Podcasts about George Mason University

Newt talks with Jack Salmon, Gibbs Scholar and Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. They discuss the introduction of wealth taxes in several U.S. states, including California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, and Washington, which are targeting high net worth individuals. This has led to a migration of wealthy individuals to states with no such taxes, like Florida and Texas. Washington State, which previously had no income tax, has introduced a 9.9% tax on income over a million dollars, contributing to a significant exodus of high earners, including notable figures like Jeff Bezos. Their discussion highlights the economic consequences of such tax policies, including the loss of tax revenue and potential negative impacts on local economies. The also discuss the importance of fiscal responsibility at the state level and the need for states to prepare for potential federal funding reductions based on the increasing national debt.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

**Content Warning** This episode includes discussions of sexual assault, which may be distressing for some listeners. Please listen with care.On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, David Schmidtz delivers a keynote lecture at the 2024 Markets & Society conference on the idea of self-governance. Drawing on examples from economics, moral philosophy, and higher education, Schmidtz argues that rational choice is less about optimization and more about choosing the frameworks within which decisions become meaningful. He examines the parallels between individual and corporate self-governance, the role of mission statements as “compasses” rather than formulas, and the dangers of over-specialization in academia. Along the way, he reflects on truth-seeking, academic freedom, moral education, and the human need for purposiveness, ultimately challenging universities to cultivate enduring capacities rather than narrow skill sets.Dr. David Schmidtz is Professor and Presidential Chair of Moral Science at West Virginia University's Chambers College of Business & Economics, Distinguished Affiliated Fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and Editor-in-Chief of Social Philosophy & Policy. He has published numerous books, including Living Together: Inventing Moral Science (Oxford University Press, 2023), A Brief History of Liberty (Wiley Blackwell, 2011) coauthored with Jason Brennan, and his leading textbook Environmental Ethics What Really Matters, What Really Works (Oxford University Press, 2024) co-edited with Dan Shahar is now in its fourth edition.**This episode was recorded October 13, 2024.If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today!Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatusCC Music: Twisterium

Eliza R. Snow is perhaps the woman in our Relief Society history who we hear the most about, and for good reason. She was a writer, organizer, temple worker, and advocate for women. She was an accomplished teacher and encouraged fellow sisters to overcome fears of public speaking and to minister to each other and their communities. She was a force for good whose influence extends to us today. During this month where we celebrate the birthday of the Relief Society, we're learning how we can continue her legacy by standing for truth with bold faith, encouraging one another through our words and actions, and ministering and teaching as the Savior would.  Today's guest, Jenny Reeder, works for the Church History Department on historic sites. She has a PhD in American history from George Mason University and a Masters degree in editing documents. She's also a writer, and wrote First: The Life and Faith of Emma Smith and was head historian and editor of At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women. Most recently, she was head historian and editor of Rise Up and Speak: Selected Discourses of Eliza R. Snow. Notes: Local to Salt Lake City? Hear more from Jenny Reeder at this special event. Wednesday, March 18, at the downtown Salt Lake Deseret Book store, gather with historians from the Church History Department to discuss the bold teachings of Eliza R. Snow captured in the new book, Rise Up and Speak. Discover how this inspiring 19th-century leader helped found the Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary organizations—and learn why her call for Church members to speak up still resonates today. Stay for a Q&A and meet and greet. Click the link to claim your free ticket! Read the book! Rise Up and Speak: Selected Discourses of Eliza R. Snow.

Expectations for strength and conditioning coaches now extend far beyond the weight room. Athletes and sport coaches demand better data, deeper insight, and stronger performance. Faith Brown, Associate Director of Strength and Conditioning at George Mason University, supports women’s basketball and volleyball while collaborating with the Patriot Performance Lab. Brown describes balancing teams, testing, and athlete monitoring as a “circus act.” At the heart of her coaching is one goal: be the coach she wishes she had as a college track athlete. She demonstrates ways strength and conditioning coaches can contribute as scientists, creating impact and value outside the weight room walls. Brown shares how GPS, heart rate monitoring, and force plates support workload monitoring. However, she believes that technology should only be used when it answers a real question. Learn how to turn data into better training decisions, translate sport science so sport coaches buy in, and reach out to other coaches to refine your program. Connect with Faith on Instagram: @faithsabrown, LinkedIn: @faith-brown, or by email: fbrown20@gmu.edu | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs From the Episode: Explore NSCA’s Essentials of Sport Science, a foundational text defining the field and the role of sport scientists in high-performance environments. It also supports preparation for the Certified Performance and Sport Scientist® (CPSS®) certification exam.Show Notes“We have a lot of interns that come through the weight room. And 85% of them aren't going to continue in strength conditioning especially, or maybe collegiate strength and conditioning, but a part of them doing that internship is figuring out this is not what I want to do. So what else is left out there that maybe I want to explore?” 7:50 “I think it's just being a two-way street with talking to coaches and learning from them about the sport and what they want to see.” 14:32 “The biggest thing when you're working with the new sport is just get out there, watch a sport, talk to the coaches, talk to the athletes, learn as much as you can about it.” 15:30 “For me, I went into student conditioning, obviously, because I loved it. I had a passion for it. But I think also being able to be what I didn't have when I was in college, I didn't have a conditioning coach and me and my friends, still, best friends with two of the girls I ran track with. And they always they're like, face, like all this stuff you all do is like, so cool.” 36:00

Share your Field Stories!Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! On today's episode, we talk with Eric Beightel, Federal Strategy Director at Environmental Science Associates about Environmental Permitting Reform, NEPA Assignment, and the Future of Environmental Policy.  Read his full bio below.Help us continue to create great content! If you'd like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form Showtimes: 0:19 - Right Whale Facts!7:18 - Interview with Eric Beightel starts18:38- The bureaucracy and challenges of environmental permitting36:55 - The benefits and futures of NEPA Assignment for states45:12 - #FieldNotesPlease be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review. This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.Connect with Eric Beightel at www.linkedin.com/in/ericbeightelGuest Bio:As Federal Strategy Director, Eric serves as an advisor to ESA's clients on the full range of regulatory challenges, helping navigate the ever-evolving changes to federal policies, processes, and funding requirements.A seasoned practitioner with a career spanning 25 years in federal, state, and private sector positions, Eric Beightel is a nationally recognized expert on environmental policy, NEPA, and the federal permitting process. Throughout his career, he has continually played a leading role in driving the national effort to streamline the environmental permitting process for major infrastructure projects.Before joining ESA, Eric was the Presidentially appointed Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) where he was responsible for overseeing a portfolio of more than $75 billion in large-scale infrastructure projects, supporting federal agencies and project sponsors through expedited federal environmental review and permitting that advanced dozens of critical projects to completion, realizing their economic and environmental benefits for the nation.Eric previously served under prior federal administrations as a Senior Environmental Policy Advisor at the Department of Transportation and as a subject matter expert to the Office of Management and Budget. In addition to his public sector positions, he also has held national infrastructure and environmental policy and strategy roles with national and global consulting firms, bringing hands-on experience with project implementation and delivery for complex infrastructure projects.Eric Beightel holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas and a Master of Public Policy degree from George Mason University.Music CreditsIntro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace MesaOutro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs MullerSupport the showThanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players.

Tune in here to this Friday’s edition of the Brett Winterble Show! Brett kicks off the program with Pete Kaliner for this edition of The Hangover as they discuss media narratives surrounding the conflict with Iran and the political reactions playing out on cable news. The conversation begins with commentary on remarks from Pete Hegseth criticizing how outlets frame the Middle East conflict, arguing that headlines often exaggerate chaos instead of highlighting Iran’s weakening position. Brett and Kaliner also poke fun at what they describe as predictable media reactions, including controversy over Hegseth’s use of the phrase “no quarter” during wartime rhetoric. Later Brett continues the conversation about foreign policy, domestic politics, and emerging security concerns. Responding to messages from callers and listeners across the region, Brett addresses criticism of Democratic leaders such as Chuck Schumer and Adam Schiff, while also touching on debates over immigration, political accountability, and the direction of the country. The discussion briefly turns to security alerts after George Mason University temporarily closed its Fairfax campus library following bomb threats, prompting Brett to reflect on how threats and disruptions are increasingly used to create fear even when they don’t lead to actual attacks. For more from Brett Winterble check out his YouTube channel. Listen here for all of this and more on The Brett W See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

0:30 - Tiffany Henyard 32:58 - Islamist terrorist attack outside Gracie Mansion 48:06 - Animal Stories 51:31 - Noah Rothman of National Review looks at What’s Gone Right in the Iran War? Pre-order Noah’s next book! Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence in America 01:12:23 - Why Dan Proft is Single 01:31:24 - Former CPS CEO and mayoral candidate Paul Vallas explains why Chicago continues to lead the nation in murders, youth killings, mass shootings, and domestic violence deaths. Keep up with Paul on X @PaulVallas 01:48:57 - Cliff May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, believes the U.S. has the capability to control the Strait of Hormuz. Stay on top of Iran with Cliff on X @CliffordDMay 02:06:58 - Economist and professor at George Mason University, Don Boudreaux, shares his Reflections on Four Decades of Teaching ECON 101. Check out Don’s blog at cafehayek.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael K. Fauntroy, associate professor and founding director of the Race, Politics, and Policy Center at George Mason University, discusses the conditional “we” Black Americans face in times of war and shares his analysis of other trending political topics.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

** We'll discuss this episode on Tuesday, March 10th (8 pm ET/5 pm PT) in our online community gathering, Macro ‘n Chill. We've invited Erald Kolasi to join us. So bring your questions. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/hvkv5uyKQkG8DvgUMCckcwErald Kolasi is back to attack the bourgeois narrative on immigration, which reduces it to a series of individual choices. He and Steve dig into the material roots of migration, showing how empire, land theft, war, labor exploitation, and capitalist crisis have shaped global migration flows for centuries.They ground the discussion in Wallerstein's world-systems theory, defining an empire not by its internal politics but by its extractive external relations, and trace the concrete historical processes of this extraction. The "migration boomerang" from US destabilization in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador – driven by the needs of capital like the United Fruit Company – demonstrates the dialectic in action.The empire's domination creates the displaced peoples it then scapegoats to divide the working class. Erald connects this to the long arc of capitalist development, from the Atlantic slave system to the prison-industrial complex, showing how the ruling class has always used race and nationality to prevent united class consciousness.With the MMT lens, Steve explains that this is directly tied to how a Federal Job Guarantee would shatter this dynamic by eliminating the "reserve army of labor" and the power of capital to discipline workers.Erald Kolasi is a writer and researcher focusing on the nexus between energy, technology, economics, complex systems, and ecological dynamics. His book, The Physics of Capitalism, came out from Monthly Review Press in February 2025. He received his PhD in Physics from George Mason University in 2016. You can find out more about Erald and his work on his website, www.eraldkolasi.com. Subscribe to his Substack: https://substack.com/@technodynamics

In this episode of Positive Philter, I'm joined by Dr. Michelle Ryan, President of the College of Science Alumni Chapter at George Mason University. We discuss her Mason journey, what servant leadership looks like in alumni spaces, and the experiences that have shaped her approach to leading an alumni chapter board. As the current President of the College of Education and Human Development Alumni Chapter, I found this conversation especially insightful as I continue learning what it means to serve and engage alumni communities. This is the first of what I hope will be several conversations with leaders across the Alumni Association about leadership, service, and staying connected to Mason. Shout Outs and Plugs Dr. Michelle Ryan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-ryan-phd-mba-pmp/ GMU College of Science Website: https://science.gmu.edu/ GMU College of Science LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/masonscience/ GMU College of Science Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mason_science/ If you have a question for the podcast call 571-336-6560 or leave a question via this Google Form. Five Minute Journal by Intelligent Change Affiliate Code: https://www.intelligentchange.com/?rfsn=4621464.017186 Tappy Card "Electronic Business Card" Affiliate Code:  https://tappycard.com?ref:philip-wilkerson Please leave a rating/review of the Podcast https://lovethepodcast.com/positivephilter Intro music provided by DJ BIGyoks. Check out his Instagram and Soundcloud channel can be found here:  https://www.instagram.com/beats.byyoks/ https://soundcloud.com/dj-bigyoks Outro music provided by Ryan Rosemond. Check out his Soundcloud channel here: https://soundcloud.com/brothersrosemond/albums  Purchase "Forty Years of Advice" by Philip Wilkerson: https://a.co/d/2qYMlqu Leave Your Feedback by filling out this audience survey: https://forms.gle/ncoNvWxMq2A6Zw2q8 Sign up for Positive Philter Weekly Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/g-LOqL Please follow Positive Philter: Positive Philter Facebook Page Positive Philter Twitter Positive Philter Instagram  If you would like to support the podcast, please consider donating to the Positive Philter Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/positivephilter Positive Philter was selected by FeedSpot as Top 20 Positive Thinking Podcasts on the web. https://blog.feedspot.com/positive_thinking_podcasts/ Jeff's Anti-Hunger Fund The Positive Philter Podcast is dedicated to Jeff Kirsch. A long-time supporter of the show and a major influence on this show's growth. Please support the careers of future advocates by donating to the Jeff Kirsch Fund for Anti-Hunger Advocacy. This fund was named after Jeff Kirsch for his decades of service in fighting hunger and inequality. Link to fund: https://frac.org/kirschfund Pats for Patriots  If you are a member of the #MasonNation, please consider sending a Pats for Patriots. Pats for Patriots is a free and easy way to thank, recognize, and show appreciation for a Mason colleague or student who has taken the time to do something kind, generous, or thoughtful towards others. For more information, visit: https://forms.office.com/r/HRZGvhdJEA We have received more than 3,000 nominations from the Mason community so far. Keep those nominations coming in!  

Today I'm speaking with economist Bryan Caplan about education and bullshit, with a particular focus on his book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money (Princeton University Press, 2018). In our modern economy, possessing a college degree feels like a necessity for professional advancement. The age of good jobs for college dropouts is largely gone as more people spend more time in the classroom, writing papers, taking tests, and, of course, goofing off. On the one hand, policymakers celebrate the additional degrees attained by more people. Surely a more educated society means a more intelligent and productive one. It's no secret that college grads make more money than dropouts, and high school grads make more than those who didn't complete 12th grade. Why is this the case? Does more education truly endow students with the skills necessary to succeed in the working world, or does education merely serve to certify that an individual has the intelligence and people skills needed to succeed? If the primary value of education is to signal conformity to employers' expectations, then education as we know it is a waste of time, energy, and money. Degrees range in practicality, but most—like economics—hardly spend time teaching the kinds of skills that translate to the jobs most graduates actually take. As Bryan puts it, “As far as I can tell, the only marketable skill I teach is how to be an economics professor.” The world certainly needs some economics professors, but the sentiment behind the point reflects an undeniable dirty little secret. Professors, by and large, teach students about their favorite subjects, not skills for career success. For years, I've trumpeted the line that the purpose of higher education is not to teach skills but rather to teach students how to think. The Case Against Education deflates this argument with statistics and great humor. As the type of student who loved taking Russian literature, political philosophy, and economic history, I'm thrilled to speak with Bryan Caplan about bullshit and education. Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Today I'm speaking with economist Bryan Caplan about education and bullshit, with a particular focus on his book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money (Princeton University Press, 2018). In our modern economy, possessing a college degree feels like a necessity for professional advancement. The age of good jobs for college dropouts is largely gone as more people spend more time in the classroom, writing papers, taking tests, and, of course, goofing off. On the one hand, policymakers celebrate the additional degrees attained by more people. Surely a more educated society means a more intelligent and productive one. It's no secret that college grads make more money than dropouts, and high school grads make more than those who didn't complete 12th grade. Why is this the case? Does more education truly endow students with the skills necessary to succeed in the working world, or does education merely serve to certify that an individual has the intelligence and people skills needed to succeed? If the primary value of education is to signal conformity to employers' expectations, then education as we know it is a waste of time, energy, and money. Degrees range in practicality, but most—like economics—hardly spend time teaching the kinds of skills that translate to the jobs most graduates actually take. As Bryan puts it, “As far as I can tell, the only marketable skill I teach is how to be an economics professor.” The world certainly needs some economics professors, but the sentiment behind the point reflects an undeniable dirty little secret. Professors, by and large, teach students about their favorite subjects, not skills for career success. For years, I've trumpeted the line that the purpose of higher education is not to teach skills but rather to teach students how to think. The Case Against Education deflates this argument with statistics and great humor. As the type of student who loved taking Russian literature, political philosophy, and economic history, I'm thrilled to speak with Bryan Caplan about bullshit and education. Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network.

Today I'm speaking with economist Bryan Caplan about education and bullshit, with a particular focus on his book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money (Princeton University Press, 2018). In our modern economy, possessing a college degree feels like a necessity for professional advancement. The age of good jobs for college dropouts is largely gone as more people spend more time in the classroom, writing papers, taking tests, and, of course, goofing off. On the one hand, policymakers celebrate the additional degrees attained by more people. Surely a more educated society means a more intelligent and productive one. It's no secret that college grads make more money than dropouts, and high school grads make more than those who didn't complete 12th grade. Why is this the case? Does more education truly endow students with the skills necessary to succeed in the working world, or does education merely serve to certify that an individual has the intelligence and people skills needed to succeed? If the primary value of education is to signal conformity to employers' expectations, then education as we know it is a waste of time, energy, and money. Degrees range in practicality, but most—like economics—hardly spend time teaching the kinds of skills that translate to the jobs most graduates actually take. As Bryan puts it, “As far as I can tell, the only marketable skill I teach is how to be an economics professor.” The world certainly needs some economics professors, but the sentiment behind the point reflects an undeniable dirty little secret. Professors, by and large, teach students about their favorite subjects, not skills for career success. For years, I've trumpeted the line that the purpose of higher education is not to teach skills but rather to teach students how to think. The Case Against Education deflates this argument with statistics and great humor. As the type of student who loved taking Russian literature, political philosophy, and economic history, I'm thrilled to speak with Bryan Caplan about bullshit and education. Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

Today I'm speaking with economist Bryan Caplan about education and bullshit, with a particular focus on his book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money (Princeton University Press, 2018). In our modern economy, possessing a college degree feels like a necessity for professional advancement. The age of good jobs for college dropouts is largely gone as more people spend more time in the classroom, writing papers, taking tests, and, of course, goofing off. On the one hand, policymakers celebrate the additional degrees attained by more people. Surely a more educated society means a more intelligent and productive one. It's no secret that college grads make more money than dropouts, and high school grads make more than those who didn't complete 12th grade. Why is this the case? Does more education truly endow students with the skills necessary to succeed in the working world, or does education merely serve to certify that an individual has the intelligence and people skills needed to succeed? If the primary value of education is to signal conformity to employers' expectations, then education as we know it is a waste of time, energy, and money. Degrees range in practicality, but most—like economics—hardly spend time teaching the kinds of skills that translate to the jobs most graduates actually take. As Bryan puts it, “As far as I can tell, the only marketable skill I teach is how to be an economics professor.” The world certainly needs some economics professors, but the sentiment behind the point reflects an undeniable dirty little secret. Professors, by and large, teach students about their favorite subjects, not skills for career success. For years, I've trumpeted the line that the purpose of higher education is not to teach skills but rather to teach students how to think. The Case Against Education deflates this argument with statistics and great humor. As the type of student who loved taking Russian literature, political philosophy, and economic history, I'm thrilled to speak with Bryan Caplan about bullshit and education. Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

Today I'm speaking with economist Bryan Caplan about education and bullshit, with a particular focus on his book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money (Princeton University Press, 2018). In our modern economy, possessing a college degree feels like a necessity for professional advancement. The age of good jobs for college dropouts is largely gone as more people spend more time in the classroom, writing papers, taking tests, and, of course, goofing off. On the one hand, policymakers celebrate the additional degrees attained by more people. Surely a more educated society means a more intelligent and productive one. It's no secret that college grads make more money than dropouts, and high school grads make more than those who didn't complete 12th grade. Why is this the case? Does more education truly endow students with the skills necessary to succeed in the working world, or does education merely serve to certify that an individual has the intelligence and people skills needed to succeed? If the primary value of education is to signal conformity to employers' expectations, then education as we know it is a waste of time, energy, and money. Degrees range in practicality, but most—like economics—hardly spend time teaching the kinds of skills that translate to the jobs most graduates actually take. As Bryan puts it, “As far as I can tell, the only marketable skill I teach is how to be an economics professor.” The world certainly needs some economics professors, but the sentiment behind the point reflects an undeniable dirty little secret. Professors, by and large, teach students about their favorite subjects, not skills for career success. For years, I've trumpeted the line that the purpose of higher education is not to teach skills but rather to teach students how to think. The Case Against Education deflates this argument with statistics and great humor. As the type of student who loved taking Russian literature, political philosophy, and economic history, I'm thrilled to speak with Bryan Caplan about bullshit and education. Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I'm speaking with economist Bryan Caplan about education and bullshit, with a particular focus on his book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money (Princeton University Press, 2018). In our modern economy, possessing a college degree feels like a necessity for professional advancement. The age of good jobs for college dropouts is largely gone as more people spend more time in the classroom, writing papers, taking tests, and, of course, goofing off. On the one hand, policymakers celebrate the additional degrees attained by more people. Surely a more educated society means a more intelligent and productive one. It's no secret that college grads make more money than dropouts, and high school grads make more than those who didn't complete 12th grade. Why is this the case? Does more education truly endow students with the skills necessary to succeed in the working world, or does education merely serve to certify that an individual has the intelligence and people skills needed to succeed? If the primary value of education is to signal conformity to employers' expectations, then education as we know it is a waste of time, energy, and money. Degrees range in practicality, but most—like economics—hardly spend time teaching the kinds of skills that translate to the jobs most graduates actually take. As Bryan puts it, “As far as I can tell, the only marketable skill I teach is how to be an economics professor.” The world certainly needs some economics professors, but the sentiment behind the point reflects an undeniable dirty little secret. Professors, by and large, teach students about their favorite subjects, not skills for career success. For years, I've trumpeted the line that the purpose of higher education is not to teach skills but rather to teach students how to think. The Case Against Education deflates this argument with statistics and great humor. As the type of student who loved taking Russian literature, political philosophy, and economic history, I'm thrilled to speak with Bryan Caplan about bullshit and education. Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I'm speaking with economist Bryan Caplan about education and bullshit, with a particular focus on his book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money (Princeton University Press, 2018). In our modern economy, possessing a college degree feels like a necessity for professional advancement. The age of good jobs for college dropouts is largely gone as more people spend more time in the classroom, writing papers, taking tests, and, of course, goofing off. On the one hand, policymakers celebrate the additional degrees attained by more people. Surely a more educated society means a more intelligent and productive one. It's no secret that college grads make more money than dropouts, and high school grads make more than those who didn't complete 12th grade. Why is this the case? Does more education truly endow students with the skills necessary to succeed in the working world, or does education merely serve to certify that an individual has the intelligence and people skills needed to succeed? If the primary value of education is to signal conformity to employers' expectations, then education as we know it is a waste of time, energy, and money. Degrees range in practicality, but most—like economics—hardly spend time teaching the kinds of skills that translate to the jobs most graduates actually take. As Bryan puts it, “As far as I can tell, the only marketable skill I teach is how to be an economics professor.” The world certainly needs some economics professors, but the sentiment behind the point reflects an undeniable dirty little secret. Professors, by and large, teach students about their favorite subjects, not skills for career success. For years, I've trumpeted the line that the purpose of higher education is not to teach skills but rather to teach students how to think. The Case Against Education deflates this argument with statistics and great humor. As the type of student who loved taking Russian literature, political philosophy, and economic history, I'm thrilled to speak with Bryan Caplan about bullshit and education. Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day

0:30 - Fraudster pleads guilty in MN 12:42 - Centcom Commander Brad Cooper with update 35:13 - Noem before Senate Judiciary Comm 56:19 - The politicization of parenting 01:14:03 - Former First Deputy National Security Advisor KT McFarland says President Trump has positioned America to dominate the world’s energy supply. Check out KT’s most recent book Revolution: Trump, Washington and “We the People” 01:34:33 - Missy Cummings, professor and director of the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center at George Mason University, on Trump’s fight with Anthropic and why AI should not be used with weapons. 01:49:10 - Israeli Consul General to the Midwest Elad Strohmayer expresses pride in Israel’s troops, highlights U.S.–Israel coordination, and offers condolences for the loss of U.S. servicemen. You can follow Consul General Strohmayer on X @EladStr 02:08:01 - The Dispatch's David Drucker looks at yesterday’s primary races in TexasSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gio is back with Buff Faye and bringing the dating drama. In this episode, titled “Let Me Entertain You,” Gio shares why “Backpack” is better off as a friend and opens up about navigating life as a 35-year-old gay man who loves his “sissy nerdy” types. From Tinder to Hinge to OkayCupid, Gio calls himself an “older soul” — the kind who wants to fix and keep what's worth it. He and Buff also dish on the current season of RuPaul's Drag Race, debate what makes a “seasoned entertainer,” and yes, Gio event spills it on Godiva the dog and her wall licking, chaotic karaoke barking. Then the spotlight turns to special guest Reann Ballslee, a powerhouse entertainer with over two decades of experience in theme parks, cruise ships, and live production. From growing up in Richmond, VA and learning drag at Godfrey's, to winning Homecoming Queen in drag at George Mason University in 2009, Reann's journey blends performance, pageantry, and fabulousness. After moving to Orlando and working with the Walt Disney Company and alongside entertainers like Roxxxy Andrews at Pulse, her drag became rooted in spectacle, storytelling, and technical excellence. Reann shares how teaching and performing as Disney princesses shaped her movement and stage presence — those “princess hands” live in her body to this day. She talks about investing in your craft, knowing what defines you as an entertainer, and producing shows that move audiences. Inspired by icons like Dolly Parton and Kylie Minogue's Aphrodite Tour, Reann believes “larger than life is just the right size.” Buff and Reann also discuss producing strong drag shows, community connection, and the importance of honing your skills in an evolving drag landscape. The episode wraps with the fan-favorite game “YASSSS QUEEN.” Entertainment that educates and celebrates — this episode is all about what it truly means to entertain.  Eat it Up!

What does American literature reveal about how a society imagines justice, belonging, and the power of women? Samaine Lockwood, Associate Professor of English at George Mason University and the 2026 Fenwick Fellow, has spent years tracing that question through one of the most enduring stories in American culture: the Salem witch trials. Her fellowship project, Tituba Indian: The History of an American Cultural Figure  follows Tituba Indian from the historical record of 1692 through two centuries of novels, plays, and reimaginings to ask what her story has been made to carry and why.In This EpisodeHow the Salem witch trials became one of the most reimagined episodes in American literary historyWhy Tituba Indian sits at the center of debates about race, gender, and civic belonging across two centuries of American cultureHow culture reuses the pastHow Ann Petry's Tituba of Salem Village broke from literary tradition decades before most readers noticedWhy Arthur Miller's The Crucible remains complicated and how teachers are beginning to challenge it in the classroomThe real significance of the witch as a figure in literature, from colonial revival to contemporary young adult fictionWhere to find the vast archive of Salem witch trial literature that predates copyright, freely available onlineAbout Samaine Lockwood Samaine Lockwood is an Associate Professor of English at George Mason University, specializing in 19th century American literature and gender and sexuality studies. She is the 2026 Fenwick Fellow, a research fellowship funded by the George Mason Fenwick Library supporting her book in progress, Tituba Indian and the History of an American Cultural Figure. Her previous book, Archives of Desire: the Queer Historical Work of New England Regionalism, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2015.Authors and Works Mentioned in This EpisodeAnn Petry: Tituba of Salem Village; The Narrows; Biography of Harriet Tubman. First black woman to write a bestselling novel in the United States.Maryse Conde: I, Tituba: Black Witch of SalemHenry William Herbert: The Fair Puritan (written 1850s, published 1870s)Elizabeth Gaskell: Lois the WitchCharlotte Perkins Gilman (with Grace Ellery Channing): Untitled Salem play, 1890, held at the Schlesinger Library, HarvardPauline Elizabeth Hopkins: Fiction writer, first Black woman editor of a magazine, key figure in the Boston African American community at the turn of the 20th centuryArthur Miller: The CrucibleMarian Starkey: The Devil in MassachusettsMatilda Joslyn Gage: Woman, Church, and State (1890s)Saidiya Hartman: Venus in Two ActsGretchen Adams: The Specter of SalemHenry James: The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost StoriesKimberly Bellflower: John Proctor is the Villain (Broadway, 2024)Samaine Lockwood: Archives of Desire: the Queer Historical Work of New England Regionalism Keith Clark: The Radical Fiction of Ann PetryWhere to Find These Works Most works published before 1923 are in the public domain and freely available through Open Library and Internet Archive. For titles still in print, support this podcast and End Witch Hunts by purchasing through our Bookshop.org storefront: bookshop.org/shop/endwitchhuntsEvery purchase (of any title) through Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores and helps fund the work of End Witch Hunts when you purchase through our affiliate link.LinksPublications by Samaine LockwoodUniversity Libraries has named Samaine Lockwood, associate professor of English, the 2026 Fenwick FellowBuy Books Mentioned in Today's Episode Sign the Petition to Exonerate the Boston 8 The History of Witch Trial Exonerations in Massachusetts About the MA Witch Hunt Justice ProjectPurchase a MA Witch Hunt Justice Project Memorial Pin

On February 20, the Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, known as IEEPA, does not authorize President Trump's sweeping tariffs. In Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, and the consolidated case, the Court held that the statute does not grant the President the power to impose tariffs under a declaration of economic emergency.  In this episode, we explore what the Court held, why the Justices disagreed about the reasoning, and what this decision might tell us about the future of presidential emergency power. To help us explore these questions are two leading Court watchers and constitutional experts, Zachary Shemtob of SCOTUSblog and Ilya Somin of the George Mason University. Julie Silverbrook, vice president of civic education of the National Constitution Center, moderates.  Resources  Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump (2026)  “Supreme Court strikes down tariffs,” SCOTUSblog (2/20/2026)  Ilya Somin, “How the Supreme Court Spared America,” The Atlantic (2/21/2026)  Ilya Somin, “The Supreme Court Spurns a Presidential Power Grab,” The Dispatch (2/23/2026)  Ilya Somin, “Trump's new tariffs are another dangerous presidential power grab,” Boston Globe (2/24/2026)  Ilya Somin, “Not Everything Is an Emergency,” The Dispatch (1/31/2025)  “Are Trump's Tariffs Lawful?,” We the People (11/06/2025)  Biden v. Nebraska (2023)  Whitman v. American Trucking Associations, Inc. (2001)  Dames & Moore v. Regan (1981)  Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1953)  United States v. Yoshida International, Inc. (CCPA, 1975)  United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936)  Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935) Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at ⁠podcast@constitutioncenter.org⁠⁠ Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr Explore the ⁠⁠America at 250 Civic Toolkit⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Sign up⁠⁠ to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen Join us for an upcoming ⁠⁠live program⁠⁠ or watch recordings on ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Support our important work ⁠⁠Donate

What are the FTC’s 2026 priorities in the areas of consumer protection, privacy, and artificial intelligence? This panel will discuss FTC's enforcement, policymaking, and rulemaking priorities and how they may differ from those in the Biden Administration. The panel is happy to take questions from the audience in advance of the webinar. Please send any questions to matthew.sawtelle@fed-soc.org by February 12th.Featuring:Brian Berggren, Acting Associate Director, Division of Enforcement, Federal Trade CommissionSvetlana Gans, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLPTodd Zywicki, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School(Moderator) Asheesh Agarwal, Antitrust Consultant, American Edge Project and U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Britain is in the grip of a housing crisis. And despite the promises of successive governments, we just can't seem to build enough new homes. But this isn't a uniquely British problem. In his book, “Build Baby Build”, Bryan Caplan examines the forces shaping housing markets in a way that applies almost everywhere.Bryan's core argument is disarmingly simple: cut regulation and more homes will follow. But as an economist at George Mason University, he is also acutely aware of the political and economic trade-offs – including the tension between high housing costs and the interests of those already invested in the market.He joins Marc Sidwell to discuss not only what less regulation could achieve, but how such an approach might even become politically popular.Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily briefings from the heart of Westminster. Go to capx.co to subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S6E2 The Retail Growth Strategy Retailers Need for 2026 with Today's Economic Realities, Tariffs, Fed Moves, and Consumer ShiftsIn this powerful episode of The Retail Razor Show, Dr. Rebecca Homkes, London Business School lecturer, Duke faculty member, high‑growth strategy advisor, and author of Survive, Reset, Thrive: Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times, joins Ricardo and Casey to break down what retailers must understand about the economic outlook in 2026, shifting consumer behavior, and the strategic moves that separate winners from laggards.Rebecca explains why uncertainty is not a threat but a catalyst for growth, and how her Survive, Reset, Thrive (SRT) framework helps leaders stabilize quickly, reset strategy intelligently, and execute a retail growth strategy that works even in volatile conditions. She also unpacks the realities behind sticky inflation, tariffs, the no‑hire/no‑fire labor market, and the rise of the K‑shaped consumer economy.If you want to build a retail growth strategy that thrives in the face of market shocks, this episode gives you the playbook.What We CoverWhy the economic outlook in 2026 is full of contradictions, and what that means for retailHow the SRT loop helps leaders stabilize, reset, and thriveReal‑world examples of companies using SRT to turn crises into growthWhy averages hide the truth about consumer sentimentThe rise of the K‑shaped economy and the death of the “everyman” consumerValue vs. price: why consumers will still pay more for what they truly valueHow retailers should think about store formats, assortment, and experimentationThe must‑win battles for 2026Where AI actually moves the needle in a retail growth strategyKey TakeawaysUncertainty is the best time to grow: because customers, partners, and employees are more honest about what they value.Value ≠ price. Consumers want their dollar to go further, not necessarily cheaper products.The middle of the market is the danger zone. Retailers must choose: differentiated premium or true value leadership.Retail growth strategy in 2026 requires testing, iteration, and abandoning legacy assumptions.Economic outlook in 2026 signals a decoupling between GDP strength and consumer reality: leaders must plan accordingly.Subscribe & FollowSubscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utubeAbout our GuestRebecca Homkes, https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-homkes/https://www.rebeccahomkes.comAuthor, Survive, Reset, Thrive: Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times. https://a.co/d/0aXECIB2Rebecca Homkes, is a high-growth strategy specialist, CEO and executive advisor. After more than a decade of advising her clients on developing, executing and innovating on strategy, Rebecca is sharing her proven and practical playbook in Survive, Reset, Thrive: Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times. She is a Lecturer at the London Business School, Faculty at Duke Corporate Executive Education, Advisor and Faculty at the Boston Consulting Group focused on AI and Climate and Sustainability, and a former fellow at the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance. A global keynote speaker and recognized thought leader, she is also the global Faculty Director of the Active Learning Program with the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), leads several fintech accelerators, and serves on the boards of many high-growth companies. She earned her doctorate at the London School of Economics as a Marshall Scholar and is now based in Miami, San Francisco, and London.Chapters00:00 Teaser01:10 Show Intro04:40 Welcome Dr Rebecca Homkes05:46 The Survive Reset Thrive Framework08:04 Real World SRT Success Stories12:55 Macro Economic Outlook for 202617:38 Understanding the K Shaped Economy19:39 Value vs Price Strategy24:06 Differentiation and Competitive Advantage26:41 Store Strategy and Expansion30:37 Consumer Experience and AI32:34 B2B Software Experience Gap34:04 Financing and Inventory Strategy36:28 Supply Chain Robustness38:10 No Regret Moves40:40 Defining Right to Win43:45 Hard Reset Strategy45:51 Strategic Center of Gravity48:24 Must Win Battles49:34 Closing and Contact Info51:36 Show CloseMeet your hostsHelping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AI and Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformationand the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft.Casey Golden, is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! MusicIncludes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.

Newt talks with Liya Palagashvili, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University about the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the labor market. Their conversation highlights the transformative potential of AI in reorganizing work, potentially leading to a shift towards self-employment and independent entrepreneurship. Liya emphasizes that AI can empower workers by automating mundane tasks, allowing them to focus on more valuable activities, and suggests that AI might change how work is organized rather than simply replacing jobs. Their discussion also touches on the historical context of technological advancements, noting that while some jobs are lost, new markets and occupations emerge, leading to overall job growth. They conclude with a discussion on the role of education in preparing for an AI-driven future, considering different approaches to integrating AI into learning environments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's a case that's captivated America and grabbed headlines around the world. The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Australian-born US Today show host Savannah Guthrie.The 84-year-old has been missing for more than three weeks and the mystery only deepened with the release of eerie doorbell footage showing a masked person at her door.Today, we speak to former FBI profiler, Mary Ellen O'Toole, who spent her career studying the criminal mind.  She tells us why it's not likely a burglary gone wrong and what she sees in the demeanour of the masked figure. Featured: Mary Ellen O'Toole, former FBI profiler and currently director of the forensic science program at George Mason University

This episode is different. We're tackling China's energy transition, and instead of David, Sara, and Ed just talking about it, they went out and interviewed different experts on the subject.Why China? Because it's arguably the most important energy story on the planet right now. China is the world's largest emitter. It's also the world's largest investor in clean energy. It manufactures the lion's share of solar panels, batteries, and now electric vehicles in the world.Functionally, what happens there determines whether the world has any real shot at meeting long-term climate targets. David spoke with Andrew Light, distinguished professor at George Mason University and former Senior Climate Official in the Biden administration.Sara talked with Jeremy Wallace, professor of China Studies at John Hopkins and Christina Pan, a PhD candidate at Cornell researching renewable energy in China. And Ed interviewed Hong Li, a professor at the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and an expert on battery chemistry.Three different perspectives followed by David, Sara, and Ed trying to make sense of it all.

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Chris Coyne talks with Abigail Hall and Jayme Lemke about Kenneth and Elise Boulding's insights into what it means to build and sustain peace. Drawing on her paper “In Search of Stable Peace,” Hall explores Kenneth Boulding's framework for understanding peace and war, focusing on the roles of strain and strength and the shifting taboo lines that shape movement between stable and unstable peace. Lemke then turns to Elise Boulding's vision of peace as an active, everyday practice, emphasizing the often-overlooked forms of peacebuilding embedded in ordinary social relationships and institutions. Together, the conversations emphasize peace as a process shaped by ideas, institutions, and imagination.Dr. Abigail R. Hall is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Tampa and a Senior Affiliated Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She has published numerous books, including her most recent satirical book, How to Run Wars: A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Elite co-authored with Christopher J. Coyne (2024). She holds a PhD in Economics from George Mason University and is an alum of the Mercatus PhD Fellowship.Dr. Jayme Lemke is a Senior Research Fellow and a Senior Fellow with the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She is co-editor of Economy, Polity, and Society, an Associate Editor for the Review of Behavioral Economics, and Secretary of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics.Show Notes:The Journal of Conflict ResolutionKenneth Boulding's book, Stable Peace (University of Texas Press, 1978)Robert Higgs's book, Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government (Independent Institute, 2025)Elise Boulding's book, Cultures of Peace (Syracuse University Press, 2000)Kenneth Boulding's book, The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society (University of Michigan Press, 1956).Elise Boulding's book, The Underside of History: A View of Women Through Time (SAGE Publications, 1992)Julian Simon's book, The Ultimate Resource 2 (Princeton University Press, 1998)**This episode was recorded September 15, 2025 and December 29, 2025.If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today!Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatusCC Music: Twisterium

On this episode of Future of Freedom, host Scot Bertram is joined by two guests with different viewpoints about ICE immigration enforcement efforts in the country. First on the show is Cameron Abrams, policy analyst for Next Generation Texas at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Later, we hear from Ilya Somin, B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, and a professor of law at George Mason University. You can find Cameron on X @CameronSAbrams and Ilya at @IlyaSomin. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send a textIn this episode of Navigating the Customer Experience, Gal Borenstein, Founder and CEO of The Borenstein Group, joins us for a powerful conversation on trust, branding, and customer experience in the digital and AI era. With nearly 30 years of experience advising growth-oriented organizations in complex and regulated industries, Gal shares how leaders can protect credibility and build sustainable brands when trust is on the line.Gal's journey is a true immigration success story. Born and raised in Israel, he served as a military journalist before moving to the United States at 21 to pursue his education. After completing his undergraduate degree at Temple University in just two and a half years and earning a master's degree from George Mason University, he quickly recognized a major gap in the marketplace: highly technical companies struggled to communicate their value clearly.Armed with a $2,000 loan and a vision, he launched The Borenstein Group in the Washington, DC area, focusing on helping B2B technology firms connect complex solutions to clear messaging. Over the past three decades, he has worked closely with CEOs and executive teams navigating cybersecurity, AI, advanced analytics, and government contracting—industries where trust, precision, and differentiation are critical.In this episode, Gal discusses his latest book, Don't Believe the Hype: When Trust Is On The Line in the Age of Digital and AI, and explores what's driving the breakdown of trust between brands and customers today.From his perspective, the erosion of trust accelerated with digital transformation and automation. As companies adopted CRM systems, AI tools, and scripted customer service processes, they unintentionally removed the human element that once anchored relationships. What used to be human-to-human trust has often become process-driven interaction—efficient, but emotionally disconnected. AI can execute tasks faster, but it cannot replace empathy, judgment, or values.Gal emphasizes that customer experience failures are rarely external problems alone. They usually reflect internal disconnects. Leadership may believe they are communicating clearly, while employees feel unheard or misaligned. Without internal trust, external trust collapses. He challenges organizations to develop a measurable “trust index” that identifies strengths, weaknesses, and perception gaps across departments.We also explore one of today's biggest CX threats: fake reviews and AI-generated misinformation. In the past, companies largely controlled their narrative. Today, anonymous posts on review platforms and social media can shape perception overnight. Gal explains that reacting defensively is not enough. Brands must actively monitor conversations, engage in social listening, and integrate feedback into internal systems. Trust must become an ecosystem—shared by executives, middle management, and frontline employees alike.When asked about tools he relies on, Gal highlights LinkedIn as an essential knowledge hub, connecting professionals across industries and geographies. He also leverages AI platforms like OpenAI, while cautioning leaders to “trust but verify” due to AI hallucinations and inaccuracies.What excites him most right now is helping companies operationalize trust—turning it from an abstract value into a measurable, monetizable strategy that aligns culture, communication, and customer experience.His guiding mindset, inspired by Seinfeld, is both humorous and profound: “It's not a lie if you believe it.” For Gal, this reflects the power of vision. When leaders truly believe in their narrative—and back it with integrity and proof points—they inspire teams, partners, and customers alike.This episode challenges CX leaders and business professionals to see trust as a cr

It's possible to look at the course of history over the past few centuries and discern a movement toward increasing democracy, freedom, and individual rights -- "liberalism," in the political-philosophy sense of the term. But such movement isn't inevitable or irreversible, and in very recent times there have been both intellectual arguments explicitly pushing back against the liberal consensus, and political movements that are more openly nativist and authoritarian. I talk with Adam Gurri, the editor-in-chief of Liberal Currents, a web site that "publishes writers of diverse perspectives who share an unflinching commitment to freedom, pluralism, and democracy, in opposition to authoritarianism at home and around the world." Go to https://surfshark.com/mindscape or use code MINDSCAPE at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/02/16/344-adam-gurri-on-liberal-democracy-and-how-to-fight-for-it/ Support Mindscape on Patreon. Adam Gurri received an M.A. in Economics from George Mason University. He is the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Liberal Currents. Web site Liberal Currents Bluesky

Join Hill for a special Black History Month episode of the show featuring a conversation with George Mason University Women's Basketball Coach, Vanessa Blair-Lewis. Learn about Blair-Lewis' rise to prominence in college coaching, her coaching accomplishments, and her insights on leadership.

When host Janet Michael talks with Rosemary Wallinger and Laura Fogle for this episode of The Valley Today, she expected a straightforward conversation about local history. What unfolded instead was a remarkable story of discovery, perseverance, and the fight to preserve a crucial piece of American—and African American—heritage that has been hiding in plain sight for nearly 90 years. A Tale of Two Camps Rosemary, president of the CCC Legacy organization, and Laura, the vice president, share how Shenandoah County is home to two historically significant Civilian Conservation Corps camps. While Camp Roosevelt is well-known as the nation's first CCC camp, Wolf Gap - located just 22 miles away - has remained virtually unknown. "Nobody here that we've talked to, other than maybe three people, had ever heard of it," Rosemary reveals. "So we are giving concentrated effort to get it into public awareness." Both camps were among the first ten CCC camps established in the nation. But there's a crucial difference: Wolf Gap became one of the very first African American CCC camps in the country, opening just one month after Camp Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt's New Deal in Action As the women explain, the CCC was born from desperation. When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, 15 million Americans were unemployed. People were starving. The CCC became one of his fastest-activated New Deal programs, up and running within weeks of his inauguration. The scale was staggering: over 3 million men employed across 4,500 camps nationwide, including 250,000 African Americans and 80,000 Native Americans. Young men—officially aged 17 to 25, though many lied about their age to enroll as young as 15—earned $30 a month. Twenty-five dollars went directly home to their families; they kept just $5 for themselves. "It was another great stimulus program for the whole country," Laura explains. "The guys that were working got to keep $5 a month and their families got the other 25 back home to spend on groceries and needs. The communities around the CCC camps profited because they supplied the food. The farmers had work, the mercantiles had work, the lumber yards had work." The average enrollee gained 35 pounds during their service—a stark testament to the poverty they'd escaped. They learned carpentry, metalworking, and conservation skills. Those who couldn't read or write were taught in camp classes. The Accomplishments History Forgot During the conversation, Rosemary rattles off Wolf Gap's impressive achievements: 16,000 acres of trees planted, 45 miles of road built, 60 miles of horse trails, 100 miles of telephone line, 50 miles of roadside naturalization, and three miles of stream improvement. The camp protected 100,000 acres of local forest, fought a three-day fire at Cedar Creek in 1935, and rescued more than 1,200 residents from floodwaters in March 1936. "Their accomplishments were just astonishing," Rosemary says. "It's shocking that it's unknown to have a list of accomplishments that long, and yet nobody even knows they were here," says Janet. The infrastructure these young men built—in national parks, state parks, and forests across America—still stands today, a testament to the quality of their work. A Serendipitous Discovery Rosemary's discovery of Wolf Gap came while researching her family's involvement in the 1880 race riot at Columbia Furnace. On the Edinburg Memories website, she found a post from Helen Larkin Burton describing how, as a young girl in her father's store, she watched "the boys from the Wolf Gap CCC" come to shop. It was, Burton wrote, the first time she'd ever seen a Black person. "I thought, what CCC are we talking about at Wolf Gap?" Rosemary recalls. She contacted a local historian who confirmed it: "Best kept secret in Shenandoah County." That discovery sparked a grassroots movement. Rosemary assembled a team of dedicated women to pursue state byway designation for Route 675, the road connecting both camps. They succeeded in getting the byway designation and are now working to have it officially named the Shenandoah County CCC Memorial Byway. The Segregation Story The conversation delves into the painful reality of segregation within the CCC. Though African American legislator Oscar De Priest had declared there would be "no discrimination according to race, creed, or color," Robert Fechner, a southerner who helped administer the program, declared that "separate was not unequal." Wolf Gap started as a white camp in its first year but became an African American camp in 1934 when administrators realized they hadn't factored in "how deeply segregated the south still was in the thirties," as Laura explains. African American camps were intentionally placed in remote areas, presumably to avoid racist confrontation. The irony, Rosemary notes, was that when African American enrollees worked battlefields to the point where tourists wanted to visit, they were often transferred to another remote location. Local populations frequently protested the placement of these camps. Finding the Descendants One of the team's greatest accomplishments, shared emotionally during the conversation, was connecting with Roy Allen Cooper, whose father, Oswald Bentley Cooper, was an enrollee at Wolf Gap. While serving, Oswald met Evelyn McAfee from Woodstock. They married and raised nine children—eight boys and one girl named Georgia—on Water Street and Spring Street in Woodstock. Roy's brother Bobby became a well-known local restaurateur, first as the opening cook at the Spring House restaurant in 1973, then running his own establishment. Roy now serves on the CCC Legacy board, providing a vital personal connection to Wolf Gap's history. The Research Challenge "The white CCC was well recorded, records up your wazoo," Rosemary says candidly during the conversation. "But the history of the Black camps is just sparse and what's there is difficult to find." The team has uncovered treasures, including a regional annual with the only known photographs of Wolf Gap enrollees—two large portraits showing the men's names and hometowns. Many came from a community in Southwest Virginia called Agricola, offering potential leads for finding more descendants. Rosemary's research has also uncovered broader stories, including the Preston Lake Rebellion in upstate New York, where African American enrollees trained as leaders were told to step down when white enrollees joined the camp. The men rebelled for three days before being sent back to Harlem—a story that even New York State's historical resources department didn't know about. The Interpretive Center and What's Next The women discuss the James R. Wilkins Sr. Interpretive Center at the US Forest Service Office in Edinburg—a partially completed museum dedicated to CCC history. Wilkins supervised projects at both camps. His son, Jimmy, has been a primary funder along with his sister Donna. The center is open to the public but unfinished. The organization is working to finalize a new agreement with the US Forest Service. As Laura emphasizes in the conversation, 2033 will mark the hundredth anniversary of the CCC's birth, and Camp Roosevelt was the first CCC camp in the nation. "Virginia was truly the epicenter of the CCC," she says. "The state of Virginia needs to embrace that history." Why This Matters When board member Colette Sylvestri presented to 300 students at George Mason University, the most frequent question was: "Why weren't we taught this?" "So much of the history of the CCC in general has just fallen by the wayside," Laura laments. Many people in their forties have never even heard of the Civilian Conservation Corps, let alone understand its contribution to the nation. The CCC didn't just build infrastructure—it restored America. As Laura puts it: "These men who built this country, really the CCC restored the United States of America to what it became after World War II." How to Get Involved The CCC Legacy welcomes new members at $35 annually. Members receive quarterly publications including bulletins and a journal with stories from CCC camps across the country. The organization also offers presentations to civic groups and is actively seeking volunteers, particularly web developers to help update their website at ccclegacy.org. For those with family connections to the CCC, the National Archives has digitized enrollee names, making it possible to search for relatives online. As the conversation wraps up, Rosemary makes a simple request: "Spread the word that this is a thing. We want people to know that this is our history." Both Camp Roosevelt and Wolf Gap are accessible to visitors today. Camp Roosevelt operates as a Forest Service campground with interpretive signage throughout. Wolf Gap, currently undergoing Forest Service renovations, will soon have its own signage installed. Standing at these remote, quiet sites at dusk, Rosemary shares, "I can hear the voices" - a poignant reminder that history isn't just about dates and statistics. It's about the young men who slept in West Virginia, walked to Virginia for breakfast, and built the America we know today. To learn more about the CCC Legacy organization, visit ccclegacy.org or find them on Facebook. Donations can be mailed to CCC Legacy, PO Box 341, Edinburg, VA 22824.

Welcome to Ozempic Weightloss Unlocked, where we dive into the latest on Ozempic from medical breakthroughs to real-life health impacts.Recent research from the University of Cambridge highlights a key nutrition risk with Ozempic and Wegovy. These drugs slash calorie intake by sixteen to thirty-nine percent by mimicking glucagon-like peptide-one, curbing appetite and boosting fullness. But without proper guidance, users risk muscle loss up to forty percent of total weight shed and deficiencies in protein, vitamins, and minerals, leading to fatigue, hair loss, or weakened immunity. Experts like Doctor Marie Spreckley urge structured nutrition support, drawing from bariatric surgery principles: prioritize nutrient-dense foods and high-quality protein spread across meals. Doctor Adrian Brown from University College London notes most users, about ninety-five percent in the United Kingdom, get these privately without follow-up, unlike National Health Service programs pairing them with diet and exercise.Sex differences are emerging too. A study in PubMed Central reports glucagon-like peptide-one receptor agonist use surged from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty-two, especially among women, where obesity links strongly to prescriptions and yields greater weight loss, like fifteen point three kilograms in semaglutide trials.Looking ahead per GoodRx projections for twenty twenty-six, Ozempic is under Food and Drug Administration review for peripheral artery disease, improving walking in diabetes patients, and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Higher Wegovy doses up to seven point two milligrams could hit nearly twenty-one percent weight loss. Exciting combos like CagriSema show twenty-three percent loss in trials, outpacing rivals. Oral options expand too: Wegovy pills launched this year, and orforglipron may approve mid-year, easing access without needles.The Food and Drug Administration warns against unapproved versions mimicking semaglutide, sold illegally online. Experts from George Mason University, like Martin Binks and Raedeh Basiri, stress holistic care: pair drugs with dietitians, exercise, and mental support to avoid regain, as a twenty twenty-six BMJ review notes two-thirds weight return within a year off meds.Ozempic transforms lives but thrives with lifestyle integration for lasting health.Thanks for tuning in, listeners. Subscribe for more updates. This has been a Quiet Please production. For more, check out Quiet Please dot ai. Some great Deals https://amzn.to/49SJ3QsFor more check out http://www.quietplease.aiThis content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

This week, the GovNavigators are joined by Mike Wetklow, former Chief Risk Officer at the IRS and longtime federal financial leader, to kick off a new series on the pod, introducing you all to the illustrious members of the GovNavigators Network. Mike reflects on his career across DHS, NSF, OMB, and IRS, his decision to return to school mid-career to study data analytics, and his current work preparing the next generation of public servants at George Mason University. The conversation explores how AI, data science, and emerging technologies are reshaping risk management and financial oversight, and why government's real challenge may be learning to oversee technology that increasingly does the work itself.In the news, Robert and Adam break down a brief partial shutdown, ongoing DHS funding uncertainty, and GAO's latest report on federal shared services. They unpack why progress remains slow, what leadership commitment is missing, and why agencies continue to struggle to stop paying for duplicative systems. The episode also covers the administration's move to reclassify parts of the federal workforce, revisiting the spirit of Schedule F, and a rare bipartisan moment out of the House Oversight Committee that raises cautious questions about the future of good-government reforms.Show Notes:Learn more about the GovNavigators NetworkGAO report on Federal Shared ServicesOPM Federal Workforce Reclassification RuleWhat's on the GovNavigators' Radar:Feb 10-12: AFCEA WestFeb 11: PSC Law Enforcement ConferenceFeb 18-19: AGA National Leadership TrainingMar 5: Government Efficiency Summit

Robert M. Hazen is Senior Staff Scientist at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory and Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences at George Mason University. He received the BS and SM in geology at the MIT, the PhD at Harvard University in Earth science, and was NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at Cambridge University. Michael Wong is an astrobiologist and planetary scientist whose primary scientific interests are planetary atmospheres, habitability, biosignatures, and the emergence of life. He is co-authoring a revised edition of the textbook Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach. He also hosts a podcast that examines science, technology, and culture through the lens of Star Trek. He is working with Staff Scientist Bob Hazen to assess the network topologies of exoplanet atmospheres for potential biosignatures. Please check out these relevant links: Dr. Robert Hazen (Carnegie Science) Dr. Robert Hazen (George Mason University) Dr. Michael Wong (Carnegie Science) Dr. Michael Wong (Website) Time's Second Arrow: Evolution, Order, and a New Law of Nature Strange New Worlds: A Science & Star Trek Podcast Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

ABOUT JOE BAER:Joe's LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/joe-baer-4479385Websites:zengenius.com visual911.com Email: jbaer@zengenius.comBIO:Joe is the Co-Founder, Creative Director, and CEO of ZenGenius, Inc., an experiential design firm specializing in visual merchandising and event design. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Joe brings over three decades of mastery in innovative leadership and creative direction to the design, visual merchandising and special events industries. He has extensive knowledge of the customer journey from working in stores for decades and is a seasoned public speaker who has traveled the world to inspire and educate others through the art of visual merchandising, design and special events.Additionally, Joe has contributed his retail know-how to multiple publications, authored The Art of Visual Merchandising: Short North, and created one of my favorite events in the retail industry the Iron Merchant Challenge, a popular interactive visual merchandising competition held annually at the International Retail Design Conference. Joe's passion for the world of design is evident in his role as President of the PAVE Global leadership board - a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation with the mission to support, connect, and inspire the next generation of professionals in the retail design, visual merchandising, and consumer environments industry. He also holds Advisory Board roles at Columbus College of Art and Design and VMSD Magazine. SHOW INTROWelcome to Episode 85! of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast…In every episode we follow our catch phrase of having “Dynamic Dialogues About DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.” And as we continue on this journey, we'll have guests that are thought provoking futurists, AI technology mavens, retailers, international hotel design executives as well as designers and architects of brand experience places.We'll talk with authors and people focused on wellness and sustainable design practices as well as neuroscientists who will continue to help us look at the built environment and the connections between our mind-body and the built world around us.If you like what you hear on the NXTLVL Experience Design show, make sure to subscribe, like, comment and share with colleagues, friends and family.The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is always grateful for the support of VMSD magazine.VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. I think the IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing us to keep on talking about what makes retailing relevant. You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience. SHOP Association represents companies and affiliates from 25 countries and brings value to their members through research, networking, education, events and awards. Check then out on SHOPAssociation.org Today, EPISODE 85… I talk with Joe Baer of Zen Genius an experiential design firm specializing in visual merchandising and event design. Joe had spent more than 3 decades working the in the retail industry bringing visual merchandising know-how to the creation of emotionally resonant branded places. Visual merchandising is allot more than simply making things look good in a store. It's very much about 3D storytelling, sensory experiences, emotions and making places sing as Joe explains.We'll get there in a minute but... first a few thoughts…*                     *                          *                          *Monique worked in the visual merchandising departmentshe was the director there and I was the director in the interior design department our two programs ran concurrently we shared some students across our programs but we seldom actually shared lunchAnd so it was slightly strange but intriguing that she invited me to have lunch with her across the street from the college at a little Thai placeWe sat down, talked about students and then - more as a throw away - she said “they want me to go to Singapore…”And I waited for the next sentence.“But I don't really want to go to Singapore.” she said. “I'd have to leave here. I'd have to leave my son who's thinking about collage a few years and I'd really just prefer to stay in Montreal.”And then there was a silence.“Singapore?!” I said.“I don't even know where Singapore is. That's in Southeast Asia, right? ““yeah, it's like on the other side of the world.” she said.“Sounds exotic. I'd go for sure. Besides, I love Chinese food. I could eat it every day.”“Really?” she said .“Sure, why not? I'd love to go. I love the whole idea of adventure.” “Well anyway,” she said, “I don't know what they are going to do if I don't go. It's to be the Director of the visual merchandising program in an international fashion school and they've got no one else who could do it.” “No seriously, I'd go. I mean I have no idea about what you do and… I'm a guy and that means genetically I actually don't like shopping and I've only ever designed the escalator and fountain at the Eaton center. But let them know that I'd do it.”We finished lunch, climbed over the snowbank of freshly plowed snow, crossed the street to get back for afternoon classes and a few weeks later I was walking down the stairs of a plane in the stultifying humidity at Changi airport.Monday morning, I was the program Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School … in Singapore… and… I had no idea what I was doing but knew my career had taken a significant and abrupt turn.The world of retail design had found me, and I never looked back for the next 20 years.Over those 20 plus years I learned from some masters in retail design and visual merchandising. I arrived in New York after a year, spent an afternoon with Gene Moore, was introduced to Peter Glenn and ended up working with Joe Weishar New Vision Studios. I spent the next four years listening to and watching Joe talk about visual merchandising practice as both art and retail strategy.For Joe Weishar visual merchandising wasn't just a display tactic but was a creative discipline that blended art, design and retail psychology. He merged visual perception and design principles and he would layout a store or a wall with the same mechanics of laying out a composition of a painting – proportions, scale, focal points. He celebrated Visual merchandising as an art form that shaped memorable experiences rather than simply placing products on the shelvesAll of those basic art principles were things that I was deeply familiar with. I had been in private art studios that my parents put me in at the age of nine because they recognized my passion for painting.I had gone to architecture school and spent the first eight years of my career doing traditional architectural projects – museums, libraries, houses, schools… that sort of thing and I taught the design same principles of scale proportion, balance, color, harmony and how you could use those things ultimately to tell a story to students in a College's interior design program in Montreal.Even in those early years of my career in the late 90s, I was learning that retail stores needed to be engaging the senses, and we should be thinking about creatively implementing textures, variations in lighting as well as sound and scent and not just focusing on what customers would experience with their eyes.I was learning that the senses were conduits for emotion and memory - that if you implemented design principles and thoughtful sensory-based visual merchandising elements correctly, that they would help to fill shopping baskets and engage customers in long-term relationships with a brand. These sorts of environments that engaged the senses would increase loyalty and invite return visits because, in the end, the store was simply a backdrop, a theater set for the full-bodied experience of a brand where main feature was the merchandise.If you thought of merchandise as elements in a composition and wrapped them in memorable display moments, it could make stores sing.This sort of thinking positioned retail as experience design rather than a purely commercial layout. The goods were a necessary part of the equation to be sure, but as I working through the foundational years of a retail design career, I saw that great retail places were more than a depository for stuff to be consumed, they had a palpable emotional resonance, they had soul. It was remarkable to me then, as a young retail architect, that we were designing with the purpose of selling…but it was more than that. Great stores fulfilled basic needs, desires and dreams. They were places for relationship building, with people as well as brands.They were story telling places that helped to message group belonging, wellbeing, connection and status. They were places where displays weren't random; they were meant to guide customers through a narrative journey. Every element was intentional, geared towards telling a brand story that invited the customer to participate in the story's unfolding.All of the effort that the designers, merchants and visual teams put into making the store wasn't just about “making it look good,” but making it work well. The design and visual strategy had to be grounded in retail metrics and customer behavior. In the end, our job as co-authors of this retail experience script was to move product.We would calculate merchandising units per square foot. We thought about how product would flow through a department from delivery to markdown and how adjacencies were critical – why groups of products were located next to what other products. We knew how many units had to sell in a department to make the financials work. There was business behind the beauty. Visual merchandising was a silent seller as author Judy Bell would say.In my early years, we didn't think too much about what happened to all the stuff after the store had aged or the season had changed. Graphics, fixtures and display items shifted along with the seasonal changes, holidays or special promotions. And a lot of it just got trashed. We began to think more deeply about the sustainability factor of our work and the impact of retail place making on our environment. It was no longer acceptable that the disposable economy would direct the design of store without any consideration for how it was eventually ending up in landfill sites. Lighting, manufacturing processes, materials, and lifecycles came under more scrutiny. These days, thinking about the sustainable nature of how we design and build stores is very much at the forefront of our thinking from the get-go.  Design firms are becoming B-Corporations whose mission is to be better stewards of our little blue dot. Along the way, teaching - both our clients as well as students in design programs - was something that never left the radar. What had been the precipitating moment - going from teacher to running a visual merchandising program at an international school in Singapore - would remain key to my professional experience. And this is where we can bring in my guest Joe Baer   into the story. Joe's story is so familiar because it is so similar. While we came to the retail world from different angles, our paths have many parallels and similarity in purpose – despite being from different orientations in the retail place-making paradigm.Joe is the Co-Founder, Creative Director, and CEO of ZenGenius, Inc., an experiential design firm specializing in visual merchandising and event design. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Joe brings over three decades of mastery in innovative leadership and creative direction to the design, visual merchandising and special events industries. He has extensive knowledge of the customer journey from working in stores for decades and is a seasoned public speaker who has traveled the world to inspire and educate others through the art of visual merchandising, design and special events.Additionally, Joe has contributed his retail know-how to multiple publications, authored The Art of Visual Merchandising: Short North, and created one of my favorite events in the retail industry the Iron Merchant Challenge, a popular interactive visual merchandising competition held annually at the International Retail Design Conference. Joe's passion for the world of design is evident in his role as President of the PAVE Global leadership board - a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation with the mission to support, connect, and inspire the next generation of professionals in the retail design, visual merchandising, and consumer environments industry. He also holds Advisory Board roles at Columbus College of Art and Design and VMSD Magazine. Joe leads with passion, purpose, pure joy and believes in celebration so I see our conversation as a celebration of Joe Baer's commitment to his retail industry involvement.ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582bWebsites: https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.comTwitter: DavidKepronPersonal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/Bio:David Kepron the Retail Studio Principal for the architecture and design firm Little (https://www.littleonline.com). He is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why', ‘what's now' and ‘what's next'. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott's “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine's Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation's Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.He has held teaching positions at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. I caught up with Bryan at the SHOP Marketplace event in Charlotte and chatted about his focus on shaping what comes next in digital signage and experiential design. The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production is by Kano Sound. The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

If you want to understand food – and eat better – economics is a good place to start. How do immigration patterns shape a country's cuisine? How do labour laws make our working lunches worse? And why do strip malls serve such good grub? To find out, Soumaya Keynes talks to Tyler Cowen, economics professor at George Mason University and chair of the Mercatus Center think-tank. Cowen has written about food for more than two decades, including in his 2012 book An Economist Gets Lunch.Read Soumaya's columns here: https://www.ft.com/soumaya-keynesSubscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen. Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Cheryl Brumley is the FT's global head of audio. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the 2026 Winter Olympics approach, Immigration Nerds explores the hidden immigration stories behind Team USA's more than 230 athletes heading to Italy. Immigration researcher Marissa Kiss from George Mason University reveals that nearly 17% of Team USA has direct immigrant ties—including foreign-born athletes from five countries and second-generation immigrants whose parents came from around the world. The conversation between host Lauren Clarke and Mariss covers athletes competing despite citizenship delays, the "reverse flow" of US-born athletes representing other countries, and how immigration policy has become a competitive tool in international sports. Plus, the latest news, including updates on FIFA World Cup visa processing, Texas's H-1B hiring pause for state agencies, and the latest on immigrant visa suspensions.Resource Links: George Mason University Institute for Immigration ResearchHOST: Lauren ClarkeGUEST: Marissa Kiss, Assistant Director, Immigration, Race, and Sports, George Mason University's Institute for Immigration ResearchNEWS NERD: Rob TaylorPRODUCER: Adam Belmar

If your body and mind are the engine of your leadership, what fuel are you putting into it? In this episode of The Fitness Business Podcast, Justin Tamsett sits down with Heather Wise Soubra, founder and CEO of Wiser Way Coaching and Director of the George Washington Leadership Institute at Mount Vernon. Heather shares powerful, practical insights on self-leadership—exploring how clarity, presence, values, habits, and alignment shape not just how we lead others, but how we lead ourselves first. This conversation is especially relevant for fitness business owners and leaders navigating pressure, chaos, and constant decision-making. Heather offers grounded strategies for responding instead of reacting, setting boundaries with integrity, and building daily practices that support sustainable leadership performance.   Key highlights from the episode: ✔ Why self-leadership is the foundation of effective leadership ✔ How to build the "well" so you're resourced before pressure hits ✔ The importance of identifying and living by your personal leadership values ✔ How morning routines shape decision-making, communication, and energy ✔ Practical tools for boundary setting without guilt or conflict ✔ Why alignment—not hustle—is the key to long-term leadership impact   Curious about the future host of Fitness Business Podcast? That's Zoe, the host JT's daughter!   Got value from today's episode? ✔ Leave us a review on your favorite podcast app ✔ Send us a voicemail at fitnessbusinesspodcast.com/leaveusavoicemail ✔ Share this episode with a colleague who wants to build a stronger team   Ready for more: ✔ Become an FBP Insider and get 7 days FREE to start! Learn more on Patreon: https://patreon.com/FitnessBusinessPodcast ✔ Our FREE LIVE online events created specifically for fitness business owners, managers, and coaches who want to sharpen their skills and grow their business - Learn More: https://fitnessbusinesspodcast.com/onlineevents ✔ Call in and let JT know if you think this has been the best season: https://fitnessbusinesspodcast.com/leave-us-a-voicemail/ ✔ Leave a rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts: https://fitnessbusinesspodcast.com/review/ Resources: ✔ Become an FBP Insider on Patreon: https://patreon.com/FitnessBusinessPodcast ✔ Fitness Business Podcast's LinkedIn Community: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9878228/ ✔ Mystery Shopping for Fitness Businesses: https://mysteryshoppingforfitnessbusinesses.com.au/    Recommended Books: ✔ Walk the Talk by Carolyn Taylor ✔ The 4‑Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss ✔ The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck ✔ PDF of Brene Brown's value exercises - https://fitnessbusinesspodcast.com/prod/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/22_0120-Values-Document-BBbrandedUU.pdf   Our Guest: Heather Wiser Soubra, Founder, Wiser Way Coaching and Director, George Washington Leadership Institute, Leadership Coach and Executive Facilitator ✔ Website: https://wiserwaycoaching.com/ ✔ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherwisersoubra/ ✔ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersoubra/    Merch Sponsor: Mystery Shopping for Fitness Businesses (Australia exclusive) Be a Merch Sponsor - https://fitnessbusinesspodcast.com/merch/   REX Roundtables: Website: www.REXRoundtables.comEmail: Eddie@REXRoundtables.com   A heartfelt thank you to the partners who support The Fitness Business Podcast: ✔ BeBalanced Centers: Provides natural hormone balancing for weight loss and symptom relief. https://www.bebalancedcenters.com/ ✔ Instinctive Insights: Provides profit-driven marketing and data science services to increase customer acquisition. https://www.instinctiveinsights.com/ ✔ Eleiko: Manufactures and sells premium strength and weightlifting equipment. https://eleiko.com/en-us✔ NetGym: Provides automated staff operations and sub-request management for fitness studios. https://www.netgym.com✔ EGYM: Provides smart, connected fitness technology and equipment for gyms. https://egym.com/us   About Our Guest: Heather Wiser Soubra is Founder and CEO of Wiser Way Coaching and Director of The George Washington Leadership Institute at Mount Vernon. An ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC), she empowers leaders and teams to reach their fullest potential by tapping into inner wisdom and building on strengths. Previously Senior Vice President at the International Dairy Foods Association, Heather holds degrees from George Mason University in intercultural communication and coaching, plus an Executive Certificate in Facilitation from Georgetown University. About Your Host: Justin "JT" Tamsett is a fitness industry veteran with over 30 years of experience who aims to reduce global healthcare costs by promoting physical activity. Through his company Active Management, he provides business coaching to fitness entrepreneurs, leads 8 REX Roundtables in the US and Australia, and has spoken at over 40 conferences across 23 countries. His ultimate goal is to create a world of opportunity for his daughter Zoe by helping more people move and stay healthy, while empowering gym owners to build successful businesses that contribute to a healthier society Please note: We only recommend products we care about (affiliate links support our free content). Thank you for your support!

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Chris Coyne delivers a keynote lecture at the 2023 Markets & Society conference on the foundations of peace. He contrasts “top-down” peacemaking driven by elites with “bottom-up” peacemaking that emerges from the everyday practices of ordinary people.Coyne argues that much of the social-scientific and policy conversation treats peace as a public good best supplied through state-intervention. He develops an alternative framework—pax hominem—that treats peace as an emergent, learned, and constantly renewed process. Drawing on mainline political economy and the work of Kenneth Boulding, Coyne shows how peaceful cooperation depends on local knowledge, social norms, and institutions that help people navigate conflict without violence across families, communities, and markets. Together, these insights point toward a research and policy agenda focused less on imposing order and more on creating space for self-governance and the bottom-up cultivation of peace.Dr. Christopher J. Coyne is Associate Director of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center and Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He has published numerous books, including How to Run Wars: A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Elite (Independent Institute, 2024), In Search of Monsters to Destroy: The Folly of American Empire and the Paths to Peace (Independent Institute, 2022), and Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails (Stanford University Press, 2013).**This episode was recorded October 20, 2024.Show Notes:Kenneth Boulding's book, Stable Peace (University of Texas Press, 1978)Elise Boulding's book, Cultures of Peace(Syracuse University Press, 2000)James C. Scott's book, Seeing Like a State (Yale University Press, 1999)Caroline Elkin's book, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire (Penguin Random House, 2023)James M. Buchanan's Nobel Prize LectureElinor Ostrom et. al's paper, “Covenants with and without a Sword: Self-Governance Is Possible” (APSR, 2013)Virgil storr et. al's book, Community Revival in the Wake of Disaster: Lessons in Local Entrepreneurship (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)Mikayla Novak's book, Freedom in Contention: Social Movements and Liberal Political Economy (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021)Virgil Storr and Ginny Choi's book, Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today!Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatusCC Music: Twisterium

S6E1 Retail Media's New Reality: DSP Shifts, Agentic Commerce & Brand Strategy for 2026Season 6 of The Retail Razor Show kicks off with a deep dive into one of the most important topics in commerce today: retail media. Ricardo and Casey sit down with Jeff Cohen, Chief Business Development Officer at Skai, to unpack the newly released 2026 State of Retail Media Report, created in partnership with Stratably.This episode explores how brands, versus retailers, are navigating the rapid evolution of retail media. From DSP shifts and CTV growth to AI adoption and agentic commerce, measurement challenges, and the widening gap between leaders and laggards, this conversation delivers the insights every brand marketer needs heading into 2026.What We CoverWhy retail media now commands nearly 30% of US digital ad spendThe rise of retail media maturity and what separates leaders from laggardsWhy organizational structure is now a top predictor of retail media successThe growing importance of Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)How brands should evaluate incrementality, attribution, and ROIWhy CTV and sponsored brand video are acceleratingThe role of AI and agentic commerce in shaping future shopping journeysWhat brands must do in 2026 to stay competitiveDownload the 2026 State of Retail Media Report (free):https://skai.io/reports-and-whitepapers/2026-state-of-retail-media-report/Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeAbout our GuestsJeff Cohen, Chief Business Development Officer, Skaihttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreycohen/Jeff Cohen leads global business development at Skai, overseeing partnerships and innovation across the commerce media ecosystem. A recognized thought leader, he is focused on uniting brands, agencies, retailers, and publishers around the next era of growth. Previously, Jeff was Principal Evangelist at Amazon Ads.Chapters:00:00 Preview Teaser 00:53 Show Intro 03:45 Welcome Jeff Cohen 06:24 Retail Media Maturity and Brand Strategies 08:30 Leaders vs. Laggards in Retail Media 12:12 Organizational Structure and Retail Media Success 17:35 Amazon Ads and DSP Insights 24:36 Evaluating Performance Across Platforms 27:45 The Shift to Full Funnel Advertising 29:46 Challenges in Measurement and Attribution 30:50 The Role of AMC in Retail Media 33:01 Incrementality and Budget Constraints 35:45 AI's Impact on Retail Media 37:10 Strategies for Brands in an AI World 42:54 Key Takeaways and Final Thoughts 48:21 Show CloseMeet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail and AGI, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Management, Careers, and Transformation, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Agentic AI and Digital Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation and the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft.Casey Golden is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.

Associate professor and founding director of the Race, Politics, and Policy Center at George Mason University, Dr. Michael K. Fauntroy, shares his take on trending political topics.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

With a rebellion underway in New England, the Continental Congress orders an invasion of Quebec, confident that Catholic French Canadians will rally to the Patriot standard, a mere fifteen years after Protestant British Americans helped to conquer the old colony of New France for their king. Featuring: Rick Atkinson, Jeffers Lennox, and Alexandra Lund Montgomery. Voice Actors: Emmanuel Dubois, Evan McCormick, John Terry, and John Winters. Narrated by Dr. Jim Ambuske. Music by Artlist.io This episode was made possible with support from a 2024 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Help other listeners find the show by leaving a 5-Star Rating and Review on Apple, Spotify, Podchaser, or our website. Follow the series on Facebook or Instagram. Worlds Turned Upside Down is a production of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

In this episode, we have Mike Derrios with us, the new Executive Director of the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting within the Costello College of Business at George Mason University. Mike discusses with us the concept to create a common culture within GovCon across Government, Industry and Academia and the benefits associated.  To connect with Mike, find him on LinkedIn.  Learn more about the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting

The White House's Situation Room is one of those real-life places that, because it plays such a key role in historic moments but is so rarely seen by outsiders, takes on an outsized air of mystery. And while it's recently captured the public's imagination again, thanks to the Netflix film A House of Dynamite, the Situation Room is just one point in a complex web of government security and intelligence operations.    On this episode of Access to Excellence, President Gregory Washington is joined by Larry Pfeiffer—director of George Mason University's Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security, and expert consultant for A House of Dynamite—to discuss his experiences in the Situation Room: both in the White House and on the sound stage.   

**This episode was recorded September 29, 2025.On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Chris Coyne speaks with Amy Crockett and Erwin Dekker about how economics shapes our understanding of peace, conflict, and cooperation, drawing on the work of Kenneth Boulding and James Buchanan.First, Coyne speaks with Amy Crockett about her upcoming paper, “Addressing Peace in Undergraduate Economics Textbooks.” Crockett examines how peace is often treated as a background assumption in economics education and presents evidence from introductory and upper-level textbooks on how war, conflict, and policy responses are typically framed, highlighting missed opportunities to emphasize bottom-up, cooperative solutions.Coyne then speaks with Erwin Dekker about his paper, “Kenneth Boulding and James Buchanan on the Public Function of Economics.” Decker discusses how both thinkers understood economics as shaping the public “image” of social life, emphasizing exchange, moral foundations, and the importance of economists addressing citizens rather than policymakers.Together, these conversations show how economic ideas—whether taught in classrooms or communicated to the public—can either reinforce conflict-centered narratives or help sustain cultures of peace and cooperation.This is the fourth episode in a short series of episodes that will feature a collection of authors who contributed to the volume 1, issue 2 of the Markets & Society Journal or to a forthcoming special issue from The Review of Austrian Economics.Dr. Erwin Dekker is Senior Fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He has published numerous books, including Realizing the Values of Art (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), Jan Tinbergen (1903-1994) and the Rise of Economic Expertise (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and The Viennese Students of Civilization: The Meaning and Context of Austrian Economics Reconsidered (Cambridge University Press, 2016).Dr. Amy Crockett is a Senior Lecturer at Vanderbilt University. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from George Mason University, an M.A. in teaching from Relay Graduate School of Education, and a B.S. in systems engineering & economics from George Mason University. She is an Alum of the Mercatus PhD Fellowship.Show Notes: Tensions in Political Economy SeriesKenneth Boulding's book, The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society (University of Michigan Press, 1956).Robert Higgs' paper, “Wartime Prosperity? A Reassessment of the U.S. Economy in the 1940s” (The Journal of Economic History, 2009).James Buchanan's paper, “Positive Economics, Welfare Economics, and Political Economy” (The Journal of Law & Economics, 1959).James M. Buchanan's Nobel Prize LectureIf you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today!Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatusCC Music: Twisterium

ABOUT JENNIFER:LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejenniferwalsh/ Websites:https://www.walkwithwalsh.comBio:For nearly 30 years, Jennifer has been at the forefront of transformative movements in beauty, retail, & biophilic design. As a consummate innovator, she has been dedicated to reimagining the human experience, whether through pioneering retail concepts, creating immersive outdoor experiences, or driving biophilic design solutions across industries.In the 1990s, Jennifer founded Beauty Bar, the first experiential omni-channel beauty brand in the U.S., introducing open-sell environments, curbside service, and men's skincare departments, concepts that reshaped how people shop for beauty. This trailblazing work integrated biophilic principles long before they became mainstream, earning recognition as an industry innovator. After selling Beauty Bar ultimately purchased by Amazon in 2011, she continued to build groundbreaking businesses and brands, always staying ahead of the curve. Another first was created in 2014 with Pride & Glory, a collegiate beauty brand. Today, she guides large and small scale biophilic design projects to create spaces that promote human flourishing. From Recharge Rooms to retail spaces, homes, schools, and urban landscapes, her work transforms environments into ecosystems of opportunity. All inspired from lived experiences. Jennifer helps organizations leverage the neuroscience of nature to enhance experiences, foster resilience, and build deeper connections within their organizations.SHOW INTRO:Welcome to Episode 84! of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast…In every episode we follow our catch phrase of having “Dynamic Dialogues About DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.” And as we continue on this journey, we'll have guests that are thought provoking futurists, AI technology mavens, retailers, international hotel design executives as well as designers and architects of brand experience places.We'll talk with authors and people focused on wellness and sustainable design practices as well as neuroscientists who will continue to help us look at the built environment and the connections betw een our mind-body and the built world around us.We'll also have guests who are creative marketing masters from international brands and people who have started and grown some of the companies that are striking a new path for us follow.If you like what you hear on the NXTLVL Experience Design show, make sure to subscribe, like, comment and share with colleagues, friends and family.The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is always grateful for the support of VMSD magazine.VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. I think the IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing us to keep on talking about what makes retailing relevant. You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience. SHOP Association represents companies and affiliates from 25 countries and brings value to their members through research, networking, education, events and awards. Check then out on SHOPAssociation.org Today, EPISODE 84… I talk with Jennifer Walsh who for nearly 30 years, has been at the forefront of transformative movements in beauty, retail, & biophilic design. Jennifer is an innovator, and has been dedicated to reimagining the human experience, whether through pioneering retail concepts, creating immersive outdoor experiences, or driving biophilic design solutions across industries.Talking about biophilic design isn't new on the podcast, this time though we bolt on retailing, neuroscience and experience. This conversation is more introspective and looks at one's motivation to change to considering our environments and biophilic design from the point of view of sense of well-being and personal growth.We'll get there in a minute but... first a few thoughts…*                     *                          *                          *If you go back to the early episodes of the podcast, you'll come across Bill Browning. Bill and I connected while I was working the hospitality industry and focusing my efforts on the redesign of the Westin guestroom and lobby design strategy.Bill's world is Biophilic – both literally and philosophically, may be even existentially. He literally wrote the book on Biophilic Design's 14 principles, which now includes a 15th with the addition of ‘Awe,' and he has written a more recent publication with Katie Ryan called “Nature Inside,” it is a terrific handbook to implementing Biophilic design principles in built environments.I think a lot about the design of places where nature has been completely eliminated - think major downtown cities in any corner of the world.It is also not lost on me that when I sit working in my Home Office I have the extraordinarily good fortune to lookout on 2 1/2 acres of green space with a rolling hill down towards a creek that when it rains particularly hard overflows and becomes a small river in my backyard. But this point of view to my backyard and the way I feel sitting on my deck having a morning coffee is not just about the warm feeling of my cup in my hands but that there are key principles of biophilic design at play - namely refuge and prospect. Being exposed daily to these perspectives towards a forest at the back of my property I have an immediate body sense of calm, wonder and awe.I see sun rises to the left of my property and sun sets to the right. The re are Canada geese that, like clockwork, fly over my backyard every fall as they migrate South. I'm attuned to the textures and colors of the sky and the varying degrees of light intensity - bright and brilliant and dreary and diffused.All of these features of a natural world have the effect of putting me at ease.In the past few years, I've begun to connect that mind body experience, the somatic experience of natural places, with what I understand about neuroscience and our long evolutionary history of living the largest proportion of our human development among trees - in a real jungle versus the concrete ones that we have now built all around us.It's no surprise that the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku – forest bathing – is actually therapeutic. When we immerse ourselves in a forest atmosphere, using all five senses to connect with nature, we are promoting stress reduction and well-being. Slowing down, and taking mindful walks, appreciating sights, sounds, and smells is so good for us and yet many of us, especially those who are city dwellers, rush from place to place making sure to stay on the clock moving from one appointment to the next and filling our schedules every day with a mind-numbing number of things to check off on our To Do List Taking a moment to disconnect from technology calms the mind and body and has proven benefits like lower stress hormones and boosting immunity.The multi layered, highly textured and colored natural environments that we have evolved from, are often being replaced by environments of banality that actually have deep psychological effects when we are continually exposed to boring buildings.Bringing this intuitive sense, that natural environments support well-being, into the design of built environments, and intentionally creating places that reference biophilic principles, often proves very hard to do in a world where efficiency and productivity leading to increased profitability are what we are taught to drive towards as a reflection of success.Many times, adding plants to a space is an afterthought, like decoration, to make things look better - but they are not really being incorporated as a strategy for building environments to enhance well-being. Interestingly though, when people learn more about how to apply biophilic principles, beyond simply introducing plants as a nod to creating more nature-based experiences, they begin to also understand that their assumptions about adding additional cost may not be well founded. If you consider designing with nature in mind from the get-go, incorporating principles of biophilic design in the places we build as part of the strategy, then managing the costs is totally achievable.Anthropologie stores are a great example of introducing living green walls to their stores. Too be sure, these are not without expense both in their implementation and maintenance but the effect of walking up the grand staircase with this green wall rising from floor to ceiling across multiple levels feels wonderful. I still remember one of my first experiences in the Anthropologie store on Regent Street in London and have since sought to find similar experiences in other retail stores around the world. Design ideas like the green walls in Anthropologie stores is a conscious, intentional, move that enhances experience as well as environmental air quality. We simply feel better when we were places like this and if that turns into reduced absenteeism of associates or increased customer visits then… all the better. There's no question that being under a wash of fluorescent light standing on hard surfaces or sitting in cubicles is perhaps one of the worst ways to be productive and happy in our workplaces. I would imagine that sales associates in Anthropologie stores generally feel better than in big boxes with uniform high intensity lighting, relentless aisles of merchandise, hard surfaces and stale air with no natural sunlight.Full disclosure, when I look back over my career of designing retail places, very infrequently has the design team spent time considering what it would be like to be a sales associate in one of these places. Standing for hours on end in environments that are depleting leads to poor interactions between sales teams and customers. Seems kind of obvious but when people feel better in their workplaces, they're more likely to translate that to positive interactions with guests. More positive interactions with guests could naturally lead to larger basket size and increased number of return visits. All good if you're a retailerAnd yet, we seldom see retail places that fully embrace ideas that support well-being through the strategic introduction of biophilic design principles.New disciplines in the world of neuroscience like neuroaesthetics are beginning to be more widely accepted in the design community and there is a broader recognition about the positive effects of creating environments that apply principles of biophilia that enhance a sense of well-being. And while there is a growing trend of wider adoption of neuroaesthetics we need to keep on beating the drum about environments that are actually good for us.This is where the story leads to my guest Jennifer Walsh.In the 1990s, Jennifer founded Beauty Bar, the first experiential omni-channel beauty brand in the U.S., introducing open-sell environments, curbside service, and men's skincare departments - concepts that reshaped how people shop for beauty. Jennifer says that she just wanted people to feel good when they came into her store and she somehow intuitively knew that introducing elements of biophilia, though I'm not sure that we actually even had a name for it back then, into her store, would attract people, have them stay longer and return more often.Jennifer's integration of biophilic principles, long before they became mainstream, earned her recognition as an industry innovator. After Beauty Bar was ultimately purchased by Amazon in 2011, she continued to build groundbreaking businesses and brands, always staying ahead of the curve.Today, she guides large and small scale biophilic design projects to create spaces that promote human flourishing. In retail spaces, homes, schools, and urban landscapes, her work transforms environments into ecosystems of opportunity. All inspired from lived experiences. Jennifer helps organizations leverage the neuroscience of nature to enhance experiences, foster resilience, and build deeper connections within their organizations.ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582bWebsites: https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.comTwitter: DavidKepronPersonal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/Bio:David Kepron the Retail Studio Principal for the architecture and design firm Little (https://www.littleonline.com). He is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why', ‘what's now' and ‘what's next'. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott's “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine's Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation's Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.He has held teaching positions at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. I caught up with Bryan at the SHOP Marketplace event in Charlotte and chatted about his focus on shaping what comes next in digital signage and experiential design. The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production is by Kano Sound. The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

** We'll be discussing this episode on Tuesday, January 13th (8 pm ET/5 pm PT) in our online gathering, Macro ‘n Chill. We've invited Erald Kolasi to join us. So bring your questions. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/aYopZXEIQ9SPN9gQL2ajXQSteve welcomes back Erald Kolasi, physicist-economist, author, and friend of the podcast. Erald is here to do a demolition job on “institutional” development fables like Acemoglu & Robinson's Why Nations Fail. He argues that by treating good institutions as the master key (inclusive vs. extractive) they smuggle in a liberal moral scoreboard while dodging the real motors of history: power, class struggle, imperial systems, and material constraints like energy, trade dependence, war, and ecological shocks.To “steelman” Acemoglu and Robinson's position, Erald uses their favorite showcase case – North vs. South Korea. He lays out their comparison of the “tyrannical dictatorship” vs the “open” society and presents their explanation for these differences.Erald then flips the script: the DPRK outperformed for decades, then crashed not because its “institutions got worse,” but because the USSR collapsed. Cheap, subsidized energy disappeared, wrecking agriculture and triggering famine.The pattern repeats across history. Using examples like China and Venezuela, the episode explores how wars, sanctions, resource access, and global power structures shape economic outcomes far more than abstract institutional rules. Development is a struggle rooted in material conditions and geopolitical realities, not a neutral competition between better or worse policy designs.Erald Kolasi is a writer and researcher focusing on the nexus between energy, technology, economics, complex systems, and ecological dynamics. His book, The Physics of Capitalism, came out from Monthly Review Press in February 2025. He received his PhD in Physics from George Mason University in 2016. You can find out more about Erald and his work at his website, www.eraldkolasi.com. Subscribe to his Substack: https://substack.com/@technodynamics

1.9.26, George Mason University Men's Basketball Coach Tony Skinn joins The Kevin Sheehan Show to discuss GMU's 15-1 record on the season and how they stack up the Atlantic 10 conference this year.