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What I'm about to say in this episode will likely trigger some people and ruffle some feathers. Have you noticed there's a huge movement about the divine feminine in social media? Invariably the sacred feminine shows up as a set of archetypes. Generally, it's often the goddess in her flowy and sexy robes, or the priestess with a far-away gaze and also a (probably kinda sexy) robe—only this time with a hood. And of course, sometimes there are no robes at all—just naked, dancing in the moonlight. I'm not belittling the exploration of the feminine aspect at all, but there are rampant, often very distorted, archetypes of the sacred feminine which only amplify the little “s” self, meaning the ego/mind, by promoting a very human, very oversimplified idea and story of what the sacred feminine is. At its core, the feminine is a very clear, very high resonating frequency that doesn't have a human archetype associated with it. In this episode, we're discussing what the resonance of the feminine really is at its highest order of vibration, how to access it, and how to embody it in a way that's unique to you. The Group Frequency Calibration® (GFC) I created specifically to accompany this episode will help you to begin to release those distortion patterns that keep you from the acceptance of your unique expression of the feminine. Without clearing these layers of distortion patterns, you'll stay stuck with someone else's limited archetype of the feminine. If you would like an opportunity to ask me questions in real-time, join me when I go live on YouTube. Subscribe to the Spherical Luminosity YouTube channel and click the reminder bell to be notified when I am live: bit.ly/SL-YTSubscribe For the latest news about upcoming events and to be notified when sessions with me are released, subscribe to our newsletter: bit.ly/SphericalLuminositynewsletter

Apple's upcoming “experience” announcements take center stage in a discussion by Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Marty Jencius, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, Eric Bolden, and Jeff Gamet, Possible products like an entry-level MacBook with an A18 chip, iPhone 17e, and updated MacBook Pros are all on the table as possible press release and/or video releases. The group discusses timing, education market positioning, and whether smaller launches signal a shift in Apple's event strategy.  MacVoices is supported by Hello Fresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/macvoice10fm to gett 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife (a $144.99 value) on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan.  Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 Introduction and show kickoff02:01 Apple event vs. “experience” speculation begins05:06 Time zones, rumors, and possible product lineup08:36 Debate on Apple's launch strategy and messaging12:59 Entry-level and student-focused product theory14:35 Counterpoint: possibility of M5 MacBook Pros17:25 Education market and Chromebook alternatives19:26 Audience feedback and topic suggestion initiative Links: Apple Announces Special Event in New York, London, and Shanghai on March 4https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/16/apple-announces-special-event-in-new-york/ Guests: Web Bixby has been in the insurance business for 40 years and has been an Apple user for longer than that.You can catch up with him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but prefers Bluesky. Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon     http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:     http://macvoices.com      Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner     http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:     https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes     Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Apple's upcoming "experience" announcements take center stage in a discussion by Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Marty Jencius, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, Eric Bolden, and Jeff Gamet, Possible products like an entry-level MacBook with an A18 chip, iPhone 17e, and updated MacBook Pros are all on the table as possible press release and/or video releases. The group discusses timing, education market positioning, and whether smaller launches signal a shift in Apple's event strategy.  MacVoices is supported by Hello Fresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/macvoice10fm to gett 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife (a $144.99 value) on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan.  Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 Introduction and show kickoff 02:01 Apple event vs. "experience" speculation begins 05:06 Time zones, rumors, and possible product lineup 08:36 Debate on Apple's launch strategy and messaging 12:59 Entry-level and student-focused product theory 14:35 Counterpoint: possibility of M5 MacBook Pros 17:25 Education market and Chromebook alternatives 19:26 Audience feedback and topic suggestion initiative Links: Apple Announces Special Event in New York, London, and Shanghai on March 4 https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/16/apple-announces-special-event-in-new-york/ Guests: Web Bixby has been in the insurance business for 40 years and has been an Apple user for longer than that.You can catch up with him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but prefers Bluesky. Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

TRANSCRIPT Gissele: [00:00:00] was Luther King jr. right? Does love have the power to turn an enemy into a friend. We’re creating an inspiring documentary called Courage to Love The Power of Compassion, which explores extraordinary stories of those who have chosen to do the unthinkable, love and forgive even those who are deeply hurtful. Gissele: Through their journeys, we will uncover the profound impact of forgiveness and love, not only on those offering it, but also receiving it. In addition, we’ll hear from experts who will explore where the love and compassion are part of our human nature, and how we can bridge divides with those we disagree with. Gissele: If you’d like to support our film, please go to www M-A-I-T-R-E-C-E-N-T-R e.com/documentary. It’s mitre center.com/documentary Hello and welcome to The Love and Compassion Podcast with Gissele. We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives and our world. [00:01:00] Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more amazing content. Today we’re talking about self-compassion in teenagers. And my guest is Dr. Gissele: Karen Bluth, who’s an associate professor emerita at the University of North Carolina, where she studies how mindful self-compassion improves the mental health of teens and young adults. She’s the author of five books for teens and caregivers, including The Self-Compassion Workbook for Teens and Mindful Self-Compassion for Teens in Schools. Gissele: In addition, she’s a 2022 recipient of the Inaugural Mind and Life Foundation Award for Public Communication of Contemplative Research. Yay. As a mindfulness practitioner for over 45 years, a mindfulness teacher and an educator with over 18 years of classroom teaching experience, Dr. Bluth frequently gives, talks conducts workshops, and teaches classes in self-compassion in educational and community settings and trains [00:02:00] teachers in mindful self-compassion for teens internationally. Gissele: Please join me in welcoming Dr. Karen Bluth. Hi, Karen. Karen: Hi. It’s well. It’s my pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me. Gissele: Oh, thank you so much for coming. I think this is a topic that it’s definitely needs to be discussed, and as a mother of two teens, I know the need for self-compassion. I was wondering if you could tell the audience a little bit about how you got started in this work. Karen: Sure. Well it really takes me back to my teen years. I was in high school, it, I was a senior in high school. It was 1975 and I needed. A topic for an independent study project that I had to do for my English class. and it was due the next day. I was driving down the road. I didn’t have my topic of course. Karen: I was driving down the road and outta the corner of my eye, I saw a sign that said something about meditation. Tm at that ti at that time it was transcendental meditation. It still [00:03:00] is actually, but I remembered hearing something about meditation in a different class in my social studies class. And there was something about it when we talked about it in that social studies class that resonated with me. Karen: And I remember thinking, Hmm, that makes sense. So when I saw that sign out of the corner of my eye, I thought, oh, well, let me check this out. So I pulled in. It was this old house I remember, and I went in and I picked up some brochures about transcendental meditation. And talked to the people there and they said, well if you want to be initiated, and I think that was the word they used, come back Saturday at 10 o’clock, I think they said, bring flowers and a piece of fruit. Karen: So it sounded very mysterious to me, but I did, I went back and, and was given a mantra at that time, and that was the beginning of my meditation practice. And you know, I practiced for my senior year in high school. I think when I went to college, it kind of fell away [00:04:00] for a couple of years. And then I got back into it after college and have been practicing meditation, mindfulness since you know, probably the mid eighties. Karen: Regularly. It’s been a cornerstone, an anchor throughout my entire adult life. As I’m sure as I’m sure you know, it has been for, for many people. I, I was very lucky to start early on. And then sometime in the nineties I had little kids and so I spent a fair amount of time in my car with them, in their car seats, trying to get them to nap because they wouldn’t nap at home. Karen: Yeah, I imagine there’s a lot of people that, that resonate with this. And so I had a cassette tape at that time. That’s what we used in our cars of poetry of self-compassion read by the British poet, David White. And this cassette tape had been passed around my meditation group [00:05:00] and so I had this copy and I listened to these poems and. Karen: I think I internalized the message a lot because it was in my car stereo for quite some time. And so this message of self-compassion became really integrated into into, you know, how I spoke to myself. And then about a decade later, I decided to go back to school and get my PhD and I wanted to bring together the different threads of my life. Karen: So that was my personal life, my mindfulness practice Gissele: mm-hmm. Karen: And this whole time I was, I was teaching in schools. I was a teacher and middle school and upper elementary school, fifth grade, mostly also younger grades, but mostly fifth grade and middle school. And so youth and, and, and being with youth and. Karen: Wanting to improve the lives of youth was [00:06:00] really very central to me and my mission actually. And so I, when, when I went back to school in 2008, I wanted to bring together these different threats of my life, my personal mindfulness practice, and my interest in helping youth. And at that time, it was just a few years after Kristen Neff was publishing her work. Karen: So her first articles, research articles on self-compassion came out in 2003. And so this was five years later. There wasn’t that much published at that time and nothing with teens. And so that’s when I just started diving into the work at that point. So that’s a long, a long story really, but that’s really how, how I came to where I am now. Gissele: It’s wonderful. I love that as the teen, you, it’s like, okay, well I’m gonna be initiated here. I’ll show up with my stuff. Karen: It was like, why not? You know? It was 1975. I was like, you know, whatever. It sounds a little weird. Fruit and flowers and [00:07:00] a mantra, but whatever, you know? Gissele: Mm. Yeah. That’s lovely. I do Kriya yoga and so there, there is like an initiation part of the, the component too, and there’s like the offering. Gissele: So yeah, that I resonated with that. I’m interested to to know what the receptivity is of young people towards self-compassion. And the reason why I ask that is as, as a mother of two teenagers, I know that when I, you know, I emphasized to them the importance of meditation, the importance of loving yourself. Gissele: They understand it, but they don’t always wanna practice what I’m doing. And so they wanna find their own path to loving themselves and being compassionate to themselves. What has been the reception of young people? When you show up to schools Karen: Yeah, of course, of course. So yeah, it’s interesting. Karen: So I hear from parents a lot that there’s, and this is actually, you know, this is the job of teens, is to resist what comes from parents. Gissele: Yeah. Karen: And find their own way, as you said. So this is not [00:08:00] not only is it not a bad thing, it’s actually a good thing that they’re a little bit resistant, a little bit of, Hmm. Karen: I don’t wanna just like take on what you’re handing me. Gissele: Yeah. Karen: So what is the reception? It depends who it’s coming from. So again, if it’s coming from a parent, of course it varies. It depends on the relationship between the parent and the kid. But usually, and I’m making a generalization here, there is Karen: A little bit of resistance, a little bit too, you know, maybe a little bit more than a little bit of resistance. Generally after the first class teens if we don’t push them and we don’t, you know, we, it’s always an invitation to participate in these classes. we’re not heavy handed about it. Karen: We don’t require them. Not that you could anyway, you can’t require somebody to do these practices, right? Gissele: Yeah. Karen: We just invite them in, but we don’t you know, we’re not heavy handed. We invite them in and if [00:09:00] we approach it that way the resistance decreases a lot. And you know, the teens might be quiet, but they’re taking it in. Karen: And I have to tell you that. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard from teens at the end of a class teens will pull me aside and say something like, you know, this was really my mom’s idea to take this class, or, this was my therapist’s idea. I didn’t really wanna do it, but I’m so glad I did. Karen: I frequently hear that. You know, this is the nature of the beast, you know, this is what, this is what teens are supposed to be doing. They’re supposed to be questioning, they’re supposed to be particularly questioning what comes on, you know, what the adults around them are saying to them. Gissele: I agree with you. I think it’s a developmental stage, right? Because we’re constantly trying to improve, what our parents did be better, be different, if we only just accepted the status quo , I don’t think there’d be progress . I’m curious [00:10:00] as to what some of the outcomes you have seen What are some of the things that you have found have helped, maybe some of the things that maybe weren’t as successful? Karen: Yeah. So well first of all, we know from research that teens who are more self-compassionate experience less depression, anxiety, and stress. For example, we know that as teens progress through adolescence, they tend to become more depressed. Karen: And that’s mostly driven by females. And that, that when teens are more self-compassionate, they’re less likely to get depressed as they move through the teen years. So we see that. We also know that stress is linked to depression, but we know that teens who are more self-compassionate, when they’re stressed, they’re less likely to be depressed. Karen: We also know that depression is linked to self-injury non-suicidal self-injury, things like cutting. But teens who are more self-compassionate are less likely to [00:11:00] self-injure when they’re depressed. so we see across many studies in many different places all over the world, we see that self-compassion actually acts as a protective factor or a buffer against. Karen: Some of these difficult challenges in the teen years. And we also know when we actually teach teens self-compassion through these different through our mindful self-compassion for teens course and workshops and things like that, we see that teens at the end experience less depression than they did at the beginning. Karen: Less anxiety, less stress. And in our most recent study with teens who had some suicidal ideation going in, that they had significantly less suicidal ideation at the end of the study. Gissele: That’s really, really powerful. I just wanted to clarify. You said driven by females? Gissele: Does that mean that it’s mostly young girls who are experiencing the [00:12:00] depression? Karen: I. Well, what we see is that as girls move from age 11 or 12 to 18 generally they become of course it’s generalization, but overall teen girls become more depressed and by the time they’re 18 or so, 18 or 19, they are twice as likely to be depressed as males of the same age. Karen: And that statistics stays the same stable through adulthood. So, you know, adult women are generally twice as likely to be depressed as adult men. That doesn’t mean that that boys or men aren’t struggling also they are. It’s just that their way of expressing their discontent, dissatisfaction, unhappiness is not through depression. Karen: It’s through other means. Usually external. Usually things like anger comes [00:13:00] out with anger. Gissele: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. In this world of COVID, we have young people being more isolated and lonely and with all the school shootings that have happened in America in particular not as much in Canada I’m curious as to the impact of self-compassion on improving relationships for young people. Gissele: Does self-compassion work help them in terms of relationships with one another? Karen: Yeah. Well, we do see we do have a study with young adults that shows and these, these were 18 through 30 that shows decrease in loneliness when these young adults were more self-compassionate. I think what we’re seeing it overall is that obviously through COVID, there’s a lot of isolation, loneliness a lot more turning to social media, turning to technology now, AI and, what [00:14:00] social media does unfortunately is exacerbate this sense of comparing oneself with others, right? Mm-hmm. Gissele: Yeah. Karen: And of course, even though we all know, including teens, that what’s posted in social media is not the full picture of somebody’s life. It’s the curated picture of somebody’s life still. Karen: It exacerbates a sense of, I’m not good enough, I’m not worthy. Look at that person there, you know, they have all this great stuff going on in their lives, and I don’t, you know, so self-compassion can be helpful there. And in fact, in our program, we have a social media exercise and what we teach. Karen: Teens is how to be aware of how they’re feeling when they’re engaging with social media. So we don’t tell them social media’s bad, don’t engage in it because first of all, that’s not gonna work. Second of all, as adults, [00:15:00] we engage with social media. You know, it would be hypocritical of us, us to say not to. Karen: So what we do, which I think is a lot more helpful and also empowering to teens, is to teach them to notice what are you feeling when you’re engaging with social media? What’s coming up for you? Are you feeling this sense of, oh, I’m not good enough, or are you feeling lonely or sad? Or maybe you’re feeling excited, maybe you’re feeling connected. Karen: You know, it’s not all bad. So notice what you’re feeling and then make a choice that’s good for you, that’s healthy for you, you know, take care of yourself. So, so, so self-compassion is all about being good to yourself, supporting yourself, standing up for yourself, you know, doing what’s healthy for yourself.[00:16:00] Karen: It’s all of that. So if you’re noticing that, that something is, makes you feel bad, you have the power to limit it or shut it down completely. And whether that’s social media or you know, a toxic relationship with a friend, you know, you can do that also. But so it’s bringing awareness to what you’re feeling when you’re engaging with them. Gissele: I really appreciate that you said this because I think, I don’t wanna underestimate how powerful what you just said is. Because so many of us are so distractible, we have no idea how we’re feeling in our body. And until we’re present in our body, we can’t really understand how we’re treating ourselves. Gissele: And so to allow young people to just notice how they’re feeling about certain things helps them understand, Hey, wait a minute, is this a positive thing for me or a negative thing for me? And makes them more aware about the choices they’re making and therefore they can choose differently, . They might not choose [00:17:00] differently, but it gives them that awareness of like, how am I being impacted by everything? Gissele: And this is really authentically me, Then they can make that choice. They could take their power back. So I think that’s fantastic. Can you share a little bit about some of the other things that you do in your self-compassion program with teens? Like how do you get them to engage? Gissele: ‘Cause I don’t know if I would see a teen just sitting for hours and hours doing meditation. Karen: Sure. Yeah. Well, we don’t ask them to sit for hours and hours, you know, to practice. Karen: First of all, it’s adapted from Kristen Neff and Chris Gerner’s, mindful self-compassion class for adults. The teen class is different in that it does involve it’s much more activity based. it’s developmentally appropriate. So at the beginning of every class and there are eight classes there’s a little bit of art and it could be mindful drawing. Karen: It could be there’s one class which is. My favorite art activity, which involves playing with UBIC, which if you’re not familiar with Ubic, [00:18:00] it’s like the best slime ever. it comes from the Dr. Seuss book, Barnaby and the Ubik. But it’s, it’s just a wonderful substance and it, and it foreshadow something that we do later in the class. Karen: Each art activity foreshadows something that happens in that class. So we have a little bit of art, like 10 minutes of art at the beginning of every class. we emphasize it’s not about creating some beautiful thing that you’re gonna hang on your wall. It’s about just noticing feeling of a pin in your hand or whatever. Karen: You know, so it’s mindful activity. We have a couple of music meditations with the teens, which the teens absolutely love. We play some games. We introduce informal practices. Mostly we introduce some formal practices, but it’s mostly informal practices, which means things that you can do in the moment. Karen: So you’re starting to feel a little stressed. Notice the feeling of your feet on the floor, you know, that point of contact. and that’s because when we [00:19:00] start to feel stressed, we’re generally in our heads, we’re worrying, we’re anxious. Mm-hmm. It’s all going on in our heads. And when we bring attention to something physical, like the sensation of our feet on the floor, it can be very grounding. Karen: So mostly informal practices. So our regular class is an afterschool class, which is eight sessions, 90 minutes. We also have a school version, which is 16 different sessions, which are 45 minutes long each. Karen: And then we also have have what I’m calling drop in sessions. And this is because school counselors have told us that, you know, sometimes they don’t have a big chunk of time with kids. They have only 10 minutes or 15 minutes. So we have these drop in sessions where they could just go ahead into the class, teach this for 10 minutes, and and so they get a little bit of taste of, of what this is about, or, you know, a number of different drop-in sessions. Gissele: Hmm. [00:20:00] Thank you for sharing that. Gissele: I wanted to mention how important art and music and play are in terms of really reconnecting us with ourselves. Gissele: there’s been so much intergenerational trauma in my family and our history that I’ve had to kind of go back to basics and realize how difficult it was for me to play , how difficult it was for me to sit there and be present with myself. Gissele: Even coloring. I tried coloring and I just kind of rushed through it. Like I had an appointment and I’m like, why am I not allowing myself to be in this moment? But those opportunities, art and music, things that in the school system we haven’t always prioritized , I think is really powerful. Karen: yeah. And I think as adults we don’t play enough by any, by any means, you know? And, in fact, when we train teachers in the program we frequently hear from these adult adults that, you know, they wanna do these activities, you know, because they’re fun. [00:21:00] we need to play more, we need to have more fun, just lighthearted, play. Gissele: Yeah. I’m allowing myself to dance more and twirl more, and play more, even though I do it awkwardly. ’cause there’s always this voice in my head that is like, I have to color it perfectly. Gissele: Right? Like, which is weird because I like to think that I’m pretty compassionate with myself. But as I really am stepping up into Being more connected with my inner child, I can see those little tiny things where I’m like, oh, maybe I should have colored this nicer. Maybe this should have been inside the line. Karen: And teens have those voices also, you know, and which is why we emphasize as they’re, as they’re actually doing the art activity, we say at least several times in that 10 minute period, remember, we don’t care what this looks like. This is not about the product. Karen: It’s not about producing some beautiful thing. It’s about simply noticing, noticing what’s [00:22:00] going on. Noticing noticing the sound of the pencil on the paper. You know, is that making a sound? Notice the feeling when your hand is gripping. You know, the, the pencil is, is there a tightness in your hand? You know, so it’s all about that. Karen: It’s all about noticing, feeling, noticing the process, noticing the sensations that are going on as you’re doing the art. So we’re always emphasizing that as as they’re doing the art and even thoughts noticing, you know, you notice any thoughts coming up in your head like, oh, I don’t like this particular part of the drawing, and can you remember? Karen: That’s just a thought. And notice your thought. And as they’re learning more about the mindfulness piece in the class, will, you know, bring in that notice of thought. It’s just a thought. It doesn’t mean it’s a fact. You can let that thought drift away. Gissele: And that is so powerful. Because personally, having done [00:23:00] self-compassion practices is that you’re teaching. Gissele: reconnection . Right. With yourself, with your body, with your being, as a society, we’re so disconnected from ourselves, from other people. And to just even feel like your fingertips in your body and see how tense we are in the thoughts. Gissele: In my own practice, I’m learning to love my fear and focusing on learning to love everything, Even the challenging moments Can I truly love everything in my life or just even if I can’t, can I just accept it? Can I learn to just allow it? Gissele: And it can feel dynamic, right? So I can imagine for teenagers with their hormones that it must be quite the experience. Mm-hmm. Curious as to your perspectives around how teenagers are doing nowadays. Karen: Yeah. What I am seeing is a lot of struggle. It’s a really hard time and that’s what, you know, the statistics that we’re seeing that there’s high levels of [00:24:00] depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Karen: It’s an overwhelming world that we’re living in. I’m working on a book right now with my wonderful colleague, Marissa Knox. And this is a book for young adults and. We haven’t settled on a title yet, but we are bringing in this idea, and this is, you know, throughout the book and it’s about self-compassion for young adults. Karen: But this idea that we are living in an incredibly challenging world right now. Unbelievably challenging in so many ways, on so many levels. And we have to acknowledge that, you know, and we have to acknowledge that, that things are much harder now than they have been in decades past. And, you know, when I was a young adult, it wasn’t easy either. Karen: You know, there was a huge recession. I mean, I graduated from a good university and couldn’t get a job after, and I was waiting tables, you know, it [00:25:00] wasn’t easy then either, but but it’s a lot more difficult now, you know? The economy is, is even harder and rougher now than it was in the eighties when. Karen: Was waiting tables after graduating. And and you know, I have two young adult children and you know, I hear a lot about their lives and their friends’ lives and how hard it’s, I mean, so we have to acknowledge that. I and you know, when I’m teaching young adults and teens I always bring that in, that, you know, this isn’t your fault. Karen: That you feel all all this huge range of difficult emotions. You know, you’re living at a time when, you know things are really hard, politically, economically on the global stage, everything, you know so. To acknowledge that, to put that out there, to have that be the context in which we [00:26:00] then bring in self-compassion and we talk about how, okay, so now knowing that the world is this way, and guess what, for the moment we can’t do anything about it. Karen: We can in the long run, yes. And we’re working towards that, but right now, in the moment, we’re stuck with it. So how can we take care of ourselves? How can we support ourselves knowing that it’s rough right now and it may not be our fault that we can’t get a job or feel safe in our schools or, Gissele: yeah. Karen: All of that. Gissele: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think acknowledging is sort of the first step towards saying, okay, where is my power in this moment?Because I think it’s one of the conversations I had with my students is like, you know, in the time when you might feel so powerless, where do you have power? Even if it’s just in terms of how you determine how you feel about the situation. Gissele: Are you gonna let the situation sink you [00:27:00] down and lead you to further depression, Or are you going to choose to say. I’m gonna choose to be kind to myself. I’m gonna choose to do the best I can. I’m gonna choose to allow and do in the moment what I can. And then, you know, if I make a mistake or a trip over over the same rock, I’m gonna pick myself up and keep going. Gissele: Like, or if I can’t, I can’t. Right? So how do we practice that ’cause there’s an element of me that believes that part of the reason why we are in the situation we are in terms of the world, is because of a disconnection, because of a lack of self-compassion and self-love. Gissele: There’s a lack of love in the world in general. And we keep thinking that the way that we’re gonna approach it is have more money and be more successful and do all of these things, but it just breeds separation. Which leads to my next question of how can self-compassion help us create community? Karen: Ah, yeah, so that’s a great [00:28:00] question. Karen: Because of course, as we know, community is absolutely vital. Having community is vital. So I think you know, the first thing that comes to mind is that when we’re more self-compassionate we have less fear of failure because we know we’re not gonna beat ourselves up when we fail. If we fail at something, we’re just gonna say, you know, well, you know, it doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. Karen: It just means like, that didn’t work for me in, in that particular moment. How this applies to community is that we’re more likely to reach out to others, right? So if we’re not so afraid that of getting rejected by others, we’re more likely to make an attempt move out of our comfort zone and reach out and engage in a conversation with. Karen: Somebody we don’t know, for example, we’re more likely to join a community group or, you know, in the case [00:29:00] of teens, you know, sign up for some new sport or music class or whatever to engage with others more and develop that community when we’re feeling so unqualified, unworthy not enough, we’re much more likely to isolate. Karen: And so in that way you know, obviously that’s how community develops is, where we’re able to reach out and en engage with others in, you know, all different ways. Gissele: Mm. Yeah. And the other thing I found in, especially in my self-compassion practice has been that it’s led me to be more authentically myself. Gissele: Mm-hmm. And you can’t really, you can’t really allow yourself to be seen and to be loved and to find your people if you are not allowing yourself to be authentically yourself or to be vulnerable . And so I think that’s a really key aspect of self-compassion, ’cause that’s really what primarily young people want. Gissele: They just wanna be authentically themselves. But we hear all these [00:30:00] messages. I know, I heard them growing up. You know, all about how we have to look a certain way. We have to be a certain way. There’s a right answer to everything. Gissele: and so I think that’s the beauty of self-compassion, is the allowing of multiple perspectives is the allowing of differences in the discomfort. Karen: when you were talking about that, what I was thinking about was in our our teen class, we have a session where teens have the opportunity to really reflect on their core values, and we take them through a particular activity to do this so that they’re thinking about what’s really important to me, what do I really value? Karen: You know how do I wanna live my life and what are the things I wanna let go of, you know? Mm-hmm. So it’s not a conclusive activity where they get to the end and they say, okay, this is what I want. You know? But it’s an opportunity for them to really take a few moments to think about and to reflect on, you know, what do I wanna keep [00:31:00] in my life? Karen: What do I want to hold onto? What do I value and what do I, maybe wanna think about letting go of? It’s just the beginning of that conversation with themselves. Gissele: Hmm. And I love that ’cause I’ve had to do this later in my life, realizing that the things I wanted to have were based on somebody else’s perspective of what they thought I should have. Gissele: And I, I went through a really stripping of like, who am I really? And again, I, this is older, right? Like, who am I really, what do I really love? What do I really wanna do? What do I really want my life to look like? And it’s not anything that I would’ve thought would’ve fit the picture, like it’s not. Gissele: Mm-hmm. But it’s so much better . It’s so much greater, it’s so much more me. Karen: Mm-hmm. Gissele: I was curious as to whether in the program there are elements of how to deal with conflict with one another Karen: Yeah. Well we do have a session activity where we talk about conflict with parents. Mm. And, Gissele: mm-hmm. Karen: Why, first of all, [00:32:00] why that occurs. So, you know, why is that happening? And we talk about the developmental stage and the brain changes and we show this video clip actually from the movie Crudes. Karen: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, there’s a teen in there and she’s having a conflict with her dad. And the dad just wants to keep her safe and isolated and in the cave, and she wants to go out and explore. And we talk about how the dad is doing what he’s supposed to be doing, and the teen is doing what she’s supposed to be doing. Karen: Neither one of them is wrong. And yet conflict ensues because they have different objectives and what can you do when conflict ensues when this happens? And so first of all, just having that awareness that, this dad’s not trying to be mean and horrible. Karen: He’s just trying to keep his kids safe. And sort of having that awareness and then how self-compassion can support you because when you’re [00:33:00] supporting yourself in that way, you can add through mindfulness also. You can regulate your emotions and which is the first step, you know? Karen: Well awareness is the first step. That would be the second step. And then get to a place where you can actually. Talk about what’s going on and acknowledge what the other person wants and needs also. Gissele: Hmm. Yeah. I I love that you brought the movie up, the crudes. ’cause what I, remember you know, they both the daughter and the father push each other, right? Gissele: they push each other to grow and learn. And I wanted to emphasize as well for my listeners about something that you just said, which is really important, which is dealing with Gissele: conflict. the first part is always awareness. It’s like awareness of how am I feeling? What am I, what am I thinking? You know, what’s happening in my body. And the second one is being able to hold space for those difficult feelings , right? Validating our feelings, holding space for those difficult feelings, having compassion for ourselves so that then we can have [00:34:00] compassion for other people’s, even if their perspective’s completely different, like differ from our own. Gissele: And so I think that’s the, the beauty of self-compassion is that it helps us have compassion for ourselves and other people. Sometimes the, as they called the disliked person, mm-hmm. But it really does start with the awareness because I feel like we don’t really know how to have conversations with people anymore. Gissele: There’s like this global canceling that happens because I think we are just so overwhelmed by our own emotions and we haven’t really been. At least some generations haven’t really been taught the social emotional part of, regulating our emotions so that we can then do the work of listening. Gissele: And you know, when I think about listening, I think about the work of Valerie Kaur who talks about revolutionary love. And she says, you know, listening, if you’re truly listening, you have to be willing to change Mm-hmm. Karen: Mm-hmm. Gissele: And that that’s can feel difficult. [00:35:00] It can, Karen: yeah. Karen: I think that’s, I I think you hit on a really important and very big issue which is that there isn’t a lot of listening going on. You know, there really isn’t. You know, there might be people sitting there waiting for the other person to finish talking so that they can say their piece. Right? Gissele: Yeah. Karen: But, of course, when you’re really listening, that’s not what’s going on. When you’re really listening, you’re open and willing to change your mind. So yes, that’s certainly part of this whole, you know, the program at the very beginning, in our first class, we have a piece called Community Agreements where we all agree on how the class is going to proceed. Karen: And one of the things is deep listening. Really listening, without that judging voice, you know, put that judging voice aside as much as possible. [00:36:00] Gissele: And that takes practice. Karen: Yes, Gissele: it does. Karen: It absolutely does. Gissele: often we go straight to judgment instead of professing observations. The other thing I wanted to mention was listening to the voices of young people is so important, which is why I think also your work is so phenomenal . Historically, we have not viewed young people’s voices as important as adult voices, or especially the voices of, of young children. Gissele: What are your thoughts about our ability to be able to listen to young people and collaborate with them in a way that makes them feel involved? ’cause I know I, that’s, I didn’t feel that way when I was young. Gissele: Young people were not invited to sit at the table with the adults to talk about adult things and talk about the world, How can we, emphasize more listening to young people? Karen: Yeah. It’s interesting. I too remember being a teen and clearly thinking, you know what, I know what I’m talking about here. Karen: I have ideas. Gissele: Yeah. Karen: You know, [00:37:00] and I actually did have the opportunity as a teen to be on an adult board of, mm-hmm. Of a nonprofit organization. It was a theater organization that we were involved with. and it was a great opportunity, we need to hear teen’s, voices, you know, we need to hear what they have to say. Karen: That doesn’t mean thatwe’re going to make decisions based on everything that they say or, because obviously we’ve been on the planet for longer and we have a certain amount of wisdom coming from our experience, but truly they know what they need and giving them the opportunity to talk about it and to express it and to listen. Karen: You know, I think what teens want more than anything is really to be listened to. Is to be heard. And maybe that’s what we all want more than every [00:38:00] anything is to be heard. Right. Particularly in the teen years, it’s really the first time when they are aware that they have some opinions and values and things to contribute to the conversation. Karen: And as adults I think it’s our responsibility to listen and to hear their input Gissele: Yeah. Karen: As much as we can again, that doesn’t mean we’re gonna make decisions based on, what they suggest. I remember my daughter as a 15-year-old, went through a stage where she just felt like she didn’t need to wear her seatbelt in the car. Karen: And I was like that’s not happening. Like, now I Gissele: got Karen: this. Nope. Gissele: Yeah. Karen: No. Gissele: Mm-hmm. Karen: So it doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t mean we go with everything that they, that they wanna do by any stretch, but, but to listen, I think is important. Gissele: Yeah. And they, that’s a great example. I’m curious as to her perspective as to why she felt in [00:39:00] that moment she didn’t need seat belts anymore. Karen: You know, I can ask her. I don’t remember. I think she was just exercising herperceived right. as an individual, you know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Obviously when it comes to safety, you know, we have to, Gissele: there’s a history there as to how we got seat belts. Gissele: Yeah. And so engaging in that conversation as you were talking, I was thinking about the generations and how sometimes it’s difficult for parents to hear the perspectives of their young people. if it, ignites shame and guilt, right. I’ve had conversations with my parents about the impact of my childhood and there’s been lots of like deflecting because it was difficult for them to hold some of these things that I was claiming. Gissele: And I’ve been on the other end as well in terms of like my children when they say stuff and you’re like, I hurt you. And so being able to apologize for me has been really important as a parent to emphasize to my kids that I’m not perfect. You know, we’re, Karen: we’re winging it out here [00:40:00] Gissele: and, and how much forgiveness and how much apologizing needs to happen and how much communication needs to happen when mistakes are made on both sides, right? Gissele: Mm-hmm. And how sometimes those mistakes and those conversations bring us closer together . But I can relate to my parents’ experience ’cause we all wanna be. At least from my perspective, I wanna be a good mom. I wanna be a loving parent. I wanna be the best parent that I can be. Gissele: And sometimes despite your best intense, you make mistakes. you hurt them. you do things like maybe that are based on your own fear. And so I find the practice of self-compassion really helps me be kind to myself and so that I can listen to that feedback and say, you know what? Gissele: I’m gonna sit with this. But it can feel difficult. Gissele: self-compassion really helped me sit with those difficult feelings because I wasn’t judging myself. A bad parent. Karen: yeah. You know, I think being a parent has been so good for my self and compassion practice just because of [00:41:00] everything that you said. Karen: My daughters are now 31 and 33, and you know, of course I made lots and lots of mistakes, I was one of those moms that I prioritized being a good mom. It was so important to me, you know, to be a good mom. And yet I made mistakes. And recently even I, maybe, I don’t know, six, eight months ago I was talking to my older daughter and there was something that I did when she was a teen that I felt, you know, I wish I could have. Karen: Not done what I did. And I felt really bad about what I did. And I, you know, I was talking to her about it and I said, I’m so sorry that I, put my foot down. I know what you really needed was a big hug. I wish I had, you know, done it differently. And she said, you know, mom, don’t worry about it. Karen: You can let that go. You know, I’m fine, But it helped me, first of all to be able to say that. And I think I was able to say that part at least in part, if not, [00:42:00] if not solely because of my self-compassion practice. And I think part of what self-compassion does for us is, is to remind us that we don’t have to be perfect and we’re not going to be any way. Karen: We’re not going to be perfect. We’re gonna make mistakes. So can we forgive ourselves? Gissele: Yeah. Karen: When we make mistakes, you know? And then if we can, and if it’s appropriate or if we want to or whatever, go to that person, you know, like go to our kid and say, look, I am really sorry that I did that and at the time I thought that was best. Karen: And now I see that’s not what you needed. Yeah. And I’m really sorry. Gissele: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s so interesting, and I think it’s important for us to have this conversation for two reasons. Number one is we think we have to be perfect at being compassionate or none at all. Gissele: none of us are perfect. And I think that’s the problem . We expect ourselves to be truly compassionate, the pinnacle of love [00:43:00] and really just, can you just be a little bit better than yesterday? That’s all that requires. Can you be a little bit more loving? Can you be a little bit more kind? Gissele: That’s all that is really required. And the second thing, which I think you emphasize, which is so important, It’s that we think that being compassionate, it’s gonna be like, well, I’m just gonna, allow my crappy behavior. It is so difficult to be loving and compassionate towards yourself when you don’t feel you deserve it. And what I found in my own practice is it actually enabled me to sit. More. Gissele: With all those aspects that I didn’t like about myself, the more that I was compassionate with myself, I didn’t let myself off the hook, I was able to see how my behavior could have been hurtful , was able to see how there was times when I wasn’t living my values, but if I hadn’t been compassionate, I would’ve deflected. Gissele: I would’ve like invalidated. I would’ve been like, no, no. It’s their problem. It’s not me. And so this is why the practice of compassion is so important, especially starting younger. [00:44:00] So a few more questions. I say youngest that you have done work on it. And are there groups that are helping our, really young people practice compassion? Karen: Yeah, absolutely. So I work with teens and as young as 11 or so. Gissele: Mm. Karen: There are people who work with younger, with younger kids. My colleague Jamie Lynn Tartera works with kids age about seven to 10 or so. And then my colleague Catherine Lovewell in the UK works with kids who are younger and she has a wonderful book out and stuffed animals and and all this really wonderful wonderful stuff for younger kids. Karen: And it’s just adorable. I have some of her things right here. I know you’re not gonna be able to see it over audio, but some of her, so these are her [00:45:00] stuffies that go with her, with her. I like Gissele: the rainbow one. Karen: Yeah. Well, this is actually, so her book is about the inner critic and Yeah, this is Crusher, which is your inner critic, and this is Booster. Karen: Who is your self-compassionate. So the Rainbow Guide is, oh, that’s beautiful, but she just has an unbelievably wonderful program. So yes, there are people working with younger kids and yeah, it’s so important to start early. Gissele: Thanks. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. But I absolutely appreciate that you’re working with teens ’cause that can be a difficult population, but definitely, definitely needed. Gissele: I think sometimes we make it more acceptable to do those kinds of things, like self-compassion, self-kindness practices with young kids, and then for some reason it just kind of drops off the face of the earth and we’re not continuing that practice. So I think it’s wonderful that you are doing that work. Gissele: Two more questions. I’m asking all of my, guests what their definition of self-love is. Karen: Definition of [00:46:00] self-love accepting yourself for who you are. Gissele: Mm-hmm. Karen: With all your so-called challenges and securities. Because really that’s, that’s what makes us who we are, is the whole package. Karen: You know, the things we like about ourselves and the things we’re not as comfortable with about ourselves and when we can. And you used this word earlier, which I think is, is really great. Allow the word allow when we can allow those parts of ourselves to be there, to be present and to accept them. Karen: Say, you know what, you know, I’m not the most patient person in the world. I know that about myself. And you know what? It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m not gonna be perfect and I’m not gonna be good at everything. I. And that’s okay. It’s okay not to be good at everything. So I, you know, my definition of self-love would be [00:47:00] just to, you know, be able to allow all those parts of your, of yourself, you know, to be present and to be there and maybe eventually move towards embracing them. Gissele: Hmm. I love that. So last question. Where can people work with you? Where can they find you? Where can they find your books? Please share. Karen: there’s two websites. There’s my website, which is my name http://www.karenbluth.com. And so you’ll find out about me about my work. On that website, we have a new website, which I really would like to promote. Karen: it’s a website, for teens teens, and that’s http://www.self-compassionforteens.org. And self-compassion is hyphenated. And so that is a recent website that we’ve just launched in the last couple of months which has all kinds of resources for teens, videos, short videos about explaining what self-compassion [00:48:00] is, you know, what the inner critic is, how can we deal with the inner critic. Karen: There’s there’s a quiz on there. See how self-compassionate you are. There’s video, there’s some videos that. Teams who have learned taken our courses, have talked about their experience with self-compassion. And then there’s section about taking a deeper dive. Anyway, I really would like teens everywhere to, to know about this website and have access to it. Karen: And it’s a great place to start to learn about how to be nicer to yourself. Gissele: Beautiful. There’ll be a link on our site. So thank you very much, Karen, for coming on the show and sharing your wisdom with us and for the work that you’re doing, which is so, so important and so needed at this time. And thank you for everyone that tuned into another episode of Love and Compassion Podcast with Gissele. Gissele: See you soon.

Original Release Date: Feb 6, 2026Our Global Head of Fixed Income Research Andrew Sheets and Global Chief Economist Seth Carpenter unpack the inner workings of the Federal Reserve to illustrate the challenges that Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh may face.Read more insights from Morgan Stanley.----- Transcript -----Andrew Sheets: Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Andrew Sheets, Global Head of Fixed Income Research at Morgan Stanley. Seth Carpenter: And I'm Seth Carpenter, Morgan Stanley's Global Chief Economist and Head of Macro Research. Andrew Sheets: And today on the podcast, a further discussion of a new Fed chair and the challenges they may face. It's Friday, February 6th at 1 pm in New York. Seth, it's great to be here talking with you, and I really want to continue a conversation that listeners have been hearing on this podcast over this week about a new nominee to chair the Federal Reserve: Kevin Warsh. And you are the perfect person to talk about this, not just because you lead our economic research and our macro research, but you've also worked at the Fed. You've seen the inner workings of this organization and what a new Fed chair is going to have to deal with. So, maybe just for some broad framing, when you saw this announcement come out, what were some of the first things to go through your mind? Seth Carpenter: I will say first and foremost, Kevin Warsh's name was one of the names that had regularly come up when the White House was providing names of people they were considering in lots of news cycles. So, I think the first thing that's critically important from my perspective, is – not a shock, right? Sort of a known quantity. Second, when we think about these really important positions, there's a whole range of possible outcomes. And I would've said that of the four names that were in the final set of four that we kept hearing about in the news a lot. You know, some differences here and there across them, but none of them was substantially outside of what I would think of as mainstream sort of thinking. Nothing excessively unorthodox at all like that. So, in that regard as well, I think it should keep anybody from jumping to any big conclusions that there's a huge change that's imminent. I think the other thing that's really important is the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve really is made by a committee. The Federal Open Market Committee and committee matters in these cases. The Fed has been under lots of scrutiny, under lots of pressure, depending on how you want to put it. And so, as a result, there's a lot of discussion within the institution about their independence, making sure they stick very scrupulously to their congressionally given mandate of stable prices, full employment. And so, what does that mean in practice? That means in practice, to get a substantially different outcome from what the committee would've done otherwise… So, the market is pricing; what's the market pricing for the funds rate at the end of this year? About 3.2 percent. Andrew Sheets: Something like that. Yeah. Seth Carpenter: Yeah. So that's a reasonable forecast. It's not too far away from our house view. For us to end up with a policy rate that's substantially away from that – call it 1 percentage, 2 percentage points away from that. I just don't see that as likely to happen. Because the committee can be led, can be swayed by the chair, but not to the tune of 1 or 2 percentage points. And so, I think for all those reasons, there wasn't that much surprise and there wasn't, for me, a big reason to fully reevaluate where we think the Fed's going. Andrew Sheets: So let me actually dig into that a little bit more because I know our listeners tune in every day to hear a lot about government meetings. But this is a case where that really matters because I think there can sometimes be a misperception around the power of this position. And it's both one of the most public important positions in the world of finance. And yet, as you mentioned, it is overseeing a committee where the majority matters. And so, can you take us just a little bit inside those discussions? I mean, how does the Fed Chair interact with their colleagues? How do they try to convince them and persuade them to take a particular course of action? Seth Carpenter: Great question. And you're right, I sort of spent a bunch of time there at the Fed. I started when Greenspan was chair. I worked under the Bernanke Fed. And of course, for the end of that, Janet Yellen was the vice chair. So, I've worked with her. Jay Powell was on the committee the whole time. So, the cast of characters quite familiar and the process is important. So, I would say a few things. The chair convenes the meetings; the chair creates the agenda for the meeting. The chair directs the staff on what the policy documents are that the committee is going to get. So, there's a huge amount of influence, let's say, there. But in order to actually get a specific outcome, there really is a vote. And we only have to look back a couple weeks to the last FOMC meeting when there were two dissents against the policy decision. So, dissents are not super common. They don't happen at every single meeting, but they're not unheard of by any stretch of the imagination either. And if we go back over the past few years, lots going on with inflation and how the economy was going was uncertain. Chair Powell took some dissents. If we go back to the financial crisis Chair Bernanke took a bunch of dissents. If we go back even further through time, Paul Volcker, when he was there trying to staunch the flow of the high inflation of the 1970s, faced a lot of resistance within his committee. And reportedly threatened to quit if he couldn't get his way. And had to be very aggressive in trying to bring the committee along. So, the chair has to find a way to bring the committee along with the plan that the chair wants to execute. Lots of tools at their disposal, but not endless power or influence. Does that make sense? Andrew Sheets: That makes complete sense. So, maybe my final question, Seth, is this is a tough job. This is a tough job in… Seth Carpenter: You mean your job and my job, or… Andrew Sheets: [Laughs] Not at all. The chair of the Fed. And it seems especially tricky now. You know, inflation is above the Fed's target. Interest rates are still elevated. You know, certainly mortgage rates are still higher than a lot of Americans are used to over the last several years. And asset prices are high. You know, the valuation of the equity market is high. The level of credit spreads is tight. So, you could say, well, financial conditions are already quite easy, which can create some complications. I am sure Kevin Warsh is receiving lots of advice from lots of different angles. But, you know, if you think about what you've seen from the Fed over the years, what would be your advice to a new Fed chair – and to navigate some of these challenges? Seth Carpenter: I think first and foremost, you are absolutely right. This is a tough job in the best of times, and we are in some of the most difficult and difficult to understand macroeconomic times right now. So, you noted interest rates being high, mortgage rates being high. There's very much an eye of the beholder phenomenon going on here. Now you're younger than I am. The first mortgage I had. It was eight and a half percent. Andrew Sheets: Hmm. Seth Carpenter: I bought a house in 2000 or something like that. So, by those standards, mortgage rates are actually quite low. So, it really comes down to a little bit of what you're used to. And I think that fact translates into lots of other places. So, inflation is now much higher than the committee's target. Call it 3 percent inflation instead core inflation on PCE, rather than 2 percent inflation target. Now, on the one hand that's clearly missing their target and the Fed has been missing their target for years. And we know that tariffs are pushing up inflation, at least for consumer goods. And Chair Powell and this committee have said they get that. They think that inflation will be temporary, and so they're going to look through that inflation. So again, there's a lot of judgment going on here. The labor market is quite weak. Andrew Sheets: Hmm. Seth Carpenter: We don't have the latest months worth of job market data because of the government shutdown; that'll be delayed by a few days. But we know that at the end of last year, non-farm payrolls were running well below 50,000. Under most circumstances, you would say that is a clear indication of a super weak economy. But! But if we look at aggregate spending data, GDP, private-domestic final purchases, consumer spending, CapEx spending. It's actually pretty solid right now. And so again, that sense of judgment; what's the signal you're going to look for? That's very, very difficult right now, and that's part of what the chair is going to have to do to try to bring the committee together, in order to come to a decision. So, one intellectually coherent argument is – the main way you could get strong aggregate demand, strong spending numbers, strong GDP numbers, but with pretty tepid labor force growth is if productivity is running higher and if productivity is going higher because of AI, for example, over time you could easily expect that to be disinflationary. And if it's disinflationary, then you can cut it. Interest rates now. Not worry as much as you would normally about high inflation. And so, the result could be a lower path for policy rates. So that's one version of the argument that I suspect you're going to hear. On the other hand, inflation is high and it's been high for years. So what does that mean? Well. History suggests that if inflation stays too high for too long, inflation psychology starts to change the way businesses start to set. Andrew Sheets: Mm-hmm. Seth Carpenter: Their own prices can get a little bit loosey-goosey. They might not have to worry as much about consumers being as picky because everybody's got used to these price changes. Consumers might be become less picky because, well, they're kind of sick of shopping around. They might be more willing to accept those higher prices, and that's how things snowball. So, I do think that the new chair is going to face a particularly difficult situation in leading a committee in particularly challenging times. But I've gone on for a long, long time there. And one of the things that I love about getting to talk to you, Andrew, is the fact that you also talked to lots of investors all around the world. You're based in London. And so when the topic of the new Fed chair comes up, what are the questions that you're getting from clients? Andrew Sheets: So, I think that there are a few questions that stand out. I mean, I think a dominant question among investors was around the stability of the U.S. dollar. And so, you could say a good development on the back of Kevin Warsh's nomination is that the market response to that has been the price action you would associate with more stability. You've seen the dollar rise; you've seen precious metals prices fall. You've seen equity markets and credit spreads be very stable. So, I think so far everything in the market reaction is to your; to the point that you raised, you know, consistent with this still being orthodox policy. Every Fed chair is different, but still more similar than different now. I think where it gets more divergent in client opinions is just – what are we going to see from the Fed? Are we going to see a real big change in policy? And I think that this is where there are very different views of Kevin Warsh from investors. Some who say, ‘Well, he's in the past talked about fighting inflation more aggressively, which would imply tighter policy.' And he's also talked more recently about the productivity gains from AI and how that might support lower interest rates. So, I think that there's going to be a lot of interest when he starts to speak publicly, when we see testimony in front of the Senate. I think the other, the final piece, which I think again, people do not have as fully formed an opinion on yet is – how does he lead the Fed if the data is unexpected? And you know, you mentioned inflation and, you know, Morgan Stanley has this forecast that: Well, owner's equivalent rent, a really key part of inflation, might be a little bit higher than expected, which might be a distortion coming off of the government shutdown and impacts on data. But there's some real uncertainty about the inflation path over the near term. And so, in short, I think investors are going to give the benefit of the doubt. For now, I think they're going to lean more into this idea that it will be generally consistent with the Fed easing policy over time, for now. Generally consistent with a steeper curve for now. But I think there's a lot we're going to find out over the next couple of weeks and months. Seth Carpenter: Yeah. No, I agree with you. Andrew, I have to say, I'm glad you're here in New York. It's always great to sit down and talk to you. Let's do it again before too long. Andrew Sheets: Absolutely, Seth. Thanks for taking the time to talk. And to our audience, thank you as always for your time. If you find Thoughts the Market useful, let us know by leaving a review wherever you listen. And also tell a friend or colleague about us today.

Still Waters Psalm 23 (Part 3) Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.” Today I will talk about the last part of this Psalm. There is a lot to like about this ending.  First. It starts by saying that God will prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.  I don't have to be worried about my enemies as God has got me.  He is my shield and my refuge.  Now he is saying we will prepare a feast for me.  When someone is preparing a meal for us, they are not usually stressed out about it.  They don't worry about all the things going on around them.  Picture this, there is chaos all around you, and yet in front of you is this beautifully set up dining room table.  You have a seat and God is bringing you a feast one course at a time.  He is not concerned with your enemies because He knows they can't touch you.  You are not concerned either because you feel so at home and taken care of.  Isn't that a beautifully relaxing image?   Next, the verse says that God honors us by anointing our heads with oil.  Did you know that you have an anointing on your life?  We all do. Did you know through baptism you were anointed to be priest, prophet, and king?   It's true, just as Christ was all three of these, you are also anointed to be these three things to your community.  What does that mean for us?   Let's start with the priest.  Drawing on the priesthood of the Old Testament, a priest is one who offers sacrifices (see Genesis 14:18; Exodus 29:38- 42; Leviticus 23:6,8). Some sacrifices are personal, and some are on behalf of others. These sacrifices will look different for each one of us depending on our circumstances.  However, sacrifice to some degree should be a part of our everyday life.  I have tried to embrace this in different ways over the years. At times I did a bread and water fast one day a week. Other times I would fast from one thing for a whole month. I would switch it up each month, but there will always be something I am fasting from.  I believe that this helps me to appreciate things more and it will also show me that I am not a slave to that thing.  For instance, if I feel like I just can't stop eating chocolate, then I will fast from that for a month.  By the end of the year, I will have shown God and myself that I do not need these things.  I will have also made a small sacrifice each month for 12 months. Next, we have prophet.  A prophet is a spokesperson for God or one who speaks on God's behalf (see Exodus 4:30; Deuteronomy 18:18; Isaiah 42:19). In the Old and New Testaments, prophets called people to a different way of life.  Can we be a spokesperson for God by how we live our lives?  Can we live in a way that when people see us they think to themselves, “I want what they have?”  Can we call others to a different way of life, not necessarily with our words, but with our love?  Can we love others as Jesus did? Can we speak love and light into the world, into people's lives?  Can we be prophets? Lastly, we are anointed as kings.  What are kings called to do? Usually rule over others.  We are called to rule over ourselves first and foremost. We are all responsible for making sure we are living our lives according to God's laws.  Most kings are called to rule over others, however, as Christians, we are called to servant leadership.  A servant leader leads by serving others. In other words, servant leaders place the interests and needs of their followers ahead of their own self-interests and needs. Generally, they value the development of their followers, building their communities, acting authentically, and sharing power. Now that we know what each one of these means, hopefully, we can apply this to our everyday life.  God has anointed us in our everyday tasks too.  For instance, I was anointed to be a mother and a wife.  That was where God called me and that is what He set me apart to do.  Maybe you are anointed to be a doctor, a lawyer, a pharmacy tech, a garbage collector, a grandmother, a teacher, whatever it is, God has anointed you to do it.  Your baptismal anointing is not meant to replace any of those other calls on your life.  You are anointed to be a priest, prophet, and king in the life you are already living.  Think about your day-to-day life, how can you incorporate sacrifice into your days?  How can you be more of a prophet spreading the Lord's Word in your daily lives?  How can you be more of a servant leader right now, right where you are? The verse then goes on to say my cup overflows with blessings.  This is also great imagery.  I love to picture a teacup, as we grew up drinking tea in my family.  Although I don't picture a regular tea cup, the image I am getting is an English fancy tea cup from a china set.  The tea is being poured into it with a steady stream and the cup is overflowing and running all over the table and even onto the floor.  This is how many blessings God has for you. He wants to rain down blessings upon blessings on all of His children.  Sometimes we get in the way of God's blessings.  Sometimes we don't appreciate the blessings that we have so why would God give us more?  Sometimes we find ourselves complaining about all that is going on in our lives instead of praising God and giving thanksgiving.  God has ridiculous blessings for you.  All you have to do is believe that and then praise God for any blessings, even if they are small.  If you can be faithful to the small He will increase your blessings.  He is a good, good Father! The ending of this verse is beautiful.  “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”  We had this word pursue the other day.  I love that word.  This verse is saying that God's goodness and unfailing love will pursue us all the days of our lives.  Isn't that wonderful?  We don't have to chase after God, because He is already chasing after us.  All we have to do is let ourselves be caught by God's goodness and unfailing love.  Unfailing love is not like any love we can find here on earth.  It is an incredible love that knows no limits, that knows no boundaries.  God's love never leaves us.  No matter how much we may try to run from it.  No matter how much we try to reject it or send it back.  No matter how much we might mess up.  God's unfailing love will pursue you every single day of your life.  How incredible is that?   And the very last part of the verse says, “I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”  Yes, please!  I want to live in the house of the Lord forever. I think we all do.  It is so amazing to me that God has an open-door policy to heaven.  All are welcome.  Come as you are, in your broken and wounded state.  You do not have to earn your way, you don't have to do anything to get there.  Jesus has earned you your right to be there.  All you have to do is surrender to God and let Him help you, let Him give you the strength to follow Him.  Following God is not always an easy road but it is a rewarding road and one that leads to spending eternity living in the house of the Lord.   Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today.  Lord, we thank you for loving us like you do.  We thank you for preparing us for a feast in the presence of our enemies.  We thank you for the ridiculous blessings you want to give us and we are sorry if we get in your way of doing that.  We thank you for making us priests, prophets, and kings and we ask for your help in discovering what that means for each one of us and how we can incorporate that anointing into our lives.  We love you Lord and we can't wait to live in your house forever!  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen! Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to bringing you another witness tomorrow.  It will be an update from my friend Bruce. I have shared his story at least twice, and we have a new update coming tomorrow. Mentoring is tonight, so email me if you would like to check it out! Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I!  Have a blessed day, and may the favor and grace of our Lord Jesus be upon you! Today's Word from the Lord was received in April 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Trust me. I know what I'm doing. I know that sometimes trust is like pulling yourself through an eye of a needle. Those are the times when you need to trust the most. Because that's when I loom the largest. I love you, my children. Trust me.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

The MacVoices Live! panel critiques Mark Zuckerberg's blame of Apple for his issues, debate whether music lyrics should be locked behind YouTube Premium, and examines how different generations consume music. David Ginsburg, Chuck Joiner, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Jim Rea, Jeff Gamet, Mark Fuccio, and Brian Flanigan-Arthurs also discuss Discord's proposed age verification and privacy risks, and their reversal after user protests. The discussion wraps with congratulations to Apple World Today's anniversary and commentary on Xfinity internet frustrations and broadband access realities.  MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. MacVoices is supported by Hello Fresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/macvoice10fm to gett 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife (a $144.99 value) on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan.  Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 Meta criticism and platform responsibility debate00:39 YouTube music lyrics and premium subscription discussion09:11 Generational music habits and platform usage differences12:48 Discord age verification proposal and backlash15:46 Data privacy concerns and verification security risks23:15 Congratulations on Apple World Today anniversary25:26 Xfinity internet reliability and broadband alternatives Links: Mark Zuckerberg continues to blame Apple for Meta's problemshttps://appleinsider.com/articles/26/02/05/mark-zuckerberg-continues-to-blame-apple-for-metas-problems YouTube Music lyrics now require a Premium subscription https://9to5google.com/2026/02/07/youtube-music-lyrics-premium/ Discord will soon require face scans or ID for all users, or restrict accesshttps://9to5mac.com/2026/02/09/discord-will-soon-require-face-scans-or-id-for-all-users-or-restrict-access/ Discord backtracks on controversial age verification rollout…kind of - 9to5Machttps://9to5mac.com/2026/02/10/discord-backtracks-on-controversial-age-verification-rolloutkind-of/ If you have any choice besides Xfinity for Internet, take ithttps://appleworld.today/2026/02/if-you-have-any-choice-besides-xfinity-for-internet-take-it/ Happy Birthday to Apple World today (We've Turned 11)https://appleworld.today/2026/02/happy-birthday-to-apple-world-today-weve-turned-six/ Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon     http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:     http://macvoices.com      Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner     http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:     https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes     Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Unusual Apple and tech topics fill this episode, including CarPlay integration on personal watercraft, highlighting both navigation potential and safety concerns. David Ginsburg, Chuck Joiner, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Jim Rea, Jeff Gamet, Mark Fuccio, and Brian Flanigan-Arthurs examine how Apple Watch and connected devices can aid criminal investigations, and review features that create seamless interaction across Apple devices. The conversation also explores Apple's removal of anonymous chat apps and a proposed U.S. bill targeting scam ads on social platforms.  MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. MacVoices is supported by Hello Fresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/macvoice10fm to gett 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife (a $144.99 value) on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan.  Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 Overview of topics: CarPlay, Apple ecosystem, chat apps, scam ads01:17 CarPlay integration on personal watercraft04:56 Wearables and smart devices aiding investigations08:24 Apple device harmony and ecosystem features13:27 Apple's removal of anonymous chat apps22:44 Proposed legislation targeting scam ads on social media Links: Sea-Doo thinks you want CarPlay on a jet skihttps://appleinsider.com/articles/26/02/04/sea-doo-thinks-you-want-carplay-on-a-jet-ski Apple Watch data pins down abduction time of NBC News anchor's motherhttps://appleinsider.com/articles/26/02/04/apple-watch-data-pins-down-abduction-time-of-nbc-news-anchors-mother 15 features to make your Apple devices work in perfect harmonyhttps://www.macworld.com/article/3000916/15-features-to-make-your-apple-devices-work-in-perfect-harmony.html Random or anonymous chat apps no longer welcome on the App Storehttps://9to5mac.com/2026/02/06/apple-says-random-or-anonymous-chat-apps-no-longer-welcome-on-the-app-store/ Exclusive: US Senators unveil bill to prevent scam ads on social media platformshttps://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-senators-unveil-bill-prevent-scam-ads-social-media-platforms-2026-02-04/ Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon     http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:     http://macvoices.com      Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner     http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:     https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes     Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Unusual Apple and tech topics fill this episode, including CarPlay integration on personal watercraft, highlighting both navigation potential and safety concerns. David Ginsburg, Chuck Joiner, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Jim Rea, Jeff Gamet, Mark Fuccio, and Brian Flanigan-Arthurs examine how Apple Watch and connected devices can aid criminal investigations, and review features that create seamless interaction across Apple devices. The conversation also explores Apple's removal of anonymous chat apps and a proposed U.S. bill targeting scam ads on social platforms.    MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. MacVoices is supported by Hello Fresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/macvoice10fm to gett 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife (a $144.99 value) on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan.  Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 Overview of topics: CarPlay, Apple ecosystem, chat apps, scam ads 01:17 CarPlay integration on personal watercraft 04:56 Wearables and smart devices aiding investigations 08:24 Apple device harmony and ecosystem features 13:27 Apple's removal of anonymous chat apps 22:44 Proposed legislation targeting scam ads on social media Links: Sea-Doo thinks you want CarPlay on a jet ski https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/02/04/sea-doo-thinks-you-want-carplay-on-a-jet-ski Apple Watch data pins down abduction time of NBC News anchor's mother https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/02/04/apple-watch-data-pins-down-abduction-time-of-nbc-news-anchors-mother 15 features to make your Apple devices work in perfect harmony https://www.macworld.com/article/3000916/15-features-to-make-your-apple-devices-work-in-perfect-harmony.html Random or anonymous chat apps no longer welcome on the App Store https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/06/apple-says-random-or-anonymous-chat-apps-no-longer-welcome-on-the-app-store/ Exclusive: US Senators unveil bill to prevent scam ads on social media platforms https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-senators-unveil-bill-prevent-scam-ads-social-media-platforms-2026-02-04/ Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

If taxes are your biggest lifetime expense, why leave them to a once-a-year scramble? We zoom out and redesign how you plan, using strategies that compound savings over decades while improving cash flow and control today. With Ashley Sowers back in the studio, we explore how a wealth team sees the full picture—your goals, assets, timelines, and family dynamics—and turns today's tax incentives into clear, defensible moves that simplify your life.We reframe the goal: stop chasing zero tax and start paying a fair, predictable rate when it buys freedom. Ashley explains why extended individual brackets and a high standard deduction keep “taxes on sale,” how the enhanced senior deduction affects planning after 65, and when Roth conversions act like tax insurance. We then dig into practical wins: a 75-point tax checklist, tax diversification across taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free buckets, beneficiary design to reduce the 10-year inherited IRA squeeze, and charitable tools like donor-advised funds and charitable remainder trusts.The throughline is simplicity with intention—gaining options for retirement, volatility, and legacy while reducing lifetime taxes.About our guest:Ashley Sowers, Partner & Wealth Advisor at Carson Wealth Hagerstown19833 Leitersburg Pike Suite 1Hagerstown MD 21742301-739-8505www.carsonwealth.comConverting from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event.Generally, a donor advised fund is a separately identified fund or account that is maintained and operated by a section 501(c)(3) organization, which is called a sponsoring organization. Each account is composed of contributions made by individual donors. Once the donor makes the contribution, the organization has legal control over it. However, the donor, or the donor's representative, retains advisory privileges with respect to the distribution of funds and the investment of assets in the account. Donors take a tax deduction for all contributions at the time they are made, even though the money may not be dispersed to a charity until much later.Investment minimums and restrictions apply. The minimum investment amount for AQR Flex 145/45 is $1 million which must be in a taxable portfolio with assets that can be margined (including cash and cash equivalents, stocks, ETFs, equity mutual funds). The minimum investment amount for AQR Flex 250/150 is $3 million which must be in a taxable portfolio with assets that can be margined (including cash and cash equivalents, stocks, ETFs, equity mutual funds). A separate portfolio margin agreement is required.Hear Past episodes of the Way2Wealth Podcast!https://theway2wealth.com Learn more about our Host, Scott Ford, Managing Director, Partner & Wealth Advisorhttps://www.carsonwealth.com/team-members/scott-ford/ Investment advisory services offered through CWM LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisor. Carson Partners, a division of CWM LLC, is a nationwide partnership of advisors. The opinions voiced in the Way to Wealth with Scott Ford are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for an individual. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. To determine what may be appropriate for you, consult with your attorney, accountant, financial or tax advisor prior to investing. Guests on Way to Wealth are not affiliated with CWM, LLC. Legado Family is not affiliated with CWM LLC. Carson Wealth 19833 Leitersburg Pike, Suite 1, Hagerstown, Maryland, 21742.

When your corporate job feels "secure" until it suddenly isn't, real estate can become the Plan B that turns into your best move…  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, DoorGrow founder Jason Hull sits down with John Casmon (multifamily syndicator, host of Multifamily Insights, and co-creator of the Midwest Real Estate Networking Summit) to break down how corporate professionals can transition into multifamily investing without becoming a stressed-out landlord. They dive into how John went from corporate bankruptcies to building a multifamily portfolio, what passive investors actually need to know before putting money into a deal, and why trust + clear expectations matter just as much as the numbers.  Jason and John also unpack what this means for property managers: how to align with investor goals, why the best operators project calm control (even in chaos), where syndicators hang out, and how PMs can position themselves to win more multifamily doors.    You'll Learn (00:00) Transforming Property Management: An Introduction  (00:59) John Casmon's Entrepreneurial Journey  (02:56) Transitioning to Multifamily Investing  (04:33) Understanding Investor Types and Property Management  (05:48) The Role of Property Managers  (07:49) Investor Control vs. Trust in Management  (09:33) Challenges in Property Management  (11:17) Aligning Goals with Property Managers  (14:19) The Real Product of Property Management  (17:14) Managing Investor Expectations  (19:50) Syndication: A New Avenue for Property Managers  (23:44) Legal Considerations in Syndication  (26:41) Calmness in Chaos: The Key to Success  (31:40) Partnering with Syndications  (33:54 The Role of Property Management in Syndication  (38:29) Finding Syndicators and Building Relationships  (42:24) Understanding Passive Investment in Syndication  (47:45) Identifying Your Investment Goals  (51:54) Assessing Risk in Real Estate Investments  (55:15) Choosing the Right Market for Investment  (01:00:12) The Three C's of Raising Capital Quotables "The first C is confidence. Confidence comes from preparation." "The investment itself, we got to go out there and execute. But that investor psyche is a completely different game."  "It is not your job to hope. Your job is to analyze the information in front of you and make an informed decision." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:01) All right, five, four, three, two, one. All right, I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. And for over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses.   We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now let's get into the show. So my guest today, I'm hanging out here with John Casman, a multifamily syndicator, host of the multifamily insights podcast and the co-creator of the Midwest real estate networking summit. And in today's episode, John's going to break down how corporate professionals can transition.   into multifamily investing, how to find the best markets, how to raise capital effectively, and what separates successful operators from everyone else. John, welcome to the DoorGrowth Show.   John Casmon (01:10) Yeah, Jason, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Love the intro, your intro, not my intro, ⁓ but excited to be here and share as much as we can on our journey to help all of your listeners reach their goals.   Jason Hull (01:22) Cool. So John, ⁓ it's great to have you. I would love for people to hear about your entrepreneurial journey. How did you get to where you are now? And then we can get into your business.   John Casmon (01:34) Well, the short answer is bankruptcy, right? I worked for a couple of different companies that went through bankruptcy and that really made me consider my other options. You know, I was at General Motors back in 2007, 2008, 2009 when we went through bankruptcy and I was there and I watched what that did to a lot of my peers. I one day in particular when we were going to have a lot of layoffs, I went to work as late as I could. But when I got there, I had a red message, a little red dial on your phone.   for anybody who's worked in corporate and remember voicemails. So I had a red dot on my phone, picked it up, pushed the play button and my heart skipped a beat because I thought maybe I was getting to the can, right? And it was actually a colleague of mine who sat kind of kitty corner in front of me and he had been let go. He, you know, was diabetic. He didn't know I was going to pay for his medication. He just was venting in his voicemail. And I just remember feeling empathy for him, but also   a sense of I just never wanted to be in that situation. So it made me really start to think about Plan B. Eventually I moved to Chicago, realized real estate was going to be that path and learned everything I could about investing. So it kind of took me down that pathway to say, you know what, I need a Plan B because no matter what you do, when you work in corporate America, you do not control your future. You know, there's politics, there's policy, there's a lot of different things involved that you do not control.   And sometimes it does just come down to someone not liking you for whatever reason, or they think you're a threat. And I didn't want to spend the rest of my career navigating those issues. So I figured I had to take more into my own hands.   Jason Hull (03:16) got it. And so you start taking things in your own hands and what was the result?   John Casmon (03:20) Yes. So we landed on multifamily investing, started with small multifamily. My first investment was a two unit building. We house hacked it, which is a common popular phrase now. But back then it wasn't quite as common. But we lived upstairs. We rented out the first floor unit and it worked great. You know, it worked so great that we went to refinance and we had created enough equity in that first investment to pull out a six figure line of credit and go out and buy another property. So.   Jason Hull (03:45) Nice.   John Casmon (03:47) That really got the ball rolling. bought a three unit building, we bought an eight unit building, and at this time I'm still working in advertising, still working in corporate America, and I enjoyed what I was doing, and I just had my second child, but the agency I was working for also went through bankruptcy right at this time. We had expanded, we were growing, and we had kind of combined with a few other agencies and kind of became this little conglomerate, and it just eroded just as quickly as it grew.   I remember again, just sitting there and I've got some real estate. I've got a little bit of cashflow, but not enough to pay all my bills. New baby. And I just realized this real estate thing is working, but the exact strategy I'm employing doesn't allow me to insulate myself from these economic changes and shifts. So I had to change my strategy and that led me to syndication. Since then, we've acquired over $150 million worth of apartments.   We've partnered with busy professionals to buy these properties and give them some passive income. And that's what we've been doing ever since.   Jason Hull (04:50) Got it. So your area of genius really is helping these people that were similar to you, they're in the corporate environment transition into being an investor in real estate.   John Casmon (05:01) Yeah, exactly. And I would say too, it doesn't have to be you're going to quit your job and do this full time. And in fact, most people don't, you know, but most people do want a little bit more control over their life. You want a little bit more flexibility. You want to earn and start building up, you know, your net worth. You want to have a little bit more liquidity. You have to look at your investments to say, what should you be doing? I think most people know that their 401k, their, you know, company issued life insurance.   probably not enough to really get you on the fast track to retirement. So what else could you do? Certainly you can invest in the stock market. Lots of folks do that. But real estate is a proven vehicle. The challenge is, I don't know anyone who really wants to be a landlord, right? ⁓ Certainly you want the benefits of real estate investing, but very few of us want to get those 2 a.m. phone calls. So the shortcut there is, ⁓ hire a property manager. Great solution. But now you have to be able to manage   property managers, right, which is this whole other business. And if you don't have enough scale, then it's hard to get that person really focused on your business. So we offer an alternative, right? You get all the benefits of real estate investing, all the ownership perks without any of the headaches of being the landlord yourself. So it really is a great marriage of being in real estate without having to do the heavy lifting yourself.   Jason Hull (06:15) Okay.   Okay, so ⁓ the target audience of this show are property managers. So if they're not gonna use property managers, then what's the alternative? How does this work?   John Casmon (06:29) Well,   first of all, what we do is not always for that individual. So I think that's the key, right? You've got to understand who you are from a psychological standpoint. So when it comes to investors, there's two types of investors. One wants control, right? They're not willing to be passive. And some people think they want to be passive until they're in a passive situation and then they're calling and they want to know why you did this and why you did that and how come you did do that. That's not a passive investor. And that's fun.   Jason Hull (06:45) Yeah.   Yeah, they're anxious. Yeah. Yeah.   John Casmon (06:58) And   if that's you, you should be active, right? And you should work with a property manager, but you also want to work with the property manager who is going to be right for you, right? Because sometimes that is not how they operate. So you want to understand that. And that's a process to understand who you are as an investor, what kind of investment strategy fits you and what's going to be right there. When it comes to property managers, though, I think there are a couple of things. And as a matter of fact, we just left out of meeting with   property management company yesterday. They have 2000 units. We talked about some other services that we offer. And one of things that stood out to me was just understanding some of the challenges that property managers face. And one of them is property managers are really in a position to think like everyone. They're supposed to think like an investor. They're supposed to understand maintenance and kind of the construction arm enough to understand what needs to happen at a property. But they are really little CEOs, right? Because for   Our stuff, the large apartment stuff, those are typically million dollar annual revenue businesses. And this person is in charge of that asset of that business. They are making the day to day decisions. They are the face for the residents, aka the customers of that business. They are the face and their experience with that individual is how they view that business. So it really is an important role. And if you're working with property managers, it's really important to understand how to find the right people.   to connect with them and have them represent your business, your brand, company in the right light.   Jason Hull (08:30) So now you left an open loop that I want to close. So you said there's two types of investors, those that want control and maybe should go find a property manager, you said. And then what's the other type?   John Casmon (08:34) Yeah.   The other type is those who don't want control and they trust someone else to handle that. And for them, there are a couple of different ways of investing. One is investing passively with a group like ours. The other is turnkey investing where again, you hire a property manager, but you really entrust them to manage the property. The only thing I would say for either one of those groups, myself included, is you want to trust but verify. Okay. You've got to do a lot of your due diligence upfront. You want to understand how they operate. You want to talk to   some of their other clients, some of their other investors, because you need to get a really good sense of what to expect. And a lot of people are great at selling themselves upfront, right? I can tell you everything you want to hear upfront. You want to know what is it like once you sign the paperwork? How often are we going to talk? How frequently am I going to get updates? And at what point am I able to weigh in and make decisions? Because if, if you are someone who wants to be more active or be heard, or you've got thoughts and opinions,   Jason Hull (09:18) yeah.   John Casmon (09:35) You want to make sure you have a voice in your investment. Otherwise you may get really disappointed or you may bring on someone who has a different perspective of what that relationship looks like and that never is going to work out.   Jason Hull (09:47) Yeah, there's a big challenge in the industry and that's that most property management companies suck. so most investors that have dealt with property management to some degree are they have some scar tissue, they've been burned a little bit. They've a lot of property managers that started their businesses that come to me for help to grow their business. They started because they were investor and they couldn't find anyone else to manage the property good enough. And that's why they started their business, but it can be a difficult business to run. so none of them start their business saying, I want to suck.   But that's kind of the default unless they get some really good support or figure some things out through a lot of trial and error. And so that's where DoorGrow comes in. We help them with that. But one of the things I coach my clients on a lot is that they need to shift into being daddy over these rental properties. They need to like tell the owner, hey, you need to trust me. And they need to be able to have a really effective business so that they can lean into that trust.   because a lot of people are anxious. They'll come to them with concerns, but generally if a property manager is good, they're much better at this investing stuff than most investors. And they're much better at coordinating maintenance. They're much better at handling leasing. And so when an owner tries to micromanage a property manager, it kind of doesn't make sense to hire somebody to manage your asset just so you can manage them to do the job. And so I think the secret is finding a really good property manager that you can   let go of control because you can trust them. And but yes, you need to verify that they can do the job that you need them to do. And so a good property manager will take ownership of it and they'll take control and they will, they'll display a lot of certainty and confidence in how they communicate and they won't allow you to micromanage them is what I've seen. So.   John Casmon (11:37) Yeah, Jason, and I'll add to it. There's a two way street there. And I think it's easy for people to say, ⁓ most property managers suck or they're not good or whatever. And listen, there's certainly a lot of challenges there. A lot of folks who are not living up to par to the standards. But I will go back to this. We ask property managers to do the work of generally like a CEO. Right. I mean, again, they're managing million dollar businesses in many cases, yet they don't have that training. They don't have that experience. They don't have the ability to navigate.   all of these various things. So part of what owners and investors need to also understand is that you play the role of asset manager. And that means giving clear direction of what success looks like so that that property manager has a framework to make decisions. It's not to micromanage those decisions, but to help them understand how their decisions impact the greater good. And part of that is like, again, just sitting down with annual goals. What are revenue goals? What are our goals on?   Occupancy, what are our goals on in a lot? And this may seem simple, but I promise you a lot of folks don't do this. And if you don't do that, then that property manager is going to default to, for instance, I'll give you a great example. I've got a property manager. She's awesome rock star. But she always gets nervous when occupancy is not at like 96 or 97 percent of this property. So she is, you she starts apologizing profusely and all I did this or done that and like.   Jason Hull (12:58) Yeah.   John Casmon (13:04) Occupancy is one of our KPIs for sure. It's important, but that is not the KPI. I am focused on my net operating income. And if we're going to push rents, the impact of that is you're going to have higher vacancy and she is not comfortable with that. And that's probably because she's used to working with owners who want that thing fully rented and they are comfortable having 100 % occupancy.   Jason Hull (13:13) Yeah.   Hmm.   Yeah.   John Casmon (13:33) if they're leaving 50 bucks, 75 bucks, whatever it is of rent on the table. And that's the part where you've got to really align with your vision versus their vision, because what they have in the back of their mind may not completely align with what you have. Or they have residents in their face who are coming into the office. They want something fixed. They want it done quickly. They want it done right. They want it done yesterday.   Jason Hull (13:49) Right.   .   John Casmon (13:59) So they've got that pressure of this person in their face. So they may go out there and spend the money or authorize the money to get spent. And maybe they're not picking the most cost effective measure. So you have that. And I'll give you one third one. A lot of times when you run into the flip side of that is maybe occupancy is low. They say, hey, we need to increase our marketing spend, right? We got to increase our marketing budget. know, ox is down to 88 or 90%. We got to spend more money. And we're not necessarily.   really zeroing in on what the specific issue or challenge is at that property. So for an owner, your job as an asset manager is to partner with them and to help them see what the options are, help them work through with some of those challenges and solutions are and partner with them to find success. It's not to micromanage them and tell them what to do, but it's really to understand the situation better and give them that perspective.   Jason Hull (14:49) Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. think, you know, one of the things I've seen is that I've noticed a lot of property managers, they make the mistake of thinking that the goal or the product that people want to buy from them is property management. But investors don't wake up in the morning and go, man, I'm so excited to get property management today. The thing that they want. And so the way I describe it to them as they say, property management is like the flight to Hawaii. It's not Hawaii.   and you're trying to sell the flight. That's not the exciting part. You need to figure out what the investor wants, what their goal is. Where do they want to go? What's Hawaii for them, right? What's paradise? And then how do we optimize for that? And how do we help them create a path for that? Because the actual product that a property manager is selling is not what they do. It's not property management. The actual product is them. It's them and their values and their belief system and how they create trust and the team they build and the system and mechanism they build around them.   That's the actual product the property manager is selling. so a lot of property managers make that mistake. They sit there and talk to you about maintenance coordination and leasing and inspections. And meanwhile, you're just wondering as an investor, can I even trust this person? Like do our values align? Yeah. So I don't know what your thoughts are on that, but.   John Casmon (16:11) I think you're spot on, right? Because, I mean, ultimately, as an investor, you are only as good as the team you can build. And that property manager is in charge of the day-to-day aspects of the business. especially when you, you know, I've heard horror stories of folks who have done like turnkey investing, right? Where the property manager, someone owns it, they buy it, they fix it up, and then they rent it back to...   an investor. And I've heard horror stories where that property was not being well managed. And that's the fear. If you're not in that marketing, you can't come and see it. So if you got an out of town investor, you really are trusting that property manager. So that is the most important thing, right? Everything else are tactical, daily situational things that can change. But it comes down to do I have the right people, people that I can trust, people who are going to make the right decision based on the information they have.   because they may not know what I know or maybe something shifted and changed where they would have made a different decision. We can't, you know, ache on that. It really comes down to are they doing their best? Are they making good decisions? If they're not making good decisions, is it because they didn't have the correct information, which again, could fall back on you as the investor to say, hey, are they aware of what your goals are? Are they aware of maybe this situation, these tools, these resources, whatever it is? And that's on you to sit and collaborate.   But trust is absolutely paramount because at end of the day, the thing that I think most of us are concerned with is who we partner with. And there's a great book I'm reading right now. And it gets into decision making and the fear of decision making for most of us and why deals stall. Why didn't you hire somebody? Why didn't you, you know, go with the vendor or go with the contractor or with the company? And the biggest thing is we are scared of making the wrong choice. All of us in decision and no action.   Jason Hull (17:43) Absolutely.   John Casmon (18:04) is better than the wrong action for many people because they once they take action. Well, now they're blaming themselves because you didn't pick the right person. Why did you hire that guy? You should have like now this starts to go on in their head versus doing nothing. Well, at least it's you know, it's not going to get worse, you know, it will in lot of cases get worse. So for a lot of people, that is the scariest thing. So if you can take that fear off the table as far as being the right person or being someone who is trustworthy.   Jason Hull (18:07) Right, yeah.   John Casmon (18:32) everything else gets easier. So if you can do that, that's, you know, the best thing you can do as an investor or as a property manager.   Jason Hull (18:38) Yeah, I agree. think one of things that I talk about a lot is that clarity has to come before action because if you don't have clarity and you start taking a bunch of action, doing stuff, every action you take is a little bit wrong. Sometimes it's a lot wrong. so, yeah, we need to get that clarity first before we start ⁓ making moves. And you talked about, I love the example of your property manager that is trying to   optimize maybe for the wrong thing. They're like, want to optimize to the, making sure their vacancy is super low. But that might not be the goal. That's not the primary goal. The goal is money, you know, and there's a really good book is by Elihu Goldratt. It's a good book for operations people, but it's called The Goal. And spoiler alert, the guy's trying to figure out the goal through this whole book, the story and it's money. That's the secret. The goal is the of the business, should be making making money.   And what happens in this book is that people are over optimizing individual pieces in this flow at this warehouse. And it's actually not helping to make money. It's causing more constraint. And so if we over optimize at one stage, it actually creates waste, bloat, inventory, additional work for the next stage. And so sometimes the best thing certain departments can do is slow down and do less in order to get the outcome to be maximized outcome.   And there's some really great examples in that that I think are really powerful. But I think the if you're optimizing for the wrong thing, then you're not making it effective. So you want to make sure you're optimizing for the right thing. Otherwise. ensues. You get mad at somebody, but nobody understood what the goal was. And so I think, yeah, getting a greed upon set of criteria of what what the outcome is and asking the property manager, can you help me achieve this?   And they know, they know if they know what the problem is, usually they can, they know how to help you get whatever goal that you have. And they know whether your goal is probably realistic or not, because they've helped probably a lot of people do this similarly. And so, but yeah, I think it's very important. Make sure you know, where's Hawaii and maybe property management is the vehicle. Now you had mentioned like, I'm really curious about this idea of, you know, maybe creating syndications.   Some property managers are now starting to think, maybe I should create a syndication. What's your criteria for, what's a good syndication and what are some of the, I'd be really curious to get into if some of the property managers listening were wanting to do kind of a little bit of what you do, how they might be able to get started in that. Like what are the beginning steps to make sure they don't make the mistakes you probably already figured out in the beginning?   John Casmon (21:27) Well, I think the first thing is, you really want to get into it? Right. Because for a lot of people, you got to understand it's a different business. Now you're not talking about real estate investing. You're not talking about property management. You're really talking more about, you know, investment management. You're talking about bringing on private investors who are looking for a return. That is communication skills. That's building up a network and a database of   Jason Hull (21:35) Mm-hmm.   Right, returns.   John Casmon (21:54) prospective investors, it's understanding the return projections that they're looking for. And it's really kind of managing the investor expectations, not necessarily the investment. And to give you a great example here, I had a deal where the investment went great, but it was slightly lower than what we initially projected. And I had an investor who was upset.   Jason Hull (22:07) Yeah.   Yeah.   John Casmon (22:23) about that. And we had communicated all throughout the entire process where things sat and he wasn't too upset, but he still made it a point to let me know, hey, well, this is less than what you initially thought. And that's challenging because the market shifts, right? Anybody who's bought properties in 2022 and beyond knows the market has shifted drastically over the last three or four years. So those projections made in a 2021-22 environment   Have a hard time standing up in a 25 26 environment We still make good money on that deals double-digit returns for investors ⁓ But you know there was that that was that feedback I got from one of the investors conversely We just exited deal a couple months ago, and we completely exceeded our return projections You know we delivered on a almost a 2.7 equity multiple Hit all you know mid 20s on the IRR completely unheard of stuff in this environment   And I have one investor call me and say, hey, John, I just checked my account. Is this right? And I'm like, yeah, it's it's right, man. He's like, my gosh, you guys killed it, man. my. Like, this is amazing. And it's great to hear. But again, that is separate from the investment. Right. Happy to manage the investor expectations and concerns. But that was an up and down investment where we had, you know, a moment where we actually had to put some of our general partner capital into the deal to keep it going.   Jason Hull (23:27) Yeah.   Yeah.   John Casmon (23:48) We have floating rate debt. had to refinance out of that. And we had to kind of rush to do that before rates started to go crazy. We had moments where our construction or renovation costs were much higher than we anticipated. So there are a lot of things that we had to navigate. And I think what happens for a lot of operators, a lot of people who get into syndication, they know the real estate and want to do the real estate, but they do not understand the perspective of the investor. And when you don't communicate to investors on a frequent basis and a clear, transparent nature,   Jason Hull (24:19) Yeah. Yeah.   John Casmon (24:19) They fill in the blanks and   the first concern every investor has and they won't say it. Most of time they don't say it, but I promise you they're thinking it after they make that investment. my gosh, did I make a mistake? Am I going to lose money? Is this person going to run off? Is this going to be some sort of fraudulent thing? Is this deal going to fail? These are all that we're wired like that. This is caveman stuff, right? We're wired to protect ourselves.   Jason Hull (24:36) Hmm.   Right.   John Casmon (24:45) And when you make an investment, and by the way, our investments are typically $50,000 and up, right? So these are not small investments. So when you make that investment, people start to second guess that decision. So my job when it comes to this side of the business is to keep them grounded that, hey, you've done your research, you've made an informed decision, you've picked a good partner, we've done this before. ⁓   Jason Hull (24:50) Yeah. Right.   John Casmon (25:13) And it's really to make sure that they feel comfortable with that decision. It has nothing to do with the investment, right? The investment itself, we got to go out there and execute. But that investor psyche is a completely different game. So first thing I would tell any of your property managers when they get into this business is understand, do you actually like people? Do you want to manage investors? Are you comfortable managing people's money? ⁓ And then beyond that, you have to do it the legal way. There are a lot of regulations around accepting capital from other people.   Jason Hull (25:31) you   John Casmon (25:42) So you can do it as a joint venture. The more common way of doing it, the more accepted way of doing this is by doing a formal syndication, which requires you to file SEC documentations. ⁓ know, there's regulation D and regulation A and there's some couple others, but typically it's going to be reg D 506 B or 506 C filing, which basically is the the structure that allows you to offer ⁓ passive investment opportunity or a security to investors. So again, for some people,   It's overwhelming. they're like, nope, never mind. But for some people, they love it. They want to get into it and they can learn more about that process.   Jason Hull (26:19) Got it. Yeah. I think I love your idea that it's more about managing expectations rather than the investments. And I think, I think that's good advice for all the property managers listing. This is something we spend a lot of time coaching clients on because they think their job is to manage properties. But really, if they're not strong in managing expectations and managing the relationship, it's 10 times to 100 times harder to manage the properties.   their operational costs go through the roof because owners are getting anxious. They're asking more questions. They're getting all these interruptions and calls, tenants, owners constantly. And if they had just managed the relationship and expectations and set strong boundaries at the outset, everybody would feel calmer. And I think really for business owners, I think the thing that really stood out to me that I've been focused on, and this is I've done some personal coaching and this is just nervous system regulation.   If you can, and John, seem like you're pretty chill and pretty calm and I'm sure the investor feel safe with you, which is why you've had success. If you are a person that is anxious and you're running around like a chicken with your head cut off, you're going to have, you're going to struggle in leading anybody, especially in relationships to your spouse and like everybody else. so having a calm, regulated nervous system allows your investors.   to entrain to your nervous system and to feel safer and to calm down. And that's not something you can pretend or you can just fake. You have to be that and they can sense and they can feel that it'll come across in your tone and in your body language and how you communicate. But if you can make sure that you're in that space and that you're able to regulate your own system, you're able to stay calm when other people are coming at you.   and other people are angry and other people are emotionally heightened. And you recognize this isn't really you. It's just that's them. And you can maintain that calm. You will be able to create a lot more safety. And that's really what people want to buy. Most people out there, their primary basic need is safety and security. Most people. That's why they aren't entrepreneurs. That's why they don't go start jobs. That's why they aren't like you and me. And if you're a property management business owner listening to this,   Most people are not like you. They want safety and security. That's why they get a property manager. They want peace of mind. And so, and I'm sure investors in a syndication, they also want some peace of mind because this is a big chunk of change.   John Casmon (28:55) They do. And I will say to most of the property managers I come across thrive in chaos. Right. They're used to stuff getting thrown at them. Right. And when you talk to them and get to know them, you learn very quickly. They like it. They do. They like the fact that they don't know what the day is going to bring. It could be a. Yeah, yeah. Could be a tenant coming with some crazy issue. It could be something from it's never boring and they thrive in it. However.   Jason Hull (29:00) Yeah.   Yeah.   They like the variety and unique challenges that property management brings, for sure.   It's never boring.   John Casmon (29:25) What happens then if you if they're going to look to work with investors and particularly raise capital and kind of do their own syndications, they have to understand that while they may thrive in chaos and uncertainty, most other people want organization. You want everything you said right. You want to have the calmness. You are looking for a captain to steer the ship. And for that part of the personality, they're going to have to tap into a different side of it to demonstrate how they handle chaos.   Jason Hull (29:37) Hmm.   Yeah.   Yeah.   John Casmon (29:54) not that they are chaotic. And I think what happens a lot of times when you're working with property managers is that they don't project that level of control. It just feels like they're reacting. So part of it is that, and they're really, really good ones. The ones who make it to that next level who are the regional managers and get those promotions, well, that's what they do. They manage the chaos and they manage up. They do a great job of telling the owners,   Jason Hull (30:06) Yeah.   Mm.   John Casmon (30:23) the leadership, whoever they need to talk to, they're telling them, hey, here's how here's our process. Here's how we're managing the situation. Here's what's going on. Here's what we're into. Hey, we had a water main burst here. Here's we bought. call three companies. We've got three quotes, but it's calm, right? It can be the worst. I'll give you a real example, right? At a fire, one of my properties and I was going to meet a property manager and I just happened to have a meeting with her that day at the property. She called me.   I was literally about to get in the car. She called me and said, Hey, I just want to let you know we've got a fire going on at the property. I'm not sure if you still want to meet. You're happy to come. We already have, you know, the fire department's here. They're they're putting the fire out right now. We already have another company that's coming in. They're going to walk through the damages once this is kind of settled. And I've already talked to the residents. Residents are good. We've got them hotels for the evening. We've checked with insurance. This is covered in your policy. So they're good to go. So you're happy to come down and talk and all of that if you want to.   Or we can let things settle down and maybe we can meet next week. This is a fire, right? This is like a scary situation. She called me.   Jason Hull (31:26) Right. A literal fire. Yeah. And there's plenty of fires   in managing properties. The literal ones.   John Casmon (31:33) Her calmness, she was so calm. Not only was   she calm, she had handled 90 % of it, right? It was the stuff you could handle in the moment. She handled it. So was like, hey, I don't think it makes sense for me to because I'm probably just going to add more anxiety to the situation at this point, right? It seems like you've got it under control. Why don't we let things settle, literally let the dust settle? And then once it's there, I'll come down. We can assess the damages, figure out what else needs to happen, what other next steps need to take place, right?   Jason Hull (31:41) Yeah? huh.   question. Yeah.   John Casmon (32:03) but had it handled like a rock star. Now, a lot of other folks would have saw the flames, called immediately, my God, there's a fire. ⁓ my God, what are we gonna do? So now you freaking out, everyone's freaking out, no one's controlling the situation, right? So now everyone's mind is just spinning and going. it does really take, kind of go back to where we started the conversation, that mindset of someone who was the boss, who was leading.   Jason Hull (32:05) Yeah, I love that.   Yeah. Freaking out. Yeah.   Hmm. Yeah.   John Casmon (32:32) who is going to take charge, even though it's not their property, they're going to take charge. Here's what needs to happen next. Maybe you have an emergency response plan already put in place, but you have these things already scheduled and ready to go. So when they happen, you're not shocked. You're not surprised. You're not asking questions that maybe you should have figured out upfront. And that's what a great property manager does. And if you convey that to owners, you're going to stand out above and beyond your competition because most people cannot convey that level of control, the level of   planning and the level of expertise that it takes to truly and effectively manage properties from the front, being proactive as opposed to just reacting to whatever the issue of the day is.   Jason Hull (33:13) Got it, okay. So ⁓ I'm reading, I just read, well, I didn't just read. I read in the past a really great book called Extreme Ownership. Really good book. Yeah, phenomenal book. ⁓ I'm going through their newer book, which I think is even better, called The Dichotomy of Leadership. leadership is what we're talking about right now, is that that,   John Casmon (33:23) Yeah, I think I got it like right here. It is right there.   Absolutely.   Jason Hull (33:38) creates a huge impact and there's a lot of misunderstandings of what leadership is, like it's control or it's being aggressive or, but yeah, it's really that calm presence of letting people know I've got it. Like we can take care of this. We've got a plan and staying regulated and calm. So I love that. ⁓ have a, so another question I have is how can the property managers listen to this? How could they maybe target or partner   with, if possible, syndications like you, like people that are doing what you're doing. Is there a chance that they could be a resource or do most syndications just in-house and do, they are a property management business?   John Casmon (34:19) No, no, most ⁓ most that I know work with third party manager companies. So I would say first and foremost, if you and syndications, I mean, it sounds like a big, huge, fancy word. But I mean, honestly, anytime you work with passive investors is technically a syndication. So it really comes down to figuring out who is looking for third party management and whether or not it's technically a syndication or not is really irrelevant. You want someone who is going to be managing or owning the property.   Jason Hull (34:24) Okay.   Yeah.   John Casmon (34:49) They want third party, but you have to understand their plan, going back to understanding the goals, right? Most syndications are looking to sell in a three to seven year timeframe, typically five to seven years. Most buy and hold owners have not decided or have not identified their exit strategy. So that's probably the biggest difference is when you have, let's just call it an individual investor or maybe it's a   Jason Hull (35:01) Okay.   Right.   John Casmon (35:17) a family or whatever that's buying and they want a third party manager, they don't know the exit. They haven't predetermined that they're going to sell in five years. So they are buying and holding it. And that goes back to the the I think the separation of understanding the objective, because for that person, having a full property is great. It means they're maximizing the revenue potential today. When you are syndicating.   most syndicators already assume 5 % vacancy. That's that's in everyone's underwriting. So you being at 100, they won't even give you credit banks don't even give you credit for it. So all of these things are already assumed. So for us to be above that is actually a miss, because it means we're not being as aggressive on the rent. So just understanding the mindset of a syndicator, which is they are looking to sell typically they're looking to double their money over a five or six year period. So how can you create value?   And that's something most property managers don't fully understand. But I would sit and I would talk to that syndicator. And if you want to be a syndicator or partners, not just be a third party vendor, but you actually want a partner, which we have seen a lot of folks look to do. You want to figure out how you can bring value to the table, because now we are aligning your interest with that syndicators interest. And now you've got a great partnership.   because every syndicator is going to need property management and they're going to need construction management to drive value. So if they can bring those people in as partners, that's a great opportunity for you. And if you're a property manager, you may have phenomenal relationships. You may already have contractor or the vendor partners that you trust in that marketplace. And if you could then take that and get a slice of the equity, that makes you very valuable for both sides.   Jason Hull (37:08) Do syndications, do they also need investors in capital or do most of them have that, are they really good at that? Okay.   John Casmon (37:15) Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.   mean, I mean, syndication at its core really just comes down to the need of capital. If someone had the capital themselves, they would probably just buy it directly and not go through the process of syndication. Because the syndication is literally just raising the money from passive investors. And in that scenario, again, being able to manage that, manage the communication, ⁓ that's really what a syndication truly is.   Jason Hull (37:42) So a really good property management partner could bring property management, some of the construction elements and investors and capital to the table. So it could be a nice little.   John Casmon (37:51) That would be amazing.   I'll be honest, man. That's because I don't want your listeners sitting here like, oh, I don't have one of those. I don't know if I've ever met one that had all of those. If you do have all of them, yes, you should consider syndicating yourself because you got all the pieces to the puzzle. Typically, what happens is a property manager has the property managers. I'll give you a great example. I got a 54 unit down in North Carolina. OK, so I came in as a key principal. I've got a.   Jason Hull (38:03) Okay.   Okay.   John Casmon (38:20) to my coaching clients. It's his property that he found. He asked me to come help him with the loan, which I did. One of the members, one of the partners is the property manager. So that's kind of their role to the table is they're managing the property. That's what they kind of came on. They had a couple of relationships, but their main role is the asset and property management side of it. So that's a great way to come to the table. But. Just like anything else in business.   Jason Hull (38:33) Mm-hmm.   John Casmon (38:49) It's very hard to find someone who checks every single box. I mean, that's like finding the marketer who's a CMO, who's also the CFO, who's also the COO, who's also the chief of human resource. very like no one, people don't really have like top notch excellent skills at every single one of those, right? Like you might be great at business, great at sales, great at marketing. You're probably terrible at finance, right? Like you just, you just forget to do your expense report type person, right? So it's hard to find someone who's   checks all those boxes. And I think typically when comes to property management, you want someone who's great with people, can resolve issues, but also has to be somewhat, you know, sufficient when it comes to the numbers, tracking all the data, tracking all the, you know, the rent roll, the leases, the income and expense statements, things like that. So usually they're not going to do every single box. But again, if you can find someone or that's where partnerships make sense.   Jason Hull (39:24) Mm-hmm.   John Casmon (39:43) If you've got that awesome. And again, I'm not saying a company doesn't have that. I'm just saying a single individual doesn't, which is why it's great to partner. If you can find someone who maybe brings a set of skills that you don't have, whether they're joining you in your property management business or they're partnering up where you're bringing your property management skills to the table with their investing or their networking skills, that makes for a good partnership.   Jason Hull (39:43) Mm-hmm.   Yeah, I got it. Well, we've got several clients, you know, all over the U S that are really good at property management. They're really good at handling the maintenance stuff and they obviously have a pool of investors as clients and, and, know, and they know that they can't do everything. So we coach them in making sure that they would do time studies. They figure out which, what their purpose is. We start to align them towards more fulfillment, more freedom, more contribution and more support in their business.   John Casmon (40:32) Yeah.   Jason Hull (40:38) And they start to build the right team. So they're getting operators, they're getting BDMs, they're getting the things they're not like strong in. And so we just make healthier businesses. So for those of maybe my clients listening that have healthy property management companies. And, but they don't want to do syndication. They're just like, man, that's a whole nother business. If I stay in my lane, I can grow that faster. How do they find syndicates? Like, how do they find people like you? Cause you've got a lot of properties connected to you.   and they would probably love to chat with somebody like you. Where do you syndicate people hang out? What's the title? Who runs a syndicate? What are they called? Do they have a specific title?   John Casmon (41:15) You   Yeah.   Yeah, great. Great question. Multifamily syndicator is is kind of the name just syndicator. We're all over. So I've got a podcast called Multifamily Insights. I interview like minded individuals. I've been doing that for a long time. We've done our seven hundred and seventy plus episode. So lots of people, lots of syndicators there. Definitely conferences. So if you look up any multifamily conference in your city.   Jason Hull (41:25) Okay.   Nice.   Okay.   John Casmon (41:46) meetups, lot of meetups in different cities as well. Those are great places to find syndicators. I think the biggest thing though is this.   Figure out who your avatar is. Because while we're talking about syndicators, ultimately, if you want to scale your property management business, I presume you're trying to scale with folks who are looking for third party management and the best option for that. OK, and let me back up. had one of the guests out of a podcast some years back, ⁓ Ashley Wilson. Love Ashley. As you said, something really changed when I thought about the business.   And she said the best way to find any vendor, any vendor is to figure out who relies on that vendor next and ask them for referral. So if you think about it, if you want a great drywall person, ask a painter. A painter is going to know who's great at drywall because they're going to know who makes their job easy and they can come in and just start painting versus a drywall guy who maybe doesn't, you know, you know.   Jason Hull (42:38) I like it.   John Casmon (42:55) mud the drywall properly or doesn't sand it down. So they got to do all this extra work before they start their process. Right. So a painter is going to know a great drywall guy. And in this case, it's really hard on ⁓ the property manager because you guys are the ones who do the work. But if you are looking for syndicators, OK, well syndicators, person who buys the deal. Well, who sells the deal? A broker. Find brokers. Go to a broker, commercial multifamily broker and ask them, hey,   Jason Hull (43:01) I love this.   Yeah.   John Casmon (43:25) Do you know some groups or you have properties that you're going to list? Here are the kind of deals we want to do now on the flip side of that. You got to be good at your job, right? You got to sell yourself and share what you do. So if you've got a great track record, a great resume, showcase that, bring that broker through and let them know, hey, we're looking to scale our property management business here. Here are the kind of assets that we want to manage. If you come across any of these that you're going to list, would you mind keeping our main name out there or referring us or giving us introductions to any of those buyers?   Jason Hull (43:53) Yeah.   John Casmon (43:54) so that we can throw our hat in the running to manage these properties. That's a phenomenal way to do that. And it allows you to shine and expand your relationships in your core networks and in your core markets.   Jason Hull (44:06) Brilliant. think I love the, I love Ashley's idea that you shared, you know, the drywall. Yeah. The painters, like they don't want to be painting over a crappy drywall. They're like, this is a mess. Like this doesn't even look good in my job. Now I'm going to look bad. Yeah. So the brokers know who maybe those best syndicators are. And so they could just go to the brokers and say, Hey, who's, who's doing deals like this? Who who's got things going on? Like who could you connect me with?   And I avoid maybe.   John Casmon (44:36) And on top of that, keep in mind, too, like what   are the times when? Yeah, but think about to like when is a property hiring or bringing on a new property manager? Right. So it's either a current owners firing the existing property manager or the property is being sold. Right. So, I mean, if you can get in during that transition phase, that's going to help you tremendously. And if even if they're firing their existing property manager, you can think through, OK, how do I?   Jason Hull (44:51) Yeah. Yeah.   John Casmon (45:06) work myself and get my name out there. And a lot of times, again, you're going to ask, right? You're going to ask other investors. If I were going through that process, I'm going to call my buddies into space, right? And say, hey, man, having a hard time, my current PM is not working out or we're not hitting our objectives, looking at some other options. Do you have any experience with these guys? What do you know about these guys? Or do you have anybody you could recommend? It's word of mouth, right? So that's what's going to start happening as well. So you kind of have to get out there and network and let folks know who you are, what you do. But you want to be someone who   people can say, yeah, these guys are amazing. You know, they, they only had an eight unit, but they crushed my eight unit for me. I'm sure they kill your 25 unit or your 50 unit. And you've got to start building that rapport and building your reputation in your market.   Jason Hull (45:44) Yeah.   Nice. This is good advice, my friend. So, cool. For those that maybe are investors listening to this show, ⁓ I'd love to hear a little bit about what you do, how you do run your syndication, and how they can ⁓ make things more passive, if that's what they're looking   John Casmon (46:08) Yeah, man. So there are lots of different ways to get in. If you are looking to be more passive, ⁓ high level, here's how it works. OK, so first and foremost, me and my team would go out. We look for the deals. We focus on a really tight radius. So we're in Cincinnati. We like Cincinnati, Columbus, Louisville, Kentucky. Really a two hour radius of the Cincinnati market is where we focus. And right now we actually think there's more opportunities locally. So we're really honed in on Cincinnati right now. But we focus on that once we find a deal.   We reach out to folks in our network. So we have folks in our investor list. ⁓ Once they're on our list, we kind of have a quick vetting process and then we can share opportunities with them. Once they see that opportunity, they get a chance to review it. We like to have a webinar where we answer any questions about the deal. I think for new investors, it's a great way to learn because we have a lot of experienced investors who ask very intelligent, thoughtful questions that   Many first time investors probably would not even think of. And that's a great way to learn, right? And ultimately when it comes to this space, it's really about education. know, it's educating yourself, understanding how you think about risk, how you mitigate risk in your investment choices. And those webinars are a great chance for you to learn about that the first time. Once you've done that, you can go ahead and fill out our official paperwork with our SEC documents.   Jason Hull (47:30) Mm-hmm.   John Casmon (47:30) And then   once you're through there, you can make the investment. But the first thing is just to get on our list, you can have access to the deals. And before you do that, we've actually put together a guide that can help people because I found that when I have these calls, people don't ask great questions. Sometimes they do. But I want to make sure that you are informed and well educated because this is a big investment. You know, this is not a 599 thing. And if it doesn't work out, OK, well, I just wasted six bucks. No.   Jason Hull (47:54) .   John Casmon (47:59) We're asking you to make a pretty large investment, whether it's with us or with others. If that's what you're looking to do, I want to make sure you're well informed. So we put together a guide. It's seven questions you must ask before investing in apartments. You can get that on our website. It's casmancapital.com slash seven questions, but it gets into questions around the market itself, the operating team, what you should be looking for, the deal. What is the story of this property? What's the business plan? And it helps you identify different levels of risk because the reality is   Anything can work, but you want to mitigate risk as much as possible, particularly when you're a passive investor, because you are basically saying, I'm trusting these people to find the right deal and execute. And you want to make sure that you are finding and identifying the right individuals who have a proven track record doing the thing that they are asking to do. When I hear about people losing money in real estate. At least 50, if not 70 % of the time.   Jason Hull (48:35) Hmm.   John Casmon (48:57) It is someone doing something for the first time. It is the first time in the market, first time doing this kind of deal, first time doing this kind of business plan. And. I can't tell you how frustrating it is because it's a big red flag, and it's not to say they can't do it and can't have success. But if it's your first time, I want to see how you're mitigating that right. You want to partner with someone who does have the experience you want. Like there are lot of things that you can do to put the odds in your favor. And when you're a passive investor.   Jason Hull (48:59) Mm, yeah.   John Casmon (49:26) It is not your job to hope. Your job is to analyze the information in front of you and make an informed decision. So this guide can help you do that.   Jason Hull (49:34) Yeah, love it. I'm going to run a quick word from our sponsor real quick. Our sponsor for this episode is Vendero. And many of you tell me that property management maintenance is probably the least enjoyable part of being a property manager and definitely the most time consuming. But what if you could cut that workload by up to 85 percent? That's exactly what Vendero has achieved. So they leverage cutting edge AI technology to handle nearly all your maintenance tasks from initiating work orders.   Troubleshooting, coordinating with vendors and reporting. This AI doesn't just automate, it becomes your ideal employee. Learning your preferences, executing tasks flawlessly and never needing a day off and never quitting. This frees you up to focus on the critical tasks that really move the needle for your business, whether that's refining operations, expanding your portfolio or even just taking a well-deserved break. Don't let maintenance drag you down. Step up your property management game with Vendero. Visit vendero.ai slash door grow today and make this the last maintenance hire you'll ever need.   All right, so John, this is super helpful. love you've got your list. ⁓ You got your webinar, you've got your guide. I would recommend property managers listening to this. If they're curious about the world of syndication, that they start getting into your stuff and seeing how an expert like you is doing this and maybe even get involved in some of the deals with you or something might be a good idea. And they can kind of get a feel for how this works. And then maybe they'll say, I don't want to do what John does.   And I'll just find people that do, but they'll at least understand how they could partner with people like that. then, or they may decide, you know what? John's clever, but I'm clever too. I might be able to figure out how to do this too. And maybe they'll do it too. And, but I think there's a solid opportunity for property managers that want to be in the multifamily space and do multifamily management to find third party people that are doing these syndication deals. They need good property managers and property managers want more doors and they want to grow.   And if you don't, because your business sucks and it's uncomfortable, then reach out to me. I'll help you out. We'll get you dialed in. But ⁓ John, what else would you say to the investors that are maybe they're familiar with this and they've done some real estate investing and they've worked with some syndications ⁓ and they get on your list to do the webinar. What would you say to them next?   John Casmon (51:56) Yeah, I think the biggest thing is understand what you're looking for. You know, I think one of the biggest challenges for investors is when you can't pull the trigger, it's typically because you haven't figured out what you're solving for. Are you looking for passive income? So you're just looking for a cash flow? Are you looking for long term wealth appreciation? Are you looking for tax benefits and to reduce kind of your tax liability? Do just want to diversify? Maybe you got feel like you have too much in a stock market, just like we put something somewhere else. So.   Figure out what you're actually solving for. Understand your risk tolerance, you know, because every deal is different. In our case, we do value add B class deals. That's a fancy way of just saying we like properties that already making money that are solid, solid tenant based. Think of when I say B class, I'm thinking of all stuff that was built maybe 30 years ago, maybe 40, maybe 20 years ago. Stuff that.   your teachers, your firefighters, your police officers, places where they might rent. So desirable locations, not luxury, not super high end, not, you know, super courts, everything. ⁓ But, you know, places that you would want your kid, your kid was in college, places you would be fine with your kid living, right? So you're thinking about that stuff. That's, you know, I don't say affordable stuff. That's not crazy price. So that's kind of what we focus on.   Jason Hull (53:15) So would   that be like, is that how you find the best markets then?   John Casmon (53:21) That's part of it. That's our strategy. There are different strategies that people utilize. I have found for us that is a sweet spot where we can take those kind of assets, modernize them and create value for potential renters. Some people like to focus only on they call it core plus right where they're buying newer stuff, stuff built five years ago or three years ago. And maybe it was, you know, leased up and they're just going to go in and hold it longer. You'll find other ways to add more money through amenities.   Jason Hull (53:35) Okay.   John Casmon (53:50) So some people do that strategy. Some people like older properties where they're buying more distressed or much older properties and are trying to fully renovate them and bring them up. There are strategies out there, something like new construction, stuff that doesn't exist. They want to build from the ground up. So it really comes down to you. Every investing strategy has a different level of risk. This has nothing to with real estate, right? This is investing in general. you're buying, you know, know, value stocks versus growth stocks versus Internet, it's the same stuff, right?   So you just have to figure out your level of risk. We like value at B-class multifamily deals. Once you understand your level of risk and balance that with your return expectations or projections, that's when you can figure out which investments actually make sense. You know, I have some folks who they like to invest in what we call trophy assets. And...   They may not know that right away, but when you send them a couple of deals and they look at the property like, ⁓ it's okay. They want something. They want something they can brag about. They want to drive you by like, see that building over there? That's me. And if that's fine, if that's what you want, understand what comes with that, right? That's going to be a lower term, right? Because these are, there's not much value to create, right? You've got a brand new property. It's A class, rents are $2,500. There's not a whole lot you can do there. And because of that,   Jason Hull (54:49) Yeah, they don't want to show that off. Look what I'm connecting.   OK, right.   Thank   Yeah.   John Casmon (55:13) There's not as much risk. So you're going to get less return because there's less risk. That's fun. Some people want to maximize their return, right? Hey, I don't need this money. I want to let it ride for 20 years. So they might want to do new construction or they might want to do a deep discount, highly distressed vacant property that needs, you know, $50,000 per unit to renovate it and turn around because the upside is there. So it just depends on that investor and your level of risk. Right. And most of us fall somewhere in the middle.   Jason Hull (55:27) Thank   John Casmon (55:43) which is kind of our strategy. figure out your level of risk tolerance, what you're looking for. And sometimes you don't know until you start looking at a Because you might think you're a cashflow person until I show you what cash flows. And you're like, oh, no, I don't want to be in that de

How AI intersected with the Super Bowl, from ads packed with generative effects to concerns about creative authenticity and actor likeness rights was discussed by David Ginsburg, Chuck Joiner, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Jim Rea, Jeff Gamet, Mark Fuccio, and Brian Flanigan-Arthurs. Also part of the conversation were the ads for AI services themselves. The panel also evaluated Apple's Sports app for real-time score tracking and discuss shifting broadcast models as major sports move behind streaming paywalls, raising questions about accessibility, media fragmentation, and the growing digital divide in sports entertainment.  MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. MacVoices is supported by Hello Fresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/macvoice10fm to gett 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife (a $144.99 value) on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan.  Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 AI angles and sports tech overview04:16 Using Apple Sports app and Dynamic Island tracking08:21 Super Bowl viewing options and streaming access debate18:57 Halftime show production and alternate online broadcasts30:16 AI-heavy Super Bowl commercials and generative media trends32:55 Sustainability, creativity, and risks of AI in advertising Links: Apple Sports Now Supports Golf and Morehttps://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/04/apple-sports-now-supports-golf-and-more/ How Super Bowl streaming stopped being freehttps://www.fastcompany.com/91487813/how-super-bowl-streaming-stopped-being-free Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud.   Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon     http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:     http://macvoices.com      Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner     http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:     https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes     Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

How AI intersected with the Super Bowl, from ads packed with generative effects to concerns about creative authenticity and actor likeness rights was discussed by David Ginsburg, Chuck Joiner, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Jim Rea, Jeff Gamet, Mark Fuccio, and Brian Flanigan-Arthurs. Also part of the conversation were the ads for AI services themselves. The panel also evaluated Apple's Sports app for real-time score tracking and discuss shifting broadcast models as major sports move behind streaming paywalls, raising questions about accessibility, media fragmentation, and the growing digital divide in sports entertainment.  http://traffic.libsyn.com/maclevelten/MV26081.mp3 MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. MacVoices is supported by Hello Fresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/macvoice10fm to gett 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife (a $144.99 value) on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan.  Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 AI angles and sports tech overview 04:16 Using Apple Sports app and Dynamic Island tracking 08:21 Super Bowl viewing options and streaming access debate 18:57 Halftime show production and alternate online broadcasts 30:16 AI-heavy Super Bowl commercials and generative media trends 32:55 Sustainability, creativity, and risks of AI in advertising Links: Apple Sports Now Supports Golf and More https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/04/apple-sports-now-supports-golf-and-more/ How Super Bowl streaming stopped being free https://www.fastcompany.com/91487813/how-super-bowl-streaming-stopped-being-free Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud.   Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Is investing in Google's century bond a good idea? If you don't want to read any further, and just want the basic answer, for investors it's a terrible idea. On the other hand, for companies, universities or even governments, issuing a century bond is a great way to lock in low rates for a hundred years. As I said for investors, it's a terrible idea, here is an example. In 2020, the Austrian government issued a century bond that locked in a yield of 0.85%, which was a great deal for them. But for investors who purchased that bond, it is now trading for 30 cents on the euro. Another example of how things can change is back in 1997, J.C. Penney issued a 100-year bond. Back then no one would have imagined bankruptcy would occur just a little over 20 years later for the company. You may be wondering who would benefit from buying these bonds? Generally, it would be your insurers or pension funds. They both have long-dated liabilities, so long-term bonds give them comfort, knowing what the future cash flows will be. There will also likely be some hedge funds and high-risk investors that will want to trade the bonds as they will have a high amount of fluctuation based on interest rates. In fixed income investing, there is something called duration, which essentially looks at the number of years it takes to recoup a bond's true cost. The longer the duration, the more price volatility for the bond when it comes to interest rate moves. Ultimately, for the average investor I would say to stay away because predicting which way interest rates are heading can be very difficult game and it could destroy your investment returns.   Big expenses are coming for companies that invest in AI We have talked about this in the past couple years and now after the companies spent roughly $500 billion in 2025 it's estimated they will spend another $3 trillion by the end of the decade. As the companies spend more money on data centers, chips and other items for AI, their depreciation expense will rise each year, which will reduce their income. The big tech companies are kind of sneaky currently with depreciation. Many companies like railroads and other companies report depreciation as a standalone operating expense on their income statement. The reason depreciation is important for investors to understand is that eventually equipment becomes obsolete or worn out and must be replaced. But the big tech companies currently don't have to break out depreciation until 2028 after new rule changes take effect. Currently, they include depreciation in the cost of goods sold or sometimes in research and development or general and administrative expenses. This makes it very difficult for investors and analysts to understand the true numbers. The big tech companies defense is they currently include it in the footnotes. However, companies like Microsoft have as many as 15-20 footnotes, which are generally not seen by investors or analysts. Perhaps the big tech companies will continue to hold onto their lofty valuations for now, but at some point, the real earnings will come through, and the stocks could take a major beating. Don't blame the restaurant or the grocery store for the high price of meat I'm sure you've noticed that if you want to go out and have a good steak, you're probably going to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $45-$50, depending on the restaurant and how big the steak is. There's a big shortage of cattle in the United States and the numbers are staggering. In January, there were only 86.2 million cattle and calves, which is down from a peak of more than 130 million in the mid 1970s. The number of people in the United States far surpasses the number of cattle and supply/demand being what it is, it is pushing the price of cattle to higher levels. The 86.2 million heads of cattle may sound like a lot, but when you look at the numbers it is the smallest herd since 1951 and that's when the population in the United States was 157 million. The population now stands around 344 million people, which is an increase of 119%. All things being equal, there should be around 188 million heads of cattle available. There are three main reasons why the price of meat is high and the number of cattle is low. We used to receive about 5% of our beef supply from Mexico, but a parasitic fly larvae called screwworm has destroyed that supply. Another problem is a lack of rain in Texas, which is the largest producer of our beef supply with 12.5 million cows. If ranchers don't get enough rain, they produce smaller herds because the cost of feed increases. You may be thinking there's a lot of cows in California as you drive up 15 and you are right because California is the fourth largest producing state for cows at 5 million, but 1.7 million of those cows are dairy cows. The third reason is simply being a rancher is hard work, and it is generally passed down from generation to generation. Most kids when they're growing up do not dream about working on a ranch in the hot sun in the dirt all day long. Also, with the price of land some ranchers realize they're better off selling the ranch for a big profit than continuing to work the land. Fortunately, many ranchers love what they do and despite the hard work continue to do it generation after generation. If you know any young kids that like riding horses, maybe they should consider going to work on a ranch and save all that college money?   Financial Planning: Do Commission-Free Annuities Make Annuities More Attractive? One of the primary downsides of annuities has always been the layers of fees that drag on returns, along with upfront commissions that create conflicts of interest in how they're recommended. Commission-free annuities attempt to address these concerns by eliminating the embedded commission and often lowering internal product expenses, which in theory should improve transparency and net performance. However, these products are typically sold by fee-based advisors who charge ongoing advisory fees, meaning that while the conflict of interest may be reduced, the cost savings inside the annuity can be offset by the advisor's separate fee. Even with improved pricing structures, the fundamental challenge remains, annuities generally offer lower expected long-term internal rates of return compared to investing directly in diversified market portfolios. While annuities provide guarantees such as downside protection and lifetime income, those guarantees come at a cost that often outweighs their benefit. In many cases, investors can generate greater long-term growth and higher income from a well-diversified portfolio. The returns may not be technically guaranteed, but it can still be done in a conservative and sustainable way.   Companies Discussed: Mattel, Inc. (MAT), DraftKings Inc. (DKNG), Ferrari N.V. (RACE) & Restaurant Brands International Inc. (QSR)

Our guest is Reverend Dr. Masaki Matsubara, who is an eighteenth-generation Zen priest in the Japanese Rinzai tradition. His career is unique and impressive. Following his Zen monastic training in Heirinji Monastery in Japan, he moved to the US in 1999 to study at Cornell University, where he eventually earned a PhD in Asian religions. Since then, he has taught Buddhist studies at prominent institutions, including U.C. Berkeley, Stanford University, Cornell University, Brown University and the University of Tokyo. Also, Rev. Matsubara is the head abbot of Butsumoji Zen Temple in Chiba, Japan Reverend Matsubara joined us in Episode #377 in September 2025 and discussed important ideas underlying Japanese society, such as the true meaning of Zen and the difference between Zen and mindfulness. Now, he is back to talk about food in Zen practice. Generally speaking, in business organizations, the lower level of the hierarchy tends to be in charge of food matters. CEO's would not choose and order lunch items for their employees, for instance. However, in Zen practice, preparing and serving meals is a very important part of training and the cook is called Tenzo. The idea of prioritizing meal preparation, as much as meditation and studying Buddhism, came from the classic book Tenzo Kyokun, written by the Japanese Zen Buddhist master Dogen in 1237. The book is old and sounds aloof from our daily lives, but there are many valuable lessons for living mindfully in our modern lifestyle. In this episode, we will discuss why food is essential in Zen practice, the precious lessons in the book Tenzo Kyokun, how you can practice a mindful approach to food in your daily life, how Japanese vegetarian cuisine Shojin Ryori exemplifies the essence of mindful eating and much, much more!!! The latest information on Reverend Matsubara's meditation sessions is found here on Instagram:@masakimatsubara.zen@the.gallery.nyc@o.d.o_nySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The panel starts out by discussing a major deal for Apple TV and what it could mean for their content ambitions. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Jeff Gamet, Jim Rea, Web Bixby, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Mark Fuccio, and Norbert Frassa debate encryption initiatives, comparing Signal and Messages security, including open source, metadata, and device safety considerations. The session wraps with commentary on the apparent abandonment of about 8K TVs due to cost, lack of content, and limited real-world viewing benefits.  This edition of MacVoices is brought to you by the MacVoices Dispatch, our weekly newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on any and all MacVoices-related information. Subscribe today and don't miss a thing. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 Introduction and show context 12:00 Discussion of Hollywood trends and feel-good films 24:00 Messaging security debate: Signal vs. iMessage 36:00 Rise of decentralized social platforms 48:00 Weekly tech coverage across related shows 54:00 Wrap-up and social media presence Links: Apple TV may have found its Game of Thrones https://www.applemust.com/apple-tv-may-have-found-its-game-of-thrones/ Electronic Frontier Foundation wants tech companies like Apple to ‘Encrypt It Already' https://appleworld.today/2026/01/electronic-frontier-foundation-wants-tech-companies-like-apple-to-encrypt-it-already Everybody Has Something To Hide by Guy Kawasaki https://amzn.to/4atZG7i The TV industry finally concedes that the future may not be in 8K https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/lg-joins-the-rest-of-the-world-accepts-that-people-dont-want-8k-tvs/ Comcast keeps losing customers despite price guarantee and unlimited data https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/comcast-keeps-losing-customers-despite-price-guarantee-and-unlimited-data/ Guests: Web Bixby has been in the insurance business for 40 years and has been an Apple user for longer than that.You can catch up with him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but prefers Bluesky. Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Norbert Frassa is a technology “man about town”. Follow him on Twitter and see what he's up to. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web:      http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

The panel starts out by discussing a major deal for Apple TV and what it could mean for their content ambitions. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Jeff Gamet, Jim Rea, Web Bixby, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Mark Fuccio, and Norbert Frassa debate encryption initiatives, comparing Signal and Messages security, including open source, metadata, and device safety considerations. The session wraps with commentary on the apparent abandonment of about 8K TVs due to cost, lack of content, and limited real-world viewing benefits.  This edition of MacVoices is brought to you by the MacVoices Dispatch, our weekly newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on any and all MacVoices-related information. Subscribe today and don't miss a thing. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 Introduction and show context 12:00 Discussion of Hollywood trends and feel-good films 24:00 Messaging security debate: Signal vs. iMessage 36:00 Rise of decentralized social platforms 48:00 Weekly tech coverage across related shows 54:00 Wrap-up and social media presence Links: Apple TV may have found its Game of Thrones https://www.applemust.com/apple-tv-may-have-found-its-game-of-thrones/ Electronic Frontier Foundation wants tech companies like Apple to 'Encrypt It Already' https://appleworld.today/2026/01/electronic-frontier-foundation-wants-tech-companies-like-apple-to-encrypt-it-already Everybody Has Something To Hide by Guy Kawasaki https://amzn.to/4atZG7i The TV industry finally concedes that the future may not be in 8K https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/lg-joins-the-rest-of-the-world-accepts-that-people-dont-want-8k-tvs/ Comcast keeps losing customers despite price guarantee and unlimited data https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/comcast-keeps-losing-customers-despite-price-guarantee-and-unlimited-data/ Guests: Web Bixby has been in the insurance business for 40 years and has been an Apple user for longer than that.You can catch up with him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but prefers Bluesky. Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Norbert Frassa is a technology "man about town". Follow him on Twitter and see what he's up to. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

In a follow up to our last episode, we explore a simple but important question: "What is gold, really?" We begin by revisiting our broader discussion about understanding what we actually own in our portfolios. Last month we talked about stocks as ownership in real businesses. This month we shift our focus to gold and examine how it differs. We start with the history. Gold did not become valuable because governments declared it so. It became valuable because of its unique characteristics. It is scarce, durable, divisible, and universally recognizable. For thousands of years, these traits made it an effective store of value and a medium of exchange across cultures. Paper currency originally represented claims on physical gold under the gold standard. Over time, most countries moved to fiat currency, which is backed by trust in the issuing government rather than a physical asset. Even after that shift, gold remained part of the financial conversation because it exists outside the political system. It does not rely on promises. It simply exists. We then clarify a key distinction. Gold preserves value, but it does not create value. Unlike stocks, gold does not generate earnings, innovate, or grow. It does not produce income. Its price is largely driven by perception, including inflation expectations, interest rates, confidence in institutions, and fear. We discuss how gold peaked around $850 per ounce in 1980 and then took decades to recover that level. That example highlights that gold can experience very long periods of weak performance. At the same time, gold can also have strong years, especially during times of uncertainty. We explain that gold is best viewed as a tool, not a core growth engine. Because it often has a lower correlation with stocks, a small allocation can help reduce portfolio volatility. In many cases, that allocation may range from 1 to 5 percent. The purpose matters. Are we hedging inflation, extreme uncertainty, or simply seeking confidence? When used thoughtfully, gold can provide diversification and emotional stability during downturns. Every holding in a portfolio should have a purpose. Gold is not a magical solution, but it is not useless either. Understanding what we own and why we own it remains central to long term investment success. Note: Gold is subject to the special risks associated with investing in precious metals, including but not limited to: price may be subject to wide fluctuation; the market is relatively limited; the sources are concentrated in countries that have the potential for instability; and the market is unregulated. You can always email Alex and Ed at info@birchrunfinancial.com or give them a call at 484-395-2190.Or visit them on the web at https://www.birchrunfinancial.com/Alex and Ed's Book: Mastering The Money Mind: https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Money-Mind-Thinking-Personal/dp/1544530536 Any opinions are those of Ed Lambert Alex Cabot, financial advisors, RJFS, and Jon Gay, and not necessarily those of RJFS or Raymond James. The information contained in this report does not purport to be a complete description of the securities, markets, or developments referred to in this material. There is no assurance any of the trends mentioned will continue or forecasts will occur. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but Raymond James does not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. Any information is not a complete summary or statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision and does not constitute a recommendation. The examples throughout this material are for illustrative purposes only. Raymond James does not provide tax or legal services. Please discuss these matters with the appropriate professional. Diversification and asset allocation do not ensure a profit or protect against a loss. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. CDs are insured by the FDIC and offer a fixed rate of return, whereas the return and principal value of investment securities fluctuate with changes in market conditions. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index of 500 widely held stocks that is generally considered representative of the U.S. Stock Market. Keep in mind that individuals cannot invest directly in any index, and index performance does not include transaction costs or other fees, which will affect actual investment performance. Individual investor's results will vary. This information is not intended as a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any security referred to herein. Future investment performance cannot be guaranteed, investment yields will fluctuate with market conditions. International investing involves special risks, including currency fluctuations, differing financial accounting standards, and possible political and economic volatility. There is an inverse relationship between interest rate movements and bond prices. Generally, when interest rates rise, bond prices fall and when interest rates fall, bond prices generally rise. Investing in small cap stocks generally involves greater risks, and therefore, may not be appropriate for every investor. The prices of small company stocks may be subject to more volatility than those of large company stocks. Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Raymond James Financial Services Advisors, Inc. Birch Run Financial is not a registered broker/dealer and is independent of Raymond James Financial Services. Birch Run Financial is located at 595 E Swedesford Rd, Ste 360, Wayne PA 19087 and can be reached at 484-395-2190. Any rating is not intended to be an endorsement, or any way indicative of the advisors' abilities to provide investment advice or management. This podcast is intended for informational purposes only.Links are being provided for information purposes only. Raymond James is not affiliated with and does not endorse, authorize, or sponsor any of the listed websites or their respective sponsors.Raymond James is not responsible for the content of any website or the collection or use of information regarding any website's users or members. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Apple's new Mac purchasing flow that starts with a base model and adds options is debated by the  MacVoices Live! panel, weighing flexibility against harder price comparisons for businesses and planners. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Jeff Gamet, Jim Rea, Web Bixby, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Mark Fuccio, and Norbert Frassa discuss supply chains, memory pricing, and reseller impacts. The conversation then shifts to automotive news, praising Volvo's continued CarPlay support and exploring Kia/Hyundai's planned CarPlay Ultra adoption and broader implications for in-car software.  MacVoices is supported by CleanMyMac from MacPaw. Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use my code MACVOICES20 for 20% off at http://clnmy.com/MACVOICES. MacVoices is supported by Incogni. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Get 60% off an annual plan at https://incogni.com/chuck and use code “chuck" at checkout. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:45 Changes to Mac online purchasing model 03:41 Comparisons with iPhone-style configuration flow 06:38 Business and enterprise purchasing considerations 09:45 Longevity, upgrades, and marketing language in configs 13:22 Supplier sourcing and RAM pricing discussion 18:22 Direct sales vs reseller impacts and user behavior 23:32 Sponsor break: app removal and system cleanup 26:55 Volvo's continued CarPlay support 27:30 Hyundai/Kia plans for CarPlay Ultra 33:21 Adoption rates and success of CarPlay Ultra 38:09 Tesla, CarPlay rumors, and third-party dashboard solutions Links: Another automaker vows to continue offering CarPlay https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/27/volvo-says-it-will-absolutely-continue-offering-carplay-support/ CarPlay Ultra coming to at least one new car later this year, per report https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/01/carplay-ultra-coming-to-at-least-one-new-car-later-this-year-per-report/ Apple revamps how you buy a Mac online, removes preconfigured options https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/31/apple-revamps-how-you-buy-a-mac-online-removes-preconfigured-options/ Guests: Web Bixby has been in the insurance business for 40 years and has been an Apple user for longer than that.You can catch up with him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but prefers Bluesky. Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Norbert Frassa is a technology “man about town”. Follow him on Twitter and see what he's up to. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web:      http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Apple's new Mac purchasing flow that starts with a base model and adds options is debated by the  MacVoices Live! panel, weighing flexibility against harder price comparisons for businesses and planners. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Jeff Gamet, Jim Rea, Web Bixby, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Mark Fuccio, and Norbert Frassa discuss supply chains, memory pricing, and reseller impacts. The conversation then shifts to automotive news, praising Volvo's continued CarPlay support and exploring Kia/Hyundai's planned CarPlay Ultra adoption and broader implications for in-car software.  MacVoices is supported by CleanMyMac from MacPaw. Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use my code MACVOICES20 for 20% off at http://clnmy.com/MACVOICES. MacVoices is supported by Incogni. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Get 60% off an annual plan at https://incogni.com/chuck and use code "chuck" at checkout. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:45 Changes to Mac online purchasing model 03:41 Comparisons with iPhone-style configuration flow 06:38 Business and enterprise purchasing considerations 09:45 Longevity, upgrades, and marketing language in configs 13:22 Supplier sourcing and RAM pricing discussion 18:22 Direct sales vs reseller impacts and user behavior 23:32 Sponsor break: app removal and system cleanup 26:55 Volvo's continued CarPlay support 27:30 Hyundai/Kia plans for CarPlay Ultra 33:21 Adoption rates and success of CarPlay Ultra 38:09 Tesla, CarPlay rumors, and third-party dashboard solutions Links: Another automaker vows to continue offering CarPlay https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/27/volvo-says-it-will-absolutely-continue-offering-carplay-support/ CarPlay Ultra coming to at least one new car later this year, per report https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/01/carplay-ultra-coming-to-at-least-one-new-car-later-this-year-per-report/ Apple revamps how you buy a Mac online, removes preconfigured options https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/31/apple-revamps-how-you-buy-a-mac-online-removes-preconfigured-options/ Guests: Web Bixby has been in the insurance business for 40 years and has been an Apple user for longer than that.You can catch up with him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but prefers Bluesky. Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Norbert Frassa is a technology "man about town". Follow him on Twitter and see what he's up to. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Natalia Ball, global chief growth officer at Mars Pet Nutrition joins The Big Impression podcast to talk about how Pedigree transformed a local Brazilian insight into a global business story. She also shares why she is now focused on the next frontier of growth: Connected commerce and making sure brands show up when AI agents, not just people, are making purchasing decisions.  Episode TranscriptPlease note, this transcript  may contain minor inconsistencies compared to the episode audio. Damian Fowler (00:00):I'm Damian Fowler.Ilyse Liffreing (00:01):And I'm Ilyse Liffreing.Damian Fowler (00:02):And welcome to The Big Impression.Ilyse Liffreing (00:09):This week we're joined by Natalia Ball Global Chief Growth Officer at Mars Pet Nutrition home to brands like Pedigree and Sheba.Damian Fowler (00:18):Last March, pedigree launched a bold, purpose-driven campaign in Brazil celebrating mixed breed dogs, especially the iconic Vela Caramelo.Ilyse Liffreing (00:27):It wasn't just a campaign, it became a movement boosting adoption and challenging long held bias.Damian Fowler (00:35):The work went on to win top honors at the 2025 cans. Lions including the titanium lionIlyse Liffreing (00:41):And its impact is still rippling across markets and media channels worldwide.Damian Fowler (00:45):So today we're unpacking what made it work with the person who helped drive it. Natalia, tell us about the Carello campaign and how you landed on the idea.Natalia Ball (00:57):Carmelos are mixed dogs that are beloved in Brazil. They are found on the streets everywhere. They are the subject of meme, street culture, and people just identify Carmelo as the Brazilian dog. However, the inside that we discover was that this dog is 90% less likely to get adopted than breed dogs. So it is the most popular dog in Brazil, but the most overlooked. And when we learned about that, we decided that we wanted to make a difference and that we wanted this dog to get the position it deserve and pedigree decided to champion the underdog and become the official brand of caramel's in Brazil.Damian Fowler (01:41):You talked about the caramel. Could you just describe a little bit more for people who don't really know the caramelo and that term Vita, where does that come from?Natalia Ball (01:52):Yes, so caramels are basically mixed breed dogs that you can find on the streets of Brazil everywhere they are called caramel because they are caramel color and that's what it is in Spanish and they tend to be that caramel color, short hair. But there are different ways that these dogs look and feel because they are mixed breeds. But like I said, they are beloved dogs in Brazil, but when it comes to getting a pet, getting a dog, they are not the ones that people are going for. They see them as street dogs, not a dog that you have in your house. And the whole campaign was about, like I said, championing these caramels, driving adoption of mixed breed dogs, not only breed dogs. And we did that by saying that if caramels were considered non breeded, pedigree was going to give them a breed and who better to give them a breath than pedigree.Ilyse Liffreing (02:48):Great. And then at what point did you connect that insight to the campaign itself?Natalia Ball (02:54):What you need to know about pedigree? Pedigree is one of the largest dog brands in the world. Pedigree feeds more dogs than any other brand, and it has been there for many years and for the past 20 years or more, pedigree has been driving adoption, encouraging people to adopt pets everywhere. We have had a lot of iconic campaigns so much which maybe you would've heard, like for example, docs on Zoom during COVID or the child replacement program, which was a very interesting one. And we were talking about adoption in Brazil, but other local brands were talking about adoption too. So we were not cutting through and it was only when this insight came to us, which was a very deeply local insight that we made the connection, if we want to drive adoption in Brazil, this is going to be the way in and we're going to make this as big as it can possibly be.(03:51):Because we, from the very beginning saw we understood this idea of the vi Lata. You mentioned it before by the way, the vi lata is how you call mixed breed dogs in Brazil. And so when we had these conversations about this insight, the injustice of this beautiful dog not getting adopted, but also the cultural impact that it would have on resilience themselves, who could see themselves related in the fact that they were being championed, we decided to go really big on this campaign and not only do just an activation, but actually we are doing this campaign. We did it all of last year and we continue activating through this year. And some of the ways in which we championed this was actually by creating a caramel kennel club by creating the first ever caramel DNA testing. And it's the largest ever DNA test done in mos in all of history, kept creating a Carmelo dog show and not only that, putting caramels for the very first time ever on our packs. So it was really a way to give them the rightful place.Ilyse Liffreing (05:01):I love how you guys just took it a step further than even just it being a campaign and you actually adopted it into your packaging and the whole bit. At what point did you realize that the campaign wasn't only just a marketing ploy and it began actually affecting culture?Natalia Ball (05:23):Yeah, I mean this campaign has really changed culture in Brazil, but it was a campaign that was deeply rooted in culture itself because Carmelos were part of Brazilian culture. But when we realized the campaign became bigger than ourselves, absolutely. When it started driving difference in adoption of Carmelos, we saw more than 200% lift of caramelo adoption just in the first month. And we saw a 65% increase in likelihood to adopt a Carmelo in the future with this campaign. And then when we started seeing other brands and other businesses even outside of the pet care category start using the Carmelo in their campaigns in their advertising, that's when we knew this had really hit culture big. An example of that was Chevrolet that actually launched a partnership with Netflix that launched a documentary about caramel, and several launched a caramel or a caramel colored car in a promotion.(06:29):Other brands like Honda or Whirlpool also feature caramels in their advertising. So we started seeing that this became much bigger than ourselves, but maybe the biggest achievement that we had with this campaign other than driving adoption itself, which was the cost at the end of the day, was the fact that we were betting on the mixed pre-doc actually not being accepted in dog shows because only breed dogs are accepted usually in dog shows. But at the end of the day, the movement became so big that after only two weeks of this campaign, the federation that actually controls the dog shows called us and said, we now want to move to accept mixed breed dogs in all of our shows. So that was a huge achievement that we never knew it would be possible.Damian Fowler (07:18):What's really interesting to me about this campaign is the way you focused on one region, one country, one market, but obviously you're a global brand. So how does that connection to the local end up escalating? So it became this global campaign.Natalia Ball (07:35):Like I said, adoption is a huge cost for us, and we have been very consistently on pedigree, driving adoption for a long time. So we have an evergreen brief that goes out to all of our agencies on adoption, and in my case in particular, I am a strong believer in creative excellence as a driver for growth. And so I put a creative excellence program in place that included building capabilities on creative excellence, but also creating a creative council where the best ideas could come faster to the marketing leadership of Mars Pet Nutrition so that we could move at speed, but also we could fund the better ideas. And in this creative council DL map team, Al Map VO, who are the agency that came up with this idea presented Carmelo. And from the very beginning, me and the whole leadership team fell in love with it, and so we decided to fund it.(08:31):We decided to go big and to give it our full support. We knew it had the potential to drive the business and change culture, and I think in this case, the important thing about the campaign, obviously it did a lot of good. So it's a purposeful campaign and pedigree is a purposeful brand, but it was not only about the purpose, it was also about driving business results. Through the campaign in the first couple of months, we were able to grow 15% and through all of last year, we moved to grow volume and value by double digits. So the campaign really did the job about turning around the pedigree brand and delivering results not only on the cost but also on the business.Ilyse Liffreing (09:11):That's great. And you're doing something right when all the other brands out there are copying you guys suddenly in pop culture and everything like that. I'm very curious about as the campaign evolved, obviously it started out from a social aspect, but as it evolved, how did you decide what other channels to bring it into? What other channels did you try out in this process?Natalia Ball (09:42):Yes. Actually this campaign started as social first and we then boosted with media. The way it started is we partner with local influencer called Tata Vernick. She loves caramels and she herself has adopted caramels. And we asked her to register her caramel in a dog show because we knew that her caramel was going to get rejected, which it did. And so she posted on her Instagram that had 60 million followers that she was outraged that her beautiful and smart caramelo could not be accepted in a dog show. This went viral immediately in Brazil and everybody was outraged. This went on the evening news, the morning shows everywhere, and we waited for it to gain enough fire for us to step in. So actually we were planning that this was going to take a couple of days, but at the end we had to act after only 10 hours because this became so big so quickly.(10:41):And we step in and we said, you know what, Tata, don't worry. Pedigrees got you. We're going to give all caramels a breed. And we launched the campaign with our beautiful campaign video that talks about our program of giving them a DNA test, giving them a show, giving them a kennel club and giving them everything that breed dogs have. And then after that, we use that video and we boost the message. The video went viral as well, but we boost the message, for example, with connected TV as well as Prime and Disney, et cetera. So in order to make sure that everybody had listened to it, but it was truly an omni-channel approach because we use a lot of offline tools like for example, the dog show itself that we created or the adoption drive that we had later on where we were invited people to adopt caramels and then online tools like Instagram or Connected TV or Disney, et cetera.Damian Fowler (11:38):You suggested that the kind of timeline got really sped up really fast. So this thing you had to act very quickly. At what point did you realize you had a hit on your hands in a way, and how quickly did it escape the local context and became this bigger campaign that everyone looked at?Natalia Ball (12:01):Yeah, this exceeded all of our expectations. So we knew that it was going to get picked up, but like I said, we were not expecting for this to become so big so fast. And the fact that it appeared in all of the big shows, evening news, morning shows, et cetera, it appeared as well on national media, on print Everywhere meant that we needed to step in faster, but we were fully prepared for that. So that didn't represent the challenge. It was more of an opportunity. And then the other thing that really surprised us was that the largest dog association reached out to us after only 24 hours to partner to see how mixed beat dogs could then be allowed to compete. We were not expecting this. We were expecting actually that to be attention point that we were going to leverage in our campaign, and this became so big that they just couldn't ignore it. So it was a big win just from the very beginning.Damian Fowler (12:57):Wow.Natalia Ball (12:57):Now one of the things that we're seeing is even though this was very, very local, as we have started sharing this work across many other places in the world, we have realized that the insight actually exists in many other markets. For example, in Chile they have a dog called the Quilter, which is the equivalent of the caramel. We have them in Philippines, we have them all over the world. So this insight can travel. The way to activate might be different because you need to localize to the nuance, but we are very excited about the potential of drive more inclusion of these dogs with these campaigns, but also for pedigree to stand stronger in culture.Ilyse Liffreing (13:36):I love that. As a dog owner, myself and owner of a mutt, I'm glad they're getting their time in the spotlight a little bit more around the world. Generally, I feel like post COVID in the marketing world today, some brands have actually moved away from purpose-driven marketing a little bit, but this is a really good example of it done right. What would you say this campaign proved or maybe disproved about purpose-led marketing?Natalia Ball (14:04):I am a strong believer of purposeful brands actually growing stronger, but it only works when it's aligned truly and authentically to the reason for the brand to exist. Pedigree itself, the purpose of the brand is we believe that dogs bring out the best in us, and pedigree wants to bring out the best in dogs. So the purpose of pedigree is pedigree brings out the good dogs bring to the world to do that. We obviously do that with our great nutrition, but we do that by putting dogs in houses so that they can bring out the best in people. That's what we do because we strongly believe that dogs make us better. So that's why we have been driving adoption for more than 20 years. And when you really make this part of your core DNA and it's authentically linked to the brand, that's when it really works.Damian Fowler (14:56):And one of the proof points of that is the awards that you scooped up last year. Can you tell us a little bit more about how that happened? And that must have happened quickly because the campaign rolled out in March, 2025 by June, you're already in the spotlight.Natalia Ball (15:13):Yes. So this campaign was picked up for a lot of awards at Cannes last year. We won the Rainbow, silver, gold and Titanium. The titanium we are very excited about because it's Mars Inc. First ever titanium. So we are really proud of that, and it's also an award that rewards transformation in the creative industry, and we believe this idea was transformational. We're also proud of, I mean, we've got the many other awards, but the other one that we're really proud of is that we got the Grand Phy in the latam phy and in the Brazil phy, which shows that this was not only a creative idea that was very strong, but also a very effective idea in driving the business. So you can achieve both. You can do good in the world, you can drive the business and you can be creative actually. So it's three.Damian Fowler (16:03):Yeah, that's great. I love that trifecta. What happens to the titanium award?Natalia Ball (16:09):Well, I have it right hereIlyse Liffreing (16:10):With me.Damian Fowler (16:12):NoIlyse Liffreing (16:12):Way. Very nice. Beautiful here. It's beautiful.Damian Fowler (16:16):Beautiful. Well, congrats again. So from that, obviously momentum has come on. We've talked a little bit about how it influenced other brands, but in terms of the campaign continuing, what's next? How are you thinking about expanding this?Natalia Ball (16:33):In Brazil itself? We want to stay committed to this idea. We don't want to do one and go, and we are working, we continue activating the campaign through all of our channels. We continue doing adoption drives. For example, very recently we released the results from the DNA research that we did. So we find ways to keep this relevant. But now I think the next stage is to move on from not only caramels but all mixed breed dogs. Because with this campaign, the sentiment has been extremely positive. We got 99% positive sentiment. The only 1% negative comments was what about the other mixed breed dogs? They also deserve to be adopted. They also deserve recognition. So I think that's probably where we're taking it next in Brazil and then outside of Brazil, we are working on, like I said, these inside travels very well, but we're working on how to localize it in a world that feels authentic for the specific markets. I can't share anymore. Stay tuned, because some interesting things are coming soon.Ilyse Liffreing (17:44):And it sounds like that theme is going to keep going with this idea of all putting mutts in the spotlights from now on too.Natalia Ball (17:54):Exactly, yes. This is about inclusion. At the end of the day, our hope is that mutts are shown everywhere. We also love breed dogs. They're great. All dogs deserve to be feature everywhere. So our hope is that this campaign will drive inclusion, inclusion in advertising, inclusion in homes, inclusion everywhere.Damian Fowler (18:16):Another thought I had actually is when you were filming this campaign, did you have any standout caramelo stars?Natalia Ball (18:22):Actually, actually, I think our biggest star was Patas Caramel, which we then did a lot of things with her, I think. I mean, I don't record very well, but I think it was Mia, her name, but we did a lot with her in our activation. She was present when we did the dog show, et cetera. So I think that was our biggest star.Ilyse Liffreing (18:43):Oh, that's great. It can't always be that easy to shoot with dogs though, even if they're very well-trained, I imagine it's still a different world than human actors. So Natalia, what problem are you most obsessed with solving right now?Natalia Ball (18:59):I am right now obsessed with agentic commerce and agentic search and winning the race to thatIlyse Liffreing (19:08):BecauseNatalia Ball (19:09):I'm really concerned that in only a couple of years, if we are not winning, we will completely disappear the way all decisions are going to be made. So together with my team, we're trying to figure out how do we stay ahead of that race and how do we crack it pretty soon, so we're ready future.Ilyse Liffreing (19:26):Wow. And just to press you a little bit more on that, so you're talking about probably using agents on your website directly.Natalia Ball (19:35):It's about we are very good about marketing to people. We have cracked the code on how do we talk to people. We have the best insights in pet care, so we know how to create compelling stories that humans will listen to, but we need to crack how to market to agents, how to market to the machine because they are going to be making a lot of decisions for us in the future, in the very near future. And that's what we're working on.Damian Fowler (20:05):You're talking about media buying specifically on the creative side of itNatalia Ball (20:12):Or the LLM. This is about how do you make your brands show up in searches that are being done on ai? This is how do you make your brands be the ones that get recommended to be bought? So for example, when you're on Cha G PT and you're asking Cha G pt, I got a new puppy, what brands should I buy for my puppy? We want our brands to be the first ones to be recommended if you are going to buy a gift, anything like that, we want our brands to show up and we want our brands to show up in good light. And so that's what we're trying to figure out and to win. There is a combination of how do you have the right content in the right places? How do you get the right third parties to talk about you in the right way? What are the media channels where you need to show up? How do you optimize your search? So it is a very complex way. We need to crack the algorithm basically.Damian Fowler (21:12):On that point, how do you ensure your marketing teams have the right capabilities for success?Natalia Ball (21:19):Well, that's a big priority for me as CGO is one of my main jobs is to make sure that we're building capabilities for today and for the future. So in my team, we have a strong capabilities program where each and every one of the people on my team owns a capability and owns making sure that we get best in class content training and as well as the tools, because it's not only the knowledge, it's also the tools in order to do that. But the reality is that none of this works unless you are creating a culture of curiosity. And I really want to instill that in myself and in my teams because the industry is changing so fast. The minute you think you have cracked something, there is a new challenge. And the only way to stay fresh, the only way to stay in line with what's happening is to be curious. Whenever you don't know anything, go and ask someone who knows, go and ask questions like really try to learn instead of fearing the change, be curious about the change, and that's the way that we will build future proof capabilities.Ilyse Liffreing (22:22):Beyond ai, how do you see the role of connected commerce in the pet industry? Are there any other channels, for instance, that you're testing out? I'm thinking of are you testing shopping ads on CTV or any of that?Natalia Ball (22:40):Connected commerce is extremely important for us in pet care. The reason for that is because this category is one of the highest engagement categories that there are out there. People are making decisions for living beings, and they need to do deep research in order to make those decisions because they have real consequences. And so people are very engaged in reading through rating and reviews, and connected commerce gives us an opportunity to connect better with pet parents in those moments that matter most. We also, when it comes to pet care, a lot of our products come in huge bags that are hard to carry. So actually the fact that the convenience of those bags getting delivered at home make so that digital commerce becomes really important in our category. And so what we're trying to is to really help consumers navigate the pet parent journey and moving from content to commerce in a seamless way so that they can make the best decisions for their pets and that we are helping them along the journey to make those decisions.Damian Fowler (23:46):Okay, here's another, what's one marketing rule? This campaign, the Caramelo campaign happily ignored.Natalia Ball (23:52):The one rule that we happily ignore is about keeping your distinctive memory structures consistent because pedigree has always had a golden retriever on its pack. But with the Caramel campaign, we thought that it would be hypocritical of us to feature a breed dog while we were championing a mixed breed dog. So for the first time ever in history, we changed our pack and we feature a caramel, and this made the news again. And this was a huge bold move that we made and that made the campaign even more authentic and more powerful.Ilyse Liffreing (24:28):Now we have a fun one for you. Personal one really. Are dogs better than cats when it comes to brand lift?Natalia Ball (24:36):Oh, when it comes to brand lift, well, actually both are great for brand Lift. We actually have studies that show that when you feature cats or dogs in advertising, attention significantly increases emotional connection, significantly increases. This is why you see a lot of brands that are not in the pet care space featuring cats and dogs. They are both fantastic. Cats are more powerful in meme culture, as you probably know. They are huge in meme culture. And then dogs are some of the biggest stars in social media today. Some of the biggest accounts on social media are dogs accounts. So we are lucky that we get to work in this beautiful category because people want to see dogs and cats. I myself have a dog. My dog's name is Bella. She's been with us for three years and she's great. But the more I work in this category, the more I'm falling in love with cats as well because they are so particular and so unique. So yeah, both are fantastic.Damian Fowler (25:45):And that's it for this edition of The Big Impression.Ilyse Liffreing (25:47):This show is produced by Molten Hart. Our theme is by love and caliber, and our associate producer is Sydney Cairns.Damian Fowler (25:54):And remember,Natalia Ball (25:55):You can do good in the world, you can drive the business, and you can be creative.Damian Fowler (26:00):I'm Damian.Ilyse Liffreing (26:01):and I'm IlyseDamian Fowler (26:01):And we'll see you next time.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The MacVoices Live! panel dives into several topics including record earnings driven by strong iPhone demand and growing services revenue and how supply constraints and shifting Wall Street sentiment affects the future. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Jeff Gamet, Jim Rea, Web Bixby, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Mark Fuccio, and Norbert Frassa discuss Apple's rare security updates for Catalina and Big Sur, the transition to the new Home architecture, and the two-year milestone of Vision Pro, reflecting on its software maturity and future potential.  MacVoices is supported by CleanMyMac from MacPaw. Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use my code MACVOICES20 for 20% off at http://clnmy.com/MACVOICES. MacVoices is supported by Incogni. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Get 60% off an annual plan at https://incogni.com/chuck and use code “chuck" at checkout. Show Notes: Chapters: 0:00 Show introduction and panel roll call3:30 Live chat experiment and audience participation6:45 Apple Home architecture transition reminder11:40 Vision Pro two-year anniversary reflections24:30 Apple security updates for Catalina and Big Sur33:50 Earnings call overview and record profits40:20 Services growth and device install base milestones46:10 Supply constraints and Wall Street reaction52:30 Shareholder meeting and financial outlook discussion Links:   Apple Vision Pro Launched Two Years Ago Todayhttps://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/02/apple-vision-pro-launched-two-years-ago/ Apple has just released security updates for Catalina and Big Surhttps://eclecticlight.co/2026/02/02/apple-has-just-released-security-updates-for-catalina-and-big-sur/ Apple's latest earnings report shocked Wall Street & tempered expectationshttps://appleinsider.com/articles/26/01/30/analysts-caught-flat-footed-as-iphone-supply-not-demand-capped-growth Apple keeps winning today by betting on tomorrowhttps://www.macworld.com/article/3042600/apple-keeps-winning-today-by-betting-on-tomorrow.html Guests:   Web Bixby has been in the insurance business for 40 years and has been an Apple user for longer than that.You can catch up with him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but prefers Bluesky. Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Norbert Frassa is a technology “man about town”. Follow him on Twitter and see what he's up to. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon     http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:     http://macvoices.com      Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner     http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:     https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes     Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

The MacVoices Live! panel dives into several topics including record earnings driven by strong iPhone demand and growing services revenue and how supply constraints and shifting Wall Street sentiment affects the future. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Jeff Gamet, Jim Rea, Web Bixby, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Mark Fuccio, and Norbert Frassa discuss Apple's rare security updates for Catalina and Big Sur, the transition to the new Home architecture, and the two-year milestone of Vision Pro, reflecting on its software maturity and future potential.  MacVoices is supported by CleanMyMac from MacPaw. Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use my code MACVOICES20 for 20% off at http://clnmy.com/MACVOICES. MacVoices is supported by Incogni. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Get 60% off an annual plan at https://incogni.com/chuck and use code "chuck" at checkout. Show Notes: Chapters: 0:00 Show introduction and panel roll call 3:30 Live chat experiment and audience participation 6:45 Apple Home architecture transition reminder 11:40 Vision Pro two-year anniversary reflections 24:30 Apple security updates for Catalina and Big Sur 33:50 Earnings call overview and record profits 40:20 Services growth and device install base milestones 46:10 Supply constraints and Wall Street reaction 52:30 Shareholder meeting and financial outlook discussion Links:   Apple Vision Pro Launched Two Years Ago Today https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/02/apple-vision-pro-launched-two-years-ago/ Apple has just released security updates for Catalina and Big Sur https://eclecticlight.co/2026/02/02/apple-has-just-released-security-updates-for-catalina-and-big-sur/ Apple's latest earnings report shocked Wall Street & tempered expectations https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/01/30/analysts-caught-flat-footed-as-iphone-supply-not-demand-capped-growth Apple keeps winning today by betting on tomorrow https://www.macworld.com/article/3042600/apple-keeps-winning-today-by-betting-on-tomorrow.html Guests:   Web Bixby has been in the insurance business for 40 years and has been an Apple user for longer than that.You can catch up with him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but prefers Bluesky. Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Norbert Frassa is a technology "man about town". Follow him on Twitter and see what he's up to. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Is the American consumer finally hitting a wall?

Child support is often one of the most stressful and misunderstood aspects of a family law case. In a recent podcast episode, Abbie Laine, founding attorney of Laine Law Firm, PLLC, sat down to demystify the intricacies of the Texas child support system and how it specifically impacts families in the El Paso border community.The Basics: Who Pays and How Much?In Texas, child support is determined by which parent the court designates as the primary or custodial parent. The other parent, known as the obligor, is responsible for monthly payments.The standard percentages for calculation are:1 Child: 20% of net resources2 Children: 25% of net resources3 Children: 30% of net resourcesAbbie highlighted a critical 2026 update: the income cap for these calculations has increased to $11,700 per month in net resources. For high-income earners in El Paso, this means their obligation could be significantly higher than in previous years.The Border City Challenge: Cash Trades and Undocumented WorkersEl Paso's unique status as a border city brings specific challenges, particularly when parents work in the "cash trade." Abbie explained that enforcing support in these cases is more complex but not impossible. Her firm utilizes tax returns, bank statements, and lifestyle audits to prove income. Furthermore, if a parent refuses to work, the court may find them "intentionally underemployed," presuming an income of at least minimum wage for support calculations.The Trap of Direct PaymentsOne of the most valuable warnings Abbie shared involves the method of payment. Many parents mistakenly believe that paying via Cash App, Venmo, or physical cash is sufficient because it leaves a digital trail.However, without an official record through the Attorney General's Child Support Division, a parent can deny receiving the funds, leading to costly enforcement actions. Abbie strongly advises all parents to pay through the local Attorney General's office—such as the location on Hawkins Blvd—to ensure every cent is tracked and credited.Consequences of Non-Payment: It Never Goes AwayUnlike standard consumer debt, child support is a legal obligation that cannot be discharged. If you fall behind, you face severe consequences, including:Jail Time: Since it isn't considered "debt" by the Texas legislature, you can be incarcerated for non-payment.Life-Long Accrual: Support debt never expires. It continues to accrue interest and can even be collected from your estate after death.When Life Changes: The Need for ModificationIf you lose your job, Abbie's advice is clear: file for a modification immediately. You cannot retroactively reduce your debt; the obligation only changes once a new court order is signed. Generally, you can request a modification every three years, though a "material and substantial change" in income or circumstances can allow for a review much sooner.Beyond the Check: Medical Support and 50/50 CustodyChild support often includes an "umbrella" of medical support, covering expenses like health insurance and even braces. Even in 50/50 custody arrangements, a parent making significantly more may still be ordered to pay "offset" support to ensure the child enjoys a consistent standard of living in both homes.Protect Your Family's FutureWhether you need an uncontested divorce or a fierce child custody attorney, understanding the "whole picture"—including conservatorship and visitation—is essential before you file. Laine Law Firm, PLLC Phone: 915-200-4316Website: lainelawfirm.comLocation: 700 North Stanton St., El Paso, TX 79902

Further reading: Parallels for cetacean trap feeding and tread-water feeding in the historical record across two millennia Haggling over the Hafgufa Many renditions of the hafgufa/aspidochelone: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I'm your host, Kate Shaw. Back in the olden days, as much as 1700 years ago and probably more, up through the 14th century or so, various manuscripts about the natural world talked about a sea monster most people today have never heard of. In ancient Greek it was called aspidochelone, contracted to aspido in some translations, while in Old Norse it was called the hafgufa. But it seemed to be the same type of monster no matter who was writing about it. The animal was a fish, but it was enormous, big enough that it was sometimes mistaken for an island. When its jaws were open they were said to be as wide as the entrance to a fjord. A fjord is an inlet from the sea originally formed by glaciers scraping away at rocks, and then when the glaciers melted the sea filled the bottom of what was then a steep valley. I'm pretty sure the old stories were exaggerating about the sea monster's mouth size. The sea monster ate little fish, but it caught them in a strange way. It would open its mouth very wide at the surface of the water and exude a smell that attracted fish, or in one account it would regurgitate a little food to attract the fish. Once there were lots of little fish within its huge mouth, it would close it jaws quickly and swallow them all. Generally, any sea monster that's said to be mistaken for an island was inspired by whales, or sometimes by sea turtles. The hafgufa is actually included in an Old Norse poem that lists types of whales, and the aspidochelone was considered to be a type of whale even though the second part of its name refers to a sea turtle. So whatever this sea monster was, we can safely agree that it wasn't a fish, it was a whale. Up until just a few centuries ago people thought whales were fish because of their shape, but we know now that they're mammals adapted to marine life. But the hafgufa's behavior is really weird and doesn't seem like something a whale would do. We've talked about skim feeding before, where a baleen whale cruises along at the surface with its mouth held open, until it's gathered enough food in its mouth and can swallow it all at once. But whales aren't known to hold their mouths open at the surface of the water and just sit there while fish swim in. At least, they weren't known to do this until 2011. In 2011, marine biologists studying humpback whales off Canada's Vancouver Island in North America observed some of the whales catching herring and other small fish in an unusual way. The whales would remain stationary in the water, tails straight down with the head sticking up partly out of the water. A whale opened its mouth very wide and didn't move until there were a lot of fish in its mouth, which it then swallowed. Soon after, another team of marine biologists studying Bryde's whales in the Gulf of Thailand in South Asia observed the same activity when the whales were feeding on anchovies at the surface of the water. The term for this activity is called trap feeding or tread-water feeding, and at first the scientists thought it was a response to polluted water that had caused the fish to stay closer to the surface. But once the two teams of scientists compared notes, they realized that it didn't appear to have anything to do with pollution. Instead, it's probably a way to gather food in a low-energy way, especially when there isn't a big concentration of fish in any particular spot, and when researchers remembered the story of the hafgufa, they realized they'd found the solution to that mystery sea monster. The only question was whether the accounts were accurate that the hafgufa emitted a smell or regurgitated food to attract fish. Further observation answered that question too, and it turns out that yes, the old stories were at least partially right. The smell has been compared to rotten cabbage, but it isn't emitted by the whale on purpose. It's a smell released when phytoplankton is eaten in large numbers, whether by fish or whales or something else, and it does attract other animals. As for the regurgitation, this is always something that happens to some degree when a baleen whale feeds. The whale fills its mouth with water that contains the fish and other small animals it eats, and it presses its huge tongue upwards to force the water through its baleen, which acts as a sieve. Whatever's left in its mouth after the water is expelled, it swallows. But baleen is tough and fish are small and delicate in comparison. Often, fish and other small animals get squished to death against the baleen, and parts of them are expelled with the water. This creates a sort of yucky slurry that could be interpreted as a whale regurgitating food to attract more fish. The scientists think that fish are mainly attracted not to any smell or potential food in the water, but to the supposed shelter offered by the whale's giant mouth. It appears that trap feeding is a fairly rare behavior in whales, but one that's been around a lot longer than the last few years. It's also possible that because whaling drove many species nearly to extinction and whale numbers are only just starting to recover, until recently whales didn't need to use this feeding strategy. It seems to be used when a preferred food is widely scattered so that chasing after the fish isn't worth the energy cost, and that's more likely to happen when there are a lot of whales around. It's amazing that this type of feeding strategy has been identified in two different species of whale, and it's even more amazing that it matches up so well with ancient accounts. It's easy to assume that in the olden days, people were kind of stupid, but people back then were just as intelligent as people now. They just didn't have our technology and modern knowledge. They were often extremely observant, though, and luckily for us, sometimes they were able to write their observations down in books that we can still read. Thanks for your support, and thanks for listening!

In this special Ask Away “Junior Edition” of the Everyday Judaism podcast, recoded during the Super Bowl Halftime, Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe opens the floor to a group of young yeshiva students (ages 12–14) who ask thoughtful, deep questions on halacha, Torah, and Jewish life. The rabbi answers with warmth, clarity, and practical wisdom, often tying responses to broader lessons in emunah, mitzvot, and character.Key questions & answers:Aryeh Buchwald: Why does Hashem put us in Olam HaZeh instead of straight to Olam HaBa? — To remove “bread of shame” (nahama d'kisufa). If Hashem gave reward without earning it, we'd feel shame. This world lets us earn Olam HaBa through free will (bechira), overcoming challenges, and building a real relationship with Hashem.Shlomo Chaim Lieberman: Why is Yisro called “Chosen Moshe” and “Kohein Midyon” after his introduction, not just “Yisro”? — Yisro had seven names/titles. He explored every religion before discovering truth in Judaism and converting. The titles highlight his journey and stature—he overcame big challenges to join Klal Yisroel.Ephraim Yaghobian: Can a Jew work cleaning a church room that doesn't contain Avodah Zarah/Idolatry (e.g., priest's office)? — Generally permissible if no actual avodah zarah is present and no direct involvement in idolatry. Still, a God-fearing person may prefer to avoid any connection or send a non-Jewish worker instead. Each case should be asked to a local Orthodox rabbi.Yitzi Wolbe: Why does Gemara argue back and forth instead of just giving the halacha? — Judaism is about seeking truth (emes), not blind faith. Questions are essential—every page of Gemara has questions & answers to verify and deepen understanding. Other religions often forbid questions; Yiddishkeit welcomes them because truth withstands scrutiny.David Balsam: Why wait 6 hours after meat but only 30 minutes after milk? — Meat flavor lingers longer (stays between teeth); milk clears quickly. Hard cheese (e.g., Swiss) follows meat's waiting time because its flavor also persists.Shlomo Wolbe: Why so many different Minhagim (customs) if all Jews follow Torah? — Halacha gives a framework; minhagim are individual/community expressions of fulfilling mitzvot. Everyone must follow core halacha, but variations (e.g., hat styles, prayer customs) are allowed as long as they're rooted in Torah. Hashem loves diversity within unity—12 tribes each had their lane.Aryeh Buchwald: Is it allowed to pretend not to be home when a meshulach (charity collector) knocks? — Avoid outright lying (“I'm not home”). Better to say “I'm busy now” or “not able right now.” Don't say “I have nothing” (opens ayin hara). Giving with a smile is a huge privilege—Hashem sometimes appears as the poor person to see how we treat Him.Shlomo Chaim Lieberman: Eruv on Shabbos—why do we need it? — Biblical prohibition against carrying from private to public domain. Chazal created eruv as a rabbinic solution: string around neighborhood makes it one domain. One of seven major rabbinic enactments (others include netilat yadayim, Shabbos candles). Observe meticulously—many communities have multiple eruvim.The rabbi praises the boys' depth and encourages asking questions—Judaism thrives on seeking truth.Please submit your questions at askaway@torchweb.org_____________The Everyday Judaism Podcast is dedicated to learning, understanding and appreciating the greatness of Jewish heritage and the Torah through the simplified, concise study of Halacha, Jewish Law, thereby enhancing our understanding of how Hashem wants us to live our daily lives in a Jewish way._____________This Podcast Series is Generously Underwritten by Marshall & Doreen LernerDownload & Print the Everyday Judaism Halacha Notes:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RL-PideM42B_LFn6pbrk8MMU5-zqlLG5This episode of the Everyday Judaism Podcast by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH is dedicated to my dearest friends, Marshall & Doreen Lerner! May Hashem bless you and always lovingly accept your prayer for good health, success and true happiness!!!Recorded in the TORCH Centre - Levin Family Studio (B) to a live audience on February 8, 2026, in Houston, Texas.Edited by Yitzi Wolbe and Released as Podcast on February 16, 2026_____________Connect with Us:Subscribe to the Everyday Judaism PodcastApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everyday-judaism-rabbi-aryeh-wolbe/id1600622789Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3AXCNcyKSVsaOLsLQsCN1CShare your questions at askaway@torchweb.org or visit torchweb.org for more Torah content.  _____________About the Host:Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH in Houston, brings decades of Torah scholarship to guide listeners in applying Jewish wisdom to daily life.  To directly send your questions, comments, and feedback: awolbe@torchweb.org_____________Support Our Mission:Help us share Jewish wisdom globally by sponsoring an episode at torchweb.org. Your support makes a difference!_____________Subscribe and Listen to other podcasts by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe: NEW!! Hey Rabbi! Podcast: https://heyrabbi.transistor.fm/episodesPrayer Podcast: https://prayerpodcast.transistor.fm/episodesJewish Inspiration Podcast: https://inspiration.transistor.fm/episodesParsha Review Podcast: https://parsha.transistor.fm/episodesLiving Jewishly Podcast: https://jewishly.transistor.fm/episodesThinking Talmudist Podcast: https://talmud.transistor.fm/episodesUnboxing Judaism Podcast: https://unboxing.transistor.fm/episodesRabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection: https://collection.transistor.fm/episodesFor a full listing of podcasts available by TORCH at http://podcast.torchweb.org_____________Keywords:#AskAway, #Torah, #Halacha, #Q&A, #Jewish, #Halacha, #Superbowl, #Halftime  ★ Support this podcast ★

In this special Ask Away “Junior Edition” of the Everyday Judaism podcast, recoded during the Super Bowl Halftime, Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe opens the floor to a group of young yeshiva students (ages 12–14) who ask thoughtful, deep questions on halacha, Torah, and Jewish life. The rabbi answers with warmth, clarity, and practical wisdom, often tying responses to broader lessons in emunah, mitzvot, and character.Key questions & answers:Aryeh Buchwald: Why does Hashem put us in Olam HaZeh instead of straight to Olam HaBa? — To remove “bread of shame” (nahama d'kisufa). If Hashem gave reward without earning it, we'd feel shame. This world lets us earn Olam HaBa through free will (bechira), overcoming challenges, and building a real relationship with Hashem.Shlomo Chaim Lieberman: Why is Yisro called “Chosen Moshe” and “Kohein Midyon” after his introduction, not just “Yisro”? — Yisro had seven names/titles. He explored every religion before discovering truth in Judaism and converting. The titles highlight his journey and stature—he overcame big challenges to join Klal Yisroel.Ephraim Yaghobian: Can a Jew work cleaning a church room that doesn't contain Avodah Zarah/Idolatry (e.g., priest's office)? — Generally permissible if no actual avodah zarah is present and no direct involvement in idolatry. Still, a God-fearing person may prefer to avoid any connection or send a non-Jewish worker instead. Each case should be asked to a local Orthodox rabbi.Yitzi Wolbe: Why does Gemara argue back and forth instead of just giving the halacha? — Judaism is about seeking truth (emes), not blind faith. Questions are essential—every page of Gemara has questions & answers to verify and deepen understanding. Other religions often forbid questions; Yiddishkeit welcomes them because truth withstands scrutiny.David Balsam: Why wait 6 hours after meat but only 30 minutes after milk? — Meat flavor lingers longer (stays between teeth); milk clears quickly. Hard cheese (e.g., Swiss) follows meat's waiting time because its flavor also persists.Shlomo Wolbe: Why so many different Minhagim (customs) if all Jews follow Torah? — Halacha gives a framework; minhagim are individual/community expressions of fulfilling mitzvot. Everyone must follow core halacha, but variations (e.g., hat styles, prayer customs) are allowed as long as they're rooted in Torah. Hashem loves diversity within unity—12 tribes each had their lane.Aryeh Buchwald: Is it allowed to pretend not to be home when a meshulach (charity collector) knocks? — Avoid outright lying (“I'm not home”). Better to say “I'm busy now” or “not able right now.” Don't say “I have nothing” (opens ayin hara). Giving with a smile is a huge privilege—Hashem sometimes appears as the poor person to see how we treat Him.Shlomo Chaim Lieberman: Eruv on Shabbos—why do we need it? — Biblical prohibition against carrying from private to public domain. Chazal created eruv as a rabbinic solution: string around neighborhood makes it one domain. One of seven major rabbinic enactments (others include netilat yadayim, Shabbos candles). Observe meticulously—many communities have multiple eruvim.The rabbi praises the boys' depth and encourages asking questions—Judaism thrives on seeking truth.Please submit your questions at askaway@torchweb.org_____________The Everyday Judaism Podcast is dedicated to learning, understanding and appreciating the greatness of Jewish heritage and the Torah through the simplified, concise study of Halacha, Jewish Law, thereby enhancing our understanding of how Hashem wants us to live our daily lives in a Jewish way._____________This Podcast Series is Generously Underwritten by Marshall & Doreen LernerDownload & Print the Everyday Judaism Halacha Notes:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RL-PideM42B_LFn6pbrk8MMU5-zqlLG5This episode of the Everyday Judaism Podcast by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH is dedicated to my dearest friends, Marshall & Doreen Lerner! May Hashem bless you and always lovingly accept your prayer for good health, success and true happiness!!!Recorded in the TORCH Centre - Levin Family Studio (B) to a live audience on February 8, 2026, in Houston, Texas.Edited by Yitzi Wolbe and Released as Podcast on February 16, 2026_____________Connect with Us:Subscribe to the Everyday Judaism PodcastApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everyday-judaism-rabbi-aryeh-wolbe/id1600622789Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3AXCNcyKSVsaOLsLQsCN1CShare your questions at askaway@torchweb.org or visit torchweb.org for more Torah content.  _____________About the Host:Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH in Houston, brings decades of Torah scholarship to guide listeners in applying Jewish wisdom to daily life.  To directly send your questions, comments, and feedback: awolbe@torchweb.org_____________Support Our Mission:Help us share Jewish wisdom globally by sponsoring an episode at torchweb.org. Your support makes a difference!_____________Subscribe and Listen to other podcasts by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe: NEW!! Hey Rabbi! Podcast: https://heyrabbi.transistor.fm/episodesPrayer Podcast: https://prayerpodcast.transistor.fm/episodesJewish Inspiration Podcast: https://inspiration.transistor.fm/episodesParsha Review Podcast: https://parsha.transistor.fm/episodesLiving Jewishly Podcast: https://jewishly.transistor.fm/episodesThinking Talmudist Podcast: https://talmud.transistor.fm/episodesUnboxing Judaism Podcast: https://unboxing.transistor.fm/episodesRabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection: https://collection.transistor.fm/episodesFor a full listing of podcasts available by TORCH at http://podcast.torchweb.org_____________Keywords:#AskAway, #Torah, #Halacha, #Q&A, #Jewish, #Halacha, #Superbowl, #Halftime  ★ Support this podcast ★

Here's my forecast for school vacation week.

Generally speaking, there's some correlation between brewery scale and lager quality, and while there are plenty of exceptions to every rule, there's no denying that honing lager beers into the best versions of themselves requires repetition, time, and access to the best ingredients. But over the past few years, an ever-increasing number of very small craft brewers have found success in the major competitions not despite their size, but because of it. Ferndale, Michigan's Urbanrest firmly sits in that group, and their recent gold medal in the American Pilsner category at GABF is further proof that careful process and thoughtful beer design aren't dependent on scale. The beer itself, Kaiser, started as a Franconian-inspired kellerpils, but over the years has morphed into what they now call American pils. And funny enough, it contains only Vienna-style malt from small craft maltster and none of the pils malt that most would expect. But that's not the only way they've strayed from the classic narrative. In this episode, founder and brewer Zach Typinski discusses how they: ferment German lager with a dry 34/70 strain while fermenting American pils with a liquid 34/70 blend various base malts in both lager and IPA find the perfect amount of “rusticity” in American pils manage direct-fire kettle caramelization in lieu of decoction krausen lagered beer for carbonation since the brewery doesn't own a carb stone build texture and retain foam through the krausening process source and contract great hops despite their small size And more. G&D Chillers G&D's biggest edge isn't just the equipment—it's their deep understanding of brewery operations. From layout to production flow, they bring real-world expertise and build reliable systems that last, whether it's a single-stage 5H or a Vertical Air Chiller. New Belgium Brewing recently partnered with G&D to install a propane-based Elite 290 chiller —delivering around 50% energy savings compared to CO₂ systems. As Andy Collins, New Belgium's Carbon Neutral Engineer, put it: “We're really happy to work with a partner like G&D Chillers who helped us significantly reduce the amount of HFCs used in our refrigeration systems.” With 24/7 support and remote monitoring, your cold side stays dialed in—day or night. See how leading breweries are cutting energy costs at gdchillers.com. Berkeley Yeast Berkeley Yeast just launched Dry Tropics London! Our best-selling liquid yeast strain, now with all the ease-of-use benefits of dry yeast. Dry Tropics London delivers the soft, pillowy mouthfeel and juicy character you'd expect from a top-tier London Ale strain, but with a serious upgrade: a burst of thiols that unleash vibrant, layered notes of grapefruit and passion fruit. A lot of brewers love the clean passion fruit you get from Tropics, but they don't want every IPA to be a tropical-fruit bomb. At the dry yeast price point, you can pitch and ditch without breaking the bank. Or, you can co-pitch with your house strain to adjust the intensity of the notes. And with nationwide free shipping, there's never been a better time to try Dry Tropics. Order now at berkeleyyeast.com and experience the ease and impact of Dry Tropics London Yeast. PakTech This episode is sponsored by PakTech—delivering craft-beer multipacking you can trust. Our handles are made from 100 percent recycled plastic and are fully recyclable, helping breweries close the loop and advance the circular economy. With a minimalist design, durable functionality you can rely on, and custom color matching, our carriers help brands stand out while staying sustainable. Trusted by craft brewers nationwide, we offer a smarter, sustainable way to carry your beer. To learn more, visit paktech-opi.com. Indie Hops Strata Cryo The multilayered wonders of Indie Hops Strata are now easier than ever for brewers to tap into. Introducing Strata Cryo, in collaboration with Yakima Chief Hops. Whether brewing up a single-hop Strata IPA to wow customers with the depth of flavor this variety delivers or modernizing your flagship IPA to continue setting the highest standards, Strata T99, Strata CGX, Strata HyperBoost, and now Strata Cryo provide the tools for you to create your unique masterpiece. Indie Hops Strata. Life is short. Let's make it flavorful! Midea 50/50 Flex This podcast is sponsored by the Midea 50/50 flex—the industry's first dual compartment three-way convertible freezer. The 50/50 Flex is designed to flex with your life. It can convert to all fridge, all freezer, or half and half with just the touch of a button. Plus, with reversible doors and adjustable storage compartments, you can stay organized no matter your food-storage needs. The 50/50 Flex is also designed to maintain a stable temperature even in non-climate-controlled spaces. So it's perfect for your garage, man cave, or wherever you need a little more space. Maybe use all 20 cubic feet as a beer fridge! Check out Midea.com/us/ for more information on how to take your beer storage to the next level. Old Orchard Your brewery deserves a supplier that can keep your customers engaged with new flavors. That's why Old Orchard releases juice concentrates and blends with trending flavor profiles like White Sangria and Passion Orange Guava. If you need a custom solution, Old Orchard's R&D team wants to hear from you. Fruit ingredients that get you: get Old Orchard's free samples at oldorchard.com/brewer. Brightly Software Brightly Software, a Siemens company, partners with organizations at every stage of their asset lifecycle journey. Brightly is a complete asset-management and operations software that enhances organizational sustainability, compliance, and efficiency through data-driven decision making. Streamline maintenance, simplify capital planning, and optimize resources with solutions uniquely designed to support long-term goals. Learn more at brightlysoftware.com. 2026 Brewers Retreat Tickets are on sale now for the annual Craft Beer & Brewing Brewers Retreat August 23–26 in the hop country of Yakima Valley, Washington. There's nothing like this fantasy homebrew-camp experience, as you brew in small groups led by some of the most inspiring brewers in the world—folks such as Vinnie and Natalie of Russian River, Ben from Breakside, Henry and Adriana of Monkish, Kelsey from North Park, Whitney from Grand Fir, Sean from Lawson's Finest, and more. This year we'll be brewing under the bines at Bale Breaker, and it's sure to be an unforgettable experience. Tickets are on sale now and going fast at brewersretreat.com.

Meta's subscription experiments, Epic's financial deal with Google and antitrust implications top the list of items addressed in this MacVoices Live! show. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Jim Rea, Norbert Frassa, Guy Serle, Jeff Gamet, and Eric Bolden discuss concerns about AI guidelines and chatbot impacts on mental health, and the evolving future of platforms like Vimeo since their acquisition. The conversation also touches on foldable phone pricing and broader industry shifts shaping user experiences and competition.  MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:05 Introduction and overview 07:38 Meta's subscription plans debate 09:54 Epic Games and Google deal implications 11:02 Concerns about AI guidelines and Claude 21:09 Chatbots and mental health discussion 26:55 Squarespace sponsor segment 28:37 Vimeo's future and market positioning 30:21 Galaxy Z tri-fold pricing analysis 35:02 Closing thoughts and wrap-up Links: Meta to test premium subscriptions on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/26/meta-to-test-premium-subscriptions-on-instagram-facebook-and-whatsapp/ Meta Is Being Sued Over Whether WhatsApp Really Encrypts Your Messages https://lifehacker.com/tech/meta-sued-whatsapp-encryption-claimsl Anthropic rewrites Claude's guiding principles—and entertains the idea that its AI might have ‘some kind of consciousness or moral status' https://fortune.com/2026/01/21/anthropic-claude-ai-chatbot-new-rules-safety-consciousness/ A-List creatives sign up to fight AI, say it enables 'theft at a grand scale' https://www.engadget.com/ai/a-list-creatives-sign-up-to-fight-ai-say-it-enables-theft-at-a-grand-scale-140000475.html TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/23/tiktok-is-officially-us-owned-for-american-users-heres-whats-changing/ Newsom says California is investigating TikTok for censoring ‘Trump-critical content' https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/gavin-newsom-tiktok-investigate-trump-epstein-minnesota/3836701/ Epic hypocrisy -- Google gets $800 million in 'Fortnite' antitrust settlement https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/01/23/epic-hypocrisy----google-gets-800-million-in-fortnite-antitrust-settlement How Vimeo Betrayed the Filmmakers Who Built It https://www.cined.com/how-vimeo-betrayed-the-filmmakers-who-built-it/ Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold U.S. Price Is Not at All Surprising https://gizmodo.com/samsung-galaxy-z-trifold-u-s-price-is-not-at-all-surprising-2000714196 Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Norbert Frassa is a technology “man about town”. Follow him on X and see what he's up to. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Guy Serle, best known for being one of the co-hosts of the MyMac Podcast, sincerely apologizes for anything he has done or caused to have happened while in possession of dangerous podcasting equipment. He should know better but being a blonde from Florida means he's probably incapable of understanding the damage he has wrought. Guy is also the author of the novel, The Maltese Cube. You can follow his exploits on Twitter, catch him on Mac to the Future on Facebook, at @Macparrot@mastodon.social, and find everything at VertShark.com. Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web:      http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

02-12-26 - BR - THU - w/Bret - It's Natl Plum Pudding Day Reminding John Of What Plums Are Like - Study Says Valentines Day Costs Are Generally Higher This YearSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

02-12-26 - BR - THU - w/Bret - It's Natl Plum Pudding Day Reminding John Of What Plums Are Like - Study Says Valentines Day Costs Are Generally Higher This YearSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A multi-topic discussion in this MacVoices Live! session starts with a Luxshare cyberattack that may have exposed Apple product plans, raising concerns about ransom demands and security implications. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Jim Rea, Norbert Frassa, Guy Serle, Jeff Gamet, and Eric Bolden also examine Camo's lawsuit against Apple over Continuity Camera, Utah's proposal to make Android its official OS, Pantone's affordable color-matching kit, and Adobe Acrobat's AI-generated presentations and “podcasts,” debating the value and risks of AI-created media.  MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:30 Luxshare cyberattack and Apple product leaks05:45 Camo lawsuit against Apple15:56 Utah's Android “official OS” proposal17:48 Pantone's affordable color-matching kit22:41 Adobe AI presentations and audio generation33:29 Broader thoughts on AI and media creation Links: Apple's Secret Product Plans Stolen in Luxshare Cyberattackhttps://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/21/apple-product-plans-stolen-in-luxshare-cyberattack/ Camo developer sues Apple for copying its tech with Continuity Camerahttps://9to5mac.com/2026/01/27/camo-developer-sues-apple-for-copying-its-tech-with-continuity-camera/ Utah senator has nothing better to do than officially troll iPhone usershttps://www.macworld.com/article/3040234/utah-senator-has-nothing-better-to-do-than-officially-troll-iphone-users.html Pantone just made a color matching starter kit for only $99https://www.fastcompany.com/91478571/pantone-capsule-the-ultimate-color-matching-starter-kit Adobe Acrobat can now generate presentations and audio podcasts from your documentshttps://www.engadget.com/ai/adobe-acrobat-can-now-generate-presentations-and-audio-podcasts-from-your-documents-140000146.htm Guests:   Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Norbert Frassa is a technology “man about town”. Follow him on X and see what he's up to. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Guy Serle, best known for being one of the co-hosts of the MyMac Podcast, sincerely apologizes for anything he has done or caused to have happened while in possession of dangerous podcasting equipment. He should know better but being a blonde from Florida means he's probably incapable of understanding the damage he has wrought. Guy is also the author of the novel, The Maltese Cube. You can follow his exploits on Twitter, catch him on Mac to the Future on Facebook, at @Macparrot@mastodon.social, and find everything at VertShark.com. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon     http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:     http://macvoices.com      Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner     http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:     https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes     Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Meta's subscription experiments, Epic's financial deal with Google and antitrust implications top the list of items addressed in this MacVoices Live! show. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Jim Rea, Norbert Frassa, Guy Serle, Jeff Gamet, and Eric Bolden discuss concerns about AI guidelines and chatbot impacts on mental health, and the evolving future of platforms like Vimeo since their acquisition. The conversation also touches on foldable phone pricing and broader industry shifts shaping user experiences and competition.  MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:05 Introduction and overview 07:38 Meta's subscription plans debate 09:54 Epic Games and Google deal implications 11:02 Concerns about AI guidelines and Claude 21:09 Chatbots and mental health discussion 26:55 Squarespace sponsor segment 28:37 Vimeo's future and market positioning 30:21 Galaxy Z tri-fold pricing analysis 35:02 Closing thoughts and wrap-up Links: Meta to test premium subscriptions on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/26/meta-to-test-premium-subscriptions-on-instagram-facebook-and-whatsapp/ Meta Is Being Sued Over Whether WhatsApp Really Encrypts Your Messages https://lifehacker.com/tech/meta-sued-whatsapp-encryption-claimsl Anthropic rewrites Claude's guiding principles—and entertains the idea that its AI might have 'some kind of consciousness or moral status' https://fortune.com/2026/01/21/anthropic-claude-ai-chatbot-new-rules-safety-consciousness/ A-List creatives sign up to fight AI, say it enables 'theft at a grand scale' https://www.engadget.com/ai/a-list-creatives-sign-up-to-fight-ai-say-it-enables-theft-at-a-grand-scale-140000475.html TikTok is officially US-owned for American users, here's what's changing https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/23/tiktok-is-officially-us-owned-for-american-users-heres-whats-changing/ Newsom says California is investigating TikTok for censoring 'Trump-critical content' https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/gavin-newsom-tiktok-investigate-trump-epstein-minnesota/3836701/ Epic hypocrisy -- Google gets $800 million in 'Fortnite' antitrust settlement https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/01/23/epic-hypocrisy----google-gets-800-million-in-fortnite-antitrust-settlement How Vimeo Betrayed the Filmmakers Who Built It https://www.cined.com/how-vimeo-betrayed-the-filmmakers-who-built-it/ Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold U.S. Price Is Not at All Surprising https://gizmodo.com/samsung-galaxy-z-trifold-u-s-price-is-not-at-all-surprising-2000714196 Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Norbert Frassa is a technology "man about town". Follow him on X and see what he's up to. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Guy Serle, best known for being one of the co-hosts of the MyMac Podcast, sincerely apologizes for anything he has done or caused to have happened while in possession of dangerous podcasting equipment. He should know better but being a blonde from Florida means he's probably incapable of understanding the damage he has wrought. Guy is also the author of the novel, The Maltese Cube. You can follow his exploits on Twitter, catch him on Mac to the Future on Facebook, at @Macparrot@mastodon.social, and find everything at VertShark.com. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

A multi-topic discussion in this MacVoices Live! session starts with a Luxshare cyberattack that may have exposed Apple product plans, raising concerns about ransom demands and security implications. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Jim Rea, Norbert Frassa, Guy Serle, Jeff Gamet, and Eric Bolden also examine Camo's lawsuit against Apple over Continuity Camera, Utah's proposal to make Android its official OS, Pantone's affordable color-matching kit, and Adobe Acrobat's AI-generated presentations and "podcasts," debating the value and risks of AI-created media.  MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:30 Luxshare cyberattack and Apple product leaks 05:45 Camo lawsuit against Apple 15:56 Utah's Android "official OS" proposal 17:48 Pantone's affordable color-matching kit 22:41 Adobe AI presentations and audio generation 33:29 Broader thoughts on AI and media creation Links: Apple's Secret Product Plans Stolen in Luxshare Cyberattack https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/21/apple-product-plans-stolen-in-luxshare-cyberattack/ Camo developer sues Apple for copying its tech with Continuity Camera https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/27/camo-developer-sues-apple-for-copying-its-tech-with-continuity-camera/ Utah senator has nothing better to do than officially troll iPhone users https://www.macworld.com/article/3040234/utah-senator-has-nothing-better-to-do-than-officially-troll-iphone-users.html Pantone just made a color matching starter kit for only $99 https://www.fastcompany.com/91478571/pantone-capsule-the-ultimate-color-matching-starter-kit Adobe Acrobat can now generate presentations and audio podcasts from your documents https://www.engadget.com/ai/adobe-acrobat-can-now-generate-presentations-and-audio-podcasts-from-your-documents-140000146.htm Guests:   Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Norbert Frassa is a technology "man about town". Follow him on X and see what he's up to. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Guy Serle, best known for being one of the co-hosts of the MyMac Podcast, sincerely apologizes for anything he has done or caused to have happened while in possession of dangerous podcasting equipment. He should know better but being a blonde from Florida means he's probably incapable of understanding the damage he has wrought. Guy is also the author of the novel, The Maltese Cube. You can follow his exploits on Twitter, catch him on Mac to the Future on Facebook, at @Macparrot@mastodon.social, and find everything at VertShark.com. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Belkin is ending support for most Wemo smart home devices, raising fresh concerns about IoT e-waste and long-term reliability. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Jim Rea, Norbert Frassa, Guy Serle, Jeff Gamet, and Eric Bolden also react to a new generation of AirTags with louder alerts and longer range, share real-world tracking and wallet stories, and explains Apple Cash's higher instant transfer fees.  MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:28 Welcome and panel intro09:19 Wemo support shutdown and what still works12:50 Standards-based devices and open-source alternatives16:07 Sponsor message17:44 New AirTags: louder sound, longer range, setup requirements23:10 Real-world “unknown AirTag” tracking alert story25:23 Wallet trackers and bag-tracking use cases28:48 Apple Cash instant transfer fee increase explained Links: PSA: Belkin ending support for most Wemo smart home accessories this weekhttps://9to5mac.com/2026/01/27/psa-belkin-ending-support-for-most-wemo-smart-home-accessories-this-week/ Bose made the consumer friendly move to open source its SoundTouch speakershttps://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/bose-made-the-consumer-friendly-move-to-open-source-its-soundtouch-speakers-163459024.htmlApple Unveils New AirTag With Longer Range, Louder Speaker, and Morehttps://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/26/apple-announces-new-airtag/ Apple Cash Users Will See Instant Transfer Fees Increase in Februaryhttps://www.mactrast.com/2026/01/apple-cash-users-will-see-instant-transfer-fees-increase-in-february/ Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud.   Norbert Frassa is a technology “man about town”. Follow him on X and see what he's up to. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud.   Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Guy Serle, best known for being one of the co-hosts of the MyMac Podcast, sincerely apologizes for anything he has done or caused to have happened while in possession of dangerous podcasting equipment. He should know better but being a blonde from Florida means he's probably incapable of understanding the damage he has wrought. Guy is also the author of the novel, The Maltese Cube. You can follow his exploits on Twitter, catch him on Mac to the Future on Facebook, at @Macparrot@mastodon.social, and find everything at VertShark.com. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon     http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:     http://macvoices.com      Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner     http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:     https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes     Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Belkin is ending support for most Wemo smart home devices, raising fresh concerns about IoT e-waste and long-term reliability. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Jim Rea, Norbert Frassa, Guy Serle, Jeff Gamet, and Eric Bolden also react to a new generation of AirTags with louder alerts and longer range, share real-world tracking and wallet stories, and explains Apple Cash's higher instant transfer fees.  MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:28 Welcome and panel intro 09:19 Wemo support shutdown and what still works 12:50 Standards-based devices and open-source alternatives 16:07 Sponsor message 17:44 New AirTags: louder sound, longer range, setup requirements 23:10 Real-world "unknown AirTag" tracking alert story 25:23 Wallet trackers and bag-tracking use cases 28:48 Apple Cash instant transfer fee increase explained Links: PSA: Belkin ending support for most Wemo smart home accessories this week https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/27/psa-belkin-ending-support-for-most-wemo-smart-home-accessories-this-week/ Bose made the consumer friendly move to open source its SoundTouch speakers https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/bose-made-the-consumer-friendly-move-to-open-source-its-soundtouch-speakers-163459024.html Apple Unveils New AirTag With Longer Range, Louder Speaker, and More https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/26/apple-announces-new-airtag/ Apple Cash Users Will See Instant Transfer Fees Increase in February https://www.mactrast.com/2026/01/apple-cash-users-will-see-instant-transfer-fees-increase-in-february/ Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud.   Norbert Frassa is a technology "man about town". Follow him on X and see what he's up to. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud.   Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Guy Serle, best known for being one of the co-hosts of the MyMac Podcast, sincerely apologizes for anything he has done or caused to have happened while in possession of dangerous podcasting equipment. He should know better but being a blonde from Florida means he's probably incapable of understanding the damage he has wrought. Guy is also the author of the novel, The Maltese Cube. You can follow his exploits on Twitter, catch him on Mac to the Future on Facebook, at @Macparrot@mastodon.social, and find everything at VertShark.com. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

In this episode, I break down the 15% U.S. withholding tax and explain why the “never hold U.S. stocks in a TFSA” rule is often misunderstood. I look at when the warning is valid—and when avoiding U.S. investments can actually hurt long-term results. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DqzwQH3Czas

"Competing is choosing to give full effort and full focus to the next action, regardless of situation or emotion. Generally, people don't stop competing because they don't care or because they lack effort. They stop because distractions and noise get in the way." Steve Cutter

Our Global Head of Fixed Income Research Andrew Sheets and Global Chief Economist Seth Carpenter unpack the inner workings of the Federal Reserve to illustrate the challenges that Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh may face.Read more insights from Morgan Stanley.----- Transcript ----- Andrew Sheets: Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Andrew Sheets, Global Head of Fixed Income Research at Morgan Stanley. Seth Carpenter: And I'm Seth Carpenter, Morgan Stanley's Global Chief Economist and Head of Macro Research. Andrew Sheets: And today on the podcast, a further discussion of a new Fed chair and the challenges they may face. It's Friday, February 6th at 1 pm in New York. Seth, it's great to be here talking with you, and I really want to continue a conversation that listeners have been hearing on this podcast over this week about a new nominee to chair the Federal Reserve: Kevin Warsh. And you are the perfect person to talk about this, not just because you lead our economic research and our macro research, but you've also worked at the Fed. You've seen the inner workings of this organization and what a new Fed chair is going to have to deal with. So, maybe just for some broad framing, when you saw this announcement come out, what were some of the first things to go through your mind? Seth Carpenter: I will say first and foremost, Kevin Warsh's name was one of the names that had regularly come up when the White House was providing names of people they were considering in lots of news cycles. So, I think the first thing that's critically important from my perspective, is – not a shock, right? Sort of a known quantity. Second, when we think about these really important positions, there's a whole range of possible outcomes. And I would've said that of the four names that were in the final set of four that we kept hearing about in the news a lot. You know, some differences here and there across them, but none of them was substantially outside of what I would think of as mainstream sort of thinking. Nothing excessively unorthodox at all like that. So, in that regard as well, I think it should keep anybody from jumping to any big conclusions that there's a huge change that's imminent. I think the other thing that's really important is the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve really is made by a committee. The Federal Open Market Committee and committee matters in these cases. The Fed has been under lots of scrutiny, under lots of pressure, depending on how you want to put it. And so, as a result, there's a lot of discussion within the institution about their independence, making sure they stick very scrupulously to their congressionally given mandate of stable prices, full employment. And so, what does that mean in practice? That means in practice, to get a substantially different outcome from what the committee would've done otherwise… So, the market is pricing; what's the market pricing for the funds rate at the end of this year? About 3.2 percent. Andrew Sheets: Something like that. Yeah. Seth Carpenter: Yeah. So that's a reasonable forecast. It's not too far away from our house view. For us to end up with a policy rate that's substantially away from that – call it 1 percentage, 2 percentage points away from that. I just don't see that as likely to happen. Because the committee can be led, can be swayed by the chair, but not to the tune of 1 or 2 percentage points. And so, I think for all those reasons, there wasn't that much surprise and there wasn't, for me, a big reason to fully reevaluate where we think the Fed's going. Andrew Sheets: So let me actually dig into that a little bit more because I know our listeners tune in every day to hear a lot about government meetings. But this is a case where that really matters because I think there can sometimes be a misperception around the power of this position. And it's both one of the most public important positions in the world of finance. And yet, as you mentioned, it is overseeing a committee where the majority matters. And so, can you take us just a little bit inside those discussions? I mean, how does the Fed Chair interact with their colleagues? How do they try to convince them and persuade them to take a particular course of action? Seth Carpenter: Great question. And you're right, I sort of spent a bunch of time there at the Fed. I started when Greenspan was chair. I worked under the Bernanke Fed. And of course, for the end of that, Janet Yellen was the vice chair. So, I've worked with her. Jay Powell was on the committee the whole time. So, the cast of characters quite familiar and the process is important. So, I would say a few things. The chair convenes the meetings; the chair creates the agenda for the meeting. The chair directs the staff on what the policy documents are that the committee is going to get. So, there's a huge amount of influence, let's say, there. But in order to actually get a specific outcome, there really is a vote. And we only have to look back a couple weeks to the last FOMC meeting when there were two dissents against the policy decision. So, dissents are not super common. They don't happen at every single meeting, but they're not unheard of by any stretch of the imagination either. And if we go back over the past few years, lots going on with inflation and how the economy was going was uncertain. Chair Powell took some dissents. If we go back to the financial crisis Chair Bernanke took a bunch of dissents. If we go back even further through time, Paul Volcker, when he was there trying to staunch the flow of the high inflation of the 1970s, faced a lot of resistance within his committee. And reportedly threatened to quit if he couldn't get his way. And had to be very aggressive in trying to bring the committee along. So, the chair has to find a way to bring the committee along with the plan that the chair wants to execute. Lots of tools at their disposal, but not endless power or influence. Does that make sense? Andrew Sheets: That makes complete sense. So, maybe my final question, Seth, is this is a tough job. This is a tough job in… Seth Carpenter: You mean your job and my job, or… Andrew Sheets: [Laughs] Not at all. The chair of the Fed. And it seems especially tricky now. You know, inflation is above the Fed's target. Interest rates are still elevated. You know, certainly mortgage rates are still higher than a lot of Americans are used to over the last several years. And asset prices are high. You know, the valuation of the equity market is high. The level of credit spreads is tight. So, you could say, well, financial conditions are already quite easy, which can create some complications. I am sure Kevin Warsh is receiving lots of advice from lots of different angles. But, you know, if you think about what you've seen from the Fed over the years, what would be your advice to a new Fed chair – and to navigate some of these challenges? Seth Carpenter: I think first and foremost, you are absolutely right. This is a tough job in the best of times, and we are in some of the most difficult and difficult to understand macroeconomic times right now. So, you noted interest rates being high, mortgage rates being high. There's very much an eye of the beholder phenomenon going on here. Now you're younger than I am. The first mortgage I had. It was eight and a half percent. Andrew Sheets: Hmm. Seth Carpenter: I bought a house in 2000 or something like that. So, by those standards, mortgage rates are actually quite low. So, it really comes down to a little bit of what you're used to. And I think that fact translates into lots of other places. So, inflation is now much higher than the committee's target. Call it 3 percent inflation instead core inflation on PCE, rather than 2 percent inflation target. Now, on the one hand that's clearly missing their target and the Fed has been missing their target for years. And we know that tariffs are pushing up inflation, at least for consumer goods. And Chair Powell and this committee have said they get that. They think that inflation will be temporary, and so they're going to look through that inflation. So again, there's a lot of judgment going on here. The labor market is quite weak. Andrew Sheets: Hmm. Seth Carpenter: We don't have the latest months worth of job market data because of the government shutdown; that'll be delayed by a few days. But we know that at the end of last year, non-farm payrolls were running well below 50,000. Under most circumstances, you would say that is a clear indication of a super weak economy. But! But if we look at aggregate spending data, GDP, private-domestic final purchases, consumer spending, CapEx spending. It's actually pretty solid right now. And so again, that sense of judgment; what's the signal you're going to look for? That's very, very difficult right now, and that's part of what the chair is going to have to do to try to bring the committee together, in order to come to a decision. So, one intellectually coherent argument is – the main way you could get strong aggregate demand, strong spending numbers, strong GDP numbers, but with pretty tepid labor force growth is if productivity is running higher and if productivity is going higher because of AI, for example, over time you could easily expect that to be disinflationary. And if it's disinflationary, then you can cut it. Interest rates now. Not worry as much as you would normally about high inflation. And so, the result could be a lower path for policy rates. So that's one version of the argument that I suspect you're going to hear. On the other hand, inflation is high and it's been high for years. So what does that mean? Well. History suggests that if inflation stays too high for too long, inflation psychology starts to change the way businesses start to set. Andrew Sheets: Mm-hmm. Seth Carpenter: Their own prices can get a little bit loosey-goosey. They might not have to worry as much about consumers being as picky because everybody's got used to these price changes. Consumers might be become less picky because, well, they're kind of sick of shopping around. They might be more willing to accept those higher prices, and that's how things snowball. So, I do think that the new chair is going to face a particularly difficult situation in leading a committee in particularly challenging times. But I've gone on for a long, long time there. And one of the things that I love about getting to talk to you, Andrew, is the fact that you also talked to lots of investors all around the world. You're based in London. And so when the topic of the new Fed chair comes up, what are the questions that you're getting from clients? Andrew Sheets: So, I think that there are a few questions that stand out. I mean, I think a dominant question among investors was around the stability of the U.S. dollar. And so, you could say a good development on the back of Kevin Warsh's nomination is that the market response to that has been the price action you would associate with more stability. You've seen the dollar rise; you've seen precious metals prices fall. You've seen equity markets and credit spreads be very stable. So, I think so far everything in the market reaction is to your; to the point that you raised, you know, consistent with this still being orthodox policy. Every Fed chair is different, but still more similar than different now. I think where it gets more divergent in client opinions is just – what are we going to see from the Fed? Are we going to see a real big change in policy? And I think that this is where there are very different views of Kevin Warsh from investors. Some who say, ‘Well, he's in the past talked about fighting inflation more aggressively, which would imply tighter policy.' And he's also talked more recently about the productivity gains from AI and how that might support lower interest rates. So, I think that there's going to be a lot of interest when he starts to speak publicly, when we see testimony in front of the Senate. I think the other, the final piece, which I think again, people do not have as fully formed an opinion on yet is – how does he lead the Fed if the data is unexpected? And you know, you mentioned inflation and, you know, Morgan Stanley has this forecast that: Well, owner's equivalent rent, a really key part of inflation, might be a little bit higher than expected, which might be a distortion coming off of the government shutdown and impacts on data. But there's some real uncertainty about the inflation path over the near term. And so, in short, I think investors are going to give the benefit of the doubt. For now, I think they're going to lean more into this idea that it will be generally consistent with the Fed easing policy over time, for now. Generally consistent with a steeper curve for now. But I think there's a lot we're going to find out over the next couple of weeks and months. Seth Carpenter: Yeah. No, I agree with you. Andrew, I have to say, I'm glad you're here in New York. It's always great to sit down and talk to you. Let's do it again before too long. Andrew Sheets: Absolutely, Seth. Thanks for taking the time to talk. And to our audience, thank you as always for your time. If you find Thoughts the Market useful, let us know by leaving a review wherever you listen. And also tell a friend or colleague about us today.

In this special solo episode, we pull back the curtain on the everyday items we use without a second thought. From the rhythm of our city streets to the safety of our homes, Black inventors have shaped the physical world around us. As we celebrate the 100th Anniversary (1926–2026) of the movement that became Black History Month, we honor the names, the stories, and the brilliance that have been "hidden in plain sight."Host:Instagram: @AuthenticTalks2.0 Email: AuthenticShanta@gmail.com Website: www.AuthenticTalks2.com Facebook: AuthenticTalks2Youtube: @authentictalkswithshanta7489 Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/authentic-talks-2-0-with-shanta--4116672/support.

The panel looks at Adobe's past dominance, current challenges, and uncertain future as AI tools and lower-cost alternatives reshape the creative landscape. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, and Jeff Gamet cover how generative AI, subscription fatigue, collaboration gaps, and competitors like Affinity, Canva, and Figma are changing who really needs Adobe services such as Creative Cloud, while reflecting on historical tech shifts and whether Adobe's next chapter has already been written. A documentary recommendation wraps up this session. MacVoices is supported by Incogni. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Get 60% off an annual plan at https://incogni.com/chuck and use code “chuck" at checkout. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 Adobe's past, present, and AI disruption01:12 How AI fits into professional creative workflows03:09 Adobe's difficulty pivoting in a fast-moving market04:29 Desktop publishing history: PageMaker, Quark, and InDesign07:09 Public perception of AI “replacing” Adobe tools09:26 Photoshop Elements and missed marketing opportunities12:41 Subscription fatigue and rising alternatives14:04 Collaboration challenges and Canva/Affinity momentum17:45 Shift from print-centric tools to digital workflows22:13 Designers leaving Creative Cloud behind25:12 Adobe's legacy status and future positioning31:31 The Thinking Game documentary recommendation Links:Adobe's stock has slumped more than 45% since the end of 2023, reflecting analyst concerns over the threat of AI-driven disruption to SaaS companieshttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-13/adobe-analysts-turn-most-bearish-since-2013-as-ai-threat-looms The Thinking Game | Full documentary | Tribeca Film Festival official selectionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d95J8yzvjbQ Guests: Web Bixby has been in the insurance business for 40 years and has been an Apple user for longer than that.You can catch up with him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but prefers Bluesky. Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon     http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:     http://macvoices.com      Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner     http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:     https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes     Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

The panel looks at Adobe's past dominance, current challenges, and uncertain future as AI tools and lower-cost alternatives reshape the creative landscape. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, and Jeff Gamet cover how generative AI, subscription fatigue, collaboration gaps, and competitors like Affinity, Canva, and Figma are changing who really needs Adobe services such as Creative Cloud, while reflecting on historical tech shifts and whether Adobe's next chapter has already been written. A documentary recommendation wraps up this session. MacVoices is supported by Incogni. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Get 60% off an annual plan at https://incogni.com/chuck and use code "chuck" at checkout. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 Adobe's past, present, and AI disruption 01:12 How AI fits into professional creative workflows 03:09 Adobe's difficulty pivoting in a fast-moving market 04:29 Desktop publishing history: PageMaker, Quark, and InDesign 07:09 Public perception of AI "replacing" Adobe tools 09:26 Photoshop Elements and missed marketing opportunities 12:41 Subscription fatigue and rising alternatives 14:04 Collaboration challenges and Canva/Affinity momentum 17:45 Shift from print-centric tools to digital workflows 22:13 Designers leaving Creative Cloud behind 25:12 Adobe's legacy status and future positioning 31:31 The Thinking Game documentary recommendation Links: Adobe's stock has slumped more than 45% since the end of 2023, reflecting analyst concerns over the threat of AI-driven disruption to SaaS companies https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-13/adobe-analysts-turn-most-bearish-since-2013-as-ai-threat-looms The Thinking Game | Full documentary | Tribeca Film Festival official selection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d95J8yzvjbQ Guests: Web Bixby has been in the insurance business for 40 years and has been an Apple user for longer than that.You can catch up with him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but prefers Bluesky. Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

The Gemara in Masechet Shabbat (119) speaks of the great merit earned by responding "Yeheh Shemeh Rabba" to Kaddish, stating that responding "with all one's strength" has the ability to annul harsh decrees issued against a person. The conventional understanding of this teaching is that it refers to responding with Kavana (concentration), with full attention and emotion. However, Tosafot cite an explanation that the Gemara speaks here of responding in a loud voice. Accordingly, the Shulhan Aruch writes that one should respond to Kaddish both with Kavana, and in a loud voice. Although it is proper to respond to Kaddish out loud, one must ensure not to turn his response into a spectacle. The purpose of Kaddish is to bring glory to Hashem – not to bring glory to oneself. Therefore, if one responds to Kaddish in a manner that brings attention to himself, this undermines the entire purpose of this prayer. Generally speaking, it is improper when responding to the Hazzan's prayer to do so more loudly than the Hazzan. The verse in Tehillim (34:4) states, "Gadelu L'Hashem Iti" – "Give praise to G-d with me," implying that the leader and the congregation should pray together, at the same volume, without trying to drown out each other. Accordingly, when responding to Kaddish, one should ensure not to respond in a louder voice than the Hazzan (or of whoever it is who recites Kaddish). Interestingly, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Jerusalem, 1910-1995) maintained that this Halacha does not apply to the response of "Yeheh Shemeh Rabba." He contended that "Yeheh Shemeh Rabba" is not a response to the Hazzan, but rather an independent declaration. Therefore, one may recite "Yeheh Shemeh Rabba" even more loudly than the Hazzan. The accepted Halacha, however, does not follow this view, and instead treats "Yeheh Shemeh Rabba" as a response, which must therefore not be declared in a louder voice than the Hazzan's. Accordingly, the Kaf Ha'haim (Rav Yaakob Haim Sofer, Baghdad-Jerusalem, 1870-1939) writes that the Hazzan or person reciting Kaddish should ensure to say Kaddish loudly, so that the congregation can answer out loud without answering more loudly than him. Summary: One should respond to Kaddish with concentration and in a loud voice, though one should not respond more loudly than the Hazzan (or other person reciting Kaddish). Therefore, one who recites Kaddish should do so loudly, so that the congregation can respond loudly but not more loudly than his recitation.

Kiera is joined by the tooth-healer himself, Jason Dent! Jason has an extensive background in pharmacy, and shares with Kiera where his pharmaceutical experience has bled over into dentistry. This includes the difference between anti-quag and anti-platelet and which medications are probably safe, what to do to shorten the drag time in the pharmacy, how to write prescriptions most efficiently, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a really awesome and unique day. It is, think the second time I've had somebody in the podcast studio with me live for a podcast and it's the one and only Jason Dent. Jason, how are you? I'm doing well. Good morning. Thanks for having me. It is crazy. I I watch Instagram real like this all the time where people are like in the podcast and they're hanging out on two chairs and couches and now look at us. We're doing it. Cheers. Cheers.   That was a mic cheer for those of you who are only listening, but yeah, Jace, how does this feel to be on the podcast? It's weird. Like I was not nervous at all talking about it. I got really nervous as soon as you hit play. So if I stumble over my words, please forgive me ahead of time. Well, Jason, I appreciate you being on the podcast because marketing had asked me to do a topic about teledentistry and I was like, oh shoot, that's like not my forte at all. so   You and I were actually chatting in the hot tub. call it Think Tank session and you and I, we have a lot of good ideas that come from that Think Tank. A lot of business. no phones. That's why. We do leave our phones out. But I was talking to Jason and this is actually a podcast we had talked about quite a while ago. Jason has a lot of information on pharmacy. And if you don't know, Jason isn't really, we were going through all of it last night. It's kind of a mock in the tub. And I think it's going to be great because I feel like this is an area, I'm working at Midwestern and   knowing about how dentists, pharmacology was surely not your favorite one. Jason actually helps a lot of dentists with their clearances. And so we were talking about it and I like it will just be a really awesome podcast for you guys to brush up on pharmacology, different things from a pharmacist's side. So Jason, welcome. Thank you. Yeah, no, we were talking about it and here's like, what should I talk about on the podcast next? I have all these different topics and she's like, what do you know? And the only real interaction I have with dentists is doing clearances for procedures. We get them all the time, which makes sense.   Lots of people are on blood thinner, I've always told Kiera, like, hey, I could talk about that. Like, that's kind of a passion of mine. I'm not a dentist. Or my name is Jason Dent. So in Hebrew, Jason means tooth. No, no, no, sorry. Nerves are getting to me. Jason means healer and Dent means tooth. So my name means tooth healer. So, here's a little set. Hold on, on, hold Can we just talk about? I brought that up before you could talk about it more. So.   My name means tooth healer but I did not become a dentist. I know you wanted me to become a dentist. did. I don't know why. I enjoy medicine. I know what you're going to get to already. The things you're going to ask me. There's been years of this. But nevertheless, that's my name. We'll get that out of the way. But you did give me a great last name. So I mean, it's OK. You're All is fair and love here. SEO's up for that. But yeah, Jason, I'm going to get you right into the show. And I'm going to be the host. And we're going to welcome to the podcast show. Jace, how are you?   Good, good, good. Good, good, good. So by getting into clearances, right? This is what you're kinda talking about with you know, before we get to clearances, I actually wanted Jason, for the listeners who don't know you, who haven't talked to you, who don't know, let's kinda just give them like, how did you go from, Kiera wanted you to be a dentist, to now Jason, you are on the podcast talking as our expert on pharmacy. fantastic. I've always really loved medicine, a ton. As a kid getting headaches and taking Excedrin, like you just feel like a miserable pile of crap.   and then you take two pills and all of a sudden you feel better. Like that's amazing, like how does that happen? Also getting ear aches as a kid, just being in so much pain and then taking some medicine and you start feeling a lot better. I always had a lot of appreciation for that. I've always been mechanically inclined. I went to, started doing my undergrad and took biology and learned about ATP synthase, which is a spinning enzyme that's inside the mitochondria, like a turbine engine. I used to work on small engines on my dirt bike and thought that is so cool. So I really got wrapped up into chemistry.   All the mechanics of chemistry really pulled me in. I'm not getting goosebumps. checking. I usually get goosebumps when I think about chemistry. But it's so cool. You think an engine's awesome, like pistons and camshafts and pressures, the cell is the same thing. It's not as loud, so it's not as cool. But it's fascinating. that's why we're like. ⁓   chemistry and really got into coagulation. So I did my residency after pharmacy school. we went to Arizona for three years. ⁓ You did and your main focus, you were never wanting to be the guy behind the counter. No, I haven't done that. Yeah. No, I love them though. I've always really want to go clinical. ⁓ But I love my retail ⁓ pharmacists. They're amazing resources. And ⁓ I use the retail pharmacist every day still to this day, but I went more the clinical route, really love the chemistry aspect of it.   did my doctorate degree and then I did my residency in Reno. Reno's kind That's how we got here everybody. Welcome to Reno. Strategically placed because I was really interested in critical medicine and where we're located we cover a huge area. So we pull in to almost clear, we go clear to Utah, clear to California, all of Northern Nevada. We get cases from all over. So we actually are kind like the first hub of care for lot of areas. So we really get an eclectic mixture of patients that come in that need-   all kinds of different cases that are coming to them. So it's what I really wanted. So I did my residency in critical care there. And then for the next 10 years, I worked in vascular medicine with my final five years being the supervisor of the clinic. Ran all the ins and outs of that. So my providers, two doctors were on our view. So when we talk about dentistry, talk about production, those kinds of things, totally get it. My doctors were the exact same way, my vascular providers. ⁓   There's some pains there, right? You wanna be seeing patients as much as possible, being able to help as many people, keeping the billing up. And had other nurse practitioners, four practitioners, a fleet of MAs, eight pharmacists. We also had that one location we had, going off the top of my head, I think we had eight locations running as well. And we took care of all the different kinds of vascular cases that came to us. Most common was blood clots, ⁓ which is just a...   which is an easier way of saying VTE. There's so many different ways to say a blood clot. Like you might hear patients say, I've had a PE or a DVT or a venous thromboembolism or a clot in my leg, right? They're all clots, but in different locations. Same with an MI, and MI can be a clot as well. ⁓ there's a lot of, everybody's kind of saying the same thing, but sometimes the nomenclature can make it sound hard, but it really is actually pretty simple.   No. And Jason, I love that you went through, you've been in like, and even in your, ⁓ when you were getting your doctorate, you were in the ER. You also worked in retail pharmacy. remember you having a little sticker on your hand. And retail pharmacy, I have a lot of respect for those guys. They have a lot of pressure on them. and then you also, ⁓ what was that test that you had to take that? I don't know. You were like studying forever for it. ⁓ board certification for, ⁓ NABP. Yeah. So I did that board certification as well.   And now you've moved out of the hospital side onto another section in your career. Now in the insurance, right? So it's really, really interesting. So now I'm on the other side reading notes and evaluating clinical appropriateness and trying to help patients with getting coverage and making those kinds of determinations. So yeah, I've really jumped all over. Really love my clinical days. I know. don't I don't I do miss them. But yeah, kind of had a good exposure to a lot of.   pharmacy a lot a lot of dentists actually with all the places that come through which Jason I really appreciate that and honestly I know you are my spouse and so it's fun to have you on but when I go into conversations like this I don't know any of this information and so finding experts and Jason I think here's me talk more about dentistry and my business than I do hear about him on pharmacy so as we were chatting about this I really realized you are a wealth of knowledge because you've been on the clinical side so you've done a lot of patient care and you've seen how   medications interact and I know you've had a few scares in your career and ⁓ you've known some physicians that have had a few scares and ⁓ you've seen plenty of patients pass away working in the ER and gosh in Arizona drownings were such a big deal. I remember when you were in the ER on your rotations I'd be like who died today? Like tell me the stories and you've really seen and now going on to the insurance side I felt like you could just be such a good wealth of knowledge because I know dentists are sometimes so   I would say like maybe just a little more anxious when it comes to medications. I know that dental students from Midwestern were like here was like four months and we had to like pass it, learn it. And Jason, you've done four years plus clinical residency, plus you've been in it. And something I really love about Nevada Medicine is they've been so collaborative with you.   like your heart, your cardiologist, they diagnose and then they send to you to treat with medicine and... Yeah, I've been really lucky being here in Reno too. The cardiology team has been amazing to work with. We started a CHF program, sorry, congestive heart failure program for patients. So we would collaborate with cardiologists. They'd see the cardiologists and then they send them to the pharmacist to really manage all the medications. So there's pillars of therapy ⁓ called guideline directed medical therapy and the pharmacist would take care of all that. So that's gonna be your...   your beta blockers, your ACEs, your ARBs, your Entresto, which would be a little bit better, spironolactone. So just making sure that all these things are dosed appropriately, really monitoring the heart, and make sure that patients are getting better. we've had real positive outcomes when the, sorry, this is totally off topic. do, talk about that study. When we looked at when patients were coming to see our pharmacists in our clinic that we started up, the patients were half as likely to be readmitted. And this was in 2018, and our pharmacists,   We're thinking about all the medications. We're usually adjusting diabetes medications too at the same time. Just kind of naturally just taking care of all the medications because we kind of got a go ahead from the providers, a collaborative practice agreement that we could make adjustments to certain medications within certain parameters. So we weren't going rogue or maverick, but we were definitely trying to optimize our medications as much as possible. And then years later, some studies came out with, I'm sure you've seen Jardins and Farseegh. not trying to, I'm not.   I don't get any kickback from them. I have no conflicts to share. But because our pharmacists were really optimizing that medication, those medications were later shown to reduce hospitalizations and heart failure, even though they're diabetes medications. Fascinating. So it wasn't really the pharmacists. It was just the pharmacists doing as much as they can with all the tools that were in front of them. And then we found out that the patients were going back to the hospital.   half as much as regular patients. So, yeah, being here, it's been so amazing to work with providers here. the providers here want help, want to help patients, don't have an ego. I mean, I just, it's awesome. I love it. I do love how much I think Jason sees me geek out about dentistry and I watching Jay's geek about his pharmacy and how much he loves helping patients. And ⁓ really that was the whole idea of, all right.   Dentistry has pharmacy as a part of it. And I know a lot of dentists are sending in clearances and I know working in a chair side, it would be like, oh no, if they're on warfarin or on their own blood clot, you guys, honestly don't even know half of what I'm talking about because this is not my jam, which is why Jason's here. But I do know that there was always like, well, we got to talk with their provider. And so having Jason come in and just kind of explain being the pharmacist that is approving or denying or saying yes or no to take them off the blood thinners in different parts, because you have seen several dental   I don't know what they're called. What is it? Clarence's? that what comes to you? don't even know. All day my mind, it's like, here is the piece of paper that gets mailed to you to the pharmacist and then you mail it back. So whatever that is. But Chase, let's talk about it because I think you can give the dentist a lot of confidence coming from a pharmacist. What you guys see on that side. When do you actually need to approve or disapprove? Let's kind of dig into that. Yeah. Well, first of all, I think I'm not a replacement for any kind of clinical judgment whatsoever. Every patient's different. But the American Diabetes Association, you   I work with diabetes a lot. American Dental Association has some really great guidelines on blood thinners and I would always reference them. I actually looked at their website today. Make sure I'm up to speed before I get back on this again. They have resources all around making decisions for blood thinners. And I think the one real important thing in putting myself in the shoes of a dentist or any kind of staff that's around a patient that's in a chair, if they say I'm on a blood thinner, right, a flag goes up. At least in my mind, that's what goes up.   Like, okay, how do we get across this bridge? And I think the important thing to really distinct right then when they say they're on a blood thinner is that is kind of a slang word for a lot of different medications, right? Like it's the overarching word that everybody pulls up saying, I'm on a blood thinner. It's like, okay, but I don't know what say. It's like, I have a car. You're like, okay, do you have a Mazda? Do you have?   Toyota, Honda, what do you have? or even worse it'd be like saying I have a vehicle, right? So when somebody says they're on a blood thinner, it opens up a whole box of possibilities of what they're Blood thinners are also, doesn't, when they're taking these types of medications that are quote unquote a blood thinner, it doesn't actually thin the blood, like adding water to the blood, if that makes sense, or like thinning paint, or like thinning out a gravy, right? It doesn't do the same thing. Blood thinners, really what they're doing is they're working on the blood, which.   which is really cool, try not to tangent on that. ⁓ When they're working on the blood, it's not thinning it per se, but it's making it so that the proteins or platelets that are in it can't stick together and make a cloth quite as easy. So whenever somebody's on a blood thinner, I usually ask, what's the name of the blood thinner that you're on? It's not bad that they use that slang, that's okay, on the same page, but it's really broken into two different classes. There's anticoagulant and antiplatelet.   And a way to kind of remember which is which, when residents would come through our clinics, the way that I teach them is a clot is like a brick wall. You know, it's not always a brick wall. Usually the blood is a liquid going through. But once they receive some kind of chemical message, it starts making a brick wall with the mortar, which is the concrete between the and the bricks, the two parts. When it's an anti-quagent, it's working on that mortar part. When it's an anti-platelet, it's working on the bricks part, right? You need both to make a strong clot or strong brick wall.   But if you can make one of them not work, obviously like if your mortar is just water, it's not working, right? You're not gonna make a strong brick wall. So that's kind of the two deviants right there. So that's what I do in my mind real quickly to find out because antiplatelets are usually, so that's gonna be like your Plavix, Ticagrelor, Brilinta. And hold on, antiplatelets are bricks? Good job, bricks. They're the bricks. And so the reason I was thinking you could remember this because I'm, antiplatelets, it's a plate and a plate is more like a brick.   And anti coagulant, I don't know why quag feels like mortar to me, like quag, like, know, it's like slushy in the blood, like it's coagulating. It's a little bit of that, like, honestly, I'm just thinking like coagulated blood is a little bit more mortar-ish. And so platelet is your plate, like a brick, and anti-quag is like.   the gilly between the bricks. Okay, okay, I got it. Yeah, so there's an exception to every rule, but when they're on that Don't worry, this is Kiera, just like very basic. You guys are way smarter listening to this, and that's why Jason's here. No, no, you helped me pass pharmacy school. When we were doing all the top 200, you helped me memorize all know what flexorill is, all right? That's a muscle relaxant. Cyclo? I don't know that part. It's a cyclo, because you guys are cycling and flexing. I don't actually know. just know it's a muscle relaxant, so that's about as far as I got. When we're looking at antitick platelets, so that's the brick part, so that's going to be your, you know,   Hecagrelor, Breitlingta, Clopidogrel is the most common one. It's the cheapest one, so probably see that one the most. Those, I mean, there's an exception to every rule, but that's generally being used after like a stent's placed in the heart. It can be used for VTE, there's some out there, but that's pretty rare. But also for some valves that are placed in the hearts, it can be used for that as well. So antiplatelet, really thinking more like a cardiac event, right? Like I said, there's always an exception to every rule, but that's kind of where my mind goes real quickly, because we're gathering information from the patient.   They're on anticoagulant. Those are like going to be the new ones that you see commercials for all the time. So Xeralto, Alequis, those are the two big ones right now. They're replacing the older one. And also we were supposed to do a disclaimer of this is current as of today because the ADA guidelines do change. this will be current as of today. And Jason, as a pharmacist, is always looking up on that. I had no clue that you are that up to speed on dental knowledge. so just throwing it out there that if you happen to catch his podcast,   a few years back that obviously check those guidelines for sure. But the new ones are the Xarelto and Eloquist. They're replacing the older ones of warfarin. Warfarin's been around for a really long time. We've seen that one. Those are anti-coagulants. So when you're looking, when a patient says that, generally they're on that medication because they've possibly had a clot in the past or they have a heart condition called atrial fibrillation. Those are kind of the two big ones. Like I said, there's always caveats to it, but that's kind of where my mind goes real quickly. And then,   as far as getting patients cleared, the American Dental Association has really good resources on their website. You can look at those and they're always refreshing that up. They even say in their own words that there's limited data around studying patients in the dental chair and with anticoagulants or anti-platelets. It's pretty limited. There's a few studies, some from 2015, some from 2018. There's one as recent as 2021, which is nice. But really, all of those studies come together and it's really more of an expert consensus.   And with that expert consensus, they have kind of simplified things for dentistry, which is really nice. ⁓ comparing that to, we have more data for like total hip replacement, total knee replacement. We have a lot of data and we know really what we should be doing around then. But going back to dentistry, we don't have as much information, so they always say use clinical judgment, but they do give some really great expert guidance on that. So if a patient's on an anticoagulant, ⁓   they generally recommend that it doesn't need to be stopped unless there's a high bleeding risk for a patient. as a provider or as a clinician in the practice, you can be looking at high bleeding risk. Some things that make an oral procedure a little bit lower risk is one, it's in the compressible site, right? Like we can actually put pressure on that site. That's the number one way to stop bleeding is adding pressure. It's not like it's in the abdominal cavity where we can't get in and can't apply pressure. So number one, that kind of reduces the bleeding risk.   is number one. Two, we can add topical hemostatic agents. Dentists would know that better than me. There's a lot of topical ways to do that. So not only pressure, but there's those things as well. And also, but there are some procedures that are a little bit more likely to bleed. And that's where you and dentists would come in hand in What's the word in APO? Oh, the APOectomy. I got it right. Good job. like, didn't you tell me last night that the ADA guideline was like what?   three or four or more teeth? great question. So you can extract one to three teeth is what their expert consensus One to three teeth without. Without really managing or stopping anticoagulation or doing anything like that. I think that's some good guidance from them. I'm gonna add a Jasonism on that though. So with warfarin, I do see why dentists would be a little bit more conservative or worried about stopping the warfarin because warfarin isn't as stable as these newer agents. Warfarin, the levels.   quote unquote levels can go really high, they can go really low. And if the warfarin levels are high, they're more likely to bleed. So I do think it makes sense to have a really recent INR. That's how we measure what the warfarin's doing. I think that makes a lot of sense, but the ADA guidelines really go into the simplification version of all these blood thinners. Generally, it's recommended to not stop them because the risk of stopping them outweighs the benefit of stopping them in almost every case. Almost every case.   ⁓ So when you're with that patient, right, they say I'm on a blood thinner, finding out which kind of blood thinner that they're on, you find out that they're on Xeralto, right? How long have you been on Xeralto for? I've been on it for years. You don't know exactly why, but if they haven't had any recent bleeding, you're only gonna remove one tooth. ⁓ You can do what's called a HasBlood score. That kind of looks at the bleeding risk that they'd have. That'd be kind of going a notch above, but in my mind, removing one tooth isn't a real serious bleeding risk. I'd love to hear from my dentist friends if they...   disagree, right, but ADA says one to three tooth removals, extractions, that's the fancy word. Extractions, yeah, for extracting teeth out. Is not really that invasive. Sure. It's not that high risk, so it's usually perfectly fine. So if a patient was on Xarelto, ⁓ no other, this is in a vacuum, right? I'm not looking at any other factors, which you should be looking at other factors. I would be perfectly fine to just remove one to two.   And when those clearances come in, because dentists do send them, talk about what happens. You guys were working in the hospital and you guys would get these clearances all the time. do. We get them so often. I mean, we get like four or five a day. We'd love to give it to our students, student pharmacists, and ask them what to do. And they would usually look up the American Dental Association guidelines and come up with something. We're like, yep, that's what we say too. In fact, we say it so many times a day that we have a smart phrase.   which just blows in the information real quickly and faxes it right back to the So it's like a copy paste real quick. So what I wanted to point out when Jason told me this is dentists like hearing this and learning this, this can actually save you guys a ton of time to be able to be more confident, to not need to send those clearances on. And we were actually talking last night about how I think this might be a CYA for dentists. like, as we were talking, I think Jason, you seeing so many other aspects of medicine, like you've literally seen patients die, you've seen other areas.   And so coming from that clinical vantage point, we were realizing that dentists, we are so blessed to live in an injury. I enjoy dentistry because possibly there's someone dying, not super high, luckily in dentistry. The only time that I have actually had a doctor have a patient pass away, and it was only when they were completely sedated and doing ⁓ some other things, but that was under the care of an anesthesiologist. And so that's really our high, high risk. And so hearing this, Jason,   That was one of the reasons I wanted him to come on is to give you doctors more confidence of do we have to always send to a pharmacist? I mean, hearing that on the pharmacy side, they're just sending these back and not to say to not see why a to not cover this because you might be questioning like, well, do I really need to? But you also were talking about some other ways of so number one, you guys are just going to copy back the 88 guidelines. So so 88 guidelines. Yeah. And I think that that gives a lot of confidence to a provider or a dentist is that you can go to the 88 guidelines and read them, right? Like you're listening to some   nasally monotone pharmacist on a podcast. Rumor has it, people love him at the hospital. were like, you're the voice, he's been told he has a good radio So for the clinic, I was the voice. Like, yeah, you've reached the vascular clinic, right? And they're like, oh my gosh, you're the voice. But sorry, you me distracted. That'll be your next career, Jace. You're going to be a radio host. OK. I would love that. I love music. But you're hearing from a nasally guy, but you can actually read the ADA guidelines. You just go right to the ADA, click on Resources, and under Resources, it has the   around anticoagulants, I think that's the best way to get a lot of confidence about it because they have dentists who are the experts making calls on these. I'm just reiterating what they say, but I think it makes a lot of sense to help providers. And the reason why my heart goes out to you as well is having the providers that used to work underneath me, they're always looking for our views, which is a fancy way of making sure that they're drilling and filling. Can I say that? Yeah, can say drilling and filling. They're being productive, right? They're being productive, right?   They're always looking to make sure if a patient's canceling, like get somebody in here. Like I need to be helping people all day long. That's how I, we keep the lights on. That's how I help as many people. And so if you have a patient coming in the chair and it has an issue, they say I'm on Xeralto. Well, you can ask real quickly, why are you on Xeralto? I had a clot 10 years ago. my gosh. Well, yeah, we're pretty good to go. Then I'm not worried. We're only removing one tooth or we're just doing a cavity or a cleaning. Something like that. Shouldn't be an issue whatsoever because there's experts in the dental. ⁓   in the dental society, the ADA guidelines that recommend three teeth or less, minimally invasive. They really recommend if it's gonna be really high bleeding risk. And clinically, that's where you would come in, ⁓ or yourself. know, apioectomy is one that's like on the fence line. I don't know where implants set. though, and like we were talking, implants aren't usually like a date of procedure. Most people aren't popping in, having tooth pain, and we're like, let's do an implant. Now sometimes that can be the case, but typically that one's gonna have   a few other pieces involved. And so that is where you can get a clearance if you want to. ⁓ But we were really looking at this of like so many dentists that I know that you've seen will just send in these clearances because they are. And I think maybe a way to help dentists have more confidence is because you know, I love routines. I love to not have to remember things. So why don't we throw it in, have the team member set it up where every quarter we just double check the ADA guidelines. Are there any updates? Are there any other things that we need to do on that? That way you can just see like   getting into the language of this, of what do I need to do? Because honestly, you guys, know pharmacy was not a big portion for it, so, recommending different parts, but I think this is such a space where you can have confidence, and there's a few other things I wanna get to, and I you- I some pearls too. Okay, go. I'm so when she get me into talking about drugs, I'm not gonna stop. So, some other things around that too is these newer blood thinners like Xarelto Eloquist, they now have reversal agents, so a lot of providers in the past were really worried about bleeding because we can't turn it off. We can turn those off. Warfarin has reversal as well, right?   So I'm looking at these patients. It's really low risk. It's in the mouth, generally speaking. Very rarely are they a high bleeding risk. Now if you're doing maxillofacial surgery, this does not apply, right? This does not apply whatsoever. you're like general dentist, you're pediatric dentist. Yeah, yeah, and it's kind of on the fly. So just trying to really help you to be able to take care of those patients on the moment, have that confidence, look at the ADA guidelines, have that in front of you. I don't think it's a bad thing to ever...   check with their provider if you need to. If you're thinking, I feel like I should just check with the provider, I would never take that away from you. But I just want to kind of steer towards those guidelines that I have to help. But what did you want to share? No, yeah, I love that. And I think there were just a few other nuggets that we were chatting about last night that can help dentists just kind of get things passed a little bit easier. So you were mentioning that if they were named to their cardiologist, what was it? was like, who is the last? Great question. Yeah, when a patient's on a blood thinner,   It could be prescribed by the cardiologist. It could be prescribed by the family provider or could have been punted to like a vascular clinic like where I was working. It can go to any of those. And when you send that fax, right, if it goes to the cardiologist and it's supposed to go to the family care provider, like it just kind of goes, goes nowhere, right, from there. So I think it's a really good idea to find out who prescribed it last. If the patient doesn't know who prescribed their blood thinner last, you can call their pharmacy. I call pharmacies all day long.   I have noticed in the last year, they are way easier to get a hold of, which has made my job a lot easier, working on the insurance portion. So reaching out to the pharmacy, finding out who that provider is and sending it to them, because they should be able to help with that. I thought that was a good shift in verbiage that you had of asking instead of like the cardiologist, because that's who you would assume was the one. But you said like so many times you guys would take care of them, and then they go back to family practitioner, and you guys would get the clearances, but you couldn't clear because you weren't overseeing. So just asking the patient.   who prescribed their medication for them last time. That way you can send the clearance to the correct provider. then- And they might not know. You know patients, right? They're like, I don't know, my mom's or else, I don't know who gave it to me. Somebody told me I need to be on this. But at least that could be another quick thing. And then also we were talking last night about-   ⁓ What are some other things that dentists can do when like writing scripts to help them get what I think like overarching theme of everything we discussed is one how to help dentists have less I think drag through pharmacy. ⁓ Because pharmacy can take a little while and so perfect we now know the difference between anti-quag and anti-platelet. We know which medications are probably safe. We know we can check the ADA guidelines so that we were not having to do as many clearances. We also know if they're on a medication to find out and we do need a clearance.   who we can go to for the fastest, easiest result. And now, in talking about prescriptions, you had some really interesting tips that you could share with them. Yeah, so with writing prescriptions, right, pharmacies are pharmacies. So I'm not gonna say good thing or bad thing. There are challenges working with pharmacies. I'm not gonna play that down at all. ⁓ If you're writing prescriptions and having issues and kickbacks from pharmacies, there's some interesting laws around ⁓ writing prescriptions. Say that you're trying to ⁓ prescribe   augmentin, you know, 875 BID, and you tell the patient, hey, I want you to take this twice a day for seven days, and then you put quantity of seven, because you're moving fast, right? You want it for seven days, quantity of seven. Quantity would actually be 14, right? It's not that big of a deal. Anybody with common sense would say if you're taking a pill for twice a day for seven days, you need 14 tablets. But LAHA doesn't allow pharmacists to make that kind of a change, unfortunately. They have to follow what you're saying there. So you're going to get a...   An annoying callback that says, you wrote for seven tablets. I know you need 14. Is that OK? Just delays things, right? So ⁓ I really like the two letters QS. That's Q isn't queen. S isn't Sam. Yeah. It stands for quantity sufficient. So you don't have to calculate the amount of any medication that you're doing. So for me, as a pharmacist, when I was taking care of patients, I hated calculating the amount of insulin they would need for an entire month. So I would say.   Mrs. Jones needs 15, I'd say 15 units ⁓ QD daily. ⁓ And then I say QS, quantity sufficient, ⁓ 90 day supply through refills. So the pharmacy can then go calculate how much insulin that they need. I don't have to even do that. So anytime you're prescribing anything, I like that QS personally. So that lets the pharmacy use ⁓ common sense, as I like to call it, instead of giving you a call. I think that's super helpful. I also thought of one thing too.   going back to blood thinners is when it's kind of like a real quick, like they're not gonna have you stop the blood thinner at all. like you're seeing if you can stop the blood thinner for a patient, there's some instances it's just not gonna happen. And that's whenever they've been, they've had a clot or a stroke or a heart attack within the last three months. Three months. Yeah, that's kind of like the.   Because so many people are like, they had a heart thing like six years ago. And so I think a lot of my dentists that I worked with were like, we got to stop the blood thinners. But it sounds like it's within three months. Yeah, well, I'm just the time. Like this is general broad strokes. What I'm just trying to say is when you want to expect a no real quick. Got it. Right. So because benefits of stopping a blood thinner within those first three months of an event is very, very risky versus the, you know, the benefit of reducing a little bit of blood coming out of the mouth. Right. Like that's not that bad.   when somebody's had a stroke or a heart attack or pulmonary embolism, a clot in the lung, like we can't replace the lung, heart or brain very easily. We can replace blood a lot better. We've got buckets of it at most hospitals have buckets of it, right? So I'm always kind of leaning towards I'd rather replace blood than tissue at all times. So that's kind of a quick no. If they've had one those events in the last three months, we are really, really gonna watch their brain instead of getting.   root canal, right? Like really worried about them. So you'll just say no. And they could the dentist still proceed with the procedure or would you recommend like a three month wait? Or is it provider specific way the pros and cons because sometimes you need to get that tooth out. Great question. think then it's going to come into clinical. That's that's when you send in the clearance, right? Like, and it's great to reach out to the provider who's managing it for you. But I think it's kind of good to know exactly when you get a quick no quick no is going to be less than three months.   ⁓ Or when it's going to be like a kind of a typical, yeah, no problem. If it's been no greater than six months, they're on the typical anticoagulants or alto eloquence. Nothing crazy is going on for them. You're only removing two teeth. This is very, very low risk. But again, I'd urge everybody to read the ADA guidelines. That way you feel more comfortable with it. I'm not as eloquent as they do. They do a real good job. So I don't want to take any of their credit. I think they do a real good job of simplifying that and making you feel confident with providing.   more timely care for patients. Which is amazing. And Jayce, one last thing. I don't remember what it was. You were talking about the DEA and like six month rule. yeah. Let's just quickly talk about that and then we'll wrap this because this is such a fascinating thing for me last night. Yeah. So when comes to prescribing controlled substances, most providers have to have a DEA license. OK. First of all, though, what's your take on dentist prescribing controlled substances? ⁓ I don't think, you know, I worked on the insurance side of things. Right. And I look at the requirements for the   as the authorizations, what a patient, the criteria a patient needs to hit in order to qualify for certain medications. A lot of times for those controlled substances, they have pretty significant issues going on, like fibromyalgia or cancer-related pain or end-of-life care versus we don't, in all my scanning thread, I don't have a ⁓ perfect picture memory. Sure. But I don't usually see oral.   pain in there. There is some post-operative pain that can be covered for those kind of medications but I really recommend to keep those lower and in fact in a lot of our criteria it recommends you know have they tried Tylenol first, they tried, have they filled NSAIDs or are they contraindicated with the patient. So really they should be last line for patients in my two cents but there's always going to be a caveat to the rule right? Of course. comes through that has oral cancer and you're taking   like that would make sense to me. Got it, so then back to the DEA. Yeah, okay. Okay, ready. So as a provider, you should be checking the, if you're doing controlled substances, you should be checking the prescription drug monitoring program, or sometimes called the PDMP, looking to see if patients are getting ⁓ controlled substances from another provider. So it's really just a check and balance to make sure that they're not going from provider to provider to getting too many narcotics and causing self harm or harm to others.   And so with checking that PDMP before prescribing, I think a lot of providers do that. A lot of softwares that I'm aware of, EMRs, electronic medical records, sometimes have links so that you can do that more quickly. However, I don't think it's as intuitive that they need to be checking that every six months in some states. And like here in Nevada, you're supposed to be checking it every six months, not for a patient, but for your actual DEA registration to see if anybody else is prescribing underneath you. Because if you don't check that every six months, you could get in some serious trouble with...   not only DEA, but even more the Board of Pharmacy and your state. Now, I don't know all 50 states, so I check with your state to see if you need to be checking that every six months, but set an alarm just to check that real quickly, keep your nose clean. ⁓ I've had providers, I've had to remind to do that. And if somebody was using your account, prescribing narcotics, you'd never know unless you went and checked that PDMP.   Yeah, I remember last night you were like, and if that was you, I would not want to be you. The Board of Pharmacy is going to be real excited to find you. So that was something where I was like, got it. So, and we all know I'm big on let's make it easy. And Jason, I love that you love this so much and you just brought so much value today. And like also for me, it's just fun to podcast. fun. Yeah. But I got a nerd out on my world a little bit. Bring it into yours. I work with dentists or at least you know, when I was working in Vascular Clinic all day long. Great questions that would come through. Yeah.   So I think for all of us, as a recap on this is number one, I think setting yourself ⁓ some cadences. So maybe every quarter we check our ADA guidelines and we check our, what is it, PDMP. PDMP. so each state, so they call it Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. We need that. Yeah, but there are different acronyms in different states, though. That's just what it's called in Nevada. I forget what it is in California, but you can check your state's prescription monitoring program, make sure that opioids aren't being prescribed under your name. Got it. So we just set that as a cadence.   We know one to three teeth most likely if they're on a blood thinner is According to the 88 as of today is good to go You know things that are going to get a quick know are going to be within the last three months of the stroke the heart attack or the Clot I'm thinking like the pulmonary embolus. Yeah, that's what we're trying to prevent   Those are gonna be quick knows and then if we're prescribing, let's do QS. We've got quantity is sufficient so that we're not getting phone calls back on those medications that we are. And then on narcotics, just being a bit more cautious. Of course, this is provider specific and in no way, or form did Jason come on here to tell you you are the clinical expert.   Jason's the clinical expert on medications. And if you guys ever have questions, I know Jason, you geek out and you want to talk to people so that anyone wants to chat shop. Be sure to reach out and we'll be able to connect you in. we've even talked about possibly, so let me know listeners. You can email in Hello@TheDentalATeam.com of ask a pharmacist anything. I talked to Jason. I was like,   We'll just have them like send in questions and maybe get you back on the podcast or we do a webinar. But any last thoughts, Jace, you've got of pharmacy and dentistry as we as we wrap up today? No, I think that's pretty much it. So check the ADA guidelines. I think it's really good to have cross communication between professions. Right. If you're working with the pharmacy, CVS, Walgreens or something like that or Walmart, I know that it can be challenging. Right. They're under different pressures. You're under different pressure. So I think ⁓ just coming in with an understanding, not being angry at each other.   you know what mean, is super beneficial and working together. When it comes to it, every dentist that I've talked to is actually worried about their patient. Every pharmacist that I've worked with is really worried about the patient as well. So we're trying to accomplish the same thing, but we have different rules and our hands are bound in different ways that annoy each other, right? Like I know Dr. Jones, want 14 tablets, but you said seven. And I know Common Sense says I should give them 14, but I've got to make that change.   knowing that their hands are tied by the law. They can't use as much common sense, which is aggravating. I mean, that's why I love what I gotta do here. I gotta just kind of help a lot more and use common sense and improve patient care. But those kinds of things I think are really beneficial as you work together and then not being so afraid of blood thinners, right? So I think those guidelines do a great job of giving you confidence and not worrying about the side effects. And there's a lot of things that you can do locally for bleeding.   You have a lot of control over that. I think that's pretty cool, the tools they have. Yeah. And at the end of the day, yes, you are the clinician. You are the one who is responsible for this. so obviously, chat, but I think collaborating, talking to other pharmacists, talking to them in your state, finding out what are the state laws, things like that I think can be really beneficial just to give you peace of mind and confidence. And again, dentistry, are maybe a bit more risk adverse because luckily we don't have patients dying That's great thing. Yeah, that's fantastic. I want my dentists to be risk adverse. I think so too. But Jason, I appreciate you being on the podcast today.   And for all of you listening, ⁓ more confidence, more clarity, more streamline to be able to serve and help our patients better. if we can help you in any way or you've got more questions, reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.