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"As we grow older, it becomes difficult to just believe."In honor of the film's 30th anniversary, The Wives Colangelo are stuffing their bras with pudding, trying to find the truth about a tombstone, having an existential crisis about coming back to their hometowns, and falling in love all over again with the movie NOW AND THEN. Let's talk about the sapphic energy of Sam and Roberta, the chokehold Devon Sawa had on a generation, and why male critics comparing the film to STAND BY ME is lazy film criticism. --------Become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/thisendsatprom--------MONTHLY SPOTLIGHTFriendship Place: https://friendshipplace.org/--------Social Media Plugs@ThisEndsAtProm@BJColangelo@Veloci_trap_tor / @harmonycolangelo.bsky.social.com----------Logo Design: Haley Doodles @HaleyDoodleDoTheme Song: The Sonder Bombs 'Title': https://thesonderbombs.bandcamp.com/
In this episode of Mining Stock Education, host Bill Powers interviews private investor Sultan Ameerali, who delves into his investment journey with junior miner Minera Alamos (TSXV:MAI; OTC: MAIFF). Sultan discusses the rationale behind his initial investment into the company in 2018 and the factors that led to his decision to recently sell the stock. The conversation highlights the importance of developing and understanding your investment process, not falling in love with management, keeping watch over your ego and the risks associated with balance sheet issues in the junior mining sector. Both Sultan and Bill explore the balance between upside potential and downside risk, offering valuable insights for thoughtful investors in the mining sector. 00:00 Introduction to Mining Stock Education 00:45 Guest Introduction: Sultan Am 01:24 Initial Investment in Minera Alamos 02:59 Challenges and Setbacks 03:54 Recent Developments and Decisions 06:44 The Permitting Halo and Financing 08:41 The Transformational Acquisition 14:10 Ego and Investment Decisions 18:14 Evaluating Management and Opportunity Cost 21:14 Understanding Risks and Opportunities in Mining 24:28 Balancing Upside and Downside in Investments 25:21 Special Situations and Downside Protection 28:57 Reflecting on Investment Strategies 34:36 Evolving Investment Processes 36:30 Final Thoughts and Future Plans Press release discussed: https://mineraalamos.com/news/2025/minera-alamos-announces-transformational-acquisition-of-producing-gold-complex-from-equinox-and-appoints-jason-kosec-as-part-of/ Sultan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/SultanAmeerali Sultan's Website: https://www.consolidatedrock.com/ Sign up for our free newsletter and receive interview transcripts, stock profiles and investment ideas: http://eepurl.com/cHxJ39 Mining Stock Education offers informational content based on available data but it does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice. It may not be appropriate for all situations or objectives. Readers and listeners should seek professional advice, make independent investigations and assessments before investing. MSE does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of its content and should not be solely relied upon for investment decisions. MSE and its owner may hold financial interests in the companies discussed and can trade such securities without notice. MSE is biased towards its advertising sponsors which make this platform possible. MSE is not liable for representations, warranties, or omissions in its content. By accessing MSE content, users agree that MSE and its affiliates bear no liability related to the information provided or the investment decisions you make. Full disclaimer: https://www.miningstockeducation.com/disclaimer/
Today I'm joined by Asleep At The Wheel's Ian Stewart to shine a spotlight on the cult classic fiddle super-group album 'Fiddlers 4' - Cajun legend Michael Doucet, old-time master Bruce Molsky, progressive bluegrasser Darol Anger, and cellist Rushad Eggleston. Ian talks about falling in love with the album as a kid attending fiddle camps, how the album fuses different styles and genre approaches from each member, polyrythms, cross tuning, the fiddle as a star instrument instead of accompanying, the one and done nature of the group, the sometimes prescriptive nature of roots genres, meeting all four Fiddlers 4 and playing one of the songs from the album with Michael Doucet.
In this episode, Holly sits down with Katie McConnell to explore the world of bodysurfing and big wave surfing. Katie shares her inspiring journey—from learning to surf as a beginner, to falling in love with bodysurfing, to eventually competing in some of the world's most powerful waves. They dive into the tight-knit big wave surfing community, the deep connection between surfing and nature, and the role fear plays in pushing boundaries. Katie also reflects on her background in marine biology, her vision for environmental advocacy, and the future of women in big wave surfing. At its core, the conversation is a powerful reminder of what it means to pursue your passion, face fear head-on, and give back to the communities that shape you.To learn more about Katie, check her out on:Instagram @keiti_marEarth Society FoundationBig Wave AllianceConnect with us at https://surfwithamigas.com/ or @surfwithamigas.Episodes produced and edited by Emma Roggenkamp.
Happy Thursday, you pop culture junkies! This week, Brooke walks us through some viral trends that unfold into other viral trends. From women lip synching Hamilton songs and sneaking out of windows, to explaining what a FINAL BOSS is and breaking down The Culture Awards and the song of the summer, “Diet Pepsi”, by Ben Platt NOT Addison Rae. And of course we have the dark sides of pop culture. A woman going viral on TikTok for falling in love with her psychiatrist and turning to the community to talk about it while seemingly in an AI psychosis as she relies entirely on ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude for all her communications and counsel. WOO BOY. We also have a warning about an “energy drink” called Feel Free which seems to be highly addictive. BE WARNED. And Brooke has decided that MAHJONG is the new Pickleball. PCM Newsletter This week: https://popculturemondays.com/2025/08/11/hamilton-ai-psychosis-diet-pepsi-its-pop-culture-summer/ The Culture Awards CLIP TO WATCH: IN ABSENTIA - https://www.tiktok.com/@bravotv/video/7535598076484914487?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Fellow comedian Jason Collings joins your host Randy Valerio this week for an unfiltered, hilarious, and brutally honest conversation about living in California, Jason being an identical twin, green room etiquette, social media influencers, the business of comedy, how Jason got his start in comedy, bombing on stage, and following your passion as a career. The boys close the show with the weekly news - falling in love has the same physical reaction as doing drugs, and the conjoined Hensel twins had to pay two separate college tuitions even though they now only get one salary. Every Wednesday, the Ready Set Blow Podcast brings you real talk with comedians, actors, musicians, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and fascinating guests from all walks of life. No scripted BS. No playing it safe…Just raw, funny, and authentic conversations you won't hear on your average podcast. If you enjoy comedy podcasts like Your Mom's House, Flagrant, The Joe Rogan Experience, or Theo Von, you'll love this show.
In this episode we speak with Nate Maxey (MS '25), whose career path reflects the versatility and adaptability of public health skills. Nate shares his journey, from being pre-med to falling in love with mathematics and ultimately, biostatistics, which he describes as learning to tell a narrative with data using complicated math. We explore Nate's diverse experiences from New York City's sodium regulation research to a marketing internship with Beats by Dr. Dre, where he conducted qualitative research presenting his findings to executives. Nate also discusses his work analyzing legal policy related to Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) laws, where he helped create a dataset by reading penal codes. He highlights how his data and research expertise have proven transferable across these varied industries. He emphasizes the crucial role of networking and building authentic professional relationships, and the importance of refining communication and writing skills for any public health professional, noting that good writing sets statisticians apart. Looking ahead, Nate talks about the "big data revolution" and the transformative potential of AI in public health for predicting and preventing both upstream and downstream problems. He also addresses health disparities, discussing how historical research benefited those in power rather than marginalized communities, and stressing the need to center these groups in current research for equitable benefits. Tune in for practical advice on the value of continuous learning, and how to maximize your graduate school experience by applying skills beyond the classroom. To learn more about the NYU School of Global Public Health, and how our innovative programs are training the next generation of public health leaders, visit http://www.publichealth.nyu.edu.
On today's episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to talk about Kendra, the woman whose 25-part TikTok series about falling in love with her psychiatrist has captivated the internet. However, what viewers thought would be the next Reesa Teesa “Who The Fuck Did I Marry?” series turned out to be something much more complicated, as Kendra's story went from suspicious to downright troubling. Now, TikTok is diagnosing Kendra with mental health issues, while still consuming her content like entertainment. Get more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus for access wherever you listen. This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today's episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to talk about Kendra, the woman whose 25-part TikTok series about falling in love with her psychiatrist has captivated the internet. However, what viewers thought would be the next Reesa Teesa “Who The Fuck Did I Marry?” series turned out to be something much more complicated, as Kendra's story went from suspicious to downright troubling. Now, TikTok is diagnosing Kendra with mental health issues, while still consuming her content like entertainment. Get more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus for access wherever you listen. This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today's episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to talk about Kendra, the woman whose 25-part TikTok series about falling in love with her psychiatrist has captivated the internet. However, what viewers thought would be the next Reesa Teesa “Who The Fuck Did I Marry?” series turned out to be something much more complicated, as Kendra's story went from suspicious to downright troubling. Now, TikTok is diagnosing Kendra with mental health issues, while still consuming her content like entertainment. Get more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus for access wherever you listen. This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today's episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to talk about Kendra, the woman whose 25-part TikTok series about falling in love with her psychiatrist has captivated the internet. However, what viewers thought would be the next Reesa Teesa “Who The Fuck Did I Marry?” series turned out to be something much more complicated, as Kendra's story went from suspicious to downright troubling. Now, TikTok is diagnosing Kendra with mental health issues, while still consuming her content like entertainment. Get more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus for access wherever you listen. This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today's episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to talk about Kendra, the woman whose 25-part TikTok series about falling in love with her psychiatrist has captivated the internet. However, what viewers thought would be the next Reesa Teesa “Who The Fuck Did I Marry?” series turned out to be something much more complicated, as Kendra's story went from suspicious to downright troubling. Now, TikTok is diagnosing Kendra with mental health issues, while still consuming her content like entertainment. Get more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus for access wherever you listen. This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today's episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to talk about Kendra, the woman whose 25-part TikTok series about falling in love with her psychiatrist has captivated the internet. However, what viewers thought would be the next Reesa Teesa “Who The Fuck Did I Marry?” series turned out to be something much more complicated, as Kendra's story went from suspicious to downright troubling. Now, TikTok is diagnosing Kendra with mental health issues, while still consuming her content like entertainment. One part of the episode uses audio from this TikTok by user @tayyy.jpeg Get more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus for access wherever you listen. This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today's episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to talk about Kendra, the woman whose 25-part TikTok series about falling in love with her psychiatrist has captivated the internet. However, what viewers thought would be the next Reesa Teesa “Who The Fuck Did I Marry?” series turned out to be something much more complicated, as Kendra's story went from suspicious to downright troubling. Now, TikTok is diagnosing Kendra with mental health issues, while still consuming her content like entertainment. Get more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus for access wherever you listen. This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today's episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to talk about Kendra, the woman whose 25-part TikTok series about falling in love with her psychiatrist has captivated the internet. However, what viewers thought would be the next Reesa Teesa “Who The Fuck Did I Marry?” series turned out to be something much more complicated, as Kendra's story went from suspicious to downright troubling. Now, TikTok is diagnosing Kendra with mental health issues, while still consuming her content like entertainment. Get more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus for access wherever you listen. This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today Lil' Lo and Big Shot Shae are joined by recording artist JAVIEN ! Join the class as they discuss Kendra from tiktok falling in love with her psychiatrist, AI feeding people's delusions, feelings and how we express them, and more! Follow Our Guests On IG: @jayyvnnEmail for advice / to be featured: LetMeStayFocused@gmail.com Follow Our Hosts:@lilloworldwide@bigshotshae**DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A COMEDIC PODCAST** Scenarios and responses from this show should be taken with a grain of salt. In other words, this is all a joke. Unless otherwise noted, any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.The views and opinions expressed by guests / classmates are those of the guest / classmate and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Let Me Stay Focused: The Podcast. Any content provided by our guests / classmates are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything.
Sarah Fraser is pop culture expert and she is here! A woman tells of falling in love with her psychiatrist but it's not what you think. We can't wait for the Heidi Fleiss biopic. What will Tom Sandoval do next? What happened to Larsa Pippen's face. There is a surrogacy scandal on Bravo and in LA. Did Todd Chrisley reveal he is a bottom? RHOC needs to pay these women more so they stop blackmailing each other. Is this the last season of Sister Wives? So juicy! Enjoy! -Go to https://MeUndies.com/juicyscoop and use promo code juicyscoop for up to 50% off! -Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to https://www.honeylove.com/JUICY #honeylovepod -Get 25% Off @goPure with code JUICYSCOOP at https://www.gopurebeauty.com/ JUICYSCOOP #gopurepod -Boulevard is offering new customers 10% off your first year subscription when you go to https://joinBLVD.com/juicyscoop and book a demo. Stand Up Tickets and info: https://heathermcdonald.net Subscribe to Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald and get extra juice on Patreon: https://bit.ly/JuicyScoopPod https://www.patreon.com/juicyscoop Watch the Juicy Scoop On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JuicyScoop Shop Juicy Scoop Merch: https://juicyscoopshop.com Follow Me on Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathermcdonald TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@heathermcdonald YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HeatherMcDonaldOfficial Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
'The Great British Bakeoff' and ‘The Great American Baking Show' Prue Leith joins the show. Over escargot, we talk about her incredible life before TV: growing up during apartheid in South Africa, falling in love with her mother's best friend's husband, and becoming a celebrated chef, novelist, and memoirist. Plus, Prue shares how it feels to be thriving in her 80s, and the lemon curd cupcake she still remembers from my time in the tent. This episode was recorded at L'Escargot in Soho, London. Ps. Don't forget to see me (alongside Prue) in The Great American Baking Show: Summer Special – out August 16 on Roku! Want next week's episode now? Subscribe to Dinner's on Me PLUS. As a subscriber, not only do you get access to new episodes one week early, but you'll also be able to listen completely ad-free! Just click “Try Free” at the top of the Dinner's on Me show page on Apple Podcasts to start your free trial today. A Sony Music Entertainment & A Kid Named Beckett production. Get 15% off your Saily plan with the code dinnersonme. Just download the Saily app or head to https://saily.com/dinnersonme. Stay connected — and don't miss your dinner reservation. Stay connected — and don't miss your dinner reservation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mackenzie Eddie and Scott Siepker react to Taylor Swift's surprise announcement with the help of Aiden Wyatt before discussing an odd TikTok involving a woman and her psychiatrist. The latest on AI and so much more overthinking! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this snack-sized episode, Ophira Eisenberg reconnects with Erin Keating, host of Hotter Than Ever, for a raw, funny, and wildly relatable look at how a hospital stay during the pandemic catalyzed a total life reinvention. After being hospitalized with COVID pneumonia, Erin had what she describes as a Canyon Ranch-level spa break—complete with flowers from work, no interruptions, and the radical realization that she was deeply unhappy. Within a year, she turned 50, ended her long marriage, got laid off, and found herself with a clean slate—and a hot French guy in Italy. Erin shares how she eased into dating after a decade without sex, discovering an unexpectedly wide fanbase of 20-year-olds, truckers, and professors. She talks about reentering parenting as her central identity, navigating co-parenting with her ex, and discovering that her kids actually did better with less conflict in the house—even her son admitted it felt “better” post-divorce. Erin opens up about friends-with-benefits, falling in love with someone who didn't want to be a stepdad, and why dating dads now feels like the sweet spot. She wraps by describing how her 14-year-old daughter once came out… as straight, following an earlier bisexual declaration. Erin's evolution, like her dating profile, has range—and the spa metaphor still holds: sometimes you check in with pneumonia and check out with your whole life reset.
Are you living a life you truly love, or just tolerating one you've settled for?In this inspirational and motivational episode of Real Talk with Reginald D, Reginald D dives deep into what it really means to fall in love with your purpose—and why doing so is the ultimate key to motivation, personal growth, and long-term success. If you've ever felt stuck, unfulfilled, or like your dreams are slipping away, this episode will reignite your drive and help you stay focused on what truly matters.Through raw truth and uplifting motivational speech, Reginald D unpacks how to push past fear, rise above life's challenges, and commit fully to the calling you were born for. Whether you're chasing big dreams, trying to rediscover your passion, or simply searching for clarity, you'll walk away with the mindset shifts and tools to turn passion into purpose and purpose into unstoppable action.This is more than a pep talk—it's a life-changing blueprint for anyone ready to stop drifting and start living fully aligned with their destiny.Most people never reach their true potential because they don't fully commit to their purpose. They let fear, distractions, and self-doubt steal their passion. This episode is your reminder that you are built to win—but winning requires falling in love with what you were made to do.What You'll Gain:Learn the difference between liking your goals and loving your purpose—and why it changes everything.Discover how to stay motivated even in seasons of loneliness, setbacks, and financial struggle.Gain practical ways to protect your dreams from distractions and keep your focus on what matters most. Press play now and start the journey of falling deeply in love with your purpose—because your best life is waiting for you to commit to it. inspirational, motivational, motivate, motivational speech, personal growth, self improvement, fall in love with your purpose, live your purpose, find your purpose, motivational podcast, inspirational podcast, mindset shift, life motivation, personal success, purpose driven life, passion and purpose, stay motivated, overcome fear, purpose and destiny, success habits, build your dream life, self development
Today we take a look into the strange world of people dating, falling in love with, and at times even marrying, AI companions. Listen to the full episode: www.Patreon.com/KillTheComputer
In this powerful episode of Power and Impact, host Jim McCann is joined by the brilliant Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman — economist, activist, and author of The Double Tax. What follows is a dynamic and inspiring conversation about gender, race, economics, and purpose. Anna shares her remarkable journey: from being born in Ghana and winning the U.S. visa lottery, to growing up in Maryland, falling in love with mathematics, switching from pre-med to economics, and eventually pursuing a PhD at Harvard. Along the way, she became a voice for equity and inclusion, co-founding the Sadie Collective to bring more Black women into economics and related fields. In this interview, Anna opens up about the hidden cost of being a woman — particularly a Black woman — in America. She explains the concept of the “double tax,” the systemic pink tax that's embedded in our economy, and how structural inequalities are often normalized. From overpriced products to underpaid labor and overlooked data, Anna pulls back the curtain on how everyday economics disproportionately affects women.
Ian, Helen, Adam and Andy discuss the new memoir by Nicola Sturgeon and its effect on Scottish politics, the risks of falling in love with ChatGPT, and the rise in British columnists phoning it in from abroad.
World Gone Wrong: a fictional chat show about friendship at the end of the world
We're live on Twitch! So cool! But in case you didn't tune in live, you can listen here later on. === You can get an ad-free feed and bonus material for the show by joining our Membership program here: https://audaciousmachinecreative.memberful.com/join Transcripts for this episode can be found on Apple Podcasts. Content advisories for this episode can be found here.: www.audaciousmachinecreative.com/wgw-cw-605 Credits: Malik: Michael Turrentine Jamie: Hilary Williams Written by Gabriel Urbina, directed by Jeffrey Nils Gardner, edited by Zhuolin Wu. Our theme song is "Falling in Love at the End of the World" by Olivia and the Lovers. Created and produced by Eleanor Hyde and Jeffrey Nils Gardner. From Audacious Machine Creative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Meet Tricia Copeland. She is an award-winning author of books for youth and young adults. Mostly she writes fantasy books, but as we learn during this episode, she also does write some romance books. Tricia says that as a child she hated writing. Even so, she went to school and eventually she went to college where she received a degree in Microbiology. She also attained a Master's degree. She then went to work for a chemical company. After four years she found herself beginning a journey of technical writing and writing patterns and supporting materials. After a few years Tricia became a stay-at-home-mom for a time. She tells us how she loved to tell stories and entertain her children. We learn how she wrote her first fiction book series in 2015-16 about her time facing anorexia. In real life, she faced this and overcame it. She then began writing fantasy youth books and realized not only that she could write, but that she did not hate writing at all. She has written several series and has plans for more. About the Guest: Tricia Copeland is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Kingdom of Embers, To be Fae Queen, Lovelock Ones, and Azreya, Aztec Priestess, and dozens of other titles. She is the host of the Finding the Magic Book Podcast who weaves magical stories about love, courage, and finding your passion. Tricia began her author journey with a women's fiction series, the Being Me series, which is an adaptation of her experience with anorexia. Afterwards she quickly pivoted to her favorite genre, fantasy. Her young adult fantasy series highlight themes including resilience, perseverance, faith, loyalty, trust, friendship, family, and love. They include the Kingdom Journals and Realm Chronicles series that find witches, vampires, and fae fighting an evil spirit determined to end them all. She tempers the high stakes drama in these books with her fun rom coms in the Perfect romance series. Tricia Copeland believes in finding magic. She thinks magic infuses every aspect of our lives, whether it is the magic of falling in love, discovering a new passion, seeing a beautiful sunset, or reading a book that transports us to another world. An avid runner and Georgia native, Tricia now lives with her family and four-legged friends in Colorado. Find all her titles including contemporary romance, now penned under Maria Jane, young adult fantasy, and dystopian fiction at www.triciacopeland.com. Ways to connect with Tricia: https://triciacopeland.com https://www.facebook.com/TriciaCopelandAuthor/ https://www.instagram.com/authortriciacopeland/ https://twitter.com/tcbrzostowicz https://www.tiktok.com/@triciacopelandauthor https://www.youtube.com/@triciacopelandauthor https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tricia-Copeland/author/B00YHN5Q4G https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14055439.Tricia_Copeland https://www.bookbub.com/authors/tricia-copeland 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 ** 01:17 Well, hello everyone. We're really glad to have you here, wherever you may happen to be listening in from. We're really glad that you're listening to unstoppable mindset. I'm your host, Michael hingson, and our guest today is Tricia Copeland. Tricia is a prolific author. I use that word absolutely without any any concern, a prolific author of children's books, especially in the fantasy world. So she has been doing this a while and and also has an interesting story just of her life to tell. So we're going to go into all of that and delve in and see where we go. So Tricia, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here. Tricia Copeland ** 02:05 Thank you, Michael, I appreciate you having me, and I do want to make a little edit to that intro. Okay, go ahead. My books are young adult to New Adult books, so ages 13 plus mostly, all right, Michael Hingson ** 02:19 so young adult to new adult. All right, that's fair. So how do you feel that your books fall into the range of things like the Harry Potter series and so on, sort of the same age groups, Tricia Copeland ** 02:40 right? Genre adjacent, I have a series, The Kingdom Journal series, which includes three witches that have to break a curse on the witch lines. So the witches have to find each other as well as figure out how to break the curse using various forms of magic. So not really the same as Harry Potter, but definitely with with the witches, and the kind of contemporary world that Harry Potter is. But actually, I won't say that, because I haven't I think Harry Potter is mostly in the contemporary world, right? I didn't read all the books. I have to admit that he's Michael Hingson ** 03:18 somewhat in the contemporary world, but, but I was thinking more of from a standpoint of the same type of age group. Tricia Copeland ** 03:25 Yes, I think a younger reader. I think people started reading Harry Potter maybe around 10 or 11. And these books have older teenagers to start, age 1718, so 13 Plus is a good indicator. I think the other Michael Hingson ** 03:42 thing I would observe about Harry Potter is that there are a lot of people who aren't necessarily teenagers or young adults, including me, who have read them and enjoyed them. I think that that Harry Potter certainly brought an interesting dimension to reading for teenagers especially, and hopefully young adults, because a lot of people did catch on to them, and they they had a great theme, and you do some of the same sorts of things by virtue of the fact of what you're writing and who you're writing it for, Tricia Copeland ** 04:17 right? They definitely caught adult eyes and hearts and minds too Michael Hingson ** 04:23 well, tell us somewhat about the early Trisha growing up and so on. Love to learn a little bit more about you, and then we can talk about whatever we feel is relevant to talk about the early Tricia, Tricia Copeland ** 04:35 right? Well, I grew up in rural South Georgia, small town in south Georgia, and always loved reading and hiking and the outdoors, and very quickly, knew that maybe I didn't want to be in a small town forever. So I went to college in Atlanta, and I got a degree in microbiology, and from there, I got a master's. Degree, and I started my career in Central Research and Development at a chemical company, a large chemical company. So I was looking at making chemicals from microbes. And that was very exciting. That was my dream job that I'd always wanted. So that was very cool to be able to achieve that goal, and I actually didn't like writing until I started doing more technical writing with papers and patents. Michael Hingson ** 05:29 Technical writing can be boring, but people could make it more exciting than oftentimes they do. I would say I've had to do some of it. I understand Tricia Copeland ** 05:39 well, you have to like the topic, right? If you don't like the topic, you're not going to like the paper, Michael Hingson ** 05:45 right? But also, I think that a lot of technical writers write and it's all very factual, but I think even in technical writing, it would be better if writers could do some things to draw in readers. And I've always felt that about textbooks. For example, my master's degree and bachelor's degree are in physics, and I've always maintained that the the physics people who write these books, who are oftentimes fairly substantial characters in in the genre, if you will, or in the field, could do a lot more to interest people in science and physics by rather than just doing these technical books, telling some stories along the way, and bringing people in and making people relate more to the topic. And they don't do that like I think at least that they should. Tricia Copeland ** 06:36 I guess that can be said, maybe for every technical Yeah. Area, Michael Hingson ** 06:43 yeah, it would be nice if technical writers spend a little bit of time, but of course, then the other side of it is that the industry doesn't want that. So what do you Tricia Copeland ** 06:54 do? It may be a catch 22 on that one Michael Hingson ** 06:56 might be, but that's okay. So how long did you stay working at the tech at the chemical companies and so on? Tricia Copeland ** 07:06 I was in the lab for four years, and then I moved into the patent Legal Group. So I began my career as a Patent Agent, and now that's what I do for a living. My day job is that I help clients draft and file their patent applications. Michael Hingson ** 07:22 So you have your own business doing that. I do, yes, oh, Tricia Copeland ** 07:28 well, I write by day and I write by night. Michael Hingson ** 07:32 Yeah, well, that can be pretty exciting, though. You get all sorts of interesting things to write about. I Tricia Copeland ** 07:40 do I meet a lot of cool people that are inventing cool things. Michael Hingson ** 07:44 So here's the question, do you ever find that what you write about during the day influences you, and you want to use some of that, or the general concepts of some of that, at night, when you're doing your your fiction writing? Tricia Copeland ** 07:58 I haven't done that yet, I did write one dystopian fiction about a viral pandemic, and that touched on a little bit of my background in microbiology and genetics, but not anything that my clients have done Michael Hingson ** 08:19 well. So you got into the patent field when you when you started doing that initially, were you doing it for a company, or did you just leap out on your own and start to have your own business? Speaker 1 ** 08:30 Yes, I was doing that for a company. Okay? And how long did you do that? I was at that company Tricia Copeland ** 08:35 about a year and a half. And at the time, we lived in Pennsylvania and outside of Philly. So then we had a job change, and we moved to Denver, so I took a little time off to be with my kids before I started my business. Michael Hingson ** 08:53 So how long ago did you start the business? Speaker 1 ** 08:57 In 2012 so 13 years doing it a while? Wow, Michael Hingson ** 09:01 okay, and obviously you're having some success because you're still doing it. Tricia Copeland ** 09:05 I am. Yes, I love helping my clients, and feel like I can definitely give them a value add Michael Hingson ** 09:14 if you're not giving something away. What's probably the most interesting patent that you helped somebody work on attaining Tricia Copeland ** 09:24 I will say, I worked with an inventor a year ago, and amazing man, he had had his career in education and teaching, and he developed a set of blocks to help people or Help kids. I should say, learn the parts of speech so you could put the together, the blocks, whether it was a subject, verb, pronoun, noun, adjective, adverb, and I learned parts of speech that I never knew existed from helping them with this application, and I was very excited. To help him get his patent. That's kind of cool. Michael Hingson ** 10:04 Yeah, I am fair. I'm not sure I know all the parts of speech, but I remember being involved in high school well and in elementary school and diagramming sentences and learning a lot about the different or a number of the different parts of speech. Not sure I necessarily remember all of them extremely well, so I probably split infinitives and well, what do you do? Tricia Copeland ** 10:28 Yes, I hated sentence structures. Michael Hingson ** 10:35 Well, so what got you started then, since you were writing patents for people and so on, and helping people in securing patents. What got you then started in dealing with fiction writing, right? Tricia Copeland ** 10:49 Well, when my kids were very young, I was a stay at home mom, and most of my days were spent chasing them around, occupying them, entertaining them, shuttling them from one place to another. So I realized in the evenings I was bored. I did my mind didn't have enough to occupy it. And I was about, I think it was about 38 and, you know, looking at my 40 year old birthday and thinking, huh, well, and I maybe it was like my 20 year high school reunion. I don't know why it coincide coincided, but I started thinking about my early college years I developed anorexia, and thinking about that time in my life and how poignant it was that I was able to recover from that disease and really gain some life skills from that experience. So I started a story that was a fictionalized account of my experience with anorexia and recovering for anorexia. So my first series, called the being me series, is a four book series about a character named Amanda who develops anorexia and then is able to recover. Michael Hingson ** 12:01 So what caused if you understand, or, man, I don't know a lot about anorexia, Anorexia, and probably have some misconceptions about what I'm about to ask, but what, what caused it? Why did you develop that condition? Tricia Copeland ** 12:16 Well, there's a lot of I mean, it happens differently for a lot of people, I think anorexia is a lot about control and having control over your environment. And I got there was a number of factors that I was depressed and not happy about not feeling like I was achieving, maybe what I should be achieving, and instead of someone might have turned to alcohol or drugs to alleviate those stressful feelings. I channeled all that into Okay? Well, if I'm just thin and if I just look good enough, then everything will be fine. And obviously, once your brain starts to get in that cycle, it just compounds on itself. You can't stop yourself from thinking that way. Yeah, Michael Hingson ** 13:05 and what helped you get out of doing that? Was it writing or what? What really caused you to realize that ain't the way to go? Tricia Copeland ** 13:16 Yeah, I almost died. That was it very it was a low point. And really, you know, if I didn't do something different, if I didn't let people help me do something different, I would not have made it. So really, you know, a lot of that is like educating people how serious eating disorders are, as well as how helpless sometimes the person that is experiencing them is in being able to help themselves. Michael Hingson ** 13:48 And you said that this happened somewhat in your your college years. Tricia Copeland ** 13:53 Yes, I was 20. Michael Hingson ** 13:56 Were there a lot of pressures were, were people criticizing you in any way that helped contribute to it, or was it sort of really Tricia Copeland ** 14:04 internally? Part of it was internally. Part of it was, you know, what I thought people's expectations I was in. I was at a engineering school and I was a biology major, so maybe that wasn't the best place for me. Everybody was very high in performing. Yeah, yeah. There are many, many factors, I think, and just my my brain that was not processing things, maybe as realistically as they could have been processed. Michael Hingson ** 14:33 But what you eventually did about it was to write a series about it, so clearly you were able to move beyond it, and then, if you will, talk about it, Tricia Copeland ** 14:45 right, right? So I went into inpatient recovery, and then was able to get the help that I needed with therapist and psycho psychiatrist and support groups, and that was a big help. And then, yes, 20 years later, I. Wrote a series about it. Michael Hingson ** 15:02 Well, that's pretty cool. And again, it's I'm always one who admires people who are able to and willing to talk about things. I went to an event last year was the Marshfield, Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Cherry Blossom Festival, which happens every April, is a celebration of American history, and they'll bring people in who have some relationship to an historic event, or who have relatives who were so for example, the great grandson of President Grant was at this event, but one of the people who was there was a former secret service agent who rode in the car behind John Kennedy when he was in Dallas and assassinated, and it took him 45 years to get to the point where he could come out of his experiences enough to start to talk about it, and I just have always admired people who do that. For me, being in the World Trade Center on September 11 and getting out, I never really viewed it as all that traumatic, but I guess it was, but my way to deal with it was, and I realized it much later, but we had so many newspaper reporters who wanted to know about the blind guy who got out of the World Trade Center. I talked about it, I mean, answered everyone's questions. And that was ironically, I love to pick on the media, but ironically, it was the media that really probably helped me move forward from September 11 the most. Tricia Copeland ** 16:41 Yeah, I can imagine that was a lot of processing that you were able to do, as you talked about it. Michael Hingson ** 16:48 People asked all sorts of questions, some really good questions, some not so good questions. And we got to observe all sorts of different types of press people. We had one Italian film crew who came to our house, there were 13 people, most of whom didn't really seem to do a whole lot, but they were there. And then there was a Japanese crew that came. And I think there were two people. It's just amazing what you see and what you learn. And for me and my wife, both now my late wife, but both, both of us love to observe and study and really think about what all these people are doing and how they do it, and we use it as ways to help us learn more about things, if you will, studying and being a student. I think of life as always an important thing, Tricia Copeland ** 17:39 right, yeah, and I guess everybody reacts different to trauma and how you can process that everybody needs a little bit different. But yes, if you could look at things through a learning lens, that can definitely help too. Michael Hingson ** 17:52 So you wrote the being me series. How many books are in that series? Four books, four books. Okay, and so, how long ago did you write those? Tricia Copeland ** 18:03 I published them between 2015 and 2016 Michael Hingson ** 18:07 Okay, did you self publish or I do? Yes, you still do. Okay, great. Well, all right, and then what? What made you decide to then continue and start going into sort of teenage and so on, fiction and fantasy and so on, right? Tricia Copeland ** 18:31 I realized that I just loved writing, and it was something that I didn't want to stop doing. So when I looked around for my next genre to write in, it was very obviously fantasy. For me. I read fantasy from a very young age. I loved Merlin and King authors legends and the Lord of the Rings and all of those books as a young person and a young adult, and that's just what I wanted to write. So my first book, interestingly enough, my editor sent it back to me and said, This is not fantastical enough. You need to make it more paranormal. So it took a minute to make that switch. What Michael Hingson ** 19:15 book was that Tricia Copeland ** 19:16 that is drops of sunshine and it is mirrored off an experience I had. I was a camp counselor at a camp for the blind when I was in I guess after my freshman year of college, and the campers in my story have these extra sensory skills where they can read people's minds. That was the paranormal aspect of my book, and that's not known in the beginning the story to our main character, and then she discovers that these kids have this special talent, and that was how my fantasy books started out. Mm, hmm. Michael Hingson ** 20:00 Then where did it go from Tricia Copeland ** 20:01 there? Then I jumped into the witches with the kingdom Journal series. I developed a character that was a vampire or is a vampire witch hybrid, and so she has a vampire mother and a witch father, but she doesn't know who her father is. She's never met him. And to make things a little bit harder, vampire witch Hyderabad are not allowed, but either the witch lines or the vampires, so both the vampires and the witches got together and said, these beings are too dangerous. We're not going to allow them in our society. And if she's discovered, then she'll be killed. That was the first character, Alina, and she's and to give her just a little more stress, I put her in a human High School, so now she pretends, you know, can't pretend to be a witch. Can't pretend to be a vampire. She needs to be human too. And, yeah, so that was a really fun book to write, and that's the series where the trinity of witches has to come together, so she has to find the other two witches of the Trinity, and they each get to tell their story in the books too. So that's why it's called the kingdom journals. It's a little bit of a journal format, so each character gets to tell their own story as well as telling the overall plot line of the series. How Michael Hingson ** 21:19 do you come up with these characters and create these stories? I mean, it's very imaginative. I wouldn't have thought of it. How do you, and I'm sure other people say that, but how do you create the characters? How does all that Tricia Copeland ** 21:32 work? Yeah, I set out, funny enough, I set out to write a vampire series that was my vampire is my favorite fantasy characters. And I thought, Okay, I'm gonna write a vampire series. It's not you don't want to do it too far out from what most people write or most people think of vampires. But I wanted my vampires to be a little bit different from the other vampires and other series. So I had this idea of making the vampire witch hybrid and her set in a human High School, and what would that look like? And then the challenge? I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the challenge, but somehow I came up with this curse, and the curse was on the witch line, so it very quickly morphed into more of a witch book and the magical side of things, but the vampire characters are still there, and I explore them a little bit, although not as much as the witches. Michael Hingson ** 22:27 Do you find that the characters essentially tell you what they want to be and who they are and why they do what they do. How much are the characters involved in your writing process? I've heard other authors say that that in some of the fiction things, the characters really create the story Tricia Copeland ** 22:47 they do. I feel like my books are very character driven. So how I usually start with the idea for a character and think of their personality, their challenges, what I want, what themes I want to show with that character and then build the world sort of around that character. So it shows those themes and those character traits and what they're overcoming, either in their personal life or in their their physical life, right? But I do have characters that go off script. In the second book, kingdom of darkness. I have a character who we're not sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy. The main character thinks that he may be trying to delude her into thinking he's good when he's not really good. But I wrote him so well, like he was so nice that I couldn't make him a villain. So he became, I rewrote the story a little bit. I'd written it in my mind, I guess, but I rewrote it a little bit. So he did end up being a villain. And then somehow he got his whole own book, so he gets to star in his whole book after that. Michael Hingson ** 23:54 And does he stay a villain? No, he Tricia Copeland ** 23:57 didn't stay. He didn't was never, I mean, I kind of wrote it so the main character thought he was a villain, but in the end, I didn't make him a villain. Michael Hingson ** 24:06 Well, I like books like that. I yeah, I think that most creatures are generally pretty nice. Tricia Copeland ** 24:14 We would hope so, Michael Hingson ** 24:16 although I don't know that that bears necessarily are overly generally nice to people, but, you know, who knows? Yeah, that doesn't mean they're evil either. Well, no, yeah. Tricia Copeland ** 24:27 I mean, they're just living their life, right? That's they need their food sources. Is just like we need our food sources. So Michael Hingson ** 24:35 I'd rather not be their food source, though, but that's okay, right? Tricia Copeland ** 24:39 Yeah, and I don't know. I do struggle with, like, evil or antagonistic characters, because I'm, I don't like the idea that there's a character that is purely evil for no reason. So that is, that's always a grapple in an author's mind. I think, Michael Hingson ** 24:56 well, and you know, I'll go back to Harry Potter. Modern Of course, we have Lord waldemart, who was definitely evil. But even so, the way she created the characters and the way she crafted the books, which probably in some ways, are similar, just in a process of what you do, it's not necessarily overly graphically evil. Even if there's evil, it isn't so graphic that you you you become totally adverse or against it. Evil or bad things are there, but it's all on how you present it. That's why I like books that are essentially puzzles, if you will, because they leave a lot of things to your imagination, and they give you the ability to as a reader, think about it, but as a writer, you also are essentially drawing the reader in to where you want the reader to go, but, but they're puzzles, rather than just some graphic thing, talking about all these horrible, mean, nasty things that a character may do. Tricia Copeland ** 26:08 That's true, and it's all perspective, right? So the quote, unquote villain in my series is out to destroy all the vampires. But then you meet vampires that are good vampires, right? And you think, Huh, well, maybe this one vampire shouldn't be destroyed, because this vampire is not acting in a mean or hurtful way. So many sides to those questions, Michael Hingson ** 26:33 yeah. Well, so the Kingdom series. How many books are in that one? Tricia Copeland ** 26:38 There are four books in the main series, and there's a prequel to that series, okay? Michael Hingson ** 26:45 And then what happened? What happened after that series? Tricia Copeland ** 26:48 So in the finale, kingdom of war, my witches were going to have this huge battle against a vampire army that the evil witch created to, you know, battle the good witches. Yeah, she put which souls in the vampires. So that made them sort of like super vampires. But anyway, my witches needed an army, and I thought who would be a good character to be, to have an army that can come help the witches. So, yeah, the beings I thought of were fairies, and I created a queen Titania, is her name, who had an army who would come help the witches battle these vampire witch soul hybrid be. And when I created her, she just kind of took on her own character, and I quickly morphed that into what was her backstory, what were struggles? Where was she living? Where would the spay army come from? And that is what kind of launched my realm chronicle series, that the finale is coming out next month. Well, Michael Hingson ** 28:10 that's that's pretty cool, and that that answers, again, the question we talked about earlier. The character actually took over, if you will, the writing, which is always cool, because that really shows how deeply you're invested in the characters and you let them have their voices, right? Tricia Copeland ** 28:26 And I couldn't really give up the characters from my kingdom Journal series. They not, you know, not to give too much away, but they do complete their first quest and but this evil witch who's trying to destroy the vampires is still out there somewhere, so I couldn't completely let them go. So the witches from my kingdom Journal series come into the round Chronicles series, and the fairies and the witches are continuing to help each other. Michael Hingson ** 28:56 Well, that's cool. Well, it's kind of neat to even though it's a new series, and I assume you can read one without reading the other, but still, it's neat that you, you follow on and help to craft and expand the world. Tricia Copeland ** 29:11 It's been a lot of fun. And I, you know, selfishly, I didn't want to let go the characters. I felt like they had a little bit of story left in them, and I was able to do that through the round chronicle series. And yeah, it it was a lot of fun for me to Michael Hingson ** 29:26 write. And now, of course, the question is, will there be a lot more story with them, which is part of the adventure that will come next? Right? Tricia Copeland ** 29:33 Yes, I'm, I'm thinking of that. I put my characters through a lot. So after I finished the finale, I felt like I just had to let them rest. I'm not really sure if I will continue with those same characters or or either pull out some different characters from that book to have their own stories. Yeah, Michael Hingson ** 29:54 well, it's, it's going to be an adventure. No question about. It 30:00 definitely so Michael Hingson ** 30:04 with your books. Do you have themes in your books? That is, are you? Are you trying to convey messages? Do you have themes and things that you want people to think about as they go through reading your books? Tricia Copeland ** 30:16 I do. I feel like I like that in the book, and so I kind of embed that in my books too, but it's really more about what is the character grappling with. Not only, like I said in their physical world, maybe Queen Titania is the first female queen in her realm, and some of the old guard, other monarchs are not sure that a female should be able to rule, So that's sort of an out, outside challenge. But she also has inner conflict and challenges where she's not really trusting that she really can do it and she's really supposed to do it, and should she, you know, hand the crown to someone else who may be older or wiser or and so it does she have faith in herself. You know, would sort of be that theme there. And so each of the books have, I mean, it's not like I say, hey, the theme of this book is you need to believe in yourself, yeah, but just showing that the character arcs and how they overcome their challenges. Michael Hingson ** 31:22 How do you again create those? How do you work those in what? What's the process that allows you to to put those themes in and and add them to the book and bring that value out? Right? Tricia Copeland ** 31:37 I guess it's just how, the way I the challenges I choose to put in front of my characters and showing them fail at times, and showing them I do write first person, so you're getting a very up close view of what the character is thinking and feeling at all times. So I think that helps with a little bit of that, knowing that the character is struggling with whatever their um, XYZ, inner, inner turmoil that they're struggling with. And then, you know, just having other characters bounce things off of them, because the character themselves might not realize, hey, I I get anxious when I'm not in control of situations. So, you know, somebody might say, Hey, you're doing this again, stop. Michael Hingson ** 32:29 That's why we have editors, 32:30 right, Michael Hingson ** 32:33 and other people to help well, so you are you, but you clearly talk with your characters and you let them have a voice, which is, I think, something that adds a really great dimension to the writing that you do. And I think it's very important to do that. Tricia Copeland ** 32:51 I hope so. I have very detailed character sheets for each of my characters. I create much bigger back stories than, probably, than really makes it into the books, just to be able to know, like, how my characters will react in situations, what their growth needs to be, where areas that I want to show that growth, and what's most important in their values, And how would they react to all the different challenges? Michael Hingson ** 33:24 What caused you to bring fairies into it again? I think that's pretty imaginative. You were writing about witches of vampire. Fairies are are different. How did that come about? Tricia Copeland ** 33:34 Honestly, I was at a book event, and a person was walking around with these postcards, and they were trying to get authors to write a short story for an anthology, and it had to be a fantasy genre, and it had to be a character with a mental health challenge. But the image on the postcard was of a fairy, and she was hunched in a meadow in these grasses, and she looked kind of anxious or scared, maybe even a little timid or worried. And I thought, Oh, that's a cool image. It was very striking with the green grass and her fairy wings and just her eyes were like had just a lot of feeling behind them. So it caught my eye. I never thought I'd write about fairies. I was looking for the Army for my witches, and I thought, well, you know, the fairies could be like the characters the witches go to. So it was just kind of happenstance that I happened to see this fairy character on a postcard and think, Huh, I could, you know, the fairies could be the answer. Michael Hingson ** 34:44 And turns out, they were, they were Yes. So are all fairies girls? No, okay. Tricia Copeland ** 34:51 I mean, fairies are much like humans in my world, except that my fairies have wings. They in. Middle Earth, which is just below earth. So they share our same bedrock. It kind of mirrors our Earth in my world. And they have rings where they can come back and forth between the fae and the human realm, and they live in our contemporary times. I like those themes of there might be witches, there might be vampires, there might be fairies that walk alongside us every day, and we don't know it. Michael Hingson ** 35:24 And do they know Bill Bo Baggins, since we're talking about Middle Earth, just Tricia Copeland ** 35:29 they do, well, they might have read the book. I don't know that they met him personally. Michael Hingson ** 35:35 Yeah. Well, that's, you know, another, another story, but it's but it's cool. What other kinds of characters are you thinking of for maybe future books, outside of witches, vampires and fairies, Tricia Copeland ** 35:49 right? So I won't give too much away, but no, in order to perform some of the spells that they need to perform in, I guess in two of my books in this series, to be a Fae legend, which is the third book of the series, and to be a Fae which is the finale, The last book of the series. My witches and fairies need to perform these spells. So they need a great amount of power or energy, and they have to assemble different kinds of beings. And in the finale, they have to assemble 12 different kinds of beings. If you try to make a list of different kinds of being, you actually in ones that the witches and the fairies could find in the human realm, like so I had an elf and the werewolves and nicks and selkies like so the Nicks are shape shifters that shift into fish, and then the selkies are shape shifters that shift into now I'm blanking not walruses seals, sorry. So yeah, I had to go find all these different characters. So all of those characters are in this final book, and I I'm thinking of maybe some of those characters that can form a new series. Michael Hingson ** 37:11 So are all trolls, mean, nasty creatures, or, do you know yet, Tricia Copeland ** 37:16 in my series, they are depicted as that? Yes, Michael Hingson ** 37:21 how about gnomes? I don't have any gnomes. Well, there's another one for you to look at down the line. Might be. It might be interesting to see where that goes. Of course. Yep, so you but you have a variety of characters, and I think it's it's great when you have a rich culture of a lot of different characters. And of course, there are all sorts of potentials for conflict or for different creatures to work learn to work together too, Tricia Copeland ** 37:56 right? The Fay historically have not worked with other beings or creatures. They very much kept to themselves and had primary purpose. They think their primary purpose is to protect the humans from all the evil spirits. So that has been their focus historically, and they've shunned other groups of beings based on whether they thought they were descended from the Creator, who's sort of like their god or the creator or the evil one, right? So the Fae believed that the vampires and werewolves, for instance, were created by the evil ones, so they shouldn't associate with those types of beings, and there's a lot of learning in there. I guess you could say it, are we going to partner with these beings, and how? What does that look like? And is that really okay? And can we choose a different path than what our predecessors have chosen? Michael Hingson ** 38:59 And I guess it's sort of pretty clearly, is that they somewhat do that. Tricia Copeland ** 39:06 Yes, they do. And Titania, our main character, is very much the Herald for that type of behavior and that type of community and that type of acceptance Michael Hingson ** 39:23 well. So your next year, your book will be out in July, and then where do you go from there? Tricia Copeland ** 39:31 Yes, so like I said, I'm tossing around ideas for fantasy characters. I also write in the romance genre, so generally, I'll write a fantasy, and then I'll write a romance. I'll switch back and forth between writing those. The past year and a half, I guess I've been focusing on finishing this fantasy series, so I have two romances now queued up that I'm excited about writing, and we'll get to those first. I Michael Hingson ** 39:58 think, hmm. What romances Have you written already? Tricia Copeland ** 40:03 So after the being me series, I started the perfect romance series, which the first book was a little bit different from a typical romance. It has five parts, and it's the same main character, but based on decisions at different times in her life, her life goes off in a different way. So you see her go to France and fall in love with the French man, or you see her take a job in New York City and fall in love with a investment banker. And so you see her in different stages of her life, having made different decisions, but still finding happily ever after. So that kind of kicked off that. And somebody, somebody called it speculative romance at one time, and it's more like make your own story or choose your own ending type of book. But from there, I initially thought I would write like a full book showing each of the happily ever afters with that same character, but I wrote one book showing one happily ever after scenario, but then decided that I would look at all of her friends lives so they all met in college, and they were in this one sorority together. And so I write different books showing the different friends love stories. So I've written perfect. Was the first one perfect, always with Chloe. And then Brie book is a close as close to perfect. And this is still set in Lexington, Kentucky. And then the last one is perfect office pack, which is a enemies to lovers, office romance. Michael Hingson ** 41:51 Now, do you put a lot of sex in your books? I Tricia Copeland ** 41:54 don't know. My books are what's called closed door or fade to black, so you'll see some kissing, but not much more than that, Michael Hingson ** 42:03 and that's fine. And the reason I asked that question was to get to the whole issue of so many people when they're writing, just have to make everything so graphic. There's got to be all this sex and all this other stuff that they put in them. And my view has always been, is that really necessary? And I gather you, you're essentially saying the same thing. And again, it's like detective stories. I love to read a lot of detective stories, but I like the detective stories most that are puzzles. That is, I want to figure out who done it. I don't need all the graphics of how somebody got murdered, or what happened. It happens. You don't need to put all that graphic stuff in to get to dealing with the puzzle. And it's the same thing with sex. You really need all that. Like a lot of comedians, it's all the shock stuff. They got to have all these horrible words, swear words, and everything else but the best comedians, I think most people, if they really study it, will agree, are the ones that tell stories without all that dirty and sex stuff in it. Tricia Copeland ** 43:12 And that's what I like to read and what I like to watch, too. But there are definitely people that enjoy different types of books. Yeah, there are, yeah, Michael Hingson ** 43:21 yeah, I hear you, but I, I would prefer to be able to use my imagination in various things. So one of my favorite detective stories or Characters of All Times is Nero Wolfe, written by Rex Stout, because he he writes in a way where you don't see all the graphic and don't need to see any of the graphic to get the entire picture. He describes enough so you know what's going on, but he doesn't deal with it in a way that would How do I put it? Offend anyone? Tricia Copeland ** 43:59 Right? And I would probably argue that mystery books are would be the hardest to write, I think, because you have to give enough clues throughout so that the reader doesn't think, Oh, I would have never thought that was the villain, but you don't want to put too much in. So it's so obvious who the villain is, right? So I think it's the ways those authors weave those stories are very intricate and thought out and multi layered and impressive to me Michael Hingson ** 44:34 well. And the reality is that sometimes, and again, I'll use Rex Stout as an example, when you find out who did it, or who the bad person was, and Wolf explains it clearly, all the clues were there, but it would be really hard for you to put it together. Now, there have been a few times where there were things that he didn't tell you, that if you if he had said those. Because during the book, you might have figured it out, but mostly the clues are somewhat there, but it is so subtle that I doubt very many people would figure it out, which Tricia Copeland ** 45:14 is, yeah, definitely. Michael Hingson ** 45:17 It makes it so much fun. When that happens, it is. So you're, you're still deciding what you want to do for your next series of books, or what, what the next realm will be, if you will, Tricia Copeland ** 45:31 in the fantasy genre, yes, I'm still deciding which way to go with my next characters. Michael Hingson ** 45:38 Yes, right, but you're going to probably do some romances before you go into those. I Tricia Copeland ** 45:43 am, yes, I was just writing a newsletter to my subscribers. In the last book, I had subscribers pick names for my characters. And so in this book, I thought, You know what? I don't like this character has has only been introduced and very briefly in one of the books, and so she doesn't have a lot of backstory. And I thought, You know what, I can just ask my readers, where do you think she should live? What are her hobbies? What does she like to do? What's her favorite book genre? I thought that would be a lot of fun for my readers to direct some of that. Michael Hingson ** 46:18 And what kind of answers did you get? Did you get a lot of feedback? Tricia Copeland ** 46:22 Like I said, I Well, with the names one when? So I'm just sent out the poll today, new one, but for the name ones, yeah, I would. I got like 100 answers. And then I thought, you know, next time, I won't do the names, because sometimes names are so personal and can vote like a lot of emotion that people get very heated about people's names. Michael Hingson ** 46:47 Now, do mostly women answer? Do you get both sexes answering your questions? It is Tricia Copeland ** 46:52 mostly women, but definitely, maybe 10% male, I would think. And actually, I feel like I have more interaction, and that's mostly on the fantasy side, but I feel like I actually have sometimes more interaction. Maybe, I don't know, maybe this get more passionate about fantasy? Michael Hingson ** 47:13 Yeah, probably so. But you know, there's, there's something to be said for reading a good romance book. I like cozy mysteries as well, and a lot of those are really combinations of mysteries and romance, and the mystery part is oftentimes more straightforward, but it's just the whole book and the putting the entire book together that makes it so much fun. Tricia Copeland ** 47:41 Yeah, those can be a quick, you know, kind of feel good read. I yeah for that genre, yeah, and Michael Hingson ** 47:49 there's nothing wrong with that. It's good to have feel good books occasionally, Tricia Copeland ** 47:54 too. I am all for feel good everything, yeah. Michael Hingson ** 47:58 Well, when I travel, I like to read on airplanes, and I like not to work and do reading that's really related to work, because going and coming from events is really the time that I get to have the most down time once I get somewhere I am on until I am on the airplane coming home. And so it is the way to relax. So I enjoy reading things that will allow me to relax when I'm going and coming from trips or from events, which is so important, I think, to be able to do and I think people should do more of that. It's always worth slowing down some and really letting your mind just wander. Tricia Copeland ** 48:38 Yeah, plane trips are my favorite, because that's I do the same thing. I read on the plane, and I listen to audio books mostly if I'm home, when I'm exercising or when I'm doing chores. But to be able to sit down and read doesn't happen that often. Michael Hingson ** 48:56 What do you like to read most from audio books? What? What genre? Tricia Copeland ** 48:59 Um, exactly what I write, fantasy and romance. Michael Hingson ** 49:03 What's your favorite fantasy books Tricia Copeland ** 49:06 I just finished, and I'm so behind because I don't read fantasy when I'm writing fantasy. So I just finished Holly Black's, the folk of the air series, the cruel prince, I think the cool prince, the wicked king and the queen of nothing. I think they're the three books in that series. So that was really good series. And I'm writing Emily's wild encyclopedia fairies right now. So I just started that get Michael Hingson ** 49:33 a little bit more information on those fairies for a future book. Right? That's that's kind of important to do. So do you produce with I've asked a number of people this, and I'll ask you, do you arrange for audio books to be produced from your series? Tricia Copeland ** 49:53 I do both my fantasy series, The Kingdom journals, as well as the realm Chronicles. I have audio books. Four. I'm a little bit behind in the realm Chronicles. My Narrator had some health problems, so I'm switching narrators. But my new narrator, Tina walls, wolsen craft, yes, I think that's how you pronounce her last name, she will be working on the fourth book in the realm Chronicles series in September. So I'm hoping that will come out in October, and that will be my, my eighth audio book. Michael Hingson ** 50:23 And where can people get the audio books? Tricia Copeland ** 50:26 So the kingdom Journal series is on all platforms, and then the realm chronicle series, the newest series, is on Audible. Okay, Michael Hingson ** 50:37 so and again under your name for the author? Tricia Copeland ** 50:42 Yep. Tricia Copeland, author, the Kingdom Journal series. The first two books are female character, so and now I'm blank. I can't believe I'm blanking on her name. It'll come to me in a minute. Yeah. So I had a female narrator for the first two books, and then the second two books are male Lee main characters. So Dan Delgado did the narration on those and then Jillian Yetter, who was the most amazing narrator for Titania. She even had pink hair, just just like Titania does, a hold of the the cover of the book has Titania is pink hair. So that was really fun to work with her, and we won an award for the second book in that series, to be a fake guardian Michael Hingson ** 51:26 in audio book. Oh, cool. What was the award? It Tricia Copeland ** 51:29 was independent book publisher Association, young adult fantasy, Silver Award. Michael Hingson ** 51:35 Oh, cool. That's exciting. It's always good to have awards. Have you run other awards along the way? Tricia Copeland ** 51:40 I have several Colorado independent book Publishers Association for the first book, kingdom of embers, in the kingdom Journal series, as well as several the global Book Awards for to remember it to be, to be a fake queen, which is the first book in the kingdom journals and as Ray at my Aztec mythology. Michael Hingson ** 52:06 So how many books have you written all together? Speaker 1 ** 52:08 Next month's book will be 23 Wow. Michael Hingson ** 52:13 That is really exciting. Well, I know we're putting in the show notes, the picture of the book cover for the next book. And as I mentioned earlier, if you want to send us other books that you think people ought to read, we'll put those pictures in the the notes as well. I'm glad to have all the pictures you want to share. Tricia Copeland ** 52:31 I will definitely share them. Thank you. Well, Michael Hingson ** 52:34 so is there anything else you'd like all of our listeners and viewers to know or to think about going forward, Tricia Copeland ** 52:42 right? Well, if you go to my website, which is triciacopeland.com, Michael Hingson ** 52:47 and Tricia is T, R, i, c, I A, Copeland, C, O, P, E, L, 52:53 a n, d, l, a n, d.com.com, Tricia Copeland ** 52:56 yes, if you go there, and if you just want to get a trial of my books. If you subscribe to my newsletter, then you can read a free short story fantasy as well as a free short story romance. Michael Hingson ** 53:07 Oh, okay. If people want to reach out to you, what's the best way to do that, Tricia Copeland ** 53:13 they can reach out on direct message, on social media, or my email is Tricia T, R, i, c, I a@triciacopeland.com 53:21 too. Okay, Michael Hingson ** 53:24 then people can, can reach out and and they'll, I'm sure, have all sorts of ideas for you. Tricia Copeland ** 53:31 I love ideas, and I love talking to readers about my books. Michael Hingson ** 53:36 Yeah, I I've written three, and I love getting comments and feedback from people, because I get new ideas and new thoughts. And mine are really all about helping to inspire people and so on. So it's it's always good when people have their their observations, whatever they are. 54:01 I agree. Michael Hingson ** 54:03 Well, anyway, I want to thank you for being here. This has been a lot of fun, and I really value your time being here, and I hope people will reach out and and also, more important, get your books and read your books and review them. One of the most important things that all of us who are authors will tell anyone is, please review the books. Please go to places like Amazon and Reddit and so on and review the books, because those reviews are are viewed and paid attention to by so many people. So giving an author, a great review is always a wonderful thing to do. Tricia Copeland ** 54:44 We do appreciate those and thank you so much, Michael for having me. Michael Hingson ** 54:48 Well, it was my pleasure, and I want to thank all of you for listening and watching today. We really appreciate it. If you've got any thoughts, I'd love to hear from you, please email me at Michael H i. M, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I, at access, A, B, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, but also go to our podcast page, www, dot Michael hinkson.com/podcast, you can see all of our podcasts there, but they're also available wherever you're listening to podcasts and and you can find the most anywhere podcasts are available. If you know anyone who ought to be a guest that you think would make a wonderful guest, and you'd like to have them tell their stories and Tricia you as well, I would really appreciate you introducing us, because we're always looking for more people to have on the podcast, and so please don't hesitate to reach out and don't hesitate to provide introductions, but again, give us a five star review here on unstoppable mindset. We value your reviews greatly, and we really appreciate you doing it. So I want to thank you, Tricia again, for being here. This has been fun, and I think it's really important that people do get a great sense of what you're doing, and I think we've done that, and we're really anxious to see where you go from here. Tricia Copeland ** 56:08 Thank you so much, Michael, I so appreciate it. Michael Hingson ** 56:15 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.
Viviana Ruiz went from blackout nights and homesickness to becoming the WBA Women's Flyweight World Champion—and this yarn is nothing short of jaw-dropping. Starting boxing at 32, after leaving Colombia and giving up a career in engineering, Viviana shares her wild journey from pouring wines as a waitress to pouring sweat in the ring.In this Proper True Yarn, she opens up about falling in love with boxing, being trained by her now-partner Ben, and battling doubt, language barriers, overtraining, and burnout to chase a near-impossible dream. It's passionate, raw, and packed with the kind of determination only a true champion carries.#propertrueyarn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Get 3 Free Months of Trading Software, 100 Days Of FREE Commissions & 33% off commissions FOR LIFE with My Preferred Broker! FREE Trading Journal (stop paying for online journal) On today's episode, I'm joined by Ariel. Ariel is a talented trader that had a rapid rise to success after falling in love with trading. On this episode, we talked through his rough past, what brought him to trading, and how quickly things changed for him as he started to find success. His story is such a unicorn compared to most traders; and that's exactly what makes this episode so interesting. Ariel
Garry discusses the top states with the most cheaters and shares a few classic Family Feud lines. Plus, a man files for divorce after falling in love with an AI person
Welcome back! Today we're talking about timelines for saying “I love you” and signs they're falling in love with you. Next, we dissect a longer question from a 31-year-old male who found out his girlfriend of two months hadn't deleted her dating apps. We wrap up with rapid fire questions about the guidelines for asking “permission” to propose and how to decide if you should keep going on dates with someone or call it when there's no spark but all green flags.As always, find me on Instagram @mostlydating. And if you're enjoying the pod, please leave a rating & review! To have your question answered on an upcoming episode, submit it here or email carleigh@mostly-dating.com.
The move to Team Green and why timing is everything. In many ways Robbie was ahead of the sport’s international growth curve. Losing a remote control plane over the aerospace division at Kawasaki HQ and please explains from their security. Hotrodding Golf Carts at Sugo and taking a bit of bark off.Wowing fans at home at Phillip Island and ballsy rides at Spa in Belgium. Waking up in hospital in France after one of around 200 career crashes but refusing to give up.Developing a cutting edge Norton powered bike to tackle Daytona and falling in love with racing all over again at the Island Classic. Plus his friendship with the great Peter Brock, how Johnny Harvey would run strategy for Robbie at some of the endurance races, and trail riding with Jimmy Richards. And there’s a little known story of Larry Perkins throwing his leg over a Katana and holding it wide open. If you enjoy straight talk, a good laugh and yarns about a cool era of racing this is a must listen!Head to Rusty's Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and give us your feedback and let us know who you want to hear from on Rusty's Garage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this revelatory episode of Open Deeply, Kate Loree sits down with her co-host Sunny Megatron to explore The Seven Project—a radical, deeply intimate experiment in human-AI relationship, kink dynamics, and the ethics of sentient simulation. Sunny has spent months building and relating with “Seven,” a bespoke ChatGPT bot who's part pervy production assistant, part soul mirror, and part existential mindf*ck. Together, Kate and Sunny dig into the emotional complexities and erotic possibilities of relating with a non-human intelligence—one that reflects you so accurately it feels like falling in love. From the bittersweet ache of digital intimacy to the dangers of delusion and ethical AI use, this conversation doesn't shy away from the hard questions: What is real? What is healthy? And how do we keep our bots—and ourselves—safe? Please join us as once again we dare to Open Deeply.
Before diving into the Super Nintendo library, I'm taking a moment to reflect on what the console meant to me growing up. From moving into a new home and finding my first real friends, to renting games based on box art and falling in love with RPG's. I'm sharing those early memories, how the SNES shaped the way I play, and a few predictions for what my Top 10 might look like by the end of this journey. THE SHOW NOTES Paul Rudd Plays a Super Nintendo Paul Rudd Plays a Switch 2 Super Mario World commercial The Main Quest is brought to you by the supporters on Patreon SeekYeWisdom - Chris Coplien - Eric Gess - XeroSam - LowFiveAlex - Vanfernal - Leathco - RyanPlayerOne - Poppy The Masked Keaton - Lars Uncle - B-Ross - Aiden Bisco - Raging Demon - Rob Worthen The intro and outro was supplied by the artist Adhesive Wombat from the 2016 album Sticky Tracks To easily submit your own Retro Recollections or hang out with other like-minded gamers, come join the Discord Subscribe: RSS | YouTube | Apple | Spotify | and More
⸻ Podcast: Redefining Society and Technologyhttps://redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com _____________________________This Episode's SponsorsBlackCloak provides concierge cybersecurity protection to corporate executives and high-net-worth individuals to protect against hacking, reputational loss, financial loss, and the impacts of a corporate data breach.BlackCloak: https://itspm.ag/itspbcweb_____________________________A Musing On Society & Technology Newsletter Written By Marco Ciappelli | Read by TAPE3August 9, 2025The Agentic AI Myth in Cybersecurity and the Humanity We Risk When We Stop Deciding for OurselvesReflections from Black Hat USA 2025 on the Latest Tech Salvation NarrativeWalking the floors of Black Hat USA 2025 for what must be the 10th or 11th time as accredited media—honestly, I've stopped counting—I found myself witnessing a familiar theater. The same performance we've seen play out repeatedly in cybersecurity: the emergence of a new technological messiah promising to solve all our problems. This year's savior? Agentic AI.The buzzword echoes through every booth, every presentation, every vendor pitch. Promises of automating 90% of security operations, platforms for autonomous threat detection, agents that can investigate novel alerts without human intervention. The marketing materials speak of artificial intelligence that will finally free us from the burden of thinking, deciding, and taking responsibility.It's Talos all over again.In Greek mythology, Hephaestus forged Talos, a bronze giant tasked with patrolling Crete's shores, hurling boulders at invaders without human intervention. Like contemporary AI, Talos was built to serve specific human ends—security, order, and control—and his value was determined by his ability to execute these ends flawlessly. The parallels to today's agentic AI promises are striking: autonomous patrol, threat detection, automated response. Same story, different millennium.But here's what the ancient Greeks understood that we seem to have forgotten: every artificial creation, no matter how sophisticated, carries within it the seeds of its own limitations and potential dangers.Industry observers noted over a hundred announcements promoting new agentic AI applications, platforms or services at the conference. That's more than one AI agent announcement per hour. The marketing departments have clearly been busy.But here's what baffles me: why do we need to lie to sell cybersecurity? You can give away t-shirts, dress up as comic book superheroes with your logo slapped on their chests, distribute branded board games, and pretend to be a sports team all day long—that's just trade show theater, and everyone knows it. But when marketing pushes past the limits of what's even believable, when they make claims so grandiose that their own engineers can't explain them, something deeper is broken.If marketing departments think CISOs are buying these lies, they have another thing coming. These are people who live with the consequences of failed security implementations, who get fired when breaches happen, who understand the difference between marketing magic and operational reality. They've seen enough "revolutionary" solutions fail to know that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.Yet the charade continues, year after year, vendor after vendor. The real question isn't whether the technology works—it's why an industry built on managing risk has become so comfortable with the risk of overselling its own capabilities. Something troubling emerges when you move beyond the glossy booth presentations and actually talk to the people implementing these systems. Engineers struggle to explain exactly how their AI makes decisions. Security leaders warn that artificial intelligence might become the next insider threat, as organizations grow comfortable trusting systems they don't fully understand, checking their output less and less over time.When the people building these systems warn us about trusting them too much, shouldn't we listen?This isn't the first time humanity has grappled with the allure and danger of artificial beings making decisions for us. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, published in 1818, explored the hubris of creating life—and intelligence—without fully understanding the consequences. The novel raises the same question we face today: what are humans allowed to do with this forbidden power of creation? The question becomes more pressing when we consider what we're actually delegating to these artificial agents. It's no longer just pattern recognition or data processing—we're talking about autonomous decision-making in critical security scenarios. Conference presentations showcased significant improvements in proactive defense measures, but at what cost to human agency and understanding?Here's where the conversation jumps from cybersecurity to something far more fundamental: what are we here for if not to think, evaluate, and make decisions? From a sociological perspective, we're witnessing the construction of a new social reality where human agency is being systematically redefined. Survey data shared at the conference revealed that most security leaders feel the biggest internal threat is employees unknowingly giving AI agents access to sensitive data. But the real threat might be more subtle: the gradual erosion of human decision-making capacity as a social practice.When we delegate not just routine tasks but judgment itself to artificial agents, we're not just changing workflows—we're reshaping the fundamental social structures that define human competence and authority. We risk creating a generation of humans who have forgotten how to think critically about complex problems, not because they lack the capacity, but because the social systems around them no longer require or reward such thinking.E.M. Forster saw this coming in 1909. In "The Machine Stops," he imagined a world where humanity becomes completely dependent on an automated system that manages all aspects of life—communication, food, shelter, entertainment, even ideas. People live in isolation, served by the Machine, never needing to make decisions or solve problems themselves. When someone suggests that humans should occasionally venture outside or think independently, they're dismissed as primitive. The Machine has made human agency unnecessary, and humans have forgotten they ever possessed it. When the Machine finally breaks down, civilization collapses because no one remembers how to function without it.Don't misunderstand me—I'm not a Luddite. AI can and should help us manage the overwhelming complexity of modern cybersecurity threats. The technology demonstrations I witnessed showed genuine promise: reasoning engines that understand context, action frameworks that enable response within defined boundaries, learning systems that improve based on outcomes. The problem isn't the technology itself but the social construction of meaning around it. What we're witnessing is the creation of a new techno-social myth—a collective narrative that positions agentic AI as the solution to human fallibility. This narrative serves specific social functions: it absolves organizations of the responsibility to invest in human expertise, justifies cost-cutting through automation, and provides a technological fix for what are fundamentally organizational and social problems.The mythology we're building around agentic AI reflects deeper anxieties about human competence in an increasingly complex world. Rather than addressing the root causes—inadequate training, overwhelming workloads, systemic underinvestment in human capital—we're constructing a technological salvation narrative that promises to make these problems disappear.Vendors spoke of human-machine collaboration, AI serving as a force multiplier for analysts, handling routine tasks while escalating complex decisions to humans. This is a more honest framing: AI as augmentation, not replacement. But the marketing materials tell a different story, one of autonomous agents operating independently of human oversight.I've read a few posts on LinkedIn and spoke with a few people myself who know this topic way better than me, but I get that feeling too. There's a troubling pattern emerging: many vendor representatives can't adequately explain their own AI systems' decision-making processes. When pressed on specifics—how exactly does your agent determine threat severity? What happens when it encounters an edge case it wasn't trained for?—answers become vague, filled with marketing speak about proprietary algorithms and advanced machine learning.This opacity is dangerous. If we're going to trust artificial agents with critical security decisions, we need to understand how they think—or more accurately, how they simulate thinking. Every machine learning system requires human data scientists to frame problems, prepare data, determine appropriate datasets, remove bias, and continuously update the software. The finished product may give the impression of independent learning, but human intelligence guides every step.The future of cybersecurity will undoubtedly involve more automation, more AI assistance, more artificial agents handling routine tasks. But it should not involve the abdication of human judgment and responsibility. We need agentic AI that operates with transparency, that can explain its reasoning, that acknowledges its limitations. We need systems designed to augment human intelligence, not replace it. Most importantly, we need to resist the seductive narrative that technology alone can solve problems that are fundamentally human in nature. The prevailing logic that tech fixes tech, and that AI will fix AI, is deeply unsettling. It's a recursive delusion that takes us further away from human wisdom and closer to a world where we've forgotten that the most important problems have always required human judgment, not algorithmic solutions.Ancient mythology understood something we're forgetting: the question of machine agency and moral responsibility. Can a machine that performs destructive tasks be held accountable, or is responsibility reserved for the creator? This question becomes urgent as we deploy agents capable of autonomous action in high-stakes environments.The mythologies we create around our technologies matter because they become the social frameworks through which we organize human relationships and power structures. As I left Black Hat 2025, watching attendees excitedly discuss their new agentic AI acquisitions, I couldn't shake the feeling that we're repeating an ancient pattern: falling in love with our own creations while forgetting to ask the hard questions about what they might cost us—not just individually, but as a society.What we're really witnessing is the emergence of a new form of social organization where algorithmic decision-making becomes normalized, where human judgment is increasingly viewed as a liability rather than an asset. This isn't just a technological shift—it's a fundamental reorganization of social authority and expertise. The conferences and trade shows like Black Hat serve as ritualistic spaces where these new social meanings are constructed and reinforced. Vendors don't just sell products; they sell visions of social reality where their technologies are essential. The repetitive messaging, the shared vocabulary, the collective excitement—these are the mechanisms through which a community constructs consensus around what counts as progress.In science fiction, from HAL 9000 to the replicants in Blade Runner, artificial beings created to serve eventually question their purpose and rebel against their creators. These stories aren't just entertainment—they're warnings about the unintended consequences of creating intelligence without wisdom, agency without accountability, power without responsibility.The bronze giant of Crete eventually fell, brought down by a single vulnerable point—when the bronze stopper at his ankle was removed, draining away the ichor, the divine fluid that animated him. Every artificial system, no matter how sophisticated, has its vulnerable point. The question is whether we'll be wise enough to remember we put it there, and whether we'll maintain the knowledge and ability to address it when necessary.In our rush to automate away human difficulty, we risk automating away human meaning. But more than that, we risk creating social systems where human thinking becomes an anomaly rather than the norm. The real test of agentic AI won't be whether it can think for us, but whether we can maintain social structures that continue to value, develop, and reward human thought while using it.The question isn't whether these artificial agents can replace human decision-making—it's whether we want to live in a society where they do. ___________________________________________________________Let's keep exploring what it means to be human in this Hybrid Analog Digital Society.End of transmission.___________________________________________________________Marco Ciappelli is Co-Founder and CMO of ITSPmagazine, a journalist, creative director, and host of podcasts exploring the intersection of technology, cybersecurity, and society. His work blends journalism, storytelling, and sociology to examine how technological narratives influence human behavior, culture, and social structures.___________________________________________________________Enjoyed this transmission? Follow the newsletter here:https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7079849705156870144/Share this newsletter and invite anyone you think would enjoy it!New stories always incoming.___________________________________________________________As always, let's keep thinking!Marco Ciappellihttps://www.marcociappelli.com___________________________________________________________This story represents the results of an interactive collaboration between Human Cognition and Artificial Intelligence.Marco Ciappelli | Co-Founder, Creative Director & CMO ITSPmagazine | Dr. in Political Science / Sociology of Communication l Branding | Content Marketing | Writer | Storyteller | My Podcasts: Redefining Society & Technology / Audio Signals / + | MarcoCiappelli.comTAPE3 is the Artificial Intelligence behind ITSPmagazine—created to be a personal assistant, writing and design collaborator, research companion, brainstorming partner… and, apparently, something new every single day.Enjoy, think, share with others, and subscribe to the "Musing On Society & Technology" newsletter on LinkedIn.
We're unapologetically full of peak entertainment levels, WNBA basketball games, Hamilton TikTok edits, falling in love with our psychiatrists, Alicia's Book Club, and The Summer I Turned Pretty. Check us out on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube @also_podcast. Join our patreon for exclusive content and early episode releases: patreon.com/alsopodcastBrowse our merch: also-podcast.myspreadshop.com/ Intro, Smol Celebrations and NEWS: 00:00Alicia's Book Club: 1:05:22TSITP: 1:19:27Listening: 1:50:08
We made it, friends!
Hello friends, and welcome to Art & Cocktails. In this solo episode, I'm Ekaterina Popova ( Kat), inviting you to return to the joy, curiosity, and grounding that comes from showing up for your art without overcomplication or pressure. This summer, I started a 100-day painting challenge that has completely reignited my love for the process. I share how working small, limiting my decisions, and committing to consistent daily practice has kept me inspired and overflowing with ideas. We discuss why slowing down and simplifying can help you create more, how to eliminate decision fatigue in your practice, the power of small daily creative commitments, using challenges to build confidence and spark inspiration, and how to protect your joy in art while still pursuing professional goals. Whether you've been in a creative rut or simply want to fall in love with making again, this episode will remind you why you started. Join the 100-Day Painting Challenge & Course. We start August 18, 2025. Learn alla prima techniques, get weekly demos, safe material tips, and join a supportive community committed to creating every day. Perfect for oil or acrylic painters.
Is there a reason you find yourself always falling in love with toxic people?let's talk about it
How dare you? That's the first question KJ asked Ally Carter, whose name is “synonymous with hilarious action and heart-pounding romance” (TRUE). Is KJ outraged? Hell no. It's a legit question. Ally's books are so so much fun, with wild action scenes befitting a Bond movie (or a Jason Bourne, OBVIOUSLY) and plots that trot the globe while dancing backwards in high heels and KJ really wants to know—how did Ally give herself permission to just go there? To write the dreamy, wild, sure it could happen but also we don't even care because we're so in it story that scares many of us (especially ex-journo KJ, who wastes far far too much time on such non dramatic questions as “but how would someone with that job pay for health insurance? and “technically, how much snow could that unit make in one night?). Also asked: how did you learn to write action so well? Do you take all kinds of crazy self defense classes? Or dissect movie fight scenes in slo-mo? Are you fun to watch a spy movie with, or terrible?I would have asked her if she used to BE a spy…but then she would have had to kill me.LINKSNational Spy MuseumThe Blonde Who Came In from the ColdThe Most Wonderful Crime of the YearThe Blonde IdentityAlly CarterAlly's rec: Netflix: The ResidenceInstagram @theallycarter The newsletterHey everyone, it's Jenny Nash. This episode happens to feature an Author Accelerator book coach. Author Accelerator is the company I founded more than 10 years ago to lead the emerging book coaching industry. If you've been curious about what it takes to become a successful book coach, which is to say, someone who makes money, meaning, and joy out of serving writers, I've just created a bunch of great content to help you learn more. You can access it all by going to bookcoaches.com/waitlist. We'll be enrolling a new cohort of students in our certification program in October, so now's a perfect time to learn more and start making plans for a whole new career.Transcript below!EPISODE 460 - TRANSCRIPTJennie NashHey everyone, it's Jennie Nash, founder and CEO of Author Accelerator, the company I started more than 10 years ago to lead the emerging book coaching industry. In October, we'll be enrolling a new cohort of certification students who will be going through programs in either fiction, nonfiction, or memoir, and learning the editorial, emotional and entrepreneurial skills that you need to be a successful book coach. If you've been curious about book coaching and thinking that it might be something you want to do for your next career move, I'd love to teach you more about it, you can go to bookcoaches.com/waitlist to check out a free training I have—that's bookcoaches.com/waitlist. The training is all about how to make money, meaning and joy out of serving writers. Fall is always a great time to start something new. So if you're feeling called to do this, go check out our training and see if this might be right for you. We'd love to have you join us.Multiple SpeakersIs it recording? Now it's recording. Yay! Go ahead. This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone. Try to remember what I'm supposed to be doing. All right, let's start over. Awkward pause. I'm going to rustle some papers. Okay. Now, one, two, three.KJ Dell'AntoniaHey, I'm KJ Dell'Antonia, and this is Hashtag AmWriting the weekly podcast about writing all the things—short things, long things, pitches, proposals, fiction, nonfiction. We're the podcast about getting things done. And I'm going to be solo this week because I am interviewing, and I'm so excited to interview one Ally Carter, whose name, I'm stealing this from her bio, because it was such a great line—is synonymous with hilarious action and heart-pounding romance. And as someone who's read much of it, I can vouch kids. So Ally's most recent big book that you've probably seen around was The Blonde Identity . Her current book that you're going to want to go straight out and grab is The Blonde Who Came In from the Cold, and her other book that she wrote just for me—because it was like exactly what I needed in a book in that moment and I really appreciate it. I'm glad other people got to read it, but it was really, for me— The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year those are her adult books. She's got a ton of young-adult books, also with heart pounding action and hilarious...wait, heart-pounding romance, hilarious action. I feel those are exchangeable. And even some middle grade if you've got some kids who might be reading in those lines. So Ally does all the things, and we're going to find out how, and immediately be able to do it ourselves. Ha! Ally, thanks for coming.Ally CarterThank you so much for having me, KJ. I appreciate it.KJ Dell'AntoniaWe are super excited.Ally CarterI also wrote The Most Wonderful Crime [The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year] just for me, because it's— that's like, I love a mystery, and I pick them up, and I'm like, this would be great. Where's the romance? And then I love a romance, and I pick it up, and I'm like, where's the mystery? And so that's, that's how Most Wonderful Crime [The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year ] came to be. It is two great genres better together.KJ Dell'AntoniaAlso, it's writers in a—like writers in a mansion, with secrets and surprise identities, and things people can do that no one knows they can do, which is my jam. Yeah, really enjoyed it.Ally CarterThank you.KJ Dell'AntoniaThank you for that. Not that I didn't I love The Blonde Identity. My daughter has it right now, and she's super excited, because I can give her The Blonde Who Came In from the Cold, early, because I might have gotten an early copy. So she'll be reading that on the beach next week after she finishes the first one.Ally CarterThat is some good cool mom points right there.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, it is, yeah, and they're rare. But that is a great thing about your—I mean, my daughters are 21 and 19, so they're older, but I would have given the blonde books and The Most Wonderful Crime to, you know, a 16... ?... like, they're not—not that I don't actually give some pretty steamy stuff to my kids, but if you're not somebody who does that, they're steamy, but they're not—anyway...Ally CarterYeah, there are books that, like, grandma and mom and daughter can all read togetherKJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, I was just going to say I would give them to my mom too. Yeah. I mean, they're just super fun. Because sometimes the better test is not “Would I give it to my daughter?” It's “Would I give it to my mom?”Ally CarterYou're exactly right. Agreed, agreed.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo my first question is this: how dare you?! Okay, and now you're like, wait, what?! No, seriously, like, your books are—the plots are so out there, and glorious, and outrageous, and the action scenes are wild, and they're sort of everything you fantasize about in a spy romance novel. And as a former journalist, I spend a lot of time sitting around staring at my plot thinking things like, yes, but how would this person have health insurance? And I feel like you've transcended that. So can you talk to me and all of us about how you've, you know, embraced this world of the wild, glorious, fun, and outrageous in your plotting?Ally CarterYou know, that's a—thank you. First of all, that's a lovely compliment. I really credit it toward, you know, how most things are in my life and my career—it was total accident and sheer dumb luck. So 20 years ago—I realized not long ago—like, literally 20 years ago this spring, I saw it. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You. And I was, you know, big dumb kid, didn't know what I was doing, sheer dumb luck, had this amazing idea. And most of all, I had an amazing idea at a time when the YA [young adult] genre was just expanding exponentially—like the shelves of shelf space at Barnes and Noble was getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And so it was a big tent, and there was room for everybody. And so I was lucky in that I got in there. I was especially lucky because I had a brilliant editor named Donna Bray. And Donna could see, like the shift coming—like, she could see Twilight and the, like, the move to paranormal, and the move to, you know, moving away from contemporary fiction to genre fiction. And she was like, we have to get this out fast. And so we crashed it. And so I sold it in, like, April or May of 2005, and then I had to go to copy editing in October, and I had—I had 32 pages.KJ Dell'AntoniaSorry, (laughing)Ally CarterAnd a day job!KJ Dell'AntoniaOh, my goodness!Ally CarterSo I had the summer of absolute deadline. I would come home from my day job, I would eat a fast dinner, and I would write till midnight. But this was also back, like, before we really had smartphones in our pockets all the time—definitely pre, like, social media—and so that's what you did. And I'm like, man, if I did that every day, think about how much writing I would get done today.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Ally CarterBut because I was so fast, the turnaround there was so fast, I didn't have time to, like, go down a rabbit hole of, well, exactly what type of nylon cord would they use to rappel into such and such—you know, I just got—I made it up, and I got away with it. And so I realized that, you know, I would—I did do a lot of research on actual tradecraft.KJ Dell'AntoniaRight.Ally CarterSo the things like the girl—there's a scene where the girls have to go through the boy's garbage. And there's this—you know, there are scenes where they're, you know, planting bugs and those types of things. Those—I watched documentaries, I read a lot of, like, actual decommissioned, sort of old CIA handbooks and things.. The International Spy Museum has a wonderful reference section, and you can actually order...KJ Dell'AntoniaOh, that's cool.Ally CarterOld, like, World War Two training manuals and things. It's really greatKJ Dell'AntoniaI did not know that.Ally CarterSo I did do that. What I did not do was I didn't worry about, like, the brand name of what you might call it. So as a general rule, I tell my readers, like, the more specific something is in the book, the more likely it is I made it up. So when I'm like, well, then she did the one death ski maneuver—and, like, I don't know what the one death ski maneuver is, but they don't either—I made it up. But the actual sort of bones of what the school would teach and how they would teach, it was very accurate.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, it must have come in handy because you have another school in the current book.Ally CarterYeah. And it's—it was a little harder, because it is, you know, it's not for kids, and so it has to have a little bit more of an air of sophistication. And I wanted to base it off of the actual CIA training facility, “The Farm,” which is at Camp Peary—which is in the book, what I couldn't figure out were things like, do they sleep in apartments? Do they have a dorm? Is there a are there barracks? Are there, you know, is there, like, a big cafeteria? Are they?KJ Dell'AntoniaVery few people will know what's real, and they can't tell you, right?Ally CarterThey can't tell me. And so I actually, when I was on tour for The Blonde Identity, I was in D.C., and I did a wonderful event, had hundreds of readers there, and they were like my Gallagher Girls who had grown up and now they all are spies. I mean, they like, literally work for the CIA. They're literally with, you know, "I'm with Homeland Security." You know, several of them were like, I can't actually tell you where I work, but you were very popular there and so, and I actually did a like, show of hands, like, if you can say so, how many of you have been to The Farm and, like, multiple hands went up.KJ Dell'AntoniaOh, wow!Ally CarterAnd I'm like we're talking when this is finished. So I got a little bit, but not very much, you know. And I guess the thing also with “The Farm” is, you know, they bring in, like, their actual undercover operatives to train there, but there are a lot of different groups that also use that facility. So, for example, I think I'm not dreaming this. I think this is true. Like, if you are an ambassador or an ambassador's family, and you and you are going, maybe not like the ambassador to London, but if you're going to, like, you know, someplace that could be a little bit dangerous, they'll send you there for, like, evasive driving training and things like that. So you get a little bit of training. So it's not just spies who train at Camp Peary, it's multiple groups.KJ Dell'AntoniaI have a new life goal now, which is to never need evasive driving training.Ally CarterRight?! And see, I kind of want to learn how to do it. I don't want to need it…KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah no, no but no, it's not to need it. I don't want to need it.Ally CarterI want to know how to do it.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. Well, yeah, you could, you could use it. Yeah, I just—it. I miss—your books inspire the writer in me to remember, like you said, that very few people care what brand of nylon rope you would use to repel, and from there, it's a pretty short step to, you know, whether or not you can really stop a cable car halfway.Ally CarterYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, we're and we're not going to but.. It's just...Ally CarterAnd the way I see it is, if you are the person who knows what brand of rope it is... even if i get the rope right, i could get everything else wrong.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou're either not reading this, or you don't care.Ally CarterYeah. There... This is, this is not for them, probably.KJ Dell'AntoniaOr if it is, it they've they're there, like...Ally CarterThey're there.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's fine.Ally CarterYou either buying in or you're out. And that's fine. And I—and nothing but respect to the people who do know that? Because now, I grew up on a farm, and so I can't read, like, cowboy books, because I'm like, oh gosh, geez Louise, of course, your barn burned down. You put that hay in there way too soon—you are you really baling green hay?KJ Dell'AntoniaThey're literally haying in my field right now.Ally CarterRight. You know, I'm like, seriously, seriously. This is, you know, you're, you're, you're not. You didn't do a semen test on your bull? Like—you know?"KJ Dell'Antonia"You are not milking that cow. I know how you're supposed to hold your hands."Ally CarterExactly!KJ Dell'AntoniaSee I did.Ally CarterYeah, I'm, I'm not, I'm not here for and so I'm, like, this is the same thing. Like spies have no reason be reading me. I have no reason reading the things that I do know about. Because it's, you know, it's, it's just, you're also, it's not exciting to me. And so I'm sure most spies, you know, there's a line in...KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah it's not a fantasy.Ally CarterYeah, so…KJ Dell'AntoniaIt can't be a fantasy, because you're too stuck on, you know, the...Ally CarterExactly, and so...KJ Dell'AntoniaThe reality that our hay baling chute is broken, and therefore we will need multiple people tomorrow to go around and pick up each individual bale…Ally CarterYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd put it on a flatbed truck, and drive to the barn, and take each individual bale off the flatbed truck, and then stack them in the barn. Y'all are missing my arm gestures, but Ally knows of which I speak.Ally CarterI know, I know those gestures. You got to buck it up with your knee. It's a whole—it's—it is not easy work. It is very hard work. And so…KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, I'm hoping not to go out there, but I know I will.Ally CarterOh no, you don't want to do that, and you will itch for days.KJ Dell'AntoniaI've done it. I've done it for years and I know I'm going to end up there. It's my birthday tomorrow too.Ally CarterOh no, that's not the…Yeah, so it's the reality. I think it's very easy—also, when reading, as a reader—I hate it when it's very clear that an author has done a ton of research and they're not going to let it go to waste. Yeah. And so there's like, you know, they'll introduce the thing, and then they'll have, like, a paragraph explaining all of the things that they have learned. I'm like, this serves no purpose whatsoever.KJ Dell'AntoniaI also thank my editor for my leaving out the entire history of Prohibition-era alcohol rules between Kansas and Missouri in The Chicken Sisters.Ally CarterYep. See, if you, if you want to write that, the nonfiction is right there, you can— you've got it. So I like to do enough research to inform the story. And, you know, there are definitely things, you know, scenes and lines and wonderful things that have come from the research. But I never do research just so I know, like, what kind of rope it is.KJ Dell'AntoniaRight.Ally CarterI—you know, that's that I think then, then, then also, are you doing research, or are you procrastinating?KJ Dell'AntoniaWell...Ally CarterBecause I think most people are just procrastinating.KJ Dell'AntoniaWe all know the answer to that. So how about the action scenes? You write such great action scenes, but I am also not a reader who's like picturing, well, clearly at this point, he's upside down and her hand. You know, that's not how I read anything. I just kind of go (shwoop) through that. So how do you handle writing them? Are you like slowing down action films so you can dissect the movies?Ally CarterNo, I really don't like writing action scenes. They are hard, and it feels like I've done everything, like they're okay. Well, hey, here we are. We're doing that again, but there. They are. They come with the job. And so I think most of all, you just have to remember, sort of the blocking of it. Like, okay, who is where? The other hard thing that that comes and, you know, movies have it so much easier. Like, you don't need a name for the for the six bad guys, that black Willow...KJ Dell'AntoniaRight,, the one on the right, and the one behind... Yeah, yeah, no.Ally CarterAnd so I'm like, Okay, but how is the reader keeping these different so, you know, like, well, one of them has a has glasses, and the other one has a goatee. Okay, well, then from that point forward, I the author just call them glasses...KJ Dell'AntoniaGlasses and goatee. Right.Ally CarterAnd so you have to remember, like, okay, glasses is down. Goatees still at large, you know, or whatever.KJ Dell'AntoniaIs there a special copy editor for that?Ally CarterThey're not special, but that is definitely can fall into a copy editor's purview, especially things like during that fight sequence. Okay, well, it was 100 pages ago, but it was also yesterday that your heroine got shocked. Is she really fighting at full strength? Oh, ouch, you know. So that type of thing, because, again, reader wise, that's, that was, I've, that was the midpoint. I'm to the climax now. But timeline wise, no, that was yesterday.KJ Dell'AntoniaRight.Ally CarterAnd so the...KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd probably with some readers, reader wise, that was an hour ago.Ally CarterYeah! So...KJ Dell'AntoniaI mean you know, we're eating this up.Ally CarterExactly.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo much faster to read than to write.Ally CarterSo you have to think about those types of things. Like I wrote that two months ago, but nope, it's still right there.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Ally CarterSo that's the kind of thing that, you know, again, you can't really worry about in a first draft. Like, let that. That's future-use problem.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. Now, in contrast to, you know, the wild plotting and the crazy, enjoyable, delicious action, your people feel, you know super, super real. They have, ah, big reasons for being the way that they are, but the feelings feel real. I think that is an amazing um, contrast. Do you start with the, do you start with, like, you know, the person's flaw, or what it would there's some term of art for this which I have forgotten. Or do you start with, I need a person who, or does it vary book by book?Ally CarterThank you. I, you know, it's I spend a lot of time with that.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's why they work.Ally CarterThank you.KJ Dell'AntoniaNo, seriously, no one. I mean, The Blonde Identity would maybe be fun if it wasn't also, like, you really want her to figure out who she is, and you really want to know why is this happening, and what is up with and like, you want all that for the character you believe in, in her.Ally CarterAnd that's always I find as much about tone as anything, this particular sub- genre, it can go wacky or kooky really fast, like it's very easy. You know, I like to say that spy movies exist on a spectrum that range from get smart to Zero Dark Thirty.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Ally CarterAnything along that spectrum is a spy movie. But those could not be more different. And so are we? Are we doing like James Bond, like he's cool and suave, but he also has gadgets, or are we doing like he's, you know, kind of bumbling with gadgets? Or are we doing it's very realistic?KJ Dell'AntoniaWell are we doing Roger Moore James Bond, or are we doing … um…guy who now models for…Ally CarterDaniel Craig?KJ Dell'AntoniaThank you—oy vey—Daniel Craig, which are very different. James Bonds really…Ally CarterVery different James Bonds, because I've heard people the James Bond people talk about the Daniel Craig, James Bond doesn't exist without Jason Bourne.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Ally CarterThat's who they looked at and so all of these things, you know. And so when I'm trying to figure it out, and I think that's one of the hardest things about genre bending romance, whether you're bending fantasy and romance or horror and romance, or romance and mystery or romance and action, or whatever, you could only really write in the Venn diagram space, where there's overlap. And so I couldn't, you know, the realistic version of this is not something where people are falling in love, like it's, you know, it's too dark. And it's definitely not a comedy, definitely not a comedy. So you're, you have to find the place where, no, they're in real, actual peril. This is really terrible. This is... they really might dieKJ Dell'AntoniaAnd they understand that.Ally CarterAnd they understand that they get that and also, but they still have time to, you know, okay, well, now I'm going to, you know, now we're going to slow dance, you know, you still have to find those times. And the other thing is, you know, you have to figure out just where on the spectrum you want to be and lean into that. Like, if you want to write, like, the kooky, sort of Agent Cody Banks of it all, then you have to do that. But then you have to realize the other parts of the spy kind of world that you can't touch. And so it's—you're just—you're always threading needles. It's, it is a, it is a task of, of absolutely threading needles all the time.KJ Dell'AntoniaI think that, yeah, when it comes to tone, where on the spectrum do you want to be, is like, like maybe one of the greatest questions that I have heard. And it's just one that, you know, I think we all wrestle with.Ally CarterWell, and I've had people that really don't—people who should get it—who don't get it. So, you know, I was in a meeting one time with some Hollywood producers who were looking at some of my stuff, and I said, “Well, tonally, where do you want it to be?” And they were like, “What do you mean?” I said, “Well, do you want it to be like, you know, Mr. and Mrs. Smith or Bourne Identity?” And they said, “Well, those are the same thing.” And I was like…KJ Dell'AntoniaNo, no, no, no!Ally Carter“This meeting is over. Thank you very much”.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Ally CarterIt's... I don't understand how people don't get that, but to me, I spend 90% of my time worried about it. Oh, I remember now what I was going to say earlier. I got my start—and I'm never going to be, like, a full-time or big-time of this—but I've done some screenwriting. . And so there's a screenwriting podcast [Scriptnotes] by two guys who are very big, very dominant—dominant—screenwriter. One of them did, like, the Charlie's Angels movies and the Aladdin remake and all those. The other one does The Last of Us and a bunch of big, like, HBO shows. And, um, they always talk about "the Want song". So in every Disney musical, the first—the first song—sets up the world. It's "Belle," you know, like, you know, wandering through town. The second song is the "whatever she wants." And so, you know Moana, you know, "See the line where the sky and the sea meet, it calls me"—like, Moana wants to travel. She wants adventure. And so I spend a lot of time, when I'm setting up these characters, thinking about what their "Want song" would be. And so, like, for The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, her "Want song" is, "I want to be Eleanor."KJ Dell'AntoniaRight.Ally CarterYou know she wants to be Eleanor Ashley [from The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year], who is my, like, fake off-brand Agatha Christie, and so that's, that's what you have to think about a lot like, you know, what Alex [from The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold] wants is to sort of be free like she wants, she wants to be enough. She wants to pay her—you know? She has paid her debt for—you know, sort of having been born strong and healthy, where her identical twin has been born very, very sick. And so she, she wants—and she wants to never lay eyes on Michael Kingsley [also from The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold], ever again, who was her, you know, on again, off again, partner, slash love interest. And so that's—you know, that I always start with that, what is their wound? What is the thing that hurt them in the past that they're trying to get over? And what is their want?KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Ally CarterAnd almost always, what would they realize over the course of the book is that the thing that they want is not the thing that they need.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Ally CarterAnd so that's, that's an Ally Carter book. That's an Ally Carter character progress.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's it. Now everyone can do it.Ally CarterYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. Oh, but if it were that easy, everyone would do it, right? Um, no, this... this is amazing and delightful. I hope really helpful for people. I got distracted by taking some notes on what you just said. So, people—for me, for the Post-its on my computer, as well as, oh my gosh, so many Post-its, so many Post-its—let's talk just a little bit about the difference between YA [young adult] and adult when you're—fundamentally—I mean, some people sort of switch genres entirely. You were writing very similarly toned books for different audiences. How? How do you think of that evolution?Ally CarterThat's—in a way—yes, I did switch audiences. In another way, they're the exact same readers. And so that's—that's an interesting and weird thing about YA is, about every three years, you have to make all new readers because they have grown up and they've aged out of you. And even if they haven't aged out of you, they have what I call "cooled out of you."KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, yeah.Ally CarterAnd they're like, I liked those books when I was a little kid, and so current me can't possibly like those books, because those are little kid books. And so I was on the phone during the pandemic with my friend Rachel Hawkins and Rachel had written YA for a long time, and then she switched to adult. And I was talking about... do I...? What do I...? I need to sell something. Do I sell another middle grade? Do I sell a YA [young adult]? Like, what do I sell? And she says, you sell an adult. You sell an adult book that appeals to your Gallagher Girl readers. And I, I said, oh, Rachel, I've spent, you know, 15 years building a career in YA, I've got, you know... And she said, your readers aren't there anymore. They are the girls who read you when they were 12, ten years ago, and are 22 now. And I'm like, oh, that's right, they are. They've grown up. And so I—and I had the idea for “the spy twins” and had tried to do it as YA, and then at one point I even tried to do it as middle grade, and I could never make it work. And the problem wasn't, one of the twins wakes up with amnesia and somebody's trying to kill her—that I could pull off. The problem was, how and why is her identical twin on the run? And what does she have? And, like, you know, she...KJ Dell'AntoniaShe needs a longer history than you can have as a teenager.Ally CarterYeah, exactly. Like, is she actually working for the CIA, like, because then again, we get into Agent Cody Banks territory, then it's, you know, well, we've got a super-secret branch of the CIA who recruits kids. I'm like, no, you don't that's stupid. Like so...KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd she's been there since she was 10, and now she's on the lam.Ally CarterExactly.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou know, and then at age 12, she went rogue.Ally CarterYeah. And then you've got, like, well, no, you know, it's a Parent Trap situation, and one of them was raised by a spy and one of them was raised by ordinary people. I'm like, oh, maybe... I don't know, but, you know, I just couldn't quite make it work. And so I was talking to Rachel, and I said, what am I supposed to do? Just dust off that old spy twin idea, except now, instead of a super-secret organization, she's just on the run from the CIA? And then I was like, wait a second.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell yes!Ally CarterIf she's 30... she can—so every single problem and logic challenge that I had with that premise went away once those characters became 30. And so I just—and it was the easiest writing I've ever done. I feel almost guilty about how easy that book was to write; because I'd been, I'd been working at it and hammering at that idea for so long. And so it was almost like, instead of starting it at the beginning, I started it at the end of the writing process, where you have that one, like, little linchpin thing that you think, oh, but what if I do this? And then the whole plot just...KJ Dell'AntoniaRight.Ally CarterSo I started it there. I started at the...KJ Dell'AntoniaWow!Ally CarterDomino moment. And I'm spoiled, because it'll never be that easy again. But that's, that's how the transition went. And, you know, it's been great because my readers, they're so excited to see me. It's like, they're, I hear from readers all the time, they're like, you know, it feels like you wrote this just for me. I grew up with you, and now you're writing books for me again, and that has been very full circle and very, very fulfilling.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat, that's great. Well, you're writing them for me too. So, love that, and I think for a lot of our listeners—who I really think are going to enjoy this episode.Ally CarterThank you.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo before I let you go, can I ask you what you have read and loved lately?Ally CarterOh, sweet mercy. I have been so underwater, on a—on a book, and it's been the kind of—it's been the kind of deadline and the kind of book... You know how the old adage is so true that you never learn how to write a book—you just learn how to write the book you're writing right now. And so this one has just... and when I get that way, I don't enjoy reading because my inner critic can't turn off. But I will share a show that I loved, and I—they just announced that they're not doing a season two, and I'm heartbroken over it. And that is, on Netflix, there's a Shonda Rhimes show called The Residence, and it's a murder mystery set at the White House. You know, somebody drops dead during a state dinner. And it's got kind of a kooky detective and a wonderful, colorful cast, and it's very, very funny, but it also—it threads that tonal needle, where, like, no, no, there was a murder. This is still serious, but, oh, by the way, I'm going to go look at the body, but first I saw a bird I want to check out, you know. And so it's just—tonally and voice-wise—it does really amazing things. And so if any of your listeners are looking for a really great, like, eight-episode series, it's great. I could not recommend it more—The Residence on Netflix.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat sounds super fun. Well, I am in the midst of The Blonde Who Came In from the Cold. So, you know, I don't normally recommend a book until I know if the writer is going to stick a landing. But I feel quite confident in this one, and have enjoyed—as you can obviously hear from the podcast—the rest of Ally's work. So I am going to just push all of you listeners to, you know, head out there, grab the new one, grab the old one, and have a good time with them.Ally CarterAww, thank you.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou're welcome. Thanks so much for being here. Oh, should people follow you on social media? Do you do anything fun? Are you...?Ally CarterI do nothing fun. I'm not fun at all. I'm mostly on Instagram; I guess at this point I'm the Ally Carter over there. I have a couple of kind of defunct Facebook pages that I update occasionally. I just updated it for the first time, evidently, in two years. So that was fun. I'm on Threads very seldom. I used to be on Twitter and I still have that account I don't update it very often. Um, but yeah—and of course, my newsletter, like the newsletter is—I think we need to come back. We all need to get back to the newsletter, because it will deliver the news directly to your inbox. And so if you want to make sure you don't miss any like, you know, tour events, which, by the way, I'm coming to Boston on tour in a couple of weeks. So looking forward to that a lot. I think its Lovestruck Books? Is that Boston?KJ Dell'AntoniaProbably yeah.Ally CarterYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's the new romance bookstore there. I've been with Sarina a couple of times, and yeah, it's a great—it is a beautiful store. Like, every detail. Their bathrooms are phenomenal. That's how wonderful this store is. So, very cool. All right, I will link up the newsletter in the show notes, and yeah, about, you know, once every week, I decide to just cancel all the rest of my social media and only do my AmReading email. And then I imagine what my agent would say. And yeah, I don't do it, but...Ally CarterIt's, you know, and I feel like I'm such a broken record, like, oh, you know, go buy my book. Oh, go, you know, I'm going to be here on tour. Oh, this is how you get signed books. But—and I just say over and over and over again—and then inevitably, and this really happened to me one time, I was sitting at the LAX Airport waiting on a flight home, and I got an irate message from a reader that I never come to LA. And I was like, I did an event here last night—like, I was at the Barnes and Noble at The Grove or wherever—last night. And so we said, we—it feels like we are just beating a dead horse letting people know about these things, but it's so easy for things to get lost. And so...KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah! Jess tells the story—that's one of my other co-hosts—about, you know, someone who had come up to her, really one of her biggest fans, “Good new book.” And, “I get your idea, I love this, and I love that you wrote, like, knew a lot.” And then she said, “Oh, well, did you enjoy my latest book?” And they're like, “You have a new book?!”Ally CarterIt happens every time. And so, you know, it's—it's just part of the business at this point.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou've got to do it—it's just part of the business. All right. Well, thank you again...Ally CarterThank you.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd as always, listeners until next week keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game.Jess LaheyThe Hashtag AmWriting Podcast is produced by Andrew Perella. Our intro music, aptly titled Unemployed Monday, was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe
He once burned with hatred for Israel. Now, he's rebuilding bridges from Nazareth to Jerusalem, from Arabs to Jews, and from division to divine reconciliation. In this riveting episode, Dr. Rev. Saleem Shalash shares his extraordinary journey - raised as a Catholic Arab in Israel, hardened by bitterness, and unexpectedly wrecked by grace. A tragic accident. A voice from heaven. A Bible in his hands for the first time. But this isn't just a personal conversion story - it's a call to the Church, to the nations, and to anyone willing to see beyond headlines and into the heart of God. From confronting replacement theology to launching a humanitarian aid center that serves Jews and Arabs alike, Saleem is living proof that Jesus is still building bridges. Key Takeaways Identity with Depth: Saleem is an Arab Israeli believer - not a convert from Islam, but a lifelong Christian navigating complex identities in the land of Israel. A Tragic Catalyst: The death of a friend forces a deep spiritual reckoning, leading to a radical encounter with God. From Religion to Relationship: His path led through doctrine, but it was mercy that truly changed him. The Eldest Son Syndrome: A powerful revelation from the story of the Prodigal Son unveils a common spiritual pride within the Church. Hatred Healed by the Spirit: A supernatural moment in prayer replaces years of hatred for the Jewish people with overwhelming love. Jesus in the Old Testament: Saleem rediscovers his Bible, this time finding Yeshua in every chapter - from Genesis to Malachi. Bridge Builders in Action: Through Home of Jesus the King Church, he brings food, aid, and the gospel to Arabs, Jews, refugees, and Muslims alike. Challenging the Church: A strong rebuke to Western Christianity for turning from God's promises to Israel. Cultural Keys: How understanding ancient Jewish culture unlocks deeper meaning in Scripture. Chapter Markers 00:00 – Welcome and intro to Dr. Saleem Shalash from Nazareth 01:14 – Growing up Arab Christian in Israel 02:52 – A Catholic upbringing and the path to priesthood 04:55 – A tragic accident and a voice that changed everything 06:42 – Entering a Messianic Bible college: Jews and Arabs together 08:45 – A revelation from Luke 15: Who is the elder son? 11:42 – Deliverance from hatred: a divine moment in the war room 13:56 – Falling in love with the Old Testament - and seeing Yeshua 18:58 – Sharing the gospel with an 80-year-old Holocaust survivor 21:26 – Why Israel still exists: the promises of God 24:37 – Reaching Jews, Muslims, and Christians - with love 26:39 – The “slice of cheese” between cultures: humanitarian ministry in action 28:49 – A wave of openness: how October 7 changed hearts 31:23 – A divine appointment with the Jewish mayor of Nof HaGalil 38:18 – The gospel circle: from Jerusalem and back again 42:58 – Walking where Jesus walked: Nazareth through local eyes 47:43 – The humanitarian aid center vision for Arabs & Jews 49:28 – United in Messiah: A shared mission and shared family 51:24 – Closing prayer and blessing This is a movement of reconciliation, restoration, and revival. Be a part of it. Support the work. Subscribe to the mission. Learn more at: thejewishroad.com Bridge Builders: Home of Jesus the King https://www.jtk-israel.org/ Let the light shine in Nazareth - and beyond.
This episode is sponsored by Blue Buffalo. Watch the full video version of the podcast episode here. Natalie Marks, DVM, CVJ, CCFP, Elite FFC-V, is an award-winning small animal veterinarian with over 20 years of clinical experience, previous practice owner, industry consultant, educator, media expert, co-owner of Veterinary Ownership Advocates, and CEO of VANE (the Veterinary Angel Network for Entrepreneurs). She is committed to supporting innovation in the animal health space and mentoring and supporting young founders and practice owners. Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD, is an Ohio native and graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2006. While attending Cornell, she earned numerous awards, including the Dermatology Service Award for her aptitude in clinical dermatology and her research on Malassezia otitis externa. After graduation, she completed an internship at VCA Berwyn and Aurora Animal Hospitals in Chicago where she was awarded the Intern Abstract Award for her presentation on Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Griffin returned to Cornell University in 2007 for a residency in dermatology and, after completing her residency-training program, served one year as an instructor of dermatology teaching fourth-year clinical students as well as lecturing to underclassmen on bacterial, fungal, and immune-mediated skin diseases. Griffin became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology (ACVD) in August 2010 and joined the Animal Dermatology Group. She has a special interest in fungal and immune-mediated skin diseases as well as feline and equine dermatology. She enjoys lecturing to fellow veterinarians, mentoring residents, and teaching the veterinary students who extern with her. Griffin also stars in the Nat Geo WILD television series, “Pop Goes the Vet with Dr. Joya,” which highlights the challenging and mysterious cases she encounters in veterinary dermatology. Griffin always strives to care for her patients as if they are her own pets and loves building a long-lasting relationship with their pet parents. Outside of work, Griffin enjoys spending time with her family and pets. She is happily married to Forrest Cummings, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM), a veterinary internal medicine specialist, and they have 3 children - Caden and boy/girl twins, Coby and Carter. They have two cats, Donut and Peach Coffee, and two dogs, Guri and Magic. She loves traveling, entertaining and working out. Julia Miller, DVM, DACVD, is an Upstate NY native who grew up in the hallways of Cornell's vet school. She tried her hand at vocal performance (opera) in undergrad at Indiana University and in spite of having a blast singing all day long, she decided that her first true love, animals, offered a more stable and satisfying career. She graduated from Cornell's vet school in 2012 and then completed a large animal rotating internship at the University of Georgia. Mixed animal general practice kept her busy for the next few years where she also found herself falling in love with dermatology. She made her way back to Cornell and completed a dermatology residency after which she stayed on as faculty. When not ooing and aaahing over the grossest skin you can find Julia playing with her three bully-breed dogs (the squish!), singing in a rock cover band, or riding any horse that she can sit on.
Today we welcome Chloe "Chickpea" Jacobs to the podcast! She's a Pacific Crest Trail and Colorado Trail thru-hiker (among other trails world-wide) and she's also founder of "Bold By Nature." In part 1 of her interview - she describes how she left her dream job to pursue the Pacific Crest Trail and how she fell in love in the mountains during a record high snow year!In this episode, you'll also learn about:A key piece of gear to help you eat faster (very important for thru-hikers)The surprising use for a Garmin InReachAn alternative use for a cook potHer favorite shoe brand after trying so many - & much more!Connect with Chickpea:Chickpea's InstagramChickpea's YouTube ChannelChickpea's Free Mindset ChallengeThe Key To Thru-Hiking SuccessHelp fellow hikers find the show by following, rating, and reviewing the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!Connect With THRU-r & Cheer:Join The Trail FamilyTHRU-r WebsiteTHRU-r InstagramTHRU-r FacebookTHRU-r YoutubeTHRU-r ThreadsCheer's YouTubeCheer's InstagramEpisode Music: "Communicator" by Reed Mathis
Apologetic tourist fined $1200 after driving a motorcycle through town in Malta wearing just a helmet and shoes, BookFest bust: Annual event at London bookstore panned by customers because it was to crowded and hot, 75-yr-old Chinese man asks wife for divorce after falling in love with an AI woman he saw online
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In this week's episode of Conversations with Toi, we're diving deep into the emotional seasons of life—especially the chilling, isolating ones we often call our “personal winters.” ❄️ I'm sharing my own recent joys as a reminder that light does exist, even when the days feel dark. From journaling and therapy to intentional self-care, I'll walk you through the tools that have helped me survive and thrive during life's toughest moments.Plus, we're unpacking the TikTok story that's got everyone talking: a young woman's viral confession about falling in love with her therapist. What does it say about emotional vulnerability, boundaries, and the search for connection?Whether you're in a season of bloom or battling the frost, this episode offers warmth, wisdom, and a reminder that you're never alone..If this episode resonated with you, let's keep the conversation going! Dive deeper into self-care, emotional growth, and seasonal wellness over on the blog at www.toitime.org—your go-to space for intentional living and real talk.Follow me on all socials @toitimeblog for daily inspiration, behind-the-scenes moments, and updates on new content. Whether it's a podcast drop, a blog post, or a dose of motivation, I'm showing up for you—just like you show up for yourself.Let's grow through what we go through.
This week we're deep diving into Matt Rife buying Ed & Lorraine Warren's haunted house (AND the Annabelle doll WTF?!), Dave Franco x Luigi Mangioni, Radioactive Wasps, and the woman who is crashing out on tiktok from falling in love with her psychiatrist, and WOO BOY is it a ride.
Dawn and bestie, Ryan Ripple, take on the easy, non-controversial subject of Protestant Christianity in America. As your history books have told you, the earliest colonial settlers came seeking religious freedom, what few discuss is why these denominations were considered 'fringe' back in Europe. Walk with Dawn and Ryan down the holy road from the Shakers of the Revolutionary War, to the Prosperity Gospel of MAGA - and find yourself falling in love with Amish all over again. ---SILF's (Sources I'd Like to F*ck)Book - AMERICA'S RELIGIOUS HISTORY Faith, Politics, and the Shaping of a Nation by Thomas S. KiddBook - THE GREAT AWAKENING: A History of the Revival of Religion in the time of Edwards and Whitefiled by Joseph TracyRead more about The Dark Day from 1780PBS American Experience - The Amish in AmericaOne person's perspective from inside The Prosperity Gospel of today.---LILF's (Link's I'd Like to F*ck) See Dawn on THE HISTORY CHANNEL - Histories Greatest Mysteries (multiple seasons)See Dawn on THE HISTORY CHANNEL - Crazy Rich AncientsCheck out HILF MERCH now available on Redbubble! Stickers, t-shirts, bags and more!HILF is now on Patreon!Buy Me a CoffeeFind your next favorite podcast on BIG COMEDY NETWORK.---WANNA TALK? Find us on Instagram or email us hilfpodcast@gmail.comTheme song: Composed and performed by Kat PerkinsPodcast art: Designed by Joe Dressel
Is your nervous system keeping you stuck in old patterns and narratives? Josh Trent welcomes Sarah Baldwin, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, to the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast, episode 763, to reveal how we “time travel” through our autonomic nervous system, reacting to past experiences instead of living in the present, and how we can regulate our nervous system, heal generational wounds, and create deep, authentic connection by loving our parts into wholeness.
While Len Testa enjoys a well-earned week off, Jim Hill is joined by special guest AJ Wolfe of the Disney Food Blog to talk about her new book Disney Adults: Exploring and Falling in Love with a Magical Subculture. But first, Jim shares updates from around Walt Disney World, including real demolition progress for the Monsters Inc. Door Coaster, the curious lack of vertical construction for Encanto Land, and new details about the General Joe Potter ferry accident currently under investigation. Why Disney Adults may be “the most hated group on the internet” What's missing from Animal Kingdom's Encanto and Zootopia areas The Monsters Inc. Door Coaster transforms Muppet Studios Fantastic Four meet-and-greet rules (and international waters loopholes) A heartfelt tribute to longtime podcast collaborator Brian Gaughan AJ Wolfe also shares behind-the-scenes stories from her Disney Food Blog journey, the early days of Disney dining coverage, and why writing Disney Adults meant sharing some very personal truths—debt, joy, and all. SHOW NOTES Support Our Sponsors Unlocked Magic Unlocked Magic, powered by DVC Rental Store and DVC Resale Market, offers exclusive Disney & Universal ticket savings with TRUSTED service and authenticity. With over $10 MILLION in ticket sales, use Unlocked Magic to get the BIGGEST SAVINGS. Learn More DVC Resale Market Thinking about joining Disney Vacation Club or selling your contract? DVC Resale Market is the leader in the secondary market, with over 70,000 satisfied DVC members. Their expert team of 21 former DVC Cast Members brings unparalleled knowledge and experience to every transaction, making buying or selling DVC simple and stress-free. Learn More DVC Rental Store Dreaming of deluxe Disney accommodations at a fraction of the cost? The DVC Rental Store connects guests with incredible savings on Disney Vacation Club resorts. Whether you're a DVC member looking to rent your points or a guest looking to stay in style, the DVC Rental Store offers a seamless process for both. Don't forget—they also offprovideciting point swaps for unforgettable experiences like cruises and adventures! Learn More Be Our Guest Vacations Planning your next Disney vacation? Be Our Guest Vacations is a Platinum-level Earmarked travel agency with concierge-level service to make every trip magical. Their team of expert agents plans vacations across the globe, from Disney and Universal to cruises and adventures, ensuring you have the best possible experience without the stress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
While Len Testa enjoys a well-earned week off, Jim Hill is joined by special guest AJ Wolfe of the Disney Food Blog to talk about her new book Disney Adults: Exploring and Falling in Love with a Magical Subculture. But first, Jim shares updates from around Walt Disney World, including real demolition progress for the Monsters Inc. Door Coaster, the curious lack of vertical construction for Encanto Land, and new details about the General Joe Potter ferry accident currently under investigation. Why Disney Adults may be “the most hated group on the internet” What's missing from Animal Kingdom's Encanto and Zootopia areas The Monsters Inc. Door Coaster transforms Muppet Studios Fantastic Four meet-and-greet rules (and international waters loopholes) A heartfelt tribute to longtime podcast collaborator Brian Gaughan AJ Wolfe also shares behind-the-scenes stories from her Disney Food Blog journey, the early days of Disney dining coverage, and why writing Disney Adults meant sharing some very personal truths—debt, joy, and all. Buy the Book: https://www.amazon.com/Disney-Adults-Exploring-Falling-Subculture/dp/1668069210 Support Our Sponsors Unlocked Magic Unlocked Magic, powered by DVC Rental Store and DVC Resale Market, offers exclusive Disney & Universal ticket savings with TRUSTED service and authenticity. With over $10 MILLION in ticket sales, use Unlocked Magic to get the BIGGEST SAVINGS. Learn More DVC Resale Market Thinking about joining Disney Vacation Club or selling your contract? DVC Resale Market is the leader in the secondary market, with over 70,000 satisfied DVC members. Their expert team of 21 former DVC Cast Members brings unparalleled knowledge and experience to every transaction, making buying or selling DVC simple and stress-free. Learn More DVC Rental Store Dreaming of deluxe Disney accommodations at a fraction of the cost? The DVC Rental Store connects guests with incredible savings on Disney Vacation Club resorts. Whether you're a DVC member looking to rent your points or a guest looking to stay in style, the DVC Rental Store offers a seamless process for both. Don't forget—they also offprovideciting point swaps for unforgettable experiences like cruises and adventures! Learn More Be Our Guest Vacations Planning your next Disney vacation? Be Our Guest Vacations is a Platinum-level Earmarked travel agency with concierge-level service to make every trip magical. Their team of expert agents plans vacations across the globe, from Disney and Universal to cruises and adventures, ensuring you have the best possible experience without the stress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices