Podcasts about Golden thread

The West's greatest peril is forgetfulness, its loss of cultural memory. Without knowing where we came from, how can we know what to defend, or even what to value?In an age when history itself is contested...when the past is either dismissed or distorted...The Golden Thread reminds us why the study of civilization matters. Drawing on nearly three millennia of art, philosophy, politics, and faith, Hankins weaves the story of how our ideas of law, liberty, and virtue emerged...and why they still matter in the modern world.In this conversation, James Hankins of Harvard and Michael Fontaine of Cornell delve into the urgent question of understanding our history and inheritance, to determine what traditions of the West should be kept... or discarded.We ask: Was Alexander Great because he attempted to bridge the West and the East? Should armies have foreign soldiers? What happens when there is a breakdown in trust in the judicial system? How has the Islamic world shaped the western tradition?And is religion and spirituality necessary to revive Classics? You can find James Hankins' book, The Golden Thread, Here.Michael Fontaine's latest book, How to Have Willpower, can be found here. This discussion was hosted by Anya Leonard of Classical Wisdom. To learn more about Classical Wisdom and sign up for our free newsletter, please go to: https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Thread-Modern-Contemporary-West/dp/1641774010/ _______________________________________ If you appreciate my work and would like to support it: https://subscribestar.com/the-saad-truth https://patreon.com/GadSaad https://paypal.me/GadSaad To subscribe to my exclusive content on X, please visit my bio at https://x.com/GadSaad _______________________________________ This clip was posted on December 3, 2025 on my YouTube channel as THE SAAD TRUTH_1949: https://youtu.be/0A2O_cJo5ec _______________________________________ Please visit my website gadsaad.com, and sign up for alerts. If you appreciate my content, click on the "Support My Work" button. I count on my fans to support my efforts. You can donate via Patreon, PayPal, and/or SubscribeStar. _______________________________________ Dr. Gad Saad is a professor, evolutionary behavioral scientist, and author who pioneered the use of evolutionary psychology in marketing and consumer behavior. In addition to his scientific work, Dr. Saad is a leading public intellectual who often writes and speaks about idea pathogens that are destroying logic, science, reason, and common sense.  _______________________________________  

Hillary Weiss, brand strategist and positioning coach, reflects on growing up in suburban South Florida where attending the same school for 14 years meant everyone remembered who peed their pants in pre-K yet created lifelong friendships that watched her evolve from emo to punk rock to professional white woman. Weiss challenges the dangerous mindset mantra in entrepreneurship, arguing that privilege and circumstance—like having a home to return to if everything went belly up—allow some people to take risks that others cannot afford. She introduces the elevator framework: going one floor down beneath surface-level statements like I help clients find their voice to uncover the golden thread that makes someone exceptional. Weiss explains why imitation is a reasonable starting point but becomes a trap when entrepreneurs copy successful people's maps without understanding why they do things a certain way, resulting in indistinguishable businesses wearing outfits not made for them. She warns against the Protestant work ethic that led her to six figures by 25 but also total burnout from working seven days a week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

12/2: Sen Paul Mark: legislators dress code! book bans & food insecurity. Sci-Tech Cafe w/ MHC Profs Kerstin Nordstrom & Ted Gilliland: birds. Harvard prof James Hankins, co-author of “The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition.” Rich Michaelson w/ local poet Aiyana Masla: “The Underdream.”

Allen C. Guelzo, Senior Research Scholar in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University and author, most recently, of The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, joins by phone to discuss the book, detailing the importance and history of Western Civilization, the battle between civilization and barbarism, and the quest to capture what is truly beautiful.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this rich and heartfelt conversation, Amy Wheeler sits down with Canadian yoga therapist and author Leila Stuart to explore her life's journey through yoga, Ayurveda, chronic illness, and the groundbreaking field of experiential anatomy.Leila shares how yoga first saved her as a 19-year-old in debilitating back pain, again when chronic fatigue and inflammatory arthritis nearly ended her career, and finally when Ayurveda and Panchakarma restored her vitality. Through these challenges, she developed a unique approach to anatomy—one that goes beyond memorization to help people truly feel their bodies from the inside out.Together, Amy and Leila unpack the profound role of interoception (the ability to sense internal states), the therapeutic power of somatics, and the importance of teaching anatomy as a lived experience. They also discuss the “golden thread” that guides each of us toward our dharma—even in times of suffering.This episode is both a personal healing story and a teaching in embodied practice, offering hope, inspiration, and practical insights for yoga therapists, teachers, and anyone seeking wholeness.What You'll Learn in This EpisodeThe difference between therapeutic yoga and yoga therapyHow yoga and Ayurveda supported Leila through back pain, chronic fatigue, and arthritisThe concept of experiential anatomy and why it's transformational for students and practitionersHow interoception and somatic awareness rewire the brain-body connectionGentle ways to support people who feel “numb” or disconnected from their bodyWhy beauty, simplicity, and embodiment matter in both healing and teachingThe importance of finding your dharma—and how it can become a pathway to healingAbout Leila StuartLeila Stuart is a yoga therapist, somatic movement educator, and author dedicated to bringing experiential anatomy to the forefront of yoga therapy education. She is the co-author of Pathways to a Centered Body (with Donna Farhi) and author of The Anatomy of Yoga Therapy. Her work blends deep anatomical knowledge with embodied practices that reconnect people with their inner wisdom. Learn more at leilastuart.com.Resources MentionedPathways to a Centered Body by Donna Farhi & Leila StuartThe Anatomy of Yoga Therapy by Leila StuartLeila's website for workshops, resources, and writings www.leilastuart.com Learn with Amy WheelerMaster of Science in Yoga Therapy – MUIHPost-Master's Certificate in Therapeutic Yoga PracticesPost-Baccalaureate Ayurveda CertificationStay ConnectedJoin our Optimal State Mobile App for daily check-ins and simple interventionsExplore our Online Community with weekly classes and a growing library at www.AmyWheeler.com Follow The Yoga Therapy Hour podcast wherever you listen

Do you have a heart for change but find that the loud, confrontational, and extroverted norms of traditional activism don't suit your natural temperament? In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, I talk with Sarah P Corbett, the award-winning activist, author, and founder of the Craftivist Collective. I've been following Sarah for years on Instagram, and after seeing she was Craftivist in Residence at Greenbelt Festival, I thought I'd reach out and see if she fancied a chat. This episode works as a companion piece to my conversation with Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, author of Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul, which includes quotes from Sarah (something I only realised later!). Sarah's philosophy of Gentle Protest shows that there are many other tools we can carry in our activism toolbox, and that campaigning can be quietly relational rather than transactional or performative endeavour. https://youtu.be/8EgDlswKn1k What Is Gentle Protest? Sarah says that Gentle Protest invites us to challenge injustice through curiosity, empathy, and imagination rather than shame, aggression, or polarity. Instead of fighting fire with fire, Gentle Protest asks: What if activism could entice, intrigue, and attract people to ask questions rather than shout them down? What if change could be built through dialogue, beauty, and patience? This philosophy is rooted in gentleness as a form of strength, not passivity. It's about engaging people, including those in power, with respect and relational awareness, creating conditions where meaningful change can take root. Relationships Over Transactions For Sarah, this kind of activism is not about noise or confrontation. It's about relationship-building. Gentle Protest works by diffusing defensiveness and replacing finger-wagging with curiosity and creative connection. When protest becomes relational, it stops being about winning arguments and starts being about transforming understanding. It allows for mutual learning and a recognition of our shared humanity, even in disagreement. The Firm Backbone of Gentleness Gentleness is often mistaken for weakness, but as Sarah puts it, it actually requires maturity, emotional intelligence, and depth. To practice Gentle Protest is to treat people as equals while respecting the realities of their workload, their blind spots, and their humanity. It's a strategic and pragmatic approach that asks: Who can bring about the change we seek? and How can we engage them in ways that build trust, not tension? This isn't about letting things slide. It's about working intelligently, relationally, and with purpose. Craftivism is a Tool, Not a Taskmaster In the Gentle Protest Toolkit, craftivism is one potential tool rather than a catchall dogma. It's about finding creative methods that fit each situation, rather than repeating the same tactics out of habit. Sarah uses these questions to help people work backwards when figuring out the best approach for their campaign: What's the problem? What's the desired outcome? Who are the decision-makers? Who influences them? What creative medium could best reach them? If craftivism fits, use it. If not, find another way. The key is flexibility, imagination, and a commitment to relationships. Letting Go of Perfection Perfectionism can quietly strangle our ability to act. Sarah reminds us that activism isn't about knowing everything or producing perfect work; it's about participating in something bigger than ourselves. The moment we make a campaign about personal performance, we lose sight of its purpose and make it less impactful. Gentle Protest frees us from that pressure, allowing imperfection and humanity to shine through. The “Golden Thread of Gentleness” What runs through everything Sarah does is what she calls the golden thread of gentleness. Gentle Protest challenges the false dichotomy between soft and strong, showing that kindness can be an act of rebellion when the world rewards cruelty. In this sense, gentleness is a radical choice we can make in the face of power. It is not passive or submissive, but profoundly and existentially creative. About Sarah P Corbett An award-winning activist, author and Ashoka fellow, Sarah P Corbett founded the global Craftivist Collective in 2009 and coined ‘Gentle Protest' as her unique methodology. Corbett creates products and services for individuals, groups and organisations to do effective craftivism (craft + activism) prioritising audiences who have never done activism before. Sarah's pioneering work has helped change government laws, business policies as well as hearts and minds. She has worked with V&A, Tate, Craft Council, Climate Coalition, Helsinki Design Week, Save the Children and Secret Cinema amongst others. One of her campaigns directly led to 50,000 staff of Marks and Spencers receiving the real Living Wage. Plus WWF used Corbett's 10-point manifesto to create their own successful craftivism campaign that led to a change in law to protect migrating birds in Spain. Her TED x talk ‘Activism Needs Introverts' was chosen as a TED Talk Of The Day. Corbett Co-created the Girlguiding Craftivism badge and her third book The Craftivist Collective Handbook was published 2nd May 2024 and won ‘best multimedia book’ at 2025's The Creative Book Awards. Connect with Sarah Find Sarah on Instagram (@craftivists and @sarahpcorbett), Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and subscribe to receive the Craftivist Collective newsletter.

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   Susan Hill: Master of Ghost Stories and Noir Susan Hill, author of “The Woman in Black” and other novels, in conversation by phone with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded November 29, 2021. The Woman in Black, a play by Stephen Mallatratt and directed by Robin Herford is playing in Walnut Creek at The Lesher Center under the auspices of CenterREP from November 5th through November 23, 2025. Susan Hill has written over thirty novels, most of them stand-alones in the gothic ghost story genre, and eleven crime novels featuring her detective Simon Serrailer, the most recent being The Benefit of Hindsight, published in 2020, with A Change of Circumstance published in March 2022. She's also written six collections of short stories, an autobiography among nine non-fiction works, five plays, and 13 Children's Books. She became a Dame of the British Empire in 2020. Complete 48-minute interview.   Rita Moreno: Broadway and Hollywood Legend Richard Wolinsky and Rita Moreno, Sept. 16, 2011 at KPFA. Rita Moreno, legendary Hollywood star, actress, dancer and singer, in conversation about her career and her one-woman show, “Rita Moreno: Life Without Make-up,” recorded September 16, 2011 in the KPFA studios. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky. The talented winner of the big four awards, Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony, Rita Moreno continues to work in film and television. In this interview recorded during previews of her one-woman show at Berkeley Rep ten years ago, she discusses not only her work on the show, but her time in Hollywood, her five year relationship with Marlon Brando, her work on the film The King and I, working with Morgan Freeman on PBS, and other stories. Complete 35-minute interview. Review of “Suffs” at BroadwaySF Orpheum Theatre through November 9, 2025   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others for shorter periods each week. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 110th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, May 31 – June 1, 2025. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actors Ensemble of Berkeley.  See website for readings and events. Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).  Mary Jane by Amy Herzog, directed by Amy Kossow, November 6 – 30, Magic Theatre, Fort Mason. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. American Conservatory Theatre  Stereophonic (in association with BroadwaySF, at the Curran), Oct 28 – Nov 23. Awesome Theatre Company. See website for information. Berkeley Playhouse. Annie. November 7- December 21. Once, February 20 – March 22.  Berkeley Rep. The Hills of California .by Jez Butterworth, Oct. 31 – Dec. 7, Roda Theatre. Mother of Exiles by Jessica Huang, World Premiere, Nov. 14 – Dec. 32, Peets Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company The Tempest, Oct. 24 – Nov. 2,  Immersive theatre. Point Montara Lighthouse. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for events listings. BroadwaySF: Stereophonic (in association with ACT), Oct 28 – Nov 23, Curran. See website for complete listings for the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran Theaters. Broadway San Jose:  Kinky Boots, Nov. 28-30. See website for other events. Center REP: The Woman in Black, U.S. Tour, November 5-23.. Central Stage. See website for upcoming productions, 5221 Central Avenue, Richmond Central Works Dada Teen Musical: The Play by Maury Zeff, Oct. 18 – Nov. 16, Cinnabar Theatre. Young Rep: Disney's The Little Mermaid, November 14-23, Studio Space, Petaluma Outlet Mall. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre Ebenezer Scrooge, an adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” by Joel Roster, December 6 –  21. . See website for other events. Golden Thread  Pilgrimage by Humaira Ghilzal and Bridgette Dutta Portman, a co-production with Z Space, October 24 – November 8, Z Space's Steindler Stage. Hillbarn Theatre: Murder for Two, a musical comedy, October 9 – November 2, 2025. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. Los Altos Stage Company. Freaky Friday, The Musical. October 24 – November 2. A Christmas Carol, November  28 – December 21.. Lower Bottom Playaz  August Wilson's King Hedley II, November 8 -30. BAM House, Oakland. Magic Theatre. Actors Reading Collective: Mary Jane by Amy Herzog, directed by Amy Kossow, November 6 – 30, See website for other events and productions. Marin Shakespeare Company: See website for events and productions. Marin Theatre: Sally and Tom by Suzan-Lori Parks. October 30 – November 23. The Lightning Thief, MSC Teen Company, November 7 -9. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC)  Spanish Stew by Marga Gomez, October 17 – November 23. New Performance Traditions.  See website for upcoming schedule Oakland Theater Project. Cabaret, November 21 – December 14. Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Palace of Fine Arts Theater.  See website for event listings. Pear Theater. Ada & The Engine  by Lauren Gunderson, November 21 – December 7. See website for staged readings and other events. Playful People Productions. Newsies, November 8-16. Presidio Theatre. Peter Pan Panto, Nov. 29 – Dec. 28. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: The Rocky Horror Show. October 9 – November 1, The Oasis. Ross Valley Players: See website for New Works Sunday night readings and other events. San Francisco Playhouse. Noises Off by Michael Frayn. September 25 – November 8. SFBATCO.  See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: See website for events and upcoming season Shotgun Players.  Sunday in the Park with George, November 15 – December 30. South Bay Musical Theatre:  Let It Snow: A Broadway Holiday Celebration, December 20-21, Little Women, The Broadway Musical, January 24 – February 14, 2026. SPARC: See website for upcoming events. Stagebridge: See website for events and productions. Storytime every 4th Saturday. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Lunatico Frankenstein, October 11 – November 2. Theatre Rhino  The Break-Up written and performed by Tina D'Elia, November 6-23. Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. A Driving Beat by Jordan Ramirez Puckett, Oct 29 – Nov. 23, . Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts Second Stage.Georgiana & Kitty, Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, Dec. 3 – 28, Lucie Stern Theatre. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAMPFA: On View calendar for Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2025 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Fort Mason Center. Events calendar. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. See schedule for upcoming SFGMC performances. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org   The post October 30, 2025: Susan Hill – Rita Moreno appeared first on KPFA.

Stress doesn't just live in your head—it shapes your breath, your hormones, and the choices you make when you're tired and tense. We sit down with intimacy coach and educator Stacie Steinbock of The Golden Thread to explore how pleasure can be a reliable, ethical, and practical medicine for bodies carrying burnout, shame, and even post-cancer changes. Stacie brings a rare blend of expertise: two decades in sexuality education, including medical curriculum work with the UofL School of Medicine, and a rigorous Tibetan Five Element Tantra certification that roots her methods in lineage-based somatic practice.We trace the real gaps in sex education—silence around desire, relationships, and body image—and how that silence becomes a generational pattern. Stacy shares her ovarian cancer story, surgical menopause, and the intimate process of relearning pleasure when familiar pathways no longer work. From there, we get specific: what somatic healing means, how cellular memory keeps trauma in the tissues, and why talk therapy alone can't always resolve what the nervous system still flags as threat. You'll hear how the chemistry of pleasure—dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins—protects against chronic cortisol, restoring focus, motivation, and calm. We also explore an Eastern perspective that frames orgasm as a momentary taste of freedom from suffering, while reminding us that everyday joys—like a quiet walk or a warm bath—can return the body to safety.Stacie offers a grounded framework: movement, meditation, connection practices, and pleasure practices clients take home—no touch, clear ethics, collaborative care with medical providers when needed. We include a short guided exercise to feel the difference between recalling pain and invoking a nourishing sensory memory, illustrating how quickly the body can shift states. The takeaway is simple and powerful: pleasure isn't an indulgence that steals from productivity; it's the fuel that sustains creativity, resilience, and a clear connection to your why.If this resonates, subscribe, share with a friend who needs relief, and leave a review to help more listeners find this conversation. To explore Stacie's work, reach out for her free 30-minute consultation and ask for the complimentary ebook on pleasure as medicine.Offer: 1:1 private intimacy coaching with Stacie for individuals, couples, and partnership systemsOffer Link: https://www.goldenthreadtantra.com/servicesSupport the showConnect with Wendy Manganaro: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendymanganaro1/

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Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   Richard Powers: Playground, a novel about Big Tech and AI Richard Powers discusses his latest novel, “Playground” with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studios October 31, 2024. Richard Powers won the Pulitzer Prize i 2019 for “The Overstory,” and the National Book Award in 2006 for “The Echo Maker.” He is also the author of “The Time Of Our Singing,” “Orfeo,” and “Bewilderment.” He has been a Booker Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist multiple times. “Playground” brings together the history of Silicon Valley and the growth of A.I. with a look at deep ocean diving and the notion of floating cities in a story that circles back on itself, and was possibly written by an artificial intelligence. Complete interview     Bebe Moore Campbell (1950-2025), Best Selling Novelist Bebe Moore Campbell (1950-2006), in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded August 23, 2001 while on tour for her novel, “What You Owe Me.” In her books, she explored racial justice, childhood obesity and the tensions in friendships between Black and white people; she shared the stigma of mental illness and memories of the summers she spent with her father in North Carolina. Bebe Moore Campbell died of brain cancer on November 27, 2006 at the age of 56,  and was on the verge of recognition as a major African American novelist and journalist at the time of her death. Her first novel, published in 1992, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, won the NAACP Image Award for Literature that year, and was a notable book in both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Her second novel, Brothers and Sisters, hit the New York Times best seller list after two weeks. Along the way, she became a regular commentator on NPR's Morning Edition. I interviewed Bebe Moore Campbell on August 23, 2001 while she was on the publicity tour for her fourth novel, What You Owe Me. Most of the interview focuses on that book. Bebe Moore Campbell would only write one more novel before her untimely death 72 Hour Hold. As for October, 2025, none of her works have been adapted for film or television. This was one of the final Bookwaves interviews recorded on analog tape, and was digitized and edited on October 20, 2025. This interview has not aired since 2002. . Bebe Moore Campbell Wikipedia page   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others for shorter periods each week. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 110th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, May 31 – June 1, 2025. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actors Ensemble of Berkeley.  See website for readings and events. Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).  Mary Jane by Amy Herzog, directed by Amy Kossow, November 6 – 30, Magic Theatre, Fort Mason. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. American Conservatory Theatre  Stereophonic (in association with BroadwaySF, at the Curran), Oct 28 – Nov 23. Awesome Theatre Company. See website for information. Berkeley Rep. The Hills of California .by Jez Butterworth, Oct. 31 – Dec. 7, Roda Theatre. Mother of Exiles by Jessica Huang, World Premiere, Nov. 14 – Dec. 32, Peets Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company The Tempest, Oct. 24 – Nov. 2,  Immersive theatre. Point Montara Lighthouse. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for events listings. BroadwaySF: Stereophonic (in association with ACT), Oct 28 – Nov 23, Curran. See website for complete listings for the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran Theaters. Broadway San Jose:  Some Like It Hot, Oct. 21-26. See website for other events. Center REP: The Woman in Black, U.S. Tour, November 5-23.. Central Stage. See website for upcoming productions, 5221 Central Avenue, Richmond Central Works Dada Teen Musical: The Play by Maury Zeff, Oct. 18 – Nov. 16, Cinnabar Theatre. Young Rep: Disney's The Little Mermaid, November 14-23, Studio Space, Petaluma Outlet Mall. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre Ebenezer Scrooge, an adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” by Joel Roster, December 6 –  21. . See website for other events. Golden Thread  Pilgrimage by Humaira Ghilzal and Bridgette Dutta Portman, a co-production with Z Space, October 24 – November 8, Z Space's Steindler Stage. Hillbarn Theatre: Murder for Two, a musical comedy, October 9 – November 2, 2025. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. Los Altos Stage Company. Freaky Friday, The Musical. October 24 – November 2. A Christmas Carol, November  28 – December 21.. Lower Bottom Playaz  August Wilson's King Hedley II, November 8 -30. BAM House, Oakland. Magic Theatre. Actors Reading Collective: Mary Jane by Amy Herzog, directed by Amy Kossow, November 6 – 30, See website for other events and productions. Marin Shakespeare Company: See website for events and productions. Marin Theatre: Sally and Tom by Suzan-Lori Parks. October 30 – November 23. The Lightning Thief, MSC Teen Company, November 7 -9. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC)  Spanish Stew by Marga Gomez, October 17 – November 23. New Performance Traditions.  See website for upcoming schedule Oakland Theater Project. Cabaret, November 21 – December 14. Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Palace of Fine Arts Theater.  See website for event listings. Pear Theater. Ada & The Engine  by Lauren Gunderson, November 21 – December 7. See website for staged readings and other events. Playful People Productions. Disney's Moana JR., Oct 17-19; Newsies, November 8-16. Presidio Theatre. Peter Pan Panto, Nov. 29 – Dec. 28. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: The Rocky Horror Show. October 9 – November 1, The Oasis. Ross Valley Players: See website for New Works Sunday night readings and other events. San Francisco Playhouse. Noises Off by Michael Frayn. September 25 – November 8. SFBATCO.  See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: See website for events and upcoming season Shotgun Players.  Sunday in the Park with George, November 15 – December 30. South Bay Musical Theatre:  Let It Snow: A Broadway Holiday Celebration, December 20-21,Little Women, The Broadway Musical, January 24 – February 14, 2026. SPARC: See website for upcoming events. Stagebridge: See website for events and productions. Storytime every 4th Saturday. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Lunatico Frankenstein, October 11 – November 2. Theatre Rhino  The Break-Up written and performed by Tina D'Elia, November 6-23. Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. A Driving Beat by Jordan Ramirez Puckett, Oct 29 – Nov. 23, . Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts Second Stage.Georgiana & Kitty, Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, Dec. 3 – 28, Lucie Stern Theatre. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAMPFA: On View calendar for Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2025 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Fort Mason Center. Events calendar. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. See schedule for upcoming SFGMC performances. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org   The post October 23, 2025: Richard Powers – Bebe Moore Campbell appeared first on KPFA.

Link to purchase the book on Amazon: https://shorturl.at/FsMNQ _______________________________________ If you appreciate my work and would like to support it: https://subscribestar.com/the-saad-truth https://patreon.com/GadSaad https://paypal.me/GadSaad To subscribe to my exclusive content on X, please visit my bio at https://x.com/GadSaad _______________________________________ This clip was posted on October 20, 2025 on my YouTube channel as THE SAAD TRUTH_1919: https://youtu.be/aUs-LMaf2iM _______________________________________ Please visit my website gadsaad.com, and sign up for alerts. If you appreciate my content, click on the "Support My Work" button. I count on my fans to support my efforts. You can donate via Patreon, PayPal, and/or SubscribeStar. _______________________________________ Dr. Gad Saad is a professor, evolutionary behavioral scientist, and author who pioneered the use of evolutionary psychology in marketing and consumer behavior. In addition to his scientific work, Dr. Saad is a leading public intellectual who often writes and speaks about idea pathogens that are destroying logic, science, reason, and common sense.  _______________________________________

In this episode of the Magical Learning Podcast, the team engage in a thought-provoking discussion with leadership expert Dr. Paige Williams. The conversation revolves around the impact of AI on leadership and organisational culture, emphasising the importance of accountability, self-awareness, and adaptability in navigating the challenges posed by technological disruption. Dr. Williams introduces the concept of the 'golden thread' as a metaphor for the essential human qualities that enable effective leadership in an age dominated by AI. The episode highlights the need for leaders to foster a culture of trust and accountability while addressing self-limiting beliefs that hinder personal and organisational growth.To grab Dr. Paige WIlliam's books:https://drpaige.au/books/ And to Reach out to Dr. Williams:https://drpaige.au/https://www.linkedin.com/in/drpaigewilliamsChapters00:00 Introduction to the Magical Learning Podcast03:15 The Golden Thread: Navigating Anxiety in the Age of AI05:51 Leadership Challenges Beneath the AI Headlines08:44 The Importance of Accountability in AI11:30 Leading Ourselves Well in an AI-Driven World20:56 The Inner Voice and Technology's Impact24:22 Awareness, Choice, and Intention25:46 Accountability and Leading Ourselves29:25 Empowering Choices in Parenting34:06 Overcoming Accountability Avoidance38:59 The Golden Thread of Human AccountabilityAll Magical Learning podcasts are recorded on the beautiful lands of the Kulin, Ngunnawal and Wiradjuri nations, and we pay our respect to their elders past and present.As always, if you are having trouble, you can always send us a message.Listen to/watch this podcast here: ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/128QgGO....To find out more about our free content, sign-up for future webinars as well as our other services, go to ⁠⁠https://magicallearning.com/⁠⁠ and sign up!You can also find us on our socials: Instagram: / magical_learning Facebook: / magicallearningteam Linkedin: / magicallearning Youtube: / @magicallearning Have a Magical week!

Nick Jeffery and John Granger continue their Q&A conversations about Rowling-Galbraith's Hallmarked Man (if you missed the first discussion, click here to catch up). As usual, the pair promised to send links and notes along with their recorded back and forth for anyone wanting to read more about the subjects they discussed. Scroll down for their seven plus one questions and a bevy of bonus material they trust will add to your appreciation of Rowling's Strike 8 artistry and meaning. Cheers!Q1: What is the meaning of or artistry involved with Pat Chauncey's three fish in the Agency's fish tank, ‘Robin,' ‘Cormoran,' and ‘Travolta/Elton'?Mise en Abyme (Wikipedia)In Western art history, mise en abyme (French pronunciation: [miz ɑ̃n‿abim]; also mise en abîme) is the technique of placing a copy of an image within itself, often in a way that suggests an infinitely recurring sequence. In film theory and literary theory, it refers to the story within a story technique.The term is derived from heraldry, and means placed into abyss (exact middle of a shield). It was first appropriated for modern criticism by the French author André Gide. A common sense of the phrase is the visual experience of standing between two mirrors and seeing an infinite reproduction of one's image. Another is the Droste effect, in which a picture appears within itself, in a place where a similar picture would realistically be expected to appearSnargaloff pods (Harry Potter Wiki)“It sprang to life at once; long, prickly, bramble-like vines flew out of the top and whipped through the air... Harry succeeded in trapping a couple of vines and knotting them together; a hole opened in the middle of all the tentacle-like branches... Hermione snatched her arm free, clutching in her fingers a pod... At once, the prickly vines shot back inside and the gnarled stump sat there looking like an innocently dead lump of wood“— The trio dealing with the Snargaluff plant in sixth year Herbology classSnargaluff was a magical plant with the appearance of a gnarled stump, but had dangerous hidden thorn-covered vines that attacked when provoked, and was usually best handled by more than one person.Juliana's Question about the Oranda Goldfish:did anyone else notice - I confess to only noticing this on my second re-read of THM- that Travolta, Pat's third fish, dies?What do we think about this? Could this mean Mr. Ryan F. Murphy dies…? Or could it just be foreshadowing of the fact that him and Robin don't end up together? I think the fish symbolism was quite humorous and delightful paralleling such a deep and intricate plot. Just wanted to know if anyone noticed this tinge of humor towards the end of the book… As for the fish theory, Pat's three fish in the tank: Strike, Robin and the third, she calls, Travolta — ironically, named after a “handsome” man. I'm thinking JKR meant Travolta, the fish to symbolize Murphy…What I was referring to in my original comment: the three fish = the love triangle between Ellacott/Murphy/Strike. I was asking: since Travolta died in Chapter 113, do we think this foreshadows Murphy either dying physically, or just that Robin and Murphy do not end up together?John's ‘Fish and Peas' Response:It's a relief to learn that Travolta's most famous role wasn't a character named Ryan Murphy that everyone in the world except myself knows very well. Thank you for this explanation!There's more to your idea, though, I think, then you have shared. Forgive me if you were already aware of this textual argument that suggests very strongly that these Oranda goldfish have been an important part of Rowling's plan from the series from the start. In brief, it's about the peas.In Part 2, Chapter 3, of ‘Cuckoo's Calling,' Robin and Matt are having their first fight about Strike and the Agency. The chapter ends with an odd note that this disagreement has blemished the Cunliffe couple's engagement.“She waited until he had walked away into the sitting room before turning off the tap. There was, she noticed, a fragment of frozen pea caught in the setting of her engagement ring.” (73)Your theory that the fish bowl is an embedded picture of the state of Robin's feelings for Murphy and Strike, a Mise en abyme of sorts, is given credibility in the eyes of this reader by the appearance of frozen peas as the cure for the dying Cormoran goldfish. It is hard for a Rowling Reader to believe that these two mentions of frozen pea fragments were coincidental or unrelated, which means that (a) Rowling had the office Oranda goldfish scene-within-the-scene in Strike 8 foreshadowed by the Strike 1 tiff, and (b) therefore of real significance.There is another pea bit, of course, in ‘Troubled Blood' at Skegness, a passage that links Robin's heart or essence with peas.Strike was still watching the starlings when Robin set down two polystyrene trays, two small wooden forks and two cans of Coke on the table.“Mushy peas,” said Strike, looking at Robin's tray, where a hefty dollop of what looked like green porridge sat alongside her fish and chips.“Yorkshire caviar,” said Robin, sitting down. “I didn't think you'd want any.”“You were right,” said Strike, picking up a sachet of tomato sauce while watching with something like revulsion as Robin dipped a chip into the green sludge and ate it.“Soft Southerner, you are,” she said, and Strike laughed. (807-808)If you tie this in with the fish symbolism embedded in Rowling's favorite paintings and the meaning of ‘Oranda,' this is quite a bit of depth in that fish bowl -- and in your argument that the death of Travolta signifies Murphy is out of consideration.You're probably to young to remember this but Travolta's most famous role will always be Tony Manero in ‘Saturday Night Fever,' the breakout event of his acting career. Manero longs for a woman way out of his league, attempts to rape her after they win a dance contest, she naturally rejects him, but they wind up as friends.Or in a book so heavy in the cultish beliefs and practices of Freemasonry, especially with respect to policemen that are also “on the square,” maybe the Travolta-Murphy link is just that the actor is, with Tom Cruise, as famous (well...) for his beliefs in Scientology as for his acting ability.So, yes, it's fun, your ‘Peas and Fish' theory, but there's something to it.Check out this note on ‘Peas' in the Strike novels from Renee over at the weblog: https://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/hallmarked-man-placeholder-post-index/comment-page-1/#comment-1699017 The fish symbolism embedded in Rowling's favorite painting: https://hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/rowlings-favorite-painting-and-what And the meaning of ‘Oranda:' https://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/rowling-twixter-fish-and-strike-update/Follow-Up by Julianna:I'm not sure what exact chapter this is in, but let's also not forget that on Sark, Strike procures a bag of frozen peas to soothe the spade to his face injury. I also want to add that he has used frozen peas before, to soothe his aching leg too, but I could be wrong about that…I cant remember where I've read that, so it might not be true….Lastly, after reading Renee's comment, I have to say, that now I do believe that the peas might have been an ongoing symbol for Strike (a la…the pea in the engagement ring) and…stay with me here….peas are potentially, what save Cormoran, the goldfish, from dying.“The black fish called Cormoran was again flailing helplessly at the top of the tank. ‘Stupid a*****e, you've done it to your f*cking self'.” And the very last line of the book being: “Then pushed himself into a standing position ear and knee both throbbing. In the absence of anything else he could do to improve his present situation, he set off for the attic to fetch the empty margerine tub…and some peas.” (Chapter 127).My point being: this could be a way of Rowling saying, that Strike saves himself from himself…another psychological undertone in her stories. (Lake reference: Rowling has pulled herself up out of poverty ‘by her own bootstraps' we say.) Thoughts? Thanks for induldging me here, John! I am enjoying this conversation. Apologies for the grammar and potentially confusing train of thoughts.And from Vicky:Loving the theories and symbolism around the peas and fish! Just had a thought too re John quoting the Troubled blood scene. Robin calls mushy peas by a familiar term “Yorkshire caviar”. Caviar is of course fish eggs, and poor Robin, Yorkshire born, spends much of THM agonising over the thought and pressure of freezing her eggs. Giuliana mentioned the frozen peas Strike puts on his swollen face after the spade hit...maybe this is foreshadowing to their intimate and honest dinner conversation later with Robin baring her heart to Strike about her ectopic pregnancy griefQ2: Why didn't the Strike-Ellacott Agency or the Metropolitan Police figure out how the murderer entered the Ramsay Silver vault to kill William Wright the first time they saw the grainy surveillance film of the auction house crate deliveries?Tweet UrlFrom ‘The Locked Room Lecture' (John Dickson Carr) It's silly to be disappointed in a border-line absurd Locked Room Mystery such as Hallmarked Man because improbability is close to a requirement in such stories:“But this point must be made, because a few people who do not like the slightly lurid insist on treating their preferences as rules. They use, as a stamp of condemnation, the word ‘improbable.' And thereby they gull the unwary into their own belief that ‘improbable' simply means ‘bad.'“Now, it seems reasonable to point out that the word improbable is the very last which should ever be used to curse detective fiction in any case. A great part of our liking fofr detective fiction is based on a liking for improbability. When A is murdered, and B and C are under strong suspicion, it is improbably that the innocent-looking D can be guilty. But he is. If G has a perfect alibi, sworn to at every point by every other letter in the alphabet, it is improbable that G can have committed the crime. But he has. When the detective picks up a fleck of coal dust at the seashore, it is improbable that such an insignificant thing can have any importance. But it will. In short, you come to a point where the word improbable grows meaningless as a jeer. There can be no such thing as any probability until the end of the story. And then, if you wish the murder to be fastened on an unlikely person (as some of us old fogies do), you can hardly complain because he acted from motives less likely or necessarily less apparent than those of the person first suspected.“When the cry of ‘This-sort-of-thing-wouldn't-happen!' goes up, when you complain about half-faced fiends and hooded phantoms and blond hypnotic sirens, you are merely saying, ‘I don't like this sort of story.' That's fair enough. If you do not like it, you are howlingly right to say so. But when you twist this matter of taste into a rule for judging the merit or even the probability of the story, you are merely saying, ‘This series of events couldn't happen, because I shouldn't enjoy it if it did.'“What would seem to be the truth of the matter? We might test it out by taking the hermetically sealed chamber as an example, because this situation has been under a hotter fire than any other on the grounds of being unconvincing.“Most people, I am delighted to say, are fond of the locked room. But – here's the damned rub – even its friends are often dubious. I cheerfully admit that I frequently am. So, for the moment, we'll all side together on this score and see what we can discover. Why are we dubious when we hear the explanation of the locked room? Not in the least because we are incredulous, but simply because in some vague way we are disappointed. And from that feeling it is only natural to take an unfair step farther, and call the whole business incredible or impossible or flatly ridiculous.” (reprinted in The Art of the Mystery Story [Howard Haycraft] 273-286)Q3: Hallmarked Man is all about silver and Freemasonry. What is the historical connection between South American silver (‘Argentina' means ‘Land of Silver'), the end of European feudalism, and the secret brotherhood of the Masons?How Silver Flooded the World: And how that Replaced Feudalism and the Church with Capitalism and Nation-States (‘Uncharted Territories,' Tomas Pueyo) In Europe, silver also triggered the discovery of America, a technological explosion, and a runaway chain of events that replaced feudalism with capitalism and nation-states. If you understand this, you'll be able to understand why nation-states are threatened by cryptocurrencies today, and how their inevitable success will weaken nation-states. In this premium article, we're going to explore how Europe starved for silver, and how the reaction to this flooded the world with silver. ,See also Never Bet Against America and Argentina Could be a Superpower, both by Pueyo.‘Conspiracy Theories associated with Freemasonry' (Wikipedia)* That Freemasonry is a Jewish front for world domination or is at least controlled by Jews for this goal. An example of this is the anti-Semitic literary forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Adolf Hitler believed that Freemasonry was a tool of Jewish influence,[12] and outlawed Freemasonry and persecuted Freemasons partially for this reason.[13] The covenant of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas claims that Freemasonry is a “secret society” founded as part of a Zionist plot to control the world.[14] Hilaire Belloc thought Jews had “inaugurated” freemasonry “as a bridge between themselves and their hosts”[15]* That Freemasonry is tied to or behind Communism. The Spanish dictator Francisco Franco had often associated his opposition with both Freemasonry and Communism, and saw the latter as a conspiracy of the former; as he put it, “The whole secret of the campaigns unleashed against Spain can be explained in two words: masonry and communism”.[16] In 1950, Irish Roman Catholic priest Denis Fahey republished a work by George F. Dillon under the title Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked as the Secret Power Behind Communism. Modern conspiracy theorists such as Henry Makow have also claimed that Freemasonry intends the triumph of Communism[17]* That Freemasons are behind income taxes in the US. One convicted tax protester has charged that law enforcement officials who surrounded his property in a standoff over his refusal to surrender after his conviction were part of a “Zionist, Illuminati, Free Mason [sic] movement”.[18] The New Hampshire Union Leader also reported that “the Browns believe the IRS and the federal income tax are part of a deliberate plot perpetrated by Freemasons to control the American people and eventually the world”[19]Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery, a Freemasonry Novel (Wikipedia)So much for the link between Freemasonry and Baphomet worship!‘The Desacralization of Work' (Roger Sworder, Mining, Metallurgy, and the Meaning of Life)Q4: Ian Griffiths is the Bad Guy of Hallmarked Man. His name has definite Christian overtones (a ‘Griffin,' being half-eagle, half-lion, King of Heaven and Earth, is a symbol of Christ); could it also be another pointer to Rowling's mysterious ‘Back Door Man,' Harry Bingham, author of the Fiona Griffiths series?Troubled Blood: The Acknowledgments (Nick Jeffery, November 2020)In both Silkworm and Career Rowling/Galbraith's military advisors are thanked as SOBE (Sean Harris OBE?) Deeby (Di Brookes?) and the Back Door Man. Professor Granger has identified the Back Door Man as a southern US slang term for a man having an illicit relationship, but beyond this is so far unidentified.Any thoughts on her dedications or acknowledgements? Any new leads for the elusive Back Door Man? Please comment down below.Harry Bingham's website, June 2012“My path into TALKING TO THE DEAD was a curious one. I was approached by a well-known figure who was contemplating working with a ghostwriter on a crime thriller. I hadn't read any crime for a long time, but was intrigued by the project. So I went out and bought about two dozen crime novels, then read them back-to-back over about two weeks.”Could Rowling have hired a (gasp) “ghost writer”? Or was it just “expert editorial assistance” she was looking for, what Bingham offers today?Author's Notes in The Strange Death of Fiona Grifiths (Publication date 29th January 2015, before Career of Evil):“If you want to buy a voice activated bugging device that looks like (and is) an ordinary power socket, it'll set you back about fifty pounds (about eighty bucks).”This is the same surveillance device used in Lethal White, but interestingly is not used in Bingham's book. (Nick Jeffery)Moderators Backchannel List of Correspondences between Cormoran Strike series and Bingham's Fiona Griffiths mystery-thrillers (John Granger):(1) A series that has an overarching mystery about which we get clues in every story, one linked to a secret involving a parent who is well known but whose real life is a mystery even to their families;(2) A series that is preoccupied with psychological issues, especially those of the brilliant woman protagonist who suffers from a mental illness and who is a student of psychology;(3) A series that is absorbed with death and populated by the dead who have not yet passed on and who influence the direction of the investigation more or less covertly (”I think we have just one world, a continuum, one populated by living and dead alike,” 92, This Thing of Darkness), a psychic and spiritual realm book that rarely touches on formal religion (Dead House and Deepest Grave excepted, sort of);(4) A series that, while being a police procedural because the detective is a police officer, is largely about how said sergeant works around, even against the hierarchy of department authority and decision makers, “with police help but largely as an independent agent;”(5) A series that makes glancing references to texts that will jar Rowling Readers: “All shall be well” (284, Love Story with Murders), she drives a high heel into a creepy guy's foot when he comes up to her from behind (75, This Thing of Darkness), Clerkenwell! (103, The Dead House), a cave opening cathedral-like onto a lake, the heroine enters with a mentor, blood spilled at the entrance, and featuring a remarkable escape (chapter 34, The Dead House), etc, especially the Robin-Fiona parallels....(6) A series starring a female protagonist who works brilliantly undercover, whose story is about recovery from a trauma experienced when she was a college student, who struggles mostly with her romantic relationships with men, a struggle that is a combination of her mental health-recovery progress (or lack of same) and her vocation as a detective, who is skilled in the martial art of self-defense, and who is from a world outside London, an ethnicity and home fostering, of all things, a love of sheep;(7) A series with a love of the mythological or at least the non-modern (King Arthur! Anchorites!)Q5: Can you help us out with some UK inside jokes or cultural references of which we colonists can only guess the meaning? Start with Gateshead, Pit Ponies, and Council Flats and Bed-Sits!* Gateshead (Wikipedia)J. B. Priestley, writing of Gateshead in his 1934 travelogue English Journey, said that “no true civilisation could have produced such a town”, adding that it appeared to have been designed “by an enemy of the human race”.* Pit Ponies (Wikipedia)Larger horses, such as varieties of Cleveland Bay, could be used on higher underground roadways, but on many duties small ponies no more than 12 hands (48 inches, 122 cm) high were needed. Shetlands were a breed commonly used because of their small size, but Welsh, Russian, Devonshire (Dartmoor) and Cornish ponies also saw extensive use in England.[2] In the interwar period, ponies were imported into Britain from the Faroe Islands, Iceland and the United States. Geldings and stallions only were used. Donkeys were also used in the late 19th century, and in the United States, large numbers of mules were used.[6] Regardless of breed, typical mining ponies were low set, heavy bodied and heavy limbed with plenty of bone and substance, low-headed and sure-footed. Under the British Coal Mines Act 1911 (1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 50), ponies had to be four years old and work ready (shod and vet checked) before going underground.[15] They could work until their twenties.At the peak of this practice in 1913, there were 70,000 ponies underground in Britain.In shaft mines, ponies were normally stabled underground[16] and fed on a diet with a high proportion of chopped hay and maize, coming to the surface only during the colliery's annual holiday.* Council Flats (Wikipedia)Q6: What are Rowling Readers to think of Robin's dream in chapter 22 (174 )when she's sleeping next to Murphy but dreaming of being at Ramsay's Silver with Strike and the showroom is filled with “cuddly toys instead of masonic swords and aprons”?* ‘Harry's Dreams:' Steve Vander Ark, Harry Potter LexiconQ7: The first bad news phone call that Robin takes from her mother Linda in Hallmarked Man is about the death of Rowntree. What is the connection between Robin's beloved Chocolate Labrador, Quakers, and Rowling's Golden Thread about ‘What is Real'?‘Troubled Blood: Poisoned Chocolates' (John Granger, 2021)‘Troubled Blood: The Secret of Rowntree' (John Granger, 2021)I explained in ‘Deathly Hallows and Penn's Fruits of Solitude‘ why Penn's quotation is a key to the Hogwarts Saga finale, how, in brief, the “inner light” doctrines of the Quakers and of non-conformist esoteric Christianity in general inform the story of Harry's ultimate victory in Dobby's grave over doubt and his subsequent ‘win' in his battle against death and the Dark Lord. I urge you to read that long post, one of the most important, I think, ever posted at HogwartsProfessor, for an idea of how central to Rowling's Christian faith the tenets of Quakerism really are as well as how this shows itself in Deathly Hallows.What makes the historical chocolate connection with the Quakers, one strongly affirmed in naming the Ellacott dog ‘Rowntree,' that much more interesting then is the easy segue from the “inner light” beliefs of the Christian non-conformists to the effect of chocolate on characters in Rowling and Galbraith novels. The conscience of man per the Quakers are our logos within that is continuous with the Logos fabric of reality, the Word that brings all things into existence and the light that is in every man (cf., the Prologue to St John's Gospel). Our inner peace and fellowship, in this view, depend on our identification with this transpersonal “inner light” rather than our ephemeral ego concerns.What is the sure way to recover from a Dementor attack, in which your worst nightmares are revisited? How does Robin deal with stress and the blues? Eat some chocolate, preferably a huge bar from Honeydukes or a chocolate brownie if you cannot get to Hogsmead.Access, in other words, the Quaker spiritual magic, the “inner light” peace of communion with what is Absolute and transcendent, a psychological effect exteriorized in story form by Rowling as the good feeling we have in eating chocolate. Or in the companionship and unconditional love of a beloved Labrador, preferably a chocolate Lab.Christmas Pig: The Blue Bunny' (John Granger, 2021)“Do you just want to live in nice houses?” asked Blue Bunny. “Or is there another reason you want to get in?”“Yes,” said Jack, before the Christmas Pig could stop him. “Somebody I need's in there. He's called DP and he's my favorite cuddly toy.”For a long moment, Jack and Blue Bunny stared into each other's eyes and then Blue Bunny let out a long sigh of amazement.“You're a boy,” he whispered. “You're real.”“He isn't,” said the panic-stricken Christmas Pig. “He's an action figure called—”“It's all right, Pig,” said Blue Bunny, “I won't tell anybody, I promise. You really came all the way into the Land of the Lost to find your favorite toy?” he asked Jack, who nodded.“Then I'll be your decoy,” said Blue Bunny. “It would be an honor” (169).The Bunny's recognition here of Jack as a messiah, sacrificial love incarnate, having descended into existence as a Thing himself from Up There where he was a source of the love that “alivens” objects, is one of, if not the most moving event in Christmas Pig. Note the words he uses: “You're real.”Rowling has used the word “real” twice before as a marker of reality transcending what we experience in conventional time and space, the sensible world. The first was in what she described as the “key” to the Harry Potter series, “lines I waited seventeen years to write” (Cruz), the end of the Potter-Dumbledore dialogue at King's Cross….In a Troubled Blood passage meant to echo that dialogue, with “head” and “backside” reflecting the characters inverted grasp of “reality,” Robin and Strike talk astrology:“You're being affected!” she said. “Everyone knows their star sign. Don't pretend to be above it.”Strike grinned reluctantly, took a large drag on his cigarette, exhaled, then said, “Sagittarius, Scorpio rising, with the sun in the first house.”“You're –” Robin began to laugh. “Did you just pull that out of your backside, or is it real?”“Of course, it's not f*****g real,” said Strike. “None of it's real, is it?” (Blood 242, highlighting in original).The Bunny's simple declaration, “You're real,” i.e., “from Up There,” the greater reality of the Land of the Living in which Things have their awakening in the love of their owners, clarifies these other usages. Dumbledore shares his wisdom with Harry that the maternal love which saved him, first at Godric's Hollow and then in the Forest, is the metaphysical sub-stance beneath, behind, and within all other reality. Strike gives Robin a dose of his skeptical ignorance and nominalist first principle that nothing is real but surface appearance subject to measurement and physical sensation, mental grasp of all things being consequent to that.Christmas Pig‘s “real” moment acts as a key to these others, one evident in the Bunny's response to the revelation of Jack's greater ontological status. He does a Dobby, offering to die for Jack as Jack has done in his descent into the Land of the Lost for DP, a surrender of self to near certain death in being given to the Loser he considers an “honor.” He acts spontaneously and selflessly as a “decoy,” a saving replacement in other words, for the “living boy” as Dobby did for the “Boy Who Lived.” The pathetic distraction that saved the DP rescue mission in Mislaid despite himself, crying out in desperation for his own existence, has metamorphized consequent to his experience with Broken Angel and in Jack's example, into a heroic decoy that allows Jack and CP to enter the City of the Missed.The Blue Bunny makes out better than the House-elf, too, and this is the key event of the book and the best evidence since the death of Lily Potter, Harry's defeat of Quirrell, and the demise of the Dark Lord that mother's love is Rowling's default symbolism for Christian love in her writing. The Bunny's choice to act as decoy, his decision to die to his ego-self, generates the life saving appearance of maternal love and its equivalent in the transference attachment a child feels for a beloved toy. The Johannine quality of the light that shines down on him from the Finding Hole and his Elijah-esque elevation nails down the Logos­-love correspondence.EC: All through Hallmarked Man Robin is saying to herself, “I think I love Ryan, no, really, I know I love him…,” which of course is Rowling's way of signaling the conflict this character has in her feelings for Strike and for Murphy. What is that about?* See ‘The Hallmarked Man's Mythological Template' for discussion of the Anteros/Eros distinction in the myth of Cupid and Psyche as well as the Strike-Ellacott novels Get full access to Hogwarts Professor at hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

How can you stand out from thousands of MBA applicants with impressive CVs?Darren sits down with Ellin Lolis, Founder and President of Ellin Lolis Consulting and one of the top ranked MBA admissions consultants on Poets & Quants, to learn how she helps MBA applicants craft powerful personal narratives. With a near 99% success rate, Ellen shares the process she uses to transform an applicant's collection of achievements into a cohesive and compelling personal narrative.Show NotesIntroduction (0:00)How Ellin Fell into Admissions Consulting (2:37)The Importance of Narrative: Why Data and CVs Aren't Memorable (3:37)What's Your Career Goal & Career Purpose? (10:20)Finding the Golden Thread of Your Personal Narrative (22:20)Dealing with "My Story Isn't that Interesting" (40:12)How to Differentiate Yourself when You Have a Common Career Goal (39:55)The Power of Vulnerability (45:23)Darren's Hot Dog Story - How Mundane Moments Can Make for a Memorable Story (47:19) How MBA programs are Evolving with AI (50:07) Using AI in Your MBA Applications (52:54) Video Essay Tips (59:28)About Our GuestEllin Lolis is founder and president of Ellin Lolis Consulting, which has helped 98.9% of their clients get accepted to at least one program of their choice. Ellin and her team have spent over a decade helping MBA applicants craft their story and build their careers. Prior to starting her admissions consulting firm, Ellin worked in marketing and communications.Ellin graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelors in International Cultural Studies, and is a member of the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC).Show NotesEllin Lolis ConsultingMy Admit CoachCo-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan MollickTomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel by Gabrielle Zevin More Resources⁠Get free school selection help at Touch MBA⁠⁠Get pre-assessed by top international MBA programs⁠⁠Get the Admissions Edge Course: Proven Techniques for Admission to Top Business Schools⁠⁠Our favorite MBA application tools (after advising 4,000 applicants)

How can you stand out from thousands of MBA applicants with impressive CVs?Darren sits down with Ellin Lolis, Founder and President of Ellin Lolis Consulting and one of the top ranked MBA admissions consultants on Poets & Quants, to learn how she helps MBA applicants craft powerful personal narratives. With a near 99% success rate, Ellen shares the process she uses to transform an applicant's collection of achievements into a cohesive and compelling personal narrative.Show NotesIntroduction (0:00)How Ellin Fell into Admissions Consulting (2:37)The Importance of Narrative: Why Data and CVs Aren't Memorable (3:37)What's Your Career Goal & Career Purpose? (10:20)Finding the Golden Thread of Your Personal Narrative (22:20)Dealing with "My Story Isn't that Interesting" (40:12)How to Differentiate Yourself when You Have a Common Career Goal (39:55)The Power of Vulnerability (45:23)Darren's Hot Dog Story - How Mundane Moments Can Make for a Memorable Story (47:19) How MBA programs are Evolving with AI (50:07) Using AI in Your MBA Applications (52:54) Video Essay Tips (59:28)About Our GuestEllin Lolis is founder and president of Ellin Lolis Consulting, which has helped 98.9% of their clients get accepted to at least one program of their choice. Ellin and her team have spent over a decade helping MBA applicants craft their story and build their careers. Prior to starting her admissions consulting firm, Ellin worked in marketing and communications.Ellin graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelors in International Cultural Studies, and is a member of the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC).Show NotesEllin Lolis ConsultingMy Admit CoachCo-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan MollickTomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel by Gabrielle Zevin More Resources⁠Get free school selection help at Touch MBA⁠⁠Get pre-assessed by top international MBA programs⁠⁠Get the Admissions Edge Course: Proven Techniques for Admission to Top Business Schools⁠⁠Our favorite MBA application tools (after advising 4,000 applicants)

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   Thomas Perry (1947-2025), Award Winning Mystery Novelist Thomas Perry (1947-2025) who died on September 15, 2025 at the age of 78, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded on June 21, 2006 in the KPFA studios while promoting Nightlife in hardover and Pursuit and Dead Aim in trade paperback. In the career of Thomas Perry, which began in 1982 with the novel The Butcher's Boy, which won the Edgar Award that year for Best First novel, thirty two books have been published, nine in the Jane Whitfield series, four in the Butcher's Boy series and two in the Jack Till series. A final novel in the Jane Whitfield series will be published in February 2026. Vanishing Act, in the Whitfield series, published in 1995, was voted one of the hundred favorite mysteries of the 20th century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. The TV series The Old Man with Jeff Bridges was based on his novel of the same name, published in 2017, and ran for two seasons on Hulu. The upcoming Russell Crowe film, Bear Country, was based on Thomas Perry's 2010 novel, Strip.   Edmund White (1940-2025), Patron Saint of Gay Literature Edmund White (1940-2025), who died on June 3, 2025, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded while on tour for “The Farewell Symphony,” the third volume of his autobiographical trilogy, recorded September 15, 1997. Digitized, remastered and edited on October 10, 2025 and heard for the first time in over a quarter century. Edmund White wrote novels, memoirs, plays, essays, biographies, and various hybrids. He was the co-author of The Joy of Gay Sex, and worked extensively in the gay community during the AIDS crisis and later. This interview, the second of four conducted with Edmund White between 1993 and 2014, was recorded on September 15, 1997 while he was on tour for “The Farewell Symphony” the third volume of his semi-autobiographical trilogy about his early year and the effect of the AIDS crisis. Complete Edmund White Interview   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others for shorter periods each week. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 110th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, May 31 – June 1, 2025. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actors Ensemble of Berkeley.  See website for readings and events. Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).  Mary Jane by Amy Herzog, directed by Amy Kossow, November 6 – 30, Magic Theatre, Fort Mason. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. American Conservatory Theatre  Kim's Convenience by Ins Choi, Sept 18 – Oct 19, Toni Rembe Theatre. Stereophonic (in association with BroadwaySF, at the Curran), Oct 28 – Nov 23. Awesome Theatre Company. See website for information. Berkeley Rep. The Hills of California .by Jez Butterworth, Oct. 31 – Dec. 7, Roda Theatre. Mother of Exiles by Jessica Huang, World Premiere, Nov. 14 – Dec. 32, Peets Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company The Tempest, Oct. 24 – Nov. 2,  Immersive theatre. Point Montara Lighthouse. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for events listings. BroadwaySF: Stereophonic (in association with ACT), Oct 28 – Nov 23, Curran. See website for complete listings for the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran Theaters. Broadway San Jose:  Some Like It Hot, Oct. 21-26. See website for other events. Center REP: The Woman in Black, U.S. Tour, November 5-23.. Central Stage. See website for upcoming productions, 5221 Central Avenue, Richmond Central Works Dada Teen Musical: The Play by Maury Zeff, Oct. 18 – Nov. 16, Cinnabar Theatre. Young Rep: Disney's The Little Mermaid, November 14-23, Studio Space, Petaluma Outlet Mall. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre Ebenezer Scrooge, an adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” by Joel Roster, December 6 –  21. . See website for other events. Golden Thread  Pilgrimage by Humaira Ghilzal and Bridgette Dutta Portman, a co-production with Z Space, October 24 – November 8, Z Space's Steindler Stage. Hillbarn Theatre: Murder for Two, a musical comedy, October 9 – November 2, 2025. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. Los Altos Stage Company. Freaky Friday, The Musical. October 24 – November 2. A Christmas Carol, November  28 – December 21.. Lower Bottom Playaz  August Wilson's King Hedley II, November 8 -30. BAM House, Oakland. Magic Theatre. Actors Reading Collective: Mary Jane by Amy Herzog, directed by Amy Kossow, November 6 – 30, See website for other events and productions. Marin Shakespeare Company: See website for events and productions. Marin Theatre: Sally and Tom by Suzan-Lori Parks. October 30 – November 23. The Lightning Thief, MSC Teen Company, November 7 -9. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC)  The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall, September 19 – October 19. New Performance Traditions.  See website for upcoming schedule Oakland Theater Project. Cabaret, November 21 – December 14. Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Palace of Fine Arts Theater.  See website for event listings. Pear Theater. The Art of Murder by Joe DiPietro, October 3-19. See website for staged readings and other events. Playful People Productions. Disney's Moana JR., Oct 17-19; Newsies, November 8-16. Presidio Theatre. Peter Pan Panto, Nov. 29 – Dec. 28. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: The Rocky Horror Show. October 9 – November 1, The Oasis. Ross Valley Players: See website for New Works Sunday night readings and other events. San Francisco Playhouse. Noises Off by Michael Frayn. September 25 – November 8. SFBATCO.  See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: See website for events and upcoming season Shotgun Players.  The Motion by Christopher Chen, September 13 – October 18 (extended) South Bay Musical Theatre:  The Sound of Music, September 27 – October 18. SPARC: See website for upcoming events. Stagebridge: See website for events and productions. Storytime every 4th Saturday. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Lunatico Frankenstein, October 11 – November 2. Theatre Rhino  Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. A Driving Beat by Jordan Ramirez Puckett, Oct 29 – Nov. 23, . Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts Second Stage.Georgiana & Kitty, Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, Dec. 3 – 28, Lucie Stern Theatre. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAMPFA: On View calendar for Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2025 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Fort Mason Center. Events calendar. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. See schedule for upcoming SFGMC performances. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org   The post October 16, 2025: Thomas Perry – Edmund White appeared first on KPFA.

You can't build great products on gut instinct, and yet, according to IBM's global study of 1,000 enterprises, 77% of organisations using generative AI aren't seeing any financial benefit. In this episode on The Product Experience podcast, Lily Smith sits down with Matthew Certner, Digital Product Engineering and Design Partner at IBM, to unpack the four key traits that drive ROI in AI-powered product teams: flexibility, incremental and targeted delivery, data-led decisions, and cross-functional collaboration. Recorded live at the Industry conference, this conversation offers practical lessons for any product leader navigating the hype and reality of AI adoption. Chapters00:00 – The danger of building on gut instinct00:37 – IBM's global study on generative and agentic AI adoption01:00 – Meet Matthew Certner, Digital Product Engineering Partner at IBM02:00 – Why most enterprises aren't realising ROI from AI04:50 – What the top-performing 20% of companies do differently05:10 – The four key behaviours driving success07:00 – Flexibility: adapting quickly to market feedback08:10 – Incremental and targeted delivery — the “golden thread” principle10:30 – Data-led decision-making versus the HIPPO effect11:45 – Cross-functional collaboration and robust adoption13:10 – Behavioural factors that make or break AI adoption14:20 – Inside IBM's “value orchestration” framework15:10 – The Golden Thread in practice — a sticky-note story from Dallas17:10 – Transparency and traceability in product development18:00 – How IBM helps teams that aren't seeing value from AI21:00 – The paradox of moving too fast or too slow with AI24:00 – Making the Golden Thread a living document25:20 – Inside IBM Garage: speed of a startup, scale of an enterprise27:40 – Why productivity savings, not hype, drive AI ROI29:00 – How large organisations structure innovation teams30:00 – The future: 800 million new products by 202631:00 – Why 95% will fail — and what the 5% will get right33:10 – Final reflections: value, purpose and the human elementFeatured Links: Follow Matthew on LinkedIn | IBM Garage | Industry Conference Cleveland 2025 recap at Mind The ProductWe want to hear from you! Help make The Product Experience podcast even better. Share your feedback in a quick form: Share your thoughts here! It takes 2 minutes, and your input will help shape future episodes.

Send us a textThis week we will be talking about the Golden Thread. This episode content meets PC3 - Legal Framework & Processes of the Part 3 Criteria.Resources from today's episode:Websites:https://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CLC-Golden-Thread-Guidance-Summary.pdfhttps://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CLC-Golden-Thread-Guidance.pdfThank you for listening! Please follow me on Instagram @part3withme for weekly content and updates or contact me via email me at part3withme@outlook.com or on LinkedIn. Website: www.part3withme.comJoin me next week for more Part3 With Me time.If you liked this episode please give it a rating to help reach more fellow Part3er's!Support the show

Want the full transcript, English translation, and vocabulary list? ⁠Become a member⁠ and turn every episode into a full Spanish learning experience.In “The Cobbler and the Golden Thread”, a poor but honest shoemaker named Mateo receives a mysterious gift: a spool of golden thread that stitches shoes by itself—and reveals the truth about the people who wear them. As Mateo sews, he discovers hidden kindness, secret injustices, and the quiet power of honesty. This magical story is about integrity, compassion, and how generosity can transform an entire community.Have a story you'd love to hear on the podcast? We'd love to read it! Email us at spanishstoriespodcast@gmail.com.________________¿Quieres la transcripción completa, la traducción al inglés y la lista de vocabulario? ⁠Hazte miembro⁠ y transforma cada episodio en una experiencia completa para aprender español.En “El Zapatero y el Hilo dorado”, un zapatero pobre pero honesto llamado Mateo recibe un regalo misterioso: un carrete de hilo dorado que cose los zapatos por sí solo… y revela la verdad sobre quienes los usan. A medida que cose, Mateo descubre bondad oculta, injusticias secretas y el poder silencioso de la honestidad. Un cuento mágico sobre la integridad, la compasión y cómo la generosidad puede transformar a toda una comunidad.¿Tienes una historia que te gustaría que leamos? Escríbenos a spanishstoriespodcast@gmail.com—¡nos encantará compartirla!

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FINALLY A TEXTBOOK THAT SHARES THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE WONDERFUL OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION I've long said the worst thing to happen to the United States was Howard Zinn's patently Anti-American textbook. Now we've got a completely different sort of textbook called A History of the Western Tradition by highly regarded historians Allen Guelzo and James Hankins. Read this summary:THE GOLDEN THREAD contends that Western civilization has, in our lifetimes, been simultaneously challenged by secular totalitarianisms and yet remarkably successful in laying the foundations for material prosperity around the globe. These contradictions will present to the reader the most significant problems facing Western civilization today. Guelzo and Hankins, above all, wish for their readers to “understand just how fragile our tradition is and how many times in the three-thousand-year-long history of the West the golden thread that ties us to our past and enriches us beyond measure has come close to snapping.”Perfect timing for this sort of pro-Western Civilization revival that is desperately needed before people willingly march themselves towards totalitarianism. Allen Guelzo joins me at 2:30 to discuss it. Find out more about Golden Thread Academics here. Guelzo has written some really incredible books on Lincoln and the Civil War that you can find out more about here.

It's been a month since the publication of Hallmarked Man so Nick and John decide to have a ‘Pit Pony Pickleball' match in which they serve and volley Strike 8 examples of Shed tools and Lake springs as fast as they can. After a round of back and forth between Team Lake and Team Shed, they do a flash round of Golden Threads against the clock and then John is given a ‘Final Jeopardy' tie-breaker question about the most controversial perennial plot point in Rowling's work.It's a reverse Kanreki exercise, in other words. In their conversations about each of Rowling's novels, screenplays, play script, text books, and short story collection, Nick and John discussed one Lake spring, a source point of story inspiration from Rowling's life experience and core beliefs, and one Shed tool, her deliberate artistry to craft that inspiration into edifying and engaging story. Here they have a ‘Blitz Chess' match, to switch sporting metaphors, to try and cover as many Lake, Shed, and Thread points with examples from Rowling's latest as possible.Perhaps the most important take-away, though, is the three conclusions about Hallmarked Man they've come to after a month of reading that they think will be the consensus view of Strike 8 after we have Strikes 9 and 10. Make some popcorn, find your score card and a comfortable place to watch and take notes; this is an episode for the ages! (Insert your preferred Wrestle-Mania or like programming promotional hyperbole here.)The Kanreki Index of Rowling's Shed Tools, Lake Springs and Golden ThreadsIn July 2025, Nick Jeffery and I logged a marathon of Kanreki ‘Lake and Shed' video posts at this site in celebration of Rowling's life and work at her 60th birthday. For listeners of this ‘Blitz' Lake and Shed reading of The Hallmarked Man, I repost below an easy-to-access-and-reference single place for readers to find much longer discussion of each Shed tool, Lake spring, and Golden Thread, as well as an introduction to Fourth Generation Rowling Studies hermeneutics. Enjoy!Introduction to the Kanreki Project* The Goal and the Methodology of the Hogwarts Professor Tag-Team Month-Long Birthday Party for Serious Readers of Rowling-GalbraithOn 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, celebrated her 60th birthday. This specific celebration is considered a ‘second birth' in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR's Kanreki, 還暦, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, read through Rowling's more than twenty published works and reviewed them in light of the author's writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed' metaphor. The ‘Lake' she said in 2019 and 2024 is the source of her inspiration and the ‘Shed' is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age.Join us after the jump for the complete compendium of the Harry Potter, Cormoran Strike, Fantastic Beast, ‘Stand Alone' stories, and Golden Thread posts!The Lake and Shed Conversations about the Harry Potter Novels and Extras* Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneNick discusses Hogsmeade Comprehensive School, as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry should be properly called, and John explains the ten different genres that Rowling uses in Philosopher's Stone* Harry Potter and the Chamber of SecretsJohn explores the Freudian parallels that Rowling paints into Chamber of Secrets, and Nick talks about her oldest, and probably best friend Sean Harris, the inspiration for Ron Weasley.* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of AzkabanNick shares the London institution of the (k)night bus. Part drunk carriage, part dormitory for the homeless in foul weather, zig-zaging across London between midnight and five in the morning. John shares the Parallel Series Idea (PSI) and compare Prisoner of Azkaban with Robert Galbraith's Career of Evil.* Harry Potter and the Goblet of FireNick talks about the trip Rowling made as a teenager to Cornwall as a young woman in which some Quidditch World Cup camping may have been involved and about her core beliefs about bigotry and prejudice. John reviews Rowling's tagging Goblet as a “crucial” and “pivotal” part of the seven book series and introduces how the ‘story turn' in a ring composition reflects the beginning and end of the story.* Harry Potter and the Order of the PhoenixNick talks about the darkest period in Jo Rowling's life, namely, her return to the UK from Portugal as a single mother in Edinburgh. With Order of the Phoenix in full nigredo mode John talks literary alchemy.* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceNick reveals the real life model for Severus Snape, Rowling's Chemistry teacher at Wydean Comprehensive, and his remarkable story and melancholy end. John reviews Rowling's version of the so-called ‘Hero's Journey,' how she re-makes it into a life-after-death ‘Harry's Journey' ten step dance we see in every book — except for Half-Blood Prince with its two chapters before we begin at Privet Drive and its ending without a Dumbledore Denouement or trip to King's Cross.* Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsJohn and Nick discuss the ‘Deathly Hallows' symbol, a triangulated and vertically bisected circle, from both its biographical point of inspiration to its anagogical or sublime depths. Nick reveals Rowling's story about how she was watching the 1975 John Huston film ‘The Man Who Would Be King' the night her mother died and that believes the “Masonic tag” of the story-line was her sub-conscious source for the Deathly Hallows ‘“triangular eye.” John thinks Rowling is really reaching here, akin to her claim that the name ‘Hogwarts' came from a trip to a public garden rather than the Molesworth books. He reviews the five eyes of Deathly Hallows and explains how Rowling embeds both a key to the four-level interpretation of symbols in how characters respond to that image and a model of how we are to interpret and understand her ‘transformed vision' mission as a writer.* Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find ThemNick and John return to the books at a reader's suggestion in order to give a Lake and Shed reading of the original Newt Scamander textbook, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Nick relays everything you need to know about the genesis of this work and John talks about Rowling's comments to Stephen Fry in a 2022 interview about “archetypal” animals and the importance of understanding them because human beings are story-telling animals. Her discussion of the Lethifold and Niffler are especially challenging and illuminating.* The Tales of Beedle the BardNick and John fulfill a reader request to discuss the book inside Deathly Hallows (one of three actually…), ‘Tales of Beedle the Bard,' a text that Albus Dumbledore leaves Hermione in his will for her to read and apply to the Horcrux Hunt. Nick tells the story of Rowling's creation of six hand-written copies as six-of-a-kind gifts for those who brought Harry Potter to life. John dives into the center story of the five tales, ‘The Hairy Heart,' and tells the meaning of Harry's heart to draw out what Rowling meant by describing Beedle as “the distillation” of the Hogwarts Saga.The Lake and Shed Conversations about the Cormoran Strike Novels* The Cuckoo's CallingThe ‘Lake' point that Nick explores is the identity of the real Deeby Mac, namely, Di Brooks, Rowling's former security director and currently her office manager, a veteran with years of experience in the SIB. John's ‘Shed' point is his pushback against the idea that Calling wasn't really the first book in the series because Rowling has said she had the idea for it after Silkworm and only chose it because the case would make her detective famous.* The SilkwormThe ‘Lake' point that Nick reveals is the probable identity of ‘Jenkins,' the mystery person to whom Strike 2 is dedicated, a revelation consequent to no little detective work (and a very close reading of Louisa May Alcott!). He also discusses some real-life literary infighting in contemporary London that might have been lifted from the pages of Silkworm. John argues that this ur-novel of the series, its point of conception, is Rowling's not especially opaque guide to how to understand a novelist's life and to appreciate their work, in short, her first ‘Lake and Shed' discussion (albeit one embedded in story).* Career of EvilThe ‘Lake' point that Nick explores is Rowling's personal experience of violence against women and her determination to push back against the misogynist age she believes we have been living in for decades. John details the litany of crimes committed against women in the third Strike novel and suggests that in time, when we have the series as a whole, appreciation of the artistry involved will counter-balance the shock first-time readers feel on entering this boucherie.* Lethal WhiteNick discusses the embedded class struggle in the book and its roots in Rowling's background before dropping the bomb of the real world identity of Jack O'Kent and his unhappy family. John is so taken aback by this revelation that Nick has to prompt the Shed portion of the conversation with a fun history of the Sonia Friedman production of Ibsen's Rosmersholm on London's West End, a show starring Thom Burke as Rosmer and which ended just before Bronte Studios beginning the filming of Lethal White.* Troubled Blood (A)Nick discusses Rowling's history with the divinatory art of astrology and the occult resources and reference works she brought into play in writing a novel whose primary embedded text is a murder scene's astrological chart. John talks about the astrological clock structure of twelve houses in which Galbraith tells this remarkable story.* Troubled Blood (B)Nick discusses Rowling's history with the Clerkenwell neighborhood. John talks about Troubled Blood as a double re-telling of The Faerie Queene, Book One, with Strike and Margot as the Redcrosse Knight and Oonaugh and Robin as Una.* Ink Black HeartNick covers the front and the back of making Lake readings of Strike6 without a lot of circumspection and John talks about the eerie feeling he had while reading this book that the author was ‘having a go' at him.* The Running GraveNick confesses to having felt stumped about what to say as his ‘Lake' contribution to the Strike7 discussion — before his epiphany on a long walk with Addie that almost every buoy or pillar in Rowling's metaphorical place of inspiration finds its reflection in the seventh Galbraith mystery. John refuses to go into any detail about the work's ‘wheels within wheels within wheels' ring structure but shares instead the symbolic depth of Mama Mazu's mother of pearl fish pendant.The Lake and Shed Conversations about the Stand-Alone Works* Casual VacancyNick explains all the projects we now know she was working on between 2007 and 2012, the dates of Deathly Hallows and Casual Vacancy's respective publication dates, as well as the degree to which readers can assume that the novel's Simon Price is a fictional portrait of her father, Peter Rowling. John describes the three Gospel parables embedded in Casual Vacancy and why he thinks the book was a project the author was working on before the Hogwarts Saga as well as why it reflects a religious crisis akin to Harry's ‘struggle to believe' in Deathly Hallows.* Harry Potter and the Cursed ChildNick reviews the history of how Rowling was sold on the idea of a Wizarding World stage production via a bit of bait and switch marketing and John reads the review of the Jack Thorn script by Pepperdine English Professor James Thomas. Neither John nor Nick is a big fan of the play but their back and forth about the several controversies connected with it and the question of its being “the eighth Harry Potter story” are still challenging and fun.* The IckabogNick takes the ‘Shed' point and lays out the controlled demolition of her reputation among Group Thinkers on the Left in the lead up to Ickabog's publication and John shares the meaning of ‘The Ickabog's Song,' the embedded text of the tale, as interpreted by Daisy Dovetail (an embedded author?).* The Christmas Pig (A)Nick discusses Rowling's many interview statements about the Things which were lost and how many of them match up with things she has lost; he takes a deep dive into the Blue Bunny episode outside the Gates of the City of the Missed and Rowling's embedding herself and her daughter Mackenzie in the story. John talks about the Blue Bunny and his being “found” or “saved” as an allegory of the human condition written in the Rowling shorthand-symbols for (and obsessions with) love, salvation, and what is real.* The Christmas Pig (B)Nick by the Lake shares the history of the Murray Family and their beanie pig toys as well as a likely source for the defenestration of DP (in Esquire magazine, no less). John talks about the promise and the limits of reading literature through a biographical lens and then explains the anagogical meaning of the Power palace kangaroo court trial of CP and Jack. Both share their reasons for thinking that The Christmas Pig is the perfect distillation of everything Rowling is doing as a writer, to include the relationship of her Lake inspiration to her final Shed product.The Lake and Shed Conversations about the Fantastic Beasts Screenplays* Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find ThemNick does his signature deep dive into the history of the Fantastic Beasts film franchise's origins in Warner Brothers' determination to keep the Wizarding World profit-pillar in their portfolio alive after the last Harry Potter adaptation — and Rowling's equal determination that they not use their copyright privilege to muck up her legacy with an Indiana Jones meets Crocodile Dundee knock-off. John takes the Shed pole in the conversation and shares his months long pursuit of the shooting text screenplay, the actual last screenplay over which Rowling had control.* The Crimes of GrindelwaldOn the Lake side of things, Nick explores the Johnny Depp casting scandal and the lead-up in 2018 to the 2019 Tweet Heard Round the World. John explains that the cut scenes from this dog's mess of a movie point that the shooting script, i.e., what Rowling wrote and approved before David Yates butchered the film in the editing room, was all about Leta Lestrange. More important, John makes the Shed point that every Rowling book features a text of some kind that the characters struggle to understand — and that Crimes of Grindelwald has ten of these, a veritable library of interior texts to interpret.* The Secrets of DumbledoreNick lays out the drama surrounding the third Fantastic Beasts franchise film and his favorite part of the movie (hint: it's about “confusion”). John reveals why Jacob gets a Snakewood wand and one without a core as well as why he thinks Kowalski is the embedded author in this series.The Lake and Shed Conversations about Rowling's Golden Threads and Shed Tools* Chiastic Structure, a.k.a. Ring CompositionJohn travels to his backyard Mongolian ger, the archetypal circular architectural form, to deliver a firehose introduction to the four essentials of ring writing. He uses slides to depict the structure of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as his brief ‘for instance' of how Rowling chooses to organize her stories and he provides a list of links (below!) for further reading.* Survey of Rowling's Golden Threads (A)In this first overview of the Golden Threads, Nick and John go back and fourth with four Threads each. Nick gives at least three examples for Bad Dad, Writing about Writing, Violence against Women, and the Evils of Fleet Street. John responds with three or more 'for instances' of Mother Love, Ghosts, Pregnancy Traps, and the Lost Child with Grieving Steward.* Survey of Rowling's Golden Threads (B)In this second overview of the Golden Threads, Nick and John talk about Kanreki red caps and tackle three Threads each. Nick gives at least three examples for Evil Government, Occult tropes, and the Embedded Author. John responds with three or more 'for instances' of the Search for the Real, Embedded Texts, and Shadow Doppelgangers.* The ‘Lost Child' Golden Thread Oeuvre ReviewFor the day before Rowling's 60th birthday, Nick and John tackle by reader request the never before discussed subject of the Lost Child theme in the author's more than twenty published works. They re-introduce the Golden Threads idea — see their Pregnancy Trap podcast or the two Kanreki series on this subject (links in post) — then they do a deep dive into the crowded waters of Lost Children in her work, and then they go out out on a high-wire to speculate about what specific spring in her Lake subconscious mind is responsible for this recurrent inspiration.* The ‘Lost Child' Golden Thread “So What?” ConversationAs a birthday gift of sorts, Nick and John close off their month-long celebration of Rowling-Galbraith's life and work with a follow-up look at yesterday's review of the ‘Lost Child' Golden Thread that runs through her stories. After cataloging the almost forty ‘for instances' taken from the opera omnia in the penultimate entry in this series, Nick and John ask, “So What?” How does the possibility that Rowling had an induced abortion and is sufficiently unsettled by it that it inspires many even most of her books at least in part make any difference in understanding their artistry and meaning?‘Strike Extended Play' or ‘How a Seven Book Series Can Be Stretched into Ten' Get full access to Hogwarts Professor at hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

Think back to when you were in high school or even middle school. Do you remember the history textbook you used? Perhaps that's the problem: what passed for your reading material was so forgettable. Or if you do remember it, do you remember it being so ideologically slanted you were constantly fighting the story you were presented with? Indeed reinstating lost academic standards for excellence is an arduous task. Fortunately, a path towards academic renewal has been charted by a burgeoning reform movement of parents and educators who aspire to a higher standard for children. In recent years this coalition has made critical strides in expanding families' freedom to choose alternatives from legacy educational models. It's with this backdrop that we are delighted to convey that there is a fantastic new textbook series, a two volume set titled "The Golden Thread” which offers an eloquent and refreshing overview of the trajectory of the West—its unique customs of art and literature, law, philosophy, science, faith, and tolerance that have bound the people of its tradition together—from the ancient Greeks and Romans to medieval Christendom and Europe, and finally the modern world and America. And we are pleased to have one of the authors of this series, a friend of ours for many years, Prof. Allen Guelzo, on the Anchoring Truths Podcast to tell us about this fantastic new offering.Prof. Guelzo has joined the Hamilton School faculty at the University of Florida in the summer of 2025 as a Professor of Humanities. He is a New York Times best-selling author, American historian and commentator on public issues. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, most recently Robet E. Lee a Life  as well as Gettysburg: the Last Invasion and Lincoln Redeemer President. He was the Senior Research Scholar in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University and he taught for many years at Gettysburg College.

Theme of this week's readings: The Golden Thread of True Christianity

In Episode 257, Greg and Pam discuss emus, 3D printing, and being directionally correct. Many thanks to scitchr Diane for the episode introduction! We would love to have YOU record an introduction to the show! You can find details in the Ravelry Group Pages or on our website here. Check out our group on Facebook! We would love to have you join us there. GIVEAWAY: Check out our MONTHLY giveaway just because our listeners are AWESOME! You can enter the monthly giveaway using this Google Form. SUPPORT THE SHOW KnitPicks & Crochet.com We are KnitPicks and Crochet.com (owned by KnitPicks) Affiliates! This means if you are going to shop at KnitPicks or Crochet.com, and start by clicking their names, the Unraveling Podcast will get a small commission at no extra cost to you! It's an easy way to support the podcast passively. (Note: links to specific yarns or products will appear like https://shrsl.com/3xzh0 or https://tidd.ly/4mGsyws. These are correct and are custom links to track our account. They are safe!) Knitpicks Coupon Page * WeCrochet Coupon Page (Pam hasn't been able to find a page on crochet.com!) Patreon You can financially support Unraveling…a knitting podcast on Patreon! Monthly membership levels are available at Swatch ($1), Shawl ($3), and Sweater ($6) and come with rewards like early access to book club episodes, access to a quarterly Zoom call, discounts on all Knitting Daddy patterns, and holiday cards. Everything available via Patreon is extra, the show remains unchanged and free. Financial support through Patreon helps us cover expenses like web hosting, prizes, prize shipping, and equipment upgrades. NOTES Greg's Projects Greg is knitting a pair of Fish Lips Kiss Heel socks for himself using String Theory Colorworks yarn in the Gottlebei colorway. Greg continues working on the Cirith Ungol shawl using The Fiber Faerie yarn. Greg is thinking about casting on the Sturbridge Fingerless Mitts pattern. Greg is talking about assembling a circular sock machine. Pam's Projects Pam worked on Recalibrate by Shana S. Cohen. She used PAKnitWit, Sarah Jordan's, blog post about Recalibrate math. She is using Robin's Promise, Madeleine Tosh, Twist Fiber Studio (no longer dyeing). Pam finished Choose Your Own Adventure Tee by Allyson Dykhuizen. She used Juniper Moon Farms Zooey. Pam worked on a thermal stitch crochet potholder using KnitPicks Dishie. She uses these wooden rings in 35mm. Pam uses the pattern/recipe from My Crochet Space. The written directions can be found here and the Youtube tutorial can be found here. Pam started another pair of Fish Lips Kiss Heel Socks. She is using String Theory Colorworks yarn in the displacement base and the colorway Black Body Radiation. Miscellaneous We shared an article about how knitters are affected by the tarrifs. Pam is going to see the movie The Nuclear Frontier. Greg is enjoying a new-to-him podcast: Lateral with Tom Scott. Pam read the book The Abominable by Dan Simmons, which referenced climbing clothing we learned about in The Golden Thread. Some of our Denver area listeners are meeting to knit monthly. If you are in the area and want to join in, reach out to MartaSchmarta. Pam and Greg mentioned a fiber festivals in NC that is coming up: SAFF on October 24-26. Greg can also be found talking about knitting and playing Dungeons & Dragons at Crits and Knits. Affiliate Link Disclousure We are a KnitPicks Affiliate! This means that if you click on a KnitPicks link or Crochet.com, or the banner ad and make a purchase, we will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you click on a link to Amazon and subsequently make a purchase, we'll receive a small commission from the sale. You pay the same, and the commissions will help cover our podcasting expenses. Our opinions are always our own. Find us all over the Internet Patreon: Unraveling…a knitting podcast Subscribe in iTunes: The Unraveling Podcast Podcast RSS Feed: Unraveling Podcast Facebook: Unraveling Podcast Instagram: @UnravelingPodcast Ravelry Group: Unraveling Podcast Greg is KnittingDaddy on Ravelry, @KnittingDaddy on Instagram, and also writes the KnittingDaddy blog. Pam is pammaher on Ravelry  and @pammaher on Instagram

Do you ever feel like you're too many things at once – curious about everything, yet unsure how it all fits together? In this episode, I sit down with writer, speaker, and community-builder Charlie Rogers, whose upcoming book Undefinable Life Design offers a much-needed framework for those of us who resist being put in a box.Charlie shares:What it means to live “intentionally beyond conventional labels”His framework forundefinable life designThe power of embracing a semi-professional approach to your many interestsHow to identify your Golden Thread – the through-line that connects everything you loveThe emotional (and practical) work of leaving identities behindHis wild ultra-marathon and what it taught him about self-trustThe values that define his community of “undefinables”Whether you're a creative generalist, a multi-hyphenate, or just someone with 96 browser tabs open at once, this conversation is your permission to stop choosing and start integrating.

Beyond The Outer Realm welcomes Crichton E. M. Miller, KGL, KStJA, Host: Michelle Desrochers Date: August 26th, 2025 Episode: 606 Discussion: Chrichton will be talking about his research and Recovering an Ancient Instrument, what it reveals about our Forgotten Past, Recursive memory and more! Contact for the show - theouterrealmcontact@gmail.com Michelle Desrochers and The Outer Realm :https://linktr.ee/michelledesrochers_ Please support us by Liking, Subscribing, Sharing and Commenting. Thank you all !!! About Chrichton:Crichton E. M. Miller, KGL, KStJA, Born in Glasgow Scotland in 1949 - is a polymath, inventor, and symbolic scientist whose work resurrects ancient knowledge systems to illuminate the forgotten foundations of civilization. Knighted and appointed Councillor in the Order of the Fleur de Lys under Royal Warrant by HRH Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Miller's contributions to recovering lost history and decoding symbolic instruments have earned international recognition. As the patented creator of the Wheel Cross (GB2344654) and Latin Cross as precision measuring tools, he has redefined these icons as recursive memory devices—capable of mapping time, navigation, and consciousness. His book The Golden Thread of Time and numerous academic papers explore themes such as Archaeological Amnesia, Catastrophic Forgetting, and the entropy of cultural memory, offering frameworks for resilience in an age of technological acceleration. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Miller teaches across generations, blending empirical experimentation with symbolic cosmology. His mission is to preserve and transmit civilizational memory— ensuring that future generations inherit not just knowledge, but orientation. WEBSITE: https://www.orderofthefleurdelys.org.uk/about-the-order/officers-of-the-order/ THE CROSS AND THE FORGOTTEN CUBIT Why is the British Statute Foot in the Pyramid of Khufu https://www.academia.edu/127479570/THE_CROSS_AND_THE_FORGOTTEN_CUBIT_Why_is_the_British_Statute_Foot_in_the_Pyramid_of_Khufu If you enjoy the content on the channel, please support us by subscribing: Thank you All A formal disclosure: The opinions and information presented or expressed by guests on The Outer Realm Radio and Beyond The Outer Realm are not necessarily those of the TOR, BTOR Hosts, Sponsors, or the United Public Radio Network and its producers. Although the content may be interesting, it is deemed "For Entertainment Purposes" . We are always be respectful and courteous to all involved. Thank you, we appreciate you all!

In the last two episodes of our Kanreki tribute last month to the life and work of Joanne Rowling Murray, a.k.a., ‘J. K. Rowling' and ‘Robert Galbraith,' as celebration of her 60th birthday, we first explored perhaps the most ubiquitous and mysterious ‘Golden Thread' that runs through her work, namely, that of a ‘Lost Child.' We reviewed the forty plus appearances of this plot point in the just over twenty books she's written and searched for possible ‘Lake' sources in her life for this persistent, prevalent, and essential plot point.The most credible but entirely speculative possibility was that Rowling had had an induced abortion during her relationship with ‘Michael,' her off-and-on for seven years boyfriend from Exeter. On Rowling's birthday, we discussed the value this possibility has for interpreting her work, specifically in understanding the Harry Potter novels; most notably, the hypothesis would explain why every book features the exteriorization of something dangerous or deadly within and its beneficent elimination. In brief, the Hogwarts Saga, when read through this unresolved issue of Rowling's unconscious mind, seems to have been inspired and written as a defense for the intentional death of her child. In addition to explaining how this view of induced abortion as simultaneously necessary for women and the murder of an innocent, defenseless, and voiceless human being is the view of contrarian feminists such as Germaine Greer and Camille Paglia, we offered the Induced Abortion Hypothesis as the most obvious explanation for the Lost Child Golden Thread and demonstrated its potential critical value, if true. We asked repeatedly for listeners to share their objections to the hypothesis as well as alternative explanations for the Lost Child Golden Thread.And you did!The listeners who had followed us through the thirty-one Kanreki Lake and Shed conversations voiced in the comments beneath those posts both their discomfort with the idea and their admiration for the sober way we presented it. There were three challenging responses, as well, to our request for alternative explanations to the Lost Child Golden Thread: an argument from the biological make-up and consequent concerns of women everywhere, the point that “exteriorization of an evil within for elimination” is at least as easily read allegorically for the Christian doctrines of original sin and grace, and a find that the Gloria Conti story, the only explicit abortion narrative in Rowling's work, was lifted straight from The Godfather, Part 2. [See below for links to the sources of these three alternatives.]We discuss these three alternative ideas in the video above, their strengths and weaknesses, and applaud the one listener who shored up[ the weakest part of the Induced Abortion Hypothesis reading of Harry Potter, namely, how Prisoner of Azkaban fits the ‘exteriorization for elimination' pattern in that series. We close with thoughts about the imminent arrival of Hallmarked Man and our first thoughts of how we will be reading it at Hogwarts Professor — the subject of our next conversation in addition to our thoughts about the first releases and conflicting synopses for Strike8 that are in circulation.Please share your thoughts about alternative theories for the Lost Child Golden Thread and your ideas about how you would like us to cover Hallmarked Man. Thank you, as always, for joining us and for your support!Hogwarts Professor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Links to Alternative Explanations for the Lost Child Golden ThreadNikolaus Wandinger, Christoph Drexler, and Teresa Peter: The Christian Alternative Theory to the Induced Abortion Hypothesis (June 2004)* Harry Potter and the Art of Theology 1: A Theological Perspective on J. K. Rowling's novels - Part One: Healing, Grace and Original Sin* Harry Potter and the Art of Theology 2: A Theological Perspective on J. K. Rowling's novels - Part Two: Sacrifice and MissionAurore's argument from the Biological Facts of Life about Being a Woman:* Whether or not Rowling herself has had an abortion, I think it makes sense she'd want to comment on the topic given her golden threads about violence against women & girls, pregnancy traps, and mothers' love.* It occurred to me after writing that comment: I don't think a woman has to have personally experienced an abortion to have spent most of her life thinking about the subject… I reckon a big part of the female psyche, from the time one is a girl, is a strange combination of awe and terror at the fact that falling pregnant is a power we have, but not necessarily one we can guarantee will always be in our control. * In my country, a 2023 landmark study showed 1/3 girls are victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse. But much more mundane than sexual and domestic abuse, I've known straight friends to fall pregnant by accident, even while using contraception. * I think it's a very unique issue in a girl or a woman's psyche because, on the one hand it is one of the worst possible consequences of rape, and therefore is part of women's (as Mad Eye would say) constant vigilance about the threat and reality of male-pattern violence. But on the other hand, and however an individual woman feels about children, it is something both inspiring and grave. As Spider-Man's Uncle Ben said, “with great power comes great responsibility!”.David Martin about The Godfather 2 as the Model for Gloria Conti's Abortion in Troubled Blood* In re Gloria Conti's abortion that Margo arranged for her: You will recall that Gloria Conti became interested in what seemed to her to be the “glamourous” Mafioso lifestyle by seeing the film The Godfather (1972). It may be worth noting that at the end of the film The Godfather: Part II (1974) Michael Corleone believes that his wife, Kay Corleone, has had a miscarriage and that her sorrow over that miscarriage is what has made her depressed. In an angry rant Kay tells him instead that she had an abortion, aborting what would have been his son, because she does not want his crime family to go on and she wants out. So – We have two (fictional) women, each seeking to limit or escape their involvement with a mobster and using the same means to do it. Even if Gloria Conti did not see The Godfather: Part II it's perfectly possible – perhaps even likely – that JKR did and so may have borrowed a bit of the plot.* "Strike paid in pain for the walk through the woods at Chiswell House the next morning. So little did he fancy getting up out of bed and heading downstairs to work on a Sunday that he was forced to remind himself that, like the character of Hyman Roth in one of his favourite films, he had chosen this business freely. If, like the Mafia, private detection made demands beyond the ordinary, certain concomitants had to be accepted along with the rewards." Lethal White ch 45Ed Shardlow's Prisoner of Azkaban Notes supporting Induced Abortion Hypothesis* Hi ladies and gents, I've been on holiday and just catching up on the end of the Kanreki series. I see that Snake Wood wasn't the big reveal because you were saving that for the final chapter!* Even the penultimate episode enumerating all the lost children and speculating on that theme's lake origins didn't dilute the impact of seeing how the classic Rowling themes of coercive relationships, motherly love, pregnancy traps, the protection of family and so on, not only come together in that one golden thread, but how it does indeed illuminate the whole HP series. * It certainly has the ring of truth for me. It certainly explains why morality and mortality are the crucial core to its meaning. The last episode was definitely one of those lightbulb-moment experiences for me. Love it!* I feel like there may be more abortion analogies in Azkaban... Perhaps the wolf inside Remus? I think there's something quite uterine about the shrieking shack... And maybe something obstetric? There's also the execution of the innocent Buckbeak. And the Dementors taking the souls of their victims, against whom the remedy is a reassuring and inspiring Patronus. Perhaps that's the embodiment of the good dad, saving the innocents under their guardianship.* This thread also offers another interpretation of The Christmas Pig - the traumatically obliterated DP, forever consigned to the land of the lost, and the replacement CP, carrying the love of his lost brother. Get full access to Hogwarts Professor at hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   John Barth (1930-2024) John Barth (1930-2024), who died on April 2, 2024 at the age of 93, was America's leading writer of metafictional and post-modern fiction. This interview was conducted by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff on November 12, 2001 in the KPFA studios, while on the book tour for the novel Coming Soon. John Barth began to receive notice for his two earliest novels, The Floating Opera and End of the Road in the late 1950s, but burst on the scene with his epic comic novel about colonial life in Maryland, The Sot-Weed Factor, and his allegory of the Cold War, set on a university campus, Giles Goat-Boy. His short story collection, Lost in the Funhouse and novella collection Chimera cemented his reputation as a writer of meta-fiction, as the stories zoom back on themselves and on the writing of those stories. From Wikipedia: “In his epistolary novel LETTERS (1979), Barth corresponds with characters from his other books. Later novels such as The Tidewater Tales (1987) and The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor (1991) continue in the metafictional vein, using writers as protagonists who interact with their own and other stories in elaborate ways. His 1994 Once Upon a Time: A Floating Opera casts Barth himself as the protagonist who on a sailing trip encounters characters and situations from previous works.” After the 2001 interview, he continued to work in the same vein with a triptych of novellas, Where Three Roads Meet in 2005, interrelated short stories set in a retirement community, The Development: Nine Stories in 2008, and Every Third Thought: A Novel in Five Seasons in 2011. A, book of collected stories was released in 2015 and Postscripts (or Just Desserts): Some Final Scribbling came out in 2022. This interview was both the last interview conducted with Richard Lupoff as co-host, and the final interview recorded and edited on analog tape. This program was digitized and edited in July 2024 by Richard Wolinsky. Complete 46-minute Interview   Lorrie Moore is a celebrated short story writer and novelist. In this excerpt from an interview recorded April 8, 2014 while on tour for her collection, Bark, she discusses her writing and research process. Complete 40-minute Interview.   Review of “The Return”  a Golden Thread production at The Garret in ACT's Toni Rembe Theatre through August 24, 2025. The post August 14, 2025: John Barth, Master of Metafiction appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “The Return,” a Golden Thread production at the Garret at ACT's Toni Rembe Theatre through August 24, 2025. The post Review: “The Return,” at the Garret at ACT's Toni Rembe Theatre appeared first on KPFA.

This guided meditation will introduce you to the Golden Thread Process and Inner Child healing work. It will help you manage painful emotions and reconnect with a deeper, calmer, and more authentic part of you - with Taoist monk and teacher, David James Lees.⚠️ PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS MEDITATION WHILE DRIVING OR OPERATING MACHINERYThis meditation can be practised daily or whenever you need it. Learn more about our online consultations, events and shop: https://www.wuweiwisdom.comSubscribe to David's FREE Journal: https://davidjameslees.substack.com/Other teachings and guided meditations you may enjoy:The Golden Thread Process | Master Your Emotions https://youtu.be/psP55sTtf1kGUIDED MEDITATION PLAYLIST https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9NQ_PWX4zIA12P7BftG6a18lIWFDjL35&si=bWWub6YyoZpXhFubOur GOLDEN THREAD PROCESS PLAYLIST https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9NQ_PWX4zIAsS_wgdRN7QGBKIk54sbyDIs there a question you'd like answered on the show? Submit it at: https://bit.ly/askusyourquestion Join our free Wu Wei Wisdom Community Facebook support group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wuweiwisdomcommunity  If you love our work, you can now make a small donation to help fund the continued production of our weekly teachings by buying us a 'virtual coffee'! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wuweiwisdom Book an online Golden Thread Process & Inner Child Consultation with David: https://www.wuweiwisdom.com/therapies-for-body-mind/ Follow us on Instagram: @wuweiwisdomSign up to receive a relaxing guided meditation gift, plus our weekly newsletter + offers via email: https://www.wuweiwisdom.com/signup -Disclaimer: This podcast and any associated teaching and comments shared are not a substitute for professional therapy, mental health care, crisis support, medical advice, doctor diagnosis, or professional healthcare treatment. Our show episodes provide general information for educational purposes only and are offered as suggestions for you and your professional therapist or healthcare advisor to consider and research.Music by Earth Tree Healing

Ever felt like who you are… is changing? Like the roles you've worn no longer fit the soul you've become?Colin Hudon, tea monk, healer, and co-founder of Living Tea, pours his wisdom with grace as he joins host Jeff Scult for a conversation steeped in stillness, soul, and the sacred unraveling of identity. Together, they sip through themes of surrender, service, and the soft power of letting go.You'll journey through:

In Episode 254, Greg and Pam discuss the final and thirteenth chapter, Book Club: The Golden Thread The Golden Cape: Harnessing Spider Silk, of our book club book, The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair. Share how you are will enjoy the book on social media with #UnravelingBookClub. See Spider Silk being harvested here. Read about MicroSilk from Bolt Threads here. Check out our group on Facebook! We would love to have you join us there. GIVEAWAY: Check out our new MONTHLY giveaway just because our listeners are AWESOME! You can enter the current giveaway using this Google Form. SUPPORT THE SHOW KnitPicks & Crochet.com We are KnitPicks and Crochet.com (owned by KnitPicks) Affiliates! This means if you are going to shop at KnitPicks or Crochet.com, and start by clicking their names, the Unraveling Podcast will get a small commission at no extra cost to you! It's an easy way to support the podcast passively. (Note: links to specific yarns or products will appear like https://shrsl.com/3xzh0. These are correct and are custom links to track our account. They are safe!) Patreon You can financially support Unraveling…a knitting podcast on Patreon! Monthly membership levels are available at Swatch ($1), Shawl ($3), and Sweater ($6) and come with rewards like early access to book club episodes, access to a quarterly Zoom call, discounts on all Knitting Daddy patterns, and holiday cards. Everything available via Patreon is extra, the show remains unchanged and free. Financial support through Patreon helps us cover expenses like web hosting, prizes, prize shipping, and equipment upgrades. Affiliate Link Disclosure We are a KnitPicks Affiliate! This means that if you click on a KnitPicks link or Crochet.com, or the banner ad and make a purchase, we will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you click on a link to Amazon and subsequently make a purchase, we'll receive a small commission from the sale. You pay the same, and the commissions will help cover our podcasting expenses. Our opinions are always our own. Find us all over the Internet Patreon: Unraveling…a knitting podcast Subscribe in iTunes: The Unraveling Podcast Podcast RSS Feed: Unraveling Podcast Facebook: Unraveling Podcast Instagram: @UnravelingPodcast Ravelry Group: Unraveling Podcast Greg is KnittingDaddy on Ravelry, @KnittingDaddy on Instagram, and also writes the KnittingDaddy blog. Pam is pammaher on Ravelry  and @pammaher on Instagram

Have you ever felt stuck in emotional overwhelm—caught in anxiety, stress, or self-doubt—without truly knowing why? Those emotions are not your enemies but messengers, gently pointing you toward a more profound truth. In this episode, we explore one of the most powerful practices in Wu Wei Wisdom — the Golden Thread Process. This isn't just therapy or self-help — it's a sacred invitation to trace your emotional reactions to the beliefs that formed your inner world.With your hosts, David James Lees (ordained Taoist monk, emotional and spiritual health teacher) and Alexandra Lees (mindset and business coach).Discover our online consultations, events and shop: https://www.wuweiwisdom.comSubscribe to David's FREE Journal: https://davidjameslees.substack.com/Other related teachings on our YouTube channel that will help you:How to Understand Your Emotions https://youtu.be/9XuoL9pQSR8?si=d81djIwV-uKkpS7MEssential Steps to Master Your Emotions https://youtu.be/EQqGDnER3mA?si=z_7FDZ7XpP9gy3oXINNER CHILD PLAYLIST  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9NQ_PWX4zICGLRS1b7q1HSJhZRash5qqGOLDEN THREAD PROCESS PLAYLIST https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9NQ_PWX4zIAsS_wgdRN7QGBKIk54sbyDIs there a question you'd like answered on the show? Submit it at: https://bit.ly/askusyourquestion Join our free Wu Wei Wisdom Community Facebook support group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wuweiwisdomcommunity  If you love our work, you can now make a small donation to help fund the continued production of our weekly teachings by buying us a 'virtual coffee'! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wuweiwisdom Book an online Golden Thread Process & Inner Child Consultation with David: https://www.wuweiwisdom.com/therapies-for-body-mind/ Follow us on Instagram: @wuweiwisdomSign up to receive a relaxing guided meditation gift, plus our weekly newsletter + offers via email:  https://www.wuweiwisdom.com/signup Music by Earth Tree HealingDisclaimer: This podcast and any associated teaching and comments shared are not a substitute for professional therapy, mental health care, crisis support, medical advice, doctor diagnosis, or professional healthcare treatment. Our show episodes provide general information for educational purposes only and are offered as suggestions for you and your professional therapist or healthcare advisor to consider and research.

Happy 60th Birthday, Joanne Rowling Murray! Thank you for close to thirty years of challenging, even edifying fiction, for the joys of community your serious readers enjoy in discussing your work, and for your philanthropic efforts on behalf of women and children everywhere. The faculty at HogwartsProfessor all wish you many, many years.As a birthday gift of sorts, Nick and John close off their month-long celebration of Rowling-Galbraith's life and work with a follow-up look at yesterday's review of the ‘Lost Child' Golden Thread that runs through her stories. After cataloging the almost forty ‘for instances' taken from the opera omnia in the penultimate entry in this series, Nick and John ask, “So What?” How does the possibility that Rowling had an induced abortion and is sufficiently unsettled by it that it inspires many even most of her books at least in part make any difference in understanding their artistry and meaning?John's answer is that, if read through the induced abortion lens, one can see shades of character reflecting Rowling's thought on this subject. More importantly, each Harry Potter novel can be read as a defense of induced abortion, i.e., that each features something evil within a person having to be exteriorized and eliminated, a process that readers celebrate as a ‘win.'A Kanreki celebration is a time when friends and family recognize the ending of a cycle and the beginning of a new life to the 60 year old celebrant. Here's hoping Rowling Studies, as with Rowling herself, will enter another era with this idea, one that the author can confirm, deny, or ignore. Regardless of her answer, Serious Readers are left with the mysteries of the Pregnancy Trap and Lost Child Golden Threads for them to ponder.Please do share your thoughts and questions in the comment boxes below. Nick and John hope to put together a Q&A post to answer the questions listeners have asked this month that they haven't answered and new ones sent in by Monday. Paid subscribers will be invited to join them live for that discussion.New to the Lake and Shed Kanreki Birthday series? Here's what we're doing:On 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, will be celebrating her 60th birthday. This celebration is considered a ‘second birth' in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR's Kanreki, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, are reading through Rowling's twenty-one published works and reviewing them in light of the author's writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed' metaphor. The ‘Lake' is the biographical source of her inspiration; the ‘Shed' is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age. You can hear Nick and John discuss this process and their birthday project at the first entry in this series of posts: Happy Birthday, JKR! A Lake and Shed Celebration of her Life and Work.Tomorrow? The hope is that, after sleeping in for the first time in a month, that we can put together for easy reference an Index post that has links to every Lake and Shed post we've sent out this month — and news of our plans for August and beyond. Stay tuned! Get full access to Hogwarts Professor at hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

It's the Day Before Rowling's 60th birthday so Nick and John tackle by reader request the never before discussed subject of the Lost Child theme in the author's more than twenty published works. They re-introduce the Golden Threads idea — see their Pregnancy Trap podcast or the two Kanreki series on this subject (here and here) — then they do a deep dive into the crowded waters of Lost Children in her work, and then they go out out on a high-wire to speculate about what specific spring in her Lake subconscious mind is responsible for this recurrent inspiration. Enjoy!New to the Lake and Shed Kanreki Birthday series? Here's what we're doing:On 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, will be celebrating her 60th birthday. This celebration is considered a ‘second birth' in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR's Kanreki, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, are reading through Rowling's twenty-one published works and reviewing them in light of the author's writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed' metaphor. The ‘Lake' is the biographical source of her inspiration; the ‘Shed' is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age. You can hear Nick and John discuss this process and their birthday project at the first entry in this series of posts: Happy Birthday, JKR! A Lake and Shed Celebration of her Life and Work.Tomorrow? John and Nick pull out all the stops on Rowling's 60th birthday to challenge the status quo of Rowling Studies with a reading of her work in light of a possible inspiration for the ubiquitous ‘Lost Child' Golden Thread in her work. Stay tuned!Links to posts mentioned in today's Lake and Shed conversation for further reading:'Pregnancy Traps' in the Works of J. K. Rowling: A Rowling Studies Podcast* The Golden Thread of Coercive Love that Runs Through Everything She has Written* The seven Hogwarts Professor weblog posts that John and Nick reference in that conversation can be found here:* Rowling Pregnancy Traps: Merope Gaunt* Rowling Pregnancy Traps: Casual Vacancy's Krystal Weedon, Kay Bawden* Rowling's Pregnancy Traps: Bellatrix Lestrange and the Cursed Child Delphini* Rowling's Pregnancy Traps: Leda Strike* Rowling's Pregnancy Traps: Four Strikes* Rowling's Pregnancy Traps: Last Strikes* Rowling's Pregnancy Traps: Fantastic Beasts, The Ickabog, The Christmas PigRowling's Real Reason for Going to Portugal in 1991?Where was Rowling for her 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, and 50th birthdays?Strike Fans!* Emily Pirbright* Josh Blay* Edie Ledwell* Alexander Graves* Cherie Gittins (Carine Makepeace) Get full access to Hogwarts Professor at hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

Two Days and a Wake-Up until Joanne Rowling Murray's 60th Birthday. In their home stretch conversation, Nick and John fulfill a reader request to discuss the book inside Deathly Hallows (one of three actually…), ‘Tales of Beedle the Bard,' a text that Albus Dumbledore leaves Hermione in his will for her to read and apply to the Horcrux Hunt. Nick tells the story of Rowling's creation of six hand-written copies as six-of-a-kind gifts for those who brought Harry Potter to life. John dives into the center story of the five tales, ‘The Hairy Heart,' and tells the meaning of Harry's heart to draw out what Rowling meant by describing Beedle as “the distillation” of the Hogwarts Saga. Enjoy!New to the Lake and Shed Kanreki Birthday series? Here's what we're doing:On 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, will be celebrating her 60th birthday. This celebration is considered a ‘second birth' in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR's Kanreki, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, are reading through Rowling's twenty-one published works and reviewing them in light of the author's writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed' metaphor. The ‘Lake' is the biographical source of her inspiration; the ‘Shed' is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age. You can hear Nick and John discuss this process and their birthday project at the first entry in this series of posts: Happy Birthday, JKR! A Lake and Shed Celebration of her Life and Work.Tomorrow? In the Day Before the Big Day, Nick and John do a deep dive into the Golden Thread of ‘The Lost Child,' a plot point occurring (by one count!) forty times in Rowling-Galbraith's twenty one books. Stay tuned!Links to posts mentioned in today's Lake and Shed conversation for further reading:The Heart is the Human Spiritual Center: Deathly Hallows, Ink Black Heart, and Beedle the BardRowling: Beedle the Bard is the Distillation of Harry Potter ThemesTwelve Answers to Beedle the Bard Get full access to Hogwarts Professor at hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

In Episode 250, Greg and Pam discuss the twelfth chapter, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger: Record-Breaking Sports Fabric, of our book club book, The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair. Share how you are will enjoy the book on social media with #UnravelingBookClub. Check out our group on Facebook! We would love to have you join us there. GIVEAWAY: Check out our new MONTHLY giveaway just because our listeners are AWESOME! You can enter the current giveaway using this Google Form. SUPPORT THE SHOW KnitPicks & Crochet.com We are KnitPicks and Crochet.com (owned by KnitPicks) Affiliates! This means if you are going to shop at KnitPicks or Crochet.com, and start by clicking their names, the Unraveling Podcast will get a small commission at no extra cost to you! It's an easy way to support the podcast passively. (Note: links to specific yarns or products will appear like https://shrsl.com/3xzh0. These are correct and are custom links to track our account. They are safe!) Patreon You can financially support Unraveling…a knitting podcast on Patreon! Monthly membership levels are available at Swatch ($1), Shawl ($3), and Sweater ($6) and come with rewards like early access to book club episodes, access to a quarterly Zoom call, discounts on all Knitting Daddy patterns, and holiday cards. Everything available via Patreon is extra, the show remains unchanged and free. Financial support through Patreon helps us cover expenses like web hosting, prizes, prize shipping, and equipment upgrades. Affiliate Link Disclosure We are a KnitPicks Affiliate! This means that if you click on a KnitPicks link or Crochet.com, or the banner ad and make a purchase, we will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you click on a link to Amazon and subsequently make a purchase, we'll receive a small commission from the sale. You pay the same, and the commissions will help cover our podcasting expenses. Our opinions are always our own. Find us all over the Internet Patreon: Unraveling…a knitting podcast Subscribe in iTunes: The Unraveling Podcast Podcast RSS Feed: Unraveling Podcast Facebook: Unraveling Podcast Instagram: @UnravelingPodcast Ravelry Group: Unraveling Podcast Greg is KnittingDaddy on Ravelry, @KnittingDaddy on Instagram, and also writes the KnittingDaddy blog. Pam is pammaher on Ravelry  and @pammaher on Instagram

In Episode 248, Greg and Pam discuss the eleventh chapter, Under Pressure: Suits Suitable for Space, of our book club book, The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair. Share how you are will enjoy the book on social media with #UnravelingBookClub. Check out our group on Facebook! We would love to have you join us there. GIVEAWAY: Check out our new MONTHLY giveaway just because our listeners are AWESOME! You can enter the current giveaway using this Google Form. SUPPORT THE SHOW KnitPicks & Crochet.com We are KnitPicks and Crochet.com (owned by KnitPicks) Affiliates! This means if you are going to shop at KnitPicks or Crochet.com, and start by clicking their names, the Unraveling Podcast will get a small commission at no extra cost to you! It's an easy way to support the podcast passively. (Note: links to specific yarns or products will appear like https://shrsl.com/3xzh0. These are correct and are custom links to track our account. They are safe!) Patreon You can financially support Unraveling…a knitting podcast on Patreon! Monthly membership levels are available at Swatch ($1), Shawl ($3), and Sweater ($6) and come with rewards like early access to book club episodes, access to a quarterly Zoom call, discounts on all Knitting Daddy patterns, and holiday cards. Everything available via Patreon is extra, the show remains unchanged and free. Financial support through Patreon helps us cover expenses like web hosting, prizes, prize shipping, and equipment upgrades. Affiliate Link Disclosure We are a KnitPicks Affiliate! This means that if you click on a KnitPicks link or Crochet.com, or the banner ad and make a purchase, we will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you click on a link to Amazon and subsequently make a purchase, we'll receive a small commission from the sale. You pay the same, and the commissions will help cover our podcasting expenses. Our opinions are always our own. Find us all over the Internet Patreon: Unraveling…a knitting podcast Subscribe in iTunes: The Unraveling Podcast Podcast RSS Feed: Unraveling Podcast Facebook: Unraveling Podcast Instagram: @UnravelingPodcast Ravelry Group: Unraveling Podcast Greg is KnittingDaddy on Ravelry, @KnittingDaddy on Instagram, and also writes the KnittingDaddy blog. Pam is pammaher on Ravelry  and @pammaher on Instagram

Welcome back to The Brand Is You Podcast! In today's episode, I'm walking you through one of the most game-changing tools I teach inside InstaSuccess: your Golden Thread. This is the core message that connects every piece of content, every story you tell, and every offer you sell — and it's the secret to going from a scattered brand to one that's cohesive, magnetic, and recognizable. If you feel like you're constantly reinventing your brand, launching random offers, or getting ghosted after putting out heartfelt content — this episode is for you. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE: ✔️ Why inspired content isn't enough if it's not connected ✔️ What resonance really means (and how to create it) ✔️ The 3 questions that will help you uncover your golden thread ✔️ Real client examples of how one message can unify everything ✔️ How repetition creates recognition, trust, and brand power ✔️ Why your golden thread should be 3–5 words — and used everywhere RESOURCES & NEXT STEPS:

Send us a textFarming the Revolution captures a mass movement in vivid close-up, as 12 million farmers challenge the Indian government, forcing it to retract its unjust farm laws. Farming the Revolution will be screening at this year's Sydney Film Festival (SFF) on June 5th & 7th. This film is also a part of Collection: Focus on Nishta Jain screening The Golden Thread and Gulabi Gang.Note: this interview is audio only. For other video interviews check out our YouTube playlist.Website | Rotten Tomatoes | Linktree | Youtube | Twitter | Instagram

In Episode 245, Greg and Pam discuss the second half of the tenth chapter, Workers in the Factory: Rayon's Dark Past, of our book club book, The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair. Share how you are will enjoy the book on social media with #UnravelingBookClub. Check out our group on Facebook! We would love to have you join us there. We mentioned The Knitter's Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes. This was a Book Club book and you can find the episodes here. GIVEAWAY: Check out our new MONTHLY giveaway just because our listeners are AWESOME! You can enter the current giveaway using this Google Form. SUPPORT THE SHOW KnitPicks & Crochet.com We are KnitPicks and Crochet.com (owned by KnitPicks) Affiliates! This means if you are going to shop at KnitPicks or Crochet.com, and start by clicking their names, the Unraveling Podcast will get a small commission at no extra cost to you! It's an easy way to support the podcast passively. (Note: links to specific yarns or products will appear like https://shrsl.com/3xzh0. These are correct and are custom links to track our account. They are safe!) Patreon You can financially support Unraveling…a knitting podcast on Patreon! Monthly membership levels are available at Swatch ($1), Shawl ($3), and Sweater ($6) and come with rewards like early access to book club episodes, access to a quarterly Zoom call, discounts on all Knitting Daddy patterns, and holiday cards. Everything available via Patreon is extra, the show remains unchanged and free. Financial support through Patreon helps us cover expenses like web hosting, prizes, prize shipping, and equipment upgrades. Affiliate Link Disclosure We are a KnitPicks Affiliate! This means that if you click on a KnitPicks link or Crochet.com, or the banner ad and make a purchase, we will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you click on a link to Amazon and subsequently make a purchase, we'll receive a small commission from the sale. You pay the same, and the commissions will help cover our podcasting expenses. Our opinions are always our own. Find us all over the Internet Patreon: Unraveling…a knitting podcast Subscribe in iTunes: The Unraveling Podcast Podcast RSS Feed: Unraveling Podcast Facebook: Unraveling Podcast Instagram: @UnravelingPodcast Ravelry Group: Unraveling Podcast Greg is KnittingDaddy on Ravelry, @KnittingDaddy on Instagram, and also writes the KnittingDaddy blog. Pam is pammaher on Ravelry  and @pammaher on Instagram

In Episode 243, Greg and Pam discuss the first half of the tenth chapter, Workers in the Factory: Rayon's Dark Past, of our book club book, The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair. Share how you are will enjoy the book on social media with #UnravelingBookClub. Check out our group on Facebook! We would love to have you join us there. We mentioned The Knitter's Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes. This was a Book Club book and you can find the episodes here. GIVEAWAY: Check out our new MONTHLY giveaway just because our listeners are AWESOME! You can enter the current giveaway using this Google Form. SUPPORT THE SHOW KnitPicks & Crochet.com We are KnitPicks and Crochet.com (owned by KnitPicks) Affiliates! This means if you are going to shop at KnitPicks or Crochet.com, and start by clicking their names, the Unraveling Podcast will get a small commission at no extra cost to you! It's an easy way to support the podcast passively. (Note: links to specific yarns or products will appear like https://shrsl.com/3xzh0. These are correct and are custom links to track our account. They are safe!) Patreon You can financially support Unraveling…a knitting podcast on Patreon! Monthly membership levels are available at Swatch ($1), Shawl ($3), and Sweater ($6) and come with rewards like early access to book club episodes, access to a quarterly Zoom call, discounts on all Knitting Daddy patterns, and holiday cards. Everything available via Patreon is extra, the show remains unchanged and free. Financial support through Patreon helps us cover expenses like web hosting, prizes, prize shipping, and equipment upgrades. Affiliate Link Disclosure We are a KnitPicks Affiliate! This means that if you click on a KnitPicks link or Crochet.com, or the banner ad and make a purchase, we will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you click on a link to Amazon and subsequently make a purchase, we'll receive a small commission from the sale. You pay the same, and the commissions will help cover our podcasting expenses. Our opinions are always our own. Find us all over the Internet Patreon: Unraveling…a knitting podcast Subscribe in iTunes: The Unraveling Podcast Podcast RSS Feed: Unraveling Podcast Facebook: Unraveling Podcast Instagram: @UnravelingPodcast Ravelry Group: Unraveling Podcast Greg is KnittingDaddy on Ravelry, @KnittingDaddy on Instagram, and also writes the KnittingDaddy blog. Pam is pammaher on Ravelry  and @pammaher on Instagram