Podcasts about George Mason University

Erald Kolasi returns to the podcast to remind us that AI doesn't simply exist weightlessly in the ephemeral cloud. Drawing on his research into its global energy and emissions impact, Erald traces AI's vast material infrastructure, from mining, semiconductors, water, energy, and logistics to data centers and power generation. His life-cycle analysis reveals a monster-sized ecological footprint, in contrast to conventional estimates that focus narrowly on electricity consumed at data centers.But this goes deeper than technology. Steve and Erald examine AI through the dynamics of capital accumulation, monopoly power, financial speculation, imperialism, and the intimate relationship between corporations and the capitalist state. Its explosive growth reflects decisions about who controls society's resources and what they are used for. The conversation closes by imagining a radically different trajectory: publicly controlled technology directed toward reducing necessary labor and meeting human needs rather than enriching private capital and accelerating ecological destruction. What kind of political economic system would this require?AI is the subject, but capitalism is the story.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, eraldkolasi.com. Subscribe to his Substack: https://substack.com/@technodynamics

In this episode of Positive Philter, I'm joined by Dr. Keith Renshaw, Professor of Psychology and Senior Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education at George Mason University. We discuss his educational journey, his passion for student success, and why research and academic rigor are valuable for all students, not just those pursuing graduate degrees. Dr. Renshaw shares how undergraduate research experiences help students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills that translate across industries and careers. This is a great conversation for students, educators, and anyone interested in the transformative power of higher education. Shout Out and Plugs Dr. Renshaw's GMU Profile: https://provost.gmu.edu/profiles/krenshaw     Dr. Renshaw's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-renshaw-311170103/ Recording Credits Mason Innovation Exchange (The MIX): A collaborative space for innovation and entrepreneurship. Visit The MIX. Community & Support Jeff's Anti-Hunger Fund Dedicated to Jeff Kirsch, this fund supports the careers of future anti-hunger advocates. Please consider donating to the Jeff Kirsch Fund for Anti-Hunger Advocacy: Donate Here Pats for Patriots Members of the #MasonNation can recognize colleagues or students for their kindness via Pats for Patriots. We have received over 3,000 nominations—keep them coming! Nominate Someone Here Steam Pilots Program Steam Pilots, Inc. (501(c)(3)) improves STEAM education through pro bono programs. They are currently raising funds for kits and equipment. Support the GoFundMe Podcast Resources Connect & Follow Newsletter: Sign up for the Positive Philter Weekly Patreon: Support the Podcast Feedback: Complete our Audience Survey Questions: Call 571-336-6560 or use this Google Form Reviews: Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts Social Media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram Featured Products & Music Book: "Forty Years of Advice" by Philip Wilkerson: Purchase on Amazon The Five Minute Journal: Shop Intelligent Change Tappy Card: Get Your Electronic Business Card Intro Music: DJ BIGyoks (Instagram | Soundcloud) Outro Music: Ryan Rosemond (Soundcloud) Positive Philter is honored to be among the Top 20 Positive Thinking Podcasts by FeedSpot: View the List

On this edition of The Federalist Radio Hour, Jack Salmon, a Gibbs scholar and research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, joins Federalist Senior Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle to analyze why Americans flee blue states for red ones and explain what this signals about the state of the economy. Read more from Salmon here. The Federalist Foundation is a nonprofit, and we depend entirely on our listeners and readers — not corporations. If you value fearless, independent journalism, please consider a tax-deductible gift today at TheFederalist.com/donate. Your support keeps us going.

On this edition of The Federalist Radio Hour, Jack Salmon, a Gibbs scholar and research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, joins Federalist Senior Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle to analyze why Americans flee blue states for red ones and explain what this signals about the state of the economy. Read more from Salmon here. The Federalist Foundation […]

Episode 540 / Hidenori Ishii Hidenori Ishii is an artist born in Yonezawa, Japan, who resides and works in LIC, New York. He holds a BFA from George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, and an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. His work traverses painting, screen-printing, installation and public art. His solo exhibitions include venues like Erin Cluley Gallery in Dallas, TX, C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore, MD and Hub-Robeson Gallery in Penn State University, PA. His work has been featured in group exhibitions worldwide, including at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art in TX, Tian Contemporain, Montreal, Canada and Art in Embassies in Ankara, Turkey. He has received awards such as 2024 and 2019 FST Studio Project Funds in NYC, 2024 Finalist in MTA Arts & Design Program and was previously a Keyholder Resident at the LES Printshop in New York City. His work is part of collections such as the Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection, TD Bank Art Collection, Morgan Stanley Art Collection, the Microsoft Art Collection and the University Texas Southwestern Medical Center Art Collection.

Tyler Cowen is an economist, author, and professor who holds the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and faculty director of the Mercatus Center. He co-authors the long-running economics blog Marginal Revolution with Alex Tabarrok, co-founded Marginal Revolution University, and hosts the interview podcast Conversations with Tyler. Cowen's books include The Great Stagnation, Average Is Over, and Talent; his newest project, The Marginal Revolution: Rise and Decline, and the Pending AI Revolution, is a free interactive book on the history of marginalist economics and the implications of AI for the field. Books: Marginal Revolution GOAT Talent ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: AGZ ⁠https://DrinkAG1.com/tetra⁠ ------ Squarespace ⁠https://Squarespace.com/tetra⁠ Use code 'TETRA' ------ Athletic Nicotine ⁠https://www.AthleticNicotine.com/tetra⁠ Use code 'TETRA' ------ Lectio 365 ⁠https://Lectio365.com⁠ ------ Sign up to receive Tetragrammaton Transmissions ⁠https://www.tetragrammaton.com/join-newsletter

Hank Crawford of Blue Collar Robotics and Paul Harker, retired CCO of Woolworths Group, on grocery store robotics a retailer can deploy today.There are 280,000 people walking the aisles of US grocery stores right now picking somebody else's order, and grocers cannot hire fast enough to keep up with the growth. That number comes from Hank Crawford, Co-Founder and CEO of Blue Collar Robotics, and it frames the whole conversation. Online grocery keeps growing. Labor keeps getting harder to find. And the two big swings the industry took at eGrocery fulfillment, the centralized fulfillment center and the micro fulfillment center, both left grocers with high CapEx, duplicated inventory, and people still picking most of the order. Hank is joined by Paul Harker, retired Chief Commercial Officer of Woolworths Group, Australia's largest retailer, who joined Blue Collar Robotics as a strategic advisor. Together with Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden they work through the economics of eGrocery fulfillment from the operator's side of the table: why the warehouse answer collapsed, what grocery store robotics has been getting wrong, and why a purpose-built robot with a remote operator behind it can drop into a supermarket that already exists. The mechanism is the interesting part. Blue Collar Robotics sells the picking as a service. A grocer pays a cost per pick, which moves the spend from CapEx into OpEx. The robot handles packaged center-aisle goods using vacuum suction, which is roughly 65% of a typical order, and store associates get redeployed to fresh, where care actually shows up in the customer's bag. Blue Collar reports eGrocery fulfillment cost reductions of as much as 50%. This is Season 6, Episode 10.In This Episode, You'll Learn•       Why centralized fulfillment centers failed for grocery on four separate counts: volume density, distance from the customer, fresh, and CapEx•       What Paul Harker says micro fulfillment centers still cannot solve, including duplicated inventory and picking "the uglies"•       Why over 80% of a grocer's business is still the in-store customer, and how eGrocery growth quietly degrades that experience•       The case for a human behind every robot, and why it is now standard practice for anything operating in an unstructured environment•       What robot etiquette means in a store aisle, and what China's hotel delivery robots taught Hank about how not to do it•       How the grocery store robotics buying conversation changes when the customer has no robotics team of its own•       Why grocery store robotics took this long to find product-market fit in a supermarket, and what changed•       Why the labor argument runs backwards here: there is no line of people waiting for picking jobs•       How remote operation opens picking work to people who could never physically do it, and opens a 24 hour picking clock for the store•       What Hank says is actually slowing adoption, and it is not the technologySupport our sponsorsThis Episode is Brought to You By RetailClub.Retail and brand leaders can attend RetailClub AI Festival completely budget-free, plus get $1,750 toward travel and hotel. From the founders of Shoptalk and Groceryshop, it's three days fully outdoors in Huntington Beach, September 22 to 24, with 2,000 senior leaders working through how AI is transforming retail. If you're shaping AI's future in retail, budget shouldn't be why you miss it. Register by August 28 at retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast.Subscribe & FollowHow much did you love this episode? Drop us a 5‑star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Goodpods. Subscribe on YouTube so you never miss an episode and check out the other shows in the Retail Razor Podcast Network: Retail Transformers, Blade to Greatness, and Data Blades.Subscribe 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/utubeFeatured guestsHank Crawford. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hank-crawford-a4a9755/Co-Founder & CEO of Blue Collar Robotics. https://bluecollarrobotics.aiHank Crawford is Co-Founder & CEO of Blue Collar Robotics, where he leads the company's mission to make in-store grocery picking affordable for retailers through purpose-built robots delivered as a service, pairing AI-driven autonomy with human-assisted teleoperation. A technology entrepreneur and commercial leader with more than 35 years of experience in advanced composites, global manufacturing, and robotics, Crawford has founded companies in the United States and China including PURE Material Science, a Guangzhou-based pioneer of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites and has helped scale advanced technology businesses in senior engineering and commercial roles at Performance Materials Corporation (acquired by Toray), Daimler Trucks in both North America and China, TRB Lightweight Structures, and Avient. He holds multiple patents in composite materials and manufacturing.Paul Harker. https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-s-harker/Retired Chief Commercial Officer, Woolworths Group. Strategic Advisor. Blue Collar Robotics.Paul Harker has more than three decades of senior leadership experience across Australia's retail and FMCG sectors, including 33 years with Woolworths Group. Most recently, Paul served as Chief Commercial Officer for Woolworths Group, where he was accountable for the $51 billion Australian Food commercial portfolio. In this role, he oversaw commercial practices across more than 1,000 stores and helped lead large-scale enterprise transformation initiatives, including the modernization of digital systems and the integration of data-led analytics across complex supply chain networks. Paul's earlier executive roles at Woolworths included leadership across Replenishment, Supply Chain, and Store Operations, giving him a broad understanding of the full retail operating model – from store execution to enterprise-level commercial strategy.Chapters00:00 Teaser 00:48 Show Intro 05:34 Welcome Hank and Paul! 06:37 Why Warehouses Failed 09:02 Store Picking Tensions 10:28 Amazon Threat Reality 14:47 Robotics Hype vs Reality 16:34 Human in the Loop 18:34 Blue Collar Robotics Intro 19:46 Service Model Economics 22:35 How Store Deployment Works 25:48 Comparing Other Models 30:50 Automation and Jobs 32:35 Scaling Labor With Robots 33:43 24 Hour Store Operations 35:09 Accuracy And Quality Standards 36:48 AI Regulation And Safety 40:18 Robot Etiquette In Aisles 41:36 China Robotics Lessons 45:19 Selling To Risk Averse Grocers 49:36 Five Year Outlook And Jobs 52:19 Wrap Up And Where To Learn More 53:40 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 AIand 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.

In this episode of Roompact's ResEdChat, Crystal connects with Demarcus Merritt, Sr., Assistant Director of Residence Life at George Mason University, on how burnout and the expectation to "push through" have become normalized within housing and residence life. Through a thoughtful conversation on supervision, wellness, move-in culture, and professional sustainability, Demarcus challenges us to rethink...... Continue Reading →

The nineteenth century saw the birth of many new religious movements. Most claimed to be Christian, yet their teachings departed from the Bible. In this episode, Grace, Isaac, and Priscilla explore the life and the teachings of Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as Mormons). How did Smith come to be regarded as a prophet? What did he teach? Who was Mormon, and do we still have the golden plates on which he supposedly recorded his revelations? Join our hosts as they bring these and other questions to Dr. John Turner, professor of Religious Studies and History at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and author of the book, Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet. 

ABOUT HEIDIMARIE KRIZ Heidemarie's profile: linkedin.com/in/heidemarie-kriz-0772177 Websites: positiveaffairs.com (Company) krizh.com (Company) pointofsale.doctor (Company) Phone: +43 676 3026618 (Work) Address: Kohlmarkt 8-101010 Vienna I Austria Email: office@krizh.com AKTUELLER RETAIL NEWSFLASH PODCAST >>> https://fanlink.tv/rnfp13022026 Latest Press releases KRIZH in Forbes Magazine Slovakia :  https://www.forbes.sk/super-retail-club-prichadza-na-slovensko-prvykrat-nan-zavita-expertka-heidemarie-kriz/ BIO: Heidemarie Kriz is among the pioneers who recognized the multi-sensory dimension of retail long before it became a trend. With almost 30 years of international experience, she merges with architecture, design, and commerce to create environments that are both emotionally engaging and commercially effective. She has directed more than 200 retail projects across Europe and the MENA region for global brands such as Nike, Apple, and Levi's. Her Vienna-based studio KRIZH® stands for brand-focused spatial design and holistic retail strategy — from concept development and customer journey mapping to sensory engagement and visual merchandising. Acting as a one-stop shop for retail innovation, her work transforms spaces into immersive brand experiences that engage all five senses and build lasting customer relationships. Before founding her studio, Heidemarie held senior roles at international retail brands, where she developed store concepts rolled out across Europe. (more than 200) Her portfolio extends beyond retail to hospitality and office design — experience that enables her to identify synergies and develop solutions that transcend industry boundaries. In 2020, she founded Point of Sale Doctor®, a hybrid consulting platform optimizing retail spaces both in-store and online. With her rapid analysis method, she provides precise, actionable input-from layout to product presentation- achieving measurable sales growth for her clients. Recognized as a Top Retail Expert 2025 & 2026 by RETHINK Retail in New York City, Heidi is a published author (Stores + Shops, Across Magazine, Deutscher Laden-bauverband, Instore Slovakia, retailmagazin.sk..), speaker at conferences, universities and brands, and since 2021 co-host of the Retail News Flash Podcast. Since 2012, she has curated immersive retail trend tours in cities such as Vienna, Venice, Nice, and New York. Holding a Master of Science in Architecture from Graz University of Technology (she is also Civil engineer in architecture) and additional certifications in Marketing & Sales as well as International Project Management, she continues to shape the future of retail as a holistic sensory experience — seamlessly connecting the analog and digital worlds. Her unique approach with Point of Sale Doctor® combines speed, intuition, and deep expertise. Within minutes, she can evaluate a shop concept and identify potential improvement. Known for her “truffle pig nose,” she instinctively discovers exceptional stores wherever she goes. By linking retail with hospitality, museums, and hotels, she creates environments that speak to all senses and leaves a lasting impress *                     *                          *                          * ABOUT DAVID KEPRON: LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b Websites:  https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website) vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog) Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/ NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/ Bio: David Kepron 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 the Retail Studio Principle at Little Diversified Architectural Consulting (Little) and 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 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.

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke sits down with Kristen Collins for a wide-ranging conversation on Adam Smith's moral philosophy and its intersection with theories of justice, sympathy, and political power. The conversation moves through the relationship between sympathy, moral imagination, and the origins of our sense of justice, drawing on Michelle Schwarze's work on sympathetic resentment, before turning to why economists have historically misread Smith as indifferent to the poor and powerless — despite Smith's own repeated siding with the weak against the powerful. Boettke and Collins also explore Smith's "man of system" passages as a caution against imposing utopian visions by force, discuss Judith Shklar's "liberalism of fear" in relation to Hayek, and close with an extended look at Collins's research on Jeremy Bentham's little-known Sotomion — a proposed institution designed to protect unmarried pregnant women from social shame while preserving their social connections, offering a striking counterpoint to Bentham's more famous Panopticon.Dr. Kristen Collins is a 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. She hosts the Virtual Sentiments podcast, which features conversations with scholars and practitioners reflecting on the ethics and politics of technology. She is currently working on a book, Seeing and Being Seen: Spectatorship and Surveillance in Liberal Democracies, under contract with Oxford University Press.**This episode was recorded on June 2, 2026**Show Notes:Kristen Collins, “Observed without Sympathy: Adam Smith on Inequality and Spectatorship” (American Journal of Political Science, 2020)Virtual Sentiments | Maria Pia Paganelli on 250 Years of Adam Smith's Wealth of NationsVirtual Sentiments | Eileen Hunt on Mary Shelley and the Ethics of AIMartha C. Nussbaum, The Cosmopolitan Tradition: A Noble but Flawed Ideal (Harvard University Press, 2021)F.A. Hayek, “Individualism: True and False”Michelle Schwarze, Recognizing Resentment: Sympathy, Injustice, and Liberal Political Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2020)Carl Menger, “The Social Theories of Classical Political Economy and Modern Economic Policy”James R. Otteson, Adam Smith's Marketplace of Life (Cambridge University Press, 2012)Albert O. Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph (Princeton University Press, 2013)William Easterly, Violent Saviors: The West's Conquest of the Rest (Basic Books, 2025)Joshua L. Cherniss, Liberalism in Dark Times: The Liberal Ethos in the Twentieth Century (Princeton University Press, 2021)Jeremy Waldron, Political Political Theory: Essays on Institutions (Harvard University Press, 2016)Jeremy Waldron, One Another's Equals: The Basis of Human Equality (Harvard University Press, 2017)Judith N. Shklar, The Liberalism of Fear (Harvard University Press, 2026)Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These (Grove Press, 2021)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

Coach Andy Fox shares his journey from being a standout basketball player at Cornell (Iowa) to becoming the Associate Head Coach at George Mason University.Andy got his start in the profession as Graduate Assistant at Tennessee under Buzz Peterson, he was retained when Bruce Pearl took the reins, the Volunteers captured the SEC East Championship in 2006 and earned 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.He went on to join the coaching staff at The Citadel under Ed Conroy and he helped propel the Bulldogs to a school-record 20 wins and the program's first postseason appearance in 2009. Coach Conroy took Andy with him when he accepted the job at Tulane. After five seasons at Tulane, Coach Fox joined the coaching staff at Louisiana Tech serving under Eric Konkol.After four seasons at Louisiana Tech he moved to Nashville and served in a multitude of roles under Jerry Stackhouse at Vanderbilt. The Commodores made a pair of NIT appearances and had their best season in over a decade during his time in Nashville.Coach Fox spent the 2024-25 season coaching at Army West Point under Kevin Kuwik. In 2024-25, Fox helped lead the Black Knights to a historic season, which included the program's first postseason win in 55 years.Tony Skinn hired Andy Fox to his George Mason University coaching staff in June 2025 and they pioneered the Patriots to the program's best-ever overall (18-1) and A-10 starts (6-0). They became the fastest in school history to reach 20 victories (22), they earned a spot in the 2025 NIT. In June 2026 Coach Skinn promoted Fox to an Associate Head Coach.

Craig and Julie have a jam packed show to start of the week! FreightWaves Finance Editor, Todd Maiden, starts things off talking railroad earnings. He breaks down how major carriers like Schneider National handily beat expectations, signaling the early stages of a capacity-constrained rate recovery. Schneider captured double-digit rate increases on contract renewals during Q2. Zak Andersoe, Chief of Staff and VP of Corporate Relations at BNSF, outlined why the railroad strongly opposes the proposed merger between Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS). He explains how the merger creates an unprecedented level of market power (over 50% market share in the combined entity), which BNSF argues will ultimately raise prices and reduce competition for shippers—particularly bulk and carload shippers who lack competitive alternatives. Trent Broberg, CEO of FullBay, highlighted key trends and operational pressures across heavy-duty maintenance shops. Brian Fielkow, EVP of Risk Resources at Acrisure, detailed how safety directly drives productivity and enterprise value. Alex Tabarrok, Chair in Economics at George Mason University, presented findings from a white paper on autonomous vehicle (AV) adoption and opposition. ⁠Follow the FreightWaves Today Podcast⁠ ⁠Other FreightWaves Shows⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've looked at the Supreme Court's upcoming Second Amendment case against AR-15 bans with the lawyer who helped craft the Court's view of gun rights and with a professor who is a prominent critic of that view from the left. This week, we're doing the same with a pro-gun critic of the Court's test. That critic is Cato Institute scholar and George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin. Ever since the Supreme Court handed down a new Second Amendment test in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, most gun-rights advocates have been happy with the outcome of the cases where the Court has applied it. But there is a contingent of pro-gun lawyers and professors who've disputed whether it's a good precedent. Somin argued that Bruen's reliance on history and tradition creates a lot of grey areas in the law. He said it is "too flabby" as it stands now, and leaves too much wiggle room for judges to impose their own preferences. He noted that liberal critics of the Bruen test have some valid critiques, but where they worry the test will be used to restrict government action, he worries it will be used to restrict Second Amendment rights. He said he's largely agreed with the outcome of the most recent Second Amendment cases at the Supreme Court, but worried what might come in future cases--especially if the balance of the Court moves left. Somin argued for what he considers a more straightforward test based around the original meaning of the Second Amendment. He argued history could inform that meaning, but he said that the existence of historical laws that contradict that meaning shouldn't mean those laws take precedence over the meaning itself.Special Guest: Ilya Somin.

Craig and Julie have a jam packed show to start of the week! FreightWaves Finance Editor, Todd Maiden, starts things off talking railroad earnings. He breaks down how major carriers like Schneider National handily beat expectations, signaling the early stages of a capacity-constrained rate recovery. Schneider captured double-digit rate increases on contract renewals during Q2. Zak Andersoe, Chief of Staff and VP of Corporate Relations at BNSF, outlined why the railroad strongly opposes the proposed merger between Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS). He explains how the merger creates an unprecedented level of market power (over 50% market share in the combined entity), which BNSF argues will ultimately raise prices and reduce competition for shippers—particularly bulk and carload shippers who lack competitive alternatives. Trent Broberg, CEO of FullBay, highlighted key trends and operational pressures across heavy-duty maintenance shops. Brian Fielkow, EVP of Risk Resources at Acrisure, detailed how safety directly drives productivity and enterprise value. Alex Tabarrok, Chair in Economics at George Mason University, presented findings from a white paper on autonomous vehicle (AV) adoption and opposition. Follow the FreightWaves Today Podcast Other FreightWaves Shows Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Garvey Berger is a leadership coach, developmental psychologist, and the author of several books, including: Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps, Changing on the Job, and Unleash Your Complexity Genius. In 2023, she was shortlisted as one of the top 8 coaches in the world by Thinkers 50. In this conversation, we explore: — Daniel Gilbert's idea that human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished - and the implications this has for growth and development — The 4 minds: self sovereign, socialized, self authoring, and self transforming - and how to know which stage you are at — What it means to become a ‘complexity genius' — The importance of continuously upgrading our mental models all throughout life - and how best to do this. And more. You can explore Jennifer's work and books at https://www.cultivatingleadership.com. --- Jennifer Garvey Berger believes that leadership is one of the most vital renewable resources in the world. At a time when organisations are often forging the path rather than following the path of others, leadership is about creating the conditions for people to be their most creative, connected, intelligent selves. She is a founding partner and CEO of Cultivating Leadership, a consultancy that serves executives and executive teams in the private, non-profit, and government sectors around the world. Her clients include Google, Microsoft, Novartis, Wikipedia, and Oxfam International. Jennifer designs and teaches leadership programs, coaches senior teams, and supports new ways of thinking about strategy and people with clients facing these dramatic shifts in complexity, volatility, and change in their workplaces and markets. She blends deep theoretical knowledge with a driving quest for practical ways to make leaders' lives better. Jennifer also supports leaders one-on-one as a leadership coach. She supports clients to find their current growing edge and then make choices about how they want to grow, and she teaches coaches around the world transformational and developmental coaching approaches in her Growth Edge Coaching certification series. Jennifer speaks at leadership and coaching conferences, and she offers occasional courses for coaches at universities all over the world like Harvard University, the University of Sydney, and Oxford Brookes University. Jennifer holds a doctorate in adult development from Harvard University, where she studied under and worked with acclaimed developmental psychologist Robert Kegan. She was an Associate Professor at George Mason University before she left the academy on a mission to connect powerful research and the people doing real work in the world. Jennifer is an American by birth, a Kiwi by choice, and finds herself living now in London, far from her beach house on the Tasman Sea. Wherever she might call home, she loves laughing with her two nearly-grown children, rolling on the floor with her dog, and writing about leading, coaching, and living. --- Interview Link: — Jennifer's website - https://www.cultivatingleadership.com

Tim Teefy is the Assistant AD for Olympic Sports Performance at Temple University. Teefy joined the Temple athletics program in 2015 as the head Olympic strength & conditioning coach before being promoted to director of Olympic sports performance in 2016 and later in 2018 to his current position at Assistant AD for Olympic Sports Performance. Currently oversees training for the women's basketball team while overseeing the 19 Olympic varsity sports and a staff of seven. Prior to joining the Owls, Teefy spent three years as the head strength & conditioning coach at Villanova University where he was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the strength and conditioning department for 19 Division 1 varsity teams, working specifically with men's and women's lacrosse, baseball, field hockey and men's and women's soccer. He held a similar position as head strength and conditioning coach at High Point University for three years before joining the Wildcats. Teefy also gained experience on the strength staff at George Mason University and Georgetown University in addition to being an adjunct faculty member while at George Mason. Coach Teefy is a Master Strength & Conditioning Coach through the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association earning the highest honor in the profession in 2020. He is an avid lifter and still heavily involved in strength and endurance training. Samson EquipmentSamson Equipment provides Professional Weight Room Solutions for all your S&C needs.Cerberus StrengthUse Code: STRENGTH_GAME at Cerberus-Strength.comSport KiltUse Code: TSG at SportKilt.comDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke sits down with Don Boudreaux to mark the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Boudreaux reflects on his many years teaching a graduate seminar on Smith at George Mason University, the layers of insight he continues to discover on each re-read, and why so few professional economists ever read the book cover to cover despite its enduring relevance to questions of monopoly power, trade, taxation, and public debt. The conversation traces the relationship between The Wealth of Nations and Smith's earlier The Theory of Moral Sentiments, dismantling the old "Adam Smith Problem" and explaining why markets need both bourgeois virtue and hard institutional discipline to function. Boudreaux and Boettke also celebrate George Mason's distinctive culture as a "books department" shaped by mentors such as Roger Garrison, Walter Williams, and James Buchanan. Dr. Donald J. Boudreaux is 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 and a Professor of Economics and former economics-department chair at George Mason University. He is the author of many books, including The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025), The Essential Hayek (Fraser Institute, 2015), Hypocrites and Half-Wits: A Daily Dose of Sanity from Cafe Hayek (Free to Choose Press, 2012), and Globalization (Greenwood Press, 2007).**This episode was recorded on May 28, 2026**Show Notes:Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Liberty Fund, 1982)Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Liberty Fund, 1982)David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (Liberty Fund, 1896)John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory Of Employment, Interest, And Money (Harper Collins, 1965)James M. Buchanan, What Should Economists Do? (Liberty Fund, 1979)James M. Buchanan and Richard E. Wagner, Democracy in Deficit: The Political Legacy of Lord Keynes (Liberty Fund, 2000)George F. Will, The Conservative Sensibility (Grand Central Publishing, 2019)Liberty Matters | “Deirdre McCloskey and Economists' Ideas about Ideas”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

In this episode, Matt and Joseph sit down with Robin Hanson, Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University, to discuss prediction markets. A prediction market is a kind of betting market, wherein people place bets on whether or not some future event is going to happen by investing in market shares associated with that event. If the event happens, the people who predicted it correctly get paid. If not, they lose the money they invested. So far, so good: all that is pretty normal for a betting market. But in the case of a prediction market, there is a further twist. Before the future comes to pass and the people who guessed it correctly get paid, there's a mathematical formula you can use, based on all the bets that have been placed so far, to determine what the probability of that event happening is. In other words, before the payout, the current prices of all shares in market give us the ability to subtly aggregate the wisdom of every individual speculator into a combined judgment about what is probably going to happen.So what, you might think. Well, it turns out that this system for forecasting the future is unusually accurate, particularly when it comes to making the most difficult predictions about the behavior of large, complex systems. And so, for several decades now, our guest has been thinking hard about how can we leverage the information provided by various prediction markets to assist with a wide range of challenging forecasting tasks that might nonetheless be important to do.Although prediction markets have mostly been set up, thus far, to determine the outcomes of things like elections or sporting events, Robin Hanson thinks they can be also be used for more ambitious purposes. One small-scale example is: the board of a public corporation could use a variation on a prediction market (called a decision market) to make decisions about whether to hire a new CEO. A bolder example would be a new system of government he calls futarchy, in which legislators abandon their role of drafting and passing legislation, and instead turn their attention to coming up with precise, measurable definitions of success. Each individual question about what policies to pass when can then be adjudicated by prediction and decision markets, which require measurable definitions of success to function.Robin Hanson is always abrim with fresh ideas, and it was a pleasure talking to him. I hope you enjoy our conversation.Matt Teichman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Fred Bemak and Dr. Rita Chung, two professors who had a profound impact on my personal and professional development. As architects of George Mason University's innovative counseling program, they helped create a learning environment grounded in multiculturalism, social justice, and advocacy. We discuss what brought them to George Mason, the vision behind the program, and why preparing counselors to work across cultures remains as important as ever. This is a special conversation about education, mentorship, and the lasting impact of a program that changed countless lives, including my own. Shout Outs and Plugs GMU Counseling Program: https://cehd.gmu.edu/counseling/ Rita Chung: https://cehd.gmu.edu/people/faculty/rchung/ Fred Bemak: https://cehd.gmu.edu/people/faculty/fbemak/ Social Justice Multicultural Psychology and Counseling (2nd Edition): https://global.oup.com/academic/product/social-justice-multicultural-psychology-and-counseling-9780197518267?cc=us&lang=en& 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 are 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!

About Christian Giordano: Christian's LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/cdgiordano Website manciniduffy.com (Company) theantiarchitect.com (Personal) Christian's Bio: Christian Giordano is President and Co-Owner of Mancini, a110-year-old national design firm, and the host of The Anti-Architect Podcast.  A trailblazer in the architecture and design space, Christian is redefining the industry by integrating cutting-edge technology and entrepreneurial thinking into a traditionally slow-to-evolve field.  Christian's journey includes studying under the iconic Frank Gehry at UCLA, an experience that profoundly influenced his groundbreaking approach to design and leadership.  As a visionary in the field, Christian treats his century-old firm like a startup, drawing inspiration from the forward-thinking companies Mancini works with, such as Google, Peloton, Disney, and Netflix. His work explores how emerging technologies - AI, automation, and immersive digital tools - are transforming the built world.  Beyond pioneering innovation in design, Christian is dedicated to mentoring the next generation, inspiring them to push the boundaries of what's possible in architecture and technology. SHOW INTRO: "...Today, EPISODE 90… I talk with Christian Giordano President and Co-Owner of Mancini who is also the host of The Anti-Architect Podcast – an intriguing name for a pod especially one hosted by an architect and leader of an architecture firm.  The interesting thing about the podcast title, is that I think it aptly describes Christian's personal take on the practice of architecture and leading a group of creative souls into a new future paradigm one and where technology and social media is reshaping engagement in a corporate workplace and the output of their creative endeavors in the built environment. We'll get into all of that in a minute but first a few thoughts…" *                     *                          *                          * ABOUT DAVID KEPRON: LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b Websites:  https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website) vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog) Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/ NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/ Bio: David Kepron 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 the Retail Studio Principle at Little Diversified Architectural Consulting (Little) and 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. 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.

This episode brings together two experts to discuss recent second-round presidential elections in Peru and Colombia: Jo-Marie Burt, a senior fellow at WOLA and professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government, and a leading expert on Peru; and Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, WOLA's Director for the Andes, who maintains close contact with Colombian civil society. Both elections produced razor-thin margins, and both delivered victories to right-wing, populist candidates promising crackdowns on crime and a hard line against their political adversaries. In Peru, Keiko Fujimori won the presidency on her fourth attempt, while in Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella narrowly defeated left-leaning Iván Cepeda. Burt describes Fujimori's ascent as the culmination of years spent consolidating control over Peru's key institutions, like Congress, the constitutional tribunal, and the attorney general's office. She characterizes Fujimori as "singularly motivated, singularly ambitious, and singularly ruthless," shaped by her upbringing under her father Alberto Fujimori's authoritarian government. Burt warns that Fujimori is driven by a desire for revenge against those who helped prosecute and imprison her father, including journalists like Gustavo Gorriti, human rights lawyers, prosecutors, and judges. She details a legislative landscape already tilted toward impunity—amnesty laws shielding police and military, and restrictions crippling NGOs' ability to represent victims. Burt argues Peru has drifted toward a hybrid or even authoritarian regime. Sánchez-Garzoli paints a tense picture in Colombia, where outgoing President Gustavo Petro has refused to recognize the election results, alleging fraud and foreign interference despite institutional findings to the contrary. She notes intervention by the Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers. With the transition suspended and Petro calling supporters into the streets, while armed groups reposition, Sánchez-Garzoli warns of a real risk of political violence. She outlines de la Espriella's "iron fist" agenda: mega-prisons modeled on El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, reviving the controversial ESMAD riot police, and a "special urban defense bloc" that she fears could blur the line between state security and paramilitary activity, echoing Colombia's dark history. "Colombia can't return to the belief that problems can be solved through bullets," she says, paraphrasing Colombian human rights defender Leyner Palacios. The conversation explores the deeper social fractures driving these results: in Peru, divisions of race, class, and region between Lima and the neglected Andean provinces, alongside a "frozen" collective memory of the 1980s-90s internal armed conflict manipulated to smear the left as communist. In Colombia, urban-rural divides also shape perceptions of security and the peace process. Both guests anticipate closer alignment with Washington, though they distinguish ideological affinity from generous funding. Sánchez-Garzoli expects a "total reset" in U.S.-Colombia relations, possible joint operations, and migration cooperation including reports of a plan to facilitate deportations of Colombian asylum seekers. Burt notes U.S. concern over China's growing influence in Peru. Despite the grim outlook, both find grains of hope: in Peru, a tentative opposition alliance and a still-vibrant regional civil society; in Colombia, strong institutions, a diverse Congress, and a resilient press and civil society. The episode closes with a reflection that both presidents-elect, lacking strong bases, face the "Milei challenge" of governing without a coalition.

Americans rely on wireless connections for nearly every part of modern life, and demand for the airwaves that make those connections possible is only growing. But much of the nation's spectrum remains accessible by federal agencies under a system approaching its 100th anniversary. How can the United States free up more spectrum for commercial use? Can the military rely more heavily on commercial networks without compromising national security? And could market-based incentives help federal agencies use this valuable resource more efficiently?To discuss this, Shane is joined by Roslyn Layton, executive vice president at Strand Consult. She is also a digital policy fellow at Michigan State University's Quello Center and a senior fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School. She previously served as a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and on the president-elect's transition team for the Federal Communications Commission.

Modern warfare puts a premium on speed. A new report argues that when the Pentagon can move quickly from identifying a need to fielding a solution, it can have a direct impact on military effectiveness. For more details, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke with Stephanie Halcrow, senior fellow at George Mason University's Center for Government Contracting.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bart Berkey walked into Strictly EBikes with a broken foldable bike that two other shops had turned away. Ten minutes and $38 later, he walked out with a fixed bike and a future guest. Asif Shakeel spent decades building service stations and car dealerships on one principle: compete on service, not price. Then he retired, bought the wrong e-bike online, crashed it, couldn't find anyone to repair it, and recognized the opportunity hiding inside his own problem.Key TakeawaysOpportunity arrives disguised as a problem. Asif's entire second act came from a bike he couldn't get fixed. Most people just want the problem solved so they can keep moving. If you solve it and notice that others have the same problem, you have a business.You can only go so far on price. Nobody is looking for the cheapest repair on their car. They're looking for honesty, competence, and transparency. Service is the one place with unlimited room to compete.One lie erases every truth. His father's lesson: get caught once and everything you ever said looks like a lie. It doesn't matter how kind you were or how much money they gave you. Trust is not a feature you can add back.When you have to cut, cut what the customer won't miss. In 2008 Asif cut the muzak, the landscaping, and the shelf inventory. Bart's Ritz-Carlton parallel: newspapers moved from every guest door to the elevator landing, saving enormous money with almost no impact on the experience. The skill is knowing which costs are the experience and which just look like it.Delegate so you can do more, not less. Asif's father insisted on doing everything himself and stayed one location. Asif systemized, built teams, and ran three businesses at once.This episode features Asif Shakeel, Founder and CEO of Strictly EBikes, located at 683 North Washington Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Founded in 2022, Strictly EBikes specializes in electric bikes and serves the Northern Virginia community. Before launching the business, Asif owned three service stations and a car dealership, has lived in Northern Virginia for over 50 years, and also serves as an adjunct professor at George Mason University. The company is currently developing a franchise model and is expanding into the adjacent retail space. Learn more at strictly-ebikes.com, or connect with Strictly EBikes on Instagram and Facebook, or with Asif Shakeel on LinkedIn. You can also reach him directly at asif@strictly-ebikes.com.

S6E9 Mark Ryski on why stores convert up to 70% of store traffic while online only converts 3% and Amazon only 10%77% of shoppers who walked out of a big box store without buying told exit interviewers they came in to buy. They couldn't find help, wouldn't wait in line, and left empty-handed. Mark Ryski has spent almost 3 decades measuring that gap, and his new book gives it a name: Store Traffic Is A Gift, and most retailers waste it. This episode, Ricardo and Casey sit down with Mark Ryski, founder and CEO of HeadCount Corporation, to dig into retail's most misunderstood metric: in-store conversion. Physical stores convert 20% to 70%+ of their store traffic. Typical online sites convert under 3%, and Amazon converts about 10%. The store converts several times better than any other channel, yet 84% of retail sales (US Census Bureau, March 2026) still get managed as if online were winning, and in-store conversion gets treated as a vibe at the end of the day.In This Episode, You'll Learn•       Why a store can get more traffic and sell less, and what conversion data reveals.•       The exit survey result that changed a big box operator's mind about service.•       The single fastest conversion win, and why most chains schedule it backwards.•       How super converting stores hit 75% while sister stores in the same chain sit at 30%.•       The CFO conversation: what 100 basis points of conversion is worth in top-line sales.•       What BOPIS, curbside, and Amazon returns really do to store traffic and conversion.•       Why accurate store traffic data is the demand signal AI needs before anything else.Subscribe & FollowIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a 5‑star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Goodpods. Subscribe on YouTube so you never miss an episode and check out the other shows in the Retail Razor Podcast Network: Retail Transformers, Blade to Greatness, and Data Blades.Subscribe 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/utubeFeatured guestMark Ryski. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-ryski-8826601/CEO, HeadCount Corporation. https://headcount.comAuthor, Store Traffic Is A Gift. https://a.co/d/00VI3UujMark Ryski is the founder and CEO of HeadCount Corporation and one of the retail industry's leading authorities on store traffic and shopper conversion. For more than 20 years, he has helped retailers—from independent stores to large national chains in over 20 countries—convert more store visits into sales and make better operating decisions. He is the author of three books on retail performance, including Store Traffic Is a Gift: The Retailer's Guide to Converting Visits into Sales, Conversion: The Last Great Retail Metric, and When Retail Customers Count, the first book dedicated to the study of store traffic. Mark is a longtime BrainTrust contributor on RetailWire and has been recognized as a Rethink Retail Top Retail Expert in 2025 and 2026.Chapters00:00 Teaser00:32 Show Intro05:06 Welcome, Mark Ryski!10:28 Traffic Is a Gift13:09 Origin Story - Counting Traffic16:45 Conversion Numbers and Fast Wins23:16 Exit Surveys Reveal Missed Sales26:22 Proving Payroll Pays Back28:08 Inside Super Converting Stores31:57 BOPIS And Amazon Traffic Trap38:23 AI Needs Clean Traffic Data44:52 Optimism For Physical Retail48:03 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 AIand 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.

Josh opens today's show with the latest developments involving Iran and the president's comments about the possibility of renewed military action. Josh explains why he believes the U.S. must finish the job in Iran and argues that the window to act is closing. Josh is then joined by George Mason University law professor Eugene Kontorovich to discuss the International Criminal Court and Secretary of State Marco Rubio's efforts to dismantle what many view as a rogue international tribunal. Josh also breaks down the political fallout from Senator Lindsey Graham's shocking death over the weekend and what his passing could mean for the balance of power in the Senate and the GOP's ability to advance key legislation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Economist Mikayla Novak joins NSP to discuss her books Rainbow Liberty and Liberal Emancipation. We also talk about sociology, radical liberalism, fascist economy, and more. Mikayla Novak is a Senior Fellow in the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She has an economics doctorate awarded by RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, and a sociology PhD from The Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. Prior to academia in the U.S., Mikayla worked in the Australian public service as well as in think-tanks. Mikayla Novak is the author of several books, including the upcoming Routledge publication, Rainbow Liberty, and has authored over 30 peer-review journal articles. Her research interests include Austrian and evolutionary economics, institutional economics, public choice, and social philosophy and theory. Link: https://www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram/scholars/mikayla-novak https://www.routledge.com/Rainbow-Liberty-Liberal-Political-Economy-and-Queer-Freedom/Goodman-Lofthouse-Novak/p/book/9781041016441 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-94406-2 Chapters: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:12:17 Self-Governance without the State 00:17:21 Libertarian Thought Traps 00:20:37 Rainbow Liberty Book 00:33:05 Queerness and Markets 00:45:45 Charlotte Twight, Political Transaction Costs, and Technocratic Fascism 00:56:21 Liberal Emancipation Book 01:01:09 Radicalism via Don Lavoie 01:08:49 The Relevance of Sociology 01:11:28 Lightning Round and Outro Thanks for listening! Please like, comment, subscribe, and share! --- If you'd like to see more anarchist and anti-authoritarian interviews, please consider supporting this project financially by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.com/nonserviammedia Follow Non Serviam Media Collective on: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/nonserviammedia.bsky.social Mastodon https://kolektiva.social/@nonserviammedia As well as Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Connect with Lucy Steigerwald via: https://bsky.app/profile/lucystag.bsky.social https://mastodon.social/@LucyStag https://lucysteigerwald.substack.com/

Every year, millions of Americans vote with their feet — packing up and crossing state lines in search of something better. But what exactly are they looking for? In this episode, Newt talks with Jack Salmon, research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, to dig into his new policy brief analyzing 34 million interstate moves between 2018 and 2023. The results challenge some conventional wisdom: cost of living isn't the dominant driver, climate barely registers, and the red-state/blue-state narrative is more complicated than the headlines suggest. What actually predicts where Americans move? Tax burden, housing supply, and economic freedom — including the often-overlooked weight of occupational licensing and regulatory red tape. A data-driven conversation with real implications for every state legislator in America.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Paul Dragos Aligica delivers a keynote lecture at the 2024 Markets & Society conference on resilience as a research frontier in mainline political economy. He traces how resilience has been largely absent from comparative economic systems scholarship, only to explode as a topic in the last decade, mostly imported from ecology and complexity theory rather than economics.He maps how three traditions at the core of the Mercatus research program—Austrian economics, public choice, and Ostromian institutionalism—each shape our understanding of resilience. Aligica also addresses claims that resilience thinking is merely a proxy for neoliberalism, closing with reflections on the normative stakes of self-governing societies.Dr. Paul Dragos Aligica is a Senior Research Fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, KPMG Professor of Governance at the University of Bucharest, and a Senior Nonresident Scholar with the Center for Governance and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh. His many publications include Governing Differences: Social Diversity, Polycentric Political Economy and Modus Vivendi (Edward Elgar, 2025) coauthored with Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, Public Governance and the Classical Liberal Perspective: Political Economy Foundations (Oxford University Press, 2019), and Public Entrepreneurship, Citizenship, and Self-Governance (Cambridge University Press 2018).**This episode was recorded on October 11, 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

In this episode of Liberty + Leadership, Roger Ream sits down with Christopher Coyne, professor of economics at George Mason University and TFAS faculty member, to discuss his new book, “Austrian Economics: An Introduction”, co-authored with Abigail Hall.Roger and Christopher explore the origins and enduring relevance of the Austrian School of economics, tracing its development from Carl Menger and Ludwig von Mises to F.A. Hayek and Israel Kirzner. Together, they discuss subjective value, economic calculation, entrepreneurship, spontaneous order and the role prices play in helping individuals coordinate activity in a complex and changing world.The conversation also examines why central planning fails, whether artificial intelligence changes the calculation problem and how Austrian economics can help students understand contemporary debates over industrial policy, government intervention, economic development and human flourishing. These ideas remain essential for understanding markets, preserving individual freedom and preparing the next generation to think seriously about economic life.The Liberty + Leadership Podcast is hosted by TFAS president Roger Ream and produced by Podville Media. If you have a comment or question for the show, please email us at podcast@TFAS.org. To support TFAS and its mission, please visit TFAS.org/support.Support the show

In this episode of Positive Philter, I'm joined by Dean Joshua Park, Dean of Mason Korea, for another installment of my Dean Series. We discuss his educational and professional journey, what led him to a career in higher education, and his vision for Mason Korea's role within the George Mason University community. Dean Park shares why Mason Korea is more than a satellite campus and how it is an integral part of the global #MasonNation experience. This conversation highlights the value of international education, global perspectives, and the creation of meaningful connections across campuses and cultures. Shout Outs and Plugs Dean Joshua Park's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-park-4a3ba028/ Mason Korea Website: https://masonkorea.gmu.edu/ Mason Korea LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/school/masonkorea/ Mason Korea Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/masonkorea Mason Korea Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/masonkorea Dean Miniseries: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YPuNMphGVW8CVdpRClu6x0yi6rVQ2XWdqM4bhWzatdM/edit?usp=sharing 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 are a free and easy way to thank, recognize, 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!  

With a special distinguished guest Peter N. Stearns, author of Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Childrearing in America; co-author of The American Child: the transformation of childhood since World War II, Professor Emeritus at George Mason University,  In this episode of The Parent Hope Podcast, I'm joined by preeminent social historian Peter N. Stearns, whose work has been deeply influential in shaping my understanding of how childhood and parenting have evolved over time. We will explore the historical roots of today's parenting culture—from rising anxiety about children's outcomes to the growing expectations placed on parents to constantly guide, manage, and optimize their children's lives.  As I discuss in The Parenting Paradox, when parents are caught in a cycle of increasing effort and concern, it can inadvertently add to the very pressures children face. This conversation brings much-needed context to that paradox—helping parents step back, see the bigger picture, and reconsider what truly supports children's and their own wellbeing. This is an episode about clarity, perspective, and relief. Because when we understand where these expectations come from, we're better able to loosen their hold—and support our children with greater confidence in their natural capacities. Peter N. Stearns is Professor of History Emeritus at George Mason University, where he taught courses in world history and social history. In 2021, Dr. Stearns received the American Historical Association recognition for a lifetime of distinguished scholarship  He has taught previously at Harvard, the University of Chicago, Rutgers, and Carnegie Mellon; he was educated at Harvard University. Stearns is a past vice president of the American Historical Association. He has served as chair of the Advanced Placement World History committee and founded and served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Social History. Stearns is the author or editor of over 100 books and innumerable articles.  The writings that have mostly influenced Dr Brown's works are: Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Childrearing in America; co-author of The American Child: the transformation of childhood since World War II. Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Childrearing in America;  https://www.amazon.com.au/Anxious-Parents-History-Child-Rearing-America/dp/0814798497 The American Child: the transformation of childhood since World War II   https://academic.oup.com/book/60679 And the paper: Stearns PN (2019) Happy Children: A Modern Emotional Commitment. Front. Psychol. 10:2025. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02025 Bios https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stearns  https://www.gmu.edu/news/2021-11/peter-stearns-receives-american-historical-association-recognition-lifetime   Newsletter-https://parenthopeproject.com.au/#newsletterYoutube-http://www.youtube.com/@ParentHopeProjectFacebook-https://www.facebook.com/coachingparentsInstagram-https://www.instagram.com/parenthopeproject/LinkedIn-https://www.linkedin.com/company/79093727/admin/feed/posts/Website-https://parenthopeproject.com.au/Contact us:Contact@parentproject.com.au(02) 9904 5600

Tonight on America at Night with McGraw Milhaven: Ilya Somin, Professor of Law at George Mason University and member of the Advisory Council for the Society for the Rule of Law, joins the show to discuss the Supreme Court's latest ruling involving birthright citizenship. Somin explains what the Court decided, the constitutional questions at the center of the case, and what the ruling could mean for future immigration and citizenship debates. Eric Dolash, Founder and President of the Veteran Flagpole Initiative, discusses his organization's mission to honor America's veterans by providing flagpoles to veterans and veteran organizations. Dolash shares how the initiative recognizes military service and encourages communities to celebrate those who have served. Later, Ernie Isley, legendary guitarist for The Isley Brothers, joins the program to reflect on the band's remarkable career, its lasting influence on rock, R&B, funk, and hip-hop, and the music that has inspired generations of artists. Isley also shares stories from the band's history and discusses its enduring legacy in American music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas sweats his way through a personally revealing exchange with Quinn Slobodian, Professor of International History at Boston University and the author of Hayek's Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right. Quinn explains: Friedrich Hayek's “knowledge problem” and his defence of markets over central planning. Hayek's later theory of cultural evolution, inherited institutions, and the limits of universal market society. The split between “cultural Austrians” at George Mason University and “racial Austrians” around the Mises Institute. Murray Rothbard's move from courting anti-war hippies to building alliances with paleoconservatives and racial nationalists. Hans-Hermann Hoppe, anarcho-capitalism, secession, and racially homogeneous private communities. The Bell Curve, Charles Murray, IQ research, and the politics of scientific claims about race and inequality. The difference between ideas that are empirically false and ideas rejected because they are morally disturbing. The post-Cold War transformation of neoliberal enemies from communism to environmentalism, affirmative action, feminism, and welfare. The divide between neoconservatives and paleoconservatives over US foreign policy, nationalism, and the Iraq War. Whether Hayek's Bastards reveals a major genealogy of the modern Far Right—or exaggerates the influence of a provocative fringe. Visit Quinn's website: www.quinnslobodian.com Find Quinn on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/quinnslobodian.com And on Substack: https://zeithistoriker.substack.com Join the Conflicted Community here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find us on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tara Isabella Burton (DPhil, University of Oxford; Visiting Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University; Visiting Research Fellow, Institutional Flourishing Lab, Catholic University of America) is a theologian and culture critic, and the author of Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians (Public Affairs, 2022) and Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World (Public Affairs, 2020). She is a regular contributor on religion and culture to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and has lectured and taught seminars at Yale University, Hobart and William Smith College, Radford University, and Covenant College. Her research has been supported by the Mercatus Center and the Robert Novak Foundation. Burton is currently at work on a book about the influence of the Western esoteric tradition, from alchemy to Freemasonry to 19th-century "occult" practices like Theosophy and spiritualism, in the development of what we think of today as "scientific progress." She argues that the category of the "magical" should be understood as part of a wider theological tradition of understanding what it means for human beings to have mastery over nature. Old Gods, to be published by Convergent (Penguin Random House) in 2026, will trace this influence to the resurgence of interest in "occult" practices in contemporary Silicon Valley culture.  Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/templeton-working-group Visit Tara Isabella Burton: http://www.taraisabellaburton.com  

With Robin Hanson, the pioneer of modern prediction markets and Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Robin first proposed the idea of modern prediction markets in 1988, long before crypto and blockchain made them accessible to millions. We discuss why prediction markets may become one of the world's most powerful tools for aggregating information, making better decisions, and challenging traditional institutions. - Why prediction markets are about information and not gambling - Why markets can outperform polls and traditional forecasting - Should insider trading be allowed in prediction markets? - How companies could use prediction markets to make better decisions - The future of corporate governance powered by markets - Why prediction markets may reshape politics and public policy - The tension between privacy, transparency, and regulation - Why incumbents often resist prediction markets - How crypto is accelerating the adoption of prediction markets - Robin Hanson's vision for the future of decision-making Prediction markets are still in their early days, but they could fundamentally change how companies, governments, and individuals make decisions. Powered by ACX Compliance – the world's largest crypto compliance specialised managed services provider.  By crypto compliance professionals. For crypto compliance professionals.  

What if your next customer isn't a person, but an AI agent acting on their behalf? And what if that agent is evaluating your brand on a purely logical, data-driven basis, completely devoid of the emotional hooks your marketing has always relied on?Agility requires not just adapting to changing customer behaviors, but also redefining who—or what—our customer even is. It demands that we build operational and strategic frameworks that can cater to both human emotional drivers and the cold, hard logic of machines.Today, we are at Forrester CX in New York City, and we're going to talk about a fundamental shift in the customer journey: the rise of the AI agent as an influential, and in some cases, decision-making persona. This isn't just about using AI in our marketing; it's about marketing to AI. We'll explore what it means when our brand's message needs to be optimized not just for human perception, but for machine interpretation and evaluation.To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Chuck Gahun, Principal Analyst at Forrester. About Chuck Gahun Chuck is a leader in Forrester's Digital Business & Strategy practice serving business and digital executives. His research coverage includes content management systems (CMSes), product information management (PIM) systems, and commerce services and strategy for B2B and B2C companies. Chuck helps executives design strategies that deliver customer and business value by partnering with technology vendors and services providers. Chuck has 20 years of experience in content and commerce. He specializes in digital strategy, experience design, and technology initiatives in CMSes, e-commerce systems, digital asset management (DAM) systems, PIM systems, digital experience platforms (DXPs), and several others. He has led strategy and implementations for brands like Goldman Sachs, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Hilti, Marriott, AARP, and the Centers for Disease Control. Prior to joining Forrester, Chuck was a managing director and partner at Shift7 Digital (a Merkle company) and held senior management positions at ZS Medullan and Publicis Sapient. Chuck holds a BA in government and international politics and an MS in technology management from George Mason University. Chuck Gahun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckgahun/ ---------- Resources ---------- Forrester: https://www.forrester.com We're proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873fThe most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1 Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

William W. Beach is the Senior Fellow in Economics at the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) and the Coffin Fellow at the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation. Beach also serves on the UKG Workforce Institute Advisory Board.   Prior to these appointments, Beach was the fifteenth Commissioner of Labor Statistics at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, DC. He took up his duties there on March 28, 2019. Prior to joining BLS, Dr. Beach was vice president for policy research at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University from February of 2016 to March of 2019; and, prior to that served as the Chief Economist for the Senate Budget Committee, Republican Staff, from 2013 through early 2016. In this podcast, we will discuss: The "Fiscal Precipice" The "Crowd Out" Effect Social Drivers of Debt The "Undemocratic" Tax System The Social Security Countdown The Future of "Enhanced Labour" The Data Response Crisis Modernising Federal Statistics

“You cannot expect a society to open its doors if there is no way to close them. You cannot expect a society to open its gates if there is no gate to open.” — Justin Gest It's a counterintuitive and deliberately provocative argument. Rather than bolstering open societies, migration actually benefits authoritarianism. And it's the argument that Justin Gest makes in his new book, Democratic Drain: Global Migration and the Struggle for Democracy. Drawing on data from 149 countries, Gest shows that global migration has been inadvertently strengthening authoritarianism by stealing liberal democrats from the places that need them most. When liberals emigrate from authoritarian countries, Gest argues, they take their democratic values with them. As a consequence, fewer people dare to vote against the autocrat, fewer people protest, fewer people cling to liberal norms. The argument turns the normal discourse about migration on its head. Immigration is usually framed as a question about the countries experiencing migration. But Gest reframes it from the perspective of the countries losing people. So, for example, when Hungary's young liberal professionals move to Berlin or London, Orbán's job got easier. Or when Venezuela's middle class emigrated to Miami, Maduro's grip tightened. And, of course, when people leave America, it benefits Trump. That's the real bite in his polemic. Be patriotic, Justin Gest is telling American liberals. Stay home. Don't go down the democratic drain. Five Takeaways •       The Democratic Drain: Migration Is Strengthening Authoritarianism: Gest's central argument: when people emigrate from authoritarian countries, they are disproportionately people who hold liberal democratic values — people who would vote against the autocrat, protest in the streets, or organise civil society. He calls them “demmigrants.” When they leave, they leave behind a population that is, on average, more sympathetic to authoritarian governance. The result: Orbán's Hungary is easier to govern after Hungary's young liberals move to Berlin; Maduro's Venezuela tightens its grip as the middle class departs for Miami. Across 149 countries, the correlation is striking. •       White Working Class as Protest Voters, Not Authoritarians: Gest, whose earlier book The New Minority anticipated the Trump and Brexit era, pushes back on the characterisation of working-class voters as simply authoritarian. Many are protest voters: they want to see the system shaken, they see populists as the only candidates willing to speak truth about the system's failures, and they are willing to tolerate short-run damage to democratic institutions in the hope of building something better from the ashes. Immigration is the sine qua non of far-right populism: when immigrants are framed as an existential threat, voters make transactional short-run compromises to democratic integrity. They are not irrational. They are strategic. •       The Left Must Embrace Nationalism to Win the Immigration Argument: Gest's most provocative political prescription: the left has ceded nationalism to the right as if there is no nationalist case for immigration, no nationalist case for climate policy, no nationalist case for progressive values. This is, he says, inexcusable. The national interest served by carefully selected immigration is plain: immigrants make countries younger, fill labour shortages, innovate, create jobs. If the left can frame the immigration debate in terms of the national interest rather than moral obligation, the debate changes. He wrote a piece for the Washington Post on this in March 2022. •       Can You Be an Enlightened Anti-Immigrationist? The Internationalist Paradox: Andrew raises a sharp question: if democratic drain is real, then an internationalist who cares about democracy globally might logically oppose emigration from authoritarian countries, since it strengthens those authoritarian governments. Gest's response: possible, but foolish. You don't stop the drain by damming the river. You stop it by growing the democratic movement — by demonstrating the vitality and virtues of democracy and the perils of authoritarianism — so that there are more democrats to spare even after emigration. •       Three Fault Lines for the 21st Century: Gest maps three overlapping fault lines that will define the 21st century's politics. First: democrats vs authoritarians (the Wieliński argument, which Gest confirms and extends). Second: winners vs losers of globalisation (which often determines the first). Third — and Gest's own addition: those who understand their nation in civic terms vs those who understand it in ethno-religious terms. The civic imagination: a country grounded in ideas, institutions, interdependency, and a devotion to co-evolution together. The ethno-religious imagination: a country derived from static, unchanging ancestral roots. Whichever fault line you look at, he says, you end up at the same place. About the Guest Justin Gest is Professor and Director of the Public Policy Program at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government. He is the author of Democratic Drain: Global Migration and the Struggle for Democracy (Cambridge University Press, May 2026), Majority Minority: Racialized Divisions in the New American Order (2022), The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality (2016), and four other books. A founding editor of the Oxford University Press series “Oxford Studies in Migration and Citizenship,” he has published commentary in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. References: •       Democratic Drain: Global Migration and the Struggle for Democracy by Justin Gest (Cambridge University Press, May 2026). •       Justin Gest, “How the Left Can Embrace Nationalism While Maintaining Its Values,” Washington Post, March 2022 — referenced in the conversation. •       Episode 2951: Bartosz Wieliński on “We No Longer Dream of the United States” — referenced at the opening. •       Central European University, Budapest — where Gest is teaching this week. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 3,000 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America...

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Bobbi Herzberg delivers a keynote lecture at the 2025 Markets & Society conference on Vincent Ostrom's understanding of democracy and self-governance. Reflecting on Ostrom's life, scholarship, and enduring influence, Herzberg explores four central themes in his work: the emergence of social order through shared beliefs and norms, the capacity of individuals to govern themselves, the importance of polycentric systems of governance, and the fragility of democratic institutions. Drawing on Ostrom's collaborations with his wife, Elinor Ostrom, and his engagement with the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville, Herzberg argues that democracy is not a mechanism imposed from above but an ongoing practice of cooperation, deliberation, and mutual responsibility. She concludes by emphasizing Ostrom's vision of democracy as a living experiment in self-government that must be renewed and sustained by each generation. Dr. Roberta Herzberg is a Distinguished Senior Fellow and a Senior Research Fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute.**This episode was recorded on October 17, 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

X: @StephenMoore @americasrt1776 @ileaderssummit @NatashaSrdoc @JoelAnandUSA @supertalk @JTitMVirginia Join America's Roundtable radio co-hosts Natasha Srdoc and Joel Anand Samy with economist Stephen Moore. His insights on the economic front, America's energy dominance, urgency to address healthcare reform in America, advance the succesful policy of school choice and thoughts on Iran will enlighten engaged listeners. Brief bio: Stephen Moore is an internationally-known economist and author, who has served as a senior policy adviser to Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024. Now, serving as the co-founder and chairman of Unleash Prosperity, he is a frequent lecturer to audiences around the world on the U.S. economic and political outlook, and is the author of 6 books, including “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive our Economy,” and “The Trump Economic Miracle.” Moore is a graduate of the University of Illinois and holds a master's degree in Economics from George Mason University. From 1999-2004, Moore served as Founder and President of the Club for Growth, an organization dedicated to helping elect free market candidates to Congress. In his tenure as president, the Club for Growth became one of the most influential and respected political organizations in the nation. From 2005-2014, Moore served as the senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal editorial page and as a member of the WSJ editorial board. He remains a regular contributor to the publication. Moore served as a senior economic advisor to President Trump's 2016 campaign, drafting tax, budget, and energy policy plans. In 2007, Moore received the Ronald Reagan “Great Communicator” award from the Republican party for his advancement of economic understanding. In 2010, he was awarded the University of Illinois Alumni of the Year. His book “Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain its Economic Superpower Status” was a finalist for the F.A. Hayek Award for Advancing Economic Understanding. In 2018, Worth Magazine named Stephen Moore one of the 75 Most Influential People in the World Dealing with Economics and Finance. americasrt.com https://ileaderssummit.org/ | https://jerusalemleaderssummit.com/ America's Roundtable on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/americas-roundtable/id1518878472 X: @StephenMoore @ileaderssummit @americasrt1776 @NatashaSrdoc @JoelAnandUSA @supertalk @JTitMVirginia America's Roundtable is co-hosted by Natasha Srdoc and Joel Anand Samy, co-founders of International Leaders Summit and the Jerusalem Leaders Summit. America's Roundtable radio program focuses on America's economy, healthcare reform, rule of law, security and trade, and its strategic partnership with rule of law nations around the world. The radio program features high-ranking US administration officials, cabinet members, members of Congress, state government officials, distinguished diplomats, business and media leaders and influential thinkers from around the world. Tune into America's Roundtable Radio program from Washington, DC via live streaming on Saturday mornings via 68 radio stations at 7:30 A.M. (ET) on Lanser Broadcasting Corporation covering the Michigan and the Midwest market, and at 7:30 A.M. (CT) on SuperTalk Mississippi — SuperTalk.FM reaching listeners in every county within the State of Mississippi, and neighboring states in the South including Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee. Tune into WTON in Central Virginia on Sunday mornings at 9:30 A.M. (ET). Listen to America's Roundtable on digital platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Google and other key online platforms. Listen live, Saturdays at 7:30 A.M. (CT) on SuperTalk | https://www.supertalk.fm

Can a phone be a cow? It could in 1990s Bangladesh. This was the insight of a small number of mobile phone market pioneers who helped catalyze the spread of the greatest technological revolution in human history. Listen as George Mason University economist Philip Auerswald speaks to EconTalk's Russ Roberts about how the extension of connectivity to traditionally excluded populations led to wide-scale transformations in productivity. They discuss the role of little-known entrepreneurs such as Iqbal Quadir and innovators like Claude Shannon in bringing the mobile phone to the entire world. Other topics include William Nordhaus's paper on the cost of illumination as a powerful metric of human progress, Schumpeter's notion of innovation as new combinations, and what Auerswald calls the most important question the field of economics can ask: How much of human progress is inevitable, and how much depends on the determination of remarkable individuals?

About Thomas: Thomas' LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/thomas-dijkman Website: qanda.nl (Company), https://www.ebeltoftgroup.com  Phone: +31652656347 (Work) Email: tdijkman@qanda.nl Thomas' Bio: Thomas Dijkman is a Senior Retail Consultant at Q&A Retail, a Netherlands-based retail consultancy. He is Co-chair of the “Young Ebeltoft” initiative, a global collective of next-generation retail thinkers within the Ebeltoft Group.  Thomas specializes in translating insights, market expertise, and creativity into practical solutions that help leading retailers adapt and thrive in a fast-changing retail environment. He has worked with retailers such as SPAR, Action, Nexeye, and A.S. Watson, advising on strategy, positioning, consumer engagement, and store and format optimization.  With a no-nonsense, data-driven approach, he supports retailers in strengthening their concepts and improving performance across channels. Through his focus on generational insights, Thomas helps retailers better understand what young consumers want and how to turn those insights into action. SHOW INTRO: Today, EPISODE 89… I talk with Thomas Dijkman a Gen Z researcher, which is to say that he is part of Gen Z at 28 years old, who was a speaker at Euroshop 2026. Thomas and the company he work with called Q&A Retail, had just published research on Gen Alpha, which was chock full of insights on this emerging generation of global consumers. We'll get into all of that in a minute but first a few thoughts… *                     *                          *                          * ABOUT DAVID KEPRON: LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b Websites:  https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website) vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog) Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/ NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/ Bio: David Kepron 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.

This week, host Margaret Walls welcomes Celso Ferreira and Elizabeth Van Dolah on the podcast to talk about building resilience in coastal communities that are vulnerable to sea level rise. Ferreira, a professor at George Mason University, and Van Dolah, an environmental anthropologist and community engagement expert, were members of an interdisciplinary research team that aimed to construct nature-based solutions to flooding problems in the rural municipality of Pocomoke City, Maryland. Throughout the process, the team consulted with an advisory committee of community members who weighed in on the project—and the local input shaped the researchers' conclusions in surprising ways. In this episode, Ferreira and Van Dolah reflect on how continuous engagement with impacted communities can help identify overlooked ecosystem values and result in improved outcomes for people and the surrounding environment. References and recommendations: “Building coastal resilience in Pocomoke City, Maryland” by Celso Ferreira, Andre de Souza de Lima, Diana Veronez, Elizabeth Van Dolah, Joseph Galarraga, Ayanna Healy, Margaret Walls, Emma DeAngeli, and Nicole Carlozo; https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0638e5e7beea4a11ba7e277ce87ef7e2 “Recreation and Resilience: When Parks Do Double Duty” by Emma DeAngeli and Margaret Walls; https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/recreation-and-resilience-when-parks-do-double-duty/ “Nature-Based Solutions 101” by Emma DeAngeli, Brandon Holmes, and Margaret Walls; https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/nature-based-solutions-101/ “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness” by Michael Pollan; https://michaelpollan.com/books/a-world-appears/ “Goat” movie; https://www.netflix.com/title/82710848 Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/

Associate professor and founding director of the Race, Politics, and Policy Center at George Mason University, Michael K. Fauntroy shares his expectations for the historic D.C. primary and the district's use of ranked-choice voting for the first time.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

This is episode 850. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Watch the video of this podcast on YouTube here. The Sales Game Changers Podcast was recognized by YesWare as the top sales podcast. Read the announcement here. FeedSpot named the Sales Game Changers Podcast at a top 20 Sales Podcast and top 8 Sales Leadership Podcast! Subscribe to the Sales Game Changers Podcast now on Apple Podcasts! Purchase Fred Diamond's best-sellers Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know and Insights for Sales Game Changers now! Today's show featured an interview with Steve Gladis, Executive Coach, Author, and Professor at George Mason University. Find Steve on LinkedIn. STEVE'S TIP: "Start thinking like a team, not a group. Start thinking basketball, not golf. Think about what you can work on together while still performing in your individual silos."

Prediction market sites allow users to put money on everything from the war in Iran to the winner of the Super Bowl. But where did these markets come from? And what can that history tell us about where they might be going? Today on the show, how betting on popes and presidents long ago planted a seed for a “terrorism market” in the early 2000s, and how those early prediction markets shaped the industry that has taken hold today.Guests:Koleman Strumpf, economics professor at Wake Forest UniversityPaul Rhode, economic historian at the University of Michigan.Robin Hanson, Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and systems architect for the Policy Analysis MarketRobert Forsythe, Professor of Finance at Wayne State University and co-founder of the Iowa Political Stock MarketTo access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Modern science has given us the ability to edit our genes, life-saving vaccines, and glimpse the origins of the universe. But is the same system holding itself back? Critics argue that the pressure to publish and fierce competition for funding rewards safe, incremental work over bold thinking. Others see a system still capable of paradigm-shifting discoveries — one where global collaborations and long-term thinking motivate scientists to pursue grand, ambitious ideas. Now we debate: Is the Scientific Enterprise Too Risk-Averse?  This debate was produced in partnership with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, as part of The Hopkins Forum series. Arguing Yes:  Tyler Cowen, Author of "The Great Stagnation"; Economics Professor at George Mason University; Founder of Emergent Ventures; Host of "Conversations with Tyler" podcast   Brandon Ogbunu, Computational Biologist; Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University; Professor at the Santa Fe Institute  Arguing No:   Kate Biberdorf (“Kate the Chemist”), Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame; Science Entertainer  The Honorable Sethuraman Panchanathan, 15th Director of the National Science Foundation; University Professor of Technology and Innovation and Foundation Chair at Arizona State University  Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan moderates  Join the conversation on Substack—share your perspective on this episode and subscribe to our weekly newsletter for curated insights from our debaters, moderators, and staff.  Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and TikTok to stay connected with our mission and ongoing debates.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices