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In this episode, Chris Cochrane guest-hosts for his brother Ray and devotes the whole show to one event: Disney’s D23 2026 fan convention in Anaheim. Friday night delivered Marvel’s new X-Men cast, Adam Driver as Mister Sinister, a fresh Avengers: Doomsday trailer, and a release date for Frozen 3. Saturday turned to the parks, with Villains Land, an Indiana Jones dark ride, the long-awaited Expedition Everest yeti repair, and a Monsters Inc land opening in 2027. – Want to start a podcast? It’s easy to get started! Sign up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Chris if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Chris Cochrane opens the show and explains why this episode breaks the usual format. Instead of six or eight unrelated stories, the entire episode covers Disney’s D23 convention, which he compares to Apple’s WWDC. For newcomers, he notes that D23 is Disney’s official fan club, named for the company’s founding year of 1923. This year’s event ran two nights at the Honda Center: Friday for movies and television, Saturday for the theme parks. Marvel Finally Casts the X-Men Friday’s headline was the X-Men. The Associated Press put the crowd near 12,000, and Marvel Studios used that stage to name its rebooted team. Christopher Abbott plays Professor Charles Xavier, Inde Navarrette plays Rogue, and Maya Boyd plays Storm. Adam Driver rounds out the group as the villain Mister Sinister. Meanwhile, Samara Weaving, Kit Connor, and Sadie Sink were already known as Emma Frost, Cyclops, and Jean Grey. Jake Schreier directs, and the film arrives May 5, 2028. Chris calls the lineup spot-on casting. He singles out Weaving as a perfect match for the comics, and he points out that Sink already appeared as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Navarrette is the least established name, coming off a breakout role in an indie horror film. Boyd, meanwhile, was the name he knew least, with what he believes is a Broadway background. Above all, Chris hopes Marvel does the team justice, and he recommends the animated revival X-Men ’97 on Disney+ as the best place to start. Frozen 3 Gets a Date and a Chaotic Reveal Frozen 3 lands November 24, 2027. That is the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, the same slot the first two films used. The story centers on Anna and Kristoff’s wedding, which a new villain, an evil Ice Queen, disrupts. Jennifer Lee returns to direct with Trent Correy, and the full voice cast is back. However, the reveal itself fell apart. Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel performed a darker arrangement of “Frozen Heart.” Meanwhile, the audio failed, the video failed, and a set of doors never opened. Menzel asked the crowd whether they should try it again, and Bell simply narrated everything that was supposed to happen. Afterward, Josh Gad sang “Oooh, Samantha,” a new love song for Olaf. Chris is here for it, since Olaf is one of the franchise’s best comic characters. Pixar, Disney Animation, and the Rest of Friday Night Pixar chief Pete Docter laid out a packed slate. Incredibles 3 hits summer 2028 and follows Violet and Dash sneaking out at night to fight crime. Chris hopes that finally shows a grown-up Jack-Jack. Coco 2 follows in November 2029 with Benjamin Bratt returning as Ernesto de la Cruz. That has fans puzzling over how a villain already in the Land of the Dead comes back. Additionally, Pixar showed an original called Ghost Market and a Venice-set cat film called Gatto. On the Disney Animation side, Zootopia 3 is confirmed. The live-action Tangled arrives March 31, 2028 with Kathryn Hahn as Mother Gothel. Chris considers that casting perfect after her turn in Agatha All Along. A live-action Lilo & Stitch sequel, a new Simpsons movie, a Bluey movie, and a Kingdom Hearts anime series round out the list. For Star Wars fans, Ahsoka returns January 20, 2027. Chris also offers a hot take: he prefers Rogue One to the entire sequel trilogy. Consequently, he welcomes original stories like Ryan Gosling’s upcoming Starfighter. Adam Driver Is Mister Sinister Driver appeared by video rather than in person. He told the crowd that he and Kevin Feige had talked for years about joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Then he announced he would play Magneto. After a long pause, he corrected himself to Nathaniel Milbury, which is Mister Sinister’s human alias. The gag landed because fans had floated Driver for Magneto for years. For anyone new to the comics, Chris explains that Mister Sinister is a geneticist obsessed with mutant DNA, a manipulator rather than a brawler. The cast met backstage only minutes earlier, so Chris is curious how their chemistry develops. Notably, Christopher Abbott previously worked with Driver on HBO’s Girls. The script comes from Beef creator Lee Sung Jin and The Bear co-showrunner Joanna Calo, two prestige-television names that have Chris excited. Why the X-Men Took Thirty Years to Reach the MCU A business story underlies the casting. In the 1990s, a financially struggling Marvel sold film rights to raise cash. Fox ended up with the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, and Sony took Spider-Man. As a result, Marvel Studios built its connected universe from 2008 onward without some of its most famous characters. The Hugh Jackman era of X-Men films belonged to Fox, with a separate continuity and no crossovers. That changed in 2019, when Disney closed its $71 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox’s film and television studio. Most coverage framed the deal as a streaming play, but it also brought the X-Men home. Chris sums it up neatly: Disney signed the paperwork in 2019, cast the film in 2026, and audiences see it in 2028. Ryan Gosling’s Starfighter, Ghost Rider, and VisionQuest Lucasfilm dated Star Wars: Starfighter for May 28, 2027. Gosling plays Kade Auberon, a pilot from the wrong side of the galaxy tied to the fastest starfighter ever built. Before he walked out, Disney played clips of him as a kid on The Mickey Mouse Club. Gosling said the company changed his life then and is changing it again now. He is also playing Ghost Rider in the Marvel universe. That thrills Chris, since Nicolas Cage last carried the character on the big screen. Meanwhile, the Disney+ series VisionQuest arrives October 14. Paul Bettany returns as Vision and James Spader as Ultron, and the trailer drops the two androids into oddly mundane human situations. Bettany joked that Vision has “rather inconveniently died several times.” Chris agrees the character has been through the wringer since WandaVision. The Avengers: Doomsday Trailer Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18, with Joe and Anthony Russo directing. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Hayley Atwell introduced the new footage. It offers the clearest look yet at Downey as Doctor Doom, who fights off Thor and takes his hammer. Evans appears as Captain America holding a baby, and Ian McKellen shows up as a haggard, long-haired Magneto. One quieter shot has Doom staring at a portrait of a lost wife and child. That frames him as a grieving avenger rather than a world-ender. He also commands an army of comic-accurate Sentinels. The cast pulls from the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the legacy Fox X-Men, including Patrick Stewart. Hugh Jackman also appeared on screen to say he is willing to return as Wolverine, though that was not a confirmation. Chris, a self-described Marvel nerd, closes with a theory. He suspects the MCU’s Tony Stark was actually Victor von Doom, adopted by the Starks, which would explain the Downey casting. He also predicts the Fox-era X-Men die off in this film and that Thor may be the major casualty. If it happens, he wants credit for calling it. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting $6.99/month, WordPress hosting $12.99/month, domains $11.99. Website builder trial available. Use codes at geeknewscentral.com/godaddy to support the show. Disney Parks Around the World Saturday’s Disney Experiences showcase covered parks, resorts, and cruise ships, with Neil Patrick Harris hosting. Hong Kong Disneyland gets an Avengers pavilion that reshapes its Stark Expo skyline. Shanghai Disneyland is building the first land devoted entirely to Spider-Man, complete with a new coaster. Since Spider-Man is his favorite hero, Chris hopes to visit once it opens. Closer to home, Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure is doubling in size with two rides opening in 2028. Avengers: Infinity Defense brings back Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Chris Hemsworth, and Downey, while Stark Flight Lab adds Brie Larson. A Coco boat ride into the Land of the Dead is also coming, with no height requirement. Chris admits he prefers California Adventure to Disneyland because the rides are better. Overseas, Disneyland Paris will retire its Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain overlay at the end of 2027 and restore the original Jules Verne theme. Paris also gets the first ride ever based on The Lion King. Tokyo Disneyland adds Sugar Rush: Sweet Rescue, the first Wreck-It Ralph ride, plus a Space Mountain launch sequence designed with YouTuber Mark Rober. Finally, Disney Cruise Line announced three more ships, including the Disney Believe in 2027 and an entirely new class in 2029. Back in Anaheim, Tomorrowland is getting reimagined, which Chris welcomes because the land badly needs an update. The Magic Happens parade and the Remember Dreams Come True fireworks are both returning. For the tech crowd, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run now has a Fortnite crossover, where in-game missions unlock content on the real ride. Every New Walt Disney World Ride and Land Chris ranks the Florida parks Hollywood Studios first, then Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom leads the announcements with Villains Land, now the official name. It features a Maleficent coaster through an enchanted briar and a boat ride through the Evil Queen’s catacombs. Reporting puts its scale near Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and Glenn Close appeared in character as Cruella to announce it. Piston Peak, the Cars area replacing Tom Sawyer Island, adds two more rides, though their exact names remain unsettled. Additionally, the Carousel of Progress gets new scenes and a recast. Jamie Lee Curtis and Bryan Cranston will voice Mom and Dad starting late spring 2027. Chris, invoking Heisenberg, calls Cranston the GOAT. At Animal Kingdom, the Indiana Jones ride now has a name: Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent. It tells an original 1950 story inside a Maya temple, and Harrison Ford personally served as the physical model for the animatronic. Nearby, the Tropical Americas land brings Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto, with more than fifty animal animatronics and no height requirement. Then comes the fix park regulars have wanted for years. The Expedition Everest yeti broke soon after the ride opened. Rather than fix it, Disney lit it with a strobe for over a decade, earning the nickname disco yeti. Now it is being repaired and returned to full motion. Chris rates Everest among his top five rides anywhere, and he suggests riding it before the fix so you can compare. Over at Epcot, Spaceship Earth gets its first major story rewrite in nearly twenty years, shifting from communication history to human connection. Dreamfinder also returns to Journey Into Imagination, and Disney Experiences chairman Thomas Mazloum introduced that news with two words: “we heard you.” Mazloum added that Disney has more projects underway than at any point in its history. After this rundown, Chris believes him. Monsters Inc Land Opens in 2027 Monstropolis begins opening at Hollywood Studios in early 2027, but in stages. The headline door coaster will not be ready on day one. It is the first suspended coaster in any Disney park. It also uses Disney’s first vertical lift, hauling riders about forty feet straight up before launching them into the door vault. Instead, the land opens with the Glob Theater’s “Welcome to Monstropolis” show and Harryhausen’s, a working sushi restaurant lifted from the first film. The stage show features an original song by Randy Newman, his first ever written for a theme park attraction. Chris also notes that the restaurant name honors stop-motion legend Ray Harryhausen. Wrapping up, Chris names the X-Men casting and the Doomsday trailer as his favorite moments of the weekend. He hopes to cover more movie news on future shows, and he plugs Dune: Part Three, which also opens December 18. Chris signs off with the usual mentions: GNC Insider at geeknewscentral.com/insider, email at geeknews@gmail.com, the newsletter, and modern podcast apps at podcastapps.com. He also thanks GoDaddy for over twenty years of support. The post Huge Announcements From D23!! #1873 appeared first on Geek News Central.

Bob Parsons is navigating his golf cart through the twisting dry dirt road of the golf course he built in the Sonoran Desert in Scottsdale, Arizona, avoiding lizards, rabbits and giant saguaros. He stops near the ninth hole, named Catfish, which overlooks a manmade lake and surrounded by three million acres of preserved land. It cost Parsons hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and renovate Scottsdale National, which has two 18-hole courses and the “Bad Little Nine,” a punishingly difficult nine-hole par-three course. He points to the center of the lake where a small black hut sits with the words “Suggestion Box” painted in white.  “This is a marvelous spot to put a suggestion box,” the 75-year-old Parsons tells Forbes. “The vent is painted on. I guess you could try.” After all, Parsons did not become a billionaire by taking other people's suggestions. He built his fortune thanks to his nonstop hustle, often working 60-plus hours straight. He sold his first company, Parsons Technology, which made personal finance and tax software, to Intuit for $64 million in 1994 (or about $165 million today). In 1997, he started domain name registrar GoDaddy and sold a 71% stake for $2.3 billion in 2011 (or $3.4 billion today). By Will Yakowicz, Forbes Staff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zane Keller, CEO of Ducere Wealth Management, is driven to Lead, Guide, & Educate clients and employees by helping them solve meaningful problems and achieve their goals. Through personalized financial guidance and a culture of empowerment, Zane supports clients with complex financial needs while giving employees the tools, trust, and opportunities they need to grow professionally. In this conversation, Zane introduces The Turn the Ship Around Framework—Delegate Decisions to the Source of Information, Put the Right People in the Right Seats, and Remove Friction That Impedes Performance. He explains why informed employees should have the authority to make decisions, how leaders can remove barriers instead of controlling daily operations, and why culture must remain a priority as a company scales. Zane also discusses macro patience and micro speed, creating opportunities for employee ownership, encouraging intrapreneurship, and helping multigenerational families coordinate their investments, tax planning, estate planning, and financial legacies. — Lead, Guide, & Educate with Zane Keller  Good day. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and my guest today is Zane Keller, CEO of Ducere Wealth Management, with a vision to be the leading provider of tech-driven, tax-optimized wealth management services for clients through their advisory support, that every client’s assets, time, and relationships are prioritized. Zane, welcome to the show.  Thanks, Steve. Appreciate you having me.  So, Zane, before we jump in and talk about Ducere Wealth, I’m very curious about your personal why, and how are you manifesting it in the company through the company’s business?  Sure. Well, early on, I knew I liked—one of my biggest passions was helping people solve problems. And one of the amazing things about being in the wealth management industry is you get to help people solve a lot of problems that are personal for them, and that’s their finances. It tends to be a personal subject for them, and allowing them guidance, support, understanding, and being a listening ear is what I find to be extremely rewarding in the business we have. But starting a company and having a team, and building that team, and building all the infrastructure and support and all of that, to me, the employees are as much clients as our clients are clients.  And so it’s an interesting position that I’m in, where it’s a dual role of both looking at it from a standpoint of how do we help our clients with the day-to-day or yearly challenges they face, but also how do I make sure that our employees are empowered to deliver the right client service and feel that they can continue to grow and expand in their careers. So I just like helping people, and I get to do it every day.Share on X  Yeah. Okay. That’s great. So when you talk about solving problems, obviously finance is a mirror for all an individual’s life aspirations, problems, challenges, opportunities, all that stuff. Your people are also humans, individuals, and they probably have similar challenges, so that’s a really neat mosaic there. So what is most challenging in building a wealth management firm like that?  I think the most challenging thing is all of the decisions are on you. And when I talk to other business leaders, there isn’t a roadmap, there isn’t a manual in terms of how people build their businesses, build their teams, and a lot of it is a balance of both trusting your instinct and what your background and lessons have been, as well as trusting those that you have brought in to help build the enterprise.  I was fortunate that I get to work with my dad, who had gone through this venture before, and we’ve gotten a chance to partner together and build it from the ground up. We went from a year ago, I had to order two laptops on Amazon, get a URL from GoDaddy, and start from scratch. And, you know, a year later, we find ourselves with 14 employees, an office in Newport, an office in Las Vegas, $600 million in assets under management, and continuing to want to grow, and being fortunate that we have a tremendous client base who trusts us.  But we’ve been able to attract and retain top-quality employees and team members who we rely on every day to continue building out the vision.  Well, I mean, building $600 million in assets under management in a year in a business like wealth management sounds almost like an impossible goal. Did you have a portfolio that you kind of imported into this business, or was that completely from scratch?  No. We had clients that we had worked with previously. We had left a big bank.  Okay.  And so some of those clients came over with us, but a lot of it was growing organically through COIs, through other marketing efforts, and bringing on other advisors who wanted to leverage our platform to provide a better service for their clients.  That’s fantastic. So how does one start a wealth management business? It sounds like one of the hardest businesses to start because it’s a trust-based business, from what I see, and it’s a very slow-burn kind of business. How do you actually grow a business like that?  Well, I think first is, in our industry, what’s interesting is there’s a lot of different business types. You have the wirehouses, the broker-dealers. There are people that are very successful just being anchored to a Wells Fargo or a J.P. Morgan or Merrill Lynch and building within that. Then you have folks who have gone to the roll-ups. Private equity has become pretty involved in our industry—a lot of roll-ups, a lot of consolidation.  Their value proposition is defined platforms that you can just plug in. And then you have what I consider the true independents, ourselves included, where we had a vision of we didn’t want to be held back or bogged down by two areas. One, as things get larger and larger and larger, the wheels turn slower and slower. And I think we're in a unique area from a business evolution cycle that leveraging AI, leveraging the technology, being able to make decisions quickly is going to be a substantial differentiator over the next several years.Share on X  And we didn’t want to have the conflicts that inherently come when you are backed by investors, and the focus is how do you maximize revenue, even if it may be at the expense of clients or at the expense of employees or at the expense of growth that you don’t see the return on investment for several years. So we decided that we were going to do it from scratch. Luckily, I had a background in—at the previous firm, I had helped build out all of the tech stack.  I’d worn almost every hat you can have at an RIA, and I had the experience from my father having gone through this, that between the two of us, there was enough goodwill or brand equity to build it out. But the other thing that we decided to do is there’s a reason it’s not called Keller Wealth or Keller Investments. The goal was never to have it be about ourselves. It was about creating a brand and a vision where others feel like they can be a part of.  357: Lead, Guide, & Educate with Zane KellerShare on X So as we brought on employees, I’ve challenged them that they have a responsibility to make an impact on the organization, and we start with culture. People have to be a culture fit first. We will not sacrifice culture for all the money on God’s green earth because I can confidently say that I don’t know how much business or revenue we’re missing out on if the team is not functioning at the highest level possible. So the first and foremost is a cultural fit. Then we look at the skills, the competencies, the ability to grow. But for us, culture is number one.  Yeah, love it. So what does it take to grow a wealth management firm? What drives growth in your business?  I think it takes three kind of main pieces. One is understanding that there’s a term GaryVee uses called “macro patience, micro speed.” And what we had set out initially is I knew that there were several steps between SEC registration, getting relationships with a custodian, getting relationships with tech vendors, finding office space, all of that that needs to be done just from a basic business foundation standpoint. What I needed to do, when we needed to do it, and logging every week.  I actually would send emails to myself and my dad for the first two months before we had employees of everything that got done the previous week, and what we needed to get done the next week, and what our blockers were if things couldn’t get done. Then that kind of grew into, as we had employees, becoming a consistent weekly check-in as we were heading towards what I consider our launch date, which was July 28th, because that’s when we actually received SEC approval.  So the first two months was just building the architecture, building up where we’re going to work, what we’re going to work with, all of those decisions being put in place. I’m fortunate enough that I’ve been involved with a lot of different companies in the industry over the years. So I had people who had done this before, people who had worked with large RIAs, small RIAs, and everything in between to lean on as advisors.  I think one of the things that I was more than surprised by was the amount of outpouring of support. “I’m happy to help you. What do you need? What can we do to make you successful? I know someone that I can connect you to.” And I think that's kind of the unique thing about our industry, is that there is a lot of camaraderie and willingness to help each other, even if you may be competitors in some aspects.Share on X  That’s interesting. So when you say “macro patience, micro speed,” what do you mean by that exactly?  So our goal is to get to a billion or more in AUM. And while I’d love to do that overnight, it takes time, both from bringing in clients, market performance. I’d love everything to be fully integrated from an AI standpoint, but again, those things take time. So a lot of the times, I think leaders have an issue with wanting to get to the destination as quickly as possible and not thinking through all the steps they need to get there.  So each step along the way, or what I consider the day-to-day, I try to get as much done in the hours that I have during the day, and that’s where the speed lies. And eventually that compounds, just like investing, into where we want to go from an overall firm standpoint. But me saying, “I just want to be at a billion dollars,” that’s great. But you’re going to say, “Well, what are you doing every day to get there?” I can go, “Well, I’ve had this many prospect meetings.  I’ve had this many client meetings. We’ve reviewed this much market information. We’ve decided to put money towards these investments.” It’s the day-to-day decision-making and being quick in doing that that I think is imperative for us to get to where our goal is going to be.  Okay. So this is a podcast called Management Blueprint, and it’s a podcast of frameworks. We are 350-plus episodes in, and every episode is a different framework. So I wonder, what’s a framework that you have come across, or maybe your did or you guys refined it, invented it, or improved it, that helps you build this business, that helps you do something more effectively, maybe getting new clients, maybe building your team members or training them, maybe getting the word out, whatever part of business it is that can be explained in three to five steps?  Sure. So there’s a book called Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet, and that, from a leadership standpoint, is the mentality that I have taken since day one. To boil it down into one sentence, it’s this: The people with the information make the decisions. And so if the team is coming to me all the time for every possible decision in order to move this business along, there’s no way that we’re going to grow at the rate or grow, arguably, period, the way that we want to succeed.  So when I sit down with the team, one, the first question needs to be, if you’re running an enterprise like this, do you have the right people in the positions they’re at? Do they have the competencies, the understanding, and the cooperation with others to effectively make decisions in their role? And then the second thing that I spend the majority of my time on is, are there things inhibiting them from doing their role? So things such as, do they not know what their budget is? Do they not know who the decision-makers on the other end are? Do they not know that they are responsible or allowed to make those decisions?  So my goal is to make sure that they understand that if they have the information and we have built what the, I guess, framework or the bumpers are in bowling, that it's their decision to make and to inform me why they made the decisionShare on X not for them to come to me and say, “Do we do A or do we do B?” When we have a team, the expectation is there’s a lot of moving pieces. To your point earlier, it’s a lot to run an RIA. It’s a lot to run a wealth management firm.  There’s several things happening all at once, several things that are intertwined, and you can’t have one person that is reasonable as you grow in scale to be aware or understanding of the pros and cons of every decision. So we’ve brought people on. We have a full investment team. They are responsible for making the investment decisions. I listen in, but I’m not doing the due diligence. I’m not meeting with the managers. I’m not doing all of that. We have folks that are responsible from an operations side, making sure things day-to-day happen. I’m not the one making the decisions on that.  But if they come to me and say, “Hey, this is becoming difficult,” or, “We can’t get ahold of so-and-so,” then I step in. But the whole point of it is making sure that they feel empowered. The people with the information make the decisions. You get the right people in place, you should have, from a leadership standpoint, very few decisions you have to make on a day-to-day basis.Share on X Yeah, that’s great. So basically, you share your contextual understanding of your business with the people who work for you so that they can connect the dots as well, make decisions, and you can focus on the strategic part of the business. What do you and your dad focus on?  Yeah. I’d say it’s two parts. One is focusing on the more complex client issues, as we have multi-generational, multi-family clients, and also where we want the business to go. And it’s not one-dimensional. It’s bringing on more clients, plus bringing on additional advisors, plus looking at things from a national standpoint. After COVID, Zoom has become very useful, and people have become comfortable with having what I consider tele-wealth.  So their advisor may be in a different state, and they’re completely comfortable with that. And so it’s pursuing all of these various growth avenues because the day-to-day is being taken care of. So my focus is just that. It’s focusing on strategy. Where does the next $600 million come from? What about the $600 million after that? And how do we continue to grow in a manner where we don’t sacrifice some of the things that make us unique? As an example, our team constantly talks, interacts all day long, not just on “This is the work that needs to be done,” but people genuinely like working together.  I don’t have a strict in-office policy. The entire team’s here five days a week. I’ve not asked them to do that. I’ve not said they need to do that, but they genuinely enjoy working here. So when we open up a second office, how do we keep that kind of consistency? When we open up a third office or fourth? It's those kinds of areas that I think I spend a lot of my time trying to figure out and see how we grow without sacrificing some of the core values that we have.Share on X  Yeah. So what are your core values?  Probably three big ones. One is, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say it on the podcast here, but we have a no-assh*le policy. You have to be a genuinely good person to work here. You have to genuinely care about other people, and that is the first test. Two, we want, just like the firm grows, we expect the team to grow personally and professionally.  So if you’re going to be here when we do a review, I’m going to ask you: How are you better at contributing to the organization, to your team, and to your coworkers than you were a year ago, and what do you expect to do better a year from now? And then the third thing is: How are you defending our culture? We may have new people come in. What are you doing to set the tone as to how we work here at Ducere? Because, as I mentioned earlier, it’s not just about me and my dad. It’s about the collective organization, each individual playing their part to enhance and protect our culture.  Yeah. So it’s very clear that you talk about culture repeatedly. It sounds like it’s a really big part of your identity and how you want to build this firm.  Absolutely.  So what’s one thing that you’re actively trying to figure out in this business right now?  I think one of the big things is: How do we effectively bring on an advisor where we understand they have a book of business, and we understand they have a certain way of doing things, integrating them into our platform, but allowing them to operate with their own unique style. One of the challenges with scale is sometimes you scale and you give up originality or a unique way that, Steve, you may do something, then I do it a little differently, but it ultimately gets the same goal.  And really looking at what are the goals or deliverables that an advisor wants to bring to their clients, and can we allow them flexibility to get there in their own way? And I’ll give you a good example. So what we do from an asset management standpoint is we have what I call an open architecture. So for any given portfolio, there can be a number of combinations and permutations that give you a similar risk profile or result, and we leave that up, if the advisor wants to, for them to decide what that makeup looks like, as long as it’s within the parameters that we’ve set from a risk standpoint.  So as an example, Steve, you say, “I’m aggressive,” and I go, “Great. I’m not going to put you in one stock if you’re retired. That’s too aggressive.” But we do have several things that are approved on the platform, and we do continuous due diligence where we can say, “Steve, here’s two or three options. Which best serves your client? Which is going to be something that your client understands and feels comfortable with?” So that’s one area that we’ve really been trying to focus on and figure out how we express that differentiator in a way that it actually resonates with those advisors.  Yeah. That’s great. So basically, you want to build an organization where people can stay entrepreneurial. They don’t have to just live in a box that is given to them. So you capture more creativity and more personality in your business so that you can grow in a more nimble way. Is this what you’re trying to do here?  Yeah. I think the official term they’ve called it is intrapreneurship instead of entrepreneurship. But yes, the goal is: How do we get the team to come and say, “Hey, I think we have this issue, and here’s the solution I want to have, and it’s a little different than what we do, but I think there’s a way to make it happen”? And again, the people with the information make the decisions. How do I remove as many blockers as possible so they can continue to pursue that avenue? But the big thing is, some folks sometimes get sidetracked.  They go down rabbit holes or they veer off on projects that may not be going towards what our goal is, right? Growing, adding more revenue, adding more clients. And so as long as there’s a tieback to what our goals are as a firm, then we’re all for empowering them to be able to pursue those passions.  How do you maintain that structure in a family-started business? That can be a tricky one. People might feel that there’s a glass ceiling or they’re always going to stay an outsider. How do you resolve this tension?  That’s a great question, and it’s something that verbally hasn’t come up to me, but I can certainly see people’s perspective on it. And so my dad and I tend to be pretty transparent as to what's going on, what we're dealing with, getting feedback from the team.Share on X And while this is a 40-plus-year venture for me, for my dad, it’s probably about another 10-year venture for him.  And so we’ve stated that our goal is to get to the point where we can be 100% employee-owned, but we can have multiple employees who are owners of the firm. I’m a strong believer in giving people the opportunity to earn their equity. And if we do get to the point where we sell the organization one day, I want to brag about how many millionaires I created.  I don’t think anyone will ever care how many millions someone makes for themselves. And so we’ve, from day one, been very vocal and communicative to the team that the expectation is that as many of the employees as it makes sense, and that they’ve earned it, can earn equity. We plan on doing that, but it’s probably not going to be until about year three where we actually start putting that together from a formal standpoint.  Yeah. That’s fascinating. So who is an ideal client for you? So if someone is listening to this and they think, “Ah, maybe I should talk to Ducere,” how do they know whether they are in the sweet spot of what you’re looking for and who you can serve the most?  Sure. Well, our best clients are ones that tend to be multi-generational, so they’re families that are looking to pass on the management of the wealth from maybe the matriarch or the patriarch to the next generation, and they have more complex investments, partnerships, family limited partnerships. They have an interest in private or alternative investments, and they’re looking for someone to help with that transition and possibly help with the next generational transition, and a partnership that’s another 20 to 30 years.  So folks that are qualified investors that tend to have complex tax and estate needs and really want someone who’s a quarterback between all the other professionals that they work with—CPAs, attorneys, et cetera—that’s who our ideal client is. There are firms out there that offer everything in-house, right? We do your taxes, we do everything. And the analogy I like to use with clients is that’s like going to a buffet. Buffets, for some people, are great, but I’ve never had my greatest meal at a buffet.  Usually, it’s fine dining, where it’s a specific niche that they are looking to serve. And so if they’re happy with the other professionals that they work with, our job is to fill in that gap to make sure that things get coordinated, they get an understanding of what their financial picture is, it’s clear-cut as to how to get to those goals. And I think the biggest and most successful clients we’ve had are ones who want to learn. They want to be educated clients. They want to be educated investors. And so those are the type of clients that would be ideal: multi-generational, complex financial needs from a tax, estate planning, and private investment standpoint.  They’re also looking to work with a firm that may not have some of the conflicts that the Merrill Lynches and Wells Fargos, who may sell you their own proprietary products, because we don’t make any commission. We’re fee-only. Or some of the PE firms who are looking to figure out how to maximize profit off each client. And that’s not the way that we look at it either.  Yeah, I think a lot of people are waking up to the idea that if the owners are super profit-oriented, then it means someone will have to pay the bill. And if there’s a huge imbalance between the motivations of the company and the individuals, then it can create tensions down the road. When I look for home services, I always look for, okay, which company is the one that maybe is a locally owned one, genuinely locally owned with real people that I can talk to and who I can trust, rather than a faceless institution that essentially dictates the policies that may not always be in my interest.  So I appreciate the independence. So if the listeners would like to learn more and figure out whether they have enough complexity or whether you are the right fit for them, where can they find out more, and how can they connect with you?  Sure. We have our website, ducerewealth.com. We’re actually, for our one-year anniversary in about two weeks, revamping it, and so there’s going to be a lot of resources for all the various niche types of clients that we work with, and there are several forms out there. You can contact me, zane@ducerewealth.com. I’m a principal, but I talk to our prospects and clients, and we just want to do what’s best for the client. So, ducerewealth.com, and we welcome any and all of those interested.  Okay. So if you have complex financial needs, or you just want to think about your legacy and transition maybe to the next generation and how to maximize your wealth, check out Ducere Wealth Management and reach out to Zane Keller on LinkedIn. And if you enjoyed the show, then make sure you follow us on YouTube, give us a review on Apple Podcasts, and stay tuned because every week we have a couple of exciting entrepreneurial leaders who come to the show and share their most secret frameworks. So Zane, thanks for coming, and thanks for listening.  Thank you, Steve. I appreciate it. Important Links: Zane's LinkedIn: Zane's website: Zane's email: zane@ducerewealth.com

In this episode, Ray Cochrane breaks down NVIDIA’s case for world action models, the shift that swaps a robot’s picture-describing backbone for one trained to predict what happens next. He also covers Perseverance closing in on the off-world driving record, a derelict SpaceX rocket stage hitting the Moon, and Anthropic’s rework of Claude Fable 5’s biology safeguards. Finally, he digs into Gemini Omni, Google’s undisclosed trip-planning rankings, the Danube’s record low, and iFixit’s call for Apple to unlock the iPad bootloader. – Want to start a podcast? It’s easy to get started! Sign up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Ray if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Cochrane opens with a personal update. Wildfires in Eastern Oregon made for a rough week of heavy smoke, and a local building burned down, which he calls a real tragedy. Meanwhile, his work at Blubrry has centered on PowerPress fixes, where reproducing customer-reported bugs remains the biggest headache. Support tickets rarely carry enough detail, and the errors themselves are often too vague to diagnose. Consequently, he is leaning toward a stronger logging and error layer, and he asks experienced developers to share what actually works for them. Beyond VLAs: NVIDIA’s Case for World Action Models The featured story comes from NVIDIA’s developer blog, and it answers a question sitting underneath this year’s robot news. Why do robot arms fall apart the moment anything changes? Move a cup six inches, swap its shape, or change the lighting, and a policy that worked perfectly in training fails. The answer, according to NVIDIA, is not the robot but the model underneath it. For the last few years, the dominant approach has been the vision-language-action model, or VLA, built on an AI that originally learned to describe pictures. Consequently, it recognizes a banana it has never seen, in a kitchen it has never seen, yet it has no idea what that banana will do next. As the article puts it, such a model “does not learn what happens to a mug when the gripper closes, how a towel folds, where an object lands when released.” Because the physics never arrives with the model, every scrap of it has to come out of hand-recorded demonstrations. The proposed fix swaps the foundation entirely. Instead of building on a model that learned to caption images, a world action model builds on one trained to predict how video continues, so the physics is already paid for. Notably, these models output an action and a prediction of what the robot’s cameras will see, in the same pass. Cochrane likens it to forethought, imagining your own motion as you make it. NVIDIA’s implementation is Cosmos 3, pretrained on roughly 767 million images and 348 million videos of real-world dynamics. It ships in 4, 16, and 64 billion parameter sizes named Edge, Nano, and Super, and it runs in real time on a Jetson Thor board bolted to the robot itself. Cochrane recalls his dad owning one of those Jetson boards, and he asks anyone working in robotics to explain how the throughput figures fit together. However, he closes on an open question: where did 348 million videos actually come from? For deeper detail, he points listeners to the source article and to NVIDIA researcher Jim Fan. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting $6.99/month, WordPress hosting $12.99/month, domains $11.99. Website builder trial available. Use codes at geeknewscentral.com/godaddy to support the show. Perseverance Closes In on the Off-World Driving Record Ars Technica reports that NASA’s Perseverance rover is about to take the record for most distance driven on another world. The mark sits at roughly 28 miles, set by NASA’s own Opportunity rover across more than fourteen years before it went quiet in 2018. As Cochrane works out on air, that averages about two miles a year. Perseverance will pass it in roughly five years instead. The difference is a navigation system called AutoNav. Since a radio signal takes several minutes to reach Mars, earlier rovers crept along pre-plotted routes and stopped every half meter to think. Perseverance carries a second computer dedicated to processing what its cameras see, so it plans while the wheels keep turning. Consequently, about ninety percent of its driving is autonomous, against roughly ten percent for Curiosity, and it averages around 110 meters an hour rather than 15 to 18. Cochrane notes researchers finding the rover at planned sites days ahead of schedule, and he wonders aloud whether world action models might drive the next one. A SpaceX Rocket Stage Slammed Into the Moon Next, Smithsonian Magazine covered the Falcon 9 upper stage that struck the Moon on August 5. That stage flew back in January 2025, carrying Firefly’s Blue Ghost and ispace’s Resilience landers, and it was never meant to end up there. SpaceX’s Julianna Scheiman says a mixture of solar activity and gravity nudged the derelict onto a lunar path after nineteen months adrift. Four tonnes of dead hardware arrived at about 5,400 miles per hour. Nobody watched it happen, and the reason is a nice bit of physics. It struck sunlit ground near a crater called Einstein, and no impact flash has ever been detected on the lit part of the Moon. However, the instruments caught the aftermath. South Korea’s Danuri orbiter imaged a dark new mark, while the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope picked up sodium and lithium in the plume, the lithium possibly shed by the rocket itself. Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell quipped that he has “Sir Isaac Newton’s personal assurance that it did indeed hit the moon,” while planetary scientist Hannah Sargeant warns against making a habit of it. Cochrane points out the Apollo landing sites are still sitting up there. Anthropic Reworks Claude Fable 5’s Biology Safeguards Anthropic published a post on how Claude Fable 5 handles biology questions, and the bind is genuine. Biology is the textbook dual-use problem, since the knowledge behind reading your own lab results also helps someone build a weapon. Rather than refusing outright, a classifier watches for risky requests and quietly reroutes them to Claude Opus 5, a capable model without Fable 5’s biological depth. Anthropic calls that mechanism a fallback. The trouble was how often it fired on people doing nothing wrong. This update cut biology-related fallbacks by roughly 85 percent in Anthropic’s own testing, with expected overall drops of 67 percent on Claude.ai and 55 percent on Cowork. Genuinely dual-use territory still trips it, and Anthropic names virology, toxicology, and molecular design. Cochrane hit the old behavior himself and found it irritating, so he welcomes the refinement. Even so, he would rather see a false positive than a model helping someone produce a virus. Five Builders Put Gemini Omni Through Its Paces Google highlighted five builders working with Gemini Omni. Omni is a model rather than an app, and it generates video from text, images, other video, or audio, while also editing footage you already have. Google claims it “combines an intuitive understanding of physics with Gemini’s real-world knowledge,” citing gravity, kinetic energy, and fluid dynamics. As Cochrane observes, that is the same bet NVIDIA is making with robots, only pointed at video generation instead. He also flags a naming collision worth knowing about. NVIDIA calls its architecture an omni-model while Google’s product is simply Omni, two different things landing in the same week. Additionally, he encourages listeners to watch the demos, though he still senses a disconnect in AI-generated video and concedes that knowing its origin may color the impression. Gemini Wants to Plan Your Vacation Another Gemini piece, a how-to on trip planning, drew Cochrane’s sharpest take of the night. Gemini plugs straight into Google Maps, Flights, and Hotels, pulling live locations, reviews, and prices to build an itinerary. Switch on a feature called Personal Intelligence, and it reads across your Google apps, turning a messy trip-planning email chain into a clean master plan. Clever, but he calls it extremely concerning. Once these become services, he expects partnerships to quietly push particular hotels, restaurants, resorts, and destinations onto users. Notably, Google’s post never explains how any of it gets ranked, and the words sponsored, ad, affiliate, commission, and paid never appear once. There is no disclosure of a commercial arrangement, and no denial of one either. Meanwhile the post hands readers off to Viator to book tours without describing that relationship at all. Cochrane suspects the real effect shows up slowly, in the shape of small businesses continuing to disappear. The Senate Blocks a Rule on Who Controls Research Money Science reports that the Senate passed a temporary spending bill in the early hours of Saturday the 8th. The Senate’s version carries a one-paragraph rider the House version lacks, and that rider stops the White House Office of Management and Budget from finalizing a set of proposed rules. OMB builds the president’s budget, clears agency regulations, and controls how approved money actually reaches agencies. The bill itself is a stopgap, which prevents a shutdown without settling anything. The rules reach every organization that takes federal money, a pot of roughly $1.1 trillion across 41 agencies, about $150 billion of it research grants. They would let political appointees second-guess which grants get funded, allow awarded grants to be pulled when the work does not match presidential priorities, and put several countries off limits for research partnerships, China first among them. Senator Susan Collins pushed the block through after telling OMB director Russell Vought the proposal was deeply flawed, noting nearly 500,000 public comments, the vast majority opposed. However, the 90-6 vote is not law. Both chambers are on recess. Vought reportedly said the rule would not have been finalized before December anyway, and the block only lasts as long as the stopgap, which expires December 11. The Danube Falls to a Record Low ESA published a pair of Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite images showing the same bend of the Danube, 45 kilometers upstream of Budapest, photographed a year apart. Cochrane calls the before-and-after shocking, going from green to brown completely. Wire reports put the Budapest gauge near 10 centimeters at the start of the month, about four inches of water, against a previous record of 33 centimeters set in 2018. The knock-on effects arrived fast. Budapest ran short on both power and drinking water, while the shrinking flow concentrated pollution in what remained. Romania hit record lows on its own stretch as well. Cochrane hopes the recovery is already underway. What a Heatwave Actually Does to the Power Grid That river story runs directly into a Carbon Brief factcheck. Nuclear plants cool themselves with river water, so when the Danube dropped, plants in Hungary and Romania throttled back and pulled roughly 2.5 gigawatts off the grid. Romania declared a state of alert in its energy sector, and its navy reportedly used explosives to steer more water toward a plant intake. Carbon Brief then walked through what heatwaves do to each way of making electricity. Nuclear loses efficiency when the cooling water is already warm, though its shutdowns are mostly regulatory rather than mechanical. Gas turbines pull in less air because hot air is thinner, costing capacity. Wind falls off hardest, since a heatwave is a big stalled dome of high pressure and nearly still air. Solar is the surprise: cells genuinely do get less efficient as they heat up, yet total output climbs anyway, with UK solar up 46 percent during a four-day June heatwave against the week before. Butterflies Are on the Move Everywhere A new study in Nature Ecology and Evolution covered 1,758 butterfly species, roughly one in ten of every species we have named. The team pulled 6,182 records from 105 countries, reading non-English research alongside 68 expert write-ups. Four out of five species pushed into new territory, and about 79 percent of the logged shifts traced back to climate change and extreme weather. Separately, 27 percent saw their range shrink somewhere, and 22 percent moved up or down a mountain slope chasing cooler air. That sounds like good news, and it really is not. Expansion means a boundary moved, not that butterflies are thriving, since a species can push its northern edge forward while its southern edge quietly collapses. Lead author Shawan Chowdhury says the shifts turn up on every continent where butterflies occur. Additionally, monitoring gaps leave Central Africa, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and the Amazon Basin barely counted at all. Cochrane recalls hearing years ago that butterflies were disappearing in Hawaii, and he invites listeners spotting unfamiliar species locally to contribute what they see. Primates Make Friends Across Species Cochrane called this one a fun find. A study in the journal Primates, led by Cyril Grueter at Oxford, gathered 427 documented cases going back to the 1970s across 88 primate species and 127 partner species. Play and grooming dominated at 139 and 136 cases, alongside carrying, huddling, food sharing, and even adoption. Primates usually started the interactions themselves, with juveniles playing most, adult females handling grooming and caregiving, and adult males least likely to join in. The examples are remarkable. Japanese macaques on the island of Yakushima groom sika deer and climb on their backs, a silverback gorilla cradled a tiny wild bushbaby, and wild capuchins in Brazil adopted an infant marmoset in a bond that held for weeks. However, Grueter rejects the pet-keeping headline and prefers the hedged term proto-pet keeping. The actual claim is smaller and more interesting: curiosity, tolerance, caregiving, and play have roots running far deeper than humans do. iFixit Tells Apple to Unlock the iPad Finally, an opinion piece from Charlie Sorrel at iFixit struck a chord. This fall, iPadOS 27 drops support for a batch of older iPads, including the 8th-generation iPad, the third-generation Air, the fifth-generation mini, and the first-generation iPad Pros. Cochrane owns one of those Pros and reports it still works fine. Those devices will not break, but they stop getting OS and security updates until apps abandon them and the battery gives out. The obvious second life is Linux, except the bootloader stays locked. Apple’s iBoot will not load anything else, unlike a Mac, a PC, or most Android phones. Sorrel argues it “should be a user choice, not a vendor choice,” and Cochrane agrees flatly. You own the device, so why does Apple decide what runs on it? He compares the situation to jailbreaking, and he suspects most consumers have never pushed back simply because it never occurs to them. Nevertheless, he hopes an unlock eventually breathes new life into hardware that still works perfectly well. Cochrane wraps with housekeeping: become a GNC Insider at geeknewscentral.com/insider, email geeknews@gmail.com, subscribe to the newsletter, and grab a modern podcast app at podcastapps.com. He thanks GoDaddy for over twenty years of keeping the show on the air, and he signs off wishing listeners a wonderful evening. The post The Robot That Imagines First #1872 appeared first on Geek News Central.

Douglas Sandstorm, a football fan, posted on social media about eating breakfast next to JJ Watt in a Greenwich Village diner, saying he chose to give the footballer his privacy. Watt ended up seeing that tweet and replying with “Are you still in the area?” and showed up to share a beer with Sandstorm. Such a graceful nod to his fans, which is no surprise from Watt, is known for being a nice guy. Creating memories on and off the field is just the coolest move, and we're here for it!  Scott & A will be at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA this year! Come out and see us over Labor Day Weekend!   — Slices is created by Scott Sigler and A B Kovacs — Produced by Steve Riekeberg — Production Assistance by Allie Press — Copyright 2026 by Empty Set Entertainment  Are all the Watt brothers this cool? I should blog about it.  Hailing from Wisconsin, the Watt brothers are expected to be polite midwesterners. That said, these guys go above and beyond, and if I had a new three-year domain from GoDaddy, using GoDaddy Promo Code CJCFOSSIG3 to get ninety-nine percent off that first year? You know I'd be talking about it. Gotta love a nice guy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Do You Hit 4000 Episodes Without Losing Your Mind?Today I'm talking with Glenn Hebert and Jamie Jennings from Horses in the Morning, the flagship show of the Horse Radio Network. They just crossed 4000 episodes, and since they're doing this daily, I had a ton of questions for them. Mainly: how do you keep your sanity?Glenn has been on this show more times than any other guest, and I'll drop links to a few of those past conversations below. We also talk about how "Glenn the Geek" became a verb around here. I cut in a few times throughout the episode to riff on some of what we discussed, so stick around for that too.Key TakeawaysSegments (not just guests) are what let a daily or frequent show survive without constantly reinventing the wheel.A real community needs a place to talk to each other, not just a place to listen to you.Feedback from your most invested listeners (not just anyone) should shape what you keep and what you cut.You're making the show for the 80% who like it, not the 20% who don't.If you're trying to make money at this, budget 10-12 hours of work for every hour that airs.How Glenn and Jamie Keep Finding Something to Talk AboutJamie's husband asked her, before episode one, what she was even going to talk about after two weeks of a horse podcast. Sixteen years and 4000 episodes later, that question still makes her laugh. Glenn books guests only a week or two out, and most of the show's four or five segments per episode get planned the morning of. Being daily is actually their advantage: they can be timely in a way most podcasts can't.Glenn admitted he basically is the show-prep service. Google Alerts and AI help him find stories faster than they used to, but the instinct for what's worth talking about still comes down to two to three hours of prep every single morning.Segments Give You Somewhere to Put Your EnergyJamie is the storyteller. Glenn plays the guy reacting to it. He described their pre-show routine: Jamie says she's got a two-to-five-minute story, and he already knows it's going to stretch to twenty minutes and he'll happily let it. That contrast, he said, is what makes the show work.I've got segments on this show too (if you've got a favorite segment idea, feel free to send it in). One of mine is built entirely out of "this happened because I have a podcast." I used to do a "last five in five" segment where I'd share the last five things I listened to in under five minutes. Segments are useful because they don't all have to show up in every episode. When I don't have a big topic, I create a "podcast stew," a handful of small segments squeezed together. Takes the pressure off having to fill a big block of time. An episode just needs to be as long as it needs to be, and not a minute more.Building a Community That Actually Talks to Each OtherGlenn says their community basically built itself once Patreon entered the picture around nine or ten years ago. One of their own listeners asked if she could start a private Facebook group for supporters, and it's grown into 30+ subgroups on everything from dogs to mental health, plus in-person meetups they run themselves.Glenn's take, and I completely agree: the biggest mistake podcasters make when they say they want "community" is giving people no actual place to talk to each other. A community needs a room. You don't have a true community until they can talk to each other.They get supporters directly involved too, birthdays shouted out on air, segment material submitted by listeners themselves. If your audience made the content, you already know they're going to like it.Sponsors Who Become Part of the FamilyJamie and Glenn have given away more than $80,000 in prizes over 16 years, largely funded by sponsors who get a bit of airtime in exchange for product. Those relationships often graduate into full paid sponsorships once the brand sees it works.That reminded me of Mark from Beyond Bourbon Street, a past guest of mine (episode 829) who had Two Chicks Walking Tours as a sponsor, then had listeners telling him in his own community that they'd taken the tour and loved it. That's the kind of proof that makes a sponsorship renewal conversation easy. And speaking of sponsors sticking around, I was listening to The New Media Show recently and they mentioned Todd Cochran had GoDaddy as a sponsor for around 21 years.The Focus Group Most Podcasts Never Bother WithThis one floored me. On top of their broader Patreon community, Glenn and Jamie run a rotating focus group of 12 listeners every six months whose entire job is to comment on every single episode. Every episode gets six to twelve honest responses.That feedback has actually killed segments. They ran an "animal psychics" bit for a while that they personally enjoyed, but the negative response outweighed the positive, so it's gone. If you're going to ask your paying supporters for their opinion, you have to actually be willing to act on it.Handling the People Who Don't Like YouGlenn's rule, learned from ten years running an improv theater company: about 80% of any audience likes what you do, and 20% doesn't. That ratio doesn't change. You're not making the show for the 20%. You're making it for the 80%, and Glenn pointed out the harder truth: a chunk of that 20% keeps listening anyway, seemingly just to be annoyed. Let it go.Jamie added that after the true fans and the negative Nellies, there's a middle group whose feedback is the most useful because it's the most honest.The Most Popular Segment Isn't the GuestsRight before hitting 4000 episodes, they surveyed listeners on favorite segments. The winner, by a wide margin: pure host banter, just Glenn and Jamie talking about nothing. Their biggest listener complaint over the years has actually been "too many guests." As Glenn put it, people come for the content and stay for the hosts.What It Takes to Actually Make Money Doing ThisGlenn's advice for a new podcaster wondering when the money shows up: niches make it easier. Horse people, in his words, are some of the most dedicated hobbyists out there, and that's true of plenty of other niches too (cycling, golf, you name it). Small and mid-sized brands without their own ad agencies are the sweet spot, and Glenn's found 80% of his sponsors by showing up in person at trade shows and introducing himself at every booth. He's been to 38 of them.Their own listener survey backs this up: 80% of listeners said they'd bought a product because Glenn and Jamie talked about it on air in the last year. Only 25% said the same about a banner ad. Trust is the entire business model.Doing the Show Sick, and Other Real-Talk MomentsWhen you're sick, you address it up front. Ignoring it doesn't work, because that's all the listener will focus on anyway. Same goes for a loud remote recording location. Be real about it and people roll with it, sometimes they even prefer it.One detail that stuck with me: Jamie trains off-the-track thoroughbreds and has personally placed horses with listeners in 18 different states just by mentioning them on the show. That's community turned into real-world impact.My Takeaways After the InterviewA few things I wanted to add once the mic was off:Contact info matters more than you think. Always tell people how to reach you. For me that's schoolofpodcasting.com/contact. Someone recently told me they'd left a comment on my Substack and had no idea if I'd seen it, because I hadn't told them how I check for those.Where to find ideas, beyond hanging out with your audience the way Glenn does: Google Alerts will tell you anytime a topic (or your name) gets mentioned online. Answer the Public shows you what people are actually typing into search around a topic. Or just Google your topic and scroll down to "People Also Ask."On Podcast Movement: I wasn't selected to speak this year, which is the first time that's happened after speaking at every single one. Disappointing, sure, but I'll still be there to say hi, and I'll have more free time than usual. I am speaking at the Empowered Podcasting Conference in Charlotte, NC, and at PodIndy in November.Lesson...

Brian Nolan is the Co-owner of Darren & Phillip, a purpose-driven lifestyle brand creating premium matching apparel and accessories for dog lovers and their dogs. He leads the brand's American growth, strategy, and e-commerce expansion while advancing its mission to support dog rescue organizations worldwide. Before acquiring the company, Brian co-founded and led Sellbrite and BookOutdoors, which were acquired by GoDaddy and Hipcamp, respectively. A USC Marshall School of Business alumnus, he draws on extensive experience in entrepreneurship, product development, marketing, and e-commerce to build customer-focused brands that combine commercial growth with meaningful social impact. In this episode… Building a successful software company and buying an established consumer brand require very different operating skills. When a founder moves from SaaS exits into e-commerce ownership, how can past experience create an advantage without obscuring the realities of inventory, brand identity, and customer behavior? According to Brian Nolan, the transition from startup exits to brand ownership requires proven growth instincts and a willingness to relearn the fundamentals. He emphasizes evaluating repeat purchases, unit economics, and audience engagement before an acquisition. After taking over Darren & Phillip, he improved systems, expanded sales channels, refined the product line, and repositioned the brand as a premium, human-first lifestyle company. The experience also showed him the impact of founder visibility and the value of longer transitions, performance-based incentives, disciplined inventory planning, authentic storytelling, and a clear brand identity. In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Brian Nolan, Co-owner of Darren & Phillip, to discuss moving from SaaS exits to building a stronger e-commerce brand. Brian explains how he evaluated and acquired Darren & Phillip, repositioned its products and identity, and managed complex inventory challenges. He also shares lessons on seller transitions, acquisition incentives, and using Shopify and AI to guide decisions.

Candice Michelle is a former WWE Women's Champion who helped define the Divas era, evolving from a fan-favorite personality into one of the division's top competitors. Beyond her time in the ring, she's remained connected to the wrestling world through appearances, conventions, and reflecting on her groundbreaking career and the legacy of her generation. In the newest "Casual Conversations with The Classic'' episode, the Wrestling Classic Justin catches up with Candice Michelle at Poundtown Wrestling in Los Angeles! They discuss the Divas Era, Hall of Fame, Hulk Hogan and more! Enjoy!We appreciate you visiting our YouTube Channel! Please subscribe, like and engage!My Official Website + Demo Reel - https://www.justindhillon.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thewrestlingclassic/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thewrestlingclassic X - https://x.com/twcworldwide Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheWrestlingClassic/  Limited Edition TWC Tee https://headquartersclothing.com/products/headquarters-x-the-wrestling-classic-logo-tee?_pos=1&_psq=wrestlinhg&_ss=e&_v=1.0 WWE Shop Affiliate wwe-shop.sjv.io/RGRxQv 500 Level https://www.500level.com/ Join the Discord Community https://linktr.ee/thewrestlingclassic All Episodes are on "The Wrestling Classic" Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOQOYraeFlX-xd8f3adQtTw#CandiceMichelle #WWE #HulkHogan #WWEDivas #PTWBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/twc-show--4417554/support.

Peter is building apps to track the moon, monitor the S&P 500, read text aloud, and eventually help automate options trading. Adam is battling GoDaddy, planning a Mac Mini trading setup, and trying not to make his knee injury worse. Along the way, they debate local versus cloud AI, celebrate the possible return of Dead End, discuss marathon training, and discover that even software developers occasionally need the moon to explain their dogs. Adam Bell and Peter Nikolaidis The Blurring The Lines Podcast Learn More About the Hosts: Peter Nikolaidis https://PN72.com https://friendswithbrews.com  Adam Bell Roaming Roan Lavender Farm https://rrlavenderfarm.com 

"Man, what didn't I get wrong? It's so much harder." Brian Nolan sold his SaaS company Sellbrite to GoDaddy. Then he bought Darren & Phillip, an Australian dog apparel brand built around viral matching dog-and-owner bathrobes, and found out that owning a store is a different beast than building software for stores. The founder was the face of the brand, and she left with the sale. The Google Workspace account was locked to Australian billing. Moving inventory from Australia to the US costs more than shipping it from China. In this episode: what nobody warns you about when buying an 8-year-old brand, how customers with 80+ repeat purchases justify losing money on the first order, and the TikTok creator seeding playbook that works in the hundreds, not the tens of thousands. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Darren & Phillip: darrenandphillip.com Loop Returns (returns & exchanges): loopreturns.com Judge.me (reviews): judge.me Promo Party (Kurt's free gift with purchase app): promoparty.app WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

Elliot Noss explains his vision for using DNS with agents. Is the DNS the perfect backbone for a future full of agents? I previously talked to GoDaddy about Agent Name Service and Identity Digital about DNSid. Former Tucows CEO Elliot Noss has another vision: Groundmark. On today's show, Elliot talks about the idea behind Groundmark […] Post link: Trust and identity with AI agents – DNW Podcast #598 © DomainNameWire.com 2026. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.

In Episode 678 of the New Media Show, host and Podcast Hall of Famer Rob Greenlee welcomes Barry Kantz, CEO and CFO of Blubrry Podcasting, for a candid conversation about Blubrry's leadership transition, the legacy of (RIP) former CEO Todd Cochrane, independent podcasting, video, artificial intelligence, monetization, measurement, human support, and the changing podcast-hosting market. For more than 20 years, Blubrry and its parent company, RawVoice, have helped build and support the open podcast ecosystem. The sudden passing of Blubrry founder and longtime New Media Show co-host Todd Cochrane forced the company, its team, and Todd's family to navigate an unexpected personal and business transition. Barry explains how Blubrry responded, how leadership responsibilities shifted, and how his management approach differs from Todd's hard-charging entrepreneurial style. Barry is bringing a more data-driven and systems-focused approach while trusting Blubrry's experienced remote team to carry the company forward. The conversation also examines how podcasting itself is changing. Audio remains central to the medium, but video has become part of how audiences define and experience podcasts. Rob and Barry discuss YouTube discovery, the overlap between watching and listening, short-form clips, RSS distribution, Apple's HLS video support, alternative enclosures, Podcasting 2.0, and Blubrry's Vid2Pod tool for turning YouTube videos into audio podcast episodes. Barry also shares an update on Blubrry's HLS video development and discusses the company's new lower-priced starter plan introduced around the time of the recording. Artificial intelligence is another major part of Blubrry's next chapter. Barry explains how he uses Claude as a daily assistant for analytics, automation, research, and company operations. Barry sees AI as a way to make podcast creation and management easier, especially for creators who may not have extensive technical experience. At the same time, Blubrry's larger goal is to use technology to support human expression rather than replace the human connection that gives podcasting its value. Rob and Barry discuss low-effort AI-generated content, synthetic media, voice cloning, the limitations of automated clipping tools, and the growing need to distinguish human-hosted shows from fully automated productions. The discussion then moves into monetization and the opportunities still available to independent creators. Barry argues that smaller shows can create meaningful business value when they serve a clearly defined audience and develop strong relationships with listeners. Creators do not necessarily need millions of downloads. A focused show with several hundred deeply engaged listeners can provide valuable access to a professional, geographic, or consumer community. Barry also reflects on Blubrry's early work with host-read advertising and Todd Cochrane's long-running sponsorship relationship with GoDaddy as examples of how trust, consistency, niche relevance, and audience connection can create durable advertiser value. Rob and Barry also examine the challenge of measuring audio and video under a common standard. HLS video, progressive audio downloads, platform-controlled playback, and various delivery methods complicate the determination of what should count as a verified play. The discussion explores why common measurement matters to advertisers and why the industry may need different technical approaches for audio and video consumption. The episode closes with a broader look at the increasingly competitive podcast-hosting market. Hosting, storage, and delivery have become commodities. The competitive difference now comes from the tools, services, support, analytics, workflows, distribution options, and human expertise built around the infrastructure. For Blubrry, that includes PowerPress, WordPress integration, video support, Vid2Pod, Podcasting 2.0 features, AI-assisted workflows, monetization options, analytics, and access to experienced human support. Both reflect on the legacy Todd Cochrane helped create and provide a detailed look at how Blubrry plans to move forward in a media environment shaped by audio, video, AI, open distribution, creator ownership, and changing audience expectations. Key Discussion Topics: – Blubrry's transition following Todd Cochrane's passing – Barry Kantz's leadership and management approach – How the Blubrry team responded to sudden change – Todd's influence on podcasting and the open ecosystem – The evolving definition of a podcast – Audience movement between watching and listening – YouTube discovery and short-form video – Blubrry's Vid2Pod technology – Apple HLS video support – RSS, alternative enclosures, and Podcasting 2.0 – Blubrry's lower-priced starter plan – AI-assisted podcast production and operations – Human-hosted media versus automated content – Voice cloning, authenticity, and audience trust – Monetization for independent and niche creators – Host-read advertising and direct sponsorships – Measuring audio and video consumption – Podcast hosting as a commodity – PowerPress and the continuing role of WordPress – Human customer support as a competitive advantage – The future of independent podcasting Chapter Time Stamps: 00:00 Welcome to The New Media Show Episode 678 00:44 Blubrry's role in the open podcast ecosystem 02:03 Introducing Barry Kantz, CEO and CFO of Blubrry Podcasting 03:31 The sudden loss of former co-founder/CEO of Blubrry, Todd Cochrane 05:22 How the Blubrry team responded 06:29 Barry's leadership style compared with Todd's 08:17 Bringing data and operational systems into the company 09:57 How Todd might view today's podcast market 11:11 Video becomes part of podcasting 13:20 Blubrry's Vid2Pod product 14:46 Barry's transition from CFO to CEO 18:14 The opportunity for independent creators 20:00 Who now defines what a podcast is? 21:07 Audiences move between watching and listening 23:24 YouTube discovery and the importance of Shorts 24:55 The limitations of AI-generated clips 26:20 Blubrry's Apple HLS video rollout 28:12 Blubrry introduces a lower-priced starter plan 29:08 Alternative enclosures and Podcasting 2.0 30:34 Barry's use of Claude as an AI assistant 32:02 Supporting human creators while limiting AI slop 33:20 Voice cloning and the challenge of replicating humanity 36:18 Blubrry's philosophy on podcast monetization 37:30 How niche shows can attract direct sponsors 39:27 Managing expectations for new podcasters 43:16 Measuring HLS video and audio downloads 46:45 New competition in podcast hosting 47:36 Why hosting has become a commodity 50:45 Product focus, acquisitions, and platform complexity 52:01 WordPress, PowerPress, and AI-assisted websites 55:00 Blubrry's commitment to human customer support 57:31 Closing thoughts on Blubrry's future About the Guest: Barry Kantz is CEO and CFO of Blubrry Podcasting and one of the original founders of its parent company, RawVoice. Barry has produced podcasts since 2005 and has worked with Blubrry throughout its more than 20-year history. His responsibilities have included company finance, legal affairs, human resources, analytics, operations, and business leadership. Following the passing of Blubrry founder Todd Cochrane, Barry stepped into the company's primary leadership role. He is now guiding Blubrry through its next chapter as podcasting expands across audio, video, artificial intelligence, open RSS distribution, WordPress, and creator-led media. Blubrry Podcasting https://blubrry.com Blubrry Leadership and Company Information https://blubrry.com/about Barry Kantz on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kantzb Blubrry Podcast Insider https://blubrry.com/podcast-insider About the Host: Rob Greenlee is a 2017 Podcast Hall of Fame inductee, Chair of the Podcast Hall of Fame, and a longtime new-media executive, creator, strategist, and industry leader. He is the co-founder and current host of The New Media Show and the founder of Trust Factor Lab. Rob has worked across podcasting, radio, digital media, audio, video, creator platforms, partnerships, distribution, monetization, and emerging AI-assisted media for more than 26 years. His previous leadership roles include Microsoft, PodcastOne, Spreaker, and Libsyn, where he helped shape the growth of podcasting, distribution platforms, creator partnerships, and digital audio. Through The New Media Show, Rob explores how podcasting fits inside the larger new-media ecosystem, including video, livestreaming, artificial intelligence, platforms, audience ownership, intellectual property, advertising, trust, and sustainable creator businesses. New Media Show https://newmediashow.com The New Media Show on YouTube https://youtube.com/@TheNewMediaShow New Media Show Audio on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-media-show-audio/id392545649 Rob Greenlee https://robgreenlee.com Rob Greenlee on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/robgreenlee Rob Greenlee on YouTube https://youtube.com/@RobGreenlee Podcast Hall of Fame https://podcasthall.com AI Disclosure: AI tools were used to help organize and edit this episode description and create chapter markers from the completed episode transcript. The editorial direction, final review, industry perspective, and responsibility for the published content remain with Rob Greenlee. This description reflects the substance of the recorded conversation between Barry Kantz and Rob Greenlee.The post Blubrry's Next Chapter | Barry Kantz, CEO/CFO #678 first appeared on New Media Show.

Andrew Morbitzer, VP of Corporate Development, Life360 (ASX: 360) Your standard teaser tells a buyer everything about your company and nothing about why you fit their strategy right now. When sellers expect the buyer to figure out that alignment, the deal dies on the desk. Andrew Morbitzer has led more than $2 billion in acquisitions at Intuit and GoDaddy, worked on the sell-side as an M&A advisor, and returned to the buy-side as VP of Corporate Development at Life360. What You'll Learn Why do corp dev teams default to no on inbound deals before the first conversation How banker incentives and buyer incentives point in opposite directions How to research a buyer's strategy and priorities using only public information What a realistic projection signals to a corp dev leader versus what a hockey stick signals How to apply Buyer-Led M&A™ thinking from the sell side If you're advising on deals and want a framework for how buyers actually evaluate fit, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, has Buyer-Led M&A™ frameworks to help you pitch into the buyer's strategy instead of handing them a data sheet. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom just launched the only MCP server built for Buyer-Led M&A™ — so your AI and your deal data finally work together. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or Copilot directly to DealRoom and let your AI read your pipeline, analyze due diligence documents, and automatically write findings back.  See for yourself: dealroom.net/mcp ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00] Introduction [07:12] Why Inbound Deals Rarely Fit [09:40] Rationalization Over Strategy [10:01] The Inbound Problem Is Not Just About Bankers [15:43] When a Bank Actually Does the Work [18:12] The Banker's Incentive Problem [20:51] How to Actually Land the Pitch [22:12] Cash Flow and Finance Partnership [24:53] First-Hand Research on the Buyer [29:42] How Detailed to Get on Value Creation [34:30] What a Misaligned Banker Actually Costs You [37:50] Cold Outreach vs. Warm Relationships [40:45] Moves That Accelerate Trust [43:07] Applying Buyer-Led M&A on the Sell Side [42:48] The Year One Mistake That Bit Us [46:12] Assessing Culture Fit Before Close

This week's full broadcast of Computer Talk Radio includes - 00:00 - Nerd News, Human Edition - Meta AI, Netflix, Willy Wonka, GoDaddy, India, reCAPTCHA - 11:00 - Our attention span is breaking - Everything is vying for attention, to our own deteriment - 22:00 - Communicating tech to non-techs - Keith and Benjamin cover discussing tech with non-techies - 31:00 - Marty Winston's Wisdom - Marty covers Anker 14-in-1 Supreme Performance Dock - 39:00 - Scam Series - Fake IT Support - Benjamin warns of Fake IT Tech Support Remote Access Breach - 44:00 - Keske on voice recognition - Steve covers voice control and recognition over the years - 56:00 - Dr Doreen Galli - Dunning Kruger - Doreen talks AI and confidence in the Dunning Kruger effect - 1:07:00 - Listener Q&A - datacenters - Marcus asks why companies are running their own datacenters - 1:16:00 - IT Professional Series - 387 - Benjamin shares how systems fail differently under pressure - 1:24:00 - Listener Q&A - PC uptime - Shane asks how long is safe before rebooting his computer

Hi listener, in this episode we discuss alittle bit about “Kodokushi”— addressing the aging population in japan 65 years an older!

Where are America's fastest-growing business hubs—and what do they mean for real estate investors? A new GoDaddy report, paired with Zillow housing data, reveals the cities leading the nation in small business growth. Kathy Fettke breaks down why markets like San Antonio, Miami, El Paso, and Tampa are attracting entrepreneurs, creating jobs, and potentially driving long-term housing demand. Learn what these trends could mean for your next real estate investment.   Get your FREE PDF at www.Realwealth.com/AffordableMarkets Source: https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/news-releases/press-release-details/2026/GoDaddy-Reveals-2026-Most-Entrepreneurial-Cities-Zillow-Spotlights-the-Real-Estate-Trends-Fueling-Their-Growth/default.aspx

Former U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, VetsForward Executive Director and U.S. Marine veteran Ricardo Reyes and former GoDaddy chief counsel and gubernatorial candidate Christine Jones join Bruce and Gaydos for this edition of The Faceoff. The ongoing conflict in Iran, Mitch McConnell's health, Trump's involvement in the World Cup and Graham Platner were discussed.

In this episode, Ray Cochrane digs into “algorithmic outing,” new research showing that social feeds can infer your sexual orientation before you have consciously come out. He also covers Meta’s privacy-aware AI infrastructure, Alberta’s 466-million-line code scan with Claude, NVIDIA on reinforcement learning, and the many journeys of learning Rust. Along the way, he hits Google DeepMind’s A24 deal, WhatsApp usernames, and scuba-diving cyborg cockroaches. Finally, he looks up with Webb’s puzzling early universe, NASA’s emergency telescope rescue, and a gorgeous aurora from orbit. – Want to start a podcast? Its easy to get started! Sign-up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Ray if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Cochrane opens with a quick personal update. He hopes listeners had a good holiday weekend, and he shares that he spent his time working his other job at Oregon’s Finest, chatting with people around Portland. Because his Blurbry workweek tends to be solitary, he refills his social meter on the weekends. He then recalls a Saturday night out with coworkers at the Hungry Tiger before turning to the lead story. Algorithmic Outing: When Your Feed Knows Before You Do Cochrane leads with new research from Australia that identifies a phenomenon called “algorithmic outing.” In short, the recommendation systems behind your social feeds can infer your sexual orientation or gender identity and start serving related content before you have worked it out yourself. Importantly, the study is small and qualitative, built on in-depth interviews with twenty LGBTQ+ adults in the Hunter region of New South Wales and published in the journal Gender, Place and Culture. The mechanism is engagement signals: what you like, who you follow, and how long you linger on a post, a metric the industry calls dwell time. Lead researcher Dr. Justin Ellis of the University of Newcastle notes that several participants said the algorithm “knew” they were queer before they did, an experience that felt validating for some but frightening for others in public settings. For Cochrane, the deeper worry is what else that hidden pattern encodes, from upbringing to mental health, and where that data ultimately gets sold. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting $6.99/month, WordPress hosting $12.99/month, domains $11.99. Website builder trial available. Use codes at geeknewscentral.com/godaddy to support the show. Meta’s Blueprint for Privacy-Aware AI Infrastructure Next, Cochrane turns to a sharp engineering piece from Meta on privacy-aware infrastructure. The core challenge is that a system must understand what a piece of data actually is before any privacy rule can protect it. A field named “age,” for example, might describe a person in one place and a cache setting in another. Meta’s answer deploys a large language model only on the genuinely ambiguous cases, then distills what it learns into fixed, human-reviewed rules. The payoff is concrete. According to Meta, those deterministic rules already handle about 85 percent of the traffic, and only the last 15 percent falls back to the model, which costs roughly 400 times more compute. Cochrane loves this edge-case approach. However, he contrasts it sharply with the AI-everywhere software he wrestles with at his weekend job, which he says the heavy AI reliance genuinely makes worse and harder to audit. Alberta Scans 466 Million Lines of Code With Claude This one comes from Anthropic, and it ties directly to Meta’s theme. A team inside Alberta’s Ministry of Technology and Innovation used Claude to scan 466 million lines of code in about twenty hours, a review Anthropic estimates would have taken humans roughly six and a half years. Notably, they ran around fifty AI agents in parallel, essentially an automated red team and blue team probing the systems at once. For Cochrane, this is the good version of AI in production: cleaning up and locking down real systems rather than running the show unsupervised. NVIDIA on Reinforcement Learning for AI Agents On the AI-building side, Cochrane walks through an NVIDIA developer piece on reinforcement learning for agents. Reinforcement learning rewards a model for good behavior rather than showing it the right answer, much like training a dog with treats. Additionally, he clears up a common mix-up. NVIDIA treats RAG, retrieval-augmented generation, as a separate tool: reinforcement learning changes how a model behaves, while RAG changes what facts it can reach. GitHub Retires Two Gemini Models Meanwhile, GitHub is retiring Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 3 Flash across all of Copilot on July 31. The migration paths are Gemini 3.1 Pro and Gemini 3.5 Flash. Cochrane flags it as a sign of the times, since tools that felt brand new a couple of years ago are already getting sunset. He also wonders how quickly today’s “AI-optimized” chips will turn over as the models keep changing. The Many Journeys of Learning Rust One for the programmers, and Cochrane makes no secret of loving Rust. The Rust blog’s Vision Doc series explores how people actually learn the language, which is built around memory safety and its strict borrow checker. Honest themes surface throughout, including “clone guilt,” where beginners refuse to copy anything, and “silent attrition,” the learners who quietly bounce off. His take stands: getting your brain onto a memory-safe language rewires how you approach a problem. Google DeepMind Partners With A24 In an interesting collision of worlds, Google DeepMind is teaming up with A24, the studio behind Hereditary and Everything Everywhere All at Once. The two call it a first-of-its-kind research partnership, with DeepMind researchers and A24 building creative tools shaped by the artists who use them. Cochrane adds a detail worth noting: Google also invested in A24, so this is money on the table, not just a research handshake. For now, though, the announcement stays deliberately vague, with no named films or products. Google’s $1 Million Africa Indie Game Fund Another one from Google, and it is good news for developers. Google is launching an indie games fund for sub-Saharan Africa, a region whose gaming scene is growing about as fast as anywhere. The fund puts up $1 million across ten local studios, each receiving between $50,000 and $200,000 plus mentorship and hands-on support. Applications close at noon UTC on July 31. WhatsApp Usernames Are Here to Reserve WhatsApp is finally moving off phone numbers as your identity. With usernames, someone can start a conversation with you without ever seeing your number. Starting this week, you can reserve the name you want ahead of the full launch later this year. To claim yours, head into Settings, then Account, then Username. Intel Sets Its Q2 Earnings Date Cochrane flags a date worth watching for anyone tracking Intel. The company reports second-quarter results on July 23, right after market close, with an earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific. Given recent US government investment and a shifting chip landscape, he is curious how the domestic chipmaker is holding up. Your Smartwatch Might Spot Illness Before You Do Shifting to health, Engadget reports that the wearables-plus-AI wave is starting to deliver. These devices excel at catching the moment your body drifts off its own baseline, often the first nudge to get checked out. A 2025 study from Texas A&M and Stanford suggests smartwatches can detect early signs of COVID or the flu within hours of infection. Additionally, Apple Watch’s irregular-rhythm alerts have flagged AFib correctly about 84 percent of the time. Working Memory and Consciousness Here is a heady one from Scientific American, written by philosopher Henry Taylor at the University of Birmingham. Working memory is the mental scratchpad holding whatever you are doing right now. Taylor opens with the doorway effect, that blank moment when you enter a room and forget why. Intriguingly, when information leaves working memory, it seems to leave conscious awareness at the same instant, a link drawing fresh attention across psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. Scuba-Diving Cyborg Cockroaches Now for the wild one. Scientists have built tiny diving suits that let Madagascar hissing cockroaches survive underwater for up to three hours, while an unequipped roach suffocates in minutes. The 3D-printed suit feeds oxygen through tubes into the insect’s breathing holes, called spiracles, using a chemical generator with no electronics. This lab already steered the roaches with electrodes, so the diving suit is the new trick on top. Researchers pitch it for search and rescue, though Cochrane notes the reality of the spy bug has already arrived. Quantum Time Runs Backward at Los Alamos Next, a genuine brain-bender. Physicists at Los Alamos, led by Luis Pedro García-Pintos, found a way to make a quantum system look like it is running backward in time. To be clear, time is not literally reversing. Precise measurements just make the system’s evolution appear to unfold in reverse. The useful part is energy: measurement itself becomes a resource in what they call a continuous measurement engine. Cochrane admits the paper drifted further from his reality the more he read. Tall Trees Shrug Off Drought A new study in Science overturns some textbook wisdom. For years, the assumption held that taller trees suffer more in drought because they must lift water higher. However, researchers studying dipterocarps in Southeast Asia found that trees topping seventy meters slowed their growth by about the same amount as short ones during the 2023-2024 El Niño drought. The trick is plumbing: a seventy-meter tree grows base vessels roughly twice as wide as a ten-meter tree, so the real driver of drought stress is subtler than raw height. The Energy Department Purges Conservation Pages This next one frustrates Cochrane. The US Department of Energy deleted roughly 6,000 web pages about energy conservation, and the timing is brutal during a record heatwave. The move followed backlash over New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani urging residents to ease strain on the grid. Fortunately, the Internet Archive and its Wayback Machine preserved the pages before they vanished. For Cochrane, deleting that kind of public information simply does not make sense. Webb’s Puzzling New Universe Heading to space, Quanta Magazine explores how the James Webb Space Telescope keeps finding early-universe objects that should not exist. Those include black holes that grew enormous too fast and hundreds of mysterious “little red dots” around 650 million years after the Big Bang. As astrophysicist Rachel Somerville of the Flatiron Institute puts it, scientists have “almost gone from having too many early galaxies to having too many theories.” The hard part now is figuring out which theory is right. NASA’s Emergency Telescope Rescue NASA has a rescue mission underway for the Swift Observatory, a 2004 telescope that studies gamma-ray bursts. Recent solar storms puffed up Earth’s atmosphere, and the added drag has dragged Swift’s orbit down to about 224 miles, low enough to risk burning up this year. To intervene, NASA enlisted Katalyst Space Technologies of Flagstaff, Arizona, whose LINK spacecraft launched Friday. The plan is to boost Swift back up to roughly 373 miles. A Gorgeous Aurora From Orbit Finally, Cochrane closes on something beautiful. ESA shared a stunning aurora captured from orbit, a shimmering green band of light rippling over the planet. If you have a few minutes, it is well worth a look. Cochrane wraps with housekeeping and a thank-you to GoDaddy for two decades of support, then signs off, wishing listeners a wonderful evening. The post Algorithmic Outing: When Your Feed Knows Before You Do #1869 appeared first on Geek News Central.

In this episode, Ray Cochrane digs into Claude Science, Anthropic’s new AI workbench for researchers, and explains why its auditable, reproducible outputs matter more than the AI itself. He also covers Google’s June AI recap, the Pulpie web-cleaning model, the PamStealer Mac malware, a synthetic cell that divides on its own, and the first-ever treatment trial for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. Finally, he looks skyward with NASA’s year-long Mars simulation and a can’t-miss July skywatching night. – Want to start a podcast? Its easy to get started! Sign-up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Ray if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Cochrane opens with a quick personal update. He mentions a busy stretch at Blubrry and an upcoming local move, followed by a late-August trip to Michigan with his partner. He also notes that Oregon is at its summer best right now, with flowers everywhere. Then he sends a happy 30th birthday to his sister Anna before diving into the lead story. Claude Science: Anthropic’s AI Workbench for Researchers Cochrane leads with Claude Science, which Anthropic describes as an AI workbench for scientists. It pulls together scattered research tools into a single environment and ships with more than 60 skills and connectors for fields such as genomics and structural biology. According to Anthropic, every result carries an auditable history: the exact code, the computing environment, and a plain-language account of what happened. For Cochrane, reproducibility is the real story, not AI, because a result that nobody can reproduce does not count for much. The tool runs on macOS and Linux, with Windows support via WSL, and Cochrane says he already has it set up on his own machine for his machine learning work. Notably, it arrived during a busy week for Anthropic. The company also shipped an upgraded Sonnet 5, and its top-tier Fable 5 model returned after a brief pause tied to a US export-control order. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting $6.99/month, WordPress hosting $12.99/month, domains $11.99. Website builder trial available. Use codes at geeknewscentral.com/godaddy to support the show. Google Recaps Its June AI Push Next, Cochrane runs through Google’s roundup of its June AI announcements. A Gemini-based prototype aims to help local councils clear administrative backlogs and halve the time to process planning applications. Google is also backing seven bipartisan bills against scams. Meanwhile, its research models now predict river floods up to seven days out, track wildfire boundaries, and forecast cyclone paths. Pulpie Cleans Up the Web for a Fraction of the Cost This one comes from Hugging Face. Pulpie is a web extractor that strips a page down to its main content and tosses the ads, headers, and sidebars. That matters because language models read the web twice, once in training and again at inference. According to the team, cleaning a billion pages costs about $7,900 with Pulpie versus roughly $159,000 with the leading tool, Dripper, and it is open for anyone to use. An AI Alexander Hamilton Comes to Boston The Museum of American Finance, a free Smithsonian affiliate, opens a new home on July 3 at Boston’s Commonwealth Pier. Its headline draw is an AI-generated Alexander Hamilton that chats with visitors in multiple languages. However, Cochrane finds it fun but wonders how much of an upgrade an AI kiosk really is over a scripted one. Arm’s June Roundup: Azure Silicon and Better Mobile Graphics From the Arm newsroom, Cochrane highlights Cobalt 200, Microsoft’s Azure processor tuned for agentic AI. Two Unreal Engine features, MegaLights and Nanite, are also coming to mobile to deliver richer lighting and detail. Additionally, a small open-source robot called Reachy Mini shows off on-device physical AI. Arm also continues shrinking large language models to fit on phones. Meta Marks Ten Years of Backing Python Meta just hit its tenth straight year sponsoring the Python Software Foundation. The nonprofit keeps the language healthy and its global community funded. Beyond funding, Meta supports the developer-in-residence program, PyPI security, and open-source tools like the Pyrefly type checker. Cochrane urges listeners to push their own companies to sponsor the open-source projects they rely on. PamStealer: Mac Malware That Verifies Your Password First Ars Technica reported a stealthy new macOS infostealer called PamStealer. It shows a fake password prompt, then validates the entry through Apple’s own PAM system, so it only keeps confirmed correct passwords. The malware spreads via a fake disk image that poses as Maccy, a legitimate clipboard manager. Cochrane’s advice is simple: only download from maccy.app, and never run a script or press Command-R just because an app told you to. Apple Creator Studio Gets a Suite-Wide AI Update Apple rolled out AI features across its Creator Studio apps. Final Cut Pro leads with auto-generated captions, edit detection, and an auto-mask tool. Meanwhile, Pixelmator adds Match Color, and Logic Pro gains chord identification plus a full teaching session behind a real track. Cochrane calls that built-in lesson a nice leg up for anyone learning to produce music. New York’s Heat Wave Sparks a Thermostat Fight From Inside Climate News, Cochrane covers the backlash after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged residents to set thermostats to 78 degrees. That advice matched what Con Edison, the state’s largest utility, was already saying. Cochrane sets the politics aside and focuses on the real goal: keeping the grid from buckling during a brutal heat wave. A Synthetic Cell Grows and Divides on Its Own Quanta Magazine reports a major breakthrough. Researchers built a cell from nonliving parts, and for the first time it grew, copied its DNA, and split into two daughter cells. That dividing step had stalled the field for years. Cochrane credits Kate Adamala and her team at the University of Minnesota, who cracked it with a clever membrane trick. First Treatment Trial Begins for the Bundibugyo Ebola Strain The World Health Organization launched the first-ever treatment trial for Bundibugyo, a distinct Ebola strain, amid a serious outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the largest Bundibugyo outbreak on record, with about 1,400 cases and 438 deaths, and Uganda is now seeing cases too. The trial tests an antibody cocktail and the antiviral remdesivir. Cochrane also notes the WHO declared the recent shipboard hantavirus outbreak over. An Orbital Sunrise From the Space Station NASA astronaut Chris Williams photographed a stunning sunrise from the International Space Station on June 26. Because the station circles Earth so quickly, the crew sees sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets every single day. Cochrane points listeners to the full image on nasa.gov. NASA Seeks Volunteers for a Year-Long Mars Simulation Scientific American reports that NASA is recruiting for its next Moon and Mars Exploration Analog. Volunteers will live inside a habitat for a full year, facing the isolation and resource limits of a real mission. It begins no earlier than August 2027 at Johnson Space Center. Cochrane admits it is not for him, but calls it an amazing opportunity. NASA’s July Skywatching Guide Finally, Cochrane looks up. On July 11 and 12, a crescent Moon lines up with Mars, Saturn, and Uranus before dawn. Then July 14 brings a new Moon, a great window for the returning Comet 10P/Tempel 2, and prime Milky Way viewing. Saturn’s thin ring angle is a bonus through a telescope. Cochrane wraps with the usual housekeeping and a reminder that every GoDaddy click supports the show. As always, he signs off wishing listeners a great night. The post Claude Science: AI Workbench for Scientists #1868 appeared first on Geek News Central.

In this episode, Chris Cochrane leads with a $200,000 Star Wars LEGO collection that exploded into lawsuits, arrests, and a YouTube crusade. Additional stories cover Summer Game Fest 2026, the first Enhanced Games where doping is allowed, an AI collar that claims to translate your dog, Microsoft’s new in-house AI coding models, an AI-industry letter urging Congress to screen synthetic DNA, and Blue Origin’s New Glenn exploding on the test stand. – Want to start a podcast? Its easy to get started! Sign-up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Chris if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Chris Cochrane opens the show, back behind the mic after a long break. First, he previews a packed rundown before digging into the night’s lead story, a consignment deal gone very wrong. From there, the episode runs through gaming, sports, artificial intelligence, and space. Finally, Chris closes with personal updates on recent travel, a new camera, and a media business he is building. The $200,000 Star Wars LEGO Consignment War Chris leads with a sentence he never expected to say on the show. A dispute over a box of Star Wars LEGO has produced a racketeering lawsuit, multiple arrests, and a public statement from the CEO of Patreon. Bryan Mansell and his 83-year-old father, Ed, spent years assembling roughly 780 sealed sets, valued near $200,000. Back in 2023, they consigned the collection to the Keizer, Oregon branch of the franchise chain Bricks and Minifigs, splitting sales 65/35. However, the store changed hands in late 2024, and the new operators allegedly stopped paying and refused to return the unsold sets. From there it escalated fast. Stunt YouTuber Benjamin Schneider, known as “Reckless Ben,” took up the cause and split the claim into about ten small-claims cases, winning default judgments when the store skipped court. Meanwhile, his GoFundMe pushed past $600,000 and his videos drew millions of views. The company fired back with a Utah RICO suit naming Schneider, Mansell, and others, and Schneider was arrested on charges including stalking and trespass. Notably, Patreon CEO Jack Conte refused the company’s demand to pull Schneider’s page, telling Bricks and Minifigs they could “stuff it.” Eventually, the corporate franchisor parted ways with the store owners, cited gross negligence, and invited Mansell to settle. Chris’s own take: had the store simply returned the collection, none of this would have happened, and the owner “kind of deserved” the heat. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting $6.99/month, WordPress hosting $12.99/month, domains $11.99. Website builder trial available. Use codes at geeknewscentral.com/godaddy to support the show. Summer Game Fest 2026 Unloads a Stacked Lineup Next, Chris turns to Summer Game Fest, which Geoff Keighley hosted June 5 from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Capcom opened with a remake of the 2000 cult classic, now titled Resident Evil Veronica, bringing Claire Redfield back for a 2027 launch. Square Enix then closed the night with Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the remake trilogy’s finale, also targeting 2027. Other reveals included a new Spyro the Dragon, the console debut of Guild Wars 3, and a 2027 window for The Wolf Among Us 2. For the record, Fable and Halo Campaign Evolved appeared at the separate Xbox Games Showcase, not SGF itself. Off script, Chris riffed on the games he is most excited about. He flagged GTA 6, now expected in November at a rumored $100-plus price, alongside new Wolverine, Until Dawn, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin titles. The lineup, he admitted, has him ready to finally buy a PlayStation 5. A World Record Falls at the First Enhanced Games The first Enhanced Games ran May 24 in Las Vegas, openly allowing performance-enhancing drugs and skipping anti-doping tests. Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev swam the 50-meter freestyle in 20.81 seconds, beating the official record and pocketing a $1 million bonus. However, he wore a polyurethane supersuit banned since 2010, so the suit arguably mattered as much as any chemistry. Interestingly, several athletes who said they raced clean still won, including sprinter Fred Kerley and swimmer Hunter Armstrong. Predictably, WADA, World Aquatics, World Athletics, and the IOC all condemned the event and will not recognize the results. Chris, for his part, found the whole spectacle more fun than alarming. An AI Collar Claims It Can Translate Your Dog A startup called PettiChat is selling an AI collar that claims to translate barks and meows in real time at 94.6 percent accuracy. To be fair, it is no obvious scam, with real funding, a working app, and coverage from Forbes and Vice. Still, no peer-reviewed research or independent lab backs that number. Reviewers called the demo footage “undeniably staged,” and the best real science reads broad emotion, not full sentences. Chris agreed from experience, noting that any longtime dog owner already reads their pet’s body language well enough. Microsoft Builds Its Own AI Coding Models At its Build conference in early June, Microsoft unveiled MAI-Code-1-Flash, its first homegrown coding model. The tool turns plain-English prompts into source code and plugs into GitHub Copilot and Visual Studio Code. Additionally, Microsoft previewed a reasoning model, MAI-Thinking-1, on its Foundry platform. The strategy is clear: Microsoft remains OpenAI’s biggest backer, yet it wants to depend on OpenAI less and cut developer costs. The timing is loud, too, since Anthropic just filed confidentially for an IPO and OpenAI is reportedly readying its own. AI Leaders Ask Congress to Screen Synthetic DNA On a more sobering note, the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Microsoft AI signed a joint letter to Congress. Together, they want mandatory screening at the companies that synthesize custom DNA to order. Their argument is blunt: powerful AI is eroding the expertise that once limited who could engineer a biological weapon. Therefore, they urge identity verification, sequence screening, and recordkeeping written into federal law this session. As Chris put it, when the people building the technology sound this worried, it is worth paying attention. Blue Origin’s New Glenn Explodes on the Test Stand Finally, Chris closes the headlines in space. Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket erupted in a fireball during a static-fire test at Cape Canaveral on May 28. Fortunately, nobody was hurt and no satellites were aboard, though the first stage and some ground equipment were destroyed. That booster was set to launch Amazon’s first big batch of Leo internet satellites, the constellation formerly known as Project Kuiper. Afterward, CEO Dave Limp vowed to fly again this year, while NASA’s Jared Isaacman pushed to move Blue Origin’s lunar lander onto a backup rocket. Meanwhile, SpaceX flew its next-generation Starship Version 3 for the first time on May 22. Chris’s Travels, a New Camera, and a Media Venture To wrap up, Chris shares what he has been up to away from the mic. First, he recaps a hot, sickness-plagued trip to Disneyland in California, then a far better visit to Portland to see Ray. Proudly, he congratulates his brother on graduating and predicts their dad would be proud too. He also gushes about his new Nikon ZR camera, built on RED technology, which he says rivals a Sony FX3 at half the price. Beyond that, he is building a media business with a friend, taking free shoots to network while leaning on directing as his strength. You can find his work on Instagram at @dis.chris. Chris signs off with the usual ecosystem mentions: GNC Insider at geeknewscentral.com/insider, email at geeknews@gmail.com, the show newsletter, and modern podcast apps at podcastapps.com. He also thanks GoDaddy for over twenty years of support and teases a return to a more regular release schedule. The post The $200k Star Wars LEGO Consignment War #1867 appeared first on Geek News Central.

Industrial Talk is talking to Angeley Mullins, Founder and CEO at Aetheris Ventures about "Blistering pace of Technology and Industrial Impact". Overview The conversation highlights the importance of the Barcelona Cyber Security Congress from November 3-5, 2023, and features an interview with Angeley Mullins, a seasoned tech professional from Berlin. Angeley discusses her extensive experience scaling companies, including Amazon, GoDaddy, and Intuit, and emphasizes the critical role of AI in transforming industries. She warns of potential AI-related risks, such as the AI bubble and the AI apocalypse, and stresses the need for leaders to balance AI tools with critical thinking and human interaction. The discussion also touches on the future of education and the importance of maintaining social connections in a technologically advanced world. Outline Barcelona Cyber Security Congress Announcement Scott introduces the Barcelona Cyber Security Congress, emphasizing its importance for cybersecurity professionals.The event is scheduled for November 3-5 in Barcelona, with networking opportunities and expert discussions.Scott mentions their own participation and encourages listeners to mark their calendars.The event is promoted on Industrial Talk, where Speaker 1 will be broadcasting and discussing cybersecurity. Introduction to Industrial Talk Podcast Scott reiterates the podcast's mission to celebrate industry professionals and their contributions.The conversation with Angeley Mullins from Germany is introduced, focusing on technology and its applications in industry.Scott expresses excitement about the fast-paced changes in the industry and the importance of storytelling. Angeley Mullins' Background and Expertise Scott introduces Angeley Mullins, detailing her experience in scaling tech companies and her current role as CEO of Aetheris Ventures.Angeley shares her background, including her work with Amazon, GoDaddy, and Intuit, and her various leadership roles.The discussion touches on the challenges and strategies of scaling companies, from early-stage startups to growth-stage companies.Angeley explains the importance of finding product-market fit and scaling it effectively. Scaling Companies and Cultural Differences Angeley discusses the different stages of scaling companies, from early-stage growth to IPOs.She shares her experience at Amazon, where they scaled a division from zero to $1 billion in 18 months.The conversation highlights cultural differences between the U.S. and Germany in handling failures and risks.Angeley emphasizes the importance of learning from failures and adapting quickly, using examples from the tech industry. The Role of AI in Industry Angeley and Scott discuss the impact of AI on various industries, including healthcare and transportation.They explore the potential of AI to change the way people live and work, as well as the risks of an AI bubble.The conversation touches on the ethical considerations of AI, including the potential for an AI apocalypse.Angeley shares her thoughts on the future of work and the importance of human interaction in a world dominated by AI. The Impact of AI on Human Interaction Angeley and Scott discuss the potential for AI to replace human jobs and the importance of human connection.They explore the concept of human authenticity becoming a luxury in a world dominated by AI.The conversation highlights the need for critical thinking and the challenges of relying too heavily on AI tools.Angeley emphasizes the importance of leaders developing strategies that integrate AI with human expertise. The Future of Education and AI Angeley discusses the future of education, predicting a shift towards more personalized and democratized learning.She highlights the importance of critical thinking and the need to rethink traditional education models.The conversation touches on the role of AI in making education more accessible and efficient.Angeley emphasizes the need for diversity in AI councils and the importance of collecting knowledge from different generations. The Importance of Leadership and Team Building Angeley and Scott discuss the role of leaders in selecting the right tech stacks and developing effective teams.They highlight the importance of critical thinking and the need for leaders to focus on strategy rather than just tools.The conversation touches on the challenges of building cohesive teams and the importance of hiring individuals with the right heart and passion.Angeley emphasizes the need for leaders to balance AI tools with human expertise and critical thinking. The Role of AI in Enhancing Human Potential Angeley and Scott discuss the potential of AI to enhance human potential and improve quality of life.They explore the concept of living longer and healthier lives, thanks to advancements in technology.The conversation highlights the importance of maintaining social connections and the challenges of AI in creating a disconnected society.Angeley emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to AI, integrating it with human values and social connections. Conclusion and Contact Information Angeley shares her contact information, including her LinkedIn profile, Instagram, Substack, and website.Scott encourages listeners to reach out to Angeley and engage with her on various platforms.The conversation wraps up with a discussion on the importance of storytelling and the need for a platform to tell the story of industry.Scott emphasizes the need for leaders to communicate their stories effectively and inspire the next generation of industry professionals. If interested in being on the Industrial Talk show, simply contact us and let's have a quick conversation. Finally, get your exclusive free access to the Industrial Academy and a series on “Why You Need To Podcast” for Greater Success in 2026. All links designed for keeping you current in this rapidly changing Industrial Market. Learn! Grow! Enjoy! ANGELEY MULLINS' CONTACT INFORMATION: Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angeleymullins/ Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aetherisventures/ Company Website: https://angeleymullins.org/ PODCAST VIDEO: https://youtu.be/yiDf0XA6i3s THE STRATEGIC REASON "WHY YOU NEED TO PODCAST": OTHER GREAT INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES: NEOM: https://www.neom.com/en-us Hexagon: https://hexagon.com/ Arduino: https://www.arduino.cc/ Fictiv: https://www.fictiv.com/ Hitachi Vantara: https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/home.html Industrial Marketing Solutions:  https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-marketing/ Industrial Academy: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-academy/ Industrial Dojo: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial_dojo/ We the 15: https://www.wethe15.org/ YOUR INDUSTRIAL DIGITAL TOOLBOX: LifterLMS: Get One Month Free for $1 – https://lifterlms.com/ Active Campaign: Active Campaign Link Social Jukebox: https://www.socialjukebox.com/ Industrial Academy (One Month Free Access And One Free License For Future Industrial Leader): Business Beatitude the Book

How do we get rid of nuclear weapons around the world? We talked to Valley attorney and former GoDaddy Chief Counsel about her solution.

Most SaaS founders in the messy middle are making the same expensive mistake — building first and validating never. In this episode, Jeff Mains sits down with Corinne Kavanagh, founder of CAC Media & Publishing and former Microsoft Azure Data team contributor (part of a team that drove $500M+ in revenue with 76% YoY growth), to unpack what it actually takes to scale past the growth plateau.Corinne shares why your top-of-funnel obsession may be quietly killing your growth, how to validate demand before writing a single line of code, and why a fractional CMO may be the smartest hire you're not making. She also introduces her CARE re-engagement method, her SaaS Marketing Playbook, and the SCALE framework for building an AI-first marketing department without homogenizing your brand.If your business is growing and suffocating at the same time, this episode is for you.Key Takeaways0:24 — Welcome & episode framing: Why the messy middle is where most SaaS companies stall out3:22 — Guest intro: Corinne Kavanagh, founder of CAC Media, fractional CMO firm for SaaS & tech companies4:10 — Startups vs. enterprise: What big companies do differently — and what smaller companies can learn from retail validation models5:12 — Feature prioritization trap: Why founders rush to build before validating demand, and how to use micro-testing ($5–$10 ad spend) to validate before committing resources15:30 — Pre-development checklist: ICP study → messaging tests → distribution partner conversations → pricing research → competitive analysis17:09 — Competitor vs. customer time allocation: Why founders should be "in all channels" — and how AI tools can automate competitive monitoring23:04 — AI modernization in marketing: Efficiency gains without sacrificing brand authenticity — plus the importance of an AI use policy23:49 — Early churn warning systems: The retention play most SaaS teams ignore — and how to re-engage customers before they leave24:24 — The CARE Method: Corinne's re-engagement framework for growing lifetime value and sealing the leaky bucket25:08 — Account-based marketing (ABM): Why a focused list of 100 ideal accounts beats a massive TAM for execution27:01 — Growth plateaus: How to read your revenue chart — what "bubbles" mean vs. a flat line, and what each signals about your acquisition and retention engines29:48 — Aligning marketing, product & sales: Breaking down the wall between sales and marketing through co-invention, shared messaging, and CMO-level integration40:38 — The SCALE Framework: How to build an AI-first marketing department without producing brand slop45:24 — #1 marketing shift for 2026: Stop running your company — start building systems that run it for youTweetable Quotes"You can beat everyone else to market — but if your customer is not ready and chomping at the bit to buy it, it doesn't matter." — Corinne Kavanagh"Stop thinking about top of funnel only. Retention is half the story, and most SaaS companies are ignoring it." — Corinne Kavanagh"A consultant does a drive-by. They drop strategy and leave. That's not how you actually scale." — Corinne Kavanagh"If you're in the feature rat race, step back. Ask yourself: am I creating a category, or just chasing competitors?" — Corinne Kavanagh"Your marketing team should feel responsible for the P&L — not just the pipeline." — Corinne Kavanagh"Don't give sales a playbook and say 'go sell it.' Alignment has to be co-invention, or no one buys in." — Corinne Kavanagh"The most dangerous thing you can do with your runway right now might be shipping the next great feature." — Jeff Mains"Pretend you have a $200M company. What would you stop doing that you're doing right now?" — Corinne KavanaghSaaS Leadership Lessons1. Validate demand before you build — always. Retail companies won't spin up a new product line without marketplace testing. SaaS founders should apply the same discipline. Run micro-ads ($5–$10), talk to a pre-engagement cohort, and confirm that desire is "fiery enough to click the buy button" before writing a line of code.2. Your leaky bucket is as dangerous as an empty funnel. Pouring money into top-of-funnel while ignoring churn is a losing strategy. Build early churn warning systems using platform data (login frequency, monthly active users) and re-engage customers proactively before they silently leave out the back door.3. Bring marketing into R&D — not just into launch. Marketing shouldn't receive a finished product and be told to "figure out how to message it." A CMO-level voice in early R&D conversations means better competitive analysis, more relevant feature decisions, and messaging that actually lands in the marketplace.4. Break down the wall between sales and marketing. The old grudge match — "sales can't close our leads" vs. "marketing gives us garbage" — is a systems failure. Solve it through collaborative co-invention: shared meetings, shared messaging, and shared accountability for what's working.5. Category creation beats feature competition. If you're in a feature rat race with competitors, you've already lost the game. Step back and ask: how do we position ourselves so far apart from the competition that comparison becomes irrelevant? Companies like WooCommerce and GoDaddy didn't win by having more features — they won by creating new categories.6. Systems are your most important 2026 marketing investment. The #1 shift every SaaS founder needs to make: stop running the machine manually. Build systems around what's consuming your time, project forward to what a 100X customer base would require, and install those systems now. That's what gets you out of the messy middle for good.Guest Resourcescc@cac-media.comhttps://cac-media.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/corinnefss/https://www.instagram.com/corinnecava/https://twitter.com/Corinne_C_WAEpisode SponsorThe Futureproof Series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfkXKUPZ5xuOqMPR7_gzGybncTtavyR1NThe Captain's KeysSmall Fish, Big Pond – https://smallfishbigpond.com/ Use the promo code ‘SaaSFuel'Champion Leadership Group – https://championleadership.com/SaaS Fuel ResourcesWebsite - https://championleadership.com/Jeff Mains on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkmains/Twitter - https://twitter.com/jeffkmainsFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/thesaasguy/Instagram - https://instagram.com/jeffkmains

Most agency owners think their clients have it easy. But the gap between how you believe your agency operates and how clients and prospects actually experience it is often wider than you’d expect, and it’s usually the small, everyday frictions that do the most damage. In this episode, Chip and Gini ask if you were on the receiving end of your own agency’s processes, would you be happy? The answer, for a lot of agencies, is probably not. Their point isn’t that agencies should cave to every demand, but if you market yourself as a partner, act like one. The friction can start before someone even becomes a client. Contact forms loaded with qualifying questions scare people away. And back-and-forth emails to find a meeting time have no excuse in 2026. Use a scheduling tool, have a link ready, and make it especially easy for prospects. Once someone is ready to talk, the goal is to respond fast and remove every obstacle. When it comes to the handoff from prospect to client, agencies should have a standard proposal template so they can turn paperwork around in 24 hours, not days. Make invoicing and payments as easy on the client as you would want it to be if you were in their shoes. And when it comes to project management tools, if the client already has one they’re using, just use it. The tool matters less than having one. Key takeaways Chip Griffin: “When someone is at a low point, that is not the time to try to extract stuff from them. It’s a time where if you believe half of your marketing BS that you put out there about they’re our partners, they’re not our clients, well, then act like one.” Gini Dietrich: “We have to think about scope creep, and we have to think about margins, and all of those are very real things. But let’s not cut our nose off to spite our face.” Chip Griffin: “Being easy to work with starts before they’re even a client. I am often befuddled by how difficult agencies make it to get in touch with them for a prospect.” Gini Dietrich: “There are some organizations that have a process that they put clients through, and it’s so rigid that it doesn’t meet the client where they are. And it’s impossible to work with them because of that.” Related How to onboard new agency clients How to do client collections right and get paid faster View Transcript The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy. Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich. Chip Griffin: And Gini, I, I’m, I’m easy to work with, right? I mean, you know, I’m not too- Gini Dietrich: You’re super easy to work with. Chip Griffin: Well. Gini Dietrich: I mean, you’re a little cranky, but that’s why I love you. Chip Griffin: I, I, I think listeners know I’m, I’m cranky. They just… If you’ve listened to more than two or three episodes, you’ve probably heard me be cranky about something at someone. Gini Dietrich: Great. I love it. Chip Griffin: Yeah. Yeah. But we are gonna talk about whether or not you are actually easy to work with as an agency for your clients, and frankly for your prospects as well, because I think a lot of agencies believe that they are easy to work with, but their thoughts or their words maybe aren’t matched up with their actual actions. Gini Dietrich: Yes. And, you know, I will say that I learned this lesson when I started hiring agencies and solopreneurs. It’s not easy to work with other agencies. And you’re like, “Oh, that’s not… I thought that that was a good practice.” And then you realize when another agency puts you through it, not a good practice. Like for instance, making them, making you use their project management system when you have your own, bad idea. Sending emails with invoices that go into the void, bad idea. Like there are some practices that I’m like, “Nope, this does not work.” It’s not, you’re not making it easy on me. Chip Griffin: Yeah, and I, I think part of the problem comes from, I think part of the blame goes to people, people like us who are always preaching to agency owners the importance of protecting their time and their margins and- Gini Dietrich: Sure Chip Griffin: and all of that. Yep. And, and I think that, you know, some people listen to that, but they don’t think through, “Okay, well how does that look on the other end?” Gini Dietrich: Right. Chip Griffin: Yep. And, and so yes, you absolutely need to, to make sure that you don’t have scope creep, and you need to make sure that you are protecting your time so you can get work done, and you’re not just getting eaten alive by meetings and calls and all of that. At the same time, you should think, “What does the other person on the other end think? How would I feel if I received this communication or if someone I hired acted in this way? How, would I be happy about it?” And I think if you start to do that, you’ll realize that some of your practices may not be as easy to work with as you think. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I think you’re right. You know, I think about a couple of years ago, probably two or three years ago, it was a Saturday night and a client’s website went down, and the client called me, and the reason I remember this is Saturday night is ’cause I probably already had a glass of wine. And he called me and he’s like, “Hey, our website just went down and I can’t reach anybody.” And I was like, “What do you mean you can’t reach anybody?” He’s like, “I can’t reach anybody at the web firm. Can you help?” And I was like, “Of course.” So I called the web firm, and I finally got ahold of somebody, but I had to go through… I had to email three different email addresses, not a personal email address, and I had to go through their quote-unquote process. And I finally got somebody to call me and they said, “Well, keeping the website up and restoring a backup is not part of our scope of work, and so it’ll cost $2,000 an hour.” And I was like, “I’m sorry, what? But that’s not, that’s not a thing.” And they had taken this client’s… You know, they had… The client didn’t know, the client didn’t know what they were signing, and they did sign a scope of work that, that wasn’t included, and it was $2,000 an hour for emergency type stuff. And I was like, “No, absolutely not.” So their marketing manager and I got on with GoDaddy and we restored it ourselves, which it was not a fun process, but it worked, and that, that forced us to… I think they actually ended up firing the web firm, but which they should have. But, like, that kind of stuff I think is exactly to your point. They had put in a process. They had a contract. They did all the things, but they didn’t think through, like… restoring somebody’s website on a Saturday night is literally a click of a button. It’s not a $2,000 an hour emergency kind of thing. So, you know, yes, you should have a process. Yes, you should have a contract. Yes, you should protect your time, but also don’t do it at the risk of losing a client over something stupid like that. Chip Griffin: Right, and obviously there are some clients, as we know, who will abuse some of these things. So- Of course … there, there are certain times- Gini Dietrich: Of course, yes … Chip Griffin: where you have to be okay appearing to not be as easy as the client would want you to be. So this is not, this is not us preaching, “Say yes to everything that you’re asked to do.” It’s simply make some, make some good judgments here. Now, if this is, this is, the website disappears over the weekend, and it, you know, it’s not something that happens regularly, it’s not the, this client doesn’t generally abuse you, I mean, just get it done, and you can have a conversation after the fact and say, “Hey, that really wasn’t part of the scope of work. You, you know, we helped you as a show of good faith, but we need to, you know, we need to work this into the agreement going forward-” Right … or something like that. Gini Dietrich: Right, right. Chip Griffin: It, you know, when, when someone is, when someone is at a low point, that is not the time to try to extract stuff from them. It’s a time where if you truly want, you know, if you believe half of your marketing BS that you put out there about we’re our, they’re our partners, they’re not our clients, well, then, then act like one. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. Yeah. And I think the, I think, you know, we think, we have to think about scope creep, and we have to think about margins, and all of those are very real things. But to your point, let’s not cut our nose off to spite our face. Like, there are some times where you’re just like, “Okay, yeah, sure.” I mean, I didn’t charge the client extra for them calling me instead of somebody on their account team because it was a Saturday night and they knew they could get me. I didn’t charge them extra for that. We just fixed it, right? Like, and that, that creates more goodwill in your relationship and trust in your relationship than being like, “Well, let’s deal with this on Monday.” No. No. Chip Griffin: Yep. And I mean, and a lot of it, a lot of being easy to work with is really the small things. It’s not the, it’s not the big giant stuff. It’s the little bits of friction that just become annoying. So think about how easy is it for clients to book time with you or your team, right? Again, and we don’t want this to be abused, but at the same time, I’ve worked with a lot of agencies where they’re like, “Well, you know, I, I’ve got a half hour two weeks from now for you.” Gini Dietrich: Right. Chip Griffin: Come on. I mean- … you know, if, if this is a client who’s constantly asking for time, okay, you know, maybe. But in general, you should be trying to find ways to make yourself available. Gini Dietrich: Yes. Chip Griffin: You should be doing things like making sure that your team is at least acknowledging emails within the business day. Gini Dietrich: Yes. Chip Griffin: Even if they can’t solve it, at least acknowledging it makes you easier to work with. Little things like how you handle billing. You alluded to that earlier, but make it easy to handle billing. Make sure you’re finding out early on who should these invoices go to? Do they need to be copied to multiple people? Don’t say, “Well, I’ve got this process and it only goes to one person or whatever.” Make the payment process easy. Make it so that people can pay online, make recurring payments. If they want to be able to change a credit card, let them do that. Gini Dietrich: Yes. Chip Griffin: I had a recent experience with someone- You did. … that I worked with for a long time and, and I wanted to change my, my business credit card number that was used for it, and I was told I had to call an operator to do that. I’m like, “That is total BS in 2026. I should be able to do that online. I should not have to get on a phone and read out my card number to a human.” That makes no sense whatsoever. Make it easy for people. Gini Dietrich: Yes. Crazy easy. Like you should make it easy. It’s, it’s funny you say that because about invoices, because we worked with an accounting firm who would mail their invoice, and we use a PO box because I don’t want mail coming to my home and sometimes we got it, sometimes we didn’t. Like I, and they would go, “Your invoice hasn’t been paid for 120 days.” And I’m like, “Dude, I don’t have an invoice from you.” And so I finally got them to email them. Like, this is ridiculous. Don’t mail me the invoice. It’s 2022, for heaven sakes. Chip Griffin: Well, if you want to talk about not easy to work with, the PO box is a perfect example. I had a PO box for almost 30 years that I used for business, and I finally ended up giving it up recently because the post office was becoming extraordinarily belligerent about wanting various bits of documentation. I’m like, I’ve, I’ve had this- Gini Dietrich: Yes … Chip Griffin: post office box for 30 years. Like well you have to show up in person to do this, and so I would show up in person. They’re like, “Oh, no, you don’t have the right stuff.” Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: And we don’t have the right people here today, so we’re gonna have to do it again.” No. Gini Dietrich: Yep, yep. Chip Griffin: No. Gini Dietrich: Yep, yes. Chip Griffin: Like- Gini Dietrich: Mm-hmm … Chip Griffin: That’s, that is nonsense. There are so many ways to verify my identity, the identity of the business, what- like come on. Uh-huh. Also- Yeah … 30 years I had this box. Right. Like, and now you’ve just decided- Gini Dietrich: Mm-hmm, uh-huh … Chip Griffin: that now is the time that you need to do this? Give me a break. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. Yeah, I think you’re right. Like the, it’s, I think exactly what you said at the beginning, which is you listen to people like us who say you have to protect your margins, you have to protect your time, you can’t have scope creep, you have to have a process, like all of those things, and those are important. But you also have to be willing to be flexible and nimble to the client’s need within that, right? Like, there are some organizations, agencies I will say, that have a process that they put clients through, and it’s so rigid that it doesn’t meet the client where they are. And it’s impossible to work with them because of that. And I’ve had that experience too as a business owner. Like, you have to be able to be flexible enough to meet the client where they are and still deliver in ways that you know are going to deliver the results you’ve, that they expect. Chip Griffin: Yeah. And being easy to work with starts before they’re even a client. I am often befuddled by how difficult agencies make it to get in touch with them for a prospect. I see these, these web forms that have like a gazillion questions on them. Like, do you have a problem that you have a wild number of contacts that you can’t handle screening them if you just get name, company, and email? I mean, do, do you really need to ask them a detailed set of questions in a form? Gini Dietrich: Yeah. Yeah. Chip Griffin: I don’t, I really, that’s one I just do not understand, and I’ve talked with a few owners. I’m like, “Well, why do you do it?” “Well, just to make sure that we’re only getting qualified leads.” I’m like, “Do you, do you have a problem with this right now, though? Do you have… Are you flooded with so many that you can’t even just hit delete on the ones- Gini Dietrich: You can’t keep up, right, right … Chip Griffin: that don’t work out?” Google to find out if this is someone legit or not? I, I just- Yeah … And the vast majority “No, no, no, no, we just wanna make sure that they’re qualified.” I’m like, “You understand you’re scaring people away.” Every single extra form, item that you put in there reduces your, the completion rate. Gini Dietrich: Yes, Chip Griffin: Don’t do that. Make it easy. Yeah. Make it easy to schedule that first conversation with you. Strike while the iron is hot. If someone reaches out and they wanna talk to you, bend over backwards. I have a different Calendly scheduling link for people who want to reach out to potentially work with me that opens up more blocks on my schedule. Because why not try to reach those people as quickly as you can? Gini Dietrich: Right. Chip Griffin: And by the way, use a service like Calendly to book time. Stop it with these back-and-forth emails. I can meet between here and here, and this and that. That is, like, 10 years ago. We don’t need to do that anymore. Have a nice little Calendly link that someone can use, or whatever service you wanna use, that just makes it easy for someone to book time. You can always say to them as a polite thing, “If you’d rather just give me a range of times, you can.” But you know what? I’ve been doing this for years, and I have yet to have a single person say, “I’m not gonna click on that link” and instead say, “Well, I just wanna give you some windows.” Right. ‘Cause it’s harder for them. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, right. Chip Griffin: Make it easy. Gini Dietrich: Yes. Yeah, I totally agree. I think really understanding, like, think about it too from the, from your client or prospect’s perspective. If I were receiving this, how would I take it? And look at it through that lens to help you understand how you might improve things to make it easier for them. Chip Griffin: Yeah, and when you’ve got someone on the hook and they’re interested, make it easy for yourself to produce the statement of work and the contract, and get them out the door. Have a standard template. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: Don’t spend- I mean- Yep … a lot of agencies take a long time between when someone says, “Yeah, I wanna do this,” and when they actually start sending the paperwork. You should be able to get that over within 24 hours. Gini Dietrich: You absolutely should, and I think the problem with that is that people wanna write proposals that are, like, in-depth and strategic, and have tactics, and they’re really a plan. Don’t do that. That’s giving away stuff that you shouldn’t be giving away for free. You should absolutely have a standardized template. And truth be told, I put ours into AI, and I said, “Here are all the things that need to stay the same,” and it will pump that out, and then it will customize based on the conversation I had, and that’s it. And I always tell prospects, “You’ll get something from us in 48 hours,” and they get it within 24, and then they’re ecstatic, and they’re happy, and all the things. Chip Griffin: Yeah. And make it easy to complete. Make sure you’re sending it so they can get an electronic signature, so all they have to do is click, click. It’s done in five seconds. Yep. If you send it to them, and then they’ve gotta actually sign something, and figure out how to take a photo of it with their phone and email it to you, why are you doing that in 2026? E-signatures are a wonderful thing. You should be using those. And then once they’ve done that, make sure you have a templated process for onboarding so that you don’t say, “Oh, we’ve signed the agreement. You know, let me get the team together. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll get back to you in, you know-” Right, right. “… a couple of weeks when we’ve had the chance to figure this all out.” You should have an onboarding process so you hit the ground running. You don’t have to have every answer, but you have to be able to show them that you know what you’re doing. So it’s not just about being easy, it’s building their confidence in those early stages. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, for sure. And you know, one of the things that we find, too, is that, of course, because we have the PESO model, it, it is a very standardized process, right? But we find that clients, prospects come to us a lot with a problem. They think it’s a problem. And they all say things like, “We have a measurement problem. We don’t know how to measure.” And that, truth be told, like, that’s most comms teams, right? Most comms teams do have a measurement problem. They don’t know how to measure. And so we have a list of questions that we ask because that’s a symptom, and we’ve, we’ve discovered through all of our work that that’s a symptom. What’s really the problem? And we ask, you know, we start to dig in, and all of a sudden they go, “Oh, now it makes sense that we can’t measure,” right? So you can have a list of questions based on what the prospect tells you. It used to be that I, I haven’t gotten, had this conversation in a long time just because of the way we’ve shifted the business, but I used to hear all the time, “We’ve had four PR agencies, and they don’t do anything. They pitch a bunch of stuff, and nothing ever happens.” And so I had a list of questions based on that, and I– one of the questions was, “What other– Who, who else have you worked with?” Because I wanna know if you’re the problem or if they’re the problem, right? Have a list of questions that will help you understand so that then you can take all of that and throw it into your AI and say, “This is what I’ve diagnosed. These are what the problems are. Please fill out the template that you have,” and it helps you build a structure for your proposal really fast. Like, in two minutes versus two days. Chip Griffin: I mean, the great thing is being easy to work with tends to make your life easier, too. Gini Dietrich: So much easier. Chip Griffin: Most of these things will actually improve your existence. So, you know, rather than fighting it, rather than feeling like I have to just kind of, you know, push in my direction to get people to align with me, if you can find that middle ground, it will likely make things easier. And you opened by talking about project management, and so I think it’s a good place to, to wind down here as well. Project management tools are something that it certainly makes sense for you to recommend to a client if they don’t have something that they’re already using actively. Yes. You should definitely have one that you’re using and, and that is your default that you would like them to use. But if they say, “Hey, I’m already using something else, we need you to be part of that,” then go along with that, because ultimately it’s not which tool you’re using, it’s that you’ve got some way of keeping it all organized. Gini Dietrich: Yes. Chip Griffin: And if you can do that, you will make your life easier, you’ll make the client’s life easier, and you’ll produce better results. So, so don’t fight on that. Have it, so that if they don’t have anything, you’ve got a solution. Gini Dietrich: Right. Chip Griffin: You’re not like, “Well, you know, we need to think about it. Let’s try to figure out which one do you like? Should we try this? Do you want, do you want vanilla or chocolate?” Like, who cares? Gini Dietrich: Yeah. Chip Griffin: Just pick one, use it, and move on. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Yeah, totally. Yes. Chip Griffin: There I am being cranky just like you said. You’re welcome, everybody. You’re welcome, Gini. Gini Dietrich: Thanks. Chip Griffin: So with that, I think we will wrap up this episode, but, uh, hopefully we were easy to listen to at least. There we go. On that note, I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: I’m Gini Dietrich. Chip Griffin: And it depends.

You're tired of hearing “just build a SaaS” like it's easy, especially when you don't code, don't have a team, and still want something real that can actually make money. It can feel like everyone else has access to some secret playbook while you're stuck trying to figure out where to even begin. In this episode, Omar completely removes the gatekeeping and shows you what it actually looks like to build a real software business in a ridiculously short timeframe using AI. Nothing is hidden. He walks you through the exact tools, decisions, and steps he takes so you're not left guessing or piecing things together on your own. It's clear, practical, and designed to make you feel like this isn't some exclusive club, it's something you can dive into right now. If you've been waiting for proof that you can pull off your own AI-powered software build in a matter of hours, this is it. Click play at the top of the page and see how you can turn your idea into a real product faster than you thought possible. MBA2790 How To Build A Software Business With AI This Weekend. Zero Coding Skills Required. Must-Have Stack to Build Your Own AI App 1. Supabase 2. GitHub 3. Windsurf 4. Vercel 5. Claude 6. GoDaddy 7. Stripe 8. Kit Helper / Optional Tools to support your workflow 1. Wispr Flow 2. Google Forms 3. Chrome DevTools (Inspect Element) Recommended episode to explore: Can You Build A Profitable SaaS In 7 Days With Just AI? My Experiment With Proof! Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHi SUBSCRIBE YouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How much business are you losing simply because you're not staying in consistent contact with your audience? Most companies don't have a sales problem—they have a follow-up problem. And follow-up isn't about chasing people…it's about staying top of mind with value, relevance, and consistency. That's why my interview with Smita Wadhawan, CMO of Constant Contact, on the THINK Business – What Are You Good At? series hit on a hard truth—consistency is the new marketing advantage. Here are 5 takeaways that stood out: ✅ Mindshare → Market Share People can't buy from you if they forget you exist. Marketing isn't optional—it's oxygen. ✅ Consistency builds trust Trust isn't built in a moment—it's built in the follow-up moments people rarely do. ✅ Simple wins Customers don't want clever. They want clear. They want fast. They want relevant. ✅ Start now—then scale Stop overthinking platforms, funnels, or brand perfection. Start small. Ship. Learn. Improve. ✅ AI is here to help, not replace Use AI to automate repetitive work—so you can stay human where it matters most.   Smita Wadhawan Verma Global Chief Marketing Officer | Top 50 CMO | PayPal | Intuit | GoDaddy | Visa | SaaS | HealthTech | FinTech Award-winning Chief Marketing Officer with experience at GoDaddy, PayPal, Intuit, VISA, and SimplePractice — across SMB/consumer, SaaS, HealthTech, and FinTech. Global teams and global leadership at EcoVadis. Scaled and led businesses from a mid-size company to a $32B established brand, with budgets up to $175M. Expertise in growth marketing, product marketing, B2B and B2C marketing, lifecycle marketing, PR and comms. Smita has built and led teams of 150+ people in highly matrixed, cross-functional organizations across the US, Europe, Africa, Japan and India. She has partnered with top agencies like Koto, Instrument, Razorfish, TBWA, Highwire PR — and managed award-winning internal creative teams. Under Smita's leadership, her teams have won Digiday Awards and several Webby Award nominations. Smita is well known as a culture champion and recognized as a highly influential and inclusive C-Suite leader who can inspire teams to deliver outstanding results. Recognized as a 2024 Top 50 CMO in the US. Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience Website: https://jondwoskin.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon's Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big! Connect with Jeff Gunsberg:Website: https://title-connect.com Connect with Smita Wadhawan:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smitawadhawan/ *E - explicit language may be used in this podcast.

You’ll sharpen your daily tech game this week: add names directly to Mail recipient fields, kill those sneaky iOS nickname pop-ups before they embarrass you, and stay alert to Low Power Mode. Long-press your steering wheel button to summon Siri faster, welcome ChatGPT and Perplexity to CarPlay, untangle Apple’s App Entitlements, and stream HLS video right inside the updated MGG iOS app. Don’t Get Caught treating your LLM like a glorified search bar—re-task it as a brainstorming partner, let agents check each other’s work, troubleshoot stubborn email issues, and have it build its own skills using Claude Code and CoWork. Your questions and tips drive the back half: disconnect AirPods from your Mac in one tap with ToothFairy or Control Center, dial in rock-solid remote screen sharing using Jump Desktop, Zoom, and Tailscale, stop your iPhone ringer from accidentally flipping, and plan your escape from Comcast email by grabbing a real domain through Cloudflare, Namecheap, or GoDaddy. Then it’s Cool Stuff Found season—Bartender 6 reclaims your menu bar, the Syntech case protects your Apple Vision Pro, and the Mila Air3 and Honeywell HEPA purifiers clean up your air. Plus a heap of love for Eufy lawnmowers, vacuums, and doorbells, all wired together with Homebridge and Home Assistant. 00:00:00 Mac Geek Gab 1142 for Monday, May 18th, 2026 May 18th: Send an Electronic Greeting Card Day MGG Monthly Giveaway – Enter to win a Function101 Apple TV Button Remote The MGG Merch Store is Live! Quick Tips 00:00:01 Ben-QT-Add a name to the Mail recipient field 00:03:43 Beware of Nicknames showing on iOS You can disable this! 00:08:08 The lessons we learn about our tech when traveling 00:08:49 QT-Be aware of Low Power Mode. Also App Tamer 00:13:56 Larry-QT-Long Press Steering Wheel Voice Command to activate Siri 00:16:14 ChatGPT and Perplexity are allowed to use CarPlay now 00:18:00 Apple's App Entitlements 00:19:26 Mac Geek Gab iOS App adds HLS video 00:22:35 David-QT-Use an LLM to troubleshoot your email 00:24:33 Re-assign your LLM, re-task it. Treat your LLM like a brainstorming assistant. Claude CoWork (and Claude Code) 00:29:45 Let your agents check one another 00:33:16 Have your LLM create skills for you Reviews 00:36:26 Jamcycler-MGG Review-My Favorite Podcast Sponsors 00:38:02 SPONSOR: Keeper. Right now, Keeper is offering our listeners 60% off personal and family plans at https://Keepersecurity.com/MGG. This offer is only for podcast listeners! 00:39:41 SPONSOR: Shopify. In 2026, stop waiting and start selling with Shopify. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial and start selling today at https://Shopify.com/MGG 00:41:28 SPONSOR: Gusto. Get three months free when you run your first payroll when you start at https://gusto.com/MGG Your Questions Answered and Tips Shared! 00:43:07 Gino CO-How can I easily disconnect my AirPods from my Mac? ToothFairy Or Control Center Or Sound Menu Opt-plus-Mute/Volume keys will bring you to System Settings Sound Pane 00:49:09 Paul-Best Method for Screen Sharing? Jump Desktop Tailscale 00:55:04 Barb-How can I stop from accidentally toggling my iPhone ringer on and off? 00:57:13 Roger-What to do about Comcast email going away? Cloudflare Registrar Namecheap GoDaddy Cool Stuff Found 01:02:21 DLH-CSF-Bartender 6 / Pro / Mega 01:04:53 ATC/PP-CSF-Syntech Apple Vision Pro Case 01:09:25 CSF-Mila Air3 Purifier 01:11:37 n-Greg-CSF-Honeywell Allergen Plus HEPA Large Room Air Purifier 01:12:41 Some love for Eufy Eufy Lawnmower Eufy Vacuums Eufy Doorbells Homebridge Home Assistant 01:24:36 MGG 1142 Outtro MGG Monthly Giveaway Bandwidth Provided by CacheFly Pilot Pete's Aviation Podcast: So There I Was (for Aviation Enthusiasts) The Debut Film Podcast – Adam's new podcast! Dave's Business Brain (for Entrepreneurs) and Gig Gab (for Working Musicians) Podcasts MGG Merch is Available! Mac Geek Gab iOS app Mac Geek Gab YouTube Page Mac Geek Gab Live Calendar This Week's MGG Premium Contributors MGG Apple Podcasts Reviews feedback@macgeekgab.com 224-888-GEEK Active MGG Sponsors and Coupon Codes List BackBeat Media Podcast Network

People trying to return defective hard drives and RAM are finding out why consumer protection laws would be good, GoDaddy accidentally gave someone’s domain name away, and when and how to fix ZFS fragmentation. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Fast Dedup Economics: When Deduplication Beats Buying New Disks News/discussion Toshiba refuses to replace large hard drive that was under warranty — company offers refund at the purchase price, not the higher current retail price GoDaddy Gave a Domain to a Stranger Without Any Documentation Free consulting We were asked about when and how to fix ZFS fragmentation. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

People trying to return defective hard drives and RAM are finding out why consumer protection laws would be good, GoDaddy accidentally gave someone’s domain name away, and when and how to fix ZFS fragmentation. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Fast Dedup Economics: When Deduplication Beats Buying New Disks News/discussion Toshiba refuses to replace large hard drive that was under warranty — company offers refund at the purchase price, not the higher current retail price GoDaddy Gave a Domain to a Stranger Without Any Documentation Free consulting We were asked about when and how to fix ZFS fragmentation. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

This episode provides practical advice on advanced SEO, AI engine optimization (AEO), answer engine optimization, technical website optimization, schema, and retention strategies for anyone looking to improve digital marketing visibility in the age of AI. Learn how to harness evolving platforms, implement the latest best practices, and create resilient, audience-focused web ecosystems.In this insightful episode, Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS dives deep into the evolution of SEO—comparing the foundations of "old" Search Engine Optimization with the demands and opportunities of "new" Search Everywhere Optimization.Listeners will uncover essential strategies for optimizing content across today's rapidly shifting digital environments, including website best practices, AI integrations, and the importance of technical SEO fundamentals.Favour explains how staying updated and proactive is vital, as algorithm changes and the rise of AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and others are reshaping the discovery and ranking of digital content. Favour also takes questions from the community, responding with real-world examples and tactical advice.Whether you're a business owner, marketer, content creator, or SEO professional, this episode offers actionable guidance for adapting to future-focused SEO. Listeners will learn why website speed, schema markup, secure protocols, and precise keyword versus prompt usage matter more than ever.Favour also discusses why attention and retention are the new KPIs, plus the growing importance of authority, expertise, and trust—in both human and AI-powered search.Who Is This For?Digital marketersBusiness owners and entrepreneursSEO professionalsContent creators and website managersAnyone seeking to future-proof their digital presenceReady to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

This week on The Golden Era Podcast, Jake and Joey relive the WWE Women's Division from the week of February 20, 2006 — right in the heart of the Ruthless Aggression Era!

In this episode, expert Kayla Ihrig demystifies LinkedIn, sharing practical strategies to leverage the platform for career growth, networking, and personal branding. Discover how to overcome resistance, create authentic content, and build meaningful connections that open doors to new opportunities.Key concepts covered:Overcoming resistance to LinkedInCreating authentic and engaging contentBuilding a strong professional profileNetworking and outreach strategiesLeveraging LinkedIn for career opportunitiesGuest Info: Kayla Ihrig is a writer for HubSpot, GoDaddy, and Success Magazine and a LinkedIn enthusiast. LinkedIn has brought her clients, media features, friends and a book deal, despite having fewer than 4,000 founders. Today she's going to demystify the internet's most misunderstood platform so you can go get your slice of the LinkedIn pie. Website: https://writingfromnowhere.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayla-ihrig/ The podcast is brought to you by Mint To Be Career LLC. www.minttobecareer.com

This is a recap of the top 10 posts on Hacker News on April 26, 2026. This podcast was generated by wondercraft.ai (00:30): The West forgot how to make things, now it's forgetting how to codeOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47907879&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(01:56): Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0Original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909226&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(03:22): I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with itOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47914165&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(04:49): An AI agent deleted our production database. The agent's confession is belowOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47911524&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(06:15): GoDaddy gave a domain to a stranger without any documentationOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47911780&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(07:42): Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every dayOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47906253&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(09:08): Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?Original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47905984&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(10:34): AI should elevate your thinking, not replace itOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47913650&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(12:01): EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDsOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47907130&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(13:27): Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive raceOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47914350&utm_source=wondercraft_aiThis is a third-party project, independent from HN and YC. Text and audio generated using AI, by wondercraft.ai. Create your own studio quality podcast with text as the only input in seconds at app.wondercraft.ai. Issues or feedback? We'd love to hear from you: team@wondercraft.ai

In this episode, Ray Cochrane unpacks Anthropic’s Mythos model and the Treasury’s emergency meetings with Wall Street, then digs into Apple’s vibe-coding crackdown and a gaming-anxiety study that hit way too close to home. Also covered: Verge’s solid-state motorcycle, UBTech humanoid robot sales jumping 23-fold, Japan’s first osmotic power plant, Finland’s permanent nuclear waste vault, Ghostty landing in Ubuntu, Cloudflare’s EmDash CMS, and a Claude Code skill that talks like a caveman. – Want to start a podcast? It’s easy to get started! Sign up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Ray if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Cochrane opens the show by framing Anthropic’s new Mythos model as the AlphaGo moment for cybersecurity. From there, the episode moves through Apple’s pushback against AI-generated apps, a gaming anxiety study with a deeply personal hook, a series of “first to ship” energy and robotics wins out of Finland, China, and Japan, and several developer-tool stories that show how quickly the economics of software are shifting. Mythos, the Detection Ceiling, and Wall Street’s Emergency Response Anthropic’s Mythos model has Wall Street rattled. Operating autonomously, Mythos found and demonstrated the exploitation of a 27-year-old TCP SACK bug in OpenBSD, an operating system famous for being one of the most security-focused on the planet. Per Anthropic’s red team, over 99% of the vulnerabilities Mythos has identified remain unpatched. The researchers’ conclusion is blunt: “the moat in AI cybersecurity is the system, not the model.” The policy response moved fast. On April 7th, Treasury Secretary Bessent and Fed Chair Jerome Powell pulled the CEOs of Goldman Sachs, Citi, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley into Treasury headquarters on short notice. All four banks are now testing Mythos internally. Treasury CIO Sam Corcos is also seeking direct access. Anthropic is gating distribution through Project Glasswing, a limited-access program with JPMorgan, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Cochrane comes down firmly behind Anthropic’s gated approach. Because a 5.1-billion-parameter open model can apparently recover the core analysis chain for the OpenBSD flaw, this capability is not locked behind Frontier Compute. He wants the critical infrastructure hardened before the public gets keys. However, he also notes the bigger lesson is about human wisdom: people offloading all their thinking to AI lose out on the wisdom that makes any of these tools genuinely useful. Apple Bans Vibe Coding Apps from the App Store Apple has been quietly pushing back against what people are calling “vibe coding” apps. Replit, Vibecode, and an app called Anything all run AI models on the phone and produce working software that runs inside the host app. Apple cites Guideline 2.5.2, in effect since 2017, which requires apps to be self-contained. Replit and Vibecode had their App Store updates blocked. Anything was pulled in late March, briefly restored on April 3rd, and then pulled the same day again. The forcing function is volume. App Store submissions jumped 84% in a single quarter as vibe coding tools flooded Apple’s review queue with AI-generated apps. Cochrane thinks Apple is justified, given the security issues swirling around the Vibe coding ecosystem. Even a beautiful diamond gets lost in a sea of sand, and that flood is exactly what Apple is trying to manage. The company behind Anything is now pivoting to iMessage, desktop, and Android. Playing Video Games to Win Is Linked to Higher Anxiety Cochrane gets personal on this one. Through high school and his early 20s, he was deeply addicted to League of Legends. His dad teased him about it constantly. In the last few years of that addiction, his body would go ice cold and shake every ranked match before. His partner identified it as a panic attack. The moment that happened, he quit. Today, he no longer shakes. The new study lines up with his experience. Researchers Kayleigh Watters and Mikael Rubin at Palo Alto University analyzed a publicly available database of 13,464 adult gamers, most of whom primarily played League of Legends. Players who game to win show higher generalized anxiety but actually play fewer hours, since performance pressure pushes them out. Players who game to relax show strong links between social anxiety avoidance and more hours played. The study appeared in the Journal of Affective Disorders. The headline framing of “playing to win makes you anxious” misses the point. The real finding is more interesting: gaming for avoidance and gaming for competition are both warning signs, for different reasons. Cochrane notes that the League of Legends community’s toxicity has been a running joke for years, and this study suggests the game’s structure may have been manufacturing the anxiety that fueled it. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting is $6.99/month, WordPress hosting is $12.99/month, and domains are $11.99. Both hosting plans include a free domain, professional email, and SSL certificate. Go to geeknewscentral.com/godaddy for the best pricing and to directly support this independent show. Verge Motorcycle: World’s First Production All-Solid-State Battery Cochrane filled his tank for $60 today, which made this story land especially hard. His mom has driven electric for years and patiently manages a 90-mile real-world range. The next-generation answer is already shipping. Verge Motorcycles, a Finnish company, is the first production vehicle of any kind with an all-solid-state battery. Their 2026 bikes ship in Q1 with a pack from Donut Lab, another Finnish outfit spun out of Verge. The numbers are bonkers. The pack delivers an energy density of 400 Wh/kg, roughly double that of current Tesla cells. It sustains 100kW charging, hits full charge in about 5 minutes in the lab and 12 minutes on the actual bike, and the long-range version covers 600 kilometers (about 370 miles) per charge. Toyota, QuantumScape, and Samsung SDI have all been telling us that solid-state is coming in 2027 to 2030. A Finnish motorcycle company shipping in Q1 2026 just embarrassed them all. UBTech Humanoid Robot Sales Jump 23-Fold UBTech dropped its 2025 annual earnings on April 1st. Humanoid robot revenue hit 820 million yuan, roughly $119 million USD, up 2,203% from 35.6 million yuan the year before. Unit sales went from 3 robots in 2024 to 1,079 in 2025. Shares jumped 14% on the announcement. The customer list is a real industrial deployment: BYD, Foxconn, Geely, FAW-Volkswagen, and Audi. The flagship is the Walker S2, with UBTech targeting 5,000 units in 2026 and 10,000 in 2027. Cochrane is honest about what this means. He does not think we are heading for an extinction event, but worker displacement is a real concern. The US has no universal income or universal healthcare. The people affected are not white-collar managers. They are everyday line workers who already make the least on the ladder. Work efficiency reportedly doubles when these robots arrive, which is a company-side win, but the humans they replace are not getting half a year of gardening leave to retrain. He invites the listener to take on this one directly. Japan Switches On Asia’s First Osmotic Power Plant In August 2025, Fukuoka’s Seawater Desalination Center quietly opened Asia’s first osmotic power facility. It generates about 880,000 kilowatt-hours per year, enough for roughly 220 homes. It is only the second operational osmotic plant in the world, after Mariager, Denmark, in 2023. Osmotic generation uses a salinity gradient: fresh water on one side of a membrane, salt water on the other, and the pressure difference spins a turbine. The clever part is what Fukuoka does with desalination brine. Instead of regular seawater, the plant uses concentrated brine left over from the desalination process. This amplifies the salt gradient and squeezes more energy out of the same membrane. The result is a closed-loop partnership: the desalination facility produces drinking water and leaves brine behind, the osmotic plant turns the brine into electricity, and that electricity runs the desalination facility. Every desalination plant on Earth produces brine, so if Fukuoka’s co-located model works, the same pattern could be replicated across hundreds of plants worldwide. Japan’s Luna Ring Solar Moon Proposal Goes Viral Again Shimizu Corporation’s Luna Ring concept is making the rounds again. The pitch: a 6,800-mile belt of solar panels around the Moon’s equator, beaming microwave power back to Earth. Project lead Tetsuji Yoshida has long argued that a full ring could eliminate fossil fuel dependence entirely. The proposal first surfaced in 2013, has no funding, no government endorsement, and no concrete cost estimate. Shimizu has not put any active development behind it. Cochrane finds the concept fun every time it resurfaces. However, this would have to be a worldwide effort in the truest sense, with treaties, a new generation of launch economics, and microwave power transmission at a scale nobody has demonstrated. Beaming the power back to Earth has always been one of the biggest practical holdbacks. The Luna Ring is inspirational, but not shipping. Finland’s Onkalo Nuclear Waste Vault Opens Finland’s Onkalo facility is the world’s first permanent deep geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel. Operated by Posiva, the facility is buried about 430 meters down in 1.9-billion-year-old bedrock. It is designed to hold up to 6,500 tons of spent fuel and operate until the 2120s. The construction costs about €1 billion, with operating and closure adding roughly €4 billion more before the program is done. The catch is that radioactivity remains dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, warned that the copper canisters will eventually corrode, with different scientific opinions on how fast. Geologic disposal remains “fraught with uncertainties,” and we have never validated an engineered system across a 100,000-year time frame. The bet is that the rock and copper outlast the radioactivity. Cochrane sees Onkalo as time-buying rather than a final answer. It is more of a bank holding spent fuel while science catches up. He prefers it to Japan’s ongoing approach of releasing tritium-treated water from Fukushima Daiichi into the Pacific, even though the dilution is well below WHO drinking water guidelines. Burying the waste in an insurmountable containment strikes him as the more honest answer to a problem nobody knows how to truly solve. Ghostty Terminal Lands in the Ubuntu Repos Ghostty 1.3.0 is now available in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS’s universe repository. The install is simply `sudo apt install ghostty`, no PPAs, no Snap, no Nix, no building from source. Ghostty was created by Mitchell Hashimoto, co-founder of HashiCorp. It is GPU-accelerated, uses native Swift on macOS and native GTK4 with libadwaita on Linux, and supports tabs, splits, profiles, ligatures, and the Kitty graphics protocol. Cochrane recently caught Hashimoto on a podcast, where he walked through his agentic coding workflow. Ghostty is being actively built using AI harnesses like Claude Code and Codex. Hashimoto told a story in which Codex fixed a six-month-old bug in 45 minutes, for a total API cost of $4.14. Personally, Cochrane uses WezTerm, but he is excited to see Ghostty become more widely available with a native UI rather than Electron. Borgo: Rethinking Go Using Rust Analytics India Magazine profiled Borgo, a programming language by developer Marco Sampellegrini (GitHub: alpacaaa). Borgo is statically typed with Rust-like syntax, but it compiles to Go and uses the Go runtime and garbage collector. It includes sum types (Option and Result), pattern matching, and full compatibility with existing Go packages. Notably, it removes Rust’s borrow checker and lifetimes entirely. Borgo is not new. It first appeared on Hacker News in 2023, with a RustLab talk in 2024. The 2026 angle is a renewed look at it through the lens of AI coding agents, since type-rich languages like Rust have been showing outsized productivity gains. Cochrane is a fan of Rust and stands by the borrow checker, but he enjoys these exploratory languages for what they reveal about what developers actually want. Caveman: A Claude Code Skill That Cuts 65% of Tokens Developer Julius Brussee built a Claude Code skill called Caveman that forces Claude to respond in stripped-down fragments. No articles, no “just,” no “really,” no pleasantries, no hedging. The tagline is “why use many token when few token do trick.” Across 10 real dev tasks, Caveman mode averaged 294 tokens per response, compared to 1,214 in normal mode. That is a 65% drop in output tokens. The project is MIT licensed with three intensity levels: lite, full, and ultra. Cochrane stumbled across the project online and shared it with a classmate who had been complaining about token costs. The classmate now insists that “the caveman is the only way to live.” Cochrane has not made the switch, but the bigger point lands. If a community plugin can cut 65% of tokens without correctness regressions, the labs are shipping verbose-by-default and charging users for the privilege. He suspects verbose output makes models feel more trustworthy, even when the token math says otherwise. Cloudflare Launches EmDash as a WordPress Successor Cloudflare released EmDash on April 9th, an open-source, MIT-licensed, TypeScript-based CMS pitched as the spiritual successor to WordPress. The big flex is that it was built in 60 days using AI coding agents. EmDash runs on Astro 6.0, either on Cloudflare’s edge platform or on a standard Node.js server. The plugin security model uses sandboxed Dynamic Workers with explicit permissions, addressing the architecture flaw that Cloudflare says causes 96% of WordPress vulnerabilities. Cochrane could not resist pointing out the irony of the name. The em dash has become the trademark giveaway that an AI was involved in writing. He has reservations about whether EmDash will succeed. WordPress is extremely hard to unseat, plenty of “WordPress killers” have come and gone, and the ecosystem is twenty-plus years deep. He is curious to see what comes next but not optimistic. Google Open-Sources the DESIGN.md Format Google Labs open-sourced the DESIGN.md format used by Stitch, their AI UI design tool. DESIGN.md is a declarative file capturing a project’s design system, colors, typography, and spacing in a way AI agents can read and apply. Cochrane has tried Stitch personally and finds it impressive at producing web designs. He has also seen DESIGN.md-style files already start appearing in repositories. He sees this kind of file becoming a new paradigm for agentic design, alongside robots.txt and llms.txt. However, he worries about a side effect. If everyone uses the same standardized format and the same AI tools, the web could become a homogeneous set of sites that all look the same. He is enthusiastic about the standardization but hopes designers continue to push for genuinely unique work. A 13-Liter PC With a Water Loop Built Into the Case Geeky Gadgets covered a build by “Visual Thinker”, a 13-liter mini-ITX case with custom SLA-printed water distribution plates built directly into the chassis. Instead of traditional soft tubing, plates channel coolant between the CPU and GPU blocks and are sealed with TPU and silicone molds. The case supports a full-size GPU and an SFX power supply. No thermal benchmarks, parts list, or pricing have been published. It is a one-off you cannot buy. Cochrane sees this as a sign of where PC building has gone in 2026. Modern mid-grade GPUs run nearly every recent game, so raw performance is no longer the differentiator. He likes seeing builders lean into design and craft rather than just stuffing the most powerful parts into a box. He admits he is the traditional type and built his own machine to maximize parts, but the design-first direction is a healthy evolution for the hobby. To close out the show, Cochrane recommends Pocket Casts as a podcast app. He finds it picks up new episodes very quickly. Big thanks to GoDaddy for over twenty years of keeping this show on the air, and a reminder that every promo code use is like writing a check to the show. The post Mythos: Cybersecurity’s AlphaGo Moment #1862 appeared first on Geek News Central.

Notes from James:I wish I had been Kolin Jones when I was 18 years old.When Colin was 19, during COVID, he set up his own private jet brokerage out of a college dorm room. No investors. No jets. No connections. Just a GoDaddy website, an email address, and an obsessive willingness to send 2,500 cold emails a day.Amalfi Jets is on track to do $120 million in revenue this year. And he still doesn't own a single plane.I love how he thought about competition. He literally calculated: my competitor sends 400 emails a day, I'll send 2,500 — that means I'm doing six of his days in one of mine. Do that for a month and I'm four months ahead. That was the whole strategy at the start. Beautiful.And then TikTok changed everything. One video about a client who chartered two jets — one for his wife, one for his mistress — got a million views. 150,000 people hit their website. 15,000 flight requests in a single day. The entire trajectory of the company shifted because of a free video.He also talked about losing money on purpose on his first sale — selling a $24,500 flight for $20,000 to lock in loyalty. Pure Amazon thinking. I love that.And there's a story about a client stranded on the Galapagos Islands whose plane broke down. The client's assistant asked about bribing customs officials. Listen for how Kolin handled it.This is a great template if you're an entrepreneur, a creative, or anyone trying to build something from nothing. Please listen.Episode description:Kolin Jones was 19 years old, in his college dorm during COVID, when he noticed something: commercial flights were grounded, but private jets were surging. He got his pilot's license at Van Nuys Airport — the busiest private jet airport in the world — and launched Amalfi Jets with nothing more than a website, a cold email strategy, and a plan to out-hustle every competitor through sheer volume.James and Kolin break down exactly how the private jet charter brokerage model works, why you can legally set one up today with zero certification or licensing, why Amalfi turns down roughly $1M/week in deals over safety concerns, and what separates a legitimate broker from the hundreds of unregulated players flooding the market. They also get into the social media strategy that transformed the company — why Kolin was initially against TikTok, what changed his mind, and how one viral video created 15,000 flight requests in a day.Plus: what it actually costs to own a private jet, the real economics of flying private vs. first class, why the richest clients show up in jeans and an Uber, what happens when a client punches the pilot mid-flight, and the watch Kolin bought himself the first month Amalfi crossed $2M in revenue.What you'll learnHow a private jet charter brokerage works — and why it requires zero licensing or certification to startThe cold email strategy Kolin used to out-hustle every competitor from his college dormWhy Kolin intentionally lost money on his first few sales — and why it paid offThe real cost of owning a private jet (it's about $800K/year just to park it)Why Amalfi turns down ~$1M/week in business due to safety and legal concernsHow one TikTok about a client's mistress generated 150,000 website visitors and 15,000 flight requests in a single dayWhy Kolin tracks which shirt color makes his videos go more viral (black = +36%)When flying private is actually cheaper than first class — and the math behind itThe Galapagos breakdown story: a stranded client, a broken jet, and a customs bribe requestWhat ultra-high-net-worth clients actually look like vs. the Instagram versionKolin's plans for Amalfi: acquisitions, possible PE partnership, and why he won't go publicTimestamps:00:00 Why flying private ruins you for commercial forever06:00 What Amalfi Jets actually is — and how the charter brokerage model works09:00 The real cost of owning a private jet13:00 The wild west of jet brokerage — zero regulation, zero licensing required16:00 The Galapagos story: broken jet, stranded client, and a near-bribe20:00 Colin's origin story: COVID, flight school, and cold emailing 2,500 people a day26:30 The first sale: losing $4,000 on purpose and the Amazon strategy that built loyalty30:00 How one TikTok about a mistress changed everything36:00Inside Amalfi's content machine — and the clients who punch pilots41:00 When private is actually cheaper than first class — the real math46:00 The tech behind Amalfi: AI fleet optimization, 72K-member app, and social listening50:00 Burying competitors with relevance — and what's next for Amalfi57:00 The first splurge: an Omega Seamaster and what it representsAdditional Resources:Amalfi JetsKolin's InstagramKolin on TikTokAmalfi Jets on TikTokSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Timothy Li, CEO and Co-Founder of LendAPI, has spent nearly a decade trying to solve the same problem: launching a lending product takes too long and costs too much. With LendAPI, he's built a no-code platform that lets banks, credit unions, fintechs, and retailers go from idea to live lending product in weeks, not months or years. Think of it as a GoDaddy-style experience for financial services. Timothy joined me again on the show (he was last on in 2017) to talk about what's under the hood, what the Sunglass Hut deal reveals about embedded finance, and where he thinks AI is actually useful in lending today.What We CoveredTimothy's path from the Fluid college credit app to building LendAPIHow the drag-and-drop product builder works for non-technical usersPython model deployment for credit risk officers inside the same platformWinning Best in Show at FinovateThe Sunglass Hut deal and how it came together in three monthsWhy retailers are moving away from pure-play BNPL providersIntegration options: bank cores, side cores, and direct e-commerce embedThe 300-plus partner marketplace and the SEO strategy behind itDoc AI and single-task AI agents for document processing and underwritingTimothy's experience in the CURQL accelerator and how credit unions differTeaching FinTech Fundamentals at USCThe five consumer verticals with the most opportunity in fintechKey TakeawaysThe build vs. buy debate is essentially over. When Timothy talks to bank CTOs today, the conversation is "can you launch this next week?" not "should we build this ourselves?" Speed to market has become the dominant concern.Pure-play BNPL approval rates are outside a retailer's control and can swing 10 points overnight. Private label embedded finance, built on infrastructure like LendAPI, lets retailers and banks own the underwriting criteria and the customer experience, which matters especially for high-ticket items where the financing decision happens in-store.Single-task AI agents are the near-term opportunity in lending, not fully automated credit decisions. Automating document verification, data extraction, and intake workflows saves minutes per application, and at scale, that compounds quickly.The five consumer fintech verticals worth building in: mortgages, auto, credit cards and personal loans, payments, and bank accounts. If it's in someone's wallet, there's still work to do.About Timothy LiTimothy Li is the CEO and co-founder of LendAPI, a no-code lending platform that launched in 2024 and won Best in Show at Finovate. He previously built Fluid, a credit-building app for college students, and has been building lending infrastructure across multiple ventures over the past decade. He also taught FinTech Fundamentals at the University of Southern California.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

In this episode, Ray Cochrane digs into a new study showing AI is literally frying workers’ brains, then unpacks Anthropic’s wildest month ever – from a 1,487% user surge to Pentagon retaliation to a leaked model called Mythos. Also covered: OpenAI kills Sora after burning $15 million a day, OpenClaw’s terrifying security holes, Apple axing the Mac Pro, ARM’s first-ever production CPU, and why King Tut’s dagger was forged from a meteorite. – Want to start a podcast? It’s easy to get started! Sign-up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Ray if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Cochrane opens the show with a study that puts a name to something most AI-heavy workers have already felt. From there, the episode moves through one of the most turbulent months in AI industry history, touching on corporate ethics, national security, hardware shortages, and ancient archaeology. AI Use at Work Is Causing “Brain Fry” A study from Boston Consulting Group and UC Riverside surveyed 1,500 full-time US workers and found that 14% experience what researchers call “AI brain fry” – mental fatigue from excessive AI tool oversight. Those affected report 33% more decision fatigue, 39% more major errors, and an increase in intent to quit from 25% to 34%. Notably, productivity peaks at one to three AI tools and drops off at four or more. Cochrane relates this directly to his own workflow, often running two to four tools side by side. However, he pushes back on the doom framing. He argues that context switching across multiple projects and rubber-stamping AI output without review are the real sources of fry. His takeaway: either work more slowly with greater intent, or use the accelerated pace to reclaim free time. Anthropic’s Wild Month: Exodus, Pentagon, and Mythos Claude sessions surged by roughly 1,487% from mid-January to early March, knocking ChatGPT off the top spot in the app store for the first time. ChatGPT uninstalls spiked nearly 300%, one-star reviews exploded 775% in a single day, and a boycott movement called “Quit GPT” has grown to between 2.5 and 4 million participants. The catalyst was OpenAI stepping in to take the Pentagon defense deal that Anthropic had publicly declined. Cochrane is firmly against automated domestic surveillance and autonomous weaponry, noting that the models are not reliable enough for such responsibilities. OpenAI tried to walk it back, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation called their language “weasel words.” Meanwhile, the Department of Defense slapped Anthropic with a supply chain risk label – a national security designation previously reserved for hostile foreign companies. Anthropic sued the Trump administration. Then Microsoft filed a legal brief in Anthropic’s defense, joined by 149 former judges, dozens of Google and OpenAI employees, and nearly two dozen retired generals. On top of all that, security researchers discovered an unsecured data cache exposing nearly 3,000 unpublished Anthropic files, including a model code-named Mythos (also called Capybara). Internal documents describe it as a step change in capabilities, scoring dramatically higher than Opus 4.6 on coding, reasoning, and cybersecurity. Then Anthropic’s source code leaked publicly as well. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting is $6.99/month, WordPress hosting is $12.99/month, and domains are $11.99. Both hosting plans include a free domain, professional email, and SSL certificate. Go to geeknewscentral.com/godaddy for the best pricing and to directly support this independent show. OpenAI Shuts Down Sora Video App OpenAI announced on March 24th that it is killing Sora, its AI video-generation app. Downloads cratered from 3.3 million in November to 1.1 million by February. The real numbers are brutal: Sora was costing roughly $15 million per day to run against a total lifetime revenue of just $2.1 million. The Sora web and app experience ends April 26th, with the API shutting down September 24th. Additionally, the Disney partnership – a billion-dollar deal meant to validate AI in Hollywood – collapsed completely. Deep fakes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robin Williams appeared almost immediately despite guardrails, and both families protested publicly. Cochrane notes that competitors like Runway, Pika, and Kling are still operating, and suspects Hollywood will pivot to generating scene backgrounds rather than full content. OpenClaw Is a Security Nightmare Cochrane’s personal OpenClaw install started making outbound requests flagged by his ISP – with no changes or new skills installed. He shut it down and plans to wipe the device entirely. The broader picture is alarming. A January 2026 audit found 512 vulnerabilities in OpenClaw, eight critical. Twenty-six percent of community skills contain at least one vulnerability. Oasis Security discovered a vulnerability chain called “Clawjacked” where any website can silently take full control of a developer’s agent. Between March 18th and 21st alone, nine additional vulnerabilities were disclosed, several of which were rated 9.9 out of 10. Cochrane draws a direct parallel to the browser extension era: supply chain attacks hidden as helpful tools. Claude Code Auto Mode: AI Policing AI Anthropic published details on a new “auto mode” for Claude Code after finding that users approve 93% of permission prompts – essentially mashing “yes.” Auto mode replaces manual approvals with a two-layer defense: an input scanner to detect prompt injection and a second AI model that monitors the first and decides whether to allow each action. The safety checker can only see what the user asked for and what the AI is trying to do. It cannot see the AI’s reasoning, so the AI cannot talk its way past the check. However, Cochrane notes it still misses about one in six dangerous actions (17%), and the fundamental question remains: if the base layer can get infected, so can the checker. Qwen Overtakes Llama as Most-Deployed Self-Hosted LLM RunPod’s 2026 State of AI report, based on usage data from 183 countries, reveals that Alibaba’s Qwen has overtaken Meta’s Llama as the most popular self-hosted AI model. Llama 4 has barely been adopted, with users sticking to version 3 because it just works. Additionally, vLLM now powers 40% of all AI endpoints, NVIDIA’s latest GPU usage scaled 25x last year, and nearly 70% of AI image work runs through ComfyUI. Cochrane sees Qwen winning on merit and argues that is how open source should work. AI Data Centers Are Taking All the CPUs Too AI data centers are not just consuming GPUs and memory anymore – CPUs are now being strained too. Intel server CPU lead times have stretched from two weeks to six months. AMD typically occurs at 8 to 10 weeks. Server CPU demand is projected to jump 15% in 2026, but Intel’s output capacity is growing in single digits. The shift from chatbots to autonomous AI agents is changing the hardware ratio, since agents require far more CPU power to coordinate tasks and call tools. TSMC is prioritizing more profitable AI chips over regular CPUs. Cochrane warns that consumers and businesses are effectively subsidizing the AI boom through higher prices and longer waits. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2: First Dual-Cache X3D CPU AMD announced the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2, the first CPU with dual-cache X3D technology. It arrives April 22nd with 208MB of total cache and a 200W TDP – up from the current model. However, AMD is unusually honest, calling the gains “modest,” ranging from 5-13% depending on the workload. Notably, they have not released gaming benchmarks, which is conspicuous for an X3D chip. Cochrane owns a single X3D chip and sees no reason to upgrade. ARM Launches “AGI” CPU After 35 years of licensing chip designs to Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, and NVIDIA, ARM has launched its first production silicon: a 136-core server chip co-developed with Meta as the lead customer. ARM’s stock jumped about 16% on the news. You can pack over 8,000 cores in a single air-cooled rack, or over 45,000 with liquid cooling. Volume shipments begin by the end of 2026. Cochrane appreciates the move but calls the “AGI” branding marketing hype. The bigger story is ARM transitioning from blueprint designer to direct competitor against Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA in data centers – while still licensing to the companies it now competes against. Apple Discontinues the Mac Pro Apple removed the Mac Pro from its website and confirmed that no future model is planned. The $6,999 machine had not been updated since the 2023 M2 Ultra model. Apple is pointing professionals toward the Mac Studio with its M4 Ultra chip, with an M5 Ultra refresh expected later this year. They also discontinued the $700 wheels kit, $300 feet kit, and Pro Display XDR the same week. Cochrane says good riddance – the Mac Studio covers what 90% of users need. Apple’s AI Pin: An AirTag-Sized Wearable Reports suggest Apple is developing an AirTag-sized wearable AI pin with cameras, microphones, and wireless charging. It would clip to clothing or hang as a necklace, running as an iPhone accessory powered by an upgraded Siri with Google’s Gemini AI. A possible 2027 release is expected alongside iOS 27, though development is early and could be canceled. Cochrane ties this to a broader shift: data collection moving from the application layer to physical devices. Apple employees internally refer to the device as “the eyes and ears of the iPhone.” He warns that always-on wearable cameras, combined with existing AI-powered surveillance poles, are pushing society deeper into mass data collection without meaningful consent. Quantum Entanglement Speed Measured for the First Time Scientists at TU Wien’s Institute of Theoretical Physics, led by Professor Joachim Burgdorfer, measured how fast quantum entanglement happens for the first time. The answer: about 232 attoseconds – a billionth of a billionth of a second. The research was published in Physical Review Letters in late 2024 and is now circulating widely. Einstein called quantum entanglement “spooky action at a distance.” Turns out it is not instantaneous – just extraordinarily fast. This measurement technique opens the door to quantum cryptography and quantum computing. However, Cochrane clarifies: this does not mean faster-than-light communication. Entanglement links particles but does not transmit information through space. Bronze Age Iron Artifacts Came From Outer Space Geochemical analysis by French scientist Albert Jambon, originally published in the Journal of Archaeological Science in 2017, confirmed that virtually all Bronze Age iron artifacts were made from meteorites. The artifacts span Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and China, including beads dating to 3200 BCE and the famous dagger from King Tut’s tomb, dating to around 1350 BCE. The story resurfaced after researchers published new findings this month on fragments of meteoritic iron weapons from China’s Sanxingdui sacrificial site. Bronze Age people lacked the technology to smelt iron ore, but meteoritic iron arrived in a metallic state, ready to be forged. Cochrane closes the episode, noting that ancient civilizations were working with extraterrestrial material before they could produce their own iron – resourcefulness that deserves respect. Cochrane wraps up the show by thanking GoDaddy for over twenty years of partnership and reminding listeners to subscribe, sign up for the newsletter, and reach out via email. The post Agentically Frying your Brain using AI #1861 appeared first on Geek News Central.

Most scams leave a digital trail. A fake email, a spoofed number, a fraudulent website. You can trace them, report them, sometimes even reverse them. But what happens when the scam has no digital trail at all, because it isn't happening on a screen? What happens when the con is standing right in front of you, making you laugh, meeting your friends, and planning a future with you?  My guest today is Tracy Hall. She's an author, keynote speaker, and senior marketing executive with over 25 years at some of the world's most recognizable tech companies including eBay, Virgin, GoDaddy, and Afterpay. She is sharp, successful, and by every measure, exactly the kind of person you'd assume would see it coming. She didn't. And neither would you.  In 2017, Tracy woke up to a Crime Stoppers video of an unidentified man being arrested outside a Sydney apartment. That man was her boyfriend of 18 months. Except he wasn't who she thought he was. The man she knew as Max Tevita a Bondi surfer, a finance executive, the person she was building a life with was actually Hamish McLaren, Australia's most infamous conman, a man who had been running long game cons for thirty years across multiple countries, stealing somewhere between eighty and a hundred million dollars from victims around the world.  Tracy was his last victim before his arrest. He had stolen her entire life savings of $317,000 and far more than that. This is a story about what happens when the scam isn't a phishing email. It's a relationship. And it will change the way you think about trust, manipulation, and what any of us are actually capable of missing. Show Notes: [1:03] With 25 years as a senior marketing executive behind her, Tracy shares how a year after separating from her husband she began online dating, where she met a man calling himself Max Tevita. [3:25] Presenting himself as a Bondi surfer and chief investment officer, Max spent 18 months slowly and methodically guiding Tracy to invest her entire life savings with him. [5:55] A crime stoppers video changed everything. The man Tracy knew as her boyfriend was actually Hamish McLaren, a professional conman who had been defrauding victims globally for 30 years and stealing an estimated $80 to $100 million. [7:36] A masterful shapeshifter, McLaren adjusted his persona in real time based on Tracy's reactions, including quietly getting rid of his five cars after she called him out on it. [9:54] Tracy breaks down the psychological mechanics of the con, including similarity bias, mirroring, and how McLaren constructed a character she was essentially telling him she wanted. [11:05] Through elaborate "movie sets and scenes," McLaren built layers of authority and confirmation bias over 18 months, making investing her life savings with him feel completely logical. [14:21] Some moments only made sense in hindsight, including a childhood friend accidentally calling McLaren by his nickname "Ham Bone" and his instant, convincing cover story on the spot. [18:22] Humans default to truth, and Tracy explains how that biological wiring makes us uniquely vulnerable to manipulation, especially around emotionally charged stories. [19:29] Every victim got their own version of McLaren barrister, triathlete, business strategist as Tracy describes meeting others who had each been conned by an entirely different character. [22:53] Learning to trust other people wasn't the hard part. Tracy reflects on why rebuilding faith in her own judgment was far more difficult, and how shame dominated the aftermath. [25:21] Through professional help and a conscious daily decision not to let McLaren turn her into a cynical person, Tracy describes how she slowly rebuilt both her finances and her sense of self. [27:05] Understanding the psychology behind scams, cognitive biases, invisible contracts of trust, emotional exploitation is the best defense we have, and Tracy breaks down exactly how it works. [31:33] The medium may be different, but the tactics aren't — Tracy draws striking parallels between her in-person experience and digital romance baiting scams, showing how the emotional manipulation is nearly identical. [34:00] There is no demographic, age group, or intelligence level that is immune. Tracy makes the case that scammers hunt for vulnerability, and at the right moment, we are all soft targets. [36:12] By subtly discouraging Tracy from socializing with friends, McLaren was limiting outside scrutiny and Tracy explains why getting a new partner in front of your personal network as quickly as possible is one of the most important protective steps you can take. [40:24] No digital footprint is a major red flag. Tracy outlines key warning signs to watch for and recommends reverse image searches as a basic but powerful verification step when meeting someone new. [42:08] Every single time Tracy speaks publicly, someone approaches her afterwards with a story they have never told anyone a reminder that silence is exactly what these criminals depend on to keep operating. [43:45] Now fully dedicated to education and awareness, Tracy introduces her memoir The Last Victim and explains how she has channeled her experience into a mission to help others recognize and recover from fraud. Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.  Links and Resources: Podcast Web Page Facebook Page whatismyipaddress.com Easy Prey on Instagram Easy Prey on Twitter Easy Prey on LinkedIn Easy Prey on YouTube Easy Prey on Pinterest Tracy Hall The Last Victim Who the Hell is Hamish? Podcast King Con: The Life and Crimes of Hamish McLaren

AI is making it easier than ever to run research, but faster doesn't always mean better. In this episode, we dig into what it really means to democratize research responsibly, and why your team probably needs a charter before someone does something they can't take back.Your team is already running research without you. So the real question is: are you going to help them do it well, or just hope for the best?Ned Dwyer is the co-founder and CEO of Great Question, an all-in-one UX research platform built to bring research to everyone in an organization. Not just the people with "researcher" in their title. He's spent years thinking about how teams can democratize access to customer insights without turning research into a free-for-all, and his talk at UX Con is what first put him on my radar.In this conversation, we dig into one of the more divisive topics in our industry right now: research democratization. Ned makes a pretty compelling case that it's not the all-or-nothing argument a lot of people make it out to be. It's a spectrum, and where your organization should land on that spectrum depends on who you're researching, what decisions are being made, and how much risk is on the table. We also get into AI's role in all of this, from AI-moderated interviews to synthesized insights, and where teams tend to get themselves into trouble when they hand over too much to the machine without any real governance in place.The thing I found most useful in this conversation is Ned's concept of a democratization charter, a practical framework for defining who should be doing what kind of research, with which populations, and under what guardrails. It's something I honestly hadn't thought much about before meeting Ned, and I think it's one of the most actionable ideas we've talked about on the show. If your team is already using AI research tools (and let's be honest, they probably are), this conversation is worth your time.Topics:• 01:45 - Ned's origin story and why he built Great Question• 04:10 - The pressure to move fast, and what gets lost when speed wins• 06:11 - The 80/20 rule: how to use AI without publishing slop• 09:45 - Democratization is a spectrum, not a binary• 12:35 - Where guardrails matter most: vulnerable populations and one-way-door decisions• 13:12 - The case for a democratization charter• 19:00 - AI moderation demystified: closer to a talking survey than a human interviewer• 23:00 - Ned's GoDaddy confession: how rogue research goes wrong• 27:00 - Participant fatigue and insight overload: the new risks AI introduces• 31:45 - Rogue research will happen regardless... your job is to make it safer• 43:28 - The Will Smith spaghetti analogy and where AI tools are headed—Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today's episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today's episode, why don't you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton.If you haven't already, sign up for our email list. We won't spam you. Pinky swear.• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher

Christine Jones, former counsel for GoDaddy, answers questions on the legal battle over social media platforms and how to protect yourself under state laws.

This week on The Golden Era Podcast, Jake and Joey relive the WWE Women's Division from the week of January 12, 2006 ,when the Ruthless Aggression Era delivered chaos, controversy, and unforgettable Diva moments!

Having guests on your show is essential, as you'll learn different tips, hacks, and strategies that will help build the foundation and growth of your show. Today, Todd Cochrane brings up some challenges associated with receiving advice from so-called podcasters and how to avoid these kinds of situations.   WHAT TO LISTEN FOR Where to build your podcast Why you should promote your show Retaining the bits of knowledge you get from your guests Working on your funnels Local audiences vs Global audiences Methods for launching episodes Importance of building your own brand   RESOURCES/LINKS MENTIONED Blubrry.com: If you're a podcaster and you want a free 30-day trial, use the promo code - founder  Libsyn   ABOUT TODD COCHRANE Todd Cochrane, CEO of Blubrry Podcasting, wrote the book on podcasting. Well, at least the first one: "Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide." The founder of the People's Choice Podcast Awards and the Tech Podcast Network, he's also credited with introducing the first advertisers into podcasting, GoDaddy. Cochrane was inducted into the inaugural class of the Podcast Hall of Fame in 2015. But perhaps his biggest influence on podcasting is Blubrry Podcasting and its parent company RawVoice, which offers a directory of more than 1.35 Million shows, the No. 1 plugin for WordPress, and much more. A United States Navy Veteran who served 25 years and retired with the rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer, Cochrane resides in Quincy, Michigan, having spent the majority of the past 25 years in Honolulu, Hawaii, with his family.   CONNECT WITH  Website: Blubrry Podcasting Podcast: Geek News Central Podcast | New Media Show | Podcast Insider   CONNECT WITH US If you are interested in getting on our show, email us at team@growyourshow.com. Thinking about creating and growing your own podcast but not sure where to start? Click here and Schedule a call with Adam A. Adams! Subscribe so you don't miss out on great content and if you love the show, leave an honest rating and review here!  

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS delivers a tutorial on why Pinterest is a search engine, not social media, and how to connect it with Google Search Console for SEO impact.Pinterest is the least skipped ad platform while YouTube is the most, and Pinterest ads cost two to thirty cents versus dollars elsewhere.He covers claiming your business account, how earned media works exclusively on Pinterest, and why a pin lives three to five months compared to an Instagram post's 19 to 72 hours. Favour shares a client case study where organic image impressions grew from 54.1 million to 154 million in three months with zero ad spend, with Pinterest ranking in the top three linking sites.The conversation covers MCP servers, Google's crawl budget drop from 15 to two megabytes, why 67 percent of searches result in zero clicks, and why GoDaddy is not scalable.Mark recommends WordPress, and Shira shares how evergreen content generates leads years after posting.Book SEO Services? Save These Quick Links for Later>> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book SEO Services with Favour Obasi-ike⁠>> Visit Work and PLAY Entertainment website to learn about our digital marketing services>> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our exclusive SEO Marketing community⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠>> Read SEO Articles>> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the We Don't PLAY Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠>> Purchase Flaev Beatz Beats Online>> Favour Obasi-ike Quick Links>> Start Recording your Podcast with Riverside Today | Sign Up with My Affiliate Link HereTimeline and Timestamps[00:08] Introduction — Pinterest SEO Marketing on Clubhouse.[02:53] Pinterest: least skipped ad platform vs. YouTube.[04:02] Pinterest is a search engine for images.[07:04] You cannot be on ChatGPT if not on Google.[08:15] Claiming your Pinterest business account.[10:02] Earned media — only Pinterest offers it.[12:05] Pin lifespan: 3–5 months vs. Instagram: 19–72 hours.[19:00] Tuna on WebMCP and AI impact on SEO.[21:56] Google crawl budget: 15 MB down to 2 MB.[23:35] 67% of Google searches result in zero clicks.[33:09] Why GoDaddy is not scalable.[40:03] Mark: WordPress — own your website.[58:45] Pinterest + Google Search Console: the perfect blend.[60:30] Case study: 54.1M to 154M impressions organically.[73:49] Shira: evergreen content still generates leads.[79:50] SEO scorecard tool — 10 questions, instant report. 93:01] 97% of Pinterest searches are unbranded.[95:32] Pinterest and Amazon partnership.Memorable Quotes"Pinterest is the least skipped ad platform. YouTube is the most — people pay to skip ads.""If you drop the P, it's interest. Pinterest is interest, literally.""You build a house on land you don't own." — Mark, on closed-source builders."Keep putting out your message, even when nobody's watching, because someone is." — Shira"67% of Google searches don't result in a click. That's a culture shift." — TunaFAQs AnsweredIs Pinterest social media?On the personal side, yes. On the business side, it is a visual search engine where you own 100% of your data through a claimed account.What is earned media?When someone saves your paid pin and revisits it later, you earn impressions without spending again — dividends on your ad spend.Why not GoDaddy?It lacks code injection, scalable pop-ups, and flexibility. WordPress is recommended for full ownership and SEO control.How long does Pinterest SEO take?It depends on domain authority and consistency — no fixed timeline, but articles linked to Pinterest accelerate results.Key TakeawaysClaim your website on Pinterest Business. Track Pinterest as a linking site in Google Search Console. Pins live 3–5 months versus hours on Instagram. 97% of Pinterest searches are unbranded. Own your site on WordPress. Evergreen content compounds and generates leads long after posting.KeywordsPinterest SEO, Google Search Console, earned media, Pinterest ads, visual search engine, domain authority, crawl budget, WordPress, claimed accounts, unbranded search, evergreen content, zero-click searches, SEO scorecard, MCP servers.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Think of this as your weekly creator business therapy session. Welcome back to Call Her Creator, where we break down the biggest social media updates in plain language so you know exactly what to focus on for growth. In this week's Weekly Scroll, we cover: • The new Instagram Reels design tests and what they mean for reach • The storytelling content format Instagram is quietly rewarding • Why Reels are becoming the center of the Instagram app • Pinterest's massive growth and why creators should pay attention • New AI tools for creators including Stanley AI • The easiest viral Reel format to post this week If your Instagram reach or views have changed recently, this episode explains exactly why and what to do next. New episodes of The Weekly Scroll drop every Thursday. Thank you to my sponsors: Go Daddy: ⁠https://www.godaddy.com/airo⁠ Collective, use code CHC and get 50% off : www.collective.com/chc Brevo, use code CREATOR50 and get a 50% off discount: www.brevo.com/creator Shopify: www.shopify.com/chc Stan: Try StanleyIG today and let him scrape your socials for your next VIRAL idea. TRY IT TODAY! Club enfluence: Reels trends, Canva Templates & content drops: JOIN HERE

Chris breaks down the backlash to Ring's Super Bowl “Search Party” ad, which aimed to help find lost pets but reignited privacy concerns over AI-powered neighborhood surveillance. He also explores the surge of AI-themed Super Bowl ads, Apple's delayed Siri overhaul, rising DDR5 RAM prices driven by AI demand, SpaceX's Crew-12 launch, and the record-breaking sale of a rare Pokémon card. -Want to be a Guest on a Podcast or YouTube Channel? Sign up for GuestMatch.Pro -Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Chris if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary – Main story — Ring Search Party: Chris summarizes Ring's first Super Bowl ad (viewed by “over 120 million”) which promoted “Search Party,” a feature that lets users upload a photo of a missing pet and alerts neighborhood Ring cameras if they spot it. He explains the ad was intended as wholesome but provoked fast backlash: viewers and privacy advocates (including the ACLU and lawmakers) warned the tech could be repurposed to track people. Chris recounts Ring's prior controversies (police partnerships, an FTC settlement in 2023 over employee access to videos) and says the ad brought those issues back into focus. He reports that four days after the ad, Amazon canceled a planned integration with Flock Safety (Amazon called it a resources-and-timing decision). He notes Search Party is opt-in for pets but emphasizes the potential scale of surveillance when aggregated across millions of Ring devices and that the underlying AI capability isn't going away. – Super Bowl AI ads and Anthropic vs. OpenAI: Chris says AI-related ads made up about 23% of Super Bowl commercials. He describes Anthropic's debut ads (titles like “betrayal, deception, treachery, and violation”) positioning Claude as ad-free for paying users and taking a shot at OpenAI's ad plans; Sam Altman criticized those ads as dishonest. He mentions Svedka ran a primarily AI-generated Super Bowl ad and that Anthropic saw a ~6.5% traffic jump and an ~11% rise in daily active users after the game. Chris frames the ads as a sign the AI assistant wars have moved to mainstream consumer marketing and raises the question of whether AI assistants will be ad-supported or paid/ad-free. – Sponsor spot: A lengthy GoDaddy sponsorship read with pricing and offers: economy hosting $6.99/month for a year with free domain, email, and SSL; WordPress hosting $12.99/month with same inclusions; domain names $11.99; GoDaddy website builder offers a 30-day free trial for certain plans. Chris urges listeners to use the provided promo links to support the show. – Apple March 4 event and Siri delay: Chris reports Apple confirmed a March 4 product launch (iPhone 17e, MacBook Pros with M5 Pro and M5 Max, an 8th-gen iPad Air and a 12th-gen iPad). He says the AI-powered Siri overhaul planned for iOS 26.4 hit testing snags and some features were pushed to iOS 26.5 in May and iOS 27 in September. He notes Apple claims Siri improvements are still coming in 2026 but have been repeatedly delayed, and frames Apple as focusing on hardware and on-device processing. – DDR5 RAM price surge: Chris covers a global memory shortage driven by AI data-center demand. He explains manufacturers shifted production to high-bandwidth AI memory with much higher margins, reducing consumer DDR supply and forcing adoption of DDR5. He gives figures: DDR5 64 GB kits rose from around $200 in mid-2025 to over $1,000 (a ~300% increase across six months, with another ~50% spike in the last month). He says inventories have fallen to about eight weeks and analysts don't expect meaningful relief until late 2027 or 2028. He warns PC builders and buyers to brace for higher upgrade and system prices. – SpaceX Crew-12 launch: Chris recounts NASA Crew-12 as a replacement following an earlier medical evacuation that left ISS short-staffed. He reports SpaceX launched four astronauts on Feb. 13 aboard a Falcon 9 with the Dragon capsule Freedom (liftoff at 5:15 AM EST) and docked on Valentine's Day. Crew named: NASA commander Jessica Mayer, NASA pilot Jack Hathaway, ESA mission specialist Sophie Adadott, and Russian cosmonaut Andrei (Andrei Fedoo/Fedu — host stumbles on the name). The mission is planned for eight months; the Falcon 9 first stage landed back at pad 40. Chris frames the launch as good news and notes ongoing reliance on SpaceX. – Pokémon card/collectibles auction: Chris discusses a record trading-card sale. He refers to Logan Paul and the Pikachu Illustrator card (one of 39 ever made). He mentions earlier reports of card sales (at first saying a card sold for “like six and a half million dollars,” then later saying Logan Paul sold one for “sixteen point five million dollars”) and then details a live auction via Golden in which the card sold for “sixty million four hundred ninety two thousand dollars,” called a new Guinness World Record for the most expensive trading card sold at auction. Chris notes Logan Paul bought his PSA 10 card in 2021 for $5.2M, the auction had about 97 bids, and the buyer was venture capitalist Adrien Scaramucci (who had the card placed on a $75,000 diamond necklace). Chris comments on collectors vs. investors, how wealthy buyers and influencers can drive pricing, and cautions that most fans shouldn't expect to find such returns. Show Links Ring Search Party – Official Feature Page Ring Super Bowl Ad Sparks Privacy Backlash Super Bowl 60 AI Ads: Anthropic, Svedka, and the AI Marketing Push SpaceX Launches NASA Crew-12 to the ISS Apple Confirms March 4 Event — Cheaper iPhone Expected DDR5 RAM Prices Surge Over 300% Amid AI Demand Logan Paul Pokémon Card Sets Record at Auction The post Ring Search Party Sparks Privacy Backlash #1858 appeared first on Geek News Central.

In this episode of Call Her Creator, we're talking about a shift so many ambitious women are feeling right now: leaving traditional corporate paths and building careers that actually feel good to live. My guest is Brianna Doe, CEO of Verbatim and a creator economy strategist who has seen both sides up close, from corporate marketing rooms to creators building real businesses online. We unpack what modern professionalism really looks like today, why so many women are rewriting success, and how to build a career that aligns with your life instead of draining it. Brianna shares the mindset shifts behind a corporate exit, how to avoid burnout while staying ambitious, and what it takes to build sustainable success as a creator or entrepreneur. We also dive into creator economy strategy, what makes a creator attractive to brands, the biggest mistakes creators make when pitching partnerships, and how to start building multiple income streams before you make the leap. Follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/callhercreator Thank you to my sponsors: Work with me: Speaking, Social Media Management and my famous, Social Media School: https://enfluencestudio.com/ Go Daddy: https://www.godaddy.com/airo Shopify: www.shopify.com/chc Stan: Try StanleyIG today and let him scrape your socials for your next VIRAL idea. TRY IT TODAY!

The Year of the Horse: How to Align Your Life and Business for Your Most Successful Year Yet Have you been feeling stuck, burnt out, or like you're falling behind in your life or business? You're not alone — and the truth is, it might not be about working harder. It might be about understanding your season. In this episode of Call Her Creator, Katelyn Rhoades breaks down the powerful symbolism behind the Year of the Horse and how ambitious women, entrepreneurs, and creators can use this season as a framework for clarity, alignment, and sustainable success. You'll learn how the transition from last year's “shedding” energy into a new season of forward movement can help you refocus your priorities, rebuild momentum, and move toward your goals with intention instead of burnout. Katelyn also shares practical strategies for aligning your life and business, including how to identify what's weighing you down, how to build stamina instead of hustle, and how to confidently take imperfect action toward the next level of your growth. Plus, she explains how to calculate your personal year numerology number as a simple reflection tool to better understand the theme of your current season. This episode is perfect for creators, entrepreneurs, and ambitious women who want to stop feeling scattered, regain clarity, and make this their most aligned and successful year yet. Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekatelynrhoades/ Thank you to my sponsors: And don't forget — the Dare to Post Challenge is happening now. Post once a day for 30 days, grow your account, and earn a share of the $100K prize pool. I'm doing it too, and I want you in it with me. Work with me: Speaking, Social Media Management and my famous, Social Media School: https://enfluencestudio.com/ Go Daddy: https://www.godaddy.com/airo Shopify: www.shopify.com/chc

Want to know exactly how I grew my Instagram to 200K+ followers without guessing what to post every day? In this episode, I'm breaking down the exact system behind that growth: the Core 5 Framework. This is the simple, repeatable content strategy I've used for years on my own account and with clients to build audiences, create engagement, and turn Instagram into a real sales machine. If you've ever felt overwhelmed trying to figure out what to post, chasing trends, or posting randomly and hoping something works, this episode is for you. I'll walk you through the CORE 5 types of posts every business needs: You'll learn how these five categories work together like a social media sales cycle, how often to post, and how to create a weekly plan you can follow without burning yourself out. This isn't about trends or viral hacks. It's about a proven framework that actually works long-term. Plus, I'll share how you can take this strategy even further inside Social Media Sales School, where I teach the full step-by-step system, caption formulas, content calendars, and tools to make Instagram feel easy instead of overwhelming. And don't forget — the Dare to Post Challenge is happening now. Post once a day for 30 days, grow your account, and earn a share of the $100K prize pool. I'm doing it too, and I want you in it with me. If you're ready to stop overthinking Instagram and start posting with confidence, press play. Thank you to my sponsors: • Go Daddy: ⁠https://www.godaddy.com/airo⁠ • Collective, use code CHC and get 50% off : www.collective.com/chc • Brevo, use code CREATOR50 and get a 50% off discount: www.brevo.com/creator Get inside Social Media Sales School: If you're getting views but not sales, you don't need more content.You need a simple system that connects content → conversations → customers. Inside, I'll show you exactly what to post each week, what to say in Stories, and how to convert followers into buyers without feeling salesy. My clients are reaching millions of people. They're growing their pages by the thousands: SIGN UP HERE

We discussed a few things including1. Their career journeys2. Miami ecosystem3. Austin/Texas ecosystem4. Trends, opps and challenges for entrepreneurs and startup communities5. Outlook for 2026 Melissa Medina has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, operator, investor, community leader and philanthropist. A native to Miami, she is CEO & Co-Founder of eMerge Americas with a mission of helping transform South Florida into a global tech hub. The eMerge Americas signature event, launched in 2014, is a global tech conference held annually at the Miami Beach Convention Center - this year's event is on April 22-24. With Melissa's leadership, the eMerge Americas conference now attracts more than 20,000+ attendees from over 50 countries. In addition to the annual conference, eMerge organizes year-round executive summits, innovation challenges, startup pitch competitions, masterclasses, webinars, a world-class global accelerator program, as well as publishes venture activity and investment insights reports.Melissa is also a Partner at Medina Ventures, an early-stage venture fund, as well as the President of the Medina Family Foundation, which has a mission to fund local initiatives that focus on mentoring children and empowering families. Melissa was named by the South Florida Business Journal as one of the “2023 Power Leaders in Technology.” Melissa also sits on the Board of The Miami Foundation. She is passionate about transforming Miami into a global technology hub and supporting Miami-based non-profits who seek to empower tomorrow's leaders. Most importantly, Melissa is a mother and most passionate about her 5 children.------Experienced in economic development, public policy, and venture capital, Paul O'Brien puts a focus on shaping the systems that enable entrepreneurship and innovation. He leads legislative and coalition strategy for Founder Institute, around issues impacting startups, capital formation, and civic infrastructure, and as publisher of Startup Economist.With a passion for media innovation and investment, Paul seeded MediaTech Ventures, a media industry venture development group. Former Venture Partner in Meaningful Ventures, O'Brien is Founder and Director of Funded House and Director of Founder Institute for Texas. Historically, a seasoned marketer with an early career at Yahoo! and HP. From there, Paul led the early growth of startups such as Outright.com (Acquired by GoDaddy), Zvents (Acquired by eBay's Stubhub), and MicroVentures (Venture Capital). Paul has an unusually strong technical background considering the role he tends to play today; he built websites in the '90s and continues to engineer and produce content at seobrien.com. He was featured in the book, Online Marketing Heroes, and frequently speaks at startup and media conferences.#podcast #AFewThingsPodcast

Bob Parsons is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran. He earned the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, and Vietnam Cross of Gallantry for his service in Vietnam. After returning home, Parsons used the G.I. Bill to attend the University of Baltimore, graduating magna cum laude, and later received an honorary doctorate from the university. In 1984, he founded Parsons Technology after teaching himself computer programming, growing the company to nearly 1,000 employees before selling it to Intuit in 1994. In 1997, he launched Jomax Technologies, which later became GoDaddy, building it into the world’s largest domain name registrar and a global leader in web services. Parsons is currently the founder and CEO of YAM Worldwide, overseeing a diverse portfolio of businesses that includes PXG (Parsons Xtreme Golf), real estate, marketing, finance, and hospitality. Alongside his wife, Renee, he co-founded The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation, supporting causes such as veteran assistance, education, medical care, and homelessness. He is also the New York Times bestselling author of Fire in the Hole!, which chronicles his journey from combat veteran to successful entrepreneur.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.