Podcasts about fine arts

Ep.250 Valerie A. Francis is the Founding Director of Knowhere Art Gallery, an independent gallery based on Martha's Vineyard dedicated to showcasing emerging and mid-career artists from diverse backgrounds. The gallery champions inclusive narratives and celebrates the cultural intersections that shape contemporary art today. With a career that bridges global technology innovation and entrepreneurial ventures in the arts, Valerie brings a rare and dynamic blend of strategy, creativity, and cultural insight to every endeavor she leads. Originally trained as an artist, Valerie earned a BFA in Fine Arts from Hunter College CUNY and later an MBA from Rutgers University, specializing in Marketing. Her professional journey took a transformative turn when she entered the world of global healthcare technology at Sanofi, where she rose to serve as a Technology Head leading digital strategy and analytics for teams across North America, Latin America, and Asia. Immersed in a melting pot of cultures and perspectives, she thrived on the diversity and camaraderie forged across continents. Valerie's unwavering commitment to her artistic roots led her to co-found Knowhere Art Gallery in 2019 — a haven where creativity flourishes and artists find their voice. Since its inception, the gallery has achieved remarkable success, becoming a destination for collectors and cultural leaders alike. Under her curatorial direction, Knowhere has presented more than twenty-five exhibitions and introduced the work of over thirty artists. Signature moments include its participation in SCOPE Art Fair (2021–2023) and an acclaimed presentation during the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024 with A Common Thread That Binds Us. As a board member of Artists for Humanity in Boston, Valerie has further committed her passion to action, supporting youth empowerment through creativity and entrepreneurship. She is also dedicated to mentoring artists, cultivating private and corporate art collections, and building institutional collaborations that elevate voices from across the art world. Valerie often describes the founding of Knowhere—conceived on Martha's Vineyard, where she met her partner—as “the nexus of Knowhere,” a place where art, identity, and knowledge converge. Through her work, she continues to sow the seeds of cultural legacy and foster environments where art becomes a catalyst for discovery, connection, and transformation. Website https://knowhereart.com/ 1-54 2025 NYC https://www.1-54.com/new-york/exhibitor-list/knowhere-art-gallery/ artcloud https://artcloud.market/show/knowhere-art-llc-women-rising MV Arts & Ideas https://www.mvartsandideas.com/2024/07/the-road-to-enlightenment-starts-at-knowhere/ Vineyard Gazette https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2024/05/05/knowhere-gallery-showcased-venice-biennale Vineyard Visitor https://vineyardvisitor.com/2024/08/08/art-in-oak-bluffs/knowhere-gallery/ Martha's Vineyard Times https://hype.co/@themarthasvineyardtimes/2z7j289w | https://www.mvtimes.com/2024/06/12/meets-eye-knowhere-art-cousen-rose-galleries/ Martha's Vineyard Arts and Ideas https://www.mvartsandideas.com/2024/07/the-road-to-enlightenment-starts-at-knowhere/ Artsy https://www.artsy.net/partner/knowhere-art

We're excited to have Kalisan curating another month of episodes for us, and to kick things off this time is DJ of Balloons in Bold. He is a fine artist who uses balloons as his medium, so it was cool to get yet another take on balloons as a form of art! He had worked as a balloon twister before turning to fine art as a form of emotional expression. Little did he know how much it would take off and get noticed in the way it did. Before he knew it he was the feature of a gallery show and by using a medium that is usually associated with fun and joy to display darker imagery, it really grabbed people's attention.  We'll hear about his strategy for making the balloons last during gallery prep and throughout the show, including how he found a way to put balloon dogs into a pattern and what products he used. DJ also shares more about what influences his art and describes several of his show exhibits. I appreciated him being willing to share his story! And in the UGlu Hotline, hear about one of my own favorite inflators!    Unlock three free bonus episodes!    RESOURCES MENTIONED: Presenting sponsor: 17hats (get 50% off your 1st year)  @balloonsinbold  Other sponsors & resources: Havin' A Party Wholesale (save 5% on orders $200+ with code PODCAST) Stay Booked  UGlu by Pro Tapes (save 5% on orders $200+ at Havin' A Party with code PODCAST)  DM @thebrightballoon on Instagram to ask a question or leave advice for the UGlu Hotline! Balloon Boss Mastermind & Summit  - - - - On the Bright Side (Apple) On the Bright Side (Patreon) 50 Ideas for Email Marketing | Join the Bright Balloon email list  Courses  @thebrightballoon  The Bright Balloon on YouTube 

In this episode, I chat with the most interesting Bitcoiner out there, George Bodine. He opens up about his unshakable Bitcoin conviction, the painful distance it's caused with his son, and his deep desire to leave behind generational wealth and wisdom. ––– Offers & Discounts ––– Theya is the world's simplest Bitcoin self-custody solution. Download Theya Now at theya.us/cedric  Get up to $100 in Bitcoin on River at river.com/Matrix The best Team Bitcoin merch is at HodlersOfficial.com. Use the code Matrix for a discount on your order. Become a sponsor of the show: https://thebitcoinmatrix.com/sponsors/ ––– Get To Know Today's Guest ––– • George Bodine on X: https://x.com/Jethroe111 ––– Socials ––– • Check out our new website at https://TheBitcoinMatrix.Com • Follow Cedric Youngelman on X: https://x.com/cedyoungelman • Follow The Bitcoin Matrix Podcast on X: https://x.com/_bitcoinmatrix • Follow Cedric Youngelman on Nostr: npub12tq9jxmt707gd5vnce3tqllpm67ktr0mqskcvy58qqa4d074pz9s4ukdcs  ––– Chapters ––– 00:00 - Intro  01:16 - The Most Interesting Bitcoiner  03:00 - From Fighter Jets to Fine Art  04:40 - Trailer Parks, Childhood, and Grit  07:18 - The Top Gun Years  09:27 - Stories About Tom Cruise and Life Lessons from Top Gun  11:50 - Post-Navy Hustles: Cab Driving and Cop Life  16:06 - Reinvention and Resilience  18:26 - Art, Creativity, and Mining Behind the Canvas  22:19 - Living the Bitcoin Life 26:14 - Advice to Plebs Still Grinding  29:52 - What If You Were a Young, Free Bitcoiner?  35:01 - Facing Fear and Surviving Tough Times  41:18 - Shark Encounter While Scuba Diving  43:40 - Bowhunting Elk and the Challenge of Nature  45:39 - Roman History, Plebs, and Humility  48:53 - Freedom, Kindness, and a Life Well-Lived  53:50 - Envy, Wealth, and the Bitcoin Divide  55:49 - Father's Day Reflections and Family  01:01:04 - Leaving a Legacy and Having Enough  01:06:18 - Final Reflections: Honor, Kindness, and Purpose  DISCLAIMER: All views in this episode are our own and DO NOT reflect the opinions/views of any of our guests or sponsors.  I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you for tuning in, supporting the show, and contributing. Thank you for listening!

On this episode of Drawing Hive, we're joined by one of the fastest illustrators in the west. Chris Payne inspired us, discussing process, developing skill, and voraciously learning. Sprinkle in some fun conversations about art, painting, sports, career, and doing what you love as an artist. This ep was stacked with talented artists, include Scott Anderson, John English, Dale Stephanos, and Raymond Bonilla. We had a blast watching C. F. Payne draw his heart out.View Visual Arts Passage Courses:https://www.visualartspassage.com/Follow Visual Arts Passage:https://www.instagram.com/visualartspassage/https://www.facebook.com/visualartspassageSubscribe to our Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/visualartspassage?sub_confirmation=1----------------------------------------------------------Visual Arts Passage offers online mentorship programs in Illustration and Fine Arts, led by industry professionals to help you develop real-world skills and build a career doing what you love.

Witam Państwa, nazywam się Jarosław Drożdż, pracuję w Centralnym Szpitalu Klinicznym Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Łodzi, skąd nagrywam podcast Kardio Know-How. W tym odcinku omawiam doniesienia z HFA ESC 2025.1. Kongres HFA ESC 2025 odbył się w Belgradzie, a omawiane były tam nowe dane z badania FINEARTS-HF, dotyczącego działania finerenonu u pacjentów z HFmrEF i HFpEF.2. Finerenon zmniejszał zgony sercowo-naczyniowe i hospitalizacje z powodu NS o 17%, ale nie osiągnięto istotności statystycznej w zakresie przeżycia.3. Analiza wykazała, że wcześniejsze wdrożenie finerenonu po zaostrzeniu NS daje lepsze efekty kliniczne.4. Nowością było badanie efektu odstawienia finerenonu, podobne do wcześniejszego badania flozyn (EMPEROR), gdzie po odstawieniu leku pogarszały się wyniki kliniczne.5. W FINEARTS-HF odstawienie finerenonu powodowało 180% wzrost powikłań, co stanowi silny argument za jego kontynuacją.6. Nowe japońskie wytyczne jako pierwsze zalecają finerenon w HFpEF – pełny tekst: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/circj/advpub/0/advpub_CJ-25-0002/_pdf/-char/en7. Opublikowane wyniki FINEARTS-HF: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/405051588. FAIR-HF-2 z kolei potwierdziło skuteczność dożylnego żelaza (karboksymaltozy) u pacjentów z NS i TSAT

Have you ever felt like your artwork knows more than you do? In this intimate, unplanned conversation recorded during a Montana retreat, Ty and Nathan explore the vital yet often overlooked practice of soul care for artists.Surrounded by the sounds of birdsong and nestled in Montana's rolling landscape, we dive into what happens when artists intentionally step away from their studios. More than just a luxury, these moments of pause—whether through travel, immersion in nature, or simple daily rituals—fundamentally transform our creative practice and the work that emerges from it.Drawing wisdom from Mary Oliver's poetry collection "Redbird" and Jack Whitten's studio journals, we unpack what it means to create "not for the sake of winning, but for sheer delight and gratitude." Oliver's observation that "it is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in this broken world" reminds us that pausing to notice our surroundings isn't just pleasant—it's essential to developing our artistic voice.We share our personal soul care practices, from morning reading rituals and mindful walks to the transformative power of travel and trying uncomfortable new experiences. The conversation explores how these moments help us break free from achievement-oriented creation and return to our work with renewed vision. As Whitten noted, "Nature does not think"—it simply exists. There's profound creative wisdom in learning to sometimes just be rather than constantly do.Whether you're struggling with burnout or simply seeking to deepen your creative practice, this conversation offers practical inspiration for incorporating soul care into your artistic journey. Take a moment with us, slow down, and discover how the small pauses might actually hold everything you need.Send us a message - we would love to hear from you!Make sure to follow us on Instagram here:@justmakeartpodcast @tynathanclark @nathanterborg

Selva Ozelli interviews Mary Tiegreen about her environmentally inspired paintings. Tell us about your educational and professional background as an artist My interest in art began early and led me to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Iowa. I went on to study art in London and New York which resulted in a career in graphic design and the publishing industry. Throughout my career, I always had a fascination with technology as a tool for creation and was a very early adopter of the Macintosh computer for use in my design studio. London Climate Action week featuring Mary Tiegreen How did you become interested in environmental issues as a photographer and an AI artist? My childhood summers were spent in a cottage on a pristine lake in Northern Michigan. It was here that I first connected with nature in a deep and thoughtful way, the way a child becomes a part of the nature around her. The clear cold waters of Lake Superior and the tall pine forests. Chipmunks and porcupines, and the occasional black bear lumbering down the path. A family of eagles high in a white pine tree. A Rainbow Trout breaking the surface of the lake. Wild blueberry bushes everywhere. The Northern Lights reflected in the water. And the beautiful silence when walking in our forest. As the world has grown crowded and the climate continues to heat up, I have been heartsick at the thought of these treasures I cherished being destroyed. I wanted to contribute in some way to help change the direction we are all headed. Tell us about your "Climate Disasters Inspired by Great Masters" ("AI Art Series") that is on exhibit at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University from October 1, 2024 to October 31, 2026. Over the past eight years, I have had the opportunity to work as art director on ClimateChangeResources.org, an extensive not-for profit website dedicated to climate change issues. In early 2023, while working on ideas to illustrate sea level rise on the website, I began to wonder what New York City might look like under ten feet of water if painted by an artist. I'd been exploring Bing's AI text-to-image creator for a while and thought this could be an interesting test of the medium. Included in my prompt was a request for AI to paint this image of sea level rise in New York City in the style of James McNeill Whistler. In less than 30 seconds, I was staring at an image that seemed to have been painted by this artist from a distant past, depicting an environmental crisis from the future. And that was how this project began. I worked closely with Lena Tabori, one of the founders of the site. We collaborated on the choices of the climate issues and possible artists, and Lena wrote the text descriptions. The website presents 36 climate disasters, each inspired by a different famous artist, along with a short description of the issues surrounding this specific disaster as well as a link to a page that offers an in-depth look at the problem. How many issues caused by global warming does your AI Art Series address; why did you choose AI Art as opposed to photography to articulate these issues; and why did you pick each master artist to articulate those issues? While the Climate Change Resources web site has 36 images, the exhibition at Lamont has 29 canvases, due to limited space. Once I saw the possibilities of the AI images, I never thought about another medium. Photography is a very powerful resource to engage people, and there is a lot of incredible work out in the world today. I felt that I could contribute more by working with AI to create evocative and serious images that connect to the hearts of viewers. Matching the artists to the subjects was sometimes a very clear decision, and sometimes serendipity. There were some issues that we tried three or four different artists before finding the one. And other were one and done. Melting Glaciers Some Say the World Will End In Fire, Some Say In Ice Inspired by the work of Alfred Bie...

In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Becky Barsi and Joe Acone sit down with artist and educator Chris Archer.With a studio practice encompassing functional pottery, sculptural forms, arrangements, and site-specific installations, Chris's work has been showcased nationally and internationally, earning multiple awards and inclusion in esteemed collections such as the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts in Texas and Tokyo Geidai in Japan. Beyond his studio, Chris has dedicated over two decades to art education. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Art and Design at New England College, where he teaches Ceramics, Public Art, and Foundational Design. Chris's commitment to the arts extends to leadership roles in organizations like the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and the New Hampshire Creative Communities Network, where he advocates for the significance of craft and community engagement.In this episode, Chris mentions:The Experimenters, by Eva DiazAnthony Bourdaine, No Reservations - Decoding Ferran League of NH CraftsmenListen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord.Check out Chris's work at www.chrisarcherartist.com, and on instagram at www.instagram.com/chrisarcherartist.If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!

Andrew Jackson started writing and illustrating since age twelve and never gave up the former but (thankfully for his readers) has stopped the latter! One of his earliest memories is of watching Star Trek with his dad and falling in love with the speeding ships, bizarre aliens, and the diamond glitter of myriad stars in that eternal blackness. Even now, as he explores the strange new worlds of family, fatherhood, and a career in retail, he's never lost his love for the stars. Counting authors such as Stephen King, Iain M. Banks, and Alastair Reynolds amongst his literary influences, he revels both in reading and writing rich, tangible worlds other than our own. Born too late to watch the Apollo missions but too early for interstellar travel he must content himself with dreams and the sad knowledge that he may never know what's out there. Is there anybody out there? Why aren't they talking? On walks down leafy lanes of his native Surrey, Andrew examines these questions. He likes to think he looked at a particular tree one time and pondered its age and almost otherworldly summer greenness and so was born his winning short story, Code L1. The story itself is an exploration of the Fermi Paradox –- the hypothesis that, if we have galactic neighbours, they should have called by now. Perhaps they've seen the darker sides of humanity and they're afraid of us coming out into the stars. Or perhaps, if they could, they'd tell us why they've been so quiet. Perhaps, it's best not to know… The Contest, one of the most prestigious writing and illustrating competitions in the world, is currently in its 42nd year and is judged by some of the premier names in speculative fiction HOLLYWOOD - Mullica Hill, New Jersey author Sandra Skalski is a winner in Sandra lives with her husband in suburban New Jersey. She recently retired from a career in chemical engineering, leaving her with actual time to write. When she's not writing, you can find her in the butterfly garden or traveling with her husband. Her greatest joy is spending time with her daughter, son-in-law, and her two beautiful grandchildren. HOLLYWOOD - Savannah, Georgia artist and Savannah College of Art and Design student Ms. HeatherAnne Lee is a winner in the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest and was honored along with ten other artists and twelve writers at the Taglyan Complex in Hollywood, California on April 10th. Her art is published along with the other writers' and illustrators' stories and art in the international bestselling anthology, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 41 which was officially released on April 22nd 2025. HeatherAnne Lee was born in 2004 in Federal Way, Washington, and has lived across the US from Hawaii to New York and Vermont. HeatherAnne, or “Heather” to her friends, now resides in Savannah, Georgia, pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Heather started drawing as soon as she could hold a crayon and never stopped, graduating from crayon to graphite to paint, and now primarily works digitally. Despite working on a screen, Heather holds to her painting knowledge, layering colors and textures on her drawing tablet, emulating traditional painting techniques in a digital medium. Heather takes much of her inspiration from the world around her, translating reality into epics and stories of dragons and knights. Heather always strives to push her work to the limit, working with clients to bring their stories to life through her illustrations. The Illustrators of the Future Contest judges include, Bob Eggleton (11 Chesley Awards and 9 Hugo Awards), Larry Elmore (Dungeons & Dragons book covers), Echo Chernik (graphic designs for major corporations including Celestial Seasonings tea packaging), Rob Prior (art for Spawn, Heavy Metal comics and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ciruelo (Eragon Coloring Book).

Born to a Norwegian mother and a Nigerian father, actress Toks Olagundoye is a native of Lagos, Nigeria. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre from Smith College. She is best known for her role as Olivia Finch on the newest iteration of the sitcom, Frasier, Kemi Talbot (the Kamala Harris character) on Veep as well as alien matriarch Jackie Joyner-Kersee in her first series regular job, ABC's The Neighbors.  As a breast cancer survivor and thriver, Toks talks about the importance of early detection, not to fear the treatments, and to always have a loud best advocate with you for appointments. She leads a vegan lifestyle and cares deeply for the preservation of our planet, advocates recycling and repurposing clothes and uses socializing as an excuse to host clothing swaps. Toks has joined forces with Recycle Across America to promote awareness and the standardized recycling labels. Toks uses her platform to engage in and promote substantive discussions on living in tune with yourself and the planet, environmental action and sustainable living.  Potential resources for Recycling: *Habitat for Humanity *Goodwill *Recycle America.org *Ridwell.com *Tetracycle.com You can also look up local recycling and local sanitation organizations. Website: www.heatherthomson.com Social Media: IG: https://www.instagram.com/iamheathert/                     You Tube: https://youtube.com/@iamheathert?si=ZvI9l0bhLfTR-qdo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artist and educator Elizabeth St. Hilaire shares how she built a successful online course business teaching art. She covers course creation, marketing for creatives, student engagement, using Patreon, and growing a mailing list—offering practical insights for artists balancing creativity and income.Elizabeth St. Hilaire is a mixed-media visual artist, author, instructor, and the founder of Paper Paintings.In this episode, Ari, Abe, and Elizabeth discuss:The Evolution of Teaching MethodsCourse Development and Feedback LoopsMarketing Strategies for Online CoursesBuilding and Growing a Mailing ListUtilizing Patreon for Additional IncomeBalancing Multiple Income StreamsEngagement in Self-Study CoursesQuality and Consistency in Course OfferingsThe Challenges of Marketing Art CoursesStrategies for Engaging Students in Art Education“Patreon has been a great income stream for me.” — Elizabeth St. HilaireGuest Bio:Elizabeth St. Hilaire is a renowned mixed-media artist, instructor, and author recognized for her innovative approach to collage. Using hand-painted papers, she creates dynamic works celebrated for their bold color, intricate detail, and layered depth. Her art has been exhibited internationally and featured in prominent publications such as The Artist's Magazine, Acrylic Artist Magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors, and Southern Living.A Signature Member of the National Collage Society, St. Hilaire holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University and has spent over 20 years exploring and refining her unique methods. She is the author of Painted Paper Art Workshop and has written numerous books and instructional guides to inspire artists around the globe.Known for her engaging teaching style, St. Hilaire travels widely to lead workshops, sharing her passion for creativity and the transformative power of collage. Her work has extended beyond gallery walls, appearing on textiles, home decor, and more, making her a leader in the modern collage movement.Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:MiraseeRuzukuElizabeth's website: PaperPaintings.comCredits:Hosts: Ari Iny and Abe CrystalProducer: Michi LantzEditor: Andrew ChapmanExecutive Producer: Danny InyMusic Soundscape: Chad Michael SnavelyMaking our hosts sound great: Home Brew AudioTo catch the great episodes that are coming up on Course Lab, please follow us on Mirasee FM's YouTube channel or your favorite podcast player. And if you enjoyed the show, please leave us a comment or a starred review. It's the best way to help us get these ideas to more people.Music credits:Track Title: Bossa BBArtist Name: MarieWriter Name: Chelsea McGoughPublisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONTrack Title: Coo CoosArtist Name: Dresden, The FlamingoWriter Name: Matthew WigtonPublisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONTrack Title: GraceArtist Name: ShimmerWriter Name: Matthew WigtonPublisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONSTrack Title: Carousel LightsArtist Name: Chelsea McGoughWriter Name: Chelsea McGoughWriter Name: Matthew WigtonPublisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONPublisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONSSpecial effects credits:24990513_birds-chirping_by_promission used with permission of the author and under license by AudioJungle/Envato Market.Episode transcript: Marketing, Monetizing, and Teaching Art Online (Elizabeth St. Hilaire) coming soon.

What if the key to understanding your life today was hidden in a past-life you've already lived? Tune in for an inspiring discussion with Terri Harford on her Nautilus award-winning book New Body, Old Soul: A Modern Mystics Guide to Spiritual Empowerment in the Age of AI.  Moments with Marianne airs in the Southern California area on KMET 1490AM & 98.1 FM, an ABC Talk News Radio Affiliate! https://www.kmet1490am.comTerri Harford is an existential psychologist, soul coach, and author of the Nautilus award-winning book New Body, Old Soul, a powerful exploration of consciousness, karma, and spiritual transformation. With a BA in Fine Art from the University of Cape Town and a BA (Hons) in Psychology from UNISA, Terri blends her artistic insight with psychological depth to guide others on the path of self-realization. Drawing from over two decades of meditative practice, shadow work, and soul inquiry, she bridges the realms of physics and spirituality to illuminate the deeper purpose behind existence. Based along South Africa's Garden Route, Terri lives in harmony with nature's rhythms, nurturing a sacred bond with the land and a community of like-minded seekers devoted to spiritual awakening. https://terriharford.co.zaOrder New Body, Old Soul on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/8NVVDFSFor more show information visit: www.MariannePestana.com

Archetypal Symbols panel about the “4° Cancer New Moon Karmic Readjustment”. 4°'08' Cancer New Moon cosmic energies on 25 JUNE, 6:32 am EDT Washington DC; & 11:32 am UT Greenwich UK“Days following the Summer Solstice, the Jupiter and the Sun in Cancer join the moon ruling both in Cancer. Actions for securing what nurtures and protects us undergo great transforming karmic readjustment. Clear thinking using discernment helps to define what alliance supports power versus none,” said Sue Minahan, founder, and host of the weekly show. “However the new moon in Cancer involves a myriad of emotional stories, perspectives, and voices to perceive. A very personal new moon in Cancer, we have the opportunity to begin internalizing consequential choices as the moon processes continual phases of development.”Archetypal Symbols integrate each New Moon's astrology, numerology, tarot, the Jyotish Nakshatra, with Sabian Symbol system of mystical imageries created in 1925 by spiritualist medium Elsie Wheeler and astrologer Marc Edmund Jones.Joining Sue Rose Minahan of Kailua-Kona, Big Island HI are Justin Crockett Elzie of Port Angeles, WA, and Elizabeth (Liz) Muschett of Camano Island, WA. Bios listed below and on Talk Cosmos website. Weekly on YouTube, Facebook, Radio, Podcasts. Subscribe on TalkCosmos.com. Follow on / @talkcosmos . Visual episodes under ‘live'. Audio podcasts under ‘video'. Includes playlists for panels and subjects.ELIZABETH (LIZ) MUSCHETT: Professional Astrologer, Intuitive, Numerology, Tarotist, Counselor; International Teacher & Tutor; Workshops; Lecturer; Author & Blogger. Virtual Assistant/Editor. / @elizabethlizmuschett . Past board member of WSAA. Sacred Healing Counselor; International Reiki Master & Teacher. Provides nurturing in-depth individual and couples consultations. https://www.ALightPath.com Email: liz@alightpath.comJUSTIN CROCKETT ELZIE: An Archetypal Jyotish Astrologer, Teacher, Spiritualist Evidential Medium, Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Buddhist, and Author. Justin specializes in Predictive/Electional, and Karmic Astrology. He combines Western Ancient Astrology and Modern Psychological Astrology with Eastern Jyotish Astrology providing in-depth analysis of Natal charts, Synastry (couples charts), Draconic Charts, Progressions, Transits and Planetary Returns. Justin does Astrological research into arcane Astrological concepts, focusing on the mystical/occult side of Astrology. / @astrologicalyogi email: justin.elzie@gmail.com | https://www.JustinCrockettElzie.com SUE ROSE MINAHAN: Evolutionary Astrologer & Consultant, Workshops, Lecturer, Talk Host, Writer. Vibrational Astrology student. Dwarf Planet Astrology graduate & tutor. Kepler Astrology Toastmasters charter member (KAT); Wine Country Speakers member. Associate of Fine Arts Music Degree; Certificate of Fine Arts in Jazz. Founder of Talk Cosmos delivering insightful conversations to awaken heart and soul-growth consciousness. Talk Cosmos 2025 Season 8 on Talk Cosmos YouTube Channel, Facebook, Radio, Podcasts. https://www.TalkCosmos.com email: info@talkcosmos.com#talkcosmos #sueminahan #elizabethlizmuschett #justincrockettelzie #cancernewmoon #astrologypodcast #conversationpodcast #sabiansymbols#alightpathmuschett #numerology #tarot #nakshatra #vedic #neptuneinaires #kknw1150am #astrology #podcast #sueroseminahan #sueminahan #archetypalsymbols #jupiterincancer #saturninaries #neptuneinaries #alightpath #astroweather #newmooncancer #cancerseason #cancer #lunarcycle #moonenergy #newmoonritual #cancervibes #celestialevens #astroinsights #zodiaclife #astrowisdom #cosmicguidance #astroguidance #empowermentjourney #newmoonmagic #newmoonintentions #healingSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

“SUMMER'S NEW VIBRATIONS - The Solstice”! The June solstice chart serves as a powerful seed chart, unveiling profound themes that resonate all summer long. Dive into the cosmic dance of the summer solstice with Master Vibrational Astrology (VA) author, researcher, and instructor Linda Berry, alongside Robert Pacitti. Through the lens of VA, they unravel the intricate core patterns that shape our collective consciousness during this vibrant season. The June solstice chart acts as a seed, planting themes that will flourish throughout the summer months. On June 21st at 02:42 UTC (or June 20th at 10:42 p.m. EDT for those on the USA East Coast), the sun will reach its northernmost point in the sky. This moment marks when it enters 0° Cancer, ushering in the longest day and shortest night in the Northern Hemisphere.“On June 21, 2025, at precisely 02:42 UTC (10:42 p.m. EDT on June 20 for those on the USA East Coast), we witness this celestial pause, known as SOL-STICE, from Latin roots means when the sun "stops" and hovers over the northern Tropic of Cancer. It marks a time when daylight stretches to its fullest, casting long shadows and igniting our spirits with warmth and possibility”, said Sue Minahan host of the weekly show.“Embraced as a spiritual portal to celebrate abundance, the summer solstice is often marked by traditional bonfires lighting up the night sky— ancient fire rituals to symbolize manifestation and renewal. Join us as we explore these vibrant energies through VA's unique lens and embrace the solstice energy portal for this season's potential!” The gift of Vibrational Astrology (VA)You can find out more about this exciting ‘evidence-based' system that perceives and understands deep energetic vibrational frequency behavior patterns beyond the natal 1st Vibration chart. Register for the first Fractal Cosmos online Vibrational Astrology conference this Labor Day weekend (fractalcosmos.org)THE NEW VIBRATIONS PanelLINDA BERRY, PAC, MSSW: received her Professional Astrology Certificate (PAC) in Vibrational Astrology January 2015 from Avalon School of Astrology studying with David Cochrane the Founder of Vibrational Astrology (VA). They continue to share their research material to build Vibrational Astrology knowledge. Linda created “Frequency Finder”, a VA Add-on to Sirius and Kepler Astrological Software.ROBERT PACITTI: A professional consulting astrologer and the visionary behind Deep Earth Astrology. Specializing in vibrational and psychological techniques, he has honed his craft under the tutelage of mentors Linda Berry, Sarah Fuhro, Margaret Gray, and Yvonne Tarnas. Email: deepearthastrology@gmail.com SUE ‘ROSE' MINAHAN: Evolutionary/Mythology Astrologer & Consultant. Speaker, Writer, Artist, Musician. Student of Vibrational Astrology, Dwarf Planet University graduate and tutor, Kepler Astrologer Toastmaster (KAT); Associate of Fine Arts Music Degree; a Certificate of Fine Arts in Jazz. Founder of Talk Cosmos since April 7, 2018. Weekly inspired conversations awaken heart and soul-growth consciousness, season 8, TalkCosmos.com#talkcosmosnewvibrations #summerseason #lindaberryvibrationalastrology #robertjpacittimagus #robertjpacittideepearthastrology #sueroseminahan #summersolstice #cancerseason #astrologytips #astrologyinsights #manifestation #spiritualawakening #summervibes #astrologyfacts #motivation #cosmicenergy #ancientwisdom #astrologyposts #cosmicguidance #davidcochrane #vibrationalastrology #astroinsights #fractalcosmos #astrologyforecastSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode features a gang of talented artists such as George Pratt, Scott Anderson, Cassandra Kim, John English, and Raymond Bonilla. We made art inspired by the upcoming flick 28 Years Later. During the ep we discussed several famous artists, technique, materials and mediums, and more. Turn Your Art Dream into an Art CareerVisual Arts Passage offers online mentorship programs in Illustration and Fine Arts, led by industry professionals to help you develop real-world skills and build a career doing what you love.Start Your Journey Today: www.visualartspassage.com/programWhy Choose Visual Arts Passage?

WBZ NewsRadio's Carl Stevens reports.

Show notes below: Talking Shit With Tara Cheyenne is a Tara Cheyenne Performance Production www.taracheyenne.com Instagram: @TaraCheyenneTCP  /  FB: https://www.facebook.com/taracheyenneperformance Podcast produced, edited and music by Marc Stewart Music: marc@marcstewartmusic.com   © 2025 Tara Cheyenne Performance   Subscribe/follow share through Podbean and Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts and Spotify.   Donate! To keep this podcast ad-free please go to:  https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/13386   Links: www.actionatadistance.ca Dancing On The Edge Festival 2025: https://www.dancingontheedge.org/ Company 605:  https://company605.ca/ Morrow: https://oddmeridian.ca/morrow.html About Vanessa: Vanessa Goodman acknowledges that she lives, works, and creates on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University and is the artistic director of Action at a Distance Dance Society. She is drawn to art that carries meaning beyond aesthetics, using choreography as a means to explore liminal expressions within the human condition. Her choreographic practice weaves together generative movement and sonic embodiment to create immersive performative environments. Through her work, she seeks to cultivate intimacy between the body and its surroundings, challenging conventional forms of performative hierarchy through collaborative approaches. She has received several awards and honours, including The Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award (2013), The Yulanda M. Faris Scholarship (2017/18), The Chrystal Dance Prize (2019 & 2024), the Schultz Endowment from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2019), The Isadora Award (2025) and participation in the "Space to Fail" program (2019/20) through Hyde Productions (NZ), Critical Path (AU), and The Dance Centre (CA). Longstanding collaborations include "Graveyards and Gardens" with Caroline Shaw, "BLOT" with Simona Deaconsecu, and multiple works with Loscil (Scott Morgan), Brady Marks, and James Proudfoot. Her work has toured Canada, the United States, Europe, and South America. www.actionatadistance.ca About Tara: Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, is an award winning creator, performer, choreographer, director, writer, and artistic director of Tara Cheyenne Performance, working across disciplines in film, dance, theatre, and experimental performance. She is renowned as a trailblazer in interdisciplinary performance and as a mighty performer "who defies categorization on any level". Along with her own creations Tara has collaborated with many theatre companies and artists including; Zee Zee Theatre, Bard on the Beach, ItsaZoo Theatre, The Arts Club, Boca De Lupo, Ruby Slippers, The Firehall Arts Centre, Vertigo Theatre (Calgary).  With a string of celebrated solo shows to her credit (including bANGER, Goggles, Porno Death Cult, I can't remember the word for I can't remember, Body Parts, Pants), multidisciplinary collaborations, commissions and boundary bending ensemble creations Tara's work is celebrated both nationally and internationally.  Tara is known for her unique and dynamic hybrid of dance, comedy and theatre. She is sought after for creating innovative movement for theatre and has performed her full length solos and ensemble works around the world (highlights: DanceBase/Edinburgh, South Bank Centre/London, On the Boards/Seattle USA, High Performance Rodeo/Calgary etc.). Recent works include a collaboration with Italian dance/performance artist Silvia Gribaudi, empty.swimming.pool, (Castiglioncello, Bassano, Victoria and Vancouver), ensemble creation, how to be,  which premiered at The Cultch, and her solo I can't remember the word for I can't remember, toured widely, and her newest solo Body Parts has been made into a stunning film which is currently touring virtually. Tara lives on the unceded Coast Salish territories with her partner composer Marc Stewart and their child.  

Marty Ross-Dolen joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation discovering the story while writing, inviting the speculative and magical elements into a narrative, rediscovering lost relatives, advocating for our vision and for our books, scaffolding fragmented forms, being raised by a mother in protracted mourning, incorporating letters, photographs, and erasure poetry, when people tell you what your book is supposed to be, living with an inherited sense of grief, unspoken family pacts, when structure is a surprise, and her new memoir Always There, Always Gone: A Daughter's Search for Truth.   Also in this episode:  --being raised in silence around a tragedy -telling 3 stories at once -memoir as erasure   Books mentioned in this episode: -Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas -Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn -Ghostbread by Sonja Livingston -Disconto for My Father by Harrison Kandelaria Fletcher -Fearless Confessions by Sue William SIlverman   Marty Ross-Dolen is a graduate of Wellesley College and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is a retired child and adolescent psychiatrist. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Prior to her time at VCFA, she participated in graduate-level workshops at The Ohio State University. Her essays have appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Redivider, Lilith, Willow Review, and the Brevity Blog, among others. Her essay entitled “Diphtheria” was named a notable essay in The Best American Essays series. She teaches writing and lives in Columbus, Ohio. Connect with Marty: Website: www.martyrossdolen.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/martyrossdolen Get the book: https://a.co/d/5HtWU4s https://www.thurberhouse.org/adult-writers-studio – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Send us a textThis week, Wes and Todd sit down with Painter & Illustrator, Kevin Johnson. Kevin discusses his early engagement with art, comic books, Louisville, teaching himself to draw, favorite comic book artists, school, keeping it fresh, the Army, creating and drawing during his time in the service, his journey after retiring from the Army, Comic Con, Full Sail University, the Colorado Springs art scene, Black Lion, taking time serious, graphic design, animation, Craigslist, reinventing yourself, Thomas Blackshear and mentorship, butterflies, imagination, mixed media, growing as an artist, his pencil & charcoal series, Black Art in America, the Solidarity Mobile Mural Project, social media, Flaten Art Museum, his current shows, routine, clouds, critiques, collectors, Rogue Gallery, pricing, and his advice to young artists.Join us for an inspirational conversation with Kevin Johnson!Check out Kevins' website at www.kevjart.comFollow Kevin on social media:Instagram - www.instagram.com/kevjart - @kevjartFacebook - www.facebook.com/KevJArt/ See Kevin's art in person at these galleries: The Vault Gallery in The Mining Exchange Hotel - www.miningexchangehotel.comExhibit runs from June 1st – August 25th, 2025 Auric Gallery - www.auricgallery.com Broadmoor Galleries - www.broadmoorgalleries.com A.R Mitchell Museum of Western Art - www.armitchellmuseum.com Black Art In America - www.blackartinamerica.comArt on tour from Illinois to D.C. “Change That Narrative” on display at the Illinois State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois.Follow us on Instagram: @tenetpodcast - www.instagram.com/tenetpodcast/ @wesbrn - www.instagram.com/wesbrn/ @toddpiersonphotography - www.instagram.com/toddpiersonphotography/ Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/TenetPodcast/ Email us at todd@toddpierson.com If you enjoyed this episode or any of our previous episodes, please consider taking a moment and leaving us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening!

Our guest today is Amy Barickman. Born in Michigan, raised in Iowa - Amy graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Fine Arts, only wishing it was with an emphasis in textiles versus glass blowing.Always drawn to boutique fashion as well as upcycling and vintage, Vintage Made Modernhas been a theme of many of the books and patterns she produced over the more than 30 the years of product development with the brand she founded in 1990, Indygo Junction.  She is the author of the award-winning book; Vintage Notions: An Inspirational Guide to Needlework, Cooking, Sewing, Fashion and Fun. Most recently her passion for vintage and upcycling, led her to create Treasured Threadz with her manufacturing and distribution partner Colonial Patterns. Her latest project, a gift book Love You to Piecesis a combination of her passion for collecting quilts and sharing handmade treasures along with the history behind them .  She is coming full circle with her new project - a book based on her collection of quilts and stuffed bears and dolls- she'll also be introducing a collection of doll and bear patterns to companion the book - hoping to add machine embroidery and other products that will inspire the sewing and quilting community. Additionally, she's working with Colonial Patterns on a new line of embroidery products under ABC Amy Barickman Creative.  Amy currently spends most of the year in Kansas City, though she  enjoys her family home in NW Michigan as well. Her husband is a sixth-grade teacher, and they have two kids who both have graduated college and are working in Kansas City.(2:29) Amy's mother taught her to sew and her grandmother also provided inspiration. She tells about her Girl Scout project…a wrapped skirt. Learn of her mom's business and how that also influenced Amy.(4:30) What business did Amy start in High School? And…how did her mom influence this?(7:57) Supporting local businesses is so very important to Amy. She talks about why she feels this way and why it's important. (9:44) Why the fascination with vintage? Mom and Grandma had a lot to do with this. Hear about the photo with the matching gingham outfits! (12:11) Amy talks about her brand-new line of embroidery products…she's launching them soon!  (15:04) Amy is excited about the new makers in sewing. She explains why she feels this way and provides examples. (17:46) How did Amy come up with the name of her first company, Indygo Junction? (18:30) Why dies Amy consider herself a historian? Learn that here! (21:00) Mary Brooks Picken is Amy's muse. Amy tells us Mary's story and why she's had such a powerful influence on her. (25:44) Hear about Mend and Make Do…the precursor to upcycling! (27:30) What inspired Amy? Well, would you be surprised if she said Vintage? (28:53) Amy shares the deep connection she has with the sewing community and how important all of this is to her.  (31;59) New book, landing page, launch party! Love You to Pieces is her new book! Amybarickman.com/loveyoutopieces (33:50) What's next for Amy? And of course, what's her dream?! (35:09) Anything we didn't ask?  (35:42) How do you reach out to Amy? Amy@amybarickman.com. Also go to amybarickman.com for more info and to join her community. Be sure to follow, rate and review this podcast on your favorite platform. Be sure to subscribe to, review and rate this podcast on your favorite platform…and visit our website sewandsopodcast.com for more information about today's and all of our Guests.

This ep features artists such as Raymond Bonilla, Adam Gustavson, Cassandra Kim, Dale Stephanos, John English and covers an educational segment about a famous artist. Don't miss it! Turn Your Art Dream into an Art CareerVisual Arts Passage offers online mentorship programs in Illustration and Fine Arts, led by industry professionals to help you develop real-world skills and build a career doing what you love.Start Your Journey Today: www.visualartspassage.com/programWhy Choose Visual Arts Passage?

Major Jackson is a poet, author, and professor who is the recipient of fellowships from Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Academy of American Poets, Fine Arts works Center in Provincetown, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, he has been honored by the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and the Witter Bynner foundation in conjunction with the Library of Congress, awarded the Pushcart Prize, has been published in American Poetry Review, the New Yorker, Paris Review, Orion Magazine, is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves as the Poetry Editor of The Harvard Review, and is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities and Director of Creative Writing at Vanderbilt University. We touch on stewardship, curiosity being emblematic of being human, art in a time of upheaval, human expression, AI, art monsters, and a whole lot more.Get more access and support this show by subscribing to our Patreon, right here.Links:Major JacksonEp 96 - Maggie SmithParnassusPeabody InstituteRobert FrostPhiladelphia Museum of ArtMarcel Duchamp“A Love Supreme”Ezra Klein & Rebecca Winthrop - ‘Rethinking Education'Humanities TennesseeMichaela Anne - “Is This What Mama Meant?”Hunter S ThompsonMichael RuhlmanClick here to watch this conversation on YouTube.Social Media:The Other 22 Hours InstagramThe Other 22 Hours TikTokMichaela Anne InstagramAaron Shafer-Haiss InstagramAll music written, performed, and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss. Become a subscribing member on our Patreon to gain more inside access including exclusive content, workshops, the chance to have your questions answered by our upcoming guests, and more.

I capolavori dei maestri del movimento francese del Museum of Fine Arts di Boston sono in mostra alla National Gallery of Victoria fino al 5 ottobre.

In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman chat with Jenny Tibbits. Jenny is a multi-disciplinary artist and  tribal elder for the Newichawannock tribe, which is a subtribe of the Pennacook and part of the larger Abenaki diaspora. As an artist, Jenny primarily works in torchwork glass, photography, fashion design, and fiber arts. In this episode, we'll talk about “No More Stolen Sisters”, which features red dresses to honor murdered and missing Indigenous Women and Girls. Jenny is also an electronic music producer, DJ and a singer (we kick off this episode talking about their music)!You can find Jenny Tibbits on Instagram at www.instagram.com/buffalospirit86 and follow the links to their work from there! You can find Jenny's music by searching for DJ Ghia on streaming services. Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord. Creative Guts recently moved our newsletter to Substack, and you can find us at creativegutspod.substack.com. If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show! We'd also like to thank The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH for their support of our recent Tiny Art Exchange Zine; Red River Theatres in Concord, NH for collaborating with us on the Creative Guts Short Film Festival; and Creative Co Op as a sponsor of the film festival. We appreciate all the folks and organizations who give support to Creative Guts.

In this podcast, Ty J. Gluckman, MD, MHA, discusses the pivotal phase III FINEARTS-HF trial and how the treatment landscape is evolving for patients with heart failure (HF) with mildly reduced or preserved ejection fraction, including:The emerging role of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists in HF careFinerenone's efficacy in reducing composite cardiovascular death and worsening HF events Why safety must be monitored, especially considering hyperkalemia riskWhere HF guideline recommendations lack compared with the current evidence PresenterTy J. Gluckman, MD, MHAMedical Director, Center for Cardiovascular Analytics, Research, and Data Science (CARDS)Providence Heart InstituteProvidence Health SystemPortland, OregonProgram page: https://bit.ly/448XcH0

What does it really mean to be a “good woman”? For the controversial podcaster and writer Elise Loehnen, female goodness is a misery trap. And so reclaim their happiness, to make themselves whole, Loehnen says, women need to stop being good. The former goop executive and co-author of the upcoming Choosing Wholeness Over Goodness explains how the seven deadly sins reveal women's hidden conditioning, how the wellness industry became toxic, and why the Enneagram can help women embrace their full selves—including the darker, "unacceptable" parts they've been taught to suppress. five key takeaways 1. The "Good Woman" Performance is Exhausting Women are conditioned to suppress basic human instincts—never being tired, needing no praise, having compliant bodies, avoiding anger—which requires enormous energy and is driven by fear of social rejection.2. The Seven Deadly Sins Reveal Female Conditioning What society labels as "sins" (pride, envy, sloth, etc.) are actually normal human traits that women are taught to repress, creating a "punch card" for performing goodness to the world.3. Women Police Each Other Through Envy Instead of recognizing envy as a signal pointing toward what we want, women often use it destructively to tear down other women who have what they desire—like the backlash against Goop.4. The Drama Triangle Keeps Us Stuck Most people operate in victim-villain-hero dynamics, blaming others instead of taking responsibility. Breaking free requires recognizing these patterns and creating different conditions in your life.5. Wholeness Beats Goodness True liberation comes from integrating all parts of yourself—including the "darker" aspects you've been taught to hide—rather than performing an impossible standard of perfection.Elise Loehnen is a writer, editor, and podcast host who lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Rob, and their two sons, Max and Sam. She is the host of Pulling the Thread, a podcast focused on pulling apart the stories we tell about who we are—and then putting those threads back together. Current Work & Recent Publications: Elise is the author of the New York Times bestseller On Our Best Behavior. She has co-written thirteen books, five of which were New York Times bestsellers, including True and False Magic with psychiatrist Phil Stutz. Her upcoming co-authored Choosing Wholeness Over Goodness will be published in August. Podcast & Media: She hosts Pulling the Thread where she interviews cultural luminaries on the big questions of the day, including Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Temple Grandin, Dr. Harriet Lerner, Loretta Ross, Drs. John and Julie Gottman, Dr. Richard Schwartz, Joy Harjo, Dr. B.J. Miller, Nedra Tawwab, Dr. Suzanne Simard, Susan Cain, Heather McGhee, Dr. Riane Eisler, and Terry Real. Professional Background: Previously, she was the chief content officer of goop, where she co-hosted The goop Podcast and The goop Lab on Netflix, and led the brand's content strategy and programming, including the launch of a magazine with Condé Nast and a book imprint. Prior to goop, she was the editorial projects director of Conde Nast Traveler. Before Traveler, she was the editor at large and ultimately deputy editor of Lucky Magazine, where she also served as the on-air spokesperson, appearing regularly on shows like Today, E!, Good Morning America, and The Early Show. She has a B.A. from Yale where she majored in English and Fine Arts.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Quaranteam – Book 1: Part 11 The girls suggest to Andy who to bring in. Based on a post by CorruptingPower, in 25 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels. Eric's house now stood with seven women in it, and Andy had agreed that he would try to learn all of their names eventually, just as Eric did for Andy's household, although both of them agreed that the task would definitely take some time. The two men and Phil had all planned to meet up for dinner on Thursday, as they usually did. It was good to keep a routine. Also on that Sunday, Ash had commandeered the pool house, giving each girl the chance to pitch to her twice, once in the midday and then again in the evening, allowing them to improve and refine upon their pitch. That had kept the entire house occupied, and allowed Andy to spend all of his time writing, although he did make an exception for lunch, when he'd tended to Jenny and Katie's needs. In a move that had surprised him, Jenny had insisted Katie ride his cock until he came inside of her, then sucked her share out of her partner's cunt afterwards. It had proven an excellent test, and Katie had still gotten her fix out of the experience. She'd described it to Andy as "filthy in the best possible way." Other than that, Andy went two days without engaging in any sex, a sort of chance to recharge his batteries. He suspected he might have a bit on Monday, but also acknowledged to himself that he was going to be booked wall to wall with the meetings, hearing the girls pitches, so it might even be a third day off from sex. Monday morning he awoke in bed alone, an absence he definitely noted, but it let him get his morning workout in, followed by a shower. After he got out of the shower, when he went to get dressed, he found a printed schedule of his day on top of his dresser. 10 11: Asha, Emily, Hannah, Jenny 11 12: Katie, Lauren, Nicolette, Niko 12 1: Lunch 1 2: Piper, Sarah, Sheridan, Taylor 2 3: debrief with Aisling Ash had decided to just organize the girl's pitches in alphabetical order, so that Andy wouldn't see any prejudgment on her part. On the schedule, there was also a map of the house's lower level, a room marked with an X and a note from Ash that read simply "See you there!" The house was the quietest it had ever been, even his two cats seeming a little perplexed at the lack of people moving around. Andy wandered down to the marked room at about fifteen minutes to 10, finding Aisling already in the room, which had been set up as a little conference room, a large television on the wall doubling as a computer monitor. On the screen was a black screen with the words "Project Pair Up" in friendly white lettering. "Hey love," she said to him with a smile. She was dressed in professional looking attire, the most dressed up he'd ever seen her. With the quarantine, everyone had been completely casual, and Andy suddenly felt wildly underdressed, wearing just a pair of jeans and an old, faded Jesus Jones t shirt. She saw his look and immediately grabbed his arm. "Relax. You're the one everyone's pitching to, so you're allowed to dress however you like. It's good to be the king," she giggled. "You've heard all the pitches already, Ash," he said to her, as she led him to the head of the table, making him sit down. "Anything truly shocking?" "I told you I wasn't going to make decisions for you, babe, so you'll just have to wait and see." "I wasn't asking you to make a decision, Ash," Andy laughed, "simply whether or not you thought this was a good idea or not." "Oh, aye," she nodded. "There's some truly remarkable women up on offer for you today, and I'm certain there will be some hard decisions in your future, in more ways than one. A few dodgy ones too, by my reckoning, but I'm not the final say in the matter, am I?" She moved to sit down next to him, at his right hand spot, the television screen on the wall opposite him. "There are pros and cons to all of them. But all the girls have agreed nobody will be upset at you, no matter what you decide." "And you think they're all going to hold to that?" "I told them if they couldn't then they shouldn't bother pitching anyone at all. That sort of got them in line." Andy nodded sagely. "Where are they?" "Everyone's hanging out in the pool house right now, and they'll come up when we text them, one at a time, so if anyone runs short, or needs to run long, nobody will get interrupted." "Okay then, let's get to it, I suppose." Ash nodded, and then picked up her iPhone from the table, sending Asha a text to come to the room. A few minutes later, the half Indian half French girl strolled into the room in a powder blue power suit, her hair done up in a bun, wearing bright red 1950s librarian glasses. "Thanks for letting us pitch ta ye, Andy," she said, moving to sit down on the chair at the opposite end of the table from him. "Going first is a bit of a pisser, but I s'pose I'll set the bar high for the lot of'em." She picked up the little remote from the table and clicked it, as the monitor behind her sprung to life, an image of a bright, bubbly blonde girl appearing on it. "This is Olivia Shoemaker, my bestie from me London days. Now I know what you're thinkin', that she's young, and you're nervous or whateva about bringin' too many young birds into the house. But Livvy's a doll. She's a student down at UCSD, so she could just transfer up here and go ta UCSF or Berkeley or Stanford or whateva." Asha clicked the button and the screen advanced, showing Olivia in a colorful yellow sundress, standing on the Santa Monica pier. "She's also a right big social media influencer, with half a million followers on Insta and about as many on TikTok. They were tryin' to get her to appear on Love Island back home, but she said she wanted to wait until she was a bit older for that. She's 19, she's fit and she's a babe. We've been friends since we was toddlers, an' I know she'd likely fall for you like I have." "What's she going to school for?" Andy asked. "She's undecided right now, but she's thinking she might get into international finance. Banking, stocks, that lot. She changes her mind about that all the time, though, so who knows where she'll end up. Girl's got a mind that goes a kilometer a minute, you ask me." "You think I'd be her type?" Andy asked, a touch of doubt in his voice. "I have trouble imagining someone like her being satisfied with someone older like me. I'm not particularly social media savvy, and she looks like the kind of girl who would take one look at me and think 'old man.' And that's no judgment on her,  I'm just saying, you want to make sure this is someone who you think is going to be happy here, and with me. Simply because I can request anyone I want to doesn't mean that I necessarily should." "She and I have been friends since we were wee high, so if I tell her she'll like you, she'll trust me on tha', and once she gets to know you, she'll fall for you like e'eryone does, Daddy." He still wasn't entirely comfortable with her calling him that, but he'd learned that telling Asha no just made her do the thing twice as much, so he was hoping she'd get it out of her system eventually. "And part of the pitch process was also you identifying what the challenges might be if I were to extend her an invite to our family. So what do you think those would be?" "Um," Asha said, looking down at the table a moment. "I'm not gonna lie ta ye, Andy. She can be a mite tad possessive. Her last relationship imploded because her boyfriend gave another girl a ride home after a party, and she thought he'd cheated on her." Andy winced a little bit. That struck him as more than a challenge. "So you think that's not going to be a problem here, where she has to share me with all of these other women?" "She'll get over it!" Asha pouted. "She just needs to be shown that not all men are lads, and that she doesn't have to have someone's complete attention all the time to get by in the world." "Do you know what she likes and dislikes sexually?" Ash asked her, cutting straight to the point. "Are you sure she's compatible with Andy?" "She's a bit more reserved than I am," Asha sighed. "More reserved than she oughta be, you ask me, but I don' like the idea of her just fallin' in with some bloke who won't do right by her. She deserves better'n that. The prude walls hafta come down sooner or later." "But do you think she and I would make each other happy?" Andy asked. "I'd like to think so, Andy," Asha said, "but I'm no' sure one way or the other. I'm just tryin' to look out for her." "Okay, Asha. You're the first one we've talked to today, so obviously we have a lot more pitches to hear, so we'll keep your friend in mind." Asha nodded, standing up again. "An' if you decide she's not for you, Andy, I'd understand, but, y'know, maybe pass her on to one of your friends around the town as a thought? It'd just be nice to have one of me mates around here." Andy smiled. "I'll see what I can do." Asha walked over, leaned down and gave Andy a soft kiss. "Thanks, Da. I'll see you at dinner, yeah?" Before Andy could answer, Asha was already heading out the door, closing it behind her. Aisling pushed the button and the screen moved to a simple black background with "next: Emily" in white letters on it in a classy font. He turned to look at Aisling, not entirely sure what to say, which made Ash giggle. "They're all very different, Andy, so you'll just have to decide for yourself." She sent a text message on her phone to Emily, letting her know to start heading to the conference room. "An influencer, though?" Andy said, rolling his eyes. "I still don't get how anyone can think that's a real job." He sighed, seeing the smirk on Ash's face. "I think it's more likely that I'll recommend her over to Eric or Phil, but I'll try to keep an open mind." "That's all anyone's asking, love." "Emily's pitch isn't also for a social media influencer, is it?" he asked, caution plain on his face. "Olivia was the only one, silly, so you can relax." He nodded, hearing a knock at the door. "C'mon in, Emily!" Emily entered the room, and it seemed as though all the girls were going to be in their best professional wear today. She had a modest dress than hung nearly to her ankles and a bright red silk blouse that was almost entirely buttoned up. She looked like was planning to meet the head of some movie studio more than simply talking to Andy and Aisling. She gave a warm, impish little smile and wave, then pulled the door closed behind her. "Hey love. Ash. This is so exciting!" she giggled. "How did Asha do?" Andy was about to say something when Ash put her hand on his wrist to quiet him. "He's not going to talk about any of the pitches to anyone other than me until he's heard them all, Emily, so I don't know why you're asking." The blonde Brit giggled again, flashing a little wink. "I asked because I almost got him to spill the goss." Emily moved to sit down in the pitcher's chair, and picked up the remote. "But it's fine, it's fine. Andy darling, let me present to you Summer Steele." She clicked on the remote and the screen behind her flickered and turned into an image of a woman in her late 30s sitting behind a camera, clearly on a set somewhere. Summer was fit, although not overly muscular, with hair a deep dark brown, like a freshly cut walnut tree. Her nose was slightly crooked, like it had been broken and reset at least once. Her skin had a natural tan to it. Andy suspected her heritage was either Jewish or Palestinian. She looked focused on whatever she was working on. She was certainly lovely, but also had a tough, street fighter kind of vibe to her. She was dressed in leather pants and a leather jacket over some kind of t shirt, as she peered at the camera's monitor. "Her real first name is Maya, but professionally she's been Summer Steele for nearly a decade now. I think you can call her either." Click. The image turned to show the woman on set of one of the Daggerfall Academy movies with Emily, one of the later ones clearly, judging by Emily's age in the picture. It looked as though Maya was teaching Emily some moves for an upcoming scene. "We first met when she was the stunt coordinator and 2nd AD for 'Power Taken: Daggerfall Academy IV.' We've been friends since then, but she's gone on to direct episodes of all sorts of shows: 'The Last Garrison,' 'Everyone Dies At Midnight,' 'Uprising From Below,' and even a couple for Disney+, although she obviously can't tell me about any of those." Click. The image shifted and was replaced by an image of current Hollywood it guy Scotty Jansen with his arm around her, as she sipped from a beer, probably at some afterparty in the Hollywood hills. "She was with Scott Jansen up until January of this year when they split after Scotty got drunk and put his foot in his mouth one too many times. There were lots of reasons they were never going to work out, but this was the final straw." Click. A new image appeared, with Maya in between Sarah and Emily, the three women clearly out for a night on the town, although based on the buildings behind them, Andy would've guessed they were somewhere in central Europe. "So, she knows Sarah and I rather well, and we can both vouch that under her occasionally crass veneer, she's a sweetheart with a kind spirit. Many of the things some lesser men would find turnoffs,  her tendency to drink and swear, her sometimes lacking sense of tact, her habit of acting first and thinking later,  those are all things you like in a woman, so that's delightful." "Well, as long as she isn't sloshingly drunk all the time, Emily," Andy said. "I don't want to bring in a dangerous alcoholic we're going to need to check into rehab all the time." Emily flapped a hand dismissively in his direction. "Nothing so coarse, my love. While she can attack a bottle with a gusto I've yet to see rivaled, she does keep those benders to a manageable number, and never lets them affect the rest of her life." "Alright, carry on." "She likes the same kind of sex you do, Andy,  she's a talker, and she enjoys both the softer and harder sides of it. She's very professional and you've made a point to tell all of us that if we want to continue working and chasing our dreams, we should do it, something she would very much appreciate, as she's certainly making headway. She directed her first film last year, 'The Secret In The Shadows,' and while it didn't win any awards, it came in under budget and over performed expectations by a sizable amount, so she's in talks to do another movie after the pandemic has passed." "Where's she from?" Ash asked her. Click. Andy suspected this was the most recent photo of the woman, and she'd undergone a drastic haircut. The left side of her head was shorn down to almost a buzz, while the front had a large flop of hair dyed bright green hanging over one eye, a look Andy had been told was called an undercut. She was wearing a white tanktop and he could see the woman had tattoos on each of her shoulders, epaulets of ink depicting fighting fish in a lake, done in a Japanese style. "Upstate New York. Her father was a rabbi and a jeweler, her mother ran a deli. Dad passed away last year from a heart attack, so her mom's running both businesses now. No brothers or sisters. Maya's got a few friends in the L A area, but for the most part, she's on the go so much that she really never settled anywhere. I'd like for her to settle with us." "What sort of challenges do you anticipate?" Andy questioned. He had a yellow legal pad of paper in front of him, and he'd been keeping small notes during the presentations, mostly so he could keep everything straight in his head at the end. "Two, but both I think aren't deal breakers. First, she's going to want to continue working so there may come a time when Andy might need to do a bit of travel to accommodate Maya's schedule, or Maya will simply need to ensure that most of her work as a director is done relatively local to here. I know that there have been some sound stages built in Oakland for the purpose of doing more film work here, so we will simply need to remind her of that." "And the other?" "The other is a little more of a challenge, but mostly just for you, love," Emily said to Andy, her coy smile widening a little. "Maya isn't at all bi curious. She is absolutely, positively, 100% heterosexual, meaning that you would need to tend to her needs without anyone else as company. I know this because both Sarah and I have made passes at her, only to be told that she's very much 'men only.' She would be completely aware of the rest of us, but simply wouldn't want to partake in any group activities. That also might mean you would need to share a bed with just her every once in a while, so she feels like she has as much a stake in you as everyone else, but you're clever, so I think you would do fine. Like you told me, constraints are simply gifts to creativity." "Do you think I would make her happy? Do you think she would make me happy?" Emily nodded. "It wouldn't be without minor complications, naturally, but I think you two would get along like a house on fire, and she would fit into the house much like Lauren does,  present and eager with you when she's spending time with you, and self reliant and capable when she isn't. She started as a stuntwoman before she got into directing, so she has always had an uphill climb in her life. We aren't best mates, but she'd thrive here, she'd adore you and I think she'd make you happy as well." The tiny Brit clicked the button and the screen advanced to black once more, with white letters reading "next: Hannah" in the center of it. "No matter what you decide, love," Emily said, getting up from her chair, making her way over to Andy, "I just want to say that all of the girls are thrilled you're asking us for our opinions on this, and it means the world to the lot of us that you're letting us have a say in who we want to join the family. You didn't have to ask anyone for their opinion, so the fact that you are, well, it shows even further that you're quite the good man, Andy Rook." Emily leaned in and kissed him, soft and tender, but backed with a lot of love, before she finally pulled away and gave him and Ash a little wave goodbye, slipping out of the room, closing the door behind her. Ash smirked as he looked over in her direction. "They're all probably going to say something like that, just so you know, love," she told him. "They've all been getting stories from Niko about how things are on the base, or from the girls involved in the poker game, and so they know what a weird place the world is in right now, and everyone's delighted how you're handling this." "Hell, if I was handling it my way, I'd probably just have stopped here, Ash, and not added anyone else to the family, but based on what Phil's told me, I'm going to spend the next five years hearing that I need to help usher in a new generation to save this one." The Irish girl giggled and offered him a little shrug. "It's such a hard life, isn't it, having beautiful women constantly throwing themselves at you, begging for sex." Andy scowled, although the expression was done with amusement. "Agreed, Alcatraz it ain't, but it's still quite the change from my life six months ago." "Which reminds me, you have to be sure and call Xander tomorrow and fill him on all the changes that have happened here in the last week. He texted you yesterday offering his condolences about Matty, but hell, he doesn't know about how quickly your house has exploded. Maybe we should send him a picture of you in bed, surrounded by all your women, like a modern day Hugh Heffner." Andy started laughing at that, shaking his head. "Oh god, he's gonna fucking kill me. He had quite the crush on Emily a few years back, although I think he grew out of that. Lord, I'm never going to hear the end of it." "Well, it'll be something you two can use to keep your spirits up when you talk. Are you ready for Hannah to make her pitch?" He nodded. "Sure, she's the one who got this all started. Let's see who she thinks we should bring into the house." A few minutes later, Hannah strolled into the room confidently, although Andy was surprised to see her in her cheerleading outfit again, the first time she'd worn it again since she'd shown up to the house a few days ago. Andy found the outfit choice odd, but decided not to remark on it. "Two days enough time for you to think it over, Hannah?" he asked the Asian cheerleader, who smiled and nodded. "Totes, but I didn't know I was gonna have hella competition at the end of it!" Over the past few days, the one thing Andy had determined first and foremost about Hannah was that she was always operating at 110% energy. That's simply who she was. "It's all good, though. I think you'll vibe with my candidate, even if she's not immediately your type." Hannah picked up the remote from the table and clicked it, as a picture sprung to life behind her. The minute the image popped onto the screen, Andy was taken back a bit. "I'm fairly certain that taking on an entire cheerleading team would be well over the limit of you suggesting one person, Hannah," he laughed. The image behind her must have been from the spring of this year, as it was Hannah and her entire cheerleading team over at Woodside High, where she'd graduated from in May. There were fourteen girls in the photo, in addition to the coach, and they were completely varied in terms of size, shape and race, although he couldn't deny, they all seemed lovely. It took him half a second to find Hannah as her hair lacked the blonde highlights in the photo. "Not the team, sir," she said, clicking the button again, as the screen shifted, this time the only person on the screen being the cheerleading coach. "Just the woman running it. Tabitha Jefferson." Without all the other people on the screen, Andy could focus on the woman being suggested. She was an African American woman with milk chocolate colored skin around Andy's age, although she was in far better shape than he was. In the picture, she was in black gym shorts with an orange stripe and a large orange t shirt with the word "Wildcats" in highly stylized lettering across the front of it. She had straightened hair drawn back in a short ponytail that hung to the nape of her neck, and a friendly face, although her expression was one of shouting. "Coach Jefferson has been the cheerleading coach and P.E. Teacher for Woodside High for the last five years. She's whip smart, funny and really cares about us girls. When I was kinda a troublemaker, she'd pull me aside and give me a good talking to, tell me that she thought I was super smart, and that I was capable of anything if I'd stop fucking around and quit self sabotaging my own life. And she never gave up on me, and never let me focus just on cheerleading or the petty drama and shit a bunch of wound up girls get into with each other." Hannah pushed the button and the image changed again, showing a slightly younger Tabitha with her arm around a good looking African American man with much darker skin in military fatigues. "Just before she moved to Woodside, she was an Army wife, until her husband, Nicky, was killed in action in the Middle East. They'd only been married for about two years, and only together about four, but it still broke her heart. She moved across the country to live out here, closer to her mother, only for her moms to die last year due to lung cancer." Hannah pushed the button again. The new image also had to have been taken in the spring, just before the pandemic had set in. Tabitha had her arm around Hannah, and both of them were smiling, both of them in formal wear, this time with the blonde highlight in Hannah's hair. "She was one of the chaperons for senior Prom, and when she found out I didn't have anyone to go with, she made me go on my own, and I still had a great time. She drove by my parents house to drop off my diploma and told me to call her Tabby from now on, since I wasn't a student of hers any more, and that she hoped school would start back up soon, because she was feeling a little lost." The Asian girl sighed a little, her face contracting in sadness. "She's had a really rough go of it, Andy, between losing Nicky then her mom and now her ability to teach and be around people. I don't know a thing about what she likes sexually, so I dunno what to say about any of that, but she's a good person, the best person I know, and if I can give her just one little bit of happiness, then I fucking owe that to her." Hannah looked like she was about to cry, so Aisling reached over and took the girl's hand in her own, giving it a little squeeze. "Thanks Ash, I'm okay," she said, smiling a bit as if it might help her make it more true. "The person you most reminded me of when we were first met, Andy, was Tabby. You could've just fucked my brains out and not given a fuck about my feelings, but you didn't. You talked to me first, made sure I knew what I was getting myself into, when you so didn't have to, hell, I wasn't even expecting you to. I wanted to get back at that little shit Benny so fuckin' badly, but you wouldn't let me just charge into it without us talking it out first. That's the kind of thing Tabby did for me all the time, not letting me just leap into the first idea that popped into my head, but really making me think it all out. So I want to give something back to her, and I think that something could be her hooking up with you." "This whole polyamory thing isn't for everyone, Hannah," Ash said. "You think she'll be up for sharing Andy with all of us?" Hannah laughed a little, rolling her eyes. "Her last relationship was part of a throuple, so I totally wouldn't worry about it, Ash, although this one would be a little different." "Oh yeah?" Andy asked. "How so?" "Well, she was in a relationship with two bi guys, so she was used to having cock on tap." The busty cheerleader giggled a little bit. "But I know she's into girls too, because she refused to come into the locker room when we were changing. Said it was only respectful, but I saw that glimmer in her eyes that said she desperately wanted to peek, but wasn't going to, because that's what us girls deserved." "What ended their relationship?" "The two guys decided to move to Portland, and Tabby's mother hadn't passed yet, so she refused to leave her. They were all kinda in different headspaces anyway, I think, since Tabby never said another word about them after they left, so maybe she was kinda okay with it? Maybe it was just an easier way to end it than ending it? I dunno. It was all spring of my junior year." "Challenges you foresee?" Aisling asked. "Well, I dunno how she likes to fuck, so I dunno if you two can make that work for you or not, but I think you'd be okay. And I don't know if you're her type, so I don't even know that she'll say yes. You're a little less,” Hannah trailed off, trying to find a way to phrase what she wanted to say. "Less what?" Andy asked. "Less butch, I guess," Hannah giggled. "Dom and Mike were ultra cut, and Nicky was pretty buff himself, so I guess her type is a bit more ripped than you are, but it's not like I know everything about what kinda dudes she likes to bone. But without her being able to teach until, like, at least a year from now, I wanted to make sure she's not getting stuck inside her own head too much." Hannah clicked the button and the screen behind her changed to say "next: Jenny" on it. "Anyway, if I was you, I'd totally wanna fuck Tabby. Hell, I kinda wanna fuck her myself, if she's down for that. And she's a good person, and good people deserve to have good things happen to them in the world, so that's why I think you should invite her here. Thanks for letting me tell you all this, Andy. I didn't know how much I needed to tell someone this whole story about this amazing woman who changed my life, and I'm glad it's to the man who did the same thing." She stood up, came over and gave Ash a hug, then one to Andy as well followed by a sloppy kiss, before pulling back and heading out of the room, almost skipping in her step, making the skirt flutter a little each time. "So I know I said I wasn't going to offer you any opinions on all of this, love," Aisling said, "but I do want to make two exceptions. First, I think you should invite Tabby here. It means a lot to Hannah, maybe more to her than to any of the other girls involved, and I think Tabby seems like a fine match for you, based on what Hannah's told me." Andy nodded. "She was speaking very strongly from the heart, so I don't blame you. I won't commit to 100% saying yes right now, but I'll mark her down as a very strong likely, if that's okay." "Natch love," she said, squeezing his arm. "The other exception I want to make is to set you up for Jenny's pitch, and to tell you to tread lightly. Her pitch is for a staff person, but I suspect the person being pitched might want something more than that from you, and I think you should probably give it to her, but at her own pace. Jenny's got quite the tale to tell, and her friend has had a very rough life. I think even Jenny knows that if you bring this girl on, she's going to grow from staff to family member eventually, but that's okay with me, and all the rest of the girls, so keep all that in mind when she's talking, that we all know it's unsteady waters, and we're all okay with it, awright love?" He wasn't entirely sure what to make of that, so he simply nodded, giving himself a second to get his words in order. "She's the first staff pitch I'm hearing, but if you're telling me in advance that it's going to be different than all the rest, then that's good to know, and I'll keep it in mind." Ash smiled, kissing him on the cheek. "I think you'll like who she's pitching anyway. Has a completely different tone than anyone else you're gonna hear about today, and if I'm honest, I'd love ta meet her myself." Just as she was saying that, Jenny opened the door and made her way into the conference room, moving to sit down opposite them, her warm comforting smile well set on her face. Jenny hadn't chosen to dress up more than her usual attire, looking like a plump Martha Stewart, as she folded her hands on the table, just over the remote. "Thanks for letting us do this, sir. None of us had even thought about this until you and Ash told us about it, and the fact that you're letting the staff pitch as well, gosh, that's just the sweetest thing. My story's gonna be a little bit of a rollercoaster, so I hope you don't mind, sir." Andy chuckled, leaning back in his chair a little bit. "Fire away, Jenny." Jenny picked up the remote and clicked on it, as the image behind her changed to a much younger one of her and another woman, really more of a girl at that point, what had to be at least a decade ago. Jenny was thinner then, wearing an oversize P!nk t shirt, with her arm around a Latin girl, a little less thin, with massively blown out hair, wearing a red tanktop with a sheer mesh black shirt over it. The two girls were laughing in the picture, each holding up a red Solo cup that Andy suspected held alcohol that neither was old enough to be drinking at the time of the photo. "This is me with my college roommate, Alexis Coleman, better known as Lexi. We were both freshman at UCLA when we were randomly paired together to share a dorm room together at Hendrick Hall." The image changed again, and showed the two girls playing beer pong at some Greek event. "I'd just moved out here from Cleveland, and she'd just moved here from D.C., and so we became best friends." "You didn't go to culinary school?" Andy asked. "You're such an excellent cook, I find that impossible to believe." Jenny blushed a little. "Thank you, sir, but I did, after I got my Bachelor's degree in art history. I had wanted to become an art custodian, but couldn't seem to make it work, so I went to culinary school in SF after giving up on the art world." "And Lexi?" Ash asked. "What was she majoring in?" "Criminal justice," Jenny said, clicking the button again to show an image of Lexi, a little older, in a bikini out on the Santa Monica boardwalk, on roller skates that she looked a little unsteady on. "I know she looks like a Victoria's Secret model, but she was determined to get into law enforcement during college. She also minored in political science and theory, as well as picking up several languages along the way. I know she speaks Spanish, French, German, Russian and Portuguese, and knowing her, she's probably picked up a few more since then." "All of this has to be a while ago, though, Jenny," Andy said. "What year did you two graduate?" Jenny pushed the button again to show a graduation of the two of them together, holding up their diplomas with big smiles. "2007 sir, and I realize I'm giving you a bunch of background, but I think it's very important that I do, so you understand who Lexi is, and how she's a sweet, adorable person, despite the rest of what I'm about to tell you." Andy leaned forward a little bit. "As a professional storyteller, Jenny, let me tell you that's a hell of a way to perk your audience's interest. Go on." "Yes sir," she said, clicking the button to advance the image again. This time, Lexi was a few years older, dressed in more of jungle wear,  thick pants, a heavy shirt with a vest on, and her hair pulled back tightly. The background was thick trees and dirt, with sunlight peeking through. Of more note, however, was the AK 47 slung over her shoulder. "In her last year of college, Lexi was recruited to join the CIA. My details about this period of her life are very unreliable, but I think she was training with the agency for another year or two, and then served as a combination of analyst and field agent for most of the next decade, primarily in South and Central America, until 2017." The next image took Andy a little aback, although Ash had clearly seen it before. It was relatively recent, Jenny and Lexi together, in the kitchen of some restaurant or hotel. Both of the women were older than they were in the earlier photos, and most notably, Lexi had some significant scarring along part of her neck and the bottom left part of her chin line, although it looked as though the scarring was at least a few years old. "I don't know what happened to Lexi in 2017, but it must've been particularly gruesome. She couldn't tell me how she got the scars, only that she got them in the service of her country, and that she regretted how they were keeping her out of field work, because they were too identifiable. She'd been saddled with desk duty, and in 2018, she finally quit the CIA." The image jumped again, and this time Lexi was in a dark suit with sunglasses, opening a door for some Middle Eastern shiek. "She tried her hand at personal protection for a while, but eventually gave up on that and just became a mercenary, drifting through private security firms, independent contractors who go where the money and the work is. Just before the virus set in, she'd returned to her place in Los Angeles from a six month tour as part of a PMC in Afghanistan, and she was shaken. She said she felt like her life was a mess, she didn't know what she was doing with it, and felt like she was just a giant burden on her friends and family." With another click of the button, a new image of Lexi popped on the screen, her at a gun range, the whole image practically the still from an action movie. "What I'm suggesting is this, sir. I think you should bring Lexi into the house to be your driver and personal security." Andy was about to say something when Jenny raised her hand to silence him. "I know what you're about to say, sir, and frankly it's bullcrap, pardon my French. With the small population of men remaining left in the United States, every single one of you has suddenly become a V I P, and you need to think not just of your own health, but the health of all the women who are dependent on your health for their own health. If something happens to you, you have over a dozen women right now alone who suddenly run the very real risk of dying. Being that my health is fundamentally based on yours for the time being, I know I would feel safer having Lexi watch out for you." Andy scratched his goatee for a long moment, realizing that every single thing Jenny had said to him was true, making him a little ashamed of how cavalierly he'd been treating his own health, the ramifications of it not having fully sunken in until this very moment. "You are completely justified in that thought, Jenny, and you are right, I had not been giving it the diligence it deserved." "Lexi has some heavy scars from whatever accident sidelined her at the CIA. They cover just a bit of her face, but almost a third of her neck and down to her collarbone. In spite of that, I think she's still a stunning woman, and I still wish she was bisexual, because I would do her in a heartbeat, but she only likes men. I know, because we fooled around together freshmen year, and the next morning, we woke up with very different perspectives on it. It's never gotten in the way of our friendship, though, so you don't have to worry there." "Scars only add character, they never remove it," Andy said, quoting a line from one of his books. "They're a point in her favor, not against it." Jenny's smile widened a bit more at that, as if she was proud of Andy for saying it. "That's how I feel too. She was pretty adventurous sexually in college, so I don't think there would be any deal breakers between the two of you there. The two red flags I feel obligated to bring up are these. First, she has a bit of PTSD, so she can tend to be a little jumpy from time to time, and likes to keep as much of her life as she can to routine, because it helps her feel organized about all of it. I don't worry about her having a full breakdown, but she gets stressed by firecrackers on the fourth of July, so there's clearly some strain still going on there." "I think New Eden is about as far from a warzone as you can get, Jenny." "Sure, but we won't be locked in here forever, sir. And your family already includes two women who are actresses known to love doing action films, so if you go to visit them on sets, you'll need to be aware of Lexi's elevated stress levels when you do." "That's entirely manageable," Andy said. "What's the other red flag?" Jenny frowned a little bit, looked to Ash, who nodded, then looked back to Andy. "The other red flag is that I suspect she's going to want more than a staff relationship with you at some point. I don't know that for certain, but Lexi is a diehard romantic, and when she finds out that so many men have died, it's going to hit her very hard, because she's always dreamed of having her own prince charming, someone who will love her for her, through thick and thin. I think she'll be able to get past the idea of sharing you with lots of other women, I think she'll be okay with you dividing your time or having multiple people in your bed, but I think she's going to want to forge that emotional connection with you like your partners do, and that's more than what you asked us for in terms of suggesting staff. She will absolutely be the best bodyguard you could ask for, and I don't think there's a better driver I know. But the terms Ash laid down were pretty clear,  staff should only recommend staff, not partners, and I think Lexi might well end up being both, so I'm hoping that's okay." "As I told ya when you pitched her t' me, Jenny," Ash said, "sometimes exceptions have to be made for exceptional people, and Lexi seems like a hell of an accomplished and talented woman. If Andy's okay with it, the rest of the house will be okay with it." Andy smirked a little bit. "No pressure or anything, but it's fine. And you're right, I hadn't been thinking about how much my health impacted so many people until right now, so it's important that I give that consideration. She seems like a lovely woman, and you speak of her very fondly, so while I'm not making any final decisions until I've heard from everyone, I think you wouldn't be wasting your time if you wanted to start crafting a video invite for Lexi." Jenny jumped up and ran around the table to hug Andy tightly, crying a little bit. "Thank you so much, sir. When I talked to her on the phone last week, she told me how much she wished she could meet a nice man just like you, so I just know she'll say yes. I already know she thinks you're cute." "Don't tell anyone else about this, though," Ash said. "All the staff decisions are being made independently from the family member ones, and while I know all the girls were rooting for Lexi to be brought here in some regard, not a word to anyone, not even Katie, until it's final, yeah?" Jenny pulled back and wiped the tears from her face, nodding so quickly Andy was afraid her head would roll off. "Yes. Got it. Very clear. Understood, ma'am. Sir. And thanks again." The portly girl made her way out of the room without even remembering to push the button to advance the screen to the next person, leaving Andy and Ash alone in the room. "Okay, Mr. Rook," Ash said to him, "five minute break. Stand up, walk around, stretch a bit. I'd ask if you wanted to squeeze in a quick shag, but I had me turn yesterday, so I'm good to wait a few more days. Wouldn't want to deprive some of the other girls of getting their itches scratched." Andy stood up, pulling one arm behind his head, then the other, stretching out. "Four presentations down, eight to go,” Chapter 25 After a handful of minutes stretching, Ash sent a text message for the next girl to make her way up. Andy had turned his notes over so that Aisling couldn't look at them, and he smirked a little, noticing her frowning at the back of the legal pad. "You said you didn't want to influence my decision, so I don't know why you should want to look at my notes, Ash." They had built a wonderfully natural teasing rapport with each other over the past few months, so Aisling knew he was joking with her, but was willing to roll with him. She grinned up as she reached across the table to push the button and advance the slide. "Next: Katie." The redhead moved to sit back in her chair, and shrugged in his direction. "I'm mostly just curious how you're reacting to what you've heard so far, and how your opinions differ from mine, which I'm sure they will, here and there. I've heard all these pitches a couple of times, so it'll be interesting to see how many predictions I get right." "Did you write them down?" "Well, no," Ash said. Andy grabbed his yellow legal pad and ripped out a single sheet from the bottom of it, sliding it and his pen across to her. "Alright, predictions then. Write them down now. Don't show them to me, but fold up the paper when you're done. We can have whoever's after Katie bring us an envelope to seal it up. Just around the time that Aisling was folding up the sheet of paper, Katie walked into the room, confident in her stride. Andy cocked his head to one side as she walked in the room. The Hispanic woman was, as it seemed she always was, wearing a button up shirt underneath jean overalls. "Do you own other clothes besides overalls, Katie?" he asked her. She stuck her tongue out at him, which made Ash giggle again. "I can be girly and shit, sir, but I mostly keep that for Jenny. How're the presentations going so far?" "You know the rules, Katie," Aisling politely scolded, "no talking about anyone else's pitch until the very end." Katie winked at her, shrugging a little. After Andy had settled her nerves about keeping a level of removal between him and her and her wife, Katie had relaxed massively and grown into a more comfortable relationship with the rest of the house. "Had to try. Anyway, let's get this fucking show on the road!" She grabbed the remote in her calloused hand and clicked the button as the screen behind her changed to an image of a slightly matronly looking woman in her early 40s, dark chocolate hair up in a bun, skin just slightly olive, some mix of European heritage that surely had to include either Italian or Spanish. The woman on screen wasn't overweight, but was certainly the most bulky woman that had been on the screen thus far, not fat, simply hefty. "This is Doctor Morgan Fitch. She's a general practitioner in Los Altos who also dabbles in pediatrics. In talking with everyone in the house, it's clear at some point, you are going to be in dire need of a nanny around this place, and having one who's also a damn doctor just seems like smart thinking to me. By this time in a couple of years, this house is practically gonna be a little city, so you need to make sure all the major staples are taken care of. Some of the girls will wanna be full time mommies, no doubt, but for the rest, you're going to want to have child care. If you need that anyway, why not have that person be a doctor?" "How do you know Dr. Fitch?" Andy asked. Katie blanched a little bit. "She's kinda an ex of mine." She raised her hand immediately, a sheepish smile on her face. "We didn't part on bad terms, promise! At the end of the day, she was into the whole polyamory thing, and I wasn't, so we split, but remained good friends. That was five years ago, just before I met Jenny, so it all worked out okay in the end. She's had relationships on and off since then, but nothing's stuck. She's mostly a lesbian, but doesn't mind the occasional bit of cock here and there, so I think she might be a good fit for a staff member. She once told me that she likes to fuck men, but never gets emotionally attached to them the way she does to women, and what with her being staff, she'd be okay to pursue a female partner to take care of her emotional needs." "What makes you think she'll want to join the household?" Ash queried. "Morgan loves constantly shifting problems, and this house is like nothing I've ever seen before. Even before you start spawning, you're gonna need a doctor to make sure your family is in the best condition possible. Until you're having kids, she can staff a clinic in town on a volunteer basis, so she's getting settled here in the mean time. She's bored with the people in Los Altos, and we've always been good friends, so I think knowing I'm here would make her more likely to come aboard." "Challenges you anticipate?" he said. "She'd be the oldest person in the house at 46, but I think it gives her wisdom. Also, you might find her a bit, blunt, until you get used to her." "How blunt?" Katie tried to hide a little smile, shrugging, as she pushed the button to advance the slide to a screen reading "Next: Lauren" in friendly white letters. "Subtle she ain't, sir. I have never met anyone more direct in my life. I've always been a little thankful that she wasn't my doctor, because her bedside manner is more than a bit lacking. But sometimes you need someone to just slap you upside the head. Sir. We all do. Morgan would fill that role. And if she ever gets too blunt for your liking, you can tell her, and maybe she'll dial it down a little bit, or realize that she might've once gone too far. She's direct, but she's never intentionally mean. And even if you don't think Morgan's a good fit for here, and I can completely respect that if that's what you decide, I still want to stress that you're going to be in dire need of a nanny here at some point soon, so to keep that in mind moving forward." "Point taken and noted, Katie. Anything else you wanna say?" Katie brought her finger to her lips, considering for a moment, then slowly stood up. "Just one thing. I know Jenny brought you her old roommate Lexi as a candidate, and I want to throw my weight behind that, even if it's at the cost of my own candidate. I would've not pitched someone else if I could've pitched Lexi twice, y'know what I mean? Lexi's had a shitty go of it and I desperately want her to be happy, and I really think she can be here." Andy chuckled a little. "Unorthodox, but sure, I'll keep it under advisement. Alexis did seem like an excellent candidate, so we'll see how it goes." "Thanks sir! Enjoy the rest of the cunt parade!" she laughed, heading out of the room. Ash shook her head at him with a smile. "I have no idea how you can be such a good poker player with a poker face like that." He grinned, giving her a saucy wink. "It's easier when you don't give a shit about your opponents. This is family, so I don't have to stay so stoic. Besides, I know Jenny and Katie are close, so it's okay to let them share a little secret on my behalf." "Oh we've all got our little secrets, Andy. If you're nice, maybe I'll even let you in on one eventually." He tsked her in jest, waggling a finger in her direction. "My girls are keeping secrets from me? Heaven forbid, what next?" "What's next is Lauren, and frankly, I will probably be spending this entire presentation with my hand over my mouth, desperately trying to stay quiet, and likely failing miserably." Aisling had a strange grin on her face that told Andy this next one might be a little unusual. He didn't have long to consider it, though, as the door opened and the statuesque Lauren strode into the room decked out in a workout track suit with the 49ers logo on it. "Hey Andy, Ash. Thanks for letting all of us do this. I can't tell ya if I'm presenting my candidate to you on a lark, because I think she's actually a good idea or because of the girl herself. Maybe some combination of all three. So let me just get right down to brass tacks," the Aussie said, as she moved to sit down across from them. She picked up the remote and clicked the button as the screen sprung to life. On the screen was an image of a 49ers cheerleader, a fit woman with a large blonde mane of hair like sun dried grass, bubblegum pink lipstick and a smile that was so wide Andy wondered if it hurt when she finally let her face relax. She was pretty in a sort of pageant kind of way, although he suspected she didn't look quite so forced in regular photos that weren't taken from the 49ers website. "This is Jade Dillon. She's been a cheerleader for the 49ers for about three years now, and is literally the most optimistic person I have ever met in my entire life. She is bubbly and chipper and all smiles even at the worst of times. When the pandemic set in, she sent the entire 49ers organization an email reminding them that adversity is simply opportunity in disguise. No lie, Andy, she is completely unflappable in every way possible. She's, she's like a golden retriever in a person! Peppy and enthusiastic and always full of confidence." Andy looked over and saw that Ash had, indeed, both of her hands over her mouth, trying to hold in her desire to laugh, but he could still hear tiny giggles threatening to escape. He looked back to Lauren, a slightly quizzical expression on his face. "I can't tell if you admire her for that or if it drives you crazy." "Both!" Lauren said, throwing up her hands, laughing at herself. "It's infuriating! Even when she was kneeling in protest alongside Colin Kaepernick, she was still smiling about it. I don't know what to do with her! I mean, I get it. She's a kindergarten teacher as her day job, so pennies on the dollar that's what helps her keep all that energy up, but strewth, I just don't know how she does it! I mean, she comes from money, so I imagine that's gotta help." "Oh yeah?" The tall blonde tanned Aussie nodded, pushing the button to show Jade in a more normal setting, in an evening dress standing next to an older gentleman who Andy knew he'd seen somewhere before. "Her daddy is Cormack Dillon, one of the cofounders of Bindr, that teleconferencing tool everyone's using these days, but she's sort of tried to distance herself from 'er daddy over the last few years. An', in a 'ain't it a small world' moment, Cormack Dillon was the guy Katie used to work for before she came here, so she and Jade know one another already." "I could've asked Katie about her then," Andy lamented. "Shame she was just here." Jade looked much more lovely without the pancake makeup, her blonde hair a waterfall of curls, although Andy was also taken aback for a moment, reflexively trying to estimate how much that necklace she was wearing must have cost. After a second, Andy recognized where the photo was taken “ at the prestigious Palace of Fine Arts, where every year the Silicon Valley elite held their own private high end gala. Lauren pushed the button again and the image changed to Jade in more casual clothes, sitting with a handful of other girls in some sidewalk cafe overlooking the Pacific ocean. She had to be under thirty. There was no denying she was fit and lovely, although Andy did wonder if growing up steeped in money had warped her in some way. "Well, you kin ask her before make your mind up. She might have some things to say to sway your mind one way or another, but I simply gotta tell you this one thing, because it is first and foremost the reason I want to bring her to you,” Aisling looked like she was ready to turn blue, trying to hold in her breath and her laughter, her face scrunched up, actual tears rolling down her cheeks, all to Andy's confusion. Lauren pushed the button again and the photo zoomed in, showing just Jade now, laughing and smiling. "Jade Dillion,” She pushed the button again and the image of Jade suddenly had a very large cartoon cherry resting on top of her head. "...is an honest to god twenty six year old virgin." At that, Aisling couldn't help herself, and started laughing furiously, which only made Lauren grin even wider as Andy kept looking between the two of them, wondering desperately if they were putting him on. "It's not for religious reasons, an' it's not something she goes out of her way ta advertise, hell, I doubt very many people even know that she's cherry. But I went out drinking with her and the rest of the Gold Rush girls one night after an away game, and Jade got pretty hammered so I had to help her back to her hotel room. And when I was holding her hair back while she chundered in the dunny, she told me that she'd never lost her virginity, and that boys suck, and sh

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha welcomes two extraordinary guests: artist and curator Justine Kurland and Marina Chao, a curator at CPW. Together, they discuss their collaboration on The Rose, an exhibition that explores collage as a feminist form, strategy, and genealogy. Featuring works by over fifty contemporary artists and key figures from the 1960s and 1970s, the exhibition examines collage as both a means of world-building and a survival strategy in times of crisis. Sasha, Justine, and Marina delve into the layered responsibilities of artists and discuss the assumption that interpreting a straightforward photograph is inherently simpler than reading and interpreting conceptual art. https://www.justinekurland.com https://cpw.org/staff/ https://cpw.org/exhibition/the-rose/ Justine Kurland is an artist known for her utopian photographs of American landscapes and the fringe communities, both real and imagined, that inhabit them. Her early work comprises photographs, taken during many cross-country road trips, that counter the masculinist mythology of the American landscape, offering a radical female imaginary in its place. Her recent series of collages, SCUMB Manifesto, continues to make space for women by transforming books by canonized male photographers through destruction and reparation. Kurland's work has been exhibited at museums and galleries in the United States and abroad. Her work is included in permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Carnegie Museum, Pennsylvania; Getty Museum, California; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, among others. She works with Higher Pictures in New York. Marina Chao has previously held curatorial positions at the International Center of Photography and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As assistant curator at ICP she organized the exhibition Multiply, Identify, Her (2018) and contributed to the publication Public, Private, Secret: On Photography and the Configuration of Self (Aperture and ICP, 2018). She was awarded a 2019 Curatorial Research Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for Seeing Meaning, a project exploring the intersections of image, language, and technology.

We welcome Tricia Rose Burt to the show to tell her story! After spending nearly 15 years with some of America's top business institutions, Tricia Rose Burt made a dramatic shift and enrolled in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. This bold move led to a decade as a visual artist until the 2008 market crash forced another pivot. She created an award-winning one-woman show — How to Draw a Nekkid Man — about her transformation from executive to artist and her storytelling career took off after performing with The Moth, where she is also part of their corporate storytelling arm, MothWorks. These days, Tricia combines her corporate background and artistic experience, teaching storytelling to executives to help them more clearly share their ideas and initiatives. She also hosts and produces the award-winning podcast "No Time to be Timid," the centerpiece of the No Time to be Timid movement.The Compulsive Storyteller Podcast is a series of short personal true stories in 20 minutes or less written and narrated by, Gregg LeFevre.

The world's most petty and ill informed football podcast. A Blether Beyond The Grave, Replica Shirts, Fine Art XI and Terracing Teaser with Stephen Craigan and Robbie Lunn, Stuart Cosgrove and Tam Cowan.

Aliyyah Koloc, a professional racing driver and advocate for autism awareness, shares her unique journey from tennis to motorsports, her passion for art, and her involvement with Raphael Coin. She discusses the challenges and rewards of racing, the importance of tokenization in making art accessible, and her insights on the future of crypto for her generation. Why you should listen Raphael Coin was founded in early 2025 with the mission to democratize ownership of historically significant fine art. Following the recent authentication and rediscovery of “Recto: Study for the Battle of the Milvian Bridge” by Renaissance master Raffaello, the project was created to enable public participation in cultural heritage through blockchain technology. Raphael Coin uniquely allows public access and fractional ownership of an authenticated and recently rediscovered Renaissance masterpiece. It combines cultural importance, secure custody, and transparent ownership through blockchain technology. Raphael Coin offers fractional ownership of a culturally important artwork, the "Recto: Study for the Battle of the Milvian Bridge" piece recently rediscovered. Using blockchain technology, Raphael Coin makes fine art ownership accessible, secure, and transparent, allowing individuals worldwide to become stakeholders in cultural history. Founded in 2015, Gleec.com started as a comprehensive blockchain ecosystem aiming to simplify and secure digital asset management.  Today, Gleec provides integrated blockchain infrastructure, centralized and decentralized exchanges, crypto cards, secure chat, and banking solutions, all underpinned by strong regulatory compliance. Gleec's secure and licensed infrastructure now also powers innovative projects like Raphael Coin. Supporting links Stabull Finance Raphael Coin Gleec Andy on Twitter  Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.  

What Hump? Thirty Years of Cybersecurity and the Fine Art of Pretending It's Not a Human ProblemA new transmission from Musing On Society and Technology Newsletter, by Marco CiappelliJune 6, 2025A Post-Infosecurity Europe Reflection on the Strange but Predictable Ways We've Spent Thirty Years Pretending Cybersecurity Isn't About People.⸻ Once there was a movie titled “Young Frankenstein” (1974) — a black-and-white comedy directed by Mel Brooks, written with Gene Wilder, and starring Wilder and Marty Feldman, who delivers the iconic “What hump?” line.Let me describe the scene:[Train station, late at night. Thunder rumbles. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein steps off the train, greeted by a hunched figure holding a lantern — Igor.]Igor: Dr. Frankenstein?Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: It's Franken-steen.Igor: Oh. Well, they told me it was Frankenstein.Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I'm not a Frankenstein. I'm a Franken-steen.Igor (cheerfully): All right.Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (noticing Igor's eyes): You must be Igor.Igor: No, it's pronounced Eye-gor.Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (confused): But they told me it was Igor.Igor: Well, they were wrong then, weren't they?[They begin walking toward the carriage.]Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (noticing Igor's severe hunchback): You know… I'm a rather brilliant surgeon. Perhaps I could help you with that hump.Igor (looks puzzled, deadpan): What hump?[Cut to them boarding the carriage, Igor climbing on the outside like a spider, grinning wildly.]It's a joke, of course. One of the best. A perfectly delivered absurdity that only Mel Brooks and Marty Feldman could pull off. But like all great comedy, it tells a deeper truth.Last night, standing in front of the Tower of London, recording one of our On Location recaps with Sean Martin, that scene came rushing back. We joked about invisible humps and cybersecurity. And the moment passed. Or so I thought.Because hours later — in bed, hotel window cracked open to the London night — I was still hearing it: “What hump?”And that's when it hit me: this isn't just a comedy bit. It's a diagnosis. Here we are at Infosecurity Europe, celebrating its 30th anniversary. Three decades of cybersecurity: a field born of optimism and fear, grown in complexity and contradiction.We've built incredible tools. We've formed global communities of defenders. We've turned “hacker” from rebel to professional job title — with a 401(k), branded hoodies, and a sponsorship deal. But we've also built an industry that — much like poor Igor — refuses to admit something's wrong.The hump is right there. You can see it. Everyone can see it. And yet… we smile and say: “What hump?”We say cybersecurity is a priority. We put it in slide decks. We hold awareness months. We write policies thick enough to be used as doorstops. But then we underfund training. We silo the security team. We click links in emails that say whatever will make us think it's important — just like those pieces of snail mail stamped URGENT that we somehow believe, even though it turns out to be an offer for a new credit card we didn't ask for and don't want. Except this time, the payload isn't junk mail — it's a clown on a spring exploding out of a fun box.Igor The hump moves, shifts, sometimes disappears from view — but it never actually goes away. And if you ask about it? Well… they were wrong then, weren't they?That's because it's not a technology problem. This is the part that still seems hard to swallow for some: Cybersecurity is not a technology problem. It never was.Yes, we need technology. But technology has never been the weak link.The weak link is the same as it was in 1995: us. The same it was before the internet and before computers: Humans.With our habits, assumptions, incentives, egos, and blind spots. We are the walking, clicking, swiping hump in the system. We've had encryption for decades. We've known about phishing since the days of AOL. Zero Trust was already discussed in 2004 — it just didn't have a cool name yet.So why do we still get breached? Why does a ransomware gang with poor grammar and a Telegram channel take down entire hospitals?Because culture doesn't change with patches. Because compliance is not belief. Because we keep treating behavior as a footnote, instead of the core.The Problem We Refuse to See at the heart of this mess is a very human phenomenon:vIf we can't see it, we pretend it doesn't exist.We can quantify risk, but we rarely internalize it. We trust our tech stack but don't trust our users. We fund detection but ignore education.And not just at work — we ignore it from the start. We still teach children how to cross the street, but not how to navigate a phishing attempt or recognize algorithmic manipulation. We give them connected devices before we teach them what being connected means. In this Hybrid Analog Digital Society, we need to treat cybersecurity not as an optional adult concern, but as a foundational part of growing up. Because by the time someone gets to the workforce, the behavior has already been set.And worst of all, we operate under the illusion that awareness equals transformation.Let's be real: Awareness is cheap. Change is expensive. It costs time, leadership, discomfort. It requires honesty. It means admitting we are all Igor, in some way. And that's the hardest part. Because no one likes to admit they've got a hump — especially when it's been there so long, it feels like part of the uniform.We have been looking the other way for over thirty years. I don't want to downplay the progress. We've come a long way, but that only makes the stubbornness more baffling.We've seen attacks evolve from digital graffiti to full-scale extortion. We've watched cybercrime move from subculture to multi-billion-dollar global enterprise. And yet, our default strategy is still: “Let's build a bigger wall, buy a shinier tool, and hope marketing doesn't fall for that PDF again.”We know what works: Psychological safety in reporting. Continuous learning. Leadership that models security values. Systems designed for humans, not just admins.But those are hard. They're invisible on the balance sheet. They don't come with dashboards or demos. So instead… We grin. We adjust our gait. And we whisper, politely:“What hump?”So what Happens now? If you're still reading this, you're probably one of the people who does see it. You see the hump. You've tried to point it out. Maybe you've been told you're imagining things. Maybe you've been told it's “not a priority this quarter.” And maybe now you're tired. I get it.But here's the thing: Nothing truly changes until we name the hump.Call it bias.Call it culture.Call it education.Call it the human condition.But don't pretend it's not there. Not anymore. Because every time we say “What hump?” — we're giving up a little more of the future. A future that depends not just on clever code and cleverer machines, but on something far more fragile:Belief. Behavior. And the choice to finally stop pretending.We joked in front of a thousand-year-old fortress. Because sometimes jokes tell the truth better than keynote stages do. And maybe the real lesson isn't about cybersecurity at all.Maybe it's just this: If we want to survive what's coming next, we have to see what's already here.- The End➤ Infosecurity Europe: https://www.itspmagazine.com/infosecurity-europe-2025-infosec-london-cybersecurity-event-coverageAnd ... we're not done yet ... stay tuned and follow Sean and Marco as they will be On Location at the following conferences over the next few months:➤ Black Hat USA in Las Vegas in August: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2025-hacker-summer-camp-2025-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegasFOLLOW ALL OF OUR ON LOCATION CONFERENCE COVERAGEhttps://www.itspmagazine.com/technology-and-cybersecurity-conference-coverageShare this newsletter and invite anyone you think would enjoy it!As always, let's keep thinking!— Marco [https://www.marcociappelli.com]

"Mystic Maya: Journey of Initiation," is a cinematic masterwork that unveils the ancient wisdom of the Maya. Prepare to be captivated, challenged, and forever changed by this extraordinary exploration of esoteric knowledge.Step into a hidden realm beyond the pyramids as this captivating documentary unravels the truth about these enigmatic structures, intertwining the sacred initiation rites of the Maya, Egypt, and modern Western Esoteric Mystery schools. Prepare for a mesmerizing journey that challenges your perception of history and illuminates profound connections between diverse esoteric traditions."Mystic Maya" unlocks the secrets of pyramids, revealing their purpose as catalysts for personal transformation and global change. Featuring intimate interviews with Mayan lineage holders, esteemed Western Esoteric authors, and renowned experts, "Mystic Maya" reveals the once-veiled knowledge and illuminates the hidden dimensions of world history. Experience a transcendent journey that awakens curiosity and invites you to embark on your own path of initiation.Douglas Beechwood is a filmmaker with extensive experience in Commercial/Documentary and Live event production. He studied Fine Art and Photography at the University of Colorado and has immersed himself in the study of world religions for over three decades.Notably, Douglas served as Editor for "Yangsi: Reincarnation is Just the Beginning," a documentary following the life of renowned Buddhist Lama Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche for close to twenty years, from his coronation at age three to his graduation as an empowered Tibetan teacher. Additionally, he served as Production Manager, TD, and finish editor for all three seasons of the New Mexico PBS series entitled "Ageless Living."Douglas worked for twelve years as the Technical Director and Production Manager for the prestigious Festival of Faiths in Louisville, KY, which brings together faith leaders from diverse backgrounds from Native America, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism for a multi-day theatrical livestream conference. His efforts helped grow the Festival of Faiths from a small local event into a world-renowned happening that continues to engage the viewership of many millions.His spiritual journey embraces practices in Christianity, Native American beliefs, Western Esoteric Mystery Schools, and the profound teachings of Dzogchen Buddhism. Douglas further works as the media coordinator for the worldwide outreach of Tsoknyi Rinpoche's humanitarian activities through the Pundarika Foundation USA, which involves producing Buddhist retreats and secular mindfulness programs, as well as the support of Buddhist schools and nunneries in Nepal and Tibet.Free viewing, https://www.mysticmayamovie.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/earth-ancients--2790919/support.

Elizabeth Ravn (b.1994, Brooklyn, NY) received a Bachelors in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL in 2016. She lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo and group exhibitions include David Peter Francis, New York (2025); die raum, Berlin (2024); Deborah Schamoni, Munich (2023); SOX, Berlin (2023); KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2022); ChertLüdde Bungalow, Berlin (2022); Kinderhook & Caracas, Berlin (2021); Kjøpmannsgata Ung Kunst, Trondheim, (2021); and Pina, Vienna (2019). Elizabeth Ravn, Bild, 2024, oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 31 1/2 inches (100 x 80 cm). Courtesy of the artist and David Peter Francis, NY. Elizabeth Ravn, Cubbyhole, 2025, oil on canvas, 43 1/4 x 35 3/8 inches (110 x 90 cm). Courtesy of the artist and David Peter Francis, NY. Elizabeth Ravn, November, 2024, oil on canvas, 43 1/4 x 35 3/8 inches (110 x 90 cm). Courtesy of the artist and David Peter Francis, NY Elizabeth Ravn, Telephone, 2024, oil on canvas, 27 1/2 x 19 3/4 inches (70 x 50 cm). Courtesy of the artist and David Peter Francis, NY.

University of Georgia professor, Rafiki Jenkins, joins Doc and Mike to discuss the origins of human monstrosity (can a human be monstrous?) and how horror fictions presents and complicates history and American culture. We hope you have a fortunate Friday the 13th!   Jerry Rafiki Jenkins is Assistant Director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Georgia. Rafiki holds a doctorate in Literature from the University of California, San Diego, and his research focuses on Black speculative fiction and film, with an emphasis on horror, and future human studies. Rafiki is the author of Anti-Blackness and Human Monstrosity in Black American Horror Fiction (Ohio State UP, 2024) and The Paradox of Blackness in African American Vampire Fiction (Ohio State UP, 2019), and he co-edited, with Martin Japtok, Human Contradictions in Octavia E. Butler's Work (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and Authentic Blackness/Real Blackness: Essays on the Meaning of Blackness in Literature and Culture (Peter Lang, 2011). Rafiki has also authored several book chapters, and his peer-reviewed articles appear in Pacific Coast Philology, Screening Noir, African American Review, Journal of Children's Literature, and Science Fiction Studies.     About this podcast: MONSTERS! They haunt our days and chill our dreaming nights, to paraphrase Emily Dickinson. There's not a population on earth that does not have its own unique monster stories to tell to frighten, but also to instruct on the nature of good and evil, right and wrong. But what happens when monsters get out of control, when the monstrous imagination starts to bleed over into the real world? What are the effects of monsters on real people's real lives? This podcast examines the histories and mysteries of some of our favorite monsters to unlock their secrets and expose their influence on our lives.   About the hosts: Michael Chemers (MFA, PhD) is a Professor of Dramatic Literature in the Department of Theater Arts at UC Santa Cruz. His work on monsters includes The Monster in Theatre History: This Thing of Darkness (London, UK: Routledge 2018). Dr. Chemers is the Founding Director of The Center for Monster Studies. Formerly the Founding Director of the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy Program at Carnegie Mellon University, he joined the faculty of UCSC in 2012. He is also the author of Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2010) and Staging Stigma: A Critical Examination of the American Freak Show (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007). Dr. Chemers is also an actor, a juggler, and a writer of drama. Mike Halekakis is an entrepreneur, business owner, internet marketer, software engineer, writer, musician, podcaster, and hardcore situational enthusiast. He is the co-founder of What We Learned, a company that specializes in compassionate training courses on complex adult subjects such as caregiving for people who are sick, planning for death, and administering after the loss of a loved one. He is also the CEO of Moneyfingers Inc., a company that trains people on how to successfully create, market, and sell products on the internet. When not burning the candle at both ends with a blowtorch, Mike loves video games, outdoor festivals, reading comics and novels, role-playing, writing and playing music, hanging out with the world's best cats, and spending time with his amazing wife and their collective worldwide friend-group.

Leonardo Drew invites us into the physical, philosophical, and sometimes painful world of material transformation. Unlike artists who work with found objects carrying built-in histories, Drew deliberately purchases new materials that he must personally weather and transform. "I need to become the weather," he explains, describing a process where he subjects materials to rigorous physical manipulation that often results in literal bloodshed.This physical commitment reflects Drew's deeper philosophy about creation. He describes himself as "the crack addict of art," chasing the highs of creative breakthrough through persistent experimentation and a willingness to fail. His practice demands patience—it took seven years from his initial decision to create what would become his signature style before producing what he considered his first successful piece (which he numbered "8," acknowledging the previous attempts).Drew conceptualizes artists as antennas receiving creative energy from the universe. He purposefully travels to "cradles of civilization" like China and Machu Picchu, absorbing experiences that later emerge organically in his work. "You don't have to say I'm making work about this specifically," he notes, "because that would cage and imprison the whole idea." This philosophy requires "getting out of the way" of one's own creative process—removing ego and preconceptions to allow authentic creation to happen.By refusing to title his monumental works beyond simple numbering, Drew extends his transformation-based practice to the viewing experience itself. Each piece continues to transform through viewers' unique interpretations, creating an endless cycle of meaning-making that transcends the artist's original intent. As Drew profoundly states, "As I'm moving closer and closer to answering questions, at the same time I'm moving further away from the answers."Want to experience this transformative approach in your own creative practice? Keep your channels open by constantly introducing new ideas and techniques. When feeling stuck, switch things up dramatically—if you're a painter, try sculpture; if you work abstractly, attempt representation. The discomfort of new approaches often leads to the most significant breakthroughs.Leonardo Drew in "Investigation" - Season 7 - "Art in the Twenty-First Century" | Art21https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymMGgOCoK8k&list=PLfV5vsCYQApkupBnzNY3YxKpFJeNb7HqR&index=5An Interview with Leonardo Drew | Wadsworth Antheneumhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-75fm_UzhYg&list=PLfV5vsCYQApkupBnzNY3YxKpFJeNb7HqR&index=4Woodcuts: Leonardo Drew | useum of Arts and Design (MAD)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3S2nvDcvU&list=PLfV5vsCYQApkupBnzNY3YxKpFJeNb7HqR&index=3Artist Talk: Leonardo Drew | Amon Carter Museum of American Art Fort Worthhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtsqaHfEYxc&list=PLfV5vsCYQApkupBnzNY3YxKpFJeNb7HqRCarrie Scott, SEEN Podcast | Leonardo DrewSend us a message - we would love to hear from you!Make sure to follow us on Instagram here:@justmakeartpodcast @tynathanclark @nathanterborg

Send us a textMichele Landel is an American artist living and working in Sèvres, France. She holds degrees in Fine Arts and Art History, and her work has been exhibited across Europe, the UK, and the United States. Her practice has been featured in The Collage Ideas Book (Ilex Press, 2018) and the forthcoming Fil Découpé (Pyramyd Editions, 2025).Landel was awarded the Surface Design Association's 2018 Innovative Technique Award and was a finalist for the Prix Carré-Sur-Seine in both 2019 and 2020. She is currently represented by Galerie Amélie du Chalard (Paris & NYC), Ségolène Brossette Galerie (Paris), Le Salon Vert (Geneva), Donna Seager Fine Arts & Artists' Books (Mill Valley), and Muriel Guépin Gallery (NYC)https://michelelandel.com/https://www.instagram.com/michelelandel/Support the show

On this episode of the Arkansas Wildlife Podcast Trey Reid sits down with Dr. Jennifer Jankauskas, curator at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, and Chris Revelle, director of Community Engagement to talk about The Long View: From Conservation to Sustainability: Works from the Bank of America Collection.

In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman sit down with musician and artist Dan Blakeslee! Dan has been making music and art for the past 30 years — in fact, he performed at Laura's college back in 2003! His music is largely about his life, but sometimes it's about ghouls and vampires. His art, which we think pairs beautifully with his music, is whimsical and playful with visions of mermaids and other mystical sea things!In this episode, Dan regales us with magical tales, including the unofficial nominee for “most supportive boss in the universe”, his time spent busking in Boston, the challenges and triumphs of screenprinting, and that time he got lost and found himself in Sleepy Hollow! This episode will make you laugh until your cheeks hurt. Find more Dan online at www.DanBlakeslee.com and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/danblakesleemusic and Facebook at www.facebook.com/@DanBlakesleeAndTheCalabashClub. Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord.If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show! We'd also like to thank The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH for their support of our recent Tiny Art Exchange Zine; Red River Theatres in Concord, NH for collaborating with us on the Creative Guts Short Film Festival; and Creative Co Op as a sponsor of the film festival. We appreciate all the folks and organizations who give support to Creative Guts.

French Impressionism is a major exhibition developed by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria. Ksenia Radchenko, an art historian and lecturer of art history at the University of Sydney, talks about the collection, the essence of impressionism and the lives of artists. - В Национальной галерее Виктории открылась выставка работ французских импрессионистов из коллекции Бостонского музея в рамках ежегодной серии «Зимние шедевры». Искусствовед и преподаватель истории искусства в Сиднейском университете Ксения Радченко рассказывает о коллекции, сути импрессионизма и жизни художников.

Send us a textKatherine Edney is a Sydney-based artist whose evocative oil paintings delve into themes of identity, memory, and emotional transformation. Born in 1983, she holds a Master of Fine Arts by Research in Painting from UNSW's College of Fine Arts (2008), as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts with First Class Honours (2004).Edney's work has received wide recognition in major Australian art prizes. She was a finalist in the prestigious Archibald Prize in both 2019 and 2020. Her 2019 entry, Self-portrait with Ariel, captured a poignant and deeply personal moment during late pregnancy, highlighting her ongoing interest in the strength and vulnerability of the female body during periods of transformation. Other accolades include multiple selections for the Salon des Refusés (2021–2024), the Portia Geach Memorial Award, Ravenswood Women's Art Prize, and the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship.Her recent solo exhibition, I want to lie in the clouds with you, held at Curl Curl Creative Space, explored mental health and emotional landscapes. Through dreamlike compositions and layered textures, Edney invites the viewer into a contemplative space of calm and introspection. Katherine Edney Her portfolio spans portraiture, still life, and landscape. Notable works include David, Teena, and the black dog (Archibald finalist, 2020) and Ariel as a Green Cat (finalist, 2024 National Emerging Art Prize). Edney's paintings often blend realism with symbolism, creating narratives that resonate on both personal and universal levels.Alongside her painting practice, Edney is committed to arts education and runs classes for children on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Her work continues to evolve, underpinned by a strong dedication to storytelling and emotional nuance.Discover more at katherineedney.com.Thanks Katherine, we really appreciate your time!

David Wojahn grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. He studied at the University of Minnesota and the University of Arizona. Ever since his first collection, Icehouse Lights, was chosen for the Yale Series of Younger Poets award in 1981, Wojahn has been one of American poetry's most thoughtful examiners of culture and memory. His work often investigates how history plays out in the lives of individuals, and poet Tom Sleigh says that his poems “meld the political and personal in a way that is unparalleled by any living American poet.”Wojahn's book World Tree (2011) received the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets. His collection Interrogation Palace: New and Selected Poems 1982–2004 (2006), which Peter Campion called “superb” and “panoramic” in a review for Poetry, showcases Wojahn's formal range, the scope of his personal narratives, and his intense, imaginative monologues and character sketches, such as his sonnets on pop culture icons and rock-and-roll musicians in Mystery Train (1990). He is also celebrated for the emotional resonance of his poetry—the ability to, in the words of poet Jean Valentine, “follow … tragedy to its grave depths, with dignity and unsparingness, and egolessness.”In addition to his books of poetry, Wojahn is the author of From the Valley of Making: Essays on the Craft of Poetry (2015) and Strange Good Fortune (2001), a collection of essays on contemporary poetry. He coedited A Profile of Twentieth Century American Poetry (1991), and edited a posthumous collection of his wife Lynda Hull's poetry, The Only World (1995).Wojahn has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Indiana Arts Commission. He teaches poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University and in the low residency MFA in Writing program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.-bio via Poetry Foundation This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Jessica Gale (@Jess.Gale.Art) Jessica Gale is a British landscape artist born in 1967 in Catterick, Yorkshire. She began painting in 2010 during a period living in Amsterdam, inspired by the subdued beauty of a Dutch winter and influenced by Rembrandt's moody palette . Her work encompasses both representational and abstract landscapes. She investigates the interplay of shapes, light, and negative space, manipulating these elements through form and colour to convey the energy of her subjects. Gale trained at The Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea, London, and currently resides and works in London and Dorset. Her diverse media include oil, acrylic, charcoal, pastels, and printmaking. She has exhibited widely, including at Harvey and Woodd in Edinburgh and the Otter Gallery in Dorset, and participated in the 2024 season of Sky's Landscape Artist of the Year. For more information on the work of Jessica Gale go tohttps://jessicagalefineart.com To Support this podcast from as little as £3 per month: www.patreon/ministryofarts For full line up of confirmed artists go to https://www.ministryofarts.orgEmail: ministryofartsorg@gmail.comSocial Media: @ministryofartsorg Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Comedian and writer Athena Kugblenu has a hot take: we're all liars, and that's OK. Exploring the line between the little lies that do no harm and the big, self-serving whoppers you'd best avoid, she offers a crucial question to ask yourself to help determine if honesty is the best policy — or if a fib might best fit the situation.Want to help shape TED's shows going forward? Fill out our survey!Become a TED Member today at https://ted.com/join Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alejandro Cartagena | Ground Rules Photographer, publisher, and curator Alejandro Cartagena joined me at the 2025 Chico Review. We talk about the many different ways in which Alejandro practices photography and how much he has embraced being and editor and curator for others. Alejandro also discusses his upcoming retrospective, Ground Rules, at SFMOMA, curated by Shana Lopes along with the accompanying book published by Aperture. The show opens in September and the book is scheduled for November. https://alejandrocartagena.com — https://www.instagram.com/alexcartagenamex/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Alejandro Cartagena, Mexican (b. 1977, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico. His projects employ landscape and portraiture as a means to examine social, urban, and environmental issues. Cartagena's work has been exhibited internationally in more than 50 group and individual exhibitions in spaces including the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris and the CCCB in Barcelona, and his work is in the collections of several museums including the San Francisco MOMA, The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, The MFAH in Houston, the Portland Museum of Art, The West Collection, the Coppel collection, the FEMSA Collection, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the George Eastman House and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and among others. Cartagena has received several awards including the international Photolucida Critical Mass Book Award, the Street Photography Award in London Photo Festival, the Lente Latino Award in Chile, the Premio IILA-FotoGrafia Award in Rome and the Salon de la Fotografia of Fototeca de Nuevo Leon in Mexico among others. He has been named an International Discoveries of the FotoFest festival, a FOAM magazine TALENT and an Emerging photographer of PDN magazine. He has also been a finalist for the Aperture Portfolio Award and has been nominated for the Santa Fe Photography Prize, the Prix Pictet Prize, the Photoespaña Descubrimientos Award and the FOAM Paul Huff Award. His work has been published internationally in magazines and newspapers such as Newsweek, Nowness, Domus, the Financial Times, The New York Times, Le Monde, Stern, PDN, The New Yorker, and Wallpaper among others.

We meet Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye (b. 1938, Istanbul, TR) is a ceramic artist known for her refined, monochrome stoneware bowls, which she has been producing for nearly sixty years. Working with the ancient coiling technique and a traditional wooden kick wheel, Ebüzziya Siesbye creates vessels that bear the intimate marks of her hand, balancing density and spaciousness, firmness and fragility. Fired at high temperatures, her bowls possess a stone-like solidity, while their sharp-edged lips and small, recessed bases lend them an impression of levitation. Though often unadorned, some pieces feature delicate horizontal lines along the rim to, as the artist describes, “prevent them from lifting off the ground.”Ebüzziya Siesbye studied sculpture at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts before working at ceramic studios in Höhr-Grenzhausen, DE, and Istanbul. In 1963, she moved to Denmark to join the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory, later founding her first independent studio in Copenhagen in 1969. She has lived and worked in Paris since 1987. She has been awarded many honors, including the 2022 Danmarks Nationalbank's Anniversary Foundation Honor Award and the Aydın Doğan Award, and her work has been the subject of retrospective exhibitions at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul (TR), and the Museum of Decorative Arts, Copenhagen (DK).Ebüzziya Siesbye's ceramics are held in numerous museum collections, including the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New-York (NY); the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (UK); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA); Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (FR); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (NL); the Museum of Decorative Arts, Copenhagen (DK); the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (SE); the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, (SCT); and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (TX), among others.Follow @Salon94 on Instagram.Alev's current solo show ‘Vibrations' which runs in New York at Salon 94 until 8th August 2025, address 3 East 89th Street: https://salon94.com/exhibitions/alev-ebuzziya-siesbye-vibrations Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“We don't have to look far to realize there's a void of godly voices in modern youth culture. When we look around and see students struggling with self-harm, gender identity, as well as depression and anxiety, to name a few, we can see the void of godly voices,” writes Ashton Peters. “There's a void of Christ-honoring love, biblical discipleship, and authentic mentorship. There's a void of spiritual mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, who deeply love a generation and want them to be all that God calls them to be.” In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk to Ashton Peters about why youth ministries need to fill that void with good adult mentors, and how they can best do so. I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. Ashton Peters is national Fine Arts coordinator for the Assemblies of God and author of The Third Voice, forthcoming from Gospel Publishing House. ————— This episode of the Influence podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of the Ignite Parenting Conversation Cards. Strengthen your family's relationships with God and each other with these easy-to-use Conversation Cards. Each card is uniquely designed with a question, faith builder statement, and a Bible verse to spark meaningful conversations that cultivate an open and nurturing environment in your home. For more information about the Ignite Parenting Conversation Cards visit MyHealthyChurch.com.

This week the American Landscape Painter Kim Casebeer whose career spans some 25 years and whose work is shown in private, corporate and museum collections throughout the United States. Kim is represented in galleries from Colorado to Wyoming, Montana, Arizona and her home state of Kansas. She is, she says, in a good place in her career now balancing her time between studio commissioned work, plein air painting and teaching workshops. Kim was born in Newton, KS in 1970 and grew up in the tiny town of Goessel, KS with her two younger sisters Trish and Jenny. Her father Lloyd is a retired farmer and mother Marlene, a retired nurse. Kim's family are fifth generation farmers so her childhood was spent learning to grow a variety of crops and compete in the local 4H club where her talent as a horticulturist was noteworthy. An early interest in all things artistic was encouraged by her parents from drawing tractors with her dad to learning a variety of mediums through high school. It was a natural progression for Kim to choose art school as she laid the foundation for her career by graduating with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from Kansas State University with an emphasis in Graphic Design in 1992. It was here that she met Shannon and the couple recently celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary. Upon graduating, Kim's first jobs were in graphic design with her art work pursued as a hobby. It was only when her paintings were generating more income than her employment that Kim decided it was time to quit her day job and focus on being a full-time artist in 2001. Kim is a Master Signature Member of the American Women Artists, and a Signature Member of the Oil Painters of America and the Pastel Society of America. She has received multiple awards and publicity for her work that focuses on the big skies and wide open spaces of the western United States. Kim lives in Manhattan, KS with her husband Shannon, sons Collin and Lucas, and Australian Shepherd, Matilda. Kim's links:https://www.kimcasebeer.com/https://www.instagram.com/kimcasebeerartist/ Some favorite female artists in visual arts:Kami MendlikChula BeauregardJane HuntCindy BaronShanna HernandezMelissa Scott MillerJan BeaneyChiharu ShiotaHost: Chris StaffordProduced by Hollowell StudiosFollow @theaartpodcast on InstagramThe AART Podcast on YouTubeEmail: theaartpodcast@gmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/wisp--4769409/support.

Episode Summary:Sherry Lin, a registered dietitian, nutritionist, and professional dancer. Sherry discusses how dancers and athletes can fuel their bodies effectively to perform at their highest level without resorting to restrictive diets. She highlights the importance of developing a personalized fueling strategy, rather than following rigid meal plans, to ensure long-term energy, recovery, and optimal performance.Sherry shares insights into the mistakes many dancers make, such as under-eating or focusing too much on dieting, and instead promotes a flexible, sustainable approach to nutrition. She introduces the "performance plate" method, which helps dancers balance carbohydrates, protein, and vegetables according to their activity levels, whether they're on low, moderate, or high-intensity days. Sherry also addresses the importance of meal timing around training and recovery to enhance muscle repair and energy replenishment.Throughout the conversation, Sherry emphasizes the importance of self-awareness in understanding nutritional needs and encourages dancers to be their own “badass detective” to assess their unique bodies. She also offers tips on meal prep, even for busy schedules, and discusses her Optimal Performance Nutrition program, which guides dancers through creating their personalized nutrition plans.This episode is packed with practical tips and advice for dancers looking to improve their energy levels, reduce recovery time, and sustain a healthy career through thoughtful nutrition.Show Notes:(0:00) Introduction to Sherry Lin, registered dietitian and professional dancer(2:30) Sherry's journey from Chicago to LA and booking her first commercial(6:00) Nutrition's impact on dancer performance(9:00) Common mistakes dancers make with diets and fueling(12:30) The "performance plate" and adapting meals for intensity levels(16:00) Why fueling strategies are better than rigid diets(18:30) Intuitive eating and why it's not ideal for high performers(22:00) Balancing physical, emotional, and mental health with food(25:00) Post-training nutrition for recovery and energy(28:00) Sherry's Optimal Performance Nutrition program(32:00) Easy meal prep tips for dancers(35:00) Sherry's approach to self-awareness and healthy eating(38:00) How to get started with Sherry's program(40:00) Conclusion and actionable steps for creating fueling strategiesBiography:Hailing from Chicago, Sherry Lin is a certified registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) and dancer Within her first year in LA, Sherry booked her first commercial, two print advertisements, and a guest appearance on a mini-series directed by Lulu Wang, starring Sarayu Blue, Nicole Kidman, and Ji-Young Yoo.She performed for several years with Hip Hop ConnXion Dance Company and earned a Master's in Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Michigan.Sherry is also the founder of Rhythm and Nutrition, INC, a nutrition counseling service helping high achievers fuel their bodies so they can sustain doing what they love to their highest ability! Sherry completed her nutrition degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has over ten years of experience working as a dietitian specializing in performance nutrition and eating disorder recovery. She promotes holistic wellness through dance, nutrition, faith, and community.Connect on Social Media:https://www.instagram.com/sherrylin.rdWebsitehttps://www.sherrylinrd.com/