Podcasts about English literature

Jeremy Lent, described by Guardian journalist George Monbiot as “one of the greatest thinkers of our age,” is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization's existential crisis, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future.Born in London, England, he received a BA in English Literature from Cambridge University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and was a former internet company CEO. His award-winning book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning, explores the way humans have made meaning from the cosmos from hunter-gatherer times to the present day.His new book, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe, offers a coherent and intellectually solid foundation for a worldview based on connectedness that could lead humanity to a sustainable, flourishing future.He is founder of the nonprofit Liology Institute, dedicated to fostering an integrated worldview that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably on the Earth. He lives with his partner in Berkeley, California.He writes topical articles exploring the deeper patterns of political and cultural developments at his website Patterns of Meaning.In this week's podcast, we explore his most recent paper 'The End of Capitalism' and how our entire economic structure needs to change if we're to address the demands of the moment.  From there, we move to the pillars of systemic change and how a shift in the world economy to one of reciprocity over extraction/abuse must be an integral part of the transition to a flourishing, interconnected future.  Drawing from indigenous wisdom, and the 'Four R's' described by LaDonna Harris as the foundations of indigenous cultures across the globe, to the concept of fractal flourishing, citizens's assemblies and the crisis in sense-making, we move ever towards a model of how our world could be if we got it right.  Jeremy's Website: https://www.jeremylent.com/Web of Meaning - book: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Web-of-Meaning-by-Jeremy-Lent/9781788165648End of Capitalism Paper: https://patternsofmeaning.com/2021/10/11/solving-the-climate-crisis-requires-the-end-of-capitalism/Growth mitigation paper (referenced, not by Jeremy) https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/endf2_kuhnhenn_growth_in_mitigation_scenarios.pdfWhat Does an EcoCivilisation Look Like? https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/ecological-civilization/2021/02/16/what-does-ecological-civilization-look-likePodcast 38 with Accidental Gods: https://accidentalgods.life/fractal-flourishing/

Bring out your dead! Disney needs to slap a fresh coat of paint on your beloved childhood because new ideas are pricey and hard to come by. At least this one inspired a rather insightful conversation on the qualities that make a great literary hero. It's like taking a trip back to your English Literature class, Home Sweet Home Alone!

Annabel Abbs is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. She grew up in Wales and Sussex, with stints in Dorset, Bristol and Hereford. Daughter of academic and poet, Peter Abbs, she has a degree in English Literature from the University of East Anglia and a Masters from the University of Kingston. She lives with her family in London and Sussex, and is a Fellow of the Brown Foundation.   Annabel's debut novel, The Joyce Girl, won the 2015 Impress Prize for New Writing and the 2015 Spotlight First Novel Award, and was longlisted for the 2015 Caledonia Novel Award, the 2015 Bath Novel Award and the 2016 Waverton Good Read Award. It was a Reader Pick in The Guardian 2016 and was one of ten books selected for presentation at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival. Published across the world, Annabel discussed The Joyce Girl on BBC Radio 4's Soul Music. It is currently being adapted for the stage.   Her second novel, Frieda: The Originial Lady Chatterley, was a Times Book of the Month, then a Times Book of the Year 2018 and one of five novels selected for presentation to film directors at the 2017 Frankfurt Book Fair. Frieda has been translated into six languages. Annabel spoke about Frieda on BBC Woman's Hour.   Annabel's third novel, the story of Eliza Acton, Britain's first domestic goddess, and a best-selling cookery book writer (and a poet) will be published in the US in October 2021, by William Morrow as Miss Eliza's English Kitchen. In the UK, the novel was acquired at auction by Simon & Schuster, and will be published in spring 2022 as The Language of Food. It is currently being translated into sixteen languages. In 2021 it was optioned by Stampede Ventures and CBS.   Annabel's first non-fiction book, The Age-Well Project, was published by Little, Brown in 2019, co-written with TV producer, Susan Saunders, and based on their acclaimed blog agewellproject.com, longlisted for the 2018 UK Blog Awards.   Annabel's first foray into memoir and her first solo-authored non-fiction book, Windswept: Walking in the Footsteps of Remarkable Women, was acquired at auction by Two Roads and was published in June 2021.    In the US, Windswept was acquired by Tin House and published in September 2021, with the subtitle Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women. Windswept tells the extraordinary stories of eight women who walked long distances in wild and often remote places as they sought their own voices. They include Simone de Beauvoir, Nan Shepherd, Georgia O'Keeffe, Gwen John and Daphne du Maurier.   New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday at 7am UK time - Hit the subscribe button so you don't miss out.    The Tough Girl Podcast is sponsorship and ad free thanks to the monthly financial support of patrons.    Support the mission to increase the amount of female role models in the media. Visit www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast and subscribe - super quick and easy to do and it makes a massive difference. Thank you.   Show notes Who is Annabel Her latest book Her interest in walking Being interested in women who do long distance walks in challenging environments Where are all the women walkers? Researching the women who walk Having a strange childhood How walking was a part of her education  the benefits for women walking in nature How wild places are not deemed safe for women  And why women are encouraged to stay at home and get their time in nature from being in the garden Why women DO long hikes Women from 100 years ago who went out walking Focusing on 6 women for the book Windswept  Recreating their walks  Feeling trapped at home Having family walking holidays  Planning the walks and incorporating her writing within the walks Using old maps to help plan Encouraging women to be able to navigate What Nan Shepherd said about walking in Scotland  Why river journeys and coastal journeys were quite popular Why women should learn to navigate Doing the walks solo and the challenge involved Thinking of all the things that could go wrong Why walking is so much more complication for a woman What is was like walking solo  Women and their relationships with the mountains  The struggle of mental preparation before heading out to walk solo The long history of women doing walking pilgrimages on their own Why we need to see more women out there walking The dark side of walking solo and spending time on your own Walking in Texas, USA - night hikes? The importance of legacy Final words of advice   Social Media   Website: www.annabelabbs.com    Instagram: @annabelabbs    Twitter: @annabelabbs    Book: Windswept   Windswept is a feminist exploration of walking in wild landscapes.    Annabel examines the role of walking on the lives, writings and art of several women including Gwen John, Frieda Lawrence, Nan Shepherd, Georgia O'Keeffe and Simone de Beauvoir.  As Annabel walks their paths – the empty plains of Texas, the mountains of Scotland, the rivers and forests of France – she looks back at her childhood in remote Wales and asks why women have been overlooked in the literature of wild-walking.  

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the British phase of a movement that spread across Europe in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. Influenced by Charles Baudelaire and by Walter Pater, these Decadents rejected the mainstream Victorian view that art needed a moral purpose, and valued instead the intense sensations art provoked, celebrating art for art's sake. Oscar Wilde was at its heart, Aubrey Beardsley adorned it with his illustrations and they, with others, provoked moral panic with their supposed degeneracy. After burning brightly, the movement was soon lost its energy in Britain yet it has proved influential. The illustration above, by Beardsley, is from the cover of the first edition of The Yellow Book in April 1894 With Neil Sammells Professor of English and Irish Literature and Deputy Vice Chancellor at Bath Spa University Kate Hext Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Exeter And Alex Murray Senior Lecturer in English at Queen's University, Belfast Producer: Simon Tillotson

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the British phase of a movement that spread across Europe in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. Influenced by Charles Baudelaire and by Walter Pater, these Decadents rejected the mainstream Victorian view that art needed a moral purpose, and valued instead the intense sensations art provoked, celebrating art for art's sake. Oscar Wilde was at its heart, Aubrey Beardsley adorned it with his illustrations and they, with others, provoked moral panic with their supposed degeneracy. After burning brightly, the movement was soon lost its energy in Britain yet it has proved influential. The illustration above, by Beardsley, is from the cover of the first edition of The Yellow Book in April 1894 With Neil Sammells Professor of English and Irish Literature and Deputy Vice Chancellor at Bath Spa University Kate Hext Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Exeter And Alex Murray Senior Lecturer in English at Queen's University, Belfast Producer: Simon Tillotson

Chloë L. Zimberg (she/her), is a dancer, producer, curator, and arts program specialist currently leading ODC Theater as Creative Director. Her work centralizes on the strategic development of equitable performing arts platforms and the live arts sector. Zimberg is the Co-Founder of Chlo & Co Dance, which curates and presents Drove, a twice-annual evening of dance performance by West Coast artists, as well as Tabled, an interdisciplinary discussion series highlighting universal issue areas in the national arts ecology. Zimberg is originally from the Puget Sound and holds a BA in Performing Arts and Social Justice from the University of San Francisco with concentration in Dance and minor emphases in Politics and English Literature. She is an alum of the National Arts Strategies and University of Pennsylvania Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy.

About MatthewMatthew Prince is co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. Cloudflare's mission is to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world's largest networks, which spans more than 200 cities in over 100 countries. Matthew is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, winner of the 2011 Tech Fellow Award, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law. Matthew holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a George F. Baker Scholar and awarded the Dubilier Prize for Entrepreneurship. He is a member of the Illinois Bar, and earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago and B.A. in English Literature and Computer Science from Trinity College. He's also the co-creator of Project Honey Pot, the largest community of webmasters tracking online fraud and abuse.Links: Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com Blog post: https://blog.cloudflare.com/aws-egregious-egress/ Bandwidth Alliance: https://www.cloudflare.com/bandwidth-alliance/ Announcement of R2: https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-r2-object-storage/ Blog.cloudflare.com: https://blog.cloudflare.com Duckbillgroup.com: https://duckbillgroup.com TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: Writing ad copy to fit into a 30 second slot is hard, but if anyone can do it the folks at Quali can. Just like their Torque infrastructure automation platform can deliver complex application environments anytime, anywhere, in just seconds instead of hours, days or weeks. Visit Qtorque.io today and learn how you can spin up application environments in about the same amount of time it took you to listen to this ad.Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by Honeycomb. When production is running slow, it's hard to know where problems originate: is it your application code, users, or the underlying systems? I've got five bucks on DNS, personally. Why scroll through endless dashboards, while dealing with alert floods, going from tool to tool to tool that you employ, guessing at which puzzle pieces matter? Context switching and tool sprawl are slowly killing both your team and your business. You should care more about one of those than the other, which one is up to you. Drop the separate pillars and enter a world of getting one unified understanding of the one thing driving your business: production. With Honeycomb, you guess less and know more. Try it for free at Honeycomb.io/screaminginthecloud. Observability, it's more than just hipster monitoring.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud, I'm Corey Quinn. Today, my guest is someone I feel a certain kinship with, if for no other reason than I spend the bulk of my time antagonizing AWS incredibly publicly. And my guest periodically descends into the gutter with me to do the same sort of things. The difference is that I'm a loudmouth with a Twitter account and Matthew Prince is the co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, which is, of course, publicly traded. Matthew, thank you for deigning to speak with me today. I really appreciate it.Matthew: Corey, it's my pleasure, and appreciate you having me on.Corey: So, I'm mostly being facetious here, but not entirely, in that you have very publicly and repeatedly called out some of the same things I love calling out, which is AWS's frankly egregious egress pricing. In fact, that was a title of a blog post that you folks put out, and it was so well done I'm ashamed I didn't come up with it myself years ago. But it's something that is resonating with a large number of people in very specific circumstances as far as what their company does. Talk to me a little bit about that. Cloudflare is a CDN company and increasingly looking like something beyond that. Where do you stand on this? What got you on this path?Matthew: I was actually searching through really old emails to find something the other day, and I found a message from all the way back in 2009, so actually even before Michelle and I had come up with a name for Cloudflare. We were really just trying to understand the pricing on public clouds and breaking it all down. How much does the compute cost? How much does storage cost? How much does bandwidth cost?And we kept running the numbers over and over and over again, and the storage and compute costs actually seemed relatively reasonable and you could understand it, but the economics behind the bandwidth just made no sense. It was clear that as bandwidth usage grew and you got scale that your costs eventually effectively went to zero. And I think it was that insight that led to us starting Cloudflare. And the self-service plans at Cloudflare have always been unlimited bandwidth, and from the beginning, we didn't charge for bandwidth. People told us at the time we were crazy to not do that, but I think that that realization, that over time and at scale, bandwidth costs do go to zero is really core to who Cloudflare is.Cloudflare launched a little over 11 years ago now, and as we've watched the various public clouds and AWS in particular just really over that same 11 years not only not follow the natural price of bandwidth down, but really hold their costs steady. At some point, we've got a lot of mutual customers and it's a complaint that we hear from our mutual customers all the time, and we decided that we should do something about it. And so that started four years ago, when we launched the Bandwidth Alliance, and worked with almost all the major public clouds with the exception of Amazon, to say that if someone is sending traffic from a public cloud network to Cloudflare's network, we're not going to charge them for the bandwidth. It's going across a piece of fiber optic cable that yeah, there's some cost to put it in place and maybe there's some maintenance costs associated with it, but there's not—Corey: And the equipment at the end costs money, but it's not cloud cost; it just cost on a per second, every hour of your lifetime basis. It's a capital expense that is amortized across a number of years et cetera, et cetera.Matthew: And it's a fixed cost. It's not a variable cost. You put that fiber optic cable and you use a port on a router on each side. There's cost associated with that, but it's relatively de minimis. And so we said, “If it's not costing us anything and it's not costing a cloud provider anything, why are we charging customers for that?”And I think it's an argument that resonated with almost every other provider that was out there. And so Google discounts traffic when it's sent to us, Microsoft discounts traffic when it's sent to us, and we just announced that Oracle has joined this discounting their traffic, which was already some of the most cost-effective bandwidth from any cloud provider.Corey: Oh, yeah. Oracle's fantastic. As you were announced, I believe today, the fact that they're joining the Bandwidth Alliance is both fascinating and also, on some level, “Okay. It doesn't matter as much because their retail starting cost is 10% of Amazon's.” You have to start pushing an awful lot of traffic relative to what you would do AWS before it starts to show up. It's great to see.Matthew: And the fact that they're taking that down to effectively zero if you're using us is even better, right? And I think it again just illustrates how Amazon's really alone in this at being so egregious in how they do that. And it's, when we've done the math to calculate what their markups are, it's almost 80 times what reasonable assumptions on what their wholesale costs are. And so we really do believe in fighting for our customers and being customer-centric, and this seems like a place where—again, Amazon provides an incredible service and so many things, but the data transfer costs are just completely outrageous. And I'm glad that you're calling them out on it, and I'm glad we're calling them out on it and I think increasingly they look isolated and very anti-customer.Corey: What's interesting to me is that ingress to AWS at all the large public tier-one cloud providers is free. Which has led, I think, to the assumption—real or not—that bandwidth doesn't actually cost anything, whereas going outbound, all I can assume is that one day, some Amazon VP was watching a rerun of Meet the Parents and they got to the line where Ben Stiller says, “Oh, you can milk anything with nipples,” and said, “Holy crap. Our customers all have nipples; we can milk them with egress charges.” And here we are. As much as I think the cloud empowers some amazing stuff, the egress charges are very much an Achilles heel to a point where it starts to look like people won't even consider public cloud for certain workloads based upon that.People talk about how Netflix is a great representation of the ideal AWS customers. Yeah, but they don't stream a single byte to customers from AWS. They have their own CDN called Open Connect that they put all around the internet, specifically for that use case because it would bankrupt them otherwise.Matthew: If you're a small customer, bandwidth does cost something because you have to pay someone to do the work of interconnecting with all of the various networks that are out there. If you start to be, though, a large customer—like a Cloudflare, like an AWS, like an Azure—that is sending serious traffic to the internet, then it starts to actually be in the interest of ISPs to directly interconnect with you, and the costs of your bandwidth over time will approach zero. And that's the just economic reality of how bandwidth pricing works. I think that the confusion, to some extent, comes from all of us having bought our own home internet connection. And I think that the fact that you get more bandwidth up in most internet connections, and you get down, people think that there's some physics, which is associated with that.And there are; that turns out just to be the legacy of the cable system that was really designed to send pictures down to your—Corey: It wasn't really a listening post. Yeah.Matthew: Right. And so they have dedicated less capacity for up and again, in-home network connections, that makes a ton of sense, but that's not how internet connections work globally. In fact, you pay—you get a symmetric connection. And so if they can demonstrate that it's free to take the traffic in, we can't figure out any reason that's not simply about customer lock-in; why you would charge to take data out, but you wouldn't charge to put it in. Because actually cost more from writing data to a disk, it costs more than reading it from a disk.And so by all reasonable accounts, if they were actually charging based on what their costs were, they would charge for ingress but they want to charge for egress. But the approach that we've taken is to say, “For standard bandwidth, we just aren't going to charge for it.” And we do charge for if you use our premium routing services, which is something called Argo, but even then it's relatively cheap compared with what is just standard kind of internet connectivity that's out there. And as we see more of the clouds like Microsoft and Google and Oracle show that this is a place where they can be much more customer-centric and customer-friendly, over time I'm hopeful that will put pressure on Amazon and they will eliminate their egress fees.Corey: People also tend to assume that when I talk about this, that I'm somehow complaining about the level of discounting or whatnot, and they yell at me and say, “Oh, well, you should know by now, Corey, that no one at significant scale pays retail pricing.” “Thanks, professor. I appreciate that, but four years ago, or so I sat down with a startup founder who was sketching out the idea for a live video streaming service and said, ‘There's something wrong with my math because if I built this on AWS—which he knew very well, incidentally—it looks like it would cost me at our scale of where we're hoping to hit $65,000 a minute.'” And I checked and yep, sure enough, his math was not wrong, so he obviously did not build his proof of concept on top of AWS. And the last time I checked, they had raised several 100 million dollars in a bunch of different funding rounds.That is a company now that will not be on AWS because it was never an option. I want to talk as well about your announcement of R2, which is just spectacular. It is—please correct me if I get any of this wrong—it's an object store that lives in your existing distributed-points-of-presence-slash-data-centers-slash-colo-slash-a-bunch-of-computers-in-fancy-warehouse-rooms-with-the-lights-are-always-on-And-it's-always-cold-and-noisy. And people can store data there—Matthew: [crosstalk 00:10:23] aisles it's cold; in the other aisles, it's hot. But yes.Corey: Exactly. But it turns out when you lurk around to the hot aisle, that's not where all the buttons are and the things you're able to plug into, so it's freeze or sweat, and there's never a good answer. But it's an object store that costs a fair bit less than retail pricing for Amazon S3, or most other object stores out there. Which, okay, great. That's always good to see competition in the storage space, but specifically, you're not charging any data transfer costs whatsoever for doing this. First, where did this come from?Matthew: So, we needed it ourselves. I think all of the great products at Cloudflare start with an internal need. If you look at why do we build our zero-trust solutions? It's because we said we needed a security solution that was fast and reliable and secure to protect our employees as they were going out and using the internet.Why did we build Cloudflare Workers? Because we needed a very flexible compute platform where we could build systems ourselves. And that's not unique to us. I mean, why did Amazon build AWS? They built it because they needed those tools in order to continue to grow and expand as quickly as possible.And in fact, I think if you look at the products that Google makes that are really great, it ends up being the ones that Google's employees use themselves. Gmail started as Caribou once upon a time, which was their internal email system. And so we needed an object store and the sometimes belligerent CEO of Cloudflare insisted that our team couldn't use any of the public cloud object stores. And so we had to build it.That was the start of it and we've been using it internally for products over time. It powers, for example, Cloudflare Images, it powers a lot of our streaming video services, and it works great. And at some point, we said, “Can we take this and make it available to everyone?” The question that you've asked on Twitter, and I think a lot of people reasonably ask us, “What's the catch?”Corey: Well, in my defense, I think it's fair. There was an example that I gave of, “Okay, I'm going to go ahead and keep—because it's new, I don't trust new object stores. Great. I'm going to do the same experiment twice, keep one the pure AWS story and the other, I'm just going to add Cloudflare R2 to the mix so that I have to transfer out of AWS once.” For a one gigabyte file that gets shared out for a petabyte's worth of bandwidth, on AWS it costs roughly $52,000 to do that. If I go with the R2 solution, it cost me 13 cents, all of which except for a penny-and-a-half are AWS charges. And that just feels—when you're looking at that big of a gap, it's easy to look at that and think, “Okay, someone is trying to swindle me somewhere. And when you can't spot the sucker, it's probably me. What's the catch?”Matthew: I guess it's not really a catch; it's an explanation. We have been able to drive our bandwidth costs down low enough that in that particular use case, we have to store the file, and that, again, that—there's a hard disk in there and we replicate it to make sure that it's available so it's not just one hard disk, but it's multiple hard disks in various places, but that amortized over time, isn't that big a cost. And then bandwidth is effectively zero. And so if we can do that, then that's great.Maybe a different way of framing the question is like, “Why would we do that?” And I think what we see is that there is an opportunity for customers to be able to use the best of various cloud providers and hook the different parts together. So, people talk about multi-cloud all the time, and for a while, the way that I think people thought about that was you take the exact same workload and you run it in Azure and AWS. That turns out not to be—I mean, maybe some people do that, but it's super rare and it's incredibly hard.Corey: It has been a recurring theme of most things I say where, by default, that is one of the dumbest things I can imagine.Matthew: Yeah, that isn't good. But what people do want to do is they want to say, “Listen, there's some really great services that Amazon provides; we want to use those. And there's some really great services that Azure provides, and we want to use those. And Google's got some great machine learning, and so does IBM. And I want to sort of mix and match the various pieces together.”And the challenge in doing that is the egress fees. If everyone just had a detente and said there's going to be no egress fees for us to be able to hook these various [pits 00:14:48] together, then you would be able to take advantage of a lot of the different technologies and we would actually get stronger applications. And so the vision of what we're trying to build is how can we be the fabric that can stitch the various cloud providers together so that you can do that. And when we looked at that, and we said, “Okay, what's the path to getting there?” The big place where there's the just meatiest cost on egress fees is object stores.And so if you could have a centralized object store, and you can say then from that object go use whatever the best service is at Amazon, go use whatever the best service is at Google, go use whatever the best service is at Azure, that then allows, I think, actually people to take advantage of the cloud in a way which is what people really should mean when they talk about multi-cloud. Which is, there should be competition on the various features themselves, and you should be able to pick and choose the best of all of the different bits. And I think we as consumers then benefit from that. And so when we're looking at how we can strategically enable that future, building an object store was a real key part of that, and that's part of what we're doing. Now, how do we make money off of that? Well, there's a little bit off the storage, and again, even [laugh]—Corey: Well, that is the Amazonian answer there. It's like, “Your margin is my opportunity,” is a famous Bezos quote, and I figure you're sitting there saying, “Ah, it would cost $52,000 to do that in Amazon. Ah, we can make a penny-and-a-half.” That's very Amazonian, you could probably get hired over there with that philosophy.Matthew: Yeah. And this is a commodity service, just [laugh] storing data. If you look across the history of what Cloudflare has done, in 2014, we made encryption free because it's absurd to pay for math, right? I mean, it's just crazy right?Corey: Or to pay for security as a value-add. No, that should be baked into whatever you're doing, in an ideal world.Matthew: Domain registration. Like, it's writing something down in a ledger. It's a commodity; of course it should go to whatever the absolute cost is. On the other hand, there are things that we do that aren't commodities where we are able to better protect people because we see so much traffic, and we've built the machine learning models, and we've done those things, and so we charge for those things. So commodities, we think over time, go to effectively, whatever their cost is, and then the value is in the actual intelligent services that are on top of it.But an object store is a commodity and so we should be trying to drive that pricing down. And in the case of bandwidth, it's effectively free for us. And so if we can be that fabric that connects the different class together, I think that makes sense is a strategy for us and that's why R2 made a ton of sense for us to build and to launch.Corey: There seems to be a lack of ability for lots of folks, at least on the internet to imagine a use case other than theirs. I cheated by being a consultant, I get to borrow other people's use cases at a high degree of turnover. But the question I saw raised was, “Well, how many workloads really do that much egress from static objects that don't change? Doesn't sound like there'd be a whole lot of them.” And it's, “Oh, my sweet summer child. Sure, your app doesn't do a lot of that, but let me introduce it to my friends who are hosting videos on their website, for example, or large images that get accessed a whole bunch of times; things that are written once and then read forever by the internet.”Matthew: And we sit in a position where because of the role that Cloudflare plays where we sit in front of a number of these different cloud providers, we could actually look at the use cases and the data, and then build products in order to solve that. And that's why we started with Workers; that's why we then built the KV store that was on top of that; we built object-store next. And so you can see as we're sort of marching through these things, it is very much being informed by the data that we actually see from real customers. And one of the things that I really like about R2 is in exactly the example that you gave where you can keep everything in S3; you can set R2 in front of it and put it in slurp mode, and effectively it just—as those objects get pulled out, it starts storing them there. And so the migration path is super easy; you don't have to actually change anything about your application and will cut your bills substantially.And so I think that's the right thing to enable a multi-cloud world where, again, it's not you're running the exact same workload in different places, but you get to take advantage of the really great tack that all of these companies are building and use that. And then the companies will compete on building that tech well. So, it's not just about how do I get the data in and then kind of underinvest in all of the different services that I provide. It's how can we make sure that on a service-by-service basis, you actually are having real competition over time. And again, I think that's the right thing for customers, and absolutely R2 might not be the right thing for every use case that's out there, but I think that it wi—enabling more competition is going to make the cloud better for everyone.Corey: Oh, yeah. It's always fun hearing it from Amazonians. It's, “You have a service that talks to satellites in orbit. You really think that's a general-purpose thing that every company out there has to deal with?” No. Well, not yet, anyway.It also just feels to me like their transfer approach is antithetical to almost every other aspect of how they have built their cloud. Amazonians have told me repeatedly—I believe them—that their network is effectively magic. The fact that you can get near line rate between any two points without melting various [unintelligible 00:20:14], which shows that there was significant thought, work, effort, planning, technology, et cetera, put into the network. And I don't dispute that. But if I'm trying to build a workload and put it inside of AWS, I can control how it performs tied to budget; I can have a lot of RAM for things that are memory intensive, or I can have a little RAM; I can have great CPU performance or terrible CPU performance.The challenge with data transfer is it is uniformly great. “I want to get that data over there super quickly.” Yeah, awesome. I'm fine paying a premium for that. But I have this pile of data right here. I want to get it over there, ideally by Tuesday. There's no good way to do that, even with their Snowball—or Snow Family devices—when you fill them with data and send them into AWS, yeah, that's great. Then you just pay for the use of the device.Use them to send data out of AWS, they tack on an additional per-gigabyte fee for getting the data out. You're training as a lawyer, you went to the same law school that my wife did, the University of Chicago, which, oh, interesting stories down that path. But if we look at this, my argument is that the way to do an end-run around this is to sue Amazon for something, and then demand access to the data you have living in their environment during discovery. Make them give it to you for free, though, they'd probably find a way to charge it there, too. It's just a complete lack of vision and lack of awareness because it feels like they're milking a cash cow until it dies.Matthew: Yeah, they probably would charge for it and you'd also have to pay a lot of lawyers. So, I'm not sure that's the cost [crosstalk 00:21:44]—Corey: Its only works above certain volumes, I figure.Matthew: I do think that if your pricing strategy is designed to lock people in to prevent competition, then that does create other challenges. And there are certainly some University of Chicago law professors out there that have spent their careers arguing why antitrust laws don't make any sense, but I think that this is definitely one of those areas where you can see very clearly that customers are actually being harmed by the pricing strategy that's there. And the pricing strategy is not tied in any way to the underlying costs which are associated with that. And so I do think that, especially as you see other providers in the space—like Oracle—taking their bandwidth costs to effectively zero, that's the sort of thing that I think will have regulators start to scratch their heads. If tomorrow, AWS took egress costs to zero, and as a result, R2 was not as advantaged as it is today against them, you know, I think there are a lot of people who would say, “Oh, they showed Cloudflare.” I would do a happy dance because that's the best thing [thing they can do 00:22:52] for our customers.Corey: Our long-term goals, it sounds like, are relatively aligned. People think that I want to see AWS reign ascendant; people also say I want to see them burning and crashing into the sea, and neither one of those are true. What I want is, I want someone in a few years from now to be doing a startup and trying to figure out which cloud provider they should pick, and I want that to be a hard decision. Ideally, if you wind up reducing data transfer fees enough, it doesn't even have to be only one. There are stories that starts to turn into an actual realistic multi-cloud story that isn't, at its face, ridiculous. But right now, you have to pick a horse and ride it, for a variety of reasons. And I don't like that.Matthew: It's entirely egress-based. And again, I think that customers are better off if they are able to pick who is the best service at any time. And that is what encourages innovation. And over time, that's even what's good for the various cloud providers because it's what keeps them being valuable and keeps their customers thinking that they're building something which is magical and that they aren't trapped in the decision that they made, which is when we talk to a lot of the customers today, they feel that way. And it's I think part of why something like R2 and something like the Bandwidth Alliance has gotten so much attention because it really touches a nerve on what's frustrating customers today. And if tomorrow Amazon announced that they were eliminating egress fees and going head-to-head with R2, again, I think that's a wonderful outcome. And one that I think is unlikely, but I would celebrate it if it happened.Corey: This episode is sponsored by our friends at Oracle Cloud. Counting the pennies, but still dreaming of deploying apps instead of "Hello, World" demos? Allow me to introduce you to Oracle's Always Free tier. It provides over 20 free services and infrastructure, networking databases, observability, management, and security.And - let me be clear here - it's actually free. There's no surprise billing until you intentionally and proactively upgrade your account. This means you can provision a virtual machine instance or spin up an autonomous database that manages itself all while gaining the networking load, balancing and storage resources that somehow never quite make it into most free tiers needed to support the application that you want to build.With Always Free you can do things like run small scale applications, or do proof of concept testing without spending a dime. You know that I always like to put asterisks next to the word free. This is actually free. No asterisk. Start now. Visit https://snark.cloud/oci-free that's https://snark.cloud/oci-free.Corey: My favorite is people who don't do research on this stuff. They wind up saying, “Oh, yeah. Cloudflare is saying that bandwidth is a fixed cost. Of course not. They must be losing their shirt on this.”You are a publicly-traded company. Your gross margins are 76% or 77%, depending upon whether we're talking about GAAP or non-GAAP. Point being, you are clearly not selling this at a loss and hoping to make it up in volume. That's what a VC-backed company does. Is something that is real and as accurate.I want to, on some level, I guess, low-key apologize because I keep viewing Cloudflare through a lens that is increasingly inaccurate, which is as a CDN. But you've had Cloudflare Workers for a while, effectively Functions as a Service that run at the edge, which has this magic aura around it, that do various things, which is fascinating to me. You're launching R2; it feels like you are in some ways aiming at becoming a cloud provider, but instead of taking the traditional approach of building it from the region's outward, you're building it from the outward in. Is that a fair characterization?Matthew: I think that's right. I think fundamentally what Cloudflare is, is a network. And I remember early on in the pandemic, we did a series of fireside chats with people we thought we could learn from. And so was everyone from Andre Iguodala, the basketball player, to Mark Cuban, the entrepreneur, to we had a [unintelligible 00:25:56] governor and all kinds of things. And we these were just internal on off the record.And I got to do one with Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google. And I said, “You know, Eric, one of the things that we struggle with is describing what is Cloudflare.” And without hesitation, he said, “Oh, that's easy. You're the network I plug into and don't have to worry about anything else.” And I think that's better than I could say it, myself, and I think that's what it is that we fundamentally are: we're the network that fits together.Now, it turns out that in the process of being that network and enabling that network, we are going to build things like R2, which start to be an object store and starts to sort of step into some of the cloud provider space. And Workers is really just a way of programming that network in order to do that, but it turns out that there are a bunch of workloads that if you move them into the network itself, make sense—not going to be every workload, but a lot of workloads that makes sense there. And again, I think that you can actually be very bullish on all of the big public cloud providers and bullish on Cloudflare at the same time because what we want to do is enable the ability for people to mix and match, and change, and be the fabric that connects all of those things together. And so over time, if Amazon says, “We're going to drop egress fees,” it may be that R2 isn't a product that exists—I don't think they're going to do that, so I think it's something that is going to be successful for us and get a lot of new users to us—but fundamentally, I think that where the traditional public clouds think of themselves as the place you put data and you process data, I think we think of ourselves as the place you move data. And that's somewhat different.That then translates into it as we're building out the different pieces, where it does feel like we're building from the outside in. And it may be that over time, that put versus move distinction becomes narrower and narrower as we build more and more services like R2, and durable objects, and KV, and we're working on a database, and all those things. And it could be that we converge in a similar place.Corey: One thing I really appreciate about your vision because it is so atypical these days, is that you aren't trying to build the multifunction printer of companies. You are not trying to be all things to all people in every scenario. Which is impossible to do, but companies are still trying their level best to do it. You are staking out the bounds of where you were willing to start and where you're willing to stop, in a variety of different ways. I would be—how do I put it?—surprised if you at some point in the next five years come out with, “And this is our own database that we have built out that directly competes with the following open-source project that we basically have implemented their API and gone down that particular path.” It does not sound like it is in your core wheelhouse at that point. You don't need—to my understanding—to write your own database engine in order to do what you do.Matthew: Maybe. I mean, we actually are kind of working on a database because—Corey: Oh, no, here we go again.Matthew: [laugh]—and yeah—in a couple of different ways. So, the first way is, we want to make sure that if you're using Workers, you can connect to whatever database you want to use anywhere in the world. And that's something that's coming and we'll be there. At the same time, the challenge of distributed computing turns out not to be the computing, it turns out to be the data and figuring out how to—CAP theorem is real, right? Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance; you can pick any two out of the three, but you can't get all three.And so you there's always going to be some trade-off that's there. And so we don't see a lot of good examples. There's some really cool companies that are working on things in the space, but we don't see a lot of really good examples of who has built a database that can be run on a distributed workload system, like Cloudflare to it do well. And so our team internally needs that, and so we're trying to figure out how to build it for ourselves, and I would imagine that after we build it for ourselves—if it works the way we expect it will—that that will then be something that we open up.Our motivation and the way we think about products is we need to build the tools for our own team. Our team itself is customer zero, and then some of those things are very specific to us, but every once in a while, when there are functions that makes sense for others, then we'll build them as well. And that does maybe risk being the multifunction printer, but again, I think that because the customer for that starts with ourselves, that's how we think about it. And if there's someone else's making a great tool, we'll use that. But in this case, we don't see anyone that's built a multi-tenant, globally-distributed, ACID-compliant relational database.Corey: I can't let it pass on challenge. Sure they have, and you're running it yourself. DNS: the finest database in the world. You stuff whatever you want to text records, and now you have taken a finely crafted wrench and turned it into a barely acceptable hammer, which is what I love about doing that terrible approach. Yeah, relational is not going to quite work that way. But—Matthew: Yes. That's a fancy key-value store, right? So—and we've had that for a long time. As we're trying to build those things up, the good news is that, again, we've run data at scale for quite some time and proven that we can do it efficiently and reliably.Corey: There's a lot that can be said about building the things you need to deliver your product to customers. And maybe a database is a poor example here, but I don't see that your motivation in this space is to step into something completely outside your areas of expertise solely because there's money to be made over there. Well, yeah, fortune passes everywhere. The question is, which are you best positioned to wind up delivering an actual transformative solution to that space, and what parts of it are just rent-seeking where it's okay, we're going to go and wherever the money is, we're chasing that down.Matthew: Yeah, we're still a for-profit business, and we've been able to grow revenue well, but I think it is that what motivates us and what drives us comes back to our mission, which is how do you help build a better internet? And you can look at every single thing that we've done, and we try to be very long-term-oriented. So, for instance, when we in 2014 made encryption free, the number one reason at the time, when people upgraded for the free version of our service, the paid version of our service is they got encryption for that. And so it was super scary to say, “Hey, we're going to take the biggest feature and give it away for free,” but it was clearly the direction of history and we wanted to be on the right side of history. And we considered it a bug that the internet wasn't built in an encrypted way from the beginning.So, of course, that was going to head that direction. And so I think that we and then subsequently Let's Encrypt, and a bunch of others have said, it's absurd that you're charging for math. And again, I think that's a good example of how we think about products. And we want to continue to disrupt ourselves and take the things that once upon a time were reserved for our customers that spend $10 million-plus with us, and we want to keep pushing those things down because, over time, the real opportunity is if you do right by customers, there will be plenty of ways that you can earn some of their budget. And again, we think that is the long-term winning strategy.Corey: I would agree with this. You're not out there making sneakers and selling them because you see people spend a lot of money on that; you're delivering value for customers. I say this as one of your paying customers. I have zero problem paying you every month like clockwork, and it is the least cloud-like experience because I know exactly what the bill is going to be in advance, which is apparently not how things should be done in this industry, yadda, yadda, yadda. It is a refreshingly delightful experience every time.The few times I've had challenges with the service, it has almost always been a—I'll call it a documentation gap, where the way it was explained in the formal documentation was not how I conceptualize things, which, again, explaining what these complex things are to folks who are not steeped in certain areas of them is always going to be a challenge. But I cannot think back to a single customer service failure I've had with you folks. I can't look back at any point where you have failed me as a customer, which is a strange thing to say, given how incredibly efficient I am at stumbling over weird bugs.Matthew: Terrific to have you as a customer. We are hardly perfect and we make mistakes, but one of the things I think that we try to do and one of the core values of Cloudflare is transparency. If I think about, like, the original sins of tech, a lot of it is this bizarre secrecy which pervades the entire industry. When we make mistakes, we talk about them, and we explain them. When there's an error, we don't throw up a white page; we put up a page that has our logo on it because we want to own it.And that sometimes gets blowback because you're in front of it, but again, I think it's the right thing to do for customers. And it's and I think it's incredibly important. One of the things that's interesting is you mentioned that you know what your bill is going to be. If you go back and look at the history of hosting on the internet, in the early days of internet hosting, it looks a lot like AWS.Corey: Oh, 95th percentile transit billing; go for one five minutes segment over and boom, your bill explodes. Oh, I remember those days. Unkindly.Matthew: And it was super complicated. And then what happened is the hosting world switched from this incredibly complicated billing to much more simplified, predictable, unlimited bandwidth with maybe some asterisks, but largely that was in place. And then it's strange that Amazon came along and then has brought us back to the more complicated world that's out there. I would have predicted that that's a sine wave—Corey: It has to be. I mean—Matthew: —and it's going to go back and forth over time. But I would have predicted that we would be more in the direction of coming back toward simplify, everything included. And again, I think that's how we've priced our things from the beginning. I'm surprised that it has held on as long as it has, but I do think that there's going to be an opportunity for—and I don't think Amazon will be the leader here, but I think there will be an opportunity for one of the big clouds.And again, I think Oracle is probably doing this the best of any of them right now—to say, “How can we go away from that complexity? How can we make bills predictable? How can we not nickel and dime everything, but allow you to actually forecast and budget?” And it just seems like that's the natural arc of history, and we will head back toward that. And, again, I think we've done our part to push that along. And I'm excited that other cloud providers seem to be thinking about that now as well.Corey: Oh, yeah. What I do with fixing AWS bills is the same thing folks were doing in the 70s and 80s with long-distance bills for companies. We're definitely hitting that sine wave. I know that if I were at AWS in a leadership role, I would be actively embarrassed that the company that is delivering a better customer experience around financial things is Oracle of all companies, given their history of audits and surprising people and the rest. It is ridiculous to me.One last topic that I want to cover with you before we call it an episode is, back in college, you had a thesis that you have done an excellent job of effectively eliminating from the internet. And the theme of this, to my understanding, was that the internet is a fad. And I am so aligned with that because I'm someone who has said for years that emerging technologies are fads. I've said it about cloud, about virtualization, about containers. And I just skipped Kubernetes. And now I'm all-in on serverless, which means, of course it's going to fail because I'm always wrong on these things. But tell me about that.Matthew: When I was seven years old in 1980, my grandmother gave me an Apple ][+ computer for Christmas. And I took to it like a just absolute duck to water and did things that made me very popular in junior high school, like going to computer camp. And my mom used to sign up for continuing education classes at the local university in computer science, and basically sneak me in, and I'd do all the homework and all that. And I remember when I got to college, there was a small group of students that would come around and help other students set their computer up, and I had it all set up and was involved. And so, got pretty deeply involved in the computer science program at college.And then I remember there was a group of three other students—so they were four of us—and they wanted to start an online digital magazine. And at the time, this was pre-web, or right in the early days of the web; it was sort of nineteen… ninety-three. And we built it originally on old Apple technology called HyperCard. And we used to email out the old HyperCard stacks. And the HyperCard stacks kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and we'd send them out to the school so [laugh] that we—so we kept crashing the mail servers.But the college loved this, so they kept buying bigger and bigger mail servers. But they were—at some point, they said, “This won't scale. You got to switch technologies.” And they introduced us to two different groups. One was a printer company based out in San Francisco that had this technology called PDF. And I was a really big fan of PDF. I thought PDF was the future, it was definitely going to be how everything got published.And then the other was this group of dorky graduate students at the University of Illinois that had this thing called a browser, which was super flaky, and crashed all the time, and didn't work. And so of the four of us, I was the one who voted for PDF and the other three were like, “Actually, I think this HTML thing is going to be a hit.” And we built this. We won an award from Wired—which was only a print magazine at the time—that called us the first online-only weekly publication. And it was such a struggle to get anyone to write for it because browsers sucked and, you know, trying to get students on campus, but no one on campus cared.We would get these emails from the other side of the world, where I remember really clearly is this—in broken English—email from Japan saying, “I love the magazine. Please keep writing more for the magazine.” And I remember thinking at the time, “Why do I care if someone in Japan is reading this if the girl down the hall who I have a crush on isn't?” Which is obviously what motivates dorky college students like myself. And at that same time, you saw all of this internet explosion.I remember the moment when Netscape went public and just blew through all the expectations. And it was right around the time I was getting ready to graduate for college, and I was kind of just burned out on the entire thing. And I thought, “If I can't even get anyone to write for this dopey magazine and yet we're winning awards, like, this stuff has to all just be complete garbage.” And so wrote a thesis on—ehh, it was not a very good [laugh] thesis. It's—but one of the things I said was that largely the internet was a fad, and that if it wasn't, that it had some real risks because if you enabled everyone to connect with whatever their weird interests and hobbies were, that you would very quickly fall to the lowest common denominator. And predicted some things that haven't come true. I thought for sure that you would have both a liberal and conservative search engine. And it's a miracle to this day, I think that doesn't exist.Corey: Now, that you said it, of course, it's going to.Matthew: Well, I don't know I've… [sigh] we'll see. But it is pretty amazing that Google has been able to, again, thread that line and stay largely apolitical. I'm surprised there aren't more national search engines; the fact that it only Russia and China have national search engines and France and Germany don't is just strange to me. It seems like if you're controlling the source of truth and how people find it, that seems like something that governments would try and take over. There are some things that in retrospect, look pretty wise, but there were a lot more things that looked really, really stupid. And so I think at some level, I had to build Cloudflare to atone for that stupidity all those years ago.Corey: There's something to be said for looking back and saying, “Yeah, I had an opinion, and with the light of new information, I am changing my opinion.” For some reason, in some circles, it feels like that gets interpreted as a sign of weakness, but I couldn't disagree more, it's, “Well, I had an opinion based upon what I saw at the time. Turns out, I was wrong, and here we are.” I really wish more people were capable of doing that.Matthew: It's one of the things we test for in hiring. And I think the characteristic that describes people who can do that well is really empathy. The understanding that the experiences that you have lead you to have a unique set of insights, but they also create a unique set of blind spots. And it's rare that you find people that are able to do that. And whenever you do—whenever we do we hire them.Corey: To that end, as far as hiring and similar topics go, if people want to learn more about how you view things, and how you see the world, and what you're releasing—maybe even potentially work with you—where can they find you?Matthew: [laugh]. So, the joke, sometimes, internal at Cloudflare is that Cloudflare is a blogging company that runs this global network just to have something to write about. So, I think we're unlike most corporate blogs, which are—if our corporate blog were typical, we'd have articles on, like, “Here are the top six reasons you need a fast website,” which would just be, you know, shoot me. But instead, I think we write about the things that are going on online and our unique view into them. And we have a core value of transparency, so we talk about that. So, if you're interested in Cloudflare, I'd encourage you to—especially if you're of the sort of geekier variety—to check out blog.cloudflare.com, and I think that's a good place to learn about us. And I still write for that occasionally.Corey: You're one of the only non-AWS corporate blogs that I pay attention to, for that exact reason. It is not, “Oh, yay. More content marketing by folks who just feel the need to hit a quota as opposed to talking about something valuable and interesting.” So, it's appreciated.Matthew: The secret to it was we realized at some point that the purpose of the blog wasn't to attract customers, it was to attract potential employees. And it turns out, if you sort of change that focus, then you talk to people like their peers, and it turns out then that the content that you create is much more authentic. And that turns out to be a great way to attract customers as well.Corey: I want to thank you for taking so much time out of your day to speak with me. I really appreciate it.Matthew: Thanks for all you're doing. And we're very aligned, and keep fighting the good fight. And someday, again, we'll eliminate cloud egress fees, and we can share a beer when we do.Corey: I will absolutely be there for it. Matthew, Prince, CEO, and co-founder of Cloudflare. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn, and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice along with a rambling comment explaining that while data packets into a cloud provider are cheap and crappy, the ones being sent to the internet are beautiful, bespoke, unicorn snowflakes, so of course they cost money.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.Announcer: This has been a HumblePod production. Stay humble.

Inner Voice – a Heartfelt Chat with Dr. Foojan on KMET 1490 AM / ABC News Radio.  In this segment- Live Love, As a Parent or a Human Being - Dr. Foojan shares the Tip of the Week about how to feel included anywhere in the world. Dr. Foojan brings you, Debbie Godfrey, a certified Parent Educator, brings over 30 years of expertise in the parenting education field. Through her business, POSITIVE PARENTING in schools and community centers around the world. She has served many organizations. Debbie conducted teacher training for 8 schools during a 30-day period in 5 states across India. Deborah conducted 8 parent education workshops in Beijing, China during a 2-week period in February 2008. She is the past director of Foster & Kinship Care Education at Ventura College. www.positiveparenting.com. Dr. Foojan answers your questions about “Am I a committed relationship material”. Then Dr. Foojan chats with Dale Walsh is a coach for the families of those diagnosed with schizophrenia. He has been coaching these families for three years and is the creator of the “LIVE LOVE” method to help his clients. He is guided by the mantra “A recovery is Always an Option.” Following a thirteen-week hospitalization after being “extracted” from Dartmouth College, he was in a private psychiatric program where he was hospitalized nine times over five years. He then moved into his own unsupervised apartment and returned to college at Fairleigh Dickinson University, from where he graduated magna cum laude in English Literature. Diagnosed 46 years ago, Dale has been episode-free for the past 29. His mental health journey has evolved from total psychosis to a miraculous recovery. He has lived independently for forty years. www. dalewalsh.com Check out my website: www.foojan.com

Are you interested in working with me one on one? I work with individuals, couples, and athletes in one on one sessions from all over the world. Head over to www.nicobarraza.com to inquire and book an appointment. Huge welcome back to my good friend Raul Aparici. This is Raul's second time on the show and his first episode was a huge hit. He works closely with Alain de Botton, a man who's work has both inspired me and made me think more deeply about how I view myself and love.Raul and I discuss many things around relationships, relational self-awareness, and the dynamics we get ourselves into with our romantic partners.Raul Aparici is a coach, speaker, consultant and facilitator. He is the Faculty Lead at The School of Life where he delivers B2B and B2C workshops on different emotional skills. He is a faculty member on the Postgraduate Coaching and the MSc Coaching Programme at Birkbeck, University of London. With a diverse background which includes a career in the fitness industry, a BA in English Literature and an MA in Critical Theory, he likes to match academic insights with real life wisdomYou can find more about Raul here https://www.raulaparici.com/ and find him on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thisisraul/

Dirty clothes, grayed-out color palettes, and terrible things happening unrelentingly to everyone: that's the stereotype of grimdark. But in this episode, Anna Smith Spark joins us to explore what that term really means, from interrogating ideas of heroism and villainy to unraveling toxic masculinity and examining the consequences of supposedly noble choices. Transcript for Episode 63 (Thank you, beloved scribes!) Our Guest: Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org.uk. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model. Anna's favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at sff conventions wearing very unusual shoes.

In today's episode of the Engage Video Marketing podcast, I'm going to be exploring this concept of a ‘video first' way of doing business with my guest, Paul Mortimer.  Paul has extensive knowledge on video-first ways of operating as a business, going beyond just marketing and sales use cases. He talks about topics including how we transformed our business with video and asynchronous video communication.  A little more about Paul: Has risen up the ranks from Content Marketer to Head of Growth over 6 years at award-winning HubSpot agency Digital 22 and forms part of the agency's Leadership Team Hosts ‘VIDEO FIRST',  Digital 22's specialist video podcast covering topics like creating videos on a budget, using YouTube for your business, and growing your podcast production value  Has written and presented extensively on content marketing  Helps to lead a team of over 45 in-house marketers, copywriters, designers and developers who are experts in inbound marketing and know HubSpot's platform inside-out Is driving a video-first approach for Digital 22 and all of our clients  In a previous life, worked as an English Literature teacher as well as a freelance writer and photographer https://engagevideomarketing.com/group (Join our conversation at Online Video Strategy Community on Facebook.) https://engagevideomarketing.com/survey (Complete the Super Duper Annual Engage Video Marketing Community survey, and get a chance to win one of 3 x $50 Amazon gift cards, EVM ‘lead with value' t-shirts, or the chance for some 1:1 coaching with me.) If you found this episode of value I'd love for you to reach out and let me know on instagram @engage_ben or email podcast@engagevideomarketing.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/beninnovate/ (Ben Amos LinkedIn) https://www.instagram.com/engage_ben/ (Ben Amos Instagram) https://twitter.com/engage_ben (Ben Amos Twitter) http://engagevideomarketing.com/itunes (Rate the Engage Video Marketing Podcast on iTunes) Support this podcast

Get a little "meta" in this episode about Harry Potter fandom and pop culture podcasting!  Emily and Katy talk with film and fandom scholar - and fellow podcaster - Michael Boyce, Professor of English Literature and Film Studies at Booth University College and host of the Geek 4 podcast. We investigate how the Harry Potter films have affected our fandom and explore podcasting about popular culture from within the "ivory tower" of academia. Were you first attracted to the Harry Potter world through the films or the books? Michael explains how he came to be a Potter fan and his early experiences of the fandom. We discuss how the actors' interpretations in the film (ahem, Michael Gambon) change the way we understand the characters and how directorial cuts affect our memories of the narrative. Have these interpretations become canon or do the films exist in a kind of alternate universe? Different directors have also created distinct interpretations and even tones for the various books, and we consider how that influences the movies' coherence as a series. Michael explains that the films have provided easier points of access to the wizarding world for fans and have created clearer images of the characters, which certainly has had consequences for fan reactions to casting decisions and fan creative productions. Michael helps us analyze the unique (and not-so-unique) qualities of the Harry Potter fandom, and we consider the marketing of Wizarding World products to the multi-generational fan community. We talk about fandom as a target (and even creation) of late-stage capitalism and the way fans show our loyalty and love for pop culture through our wallets. Sometimes fan-based products like toys have even spoiled major plot points - LEGO, we're looking at you! Michael tells us about fan gatekeepers and the joys of excluding others on the basis of fan purism. Is there a hierarchy in the Potter fandom based on the Hogwarts Houses? What do you think? Michael talks about how his podcast, Geek 4, which interviews people about their fandoms and engages with the geeky academic side of a variety of fandoms, from sci-fi to sports. We discuss the benefits of podcasting for both creators and listeners, especially during the pandemic, and the high-quality podcasts that exist which contribute to public scholarship. Podcasts provide an easy-to-access conduit to expert knowledge and feed the soul of our fan communities.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss an early masterpiece of French epic poetry, from the 12th Century. It is a reimagining of Charlemagne's wars in Spain in the 8th Century in which Roland, his most valiant knight, chooses death before dishonour, guarding the army's rear from a pagan ambush as it heads back through the Roncesvalles Pass in the Pyrenees. If he wanted to, Roland could blow on his oliphant, his elephant tusk horn, to summon help by calling back Charlemagne's army, but according to his values that would bring shame both on him and on France, and he would rather keep killing pagans until he is the last man standing and the last to die. The image above is taken from an illustration of Charlemagne finding Roland after the Battle of Roncevaux/Roncesvalles, from 'Les Grandes Chroniques de France', c.1460 by Jean Fouquet, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Ms Fr 6465 f.113 With Laura Ashe Professor of English Literature and Fellow in English at Worcester College, University of Oxford Miranda Griffin Assistant Professor of Medieval French at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Murray Edwards College And Luke Sunderland Professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University Studio producer: John Goudie

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss an early masterpiece of French epic poetry, from the 12th Century. It is a reimagining of Charlemagne's wars in Spain in the 8th Century in which Roland, his most valiant knight, chooses death before dishonour, guarding the army's rear from a pagan ambush as it heads back through the Roncesvalles Pass in the Pyrenees. If he wanted to, Roland could blow on his oliphant, his elephant tusk horn, to summon help by calling back Charlemagne's army, but according to his values that would bring shame both on him and on France, and he would rather keep killing pagans until he is the last man standing and the last to die. The image above is taken from an illustration of Charlemagne finding Roland after the Battle of Roncevaux/Roncesvalles, from 'Les Grandes Chroniques de France', c.1460 by Jean Fouquet, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Ms Fr 6465 f.113 With Laura Ashe Professor of English Literature and Fellow in English at Worcester College, University of Oxford Miranda Griffin Assistant Professor of Medieval French at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Murray Edwards College And Luke Sunderland Professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University Studio producer: John Goudie

Shannon Huffman Polson is an Author, Leadership Speaker, and U.S. Army Veteran. She is the founder of The Grit Institute, where she focuses on leadership and grit based on her years of service and her time in the corporate world. Shannon studied English Literature and Art History at Duke University. At her graduation, she was commissioned as a 2LT in Army Aviation and became one of the first women to fly the Apache helicopter in the U.S. Army, where she has led two flight platoons and line units on three continents. She later earned her MBA in Business Administration from the  Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.Her love for leadership has led her to combine her passion and firsthand experience along with her study of leadership and grit to deliver world-class training to companies and organizations. She energizes her audience across the country and around the world to overcome resistance, connect to their core purpose and commit to courageous ownership under the most challenging conditions. Currently, she is an American writer and leadership development consultant. Listen in as they discuss:Grit and its definition.How Shannon uses grit to survive in corporate culture.The importance of staying focus to achieve your goals.How Shannon helps others to cultivate grit in their children and their organization.What is grounded optimism?Ways to build your grit.The worst advice Shannon has seen or heard given in her area of expertise of grit and resilience and grounded optimism in order to be better every day.What kind of mindset you will need to develop to build resilience and grit.And, more!TIP OF THE WEEKMark: My tip of the week is go to shannonpolson.com and get the Grit Factor book. Check out Shannon's articles, essays and she has an institute: The Little Book of Grit, The Road Ahead, The Way the Wild Gets Inside and there's a ton.Scott: Check out bobbyapp.co, it keeps track of all of those subscriptions that you've signed up for: Netflix, One Password, whatever it is you add it to here. That way you'll never forget your subscriptions.Shannon: I have two tips! The first is, keeping track of what's going on every day in a journal that you write in is really helpful, and keeping track of finances (quick shout out to Taylor Money, which is my husband's tech company) is an outstanding way to look at your finances every single day, and to be able to know what's your status is every single day. You have complete control.The second thing is a book by Brian Doyle called One Long River of Song, I'm recommending it because the most important thing that you do, and the most important key to your success is people, and it always has to do with people. Brain Doyle will connect you to the most human part of yourself in a way that will literally bring tears to your eyes. If you're not taking time to connect to that human part of yourselves and others, success is a hard thing to find.WANT TO LISTEN MORE?Did you like this episode? If so, tune into another one of our exciting episodes with special guest Noah St. John as we discuss AFFORMATION and how it will help you to reach your goals.Isn't it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

Dr. Michael Rectenwald, author of Google Archipelago: The Digital Gulag, Chief Academic Officer and co-founder of American Scholars discusses the power of the government and Big Tech to control social, economic and educational access leading to estrangement. What is the answer?  Michael is the Chief Academic Officer and co-founder of American Scholars, a pro-American education platform. He was a Professor of Liberal Studies and Global Liberal Studies at NYU from 2008 to 2019. Michael also taught at Duke University, North Carolina Central University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Case Western Reserve University. He holds a Ph.D. in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University, a Master's in English Literature from Case Western Reserve University, and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Pittsburgh. Michael is the author of eleven books, including Thought Criminal (2020); Beyond Woke (May 2020); Google Archipelago: The Digital Gulag and the Simulation of Freedom (2019); Springtime for Snowflakes: “Social Justice” and Its Postmodern Parentage (an academic's memoir, 2018); Nineteenth-Century British Secularism: Science, Religion and Literature (2016); Academic Writing, Real World Topics (2015, Concise Edition 2016); Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age (2015); Breach (Collected Poems, 2013); The Thief and Other Stories (2013); and The Eros of the Baby-Boom Eras (1991). https://www.michaelrectenwald.com/ - Website https://www.facebook.com/michael.rectenwald - Facebook https://twitter.com/TheAntiPCProf - Twitter

Sara VanderGoot, CMT, e-RYT 200, e-RYT 500, RPYT co-founded Mind the Mat Pilates and Yoga. She studied Interdisciplinary Yoga with Don and Amba Stapleton in Nosara, Costa Rica and at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Sara completed her Prenatal Yoga Training at Blooma in Minneapolis. Sara is registered through internationally recognized Yoga Alliance as a e-RYT 200, e-RYT 500 and RPYT. Sara is Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, and licensed by the Virginia Board of Nursing. She specializes in working with moms during and after pregnancy and attends births as a doula. She completed her doula training with experienced midwives in Colombia, South America and is knowledgeable about modern birth practices as well as ancestral birth practices and plant medicines. Sara has been practicing massage therapy, including specialties in Prenatal Massage, Post-pregnancy Massage, Deep Tissue Massage and Thai Yoga Massage, in Alexandria for 20 years and has been a yoga instructor for 10 years. At Mind the Mat she specializes in Prenatal Yoga, Post-pregnancy Core Yoga, Mommy & Me Core Yoga, Flow Yoga, Hot Flow Yoga and Deep Stretch. One of Sara's favorite things is teaching in the 200 & 300 Hour Mind the Mat Yoga Teacher Training programs, which she began developing in 2013. Before becoming a massage therapist and yoga instructor, Sara earned her Juris Doctorate from William and Mary Law School and was a lawyer in the Washington D.C. area. She found that the healing practices of massage and yoga brought a balance to her life that she had long been searching for. Sara also has a B.A. in English Literature from University of Michigan and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins. 1:15-1:27 Please, share how you got that courage and made such a big step and drastic change in your career 10:36-10:44 You mentioned that you had to take business partner therapy to work out disagreements with your business partner, I am wondering who does business therapy? Is that a special profession or was it a mediator? 12:31-12:39 How did the yoga studio adapt and evolve throughout the years? 16:11-16:30When the new big names and big brands started coming in and opening how did that affect the business, how did your strategy change, what attracted people, and does it still work now?

Happy Halloween! Tonight's sleepy story is Dracula by Bram Stoker. Published in 1897, this is one of the most famous stories in English Literature. Don't worry, tonight's episode is not terrifying. Jonathan Harker arrives in Transylvania and travels to the estate of Count Dracula. If you like this episode, please remember to follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite podcast app. Also, share with any family or friends that might have trouble drifting off.If you'd like to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here ------> buymeacoffee.com/justsleeppod

Mellisa Parks and Dave Goetz share on The power of telling our stories through Writing About: MELISSA PARKS Melissa Parks is co-founder of Journey Sixty6 and managing director of publishing at CZ Strategy, a strategic marketing agency. She is an Instagram expert, having built a large IG following (Megillicutti). She is a speaker and a writer, contributing to online shelter publications. She and her co-founder, Dave Goetz, started working together more than twenty years ago at a publishing company. She holds an M.A. in English Literature from Loyola University Chicago. DAVE GOETZ Dave Goetz is co-founder of Journey Sixty6 and president of CZ Strategy, a strategic marketing agency. He is a former magazine and book editor and the author of Death by Suburb: How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul(HarperOne). He is also a passionate fly fisher, podcaster (2 Guys and a River), and author of The Fly Fisher's Book of Lists: Life is short. Catch more fish. Dave has coached hundreds of writers and served as editor for books in the area of philanthropy, leadership, spirituality and religion, legacy memoirs, and business. About Journey Sixty6 … Journey Sixty6 is a coaching community for writers. We're a supportive learning environment for aspiring writers who want to tell their story, whether through memoirs, family legacy books, or even business books. Our promise is that with our supportive community and professional guidance you will make faster progress on your book writing project. Our primary product is a monthly coaching membership for writers. It is $66 a month, and you receive access to live weekly Q&A's with Dave and Melissa; teaching on writing, publishing, and book promotion; and access to our library of video resources for how to publish and promote your book. For those writers who are just starting out, we encourage them to take our writing quiz: https://www.journeysixty6.com/book-writing-quiz We also publish a weekly podcast on writing, publishing, and promotion:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/journey-sixty6/id1526755563

Nina Collins interviews Heidi Brown CEO and Editor-in-Chief at Brilliance by Brown, Inc.! A wellness enthusiast and practitioner, Heidi graduated from Columbia Business School, Columbia University with an MBA, and she earned a B.A. in English Literature from University of California, Berkeley. Heidi is member of the Board of Directors for the National Menopause Foundation, and Board Member of The Digital Diversity Network.

Photographing at nightfall, capturing the sense of light in classical music, the charged body of a black Jaguar in the Amazon: Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough's guests poet Pascale Petit, photographer Jasper Goodall, literary expert Alexandra Harris and composer Sally Beamish discuss the way twilight has been reflected in their own work and that of writers and painters of the past. Pascale Petit's collection Fauverie draws on her experiences of watching wildlife at both ends of the day. Her most recent collection is Tiger Girl. Jaspar Goodall has taken a series of images of trees called Twilight's Path which you can find out about on https://www.jaspergoodall.com/ Alexandra Harris's books include Weatherland, Romantic Moderns, Time and Place. She is Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham and a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and AHRC to put academic research on the radio - leading to a feature for BBC Radio 3 on the art of Eric Ravilious, and a series of walking tours in the footsteps of Virginia Woolf https://www.alexandraharris.co.uk/tv-radio Sally Beamish has written various compositions reflecting on light at the beginning and end of the day including Epilogue reflecting on a Quaker prayer meeting, Bridging the Day and Wild Swans inspired by the Yeats poem. https://www.sallybeamish.com/ Producer: Torquil MacLeod BBC Radio 3 is broadcasting a series of programmes reflecting on twilight including a recent episode of the weekly curation of prose and poetry set alongside music Words and Music which will be available on BBC Sounds for 28 days.

In her scintillating new book, The Beauty of the Houri: Heavenly Virgins, Feminine Ideals (Oxford UP, 2021), Nerina Rustomji presents a fascinating and multilayered intellectual and cultural history of the category of the “Houri” and the multiple ideological projects in which it has been inserted over time and space. Nimbly moving between a vast range of discursive theaters including Western Islamophobic representations of the Houri in the post 9/11 context, early modern and modern French and English Literature, premodern Muslim intellectual traditions, and popular preachers on the internet, Rustomji shows the complexity of this category and its unavailability for a canonical definition. The Beauty of the Houri is intellectual history at its best that combines philological rigor with astute theoretical reflection. And all this Rustomji accomplishes in prose the delightfulness of which competes fiercely with its lucidity. SherAli Tareen is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. His research focuses on Muslim intellectual traditions and debates in early modern and modern South Asia. His book Defending Muhammad in Modernity (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020) received the American Institute of Pakistan Studies 2020 Book Prize and was selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book Award. His other academic publications are available here. He can be reached at sherali.tareen@fandm.edu. Listener feedback is most welcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

In her scintillating new book, The Beauty of the Houri: Heavenly Virgins, Feminine Ideals (Oxford UP, 2021), Nerina Rustomji presents a fascinating and multilayered intellectual and cultural history of the category of the “Houri” and the multiple ideological projects in which it has been inserted over time and space. Nimbly moving between a vast range of discursive theaters including Western Islamophobic representations of the Houri in the post 9/11 context, early modern and modern French and English Literature, premodern Muslim intellectual traditions, and popular preachers on the internet, Rustomji shows the complexity of this category and its unavailability for a canonical definition. The Beauty of the Houri is intellectual history at its best that combines philological rigor with astute theoretical reflection. And all this Rustomji accomplishes in prose the delightfulness of which competes fiercely with its lucidity. SherAli Tareen is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. His research focuses on Muslim intellectual traditions and debates in early modern and modern South Asia. His book Defending Muhammad in Modernity (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020) received the American Institute of Pakistan Studies 2020 Book Prize and was selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book Award. His other academic publications are available here. He can be reached at sherali.tareen@fandm.edu. Listener feedback is most welcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

In her scintillating new book, The Beauty of the Houri: Heavenly Virgins, Feminine Ideals (Oxford UP, 2021), Nerina Rustomji presents a fascinating and multilayered intellectual and cultural history of the category of the “Houri” and the multiple ideological projects in which it has been inserted over time and space. Nimbly moving between a vast range of discursive theaters including Western Islamophobic representations of the Houri in the post 9/11 context, early modern and modern French and English Literature, premodern Muslim intellectual traditions, and popular preachers on the internet, Rustomji shows the complexity of this category and its unavailability for a canonical definition. The Beauty of the Houri is intellectual history at its best that combines philological rigor with astute theoretical reflection. And all this Rustomji accomplishes in prose the delightfulness of which competes fiercely with its lucidity. SherAli Tareen is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. His research focuses on Muslim intellectual traditions and debates in early modern and modern South Asia. His book Defending Muhammad in Modernity (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020) received the American Institute of Pakistan Studies 2020 Book Prize and was selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book Award. His other academic publications are available here. He can be reached at sherali.tareen@fandm.edu. Listener feedback is most welcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/islamic-studies

In her scintillating new book, The Beauty of the Houri: Heavenly Virgins, Feminine Ideals (Oxford UP, 2021), Nerina Rustomji presents a fascinating and multilayered intellectual and cultural history of the category of the “Houri” and the multiple ideological projects in which it has been inserted over time and space. Nimbly moving between a vast range of discursive theaters including Western Islamophobic representations of the Houri in the post 9/11 context, early modern and modern French and English Literature, premodern Muslim intellectual traditions, and popular preachers on the internet, Rustomji shows the complexity of this category and its unavailability for a canonical definition. The Beauty of the Houri is intellectual history at its best that combines philological rigor with astute theoretical reflection. And all this Rustomji accomplishes in prose the delightfulness of which competes fiercely with its lucidity. SherAli Tareen is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. His research focuses on Muslim intellectual traditions and debates in early modern and modern South Asia. His book Defending Muhammad in Modernity (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020) received the American Institute of Pakistan Studies 2020 Book Prize and was selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book Award. His other academic publications are available here. He can be reached at sherali.tareen@fandm.edu. Listener feedback is most welcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In her scintillating new book, The Beauty of the Houri: Heavenly Virgins, Feminine Ideals (Oxford UP, 2021), Nerina Rustomji presents a fascinating and multilayered intellectual and cultural history of the category of the “Houri” and the multiple ideological projects in which it has been inserted over time and space. Nimbly moving between a vast range of discursive theaters including Western Islamophobic representations of the Houri in the post 9/11 context, early modern and modern French and English Literature, premodern Muslim intellectual traditions, and popular preachers on the internet, Rustomji shows the complexity of this category and its unavailability for a canonical definition. The Beauty of the Houri is intellectual history at its best that combines philological rigor with astute theoretical reflection. And all this Rustomji accomplishes in prose the delightfulness of which competes fiercely with its lucidity. SherAli Tareen is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. His research focuses on Muslim intellectual traditions and debates in early modern and modern South Asia. His book Defending Muhammad in Modernity (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020) received the American Institute of Pakistan Studies 2020 Book Prize and was selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book Award. His other academic publications are available here. He can be reached at sherali.tareen@fandm.edu. Listener feedback is most welcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author and philosopher Iris Murdoch (1919 - 1999). In her lifetime she was most celebrated for her novels such as The Bell and The Black Prince, but these are now sharing the spotlight with her philosophy. Responding to the horrors of the Second World War, she argued that morality was not subjective or a matter of taste, as many of her contemporaries held, but was objective, and good was a fact we could recognize. To tell good from bad, though, we would need to see the world as it really is, not as we want to see it, and her novels are full of characters who are not yet enlightened enough to do that. With Anil Gomes Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Trinity College, University of Oxford Anne Rowe Visiting Professor at the University of Chichester and Emeritus Research Fellow with the Iris Murdoch Archive Project at Kingston University And Miles Leeson Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre and Reader in English Literature at the University of Chichester Producer: Simon Tillotson

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author and philosopher Iris Murdoch (1919 - 1999). In her lifetime she was most celebrated for her novels such as The Bell and The Black Prince, but these are now sharing the spotlight with her philosophy. Responding to the horrors of the Second World War, she argued that morality was not subjective or a matter of taste, as many of her contemporaries held, but was objective, and good was a fact we could recognize. To tell good from bad, though, we would need to see the world as it really is, not as we want to see it, and her novels are full of characters who are not yet enlightened enough to do that. With Anil Gomes Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Trinity College, University of Oxford Anne Rowe Visiting Professor at the University of Chichester and Emeritus Research Fellow with the Iris Murdoch Archive Project at Kingston University And Miles Leeson Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre and Reader in English Literature at the University of Chichester Producer: Simon Tillotson

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author and philosopher Iris Murdoch (1919 - 1999). In her lifetime she was most celebrated for her novels such as The Bell and The Black Prince, but these are now sharing the spotlight with her philosophy. Responding to the horrors of the Second World War, she argued that morality was not subjective or a matter of taste, as many of her contemporaries held, but was objective, and good was a fact we could recognize. To tell good from bad, though, we would need to see the world as it really is, not as we want to see it, and her novels are full of characters who are not yet enlightened enough to do that. With Anil Gomes Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Trinity College, University of Oxford Anne Rowe Visiting Professor at the University of Chichester and Emeritus Research Fellow with the Iris Murdoch Archive Project at Kingston University And Miles Leeson Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre and Reader in English Literature at the University of Chichester Producer: Simon Tillotson

This Spooky Season episode is inspired by the 405th Anniversary of Ben Johnson's Comedy 'The Devil is an Ass', which appeared first on stage on the 1st October 1616. This play was and is rather special, as it mocks superstition and witchcraft belief, and makes The Devil himself and his lesser demons appear rather behind the times. In the Enlightened Age of the 1600s, the denizens of hell just don't know how to tempt like they once did. This discussion contains everything from the Witchcraft Trials including mention of Pendle, landscapes of superstition, the folklore of archaeology, symbolism within the persecution, and much, much more! Joining me this episode is Prof. D. Purkiss a lecturer in English Literature and History at the University of Oxford. WARNING: This episode does discuss the witchcraft persecution and some aspects of ritual sacrifice. It goes with the topic, but some people might find these aspects a little disturbing. Music Intro/Outro Music - Creative Commons - "Fantasia Fantasia" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ArchPodNet APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet Tee Public Store Affiliates Wildnote TeePublic Timeular

Episode 108. Agnes Sastre Rivera discusses her creative writing process, desires of development, and love for contemporary Puerto Rican poetry. Agnes (she/they) is currently a Ph.D. student at Emory University's Comparative Literature program. They majored in English Literature and have a minor in Women & Gender Studies from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. Agnes is one of the founders of Fractal Puerto Rico, an educational and artistic project. They have organized creative writing workshops in public schools, literary festivals, and online groups. Their poetry book 'pequeñas catastrofes' was published in March 2021 by La Impresora. In their free time, Agnes enjoys listening to podcasts, playing with their Nintendo Switch, and watching Netflix. http://agnessastrerivera.com/

Beth Ridley (https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-ridley-a92b8b5/) believes a positive, connected and committed organizational culture is critical to business success. That's why she combined her 25 years of corporate leadership and management consulting experience with her expertise in diversity and inclusion and positive psychology to launch, The Brimful Life (https://www.thebrimfullife.com/dei/), a coaching and consulting firm that works with executives to strengthen their leadership skills and transform their leadership teams and organizational cultures to better support their vision and strategic goals. In addition, Beth's podcast series, keynote presentations and workshops inspire and equip leaders to put people and culture first. Beth has lived and worked in London, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Bangkok, Boston and New York City. She has a BA in English Literature from the University of Virginia, a MA in International Relations from Tufts University and an MBA from Columbia University. By listening to this conversation with Beth, you'll learn about:   - Post-apartheid South Africa and the Truth and Reconciliation Project - Dress codes and dressing for your day - Workplaces as a site for diversity - Approaching communication with curiosity and compassion

www.janeaward.com Jane Ward is the author of HUNGER (Forge 2001) and THE MOSAIC ARTIST (shortlisted for the 2015 Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize). Her third novel, IN THE AFTERMATH, (She Writes Press), releases in fall 2021. Learn more about and join Jane as she reads from each of her novels here. Jane graduated from Simmons College with a degree in English Literature, the desire to write novels, and an aptitude for–and love of–cooking. Upon graduating, she began working almost immediately in the food and hospitality industry, trying her hand at catering for Creative Gourmets in Boston, planning corporate parties at The 95th Restaurant in Chicago, and baking on the weekends at Quebrada Bakery in Arlington, Massachusetts. She has been a contributing writer to the online regional and seasonal food magazine, Local In Season, and blogger for and occasional host of cooking videos for MPN Online, an internet recipe resource affiliated with several newspapers across the country. Although a Massachusetts native, Jane recently settled in Chicago, after returning to the US from Switzerland. VOX VOMITUS: Sometimes, it's not what goes right in the writing process, it's what goes horribly wrong. Host/Literary horror novelist Jennifer Anne Gordon with help from her co-host/author Allison Martine, chat with some of the best authors of the day. www.jenniferannegordon.com www.afictionalhubbard.com @copyrighted by the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network.

https://www.janeaward.com Jane Ward is the author of HUNGER (Forge 2001) and THE MOSAIC ARTIST (shortlisted for the 2015 Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize). Her third novel, IN THE AFTERMATH, (She Writes Press), releases in fall 2021. Learn more about and join Jane as she reads from each of her novels here. Jane graduated from Simmons College with a degree in English Literature, the desire to write novels, and an aptitude for–and love of–cooking. Upon graduating, she began working almost immediately in the food and hospitality industry, trying her hand at catering for Creative Gourmets in Boston, planning corporate parties at The 95th Restaurant in Chicago, and baking on the weekends at Quebrada Bakery in Arlington, Massachusetts. She has been a contributing writer to the online regional and seasonal food magazine, Local In Season, and blogger for and occasional host of cooking videos for MPN Online, an internet recipe resource affiliated with several newspapers across the country. Although a Massachusetts native, Jane recently settled in Chicago, after returning to the US from Switzerland. VOX VOMITUS: Sometimes, it's not what goes right in the writing process, it's what goes horribly wrong. Host/Literary horror novelist Jennifer Anne Gordon with help from her co-host/author Allison Martine, chat with some of the best authors of the day. www.jenniferannegordon.com www.afictionalhubbard.com @copyrighted by the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network.

Bridget Hodge with the Wethman Group of Keller Williams, grew up in a military family, traveled all over the world, and finally settled in the Northern Virginia area. Growing up, her family has always been involved in real estate: rental properties, staging, renovations and investment properties, so real estate is a family pastime. Bridget received her bachelor's degree in English Literature from Roanoke College and her master's degree in Real Estate & Finance from Georgetown University. Prior to working in residential real estate, she worked for Kaiser Permanente, L-3 Communications, and Jones Lang LaSalle. Bridget also worked as a Listing Agent for a large residential team in Fairfax. As the Listings Director, she offers valuable insight and expertise on the home sale process and provides exceptional care to every client. Bridget is licensed in Virginia, DC, and Maryland.

A native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Francine Lida Stone now divides her time between Pennsylvania and Oxfordshire, England. Francine is the granddaughter of the founder of the David Library of the American Revolution, Sol Feinstone, and the daughter of the Library's first president and director, Ezra Stone. She serves as vice president of the board of the David Library.  Francine holds a BA from Harvard University, a MA from University of London in English Literature, and a PhD in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from University of Manchester.

Couples groups are uniquely positioned to positively influence individuals and strengthen marriages as marital issues are shared in an environment of grace and trust. What are tips for leading couples groups that build safe and meaningful spaces? How can group members come alongside one another to strengthen their marriages? What are the landmines to avoid when leading a couples group? Pop in and listen to veteran group leaders Rick (psychologist) and Sheri Blackmon (Bible teacher and pastor), married for 40+ years, share their wisdom and experiences from leading young marrieds to empty nester groups.   Guests: Rick Blackmon, PhD in Clinical Psychology and Sheri Blackmon, MDiv Fuller Theological Seminary Rick Blackmon PhD (Fuller Theological Seminary) is a clinical psychologist in private practice for 35+ years. He specializes in working with adults, marriages, and clergy on their own emotional and spiritual growth. Rick taught a course at Fuller Theological Seminary for 22 years on clergy growth and has led many seminars on marital issues throughout his career.  Sheri Blackmon has BAs in English Literature and Religious Studies from Westmont College and an MDiv degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. She was ordained as pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA) where she served for 15 years mainly as Associate Pastor, which included small groups ministry. Sheri moved into Christian education at an independent college preparatory 6-12 school for 19+ years as founding member, chaplain, department chair, and teacher. She blogs about “finding your footing and purpose in a life disrupter” at https://lifeafterwhy.com/   

Join me for a wonderful look into the latest book by author Rebecca Pacheco, as she explores themes of meditation and mindfulness in her latest book, Still Life. Rebecca is the author of “Do Your Om Thing” (Harper Collins, 2015) and skillfully presents the reader with an instruction guide to learning this time-tested tradition, while weaving personal stories into the narrative. Rebecca's writing style feels like the friend you need right now to listen and guide you through stressful times and also at the same time, through showing her own vulnerability, encourages you to be bold in showing your's as well.    You can get Rebecca's book anywhere books are sold and find her on Instagram @omgal.   Rebecca Pacheco is the author of two books: Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living, published by HarperCollins in August 2021 and Do Your Om Thing (2015), which was named one of the “top ten yoga and meditation books every yogi needs” by Yoga Journal and is used in teacher training programs across the United States. She has more than 20 years of experience practicing and teaching yoga and meditation and has appeared on NPR and The CBC and been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Reuters, and more. She frequently contributes to the Boston Globe on a range of mind-body topics and is a graduate of the University of Richmond, where she studied English Literature and Women's Studies. She lives in Boston with her family.

In 1904, adventure novelist H. Rider Haggard awoke from a dream with the conviction that his daughter's dog was dying. He dismissed the impression as a nightmare, but the events that followed seemed to give it a grim significance. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Haggard's strange experience, which briefly made headlines around the world. We'll also consider Alexa's expectations and puzzle over a college's name change. Intro: Marshall Bean got himself drafted by reversing his name. An air traveler may jump into tomorrow without passing midnight. "Bob, although he belonged to my daughter, who bought him three years ago, was a great friend of mine, but I cannot say that my soul was bound up in him," Haggard wrote. "He was a very intelligent animal, and generally accompanied me in my walks about the farm, and almost invariably came to say good morning to me." Sources for our feature on Haggard's nightmare and its sequel: H. Rider Haggard, The Days of My Life, 1923. Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, "Phantasms of the Living," Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 86:33 (October 1922), 23-429. H. Rider Haggard, Delphi Complete Works of H. Rider Haggard, 2013. Peter Berresford Ellis, H. Rider Haggard: A Voice From the Infinite, 1978. C.L. Graves and E.V. Lucas, "Telepathy Day by Day," Bill Peschel, et al., The Early Punch Parodies of Sherlock Holmes, 2014. Harold Orel, "Hardy, Kipling, and Haggard," English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 25:4 (1982), 232-248. "Spiritualism Among Animals" Public Opinion 39:18 (Oct. 28, 1905), 566. "Character Sketch: Commissioner H. Rider Haggard," Review of Reviews 32:187 (July 1905), 20-27. "Rider Haggard on Telepathy," Muswellbrook [N.S.W.] Chronicle, Oct. 8, 1904. "Case," Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 11:212 (October 1904), 278-290. "Mr. Rider Haggard's Dream," [Rockhampton, Qld.] Morning Bulletin, Sept. 24, 1904. "Has a Dog a Soul?" [Adelaide] Evening Journal, Sept. 21, 1904. "Spirit of the Dog," The World's News [Sydney], Sept. 10, 1904. "Thought-Telepathy: H. Rider Haggard's Dog," [Sydney] Daily Telegraph, Aug. 31, 1904. "Dog's Spirit Talks," The World's News [Sydney], Aug. 27, 1904. "Telepathy (?) Between a Human Being and a Dog," [Sydney] Daily Telegraph, Aug. 25, 1904. "Mr. Rider Haggard's Ghost Dog," Kansas City Star, Aug. 22, 1904. "The Nightmare of a Novelist," Fresno Morning Republican, Aug. 21, 1904. "Psychological Mystery," Hawaiian Star, Aug. 20, 1904. H.S., "Superstition and Psychology," Medical Press and Circular 129:7 (Aug. 17, 1904), 183-184. "Canine Telepathy," [Montreal] Gazette, Aug. 10, 1904. "Telepathy (?) Between a Human Being and a Dog," Times, Aug. 9, 1904. "Haggard and His Dog," Washington Post, Aug. 7, 1904. "Mr. Haggard's Strange Dream," New York Times, July 31, 1904. "Country Notes," Country Life 16:395 (July 30, 1904), 147-149. "Mr. Rider Haggard's Dream," Light 24:1229 (July 30, 1904), 364. "Telepathy Between Human Beings and Dogs," English Mechanic and World of Science 79:2053 (July 29, 1904), 567. John Senior, Spirituality in the Fiction of Henry Rider Haggard, dissertation, Rhodes University, 2003. Wallace Bursey, Rider Haggard: A Study in Popular Fiction, dissertation, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1972. Morton N. Cohen, "Haggard, Sir (Henry) Rider," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Sept. 23, 2004. Listener mail: "How to pronounce Akira Kurosawa," Forvo (accessed Oct. 1, 2021). Sarah Sicard, "How the Heck Do You Pronounce 'Norfolk'?" Military Times, July 30, 2020. William S. Forrest, Historical and Descriptive Sketches of Norfolk and Vicinity, 1853. "Dubois, Wyoming," Wikipedia (accessed Oct. 1, 2021). "Our History," Destination Dubois (accessed Oct. 2, 2021). This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Tony Filanowski. Here's a corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

How science fiction's hopes and fears can inspire humanity's response to the climate crisis. Chris Pak, lecturer in English Literature at Swansea University, explores the history of science fiction stories about terraforming, geoengineering, space and climate change – and why they're vital reading ahead of the November 2021 UN climate change conference in Glasgow. You can read the text version of this in-depth article here. The audio version is read by Peter Hanly in partnership with Noa, News Over Audio. You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, for free, on the Noa app. The music in In Depth Out Loud is Night Caves by Lee Rosevere. In Depth Out Loud is produced by Gemma Ware.This story came out of a project at The Conversation called Insights supported by Research England. You can read more stories in the series here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this conversation Jeff Carreira speaks with author and former rockstar, Gary Lachman about his book Dark Star Rising: Magik and Power in the Age of Trump, and the reality of magic in the world today. The conversation explores how Gary's post-modern attitudes have led to the revitalization of magic in the world, and includes discussion about the twentieth century magician Aleister Crowley, psychologist Carl Jung, the English philosopher Collin Wilson, and other pioneers of modern magic. Gary Lachman is the author of twenty-one books on topics ranging from the evolution of consciousness, to popular culture and the history of the occult. Before becoming a full-time writer Lachman studied philosophy, managed a new age bookshop, taught English Literature, and was a founding member of the pop group Blondie. In 2006 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Lachman was born in New Jersey, and has lived in London since 1996.

— “I wish that I'd had Vibrational Astrology when I was younger. My currents explain a lot of things about myself that I couldn't verbalize before, even though I knew they were there. It identifies very critical parts of yourself that can't be seen by the naked eye in the natal chart. It's a vital tool for coming to understand yourself and not struggling with who you are.” — Says Clarrisa Valeria Teles interviews Clarissa Dolphin — a Shamanic Healer, Certified Vibrational Astrologer, Tarot Diviner, Reiki Master, Writer, And Speaker based in Los Angeles. Clarissa Dolphin's work has been featured in The Career Astrologer, Dirty Laundry, White Hot, Broccoli City, Notion and award-winning Australian art publication FAINT. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2006 with B.A.s in English Literature and English Writing and walked away with a Masters in Publishing from the University of the Arts London in 2008.  Clarissa received her Professional Astrology Certificate (PAC) in January, 2018 from the Avalon School of Astrology after apprenticing for nearly three years under David Cochrane, the founder of Vibrational Astrology and master of modern harmonics. Clarissa's breakthrough astrological research projects include the discovery of the meaning and interpretive application of the Lunar Nodes, the Quincunx aspect, as well as the Parts of Fortunes and Spirit in Vibrational Astrology. She regularly presents her research discoveries as a lecturer in various venues. She was elected to the Board of Directors for the International Society for Astrological Research in February 2021, to serve until 2025. To learn more about Clarissa Dolphin and her work, please visit: siderealsoul.com     — This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life through the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well. 

Lucy H. Pearce is the author of ten life-changing non-fiction books, including Nautilus Award winners Medicine Woman, Burning Woman, and Creatrix: she who makes. Her writing focuses on women's healing through archetypal psychology, embodiment, historical awareness and creativity. Her work has been shared internationally in online and print media. Her latest book, She of the Sea, launched this past July. An award-winning graduate in History of Ideas with English Literature from Kingston University, and a PGCE from Cambridge University, Lucy founded Womancraft Publishing, publishing paradigm-shifting books by women for women, in 2014. Lucy is a multi-faceted creative whose work spans the expressive arts, exploring the lost archetypes of the feminine and symbols of the soul. The mother of three children, she lives in a small village by the Celtic Sea in East Cork, Ireland. Connect with Lucy www.lucyhpearce.com www.womancraftpublishing.com www.instagram.com/lucyhpearce Where to connect with Andrea Website: https://andreaclaassen.com/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/seasonallivingmamas Freebie: 5 Day Ayurvedic Challenge- https://andreaclaassen.com/5-day-ayurvedic-challenge Divine Body Wisdom Book- https://andreaclaassen.com/book Andrea Claassen Bio Andrea Claassen is an Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor, RYT 500 hour yoga teacher, and Wild Woman Project Circle leader who has been in the wellness space since 2007. Her mission is to help people slow down, tune in, and connect to your divine body wisdom.  She does this by teaching her Peaceful Power Practices centered around movement, mindfulness & mother nature through an Ayurvedic lens. You can hear more from Andrea on her Peaceful Power Podcast where she aims to deliver actionable takeaways to live a more holistic lifestyle. Connect with Andrea on her website at www.andreaclaassen.com

40 Thieves on Saipan is the thrilling, untold WWII story of an elite platoon of Marines: the Sixth Marine Regiment's Scout-Snipers—nicknamed the “Forty Thieves” by their peers. The platoon's unique skills in stealth, deadly hand-to-hand combat, and reconnaissance behind enemy lines helped gain a critical victory in the Pacific theatre. Written by the son of their leader, Lieutenant “Ski”, this inspiring narrative was composed from years of research and face-to-face interviews with the surviving Thieves. Joseph Tachovsky is the author of 40 Thieves on Saipan and the son of the platoon's leader. Graduating with degrees in English Literature, Theater and Art History made him perfectly qualified for a life in the hospitality trade. Based in Minneapolis, his restaurant creations have earned reviews and mentions in Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, Esquire, The Rolling Stone, The New York Times and Jim Harrison's The Raw and The Cooked.    For more information see 40thievessaipan.com  Wait, there is more!!! Have a look at  www.mystepstosobriety.com  to see which other books and projects I am involved in!  And follow me on Instagram, Podcast, Facebook and Linkedin! https://stephanneff.podbean.com/ https://www.facebook.com/stepstosobriety/ https://www.instagram.com/stepstosobriety/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephan-neff-author/

Guest Kate Shanahan, Dartmouth '96, had grown up in Hanover in her elementary years and searched for colleges elsewhere. But nothing compared to the College on the Hill and so returned to rediscover the campus she knew so well. It took her time to find her groove but English literature lit a spark for her. Later, she found the Education department and the encounters she had there with professors and the material was life-changing. Upon graduation, she spent six more months in Hanover in the teacher preparation program, student teaching in a classroom that she'd been in as a nine-year-old.While she loved teaching and knew she was good at it, she did wonder whether she wanted to make it her life-long profession. A wise adviser suggested that her focus should be not so long term but rather about what to do right now. That laid her on the expected path to teaching. But in taking spending time on the west coast during the six months before taking on her first full-time classroom, she took a by-road would set an unexpected course for a geographic switch.In this episode, find out from Kate how focusing on the first step can take the pressure of off forever, but lead you there anyway…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley. About This Episode's GuestKate Shanahan taught at several private schools on the East Coast before moving to California and joining the Harker faculty of the Harker School in San Jose, California, in 1998. During her long tenure at Harker, she has led the English department and has taught both upper elementary grades, chiefly grade 5 English and writing. She lives with her husband and two sons in sunny San Jose. Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings RowleyMusic: Brian Burrows Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.comEmail the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Welcome to Season 6 Episode 2 of Race, Culture & Beyond: A Naked Conversation Podcast. On today's episode, we are joined by Trent Norman of Affinity Arts Consulting as we discuss improving human connection and advancing Social Justice through the art of Theatre.  Trent Norman (he/his/him/they/them/theirs) has a history of Diversity & Inclusion work;  As a student activist, he created the (1) Black Students Organization at Fort Lewis College, (2) UCAP (United Coalition Against Prejudice) – a not-for-profit organization created to address the Ku Klux Klan, and a (3) a performance Theatre group.    Trent received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature and Theatre Performance while participating as a Residence Assistant and a student-athlete; Trent's Master of Science is in Social Psychology; focusing his energies on group dynamics and facilitation.    Trent continued his love of theatre as the co-founder and director of the University of Colorado's Interactive Theatre Project and Affinity Arts Consulting (AAC).    Through AAC Trent has created and facilitated performance about social issues for a variety of audiences including restorative justice practitioners, national and international university conferences, first-year student orientations, K-12 teacher educators, sexual assault prosecutor, and support services and environmental justice advocates; using theatre to engage audiences in learning and information sharing.    Additionally, Trent works with the Center for Academic Performance Excellence (CAPE) on the University of Colorado's Anschutz medical campus helping medical professionals improve their practice, communication skills and patient relationships as an actor and facilitator. He has served as the Assistant Director for Organizational Diversity at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he developed a stand-alone Diversity curriculum implemented by other instructors he trained. Trent created and implemented a diversity plan for the Division of Student Affairs, engaged the Department of Housing and Dining Services in a unit-wide Diversity training and with colleague Rebecca Brown Adelman received the NYU Steinhart excellence award for innovative theatre practices for their work at the University of Colorado and Affinity Arts. Trent has published and leads workshops on facilitation and used that experience to center his diversity & inclusion work. Trent participated in the Social Justice Training Institute (as a participant and intern); has been certified to train in the NCBI (National Coalition Building Institute) model; has a training certificate from NCORE (National Conference On Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education) and completed the Social Justice Education Training Certificate from NCORE. Trent is also a professional photographer, writer, ski instructor, and avid cyclist.    The conversation with Trent is not only thought-provoking but rich with experience, humor, and wisdom. Tune in to hear Trent discuss: The connection between JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) and Theatre  How Theatre can be used as a tool for exploring identity How Theatre can amplify and bridge the gap between intention and impact Strategies for creating spaces for real and raw conversations to take place   Thank you thank you for listening to the show.  It is such an honor to have these conversations with you. They are necessary and needed and we are here to do the work. A special thank you to Trent for his time, his expertise, and his wisdom.    For access to ALL the resources mentioned, sign up for the “resource roundup” at sagebhobbs.com/nc-podcast.    The (short & awesome) newsletter will also keep you in the loop on the latest episodes, and other opportunities.    Let's connect: Like what you hear? Please subscribe to Naked Conversations on Apple Podcasts. Or Stitcher. Or Google Play. Or any of the following – Overcast, Blubbry, TuneIn Radio, Player.fm.   For (much appreciated) gold stars: Leave a rating + review! Just a few short words will help more folks find the show and be a part of this conversation. Thank you!    Also, please send a DM on Instagram to @sagebhobbs or @ericayhoward to let us know what you love about the show, what topics you'd like to hear covered, or your dream interviewee.

When I was in school, my favorite subject was mathematics. I absolutely loved algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. I guess I was just one of those weird kids that loved numbers and what you could do with them. To be honest with you, I suppose the reason I loved math so much was the fact that it had a definitive answer to every problem presented. Only one answer was correct and yours was either right or wrong…that's it…it left no room for interpretation, analysis, discussion, or a professor's mood swings, like essay tests in English Literature. There were absolutely no gray areas, period! Well, if you live the Christian life very long, you soon learn that, sometimes, there seem to be gray areas when it comes to deciding what's right or wrong, good or bad…in other words, what is sin and what isn't. Now, there are some things that leave absolutely no doubt. In fact, there are 10 of them. They're called the 10 Commandments. When God says, “Thou shalt not,” well, thou shalt not. But what about the things that don't make the Top 10, that aren't chiseled in stone, but are close enough to make us pause and think…is this a sin or isn't it? After all, God's word tells us to abstain from even the appearance of sin! Well, that's what I'll be dealing with on today's podcast. Well take a look at the gray areas of right and wrong and learn what to do: When It's Not Black-and-White. Stay with me, because that's coming up on this episode of Living Lite Today.

This week I spoke with Dr. Marion Turner, a professor of English Literature at Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. Her latest book, Chaucer: A European Life is a major biography of the great midlevel poet. Her book was chosen as Book of the Year in 2019 in The Times, The Sunday Times, and the TLS. In 2020 it was shortlisted for the Wolfson History prize and for which she was awarded the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize. Marion's Books The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis, 1950 A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf, 1929 Emma, Jane Austen, 1815 The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, 1392 The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro, 2015 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nine Ways to Connect with God with Gary Thomas   “So then, let us pursue [with enthusiasm] the things which make for peace and the building up of one another [things which lead to spiritual growth].” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭14:19‬ ‭(AMP‬‬)   Questions We Discuss: 1. Will you teach us what each of these nine spiritual temperaments are? 2. How can each of us identify our primary pathway? 3. What benefits come from identifying our own pathway and the pathway of others?   Gary Thomas' writing and speaking focuses on bringing people closer to Christ and closer to others.   He is the author of 20 books that together have sold over two million copies and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. These books include When to Walk Away: Finding Freedom from Toxic People;  Sacred Marriage: What if God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?, The Sacred Search: What If It's Not About Who You Marry, but Why?, and the Gold Medallion award winner Authentic Faith.   Gary holds a B.A. in English Literature from Western Washington University, an MA degree in systematic theology from Regent College (Vancouver, BC), and an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Western Seminary (Portland, OR).   He serves on the teaching team (and as Writer in Residence) at Second Baptist Church, Houston—a congregation with six campuses and 70,000 members—and is an adjunct faculty member at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon and Houston Theological Seminary in Houston, Texas.   Gary's speaking ministry has led him to speak in 49 states and nine different countries, and on numerous national television and radio programs, including multiple appearances on Focus on the Family and Family Life Today. Gary's interviews on Focus on the Family have been chosen among the “Best of 2013,” “Best of 2014” and “Best of 2017.”   Gary enjoys running in his spare time and has completed 14 marathons, including the Boston Marathon three times. He and his wife Lisa have been married for 35 years and they have three adult children and the smartest, cutest, most adorable granddaughter on the planet.   Gary is active online through his website (www.garythomas.com), twitter (@garyLthomas) Facebook (www.facebook.com/authorgarythomas) and Instagram (@garythomasbooks)   At The Savvy Sauce, we will only recommend resources we believe in! We also want you to be aware: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.    Sacred Pathways: Nine Ways to Connect with God   Thank You to Our Sponsor: WinShape Marriage   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)   Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”