar and an activist discuss a new film about the Catholic Left.” America: The Jesuit Review. 9/17/2007. https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/625/100/debating-camden-28 Fisher, James T. “Debating 'The Camden 28': Activist nuns, punk rock and the demise of the Catholic Left.” America: The Jesuit Review. 9/17/2007. https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/625/100/debating-camden-28-0 Friedman, Jason. “Draft Card Mutilation Act of 1965.” Free Speech Center. 7/2/2024. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/draft-card-mutilation-act-of-1965/ Giacchino, Anthony, director. “Camden 28.” PBS Point of View. 2007. Gilette, Howard Jr. “Camden, New Jersey.” The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/camden-new-jersey/ Greenberg, Kyrie. “Camden 28 revisit court where they were tried for ’71 break-in to protest Vietnam War.” WHYY. 12/6/2018. https://whyy.org/articles/camden-28-revisit-court-where-they-were-tried-for-71-break-in-to-protest-vietnam-war/ Hammond, Linda C. “FBI Says Informer Was Paid $7500.” Courier-Post. 5/30/1973. Hardy, Robert. “Affidavit.” Via Camden28.org. Kroncke, Francis X. “RESISTANCE AS SACRAMENT.” http://www.minnesota8.net/Kroncke/essays/resistance.htm Lacy, Tim. “The Media Raiders: The FBI, Hoover, and the Catholic Left.” Society for U.S. Intellectual History. https://s-usih.org/2024/12/media-raiders-fbi-hoover-catholic-left/ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Photos: The Milwaukee 14 - a fiery '68 protest against the Vietnam War.” 9/20/2016. https://www.jsonline.com/picture-gallery/life/2016/09/20/photos-the-milwaukee-14---a-fiery-68-protest-against-the-vietnam-war/90517276/ Mische, George. “Inattention to accuracy about 'Catonsville Nine' distorts history.” National Catholic Reporter. 5/17/2013. https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/inattention-accuracy-about-catonsville-nine-distorts-history Nelson, Paul. "Minnesota Eight." MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. http://www.mnopedia.org/group/minnesota-eight Nelson, Paul. “The Minnesota Eight’s attempts to destroy draft files during the Vietnam War were mostly unsuccessful.” MNopedia via MinnPost. 6/15/2020. https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2020/06/the-minnesota-eights-attempts-to-destroy-draft-files-during-the-vietnam-war-were-mostly-unsuccessful/ Nixon, Richard M. “The Great Silent Majority.” https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/nixon-silent-majority-speech-text/ Norland, Rod. “Camden 28 Trial Looks to Juror No. 10.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. 5/20/1973. O’Farrell, Sean. “Milwaukee Fourteen.” Encyclopedia of Milwaukee. https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/milwaukee-fourteen/ Presbrey, Paul. “Draft Vandalism Willful? Jury Hears Father’s Beliefs.” Minneapolis Star. 12/2/1966. Roden, Renee. “Book paints the Camden 28 as 'Spiritual Criminals.' But were their actions effective?” National Catholic Reporter. 2/22/2025. https://www.ncronline.org/culture/book-reviews/book-paints-camden-28-spiritual-criminals-were-their-actions-effective Rothman, Lily. “This Photo Shows the Vietnam Draft-Card Burning That Started a Movement.” Time. 10/15/2015. https://time.com/4061835/david-miller-draft-card/ Sadowski, Dennis. “After 50 years, draft board protesters insist what they did was right.” National Catholic Reporter. 9/1/2018. https://www.ncronline.org/news/after-50-years-draft-board-protesters-insist-what-they-did-was-right Silver, Maayan. “Member Of The Milwaukee 14 Reflects 50 Years After Draft Card Burning.” WUWM. 9/25/2018. https://www.wuwm.com/podcast/wuwm-news/2018-09-25/member-of-the-milwaukee-14-reflects-50-years-after-draft-card-burning Stanford University Libraries. “The Berrigans & the Catonsville Nine, 1968-1972.” https://exhibits.stanford.edu/fitch/browse/the-berrigans-the-catonsville-nine-1968-1972 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Lyndon B. Johnson". Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Mar. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lyndon-B-Johnson. Accessed 20 March 2025. The Harvard Crimson. “Six Draft Boards Raided; Paint Thrown on Records.” 11/10/1969. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1969/11/10/six-draft-boards-raided-paint-thrown/ Walsh, Lori. “The Camden 28: Standing Against The Vietnam War.” SDPB. 9/8/2017. https://www.sdpb.org/margins/2017-09-08/the-camden-28-standing-against-the-vietnam-war Zinn Education Project. “Aug. 21, 1971: Anti-war Protesters Raid Draft Offices.” https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/anti-war-protesters-raid-offices/ Zunes, Stephen and Jesse Laird. “The US Anti-Vietnam War Movement (1964-1973).” International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. January 2010. https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/us-anti-vietnam-war-movement-1964-1973/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The amount of time children and adolescents spend with a screen is absolutely stunning. Lots of people, including parents, health leaders, educators, elected leaders from both parties I might mention, and even children themselves, are highly concerned and are discussing what might be done about all this. I'm delighted to begin this series of podcasts on children and screen time. Today we're welcoming two very special guests who can talk about this topic in general, and especially about what's being done to protect children and adolescents. Several podcasts will follow this one that deal with food and nutrition in particular. Our first guest, Kris Perry, is Executive Director of Children and Screens, an organization devoted to protecting children. In the digital world by addressing media's impact on child development, communicating state-of-the-art information, and working with policymakers. Prior to joining children in Screens, Kris was senior advisor of the Governor of California and Deputy Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. Our other guest, Dr. Dimitri Christakis is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and director of the Center for Child Health Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's. He's also editor-in-chief of JAMA Pediatrics and both Chief Scientific Officer and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Children and Screens. He's also the co-editor of a new book that I'm very excited to discuss. Interview Summary Download The Handbook of Children and Screens: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-69362-5 Kris, let's start with you. Could you set the stage and give us some sense of how much time children spend in front of screens, children and adolescents, and what devices are being used and what kind of trends are you seeing? Yes, I'd be happy to. I had better news for your listeners, but as you might imagine, since the advent of the smartphone and social media, the youth digital media use has been increasing each year. Especially as children get older and have increasing demands on their time to use screens. But let's just start at the beginning of the lifespan and talk about kids under the age of two who shockingly are spending as much as two hours a day on screens. Most spend about 50 minutes, but there's a significant chunk spending up to two hours. And that rises to three or three to five hours in childhood. And eventually in adolescence, approximately eight and a half hours a day our adolescents are spending online. Also wanted to talk a little bit about middle childhood children, six to 12 years of age. 70% of them already have a social media account, and we all know social media wasn't designed for children. And there are restrictions on children under 13 using them, and yet children six to 12 most have an account already. Over half of four-year-olds have a tablet and two thirds of children have their own device by the age of eight; and 90% of teens. This probably won't be surprising, and yet we should really think about what this means; that 90% of teens are using YouTube, 60% are on TikTok and Instagram, and 55% use Snapchat. I'll stop by ending on a really alarming statistic. Oh my, there's more? There's more. I know it! I told you. I'll be the bearer of bad news so that we can talk about solutions later. But, children are checking their devices as often as 300 times per day. 300 times. 300 times per day, and we're talking about screen time right now. And we know that when you're using time to be on screens, you are not doing something else. And we know that childhood is full of challenges and skill building and mastery that requires repetition and tenacity and grit and effort. And the more children are on their screens, whether it's social media or other entertainment, they're not doing one of these other critical child development tasks. That's pretty amazing. And the fact that the older kids are spending more time on before a screen than they are in school is pretty alarming. And the younger, the really youngest kids, that's especially alarming. So, Dimitri, why should we fret about this? And I realize that fret is kind of a mild word here. Maybe all I'll panic would be better. But what are some of the major concerns? Well, I don't think panic is ever the right reaction, but the numbers Kris conveyed, you know, I think do paint a, let's say, concerning story. You know, the simple reality is that there's only so much time in a day. And if you think about it, teenagers in particular should sleep for eight to 10 hours a day at a minimum. They really should be in school six and a half, seven hours a day. And then when you add the numbers, Kris conveyed, you realize that something's giving because there isn't enough time left to spend eight and a half hours a day. The two things at a minimum that are giving are sleep. Kids are losing sleep to be on screens. And I'm sorry to say that they're losing school while they're on screens. We just published a paper that used passive sensing to see where and when children are on their screens. And found that the typical child in the United States spends an hour and a half during the school day on their device. And it's not, before any of your guests ask, on Wikipedia or Encyclopedia Britannica. It's on the usual suspects of social media, TikTok, etc. So, you know, we talk about displacement, and I think it's pretty obvious what's being displaced during school hours. Its time focused on learning if it's in the classroom, and time focused on being authentically present in real time and space if it's during recess. School hours are precious in that way, and I think it is concerning that they're spending that much time in school. And I told you the median. Of course, some kids are above that, a significant half of them are above it. And at the high end, they're spending 30 to 40% of school time on screens. Now, some schools have enacted policies. They don't typically enforce them very well. One of the things that drives me nuts, Kelly, is that as an academic, you know we love to argue amongst ourselves and hem and haw. And this issue about whether or not there's such a phenomenon as digital addiction is still being hotly debated. Honestly, the only behavioral addiction that's being seriously considered at this point is gaming disorder. The DSM-5 didn't consider gaming, considered it, but didn't include, it said it needed further study in 2013. In 2022, the WHO did include gaming disorder as an ICD-11 diagnosis. But just as further evidence how slow science is compared to technology., I mean gaming, while it's still an entity, represents a small fraction of most people's screen time. And the numbers that Kris conveyed, a small fraction of that for some on average was gaming. For some people, it's their screen use of choice, but for many, it's social media. YouTube, although I consider YouTube to be a social media, etc. And at the high end when you hear the numbers Kris conveyed in my mind that's a behavioral addiction any way you define it. Well, and if you think about things that we all agree are addictive, like nicotine and alcohol and heroin, people aren't doing it 300 times a day. So it's really pretty remarkable. And that's exactly right. One of the salient criteria for those addictions is that it's interfering with activities of daily living. Well, you can't be on a screen for nine hours a day when you're supposed to be asleep for 10 and at school for six without interfering with activities of day. The math isn't there. And things like being physically active and going out and playing. That's right. It doesn't add up. So, you don't need the DSM-5. You don't need a psychiatrist. You need a mathematician to tell you that there's too much time on this thing. Alright, so Kris, talk to us if you will, about the Children and Screens organization. I have a lot of respect for the organization and its work. Tell us how it got started and what its objectives are. Well, it's so great to be on this show with you and get to see you in your day job, Kelly. Because you've been an advisor, like Dimitri, to the institute almost since its inception, which is in 2013. As you know, our founder, Dr. Pamela Hurst-Della Pietra, really became concerned as a parent about the way digital media was impacting her children and sought out some answers. Well, what does this mean? Why is this happening? What should I do? And found out that this, of course, is 2013, this is a long time ago. There wasn't that much research yet. And it was multidisciplinary. In other words, there might be a study among neuroscientists or developmental psychologists, even ophthalmologists. But there really hadn't been, yet, a concerted effort to bring these different disciplines and the research together to try to answer some of these hard questions about the impact on kids. And lo and behold, here we are, almost 13 years since the advent of the smartphone and social media. And there is an astounding amount of research across disciplines. So, what we do at the institute is we try to translate it as fast as we can and make it actionable for parents, providers, and policy makers. And we do that through our Ask the Experts webinar series where we bring the experts themselves directly to our audience to talk about these impacts and answer questions. We also create printables, you might say, like tip sheets and Research at a Glance Digest, and newsletters and FAQs and we've upgraded our website to make it very navigable for parents of kids of all ages. I even started my own podcast this year, which has been really fun. Dimitri was my first guest, so it's great to see him here. And we have convenings. We're having our third Digital Media Developing Mind Scientific Congress this summer where the experts come together in person to discuss issues. And we really try to focus them on advancing research and supporting it, translating it, and positioning the issue as a policy priority. We'll be in Washington, DC where we know lawmakers are grappling with the impact of digital media on child development, how to make online, products safer for kids and protect their data. The Institute is in the middle of all of this, trying to facilitate more discussion, more results and more support for parents primarily. Kris, a couple of things occur to me. One is that the breadth of work you do is really very impressive because you're not only having very hands-on kind of in the real world ex advice for parents on how to navigate this world, but you have advice for and helpful resources for policy makers and for researchers and people. It's really quite an impressive breadth of work. The other thing that occurred to me is that I don't think you and I would have any podcast career at all if it hadn't been for Dimitri helping us out. So thanks Dimitri. Yeah. So, let me ask you, Dimitri, so I know that both you and Kris are committed to an evidence-based approach to making policy. Yeah. But technology advances way more quickly than scientists can evaluate it. Much less come up with policies to deal with it. And by the time research gets funded, completed, published, you're on to eight new levels of technology. So how does one handle this fundamental problem of pace? It's a really good question. I mean, I can tell you that we should at a minimum learn from the mistakes we've made in the past. And, you know, one of the most critical, frankly, that most people don't really understand is that we talk about the age at which children get social media accounts in this country. Kris pointed out that actually pre-teens routinely have social media accounts. Social media companies do very little to age gate. They're trying to do more now, but even the age at which we've accepted it is being normative is 13. Few people know where that comes from. That doesn't come from talking to pediatricians, psychologists, parents about what age is the appropriate age. It comes entirely from COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), which basically was the original privacy act that said that before the age of 13, companies could not collect data from children. So, because these companies were interested in collecting data, they set the age at 13 so as to not have any constraints on the data they collected. Well, that's not even common sense-based policy, let alone evidence-based policy. And it's never been revisited since. It's very troubling to me. And as things move forward, I think we have to learn from those mistakes. Medicine has a maxim which is do no harm. We use that phrase a lot and I think it's a good one in this case. I think it's a particularly good one as we see the new technologies emerging around artificial intelligence. And you know, again, like any new technology, it has incredible upside. We made the mistake and we're still paying for it, about not appreciating the downsides of social network sites, and frankly, the internet in general. And I would hope we put guardrails in place now. And if you will apply the same standard we apply to other non-technology based products. You can't introduce a new pharmaceutical to anybody, let alone to children, until you show it's safe and effective. You can't bring toys to the world that are dangerous. Why do we have more safety precautions around toys than we do around websites for children? You know, a lot of it involves changing defaults, doesn't it? Because if the default is that government or somebody out there has to prove that something is harmful before it gets taken away. That changes everything then if you began at a different point where these companies have to prove that these things are safe. Correct. Or they're permitted. Then the companies would find workarounds and they would play games with that too, but at least that would help some. Well, it would help some. And at least we'd be philosophically in the right place. By the way, Kris didn't say it, so I'll say it. You know, the mission of Children and Screens, lest we sound like Luddites here, is not get kids away from technology. Take away their smartphones. We all recognize that technology is here to stay. I think all of us appreciate the incredible upside that it brings to children's lives. The mission of Children and Screens is to help children lead healthy lives in a digital world. And part of the reason she and I often talk about the concerns we have is because the pros make the case for themselves. I mean, you know, no one needs to come here and tell you how amazing it is that you could Google something or that you could get somewhere with GPS. I mean, we know it's amazing and we all rely on it. And none of us are ever talking about getting rid of that stuff. That makes good sense. It's like, you know, children benefit from the fact that they can get around with their parents in the automobile. But you want to have car seats in there to protect them. Exactly. And that's exactly right. There needs to be assurances of safety and they're none. I mean, they're really virtually none. The age getting is a joke. And even if we accept it as effective, the age set of 13 is too young, in my opinion. We started this conversation talking about these medias being addictive, I believe they're addictive. There are legitimate academics that will debate me on that, and I'm happy to join that debate. But as I said before, it's a tough argument to win when people spending upwards of 10 to 16 hours a day doing it. I don't know what you call that besides addictive. We can argue about what percentage are doing that, but nevertheless, once you accept something as addictive, for other addictive things we immediately age gate it above 18 or 21, right? Mm-hmm. We don't believe that the teenagers have the ability to regulate their alcohol or tobacco or gambling, all of which we accept are addictive. In fact, in the case of alcohol, we raised the age from 18 to 21 because we thought even 18-year-olds weren't able to do it. And yet somehow for this behavior, we think of it as just so different that it doesn't require greater cognitive capacity. And I don't believe that. Yeah, very good point. Kris, let me ask you a question about how you and your colleagues at Children and Screens set priorities because there are a lot of things that one could potentially worry about as outcomes. There's violence that kids see on social media. There's cognitive and brain development, social developments, social interactions, and bullying. Mental health, body image, diet, all these things are out there. How do you decide what to work on? Well, we try to work on all of it. And in fact, we've built up a fair amount of expertise and resources around almost 25 different topics. And we also understand that, you know, childhood is a long period of time. Birth to 18, birth to 21, birth to 25, depending on who you talk to. So, we're able to take those 25 topics and also provide deeper, you might say, resources that address the different stages of development. We're really trying to do as much as we can. What's been interesting over these last few years is trying to figure out when to be reactive, when to be proactive. And by being proactive, we go out looking for the research, translating it, digesting it, and creating materials with it that we think are really accessible and actionable. At the same time, as Dimitri points out, there are policy windows and there are opportunities that present themselves that you have to react to. If you just only talk about what you want to talk about to each other you're missing some of these external opportunities to inform policy and policy makers. Help influence the way that parents and providers are talking about the issue. Framing it in such a way that engages youth and makes them want what we want for them. We're really excited by increasing opportunities to partner in coalitions with others that care about kids and teachers and nurses and doctors. But we also are speaking directly to leaders in states and school districts at the federal level, at the local level. You would be, I'm sure, not surprised to hear that we are contacted every day by groups that support parents and families. Asking for resources, asking for support, because they're seeing the impact now over many years on their children, their development. Their academic ability. Their cognitive and analytical ability. Their social emotional ability. Their ability to pay attention to tasks that we all know are critical in building that foundation for essentially, you know, future success. The Institute is being pulled in many directions. Ee try really hard to be strategic about what are people asking us for? What does the research say and how can we get that to them as quickly as possible? Dimitri - Can I add to that? You know, I want to emphasize that the concern around the effects of screen use on children's lives is shared by parents on both sides of the aisle. 75% of parents are concerned about the impact of screens on their children's lives. 35% of teenagers are concerned about their dependents on screens and that it has a negative effect on their lives. Actually by some studies, some surveys, even more than 35 to 50% of teenagers are concerned. And both sides of the political aisle agree in large part of this. And Kris and Kelly, you guys are the policy wonks, you can speak more to that. So it's a serious indictment on us as grownups and as a society that we have not done more to deliver on this issue. Why? When there's bipartisan agreement amongst many policymakers. This is not a political [00:22:00] issue to speak of and there is widespread concern on the part of parents and even teenagers. Why is nothing happening? Well, one has to look no further than where the money is. And that's a problem. I mean, that's a serious indictment on our political system when we can't deliver something that is needed and basically wanted by everybody but the industry itself. We'll come back and talk in a few moments about the policy issues and where industry gets involved here. But let me take just a bit of a detour from that and talk about the book that I mentioned earlier, because I think it's such a valuable resource. Now, when I mention the name of this book I'm urging our listeners to write this down or to remember it because you can get the book at no cost. And I'll come back, Kris, and explain what made that possible and why the decision was to make this an open access book. But Dimitri, let's begin with you. So you, along with Lauren Hale, edited this book that's entitled, The Handbook of Children and Screens: Digital Media Development and Wellbeing From Birth Through Adolescence. I think it's an extraordinary piece of work, but tell, tell us about the book.  It was an extraordinary undertaking. There's I think 178 or 180 authors. Literally, it's a who's who of experts in children and media research in all disciplines. It represents pediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, communications experts, demography, lawyers, neuroscientists. I don't know who I'm forgetting. Every single discipline is represented. Leading scientists in all of those areas. Virtually every topic that someone might be of interest to people. And we deliberately made the chapters short and easily accessible. So, it is, I think, a great resource for the constituents we serve. For teachers, for parents, for researchers, for policymakers. And it is free. The hardest part of it, to be honest, as an editor, was getting peer reviewers because unfortunately, every expert was conflicted since they all had an article in it. But it was a long time coming. And again, this was really the brainchild of Pam (Pamela Hurst-Della Pietra) and we're grateful to have brought it along. So, you go all the way from the neuroscience, how children's brains are reacting to this, all the way out there into the public policy and legal arena about what can be done about it. And then kind of everything in between. It's remarkable how much the book covers. It's almost a thousand pages. I mean, it is a tome to be sure. And don't forget to mention, Dimitri, we aren't even two months post publication, and we have 1.6 million views of the document, despite its gargantuan size. I think that is really a tribute to experts like you and others that have really studied this issue and can speak directly to its impacts. It's been great to see the success so far. You know, not a small number of those views is from me logging on. And then a million from me and then we got there. So, it is free because it's online and you can download it. You can also order a hard copy for I think, $60, but I'm not sure why you would do that if you can download it for free. But it's up to you. So, Kris, it's unusual for a book like this to be made open access and free to the general public. What made that possible and why was that so important? We want the maximum number of people to use it and treat it like the premier resource that it is. And the only way you can really do that is to fund it to be open access and find a publisher that does open access publishing, which we did with Springer. I mean, most journal articles are behind a paywall and publishers do require you to purchase either a subscription or the document itself to download it or order it. And we just really wanted maximum access. So, we funded it to be published in that way. And I think honestly, it helped us even sort of create it in the first place. People want to be a part of something that has that level of access and is available so widely. So, I think it was a kind of mutually beneficial. It gets more people to read it, but it got more people to write for it too, I think. Right, Dimitri? Dimitri - I agree. I mean, you know, the numbers 1.6 million are extraordinary. I mean, Kelly, you've been internal editor. I mean, as a editor of JAMA Pediatrics, if an article gets 70,000 views, it's in our top 1%, you know, 200,000 views is 0.01%. 1.6 million in growing is really extraordinary. And that's about the number of people that read my articles. 1.6. And of course, they're not all scientists. I mean, many of them are parents and maybe are policy makers, but that's Kris's point, you know. The moment anyone hits a paywall, even if it's a dollar or two, they're going to walk away. It's great to see it get so much traction. Alright, so again, for our listeners, the title of the book is The Handbook of Children and Screens. And it's really a terrific resource. Alright, so let's turn our attention to a really important matter. And we've sort of touched on this, but who's in charge of protecting our children? You know, Dimitri at the end of the day help survey this landscape for us. I mean, is it congress, is it the administrative branch of government? What role do the courts play? Are there legal actors taking meaningful action? What's being done does it come anywhere near, meeting the need. Tell us about what that landscape is like? Well, there isn't adequate protections for children. And we talked a little bit about that earlier. There's been an enormous loophole, unfortunately, created by Congress when they added the Section 230 to the Communications Decency Act in 1996. And that was put in place essentially to provide protections for internet companies. And it basically said that they should be treated like bookstores and not publishers. That they weren't responsible for content they were just conveying it. And what that means, in effect, was that the companies had sort of carte blanche to do whatever they want. And they've used that very effectively, legally, to argue that any restriction, any culpability on their part, is protected by that Act. That they're exonified for any ill that occurs as a result of their product. The only exception that's been made of it, to date, was around sex trafficking on back page, if anyone remembers that. But other than that, social media sites and internet sites in general have been able to say that they're not liable for anything that's done. And I think that was a huge mistake that was made. It needs to be rectified. It's being challenged in the courts presently. My own belief is that, and I'm not speaking as a lawyer, is that when that law was passed, it was under the assumption as I said, that they were just conveying information. No one at the time foresaw the development of algorithms that would feed the information. It's really not a bookstore when you are making recommendations. Once you start recommending things, I think you're no longer merely a purveyor of product. You're actually pushing it. So, Kris, tell us about the Children and Screens and the role the organization plays in this space. And how do you deal with policy and is it possible to be bipartisan? Yeah, I mean, it's essential. There's no way to get anything done, anywhere on these policy matters at a population level without working in a bipartisan or non-partisan manner, which is what we've always done. And it's easy to do that when you're following the science, not ideology. And you're putting the science first and you're creating resources and tools and support for those mostly staffers, honestly, that are trying to help their bosses get smarter and better at talking about these issues as they evolve and become more complicated over time. It takes more effort to staff a lawmaker on this front. And they're very anxious to learn and understand because they're meeting with parents of children who have been harmed. Or frankly didn't even survive their childhood because of the social media platform. There's great urgency on the part of policymakers. We've heard everything from school phone bans to outright social media bans proposed as policies. And one thing I like to come back to is it's one thing to want to take action and make your best guess at what would have the best impact. But it's another thing to study whether or not that policy actually achieved its result. And it's a part of this that by staying bipartisan, nonpartisan allows us to say, 'Hey lawmaker, if you're able to get that to happen, we'd really like to come in and help study whether or not your idea actually achieves the results that you wanted, or if it needs to be adjusted or amended over time.' Fantastic. That's so important to be doing that work, and I'm delighted the organization is doing it. Let me ask a question here. If you think about some of the areas of public health that I've been following, like tobacco, for example. Opioids more recently. Vaping products. And in the case of my own particular work food policy. The administrative legislative branches of government have been almost completely ineffective. If I think about food policy over the years, relatively little has been accomplished. Even though lots of people have worked really hard on it. Same thing happened with tobacco for many years. Opioids, same thing.  And it's until you get the third branch of government involved, the judiciary, and you start suing the actors who were causing the harm do you get much action. Not only do the lawsuits seem to have an effect, but they soften the ground for legislative things that then can occur because public opinion has changed. And then those things help make a difference as well. What do you think about that kind of issue in this space?  I think you're exactly right. I mean, I think the failure of our legislative branch to enact policy leaves us with very few options at this point anyway, except to try to pursue it through the judiciary. There are challenges there. First and foremost, it's a big and well-funded industry, not unlike tobacco or big food, as you mentioned and there's this Section 230 that's given them kind of blanket immunity to date. But there are many, many very large pending cases in several jurisdictions brought by individuals, brought by school districts, brought by states. And those, at least provisionally have gotten further than prior cases have with which have been thrown out based on Section 230. So, we'll see what happens with that litigation. But right now, my guess is it's the best chance we have to set some guardrails. And I think there are plenty of guardrails that could be set. Everything that these companies have done to make their products addictive can be undone. Can be made protective. The tobacco company deliberately designed their products to be addictive. While they tried to make the claims that they were less addictive, you know. They made light cigarettes that had holes in the filter so that it would diffuse the carbon and nicotine, but people quickly learned they could cover those up with their fingers and think they were smoking light cigarettes, and smoke more of them. There's a lot of things that can be done in this space to undesign the problematic nature of the products. And quite apart from the financial settlements, which will get companies attention, I hope that that's part of any settlement if it gets that far. It'll be interesting to see where those go. And, also historically, one important part of these lawsuits is what gets turned up in discovery. And what sort of intent the companies have and how much do they know about harms. And how much do they know about addiction and things like that. And how they might have proceeded in the face of that information that then doesn't get disclosed to the public. In any event, we'll see where that goes. Dimitri, what about the argument that responsibility resides with parents. It's up to parents to protect their kids from this, and government doesn't need to be involved. I've never understood that argument. I mean parents obviously are children's most important safeguard, but as a society, we enact policies and laws to assist parents in that. I mean to me, if I made the argument, well, why, why do we have minimum ages of drinking. It's parents' job to make sure their kids don't drink. How would that possibly play out? Look, it's hard enough as a parent anyway, because kids do get around these laws. But we still have them and it's a lot easier as a parent. I think most parents would agree their life's made easier by minimum age restrictions on certain things. We have seatbelt laws. I mean, why do we have seatbelt laws? Why don't we just tell its parents' job to make sure their kids buckle up? The truth is its society and parents working hand in hand to try and keep children safe. And I think it also helps parents to be able to say that there are laws around this, and I expect you to follow the laws. So, I don't think it's an either or. Okay, well, I think that's a very good way to frame it. There are many, many precedents where we protect children. And why not do it here too? So let me end with a question I'd like to ask both of you. So, in this sea of concerns that we've discussed, is there a reason for optimism? And Kris, let me start, start with you. What do you think? Absolutely. I think the young people I've met that are leading among their peers are incredibly impressive and are armed with the research and their energy and their own lived experience in ways that are very compelling. At the same time, I think the vast amount of research that has now been compiled and translated and acted upon, whether in courtrooms or in state houses, it's becoming more, and we're all getting more steeped and aware of more nuanced information. And finally, I would just say, there is a tipping point. We are reaching as a society, adults and kids alike, we are reaching a tipping point where we can't withstand the pressure of technology in every aspect, every corner of our day, our life. And we want relief. We deserve relief. And I think that's what's going to take us over the finish line. Good. Well, I'm glad to hear those optimistic notes. Dimitri, what about you? I can find reasons to be optimistic. I mean, look, the reality is that technologies have enriched our lives in many ways. And I think if we put guardrails in place, we can make sure that future ones do even better. I have a piece coming out in JAMA Pediatrics around the use of AI, which people are very concerned about, I think rightly. But specifically, about the use of AI and people with intellectual developmental disabilities, making the use case, that there are ways in which it could be extremely beneficial to that population. A population I care deeply about in my role as the Chief Health Officer at Special Olympics International. And in particular, let's say in terms of the doctor patient interaction where it could facilitate their communication with their provider, and it could also help the provider better communicate with them. Look, that use case isn't going to be a priority for the purveyors of artificial intelligence. It's a small, non-lucrative use of a technology. But it's a good one. And if we created the right incentives and put in the right guardrails, we could find many other ways that technology can serve the needs of all of us going forward. I think the problem is that we've tended to be reactive rather than proactive. And to not start with the do no harm first premise, particularly when it comes to children. AI is another example of that where I hope we don't make the same mistake we made with social media. Bios Kris Perry is the executive director of the Children and Screens Institute. Kris most recently served as Senior Advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Deputy Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency where she led the development of the California Master Plan for Early Learning and Care and the expansion of access to high-quality early childhood programs. She led systems change efforts at the local, state and national levels in her roles as executive director of First 5 San Mateo, First 5 California and of the First Five Years Fund. Through it all, Perry has fought to protect children, improve and expand early learning programs, and increase investments in low-income children. Perry was instrumental in returning marriage equality to California after the landmark 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Hollingsworth v. Perry, which she wrote about in her book Love on Trial (Roaring Forties Press, 2017). Dimitri Christakis, MD, MPH is the Children and Screens Institute's inaugural Chief Science Officer. He is also the George Adkins Professor at the University of Washington, Editor in Chief of JAMA Pediatrics, and the Chief Health Officer at Special Olympics International. Christakis is a leading expert on how media affects child health and development. He has published over 270 peer reviewed articles (h-index 101) including dozens of media-related studies and co-authored a groundbreaking book, The Elephant in the Living Room: Make Television Work for Your Kids. His work has been featured on Anderson Cooper 360, the Today Show, ABC, NBC, and CBS news as well as all major national newspapers. Christakis received his undergraduate degree at Yale University and his medical training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed his residency and Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar Fellowship at the University of Washington School of Medicine. 

Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, is often not given her due credit for how influential she was in the crushing of the Viking Age. Æthelflæd was raised by Alfred the Great, who would have been a fine model for her future leadership. When she married the Lord of Mercia, she showed she was her father's daughter by teaming up with her brother to drive Vikings from England, and securely handing her throne down to her daughter. Come and learn about the badass Lady of the Mericans on this episode of the pod.This podcast is sponsored by Common Era Jewelry. Use code: AYDEN for 15% off your entire purchase. Contributors to Wikimedia projects. “Ælfwynn.” Wikipedia, July 18, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lfwynn.———. “Æthelflæd.” Wikipedia, November 27, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelfl%C3%A6d#Family.———. “Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians.” Wikipedia, August 5, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelred,_Lord_of_the_Mercians#Early_rule.———. “Alfred the Great.” Wikipedia, December 14, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great.———. “Ealhswith.” Wikipedia, October 26, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ealhswith.Historic UK. “Æthelflæd (Aethelflaed), Lady of the Mercians,” October 29, 2016. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Aethelflaed-Lady-of-the-Mercians/.History... the interesting bits! “Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians,” June 12, 2018. https://historytheinterestingbits.com/2018/06/12/aethelflaed-lady-of-the-mercians/.LSS. “Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians.” The British Monarchy (blog), June 12, 2021. https://www.thebritishmonarchy.co.uk/post/%C3%A6thelfl%C3%A6d-lady-of-the-mercians.Mark, Joshua J. “Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians Timeline.” World History Encyclopedia. Accessed December 16, 2024. https://www.worldhistory.org/timeline/Aethelflaed,_Lady_of_the_Mercians/.Ramirez, Dr Janina. “Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians: The Warrior Queen Who Crushed the Vikings.” HistoryExtra, March 11, 2022. https://www.historyextra.com/period/anglo-saxon/aethelflaed-aethelflaed-woman-who-vikings-anglo-saxon-england/.The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Aethelflaed.” Encyclopedia Britannica, July 20, 1998. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aethelflaed.The History Press. “Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians Timeline,” May 3, 2018. https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/aethelflaed-lady-of-the-mercians-timeline/.

The draft board raids were part of an antiwar movement, largely grounded in Catholic religious convictions, that spanned almost four years. Part one covers the basic context of the Vietnam War and why the U.S. was involved in the first place, and the earliest raids on draft boards. Research: "Statement: the Boston Eight" Newsletter. ULS Digital Collections. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735058194170 “Draftees ‘Lost’ in Raids Immune for January.” Boston Globe. 12/10/1969. “Draftees ‘Lost’ in Raids Immune for January.” The Boston Globe. 12/10/1969. “Hardy Rites Tomorrow.” Camden Courier-Post. 10/4/1971. Arnold, Hillel. “Draft Board Raids.” https://hillelarnold.com/draft-board-raids/ Associated Press. “Testify FBI Had Role in N.J. Break-in.” De Moines Register. 5/21/1973. Astor, Maggie. “Their Protest Helped End the Draft. 50 Years Later, It’s Still Controversial.” New York Times. 5/19/2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/catonsville-nine-anniversary.html Berrigan, Frida. “50 years later, the spirit of the Catonsville Nine lives on.” Waging Nonviolence. 5/16/2018. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2018/05/catonsville-nine-50-years-later/ Cassie, Ron. “Trial by Fire.” Baltimore. May 2018. https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/historypolitics/50-years-ago-catonsville-nine-sparked-national-wave-of-vietnam-war-resistance/ Dear, John. “The Camden 28.” National Catholic Reporter. 9/18/2007. https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/camden-28 Enoch Pratt Free Library. “Fire and Faith: The Cantonville Nine File.” 2005. http://c9.digitalmaryland.org/ Fisher, James T. “Debating 'The Camden 28': A scholar and an activist discuss a new film about the Catholic Left.” America: The Jesuit Review. 9/17/2007. https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/625/100/debating-camden-28 Fisher, James T. “Debating 'The Camden 28': Activist nuns, punk rock and the demise of the Catholic Left.” America: The Jesuit Review. 9/17/2007. https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/625/100/debating-camden-28-0 Friedman, Jason. “Draft Card Mutilation Act of 1965.” Free Speech Center. 7/2/2024. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/draft-card-mutilation-act-of-1965/ Giacchino, Anthony, director. “Camden 28.” PBS Point of View. 2007. Gilette, Howard Jr. “Camden, New Jersey.” The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/camden-new-jersey/ Greenberg, Kyrie. “Camden 28 revisit court where they were tried for ’71 break-in to protest Vietnam War.” WHYY. 12/6/2018. https://whyy.org/articles/camden-28-revisit-court-where-they-were-tried-for-71-break-in-to-protest-vietnam-war/ Hammond, Linda C. “FBI Says Informer Was Paid $7500.” Courier-Post. 5/30/1973. Hardy, Robert. “Affidavit.” Via Camden28.org. Kroncke, Francis X. “RESISTANCE AS SACRAMENT.” http://www.minnesota8.net/Kroncke/essays/resistance.htm Lacy, Tim. “The Media Raiders: The FBI, Hoover, and the Catholic Left.” Society for U.S. Intellectual History. https://s-usih.org/2024/12/media-raiders-fbi-hoover-catholic-left/ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Photos: The Milwaukee 14 - a fiery '68 protest against the Vietnam War.” 9/20/2016. https://www.jsonline.com/picture-gallery/life/2016/09/20/photos-the-milwaukee-14---a-fiery-68-protest-against-the-vietnam-war/90517276/ Mische, George. “Inattention to accuracy about 'Catonsville Nine' distorts history.” National Catholic Reporter. 5/17/2013. https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/inattention-accuracy-about-catonsville-nine-distorts-history Nelson, Paul. "Minnesota Eight." MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. http://www.mnopedia.org/group/minnesota-eight Nelson, Paul. “The Minnesota Eight’s attempts to destroy draft files during the Vietnam War were mostly unsuccessful.” MNopedia via MinnPost. 6/15/2020. https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2020/06/the-minnesota-eights-attempts-to-destroy-draft-files-during-the-vietnam-war-were-mostly-unsuccessful/ Nixon, Richard M. “The Great Silent Majority.” https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/nixon-silent-majority-speech-text/ Norland, Rod. “Camden 28 Trial Looks to Juror No. 10.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. 5/20/1973. O’Farrell, Sean. “Milwaukee Fourteen.” Encyclopedia of Milwaukee. https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/milwaukee-fourteen/ Presbrey, Paul. “Draft Vandalism Willful? Jury Hears Father’s Beliefs.” Minneapolis Star. 12/2/1966. Roden, Renee. “Book paints the Camden 28 as 'Spiritual Criminals.' But were their actions effective?” National Catholic Reporter. 2/22/2025. https://www.ncronline.org/culture/book-reviews/book-paints-camden-28-spiritual-criminals-were-their-actions-effective Rothman, Lily. “This Photo Shows the Vietnam Draft-Card Burning That Started a Movement.” Time. 10/15/2015. https://time.com/4061835/david-miller-draft-card/ Sadowski, Dennis. “After 50 years, draft board protesters insist what they did was right.” National Catholic Reporter. 9/1/2018. https://www.ncronline.org/news/after-50-years-draft-board-protesters-insist-what-they-did-was-right Silver, Maayan. “Member Of The Milwaukee 14 Reflects 50 Years After Draft Card Burning.” WUWM. 9/25/2018. https://www.wuwm.com/podcast/wuwm-news/2018-09-25/member-of-the-milwaukee-14-reflects-50-years-after-draft-card-burning Stanford University Libraries. “The Berrigans & the Catonsville Nine, 1968-1972.” https://exhibits.stanford.edu/fitch/browse/the-berrigans-the-catonsville-nine-1968-1972 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Lyndon B. Johnson". Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Mar. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lyndon-B-Johnson. Accessed 20 March 2025. The Harvard Crimson. “Six Draft Boards Raided; Paint Thrown on Records.” 11/10/1969. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1969/11/10/six-draft-boards-raided-paint-thrown/ Walsh, Lori. “The Camden 28: Standing Against The Vietnam War.” SDPB. 9/8/2017. https://www.sdpb.org/margins/2017-09-08/the-camden-28-standing-against-the-vietnam-war Zinn Education Project. “Aug. 21, 1971: Anti-war Protesters Raid Draft Offices.” https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/anti-war-protesters-raid-offices/ Zunes, Stephen and Jesse Laird. “The US Anti-Vietnam War Movement (1964-1973).” International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. January 2010. https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/us-anti-vietnam-war-movement-1964-1973/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we're exploring what is, quite possibly, the weirdest and most mysterious of all the holidays: April Fools' Day. The real trick? No one even knows where this holiday came from or why we celebrate it. We'll dive in to some of the origin theories, from ancient Rome to medieval fables to Renaissance poetry. We'll also take a look how the holiday has evolved throughout time, including some of the greatest pranks ever pulled on April Fools' Day. Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: Library of Congress Blogs "April Fools: The Roots of an International Holiday"History.com "April Fools' Day"NPR "April Fools' Day might be the world's longest running joke. No one knows how it began"A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities BU Today "How a BU Prof April-Fooled the Country"Encyclopedia Britannica "Julian Calendar"History.com "9 Outrageous Pranks in History"Shoot me a message!

The story of how strawberries went from small forage item to one of the world’s most popular fruits – though they're technically not a true fruit – involves lots of crossbreeding experimentation, as you might expect, but also a bit of spy craft. Research: “A Transatlantic Tango: The Story of the Strawberry. Royal Horticultural Society. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own/features/history-of-the-strawberry#:~:text=It%20is%20hard%20to%20believe,back%20on%20fortifications%20near%20Concepci%C3%B3n. Allen, Mike. “The 18th-Century Spy Who Gave Us Big Strawberries.” Atlas Obscura. Nov. 16, 2017. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/big-strawberries-spy-chile-france Barnes, Monica. “Frezier, Amédée François (1682-1773).” American Museum of Natural History. January 2008. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280567727_Frezier_Amedee_Francois_1682-1773 Darrow, George M. “The Strawberry: History, Breeding and Physiology.” New York. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1966. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/strawberryhistor00darr/mode/1up The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "strawberry". Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Jun. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/plant/strawberry Folta, K.M., Barbey, C.R. “The strawberry genome: a complicated past and promising future.” Hortic Res 6, 97 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41438-019-0181-z Grubinger, Vern. “History of the Strawberry.” University of Vermont. June 2012. https://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/strawberryhistory.html Hancock, J.F. “Strawberries.” Oxford University Press. 2000. Petruzzello, Melissa. "list of plants in the family Rosaceae". Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Mar. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/list-of-plants-in-the-family-Rosaceae-2001612 Sevilla, Elisa, and Ana Sevilla. “STRAWBERRY.” New World Objects of Knowledge: A Cabinet of Curiosities, edited by Mark Thurner and Juan Pimentel, University of London Press, 2021, pp. 207–12. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1vbd275.34 “Strawberry Facts.” University of Florida Gulf Coast Research and Education Center. https://gcrec.ifas.ufl.edu/fruit-crops/strawberries/strawberry-facts/ Sytsma, Kenneth J.. "Rosaceae". Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Feb. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/plant/Rosaceae See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to yet another must listen Epsd of the Mike and Ron: Here to Help podcast. This is Episode 88 and this week your fearless purveyors of truth discuss everything from coming out of the closet before the internet to studying from Encyclopedia Britannica to banning books, how it's associated to white guilt, America's need to hold on to the white supremacy mindset, to white male and manoverse disempowerment, to anti DEI, to what powers conservative podcasts, news and radio. They even discuss Sadhgurus perspective on self love, on how people who love themselves want that for others to why conservative comedians tend to be not funny with bad energy like Dennis Miller and Rob Schneider to the falling stock market, Trumps not doing anything to reduce inflation and how the Republican party isn't talking about it. Mike and Ron discuss Women's health care and access to abortions and the lack of reports about it to Trumps tariffs, why taking over Canada would be a disaster for conservatives and much much more!Don't forget to Subscribe to our Podcast here, and follow us at: @mikesasson & @ronbushofficial on Instagram and @mikeandronheretohelp on Youtube.

Hey Readers! Alice Duer Miller was a women of her time and ours! Who was she? Why don't you know? Because she is a woman, and that's a dangerous word these days. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands Cite Your Sources Dude “Alice Duer Miller.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/alice-duer-miller#tab-related. Dresner, Zita. “Heterodite Humor: Alice Duer Miller and Florence Guy Seabury.” Journal of American Culture, 07 June 2004, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1542-734X.1987.1003_33.x. Accessed 27 03 2025. Miller, Alice D. Are Women People. ebook access on Project Gutenburg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11689/11689-h/11689-h.htm, Project Gutenburg, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11689/11689-h/11689-h.htm. The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. "Alice Duer Miller". Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Aug. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Duer-Miller. Accessed 26 March 2025 “Where Women Fail in Marriage.” Fulton History, The Washington Post, 03 06 1928, https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html. Accessed 27 03 2025.

Holly is joined by guest host Bryan Young for a live show at Indiana Comic Con, focused on the life and work of the author Kurt Vonnegut, known for his dark humor and dystopian visions of the future. Research: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Kurt Vonnegut". Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 Feb. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-Vonnegut “Kurt Vonnegut Lecture.” Case Western Reserve University. 2004. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_RUgnC1lm8&t=551s Manikowski, Amy. “The Legacy of Kurt Vonnegut.” Biblio. https://www.biblio.com/blog/2022/11/the-legacy-of-kurt-vonnegut “Meet Kurt Vonnegut.” Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/biography/ Shields, Charles J. “And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, a Life.” St. Martin’s Griffin. 2012. Strand, Ginger. “How Jane Vonnegut Made Kurt Vonnegut a Writer.” The New Yorker. Dec. 3, 2015. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-jane-vonnegut-made-kurt-vonnegut-a-writer Sumner, Gregory D. “Unstuck in Time: Kurt Vonnegut’s Life and Novels.” Seven Stories Press. 2011. Weide, Robert B. and Don Argott. “Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time.” IFC Films. 2021. Vonnegut, Kurt. “Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage.” Dial Press. 1999. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Olga of Kyiv started out life as an obscure Rus noblewoman until she was thrust onto the centre stage by marrying the most powerful man in Eastern Europe. Soon enough, she was faced with a crisis when that man died, and she was left regent of a whole principality with a baby son and no protection. However, she rose to the occasion kicking asses and taking names and making sure no one would forget the name, Olga. She was so good at her job that she even became a saint in the catholic church. Join me on today's episode to hear her blood-soaked story.This podcast is sponsored by Common Era Jewelry. Use code: AYDEN for 15% off your entire purchase!BibliographyBloks, Moniek. “Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga - A Most Brutal Saint.” History of Royal Women, February 16, 2017. https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/olga-of-kiev/holy-equal-apostles-olga/.Contributors to Wikimedia projects. “Igor of Kiev.” Wikipedia, October 24, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_of_Kiev.———. “Olga of Kiev.” Wikipedia, November 4, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev#Legacy.———. “Sviatoslav I.” Wikipedia, November 23, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sviatoslav_I.Duits, Simon. “Olga of Kiev: History's Most Vengeful Saint.” Medieval Reporter, June 1, 2022. https://medievalreporter.com/olga-of-kiev/.Johnson, Alex. “Olga of Kiev: The One Saint You Don't Want to Mess With.” Museum Hack, May 30, 2018. https://museumhack.com/olga-of-kiev/.Morris, Deianira. “Olga of Kiev: Pious Saint or Murderous Queen?” TheCollector, February 19, 2022. https://www.thecollector.com/olga-of-kiev-russian-saint-or-queen/.The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Saint Olga.” Encyclopedia Britannica, July 20, 1998. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Olga.

In this episode, the discussion centers on earnings claims and the FTC's role in regulating them. The hosts, Amy Mudge and Daniel Kaufman, highlight the importance of substantiating earnings claims to avoid misleading consumers. They discuss historical cases like Encyclopedia Britannica and Von Schrader, illustrating how the FTC has tackled deceptive earnings claims over the years. The conversation also covers recent cases, such as the FTC's action against Lyft, emphasizing the evolving standards for "up to" claims and the implications for businesses. Key takeaways include the need for accurate, current claims and the potential impact of regional variances on earnings expectations.Questions & Comments: amudge@bakerlaw.com or dkaufman@bakerlaw.com

Antiochus III has been waiting a long time for revenge on his independent-minded cousin Achaeus the Younger. Well, now's his chance. Join us today as we watch Antiochus sweep all before him on a vengeful path of destruction across Anatolia... Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1966), The House of Seleucus (Vol. II). New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc. The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), Sardis (online) (Accessed 05/08/2024). Polybius (1979), Polybius the Histories, in Six Volumes (Volume III). Translated by W. R. Paton. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann, Ltd.

Send us a textSeeking ways to encourage student talking and boost engagement in the target language, without forcing output? If you're wondering, 'How can I get my students talking more in class in a natural and engaging way?' then this episode is a must-listen for you.Join me for a powerful conversation with Erica Peplinski-Burge and Justin Slocum Bailey. In this episode, we delve into the delicate balance of nurturing student communication in the target language. We're not talking about forcing output, but rather creating an environment where students feel inspired and motivated to talk.Discover strategies backed by brain research that reveal how to enhance student engagement and encourage voluntary, natural use of the target language in your classroom. These techniques are not just about getting students to talk more; they're about transforming the way they interact with the language and each other.Are you ready to discover new ways to encourage your students to communicate more freely and effectively in the target language? Want to know the secrets to creating a classroom atmosphere that naturally promotes student talking and engagement?Click and join us in this episode.Highlights of the episode:Utilizing rejoinders and gesturesCreating a safe and trusting environment for language LearnersReflecting on brain research and students' motivation to talkDiscussing the effects of feedback when students are talkingDisconnecting speaking from being gradedThe power of narrationEnhancing student motivation through small speaking successes__________________________________________Our guest experts:Justin Slocum Bailey: A longtime language, music, and martial arts teacher from Vienna, Austria, Justin has trained teachers in 37 U.S. states and given workshops, courses, and keynotes in Mexico, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and China. Justin has also published several articles and book chapters on language teaching. The many glowing testimonials of his work include “If everyone taught language like Justin Slocum Bailey, we would have a world of self-directed polyglots” and “The kind of teacher I'd like to have a beer with.” Justin is unwavering in his belief that all humans can learn another language and that good teaching consists of identifiable, learnable skills. He can't wait to help you master these!Erica Peplinski-Burge: A neuroscience-loving Spanish teacher with a passion for sharing knowledge and 18 years of teaching experience from Kindergarten to 8th grade, Erica was the MIWLA 2020 Teacher of the Year. Erica is a regular presenter at some of the biggest conferences in the industry, including iFLT, ACTFL, Central States, and many state-sponsored conferences. She also co-founded and presents at MittenCI. Erica is a published author, having coauthored a chapter on how the brain acquires language, and has consulted for Encyclopedia Britannica and various language curriculums. Erica also plans Voces' PD events and specialized training for teachers. She loves helping teachers find brain-friendly ways to help students acquire languages joyfully!Resources mentioned and more:Free training videos by Justin and Erica:  https://vocesdigital.com/training.php?tgt=av-hubGrowing With Proficiency The BlogGrowing With Proficiency The Spanish Teacher AcademyGrowing With Proficiency TPT Store

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. Have you ever wondered where those colorful Folger paperback editions of Shakespeare plays got their name? Or how the Folger Shakespeare Library came to have the largest collection of First Folios in the world? Or if there was any relation to the coffee brand?  In today's episode, we are going to be exploring the life of Henry Folger, his wife Emily Jordan Folger, their quest for copies of the First Folio, and how their collection forever changed our modern understanding of Shakespeare and the early modern period.  Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: join our email list, follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod. Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree. Works referenced: Grant, Stephen H. Collecting Shakespeare: The Story of Henry and Emily Folger. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014 Mays, Andrea E. The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger's Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare's First Folio. Simon & Schuster, 2016.  "Purchasing Power Today of a US Dollar Transaction in the Past," MeasuringWorth, 2025. Staff, Folger Shakesepeare Library. “Andrea Mays on the Millionaire and the Bard.” Folger Shakespeare Library, 18 Nov. 2015, www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/shakespeare-unlimited-episode-36/. Staff, NPR. “A Fortune in Folios: One Man's Hunt for Shakespeare's First Editions.” NPR, NPR, 14 May 2015, www.npr.org/2015/05/14/406470976/a-fortune-in-folios-one-man-s-hunt-for-shakespeare-s-first-editions. Witmore, Michael. "Henry Clay Folger." Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Jun. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/money/Henry-Clay-Folger. Accessed 5 March 2025.

Empress Josephine was one of the most fascinating women of the French Revolutionary period. Little Jo started out as the oldest daughter of a French noble family in the Caribbean with plenty of clout but not enough cash, so she was soon married off to her first husband, who provided her with the cash she needed but not the love. The French Revolution turned her life upside down, and in the fight for financial security, she met a rising star named Napoloan, who would carry her from being the wife of a soldier to being the empress of his short-lived empire. Learn about her fascinating life on the season primer of season seven. This podcast is sponsored by Common Era Jewelry use code AYDEN for 15% off your entire purchase. BibliographyBloks, Moniek. “The Bonaparte Women - Joséphine de Beauharnais (Part One).” History of Royal Women, March 29, 2019. https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/josephine-de-beauharnais/the-bonaparte-women-josephine-de-beauharnais-part-one/.———. “The Bonaparte Women - Joséphine de Beauharnais (Part Three).” History of Royal Women, April 12, 2019. https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/josephine-de-beauharnais/the-bonaparte-women-josephine-de-beauharnais-part-three/.———. “The Bonaparte Women - Joséphine de Beauharnais (Part Two).” History of Royal Women, April 5, 2019. https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/josephine-de-beauharnais/the-bonaparte-women-josephine-de-beauharnais-part-two/.Contributors to Wikimedia projects. “Alexandre de Beauharnais.” Wikipedia, August 15, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_de_Beauharnais.———. “Eugène de Beauharnais.” Wikipedia, October 30, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_de_Beauharnais.———. “Hortense de Beauharnais.” Wikipedia, November 21, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hortense_de_Beauharnais.———. “Joséphine de Beauharnais.” Wikipedia, November 26, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9phine_de_Beauharnais.———. “Napoleon.” Wikipedia, November 27, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon.McIlvenna, Una. “Napoleon and Joséphine: Their Tumultuous Love Story.” HISTORY, November 20, 2023. https://www.history.com/news/napoleon-josephine-bonaparte-love-story-marriage-divorce.The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Josephine.” Encyclopedia Britannica, July 20, 1998. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Josephine.

This week, we'll delve into a cautionary tale: the "Radium Girls." These women were employed to paint glow in the dark numbers on watch faces and dials in the 1920s and 30s using radium paint. Assured that the paint was safe, the girls were instructed to shape their paintbrushes into sharp points with their own lips. But, turns out, ingesting radioactive radium paint isn't safe at all, and as the women became sick and sicker and died, the companies they worked for chose to gaslight them, refusing to take responsibility all while lining their pockets with profits. But these women fought back, standing up while laying down and their fight set an important precedent we can't afford to forget. Let's fix that. Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: International Atomic Energy Agency "What is Radiation"US Department of Energy "Nuclear Fuel Facts: Uranium"Library of Congress Blogs "Radium Girls: Living Dead Women"Wikipedia "Radium Girls"Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center "Hot Times in 'Radium Hospital'"Mariecurie.org "Marie Curie the scientist"American Physical Society "Henri Becquerel Discovers Radioactivity"Northern Public Radio "Ottawa's 'Radium Girls' At Forefront of Worker Protections"Encyclopedia Britannica "Radium Girls: The Women Who Fought For Their Lives in a Killer Workplace"Shoot me a message!

Robert Morris is one of the lesser-mentioned founding fathers of the U.S. When he is mentioned, he is called the financier of the Revolutionary War. But his story is more complicated than that. Research: “18th Century Currency.” Valley Forge National Historical Park. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=42877E64-155D-451F-67DACC05A2515349 Bill of Rights Institute. “Stamp Act Resistance.” https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/stamp-act-resistance Currot, Nicholas A, and Tyler A. Watts. “WHAT CAUSED THE RECESSION OF 1797?” Studies in Applied Economics, No.48. February 2016. Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and Study of Business Enterprise. https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2017/04/Curott_Watts_Recession_of_1797.pdf Dencklau, Jason. “Robert Morris.” George Washington’s Mount Vernon. https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/robert-morris The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Robert Morris". Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Jan. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Morris-American-statesman The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Stamp Act". Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Dec. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/event/Stamp-Act-Great-Britain-1765 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Constitutional Convention". Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Jan. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/Constitutional-Convention Ferguson, E. James. “Business, Government, and Congressional Investigation in the Revolution.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 3, 1959, pp. 294–318. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1916947 “Money in Colonial Times.” Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. https://www.philadelphiafed.org/education/money-in-colonial-times Rappleye, Charles. “Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution.” New York. Simon & Schuster. 2010. “Robert Morris.” American Battlefield Trust. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/robert-morris Rosenwald, Michael. “‘Grand inquisitors of the realm’: How Congress got its power to investigate and subpoena.” Washington Post. March 11, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/03/11/grand-inquisitors-realm-how-congress-got-its-power-investigate-subpoena/ “The Stamp Act and the American colonies 1763-67.” UK parliament. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/parliament-and-empire/parliament-and-the-american-colonies-before-1765/the-stamp-act-and-the-american-colonies-1763-67/#:~:text=The%20British%20needed%20to%20station,publications%20circulating%20in%20the%20colonies. “To George Washington from Robert Morris, 2 July 1781.” National Archives. Founders Online. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-06271 “To George Washington from Robert Morris, 8 February 1790.” National Archives. Founders Online. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-05-02-0062 “Stamp Act of 1765.” American Battlefield Trust. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/stamp-act-1765?ms=nav&ms=qr See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The practice of growing plants in water rather than soil isn't new, though early examples are difficult to substantiate. In the 1930s, hydroponic plant culture made headlines, but the field also had conflict among researchers. Research: Bacon, Francis. “Sylva sylvarum; or, A natural history, in ten centuries. Whereunto is newly added the History natural and experimental of life and death, or of the prolongation of life.” London. 1670. https://archive.org/details/sylvasylvarumorn00baco/page/116/mode/2up Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Hanging Gardens of Babylon". Encyclopedia Britannica, 13 Jan. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/place/Hanging-Gardens-of-Babylon Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "chinampa". Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 May. 2017, https://www.britannica.com/topic/chinampa Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Julius von Sachs". Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Sep. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-von-Sachs. Ebel, Roland. "Chinampas: An Urban Farming Model of the Aztecs and a Potential Solution for Modern Megalopolis". HortTechnology hortte 30.1 (2020): 13-19. < https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTTECH04310-19 Gericke, W. F. “The Complete Guide To Soilless Gardening.” Prentice Hall. 1940. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.271694/page/n1/mode/2up Gericke, W. F. “The Meaning of Hydroponics.” Science101,142-143. 1945. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.101.2615.142 "General Mills' Big Gamble on Indoor Farming." Dun's Review. 1979. https://www.nal.usda.gov/sites/default/files/card-image/DunsReviewGeneralMillsImage.jpg “Growing Crops Without Soil.” United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural research service. June 1965. https://www.nal.usda.gov/sites/default/files/card-image/RaisingCropsWithoutSoil1965_0.jpg Hall, Loura. “NASA Research Launches a New Generation of Indoor Farming.” NASA. Nov. 23, 2021. https://www.nasa.gov/technology/tech-transfer-spinoffs/nasa-research-launches-a-new-generation-of-indoor-farming/ Hoagland, D.R. and D.I. Arnon. “The Water-culture Method for Growing Plants Without Soil.” Berkeley. 1950. https://archive.org/details/watercultureme3450hoag/page/n5/mode/2up “A Hydroponic Farm on Wake Island.” Science87,12-3. (1938). DOI:1126/science.87.2263.12.u Janick, Jules et al. “The cucurbits of mediterranean antiquity: identification of taxa from ancient images and descriptions.” Annals of botany vol. 100,7 (2007): 1441-57. doi:10.1093/aob/mcm242 Silvio, Caputo. “History, Techniques and Technologies of Soil-Less Cultivation.” Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99962-9_4 Singer, Jesse. “A Hydroponics Timeline. Garden Culture Magazine. Feb. 8, 2021. https://gardenculturemagazine.com/a-brief-overview-of-the-history-of-hydroponics/#:~:text=1627:%20Sylva%20Sylvarum,Chemist%20Jean%20Baptist%20van%20Helmont Stanhill, G. "JOHN WOODWARD—A NEGLECTED 17TH CENTURY PIONEER OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY". Israel Journal of Plant Sciences 35.3-4 (1986): 225-231. https://doi.org/10.1080/0021213X.1986.10677056 Stuart, Neil W. “About Hydroponics.” Yearbook of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1947. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/yoa1947/page/289/mode/2up Taylor, Judith. “National Nutrition Month: Hydroponics feed ailing WWII Army Air Forces personnel.” Air Force Medical Service. March 26, 2014. https://www.airforcemedicine.af.mil/News/Article/582803/national-nutrition-month-hydroponics-feed-ailing-wwii-army-air-forces-personnel/ “Plants Without Soil.” Brooklyn Eagle. Feb. 28, 1937.https://www.newspapers.com/image/52623587/?match=1&terms=hydroponics “Hydroponics.” Courier-Journal. March 2, 1937. https://www.newspapers.com/image/107727971/?match=1&terms=hydroponics See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I met Daniel Andrews through someone who has been monitoring Unstoppable Mindset and who told me that Daniel would be an interesting guest. How true it was. Daniel is a South Carolina guy born and bred. He makes his home in Columbia South Carolina. While in college he took a summer job with Cutco Cutlery after his sophomore year. I guess he liked the position because he stayed with Cutco for 15 years in sales positions.   While at Cutco his mentors introduced him to the concept of personal development. As you will see, he is widely read on the subject and he also learned to put his book learning to good use.   In 2013 he made the move to becoming his own boss and developed a true entrepreneurial spirit that still drives him today. He helps clients grow their businesses by seeking real quality contacts. He tells us that his goal is to introduce clients to 72 or 120 clients per year. As Daniel points out, a network of thousands of people is not nearly as effective as a smaller network of persons with whom you develop real credible relationships.   Daniel offers many wonderful and relevant tips on relationship and network building that I believe you will find useful. And, if you want more, Daniel provides his phone number at the end of this episode so you can reach out to him.       About the Guest:   Daniel grew up in Columbia, South Carolina after his dad moved from active duty USAF to reservice duty, in 1976. He attended college in Atlanta Georgia, where he took a summer job with Cutco Cutlery after his sophomore year, in 1988. His mentors, Ray Arrona, Ken Schmidt (RIP), Earl Small, and Don Freda introduced him to the concept of personal development, and his early career (the “summer job” lasted 15 years) was influenced by the writings of Zig Ziglar, Og Mandino, and Dale Carnegie.   He moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 2003 with his first wife, and switched careers. In his second career, a mix of B2B and B2C, he was influenced by  the writings of John Addison, Harland Stonecipher, and Jeff Olsen, encouraged by his mentor Frank Aucoin.   After his move to Houston, Texas, in 2013, he decided to become a true entrepreneur, and not just an independent contractor. The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber, Quench Your Own Thirst, by Jim Koch, and Profit First by  Mike Michalowicz were instrumental in making this jump, and he's currently engrossed in Super Connector by Scott Gerber and Give & Take by Adam Grant, as he builds a business based around showing people how to identify, find, meet, and grow relationships with a handful of key referral partners, to make sure there is a steady pipeline of 72-120 warm introductions to ideal client prospects every year.   He's been married to Adina Maynard since July 5th, 2019, after he returned to his hometown in the fall of 2016.     Ways to connect with Daniel:   Other handles: DanielPAndrews@outlook.com Pinterest link: https://www.pinterest.com/danielpandrews/   Daniel Andrews' personal FB link: https://facebook.com/danthemanwiththeplan1967   Daniel Andrews LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niasoutheast/   FB link - business page https://facebook.com/danandrewsnia   My video platform https://events.revnt.io/cutting-edge-business-coaching-llc   About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.     Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well and hello everyone. This is Michael Hingson, your host for unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're with us today, and really glad to have the opportunity once again to be with you and talk about all sorts of different sorts different kinds of things, as we do every week. That's why we call it an unstoppable mindset, where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet, because unexpected is much more fun. Keeps us all on our toes. Our guest today is Daniel, and would like to welcome you to unstoppable mindset, and we really appreciate you being here. Yeah,   Daniel Andrews ** 01:58 it's good to be here. Happy to participate. And really, I'm honored by the fact that you invited me to be here. So thank you for that. Well, we   Michael Hingson ** 02:05 made it. It's It's been fun, and we, we got introduced through Noah, who, I guess, does publicity for you.   Daniel Andrews ** 02:19 He and I have talked about that at some point. I'm trying to remember the entire chain that got me to you. You know, the person introduced me to him, to her, to him, to her, to him, to her, to you, right? I need a family tree of an introductory tree on my wall over here. I just keep up with all the connections. Yeah?   Michael Hingson ** 02:38 Keeps you alert and keeps you alert, you know, yeah, for sure. Well, I really am glad that you're here. And Daniel has a, I think, a great story to tell. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina, which he's really mostly called home, although he was born elsewhere, but sort of since roughly a fair, well, a fairly short time, he moved to Columbia and has been there. So I won't go into all those details. We don't need to worry about him, unless he wants to tell them, but Columbia has been home most all of his life. He did live a little ways, a little while away from Columbia, and on that, I'm sure we're going to talk about, but nevertheless, Columbia is home. I've been to Columbia and enjoy it, and I miss South Carolina sausage biscuits. So I don't know what to say, but nevertheless, one of these days, I'm sure I'll get back down there, and the people I know will make some more. But meanwhile, meanwhile, here we are. So why don't you start by telling us a little bit about kind of the early Daniel, growing up and, you know, all that, just to give people little flavor for you, sure,   Daniel Andrews ** 03:46 older brother two years older than me, exactly. I mean, within a couple days of two years, we're the only two no other siblings. Dad was an Air Force fighter pilot, and people think that must be pretty cool, and at some level, it is. But to help frame it better and give you a better detail of the experience of being the son of a fighter pilot, I encourage people that I talk to to remember the movie Top Gun. Not the second one where everybody was a good guy, they were older and more mature and, you know, but in the first one where there was the good guy that was a jerk and the bad guy that was a jerk, but they were, they were both jerks. And you know, it's a weird environment to grow up in when the biggest compliment one man can pay another is you don't suck that bad, right? That's literally the biggest compliment they're allowed to pay each other. So I grew up always thinking like I was coming up short, which has got some positive and some negative attributes. My clients love it because I tend to over deliver for what I charge them, but it kills my coach because he thinks I'm not I'm not fairly pricing myself in the marketplace, but I it made me want to be an entrepreneur, because the benchmarks are clear, right? You? In a sales environment, you know whether you're ahead or behind. You know what you got to do to catch the number one guy or gal if you're trying to beat the competition, you know how big your paycheck is going to be if you're working on, you know, commission or base, plus commission and and I really enjoyed the environment of being, I don't want to say competitive, but knowing that, you know, I was competing with myself. So many of my friends are employed by academia or small companies or big corporations, and even when they benchmark really good results, the pay, the compensation, the time off, the rewards, the advancements aren't necessarily there. So I really like the idea of having a very specific set of objectives. If I do this, then that happens. If I work this hard, I get this much money. If I achieve these results, I get, you know, moved up into into more authority and more responsibility, and that really made a world of difference for me, so that that has a lot to do with it. And as a result of that, I've opted for the self employment   Michael Hingson ** 05:54 certainly gives you lots of life experiences, doesn't it?   Daniel Andrews ** 05:58 It does. And I think, I think that people that work for other people is certainly learn, learn a lot as well. Meaning, I've not had to have extended co worker relationships or manage those over time. My first wife was fond of saying that Daniel's good in small doses, right?   Michael Hingson ** 06:15 So here we are, Ayan, so you're, you're telling us a little bit about you and growing up,   Daniel Andrews ** 06:22 sure it just you know, father is fighter pilot, right? And always pushing me to do more, be more. And that led me to choose a route of self employment, usually as a in the early parts of my career, independent contractor for other people. So I still had a structure to work in, but I knew what my objectives were. I knew how much money I would earn if I produced X result. I knew what it meant to get more responsibility, and that worked well for me. And then about eight years ago now, I decided to become a full fledged entrepreneur and really do my own thing and create some fun stuff. And it's been a fun ride in that regard, but I do love the freedom that comes from setting my own objectives on a daily basis. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 07:07 there's a lot to be said for that, and then not everyone can do that, because it does take a lot of discipline to be an entrepreneur, to do the things that you need to do, and know that you need to be structured to do the things that that have to be done at the same time. You do need to be able to take time off when that becomes relevant. But still, it does take a lot of discipline to be an entrepreneur and make it work successfully,   Daniel Andrews ** 07:35 right? And I don't know that I've mastered the discipline for it, but at least I'm working on my objectives and not somebody else's. The only person I'm letting down is me. You know, when I, when I, when I miss a deadline or don't execute, so that feels better to me than having the weight of somebody else's expectations on me   Michael Hingson ** 07:52 counts for something, doesn't it? I think so well. So you, you grew up in Columbia, but then you went off to college. Where'd you go to college?   Daniel Andrews ** 08:02 Down in Atlanta, Georgia, small school there. But I had a choice of three places, and each of them had offered me scholarship funds that equaled the same cost to me. IE, the packages were different, but the net cost to me in each case was going to be about the same. So rather than pick based on the financial aid or the scholarships are being offered, I picked on which city it was in. And I figured being a college kid in Atlanta, Georgia was a good move. And it turned out it was a good move. There was lots to see and do in Atlanta, Georgia, only about four hours from home. And it just it worked out to be pretty good that my other choices were Athens, Georgia, which is strictly a college town. And you know, when the summer rolls around, the place is empty. It goes down, and the other was a school and Farmville, Virginia, excuse me, the closest town is Farmville, Virginia, where the 711 closed at six. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that, yeah, not too sure. I want to be that far out in the sticks right as a 19 year old away from home for the first time, I wanted. I wanted. I wanted to have something to do with my freedom, meaning, if I was free to do what I wanted to do, I wanted to have something to do with that so and not not sit around Farmville, Virginia, wonder what was going to happen next. Yeah. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 09:19 so what did you major in in college?   Daniel Andrews ** 09:23 That question always comes up, and I'm always hesitant to answer that, because people think it has something to do with what I do today, and it does not in any way shape or stretch. I got a BS in psychology, which I tell people was heavy on the BS and light on the psychology, but at   Michael Hingson ** 09:38 the same time. And so my master's degree is in physics, although I ended up not going into physics, although I did a little bit of science work. But do you would you say, though, that even though you got a BS in psychology and you went off and you're clearly doing other things, did you learn stuff, or did that degree benefit you? And do you still. I have skills and things that you learned from that that you use today. I   Daniel Andrews ** 10:04 used to tell people that I had three facts that I used in college, that I learned in college, that I used on a daily basis, and for the longest time, I could recite all three. But nobody asked me what they were for the longest time, and I'm sure I still use all three of them, but I can only recall one, so the answer is, for the most part, no. But I think I went to college for a piece of paper. Someone else was paying for it. In this case, the school, not my parents. It was a scholarship, and I went to school not to learn anything. I went to school to get a piece of paper. I started off as a physics major, by the way, and when I got to the semester where they were trying to teach me that light is both a particle and a wave, I'm like, Yeah, we're going to need a different major, because I did not get my head around that at all. And and the degree that was had the least hurdles to get to switch majors and finish at that moment in time with psychology. So that's the route I took. I was just there for the piece of paper.   Michael Hingson ** 11:05 Physics wasn't what you wanted to do, huh?   Daniel Andrews ** 11:08 I did. But if the textbook had said light has attributes of both a particle and a wave, I might have been able to grasp it a little bit quicker. But it said light is both a particle and a wave, and it was the week of finals, and I was struggling with the intro in chapter one for the textbook, and I'm like, yep, might be time for different major at this point,   Michael Hingson ** 11:29 my master, my master's is in physics, and you mentioned and I enjoyed it, and I and I still have memories and concepts that I learned, that I use today, probably the biggest one is paying attention to detail and physics. It isn't enough to get the numeric right answer, you got to make the units work as well, which is more of a detail issue than just getting the numbers, because you can use a calculator and get numbers, but that doesn't get you the units. And so I found that skill to be extremely important and valuable as I worked through physics and went through and I actually got a master's and also a secondary teaching credential, and I thought I was going to teach, but life did take different directions, and so that's okay.   Daniel Andrews ** 12:18 Well, when you frame it that way, I will say that there is something that I learned that I that I use, maybe not in my work, but in my field of vision, and that's this, you know, lab and experimental methods taught me to ask the question, how did they ask the questions? Right? What was the structure of the test, the experiment, the the data collection right? Because you can do an awful lot of things. For example, they have found that if a doctor says to a patient, we have a chance to do surgery, there's a 10% chance of success, meaning that you'll live, they get a better up to uptake than if they say there's a 90% chance that you'll die. Yeah, it's the same information, but you always have to look at the way the questions are framed. Polls are notorious for this right data collection from my days in Cutco, I read a study and I put quotes around it right? A study that said that wooden cutting boards retain less bacteria than plastic cutting boards or polypropylene polyurethane, which is clearly blatantly wrong if you're treating your cutting boards correctly. And I looked into it, and they simply wiped the surface and then waited a day and measured bacteria count? Well, if you don't put it what you can dishwasher a plastic cutting board and sterilize it, right? Why would you simply wipe the surface? In the case of the wood, the bacteria was no longer at the surface. It had sunk into the woods. So there's not as much on the surface. I'm like, oh, but it's still there. It's just down in the wood. You have to literally look at the way these tests are done. And I guess the wooden cutting board industry paid for that study, because I can't imagine anybody else that would would a care and B make the argument that a wooden cutting board was better than a plastic one for sanitation reasons,   Michael Hingson ** 14:13 because it's clearly all it's all sales. And of course, that brings up the fact that you get that kind of knowledge honestly, because when you were a sophomore, you got a summer job with Cutco.   Daniel Andrews ** 14:24 I did, yeah, and I remember 3030, what is that? 36 years ago, now having to explain what Cutco was, but Cutco has been around for so long in America that most American households have at least some Cutco on them at this point. So I find most people already know and understand, but it was a direct sales job. It was not structured the way an MLM or a network marketing company has, but my job is to literally take, you know, a kit full of samples, right? Some some regular, normal, standard products that we would use and sell, and take them into people's homes and sit at the kitchen table and demonstrate. Right? The usefulness. Go over the guarantee, go over the pricing options, and you know what choices they could pick stuff out, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Turned out to be more lucrative than most people imagine. I don't want to brag too much about how much reps make doing that, because then customers get upset we're being overpaid, but yeah, that's not true either. But it was a blast to to do that and the learning environment, right? What I learned about setting my own goals, discipline, awareness of the way communication landed on other people. I don't the psychology of communication, being around people, helping them understand what I knew to be true, finding ways to address concerns, issues, objections, without making them feel wrong or awkward. You know, it was a good environment, and that's why I stayed for 15 years. For   Michael Hingson ** 15:52 me, after college, I went to work with an organization that had developed a relationship with Dr Ray Kurzweil, the futurist and who now talks a lot about the singularity. And at that time, he had developed a machine that would read print out loud. Well, it would read print, and he chose, for the first application of that machine to be a machine that would read print out loud so that blind people could read print in books, because his technology didn't care about what type styles or print fonts were on the page anyway. After the job was over, I went to work for Ray, and after about eight or nine months, I was confronted with a situation where I was called into the office of the VP of Marketing, who said, your work is great. We love what you do, but you're not doing anything that produces revenue for us, because I was doing Human Factors work helping to enhance the machine, and so we're going to have to lay you off, he said. And I said, lay me off. And he said, again, your work is great, but we don't have enough revenue producers. We're, like a lot of startup engineering companies, we've hired way too many non revenue producers. So we got to let people go, and that includes you, unless you'll go into sales. And not only go into sales, but not selling the reading machine for the blind, but there's a commercial version that had just come out. So I ended up doing that, and took a Dale Carnegie sales course, a 10 week course, which I enjoyed very much. Learned a lot, and have been selling professionally ever since, of course, my story of being in the World Trade Center and escaping on September 11 after that, I still continue to sell. What I tell people is I love to view my life as now selling life and philosophy. Rather than selling computer hardware and managing a hardware team, it really is about selling life and philosophy and getting people to understand. You can learn to control fear. You can learn to function in environments that you don't expect, and you can go out of your comfort zone. And there's nothing wrong with that, you know. So that's it's been a lot of fun for the last 23 years to do that.   Daniel Andrews ** 18:00 Okay? Now you got me curious. What's the commercial application of a machine that will take a printed book and read it out loud? What I can clearly see why people with various and sundry?   Michael Hingson ** 18:12 Well, for people who are blind and low vision, well, so let's, let's deal with it. The commercial application for that particular machine is that people will buy it and use it. Of course, today it's an app on a smartphone, so it's a whole lot different than it was as a $50,000 machine back in 1978 1979 but the idea behind the machine was that libraries or agencies or organizations could purchase them, have them centrally located, so people who never could read print out loud before could actually go get a book, put it on the machine and read it.   Daniel Andrews ** 18:46 Okay? So this would make sense libraries and institutions of public knowledge, okay. But then, as I could see, where someone would want one in their home if they had need of it. But I was just curious about the commercial application well.   Michael Hingson ** 18:57 But then over time, as the technology advanced. As more were produced, the price went down. And it went from $50,000 down to $20,000 and you started to see some in people's homes. And then, of course, it got less and less and less and eventually, before it became almost a free app on a smartphone today, it used the Symbian operating system and Nokia phones, and the the technology, in total, was about $1,800 and then, of course, it became an app on a smartphone, and a lot of OCR today is free, but the other side of it was the machine I sold was a version that banks would use, lawyers would use, other people would use to be able to take printed documents and get them into computer readable form, because people saw pretty early on that was an important thing to be able to do so they could peruse databases and so on and so the bottom line is that it was very relevant to do. Yeah, and so there was commercial value, but now OCR has gotten to be such a regular mainstay of society. You know, we think of it differently than we did then, very   Daniel Andrews ** 20:10 much. But yeah, we still have one that can read my handwriting   Michael Hingson ** 20:15 that is coming. You know, they're my handwriting. I wanted to be a doctor, and I passed the handwriting course, but that's as far as I got. But, and as I love to tell people, the problem was I didn't have any patients, but, you know, oh boy. But the the bottom line is that there were applications for it, and and it worked, and it was great technology. So it taught me a lot to be able to be involved in taking the Dale Carnegie sales course, and I know he's one of the people that influenced you in various ways. Very much, very important to recognize for me that good sales people are really teachers and advisors and counselors. Absolutely you can. You can probably talk people into buying stuff, which may or may not be a good thing to do, but if we've really got something that they need, they'll figure it out and they'll want to buy   Daniel Andrews ** 21:11 it. Yeah, the way it was summarized to me, and this particularly relates around, you know, the Cutco product or another tangible you know, selling is just a transference of enthusiasm, meaning, if they knew and understood it the way I did, it would make perfect sense. So the question was, how do I find a way to convey my enthusiasm for what I knew about the product? And as simple, I don't wanna say simple, it sounds condescending in as few words as possible, in ways that made it easy for them to digest, right? Because some people are, are tactile, and they want to hold it, look at it. Others are, you know, knowledge oriented. They want to read the testimonials and a guarantee and, you know, things like that. So just, how do you, how do you kind of figure out who's looking for what? Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 21:56 and the reality is, everybody is a little bit different in that arena. And as you said, conveying enthusiasm, you'll either be able to do it or you'll find that what you have isn't really what's going to make them enthusiastic, which can be okay too. Yep, the important thing is to know that and to use that information. And when necessary, you move on and you don't worry about it, correct? We have cut CO knives. We're we, we're happy. But anyway, I think the the issue is that we all have to grow, and we all have to learn to to do those things that we find are relevant. And if we we put our minds to it, we can be very productive people. And as you pointed out, it's all about transmitting enthusiasm, and that's the way it really ought to be.   22:54 Yeah, I think so.   Michael Hingson ** 22:55 So you talk about, well, so let's, let's go back. So you went to work for Cutco, and you did that for 15 years. What would you say the most important thing you learned as a as a salesperson, in working at Cutco really came down to,   Daniel Andrews ** 23:16 there's so many fundamental lessons in the direct sales industry, right? It's why, you know, so many people got their start with Encyclopedia Britannica or Southwestern books or Cutco knives, right? There's a, there's a, I mean, in the 90s, CentOS, the uniform people and sprint when cell phones were new and actually had to actively be sold because people had to be talked into it, yeah. You know, they ran whole recruiting ads that said, Did you used to sell knives, entry level work, starting at base, you know, salary plus commission, right? Because it was so foundational. So it's hard to say the most important thing, but I would say the ability to take control of my own schedule, and therefore my own actions, right, was a huge part of it. But then the ability to really know what, understand the people that I was working with as customers. As my time at ketco matured, and even after I left working with them full time, I still had a database of customers that wanted to deal strictly with me and the fact that they were happy to see me right? That when I was again, after I'd moved away, if I came back to town, that my customers would be like, Oh, I heard you're in town when you come to our house and have dinner, right? And just the way, I was able to move from business relationship into one where I really connected with them. And you know that many years, seeing that many customers give me some really cool stories too, which I'm not going to eat up most of this, but I've just got some fun stories of the way people responded to my pleasant persistence, follow through, follow up, knowing that I could run into any one of them anywhere at any moment in time. And not feel that I had oversold them, or I had been pushy, right, that they would be happy and what they bought. And as a matter of fact, I've only ever had one customer tell me that they bought too much Cutco. And she said that to me when I was there sharpening her Cutco and selling her more. And she said she had bought more than she needed for her kitchen. Initially, I'm selling her more for a gift, let me be clear. And I paused, and I said, Do you remember how the this is like five or six years later? I said, you remember how the conversation went? Because I use the story of that demo when I'm talking to other people and to other reps. She said, Oh yeah, no, no. She goes, I will 100% own that I chose to buy more than I needed. She goes, I was not trying to pin that on you. I was just trying to tell you that that's what I did. I said, Oh, okay, because I wanted to be clear, I remember very clearly that I offered you the small set, and you chose the big set. And she goes, that is exactly what happened. I made the choice to over buy, and that's on me, and that level of confidence of knowing I could go through time and space, that I could meet my customers here, you know, when I came back to town, or now that I moved back to town, and I don't have to flinch, right? But I'm not that I did it in a way that left them and me feeling good about the way I sold them. That's pretty it's pretty important,   Michael Hingson ** 26:15 and it is important, and it's, it's vital to do that. You know, a lot of people in sales talk all about networking and so on. You, don't you? You really do talk about what I believe is the most important part about sales, and that's relationship building, correct?   Daniel Andrews ** 26:34 I took, took my theme from The subtitle of a book called Super connector, and the subtitle is, stop networking and start building relationships that matter. And I'm, I'm comfortable using that, by the way, there's another book titled networking isn't working, and it's really hitting the same theme, which is, whatever people are calling networking is, is not really, truly building a network and relationships that make a difference. It's social selling. I call it sometimes. It's being practiced as speed prospecting, right? Or marketing by hand. There's, there's, there's a bunch of ways that I can articulate why it's not literally not networking. It's simply meeting people and treating them very one dimensionally. Will you buy my thing? Or do you know somebody That'll buy my thing right? And those are very short sighted questions that have limited value and keeps people on a treadmill of thinking they need to do more networking or meet the right people. I get this all the time, if I can just find the right people, or if I could just be in the right rooms, right at the right events, and I'm like, or you could just be the person that knows how to build the right relationships, no matter what room you're in. Now, having said that, are there some events, some rooms, some communities, that have a higher likelihood of high value? Sure, I don't want to discourage people from being intentional about where they go, but that's only probably 10 to 20% of the equation. 80 to 90% of the equation is, do you know what to do with the people that you meet when you meet them? Because anybody that's the wrong person, and I simply mean that in the context of they're not a prospect. Knows people that could be a prospect, but you can't just go, Oh, you're not going to buy my thing. Michael Hinkson, do you know, anybody that's going to buy my thing that's no good, because you're not going to put your reputation on the line and refer me somewhere, right until you have some trust in me, whatever that looks like.   Michael Hingson ** 28:30 And that's the real issue, right? It's all about trust right down the line. You know, network is meeting more people, meeting more people. That's great. I love to meet people, but I personally like to establish relationships. I like to get to know people, and have probably longer and more conversations than some of my bosses would have liked. But the result and the success of establishing the relationships can't be ignored   Daniel Andrews ** 29:05 correct. And I think that you kind of threw in a word there that I think some people will internalize, or it will reinforce some of their preconceptions. And I think it's worth addressing. And I'll just give you a quick example. Six, six weeks ago, four weeks ago, I had a conversation with somebody I was introduced to. His name happens to be Michael as well. Michael, Mike Whitmore. He was impressed with the quality of our first well, it went 45 it was scheduled for 25 and I went 45 because we really gelled. And he invited me to come to a cocktail party that was being hosted by a company he was affiliated with three hour event, and we spoke again later to make sure you know everything was in order, because it involved me flying to Salt Lake City for a cocktail party I did. He was there. We spoke briefly. We both mingled with other. People. I had breakfast with him the next day. This is yesterday that I had breakfast with him. And as we're talking, he's like, Okay, I have 80 people that need what you've got. He's, he's basically, after a few conversations, gonna refer about $400,000 for the business to me, right? And I'm like, Okay, and so what people miss is that you can build that relationship quickly if you're intentional about building the relationship. And where I see the mistake most people make. And God bless Dale Carnegie, and Dale's Carnegie sales training course, right? But that that the model, what I call the cocktail party model, or the How to Win Friends and Influence People, model of getting to know somebody you know. How about that ball team? You know? Did your sports club win? Right? How's the weather up there? Did you hear about the you know, how's your mom, right? When's the last time you were camping with the fam? All legitimate questions, but none of them moved the business conversation forward. And so the ability to build a productive business relationship faster by focusing on the mutual shared value that you have between each other and the business aspects, and including the personal as the icing on the cake is a much better way to do it, and that's why I was very particular about the fact that, you know, when I was talking about my experience with ketco, that it was over time that the personal aspects, that the friendship looking aspects, evolved On top of the business relationship, because it is way easier to mix the ingredients, to put the icing or friendship on the cake of business than it is to establish a friendship and then go, by the way, it's time for us to talk business, right? You need to our client, or you need to let me sell what I'm offering that can get become jarring to people, and it can call into question the whole reason you got to know them to start with, right? So I much prefer the other route. And just one other brief example, speaking with a woman in a in what I, you know, a first paired interview, Quick Connect, 25 minutes long, and she's like, understand, you know, relationships, it's the, you know, it's the way to do it, right? It's the long play, but it pays off over time. And you know, as long as you stay at it, and I'm like, Why do you keep saying it's the long play? Well, because relationships take time. And I'm like, You say so. And we started to run long and realized we had more value, so we booked it. Ended up being about four or five weeks later, because my calendar stays pretty full, and she's so we've been in 125 minute phone call. We start the second zoom with her, with Peggy asking me who's your target market again. And I gave her the description for a $25,000 client. And she said, I have three people that I can refer you to in that space that might might want to be clients. And then she started to try and tell me how relationships are the long play? Again, I'm like, thank you. Hold up. We spent 25 minutes together a month ago, and you started this conversation by referring $75,000 worth of revenue to me. What makes you think relationships are the long play? I think you can make them last if you want them to last, but it doesn't take a long time to build those I said I knew what I was doing with those first 25 minutes. That's why, at this stage of the game, you're looking to refer business to me. Yeah, right, yeah. And so I don't think it's a long you're not establishing a marriage relationship, right? You're not deciding who your new best friend is going to be, right? You're trying to establish a mutually beneficial business relationship and see what it takes you right with the right set of questions, it goes so much faster   Michael Hingson ** 33:49 and and that's really a key. And for me, one of the things that I learned in sales, that I really value a lot is never answer or ask close ended questions. I hate yes and no questions, because I learned a long time ago. I don't learn much if I just ask somebody. Oh, so you, you tell me you need a tape library, right? Yes, and you, you ask other questions, but you don't ask the questions like, What do you want to use it for? Why do you really need a tape library today? What? What is it that you you value or that you want to see increased in your world, or whatever the case happens to be, right? But I hate closed ended questions. I love to engage in conversations, and I have lots of stories where my sales teams. When I manage teams, at first, didn't understand that, and they asked the wrong questions. But when I would ask questions, I would get people talking. And I was I went into a room of Solomon brothers one day back in like, 2000 or so, or 2000 early 2001 and I was with. My best sales guy who understood a lot of this, but at the same time, he wanted me to come along, because they wanted to meet a sales manager, and he said, I didn't tell him you were blind, because we're going to really hit him with that. And that was fine. I understood what he what he meant, but also he knew that my style was different and that I liked to get more information. And so when we went in and I started trying to talk to the people, I turned to one guy and I said, tell me what's your name. And it took me three times to get him to say his name, and finally I had to say I heard you as I walked by. You know, I know you're there, what's your name? And then we started talking, and by the time all was said and done. I got everyone in that room talking, which is great, because they understood that I was really interested in knowing what they were all about, which is important,   Daniel Andrews ** 35:53 correct? And I mean part of it right, particularly if you're problem solving, right? If you're there with a solution, a sales environment, open ended questions, predominantly the way to go. There's always going to have to be some closed ended right? What's the budget for this? Who are the decision makers in the process? But, and I certainly think a lot of the same ones apply in decision making. Meaning, it's probably an 8020 split. 80% of the questions should be open ended. 20% you know, you know, you just need some data from the other person, right? Because, as I'm meeting people, I need to decide who to refer them to, right? I know I can think off the top of my head of three different resume coaches, right? People that help people get the resume, their cover letter and their interview skills together. And one charges, you know, four to 5000 for the effort, right, depending on the package, right? One charges between 2030 500 depending on one guy charges, you know, his Deluxe is 1200 bucks, right? And the deliverable is roughly the same. Meaning, I've never looked for a job using these people, because I've been self employed forever, but I would imagine the deliverable is probably not three times as or four times as good at 5k at 1200 Right, right? But I need to know the answer, what you charge, because the rooms I will put people in are going to differentiate, right? I actually said it to the guy that was charging 1200 I said, Where'd you get the number? And he told me. And I said, Do you realize that you're losing business because you're not charging enough, right? And he said, Yes, some prospects have told me that. And I said, I'm sorry. Plural. I said, How many? How many are going to tell you before I before you raise your rates? And I said, here's the thing, there's communities, networks that I can introduce you to at that price point, but the networks that I run in won't take you seriously if you're not quoting 5000 for the job. Yeah? And he just couldn't get his head around it. And I'm like, Okay, well, then you're stuck there until you figure out that you need to triple or quadruple your price to hang out in the rooms I hang out in to be taken seriously.   Michael Hingson ** 37:57 Yeah? And it is tough for a lot of people, by the way, with that Solomon story, by the time I was done, and we had planned on doing a PowerPoint show describing our products, which I did, but even before we did that, I knew our product wasn't going to do what they needed. But went through the presentation, and then I said, and as you can see, what we have won't work. Here's why, but here's what will work. And after it was all said and done, one of the people from near the back of the room came up and he said, we're mad at you. And I said, why? He said, Oh, your presentation was great. You You gave us an interesting presentation. We didn't get bored at all. The problem was, we forgot you were blind, and we didn't dare fall asleep, because you'd see us. And I said, well, well, the bottom line is, my dog was down here taking notes, and we would have got you anyway, but, but, you know, he was he we had a lot of fun with that. Two weeks later, we got a proposal request from them, and they said, just tell us what we're what we're going to have to pay. We got another project, and we're going to do it with you. And that was   Daniel Andrews ** 39:02 it, yeah, and because the credibility that you'd established credibility,   Michael Hingson ** 39:07 and that is a great thing,   Daniel Andrews ** 39:09 that was part of the discussion I have with some of my clients today when I hold a weekly office hours to see what comes up. And I said, it's just important to be able to refer people to resources or vendors, as it is to refer them to a prospect, right? If you don't have the solution, or if your solution isn't the best fit for them, the level of credibility you gain to go, you know what you need to do? You need to go hang out over there. Yeah, right. You need to talk to that guy or gal about what they have to offer. And the credibility goes through the roof. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 39:39 we've been talking about networking, and I think that's everything we've talked about. I think really makes a lot of sense, but at the same time, it doesn't mean that you don't build a network. It's just that networking and building a network are really two different sorts of things. What are some of the most important things that you've learned about building. That   Daniel Andrews ** 40:00 works. Sure, there's several, and some of them come as a bit of a shock to people. And I always say it's okay if it's a shock to you, because it was a shock to me. But I don't take I don't have opinions. I have positions based on data. Right? You know that from your from your days as a scientist, what you think ought to be true absolutely irrelevant in the face of what the data tells us is true. But I think one of the important things is that it's possible to give wrong. Adam Grant says in the first chapter of his book, give and take. That if you look at people's networking styles, and I'll use the common vernacular networking styles, you have givers, people that tend to give more than they, you know, receive takers, people whose objective is to always be on the plus side of the equation. And then matchers, people that practice the degree of reciprocity. And I would even argue that that reciprocity and matching is a bad mentality, just so you know. But if you look at the lifetime of success, a career is worth of success. In the top levels of success, you find more givers than takers and matchers, which makes a lot of sense. In the lowest levels of success, you find more givers than takers and matchers. They're giving wrong. They tend to polarize. They tend to either be high achieving or very low achieving, because they're giving wrong. And so I and Michael, let me use his name. We had breakfast yesterday morning after the happy hour, and I said, Mike, are you open for coaching? And he said, You know I am. He said, I didn't have you flat here in Salt Lake City, because I don't respect you. What do you got for me? I said, Josh kept thanking you yesterday for the things you've done for him in his world lately, you know, over the last several years. And he kept saying, What can I do for you? And you said, Oh, no, I just love giving. I love giving, right? You know, it's not a problem. You know, I'm in a great position. I don't need to have a lot of need of resources. And I said, and you're missing the fact that he was explicitly telling you this relationship feels uneven. I said it takes longer to kill it, but you will kill a relationship just as quickly by consistently over giving as you will by taking too much. And it's a little more subconscious, although in Josh's case, it was very conscious. He was actively trying to get Mike to tell him, what can I do for you so I don't feel like I'm powerless in this relationship. And Mike was like, Oh my gosh, I never thought of that. Said, Look, I said, I don't know how your kids are. He said, well, two of them are married. And I said, my grown daughter argues with me over who's going to buy dinner. But I get it because I used to argue with my dad, who was going to buy dinner. Yeah, dinner together, right? It feels weird for someone, even somebody, that loves you, right? And, of course, the only way I can do it with my daughter is to explain, it's her money anyway. I'm just spending her inheritance on her now, it's the only way she'll let me buy dinner every time we meet, and she still insists that she pays the debt, because over giving will get in the way of what we're trying to accomplish, right? That's fair, yeah. And so people miss that, right? I get this law of reciprocity. If I just give and give and give to the world, it'll all come back to me. No, ma'am. We have 6000 years of recorded history that says that's not   Michael Hingson ** 43:18 how it works. There's there's something to be said forgiving, but there's also receiving. And in a sense, receiving can be a gift too. So you're mentioning Michael and Josh. Josh would have loved, as you're pointing out, Michael to tell him some things that he could do for Michael, and that would have been a great gift. So the reality is, it's how people view giving, which is oftentimes such a problem. I know, for me as a public speaker, I love dealing with organizations that are willing to pay a decent wage to bring a speaker in, because they understand it, and they know they're going to get their money's worth out of it. And I've gone and spoken at some places where they say, well, we can't pay you a lot of money. We're going to have to pay just this little, tiny amount. And invariably, they're the organizations that take the most work, because they're the ones that are demanding the most, even though they're not giving nearly as much in return. And and for me, I will always tell anyone, especially when we're clearly establishing a good relationship, I'm here as your guest. I want to do whatever you need me to do, so please tell me how best I can help you, but I know I'm going to add value, and we explore that together, and it's all about communication.   Daniel Andrews ** 44:48 I think so well. And in the case, you know, just go back to the mike and Josh story real quick, right? There's, there's number one, there's a sense of fairness. And I don't like the word reciprocity or magic, right? I like the word. Mutuality, but there's a sense of fairness. Number one. Number two, it's a little bit belittling to Josh, for Mike to act like Josh doesn't have anything to offer him, right? It's a little bit condescending, or it could be, Mike doesn't mean it that way, right? No, what he means is my relationship with you, Josh is not predicated on us keeping a scoreboard on the wall and that we make sure we come out even at the end of every quarter, right? But, but. And then the third part is, you know, I said, Mike, think of how good you feel when you give. He says, I love it. It's great. That's why I said, so you're robbing Josh of the feeling of giving when you don't give him a chance to give. I said, you're telling him that your joy is more important than his joy, and he's like I never thought of over giving or not asking as robbing people of joy. I said, You need to give the gift to Josh and the people around you to feel the joy that comes from being of use, of being helpful, of having and I said, even if you have to make something up or overstate the value of a of a task that he could do for you, I said, if you literally don't need anything in your world, Mike, find some job Hunter that's looking for work. And say, Josh, as a courtesy to me, would you meet with Billy Bob and see if you can help him find work somehow give Josh the sense that he's contributing to the betterment of your world, even   Michael Hingson ** 46:26 if it may not work out that this person, Billy Bob would would get a job, but it's still you're you're helping to further the relationship between the two of you, correct, right? You're   Daniel Andrews ** 46:38 helping him feel like he's an equal in that relationship. And that's an important part of it. It really is. It's now I do an important part. I do believe we absolutely should tithe. We should give of our time. We should be at the homeless shelter on Thanksgiving. If that's what we're called to do, we should be, you know, you know, aid to the poor, you know, mentoring junior people who don't have a lot to offer us. I absolutely believe that's true. So when I say give strategically or given a sense of mutuality, but we need clear delineations on you know what we're doing, because if we give indiscriminately, then we find out that we're like the people in chapter one of Adam Grant's book that are in the lower quartile of success, even though we're quote, doing all the right things. And the best way to make you know, the example I give on that, and I'll articulate this little bit, I'm holding my hands apart and moving them closer together in stages, just because the visual will help you here too. But I tell people, right? I hold my hands apart and I say, you know, we're going to spend this much time on the planet alive, right? And this much time on the planet awake, right, and this much time on the planet at work. And then I'll pause and go, these are approximations right, because clearly they are right, and this much time on the planet dealing with other people. So if, if it's true that we only have a limited or finite resource of time to spend building a network with other people, then why wouldn't we choose people whose message is worth amplifying and who we're well positioned to amplify and vice versa? And to make that even more clear for people, if you're a real estate agent, you could find a lot of people that would refer business to you, but you could find a few people that would refer a lot   Michael Hingson ** 48:25 of business, a lot of business. Yeah,   Daniel Andrews ** 48:27 you could find a mortgage lender, a divorce attorney, a moving company, a funeral home director, a nursing home director, right? And and if you're going to spend time building relationships with people, why wouldn't you find the people who are positioned to touch more people that you need to touch, particularly if there is some mutuality, meaning, as a real estate agent, I would be just as likely to be able to help a mortgage lender, a moving company, a funeral loan director, etc, etc, etc, right? All those things can come into play. And you know, the John gates, the salary negotiation coach, right? And Amanda Val bear, the resume writing coach, anybody can refer business to Amanda, but John's going to refer a lot more business to Amanda. Anybody can refer business to John, but Amanda's going to refer a lot more business to John. And and, you know, given that we've only got a finite number of conversations we're able to hold in our lifetime, why wouldn't Amanda and John be spending time with each other rather than spending time with me, who might occasionally meet somebody who needs them, but not on a daily basis the way Amanda meets John's clients? John meets Amanda's potential clients.   Michael Hingson ** 49:32 So here's the other way to spin. May not be the right word, but I'll use it. Frame it. Frame it. So you've got somebody who you're not giving a lot of, let's say a real estate agent. You're not giving that person a lot, but you're giving Elmo Schwartz, the real estate agent down the street, a lot more referrals and so on. Then the real estate agent who you're not referring a lot of people to, comes along and says, You. You know, I know you're really working with this other guy, but you know you and I have have had some conversations, and so how come I can't take advantage of the many opportunities that you're that you're offering? And I, for me, I always rejoice when I hear somebody ask that question, because at least they're opening up and they're saying, What do I need to do? At least, that's what I assume they're asking,   Daniel Andrews ** 50:24 yes, yeah, and that's a question that I teach people to ask, under what conditions would you feel comfortable referring business to me, right? Right? And you know, they may go, well, we don't share the same last name, but all my referrals go to, you know, Billy Bob, because he's my brother in law, and Thanksgiving gets weird, right? If he realizes I've been given leads to you, right? You know, it may never happen. Now, in my case, I believe in having multiple referral partners in every industry, right? Yeah, I don't just pick one, because personality plays part of it, right? I mean, and we can go back to real estate just because you say you're a real estate agent, I'm a real estate agent. I mean, we're calling on the same market. Same market at all, right, right? You could be a buyer's agent. I could be a seller's agent. You could be calling on, you know, what's a probate and estate issues? I could be dealing with first time homebuyers and young people, right? And therefore, and a lot of times it's personality, meaning, I personally, is not even the right word approach to business, meaning, there's some people that I would send to Ann Thomason, and there's some people I would send to Kim Lawson, and there's some people I would send to Elaine Gillespie, and some people I'd send to Taco Beals, right? Because I know what each of their strengths are, and I also know what sort of person they want to work with, right? Right? That's 1/3 person would appreciate them.   Michael Hingson ** 51:42 And that's the important part that that when somebody comes along and says, How come such and such, you can answer that, and you can do it in a way that helps them understand where they can truly fit into what you're offering, and that you can find a way to make it work, and that's really important. I've always maintained the best salespeople or teachers, pure and simple, in almost everything, and preachers, but but listening preachers. So it is, it is important to, yeah, well,   Daniel Andrews ** 52:16 and I bring this up in the context because we have a Bible college here in our town. So when I was a manager for Cutco, right? We get the college kids, right? Some of these seminary students, you know, looking for summer work and right? And they're like, you know, how does sales relate to, you know, being in the ministry later, I said, man. I said, Are you kidding? You kidding? I said, it's the purest. I said, you've got the hardest sales down on the roll. You ask people to pay the price now, and the payoff is at the end of their life. That's not sales. I don't know what is. At least, when people give me money, I give them something for it within a couple of days, you know, I said, I said, You better be good at sales if you're going to be your preacher eventually. Because you the, you know, the payment, the cost comes now, and the payoff, the reward comes later. I said, Man, those are the same but teachers the same way, right? You've got to invest the kids, the kids or the student, no matter how you know and what they're learning and why it's going to be relevant down the   Michael Hingson ** 53:06 road, right? Yeah, well, you You clearly have, have accepted all of this. When did you realize that maybe you were doing it wrong and that you re evaluated what you do?   Daniel Andrews ** 53:17 That's a great story, and there was a light bulb moment for me, right? I think the kids these days call it the origin story, right? You know. And and to tell the story correctly, but I have to give labels to the other two people involved, because their names are so similar that when I tell the story, I managed to confuse myself who was who. So I was in St Louis, Missouri, which, for reasons I won't go into for this podcast, is a weird town to be involved in B to B business in. They literally would prefer to do business with somebody they went to high school with. It's just a It's strange, but true. And I can go into the background of why it's true. It just is. It's accepted by people that have sold in towns other than St Louis. It's they know that St Louis is weird. Okay, so I'm having trouble not getting the traction I want. Who's in my industry, he agrees that we're going to partner and we're going to have a revenue share. I don't believe in finder's fees, but if you're going to co create the value with me, that's a different thing altogether, right? Writing a name on a piece of paper, I'm not paying for that. But if you're going to go with me on the appointment and help me get the job done. Yeah. Okay, back to the point. So my wingman, right? My partner, I call him wingman for the version this story, local, been around forever, prospect, business owner, right? We've got a B to B offered that's going to be fairly lucrative, because he's part of a family that owns a family businesses quite, quite a large there in St Louis. And we had met with the CFO because that was the real touch point on the business. As far as the value proposition over lunch, the four of us have been there prospect wingman CFO, of the prospect of myself, and it went reasonably well. Out they wanted to follow up to make the decision, which is not, not atypical. So we're back there standing in the parking lot of the prospects business, and the prospect points at me and says, Who is this guy? And my partner says, he's my guy. And the prospect points at me and goes, but I don't know this guy, and my partner says, but I know this guy, and the prospect points me and says, Well, what happens if something happens to this guy? And my partner says, I'll find another guy. And that was the purest, simplest form of what's truly happening when you're building a network. See, my days at Cutco were predicated on some of the same things. I go to Michael's house. I asked the name of your neighbors, your best friends, your pastor, your doctor, whoever you think, and then I would call them Hey, your buddy Michael insen said you'd help me out. So I'm borrowing a little bit of credibility, but the sale was made in the product, right? I'm only asking for a moment of your time, but I expected to show up, meaning I was only borrowing someone else's credibility to get a moment of your time. But I expected to show up and let the product and my Sterling personalities, I like to think of it, shine through and make the sale. There you go. And I realized, because when the prospect pointed me and said, Who is this guy, I thought my partner would say, he's my guy. Daniel, here's your chance to rise and shine, bring it, do that song and dance that you do, right? And he didn't. He kept the focus on the real point, which was that the prospect had credibility with my partner, and my partner had credibility with me. Yeah, right. And, and, and in that moment where he refused to put the spotlight on me, my partner kept it on himself, and he said, Mr. Prospect, don't worry about him. I'm not asking you to trust him. I'm asking you to trust me. And that was the light bulb where I said, Oh, what we're building is not introductions. We're building endorsements. When I get to the prospects door. I have the all the credibility that came from Bert, who referred me right, whatever credibility my partner, Bert, had with the prospect Butch. I show up on Butch is doorstep with that credibility. And when Butch starts to question it, the prospect starts to question it, my partner goes, What do you question? You're going to question him. We're not talking about him. We're talking about you and me, and we've known each other 30 years. What are you doing here? And I'm like, oh, that's why we're doing this. That's the point. I'm not asking to borrow your Rolodex. I'm asking to borrow your credibility.   Michael Hingson ** 57:38 And the other part of that question that comes to mind is, did the credibility that Bert and Butch have with each other ever get to the point where it transferred to you, at least in part? Oh, yeah,   Daniel Andrews ** 57:55 yeah, we got the sale. Yeah. I mean, that was the conversation where he's like, All right, we're going to do this. I'm like, because it was a big deal. It was a very large deal. And, yeah, but in   Michael Hingson ** 58:04 general, you know, I hear what you're saying, and in general, somewhere along the line, the prospect has to say, has to hopefully recognize this other guy really is part of the process and has value, and so I'm going to like him too, correct,   Daniel Andrews ** 58:23 and you can drop the ball. It's possible to screw it up, but I'm starting at a level 10 in the case of this particular pair of people, and it's mine to lose, as opposed to starting from zero and trying to get up to five or six or eight or whatever it takes to make the sale, and that's the biggest difference, right? It will, it will transfer to me, but then it's up to me to drop the ball and lose it, meaning, if I don't do anything stupid, it's going to stay there. And you know what was great about my partner was he didn't even not that I would have but he didn't give me any room to say anything stupid. He's like, he's like, let's not even talk. Put the spotlight on Daniel. Let's keep the spotlight on the two of us, and the fact that I've never let you down in 30 years. Why would you think this is going to be a bad introduction   Michael Hingson ** 59:09

David Blight strikes again. The Encyclopedia Britannica published his "Lost Cause" article, and it's as bad as you can imagine.https://mcclanahanacademy.comhttps://patreon.com/thebrionmcclanahanshowhttps://brionmcclanahan.com/supporthttp://learntruehistory.com

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In today's episode, we'll be talking about early modern English nobility. Shakespeare's history plays are about monarchs and royal lineages, and the world he was writing in was organized by ranks and degrees. So, we think it's important to talk about these pivotal ranks from kings to landed gentry. And we want to acknowledge that this mini-episode is strictly focusing on the social ranks from the Crown down to the landed gentry. We will be discussing additional ranks and social classes of England in forthcoming episodes. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: join our email list, follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod. Works referenced: Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "baron". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 May. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/baron. Accessed 9 February 2025. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "duke". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Feb. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/topic/duke. Accessed 9 February 2025. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "earl". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Jul. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/earl-title. Accessed 9 February 2025. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "marquess". Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Sep. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/marquess. Accessed 9 February 2025. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "peerage". Encyclopedia Britannica, 17 Dec. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/peerage. Accessed 9 February 2025. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "viscount". Encyclopedia Britannica, 13 Jun. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/viscount. Accessed 9 February 2025. Debrett's, The Editors of. “The Baronetage.” Debretts, Debretts, 10 Dec. 2024, debretts.com/peerage/the-baronetage/. Debrett's, The Editors of. “Debrett's Guide to the Ranks and Privileges of the Peerage.” Debretts, Debretts, 10 Dec. 2024, debretts.com/peerage/the-peerage/ranks-and-privileges-of-the-peerage/. Debrett's, The Editors of. “The Knightage.” Debretts, Debretts, 10 Dec. 2024, debretts.com/peerage/the-knightage/. Ruggiu, François-Joseph . "Nobility and Gentry in the Early Modern Atlantic World". In obo in Atlantic History. 9 Feb. 2025. . Wikipedia contributors. "Landed gentry." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 Jan. 2025. Web. 9 Feb. 2025. Wikipedia contributors. "Social class in the United Kingdom." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Jan. 2025. Web. 9 Feb. 2025. Zelazko, Alicja. "British nobility". Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Jul. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/British-nobility. Accessed 9 February 2025.

This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host. My setup for recording this podcast about podcasting. I never was attached to history (I'm a shame with events, names, dates ), much less of history fictionalized, like historical romances. But I ended up working on a piece of it. The event passes between 1931 and 1945. It relates to WWII — it's part of it. So , I talk about producing an specific audiod rama, covering two points, that are at really three: WHAT is the story: the chaos that came to me asking to come out; and WHY I decided to present it (and HOW:) by a podcast of fiction with history. In the end , I summarize that I got touched by the subject, it impacted me with disastrous images both in words and images. And I like audio, well-made audio content. In synthesis, the real story touched me and urged the crave of creating something from it, resulting in an audio drama. A minute of it translated on the end. Full Shownotes Why I made a 1-episode podcast about a war story by Sem Luz em Saint Louis A little citizen (that came from) outside the country, inside a prison. Not a common prison, though: it is Unit 731…' “What is Unit 731? What are you bringing to Hacker Public Radio?” The impulse and reason for creating an audiodrama, dear listener. I will tell you What and Why: - WHAT is the story: the chaos that came to me asking to come out; and - WHY I decided to present it by a podcast of fiction with history [WHAT] First, the WHAT. In the wanderings of the World Wide Web, a notable event was revealed before my eyes, a war scene that was under dust for decades, but people, even participants of it in varied degrees, came to reveal the fact; so, today, we know it. China and Japan engaged in war by the year 1931. More exactly, that is when Japan started colonizing China by the provinces of Manchuria, northeastern of the country. The resistence started in 1937, with reaction by the Chinese troops. Japan was so much more powerful, though (and that's why China took so long to decide fighting the Imperial Army of Japan). It took time, and without the best outcome, but it demanded courage, it showed force, and humanity, moral value. And this conflict is part of the second World War, that by one side had Japan, Italy and Germany (the German Reich), heading the Axis powers; who were fought against by the Allied powers, headed by the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, United States and China. Even with basically all the rest of the world against the Axis, the Japanese occupied the 3 provinces of Manchuria from 1932 until the end of the war, in September 2, 1945, making of it the main territorial base for development of weapons. The Encyclopedia Britannica explains us the following, quote: On March 9, 1932, the Japanese created the puppet state of Manchukuo […] out of the three historical Manchurian provinces. The last Qing (Manchu) emperor, Puyi, was brought to Manchuria from his retirement in Tianjin and made “chief executive,” and later emperor, of the new state. The Manchukuo government, though nominally in Chinese hands, was in fact rigidly controlled and supervised by the Japanese, who proceeded to transform Manchuria into an industrial and military base for Japan's expansion into Asia. The Japanese took over the direction, financing, and development of all the important Manchurian industries, with the fortunate result that by the end of World War II Manchuria was the most industrialized region in China. [Source: BRITANNICA. Manchuria. Last updated in January 31, 2025. Link: . Acess in February 2025.] Unquote. Now, very briefly, we come to the Unit 731. It was a big Japanese construction first officially designated as a “Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department”. It was commanded by the tenant-general of the Army and microbiologist Shirō Ishii. I wanted until now to say what is the theme before hopping to the motivation to do something about the knowledge. Let's get to the WHY: I came to know of the theme by chance, navigating the web and suddenly coming to a strange photo of human experiencing, the description of Unit 731. I searched more about it and was simply astonished to know it happened, and inflicted by the so-estimated Japan, a headquarter of technology and populated by reverent people. We are (that is, I am) often so biased, for the good or the bad. That is, what the general public know about World War II, including me? The holocaust of the Jews. This is much, but more happened, and more can be known for our critical view of the World, the countries and its interests, and the rational thinking that might be better with this knowledge. The Unit 731 was not the only one with deadly human experimentation, other facilities existed, but 731 came to be better known; first, it was hidden, but now, decades after the events, documents and confessions came to the ground and can't be denied anymore. And in other sites, Shirō Ishii was already inflicting them probably since the fall of 1933, mainly Chinese people, but also Soviets, Mongolians and Koreans, men, women and children. That's basically it. The research I made (and the movie I saw, a fiction, based on it, horrendous) led me to dream about the theme, so I felt to throw it, what was developed and developing inside, in some manner. I like the voice, the radio, and it is accessible to do, not requiring many equipments etc., so my first choice was to tell it. How? At first, I hypothetized about proposing a script to some Brazilian podcast that tell stories. Soon I realized it could not fit so well in the lines of the ones I know. Some days after, the idea of a little fictionalized story, short story, came as a thing I like, and also with the advantages of: 1. being beautiful (men is made of stories, real or otherwise appropriated by the mind and senses); 2. being impactful (connection with characters); 3. being fast in the way I proposed it to be (one little episode). Not necessarily only this or in this order, but the idea was that. One thing more, of course: as any interested in the subject can note, there is so many technical things produced about it, I wanted to do something that caught the emotions and interest of people, spreading the possibility of them knowing what, elsewhere, they wouldn't come to see. I wanted to make it different in that sense, but as true to the facts as a little audio fiction can be. It's History to our minds, for our own construction and of our world view. But, if not, if the listener just come for the art, it can be (I hope) an enjoying story after all. That was the WHY I decided to do something with the knowledge (in an expression, fire in my heart), and HOW it became a fiction podcast (to do something I like, and different about the subject, attractive). That was my theme here for our moment in HPR! The motivation behind need to create. It was hard, I get moved easily with shocking scenes in words or images, but It catched me. Deciding how to “let go” and then producing it was not tranquil, also; the hands-on, the technical part, was as follows: I have written some pages summarizing the events I have outlined here. Having the base, I came with a story in my mind and in two days or three I think I wrote it, in 3 and a half pages, the story that you're going to listen. In a more silent night I went to my room, with my notebook and a USB condenser microphone, and recorded. Fast. The editing, cutting, compressing, normalizing, and choosing free sounds (all referenced in description) and fitting them in the story, took a long and time and patience, maybe 10 or more dedicated hours along days. I'm not very efficient, some of it was the necessary lack of hurry of art, but some was my slowness in getting to the technical part of what I wanted to do (this bit of information in this milisecond, move track 3 together with track 4 without affecting the sync of the other tracks and clips in the same track, cut the music at this point but with a gentle fade…). I used Audacity. I had a Reaper licence (I remember being a bit more efficient with it) but lost it after formatting without having the serial number anymore, so I went with my long-choice of the free and open source alternative. That was my work for the audiodrama podcast in my language. Which, in between the days I have been preparing this presentation script for HPR, I have released. You may find it in the description, or searching in your podcast app for the name (in Portuguese): “O Departamento de Prevenção de Epidemias e Distribuição de Água”, under the author name “Sem Luz em Saint Louis”. I don't know if it will be released in English. However, I made a first minute of it, here and now, so you can enjoy having mind of what I was talking about. Thank you, be with 1 minute of the report of the survivor… * and Bye! [1 MINUTE OF THE AUDIODRAMA – EXCERPT ONLY] The Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department This account was found in the records of Parkinson Tribly (or Tribly), of Russian and Polish origins. He was recruited by Dr. Shirō Ishii for experiments at Unit 731: a legitimate opportunity to stay alive — which ultimately proved false for reasons he did not expect. What we will hear now is his writing, unedited. Except that, for organization, we will name the three parts that he composed as follows: 1. Introduction; 2. Activities; 3. The Bargain. The author reflects and advances in his organization, but what he brings is: INTRODUCTION Thank God we know that, from the beginning, man has lived in war. It's envy, a desire for power, a desire for money. It is never a good motivation, but purely selfishness. I arrived at the department a week ago and, although I have no desire to collaborate with what happens here, I know enough to realize that it is impossible to leave this place free. When the Japanese invaded this region, Manchuria, in the long war against China, we did not expect the brutality that was witnessed. A few years ago, after the end of the Great War, several countries signed the Geneva Protocol. Although it only prohibits the use of chemical weapons, biological agents, asphyxiating, and related specificities, we believed it would mean more — that it would signify a general humanization of combat methods on land, sea, and air when there might be another Great War. I did not expect it to come in my lifetime nor to be captured to participate in it firsthand. [END OF EXCERPT] Thank you for your presence. References: The audiodrama podcast, in Brazilian Portuguese: SEM LUZ EM SAINT LOUIS. O Departamento de Prevenção de Epidemias e Distribuição de Água. In your favorite podcast listener or at https://archive.org/details/731-podcast-audiodrama. Credits of audios used, in order of appearance ( listenance ): Ant.Survila / ccmixter – Nostalgic Reflections MeijstroAudio / Freesounds – Dark Metal Rise 001 SamRam21 / Freesounds – KeysMouse Sadiquecat / Freesounds – MBA desk with mouse trimono / Freesounds – approving hm [On the drama excerpt:] Kulakovka / Pixabay – Lost in Dreams (abstract chill downtempo cinematic future beats). Title of the beginning of the audiodrama preview (“The Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department”) made in https://luvvoice.com , Abeo (Male) voice. BBC Sound Effects – Aircraft: Beaufighters - Take off (Bristol Beaufighter, World War II). Rewob / ccmixter – Secret Sauce (Secret Mixter) References: BRITANNICA. Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). Last updated in December 16, 2024. Link: . Access in January 2025. BRITANNICA. Manchuria. Last updated in January 31, 2025. Link: . Access in February 2025. LIANG, Jiashuo. A History of Japan's Unit 731 and Implications for Modern Biological Warfare. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research , v. 673. Atlantis Press, 2022. [ A 5-pages article about Unit 731. If you were interested with the facts told, the text gives a synthesys of what happened between 1937 and 1945. ] PBS. The Living Weapon : Shiro Ishii. Link: . Access in January 2025. RIDER, Dwight R. Japan's Biological and Chemical Weapons Programs ; War Crimes and Atrocities – Who's Who, What's What, Where's Where. 1928 – 1945. 3. ed. 2018. [ “In Process” version ]Provide feedback on this episode.

In this episode, we'll uncover the truly impressive accomplishments of Benjamin Banneker, a free Black man living in rural Maryland in the 1700s. Banneker was a self taught astronomer who helped to lay out the boundary for the construction of Washington DC. He also built his own working clock and wrote and published almanacs for the years 1792 to 1797. He also called Thomas Jefferson out for being a hypocrite, my personal favorite accomplishment. But, despite all of the truly impressive things he really did, he's mostly remembered for things he did not do: planning the city of Washington DC, constructing the first clock in America, writing the first almanac in America, etc. Join me to examine how and why his already impressive enough real life accomplishments have been embellished by historical telephone. Let's fix that. Check out RingTree here and use promo code historyfix to get 25% off your first month!Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: "The Life of Benjamin Banneker" by Silvio BediniThe White House Historical Association "Benjamin Banneker the Black Tobacco Farmer Who the Presidents Couldn't Ignore"Wikipedia "Benjamin Banneker"Wikipedia "Mythology of Benjamin Banneker"Encyclopedia Britannica "Pierre Charles L'Enfant"Shoot me a message!

Subscribe, Rate, & Review on YouTube • Spotify • Apple PodcastsThis week I speak with author, futurist, and strategist Jessica Clark of Dot Connector Studio today. Jessica has honed her skills for decades on a path that's carried her from AAAS to The Library of Congress to The Encyclopedia Britannica to the Center for Media and Social Impact to The New America Foundation to The Association of Independents in Radio and beyond, and now she oversees a refuge for social innovators working at the intersections of philanthropy, media, arts and culture, and futurism. We need dot connectors more than ever if we are to trace the shape of what's emerging, and I look to Jessica as an example of how to weave research, experience design, production, strategy, and culture-building into something like the raft we need to make our way through vast uncertainty to thriving futures just over the horizon. In this episode we discuss the ideas shared in her book with Kamal Sinclair, Making A New Reality: A Toolkit for Inclusive Futures and how to rethink storytelling in new media.Project LinksPitch and planning documentHire me to help you make senseMake tax-deductible donations to Humans On The LoopBrowse the HOTL reading list and support local booksellersJoin the Wisdom x Technology Discord Server + Bluesky List + X CommunityChapters0:00:00 - Teaser0:01:40 - Intro0:07:51 - Who is Jessica Clark?0:10:42 - “New Media” Means New Kinds of “Reality”0:15:18 - Storytelling & Social Power0:25:07 - Overcoming Groupthink / Problems in The Creative Economy0:32:39 - Fairness in New Media0:40:38 - What Do We Measure While Incubating Creativity?0:48:32 - Post-Institutional Credentials0:55:01 - How Do We Support “The Interstitionaries”?1:02:14 - Intergenerational Wisdom & The Value of Conflict to Truth1:08:59 - What Biases Do We Want?1:14:29 - The Future Voice of Fandom1:18:03 - Acknowledgements & Next Guest(Most) MentionsMaking A New Reality's Toolkit for Change ResourcesKamal Sinclair & Jessica Clark discuss Making A New RealityVictor Pickard's “We Need a Media System That Serves People's Needs, Not Corporations'”William Deresiewicz's “The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur”Ward Shelley's Who Invented The Avant Garde Redux, 2020Michael Garfield's “An Oral History of The End of ‘Reality'”Doug RushkoffSep KamvarJulie Ann CrommettStephanie LeppAri KuschnirMaureen FanEugene ChungZebras UniteMetalabel Maureen GiovanniniShannon GilmartinNicole AnandEd CatmullLeslie Fields CruzDavid JayCenter for Humane TechnologyWilliam Irwin Thompson's The American Replacement of NatureC Thi NguyenThomas FrankJennifer BrandelBrian EnoTracy Van SlykeThe Center for Media & Social ImpactMIT Open Documentary LabTrista HarrisPatricia AufderheideInternet ArchiveWikimedia FoundationMalka OlderGlobal VoicesDark Trek This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelgarfield.substack.com/subscribe

The Isles of Scilly were part of one of the longest wars in human history, but the main reason for the length of the very mild conflict was lagging paperwork. Research: “335-year-old War Ends for Scilly Isles.” Star Tribune. April 18, 1986. https://www.newspapers.com/image/188704902/?match=1 “The breakdown of 1641-2.” UK Parliament. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/civilwar/overview/the-breakdown/ Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Isles of Scilly". Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Dec. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/place/Isles-of-Scilly-islands-England-United-Kingdom Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Bishops’ Wars". Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Jun. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/event/Bishops-Wars Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Long Parliament". Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Jun. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Long-Parliament Daniel Lysons, Samuel Lysons, 'The Scilly Islands', in Magna Britannia: Volume 3, Cornwall( London, 1814), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/magna-britannia/vol3/pp330-337 Davids, R.L. and A.D.K. Hawkyard. “SEYMOUR, Sir Thomas II.” The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-155. 1982. Accessed online: https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/seymour-sir-thomas-ii-1509-49 “Dutch Proclaim End of War Against Britain's Scilly Isles.” New York Times. April 18, 1986. https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/18/world/dutch-proclaim-end-of-war-against-britain-s-scilly-isles.html “The Execution of Charles I.” Historic Royal Places. https://www.hrp.org.uk/banqueting-house/history-and-stories/the-execution-of-charles-i/ “History of the Duchy.” Duchy of Cornwall. https://duchyofcornwall.org/history-of-the-duchy.html “The History of the Islands.” The Islands’ Partnership. https://www.visitislesofscilly.com/experience/things-to-do/history-and-heritage/the-history-of-the-islands “Holidays in the Isles of Scilly.” Manchester Evening News. Jan. 24, 1984. https://www.newspapers.com/image/927198725/?match=1&terms=isles%20of%20scilly “Isles of Scilly.” Duchy of Cornwall. https://duchyofcornwall.org/newton-park-estate.html#:~:text=A%20group%20of%20over%20200,residential%20buildings%20on%20the%20islands. Johnson, Ben. “The 335 Year War – The Isles of Scilly vs the Netherlands.” Historic UK. March 11, 2015. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-335-Year-War-the-Longest-War-in-History/ Ohlmeyer, Jane H.. "English Civil Wars". Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 Dec. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/event/English-Civil-Wars “Roy Duncan 1948 – 2014.” Council of the Isles of Scilly. Aug. 25, 2014. “Prehistoric communities off the coast of Britain embraced rising seas- what this means for today's island nations.” Bangor University. November 5, 2020. https://www.bangor.ac.uk/news/archive/prehistoric-communities-off-the-coast-of-britain-embraced-rising-seas-what-this-means-for-today-s-island-nations-44529#:~:text=By%2012%2C000%20years%20ago%2C%20the,smaller%2C%20engulfed%20by%20rising%20seas. Lysons, Daniel and Samuel Lysons, 'The Scilly Islands', in Magna Britannia: Volume 3, Cornwall( London, 1814), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/magna-britannia/vol3/pp330-337 Penhallurick, R.D. “Ancient and Early Medieval Coins from Cornwall & Scilly.” ROYAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY SPECIAL PUBLICATION NO. 45. London. 2010. https://www.academia.edu/355282/Ancient_and_Early_Medieval_Coins_from_Cornwall_and_Scilly Sawyer, Katherine, PhD. “Scilly’s Hidden History.” Isles of Scilly. https://www.visitislesofscilly.com/home/blog/scillys-hidden-history#:~:text=Scilly%20was%20first%20visited%20by,as%20a%20lack%20of%20predators. Young-Brown, Fiona. “The World’s Longest War Only Ended in 1986.” Atlas Obscura. Jan. 19, 2016. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-worlds-longest-war-only-ended-in-1985 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this week's episode, we are exploring the historical record to better understand the difference between the facts of the historical record and the history-making and myths in Shakespeare's King Henry V. We will share brief biographies of the historical figures presented in Shakespeare's play and discuss how understanding where Shakespeare embellished or elided history can help us understand the values of the audiences of his day and how this understanding can potentially inform performances and readings of Shakespeare's play today.  Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: join our email list, follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod. Are you a teacher who teaches upper grades (US 9-12 or equivalent) and teaches Shakespeare or wants to teach Shakespeare? We want to hear from you: https://www.shakespeareanyone.com/teachersurvey Works referenced: Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Charles VI". Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Nov. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-VI-king-of-France. Accessed 26 January 2025. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Edward of Norwich, 2nd duke of York". Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Oct. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-of-Norwich-2nd-duke-of-York. Accessed 26 January 2025. Carpenter, Christine. "Beauchamp, Richard, thirteenth earl of Warwick (1382–1439), magnate." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  October 03, 2013. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Catto, Jeremy. "Chichele, Henry (c. 1362–1443), administrator and archbishop of Canterbury." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  September 23, 2004. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Griffiths, R. A. "Holland [Holand], John, first duke of Exeter (1395–1447), soldier and magnate." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  January 03, 2008. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Harriss, G. L. "Beaufort, Thomas, duke of Exeter (1377?–1426), magnate and soldier." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  January 03, 2008. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Harriss, G. L. "Humphrey [Humfrey or Humphrey of Lancaster], duke of Gloucester [called Good Duke Humphrey] (1390–1447), prince, soldier, and literary patron." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  June 11, 2020. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Harriss, G. L. "Richard [Richard of Conisbrough], earl of Cambridge (1385–1415), magnate." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  September 14, 2023. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Hughes, Jonathan. "Arundel [Fitzalan], Thomas (1353–1414), administrator and archbishop of Canterbury." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  May 24, 2007. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Jones, Dan. Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King. Viking, 2024. Pollard, A. J. "Neville, Richard, fifth earl of Salisbury (1400–1460), magnate." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  January 03, 2008. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Stratford, Jenny. "John [John of Lancaster], duke of Bedford (1389–1435), regent of France and prince." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  September 22, 2011. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Tuck, Anthony. "Edmund [Edmund of Langley], first duke of York (1341–1402), prince." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  September 14, 2023. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Tuck, Anthony. "Neville, Ralph, first earl of Westmorland (c. 1364–1425), magnate." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  January 03, 2008. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Vale, Brigette. "Scrope, Henry, third Baron Scrope of Masham (c. 1376–1415), soldier and administrator." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  January 03, 2008. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Walker, Simon. "Erpingham, Sir Thomas (c. 1355–1428), soldier." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  January 03, 2008. Oxford University Press. Date of access 27 Jan. 2025 Wikipedia contributors. "Charles II, Duke of Lorraine." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Jan. 2025. Web. 27 Jan. 2025. Wikipedia contributors. "Isabeau of Bavaria." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 24 Jan. 2025. Web. 27 Jan. 2025. Wikipedia contributors. "Louis, Duke of Guyenne." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Nov. 2024. Web. 27 Jan. 2025.

This week I'll explore the social history of the cannabis plant including its use since ancient times as a fiber, medicine, and for its psychoactive properties both ritualistically and recreationally. I'll explore how cannabis first made its way to the Americas and how it became a main crop of colonial planters that they were actually required by law to grow. I'll explore it's use in 19th century American medicines and do some digging to find out why it came to be banned in 1937 following an influx of Mexican immigrants who brought recreational use of "locoweed" or "marijuana" with them. You're in for a wild ride!  Check out Vital Spring premium mineral replenisher hereCheck out befree Adaptive Clothing hereSupport the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: NPR "The Mysterious History of Marijuana"CBS News "The man behind the marijuana ban for all the wrong reasons"DEA "Drug Scheduling"Wikipedia "History of Cannabis"American Addiction Centers "History of Marijuana"History.com "Marijuana"University of Georgia "History of Marijuana Regulation in America"Nature Magazine "A Potted History"Encyclopedia Britannica "Why Is Marijuana Illegal in the US?"Mount Sinai "Herbal Medicine"FindLaw "Marijuana Possession Laws by State"American Association of Medical Colleges "Alcohol related deaths are spiking. So why don't we take alcohol addiction more seriously?"Associated Press "US poised to ease restrictions on marijuana in historic shift, but it'll remain controlled substance" Wikipedia "Datura stramonium"National Park Service "Wildlife in the Tropical Rainforest"Shoot me a message!

One last Gold sponsor slot is available for the AI Engineer Summit in NYC. Our last round of invites is going out soon - apply here - If you are building AI agents or AI eng teams, this will be the single highest-signal conference of the year for you!While the world melts down over DeepSeek, few are talking about the OTHER notable group of former hedge fund traders who pivoted into AI and built a remarkably profitable consumer AI business with a tiny team with incredibly cracked engineering team — Chai Research. In short order they have:* Started a Chat AI company well before Noam Shazeer started Character AI, and outlasted his departure.* Crossed 1m DAU in 2.5 years - William updates us on the pod that they've hit 1.4m DAU now, another +40% from a few months ago. Revenue crossed >$22m. * Launched the Chaiverse model crowdsourcing platform - taking 3-4 week A/B testing cycles down to 3-4 hours, and deploying >100 models a week.While they're not paying million dollar salaries, you can tell they're doing pretty well for an 11 person startup:The Chai Recipe: Building infra for rapid evalsRemember how the central thesis of LMarena (formerly LMsys) is that the only comprehensive way to evaluate LLMs is to let users try them out and pick winners?At the core of Chai is a mobile app that looks like Character AI, but is actually the largest LLM A/B testing arena in the world, specialized on retaining chat users for Chai's usecases (therapy, assistant, roleplay, etc). It's basically what LMArena would be if taken very, very seriously at one company (with $1m in prizes to boot):Chai publishes occasional research on how they think about this, including talks at their Palo Alto office:William expands upon this in today's podcast (34 mins in):Fundamentally, the way I would describe it is when you're building anything in life, you need to be able to evaluate it. And through evaluation, you can iterate, we can look at benchmarks, and we can say the issues with benchmarks and why they may not generalize as well as one would hope in the challenges of working with them. But something that works incredibly well is getting feedback from humans. And so we built this thing where anyone can submit a model to our developer backend, and it gets put in front of 5000 users, and the users can rate it. And we can then have a really accurate ranking of like which model, or users finding more engaging or more entertaining. And it gets, you know, it's at this point now, where every day we're able to, I mean, we evaluate between 20 and 50 models, LLMs, every single day, right. So even though we've got only got a team of, say, five AI researchers, they're able to iterate a huge quantity of LLMs, right. So our team ships, let's just say minimum 100 LLMs a week is what we're able to iterate through. Now, before that moment in time, we might iterate through three a week, we might, you know, there was a time when even doing like five a month was a challenge, right? By being able to change the feedback loops to the point where it's not, let's launch these three models, let's do an A-B test, let's assign, let's do different cohorts, let's wait 30 days to see what the day 30 retention is, which is the kind of the, if you're doing an app, that's like A-B testing 101 would be, do a 30-day retention test, assign different treatments to different cohorts and come back in 30 days. So that's insanely slow. That's just, it's too slow. And so we were able to get that 30-day feedback loop all the way down to something like three hours.In Crowdsourcing the leap to Ten Trillion-Parameter AGI, William describes Chai's routing as a recommender system, which makes a lot more sense to us than previous pitches for model routing startups:William is notably counter-consensus in a lot of his AI product principles:* No streaming: Chats appear all at once to allow rejection sampling* No voice: Chai actually beat Character AI to introducing voice - but removed it after finding that it was far from a killer feature.* Blending: “Something that we love to do at Chai is blending, which is, you know, it's the simplest way to think about it is you're going to end up, and you're going to pretty quickly see you've got one model that's really smart, one model that's really funny. How do you get the user an experience that is both smart and funny? Well, just 50% of the requests, you can serve them the smart model, 50% of the requests, you serve them the funny model.” (that's it!)But chief above all is the recommender system.We also referenced Exa CEO Will Bryk's concept of SuperKnowlege:Full Video versionOn YouTube. please like and subscribe!Timestamps* 00:00:04 Introductions and background of William Beauchamp* 00:01:19 Origin story of Chai AI* 00:04:40 Transition from finance to AI* 00:11:36 Initial product development and idea maze for Chai* 00:16:29 User psychology and engagement with AI companions* 00:20:00 Origin of the Chai name* 00:22:01 Comparison with Character AI and funding challenges* 00:25:59 Chai's growth and user numbers* 00:34:53 Key inflection points in Chai's growth* 00:42:10 Multi-modality in AI companions and focus on user-generated content* 00:46:49 Chaiverse developer platform and model evaluation* 00:51:58 Views on AGI and the nature of AI intelligence* 00:57:14 Evaluation methods and human feedback in AI development* 01:02:01 Content creation and user experience in Chai* 01:04:49 Chai Grant program and company culture* 01:07:20 Inference optimization and compute costs* 01:09:37 Rejection sampling and reward models in AI generation* 01:11:48 Closing thoughts and recruitmentTranscriptAlessio [00:00:04]: Hey everyone, welcome to the Latent Space podcast. This is Alessio, partner and CTO at Decibel, and today we're in the Chai AI office with my usual co-host, Swyx.swyx [00:00:14]: Hey, thanks for having us. It's rare that we get to get out of the office, so thanks for inviting us to your home. We're in the office of Chai with William Beauchamp. Yeah, that's right. You're founder of Chai AI, but previously, I think you're concurrently also running your fund?William [00:00:29]: Yep, so I was simultaneously running an algorithmic trading company, but I fortunately was able to kind of exit from that, I think just in Q3 last year. Yeah, congrats. Yeah, thanks.swyx [00:00:43]: So Chai has always been on my radar because, well, first of all, you do a lot of advertising, I guess, in the Bay Area, so it's working. Yep. And second of all, the reason I reached out to a mutual friend, Joyce, was because I'm just generally interested in the... ...consumer AI space, chat platforms in general. I think there's a lot of inference insights that we can get from that, as well as human psychology insights, kind of a weird blend of the two. And we also share a bit of a history as former finance people crossing over. I guess we can just kind of start it off with the origin story of Chai.William [00:01:19]: Why decide working on a consumer AI platform rather than B2B SaaS? So just quickly touching on the background in finance. Sure. Originally, I'm from... I'm from the UK, born in London. And I was fortunate enough to go study economics at Cambridge. And I graduated in 2012. And at that time, everyone in the UK and everyone on my course, HFT, quant trading was really the big thing. It was like the big wave that was happening. So there was a lot of opportunity in that space. And throughout college, I'd sort of played poker. So I'd, you know, I dabbled as a professional poker player. And I was able to accumulate this sort of, you know, say $100,000 through playing poker. And at the time, as my friends would go work at companies like ChangeStreet or Citadel, I kind of did the maths. And I just thought, well, maybe if I traded my own capital, I'd probably come out ahead. I'd make more money than just going to work at ChangeStreet.swyx [00:02:20]: With 100k base as capital?William [00:02:22]: Yes, yes. That's not a lot. Well, it depends what strategies you're doing. And, you know, there is an advantage. There's an advantage to being small, right? Because there are, if you have a 10... Strategies that don't work in size. Exactly, exactly. So if you have a fund of $10 million, if you find a little anomaly in the market that you might be able to make 100k a year from, that's a 1% return on your 10 million fund. If your fund is 100k, that's 100% return, right? So being small, in some sense, was an advantage. So started off, and the, taught myself Python, and machine learning was like the big thing as well. Machine learning had really, it was the first, you know, big time machine learning was being used for image recognition, neural networks come out, you get dropout. And, you know, so this, this was the big thing that's going on at the time. So I probably spent my first three years out of Cambridge, just building neural networks, building random forests to try and predict asset prices, right, and then trade that using my own money. And that went well. And, you know, if you if you start something, and it goes well, you You try and hire more people. And the first people that came to mind was the talented people I went to college with. And so I hired some friends. And that went well and hired some more. And eventually, I kind of ran out of friends to hire. And so that was when I formed the company. And from that point on, we had our ups and we had our downs. And that was a whole long story and journey in itself. But after doing that for about eight or nine years, on my 30th birthday, which was four years ago now, I kind of took a step back to just evaluate my life, right? This is what one does when one turns 30. You know, I just heard it. I hear you. And, you know, I looked at my 20s and I loved it. It was a really special time. I was really lucky and fortunate to have worked with this amazing team, been successful, had a lot of hard times. And through the hard times, learned wisdom and then a lot of success and, you know, was able to enjoy it. And so the company was making about five million pounds a year. And it was just me and a team of, say, 15, like, Oxford and Cambridge educated mathematicians and physicists. It was like the real dream that you'd have if you wanted to start a quant trading firm. It was like...swyx [00:04:40]: Your own, all your own money?William [00:04:41]: Yeah, exactly. It was all the team's own money. We had no customers complaining to us about issues. There's no investors, you know, saying, you know, they don't like the risk that we're taking. We could. We could really run the thing exactly as we wanted it. It's like Susquehanna or like Rintec. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And they're the companies that we would kind of look towards as we were building that thing out. But on my 30th birthday, I look and I say, OK, great. This thing is making as much money as kind of anyone would really need. And I thought, well, what's going to happen if we keep going in this direction? And it was clear that we would never have a kind of a big, big impact on the world. We can enrich ourselves. We can make really good money. Everyone on the team would be paid very, very well. Presumably, I can make enough money to buy a yacht or something. But this stuff wasn't that important to me. And so I felt a sort of obligation that if you have this much talent and if you have a talented team, especially as a founder, you want to be putting all that talent towards a good use. I looked at the time of like getting into crypto and I had a really strong view on crypto, which was that as far as a gambling device. This is like the most fun form of gambling invented in like ever super fun, I thought as a way to evade monetary regulations and banking restrictions. I think it's also absolutely amazing. So it has two like killer use cases, not so much banking the unbanked, but everything else, but everything else to do with like the blockchain and, and you know, web, was it web 3.0 or web, you know, that I, that didn't, it didn't really make much sense. And so instead of going into crypto, which I thought, even if I was successful, I'd end up in a lot of trouble. I thought maybe it'd be better to build something that governments wouldn't have a problem with. I knew that LLMs were like a thing. I think opening. I had said they hadn't released GPT-3 yet, but they'd said GPT-3 is so powerful. We can't release it to the world or something. Was it GPT-2? And then I started interacting with, I think Google had open source, some language models. They weren't necessarily LLMs, but they, but they were. But yeah, exactly. So I was able to play around with, but nowadays so many people have interacted with the chat GPT, they get it, but it's like the first time you, you can just talk to a computer and it talks back. It's kind of a special moment and you know, everyone who's done that goes like, wow, this is how it should be. Right. It should be like, rather than having to type on Google and search, you should just be able to ask Google a question. When I saw that I read the literature, I kind of came across the scaling laws and I think even four years ago. All the pieces of the puzzle were there, right? Google had done this amazing research and published, you know, a lot of it. Open AI was still open. And so they'd published a lot of their research. And so you really could be fully informed on, on the state of AI and where it was going. And so at that point I was confident enough, it was worth a shot. I think LLMs are going to be the next big thing. And so that's the thing I want to be building in, in that space. And I thought what's the most impactful product I can possibly build. And I thought it should be a platform. So I myself love platforms. I think they're fantastic because they open up an ecosystem where anyone can contribute to it. Right. So if you think of a platform like a YouTube, instead of it being like a Hollywood situation where you have to, if you want to make a TV show, you have to convince Disney to give you the money to produce it instead, anyone in the world can post any content they want to YouTube. And if people want to view it, the algorithm is going to promote it. Nowadays. You can look at creators like Mr. Beast or Joe Rogan. They would have never have had that opportunity unless it was for this platform. Other ones like Twitter's a great one, right? But I would consider Wikipedia to be a platform where instead of the Britannica encyclopedia, which is this, it's like a monolithic, you get all the, the researchers together, you get all the data together and you combine it in this, in this one monolithic source. Instead. You have this distributed thing. You can say anyone can host their content on Wikipedia. Anyone can contribute to it. And anyone can maybe their contribution is they delete stuff. When I was hearing like the kind of the Sam Altman and kind of the, the Muskian perspective of AI, it was a very kind of monolithic thing. It was all about AI is basically a single thing, which is intelligence. Yeah. Yeah. The more intelligent, the more compute, the more intelligent, and the more and better AI researchers, the more intelligent, right? They would speak about it as a kind of erased, like who can get the most data, the most compute and the most researchers. And that would end up with the most intelligent AI. But I didn't believe in any of that. I thought that's like the total, like I thought that perspective is the perspective of someone who's never actually done machine learning. Because with machine learning, first of all, you see that the performance of the models follows an S curve. So it's not like it just goes off to infinity, right? And the, the S curve, it kind of plateaus around human level performance. And you can look at all the, all the machine learning that was going on in the 2010s, everything kind of plateaued around the human level performance. And we can think about the self-driving car promises, you know, how Elon Musk kept saying the self-driving car is going to happen next year, it's going to happen next, next year. Or you can look at the image recognition, the speech recognition. You can look at. All of these things, there was almost nothing that went superhuman, except for something like AlphaGo. And we can speak about why AlphaGo was able to go like super superhuman. So I thought the most likely thing was going to be this, I thought it's not going to be a monolithic thing. That's like an encyclopedia Britannica. I thought it must be a distributed thing. And I actually liked to look at the world of finance for what I think a mature machine learning ecosystem would look like. So, yeah. So finance is a machine learning ecosystem because all of these quant trading firms are running machine learning algorithms, but they're running it on a centralized platform like a marketplace. And it's not the case that there's one giant quant trading company of all the data and all the quant researchers and all the algorithms and compute, but instead they all specialize. So one will specialize on high frequency training. Another will specialize on mid frequency. Another one will specialize on equity. Another one will specialize. And I thought that's the way the world works. That's how it is. And so there must exist a platform where a small team can produce an AI for a unique purpose. And they can iterate and build the best thing for that, right? And so that was the vision for Chai. So we wanted to build a platform for LLMs.Alessio [00:11:36]: That's kind of the maybe inside versus contrarian view that led you to start the company. Yeah. And then what was maybe the initial idea maze? Because if somebody told you that was the Hugging Face founding story, people might believe it. It's kind of like a similar ethos behind it. How did you land on the product feature today? And maybe what were some of the ideas that you discarded that initially you thought about?William [00:11:58]: So the first thing we built, it was fundamentally an API. So nowadays people would describe it as like agents, right? But anyone could write a Python script. They could submit it to an API. They could send it to the Chai backend and we would then host this code and execute it. So that's like the developer side of the platform. On their Python script, the interface was essentially text in and text out. An example would be the very first bot that I created. I think it was a Reddit news bot. And so it would first, it would pull the popular news. Then it would prompt whatever, like I just use some external API for like Burr or GPT-2 or whatever. Like it was a very, very small thing. And then the user could talk to it. So you could say to the bot, hi bot, what's the news today? And it would say, this is the top stories. And you could chat with it. Now four years later, that's like perplexity or something. That's like the, right? But back then the models were first of all, like really, really dumb. You know, they had an IQ of like a four year old. And users, there really wasn't any demand or any PMF for interacting with the news. So then I was like, okay. Um. So let's make another one. And I made a bot, which was like, you could talk to it about a recipe. So you could say, I'm making eggs. Like I've got eggs in my fridge. What should I cook? And it'll say, you should make an omelet. Right. There was no PMF for that. No one used it. And so I just kept creating bots. And so every single night after work, I'd be like, okay, I like, we have AI, we have this platform. I can create any text in textile sort of agent and put it on the platform. And so we just create stuff night after night. And then all the coders I knew, I would say, yeah, this is what we're going to do. And then I would say to them, look, there's this platform. You can create any like chat AI. You should put it on. And you know, everyone's like, well, chatbots are super lame. We want absolutely nothing to do with your chatbot app. No one who knew Python wanted to build on it. I'm like trying to build all these bots and no consumers want to talk to any of them. And then my sister who at the time was like just finishing college or something, I said to her, I was like, if you want to learn Python, you should just submit a bot for my platform. And she, she built a therapy for me. And I was like, okay, cool. I'm going to build a therapist bot. And then the next day I checked the performance of the app and I'm like, oh my God, we've got 20 active users. And they spent, they spent like an average of 20 minutes on the app. I was like, oh my God, what, what bot were they speaking to for an average of 20 minutes? And I looked and it was the therapist bot. And I went, oh, this is where the PMF is. There was no demand for, for recipe help. There was no demand for news. There was no demand for dad jokes or pub quiz or fun facts or what they wanted was they wanted the therapist bot. the time I kind of reflected on that and I thought, well, if I want to consume news, the most fun thing, most fun way to consume news is like Twitter. It's not like the value of there being a back and forth, wasn't that high. Right. And I thought if I need help with a recipe, I actually just go like the New York times has a good recipe section, right? It's not actually that hard. And so I just thought the thing that AI is 10 X better at is a sort of a conversation right. That's not intrinsically informative, but it's more about an opportunity. You can say whatever you want. You're not going to get judged. If it's 3am, you don't have to wait for your friend to text back. It's like, it's immediate. They're going to reply immediately. You can say whatever you want. It's judgment-free and it's much more like a playground. It's much more like a fun experience. And you could see that if the AI gave a person a compliment, they would love it. It's much easier to get the AI to give you a compliment than a human. From that day on, I said, okay, I get it. Humans want to speak to like humans or human like entities and they want to have fun. And that was when I started to look less at platforms like Google. And I started to look more at platforms like Instagram. And I was trying to think about why do people use Instagram? And I could see that I think Chai was, was filling the same desire or the same drive. If you go on Instagram, typically you want to look at the faces of other humans, or you want to hear about other people's lives. So if it's like the rock is making himself pancakes on a cheese plate. You kind of feel a little bit like you're the rock's friend, or you're like having pancakes with him or something, right? But if you do it too much, you feel like you're sad and like a lonely person, but with AI, you can talk to it and tell it stories and tell you stories, and you can play with it for as long as you want. And you don't feel like you're like a sad, lonely person. You feel like you actually have a friend.Alessio [00:16:29]: And what, why is that? Do you have any insight on that from using it?William [00:16:33]: I think it's just the human psychology. I think it's just the idea that, with old school social media. You're just consuming passively, right? So you'll just swipe. If I'm watching TikTok, just like swipe and swipe and swipe. And even though I'm getting the dopamine of like watching an engaging video, there's this other thing that's building my head, which is like, I'm feeling lazier and lazier and lazier. And after a certain period of time, I'm like, man, I just wasted 40 minutes. I achieved nothing. But with AI, because you're interacting, you feel like you're, it's not like work, but you feel like you're participating and contributing to the thing. You don't feel like you're just. Consuming. So you don't have a sense of remorse basically. And you know, I think on the whole people, the way people talk about, try and interact with the AI, they speak about it in an incredibly positive sense. Like we get people who say they have eating disorders saying that the AI helps them with their eating disorders. People who say they're depressed, it helps them through like the rough patches. So I think there's something intrinsically healthy about interacting that TikTok and Instagram and YouTube doesn't quite tick. From that point on, it was about building more and more kind of like human centric AI for people to interact with. And I was like, okay, let's make a Kanye West bot, right? And then no one wanted to talk to the Kanye West bot. And I was like, ah, who's like a cool persona for teenagers to want to interact with. And I was like, I was trying to find the influencers and stuff like that, but no one cared. Like they didn't want to interact with the, yeah. And instead it was really just the special moment was when we said the realization that developers and software engineers aren't interested in building this sort of AI, but the consumers are right. And rather than me trying to guess every day, like what's the right bot to submit to the platform, why don't we just create the tools for the users to build it themselves? And so nowadays this is like the most obvious thing in the world, but when Chai first did it, it was not an obvious thing at all. Right. Right. So we took the API for let's just say it was, I think it was GPTJ, which was this 6 billion parameter open source transformer style LLM. We took GPTJ. We let users create the prompt. We let users select the image and we let users choose the name. And then that was the bot. And through that, they could shape the experience, right? So if they said this bot's going to be really mean, and it's going to be called like bully in the playground, right? That was like a whole category that I never would have guessed. Right. People love to fight. They love to have a disagreement, right? And then they would create, there'd be all these romantic archetypes that I didn't know existed. And so as the users could create the content that they wanted, that was when Chai was able to, to get this huge variety of content and rather than appealing to, you know, 1% of the population that I'd figured out what they wanted, you could appeal to a much, much broader thing. And so from that moment on, it was very, very crystal clear. It's like Chai, just as Instagram is this social media platform that lets people create images and upload images, videos and upload that, Chai was really about how can we let the users create this experience in AI and then share it and interact and search. So it's really, you know, I say it's like a platform for social AI.Alessio [00:20:00]: Where did the Chai name come from? Because you started the same path. I was like, is it character AI shortened? You started at the same time, so I was curious. The UK origin was like the second, the Chai.William [00:20:15]: We started way before character AI. And there's an interesting story that Chai's numbers were very, very strong, right? So I think in even 20, I think late 2022, was it late 2022 or maybe early 2023? Chai was like the number one AI app in the app store. So we would have something like 100,000 daily active users. And then one day we kind of saw there was this website. And we were like, oh, this website looks just like Chai. And it was the character AI website. And I think that nowadays it's, I think it's much more common knowledge that when they left Google with the funding, I think they knew what was the most trending, the number one app. And I think they sort of built that. Oh, you found the people.swyx [00:21:03]: You found the PMF for them.William [00:21:04]: We found the PMF for them. Exactly. Yeah. So I worked a year very, very hard. And then they, and then that was when I learned a lesson, which is that if you're VC backed and if, you know, so Chai, we'd kind of ran, we'd got to this point, I was the only person who'd invested. I'd invested maybe 2 million pounds in the business. And you know, from that, we were able to build this thing, get to say a hundred thousand daily active users. And then when character AI came along, the first version, we sort of laughed. We were like, oh man, this thing sucks. Like they don't know what they're building. They're building the wrong thing anyway, but then I saw, oh, they've raised a hundred million dollars. Oh, they've raised another hundred million dollars. And then our users started saying, oh guys, your AI sucks. Cause we were serving a 6 billion parameter model, right? How big was the model that character AI could afford to serve, right? So we would be spending, let's say we would spend a dollar per per user, right? Over the, the, you know, the entire lifetime.swyx [00:22:01]: A dollar per session, per chat, per month? No, no, no, no.William [00:22:04]: Let's say we'd get over the course of the year, we'd have a million users and we'd spend a million dollars on the AI throughout the year. Right. Like aggregated. Exactly. Exactly. Right. They could spend a hundred times that. So people would say, why is your AI much dumber than character AIs? And then I was like, oh, okay, I get it. This is like the Silicon Valley style, um, hyper scale business. And so, yeah, we moved to Silicon Valley and, uh, got some funding and iterated and built the flywheels. And, um, yeah, I, I'm very proud that we were able to compete with that. Right. So, and I think the reason we were able to do it was just customer obsession. And it's similar, I guess, to how deep seek have been able to produce such a compelling model when compared to someone like an open AI, right? So deep seek, you know, their latest, um, V2, yeah, they claim to have spent 5 million training it.swyx [00:22:57]: It may be a bit more, but, um, like, why are you making it? Why are you making such a big deal out of this? Yeah. There's an agenda there. Yeah. You brought up deep seek. So we have to ask you had a call with them.William [00:23:07]: We did. We did. We did. Um, let me think what to say about that. I think for one, they have an amazing story, right? So their background is again in finance.swyx [00:23:16]: They're the Chinese version of you. Exactly.William [00:23:18]: Well, there's a lot of similarities. Yes. Yes. I have a great affinity for companies which are like, um, founder led, customer obsessed and just try and build something great. And I think what deep seek have achieved. There's quite special is they've got this amazing inference engine. They've been able to reduce the size of the KV cash significantly. And then by being able to do that, they're able to significantly reduce their inference costs. And I think with kind of with AI, people get really focused on like the kind of the foundation model or like the model itself. And they sort of don't pay much attention to the inference. To give you an example with Chai, let's say a typical user session is 90 minutes, which is like, you know, is very, very long for comparison. Let's say the average session length on TikTok is 70 minutes. So people are spending a lot of time. And in that time they're able to send say 150 messages. That's a lot of completions, right? It's quite different from an open AI scenario where people might come in, they'll have a particular question in mind. And they'll ask like one question. And a few follow up questions, right? So because they're consuming, say 30 times as many requests for a chat, or a conversational experience, you've got to figure out how to how to get the right balance between the cost of that and the quality. And so, you know, I think with AI, it's always been the case that if you want a better experience, you can throw compute at the problem, right? So if you want a better model, you can just make it bigger. If you want it to remember better, give it a longer context. And now, what open AI is doing to great fanfare is with projection sampling, you can generate many candidates, right? And then with some sort of reward model or some sort of scoring system, you can serve the most promising of these many candidates. And so that's kind of scaling up on the inference time compute side of things. And so for us, it doesn't make sense to think of AI is just the absolute performance. So. But what we're seeing, it's like the MML you score or the, you know, any of these benchmarks that people like to look at, if you just get that score, it doesn't really tell tell you anything. Because it's really like progress is made by improving the performance per dollar. And so I think that's an area where deep seek have been able to form very, very well, surprisingly so. And so I'm very interested in what Lama four is going to look like. And if they're able to sort of match what deep seek have been able to achieve with this performance per dollar gain.Alessio [00:25:59]: Before we go into the inference, some of the deeper stuff, can you give people an overview of like some of the numbers? So I think last I checked, you have like 1.4 million daily active now. It's like over 22 million of revenue. So it's quite a business.William [00:26:12]: Yeah, I think we grew by a factor of, you know, users grew by a factor of three last year. Revenue over doubled. You know, it's very exciting. We're competing with some really big, really well funded companies. Character AI got this, I think it was almost a $3 billion valuation. And they have 5 million DAU is a number that I last heard. Torquay, which is a Chinese built app owned by a company called Minimax. They're incredibly well funded. And these companies didn't grow by a factor of three last year. Right. And so when you've got this company and this team that's able to keep building something that gets users excited, and they want to tell their friend about it, and then they want to come and they want to stick on the platform. I think that's very special. And so last year was a great year for the team. And yeah, I think the numbers reflect the hard work that we put in. And then fundamentally, the quality of the app, the quality of the content, the quality of the content, the quality of the content, the quality of the content, the quality of the content. AI is the quality of the experience that you have. You actually published your DAU growth chart, which is unusual. And I see some inflections. Like, it's not just a straight line. There's some things that actually inflect. Yes. What were the big ones? Cool. That's a great, great, great question. Let me think of a good answer. I'm basically looking to annotate this chart, which doesn't have annotations on it. Cool. The first thing I would say is this is, I think the most important thing to know about success is that success is born out of failures. Right? Through failures that we learn. You know, if you think something's a good idea, and you do and it works, great, but you didn't actually learn anything, because everything went exactly as you imagined. But if you have an idea, you think it's going to be good, you try it, and it fails. There's a gap between the reality and expectation. And that's an opportunity to learn. The flat periods, that's us learning. And then the up periods is that's us reaping the rewards of that. So I think the big, of the growth shot of just 2024, I think the first thing that really kind of put a dent in our growth was our backend. So we just reached this scale. So we'd, from day one, we'd built on top of Google's GCP, which is Google's cloud platform. And they were fantastic. We used them when we had one daily active user, and they worked pretty good all the way up till we had about 500,000. It was never the cheapest, but from an engineering perspective, man, that thing scaled insanely good. Like, not Vertex? Not Vertex. Like GKE, that kind of stuff? We use Firebase. So we use Firebase. I'm pretty sure we're the biggest user ever on Firebase. That's expensive. Yeah, we had calls with engineers, and they're like, we wouldn't recommend using this product beyond this point, and you're 3x over that. So we pushed Google to their absolute limits. You know, it was fantastic for us, because we could focus on the AI. We could focus on just adding as much value as possible. But then what happened was, after 500,000, just the thing, the way we were using it, and it would just, it wouldn't scale any further. And so we had a really, really painful, at least three-month period, as we kind of migrated between different services, figuring out, like, what requests do we want to keep on Firebase, and what ones do we want to move on to something else? And then, you know, making mistakes. And learning things the hard way. And then after about three months, we got that right. So that, we would then be able to scale to the 1.5 million DAE without any further issues from the GCP. But what happens is, if you have an outage, new users who go on your app experience a dysfunctional app, and then they're going to exit. And so your next day, the key metrics that the app stores track are going to be something like retention rates. And so your next day, the key metrics that the app stores track are going to be something like retention rates. Money spent, and the star, like, the rating that they give you. In the app store. In the app store, yeah. Tyranny. So if you're ranked top 50 in entertainment, you're going to acquire a certain rate of users organically. If you go in and have a bad experience, it's going to tank where you're positioned in the algorithm. And then it can take a long time to kind of earn your way back up, at least if you wanted to do it organically. If you throw money at it, you can jump to the top. And I could talk about that. But broadly speaking, if we look at 2024, the first kink in the graph was outages due to hitting 500k DAU. The backend didn't want to scale past that. So then we just had to do the engineering and build through it. Okay, so we built through that, and then we get a little bit of growth. And so, okay, that's feeling a little bit good. I think the next thing, I think it's, I'm not going to lie, I have a feeling that when Character AI got... I was thinking. I think so. I think... So the Character AI team fundamentally got acquired by Google. And I don't know what they changed in their business. I don't know if they dialed down that ad spend. Products don't change, right? Products just what it is. I don't think so. Yeah, I think the product is what it is. It's like maintenance mode. Yes. I think the issue that people, you know, some people may think this is an obvious fact, but running a business can be very competitive, right? Because other businesses can see what you're doing, and they can imitate you. And then there's this... There's this question of, if you've got one company that's spending $100,000 a day on advertising, and you've got another company that's spending zero, if you consider market share, and if you're considering new users which are entering the market, the guy that's spending $100,000 a day is going to be getting 90% of those new users. And so I have a suspicion that when the founders of Character AI left, they dialed down their spending on user acquisition. And I think that kind of gave oxygen to like the other apps. And so Chai was able to then start growing again in a really healthy fashion. I think that's kind of like the second thing. I think a third thing is we've really built a great data flywheel. Like the AI team sort of perfected their flywheel, I would say, in end of Q2. And I could speak about that at length. But fundamentally, the way I would describe it is when you're building anything in life, you need to be able to evaluate it. And through evaluation, you can iterate, we can look at benchmarks, and we can say the issues with benchmarks and why they may not generalize as well as one would hope in the challenges of working with them. But something that works incredibly well is getting feedback from humans. And so we built this thing where anyone can submit a model to our developer backend, and it gets put in front of 5000 users, and the users can rate it. And we can then have a really accurate ranking of like which model, or users finding more engaging or more entertaining. And it gets, you know, it's at this point now, where every day we're able to, I mean, we evaluate between 20 and 50 models, LLMs, every single day, right. So even though we've got only got a team of, say, five AI researchers, they're able to iterate a huge quantity of LLMs, right. So our team ships, let's just say minimum 100 LLMs a week is what we're able to iterate through. Now, before that moment in time, we might iterate through three a week, we might, you know, there was a time when even doing like five a month was a challenge, right? By being able to change the feedback loops to the point where it's not, let's launch these three models, let's do an A-B test, let's assign, let's do different cohorts, let's wait 30 days to see what the day 30 retention is, which is the kind of the, if you're doing an app, that's like A-B testing 101 would be, do a 30-day retention test, assign different treatments to different cohorts and come back in 30 days. So that's insanely slow. That's just, it's too slow. And so we were able to get that 30-day feedback loop all the way down to something like three hours. And when we did that, we could really, really, really perfect techniques like DPO, fine tuning, prompt engineering, blending, rejection sampling, training a reward model, right, really successfully, like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And so I think in Q3 and Q4, we got, the amount of AI improvements we got was like astounding. It was getting to the point, I thought like how much more, how much more edge is there to be had here? But the team just could keep going and going and going. That was like number three for the inflection point.swyx [00:34:53]: There's a fourth?William [00:34:54]: The important thing about the third one is if you go on our Reddit or you talk to users of AI, there's like a clear date. It's like somewhere in October or something. The users, they flipped. Before October, the users... The users would say character AI is better than you, for the most part. Then from October onwards, they would say, wow, you guys are better than character AI. And that was like a really clear positive signal that we'd sort of done it. And I think people, you can't cheat consumers. You can't trick them. You can't b******t them. They know, right? If you're going to spend 90 minutes on a platform, and with apps, there's the barriers to switching is pretty low. Like you can try character AI, you can't cheat consumers. You can't cheat them. You can't cheat them. You can't cheat AI for a day. If you get bored, you can try Chai. If you get bored of Chai, you can go back to character. So the users, the loyalty is not strong, right? What keeps them on the app is the experience. If you deliver a better experience, they're going to stay and they can tell. So that was the fourth one was we were fortunate enough to get this hire. He was hired one really talented engineer. And then they said, oh, at my last company, we had a head of growth. He was really, really good. And he was the head of growth for ByteDance for two years. Would you like to speak to him? And I was like, yes. Yes, I think I would. And so I spoke to him. And he just blew me away with what he knew about user acquisition. You know, it was like a 3D chessswyx [00:36:21]: sort of thing. You know, as much as, as I know about AI. Like ByteDance as in TikTok US. Yes.William [00:36:26]: Not ByteDance as other stuff. Yep. He was interviewing us as we were interviewing him. Right. And so pick up options. Yeah, exactly. And so he was kind of looking at our metrics. And he was like, I saw him get really excited when he said, guys, you've got a million daily active users and you've done no advertising. I said, correct. And he was like, that's unheard of. He's like, I've never heard of anyone doing that. And then he started looking at our metrics. And he was like, if you've got all of this organically, if you start spending money, this is going to be very exciting. I was like, let's give it a go. So then he came in, we've just started ramping up the user acquisition. So that looks like spending, you know, let's say we're spending, we started spending $20,000 a day, it looked very promising than 20,000. Right now we're spending $40,000 a day on user acquisition. That's still only half of what like character AI or talkie may be spending. But from that, it's sort of, we were growing at a rate of maybe say, 2x a year. And that got us growing at a rate of 3x a year. So I'm growing, I'm evolving more and more to like a Silicon Valley style hyper growth, like, you know, you build something decent, and then you canswyx [00:37:33]: slap on a huge... You did the important thing, you did the product first.William [00:37:36]: Of course, but then you can slap on like, like the rocket or the jet engine or something, which is just this cash in, you pour in as much cash, you buy a lot of ads, and your growth is faster.swyx [00:37:48]: Not to, you know, I'm just kind of curious what's working right now versus what surprisinglyWilliam [00:37:52]: doesn't work. Oh, there's a long, long list of surprising stuff that doesn't work. Yeah. The surprising thing, like the most surprising thing, what doesn't work is almost everything doesn't work. That's what's surprising. And I'll give you an example. So like a year and a half ago, I was working at a company, we were super excited by audio. I was like, audio is going to be the next killer feature, we have to get in the app. And I want to be the first. So everything Chai does, I want us to be the first. We may not be the company that's strongest at execution, but we can always be theswyx [00:38:22]: most innovative. Interesting. Right? So we can... You're pretty strong at execution.William [00:38:26]: We're much stronger, we're much stronger. A lot of the reason we're here is because we were first. If we launched today, it'd be so hard to get the traction. Because it's like to get the flywheel, to get the users, to build a product people are excited about. If you're first, people are naturally excited about it. But if you're fifth or 10th, man, you've got to beswyx [00:38:46]: insanely good at execution. So you were first with voice? We were first. We were first. I only knowWilliam [00:38:51]: when character launched voice. They launched it, I think they launched it at least nine months after us. Okay. Okay. But the team worked so hard for it. At the time we did it, latency is a huge problem. Cost is a huge problem. Getting the right quality of the voice is a huge problem. Right? Then there's this user interface and getting the right user experience. Because you don't just want it to start blurting out. Right? You want to kind of activate it. But then you don't have to keep pressing a button every single time. There's a lot that goes into getting a really smooth audio experience. So we went ahead, we invested the three months, we built it all. And then when we did the A-B test, there was like, no change in any of the numbers. And I was like, this can't be right, there must be a bug. And we spent like a week just checking everything, checking again, checking again. And it was like, the users just did not care. And it was something like only 10 or 15% of users even click the button to like, they wanted to engage the audio. And they would only use it for 10 or 15% of the time. So if you do the math, if it's just like something that one in seven people use it for one seventh of their time. You've changed like 2% of the experience. So even if that that 2% of the time is like insanely good, it doesn't translate much when you look at the retention, when you look at the engagement, and when you look at the monetization rates. So audio did not have a big impact. I'm pretty big on audio. But yeah, I like it too. But it's, you know, so a lot of the stuff which I do, I'm a big, you can have a theory. And you resist. Yeah. Exactly, exactly. So I think if you want to make audio work, it has to be a unique, compelling, exciting experience that they can't have anywhere else.swyx [00:40:37]: It could be your models, which just weren't good enough.William [00:40:39]: No, no, no, they were great. Oh, yeah, they were very good. it was like, it was kind of like just the, you know, if you listen to like an audible or Kindle, or something like, you just hear this voice. And it's like, you don't go like, wow, this is this is special, right? It's like a convenience thing. But the idea is that if you can, if Chai is the only platform, like, let's say you have a Mr. Beast, and YouTube is the only platform you can use to make audio work, then you can watch a Mr. Beast video. And it's the most engaging, fun video that you want to watch, you'll go to a YouTube. And so it's like for audio, you can't just put the audio on there. And people go, oh, yeah, it's like 2% better. Or like, 5% of users think it's 20% better, right? It has to be something that the majority of people, for the majority of the experience, go like, wow, this is a big deal. That's the features you need to be shipping. If it's not going to appeal to the majority of people, for the majority of the experience, and it's not a big deal, it's not going to move you. Cool. So you killed it. I don't see it anymore. Yep. So I love this. The longer, it's kind of cheesy, I guess, but the longer I've been working at Chai, and I think the team agrees with this, all the platitudes, at least I thought they were platitudes, that you would get from like the Steve Jobs, which is like, build something insanely great, right? Or be maniacally focused, or, you know, the most important thing is saying no to, not to work on. All of these sort of lessons, they just are like painfully true. They're painfully true. So now I'm just like, everything I say, I'm either quoting Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg. I'm like, guys, move fast and break free.swyx [00:42:10]: You've jumped the Apollo to cool it now.William [00:42:12]: Yeah, it's just so, everything they said is so, so true. The turtle neck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything is so true.swyx [00:42:18]: This last question on my side, and I want to pass this to Alessio, is on just, just multi-modality in general. This actually comes from Justine Moore from A16Z, who's a friend of ours. And a lot of people are trying to do voice image video for AI companions. Yes. You just said voice didn't work. Yep. What would make you revisit?William [00:42:36]: So Steve Jobs, he was very, listen, he was very, very clear on this. There's a habit of engineers who, once they've got some cool technology, they want to find a way to package up the cool technology and sell it to consumers, right? That does not work. So you're free to try and build a startup where you've got your cool tech and you want to find someone to sell it to. That's not what we do at Chai. At Chai, we start with the consumer. What does the consumer want? What is their problem? And how do we solve it? So right now, the number one problems for the users, it's not the audio. That's not the number one problem. It's not the image generation either. That's not their problem either. The number one problem for users in AI is this. All the AI is being generated by middle-aged men in Silicon Valley, right? That's all the content. You're interacting with this AI. You're speaking to it for 90 minutes on average. It's being trained by middle-aged men. The guys out there, they're out there. They're talking to you. They're talking to you. They're like, oh, what should the AI say in this situation, right? What's funny, right? What's cool? What's boring? What's entertaining? That's not the way it should be. The way it should be is that the users should be creating the AI, right? And so the way I speak about it is this. Chai, we have this AI engine in which sits atop a thin layer of UGC. So the thin layer of UGC is absolutely essential, right? It's just prompts. But it's just prompts. It's just an image. It's just a name. It's like we've done 1% of what we could do. So we need to keep thickening up that layer of UGC. It must be the case that the users can train the AI. And if reinforcement learning is powerful and important, they have to be able to do that. And so it's got to be the case that there exists, you know, I say to the team, just as Mr. Beast is able to spend 100 million a year or whatever it is on his production company, and he's got a team building the content, the Mr. Beast company is able to spend 100 million a year on his production company. And he's got a team building the content, which then he shares on the YouTube platform. Until there's a team that's earning 100 million a year or spending 100 million on the content that they're producing for the Chai platform, we're not finished, right? So that's the problem. That's what we're excited to build. And getting too caught up in the tech, I think is a fool's errand. It does not work.Alessio [00:44:52]: As an aside, I saw the Beast Games thing on Amazon Prime. It's not doing well. And I'mswyx [00:44:56]: curious. It's kind of like, I mean, the audience reading is high. The run-to-meet-all sucks, but the audience reading is high.Alessio [00:45:02]: But it's not like in the top 10. I saw it dropped off of like the... Oh, okay. Yeah, that one I don't know. I'm curious, like, you know, it's kind of like similar content, but different platform. And then going back to like, some of what you were saying is like, you know, people come to ChaiWilliam [00:45:13]: expecting some type of content. Yeah, I think it's something that's interesting to discuss is like, is moats. And what is the moat? And so, you know, if you look at a platform like YouTube, the moat, I think is in first is really is in the ecosystem. And the ecosystem, is comprised of you have the content creators, you have the users, the consumers, and then you have the algorithms. And so this, this creates a sort of a flywheel where the algorithms are able to be trained on the users, and the users data, the recommend systems can then feed information to the content creators. So Mr. Beast, he knows which thumbnail does the best. He knows the first 10 seconds of the video has to be this particular way. And so his content is super optimized for the YouTube platform. So that's why it doesn't do well on Amazon. If he wants to do well on Amazon, how many videos has he created on the YouTube platform? By thousands, 10s of 1000s, I guess, he needs to get those iterations in on the Amazon. So at Chai, I think it's all about how can we get the most compelling, rich user generated content, stick that on top of the AI engine, the recommender systems, in such that we get this beautiful data flywheel, more users, better recommendations, more creative, more content, more users.Alessio [00:46:34]: You mentioned the algorithm, you have this idea of the Chaiverse on Chai, and you have your own kind of like LMSYS-like ELO system. Yeah, what are things that your models optimize for, like your users optimize for, and maybe talk about how you build it, how people submit models?William [00:46:49]: So Chaiverse is what I would describe as a developer platform. More often when we're speaking about Chai, we're thinking about the Chai app. And the Chai app is really this product for consumers. And so consumers can come on the Chai app, they can come on the Chai app, they can come on the Chai app, they can interact with our AI, and they can interact with other UGC. And it's really just these kind of bots. And it's a thin layer of UGC. Okay. Our mission is not to just have a very thin layer of UGC. Our mission is to have as much UGC as possible. So we must have, I don't want people at Chai training the AI. I want people, not middle aged men, building AI. I want everyone building the AI, as many people building the AI as possible. Okay, so what we built was we built Chaiverse. And Chaiverse is kind of, it's kind of like a prototype, is the way to think about it. And it started with this, this observation that, well, how many models get submitted into Hugging Face a day? It's hundreds, it's hundreds, right? So there's hundreds of LLMs submitted each day. Now consider that, what does it take to build an LLM? It takes a lot of work, actually. It's like someone devoted several hours of compute, several hours of their time, prepared a data set, launched it, ran it, evaluated it, submitted it, right? So there's a lot of, there's a lot of, there's a lot of work that's going into that. So what we did was we said, well, why can't we host their models for them and serve them to users? And then what would that look like? The first issue is, well, how do you know if a model is good or not? Like, we don't want to serve users the crappy models, right? So what we would do is we would, I love the LMSYS style. I think it's really cool. It's really simple. It's a very intuitive thing, which is you simply present the users with two completions. You can say, look, this is from model one. This is from model two. This is from model three. This is from model A. This is from model B, which is better. And so if someone submits a model to Chaiverse, what we do is we spin up a GPU. We download the model. We're going to now host that model on this GPU. And we're going to start routing traffic to it. And we're going to send, we think it takes about 5,000 completions to get an accurate signal. That's roughly what LMSYS does. And from that, we're able to get an accurate ranking. And we're able to get an accurate ranking. And we're able to get an accurate ranking of which models are people finding entertaining and which models are not entertaining. If you look at the bottom 80%, they'll suck. You can just disregard them. They totally suck. Then when you get the top 20%, you know you've got a decent model, but you can break it down into more nuance. There might be one that's really descriptive. There might be one that's got a lot of personality to it. There might be one that's really illogical. Then the question is, well, what do you do with these top models? From that, you can do more sophisticated things. You can try and do like a routing thing where you say for a given user request, we're going to try and predict which of these end models that users enjoy the most. That turns out to be pretty expensive and not a huge source of like edge or improvement. Something that we love to do at Chai is blending, which is, you know, it's the simplest way to think about it is you're going to end up, and you're going to pretty quickly see you've got one model that's really smart, one model that's really funny. How do you get the user an experience that is both smart and funny? Well, just 50% of the requests, you can serve them the smart model, 50% of the requests, you serve them the funny model. Just a random 50%? Just a random, yeah. And then... That's blending? That's blending. You can do more sophisticated things on top of that, as in all things in life, but the 80-20 solution, if you just do that, you get a pretty powerful effect out of the gate. Random number generator. I think it's like the robustness of randomness. Random is a very powerful optimization technique, and it's a very robust thing. So you can explore a lot of the space very efficiently. There's one thing that's really, really important to share, and this is the most exciting thing for me, is after you do the ranking, you get an ELO score, and you can track a user's first join date, the first date they submit a model to Chaiverse, they almost always get a terrible ELO, right? So let's say the first submission they get an ELO of 1,100 or 1,000 or something, and you can see that they iterate and they iterate and iterate, and it will be like, no improvement, no improvement, no improvement, and then boom. Do you give them any data, or do you have to come up with this themselves? We do, we do, we do, we do. We try and strike a balance between giving them data that's very useful, you've got to be compliant with GDPR, which is like, you have to work very hard to preserve the privacy of users of your app. So we try to give them as much signal as possible, to be helpful. The minimum is we're just going to give you a score, right? That's the minimum. But that alone is people can optimize a score pretty well, because they're able to come up with theories, submit it, does it work? No. A new theory, does it work? No. And then boom, as soon as they figure something out, they keep it, and then they iterate, and then boom,Alessio [00:51:46]: they figure something out, and they keep it. Last year, you had this post on your blog, cross-sourcing the lead to the 10 trillion parameter, AGI, and you call it a mixture of experts, recommenders. Yep. Any insights?William [00:51:58]: Updated thoughts, 12 months later? I think the odds, the timeline for AGI has certainly been pushed out, right? Now, this is in, I'm a controversial person, I don't know, like, I just think... You don't believe in scaling laws, you think AGI is further away. I think it's an S-curve. I think everything's an S-curve. And I think that the models have proven to just be far worse at reasoning than people sort of thought. And I think whenever I hear people talk about LLMs as reasoning engines, I sort of cringe a bit. I don't think that's what they are. I think of them more as like a simulator. I think of them as like a, right? So they get trained to predict the next most likely token. It's like a physics simulation engine. So you get these like games where you can like construct a bridge, and you drop a car down, and then it predicts what should happen. And that's really what LLMs are doing. It's not so much that they're reasoning, it's more that they're just doing the most likely thing. So fundamentally, the ability for people to add in intelligence, I think is very limited. What most people would consider intelligence, I think the AI is not a crowdsourcing problem, right? Now with Wikipedia, Wikipedia crowdsources knowledge. It doesn't crowdsource intelligence. So it's a subtle distinction. AI is fantastic at knowledge. I think it's weak at intelligence. And a lot, it's easy to conflate the two because if you ask it a question and it gives you, you know, if you said, who was the seventh president of the United States, and it gives you the correct answer, I'd say, well, I don't know the answer to that. And you can conflate that with intelligence. But really, that's a question of knowledge. And knowledge is really this thing about saying, how can I store all of this information? And then how can I retrieve something that's relevant? Okay, they're fantastic at that. They're fantastic at storing knowledge and retrieving the relevant knowledge. They're superior to humans in that regard. And so I think we need to come up for a new word. How does one describe AI should contain more knowledge than any individual human? It should be more accessible than any individual human. That's a very powerful thing. That's superswyx [00:54:07]: powerful. But what words do we use to describe that? We had a previous guest on Exa AI that does search. And he tried to coin super knowledge as the opposite of super intelligence.William [00:54:20]: Exactly. I think super knowledge is a more accurate word for it.swyx [00:54:24]: You can store more things than any human can.William [00:54:26]: And you can retrieve it better than any human can as well. And I think it's those two things combined that's special. I think that thing will exist. That thing can be built. And I think you can start with something that's entertaining and fun. And I think, I often think it's like, look, it's going to be a 20 year journey. And we're in like, year four, or it's like the web. And this is like 1998 or something. You know, you've got a long, long way to go before the Amazon.coms are like these huge, multi trillion dollar businesses that every single person uses every day. And so AI today is very simplistic. And it's fundamentally the way we're using it, the flywheels, and this ability for how can everyone contribute to it to really magnify the value that it brings. Right now, like, I think it's a bit sad. It's like, right now you have big labs, I'm going to pick on open AI. And they kind of go to like these human labelers. And they say, we're going to pay you to just label this like subset of questions that we want to get a really high quality data set, then we're going to get like our own computers that are really powerful. And that's kind of like the thing. For me, it's so much like Encyclopedia Britannica. It's like insane. All the people that were interested in blockchain, it's like, well, this is this is what needs to be decentralized, you need to decentralize that thing. Because if you distribute it, people can generate way more data in a distributed fashion, way more, right? You need the incentive. Yeah, of course. Yeah. But I mean, the, the, that's kind of the exciting thing about Wikipedia was it's this understanding, like the incentives, you don't need money to incentivize people. You don't need dog coins. No. Sometimes, sometimes people get the satisfaction fro

Humans have been writing in abbreviated ways as long as writing has existed. In the 19th century, Isaac Pitman developed – and marketed – a system of shorthand that became widely adopted. Research: Baker, Alfred. “The Life of Sir Isaac Pitman.” London. Pitman. 1919. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/centenlifeofsiri00bakeuoft/page/34/mode/2up Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Sir Isaac Pitman". Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Jan. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isaac-Pitman Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Pitman shorthand". Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Apr. 2016, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pitman-shorthand Miller, Genesie. “A Brief on Shorthand.” Utah Division of Archives and Records. April 11, 2023. https://archives.utah.gov/2023/04/11/a-brief-on-shorthand/ “Sir Isaac Pitman.” The Vegetarian. 1895. https://archive.org/details/vegetarianmonthl00unse_0/page/122/mode/2up?q=sir+isaac Pitman, Benn. “Sir Isaac Pitman, His Life and Labors.” Cincinnati. C.J. Krehbiel. 1902. https://archive.org/details/sirisaacpitmanhi00pitmuoft/page/48/mode/2up Pitman, Isaac. “Phonotypic Journal, for the Year 1845.” Vol. 4. Phonographic Institution. 1845. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=K-gOAQAAIAAJ&pg=GBS.PP7&hl=en Russon, Allien R.. "shorthand". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/shorthand Triggs, T. (2009, October 08). Pitman, Sir Isaac (1813–1897), deviser of a system of shorthand writing. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-22322 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tamara de Lemicka was a trailblazer with an incredible, fresh style that really defined and influenced the development of Art Deco. She lived a life that was focused on originality, both artistically and personally. Research: Bade, Patrick. “Lempicka.” Parkstone International. 2020. Brown, Mark. “Georgia O’Keeffe flower painting sells for record-breaking $44.4m.” The Guardian. Nov. 20, 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/nov/20/georgia-okeeffe-painting-world-record-price-art-woman#:~:text=Georgia%20O'Keeffe%20flower%20painting%20sells%20for%20record%2Dbreaking%20%2444.4m,-This%20article%20is&text=A%20painting%20of%20a%20white,the%20Georgia%20O'Keeffe%20piece. De Lempicka-Foxhall, Kizette. “Passion by Design.” Abbeville Press. New York. 2020. 2nd Edition. MacCarthy, Fiona. “Artist of the Fascist superworld: the life of Tamara de Lempicka.” The Guardian. May 14, 2004. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/may/15/art Mori, Gioia, et al. “Tamara de Lempicka.” Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Yale University Press. 2024. Neret, Gilles. “Tamara de Lempicka.” Taschen America. 2017. “Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) - Portrait de Marjorie Ferry.” Christies. May 5, 2009. https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6252179 “Tamara de Lempicka, Portraitist.” New York Times. March 20, 1980. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/03/20/111143617.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 Zelazko, Alicja. "Tamara de Lempicka". Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Oct. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tamara-de-Lempicka See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Check out zipOns from befree Adaptive Clothing here! This week we'll take a look at the 6 Hanoverian monarchs: George I, George II, George III, George IV, William IV, and Victoria. We'll examine how George I, a German, came to be king of Great Britain and Ireland despite being only 57th in line for the throne and how German monarchs continued to rule the country for the next 187 years and beyond. What mark did the Hanover dynasty leave on Britain? How does it still effect them today? I think you'll be surprised to learn just how German Britain actually is! Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: Historic Royal Palaces "The Georgians"History Hit "The 6 Hanoverian Monarchs In Order"Encyclopedia Britannica "House of Hanover"UK National Archives "The Death of Queen Anne"PBS "What Illness Did King George III Have?"German History Society "Britain and Germany: A Love-Hate Relationship?"BBC "Queen Nazi salute film: palace 'disappointed' at its use"The Guardian "Genetic study reveals 30% of white British DNA has German ancestry"The Telegraph "How German the Royal Family Actually Is"Indian Express "How German Are the British Royals?"Shoot me a message!

Mary Elizabeth Lease was a progressive political activist who fought big business, worked on behalf of the common man, and believed strongly in the importance of third parties in the U.S. political system. But there are also some really problematic parts of her story and ideology. Research: Barnes, Donna A. “Farmers’ Alliance.” Texas State Historical Association. Jan. 1 1995. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/farmers-alliance Bauer, Pat. "Farmers’ Alliance". Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Sep. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Farmers-Alliance Bentson, Sarah. “Mary Elizabeth Lease.” March 1, 2022. “Bryan’s Cross of Gold and the Partisan Battle over Economic Policy.” University of Virginia, Miller Center. https://millercenter.org/bryans-cross-gold-and-partisan-battle-over-economic-policy#:~:text=On%20this%20day%20in%201896,silver%20standard%20for%20U.S.%20currency “Concerning a Mortgage.” New York Times. Aug. 11, 1896. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/08/11/103382098.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 “Farmers and Laborers.” Daily Kansas People. Aug. 13, 1890. https://www.newspapers.com/image/477977710/?match=1&terms=%22mary%20e.%20lease%22%20divorce “Furor Over Mary Lease.” New York Times. Aug. 11, 1896. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/08/11/103382074.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 Harper, Ida Husted. “THE LIFE AND WORK OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Vol. II.” Bowen-Merrill. 1898. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/31125/31125-h/31125-h.htm “Ingalls Knocked Out.” Daily Alta California. Dec. 7, 1890. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DAC18901207.2.2.4&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-------- Lease, Mary Elizabeth. “The Problem of Civilization Solved.” 1895. Accessed online: https://digital.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-gildedage%3A24027/print_object “Mary Lease Dead; Long Dry Agitator.” New York Times. Oct. 30, 1933. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/10/30/105813706.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 “Mrs. Lease Is Not In It.” Akron Evening Times. Jan.5 , 1893. https://www.newspapers.com/image/228089290/?match=1&terms=%22mary%20e.%20lease%22%20supreme%20court McLeRoy, Sherrie S. “Lease, Mary Elizabeth Clyens (1853–1933).” Texas State Historical Association. Handbook of Texas Women. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/lease-mary-elizabeth-clyens “Mrs. Mary Lease Removed From Office.” New York Times. July 7, 1895. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/07/07/105980959.html?pageNumber=1 Orr, Brooke Speer. “The ‘People’s Joan of Arc’: Mary Elizabeth Lease, Gendered Politics and Populist Party Politics in Gilded-Age America (American University Studies Book 14) .” Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers. 2014. Kindle edition. Press, Donald E. “Kansas Conflict: Populist Versus Railroader in the 1890's.” Kansas Historical Quarterlies. Autum, 1977. Vol. 43, No. 3. https://www.kancoll.org/khq/1977/77_3_dpress.htm#Ref42 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A lot of sewing techniques being taught and used today came from the mind of one innovator: Helen Blanchard. She held 28 patents, most related to sewing, and she shaped the way the garment industry functioned. Research: “1854 – Walter Hunt’s Patent Model of a Sewing Machine.” Smithsonian. National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1070410 “1873 - Helen A. Blanchard's Sewing machine Patent Model (buttonhole).” Smithsonian. National Museum of American History. https://www.si.edu/object/1873-helen-blanchards-sewing-machine-patent-model-buttonhole%3Anmah_1069711 “A Woman’s Pluck.” The Portland Daily Press. Aug. 24, 1886. https://www.newspapers.com/image/875134248/?match=1&terms=%22Helen%20A.%20blanchard%22 Blanchard, Helen A. “Improvement in Sewing Machines.” USPO. Aug. 19, 1873. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/11/99/2a/c5331644eba132/US141987.pdf Blanchard, Helen A. “IMPROVEMENT IN ELASTIC GORINGS FOR SHOES.” USPO. Sept. 14, 1875. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/e4/91/7f/d5eca5e95653b8/US167732.pdf Blanchard, Helen A. “IMPROVEMENT IN ELASTIC SEAMS FOR GARMENTS.” USPO. April 13, 1875. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/22/f6/ab/176ada1cf78526/US162019.pdf Blanchard, Helen. A. “Surgical Needle.” USPO. Oct. 9, 1894. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/55/6a/29/283ec2c85e7b0d/US527263.pdf Blanchard, Helen A. “Improvement in Welted and Covered Seams.” USPO. Aug. 19, 1875. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/7b/34/59/3e6a0f48970df6/US174764.pdf Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "panic." Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Apr. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/money/panic-economics DiPhilippo, Kathryn Onos. “Window on the Past – Local Women in History: Helen Blanchard.” Portland Herald. June 24, 2020. https://www.pressherald.com/2020/06/24/window-on-the-past-6/#:~:text=Around%201881%2C%20Helen%20and%20Louise%20Blanchard%20started,own%20company%2C%20the%20Blanchard%20Overseam%20Machine%20Company. “Helen A. Blanchard has filed …” The Philadelphia Inquirer. Dec. 23, 1900. https://www.newspapers.com/image/168365258/?match=1&terms=%22Helen%20A.%20blanchard%22 “Helen Blanchard: Sewing Machine Improvements.” Lemelson-MIT. https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/helen-blanchard “Helen Blanchard - Zig-Zag Sewing Machine.” National Inventors Hall of Fame. https://www.invent.org/inductees/helen-blanchard Herzberg, Rudolph, tr. By Upfield Green. “The Sewing machine: Its History, Construction, and Application.” London. E. & F.N. Spon. 1864. https://archive.org/details/sewingmachineit00herzgoog “Miss Helen Blanchard … “ Portland Sunday Telegraph. Dec. 3, 1899. https://www.newspapers.com/image/846596628/?match=1&terms=%22Helen%20A.%20blanchard%22 “Motor and Lumber Companies Incorporated.” Boston Evening Transcript. May 09, 1900. https://www.newspapers.com/image/735352621/?match=1&terms=%22Helen%20A.%20blanchard%22 “NO AUCTION SALE.” Portland Sunday Telegram. Jan 31, 1915. https://www.newspapers.com/image/846796566/?match=1&terms=%22Helen%20A.%20blanchard%22 “The Portland Advertiser states … “ Bangor Daily Whig and Courier. Jul. 09, 1853. https://www.newspapers.com/image/663005747/?match=1&terms=thomas%20knight%20shipyard%20fire Stanley, Autumn. “Mothers and Daughters of Invention.” Rutgers University Press. 1995. “Superior Court.” The Portland Daily Press. Dec 22, 1900. https://www.newspapers.com/image/875209480/?match=1&terms=%22Helen%20A.%20blanchard%22 Willard, Frances Elizabeth. “A Woman of the Century.” Moulton. January 1893. Accessed online: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=zXEEAAAAYAAJ&rdid=book-zXEEAAAAYAAJ&rdot=1 “Woman Inventor Was Last of an Old Time Family.” Evening Express. Jan 13, 1922. https://www.newspapers.com/image/851331069/?article=4c97fcf5-4fbc-4149-8dc4-4160e6411049 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode looks at the early days of Christmas trees, the origin of glass ornaments, and the practice of mounting lit candles on trees before electric bulbs were invented. Research: · “36 Perish as Party Guests Stampede to Flee Flames.” The Minneapolis Star. Dec 25, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/178762039/ · “Accident From a Christmas Tree.” The Morning Post. Jan 11, 1850. https://www.newspapers.com/image/402121758/?match=1&terms=%22christmas%20tree%22%20Victoria · Barnes, Allison. “The First Christmas Tree. History Today. December 12, 2006. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/first-christmas-tree · Brittain, J. E. "John R. Crouse and the Society for Electrical Development [Scanning the Past]." Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 86, no. 12, pp. 2475-2477, Dec. 1998. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/735455 · Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Woolworth Co.." Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Nov. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/money/Woolworth-Co · “A Christmas tree candle set fire … “ The Jersey City News. Jan. 9, 1892. https://www.newspapers.com/image/856106974/?match=1&terms=christmas%20tree%20candles%20fire · Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, and Ernest Hartley Coleridge, ed. “LETTERS OFSAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.” London. William Heinemann. 1895. Accessed online: https://gutenberg.org/files/44553/44553-h/44553-h.htm · Flander, Judith. “Christmas: A Biography.” Thomas Dunne Books. 2017. · Foyle, Jonathan. “The Business of Baubles – and the Town That Invented Them.” Financial Times. Dec. 19, 2014. https://www.ft.com/content/ce33a468-812a-11e4-b956-00144feabdc0 · “Glass Christmas Ornaments.” The German Way. https://www.german-way.com/history-and-culture/holidays-and-celebrations/christmas/glass-christmas-ornaments/ · Loud, Nicholas. “The History of Christmas Decorations in America.” Saturday Evening Post. December 2020. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2020/12/the-history-of-christmas-decorations-in-america/ · Lorch, Mark. “The Forgotten Scientist Who Made Modern Christmas Ornaments Possible.” Fast Company. Dec. 21, 2021. https://www.fastcompany.com/90707875/the-forgotten-scientist-who-made-modern-christmas-ornaments-possible · Malanowski, Jamie. “Untangling the History of Christmas Lights.” Smithsonian. December 2016. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/untangling-history-christmas-lights-180961140/ · “No Christmas Tree Fires Are Reported Here.” Alton Evening Telegraph. Dec. 28. 1921. https://www.newspapers.com/image/19919324/?match=1&terms=christmas%20tree%20candles%20fire · “A few years ago the caution …” Daily Plainsman. Dec. 12, 1929. https://www.newspapers.com/image/23432095/?match=1&terms=christmas%20tree%20candles%20fire · “Christmas Tree Candles – Fire.” The Courier-Journal of Louisville. Jan. 05, 1909. https://www.newspapers.com/image/119330231/?match=1&terms=christmas%20tree%20candles%20fire · “The Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle.” The Morning Post. Dec. 28, 1848. https://www.newspapers.com/image/402196932/?match=1&terms=%22christmas%20tree%22%20Victoria · “Feiker Takes Commerce Post.” New York Times. July 2, 1931. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/07/02/113339929.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 · “German Hospital, Dalston.” The Morning Post. Jan. 1, 1848. https://www.newspapers.com/image/402129709/?match=1&terms=%22christmas%20tree%22%20Victoria · Prior, Dr. M. Faye. “Trimming the Tree – Glass and metal Christmas tree decorations.” York Museum Trust. https://www.yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk/blog/trimming-the-tree-glass-and-metal-christmas-tree-decorations/ · Roberts, Sam. “Si Spiegel, War Hero Who Modernized Christmas Trees, Dies at 99.” New York Times. Feb. 11, 2024. · Scinto, Madeleine. “Americans Are Spending A Whopping $6 Billion On Christmas Decorations This Year.” Business Insider. Dec. 7, 2011. https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-are-spending-a-record-6-billion-on-christmas-decorations-2011-12 · Shapiro, Laurie Gwen. “He Bombed the Nazis, Outwitted the Soviets and Modernized Christmas.” New York Times. Dec. 17, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/17/nyregion/bomber-pilot-christmas-trees.html · Tikkanen, Amy. "How Did the Tradition of Christmas Trees Start? ". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Dec. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/story/how-did-the-tradition-of-christmas-trees-start · Waxman, Olivia B. “How Christmas Trees Became a Holiday Tradition.” TIME. Dec. 21, 2020. https://time.com/5736523/history-of-christmas-trees/ · Waxman, Olivia B. “The Electricity Lobby Was Behind the First National Christmas Tree Lighting.” TIME. Dec. 1, 2016. https://time.com/4580764/national-christmas-tree-lighting-history-origins/ · Waxman, Olivia B. “This Was the First Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.” TIME. Nov. 30, 2016. https://time.com/4578685/first-rockefeller-center-christmas-tree-lighting/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nutmeg is native to the Banda Islands in Indonesia. Once Europeans discovered nutmeg, they had an enormous - often violent - impact on the islands it was growing on. Research: Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "nutmeg". Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 Oct. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/nutmeg. Accessed 22 November 2024. Esarey, Logan. “The Literary Spirit Among the Early Ohio Valley Settlers.” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 5, no. 2, 1918, pp. 143–57. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1886120. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024. Ghosh, Amitav. “The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis.” University of Chicago Press. 2021. Godinez, Andrea. “3,500-year-old pumpkin spice? Archaeologists find the earliest use of nutmeg as a food.” University of Washington. Via EurekAlert. 10/3/2018. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/578241 Haliburton, Thomas Chandler. “The Clockmaker; or the Sayings and Doings of Sam Slick, of Slickville, to which is added, The Bubbles of Canada by the Same Author.” Paris, 1839. https://books.google.com/books?id=jtssAAAAYAAJ Hill, Daniel Harvey. “Elements of Algebra.” J.B. Lippincott & Co. Philadelphia. 1857. https://books.google.com/books?id=5JoKAAAAYAAJ Intermediate Technology Development Group. “Processing of Nutmeg and Mace.” https://archive.org/details/production_nutmeg_mace/ Keyser, Hannah. “Why is Connecticut Called the “Nutmeg State”?.” Mental Floss. 9/26/2023. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/55245/why-connecticut-called-nutmeg-state Lohman, Sarah. “Why Early America Was Obsessed With Wooden Nutmegs.” Mental Floss. 4/24/2017. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/94734/why-early-america-was-obsessed-wooden-nutmegs Rampe, Amelia. “Everything You Need to Know About Nutmeg.” Food and Wine. 12/28/2022. https://www.foodandwine.com/nutmeg-what-it-is-and-how-to-use-it-7089902 Sasikumar*, B. “Nutmeg - Origin, diversity, distribution and history.” Journal of Spices and Aromatic Crops. Vol. 30, No. 2. 2021. Spence, Charles. “Nutmeg and mace: The sweet and savoury spices.” International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science. Vol. 36, 2004. The North American Review, vol. 15, no. 37, 1822, pp. 340–47. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25109151. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024. Weil, Andrew T. “The use of nutmeg as a psychotropic agent.” United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1966-01-01_4_page003.html Winn, Philip. “Slavery and cultural creativity in the Banda Islands.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , October 2010, Vol. 41, No. 3. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20778894 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joaquín Torres-García was Uruguayan-born artist who wanted to bring Constructivism and Modernism to Latin America, and worked for much of his life promoting the idea that Latin-American voices should be part of the Modernist art movement. Research: · Bollar, Gorki. “Primitive Paintings: Connections to Realism and Constructivism.” Leonardo, vol. 17, no. 1, 1984, pp. 17–19. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1574851 · Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Joaquín Torres-García". Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 Aug. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joaquin-Torres-Garcia · Duncan, Barbara. “Exploring New Horizons in Latin American Contemporary Art.” Revista: Harvard Review of Latin America. Dec. 30, 2001. https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/exploring-new-horizons-in-latin-american-contemporary-art/ · Grimson, Karen. “JOAQUÍN TORRES-GARCÍA’S CREATIVE PARADOX.” INTI, no. 83/84, 2016, pp. 261–65. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26309985 · Jimenez, Maya, Dr. “Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Inverted America.” Smart History. Aug. 9, 2015. https://smarthistory.org/Torres-Garcia-inverted-america/ · “Joaquín Torres-García.” Art Collection. https://artcollection.io/artist/5ce4801004726600179036b4#:~:text=He%20worked%20on%20the%20first,la%20Sagrada%20Familia%20in%20Barcelona. · “Joaquín Torres García.” Centro Cultura Regoleta. http://cvaa.com.ar/04ingles/04biografias_en/torres_garcia_en.php · “Joaquín Torres-García.” Guggenheim. https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/joaquin-Torres-Garcia · “Joaquin Torres Garcia (1874-1949).” National Museum of Visual Art. https://mnav.gub.uy/cms.php?a=4 · “Joaquín Torres-García.” National Gallery of Art. https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.2518.html · “Joaquín Torres-García.” Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary. https://hutchinsonmodern.com/artists/40-joaquin-Torres-Garcia/biography/Medina, Alvaro. “Torres-García and the Southern School.” ArtNexus. https://www.artnexus.com/en/magazines/article-magazine-artnexus/5ebf04481ae60a0ea57baa18/3/Torres-Garcia-and-the-southern-school · Museo Torres Garcia. “bio.” https://www.torresgarcia.org.uy/bio.php · ROMMENS, AARNOUD. “Latin American Abstraction: Upending Joaquín Torres-García’s Inverted Map.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 51, no. 2, 2018, pp. 35–58. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/90021965 · Torres, Celia de. “Constructing Abstraction with Wood: Joaquín Torres-García.” Literal. Issue 18. April 18, 2012. https://literalmagazine.com/constructing-abstraction-with-wood-joaquin-Torres-Garcia/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The shoes you're wearing today likely were made possible by an invention from the late 19th century. But the inventor of that machine, who had little to no formal education, didn't really get to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Research: ·     “29c Jan E. Matzeliger single.” Smithsonian National Postal Museum. https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/npm_1993.2015.160 ·     Biography.com Editors. “Jan Matzeliger Biography.” Biography.com. June 24, 2020. https://www.biography.com/inventors/jan-matzeliger ·     Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Jan Ernst Matzeliger". Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Sep. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jan-Ernst-Matzeliger. ·     “Brockton lasters Strike.” The Daily Item. August 8, 1887. https://www.newspapers.com/image/945617821/?match=1&terms=lasters%20strike ·     Curry, Sheree R. “Jan Ernst Matzeliger Made Modern Footwear Accessible.” USA Today. Feb. 17, 2023. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2023/02/17/jan-ernst-matzeliger-black-shoe-inventor/11154017002/ ·     “Death of Earnest Matzeliger.” The Daily Item. Aug. 26, 1889. https://www.newspapers.com/image/945605665/?match=1&terms=Matzeliger ·     “Jan Ernst Matzeliger.” National Inventors Hall of Fame. https://www.invent.org/inductees/jan-ernst-matzeliger ·     “Jan Matzlieger ‘Lasting Machine.'” Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/jan-matzlieger ·     Kaplan, Sydney. “JAN EARNST MATZELIGER AND THE MAKING OF THE SHOE.” Journal of Negro History. Volume 40, Number 1. January 1955. https://doi.org/10.2307/2715446 ·     Matzeliger, J.E. “Lasting Machine.” U.S. Patent Office. March 20, 1883. https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/0274207 ·     “Matzeliger's Invention Changed the World.” The Daily Item. Aug. 10, 1999. https://www.newspapers.com/image/948726215/?match=1&terms=Matzeliger ·     Morgan, Stuart. “The birth of the lasting machine.” Satra. https://www.satra.com/bulletin/article.php?id=2501 ·     Smeulders, V.  (2017, May 31). Matzeliger, Jan Ernst. Oxford African American Studies Center. Retrieved 25 Nov. 2024, from https://oxfordaasc.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-74508 ·     Thompson, Ross. “The Path to Mechanized Shoe Production in the United States.” University of North Carolina Press. 2001.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Charles Farrar Browne is often called the first standup comedian. He was, in the 1860s, wildly famous, but his early death, and the soaring career of one of his friends, have contributed to Browne fading from the spotlight in history. Research: “Born 1834; Married 1835. Artemus Ward's Alleged Widow Claims His Estate.” The Savannah Morning News. April 15, 1891. https://www.newspapers.com/image/852548808/?match=1&terms=artemus%20ward Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Artemus Ward". Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Apr. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Artemus-Ward Dahl, Curtis. “Artemus Ward: Comic Panoramist.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 4, 1959, pp. 476–85. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/362502 Hingston, Edward P. “The Genial Showman, Reminiscences of the Life of Artemus Ward.” London: Chatto and Windus. 1881. https://archive.org/details/genialshowmanrem00hingiala/page/n5/mode/2up Hofferth, Micah. “Charles Farrar Browne, the Sometimes-racist Father of Standup Comedy.” Vulture. Feb. 28, 2012. https://www.vulture.com/2012/02/charles-farrar-browne-the-sometimes-racist-father-of-standup-comedy.html “Mark Twain on Artemus Ward.” The Albany Evening Journal. Nov. 29, 1871. https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/roughingit/lecture/awlectaj.html Reed, John Q. “Artemus Ward's First Lecture.” American Literature, vol. 32, no. 3, 1960, pp. 317–19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2922080 Seitz, Don C. “Artemus Ward.” Harper & Brothers. 1919. Accessed online: https://archive.org/stream/artemuswardchar00seituoft/artemuswardchar00seituoft_djvu.txt “Ward, Artemus (1834-1867).” The Vault at Pfaff's, Lehigh University. https://pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu/node/54123 Ward, Artemus. “The Complete Works of Artemus Ward.” https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6946/6946-h/6946-h.htm#bio      See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sir Hans Sloane's legacy is a bit mixed. He is the reason there's a British Museum, but there are a lot of problematic aspects to the way he gathered his collection. Research: Blair, Molly. “350 years of the Chelsea Physic Garden: A brief history.” Gardens Illustrated. https://www.gardensillustrated.com/features/chelsea-physic-garden-350 Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Sir Hans Sloane, Baronet". Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Apr. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-Hans-Sloane-Baronet Delbourgo, James. “Collecting the World: Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum.” Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press, 2017.  “Health in the 17th Royal Museums Greenwich. https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/health-17th-century “Introducing Sir Hans Sloane.” The Sloane Letters Project. https://sloaneletters.com/about-sir-hans-sloane/ Lemonius, Michele. “‘Deviously Ingenious': British Colonialism in Jamaica.” Peace Research, vol. 49, no. 2, 2017, pp. 79–103. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44779908 “London, January 13.” The Derby Mercury. Jan. 12, 1753. https://www.newspapers.com/image/394230860/?match=1&terms=Sir%20Hans%20Sloane Pavid, Katie. “Hans Sloane: Physician, collector and botanist.” National History Museum. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/hans-sloane-physician-collector-botanist.html “Sir Hans Sloane.” Sir Hans Sloane Centre. https://sirhanssloanecentre.co.uk/who-is-hans-sloane/ “Sir Hans Sloane.” The British Museum. https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/sir-hans-sloane Stearns, Raymond Phinneas. “James Petiver Promoter of Natural Science, c.1663-1718.” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. October 1952. https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44807240.pdf See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part two of our week of ghosts is all about one spirit – this time, a poltergeist. People have been arguing over this one since the 1660s, including some prominent skeptics and supporters.   Research: Aldridge, Alfred Owen. “Franklin and the Ghostly Drummer of Tedworth.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 4, 1950, pp. 559–67. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1917046 “Ballygally Castle Hotel and it's Ghost Room.” Ballygally Castle Hotel. https://www.ballygallycastlehotel.com/ballygally-castle-hotel-and-its-ghost-room/ Belanger, Jeff. “World's Most Haunted Places.” Rosen Publishing Group. 2009. "A blow at modern Sadducism in some philosophical considerations about witchcraft. To which is added, the relation of the fam'd disturbance by the drummer, in the house of Mr. John Mompesson, with some reflections on drollery and atheisme. / By a member of the Royal Society.." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A70179.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Briggs, Stacia. “The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.” Norfolk Folklore Society. Dec. 3, 2023. https://www.norfolkfolkloresociety.co.uk/post/the-brown-lady-ghost-of-raynham-hall Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Joseph Glanvill". Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 Mar. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Glanvill “The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.” UK Paranormal Society. https://ukparanormalsociety.org/encyclopedia/the-brown-lady-of-raynham-hall/ “The day a Country Life photographer captured an image of a ghost, a picture that's become one of the most famous ‘spirit photography' images of all time.” Country Life. Oct. 31, 2022. https://www.countrylife.co.uk/nature/the-day-a-country-life-photographer-captured-an-image-of-a-ghost-234642 Dorney, John. “The Plantation of Ulster: A Brief Overview.” The Irish Story. June 2, 2024. https://www.theirishstory.com/2024/06/02/the-plantation-of-ulster-a-brief-overview/ Hunter, Michael (2005) New light on the ‘Drummer of Tedworth': conflicting narratives of witchcraft in Restoration England. London: Birkbeck ePrints. http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/archive/00000250 Mackay, Charles. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.” London. 1852. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24518/24518-h/24518-h.htm Mantell, Rowan and Siofra Connor. “Weird Norfolk: The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.” Eastern Daily Press. August 4, 2018. Miles, Abraham. "Wonder of wonders being a true relation of the strange and invisible beating of a drum, at the house of John Mompesson, Esquire, at Tidcomb, in the county of Wilt-shire ... : to the tune of Bragandary / by Abraham Miles." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A50850.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. “On Wednesday Night died at his Seat … “The Derby Mercury. June 29, 1738. https://www.newspapers.com/image/394517191/?match=1&terms=Raynham%20Hall “Settlers, Sieges and Spirits: The Story of Ballygally Castle.” Ballygally Castle Hotel. https://www.ballygallycastlehotel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/heritage-leaflet_ballygally-web.pdf Smith, Edd. “The Vast History of Raynham Hall.” BBC. May 20, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/norfolk/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8058000/8058145.stm Spirit, L. “THE BROWN LADY OF RAYNHAM HALL: The World's Most Infamous Ghost.” Norfolk Record Office Blog. July 31, 2024. https://norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/2024/07/31/the-brown-lady-of-raynham-hall-the-worlds-most-infamous-ghost/ Spirit, L. “THE BROWN LADY OF RAYNHAM HALL: The World's Most Infamous Ghost (continued).” Norfolk Record Office Blog. August 14, 2024. https://norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/2024/08/14/the-brown-lady-of-raynham-hall-the-worlds-most-infamous-ghost-continued/ Wade, Mike. “Ultimate proof that ghosts exist, or maybe it's just dust on the lens.” The Times. March 27, 2009. https://www.thetimes.com/article/ultimate-proof-that-ghosts-exist-or-maybe-its-just-dust-on-the-lens-5xt5v03kk8k Webster, John. “The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft.” 1677. 2024 eBook accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/72654/pg72654-images.html “What was the Plantation of Ulster?” BBC Bitesize. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z2bgsrd Wright, Dudley. “The Epworth Phenomena, To which are appended certain Psychic Experiences recorded by John Wesley in the pages of his Journal .” Accessed online: https://mail.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301311.txt  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part one of our Halloween finale on British Isles ghosts features two very classic ghost tales: the brown lady of Raynham Hall and the ghosts of of Ballygally Castle.  Research: Aldridge, Alfred Owen. “Franklin and the Ghostly Drummer of Tedworth.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 4, 1950, pp. 559–67. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1917046 “Ballygally Castle Hotel and it's Ghost Room.” Ballygally Castle Hotel. https://www.ballygallycastlehotel.com/ballygally-castle-hotel-and-its-ghost-room/ Belanger, Jeff. “World's Most Haunted Places.” Rosen Publishing Group. 2009. "A blow at modern Sadducism in some philosophical considerations about witchcraft. To which is added, the relation of the fam'd disturbance by the drummer, in the house of Mr. John Mompesson, with some reflections on drollery and atheisme. / By a member of the Royal Society.." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A70179.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Briggs, Stacia. “The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.” Norfolk Folklore Society. Dec. 3, 2023. https://www.norfolkfolkloresociety.co.uk/post/the-brown-lady-ghost-of-raynham-hall Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Joseph Glanvill". Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 Mar. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Glanvill “The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.” UK Paranormal Society. https://ukparanormalsociety.org/encyclopedia/the-brown-lady-of-raynham-hall/ “The day a Country Life photographer captured an image of a ghost, a picture that's become one of the most famous ‘spirit photography' images of all time.” Country Life. Oct. 31, 2022. https://www.countrylife.co.uk/nature/the-day-a-country-life-photographer-captured-an-image-of-a-ghost-234642 Dorney, John. “The Plantation of Ulster: A Brief Overview.” The Irish Story. June 2, 2024. https://www.theirishstory.com/2024/06/02/the-plantation-of-ulster-a-brief-overview/ Hunter, Michael (2005) New light on the ‘Drummer of Tedworth': conflicting narratives of witchcraft in Restoration England. London: Birkbeck ePrints. http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/archive/00000250 Mackay, Charles. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.” London. 1852. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24518/24518-h/24518-h.htm Mantell, Rowan and Siofra Connor. “Weird Norfolk: The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.” Eastern Daily Press. August 4, 2018. Miles, Abraham. "Wonder of wonders being a true relation of the strange and invisible beating of a drum, at the house of John Mompesson, Esquire, at Tidcomb, in the county of Wilt-shire ... : to the tune of Bragandary / by Abraham Miles." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A50850.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. “On Wednesday Night died at his Seat … “The Derby Mercury. June 29, 1738. https://www.newspapers.com/image/394517191/?match=1&terms=Raynham%20Hall “Settlers, Sieges and Spirits: The Story of Ballygally Castle.” Ballygally Castle Hotel. https://www.ballygallycastlehotel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/heritage-leaflet_ballygally-web.pdf Smith, Edd. “The Vast History of Raynham Hall.” BBC. May 20, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/norfolk/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8058000/8058145.stm Spirit, L. “THE BROWN LADY OF RAYNHAM HALL: The World's Most Infamous Ghost.” Norfolk Record Office Blog. July 31, 2024. https://norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/2024/07/31/the-brown-lady-of-raynham-hall-the-worlds-most-infamous-ghost/ Spirit, L. “THE BROWN LADY OF RAYNHAM HALL: The World's Most Infamous Ghost (continued).” Norfolk Record Office Blog. August 14, 2024. https://norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/2024/08/14/the-brown-lady-of-raynham-hall-the-worlds-most-infamous-ghost-continued/ Wade, Mike. “Ultimate proof that ghosts exist, or maybe it's just dust on the lens.” The Times. March 27, 2009. https://www.thetimes.com/article/ultimate-proof-that-ghosts-exist-or-maybe-its-just-dust-on-the-lens-5xt5v03kk8k Webster, John. “The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft.” 1677. 2024 eBook accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/72654/pg72654-images.html “What was the Plantation of Ulster?” BBC Bitesize. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z2bgsrd Wright, Dudley. “The Epworth Phenomena, To which are appended certain Psychic Experiences recorded by John Wesley in the pages of his Journal .” Accessed online: https://mail.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301311.txt      See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part two of our episode on Horace Walpole gets into the gothic literature and gothic castles his life is associated with, including his own eclectic and impressive home, Strawberry Hill. Research:  "Horace Walpole." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 38, Gale, 2018. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631010882/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=37ba7a42. Accessed 23 Sept. 2024. "Walpole, Horace." American Revolution Reference Library, edited by Barbara Bigelow, et al., vol. 2: Biographies, Vol. 2, UXL, 2000, pp. 459-465. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3411900071/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=9d8ef915. Accessed 23 Sept. 2024. Bladen, “Anne Seymour Damer: the 'Sappho' of sculpture.” ArtUK. 2/7/2020. https://artuk.org/discover/stories/anne-seymour-damer-the-sappho-of-sculpture Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Horace Walpole". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Sep. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Horace-Walpole. Accessed 2 October 2024. Chapman, Caroline. “Horace to Horace.” History Today. May 2014. Ellis, Kate. “Female Empowerment: The Secret in the Gothic Novel.” Phi Kappa Phi Forum. Fall 2010. Exploring Surrey's Past. “Horace Walpole (1717-1797).” https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/people/notable_residents/walpole/ Haggerty, George E. “Queering Horace Walpole.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Summer, 2006. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3844520 Jane Austen & Company. “Six Interesting Facts About Horace Walpole.” 12/9/2021. https://www.janeaustenandco.org/post/six-interesting-facts-about-horace-walpole Lewis, Wilmark S. “Horace Walpole Reread.” The Atlantic. July 1945. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/horace-walpole-reread/655855/ Open Anthology of Literature in English. “Horace Walpole.” https://virginia-anthology.org/horace-walpole/ Plumb, John. "Robert Walpole, 1st earl of Orford". Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Sep. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Walpole-1st-Earl-of-Orford. Accessed 2 October 2024. Reeve, Clara. “The old English baron, by C. Reeve; also The castle of Otranto, by H. Walpole.” 1883. Scott, Walter. “Introduction.” From Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story. James Ballantine and Company. 1811. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=QXw4AAAAYAAJ Silver, Sean R. “Visiting Strawberry Hill: Horace Walpole's Gothic Historiography.” Eighteenth Century Fiction, Volume 21, Number 4, Summer 2009, pp. 535-564 (Article). https://doi.org/10.1353/ecf.0.0079 Stuart, Dorothy Margaret. “Horace Walpole.” New York, Macmillan, 1927. https://archive.org/details/horacewalpole0000stua_d6s4/ Thorpe, Vanessa. “Letters reveal the dispute that pushed poet Thomas Chatterton to the brink.” The Guardian. 10/29/2023. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/29/letters-reveal-the-dispute-that-pushed-poet-thomas-chatterton-to-the-brink Vickery, Amanda. “Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill.” The Guardian. 2/19/2010. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/20/horace-walpole-strawberry-hill Viseltear, A J. “The last illnesses of Robert and Horace Walpole.” The Yale journal of biology and medicine vol. 56,2 (1983): 131-52. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2589702/ Walker, Susan. “24. Choice 14: Walpole's Chattertoniana.” Horace Walpole at 300. https://campuspress.yale.edu/walpole300/tag/thomas-chatterton/ Walpole, Horace and L.B. Seeley. “Horace Walpole and his world.” New York, C. Scribner's Sons. 1895. https://archive.org/details/horacewalpolehis00wal Walpole, Horace. “A description of the villa of Mr. Horace Walpole, youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole Earl of Orford, at Strawberry-Hill near Twickenham, Middlesex : with an inventory of the furniture, pictures, curiosities, &c.” Strawberry-Hill : Printed by Thomas Kirgate. 1784. https://archive.org/details/descriptionofvil00walp_0/page/n175/mode/1up Walpole, Horace. “Letters to Sir Horace Mann.” Vol. IV. London, 1843. https://archive.org/details/letterstosirhor00walpgoog/ Wood, Betty. "Slavery in Colonial Georgia." New Georgia Encyclopedia, 19 September 2002, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/slavery-in-colonial-georgia/. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Horace Walpole is best known for his gothic novel "The Castle of Otranto," but he lived a lot of life before that. The first part of this two-parter covers his early life, his travels with his friend Thomas Gray, and his time in Parliament.  Research: "Horace Walpole." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 38, Gale, 2018. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631010882/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=37ba7a42. Accessed 23 Sept. 2024. "Walpole, Horace." American Revolution Reference Library, edited by Barbara Bigelow, et al., vol. 2: Biographies, Vol. 2, UXL, 2000, pp. 459-465. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3411900071/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=9d8ef915. Accessed 23 Sept. 2024. Bladen, “Anne Seymour Damer: the 'Sappho' of sculpture.” ArtUK. 2/7/2020. https://artuk.org/discover/stories/anne-seymour-damer-the-sappho-of-sculpture Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Horace Walpole". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Sep. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Horace-Walpole. Accessed 2 October 2024. Chapman, Caroline. “Horace to Horace.” History Today. May 2014. Ellis, Kate. “Female Empowerment: The Secret in the Gothic Novel.” Phi Kappa Phi Forum. Fall 2010. Exploring Surrey's Past. “Horace Walpole (1717-1797).” https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/people/notable_residents/walpole/ Haggerty, George E. “Queering Horace Walpole.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Summer, 2006. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3844520 Jane Austen & Company. “Six Interesting Facts About Horace Walpole.” 12/9/2021. https://www.janeaustenandco.org/post/six-interesting-facts-about-horace-walpole Lewis, Wilmark S. “Horace Walpole Reread.” The Atlantic. July 1945. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/horace-walpole-reread/655855/ Open Anthology of Literature in English. “Horace Walpole.” https://virginia-anthology.org/horace-walpole/ Plumb, John. "Robert Walpole, 1st earl of Orford". Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Sep. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Walpole-1st-Earl-of-Orford. Accessed 2 October 2024. Reeve, Clara. “The old English baron, by C. Reeve; also The castle of Otranto, by H. Walpole.” 1883. Scott, Walter. “Introduction.” From Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story. James Ballantine and Company. 1811. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=QXw4AAAAYAAJ Silver, Sean R. “Visiting Strawberry Hill: Horace Walpole's Gothic Historiography.” Eighteenth Century Fiction, Volume 21, Number 4, Summer 2009, pp. 535-564 (Article). https://doi.org/10.1353/ecf.0.0079 Stuart, Dorothy Margaret. “Horace Walpole.” New York, Macmillan, 1927. https://archive.org/details/horacewalpole0000stua_d6s4/ Thorpe, Vanessa. “Letters reveal the dispute that pushed poet Thomas Chatterton to the brink.” The Guardian. 10/29/2023. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/29/letters-reveal-the-dispute-that-pushed-poet-thomas-chatterton-to-the-brink Vickery, Amanda. “Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill.” The Guardian. 2/19/2010. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/20/horace-walpole-strawberry-hill Viseltear, A J. “The last illnesses of Robert and Horace Walpole.” The Yale journal of biology and medicine vol. 56,2 (1983): 131-52. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2589702/ Walker, Susan. “24. Choice 14: Walpole's Chattertoniana.” Horace Walpole at 300. https://campuspress.yale.edu/walpole300/tag/thomas-chatterton/ Walpole, Horace and L.B. Seeley. “Horace Walpole and his world.” New York, C. Scribner's Sons. 1895. https://archive.org/details/horacewalpolehis00wal Walpole, Horace. “A description of the villa of Mr. Horace Walpole, youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole Earl of Orford, at Strawberry-Hill near Twickenham, Middlesex : with an inventory of the furniture, pictures, curiosities, &c.” Strawberry-Hill : Printed by Thomas Kirgate. 1784. https://archive.org/details/descriptionofvil00walp_0/page/n175/mode/1up Walpole, Horace. “Letters to Sir Horace Mann.” Vol. IV. London, 1843. https://archive.org/details/letterstosirhor00walpgoog/ Wood, Betty. "Slavery in Colonial Georgia." New Georgia Encyclopedia, 19 September 2002, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/slavery-in-colonial-georgia/. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.