Podcasts about Feeding America

This week on The Hamilton Review Podcast, Katharine McPhee Foster sits down with Dr. Bob and opens up about balancing motherhood with life as a performer, traveling the world with her son, and finding joy in the many chapters of her life.  She shares behind-the-scenes stories from her singing career, what it's like being married to music legend David Foster, and the unique experience of sharing the stage and life, with her husband. Katharine McPhee is one of a handful of artists who takes the lead in a career that includes film, television, Broadway, recording and concert tours. Katharine first burst onto the scene in 2006, during a successful run on Season 5 of American Idol, that made her a household name. As an actress, she is well-known to television audiences for starring as 'Paige Dineen' on the CBS' spy drama Scorpion (2014-2018), and also as one of the leads in the NBC musical drama Smash (2012-2013), executive produced by Steven Spielberg. She also starred in the Netflix comedy series, Country Comfort (2021). She has also guest-starred in several CBS: NCIS: NY, Community, Family Guy, and Ugly Betty. As a singer, Katharine is renowned for her powerhouse presence, and show-stopping performances. Her recordings have topped the charts in multiple genres including pop, jazz and adult contemporary. A sought-after performer, Katharine has taken the stage for various PBS broadcasts throughout the years, including Forever and Friends, Chris Botti in Boston, and headlining her own SoundStage special. In Spring 2018, McPhee made her Broadway debut starring as Jenna in the hit musical Waitress, featuring music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles. She originated the leading role in the West End production and then returned to Broadway to perform in the show's final week. In addition to her acting and singing career, McPhee is a passionate philanthropist, having served as an ambassador for organizations such as Build On, Malaria No More, and Feeding America. Katharine continues to perform at many charitable events including The David Foster Foundation of which she is an avid supporter. A veteran of the concert stage, Katharine performs to sold out audiences around the world. Most recently Katharine paired with David Foster to create a show called An Intimate Evening with David Foster and Katharine McPhee. This in-demand show has garnered rave reviews and they perform to sold out concert venues around the world. Christmas 2022 Katharine released Part 1 of her Christmas album called Christmas Songs. A collection of Christmas classics produced by David Foster. Part 2 was released Christmas 2023.  

Minnesotans made more than 9 million visits to food shelves last year — setting a record for the fourth year in a row, according to The Food Group's 2025 Minnesota Food Shelf Visits Report. MPR News host Angela Davis talks with the CEO of Feeding America, the largest hunger-relief organization in the U.S., and a regional food bank leader about the growing need for food assistance — and what can be done to help make sure people have enough to eat.Guests:Denis McDonough is the chief executive officer of Feeding America. Until January 2025, he was Secretary of the Department of Veteran Affairs. He served in various roles in the White House during both of President Barack Obama's terms — and was the White House Chief of Staff for President Obama's second term.Sarah Moberg is the chief executive officer at Second Harvest Heartland, which is one of the largest food banks in the country. It provides services in central and southwest Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Feeding South Dakota is joining Feeding America and hunger-relief organizations nationwide in recognizing Hunger Action Month this September, a month dedicated to raising awareness about food insecurity and inspiring action to helpneighbors facing hunger.According to Feeding America's latest Map the Meal Gap study 130,340 people in SouthDakota, including 1 in 5 children, are food insecure; a significant increase from the priorreport. Rising costs for essentials such as groceries and energy continue to strainhousehold budgets, leaving many families struggling to put food on the table.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Instacart's Laura Jones returns to share practical lessons from Instacart's brand transformation, including prioritising effectiveness, brand-first marketing strategy, partnerships, Instacart's chase to win a Cannes Lion and much more. Guests: Laura Jones, Chief Marketing Officer, Instacart Ann Marie Kerwin, Americas Editor, WARC Chapters: [00:00] Introduction: Instacart's marketing transformation project [01:36] Building the Instacart brand: From performance-pnly to full-funnel marketing [03:47] Balancing functional messaging and emotional storytelling [05:24] Redefining marketing measurement: From last-touch ROAS to portfolio impact [08:02] Explaining marketing effectiveness to the C-suite [09:25] Scaling an in-house creative agency [12:31] Instacart's 2026 Super Bowl campaign [16:41] Brand-building partnerships: WNBA and Feeding America [19:27] Brand stewardship: A new view on marketing effectiveness [21:22] Embedding brand across product, CX and culture [21:33] Learning from Cannes Lions and Raising the Creative Bar For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcasts Sign up to daily WARC News for free: https://www.warc.com/en/latest Book a demo: https://www.warc.com/en/subscribe

Ofer Shalev, co-founder and CEO of New Phase, shares his journey from leadership roles across high-tech, biotech, banking, and even serving as a fighter pilot, to pioneering a nanotechnology-based hyperthermia treatment aimed at transforming stage four cancer care. Ofer explains how the company's mission focuses on prolonging life while preserving quality of life through a systemic approach designed for metastatic disease. He discusses New Phase's progress, including treating 33 stage four patients (including at Mayo Clinic), achieving stable disease in over 60% of cases after one month follow-up, securing FDA medical device designation and IDE approval, and building a science-driven team supported by patents and peer-reviewed publications. Guest links: https://newphase.co.il/ Charity supported: Feeding America Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 087 - Ofer Shalev [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and today I'm delighted to welcome as my guest, Ofer Shalev. Ofer is the co-founder and CEO of New Phase. With more than twenty-five years of management experience in the high-tech and biotech industries, Ofer leads New Phase operations and is pioneering a breakthrough nanotechnology-based treatment to transform the management of stage four cancer. Ofer combines deep technological insight with strategic business acumen. He previously served as CEO of several technology companies, including ReDent Nova, which led innovation in dental medical devices alongside his co-founder, Dr. Rafael Hof. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles in the banking sector, including serving as VP of Operations, which strengthened his foundation in large-scale operational excellence. He holds an MBA from the University of Edinburgh and is recognized for guiding multidisciplinary teams, driving complex R&D initiatives, and scaling companies from concept to global market presence. At the core of his work is a clear mission: to redefine the future of cancer care by offering patients a safer, more targeted, and more effective treatment, one that not only attacks tumors but also preserves the quality of life. All right. Well, welcome to the show. I am so thankful you're here today. [00:02:09] Ofer Shalev: Thank you, Lindsey. Good evening. Very nice to meet you. [00:02:11] Lindsey Dinneen: Very nice to meet you too. So I would love, if you wouldn't mind starting off by just sharing a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to medtech? [00:02:25] Ofer Shalev: Well, I would say that during the year, I had extensive managerial experience across many multiple sector, including industry, high-tech, banking, and obvious-obviously life science. I have also to mention that about fifty years ago, in my experience I was a fighter pilot, pilot in the Israeli Air Force. It was, again, about fifty years ago. I would say that it probably significantly shape who am I today. I mean, it's developed my ability to to take a calculated risk, for example, or to act quickly and precisely to plan ahead, to build contingency plans. So all that kind of thing that probably was very relevant to the time I, I w- I used to serve in the Israeli Air Force, but also very relevant to the, to the industry. Okay? And furthermore, I would like to say that probably I am highly motivated by challenge. It, it's make my day. In addition, I am a father to four children and a grandfather of seven grandchildren. And I do hope that at the end, I will have about twelve grandchildren. So, the kids have still to work about it. Yeah. And I would say that you asked about myself, so probably I have a very, very strong belief in the path, in the way that I'm choosing. It's I would say, enabl-enabling to, to overcome about the difficulties, mainly when you're looking for challenge, especially in, in a new and unfamiliar field, like in our case of New Phase And furthermore, I, I, I, I truly believe in the word "never give up." You will find solution to everything. Never give up. I like very much as I mentioned before, to, to meet a challenge and to overcome our challenge many times by breaking some problem into pieces and then to assemble it again. Furthermore, I would say we, we met many, many problems in our life. I, I think that we have to focus about the solution, not about the problems. You cannot change problems. It's happened. But let's try to find and, and to think about how to find the right solution to it. And I would say that I, I f- I feel very, very, very good to to operate or to, to function in a turbulent area. I mean, I like it very much. I, I know that not, not, not anyone like it, but I feel very good in, in this area. [00:04:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Wonderful. Well, thank you for sharing a bit about your background. I have so many questions, but I would love to actually learn about what you're doing right now with New Phase, because I know you're passionate about it. There's, there's a lot that goes into cancer research and treatment, and I know that that's been such a challenge for so many years, and I love the fact that your company is really diving into that challenge and tackling it. And I was just wondering if you could explain where the concept of New Phase came from, and what exactly makes your company so unique in this space? [00:05:39] Ofer Shalev: So the, the idea came that it was 14, 14, 15 years ago, while me and my partner, Dr. Rafael Hof, we were involved with some other company, and after that at that time his mother, her name was Sarah, she wa- she had lung cancer. She passed away. And during that time, we have a very, I mean, many time conversation about the disease. No, no, no, none one, none one of us is, was oncologist, okay, by training. But we have many, many discussion about the treatment what are the relevant treatment that are available, et cetera, et cetera. And after she passed away we, I mean, Rafi, who is a great technology guy, came with this idea of nanoparticles and hyperthermia, and we start to work about it. Again, we have to learn, both of us, we have to learn a new area of technology, of biology, of chemistry, of physics, engineering, regulation, everything. And it was not only that we have read and learn about it, but we decide al-also to, let's say, to, to jump into the pool, into the water. We put each one of them, each one of us put some money. We hire some chemist. We also hire from one of the university in Israel some space. Like you, I mean, usually, I, I believe it's the right way to develop a company. I mean, to start and building it, the company, in the garage, okay? Right. And, and, and sure, you have, you have to-- you cannot just think about it, you have to, to, to do something. And the outcome was actually the proof of concept. We show in the in vitro, under microscope, how some very, very primitive nanoparticles were being irradiate, caused damage to the cancer cells. And that was the time that we founded New Phase. I truly believe that it's the right approach that first you have by yourself to, to deliver, to show the proof of concept, then go to investor and try to convince them to, to invest in your in your company. So that was what we have done. It was a very, very long way. I mean, the company was founded just 13 years ago. The vision didn't change. I mean, from the beginning, the idea was to prolong life of cancer patient, and in order-- and in addition to maintain the quality of life. At that time we used the word of chronic treatment or managing the disease, and many of the people that we met, skeptical one said, "But you, you don't cure the disease." So we explained that as we see in the next twenty years, nobody will cure the disease, but for the meantime, people have to live. [00:08:35] Lindsey Dinneen: Hmm. [00:08:36] Ofer Shalev: Now, the vision is still today. It was implemented into a technology. But yes, the technology was changed several time along the year, but the vision is still here, and that is, that is the, the outcome as of today. We already treated thirty-three patient with stage four, six of them in a Mayo Clinic, very distinguished hospital. I mean, I would say ranked number one worldwide. A great cooperation with them. I would say that till the summertime, we will treat another six patient, and after we move to the feasibility study, where we will have to choose few indication, and we will add another to a US hospital to join to the feasibility study. It become a product. As I mentioned, we treated already thirty-three patient. We have about fourteen patents that already granted. We have about, since we are-- we truly believe that we are in a deep science company, so we truly believe in the, in the scientifics based evidence, and we already publish nine peer review scientific articles. We have done a lot of work and success with FDA. First, and again, it was a breakthrough idea to, to succeed and get designation of medical device. Although we inject infused nanoparticle into the body, but we convinced the FDA that although we infuse nanoparticle, hence our mode of action, primary mode of action is actually engineering one or physical one, and therefore we were, we were designated as a medical device, which again save a lot of budget and, and time while reaching to the clinical study. And then later on, we got the IDE, I mean, the, the approval to start clinical study in the US. So we have done a very, very long way, and I would say that it's very satisfying while seeing today that first of all, we have a product, not only idea, and the vision is still here. I mean, what we can see that we... many of the patient, although it in the early feasibility study, and the main goal is to achieve safety and to show it's non-toxic. So even though we succeeded in more than about sixty percent of the cases we treated in nine different indication of cancer to reach to a stable disease. Let's say after one month of follow-up, the tumor metastasis are the same size, and there were no new lesion during that time. So, yeah, we-- I would say that it start, it start-- it seems that we start to reach to the, to the real game in the feasibility study where we will focus about two to three indication, and the idea is to treat patient for at least, let's say, six months, and to show that we can, we can keep them in a status of stable disease. [00:11:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:11:45] Ofer Shalev: Further, furthermore, all the patients that we got, all of them are metastatic stage, let's say stage four, which exhausted all other treatment. So many time, you can see that in the retrospective data, before the joining to the study, the tumors or metastases have a progression rate of so and so percent per month, and after our treatment is dramatically reduced or even stopped. So, a lot of enthusiasm with the current status. [00:12:18] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of hope. I, I love what you're doing because, yeah, as you said, I mean, at that point, people probably feel so stuck and hopeless. And so to be able to learn that there is technology that is being actively worked on that can... [00:12:36] Ofer Shalev: Yeah. [00:12:36] Lindsey Dinneen: ...really help them [00:12:38] Ofer Shalev: Yeah, yeah. We are-- you also ask what, what we-- what, what is the difference that we bring to the market? [00:12:42] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm-hmm. [00:12:44] Ofer Shalev: So the hyperthermia is well-known for many, many years to be a useful way to treat cancer. Okay? Because cancer don't have resistance to hyperthermia. And let's skip about all the biology factor, but this is a well, well-written evidence in, in the literature. So, but usually all the current hyperthermia methodology is a local treatment, meaning you have to define where the tumor is, CT, MRI, whatever, and to try, try to heat this tumor either by infrared or with-- or inject directly nanoparticles into the tumor, et cetera, et cetera. What we are offering is a totally a new approach of treating systemically in tumors at stage four. Let's say in many cases, you don't know even where the tumors are in the volume of treatment, meaning we treat the torso area. It's not that we are trying to find tumor by tumor. No. We're treating the whole area of the torso, and by that we can destroy the tumor, which in stage four are localized in, in different area in it. So this is one thing. The other thing that I would say that the stage four mainly people that exhausted other treatment is really can be considered as a unmet need. And that's, that's the population that we are focused about. That, that's the population that we are focused about. [00:14:11] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, that is really incredible to hear. I, I love what you're doing. I'm curious, as you've gone about this process and f- you know, 13 years worth of learnings and growing as a company, what is something that's really surprised you along the way? [00:14:34] Ofer Shalev: Surprise? Well, you know, I said before, when, when you, when you start this this journey with a deep s-- belief in yourself and in your team, you're not really surprised. [00:14:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Hmm. [00:14:50] Ofer Shalev: Yeah, I mean, no, there is a lot of surprise. I mean, we, we went in an area which nobody stepped before in the, in those days. Nobody stepped before. But I would say it was obvious to me at least that okay, we are thinking about the right approach. We are trying to find our way. We invest a lot about trying to read whatever is relevant. We are speaking with oncologists, learn from them in many time about the failure, and try to make sure not to do it. So I'm not surprised. I'm very happy. And again, it's not... It was not by accident. On one hand, a very strong belief, and on the other hand, in-depth learning every piece of knowledge that we were able to collect [00:15:33] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, that's so important, and I appreciate you saying it that way. I think intentionality is such a key component of leadership, and this is some of the conversations that I'm enjoying having lately is, h- and I'd love to get your input, is how do you go about intentionally creating the right team, the right vision, and the right culture to support the fact that you don't have to be surprised by things? You get to be happy, but you have the right framework in place. [00:16:08] Ofer Shalev: So I would say that in terms of the team, it was changed and replaced along the way. [00:16:15] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm-hmm. [00:16:17] Ofer Shalev: At the beginning... By the way, even today we have we have, we have twenty-four employees. Six of them are PhD Along the way, since we need people that know how to read articles, how to analyze article, et cetera. So I would say that we have in a, in a, in a company of about six, seven employees, three or four of them were PhD. There was a lot of self-learning to do. Later on, we start to make, "Okay, we have to develop. We have to build a product." So obviously, we, we, we mixed this team with people that came f- with some experience from the industry. Furthermore, experience from the medical device industry. Okay? So I would say along the time the, the, the population in New Phase become to be more heterogeneous. [00:17:08] Lindsey Dinneen: Hmm. Mm-hmm. [00:17:10] Ofer Shalev: Because really we-- you-- I mean, currently we have a product, so we need people about regulation, about quality, people that know very well engineering, people that have a idea about operation and not only researcher. But again, at, at the beginning, all, all our employee came from the... I mean, we, we, we, we re recruit about I think three or four PhD at the beginning to start with, and it will change along the way. Yeah. Now about-- you ask about leadership. So, I would say that I ca- I can see the leadership not only about, about leading people, but also about pushing your vision. Okay? Because again at the beginning, an idea of changing the cancer disease into a manageable disease, it was not so well accepted idea. Anyone ask about curing, but we keep saying, "No, there is no, there's no g- currently, there's not a real good chance of curing. Let's focus about prolonging life." Nowadays, it's common language. You can see from any, any drug company discuss the issue of manage- manageable disease. But when we start with this vision, it was very hard to convince people about it, and obviously many of them said in a very skeptical way, "You will not make it." [00:18:29] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm. [00:18:29] Ofer Shalev: So this part of the leadership as well, "Okay, I heard you. Let's, let's meet at the end of the day and we'll see what hap- who, who is the right one." So, yeah. So I would say that in our case, leadership is, is mainly to, to maintain the vision, to push the vision, to develop the vision. Partially it's about, a- about employees, sure, because at the end you have to recruit employees that will implement this vision into a technology, into a product But I would say that in a company like New Phase, the, the leadership is as more than 50% is about the vision. [00:19:11] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, pushing the vision forward. I, I really appreciate that. I, you know, you had so many things at the beginning that you were talking about that I really appreciated. You talked about never giving up, overcoming difficulties, and loving challenges, and I think all of those are critical, of course, as an entrepreneur. But I'm also particularly curious about your h- you mentioned that you break down challenges into pieces and then rebuild, and I'm curious, where did that philosophy come from and how do you practically implement it? [00:19:48] Ofer Shalev: Frankly speaking, I don't know from where it came. No, I don't know. I mean, you know, with... Du-during the way, I, I, I had many, many chance to, to, to rethinking about some problem that we solved, and I asked myself, "How the hell we know what to do?" I, I don't know, frank- In, in many times, I would say that main-ma-mainly because we try to simplify the problem to pieces, and then we have a breakthrough id-idea about it. It is not-- I mean, the methodology is about breaking the problem into pieces. How to assemble it again, this is a breakthrough. I don't know how to explain it. [00:20:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. [00:20:33] Ofer Shalev: really. [00:20:33] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, but do you find that maybe taking it apart and so probab- maybe part of it is, I wonder, you know, when you've got a challenge, it feels big and insurmountable, and you can't make any progress versus if you break it down and you go, "Okay, yeah, maybe this as a whole feels t- like too much, but what about this one little piece that if I can overcome this, then it will push me forward in overcoming the ultimate challenge?" I wonder if it's partly... [00:21:02] Ofer Shalev: It, it, it might be, it might be the situation. It's simple to, to deal with a, with a simple or with a, with a partial challenge, partial partial problems. And then it says, "Okay, I, I, I solved this issue. Let's try to solve another issue." And all of a sudden, you figure out that, "Hey, I have the full picture. I solve it." [00:21:23] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That's, that's really cool. Okay. So, you know, you've had an amazing career, and not just within this space of course, but before that, and I'm just wondering if maybe especially along this particular journey with New Phase, are there any moments that really stand out to you as affirming, "Wow, I am in the right place at the right time in the right industry"? [00:21:54] Ofer Shalev: Yes. I, I, you know, I, I think that it's... No, it will, it will par-- it will par-- I, I will answer you partially. I mean, once we decided to founder the company and that myself and my partner, Dr. Rafael Hof, we have after another company that we, we had, and we-- And when he came with this idea, I thought to myself, "If there are two entrepreneur worldwide that are able to deal with that problem, it's probably the two of us." Yeah. Ab-absolutely. Yeah. [00:22:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:22:32] Ofer Shalev: Because the way that we work together, the w- the way that we each one of each one of us cover different area, how to build this kind of a crazy idea. I would say that really just only, you know, two people that are crazy enough and can work so well together can deal and succeed in this task. So this is the kind of, of, of of memory that I have from the beginning of the company. [00:22:57] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. I love that. That's, that's really cool. You, you know, you mentioned also at the beginning that some of your experience as a pilot was really critical in helping you learn different skills or disciplines that help you succeed throughout your career and today. Do you mind just talking a little bit more about some of the things that you still hold onto as really important lessons learned? [00:23:24] Ofer Shalev: Okay, know, to be in a, in a cockpit of a fighter i-- of a, of a fighter airplane, I mean, just ones that was there can, can understand what I'm speaking about. But it's a who- the whole way of thinking. So I would say that from time to time, when I have quite, quite a big challenge, I, I, I imagine to myself that I'm in the cockpit, okay? In order to, to think the same way that you used to think fifty years ago. Okay? Now with, wi-with, with regarding with regarding it to to some advice, okay? To to some to some other entrepreneur, let's call it this way. So, I would say that first of all, choose a real breakthrough idea. Not an idea that, okay that probably someone else did before or will do it after-- will, will make it after you. Try to find a real breakthrough idea to... Because, you know, at the end, you, you sacrifice a, a big piece of your life about it. [00:24:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm-hmm. [00:24:25] Ofer Shalev: So try to find something which is real, real something. This is one. Then you have to have a very strong backbone and remain committed to your vision. Yes, you might change the technology, that's okay, but you have to be committed to your vision. And furthermore, probably many times along the way, you will hear from people you will not succeed, it's the wrong way, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So nowadays, when I hear this kind of a voice, I say, "Why don't you open the startup of yourself? If you know it so well, why don't you open? Because you don't have the courage?" [00:25:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. [00:25:08] Ofer Shalev: And yes, courage is, is, is, is another component which is very important to entrepreneur that choose a way how to change the world. [00:25:18] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm. Yeah. I love that. Thank you for sharing. Okay, so pivoting the conversation a little bit just for fun, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a master class on anything you want. Could be within your industry, doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach? [00:25:40] Ofer Shalev: I don't know how to do it, but I will say it in other ways. I probably to, to, to, to teach people how to avoid or what to do while you are in a dead end. [00:25:52] Lindsey Dinneen: Hmm. Okay. Do you wanna elaborate a little bit? 'Cause I'm curious. [00:26:00] Ofer Shalev: I think that, that, that your ability really to believe in yourself is a key factor. [00:26:05] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. [00:26:06] Ofer Shalev: Your ability to, to free your mind, not to focus about the current problem, but to free your mind, going outside and try to find some other idea is quite important one. [00:26:18] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:26:18] Ofer Shalev: Yeah, those kinds of things. Probably we have to think about this kind of a masterclass. [00:26:23] Lindsey Dinneen: That would be a great masterclass, yeah. Okay. All right. [00:26:27] Ofer Shalev: By the way, I, I truly believe that in order... I mean, at least that's what I'm doing. But I, I besides that I'm working very hard, I try to read many books. It might be biography, it might be historical novel, it might be by... it might be a thriller. I try to be very, very diverse in what I am reading. I believe it's, it's just fruitful my mind, and not to focus about only about some scientific articles. [00:26:56] Lindsey Dinneen: That's... I love that. That's great. All right. And how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:27:06] Ofer Shalev: Well, it's not something that I particularly concerned about it, truly. I don't, I, I don't... I, I, I will say fir- I will say something else. I truly believe that true leader are not focused about what people will remember about them. It is important that the vision will stay. It's important that a father and mother, or children that have cancer in the family will be able to live longer life with a better quality of life. It's much more important if people know, "Hey, Ofer Shalev bring this technology to the market." [00:27:45] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm-hmm. [00:27:46] Ofer Shalev: That, that the way I see it. I mean, I don't care too much what will people remember after I leave this world. [00:27:53] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. No, that's, that's beautiful. I love that. Okay, and then final question: What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:28:04] Ofer Shalev: Well, that is very, that is very easy. You know, when you have so many, so many grandchildren, so, to hear the questions "Why did, why did it happen?" "Why the bird is flying so high?" The, the truth and simplicity of children and the way that they are thinking, that's really something that make, I think, everybody smiling about it. [00:28:28] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That's so fun, and I couldn't agree more. I I have a few nieces and a nephew, and getting to, to sort of see the world again through their eyes and perspective is just really fun. It's just, it's joyful. [00:28:44] Ofer Shalev: Yeah, it's a great chance to hear about a simple way of, of how the world should, should be. [00:28:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Curiosity. I love the never-ending curiosity. [00:28:52] Ofer Shalev: And asking many questions. It's very-- I mean, asking question is, is a great, is a great benefit. [00:28:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. [00:28:58] Ofer Shalev: Ask as many questions as you can. [00:29:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Your whole life. [00:29:01] Ofer Shalev: Yeah. [00:29:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Excellent. Well, this has been such a great recording. I really appreciate you sharing your your vision especially about New Phase and where you hope that the company will go and, and the lives that it'll impact. And I know you're well on your way, and I just wanna thank you for not listening to the people who said, "This is not gonna happen," or were trying to discourage you. I'm just so thankful that you're doing what you're doing. And we are honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to Feeding America, which works to end hunger in the United States by partnering with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger, and they also advocate for policies that create long term solutions to hunger. So thank you for choosing that organization to support. So, really appreciate you being here today and just really appreciate everything you're doing to change lives for a better world. [00:30:00] Ofer Shalev: Thank you very much, Lindsey. [00:30:02] Lindsey Dinneen: All right. You too. Bye. [00:30:04] Dan Purvis: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium Medical. Velentium Medical is a full service CDMO, serving medtech clients worldwide to securely design, manufacture, and test class two and class three medical devices. Velentium Medical's four units include research and development-- pairing electronic and mechanical design, embedded firmware, mobile app development, and cloud systems with the human factor studies and systems engineering necessary to streamline medical device regulatory approval; contract manufacturing-- building medical products at the prototype, clinical, and commercial levels in the US, as well as in low cost regions in 1345 certified and FDA registered Class VII clean rooms; cybersecurity-- generating the 12 cybersecurity design artifacts required for FDA submission; and automated test systems, assuring that every device produced is exactly the same as the device that was approved. Visit VelentiumMedical.com to explore how we can work together to change lives for a better world.

God is Still Warning of Earthquakes (1)  (audio) David Eells, 8/16/26  Saints, I want to share with you prophetic warnings we've been receiving from the Lord about the coming earthquakes. The following is what I believe.  Important: Some high magnitude earthquakes have been prayed down to a lower magnitude and it could be done so at any time. According to prophecies a large Japan quake will precede the large US earthquakes. Japan just had a 7.1 but this may not be the sign. They could have a larger magnitude earthquake, God forbid, – then 10 days of communication darkness for people in the U.S. to move to safety. The West Coast could experience a 9-something magnitude earthquake.  Then, New Madrid shortly after could have a 9-something magnitude quake. There will be smaller quakes in the Eastern US. For many years now, we have spoken about the earthquakes that precede the Man-child ministry and anointing. We encourage everyone to be spiritually prepared in faith and sanctification, and to be seeking the Lord for direction if He would have you move and where to go, provisions, etc. I want to go over some of these revelations with you today. We know we are getting close to these things coming to pass. Julie asked the Lord what the people needed to hear and pray about, and she heard “seven,” so she searched that under the dreams/visions page and the only one with seven in the title was Eve's revelation below.   Seven Earthquakes / New Madrid / Man-child Eve Brast - 04/23/2012 (David's notes in red) I dreamed I was high above Earth, sitting on the clouds and to the right of Tom Welling, the actor who plays Superman in the Smallville TV series. (This was odd to me because I don't ever dream of superheroes, but I understood the parable of Superman being Jesus in the Man-child with the latter rain anointing and supernatural abilities.) He was pointing and showing me places where earthquakes were to take place around the globe and telling me about them. But the strange thing is, the Earth was wrapped in a golden yellow tarp that was made of the same material as the yellow raincoat that my son Josiah wears. (It used to belong to my dad and is way too big for him, but he loves to wear it when it rains.)(This is a sign that we will need more than people think to protect from the storms coming? Primarily pray to God in faith.) On top of the raincoat tarp was the red outline of all the continents of the Earth, and each place where there was going to be an earthquake had an outline of a star in red. I only remember two places: one was around the Great Lakes (New Madrid) area in the U.S.  (The Great Lakes / New Madrid quake could be the one that destroys the economy and brings the anointing of the Man-child reformers.) (I remembered this one well because when I saw it in the dream, I thought about the American Earthquake Brings Revival dream of 3/14/12. (I share this dream below) The other was in South America. There were seven stars (earthquakes) altogether that He pointed out to me. This reminds me of the seven booms that I heard after waking up from the Forgiving the Repentant dream of 4/02/12. (I'll share the seven booms portion of that dream below.) I could not remember exactly how many stars were in the dream, but I was pretty sure there were seven, so I asked the Father to give me a verse with “7” in it and my finger was on: (Psa.119:79) Let those who fear You turn to me, those who know Your testimonies. I asked the Father for a confirmation verse, and my finger was on: (Jer.22:7) I will prepare destroyers against you, Everyone with his weapons: They shall cut down your choice cedars and cast them into the fire. Were the seven earthquakes around the globe on 4/11/12 a sign of something larger to come?   American Earthquake Brings Revival Eve Brast - 03/14/2009 (Deborah Horton's notes in green) | (David's notes in red) I dreamed that I was a teacher over a group of elementary school students and also a commander over a platoon of 30 soldiers at the same time. (Eve is a type of the Bride of the last Adam, Jesus, since Eve was the name of the first Adam's bride since history repeats. The Bride, Jerusalem, here has rule over the body of 30 soldiers.) As a teacher with my students, I resided in the heavenlies, which was indicated by the floor being transparent and having clouds around it. I could see the U.S. underneath my classroom. God's hand appeared to my right and caught my attention. (Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin?) (This saying was written by God's hand and finger and it meant the Babylonish kingdom in the US will be judged and divided and will come to an end, as the deep state is now. Dan 5:25-28 And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. 26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and brought it to an end; 27 TEKEL; thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. 28 PERES; thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. (A type of Cyrus-Trump's kingdom conquering Babylon. Daniel, at that time, was a type of the Man-child who interpreted this judgment.) God's hand pointed down at the U.S./Canadian border. The hand and I descended toward the Great Lakes area. God's finger started pointing down to the ground near Michigan and then followed the U.S./Canadian border over to around Minnesota. Then He brought me in for a closer look and showed me a fissure that had begun in the earth. As He traced the crack with His finger, there was a huge earthquake. I heard the screams of many people falling into the rift that was opened in the earth. (A warning to question God if you are to leave the area?) (There have also been a lot of booms and small quakes in Michigan and Wisconsin around the Great Lakes area. (These can identify for you where the fault lines are for future use.) I was awakened to seven booms in real life. It definitely was not thunder. There was no rain, and the sky was not cloudy when I got up to type up this dream. The first boom rattled my window, woke me up, and made my heart jump. The first three booms seemed to be above-ground somehow, but the last four rumblings were from below the ground because I heard them through my pillow. [The booms in Forgiving the Repentant dream may have been earthquake activity. In another dream, the Statue of Liberty Falls to Its Knees at the New Madrid Seismic Zone and the “ground shook mightily.”]) Back to Eve's dream: I was then on the ground near the beginning of the fault line in Michigan with my students, but they were now soldiers. (A sign the students will have grown up when this quake happens and soldiers are needed after a large quake.) We marched down into the canyon that had been created by the fault line, and when we reached the end of the canyon, I saw the corner of a golden step pyramid, like those found in the Americas, sticking out of the dirt. God's hand came down and uncovered four golden structures from under the dirt. God's voice said, “This is Egypt”. (This reminds me of the parable of the servant who buried his talent in the earth, instead of using it to further God's Kingdom. America has been doing the same thing with all the gifts that she has been given.) (This shows that the root cause of the quake is that America is an Egypt and God's people are called forth out of her spiritually, even as He divides her with earthquakes and wars.) One structure was the four-cornered step pyramid with no capstone. (The Great Pyramid with the capstone missing is not Egyptian; it had no Egyptian hieroglyphics or art, as the others. The historian Josephus said that Enoch and his sons built it before the flood. A capstone on a pyramid is a “chief cornerstone”, Who is Jesus, and is missing and in Heaven. The Egyptian pyramids are inferior copies of it. The original Chaldean word for “pyramid” is “urimidden”, meaning “revelation measurements”. The Great Pyramid is mentioned in the Bible as an altar to the Lord, so it is prophetically Christian, not Egyptian. (Isa.19:19) In that day shall there be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to Jehovah. [The Great Pyramid fulfills this because it is on the “border” of upper and lower Egypt and in the midst of the country of Egypt.] (20) And it shall be for a sign [revelation measurements] and for a witness unto Jehovah of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto Jehovah because of oppressors, and he will send them a saviour, and a defender, and he [Jesus] will deliver them.) Within the Great Pyramid was a standard of measurement called the pyramid inch. With this, you could measure an outline of the history of man from beginning to end. A shaft went from the upper side of the pyramid to a pit, representing hell, beneath it. It is measured in length to represent the history of man in years. That history line was intersected by a passage that went to a room in the heart of the pyramid that was the exact size as the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of God, Jesus, would have resided. This represented the coming of Jesus to intersect that history line at the exact point in time when He came to save man's fall to the pit of Hell. So, God gave us this amazing witness in His Word. Also, the Great Pyramid originally had 144,000 polished limestones covering it before they were plundered. This represents the Man-child company mentioned twice in Rev.14:1-4. Back to Eve: One structure was a golden graven image of a queen of Egypt. (This reminds one of the Babylonish harlot ruling over God's people) One structure seemed to be a rectangular palace with large, tall pillars surrounding it. I can't recall what the fourth structure was, even though I asked the Father to reveal it to me. God's finger made the sign of the cross over the four-cornered step pyramid, and its corners slid open in the directions that the finger moved. Inside the pyramid was a solid gold throne which had no back to it. God pointed with emphasis to that throne. (Like the Great Pyramid, the heart of the Church is God's Holy of Holies, where His Ark and throne are. The mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant was “a solid gold throne which had no back”. The one on that throne should be God Himself, not the queen or harlot of Egypt. Egypt usurped the throne of the Great Pyramid as its own. So she did with Israel, God's real building. In Isaiah 14:4,12,13, the king of Babylon, inhabited by Lucifer, said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God”, which God said is Abraham's seed. So, America, as a modern-day Egypt/Babylon, has and will usurp authority over the Church, which will be resurrected from its death and burial in the dirt of America. This speaks of a great revival because of this earthquake judgment on America. Then I was taken back up over the U.S. into the heavenlies where I was at the beginning. As I returned to my place, I asked God, “What about my mother?” (Being concerned for my earthly mother.) And I heard my earthly father's voice from behind me say, “It's too late for her”, and then I woke up. (In this case, the Bride's mother is America, just what Jeremiah 50:8 says of Babylon: “It's too late for her.” (Jer.50:10) And Chaldea [Babylon/America] shall be a prey: all that prey upon her shall be satisfied, saith Jehovah. (11) Because ye are glad, because ye rejoice, O ye that plunder my heritage [They did and will persecute and kill God's people], because ye are wanton as a heifer that treadeth out [the grain] [persecution to bring forth the fruit in God's people], and neigh as strong horses; (12) your mother (there she is) shall be utterly put to shame; she that bare you shall be confounded: behold, she shall be the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. An earthquake tearing in the flesh of America will reveal the Great Pyramid symbol of the Church being born out of the travail of persecution.) When I asked for a verse for this dream and flipped my Bible open, my finger came down on verses 2-4 of Obadiah, but the Bible I have has an introduction to each book, so my finger came down on the sentence within the introduction, “God will bring her down”, verses 2-4. (Oba.2) Behold, I have made thee small among the nations: thou art greatly despised. (A sign of God bringing down from her thone the U.S. and destroying its economy through which it rules.) (3) The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? (4) Though thou mount on high as the eagle, and though thy nest be set among the stars, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord. Deb Horton: I asked for a word and my finger came down on: (Psa.21:10) Their fruit wilt thou destroy from the earth, And their seed from among the children of men. Eve: Also, several months later, when I was reading Isaiah 19, the Lord told me that this chapter was in reference to this dream. (This chapter is about God's judgment on Egypt and the Great Pyramid altar. Part of that judgment is civil war, just as the judgment on Babylon was division -- Daniel 5:25-28. (Isa.19:2) And I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians (even now the U.S. is polarized by the left and right): and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbor; city against city, [and] kingdom against kingdom. (3) And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst of it; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek unto the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. (4) And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord (Satan); and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts. We have many dreams that speak of Civil War in America as a tribulation judgment. In the Word, when the Beast came against God's people, God always divided them to save His people.) Here's a portion of Eve's dream about the seven booms: ….Then I was awakened (at 4:00 am) by a loud, crashing boom outside our mobile home that shook the window, followed by two more lesser, crashing booms, followed by four more (seven booms). After the booms stopped, I realized that a song was being sung in my mind. The lyrics were, “I can walk on water. I can fly. I will keep on fighting till I die.” (representing dying to self) (Since the Bride was hearing the Man-child's voice in her mind, could this be the Man-child ministry, who will also do these wonderful things, coming after the time of the booming sounds, representing earthquakes?) This is a song that was playing on a HALO Lego video that my son Elijah and his friend (whose name is Rebel, believe it or not) were listening to last week on the computer. HALO is a Navy SEAL acronym for High Altitude Low Opening. It describes a certain airborne jump they perform. (It is the safest method for parachuting into enemy territory while under fire. It is to free-fall as close to Earth as possible before opening the chute. This maximizes the chance of evading the gunfire. The Man-child will be coming to Earth very fast and will be under enemy fire from many enemies, including the DS and factious leaders, just as in Javier's dream where he saw three snipers shooting at David from the darkness of a tank, but they could not hit him.) I'm not sure how it fits with the dream, other than the lyrics seem to describe Jesus in the Man-Child. But the song seems to be a rebellious mantra against the establishment (of the apostate hierarchy). I asked the Father for a verse for the song, and my finger was on: (Lam.5:15) The joy of our heart has ceased; our dance has turned into mourning. (There will be repentance by the 70 saints who were forgiven in the Forgiving the Repentant dream.) I then asked the Father for two verses for the booms I heard that woke me up and got: (Eze.22:31) Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I brought upon their heads, saith the Lord Jehovah. (Sowing unforgiveness, criticism and slander always destroys the one who does it.) (Mat.7:2) For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you. And (Eze.33:26) Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination (The sword of the Word is necessary to separate the sinner from sin and leaven.), and ye defile every one his neighbor's wife (by selfish lusts of the flesh): and shall ye possess the (Promised) land? No!   Midwest Earthquake of Epic Proportions Rick Sergent - 07/14/2008 (David's notes in red) The Lord first spoke to me about a major Midwest earthquake in December of 2003. Then on 7/14/08, He gave some details about this up-and-coming quake. It will happen soon, I believe. It will register on the Richter Scale as a 9-something. I believe it will be on the New Madrid fault line, maybe around St. Louis, MO? I heard these words in my spirit: “It will be of epic proportions”. This earthquake will permanently change the mindset of the people of this nation. It will alter the terrain on a large scope. It will never be the same. People from different nations will come to the aid of the U.S. (some may for ill intentions). Personal Notes: When I heard a “9”, I wondered if there was ever a verified 9 quake in the world. I may be wrong, but I only found three earthquakes. One was a1960 9.5 quake in Chile. The other one was on December 26, 2004, the tsunami that killed about 230,000 people. The U.S. Geological Survey says it was a 9.1. Others outside of this country said it was a 9.3. The 1964 quake in Alaska was around a 9, maybe(?) I do not want to sound like a doomsayer, but this quake may cause more deaths than any quake in the history of the world. I did research afterwards, and the tsunami quake of 2004 was the second in terms of deaths. The first one happened in about 1560 in China. That one claimed over 800,000 deaths, they say. In 2003, I had a friend who saw sea creatures in the spirit in Terre Haute, Indiana. She did not know why. I do not know if this is the quake that has been mentioned in relation to Lake Michigan or not, but it would not surprise me if it was. I believe it will be felt in almost all the states. The midsection of the U.S. will be the worst. (Also, the West Coast quakes around this time are prophesied to be terrible.) The big harvest or revival will come alongside great sorrows. Great Earthquake Impedes Travel, Drought Rick Sergent - 04/19/2012 (David's notes in red) On 4/19/12, I was not thinking about anything particular when I saw a vision of this woman on a horse. Her name is Mary. I know her. She is a mature Christian. Then I saw the word EARTHQUAKE in red letters. I have never seen those letters in red. I don't recall it; they have always been in black or an occasional other color. This word was right above her. I then saw these words: “Great Destruction Will Impede Traveling”. That made sense to me, why I saw Mary on a horse. (Also, Mary could be the woman Church who brings forth the Man-child, as it was with Jesus. Sandy and Audrey said she could also be the Church trusting in the strength of beastly flesh.) Then I saw the number 85. I did not know what this number meant. (Then, Deborah Horton sent us a dream that I David was restoring I-85 overpass or Passover. She didn't know about this dream.) After asking the Lord to explain to me about this 85, I received this revelation from Deborah Horton within two days and 85 is emphasized again. Here is a portion of it: There was a highway work crew repairing the overpass where I-85 goes over Highway 29. (The spiritual road crew represents those reformers who restore the paths to dwell in. (Isa.58:12) And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.) (Deborah: “Overpass” is a word play on “Passover”; if we want the Lord to pass over our sins, we must forgive everyone, but I was giving place to doubt and bitterness about a particular person when I had this dream. In real life, the place where I-85 passes over Highway 29 was chewed-up by heavy trucks going to and from the smelly, multi-state landfill. The landfill there is as large as a small mountain. Part of it was finally patched. So, we could say that the I-85 overpass/Passover has been kept in disrepair by trucks creating a mountain of garbage representing the magnitude of stinking thinking and ways of those who give in to factions and their false Jesus and apostate leadership. That would explain why, below, David was repairing the road. (Isa.58:12) ... The restorer of paths to dwell in.) (Deb later told me 85 is meaning 8 = New Beginning and 5 = grace. Highway 29 mostly parallels I-85, zigzagging back and forth across the path of I-85) From Rick's emails: In Deb Horton's dream, David was over a highway work crew, repairing the I-85. (Passover of Highway 29, which represents the earthquake, meaning God's people must be prepared through faith and God's works to escape these quakes.) In the natural, Highway 29 goes to the heart of Washington, DC, which speaks of the future quake. USGS says the epicenter of the 8/23/11, 5.8 quake was five miles S-SW of Mineral, VA, which is 84 miles to DC.. Wow, close enough! Number 29 may mean a second quake or judgment. (2 = second [and division] and 9 = judgment.) A portion of 29 between Greensboro, NC and Danville, VA will be upgraded to an interstate. They are naming the new interstate I-785. The point is that it is being made into a faster highway, meaning a quick time for the quake to hit D.C. without delay. Interstates do not have stoplights or stop signs and cross over multiple states. The earthquakes will be felt in multiple states. I did find it interesting that US Highway 29 dead-ends right where I-70 starts on the East Coast and moves west across the heart of the Midwest, all the way to the west to Utah, where it branches off with other interstates to Los Angeles on the West Coast. According to Wikipedia, the U.S. military wanted it that way to be able to travel from southern California to the northeastern United States (NYC). I am convinced of the spiritual revelation of the number 85 as a Passover and that these quakes are coming. But it is interesting that a Passover was being repaired on the I-85 interstate, going over Highway 29 and goes 84 or 85 miles from the epicenter of the last quake in VA to D.C., where the same 5.8 quake judged the Washington Monument and the Statue of Liberty by cracking them. Not a chance that is not a sign. We've had revelations that Government and Liberty will be changed by this. I am convinced that we must be entitled to the Passover of this judgment, which was paid for by Jesus, when it does come. Make sure your heart is right with God and your brethren by abiding in Jesus Christ.) In 2008, I gathered all the dreams on the New Madrid, splitting the country and compared what the timing looked like on each, and I came up with the theory that there were at least two big quakes in the New Madrid -- one at the beginning of the trib and one at the end when the nations come together to divide Israel for the last time. I shared this on the program at that time. In Brenda Schaunaman's dream on 10/12/08, I wrote: “This Midwest quake that divides the U.S. may happen twice, the last being the worst and dividing the country even more”. I do not doubt Rick may be right about a quake coming, but there was no year on the date part, which leaves open a very large quake at the end of the trib. I believe we will see a lesser but very damaging quake leading up to the tribulation when the Lord comes AS the latter rain on the Man-child body. Hos 6:3 And let us know, let us follow on to know Jehovah: his going forth is sure as the morning; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth. (1Co.4:5) Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall each man have his praise from God. Back to Rick: A major quake of over 9 on the Richter Scale, as indicated in the prophecy Midwest Earthquake of Epic Proportions, would probably cause an economic crash, especially if coupled with the Western seaboard major quake, back-to-back, knocking out the electric grid for months. (It would cause much death and push over the edge all they have already done to resurrect the economy with the RV. It would also help to bring revival.) Rick: About less than a week before I had received this vision of the number 85, I was on the phone with a lady who was a customer. She brought up the subject of dreams and visions, not knowing I was her confirmer. She said that there were going to be two major quakes -- one on the East Coast (which was prayed down), the other one off the New Madrid (Which, because of that, will come just after the terrible West Coast quakes). She said the Lord showed her they would be one after another. I told her I agreed with her but thought the quakes would be days apart. I told her the last three quakes that the Lord has revealed to me are where quakes are not commonly known to happen. He first showed me the Washington quake months before it happened. Then He showed me the largest quake in Oklahoma's history, months before it happened. He also has shown me one in Nebraska, but that, of course, has not occurred yet. The lady then proceeded to tell me about a drought throughout the United States. She said states will be fighting over water rights with inland waterways and lakes. (As of July 2026, in the U.S., we are seeing approximately 38% drought; some areas are experiencing extreme drought from the East Coast and throughout the country towards the West. This fighting over water rights may also be because of the enormous amount of water needed for all the Data Centers they are building in several places in the States.) I told her in 2011, I saw a vision of a donkey walking with its head down from west to east on a map of the U.S. There was the word “famine” on the donkey, with sagebrush blowing around it. (The donkey is the symbol of the Democratic Party, which is failing.) Then, just last week (April of 2012), I received a call, and the person said one of the headlines in the Indianapolis Star read, Drought in all states except for Alaska and Ohio. I then proceeded to tell her I saw in a vision in 2011 of a radial arm saw making a cut just on the south edge of the Great Lakes. When it carved out the lakes, it went over to the Mississippi River and made a cut all the way down to the Gulf. Then I saw these words: “War over Water”. She seemed to be my confirmer, too. (There has been a water war with major rivers very low.) Note: Additional confirmations and revelation: 1) In March of 2011, I was given this vision from the Lord: I saw the word: Earthquake suspended over a map of the United States. Three golden rods came from the word Earthquake. One pointed to what I thought was just north of Washington, D.C., but it was difficult to determine because it was more like a geography map and was not showing cities. The second pointed to the Midwest and the third pointed to California. This seems to indicate the possibility of a series of quakes indicated in Sandy Shaw's dream, Series of Quakes Hits U.S., in a simpler form in my vision. (She mentioned these same places plus a lesser-known seismic zone in the TN Valley.) Sandy had hers in May of 2011. (These two revelations were true but when the East Coast large quake was prayed down the sequence of the other two large quakes changed. We believe now the West coast will precede the New Madrid.) 2) In Sandy's dream in the notes in red letters, David noted: “Their urgency may be to leave and get into new homes before the quakes because the New Madrid could affect her area in central Arkansas and at least IMPEDE HER TRAVEL”. (Rick: These are basically the same words in my vision I saw: “Great Destruction Will Impede Traveling”. And Mary on the horse/Man-child (4/19/12). David went on to say, “The Man-child will lead many into the wilderness prepared by this great destruction in the beginning of the tribulation”. Also a horse implies automobiles don't have gas or good roads like a wilderness. Update - 5/01/12 I received a major confirmation from my son, Jeremy. Jeremy texted me at 8:48 am on 5/01/12. I did not get hold of him on the phone until 7:16 pm the next day. First of all, Jeremy does not know anything about the vision of Great Earthquake Impedes Travel, Drought. Jeremy lives in Shreveport, in northeastern Louisiana. I had only told my friend Mary (who lives in Indiana) and one friend at work (who lives in Ohio). Jeremy prayed before he went to bed, “Lord, give me dreams or visions”. He awoke that morning wide awake, and he opened the Bible, and it was at Isaiah 24. He said, “Dad, I started crying and could not stop; it was like prophetic weeping”. (I call him Jeremiah sometimes, ‘The Weeping Prophet'.) He said he read the whole chapter and wept all the way through it. He said what was impressed in his spirit was economic collapse and a very big earthquake. (So much for the golden age.) He said, “Dad, I feel it is right around the corner, right at the door!” He later turned on the TV and said words were spoken, like a play on words from the TV. He said on the news they talked about the euro in trouble and the dollar also. He had not turned on the news for months. He said God seems to be confirming to him the judgment on the United States and the world. He said it's like people know it, but they are ignoring it or pretending it will go away. When Jeremy said that, a scripture came to my mind. I knew it was in Ezekiel 7, and I looked it up, and it was verses 25-26: DESTRUCTION COMES; they will seek peace, but there shall be none. DISASTER upon DISASTER, and RUMOR will be upon RUMOR. In my Bible, the subtitle above Isaiah 24 is Impending Judgment on the Earth. This thought then came to me: Eve Brast's dream of seven earthquakes around the world. I then noticed the Bible notes for Isaiah 24:1-6: “Its not clear what form the devastation will take. The imagery suggests drought and possible earthquakes. Such judgments have happened throughout human history and will be climaxed during the time before Christ's return, often referred to as the great tribulation”. I went on to read Isaiah 24:13: “When it shall be thus IN THE MIDST OF THE LAND among the people, it shall be like the SHAKING OF THE OLIVE TREE”. Verse 19: “The EARTH IS VIOLENTLY BROKEN. The EARTH IS SPLIT OPEN. THE EARTH IS SHAKEN EXCEEDINGLY”. Verse 20: “The EARTH SHALL REEL TO AND FRO LIKE A DRUNKARD, and shall totter like a hut. Its transgression shall be heavy upon it”. Let me share this transcript of a prophetic warning the Lord gave to Brandon Biggs, prior to the 7.4 Colombia earthquake that recently occurred on Monday, August 10, 2026.   The Lord Showed Us: It Was Coming A Shaking in Colombia link Brandon Biggs, 6/24/26  …. They felt that all over the place there would be Big earthquakes. What is this happening with the earth? The earth is shaking and rocking and reeling like a drunkard. The Lord said it was coming. The Word said it was coming. And so we're seeing the beginnings of it, the birthing pains. (It is the sign of the birthing of the Man-child ministry too) What are we about to see? Major shaking. Why? Because I told you Colombia will be shaken. Venezuela will be shaken. Cuba will be shaken, as we saw earthquakes; Cuba will be shaken. Why? Because it's a representation of what's happening in the spiritual realm. It is manifesting in the natural, and a great harvest of souls is coming to Venezuela and Cuba and Colombia. Watch, and it's going to spread through Brazil. Watch what happens. God is going to pour out His Spirit in South America. Watch.  Here's another clip Brandon posted on 8/10/26 about a recent volcano in Japan. So there is a volcano going off in Japan, like the Lord was telling us… I saw a lot of people go home because of this eruption. The Lord said, “Watch Japan; Japan's gonna split.” and I saw a major shaking hit Japan, and that's what we were seeing last night (livestream prayer meeting). I'm gonna shake…  He said, “California will have an earthquake that has not been seen in this generation.” A massive earthquake is about to happen in California.  …August 8th, an exploding fireball appeared, captured in Eastern Japan. Here is a Link to this article:  A two-kilometer column of smoke rose after another eruption of the Sakurajima volcano in Japan. The volcano began to become active on July 7. On the same night, surveillance cameras also recorded the glow. On August 8, ash was released from the Minamidake crater to a height of more than two thousand meters. The Japan Meteorological Agency predicts continued activity as magma accumulates deep underground. Near the craters of Nandake and Seva, there is a danger of falling large rocks. According to the researchers, this is the eighteenth eruption on Sakurajima this year. In the footage, the sky is filled with a black cloud of smoke, and local residents are hiding from the effects of the eruption. Brandon: The Lord says, “You will see fearful sights that will bring you to your knees.” And I say, watch the signs in the heavens. It will shake the signs in the heavens. Let me read this transcript of Brandon Biggs' revelation.    “The Lord Showed Me a Major Earthquake Along the San Andreas Fault Line” link  Brandon Biggs, 8/10/26 (David's notes in red) What did the Lord show us about the San Andreas? A week ago, the Lord told us to pray over the San Andreas. I said, “You're about to see a major shaking, and the water will boil. The water will come up out of the ground hotter than it's ever come out of the ground.” And I said, “You're going to see California have the ‘Big One'.”  And today, August 3, 2026, California's top earthquake expert issued a chilling new warning on the ‘Big One'. It could be tomorrow. He shows a clip from a news report:  “Scientists agree we are due for a massive earthquake along the San Andreas Fault. They just don't know when. But as Maribel Gonzalez reports, a new study suggests it may be coming sooner rather than later.  This simulation depicts Southern California's worst-case earthquake, a massive magnitude 7.8 rupture along the San Andreas Fault. [It could last] nearly 2 minutes of shaking. Experts say hundreds could die, along with billions of dollars in damage. This simulated earthquake rivals the powerful quake that struck Venezuela in June, highlighting their devastating impact.”  “It could go another 100 years. It could be tomorrow. It could be, you know, next minute.” said Dr. Lucy Jones, a seismologist at Caltech.  “But a new study warns the risk of a significant earthquake in California could be greater than previously believed, with even more widespread damage.”  “What we've found now is that, you know... stresses are naturally high, and they're actually in some places, the highest that we've seen in all of these 1,000 years,” said Liliane Burkhard, a geophysicist at the University of Bern. (You can see this interview here) Back to Brandon: And this is what I saw back four days ago. I saw a major earthquake, major hot geysers boiling even more. Water coming up out of Yellowstone. And I saw a shaking in California. A major shaking is coming to California. And the Lord said these earthquakes that will take place will be symbolic, that I'm about to have a major, major move of My presence upon San Francisco.  And I saw men without their shirts on, weeping before the Lord. (And the Lord was referring to homosexuality.) And He said, “Watch what I'm about to do.” In San Francisco, I saw perversion, weeping before the Lord. And I saw Portland; I saw Seattle; I saw British Columbia. I saw a major move of God coming to California in the days ahead. And a shaking of the earth, major shakings, earthquakes, and [destruction of] bridges and things like that.   We Are In Magnitude 7 Territory - Get A Tent Alison Pound, 08/10/26 There are going to be more earthquakes. A lot more. Larger magnitude. Like you just saw in Colombia, South America. Magnitude 7 and above are going to become a thing. China is going to have 3 x magnitude 7's - Not 6.9 but 7 and over. I am raising the mag. levels across the earth. Europe will have some mag 7's. Italy in particular. I will be destroying whole cities. Yes, you heard Me, whole cities. Various parts of the earth, across the nations. I have already told you Iceland will have some big quakes. Some of these (mag. 7's) will come before the California “Big One” that will be off the Richter Scale. And some will come after. This is how it will be from now until the end. The Ring of Fire will be lit up on your map. Remember I told you many years ago: look at the map, watch. (I regularly check the earthquake maps because God told me to ‘watch') I Am coming down to shake the whole earth one more time, one more season…… the final season. Everything that can be shaken shall be shaken. There will be landslides, large rock falls in mountainous regions. The landscape will be much altered in some areas. This is to be expected. Tell My people…. Camping gear! Tell them to keep camping equipment handy because some of them are going to need it. They will be living in tents. Many homes will not be safe to live in after earthquakes. Tell them if they do not buy camping equipment, tents especially, now, they will not be able to buy them later. (companies selling tents will be sold out) I told you it is TIME. I Am speaking about all that is happening and all that will happen from now on. It is time for all end time events to come to pass. You have been waiting. You will no longer be waiting to see these terrible events. Haggai 2:6 “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.” Hebrews 12:25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.” Psalm 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.   Prophecy and the Destruction of California  Alison Pound, 08/07/26  Today, I went to the Lord to ask Him if He would allow me to write and publish on the subject of prophecy. What it is and what it is not. Whilst He agreed that many do not understand prophecy or even know what it is, the Lord did not want me writing about it. Instead, I was instructed to re-publish a warning for California. You will find that further down the page. The following is all of His reply:  People are going to be triggered. (He means that's a given) They won't like what I say. They won't receive what I say. What they do is go back to what they were taught. And they were taught by people who themselves don't know what prophecy is. They were taught it must be nice, kind, loving words, encouraging, positive, up-building. I have not the time to teach a people who will not listen to what prophecy is. You will keep on with posting what I will say to them until I stop speaking. They are not going to like anything I say. (He means you won't like what He says this time either) This is judgment hour, most especially for America and the American churches. It will be swift. The sentence will be swiftly carried out. It will be sudden. I will come upon them as I did with Sodom and Gomorrah. The people and place I Am talking about here have been given the warnings. There is time for just a few more. My prophets will speak one more time. And then the sentencing will be carried out. All I have said that I would do to California and surrounding states will be done. Japan will not get any more warnings. None. They will be hit first. Then California will have a short duration- hours only- before they are hit. I want you to know that I will have mercy, great mercy on some Christians on that terrible day. Because they will be out of the state, not in California. So these ones will survive to tell the story. They will, some of them, have sudden urgent business that takes them out of California. Some actual pastors, leaders of churches, will be away preaching, as will some others in the congregation. This (the aftermath) will be a terrible time for them, as they will be aware that they were spared. This is why I will spare them: It is so that they look at themselves afresh and at the State they so loved and are convicted. Repentance will flow in these ones. This is what I desire. This is what I prefer. I prefer repentance to destruction. It does not please Me to bring down these harsh judgments. But I Am a righteous judge and I will act righteously. All praise and glory to the Lord God Almighty, who is both merciful and just! The following Word from the Lord was first published on 1st January 2026, 7 months and 7 days ago. Reposting it here, as directed by the Lord.   TO WHOM IT WAS GIVEN TO HURT THE EARTH AND THE SEA I Am about to visit Japan. And then California also. Everything I told you I would do, I will do to them. I Am about to do it. I told you. My true prophets will know because I will tell them. Just before I do it, I will tell them. I will say to them, it is time. I will tell them to brace for impact. Because you, and they, will feel the impact of what I Am going to do. The shaking and the destruction of the earth and the people in those places will be immense. Shocking. It will be all that the survivors around the earth can talk about for a long time. That is, when they start talking. Because when this happens, at first, they will not talk. The shock will hit them. Some will then shake their fists in the air and will no longer follow Me. These ones did not know Me at all well before. But others will turn to Me in a big way. Prepare for this. Many will want to talk about Me suddenly. They will have questions. They will want to get right with Me. And My hand of mercy will be outstretched to these. Be ready to speak. Donald Trump is going. He will go shortly after California goes. And California is about to go. The seabed is in turmoil. Out of California, the underwater volcanoes are coming to life. Angels have been sent to command them to erupt. Angels are My messengers. They put My judgments into action. Remember the scrolls and the decrees? (The Book of Revelation, see below) Keep watching and waiting. When you see that Japan has had a magnitude 8 earthquake, a tsunami will follow. Then you will know California is next. The shaking will shift tectonic plates. I will shake the earth like a cottage. I have not told you this before, but this earthquake, the one that takes out California, will be felt further away than any earthquake before it. Other volcanoes in the vicinity will also erupt. Remember, I told you to keep an eye on the ring of fire? This is the time. This is the time when shipping will be interrupted and new paths will be found for the ships in order to bypass the volcanic activity. [In 2012 the Lord spoke about this, but I just did not understand at the time. He said: Way below the earth's crust, there will be a disturbance far greater than any before. Out upon the waters of the Pacific, there is going to be a disturbance that comes from far below. Shipping will be lost at this time. There will become an area that must now be avoided.] The Earth will never be the same again after this. Many, many sea creatures will die and will be washing up on far shores. This will go on for months. Dear one, this will be a terrible time for the people of the earth. Very trying. But incredibly, the wicked will continue to be wicked. It will be like they think time is short and they must get a whole lot more wickedness in before they go. Their hearts will harden, if that were at all possible. And although I Am in judgment mode and I Am very angry, I will be very controlled and perfect in all My judgments. You will have access to Me at all times. I will not be like the angry father here on earth who does not want to talk to anyone when he is in his angry mode. I do not want you to keep away from Me. But draw near and remain. This is the only way. Revelation 7:1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. 2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Please note: I now believe there may be 2  mag. 8 earthquakes in Japan, happening close together. The Lord will speak to me on a subject over a period of time, adding detail to what He first said. If I don't catch everything, He will repeat what He said at a later time. Reading through my journal, I found that He had said Japan would have 2x mag. 8 quakes, adding that a mag. 12 would also happen there but at a later time. I saw Mount Fuji erupt in a dream some years ago. That may also happen at the same time as the 2 mag. 8 quakes. There has been increased activity in the ‘Ring of Fire' and the fault lines in America. That may continue for a while, or it may not. Psalm 91 says, “Whoever DWELLS in the shelter of the Most High….”  We dwell (live, remain) in the shelter of the Most High by casting off the things of this world and its sinful practices. By being in intimacy with Him and remaining so, humble and obedient, walking in His Ways. The peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.   A Catastrophic Earthquake Is Coming, Get Out Now!  Karen Newsberry, 8/6/25 On the morning of July 29, 2025, at 8:16 am I heard the Lord speak; as I listened to His voice, I cried. I beg anyone who lives in California to please get out! Get out now! “Repentance falls on deaf ears; a nation once put under protection, MY protection, such divine and illustrated protection. The world is my footstool; have I not spoken of the many judgments coming to this world? For out of prophets and babes, even the children have spoken what I have shown them.  Destruction comes to a state far beyond the land where the depths of water abound.  California, I have called for your repentance and have heard few repent. Those that are in Me, I have heard. Sin abounds in your land; for the stench, I cannot bear. Sin is as a primary language for such a nation; California, your mountains will move out of their place, your waters will shake to and fro…your judgment is now! Your nation will look with fear in their eyes at what is coming. I have been mocked and scoffed at long enough by a stiff-necked people. America, this is just the beginning of what is coming. Trump will continue to do what he has been assigned to do, but his time is almost up, for division was his goal.” Please, a catastrophic earthquake is coming; leave! I've seen in a dream of the destruction; please heed the Lord's warning! Here is a portion of a video transcript from Brandon Biggs in December 2025, called:   A Major 8.4 Earthquake on the New Madrid Brandon Biggs, 12/14/2025  …. There will be great, great shakings in the nation. Great earthquakes! Great earthquakes. Great earthquakes. I see on the New Madrid... I see a great earthquake. And it will go, and it will shake, shake, shake. And it will be a sign. It will be a sign on the New Madrid. A sign's coming. A major sign. I see it all on this side. …. I see Missouri. I see Kentucky. I see Tennessee…. I see “8.4.” That's what I see. 8.4.  There will be a shaking in the Heartland. A revival is coming. I see drought; I see rain. He said this is weather manipulation and weather warfare….   Tennessee Earthquake Elizabeth Marie, 5/20/25 (David's notes in red) The links she provides below all document and track the Madrid quakes: Southeast Missouri Earthquakes in the Last Week Missouri Earthquake Track Earthquakes Near Tennessee 200+ Earthquakes Shake the New Madrid Fault On May 18, 2025, the LORD led me to this verse in Jeremiah: “The LION (Satan) has come up from his thicket, And the DESTROYER of nations is on his way. He has gone forth from his place To make your LAND desolate. Your CITIES will be laid waste, Without inhabitant.” Jeremiah 4:7 The ‘LION' in this verse is DEATH, coming from the hand of Satan, as it says in 1 Peter 5:8, who comes to destroy the cities and land: “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a ROARING like a LION, looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 He is that GREAT DESTROYER, like in the days of Moses, when the ‘destroyer' came into the Egyptians' homes and killed the firstborns: “For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the DESTROYER to come into your houses to strike you.” Exodus 12:23 We are called to RESIST him: “Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.” 1 Peter 5:9 After reading Jeremiah 4:7, I immediately felt great sorrow and started weeping for what is coming. In my spirit, I knew that the ‘heaviness' that I felt was concerning the destruction that is coming to the United States. I believe this includes EARTHQUAKES! The links above are about EARTHQUAKES that occurred in the last week near the New Madrid Fault Line, as well as the 4.1 earthquake in Tennessee on May 10, 2025. The one in TN happened approximately 30 miles south of Knoxville and was felt in several states, including all the way down to Atlanta, GA. I heard from many who actually felt it, who were hours away, and they said it felt like a train rumbling through their house. EARTHQUAKE DREAMS: I have received quite a few dreams concerning the New Madrid fault, along with confirmations from other prophetic people. The first one was posted in Z3NEWS back in 2016, about the CONNECTION of a 9.5 earthquake, and the DIVIDING OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL: “In this vision, I saw an outline map of America. I didn't see the state lines, but only the outline of the U.S. Then, the map zoomed to where the earthquake started and I saw a black dot pulsating on the epicenter. The dot was in the upper part of the middle of the country, however, I wasn't sure of which state. It seemed higher than the New Madrid fault. Then I saw ‘9.5' indicating the level on the Richter Scale. I was not given any dates or timing.” “I was also shown that if Israel is divided, so shall America be divided.” Then, more recently, on April 15th, 2024, I had this dream and posted it on April 17th, 2025: “I saw an outline of the MAP OF THE UNITED STATES. Then I saw a large RED TARGET BULLS-EYE pulsating in the area of the New Madrid Fault. Then I noticed smaller, red, bulls- eyes, all up and down the East Coast of America. I don't know how many, but at least 6 smaller targets were pulsating. END OF VISION” I was also shown about the LIQUEFACTION that often comes with an earthquake: SERIOUS EARTHQUAKE WARNINGS The LORD does not give me these things to bring FEAR, but to bring revelation and confirmations of HIS END-TIME PROPHECIES. I believe that HE wants each one of HIS children to seek HIM concerning these warnings, so that they might HEAR HIS VOICE, and follow HIS directions accordingly. For some, it might even mean to relocate….BUT only if, or when you hear HIS still, small voice. (I agree) “And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.” 1 King 19:11-12   Warning Words About a Coming Shaking!  Ken Dewey 7/27/26  Celeste and I have been praying, asking the LORD if we could take a short vacation from this work [at Desert Zion] just to REST and recuperate. When we asked this, we heard Him say: The LORD said: “Don't travel!” We ask Him, "Will the Financial System fail?" He said: “No, it will be jolted!” Jolted: definition: to strike, shake up, jar, as with a bumpy ride or with a sharp blow, to move along in a jerky manner. He said again: it will change. I asked Him how; He said to something more maneuverable.  “Yes, there will be changes in the landscape, great changes. Lives will be lost, and there will be positive changes too. There will be building damages and rebuilding.” “People will panic for essentials, so have them on hand. Some technology will fail. It must not be depended on. Depend on Me, I AM your LORD. Do not fear. Air travel will be suspended.” We have posted this Word of Warning, even as we have heard it spoken to us.  LORD, help your people to hear and be warned, and help them prepare.  ~ Desert Prophet Ken Dewey The light will shine in His glory… In the desert.   The Next Step, More of Me!  June 9, 2026 Celeste Dewey Our God is a practical God. This is a practical Word from Him for the days ahead. Some are wondering what to do to be ready for the coming shaking. The next step will definitely need to be clearly seen. This is what The LORD said to me: “The LORD says today, “I need more of your time! Push everything aside! You must stay alert and don't let any setbacks [in your life] bother you. Some people feel stretched beyond limits; they feel like they are doing all they can to keep going. Just open your hearts and be in the moment. You take care of your relationship with Me. Concentrate and focus on it! I will help you. Just give Me your time and attention; that's all! Do not be afraid to take the next step, more of Me. (This agrees with the Word Debbie Fenske received recently about not being afraid of the Lord and getting close to Him, which I share below.) Eyes of Promise, Hearts of Fire, watch Me mold them to be My instruments of promise for a purpose greater than any man could imagine. Watch Me use them for My Glory, for they will go farther with Me than any other. They will see Me move; they will see the change firsthand because their gaze is unobstructed. It is set on the One who formed them and fashioned them for something greater than themselves. See me move secretly, opening their hearts further and further to My Desires!”  Added Scripture to Consider: Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  “I Love you, Yeshua!” I have posted this Word in obedience to my Holy Spirit teacher. God Bless you; you are in my prayers ~ Celeste Dewey   Do Not Fear My Love Debbie Fenske, 8/1/26 This is what the Lord began to speak to me as we were singing, No Longer A Slave. We are no longer slaves to fear.  “Yes, I say to you, My children, do not fear Me. Do not fear Me. Do not fear the great love I have for you. My love will draw you deep into Me. It's going to draw you deep into Me as you hang onto Me, and as you give Me all of your love. Do not fear where My love is going to be taking you. But look forward, expectantly, because you will know that My love has gone before you. It will be My love drawing you through your love for Me. So do not fear what I am going to be drawing you into. Because I will be drawing you into Myself. Deeper into Myself. Deeper into My love. Do not fear My love, My children.”  I felt that the Lord was using the song, Miracle Worker, to confirm that we don't have to fear. He is our Light in the darkness, and He's our Way Maker. And His love will lead us into dark places. But His light is in the darkness, going before us. Going through the darkness is helping us grow. We want all of God and we can trust Him in what He wants to do in us, because through it all He's our Light in the darkness, so we do not need to fear. He will always be our Light. Also, what came to me as I was typing this out was John 15. Out of His great love for us, it is His taking us through the pruning that will bring us deeper into Him.   Thank you Lord, for Your great love for us. We know there will be hard places that You are going to be leading us through. Even using us in. But we trust Your word to us, Lord. Thank You that it is always out of Your great love for us. And so we will not fear. We thank You that those You love, You prune. Thank You that in the pruning, through it all, You are bringing us to be Overcomers, and growing us more and more into Your image. So, we will not fear, because You tell us to not fear Your love. Thank You, loving Father. Amen.    Earthquake Warning for Wisconsin  Alison Pound, 08/14/26 link  August 2025  I Am the Lord. I Am here upon the earth for judgment. I will not relent in My judgments. I will not pause in My judgments. I Am a righteous God. All My judgments are righteous.  I will take America apart piece by piece. Until there is nothing left. She is a foul odor in My nostrils and a bitter taste upon My tongue. The cup is full. Full of America's iniquity.  I will not relent. There is to be another earthquake. A large crack will open up in the earth, many miles/kilometers long. I Am bringing this quake to a state where the people have long held Me in disdain. They are the rock'n roll state. Rock'n roll rules here. Unlike in the south where the blues is ‘it'. You do not know this state, and its fame.   But I have been watching them. My eyes miss nothing. The state of Wisconsin will have this earthquake. There will be many tremors ongoing after the California quake. But Wisconsin will have a large earthquake. The rock on which this state sits, deep down, has become quite thin. It is unstable.  There will be a division of the land. Eventually the USA will be broken apart top to bottom, north to south. Wisconsin has many farms, much produce. Feeding America. After this disaster they will no longer feed America.  

In this episode of Food for Thought Leadership, Chris Campbell, Vice President of Content and Insights at The Food Institute, speaks with Joe Slater, President and CEO of Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, about the changing realities of food insecurity and how food banks are evolving to meet growing demand. Slater explains that today's food-insecure population increasingly consists of working adults holding one or more jobs, as rising living costs outpace wages and changes to federal assistance programs leave many households with few options. He also discusses why healthy foods, including fresh produce, protein, milk and eggs, have become the most sought-after items among families seeking assistance. The conversation also explores how Gleaners has transformed beyond the traditional food bank model by building earned-revenue businesses in wholesale produce distribution, protein processing, co-packing, kitting and logistics. Slater explains how advances in supply chain efficiency, automation and AI have dramatically reduced excess food donations, forcing food banks to become smarter purchasers rather than relying primarily on surplus inventory. He closes by encouraging stronger partnerships between the food industry and charitable organizations, arguing that sharing data, technology and operational expertise will be just as important as food donations in addressing future food insecurity. More about Joe Slater: Joe Slater serves as Chief Operating Officer for Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, where he oversees operations and strategic initiatives that support the organization's mission of leading the fight against hunger. With more than two decades of experience in supply chain management, food sourcing, and nonprofit leadership, Joe has helped drive innovative programs and partnerships that increase access to nutritious food while strengthening collaboration across the Feeding America network. Under his leadership, Gleaners and its social enterprise, Fresh Connect Central, have become national leaders in collaborative sourcing, protein repacking, and creative distribution solutions that maximize resources and expand impact. More about Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana & Fresh Connect Central: Founded in 1980, Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana serves 21 counties across central and southeastern Indiana through a network of more than 300 community partners and direct service programs. To further extend its impact beyond Indiana, Gleaners launched Fresh Connect Central (FCC), a social enterprise focused on collaborative food sourcing and supply chain solutions for hunger relief organizations. Today, FCC partners with more than 150 food banks and organizations across 46 states and Puerto Rico, moving tens of millions of pounds of food annually through sourcing, repacking, and logistics solutions. Together, Gleaners and Fresh Connect Central are leveraging innovation and strategic partnerships to maximize resources, strengthen the Feeding America network, and create greater access to nutritious food for communities nationwide. Learn more: https://www.gleaners.org/

Longer lines, many new faces Fareground raised money in 2024 to buy a refrigerated box truck capable of holding 6,000 pounds of food for distribution to residents in Beacon, Fishkill, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie and Wappingers Falls. A capacity that once seemed sufficient has been surmounted by a problem that continues to grow, and the Fishkill-based nonprofit has outgrown the truck, according to Jamie Levato, its executive director. "We are constantly having to bring in more and more food; storage is becoming a challenge and transport is becoming a challenge." Fareground is not alone in noting longer lines and new faces at every distribution. Dozens of representatives from food pantries across the Hudson Valley told the same story when they gathered Tuesday (July 28) at AME Zion Church in Newburgh to receive an update from the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, which distributes food to organizations in Dutchess, Putnam and 21 other counties. The food bank illustrated the extent of hunger in the Hudson Valley by sharing new statistics from Map the Meal Gap, a report compiled by Feeding America, a national hunger-relief organization. The most recent data, from 2024, documents the number of adults and children considered "food-insecure" because they lack access to enough to eat. In Dutchess, Putnam and the four other counties (Orange, Rockland, Sullivan and Ulster), 167,990 people were considered food-insecure in 2024, including 53,390 children (a 10 percent increase over the previous year). In Dutchess, an estimated 32,140 people (11 percent of the population) were food-insecure, and in Putnam, 8,430 (8.6 percent). Despite a small decrease from 2023, Dutchess has 10,730 more food-insecure residents than 2021 and Putnam, 3,200 more. Food pantries expect their lines to grow as the costs for food, energy, housing and necessities continue to rise. Those challenges are aggravated by federal cuts that began last year in programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. In 2025, the Regional Food Bank distributed 53.3 million pounds of food to pantries, more than any year in its nearly five decades of service, except for 2020, during the pandemic. That was despite losing 7 million pounds in cuts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Tom Nardacci, CEO of the Regional Food Bank. Nardacci said that people who have never visited a food pantry or "stood outside in the cold to hand out food" are "making decisions that aren't connected to reality." Here are a few local resources if you need food assistance. Beacon's Backyard Kitchen The group serves a hot breakfast at 12 Hanna Lane on Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. and to-go lunch until 10:30 a.m. Beacon Farmers' Market The market doubles the value of federal food benefits from June to November. See beaconfarmersmarket.org/food-benefits. Common Ground Farm does the same at the market through its Greens4Greens program. Fareground The nonprofit serves a community meal on Friday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 50 Liberty St., in Beacon. Fishkill Food Pantry Operated by First Reformed Church of Fishkill and St. Mary Mother of the Church, Fishkill, at 1153 Main St., the pantry serves residents of the Highlands, including Beacon and Cold Spring. It is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to noon and Monday and Wednesday from 2:30 to 6 p.m. Call 845-896-4546 in the morning to make an appointment for that day. Proof of residency is required. Mutual Aid Beacon The group provides groceries on the first and third Wednesday of each month at 8:15 a.m. at Memorial Park. The first Wednesday is for seniors or households with a senior (age 60 and older), and the third (and fifth) Wednesday is open to everyone. Enter near Ron's Ice Cream. You can also walk up at 8 a.m. at the Beacon Recreation Center, 23 W. Center St. Philipstown Food Pantry The pantry at the First Presbyterian Church, 10 Aca...

"Big Eva" may be fading, but a new generation of online Christian influencers is taking its place. Phil, Skye, and Kaitlyn discuss the rise of "Gig Eva," how digital platforms are reshaping Christian authority, and why accountability to real churches and communities still matters. Then, the number of words people speak each day is dropping as more of everyday life moves online. The crew considers what we lose when convenience replaces even the smallest human interactions. Then, Skye talks with behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley about why conversations with strangers usually go better than we expect. They discuss how small choices to connect with others can make us happier, healthier, and less divided. Also this week, a new explosive ocean discovery.   Holy Post Plus: Ad-Free Version of this Episode: https://holypost.substack.com/p/731-why-you-should-talk-to-strangers?r=35kf51&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true   0:00 - Show Starts   0:44 - Theme Song   1:06 - Sponsor - Access Forge - Go to https://www.accessible.faith/ to unlock the first two Belonging by Design lessons and use promo code HOLYPOST to get $200 off the full program   2:10 - Sponsor - Feeding America - Your support puts healthy food within reach, fueling the future for kids and their families. Give now at https://FeedingAmerica.org/SummerHunger   2:52 - Orcas Exploding Sunfish!   9:40 - Big Eva is now Gig Eva   29:43 - Sponsor - World Relief - Update with Matthew Sorens! Help today at http://worldrelief.org/holypostadvocates   34:08 - Humans are talking less!   45:46 - Interview   52:07 - The "Quiet Car" on the Train   59:17 - The Power of Reciprocity   1:08:51 - Testing for Yourself   1:17:07 - Technology's Role in This   1:31:52 - End Credits   Links Mentioned in News Segment: Orcas Raming Into Sunfish: https://www.npr.org/2026/07/24/nx-s1-5905327/orcas-ram-sunfish-hard-explodes   From Big Eva to Gig Eva: https://firstthings.com/goodbye-big-eva-hello-gig-eva/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email   Humans Speaking Fewer Words: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/07/talking-less-reasons/688074/   Other Resources: A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection: https://amzn.to/3RIeF6K   Holy Post website: https://www.holypost.com/   Holy Post Plus: www.holypost.com/plus   Holy Post Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/holypost   Holy Post Merch Store: https://www.holypost.com/shop   The Holy Post is supported by our listeners. We may earn affiliate commissions through links listed here. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.  

What happens when an entrepreneur builds a business not out of a tech epiphany, but simply to survive? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Tal Frankfurt, Founder and CEO of Cloud for Good, to trace the company's remarkable evolution from a one-bedroom apartment to a premier Salesforce implementation partner spanning three continents. Tal shares his candid journey from managing giant, un-scalable spreadsheets for a small youth nonprofit to building an organization that now powers the data infrastructure for 75% of R1 higher education institutions and massive humanitarian networks like Feeding America.The heart of the conversation dives into how Cloud for Good is actively solving the tech industry's "experience gap" through its pioneering Talent for Good apprenticeship program. Strikingly more selective than elite universities, the program completely upends the classic tuition-heavy coding bootcamp model by paying career-changing individuals from day one to learn, get certified, and deploy directly into high-impact client systems. Tal discusses the incredible social impact of this pipeline—which brings massive demographic diversity into tech—without ever compromising on the rigorous quality demands of the modern enterprise workforce.Beyond workforce development, Todd and Tal unpack what it truly takes to scale a healthy company culture in a fully remote environment. From the dangers of "mistake hoarding" to the strategic shift toward becoming an IP-backed services company in the age of AI commodity, this episode is a masterclass in operational intentionality. Whether you are an educational leader navigating digital transformation, an entrepreneur scaling a remote team, or a professional looking to understand how AI will genuinely multiply human capability rather than replace it, this conversation offers invaluable, real-world blueprints.

The Fed left interest rates unchanged today despite inflation that's been above the 2 percent target for the last 60 months. Crude oil prices moved higher as the global conflict in the Strait of Hormuz flared again with attacks by Iran. Feeding America's latest update suggests food insecurity is still a major problem nationwide. 

Some of the Apostle Paul's letters in the Bible can be defensive, sarcastic, and even mean. New Testament scholar Scot McKnight says his nasty tone may stem from deep pain. But Paul's trauma wasn't caused by the persecution of nonbelievers but by fellow Christians. He offers Skye an illuminating look into what the apostle can teach us about church trauma today. Mike Erre joins the podcast crew to discuss the declining support for Israel among American Christians, the weird work of VR missionaries, a theory about aliveness that challenges introverts, and a robot that responds when nature calls.   Holy Post Plus: Ad-Free Version of this Episode: http://holypost.substack.com/p/729-church-trauma-and-the-apostle   0:00 - Show Starts 0:40 - Kaitlyn Was Summoned Away 3:04 -  Sponsor - Rocket Money - Find and cancel your old subscriptions with Rocket Money at https://www.rocketmoney.com/HOLYPOST   4:08- Sponsor - BetterHelp - This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/HOLYPOST and get 10% off your first month! 5:17 - Self-Driving Toilets! 11:54 - VR Missionaries 20:21 - Sponsor - Feeding America - Your support puts healthy food within reach, fueling the future for kids and their families. Give now at https://FeedingAmerica.org/SummerHunger 20:54 - Sponsor - PolicyGenius - Secure your family's tomorrow so you have peace of mind today. Go to https://www.policygenius.com/HOLYPOST to find the right life insurance for you 22:00 - Sponsor - Access Forge - Go to https://www.accessible.faith/ to unlock the first two Belonging by Design lessons and use promo code HOLYPOST to get $200 off the full program   23:04 - Americans Less Supportive of Israel   28:56 - Prosperity Gospel and Israel   36:10 - Aliveness and Where to Find it   50:19 - Interview   52:30 - Damaged Leaders   1:03:25 - Paul and Trauma   1:15:44 - Prescriptive vs Descriptive   1:27:54 - End Credits   Links Mentioned in News Segment: Aliveness: https://benbyfax.substack.com/p/aliveness   Christian Support for Israel Plummets: https://religionnews.com/2026/07/09/new-polls-show-plummeting-support-among-faith-groups-for-israeli-government-netanyahu/   Other Resources: Traumatized Church: What Paul's Relationship with the Corinthian Church Teaches Us About Helping Those Who are Hurting by Scot McKnight: https://amzn.to/4pltGYx Holy Post website: https://www.holypost.com/   Holy Post Plus: www.holypost.com/plus   Holy Post Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/holypost   Holy Post Merch Store: https://www.holypost.com/shop   The Holy Post is supported by our listeners. We may earn affiliate commissions through links listed here. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.  

Get ready to satisfy your cravings, Forsyth County! The dining landscape is about to get a whole lot sweeter. I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Alethea Rowe, the Senior Director of Public Relations at The Cheesecake Factory, for a deep dive on The Ash Said It Show to discuss the massive arrival of their newest location. Mark your calendars for July 21, 2026! The Cheesecake Factory is officially bringing its world-famous, upscale-casual dining experience to The Collection at Forsyth (410 Peachtree Parkway, Suite 242, Cumming, GA). This isn't just another restaurant—it's a landmark addition to the local culinary scene. With over 250 menu items prepared fresh daily, this sixth Atlanta-area location is ready to deliver those iconic generous portions and that signature "made-from-scratch" quality that fans have grown to love. During our chat, Alethea and I geeked out over the menu. With a menu that spans pages, there truly is something for everyone, from indulgent pasta dishes to fresh, vibrant salads. We're talking over 30 legendary cheesecake flavors, and the selection is almost as overwhelming as it is delicious! Alethea highlighted the brand's commitment to a stellar guest experience—it's not just about the food, but the warm, inviting atmosphere that makes every visit feel like a special occasion. The excitement doesn't stop with the grand opening. Get ready for July 30, 2026—National Cheesecake Day! All dine-in guests can enjoy any slice of cheesecake for 50% off. It's the perfect time to try that new flavor you've been eyeing. The Cheesecake Factory is also dropping a brand-new, limited-time flavor: Brownie Crunch Choc-a-Lot Cheesecake. Imagine creamy milk and white chocolate marbled cheesecake resting on a decadent, crunchy toffee brownie base. It's an absolute game-changer. Plus, the brand continues its meaningful partnership with Feeding America; for every slice of the new Brownie Crunch Choc-a-Lot sold, they will donate 25 cents to the fight against hunger. Make sure you're following along with The Ash Said It Show for more exclusive updates, and I'll see you at The Collection on July 21st! Follow: @cheesecakefactory Web: https://www.thecheesecakefacto... The Cheesecake Factory is a global culinary icon renowned for its upscale-casual dining experience and scratch-made menu featuring over 250 freshly prepared dishes. Since its inception, the brand has defined the "destination dining" category, blending global culinary inspiration with a commitment to high-quality ingredients and generous portions. From chef-curated appetizers and artisanal pizzas to savory entrées and handcrafted cocktails, the menu offers unmatched variety for every palate. At the heart of the experience is the world-famous Cheesecake, featuring over 30 decadent, signature varieties—ranging from the legendary Original Cheesecake to seasonal specialties like the Brownie Crunch Choc-a-Lot. This commitment to indulgence extends to every guest touchpoint, making it a premier venue for milestones, family celebrations, and everyday comfort dining. Beyond the plate, The Cheesecake Factory is a leader in community engagement through its long-standing partnership with Feeding America, driving social impact while serving millions of guests annually. With a strategic focus on expanding its national footprint, the brand continues to elevate the modern dining landscape by opening new flagship locations—such as the highly anticipated arrival at The Collection at Forsyth in Cumming, Georgia. Whether you are exploring their vast menu, celebrating National Cheesecake Day, or seeking a reliable, high-quality restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory remains the gold standard for premium, accessible fine dining. - Ready to ignite the spark that levels up your entire life? Meet Ash Brown—the American powerhouse, motivational architect, and ultimate hype-woman dedicated to your personal and professional evolution. Ash is far more than a voice in the personal development space; she is a trusted ally who delivers a masterclass in real-talk wisdom and infectious energy. Whether you are navigating a crossroads or ready to scale your grandest ambitions, Ash fuels your journey with a high-octane blend of heart and hustle.

Taylor Swift Today special bulletin: wedding week is here — and it opened with the classiest headline of all. Publicist Tree Paine confirmed on the record that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce donated $26 million to charities across the U.S. this week, spread across at least 20 organizations — and, very Taylor, the announcement never once mentions a wedding. Meanwhile the rehearsal dinner is reportedly tonight, the arena has been transformed overnight (no castle, despite the tabloids), and family and guests are arriving. Here's everything the last 24 hours brought. 

Hey y'all ! Welcome to another Friday with CWCOI ! In this week's episode, our host, Ally Yost reads through the book of Revelation in chapters 1 through 3. Revelation can be a book we are intimidated or overwhelmed by. Although, it was originally written to offer hope and encouragement to early Christians and it is just as relatable now as it was then. This episode is the start of a four part series that we will continue reading over the next few weeks until we finish Revelation completely. So grab your Bible if you're able to and let's dive deeper into what God has for us today. "God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near." Revelation 1:3 _____________________________________________ ☆ OUR NEW MERCH IS LIVE! SHOP AT: https://allyyost.com ☆ Give now to end hunger ➤ FeedingAmerica.org ☆ Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University ➤ GCU.edu ☆ Download the FREE Upside app now to find out how much money you could earn. Use code 'ONICE' to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas ➤ https://www.upside.com ☆ MY BIBLE (code 'ALLYYOST' at checkout) ➤ https://hosannarevival.com/collections/beautiful-bibles/products/nlt-notetaking-bible-belfast-theme ☆ TUMBLER LINK ➤ https://allyyost.com/products/cwcoi-glass-tumbler-white _____________________________________________ Connect further with us ! TikTok ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@christwithcoffeeonice  Instagram ➤ https://instagram.com/christwithcoffeeonice  _____________________________________________ Connect further with Ally ! TikTok (2M) ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@ally_yost  Instagram ➤ https://www.instagram.com/ally_yost/  ShopMy ➤ https://shopmy.us/allyyost  Pinterest ➤ https://www.pinterest.com/ally_yost1/_created/

Allison Komiyama, a consultant and senior regulatory strategist at DuVal & Associates and founder of Bluestocking Health, shares her journey from neuroscience and an FDA reviewer role into regulatory affairs and consulting. Allison explains why companies should educate FDA about their device by telling a compelling, respectful story, and discusses why “getting through FDA” is often the starting line. She highlights the post-clearance work of launch, adoption, and promotion while staying within FDA marketing rules. Allison also reflects on leadership, relying on community and advisory boards, her volunteer work, and the moments that affirm her impact when devices reach patients.  Guest links: https://www.bluestocking.health/  Charity supported: Feeding America Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 083 - Allison Komiyama [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and today I'm delighted to welcome as my guest, Allison Komiyama. Allison is a consultant focused on getting medical devices to market and helping them stay there. She frequently presents at conferences, is an advisor at numerous technology incubators, and teaches students around the world about the regulatory submissions as a faculty member at SDSU Global Campus. She received her doctorate in neuroscience in 2009, was an FDA reviewer from 2010 to 2011, received her Regulatory Affairs Certification US in 2014, and became a RAPS Fellow in 2024. Throughout her career, she's been actively involved in hundreds of pre-submissions and pre-market submissions for a wide variety of medical device companies. She recently started a medical device hype company called Bluestocking Health, where she continues to elevate and amplify the message of exciting technologies entering the market. She's also a senior regulatory strategist at DuVal & Associates, where she helps companies navigate the FDA pre-market process. Alright, well, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here today. [00:01:59] Allison Komiyama: Thank you so much. I'm so glad to be here. [00:02:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Well, I've been looking forward to this conversation very much. I got to meet you, I think it was maybe last fall, and it was after watching a video where I believe you were chopping wood while explaining a medtech concept, I and was like, "I have to meet this person." [00:02:21] Allison Komiyama: I like that that is how we, we, yeah, that you were introduced to me is through a wood chopping video. But yes, that was me. I love... I am a lumberjill, so yeah. [00:02:31] Lindsey Dinneen: See? And we will get into this, let's start with just a little intro into who you are, your background, and what led you to medtech. [00:02:39] Allison Komiyama: Sure. So background's actually biology, neuroscience. Left academia after graduate school and went and worked at FDA. I was just there for a brief period of time, but it was very instrumental in having me understand what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I loved regulatory affairs. I knew that I loved med devices and the intersection of medtech and innovation and regulatory and, and, and, and, and, right? Like, so all the things I was just super excited to be part of this space. But after leaving FDA, sort of tried to figure out what... You know, did I wanna work at a company? Did I actually wanna be at a specific industry job? Tried that on. Tried that hat on for a little over a year at an IVD company and just sort of missed all the stuff I got to work on at FDA. So I kind of saw it as the second-best thing after FDA is to go into consulting. So really worked with a lot of startups and companies that were bringing their technologies to market, and yeah, never looked back. I did sort of change positions over the years from going from a small consulting company to my own consulting company to a large consulting company, and now I'm sort of back at a, a smaller regulatory law firm. It's not that small, but, you know, 15-some people at DuVal & Associates working with companies that need help with strategy and regulatory support as well. And also started my passion project, which is Bluestocking Health. It is a medtech hype company, is what I call us. And we really work on helping companies after they've made it through FDA onto what... you know, what does, what does their launch look like? How do they get people to adopt their technologies and not sort of flounder and, and fail, right? So I, I love seeing really cool, nerdy, geeky tech get to market, and I think we all have a sort of inner geek that loves stuff like that, and it's my happy place where I can just kind of talk about those things and share it with patients and caregivers alike. [00:04:47] Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. I love that. Yeah, and so much to dive into. But one of the things also I remember, so so I, I watch this video and you're chopping wood, and you're, you're clearly super passionate about medtech. And then I think the next one, were you possibly like baking or doing some sort of maybe chopping? [00:05:08] Allison Komiyama: Yes. I do flower arranging, so it might've been that one. I, I-- That's a great idea, though. I love to bake. I love protocol, so I think you're onto something. I need to come up with a video maybe where I'm talking about, like, the de novo process and, like, baking a cake or something. So. [00:05:27] Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. And you're right, it was flower arranging, and I was thinking at the time, "Is there anything you don't do?" [00:05:35] Allison Komiyama: Yes. I-- There's a lot of things I don't do or don't even dare to do. Mostly dangerous sports. I, I'm a rower, so I love to row where no one's touching you. You know, like no one... There's no physical contact. You're just in a boat pulling an oar, and it's quiet and peaceful and, you know, also you're working hard. So, but otherwise, yeah, don't want any contact sports in my life. And but there's a lot of things I don't do, of course. I just have a lot of hobbies and things that I enjoy doing. [00:06:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. So did the idea for Bluestocking Health come from? I mean, I know you explained a little bit about what the company does and who it helps, but first of all, I'm really curious about the name, and second of all, I'm just curious about, yeah, what made you go, "Gosh, this is the right time for this"? [00:06:27] Allison Komiyama: Yeah, great question. I-- So Bluestockings were... I'll, I'll go first into the origin story 'cause I think it kind of helps explain why I picked up that name. The Bluestockings were a group of mostly women in the 1700s in England who were, you know, kind of tired of sitting around playing card games and, you know, learning new dance routines-- not that there's anything wrong with that-- I love doing all of those things. But they decided they wanted to pursue some more intellectual and intellectually stimulating conversations with people. So they would invite women and men into their salons to have these conversations, and they would talk about botany and, yeah, science, art, literature, theater, all of the things that sort of sparked their interest. And they would say, you know, "Don't worry about wearing your black stockings," which were, like, the highly fashionable, expensive stockings of the day. They said, "Just come in your blue stockings. It's fine." You know, which were wool and, you know, cheaper. And I was like, oh, I love that idea of just people getting together, talking about stuff that they find interesting, and having it be like, "Come as you are. Wear your sweats," you know? "Don't worry about getting fancy." And that resonated with me. And so I thought, you know, what I want to build is something similar to what the Bluestockings had, but have it be more medtech or health-focused, and so hence Bluestocking Health was born. I, yeah, I really... A-as I said earlier, I saw a lot of companies feel like getting through FDA was the finish line, and I s- you know, I would tell them, like, "No, that's kind of the starting line with a lot of what you're going to now need to build." You know? It's-- I, I think historically FDA was seen as, like, the hardest thing to get through, which isn't always the case, right? The, the 510K program is historically very successful with getting devices cleared. You know, FDA does wanna work with you, and that was my narrative and my mantra always was like, you know, "How do you work with FDA to get through FDA?" And then once you're through FDA, what's next? And I wanted to have those honest conversations, you know, as these companies were considering the product development, their quality system, their regulatory, and, you know, even reimbursement is also part of that post-market conversation. And I wanted them to also think about, "How are you gonna get patients to know about this? Like, what are ways that you can promote yourself and promote what you're doing without misbranding or mislabeling or adulterating anything, right?" You wanna stay within FDA's regulations and not do anything wrong marketing-wise. But it's also something to get really excited about, and I think we've often forgotten that a lot of these medtech devices do really, really cool things, do really amazing work to help people, help people s- you know, improve their quality of life. Let-- Help them survive, get them to live longer, let kids actually make it to adulthood, right? So there's so much good that I wanted to amplify that more. I wanted to get people to not just focus on the negative, right? There is, there is a lot of harm that can come from any sort of drug, device, anything, but there's also a lot of good. And so I think especially right now in the world we need more good things to talk about. Not that I wanna, you know, look at everything through rose-colored glasses. But I do think if we can focus on some of the good that's going on in the world and the things that we have in common, what a great conversation to have. [00:10:14] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I love the fact that and you're so much fun. You're helping these companies also get excited too, because I think sometimes it's really easy-- I mean, we need to take our industry seriously. It's a serious industry and real life consequences, good and bad, from innovation... [00:10:29] Allison Komiyama: Yes. [00:10:30] Lindsey Dinneen: ...But I think you know, we've, we've talked a lot about this recently, even ar- along amongst just some of my colleagues, is like we're gonna take, we're gonna take our actual work very seriously, of course, but we're gonna not take ourselves super seriously. We're gonna have fun. We're gonna celebrate. We're going to each other why we're here and why we're doing this, 'cause otherwise it can get easy to get kind of bogged down in the, the nitty-gritty. [00:10:52] Allison Komiyama: Oh, it's so easy to spiral. I-- And I feel like a lot of media allows us a-and, and capitalizes on that doom scroll/spiraling of, "Oh gosh, everything's bad." And I wanna be informed, but I also, as you said, I don't wanna take myself that seriously. Like, I have so many hobbies. I laugh a lot. I have really great conversations with people, and I think that's what I, you know... the legacy I wanna le- leave behind is that I made the world a little better than when I started here. And also that I had a lot of joy to share. So yeah. [00:11:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. So I-I'm curious, going back to your days at the FDA, what are some of the common things that you saw where perhaps there's either a misconception about the process of approval or just mistakes you might have seen that were kind of common that maybe those who are listening who are trying to, you know, get through it as, as easily as possible could benefit from? [00:11:54] Allison Komiyama: I think one of the biggest misconceptions and it wasn't anyone's fault, was that FDA are the experts in what you're building. And maybe, maybe folks knew that that wasn't the case. You know, they walk in and they know that they're living and breathing their technology and their device day in and day out. They've been building it for years oftentimes. And so to think that FDA understands your patient population, understands the, the sensor technology or whatever technology you're building understands your software, your materials, all, all the various things that go into a s- a pre-market submission, is a terrible assumption to make, right? Not that you wanna treat FDA like a bunch of dummies, that you're like, "Oh, you guys don't know anything. I'm gonna have to start from, you know, square one here to really walk you through everything." But you definitely want to communicate and be able to tell a really solid story to FDA about what you're building or what you've built, and why you believe it's either safe and effective, or why you believe it's substantially equivalent, or why you believe the benefits outweigh the risks. And so I think if you can be that storyteller, if you can really walk FDA through what it is you've built, and why you think it should be, you know, allowed to enter interstate commerce, you've w- you know, you, you're already ahead of the game. So I think any company that really is trying to figure out what's that first interaction they're gonna have with FDA, whether it be at a pre-submission or just straight to pre-market submission, right? They're just gonna file the, the, the 510K or what have you. Really making sure that you've explained your product and they know why you're there. Otherwise, you are going to cause more questions than answers from FDA, and that's a big concern when you have somebody who doesn't understand what you're doing or why you've built it the way you've built it. That can really set you back. [00:13:56] Lindsey Dinneen: That's great advice. So, so being really prepared to kindly educate while telling the story, but you know, doing so, of course, in a, like you said, a respectful way. But, but having those answers ready, having the narrative really thought out so that you can walk in with that authority, but also explanation and storytelling. Yeah. Okay. [00:14:19] Allison Komiyama: Exactly. Yeah. It is. I mean, I always my-- I've actually, I have a podcast that I f- a few of my guests recently, they've all been expert or experts in how we tell stories, which I love even just... I mean, how we tell stories to our children is very different to how you tell a story to a colleague at work or, you know, the... and there's a way that, once you know your audience and once you know what it is you're trying to convey, there's a very clean path that you can follow. I'm still working on it. I have to, I have to confess, I am not a great storyteller. I have a tendency to get sidetracked and off topic, probably like what I'm doing right now. But, but you know, bringing it back and, like, what are, what are we trying to do? What are we trying to accomplish? And that I think that storytelling is really valuable when you have FDA as your audience. [00:15:15] Lindsey Dinneen: So I know, like you said, you have many hobbies and lots of things that keep you occupied, but you also do a lot of volunteering for boards. And I was wondering if you could share just a little bit about some of that experience and what you're passionate about there. [00:15:29] Allison Komiyama: Yeah. I think I've always been a big fan of volunteering. I think it's one of the ways that I I meet new people, I get involved in s- things that are outside medtech, which I think is extremely valuable. There's so many voices that even if it's not directly in medtech, everyone's impacted by medtech in some way, right? Like I always say, "You're either gonna start in a hospital or end in a hospital, and you're probably gonna go into a hospital at many different times or use a medical device, whether it be on your phone or, well, while you sleep or," you know, for any-- I don't know, there's a million purposes that people use medical devices. And I wanted to have more voices around me that that are, that are helping humanity, but in a different way. So, one of the boards that's always been near and dear to my heart, of course, my rowing club. I love... It's the oldest women's rowing club in the world. It's called Slack Rowing Club, based here in San Diego, and I help with a lot of the programs, but also fundraising, membership, and just, you know, having this really dynamic group of 400 women that some of them row, some of them are just there to be part of a community and help each other, which is pretty marvelous. And we do a lot of actually talks. Like we'll have a speaker series and we'll bring in physicians or we'll bring in people who are talking about sleep and perimenopause and menopause or, you know, various topics that definitely impact our our cohort. It, it's actually kind of similar to Bluestockings, like the original Bluestockings, where we'll have someone come in and talk about architecture. Like there's various things. So I love doing that. It's also-- They're-- The members are from like 12 years old to 102 years old. It's pretty amazing, and just, like, this great dynamic group of women who are fun to volunteer with and also sit in a boat with. The other one that I've joined last year was the International Relief Teams, which works on helping bring some sort of relief to an emergency situation, whether it be floods or fires or famine or war. Like, there's, They partner-- We partner with different organizations that are, like, boots on the ground in those areas to either build houses or get m- meals or get water to where it needs to be in an emergency. So IRT is fantastic. They get, like, one of the highest ratings of nonprofits. The other one is Indy Medtech. Really cool. That's a very medtech-based one. It's a virtual board, but it is building a community of medtech suppliers and people who are just needing support from each other or you know, either hiring or, "Hey, I have a question. Can someone help answer this 'cause I don't know where to go to get the answer to this?" So really cool, and they, they're doing a podcast as well. I love it. And then last but not least is the San Diego Regulatory Affairs Network. So I have been in San Diego, moved here back here, I should -- i'm from San Diego-- but moved back here in 2011, 2012, and I joined the San Diego Regulatory Affairs Network. It's the SoCal... Like, there's a similar one in Orange County, the Orange County Regulatory Affairs, so OCRA, and then there's also, of course, RAPS, and there's a Southern California chapter. And it's just a group of regulatory folks that love to meet up, love to support each other. "Hey, I have this job opening coming up. Hey is there a mentee that would like a mentor?" And so I'm now the VP of programs for that, and once a month we try to have a speaker either virtually or in person. There's gonna be some in-person ones. And I love it. It's just a great way to network, to support each other, and also to learn more cool stuff going on in regulatory. So yeah, that's a smattering of the ones that I'm part of. So, you know, as, as you said, like, it's kind of like they're all over the place, but it definitely makes me feel more connected with humans, with our-- you know, like, and, and not doomscroll. I'm, I'm too busy to doomscroll. So. [00:19:44] Lindsey Dinneen: That's, that's a good thing, I feel like. So, I love that. Okay. Those are g- those are such cool organizations. Thank you for sharing a bit about them. [00:19:51] Allison Komiyama: Yeah. Thanks for asking. [00:19:52] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So all right, I'm curious. Going back, could eight-year-old Allison have ever imagined what you're doing now? [00:20:02] Allison Komiyama: Never in a million years. Yeah, I think I, I knew I loved biology and bugs and science at a very young age, so I knew that I was probably on that trajectory. But if you asked eight-year-old-- or actually, I-- if you asked five-year-old Alison what she wanted to be, the first was hummingbird, and I did... That did not pan out. [00:20:29] Lindsey Dinneen: Dang it. [00:20:29] Allison Komiyama: But and then I would say florist 'cause I love flower arranging, so that is something that I've s- I've kept up with, as you said, like you saw the video of me arranging flowers. I still love doing that. I, I enjoy that creative outlet. But not in regulatory. I didn't really know that regulatory affairs existed as a career especially until I was 26. I mean, which is crazy to think, like I was in grad school, and I took a course on the history of FDA, and I was like, "What is this? This is so exciting, so interesting." And I knew that was something, that something along those lines is what I wanted to do with using my biology and, and neuroscience background, but also how do I maybe get closer to medicine in a certain way? Like, I, I didn't wanna be a medical doctor, but I knew I wanted to help people. Like, I think most people wanna help people. And that was, that was the right pivot for me at that point. [00:21:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. So, all right. So you've had a bunch of different leadership positions now over the years. And of course, you have led your own company now a couple different iterations, I suppose, of, of what you've been doing. But what has that leadership journey been like for you, especially perhaps how different it is between working for another company where you might be in a leadership role versus leading yourself and your company? [00:21:56] Allison Komiyama: Great question. I-- what was it, what's it been like? I would say there's like equal parts fearlessness, excitement, and terror. I don't know, like I-- maybe those are all kind of, of the same like ilk of those, those feelings. My daughter always says, she's like, "I'm nervous and I'm excited," like before she goes on stage in the talent show, and she's like, "I'm nerve-cited." And I, I, I use that a lot now too 'cause, you know, before I give a talk or before I you know, go on a podcast like this, I'm like, "I'm nerve-cited," 'cause it's gonna be something that I haven't done before, right? Every day is a little different and... But it's also exciting to do. I Yeah. I, I feel like it was not always easy. Like, people are like, "Oh, you made it look so easy and, and just, you know, seamless." And oof, there were moments that I really struggled. It's... You know, there have been times that I really relied on my family, on therapy, on my friends to really help me. And even just, you know, something as simple as I had a friend who made my first website for me. He was like, "You're so busy and stressed," like, "Let me help you." And so I think calling on others and really having people be your community that you've built, right? Like, I think sometimes we try and go it alone, and maybe that's the worst thing to do when you're building something 'cause you really need to rely on others to help you out. And so I've had, you know, I've, I've, I've worked really hard on my network and to build the friends and colleagues that I want to surround myself with, and then I have reached out to them when I knew I need them. So I, for example, I think with Bluestocking Health, I... When I was-- Before I launched in last year, so September of 2025, I called a bunch of folks that I really trusted to tell me if I was going off course or to also help me build stuff. And my advisory board for Bluestocking Health is amazing. Like, they're not all in regulatory, 'cause that's not what I wanted to build. They're in media. They're in quality system, reimbursement, business strategy. Like, there's such a diverse group of folks that will also help be my sounding board, right? Like, I had a couple medical doctors that I reached out to that are on the advisory board that I was like, "I'm thinking of doing this. Can you give me, like, your thoughts pro/con?" And they always are so willing to help, right, if they have the time. It's been extremely rewarding. So I would say that leadership journey, again, not the easiest at times, but also when it gets hard calling on those friends to really support me has been really marvelous. [00:24:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. You know, that's such an interesting thing because this has come up a lot, especially in the last few episodes and just conversations I've had in the industry of the importance of community and mentorship and surrounding yourself with those good people who you can call and go, "Okay, I have this, I have this, I think maybe crazy idea. What do you think?" Or just, "Hey, life is a little tough right now. Can we just, can we just talk?" So that's... [00:25:15] Allison Komiyama: Yeah. [00:25:15] Lindsey Dinneen: ...Really cool. [00:25:17] Allison Komiyama: Yeah. Absolutely [00:25:19] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay. So as you've gone through your career, and especially within the medtech industry, which seems like you've really just, you know, fell in love with and, and stayed, so that's wonderful. Are there any moments that stand out to you as really affirming that, "Yes, I am in the right place at the right time"? [00:25:40] Allison Komiyama: I think every clearance De Novo granting that I've ever been part of, even if my name's not on the file, has been one of those moments where, oh, it feels so good. It feels so great to see those companies make it through FDA. And then also, you know, to the next point or d- you know once they are selling and they're, they're helping patients, I've had clients reach out to me and say, "I just got this amazing testimonial from somebody and I wanted to share it with you because you were part of that journey." And oftentimes I'll say, "Can I share that with the FDA reviewer that helped us 'cause they're still there and I really think that they would value that, that piece of information, just that commentary and that validation." I mean, w- I've had ones where the testimonial was like, "Because of this device, my kid is alive today. My kid would have been-- would have died two years ago if it hadn't been for this product." And like, I even just got chills. Like I-- honestly, it feels like even though I'm not a medical doctor, even though I was, you know, integral maybe in putting their 510K together or their submission together, and I've never touched the device necessarily, I feel so rewarded that it's like, we did it. We did it together, right? And I, I wanna share that with others. I think that's part of what I'm trying to do with Bluestocking Health is like we all are part of this community, and it's not that we just like clock in and we, you know, do document control or, you know, work on our risk assessments and, you know, clock out for the day. It's like, no, we, we do all help save lives, right? What a, what a powerful thing to be part of and to know that that's, that's something that you helped do. I don't know. I, I-- maybe that sounds again a little too like look how great we are. Like how, you know, look at, look at how amazing this space is, but oh, it is. It 100% is, so. [00:27:43] Lindsey Dinneen: No, I could not agree with you more. I've, I've always felt the same way of just like, "Okay, I'm, I'm not the scientist, I'm not the engineer, I'm not the regulatory affairs person. I, you know, I play a very small role. I, I help talk about the devices." I sh- you know, the marketing... [00:27:59] Allison Komiyama: Yes. [00:28:00] Lindsey Dinneen: ...And that's, you know, that's, that's not the biggest component of bringing these devices to market by any stretch of the imagination. But I do get to play a role, and I think that is the coolest thing ever. Yeah. [00:28:12] Allison Komiyama: Yeah. Well, and think of-- I mean, I'm gonna be your hype woman for a second because think of all the people who learn about that tech or understand, "Hey, this might be something right for me or my loved one, and if I hadn't learned about it or if I hadn't you know, been exposed to this idea or even knowing that this is in clinical trials, okay, now I'm gonna go look into the clinical trial." Like, that information sharing and even just talking to people or talking to laypeople, like, there's such an important piece of the marketing and the strategy around that, that it's huge. I-- you know, like, directly or indirectly, you've saved a life, right? How cool is that? [00:28:56] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, exactly. How cool is that? It's, it's remarkable. Okay. So, all right. Pivoting the conversation a little bit just for fun. Imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a master class on anything you want. [00:29:09] Allison Komiyama: Ooh, yes. [00:29:10] Lindsey Dinneen: What would you choose? [00:29:10] Allison Komiyama: I mean, all of the things in my header, I think at LinkedIn. So I lo- but I'll, I'll give you a real answer in a second. I think, I mean, all of the... I love my creative outlets. So I love flower arranging, I love face painting, I love chopping wood. I love cross-stitch and needlepoint, and my daughter and I just started doing crocheting together. So I feel all of those things are so I... Not that I'm a master in any of those things, but maybe it's being willing to try new things or having that, I don't feel, I don't consider myself to be a totally fearless person, but maybe channeling some of that fearlessness and a willingness to try new things, and where do we find that and how do we kinda overcome some of that activation energy sometimes to get to try those new things? And I think innovators have that in spades, right? So a lot of the companies that we work with, they're like, "I have an idea, and I don't know if this is gonna work, but I'm gonna go for it." And I think a lot of those cre- it, it's a creative outlet for them as well, right? They're trying something new. And so maybe it's giving people more more support or more confidence that they can try new things. I feel like I don't love change. Like I, I, as a child, I like, I liked the things that just stay the same. But when you look at my arc and my, my origin story, it has been all about very unsettling moments or, you know, like where I was felt, feeling very unsettled or like trying something new, and I'm so grateful for all of those things, and I'm also really grateful that I did it, right? So a- and again, it came down to a lot of my community, my friends, my family that supported me and said, "Yeah, you can do this," right? Having those hype people to help me. So maybe a masterclass in just like being the hype person for people who wanna try new things and try leadership, right? Or try a new path that they hadn't thought about yet. [00:31:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Like, I think to your point too, the more that you're willing to do that and kind of step a little bit outside of your comfort zone and have that potential for quote unquote "failure." But, you know, first of all, the more you do that, the more resilient you get, which means it's easier and easier and easier to take those first steps, right, into something new. [00:31:43] Allison Komiyama: Yes. [00:31:44] Lindsey Dinneen: But I also think-- I, I often think about it in terms of if you can frame those kinds of moments as "I am exploring, this is an exploration" and not like pass-fail, if you're exploring, there's, there's no chance of failure, right? You can, you can explore something and go, "Ugh, not for me," or you can go, "Oh, I actually love this, but it's hard and I'm gonna have to keep working at it." But I think if you can like kind of maybe take it in a slightly different mental direction, that also helps, you know? [00:32:13] Allison Komiyama: Ooh, I like that. Yeah. Like reframing. This is not, this is not something that's gonna, you know, end in failure, 'cause I agree with you. You know, I've called it failure in the past where it's like, "I'm gonna try things. If this fails, then I'll go do something else," right, which then it's not really a failure. You learned something. But it is being able to change directions. It is the ability to say, "Okay, I figured out that I something from that, and then what am I, what am I gonna do with that information?" So I love that. [00:32:48] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that'll be a masterclass. I can't wait. okay. And how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:32:55] Allison Komiyama: Oof. I hope I... It's, oof. I, I, I hope to be remembered. Yeah. What does my dash look like? Isn't that what they say? Like, what is the dash between the, the birth year and your the year of your death? I definitely wanna be remembered for, like, what my kids are doing, 'cause I'm pretty proud of, like, how badass both of those girls are. But back to your question. I would like to be remembered as somebody who helped innovators and people who were building in the medtech space to grow their brand, to get their message out there, and to really bring awareness to the benefits of medtech. I think it's so easy, as I said earlier, it's very easy for us to get caught up in the bad and the negative, and here are the risks, and we really are so nervous about the risks of things, as we should be. We should be a res- risk-averse population. Like, they-- I don't wanna be walking towards something that's gonna cause me harm. And at the same time, there's a lot of benefit to what we're doing, and I think if we can I guess what we were just talking about, reframe a little bit and say, "Yes, there's risk. There's inevitable things that are gonna happen, but here's the potential benefit," and how do we h- in a human way, weigh those things so that we can get other people to also see that this is something that could benefit them. So it's sharing that message. I wanna know, be, you know, considered somebody who also didn't take herself too seriously, made people laugh. You know, maybe they showed their, their kid a, a video of me doing something silly, but also maybe there's some kid out there that's like, "Oh, she was talking about regulatory affairs. What's that? Maybe I should look into that as a career option." So, yeah, I hope some of it is inspiring to others. [00:34:48] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. That's, that's great. And then final question: What's one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:34:59] Allison Komiyama: I wanna say my kids, but really it's probably hummingbirds. I have never lost the total fascination with hummingbirds. They are so interesting. They're so beautiful. There's a lot of them here in San Diego where I live, and I kid you not, last year, a mother hummingbird built her nest right outside of our front door. And so we'd have-- we told our guests, like, "Come through the, the side gate 'cause do not walk close to, to our sweet hummingbird." And she laid two eggs, and I was able to watch these two little hummingbirds grow and fledge. And I... It was just one of-- again, it makes me smile every time I think about it. Every time I see a hummingbird, I'm like, "That might be our girl that, that had, that had her nest right here." So yeah, I think that whimsy, the, the, the fun and just how gorgeous they are. They always bring... sparks me joy, for sure. [00:35:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Me too. I adore hummingbirds. One of my favorites. Yeah, love that. Oh my goodness. Well, this has been an amazing conversation. Allison, thank you so much for taking time today to speak with me, and we are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf today to Feeding America, which works to end hunger in the United States by partnering with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger, and also they advocate for policies that create long term solutions to hunger. So thank you so much for choosing that charity to support. Oh my gosh, and just thank you so much for everything you're doing to change lives for a better world. We're grateful for you. [00:36:42] Allison Komiyama: Thank you. It's so nice to be here. Thank you so much for having me on. [00:36:45] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Until next time. [00:36:49] Dan Purvis: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium Medical. Velentium Medical is a full service CDMO, serving medtech clients worldwide to securely design, manufacture, and test class two and class three medical devices. Velentium Medical's four units include research and development-- pairing electronic and mechanical design, embedded firmware, mobile app development, and cloud systems with the human factor studies and systems engineering necessary to streamline medical device regulatory approval; contract manufacturing-- building medical products at the prototype, clinical, and commercial levels in the US, as well as in low cost regions in 1345 certified and FDA registered Class VII clean rooms; cybersecurity-- generating the 12 cybersecurity design artifacts required for FDA submission; and automated test systems, assuring that every device produced is exactly the same as the device that was approved. Visit VelentiumMedical.com to explore how we can work together to change lives for a better world.

Hey y'all ! Welcome to another Friday with CWCOI ! In this week's episode, our host, Ally Yost reads through Ecclesiastes chapters 1-3. Ecclesiastes highlights the fact that nothing will ever fulfill us the way Jesus does. It's in our human and sinful nature that we try to seek comfort and fulfillment in all the things of the world. So grab your Bible and let's open the Word of God together :) "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him." Psalm 62:1 _____________________________________________ ☆ OUR NEW MERCH IS LIVE! SHOP AT: https://allyyost.com ☆ Give now to end hunger ➤ FeedingAmerica.org ☆ Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University ➤ GCU.edu ☆ Upgrade your sleep with Boll & Branch. Get 15% off your first order plus free shipping at ➤ bollandbranch.com/CWCOI with code CWCOI ☆ Right now save up to 30% on mattresses and up to 35% on everything else when you go to ➤ Casper.com. One last time: That's C-A-S-P-E-R dot com and save up to 30% on the mattress you deserve. #sponsored ☆ If you're struggling with OCD or unrelenting intrusive thoughts, NOCD can help. Book a free 15 minute call to get started ➤ https://learn.nocd.com/CWCOI ☆ MY BIBLE (code 'ALLYYOST' at checkout) ➤ https://hosannarevival.com/collections/beautiful-bibles/products/nlt-notetaking-bible-belfast-theme ☆ TUMBLER LINK ➤ https://allyyost.com/products/cwcoi-glass-tumbler-black _____________________________________________ Connect further with us ! TikTok ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@christwithcoffeeonice  Instagram ➤ https://instagram.com/christwithcoffeeonice  _____________________________________________ Connect further with Ally ! TikTok (2M) ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@ally_yost  Instagram ➤ https://www.instagram.com/ally_yost/  ShopMy ➤ https://shopmy.us/allyyost  Pinterest ➤ https://www.pinterest.com/ally_yost1/_created/

The federal poverty line for a family of four in America is $33,000 a year. In Virginia, a single person needs to earn more than $50,000 just to meet their basic needs. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes back Les Sinclair, Communications and PR Manager at the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, for a candid conversation about why hunger and unemployment have "decoupled" since the pandemic — and why the people now showing up at food pantries are increasingly working, employed, and earning more than the federal poverty level. Les walks through the MIT Living Wage Calculator and what it really costs to live in places like Winchester versus Warren County, the math that makes a $3 donation worth nine meals, and the stories behind the statistics — including a bus driver who was living in her truck and saved enough through a mobile food pantry to put a down payment on an apartment, and the HVAC family that sold their kitchen table to buy food before discovering a partner pantry. Plus: the realities of summer hunger when 56,000+ children in the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank's service region lose access to school meals, why USDA donations are down and the food bank is now spending hundreds of thousands on protein, and how the Supper Club provides the kind of reliable monthly support that keeps shelves full. UNDERSTANDING MODERN HUNGER — THE NUMBERS • Federal poverty level for a family of four (2025): $33,000/year • Virginia basic-needs income for a single adult: over $50,000/year (MIT Living Wage Calculator) • Virginia unemployment rate: below 4% • Blue Ridge Area Food Bank monthly guest visits: ~177,000 • Children among guest visits: 1 in 3 • Children food-insecure in Virginia: 1 in 7 • SNAP-to-charitable-network meal ratio: 9 to 1 • Emergency food box size: ~30 pounds of food per person • $1 donated = ~3 meals provided ($3 = 9 meals) HOW TO HELP • Donate at https://www.brafb.org/ — every dollar provides about three meals • Join the Supper Club — recurring monthly donations the food bank can rely on (as little as $10/month) • Volunteer — locally with the food bank, with a partner pantry, or with local school-food programs  • Use the Food Finder — for yourself or to help a neighbor (search by location, with hours and directions) • Support local food-pantry partners and summer feeding programs in your community LINKS & RESOURCES • Blue Ridge Area Food Bank: https://www.brafb.org/ (Food Finder tool, Supper Club, donations) • Blue Ridge Area Food Bank on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn • MIT Living Wage Calculator: livingwage.mit.edu (search your city/county) • Feeding America — the national network of food banks • Bright Futures Winchester/Frederick County — summer food bus program (Elise's organization, mentioned) • Winchester CCAP and other local food pantry partners across the Blue Ridge service region THE VALLEY TODAY with Janet Michael — A decade of conversations. New podcast episodes drop weekdays at 11 AM. Catch the show on The River 95.3 and Fox Sports 1450 AM weekdays just after noon. Subscribe and listen at thevalleytodaypodcast.com — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoy the show, please take a moment to leave a rating or review — it helps more listeners find us. Connect with us: Facebook — facebook.com/ValleyTodayFanPage Instagram — instagram.com/thevalleytoday

Hey y'all ! Welcome to another Friday with CWCOI ! In this week's episode, our host, Ally Yost opens up the Bible and leads us through Ephesians 1. There's is nothing more fruitful then reading the Word of God together and diving deeper into what Jesus has for us. We know that you guys have expressed loving these types of episodes so please let us know what you'd like us to read through next :) "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." Ephesians 1:5 _____________________________________________ ☆ Download the FREE Upside app now to find out how much money you could earn. Use code 'ONICE' to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas ➤ https://www.upside.com ☆ Give now to end hunger ➤ FeedingAmerica.org ☆ Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to ➤ www.Quo.com/COFFEEONICE ☆ Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University ➤ GCU.edu ☆ OUR NEW MERCH IS LIVE! SHOP AT: https://allyyost.com ☆ MY BIBLE (code 'ALLYYOST' at checkout) ➤ https://hosannarevival.com/products/nlt-notetaking-bible-versailles-theme ☆ TUMBLER LINK ➤ https://allyyost.com/products/travel-tumbler _____________________________________________ Connect further with us ! TikTok ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@christwithcoffeeonice  Instagram ➤ https://instagram.com/christwithcoffeeonice  _____________________________________________ Connect further with Ally ! TikTok (2M) ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@ally_yost  Instagram ➤ https://www.instagram.com/ally_yost/  ShopMy ➤ https://shopmy.us/allyyost  Pinterest ➤ https://www.pinterest.com/ally_yost1/_created/

North Carolina is one of the nation's top agricultural producing states. And it is also a state where one in seven residents don't have the resources to provide food on their table every day. Today, I'm talking with Amy Beros, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina - the state's largest food bank. Each year, this organization provides 95 million meals distributed through more than 700 partner agencies, food pantries, congregate meal sites, backpack programs. And they do this in 34 counties in the state. In our conversation today, we will explore the policy issues that this food bank and many food banks face. Interview Transcript Amy, I want to ask a really simple question about what got you to this place. So how in the world did you get involved in food banking? Oh, gosh. Well, you know, when I was growing up, I didn't know what food banking was. But I knew that it was our responsibility to make sure that neighbors helped neighbors. So, I grew up volunteering what I know now is a partner agency of the local food bank in my hometown. And as I moved across the country, I found ways to get involved. When I moved here to North Carolina about 16 years ago, I found food banks. I've been working professionally in food banking for a little over 12 years now. But I believe that food is a basic human right, and it has been my life's work to make sure that we're doing everything we can to ensure everyone has what they need. Thank you for sharing that. And I can imagine over the years, as I've also been involved in food banking but on the board side or as a volunteer, that this is a work that we sometimes think it's just about moving food and providing that. However, there's a whole policy framework that, sort of, surrounds and influences and shapes what food banking and what the work of the partner agencies, the food pantries on the ground, what they do. I wonder if you could help make this a little bit more real for us. Could you tell us a little bit about how policy becomes personal in your work? Can you share a moment when that really came true for you? Oh, I think the most recent blinding moment was last year during the government shutdown. Well, one, there's a lot of noise on TV right now, right, and in the media, but you hear of these massive numbers, and we know that our elected leaders are looking at these numbers on spreadsheets. And we see the humans behind those numbers and their stories. And these are thousands and thousands of stories like the ones that we hear about each day. Last year, during the shutdown, a father of five reached out to me and said, "I have five children. I work at the federal prison. I'm missing my second paycheck. For the first time in my life, I don't know how I'm going to put food on the table." Or the SNAP delay and disruption that we had. For the first time in our history during that shutdown, a mother reaching out and saying, "I don't know what to do. I've told my children to eat everything they can at school because I don't know what we're going to have when we get home, if we don't have these benefits." And that's just two stories and one crisis. And so many of our neighbors are living a crisis every day. These systemic issues. And we see those humans and hear their stories each day. And I think that's when it becomes personal. These decisions, one stroke of a pen, impacts food for hundreds of thousands of neighbors. Thank you for sharing that. I teach a class called the Economics of the Public Sector, and we often talk about policies that provide support to individuals. And it can be easy to talk about these policies as if they're just decisions that policymakers make, but there are real people who are dependent on these policies. And when they don't work or when rules change, it has significant implications for how people navigate. And so, I appreciate the work that you all are doing. I want to take a step back and talk about food banking. And while I know a lot of our listeners are familiar with food banking and food pantries, I do know that people kind of mix those two terms up. Amy, would you just tell us, broadly speaking, what's a food bank, and then what are the partner agencies. And how do they relate to one another? Yes, absolutely. Our food bank serves 34 counties in North Carolina. And as you shared, we work with over 700 partners. We work with growers. We work with over 80 local farmers in North Carolina. We work with manufacturers in North Carolina. We work with all of the retail chains to get food out into the community. And we do that primarily through those partners because they are embedded into the community. And what we're really proud of here, and I think something of how food banking has changed, you know, many people still think of a food bank as a dimly lit church basement pantry. And that maybe was food banking 30 years ago. But today it is part of the modern food system. We are a critical piece of infrastructure within the food system as part of the charitable food system. And one of the things that I'm most proud of is we live in North Carolina, this beautiful agriculture state, and over half of what we distribute each year is produce and protein. And that is what neighbors are asking for, too. Because neighbors want the healthy fresh foods, and it's also the most expensive to buy. And food banking today is not just focused on moving calories and getting pounds of food out to the community. It's focused on meals and nutritious meals and how to provide that nutrition education to make meals healthier. To use the types of foods you would get in a food pantry. For instance, I just learned at one of our nutrition demos this past weekend, you can leave the peel on a sweet potato, blend it up, and make it into a pancake. You never notice that you left it on there, but you get so much more fiber. And we're doing these types of trainings to help people make meals more nutritious, make meals go further, too, that they're getting. It's really a holistic approach. It's about being alongside community partners that are embedded into the community that are providing holistic supports like workforce development, job training, housing support. And we're that food portion as part of those agencies and making sure they have the right food and enough food to get out into the community. It's really helpful to hear the ways that food banking is adjusting. This idea you're no longer just this big organization that takes in a bunch of food and then distributes it through, you know, food pantries and what used to be called soup kitchens. But rather you're working with other community partners, you're working with farmers to find ways of moving food, but also providing opportunities and thinking about this almost as wraparound services. Are there other things that are being provided than just meals? I know I've been in pantries where there have been nurses, and there have been other support services like ways to sign up to SNAP. This is a sort of a series of overlapping and intersecting opportunities to help families meet their food needs, but more than that, their sort of broader set of needs. And I think this is a really critical way of understanding that food banking looks different than, like you said, grandmothers working in a church basement. I know that the work that food banks can serve as shock absorbers. When things go down, when things are problematic, food banks are there to sort of meet needs in a real way. We've seen a great deal of breakdown in policies over the last several months, and both at the state and at the national level. What does this shock look like to you and your partner agencies on the ground? It has been a tough year. You know, our budget went from 27% government funding and support to less than 10% in one year just because of decisions that were made in an instant. And there was no feedback structure. And I think that's one thing that I really pride our food bank on is the community feedback. We're constantly trying to engage with neighbors facing hunger, understand nobody knows what people facing hunger need more than the people who are literally experiencing it every single day. We try to ground all of our decisions in what is the community saying they need of us. And I think that is one of the things that's been so frustrating to see the decisions made this past year at the federal level. There's been no feedback. It's just numbers on a paper. And within, you know, a stroke of a pen, North Carolina lost $30 million for food purchased from North Carolina farmers for schools and food banks. And that was just North Carolina. It was one billion across the nation. And we're impacting people facing hunger, we're impacting farmers at the same time, and we have farmers who are saying, "I don't know if I'm gonna keep my family farm open." With SNAP, you know, we have cuts coming this year for SNAP and changes that are going to be detrimental for so many of our neighbors. And the cost shift to the states that are not prepared to take that. There's not a transition plan place. And SNAP is an economic driver. For every one meal a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine. We can't replace SNAP if we lose those meals. There's no possible way for us to charitable food our way out of that. But I don't think people realize the ripple impact of those decisions. So yes, it's going to impact people facing hunger. And eight out of 10 of those people on SNAP are working families, seniors, people with disabilities, our most vulnerable neighbors. And at the same time, we're going to see rural grocery stores close. We're going to see more farms close because for every dollar of SNAP, it means $1.50 to $1.60 back into the local economy. And that's going to be a detrimental effect that we can't turn around quickly. It's going to be long-term health impacts for neighbors because of the loss of this nutritious food and the loss of jobs. And we can't just flip a switch and turn that back on because of how damaging it's going to be to so many pieces of our economy. And when I say we can't charitable food our way out of it, we were meant to be here in times of crisis to stabilize and to be an ongoing support for people in the community during that time. But we were never meant to replace the safety net. At the same time, we're having all of these changes at the federal level. We're the only state in the country without a budget. There was another multimillion-dollar loss for food banks and farmers that was invested by the state to purchase from local farmers to go back to neighbors in need. And because we have not had that budget, we've not received those funds. And so, it's really been hit after hit, and we're seeing each one increasing need at our pantries. Right now, we know there's over 600,000 people facing hunger in our community, and we're hearing from our pantries 20% to 60% more than they're seeing last year. I think that 600,000 people number is actually very low, and we're going to see that continue to climb, unfortunately, because of all the changes we're experiencing this year. Amy, this is pretty sobering. And I realize that we're talking about issues that are also highly political. And I know you are leading in spaces where you have people who have differences of opinion about what policy should be. But a lot of these people are coming to the work of the food bank, either on the board or in partner agencies or wherever, donors even, because they care about addressing issues around hunger, right? So, how do you build trust? How do you work across these differences to help achieve the goals that food banking is supposed to achieve? I've never met a politician that told me they didn't like food banks or they didn't care about food banks. There's a lot on people's minds, and I think we need to be in front of our leaders more because there's so much coming at our elected leaders that it's hard for them to even understand everything that's happening in the community. It's hard for me to keep up with just what's happening in our sector, and I'm living it every day, because it's been so fast. I often say, you know, we can't be apolitical. We're nonpartisan, but food is political, so we can't be apolitical. But we'll always be nonpartisan, and we have incredible support from both political parties and all sides of the aisle. And I think we can go in, and we can argue all day long about what we disagree on, and there's much that people disagree on. It's filled in a time when everything feels like it can be political, and we're going to walk out, and we're both going to be mad, and neither one of us is going to change each other's mind. And so I think we have to walk into every conversation with what do we align on, and where can we do good together? Because there's always going to be things we disagree on, but I also know there's always things we align on. And how can we choose those things that we align on and do the most impact and the most good possible with that? Because nobody wants to see a child go hungry. No one wants a senior choosing between medicine and their food or their rent. And so how can we focus, and how can we be a voice to tell that human story that they might not be seeing or hearing enough of so that they understand those true impacts, and we can figure out a way to work together on those alignment? Yes. I think those are wise words given just the difficulty we're facing right now to find that common ground. To find ways of working together. I'm grateful for the way you are trying to navigate those differences to achieve the bigger goal. The goals that I think many of us want to see achieved. And so that brings me to this last question I want to raise with you. This is a challenging moment that we're in. I want to know what gives you hope, and where do you see people making real difference, despite the challenges that we face? This is bigger than me, this is bigger than you, this is bigger than the food bank. This is our community. This is the health of our community. And focusing on the health of our community, seeing what happened last year during the shutdown... the community responded in a way that was inspiring and breathtaking for neighbors, because they saw their neighbors hurting. And we are a community food bank. I might get emotional. I do get emotional often. Every day, and I can see them right outside my window right now, we operate because of thousands of volunteers who come here and choose to give their time to us. Thousands of donors who choose to give their money to make a difference in their community. Thousands of food partners who are choosing to work with us. And these more than 700 agencies, we are a community food bank. Our new strategic plan 2030 is called Rooted in Community. And it is grounded in what neighbors said they needed from the food bank, what we are uniquely qualified and able to provide for neighbors right now. And I think seeing that community aspect and seeing the community come together during times like this absolutely gives me hope. And we saw the impact on that on policy, too. During the shutdown, so many advocates reached out and said, "This is unacceptable." And Governor Stein's office invested $3.5 million in our food bank, $10 million across the state during that moment because he saw the need, but he, like we heard from the constituents. And I think seeing and watching how powerful people's voices are, it can't just be the food bank there. It has to be the community members saying, "This is unacceptable in our community." And when we see people come together and align on that, we see change, and that gives me hope. I also think our youth today gives me hope. I just watched a video on C-SPAN that our food bank participated in that two high school students here in Raleigh won an award about building food security in their community. I just talked with a Duke student last week, she's in a feminism and farm class, which is an incredible class that I want to take, I didn't know that existed. And talking about how we can make a change. And I see so many people coming together and truly aligning on what we agree on, and I think with that there comes a lot of power. BIO Amy Beros is President & CEO of the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina — among the largest anti-hunger organizations in the United States. Amy returned home to the Food Bank following several years of service with Feeding America, where she led nationwide efforts to build food banks' capacity to better serve people facing hunger and poverty. Throughout her career, Amy has maintained a firm commitment to holding the experiences of neighbors at the heart of every decision. She has applied this community-centered approach across critical efforts in food sourcing and access, disaster response, strategic partnerships, and philanthropy — including leadership roles with Inter-faith Food Shuttle, Easter Seals UCP, and Pillars Community Health. During Amy's prior tenure with the Food Bank, she led the multi-year campaign that established the organization's state-of-the-art Raleigh headquarters and ushered in a new era of systemic solutions to hunger in the region. A South Carolina native, Amy holds a Bachelor of Science from Clemson and an MBA from DePaul University. She currently resides near Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband, two children, and rescue dogs. Outside of work you can find Amy lifting weights, spending time with family, or sharing her love for Dolly Parton with anyone who will listen.

Watch the show on television by downloading the e360tv channel app to your Roku, LG or AmazonFireTV. You can also see it on YouTube.Devin: What is your superpower?Dan: Ability to communicate complex issues through shared values.Factory farming isn't what many of us imagine. It's far from green fields and pastures. Dan Shannon, CEO of The Humane League, is working tirelessly to expose the harsh realities of factory farming and offer solutions that reduce the suffering of billions of animals trapped in these systems.“99% of animals raised for food never see anything like the pastoral images we grew up imagining,” Dan explained during today's episode. Instead, these animals are treated as commodities, often confined in spaces so small they can barely move.By raising awareness about the scale of this problem—affecting roughly 30 to 35 billion animals—Dan and The Humane League aim to inspire citizens, voters, and companies to take action. “Consumers never asked for this,” Dan emphasized, noting that 80% of Americans disapprove of factory farming practices.A core focus of The Humane League is transitioning companies from using conventional eggs to higher-welfare cage-free eggs. Despite the shortcomings of cage-free systems, this shift significantly reduces animal suffering. Dan likened the conditions of egg-laying hens in battery cages to being crammed into a file cabinet drawer with several others, unable to engage in basic natural behaviors. “Hens have natural instincts to perch, dust bathe, and establish social hierarchies that are utterly frustrated in these environments,” he said.In addition to advocating for corporate responsibility, awareness plays a significant role. Dan stressed the importance of consumers understanding product labels and seeking meaningful distinctions like “cage-free” while rejecting misleading terms like “all natural” or “farm fresh,” which are purely marketing.Ultimately, Dan believes change hinges on collective action. He encourages people to use their purchasing power, ask companies tough questions, and vote for policies and politicians prioritizing animal welfare.Through The Humane League's efforts, institutional policies are evolving, and public consciousness is shifting. As Dan put it, “No matter what you ate for breakfast, there's a lot you can do to help build a more compassionate world.”With tireless advocates like Dan leading the charge, the vision of ending factory farming is no longer a distant dream but a mission within reach.tl;dr:Dan Shannon explained how The Humane League combats factory farming to reduce animal suffering globally.The organization helps companies adopt higher-welfare practices like transitioning to cage-free egg production.Dan highlighted how misleading labels and marketing hinder consumer understanding of humane practices.Using shared values and informed voting, people can influence corporate and governmental animal welfare policies.Dan shared his superpower of values-driven communication, providing tips for engaging effectively with others.How to Develop Values-Driven Communication As a SuperpowerDan's superpower for leading The Humane League is his ability to communicate complex issues through shared values. He explains, “At the end of the day, our work is about values… I find most people to be empathetic.” Dan connects with others by focusing on common ground, stating, “People care about right and wrong and don't want to support practices they don't agree with.”Dan shared a story of appearing on a shock-jock radio show where he was initially mocked for his views on animal welfare. Despite the hostile tone, he engaged with empathy and humor, focusing on humane values. Weeks later, the host invited him back, seeking his expertise on an animal cruelty case. The relationship flourished, granting Dan recurring opportunities to educate millions of listeners about animal compassion.Actionable Tips to Develop Values-Driven Communication:Find Common Ground: Focus on shared values like empathy, fairness, or community.Avoid Assumptions: Approach every communication with an open mind and avoid writing people off.Simplify Complex Issues: Distill intricate topics into relatable, values-based messages.Stay Resilient: If met with resistance, remain patient, empathetic, and persistent.By following Dan's example and advice, you can make values-driven communication a skill. With practice and effort, you could make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileDan Shannon (he/him):CEO, The Humane LeagueAbout The Humane League: The Humane League (THL) is a global nonprofit dedicated to ending the abuse of animals in the food system. Since 2005, the organization has transformed farmed animal welfare, with a focus on caged laying hens, through corporate campaigns, public policy advocacy, and coalition-building, securing thousands of cage-free commitments from leading food companies. The US egg industry is at a tipping point: nearly 50% of eggs are now cage-free, a milestone that signals the success of THL's mission as the organization works to end factory farming in our lifetime, one cage at a time.Website: thehumaneleague.orgCompany Facebook Page: facebook.com/thehumaneleagueCompany Twitter Handle: @TheHumaneLeagueOther URL: investigations.openwingalliance.org/realcostofeggsBiographical Information: Dan Shannon is a seasoned nonprofit strategist and leader with more than two decades of experience at the intersection of campaigns, philanthropy, and animal protection. He has spent his career building movements and coalitions that drive systemic change, with a particular focus on ending the abuse of animals raised for food. Prior to joining The Humane League as CEO, Shannon served as Chief Partnerships Officer at Tides, leading philanthropic strategy and managing $700 million in annual grantmaking to advance social justice and civic engagement. He also held leadership roles at Purpose, advising major organizations including Feeding America, UNICEF, and the Gates Foundation, and spent ten years at PETA, where he led the youth outreach program peta2.As CEO of The Humane League, Shannon is guiding the organization into its third decade of impact, focusing on corporate campaigns, public policy, and global coalition-building to accelerate progress toward cage-free eggs and ultimately end factory farming. He is also the co-author of two acclaimed vegan cookbooks, Betty Goes Vegan and Mastering the Art of Vegan Cooking, and continues to promote compassionate living through his writing and advocacy.LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/danshannon2Personal Facebook Profile: facebook.com/superdan79Personal Twitter Handle: @DanShannonTHL Instagram Handle: @superdan1979Support Our SponsorsOur generous sponsors make our work possible, serving impact investors, social entrepreneurs, community builders and diverse founders. Today's advertisers include Kaylaan, High Desert Gear and Climatize. Learn more about advertising with us here.Max-Impact Members(We're grateful for every one of these community champions who make this work possible.)Brian Christie, Brainsy | Cameron Neil, Lend For Good | Carol Fineagan, Independent Consultant | Hiten Sonpal, RISE Robotics | John Berlet, CORE Tax Deeds, LLC. | Justin Starbird, The Aebli Group | Lory Moore, Lory Moore Law | Marcia Brinton, High Desert Gear | Mark Grimes, Networked Enterprise Development | Matthew Mead, Hempitecture | Michael Pratt, Qnetic | Mike Babbit | Coledger Solutions | Mike Green, Envirosult | Nick Degnan, Unlimit Ventures | Dr. Nicole Paulk, Siren Biotechnology | Paul Lovejoy, Stakeholder Enterprise | Pearl Wright, Global Changemaker | Scott Thorpe, Philanthropist | Sharon Samjitsingh, Health Care Originals | Add Your Name HereUpcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.Join the SuperCrowd Impact League! You can be recognized for making impact investments via Reg CF. See how your activity compares to your peers. It's free. Win valuable prizes. Start now!SuperCrowd Impact Member Networking Session: Impact (and, of course, Max-Impact) Members of the SuperCrowd are invited to a private networking session on June 9th at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. Mark your calendar. We'll send private emails to Impact Members with registration details. Upgrade to Impact Membership today!Devin Thorpe will lead SuperCrowdHour on June 17, 2026, at 12:00 PM Eastern. In this insightful session, “How to Benchmark Your Impact Crowdfunding Portfolio v. the Stock Market,” Devin will explore how impact investors can evaluate the performance of their regulated investment crowdfunding portfolios alongside traditional stock market benchmarks. Drawing on his experience as a former investment banker, impact investor, and crowdfunding advocate, he will break down practical methods for measuring returns, assessing risk, and understanding the broader value created through impact investing. Attendees will gain a clearer understanding of how private impact investments compare with public market performance, what metrics matter most, and how to build a more informed long-term investment strategy. Whether you're an experienced impact investor or just beginning to build your crowdfunding portfolio, this SuperCrowdHour will provide valuable insights to help you evaluate both financial and social returns with greater confidence and clarity.SuperCrowd26 featuring PurposeBuilt100™: This August 25–27, founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders will gather for a three-day, broadcast-quality global experience focused on disciplined capital formation, regulated investment crowdfunding, and purpose-driven growth. We're bringing together leading voices in impact investing, compliance, digital marketing, and circular economy innovation to deliver practical frameworks, real-world case studies, and actionable strategies. The event culminates in the PurposeBuilt100™ Showcase, recognizing 100 of the fastest-growing purpose-driven companies in the U.S. Register now to secure your seat and get all the details. August 25–27, streaming worldwide.Share the application for the PurposeBuilt100™: Purpose-driven founders deserve recognition. The PurposeBuilt100™ application window is now open—celebrating the fastest-growing companies building profit with purpose. If you know a founder creating real impact and real growth, please share this opportunity. Applications are free and confidential. Explore the program and apply today: PurposeBuilt100.com.Community Event CalendarSuccessful Funding with Karl Dakin, Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ET - Click on Events.Interested in joining the invitation-only discussion with impact giant Jed Emerson at the Business Response to Authoritarian Threats discussion on June 10th at 4:00PM ET? Send a message to Devin Thorpe.On June 18th at 5pm ET, join Tampa Bay Innovation and Menlo Park Patents for the Q2 Pitch Showcase, a live gathering for founders, inventors, investors, and startup supporters. Watch selected entrepreneurs pitch bold ideas, network with the innovation community, and see winners earn valuable prizes, including patent, valuation, and investor-meeting opportunities in St. Petersburg, Florida.Register Now! October 20th and 21st will be the Crowdfunding Professional Association Regulated Investment Crowdfunding Summit for 2026. This is the event of the year for everyone in the crowdfunding ecosystem.If you would like to submit an event for us to share with the 10,000+ changemakers, investors and entrepreneurs who are members of the SuperCrowd, click here.Manage the volume of emails you receive from us by clicking here.We share educational information—not investment advice. Some links may generate compensation. See our full disclosure. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

Staci Miller, founder of Gen UX Consulting, shares her winding path from fashion design and psychology to human factors engineering in MedTech. Staci explains what human factors is—through stories from World War II aviation and modern healthcare—and why the FDA now mandates usability work to reduce catastrophic use errors. She breaks down formative versus summative/validation studies, the role of risk documentation (URRA/UFMEA), and why founders should think about usability as early as they think about risk. Staci also opens up about the challenge of starting a second business after losing her first in 2008, how she built Gen UX from $0, and the leadership lessons behind year-over-year growth.   Guest links: https://www.genuxconsulting.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/company/gen-ux-consulting/  Charity supported: Feeding America Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 081 - Staci Miller [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and today I'm delighted to welcome as my guest, Staci Miller. Staci is the founder at Gen UX Consulting. Her expertise is in applying user-focused research to develop innovative solutions, and it's essential to the growth of any technology organization. As a detail-oriented and tenacious executive in human factors engineering and UX design, she has a proven record of elevating the end user experience and achieving targeted client outcomes. She has created innovative medtech and big tech solutions through a comprehensive user-centered development process, leveraging artificial intelligence and industry agnostic design tools to optimize products and services. In her current role with Gen UX, she's a key leader facilitating strategic company growth plans and service offerings while managing the capacity and workflow of the UX HF design team. Well, Staci, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to talk with you today. [00:01:49] Staci Miller: Me too. I've been looking forward to it all week, so I'm very excited to be here. And I don't know what the day has in store. I, I know that there was like a, a, a kit that you sent out and I didn't read it on purpose, so everything's gonna be organic. [00:02:03] Lindsey Dinneen: Perfect. Those are my favorite conversations anyway, so I'll take it and run. Some people I know really love to have the questions ahead of time, and others are just like, "Yeah, I don't want to know. I'm just gonna go off the cuff. Here we go." So, brilliant. All right, well, let's start, if you don't mind, by sharing a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to medtech. [00:02:24] Staci Miller: That is, those are my favorite questions. So, I have a background in fashion design, psychology. I spent most of my classes in cognitive psych, but it wasn't like a difference of degree, it was just psychology. And then I have a master's degree in human factors and ergonomics. So I went the psychology route and the design route. That's kind of my background. So when I graduated my master's degree, through my master's program, I was able to intern for both years and one was in tech, big tech. I interviewed and landed a, great one year long internship at Samsung, which was actually supposed to be just three months, and I stayed there for a full year. So they kept me through my whole, my whole semester, which is something they don't normally do, which was really fun. I mostly just said, "Hey, can I stay here for the year?" And they're like, "Great, no problem. Sure. We'll figure it out like that seems like a good option. We like you, you like us. Cool. We'll do that." And my second internship was in medical device at a company called Interface and Analysis. My, that was actually my internship. My second one was at Samsung, so I got to really look in like I, I guess you got the curtain. If you think about Wonderland and Oz and the curtain and being able to pull back the curtain between both industries, what did I like better? I ended up liking medical better, mostly because the research was more structured and not necessarily conversations about, "Yeah, so how do you feel about that? Did you like it?" Like to me, that's not really. What I would consider the best opportunity to gain data. Data to me, like there has to be like a clear objective as to what you're doing, the whys behind it, and what do you wanna learn. And I found that in, when I worked with engineers in medtech, they definitely had things that they wanted to learn, whereas in tech, they just had so much money. They were like, "Yeah, let's just see what people think about this." And I'm. Okay. And then when I would be really structured and I was working with people who didn't have backgrounds in research, had very strong, very good backgrounds in design, like legitimately awesome, they were leading the research and they were missing the boat. So the narratives started to be focused on the N of one. This one person said this really interesting thing, so let's base our whole design off of what they said. And I'm like, "Dude, wait a second. Wait a second. All of them said this thing about the design though, and like we have four or five data points about when you ask this question." They're like, "Yeah, but that's not interesting." And I was like, "Okay, keep my mouth shut. I got it. Move on." Like from that moment forward, I, it wasn't like "Staci, don't talk, it was more like this is how we design based on the narratives that we've learned how to, how to research on." And so it wasn't as I would say-- it wasn't considering the actual 360 view of the user. It was considering the really cool thing that happened this one time that was like totally an outlier. And it happened consistently when I was working in big tech. So I was like, uh, medtech, probably more my speed. And then my first job was at Abbott. [00:05:39] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice. [00:05:40] Staci Miller: And I ended up there. Yeah, [00:05:41] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay, great. Well. [00:05:42] Staci Miller: Cool. [00:05:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Lots of questions based on this incredible background. I want to go back a little bit. So fashion design, was this something that you grew up thinking, "Oh, this is what I wanna do and be okay?" Right. All right, so... [00:05:57] Staci Miller: it's all I ever wanted and I did that. So... [00:06:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:06:02] Staci Miller: That's a, that's a great question. I think that my interest in fashion peaked around when I was 12 years old and during the time, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, and I was so fascinated by how beautiful these women were. And, and fashion was a thing in the nineties. There was like a lot of Dolce and Gabana around, and I loved it. And I couldn't wait to get my new print of Vogue every, every season. I loved Harper's Bizarre, and I would just pull pictures out of these models and what they were wearing. And then I would start you know, freehanding stuff and things like that. And I think a lot of people do that when they're really interested in clothing and things like that. And if you really think about it, fashion is art that people wear. So I was very attracted to that part of it. And it's all I wanted to do. So after high school, I went to FIDM and studied fashion design. And right outta FIDM, I started my first company in fashion design, and I was a clothing manufacturer, and we had 500 open doors in the United States and in Canada, and I was hoping to expand, but unfortunately 2008 hit and they hit it hard and fast and I lost most of my managing capital in the year that I think was my tipping point. So it was the, the year that I finally got a lot of traction and had a lot of repeat business and a lot of new business as well. And a lot of those new businesses just refused orders. Just from the east coast to the west, and it was just tons of money out that wasn't gonna come in. So there was really no way to, make that work after that, like I lost literally all the money I had in my business in like the span of, I would say three, four weeks. It was just mortifyingly scary. But I was young and people who are young are resilient and they move on and they find a new dream. And it took me a minute, like I didn't really know what the french toast I was gonna do. And I was like, well, I was still planning on staying in fashion and long, short, I was offered a job to do and run production for a one, a different company. So make sure that their goods were produced on time. Deal with the, the timing of all the orders, making sure the product line. So it was basically operations for manufacturing. And I was super excited about the job and I moved back to my parents' house at the time because things were just that tight financially for me. My parents were like, "Yeah, just, you know, come back, we'll figure it out." And I remember saying to my mom and dad, I'm like, "If this job falls through, do you mind if I just go back to school and stay here?" And they both started to laugh at me like, "Your job is fine, but if the sure why, why not?" And they, they thought it was crazy. And then I ended up back in school. So, they were like, "Whoa, that was really insane," 'cause that was in the end of 2008, starting 2009. And so the company rescinded their offer and they were really like, so sad about it, but they went to a market to sell their clothes and they got zero orders that year or something like close to that. So it was just, it was just a really intense time in the fashion industry and I was looking for jobs and I wasn't getting anywhere. So I only had an AA, and at the time that really didn't matter, but I went back to school and I'm like, "If I'm going back to school this late in age, I'm getting a master's degree." I had no idea what I was gonna get a master's degree in. I was like. I like clothes and design. We'll figure it out from there like that. And I was like, "Well, maybe I'll be..." this is crazy. But I was thinking about being a lawyer, like a property law lawyer. So, because when you are a designer in clothing, people can just knock you off. And you've seen that happen like pretty much everywhere. And people can just take advantage of your intellectual property and never pay you for it if they change enough of it. And so I was like, "You know, this would be something I'd probably be good at." So I went back to school thinking I was gonna go into that type of law. I took psychology courses and I took philosophy courses. And philosophy courses really do lean you, get you thinking very specifically about law. That's what philosophy was basically geared towards anyways. And you take these psychology courses and they're about people and how people process information, how people behave based on their behavior and things like that. So I thought the combination would be really good. Well, I ended up not liking, I did like philosophy, but philosophy's "let's think about thinking about it." And psychology is-- which is great. It's great, but psychology is like more applicable when you're interacting with others. And I found it super fascinating. And then I got really into like cognitive psychology and I'm like, "What the french toast am I gonna do with this? I can't do anything with cognitive psychology. Like I need to make money. I'm a grownup. This isn't ah, I'm gonna study underwater basket weaving and come out and go work in communications at Fox." Like I had to have an actual plan. So in my college at the time, there were these classes and they were like introductory to what you can do with your degrees. And that's literally where I found human factors. And there weren't very many schools that did it, but I was taking most of my classes at that point in cognitive psychology, which is how people process information, not their feeling based stuff. Like I didn't wanna have conversations with people about their feelings. Get that off of me. Like that's not, that's not my jam. I'm like, "Sorry, you're sad, but I'm not sad and I don't wanna be sad, so I'm gonna keep, keep going." And I'm like, "How am I gonna work this into my, you know, I love design, I wanna keep that in my background, and how am I gonna, what am I gonna do?" And so the study of human factors really is the intersection of design and research, and how people interact with said products based on the design. And you get to research that. And I'm like, "Sold. Good. I'm, I can do this. This is like this, I didn't even know this thing existed." This is crazy good. And I never looked back. [00:11:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:11:50] Staci Miller: I got into a master's program the next year. I, and because I was in that specific program in San Jose State, that's why it was so easy for me to work for Samsung because it was in my backyard. And that's why it was easy for me to work for Interface Analysis because Tony was the owner of that company. Tony, he was my professor. So he just was like hiring people and I, I answered his response and I was like, "Hey, I, I'm looking for something." Do you like, he didn't say it was his company. He said, "I have a friend looking" and I'm, you know, like when I know I need to make some money, I'm gonna try to hustle up and make some money. So I'm like, "Hey, I'm open to that." He's like, "Why don't you come by my office and we'll talk?" And I was like, "That's weird." He said It was for some other, I'm like, "Sure, no problem." So I go to his office and he offered me an internship right then and there 'cause it was for me. "I just wanted to see who would respond," 'cause you are the only person that responded. I'm like, "Guess you're gonna hire me then." [00:12:37] Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. All right. That's great. Thank you so much for that background. And it is so interesting how sometimes our paths are very, very windy to get to where we end up being and we Yeah, exactly. What, what ends up being a really good fit. But, so can you explain a little bit more about human factors, especially, maybe to help folks who have maybe some misconceptions or don't fully understand what it is just in general, but then also relate it specifically to medtech and why it's so important within the medtech industry? [00:13:11] Staci Miller: I can give you a story that probably would do both. So human factors was, was actually founded pretty recently in our timeline of psychology and understanding people. In World War II, there were a whole bunch of fighter pilots ejecting themselves from planes that caused, even in World War II, millions of dollars to produce and nobody could figure out what the problem was. They checked the planes. The planes were operating correctly. They did psychology, like psychological backgrounds on the people who are fighter pilots. I mean, they have to, to get into the military and to fly those planes, you have to be pretty good under pressure. They interviewed them, they were fine. They didn't have any breakdown of stress, and it wasn't happening on a small scale. This was happening on quite a large scale. So they, again, they went, they're like, "Okay, okay." Well, the military went back and " Well, it has to be the plane." So they looked through the plane, wasn't the plane, talk to the people, wasn't the people. So then the psychologist started to ask questions. They're like, "Well, if you're saying that it's not the person's emotional state and you're saying it's not the plane, well then what happened? Something had to happen. Something changed. What changed?" It turned out that the engineers had moved the throttle button with the ejection button in the planes. [00:14:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh. [00:14:31] Staci Miller: So the pilots were originally trained to hit the throttle button on the certain side that the throttle button was in the cockpit. So instead of hitting the throttle, because that was their original training, they hit the ejection button. So they ejected themselves out of the planes, which is why human factors was born. Those little changes that people don't understand about human beings. So when we learn something for the first time, because like even if you think about being a kid or being a baby, or learning a really tough lesson, right? You remember that lesson. And so what happens is that's your default setting. "This is the lesson I've learned. This is how I react." Now for that lesson, it doesn't matter if it's like an emotional exchange or if it's a physical one. So because they were taught where the, the pilots were taught specifically where the throttle was in the first place when they were under attack and they were in a high cognitive loaded space, they went back to their original training. [00:15:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm-hmm. [00:15:32] Staci Miller: And then the engineers were like, "Well, we told them. We told them." So, so, because they didn't wanna take the blame, right? Nobody wanted to take the blame ruining millions of dollars of planes. So this same type of thing happens in the medical industry. I mean, you can see it pretty easily, right? So you're trained on System X. There's an update, a 510K release to it. The system works differently. Errors are made, people are hurt. [00:15:57] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm-hmm. [00:15:58] Staci Miller: That's how it translates to medical. So aviation was a really big part of human factors and it still is to this day. Like NASA used to hire quite a few of my classmates. And I know that Boeing and a lot of those other, even BMW hire people that do what I do for a living and test the responses during drive time. And if you think about it, if you look at a Tesla versus a BMW, those are very different driving experiences. Like I had to relearn how to drive a Tesla, right? And like it has a one pedal situation. So now when I get into regular cars, I'm like, "Wait, what? What am I doing? What? What kind of car is this? Like how do I drive this thing again?" I know that sounds silly, but it, it's true 'cause you kind of just get used to the thing that you have. And that's exactly why human factors is prevalent in medical device or in aviation or in, you know, like any kind of like navigation systems. The reason the FDA mandated it is because a lot of products were coming to market and there was a very large influx of critical catastrophic errors in hospitals. People were suffering consequences of bad interfaces or lack of instructions on products. I know that there were a lot of intravenous medications given that weren't supposed to be IV medications in like in certain-- yes, you're supposed to inject it, but not. Intravenously and those charged caused people to perish. So that's when the FDA stepped in and said, "Okay, we were asking you as a favor to do these usability studies, but now officially they're part of your risk requirements and they're part of your requirements to get to market." And I think that happened about the time I graduated grad school, around that time. So about 15, 16 years ago. [00:17:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Yeah. Well that's a fascinating story, and I'm sorry that that is the impetus for the results that we have today, but also how incredible that that is something that's being prioritized and mandated now. And I'm wondering too, when a startup company is developing their technology, how soon should they be thinking about human factors, usability, UX/UI. [00:18:17] Staci Miller: As fast as they're thinking about risk. if you're already thinking about risk at phase zero, that's when you should be thinking about usability and UI and interactions based on user processes, because that's when this kind of conversation really needs to start with regulatory, with your team, with the engineers. So even if you don't have a human factors engineer on staff, like you can find a company that can give you like some fractional support, just, you know, to talk to and to understand what their, what, what their responsibilities are, and what their requirements are to get to market. I have found that a lot of founders don't think that it's a requirement. And I, and I'm really not sure why, but that's been happening a lot lately. [00:18:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So because it's a requirement, because you should be thinking about it from the get go, what are some things that you've seen work really well in terms of, putting together this kind of this testing and whatnot versus things that might seem like they could work. Like perhaps somebody feels that they could maybe do some of this testing themselves. You know, just, just things that maybe people who aren't really familiar with all the regulations would perhaps do, and that could cause problems down the road. [00:19:32] Staci Miller: So there's a, these are all really great questions and let's, let's unpack the idea of research, right? So some people think that research is finding out if somebody is happy about a product and would use it, like product market fit, right? Some people do marketing for that, and I can, that's the type of research that is not technically human factors, but it is something that Gen UX can do, right? So it's just research. I, I call it like insert white meat or insert protein. We can do the research, right? So when it comes down to it, there's, I would say that research is split into two buckets, which is UX/UI, which is very popular and people understand that, which is a formative in the FDA guidance and then validation slash summative. So the validation studies are very clean cut. So I'll explain those first. And they are to validate that the user can use the system in its environments safely. So the alpha for that is the user is successful at using this product and the uses, uses and use environments correctly and safely. And this is all based on your risk documentation from your URRA or your UFMEA. Some people use ADFMEA, which is based on design, and I suggest that they don't use that because that focuses more on the system than it does on the user. And the FDA has really cracked down on that. So if you are a founder and you think you can get just one system, ADFMEA, you are probably already starting off on the wrong foot. Make sure you have your own usability. Because human factors work really focuses on two things in the medical industry. One, it focuses on helping develop the device while breaking down risks. So if you have mitigations and your system's designed a certain way to avoid a risk, that's very important, and that's really also usability testing. And I can explain this in two ways. I've worked at Meta, I've worked at Samsung, I've worked at a lot of different big tech companies, and I've worked at a lot of medtech companies. So I think that people think that human factors is different than user research, and they're right. Human factors is much harder than user research. And you really actually need a background in research methods and an understanding of how the application of research works. Formatives can be used for two reasons. One, to support the need of the product in use and to check how people are actually using the system in real life. So sometimes people are really good at thinking-- so engineers are amazing at building systems, right? I can't do what they can do. I'm not gonna pretend like I can. What I can do is help them build it for their end user, because a lot of the times engineers think very differently than the average human being. They're much more educated. Schooling for engineering is extremely difficult. A lot of it's mathematical computations, understanding actual physical properties of things in their environments and how that they work, right? So those are the things that engineers think about all day long. That's fine. I think about the user all day long. So you can create a system that an engineer thinks that is fine, but then the user is " I don't really know how to use this. What are you talking about?" Right? And so that's what user research informatives avoid. They avoid, they break down risk and they are able to help form the product. So those, those user research studies, like before, let's say phase zero to phase four in a market cycle, if phase five is market release, are for those things. And then as you get later in the cycle, you wanna do more rigid research, that's really breaking down the risk and really focusing on the user interactions within the system and med device. And making sure that they're assessing the risk based on your user, but they're very specific to the user interactions that are critical tasks and higher. Or things that lead up to the critical test and come away. So like you have to be able to do the steps before, do the thing that's really hard to do, that could hurt somebody and then make sure coming away from them you don't cause any harm either. That's the best way to look at these types of tests. And we do the exact same thing in validation for systems. So, in software you test to see if the software can do the thing that it's supposed to do. When you check that box, the software does the thing and it did it, and we're good to go. You do the same thing with mechanical engineering. The system has this, this range of motion here and this range of motion here, and it doesn't deviate from plus X to plus Y and therefore the system does what it's supposed to say. So you're verifying and validating that the system does what the system is planned to do. It's really no different in users, it's just that you're dealing with human beings and it's not, it doesn't work the same way, right? Because like people are variables no matter what. And that was really long worded. So there's like tons of different research to do, but if you don't do your summative and you don't do your risk documentation, you're not getting to, you're not gonna get to market approval. Just, there's no way. [00:24:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, that is incredibly helpful insight. And you know, so I wanna go back to, you had this company before, right? So you had already built a business and it was thriving, and then unfortunately life intervened a little bit. When you went to start Gen UX, did you have moments... [00:24:57] Staci Miller: Of PTSD? [00:24:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Of, yeah. [00:25:01] Staci Miller: Yes. [00:25:01] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:25:02] Staci Miller: Yeah. I had major PTSD. Like I, so the concept of Gen UX was a play on words like, so I'm a Gen Xer, no biggie, but like I think that every Gen Xers, millennials, I feel like both of our generations very much identify with our generation. And I thought it would be kind of a fun play on words to identify to people that are also Gen Xers that, yeah, we do UX work and we're Gen UX, as a Generation X, like it was very important, right? So I kind of came up with that idea, thought it was cute. But at the time I was working for Meta, and Meta had been doing quite a bit of layoffs at the time. Nothing wrong with that, that happens with every company. But I have survived in Medtronic and Abbott and all these other companies. I had survived so many rounds of layoffs. I'm like, "One day my number is gonna be, it's just, it's just gonna happen." So, we started at Meta internally, really like they, they were very open and honest with people. They're like, "This is when this is gonna happen. We are gonna lay off more people. This is when this round is gonna happen. We're gonna lay off more people, and then this is the final round and this is when we're gonna lay off these people." So each of our groups of things like, so it was like engineers, lawyers, researchers. Like we, we had timelines that we knew if, if it was gonna happen, this is when it was gonna happen, this would be the day. [00:26:17] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:26:17] Staci Miller: So I started to really think about what that meant, and I'm like, "Okay, well I'm not gonna start looking for jobs right away because I want my severance package." I definitely wanted that 'cause I, and then I wanted a break if I could have it. So I was like, okay. I, in between working at I was working at EDA as a contractor and that was super fun. Like I had my own time kind of, and I enjoyed the work and I got put on other projects whenever they needed me. And it was like, but I was constantly on a project, so I'm like, "I, maybe I'll go into doing IC work by myself" and I'm like, "No, I can't make enough. If I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna build something." And then I'm like, well, I started to talk to my friends every single one of my friends, including Interface Analysis' owner, Tony Andre was like, "Start your own business, Staci. Start your own consulting firm, just do it. Don't even look back. Just do it. People will end up coming to you because you know how to do this." He's like, he's it's, "You know, the first years they are what they are and everybody knows what that looks like. It's, it's rough. You have, it's like a mental game. You're like, I am gonna do this. And you just have to be consistent and can continue down your path. And more and more people will show up." And that's been true every year. But that's how GenX was started. And yes, there was this whole trepidation about, "Am I gonna make it? Am I gonna make it through this?" And I was like, "You know what, Stac, you're starting in a recession in your, in your industry. If you can get it done, if you can get two years in and be successful, you're fine." I'm in year three. [00:27:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah! [00:27:51] Staci Miller: Yeah, I mean, year three, woohoo. And we're increasing 50% year over year in year three, and I started it with $0. So, and I'm not, I'm not saying like a hundred to 50, like $50 to a hundred, we're, we're talking a couple hundred thousand dollars here, a couple hundred thousand there. But it's modest and I do expect that growth, and I do expect that to continue. And the other thing I think about is becoming very malleable in, in your spaces, like what's working for you and what doesn't work for you. But I feel like that's kind of off topic from what you asked. But yeah, I had PTSD gave myself at least two years and I'm like, "I can do anything for two years. If it doesn't work out, you know, like I have everything that I have and I can go back into corporate if I need to." And I really, I really was tripping, like just to be nineties about it, I was tripping. Like I was really like, "You know, I don't know." And my husband was like. He was my biggest cheerleader. He was like, "You've gotta do this. He's you're gonna, you're gonna be able to do this. You have something that I don't have. You're really great at networking people like you." I'm like, "Do they really like what?" And he's, " No, people like being around you. You make friends easy and people really do enjoy being around you and they like know that you're smart and you're gonna be able to do this." So, that's how this all started. And yes, I was really freaked out when I first started, but every day when I had bad days, I'm like, "Everything always works itself out." [00:29:14] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:29:14] Staci Miller: "Have you ever not been in a situation where everything works itself out?" "No. No." So I'm like, "Well, if I, if it doesn't, I'll get a new dream, but I don't-- once you hit this, this year, like year three and you know you're still growing, you don't have to get a new dream, you just keep going and you're like, this dream is happening. I'm gonna keep it going." [00:29:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. What was it like building a team? Did you start off as a one-woman show, or did you have support at the beginning? How did that work? [00:29:43] Staci Miller: So at first, actually my designer's father was working with me and he called me out of the blue and he's " Hey. I have this client, she doesn't have any human factors person working with her, but I know that she needs it and do you wanna talk to her? I know you're not working at Meta," because I put on my, oh. LinkedIn profile Open to Work. So he called me like within two days, like seriously, like people started to call me and that was when I was already like, "I'm gonna do my own thing. I'm just gonna do my own thing." So the universe just brought me a gift, right? And I met this first client and I started to work with her, and at first everything was super cool. The first year it was great, and I really liked working with her, but she also needed a couple of other things. She needed an IFU and she needed design quality assurance. I'm like, "Check, check. I can get both those things done." So I called my friend Maria, "Hey, do you wanna work with me? She's " Hey. Yeah, totally." Because we had already worked together and we knew each other pretty well. So it wasn't like it was difficult to make that connection. And, and she knows my personality. I know her personality, and I know we both work extremely hard and we have that in common. So I wasn't, never, would I be worried about Maria. And then I found I wasn't, I didn't even have a designer yet on staff. And I found someone who used to do instructions for use for a different company I worked for. I called him like, "Hey, can you do this?" He's " Yeah, yeah." So I got all that done for this other client. I'm like, "I can do this. I can do this. I can, I can find people." I know so many intelligent people who love what they do and have a fire for it every day. And then the evolution started to happen. And then I asked someone to work with me to do sales, and then they said, "Yes." And then we started to pitch people that I was friends with and knew, and sometimes they said yes, and sometimes they said no. I think the first year, I think I pitched over like $4 million in business and I got 20,000. No, I got, I got 80,000, something like that. Something, something small and I'm like, "Why am I pitching so much? This is like taking so much time outta my day," that I found someone to work with me. His name was Adam and I still actually work with Adam and he, but he's a big picture guy and he started to work with me a little bit and help me like navigate through some things. Even to this day, we talk and he's not fully, fully, fully on onboarded, but if, if some. Of the clients that he lands do come on board, he will be back on board and he will be working with me again. And then I had a salesperson this last year and I realized just I needed more of a hunter-gatherer. So like we're just going in a different direction, right? So I had that, and then last year my goal was to bring my designer Maddie on full-time. And I was able to do that too. So everything that I've kind of just said, "I'm gonna do this this year, I've been able to do this year." And I'm not taking this lightly. Like I have a board of directors, which are people who are, have different perspectives on finance because that's my weakest link, I would say. A professor at UCLA, his name's Sean Pat, also a good friend of mine. He's on my board. And my brother-in-law and my nephew, who is new in his life and on his journey, is on my board as well, and I kind of wanted him on my board so he can see what it looks like to be an entrepreneur and see what growth looks like year over year because he is already working for companies. He's, he's like 25, I think, and he's already being groomed to be in upper management. He's got upper management written all over him as like the, as like people would say in like cute little circles. And then my my brother-in-law, he is one of the CFOs at Mayo Clinic, so these are people who have some in medical, some in finance, some in finance, in medical, just helping me like grow. I throw things past them and they help, you know, make decisions for the year. And they tell me like, they give me feedback and, and work through things that I'm doing and what they think is right, what they don't think is right. And sometimes I listen, sometimes I don't. You know, like... [00:33:28] Lindsey Dinneen: Well, yeah. [00:33:29] Staci Miller: Just really depends like where I'm at and what I wanna do and where we wanna grow. [00:33:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Excellent. Okay. So I'm curious, especially within medtech specifically, are there moments that really stand out to you as just affirming, "Oh my goodness, I am in the right place at the right time." [00:33:49] Staci Miller: Things keep happening, so, every time I speak, like I, I spoke at Project Medtech, people bombarded me. They're like, "We wanna work with you. We wanna work with you. We should talk, we should talk." Anytime I go to a symposium I walk away with two or three leads. People coming up to me, "Oh, do you do this thing? We should really talk. We should really talk." So, just being in the situation like that kind of tells me that I'm in the right direction. And the other thing is we're growing year over year. If you take a 10,000 foot view of where I was year one versus year three now, very, very different. Extremely different. And like I said, I do have, I do have other consultants that work with me. I don't want you to think it's just like a two person shop. It's not, there's other consultants that work with me but they're as needed. They're not full employees, which I think is really helpful in a situation like this. If you're a founder starting up from scratch and you're not, you don't have, I'm not trying to get angel investors. I'm not trying to get people to push money into my company. I am building it literally from zero to whatever it is that I make. And so that, that's a, what I would call like a slow burn of, you have to build your foundation, you have to manage to the capital that you do have, and then you, then you go to the next level and you do the same thing and then you do the same thing. And there's a lot of consistency with the business now, and I see a lot of people targeting me for that consistency. And as, as we are growing, like people are engaging with us on a different level, which is exciting to see. That's always exciting. [00:35:20] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. [00:35:20] Staci Miller: That's kind of how I know. Yeah. [00:35:23] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Awesome. Okay, so pivoting the conversation a little bit just for fun. [00:35:28] Staci Miller: Cool. [00:35:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. Could be within your industry, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach? [00:35:40] Staci Miller: That's a great question. I love, I think it's very important when you do what you do for a living to have something that isn't that for yourself. So I, there's very specific ways as to how I unwind at the end of the day. One of those things is cooking. I would totally do a masterclass in being a home chef. Like I'm, I'm not even a chef like that. I've never gone to culinary school, but I absolutely, I make my own breads. I make chutney sometimes when, when I want some. I would do a masterclass on-- I'm not Gordon Ramsey. I'm not Thomas Keller. Here's what it looks like to be a home cook. And here's the, the five things that you actually need. And this is what you should learn how to make first. Like I remember the first time I was trying to make pasta or something, I boiled the water to death. There was no water left in the pond. Like I didn't even know what I was doing. I, maybe I walked away from it, I don't know, but I destroyed the pot. My mom's " What were you doing?" I was like, "Making pasta." And she's " What, what, what happened? You ruined the pot." I'm like, "I'm not, I just did it wrong." So I would probably do a masterclass in how to just take that first step learning how to make your own food, right? And talk about food 'cause I like food. There you go. That's what I would do. [00:36:52] Lindsey Dinneen: Love it. I love food and I love talking about it. So, that sounds like a great class. [00:36:58] Staci Miller: I would do, I would totally do it. [00:36:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay, and then how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:37:07] Staci Miller: This might be dating me, but Roy Orbison who wrote the song, "Pretty Woman" that was also in the movie, "Pretty Woman" wrote that he "just wanted to be remembered." And I thought that was really interesting. And I think that everybody knows that song knows that it's the guy like, I don't know if you know like the artist, but I think even to this day, that song, generationally, people know that song. I don't know how I wanna be remembered, but this is how I wanna impact the world. So it's kind of like that, but kind of not. I believe that knowledge transfer is the most powerful thing that we have amongst generations. And I want the next generation to be better than me, which is probably, in my opinion, I'm kind of kind of strict about this, probably a tall order, 'cause I'm like very picky. But, I have mentored and, and taught people my craft, and I want them to be better than me so they can mentor people and be better at this craft. So if I leave one mark on this world, it's that I have taught somebody what I know how to do and I expect them to do it better than me. And I don't mentor just anybody. So if I'm mentoring you is, and I'm putting all this energy into you, you better, you better bring it. And the people that I have worked with and have mentored are doing extremely well in their careers, and that's, that's kind of a thing that I like about, like what we do and how I do it. So I don't know if I would be specifically remembered for that, but I do know that it would move our industry forward and that makes me happy. [00:38:39] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. That's a beautiful legacy. All right, and then final question. What is one I know, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:38:52] Staci Miller: When I see what I'm building or, or how I'm building it in the future and I really go deep within my, my consciousness about this is what I'm gonna do next. This is how I'm gonna do it. This is what makes me feel really alive. I get so excited. I get like goosebumps. I start smiling. I, I'm a big-- I don't know if you do this, Lindsey, but I do this-- I kind of dance around a little bit. Like I dance when I'm making food, I dance and most people dunno that about me. But I, but my closest friends I remember I was working with this one guy and he looks at me, he's " Do you ever stop dancing?" I'm like, "Nope. Nope, Nope. Gotta dance." So all that stuff like starts to happen. And I just get really excited about the things that I'm trying to build, what I'm trying to master in my own world, what I'm trying to create. And that's what gives me like so much excitement. And then a number two would be my cats, because they're ridiculous and I love them and they give me so much love and they make me smile all the time too. [00:39:52] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh yes, those are great answers. I love that so much. It is exciting to see. Dreams come true. I can totally understand that answer of getting the, the excitement, the tingles, and then yeah, I, yeah, I, I obviously relate to dancing around all the time, and especially like celebratory dances. They're, my celebratory dances are the goofiest, most ridiculous things you've ever seen, but I'm happy! So. [00:40:20] Staci Miller: As long as you're happy, that's all that really matters, right? Like that vibe that you're putting out there and the happiness and the giddiness, like the things that I'm building in my mind, like they haven't happened yet, but I'm dancing like they have, you know, because I hope that they do. Like there you go. And I think that's important. I love it. [00:40:35] Lindsey Dinneen: True embodiment of the vision. I love it. Well, well, Staci, this has been a great conversation. Thank you so much for your insights and your stories, and we are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf today to Feeding America, which works to end hunger in the United States by partnering with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger, and also they advocate for policies that create long term solutions to hunger. So thank you so much for choosing that charity to support. And gosh, I just wish you the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. [00:41:15] Staci Miller: Thank you, thank you. It was so much fun being with you today. I appreciate this and it was so much fun to talk about. And yeah, I can't wait to see you in the next couple weeks too. So we'll see each other soon. [00:41:26] Lindsey Dinneen: Yay! Sounds good. Well, thanks again and have the best rest of your day. [00:41:32] Dan Purvis: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium Medical. Velentium Medical is a full service CDMO, serving medtech clients worldwide to securely design, manufacture, and test class two and class three medical devices. Velentium Medical's four units include research and development-- pairing electronic and mechanical design, embedded firmware, mobile app development, and cloud systems with the human factor studies and systems engineering necessary to streamline medical device regulatory approval; contract manufacturing-- building medical products at the prototype, clinical, and commercial levels in the US, as well as in low cost regions in 1345 certified and FDA registered Class VII clean rooms; cybersecurity-- generating the 12 cybersecurity design artifacts required for FDA submission; and automated test systems, assuring that every device produced is exactly the same as the device that was approved. Visit VelentiumMedical.com to explore how we can work together to change lives for a better world.

Hey y'all ! Welcome to another Friday with CWCOI ! In this week's episode, our host, Ally Yost reads Genesis 37 and 38 which is highlights the story of Joseph. A lot of us may have heard this story from the Old Testament as it is often referred to because it holds a lot in it. There are a lot of lessons to be taken from the story of Joseph and what happens to him/how he handles it all. So grab your Bible if you're able to and lets read along in Genesis together. "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4:31-32  _____________________________________________ ☆ Give now to end hunger ➤ FeedingAmerica.org ☆ If you're struggling with OCD or unrelenting intrusive thoughts, NOCD can help. Book a free 15 minute call to get started ➤ https://learn.nocd.com/CWCOI ☆ Download the FREE Upside app now to find out how much money you could earn. Use code 'ONICE' to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas ➤ https://www.upside.com ☆ REP CWCOI MERCH ➤ https://allyyost.com  ☆ MY BIBLE (code 'ALLYYOST' at checkout) ➤ https://hosannarevival.com/collections/beautiful-bibles/products/nlt-notetaking-bible-belfast-theme ☆ TUMBLER LINK ➤ https://allyyost.com/products/travel-tumbler _____________________________________________ Connect further with us ! TikTok ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@christwithcoffeeonice  Instagram ➤ https://instagram.com/christwithcoffeeonice  _____________________________________________ Connect further with Ally ! TikTok (2M) ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@ally_yost  Instagram ➤ https://www.instagram.com/ally_yost/  ShopMy ➤ https://shopmy.us/allyyost  Pinterest ➤ https://www.pinterest.com/ally_yost1/_created/

Chris Holman welcomes Ken Estelle, CEO, Feeding America West Michigan, Kentwood, MI. This episode of Michigan Business Beat features an interview with Ken Estelle, CEO of Feeding America West Michigan, a food bank headquartered in Kentwood that serves 40 of Michigan's 83 counties — primarily rural areas on the west side of the Lower Peninsula and the entire Upper Peninsula. Estelle reports that the organization is currently seeing more people seeking food assistance more frequently than at any point in its 40-year history, a trend he attributes largely to inflation driving up the costs of food, rent, utilities, and medications while incomes have not kept pace. Retail partners like Meijer remain among the organization's largest donors by weight, though supply chain fluctuations have at times reduced incoming donations, forcing the food bank to purchase more food than ever before. Estelle encouraged the business community to get involved by raising awareness among employees, volunteering at food bank facilities, and making financial contributions to help sustain operations. » Visit MBN website: www.michiganbusinessnetwork.com/ » Subscribe to MBN's YouTube: www.youtube.com/@MichiganbusinessnetworkMBN » Like MBN: www.facebook.com/mibiznetwork » Follow MBN: twitter.com/MIBizNetwork/ » MBN Instagram: www.instagram.com/mibiznetwork/

Hey y'all ! Welcome to another Friday with CWCOI ! In this week's episode, our host, Ally Yost talks about how the name of Jesus is full of power and authority. Sometimes we can feel like it's up to us to say profound, powerful prayers in order for mountains move but it really is just power in the name of Jesus. He is the one who has set us free.  "So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law." Galatians 5:1 _____________________________________________ ☆ Give now to end hunger ➤ FeedingAmerica.org ☆ If you're struggling with OCD or unrelenting intrusive thoughts, NOCD can help. Book a free 15 minute call to get started ➤ https://learn.nocd.com/CWCOI ☆ For up to 65% off your order, head to ➤ VeracityHealth.co and use code COFFEE ☆ Get full access to Glorify for $29.99 for the year. Download the Glorify app now ➤ https://glorify-app.com/ALLY ☆ REP CWCOI MERCH ➤ https://allyyost.com  ☆ MY BIBLE (code 'ALLYYOST' at checkout) ➤ https://hosannarevival.com/collections/beautiful-bibles/products/nlt-notetaking-bible-belfast-theme ☆ TUMBLER LINK ➤ https://allyyost.com/products/travel-tumbler _____________________________________________ Connect further with us ! TikTok ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@christwithcoffeeonice  Instagram ➤ https://instagram.com/christwithcoffeeonice  _____________________________________________ Connect further with Ally ! TikTok (2M) ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@ally_yost  Instagram ➤ https://www.instagram.com/ally_yost/  ShopMy ➤ https://shopmy.us/allyyost  Pinterest ➤ https://www.pinterest.com/ally_yost1/_created/

Hey y'all ! Welcome to another Friday with CWCOI ! In this week's episode, our host, Ally Yost reads through the book of Job. Job explores why God allows suffering and how God is good and sovereign through it all. Whether you have already read it or maybe you have been meaning to, we encourage you to sit with God as we open His word together. "But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold." Job 23:10 _____________________________________________ ☆ Give now to end hunger ➤ FeedingAmerica.org ☆ If you're struggling with OCD or unrelenting intrusive thoughts, NOCD can help. Book a free 15 minute call to get started ➤ https://learn.nocd.com/CWCOI ☆ Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University ➤ GCU.edu ☆ REP CWCOI MERCH ➤ https://allyyost.com  ☆ MY BIBLE (code 'ALLYYOST' at checkout) ➤ https://hosannarevival.com/collections/beautiful-bibles/products/nlt-notetaking-bible-belfast-theme ☆ TUMBLER LINK ➤ https://allyyost.com/products/travel-tumbler _____________________________________________ Connect further with us ! TikTok ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@christwithcoffeeonice  Instagram ➤ https://instagram.com/christwithcoffeeonice  _____________________________________________ Connect further with Ally ! TikTok (2M) ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@ally_yost  Instagram ➤ https://www.instagram.com/ally_yost/  ShopMy ➤ https://shopmy.us/allyyost  Pinterest ➤ https://www.pinterest.com/ally_yost1/_created/

There is a group of bipartisan lawmakers in the U.S. Senate calls for hot rotisserie chicken to be covered under the government food assistance program known as SNAP. Why does this matter for people needing SNAP? We asked Jason Jakubowski, President & CEO of Connecticut Foodshare, the official Feeding America food bank serving the entire state of Connecticut.For more information: https://www.ctfoodshare.org/Image Credit: Eric Urbanowicz

Hey y'all ! Welcome to another Friday with CWCOI ! In this week's episode, our host, Ally Yost talks about what it looks like to be set apart from the world and even from parts of the church. The more we fall in love with Jesus and fear of the Lord falls over us, the more we want to reflect who Him and the purpose He has for our lives. "As God's partners, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God's kindness and then ignore it." 2 Corinthians 6:1 _____________________________________________ ☆ Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to ➤ www.Quo.com/COFFEEONICE ☆ Give now to end hunger ➤ FeedingAmerica.org  ☆ If you're struggling with OCD or unrelenting intrusive thoughts, NOCD can help. Book a free 15 minute call to get started ➤ https://learn.nocd.com/CWCOI ☆ Get full access to Glorify for $29.99 for the year. Download the Glorify app now ➤ https://glorify-app.com/ALLY ☆ REP CWCOI MERCH ➤ https://allyyost.com  ☆ MY BIBLE (code 'ALLYYOST' at checkout) ➤ https://hosannarevival.com/collections/beautiful-bibles/products/nlt-notetaking-bible-belfast-theme ☆ TUMBLER LINK ➤ https://allyyost.com/products/travel-tumbler _____________________________________________ Connect further with us ! TikTok ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@christwithcoffeeonice  Instagram ➤ https://instagram.com/christwithcoffeeonice  _____________________________________________ Connect further with Ally ! TikTok (2M) ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@ally_yost  Instagram ➤ https://www.instagram.com/ally_yost/  ShopMy ➤ https://shopmy.us/allyyost  Pinterest ➤ https://www.pinterest.com/ally_yost1/_created/

What if the secret to thriving communities was sitting right at your local checkout counter? Claire Babineaux-Fontenot joins us to debunk myths about hunger and explain how the Feeding America network is showing up "fiercely local" in partnership with Walmart & Sam's Club. You'll learn how easy it is to "round up" at the register and be a part of the backbone of a movement that is literally changing lives one meal at a time. Tune in to hear how you can turn a routine shopping trip into a powerful act of kindness for your own community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katie, shares practical ways to cut costs and free up money for savings and faster debt payoff, drawing on her own journey of paying off over $254,762 on a single income. She describes getting a free haircut as a community college hair model and suggests similar savings through schools and training programs (cosmetology services, dental cleanings, trade-school auto repairs), plus free Home Depot workshops and trades training resources. She encourages using libraries for books and more, local buy/sell/trade and giveaway groups, community pantries, and reviewing workplace benefits for services and discounts. Other tips include using free trials carefully, working or volunteering at venues for concerts/sports, earning travel rewards, and maximizing restaurant rewards and birthday freebies, including apps like Flashfood and resources like food banks and Feeding America.Support the showThe Totally Awesome Debt Freedom Planner https://www.debtfreedad.com/planner Connect With Brad Website- https://www.debtfreedad.com Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thedebtfreedad Private Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/debtfreedad Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/debtfreedad/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@debt_free_dad YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@bradnelson-debtfreedad2751/featured Thanks For Listening Like what you hear? Please, subscribe on the platform you listen to most: Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Tune-In, Stitcher, YouTube Music, YouTube We LOVE feedback, and also helps us grow our podcast! Please leave us an honest review in Apple Podcasts, we read every single one. Is there someone that you think would benefit from the Debt Free Dad podcast? Please, share this episode with them on your favorite social network! 

Record Numbers Shatter Post-Pandemic Expectations Six years after the pandemic first disrupted American life, a troubling trend emerges across rural Virginia. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank now serves approximately 180,000 people every month—a staggering 39,000 more than the pandemic's peak. Les Sinclair, the organization's Communications and PR Manager, reveals this sobering reality during a recent conversation on The Valley Today with host Janet Michael. Initially, food bank officials believed the pandemic would represent the worst crisis they'd ever face. When government assistance programs temporarily lifted many families out of poverty, demand dropped slightly to around 141,000 monthly visits. However, this optimism proved short-lived. "We thought the numbers would never go up beyond the pandemic max," Les explains. "That just didn't pan out." Instead, inflation took hold with devastating consequences. While prices soared across every sector, wages failed to keep pace. Consequently, more working families find themselves unable to afford basic necessities, forcing them to seek food assistance for the first time in their lives. A Massive Rural Footprint The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank operates across an impressive territory that spans 25 counties and eight cities throughout Virginia. Stretching from Winchester and Frederick County in the north to beyond Lynchburg and Bedford County in the south, the organization covers approximately 12,000 square miles—roughly the size of Maryland or one-third of Virginia's total area. To manage this vast region effectively, the food bank maintains four strategic warehouse locations. Their headquarters sits in Verona, just outside Staunton, while additional distribution centers operate in Winchester, Charlottesville, and Lynchburg. Notably, the Winchester facility alone serves Frederick, Clarke, Fauquier, Warren, Shenandoah, Page, and Rappahannock Counties, including the densely populated Loudoun County. Moreover, the organization represents a groundbreaking experiment in food banking. When founded in 1981, most food banks concentrated on urban areas where dense populations made distribution easier. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, however, pioneered rural food distribution—a critical distinction since nine out of ten food-insecure Americans live in rural communities rather than urban centers. The Partnership Model That Makes It Work The food bank functions as a sophisticated logistics operation, partnering with Feeding America nationally and hundreds of local food pantries regionally. Les compares their role to a Walmart warehouse, buying food by the truckload and storing massive quantities. Meanwhile, local pantries like Winchester CCAP serve as the "customer-facing" locations, directly distributing food to families in need. This partnership proves essential for reaching scattered rural populations. "We couldn't do what we do without them," Les emphasizes. "They couldn't do what they do without us." Furthermore, the organization sources food from diverse channels. Retail grocers contribute 36% of donations through partner pickup programs, where pantries collect excess inventory directly from stores like Food Lion, Kroger, and Giant. Additionally, the USDA provides government-purchased food from American farmers, while large manufacturers donate products with misprinted labels or excess inventory. Local and regional farmers also contribute fresh produce to the network. The Grocery Store Challenge Recently, however, the retail partnership faced unexpected pressure. During October and November, and again during winter snowstorms, consumers cleared grocery store shelves completely. When stores have no excess inventory, they have nothing left to donate. Compounding this challenge, grocery chains have become remarkably efficient at predicting demand. Using AI technology, they now anticipate that shoppers will buy strawberry Pop-Tarts before storms and adjust inventory accordingly. While this efficiency benefits retailers and consumers, it reduces the surplus available for food banks. Simultaneously, USDA food supplies have dropped 30% year-over-year, forcing the food bank to purchase more food directly. Although they cannot fully replace the high-quality proteins and vegetables the government typically provides, they continue prioritizing nutritious options for their partner pantries. Shattering Misconceptions About Food Pantry Users Perhaps the most persistent myth surrounding food insecurity involves who actually needs assistance. Many people assume food pantry visitors are simply lazy and should "get a job." The reality, however, tells a dramatically different story. Most people seeking food assistance are working. They're trying to improve their lives but living on financial margins so thin that a single unexpected expense creates crisis. In fact, more than a quarter of the food bank's guests visit only once per year—they simply need help getting over a temporary hump. Les shares the story of a convenience store worker who injured her wrist on the job. Unable to work while waiting for workers' compensation, she has zero income and cares for a paralyzed son. She's not lazy—she's injured, uninsured temporarily, and desperately trying to survive until she can return to work. Even when workers' compensation arrives, it typically covers only 70% of regular wages and takes considerable time to process. For families living paycheck to paycheck, missing even one payment creates cascading financial disasters. The Government Shutdown Ripple Effect Currently, partial government shutdowns compound these challenges. Federal workers, particularly TSA agents, continue reporting to work without paychecks. They still pay for childcare, gas, and other necessities, but many receive payment only monthly—making it extraordinarily difficult to stretch resources from one paycheck to the next. Contrary to popular belief, landlords cannot always wait patiently for delayed rent payments. Many landlords depend on rental income to pay their own mortgages. When a tenant misses a $2,000 rent payment, the landlord must still cover their mortgage. Moreover, the economic impact extends far beyond government employees. When federal workers stop dining out, restaurants lose business. Wait staff lose tips. Restaurant owners order less food from suppliers like Sysco. Truck drivers haul fewer loads. The entire economic system suffers. Sarah Cohen of Route 11 Chips experienced this firsthand. During COVID and government shutdowns, her sales to DC cafes plummeted because federal workers weren't coming to the office for lunch. These ripple effects reach deep into Virginia's economy, affecting businesses and workers far from the capital. The Impossible Choice: Heat or Eat Winter brings particularly cruel dilemmas for struggling families. Les recently spoke with William, a roofer injured on the job who lives in a mobile home with his dog, Cocoa. Unable to afford heating, William and Cocoa "just sort of curl up" together while he waits for surgeries that will allow him to return to work. Another woman caring for three disabled grandchildren faces $400 monthly electric bills. With both she and her husband experiencing serious health issues and the children's parents out of the picture, they constantly struggle with the impossible choice between heating their home and feeding their family. These aren't isolated cases. Across the food bank's service area, families regularly face this devastating decision. When $600 heating bills arrive after cold snaps, many choose to keep the lights on and visit food pantries to feed their families. Food as Medicine: A Holistic Approach The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank takes a progressive stance on nutrition, viewing food as medicine rather than mere sustenance. They prioritize fresh produce, which comprised 30% of their distribution last year, because they understand that proper nutrition helps people thrive. Nutritious food keeps medical bills down across entire communities. Children pay better attention in school when properly nourished. People can manage chronic illnesses and diseases through better nutrition. Conversely, when families can only afford high-calorie processed foods, they face increased health risks despite consuming adequate calories—debunking the myth that overweight individuals cannot be food insecure. Additionally, access to food reduces stress, which itself functions as a health intervention. When people live on the edge of a financial cliff, they cannot make good long-term decisions. They're too focused on simply not falling. However, when food security removes one major stressor, families can step back from that precipice and begin making better choices for their futures. Quality Food for Everyone Another common misconception suggests that food bank offerings are somehow subpar. In reality, the food distributed through this network maintains high-quality standards. While well-meaning donors sometimes contribute items like ramen noodles during food drives, the bulk of distributed food comes from retail grocers, USDA programs, and direct purchases of nutritious items. The food bank specifically prioritizes produce because people crave fresh fruits and vegetables. Although produce represents one of the most expensive food categories—often making it a luxury for families on tight budgets—the organization believes everyone deserves access to healthy, nutritious food regardless of their economic circumstances. How Communities Can Help Fortunately, community members have multiple ways to support this critical mission. Volunteering provides valuable assistance, and notably, many food bank guests themselves volunteer, giving back to the community that supported them during difficult times. Financial donations prove particularly effective. Just $1 helps provide more than three meals, meaning $10 supplies a month of meals for someone in need, while $100 provides 300 meals. The food bank's purchasing power and logistics expertise amplify every dollar donated. Beyond time and money, advocacy matters tremendously. Currently, the Federation of Virginia Food Banks—representing all seven food banks across the state—works to promote "food as medicine" initiatives with the state legislature. Community members can support these efforts through the food bank's website at BRAFB.org/actnow or BRAFB.org/getinvolved. Finally, social media engagement amplifies the message. Following the food bank's social media accounts, resharing posts, and commenting helps spread awareness that hunger relief remains an urgent community need. Finding Help When You Need It For individuals and families currently struggling with food insecurity, Les offers an important message: "You're not alone, and we are here with you. We are here to walk with you through this challenge in your life." The food bank's website features an easy-to-use food finder tool. Visitors to BRAFB.org can click "Find Food," enter their address, and immediately see all nearby pantries with contact information, open hours, and everything needed to access food quickly. Alternatively, Virginians can call 211 for phone-based assistance connecting them with local resources. A Community Responsibility As this conversation reveals, food insecurity affects far more people than most realize—one in nine people across the food bank's service area. These aren't strangers or statistics; they're neighbors, coworkers, and community members facing temporary crises that could happen to anyone. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank stands ready to help, but they cannot do it alone. Through partnerships with local pantries, support from community donors and volunteers, and advocacy for systemic solutions, the organization continues fighting to ensure everyone has enough to eat. In Janet Michael's words, it's "a responsibility I do not take lightly"—and neither should any of us.

YoutubeSpotifyhttps://supportandfeed.org/BioRising pop-rock artist and multi-talented producer Ed Keiser returns with his new single, “Foreign Land,” a deeply personal and emotionally rich follow-up to his debut release, “You Are Not Alone.” Known for blending reflective storytelling with melodic, immersive production, Keiser once again invites listeners into a vulnerable and honest space shaped by resilience, love, and the human experience. “Foreign Land” expands on the themes first introduced in You Are Not Alone, a song Keiser released to encourage individuals facing loneliness, grief, or difficult circumstances. The debut track resonated widely not only for its message, but also for Keiser's commitment to donate 100 percent of its earnings to Support+Feed and Feeding America. With this new release, he continues building a catalog rooted in empathy, connection, and emotional truth. While You Are Not Alone served as an offering of comfort to those suffering in isolation, Foreign Land turns inward. Written as a dialogue between two lovers navigating trauma, the song was inspired by a painful chapter Keiser and his wife endured together. The verses unfold like a script, capturing an intimate back-and-forth that moves from confusion and fear toward clarity, faith, and renewal. “The song is a conversation between my wife and me,” Keiser explains. “We were going through a very trying time and still finding our way out of it. I wrote the song as an expression for both of us a way to look toward the future with hope. It was my way of helping us breathe again.” Across its four verses, Foreign Land explores uncertainty, spiritual questioning, and the emotional weight of hardship. Lyrics such as “When the pain is so strong, we question why the world is wrong?!” capture the rawness of that moment. Yet the song ultimately lifts upward, offering a path toward restoration through lines like “There will be no pain or fear, only through faith be it clear.” For Keiser, faith served as a grounding force during the creation of the track, though he emphasizes the song's universal message. “It is a song of hope,” he says. “My faith played a central role, but I didn't want to project my beliefs onto others. I embedded them gently, on purpose. The main theme is simple: hang in there—it will get better. It's about love, companionship, and overcoming hardship with your partner or loved one, whatever your beliefs may or may not be.” As both writer and producer, Keiser takes a hands-on approach to his music. Working primarily in Logic Pro, he performs multiple instruments and collaborates with skilled musicians to bring each arrangement to life. His contributions on acoustic guitar, piano, and bass provide a warm foundation, enriched by layered acoustic textures and meticulous production. The track also features acclaimed vocalist and guitarist Jamie Hoover, whose performance adds depth and emotional resonance. With Foreign Land now released, Keiser continues to shape a growing body of work, with plans for a larger project on the horizon. Whether the songs culminate in an EP or full-length album, his goal remains the same: to offer listeners solace, strength, and a reminder that healing is always possible. At the heart of Keiser's work is compassion. To support the approximately 47 million people in the United States experiencing food insecurity—about 1 in 7 Americans, according to the USDA Keiser has donated 100 percent of the earnings from You Are Not Alone and will continue to donate 100 percent of proceeds from Foreign Land to Support+Feed and Feeding America. Foreign Land is available now on all major streaming platforms, with promotional support from Starlight PR.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/creator-to-creators-with-meosha-bean--4460322/support.

You may know Perdue Farms for their chickens … and their commercials. But they also have a longstanding tradition of community involvement and support, particularly during the holiday season. For four decades, Perdue Truckers have been delivering holiday cheer to the Holly Center in Maryland, a residential facility for individuals with mental and physical disabilities. This initiative highlights the company's commitment to supporting vulnerable communities. Additionally, Perdue Farms participates in Wreaths Across America, a program that honors veterans by delivering thousands of wreaths to cemeteries across the East Coast. This effort underscores the company's dedication to recognizing and supporting veterans. FOX's Tonya J. Powers speaks with Jim Perdue, Chairman of Perdue Farms, emphasizes the importance of giving back during the holidays. He discusses how the family-owned company, with over a century of history, continues to grow and contribute to feeding America. Click Here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grateful Dead dorkout with Elizabeth Upton – EP 854Elizabeth Upton is a musicologist and I learned, FINALLY, about the Grateful Dead. We weed off into the history of a lot of other music but dang… it's a good one. You will love. Every November and December I ask that you NOT donate to the Dork Forest but find your local food bank and give as much as you can to them. FeedingAmerica.com has a listing OR google “your town” and “food bank.” I believe in you. If you're set up to give to me these two months – your cash goes to LA's Food Bank. Thanks so much for all your support and take care of each other out there. Extra TDF/standup and a storytelling album are available here: ⁠⁠⁠https://thedorkforest.bandcamp.com/⁠⁠⁠   YouTube has the videos: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@JackieKashianInc⁠⁠⁠ And it's @jackiekashian on all the social mediaz. Audio and Video by Patrick Brady Music is by Mike Ruekberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Survivor B&B: Survivor 49 Finale With a new Survivor season upon us, it's time for Mike Bloom and Liana Boraas to re-open the RHAP B&B! On the B&B, Mike and Liana are inspired by the lighter side of Survivor, featuring a series of segments and games based on what's happening on Survivor that week. This week, Mike and Liana give their thoughts on the Season 49 finale! This week's charity shoutout is Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies.. Click here to make a one-time or monthly donation.Thank you for your support for the B&B all season long! We’ll be back in the new year for coverage of the highly-anticipated Survivor 50. If you have any suggestions for games or feedback for the B&B, feel free to reach out to us on social media or email rhapbnb@gmail.com. To pre-order Rob's book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, visit www.robhasabook.com Never miss a minute of RHAP's extensive Survivor coverage! LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor podcast feed WATCH:  Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT:  Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks!

Survivor B&B: Survivor 49 Finale With a new Survivor season upon us, it's time for Mike Bloom and Liana Boraas to re-open the RHAP B&B! On the B&B, Mike and Liana are inspired by the lighter side of Survivor, featuring a series of segments and games based on what's happening on Survivor that week. This week, Mike and Liana give their thoughts on the Season 49 finale! This week's charity shoutout is Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies.. Click here to make a one-time or monthly donation.Thank you for your support for the B&B all season long! We’ll be back in the new year for coverage of the highly-anticipated Survivor 50. If you have any suggestions for games or feedback for the B&B, feel free to reach out to us on social media or email rhapbnb@gmail.com. To pre-order Rob's book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, visit www.robhasabook.com Never miss a minute of RHAP's extensive Survivor coverage! LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor podcast feed WATCH:  Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT:  Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks!

  Yuma, Arizona plays a critical role in feeding the United States, supplying much of the nation's leafy greens during the winter months. But farming at the border comes with unique challenges. In this episode of American Potential, host David From sits down with Cory Mellon, Chief Operating Officer of his family's farm, to discuss the realities of agriculture in a border community. Cory explains how the H-2A visa program supports legal farm labor, why generational workers are essential to the industry, and what happens when that system breaks down. Cory also shares firsthand insight into the economic impact of nonworkers moving through active fields, the food-safety risks farmers face when fields are disrupted, and how a federal government shutdown delayed worker processing—threatening the harvest during a critical picking season. This conversation highlights the connection between secure borders, legal labor, and America's food supply, and why getting immigration policy right matters far beyond the border.

Jimmy Pardo (@jimmypardo.bluesky jimmypardo.com and @nevernotfunny pod) is a great comic and LOVES a CLASSIC ROCK CONCERT. Over 500 of them. Amazing. You will love. Every November and December I ask that you NOT donate to the Dork Forest but find your local food bank and give as much as you can to them. FeedingAmerica.com has a listing OR google “your town” and “food bank.” I believe in you. If you're set up to give to me these two months – your cash goes to LA's Food Bank. Thanks so much for all your support and take care of each other out there. There is MERCH: ⁠⁠www.JackieKashianStore.com⁠⁠ is the direct. Links to everything is at ⁠⁠⁠www.dorkforest.com⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠www.jackiekashian.com⁠⁠⁠ Extra TDF/standup and a storytelling album are available here: ⁠⁠https://thedorkforest.bandcamp.com/⁠⁠   YouTube has the videos: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@JackieKashianInc⁠⁠ And it's @jackiekashian on all the social mediaz. Audio and Video by Patrick BradyMusic is by Mike Ruekberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Burnt Toast! I'm Virginia Sole-Smith. Today, my conversation is with Rachel Cahill, a longtime anti-hunger policy advocate based in Ohio. Rachel and her team support national and state-level organizations fighting every day to end hunger and poverty in the United States. Most of her work focuses on making SNAP (the government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) the most effective, accessible and equitable program it can be in every community. JICYMI: When the federal government shut down this fall, it closed SNAP for the first time in the history of the program, pausing benefits for much of November. Benefits are up and running again in most places, but this has had major ripple effects on the state of hunger in our country right now. And it's led to a lot of long-term questions about what we do to prevent that ever happening again. Rachel knows more about the ins and outs of SNAP, and anti-hunger advocacy, than anyone I know, so I asked her to come on the podcast to explain what's happening, and what we can do to help fight hunger. We also talk quite a bit about how to give strategically because it is that time of year when a lot of us want to do charitable giving. Which is great! But there are good and less good ways to do that. Burnt Toast is a community of helpers, and I think this conversation will help us all be better at helping. If you enjoy this conversation, a paid subscription is the best way to support our work! Join Burnt Toast!

Randy loves him so Columbo. We got fave eps… guests… it's a good one. Dorky goodness. Enjoy. Every November and December I ask that you NOT donate to the Dork Forest but find your local food bank and give as much as you can to them. FeedingAmerica.com has a listing OR google “your town” and “food bank.” I believe in you. If you're set up to give to me these two months – your cash goes to LA's Food Bank. Thanks so much for all your support and take care of each other out there. There is MERCH: ⁠⁠www.JackieKashianStore.com⁠⁠ is the direct. Links to everything is at ⁠⁠⁠www.dorkforest.com⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠www.jackiekashian.com⁠⁠⁠ Extra TDF/standup and a storytelling album are available here: ⁠⁠https://thedorkforest.bandcamp.com/⁠⁠   YouTube has the videos: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@JackieKashianInc⁠⁠ And it's @jackiekashian on all the social mediaz. Audio and Video by Patrick BradyMusic is by Mike Ruekberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The nonprofit organization Feeding America was looking for a better way to distribute billions of pounds of food to food banks each year. It used to use an algorithm to answer that question. It generated a list of food banks based on need, and when a shipment came up, Feeding America called the food bank at the top of the list. But what if a food bank didn't need or want that donation? The answer to that problem is a market economy, of sorts.

You may know Perdue Farms for their chickens … and their commercials. But they also have a longstanding tradition of community involvement and support, particularly during the holiday season. For four decades, Perdue Truckers have been delivering holiday cheer to the Holly Center in Maryland, a residential facility for individuals with mental and physical disabilities. This initiative highlights the company's commitment to supporting vulnerable communities. Additionally, Perdue Farms participates in Wreaths Across America, a program that honors veterans by delivering thousands of wreaths to cemeteries across the East Coast. This effort underscores the company's dedication to recognizing and supporting veterans. Jim Perdue, Chairman of Perdue Farms, emphasizes the importance of giving back during the holidays. He discusses how the family-owned company, with over a century of history, continues to grow and contribute to feeding America. Through these initiatives, Perdue Farms demonstrates its commitment to community service and support for veterans, aligning with its values of family and community engagement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eddie Pepitone (eddiepepitone.com) has a new special out (The Collapse) and is great. He's ALSO fascinated by OLD GOSS. We talk Mary Pickford and WC Fields and wander the early 20th century's indiscretions. You will love.  Every November and December I ask that you NOT donate to the Dork Forest but find your local food bank and give as much as you can to them. FeedingAmerica.com has a listing OR google “your town” and “food bank.” I believe in you. If you're set up to give to me these two months – your cash goes to LA's Food Bank. Thanks so much for all your support and take care of each other out there. Everything else you might want is at jackiekashian.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Catherine Wacha (@catherinewacha catherinewacha.bandcamp.com) explains why the multifaceted career of Paul Williams is THE BEST. I am convinced. You will love. Every November and December I ask that you NOT donate to the Dork Forest but find your local food bank and give as much as you can to them. FeedingAmerica.com has a listing OR google “your town” and “food bank.” I believe in you. If you're set up to give to me these two months – your cash goes to LA's Food Bank. Thanks so much for all your support and take care of each other out there. Extra TDF/standup and a storytelling album are available here: ⁠⁠https://thedorkforest.bandcamp.com/⁠⁠   YouTube has the videos: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@JackieKashianInc⁠⁠ And it's @jackiekashian on all the social mediaz. Audio and Video by Patrick Brady Music is by Mike Ruekberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:17532056201798502,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-9437-3289"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");pt> Target is lowering its prices for Thanksgiving just like Walmart. This is going to be a cheap holiday for the people. Inflation has been tamed and with lowering fuel prices Trump is countering the [CB] inflation. Fed Bostic is retiring which will leave an opening for Trump, slowly but surely is gaining control over the Fed. Trump is taking back control of the economy. The [DS] tried everything to take Trump down and it has failed. The pushed the Epstein files hoax on him and he didn't take the bait, now they failed with the shutdown, so they decided they would release the hoax. They took the bait and now they have started the Epstein narrative. Attacks will intensify against Trump team, when the time is right he will strike like a thunderbolt.   Economy Target reduces prices on 3,000 groceries and essentials Target announced Tuesday it is lowering prices on 3,000 food, beverage and essential items, though prices could vary by location and online. This is the latest in a string of initiatives the retailer has rolled out to offer shoppers lower prices. The retailer also announced a $500,000 donation to Feeding America to support its hunger relief efforts amid increased demand at food banks. Lowering prices on thousands of items that shoppers frequently buy “will make a difference for families managing tight household budgets during the holidays,” Lisa Roath, chief merchandising officer of food, essentials and beauty at Target, said in the announcement. The press release noted it will not reduce prices in Alaska and Hawai'i. The price cuts build on Target's growing affordability efforts as the holiday season arrives. The retailer highlighted in the Tuesday announcement its lowest price ever for a Thanksgiving meal, which the retailer unveiled earlier this month. The meal feeds four for less than $5 per person and includes a Good & Gather turkey that costs 79 cents per pound. Source: retaildive.com (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:18510697282300316,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-8599-9832"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); Bessent, Treasurer Striking Final Penny at Philadelphia Mint Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Treasurer Brandon Beach will visit the Philadelphia Mint on Wednesday to oversee production of the final circulating one-cent coin or penny, each of which costs nearly 4 cents to produce, the Treasury Department said. President Donald Trump said in February he was ordering the Treasury to halt what he called the "wasteful" minting of pennies, prompting gas stations, fast-food chains and big-box stores to adjust prices and round cash transactions. Source: newsmax.com https://twitter.com/DoryBeutel/status/1988579974354477175?s=20 More Doves Incoming: Atlanta Fed President Bostic To Retiring Feb 2026 More turnover at the Fed ahead of what can be a historic, for the US central bank, year as Trump prepares to stack the Fed with a deep bench of uber-doves. With the "fired" Lisa Cook's lawsuit marinating at the Supreme Court, moments ago the Atlanta Fed announced that its president Raphael Bostic would retire at the end of his current term in February. Bostic, who in the press release was described as "the first African American and openly gay president of a regional Federal Reserve Bank in its 111-year histo...

Sally Ann Hall (@meSallyAnn and FunnySallyAnn.com) is a comic with her first album and special coming out  - look for “Pretty Dead Wife” picked five Sci Fi movies that had some wild socialmes sages. Spoilers galore for five movies from 2012-2018. And then GalaxyQuest. Heh. Fun. Pre Destination The Endless Jupiter Ascending Hunger Games Franchise Galaxy Quest Every November and December I ask that you NOT donate to the Dork Forest but find your local food bank and give as much as you can to them. FeedingAmerica.com has a listing OR google “your town” and “food bank.” I believe in you. If you're set up to give to me these two months – your cash goes to LA's Food Bank. Thanks so much for all your support and take care of each other out there. Links to everything is at ⁠⁠⁠www.dorkforest.com⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠www.jackiekashian.com⁠⁠⁠ Extra TDF/standup and a storytelling album are available here: ⁠⁠https://thedorkforest.bandcamp.com/⁠⁠   YouTube has the videos: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@JackieKashianInc⁠⁠ And it's @jackiekashian on all the social mediaz. Audio and Video by Patrick Brady Music is by Mike Ruekberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

-- On the Show: -- Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney who explains law and politics on MSNBC and her Substack newsletter Civil Discourse, joins us to discuss effective political activism -- Democrats sweep major elections across multiple states as Donald Trump faces historic losses and visible backlash from his own party -- Donald Trump reacts to Republican defeats with incoherent social media posts, angry rants about mail voting, and calls to end the filibuster -- Republican commentators try to downplay Democratic victories as irrelevant while ignoring massive electoral swings in Virginia, New Jersey, and Georgia -- Democrats' sweeping wins mark the start of the 2026 midterm fight as Trump plans new voter suppression efforts to stop another blue wave -- Karoline Leavitt struggles through questions about Trump's health, controversial pardons, and false election claims, offering evasive and contradictory answers -- Donald Trump defies court orders by linking SNAP food benefits to reopening the government as the show raises funds for Feeding America in response -- Marjorie Taylor Greene's awkward appearance on The View exposes her unchanged views on QAnon, Trump, and Republican leadership -- On the Bonus Show: Democrat wins Virginia Attorney General race despite violent text scandal, Supreme Court hears arguments on Trump's tariffs, teachers get doxxed after MAGA claims their Halloween costumes mocked Charlie Kirk, and much more...

Douglas Widick (@DouglasWidick and .com) … I remember SOME things about the Beatles and learn other things. It's really fun. Enjoy. Every November and December I ask that you NOT donate to the Dork Forest but find your local food bank and give as much as you can to them. FeedingAmerica.com has a listing OR google “your town” and “food bank.” I believe in you. If you're set up to give to me these two months – your cash goes to LA's Food Bank. Thanks so much for all your support and take care of each other out there. Extra TDF/standup and a storytelling album are available here: ⁠⁠https://thedorkforest.bandcamp.com/⁠⁠   YouTube has the videos: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@JackieKashianInc⁠⁠ And it's @jackiekashian on all the social mediaz. Audio and Video by Patrick Brady Music is by Mike Ruekberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennie Garth is best known to Gen-Xers for her iconic role playing Kelly Taylor on the megahit television series Beverly Hills 90210.  Fans of the show may remember Kelly's pivotal “I Choose Me” episode (airing thirty years ago this past May) when she stood between dreamboats Brandon and Dylan and declared that she was choosing herself.  Jennie shaped an entire era of pop culture, and now, at fifty-two, she is embracing an incredible new chapter of life—one filled with bold conversations about aging, empowerment, self-love, and the beautiful messiness of midlife. Through her thought-provoking “I Choose Me” podcast and a forthcoming memoir of the same name, Jennie is using her platform to champion other women over fifty by challenging outdated narratives around aging and sparking empowering conversations. Today, Jennie, Jen and Amy talk about what choosing yourself looks like on a normal day, and what it means to be graduate beyond our growing family years into a more independent space where a new age of self-discovery is possible because, as Jennie reminds us, choosing “you” isn't selfish—it's the most powerful act of self-respect. Thought-provoking Quotes: “It was through my conversations with fans, whether it was on social media. or at autograph events that I kept hearing, ‘I didn't know I could choose me until Kelly Taylor told me it was an option.'” – Jennie Garth “If I had gone to college and lived a normal life, then I would have learned things that I didn't actually end up learning until I was in my forties and fifties. So now I'm just searching like, ‘What did I miss and how can I be better? How can I learn more about myself?'” – Jennie Garth “You look around on social media and you see other people's lives and think, ‘My God, they have it all figured out.' And I just never felt like that personally.” – Jennie Garth “Loving yourself is a journey and it's imperative to your wellbeing.” – Jennie Garth “I don't want to please people by being what they want me to be or fitting into this character's shoes. I love acting and I'll never not love acting. But I had to take the bull by the horns and take control of my life.” – Jennie Garth “Competition amongst women was real. It was just part of the  world I grew up in. I had to be better than the next girl. What a waste of so much precious time and energy. I used to be intimidated by other women's success or knowledge or position. I kick myself for all the years of lost opportunity of that kind of camaraderie and connection with other women. I feel it so strongly now. It's something that can never be quieted again,” – Jennie Garth Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990-2000) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098749/ Tori Spelling - https://www.instagram.com/p/DKAANczu145/?hl=en I Choose Me Women's Summit 2025 - https://jenniegarth.com/pages/i-choose-me-movement I Choose Me: Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose & Embracing Reinvention by Jennie Garth - https://amzn.to/44d8eMM Me by Jennie Garth QVC Collection - https://jenniegarth.com/pages/me-by-jennie-garth Feeding America - https://www.feedingamerica.org/partners/entertainment-council/jennie-garth American Heart Association - https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/at-the-heart-of-it-with-nancy-brown/the-power-of-positivity-with-jennie-garth Guest's Links: Website - https://jenniegarth.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jenniegarth/ Twitter - https://x.com/jenniegarth Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jenniegarth TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@officialjenniegarth Podcast - https://jenniegarth.com/pages/i-choose-me-podcast Connect with Jen!Jen's Website - https://jenhatmaker.com/ Jen's Instagram - https://instagram.com/jenhatmakerJen's Twitter - https://twitter.com/jenHatmaker/ Jen's Facebook - https://facebook.com/jenhatmakerJen's YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/JenHatmaker The For the Love Podcast is presented by Audacy.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tonight's rundown: Hey BillOReilly.com Premium and Concierge Members, welcome to the No Spin News for Monday, June 30, 2025. Stand Up for Your Country.  Talking Points Memo: Bill breaks down the Supreme Court's 6–3 ruling against judge shopping and the left's reaction to the ruling. Widener University Law School Professor Michael Dimino joins the No Spin News to discuss the ongoing battle over the political use of the Constitution and the left's efforts to dismantle it. Why Gov. Gavin Newsom is suing Fox News. What we know about Anthony Bernal, Jill Biden's senior advisor, withdrawing from his House Oversight interview. A look at the statement from Feeding America, signed by Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, and Sheryl Crow, opposing Trump's SNAP regulations. Final Thought: Bill's first AI phone call. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices