Podcasts about first draft

Whoever puts the first number, the first draft, or the first design in front of the team quietly decides where everyone else ends up. This week I dig into why anchoring bias steers our estimates, redesigns, and negotiations more than we realize, and what we can do about it.Ever set out to redesign a feature and ended up with the same product wearing a fresh coat of paint?There's a good chance you got anchored before the work even started.Anchoring bias is the tendency to lean too heavily on the first piece of information we encounter when making a decision. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman named it back in 1974, and the effect is stubborn. Their famous Wheel of Fortune study showed that even a totally random number could pull people's estimates toward it. Later research on experienced judges and real estate agents found the same pattern, even when the professionals swore the anchor hadn't influenced them at all. That denial is a big part of what makes this one so tricky.On product teams, this shows up constantly. The first draft of a PRD sets the frame every reviewer edits around. The old design becomes the gravity for the new one, and a supposed redesign quietly turns into a reskin. The first estimate in a planning meeting drags everybody else's numbers toward it.This week, on the Cognition Catalog, I walk through where anchoring comes from, why willpower and expertise barely help, and a handful of specific moves you can make to keep the first thing seen from automatically becoming the thing that wins. Give it a listen and let me know if you've caught yourself getting anchored lately.Topics:• 3:00 The Two-Week Estimate Trap• 4:45 What Is the Anchoring Effect?• 5:20 The Wheel of Fortune Experiment• 6:20 Why We Stop Adjusting Too Soon• 7:15 Even Experienced Judges Get Anchored• 8:10 The Real Estate Study• 9:00 How First Drafts Frame Everything• 9:35 Why Redesigns Turn Into Reskins• 9:55 The Status Quo Is an Anchor Nobody Chose• 10:30 Using Anchoring on Purpose• 11:25 Why Willpower Doesn't Fix It• 12:00 Five Things to Try With Your Team• 14:30 The Bottom Line—Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today's episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today's episode, why don't you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton.If you haven't already, sign up for our email list. We won't spam you. Pinky swear.• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher⁠

Welcome back to "First Draft." Hosted by Field Yates and Mel Kiper Jr., we're listing the top "under-the-radar" prospects from the 2027 NFL Draft Class. (0:00) Welcome to "First Draft" (3:00) Alabama Edge Yhonzae Pierre(4:45) Miami Edge Damon Wilson II(7:36) Texas Tech TE Terrance Carter Jr.(10:44) Florida RB Jadan Baugh(13:11) Notre Dame S Adon Shuler(16:40) Clemson CB Ashton Hampton(20:27) Georgia LB Chris Cole(22:52) Iowa G Kade Pieper(25:30) Minnesota Edge Anthony Smith(27:52) Texas A&M Edge Anto Saka(29:55) Orange Crushers of the Week (35:18) Final thoughts! #ESPN #ncaa #firstdraft #nfl #nfldraft #sports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jess Row is the author of the novels The New Earth and Your Face in Mine as well as a collection of essays, White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American Imagination.  His short story collections include The Train to Lo Wu, Nobody Ever Gets Lost and the newly published Storyknife. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Tin House, Conjunctions, Ploughshares, Granta, n+1, and elsewhere, has been anthologized three times in The Best American Short Stories, and has won two Pushcart Prizes and a PEN/O. Henry Award. He has received a Guggenheim fellowship, an NEA fellowship in fiction among other honors. He directs the undergraduate creative writing program in the Department of English at NYU and is an ordained senior dharma teacher in the Kwam Um School of Zen.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Triple Arsenal, double Man City and Bruno Captain? ✅ FREE team rating in seconds by Hub AI: https://go.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/ai-team-rating?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_campaign=gianni&utm_content=team-rating&via=gianni

Welcome back to "First Draft." Hosted by Field Yates and Mel Kiper Jr., we're diving into our preseason, top-10 2027 NFL Draft prospect lists, led by Ohio State WR Jeremiah Love and Oregon QB Dante Moore. (0:00) Welcome to "First Draft" (4:55) No. 1: Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith (9:00) Mel's No. 2: Texas Edge Colin Simmons (10:48) Field's No. 2: Oregon QB Dante Moore (12:50) Field's No. 3: Oklahoma State QB Drew Mestemaker (19:03) Mel's No. 3: Notre Dame CB Leonard Moore (23:40) Mel's No. 5: Texas QB Arch Manning (26:10) No. 6: South Carolina Edge Dylan Stewart (29:25) Mel's No. 7: Texas WR Cam Coleman (31:52) Field's No. 8: LSU OT Jordan Seaton (33:32) Mel's No. 8: Notre Dame QB Jordan Carr (37:00) Mel's No. 9: Texas OT Trevor Goosby (38:36) Field's No. 10: Ole Miss DT Will Echoles (40:08) Final thoughts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Richard Russo is the author of 11 novels, including most recently, Under the Falls, Somebody's Fool, Chances Are . . . , Everybody's Fool, and That Old Cape Magic; two collections of stories; and the memoir Elsewhere. In 2002 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, which, like Nobody's Fool, won multiple awards for its screen adaptation, and in 2023 his novel Straight Man was adapted into the television series Lucky Hank. In 2017 he received France's Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine. He lives in Port­land, Maine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where do you start with AI in HR? Not with everything — that's how implementation goes sideways. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts gives you the five specific HR tasks to automate first, a human checkpoint for each one, and the three things that should never be handed to AI no matter how far along you get.In this episode, you'll learn:Resume screening — load minimum qualifications into a Claude Project or custom GPT; AI ranks candidates; you read every shortlisted resume; never auto-reject for employment gapsInterview scheduling and candidate comms — eliminate the back-and-forth with a booking link; build AI-drafted templates for every stage; automate logistics, not empathyOnboarding paperwork and new hire workflows — offer letter, I-9, W-4, e-signatures, IT setup, 30/60/90-day check-ins; AI gets you 70–80% of any checklist, you do the last 20%Employee FAQ chatbot — build an AI assistant trained on your handbook; employees get instant answers from your actual policies, not the internetFirst drafts — job descriptions, offer letters, policy language; AI gets you to 80%, you edit the last 20%; always run new policies by your attorneyWhat never to automate: final hire and fire decisions; performance and coaching conversations; sensitive judgment calls, investigations, or anything touching individual rights.CHAPTERS:00:00 Last Week Was Readiness — This Week Is Where to Start 01:00 How AI Saved Kerri $65–70K a Year 03:37 The Rule — High Volume, Low Judgment, Repeatable 04:17 Task 1 — Resume Screening and Initial Filtering 10:51 Task 2 — Interview Scheduling and Candidate Communication 17:05 Task 3 — Onboarding Paperwork and New Hire Workflows 19:54 Task 4 — Employee FAQ and Policy Chatbot 22:36 Task 5 — First Drafts 24:06 Three Things to Never Automate 26:35 The Stats — Deloitte, SHRM, and Why This Pays Off 29:16 Action Item — Pick One of the Five and Start TodayBefore you start automating anything in HR, you need to know where your foundation stands — the free HR Audit shows you exactly that: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

On this episode, Michael Leone (@2Hats1Mike) joins Davis for his first draft of the year. The audio podcast feed for Davis Mattek's DFS, fantasy football, and best ball streams.

Welcome back to "First Draft." Hosted by Field Yates and Mel Kiper Jr., we're evaluating Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith, along with the top wide receivers in the nation. (0:00) Welcome to "First Draft" (2:00) Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith (13:11) Texas WR Cam Coleman (18:01) Alabama WR Ryan Coleman-Williams (21:47) Indiana WR Charlie Becker (24:36) Miami WR Cooper Barkate (27:05) Notre Dame WR Jordan Faison (29:04) Rutgers WR KJ Duff (32:20) Oklahoma State WR Wyatt Young (36:12) Notable WRs to know (40:10) Orange Crushers of the Week (42:15) Final thoughts! #ESPN #ncaa #firstdraft #nfl #nfldraft #sports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michael Cunningham is a novelist, screenwriter, and educator. His novel The Hours received the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1999. He has taught at Columbia University and Brooklyn College. He is currently a professor in the practice at Yale University. His new book is Unsayable: A Life in Writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Freeman (5 x Top 1K) joins Joe to reveal his first draft for FPL 26/27. With no plans to use any chips until Gameweek 4, Tom has built the best team for the opening 3 gameweeks! RATE YOUR TEAM FREE

2 x Top 100 & 2 Time India FPL #1 Lateriser discusses his First Draft for Fantasy Premier League 2026/27 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Rate your team for FREE using Fantasy Football Hub : https://go.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/ai-team-rating?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_campaign=LR&utm_content=team-rating&via=LR #ad ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Welcome to the season premiere of "First Draft." Hosted by Field Yates and Mel Kiper Jr., we're diving into the top quarterback prospects of the 2027 NFL Draft Class, headlined by Oregon's Dante Moore and Texas' Arch Manning. (0:00) Welcome to "First Draft" (3:40) Oregon QB Dante Moore (8:29) Texas QB Arch Manning (13:48) Notre Dame QB CJ Carr (19:11) Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss (23:14) Oklahoma State QB Drew Mestemaker (29:06) Oklahoma QB John Mateer (35:00) Other notable QB names (48:00) Orange Crushers of the Week (52:47) Final thoughts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a poet, multimedia artist, memoirist and novelist. Her literary and visual work has been widely published in magazines, journals, and anthologies, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poets and Writers, and Best American Poetry, among others. Some of her poetry collections include Miracle Arrhythmia, Mule and Pear, Seeing the Body, and Lighting the Shadow. Griffiths' hybrid collection of poetry and photography, Seeing the Body was selected as the winner of the 2021 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award in Poetry, the winner of the 2021 Paterson Poetry Prize, and a finalist the 2020 NAACP Image award. Her debut novel, Promise was a Kirkus Reviews and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year. Her memoir is called The Flower Bearers.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than $875B in commercial and multifamily loans come due this year, and for the first time since the wall started building, the pile is actually shrinking instead of growing. Fewer extensions are getting granted, which means more owners are finally being forced to answer the question they've been dodging since rates started climbing: refinance, sell or hand back the keys?Vik Uppal has built a business around that question. The founder and CEO of Mavik Capital Management just closed a $1B fund, VS3, aimed squarely at the situations the rest of the market has mispriced or missed entirely, an owner who can't refinance or a lender who doesn't want to foreclose. It's the stuck middle of the maturity wall, the part everyone else walks past because they don't have the underwriting discipline to price it right. He's also steering clear of the trade everyone else is chasing, passing on AI-adjacent assets because he thinks the valuations don't hold up.Uppal joins First Draft Live this week to walk through where the real distress is hiding beneath the default numbers, why sellers still haven't blinked on price and what he's seeing that the rest of the market isn't.

This week on the Friday Deploy, Ben and Andrew debate the controversial rise of dark software factories, exploring whether centralizing agentic compute creates engineering nirvana or unmaintainable code rot. The hosts also discuss the importance of versioning your work to protect your original ideas from AI's tendency to average out creativity. Finally, they tackle the "orchestrator's tax," explaining why establishing cognitive locality matters far more than assigning cute personas to your sub-agents. Register: Leading engineering when AI writes the code - August 5th in LondonFollow the show:Subscribe to our Substack Follow us on LinkedInSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelFollow the hosts:Follow AndrewFollow BenFollow DanFollow today's stories:Why Software Factories FailA guide to cloud software factories for engineering leadersYou just hired a million bad employees.An AI that only sees the latest version will never protect your original ideaThe Orchestrator's TaxOFFERSStart Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.LEARN ABOUT LINEARBAI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

as ur reading this im about to get married?!! Taylor Swift invented girl groups, I need to stop complaining, and Alex is wearing highlighter yellow to my wedding...enjoy another cousin couch ep! XOpre-order DADDY ISSUES https://sofiafranklyn.com Follow Sofia on: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sofiafranklyn TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@sofiafranklyn Twitter - https://twitter.com/sofiafranklyn Threads - https://www.threads.net/@sofiafranklyn Follow Alex on:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexfranco_meow/ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/francmeow_To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policyEpisode Highlights:00:00 Intro00:31 NYC heat + mosquitoes02:02 Wedding dress code frustrations03:50 Catcalling in New York07:28 Alex reads Sofia's manuscript13:42 Book editing stress17:16 Rejecting a ghostwriter21:35 Taylor Swift's MSG wedding rumors24:44 Beauty rest + Q&A intro26:37 Q&A: Letting go of past trauma31:53 Q&A: Dreams about old friends36:00 Q&A: Dating a repressed British man39:13 Q&A: Preventative Botox and fillers40:41 ChatGPT beauty advice + eyebrow mapping43:44 The cosmetic “slippery slope”Sofia with an F, Sofia Franklyn, Sofia Franklyn podcast, Hollywood drama, celebrity, celebrity lifestyle, love, breakup, breakup stories, self help, self healing, dating, dating tips, Alex Franco

The Scoutcast boys are here to present their GW1 FPL drafts and share advice ahead of the 26/27 season. They'll also be discussing using the bench boost chip - GW1 vs GW2? RATE YOUR TEAM FREE

Click Here to ask your book writing and publishing questions!Ten books in, Meg Mitchell Moore still doesn't know what her plot is going to be when she starts writing.  Meg Mitchell Moore has published ten novels. And she still starts most of them with no idea what's going to happen. No outline, no plot, sometimes not even a reason her characters are in the room together. She figures it out as she goes, often with her agent's or editor's help.If that sounds like it shouldn't work, that's kind of the point of this conversation. It does work. It's worked ten times! And I love how honest Meg is about the fact that her first drafts are a mess and revisions are where it all comes together. We also get into the parts of book publishing that show up in very few highlight reels. Meg talks about learning, book by book, how much of a "big author moment" (the 10-city tour, the massive publisher push) is actually the author funding it themselves. She talks about the fear of writing a book with no contract attached to it, and how that fear doesn't necessarily go away with experience.We talk about the business-versus-art tension every working writer eventually has to make peace with, and why the current pace of the industry has authors feeling more frantic than they perhaps did fifteen years ago, even as the community itself has gotten more supportive.

If you keep working on your novel but never seem to get closer to “The End,” these five novel writing myths may explain why—and show you what to do differently.If you've been working on the same novel for months (or years), you've probably wondered why you still can't seem to finish it. Maybe you've blamed your schedule, your motivation, or your talent. Or maybe you've started to wonder if you're just not cut out for this. But what if the real reason you're stuck is none of those things?In this episode, I'm walking through the five most common novel writing myths I see holding writers back, and what's actually true instead. You'll see why getting stuck usually isn't a time, talent, or idea problem, it's a process problem, and why that's genuinely good news.You'll hear me talk about things like:[02:00] Why more time, motivation, and discipline almost never fix the real problem, and the one thing that actually makes the time you have useful.[04:39] The difference between learning that moves your story forward and learning that's quietly become a way of avoiding the page. [07:57] Why beautiful writing and good storytelling aren't the same thing, and which one actually gets a first draft finished. [11:14] The trap of trying to get every part of your story right on the first pass, and how to build a novel in layers instead. [15:13] What getting stuck is actually telling you, and why it's information you can use, not a verdict on you or your idea.Whether you've been blaming your schedule, buying another craft book, or quietly wondering if you're cut out for this, this episode will help you see your stuck points differently, as something you can actually solve, one decision at a time.

➡️ Sign up for FFScout using my link and save! ⚽ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/FFScoutGeneral⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ➡️ Support me on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://patreon.com/fplgeneral⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FPL General (3 x Top 500 finishes) joins Tom to reveal his first draft for FPL 26/27. RATE YOUR TEAM FREE

There is one word that Anthropic employees add on to their prompts that most users do not. It makes Claude outputs instantly better while cutting down on the number of edits they have to make. My full collection of growth hacks, playbooks, and meta prompts lives on my Substack at: https://ClaudeGenius.com Here is the link to the companion Substack blog post for this episode: https://tinyurl.com/ep13-Because-Statement

Kevin Powers' books, including The Yellow Birds, A Line in the Sand, A Shout in the Ruins and poetry collection Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting, have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award and a recipient of the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Guardian First Book Award, the Prix littéraire du Monde prix étranger, and the Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine, among other recognitions. He was a James A. Michener Fellow in Poetry at the University of Texas at Austin from 2009-2012 and later held a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction. Powers is a U.S. Army veteran of the war in Iraq. His new novel is Children of the Wild. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FPL Chai (2 x Top 5K) joins Tom to reveal his first draft for FPL 26/27. RATE YOUR TEAM FREE

Joe (8 x Top 10K finishes) reveals his first draft for FPL 26/27. RATE YOUR TEAM FREE

No Haaland, Palmer IN?! Az (4 x Top 10K finishes) joins Tom to reveal his first draft for FPL 26/27. Join FFScout NOW

Tom (4 x Top 50K finishes) reveals his first draft of FPL 2026/27. FPL Draft Tool

Author, financial advisor, and former management consultant Brian Herriot joined me on Ditching Hourly to talk about pursuing time freedom before financial freedom.Brian and I talk about his new book Time Freedom, the difference between time freedom and financial freedom, how flexible work can bridge the gap, and what he learned from using early readers, workshops, and hybrid publishing to turn his ideas into a book.Chapters00:00 - Brian's Time Freedom Story02:58 - Why Brian Wrote the Book05:30 - Choosing Hybrid Publishing09:53 - Building the Business Behind the Book12:16 - Time Freedom vs Financial Freedom16:46 - Making Nine Months Cover Twelve19:47 - Remote Work and Flexible Work23:18 - Who Can Actually Do This?27:17 - Early Readers and Draft Feedback31:51 - Tools for Testing a Book33:32 - Testing Ideas Before Writing36:00 - Writing the First Draft40:26 - The Time Freedom Framework46:52 - Writing a Better Ending50:44 - Counterintuitive Money AdviceResources We MentionedTime Freedom preorder pageTime Freedom CalculatorTime Freedom PodcastBrian Herriot on LinkedInWrite a Must-Read by AJ HarperAJ HarperPage Two SimplifiedMike MichalowiczMike Michalowicz on The Business of AuthorityWrite Useful Books / Rob FitzpatrickHelp This BookHeroic Public SpeakingCharlie Hoehn on The Knowledge Project with Shane ParrishGuest BioBrian Herriot is the founder of Time Freedom and the author of Time Freedom: Rethink Your Work and Money to Create a Life You Love Now. He is an author, speaker, registered investment advisor, financial advisor, business consultant, and co-host of The Time Freedom Podcast. His professional background includes management consulting roles at Accenture and Point B, as well as a director position at UCSF Health. Learn more at https://timefreedom.life/. (00:00) - Brian's Time Freedom Story (02:58) - Why Brian Wrote the Book (05:30) - Choosing Hybrid Publishing (09:53) - Building the Business Behind the Book (12:16) - Time Freedom vs Financial Freedom (16:46) - Making Nine Months Cover Twelve (19:47) - Remote Work and Flexible Work (23:18) - Who Can Actually Do This? (27:17) - Early Readers and Draft Feedback (31:51) - Tools for Testing a Book (33:32) - Testing Ideas Before Writing (36:00) - Writing the First Draft (40:26) - The Time Freedom Framework (46:52) - Writing a Better Ending (50:44) - Counterintuitive Money Advice ----Do you have questions about how to improve your business? Things like:Value pricing your work instead of billing for your time?Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your space?Productizing your services so you never have to have another awkward sales call or spend hours writing another custom proposal?Book a one-on-one coaching call with me and get answers to these questions and others in the time it takes to get ready for work in the morning.Best of all, you're covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don't feel like it was worth it, just say the word, and I'll refund your purchase in full.To book your one-on-one coaching call, go to: https://jonathanstark.com/callI hope to see you there!

Download CLUB now! https://www.clubga.me/UfSc/Harry #ad

My conversation with Susan begins at 42 minutes  Subscribe and Watch Interviews LIVE : On YOUTUBE.com/StandUpWithPete ON SubstackStandUpWithPete Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. This show is Ad free and fully supported by listeners like you! Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 750 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Lincoln Square CEO Susan Demos  I am a writer, editor, ghostwriter, speechwriter and researcher. I'm also an avid hiker, a mom of two, and a lifelong Midwest resident. While working as a journalist for the last 25 years, I've gone through a lot of upheavals in the industry. But I learned that always means new opportunities — if you're willing to assume some risk. That's never been a problem for me. As the CEO and Executive Editor of Lincoln Square, I run one of the fastest-growing independent political publications in the nation. Each week, I host two shows, The Weekly Assignment, where we discuss the latest headlines and what we can do to fight back against authoritarianism, and First Draft, where I talk to journalists and authors about their important work and the stories behind them. As an expert on Michigan and national politics, I've also appeared on C-SPAN, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, NewsNation, the Australian Broadcast Corporation, Sky News, Jyllands-Posten (Danish TV), WKAR-TV's Off the Record and more. Previously, I was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the nonprofit Michigan Advance for over six years. I also served for five years as the Editor and Publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, the most-cited political newsletter in the state. And in a past life, I worked as a Democratic campaign strategist during the 2018 campaign cycle (which was a pretty darn good year for the party). My award-winning political analysis has run in more than 150 national, international and regional media outlets, including the Guardian U.K., NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, RealClearPolitics, Salon, HuffPost, and The Detroit News. And you'll find me trekking in the mountains whenever I can break away. Why I Write Writer. Entrepreneur. Mother. Public Speaker. Political Analyst. Those are all just words to describe me. What you need to know, most of all, is what drives me to fulfill those roles. I've wanted to be a writer since I was seven, scribbling down observations about people and events in ratty spiral notebooks. My mother always told me that my unique ability to understand people and feel what they were going through was both a gift and a curse. I struggled for many years to make ends meet, especially before my first child was born. I wondered if I'd ever be able to contribute anything of value, something to make the world a better place. I found my calling in journalism, honing my craft for the last 25 years. Being a writer has always been who I am. But now it's also what I do. I have an insatiable curiosity to investigate what's going on in America and the world. I believe in speaking truth to power and following Mencken's rule to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." I've taken on the Old Boys Club in politics (and political journalism) and won, always preserving my integrity. All this has given me a distinctive voice and fearless style to communicate with people why things are happening and what can be done.

What if the greatest privilege you could give a child isn't opportunity — it's being allowed to stay creative?This week I sit down with actress, filmmaker, and creator Andrea Lewis — Degrassi's Hazel, the mind behind Netflix's The Black Beauty Effect, and now the creator of Glam Culture, her regional beauty docuseries. Andrea moves through the world with a rare kind of peace about her own timeline, and this conversation is a masterclass in what that actually looks like in practice.We get into how Essence Fest became her manifestation machine, the two women who shaped her sense of style (her Kingstonian grandmother and her cowgirl-Jamaican mother), the Maya Angelou advice she got at 15 that changed how she ages, the honest reality of crowdfunding your own art — what she calls "Game of Thrones shame" — the PCOS diagnosis that reshaped how she moves through the world, why you need champions (not connections) to actually move a career forward, and why the most valuable thing she inherited was being allowed to stay creative without anyone trying to pull it back.

Tom talks through the confirmed changes to the game and builds an early first draft based on Fantasy Foootball Scout's predicted prices! ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ FPL Draft Tool

Laura Dave is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me, Eight Hundred Grapes and six other novels. Her books have been published in thirty-nine languages and have been chosen by Reese Witherspoon's Book Club, Indie Next, Book of the Month Club, The Richard and Judy Book Club, Best of Amazon, and Best of Apple Books. The Last Thing He Told Me was chosen as the Goodreads Mystery & Thriller of the Year for 2021. Her new novel, The First Time I Saw Him is a sequel to The Last Thing He Told Me, both of which are series on Apple TV. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CBRE Global Client Strategist and Senior Economic Advisor Spencer Levy returns to First Draft Live to say how 2026 has — and hasn't — played out to his expectations.

We're recording in person in Lake Placid, two days before Paula toes the line at her first-ever Ironman. She's feeling good, she's excited, and she's ready. We get into all of it before diving into your questions. It's a full bag this week, from the science of optimal racing temperatures to the very real question of how big the jump from 70.3 to full distance actually is, timed perfectly with Paula about to find out for herself.This week we discussed:Paula's first Ironman Lake Placid preview: how she's feeling, what's got her excited, and what it's actually like to prepare for your first fullHow big is the jump from 70.3 to full Ironman — physically, mentally, and nutritionally — and how much does long-term base carry through?Optimal racing temperatures for endurance performance: does the 40°F–55°F research match real-world experience?Switching from power meter pedals to a crank-based system, what road pedal systems we've tried and why we ride what we rideRenting a tri bike vs. flying with a bike box: which scenarios tip the scales either way, especially internationallyWahoo Kickr Bike Pro deep dive: aerobar options, dialing in fit, and how well the bike fitness transfers to race day What is Elise Lagerstrom's running Eddington number? Richard from the UK asked the question we all wanted answeredHow to buy a TT bike when no local shop carries them, a guide for making a big investment without being able to test ride firstDraft-legal racing tactics for a first-timer heading to Age Group Worlds: the two or three things you actually need to knowThe Wahoo-Coros partnership: has anyone made the switch, and what do we think of Coros watches?Tubeless tire setup for racing: is it worth upgrading your wheelset, and what do you actually do if you flat during an Ironman?Current coaching setups across the TTL crew, is Paula still working with Carmen Small on the bike?Hill repeat steepness: what grade are you actually looking for and does it matter?A big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Meredith Doench talks about how to move forward with a first draft (even when you think you should stop) and why it might be the most important thing you do! Meredith is the queer crime writer of the Luce Hansen sapphic thriller series and the stand-alone novels, Never Say Die and Whereabouts Unknown. She is an avid armchair detective and amateur web sleuth who loves all things mystery. Doench's works of short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in literary journals such as Hayden's Ferry Review, Women's Studies Quarterly and The Tahoma Literary Review. She was one of the founding associate prose editors of the literary journal Camera Obscura: Journal of Literature and Photography and teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Dayton in Ohio. Never Say Die is her most recent release.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act just became the most significant federal housing legislation in decades — and it became law without President Donald Trump's signature. This week on First Draft Live, Bisnow Editor-in-Chief Mark F. Bonner sits down with Sharon Wilson Géno, President of the National Multifamily Housing Council, who was literally on her way to the signing ceremony when Trump pulled out at the last minute. They dig into what almost got stripped from the bill, whether the law's headline provision has any real teeth and what NMHC is fighting for on Capitol Hill this week as implementation questions pile up at the U.S. Treasury Department.

Emeline Atwood graduated from the Michener Center for Writers in 2023. She writes fiction and poetry and is a recipient of the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize, the Louis Begley Prize, the Roger Conant Hatch Prize for Lyric Poetry, and the Le Baron Russell Briggs Fiction Prize. She lives in Austin, Texas. Her novel is A Real Animal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With only a few weeks to go until her retirement, CREFC CEO Lisa Pendergast sat down with Bisnow for a wide-ranging interview that spanned fresh data on lender sentiment, where opportunity is today and how CRE has evolved during her decades in the business.

Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir; The Still Point of the Turning World, which was a New York Times bestseller, Editor's Pick, and a finalist for the PEN-USA Award; Sanctuary, a New York Times Editor's Pick; and Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg. Emily Rapp Black has received awards and fellowships from the Rona Jaffe Foundation; the Jentel Arts Foundation; the Corporation of Yaddo; the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where she was a winter writing fellow among other awards. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California-Riverside, where she also teaches in the School of Medicine. Her new nonfiction book is called I Would Die If I Were You: Notes on Art and Truthtelling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Fountain's work has received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award for Fiction, the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, the PEN-Cerulli Award for Excellence in Sports Writing, and a Whiting Writers Award, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. His works include Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, Beautiful Country Burn Again, Devil Makes Three, and Rasputin Swims the Potomac. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Affinius Capital closed a $3.4B take-private of Veris Residential last month, one of the largest multifamily transactions in years.The deal  represents a change in thesis for Affinius and perhaps for the industry, Affinius partner Ryan Krauch said on this week's episode of First Draft Live.In the cycle of zero interest rates and constant rate compression, multifamily investment had moved away from “what it is supposed to be,” he said.“[Housing] is not meant to be tactical, opportunistic, high-yielding plays,” Krauch said. “Multifamily, from its origins, has really been more about income producing, downside protection, diversified income, inflation hedge, all the traditional things. So for us, when we looked at Veris, this was a great opportunity to really reset that framework.”

Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. Her debut novel, What We Lose was named “Debut Novel of the Year” by Vogue, and received praise from the Atlantic, the Guardian, the New York Times, The New Yorker, and others. What We Lose was a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, the California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize. She is a 2017 National Book Award 5 Under 35 Honoree. She wrote the foreword to a new edition of Jean Toomer's Cane, published by Penguin Classics in 2019. Her new collection of essays is called Freedom. Listen to First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing ad-free, pitch-free and with monthly extras by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.com/firstdraftwriters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling author Amy Bloom is widely known for 2022 memoir “In Love.” The memoir follows her journey with her late husband, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. The pair made a decision to travel to Switzerland to help him end his life. Bloom’s latest book is different. “Blunt Instrument” is a vivacious, and often hilarious, murder mystery that’s set in the world of academia. And it’s partly inspired by Wesleyan University. Bloom recently sat down with us to talk about her book and writing process. Where We Live is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Screenwriter and coach Aleia Kristene survived grueling hustle, but she walked away questioning whether the narrative of the suffering artist is actually a badge of honor or just unexamined trauma. In our conversation, she reveals how she transformed twenty years of family tragedy into a limited series. She also shares the exact pacing mistakes that instantly tank amateur scripts.    If you feel stuck behind a wall of perfectionism or lost in a quiet season of your own creative journey, this episode delivers:  an insider guide to reclaim your voice, how to master the production realities of Hollywood, and how to get your biggest ideas onto the page.  Chapters 00:00 - Redefining the Artist's Struggle  01:23 - Reclaiming Creativity with iCode  02:08 - Writing a Male Cinderella at Nine Years Old  04:17 - Realism over Cartoons: The Influence of Black Cinema  06:35 - Turning Family Tragedy into a Sellable Script  11:15 - Demystifying the Hollywood Table Read  12:47 - Brutal Production Realities from Major Film Sets  17:43 - The Biggest Mistakes Amateurs Make in Action Lines  20:06 - Balancing Mentorship with Personal Creative Output  23:15 - Overcoming the Perfectionism Trap of First Drafts  27:55 - Aleia's Ultimate Dream Project   Listen to the show on your favorite streaming platform! Apple Podcast: http://bit.ly/4fcopgQSpotify: http://bit.ly/4fdkiBsYouTube: https://youtu.be/4ekuzVLC8_M   Connect with Aleia: Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleiakristene/ Website: https://aleiakristene.com/ Support the show Website: Martine SeverinFollow on Instagram: Martine | This Is How We CreateSubscribe to the Newsletter: Martine's Substack This is How We Create is produced by Martine Severin. This episode was edited by Daniel Espinosa. Podcast show art is designed by Violetta Encarnación. Music by Timothy Infinite. show   Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts Leave a review Follow us on social media Share with fellow creatives  

Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. Her new short story collection is called The Typing Lady and Other Fictions. Her novels — My Year of Meats , All Over Creation, A Tale for the Time Being, and The Book of Form and Emptiness — have been translated and published in over thirty countries. Her third novel, A Tale for the Time Being, won the LA Times Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Book of Form and Emptiness was the winner of the 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction as well as the 22nd Annual Massachusetts Book Award, the BC Yukon Book Prize, and the Julia Ward Howe Prize for Fiction. She is Professor Emerita of English Language & Literature at Smith College, where she was the Grace Jarcho Ross 1933 Professor of Humanities. Support First Draft and listen ad-free and pitch-free with monthly extras at www.patreon.com/firstdraftwriters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emma Straub is the New York Times-bestselling author of seven books for adults: the novels American Fantasy, This Time Tomorrow, All Adults Here, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married. She is also the author of three picture books: Gaga Mistake Day, which she co-wrote with her mother, Mama Hug, and Very Good Hats. She is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and her work has been published in more than 20 languages. Emma and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York. Listen ad-free, pitch-free with thank you gifts each month by becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/firstdraftwriters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A book coach who's written 15 novels pulls back the curtain on what's really happening when your messy first draft disappoints you. Ever finished a chapter, read it back, and realized the words on the page don't match the story in your head? There's a name for that. It's called the “taste gap,” and it often shows up among serious, lifelong readers. In this episode, I sit down with book coach and publishing strategist Gala Russ (who's written 15 novels) to talk about the taste gap, what a first draft is supposed to look like, and why messy writing is the whole point.This one's for you if you've studied writing for years but still struggle to finish your first draft. Because the taste gap closes when you practice writing more than researching it.Here's what we talk about:[04:41] Why no number of finished pages ever makes you feel like a real writer, and the loaded questions non-writers often ask that get inside your head. [13:55] What a real first draft actually looks like behind the scenes and why a scrappy, hodgepodge, messy manuscript is usually a good sign.[19:04] The taste gap explained: why being an avid reader who knows what ‘good' is can make your own draft feel like the worst thing you've ever read.[23:52] How to know when a book needs more revision, when it's okay to walk away, and the sunk cost fallacy trap that keeps writers rewriting forever. [38:37] Why more craft books won't fix a stuck draft, the hidden blocks keeping writers frozen, and Gala's creative workaround for finding writing time in a busy life.Here's what I want you to take away from this episode. The fact that you can read a great book, feel moved by it, then look at your own draft and feel like it's not measuring up, that is not a sign you're not meant to be a writer. It's a sign your taste has developed faster than your skills. And skills are built by writing, not by reading one more craft book.