Podcasts about GM

Lizz's world is on fire with no childcare this week, but the pod must go on. Good thing there is the live action "Aladdin" movie to keep the kids entertained. According the Kelly and Lizz, those Disney live action movies are underrated. Kelly has been busy doing car consultations all over the country, this week in Chicago and next week in Ft. Lauderdale. But she's making time to do a little celebration. First, it is her 9 year wedding anniversary. Does this officially qualify them to give out marriage advice? Then, it's time for the long talked about Hot Dog Roast! They still haven't done a full head count but this is shaping up to be a BIG party!  Since it's Friday, you know that means it's time for a 'Dancing with the Stars' recap! Did the right person go home? In Industry news, it's all about vehicle affordability and GM deciding to keep Apple Play in their cars after all. Then in Ditch the Drive-Thru it's all about simple supper season and they reveal the Steptember winner.  It's October and National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, which means the return of Blake's Besties. Every year Kelly and Lizz share listener stories of the little ones lost too soon and honor their memory.  Today's Dish the Drive Thru is brought to you by the Chinet® brand. Chinet plates make dinner at home easy, whether it's a quick weeknight meal or a full barbecue spread. They're sturdy enough to hold chicken, potato salad and corn on the cob without folding, and they look nice enough for the whole family's table. When dinner's done, cleanup takes a minute. Visit Chinet to for all your dinnertime, backyard party, and every-day needs.  More Info:  https://bit.ly/4xjuBLU 

Aaron and John talk about which of the Twins' key veterans will or won't be on next year's team, the end-of-season press conference with Tom Pohlad, Jeremy Zoll, and Derek Shelton, and what to expect this offseason before the lockout hits. 0:00 Intro: Black Stack beer and the end of the Twins season 1:16 Twins finish 77-85: met expectations, but the third straight late-season collapse 3:43 Offseason preview: key dates, the Pohlad press conference, and who's staying or leaving 4:41 Thank you, listeners: Aaron Gleeman's year leaving The Athletic and going independent 7:03 John Bonnes on independent publishers and the G&TG community 13:17 MLB offseason schedule: free agency opens after the World Series 13:47 Qualifying offer deadlines and how a QO affects a free agent's market 15:46 Arbitration tender deadline: keep or cut for Royce Lewis, Bailey Ober, Trevor Larnach 17:11 MLB lockout on November 30: no winter meetings, no Rule 5 draft? 18:50 Flashback: the 2021 lockout day, Byron Buxton's extension and Dylan Bundy 19:59 If a lockout cancels 2027, what happens to Pablo Lopez's contract? 22:52 GM meetings in November could replace the winter meetings 24:47 Both Gleeman and The Geek heading to the GM meetings? 32:10 Twins end-of-season press conference with Tom Pohlad, Jeremy Zoll, Derek Shelton 33:06 Pohlad skips the spin: "Our roster wasn't built for a 162-game season" 34:37 Pohlad backs Zoll and Shelton, blames the ownership mess 35:40 Could the Twins have made moves last winter? 37:40 Pitching coach Pete Maki fired 39:31 Twins payroll: Pohlad won't commit to a number or even a range 41:06 The baseline: why the first $105 million is already spoken for 42:58 Why the Twins should level-set payroll expectations with fans 44:40 Pohlad's words sound good, now he has to back them up 47:02 A one-month window and a weak free agent class 49:01 Is Jeremy Zoll more aggressive than Derek Falvey? 51:27 The lockout doesn't stop moves: lessons from the 2021 November frenzy 55:34 Staying or leaving: rating the Twins players whose futures are in doubt 57:36 Byron Buxton is staying (stop asking) 58:33 Ryan Jeffers: free agency and the qualifying offer decision 1:03:20 Why a qualifying offer to Jeffers is a low-risk move 1:09:02 Josh Bell: good bat, but no fit at first base or DH? 1:12:18 AJ Minter: the best fit of the Twins' free agents 1:19:05 Taylor Rogers: end of the line for a Twins bullpen great 1:21:25 Trevor Larnach: the left-handed logjam and an $8 million arbitration raise 1:29:23 Bailey Ober: the velocity is gone and the strikeouts are falling 1:34:38 Joe Ryan: trade him now with one year left, or keep him? 1:39:53 Pablo Lopez returning from Tommy John surgery 1:40:23 Royce Lewis: two and a half years of struggles at the plate 1:43:56 John and Aaron disagree: is Royce Lewis staying or leaving? 1:49:55 Austin Martin and Matt Wallner 1:50:27 Wrap-up: Patreon mailbag next week

The Philadelphia Phillies' 2026 season has officially come to an end after they fell to the Atlanta Braves 6-2 in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series. Sheil is joined by Anthony Dabbundo to discuss yet another season of this team falling short and what the future holds with a possible lockout looming. Has this core of Phillies players run its course? Should Dave Dombrowski remain the Phillies' GM? How difficult would it be to trade some of the Phillies' key contributors? The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Email hot takes: Ringerphilly@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram and TikTok: @ringersphillyspecial Become a member of our Reddit community: https://www.reddit.com/r/RingersPhillySpecial/ Host: Sheil Kapadia Guest: Anthony Dabbundo Producer: Cliff Augustin Music Composed By: Teddy Grossman and Jackson Greenberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

WhoJay Dougherty, President and General Manager of Mount Southington, ConnecticutDate RecordedOct. 2, 2026About Mount SouthingtonOwned by: Multiple shareholders descended from the ski area's foundersYear founded: 1964Pass affiliations:* Snow Pass – 2 days, no blackouts* Snow Triple Play – up to 2 days, no blackoutsThese two passes have a lot of overlap, but completely different rosters:Base elevation: 210 feetSummit elevation: 571 feetVertical drop: 361 feetSkiable acres: 51 acresAverage annual snowfall: 40 inchesLift count: 8 (1 triple, 3 doubles, 4 carpets) – view Lift Blog's inventory of Mount Southington's lift fleetWhy I interviewed himA lot of ski areas are beautiful because they're set within nature's masterpieces. Mount Southington is beautiful because it's not: How cool is that? A ski area in the middle of a neighborhood. A neighborhood that most of us could probably afford to live in. Kids grow up across the street. If it snows enough, they can probably ski from their front door to the lifts. Good thing the ski hill is already there. We rarely build cool things next to where we actually live anymore. But it's hard to get rid of a ski area once it's built, unless it fails. Southington [Suh-thing-ton] is not going anywhere. Three of the bump's chairlifts are under 20 years old (two are younger than five), and a replacement for the fourth - Stardust - starts, well, any second now (a new top terminal is sitting in the parking lot). A few dozen neighborhood ski areas like this still exist across America, mostly east of the Mississippi. Sometimes the neighbors hate them, especially during all-night snowmaking season. But very few people living in a house near a ski area today would have been surprised to find themselves living near a ski area, since the facility would have in most cases preceded them. Maybe a few even moved in to be close to skiing. It's cool to imagine being one of them, waking up to morning turns three months per year. How cool - like having a lake house on a kinda small lake. It's not Aspen, but most of us aren't billionaires, and it's nice to think that, in a few far-flung corners of America, there's a backdoor to that sort of life that no one's really checking.Additional resources* New England Ski History details Mount Southington's early days.* A bit more on Southington's Northstar lift, received second-hand from Craigmeur, New Jersey, migrating for its third life as Lost Valley, Maine's Chair 3.* Somehow all my Mount Southington photos have vanished into the digital void, but Instapost preserves this shot of a really awesome sunset from my 2021 visit. Top of the Stardust chair:TranscriptsThere are two transcripts. Both are generated by robots. Both are helpful and defective in their own unique ways. I do not proofread either of them.Transcript 1: Click the “transcript” button at the top of this article. You can only see this transcript on a computer. Because I don't know why exactly but everything is getting better and dumber all at once it seems. Anyway, this is the transcript that the robots create when I upload the podcast to the internet. The cool thing about it is that you can click on any block of text and the audio will teleport there instantly. The uncool thing about this transcript is that it does not indicate who is talking at any given moment.Transcript 2: You can read this below. This is the transcript that Zoom creates as we record the podcast. The cool thing about this transcript is that it indicates who is talking at any given moment. The uncool thing about this transcript is that the timestamps do not match the audio. Also, you cannot click on this text to move to the associated point in the audio.ZoomStuart Winchester: My guest today has been president and general manager of Mount Southington, Connecticut since 2014.00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:37.000Stuart Winchester: Established in 1964, Mount Southington offers 51 acres of skiable terrain served by four chairlifts and several surface lifts. Jay Doherty is my guest. Jay, welcome to the storm. You are the first Connecticut representative to ever be on the podcast, not.00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:36.000Jay Dougherty: Okay.00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:42.000Stuart Winchester: for any reason other than I haven't been able to figure out who to talk to, so thank you very much for coming on today.00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:45.000Jay Dougherty: Oh, absolutely. I'm excited to be here. Excited to join you.00:03:44.000 --> 00:04:01.000Stuart Winchester: And you're a true Connecticut guy. We were chatting a little bit, and you said that Southington, and I don't know if I'm even pronouncing that right, is in — OK, there we go. There we go. All right, see, this is why I need to get you on the pod, because otherwise I mess up simple things.00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.000Jay Dougherty: It's Southern Vin. Yeah, there you go. It's all good.00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:59.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, exactly.00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:06.000Stuart Winchester: From right down the street, he said, tell us about Southington and what it means to you. Southington.00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:25.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, so I'm one of those fortunate few to get, have the opportunity to run the actual ski area that I grew up at. You know, I've had a season's pass here since I was probably seven, eight years old. You know, and then I worked, this was my first job was in the rental department here. So it means a lot to me and about something that's got a great community connection.00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:17.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:26.000Jay Dougherty: Oh.00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:37.000Stuart Winchester: And did you… I noted that you've been general manager since 2014. That's as far back as I could find your history online. Did you work there as a lifty in high school or anything? Was it your first job?00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:52.000Jay Dougherty: I did, yeah, so it was my first job, I worked in the rental department as a technician, um, and then I was going to college for elementary ed, um, didn't really know what I wanted to do, and my parents were like, well, I gotta do something. So I'm like, yeah, alright, you know, there's a shortage of.00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:46.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:04:52.000 --> 00:05:09.000Jay Dougherty: male, young elementary school teacher. So I'm like, that sounds like a great opportunity. But I was working here and got offered a year-round position painting lifts. And I fell in love with it at that point. And then I found a college program that was just starting out with Green Mountain College in connection with Killington.00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:01.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:19.000Jay Dougherty: Uh, and I ended up going there, and, you know, I graduated 2004, uh, worked for Killington for a very short while, and then came back here as Assistant Mountain Manager.00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:15.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:34.000Stuart Winchester: So talk to us a little bit about who owns Mount Southington. There's a really good, you know, New England Ski History, this site does a great job with the origin stories and there's a little bit on your site about the doctor and his wife, Dr. Harold Richmond and his wife who started it.00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:27.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:34.000Jay Dougherty: Oh.00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:38.000Stuart Winchester: I'm not sure who owns it now, but who do you report to?00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:48.000Jay Dougherty: Uh, this is the best story, because it's actually the kin of all the original owners. So all of their kids own it, and now we're starting to see actual, like, fourth generation, like…00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:41.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:45.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, really? Oh, cool.00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:48.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, wow.00:05:48.000 --> 00:06:05.000Jay Dougherty: starting to enjoy the ski area. You see all the little kids and the nephews, cousins. So, uh, there's actually probably about 25, um, actual owners, um, but we're very organized down to, like, the board of directors that I answer to, that is comprised of those owners.00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:49.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:00.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:08.000Stuart Winchester: So are they still mostly local folks then?00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:14.000Jay Dougherty: No, not at all. Everybody's spread out, uh, basically worldwide at this point.00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:10.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.000Stuart Winchester: All over.00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:12.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:14.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:20.000Stuart Winchester: You know, I… maybe you're not able to speak for them on this, but I'll ask, because I'm seeing…00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:21.000Jay Dougherty: Hmm?00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:24.000Stuart Winchester: Family-owned ski areas all over the country. Go through a sort of, uh…00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:42.000Stuart Winchester: ownership existential crisis where maybe the parents were really into it, or the grandparents, or even the grandkids, but then along comes a generation that maybe just doesn't have an interest in running a ski area. You know, that's how Vail ends up with a lot of its ski areas. They just, they were family owned, and they get.00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:41.000Jay Dougherty: Yep.00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:57.000Stuart Winchester: rolled over. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, I'm just saying that it's a model that is uniquely challenged by, you know, generational transition. What's your sense from Southington and the owners that you work with that.00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:05.000Stuart Winchester: They would like to keep this, as it is, a community ski area owned by families for, you know, the foreseeable future, or not.00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:24.000Jay Dougherty: So what I can say is that they're great at advocating themselves, like the board of directors that advocates amongst the ownership group for involvement. Um, subcommittees, um, and obviously we always promote to them, like, you know, take advantage of this great opportunity that, like, your grandparents, again, or great-grandparents.00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:14.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:28.000Jay Dougherty: Ah, set you up for it. I mean, there's a lot of, um.00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:26.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:34.000Jay Dougherty: There's a lot of benefits to owning a portion of a ski area and being involved with it.00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:38.000Stuart Winchester: So as it is, it's had all this time to…00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:48.000Stuart Winchester: grow under the original owners, and I imagine it gives it a really cool character, and I want to talk about some of the character things in a minute, but can you tell us, and this is going to sound like a dumb question, Jay, but.00:07:49.000 --> 00:08:05.000Stuart Winchester: I think you're uniquely qualified to answer it, having grown up down the road. What is Mount Southington? And what I mean by that is you look in New England, there's a hundred ski areas, right? And you don't have to go very far north to get to some really big ski areas, some really nice ski areas, you know, Mount Snow, maybe the first one north if you're going.00:07:58.000 --> 00:07:59.000Jay Dougherty: Yes.00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:07.000Stuart Winchester: And…00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:15.000Stuart Winchester: I think a lot of folks kind of look at skiing as, like, up and out. You know, I conquered Southington, so I don't have any reason to go back there, and I talk to people all.00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:21.000Stuart Winchester: who live in New Jersey, and I'm like, do you have a Mountain Creek Pass? They're like, no, why.00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:31.000Stuart Winchester: Right, it's not, you know, Jackson Hole, but it has 1,000 vertical feet and high-speed lifts. Now, Slingson's a different thing, but you have pretty new infrastructure. So, what do you think…00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:47.000Stuart Winchester: Southington is. Is it just a place for the kids? Do you try to make it nice for that? I know every skier has got that, uh, crew of dudes who are, like, 75 and then boot up every morning in the lodge. I think that's a Northeast thing. So, so what is Southington to you, and, and.00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:44.000Jay Dougherty: Yep.00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:50.000Stuart Winchester: What's your kind of core audience you focus on?00:08:50.000 --> 00:09:10.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah. So we're we're really the feeder, right? And and one of the things that we really strive to do, especially over the last decade. So my tenure as general manager is try to create pathways to keep everybody engaged a lot of times. What you'd find is you get that kid that gets to middle school, and they kind of like fall off, and they're no longer interested. So like.00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:53.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:26.000Jay Dougherty: What we've tried to do is create pathways for those interested in terrain parks. We've introduced like an intro to free ride or freestyle for those interested in alpine racing. There's intro programs for that. We have weekend.00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:47.000Jay Dougherty: snow sports, school programs like our wild things and all of those type of things. So really, what we focus on are the kids, but also families. I think it's a great family atmosphere. If I had to like, we do a lot of things, and we do a lot of things pretty well. I mean, we go everywhere from like high school racing.00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:35.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:45.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:09:47.000 --> 00:10:00.000Jay Dougherty: Um, we're the home of Connecticut's high school, like, at least the public school leagues. Uh, we have adult night racing, um, and then, like, we host USASA events, uh.00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:00.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:06.000Jay Dougherty: So it's it's it's a lot and it's a really orchestrated operation.00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:07.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:13.000Jay Dougherty: You gotta be, you know, sometimes, uh, you can almost think of it as, like, being a maestro, trying to keep everything moving, and…00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:28.000Jay Dougherty: So it's not stepping on something else, you know, because we we really do change, and that that could happen in one day. The demographic completely shifts from yesterday. 75 plus crew that's here during the day. You hit 3 o'clock and the buses start unloading, and it's just.00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:16.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:39.000Jay Dougherty: crazy here. And then, at the same time, um, we're really unique in, like, our seasons past. Like, most of the visits that come from our seasons past, those folks live within, like.00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:51.000Jay Dougherty: probably a 15-mile radius of the mountain. So after school, all of those teenagers are getting dropped off here. Uh, so it's… it's… it's unique, um, in that sense. And then 8 o'clock, it's night racing.00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:46.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:53.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:53.000Jay Dougherty: So.00:10:53.000 --> 00:11:08.000Stuart Winchester: So I've pulled up your trail map here, for those who are watching this on StormSkiing.com or YouTube, and the Connecticut ski areas, all four of them that are public, they remind me of Midwest ski areas, and that's… I say that because that's where I grew up, and Midwest ski areas are very.00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:05.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:19.000Stuart Winchester: efficient, right? They have the racing lane and the terrain park, and what I really liked, I thought was impressive when I came to Southington, was you had a little mogul patch, maybe it was right here when I came.00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:28.000Stuart Winchester: This seemed to be the race hill. Wasn't much going on the day I was there, but that's neither here nor there. That's what I was assuming that was for. And there's some really nice park stuff.00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:35.000Stuart Winchester: I don't know, just… I mean, you can see it on the trail map where it's marked, but… but it's… it's, like, thought.00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.000Stuart Winchester: to, you know, give variety and make a small place.00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:49.000Stuart Winchester: feel bigger. I also like how you haven't widened the trails too much up top. So, just talk a little bit about that, you know, efficiency of use, and how challenging it is to make a mountain for everyone.00:11:49.000 --> 00:12:06.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, it is a challenge, especially when you're only dealing with like 51 acres, right? A skiable terrain. But you, you know, we want our programs to be successful. We want everybody to have a good time. We're fortunate in that, like our lift capacity somewhat matches our parking capacity.00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:55.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:02.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:26.000Jay Dougherty: So, like, people see the lots fall. Connecticut's a small state, so, like, if we're full, it's very accessible to go somewhere else. Not that we're encouraging that, but we don't want to… we don't want to overcrowd our trails, right? And yes, I admittedly catch flack, because when you do run high school racing in the afternoons, oftentimes you have to close down that.00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:11.000Stuart Winchester: Down.00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:19.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:34.000Jay Dougherty: Thunderbolt Trail in its entirety. There's sometimes four GS lanes that are set up across it during training and race days.00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:28.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:45.000Jay Dougherty: Um, but you… you try to do a good job at everything you're gonna offer. Um, so, you know, oftentimes, we… we get questions about things like tubing, right? Like, why… why don't you have tubing, right? So…00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:57.000Jay Dougherty: unless I can do a really good job at it, um, which our acres just doesn't allow for right now, and our parking capacity, like, it's… it just doesn't make sense to do it, because I don't want to…00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:07.000Jay Dougherty: offer, like, a poor product, a poor on-snow product, so… Um, but yeah, it's, uh, it is a big challenge, uh, for sure, especially when you're…00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:19.000Jay Dougherty: you know again, going back to that demographic shift like on a Saturday or Sunday morning, and you have all these lessons that are out there, and they're all fighting for beginner terrain. Yeah, it's a it's a challenge.00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:18.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:23.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, and for folks who may be wondering why…00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:35.000Stuart Winchester: Southington doesn't put in more. Here is Southington on the map, right? This is a Google map, and you can see neighborhood. You have development all around you, and I think… what is this, like a nature preserve in the back?00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:27.000Jay Dougherty: No.00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:43.000Jay Dougherty: Uh, so that's actually Southington Water Department, so yeah, there's no… there's no expansion that's gonna happen back there, yeah.00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:36.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:41.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:48.000Stuart Winchester: Right, and if you really zoom in, I mean, some of these houses, they probably have ski-in, ski-out if they want it. I.00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:49.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, they're really good. Some do, actually.00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:49.000Stuart Winchester: I don't know if they do.00:13:49.000 --> 00:14:05.000Stuart Winchester: But you have this, uh, it's a really unique location, and it feels very New England, because you, you get off the highway, you get off 84, and you're driving through these neighborhoods, you're like, where is this, is there really a ski area here? You know, I'm just blindly following my Google Maps like everyone else, and you pull up, and there's this.00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:01.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:17.000Stuart Winchester: barn. And I was reading a little bit about the history of it, but I'll let you tell us, what is this barn, and what can you tell us about the history of Southington as far as how you crammed a ski area.00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:07.000Jay Dougherty: Yep.00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:21.000Stuart Winchester: Or how a scary is crammed into a neighborhood that probably wants a neighborhood.00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:39.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, so, the story goes, as you can read on the website, uh, Dr. Harold Richmond took his family on a ski trip up north, uh, I'm assuming it was probably Mount Snow, and, uh, I wanted to recreate that in Connecticut. I mean, there were already existing areas in Connecticut, obviously Mohawk was around, um, it was Satan Ridge at the time.00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:29.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:54.000Jay Dougherty: So he came back and was looking for a spot. Initially, I think he wanted to open a skating rink in the town of Southington, and that got like shot down by the planning zoning at the time. So this farm was up for sale on the west side of town.00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:50.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:14:54.000 --> 00:15:02.000Jay Dougherty: At that time period, all of those houses weren't there. There were some, but not nearly the messages there on the map.00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:02.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:08.000Jay Dougherty: And, you know, he purchased the farm. Uh, he was an orthodontist, which…00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:22.000Jay Dougherty: typically doesn't blend well with construction, uh, at least, uh, on-hill construction. Uh, so they partnered with Palmisano Construction out of Bristol, and they built out the ski area. Uh, in 1964, it opened, so…00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:18.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:25.000Jay Dougherty: Been going ever since.00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:35.000Stuart Winchester: And then the barn, I understand that this property, I think, was assembled from a lot of things, but part of it was actually a dairy farm, right?00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:29.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:33.000Jay Dougherty: Yep.00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:34.000Jay Dougherty: Yep.00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:49.000Jay Dougherty: So, yeah, so, yes, I have, uh, actual photos of, um, cows being milked in that barn, uh, by the original owners, uh, which one of the original owners, actually, the family still lives in an adjacent property, so…00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:49.000Stuart Winchester: Really?00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:50.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:52.000Stuart Winchester: Do you have any idea how old the barn is?00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:56.000Jay Dougherty: Uh, roughly, I think there's a stamp on the side, it's like 1937.00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:12.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, so have you, you know, I imagine a lot of renovations have happened over the years. Do they have to winterize it? Did they, like, what do you, what does it take to maintain a building that's this old? Because it looks super cool, but one other thing I know about old buildings by living in a bunch of them is they're a pain in the butt.00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:03.000Jay Dougherty: Yes.00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:09.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:28.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, yeah, it's a challenge. It certainly is. You know, they're not the most efficient structures and like, especially when you're striving for sustainability these days and trying to reduce your carbon footprint and an older facility like that.00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:15.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:19.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:43.000Jay Dougherty: you know it. It's it is oftentimes drafty. But there there is that like quaint New England feeling to it when you walk in. Certainly, if it were much larger, it would. It would better service the folks visiting here. But we also have the mountain room, which is a second restaurant.00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:36.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:42.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:45.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:45.000Jay Dougherty: Um…00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:51.000Jay Dougherty: and lounge area. So, you know, we do a good job of spreading folks out, and.00:16:51.000 --> 00:17:01.000Jay Dougherty: you know, in the post-COVID era, people seem to not be as afraid to eat outside anymore. So, like, we've taken full advantage of, like, patio space and things like that.00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:58.000Stuart Winchester: Okay. Yeah.00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:01.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:06.000Stuart Winchester: That's cool, and then the old original farmhouse, I believe, is your ticket office, is that right?00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:10.000Jay Dougherty: Yep. Yeah, I'm sitting in it right now. My office is in there, guest service office, everything like that.00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:08.000Stuart Winchester: But.00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:26.000Stuart Winchester: That is so cool. So another quirk of Southington and Southington, and you, you find this only, well, I'm sure you find it elsewhere, but I've only seen it in the northeast, is the parking lot across the street. And so I know you have overflow parking here, but I always think it's kind of neat, but also kind of.00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:21.000Jay Dougherty: Yep.00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:36.000Stuart Winchester: scary, considering your demo of kids. I mean, how much of a pain is this? Is this, like, the apple orchards where… because I came on a non-busy day, like I usually do these places, and uh…00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:29.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:35.000Jay Dougherty: Mm-hmm.00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:44.000Stuart Winchester: you know, like, I know the apple orchards in the fall have to set up a cop to safely get people across the road. What's the… what's the safety situation here?00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:50.000Jay Dougherty: So the states provided us with a great, like, crosswalk there of solar power.00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:56.000Jay Dougherty: It's not… Mount Vernon Road, unless the traffic's coming here, is not typically that busy.00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:01.000Jay Dougherty: It's not one of the main, like, thoroughfares in Southampton by any means.00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:01.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:18.000Jay Dougherty: And for the most part, yes, occasionally you get the rogue driver that's doing over the speed limit, and you do encounter a scary situation. But knock on wood, I mean, for the most part, it's function. People know we're here. Certainly anybody in town knows we're here.00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:13.000Stuart Winchester: No.00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:30.000Jay Dougherty: So, it really hasn't been quite that big of an issue. It's well-lit, like, you know, at night, the skier would glow.00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:24.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:40.000Jay Dougherty: as, you know, we put it, it's there. I mean, you know, it hasn't been a huge issue, but it is unique to, you know, New England skiers. You really don't see it anywhere else.00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:35.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:56.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so, so when I, when I see all these houses, you know, I made the crack that they might have ski in, ski out, and that's my brain going to, I would love to live on the side of a ski area. Uh, not everyone necessarily does. I was talking to the folks over at Thunder Ridge last week up at, uh, the Ski Areas of New York convention.00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:49.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:12.000Stuart Winchester: And they're similarly built, kind of, aside a neighborhood. But, you know, the ski area's been there longer than most people live there. They said they've been having some issues with neighbors. I don't know how Southington sits with its neighbors, or if this is a blessing or curse to have these homes right here.00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:00.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:32.000Jay Dougherty: Um, obviously, the ski area itself, before a lot of those homes, especially ones that are trailside, um, you know, the ski area existed. Uh, early on, yeah, there were certainly issues. I mean, they were running, and I don't know if you're familiar with, like, snowmaking equipment, but, like, Radnik's, like, Sky Giant 2, or.00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:20.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:23.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:49.000Jay Dougherty: snow giant tubes, which were loud, sounded like a jet engine taking off. They were running compressors. They used to pump air into mines in Pennsylvania, like, very much a smaller version of what Hunter had going on a few years ago. And, like, it would, you know, thump and…00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:35.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:37.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:47.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:19:49.000 --> 00:20:04.000Jay Dougherty: shaking foundations. We've since modernized a lot of our equipment. We've gone to mostly fan technology, and it's quieted down quite a bit, but it was such an issue back then. The town recognized how important the steering was.00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:57.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:16.000Jay Dougherty: you know, to tax revenue. We bring a lot of skier visits in. Um, you know, I think about this here, it's like a ton of volume on small acreage. So, you know.00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:07.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:26.000Jay Dougherty: They actually worked with my predecessor, and it's actually in the town ordinance that we're exempt from the noise at night.00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:26.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:30.000Jay Dougherty: Um, yeah, so…00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:37.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I have to imagine, too, that as your equipment has gotten more efficient, I've seen a lot of skiers, their snowmaking window has really shrunk.00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:37.000Jay Dougherty: Yep.00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:55.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, that's absolutely us. Um, we have a really difficult climate where we are. You know, it's somewhat coastal. Uh, we deal with Long Island Sound, you're close to the Connecticut River. Um, you know, we always talk about that I-84 corridor in Connecticut before, like the snow line versus rain line, and um…00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:43.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:52.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:56.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:10.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, it is a challenge year after year. So, like, staying on top of ZoomMate, that's probably one of our largest investments that we do. We put our new pump house in, fully automated in 2018, and now we've been, every year, just adding more automation to the hill.00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:03.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:16.000Jay Dougherty: Um, this year we added another, like, 10 TL8 Lances from TechnoAlpin, um…00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:12.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:16.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:22.000Jay Dougherty: and yeah, I mean, it's the way to go, uh, because our winters are so short, like…00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:22.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:23.000Jay Dougherty: Oh.00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:37.000Jay Dougherty: like, manual snowmaking equipment, like, you'll never be able to keep up with a computer as far as, like, changes in the atmosphere and conditions, so it's worked really well for us. And it's manageable because we're small, you know, like, we can bite off small investments at a time with it.00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:28.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:41.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I try to make that point to my listeners and readers a lot, is that…00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:51.000Stuart Winchester: I was certainly surprised by this when I started this podcast, is sometimes the smallest ski areas have the best snowmaking, and I always point to Pennsylvania, they are just…00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:50.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:21:51.000 --> 00:22:03.000Stuart Winchester: have some incredible snowmaking systems, because they have very challenging weather patterns, and that rain-snow line you're talking about, a lot of times, folks who are in the Northeast, our weather goes sort of up at an angle.00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:05.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, yeah.00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:14.000Stuart Winchester: So… so it comes from wherever it comes from, and then goes… so there's sometimes this fun little rain-snow line that… that sometimes you're below, but sometimes you're above, right?00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:31.000Jay Dougherty: Right, and you have to be able to recover quickly, and that's what it's all about. I mean, like, typically after you get, like, one of those events, um, you do have usually some colder weather that'll follow in, and you have to take full advantage of that, and you want to be able to resurface as much terrain as possible, so…00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:18.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm. And are you feeding from this… this pond down here?00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:44.000Jay Dougherty: Yes, but we also have a, uh, water supply from the town. The town owns their own water here, so yeah. And we pay for it, um, but that's another expense item.00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:39.000Stuart Winchester: Oh.00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:41.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, that's great.00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:58.000Stuart Winchester: So, snowmaking's big. Another thing that Southington has really been investing in is lifts, and you're… you have one of the newer lift fleets that I'm aware of for a small ski area, and uh…00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:45.000Jay Dougherty: I don't know how.00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:04.000Stuart Winchester: Let me just pull up my notes here so I get this correct. But the…00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:15.000Stuart Winchester: So you put in North Star just three years ago, right, or two years ago, or 2023. Avalanche was new in 2021, I think.00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:08.000Jay Dougherty: Yep.00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:18.000Stuart Winchester: Thunderbolt was new in, like, 2011, is that right?00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:21.000Jay Dougherty: Uh, 2009 for Thunderbolt.00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:33.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, 2009. Right, and so, uh, before I ask you about these lists individually, I was up at, again, I was at Skiers in New York last year, or last week, and one of the big concerns with these guys, because New York has the most Skiers, but it's mostly family owned.00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:40.000Stuart Winchester: And one of their big concerns is just the cost of new lifts. All your lifts are ParTech lifts.00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:41.000Jay Dougherty: Correct.00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:42.000Stuart Winchester: And I've talked to Hagen, and…00:23:42.000 --> 00:24:00.000Stuart Winchester: Small operators, especially in the Northeast, or actually whoever's worked with them, speak very reverently of Hagen and how if he wasn't around, it would be very hard to afford new lifts. So can you just talk about working with Hagen on these lifts? And I realize, Thunderbolt, you were not in the GM role at that time, but it sounds like you were on site.00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:01.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:09.000Stuart Winchester: So just talk about Hagen and what it's like to work with him and how important he is to small ski areas in the 2020s.00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:15.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, so Hagen… Hagen's great. I mean, like, I have a long-standing relationship with Hagen, and…00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:12.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:31.000Jay Dougherty: he's the guy that you can call on, like, Sunday morning, and, like, if you need him to take a ride here to look at something, he will. Um, stands behind his product, always fix it, you know, he'll work with you. He's a solutions guy, really, um, is what it boils down to. And I feel like, um.00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:19.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:23.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:28.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:35.000Jay Dougherty: you know, when it comes to Hagen, like…00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:41.000Jay Dougherty: He's willing to work more with you than… than…00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:56.000Jay Dougherty: I don't have much experience working with the other manufacturers, because really, like, I've only really considered that, because, I mean, one of the important things for me is to try to standardize everything here. It makes it easier on my crew, it makes it easier on what we have to stock for lift parts.00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:45.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:47.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:52.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:12.000Jay Dougherty: and all of the above. Um, so, like, every one of our lifts now has the same grip in it, you know, assemblies are all similar, except for one lift, which we'll talk about, I'm sure. Um, but yeah, I mean, I have nothing but good things to say about Hagen, and he's.00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:03.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:16.000Jay Dougherty: incredibly important to this, and you say you're from the Midwest, so, like…00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:33.000Jay Dougherty: that's where I think you know where where you don't have you know that the lift ticket pricing in general in the Midwest is a bit lower than it is in the northeast, but we all spend have to spend the same amount of money on upgrading our facilities like it's not like there's a.00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:26.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:32.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:42.000Jay Dougherty: a discount for buying techno alpine equipment if you live in the Midwest, or you're here in the Midwest, or buying, you know, chairlifts. So…00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:38.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:51.000Jay Dougherty: um, yeah, it's a concern, and guys like Hagen are the… are… what can keep that alive, and come up with the solutions, um, for the future. I mean, like…00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:59.000Jay Dougherty: it, for us, it just makes sense, too. Pine Island, New York's not that far from Southern, like, it's an hour and a half, maybe.00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:06.000Stuart Winchester: Right. How worried are you about Hagen retiring and what's going to happen after that?00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:00.000Jay Dougherty: So.00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:07.000Jay Dougherty: Um…00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:09.000Jay Dougherty: I mean…00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:22.000Jay Dougherty: as with most lift manufacturers, somebody inevitably takes it over and takes care of it, but very concerned. I mean, the loss of, like, Hagen in the industry, if and when he decides to retire.00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:36.000Jay Dougherty: Um, it's gonna be huge for… for the areas that it relied on. There's a ton of part-tech lifts in the Northeast, and you find them at small areas like Mount Southington, and then private clubs, and things like that, and he's still servicing all the old boardwreck equipment.00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:47.000Jay Dougherty: Which I know, like, many people have had issues with Borbug in the past, but truth be told, I mean, there's a number of those installations that are still running from the mid-70s, so…00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:41.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:47.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:26:47.000 --> 00:27:08.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, and one of them is right here. The Stardust, which according to LiftBlog is a 1978 Borvig triple. So you have one, two, three new lifts. Well, I'm going to say they're, you know, anything built in this century, I call it new. And then you have this guy here. What's your thinking on Stardust long term? Are you happy with it? Do you like it? Do you want to replace it?00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:51.000Jay Dougherty: Exactly. Yeah.00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:10.000Stuart Winchester: What's popping around?00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:26.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, so, speaking of Hagen, we've been working with Hagen, and actually, the new, uh, idler return terminal is actually sitting on site right now, and that's getting replaced. So, we're somewhat redesigning the unload of that area, we're moving it downhill, gaining a little bit of elevation for now, and it's part of, uh.00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:19.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:22.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:35.000Jay Dougherty: pretty much a three-year, uh, as of right now, it's planned for three years. It could be a shortage, too. Um, planned full replacement of that list.00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:32.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:38.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, so, so, so you're, you're getting a new…00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:36.000Jay Dougherty: So.00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:44.000Stuart Winchester: So you'll get a new top terminal, then a new… I mean, I guess just take us through the timeline that you plan.00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:41.000Jay Dougherty: Yep.00:27:44.000 --> 00:28:04.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, so it'd be a new top terminal first year, probably a new bottom terminal the second and then towers in between the third. So unique to board big lifts, they have the hanging ship assemblies, right? So that changes, you know, the dynamic of your of your carrier, right? So you have a shorter with those hanging ship assemblies, you have a shorter hanger.00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:47.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:53.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:56.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I think so.00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:06.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:14.000Jay Dougherty: attached to your chair. Um, so for me to do… I couldn't do the towers before I did the terminals, but I could do the terminals before the towers.00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:17.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, so that's essentially going to be a brand new Partech lift.00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:22.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, essentially. I mean, there'll be huge components in it. Um, the gearbox is…00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:19.000Stuart Winchester: The the.00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:21.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:29.000Jay Dougherty: We're in great shape still, so I think that would probably get repurposed into the lift, so… but other than that, yeah.00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:43.000Stuart Winchester: That's an interesting strategy, uh, Lonnie Gleiberman, who runs Ischeria Mount Bohemia up in northern Michigan, he had some old riblets, and he replaced the top terminal and bottom terminal with SkyTrak terminals, and just left all the chairs and, uh…00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:51.000Stuart Winchester: towers in place, because he said it was going to be another couple million dollars to do those, and he said I could just build another lift for that. Talk to us about the 3-year…00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:58.000Stuart Winchester: construction? Is that just a money thing? Is that a labor availability thing? What makes you spread it over 3 years?00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:13.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, we do a lot in-house, right? I have a very talented team. Most of these guys, they're 10 years or 10 plus years. I mean, we've been working together for a long time, so we know our abilities, we know our timelines, we know what we can fit in. Um, and me coming from the operation end, I know what's, like, feas.00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:01.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:05.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so. Yeah.00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:14.000Jay Dougherty: So…00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:30.000Jay Dougherty: you know, we… when we… when we plan these things, yeah, there's a financial component, because, like, just maintaining a ski area like this takes a lot, but we also have a lot of summer activity that goes on here. Last fiscal year, I think we did 39 weddings. Um, we have a summer camp.00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:23.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:43.000Jay Dougherty: for 9 or 10 weeks that operates out of here. Uh, and then midweek, we have sand volleyball and cornhole leagues, so there's always something going on. Oftentimes, we're busier in the summer than we are during the winter.00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:33.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:40.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:44.000Stuart Winchester: Really.00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:51.000Jay Dougherty: Um, but that's all part of the sustainability strategy for the skier, you know, you want to be able to absorb those, those bad years.00:29:51.000 --> 00:30:05.000Jay Dougherty: But, with all that activity, um, you know, construction periods get into smaller and smaller, uh, time frames, you know? You can't be running site trucks by, uh, summer camp, you know what I mean? So…00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:53.000Stuart Winchester: That's it.00:29:58.000 --> 00:29:59.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:05.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:07.000Stuart Winchester: And do you guys self-install?00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:13.000Jay Dougherty: Um, we assist with installation, like, obviously, um, but, I mean…00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:11.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:18.000Jay Dougherty: I'll hire somebody to put the towers in, I'll, you know…00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:17.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:21.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, no, I know it's rare. The reason I ask…00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:26.000Jay Dougherty: We're very actively involved in installation, I'll say that. It's local concrete work, uh, local site work. It's not, like.00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:24.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:25.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:33.000Jay Dougherty: that, you know, Ropeway Construction's helped us a ton. Randy Glennis has been a great partner of ours, so, yeah.00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:31.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:48.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, most people don't. The only reason I ask is I have Dennis Eschbach from Holiday Valley coming on later today, and he's one of the few that has an in-house team that just, they drop the lift off and they put it up. It's kind of amazing. So, you know, you said you were sticking, you know, you had a good gearbox and.00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:45.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:53.000Stuart Winchester: Assuming that you're just gonna have a, uh, replace Stardust with a triple, then?00:30:52.000 --> 00:31:09.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, it's going to be a trouble. It's going to remain. In fact, the chairs will be repurposed. So those aren't obviously the original boardwreck chairs that were on it. Those were flats, and they had issues with the chairs back in… that was probably about 2002. I think that was in College Way, and they replaced them with Partech.00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:55.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:58.000Stuart Winchester: Oh.00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:00.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:06.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:10.000Jay Dougherty: chairs at that time.00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:25.000Stuart Winchester: Right. So moving over to Avalanche, I don't know if you followed a similar multi-year process with that, but interesting to me that you kept it as a double. We don't build a lot of new doubles these days, just the ski industry in general. I mean, certainly like A-Basin built Pally.00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:16.000Jay Dougherty: We did.00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:20.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:34.000Stuart Winchester: a few years ago, replaced with a double. Was that the same kind of thing where you were modifying, or was there another reason why you went with a double chair instead of upgrading to that to maybe a triple or quad?00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:27.000Jay Dougherty: Yep.00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:47.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, so there was a lot that went into that decision, right? So, 2010, I want to say, that terminal at the bottom was replaced. So, there was originally a haul lift there. Um, I think it was, like, a 75 horsepower haul double chair. Um…00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:42.000Stuart Winchester: Hmm.00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:54.000Jay Dougherty: And… you know, it had some issues in the lower terminal, so we knew we had to replace that, so we…00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:11.000Jay Dougherty: took the hall wheel at the time, had a new hub put into it, so it would fit on a gearbox, a, uh, Kistling gearbox, and we had Hagen build a terminal around… around that to service the hall, and we ran it for… well, right up until we did the… all the…00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:23.000Jay Dougherty: last replacement of it. When that lift went in, it was designed that it could be a triple, so Hagen offered, like, two types of terminals at the time, and one could accept both a triple and a double.00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:14.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:35.000Jay Dougherty: Fast forward to 2011, and then time in between, ANSI standard changed. So your swing clearance has changed. Um, and that kind of brought in the issue of the lower terminal legs for us.00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:31.000Stuart Winchester: Umm.00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:50.000Jay Dougherty: And uh… so that was one of them. So I would have… if I wanted to change it to a triple at that point, it would have been a complete teardown of the lower terminal, new concrete, and a lot of… a lot of work that would go into that. Then you have the top, and if… I'm assuming you rode that lift when you're here?00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:44.000Stuart Winchester: Mmm.00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:58.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, Thunderbolt wasn't running, but I rode the other ones. But this was actually before you replaced it, so I rode the old Avalanche.00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:52.000Jay Dougherty: Very tight.00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:55.000Jay Dougherty: Yes.00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:04.000Jay Dougherty: Okay, okay. So, when you get off the avalanche double chair, right, it's a really tight spot at the top.00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:05.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Oh, and suddenly that little hill, yeah.00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:18.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, yeah. Um, so… one of the things that we salvaged out of that was the original concrete off the top. We had everything, like, NDT'd and tested, and we dug down to the base of the footing and all nine yards. Um…00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:33.000Jay Dougherty: And I got to thinking, I'm like, alright, if we're gonna, you know, add a little bit of uphill capacity, because the difference in all reality between a double and a triple is not… it's not crazy, it's not… you're not getting 33% more people uphill.00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:31.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:33.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:34.000Jay Dougherty: um…00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:51.000Jay Dougherty: it boiled down to, like, bang for the buck, and we accomplished this in a different way, and is this the ultimate, um, you know, top unloading for all of Mount Sinai? Can we try to stay, like, 5, 10 years ahead when we think about some of these things? And it's like, well, we knew we had the Stardust triple up there, and.00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:48.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:33:51.000 --> 00:34:16.000Jay Dougherty: you know, that's become more of the lift when we're busy. Yes, the avalanche double runs during the day, because the easy to access lift for the you know, the older crowd that's here skiing during the day. But anytime it's busy, or there's kids here. Family is adaptive programs. It's mostly the starters triple. And really what you lose between the 2 lifts or lost before this year when we replaced doctor and all of.00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:23.000Jay Dougherty: Stardust was probably 2, 3 acres of terrain. That's yeah.00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:18.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:22.000Stuart Winchester: Right. Okay.00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:24.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:28.000Jay Dougherty: it wasn't… it wasn't that much. I mean, you can still access the primary terrain from the other way.00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:36.000Stuart Winchester: And so you have good reliability to the top. It sounds like you're going to improve it. Well, you said start us starting this summer with that new terminal.00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:40.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, oh no, the terminal's on site, there's no chairs on the line right now, it's in progress.00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:39.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, wow.00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:45.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, great. Uh, oh, wait, so will that be in place for 26-27 ski season?00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:41.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:48.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, the top, the top of it, yeah. Just the top row, yeah.00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:48.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, okay. Okay.00:34:48.000 --> 00:35:02.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, no, that's awesome. Then, North Star is your most recent lift. So, this one's interesting. You went from a double to a triple here. I think I know why, but just tell us about this lift and why you wanted to go triple over here.00:35:01.000 --> 00:35:09.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, again, our big focus is on teaching people to ski and ride, and, um, you know, when you have… and we have a ton of kids here.00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:06.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:29.000Jay Dougherty: So, uh, a double chair really didn't make sense, like, it was, you know, for a, um, instructor to ride with only one student. Uh, or a lot of times you'll get families, and the parents want to teach their kids how to ski, and you'll get one parent that skis, and another that sits in the base lodge, and they've got two children with them, so…00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:19.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:31.000Jay Dougherty: You know, triple makes more sense there.00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:31.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:35:31.000 --> 00:35:47.000Jay Dougherty: Absolutely. So that that was the primary driver of changing that to a triple, and that lift was put in. You know the lift that that replaced was a salvage lift from Craigmere in New Jersey.00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:48.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:35:47.000 --> 00:36:00.000Jay Dougherty: Uh, many years ago, uh, which I was part of taking down. Um, yeah, so, like, steel has an age, and I'm gonna be the first one to tell you that. So that was one of the decisions of, like, where we're, like, you know, let's just get it and replace this.00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:52.000Stuart Winchester: Were you really?00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:56.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:01.000Jay Dougherty: So.00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:12.000Stuart Winchester: That's wild. So that lift is, from what I can tell, it was installed in 76 at Cregmer, and then you guys put it in, I think, 01.00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:13.000Jay Dougherty: Yep.00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:20.000Stuart Winchester: And then when you took it down, Lost Valley, Maine took it, and they made it their chair 3, and I rode that chair last year, and I was like…00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:25.000Stuart Winchester: Hey, is this the one they moved from Southington? Because this is… they did a really good job with it, but…00:36:23.000 --> 00:36:25.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:30.000Stuart Winchester: how did that whole deal happen? Were you like, dude, you're crazy, this chairlift is, like, 50 years old?00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:39.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, I mean, so, Scott's very talented, right? And, like, you know, his, um…00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:36.000Stuart Winchester: There.00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:54.000Jay Dougherty: he knows everything there is to know about all grips, and he has access to a lot of parts, so… I mean, for him, it worked. Uh, for us, you know, like, with the volume of people that we do, and what our challenge was with that lift.00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:45.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:36:54.000 --> 00:37:07.000Jay Dougherty: you know, I would say more of it into the functionality of the lift was the… was the reason for the replacement than the age. Yes, steel does have an age, like I said, but I mean, I think for me, it was more, you know.00:37:07.000 --> 00:37:14.000Jay Dougherty: we need this because of the volume of lessons we're doing, and, like, the pinch point it's causing with instructors, so…00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:11.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:20.000Stuart Winchester: Right. Yeah, you know, one of the arguments I hear from the larger operators.00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:26.000Stuart Winchester: for the reason that they don't sell older lifts, they're worried about liability. You know.00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:30.000Stuart Winchester: I find that dubious. Was that a consideration when you…00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:31.000Stuart Winchester: Sold.00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:33.000Stuart Winchester: To… to Lost Valley?00:37:33.000 --> 00:37:42.000Jay Dougherty: No, I… you know, when you're… when you write up paperwork, you can write it up as you're selling it for scrap, and I don't care what they're doing with it afterwards.00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:38.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:57.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, right, right, yeah. And they have other halls up there, and there's still a couple hundred halls running in the country. So, but it was probably good, nice for you to get rid of the last one you had. I'm curious about Snowflake, this little, I think this is the handle toe, and then you have the carpets over here.00:37:57.000 --> 00:38:02.000Stuart Winchester: Do you like the handle toes still here, or are you gonna move to a carpet? What's your thinking around there?00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:19.000Jay Dougherty: So, Snowflake is actually a, uh, it was a conveyor lift, um, that was there. The handle tow that we had is over on Whoopi, and that's since gone. Uh, that's moved its way out west to tubing operation this summer. Um, and the conveyor lift that was on Snowflake, our crews kind of, uh.00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:06.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:11.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, okay.00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:31.000Jay Dougherty: redoing, and that conveyor is moving over to replace the Whoopie handle towel, and we have a new conveyor that arrived yesterday that's, uh, replacing the snowflake, yeah.00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:25.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.000Stuart Winchester: Man, there's a lot happening. So you're gonna have, uh, four carpets.00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:36.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah, 4 conveyors, and then, yep.00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:41.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so that's… look, this is all really impressive, and if I…00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:59.000Stuart Winchester: was looking at any skier area in the country, I think you probably have, top to bottom, one of the newer Lyft fleets, even including Stardust, right? And, you know, I cover skier areas all over the country, and a lot of times, there's so much deferred maintenance, you get something like a Holiday Mountain in New York, where.00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:50.000Jay Dougherty: Yeah.00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:14.000Stuart Winchester: Mike Taylor, I'm not sure if you're acquainted with him, but he bought it, and it was just… it was a junker, and he had to do everything all at once. It sounds like Southington's been able to keep up. And I asked this question, because I have a lot of people who listen to this who run skier areas or want to run skier areas. Is all this money.00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:30.000Stuart Winchester: to upgrade Southington coming from Southington, or is it… is there an outside business that helps feed in, or is it, hey, like, Patch Peak, the ski area, has to make a profit, even though the family owns a bunch of different ski areas. It's, uh, you know, Patch Peak can't take money from whatever their other businesses are.00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:49.000Jay Dougherty: Nope, it's all from outside of it, honestly. And that's, uh, you know, that's the best part of it all, you know, like… And, you know, it's having that strategy of how to continue operating under, like, all these outside pressures that we have. And, you know, we compete with everything.00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:34.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:52.000Jay Dougherty: Compute with video to complete.00:39:51.000 --> 00:39:52.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:39:52.000 --> 00:40:07.000Jay Dougherty: everything that's on the outside. We're just very fortunate to have like that main artery that runs through Connecticut and I 84 makes us accessible. Honestly, that's that's one of the biggest drivers. So it's helped us develop our after school programs.00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:01.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:13.000Jay Dougherty: It's helped us become the home for, you know, the high school race leagues.00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:19.000Jay Dougherty: all of those things. And, like, New York City, like, I can be down in New York City in, like, 2 hours.00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:29.000Jay Dougherty: Yankee Stadium, whatever. And, uh, it… we get a lot of traffic from there. We get traffic from Long Island, we get traffic from Westchester County, Fairfield County.00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:21.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:40:29.000 --> 00:40:36.000Jay Dougherty: Um, you name it. So, like, just being accessible has been, like, the key to the success of it, really.00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, it really is. There's not… There's a lot of…00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:54.000Stuart Winchester: good ski areas that orbit New York City, that that's their main purpose. I, you know, Mount Peter is our go-to for my son for his seasonal program. Thunder Ridge, another one I mentioned. Uh, and there's Camp Gaughan, New Jersey. But then, the Connecticut ski areas, I think, are great, and they're actually…00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:45.000Jay Dougherty: that.00:40:54.000 --> 00:41:01.000Stuart Winchester: So, let's… let's wrap up on this today, Jay. You… last year, Southington joined the Snow Triple Play.00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:56.000Jay Dougherty: Yes.00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:02.000Jay Dougherty: Right.00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:17.000Stuart Winchester: And this year, you are on that product again, plus Snow Partners' new Snow Pass, which has two days each at 16 ski areas. And just to lay this out a little bit for the listeners, the way that I see Southington feeding into this is it's, you have Southington, you have Butternut.00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:33.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, and then you have Bel Air, Gore, Whiteface. So you kind of got those beginner ski areas where people can hop around and learn and then go up to the more aspirational ski areas, I'll call them. But just talk about those passes and snow operating and why.00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:40.000Stuart Winchester: Because I imagine you could have joined IndyPass years ago, but why did you finally go with Snow Operating?00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:52.000Jay Dougherty: So, we've had a great relationship with Snow Operating. Obviously, we're a little later in the ballgame with the attorney-based learning, um, but we've had such good success with them, and such a positive relationship with.00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:44.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:48.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:50.000Stuart Winchester: Okay. Yeah.00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:59.000Jay Dougherty: with Joe and Hugh and that whole group, um, that it was kind of, like, the natural choice for us to go with them.00:41:59.000 --> 00:42:00.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:41:59.000 --> 00:42:13.000Jay Dougherty: Um, last year, yeah, we were on the, uh, the Triple Play, which was kind of the product that came out of something they were doing at Mountain Creek for a number of years. And, you know, thinking about it, when you approached us with the idea, it was like, yeah, we'd love to attract new.00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:08.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:19.000Jay Dougherty: with folks, and, like, we share a similar demographic. Um, people go south to them, they come n

Episode #1464: Toyota is rewriting its marketing playbook for AI agents, affordability is putting smaller cars and SUVs back on shoppers' radar, and GM is spotlighting the next generation of technicians as the industry works to fill tens of thousands o...

Previously Released on 09/16/2026"Tea Time with Jim and Elaine" is a new series on “Graced By Rain” that drops on the third Wednesday of every month where Jim Biringer and Elaine Shircliff discuss some of the hot gossip around the NHL, AHL, and PWHL. They will chat about whether the rumor makes sense, will this rumor happen, and what have we heard regarding the rumor.Jim and Elaine will spend time at the beginning of each episode talking about different aspects of being a member of the media.On the inaugural episode, Jim Biringer and Elaine Shircliff discuss:why sources are important and who sources can bethe different types of sourcesthe Detroit Red Wings search for a GM and how they've handled the flow of information (the lack of flow)Adam Fantilli and Don Waddell are extremely patientand a few other things"Tea Time with Jim & Elaine" is a production of "Graced By Rain, LLC"

Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson is skating in Sweden, still unsigned, two days before the home opener. Max Bultman of The Athletic Detroit joins this Detroit Red Wings podcast for a season preview covering the Detroit Red Wings lineup, Dylan Larkin's trade request, & more. (00:00) - Intro (04:25) - Edvinsson Goes to Sweden Simon Edvinsson is skating with Frolunda of the SHL, and the panel traces a summer of indecision from Steve Yzerman's July 15 removal as GM to Shawn Horcoff getting the interim GM job days before camp. Plus, how a layup deal became a contract standoff that complicates Alex DeBrincat's future, and the Elliotte Friedman report that Zach Werenski put Detroit on his no-fly list, & more. (31:40) - Red Wings 23-Man Roster Review of the roster announced Monday: William Wallinder looks like the odd man out once bodies return with Andreas Englund claimed off waivers. Todd McLellan calls Dylan Larkin day-to-day, will he play? Plus, what to make of Mazur, Anton Johansson, and others. (40:20) - Forward Group Preview With Andrew Copp potentially opening as the first-line center, so the panel sees a top-heavy group that may finish near the bottom of the NHL in scoring. Max predicts a Larkin trade by December 1, and Marco Kasper has to climb back up the lineup after ending exhibition play in the bottom six. (1:03:25) - Defense Preview & Faulk Trade Talk Anton Johansson's five exhibition assists and Axel Sandin-Pellikka's best preseason in a Red Wings jersey make the case for playing both every night. Justin Faulk, with a 15-team no-trade list, could be moved as early as November, and the panel weighs Larkin deals with Minnesota or a three-way with Montreal and Washington. (1:20:05) - Gibson and Tarasov in Net Starting goalie John Gibson and backup Daniil Tarasov are both in contract years; Max Bultman wants Michal Postava, now with the Grand Rapids Griffins, to get NHL games down the stretch if Detroit is out of contention. (1:22:40) - Season Point Predictions All four panelists have the Red Wings missing the playoffs, with point totals between 79 and 82. The crew also asks what really separates Detroit without Larkin from teams like the Seattle Kraken. (1:26:40) - Overtime Edvinsson can still sign an offer sheet, and the risk only grows once the season starts. Patrons also ask about hands-on owners, why Team USA players pass on Canadian markets, Lucas Raymond's ceiling and the league-wide shortage of centers. --- WWP Night at the LCA dates announced! Get your tickets for the Nov. 21st game here: wingedwheelpodcast.com/redwings Join our PikSheet NHL Pick 'Em pool! https://piksheet.com/wingedwheel Support the show: Patreon.com/WingedWheelPodcast Head over to wingedwheelpodcast.com to find all the ways to listen, how to support the show, and so much more!

The heroes continue on their quest to escort the child to safety. As they travel down a river, a sea monster attacks! Meanwhile in the real world, the investigation into the missing player uncovers disturbing evidence and a digital cover up. This campaign is based on Bridget's novel All That Remains, which you can start reading here. Bridget as the GM – support her on Patreon! Ross as Galath/Chase Gordon Lydia as Viri Firethron Fae as Welltwo/Avril Lawrence Richard as Brooks Carlton/Schwarz

Send us Fan MailTom Moore has spent almost 40 years around college basketball, working alongside Jim Calhoun, helping build championship teams, becoming a head coach at Quinnipiac, and eventually returning to Storrs with Dan Hurley.In this episode of The Connecticut Scoreboard Podcast, Tom looks back on his first days at UConn in 1994, his first experience working with Calhoun, being part of UConn's first national championship in 1999, and the decision to eventually become a head coach himself.Tom also shares his first impressions of Dan Hurley, the similarities and differences between Calhoun and Hurley, what he saw when he returned to UConn during the rebuild, and what it was like being part of the program's incredible recent run under Hurley.We also go inside his transition from assistant coach to UConn's general manager, what a college basketball GM actually does behind the scenes, how roster building has changed because of the transfer portal and NIL, and the balance between developing players in-house and bringing in transfers.

Everything went wrong for the #chicagocubs last night against the #sandiegopadres. They were no-hit into the 7th inning by #michaelking and starting pitcher #matthewboyd was shelled .So, now what?  On the brink of elimination, the #cubs have their backs against the wall.#kap and #gordonwittemyer are LIVE with reaction to #wildcard Gm. 2 between the Cubs & Padres.  It's win or go home for #craigcounsell and the Cubs.What went right?  What went wrong?  Plus, your comments, questions and concerns ahead of Gm. 2.#takethatPRESENTED BY

The Patina continues adjusting to life on the road again.Announcements:Thanks to Ben R. for the wonderful tabletop game “Pull Over, I Need to Pee”, about the interstitial moments between chapters, the moments that are usually skipped, overlooked, or deemed not important enough. Behind the scenes, we used this to help spark some of our narrative direction this episode, though the gameplay itself didn't make it in. You can find the game here: Pull Over, I Need to Pee.Cast: - Marathon Messenger is played by Pen Prairie-Larson. She can be found on Twitter and Bluesky at @acquiredchaste. Pen is a teacher and indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes the X-Bike Ruleset, a high-risk fantasy sports game from the world of AKoSaP. Check out faer other work at pennharper.itch.io. - Cassidy Shard is played by Sydney Whittington. She is our wonderful editor. Sydney can be found on our Discord server, which is linked in the show notes, and on Bluesky at @sydneywhitt. - Emma Blackwood is played by Cameron Robertson. Find her on Twitter at @midnightmusic13 and on Instagram and TikTok at @reading_and_dreaming. Cameron was also a player on Tabletop Squadron, a fully completed Star Wars Edge of the Empire actual play podcast. - Birdie Foundling is played by Kit Adames. Find her on Instagram at @venusvultures. Kit can also be found in the Discord, along with her collection of AKoSaP art that grows whenever she's not facing art block. - Our GM and narrator is Nick Robertson. Find him on Twitter at @alias58. Nick was also the GM for Tabletop Squadron and can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol. Music & Sound Credits: - This podcast features the musical talents of Dora Violet and Arne Parrott. You can find Dora at facebook.com/doraviolett. You can find Arne at atptunes.com. - old radio Channel search sound effect by Garuda1982. Link & License. - Wherever I Lay My Hat, That's My Wife by Doctor Turtle. Link & License. - NEONBULA.mp3 by P C III. Link & License. Art Credits: - The official artwork for this podcast was created by Rashed AlAkroka, who can be found on Instagram and Artstation @rashedjrs. Find Us Online: - Our Website - Twitter - Join our Patreon - Join our Discord

It turns out that investigating a haunted lighthouse in the middle of a raging storm may not be the best idea anyone has ever had. Killer taxidermy, dead bodies, mysterious cameras. It's all becoming a bit too much for our GHTV interns. Maybe they aren't cut out to be investigators after all. Let's see if they can survive the night...and the 13 Omens RPG. You can find more Ghost Hunt TV goodies at ghosthunttv.com. We're also at gothicpodcast.com and on all sorts of social media.  The Gothic Podcast is an actual-play horror-and-humor audio drama recorded from our cobbled together studios in Portland, OR and around the globe. This episode stars C. Patrick Neagle as host and GM, Sharon Gollery-LaFournese as Parker, Jesse Baldwin as Skeeve, and Erik Halbert as Jer. For this episode, we're using rules from the preview copy of 13 Omens, by Paizo Press. We would LOVE to hear from you, and we love your fan art. Plus check out our Patreon and join our Discord. Preeeety puhleeeese. Oh, and check out Jesse's upcoming shows at www.torchsongentertainment.com Interact with the Gothic Podcast at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbUoGEQE2xKIhNX7sHyVXBg Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegothicpodcast Facebook: https://facebook.com/thegothicpodcast Tumblr: https://thegothicpodcast.tumblr.com ...and Discord (

Welcome to the Ninth World, where civilization has ended eight times, nobody understands how anything works, and sufficiently advanced technology is mostly an excuse to point at a laser pistol and yell, "Magic!" In this first part of our How to Play Numenera series, Randall attempts to explain a billion years of lost civilizations, Ash discovers that physics are apparently optional, and Tyler starts asking the dangerous questions about Edge. Before long, we have ancient nanotechnology, mysterious artifacts, cyphers that might explode if you hoard them, stat pools that double as hit points, and a GM who can literally bribe you with XP to make your life more interesting. Also, we say "moist" far too many times while explaining a d20 mechanic. We regret nothing. Well, some of us regret quite a lot. Show Notes We're kicking off our How to Play Numenera series with a tour of the Ninth World and the Cypher System mechanics that make this wonderfully strange science fantasy RPG work. Randall walks Ash and Tyler through the Numenera setting, a version of Earth roughly a billion years in the future after eight unimaginably advanced civilizations have risen and disappeared. Their technology is everywhere, but the people of the Ninth World understand so little of it that ancient machinery might as well be magic. That gives Numenera its central science fantasy theme: sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. We dig into the Steadfast, the Beyond, and the increasingly strange places beyond civilization, along with the remnants left behind by previous worlds. Those remnants include reusable artifacts, one-use cyphers, mysterious oddities, and massive ancient structures that the characters may have absolutely no idea how to operate. Sometimes the players know they have discovered an elevator. Their characters definitely do not. From there, we get into how to play Numenera and the Cypher System core mechanics. Tasks have difficulty levels from 0 to 10, with the target number determined by multiplying the difficulty by three. Instead of piling bonuses onto a d20 roll, characters make challenges easier through training, specialization, assets, and Effort. Effort introduces one of Numenera's most interesting resource-management decisions. Might, Speed, and Intellect are not simply ability scores. They are pools that power abilities, fuel Effort, and absorb damage. Spend too aggressively and you may discover that the resource you just used to succeed is also the thing keeping your character alive. Then there's Edge, which reduces the cost of spending points from those pools. Naturally, Tyler immediately begins investigating whether enough Edge will allow him to achieve his ultimate character build: the Edge Lord. We also explore one of the signature Cypher System RPG mechanics, GM intrusions. The GM can offer XP to introduce an unexpected complication, while players can spend XP to reject intrusions, reroll critical checks, create temporary skills, trigger player intrusions, or advance their characters. The goal is not simply to punish players. A good GM intrusion makes the story more interesting, creates new opportunities, and occasionally puts something cool behind the wall that just collapsed on you. By the end, we've covered the Numenera setting, cyphers and artifacts, task difficulty, Effort, Edge, stat pools, XP, GM intrusions, player intrusions, and the basics of character advancement. It's a surprisingly streamlined system hiding underneath one of the strangest tabletop RPG settings we've explored. Key Takeaways Numenera takes place on Earth roughly one billion years in the future, after eight previous civilizations have risen and disappeared. The Ninth World mixes science fiction and fantasy by treating incomprehensibly advanced technology like magic. Numenera includes artifacts, one-use cyphers, oddities, and enormous remnants of ancient civilizations. The Cypher System uses a d20, but characters generally reduce task difficulty instead of adding large numerical bonuses to rolls. Task difficulty ranges from 0 to 10, with the target number equal to the difficulty multiplied by three. Training, specialization, assets, and Effort can ease difficult tasks and bring otherwise impossible rolls within reach. Might, Speed, and Intellect are resource pools used for abilities and Effort, but they also function as your character's health. Damage normally reduces Might first, followed by Speed and then Intellect. If all three pools reach zero, things have gone very badly. Edge reduces the cost of spending points from a stat pool and becomes increasingly powerful as characters advance. In the Cypher System, the GM generally does not roll dice. Players make both offensive and defensive rolls. GM intrusions let the GM introduce complications in exchange for XP, turning unexpected problems into part of the game's advancement economy. XP can be spent on rerolls, player intrusions, temporary skills, and permanent character advancement, creating a constant choice between helping yourself now or saving for later. Numenera encourages creativity over strict simulation. Sometimes the explanation really is, "Ancient technology did it." Most importantly, never tell the RPGBOT Discord you are trying to keep the math "moist." They cannot be trusted with that information. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia https://ashelydm.com/ https://ashelydm.com/ Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

What's in The Rift is a Cortex Prime Actual Play.Season 2 follows three hapless robots (ChroniCarl, PsychoBot 2000, and Helpis) plus their one human companion (Donny Fink) as they are thrust unwillingly into a murder mystery that may have far-reaching political ramifications. Of course, they can't be bothered with that unless dragged kicking and screaming by their GM back into the story.Episode 14 - Curing CancerThrough the course of obtaining batteries, ChroniCarl and PB discover there may be much more sinister things happening on board the Endeavor than just a mysterious robot murderer. A new friend exhibits some odd behavior before Helpis and Donny rejoin the group. A sudden arrival portends disaster, and its only through the intervention of the least likely savior on board the ship that the party manages to make it out with their metallic and non-metallic hides intact.LinksDiscord: https://mij.is/discoriftTwitch: https://mij.is/twitriftYouTube: https://mij.is/tuberiftPatreon: https://mij.is/patriftSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the Ninth World, where civilization has ended eight times, nobody understands how anything works, and sufficiently advanced technology is mostly an excuse to point at a laser pistol and yell, "Magic!" In this first part of our How to Play Numenera series, Randall attempts to explain a billion years of lost civilizations, Ash discovers that physics are apparently optional, and Tyler starts asking the dangerous questions about Edge. Before long, we have ancient nanotechnology, mysterious artifacts, cyphers that might explode if you hoard them, stat pools that double as hit points, and a GM who can literally bribe you with XP to make your life more interesting. Also, we say "moist" far too many times while explaining a d20 mechanic. We regret nothing. Well, some of us regret quite a lot. Show Notes We're kicking off our How to Play Numenera series with a tour of the Ninth World and the Cypher System mechanics that make this wonderfully strange science fantasy RPG work. Randall walks Ash and Tyler through the Numenera setting, a version of Earth roughly a billion years in the future after eight unimaginably advanced civilizations have risen and disappeared. Their technology is everywhere, but the people of the Ninth World understand so little of it that ancient machinery might as well be magic. That gives Numenera its central science fantasy theme: sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. We dig into the Steadfast, the Beyond, and the increasingly strange places beyond civilization, along with the remnants left behind by previous worlds. Those remnants include reusable artifacts, one-use cyphers, mysterious oddities, and massive ancient structures that the characters may have absolutely no idea how to operate. Sometimes the players know they have discovered an elevator. Their characters definitely do not. From there, we get into how to play Numenera and the Cypher System core mechanics. Tasks have difficulty levels from 0 to 10, with the target number determined by multiplying the difficulty by three. Instead of piling bonuses onto a d20 roll, characters make challenges easier through training, specialization, assets, and Effort. Effort introduces one of Numenera's most interesting resource-management decisions. Might, Speed, and Intellect are not simply ability scores. They are pools that power abilities, fuel Effort, and absorb damage. Spend too aggressively and you may discover that the resource you just used to succeed is also the thing keeping your character alive. Then there's Edge, which reduces the cost of spending points from those pools. Naturally, Tyler immediately begins investigating whether enough Edge will allow him to achieve his ultimate character build: the Edge Lord. We also explore one of the signature Cypher System RPG mechanics, GM intrusions. The GM can offer XP to introduce an unexpected complication, while players can spend XP to reject intrusions, reroll critical checks, create temporary skills, trigger player intrusions, or advance their characters. The goal is not simply to punish players. A good GM intrusion makes the story more interesting, creates new opportunities, and occasionally puts something cool behind the wall that just collapsed on you. By the end, we've covered the Numenera setting, cyphers and artifacts, task difficulty, Effort, Edge, stat pools, XP, GM intrusions, player intrusions, and the basics of character advancement. It's a surprisingly streamlined system hiding underneath one of the strangest tabletop RPG settings we've explored. Key Takeaways Numenera takes place on Earth roughly one billion years in the future, after eight previous civilizations have risen and disappeared. The Ninth World mixes science fiction and fantasy by treating incomprehensibly advanced technology like magic. Numenera includes artifacts, one-use cyphers, oddities, and enormous remnants of ancient civilizations. The Cypher System uses a d20, but characters generally reduce task difficulty instead of adding large numerical bonuses to rolls. Task difficulty ranges from 0 to 10, with the target number equal to the difficulty multiplied by three. Training, specialization, assets, and Effort can ease difficult tasks and bring otherwise impossible rolls within reach. Might, Speed, and Intellect are resource pools used for abilities and Effort, but they also function as your character's health. Damage normally reduces Might first, followed by Speed and then Intellect. If all three pools reach zero, things have gone very badly. Edge reduces the cost of spending points from a stat pool and becomes increasingly powerful as characters advance. In the Cypher System, the GM generally does not roll dice. Players make both offensive and defensive rolls. GM intrusions let the GM introduce complications in exchange for XP, turning unexpected problems into part of the game's advancement economy. XP can be spent on rerolls, player intrusions, temporary skills, and permanent character advancement, creating a constant choice between helping yourself now or saving for later. Numenera encourages creativity over strict simulation. Sometimes the explanation really is, "Ancient technology did it." Most importantly, never tell the RPGBOT Discord you are trying to keep the math "moist." They cannot be trusted with that information. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia https://ashelydm.com/ https://ashelydm.com/ Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

Don Waddell, President of Hockey Operations & GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets, joins Nick Alberga & Jay Rosehill for a behind-the-scenes look at how the Matthew Knies–Kirill Marchenko blockbuster came together. Waddell details when the Leafs first entered the equation, Columbus' read on Knies, what it's like being an NHL GM in 2026, and what it was like negotiating with John Chayka. Plus, Waddell reveals whether he's more of a caller or a texter — and explains why he can't stand the infamous

Holman is joined by fellow truck journalist Andre Smirnov from TFL Truck, to discuss GM's 8.3L Duramax Mongoose mic drop. The guys also cover the rest of GM's 2027 lineup and Holman catches up with listener messages on the Five Star Hotline.   The Truck Show Podcast is produced in partnership with AMSOIL and OVR Mag. Don't forget to check out truckshowpodcast.com for special offers from our friends and sponsors.   AMSOIL amsoil.com   OVR Magazine OVRmag.com Use promo code @truckshowpodcast for a free annual digital subscription or a discount on a print subscription on ovrmag.com.

Welcome back to Hazzard County! This week, we start with Cale Yarborough's famous fight after the 1979 Daytona 500 and a more recent NASCAR confrontation. That leads us into a conversation about racing, the headlines it makes, and how a new generation of drivers builds an audience through video. Bernie takes us to Pennsylvania for the story of an early automotive tire and inner tube patent. Then Rob puts Bernie and Corndog through Automotive Celebrity Birthday Trivia, with clues from the 2005 Dukes of Hazzard movie, Ford v Ferrari, Days of Thunder, and Christmas Vacation. In the news, Bernie covers the 2026 Automotive Hall of Fame inductees, a newly announced GM diesel engine, and electrified vehicle sales in Europe. We also talk drive-by-wire pedals and swap brackets available through Holley. Then it's time for The Dukes of Hazzard Season 2, Episode 7, “Dukes Meet Cale Yarborough.” Cale is secretly testing a turbocharger when the Jethro brothers set out to steal it, with Boss Hogg eager to help. Bo, Luke, and Cooter step in, leading to Cale's white Charger, a whole lot of car chases, and three General Lees on the road at once. Corndog points out the different Chargers used in filming and identifies the unlikely part passed off as the turbocharger. Rob loves every wonderfully imperfect minute of it! The post K&F Show #379: Cale Yarborough Comes to Hazzard—and Three General Lees Hit the Road! first appeared on The Muscle Car Place.

Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com.The future of customer renewals is here. And it's AI-native. Josh Schachter sits down with Grant Clarke, EVP & GM of Gainsight Atlas, to explore how AI agents combined with human renewal managers are transforming the renewal landscape. Grant, a 15-year veteran of renewal operations at ServiceSource, explains how Atlas manages entire renewal books through an outcome-based model—not software licensing. Discover why deploying AI agents in renewals is harder than it looks, how Gainsight is pioneering a new category called AI Native Services (AINS), and why the long tail of customers just became manageable. Plus: the surprising story behind Grant's 15 beehives outside Nashville.---What You'll Learn- How AI agents are transforming customer renewals at scale- Why deploying AI agents in renewals is fundamentally hard - The margin economics that make productizing AI agents profitable- Why the long tail of customers is now economically viable to serve- How combining AI + human renewal managers creates better customer outcomes---Timestamps0:00 - Preview & Meet Grant Clarke2:00 - What is Atlas?4:50 - Grant's Background: ServiceSource & Dropbox11:05 - How Atlas onboards a new customer13:04 - Data hygiene: "The D word"14:21 - The ideal customer profile for Atlas16:20 A day in the life: the Atlas cockpit17:55 - When the agent hands off to a human19:05 - The learning loop: forward deployed engineers & 2-week sprints20:10 - The business model: avoiding the pure-services trap22:04 - Mirage PMF: go fast, go slow, go fast again23:35 - What's next for Atlas: Agentic judgment and renewal edge cases26:40 - Can AINS hit 70% gross margins?26:35 The renewal action inventory: 10–25 actions per renewal28:38 From 20% to 55% agent-led actions: margin accretion29:43 Grant's 15 beehives outside Nashville32:39 Wrap-up---Josh is writing a book on building customer relationships. Follow his journey and insights at www.joshschachter.com---Where to Find the GuestGrant Clarke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantclarke/---Where to Find the Hosts: Josh's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/

The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Rich Shuman, Chustomer Director, Omnichannel Activation at Mondelēz International and Stan Turek, GM of Media Measurement at InMarket, the outcome intelligence platform built for marketers who demand results over proxy metrics. This episode was recorded in Las Vegas at the 2026 Groceryshop conference.Follow Rick on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickshuman/Follow Mondelēz International online at: https://www.mondelezinternational.com/Follow Stan on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanturek/Follow InMarket online at: https://inmarket.com/Rick & Stan answer these questions:Proving incremental return on Ad Spend is now the hardest thing marketers have to do ... 67% call it their top challenge, ahead of cost. And only 22% say they can act on a measurement insight in time to matter. Why is 'incremental' the number that matters, and where is the industry actually stuck?From the Mondelēz side: walk us through what a Joint Business Planning conversation looks like today when your customer team sits down with a retail customer. What's missing when a brand shows up with a blended sales number instead of proof of what the media actually drove at that specific retailer?InMarket sees actual purchase transactions from real people across the retailers that matter most to CPG — Walmart, Costco, Sam's Club, Target, Amazon, Kroger, ALDI, Albertsons, and Dollar General, with augmented coverage across C-Store. Talk about how that data turns one blended iROAS number into a retailer-by-retailer incremental breakdown, and why that granularity changes the conversation.Once your customer team walks into that room with a retailer-specific incrementality number, how does that actually change the dynamic? Does it elevate what Mondelēz asks for, or what the retailer is willing to give back?Let's talk speed. You've said what happened last week is measurable this week — no quarterly lag, no long wait on reports. Why does that in-flight speed matter as much as the accuracy of the number itself?Rick, On the brand side, if you had access to this data in-flight, how would that change the conversation or the actions you would consider taking?Stan, Maestro, InMarket's AI-powered optimization engine, flags what's incrementally lifting and what's not, in time to act on it. How does that actually work, and how much of that optimization is automated versus a human decision?Stan, you've said the decisioning side is where this breaks, and fixing that inside a big CPG is a long road ... reorganizing teams and processes doesn't happen in a quarter. So what can a brand do tomorrow, while that longer work is underway? Where should they be holding their agencies, their publishers, and their retail media networks accountable ... and what should they stop taking at face value?Let's look forward. AI is about to make the execution side of media dramatically faster ... more creative, more audiences, more combinations, tested continuously. Rick, two years out, what would you want to be able to do with measurement that you can't do today? And Stan, what has to get built for him to have it?To close us out: Stan, InMarket is picking up new recognition in the measurement space and you're stepping into a seat on the IAB Board of Directors — as you take on that industry role, what's the biggest structural change you think needs to happen in how the industry measures retail media? And Rick, what's your advice to another CPG customer team that's still walking into JBP without proof?CPG Guys Website: http://CPGguys.comFMCG Guys Website: http://FMCGguys.comSheCOMMERCE Website: https://shecommercepodcast.com/Rhea Raj's Website: http://rhearaj.comLara Raj in Katseye: https://www.katseye.world/DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPGGUYS, LLC or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGGUYS, LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. CPGGUYS LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we presented in this podcast.

After what might be called a 'disappointing' 89 win season for the #chicagocubs, they're onto the  2026 postseason for the #cubs in the #nlwildcard against the #sandiegopadres.#kap and #gordonwittemyer are LIVE with reaction to #wildcard Gm. 1 between the Cubs & Padres.  #matthewboyd gets the start in Gm. 1 as #alexbregman returns to the lineup, this time at DH, a week plus removed from being hit in the eye in the on deck circle.  Teams that win game 1 are 15-1 all-time in the Wild Card series round.  A massive game for the Cubs.What went right?  What went wrong?  Plus, your comments, questions and concerns ahead of Gm. 2.#takethat  ⭐ Want more Kap in your feed? Follow his official Google Search Profile and catch The REKAP everywhere Google shows up: https://profile.google.com/@rekapdavidkaplan PRESENTED BY

Episode #1462: Jim Farley and Mark Reuss talk long-term bets at Automotive News Congress, GM puts recycled battery materials into customer-bound EVs, and America.gov ( https://America.gov ) gives the federal government a new AI-powered front door for i...

A light at the end of the tunnel, podcast Quid Pro Roll is a collaborative independent effort with support from Richmond Comix, and wonderful people like you!! Richmond Comix:  Richmond Comix has been serving the folks of central VA the best comics since 1987. :D | Conveniently located in Arch Village, Richmond VA. Patreon: https://patreon.com/QuidProRoll Find our magnificent GM, our scallywag performers, our devoted editor, and supportive supporting composer at the links below! Alex Smith: https://www.facebook.com/richmondcomix Gabriel Perez: https://gabrielperez.bandcamp.com/  Luke Davis: https://linktr.ee/BraveGM  Jenna Garrett: https://linktr.ee/jennachil  Josh Maltby: https://bsky.app/profile/blackcloakdm.bsky.social  Scott Moore: https://linktr.ee/grooveis4life  Join over 1000+ friendly TTRPG nerds and discuss the show over on the Goblins and Growlers Discord! http://bit.ly/goblindiscord  Also, give a listen to our sister podcast, The Goblins and Growlers Podcast, https://goblinsandgrowlers.podbean.com, for TTRPG news, interviews, and discussion.

- Oil Prices Drop as Exports Recover - New NHTSA Rules Redefine Trucks and Cars - GM Reaffirms Long-Term EV Commitment - Lithium Prices Plunge in China - Ford Launches Used Commercial Vehicle Program - BMW Moves 3 Series to Germany - Mercedes Exempt from U.S. China Ban - Volkswagen Atlas Gets Significant Redesign

Steve Adams joins Darragh McDonald to discuss Aaron Judge being left off the Yankees' Wild Card roster, the plan for Garrett Crochet to pitch out of Boston's bullpen, whether the Rangers will scale back their payroll next year, how the Diamondbacks could build around their core, and news that Ben Cherington expects to return as Pirates' GM following a winning season.Listener email topics include what the Guardians' low-payroll success could mean for CBA negotiations, which managerial opening is the most appealing, whether Kyle Harrison is a good extension candidate, what teams would benefit most from a system with a salary cap and floor, and which Cubs free agent is most likely to resign with the team.  

- Oil Prices Drop as Exports Recover - New NHTSA Rules Redefine Trucks and Cars - GM Reaffirms Long-Term EV Commitment - Lithium Prices Plunge in China - Ford Launches Used Commercial Vehicle Program - BMW Moves 3 Series to Germany - Mercedes Exempt from U.S. China Ban - Volkswagen Atlas Gets Significant Redesign

AB sits down with Cisco's SVP and GM of Splunk, Kamal Hathi, to discuss how the combination of Splunk and Cisco technologies are providing the critical infrastructure for the AI era. From optimizing AI at scale to defending at machine speed to turning machine data into agentic action, this great conversation gives insight into how the combination of Cisco and Splunk technologies are driving the newest innovations in the agentic era.

The Detroit Red Wings enter the 2026-27 season with major questions surrounding the organization. Joe Chapp and Cindy Berry break down the state of the Red Wings, including Dylan Larkin's trade situation, Shawn Horcoff taking over as interim general manager, the ongoing GM search, Chris Ilitch and the direction of the franchise, Simon Edvinsson's contract situation and what Detroit's turbulent offseason means for the upcoming season. The discussion also turns to the roster itself: Marco Kasper's breakout potential, Moritz Seider's leadership, Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat, Detroit's young prospects, projected line combinations, the Atlantic Division and whether the Red Wings have a realistic path back to the playoffs. Plus, Joe and Cindy give their expectations for the 2026-27 Red Wings and identify the young players who could provide some hope for Detroit's future.    

It's Warhammer Wednesday!Sins of Talagaad - our brand new Old World RPG show.Aaron is in the GM seat for the Wednesday Crew. It's Hammerzeit!Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/garblaggamesPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/garblaggamesDiscord: https://discord.gg/DPgQjr7FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/GarblagGamesFB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/222308675068378Twitter: https://twitter.com/GarblagGamesPodcast: https://feeds.transistor.fm/garblag-games-rpg-podcastRPG Products: http://bit.ly/Garblag_DriveThruRPGMerch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/garblagFor more RPG Actual Play videos check out our channel. 

Ultium Cells, the joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution, announced plans to retool its Spring Hill, Tenn. facility to manufacture prismatic lithium manganese-rich (LMR) battery cells for future GM electric vehicles. The companies anticipate construction and upgrades will begin this year, with completion scheduled for 2028. The project also intends to create 500 jobs.Ultium Cells expects the investment to make the Spring Hill site the first global manufacturer to mass produce prismatic LMR battery cells. According to the joint venture, the technology offers 33% higher energy density than lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry at a comparable price.The combined investment for the LMR program and the production of LFP cells for energy storage systems at Spring Hill, which began in June 2026, looks to reach $1 billion by 2030.General Motors said high-nickel batteries will continue to provide the longest range in its portfolio. However, adding LMR will enable Ultium Cells to tailor battery technology to various vehicle needs and applications.GM and LG Energy Solution announced Ultium Cells in 2019. The joint venture's other facility, located in Warren, Ohio, began production in August 2022 and makes large-format, pouch-style battery cells using advanced nickel cobalt manganese aluminum (NCMA) chemistry. The Spring Hill facility started production in February 2024. The site produces battery cells with multiple chemistries, including LFP, for GM's Ultium Platform EVs, which are manufactured at the adjacent assembly plant. #Manufacturing #EV #ElectricVehicles #Batteries #BatteryManufacturing #LithiumBattery #BatteryTechnology #GeneralMotors #GM #LGEnergySolution #UltiumCells #Tennessee #SpringHill #AdvancedManufacturing #ManufacturingNow

The Adult Improver series returns to spotlight another guest who has benefited from chess and improved significantly at the game. Chess was recommended to Leah Brown as a healthier outlet for a mind that, in Leah's words, tends to “torture itself.” Leah began playing tournaments less than two years ago and already has a peak rating of over 1600 USCF. In our conversation, Leah shares the training approach that has helped propel these gains, including: A lot of OTB chess with comprehensive review A heavy reliance on books, particularly those by IM Jeremy Silman A painful adjustment to 1. e4 openings that will hopefully provide long-term benefits Leah also highlights the importance of finding a friendly chess community in Massachusetts and shares the story of beating a GM in a simul. Tune in to hear the rest of this inspiring story. 0:00- Intro Links Mentioned:  Perpetual Chess Patreon Spotify Adult Improver Playlist Website Form to be considered as an adult improver guest 1:45 Meet Leah Brown 2:39 How chess became a healthy outlet Mentioned: BIllerica Chess Club https://billericachess.42web.io/?i=3 FM Sandro Safar https://lichess.org/coach/Sandro970 The Real Paul Morphy by FM Charles Hertan 5:08 Finding a welcoming OTB chess community 7:11 Getting serious about improvement 10:28 Jeremy Silman and learning through chess books 15:28 What fueled Leah's rapid rating gains? 20:42 Lessons learned the hard way and switching to 1. e4 31:38 Rating goals and the ambition to earn a title 35:34 Advice for adult improvers 37:09 The role chess plays in Leah's life 40:31 Beating a GM in a six-hour simul game  Mentioned: GM Nadia Kosintseva 45:25 Closing Advice for Navigating the Chess Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SMART'S TINY #2 HAS SURPRISINGLY SERIOUS ENGINEERINGsmart's new sub-3-metre electric #2 uses rear-wheel drive, 50:50 weight distribution, five-link independent rear suspension and a compact 11-in-1 electric-drive unit to maximise cabin space and manoeuvrability. Its 35.8 kWh CATL battery targets about 300 km WLTP range and 10–80% charging in 20 minutes, while seven airbags and a body made from more than 78% high-strength steel underpin its safety pitch ahead of the 12 October Paris debut.RIVIAN GAINS WASHINGTON LICENCE FOR DIRECT SALESRivian has obtained a Washington motor vehicle dealer licence allowing it to sell directly through company-owned locations, although it has not said when in-state sales, test drives or deliveries will begin. It is also preparing a showroom and service centre with 13 service bays and 21 chargers for an expected early-spring 2027 opening, serving a state with almost 10,000 registered Rivians.USED-DIESEL VALUES FALL AS DIESEL COSTS AROUND 14% MOREUK diesel prices are around 14% higher than petrol, contributing to falling used-diesel values as motorists reconsider whether the fuel still makes economic sense. Higher fuel costs following geopolitical disruption and the arrival of cheaper EVs are accelerating diesel's decline, although Britain's 4.8 million diesel vans have had fewer alternatives until the recent arrival of longer-range electric vans.PG&E WILL PAY GM EV DRIVERS TO HELP TAKE PRESSURE OFF THE GRIDGM and PG&E are offering eligible Northern and Central California buyers of new Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC EVs a free GM home charger, although customers must pay installation costs. Drivers using participating chargers and OnStar can receive a $15 monthly bill credit plus up to another $50 for allowing PG&E's Charge Manager software to shift charging towards periods of lower grid demand or cheaper electricity.HYUNDAI: “YOU MUST BE IN THE GAME” ON SOLID-STATE BATTERIESHyundai will continue developing solid-state batteries despite R&D chief Manfred Harrer saying he does not expect their raw-material costs to become suitable for mass-market vehicles within five years. Hyundai is working internally and with partners including Solid Power, with Harrer expecting small-volume halo vehicles using solid-state packs to reach the market within that period while broader adoption remains further away.HYUNDAI TESTS 200 KWH USED-BATTERY STORAGEHyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution are testing a 200 kWh stationary storage system using retired batteries from E-GMP vehicles at a fast-charging site in South Korea. The pilot will charge the batteries during off-peak periods and discharge during high demand, testing whether used EV packs can safely and economically reduce grid peaks and charging-station costs.POWERCO DELAYS $7-BILLION ST. THOMAS BATTERY FACTORY BY TWO YEARSVolkswagen's PowerCo has delayed the opening of its $7-billion St. Thomas battery factory in Ontario by two years, citing changing market demand, technological developments and Volkswagen Group strategy. Construction is continuing on the 16-million-square-foot plant, which has received commitments of $700 million from Canada's federal government and $500 million from Ontario.BOSCH WARNS COSTLY BATTERY REPAIRS COULD SHORTEN EV LIVESBosch warns that ageing EVs could be scrapped prematurely if owners cannot economically repair individual battery components once their original warranties expire. It argues that module-level repairs could keep otherwise usable cars on the road, avoiding situations where the cost of replacing an entire battery exceeds the vehicle's value.KIA PV5 CHASSIS UK CONVERSIONS DUE FOURTH QUARTER 2026Kia has introduced the PV5 Chassis, an E-GMP.S-based electric commercial-vehicle platform designed for specialist body conversions including UK tipper, dropside and Box/Luton versions from TGS Automotive Group. UK models will use the 71.2 kWh Long Range battery exclusively, while other European markets will also receive a 51.1 kWh Standard Range version.THREE-QUARTERS OF 20 LEADING UK PHEVS CANNOT USE RAPID CHARGERSChargeUK says three-quarters of the UK's 20 best-selling plug-in hybrid models cannot use rapid chargers, with only 26% of vehicles sold across those models capable of charging at 50 kW or more and none supporting 150 kW ultra-rapid charging. The charging-industry group argues that limited public charging capability encourages PHEV drivers to rely on petrol and warns the government against treating higher PHEV sales as equivalent to wider electrification.VERTICAL OPENS £1.5M VALO ASSEMBLY CENTREVertical Aerospace has opened a £1.5 million, 60,000-square-foot assembly centre at Cotswold Airport in Gloucestershire to build Valo electric aircraft for certification testing. Assembly of the first certification aircraft is expected in the fourth quarter of 2027, with commercial certification targeted for 2029 and around 1,500 pre-orders reported from customers including major airlines and aviation operators.

Connor throws some Latin flair onto the Crossover, going to the NoBos, Roger Goodell's resume, post-Presidency jobs, becoming the GM of a sports team, a deskapade update, Connor blasts the Big Ten's latest idea for a trophy, and Matt's take on bits.

Miami (OH)'s aggressive ambitions, Kansas State AD Gene Taylor talks GM roles and more.We would love to know what you think of the show and you can let us know on social media @D1ticker.If you are not subscribed to D1.ticker, you can and should subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.d1ticker.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

- VW Forms Chinese Battery JVs in Europe - GAC Could Get Toyota from FAW - Changan Consolidates NEV Brands - U.S. Car Sales Won't Grow Much - Bolt Production Way Off Expectations - New Fuel Rules Could Save GM $20 Billion - EU Steel Industry Benefiting from Chinese - Toyota Getting New Vans from Stellantis - Honda Odyssey Gets SUV Inspired Refresh

- VW Forms Chinese Battery JVs in Europe - GAC Could Get Toyota from FAW - Changan Consolidates NEV Brands - U.S. Car Sales Won't Grow Much - Bolt Production Way Off Expectations - New Fuel Rules Could Save GM $20 Billion - EU Steel Industry Benefiting from Chinese - Toyota Getting New Vans from Stellantis - Honda Odyssey Gets SUV Inspired Refresh

Yet again we prove anything is possible with the power of procrastination! Here in the last days of the month we pulled off an 11th hour recording. Bill was out due to family concerns, but Ed and Lou take up the slack with another episode reflecting on one of the greatest Call of Cthulhu adventures ever written, Masks of Nyarlathotep. In this episode we cover the Kenya chapter of that module. Edwin reveals an incredible GM tool to power through narrative elements of an adventure and Lou tries to remember what convention he was just at… (it was “Fractured Realms” https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.fracturedrealms.org/home&ved=2ahUKEwiwlt286JKXAxVkpCsGHdhoCVYQFnoECCQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0nYZ51ooRD60zCy-4xe3Lf ). Oh and (among other brain blocks) the other writer for Dark Sun (with Timothy Brown) was Troy Denning… (https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/strange-owl-games/dragon-kings/pre-launch). And the gorilla booth folks were Big Boy Game Time!

The panel explores first impressions of Siri AI, from image searches, weather, news, and Vision Pro visual recognition to unexpected limitations involving apps and personal context. The discussion also covers Steve Jobs and Apple Store history, Steve Wozniak's new merchandise venture, Apple's wearable market strength, GM's continuing retreat from CarPlay, and Tim Cook's expanding diplomatic role.  The panel consists of Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Web Bixby, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Jim Rea, and Jeff Gamet. MacVoices is supported by Origin Technology. Origin is endpoint AI observability. See what a trace looks like at https://originhq.com/macvoices. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:03 Testing the New Siri AI Experience 01:28 Learning to Use a More Capable Siri 02:01 Siri Search, Stories, Weather, and Vision Pro 05:05 Personal Context and Siri's Current Limitations 06:33 Privacy, Apps, and Siri Integration 09:11 Testing Visual Intelligence at the Grocery Store 11:12 On-Device vs. Off-Device AI Requests 12:33 Steve Jobs and the Philosophy Behind Apple Retail 14:01 Sponsor: Origin 15:34 Steve Wozniak Launches a Merch Store 18:12 Remembering the US Festival 18:55 Apple Leads in Earbuds and Smartwatches 19:44 GM Continues Moving Away From CarPlay 21:35 Tim Cook's Evolving Role at Apple 22:51 Tim Cook as Apple's Global Ambassador 24:42 Apple, Shareholders, and Corporate Responsibility Links: Here are 100+ things Siri AI can do on your iPhone – 9to5Mac https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/17/here-are-100-things-siri-ai-can-do-on-your-iphone/   The word Steve Jobs wouldn't let us say—and how it built Apple's most loyal customers https://www.fastcompany.com/91569739/the-word-steve-jobs-wouldnt-let-us-say-and-how-it-built-apples-most-loyal-customers-steve-jobs-apple-marketing-strategy A Woz merch store is the most surprising launch this month – 9to5Mac https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/17/a-woz-merch-store-is-the-most-surprising-launch-this-month/   Apple leads the global true wireless stereo market with 20.5% market share https://appleworld.today/2026/09/apple-leads-the-global-true-wireless-stereo-market-with-20-5-market-share/   The Apple Watch now has 40.2% of the global smartwatch market https://appleworld.today/2026/09/the-apple-watch-now-has-40-2-of-the-global-smartwatch-market/   GM Wants You to Know It Still Plans to Ditch Apple CarPlay in Future EVs https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/21/gm-stance-on-apple-carplay/   Tim Cook keeping John Ternus away from controversy by attending White House dinner https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/17/tim-cook-keeping-john-ternus-away-from-controversy-by-attending-white-house-dinner/   Tim Cook to Attend White House State Dinner for Xi Jinping https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/16/tim-cook-state-dinner-xi-jinping/ Guests: Get detailed bios and contact information about for the panel on the MacVoices Live! Panel page on our web site: https://macvoices.com/macvoiceslive/macvoices-live-panel/ Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon http://patreon.com/macvoices Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web: http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon: https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe: Audio in iTunes Video in iTunes Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

The panel looks at macOS 27 ending Time Capsule backup support, then debates Google's new Android-based laptops and its attempt to build a tighter ecosystem. Other topics include Chrome's retro-style bookmark launchpad and GM's geolocation privacy settlement before a deep dive into cloud storage, AWS data loss, redundancy, service agreements, and why cloud storage is not necessarily backup.  The panel consists of Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Web Bixby, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Jim Rea, and Jeff Gamet. MacVoices is supported by Origin Technology. Origin is endpoint AI observability. See what a trace looks like at https://originhq.com/macvoices. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 macOS 27 Ends Time Capsule Backup Support 00:57 The Risks of Aging Time Capsule Hardware 02:20 Google's New Android Laptop Strategy 03:35 Google Tries to Build an Apple-Like Ecosystem 05:09 Chromebooks Versus Android-Based Laptops 06:00 Android and Apple Ecosystem Pricing 07:17 Google Book Pricing Compared With MacBook Neo 08:31 Chrome's Retro Approach to the New Tab Page 09:45 Are Bookmark Launchpads Useful Again? 11:34 GM and OnStar Geolocation Data Settlement 12:08 Origin: Endpoint AI Observability 13:37 Amazon Data Center Strikes and Permanent Data Loss 15:01 Why Didn't AWS Redundancy Prevent the Loss? 16:23 Geographic Redundancy and Cloud Infrastructure 17:52 Planning for Regional Data Center Disasters 18:30 Amazon Regions and Customer Responsibility 20:52 Who Is Responsible for Cloud Data Protection? 22:02 Microsoft Teams, AWS, Azure, and E911 23:14 What Does Your Cloud Service Agreement Promise? 24:26 Cloud Storage Is Not the Same as Backup 25:49 Service Agreements, Redundancy, and Acts of War 27:00 Protecting Critical Data Across Multiple Regions 27:41 Why the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy Still Matters 28:22 Panelist Wrap-Up and Where to Find Everyone Links: PSA: macOS 27 Drops Support for Time Machine Backups to Time Capsule https://www.mactrast.com/2026/09/psa-macos-27-drops-support-for-time-machine-backups-to-time-capsule/ Google's pitch for Googlebooks: A laptop that works better with your Android phone – Engadget https://www.engadget.com/2263649/googlebooks-a-laptop-that-works-better-with-your-android-phone/   Transform Chrome's new tab page into the ultimate bookmark launchpad – Fast Company https://www.fastcompany.com/91593352/chrome-new-tab-bookmarks   FTC Finalizes Order Settling Allegations that GM and OnStar Collected and Sold Geolocation Data Without Consumers' Informed Consent | Federal Trade Commission https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/01/ftc-finalizes-order-settling-allegations-gm-onstar-collected-sold-geolocation-data-without-consumers   Iran strikes on Amazon data centers caused permanent loss of customer data https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/09/iran-strikes-on-amazon-data-centers-caused-permanent-loss-of-customer-data/ Guests: Get detailed bios and contact information about for the panel on the MacVoices Live! Panel page on our web site: https://macvoices.com/macvoiceslive/macvoices-live-panel/ Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon http://patreon.com/macvoices Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web: http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon: https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe: Audio in iTunes Video in iTunes Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Every product team is shipping AI. But the dirty secret is that, for many companies, very few users are adopting. The feature launches, the people who try it love it, and adoption stalls anyway. Our guest today thinks that's because teams obsess over building AI and barely think about adoption. Charanya Kannan is VP and GM of Navan Anywhere, which puts Navan's AI travel and expense tools inside Slack, Teams, and Gemini, where people already work, instead of asking them to open another app. She joined Navan when the company was still called TripActions and doing under $50 million in revenue... now it's well on its way to a billion. Her take: if customers have to work harder to use your AI, it isn't actually better. In this episode, Charanya shares: How Navan Anywhere was built distribution-first, bringing booking and expenses into the tools people already use every day Why Navan's margins went up in the AI era, while the rest of SaaS braces for compression And why she believes PMs who mostly manage process and Jira tickets will fade away, while those who can actually drive user benefit and business outcomes will matter more than ever Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetcharanya/ Navan: https://navan.com/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 04:17 Why AI features don't always get adopted 06:30 Building Navan Anywhere distribution-first 10:13 When to use AI vs. deterministic systems 12:01 Conversational cognitive load and why good UI still matters 15:57 Evals, distilled models, and the AI reliability pyramid 20:14 Product owners vs. product managers in the AI era 26:10 How Navan is growing margins while SaaS faces AI compression 31:40 Conclusion Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Charanya Kannan.

Mike Mallazzo, GM at Alephic Media, joins Tye DeGrange to unpack the next arbitrage window: marketing to LLMs and AI search engines. They cover AEO and GEO strategy, how brands get cited by ChatGPT and other AI assistants, the emerging opportunity in AI-driven ad arbitrage, why partner and affiliate marketing are becoming core to AI search strategy, and why traditional attribution models (MMM/MTA) are losing their grip.#AlwaysBeTesting #AEO #GEO #AISearch

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What happens when an organization's AI ambition moves faster than its frontline's ability to absorb it?Agility isn't just deploying new technology quickly. It's whether the people and processes closest to the customer can change alongside it without the experience coming apart at the seams.Today we're going to talk about the friction between enterprise AI deployment and frontline readiness — and why the last mile of service is where AI investment either proves out or quietly falls apart. We'll get into:- What actually breaks between a strategic AI decision and the moment a technician has to act on it- Why fragmented data access is so costly when the person standing in front of the customer can't see the whole picture- How to measure success in field service when closing tickets faster isn't the same thing as a better outcomeTo help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Taksina Eammano, EVP and GM of Agentforce Field Service at Salesforce.About Taksina EammanoTaksina Eammano is the Executive Vice President & General Manager of Field Service at Salesforce. She is responsible for the overall strategy and vision, product and innovation narrative, and financial performance of Field Service.Taksina Eammano on LinkedIn---------- Resources ----------Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.comThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. https://aglbrnd.co/r/c70c250b8d52dff3We'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/7fe458ced0f04658Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. See more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f76be3a33cc491bbReach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/491818c79fb1873fChaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716baThe 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://aglbrnd.co/r/f1782ab12211f765 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

8.3L Duramax Mongoose, 2027 GM half-ton sixth-gen small block power numbers, Ford loses six-year NACTOY trophy streak, Jeep makes Moab official, Nissan drops cheap interior plastic, California passes Leno's Law, small-block loses dipstick, Escalade hits new high, Ford returns V-8 option to entire F-150 lineup, Colorado and Canyon get big power boost, Stellantis rumored to build Defender pickup for U.S., Ram REV delayed, Ranger Tremor making a return, and the latest in patents and recalls.   The Truck Show Podcast is brought to you in partnership with AMSOIL and OVR Mag. Don't forget to check out truckshowpodcast.com for special offers from our friends and sponsors.

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:50:00 GMT http://relay.fm/upgrade/639 http://relay.fm/upgrade/639 I Know How to Go to Sleep 639 Jason Snell and Myke Hurley Apple's slow move toward a fitness band makes us wonder if the company has lost its ability to execute quickly. Also, it's time for a MacBook Neo check-in, and Myke questions Jason's Apple Watch use. Apple's slow move toward a fitness band makes us wonder if the company has lost its ability to execute quickly. Also, it's time for a MacBook Neo check-in, and Myke questions Jason's Apple Watch use. clean 5454 Apple's slow move toward a fitness band makes us wonder if the company has lost its ability to execute quickly. Also, it's time for a MacBook Neo check-in, and Myke questions Jason's Apple Watch use. This episode of Upgrade is sponsored by: Fitbod: Get stronger, faster with a fitness plan that fits you. Get 25% off your membership. Keeper: Get 60% off personal and family plans. Sentry: Mobile crash reporting and app monitoring. New users get $100 in Sentry credits with code upgrade26. Links and Show Notes: Get Upgrade+. More content, no ads. Check out Upgrade merch! Submit Feedback

Detroit's budget picture continues to improve. But what does that mean for residents, city services, and the big redevelopment projects now under discussion? I sat down with expert Steve Watson of Watson & Yates to talk through the current situation and the financial logic behind why Detroit needs growth. We look into the proposed Renaissance Center redevelopment we talked about on the show last week, including the $548 million in requested public incentives tied to a proposed $2.2 billion investment by GM and Bedrock. We break down where that money would come from, how the Renaissance Zone and Downtown Development Authority structure works, and why a proposed payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement matters for the city and Wayne County. We also look at Detroit's updated revenue outlook. The city's estimates rose by about $50 million, driven largely by stronger-than-expected income-tax collections and investment-income projections. But that is not a blank check for new programs in the context of a roughly $1.5 billion general-fund budget. The additional revenue is more likely to help Detroit sustain current services, manage rising costs, and prepare for firefighter and police labor contract negotiations. To wrap up, Steve and I talk about the larger equation. The math behind why growing jobs, wages, businesses, and population matters for Detroit's ability to deliver the things residents want from city government. The city has significant economic potential, but only about one-third of Detroiters currently earn a living wage for their household. That makes inclusive growth as important as growth itself. What do you think? Hit us up, dailydetroit@gmail.com or 313-789-3211. Thanks for your support on Patreon!

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:50:00 GMT http://relay.fm/upgrade/639 http://relay.fm/upgrade/639 Jason Snell and Myke Hurley Apple's slow move toward a fitness band makes us wonder if the company has lost its ability to execute quickly. Also, it's time for a MacBook Neo check-in, and Myke questions Jason's Apple Watch use. Apple's slow move toward a fitness band makes us wonder if the company has lost its ability to execute quickly. Also, it's time for a MacBook Neo check-in, and Myke questions Jason's Apple Watch use. clean 5454 Apple's slow move toward a fitness band makes us wonder if the company has lost its ability to execute quickly. Also, it's time for a MacBook Neo check-in, and Myke questions Jason's Apple Watch use. This episode of Upgrade is sponsored by: Fitbod: Get stronger, faster with a fitness plan that fits you. Get 25% off your membership. Keeper: Get 60% off personal and family plans. Sentry: Mobile crash reporting and app monitoring. New users get $100 in Sentry credits with code upgrade26. Links and Show Notes: Get Upgrade+. More content, no ads. Check out Upgrade merch! Submit Feedback

The weather is changing, the dust is finally settling down on the trails, and we're trying to squeeze every last adventure out of the season before winter shows up.   This week we talk about running the BDR, off-roading in the Bronco, Ferrari's strange new supercharger setup, GM's giant diesel, Audi's obsession with adding more screens, and why some of the best automotive design decisions were probably made twenty years ago. *At the time of recording we had not seen a detailed view of the Ferrari Supercharger/Turbocharger setup and the patent drawing was of poor quality. We now know it is a dual electric supercharger with turbo setup, which makes much more sense.    We also spend some time discussing a Bring a Trailer sale that made everyone's insurance company suddenly nervous, McLaren's new logo, luxury EVs, bird migration season, protecting your paint from bird strikes of a different kind, and whether Ford should build a Super Duty Raptor despite the fact that it makes absolutely no sense.   It's a little bit cars, a little bit adventure, a little bit wildlife, and a lot of opinions from people standing around talking about things they probably shouldn't spend money on.   As always, don't just get there. Enjoy the drive. The Avants Podcast is brought to you by our friends at STEK USA and Carter Seattle! Not an Avants member? https://www.avants.com/member-plans  Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!  Leave us a voicemail or send us a text any time at 425-298-7873! We're doing give aways! Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and we'll pick a random name every 25th review!

Suppliers are under pressure to quote at China speed, and most can't stand behind the numbers they're sending. The average supplier now handles around 800 RFQs a year, up from 495 in 2002, with the same spreadsheets, email chains, and handful of veterans who know where the rates live. Speed is what everyone's demanding, and accuracy is where the margin's won or lost.Jan and Tom Roberts welcome back Ted Mabley, Director at UHY Consulting, to discuss his new white paper, Closing the Cost Execution Gap. It builds on his earlier study with the Center for Automotive Research and comes out as OEMs, GM among them, press suppliers to show where every number comes from.The gap shows up after the PO. A program quoted at a 10% margin launches at 5 or 6, as engineering changes and OEM productivity demands chip away at a quote that captured one engineering level at one moment. Sending the plant manager to sales to win the margin back won't work; the OEMs are too sophisticated for that.Ted's fix starts upstream, with skilled cost engineers in the room as the bill of materials takes shape, and it runs through the data. Quote history sits in SharePoint, on laptops, and across ERP systems inherited through acquisitions, and connecting it is where he sees AI's biggest opportunity. Jan adds a pointed challenge: total acquisition cost won't drive decisions while purchasing teams are still bonused on PPV.This conversation challenges supplier leaders to stop treating quoting as paperwork. Ted's first move is deliberately small: pick one high-volume RFQ or VAVE workflow and redesign it end-to-end. The suppliers who fix one workflow now will have a template for the rest, and a cost story they can defend when the OEM asks where the number came from.Themes Discussed in This EpisodeWhy speed without cost accuracy is a liabilityEmbedding cost engineering upstream at the BOMConnecting fragmented quote, cost, and plant dataScaling the RFQ process with automation and AITotal landed cost vs piece priceWhy PPV block the total acquisition cost thinkingOEM-specific playbooks and the case for a common RFQ formatStarting with one high-volume RFQ or VAVE workflowThis podcast is powered by QAD RedZone.Featured GuestName: Ted Mabley Title: Director at UHY Consulting About: Edward "Ted" Mabley has over 15 years of experience optimizing sales and business development operations, providing customer-specific solutions catering to a wide array of industries on a global scale. He works with OEMs, tier-one suppliers, and other manufacturing companies to create transparency in their cost process and develop vendor management programs to address relevant KPIs. His experience includes active cost management in accordance with enterprise product costing procedures, as well as developing strategic business roadmaps, product visions, and sales strategies. Connect: LinkedInAbout Your HostsJan GriffithsJan is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan is recognized as a Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. She brings direct, grounded conversations to leaders navigating execution, disruption, and transformation across the global automotive ecosystem.Tom Roberts (Co-host)Tom is Co-host of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and Vice President of Strategic Industry Development at QAD. He works closely with automotive and industrial manufacturers to close the gap between insight and execution, helping leaders move from visibility to systems of action that drive real operational outcomes.Mentioned in this EpisodeClosing the Cost Execution Gap, UHY white paperAutomotive Suppliers and the Revenue Acquisition Process – Then and Now (CAR/UHY, 2025)Episode Highlights[00:03:11] Twenty Years, More Complexity: Ted's survey of tier one suppliers and OEMs revisits a 2002 study and finds RFQs moving faster, growing more complex, and landing on fewer people with the skills to get them right.[00:05:29] The Quote Is a Snapshot: A program quoted at 10% margin that launches at 5 or 6 shows how engineering changes and OEM productivity demands erode cost after the PO is issued.[00:07:05] Cost Engineering Starts at the BOM: China speed means skilled cost engineers have to join while the bill of material and vehicle requirements are still being defined, not after.[00:08:00] The Skills Gap Behind the Quote: Ted points to JCI's former cost engineering organization as a model for developing talent, a discipline that's largely been replaced by job postings for "four cost engineers."[00:09:00] AI's Biggest Play Is the Data: With quote history scattered across SharePoint and laptops, the greatest opportunity for AI is reconciling the cost buckets OEMs scrutinize first.[00:12:40] PPV Blocks Total Acquisition Cost: Jan argues that total acquisition cost won't drive decisions until purchasing teams stop being measured and bonused on purchase price variance.[00:16:44] One Playbook per OEM: Every OEM has different DNA, and until the industry agrees on a common RFQ format, suppliers need a separate playbook for each customer.[00:19:08] Start With One Workflow: Ted's recommended first move is redesigning a single high-volume RFQ or VAVE workflow end to end, then using it as a repeatable template.Top Quotes[00:07:29] Ted Mabley: "It needs to be a cost engineering team, not a cost analytics team. They need to be people-skilled who know what they're doing." [00:12:00] Ted Mabley: "It has to be automation because there just aren't enough people in the system to be able to support it." [00:19:41] Ted Mabley: "You've got to start somewhere. And you have to take a look at it from a holistic point, and you gotta be honest, right? What's working, what's not." If this episode resonated, share it with a fellow automotive leader and subscribe to the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast, where we're closing the gap between insight and action across the global automotive supply chain.Follow the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast for real conversations with leaders who are making hard choices, focusing their bets, and leading with intent.

Brief episode overview:After dealing with Black, the group heads to a neutral spaceport to meet with their new contact and to get supplies. Also a few.. "upgrades".Cast:Craenos as "Ze-Tash"Crow as "Steez Dibb"Digs as "Dunu Doa"Frank as "The GM"MadAsgardian as "Kayvid Darradeen"Pablo as "Lars"Tex as "Rix-66"