Podcasts about finance committee

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Best podcasts about finance committee

Latest podcast episodes about finance committee

City Cast Nashville
Why the Mayor's Proposed Budget Might Not Pass

City Cast Nashville

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2025 28:42


Metro Council will consider and vote on the Substitute Budget Ordinance tomorrow night, which could replace the mayor's proposed budget for fiscal year 2026. What's in it, and how does this whole thing work? Councilmember Delishia Porterfield — who filed this year's substitute as chair of the Budget and Finance Committee — joins host Marie Cecile Anderson to tell us everything we need to know. Learn more about the sponsors of this June 16th episode: Nashville Zoo - The first 2,000 guests to visit the Zoo on June 20th for the ribbon cutting at 9:30 a.m get a free Leopard Forest bandana. Babbel - Get up to 60% off at Babbel.com/CITYCAST Want some more City Cast Nashville news? Then make sure to sign up for our Hey Nashville newsletter.  Follow us @citycastnashville You can also text us or leave a voicemail at: 615-200-6392 Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE.

All American Wingshooting Podcast
E63 - Jim Copper SCI Foundation

All American Wingshooting Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2025 40:33


Jim Copper is a Director and the Chair of the Finance Committee for SCI Foundation. His role is to put donor's money where it will make the biggest impact. Don't miss this episode where Jim shares about using his skills from the corporate world to benefit hunters around the world.

Franklin (MA) Matters
FM #1467 - Franklin (MA) Finance Cmte Mtg - 06/11/25

Franklin (MA) Matters

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 14, 2025 2:58


This session shares the Finance Committee meeting very briefly conducted Wednesday, June 11, 2025. The Committee initially struggled to make a quorum needing 5 members. It had one, then 2, 3, and 4. Discussion on whether to hold the meeting as quorum appeared to be in jeopardy. 2 more arrived to make quorum. Given the nature of the topic, a deep dive on Technology, that 3 new members of the committee will be appointed in July and should participate, that 1 present wouldn't be returning, it was decided to postpone the meeting and topic until the fall.For the record, the decision was formalized with the ‘official' meeting opening and closing in less than one minute. --------------Agenda doc -> https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_06112025-1781-------------We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial. This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.How can you help?If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighborsIf you don't like something here, please let me knowAnd if you have interest in reporting on meetings or events, please reach. We'll share and show you what and how we do what we doThrough this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot comThe music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.I hope you enjoy!------------------You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

BakerHosts
The Cloakroom with Peter Roskam: 36th Annual Legislative Seminar - Senator John Barrasso, R-WY

BakerHosts

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2025 31:07


Former Congressman Peter Roskam, who leads BakerHostetler's Federal Policy team, provides listeners with a front-row seat to the most important policy and political debates in Congress. In this episode of “The Cloakroom with Peter Roskam,” Peter is joined at the 36th Annual Legislative Seminar in Washington, D.C., by his BakerHostetler colleague former Congressman Heath Shuler and Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming. Barrasso, the majority whip, is the No. 2 elected Republican in the Senate and is responsible for counting votes and assuring smooth passage of the GOP's agenda and nominations. A former orthopedic surgeon, Barrasso serves on the Finance Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the Foreign Relations Committee.Questions & Comments: proskam@bakerlaw.com

Finance Committee Podcast
Finance Committee: Meeting of June 9, 2025

Finance Committee Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2025 25:37


The Finance Committee makes recommendations to the Common Council regarding budget amendments and other matters with significant fiscal implications during the year.

finance committee common council finance committee meeting
Breakfast with Refilwe Moloto
Parliament: Week in Review – Fuel Levy Battles, Budget Alignments, and Police Corruption Concerns

Breakfast with Refilwe Moloto

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2025 6:12


In this week’s Parliament: Week in Review, Tara Roos and Lester Kiewit unpack a range of critical developments, from legal battles to budget decisions and police accountability. The Western Cape High Court dismissed the EFF’s urgent application to halt a fuel levy hike, a ruling the party denounced as undermining democratic checks on taxation. The EFF has vowed to escalate its fight both legally and in Parliament. Meanwhile, Parliament’s finance committee adopted the 2025 Budget’s fiscal framework, with the ANC and DA finding rare common ground to approve it—despite earlier tensions. The EFF and MK parties opposed the framework, slamming it for fuelling austerity and failing to protect the poor. On the policing front, troubling figures emerged: 218 officers were dismissed for corruption over the past five years, but only 12 were criminally convicted. SAPS also revealed that it had conducted customer satisfaction surveys in 2021 and 2023, claiming the data is being used to guide improvements in service delivery and strategic planning. Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is a podcast of the CapeTalk breakfast show. This programme is your authentic Cape Town wake-up call. Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is informative, enlightening and accessible. The team’s ability to spot & share relevant and unusual stories make the programme inclusive and thought-provoking. Don’t miss the popular World View feature at 7:45am daily. Listen out for #LesterInYourLounge which is an outside broadcast – from the home of a listener in a different part of Cape Town - on the first Wednesday of every month. This show introduces you to interesting Capetonians as well as their favourite communities, habits, local personalities and neighbourhood news. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays between 06:00 and 09:00 (SA Time) to Good Morning CapeTalk with Lester Kiewit broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/xGkqLbT or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/f9Eeb7i Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Finance Committee Podcast
Finance Committee: Meeting of May 27, 2025

Finance Committee Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2025 89:52


The Finance Committee makes recommendations to the Common Council regarding budget amendments and other matters with significant fiscal implications during the year.

finance committee common council finance committee meeting
Wilson County News
MEETING WATCH

Wilson County News

Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2025 4:37


View WCN's video coverage of these meetings online at wilsoncountynews.com/category/video-vault 4A Corp. May 20, Floresville City Council May 22, LVISD May 19 Wilson County Memorial Hospital Board (Connally Memorial Medical Center) Meeting: Regular meeting, May 15, 5-6:35 p.m., executive session 6:13-6:33 p.m. Actions: •Approved the April 17 meeting minutes •Approved to keep the current slated positions on the board, including President Allision Lamberth, Vice President Marcelo Laijas, and Secretary Justin Cook •Approved to keep the current board positions for the By-Laws and Personnel Committee, Finance Committee, Joint Conference Committee, and Long Range Planning Committee •Approved the April summary and financial...Article Link

BURNING ISSUES
Dr. Bawumia Once Hailed Himself As The NPP's IT Guru, But Now That He Is In Opposition, He Is Focusing On The Economy - Richard Acheampong

BURNING ISSUES

Play Episode Listen Later May 26, 2025 100:15


We will never make mistakes like the NPP because we are aware of the errors made by the previous government - Richard Acheampong, MP for Bia East and Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee

Update@Noon
Parliament's Finance Committee expresses unhappiness with Finance Minister's virtual address

Update@Noon

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2025 5:37


Members of Parliament's Finance Committee on Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals are not happy that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is today not present at the sitting but will instead speak to them virtually. The proposed budget he tabled in parliament on Wednesday proposes fuel hike levy Committee members feel that this is too much of an important matter for the minister not to be physically present. Commitee member Sinawo Tambo reiterates the sentiments of the collective members...

RTÉ - The Late Debate
Brendan McDonagh faces Finance Committee over Housing Tsar role

RTÉ - The Late Debate

Play Episode Listen Later May 21, 2025 9:49


Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire - Sinn Féin TD for Cork South-Central; Catherine Callaghan – Fine Gael TD for Carlow-Kilkenny; Paul Murphy – People Before Profit TD for Dublin South-West; Gabija Gataveckaite - Political Correspondent at Independent Newspapers

How Women Inspire: Invest, Lead, Give
Financial Intelligence & Strategic Vision for Women Investors with Anne Myong

How Women Inspire: Invest, Lead, Give

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2025 33:39


Are you ready to unlock the secrets to financial empowerment and strategic vision? Today's episode features a dynamic conversation with Anne Myong, a global transformational leader and operating partner at How Women Invest. Join Julie Castro Abrams as they delve into the critical aspects of financial intelligence, portfolio decisions, and building wealth, specifically tailored for women investors. Anne shares her remarkable journey from Fortune 100 boardrooms to startup success, offering invaluable insights on navigating economic cycles, leveraging compounding interest, and making impactful investment choices. Get ready to elevate your financial acumen and gain the strategic perspective needed to achieve your investment goals and create lasting financial freedom. This week's episode 168 of How Women Inspire Podcast is about financial intelligence and strategic vision for women investors! This episode was created in partnership with the Nasdaq Foundation. Together, we are working to educate, inspire, and engage women from diverse backgrounds on venture investing and entrepreneurship. Did you know that only 2% of venture funding goes to women-led companies? Together, we are working to show that women are the new face of venture investing.In this episode of How Women Inspire Podcast, Anne Myong is sharing the importance of starting your investing journey early and actionable steps you can take right now to have financial conversations with your kids to impact them for a lifetime. Anne Myong is a board member, investor, and advisor to eCommerce, medical device, technology, social media, AI, and retail organizations on finance, audit, mergers & acquisitions, business development, and corporate governance. Anne is on the board of Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN), Audit Committee Chairperson, a SEC-qualified financial expert, and a member of the Compensation and Human Capital Committee. From 2016-2022, she was a Board Director, Treasurer, and Chairperson of the Audit and Finance Committees of Goodwill Industries International, a $6B donated goods retail and workforce development non-profit organization.Some of the talking points Julie and Anne go over in this episode include:Opportunities for women to start investing, even with small amounts, and exploring venture capital as an investment class.How women can educate themselves about finance and investing.Anne's leadership experience across countries and companies.Building wealth and long-term financial strategies.Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag me!  And don't forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!Learn more about How Women Inspire at https://www.howwomenlead.com/podcast CONNECT WITH ANNE MYONG:LinkedInCONNECT WITH JULIE CASTRO ABRAMS:LinkedIn - JulieHow Women LeadHow Women InvestHow Women GiveInstagram - HWLLinkedIn - HWLFacebook - HWL

Finance Committee Podcast
Finance Committee: Meeting of May 12, 2025

Finance Committee Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2025 12:52


The Finance Committee makes recommendations to the Common Council regarding budget amendments and other matters with significant fiscal implications during the year.

finance committee common council finance committee meeting
The Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar
Why should tax payers help subsidize private school budgets?

The Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2025 5:53


That's the base of one argument at the State Capitol. Even though many disadvantaged kids get into private schools with the states help, some feel that the time has come to stop that process. An in depth look at school finance with Senator Jason Rarick who is on the Finance Committee and Tricia Menzhuber, principal at St. John Paul II Catholic School in Northeast Minneapolis.

The Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar
Why should tax payers help subsidize private school budgets?

The Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2025 5:53


That's the base of one argument at the State Capitol. Even though many disadvantaged kids get into private schools with the states help, some feel that the time has come to stop that process. An in depth look at school finance with Senator Jason Rarick who is on the Finance Committee and Tricia Menzhuber, principal at St. John Paul II Catholic School in Northeast Minneapolis.

Franklin (MA) Matters
FM #1438 - ToF - Finance Cmte Mtg Budget Hearing #3 - 05/01/25

Franklin (MA) Matters

Play Episode Listen Later May 3, 2025 143:16


This session shares the Finance Committee meeting conducted Thursday, May 1, 2025. 7 members of the Committee participated, 6 in Council Chambers, 1 remote (Hamilton) 1 absent (Nagel) for the last of the series of Budget Hearings for FY 2026. This session covered the General government line items and led to the series of recommending votes. Quick recapUp for review tonight were the General government departments, many of them much smaller than the Police, FIRE, DPW, and Schools covered previously but all key to Town services. Recreation pays for itself with fee revenue from servicing 7200 kids with 3 full time personnelLibrary just above the minimum required by State legislation not revised since it was enabled over 100 years agoTown Clerk's office runs the annual census, dog licenses, registrations, and this year 2 elections; the special override election June 3 and the local election in November (Town Council, School Cmte and other elected positions, including this year the Town Clerk).Senior Center has a minimal expense budget most of it is personnel and a good portion of it is covered by fee revenue or grants. Still working on how to fine tune it, won't likely get to the fee supported status of the Recreation Dept. May 15 ribbon cutting for the van and gazebo at the Senior Center (10 AM)Resolutions for approval - all passed by same 7-0-1 (1 absent) roll call voteResolution 25-20: Recommendation of FY2026 BudgetResolution 25-21: Salary Schedule: Full-Time Elected Official Resolution 25-22: Expenditure Limits for FY2026 on Departmental Revolving Funds Established by Franklin Town Code Chapter 73, as Provided in MGL Chapter 44, §53E½, as Amended Resolution 25-23: Snow and Ice Transfer of Funds Resolution 25-24: Appropriation and Transfer of Funds from Water Enterprise Fund Retained Earnings to Water Line ProjectThe meeting runs 2 hours and 28 minutes, so let's listen in.--------------Franklin TV video is available for replay -> https://www.youtube.com/live/C5g8YGdpTmI?&t=430 The agenda and released documents for this session -> https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_05012025-1710 My notes in one PDF -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LFcbiY2E14_zoCwZHMOjuSOpnIaaUM1J/view?usp=drive_link -------------We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial. This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.How can you help?If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighborsIf you don't like something here, please let me knowAnd if you have interest in reporting on meetings or events, please reach out. We'll share and show you what and how we do what we doThrough this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or

Franklin (MA) Matters
FM #1437 - ToF Finance Cmte Budget Hearing #2 - 04/29/25

Franklin (MA) Matters

Play Episode Listen Later May 1, 2025 88:05


This session shares the Finance Committee meeting conducted Tuesday, April 29, 2025. All 8 members of the Committee were present in the 3rd floor training for the second of the series of Budget Hearings for FY 2026. This session covered Public Safety (police, fire, dispatch, and inspections) and Public Works (DPW, water, sewer, roads, etc). Quick recap:Police Chief TJ Lynch started his update. Basically the same as last year with some minor adjustments. If the override were to fail, he would loose 2 officers. He is hiring to backfill for retirees and transfers. When as ked to elaborate on that, he provided the details on the 5 recent departures, with one being sworn in at Council meeting and one still to be hired.Deputy Chiefs Klich & Barberi provided the update in lieu of Chief McLaughlin out this week on vacation. Similar to the police update, very little change in totals. If the override fails, they would lose the staffing for the 3rd ambulance. The 3rd ambulance responded to over 100 calls last year and resulted in over 70 hospital transports during its 40 hours of weekly coverage. The community would notice the difference in slower response times as mutual aid would be providing more coverage than they do todayDiscussion on vehicle replacement both costs increasing and lead times lengthening. A new ambulance ordered in 2022 is scheduled for delivery in August. The Tower truck ordered in 2023 is scheduled for delivery this summer. The current Tower would stay in the fleet and move to back up status, as would the older of the ambulances when the new one arrives.Brutus Cantoreggi, DPW director and Kathy Mooradd, Administration and Budget manager presented initially. Doug Martin, Water/Sewer Superintendent stood up along the way to cover water and sewer updates.Similar to the police and fire updates, a level funded budget being presented. Note, not a level service budget. The dollar remains about the same but the materials cost across the DPW departments account for 65% of the total budget (35% of the personnel cost). The same amount of money is getting less to work with. A failed override will also be noticeable but not right away. Water will still run, sewers will still operate, other maintenance and road repairs, etc. will be delayed or take longer.There were other budget items discussed; Building & inspection, MECC dispatch. The meeting total only runs 90 minutes so it should be easy enough to catch up to. The audio and transcript will come out also (audio Thursday, transcript on the weekend).The recording runs about 90 minutes, so let's listen in.--------------Franklin TV video available for replay -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFHPuafjzDg The agenda doc for this session -> https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_04292025-1699My notes captured during the meeting via Twitterhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1ocIK4PjauaMMklMFVxkybmp4eTf5716K/view?usp=drive_link -------------We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial. This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.How can you...

Capitol Ideas:  The Washington State House Democratic Caucus Podcast
It's a shame that it took three years to feature Rep. Chipalo Street on Capitol Ideas, because this turned out to be one of the most informative and entertaining episodes in a long while. Good things are worth waiting for, and we finally got him. Enjoy.

Capitol Ideas: The Washington State House Democratic Caucus Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2025 30:58


Washington state lawmakers and staff were still celebrating the final gavel of the 2025 session when Rep. Chipalo Street sat down for his first appearance on Capitol Ideas. We covered everything from rent stabilization and safer streets to life as a professional soccer referee, and ended up with a half hour that goes by much too quickly.

Franklin (MA) Matters
FM #1436 - ToF Finance Cmte Budget Hearing #1 - 04/28/25

Franklin (MA) Matters

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2025 55:46


This session shares the Finance Committee meeting conducted Monday, April 28, 2025. All 8 members of the Committee were present in Council Chambers for the first of the series of Budget Hearings for FY 2026. This session covered Education; Tri-County, Norfolk Aggie and Franklin Public Schools. Only Franklin was there to present in person. The Chair almost closed the meeting without mentioning the other two budget items. Quick recap:School Superintendent Lucas Giguere and Interim Business Administrator Jana Milotti made the presentation supported at different points by Dr Dutch and Asst Supt Paula MoranoThe slides of the presentation can be found -> https://photos.app.goo.gl/RZR8tubpGhMB6Ac47 The school budget fits within the Town allocation which assumes a successful override vote on June 3. The school budget is an increase over last year by $2.9MRedistricting brought significant savings to the tune of $3.1MIf the override fails, $2M would be cut from this budget (per current Town documented allocation) resulting in no decrease in sports or transportation fees, staff reductions, higher class sizes, etc. See the photo of slide page 25Tuesday night the budget items for public works and public safety are up for discussion. The meeting will be in the 3rd floor training room.The recording runs about 53 minutes, so let's listen in.--------------Franklin TV recording available for replay -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2k6pGMSzeU Finance Cmte agenda -> https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_04282025-1700 My notes captured during the meeting via Twitterhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1_SkYWy0EmCwPxh8w_PRvUJI2QDbclXKD/view?usp=drive_link -------------We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial. This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.How can you help?If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighborsIf you don't like something here, please let me knowAnd if you have interest in reporting on meetings or events, please reach. We'll share and show you what and how we do what we doThrough this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot comThe music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.I hope you enjoy!------------------You can also subscribe...

Finance Committee Podcast
Finance Committee: Meeting of April 28, 2025

Finance Committee Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2025 85:30


The Finance Committee makes recommendations to the Common Council regarding budget amendments and other matters with significant fiscal implications during the year.

finance committee common council finance committee meeting
The City Club of Cleveland Podcast
Remarks from State Senator Jerry Cirino

The City Club of Cleveland Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2025 60:00


State Senator Jerry Cirino has emerged as one of the most powerful members of the Ohio legislature. The finance committee chair and Kirtland area Republican is serving his second term. Senator Cirino also serves as vice chair of Higher Education committee. Indeed, higher ed is perhaps where the Senator is most well known. His proposal to reform higher education has reemerged as Senate Bill 1, a wide-ranging initiative to roll back campus diversity efforts and place some limits on the classroom discussion of so-called "controversial topics."rnrnAs chair of the Finance Committee, Sen. Cirino is responsible for leading the drafting the senate's version of the state's capital and operating budgets, as well as any other additional expenditures. Cirino also serves on the Energy, Housing, and Rules Committees. He represents Lake County and communities in the east and southeast sides of Cuyahoga County.

Alcoholics Alive!
Corrections, Finance and CPC - 75th GSC

Alcoholics Alive!

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2025 64:10


S10 E2 Shank and Wayne discuss some of the agenda items for the 75th General Service Conference from the CPC, Corrections and Finance Committees.  Living Sober Shrapnel discusses "Cafeteria Style", "Balanced Diet of Ideas" and "Just Don't Pick Up That First Drink".  If you have a suggestion, comment or question you can email Shank and Wayne at freedom@alcoholicsalive.com 

Passionate Pioneers with Mike Biselli
Unlocking Health Insights at the Molecular Level with Jim Kean

Passionate Pioneers with Mike Biselli

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2025 32:04


This episode's Community Champion Sponsor is Ossur. To learn more about their ‘Responsible for Tomorrow' Sustainability Campaign, and how you can get involved: CLICK HEREEpisode Overview: The future of healthcare lies in shifting from reactive treatment to predictive prevention, and our next guest is leading this transformation. Jim Kean, CEO of Molecular You, is harnessing molecular medicine and AI to identify health risks before they progress to disease. With an impressive track record as a serial healthcare entrepreneur, Jim pioneered online health communities with Sapient Health Network (later WebMD), revolutionized direct-to-consumer diagnostics with WellnessFX, and now leads Molecular You in expanding access to precision health insights. Join us to discover how Jim's unique perspective from seven startups and time in the healthcare insurance industry is helping navigate the complex healthcare landscape while driving innovation that can save both money and lives. Let's go!Episode Highlights:Technology detected early-stage pancreatic cancer through molecular pattern changes years before symptoms appearedPlatform analyzes 280+ biomarkers from a single blood sample with plans to expand to 825 markersAI identifies "risk signatures" for conditions like Alzheimer's with 95% accuracyCan determine different biological pathways leading to the same disease, enabling personalized treatments25% of all healthcare expenses will come from just 3% of people who will develop severe disease but aren't yet identifiedAbout our Guest: Jim Kean, CEO of Molecular You, is a technology executive known for driving innovation in consumer health and wellness platforms. At Molecular You, Jim is focused on expanding access to precision health insights that empower proactive healthcare decisions.Before joining Molecular You, Jim was General Manager of the Consumer Platform for Cambia Health, a Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer based in Portland, Oregon, where he drove the development of a next-generation platform for omni-channel consumer engagement. Later, he became General Manager of Value Management, focusing on population health analytics. As Founder and former CEO of WellnessFx™, Jim led the company to become a leader in direct-to-consumer health diagnostics; after founding the company In 2010, he sold it to Thorne (THRN) in 2013 for $25m.In 1995, Jim founded Sapient Health Network (SHN), pioneering online consumer health communities. SHN merged with WebMD in 1999, forming the platform that now attracts over 23 million monthly visitors. He successfully exited the company, turning a $5m investment into $187m in 3.5 years.Former Board Member of Portland Center Stage (PCS) – a highly regarded regional theatre. During his tenure as Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee, PCS achieved recognition for developing and opening the first Platinum LEED performing arts building. An avid outdoorsman, in 1999, he hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. He graduated in 1984 from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR, and earned an MBA from Tuck School at Dartmouth in 1991. He enjoys the great outdoors and winter sports with his wife and three children. Links Supporting This Episode: Molecular You Website: CLICK HEREJim Kean LinkedIn page: CLICK HEREMolecular You LinkedIn:

Anderson Cooper 360
Stock Market Rally Evaporates

Anderson Cooper 360

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2025 47:21


Investors brace for impact, again, with huge new tariffs on China just hours away, and higher prices soon to follow. At midnight, the tariff on goods imported from China will rise another 50%, to a staggering 104%. Also, at midnight, Canada's 25% tariff on American-made cars begins, which is retaliation for the President's corresponding 25% levy on Canada imposed last week. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who sits on the Finance Committee and is the ranking member on the Banking Committee, talks to Anderson about the state of the economy. Plus, Dr. Sanjay Gupta shares the findings of a new study on Alzheimer's that he's a part of. The results are startling, and good news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Be More Than A Fiduciary
Kevin Mahoney: Stewardship Reporting and Practice Management

Be More Than A Fiduciary

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2025 28:11


Kevin has dedicated his career to helping people prepare for retirement. He assists corporate plan sponsors and their committees in meeting fiduciary responsibilities while guiding employees toward their financial goals.With over 25 years in financial services, he is a Certified Investment Management Analyst and Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst. His expertise spans corporate retirement plan design, implementation, and distribution.Before joining Raymond James in 2015, Kevin spent 24 years at Merrill Lynch. He holds a bachelor's degree from Fordham University and is an active member of several professional organizations, including the Investment Management Consultants Association and the Society for Human Resource Management. He also serves on the leadership councils for the National Association of Plan Advisors and The Retirement Advisor Council.Kevin is deeply committed to community service, currently serving on the Board of Directors for Rockland Hospital Guild and the Finance Committee for United Hospice of Rockland. He previously held leadership roles with Meals on Wheels of Rockland, St. Margaret of Antioch Church, and the Boy Scouts of America.His contributions have earned him notable recognition, including Meals on Wheels Business Man of the Year (2015) and the Fordham University Community Leadership Award (2016). He has also been named to the Financial Times 401: Top U.S. Retirement Advisors annually since its inception. In this episode, Eric and Kevin Mahoney discuss:The benefits of thoroughly documenting service hoursEnsuring consistency in delivering value Exercising caution when benchmarking servicesEngaging in holistic retirement planningKey Takeaways:Thoroughly documenting the time and effort spent servicing each client is an important process for advisors who want to truly justify their fees, enhance client retention, and identify both high and low-value engagements.Establishing a fiduciary training program, detailed service plans, and accountability measures is essential to ensure advisors consistently deliver value commensurate with their fees.Benchmarking services and fees against industry standards is vital, but advisors must exercise caution in data input to avoid erroneous conclusions regarding fee competitiveness.Advisors should engage in holistic retirement planning, including employee education, to succeed in the industry, while committees must scrutinize advisors' processes and pricing to meet fiduciary obligations.“If all you're speaking to is investments. You're going to struggle. You need to talk to the plan holistically. You need to talk to employee education. And you have to be committed to the best interest of the participants. And if you do that, I think there's staggering upside potential.” - Kevin MahoneyConnect with Kevin Mahoney:Website: https://www.raymondjames.com/mahoneygroupadvisors/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmahoneytmg/ Connect with Eric Dyson: Website: https://90northllc.com/Phone: 940-248-4800Email: contact@90northllc.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/401kguy/ The information and content of this podcast is general in nature and is provided solely for educational and informational purposes. It is believed to be accurate and reliable as of the posting date but may be subject to change.It is not intended to provide a specific recommendation for any type of product or service discussed in this presentation or to provide any warranties, investment advice, financial advice, tax, plan design or legal advice (unless otherwise specifically indicated). Please consult your own independent advisor as to any investment, tax, or legal statements made.The specific facts and circumstances of all qualified plans can vary and the information contained in this podcast may or may not apply to your individual circumstances or to your plan or client plan-specific circumstances.

United SHE Stands
Healthcare for All: Eloisa Perard on Expanding Access & Equity

United SHE Stands

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2025 30:19


In episode 115, we sit down with Eloisa Perard, CEO and President of Gracelight Community Health in Los Angeles, to talk about all things healthcare advocacy and federally qualified health centers. Don't know what those are? No worries, we didn't either! Listen to this episode to learn more about the amazing work they do. Gracelight Community Health is a non-profit, Federally Qualified Community Health Center organization. In partnership with the executive management team, Ms. Perard creates strategies in support of the organization's mission and goals while accelerating and deploying technologies that improve patient care and operational efficiency.A long-time resident of Los Angeles, California, Mrs. Perard holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business and Leadership and a Master of Science in Organizational Psychology. She serves on the Board of Directors and the Finance Committee for Health Care L.A., an Independent Physician Association. Additionally, she is a member of the Chicago School Board of Trustees and serves on the Board of Directors for the California Primary Care Association.Resources:* Eloisa's LinkedIn* Gracelight Community HealthConnect with USS:* Substack* InstagramThis episode was edited by Kevin Tanner. Learn more about him and his services here:* Website* Instagram Get full access to United SHE Stands at www.unitedshestands.com/subscribe

America's Roundtable
America's Roundtable with Senator Marsha Blackburn | Advancing Principled Policies — DOGE Acts, Tax Administration Simplification Act | Accountability and Transparency | Combatting Anti-Semitism

America's Roundtable

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2025 16:19


Join America's Roundtable (https://americasrt.com/) radio co-hosts Natasha Srdoc and Joel Anand Samy with U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, senior senator for Tennessee and the first woman to represent the Volunteer State in the United States Senate. She serves on the Deputy Whip Team and is a member of the Finance Committee; the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee; the Veterans' Affairs Committee; and the Judiciary Committee. Senator Marsha Blackburn serves as the Ranking Member on the Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security and on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. Before her election to the Senate, Marsha represented Tennessee's 7th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. The conversation focuses on the following topics: ✅ President Trump's State of the Union Address, presenting his vision for a Golden Age of America. ✅ Senator Blackburn requiring transparency and accountability, working with FBI Director Kash Patel in obtaining unredacted Epstein logs and other pertinent materials ✅ Senator Blackburn spearheading DOGE Acts to hold the federal government accountable for managing taxpayer dollars. Collaborative efforts with Elon Mask in making the federal government more efficient and slash wasteful spending. ✅ Strengthening the economic partnership between the U.S. and Taiwan. ✅ Senator Blackburn's recently introduced Tax Administration Simplification Act, to provide straightforward, taxpayer-focused improvements to streamline tax filing and payment for individuals and small businesses. ✅ Strengthening US-Israel ties and combating anti-Semitism with new leadership in Congress and the White House. ✅ Making America Healthy Again | Healthy foods and eating habits for a healthier America. Throughout her time in Congress, Marsha has led the fight to hold Communist China accountable. Her in-depth analyses of the Chinese Communist Party's threats to American sovereignty have prompted Congress to examine legislation countering Beijing's malign influence on global supply chains, technology infrastructure, and international organizations. After Beijing took over the once autonomous region of Hong Kong in 2019, Marsha led bipartisan legislation, which was signed into law by President Trump, that prohibits the U.S. export of crowd control equipment to the Hong Kong Police Force. Her bipartisan Open Technology Fund Authorization Act, which supports internet freedom by addressing authoritarian regimes' efforts to censor the internet, was also signed into law. At the same time Marsha has stood up to Communist China, she has worked to bolster the U.S.-Taiwan relationship. In August 2022, she visited Taiwan, met with President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei, and called to strengthen connections between the U.S. and Taiwan. During this visit, Marsha made her stance clear: Taiwan is a country. On border policy, Marsha bases her approach on the simple truth that until our borders are secure, every town will be a border town and every state will be a border state. In the Senate, she has led the charge to fully fund the United States Border Patrol, restart construction of a physical barrier, impose harsher criminal penalties for drug smuggling, and fight for law and order on behalf of the thousands of women and girls lost to cross-border human trafficking. Further reading: Blackburn, Hassan, Colleagues Introduce the “Patients Before Middlemen Act” to Bring Down Cost of Prescription Drugs (https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/3/health%20care/blackburn-hassan-colleagues-introduce-the-patients-before-middlemen-act-to-bring-down-cost-of-prescription-drugs) Blackburn, Kelly Push for More Federal Resources to Combat Fentanyl Crisis in Tennessee (https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/2/crime/national%20security/blackburn-kelly-pushes-for-more-federal-resources-to-combat-fentanyl-crisis-in-arizona) Blackburn, Schatz Introduce Bill to Strengthen U.S.-Taiwan Partnership, Safeguard U.S. from Communist China's Security Threats (https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/2/china/jobs%20and%20economy/national%20security/blackburn-schatz-introduce-bill-to-strengthen-u-s-taiwan-partnership-safeguard-u-s-from-communist-china-s-security-threats) americasrt.com (https://americasrt.com/) https://ileaderssummit.org/ | https://jerusalemleaderssummit.com/ America's Roundtable on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/americas-roundtable/id1518878472 Twitter: @MarshaBlackburn @ileaderssummit @NatashaSrdoc @JoelAnandUSA @supertalk America's Roundtable is co-hosted by Natasha Srdoc and Joel Anand Samy, co-founders of International Leaders Summit and the Jerusalem Leaders Summit. America's Roundtable (https://americasrt.com/) radio program - a strategic initiative of International Leaders Summit, focuses on America's economy, healthcare reform, rule of law, security and trade, and its strategic partnership with rule of law nations around the world. The radio program features high-ranking US administration officials, cabinet members, members of Congress, state government officials, distinguished diplomats, business and media leaders and influential thinkers from around the world. Tune into America's Roundtable Radio program from Washington, DC via live streaming on Saturday mornings via 65 radio stations at 7:30 A.M. (ET) on Lanser Broadcasting Corporation covering the Michigan and the Midwest market, and at 7:30 A.M. (CT) on SuperTalk Mississippi — SuperTalk.FM reaching listeners in every county within the State of Mississippi, and neighboring states in the South including Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee. Listen to America's Roundtable on digital platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Google and other key online platforms. Listen live, Saturdays at 7:30 A.M. (CT) on SuperTalk | https://www.supertalk.fm

Indianz.Com
Tribal Nations at Department of the Treasury

Indianz.Com

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2025 2:19


Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minnesota) asks about the Tribal Treasury Advisory Committee and the Office of Tribal and Native Affairs at the Department of the Treasury. "I'd like to start with something that I don't think is brought up a lot in the Finance Committee, which is the issue of tribal relations," Smith said at a hearing in Washington D.C., on March 6, 2025. "The Treasury Department has made great progress towards improving its government-to-government relationships with tribal nations, including establishing the Tribal Treasury Advisory Committee and the tribal affairs office," Smith said. As the Senate committee considered the nomination of Michael Faulkender to serve as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Smith asked whether the Donald Trump administration is committed to maintaining the tribal committee and the tribal office. "I was the Treasury point of contact for tribal consultations in the first Trump administration," Faulkender responded. "I was present at the initial meeting of the Treasury Tribal Advisory Committee, and I commit to you that we will continue to recognize tribes as governments and work with them to address their revenue issues that they have with the Treasury Department,” Faulkender added. The Tribal Treasury Advisory Committee was created by Congress through the Tribal General Welfare Exclusion Act of 2014. The seven-member committee, consisting of tribal leadership, advises the Secretary of the Treasury on matters of importance in Indian Country. The Office of Tribal and Native Affairs was established by the Joe Biden administration. But Faulkender, who previously served Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, said the first Trump administration laid the groundwork for it. “It was partially under my leadership that we recognized that an office focused on the unique issues of tribes was a more appropriate organizational structure than what it was when I first entered," Faulkender said. Smith further asked whether the Trump administration would protect the Office of Tribal and Native Affairs from potential cuts, such as those being pursued by the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE. "I'm aware of your leadership on this and I want to thank you for that," Smith said. "And I think it's important that that Office of Tribal Affairs stays in place -- you established it, as I understand -- and so we can keep it there, so you will make sure that if the DOGE boys come in and decide that this is a place to find so-called efficiencies that you will stand up to that." "It makes sense to have people who are specialized in these activities because they are the issues for tribes are unique and so it makes sense to have a separate set of specialists who focus on that," Faulkender responded. "I would view it as inefficient to eliminate that specialization," Faulkender said of the tribal office. Senate Committee on Finance Hearing to Consider the Nomination of The Honorable Michael Faulkender, of Maryland, to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury (March 6, 2025) https://www.finance.senate.gov/hearings/hearing-to-consider-the-nomination-of-the-honorable-michael-faulkender-of-maryland-to-be-deputy-secretary-of-the-treasury-vice-adewale-o-adeyemo-resigned

360 One Firm (361Firm) - Interviews & Events
361Firm Zeitgeist Panel at the NY Tech Summit (Feb. 25, 2025)

360 One Firm (361Firm) - Interviews & Events

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2025 40:18


361Firm Zietgiest Panel at the...Tech Summit (Feb. 25, 2025)   SUMMARY KEYWORDSAI innovation, venture capital, early-stage companies, technology revolution, market uncertainty, geopolitical shifts, consumer spending, debt management, leadership challenges, educational access, technological race, global alliances, investment strategies, productivity increases, existential risks.SPEAKERSZoe Cruz, Mark Sanor, Barbara Doran, Christopher Birne, Stephen Burke, Joe Mancini Mark Sanor  00:00I'm going to make a prediction if Eddy will give me his attention. Eddie and Maisy are doing a deal right now. That's the whole point, yeah. My prediction is that this might be one of the most educational five to six hours of your life. There are so many interesting things happening in the world. Again, we were talking this morning. It really is like a new world order. And what gives us hope is always technology, productivity and all those things, those great things. So we're going to talk about these aspects, and hopefully these are the things that we in this room can control, but we all don't know how to navigate, so we have specialists who that's what they focus on, you know, whether it's health tech or dual use. So let's all learn together. So I asked the panels a classic question, what scares and excites you, and share some insights. And I like to to do the following, and sometimes the what scares and excites you, of course, can be insightful. But by way of very quick introduction, introduce yourself, and then you'll be you about clean up. David, you'd like to clean up. Share it, you know, introduce yourself and share. Share an insight with the view of, we're in this, this very, you know, rapidly transforming world, and the rapidity is only increasing. So with that, I'm gonna, you know, I always like fund the funds, so I raise money. So a lot of people don't want to raise money for fund the funds, because you're like, you know, you don't get paid much. You have to long term journey, but the intelligence that you get from fund to fund. So I let Joe kick off, Barbara, we all, you all know from pickle ball or or CNBC, or the like. Zoe is new to us, maybe not to some of you, but she was the president of Morgan Stanley. Who else has been president of Morgan Stanley here? Not too many of us have been your perch, right? Your view, your vantage point. So and you're on to new frontiers, you'll share some of that. And everyone should know Stephen. Who does not know? Stephen Burke, has anyone has not been to our Tuesday briefing? It okay if you haven't, Olga, you haven't made it. Have you a Tuesday briefing of 361 firm? Has anyone not made it to one of them? You probably made it to 100 but it's 256 next Tuesday, our anchor man. So you'll anchor the panel. So I'm going to pass it off to you, Joe, and truly be inside tell us something we don't know.Joe Mancini  03:22Well, I'll start by just telling you what you don't know, which is who I am. My name is Joe Mancini. I'm one of the founding partners of a hybrid venture fund called front porch Venture Partners. About half our capital goes into early stage venture capital on the fund side, via kind of a classic Fund of Funds approach, and about half directly into companies at the early stage. Companies at the early stage. Super excited to be here this community as I've started to engage with it more and more. It's just a really authentic and interesting group of people. So I think it's going to be an amazing day. Is this the scares and excites? Part? Mark, or no? Mark Sanor  03:54Well, insights and or scares Excite? Yeah. I like an insightful perspective. Joe Mancini  04:01Yeah, insightful. I would say, you know, I mean, it's, obviously, it's a more dynamic world, I think, right now, than we've lived in in a very long time. It feels like every other day there's some new piece of news that's throwing us all for a loop. I focus on early stage venture. I would say I when we get to the scared and excited part, I both worry as well as I'm excited about the state of venture as an asset class and the state of early stage innovation. It's been a primary driver of the US economy for a very long period of time, and American ingenuity and innovation has put us, you know, at the top of the heap globally for a long period of time. And there's an interesting where, an interesting intersection in the asset class right now, where, you know, LPs are frustrated about liquidity, assets are being concentrated among some of the biggest managers. And meanwhile, innovation is happening globally. That's starting to put, I think, American innovation on its on its heels a little bit. So I can talk about. A more inspiring version of where I think we go from here, but that's where I sit today. Barbara Doran  05:11Hello, yeah, hi. Besides playing pickleball, and there were two women who won, by the way, will be defending next year. Anyway, I'm Barb Duran. I wear two hats. I'm here, really, on the investment Council of Penn State. I'm not staff member, volunteer. I've been on the board of Penn State for nine years, the Board of Trustees just after the Sandusky scandal was elected by the alumni, and have been on the Finance Committee ever since. So on the investment Council. And so I want to talk a little bit about the things that we do there. But also, excuse me, my other hat is I have my own firm, wealth advisory, asset management, and so I invest in public traded equities, and that's really my specialty as an independent professional, the things that excite me most really goes along with what Dan was saying are Bill Joe. Oh, jeez. Anyway, David. David anyway is really about technology. I don't think that should come as any surprise. There's lots of talk all the time about AI and what that means. We had a market sell off about three weeks ago because of deep seek. You know this Chinese competitor, potential competitor, to Nvidia and lots of other semiconductor players, but there's so much going on, and we're already starting to see the productivity increases that will come from businesses adopted it. And so far, in terms of businesses adopted, probably, you know, not even you know, only maybe 10% have really adopted, and we're not talking about the service now. So the salesforce.com but the businesses will actually implement to make their businesses run more efficiently, their sales, all that sort of thing. So that's just beginning, because everybody's looking at, how do we use it, working with consultants, etc. But there's going to be a lot more to come, and more new companies that we don't even know about yet, and that's why, like, for instance, at Penn State, we're doing we don't invest directly and anything, we're just not big enough. Our end down is maybe six to 7 billion, if you include our operating cash. So we have a great staff, but we invest in funds, you know. So that's the fund of funds who really have the expertise to dive deep. And we've been investing in in different venture capital funds that have different areas of expertise in technology. Some of them are AI. Others are other areas of technology, but AI has been a big one recently, and we're continuing to look in that space. And the publicly traded side at Penn State, we just do index is which I'm always the one speaking up like, why we should do some active managers. But for my own clients, I do a lot in technology. Like, for instance, I've own Nvidia since 2019 which had no idea it would happen as it has. But I looked up at that time, like, why did I buy it then? And it was really because they were one of the first actually using AI to help their clients run their business. And so that was, this was the beginning of and this is just the beginning, still, even despite everything that's happening on So, and I know I'm getting the look, but the things that I worry about really have to do with the current administration and the uncertainty being created by not knowing what's happening with tariffs. Is it more bark than bite? We don't know. We just had a pronouncement today about Canada and Mexico, or maybe it was late yesterday. Who knows? And also about the deportations. We don't know. Even company managements are worried about what that could mean in terms of labor shortage and the inflationary pressures there. So there's a lot we don't know. And right now, what's happened? Sure you've noticed, the last three days, we've had a market sell off, including today, in the equity market. 10 year yield has come down, and I think it's we're now having a growth scare, which we haven't seen for a while, and we'll see how that plays out. My view it's probably a buying opportunity somewhere in there, because the economy is still strong. It's consumer driven, and it's the mid to high income consumer that's driving it. And people have made trillions in the stock market. Their home prices are high, and they're employed. So despite all the noise in the frights of the last few days, I'm still, you know, optimistic on the market. Thank you. Zoe Cruz  09:09Thank you. My name is Zoe Cruz. It's actually Zoe Papa vimitrio Cruz. I was born and raised in Greece. I am what you call the American dream. Three years before I went to Harvard on a full scholarship, I didn't speak a word of English, and if it weren't a public school teacher that took an interest as to why I wasn't applying to Harvard, I probably wouldn't be here. And I joined Morgan Stanley right out of business school. It was a small investment banking boutique with 1800 people in three offices, Tokyo, London, New York. When I left in 07 it was 65,000 people. They had offices everywhere. That's a revolution. Finance was globalizing. Overnight, rates were 21% on their way to zero 30. Interest rates, the risk free rate of return for treasuries were 15% on their way to 1% as I say to people, a monkey could do what we did at Morgan Stanley, and we were not monkeys. So you have to recognize paradigm shifts. And I actually think right now we're in a massive paradigm shift. There is way too much in being spilled. Whether the Fed is going to use 25 basis points. Who cares? The world is de globalizing, fragmenting. The biggest assumption the markets are making is that we beat inflation. It's going to go back down to 2% I could be wrong, but I believe we're not going to save 2% in my lifetime. We should worry more about hyper inflation than deflation. The US government has $36 trillion worth of debt, and so for me, what I worry about is there is not enough talk about, how do you hedge your portfolio if it is a paradigm shift, and interest rates actually, the cost of capital keeps on going up, and availability of it keeps on going down. If I'm right about that assumption. A lot of your portfolio is in deep trouble, because that's the assumption most people are making. So what scares me at the moment, I'm an optimist by nature. I love you know, we are the lucky sperm club here, actually, most of us. What scares me is we are in the middle of an amazing technological revolution. But unlike what so it is amazing in the sense that when I look at the power of that thing, I downloaded all four perplexity, Gemini, grok, chat, GPT, all four of them, and I asked them the same question, all four. And by the way, they have their own biases. Just excellent. I don't need 12 research people. It's just in a second, I get the most complex answers to a question that's exciting. I mean, I can get a PhD basically, just, you know, asking that's exciting. Unlike other revolutions, you don't get the extreme risk of Elon, a brilliant man, whatever you want to think about his character. This is a brilliant man who has changed the world. Now everybody's talking the game, but he, I remember, if you look at his interviews only a few years back, he said there's a non zero possibility humanity ceases to exist. Well, that's kind of a big risk. So, so the mirror image of that exciting, exciting revolution is more of us should think about humanity is a wonderful thing, and how do you preserve us being masters of this revolution, as opposed to the other way around? Stephen Burke  13:14I'm done. First of all, I agree with most of what you said, and the stuff I don't agree with, I don't understand. So thank you, Zoe for that crash course. I worry about debt too, and I worry about debt being the current consumption of our future earnings, and we've gone way over our skis on that all over the world, and how we get that back is going to be a real problem. And the other thing I worry about is the lack of leadership that will make the hard decisions that we have to make to put the pain on the system that we have to go through to get the excesses out that we built up over the years. I also share the view that the move down in rates is going to be much more challenging the market is hoping for as investors, if we don't get our mind around that change that the last 15 years are done and we're back to a normal interest rate level on the low end of what we've historically seen, you're going to have problems valuing all your assets if we don't get that right. So I think we have to change the mindset there. I do think there's elements of this administration that are not getting credit for the positive outcomes because of the delivery on it, but if we can get digitize a lot of our government expenses, you only raise the level of trust in how our taxes are being spent, they can give you a whole different mindset towards government and deliver much better outcomes for our country, but I think it will be the same for other countries. Europe has a massive fiscal problem where their needs are far greater than their ability to spend to meet those needs, and that's not just on defense, it's on their regular day to day living. So I think the transformations that are going. On. I do think this is one of those periods where we've slowly walked into, over the last decade, big, secular, mega trends, whether it's demographics, whether it's the tech boom. You can go through the list. There's several other areas where we're seeing these mega trends. I think the anti immigration bias that we're starting to say is another worry, we're going to have a brain drain problem. We've already seen it in a lot of countries. The US cannot afford to lose the opportunity the edge that we've had in immigration, and we're on our way to doing that. So I think we're going too far in the pendulum all the time. I think we have to get back to a more moderate way of seeing how we deal with all the problems that we have. So I'll stop there more. Mark Sanor  15:42What do you think about the risk of of humanity? So arm and Sir keys on. He did this conference. He how long wasn the question of existence? Do we can, you know, sort of existential, the ultimate existential question. I'm surprised Stephen Burke  15:58they made it this far, so that's not a priority for me, but I do have four kids that it is a priority for. And I would say that I worry about our kids. I worry about the we called sending the bill to the kids table with the debt and the strains on the system, but I also worry what we've done to their future. I think their their ability to have hope is not the same that we had when we were growing up. And I think that's a real problem, because without hope and hope in our leaders, it's very hard to get out of the problems and deal with the problems Mark Sanor  16:32that we have fair enough. Well, I want to open up because I asked insights and scares and excitements, you sort of answered those questions, but did you hold back a scares and excites? Answer? I held back and excites. Okay, let's Yeah, and that Joe Mancini  16:46was really interesting. I appreciate this is a really smart crew up here. You know, like I said, I play in the early stage venture world, primarily in the US. I spend all day, every day, with fund managers and founders. I would say something that excites me with as concerned as I am about certain things, is how many founders are starting businesses right now in an AI native way. And what I mean by that is, you know that they're building these businesses now with AI tools in their pocket that are going to dramatically, I think, decrease the amount of capital needed to build a great company, right? Which means that, as an investor, there's an opportunity for great returns. Peter Walker, at carta has a great stat around the average series A employee count. Two years ago was 18. Last year was 13. It's ready to be under 10 within the next 12 months. So in terms of productivity, kind of carrying us out of this, I think there's a huge opportunity with this next set of tools, not just as a system layer for a lot of things that we do, but for founders and people who are creating and building things, and for our kids as they're creating and building things. So Mark, that's the more optimistic. So Mark Sanor  17:51do you know Esther Dyson? Does anyone know Mr. So she was we had this discussion about this time last year about companies that are the founders being an AI and the board members potentially being a is you guys have thought through that scenario, but it's they would Love to replace you too. So so it goes both ways. Joe Mancini  18:23I mean, some might as well be AI in certain cases, right? I mean, particularly at the board level, we work with a lot of boards as well, and, you know, there's some sleepy boards that might be better served being AI, right? We try to avoid those types of situations. Mark Sanor  18:39So, let's, let's open it up. Will Speaker 4  18:46First off, this was awesome. So far, I really enjoyed what you guys all said, a lot of brain power up there. We've talked a lot about, you know, uncertainty of geo politics, Global War, where interest rates are going. I'm curious, you know, from an investment perspective, it's sometimes easier to think about, what are the things that are not going to change amidst all this, and what will continue to just make sense. And I'd love to hear what you guys think about, what's not going to change, and how we could invest in slow, boring things that aren't going to change. Mark Sanor  19:18Who wants it? Zoe Cruz  19:22Great question. Sorry, yeah, it's a Mark Sanor  19:27girl he was being coached by the Pender, right? Zoe Cruz  19:30It's a great question. I'm not sure I have the answer that to the question you're asking. One thing will never change is basically, if you have short term clarity on what's going to produce cash, you know, even if inflation takes 5% of it, who cares? That's never I mean arithmetic, simple arithmetic is so good businesses, but I. Say what's also not going to change. Some of the best money I've made is after the crash, one of the best trades I've made, because I know how to read bank balance sheets in oh eight after the war fell apart, you could have bought if you had enough cash saved aside and not prematurely invested all of your portfolio and things you could have bought bill based stock at 50 cents of its book value. This is a company that was still making billions with an S every quarter. So what's not going to change is we know after major and I think we are in a paradigm shift. You don't need to be a great investor. You're going to pick up great companies. You're going to make me investments that give you a symmetry of risk reward. Most Great Investors basically have, so yes, you can lose half of your money, or you can make 100x that's a symmetry of risk reward. You should do the trade every day. I think right now, the asymmetry of risk reward is against the traditional portfolio, stocks and bonds. You know, when you can actually save there is inflation, the huge debt that the market, sovereign in particular, the US of A everyone is actually printing money, including even Germany. Basically, when there is huge debt, as I say many times, people forget there is only two ways of big debt, repudiation or inflation, we're choosing the latter, so that should guide your portfolio. Now the Argentinians don't have a reserve currency. So if you choose inflation, your currency goes down 98% Turkey 60% we are in a wonderful world of America with the reserve currency. The question is, we better be careful. I Barbara Doran  22:06just want to make a quick comment on that. We better be careful about the reserve currency, because when 22 when we used we froze central bank in Russia. You know, it suddenly woke up a lot of other central bankers to say, hey, maybe the treasuries aren't so safe after all. So it will be a long term process, but we can't take for granted. I mean, the near term, yes, will be the world's reserve currency, but over many years, and depending how it accelerated or not, by various administrative policies, current or future presidents, that is something to watch. And I share the concern over the deficit, which looks like it's going to be even higher, but what will not change? I mean, there's so many ways to answer that. One is about consumer spending. You know that Americans love to spend through thick and thin and and also market psychology, which we addressed in which Zoe said, back in it was oh nine in February, I remember looking at those bank stocks because a friend said, bar, what can I invest in, and I don't give friends ideas. But I said, if you really want to invest, because she knew nothing. I said it with Hank was bank America and city, which were like $2 stocks. I said, I don't know. The only thing I know is they're not going out of business when will return. It wasn't one, whatever it was. It was crazy. But the only thing I knew they weren't going out of business. So, Mark Sanor  23:23all right, yeah, what's Joe Mancini  23:24playing in my head, as you all are describing these situations, which I think are really good examples, is just, I mean, supply and demand, as far as I can tell, is always going to, you know, rule quite you know, rule every market and just about every transaction. So knowing where you sit in terms of, you know, where is demand, where is supply, and ultimately, where is price, right, can help you make really good decisions. Simple, but I think we go back to it all the time, Mark Sanor  23:52by the way, I'm gonna is amazing here. Of course, you stepped up. But we'll talk about pricing perfect timing, because we're gonna talk about talk about large pricing models. That's the next open AI that we've been looking at. Lots of hands were going up because you guys have asked lots of questions. I'm going to let Speaker 5  24:16Dave Thanks. So regarding rare and critical minerals, we're sort of hearing now that if you haven't already got any, gone into them, you're late, that they're not going to be very rare in a very short period of time. Do you guys have views on that? Mark Sanor  24:31I mean, Greenland and Ukraine? No views from the panel on that Speaker 2  24:40one? No, I don't know enough either. Don't forget the ocean too. Oh, Mark Sanor  24:44the ocean. We have two people in Alyssa. Where's Alyssa and Lisa on ocean research. We know so much. We spend so much more in space, not in the ocean. Chris, Christopher Birne  24:58thank you guys for your time. I guess. First, I would say, both my dad and I went to Penn State for our undergrad. So we are and I'm Greek. So CI do elada Go Blue? Yeah, oh, wow. So, I guess a lot of discussions I've had with other family offices, and I think Stephen You had mentioned this idea of, you know, a lack of leadership and its effect on making crucial decisions. You know, I think that the Obama administration was the last two year term we had for a president. And, you know, I guess you could argue that Trump is a two term president one time, separately, this political climate that we're in now and this shit, this paradigm shift politically, I think, where, you know, every four years to different president with a completely different outlook. What effect does that have? Like, kind of, some of the things you guys are discussing about the deficit and being able to make crucial decisions, Mark Sanor  25:48we do have elections every two years too, that impact Stephen Burke  25:52this. I'll start I think the I think the ping pong match of the party's policies is a terrible waste of money for the US, consumer and taxpayer. And I think we need to separate the budget out to a maintenance budget and investment budget the same way you would in a corporation, and then you would evaluate the return on your investment for like the infrastructure plan that was absolutely necessary. But you do that in a way that you actually look for an ROI the way you would in the business, and I think if we did that, the people would have a lot better response to the government spending and new government projects. So I think that's the kind of leadership that you need. You also need people to step up and say, I'm going to be a one term. Er, because what we need to do is the stuff that is the hard stuff, we're going to have to have to raise taxes and we're going to have to cut spending. You can't avoid the deficit problem that we have. You can't grow out of it. We tried that for the last 15 years, and all we did was make the debt worse. We avoided a financial crisis, but we just might have prolonged it instead of completely avoid it. Zoe Cruz  26:56I would say that we're focusing on the wrong the politics, the Democrats, Republicans. I think the Democrats pretend they care. The Republicans say they're going to do the right thing for the economy, but neither one, neither of the major parties, really focus on the one thing, the economy is no longer working for large swaths of the population. And if you read history, they pick up the pitch forks at some point. That's what's happening to me. Donald is the pitch fork saying he's a disrupter. We're going to throw a bomb. Tabula rasa. Let's start all over again. So the again, the amount of ink that's being spilled on Obama versus Donald versus at the end of the day, the reason Donald won is he had a great story line. I care. I listen to you. We've globalization eviscerated your town, your middle class America, your poor. I'm listening to you. That resonated now. What's going to happen if two years from now, he's not listening? Is what I worry society is fraying, not because Republicans did the wrong thing, or Democrats did the wrong thing. We're not focusing on fundamentally, when you have I think I read a statistic that's, again, I believe in capitalism, but we're not practicing it any longer. When you have three guys, bez, I think Zuckerberg and Elon, the three are worth more than the bottom 50% of us of a think of that statistic that's crazy. Yeah. So I think, you know, I talked to a couple of you, I think the caucuses we should have is, What is the purpose of leadership, but to actually get to our children, leave our children. I have three amazing children. I'm ashamed of the future I'm leaving them. My generation is the most self est generation of them all my dad fought in World War Two. They were starving, and here we are, my generation. I need, I want, I have to have. So I think that's what has to change, not Obama versus whatever. Barbara Doran  29:24Well, all very interesting. But I think your question was, was, really, how does it affect your investing, and how to think about it? So in a more granular, granular level, it does affect, I mean, you had leading up the election, you had the Kamala plays in the stock market. You had the Trump plays, you know, and after Trump won, then you had, you know, all his the areas, whether it was financials, materials, everything running. And so you do have to be cognizant. And of course, now, as I mentioned earlier, there's all this policy uncertainty, which certainly is, you know, impactful, because the Fed is on hold, and probably may hold a little longer to there more clarity, because they are. Worried, you know, if you deport too many people, you know could hurt labor, inflationary and tariffs and so we don't know yet. So there is uncertainty that you have to build in. Now, interestingly, there just was out yesterday, the second Consumer Confidence Report from the Conference Board, and last week with senior University of Michigan, a big drops in consumer confidence in terms of inflation expectations. But interestingly, there was quite a disparity, as we've seen in other surveys, between the Republicans and the Democrats. Democrats were much more pessimistic about it all, and Republicans, even though that number went up, they were not so very interesting. How either they're hearing separate facts or they're interpreting or focusing on different things. So this politicization that Zoe is talking about, you know, is real and is is harmful, you know, in terms of making informed decisions. Mark Sanor  30:47Question Tony, hold on one second, Speaker 7  30:55Zoe, I want to go back to something you said. I think you touched on concentration, concentration of wealth. Most people are focused on chasing the return based on what's happening in the market, and a lot of that has to do with technology. How do you, how do you properly address that concentration? Speaker 3  31:14You know, I hope this time around, it will be different. When you look at the history, when you look at, you know, this time, it's different. When you look at the history of capitalism again, the best system, on a relative basis, you have huge growth plateau, collapse, start all over again. That's how it so you look at, you know, the 1920s I'm rereading the great crash in 1929 you look at the parallels of what we constant, robber barons, concentration of wealth, gold, Gilded Age. I mean, so you look at the pattern. And my hope again is that we don't have this collapse, if people say, if you put your money in equities, you'll make money, yes, over the long decades, if you put your money in equities, right before the crash in 1929 it took you 40 years to make your money back. Let's pick or 30. So to me, I would say, right now, there's not enough, really, risk management these. How do you change the concentration of wealth? I hope it's not by, you know, I hope that those guys that there are worth trillions, don't figure out how they go to Miami to save taxes. They figure out how you actually use technology, you know. And again, Elon, to be fair, even though I think he's a deeply flawed human being, but I have enormous respect for his IQ, he started talking about again, years ago, when you listen to what he was saying, is, and that's why, by the way, they had this, you should have open AI, why he supported it. He said we should have the minimum income. I don't know if that's the right answer. But he thought about if 65% of the US economy is consumption, which means people have a job, they make money, and then they consume. That's America. So when you have all of them now say productivity, you are going to need to fire millions of people. We don't need them, and this time, it's not the machinists. It's actually the lawyers, the accountants. How does so? Again, we're not thinking about the paradigm shift. I am hugely positive about what will happen if we survive at the other the land of plenty, but I hope the transition, which was World War One, World War Two, is what transitions were this time. Hopefully it's different. Stephen Burke  34:13I would just add mark. I think the thing that's going to help the inequality is, can we use technology to make the access to education better than it is right now for the low end, because 49% of the spending in the US is done by the top 10% of earners, so they the others don't have a shot. They just don't have a shot right now. And the way our educational system works in many states, it's driven by tax revenues, particularly real estate revenues, and that is the definition of inequality. So I think we have to fix the educational access to allow them to have a shot to compete, because we're not giving them the shot to they're not starting on an even playing field to begin with. Mark Sanor  34:59So. What we haven't talked about is the global, the geopolitical Democrats and Republicans. But we're in a world, a shifting world. You talked about the dollar and in our debt loads. But how do you see, I guess, what scares and excites you on the geopolitical fronts? I I'll Stephen Burke  35:20start just the same thing inequality. You have a couple countries that are dominating all the discussions and all the influence right now, and it's the US and China, primarily, that are sucking the wind out of the air, out of the room, and they're not leaving much for the rest. And as we're carving up the world, we're creating a real problem with that. I think you have inequality on three levels. I think you have it on a country level, you have it on a corporate level, and you have it on the individual level, and we have to deal with all three of them to for this, to get it right. Zoe Cruz  35:59What I'm excited about is that it's possible to have the Chinese leadership and the US leadership meet to say, if actually humanity is what we're trying to save, maybe we work together, as opposed to because the nuclear arms race is now the technology race that the Chinese and the Americans are actually fighting so they don't lose on a technological revolution that they recognize they can lose control of. So my hope is those two guys meet and then we get to the land of plenty fast. Do Mark Sanor  36:35we have like this new, enlightened, mutual, assured technological destruction? Yeah, and that we should be enlightened, Zoe Cruz  36:43yeah? Because, I mean, I'm sure there are, there are people that are telling both Donald and she that there is a scenario we all die. I mean, there is, we all know that. And so right now, externally, at least what we are hearing and reading is what they want us to hear and read. Those two are the super powers, the unilateral whatever you call it, the world where America was the only one. Yeah, so those two guys, I think there must be at least initiating discussions Russia and all that. It's a human, horrible toll. The two leaders that need to get together, the two that count, that can change the trajectory of the world, is the Chinese and the Americans. Speaker 2  37:41Okay? And I worry long term about shifting alliances. You know, the US, it may not be seen as a reliable partner. And certainly Europe, basic leaders in the last week or so have said we've got to go it alone. And that will shift alliances all over the world. You've got Canada, Mexico, and we'll see where that shakes out. And, you know, I think longer term, it could weaken us and our ability, you know, to withstand all sorts of global pressures, the fact that we've done so well the last few years, economically, all these things, again, this is longer term. This will take time to shift, but that's what I'm concerned about. What's being set in motion now. So what? What that may lead to, and it may not be good for us. Joe Mancini  38:24I'll tell you a thing that I probably shouldn't say, that I actually wish had been a little less certain for a period of time, which is, I don't know if folks noticed the news story about a week ago that there was a 3% chance in 2032 that a meteor was gonna strike the Earth, right? And then we got a better look at the media, and we're like, Ah, it's one and a half percent. And then we started look back in history, and we're like, Oh, something hit, you know, the northern part of Russia in 1908, it wasn't that big of a deal. And now we're saying, yeah, it's probably not gonna hit. No big deal. I wish that that had stuck at three to 5% for a little while longer, right? And just tried to bring the world a little bit together around, okay, this is madness, but we have an existential threat. We can see it through a big, giant telescope. Let's get the best minds together to try to figure out what to do. Unfortunately, now it's like point 1% and we'll probably be fine. Mark Sanor  39:17All right with that. Thank you to our kick off panel. Zoe Can I ask you to stick around? Can you stick around? We're going to talk about AI and two of my panelists are not here, and I thought you might keep sharing some. There you go. It's a half an hour panel. All right. So if Thank you. Thank you so Ben and Maisie Jack is on on an airplane. Watch her. Please come up. We're going to talk about AI, and if you, if you, and maybe. Be Ben, you'll go first, introduce yourself again. Sheri, come join our 361 firm community of investors and thought leaders. We have a lot of events created by the community as we collaborate on investments and philanthropic interests. Join us. Ben. You can subscribe to various 361 events and content at https://361firm.com/subs. For reference: Web: www.361firm.com/homeOnboard as Investor: https://361.pub/shortdiagOnboard Deals 361: www.361firm.com/onbOnboard as Banker: www.361firm.com/bankersEvents: www.361firm.com/eventsContent: www.youtube.com/361firmWeekly Digests: www.361firm.com/digest

#plugintodevin - Your Mark on the World with Devin Thorpe
Democratizing IPOs: How Matt Venturi is Opening the Market to All Investors

#plugintodevin - Your Mark on the World with Devin Thorpe

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2025 25:59


I'm not a financial advisor; Superpowers for Good should not be considered investment advice. Seek counsel before making investment decisions.Watch the show on television by downloading the e360tv channel app to your Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV. You can also see it on YouTube.When you purchase an item, launch a campaign or create an investment account after clicking a link here, we may earn a fee. Engage to support our work.Has your business been impacted by the recent fires? Apply now for a chance to receive one of 10 free tickets to SuperCrowdLA on May 2nd and 3rd and gain the tools to rebuild and grow!Devin: What is your superpower?Matt: I'd say, at the end of the day, it's passion.The IPO market has long been an exclusive club, dominated by institutional investors and the ultra-wealthy, while everyday investors are left watching from the sidelines. Matt Venturi, Founder and CEO of ClearingBid, Inc., is changing that. With decades of Wall Street experience, he saw firsthand how outdated systems and entrenched practices created barriers for smaller investors. Now, he's pioneering a platform that levels the playing field, allowing everyone to participate in IPOs through their brokers, breaking down long-standing financial barriers."What we're really doing is allowing everybody to come in at that IPO price and be able to have their order seen and recognized," Matt explained. Traditionally, Wall Street has prioritized its biggest institutional clients, giving them first access to newly issued stock at a discounted price, while retail investors are left to buy shares in the secondary market at inflated prices. ClearingBid is disrupting this system by introducing transparency, connectivity, and inclusion—core values that drive the company's mission.For companies going public, ClearingBid offers a revolutionary approach to capital raising. Rather than relying solely on institutional investors, companies can now cast a wider net, tapping into affinity investor groups and everyday market participants. This shift not only democratizes access but also builds a more engaged and loyal shareholder base. Matt pointed to Reddit's IPO as a cautionary tale: "Only 7% of that offering ended up going to Reddit users—93% went to the big institutions. Those who wanted in on the IPO were left buying shares later at higher prices."Beyond its innovation in IPOs, ClearingBid is proving the power of regulated investment crowdfunding. The company raised $5 million from 3,900 investors in a campaign that far exceeded expectations. "At first, I wasn't sure it was the right approach for us, but it turned out to be an incredibly positive experience," Matt shared. "Our investors aren't just backers—they're evangelists. They believe in our mission and help us spread the word."With the success of its crowdfunding campaign and its game-changing IPO platform, ClearingBid is poised to shake up Wall Street. By opening access to IPOs for all investors, Matt Venturi isn't just leading a company—he's leading a movement.tl;dr:* Matt Venturi is revolutionizing the IPO market by making it accessible to retail investors through ClearingBid.* Traditional IPOs favor institutional investors, but ClearingBid aims to create a more inclusive and transparent system.* Matt raised $5 million via regulated investment crowdfunding, demonstrating the power of affinity investors.* His superpower, passion and conviction, fuels his ability to challenge industry norms and drive meaningful change.* Entrepreneurs can learn from Matt's success by mastering fundamentals, rallying support, and leading with enthusiasm.How to Develop Passion and Conviction As a SuperpowerMatt Venturi's superpower is passion and conviction. Throughout his career, from Wall Street to entrepreneurship, he has harnessed these qualities to push forward transformative change in the financial industry. "You have to be passionate about what you do," Matt said. "When you're speaking to something that you truly believe in, that conviction gives you the confidence to go toe-to-toe with the best in the industry."One of the most compelling stories that illustrates Matt's passion occurred as he worked to launch ClearingBid. Many skeptics doubted whether he could challenge Wall Street's entrenched system of IPO allocations, questioning if a more inclusive approach could truly work. But instead of backing down, he leaned into his conviction, tirelessly advocating for a system that allows retail investors to participate in IPOs at the same terms as institutional players. His relentless drive led to a $5 million crowdfunding raise and the launch of a platform poised to redefine capital markets.For those looking to develop passion and conviction as strengths, Matt offers key insights:* Master the Fundamentals – A strong foundation in your field provides the confidence to take bold steps.* Surround Yourself with Supporters – Find a team and a community that believes in your mission.* Be a Cheerleader – Lead with enthusiasm, especially in tough times.* Welcome Skepticism – Use criticism as fuel to refine and strengthen your approach.* Celebrate Wins, Learn from Setbacks – Resilience is essential for maintaining conviction over the long haul.By following Matt Venturi's example and advice, you can make passion and conviction 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 ProfileMatt Venturi (he/him):Founder & CEO, ClearingBid, Inc.About ClearingBid, Inc.: ClearingBid is the world's first and only IPO network. ClearingBid opens IPO investing for all, drives true market-based pricing, assures equitable allocations, and creates economic value for companies, investors and the entire investment ecosystem.Website: www.clearingbid.comX/Twitter Handle: @clearingbidCompany Facebook Page: fb.com/ClearingBid/Biographical Information: Matt is the Founder & CEO of ClearingBid, Inc., a proprietary offering platform developed to provide fair and open access to IPOs and new security issues. Matt previously founded a middle-market investment bank. Between 1998 and 2001, he worked with Houlihan Lokey as the Managing Director responsible for the investment banking efforts in San Francisco, where he initiated the firm's Technology Banking Group and cross-border capabilities while serving as a member of the firm's Investment Banking Committee, Finance Committee and Strategic Alliance Committee. Previously, Matt was with Salomon Smith Barney's Corporate Finance Division for 12 years, including serving as the Managing Director responsible for the Western Region Emerging Growth Group and as a senior member of the firm's Financial Restructuring Group. He was responsible for developing several new product initiatives, including a proprietary franchise finance program, the firm's initial asset-backed financing efforts and the High Yield Debt Financing Group. Prior to Salomon Smith Barney, he worked with Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York between 1979 and 1983, initially as a Corporate Intern and subsequently in several sales and capital markets-related areas, including Corporate Syndicate. He is a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP) with Turnaround Management Association and is recognized as an “Industry Veteran.” Matt received a BS degree in Commerce from Santa Clara University and an MBA degree from New York University's Stern Graduate School of Business.X/Twitter Handle: @mattventuriLinkedin: fb.com/ClearingBidInstagram Handle: @clearingbidSupport Our SponsorsOur generous sponsors make our work possible, serving impact investors, social entrepreneurs, community builders and diverse founders. Today's advertisers include FundingHope, Solvari, Health Care Originals and Arcade Therapeutics. Learn more about advertising with us here.Max-Impact MembersThe following Max-Impact Members provide valuable financial support:Carol Fineagan, Independent Consultant | Lory Moore, Lory Moore Law | Marcia Brinton, High Desert Gear | Paul Lovejoy, Stakeholder Enterprise | Pearl Wright, Global Changemaker | Ralf Mandt, Next Pitch | Scott Thorpe, Philanthropist | Add Your Name HereUpcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* Impact Cherub Club Meeting hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, on February 18, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, the Club meets to review new offerings for investment consideration and to conduct due diligence on previously screened deals. To join the Impact Cherub Club, become an Impact Member of the SuperCrowd.* SuperCrowdHour, February 19, 2025, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Devin Thorpe will lead a session on "Calculating Your Funding Needs," providing essential guidance for entrepreneurs and impact-driven businesses to determine the right amount to raise for sustainable growth. Whether you're preparing for your first crowdfunding campaign or planning to scale, this is a must-attend! Don't miss it!* Superpowers for Good Live Pitch for Q1-25, March 12, 2025, at 8:00 PM ET. The application window for the 1st quarter live pitch event is now open. Apply here.* SuperCrowdLA: we're going to be live in Santa Monica, California, May 1-3. Plan to join us for a major, in-person event focused on scaling impact. Sponsored by Digital Niche Agency, ProActive Real Estate and others. This will be a can't-miss event. Has your business been impacted by the recent fires? Apply now for a chance to receive one of 10 free tickets to SuperCrowdLA on May 2nd and 3rd and gain the tools to rebuild and grow!Community Event Calendar* Successful Funding with Karl Dakin, Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ET - Click on Events* Capital Raise Strategies for Purpose Driven Enterprises, hosted by PathLight Law, February 25 at 1:00 PM ET.* Igniting Community Capital to Build Outdoor Recreation Communities, Crowdfund Better, Thursdays, March 20 & 27, April 3 & 10, 2025, at 1:00 PM ET.* NC3 Changing the Paradigm: Mobilizing Community Investment Funds, March 7, 2025* Asheville Neighborhood Economics, April 1-2, 2-25.* Regulated Investment Crowdfunding Summit 2025, Crowdfunding Professional Association, Washington DC, October 21-22, 2025.Call for community action:* Please show your support for a tax credit for investments made via Regulation Crowdfunding, benefitting both the investors and the small businesses that receive the investments. Learn more here.If you would like to submit an event for us to share with the 9,000+ members of the SuperCrowd, click here.We use AI to help us write compelling recaps of each episode. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

SeventySix Capital Leadership Series
Bill Miller, President & CEO of the American Gaming Association - SeventySix Capital Sports Leadership Show

SeventySix Capital Leadership Series

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2025 39:16


On this episode of the SeventySix Capital Sports Leadership Show, Wayne Kimmel interviewed the President and CEO of the American Gaming Association, Bill Miller. Miller is the President and CEO of the American Gaming Association (AGA), which represents the $329 billion U.S. casino industry. Since joining the AGA in 2019, Miller has elevated the association's influence in Washington, advanced key industry priorities, and deepened member engagement. In 2019, the American Gaming Association (AGA) launched the "Have A Game Plan" campaign to educate sports fans about the principles of responsible sports betting. This campaign emphasizes key guidelines, including setting a budget and adhering to it, keeping betting a social activity, understanding the odds, and placing bets with trusted, regulated operators. In 2021, SeventySix Capital became the first investment firm to join the initiative. Most notably, under Miller's leadership, the AGA navigated the gaming industry through the COVID-19 pandemic. He led the advocacy effort that united AGA members and the broader gaming industry, secured unprecedented federal relief and created a favorable policy landscape for gaming's remarkable recovery. He has advanced efforts to strengthen the gaming industry's commitment to responsibility, build a sustainable legal sports betting market, accelerate casino payments modernization, diminish the illegal gambling market, and initiate industry-wide efforts on workforce development and sustainability. Miller has also reinvigorated the Global Gaming Expo, the gaming industry's premier tradeshow. Miller has more than three decades of experience on Capitol Hill and representing business interests in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the AGA, Miller served as the top lobbyist at Business Roundtable, the association of chief executive officers of America's leading companies. During his tenure, he led consequential lobbying efforts to pass the landmark 2017 tax reform legislation and usher in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Miller also spent time as a partner at international corporate communications firm Brunswick, providing strategic counsel to several U.S. and international corporations. At the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Miller served as senior vice president and national political director. Miller drove the Chamber's political affairs and federal lobbying efforts for more than a decade, where he created a favorable policy environment for the U.S. business community to thrive. Early in his career, Miller served as chief of staff and campaign manager for Representative Constance A. Morella (MD-8), overseeing the Congresswoman's legislative and political agenda. Miller is recognized as an influential leader in Washington, including being named to Washingtonian magazine's Most Influential People List (2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024) and The Hill's Top Lobbyists (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024). Miller is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's C100, and he also sits on the Editorial Advisory Board of Global Gaming Business and iGB Executive. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors for Ford's Theater, and he also sits on the Boards of Directors for the International Center for Responsible Gaming, Public Affairs Council, U.S. Travel Association, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness, where he chairs its Finance Committee. Miller earned a B.A. degree from the University of Maryland and J.D. from American University Washington College of Law. He resides in Washington, D.C. with his two sons. Bill Miller: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamcmiller/ X: https://x.com/BillMillerAGA

The Back Room with Andy Ostroy
Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci

The Back Room with Andy Ostroy

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2025 29:39


Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of global investment firm SkyBridge. He's the author of five books, including last year's From Wall Street to the White House and Back, and his new book The Little Book of Bitcoin: What You Need to Know that Wall Street Has Already Figured Out (Feb 11). He also hosts the Open Book podcast and co-hosts The Rest is Politics: US podcast. And he's of course well-known for the 11 roller coaster days he served in the first Trump White House as Communications Director, after having served on Trump's Finance Committee and then on his Presidential Transition Team. Mooch opines, as only Mooch can, on Trump 2.0, the GOP, Democrats and the challenging road ahead! Got somethin' to say?! Email us at BackroomAndy@gmail.com Leave us a message: 845-307-7446 Twitter: @AndyOstroy Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff Design by Cricket Lengyel

the Profane Argument, atheist podcast
Ep#421: One Hot Mama

the Profane Argument, atheist podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 29, 2025 60:02


Announcements: Scopes Trial Centennial @3:09 CFI trans articles @4:28 Ronald Lindsay Gary Francione Tilda Storey-Law Robert Pokoski Nathan Lents Follow-ups: Louisiana 10 Comm review @10:59 RFK Confirmation hearing starts @12:38 Reminder: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. formally petitioned the FDA to revoke its authorization of the Covid vaccine in May 2021 Also, How RFK Jr. drove mistrust of a cancer prevention vaccine. CFI Action Alert You can also submit a for-the-record statement directly to the Finance Committee (details at the link). If you're looking for something to get you started, you're welcome to download CFI's lobbying one-pager, which you'll find right at the top of Quackwatch's “RFK Jr. Watch” resource page. News: KS - Tuberculosis Outbreak @20:48 Indiana man @22:22 Proud Boys pardons @26:51 Pastor's message @33:02 NIH reports freeze @36:33 It's not just NIH Quakers fight back @43:10 MO - SB72 @44:14 Greenland @48:15 SCOTUS @52:14 Final Stories: Walkout song for Kristi Noem.. One hot mama? @53:07 Ray's annoyance @55:18

Minnesota Now
Bipartisan housing plan still remains priority despite divided state Legislature

Minnesota Now

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2025 9:23


Week two of an unusual Minnesota legislative session is underway with the struggle over power still gripping the Capitol. Republicans in the House continue to hold floor sessions while Democrats continue to boycott as court decisions late last week pushed a House special election into March. Last legislative session, a unique bipartisan coalition formed to combat housing affordability. Chaired by DFLers Rep. Mike Howard and Sen. Lindsey Port, the committee had strong bipartisan support, including from House Republican Whip Rep. Jim Nash, who has been working on housing legislation for more than 10 years.Two of the bills that received very strong bipartisan support had to do with city zoning reform, but lobbying by city governments, especially in the suburbs, tanked the bills. With so much left unfinished last session and with this session's power balance still in limbo, how will that committee work together in the House? Rep. Nash serves on the Housing and Finance Committee. He was one of the co-authors of the zoning bill in the House last session. Rep. Howard is another co-author of the zoning bill and the top-ranking Democrat on the Housing Finance and Policy Committee. They both joined MPR News guest host Emily Bright to explain what's to come.

The WorldView in 5 Minutes
Facebook/Instagram kisses “fact checking” goodbye, Muslims set new convert's house on fire, Oldest woman is 117

The WorldView in 5 Minutes

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2025


It's Wednesday, January 8th, A.D. 2025. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark Muslims set new convert's house on fire, killing whole family A Christian family in Uganda, Africa died for their faith last month. Back in November, 64-year-old Kaiga Muhammad, his wife Sawuya Kaiga and their son Swagga Amuza Kaiga, age 26, came to faith in Christ through a local church. The pastor of the church said the family requested prayer for their son who had malaria. The pastor told Morning Star News, “We prayed for the son, and immediately he was restored to good health.” However, Muslims in the area found out about the family's conversion to Christianity. On December 26th, they set the family's house on fire, killing all three. Please pray for persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ in Uganda.  Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” Christian religious liberty in Canadian crosshairs The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada warns that new government recommendations would curtail religious freedoms in Canada.  The recommendations come from a Finance Committee report at the end of last year. Recommendation 429 says the government should “no longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations.”  In addition, it says the Income Tax Act should be amended to “provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of ‘advancement of religion' as a charitable purpose.” The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada said, “This change, if adopted, would have a far-reaching and devastating impact - on religious charities, the people they serve, and Canadian society. Just over 40% of Canada's registered charities advance religion. This proposal would destabilize the charitable sector in Canada.” Facebook/Instagram kisses “fact checking” goodbye In the United States, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday the tech company is ending fact checking on its social media platforms. Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Zuckerberg said, “We're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms. More specifically, here's what we're going to do. First, we're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.” Life News celebrated the decision, noting, “More practically, that means Facebook is finally going to stop discriminating against pro-life conservatives and it will get rid of the liberal fact-checkers it has used for years to suppress conservative content.” West losing control of world economy In economic news, the West is slowly losing control of the world economy. The U.S. dollar's share of global currencies fell again last year to 57.4%. That's down from 72% in the year 2000, dropping a rate of about 1% per year. Bitcoin and gold skyrocket Bitcoin scraped $102,000 on Monday. The cryptocurrency market cap has hit $3.64 trillion. Plus, gold's market capitalization is estimated at $17.9 trillion and gold's value is up 129% in seven years.  Silver is at $1.7 trillion.   Cryptocurrency's market cap is up 10-fold since early 2018. Amazon has improved its market capitalization 16-fold in ten years, and Tesla's market capitalization value is up 24-fold in seven years. Ironically, Tesla's stock rose 71% last year, but the company's total cars sold last year dropped a skosh - by about one percent. Oldest woman is 117 And finally, after the earthly departure of the oldest woman in the world who was from Japan, the new candidate is a soccer-loving nun from Brazil. Sister Inah Canabarro of Porto Alegre is 117 years old.  Another nun, Lucille Randon of France, held the record for the oldest living person in 2023, when she died at 118 years of age. The oldest living person by recent authenticated accounts was Jeanne Louise Calment of France, who died in 1997 at 122 years of age. 1 Peter 3:10-11 says, “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.” Close And that's The Worldview on this Wednesday, January 8th, in the year of our Lord 2025. Subscribe by Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Carlsbad: People, Purpose and Impact
Finance to Philanthropy: Lily Fallah's Inspiring Journey

Carlsbad: People, Purpose and Impact

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2025 21:20 Transcription Available


Have you ever wondered how a childhood interest in finance can transform into a lifelong passion for helping families with special needs? Join me, as I sit down with the remarkable Lily Fallah from Guide My Finances. In this episode of Carlsbad: People, Purpose and Impact, we explore Lily's fascinating journey from her Southern California roots to becoming a Chartered Special Needs Consultant.Lily's story is truly inspiring. We delve into her career shift from working with financial giants like Morgan Stanley to embracing the flexibility of a boutique firm, allowing her to focus on her true calling. Her dedication to advocating for individuals with disabilities shines through her work with The Arc of San Diego, where she serves as a board member and treasurer.But it's not all business! Lily shares her personal joys, including her recent engagement and adventures in Greece, as well as her love for community and nature. Discover how Lily blends her professional expertise with personal passions to make a significant impact in Carlsbad.Tune in to hear how Lily is changing lives, one financial plan at a time! And don't forget to reach out to her for personalized financial guidance.Lily Fallah's Bio:My career in the financial services industry began in 2016. I've had the privilege of assisting both high-net-worth individuals and the business sector. My areas of expertise are diverse, covering everything from strategic 401(k) planning and tailored retirement strategies to customized portfolio management.I enjoy every facet of my career and the area I find the most fulfilling is my work within the Special Needs community. This personal calling led me to earn the Chartered Special Needs Consultant® designation (ChSNC®) and I'm honored to be among a select group of financial advisors in the United States who hold this credential.As a Chartered Special Needs Consultant (ChSNC®), my focus centers on supporting the disabled community with educated expertise, including: Evaluating a child's eligibility for crucial government benefits such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, and more.Cultivating essential relationships with referral partners like estate planning attorneys, insurance brokers, and CPAs with specialized knowledge in serving the disabled community.Navigating the management of assets within special needs trusts to ensure meticulous financial oversight.Creating comprehensive, tailor-made financial plans that span both the client's and their disabled child's lifetimes.My work in this community extends outside of the office. I'm proud to be an active contributor to The Arc of San Diego, a distinguished provider of special needs services. My involvement as a board member, Treasurer, and Chairman of the Investment & Finance Committee has given me a greater understanding of the needs of the families I support and extended my network of resources.Beyond the world of numbers and strategies, you'll find me enjoying my friends and family, traveling and exploring.Connect with Lily:Email: lily@guidemyfinances.comWebsite: guidemyfinances.comLinkedIn: Lily Fallah Did this episode have a special impact on you? Share how it impacted youCarlsbad Podcast Social Links:LinkedInInstagramFacebookXYouTubeSponsor: This show is sponsored and produced by DifMix Productions. To learn more about starting your own podcast, visit www.DifMix.com/podcasting

The Brian Lehrer Show
State Senator Krueger Wants "Polluters to Pay"

The Brian Lehrer Show

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 17, 2024 32:07


Liz Krueger, New York State Senator (D, WF - 28th, Manhattan's East Side) and chair of the Finance Committee, makes the argument that fossil fuel companies, not taxpayers, should be the ones to pay to clean up the greenhouse gases they released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, plus other ways New York State legislators are battling climate change.

Voices of Oklahoma
Rick Brinkley

Voices of Oklahoma

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 16, 2024 125:41 Transcription Available


Rick Brinkley was the minister of the Collinsville Community Church, an Emmy-nominated television producer in Oklahoma, Baltimore, and New York City, and President/CEO of Eastern Oklahoma's Better Business Bureau and then its Chief Operating Officer from 1999 to 2015.He became a State Senator in 2010, serving as the Chair of Pensions, Vice-Chair of the Finance Committee, and a member of the Appropriations, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Business and Commerce Committees.In August 2015, Brinkley resigned his seat as he was being investigated on accusations of embezzlement from his employer. The embezzlement was related to his gambling addiction. He was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison.As a noted public speaker, Rick travels the country telling the story of his gambling addiction, what it did to his life, and what others can do to regain control of theirs. If you or someone you know has a gambling addiction, call The National Problem Gambling helpline: 1-800-GAMBLER.Listen to Rick talk about how his addiction brought him comfort, the day he learned he was under investigation, and his days in prison on the Podcast and website of VoicesOfOklahoma.com.

America's Roundtable
America's Roundtable with US Senator Marsha Blackburn | Advancing Principled Reforms —Tax Cuts and Jobs Act | Spearheading DOGE Acts | CLEAR Act: Enforcement of US Laws — Deporting Illegal Immigrants | ICC Assault Against Israel's Sovereignty

America's Roundtable

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2024 13:41


Join America's Roundtable (https://americasrt.com/) radio co-hosts Natasha Srdoc and Joel Anand Samy with U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, member of the Finance Committee; the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee; the Veterans' Affairs Committee; and the Judiciary Committee. America's Roundtable discussion with Senator Marsha Blackburn covers the following key topics: The urgency to address tax reform in America. Will Congress make permanent the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) set to expire in Dec. 2025? If there is a delay, how will the expiration of the TCJA impact America's middle class, entrepreneurs and small business leaders across the nation? Senator Blackburn shares how she and Vivek Ramaswamy have been working over the past few months in tandem with Elon Musk on advancing government reforms. The business leaders have been tasked by President-elect Donald Trump to "slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures” and restructure federal agencies through the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Sen. Blackburn just unveiled her “DOGE Acts” to cut spending and freeze federal hiring, as well as salaries. As America faces an illegal immigration crisis, Senator Marsha Blackburn's leadership is vital. Senator Blackburn's introduced the CLEAR Act — Clear Law Enforcement for criminal Alien Removal Act of 2024. Find out about the details on how it will enhance Federal, State and local assistance level to enforce immigration laws, to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, to authorize appropriations to carry out the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, and for other purposes. Listen to Senator Blackburn response regarding International Criminal Court's decision to issue a warrant to arrest Israel leaders including the Jewish state's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. You can listen to US Senator Blackburn's conversation with Vivek Ramaswamy on her podcast - UNMUTED (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/department-of-government-efficiency-doge-with/id1736996395?i=1000678201961) - and watch the video via You Tube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3Mou5Nl4C0). Further reading: The Hill | Blackburn unveils ‘DOGE Acts' to cut spending, freeze federal hiring and salaries (https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5025294-blackburn-doge-acts-spending-cuts/) Fox News | Border security Blackburn moves to allow local law enforcement to capture, help deport illegal immigrants (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blackburn-moves-allow-local-law-enforcement-capture-deport-illegal-immigrants) Marsha Blackburn Introduces Bill Empowering Local Law Enforcement To Help Federal Government Deport Criminal Illegal Immigrants (https://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2024/03/07/marsha-blackburn-introduces-bill-empowering-local-law-enforcement-to-help-federal-government-deport-criminal-illegal-immigrants/) americasrt.com (https://americasrt.com/) https://ileaderssummit.org/ | https://jerusalemleaderssummit.com/ America's Roundtable on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/americas-roundtable/id1518878472 Twitter: @MarshaBlackburn @ileaderssummit @NatashaSrdoc @JoelAnandUSA @supertalk America's Roundtable is co-hosted by Natasha Srdoc and Joel Anand Samy, co-founders of International Leaders Summit and the Jerusalem Leaders Summit. America's Roundtable (https://americasrt.com/) radio program - a strategic initiative of International Leaders Summit, focuses on America's economy, healthcare reform, rule of law, security and trade, and its strategic partnership with rule of law nations around the world. The radio program features high-ranking US administration officials, cabinet members, members of Congress, state government officials, distinguished diplomats, business and media leaders and influential thinkers from around the world. Tune into America's Roundtable Radio program from Washington, DC via live streaming on Saturday mornings via 65 radio stations at 7:30 A.M. (ET) on Lanser Broadcasting Corporation covering the Michigan and the Midwest market, and at 7:30 A.M. (CT) on SuperTalk Mississippi — SuperTalk.FM reaching listeners in every county within the State of Mississippi, and neighboring states in the South including Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee. Listen to America's Roundtable on digital platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Google and other key online platforms. Listen live, Saturdays at 7:30 A.M. (CT) on SuperTalk | https://www.supertalk.fm

Adverse Reactions
High Intensity Sweeteners with a Sugar Czar

Adverse Reactions

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2024 28:33 Transcription Available


Whether its found in nature or composed by chemists a sweetener undergoes the same evaluations, according to Corey Scott, PhD, Principal Nutritionist, Cargill. Dr. Scott explains to co-hosts Anne Chappelle, PhD, and David Faulkner, PhD, how all sweeteners must be able to replace multiple properties inherit in sugar, such as taste, nutritional content, and binding properties.About the GuestCorey Scott, PhD, is a Principal Nutrition Scientist with Cargill in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he leads global nutritional research on sweeteners and carbohydrates. Prior to this role, he was Global Nutrition Manager for Lipid Nutrition BV in the Netherlands, focusing on clinical research involving novel lipids for early life nutrition, weight management, and diabetes. Dr. Scott has also worked for General Mills in Golden Valley, Minnesota, as a nutrition scientist at The Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition. He currently serves as a steering team member and work package leader for Project SWEET (a five-year EU Consortium project evaluating sweeteners). He is the Chair of the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences Low- and Non-caloric Sweetener Committee, Chair of the North Carolina Agricultural and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University Technical Advisory and Finance Committee, and an industry advisor for the University and Industry Consortium/Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research Sally Rockey Fellowship. Dr. Scott holds a doctorate degree in food science and nutrition from Ohio State University, a master's degree in chemistry from North Carolina A&T State University, and a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Send SOT thoughts on the episodes, ideas for future topics, and more.

Congressional Dish
CD305: Freaky Food

Congressional Dish

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 21, 2024 101:08


There are dangers lurking in our food that affect your health and the health of our entire society, and you should know about them. In this episode, get the highlights from two recent Congressional events featuring expert testimony about the regulation of our food supply, as well as testimony from the man who is soon likely to be the most powerful person in our national health care system. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via Support Congressional Dish via (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Background Sources Joe Rogan Episodes The Joe Rogan Experience. The Joe Rogan Experience. The Joe Rogan Experience. The Joe Rogan Experience. Ron Johnson Scott Bauer. January 3, 2023. AP News. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Daniel Cusick. October 28, 2024. Politico. Rachel Treisman. August 5, 2024. NPR. Susanne Craig. May 8, 2024. The New York Times. Department of Health and Human Services U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. FDA “Generally Recognized as Safe” Approach Paulette M. Gaynor et al. April 2006. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Paulette Gaynor and Sebastian Cianci. December 2005/January 2006. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Glyphosate September 20, 2023. Phys.org. Lobbying and Conflicts of Interest OpenSecrets. OpenSecrets. OpenSecrets. LinkedIn. Shift from Democrats to Republicans Will Stone and Allison Aubrey. November 15, 2024. NPR. Helena Bottemiller Evich and Darren Samuelsohn. March 17, 2016. Politico. Audio Sources September 25, 2024 Roundtable discussion held by Senator Ron Johnson Participants: , Author, Good Energy; Tech entrepreneur, Levels , Co-founder, Truemed; Advocate, End Chronic Disease , aka the Food Babe, food activist Jillian Michaels, fitness expert, nutritionist, businesswoman, media personality, and author Dr. Chris Palmer, Founder and Director, Metabolic and Mental Health Program and Director, Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education, McLean Hospital; Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Brigham Buhler, Founder & CEO, Ways2Well Courtney Swan, nutritionist, real food activist, and founder of the popular platform "Realfoodology" , Founder and CEO, HumanCo; co-founder, Hu Kitchen Dr. Marty Makary, Chief of Islet Transplant Surgery, Professor of Surgery, and Public Policy Researcher, Johns Hopkins University Clips Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: When discussing improvements to US healthcare policy, politicians from both parties often say we have the best healthcare system in the world. That is a lie. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: Every major pillar of the US healthcare system, as a statement of economic fact, makes money when Americans get sick. By far the most valuable asset in this country today is a sick child. The pharma industry, hospital industry, and medical school industry make more money when there are more interventions to perform on Americans, and by requiring insurance companies to take no more than 15% of premiums, Obamacare actually incentivized insurance companies to raise premiums to get 15% of a larger pie. This is why premiums have increased 100% since the passage of Obamacare, making health care the largest driver of inflation, while American life expectancy plummets. We spend four times per capita on health care than the Italians, but Italians live 7.5 years longer than us on average. And incidentally, Americans had the highest life expectancies in the world when I was growing up. Today, we've fallen an average of six years behind our European neighbors. Are we lazier and more suicidal than Italians? Or is there a problem with our system? Are there problems with our incentives? Are there problems with our food? 46:15 Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: So what's causing all of this suffering? I'll name two culprits, first and worst is ultra processed foods. 47:20 Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: The second culprit is toxic chemicals in our food, our medicine and our environment. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: The good news is that we can change all this, and we can change it very, very, very quickly, and it starts with taking a sledgehammer to corruption, the conflicts in our regulatory agencies and in this building. These conflicts have transformed our regulatory agencies into predators against the American people and particularly our children. 80% of NIH grants go to people who have conflicts of interest, and these scientists are allowed to collect royalties of $150,000 a year on the products that they develop at NIH and then farm out to the pharmaceutical industry. The FDA, the USDA and CDC are all controlled by giant for-profit corporations. Their function is no longer to improve and protect the health of Americans. Their function is to advance the mercantile and commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry that has transformed them and the food industry that has transformed them into sock puppets for the industry they're supposed to regulate. 75% of FDA funding does not come from taxpayers. It comes from pharma. And pharma executives and consultants and lobbyists cycle in and out of these agencies. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: Money from the healthcare industry has compromised our regulatory agencies and this body as well. The reality is that many congressional healthcare staffers are worried about impressing their future bosses at pharmaceutical companies rather than doing the right thing for American children. Today, over 100 members of Congress support a bill to fund Ozempic with Medicare at $1,500 a month. Most of these members have taken money from the manufacturer of that product, a European company called Novo Nordisk. As everyone knows, once a drug is approved for Medicare, it goes to Medicaid, and there is a push to recommend Ozempic for Americans as young as six, over a condition, obesity, that is completely preventable and barely even existed 100 years ago. Since 74% of Americans are obese, the cost of all of them, if they take their Ozempic prescriptions, will be $3 trillion a year. This is a drug that has made Novo Nordisk the biggest company in Europe. It's a Danish company, but the Danish government does not recommend it. It recommends a change in diet to treat obesity and exercise. Virtually Novo Nordisk's entire value is based upon its projections of what Ozempic is going to sell to Americans. For half the price of Ozempic, we could purchase regeneratively raised organic agriculture, organic food for every American, three meals a day and a gym membership for every obese American. Why are members of Congress doing the bidding of this Danish company instead of standing up for American farmers and children? Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: For 19 years, solving the childhood chronic disease crisis has been the central goal of my life, and for 19 years, I have prayed to God every morning to put me in a position to end this calamity. I believe we have the opportunity for transformational, bipartisan change to transform American health, to hyper-charge our human capital, to improve our budget, and I believe, to save our spirits and our country. 1:23:10 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Our next presenter, Dr. Marty Makary also bears a few scars from telling the truth during COVID. Dr. Makary is a surgeon and public policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University. He writes for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, and is the author of two New York Times best selling books, Unaccountable and The Price We Pay. He's been an outspoken opponent of broad vaccine mandates and some COVID restrictions at schools. Dr. Makary holds degrees from Bucknell University, Thomas Jefferson University and Harvard University. Dr. Marty Makary: I'm trained in gastrointestinal surgery. My group at Johns Hopkins does more pancreatic cancer surgery than any hospital in the United States. But at no point in the last 20 years has anyone stopped to ask, why has pancreatic cancer doubled over those 20 years? Who's working on that? Who's looking into it? We are so busy in our health care system, billing and coding and paying each other, and every stakeholder has their gigantic lobby in Washington, DC, and everybody's making a lot of money, except for one stakeholder, the American citizen. They are financing this giant, expensive health care system through their paycheck deduction for health insurance and the Medicare excise tax as we go down this path, billing and coding and medicating. And can we be real for a second? We have poisoned our food supply, engineered highly addictive chemicals that we put into our food, we spray it with pesticides that kill pests. What do you think they do to our gut lining and our microbiome? And then they come in sick. The GI tract is reacting. It's not an acute inflammatory storm, it's a low grade chronic inflammation, and it makes people feel sick, and that inflammation permeates and drives so many of our chronic diseases that we didn't see half a century ago. Who's working on who's looking into this, who's talking about it? Our health care system is playing whack a mole on the back end, and we are not talking about the root causes of our chronic disease epidemic. We can't see the forest from the trees. Sometimes we're so busy in these short visits, billing and coding. We've done a terrible thing to doctors. We've told them, put your head down. Focus on billing and coding. We're going to measure you by your throughput and good job. You did a nice job. We have all these numbers to show for it. Well, the country is getting sicker. We cannot keep going down this path. We have the most over-medicated, sickest population in the world, and no one is talking about the root causes. Dr. Marty Makary: Somebody has got to speak up. Maybe we need to talk about school lunch programs, not just putting every kid on obesity drugs like Ozempic. Maybe we need to talk about treating diabetes with cooking classes, not just throwing insulin at everybody. Maybe we need to talk about environmental exposures that cause cancer, not just the chemo to treat it. We've got to talk about food as medicine. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): So, Dr Makary, I've got a couple questions. First of all, how many years have you been practicing medicine? Dr. Marty Makary: 22 years. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): So we've noticed a shift from decades ago when 80% of doctors are independent to now 80% are working for some hospital association. First of all, what has that meant in terms of doctors' independence and who they are really accountable too? Dr. Marty Makary: The move towards corporate medicine and mass consolidation that we've witnessed in our lifetime has meant more and more doctors are told to put their heads down, do your job: billing and coding short visits. We've not given doctors the time, research, or resources to deal with these chronic diseases. 1:32:45 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Dr. Casey Means is a medical doctor, New York Times Best Selling Author, tech entrepreneur at Levels, an aspiring regenerative gardener and an outdoor enthusiast. While training as a surgeon, she saw how broken and exploitative the health care system is, and led to focus on how to keep people out of the operating room. And again, I would highly recommend everybody read Good Energy. It's a personal story, and you'll be glad you did. Dr. Casey Means: Over the last 50 years in the United States, we have seen rapidly rising rates of chronic illnesses throughout the entire body. The body and the brain, infertility, obesity, type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes, Alzheimer's, dementia, cancer, heart disease, stroke, autoimmune disease, migraines, mental illness, chronic pain, fatigue, congenital abnormalities, chronic liver disease, autism, and infant and maternal mortality all going up. Americans live eight fewer years compared to people in Japan or Switzerland, and life expectancy is going down. I took an oath to do no harm, but listen to these stats. We're not only doing harm, we're flagrantly allowing harm. While it sounds grim, there is very good news. We know why all of these diseases are going up, and we know how to fix it. Every disease I mentioned is caused by or worsened by metabolic dysfunction, a word that it is thrilling to hear being used around this table. Metabolic dysfunction is a fundamental distortion of our cellular biology. It stops our cells from making energy appropriately. According to the American College of Cardiology, metabolic dysfunction now affects 93.2% of American adults. This is quite literally the cellular draining of our life force. This process is the result of three processes happening inside our cells, mitochondrial dysfunction, a process called oxidative stress, which is like a wildfire inside our cells, and chronic inflammation throughout the body and the gut, as we've heard about. Metabolic dysfunction is largely not a genetic issue. It's caused by toxic American ultra processed industrial food, toxic American chemicals, toxic American medications, and our toxic sedentary, indoor lifestyles. You would think that the American healthcare system and our government agencies would be clamoring to fix metabolic health and reduce American suffering and costs, but they're not. They are deafeningly silent about metabolic dysfunction and its known causes. It's not an overstatement to say that I learned virtually nothing at Stanford Medical School about the tens of thousands of scientific papers that elucidate these root causes of why American health is plummeting and how environmental factors are causing it. For instance, in medical school, I did not learn that for each additional serving of ultra processed food we eat, early mortality increases by 18%. This now makes up 67% of the foods our kids are eating. I took zero nutrition courses in medical school. I didn't learn that 82% of independently funded studies show harm from processed food, while 93% of industry sponsored studies reflect no harm. In medical school, I didn't learn that 95% of the people who created the recent USDA Food guidelines for America had significant conflicts of interest with the food industry. I did not learn that 1 billion pounds of synthetic pesticides are being sprayed on our food every single year. 99.99% of the farmland in the United States is sprayed with synthetic pesticides, many from China and Germany. And these invisible, tasteless chemicals are strongly linked to autism, ADHD, sex hormone disruption, thyroid disease, sperm dysfunction, Alzheimer's, dementia, birth defects, cancer, obesity, liver dysfunction, female infertility and more, all by hurting our metabolic health. I did not learn that the 8 billion tons of plastic that have been produced just in the last 100 years, plastic was only invented about 100 years ago, are being broken down into micro plastics that are now filling our food, our water, and we are now even inhaling them in our air. And that very recent research from just the past couple of months tells us that now about 0.5% of our brains by weight are now plastic. I didn't learn that there are more than 80,000 toxins that have entered our food, water, air and homes by industry, many of which are banned in Europe, and they are known to alter our gene expression, alter our microbiome composition and the lining of our gut, and disrupt our hormones. I didn't learn that heavy metals like aluminum and lead are present in our food, our baby formula, personal care products, our soil and many of the mandated medications, like vaccines and that these metals are neurotoxic and inflammatory. I didn't learn that the average American walks a paltry 3500 steps per day, even though we know based on science and top journals that walking, simply walking 7000 steps a day, slashes by 40-60% our risk of Alzheimer's, dementia, type two diabetes, cancer and obesity. I certainly did not learn that medical error and medications are the third leading cause of death in the United States. I didn't learn that just five nights of sleep deprivation can induce full blown pre-diabetes. I learned nothing about sleep, and we're getting about 20% less sleep on average than we were 100 years ago. I didn't learn that American children are getting less time outdoors now than a maximum security prisoner. And on average, adults spend 93% of their time indoors, even though we know from the science that separation from sunlight destroys our circadian biology, and circadian biology dictates our cellular biology. I didn't learn that professional organizations that we get our practice guidelines from, like the American Diabetes Association and American Academy of Pediatrics, have taken 10s of millions of dollars from Coke, Cadbury, processed food companies, and vaccine manufacturers like Moderna. I didn't learn that if we address these root causes that all lead to metabolic dysfunction and help patients change their food and lifestyle patterns with a united strong voice, we could reverse the chronic disease crisis in America, save millions of lives, and trillions of dollars in health care costs per year. Instead, doctors are learning that the body is 100 separate parts, and we learn how to drug, we learn how to cut and we learn how to bill. I'll close by saying that what we are dealing with here is so much more than a physical health crisis. This is a spiritual crisis we are choosing death over life. We are we are choosing death over life. We are choosing darkness over light for people and the planet, which are inextricably linked. We are choosing to erroneously believe that we are separate from nature and that we can continue to poison nature and then outsmart it. Our path out will be a renewed respect for the miracle of life and a renewed respect for nature. We can restore health to Americans rapidly with smart policy and courageous leadership. We need a return to courage. We need a return to common sense and intuition. We need a return to awe for the sheer miraculousness of our lives. We need all hands on deck. Thank you. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): I'm not letting you off that easy. I've got a couple questions. So you outlined some basic facts that doctors should know that truthfully, you could cover in one hour of an introductory class in medical school, yes. So why aren't we teaching doctors these things? Dr. Casey Means: The easy thing to say would be, you know, follow the money. That sounds sort of trite, but frankly, I think that is the truth, but not in the way you might think that, like doctors are out to make money, or even medical schools. The money and the core incentive problem, which is that every institution that touches our health in America, from medical schools to pharmaceutical companies to health insurance companies to hospitals offices, they make more money when we are sick and less when we are healthy. That simple, one incentive problem corrodes every aspect of the way medicine is thought about. The way we think about the body, we talked about interconnectedness. It creates a system in which we silo the body into all these separate parts and create that illusion that we all buy into because it's profitable to send people to separate specialties. So it corrodes even the foundational conception of how we think about the body. So it is about incentives and money, but I would say that's the invisible hand. It's not necessarily affecting each doctor's clinical practice or the decision making. It's corroding every lever of the basics of how we even consider what the human body is and what life is. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): In your book, you do a really good job of describing how, because of the specialization of medicine, you don't see the forest for the trees. The fact is, you do need specialized medicine. I mean, doctors can't know it all. So I think the question is, how do we get back to the reward for general practitioners that do focus on what you're writing about? Dr. Casey Means: I have huge respect for doctors, and I am incredibly grateful for the American health care system, which has produced miracles, and we absolutely need continue to have primary care doctors and specialists, and they should be rewarded highly. However, if we focused on what everyone here is talking about, I think we'd have 90% less throughput through our health care system. We would be able to have these doctors probably have a much better life to be honest. You know, because right now, doctors are working 100 hours a week seeing 50, 60, 70 patients, and could actually have more time with patients who develop these acute issues that need to be treated by a doctor. But so many of the things in the specialist office are chronic conditions that we know are fundamentally rooted in the cellular dysfunction I describe, which is metabolic dysfunction, which is created by our lifestyle. So I think that there's always going to be a place for specialists, but so so many, so much fewer. And I think if we had a different conception for the body is interconnected, they would also interact with each other in a very different way, a much more collaborative way. And then, of course, we need to incentivize doctors in the healthcare system towards outcomes, not throughput. 1:46:25 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Our next presenter is Dr. Chris Palmer. Dr. Palmer is a Harvard trained psychiatrist, researcher and author of Brain Energy, where he explores a groundbreaking connection between metabolic health and mental illness. He is a leader in innovative approaches to treating psychiatric conditions, advocating for the use of diet and metabolic interventions to improve mental health outcomes. Dr. Palmer's work is reshaping how the medical field views and treats mental health disorders. Dr. Chris Palmer: I want to build on what Dr. Means just shared that these chronic diseases we face today. Obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, all share something in common. They are, in fact, metabolic dysfunction. I'm going to go into a little bit of the science, just to make sure we're all on the same page. Although most people think of metabolism as burning calories, it is far more than that. Metabolism is a series of chemical reactions that convert food into energy and building blocks essential for cellular health. When we have metabolic dysfunction, it can drive numerous chronic diseases, which is a paradigm shift in the medical field. Now there is no doubt metabolism is complicated. It really is. It is influenced by biological, psychological, environmental and social factors, and the medical field says this complexity is the reason we can't solve the obesity epidemic because they're still trying to understand every molecular detail of biology. But in fact, we don't need to understand biology in order to understand the cause. The cause is coming from our environment, a toxic environment like poor diet and exposure to harmful chemicals, and these are actually quite easy to study, understand, and address. There is no doubt food plays a key role. It provides the substrate for energy and building blocks. Nutritious foods support metabolism, while ultra processed options can disrupt it. It is shocking that today, in 2024, the FDA allows food manufacturers to introduce brand new chemicals into our food supply without adequate testing. The manufacturer is allowed to determine for themselves whether this substance is safe for you and your family to eat or not. Metabolism's impact goes beyond physical health. I am a psychiatrist. Some of you are probably wondering, why are you here? It also affects mental health. Because guess what? The human brain is an organ too, and when brain metabolism is impaired, it can cause symptoms that we call mental illness. It is no coincidence that as the rates of obesity and diabetes are skyrocketing, so too are the rates of mental illness. In case you didn't know, we have a mental health crisis. We have all time prevalence highs for depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, deaths of despair, drug overdoses, ADHD and autism. What does the mental health field have to say for this? Well, you know, mental illness is just chemical imbalances, or maybe trauma and stress that is wholly insufficient to explain the epidemic that we are seeing. And in fact, there is a better way to integrate the biopsychosocial factors known to play a role in mental illness. Mental Disorders at their core are often metabolic disorders impacting the brain. It's not surprising to most people that obesity and diabetes might play a role in depression or anxiety, but the rates of autism have quadrupled in just 20 years, and the rates of ADHD have tripled over that same period of time. These are neuro developmental disorders, and many people are struggling to understand, how on earth could they rise so rapidly? But it turns out that metabolism plays a profound role in neurodevelopment, and sure enough, parents with metabolic issues like obesity and diabetes are more likely to have children with autism and ADHD. This is not about fat shaming, because what I am arguing is that the same foods and chemicals and other drivers of obesity that are causing obesity in the parents are affecting the brain health of our children. There is compelling evidence that food plays a direct role in mental health. One study of nearly 300,000 people found that those who eat ultra processed foods daily are three times more likely to struggle with their mental health than people who never or rarely consume them. A systematic review found direct associations between ultra processed food exposure and 32 different health parameters, including mental mental health conditions. Now I'm not here to say that food is the only, or even primary driver of mental illness. Let's go back to something familiar. Trauma and stress do drive mental illness, but for those of you who don't know, trauma and stress are also associated with increased rates of obesity and diabetes. Trauma and stress change human metabolism. We need to put the science together. This brings me to a key point. We cannot separate physical and mental health from metabolic health. Addressing metabolic dysfunction has the potential to prevent and treat a wide range of chronic diseases. Dr. Chris Palmer: In my own work, I have seen firsthand how using metabolic therapies like the ketogenic diet and other dietary interventions can improve even severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, sometimes putting them into lasting remission. These reports are published in peer reviewed, prestigious medical journals. However, there is a larger issue at play that many have talked about, medical education and public health recommendations are really captured by industry and politics, and at best, they often rely on weak epidemiological data, resulting in conflicting or even harmful advice. We heard a reference to this, but in case you didn't know, a long time ago, we demonized saturated fat. And what was the consequence of demonizing saturated fat? We replaced it with "healthy vegetable shortening." That was the phrase we used, "healthy vegetable shortening." Guess what was in that healthy vegetable shortening? It was filled with trans fats, which are now recognized to be so harmful that they've been banned in the United States. Let's not repeat mistakes like this. Dr. Chris Palmer: So what's the problem? Number one, nutrition and mental health research are severely underfunded, with each of them getting less than 5% of the NIH budget. This is no accident. This is the concerted effort of lobbying by industry, food manufacturers, the healthcare industry, they do not want root causes discovered. We need to get back to funding research on the root causes of mental and metabolic disorders, including the effects of foods, chemicals, medications, environmental toxins, on the human brain and metabolism. Dr. Chris Palmer: The issue of micro plastics and nano plastics in the human body is actually, sadly, in its infancy. We have two publications out in the last couple of months demonstrating that micro plastics are, in fact, found in the human brain. And as Dr. Means said, and you recited, 0.5% of the body weight, or the brain's weight, appears to be composed of micro plastics. We need more research to better understand whether these micro plastics are, in fact, associated with harmful conditions, because microplastics are now ubiquitous. So some will argue, well, they're everywhere, and everybody's got them, and it's just a benign thing. Some will argue that the most compelling evidence against that is a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine a few months ago now, in which they were doing routine carotid endarterectomies, taking plaque out of people's carotid arteries. Just routinely doing that for clinical care, and then they analyzed those plaques for micro plastics. 58% of the people had detectable micro plastics in the plaques. So they compared this 58% group who had micro plastics to the ones who didn't, followed them for three years, just three years, and the ones who had micro plastics had four times the mortality. There is strong reason to believe, based on animal data and based on cell biology data, that microplastics are in fact, toxic to the human body, to mitochondrial function, to hormone dysregulation and all sorts of things. There are lots of reasons to believe that, but the scientists will say, we need more research. We need to better understand whether these micro plastics really are associated with higher rates of disease. I think people are terrified of the answer. People are terrified of the answer. And if you think about everything that you consume, and how much of it is not wrapped in plastic, all of those industries are going to oppose research. They are going to oppose research funding to figure this out ASAP, because that will be a monumental change to not just the food industry but our entire economy. Imagining just cleaning up the oceans and trying to get this plastic and then, more importantly, trying to figure out, how are we going to detox humans? How are we going to de-plasticize human beings? How are we going to get these things out? It is an enormous problem, but the reality is, putting our heads in the sand is not going to help. And I am really hopeful that by raising issues and letting people know about this health crisis, that maybe we will get answers quickly. Dr. Chris Palmer: Your question is, why are our health agencies not exploring these questions? It's because the health agencies are largely influenced by the industries they are supposed to be regulating and looking out for. The medical education community is largely controlled by pharmaceutical companies. One and a half billion dollars every year goes to support physician education. That's from pharmaceutical companies. One and a half billion from pharmaceutical companies. So physicians are getting educated with some influence, large influence, I would argue, by them, the health organizations. It's a political issue. The NIH, it's politics. Politicians are selecting people to be on the committees or people to oversee these organizations. Politicians rely on donations from companies and supporters to get re-elected, and the reality is this is not going to be easy to tackle. The challenge is that you'll get ethical politicians who say, I'm not going to take any of that money, and I'm going to try to do the right thing and right now, the way the system is set up, there's a good chance those politicians won't get re-elected, and instead, their opponents, who were more than happy to take millions of dollars in campaign contributions, will get re-elected, and then they will return the favor to their noble campaign donors. We are at a crossroads. We have to decide who are the constituents of the American government. Is it industry, or is it the American people? 2:09:35 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Calley Means the co-founder of Truemed, a company that enables tax free spending on food and exercise. He recently started an advocacy coalition with leading health and wellness companies called End Chronic Disease. Early in his career, he was a consultant for food and pharma companies. He is now exposing practices they used to weaponize our institutions of trust, and he's doing a great job doing interviews with his sister, Casey. Calley Means: If you think about a medical miracle, it's almost certainly a solution that was invented before 1960 for an acute condition: emergency surgical procedures to ensure a complicated childbirth wasn't a death sentence, sanitation procedures, antibiotics that insured infection was an inconvenience, not deadly, eradicating polio, regular waste management procedures that helped control outbreaks like the bubonic plague, sewage systems that replaced the cesspools and opened drains, preventing human waste from contaminating the water. The US health system is a miracle in solving acute conditions that will kill us right away. But economically, acute conditions aren't great in our modern system, because the patient is quickly cured and is no longer a customer. Start in the 1960s the medical system took the trust engendered by these acute innovations like antibiotics, which were credited with winning World War Two, and they used that trust to ask patients not to question its authority on chronic diseases, which can last a lifetime and are more profitable. But the medicalization of chronic disease in the past 50 years has been an abject failure. Today, we're in a siloed system where there's a treatment for everything. And let's just look at the stats. Heart disease has gone up as more statins are prescribed. Type 2 diabetes has gone up as more Metformin is prescribed. ADHD has gone up as more Adderall is prescribed. Depression and suicide has gone up as more SSRIs are prescribed. Pain has gone up as more opioids are prescribed. Cancer has gone up as we've spent more on cancer. And now JP Morgan literally at the conference in San Francisco, recently, they put up a graph, and they showed us more Ozempic is projected to be prescribed over the next 10 years, obesity rates are going to go up as more is prescribed. Explain that to me. There was clapping. All the bankers were clapping like seals at this graphic. Our intervention based system is by design. In the early 1900s, John D. Rockefeller using that he could use byproducts from oil production to create pharmaceuticals, heavily funded medical schools throughout the United States to teach a curriculum based on the intervention-first model of Dr. William Stewart Halsted, the founding physician of Johns Hopkins, who created the residency-based model that viewed invasive surgical procedures and medication as the highest echelon of medicine. An employee of Rockefeller's was tasked to create the Flexner Report, which outlined a vision for medical education that prioritized interventions and stigmatized nutritional and holistic remedies. Congress affirmed the Flexner Report in 1910 to establish that any credentialed medical institution in the United States had to follow the Halsted-Rockefeller intervention based model that silos disease and downplay viewing the body as an interconnected system. It later came out that Dr. Halsted's cocaine and morphine addiction fueled his day long surgical residencies and most of the medical logic underlying the Flexner Report was wrong. But that hasn't prevented the report and the Halsted-Rockefeller engine based brand of medicine from being the foundational document that Congress uses to regulate medical education today. Calley Means: Our processed food industry was created by the cigarette industry. In the 1980s, after decades of inaction, the Surgeon General and the US government finally, finally said that smoking might be harmful, and smoking rates plummeted. We listened to doctors in this country. We listened to medical leadership, and as smoking rates plummeted, cigarette companies, with their big balance sheets, strategically bought up food companies, and by 1990 the two largest food companies in the world were Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds, two cigarette companies. These cigarette companies moved two departments over from the cigarette department to the food department. They moved the scientists. Cigarette companies were the highest payers of scientists, one of the biggest employers of scientists to make the cigarettes addictive. They moved these addiction specialists, world leading addiction specialists, to the food department by the thousands. And those scientists weaponized our ultra processed food. That is the problem with ultra processed food. You have the best scientists in the world creating this food to be palatable and to be addictive. They then moved their lobbyists over. They used the same playbook, and their lobbyists co-opted the USDA and created the food pyramid. The Food Pyramid was a document created by the cigarette industry through complete corporate capture, and was an ultra processed food marketing document saying that we needed a bunch of carbs and sugar. And we listened to medical experts in this country, the American people, American parents. Many parents who had kids in the 90s thought it was a good thing to do to give their kids a bunch of ultra processed foods and carb consumption went up 20% in the American diet in the next 10 years. The Devil's bargain comes in in that this ultra processed food consumption has been one of the most profitable dynamics in American history for the health care industry. As we've all just been decimated with chronic conditions, the medical industry hasn't. Not only have they been silent on this issue, they've actually been complicit, working for the food industry. I helped funnel money from Coca Cola to the American Diabetes Association. Yeah. 2:31:40 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Next presenter will be Brigham Buhler. Brigham is the Founder and CEO of Ways2Well, a healthcare company that provides personalized preventive care through telemedicine, with a strong background in the pharmaceutical industry. Brigham is focused on making healthcare more accessible by harnessing the power of technology, delivering effective and tailored treatments. His vision for improving health outcomes has positioned him as a leader in modern patient centered healthcare solutions. Brigham Buhler: We hear people reference President Eisenhower's speech all the time about the military industrial complex, but rarely do we hear the second half of that speech. He also warned us about the rise of the scientific industrial complex. He warned us, if we allow the elite to control the scientific research, it could have dire consequences. 2:36:30 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): I'm going to call an audible here as moderator, I saw that hopefully the future chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Mike Crapo from Idaho, came into the room. I asked Mike to share his story. He used to wear larger suits, let's put it that way. But he went down the path of the ketogenic diet, I believe. But Mike, why don't you tell your story? And by the way, he's somebody you want to influence. Chairman of Senate Finance Committee makes an awful lot of decisions on Medicare, Medicaid, a lot of things we talked about with Ozempic, now the lobbying group try and make that available, and how harmful, I think, most people in this room think that might be so. Senator Crapo, if you could just kind of tell us your story in terms of your diet change and what results you had. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID): Well, first of all, let me thank you. I didn't come here to say anything. I came here to listen, but I appreciate the opportunity to just have a second to tell you my personal story. I'll say before I do that, thank you for Ron Johnson. Senator Johnson is also a member of the Finance Committee, and it is my hope that we can get that committee, which I think has the most powerful jurisdiction, particularly over these areas, of any in the United States Congress, and so I'm hopeful we can get a focus on addressing the government's part of the role in this to get us back on a better track. 2:54:35 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Vani Hari, known as the Food Babe -- they wrote that for me, that wasn't me, that's my not my nickname -- is a food activist, author and speaker committed to improving food quality and safety. She has built a powerful platform through her blog advocating for transparency in food labeling and the removal of harmful chemicals from processed food. Her activism has spurred significant change in the food industry, encouraging consumers to make healthier, more informed choices, while prompting companies to adopt cleaner practices. Vani Hari: Our government is letting US food companies get away with serving American citizens harmful ingredients that are banned or heavily regulated in other countries. Even worse, American food companies are selling the same exact products overseas without these chemicals, but choose to continue serving us the most toxic version here. It's un-American. One set of ingredients there, and one set of ingredients here. Let me give you some examples. This is McDonald's french fries. I would like to argue that probably nobody in this room has not had a McDonald's french fry, by the way, nobody raised their hand during the staff meeting earlier today. In the US, there's 11 ingredients. In the UK, there's three, and salt is optional. An ingredient called dimethyl polysiloxane is an ingredient preserved with formaldehyde, a neurotoxin, in the US version. This is used as a foaming agent, so they don't have to replace the oil that often, making McDonald's more money here in the United States, but they don't do that across the pond. Here we go, this is Skittles. Notice the long list of ingredient differences, 10 artificial dyes in the US version and titanium dioxide. This ingredient is banned in Europe because it can cause DNA damage. Artificial dyes are made from petroleum, and products containing these dyes require a warning label in Europe that states it may cause adverse effects on activity and attention in children, and they have been linked to cancer and disruptions in the immune system. This on the screen back here, is Gatorade. In the US, they use red 40 and caramel color. In Germany, they don't, they use carrot and sweet potatoes to color their Gatorade. This is Doritos. The US version has three different three different artificial dyes and MSG, the UK version does not and let's look at cereal. General Mills is definitely playing some tricks on us. They launched a new version of Trix just recently in Australia. It has no dyes, they even advertise that, when the US version still does. This is why I became a food activist. My name is Vani Hari, and I only want one thing. I want Americans to be treated the same way as citizens in other countries by our own American companies. Vani Hari: We use over 10,000 food additives here in the United States and in Europe, there's only 400 approved. In 2013, I discovered that Kraft was producing their famous mac and cheese in other countries without artificial dyes. They used Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 here. I was so outraged by this unethical practice that I decided to do something about it. I launched a petition asking Kraft to remove artificial dyes from their products here in the United States, and after 400,000 signatures and a trip to their headquarters, Kraft finally announced they would make the change. I also discovered Subway was selling sandwiches with a chemical called azodicarbonamide in their bread in other countries. This is the same chemical they use in yoga mats and shoe rubber. You know, when you turn a yoga mat sideways and you see the evenly dispersed air bubbles? Well, they wanted to do the same thing in bread, so it would be the same exact product every time you went to a Subway. When the chemical is heated, studies show that it turns into a carcinogen. Not only is this ingredient banned in Europe and Australia, you get fined $450,000 if you get caught using it in Singapore. What's really interesting is when this chemical is heated, studies show that it turns into a carcinogen. Not only is this ingredient banned, but we were able to get Subway to remove azodicarbonamide from their bread in the United States after another successful petition. And as a bonus, there was a ripple effect in almost every bread manufacturer in America followed suit. For years, Starbucks didn't publish their ingredients for their coffee drinks. It was a mystery until I convinced a barista to show me the ingredients on the back of the bottles they were using to make menu items like their famous pumpkin spice lattes. I found out here in the United States, Starbucks was coloring their PSLs with caramel coloring level four, an ingredient made from ammonia and linked to cancer, but using beta carotene from carrots to color their drinks in the UK. After publishing an investigation and widespread media attention, Starbucks removed caramel coloring from all of their drinks in America and started publishing the ingredients for their entire menu. I want to make an important point here. Ordinary people who rallied for safer food shared this information and signed petitions. Were able to make these changes. We did this on our own. But isn't this something that the people in Washington, our elected politicians, should be doing? Vani Hari: Asking companies to remove artificial food dye would make an immediate impact. They don't need to reinvent the wheel. They already have the formulations. As I've shown you, consumption of artificial food dyes has increased by 500% in the last 50 years, and children are the biggest consumers. Yes, those children. Perfect timing. 43% of products marketed towards children in the grocery store contain artificial dyes. Food companies have found in focus groups, children will eat more of their product with an artificial dye because it's more attractive and appealing. And the worst part, American food companies know the harms of these additives because they were forced to remove them overseas due to stricter regulations and to avoid warning labels that would hurt sales. This is one of the most hypocritical policies of food companies, and somebody needs to hold them accountable. Vani Hari: When Michael Taylor was the Deputy Commissioner of the of the FDA, he said, he admitted on NPR, we don't have the resources, we don't have the capabilities to actually regulate food chemicals, because we don't have the staff. There's no one there. We are under this assumption, and I think a lot of Americans are under this assumption, that every single food additive ingredient that you buy at the grocery store has been approved by some regulatory body. It hasn't. It's been approved by the food companies themselves. There's 1000s of chemicals where the food company creates it, submits the safety data, and then the FDA rubber stamps it, because they don't have any other option. 3:09:15 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): So our next presenter is Jason Karp. Jason is the founder and CEO of HumanCo, a mission driven company that invests in and builds brands focused on healthier living and sustainability. In addition to HumanCo, Jason is the co-founder of Hu Kitchen, known for creating the number one premium organic chocolate in the US. My wife will appreciate that. Prior to HumanCo, Jason spent over 21 years in the hedge fund industry, where he was the founder and CEO of an investment fund that managed over $4 billion. Jason graduated summa cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 3:11:10 Jason Karp: I've been a professional investor for 26 years, dealing with big food companies, seeing what happens in their boardrooms, and why we now have so much ultra processed food. Jason Karp: Having studied the evolution of corporations, I believe the root cause of how we got here is an unintended consequence of the unchecked and misguided industrialization of agriculture and food. I believe there are two key drivers behind how we got here. First, America has much looser regulatory approach to approving new ingredients and chemicals than comparable developed countries. Europe, for example, uses a guilty until proven innocent standard for the approval of new chemicals, which mandates that if an ingredient might pose a potential health risk, it should be restricted or banned for up to 10 years until it is proven safe. In complete contrast, our FDA uses an innocent until proven guilty approach for new chemicals or ingredients that's known as GRAS, or Generally Recognized as Safe. This recklessly allows new chemicals into our food system until they are proven harmful. Shockingly, US food companies can use their own independent experts to bring forth a new chemical without the approval of the FDA. It is a travesty that the majority of Americans don't even know they are constantly exposed to 1000s of untested ingredients that are actually banned or regulated in other countries. To put it bluntly, for the last 50 years, we have been running the largest uncontrolled science experiment ever done on humanity without their consent. Jason Karp: And the proof is in the pudding. Our health differences compared to those countries who use stricter standards are overwhelmingly conclusive. When looking at millions of people over decades, on average, Europeans live around five years longer, have less than half our obesity rates, have significantly lower chronic disease, have markedly better mental health, and they spend as little as 1/3 on health care per person as we do in this country. While lobbyists and big food companies may say we cannot trust the standards of these other countries because it over regulates, it stifles innovation, and it bans new chemicals prematurely, I would like to point out that we trust many of these other countries enough to have nuclear weapons. These other countries have demonstrated it is indeed possible to not only have thriving companies, but also prioritize the health of its citizens with a clear do no harm approach towards anything that humans put in or on our bodies. Jason Karp: The second driver, how we got here, is all about incentives. US industrial food companies have been myopically incentivized to reward profit growth, yet bear none of the social costs of poisoning our people and our land. Since the 1960s, America has seen the greatest technology and innovation boom in history. As big food created some of the largest companies in the world, so too did their desire for scaled efficiency. Companies had noble goals of making the food safer, more shelf stable, cheaper and more accessible. However, they also figured out how to encourage more consumption by making food more artificially appealing with brighter colors and engineered taste and texture. This is the genesis of ultra processed food. Because of these misguided regulatory standards, American companies have been highly skilled at maximizing profits without bearing the societal costs. They have replaced natural ingredients with chemicals. They have commodified animals into industrial widgets, and they treat our God given planet as an inexhaustible, abusable resource. Sick Americans are learning the hard way that food and agriculture should not be scaled in the same ways as iPhones. 3:16:50 Jason Karp: They use more chemicals in the US version, because it is more profitable and because we allow them to do so. Jason Karp: Artificial food dyes are cheaper and they are brighter. And the reason that I chose to use artificial food dyes in my public activist letter is because there's basically no counter argument. Many of the things discussed today, I think there is a nuanced debate, but with artificial food dyes, they have shown all over the world that they can use colorants that come from fruit. This is the Canadian version. This is the brightness of the Canadian version, just for visibility, and this is the brightness of artificial food dyes. So of course, Kellogg and other food companies will argue children prefer this over this, just as they would prefer cocaine over sugar. That doesn't make it okay. Calley Means: Senator, can I just say one thing? As Jason and Vani were talking, it brought me back to working for the food industry. We used to pay conservative lobbyists to go to every office and say that it was the "nanny state" to regulate food. And I think that's, as a conservative myself, something that's resonated. I just cannot stress enough that, as we're hopefully learned today, the food industry has rigged our systems beyond recognition. And addressing a rigged market is not an attack on the free market. Is a necessity for a free market to take this corruption out. So I just want to say that. 3:21:00 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Our next presenter is Jillian Michaels. Ms. Michaels is a globally recognized fitness expert, entrepreneur, and best selling author. With her no nonsense approach to health, she's inspired millions through her fitness programs, books and digital platforms, best known for her role on The Biggest Loser, Michaels promotes a balanced approach to fitness and nutrition and emphasizing long term health and self improvement. Jillian Michaels: The default human condition in the 21st century is obese by design. Specific, traceable forms of what's referred to as structural violence are created by the catastrophic quartet of big farming, big food, Big Pharma, and big insurance. They systematically corrupt every institution of trust, which has led to the global spread of obesity and disease. Dysfunctional and destructive agricultural legislation like the Farm Bill, which favors high yield, genetically engineered crops like corn and soy, leading to the proliferation of empty calories, saturated with all of these toxins that we've been talking about today for three hours, it seems like we can never say enough about it, and then this glut of cheap calories provides a boon to the food industry giants. They just turn it into a bounty of ultra processed, factory-assembled foods and beverages strategically engineered to undermine your society and foster your dependence, like nicotine and cocaine, so we literally cannot eat just one. And to ensure that you don't, added measures are taken to inundate our physical surroundings. We're literally flooded with food, and we are brainwashed by ubiquitous cues to eat, whether it's the Taco Bell advertisement on the side of a bus as you drive to work with a vending machine at your kids school, there is no place we spend time that's left untouched. They're omnipresent. They commandeer the narrative, with 30 billion worth of advertising dollars, commercials marketed to kids, with mega celebrities eating McDonald's and loving it, sponsored dietitians paid to promote junk food on social media, utilizing anti-diet body positivity messaging like, "derail the shame" in relation to fast food consumption, Time Magazine brazenly issuing a defense of ultra processed foods on their cover with the title, "What if altra processed foods aren't as bad as you think?" And when people like us try to sound the alarm, they ensure that we are swiftly labeled as anti-science, fat shamers, and even racists. They launch aggressive lobbying efforts to influence you. Our politicians to shape policy, secure federal grants, tax credits, subsidy dollars, which proliferates their product and heavily pads their bottom line. They have created a perfect storm in which pharmaceuticals that cost hundreds, if not 1000s per month, like Ozempic, that are linked to stomach paralysis, pancreatitis and thyroid cancer, can actually surge. This reinforces a growing dependence on medical interventions to manage weight in a society where systemic change in food production and consumption is desperately needed and also very possible. These monster corporations have mastered the art of distorting the research, influencing the policy, buying the narrative, engineering the environment, and manipulating consumer behavior. Jillian Michaels: While I have been fortunate enough to pull many back from the edge over the course of my 30 year career, I have lost just as many, if not more, than I have saved. I have watched them slip through my fingers, mothers that orphan their children, husbands that widow their wives. I have even watched parents forced to suffer the unthinkable loss of their adult children. There are not words to express the sadness I have felt and the fury knowing that they were literally sacrificed at the altar of unchecked corporate greed. Most Americans are simply too financially strained, psychologically drained and physically addicted to break free without a systemic intervention. Attempting to combat the status quo and the powers that be is beyond swimming upstream. It is like trying to push a rampaging river that's infested with piranhas. After years of trying to turn the tide, I submit that the powers that be are simply too powerful for us to take on alone. I implore the people here that shape the policy to take a stand. The buck must stop with you, while the American people tend to the business of raising children and participating in the workforce to ensure that the wheels of our country go around. They tapped you to stand watch. They tapped you to stand guard. We must hold these bad actors accountable. And I presume the testimonials you heard today moved you. Digest them, discuss them, and act upon them, because if this current trend is allowed to persist, the stakes will be untenable. We are in the middle of an extinction level event. The American people need help. They need heroes. And people of Washington, your constituents chose you to be their champion. Please be the change. Thank you. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): There was one particular piece of legislation or one thing that we could do here in Washington, what would it be? Jillian Michaels: Get rid of Citizens United and get the money out of politics. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Okay. 3:37:00 Calley Means: To the healthcare staffers slithering behind your bosses, working to impress your future bosses at the pharmaceutical companies, the hospitals, the insurance companies, many of them are in this building, and we are coming for you. 3:37:25 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Next up is Ms. Courtney Swan. Ms. Swan is a nutritionist, real food activist, and founder of the popular platform, Realfoodology. She advocates for transparency in the food industry, promoting the importance of whole foods and clean eating. Courtney is passionate about educating the public on the benefits of a nutrient dense diet, and she encourages sustainable, chemical-free farming practices to ensure better health for people and the planet. Courtney Swan: Our current agriculture system's origin story involves large chemical companies -- not farmers, chemists. 85% of the food that you are consuming started from a patented seed sold by a chemical corporation that was responsible for creating agent orange in the Vietnam War. Why are chemical companies feeding America? Corn, soy and wheat are not only the most common allergens, but are among the most heavily pesticide sprayed crops today. In 1974 the US started spraying our crops with an herbicide called glyphosate, and in the early 1990s we began to see the release of genetically modified foods into our food supply. It all seems to begin with a chemical company by the name IG Farben, the later parent company of Bayer Farben, provided the chemicals used in Nazi nerve agents and gas chambers. Years later, a second chemical company, Monsanto, joined the war industry with a production of Agent Orange, a toxin used during the Vietnam War. When the wars ended, these companies needed a market for their chemicals, so they pivoted to killing bugs and pests on American farmlands. Monsanto began marketing glyphosate with a catchy name, Roundup. They claimed that these chemicals were harmless and that they safeguarded our crops from pests. So farmers started spraying these supposedly safe chemicals on our farmland. They solved the bug problem, but they also killed the crops. Monsanto offered a solution with the creation of genetically modified, otherwise known as GMO, crops that resisted the glyphosate in the roundup that they were spraying. These Roundup Ready crops allow farmers to spray entire fields of glyphosate to kill off pests without harming the plants, but our food is left covered in toxic chemical residue that doesn't wash, dry, or cook off. Not only is it sprayed to kill pests, but in the final stages of harvest, it is sprayed on the wheat to dry it out. Grains that go into bread and cereals that are in grocery stores and homes of Americans are heavily sprayed with these toxins. It's also being sprayed on oats, chickpeas, almonds, potatoes and more. You can assume that if it's not organic, it is likely contaminated with glyphosate. In America, organic food, by law, cannot contain GMOs and glyphosate, and they are more expensive compared to conventionally grown options, Americans are being forced to pay more for food that isn't poisoned. The Environmental Working Group reported a test of popular wheat-based products and found glyphosate contamination in 80 to 90% of the products on grocery store shelves. Popular foods like Cheerios, Goldfish, chickpea pasta, like Banza, Nature Valley bars, were found have concerning levels of glyphosate. If that is not alarming enough, glyphosate is produced by and distributed from China. In 2018, Bayer bought Monsanto. They currently have patented soybeans, corn, canola and sugar beets, and they are the largest distributor of GMO corn and soybean seeds. Americans deserve a straight answer. Why does an agrochemical company own where our food comes from? Currently, 85 to 100% of corn and soy crops in the US are genetically modified. 80% of GMOs are engineered to withstand glyphosate, and a staggering 280 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed on American crops annually. We are eating this roundup ready corn, but unlike GMO crops, humans are not Roundup Ready. We are not resistant to these toxins, and it's causing neurological damage, endocrine disruption, it's harming our reproductive health and it's affecting fetal development. Glyphosate is classified as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. It is also suspected to contribute towards the rise in celiac disease and gluten sensitivities. They're finding glyphosate in human breast milk, placentas, our organs, and even sperm. It's also being found in our rain and our drinking water. Until January of 2022, many companies made efforts to obscure the presence of GMOs and pesticides in food products from American consumers. It was only then that legislation came into effect mandating that these companies disclose such ingredients with a straightforward label stating, made with bio engineered ingredients, but it's very small on the package. Meanwhile, glyphosate still isn't labeled on our food. Parents in America are unknowingly feeding their children these toxic foods. Dr. Don Huber, a glyphosate researcher, warns that glyphosate will make the outlawed 1970s insecticide DDT look harmless in comparison to glyphosate. Why is the US government subsidizing the most pesticide sprayed crops using taxpayer dollars? These are the exact foods that are driving the epidemic of chronic disease. These crops, heavily sprayed with glyphosate, are then processed into high fructose corn syrup and refined vegetable oils, which are key ingredients for the ultra processed foods that line our supermarket shelves and fill our children's lunches in schools across the nation. Children across America are consuming foods such as Goldfish and Cheerios that are loaded with glyphosate. These crops also feed our livestock, which then produce the eggs, dairy and meat products that we consume. They are in everything. Pick up almost any ultra processed food package on the shelf, and you will see the words, contains corn, wheat and soy on the ingredients panel. Meanwhile, Bayer is doing everything it can to keep consumers in the dark, while our government protects these corporate giants. They fund educational programs at major agricultural universities, they lobby in Washington, and they collaborate with lawmakers to protect their profits over public health. Two congressmen are working with Bayer right now on the Farm Bill to protect Bayer from any liability, despite already having to pay out billions to sick Americans who got cancer from their product. They know that their product is harming people. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Couple questions. So you really have two issues raised here. Any concern about just GMO seeds and GMO crops, and then you have the contamination, Glycosate, originally is a pre-emergent, but now it's sprayed on the actual crops and getting in the food. Can you differentiate those two problems? I mean, what concerns are the GMO seeds? Maybe other doctors on t

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Business Pants
Who would you elect? Zuck vs. John Arnold, Boeing now vs. Boeing before, driving a Tesla vs. driving anything, and Howard, Susan, or Peter Buffett

Business Pants

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 5, 2024 32:48


WHO WOULD YOU RATHER BE/VOTE FOR?Home Depot co-founder, GOP donor Bernie Marcus dead at 95. Berne endorsed Trump in November… 2023 and said two years ago that “Nobody works, nobody gives a damn. Just give it to me. Send me money. I don't want to work — I'm too lazy, I'm too fat, I'm too stupid. We used to have free speech here. We don't have it. The woke people have taken over the world. You know, I imagine today they can't attack me. I'm 93. Who gives a crap about Bernie Marcus?” WHO WOULD YOU RATHER BE?Lead “Independent” Director Gregor BrennemanCEO Ed Decker already on boardDoesn't have to sit on any committees (all other independent directors sit on at least two)$380,000 in pay last year to meet 11 times; one of two directors who didn't even give to charity as part of the board's matching charitable contribution programHas an actual voice that matters (14%); CEO has 25%Director Gerard Arpey$315,000 despite low pressure (only 3% influence)No leadership rules: sits on Nominating Committee with four other directors and FInance Committee with 5 other directorsDoesn't even have a “Real” job: says he has been a partner in Emerald Creek Group, a private equity firm since 2012. Prior to his retirement in 2011, he served as CEO of AMR CorporationEmerald Creeks's website is a picture of an orange grove. In the “news” section of the website the last listed event was from November 29, 2011: Arpey Joins Emerald Creek GroupMeta Permits Its A.I. Models to Be Used for U.S. Military Purposes.Meta will allow U.S. government agencies and contractors working on national security to use its artificial intelligence models for military purposes.Meta said that it would make its A.I. models, called Llama, available to federal agencies and that it was working with defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen as well as defense-focused tech companies including Palantir and Anduril.Meta's move is an exception to its “acceptable use policy,” which forbade the use of the company's A.I. software for “military, warfare, nuclear industries,” among other purposes.WHO WOULD YOU RATHER BE?Meta Platforms Emperor Mark Zuckerberg72% influence; 61% voting powerWorld's 4th richest person: ~$200BBlah blah blahMeta director John Arnold1% influenceMember on only one committee (Audit & Risk) with 4 other membersNo other directorships; only have a BAreceived an $8M bonus from Enron just before the company filed for bankruptcy; the largest cash bonus ever distributed by the company. Known as "king of natural gas”You work at a place named after you (Arnold Ventures) and you're still just the co-founder and co-chairYour board appointment was announced on Valentine's DayPay will be roughly $500,000 annually. He also received two initial equity grants worth $1.4M In 2007, Arnold became the youngest billionaire in the U.SBoeing Union Approves New Contract, Ending Costly StrikeLeaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers district in Seattle said 59% of members who cast ballots agreed to approve the company's fourth formal offer and the third put to a vote.The new contract will raise wages more than 43 percent cumulatively over the next four years, an improvement over the two previous offers. The first proposal would have raised wages just over 27 percent.The deal also includes a $12,000 ratification bonus, which is four times as much as the bonus in the initial offer, and productivity bonuses.However, Boeing refused to meet strikers' demand to restore a company pension plan that was frozen nearly a decade ago.Bank of America analysts estimated last month that Boeing was losing about $50 million a day during the now-ended strikeWHO WOULD YOU RATHER BE?Current CEO Kelly Ortberg, who inherited a messOr former CEO David Calhoun, who got to step down when he felt like it and got $98M in total summary compensation since 2020Kroger Finalizes $1.37 Billion Opioid Crisis SettlementUnder the agreement, which wasn't an admission of wrong doing or liability by Kroger, the company agreed to pay about $1.2 billion over 11 years and around $177 million over a six-year period, each in equal installments. WHO WOULD YOU RATHER BE?CEO and Chair Rodney McMullen since 2014$94M pay since 2019; ; holds $350M in Kroger stockPay ration 502:1; median associate for 2023 was $31,302; received $600k in dividend payments in 202492% shareholder supportNora A. Aufreiter, chair of the Public Responsibilities Committee that met a whopping 3 times last year; served on our Public Responsibilities Committee for nine years, the last four as chairDirector Emeritus of McKinsey & Company; retired in 2014 after more than 27 years with McKinsey$321,000 last year; holds $3M in Kroger stock98% support from shareholders; 99% last year2% board influence despite having served for a decadeElon Musk and X are epicenter of US election misinformationFalse or misleading claims by billionaire Elon Musk about the U.S. election have amassed 2 billion views on social media platform X this year, according to a report by non-profit group Center for Countering Digital Hate.The platform is also playing a central role in enabling the spread of false information about the critical battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential raceWHO WOULD YOU RATHER BE?Someone who drives a TeslaOr someone who drives literally anything else, including the vehicle from this headline: Guy makes “dodgy e-bike” from 130 used vapes to make point about e-wasteSouthwest Airlines names Rakesh Gangwal as board chair following Gary Kelly's retirementThe airline brought in the co-founder of India's largest carrier Indigo to its board in July despite criticism from Elliott Investment Management at the time.Gangwal bought Southwest shares worth more than $100 million last month before the airline settled its boardroom feud with Elliott in a deal that allowed CEO Bob Jordan to retain his job by making bigger board-level concessions.Co-founder IndiGo Airlines, former CEO and Chair at US Airways Group; served on the boards of CarMax, Office Depot, OfficeMax and PetSmartWHO WOULD YOU RATHER BE?Rakesh Gangwal Former Southwest CEO and Chair Gary Kelly who remains on the board at Chairman EmeritusNow longest-tenured independent director Douglas BrooksNo leadership roles; owns over $2M in stock; made $305K for board service last year(iii) while serving on the Board, free travel on Southwest Airlines for the Director, the Director's spouse, and the Director's children, as well as 50 one-way flight passes annually that may be used for free travel on Southwest Airlines on an unrestricted basis, and an additional 50 one-way flight passes annually for use by qualified charitable and 501(c)(3) organizations;(iv) subsequent to Board servicea lifetime privilege of 50 one-way flight passes annually that may be used for free travel on Southwest Airlines on an unrestricted basis;lifetime free travel on Southwest Airlines for the Director and the Director's spouseif the Director is deceased, free travel on Southwest Airlines for the Director's spouse for the lifetime of the spouse$75,000 cash when he retiresBarry Diller calls timing of The Washington Post's non-endorsement a ‘blunder'To Barry Diller, a friend of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the decision for The Washington Post not to endorse a candidate in tomorrow's presidential election was “absolutely principled” — and poorly timed, he said MondayWhich Barry Diller directorship would you vote for?Expedia Group (27%)Chair and Senior Executive $7MMore influence than CEO Peter KernNearly $2B in equity; about 49% in voting powerThe Coca-Cola Company (8%)$12M in shares; $300k annual pay; 3 board committeesMGM Resorts (9%)One committee no leadership; no board pay; IAC owns 20% of MGM equity ($2.3B)IAC (65%)Chair and Senior Executive $3M43% voting power; $650M equityLet's end in Omaha, where the small Nebraska district may decide our next president: Warren Buffett skipped endorsing a presidential candidate this election as many CEOs retreat from politics. WHO WOULD YOU RATHER BE?America's cuddly rich man Warren Buffett, 93 years old and currently 7th richest in world at ~$140B, who doesn't even have to take a stand.Or nepo babies Howard Buffett and Susan Buffett, who sit on the Berkshire board and will be inevitably looked at as failures when the company loses its luster after daddy dies.Or non-Berkshire director and nepo baby Peter Buffett who, after dropping out of Stanford University, used the proceeds of his inheritance from his grandfather to pursue a career in music

The Nomad Capitalist Audio Experience
EU Member to Tax its Citizens Worldwide?

The Nomad Capitalist Audio Experience

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2024 13:09


Become a Client: https://nomadcapitalist.com/apply/ Get our free Weekly Rundown newsletter and be the first to hear about breaking news and offers:https://nomadcapitalist.com/email Join us for the next Nomad Capitalist Live event: https://nomadcapitalist.com/live/ In this episode, we cover the proposal of France's Finance Committee to tax French citizens abroad if they have lived in France for three of the past 10 years and now live in a country with a tax rate at least 50% lower than France's. Mr. Hendersons explains what potential exemptions there may be from the rule, as well as how France may make it difficult to get out of its tax net. Additionally, Mr. Henderson discusses how this move is part of a broader trend to prevent tax-driven relocations. Nomad Capitalist helps clients "go where you're treated best." We are the world's most sought-after firm for offshore tax planning, dual citizenship, international diversification, and asset protection. We use legal and ethical strategies and work exclusively with seven- and eight-figure entrepreneurs and investors. We create and execute holistic, multi-jurisdictional Plans that help clients keep more of their wealth, increase their personal freedom, and protect their families and wealth against threats in their home country. No other firm offers clients access to more potential options to relocate to, bank in, or become a citizen of. Because we do not focus only on one or a handful of countries, we can offer unbiased advice where others can't. Become Our Client: https://nomadcapitalist.com/apply/ Our Website: http://www.nomadcapitalist.com/ About Our Company: https://nomadcapitalist.com/about/ Buy Mr. Henderson's Book: https://nomadcapitalist.com/book/ DISCLAIMER: The information in this video should not be considered tax, financial, investment, or any kind of professional advice. Only a professional diagnosis of your specific situation can determine which strategies are appropriate for your needs. Nomad Capitalist can and does not provide advice unless/until engaged by you.

Unchained
It's Not Just the Presidency. Congressional Races Matter a Lot for Crypto - Ep. 726

Unchained

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2024 77:03


Subscribe to Unchained's new regulatory newsletter Unregulated. With the presidential race in the spotlight, it's easy to overlook the powerful role that Congress could play in shaping crypto policy in the coming years. From committee chairs to legislative allies, crypto advocates are keenly focused on the outcome of key Congressional races. Kristin Smith of the Blockchain Association and Alex Grieve of Paradigm join us today to break down which races and committees are critical for crypto, why the industry is more visible in Washington than ever, and what the chances are for lame duck legislation this year.  Read more: How Congressional Committee Leadership Could Shake Out for Crypto This Election Show highlights: Why this election is “incredibly important” for crypto  How the presence of Fairshake is increasingly noticed by Washington Why some committees are more important than others for the industry Why the Senate Banking Committee is key Whether Alex and Kristin are concerned about Sen. Warren becoming chair of the Senate Banking Committee What could happen to the House Financial Services Committee Who is likely to take on both of the Agricultural Committees, which is in charge of the CFTC How the Senate Commerce affects the crypto industry How the members of the House Energy Committee don't have a strong stance on crypto What the stance of the Finance Committee on crypto is Why there is an opportunity in the House Ways and Means Committee Whether crypto tax legislation is in the works Who could be the SEC Chair under a Trump or Harris presidency Who could be the next Chair of the CFTC Whether Yellen will be replaced on Treasury, with many pro-crypto options on tap Why the Federal Reserve matters much more if they get to regulate stablecoins What the odds are for crypto legislation being passed this year Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Polkadot Mantle Robinhood & Arbitrum Guests: Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association Kristin's Op-ed on Unchained: In the Ongoing SAB 121 Fight, Here's How Crypto Can Move Forward With Bipartisan Support Previous appearances on Unchained: Kristin Smith on Why Crypto Legislation Could Be Passed by Year's End  Can Crypto Be a Force in the Midterms? Yes, Say Kristin Smith and Jake Chervinsky What the Crypto Industry Could See Under a Biden Administration Alexander Grieve, VP of Government Affairs at Paradigm Links Previous coverage of Unchained on the elections: With Rate Cuts and Upcoming Elections, What's the Best Play in Crypto? Why Congressman Ro Khanna Is Hopeful the Democratic Party Will Embrace Crypto Why Gary Gensler Will Likely Be Out as SEC Chair No Matter Who Wins the Election Congressman French Hill on Crypto and His Top Pick for the Next SEC Chair Timestamps:  00:00 Intro 01:55 Why this election is pivotal for crypto 04:50 How Fairshake's presence is catching Washington's eye 16:39 Which committees matter most for crypto? 22:49 Why the Senate Banking Committee is crucial 28:54 Concerns about Sen. Warren as potential chair? 38:15 Possible shifts in the House Financial Services Committee 41:47 Who could control the Agricultural Committees and CFTC oversight? 47:35 How the Senate Commerce Committee impacts crypto 51:04 House Energy Committee's stance on crypto 53:21 Finance Committee's crypto perspective 55:03 Opportunities in the House Ways and Means Committee 57:28 Is crypto tax legislation in the works? 1:01:23 Potential SEC Chairs under Trump or Harris 1:03:57 Who could be the next CFTC Chair? 1:05:46 Will Yellen be replaced with a pro-crypto Treasury option? 1:08:06 Why the Fed's role could be pivotal for stablecoin regulation 1:10:46 Odds of crypto legislation passing this year Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices