Podcasts about Enron

The Let's Go to the Phones boys watch the NBA draft LIVE and give their award winning analysis for the newest members of the 76ers, VJ Edgecombe! Let us be the first to welcome VJ to Philadelphia!We discuss why Ace Bailey is a nutjob, praise VJ Edgecombe as a 100% no-doubt can't miss draft pick, and declare ourselves the Enron of the Philadelphia podcast scene. Subscribe, rate and review Let's Go To The Phones on whichever platform you enjoy the show- Follow us on all our socials- https://twitter.com/letsgo2thephone https://www.instagram.com/letsgotothephones/?hl=en

Congress is reconsidering the accounting guardrails it put in place more than two decades ago to ensure investors can trust the revenues and asset values listed companies publish. Republican budget proposals would abolish the US audit regulator and reassign its work to the Securities and Exchange Commission. While lawmakers negotiate over what will end up in a final version of their tax and spending bill, the proposals have prompted debate over how best to regulate auditors and the role of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. A member of the board and two former executives turned whistleblowers of once-corporate titans Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. spoke with Bloomberg Tax reporter Amanda Iacone about whether the audit regulator should remain independent or whether it would benefit from being folded into the federal government. On this episode of Talking Tax, Sherron Watkins, a former Enron finance executive, and Cynthia Cooper, a former WorldCom chief audit executive, argue that Congress shouldn't scrap an agency that oversees auditors that act as investors' last line of defense. To Christina Ho, a current PCAOB member who has objected to the board's approach, moving auditor oversight to the SEC would counter what she sees as regulatory overreach and provide new opportunities to improve audit quality. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

In this episode, entrepreneur and founder Chuck Hall takes us on a powerful journey—starting with his earliest days mowing lawns and delivering newspapers, to building a national construction company that now operates across 14 states and specializes in senior living facilities.After rising through the ranks at top construction firms, Chuck's trajectory took a dramatic turn when he was fired in 1998. But instead of spiraling, he saw an opening—leveraging grit, creativity, and a well-timed opportunity with Enron to launch Charles Hall Construction. With a foundation rooted in four guiding values—live to learn, be a friend, walk the talk, and finish strong—Chuck grew his company through economic downturns, a global pandemic, and beyond.He shares how he eventually transitioned from working in the business to working on the business, now spending 70% of his time coaching and developing his team. A long-time believer in peer groups and entrepreneurial forums, Chuck reflects on 28 years of learning and growth through candid conversations with other business leaders.You'll hear about the full-circle moment when his parents got to witness his success, and the one piece of wisdom he hopes every leader remembers: “Be curious.” Because curiosity unlocks information, removes assumptions, and ultimately leads to better outcomes.This is a story about resilience, reinvention, and the power of relationships to shape our path forward.Please visit www.internationalfacilitatorsorganization.com to learn more about Mo Fathelbab and International Facilitators Organization (IFO), a leading provider of facilitators and related group facilitation services, providing training, certification, marketing services, education, and community for peer group facilitators at all stages of their career.

Earmark Media Presents a bonus episode of Earmark Podcast:  What happens when Congress votes to eliminate the watchdog that's overseen public company audits for two decades? In this episode, Blake Oliver sits down with three leading accounting academics—Maureen McNichols from Stanford, Nemit Shroff from MIT, and Daniel Aobdia from Penn State—to examine the research behind the PCAOB's effectiveness and what elimination could mean for audit quality. You'll discover why companies with clean audit inspections can raise capital more easily, how the infamous "40% deficiency rate" actually works, and why these researchers believe dismantling the PCAOB could undermine trust in U.S. capital markets. The conversation reveals the hidden economics of audit oversight and explains why there hasn't been a major public company fraud since Enron and WorldCom.Chapters(00:00) - Welcome to the Show (01:10) - Meet the Experts (02:59) - Discussion on PCAOB's Elimination (08:17) - Research Insights on PCAOB's Effectiveness (20:11) - Deficiency Rates and Audit Quality (24:50) - Economic Impact of Fraud and PCAOB's Role (25:20) - Regulatory Model of the PCAOB (25:59) - Incentive Structure and Audit Quality (26:59) - Inspection Deficiency Rates (28:54) - Restatement Rates vs. Deficiency Rates (30:23) - Auditor-Client Relationship Tensions (31:42) - Documentation Issues in Audits (35:15) - Effectiveness of PCAOB Inspections (37:49) - Impact of PCAOB on Financial Reporting Quality (40:33) - Potential Elimination of the PCAOB (44:00) - Conclusion and Final Thoughts Sign up to get free CPE for listening to this podcasthttps://earmarkcpe.comhttps://earmark.app/Download the Earmark CPE App Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/earmark-cpe/id1562599728Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.earmarkcpe.appConnect with Our Guests:Maureen McNicholshttps://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/maureen-mcnicholsNemit Shroffhttps://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/nemit-shroffDaniel Aobdiahttps://directory.smeal.psu.edu/dza5396Connect with Blake Oliver, CPALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaketoliverTwitter: https://twitter.com/blaketoliver/

This Day in Legal History: SEC EstablishedOn this day in legal history, June 6, 1934, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was established as part of the sweeping reforms of the New Deal. The SEC was created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in response to the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression, which exposed widespread fraud, manipulation, and lack of oversight in the financial markets. Its primary mission was, and remains, to protect investors; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and facilitate capital formation.President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Joseph P. Kennedy, a former stockbroker and businessman, as the SEC's first chairman. The choice was controversial—Kennedy had profited handsomely from some of the same speculative practices the SEC was meant to prevent—but Roosevelt believed that Kennedy's insider knowledge would make him an effective regulator.The SEC was empowered to regulate the securities industry, enforce federal securities laws, and oversee the nation's stock and options exchanges. Among its early duties were requiring public companies to file detailed financial disclosures, registering securities before public offering, and monitoring insider trading. The commission also played a key role in restoring investor confidence in U.S. capital markets during a time of deep financial mistrust.Over time, the SEC expanded its reach, responding to new financial products, trading technologies, and crises. From investigating corporate accounting scandals like Enron and WorldCom, to managing the regulatory fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, the SEC has remained a pivotal force in shaping American financial law. It continues to evolve, now addressing issues such as crypto asset regulation, ESG disclosures, and algorithmic trading.Speaking of the SEC, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton dismissed a lawsuit challenging the SEC 2020 rule changes that made it more difficult for shareholders to submit proposals at corporate annual meetings. The rules, enacted late in President Trump's term, raised the ownership thresholds and lengthened holding periods required to file shareholder proposals. They also introduced stricter resubmission requirements for proposals previously rejected by shareholders.The plaintiffs, including the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, As You Sow, and shareholder advocate James McRitchie, argued the changes disproportionately harmed proposals on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues and reduced long-term shareholder value. They claimed the SEC failed to assess the benefits of such proposals before implementing the rules.Judge Walton rejected these claims, ruling that the SEC adequately justified the changes under its mandate to promote efficiency, competition, and capital formation. The SEC, which had defended the rules during both the Trump and Biden administrations, argued that the reforms ensured shareholder proposals had broader relevance and potential for meaningful corporate action. The 2020 vote on the rule changes split along party lines, with Republican commissioners in support. While the SEC declined to comment on the ruling, the plaintiffs expressed disappointment and affirmed their commitment to corporate engagement on environmental and social issues.SEC wins dismissal of lawsuit challenging tighter rules on shareholder proposals | ReutersOpenAI filed an appeal challenging a court order that requires it to indefinitely preserve ChatGPT output data in an ongoing copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times. OpenAI argues the order conflicts with its user privacy commitments and sets a troubling precedent. The preservation directive was issued last month after The Times requested that all relevant log data be maintained and segregated.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly criticized the order on social media, affirming the company's stance against actions it sees as compromising user privacy. The appeal, filed on June 3, asks U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein to vacate the preservation requirement.The lawsuit, filed in 2023, accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of using millions of Times articles without permission to train ChatGPT. In April, Judge Stein ruled that The Times had plausibly alleged that OpenAI and Microsoft may have encouraged users to reproduce copyrighted content. The ruling rejected parts of a motion to dismiss the case and allowed several of the Times' claims to move forward, citing multiple examples of ChatGPT generating material closely resembling Times articles.OpenAI appeals data preservation order in NYT copyright case | ReutersPresident Donald Trump's 2026 budget proposal includes a plan to eliminate the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), an independent agency that funds civil legal aid for low-income Americans. The proposal seeks $21 million for an "orderly closeout" of the organization, which had requested $2.1 billion to meet growing demand. The LSC supports 130 nonprofit legal aid programs that assist with issues such as evictions, disaster recovery, and access to public benefits.Critics warn that the move would devastate legal aid access for millions, particularly in rural areas and the South. In Louisiana, for example, there is just one legal aid lawyer for every 11,250 eligible residents. Legal aid leaders say they already turn away half of those seeking help due to budget constraints, and the proposed funding cut would further limit their reach.Organizations like Southeast Louisiana Legal Services and Legal Aid of North Carolina would lose 40–50% of their funding, jeopardizing services for communities still recovering from recent hurricanes. Legal Services NYC, the largest legal aid provider in the country, has implemented a hiring freeze in anticipation of possible cuts.The proposal revives a long-standing conservative goal. Past Republican efforts to dismantle the LSC date back to the Reagan era, and Trump made a similar attempt in 2018. The Heritage Foundation has accused the LSC of supporting controversial causes, but legal aid advocates argue the organization is vital to community stability and fairness in the justice system.Trump Plan to Ax Legal Aid a Conservative Aim That Targets PoorIn a piece I wrote for Forbes last week, I discuss how the IRS has quietly released the underlying codebase for its Direct File program on GitHub, marking a rare moment of transparency in government software. At the center of this release is something called the “Fact Graph,” a logic engine that models tax rules as interrelated facts rather than a linear checklist. Built using XML and Scala, the Fact Graph interprets ambiguous tax data, identifies contradictions or omissions, and suggests paths forward, all in a transparent, declarative format.What sets this apart is that, unlike proprietary tax software, Direct File's logic isn't hidden—it's open, reviewable, and potentially improvable by anyone. This move not only demystifies some of the inner workings of tax enforcement but also sets a precedent: if algorithms are mediating our legal obligations, we should be able to see and understand the rules they follow.The release is particularly striking in an era of eroding public trust in institutions and increasing reliance on automated decision-making. While Direct File itself remains limited in scope and its future uncertain, the open-sourcing of its logic engine may have laid the groundwork for broader change. Other agencies—from state tax departments to those experimenting with AI-driven policy enforcement—could adopt similar transparency, allowing the public to engage with and even help refine the systems that govern them.Peeking Behind The Code—IRS Just Open-Sourced Direct FileThis week's closing theme is by Robert Schumann and comes courtesy of Christopher Zbinden. This week's closing theme is Robert Schumann's Toccata in C major, Op. 7, a dazzling showcase of Romantic-era pianism and one of the most technically demanding works in the standard repertoire. Composed in 1830 and revised in 1833, the piece earned a reputation early on as a pianist's Everest—Franz Liszt himself dubbed it “the hardest piece ever written.” Clocking in at just over five minutes when played at tempo, it's a relentless whirlwind of perpetual motion, requiring both physical stamina and interpretive precision.The toccata form, traditionally a virtuosic keyboard piece emphasizing dexterity, becomes in Schumann's hands something more cerebral. Beneath its bravura surface lies a structure built on two contrasting themes, developed with intricate counterpoint and rhythmic displacement. The left hand must execute rapid repeated notes and wide leaps with precision, while the right weaves through syncopated figures and chromatic runs, creating a dense musical texture.Schumann dedicated the piece to his friend Ludwig Schuncke, who had recently died at the age of 23. That personal connection adds an emotional layer to a work that might otherwise be heard as pure technical spectacle. Unlike many showpieces of the era, Schumann's Toccata isn't just difficult for difficulty's sake—it's an expression of obsession, energy, and youthful ambition.For a composer better known for lyrical piano miniatures, the Toccata is an early signal of the depth and range Schumann would explore in later works. As this week closes, it offers a fitting sendoff: intricate, driven, and a little manic—in the best Romantic sense of the word.Without further ado, Robert Schumann's Toccata in C major, Op. 7 – enjoy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

What happens when Congress votes to eliminate the watchdog that's overseen public company audits for two decades? In this episode, Blake Oliver sits down with three leading accounting academics—Maureen McNichols from Stanford, Nemit Shroff from MIT, and Daniel Aobdia from Penn State—to examine the research behind the PCAOB's effectiveness and what elimination could mean for audit quality. You'll discover why companies with clean audit inspections can raise capital more easily, how the infamous "40% deficiency rate" actually works, and why these researchers believe dismantling the PCAOB could undermine trust in U.S. capital markets. The conversation reveals the hidden economics of audit oversight and explains why there hasn't been a major public company fraud since Enron and WorldCom.Chapters(00:49) - Legislation Impact on Audit Oversight (01:10) - Meet the Experts (02:59) - Discussion on PCAOB's Elimination (08:17) - Research Insights on PCAOB's Effectiveness (20:11) - Deficiency Rates and Audit Quality (24:50) - Economic Impact of Fraud and PCAOB's Role (25:20) - Regulatory Model of the PCAOB (25:59) - Incentive Structure and Audit Quality (26:59) - Inspection Deficiency Rates (28:54) - Restatement Rates vs. Deficiency Rates (30:23) - Auditor-Client Relationship Tensions (31:42) - Documentation Issues in Audits (35:15) - Effectiveness of PCAOB Inspections (37:49) - Impact of PCAOB on Financial Reporting Quality (40:33) - Potential Elimination of the PCAOB (44:00) - Conclusion and Final Thoughts Sign up to get free CPE for listening to this podcasthttps://earmarkcpe.comhttps://earmark.app/Download the Earmark CPE App Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/earmark-cpe/id1562599728Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.earmarkcpe.appConnect with Our Guests:Maureen McNichols https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/maureen-mcnicholsNemit Shroffhttps://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/nemit-shroffDaniel Aobdia https://directory.smeal.psu.edu/dza5396Connect with Blake Oliver, CPALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaketoliverTwitter: https://twitter.com/blaketoliver/

John Arnold built his fortune in energy trading by surrounding himself with smart people, maintaining emotional detachment, sensing market imbalances through first-principles analysis, and focusing with laser intensity on a single niche until he dominated it completely. Now he's applying that same analytical rigor to philanthropy, where he's discovered that changing human behavior for the long term proves far more challenging than predicting natural gas prices, and that the academic research meant to guide social policy is often riddled with perverse incentives and poor methodology. Tyler and John discuss his shift from trading to philanthropy and more, including the specific traits that separate great traders from good ones, the tradeoffs of following an "inch wide, mile deep" trading philosophy, why he attended Vanderbilt, the talent culture at Enron, the growth in solar, the problem with Mexico's energy system, where Canada's energy exports will go, the hurdles to next-gen nuclear, how to fix America's tripartite energy grid, how we'll power new data centers, what's best about living in Houston, his approach to collecting art, why trading's easier than philanthropy, how he'd fix tax the US tax code and primary system, and what Arnold Ventures is focusing on next. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded April 28th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow John on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

Enron CEO Connor Gaydos joins Token Relations co-founder Jacquelyn Melinek at Consensus 2025 with a deep dive into the revival of Enron, which he believes could be the "greatest comeback story of all time." Connor outlines a vision of Enron as a beacon of hope and innovation in the energy sector, beginning with upgrading the outdated U.S. electrical grid. Plus, their strategy around meme marketing and the recent challenges with launching a cryptocurrency.-This content should not be construed or relied upon as investment advice. It is for entertainment and general information purposes.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Description: In Episode 79 of Trade Splaining, Rob and Ardian dive deep into the surprising relevance of decarbonizing global shipping, why GDP might not be the best metric anymore, and how the EU and UK are slowly making Brexit... not a thing. We also ask: is multilateralism really dead—or just resting?

Joseph Chacon, CEO of Padge LLC, discusses the impact of electrical harmonics on wind turbines and solar systems, providing insights into causes, consequences, and effective solutions for improving power quality. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Joe, welcome to the show.  Joseph Chacon: Thank you. I appreciate it.  Allen Hall: Well, I'm glad we connected, uh, through Jon Zalar, I believe, and we don't talk electrical power creation or what that. Kind of power we're creating and what the effect of that power is on systems downstream very often, uh, the Uptime podcast, because there's so many wind turbine issues, is mostly focused on mechanical problems. But we're finding that more and more problems may have an electrical origin. We wanted to get an expert in here that would be you to come help us on harmonics because there are requirements about harmonics.  Joseph Chacon: There are, uh, IEEE five 19 governs [00:01:00] the requirements for harmonics. At the point of common coupling. Allen Hall: That's correct. And your prior experiences with ge, which is now GE Renova down in South Carolina, that's correct. But you were involved, maybe give a brief description of the things you're working on because when electrical people talk, um, kind of gets lost in translation. You were knee deep, maybe waist deep, maybe eyeballs deep and electrical  Joseph Chacon: power at GE Renova? No, not, not knee deep, not weight deep, waist deep. I was baptized, completely immersed all the way in. I came shortly after the Enron acquisition. Um, I was one of the electrical engineering managers at the time. We had, uh, I think two or three at the time. Um, this was pretty early on. Uh, I got out of that because, uh, I'm, I like management, but I, I like electrical engineering, so I wanted to go back to being an individual contributor. Um, so I've touched just about [00:02:00] every electrical thing you can think of in a wind turbine. And also in solar  Joel Saxum: as well. You know, a little bit of a sidebar here 'cause I want, we want to definitely get into this deep technical conversation, but Joe, you touched on something that happens to people, right? You're a really good engineer, you've run a team, you've solved some problems. So now you get promoted to management, but you don't get to engineer as much anymore. So you get, like, you get, you start being leadership and like doing all these things, how to manage people, how to run a team, this, that, and that's great. We need that. The industry, every industry globally, we need to be able to do those things. But for engineers that have engineer at heart, and I'm, I'm also looking at you, Alan Hall. Uh, they, they wanna be able to engineer, right? They wanna be able to do stuff to make a difference to, to, to get hands on with a problem. So, so you, so you've done that though, right? That that's you, you are now, uh, Josh Shahan is, uh, pad LLC and  Joseph Chacon: pod is short for Padre, which is what my kids and grandchildren call me. They just shortened it from Padre to podge. 'cause saying two [00:03:00]syllables was too much and I liked it.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, I like that. Okay, so, so, so like we said, uh, you, you, you guys, you're getting deep into harmonics and other issues. You get called in by Solar Farms to solve problems and, and this is the thing Alan and I were kind of talking about off air a little bit is.

DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF THE BITCOIN-FOR-BUSINESS QUICK START GUIDE This free, 27-page resource includes:Six ways ANY business can benefit from BitcoinSome of the best Bitcoin-only businesses to partner withKey Bitcoin concepts for people getting startedMost accounting tools break under Bitcoin. Bitment is built different.Jordan Guess, a CPA and the founder of Bitment, is building a Bitcoin-native platform that automates ledger feeds, generates clear bank-style statements, and helps financial pros finally keep up with the Bitcoin economy.

Jonathan Weil caught the journalism bug early. But it was his knack for spotting financial reporting sleight-of-hand that set him apart as a young reporter at the Wall Street Journal in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Caleb talks to Jon about the circumstances that led to him writing one of the earliest stories that questioned Enron's accounting, his time peddling opinions as a columnist at Bloomberg, and his return to journalism after taking a spin through the hedge fund world.SponsorsRoutable - http://ohmyfraud.promo/routableHuman at Scale - http://ohmyfraud.promo/humanJonathan WeilLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonweil X: https://x.com/jonathanweil Join Caleb and Greg live in New Jersey NJCPA Convention & Expo [NJCPA]HOW TO EARN FREE CPEIn less than 10 minutes, you can earn 1 hour of NASBA-approved accounting CPE after listening to this episode. Download our mobile app, sign up, and look for the Oh My Fraud channel. Register for the course, complete a short quiz, and get your CPE certificate.https://www.earmark.app/Download the app:Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/earmark-cpe/id1562599728Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.earmarkcpe.appCONNECT WITH CALEBLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebnewquist/Email us at ohmyfraud@earmarkcpe.comSources:  Energy Traders Cite Gains, But Some Math Is Missing [WSJ]  Dirty Secrets Fester in 50-Year Relationships [Bloomberg]  Jonathan Weil [WSJ]

retiring from a career teaching physics, chemistry and biology, Lynne Balzer began organizing extensive notes from a decade-long investigation of the climate change issue. Considering all the facts and looking at the connection between the science, history and politics of this issue, Lynne reached the inevitable conclusion that “human-caused global warming” is one of the greatest hoaxes ever visited upon mankind. Working with Faraday Science Institute, a nonprofit organization, she has researched the topic of global climate change for thirteen years, sorting out fact from fiction.00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction01:19 The Rise of Climate Science and Funding03:19 Cap and Trade Explained05:11 The Acid Rain Scare and Its Aftermath07:43 The Birth of Global Warming Hysteria15:17 Enron's Role in Climate Policy20:57 The Kyoto Protocol and Its Implications24:25 The Carbon Offset Industry31:12 Subsidies and Their Impact on Green Energy38:47 The Economic and Social Costs of Climate Policies46:00 The Role of Big Finance in Climate Initiatives01:01:45 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsSlides for this podcast, along with AI summaries of all of my podcasts: https://tomn.substack.com/p/podcast-summariesExposing the Great Climate Change Lie (2023): https://a.co/d/i6iRW1yHere's Why Using Biofuels for Energy is Unsustainable and Must Stop NOW:  https://joehoft.com/heres-why-using-biofuels-for-energy-is-unsustainable-and-must-stop-now/=========My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1

In this episode of The Derivative, host Jeff Malec sits down with Suzanne Yoon, Founder and Managing Partner of Kinzie Capital Partners, for an in-depth exploration of private equity. Yoon shares her remarkable journey from the daughter of immigrant entrepreneurs in Chicago to leading a lower middle market buyout firm. Drawing from her rich background, Suzanne discusses the evolution of private equity from financial engineering to value creation, revealing how her firm identifies and transforms businesses across manufacturing and service sectors. She provides candid insights into deal sourcing, the challenges of modernizing family-owned companies, and navigating today's complex investment landscape.With perspectives shaped by experiences ranging from the Enron workout to founding her own firm, Yoon offers a compelling narrative about entrepreneurship, strategic investing, and the importance of passion in business. Join us and gain intriguing insights into the inner workings of private equity and the critical role of technology and operational improvements in driving company growth. SEND IT! Chapters:00:00-00:57=Intro00:58-06:58= Entrepreneurial Origins: Uncovering the Roots of Resilience in Suzanne Yoon's Journey06:59-22:50=From Iowa to Wall Street: Lessons for Achieving Success in Finance22:51-38:05=Private Equity's New Playbook: Evolving from Financial Engineering to Value Creation38:06-49:10= The Art of the Deal: Strategies for Sourcing and Selecting Profitable Private Equity Investments49:11-01:07:08=Tariffs, Tech, and Transformation: Navigating the Future of Private Equity Follow along with Suzanne on LinkedIn and Kinzie Capital Partners and be sure to check out their website at kinziecp.com for more information! Don't forget to subscribe to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Derivative⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, follow us on Twitter at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@rcmAlts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and our host Jeff at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AttainCap2⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ , and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign-up for our blog digest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, or tax advice. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of RCM Alternatives, their affiliates, or companies featured. Due to industry regulations, participants on this podcast are instructed not to make specific trade recommendations, nor reference past or potential profits. And listeners are reminded that managed futures, commodity trading, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. For more information, visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.rcmalternatives.com/disclaimer⁠

Hosts Pastor Robert Baltodano and Pastor Lloyd Pulley Question Timestamps: Blaine, email (2:41) - What is it about the Catholic faith that makes you claim Catholics aren?t saved? Bobby, DE (6:30) - Why did Jesus turn water to wine when the Bible seems to condemn getting drunk? William, NJ (12:44) - Are people that committed the unforgivable sin doomed even if they repent and come to faith later? Nelson, NJ (16:16) - What Bible or scriptures did people read before Jesus came to Earth? Are Jewish people still looking for the Messiah currently, or are they comfortable to just follow their religious systems? Bobby, FL (22:26) - Does the command in 1 Corinthians that a woman shouldn?t teach men also apply to a Bible study? Ruby, email (28:10) - How many sons did Abraham have? Leonard, email (34:07) - What happened to Gehasi?s leprosy? In 2 Kings 5 he isn?t struck with leprosy, but he is in the presence of the king later in 2 Kings 8. Enron, email (35:40) - Can you explain the meaning of 1 John 5:16-17? Dev, MA (39:33) - Am I truly saved when I am struggling with pornography? Jake, NY (47:17) - My mom is in a bad situation with a coworker, and I?vebeen praying but God hasn?t removed him. What should I do? Linda, VA (51:03) - Does someone who commits suicide go to hell? What if they are not in their right mind? Diane, ID (54:15) - Are there layers in hell or heaven? Ask Your Question: 888-712-7434 Answers@bbtlive.org

What happens when you combine trust, tech, and a deep commitment to doing business the right way? You get Curtis Hite, CEO and Chairman of Improving, a software consulting company that's turning heads—not just for their tech chops, but for how they treat people.In this episode of The Conscious Capitalists, Timothy Henry and Raj Sisodia chat with Curtis about his inspiring journey from the high-stakes world of Enron to becoming a champion of Conscious Capitalism. He shares how a few key moments—including a powerful Speed of Trust event and attending the Conscious Capitalism CEO Summit—changed the way he leads and lives.Curtis gets real about the need to change the game in tech, especially when it comes to creating more space for Hispanic, Black, and female professionals in an industry that desperately needs more diversity, equity, and inclusion. He talks about what it takes to build a business that people actually want to work for—think profit-sharing, transparency, and a big helping of trust.From surviving corporate chaos to learning how to lean into pain (yes, really), Curtis doesn't hold back. He even shares his morning routine and the books that keep him grounded. This episode is packed with personal stories, powerful leadership lessons, and a refreshing dose of optimism for what capitalism can look like when it's done consciously.**If you enjoy this podcast, would you consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes only a few seconds and greatly helps us get our podcast out to a wider audience.Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.For transcripts and show notes, please go to: https://www.theconsciouscapitalists.comThis show is presented by Conscious Capitalism, Inc. (https://www.consciouscapitalism.org/) and is produced by Rainbow Creative (https://www.rainbowcreative.co/) with Matthew Jones as Executive Producer, Rithu Jagannath as Lead Producer, and Nathan Wheatley as Editor.Thank you for your support!- Timothy & RajTime Stamps00:00 Introduction to Improving's Mission00:50 Welcome to The Conscious Capitalists01:22 Introducing Curtis Hite02:49 Curtis Hite's Journey to Conscious Capitalism05:45 Implementing Conscious Capitalism at Improving09:21 Curtis Hite's Entrepreneurial Beginnings11:50 Using Negative Emotions for Growth16:20 Overcoming Business Challenges23:12 Trust and Leadership at Improving25:30 Stakeholder Philosophy and Community Engagement30:59 The Secret to Employee Engagement31:15 Balancing Freedom and Equality in Business32:15 Inspiration Over Obligation33:02 Spirituality in Leadership35:36 Celebrating and Elevating Capitalism39:35 The Role of Stakeholders43:08 Addressing Diversity and Inclusion46:15 Profit Sharing and Employee Ownership53:00 Preparing for Economic Uncertainty55:40 Rapid Fire Questions and Closing Remarks

In this episode, renowned journalist and author Bethany McLean joins to discuss 'legal fraud,' whether we're becoming more desensitized to corporate misconduct, and the one question she'd ask if she were on Tesla's board.

Danny is joined by Bethany McLean, famed for her work on exposing Enron's accounting malpractices and chronicling its fall in her book, 'The Smartest Guys in the Room.' McLean discusses various topics including the current state of private equity, U.S. healthcare, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, tariffs, and Warren Buffett's enduring legacy. Delving into contemporary issues, she also touches on the role of law firms in response to Trump's demands, the mission conflict within Open AI, and the philosophical underpinnings of the 'dark enlightenment' movement. The conversation highlights the intricate dynamics between capitalism, governance, and societal impacts. Timecodes 0:00 - Intro & Warren Buffet 4:25 - Supply Chain 9:45 - Rule of Law 13:45 - State of Journalism 15:45 - OpenAI 18:30 - Dark Enlightenment 21:45 - Fannie & Freddie 25:45 - Private Equity --ABOUT THE SHOWFor decades, Danny has seen it all on Wall Street and has built his reputation on integrity, curiosity and skepticism that he will bring with him each week. Having traded through the Great Financial Crisis and being featured in "The Big Short" is only part of the experiences Danny wants to share with the listener. This weekly podcast cuts through market noise, offering entertaining and informative discussions with expert guests giving their views of the financial world and the human side of it. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just getting started, On The Tape provides something for all listeners. Follow Danny on X: @dmoses34 The financial opinions expressed are for information purposes only. The opinions expressed by the hosts and participants are not an attempt to influence specific trading behavior, investments, or strategies. Past performance does not necessarily predict future outcomes. No specific results or profits are assured when relying on this content.Before making any investment or trade, evaluate its suitability for your circumstances and consider consulting your own financial or investment advisor. The financial products discussed in 'On The Tape' carry a high level of risk and may not be appropriate for many investors. If you have uncertainties, it's advisable to seek professional advice. Remember that trading involves a risk to your capital, so only invest money that you can afford to lose. Derivatives are not suitable for all investors and involve the risk of losing more than the amount originally deposited and any profit you might have made. This communication is not a recommendation or offer to buy, sell or retain any specific investment or service.

Much has been made of the hallucinatory qualities of OpenAI's ChatGPT product. But as the Wall Street Journal's resident authority on OpenAI, Keach Hagey notes, perhaps the most hallucinatory feature the $300 billion start-up co-founded by the deadly duo of Sam Altman and Elon Musk is its attempt to be simultaneously a for-profit and non-profit company. As Hagey notes, the double life of this double company reached a surreal climax this week when Altman announced that OpenAI was abandoning its promised for-profit conversion. So what, I asked Hagey, are the implications of this corporate volte-face for investors who have poured billions of real dollars into the non-profit in order to make a profit? Will they be Waiting For Godot to get their returns?As Hagey - whose excellent biography of Altman, The Optimist, is out in a couple of weeks - explains, this might be the story of the hubristic 2020's. She speaks of Altman's astonishingly (even for Silicon Valley) hubris in believing that he can get away with the alchemic conceit of inventing a multi trillion dollar for-profit non-profit company. Yes, you can be half-pregnant, Sam is promising us. But, as she warns, at some point this will be exposed as fantasy. The consequences might not exactly be another Enron or FTX, but it will have ramifications way beyond beyond Silicon Valley. What will happen, for example, if future investors aren't convinced by Altman's fantasy and OpenAI runs out of cash? Hagey suggests that the OpenAI story may ultimately become a political drama in which a MAGA President will be forced to bail out America's leading AI company. It's TikTok in reverse (imagine if Chinese investors try to acquire OpenAI). Rather than the conveniently devilish Elon Musk, my sense is that Sam Altman is auditioning to become the real Jay Gatsby of our roaring twenties. Last month, Keach Hagey told me that Altman's superpower is as a salesman. He can sell anything to anyone, she says. But selling a non-profit to for-profit venture capitalists might even be a bridge too far for Silicon Valley's most hallucinatory optimist. Five Key Takeaways * OpenAI has abandoned plans to convert from a nonprofit to a for-profit structure, with pressure coming from multiple sources including attorneys general of California and Delaware, and possibly influenced by Elon Musk's opposition.* This decision will likely make it more difficult for OpenAI to raise money, as investors typically want control over their investments. Despite this, Sam Altman claims SoftBank will still provide the second $30 billion chunk of funding that was previously contingent on the for-profit conversion.* The nonprofit structure creates inherent tensions within OpenAI's business model. As Hagey notes, "those contradictions are still there" after nearly destroying the company once before during Altman's brief firing.* OpenAI's leadership is trying to position this as a positive change, with plans to capitalize the nonprofit and launch new programs and initiatives. However, Hagey notes this is similar to what Altman did at Y Combinator, which eventually led to tensions there.* The decision is beneficial for competitors like XAI, Anthropic, and others with normal for-profit structures. Hagey suggests the most optimistic outcome would be OpenAI finding a way to IPO before "completely imploding," though how a nonprofit-controlled entity would do this remains unclear.Keach Hagey is a reporter at The Wall Street Journal's Media and Marketing Bureau in New York, where she focuses on the intersection of media and technology. Her stories often explore the relationships between tech platforms like Facebook and Google and the media. She was part of the team that broke the Facebook Files, a series that won a George Polk Award for Business Reporting, a Gerald Loeb Award for Beat Reporting and a Deadline Award for public service. Her investigation into the inner workings of Google's advertising-technology business won recognition from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (Sabew). Previously, she covered the television industry for the Journal, reporting on large media companies such as 21st Century Fox, Time Warner and Viacom. She led a team that won a Sabew award for coverage of the power struggle inside Viacom. She is the author of “The King of Content: Sumner Redstone's Battle for Viacom, CBS and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire,” published by HarperCollins. Before joining the Journal, Keach covered media for Politico, the National in Abu Dhabi, CBS News and the Village Voice. She has a bachelor's and a master's in English literature from Stanford University. She lives in Irvington, N.Y., with her husband, three daughters and dog.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. Full TranscriptAndrew Keen: Hello, everybody. It is May the 6th, a Tuesday, 2025. And the tech media is dominated today by OpenAI's plan to convert its for-profit business to a non-profit side. That's how the Financial Times is reporting it. New York Times says that OpenAI, and I'm quoting them, backtracks on plans to drop nonprofit control and the Wall Street Journal, always very authoritative on the tech front, leads with Open AI abandons planned for profit conversion. The Wall Street Journal piece is written by Keach Hagey, who is perhaps America's leading authority on OpenAI. She was on the show a couple of months ago talking about Sam Altman's superpower which is as a salesman. Keach is also the author of an upcoming book. It's out in a couple weeks, "The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI and the Race to Invent the Future." And I'm thrilled that Keach has been remarkably busy today, as you can imagine, found a few minutes to come onto the show. So, Keach, what is Sam selling here? You say he's a salesman. He's always selling something or other. What's the sell here?Keach Hagey: Well, the sell here is that this is not a big deal, right? The sell is that, this thing they've been trying to do for about a year, which is to make their company less weird, it's not gonna work. And as he was talking to the press yesterday, he was trying to suggest that they're still gonna be able to fundraise, that these folks that they promised that if you give us money, we're gonna convert to a for-profit and it's gonna be much more normal investment for you, but they're gonna get that money, which is you know, a pretty tough thing. So that's really, that's what he's selling is that this is not disruptive to the future of OpenAI.Andrew Keen: For people who are just listening, I'm looking at Keach's face, and I'm sensing that she's doing everything she can not to burst out laughing. Is that fair, Keach?Keach Hagey: Well, it'll remain to be seen, but I do think it will make it a lot harder for them to raise money. I mean, even Sam himself said as much during the talk yesterday that, you know, investors would like to be able to have some say over what happens to their money. And if you're controlled by a nonprofit organization, that's really tough. And what they were trying to do was convert to a new world where investors would have a seat at the table, because as we all remember, when Sam got briefly fired almost two years ago. The investors just helplessly sat on the sidelines and didn't have any say in the matter. Microsoft had absolutely no role to play other than kind of cajoling and offering him a job on the sidelines. So if you're gonna try to raise money, you really need to be able to promise some kind of control and that's become a lot harder.Andrew Keen: And the ramifications more broadly on this announcement will extend to Microsoft and Microsoft stock. I think their stock is down today. We'll come to that in a few minutes. Keach, there was an interesting piece in the week, this week on AI hallucinations are getting worse. Of course, OpenAI is the dominant AI company with their ChatGPT. But is this also kind of hallucination? What exactly is going on here? I have to admit, and I always thought, you know, I certainly know more about tech than I do about other subjects, which isn't always saying very much. But I mean, either you're a nonprofit or you're a for-profit, is there some sort of hallucinogenic process going on where Sam is trying to sell us on the idea that OpenAI is simultaneously a for profit and a nonprofit company?Keach Hagey: Well, that's kind of what it is right now. That's what it had sort of been since 2019 or when it spun up this strange structure where it had a for-profit underneath a nonprofit. And what we saw in the firing is that that doesn't hold. There's gonna come a moment when those two worlds are going to collide and it nearly destroyed the company. To be challenging going forward is that that basic destabilization that like unstable structure remains even though now everything is so much bigger there's so much more money coursing through and it's so important for the economy. It's a dangerous position.Andrew Keen: It's not so dangerous, you seem still faintly amused. I have to admit, I'm more than faintly amused, it's not too bothersome for us because we don't have any money in OpenAI. But for SoftBank and the other participants in the recent $40 billion round of investment in OpenAI, this must be, to say the least, rather disconcerting.Keach Hagey: That was one of the biggest surprises from the press conference yesterday. Sam Altman was asked point blank, is SoftBank still going to give you this sort of second chunk, this $30 billion second chunk that was contingent upon being able to convert to a for-profit, and he said, quite simply, yes. Who knows what goes on in behind the scenes? I think we're gonna find out probably a lot more about that. There are many unanswered questions, but it's not great, right? It's definitely not great for investors.Andrew Keen: Well, you have to guess at the very minimum, SoftBank would be demanding better terms. They're not just going to do the same thing. I mean, it suddenly it suddenly gives them an additional ace in their hand in terms of negotiation. I mean this is not some sort of little startup. This is 30 or 40 billion dollars. I mean it's astonishing number. And presumably the non-public conversations are very interesting. I'm sure, Keach, you would like to know what's being said.Keach Hagey: Don't know yet, but I think your analysis is pretty smart on this matter.Andrew Keen: So if you had to guess, Sam is the consummate salesman. What did he tell SoftBank before April to close the round? And what is he telling them now? I mean, how has the message changed?Keach Hagey: One of the things that we see a little bit about this from the messaging that he gave to the world yesterday, which is this is going to be a simpler structure. It is going to be slightly more normal structure. They are changing the structure a little bit. So although the non-profit is going to remain in charge, the thing underneath it, the for-profit, is going change its structure a little bit and become kind of a little more normal. It's not going to have this capped profit thing where, you know, the investors are capped at 100 times what they put in. So parts of it are gonna become more normal. For employees, it's probably gonna be easier for them to get equity and things like that. So I'm sure that that's part of what he's selling, that this new structure is gonna be a little bit better, but it's not gonna be as good as what they were trying to do.Andrew Keen: Can Sam? I mean, clearly he has sold it. I mean as we joked earlier when we talked, Sam could sell ice to the Laplanders or sand to the Saudis. But these people know Sam. It's no secret that he's a remarkable salesman. That means that sometimes you have to think carefully about what he's saying. What's the impact on him? To what extent is this decision one more chip on the Altman brand?Keach Hagey: It's a setback for sure, and it's kind of a win for Elon Musk, his rival.Andrew Keen: Right.Keach Hagey: Elon has been suing him, Elon has been trying to block this very conversion. And in the end, it seems like it was actually the attorneys general of California and Delaware that really put the nail in the coffin here. So there's still a lot to find out about exactly how it all shook out. There were actually huge campaigns as well, like in the streets, billboards, posters. Polls saying, trying to put pressure on the attorney general to block this thing. So it was a broad coalition, I think, that opposed the conversion, and you can even see that a little bit in their speech. But you got to admit that Elon probably looked at this and was happy.Andrew Keen: And I'm sure Elon used his own X platform to promote his own agenda. Is this an example, Keach, in a weird kind of way of the plebiscitary politics now of Silicon Valley is that titans like Altman and Musk are fighting out complex corporate economic battles in the naked public of social media.Keach Hagey: Yes, in the naked public of social media, but what we're also seeing here is that it's sort of, it's become through the apparatus of government. So we're seeing, you know, Elon is in the Doge office and this conversion is really happening in the state AG's houses. So that's what's sort interesting to me is these like private fights have now expanded to fill both state and federal government.Andrew Keen: Last time we talked, I couldn't find the photo, but there was a wonderful photo of, I think it was Larry Ellison and Sam Altman in the Oval Office with Trump. And Ellison looked very excited. He looked extremely old as well. And Altman looked very awkward. And it's surprising to see Altman look awkward because generally he doesn't. Has Trump played a role in this or is he keeping out of it?Keach Hagey: As far as my current reporting right now, we have no reporting that Trump himself was directly involved. I can't go further than that right now.Andrew Keen: Meaning that you know something that you're not willing to ignore.Keach Hagey: Just I hope you keep your subscription to the Wall Street Journal on what role the White House played, I would say. But as far as that awkwardness, I don't know if you noticed that there was a box that day for Masa Yoshison to see.Andrew Keen: Oh yeah, and Son was in the office too, right, that was the third person.Keach Hagey: So it was a box in the podium, which I think contributed to the awkwardness of the day, because he's not a tall man.Andrew Keen: Right. To put it politely. The way that OpenAI spun it, in classic Sam Altman terms, is new funding to build towards AGI. So it's their Altman-esque use of the public to vindicate this new investment, is this just more quote unquote, and this is my word. You don't have to agree with it. Just sales pitch or might even be dishonesty here. I mean, the reality is, is new funding to build towards AGI, which is, artificial general intelligence. It's not new funding, to build toward AGI. It's new funding to build towards OpenAI, there's no public benefit of any of this, is there?Keach Hagey: Well, what they're saying is that the nonprofit will be capitalized and will sort of be hiring up and doing a bunch more things that it wasn't really doing. We'll have programs and initiatives and all of that. Which really, as someone who studied Sam's life, this sounds really a lot like what he did at Y Combinator. When he was head of Y Combinator, he also spun up a nonprofit arm, which is actually what OpenAI grew out of. So I think in Sam's mind, a nonprofit there's a place to go. Sort of hash out your ideas, it's a place to kind of have pet projects grow. That's where he did things like his UBI study. So I can sort of see that once the AGs are like, this is not gonna happen, he's like, great, we'll just make a big nonprofit and I'll get to do all these projects I've always wanted to do.Andrew Keen: Didn't he get thrown out of Y Combinator by Paul Graham for that?Keach Hagey: Yes, a little bit. You know, I would say there's a general mutiny for too much of that kind of stuff. Yeah, it's true. People didn't love it, and they thought that he took his eye off the ball. A little bit because one of those projects became OpenAI, and he became kind of obsessed with it and stopped paying attention. So look, maybe OpenAI will spawn the next thing, right? And he'll get distracted by that and move on.Andrew Keen: No coincidence, of course, that Sam went on to become a CEO of OpenAI. What does it mean for the broader AI ecosystem? I noted earlier you brought up Microsoft. I mean, I think you've already written on this and lots of other people have written about the fact that the relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft has cooled dramatically. As well as between Nadella and Altman. What does this mean for Microsoft? Is it a big deal?Keach Hagey: They have been hashing this out for months. So it is a big deal in that it will change the structure of their most important partner. But even before this, Microsoft and OpenAI were sort of locked in negotiations over how large and how Microsoft's stake in this new OpenAI will be valued. And that still has to be determined, regardless of whether it's a non-profit or a for-profit in charge. And their interests are diverging. So those negotiations are not as warm as they maybe would have been a few years ago.Andrew Keen: It's a form of polyamory, isn't it? Like we have in Silicon Valley, everyone has sex with everybody else, to put it politely.Keach Hagey: Well, OpenAI does have a new partner in Oracle. And I would expect them to have many more in terms of cloud computing partners going forward. It's just too much risk for any one company to build these huge and expensive data centers, not knowing that OpenAI is going to exist in a certain number of years. So they have to diversify.Andrew Keen: Keach, you know, this is amusing and entertaining and Altman is a remarkable individual, able to sell anything to anyone. But at what point are we really on the Titanic here? And there is such a thing as an iceberg, a real thing, whatever Donald Trump or other manufacturers of ontologies might suggest. At some point, this thing is going to end in a massive disaster.Keach Hagey: Are you talking about the Existence Force?Andrew Keen: I'm not talking about the Titanic, I'm talking about OpenAI. I mean, Parmi Olson, who's the other great authority on OpenAI, who won the FT Book of the Year last year, she's been on the show a couple of times, she wrote in Bloomberg that OpenAI can't have its money both ways, and that's what Sam is trying to do. My point is that we can all point out, excuse me, the contradictions and the hypocrisy and all the rest of it. But there are laws of gravity when it comes to economics. And at a certain point, this thing is going to crash, isn't it? I mean, what's the metaphor? Is it Enron? Is it Sam Bankman-Fried? What kind of examples in history do we need to look at to try and figure out what really is going on here?Keach Hagey: That's certainly one possibility, and there are a good number of people who believe that.Andrew Keen: Believe what, Enron or Sam Bankman-Fried?Keach Hagey: Oh, well, the internal tensions cannot hold, right? I don't know if fraud is even necessary so much as just, we've seen it, we've already seen it happen once, right, the company almost completely collapsed one time and those contradictions are still there.Andrew Keen: And when you say it happened, is that when Sam got pushed out or was that another or something else?Keach Hagey: No, no, that's it, because Sam almost got pushed out and then all of the funders would go away. So Sam needs to be there for them to continue raising money in the way that they have been raising money. And that's really going to be the question. How long can that go on? He's a young man, could go on a very long time. But yeah, I think that really will determine whether it's a disaster or not.Andrew Keen: But how long can it go on? I mean, how long could Sam have it both ways? Well, there's a dream. I mean maybe he can close this last round. I mean he's going to need to raise more than $40 billion. This is such a competitive space. Tens of billions of dollars are being invested almost on a monthly basis. So this is not the end of the road, this $40-billion investment.Keach Hagey: Oh, no. And you know, there's talk of IPO at some point, maybe not even that far away. I don't even let me wrap my mind around what it would be for like a nonprofit to have a controlling share at a public company.Andrew Keen: More hallucinations economically, Keach.Keach Hagey: But I mean, IPO is the exit for investors, right? That's the model, that is the Silicon Valley model. So it's going to have to come to that one way or another.Andrew Keen: But how does it work internally? I mean, for the guys, the sales guys, the people who are actually doing the business at OpenAI, they've been pretty successful this year. The numbers are astonishing. But how is this gonna impact if it's a nonprofit? How does this impact the process of selling, of building product, of all the other internal mechanics of this high-priced startup?Keach Hagey: I don't think it will affect it enormously in the short term. It's really just a question of can they continue to raise money for the enormous amount of compute that they need. So so far, he's been able to do that, right? And if that slows up in any way, they're going to be in trouble. Because as Sam has said many times, AI has to be cheap to be actually useful. So in order to, you know, for it to be widespread, for to flow like water, all of those things, it's got to be cheap and that's going to require massive investment in data centers.Andrew Keen: But how, I mean, ultimately people are putting money in so that they get the money back. This is not a nonprofit endeavor to put 40 billion from SoftBank. SoftBank is not in the nonprofit business. So they're gonna need their money back and the only way they generally, in my understanding, getting money back is by going public, especially with these numbers. How can a nonprofit go public?Keach Hagey: It's a great question. That's what I'm just phrasing. I mean, this is, you know, you talk to folks, this is what's like off in the misty distance for them. It's an, it's a fascinating question and one that we're gonna try to answer this week.Andrew Keen: But you look amused. I'm no financial genius. Everyone must be asking the same question.Keach Hagey: Well, the way that they've said it is that the for-profit will be, will have a, the non-profit will control the for profit and be the largest shareholder in it, but the rest of the shares could be held by public markets theoretically. That's a great question though.Andrew Keen: And lawyers all over the world must be wrapping their hands. I mean, in the very best case, it's gonna be lawsuits on this, people suing them up the wazoo.Keach Hagey: It's absolutely true. You should see my inbox right now. It's just like layers, layers, layer.Andrew Keen: Yeah, my wife. My wife is the head of litigation. I don't know if I should be saying this publicly anyway, I am. She's the head of Litigation at Google. And she lost some of her senior people and they all went over to AI. I'm big, I'm betting that they regret going over there can't be much fun being a lawyer at OpenAI.Keach Hagey: I don't know, I think it'd be great fun. I think you'd have like enormous challenges and have lots of billable hours.Andrew Keen: Unless, of course, they're personally being sued.Keach Hagey: Hopefully not. I mean, look, it is a strange and unprecedented situation.Andrew Keen: To what extent is this, if not Shakespearean, could have been written by some Greek dramatist? To what extend is this symbolic of all the hype and salesmanship and dishonesty of Silicon Valley? And in a sense, maybe this is a final scene or a penultimate scene in the Silicon Valley story of doing good for the world. And yet, of course, reaping obscene profit.Keach Hagey: I think it's a little bit about trying to have your cake and eat it too, right? Trying to have the aura of altruism, but also make something and make a lot of money. And what it seems like today is that if you started as a nonprofit, it's like a black hole. You can never get out. There's no way to get out, and that idea was just like maybe one step too clever when they set it up in the beginning, right. It seemed like too good to be true because it was. And it might end up really limiting the growth of the company.Andrew Keen: Is Sam completely in charge here? I mean, a number of the founders have left. Musk, of course, when you and I talked a couple of months ago, OpenAI came out of conversations between Musk and Sam. Is he doing this on his own? Does he have lieutenants, people who he can rely on?Keach Hagey: Yeah, I mean, he does. He has a number of folks that have been there, you know, a long time.Andrew Keen: Who are they? I mean, do we know their names?Keach Hagey: Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, like Brad Lightcap and Jason Kwon and, you know, just they're they're Greg Brockman, of course, still there. So there are a core group of executives that have that have been there pretty much from the beginning, close to it, that he does trust. But if you're asking, like, is Sam really in control of this whole thing? I believe the answer is yes. Right. He is on the board of this nonprofit, and that nonprofit will choose the board of the for-profit. So as long as that's the case, he's in charge.Andrew Keen: How divided is OpenAI? I mean, one of the things that came out of the big crisis, what was it, 18 months ago when they tried to push him out, was it was clearly a profoundly divided company between those who believed in the nonprofit mission versus the for-profit mission. Are those divisions still as acute within the company itself? It must be growing. I don't know how many thousands of people work.Keach Hagey: It has grown very fast. It is not as acute in my experience. There was a time when it was really sort of a warring of tribes. And after the blip, as they call it, a lot of those more safety focused people, people that subscribe to effective altruism, left or were kind of pushed out. So Sam took over and kind of cleaned house.Andrew Keen: But then aren't those people also very concerned that it appears as if Sam's having his cake and eating it, having it both ways, talking about the company being a non-profit but behaving as if it is a for-profit?Keach Hagey: Oh, yeah, they're very concerned. In fact, a number of them have signed on to this open letter to the attorneys general that dropped, I don't know, a week and a half ago, something like that. You can see a number of former OpenAI employees, whistleblowers and others, saying this very thing, you know, that the AG should block this because it was supposed to be a charitable mission from the beginning. And no amount of fancy footwork is gonna make it okay to toss that overboard.Andrew Keen: And I mean, in the best possible case, can Sam, the one thing I think you and I talked about last time is Sam clearly does, he's not driven by money. There's something else. There's some other demonic force here. Could he theoretically reinvent the company so that it becomes a kind of AI overlord, a nonprofit AI overlord for our 21st century AI age?Keach Hagey: Wow, well I think he sometimes thinks of it as like an AI layer and you know, is this my overlord? Might be, you know.Andrew Keen: As long as it's not made in China, I hope it's made in India or maybe in Detroit or something.Keach Hagey: It's a very old one, so it's OK. But it's really my attention overlord, right? Yeah, so I don't know about the AI overlord part. Although it's interesting, Sam from the very beginning has wanted there to be a democratic process to control what decision, what kind of AI gets built and what are the guardrails for AGI. As long as he's there.Andrew Keen: As long as he's the one determining it, right?Keach Hagey: We talked about it a lot in the very beginning of the company when things were smaller and not so crazy. And what really strikes me is he doesn't really talk about that much anymore. But what we did just see is some advocacy organizations that kind of function in that exact way. They have voters all over the world and they all voted on, hey, we want you guys to go and try to that ended up having this like democratic structure for deciding the future of AI and used it to kind of block what he was trying to do.Andrew Keen: What are the implications for OpenAI's competitors? There's obviously Anthropic. Microsoft, we talked about a little bit, although it's a partner and a competitor simultaneously. And then of course there's Google. I assume this is all good news for the competition. And of course XAI.Keach Hagey: It is good news, especially for a company like XAI. I was just speaking to an XAI investor today who was crowing. Yeah, because those companies don't have this weird structure. Only OpenAI has this strange nonprofit structure. So if you are an investor who wants to have some exposure to AI, it might just not be worth the headache to deal with the uncertainty around the nonprofit, even though OpenAI is like the clear leader. It might be a better bet to invest in Anthropic or XAI or something else that has just a normal for-profit structure.Andrew Keen: Yeah. And it's hard to actually quote unquote out-Trump, Elon Musk on economic subterfuge. But Altman seems to have done that. I mean, Musk, what he folded X into XAI. It was a little bit of controversy, but he seems to got away with it. So there is a deep hostility between these two men, which I'm assuming is being compounded by this process.Keach Hagey: Absolutely. Again, this is a win for Elon. All these legal cases and Elon trying to buy OpenAI. I remember that bid a few months ago where he actually put a number on it. All that was about trying to block the for-profit conversion because he's trying to stop OpenAI and its tracks. He also claims they've abandoned their mission, but it's always important to note that it's coming from a competitor.Andrew Keen: Could that be a way out of this seeming box? Keach, a company like XAI or Microsoft or Google, or that probably wouldn't happen on the antitrust front, would buy OpenAI as maybe a nonprofit and then transform it into a for-profit company?Keach Hagey: Maybe you and Sam should get together and hash that out. That's the kind ofAndrew Keen: Well Sam, I'm available to be hired if you're watching. I'll probably charge less than your current consigliere. What's his name? Who's the consiglieri who's working with him on this?Keach Hagey: You mean Chris Lehane?Andrew Keen: Yes, Chris Lehane, the ego.Keach Hagey: Um,Andrew Keen: How's Lehane holding up in this? Do you think he's getting any sleep?Keach Hagey: Well, he's like a policy guy. I'm sure this has been challenging for everybody. But look, you are pointing to something that I think is real, which is there will probably be consolidation at some point down the line in AI.Andrew Keen: I mean, I know you're not an expert on the maybe sort of corporate legal stuff, but is it in theory possible to buy a nonprofit? I don't even know how you buy a non-profit and then turn it into a for-profit. I mean is that one way out of this, this cul-de-sac?Keach Hagey: I really don't know the answer to that question, to be honest with you. I can't think of another example of it happening. So I'm gonna go with no, but I don't now.Andrew Keen: There are no equivalents, sorry to interrupt, go on.Keach Hagey: No, so I was actually asking a little bit, are there precedents for this? And someone mentioned Blue Cross Blue Shield had gone from being a nonprofit to a for-profit successfully in the past.Andrew Keen: And we seem a little amused by that. I mean, anyone who uses US health care as a model, I think, might regret it. Your book, The Optimist, is out in a couple of weeks. When did you stop writing it?Keach Hagey: The end of December, end of last year, was pencils fully down.Andrew Keen: And I'm sure you told the publisher that that was far too long a window. Seven months on Silicon Valley is like seven centuries.Keach Hagey: It was actually a very, very tight timeline. They turned it around like incredibly fast. Usually it'sAndrew Keen: Remarkable, yeah, exactly. Publishing is such, such, they're such quick actors, aren't they?Keach Hagey: In this case, they actually were, so I'm grateful for that.Andrew Keen: Well, they always say that six months or seven months is fast, but it is actually possible to publish a book in probably a week or two, if you really choose to. But in all seriousness, back to this question, I mean, and I want everyone to read the book. It's a wonderful book and an important book. The best book on OpenAI out. What would you have written differently? Is there an extra chapter on this? I know you warned about a lot of this stuff in the book. So it must make you feel in some ways quite vindicated.Keach Hagey: I mean, you're asking if I'd had a longer deadline, what would I have liked to include? Well, if you're ready.Andrew Keen: Well, if you're writing it now with this news under your belt.Keach Hagey: Absolutely. So, I mean, the thing, two things, I guess, definitely this news about the for-profit conversion failing just shows the limits of Sam's power. So that's pretty interesting, because as the book was closing, we're not really sure what those limits are. And the other one is Trump. So Trump had happened, but we do not yet understand what Trump 2.0 really meant at the time that the book was closing. And at that point, it looked like Sam was in the cold, you know, he wasn't clear how he was going to get inside Trump's inner circle. And then lo and behold, he was there on day one of the Trump administration sharing a podium with him announcing that Stargate AI infrastructure investment. So I'm sad that that didn't make it into the book because it really just shows the kind of remarkable character he is.Andrew Keen: He's their Zelig, but then we all know what happened to Woody Allen in the end. In all seriousness, and it's hard to keep a straight face here, Keach, and you're trying although you're not doing a very good job, what's going to happen? I know it's an easy question to ask and a hard one to answer, but ultimately this thing has to end in catastrophe, doesn't it? I use the analogy of the Titanic. There are real icebergs out there.Keach Hagey: Look, there could be a data breach. I do think that.Andrew Keen: Well, there could be data breaches if it was a non-profit or for-profit, I mean, in terms of this whole issue of trying to have it both ways.Keach Hagey: Look, they might run out of money, right? I mean, that's one very real possibility. They might run outta money and have to be bought by someone, as you said. That is a totally real possibility right now.Andrew Keen: What would happen if they couldn't raise any more money. I mean, what was the last round, the $40 billion round? What was the overall valuation? About $350 billion.Keach Hagey: Yeah, mm-hmm.Andrew Keen: So let's say that they begin to, because they've got, what are their hard costs monthly burn rate? I mean, it's billions of just.Keach Hagey: Well, the issue is that they're spending more than they are making.Andrew Keen: Right, but you're right. So they, let's say in 18 months, they run out of runway. What would people be buying?Keach Hagey: Right, maybe some IP, some servers. And one of the big questions that is yet unanswered in AI is will it ever economically make sense, right? Right now we are all buying the possibility of in the future that the costs will eventually come down and it will kind of be useful, but that's still a promise. And it's possible that that won't ever happen. I mean, all these companies are this way, right. They are spending far, far more than they're making.Andrew Keen: And that's the best case scenario.Keach Hagey: Worst case scenario is the killer robots murder us all.Andrew Keen: No, what I meant in the best case scenario is that people are actually still without all the blow up. I mean, people are actual paying for AI. I mean on the one hand, the OpenAI product is, would you say it's successful, more or less successful than it was when you finished the book in December of last year?Keach Hagey: Oh, yes, much more successful. Vastly more users, and the product is vastly better. I mean, even in my experience, I don't know if you play with it every day.Andrew Keen: I use Anthropic.Keach Hagey: I use both Claude and ChatGPT, and I mean, they're both great. And I find them vastly more useful today than I did even when I was closing the book. So it's great. I don't know if it's really a great business that they're only charging me $20, right? That's great for me, but I don't think it's long term tenable.Andrew Keen: Well, Keach Hagey, your new book, The Optimist, your new old book, The Optimist: Sam Altman, Open AI and the Race to Invent the Future is out in a couple of weeks. I hope you're writing a sequel. Maybe you should make it The Pessimist.Keach Hagey: I think you might be the pessimist, Andrew.Andrew Keen: Well, you're just, you are as pessimistic as me. You just have a nice smile. I mean, in all reality, what's the most optimistic thing that can come out of this?Keach Hagey: The most optimistic is that this becomes a product that is actually useful, but doesn't vastly exacerbate inequality.Andrew Keen: No, I take the point on that, but in terms of this current story of this non-profit versus profit, what's the best case scenario?Keach Hagey: I guess the best case scenario is they find their way to an IPO before completely imploding.Andrew Keen: With the assumption that a non-profit can do an IPO.Keach Hagey: That they find the right lawyers from wherever they are and make it happen.Andrew Keen: Well, AI continues its hallucinations, and they're not in the product themselves. I think they're in their companies. One of the best, if not the best authority, our guide to all these hallucinations in a corporate level is Keach Hagey, her new book, The Optimist: Sam Altman, Open AI and the Race to Invent the Future is out in a couple of weeks. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Sam Altman as the consummate salesman. And I think one thing we can say for sure, Keach, is this is not the end of the story. Is that fair?Keach Hagey: Very fair. Not the end of the story. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   Justin and his guest, Jennifer Pack, RIMS 2025 Risk Manager of the Year, discuss her career and achievements, including Hyatt's VP of Risk Management. Jennifer describes how her membership in the RIMS Chicago Chapter and service on the Board impacted her career.   Jennifer helped align Hyatt's risk strategies with its evolving business model to ensure resilience in today's complex environment. Leading nearly 40 professionals, Jennifer's leadership and innovative risk solutions have helped strengthen Hyatt's risk management framework, to proactively identify risks and develop strategies to address them. Jennifer successfully redesigned and centralized Hyatt's Short-Term, Long-Term Disability, and Workers' Compensation programs, reducing manual processing by up to 80,000 hours, improving compliance, and reducing legal exposure. It is linked to millions of dollars in savings. Under her leadership, Hyatt's risk management team is overhauling Hyatt Hotels' fire safety with the first-of-its-kind Fire Life Safety Compliance and Governance Program, setting a standard for the organization and industry. The initiative includes the implementation of new technology, as well as auditing the 1,450 Hyatt hotels in 79 countries. Jennifer is a beloved mentor who has had an impact on many careers. She continues to demonstrate her commitment to advancing the risk management profession as an active member of the RIMS Chicago Chapter.   Jennifer's innovations may inspire your work for your organization's ERM program. Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. It is one of my favorite episodes to produce, with the Risk Manager of the Year. This year's honoree is Jennifer Pack, Hyatt's Vice President of Risk Management. We will talk about her success in ERM, captives, and more. [:48] RIMS-CRMP Workshops! RIMS is co-hosting an intensive four-day program which is your gateway to achieving two prestigious certifications, the DRI Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) and the RIMS Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP). [1:08] This workshop will be held from May 19th through the 22nd in collaboration with DRI International. Links to these courses can be found through the Certification page of RIMS.org and this episode's show notes. [1:23] Virtual Workshops! On June 12th, Pat Saporito will host “Managing Data for ERM” and she will return on June 26th to present the very popular new course, “Generative AI for Risk Management”. [1:40] A link to the full schedule of virtual workshops can be found on the RIMS.org/education and RIMS.org/education/online-learning pages. A link is also in this episode's show notes. [1:51] We're at RISKWORLD this week but preparations are already underway for the RIMS ERM Conference 2025 on November 17th and 18th in Seattle, Washington. RIMS is accepting educational session submissions through May 20th. [2:08] The best submissions will address current and future challenges facing ERM practitioners as well as provide leading practices and concrete takeaways for a diverse audience of risk professionals from industries or organizations of varied sizes, disciplines, functions, and roles. [2:26] These include officers, leaders, managers, and students. The link to the submission form is in this episode's show notes. [2:35] While you are at RISKWORLD, be sure to take away some inspirado and channel it into an educational session submission for the RIMS ERM Conference 2025. Of course, mark your calendars for November 17th and 18th and I'll be sure to alert you when registration opens. [2:55] The RIMS Risk Manager of the Year Program aims to raise the profile of the risk profession and the outstanding programs the honorees have implemented within their organizations. [3:04] The award was created in 1977 and the Risk Management Honor Roll was added in 1981. The 2025 RIMS Risk Manager of the Year is Jennifer Pack of Hyatt. [3:16] As VP of Risk Management, Jennifer has transformed risk management at Hyatt, embedding a culture that has provided a launchpad for organizational success. Her innovations in captive management also earned her this award. [3:28] Jennifer is a long-standing member of the RIMS Chicago Chapter and an all-around fantastic professional. Her profile will soon appear in the Awards Edition of RIMS Risk Management magazine. [3:40] Jennifer will receive the award on May 5th at 4:00 p.m., on the main stage at RISKWORLD. We're going to get to know her a little bit now. We'll talk ERM, captives, Chicago RIMS, hotel and hospitality, and more. [3:57] Interview! RIMS 2025 Risk Manager of the Year, Jennifer Pack, welcome to RIMScast!  [4:34] Jennifer has been at Hyatt, for going on 18 years. She can stay at any hotel she would like! [5:03] Some people like to leave their jobs every few years for a new company and skills. Jennifer's career at Hyatt has been an adventure! She hasn't been doing the same thing for 18 years. Every couple of years, she gets new roles and responsibilities. She's constantly learning. [5:24] She has a foundation of knowing whom to go to, what the systems are, and how to get things done. There's a base familiarity but with some excitement and learning opportunities. [5:36] If the feeling of being able to learn and grow ever stops, Jennifer will think about leaving. She's enjoying her time. It seems like she's working or a new company all the time. They're transforming. They're changing. The risk landscape is changing. There's never a dull moment. [5:56] Justin feels the same way about working at RIMS! He started as a writer but then got these responsibilities and they took on sort of a life of their own and attracted more of an audience. It's more work, but it's more fun and rewarding. [6:25] Jennifer joined Hyatt in a group called Compliance and Controls. She was hired to set up their Sarbanes-Oxley department. In reaction to the financial crisis after the downfall of Arthur Andersen and Enron, Sarbanes-Oxley was born and Jennifer became an expert on it. [6:58] Jennifer launched that group and then it was moved into Internal Audit where they were exposed to a lot more people and systems. Jennifer had the opportunity to backfill someone in the Risk Management department and never left. She's been in the risk function for 15 years. [7:30] When Jennifer joined the risk group it had seven risk practitioners in the corporate office. There were five or six Occupational Health Managers in the field, helping with Workers' Compensation and occupational safety. There are over 35 full-time members now. [8:09] They've taken on new roles in the 15 years: physical security, business resilience, fire life safety compliance, and other health and safety functions in the company. They could probably use a few more people but they're doing well. [8:38] The risk profile of the company has changed. The geopolitical risk profile of the world has changed. Hyatt's offerings have changed. They used to be mostly business, group, and convention, and now they lean into leisure, travel, and all-inclusive, which have different risks. [9:16] Hyatt has tripled its resort rooms and quintupled its lifestyle rooms since 2017. A lifestyle room is about meeting clientele where they are. Millennials want to travel the world and experience the environment, such as an attached nightclub in Miami or New York. [9:55] They're unconventional hotels with the framework of a well-known brand, where guests have comfort, safety, security, cybersecurity, and loyalty points while feeling like they're in a niche hotel with great and different experiences. It feels like a boutique, attached to the brand. [11:06] Social inflation is a risk. Liability insurance has gone up because claim payouts have gone up tremendously. Claim attorneys are targeting hospitality. [12:12] Hyatt is thinking globally about health, safety, and security, making sure policies are locked down, training is locked down, and people know how to report an incident, and when to report it. How do you de-escalate an incident to win the guest back? [12:36] Saying, “I'm sorry that happened to you. Here are some points. We care about you,” reinforcing that, versus saying, “Let my insurance company deal with it.” That's the last thing we want. If our guests had a bad incident, they had a bad experience. [12:51] Especially if you're traveling on leisure with your family, you want to know that you'll be taken care of. There's an expectation that you're going to be safe and secure. Hyatt wants to make sure to bring the level of care to them that they deserve. [13:07] Hyatt is working on the front end to retrain employees on ramping up safety and security measures and knowing how to respond when an incident happens. [13:18] Then, if it gets into the claims section, the claims management team has new robust processes to manage claims to drive down exposure. On the insurance procurement side, Hyatt is leaning into its captive to take on much higher retention in-house. [14:09] Hyatt is asking leadership in the field to bring education and awareness to the importance of risk management, what's at risk, and what the current legal environment is, and overlay that with wanting to care for people. Hyatt cares about the guest experience. [14:43] This is a macro-level environment. If you have litigation system abuse across the country, what are insurers doing about it? What are brokers doing about it? What are corporations doing about it? [14:56] Jennifer gets with her peers in the hospitality industry, working in their respective associations, to address these issues at the state and federal levels, change laws, and push for tort reform and disclosures of litigation funding. [15:28] Hyatt has partnered with the American Lodging and Hospitality Association and is considering partnering with insurance companies. You can't just hope someone else will take care of the problem. It's a much bigger problem that we all need to address. [16:06] Justin points out that third-party litigation funding is one of the top initiatives and campaigns for RIMS this year. RIMS recently had the Legislative Summit in Washington, D.C., where third-party litigation funding was a top priority. It was a top RIMS talking point on the Hill. [16:38] Jennifer says Hyatt and the hospitality industry are in with RIMS on the issue of third-party litigation funding. If it continues, guests are going to have to pay more for a stay and for the experiences they want to have as rising risk costs are passed to the consumers. [17:04] Plug Time! RIMS Webinars! We are back on May 22nd, with GRC, a TÜV SÜD Company, and their newest session, “Asset Valuations in 2025: Managing Tariffs, Inflation, and Rising Insurance Scrutiny”. [17:22] On May 29th, Origami Risk returns to present “Strategic Risk Financing in an Unstable Economy: Leveraging Technology for Efficiency and Cost Reduction”. On June 5th, Zywave joins us to discuss “Today's Escalating Risk Trajectory: What's the Cause and What's the Solution?” [17:44] More webinars will be announced soon and added to the RIMS.org/Webinars page. Go there to register. Registration is complimentary for RIMS members. [17:55] Spencer's goal to help build a talent pipeline of risk management and insurance professionals is achieved, in part, by its collaboration with risk management and insurance educators across the U.S. and Canada. [18:16] Since 2010, Spencer has awarded over $3.3 million in General Grants to support over 130 student-centered experiential learning initiatives at universities and RMI non-profits. Spencer's 2026 application process is now open through July 30th, 2025. [18:36] General Grant awardees are typically notified at the end of October. Learn more about Spencer's General Grants through the Programs tab of SpencerEd.org. [18:46] On the 7th of October, the New Jersey RIMS Chapter will return to the beautiful Fiddler's Elbow Country Club in Bedminster, New Jersey for their Annual Charity Golf/Pickleball Event. [18:59] Registration is open and the event proceeds are used to fund the chapter's Spencer and Kids' Chance Scholarships. It was the filming location for the upcoming movie sequel Happy Gilmore 2. For more information, and to register, please NewJersey.RIMS.org. [19:21] Let's Return to My Interview with RIMS 2025 Risk Manager of the Year, Jennifer Pack! [19:47] Hyatt put a captive in place in 2013. Back then, Hyatt had huge insurance cost swings year-on-year that they couldn't forecast. It created a lot of “noise” on the balance sheet. They originally put the captive in place to take away that noise and remove wild cost volatility. [20:38] Over time, Hyatt started to see success and build up a surplus they saw the value of a captive, especially as market conditions changed. They brought in additional forms of insurance coverage with traditional deductible buy-downs with workers' compensation and GL. [21:04] They started to see the surplus build up and they were able to give some of the surplus back to the participants and drive down their premium cost. [21:14] In the pandemic, the hospitality business came to a halt. Before the pandemic, Hyatt's average occupancy around the world was over 75%. In April 2020, it dropped to 6%. The owners of Hyatt were under extreme pressure. [21:43] Jennifer had an extra surplus in the captive and was able to give relief to the owners and to the company in that year and the next couple of years. Claim volume went down due to lower occupancy. Hyatt used some of that cash to fund large acquisitions. [22:19] That's when Hyatt saw social inflation in gaps in coverage. There was no coverage for a pandemic. Through the captive, Jennifer was able to offer that coverage to the owners. She offered wages and hours insurance to the owners. [22:48] Coming out of COVID-19, with the impact of social inflation, the captive took on larger line sizes and larger layers in its umbrella tower. They had some acquisitions in cyber. They bought the Apple Leisure Group. [23:36] In a lot of those services, Hyatt isn't providing the service but is almost like a travel agent, connecting you to the hotel, airline, or excursion. If there is an incident, the third party has the coverage. Hyatt has exposure for connecting you to the service. [24:01] Hyatt had to get creative with coverage for these new exposures, working with broker partners to fill those gaps. They did it largely with the captive, buying time until they could get a traditional product in place. [24:17] With the captive, Hyatt filled gaps, helped grow the business, and used it as a business enabler, providing cash, relief to owners, and coverage that may not have been commercially available, either to buy time or permanently fill a gap. It's been fun! [24:53] Jennifer regularly changes which hat she wears. As the captive President, she has to look at what Hyatt is doing to protect the captive and make sure it's adequately funded and complies with regulations. From a governance perspective, is Hyatt doing the right things? [25:21] Jennifer regularly brings in third-party experts to check the captive. Jennifer's decisions as President of the captive are through the lens of the captive and as the owner of this business, what they are doing to grow revenues, manage expenses, and keep an adequate surplus. [25:44] The captive doesn't run razor-thin. To have a forward-looking approach, it needs to have an adequate surplus, reserves, and cash in the captive. They're very conservative in protecting it. [26:06] From a corporate risk management perspective, when Hyatt needs to buy insurance, Jennifer asks, can we buy it from the captive? She sometimes has tough conversations with Hyatt about borrowing versus driving up investment income to protect everyone's interests. [26:37] Jennifer has to keep top-of-mind, which lens she's looking through, whether President of the Captive or Hyatt Vice President of Risk Management. She wears two hats, managing all the key stakeholders' needs and wants. [27:17] Some of the stakeholders are Hyatt, third-party owners, the corporation itself, and guests and colleagues with short-term and long-term disability and medical, adding value for the benefits team so they don't have to go to third parties for that insurance. [28:27] As the Captive President, Jennifer is looking at loss and expense ratios, reserve to operating ratios, surplus to premiums, and surplus to reserves, making sure that they're within the set ratios. They shoot for three to one. Anything above that number can go to participants. [29:09] They won't go below three to one so they are capitalized for future unexpected losses or to back up future business growth. Jennifer believes Hyatt is unique in having those ratios and guards in place. Jennifer is looking forward to future needs. [30:15] The captive evaluates from time to time whether to change the ratios to five to one or four to one. In the liability space, claims are growing. Some of the demands are wild and the settlements reached or not reached are eye-opening! [30:46] Jennifer explains the global risk management claims software that is now also used for incident reporting to the risk department. They look at data from all incidents and are seeing a trend and looking to what could come down the pike and new coverages they may need to offer. [31:44] The technology is supporting the department and overall risk management strategy. The captive is benefiting through better data on what's happening out there so they won't get blindsided by unusual trends that aren't yet seen in the claims. [32:19] Technology helps the captive to build out platforms to manage compliance, safety, and security in the environment. [32:28] The more data insights and comfort Jennifer has over the Health, Safety, and Security diagnostic at each property, region, and the globe, and overlays those with risk assessments Hyatt does, the more comfort she can get to take on more risks knowledgeably in the captive. [33:15] RIMS Plug! The first of hopefully many RIMS Texas Regional Conferences will be held in San Antonio from August 4th through the 6th, 2025. This groundbreaking event is set to unite the Texas RIMS Chapters and welcome risk management professionals from around the world. [33:34] Guess what, folks! Registration is now open! The advance rate is available through May 16th. A link is in this episode's show notes. You can also visit the Events page of RIMS.org to register. We look forward to seeing you in Texas! [33:50] Let's Conclude Our Interview with RIMS 2025 Risk Manager of the Year, Jennifer Pack! [34:04] Jennifer Pack is the RIMS Risk Manager of the Year 2025 and she has been such a wonderful guest. This episode is coming out the morning of the awards. We will see her onstage, for anyone who has the privilege of being there. [34:19] Jennifer is honored, excited, and a little nervous to be onstage at RISKWORLD for the award. A lot of the RIMS Chicago members will be there. Jennifer has a wonderful Chicago-based team that will be there. Jennifer's parents and her husband are coming. [36:26] Jennifer says moving up the ranks at Hyatt and RIMS Chicago has been a fun and wild ride! The growth in her career, switching from being a Public Accountant to Auditor to Risk Manager has been fun with a lot of learning. [36:54] Jennifer tries to lead and grow with optimism, fun, and humor. She's been able to grow and develop a team under her. It's been a really interesting 18-year adventure. [37:11] Once Jennifer was exposed to RIMS, it opened her eyes to the wealth of resources, friendship, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing. It's been such an excellent experience for her. She couldn't be prouder of the Chicago Chapter and the great things they do to develop talent.  [37:43] Jennifer says since COVID-19, it's been wonderful to see the number of people who attend the outings and forums. It's great to have such a great community and seeing them regularly is impactful. [38:06] Jennifer is Risk Manager of the Year. The Rising Star is Megan Smalter, who has had a wonderful time with the Chicago Chapter before moving to New York. In her role on the RIMS Chicago Chapter Board, and when she ran the Golf Outing, Jennifer has worked with Megan. [38:45] Julie Bean won the Heart of RIMS Award recently. Jennifer says it's great to have the bench of expertise of long-standing members in the Chicago Chapter. Jennifer learned from them personally and in professional settings. They're great for sharing ideas and working with. [39:36] Jennifer also mentioned Theresa Severson who was RIMS 2023 Risk Manager of the Year, with Kite Realty. There's a lot of talent and deep risk knowledge in the RIMS Chicago Chapter. There's a genuine camaraderie.  [40:30] Jennifer looks ahead to see companies leaning into the concept of full risk management philosophy. Risk management is so much more than just the insurance buyers. [40:45] Risk management is “How can we bring a risk management mindset to our enterprises? How can we be business enablers? How can we leverage the wealth of data and information that comes through our department to enable mindful growth in the business?” [41:05] It's “How can we help with ESG efforts, especially with the reporting? How can we mitigate risks to the company and not just to our financial tools of insurance? What can we do in loss prevention or mitigation?” [41:26] “What can we do in claims management with more expertise, as things heat up on the litigation side with social inflation and nuclear claims?” Jennifer sees Hyatt and other companies taking more risks in the captive's or balance sheet to offset what's happening.” [42:10] Risk managers are going to have to articulate that and bring solutions to the forefront of their companies. Jennifer is excited about the future. She's looking forward to launching and rolling out more technology solutions as Hyatt leverages all its data. [42:57] Jennifer knows her team can have a lot of positive impact on the organization and she's excited about it. [43:08] Special thanks and congratulations again to Jennifer Pack, the RIMS 2025 Risk Manager of the Year. A link to RISKWORLD coverage is in this episode's show notes via the Show Daily. [43:20] That will update this episode's show notes with a link to the RIMS Risk Management Magazine coverage in our special Awards Edition. More honorees from RISKWORLD will join us here on RIMScast soon. [43:35] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [44:03] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [44:21] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [44:38] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [44:55] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [45:09] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. You can email Justin at Content@RIMS.org. [45:17] Thank you all for your continued support and engagement on social media channels! We appreciate all your kind words. Listen every week! Stay safe!   Links: RIMS Texas Regional 2025 — August 3‒5 | Advance registration rates now open. ERM Conference 2025 — Call for Submissions (Through May 20) RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Risk Management magazine RIMS Now The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center Spencer Educational Foundation — General Grants 2026 — Application Dates Press Release: “RIMS Risk Manager of the Year Goes to Hyatt's Jennifer Pack” RIMS Webinars: RIMS.org/Webinars “Asset Valuations in 2025: Managing Tariffs, Inflation, and Rising Insurance Scrutiny” | Sponsored by GRC, a TÜV SÜD Company | May 22, 2025 “Strategic Risk Financing in an Unstable Economy: Leveraging Technology for Efficiency and Cost Reduction” | Sponsored by Origami Risk | May 29, 2025 “Today's Escalating Risk Trajectory: What's the Cause & What's the Solution?” | Sponsored by Zywave | June 5, 2025   Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: CBCP & RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep Virtual Bootcamp: “Mastering Business Continuity & Risk Management” | May 19‒22, 2025 | In Collaboration with DRI International Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule “Managing Data for ERM” | June 12 | Instructor: Pat Saporito  “Generative AI for Risk Management” | June 26 | Instructor: Pat Saporito See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops RIMS-CRMP Prep Workshops   Related RIMScast Episodes: “Risk and Leadership Patterns with Super Bowl Champion Ryan Harris” (RISKWORLD 2025 Keynote) “(Re)Humanizing Leadership in Risk Management with Holly Ransom” “Risk and Relatability with Rachel DeAlto” “RIMS Risk Manager of the Year, Steve Robles, Los Angeles County” (2024)   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: “The New Reality of Risk Engineering: From Code Compliance to Resilience” | Sponsored by AXA XL (New!) “Change Management: AI's Role in Loss Control and Property Insurance” | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company “Demystifying Multinational Fronting Insurance Programs” | Sponsored by Zurich “Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding” | Sponsored by Zurich “What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings” | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog “Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping” | Sponsored by Medcor “Risk Management in a Changing World: A Deep Dive into AXA's 2024 Future Risks Report” | Sponsored by AXA XL “How Insurance Builds Resilience Against An Active Assailant Attack” | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog “Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips” | Sponsored by Alliant “RIMS Innovation with Archer” | Sponsored by Archer “Navigating Commercial Property Risks with Captives” | Sponsored by Zurich “Breaking Down Silos: AXA XL's New Approach to Casualty Insurance” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Weathering Today's Property Claims Management Challenges” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Storm Prep 2024: The Growing Impact of Convective Storms and Hail” | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company “Partnering Against Cyberrisk” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Harnessing the Power of Data and Analytics for Effective Risk Management” | Sponsored by Marsh “Accident Prevention — The Winning Formula For Construction and Insurance” | Sponsored by Otoos “Platinum Protection: Underwriting and Risk Engineering's Role in Protecting Commercial Properties” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Elevating RMIS — The Archer Way” | Sponsored by Archer   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Kristen Peed!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guest: Jennifer Pack, VP of Global Risk Management, Hyatt Corporation   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.  

Consumer Watchdog Report by Investigative Reporter Justin Kloczko On today's show, California's autonomy over its utilities is under threat according to a new report by Consumer Watchdog entitled, “Dirty Deal:  How A Corporate Utility Fixer Is Poised To Turn Over CA Climate Law To Trump”.  I'll speak to its author, investigative reporter Justin Kloczko and Consumer Watchdog president Jaime Court. EVENTS: Extinction Rebellion hosts the Street Theater at Tesla in Berkeley Where: Tesla,1731 Fourth Street, Berkeley When: April 26 12pm-1pm Extinction Rebellion Celebrates the New Climate Mural in Richmond What: Community Mural Unveiling – All are invited! When: Sunday, April 27, 2:00-4:00pm Pacific Where: Arlington Market, 6462 Arlington Blvd., Richmond, CA 350 Bay Area's first ever monthly Energy Equity campaign meeting on April 30, Wednesday at 6 pm to learn about our current energy landscape, what we're working on, and to join the conversation on what it will take to get the utility system we need. May Day Strong National Day of Action When: Wednesday, May 1, 4:00pm Where: Civic Center, San Francisco Register to say you are attending or see MayDayStrong.org for other local events. Senate Judiciary Tuesday (they vote April 29) – if your member is on this committee. SENATE JUDICIARY Senator Thomas Umberg Chair (916) 651-4034 Senator Ben Allen. (916) 651-4024 Senator Angelique Ashby  (916) 651-4008 Senator Anna Caballero (916) 651-4014 Senator Maria Elena Durazo (916) 651-4026 Senator John Laird (916) 651-4017 Senator Eloise Reyes (916) 651-4029 Senator Henry Stern (916) 651-4027 Senator Aisah Wahab (916) 651-4410 Senator Akiah Weber Pierson. (916) 651-4039 Senator Scott Wiener  (916) 651-4011 https://www.senate.ca.gov/senators Sample Script:  My name is _____ I am one of thousands of voters in California opposed to SB 540. We are counting on you to protect us and vote NO on SB 540 Pathways and not give away our hard-won control over our clean energy future to Trump who hates California.Our single state control protects us now, and there is NO reason to give it up.  Once we join, we cannot exit the Regional Operator. No one ever has. We know the supposed “guardrails” are illusory and will not hold up in court. We will lose our renewable goals to Trump. In addition, all the other western states can sue us and kill our renewable energy focus. This has been clearly shown in the attached Center for Biological Diversity letter posted here.   We already have all the grid connections we need without giving up control. It's a manufactured fear by the same forces that got us into the Enron crisis that cost us $40 billion in the year 2001.   Don't sell us out. Vote NO on SB 540 in Senate   Judiciary Committee on April 29. Or Abstain (NVR – no vote recorded). The post Consumer Watchdog Report: Dirty Deal appeared first on KPFA.

Tid er penger har hatt gleden av å ha den legendariske journalisten og forfatteren Bethany McLean som gjest i podcasten. Det tok bokstavlig talt 2,5 år å booke dette intervjuet, og det var utrolig nok verdt ventetiden. Without further ado: Bethany McLean. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An annual spectacle is about to take place in Washington, showing so much of what's wrong with today's media: the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. On today's show, Josh digs into the corrosive obsession with “fame” in the news business, and how it leads journalists to stray far away from their role of providing you the truth. You'll hear a network's flagship political show, just the other day, present sports analyst Stephen A. Smith as a contender for the U.S. presidency -- without mentioning that he has no particular set of knowledge or skills for the job. (As Josh explains, Smith himself points out what's wrong with this way of thinking.) And you'll hear a political operative talk about how the fame obsession led members of his party in Washington to do “evil.” Also, how the media weaponizes fame to skew stories, like that of a pro-terror radical from Columbia University. And a crucial lesson from the Enron scandal more than twenty years ago.  The They Stand Corrected newsletter is a bestseller! People like you are choosing to go beyond the free version and become paid subscribers. If you do, you'll support the show, get exclusive content, help determine topics Josh discusses, and learn the secrets to free, legal, no-paywall access to lots of major news sites. (Visit joshlevs.com/newsletter.) You can also support via PayPal, as this show begins its second year. Thanks to sponsored partnerships, help the show for free TODAY only: Sign this petition demanding the hostages' release: bit.ly/43UwpzI Pledge to support the medic heroes of United Hatzalah: bit.ly/4iRFj5A Feedback, questions, ideas, bookings: joshlevs.com.

Time travel theories :: Covid theories :: Global entanglement :: Traveling back in time to talk about time travel :: The cost of freedom :: Race wars are a spook, stop being manipulated :: Enron :: 2025-04-20 :: Hosts: Lori, Mark, Rich E. Rich

Time travel theories :: Covid theories :: Global entanglement :: Traveling back in time to talk about time travel :: The cost of freedom :: Race wars are a spook, stop being manipulated :: Enron :: 2025-04-20 :: Hosts: Lori, Mark, Rich E. Rich

Founders ✓ Claim : Read the notes at at podcastnotes.org. Don't forget to subscribe for free to our newsletter, the top 10 ideas of the week, every Monday --------- Because of the podcast I get to meet a lot of super successful people. I'm always asking them "Who is the smartest person you know" and "Who do you think has the best business?". "Ken Griffin" is a very common answer. I've heard Ken described in two ways: "Winner" and "Killer".  For years I've come across interesting anecdotes about Ken. Like when he appears as a 19 year old kid in Ed Thorp's excellent autobiography A Man For All Markets. Or when John Arnold describe Ken's intense competitive drive following the blowup of Enron. And then consider the fact that I'm obsessed with people who run their business for decades (Ken founded Citadel 35 years ago and Citadel Securities 23 years ago) — and I knew I had to make an episode about his life and work. The only problem was there's no great biography of Ken. So to make this episode I transcribed this talk that Ken gave at Yale. And for additional context I read the book Ken recommends: Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win. ----Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book  ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

Danny Moses hosts renowned short seller Jim Chanos of Chanos & Company. Chanos discusses his extensive career in short selling since 1985, offering insights into current market debacles, the elevated risks in recent valuations, and specific cases of fraud he has encountered. He examines the historical context of financial fraud and the systemic issues facing modern markets, such as inadequate regulatory actions by the SEC under the Trump administration. Chanos also touches on his notable short positions, including Enron, and his views on current stocks like IBM and data centers. Additionally, he highlights the importance of rigorous forensic accounting and investigative journalism in uncovering fraud. After the break, Danny is joined by former professional golfer and broadcaster Ned Michaels to preview the 2025 Masters. -- ABOUT THE SHOW For decades, Danny has seen it all on Wall Street and has built his reputation on integrity, curiosity and skepticism that he will bring with him each week. Having traded through the Great Financial Crisis and being featured in "The Big Short" is only part of the experiences Danny wants to share with the listener. This weekly podcast cuts through market noise, offering entertaining and informative discussions with expert guests giving their views of the financial world and the human side of it. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just getting started, On The Tape provides something for all listeners. Follow Danny on X: @dmoses34 The financial opinions expressed are for information purposes only. The opinions expressed by the hosts and participants are not an attempt to influence specific trading behavior, investments, or strategies. Past performance does not necessarily predict future outcomes. No specific results or profits are assured when relying on this content. Before making any investment or trade, evaluate its suitability for your circumstances and consider consulting your own financial or investment advisor. The financial products discussed in 'On The Tape' carry a high level of risk and may not be appropriate for many investors. If you have uncertainties, it's advisable to seek professional advice. Remember that trading involves a risk to your capital, so only invest money that you can afford to lose. Derivatives are not suitable for all investors and involve the risk of losing more than the amount originally deposited and any profit you might have made. This communication is not a recommendation or offer to buy, sell or retain any specific investment or service.

Adverbs are bad, tariffs are bigly, Enron's desk gets pardoned, cybertruck flipoff metrics

Because of the podcast I get to meet a lot of super successful people. I'm always asking them "Who is the smartest person you know" and "Who do you think has the best business?". "Ken Griffin" is a very common answer. I've heard Ken described in two ways: "Winner" and "Killer".  For years I've come across interesting anecdotes about Ken. Like when he appears as a 19 year old kid in Ed Thorp's excellent autobiography A Man For All Markets. Or when John Arnold describe Ken's intense competitive drive following the blowup of Enron. And then consider the fact that I'm obsessed with people who run their business for decades (Ken founded Citadel 35 years ago and Citadel Securities 23 years ago) — and I knew I had to make an episode about his life and work. The only problem was there's no great biography of Ken. So to make this episode I transcribed this talk that Ken gave at Yale. And for additional context I read the book Ken recommends: Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win. ----Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book  ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

Ask why. WHY did ENRON, the USA's 7th largest corporation declare bankruptcy in a matter of months? WHY did the higher ups walk away with millions while the average worker lost their pensions? WHY did California experience an unprecedented series of rolling blackouts despite producing more than enough electricity to power the state? WHY has the word ENRON become synonymous with white collar crime? And WHY did only, like, two guys go to jail?In the two years we've maintained this podcast, we've covered the biographies of dead people, dead tigers and gorillas, even dead theme parks. And today we take our first foray into the life and painful death of a corporation.Watch in video at: https://www.youtube.com/@RespecttheDeadPodcastWant an exclusive video episode about ENRON? Sign up at ➡ https://www.patreon.com/RespectTheDeadHoots: https://www.youtube.com/@hootsyoutube // https://twitter.com/punishedhootsCaelan: https://www.youtube.com/@caelanconrad // https://twitter.com/caelanconrad // https://bsky.app/profile/caelan.bsky.social

What makes an organisation toxic, and how can we spot the signs before it's too late? What are the common traits that make seemingly unrelated organisations, ranging from the Catholic Church to corporations, do harm?On this episode, I'm joined once again by one of my favourite guests — Professor Benjamin van Rooij — for a deep dive into the hidden dangers of organisational life.Benjamin and his co-author, Professor Nicholas Lord, are working on a new book (working title) Toxic: Organisations Gone Bad, which explores not just headline-grabbing scandals, but the patterns of behaviour and structures that consistently lead organisations to cause harm.SummaryIn our discussion, we unpack how organisational processes — like silencing, secrecy, and the relentless pursuit of unrealistic goals — can multiply risk.Benjamin explains why organisations, both public and private, can become “toxic” not simply due to bad people or poor oversight, but because of a combination of systemic dynamics and cultural norms that reward silence, over-ambition, and passive harm.We also discuss why the term “toxic” itself is both useful and problematic, and how understanding these dynamics can help leaders make better decisions before disaster strikes; whether it's Facebook's role in spreading misinformation, Wells Fargo's aggressive sales targets, or the normalization of deviance at Chernobyl and Enron, Benjamin helps us trace the common threads that connect seemingly unrelated crises.And, true to form, he doesn't offer simplistic solutions — instead, he gives us tools to ask better questions, challenge dominant narratives, and push for root-cause thinking over box-ticking fixes. Guest Biography Benjamin is Professor in Law and Society and Director of Research at the School of Law at the University of Amsterdam, as well as a Global Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine.In his academic work, Benjamin specialises in understanding how laws and regulations operate within real-world organisational settings, focusing on compliance, harm, and institutional accountability. He blends criminology, behavioural science, and legal studies to explore why people and institutions obey (or disobey) rules, and what systems best support ethical behaviour.  Previous appearancesOn COVID Compliance

In this episode, Jenilee sits down with Misty Phillip, visionary leader, entrepreneur, and author of Spark Your Influence, to talk about the one thing that's holding so many of us back from stepping into our God-given calling: fear.Misty opens up about her journey from working at Enron, to homeschooling her children, to starting Spark Media, and now transitioning to a new mission field with her husband in the tech industry. Through her story, Misty shares how fear and self-doubt almost kept her from obeying God's call — but how, by leaning into obedience, she discovered the courage to step into new and bigger opportunities.In this episode, you'll learn:How fear manifests in your life and why it keeps you stuckHow to recognize when God is calling you to pivot or step into something newWhy obedience to God's call will lead to influence, even if you're not on a big platformThe tools Misty includes in her new book Spark Your Influence to help you identify your unique gifts and callingHow to stop waiting for the “perfect moment” and start making an impact right where you areIf you're feeling stuck, this episode will encourage you to take bold action and trust God in the process.Resources Mentioned:Spark Your Influence by Misty Phillip Misty's websiteREMEMBER: Email Misty your book receipt to get access to an exclusive video conversation!---------------------------------------• Get Jen's "Hearing God's Voice for Everyday Life" 30-day Journal that was created for YOU on Amazon! : : ⁠https://a.co/d/6aea4Dg⁠

China is on its last legs. Its demographic picture is far past terminal. Its financial system makes Enron look responsible. Simply feeding its people is far beyond Beijing's capacity without legions of outside assistance.Join the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PeterZeihanFull Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/zeihan/trump-takes-on-chinaor-not

The US audit board has already been forced to revise its priorities as the Trump administration begins to reshape the federal government. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board pulled an auditor disclosure rule that was set for SEC approval earlier this month. The audit board opted to delay finalizing another project that would expand how auditors consider the financial impact of their clients' law violations days after Donald Trump's November election win. But deeper changes might be coming to the Enron-era regulator, which Congress designed to be an auditor watchdog. Republicans previously targeted the PCAOB through legislation and budget proposals that would have eliminated the independent regulator. Project 2025, considered a playbook for the second Trump administration, similarly called for the SEC to take over the board's work. Any major changes in board leadership could usher in the third swing in priorities at the regulator since 2017. Ally Zimmerman is an associate professor of business administration at Florida State University and a former fellow at both the PCAOB and Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees the board's work. In this episode of Talking Tax, Zimmerman spoke with Bloomberg Tax reporter Amanda Iacone about the PCAOB's future and what auditors and the investors who depend on their work can expect in the coming months. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Today, I'm thrilled to announce my episode with Broadway legend Norbert Leo Butz, whose solo show Girls, Girls, Girls will be playing at 54 Below from March 9-13. The ticket link is here: https://54below.org/events/norbert-leo-butz-girls-girls-girls/ Tune in to hear some of the stories of his amazing career, including his advice for actors playing Fiyero in WICKED, why audiences misunderstand Jamie in THE LAST FIVE YEARS, jumping into SPEED-THE-PLOW with only a few days' notice, why ENRON didn't work for American audiences, how he infused his father into CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, how Jack O'Brien grounded the humor in DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, acting in CORNELIA STREET just after the pandemic, how BIG FISH helped him with losses in his own life, the challenge of playing the Emcee in CABARET, how he first met Jason Robert Brown, the gift of HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE, his audition process for THOU SHALT NOT, how Ska music influenced “Dancing Through Life,” the lessons he learned from his Broadway debut in RENT, and so much more. You won't want to miss this in-depth conversation with one of Broadway's best actors.

On this episode we're exploring whether new media is redefining the way we consume business news, with Sammi Cohen, Consumer Expert & Founder of Social Currency.I first came across Sammi via TikTok and was immediately impressed with her ability to distill interesting business topics. So I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to her about how new media is reshaping the consumption of business news, the concept of 'business lore' and why it's important for story telling, the rise of TikTok as a platform for B2B content, the launch of her Social Currency newsletter, the success of creator-led brands such as Chamberlain Coffee and whether the rebirth of Enron is real or a hoax?This podcast is brought to you by our mates at Shopify.Shopify is a key player that's revolutionising retail by empowering unified commerce across online, offline, and wholesale channels. With one of the largest and robust ecosystems among commerce platforms, we're excited to have them join us on this podcast journey. Check them out here.Checkout Factory here.Sign up to our newsletter here.

Recibimos a Beltrán Parages socio fundador y director de Relación con Inversores de Azvalor para hablar de las siete magníficas. Cómo se gestiona el riesgo. No es fácil. De hecho, algunos dirían que ni siquiera es posible. Porque el futuro es imposible de predecir. Antes de que ocurriese, no sabíamos que la crisis financiera de 2007-08 iba a pasar; ni tampoco anticipábamos que podía haber una Guerra en Ucrania ni, sobre todo, las consecuencias económicas que podía tener ese conflicto; ni antes de que Enron quebrase había muchos que apostaban por ese resultado. Y así podríamos seguir con decenas de ejemplos de eventos muy importantes y con un enorme impacto que no fuimos capaces de anticipar. Pero aunque no lo supimos hacer en el pasado, pensamos que estamos preparados para el futuro. El ser humano es paradójico, también el inversor. Por eso, esta semana hablaremos de cómo enfocar esa gestión del riesgo con Beltrán Parages, director de Relación con Inversores de AzValor, una de las gestoras españolas que mejor ha navegado en la última década por las procelosas aguas de la incertidumbre con la que se vive en los mercados. Su discurso comienza con la satisfacción del trabajo bien hecho. Y valorando la propia supervivencia como algo que se da por sentado pero no es tan sencillo: "La mitad de los fondos que se ofrecen al público en Europa no llegan a los diez años. En AzValor estamos ya en ese décimo año y en un estado de forma bastante bueno. Y sólo el 16% de los fondos en España llega a los quince años. Sobrevivir, y más en ese proceso de pasivización de la inversión, tiene mucho mérito. El balance es muy satisfactorio: hemos multiplicado el fondo por 2,5, lo que implica un 10% anual. La rentabilidad media acumulada de los inversores que entraron entre 2016 y 2019 es el 11-12%". Son grandes cifras y Parages explica que la razón reside en mantenerse fieles a su proceso: "No hay que caer en la complacencia de pensar que uno sabe más de lo que sabe. La prudencia es clave. Es más importante no cometer errores. En estos diez años, tenemos una cola de errores y otra de aciertos, que afortunadamente es mayor. Luego tenemos algunas compañías en las que hemos multiplicado, pero en casi todas ellas antes de lograr la rentabilidad hemos sufrido mucho". De esta manera, Parages está convencido que las empresas que les han dado ese 11-12% son aquellas en las que han comprado las cosas iban mal o había una narrativa contraria: "Hemos sabido comprar bien y al mismo tiempo hemos vendido cuando se han acercado a nuestro precio objetivo. Tenemos cincuenta compañías y creemos que el riesgo del equipo está diversificado tanto en la compra de cada una de ellas como en la relación entre las mismas. El éxito se debe mucho más a la recurrencia que a las colas de la distribución; aunque, por supuesto, mejor si hay más casos en la parte de los aciertos". Por supuesto, también hay hueco en la conversación para la situación actual de unos mercados que, sobre todo en la bolsa americana, siguen en máximos históricos: "El ratio riesgo/retorno es fundamental. No estamos dispuestos a cualquier retorno a cualquier riesgo. La gente está fascinada con el S&P 500, pero creo que están asumiendo muchísimo riesgo. Los beneficios medios del S&P 500 están en 210-220 y el índice cotiza a 6.000. Lo que quiere decir que el índice está a 30 veces beneficios. Lo que implica ese índice es que los beneficios de las compañías del S&P 500 deberían irse a 300 o 400. Crecer al 15%, como ha hecho el S&P 500 sin que lo hayan hecho los beneficios empresariales, lo que quiere decir es que se ha encarecido el activo. A mí me gusta la gestión pasiva. Pero hoy en día, los principales 7 componentes del índice son el 33% del S&P 500. Y esos 7 magníficos cotizan a 45 veces beneficios. Las burbujas no son una valoración, sino una actitud".

What's better than a bank heist with your significant other? Should Abraham Lincoln have taken a longer bathroom break? Will Taylor Swift ever stop being shown during NFL games? Listen in this week to hear Dane and Samuel discuss these topics and more!---Please follow our Instagram & TikTok to stay updated on all things podcast and make sure to send us a voice message via Instagram DM to be featured on one of our next episodes.https://www.instagram.com/untilnextweekpodcasthttps://www.tiktok.com/@untilnextweekpodcast---Please leave us a 5 STAR REVIEW on both Spotify and Apple for a chance to be mentioned on a future episode.---SUPPORT DANE: [Please send us a DM with your name and amount if you decide to donate for tracking purposes] https://hillcityglobal.managedmissions.com/MyTrip/danebiesemeyer1---GET $5 OFF THE BEST LISTED DISCOUNT FOR 2 FRIDAY PICKLEBALL PADDLES: [USE CODE SAMUEL 14434]https://www.fridaypickle.com/discount/SAMUEL14434---Key words for the algorithm: Clean Podcast, Clean Comedy, Friday Pickleball, Ghostrunners Podcast, Correct Opinions Podcast, Tim Hawkins Podcast, Becoming Something Podcast, Fantasy Football, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Chiefs, Super Bowl, Enron, Bible Stories, Patrick Mahomes, David Freese, AI Artwork, Spotify Jams, When She Loved Me, Beyonce Grammy's, Luka Doncic Got Traded, Ozzie Smith Autograph, Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, etc.

In this episode, we sit down with CEO, Connor Gaydos who spent $275 to acquire the abandoned Enron brand and is now working to transform one of America's most infamous corporate scandals into a symbol of redemption and innovation.Connor Gaydos, co-creator of the viral "Birds Aren't Real" movement and now the CEO of Enron, joins ‘Gen C' to discuss his surprising acquisition and the relaunch of one of America's most notorious corporate brands. In this conversation, Connor shares his vision for transforming Enron through a combination of earnest business ventures—including home nuclear reactors and logistics services—and unique marketing tactics.Links mentioned from the podcast: Connor's TwitterEnron's WebsiteWatch this episode on video:YouTubeCoinDeskFollow us on Twitter: Sam Ewen, Avery Akkineni, CoinDesk, Vayner3From our sponsor: In Chinese, belief means trust. For 10 years, Consensus has united those who believe in building a new internet where everyone has value. Join us at Consensus Hong Kong February 18 - 20, 2025 where belief becomes real. Connect with global leaders, innovators, and investors shaping the future of Web3, and experience the power of collaboration at the industry's most influential event. Register now: https://go.coindesk.com/3BeigBq-"Gen C" features hosts Sam Ewen and Avery Akkineni. Executive produced by by Uyen Truong. Our theme music is "1882” by omgkirby x Channel Tres with editing by Doc Blust. Artwork by Nicole Marie Rincon.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our guest this time, Bill Eddy, is a family mediator, lawyer and therapist, and the Chief Innovation Officer of the High Conflict Institute based in San Diego, California. He received his bachelor's degree in Psychology, but didn't stop there. As you will read, he went on to learn and work in the therapy space for a number of years, but his longing to deal with some other issues caused him to study law and after receiving his Juris Prudence degree he worked in the law as a mediator. While doing this he also felt it relevant and appropriate to begin working on ways to address conflicts between persons. He realized that conflict often meant that someone was bullying another person.   Bill and I spend much time discussing bullying, where it comes from, how and why people become bullies and how to deal with bullying kinds of behavior. Our discussions are fascinating and I quite believe important for everyone to hear.   Just last month Bill's latest book, “Our New World of Adult Bullies” was released. Bill discusses his book and why we are encountering more bullying behavior today than we have experienced in the past.   Enough from me. I hope you find my conversation with Bill Eddy relevant, useful and, of course, entertaining.       About the Guest:   Bill Eddy is a family mediator, lawyer and therapist, and the Chief Innovation Office of the High Conflict Institute based in San Diego, California. He has provided training to mediators, lawyers, judges, mental health professionals and others on the subject of managing high-conflict personalities in over 35 states, 9 provinces in Canada, and twelve other countries.   As a lawyer, Mr. Eddy was a Certified Family Law Specialist (CFLS) in California for 15 years, where he represented clients in family court. Prior to that, he provided psychotherapy for 12 years to children and families in psychiatric hospitals and outpatient clinics as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). Throughout his forty-year career he has provided divorce mediation services, including the past 15 years as the Senior Family Mediator at the National Conflict Resolution Center in San Diego, California. Mr. Eddy is the author of several books, including: · Mediating High Conflict Disputes · High Conflict People in Legal Disputes · Splitting: Protecting Yourself While Divorcing Someone with Borderline or Narcissistic Personality Disorder · Calming Upset People with EAR · BIFF: Quick Responses to High Conflict People · BIFF for CoParent Communication · BIFF at Work · BIFF for Lawyers and Law Offices · So, What's Your Proposal: Shifting High Conflict People From Blaming to Problem-Solving in 30 Seconds · Don't Alienate the Kids! Raising Resilient Children While Avoiding High-Conflict Divorce   He has a continuing education course for Mental Health professionals titled “It's All Your Fault!”: Working with High Conflict Personalities. He has a Psychology Today blog about high conflict personality disorders with over 6 million views. He has a podcast titled “It's All Your Fault” which he does weekly with Megan Hunter.   He taught Negotiation and Mediation at the University of San Diego School of Law for six years. He has served on the part-time faculty of the National Judicial College in the United States and has provided several trainings for judges in Canada for the National Judicial Institute. He is currently on the part-time faculty at the Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law teaching Psychology of Conflict Communication each year. He teaches once a year on Advanced Communication Skills as Conjoint Associate Professor at Newcastle Law School in Newcastle, Australia.   He is the developer of the New Ways for Families® method for potentially high-conflict families, which is being implemented in several family court systems in the United States and Canada, as well as an online co-parenting course (Parenting Without Conflict by New Ways for Families). He is also the developer of the New Ways for Mediation® method, which emphasizes more structure by the mediator and simple negotiation skills for the parties. He obtained his JD law degree in 1992 from the University of San Diego, a Master of Social Work degree in 1981 from San Diego State University, and a Bachelors degree in Psychology in 1970 from Case Western Reserve University. His website is: www.HighConflictInstitute.com.   Ways to connect with Bill:   www.HighConflictInstitute.com.   About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 And welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Today, we get to deal mostly with the unexpected, because inclusion is what it is, diversity is what it is, and those we put in the order that we do, because in the typical sense of the word diversity, doesn't intend to include disabilities or any discussion of disabilities. And people say, well, disability means lack of ability when they're talking about any of that anyway. And the reality is that's not true. Disability should not mean a lack of ability. And people say, Well, it does, because it starts with dis Well, what about disciple? Yeah, what about disciple? What about discern? What about, you know, so many other kinds of things. The reality is that everyone has a disability, and we could talk about that, but that's not what we're here to do today. We're here to talk to Bill Eddy, who has written a number of books. He's got a degree in psychology, he's got degrees in law, and I'm not going to go and give all that away, because I'd rather he do it. But we also get to be excited by the fact that he has a new book, and we'll talk about it a bunch. It's called our new world of adult bullies. Um, that's what I say about my cat all the time, because she does run the house and, you know, and we can mention that name, Bill, it's stitch. Now, she's a great kitty, but she she does have her mindset on what she wants, so she's trained us well. Well, welcome to unstoppable mindset. Bill, how are you?   Bill Eddy ** 02:57 I'm good, and thanks so much for having me on. Michael, glad to be with you.   Michael Hingson ** 03:01 Well, we're glad you're here and looking forward to it. Why don't we start, as I love to do so often, why don't you tell us about kind of the early build, growing up, or any of those kinds of things to lead us into where we go?   Bill Eddy ** 03:14 Well, I was one of four kids, and as I mentioned in the introduction of the book in third grade, I had my own personal bully. He decided I was the guy he wanted to pick on and fight. And I think he figured that out because my parents didn't allow us kids to fight, so we weren't allowed to fight back. And you know, my parents said, you know, if takes two to make a fight, so if a fight starting, just walk away. And I said, what if the other person won't let you walk away? So we'll find a way to walk away. So for most of third grade, he harassed me and would catch me after school and hit me and kick me in the the foot of the stairway. We had a basement classroom, and there was a stairway out from there so no one could see and it wasn't easy to get away from but mostly I figured out how to avoid him, and also how to how to help the older kids with their homework, so they'd be more of a protector for me. So that's early childhood, but I think it influenced my my choice as an adult, you know, a psychology major, and then I got a master's in social work to do child and family counseling. Did that 12 years, but I liked resolving conflicts, and decided to go to law school and all of that primarily so I could practice mediation to help people solve conflicts. But many of the conflicts I've dealt with had bullies in them, so I started studying these personalities, and that kind of brings me up to today.   Michael Hingson ** 04:58 Wow. Well, you have certainly written, also a number of books. I was reading your list of books, and you have one on divorce, and clearly there are bullies there, and a lot of places, I'm sure, and you have just a number of books, and I can see where the whole concept of having bullies can be in all of those and at the same time, most of us haven't learned how to deal with bullies. We haven't learned how to address the issue of avoidance, which is what you talked about, but it makes perfect sense. I don't particularly like bullies. I've not been bullied a lot, I think I was a couple of times in grammar school, and a kid hit me a couple of times, and I can only assume that it was sort of a bullish oriented thing, but I don't really recall that anything ever happened other than that. It only happened like once or twice, and then I was left alone. But still, there is so much of it, and there's been bullying to a degree for well, as long as we've had people, I guess, right, and this whole idea of avoiding it is obviously what we need to do, although I guess the other part about it that comes to mind is, how do you get the bully to change their mindset and recognize that that's not the best productive use of their time? Well,   Bill Eddy ** 06:30 what's interesting is childhood bullies mostly do figure that out. And I'd say probably 90% of childhood bullies don't become adult bullies that, you know, somebody punches them in the nose, or nobody wants to be their friend, or they get in trouble at home or at school, and they learn that that doesn't work, but maybe 10% get away with it. Maybe they're encouraged, you know, maybe their parents laugh when they bully other people, and that's that's the ones that become the adult bullies. But what I find, and the Institute I work with, high conflict Institute, we do a lot of training, a lot of coaching, and we we teach people like for workplace coaching to to try to give bullies some conflict resolution skills so that they won't be bullies, so they can solve problems others other ways, and we find maybe half of the bullies can improve their behavior enough to keep the job, and About half quit or are told they need to leave. So I'd say about half of bullies can learn to stop that behavior or rein it in, and about half can't. That's just a real rough estimate from my personal observation.   Michael Hingson ** 07:55 The ones that can't or don't, is it that they get so much satisfaction from bullying and they get away with it that just they just don't see the value of it. Or is it different than that? Well, I   Bill Eddy ** 08:08 think it's not as logical as that. I think it has a lot to do with personality patterns, and the ones that are adult bullies usually have personality patterns that border on personality disorders, especially the Cluster B personality disorders, which are narcissistic, anti social, borderline and histrionic. So it's part of who they are. They're not really even thinking about it. This is just how they operate in the world. And so if they're not stopped, they just automatically do this. If they are stopped or told they're going to lose their job, maybe half of them can rein in their behavior, and maybe the other calf can't, even if they want to, they just can't stop themselves. But mostly it's more or less automatic. Is what I see. They really lack self reflection, and therefore, generally don't change. And one of the definitions of personality disorders is an enduring pattern of behavior, so it's not, not likely to change because they had an insight. Because if they were going to have an insight like that, they would have had it before they became adults.   Michael Hingson ** 09:29 Yeah, and it, and it just doesn't seem to happen. And it is, it is so unfortunate that we even have to talk about this kind of a subject. But it's also very important that we understand it, because I think those of us who aren't bullied or who aren't bullies, still need to understand it's like anything else, still need to understand it in order to learn how to deal with it. I would think,   Bill Eddy ** 09:55 yeah, and I think part of why this. Is coming up now is traditionally in our society. And I know my whole lifetime, adult bullies were pretty much kept on the fringe, and so families said, Hey, you can't do that in our family and communities and schools and and workplaces said that. But what's interesting now is, I'd say, the last 20 years or so, is bullies are getting center stage because all of our media competition, especially the screens we have, are trying to show us the worst behavior so that we'll pay attention to them. So social media, cable 24/7, news, movies, TV shows are all showing bad behavior to grab our attention, but the result of this is that they're teaching bad behavior and tolerating it and giving permission to bullies to act out when they might have kind of restrained themselves in the past.   Michael Hingson ** 11:07 How do we get media, television and so on to change that? I've I've kind of felt that way for a while. I actually took a course in college, um, it was called Why police, which is a fascinating course. It was taught by not a deputy sheriff, but he was a volunteer deputy sheriff in Orange County. He was an engineering professor at UC Irvine, where I went to school, and he and he taught this course, and I made the observation once in class, that a lot of the negativity that we see really comes from what we experience on television. And he said, no, that's just not true, but it certainly is true. Well,   Bill Eddy ** 11:49 especially nowadays, especially nowadays, yeah, yeah. Maybe that wasn't true 30 years ago, but it seems very much true now. Yeah, and you mentioned a study in the beginning of, I think it's chapter two of the book that about it was a workplace study, and if I can quote it, I think this is helpful for this discussion. He says they said there's a 2021, workplace bullying Institute survey. So in the second year of the pandemic, he says 58% of the respondents on the survey agreed that quotes the display of bullying, disrespect and intolerance of the opinions of others by politicians and public figures affected workplaces because they encouraged aggression and granted permission to ignore the rules. And I think it's very direct that the media does impact family life, workplace community and online, for sure.   Michael Hingson ** 13:00 Yeah, yeah, I, I would agree. And, you know, today, and we're not going to talk about specific individuals, but at the same time today, I dare say, there are a number of people who step back and contemplate this whole concept of bullies and so on, who would agree that in the political world there? Well, there are a number, but there's one especially, who tends to be more of a bully. But I would say that there are a number of people in the political world who just want to force their own way, and tend to bully a lot.   Bill Eddy ** 13:34 And I totally agree with you. Even have a chapter on what I call the high emotion media, because it's the emotions, the disrespect, the insulting statements, the personal attacks, you know, I don't like the way you look, or I think you're crazy or you're an idiot, and that kind of message, and If you have that going back and forth between politicians. It's very exciting to watch, but it's not the way you want to live, like you wouldn't want to be in a relationship like that, no, and so. So the media image promotes that because it gets attention. It really grabs attention. And I would I would suggest that it's been over the last 30 years approximately, that politics has become more about entertainment than about government. And the values of entertainment are extreme behavior and disrespect and fighting and chaos and crisis and fear, whereas government is when it's running well is boring, is focused on details, focused on people getting along, having their share of responsibility, all of that kind of stuff. So we've turned the. Values of politics upside down, and we think now that's the way. That's what politics is. And it's unfortunate, because government will unravel if we use the entertainment values to govern the country. Of course,   Michael Hingson ** 15:16 there are a number of people, especially in the media, who would say, but all of this sells, newspapers, all of this sells, and that's why we do it. I I submit that that's not necessarily so. But how do you show people that? Yeah, this sells, but don't you think there are other kinds of things that would sell even more   Bill Eddy ** 15:42 well, it's tricky, but one of my goals in writing the book is to teach people self help skills, to monitor their absorption of high emotion media and to be able to set limits on it. Like I don't like to get more than half an hour of news from a screen. I like reading the papers and reading different points of view. And if you watch more than half an hour and you get this coming in your ears and your eyes and all of that, it just takes over your thinking. And actually, the more repetition there is, the more things feel true that are clearly not true, but the way our brains work, repetition tells us what's really true and what's really important. And TV, even radio, can bombard us with false information that starts to feel true because we get so much of it.   Michael Hingson ** 16:40 Yeah, it's it is someone, yes, I hear you, and it's so unfortunate that more people don't tend to be analytical, reflecting introspective. You know, we talked earlier about the book that I'm writing, live like a guide dog, that will be published in August of this year. And one of the things that I point out in the book, for people who want to start to learn to control fear, rather than letting it, as I say, blind you or overwhelm you, or whatever word you want to use, is you need to become more introspective and look at well, why am I afraid of this? Why am I reacting to this? How do I deal with it? And it doesn't take a lot of time every day to do it, but if you do it for a little bit of time every day, the Mind Muscle develops, and you get beyond a lot of that.   Bill Eddy ** 17:34 I think that's a very important point, as we can train ourselves to what to pay attention to, what to ignore, and we can train our self talk like you're saying. That's excellent,   Michael Hingson ** 17:46 yeah, and I think it's it's all about analyzing ourselves. And something that I learned, and I've talked about it a few times on this podcast, one of the things that I did when I was a program director at the campus radio station at UC Irvine, Zot, K, U, C, I was that I would ask people to listen to their shows. So when I was the program director, we would actually record people talking, and I insisted that they take the cassettes home. Remember cassettes? Boy, is that a long time ago,   Bill Eddy ** 18:19 two, wow, back aways, yeah, even   Michael Hingson ** 18:23 pre eight track, but take the cassettes home. Listen to them, because it's something that I did and and as I grew older and became a public speaker, after September 11, I recorded my talk so that I could listen to them. And I said, I do that because I'm my own worst critic. I'm going to be more hard on me than anyone will. And it took until even after the pandemic started, that I finally learned wrong way to look at it. I'm not my own worst critic. I'm my own best teacher. By analyzing and thinking about it and recognizing that I'm my own best teacher, because no one can really teach me anything. They can present me with the information, but I have to teach myself to learn it. So I realize that, and I'm my own best teacher, and I think that works out really well, and it's a lot more positive anyway,   Bill Eddy ** 19:18 right? Great. And that's that's that promotes lifelong learning. I just reading an article about how a lot of people, you know, after a certain amount of time, they feel okay. I got my career, I've done my skills, and now I'm going to kick back. But Lifetime Learning is where it's at. I think it's exciting. It   Michael Hingson ** 19:39 is. I consider life an adventure. I consider the internet a treasure trove of information. And yeah, there's a dark web and and all that. And now, of course, we have AI, and some people want to be negative about that, but if we use it right, and if we develop our own inner structure and. And recognize the value and how to use it. It is, and all of those are characteristics and features that can do nothing but help us.   Bill Eddy ** 20:10 Yeah, they're tools. I like the idea of tools, not rules, so we'll see what we can do with them. But as long as humans are in charge, I think we may be okay. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 20:25 I hope so. Um, Mark Twain once said, I wonder if God had been a man because he was disappointed in the monkeys. But who knows.   Bill Eddy ** 20:35 He wasn't. He was a brilliant guy. He was   Michael Hingson ** 20:39 one of my two favorite people, Mark Twain and Will Rogers, boy. They were very clever. And analysts, you had it figured out. They did, if only we would listen. Well, why did you write the book?   Bill Eddy ** 20:53 Well, I wrote it. I started writing it. The end of 2020, when the pandemic was going strong, and a lot of people, and we were all kind of holed up at home. I had more time to think, because I couldn't travel and teach and do the work I do. But I also, you know, on TV, there was, you know, the the arguments in bullying, frankly, about masks, about vaccines, about the George Floyd murder, about protests against the George Floyd murder, that that it seemed like the country was kind of in a 5050, state of bullying each other, but it wasn't. The number of bullies is actually quite small, but they're getting a high profile, and I wanted to explain that bullies at all levels have the same patterns of behavior, and few people have eye into the workings of families like I've had as a family therapist, as a family mediator and as a Family Lawyer, and few people have had, you know, awareness of workplace bullying like I have training human resources and employee assistance personnel. Likewise, neighbor disputes, because I'd be consulting on a lot of neighbor disputes, and certainly online disputes. So bullying seemed to be happening in all these different places, but most people didn't realize the extent of it, because people kept it private. And I was like, Well, I can see it's the same patterns. And then, you know, Putin invades Ukraine, and I'm going, this guy is like a domestic violence perpetrator. He has the same lack of self awareness and the same blaming personality and so I included on up to politicians and international relations to show I can tell you what the patterns are to look for. So look out for bullies. Don't let them into your life. Spot them and stop them. And I wanted, I wanted the book to really open people's eyes, so to speak to what's going on in the world today that they really haven't been aware of by and large,   Michael Hingson ** 23:13 right? What makes us, especially as adults, susceptible to being bullied?   Bill Eddy ** 23:23 Well, we're not prepared for them, and that's a lot of what I hope to do with the book is help people be prepared so they don't overreact or under react. But I'd say most people are just kind of shocked. Suddenly there's a bully in the office and they're yelling at somebody, and it's like, oh my goodness, I'm, I'm I'm freezing because, you know, I don't know what to do. They're yelling at somebody else, thank goodness, but I'm scared too, or they're yelling at me, and I freeze because I don't know what to do. So I think what happens is people are just really unprepared. On the other hand, most people are nice people. Let's say 80% of people are nice people. They don't like to interrupt people, even when they're masking saying nasty comments. They don't like to just walk away from a conversation, even if the conversation is really hurtful and abusive, and so people aren't used to being assertive against a bully, because they're used to everybody being reasonable, and so that's why they catch us by surprise and And we're not ready for them.   Michael Hingson ** 24:39 I subscribe to a service out here called next door, which is also in San Diego, and it's a way to really keep up with what's going on in the community. And I've seen a number of posts where something happened and people suddenly say. I'm surprised that never happens in this area, and that just isn't true anymore,   Bill Eddy ** 25:08 right, anywhere, anywhere,   Michael Hingson ** 25:13 and it's so unfortunate that we don't learn to look out for all of this. I think, yeah, go   Bill Eddy ** 25:23 ahead. I just gonna say, I think that's that's what has to change, is we do have to be aware, not paranoid about it around every corner, but aware that this is going to come your way. I like to say, I think everyone's going to have a bully in their life sooner rather than later, but if you're prepared and you manage it well, they're not going to get very deep into your life and will probably move on. So I do think that's coming. Sorry. I interrupted. No,   Michael Hingson ** 25:54 no, no, no, no, you did No, you were right. Tell me what are some of the warning signs that you're dealing with a bully?   Bill Eddy ** 26:00 Well, first of all that the person goes beyond the normal social boundaries and keep going like they don't stop themselves. So an unrestrained pattern of behavior. When you start thinking to yourself, Well, I'm sure he'll come to his senses soon, or I'm sure she'll realize how destructive she's being. The problem is the answer that is not necessarily, probably not. Another way that's really quite simple is when a bully starts, when a person starts criticizing your intelligence, your morals, your sanity, your appearance, your existence. When they make it personal is a real sign they've crossed the line, and now you're dealing with a bully. Because bullies make it personal. They want a one down relationship. They want you to they want to dominate you. And so that's one of the easiest ways to recognize, is the way they talk to you, talking down to you like that. And they may say that you're you're being obnoxious and you have a problem. And they might even say, Stop bullying me. Stop bullying me, Bill, and I'm not bullying them. I'm saying they need to stop what they're doing with me, and they'll say, You're the bully. So playing the victim is another way projecting what they're doing onto the other person, like, stop bullying me. Bill, I'm not bullying you. I'm setting limits on your bullying of me. Well, I would never bully you, Bill. And then they keep projecting what they're doing onto me, and they may point to other people around us and say, See how Bill's treating me, you know, and they play the victim. And next thing you know, the whole people around think that I'm being a bad guy, and they get away with it that way because they're really good at projection and good at playing the victim. So these are some of the patterns. How do   Michael Hingson ** 28:10 you deal with that, though? Well, you   Bill Eddy ** 28:14 first of all need to be taken assertive approach, so don't become aggressive and start yelling at them. No, you really are bullying me. You're a real jerk. Instead, you say that's not true. And if other people are around, you say, just, everybody know it's not true. I'm trying to set limits on his behavior towards me, because he's really harassing me. And so explain what's happening. Be assertive, so you stick up for yourself, but don't be aggressive, because now it looks like you are being the bully. And some some people asked me on one of the interviews I had, the guy said, at what point do you punch the bully in the nose? And I said, Well, you're going to have that thought, but don't act on it, because when you do that, now you look like the bully. So you don't want to be aggressive, but you don't want to be passive and let them just pick on you and run you into the ground. You want to say, Hey, that's not okay, or I'm going to end this conversation. So you assert yourself to protect yourself without trying to harm the other person, and that's what assertive is. So I really recommend the assertive approach.   Michael Hingson ** 29:33 And again, it gets back to you have to learn to understand and assess yourself and develop the tools that will allow you to do that   Bill Eddy ** 29:46 exactly and and strengthen yourself where you're not experienced or not skilled, and learn the skills to protect yourself. I think it's you know, all of us. Most of us grew up maintaining ourselves, not being too extreme, and yet sticking up for ourselves and being self managed. But bullies aren't self managed, so we're going to have to manage them for them. And so that's the new age we're in. The new world we're in is we need skills to manage bullies, and we can develop those, and that's part of what I talk about at the end of the book. The last chapter is a lot of skills that people can learn to manage bullies and protect themselves.   Michael Hingson ** 30:38 Well, how did you you've talked about a little bit, but I'd love to to learn a little bit more about how did you really end up deciding that this was a calling that you had to deal with and that you've devoted so much time to? I think it really   Bill Eddy ** 30:54 got started as a as a workplace endeavor when I went from being a therapist to being a lawyer, so I wanted to do mediation and conflict resolution, and went to law school, and when I started practicing law after 12 years as a therapist, including in psychiatric hospitals, I started seeing the same behavior in family court. You know there be mom and dad are fighting over custody of their child, and the judge is listening to their arguments and looking frustrated. And I'm going, Well, the problem here is one of the parents probably has a personality disorder, and so they're not really being that sensitive to the child and and the other parent seems to be pretty reasonable, but you don't know, sometimes people that look reasonable might be like anti social under the surface. And so I started noticing and paying attention to these behavior patterns and how they showed up as high conflict families, and that's the term that the courts were using high conflict families. So I started saying, You shouldn't talk about high conflict families. Should talk about high conflict personalities, because not everybody in the family necessarily has that. Maybe it's Mom, maybe it's dad, like, say, a domestic violence case, dad might have a borderline personality or an anti social personality, and that's driving his violent behavior, and yet he's conning the court by saying, look at her, she's a mess, and everything I'm doing is just fine. I'm the reasonable person here, but they're not behind the scenes, and so there'd be these patterns of behavior, and I said, courts got to figure this stuff out, otherwise you're punishing the victim of a domestic violence perpetrator unfairly and unhelpfully, and you're teaching the child that this behavior is acceptable. So I had all this information that I knew from having been, you know, a therapist, a licensed clinical social worker, and I found myself applying it to family court cases, and wanting to educate other lawyers, judges, mediators and therapists about these dynamics in family court. And that's when I started writing about high conflict personalities and eventually talking more about bullies who are the most high conflict personalities. So that's kind of how that evolved. That was 1993 is when I became I started practicing family law after 12 years as a therapist. And so that's when this stuff really opened my eyes, to wait a minute, people don't realize what they're dealing with, and they're not going to solve this with a child support order. They're going to have to, you know, get somebody some treatment or understand that there's these personalities driving behavior, rather than legal issues   Michael Hingson ** 34:20 you have developed, I think, or have begun creating, something called the new ways for families. Method, Yes, uh huh. Tell me about that. I read that in your bio, and that sounded pretty fascinating, yeah,   Bill Eddy ** 34:35 and I'm pretty proud of it. So we started high conflict Institute in 2008 myself and a colleague, Megan Hunter, and we wanted to educate family law professionals, but we also wanted to help parents in high conflict, divorces and custody disputes. And so I developed a counseling method. A specific to divorcing parents with disputes over their children. And I, I was speaking at a conference of judges, and they said, What kind of counseling order should we make for these high conflict families to get them out of court and settling down, and they said, Well, you can't do the traditional counseling where you say talk about your feelings, because people with high conflict personalities will talk about their feelings forever without changing anything. So you want them to learn new ways of doing things. And so we decided we're going to call the method new ways for families and six counseling sessions focused on learning four big skills, flexible thinking, managed emotions, moderate behavior and checking yourself rather than being busy checking everybody else. And so we we got that the judges to start ordering that, and we said, order both parents to learn these skills so you don't picking a bad guy. It's going to help both parents, whoever's you know, maybe it's a domestic violence case, they get domestic violence treatment, but also learn these skills so they can work together. Cases where a child resists being with the other parent because of one parent bad mathing the other parent interfering, what they call alienation, or parental alienation. So all of these could be benefited by this counseling approach. Short term, six individual sessions, three parent child sessions for each parent, and we started seeing cases stay out of court that used to keep coming back. We saw people calming down. The judges really liked that. We created an online class to teach those same skills in 12 sessions. Then we developed coaching, three coaching sessions with the online class to make to give a chance to practice, but keep the cost down, because just three sessions, and so that's that's been evolving since 2009 so for the last 15 years, and we estimate about eight or 9000 parents have gone through learning these skills, some better than others, but enough that the judges think they're worthwhile, and they keep ordering this. But this is it depends on where there's trained counselors or coaches to get the more intensive approach. But the online class is available anywhere worldwide, so judges sometimes just order that from, you know, maybe they're in Utah or something. And there's no counselors that we've trained there yet. They can always order the online class. And I think they actually are, because I spoke in Utah a month ago about this. So that's that's the method, and I feel pretty proud of it. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 38:18 it it's understandable, and I can appreciate why you're why you're excited about doing it, and that it's that it's clearly working. What are some really good examples of how successful the whole method and the whole process has been? You have some good stories about it.   Bill Eddy ** 38:40 Yeah. So one of my favorite examples, it's a case where a 15 year old girl refused to see her father after the divorce, and it seemed like a case where mom had been saying enough negative things, the girl absorbed that and then said, I don't want to see dad, and mom tolerated that, but of course, dad didn't. So took mom to court and told the judge, Mom's doing something to make the girl not come. So rather than deciding that mom's all bad, the judge said, well, then I want to order new ways for families, and that's six individual counseling sessions and three parent child sessions, so judge orders that and each of the parents goes through six counseling sessions with a workbook, so it focuses them on learning particular skills, to manage their emotions, To keep their thinking flexible, to moderate their behavior, like we teach them how to write emails so that they're reasonable instead of escalating conflict. And so they both went through that individual then it's time for the parent child sessions, and since Mom was the favorite parent. Parent, we had the parent child counselor meet with mom and the child first, and Mom taught the girl about flexible thinking, managed emotions, moderate behavior and checking yourself, and then prepared the girl with the counselor for the next week when she's going to meet with dad and so who she hasn't seen for a year and says she hates him, but there's no real, clear reason for that, and that's why it might be alienation. It might be the bad mouthing that got absorbed by the girl. So the next week, mom brings the girl to the counseling center, and girl agrees to go in and meets dad and the counselor and sits down, and the girl tells dad that he's a horrible person. He's ruined her life. He's done everything wrong and just this whole list of awfuls. And because he's been through the counseling method, he listens quietly and attentively, and then he says, Thank you. And she says, What do you mean? Thank you. I just said, you're a terrible person. And he says, I said, Thank you. Because I'm glad that we're talking. I think this is good. This is good for us to be talking. Is there more that you want to tell me, and I guess there was some more. And then basically they reconciled and agreed that they would have dinner together once a week. Now it wasn't a 5050, parenting plan like he would have preferred, but, and I don't know where it went from there, but he did have regular dinners with her, and they communicated. So it reconnected their relationship, and so it gave a structure for that to happen in, and that's what new ways for families does not every case where someone a child resists a parent has worked with new ways for families that, you know, one parent has found a way to sabotage it and block it, but by and large, we've had, had some, some good success with moderate cases like that.   Michael Hingson ** 42:16 Yeah, well, one of the questions that comes to mind, as you've talked about, excuse me, high conflict personalities. Is that something that can actually be fixed? Can people get over having to always be in conflict like that? It   Bill Eddy ** 42:36 really depends, I think, a lot, on which of the personalities. So I think I mentioned Cluster B personality disorders, borderline, narcissistic, anti social, histrionic. So borderline personality disorder, people are hearing more about that, where they have wide mood swings, sudden, intense anger, fear of abandonment, all of that. And this used to be thought of as primarily women, but it's now seen as probably about half and half. And men who are physically abusive often have this personality style, and they strike out because they're afraid they're losing their partner, which of course, makes their partner want to leave a little bit more, but that's one of the more treatable personalities. And there's a method called DBT dialectical behavior therapy, which is having some good success at treating people with borderline personality disorder. So there's that at the other extreme is anti social personality disorder, which is the hardest one to treat, and I don't know of a consistently successful method that treats and that's like maybe 40% of prisoners have that personality, they get out of prison and they commit another crime, been back back in prison, they have a pattern of behavior, which is what a personality disorder is, is it's a stuck pattern of behavior, just enduring and repeating and all of that. So I would say people with that personality is extremely unlikely they're going to change. But people with borderline, there is hope for and many people outgrow the diagnosis after going through DBT. So that's the most hopeful and the least hopeful range. Narcissists and histrionics are somewhere in the middle of that? Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 44:44 well, something that comes to mind, I kind of think I know the answer, but it's still a question worth asking. Colleges and universities are made up of lots of people who are studying supposed to be pretty intelligent and so on, but we have bullies there. Why? You.   Bill Eddy ** 44:59 I think because we have them everywhere. So if, say 10% five to 10% of people are bullies, I think you're going to see them in colleges. Has nothing to do with intelligence. They may be brilliant bullies and very not smart bullies. So the whole range of severity exists. I think that college and other organizations like so, higher education, health care, churches, synagogues, mosques, that these are welcoming communities. These are helping communities. And so bullies get away with more in these kinds of communities because everybody's trying to be nice and bending over backwards to give them another chance. And so not to say they shouldn't get another chance, but they shouldn't get another chance and another chance and another chance and another chance. That's the thing I preach against. You give somebody a chance. If it the same problem comes up twice, what is it? Fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice. Shame on me. I got to do something if it's happening again, because that means it's a pattern, and especially if there was consequences for the first time and they still did it again, that's a sign this may be behavior that's going to be resistant to change   Michael Hingson ** 46:37 well, and that makes perfect sense. It's kind of where I thought you'd probably go with it, but it does make perfect sense. And there, as you've said, there are bullies everywhere. And the reality is we're, we're going to find that there are just some people who are going to be bullies.   Bill Eddy ** 46:58 I think that's the answer that it's kind of sad to come to that conclusion, but it's also enlightening, because then, you know, you can't just change them. This pattern is so stuck, so persistent, they have to have a different approach. You can't talk them out of it. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 47:20 and there's something to be said for love, but at the same time, you need to learn to control you and your situations. And   Bill Eddy ** 47:31 yeah, it's kind of the tough love concept.   Michael Hingson ** 47:37 What do you do if your supervisor is a bully? We talked a little bit about bullies in the office and so on. But what if it's your boss who is the bully?   Bill Eddy ** 47:46 I think that you know, to some extent, if you can be assertive and say, you know, boss, you just gave me three assignments that are all due on Friday, and realistically, I can only get one of them done. Which one is the priority that you kind of assert yourself without trying to dominate your boss or alienate your boss. So you say something like, you know, can you give me some guidance here with these three projects, I can only get one done. Maybe someone else could help with another. So speaking up, presenting options, and say, you know that's one possibility. Another is you could give me overtime, and I'm willing to stay late if there's overtime. What? Whatever you may be able to speak up to some extent. But what we get a lot of our consultations are people that it's way beyond that the boss is just really out to get them, maybe trying to push them out of the team. And so we talk about who else you can go to, and it may be HR, it may be another department head. One of the things I say is make sure you start talking to somebody, maybe a friend, family member, so you're not just stewing in the fact that you're being bullied because people's self esteem just really goes down if they don't feel safe to talk to anybody. You talk to somebody and they say, oh, yeah, that happened to me once. That's terrible. You know, you shouldn't have to go through that. Let's talk about what you can do well that helps people feel a whole lot better, that there isn't something about them that makes them be the target of a bully. A lot of people think, you know, what did I do to cause this? And you didn't do anything. Bullies pick on everybody, but they keep picking on the people that let them,   Michael Hingson ** 49:52 and that's the real key, isn't it? It's all about you let them do it. You don't find ways to deal with. The issue, and the result is they're going to continue to do it, because they can   Bill Eddy ** 50:04 Right exactly. And people get depressed. They get stomach aches, headaches, they can't sleep, they avoid coming into work, they get disciplined, they get in trouble themselves. And that's a lot of why I wrote the book to help people know, you know, no one deserves to be bullied. This is wrong. This shouldn't be happening to you. Now look at what your choices are, what your options are.   Michael Hingson ** 50:32 We have an ever increasing number of startup companies in in the world, and more entrepreneurs or starting their own companies and so on. And so why is it that a lot of startups have a high powered innovator, or someone at the top like that, who is a bully?   Bill Eddy ** 50:54 It seems to be that the personality of entrepreneurs that go getter startup includes a lot of the ingredients of personalities, of bullies. So first of all, believing that your ideas are superior, that no matter what other people think you should keep going, that you're smarter than all of them. Don't stop because the first two people said this was a dumb idea, and so they kind of have some insulation against that, that they're willing to persist, you know, I know this is a good idea, but they can also be aggressive. So they're out there approaching, you know, venture capitalists and and people to endorse them, people to do what they say, people to give them a lot of money so they have. They're skilled at presenting their ideas aggressively and probably an exaggerated belief in themselves. But that seems to work in the startup business, people are persuaded by charm and intelligence and go, Oh, this guy just seems really brilliant. Well, that's because he told you he's brilliant. He's actually a bully. And there are stories like that, like what we saw, and I talk about it in my book with Theranos, the blood draw sis and it really wasn't what it was made out to be. It was a brilliant idea, but they couldn't implement it, but they pretended that they could, and so they got lots of money, lots of respect, write ups in the big magazines. Elizabeth Holmes was seen as the next Steve Jobs. She lowered her voice. She was a con artist. She may have believed in her product, but she was willing to bend so many rules that she ended up going to prison. But entrepreneurs have that drive and that persuasion and persistence and aggressiveness, and that works with getting a startup going, but it often doesn't work with maintaining a company and an organization. And I spoke to investors for startups, mostly healthcare startups and and they said, we've got a lot of bullies here. What? What do we do? We gave them some tools and tips for how to manage, you know, soothe their ego by setting limits on them and and to spot them sooner and decide, can should we invest with this person, or are they over the top? So it's a it's a particular field where having having an almost bully personality is successful, but having a bully personality eventually blows up. So   Michael Hingson ** 53:57 since you mentioned him, just out of curiosity was Steve Jobs a bully.   Bill Eddy ** 54:01 I think he was, and I think he was successful because of his management team, because they did, in fact, learn how to set limits on him and rein in his worst behaviors. Because, like, There's one story, and I think I have it in the book, where he was going to fire a division of 200 people because the project wasn't coming along fast enough. And so he's like, I'm going to fire them. They're useless, they're idiots, they're terrible. And someone on the management team says, Hey, Steve, let's go for a walk. Let's go for a walk, because he liked to go for walks and talks. So they go for a walk, and an hour later, they come back, and he's not going to fire anybody. He's just going to give them some more specific instructions. And so he. His worst behaviors were restrained by his management team. And I think that's that's a work but at any given time, things were on the verge of blowing up. And he did get fired as the head of Apple right 1990s but they helped him enough, he was reigned in enough that he was successful in the 2000s hugely, six. I mean, I don't know if they're the biggest value company right now, but I think when he died, they were probably the most valuable company. So, yeah, this can happen. But the key is that he was restrained by his management team, and unrestrained bully is going to cause   Michael Hingson ** 55:49 damage. I wonder though, if, as he matured, if he did, I'm assuming that he did actually, if some of the bullying tendencies really did go away, and then he changed a little bit at least, of of how he functioned. I mean, clearly he was a strong personality, right? And clearly he was the innovator of so many products. And so I can see where personality might get in the way, because he wants it done now. He wants it done this way. But I wonder if over time, he became a little bit less of of a bully, and maybe it was just the management restraint, or maybe that was a part of it, but it's I think you're right. Probably was a little bit better as time went on. I think you're   Bill Eddy ** 56:38 right, because when he came back to Apple after he was fired and tried some other projects, I think that he learned to focus more and to be a little less disrespectful. And I remember I read his biography, I think of Walter Isaacson, and my conclusion was that he was definitely narcissistic, but I don't think he had a narcissistic personality disorder, which is an enduring pattern of self defeating behavior. I think he had traits and that he learned to manage those traits primarily because his management team, people around him taught him he needs to restrain those so he's an example of where you can have someone with a bullying personality and rein them in and have them be quite successful. So I think that's what happened there,   Michael Hingson ** 57:39 and he would see that, in fact, it worked to change how you're operating a little bit. And maybe it was, maybe it was always underneath. But at the same time, he learned that, hey, working the way I've been isn't really as effective as what I'm seeing happen when I operate this way. Yeah,   Bill Eddy ** 58:01 what's interesting about him is he was particularly collaborative. So he liked working with other people. He liked he liked people with pushback, people that would disagree, present another point of view. So they could, they could go back and forth, although if other people had a really brilliant idea, he started thinking it was his idea. Yeah, but he he really had had an ability to work with other people that a lot of bullies don't have. And I think that may be why you're quite right, that he did mature some he did restrain himself a little more and became able to be brilliant. Imagine how many other brilliant people might really contribute if they had that balance of a really good management team to rein them in, but some of our most narcissistic individuals don't pay attention and often ruin, ruin their own creations. I think of like Enron, as our company that was brilliant, but probably had two people with personality disorders on top, one anti social and one narcissistic, and they reinforced each other's bad traits. And I think that's why that went off the rails. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 59:29 well, and the, the other thing that comes to mind is, then you have another very successful person, Bill Gates, yeah, and I don't, I don't know. Do you think that he was a bully?   Bill Eddy ** 59:43 I think that he certainly engaged in bullying behavior when he was the head of Microsoft. And I remember hearing about, I don't know if it was a recording or a transcript in a book, but he was at a meeting, and he was just very distant. Painful to the thinking of other people in the meeting, like, like, almost ready to, like, drive them out of the room. And you know, what are you doing here? You're an idiot and stuff like that. And I must say, I read Paul Allen's book, which was idea, man, I think, is what it was called, and and he, he had enough examples in there that I think Bill Gates was also a bully. But I think that again, there was enough of a management team to keep him from destroying what he was building. And I must say, one of his most brilliant decisions was marrying Melinda French, and she turned him into a philanthropist. And he's donated, you know, billions of dollars, but he's also created things to help poor people. He's He's fought malaria, I think, and trying to get toilets where you don't have electricity, but you can have self managed toilets. And he's in, he's put energy into these projects. So I would say, somehow the edge, the bullying edge, was taken off, so he actually could work with other people and and have some empathy for them. So again, he might be someone who didn't have a personality disorder, but may have had some traits, but somehow the balance worked out, and the more people realize that you may have brilliant people around you, if you can rein them in enough, we may have a better society because of some of these difficult people.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:53 Well, clearly, Bill Gates had a very strong personality and and that's fine, but I do agree, I don't think that he really was a bully as such, in the way that we view it, for a lot of people as we've been discussing it, it doesn't mean that he didn't ever have any bullying kinds of behavior, but overall, he was successful, and is successful. And as you said, marrying Melinda has certainly made a significant difference in his outlook, and he's doing such great work, and you can't argue with that.   Bill Eddy ** 1:02:28 Yeah, and the fact that he's now divorced from Belinda, and I think that might have been more her idea than his, he still seems to be continuing on with his uh, philanthropy and doing works to help health health care, especially for people in really poor countries. So I think, and she changed his personality maybe a teeny little bit, and   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:54 climate change and climate   Bill Eddy ** 1:02:56 change for sure. Yeah, he's a big picture guy. He's one of our most deepest thinkers in the big picture, and we need people like that. So my goal isn't to eliminate bullies, it's to restrain them enough so they don't harm other people, but ideally, contribute to society   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:19 and they can. And it's a process. Well, this has been fun. I want to thank you for being here and talking about all this is, How do other people deal with it when they see somebody being bullied?   Bill Eddy ** 1:03:34 Well, bystanders need to speak up more and be assertive as well, and that's part of the cover of my book. Is a bully fish chasing a little fish who's about to grab and eat but gets distracted by a whole school of little fish chasing behind him who look bigger than him. And that's the bystanders. And bystanders need to speak up and say, hey, that's enough, Joe, or hey, that's enough, Jane. Or cut it out. Leave her alone. That when people do that, bullies often stop because they think they're getting away with something, or they're not even thinking they're just automatically bullying somebody. And when that happens, they realize, uh oh, my public may not be happy with me, and I don't want to alienate my public so you can have an influence as a bystander, and are encouraged to be assertive and not intimidated. And the more bystanders support each other, that much easier it is to stop bullies.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:43 Good advice and so cool. Well, again, I want to thank you for being here. This has been great. I hope all of you listening out there have found a lot of good tools that you can take away and use. Lot of good life lessons here by any standard you. I really so I really appreciate you taking the time to be with Bill and me today on unstoppable mindset. Love to get your thoughts, so please feel free to email me. Michael h i at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I, B, e.com, or go to our podcast page, www, dot Michael hingson.com/podcast, and Michael Hinkson is spelled M, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, O, N, Michael hingson.com/podcast, and wherever you are, give us a five star rating. We love those ratings on the podcast. We appreciate that, and would greatly value you you doing that. And again, your thoughts and for all of you, including Bill, if you know of anyone else who ought to be a guest on unstoppable mindset, we'd love to hear from you. We don't really tend to discriminate and say, Oh, that's a bad idea just just saying bill, but so we'd love to really hear about more people you think ought to be, whoever you are on the podcast, and we will talk with them and make a plan to go forward with them. So don't ever hesitate to point out someone who you think ought to come on and again. Bill, I want to thank you one last time for being here. This has been a lot of fun, and we appreciate your time today. Well,   Bill Eddy ** 1:06:21 thanks so much, Michael. I've really enjoyed it too. We got into some stuff deeper than I have in some of my other interviews. So we really covered the covered the gamut. And I think, I think people will find that this is a topic that becomes more and more relevant every year. So thanks for getting the word out there   Michael Hingson ** 1:06:41 well, and I hope that people will buy your book and and all that too. Yeah, we have to get the book sales out there, right.   Bill Eddy ** 1:06:49 That's right. Thank you for that.   Michael Hingson ** 1:06:57 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Dr. Charan Ranganath discusses the science behind our brain's capacity to remember (and forget) and how it can help you make better decisions and impressions. — YOU'LL LEARN — 1) How emotions shape memory2) How to hack your brain for enhanced retention 3) The 4 C's of memorable messaging Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1025 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT CHARAN — Charan Ranganath is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California at Davis. For over 25 years, Dr. Ranganath has studied the mechanisms in the brain that allow us to remember past events, using brain imaging techniques, computational modeling and studies of patients with memory disorders. He has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship. He lives in Davis, California. • Harvard Business Review Article: "How to Craft a Memorable Message, According to Science" • Book: Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters — RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini • Book: The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind • Book: All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera • App: Khan Academy • Past episode: 1012: Triple Your Learning through Productive Failure with Dr. Manu Kapur— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Acorns. Start saving and investing for your future today with Acorns.com/awesome • Earth Breeze. Get 40% off your subscription at earthbreeze.com/AWESOME• Lingoda. Get a 10% discount and up to 45 free classes with the code AWESOME2025 or https://try.lingoda.com/awesome2025See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Nicole Alvino about the role of communication in employee experience, and how intelligent communication can be used to boost employee engagement and connection. Nicole Alvino (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolealvino/) is a visionary entrepreneur and CEO with a passion for transforming the employee experience. As the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Firstup, a leading enterprise SaaS company, Nicole is responsible for driving innovation and growth in employee experience, engagement and communications. She believes that investing in employees is key to building high performance cultures that improve the top and bottom lines of any business, and is proud to call 50 of the World's Most Admired Companies customers. Nicole's commitment to leader transparency and employee experience began after her first job at Enron, was the foundation of how she built and led the first company she founded, Dermalounge, and continues in her work at Firstup. With a focus on leveraging technology to empower employees and improve business outcomes, she works closely with leaders of some of the world's largest companies to ensure that their workforces are more aligned and agile. She is a vocal advocate for the importance of investing in an incredible employee experience and regularly contributes to publications such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Fast Company. Nicole holds a B.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is a leader in her field and an inspiration to other women entrepreneurs. She lives in Seattle with her husband and three sons. Check out all of the podcasts in the HCI Podcast Network!

In this edition of O Holy Zeit!, Jack and Miles discuss Joe Biden's clemency spree, the incipient Hot Ones/George Soros conspiracy theories, the return of Enron?, Elon Musk's obscene net worth, the Great Stanley Cup Recall of 2024, Jeremy Allen White breaking into the Star Wars universe… as a giant slug and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, the website for Enron – yes, that Enron – came back online. And on Monday the new CEO, Connor Gaydos, introduced himself, with what the fine print called "First Amendment protected parody." And it so happens that Gaydos is a source of another satirical piece of news… "Birds Aren't Real." On this week's midweek podcast, we re-air a conversation between Brooke Gladstone and writer Ian Beacock, about how the fake conspiracy theory gained traction, and what it reveals about our culture. On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

Ralph welcomes international human rights lawyer and activist, and former senior United Nations human rights official Craig Mokhiber to discuss Israel and Gaza—if Israel should be thrown out of the UN, how Trump's positions will compare to Biden's, and whether we're starting to see cracks in Israel's wall of impunity. Plus, Ralph shares a possible ray of light in Trump's cabinet, a warning about the cost of credit cards for small businesses, and some tough love for AARP.Craig Mokhiber is an international human rights lawyer and activist, and a former senior United Nations human rights official. A human rights activist in the 1980s, he would go on to serve for more than three decades at the United Nations, with postings in Switzerland, Palestine, Afghanistan, and UN Headquarters in New York. In October of 2023, he left the United Nations, penning a widely read letter criticizing the UN's human rights failures in the Middle East, warning of unfolding genocide in Gaza, and calling for a new approach to Palestine and Israel based on international law, human rights, and equality. Gaza is now the world capital of child amputation. And that doesn't even cover the true horror, because Israel blocks any anesthesia from entering Gaza as a means of imposing further agony on the population that they are subjecting to genocide. Which means those amputations are being carried out on children and adults without anesthesia and often without sterile equipment or adequate hospitals, such that even if they survive the excruciating agony of an amputation without anesthesia, they may well not survive the side effects. They may well not survive the infection.Craig MokhiberThe irony is that in November, the UN announced that Israel had paid its dues in full in order to preserve its membership and to continue to fund the UN— an organization that the Israelis say is a terrorist, anti-Semitic organization dedicated to its destruction, is an organization that they have decided to be a member of and to fund. So when you look at the kind of propaganda that they distribute…You can see how ironic and how outrageous it really is. I've said that it would be hard to imagine any country in the history of the organization more deserving—at a minimum—of suspension from the UN General Assembly. No country in history has violated the principles of the UN Charter more than Israel, and it has done so from the moment of its admission in 1948. Craig MokhiberWe can certainly expect a dangerous four years under Trump. There's no denying it…But we shouldn't forget that we've just had a four-year term under Biden and Harris in which they undid none of those policies, and in which they actually supported horrific international crimes being perpetrated by Israel. And Biden and his administration were at the helm of the brutal repression of human rights defenders here in the United States, on college campuses and workplaces and the streets and in media places. So we're going to go from genocide abroad and repression at home under Biden to more genocide abroad and repression at home under Trump. The only difference is that Trump won't waste his time on the kind of mendacious pretense of civility and humanitarian concern that was peddled by Biden and Harris as it murdered babies in their thousands. Craig MokhiberAARP has maybe 18 million members. That's a big, big organization, and we want it on our side. We want it on the side of single-payer, universal insurance, full Medicare for all.Ralph NaderIn Case You Haven't Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 12/4/241. On Tuesday, right-wing South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attempted to stage a coup, declaring martial law and stationing troops outside of the South Korean National Assembly in an attempt to block lawmakers from assembling and voting to overturn his decree. Reuters reports that while Yoon used the pretext of cracking down on “North Korean anti-state forces," he “did not cite any specific threat” and instead focused on his domestic political opponents. Some contend that this move was meant to stave off prosecution of his wife, who is under investigation for corruption. When lawmakers were finally able to enter the National Assembly, all 190 members present voted to overturn the decree, including members of Yoon's own party. Former Democratic President Moon Jae-in urged the National Assembly to “act quickly to protect our democracy from crumbling." Even still, Yoon initially refused to call off the military, only folding after the Korean unions declared a general strike and the defense minister tendered his resignation. South Korea has previously been ruled by U.S.-backed dictators, including Syngman Rhee, Park Chung-Hee, and Chun Doo-hwan. Almost 30,000 American troops are stationed in the country and a provision in the American-drafted Korean constitution gives the U.S. emergency powers to take over the South Korean military.2. In Western Europe, the governments of Germany and France are collapsing. CNN reports that weak economic performance led German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the SDP to dismiss his finance minister, Christian Lindner of the FDP, which in turn resulted in that party pulling out of Scholz's governing coalition – leaving Scholz in charge of a minority government. According to this report, Scholz committed to holding a confidence vote set for January 15th; if he loses that vote, a snap election could be held as early as March 2025, well ahead of the scheduled September elections. Meanwhile in France, Macron's center-right coalition is facing no confidence motions from the Left and far-Right. This crisis boils down to a budget showdown hinging on a social security austerity measure that Prime Minister Michel Barnier rammed through without a vote, per Le Monde. Mathilde Panot of the left-wing France Unbowed party is quoted in Reuters saying "Faced with this umpteenth denial of democracy, we will censure the government…We are living in political chaos because of Michel Barnier's government and Emmanuel Macron's presidency."3. In their December 2024 report, Prisoners for Peace lists four Israeli refuseniks: Itamar Greenberg, who has already spent 105 days in prison and has now been sentenced to another 45 days; Yuval Moav, who has been in prison for 125 days and may face yet more jail time – and now Itamar and Yuval are joined by Soul Behar Tzalik and Iddo Eilam, who were both sentenced to 30 days on November 27th. All four refuseniks are just 18 years old. They are affiliated with the Israeli refusenik peace group, Mesarvot.4. The Financial Times reports that the United States is exerting pressure on Ukraine to lower its age of conscription from 25 to just 18 years old. A senior U.S. military official is quoted saying “The simple truth is that Ukraine is not currently mobilising or training enough soldiers to replace their battlefield losses while keeping pace with Russia's growing military.” This piece frames this push as part of the Biden administration's feverish attempts to “deploy $7bn in security assistance to Kyiv before…Donald Trump takes office,” and cites estimates that Ukraine needs at least another 160,000 soldiers to replenish its ranks. Anti-war advocates have long decried the United States' role in perpetuating this war rather than seeking a negotiated settlement, resulting in a staggering loss of Ukrainian and Russian lives. For his part, President Zelenskyy told the Ukrainian parliament last week “Let there be no speculation — our state is not preparing to lower the mobilisation age.”5. In another case of foreign policy being made in the liminal space between the Biden and Trump administrations, AP reports China has announced they will ban exports of gallium, germanium, antimony and other high-tech materials with military applications to the United States. in retaliation for the U.S. limiting semiconductor-related exports – and for Donald Trump's threats to impose steep tariffs on the People's Republic. Lin Jian of the Chinese Foreign Ministry is quoted saying “China has lodged stern protests with the U.S. for its…malicious suppression of China's technological progress…illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction against Chinese companies.”6. In yet another instance of Trump conducting foreign policy before his term begins, the president-elect has already provoked a diplomatic incident with Canada and Mexico. Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on the two countries unless they “stem the flow of migrants and drugs,” per AP. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, rather than standing together with Mexico, met with Trump to convince him that the two countries should not be treated equally. In response, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said “Mexico must be respected, especially by its trading partners,” and added that Canada “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has.”7. A new bombshell report comes to us from Drop Site. This time, it concerns the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, OCCRP, which is one of the “largest and most powerful” news organizations in the world. As this report notes, the OCCRP works with major newspapers across the globe to collaboratively publish major stories, including the Panama Papers. Yet, an investigation led by French outlet Mediapart, Italian outlet Il Fatto Quotidiano, Reporters United and Drop Site itself – along with the German NDR, though they were pressured to pull their own story – revealed a stunning truth at the heart of the OCCRP: more than half of its funding comes directly from the U.S. government. This story is complex and the reporters involved are not trying to discredit the reporting done by the OCCRP. But the public deserves to know who is funding the journalism they consume.8. Matt Bruenig's NLRB Edge has documented a remarkable case before the labor board involving the U.S. Postal Service. As Bruenig lays out, back in 2021 “Nicolas Montross, a letter carrier…invoked his contractual right…to not work more than 60 hours in a week. After working nearly 60 hours, [he] returned undelivered mail to the facility and left work.” At that point, he was called to a “pre-disciplinary interview” with his supervisor, who “questioned whether Montross's loyalty lay with the union or USPS, threatened him with discipline and criminal prosecution, and attempted to determine who had informed him about his contractual rights.” Montross eventually resigned, believing if he did not, he would face criminal charges. When this case finally made it to the NLRB, they ruled that the USPS had violated federal labor law and ordered them to offer Montross reinstatement with back pay and benefits – called “make-whole” relief – among other remedies. Yet, the USPS is now challenging make-whole relief, which has been standard practice at the Biden NLRB since 2022. As Bruenig writes, “Shouldn't the Biden administration be telling the USPS to cut it out, lest they manage to undermine one of the Biden NLRB's major accomplishments?”9. Following Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election, Senator Bernie Sanders has sought to hold Trump to the promises he made during the campaign. On November 15th, Sanders wrote “I look forward to working with the Trump Administration on fulfilling his promise to cap credit card interest rates at 10%. We cannot continue to allow big banks to make record profits by ripping off Americans by charging them 25 to 30% interest rates. That is usury.” Now, Sanders is seeking to leverage Elon Musk's government efficiency initiative to curb runaway Pentagon spending. On December 1st, he wrote “Elon Musk is right. The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It's lost track of billions. Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change.” Put simply, Sanders is calling the Trump bluff. He ran, and won, on a populist economic message. If anyone can get him to deliver, it's Bernie – and if Trump backs down, he will be exposed as beholden to the corporate powers that be.10. Finally, on a lighter note, this week saw the resurrection of notorious corporate criminal firm Enron, via what CNN calls an “elaborate joke.” In short, this report finds that instead of a reincarnation of the scandal-plagued energy giant, this is merely a T-shirt company which bought the Enron trademark and is trying to capitalize on it. So, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. We have quite enough criminal corporations, no need to raise the dead.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

So this week we learned that Enron is back...sort of. That prompted us to finally do an episode on the rise and fall of the once massive company that became the poster child for corporate greed and corruption. Is Enron actually back or is this some kind of elaborate hoax for...something? We'll dive in sweeties. This week's bonus episode is a fuckin' gem, by the way. Sign up LINK TO OUR DISCORD: https://discord.gg/CjujBt8g CHECK OUT OUR BONUS EPISODES: https://benandemilshow.com Subscribe to Emil's Substack: https://substack.com/@emilderosa Leave a comment to be featured as the comment of the week next week! And also, like this video, please! Thank you! __ MIRACLE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/BAES and use the code BAES to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. Again, that's TryMiracle dot COM slash BAES to treat yourself. Thank you Miracle Made for sponsoring this episode! AURA FRAMES: For a limited time, visit https://auraframes.com and get $45 off Aura's best-selling Carver Mat frames by using promo code BAES at checkout! It's their best Black Friday Cyber Monday deal of the year so don't miss it! MOOMOO: Important: The creator is a paid influencer and not affiliated with Moomoo Financial Inc. ("MFI") or its affiliates. Content outside of the moomoo ad has not been reviewed by MFI and reflects the influencer's own views. MFI does not endorse any strategies mentioned and is not responsible for the influencer's services. Click this link https://j.moomoo.com/BAES to get up to 15 free stocks from moomoo U.S when you make a qualified deposit + earn 8.1% on uninvested cash for a limited time for new users!! Terms & Conditions Apply SHOPIFY: Upgrade your business and get the same checkout we use! Sign up for your one dollar per month trial period at https://shopify.com/baes to upgrade your selling today. __ Latest MEATBALL SPECIAL HERE: https://youtu.be/Euyfzwmq8WY Last week's episode HERE: https://youtu.be/tBvALmluvl8 We bought suits HERE: https://youtu.be/_cM1XqA9n2U This episode was shot and edited by Connor Rousseau / @ conrad_roussrad Follow us on instagram! @ benandemilshow @ bencahn @ emilderosa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

BestPodcastintheMetaverse.com Canary Cry News Talk #796 - 12.02.2024 - Recorded Live to 1s and 0s PARDON THE CORRUPTION | Bible Sales, Patel FBI, Hunter Pardon, Enron Coin, Ice Protest Deconstructing Corporate Mainstream Media News from a Biblical Worldview Declaring Jesus as Lord amidst the Fifth Generation War! AGE OF DECEIT 4: https://x.com/FaceLikeTheSun/status/1839045851488071927 TJT Youtube (backup) Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheJoyspiracyTheory The Show Operates on the Value 4 Value Model: http://CanaryCry.Support Join the Supply Drop: https://CanaryCrySupplyDrop.com Submit Articles: https://CanaryCry.Report Submit Art: https://CanaryCry.Art Join the T-Shirt Council: https://CanaryCryTShirtCouncil.com Podcasting 2.0: https://PodcastIndex.org Resource: Index of MSM Ownership (Harvard.edu) Resource: Aliens Demons Doc (feat. Dr. Heiser, Unseen Realm) Resource: False Christ: Will the Antichrist Claim to be the Jewish Messiah Tree of Links: https://CanaryCry.Party Join the Canary Cry Roundtable   This Episode was Produced By:   Executive Producers Sir Jamey Not the Lanister*** Jason B*** Sir LX Protocol V2 Baron of the Berrean Protocol***   Producers of TREASURE (CanaryCry.Support) Sir Darrin Knight of the Hungry Panda, Sir Marti K Knight of the Wrong Timeline, Sir Morv Knight of the Burning Chariots, Elle O, Karen G, Christine S, Eric B, Ginger B, Pauli M,    Producers of TALENT Elias, Ser Jamey   Producers of TIME Timestampers: Jade Bouncerson, Morgan E Clippy Team: Courtney S, JOLMS, Kristen Reminders: Clankoniphius Links: JAM   SHOW NOTES/TIMESTAMPS Podcast = T - 6:34 from rumble EFNOM: 7:40 V - 1:06 P RUN DOWN EXECS   BIBLICAL Bible sales soar as anxieties spike (Fortune) Note: Pastor shared chart showing next revival starts in 2025   TRUMP A Constitutional Crisis Greater Than Watergate (MSN/Atlantic) Clip: Patel on Israel first    HARRY LEGS Biden's pardon of Hunter defended by WH, Trump taps in-laws in president transition (Indie UK) The many times Biden would not pardon Hunter (X)   Rothschild family member dies after house fire in the Hollywood Hills, neighbors say (abc 7)    PRODUCERS TALENT   BBB 'Enron' Teases Comeback On 23rd Anniversary Of Bankruptcy, with crypto (Benzinga)   CRISPR/PSYOP RNA editing is the next frontier in gene therapy – here's what you need to know (Raw Story)   ANTARCTICA: 2:11:00 V / 2:04:26 P Passengers On Hunger Strike After Luxury Cruise Misses Antarctica (Fortune) → China opens its first atmospheric monitoring station in Antarctica (SCMP) Closing Thoughts: 2:28:44 V / 2:22:10 P TIME/END

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… Squarespace. Turn your idea into a new website! Go to https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. LinkedIn Jobs. A business is only as strong as its people, and every hire matters. Go to https://www.linkedin.com/twist to post your first job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Notion. Notion combines your notes, docs, and projects into one beautifully designed space with AI built right in. Try it for free today at https://notion.com/twist * Todays show: In today's episode, Jason and Alex explored the curious return of Enron, the latest developments in Bitcoin and MicroStrategy, and the evolving cryptocurrency landscape. They closed with an analysis of China's uneven investment climate and its effects on venture capital activity. * Timestamps: (0:00) Jason and Alex kick off the show (2:30) Hunter Biden's pardon and implications for presidential power (7:51) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST (9:31) Enron's return and potential crypto play (14:47) Crypto regulation changes under the new administration (24:43) Investment strategies in Bitcoin and the impact of hiring decisions (26:51) LinkedIn Jobs - Post your first job for free at https://www.linkedin.com/twist (28:25) Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy's strategy on Bitcoin (37:31) Notion - Try it for free today at https://notion.com/twist (39:22) Diversification in investments and Michael Saylor's promotional tactics (43:28) NFTs vs. traditional investments (46:47) Sequoia's global deals search (55:11) Consumer confidence, US and China economies, and debt discussion (1:02:09) Nearshoring trend, credit card delinquencies, and potential bankruptcies (1:06:02) Bernie Sanders' stance on defense spending and populism (1:08:02) Dogecoin leaderboard (1:17:07) Bitcoin predictions and Bitcoin valuation * Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com * Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm * Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Thank you to our partners: (7:51) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST (26:51) LinkedIn Jobs - Post your first job for free at https://www.linkedin.com/twist (37:31) Notion - Try it for free today at https://notion.com/twist * Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland * Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

Everything that went down in our Thanksgivings in Fun, Dillon's coffee shop bathroom story, Will breaks down the college kid ‘Burnerverse' on Twitter, Enron's return, a generational pay pig, and the Word of the Year. Enjoy a free one-week trial on Patreon for additional weekly episodes: www.patreon.com/circlingbackpodcast Watch all of our full episodes on our new YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/circlingback  Shop Washed Merch: www.washedmedia.shop  (0:00) Fun & Easy Banter (13:30) Recapping This Thanksgiving Break in Fun (36:00) Annoying Austin-Centric Tree Ornaments (40:00) Dillon's Coffee Shop Anecdote (50:28) Will's Has Entered The Burnerverse (1:01:15) Who's Back? ENRON! (1:06:14) Weapons Grade Pay Pig Behavior (1:11:00) “Brain Rot” is Word of the Year Support This Episode's Sponsors Mugsy: www.mugsy.com (20% off sitewide and a free gift through Dec 8!) Aura Frames: www.auraframes.com (CIRCLING for $45 off) Twillory: www.twillory.com (WASHED18 for $18 off purchase of $139 or more) Earlybird CBD: www.earlybirdcbd.com (CB20 for 20% off first order) Help Out! Myers-Davis Foundation: www.myersdavisfoundation.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices