Podcasts about fsa

The podcast features Jon Forster interviewing Hasham Piperdy about the similarities and differences between Takaful and mutual insurance. Both models emphasize collective risk sharing and returning surplus to participants, but differ in ownership structure, capital provision, and investment restrictions. Takaful adds a layer of Shari'ah compliance, requiring investments to be Islamic and oversight by a Shari'ah board. The discussion highlights that while the models share cooperative principles, Takaful introduces faith-based ethics and governance.  Contributors: Hasham Piperdy, FIA; Lisa Schilling, FSA, EA, FCA, MAAA; Jon Forster, ASA, MAAA Thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe! Want to keep up with the latest SOA news? Follow us on our social channels: Instagram: @soactuaries Facebook: Society of Actuaries LinkedIn: Society of Actuaries Twitter: @SOActuaries About Us: With roots dating back to 1889, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) is the world's largest actuarial professional organization with more than 32,000 actuaries as members. Serving as the SOA's research arm, the SOA Research Institute provides objective, data-driven research bringing together tried and true practices and future-focused approaches to address societal challenges and your business needs. It provides trusted knowledge, extensive experience and new technologies to help effectively identify, predict and manage risks. ● Learn more about Takaful and other engaging topics relevant for actuaries on the Professional Development Edge Subscription product.    https://www.soa.org/prof-dev/pd-edge/  

Allen, Joel, Rosemary, and Yolanda break down the TPI Composites bankruptcy fallout. Vestas is acquiring TPI’s Mexico and India operations while a UAE company picks up the Turkish factories. That leaves GE in a tough spot with no clear path to blade manufacturing. Plus the crew discusses blade scarcity, FSA availability floors, and whether a new blade manufacturer could emerge. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Allen Hall: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall. I’ve got Yolanda Padron and Joel Saxum in Texas. And Rosemary Barnes is back from her long Vacation in Australia and TPI. Composites is big in the news this week, everybody, because they’re in bankruptcy hearings and they are selling off parts of the business. Vestas is, at least according to News Reports positioned to acquire. A couple of the LLCs down in Mexico. So there’s uh, two of them, TPI in Mexico, five LLC, and TPI in Mexico, six LLC. There are other LLCs, of course involved with this down in Mexico. So they’re buying, not sure exactly what the assets are, but probably a couple of the factories in which their blades were being manufactured in. Uh, this. Is occurring because Vestas stepped in. They were trying to have an auction and Vestas stepped forward and just ended up buying these two LLCs. [00:01:00] Other things that are happening here, Joel, is that, uh, TPI evidently sold their Turkish division. Do you recall to who they sold? That, uh, part of the Joel Saxum: business too, two companies involved in that, that were TPI Turkey, uh, and that was bought by a company called XCS composites. Uh, and they are out of the United Arab Emirates, so I believe they’re either going to be Abu Dhabi or Dubai based. Uh, but they took over the tube wind blade manufacturing plants in Isme, uh, also a field service and inspection repair business. And around 2,700 employees, uh, from the Turkish operation. So that happened just, just after, I mean, it was a couple weeks after the bankruptcy claim, uh, went through here in August, uh, in the States. So it went August bankruptcy for TPI, September, all the Turkish operations were bought and now we’ve got Vestas swooping in and uh, taking a bunch of the Mexican operations. Allen Hall: Right. And [00:02:00] Vestas is also taking TPI composites India. Which is a part of the business that is not in bankruptcy, uh, that’s a, a separate business, a separate, basically LLC incorporation Over in India, the Vestus is going to acquire, so they’re gonna acquire three separate things in this transaction. The question everybody’s asking today after seeing this Vestus move is, what is GE doing? Because, uh, GE Renova has a lot of blades manufactured by TPI down in Mexico. No word on that. And you would think if, if TPI is auctioning off assets that GE renova would be at the front of the line, but that’s not what we’re hearing on the ground. Joel Saxum: Yeah, I mean it’s, the interesting part of this thing is for Vestas, TPI was about 35% of their blade capacity for manufacturing in 2024. If their 30, if, if Vestas was 35%, then GE had to be 50%. There [00:03:00] demand 60. So Vesta is making a really smart move here by basically saying, uh, we’ve gotta lock down our supply chain for blades. We gotta do something. So we need to do this. GE is gonna be the odd man out because, I mean, I think it would be a, a cold day in Denmark if Vestas was gonna manufacture blades for ge. Allen Hall: Will the sale price that Vest has paid for this asset show up in the bankruptcy? Hearings or disclosures? I think that it would, I haven’t seen it yet, but eventually it’ll, it must show up, right? All, all the bankruptcy hearings and transactions are, they have an overseer essentially, what happens to, so TPI can’t purchase or sell anything without an, um, getting approved by the courts, so that’ll eventually be disclosed. Uh, the Turkish sale will be, I would assume, would be disclosed. Also really curious to see what the asset value. Was for those factories. Joel Saxum: So the Turkish sale is actually public knowledge right now, and [00:04:00] that is, lemme get the number here to make sure I get it right. 92.9 million Euros. Uh, but of, of course TPI laden with a bunch of non-convertible and convertible debt. So a ton of that money went right down to debt. Uh, but to be able to purchase that. They had to assu, uh, XCS composites in Turkey, had to assume debt as is, uh, under the bankruptcy kind of proceedings. So I would assume that Vestas is gonna have to do the same thing, is assume the debt as is to take these assets over and, uh, and assets. We don’t know what it is yet. We don’t know if it’s employees, if it’s operations, if it’s ip, if it’s just factories. We don’t know what’s all involved in it. Um, but like you said, because. TPI being a publicly traded company in the United States, they have to file all this stuff with SEC. Allen Hall: Well, they’ll, they’re be delisted off of. Was it, they were Joel Saxum: in Nasdaq? Is that where they were listed? The India stuff that could be private. You may ne we may not ever hear about what happened. Valuation there. Allen Hall: Okay, so what is the, the [00:05:00] future then for wind blade production? ’cause TPI was doing a substantial part of it for the world. I mean, outside of China, it’s TPI. And LM a little bit, right? LM didn’t have the capacity, I don’t think TPI that TPI does or did. It puts Joel Saxum: specifically GE in a tight spot, right? Because GEs, most of their blades were if it was built to spec or built to print. Built to spec was designed, uh, by LM and built by lm. But now LM as we have seen in the past months year, has basically relinquished themselves of all of their good engineering, uh, and ability to iterate going forward. So that’s kind of like dwindling to an end. TPI also a big side of who makes blades for ge if Vestas is gonna own the majority of their capacity, Vestas isn’t gonna make blades for ge. So GEs going to be looking at what can we, what can we still build with lm? And then you have the kind of the, the odd ducks there. You have the Aris, [00:06:00] you have the MFG, um, I mean Sonoma is out there. This XCS factory is there still in Turkey. Um, you may see some new players pop up. Uh, I don’t know. Um, we’ll see. I mean, uh, Rosemary, what’s, what’s your take? Uh, you guys are starting to really ramp up down in Australia right now and are gonna be in the need of blades in general with this kind of shakeup. Rosemary Barnes: What do we say? My main concern is. Around the service of the blades that we’ve already got. Um, and when I talk to people that I know at LM or XLM, my understanding is that those parts of the organization are still mostly intact. So I actually don’t expect any big changes there. Not to say that the status quo. Good enough. It’s not like, like every single OEM whose, um, FSAs that I work with, uh, support is never good enough. But, um, [00:07:00] it shouldn’t get any worse anyway. And then for upcoming projects, yeah, I, I don’t know. I mean, I guess it’s gonna be on a case by case basis. Uh, I mean, it always was when you got a new, a new project, you need a whole bunch of blades. It was always a matter of figuring out which factory they were going to come from and if they had capacity. It’ll be the same. It’s just that then instead of, you know, half a dozen factories to choose from, there’s like, what, like one or two. So, um, yeah, I, that’s, that’s my expectation of what’s gonna happen. I presumably ge aren’t selling turbines that they have no capability to make blades for. Um, so I, I guess they’re just gonna have a lot less sales. That’s the only real way I can make it work. Allen Hall: GE has never run a Blade factory by themselves. They’ve always had LM or somebody do it, uh, down in Brazil or TPI in Mexico or wherever. Uh, are we thinking that GE Renova is not gonna run a Blade Factory? Is that the thought, or, or is [00:08:00] that’s not in the cards either. Rosemary Barnes: I don’t think it’s that easy to just, just start running a Blade Factory. I mean, I know that GE had blade design capabilities. I used to design the blades that TPI would make. So, um, that part of it. Sure. Um, they can, they can still do that, but it’s not, yeah, it’s, it’s not like you just buy a Blade factory and like press start on the factory and then the, you know, production line just starts off and blades come out the other end. Like there is a lot of a, a lot of knowhow needed if that was something that they wanted to do. That should have been what they started doing from day one after they bought lm. You know, that was the opportunity that they had to become, you know, a Blade factory owner. They could have started to, you know, make, um, have GE. Take up full ownership of the, the blade factories and how that all worked. But instead, they kept on operating like pretty autonomously without that many [00:09:00] changes at the factory level. Like if they were to now say, oh, you know, hey, it’s, uh, we really want to. Have our own blade factories and make blades. It’s just like, what the hell were you doing for the last, was it like seven years or something? Like you, you could easily have done what? And now you haven’t made it as hard for yourselves as possible. So like I’m not ruling out that that’s what they’re gonna try and do, because like I said, I don’t think it’s been like executed well, but. My God, it’s like even stupid of the whole situation. If that’s where we end up with them now scrambling to build from scratch blade, um, manufacturing capability because there’s Yolanda Padron: already a blade scarcity, right? Like at least in the us I don’t know if you guys are seeing it in, in Australia as well, but there’s a blade scarcity for these GE blades, right? So you’re, they kind of put themselves in an even more tough spot by just now. You, you don’t have access to a lot of these TPI factories written in theory. From what we’re seeing. You mean to get like replacement blades? Yeah. So like for, for issues? Yeah. New [00:10:00] construction issues under FSA, that, Rosemary Barnes: yeah. I mean, we’ve always waited a, a long time for new blades. Like it’s never great. If you need a new blade, you’re always gonna be waiting six months, maybe 12 months. So that’s always been the case, but now we are seeing delays of that. Maybe, maybe sometimes longer, but also it’s like, oh well. We can’t replace, like, for like, you’re gonna be getting a, a different kind of blade. Um, that will work. Um, but you know, so that is fine, except for that, that means you can’t do a single blade replacement anymore. Now, what should have been a single blade replacement might be a full set replacement. And so it does start to really, um, yeah. Mess things up and like, yeah, it’s covered by the FSA, like that’s on them to buy the three blades instead of one, but. It does matter because, you know, if they’re losing money on, um, managing your wind farm, then it, it is gonna lead to worse outcomes for you because, you know, they’re gonna have to skimp and scrape where they [00:11:00] can to, you know, like, um, minimize their losses. So I, I don’t think it’s, it’s, it’s Yolanda Padron: not great. Yeah. And if you’re running a wind farm, you have other stakeholders too, right? It’s not like you’re running it just for yourself. So having all that downtime from towers down for a year. Because you can’t get blades on your site. Like it’s just really not great. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, and I mean, there’s flaws on there. Like they’ve got an availability guarantee. Then, you know, below that they do have to, um, pay for that, those losses. But there’s a flaw on that. So once you know, you, you blast through the floor of your availability, then you know, that is on the owner. Now it’s not on the, um, service provider. So it’s definitely. Something that, yeah, there’s lots of things where you might think, oh, I don’t have to worry about my blades ’cause I’ve got an F, SA, but you know, that’s just one example where, okay, you will, you will start worrying if they, they yeah. Fall through the floor of their availability guarantee. Joel Saxum: Two questions that pop up in my mind from this one, the first one, the first one is [00:12:00] directly from Alan. You and I did a webinar, we do so many of ’em yesterday, and it was about, it was in the nor in North America, ferc, so. They have new icing readiness, uh, reporting you, so, so basically like if you’re on the, if you’re connected to the grid, you’re a wind farm or solar farm and you have an icing event, you need to explain to them why you had an outage, um, and why, what you’re doing about it. Or if you’re not doing something about it, you have to justify it. You have to do all these things to say. Hey, some electrons weren’t flowing into the grid. There’s certain levels. It’s much more complicated than this, but electrons weren’t flowing into the grid because of an issue. We now have to report to FERC about this. So is there a stage when a FERC or uh, some other regulatory agency starts stepping into the wind industry saying like, someone’s gotta secure a supply chain here. ’cause they’re already looking at things when electrons are on the grid. Someone’s got a secure supply chain here so we can ensure that [00:13:00]these electrons are gonna get on the grid. Could, can something like that happen or was, I mean, I mean, of course that’s, to me, in my opinion, that’s a lot of governmental overreach, but could we see that start to come down the line like, Hey, we see from an agency’s perspective, we see some problems here. What are you doing to shore this up? Allen Hall: Oh, totally. Right. I, I think the industry in general has an issue. This is not an OEM specific problem. At the minute, if this is a industry-wide problem, there seems to be more dispersed. Manufacturers are gonna be popping up. And when we were in Scotland, uh, we learned a lot more about that. Right, Joel? So the industry has more diversification. I, I, here’s, here’s my concern at the minute, so. For all these blade manufacturers that we would otherwise know off the top of our heads. Right. Uh, lm, TPI, uh, Aris down in Brazil. The Vestus manufacturing facilities, the Siemens manufacturing [00:14:00] facilities. Right. You, you’re, you’re in this place where. You know, everybody’s kind of connected up the chain, uh, to a large OEM and all this made sense. You know, who was rebuilding your blades next year and the year down, two years down the road. Today you don’t, so you don’t know who owns that company. You don’t know how the manager’s gonna respond. Are you negotiating with a company that you can trust’s? Gonna be there in two or three years because you may have to wait that long to get blades delivered. I don’t know. I think that it, it put a lot of investment, uh, companies in a real quandary of whether they wanna proceed or not based upon the, what they is, what they would perceive to be the stability of these blade companies. That’s what I would think. I, I, Vestas is probably the best suited at the minute, besides Siemens. You know, Vestas is probably best suited to have the most perceived reliability capability. Control, Joel Saxum: but they have their own [00:15:00] blade factories already, right? So if they buy the TPI ones, they’re just kind of like they can do some copy pasting to get the the things in place. And to be honest with you, Vesta right now makes the best blades out there, in my opinion, least amount of serial defects. Remove one, remove one big issue from the last couple Allen Hall: years. But I think all the OEMs have problems. It’s a question of how widely known those problems are. I, I don’t think it’s that. I think the, the, the. When you talk to operators and, and they do a lot of shopping on wind turbines, what they’ll tell you generally is vestus is about somewhere around 20% higher in terms of cost to purchase a turbine from them. And Vestus is gonna put on a, a full service agreement of some sort that’s gonna run roughly 30 years. So there’s a lot of overhead that comes with buying a, a Vestas turbine. Yes. You, you get the quality. Yes. You get the name. Yes, you get the full service agreement, which you may or [00:16:00] may not really want over time. Uh, that’s a huge decision. But as pieces are being removed from the board of what you can possibly do, there’s it, it’s getting narrow or narrow by the minute. So it, it’s either a vestus in, in today’s world, like right today, I think we should talk about this, but it’s either Vestus or Nordic. Those are the two that are being decided upon. Mostly by a lot of the operators today. Joel Saxum: That’s true. We’re, and we just saw Nordex, just inked a one gigawatt deal with Alliant Energy, uh, just last week. And that’s new because Alliant has traditionally been a GE buyer. Right. They have five or six ge, two X wind farms in the, in the middle of the United States, and now they’ve secured a deal with Nordex for a gigawatt. Same thing we saw up at Hydro Quebec. Right. Vestas and Nordex are the only ones that qualify for that big, and that’s supposed to be like a 10 gigawatt tender over time. Right. But the, so it brings me to my, I guess my other question, I was thinking about this be [00:17:00] after the FERC thing was, does do, will we see a new blade manufacturer Allen Hall: pop Joel Saxum: up? Allen Hall: No, I don’t think you see a new one. I think you see an acquisition, uh, a transfer of assets to somebody else to run it, but that is really insecure. I, I always think when you’re buying distressed assets and you think you’re gonna run it better than the next guy that. Is rare in industry to do that. Think about the times you’ve seen that happen and it doesn’t work out probably more than 75% of the time. It doesn’t work out. It lasts a year or two or three, and they had the same problems they had when the original company was there. You got the same people inside the same building, building the same product, what do you think is magically gonna change? Right? You have this culture problem or a a already established culture, you’re not likely to change that unless you’re willing to fire, you know, a third of the staff to, to make changes. I don’t see anybody here doing that at the minute because. Finding wind blade technicians, manufacturing people is [00:18:00] extremely hard to do, to find people that are qualified. So you don’t wanna lose them. Joel Saxum: So this is why I say, this is why I pose the question, because in my mind, in in recent wind history, the perfect storm for a new blade manufacturer is happening right now. And the, and the why I say this is there is good engineers on the streets available. Now washing them of their old bad habits and the cultures and those things, that’s a monumental task. That’s not possible. Allen Hall: Rosemary worked at a large blade manufacturer and it has a culture to it. That culture really didn’t change even after they were acquired by a large OEM. The culture basically Rosemary Barnes: remained, they bizarrely didn’t try and change that culture, like they didn’t try to make it a GE company so that it wasn’t dur, it was wasn’t durable. You know, they, they could have. Used that as a shortcut to gaining, um, blade manufacturing capabilities and they didn’t. And that was a, I think it was a choice. I don’t think it’s an inevitability. It’s never easy to go in and change a, a culture, [00:19:00] but it is possible to at least, you know, get parts of it. Um, the, the knowledge should, you should be able to transfer and then get rid of the old culture once you’ve done that, you know, like, uh. Yeah, like you, you bring it in and suck out all the good stuff and spit out the rest. They didn’t do that. Joel Saxum: The opportunity here is, is that you’ve got a, you’ve got people, there’s gonna be a shortage of blade capacity, right? So if you are, if you are going to start up a blade manufacturing facility, you, if you’re clever enough, you may be able to get the backlog of a bunch of orders to get running without having to try to figure it out as you go. Yolanda Padron: I feel like I’d almost make the case that like the blade repair versus replace gap or the business cases is getting larger and larger now, right? So I feel like there’s more of a market for like some sort of holistic maintenance team to come in and say, Hey, I know this OEM hasn’t been taking care of your blades really well, but here are these retrofits that have proven to be [00:20:00]to work on your blades and solve these issues and we’ll get you up and running. Rosemary Barnes: We are seeing more and more of of that. The thing that makes it hard for that to be a really great solution is that they don’t have the information that they need. They have to reverse engineer everything, and that is. Very challenging because like you can reverse engineer what a blade is, but it doesn’t mean that, you know, um, exactly like, because a, the blade that you end up with is not an optimized blade in every location, right? There’s some parts that are overbuilt and um, sometimes some parts that are underbuilt, which gives you, um, you know, serial issues. But, so reverse engineering isn’t necessarily gonna make it safe, and so that does mean that yeah, like anyone coming in with a really big, significant repair that doesn’t go through the OEM, it’s a, it’s a risk. It, it’s always a risk that they have, you know, like there’s certain repairs where you can reverse engineer enough to know that you’re safe. But any really big [00:21:00] one, um, or anything that involves multiple components, um, is. Is a bit of a gamble if it doesn’t go through the OEM. Joel Saxum: No, but so between, I guess between the comments there, Yolanda and Rosemary, are we then entering the the golden age of opportunity for in independent engineering experts? Rosemary Barnes: I believe so. I’m staking, staking my whole business on it. Allen Hall: I think you have to be careful here, everybody, because the problem is gonna be Chinese blade manufacturers. If you wanna try to establish yourself as a blade manufacturer and you’re taking an existing factory, say, say you bought a TPI factory in Turkey or somewhere, and you thought, okay, I, I know how to do this better than everybody else. That could be totally true. However, the OEMs are not committed to buying blades from you and your competition isn’t the Blade Factory in Denmark or in Colorado or North Dakota, or in Mexico or Canada, Spain, wherever your competition is when, [00:22:00] uh, the OEM says, I can buy these blades for 20 to 30% less money in China, and that’s what you’re gonna be held as, as a standard. That is what’s gonna kill most of these things with a 25% tariff on top. Right? Exactly. But still they’re still bringing Joel Saxum: blades in. That’s why I’m saying a local blade manufacturer, Rosemary Barnes: I think it’s less the case. That everyone thinks about China, although maybe a little bit unconventional opinion a about China, they certainly can manufacture blades with, uh, as good a quality as anyone. I mean, obviously all of the, um, Danish, uh, American manufacturers have factories in China that are putting out excellent quality blades. So I’m not trying to say that they dunno how to make a good blade, but with their. New designs, you know, and the really cheap ones. There’s a couple of, um, there’s a couple of reasons for that that mean that I don’t think that it just slots really well into just replacing all of the rest of the world’s, um, wind turbines. The first is that there are a lot of [00:23:00] subsidies in China. Surely there can only continue so long as their economy is strong. You know, like if their economy slows down, like to what extent are they gonna be able to continue to, um, continue with these subsidies? I would be a little bit nervous about buying an asset that I needed support for the next 30 years from a company like. That ecosystem. Then the other thing is that, um, that development, they move really fast because they take some shortcuts. There’s no judgment there. In fact, from a develop product development point of view, that is absolutely the best way to move really fast and get to a really good product fast. It will be pervasive all the way through every aspect of it. Um, non-Chinese companies are just working to a different standard, which slows them down. But also means that along the way, like I would be much happier with a half developed, um, product from a non-Chinese manufacturer than a half developed product from a Chinese manufacturer. The end point, like if China can keep on going long enough with this, [00:24:00] you know, like just really move fast, make bold decisions, learn everything you can. If they can continue with that long enough to get to a mature product, then absolutely they will just smash the rest of the world to pieces. So for me, it’s a matter of, um, does their economy stay strong enough to support that level of, uh, competition? Allen Hall: Well, no, that’s a really good take. It’s an engineering take, and I think the decision is made in the procurement offices of the OEMs and when they start looking at the numbers and trying to determine profitability. That extra 20% savings they can get on blades made in China comes into play quite often. This is why they’re having such a large discussion about Chinese manufacturers coming into the eu. More broadly is the the Vestas and the Siemens CAAs and even the GE Re Novas. No, it’s big time trouble because the cost structure is lower. It just is, and I. [00:25:00] As much as I would love to see Vestas and Siemens and GE Renova compete on a global stage, they can’t at the moment. That’s evident. I don’t think it’s a great time to be opening any new Blade Factory. If you’re not an already established company, it’s gonna be extremely difficult. Wind Energy O and M Australia is back February 17th and 18th at Melbourne’s Pullman on the park. Which is a great hotel. We built this year’s agenda directly from the conversations we’ve had in 2025 and tackling serial defects, insurance pressures, blade repairs, and the operational challenges that keeps everybody up at night around the world. So we have two days of technical sessions, interactive roundtables and networking that actually moves the industry for. Forward. And if you’re interested in attending this, you need to go to WMA 2020 six.com. It’s WOMA 2020 six.com. Rosemary, a lot of, uh, great events gonna happen at. W 2026. Why don’t [00:26:00] you give us a little highlight. Parlet iss gonna be there. Rosemary Barnes: Parlow is gonna be there. I mean, a highlight for me is always getting together with the, the group. And also, I mean, I just really love the size of the event that uh, every single person who’s there is interested in the same types of things that you are interested in. So the highlight for me is, uh, the conversations that I don’t know that I’m gonna have yet. So looking forward to that. But we are also. Making sure that we’ve got a really great program. We’ve got a good mix of Australian speakers and a few people bringing international experience as well. There’s also a few side events that are being organized, like there’s an operators only forum, which unfortunately none of us will be able to enter because we’re not operators, but that is gonna be really great for. For all of them to be able to get together and talk about issues that they have with no, nobody else in the room. So if, if you are an operator and you’re not aware of that, then get in touch and we’ll pass on your details to make sure you can join. Um, yeah, and people just, you know, [00:27:00] taking the opportunities to catch up with clients, you know, for paddle load. Most or all of our clients are, are gonna be there. So it is nice to get off Zoom and um, yeah, actually sit face to face and discuss things in person. So definitely encourage everyone to try and arrange those sorts of things while they’re there. Joel Saxum: You know, one of the things I think is really important about this event is that, uh, we’re, we’re continuing the conversation from last year, but a piece of feedback last year was. Fantastic job with the conversation and helping people with o and m issues and giving us things we can take back and actually integrate into our operations right away. But then a week or two or three weeks after the event, we had those things, but the conversation stopped. So this year we’re putting some things in place. One of ’em being like Rosemary was talking about the private operator forum. Where there’s a couple of operators that have actually taken the reins with this thing and they wanna put this, they wanna make this group a thing where they’re want to have quarterly meetings and they want to continue this conversation and knowledge share and boost that whole Australian market in the wind [00:28:00]side up right? Rising waters floats all boats, and we’re gonna really take that to the next level this year at Allen Hall: WMA down in Melbourne. That’s why I need a register now at Wilma 2020 six.com because the industry needs solutions. Speeches. That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate all the feedback and support we received from the wind industry. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Just reach out to us on LinkedIn and please don’t forget to subscribe so you’d never miss an episode. For Joel Rosemary and Yolanda, I’m Allen Hall. We’ll catch you next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

It's Thursday so let's talk to Kyle. Sponsors: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code BIGMAD at https://www.oneskin.co/bigmad #oneskinpod For Big Mad True Crime listeners, you can get 20% off your first order at http://curehydration.com/BIGMAD with code BIGMAD. And here's a bonus — Cure is FSA/HSA approved, so you can use your FSA or HSA funds to stay hydrated the smart way. Take the guesswork out of your dog's well-being. Go to http://ollie.com/bigmad and use code bigmad to get 60% off your first box! Join the loyalty program for renters at http://joinbilt.com/BIGMAD Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deadlines have a way of forcing clarity, and the final weeks of the year might be the most valuable money window you get. We sit down with Billy Joiner, CFO at Centric, to map out a practical, no-fluff plan for locking in free money, avoiding costly penalties, and starting January on steady ground. From retirement matches to healthcare accounts and charitable strategies, we focus on the moves that deliver the highest return for the least effort.We walk through the top three actions you can take in under 30 minutes: make sure you capture your full 401k match, update beneficiaries across every account, and review HSA or FSA contributions before deadlines hit. Billy breaks down HSA versus FSA in plain English, including rollover rules, eligible expenses, and how to avoid use-it-or-lose-it surprises. We also dig into charitable giving timing, how a donor-advised fund can bunch deductions for tax impact, and when donating appreciated assets makes sense. If open enrollment feels like a maze, we guide you to compare total cost of care, revisit network changes, and consider disability coverage that protects your income.Retirees and their families will find a clear reminder on required minimum distributions—what's due by December 31, the first-year exception, and how to get reliable help fast. We close with everyday money habits that actually move the needle, from packing lunch to cutting drink costs when eating out, plus a call to bring the whole family into the budget conversation so kids learn how money works. Link your accounts in your banking app, track progress in real time, and nudge your contributions now rather than “someday.”Ready to take action? Pick one or two items from our checklist and finish them this week. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a year-end nudge, and leave a quick review to help more people live better with their money.

If you’re retiring next year, the details you handle before you give notice can make a meaningful difference. In this episode of Protect Your Assets, The Sandman walks through what to review before you leave work, including 401(k) matching and vesting schedules (cliff vs. graded), what happens to your HSA and FSA, how PTO payouts work (including California considerations), health coverage choices if you’re retiring before 65 (COBRA, spouse coverage, marketplace plans, and Medicare timing), and key pension options that can impact income and legacy. You can send your questions to questions@pyaradio.com for a chance to be answered on air. Catch up on past episodes: http://pyaradio.com Liberty Group website: https://libertygroupllc.com/ Attend an event: www.pyaevents.com Schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation: https://calendly.com/libertygroupllc/scheduleacall/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What to listen for:Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, welcome veteran USAR handler Bob Deeds, whose journey from compulsion-based training to positive reinforcement transformed both his career and the field itself!His career trajectory spans volunteer search and rescue in the early nineties through Texas Task Force One, where he deployed to the World Trade Center with his partner, Kenzie.The devastating loss of Kenzie in a 2007 training accident nearly ended his career until his friend Sonja Heritage called at 2 AM with a powerful message: quitting meant Kenzie died for nothing.Bob credits Bob Bailey's chicken workshops as the single most transformative experience for his training mechanics. The fast-paced chickens force observational skills development whether trainers want it or not. Those mechanical skills translated directly to his dogs: when his Malinois Remy would nip holes in Bob's shirt from frustration over poor timing, Karen would smile knowingly.The dog was using positive punishment to remind Bob to pay attention to delivery, timing, and curriculum!Now teaching directionals to pet dog owners and planning chicken workshops with Robin in Iowa, Bob teaches that directional control isn't about perfect patterns, but recovery.As handler Shirley Hammond told him after his first FSA certification, disasters aren't perfect, and recovery from mistakes matters most!Key Topics:Transition from Compulsion to Positive Reinforcement Training (01:33)Loss of Partner Kenzie and Nearly Quitting (04:13)Bob Bailey's Chicken Workshops and Mechanical Skills (11:50)Chickens vs. Dogs: Speed, Visual Cues, and Pecking Behavior (17:03)Directional Training Philosophy and Real-World Applications (26:43)Arousal State Management and Food Drive Testing (40:58)Recovery Over Perfection in Disaster Work (46:16)World Trade Center Emergency Stop Example (50:51)Takeaways (53:53) Resources:Chicken Workshops:3/16/26 Option3/23/26 OptionDeeds Canine ConnectionShirley Hammond's Book: Training the Disaster Search DogFenzi Dog Sports AcademyWe want to hear from you:Check out the K9 Detection Collaborative FB page and comment on the episode post!K9Sensus Detection Dog Trainer AcademyK9Sensus Foundation can be found on Facebook and Instagram. We have a Trainer's Group on Facebook!Scentsabilities Nosework is also on Facebook. Here is a Facebook group you should join!You can follow us for notifications of upcoming episodes, find us at k9detectioncollaborative.com to enjoy the freebies, and tell your friends so you can keep the conversations going.And don't forget to check out the YouTube Channel!

It's that time of year… when HR gets absolutely flooded with FSA questions.Yes — your FSA can buy some pretty weird stuff.Oura rings?Massage guns?DNA tests?Yep. All real.In this episode, we break down unusual (but legit!) FSA purchases, clarify what actually qualifies, and help employees make the most of those use-it-or-lose-it dollars before they disappear.Perfect for HR pros, benefits teams, and anyone trying to spend FSA funds wisely—without crossing the line.

If you’re retiring next year, the details you handle before you give notice can make a meaningful difference. In this episode of Protect Your Assets, The Sandman walks through what to review before you leave work, including 401(k) matching and vesting schedules (cliff vs. graded), what happens to your HSA and FSA, how PTO payouts work (including California considerations), health coverage choices if you’re retiring before 65 (COBRA, spouse coverage, marketplace plans, and Medicare timing), and key pension options that can impact income and legacy. You can send your questions to questions@pyaradio.com for a chance to be answered on air. Catch up on past episodes: http://pyaradio.com Liberty Group website: https://libertygroupllc.com/ Attend an event: www.pyaevents.com Schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation: https://calendly.com/libertygroupllc/scheduleacall/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Laughter is an incredibly powerful and yet mysterious emotion. We laugh with delight, but also surprise. We laugh at jokes, but also at embarrassment. Why? What subconscious signal is laughter intended to display? Why do we laugh when someone tickles us and what should we make of the fact that rodents do it too? And why is it that people's sense of humour differs wildly and yet some drugs can send us all into fits of the giggles, even if there is nothing to laugh at?This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 12th of November 2025 at Bernard's Inn Hall, LondonProfessor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, and (interim) Chief Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency, Robin May was appointed Gresham Professor of Physic in May 2022. Between July 2020 and September 2025 he served as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA). Professor May's early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020. Professor May continues his work on Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Wolfson Royal Society Research Merit Fellow and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Professor May specialises in research into human infectious diseases, with a particular focus on how pathogens survive and replicate within host organisms.As the FSA's Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor May provides expert scientific advice to the UK government and plays a critical role in helping to understand how scientific developments will shape the work of the FSA, as well as the strategic implications of any possible changes.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/why-laughGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukX: https://x.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show

I talked with Idaho State Executive Director for the Farm Service Agency (FSA), Kevin Andrus about some new disaster relief programs.

Suave Golf's Kyle Surlow and Steve 'Beige' Berger are back to hang and discuss Kyle's most recent trip to Bandon Dunes, Beige's FSA conundrum, why the Australian Open may be the 5th best tournament in the world, potential changes to the PGA Tour Schedule in 2027, and a new segment, Fairways with Phil. Music provided by broiler - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠listen to and download his music here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Support those who support us! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SUAVE GOLF⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - world-class golf sabbaticals and fine goods ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Hot Drops⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ fermented & flavorful condiments ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Golf Guide⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - purveyors of discounted greens fees across Northern California WATCH - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Like & Subscribe to Nice Grass Nice People⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on YouTube Email us! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nicegrassnicepeople@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Food Standards Agency has agreed to a public consultation on the fees it takes from abattoirs. They are charged by the FSA for their official vets and meat hygiene inspectors who monitor food safety and animal welfare. The smallest abattoirs already get a 90 percent discount, but under the new system being proposed that reduction would benefit more businesses. We've been exploring the world of rare and native livestock breeds all this week, and they don't come much rarer than the Ancient Cattle of Wales. There are only around 200 of them left. Earlier this year they were added to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Watchlist, and now the Ancient Cattle of Wales Society is on the case, trying to reverse the decline in numbers by promoting the breed. And we meet a couple of retired tenant farmers who now go around the country offering holiday relief for farmers, who struggle to leave their livestock for holidays. Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Sally Challoner.

I talked with Idaho State Executive Director for the Farm Service Agency (FSA), Kevin Andrus about some new disaster relief programs.

State Executive Director for the Farm Service Agency (FSA), Kevin Andrus, describes some new disaster relief programs.

In this episode, we look at the actuarial principles that make models safer: parallel modeling, small data with provenance, and real-time human supervision. To help us, long-time insurtech and startup advisor David Sandberg, FSA, MAAA, CERA, joins us to share more about his actuarial expertise in data management and AI. We also challenge the hype around AI by reframing it as a prediction machine and putting human judgment at the beginning, middle, and end. By the end, you might think about “human-in-the-loop” in a whole new way.• Actuarial valuation debates and why parallel models win• AI's real value: enhance and accelerate the growth of human capital• Transparency, accountability, and enforceable standards• Prediction versus decision and learning from actual-to-expected• Small data as interpretable, traceable fuel for insight• Drift, regime shifts, and limits of regression and LLMs• Mapping decisions, setting risk appetite, and enterprise risk management (ERM) for AI• Where humans belong: the beginning, middle, and end of the system• Agentic AI complexity versus validated end-to-end systems• Training judgment with tools that force critique and citationCultural references:Foundation, AppleTVThe Feeling of Power, Isaac AsimovPlayer Piano, Kurt VonnegutFor more information, see Actuarial and data science: Bridging the gap.What did you think? Let us know.Do you have a question or a discussion topic for the AI Fundamentalists? Connect with them to comment on your favorite topics: LinkedIn - Episode summaries, shares of cited articles, and more. YouTube - Was it something that we said? Good. Share your favorite quotes. Visit our page - see past episodes and submit your feedback! It continues to inspire future episodes.

Allen, Joel, Rosemary, and Yolanda discuss a German study finding 99.8% of birds avoid wind turbines, challenging long-standing collision risk models. They also cover Pattern Energy’s SunZia project nearing completion as the Western Hemisphere’s largest renewable project, lightning monitoring strategies for large-scale wind farms, and offshore flange alignment technology. Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia 2026!Learn more about CICNDTDownload the latest issue of PES Wind Magazine Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now, here’s your host. Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes. Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host Alan Hall in the queen city of Charlotte, North Carolina, where a cold front is just blown through, but we’re not nearly as cold as Joel was up in Wisconsin, Joel, you had a bunch of snow, which is really the first big storm of the season. Joel Saxum: Yeah, the crazy thing here was the Wind Energy Podcast. So since that storm I, we, we got up in northern Wisconsin, 18 inches of snow, and then we drove down on last Saturday after US Thanksgiving through Iowa, there’s another 18 inches of snow in Des Moines. I talked to a more than one operator that had icing and snow issues at their wind farms all through the northern Midwest of these states. So from [00:01:00] North Dakota. All the way down to Nebraska, Northern Missouri, over into Indiana. There was a ton of turbines that were iced up and or snowed in from that storm, Allen Hall: and Rosemary was in warm Australia with other icing knowledge or de-icing knowledge while the US has been suffering. Rosemary Barnes: But you know, on the first day of summer here, a couple of days ago, it was minus one here overnight. So. Um, yeah, it’s, uh, unseasonable and then tomorrow it’ll be 35. Allen Hall: The smartest one of us all has been Yolanda, down in Austin, Texas, where it doesn’t get cold. Yolanda Padron: Never. It’s so nice. It’s raining today and that’s about it. Traffic’s going crazy. Joel Saxum: Rain is welcome for us, isn’t it though, Yolanda? Yolanda Padron: It’s sweet. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does. Very rainy for like 24 hours. Allen Hall: We’ve been saving a story for a couple of weeks until Rosemary is back and it has to do with birds and a year long study over [00:02:00] in Germany. And as we know, one of the most persistent arguments against wind energy has been the risk to birds and permitting and operation shutdowns have been the norm, uh, based on models and predicted collision risks. Well. A new study comes, has just come out that says, what if the models are all wrong? And the new German study suggests that they may be wrong. The Federal Association of Offshore Wind Energy, known by its German acronym, BWO Commission Research to examine. Actual collision risk at a coastal wind farm in Northern Germany. The study was conducted by Biocon Consult, a German research and consulting firm, and funded by eight major offshore wind operators, including Sted, Vattenfall, RWE, and E, roa, and. Rosemary using some of the newer technology. They were able to track bird movements with radar [00:03:00] and AI and stereo vision cameras to, to watch birds move through and around, uh, some of these wind farms. And it analyzed more than 4 million bird movements and over 18 months, and they searched for collision victims and what they found was pretty striking more than 99.8% of both day migrating and night migrating birds. Avoided the turbines entirely. The study found no correlation between migration intensity and collision rates. And BD and BWO says The combination of radar and AI based cameras represents a methodological breakthrough. Uh, that can keep turbines moving even when birds are in transit. This is pretty shocking news, honestly, Rosemary, I, I haven’t seen a lot of long-term studies about bird movements where they really had a lot of technology involved to, besides binoculars, to, to look at bird movement. The [00:04:00] 99.8% of the migrating birds are going around The turbines. No, the turbines are there. That’s. Really new information. Rosemary Barnes: I think. I mean, if you never heard anything about wind turbines and birds, I don’t think you’d be shocked like that. Birds mostly fly around obstacles. That’s probably an intuitive, intuitive answer. Because we’ve had it shoved down our throat for decades now. Wind turbines are huge bird killers. It’s kind of like, it’s been repeated so often that it kind of like sinks in and becomes instinctive, even though, yeah, I do think that, um, it’s. Not that, that shocking that an animal with eyes avoids a big obstacle when it’s flying. Um, but it is really good that somebody has actually done more than just trying to look for bird deaths. You know, they’ve actually gone out, seen what can we find, and then reported that they found mostly nothing. We already knew the real risks for birds, like hundreds or thousands, even millions of times [00:05:00] more, um, deadly to birds are things like. Cats. Cars, buildings, even power lines kill more birds than, um, wind turbines do. In fact, like when you look at, um, the studies that look at wind, um, bird deaths from wind turbines, most of those are from people driving, like workers driving to site and hitting a bird with their cars. Um, you know, that’s attributed to wind energy. Not a surprise maybe for people that have been following very closely, but good to see the report. Nonetheless. Joel Saxum: I think it’s a win for like the global wind industry, to be honest with you, because like you said, there’s, there’s no, um, like real studies of this with, that’s backed up by metric data with, like I said, like the use stereo cameras. Radar based AI detection and, and some of those things, like if you talk with some ornithologists for the big OEMs and stuff, they’ve been dabbling in those things. Like I dabbled in a project without a DTU, uh, a while back and it, but it wasn’t large scale done like this. A [00:06:00] particular win this study in the United States is there’s been this battle in the United States about what birds and what, you know, raptors or these things are controlled or should have, um, controls over them by the governments for wind installations. The big one right now is US Fish and Wildlife Service, uh, controls raptors, right? So that’s your eagle’s, owls, hawks, those kind of things. So they’ll map out the nests and you can only go in certain areas, uh, or build in certain areas depending on when their mating seasons are. And they put mild buffers on some of them. It’s pretty crazy. Um, but the one rule in the United States, it’s been kind of floated out there, like, we’re gonna throw this in your face, wind industry. Is the Federal Migratory Bird Act, which is also how they regulate all like the, the hunting seasons. So it’s not, it’s the reason that the migratory birds are controlled by the federal government as opposed to state governments is because they cross state lines. And if we can [00:07:00] prove now via this study that wind farms are not affecting these migratory bird patterns or causing deaths, then it keeps the feds out of our, you know, out of the permitting process for. For birds, Rosemary Barnes: but I’m not sure this is really gonna change that much in terms of the environmental approvals that you need to do because it’s a, you know, a general, a general thing with a general, um, statistical population doesn’t look at a specific wind farm with a specific bird and you’re still need to go. You’re still going to have to need to look at that every time you’re planning an actual wind farm. That’s it’s fair. Yolanda Padron: And it’s funny sometimes how people choose what they care or don’t care about. I know living in a high rise, birds will hit the window like a few a month. And obviously they will pass away from impact and the building’s not going anywhere. Just like a turbine’s not going anywhere. And I’ve never had anybody complain to [00:08:00] me about living and condoning high rises because of how they kill the birds. And I’ve had people complain to me about wind turbines killing the birds. It’s like, well, they’re just there. Joel Saxum: If we’re, if we’re talking about energy production, the, if everybody remembers the deep water horizon oil spill 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. That oil spill killed between 801.2 million birds. Just that one. Speaker 6: Australia’s wind farms are growing fast, but are your operations keeping up? Join us February 17th and 18th at Melbourne’s Poolman on the park for Wind energy o and M Australia 2026, where you’ll connect with the experts solving real problems in maintenance asset management. And OEM relations. Walk away with practical strategies to cut costs and boost uptime that you can use the moment you’re back on site. Register now at W om a 2020 six.com. Wind Energy o and m Australia [00:09:00] is created by wind professionals for wind professionals because this industry needs solutions, not speeches Allen Hall: well in the high desert of Central New Mexico, near a lot of what were ghost towns that were abandoned during the Great Depression. If there is a flurry of activity pattern, energy sunzi, a project is near completion after 20 years of planning and permitting. When. It’s supposed to be finished in 2026. It’ll be the largest renewable energy project in the Western hemisphere. More than 900 turbines spread across multiple counties. A 550 mile transmission line stretching to Arizona and then onward to California, and $11 billion bet that’s being made on American wind. Now, Joel, it’s a kind of a combination of two OEMs there, Vestus and ge. The pace of building has been really rapid over the last six, eight months from what I can [00:10:00] tell. Joel Saxum: Yeah. We have talked to multiple ISPs, EPC contractors. Um, of course we know some of the engineers involved in building a thing on the pattern side. Right. But this sheer size of this thing, right, it’s, it is three and a half gigawatts, right? You’re talking 900 turbines and, and so big that one OEM really couldn’t, I mean, it’s a, it’s a risk hedge, right? But couldn’t fulfill the order. So you have massive ge tur set of turbines out there. Massive set of vestas turbines out there. And I think one thing that’s not to be missed on this project as well is that transmission line, that high voltage transmission line that’s feeding this thing. Because that’s what we need, right? That was when we built, started building up big time in Texas, the cre, the crest lines that were built to bring all of that wind energy to the major cities in Texas. That was a huge part of it. And we have seen over the last six months, we have seen loans canceled, uh, permits being pulled and like troubles being in hurdles, being thrown up in the face of a lot of these transmission lines that are planned. [00:11:00] These big ones in the states. And that’s what we need for energy security in the future, is these big transmission lines to go. So we can get some of this generation to, uh, to the market, get electrons flowing into homes and into industry. But this thing here, man, um, I know we’ve been talking about Sunz, the Sunz project, uh, and all the people involved in it, in the wind industry for a, what, two, three years now? Oh, at least. Yeah. It’s been in planning and development stage for much longer than that. But the. The, the big bet. I like it. Um, bringing a lot of, um, bringing a lot of economic opportunity to New Mexico, right? A place that, uh, if you’ve driven across New Mexico lately, it needs it in a dire way. Uh, and this is how wind energy can bring a lot of, uh, economic boom to places that, uh, hadn’t had it in the past. Allen Hall: And this being the largest project to date, there’s a, I think a couple more than a pipeline that could be larger if they get moving on them. We see another project like this five years [00:12:00] from now, or we think we’re gonna scale down and stay in the gigawatt range just because of the scale and the things that Sunzi went through. Joel Saxum: We have the choke chair, Sierra Madre project up in Wyoming that’s been chugging the Anschutz Corporation’s been pushing that thing for a long time. That’s, that’s along the same size of this unit. Um, and it’s the same thing. It’s, it’s kind of hinged on, I mean, there’s permitting issues, but it’s hinged on a transmission line being built. I think that one’s like 700. 50 miles of transmission. That’s supposed to be, it’s like Wyoming all the way down to Las Vegas. That project is sitting out there. Um, it’s hard to build something of that size in, like say the wind corridor, the Texas, Oklahoma, uh, you know, all the way up to the Dakotas, just simply because of the massive amount of landowners and public agencies involved in those things. It’s a bit easier when you get out West New Mexico. Um, I could see something like this happening possibly in Nevada. At some point in time to feed that California [00:13:00] side of things, right? But they’re doing massive solar farms out there. Same kind of concept. Um, I, I think that, um, I would love to see something like this happen, but to invest that kind of capital, you’ve got to have some kind of ITC credits going for you. Um, otherwise, I mean, $11 billion is, that’s a lot of money Allen Hall: since Zia will have PTC. Which is a huge driver about the economics for the entire project. Joel Saxum: Yeah. But you’re also seeing at the same time, just because of the volatility of what’s happening in the states wind wise, uh, there was a big article out today of someone who got wind that EDF may be selling its entire Allen Hall: US onshore renewable operation or US renewable operation. That was Wood Mac that. Put that out. And I’m still not sure that’s a hundred percent reliable, but they have been 50% for sale for a while. Everybody, I think everybody knew that. Joel Saxum: Yeah. I don’t know if it’s a hundred percent reliable as well. I would agree with you there. However, there’s, it’s the [00:14:00] same thought process of European company pulling outta the United States. That’s where a lot of the renewable energy capital is, or it has been fed to a lot of that capital comes from Canada and other places too. Right. But that’s where it’s been fed through. Um, but you’re starting to see some, some. Uh, purchasing some acquisitions, a little bit of selling and buying here and there. I don’t, I don’t think that there’s, uh, massive ones on the horizon. That’s just my opinion though. Allen Hall: Well, won’t the massive ones be offshore if we ever get back to it? Joel Saxum: Yeah, you would think so, right? But I, that’s gonna take a, uh, an administration change. I mean the, the, all that stuff you’d see out in California, like when we were originally seeing the leases come out and we were like, oh, great. More offshore opportunity. Ah, but it’s California, so it’ll be kind of tough. It probably won’t be till 20 32, 20, something like that. I don’t think we’ll see possibly California offshore wind until 2040 if we’re lucky. Allen Hall: Joel, what were the two wind turbines selected for Sunz? They were both new models, right? One from Renova and then the other one from [00:15:00] Vestas, Joel Saxum: so the Vestas was 242 V, 1 63, 4 0.5 megawatts machines, and the, and the GE Renova. Just so we get, make sure I get clarity on this. 674 of its three. They were 3.6, but they’re 3.61 50 fours. Allen Hall: Okay. So both turbine types are relatively new. New to the manufacturer. CZ has two new turbines styles on the site. Joel Saxum: Yeah, we were told that when they were originally like getting delivered, that they didn’t have type certificates yet. That’s how new they were. Allen Hall: So Yolanda. As Sania starts to turn on, what are things that they need to be aware of blade wise, Yolanda Padron: besides the lightning and the dust in New Mexico? It’s probably gonna tip them. I don’t know exactly what they’re counting with as far as leading edge protection goes. Allen Hall: Pattern usually doesn’t, uh, have a full service agreement. Joel, do you remember if that was an FSA? I don’t think so. Joel Saxum: I would say [00:16:00] because those are Vestas turbines on the one that, yes, Vestas really doesn’t sell a turbine without it. Knowing internally how big patterns engineering group are, I don’t know if they can completely take on the operations of a thousand more turbine, 900 more turbines overnight. Right? So I think that there is gonna be some OE EMM involvement in these things, uh, simply to be at that scale as well. I don’t know of anywhere else with a 1 54 install a GE 1 54. So the things that I wouldn’t looking out is the. It’s the brand new type stuff, right? Like do internal inspections when they’re on the ground. You don’t know what kind of condition these things are in, what, you know, what is the, you haven’t, nobody’s seen them. Like you’re the first ones to get to get your hands on these things. Yolanda Padron: Yeah, I think they’re definitely gonna have to go with some sort of consulting or something externally as far as what exactly they’re dealing with. I know, Rosemary, you’ve touched on it a lot, right about. [00:17:00] How the changing the blade types and changing the turbines every x amount of years is really not conducive to, to being able to repeat the same results. And if you’re having that for hundreds of turbines at a new site that you’ve already had so much time and money invested in creating, it’ll, it’s, it’s a big undertaking. Rosemary Barnes: It’s really interesting because. When you have such a large wind farm be, I’m assuming one of the first wind farms may be the first to get this new turbine types, then if there’s a serial defect, it’s gonna be very obvious. ’cause with smaller wind farms, one of the problems is that, uh, the numbers are too small to definitively say whether something is, um, serial or just random bad luck. Um, but when you get. So how many wind turbines is it? Joel Saxum: Almost a thousand total. It’s [00:18:00] 674 GE turbines and 242 Vesta turbines. Rosemary Barnes: You can do statistics on that kind of a population and this area. I mean, there’s lightning there, right? Like this is not an area where you’re not gonna see lightning. You know, in know the first couple of years, like there, there will be. Hundreds of turbines damaged by lightning in the, the first couple of years I would suggest, um, or, you know, maybe not. Maybe the LPS are so, so great that that doesn’t happen. But, you know, the typical standard of LPS would mean that, you know, even if you only see, say we see 10 strikes per turbine to year and you get a 2% damage rate, that is, you know, lots of, lots of individual instances of blade damage, even if everything works as it should according to certification. And if it doesn’t, if you see a 10% damage rate or something from those strikes, then you are going to know that, you know, the, um, LPS is not performing the way that the standard says that it should. It’s not like that’s a slam dunk for, um, [00:19:00] proving that the design was not sufficient or the certification wasn’t correct. It’s always really, really tricky. My recommendation would be to make sure that you are monitoring the lightning strikes, so you know exactly which turbine is struck and when, and then go inspect them and see the damage. Ideally, you’re also gonna be measuring some of the characteristics of the lightning as well. But you do that from day one. Then if there is a problem, then you’re at least gonna have enough information within the, um, you know, the serial defect liability period to be able to do something about it. Joel Saxum: Let me ask you a question on that, on just the, that lightning monitoring piece then. So this is something that’s just, it’s of course we do this all the time, but this is boiling up in the thing. How do you, how do you monitor for lightning on 916 turbines? Probably spread, spread across. 200 square miles. Rosemary Barnes: Well, there’s, there’s heaps of different ways that you can do it. Um, so I mean, you can do remote, remote lightning detection, which is [00:20:00] not good enough. Then there are a range of different technologies that you can install in the, um, turbines. Um, the most simple and longest standing solution was a lightning cart, which is installed on the down conductor at the blade route. That will just tell you the amplitude of the biggest strike that that turbine has ever seen when it’s red. I have literally never seen a case where the lightning card definitively or even provided useful evidence one way or another when there’s a, a dispute about lightning. So then you move on to solutions that, uh, um. Measuring they use, uh, Alan, you’re the electrical engineer, but they, they use the, the principle that when there’s a large current flowing, then it also induces a magnetic field. And then you can use that to make a, a, a change and read characteristics about it. So you can tell, um, well first of all, that that turbine was definitely struck. So there are simple systems that can do that quite cheaply. The OGs ping [00:21:00] sensor, does that really cost effectively? Um, and then OG Ping. Phoenix Contact and Polytech all have a different product. Um, all have their own products that can tell you the charge, the duration, the um, polarity or the, yeah, the, the, if it’s a positive or a negative strike, um, yeah, rise time, things like that. Um, about the strike, that’s probably, probably, you don’t. Need to go to that extent. Um, I would say just knowing definitively which turbine was struck and when is gonna give you what you need to be able to establish what kind of a problem or if you have a problem and what kind of a problem it is. Joel Saxum: I think that like an important one there too is like, uh, so I know that Vest is in a lot of their FSA contracts will say if it’s struck by lightning, we have 48 or 72 hours to inspect it. Right. And when you’re talking something of this scale, 916 turbines out there, like if there’s a lightning storm, like [00:22:00]we’ve been watching, we watch a lot of lightning storms come through, uh, certain wind farms that we’re working with. And you see 20, 30, 40 turbines get struck. Now if a storm comes through the middle of this wind farm, you’re gonna have 200 turbines get struck. How in the hell do you go out without ha Like you need to have something that can narrow you down to exactly the turbines that we’re struck. That being said that next morning or over the next two days, you need to deploy like 10 people in trucks to drive around and go look at these things. That’s gonna be a massive problem. Pattern has about 3000 turbines, I think in their portfolio, and they, so they’re, they’re familiar with lightning issues and how things happen, but something at this scale when it’s just like so peaky, right? ’cause a storm isn’t through every night, so you don’t have that need to go and inspect things. But when you do. That is gonna be a massive undertaking. ’cause you gotta get people out there to literally like, at a minimum, binocular these things to make sure there isn’t any damage on ’em. And it’s gonna be, there’s gonna be storms where hundreds of turbines get hit. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, well [00:23:00] those three companies, those three products that I mentioned are aiming to get around that. I mean, it will depend how contracts are worded. I know in Australia it is not the norm to check for lightning ever. So if the contract says someone has to, you know, use human eyeballs to verify lightning damage or not, then. That’s, you know, that’s what has to happen. But all of these technologies do aim to offer a way that you wouldn’t have to inspect every single one. So Polytech is using, um, different lightning characteristics and then they’ve got an algorithm which they say will learn, um, which types of strike cause damage that could. Potentially progress to catastrophic damage. Um, and then the other one that is interesting is the eLog Ping solution because they’ve also got the, um, damage monitoring. That’s their original aim of their product, was that if there’s a damage on the blade tip, say it’s been punctured by lightning, it, it actually makes a noise. Like it makes a whistle and they listen out for that. So if you combine the [00:24:00]lightning detection and the, um, like blade. Tip structure monitoring from Ping, then you can get a good idea of which ones are damaged. Like if it’s damaged badly enough to fail, it is almost certainly gonna be making a noise that the ping can, um, detect Allen Hall: as wind energy professionals. Staying informed is crucial, and let’s face it, d. That’s why the Uptime podcast recommends PES Wind Magazine. PES Wind offers a diverse range of in-depth articles and expert insights that dive into the most pressing issues facing our energy future. Whether you’re an industry veteran or new to wind, PES Wind has the high quality content you need. Don’t miss out. Visit PE ps win.com today and this quarter’s PES WIN Magazine. There’s a lot of great articles, and as we roll into December. You’ll have time to sit down and read them. You can download a free copy@pswin.com. And there’s a, a really interesting article about [00:25:00] offshore, and there’s a number of articles about offshore this quarter. Well, two Dutch companies developed a solution to really one of the industry’s most persistent headaches. And when it’s flange alignment. So when you’re trying to connect the transition piece to the mono paddle out in the water, it’s not really easy to do. Uh. So PES interviewed, uh, Ontech and Dutch heavy lift consultants to explain their flange alignment system known as FAS. And it started when a turbine installation needed a safer, faster way to try to align these two pieces. So if you can think about the amount of steel we’re talking about, these are really massive pieces you’re trying to line and put bolts in, not easy to do out in the ocean. Uh, so what this new device can do is it can align the flanges in a couple of minutes. It can reshape deformed, flanges and Joel, as you know, everything offshore can get dinged warped. That’s pretty easy to do, so you don’t want that when you have a, a heavily loaded, bolted joint, like those flanges to be [00:26:00] perfectly, uh, smooth to one another and, and tight. So these two companies, Amek and Dutch heavy Lifting consultants have come up with some pretty cool technology to speed up. Installations of wind turbines. Joel Saxum: Yeah, I would say anybody who’s interested in wind, offshore wind, any of that sort, and you have a little bit of an engineering mind or an engineering, uh, quirk in your mind. As, as I think we said earlier in the episode today, engineering nerds. Um, I would encourage you to go and look at some heavy lift operations offshore, whether it is offshore wind, offshore oil and gas, offshore construction of any time or any type even pipe lay operations and stuff. Just to take, just to take in the, the sheer scale. At how, uh, at how these things are being done and how difficult that would be to manage. Think about the just tons and tons of steel and, uh, trying to put these pieces together and these different things. And then remember that these vessels are thousands of dollars, sometimes a minute for how specialized they are. Right? So a lot of money gets put into [00:27:00] how the, like when we’re putting monopiles in that these transit transition pieces get put on. A lot of money has been spent on. The ver like technology to get, make sure they’re super, super tight tolerances on the verticality of those when they’re driving the actual piles in. And then you’re doing that offshore in a nasty environment, sometimes from a jack up vessel, sometimes not from a jack vessel, sometimes from a mor or like a, you know, a pseudo mor vessel on, uh. Dynamic positioning systems, and then you’re swinging these big things with cranes and all this stuff, like, it’s just a crazy amount of engineering eng engineering and operational knowledge that goes into making this stuff happen. And if you make one little mistake, all of a sudden that piece can be useless. Right? Like I’ve been a part of, of heavy offshore lifting for oil and gas where they’ve. It’s built a piece on shore, got it out to the vessel, went to go put it off sub sea in 2000 meters of water, lowered it all the way down there and it didn’t fit like you just burned [00:28:00] hundreds and hundreds and thousands of millions of dollars in time. So this kind of technology that Anima Tech is putting out in Dutch Heavy Lift consultants. This is the key to making sure that these offshore operations go well. So kudos to these guys for solve for seeing a problem and solving a problem with a real solution. Uh, instead of just kind of like dreaming things up, making something happen here. I’d like to see it. Allen Hall: Check out that article and many more in this quarter’s. PES Wind Magazine downloaded free copy@pswind.com. Well, Yolanda, as we know, everybody’s out with Sky Specs, uh, doing blade inspections, and so many turbines have issues this year. A lot of hail damage, a lot of lightning damage and some serial defects from what I can tell. Uh, we’re, we’re getting to that crazy season where we’re trying to get ready for next year and prioritize. This is the time to call C-I-C-N-D-T and actually take a deep hard look at some of this damage, particularly at the blade root area. We’ve seen a lot more of that where, [00:29:00] uh, there’s been failures of some blades at the root where the bolt connection is. So you’re gonna have to get some NDT done. Boy, oh boy, you better get C-I-C-N-D-T booked up or get them on the phone because they’re getting really busy. Yolanda Padron: Yeah, you definitely need to schedule something. Make sure that you know at least where you stand, right? Be because imagine going into try to fix something and just have a hammer and then close your eyes and then see what you can fix. That way, like sometimes it feels like when you’re in operations, if you don’t have the proper. The proper inspections done, which sometimes there’s, there’s not enough budget for, or appetite or knowledge, um, in some of these projects to have early on. You come in and just, you, you see the end result of failure modes and you might see something that’s really, really expensive to fix now. Or you might think of, oh, this problem happened at X, Y, Z. [00:30:00] Site, so it’ll probably happen here. That’s not necessarily the case. So getting someone like NDT to be able to come in and actually tell you this is what’s going on in your site, and these are the potential failure modes that you’re going to see based on what you’re getting and this is what will probably happen, or this is what is happening over time in your site, is a lot more indicative to be able to solve those problems faster and way. More way, in a way less expensive manner than if you were to go in and just try to fix everything reactively. You know, if you have half a bond line missing. Then later you, your blade breaks. It’s like, well, I mean, you, you could, you could have seen it, you could have prevented it. You could have saved that blade and saved yourself millions and millions of dollars and, and so much more money in downtime. Joel Saxum: Yeah. The first time I ran into Jeremy Hess and the C-A-C-N-D team was actually on an insurance project where it was Yolanda, like you said, like [00:31:00] they let it go. The, the operator and the OEM let it go way too long, and all of a sudden they had a, like wind farm wide shutdown costing them millions in production. Uh, to find these, these issues that, uh, could have been found in a different manner when you talk to the team over there. Um, why we like to recommend them from the podcast is Jeremy has an answer for everything. He’s been around the world. He’s worked in multiple industries, aerospace, race, cars, sailboats, you name it. Um, he’s been a client to almost everybody, you know, in the wind industry, all the OEMs, right? So he knows the, the issues. He has the right tool sets. To dive into them. You, you may not know, not, you don’t need to be an NDT expert to be able to have a conversation because he will coach you through, okay, here you have this problem. Alright, this is how we would look at it. This is how we would solve it. Here’s how you would monitor for it, and then this is how you would, you know, possibly fix it. Or this is what the, the solution looks like. Um, because I think that’s one of the [00:32:00] hurdles to the industry with NDT projects is people just don’t. Know what’s available, what’s out there, what they can see, what they, you know, the issues that they might be able to uncover, like you said, Yolanda. So, um, we encourage, um, anybody that says, Hey, do you know anybody in NDT? Yeah, it’s Jeremy Hanks and the C-I-C-N-D-T team. Call ’em up. They’ve got the solutions, they’ll help you out. Allen Hall: That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Just reach out to us on LinkedIn and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you found value in today’s conversation, please leave us a review. It really helps other wind energy professionals discover the show and we’ll catch you next week on the Uptime Wind Energy [00:33:00] Podcast.

Joe's Premium Subscription: www.standardgrain.comGrain Markets and Other Stuff Links —Apple PodcastsSpotifyTikTokYouTubeFutures and options trading involves risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone.The Trump administration is expected to announce a $12 billion aid package for farmers today. The announcement will take place around 2 this afternoon in Washington, DC. About $11 billion will go to crop farmers through the new Farmer Bridge Assistance program, with the rest going toward other commodities. The funds have been authorized under the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and will be administered by the FSA.

Learn more about which products are FSA and HSA eligible:https://www.doterra.com/US/en/pl/fsa-hsa-eligibleTo learn more about the podcast, check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.essentialoilconversations.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Link to Reference Book Matchmaker: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://balanceredeemed.myflodesk.com/ezcw54ppia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠To learn more about Heather Skold, check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.jugglingsimplicity.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠To learn more about Meg Fittsgill, check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.balanceredeemed.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

After losing at the FSA awards last night the lads chat turns to a new sexy formation on the cards at Leeds United.

The podcast features a conversation with Willis Towers Watson CEO Carl Hess, who discusses his progression from actuary to CEO, emphasizing the importance of analytical skills, communication, and people management in leadership. Carl highlights how technology and AI are transforming the actuarial profession, noting that automation and AI projects at WTW are helping staff focus on more productive work and better utilize unstructured data. He shares personal anecdotes about using music to maintain focus during actuarial exam studies and explains how he stays connected with WTW's employees through informal interactions and modern communication tools. Carl reflects on key career moments and lessons leaned along the way.   Carl is joined by Chris Lombardi, Karen Grote, and Jon Froster for this thoughtful conversation.   Contributors: Carl Hess, FSA, CERA; Chris Lombardi, FSA, MAAA; Karen Grote, FSA, MAAA; Jon Forster, ASA, MAAA Thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe! Want to keep up with the latest SOA news? Follow us on our social channels: Instagram: @soactuaries Facebook: Society of Actuaries LinkedIn: Society of Actuaries Twitter: @SOActuaries About Us: With roots dating back to 1889, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) is the world's largest actuarial professional organization with more than 32,000 actuaries as members. Serving as the SOA's research arm, the SOA Research Institute provides objective, data-driven research bringing together tried and true practices and future-focused approaches to address societal challenges and your business needs. It provides trusted knowledge, extensive experience and new technologies to help effectively identify, predict and manage risks. ● Learn more about Influence in the Actuarial Profession and other engaging topics relevant for actuaries on the Professional Development Edge Subscription product.    https://www.soa.org/prof-dev/pd-edge/  

Send us a message with this link, we would love to hear from you. Standard message rates may apply.We unpack new GLP-1 pricing, coverage hurdles, and whether cash-pay programs make these meds more reachable for diabetes, obesity, and sleep apnea care. Along the way we share candid pros and cons of injections, tease future oral options, and weigh real tradeoffs.• current cash-pay pricing from major manufacturers• differences between Wegovy, Ozempic, and Zepbound• tighter insurance coverage and prior authorization burden• fears about injections and route-of-administration bias• potential oral GLP-1 timelines and cost impact• framing obesity as a chronic, treatable disease• practical tips to explore HSA or FSA options• how to decide if the monthly cost is worth itSupport the showSubscribe to Our Newsletter! Production and Content: Edward Delesky, MD & Nicole Aruffo, RNArtwork: Olivia Pawlowski

On this episode of Dollars & Sense with Joel Garris, get ready for a power-packed financial guide as Joel unpacks the must-do year-end financial checklist, reveals the surprising habits of the “millionaire next door,” and exposes the pitfalls of incomplete estate plans. Joel kicks off with a timely reminder: as the holiday season races by, you have just weeks to make smart financial moves before the new year. He walks you through seven crucial year-end tasks, including maximizing retirement contributions, using up your FSA, making charitable donations, and reviewing your health benefits—each step designed to help you avoid costly mistakes and make the most of your money. Next, the show dives into one of the biggest gaps in personal finance: estate planning. Joel shares stories from his practice, highlighting how most estate plans are never fully implemented—leaving families vulnerable. He explains why simply signing documents isn't enough, and outlines easy-to-follow steps (like titling assets correctly and regular reviews) so your legacy plan actually works for your loved ones. But that's not all! Joel also explores the “stealthy wealthy”—those quiet millionaires who build real, lasting wealth by shunning status symbols, driving practical cars, maximizing tax efficiency, budgeting diligently, and keeping their finances private. Want to know what they do differently? Joel breaks down the seven key habits that set them apart, with actionable tips you can use right now. Whether you're looking to finish the year strong, set up your family for success, or adopt the habits of the quietly wealthy, this episode delivers practical insights and real-life inspiration. Click to listen and learn how to avoid the traps, make smarter money moves, and secure your financial future! 

In this lively, reflective episode of The Forest School Podcast, Lewis, Wem, and guest Lily pick apart the famous “three look afters” and ask a bigger question: who's allowed to fail at Forest School, and how do we help people fail well? From cartilage kneecaps and Mr Potato Head jokes to space holding, autonomy versus community, and that dreaded “shit spoon” moment, they explore boundaries, blame versus shame, and how to create conditions where struggle leads to learning rather than humiliation. Expect practical facilitation nuance, philosophical detours, and a few perfect tangents about tracksuits.⏱ Chapter Timings00:00 – Cold open: kneecaps, bandagraphs, and Mr Potato Heads03:14 – Axing the “three look afters”: demands, agency, and who can fail06:06 – Flattened hierarchies or hidden authority: responsibility in practice10:38 – Boundaries, safety, and culture shift for new groups14:49 – Space holding, low-demand setups, and modelling altruism21:27 – Failing well: conditions for struggle without humiliation25:22 – Nunchi: reading the room and tailoring support28:56 – Relational failure, shame versus guilt, and belonging49:22 – Process over product: the “shit spoon” and reframing success1:05:00 – Lily's trainings, FSA roadshows, and resources

Segment 1: Ilyce Glink, owner of Think Glink Media, joins John Williams to talk about what we can expect from Cyber Monday this year. Ilcye also reminds you to spend your FSA balance, and the state of Florida looking to eliminate property taxes for residents. Segment 2: Jim Dallke, Director of Communications, TechNexus Venture Collaborative, tells John about Cameo scored a […]

Peter Miller, CFA, FSA, Head of Client Investment Solutions for North America at Invesco, provides context to CFA Society New York's upcoming Insurance Investment Officers Roundtable. He discusses key considerations affecting portfolio construction and strategy, including the role of private markets, regulatory and macro environment, and the potential impact of climate-related events.

Allen, Joel, and Yolanda share their annual Thanksgiving reflections on a year of major changes in wind energy. They discuss industry collaboration, the offshore wind reset, and upcoming changes in 2026. Thanks to all of our listeners from the Uptime team! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering Tomorrow. Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host, Alan Hall in the Queen city of Charlotte, North Carolina. Joel Saxon’s up in Wisconsin, and Yolanda Padron is down in Texas, and this is our yearly Thanksgiving edition. Thanks for joining us and, and on this episode we always like to look back at the year and, uh, say all we’re thankful for. We’ve had a number of podcast guests on more than 50, I think total by the time we get to conferences and, uh, all the different places we’ve been over the past year. Joel, it does seem like it’s been a really interesting year. We’ve been able to watch. The changes in the wind industry this year via the eyes of [00:01:00]others. Joel Saxum: Yeah. One of the things that’s really interesting to me when we have guests on is that we have them from a variety of parts of the wind industry sector. So we have ISPs, you know, people running things out in the field, making stuff happen. We’ve got high level, you know, like we have this, some CEOs on from different, uh, people that are really innovative and trying to get floating winged out there. They have like on, we had choreo generation on, so we, so we have all different spectrums of left, right center, Europe, well us, you name it. Uh, new innovative technology. PhD smart people, uh, doing things. Um, also, it’s just a, it’s just a gamut, right? So we get to learn from everybody who has a different kind of view on what’s Allen Hall: happening. Yolanda, you’ve been in the midst of all this and have gone through a big transition joining us at Weather Guard, lightning Tech, and we’re very thankful for that, for sure. But over the last year, you’ve seen a lot of changes too, ’cause you’ve been in the seat of a blade engineer and a [00:02:00] large operator. What do you think? Yolanda Padron: Uh, something I am really thankful for this year is, and I think a lot of owner operators are, is just knowing what’s coming up. So there was a lot of chaos in the beginning before the big beautiful bill where everyone theorized on a lot of items. Um, and, and you were just kind of stuck in the middle of the court not really knowing which direction to go in, but. Now we’re all thankful for, for what? It’s brought for the fact that everyone seems to be contributing a lot more, and at least we all know what direction we’re heading in or what the, what the rules are, the of the game are, so we can move accordingly. Joel Saxum: Yeah. I got some clarity. Right. I think that, but that happened as well, like when we had the IRA bill come in. Three, four years ago, it was the same thing. It was like, well, this bill’s here, and then you read through it. I mean, this was a little bit opposite, right? ’cause it was like, oh, these are all [00:03:00] great things. Right? Um, but there wasn’t clarity on it for like, what, six months until they finalized some of the. Longer on some of the, some of the tax bills and what it would actually mean for the industry and those kind of things. So yeah, sorting this stuff out and what you’ve seen, you’re a hundred percent correct, Yolanda, like all the people we talked to around the industry. Again, specifically in the US because this affects the us but I guess, let me ca caveat that it does affect the global supply chain, not, you know what I mean? Because it’s, it’s not just the, the US that it affects because of the consumption here. So, but what we have heard and seen from people is clarity, right? And we’re seeing a lot of people starting to shift strategy a little bit. Right now, especially we’re in budgeting season for next year, shifting strategy a little bit to actually get in front of, uh, I know like specifically blades, some people are boosting their blades, budgets, um, to get in front of the damages because now we have a, a new reality of how we need to operate our wind farms. The offshore Allen Hall: shift in the United States has really had a [00:04:00] dramatic impact. On the rest of the world. That was, uh, a little unexpected in the sense that the ramifications of it were broader, uh, just because of so much money going into offshore projects. As soon as they get pulled or canceled, you’ve have billions of dollars on the table at that point. It really affects or seen it. Ecuador seen it. Anybody involved in offshore wind has been deeply affected. Siemens has seen it. GE has clearly seen it. Uh, that has. In my opinion, probably been the, the biggest impact. Not so much the big beautiful bill thing, but the, uh, ongoing effort to pull permits or to put stoppages on, on offshore wind has really done the industry some harm. And honestly, Joel, I’m not sure that’s over. I think there’s still probably another year of the chaos there. Uh, whether that will get settled in the courts or where it’s gonna get settled at. I, I still don’t know. [00:05:00] But you’ve seen a big shift in the industry over in Europe too. You see some changes in offshore wind. It’s not just the US that’s looking at it differently. Yeah. Globally. I think offshore wind Joel Saxum: right now is in a reset mode where we, we went, go, go, go, go, go get as much in the water as we can for a while. And this is, I’m, I’m talking globally. Um. And then, and now we’re learning some lessons, right? So there’s some commercial lessons. There’s a lot of technical lessons that we’re learning about how this industry works, right? The interesting part of that, the, the on or the offshore wind play here in the States. Here’s some numbers for it, right? So. It onshore wind. In the states, there’s about 160 gigawatts, plus or minus of, uh, deployed production out running, running, gunning, working, spinning all day long. Um, and if you look at the offshore wind play in planned or under development, there’s 66 gigawatts of offshore wind, like it’s sitting there, right? And of that 66, about 12 of them are permitted. Like [00:06:00] are ready to go, but we’re still only at a couple hundred megawatts in the water actually producing. Right. And, and I do want, say, this is what I wanna say. This is, I, I think that we’re taking a reset, we’re learning some things, but from, from my network, I’m seeing, I got a, a whole stack of pictures yesterday from, um, coastal offshore, Virginia Wind. They’ve, and they looked promising. They looked great. It was like a, it was a marshaling facility. There was nelle stacked up, there was transition pieces ready to go. Like, so the industry is still moving forward. It’s just we’re we need to reset our feet, um, and, and then take a couple steps forward instead of those, the couple steps back, Allen Hall: uh, and the industry itself, and then the employees have been dramatically reduced. So there’s been a lot of people who we’ve known over the past year, they’ve been impacted by this. That are working in different positions, look or in different industries right now, uh, waiting for the wind industry to kind of settle itself [00:07:00] out to, to figure out what the next steps are That has been. Horrible, in my opinion. Uh, uh because you’re losing so much talent, obviously. And when you, when you talk to the people in the wind industry, there’s like, oh, there’s a little bit of fat and we can always cut the fat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we’re, we’re down to the bone. We’re cutting muscle right now. We’re into some bones, some structure. That is not what I anticipated to happen. But you do see the management of these companies being. Uh, very aggressive at the minute. Siemens is very aggressive. Vestas is very aggressive about their product line and, and getting availability way up. GE has made huge changes, pretty much closing LM wind power, uh, and uh, some things happening in South Carolina that we probably people don’t know about yet, but there’s so much happening behind these scenes that’s negative and we have to acknowledge it. It’s not great. I worry about everybody that has been [00:08:00] laid off or is, is knows their job is gonna go away at the end of the year. I struggle with it all the time and I, I think a lot in the wind industry do. But there’s not a lot to do about it besides say, Hey, uh, we’ve gone through this a couple of times. Wind has never been bountiful for 50 years. It’s bountiful for about 10, then it’s down for about five and it comes back for 10. It’s that ebb and flow, but you just hate to be involved with that. It’s particularly engineering ’cause this industry needs engineering right Joel Saxum: now. All of us on this podcast here have been affected by ups and downs in the industry at some point in time in our life, in in major ways. I guess one of the positive things I have seen that from an operator standpoint, and not as much at the latter half of this year, but at the beginning half of this year is when some of these OEMs were making cuts. There was a lot of people that landed at operators and asset owners that were huge assets to them. They walked in the door with. Reams of knowledge about how, [00:09:00] you know, how a ge turbine works or how the back office process of this works and they’re able to help these operators. So some of that is good. Um, you get some people spread around in the industry and some knowledge bases spread around. But man, it’s really hard to watch. Um, your friends, your colleagues, even people that you, that you don’t know personally just pop up on LinkedIn, um, or wherever. And. That they’ve, they’re, they’re looking for work again. Allen Hall: Yolanda, how do you look at 2026 then, knowing what’s just happened in 2025? Is there some hope coming? Is there a rainbow in the future? Yolanda Padron: I think there’s a rainbow in the future. You know, I, I think a lot of the decisions were made months ago before a lot of people realized that the invaluable, how invaluable some of that information in people’s heads is. Uh, particularly, I mean, I know we’ve all talked about the fact that we’re all engineers and so we, we have a bit of bias that way. Right. But, uh, [00:10:00] just all of the knowledge that comes in from the field, from looking at those assets, from talking to other engineers now, which is what, what we’re seeing more and more of, uh, I think, I mean. So there’s going to have to be innovation, right? Because of how, how lean everybody is and, and there’s going to have to be a lot more collaboration. So hopefully there, there should be some, some good news coming to people. I think we, we need it a little Joel Saxum: bit. You know, to, to, to pair on with what you’re saying there, Yolanda, like, this is a time right now for innovation and collaboration. Collaboration, right. I want to touch on that word because that is something that we, we talk about all the time on the podcast, but you also see the broader industry talking about it since I’ve been in it, right. Since I think I came in the wind industry, like 2019. Um, you hear a lot of, uh, collaboration, collaboration, collaboration. But those were like, they were [00:11:00] fun, like hot air words, like oh yeah, but then nobody’s really doing anything. Um, but I think that we will start to see more of that. Alan, you and I say this a lot, like at the end of the day, once, once the turbines are in the ground as an asset owner, you guys are not competing anymore. There’s no competition. You’re competing for, for green space when you’re trying to get the best wind resource. I get that. Um, but I mean, in the central part of the United States, you’re not really competing. There’s a lot of hills out there to stick a turbine on. Uh, but once they’re, once they are spinning. Everybody’s in the same boat. We just wanna keep these things up. We wanna keep the grid energized, we wanna do well for renewable energy and, um, that collaboration piece, I, I, I would like to see more and more of that in 2026. And I know from, from our chairs here, we will continue to push on that as well. Yolanda Padron: Yeah. And just so many different operators, I mean sure they can see themselves as, as being one against the other. Right. But. When you talk [00:12:00] to these people and it, I think people in the past, they’ve made the, the mistake of just being a little bit siloed. And so if you’re just looking at your assets and you’re just looking at what your OEM is telling you of, oh, these problems are new and unique to you, which I’m sure a lot of people hearing us have heard that. You can stay just kind of in that zone of, oh no, I, I have this big problem that there’s no other way to solve it except for what some people are telling me or not telling me, and I’m just going to have to pay so much money to get it done and take the losses from generation. Uh, but there’s so many people in the industry that have a hundred percent seen the issues you’ve seen. Right. So it’s, it’s really, really important to just talk to these people, you know? I mean, just. Just have a, a simple conversation. And I think some of the issue might be that some people don’t know [00:13:00] how to get that conversation started, right? And so just, just reach out to people, someone in the same position as you go to Wilma, you know, just talk to the person next to you. Joel Saxum: I mean, like I said about visibility, like we’re here too. Like the, the three of us are sitting here. We’ve got our. We’re always monitoring LinkedIn and our emails like if you, if you have a problem, we, we had one this morning where I, Alan, you got a message from someone, I got a message from someone that was like, Hey, we’ve got this root bolt issue. Can you help us with it? We’re like, Hey, we know two companies that can, let’s just connect them up and, and make that conversation happen. So we’re happy to do the same thing. Um, if, if you have an issue, we have a, a Allen Hall: broad reach and use us as Joel has mentioned a thousand times on the podcast. If you don’t know where a technology lies or where a person is that you need to reach out to, you need to go to the Uptime podcast. You can search it on YouTube and probably get an answer, or just reach us on LinkedIn. We’re all willing [00:14:00] to give you advice or help or get you in the right direction. We’ve done it all year and we’ve done it for years. Not everybody takes us up on that opportunity. It’s free. We’re just trying to make this world just a tiny bit better. Yolanda Padron: No one has the time or the money right now to reinvent the wheel, right? So I mean, it just doesn’t make sense to not collaborate. Allen Hall: I think we should discuss what will happen to all the people that have left wind this past year willingly or unwillingly. And what that means for the industry, in my opinion. Now there is more knowledge than ever walking on the streets and probably doesn’t have an NDA to tie them up. ’cause it’s been long enough that the industry hasn’t tapped into, the operators have not grabbed hold of the people who designed the blade that, uh, manufactured the blade that looked at. The LEP solutions that looked at all the bearings and all the different gear boxes that they evaluated and were involved in the testing of those [00:15:00] things. Those people are available right now and a little bit of LinkedIn shopping would give you access to, uh, really invaluable wealth of information that will make your operations work better, and you may have to be willing to pay for it a little bit. But to tap into it would save you months and months and months of time and effort and, uh, limit having to add to your engineering staff because they will work as consultants. It does seem like there’s an opportunity that maybe the operators haven’t really thought about all that much because they haven’t seen too much of it happening yet. Occasionally see the, the wise old operators being smart about this, they’ve been through these loops before and are taking advantage of it. Don’t you see? That’s like 2026 is is is the year of the consultant. I a hundred percent Joel Saxum: agree with you, Alan. Um, I saw a TEDx talk oh, years ago actually now. Uh, but it was about the, what the future of worker looks like, the future of [00:16:00] work and the future of work at that time for those people giving that TEDx talk was workers on tap. Basically consultants, right? Because you have subject matter experts that are really good at this one thing, and instead of just being that one thing good for just this one company, they’re pulling back and going, I can do this, this, this, and this for all these companies. So we have, um, we have a lot of those in the network and we’re starting to see more and more of them pop up. Um, at the same time, I think I’ve seen a couple of groups of them pop up where, uh, you didn’t have. When I look at ISPs, um, I’m always kind of like, oh man, they could do this a little bit better. They could do this a little bit better. And I, I recently heard of an ISP popping up that was a bunch of these like consultant types that got together and we’re like, you know what? We have all this knowledge of all these things. Why not make this a, a company that we can all benefit from? Um, and we can change the way some things are done in the wind industry and do it a little bit better, uh, a little bit more efficiently. Allen Hall: Does that change the way we think about technicians also. [00:17:00] We had the Danish Wind Power Academy on the podcast a couple of months ago talking about training and specific training for technicians and engineers for that matter on the turbines that are at their sites and how much productivity gain they’re getting from that. And we’ve recently talked about how do I get a 10% improvement? Where does that 10% lie? Where is that? And a lot of times we get offered the 1%, the half a percent improvement, the 10% lies in the people. If you know who to ask and you get your people spooled upright, you can make multiple percentage point changes in your operation, which improves your revenue. But I think that’s been left on the table for a long time because we’ve been in build, build, build. And now that we’re into operate, operate, operate. Do you see that shift happening? Do you see O operators starting to think about that a little bit that maybe I should train up my technicians on this? Intercon turbine Joel Saxum: that they’re not familiar with. In my [00:18:00] opinion, I think that’s gonna be a 2027 reality. Because we’re seeing this, your, your right now what? You know we have this cliff coming where we’re gonna see in, in the face of the current regulations in the US where you’re gonna see the. Development kind of slow, big time. And when that happens, then you can see the focus start to switch onto the operating assets. So I don’t think that’s a 26 thing, I think that’s a 27 thing. But the smart operators, I believe would be trying to take some of that, take control of some of that stuff. Right. Well we see this with the people that we know that do things well. Uh, the CRS team at EDF with their third party services and sala, Ken Lee, Yale, Matta, and those guys over there. They’re doing a, I don’t wanna lose any other names here, Trevor Engel. Like, I wanna make sure I get a Tyler. They’re all superstars, they’re fantastic. But what they’re doing is, is is they’re taking, they’re seeing what the future looks like and they’re taking control. I think you’ll see, you’ll, you’ll see an optimization. Um, companies that are investing in their technicians to train [00:19:00] them are going to start getting a lion’s share of the work, because this time of, oh, warm bodies, I think is, is they’re still gonna be there, right? But I think that that’s gonna hopefully become less and less. Allen Hall: Yolanda, I want to focus on the OEM in 2025, late 2025, and moving into 2026 and how they deal with the developers. Are you thinking that they’re going to basically keep the same model where a lot of developers are, uh, picking up the full service agreements or not being offered a turbine without a full service agreement? Will that continue or do you see operators realize that they probably don’t need the OEM and the historical model has been OEMs manufacture products and provide manuals in the operations people and developers read the manuals and run the turbine and only call over to the OEM when they need really severe help. Which way are we gonna go? Yolanda Padron: I think on the short term, it’ll still be very FSA focused, in my opinion, [00:20:00] mainly because a lot of these operators didn’t necessarily build out their teams, or didn’t have the, the business case wasn’t there, the business model wasn’t there. Right. To build out their internal teams to be able to, to do the maintenance on these wind turbines as much as an OEM does. Uh. However, I do think that now, as opposed to 10 years ago when some of these contracts started, they have noticed that there’s, there’s so many big things that the OEN missed or, or just, you know, worked around, uh, that really has affected the lifetime of some of these blades, some of these turbines. So I think the shift is definitely happening. Uh, you mentioned it with EDF NextEra, how, how they’re at a perfect spot to already be there. Uh, but I think at least in the US for some of these operators that are a lot [00:21:00] more FSA focused, the shift might take a couple of years, but it’s, it surely seems to be moving in that direction. Joel Saxum: So here’s a question for you, Ilana, on that, on that same line of thinking. If we, regulation wise, are looking to see a slow down in development, that would mean to me that the OEMs are gonna be clamoring for sales over the next few years. Does that give more power to the operators that are actually gonna be buying turbines in their TSA negotiations? Yolanda Padron: I think it should, right. I mean, the. If they, if they still want to continue developing some of these, it and everyone is fighting, you know, all of these big OEMs are fighting for the same contracts. There’s, there’s a lot more kind of purchase power there from, from the operators to be able [00:22:00] to, to, you know, negotiate some of these deals better. Stay away from the cookie cutter. TSA. That the OEMs might supply that are very, very shifted towards the OEM mindset. Joel Saxum: You, you’re, you’re spot on there. And if I was a developer right now, I’d be watching quarterly reports and 10 k filings and stuff at these operators to make sure, or to see when to pounce on a, on a, a turbine order, because I would wait to see when in, in the past it’s been like, Hey, if we’re, it doesn’t matter who you are, OEM, it has been like we’re at capacity and we have. Demand coming in. So we can pick and choose. Like if you don’t buy these turbines on our contract, we’ll just go to the next guy in line. They’ll buy ’em. But now if the freeboard between manufacturing and demand starts to keep having a larger delta, well then the operators will be able to go, well, if you don’t sell it to me, you’re not, there isn’t another guy behind me. So now you have to bend to what I want. And all the [00:23:00] lessons that I’ve learned in my TSA negotiations over the last 20 years. Yolanda Padron: Something relating to Alan’s point earlier, something that I think would be really, really interesting to see would be some of these developers and EPC teams looking towards some of those contract external contractor consultants that have been in the field that know exactly where the issues lie. To be able to turn that information into something valuable for an operating project that. Now we know has to operate as long as possible, Allen Hall: right? Without repower, I think two things need to happen simultaneously, and we will see if they’ll play out this way. OEMs need to focus on the quality of the product being delivered, and that will sustain a 20 year lifetime with minimal maintenance. Operators need to be more informed about how a turbine actually operates and the details of that technology so they can manage it themselves. Those two things. Are [00:24:00] almost inevitable in every industry. You see the same thing play out. There’s only two airplane companies, right? There’s Boeing and Airbus. They’re in the automobile world. There’s, it gets fewer and fewer every year until there’s a new technology leap. Wind is not gonna be any different, and I hope that happens. OEMs can make a really quality product. The question is, they’ve been so busy developing. The next turbine, the next turbine, the next turbine. That have they lost the magic of making a very, very reliable turbine? They’ll tell you, no, we know how to do it. Uh, but as Rosemary has pointed out numerous times, when you lose all your engineering talent, it gets hard to make that turbine very robust and resilient. That’s gonna be the challenge. And if the OEMs are focused on. TSAs it should be, but the full service agreements and taking care of that and managing all the people that are involved with that, it just sucks the life out of the OEMs, I think, in terms of offering the next great product. [00:25:00]Someone showed me the next GE Joel Saxum: one five. Oh, I would love to see it. Do you believe that? Okay, so I, we’ll shift gears from oe, uh, wind turbine OEMs to blade manufacturers. LM closing down shops, losing jobs, uh, TPI bankruptcy, uh, 99% of their market cap eroding in a year is there and, and, and the want for higher quality, better blades that are gonna last. Is there space, do you think there’s space for a, a blade manufacturer to come out of nowhere, or is there just someone’s gonna have to scoop some of these factories up and and optimize them, or what do you think the future looks like for blade Allen Hall: manufacturers? The future is gonna be vertically integrated, and you see it in different industries at the moment where they’re bringing in technology or manufacturing that would have typically been outsourced in the two thousands. They’re bringing it back underneath their roofs. They’re buying those companies that were vendors to them for years. The reason they’re doing that is they [00:26:00] can remove all the operational overhead. And minimize their cost to manufacture that product. But at the same time, they can have really direct oversight of the quality. And as we have seen in other industries, when you outsource a critical component, be it gear, boxes, bearings, blades, fall into that category, those are the critical items for any wind turbine. When you outsource those items and rely upon, uh, uh, companies that you don’t have direct control over, or not watching day to day, it can go awry. Management knows it, and at some point they’re willing to accept that risk. They know that the cost is right. I gotta build this, uh, turbine. I know I’m working three generations ahead, so it’s okay, I’ll, I’ll live with this for the time being, but at some point, all the staff in the OEMs needs to know what the quality component is. Is it being delivered on time? Do I have issues out in the field with it? Do I keep this supply chain? Do I, and do I build this in house blades? [00:27:00] I think eventually. Like they were years ago, were built in-house. Uh, but as they grew too quickly, I think everybody will agree to that Joel Saxum: capacity. Yeah, Allen Hall: right. They started grabbing other factories that they didn’t know a lot about, but it gave them capacity and ability able to make sales. Now they’re living with the repercussions of that. I think Siemens is the obvious one, but they’re not the only one. GE has lived through something very similar, so, uh, vertical integration is going to be the future. Before we wrap the episode, we should talk about what we’re thankful for for this year, 2025. So much has happened. We were in Australia in February, weather guard moved in April to North Carolina. We moved houses and people, and the whole organization moved from Massachusetts and North Carolina. Joel got married. Yolanda got married. We’ve been all over the world, honestly. Uh, we’ve traveled a great deal and we’re thankful for everybody that we’ve met this year, and that’s one of the pleasures of doing this podcast is I just [00:28:00] get to meet new people that are very interesting, uh, and, uh. Talk, like, what’s going on? What are you thinking? What’s happening? It just feels like we’re all connected in this weird way via this podcast, and I, I, I’m really thankful for that and my always were saying Thanks. I will go through my list. I’m thankful for my mom. I’m thankful for my wife Valerie, who pretty much runs Weather Guard, lightning Tech, and Claire, who is my daughter who does the podcast and has been the producer, she graduated this year from Boston College. With honors that happened this year. So I’m very thankful that she was able to do that. And my son Adam, who’s earning his doctorate degree out in San Diego, always thankful for him ’cause he’s a tremendous help to us. And on the engineering side, I’m thankful to everybody we have with us this year. We brought Yolanda on, so we’re obviously thankful that, uh, she was able to join us. Of course, Joel Joel’s been here a couple of years now and helping us on sales and talking to everybody [00:29:00] in the world. We’re super thankful for Joel and one of the people we don’t tell behind the who’s behind the scenes on our side is our, our, uh, manufacturing person, Tammy, um, and Leslie. They have done a tremendous job for us over the years. They don’t get a lot of accolades on the podcast, but people who receive our strike tape product, they have touched. Tammy and Leslie have touched, uh, Tammy moved down with us to North Carolina and we’re extremely grateful that she was able to do that. Another person behind the scenes for us is Diane stressing. She does her uptime tech news newsletter. So the high quality content doesn’t come from me, it comes from Diane ’cause she can write and she’s an excellent newsletter writer. She helps with a ton of our content. She’s behind the scenes and there’s a lot of people at, at, uh, weather, car Lightning Tech that are kind of behind the scenes. You don’t get to see all the time, but when you do get an email about uptime, tech news is coming from Diane. So we’re super grateful for her. We’ve been blessed this year. We [00:30:00] really have. We’ve brought on a lot of new friends and, uh, podcast has grown. Everything has done well this year, so we’re super happy. Joel, what are you thankful for? Joel Saxum: I would start it the same way. Uh, my, my new. Sorry, my new wife as of last May, Kayla, she is the, the glue that holds me together, uh, in our household together, in this kind of crazy world that we’re in, of the ups and downs and the travels and the moving and grooving. Um, she keeps, she keeps me grounded. She keeps our family grounded. So, um, uh, I, I don’t think I can thank her enough. Uh, and you know, with that being said, we are always traveling, right? We’re, we’re here, we’re there. We’re. All around the world, and I am thankful for that. Um, I’m thankful for the people that we meet while we get to travel, the cultures and the, the experiences and the people that want to share with us and the knowledge gained from, uh, the conversations, whether it be in a conference room or over a beer.[00:31:00] Um, uh, the, the people that we have, uh, grown into this uptime network and, um, I know like my personal network from the past and of course everybody that will come in the future. I think that’s where, you know, the, the, if you know me, you know that I’m very much an extrovert, uh, talking with people and, and getting those conversations gives me energy. Um, and I like to give that back as much as I can. So the, all of the people that I’ve run into over the, over the past year that have allowed me to monologue at them. Thank you. Sorry. Apologies. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s hard to. I think this, this is a, this is always why Thanksgiving is like a six hour long thing in the United States, eight hour long thing. You have dinner at three and you hang out with your friends and family until 10, 11:00 PM because it gives you time to reflect on, um, the things that are awesome in life. Right? And we get bogged down sometimes in our, you know, in the United States. We are [00:32:00] work, work, work, work works. First kind of society. It’s the culture here. So we get bogged down sometimes in the, you know, we’re in the wind industry right now and it’s not always. Um, you know, roses and sunshine, uh, but ha having those other people around that are kind of like in the trenches with you, that’s really one thing I’m thankful for. ’cause it, it’s, it’s bright spots, right? I love getting the random phone calls throughout the day of someone sharing a piece of information or just asking how you’re doing or connecting like that. So, um, that, that would be the, the thing I’m most thankful for, and it puts it into perspective here, to a me up home in Wisconsin, or my, my not home. Home is Austin, but my original hometown of northern Wisconsin, and I’ve got to see. Quite a few of my, my high school buddies are, yeah, elementary school buddies even for that matter over the last couple weeks. And, um, that really always brings me back to, to a bit of grounding and puts, puts life in perspective. So, uh, I’m really appreciative for that as well. Yolanda, newly married as well, and welcome to the club. Yolanda Padron: Thank [00:33:00] you. Yeah, I’m really, really thankful for, for Manuel, my husband, uh, really. Really happy for our new little family. Uh, really thankful for my sisters, Yvonne and Carla and my parents. Um, my friends who I like to think of as my chosen family, especially, you know, here in Austin and then, and in El Paso. Uh, really, really thankful for, for the extended family and for, for weather card for, for this lovely opportunity to just. Learned so much. I know it’s only been almost two months, but I’ve, I’ve just learned so much of just talking to everybody in the industry and learning so much about what’s going on everywhere and just getting this, this whole new outlook on, on what the future holds and, and what exactly has happened and technology wise, and I’m thankful for [00:34:00] this year and how. How exciting everything’s going to be. So, yeah, thankful for you guys. Allen Hall: And we don’t wanna forget Rosemary and Phil, uh, they’ve been a big part of 2025. They’ve worked really hard behind the scenes and, uh, I appreciate everything they’ve done for the podcast and everything they’re doing for. Us as a company and us as people. So big shout out to Rosemary and Phil. So that’s our Thanksgiving episode. Appreciate everybody that’s joined us and has enjoyed the podcast in 2025 and will continue to in 2026. The years coming to an end. I know the Christmas holidays are upon us. I hope everybody enjoys themselves. Spend a little bit of time with your family. And with your coworkers and take a little bit of time. It’s been a pretty rough year. You’re gonna need it. And that wraps up another episode of the Uptime Winner Energy podcast, and we appreciate you joining us here today. If anything has triggered an idea or a question. As we’ve mentioned, reach out to us on LinkedIn. That’s the easiest way to get ahold of [00:35:00] us and don’t ever forget to subscribe. So click that little subscribe button so you don’t miss any of the Future Uptime podcast episodes, and we’ll catch you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

On episode 531 of The Nurse Keith Show nursing and healthcare career podcast, Keith interviews Danine Bitting, RN, RAC-CT, a Clinical Compliance Specialist with Friends Services Alliance Compliance Collaborative, and Maria Kiwagama, MSN/MHA, CDP, CNDLTC, the Director of Nursing of Barclay Friends' Continuing Care Retirement Community in West Chester, PA. In the course of their conversation, Keith and his guests discuss the Friends Services Alliance Compliance Collaborative's program that supports and mentors Directors of Nursing of skilled nursing and long-term care facilities in order to assure their success as leaders, not to mention the ultimate success of the facilities which they helm. Danine Bitting is a Clinical Compliance Specialist with Friends Services Alliance Compliance Collaborative (FSA), in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. FSA provides a spectrum of services for the nonprofit senior living industry. Danine has over 25 years of experience in long-term care, with a strong focus on enhancing the quality of life for residents and driving meaningful change in clinical systems. As a former Director of Nursing, Danine led two 5-STAR, non-profit facilities with goals to improve resident life and care via Person Centered Care and developing realistic systems. Danine has worked closely with two hospital networks in the Preferred Provider Network (PPN) to improve resident care following hospitalization and reduce re-hospitalizations.  Maria Kiwagama is a seasoned nursing professional with over a decade of experience in clinical management, quality improvement, and nursing education. She currently serves as the Director of Nursing at Barclay Friends, a not-for-profit Kendal Affiliate that provides compassionate, home-like care for older adults. In her role, Maria oversees nursing operations across Barclay Friends' Continuing Care Retirement Community, which includes two long-term care units, two memory care units, and a Personal Care unit. She is responsible for ensuring high-quality resident care, regulatory compliance, and effective coordination of the nursing staff within the skilled nursing department. Before joining Barclay Friends, Maria spent six years at Waverly Heights, a Life Plan Community in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, where she held roles as Nurse Manager and RN-Assessment Coordinator. She is a Certified Dementia Practitioner and holds additional certifications in Wound Care and Infection Control and Prevention. Maria recently earned a dual master's degree in Nursing Leadership and Healthcare Administration and is currently completing an Administrator in Training (AIT) program, further strengthening her leadership in long-term care. Connect with Friends Services Alliance and Barclay Friends: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Friends Services Alliance FSA on LinkedIn Barclay Friends Continuing Care Barclay Friends on Facebook Barclay Friends on LinkedIn Barclay Friends on Instagram Contact Nurse Keith about holistic career coaching to elevate your nursing and healthcare career at ⁠⁠⁠⁠NurseKeith.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. Keith also offers services as a motivational and keynote speaker and freelance nurse writer. You can always find Keith on⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠. Are you looking for a novel way to empower your career and move forward in life? Keith's wife, Shada McKenzie, is a gifted astrologer and reader of the tarot who combines ancient and modern techniques to provide valuable insights into your motivations, aspirations, and life trajectory, and she offers listeners of The Nurse Keith Show a 10% discount on their first consultation. Contact Shada at ⁠⁠⁠⁠TheCircelandtheDot.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠or shada@thecircleandthedot.com.

SPONSOR: BRUNT WORKWEAR - When you’re on your feet all day, the wrong boots can ruin everything — Which is why BRUNT Workwear stands out. Their boots are built tough, but comfortable. No stiff leather, no painful break in period, they feel ready for a full shift on day one. BRUNT was created by someone who actually worked in the trades, who knew the big legacy brands weren’t listening anymore. If you’re shopping for someone who works hard, these are the gifts they’ll actually use. BRUNT is releasing limited-edition styles all month long — once they sell out, they’re gone — and they’ve got everything from heavy - duty pants to incredibly comfortable hoodies built to take a beating. Best of all, there’s zero risk. If they’re not a fit, BRUNT will take them back. With temps dropping and holidays coming up, it’s time to treat yourself or the hard-working man in your life to real comfort. Skip the throwaway gifts and get him something built to last: Brunt workwear. Our listeners get $10 off their entire order with code “RICK” at checkout. That’s https://www.BRUNTWORKWEAR.COM , and use code “RICK”. Order today and let them know you heard it here on the show! - https://www.BRUNTWORKWEAR.COM SPONSOR: RELIEFBAND - Nausea can wreck your entire day. Reliefband is the device that actually stops it. It’s FDA-cleared, clinically proven, totally drug-free, and non-drowsy. It works by sending gentle pulses to the wrist that calm the nerves in your stomach, and you can adjust the intensity depending on how you feel.There are two versions. The Reliefband Sport is sleek, rechargeable, and water-resistant. The Reliefband Flex is lighter, great for daily wear, and uses a swappable battery so you’re never caught without power. What makes Reliefband so useful is how quickly it works. If you’ve been waiting to try Reliefband, this is the time! The Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals run through the end of November, and you can save up to 30% sitewide! Reliefband’s Sport and Flex models make amazing gifts for anyone who deals with nausea, and with the extended return window through January 1, you can shop early and stress-free. Reliefband is also FSA and HAS eligible, so it’s a great way to use those end-of-year dollars on something that really works. Go to https://www.Reliefband.com to shop the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale, and save up to 30% off sitewide. -- https://www.Reliefband.comSPONSOR: BLAZETV -- BlazeTV doesn’t exist without people like you, who genuinely care about preserving honest conversation in this country. You’ve seen what’s happening on the right: the gatekeeping, the approved narratives, the pressure for everyone to fall in line. That’s not who we are. We’re not bound to talking points or beholden to anyone’s agenda. We don’t have to check our convictions with a corporate sponsor before we speak. We show up with one thing: the freedom to tell the truth as we see it. And that freedom only exists because of BlazeTV subscribers. Once a year, we lower the barrier for people who want to be part of this movement, people who refuse to sit on the sidelines. Right now, for Black Friday only, you can get $40 off a BlazeTV annual subscription. If you’ve been on the fence, this is the moment. Not because of a discount, but because your subscription actually keeps independent voices alive, voices that aren’t controlled by Big Tech, advertisers, or political gatekeepers. You make it possible for us to keep fighting, creating, and telling the truth without compromise. If you believe America is still worth fighting for, this is your moment to join the fight. And if you’re already a subscriber, THANK YOU. You make all of this possible. to someone who needs a space free from filtered, “approved” opinions.Thank you so much for watching and continuing to support the movement that we’re building together. Go to https://www.BlazeTV.com/RICK and use code BLACKFRIDAY40 to grab our Black Friday savings while it’s still here. That’s https://www.BlazeTV.com/RICK , code BLACKFRIDAY40. -- https://www.BlazeTV.com/RICKSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SPONSOR: BRUNT WORKWEAR - When you’re on your feet all day, the wrong boots can ruin everything — Which is why BRUNT Workwear stands out. Their boots are built tough, but comfortable. No stiff leather, no painful break in period, they feel ready for a full shift on day one. BRUNT was created by someone who actually worked in the trades, who knew the big legacy brands weren’t listening anymore. If you’re shopping for someone who works hard, these are the gifts they’ll actually use. BRUNT is releasing limited-edition styles all month long — once they sell out, they’re gone — and they’ve got everything from heavy - duty pants to incredibly comfortable hoodies built to take a beating. Best of all, there’s zero risk. If they’re not a fit, BRUNT will take them back. With temps dropping and holidays coming up, it’s time to treat yourself or the hard-working man in your life to real comfort. Skip the throwaway gifts and get him something built to last: Brunt workwear. Our listeners get $10 off their entire order with code “RICK” at checkout. That’s https://www.BRUNTWORKWEAR.COM , and use code “RICK”. Order today and let them know you heard it here on the show! - https://www.BRUNTWORKWEAR.COM SPONSOR: RELIEFBAND - Nausea can wreck your entire day. Reliefband is the device that actually stops it. It’s FDA-cleared, clinically proven, totally drug-free, and non-drowsy. It works by sending gentle pulses to the wrist that calm the nerves in your stomach, and you can adjust the intensity depending on how you feel.There are two versions. The Reliefband Sport is sleek, rechargeable, and water-resistant. The Reliefband Flex is lighter, great for daily wear, and uses a swappable battery so you’re never caught without power. What makes Reliefband so useful is how quickly it works. If you’ve been waiting to try Reliefband, this is the time! The Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals run through the end of November, and you can save up to 30% sitewide! Reliefband’s Sport and Flex models make amazing gifts for anyone who deals with nausea, and with the extended return window through January 1, you can shop early and stress-free. Reliefband is also FSA and HAS eligible, so it’s a great way to use those end-of-year dollars on something that really works. Go to https://www.Reliefband.com to shop the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale, and save up to 30% off sitewide. -- https://www.Reliefband.comSPONSOR: BLAZETV -- BlazeTV doesn’t exist without people like you, who genuinely care about preserving honest conversation in this country. You’ve seen what’s happening on the right: the gatekeeping, the approved narratives, the pressure for everyone to fall in line. That’s not who we are. We’re not bound to talking points or beholden to anyone’s agenda. We don’t have to check our convictions with a corporate sponsor before we speak. We show up with one thing: the freedom to tell the truth as we see it. And that freedom only exists because of BlazeTV subscribers. Once a year, we lower the barrier for people who want to be part of this movement, people who refuse to sit on the sidelines. Right now, for Black Friday only, you can get $40 off a BlazeTV annual subscription. If you’ve been on the fence, this is the moment. Not because of a discount, but because your subscription actually keeps independent voices alive, voices that aren’t controlled by Big Tech, advertisers, or political gatekeepers. You make it possible for us to keep fighting, creating, and telling the truth without compromise. If you believe America is still worth fighting for, this is your moment to join the fight. And if you’re already a subscriber, THANK YOU. You make all of this possible. to someone who needs a space free from filtered, “approved” opinions.Thank you so much for watching and continuing to support the movement that we’re building together. Go to https://www.BlazeTV.com/RICK and use code BLACKFRIDAY40 to grab our Black Friday savings while it’s still here. That’s https://www.BlazeTV.com/RICK , code BLACKFRIDAY40. -- https://www.BlazeTV.com/RICKSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mo and Robbo pick the bones out of yet another Liverpool defeat, including the growing pressure on Arne Slot, and also talk about the new FSA campaign fighting for football fans across the country.You can support us financially to keep the show going in two ways, either: 1. By subscribing to our Patreon show for as little as £1 per week. Just click this link and the "Join For Free" button to get a 7 day free trial that you can cancel easily at any time after watching over 40 subscriber shows: https://www.patreon.com/TheLateChallengePodcast 2. If you don't want to subscribe, you can make a one off contribution to support the show by clicking this link: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thelatechallenge We appreciate any support, no matter how big or small, and we also appreciate that times are tough for many people so if you can't afford to support the show financially we completely understand. If you'd like to help us in another way, please like our videos, subscribe to the YouTube channel and share the podcast with your friends and family.

This week's Ask Farnoosh pulls together some of the most revealing financial stories of the week, grom pandemic-era homebuyers now feeling “locked in” by their ultra-low mortgage rates, to Gen Z putting marriage, kids, and career plans on hold until they can afford a home. Farnoosh also breaks down an under-the-radar proposal from the CFPB that could weaken anti-discrimination protections in lending, a shift that could impact mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, and small-business financing.Then, she heads to the mailbag to answer listener questions:Should you borrow more on a home-equity loan to protect your savings during a renovation?How can a self-employed spouse take full advantage of a healthcare FSA?What exactly is the IRS “contract” that lets you withdraw from retirement accounts early? (Hint: SEPP/72(t) and the Rule of 55.)And if you've bought a home for your parents, are you putting your own retirement at risk? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A lively Friday Q&A episode tackling listener questions about FSAs vs. 401(k) contributions, BND vs. BKAG bond funds, intermediate-term bonds vs. CD ladders, Avantis fund-of-funds fees and structure, and the financial implications of New York City's newly elected socialist mayor. The show blends practical investing guidance with jokes about annuity-salesperson Halloween costumes and a detour into political fears vs. economic realities. 0:04 Opening, Friday Q&A setup, thanks to Tom's grandkids 0:44 Listener FSA dilemma and choosing between FSA funding or 401k 3:01 Why FSAs are painful and why a 401k wins when choosing one or the other 5:57 Comparing BND and BKAG bond funds, holdings, universe, credit quality 9:01 Listener joke: “scariest Halloween costume is an annuity salesperson” 9:55 Moving CD-ladder money to VGIT or BIV; differences and trade-offs 12:22 Thoughts on iShares LifePath target-date ETF (ITDC) 12:33 Why Avantis fund-of-funds exist and whether you pay double fees 15:36 Underlying fund costs inside AVGE and how the total expense ratio works 16:21 Question about NYC's new socialist mayor and financial impact fears 17:54 Walking through political fears vs. practical economic reality 21:55 Why one politician can't radically reshape a city's economic fate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Death Loss in the Cattle Feeding Industry Kansas Farm Service Agency is Back Open Building Resilient Gardens   00:01:05 – Death Loss in the Cattle Feeding Industry: Beginning today's show is K-State Extension beef specialist Justin Waggoner as he explains how death loss in the cattle feeding industry has changed in the past 30 years and what might be contributing to the losses.   00:12:05 – Kansas Farm Service Agency is Back Open: David Schemm, Kansas Farm Service Agency State executive director, continues today's show as he provides an update on FSA programs and how they are working to continue serving producers.  Farmers.gov Service Center Locator Important Information for Kansas Farmers on the Hansen Muelle Co. Bankruptcy Filing   00:23:05 – Building Resilient Gardens: Reno County Extension horticulture agent, Pam Paulsen, ends the show discussing methods for building gardens that are resilient to tough growing conditions. This was the topic for the November K-State Garden Hour.       Send comments, questions or requests for copies of past programs to ksrenews@ksu.edu.   Agriculture Today is a daily program featuring Kansas State University agricultural specialists and other experts examining ag issues facing Kansas and the nation. It is hosted by Shelby Varner and distributed to radio stations throughout Kansas and as a daily podcast.   K‑State Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well‑being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices statewide. Its headquarters is on the K‑State campus in Manhattan. For more information, visit www.ksre.ksu.edu. K-State Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

In this episode of the Society of Actuaries Research Insights Podcast, Dale Hall, Managing Director of Research at the Society of Actuaries, explores the 2019 Individual Life Insurance Mortality Experience Report with two expert guests: Jim Toole, FSA, CERA, MAAA, Chief Luminary at Aurora Actuarial, and Philip Adams, FSA, CERA, MAAA, Senior Experience Studies Actuary at the SOA Research Institute. They discuss the significant shifts in mortality trends from 2012 through 2019, including the dominance of level premium term insurance, the introduction of expanded preferred underwriting classes, and the increase in older age issue ages. The conversation also highlights the transition of data collection from MIB to the NAIC, and how predictive analytics like boosted decision trees and vine copulas were leveraged for data validation and insights. Actuaries will find insights into how these findings can support pricing, reserving, and risk management efforts, along with resources such as Tableau dashboards and downloadable text files that make data analysis more accessible. With post-2019 data expected soon, this episode offers timely reflections on the evolving landscape of individual life insurance mortality. Access the report and related materials by visiting the SOA website at:  https://www.soa.org/resources/research-reports/2024/ilec-mort-2012-19/

As the year comes to a close, it's time to make sure your finances are in order before December 31st. In this episode, we go over a practical year-end checklist designed specifically for physicians to help you save money, reduce taxes, and start the new year on solid financial footing. We'll cover:How to maximize retirement contributions and employer matchesSmart ways to use your CME funds and professional allowances before they expireTax strategies to consider before year-end, including charitable giving and tax-loss harvestingWhat to check with your HSA, FSA, and dependent care accountsReviewing your investments, insurance coverage, and financial goals for the new year This episode will help you finish the year strong—organized, confident, and ready to make the most of your money in the year ahead.Please subscribe and leave a review on your favorite Podcasting platform. Get 12 Financial Mistakes that Keep Physicians from Building Wealth at https://www.growyourwealthymindset.com/12financialmistakes If you want to start your path to financial freedom, start with the Financial Freedom Workbook. Download your free copy today at https://www.GrowYourWealthyMindset.com/fiworkbook Dr. Elisa Chiang is a physician and money coach who helps other doctors reach their financial goals by mastering their money mindset through personalized 1:1 coaching . You can learn more about Elisa at her website or follow her on social media. Website: https://ww.GrowYourWealthyMindset.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/GrowYourWealthyMindset Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ElisaChiang https://www.facebook.com/GrowYourWealthyMindset YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/WealthyMindsetMD Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/ElisaChiang Disclaimer: The content provided in the Grow Your Wealthy Mind...

Time's running out on 2025, and there are critical financial moves you need to make before December 31st. In this episode of the BiggerPockets Money podcast, Mindy and Scott walk you through the essential year-end tasks that could save you thousands of dollars and keep your FIRE goals on track. These aren't just suggestions—they're time-sensitive opportunities that literally disappear when the calendar flips to January 1st. Whether you're aggressively pursuing financial independence or simply want to optimize your money, ignoring these year-end deadlines could cost you big. The good news? Most of these tasks take less than an hour to complete, and the payoff can be substantial. In this episode, you'll discover: How to maximize your tax-advantaged retirement accounts before contribution deadlines Why you need to spend every dollar in your FSA or lose it forever Tax-loss harvesting strategies to offset gains and reduce your tax bill Strategic charitable giving tactics that benefit both you and your favorite causes When and how to rebalance your investment portfolio for optimal performance Critical Roth conversion considerations before year-end HSA contribution limits and why maxing out matters for FIRE Required minimum distribution rules you can't ignore How to bunch deductions to maximize tax benefits The BiggerPockets Money End of Year Checklist And SO much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Open Enrollment season is here—and it's one of the most overlooked financial opportunities employees have all year. In this episode, we break down the biggest mistakes people make when reviewing their employer benefits and how to approach your plan as if you were a brand-new hire. Richard Rosso & Jonathan McCarty tackle the smart way to choose health insurance, whether young workers really need life insurance, and which "it'll never happen to me" benefits can make or break your financial stability. We'll also explore where employer benefits are heading in 2025—what companies are offering, what employees actually want, and how to make sure you're getting the most value out of your compensation package. Whether you're picking between an HSA or PPO, weighing disability coverage, or wondering if the "fun stuff" like wellness perks and lifestyle accounts are worth it—this guide helps you optimize your choices and avoid costly mistakes. 0:00 - INTRO 0:19 - Pennies are Going Away 5:02 - Open Enrollment Season is Here 7:40 - ADP Benefits Survey Results 13:04 - Understanding the Difference Between HSA vs FSA 17:40 - Retirement Savings Plans - Roth vs 401k 14:58 - Group Health Insurance vs ACA 21:40 - Mental Health Coverage 23:26 - Dental & Vision Coverage Options 27:13 - Don't Be Complacent 27:55 - On-site Facilities - Wellness & Day Care 29:57 - Disability Coverage - Max It Out 32:10 - Life Insurance Coverages 34:08 - How Kids Age Us 37:22 - Childcare Benefits

This podcast episode features Dave Friesen and Tom Callahan discussing the collaboration between actuaries and data scientists. Tom is an Actuary who works extensively with data scientists, and Dave is a data scientist who works with Actuaries, making them a great combo for the topic.   Dave highlighted the operational focus of data science in improving workflows and customer experience, while Tom emphasized the financial impact focus of actuaries. They both agreed on the importance of clear communication and common terminology to bridge gaps between the two fields. They also shared examples of successful collaborations and the benefits of using modern data platforms and tools.  Contributors: Tom Callahan, FSA, MAAA; Dave Friesen; Joe Long, ASA, MAAA; Jon Forster, ASA, MAAA

In this episode, FSA welcomes back Congresswoman Laurel Lee, who proudly represents Florida's 15th Congressional District, encompassing eastern Hillsborough County and parts of Pasco and Polk counties. Congresswoman Lee provides an update on her impactful public safety work in the U.S. House of Representatives, including the progress she is making with her colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee to address threats at home and abroad. She also reflects on her service as Florida's 36th Secretary of State under the DeSantis Administration and how Florida is the top of the class for effective and efficient voting standards. 

What if the support you need during pregnancy and postpartum is already available... You just haven't been shown how to access it?! In this episode of Chick Chat, Nina sits down with Pachet Bryant, Founder of MINE Maternity and Pregnancy/Postpartum Care Coordinator, to explore how families can actually afford the care they need and deserve. From insurance benefits and HSA/FSA funds to employer perks and nonprofit programs, this conversation breaks down the exact tools that can help you plan ahead, reduce financial stress, and receive more comprehensive support during this transformative time. You'll learn:

In this episode we look back on the 2-2 draw with Sunderland on Saturday evening. Arsenal fell behind in a scrappy first half, but goals from Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard put us ahead before the home side grabbed a late equaliser. We discuss the goals we scored, but particularly the ones we conceded, as they have been so rare of late. For once the defending was found wanting, but could Mikel Arteta have done more with his bench, making just one very late change to try and hold onto the lead. We look at this draw in the context of where we are in the table and what the team has done recently, before answering listener questions about a title race with Man City, Eberechi Eze, which injured players we're most looking forward to having back, Ben White's lack of game time, some 666 related evil, and lots more.Vote for Arseblog in the Best Fan Media category for the FSA awards 2025: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/fsa-awards-2025Get extra bonus content and help support Arseblog by becoming an Arseblog Member on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arseblog Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's Market Outlook, Andy Hruby sits down with Jarod Creed to break down the November 10–14 outlook. They discuss how post-harvest numbers and current insurance prices are shaping farm revenue strategies, why crop insurance and FSA programs could matter more for 2026 than 2025, and what producers should do now to plan for shifting cash flow timing. Jarod also shares insights on the soybean rally, corn's stubborn range, and how global trade dynamics with China may drive volatility heading into 2025.

Learn how to pick dental, vision, life, and disability coverage with confidence, and when refinancing a home can actually save you money. Is now a good time to refinance your mortgage? Which open enrollment benefits are worth it this year? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola talk to an expert about the ins and outs of open enrollment in 2026. But first, news Nerd Anna Helhoski joins them to share her conversation with NerdWallet mortgage writer Holden Lewis about falling mortgage rates and what they mean for buyers, sellers, and homeowners. They begin with a discussion of refinancing and today's housing market, with tips and tricks on using a refinance calculator, how much of a rate cut to target, weighing closing costs and the break-even timeline, and other smart reasons to refi. Then, benefits expert April Brasher, knowledge advisor at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), joins Sean and Elizabeth to discuss open enrollment choices beyond health insurance. They discuss what dental and vision plans usually cover and what they don't, how and when to add to group life insurance provided by some workplaces, and how disability insurance works. They also discuss when accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D), hospital indemnity, and critical illness policies can make sense, how to avoid being over-insured, and why taking a quick personal and financial inventory before enrollment deadlines helps you choose only what you need. Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp=header In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: mortgage rates, refinance mortgage, refinance break-even, FHA mortgage insurance, remove FHA MIP, conventional vs FHA loan, housing market outlook, best time to buy a house, home buying season, mortgage closing costs, homeowners insurance shopping, lower mortgage payment, Fed rate cuts, housing inventory, open enrollment, dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance through employer, supplemental life insurance, beneficiary designation, evidence of insurability, AD&D insurance, disability insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, own occupation vs any occupation, hospital indemnity insurance, critical illness insurance, high deductible health plan, and limited purpose FSA. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email podcast@nerdwallet.com. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the most part, FSAs are a “use it or lose it” deal. In this episode, Art unpacks how flexible spending accounts work, the mistakes that could cost you money, and some surprising purchases that qualify for FSA dollars. Don't let that money disappear—put it to good use before the year ends!Resources: 8 Money MilestonesChristian Money HelpAsk a Money Question!

Welcome back to today's Friday Review where I'll be breaking down the best of the week! I'll be sharing specifics on these topics: FSA & HSA Payments for Equilife Headache Hat (product review) Sleep & Cardiovascular Health (research) Clay Therapy & Depression (research) For all the details tune in to today's Cabral Concept 3556 – Enjoy the show and let me know what you thought! - - - For Everything Mentioned In Today's Show: StephenCabral.com/3556 - - - Get a FREE Copy of Dr. Cabral's Book: The Rain Barrel Effect - - - Join the Community & Get Your Questions Answered: CabralSupportGroup.com - - - Dr. Cabral's Most Popular At-Home Lab Tests: > Complete Minerals & Metals Test (Test for mineral imbalances & heavy metal toxicity) - - - > Complete Candida, Metabolic & Vitamins Test (Test for 75 biomarkers including yeast & bacterial gut overgrowth, as well as vitamin levels) - - - > Complete Stress, Mood & Metabolism Test (Discover your complete thyroid, adrenal, hormone, vitamin D & insulin levels) - - - > Complete Food Sensitivity Test (Find out your hidden food sensitivities) - - - > Complete Omega-3 & Inflammation Test (Discover your levels of inflammation related to your omega-6 to omega-3 levels) - - - Get Your Question Answered On An Upcoming HouseCall: StephenCabral.com/askcabral - - - Would You Take 30 Seconds To Rate & Review The Cabral Concept? The best way to help me spread our mission of true natural health is to pass on the good word, and I read and appreciate every review!

HT2422 - They All Come from Projects What most of us tend to show matted, framed, and hanging in a place of importance in our home are the very best images we've created. But where do these come from? My observation is that most of those super winners rise from the midst of a project and become super winners due to actions beyond our control. For example, Dorothea Lange made lots of pictures for the FSA, but Migrant Mother rose from the crowd to become iconic. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

In this week's Ag Tribes Report, host Vance Crowe is joined by dairy farmer and Bitcoiner JR Burdick for a fast-paced tour through the biggest stories shaping agriculture. They unpack President Trump's viral post urging ranchers to lower beef prices and the backlash from cattle producers who point to low herd size, packer settlements, and market volatility driven by political posts. Then they dig into the looming SNAP crunch amid the government shutdown, how an AWS outage jammed up harvest logistics and farmgate payments, and the partial reopening of FSA offices to process $3B in producer payments—plus the real-world cash flow pinch for beginning farmers. JR also delivers the Bitcoin Land Price Report, shares why he's bullish on both land and Bitcoin, and explains practical resiliency lessons from a payments outage. We close with his Peter Thiel paradox—Gen Z's push to rebuild rural “place” over “career”—and a candid look at rebuilding community, selling raw milk and pastured pork, and accepting Bitcoin on the farm. JR's farm: nourishingfamilyfarm.com and @jrcowfarmer on X.Legacy Interviews - A service that records individuals and couples telling their life stories so that future generations can know their family history. https://www.legacyinterviews.com/experienceRiver.com - Invest in Bitcoin with Confidence https://river.com/signup?r=OAB5SKTPPurchase Bitcoin on River to support the show: https://river.com/invite?r=OAB5SKTP

Open Enrollment Reactivation: How Clinics Turn Past Patients into Six-Figure Months (with Jeremy Dupont) In this episode, Doc Danny Matta sits down with Jeremy Dupont (founder of Patch) to break down the most reliable campaign in cash PT: Open Enrollment. They cover simple and advanced playbooks for reactivating past patients, the offers that convert (and why), how to mobilize your team, and what realistic results look like for a growing clinic. Quick Ask Help us move toward our mission of adding $1B in cash-based services to physical therapy—share this episode with a clinician friend or post it on your Instagram stories and tag Danny. He'll reshare it! Episode Summary Low-hanging fruit: Reactivation beats cold lead gen. Past patients already know, like, and trust you—bring them back with a clear, time-bound offer. Timing that works: Run Open Enrollment mid-September to early November to avoid competing with Black Friday and holiday noise. Proven offers: Classic 12 for 10 pack (two “free” visits or a clear $-savings) and a higher-commitment 24 for 20 pack (often on a 3-pay plan) to grow LTV and stabilize MRR. Clinical cadence: Frame packages for twice-monthly visits (habit & outcomes), not “stretch it for a year.” Families often share bigger packs. FSA nudge: “Use it or lose it.” Encourage spending FSA dollars before year-end; HSA rolls, FSA often doesn't. Manual > fancy: Individual reach-outs (text, call, in-person) outperform gimmicks. Emails nurture; humans convert. Team power: Involve providers in personalized follow-ups. Incentives like a Christmas week off can crush goals. Results you can expect: A clinic with an owner + two staff PTs commonly sells 20–30 packages when they execute well. Lessons & Takeaways Offer clarity wins: Know exactly what you're selling and how you'll message savings and value. Context is king: Choose channels and scope based on capacity. Don't flood a full schedule. Nurture all year: A warm list responds; a cold list ignores asks. Give value before you ask. Plan the calendar: Open Enrollment → Black Friday → Holidays → New Year. Map campaigns, staffing, and hiring to demand. Mindset & Motivation It's an ecosystem: Reactivation is part of your hiring, space, continuity, and cashflow strategy—not a one-off promo. Follow-up is a skill: Segmented, human follow-up turns “maybe later” into revenue now. Give, give, ask: Consistent education builds reciprocity. Then earn the right to sell. What Works (Tactical) Simple path (solo or lean): Pick one clear offer (12 for 10), email your list, text/call past patients, and have providers invite current patients who are nearly out of visits. Advanced path (bigger teams): 5–6 email drip over 2–3 weeks, landing page specific to Open Enrollment (not your contact page), track opens/clicks and manually follow up with “warm” engagers. Personalization buckets: Current patients with 2–3 visits left, past patients who finished care recently, old leads who inquired but didn't buy—each gets tailored copy and a direct ask. Motivate the team: Group goals (e.g., hit X packages = Christmas week off). Time off > small cash bonuses. Avoid time wasters: Fancy video email “personalization” tools didn't move the needle. In-person and 1:1 messages did. Notable Quotes “Reactivation is the lowest hanging fruit—people who already trust you just need a clear reason to come back.” “If the last time you emailed your list was last Open Enrollment, don't expect fireworks.” “Less is more: pick the right window, keep the offer simple, and follow up like a pro.” Pro Tips for Owners Define the offer: Choose 12 for 10 or 24 for 20 (with 3-pay). Set the clinical cadence (2x/month). Own the landing page: Dedicated Open Enrollment page with a single CTA—don't dump traffic on a generic contact form. Mine your analytics: Build manual follow-up lists from people who opened multiple times or clicked the CTA. Right-size promotion: If you're at capacity, keep it tight (email + in-clinic). If you're feeding 6–7 PTs, amplify everywhere. Think families: Position bigger packs for active households who'll share visits across the year. Action Items Pick your Open Enrollment dates (target mid-Sept to early Nov) and one offer. Spin up a simple landing page with FAQs and a clear “Talk to Us” form. Segment lists: current (low visits left), past 3–6 mo, old leads. Draft 3 tailored scripts. Schedule a 5-email drip and build warm-engager follow-up tasks for your team. Set a team goal & reward (e.g., holiday week off) and daily scoreboard. Programs Mentioned PT Biz Part-Time to Full-Time 5-Day Challenge (Free): Get clear on your numbers, choose your path to full-time, and build a one-page plan. Resources & Links PT Biz Website Free 5-Day PT Biz Challenge Patch (Strategy Calls & Implementation) Follow Jeremy on Instagram: @_jeremydupont (marketing deep dives & Open Enrollment tips) About the Host: Doc Danny Matta—physical therapist, entrepreneur, and founder of PT Biz and Athlete's Potential. He's helped over 1,000 clinicians start, grow, and scale successful cash-based practices across the U.S.

In this episode, Jon and Adam unpack one of golf's most overlooked fundamentals — arc depth, the vertical dimension of your swing that determines whether you strike it pure, fat, or thin. They explain how it differs from attack angle and plane, why it's the “hidden force” behind contact quality, and how you can train it using simple feedback drills. Jon also shares lessons from a conversation with Sir Nick Faldo about confidence under pressure, preparation, and finding a go-to shot when it matters most. The two finish by debating how launch monitors have changed the way golfers learn — and whether chasing numbers is helping or hurting our ability to play instinctively. Thank you to our Show Sponsors GolfRx, Ethos, and The Indoor Golf Shop GolfRx is a wellness membership designed for golfers who want to make golf part of their mental health and self-care routine. Members can use HSA or FSA funds (and sometimes deduct it on taxes) to make golf essentially tax-free. Each plan includes guided wellness tools plus a monthly reimbursement for golf activities. Sign up, swing, and save — and Sweet Spot listeners get their first month free with code SWEETSPOT at https://www.gogolfrx.com/signup • Ethos is an online platform that makes getting life insurance fast and easy There is no complicated process and it's 100% online No medical exam required. You just answer a few health questions Get a quote in as little as 10 minutes You can get same-day coverage without ever leaving your house Get your free quote today at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.ethos.com/sweetspot⁠⁠ • As we enter the fall season, many golfers will be looking to upgrade their indoor practice. I've been trusting The Indoor Golf Shop for years and recommending them to anyone who wants to improve their home setup. They offer all the top launch monitor brands, including SkyTrak, Uneekor, and Foresight, and regularly run sales. They also have everything you need for your indoor practice - hitting mats, golf nets, impact screens, and custom enclosures. If you're looking for a custom residential build to have the simulator of your dreams, their team can make that happen. They built mine! And their designers can also handle any kind of commercial facility where you're building from scratch or want to make an upgrade. To learn more, check out ⁠⁠https://shopindoorgolf.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode Chrisley Confessions 2.0, Todd Chrisley is joined by Rick Stover, Special Assistant to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) who has been with the Bureau for nearly 29 years. They dive deep into the First Step Act (FSA) and its implementation within the Bureau of Prisons. He shares insights on the challenges and successes of the FSA since its inception in 2018, including the complexities of good conduct time calculations and the impact of the Second Chance Act.We discuss the growing pains experienced during the rollout of the FSA, the importance of accurate time credit calculations, and the steps being taken to improve the process for inmates. Our guest addresses common misconceptions about home confinement eligibility and the role of case managers in determining release dates.Listen in as we explore the ongoing efforts to streamline the FSA implementation, the establishment of a triage team to address inmate concerns, and the commitment to ensuring that inmates receive the benefits they are entitled to under the law. This episode is packed with valuable information for anyone interested in criminal justice reform and the future of the Bureau of Prisons.THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!- LEAN: Get 20% OFF when you enter code CHRISLEY at https://www.takelean.com!- Just Thrive: Go to https://www.justthrivehealth.com/CONFESSIONS to save 20%! Take the 90-Day Just Thrive Challenge today because when your gut thrives, you thrive!- HOME TITLE LOCK: Go to https://www.hometitlelock.com/chrisley and use promo code CHRISLEY to get a FREE title history report and a FREE TRIAL of their Triple Lock Protection! For details visit https://hometitlelock.com/warranty - BOLL & BRANCH: Get 20% off plus free shipping on your first set of sheets at https://www.BollAndBranch.com/confessions!- RULA: Use Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit https://www.rula.com/Chrisley to get started. You deserve mental healthcare that works with you, not against your budget. #rulapod - Genesis Gold Group: Visit https://www.chrisleylovesgold.com today for your FREE Family Wealth Protection Gold Guide and join thousands of Americans who've protected their legacy with real assets!FOLLOW US ON SOCIALS:Todd Chrisley:Insta: (https://www.instagram.com/toddchrisley)Facebook: (https://www.facebook.com/toddchrisley)Julie Chrisley:Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/juliechrisley)Facebook: (https://www.facebook.com/JulieChrisley)Chrisley Confessions 2.0:Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/chrisleyconfessions2.0)TikTok: (https://www.tiktok.com/@chrisleyconfessions2.0)YouTube: (https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisleyConfessions)Produced and Edited by: The Cast Collective (Nashville, TN)YouTube: (https://www.youtube.com/@TheCastCollective)Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/thecastcollective)TikTok: (https://www.tiktok.com/@castcollective)About Rick Stover:Rick Stover currently serves as the Special Assistant to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He began his career in corrections with the Virginia Department of Corrections, where he worked for several years before joining the Bureau of Prisons in April 1997 as a Case Manager at FCC Forrest City (AR).In his current role, Mr. Stover leads the Bureau's efforts to advance implementation of the First Step Act (FSA). He was selected for this position in recognition of his prior leadership in developing and negotiating the FSA Time Credits policy. His work has included oversight of policy improvements aimed at enhancing inmate outcomes and fostering collaboration across federal, state, and local agencies to support justice system reform.Mr. Stover has also provided expert guidance on policy development and legal interpretation to ensure consistent application of FSA provisions across law enforcement entities. Throughout his tenure in the Correctional Programs Division and as Warden, he actively engaged with advocacy groups, legal professionals, and community stakeholders to promote transparency and trust in the justice system. In his current role, he is prioritizing agency-wide FSA training and advising the Director on significant immigration matters affecting the Bureau.Mr. Stover holds a bachelor's degree in Sociology with an emphasis in Criminal Justice from Duquesne University and a master's degree in the Administration of Criminal Justice from the State University of New York at Albany. He has been a member of the Senior Executive Service since 2024.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.