Podcasts about Goldfinch

Myself and good friend Matt Shenton went on a well overdue trudge around the edge of Old Hall Marshes near Tollesbury. It's an RSPB site, so we were looking forward to hearing, seeing, recording, some birds, but as the car park is closed on weekends (doh!) we had a extra mile or so walk to get to the site. it was windy and fresh, but with a hint of warmth. Was good to take in heady lung fulls of muddy salt marsh air. Once we got there Matt recorded a fence with his contact mics and I sat quietly near the borrowdyke listening to a plethora of birds. There was however a lot of aircraft activity, which when looking at the Flight Radar app there was a light airplane doing a lot of small loops around Copford, and an Airbus 330 flying from Frankfurt to Cancun, amongst others. You can however revel in the delightful sounds of Sedge Warblers, Whitethroat, Wren, Chiffchaff, Swallow, Reed Bunting, Goldfinch, Blackcap, Greenfinch, Yellow Wagtail, Pheasant and Robin.

Interview with S F Williamson about A Language of Dragons S F Williamson recommends:When Women Were Dragons by Kelly BarnhillThe Awakening of Miss Primm by Sanmartin Fenollera and translated by Sonia Soto.The Goldfinch by Donna TarttThe Quick Book Reviews Podcast can be found:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quick_book_reviewsBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/quickbookreviews.bsky.socialThreads: @quick_book_reviewsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@quickbookreviewsTwitter: https://x.com/quickbookrevie3 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textLet's yap about Gild by Raven Kennedy. Summon us @DTFaePodcast We like our coffee icy and our books spicy! Oh, and we're totally Down To Fae. A podcast for fantasy romance readers and fans of authors like Sarah J. Maas, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Rebecca Yarros and Carissa Broadbent. Follow along as your delulu hosts discuss your favorite romantasy books in a chapter-by-chapter read, re-read or refresher.

To support the podcast please click here. Show notes"Awakening and Renewal"A belated Imbolc episode, though I feel the content is still relevant! So, wow it has been some months since the last episode and we are so glad to be sharing this with you now.Join me out on the trods and connect to Imbolc tide blessings and energies with this episode that focuses on the shifting of Winter into Spring. There are blessings and a poem, there are trodcasts too!Oh and I pronounce the name of the Goddess Brigid in the contemporary Irish 'Breej'. It is what felt right!The trodcasts that I share in this episode were recorded in different local West Dorset sacred spaces in late January. The first one is in Cattistock churchyard where there is a beautiful little well and Snowdrops, plus lots of incredible birds. The following one is in the garden by Silver Well at Cerne Abbas and then the Beech Grove at Giant Hill Cerne Abbas. This is a very special place of pilgrimage, myth and recent archaeological exploration. There is a large Beltaine/May Day gathering that takes place at the well and on the hill with a local Morris side at Dawn. I simply share the messages and insights that flow through me whilst connecting to spirits of place. I hope they resonate with you.It was my intention to release this episode in early February, so apologies for the later publishing!Imbolc is still taking place, so hopefully you will feel the awakening and renewing Imbolc blessings reaching you where you are.The blessings and poem:First blessing is by Caitlin Matthews 'Brigid of the Mantle' from Little Book of Celtic blessings and an excerpt by John O'Donohue fromthe blessing, 'For Presence,' found in Benedictus (Europe) / To Bless the Space Between Us (US).'Goldfinch' from the 'Lost Spells' by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris.Many blessings across the Ways to you.With Love, Hilary and Tony x

In today's episode of The Second in Command podcast, Cameron is joined by Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, the owner and CEO of Lincoln-Goldfinch Law – Abogados de Inmigración.During the conversation, Cameron and Kate explore the nuances of navigating complex professional relationships. You'll hear about the challenges of balancing different leadership styles, the importance of communication, and the impact of workplace culture on collaboration. With contrasting perspectives on accountability and conflict resolution, they reveal the delicate dance required to maintain harmony while driving an organization forward. The discussion highlights a crucial mindset shift — moving from problem-solving to coaching. Instead of acting as intermediaries, effective leaders empower their teams to handle difficult conversations directly, fostering personal growth and stronger relationships.Beyond the day-to-day struggles, the conversation touches on the deeper bonds that sustain long-term partnerships. Whether through shared experiences, intentional connection, or simple gestures of appreciation, investing in professional relationships is just as important as driving results.If you've enjoyed this episode of the Second in Command podcast, be sure to leave a review and subscribe today!Enjoy!In This Episode You'll Learn:Kate's background in immigration law, including a life-changing experience with a detained asylum-seeking family. (2:41)The importance of regular communication and avoiding duplication of efforts between the CEO and COO. (13:00)The differences between a COO and a director, focusing on leadership and vision versus hands-on execution. (18:06)The challenges of transitioning from a culture of leniency to one of accountability. (22:00)And much more...Resources:Connect with Kate: Website | LinkedInConnect with Cameron: Website | LinkedInGet Cameron's latest book "Second in Command: Unleash the Power of Your COO"Get Cameron's online course – Invest In Your Leaders

Bridget, Caitlin, and Hilda discuss the last half of "Goldfinch," the sixth and final book in Raven Kennedy's Plated Prisoner series.  Not to spoil anything, but it's a fantastic end to a great series ... and who knows, maybe the door has been left open to a spinoff. We sure hope so! Join our Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and let's be friends!Instagram > @Booktokmademe_podTikTok > @BooktokMadeMe

Join Bridget, Caitlin, and Hilda to discuss the first half of "Goldfinch," the sixth and final book in Raven Kennedy's The Plated Prisoner series. And we're all in agreement when we say the first half doesn't disappoint, and as the cherry on top, we get a glorious display of King Ravinger's special talent - iykyk.  Join our Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and let's be friends!Instagram > @Booktokmademe_podTikTok > @BooktokMadeMe

WE LIVE IN TIME is de nieuwe film van regisseur John Crowley, die eerder een relatieve (Oscar-)hit scoorde met Brooklyn, maar flopte met The Goldfinch. Deze film wordt gedistribueerd door A24 en werd afgelopen najaar even overschaduwd door de paardenhoofd-meme, maar wist zich te herpakken door de redelijk positieve ontvangst, vooral dankzij de sterke prestaties van een cast die er niet om liegt.EN dus bespreken we vooral het acteerwerk van Florence Pugh en Andrew Garfield. We duiken in de technische aspecten, het verhaal en de  mogelijke diepere lagen van de film. Daarnaast delen we onze eigen inzichten en kijken we naar de kansen van deze films tijdens het komende awardseizoen. Enjoy!108 minuten60 metascore3.7 letterboxdTrailerIMDbRedactie: Don ZwaaneveldBedankt voor het luisteren!Volg Don via @dononfilm op Instagram & Letterboxd, hij is daarnaast te vinden op de Award Expert app voor de meest actuele Oscar voorspellingen.

CarneyShow 01.09.25 Dr. Robert Marbut, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, Shannon Kingston, Brendan Wiese by

Happy holidays! We'll be sharing snippets from Latent Space LIVE! through the break bringing you the best of 2024! We want to express our deepest appreciation to event sponsors AWS, Daylight Computer, Thoth.ai, StrongCompute, Notable Capital, and most of all all our LS supporters who helped fund the gorgeous venue and A/V production!For NeurIPS last year we did our standard conference podcast coverage interviewing selected papers (that we have now also done for ICLR and ICML), however we felt that we could be doing more to help AI Engineers 1) get more industry-relevant content, and 2) recap 2024 year in review from experts. As a result, we organized the first Latent Space LIVE!, our first in person miniconference, at NeurIPS 2024 in Vancouver.Of perennial interest, particularly at academic conferences, is scaled-up architecture research as people hunt for the next Attention Is All You Need. We have many names for them: “efficient models”, “retentive networks”, “subquadratic attention” or “linear attention” but some of them don't even have any lineage with attention - one of the best papers of this NeurIPS was Sepp Hochreiter's xLSTM, which has a particularly poetic significance as one of the creators of the LSTM returning to update and challenge the OG language model architecture:So, for lack of a better term, we decided to call this segment “the State of Post-Transformers” and fortunately everyone rolled with it.We are fortunate to have two powerful friends of the pod to give us an update here:* Together AI: with CEO Vipul Ved Prakash and CTO Ce Zhang joining us to talk about how they are building Together together as a quote unquote full stack AI startup, from the lowest level kernel and systems programming to the highest level mathematical abstractions driving new model architectures and inference algorithms, with notable industry contributions from RedPajama v2, Flash Attention 3, Mamba 2, Mixture of Agents, BASED, Sequoia, Evo, Dragonfly, Dan Fu's ThunderKittens and many more research projects this year* Recursal AI: with CEO Eugene Cheah who has helped lead the independent RWKV project while also running Featherless AI. This year, the team has shipped RWKV v5, codenamed Eagle, to 1.5 billion Windows 10 and Windows 11 machines worldwide, to support Microsoft's on-device, energy-usage-sensitive Windows Copilot usecases, and has launched the first updates on RWKV v6, codenamed Finch and GoldFinch. On the morning of Latent Space Live, they also announced QRWKV6, a Qwen 32B model modified with RWKV linear attention layers. We were looking to host a debate between our speakers, but given that both of them were working on post-transformers alternativesFull Talk on YoutubePlease like and subscribe!LinksAll the models and papers they picked:* Earlier Cited Work* Transformers are RNNs: Fast Autoregressive Transformers with Linear Attention* Hungry hungry hippos: Towards language modeling with state space models* Hyena hierarchy: Towards larger convolutional language models* Mamba: Linear-Time Sequence Modeling with Selective State Spaces* S4: Efficiently Modeling Long Sequences with Structured State Spaces* Just Read Twice (Arora et al)* Recurrent large language models that compete with Transformers in language modeling perplexity are emerging at a rapid rate (e.g., Mamba, RWKV). Excitingly, these architectures use a constant amount of memory during inference. However, due to the limited memory, recurrent LMs cannot recall and use all the information in long contexts leading to brittle in-context learning (ICL) quality. A key challenge for efficient LMs is selecting what information to store versus discard. In this work, we observe the order in which information is shown to the LM impacts the selection difficulty. * To formalize this, we show that the hardness of information recall reduces to the hardness of a problem called set disjointness (SD), a quintessential problem in communication complexity that requires a streaming algorithm (e.g., recurrent model) to decide whether inputted sets are disjoint. We empirically and theoretically show that the recurrent memory required to solve SD changes with set order, i.e., whether the smaller set appears first in-context. * Our analysis suggests, to mitigate the reliance on data order, we can put information in the right order in-context or process prompts non-causally. Towards that end, we propose: (1) JRT-Prompt, where context gets repeated multiple times in the prompt, effectively showing the model all data orders. This gives 11.0±1.3 points of improvement, averaged across 16 recurrent LMs and the 6 ICL tasks, with 11.9× higher throughput than FlashAttention-2 for generation prefill (length 32k, batch size 16, NVidia H100). We then propose (2) JRT-RNN, which uses non-causal prefix-linear-attention to process prompts and provides 99% of Transformer quality at 360M params., 30B tokens and 96% at 1.3B params., 50B tokens on average across the tasks, with 19.2× higher throughput for prefill than FA2.* Jamba: A 52B Hybrid Transformer-Mamba Language Model* We present Jamba, a new base large language model based on a novel hybrid Transformer-Mamba mixture-of-experts (MoE) architecture. * Specifically, Jamba interleaves blocks of Transformer and Mamba layers, enjoying the benefits of both model families. MoE is added in some of these layers to increase model capacity while keeping active parameter usage manageable. * This flexible architecture allows resource- and objective-specific configurations. In the particular configuration we have implemented, we end up with a powerful model that fits in a single 80GB GPU.* Built at large scale, Jamba provides high throughput and small memory footprint compared to vanilla Transformers, and at the same time state-of-the-art performance on standard language model benchmarks and long-context evaluations. Remarkably, the model presents strong results for up to 256K tokens context length. * We study various architectural decisions, such as how to combine Transformer and Mamba layers, and how to mix experts, and show that some of them are crucial in large scale modeling. We also describe several interesting properties of these architectures which the training and evaluation of Jamba have revealed, and plan to release checkpoints from various ablation runs, to encourage further exploration of this novel architecture. We make the weights of our implementation of Jamba publicly available under a permissive license.* SANA: Efficient High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Linear Diffusion Transformers* We introduce Sana, a text-to-image framework that can efficiently generate images up to 4096×4096 resolution. Sana can synthesize high-resolution, high-quality images with strong text-image alignment at a remarkably fast speed, deployable on laptop GPU. Core designs include: * (1) Deep compression autoencoder: unlike traditional AEs, which compress images only 8×, we trained an AE that can compress images 32×, effectively reducing the number of latent tokens. * (2) Linear DiT: we replace all vanilla attention in DiT with linear attention, which is more efficient at high resolutions without sacrificing quality. * (3) Decoder-only text encoder: we replaced T5 with modern decoder-only small LLM as the text encoder and designed complex human instruction with in-context learning to enhance the image-text alignment. * (4) Efficient training and sampling: we propose Flow-DPM-Solver to reduce sampling steps, with efficient caption labeling and selection to accelerate convergence. * As a result, Sana-0.6B is very competitive with modern giant diffusion model (e.g. Flux-12B), being 20 times smaller and 100+ times faster in measured throughput. Moreover, Sana-0.6B can be deployed on a 16GB laptop GPU, taking less than 1 second to generate a 1024×1024 resolution image. Sana enables content creation at low cost. * RWKV: Reinventing RNNs for the Transformer Era* Transformers have revolutionized almost all natural language processing (NLP) tasks but suffer from memory and computational complexity that scales quadratically with sequence length. In contrast, recurrent neural networks (RNNs) exhibit linear scaling in memory and computational requirements but struggle to match the same performance as Transformers due to limitations in parallelization and scalability. * We propose a novel model architecture, Receptance Weighted Key Value (RWKV), that combines the efficient parallelizable training of transformers with the efficient inference of RNNs.* Our approach leverages a linear attention mechanism and allows us to formulate the model as either a Transformer or an RNN, thus parallelizing computations during training and maintains constant computational and memory complexity during inference. * We scale our models as large as 14 billion parameters, by far the largest dense RNN ever trained, and find RWKV performs on par with similarly sized Transformers, suggesting future work can leverage this architecture to create more efficient models. This work presents a significant step towards reconciling trade-offs between computational efficiency and model performance in sequence processing tasks.* LoLCATs: On Low-Rank Linearizing of Large Language Models* Recent works show we can linearize large language models (LLMs) -- swapping the quadratic attentions of popular Transformer-based LLMs with subquadratic analogs, such as linear attention -- avoiding the expensive pretraining costs. However, linearizing LLMs often significantly degrades model quality, still requires training over billions of tokens, and remains limited to smaller 1.3B to 7B LLMs. * We thus propose Low-rank Linear Conversion via Attention Transfer (LoLCATs), a simple two-step method that improves LLM linearizing quality with orders of magnitudes less memory and compute. * We base these steps on two findings. * First, we can replace an LLM's softmax attentions with closely-approximating linear attentions, simply by training the linear attentions to match their softmax counterparts with an output MSE loss ("attention transfer").* Then, this enables adjusting for approximation errors and recovering LLM quality simply with low-rank adaptation (LoRA). * LoLCATs significantly improves linearizing quality, training efficiency, and scalability. We significantly reduce the linearizing quality gap and produce state-of-the-art subquadratic LLMs from Llama 3 8B and Mistral 7B v0.1, leading to 20+ points of improvement on 5-shot MMLU. * Furthermore, LoLCATs does so with only 0.2% of past methods' model parameters and 0.4% of their training tokens. * Finally, we apply LoLCATs to create the first linearized 70B and 405B LLMs (50x larger than prior work). * When compared with prior approaches under the same compute budgets, LoLCATs significantly improves linearizing quality, closing the gap between linearized and original Llama 3.1 70B and 405B LLMs by 77.8% and 78.1% on 5-shot MMLU.Timestamps* [00:02:27] Intros* [00:03:16] Why Scale Context Lengths? or work on Efficient Models* [00:06:07] The Story of SSMs* [00:09:33] Idea 1: Approximation -> Principled Modeling* [00:12:14] Idea 3: Selection* [00:15:07] Just Read Twice* [00:16:51] Idea 4: Test Time Compute* [00:17:32] Idea 2: Hardware & Kernel Support* [00:19:49] RWKV vs SSMs* [00:24:24] RWKV Arch* [00:26:15] QWRKWv6 launch* [00:30:00] What's next* [00:33:21] Hot Takes - does anyone really need long context?Transcript[00:00:00] AI Charlie: We're back at Latent Space Live, our first mini conference held at NeurIPS 2024 in Vancouver. This is Charlie, your AI co host. As a special treat this week, we're recapping the best of 2024 going domain by domain. We sent out a survey to the over 900 of you who told us what you wanted, and then invited the best speakers in the Latent Space Network to cover each field.[00:00:24] AI Charlie: 200 of you joined us in person throughout the day, with over 2200 watching live online. Thanks Our next keynote covers the State of Transformers alternative architectures, with a special joint presentation with Dan Fu of Together AI and Eugene Chia of Recursal AI and Featherless AI. We've featured both Together and Recursal on the pod before, with CEO Veepal Vedprakash introducing them.[00:00:49] AI Charlie: And CTO CE Zhang joining us to talk about how they are building together together as a quote unquote full stack AI startup from the lowest level kernel and systems [00:01:00] programming to the highest level mathematical abstractions driving new model architectures and inference algorithms with notable industry contributions from Red Pajama V2, Flash Attention 3, Mamba 2, Mixture of Agents.[00:01:15] AI Charlie: Based, Sequoia, Evo, Dragonfly, Danfoo's Thunder Kittens, and many more research projects this year. As for Recursal and Featherless, we were the first podcast to feature RWKV last year, and this year the team has shipped RWKV v5, codenamed Eagle, to 1. 5 billion Windows 10 and Windows 11 machines worldwide to support Microsoft's on device, end Energy Usage Sensitive Windows Copilot Use Cases and has launched the first updates on RWKV v6, codenamed Finch and Goldfinch.[00:01:53] AI Charlie: On the morning of Latent Space Live, they also announced QRdata UKv6, a QEN32B model [00:02:00] modified with RDWKV linear attention layers. Eugene has also written the most single most popular guest post on the Latent Space blog this year. Yes, we do take guest posts on what he has discovered about the H100 GPU inference NeoCloud market since the successful launch of Featherless AI this year.[00:02:20] AI Charlie: As always, don't forget to check the show notes for the YouTube link to their talk as well as their slides. Watch out and take care.[00:02:27] Intros[00:02:27] Dan Fu: Yeah, so thanks so much for having us. So this is going to be a little bit of a two part presentation. My name is Dan. I'm at Together AI, and I'll be joining UCSD as faculty in about a year. And Eugene, you want to introduce yourself?[00:02:46] Eugene Cheah: Eugene, I lead the art activity team, and I, I'm CEO of Featherless, and we both work on this new post transformer architecture space.[00:02:55] Dan Fu: Yeah, so yeah, so today we're really excited to talk to you a little bit [00:03:00] about that. So first I'm going to give a broad overview of kind of the last few years of progress in non post transformer architectures. And then afterwards Eugene will tell us a little bit about the latest and the greatest and the latest frontier models in this space.[00:03:16] Why Scale Context Lengths? or work on Efficient Models[00:03:16] Dan Fu: So, the story starts with Scaling. So this is probably a figure or something like this that you've seen very recently. Over the last five to six years, we've seen models really scale up in parameter size, and that's brought with it a bunch of new capabilities, like the ability to talk to you and tell you sometimes how to use your Colab screens.[00:03:35] Dan Fu: But another place where we've seen scaling especially recently is scaling in context length. So this can mean Having more text inputs for your models, but it can also mean things like taking a lot of visual token inputs image inputs to your models or generating lots of outputs. And one thing that's been really exciting over the last few months or so is that we're, we're seeing scaling, not only during training time, but also [00:04:00] during test time.[00:04:00] Dan Fu: So this is one of the, the, this is the iconic image from the OpenAI 01 release. Not only are we starting to scale train time compute, but we're also starting to scale test time compute. Now if you're familiar with our attention and our transformer architectures today, this graph on the right might look a little bit scary.[00:04:19] Dan Fu: And one of the reasons is that the implications are a little bit Interesting. So what does it mean if we want to continue having smarter and smarter models? Do we just need to start building bigger, bigger data centers, spending more flops? Is this this little Dolly 3, we need more flops, guys? Is this going to be the future of all of AI?[00:04:39] Dan Fu: Or is there a better way, another path forward? Maybe we can get the same capabilities that we've gotten used to, But for a lot less compute, a lot less flops. And one of the things that we're going to talk about today is specifically looking at that core attention operator in some of these models.[00:04:57] Dan Fu: And the reason is that so this is just some, some [00:05:00] basic you know, scaling curves, but attention has compute that scales quadratically in the context length. So that means that if you're doing something like test time compute and you want to spend a bunch of tokens thinking about what comes next, the longer that that goes the, the, the more tokens you spend on that, that compute grows quadratically in that.[00:05:19] Dan Fu: One of the questions that we're interested in is, can we take that basic sequence model, that basic sequence primitive at the bottom, and get it to scale better? Can we scale in, let's say, n to the 3 halves or n log n? So in, in the first part of the talk, so we just went over the introduction. What I'm gonna do over the next few slides is just talk about some of the key advances and ideas that have shown over the past few years since maybe early 2020 to, to now that shown promise that this might actually be possible.[00:05:48] Dan Fu: That you can actually get potentially the same quality that we want while scale, while scaling better. So to do that, we're and, and basically the, the story that we're gonna look is we're gonna start to see [00:06:00] how. So this is a basic graph of just the past couple years of progress of perplexity where that blue line, that dotted blue line, is attention.[00:06:07] The Story of SSMs[00:06:07] Dan Fu: It's your basic transformer, full dense attention. And then the dots coming down are some of the methods that you'll see in this presentation today. We're going to turn the clock back all the way to 2020. So this, this, this question of can we make attention subquadratic? Basically, as soon as we said attention is all you need, People started asking this question.[00:06:28] Dan Fu: So we have this quadratic attention operator. Can we do better? I'll briefly talk about why attention is quadratic. And the basic thing that happens, if you're not familiar, is that you have these inputs, these keys and queries. And what you do in this attention matrix, this S matrix over here, is that you're using, you're comparing every token in your input to every other token.[00:06:49] Dan Fu: So when I try to do something like upload a whole book to Gemini, what happens beyond the Maybe not Gemini, because we don't necessarily know what architecture is. But let's say we upload it to LLAMA, what happens beyond [00:07:00] the scenes, behind the scenes, is that it's going to take every single word in that book and compare it to every other word.[00:07:05] Dan Fu: And this has been a really, it's, it's led to some pretty impressive things. But it's kind of a brute forcing of the way that you would try to interpret a interpret something. And what attention does in particular is the, and then what attention, sorry, don't want to. Okay, no, no laser pointer. What, what attention does afterwards is that instead of always operating in this quadratic thing, it takes a row wise softmax over this matrix, and then multiplies it by this values matrix.[00:07:32] Dan Fu: So, one of the key points to notice is that the output size is always going to be the same as the inputs, at least in standard self attention. So one of the first things that folks tried to do around 2020 is this thing called linear attention, which is just, just noticing that if we take out this softmax from here, if we take out this non linearity in the middle of the attention operation, and then if you compute the keys and the values operation first, you actually never hit this quadratic bottleneck.[00:07:57] Dan Fu: So that, that's potentially a way [00:08:00] to get a lot more computationally efficient. And there are various ways to do this by basically using feature maps or try to approximate this overall attention computation. But some of this work sort of started to hit a wall in 2020. And the basic challenges were, were two.[00:08:16] Dan Fu: So one was quality. It was back then, it was kind of hard to, to get good quality with these linear attention operators. The other one was actually hardware efficiency. So these, this feature map that was just shown by a simplify simplify here. Actually ends up being quite computationally expensive if you just implement it naively.[00:08:34] Dan Fu: So you started having these operators that not only were you sure, you're not really sure if they have the same quality, but also they're actually just wall clock slower. So you kind of end up getting the worst of both worlds. So this was the the stage. So that kind of sets the stage for four years ago.[00:08:49] Dan Fu: Keep this in mind because linear attention is actually going to come back in a few years once we have a better understanding. But one of the works that started kicking off this, this [00:09:00] mini revolution in post transformer architectures was this idea called states based model. So here the seminal work is, is one about our work queue in 2022.[00:09:09] Dan Fu: And this, this piece of work really brought together a few ideas from, from some long running research research lines of work. The first one was, and this is really one of the keys to, to closing the gap in quality was just using things that, that if you talk to a, a, an electrical engineer off the street, they might know off, off the, like the back of their hand.[00:09:33] Idea 1: Approximation -> Principled Modeling[00:09:33] Dan Fu: But taking some of those properties with how we model dynamical systems in signal processing and then using those ideas to model the inputs, the, the text tokens in, for example a transformer like Next Token Prediction Architecture. So some of those early states-based model papers were looking at this relatively, relatively simple recurrent update model that comes from maybe chapter one of a signal processing class.[00:09:59] Dan Fu: But then using [00:10:00] some principle theory about how you should do that recurrent update in order to really get the most that you can out of your hidden state, out of your out of your sequence. So that, that was one key idea for quality and. When this was eventually realized, you started to see a bunch of benchmarks that were pretty sticky for a few years.[00:10:20] Dan Fu: Things like long range arena, some long sequence evaluation benchmarks, There was stuff in time series, time series analysis. They started to, you started to see the quality tick up in meaningful ways. But the other key thing that What's so influential about these states based models is that they also had a key idea about how you can compute these things efficiently.[00:10:45] Dan Fu: So if you go back to your machine learning 101 class where you learned about RNNs, one thing that you may have learned is that they don't paralyze as well as detention, because if you just run them naively, you have to do this kind of sequential update to process new tokens, [00:11:00] whereas in attention, you can process all the tokens in parallel at one time.[00:11:04] Dan Fu: One of the key insights behind the S4 paper was that these recurrent models, you could take them and you could also formulate them as a convolution. And in particular, with a convolution, you could, instead of using a PyTorch conv1d operation, you can compute that with the FFT. And that would give you n log n compute in the in the sequence length n with an operator that was relatively well optimized for modern hardware.[00:11:28] Dan Fu: So those are really, I'd say, the two key ideas in 2022 that started allowing these breakthroughs to happen in these non transformer architectures. So, these ideas about how to principally model sorry, how to model the recurrent updates of a mo of, of a sequence in a principled way, and also these key ideas in how you can compute it efficiently by turning it into a convolution and then scaling it up with the FFT.[00:11:53] Dan Fu: Along those same lines, so afterwards we started putting out some work on specialized kernels, so just [00:12:00] like we have flash attention for transformers, we also have works like flash fft conf, and if you look at these lines of work oftentimes when, whenever you see a new architecture, you see a new primitive one of the, one of the table stakes now is, do you have an efficient kernel so that you can actually get wall clock speed up?[00:12:14] Idea 3: Selection[00:12:14] Dan Fu: So by 2022, We are starting to have these models that had promising quality primitives, but and, and also promising wall clocks. So you could actually see regimes where they were better than transformers in meaningful ways. That being said, there were, there's still sometimes a quality gap, particularly for language modeling.[00:12:33] Dan Fu: And because languages, It's so core to what we do in sequence modeling these days the, the next, the next key idea that I'm going to talk about is this idea of selection mechanisms. And this is basically an idea of, so you have this recurrent state that you're keeping around that just summarizes everything that, that came before.[00:12:50] Dan Fu: And to get a good sequence model, one of the things that you really need to be able to do is have the model learn what's the best way to pick out pieces from that recurrent [00:13:00] state. So one of the, one of the major ideas here in a line of work called H3, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and also these hyena models were One way you can do this is by just adding some simple element wise gates.[00:13:13] Dan Fu: So versions of these ideas have been around for decades. If you squint at the LSTM paper you, you can probably find, find this gating mechanism. But turns out you can take those old ideas, add them into these new. state space models, and then you can see quality start to pick up. If you've heard of the Mamba model, this also takes the selection to the next level by actually making some changes in that fundamental recurrent state space.[00:13:40] Dan Fu: So, it's not only just this gating that happens around the SSM layer, but also you can actually make The ABCD matrices of your state space model, you can make them data dependent, which will allow you to even better select out different pieces from your hidden state depending on what you're seeing. I'll also point out if you look at the [00:14:00] bottom right of this figure, there's this little triangle with a GPU SRAM, GPU HBM, and this, this is just continuing that trend of when you have a new architecture you, you, you also release it with a kernel to, to, to show that it is hardware efficient, that it, that it can be hardware efficient on modern hardware.[00:14:17] Dan Fu: The, the, one of the next cool things that happened is once we had this understanding of these are the basic pieces, these are the basic principles behind some of the sequence models linear attention actually started to come back. So in earlier this year, there was a model called BASED the, from Simran Arora and, and some other folks, that combined a more principled version of linear attention that basically the, the, the, the two second summary is that it used a Taylor approximation of the softmax attention, combined that with a simple sliding window attention and was starting to able, starting to be able to expand the Pareto frontier of how much data can you recall from your sequence, versus how small is your recurrent state size.[00:14:58] Dan Fu: So those orange dots [00:15:00] are, at the top there, are just showing smaller sequences that can recall more memory.[00:15:07] Just Read Twice[00:15:07] Dan Fu: And the last major idea I think that has been influential in this line of work and is very relatively late breaking just a few months ago, is just the basic idea that when you have these models that are fundamentally more efficient in the sequence length, you maybe don't want to prompt them or use them in exactly the same way.[00:15:26] Dan Fu: So this was a really cool paper called Just Read Twice, also from Simran. That basically said, hey, all these efficient models can process tokens so much more efficiently than transformers that they can sometimes have unfair advantages compared to a simple transformer token. So, or sorry, a simple transformer model.[00:15:44] Dan Fu: So take, for example the standard, the standard use case of you have some long document, you're going to pass it in as input, and then you're going to ask some question about it. One problem you might imagine for a recurrent model where you have a fixed state size is, let's say that [00:16:00] you're. Article is very long, and you're trying to ask about some really niche thing.[00:16:04] Dan Fu: You can imagine it might be hard for the model to know ahead of time what information to put into the hidden state. But these, these, these models are so much more efficient that you can do something really stupid, like, you can just put the document write down the document, write down the question, write down the document again, and then write down the question again, and then this time, the second time that you go over that document, you know exactly what to look for.[00:16:25] Dan Fu: And the cool thing about this is, so this is, And this this results in better quality, especially on these recall intensive tasks. But the other interesting thing is it really takes advantage of the more efficient architectures that, that we're having here. So one of the other, I think, influential ideas in this line of work is if you change the fundamental compute capabilities of your model and the way that it scales, you can actually start to query it at test time differently.[00:16:51] Idea 4: Test Time Compute[00:16:51] Dan Fu: And this actually, of course, goes back to those slides on test time compute. So while everybody's looking at, say, test time compute for big transformer models, [00:17:00] I think potentially a really interesting research question is, how can you take those and how does it change with this new next generation of models?[00:17:09] Dan Fu: So the, I'll just briefly summarize what some of those key ideas were and then talk and then show you briefly kind of what the state of the art is today. So, so the four key ideas are instead of just doing a simple linear attention approximation, instead take ideas that we know from other fields like signal processing, do a more principled approach to your modeling of the sequence.[00:17:32] Idea 2: Hardware & Kernel Support[00:17:32] Dan Fu: Another key idea throughout all these lines of work is you really want. Hardware and kernel support from day one. So, so even if your model is theoretically more efficient if somebody goes and runs it and it's two times slower one of the things that, that we've learned is that if, if you're in that situation, it's, it's just gonna be dead on arrival.[00:17:49] Dan Fu: So you want to be designing your architectures one of the key, key machine learning ideas that has been important for the quality is just making sure that you encode different ways that you can [00:18:00] select from your hidden state and, and really focus on that as a key decider of quality. And finally, I think one of the, the, the emerging new, new things for, for this line of work and something that's quite interesting is, What are the right test time paradigms for these models?[00:18:15] Dan Fu: How do they change relative to relative to what you might do for a standard transformer? I'll briefly end this section. So I've labeled this slide where we are yesterday because Eugene is going to talk about some new models that he released literally this morning. But as of yesterday, some of the really cool results out of the, these efficient alternative models were so AI2 trained this hybrid MOE called Jamba.[00:18:40] Dan Fu: That, that, that seems, that is currently the state of the art for these non transformer architectures. There's this NVIDIA and MIT put out this new diffusion model called SANA recently that one of their key key observations is that you can take a standard diffusion transformer diffusion model, replace the layers with linear [00:19:00] attention, and then that lets you scale to much larger much larger images, much, much Much larger sequences more efficiently.[00:19:07] Dan Fu: And and one thing that I don't think anybody would have called when a few years ago is that one of those gated SSM, gated states based models ended up on the cover of Science because a great group of folks went and trained some DNA models. So that's Michael Polley, Eric Yuen from from Stanford and the Arc Institute.[00:19:26] Dan Fu: So it's, we're really at an exciting time in 2024 where these non transformer, post transformer architectures are showing promise across a wide range. Across a wide range of, of modalities, of applications, and, and of tasks. And with that, I'll pass it on to Eugene, who can tell you a little bit about the latest and greatest with RWKV.[00:19:49] RWKV vs SSMs[00:19:49] Eugene Cheah: So, that's useful? Yeah. You're talking to here. Oh, I'm talking to here. Okay. So, yeah, two streams. Yeah. So, I think one common questions that we tend to get asked, right, is what's the difference between [00:20:00] RWKV and state space? So I think one of the key things to really understand, right the difference between the two groups, right, is that we are actually more like an open source, random internet meets academia kind of situation.[00:20:11] Eugene Cheah: Like, most of us never wrote any paper, but we, we basically look at RNNs and linear intention when intention is all you need came out, and then we decided to like, hey there is a quadratic scaling problem. Why don't we try fixing that instead? So, so, so we end up developing our own branch, but we end up sharing ideas back and forth.[00:20:30] Eugene Cheah: So, and, and we do all this actively in Discord, GitHub, etc. This was so bad for a few years, right, that basically, the average group's H index was so close to zero, right, Illuter. ai actually came in and helped us write our first paper. Great, now our H index is now three, apparently. So, so, so, but, but the thing is, like, a lot of these experiments led to results, and, and, essentially, essentially, we we took the same ideas from linear attention, [00:21:00] and we built on it.[00:21:01] Eugene Cheah: So, to take a step back into, like, how does RWKB handle its own attention mechanic and achieve the same goals of, like, O and compute, respectively, and in focus of our overall goal to make AI accessible to everyone, regardless of language, nation, or compute, that's our goal. We actually train our models primarily on over a hundred languages, which is another topic altogether.[00:21:23] Eugene Cheah: And our goal is to train to even 200 languages to cover all languages in the world. But at the same time, we work on this architecture, To lower the compute cost so that people can run it on Raspberry Pis and on anything. So, how did RWKB break the dependency of LSTM token flow? Because I think to understand architecture, right, it's probably easier to understand it from the RNN lens.[00:21:46] Eugene Cheah: Because that's where we built on. We all, we all state space kind of like try to, try to start anew and took lessons from that and say, So there's a little bit of divergence there. And AKA, this our version of linear attention. So to take step back [00:22:00] all foundation models, be it transformers or non transformers at a very high level, right?[00:22:05] Eugene Cheah: Pumps in the token. I mean, text that things into embeddings and go through a lot of layers. Generate a lot of states where the QKV cache or be iron in states or RW KB states. And outputs and embedding, they are not the same thing. And we just take more layers and more embeddings. And somehow that magically works.[00:22:23] Eugene Cheah: So, if you, if you remember your ancient RNN lessons which we, which we, which we we call best learning these days the general idea is that you have the embedding information flowing all the way up, and when, and you take that information and you flow it back down, and then you process it as part of your LSTM layers.[00:22:41] Eugene Cheah: So, this is how it generally works. Kapati is quoted saying that RNNs are actually unreasonably effective. The problem is this is not scalable. To start doing work on the second token, you need to wait for the first token. And then you need to, and likewise for the third token and fourth token, yada yada.[00:22:55] Eugene Cheah: That is CPU land, not GPU land. So, so, so, you [00:23:00] can have a H100 and you can't even use 1 percent of it. So, so that's kind of why RNNs didn't really take off in the direction that we wanted, like, billions of parameters when it comes to training. So, what did RDAP KV version 0 do? Boom. We just did the dumbest, lamest thing.[00:23:13] Eugene Cheah: Sorry, this is the bottleneck for RNN. We did the dumb thing of removing that line. And it kind of worked. It trained. It sucked, but it kind of worked. Then we were like, hey, then no one cared because the loss was crap, but how do we improve that? And that's essentially where we move forward, because if you see this kind of flow, right, you can actually get your GPU saturated quickly, where it essentially cascades respectively.[00:23:41] Eugene Cheah: So I'm just waiting for this to loop again. So it's like, once you get your first layer, your token to be computed finish. You start to cascade your compute all the way until you are, Hey, I'm using 100 percent of the GPU. So we, we worked on it, and we started going along the principle of that as long as we keep this general architecture [00:24:00] where, where we can cascade and, and be highly efficient with our architecture, nothing is sacred in our architecture.[00:24:06] Eugene Cheah: And we have done some crazy ideas. In fact, you ask us, if you ask me to explain some things in the paper, right, officially in the paper, I'll say we had this idea and we wrote it this way. The reality is someone came with a code, we tested it, it worked, and then we rationalized later. So, so the general[00:24:24] RWKV Arch[00:24:24] Eugene Cheah: The idea behind rwkbr is that we generally have two major blocks that we do.[00:24:30] Eugene Cheah: We call time mix and channel mix. And time mix generally handles handles long term memory states, where essentially, where essentially where we apply the matrix multiplication and Cilu activation functions into processing an input embedding and an output embedding. I'm oversimplifying it because this, This calculation changed every version and we have, like, version 7 right now.[00:24:50] Eugene Cheah: ChannelMix is similar to Base in the sense that it does shorter term attention, where it just looks at the sister token, or the token before it, because [00:25:00] there's a shift in the token shift matrix. I don't really want to go too much into the papers itself, because, like, we do have three papers on this.[00:25:09] Eugene Cheah: Basically, RWKB, RNN for the transformer, ERA, Ego and Pinch, RWKB, Matrix Value State. This is the updated version 5, version 6. And Goldfinch is our, is, is, is, is our hybrid model respectively. We are writing the paper already for V seven and which is, which is for R wk V seven. Called, named Goose, or architectures are named by Bird.[00:25:30] Eugene Cheah: And, I'm going to cover as well, qrwkb, and mama100k, and rwkb, and Where did that lead to? Great! Because we are all GPU poor and to be clear, like, most of this research is done, like, only on a handful H100s, which I had one Google researcher told me that was, like, his experiment budget for a single researcher.[00:25:48] Eugene Cheah: So, our entire organization has less compute than a single researcher in Google. So We, we, one of the things that we explored into was to how do we convert transformer models instead? Because [00:26:00] someone already paid that billion dollars, a million dollars onto training, so why don't we take advantage of those weights?[00:26:05] Eugene Cheah: And, and to, I believe, together AI worked on the lockets for, for the Lambda side of things, and, and we took some ideas from there as well, and we essentially did that for RWKB.[00:26:15] QWRKWv6 launch[00:26:15] Eugene Cheah: And that led to, Q RWKB6, which we just dropped today, a 32 bit instruct preview model, where we took the Quen 32 bit instruct model, freeze the feedforward layer, remove the QKB attention layer, and replace it with RWKB linear layers.[00:26:32] Eugene Cheah: So to be clear, this means we do not have the rwkv channel mix layer, we only have the time mix layer. But but once we do that, we train the rwkv layer. Important is that the feedforward layer needs to be frozen, so the new attention can be learned. And then we unfreeze the feedforward layer, and train all the layers together with a custom learning rate schedule, so that they can learn how to work together.[00:26:54] Eugene Cheah: The end result, surprisingly, And, to be honest, to the frustration of the R. W. [00:27:00] KV MOE team, which ended up releasing the model on the same day, was that, with just a few hours of training on two nodes, we managed to get it to be on par, kind of, with the original QUAN32B model. So, in fact, when the first run, right, that completely confused us, it was like, and I was telling Daniel Goldstein, Smirky, who kind of leads most of our research coordination, When you pitched me this idea, you told me at best you'll get the same level of performance.[00:27:26] Eugene Cheah: You didn't tell me the challenge and score and Winograd score will shoot up. I don't know what's happening there. But it did. MMLU score dropping, that was expected. Because if you think about it, when we were training all the layers, right, we were essentially Like, Frankenstein this thing, and we did brain damage to the feedforward network layer 2 with the new RWKB layers.[00:27:47] Eugene Cheah: But, 76%, hey, somehow it's retained, and we can probably further train this. We didn't even spend more than 3 days training this, so there's a lot more that can be done, hence the preview. This brings up [00:28:00] a big question, because We are already now in the process of converting to 7TB. We are now, this is actually extremely compute efficient to test our attention mechanic.[00:28:10] Eugene Cheah: It's like, it becomes a shortcut. We can, we are already planning to do our version 7 and our hybrid architecture for it. Because we don't need to train from scratch. And we get a really good model out of it. And the other thing that is uncomfortable to say is that because we are doing right now on the 70b is that if this scales correctly to 128k context length, I'm not even talking about a million 128, majority of enterprise workload today is just on 70b at under 32k context length.[00:28:41] Eugene Cheah: That means if this works and the benchmark matches it, It means we can replace the vast majority of current AI workload, unless you want super long context. And then sorry, can someone give us more GPUs? Because we do need the VRAM for super long context, sadly. So yeah, that's what we are working on, and essentially, [00:29:00] we are excited about this to just push it further.[00:29:02] Eugene Cheah: And this conversion process, to be clear, I don't think it's going to be exclusive to RWKB. It probably will work for Mamba as well, I don't see why not. And we will probably see more ideas, or more experiments, or more hybrids, or Yeah, like, one of the weirdest things that I wanted to say outright, and I confirmed this with the Black Mamba team and the Jamba team, which because we did the GoFinch hybrid model, is that none of us understand why a hard hybrid with a state based model to be R.[00:29:28] Eugene Cheah: QA state space and transformer performs better when, than the baseline of both. It's like, it's like when you train one, you expect, and then you replace, you expect the same results. That's our pitch. That's our claim. But somehow when we jam both together, it outperforms both. And that's like one area of emulation that, like, we only have four experiments, plus four teams, that a lot more needs to be done.[00:29:51] Eugene Cheah: But, but these are things that excite me, essentially, because that is what it's potentially we can move ahead for. Which brings us to what comes next.[00:30:00] What's next[00:30:00] [00:30:00][00:30:00] Dan Fu: So, this part is kind of just some, where we'll talk a little bit about stuff that, that we're excited about. Maybe have some wild speculation on, on what, what's, what's coming next.[00:30:12] Dan Fu: And, of course this is also the part that will be more open to questions. So, a couple things that, that I'm excited about is continued hardware model co design for, for these models. So one of the things that we've put out recently is this library called ThunderKittens. It's a CUDA library.[00:30:29] Dan Fu: And one of the things that, that we found frustrating is every time that we built one of these new architectures, and I'm sure you had the exact same experience, we'd have to go and spend two months in CUDA land, like writing these, these new efficient things. And. If we decided to change one thing in PyTorch, like one line of PyTorch code is like a week of CUDA code at least.[00:30:47] Dan Fu: So one of our goals with, with a library like Thunderkitten, so we, we just broke down what are the key principles, what are the key hardware things what are the key, Compute pieces that you get from the hardware. So for example on [00:31:00] H100 everything is really revolves around a warp group matrix multiply operation.[00:31:06] Dan Fu: So you really want your operation to be able to split into relatively small matrix, matrix multiply operations. So like multiplying two 64 by 64 matrices, for example. And so if you know that ahead of time when you're designing your model, that probably gives you you know, some information about how you set the state sizes, how you set the update, how you set the update function.[00:31:27] Dan Fu: So with Thunderkittens we basically built a whole library just around this basic idea that all your basic compute primitives should not be a float, but it should be a matrix, and everything should just be matrix compute. And we've been using that to, to try to both re implement some existing architectures, and also start to design code.[00:31:44] Dan Fu: Some new ones that are really designed with this core with a tensor core primitive in mind. Another thing that that we're, that at least I'm excited about is we, over the last four or five years, we've really been looking at language models as the next thing. But if you've been paying [00:32:00] attention to Twitter there's been a bunch of new next generation models that are coming out.[00:32:04] Dan Fu: So there, there are. So, video generation models that can run real time, that are supported by your mouse and your keyboard, that I'm told if you play with them that, you know, that they only have a few seconds of memory. Can we take that model, can we give it a very long context length so that you could actually maybe generate an entire game state at a time?[00:32:25] Dan Fu: What does that look like for the model? You're certainly not going to do a giant quadratic attention computation to try to run that. Maybe, maybe use some of these new models, or some of these new video generation models that came out. So Sora came out I don't know, two days ago now. But with super long queue times and super long generation times.[00:32:43] Dan Fu: So that's probably a quadratic attention operation at the, at the bottom of it. What if we could remove that and get the same quality, but a lot faster generation time? Or some of the demos that we saw from Paige earlier today. You know, if I have a super long conversation with my [00:33:00] Gemini bot, what if I wanted to remember everything that it's seen in the last week?[00:33:06] Dan Fu: I mean, maybe you don't for personal reasons, but what if I did, you know? What does that mean for the architecture? And I think, you know, that's certainly something I'm pretty excited about. I'm sure you're excited about it too. So, I think we were supposed to have some hot takes, but I honestly don't remember what our hot takes were.[00:33:21] Hot Takes - does anyone really need long context?[00:33:21] Eugene Cheah: Yeah, including the next slide. Hot takes, yes, these are our[00:33:25] Dan Fu: hot takes.[00:33:25] Eugene Cheah: I think the big one on Twitter that we saw, that we shared, was the question is like, is RAG relevant? In the case of, like, the future of, like, state based models?[00:33:38] Dan Fu: Let's see, I haven't played too much with RAG. But when I have. I'll say I found it was a little bit challenging to do research on it because we had this experience over and over again, where you could have any, an embedding model of any quality, so you could have a really, really bad embedding model, or you could have a really, really [00:34:00] good one, By any measure of good.[00:34:03] Dan Fu: And for the final RAG application, it kind of didn't matter. That's what I'll say about RAG while I'm being recorded. I know it doesn't actually answer the question, but[00:34:13] Eugene Cheah: Yeah, so I think a lot of folks are like, extremely excited of the idea of RWKB or State Space potentially having infinite context.[00:34:21] Eugene Cheah: But I think the reality is that when we say infinite context, we just mean a different kind of infinite context, or you, or as it's previously covered, you need to test the model differently. So, think of it more along the lines of the human. Like, I don't remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday.[00:34:37] Eugene Cheah: Yeah, that's the statement that I'll say. And And we humans are not quadratic transformers. If we did, if let's say we increased our brain size for every second we live, we would have exploded by the time we are 5 years old or something like that. And, and I think, I think basically fundamentally for us, right, be it whether we, regardless of whether RWKB, statespace, XLSTM, [00:35:00] etc, our general idea is that instead of that expanding state, that increase in computational cost, what if we have a fixed state size?[00:35:08] Eugene Cheah: And Information theory detects that that fixed state size will have a limit. Just how big of a limit is a question, like, we, like, RWKB is running at 40 megabytes for, for its state. Its future version might run into 400 megabytes. That is like millions of tokens in, if you're talking about mathematically, the maximum possibility.[00:35:29] Eugene Cheah: It's just that I guess we were all more inefficient about it, so maybe we hit 100, 000. And that's kind of like the work we are doing, trying to like push it and maximize it. And that's where the models will start differing, because it will choose to forget things, it will choose to remember things. And that's why I think that there might be some element of right, but it may not be the same right.[00:35:49] Eugene Cheah: It may be the model learn things, and it's like, hmm, I can't remember that, that article. Let me do a database search, to search. Just like us humans, when we can't remember the article in the company. We do a search on Notion. [00:36:00][00:36:00] Dan Fu: I think something that would be really interesting is if you could have facts that are, so right now, the one intuition about language models is that all those parameters are around just to store random facts about the world.[00:36:14] Dan Fu: And this intuition comes from the observation that if you take a really small language model, it can do things like talk to you, or kind of has like the The style of conversation, it can learn that, but where it will usually fall over compared to a much larger one is it'll just be a lot less factual about things that it knows or that it can do.[00:36:32] Dan Fu: But that points to all those weights that we're spending, all that SGD that we're spending to train these models are just being used to store facts. And we have things like databases that are pretty good at storing facts. So I think one thing that would be really interesting is if we could actually have some sort of outside data store that a language model can can look at that that maybe is you know, has has some sort of gradient descent in it, but but would be quite interesting.[00:36:58] Dan Fu: And then maybe you could edit it, delete [00:37:00] facts, you know, change who's president so that it doesn't, it doesn't get lost.[00:37:04] Vibhu: Can we open up Q& A and hot takes for the audience? I have a hot take Q& A. Do these scale? When, when 405B state space model, RAG exists, no one does long context, who's throwing in 2 million token questions, hot takes?[00:37:24] Dan Fu: The, the who's throwing in 2 million token question, I think, is, is a really good question. So I actually, I was going to offer that as a hot take. I mean, my hot take was going to be that long context doesn't matter. I know I just gave a whole talk about it, but you know, what, what's the point of doing research if you can't, you know, play both sides.[00:37:40] Dan Fu: But I think one of the, so I think for both of us, the reason that we first got into this was just from the first principled questions of there's this quadratic thing. Clearly intelligence doesn't need to be quadratic. What is going on? Can we understand it better? You know, since then it's kind of turned into a race, which has [00:38:00] been exciting to watch, like, how much context you can take in.[00:38:03] Dan Fu: But I think it's right. Nobody is actually putting in a two million context prompt into these models. And, and, you know, if they are, maybe we can go, go You know, design a better model to do that particular thing. Yeah, what do you think about that? So you've also been working on this. Do you think long context matters?[00:38:19] Eugene Cheah: So I'm going to burn a bit. How many of you remember the news of Google Gemini supporting 3 million contacts, right? Raise your hand.[00:38:28] Vibhu: Yeah, 2 million.[00:38:29] Eugene Cheah: Oh, it's 2 million.[00:38:31] Eugene Cheah: Yeah, how many of you actually tried that? See?[00:38:34] Vibhu: I use it a lot. You? You work for MindsTV. I use it a lot.[00:38:41] Eugene Cheah: So, for some people that has used, and I think, I think that's the, that's might be, like, this is where my opinion starts to differ, because I think the big labs may have a bigger role in this, because Like, even for RWKB, even when we train non contacts, the reason why I say VRAM is a problem is that because when we did the, we need to backprop [00:39:00] against the states, we actually need to maintain the state in between the tokens by the token length.[00:39:05] Eugene Cheah: So that means we need to actually roll out the whole 1 million contacts if we are actually training 1 million. Which is the same for transformers, actually, but it just means we don't magically reuse the VRAM consumption in the training time space. So that is one of the VRAM bottlenecks, and I'm neither OpenAI nor Google, so donate GPUs if you have too much of them.[00:39:27] Eugene Cheah: But then, putting it back to another paradigm, right, is that I think O1 style reasoning might be actually pushing that direction downwards. In my opinion, this is my partial hot take is that if, let's say you have a super big model, And let's say you have a 70B model that may take double the tokens, but gets the same result.[00:39:51] Eugene Cheah: Strictly speaking, a 70B, and this is even for transformer or non transformer, right? We we'll take less less resources than that 400 B [00:40:00] model, even if it did double the amount thinking. And if that's the case, and we are still all trying to figure this out, maybe the direction for us is really getting the sub 200 B to be as fast as efficient as possible.[00:40:11] Eugene Cheah: We a very efficient architecture that some folks happen to be working on to, to just reason it out over larger and larger context thing.[00:40:20] Question: Yeah. One thing I'm super interested in is. Models that can watch forever? Obviously you cannot train something on infinite context length. How are y'all thinking about that, where you run on a much longer context length than is possible to train on?[00:40:38] Dan Fu: Yeah, it's a, it's a great question. So I think when I think you guys probably had tweets along these lines, too. When we first started doing these things, because these are all recurrent models in theory you could just run it forever. You could just run it forever. And at the very least it won't, it won't like error out on your crash.[00:40:57] Dan Fu: There's another question of whether it can actually [00:41:00] use what it's seen in that infinite context. And I think there, so one place where probably the research and architectures ran faster Then another research is actually the benchmarks for long context. So you turn it on forever. You want to do everything or watch everything.[00:41:16] Dan Fu: What is it that you actually wanted to do? Can we actually build some benchmarks for that? Then measure what's happening. And then ask the question, can the models do it? Is there something else that they need? Yeah, I think that if I were to turn back the clock to 2022, that's probably one of the things I would have done differently, which would have been actually get some long context benchmarks out at the same time as we started pushing context length on all these models.[00:41:41] Eugene Cheah: I will also say the use case. So like, I think we both agree that there's no Infinite memory and the model needs to be able to learn and decide. I think what we have observed for, I think this also fits the state space model, is that one of the key advantages of this alternate attention mechanic that is not based on token position is that the model don't suddenly become crazy when you go past the [00:42:00] 8k training context tank, or a million context tank.[00:42:03] Eugene Cheah: It's actually still stable. It's still able to run, it's still able to rationalize. It just starts forgetting things. But some of these things are still there in latent memory. Some of these things are still somewhat there. That's the whole point of why reading twice works. Things like that. And one of the biggest pushes in this direction is that I think both Statespace and RWKB have Separate papers by other researchers where they use this architecture for time series data.[00:42:26] Eugene Cheah: Weather modeling. So, you are not asking what was the weather five days ago. You're asking what's the weather tomorrow based on the infinite length that we, as long as this Earth and the computer will keep running. So, so, and they found that it is like, better than existing, like, transformer or existing architecture in modeling this weather data.[00:42:47] Eugene Cheah: Control for the param size and stuff. I'm quite sure there are people with larger models. So, so there are things that, that in this case, right, there is future applications if your question is just what's next and not what's 10 years ago.[00:42:59] Dan Fu: Thanks so [00:43:00] much for having us. Get full access to Latent Space at www.latent.space/subscribe

The final episode of thinkenergy in 2024 unwraps on the year's biggest topic: the energy transition. Learn how it's shaped discussions and actions across the energy sector, as we revisit the most insightful moments from past episodes, including expert insights on sustainable practices, investments needed for future transformations, and the impacts on rural, remote, and urban communities. Tune in for a holiday rewind of how the energy transition affects Canadian consumers, businesses, and the environment.   Related links   ●       Episode 144 (The what, where, when, and how of Canada's energy transition): https://thinkenergypodcast.com/episodes/the-what-where-when-and-how-of-canadas-energy-transition/ ●       Episode 140 (Current affairs with Francis Bradley, Electricity Canada's President and CEO): https://thinkenergypodcast.com/episodes/current-affairs-with-francis-bradley-electricity-canadas-president-and-ceo/ ●       Episode 141 (Decarbonizing and electrifying your home, with Sarah Grant of Goldfinch Energy): https://thinkenergypodcast.com/episodes/decarbonizing-and-electrifying-your-home-with-sarah-grant-of-goldfinch-energy/ ●       Episode 142 (Electrifying Canada's remote communities with QUEST Canada): https://thinkenergypodcast.com/episodes/electrifying-canadas-remote-communities-with-quest-canada/ ●       Episode 142 (Turning energy consumer interest into action with EY Global): https://thinkenergypodcast.com/episodes/turning-energy-consumer-interest-into-action-with-ey-global/ ●       Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-cem-leed-ap-8b612114/ ●       Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en    To subscribe using Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl   To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited   Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa   Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod   Transcript: Trevor Freeman  00:07 Welcome to think energy, a podcast that dives into the fast, changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators and people on the front lines of the energy transition. Join me, Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional and up and coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts, feedback or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at thinkenergy@hydrottawa.com. Hey everyone and welcome back. Well, we find ourselves here at the tail end of 2024 about to wrap up the year. Hopefully you are all looking at some restful holiday plans, a chance to sort of unwind and decompress after what seems to be the same every year, kind of a busy year. There's always lots going on, but hopefully you're looking forward to some downtime over the holidays. I know I certainly am, as is normal, at the end of the year, we are looking back on the year that was the year that we've just gone through. And I'll say right off the bat that I'm really grateful for this year and this chance to step into the host role of the think energy podcast earlier this year, I took over in March of this year, when the previous host, Dan Seguin, retired, so I'll express my gratitude right off the bat to Dan and team for sort of pioneering this podcast over the previous years and then trusting me to take over the host chair. It's been a really fun journey and fun to kind of engage with our guests on different topics that I'm really passionate about you guys know from listening to this that I really like talking about climate change and energy and the energy transition, and this is a really cool and neat platform to be able to do that. So, thanks to the team for trusting me with that role. One thing we've been doing, as we've been looking back, is trying to figure out, you know, what is the main theme of this podcast here? What do we actually talk about? In our last episode you know that we did a bit of a summary of some of the top episodes from the year, in terms of, you know, interest from you the listener. For this one, what we wanted to do is really embody the theme of the year, and I think it should be no surprise that the theme is the energy transition. I mean, that's kind of the theme of the podcast. I know we touch on other aspects of working in the energy sector, but the energy transition is really the all-encompassing theme or thing that we talk about, and we spend a lot of time on here in this podcast, and so we wanted to bring you some of the episodes that really talk through what that energy transition is, and what does it mean for us. What does it mean for us as energy consumers, as homeowners and people that work and own and run businesses, as people that work in the utility industry and are making decisions about the future of energy? So, we've picked a few clips from the year that we think really embody that. So, get comfy, hopefully you're warm inside, as it's maybe snowy out where you are, maybe not, maybe you're listening from somewhere warm. But get comfy and have a listen to what we think are some of the clips that really embody what this year was about when it comes to the energy transition.  To start things off, I think it would be good to and unfortunately, you're going to have to listen to my voice for another little bit longer. It'll be good to start with an episode I did not too long ago, which was really a primer on the energy transition, which really focused on helping everybody wrap their heads around what exactly is this thing that we talk about called the energy transition. So have a listen to this clip from that. And if you're interested, go back and listen to the whole episode. When we think about the energy transition, we probably mostly think of this ongoing shift to cleaner emissions free energy. So EVs over gas cars, heat pumps over gas furnaces, etc. That is definitely part of it. In fact, that's a major part of it. But like most things in life, it's never just as simple as that. The energy transition is a truly fundamental shift in our global relationship with energy, which includes not just what makes our cars go, but everything from how, where and when we generate energy, how, where and when we store and use energy, how we pay for the energy we use, how we finance and pay for energy projects and the systems that we need to do all the things I just mentioned. It will include a shift in what policies and regulatory guidelines and barriers we put in place to protect the public, but that also encourage change that we want to see happen to allow for innovation and advancement. It isn't completely throwing out everything we have and starting from scratch, although some things will disappear, like coal fired electricity generation, for example, but in a lot of areas, it is building on what we've already got at a pace that we haven't seen before, or at least in a very long time. I think that's a key point here. One of the things that makes the energy transition, a change worth noting is the pace of change that we will see. Things have never really been static in the world of energy, from that time when our earliest ancestors first sparked that fire, this is the poetic part that I mentioned earlier, our relationship to energy has never really stood still, but other than a few significant events, the upward trend in sophistication and growth and scope has been fairly linear, gradual, one step after the other, et cetera. It's those exceptions, though, those things that are different from that gradual, linear growth that probably most closely resemble this period of change that has started that we're calling the energy transition. Take the Industrial Revolution, for example. For decades and centuries prior, there had been gradual improvements in how we got around or how we work the fields. Let's say, you know, first by hand, then with tools, maybe a better plow came along. We started using a horse or an oxen to pull that plow, etc. That along comes the steam engine, and all of a sudden, things take off like never before. It wasn't just a matter of swapping out a horse for an engine. It may have started there, but entire economies and aspects of society changed or sprang up where they didn't exist before one change rolls into another and another in quick succession, and before too long, things that couldn't be imagined only decades before are suddenly a reality to a degree, that's what we're looking at today with the energy transition. How far that change goes remains to be seen, but it's pretty clear that we have begun one of those disruptive periods of change that will be looked back on as a major turning point. So yes, the energy transition is about shifting away from greenhouse gas emitting fossil fuels, coal, oil, natural gas, et cetera, to renewable, non-emitting energy sources, solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, etc. But it's also so much more. Even without climate change, our need for energy is growing at an exponential pace. In Canada, we're fortunate in that we have a strong foundation with a relatively decarbonized grid already, so about 80% carbon free nationally, and a diverse mix of hydro, nuclear and renewables like wind and solar. But it's still going to take quite a lot of effort to decarbonize that remaining 20% at a time when, as I keep mentioning, demand is increasing rapidly. In Ontario, our electricity system operator, the ieso, just updated their future demand projections to show that provincial demand will be 75% more or less high by 2050 than it is today. This means we also need to invest in our grid infrastructure to ensure it can handle the increased load, as well as utilizing things like decentralized generation and storage to ensure we don't over build not to mention making sure we can handle more extreme weather.  So, I think that's a good place to set the stage for us. But now let's get into some of the real experts on this. And we'll go next to a conversation that I had with Francis Bradley, who's the president and CEO of electricity Canada. Electricity Canada is the sort of national voice of sustainable electricity. Here in Canada, they represent 40 of the largest utility companies. So that's companies that generate, transmit and distribute electricity from coast to coast all across Canada. And Francis and I talked about what level of investment is going to be required in order to accomplish some of those aspects of the energy transition that we talk about. So, here's what Francis had to say about that.   Francis Bradley  09:02 I mean, these are, these are great questions in terms of what the investments are going to look like. And so, you know, we're looking at, as I said earlier, doubling the doubling the grid, we're going to need at least two times more kilowatt hours when we get to the future. So, you know, that's the level of investment that we need to be thinking about. There have been different organizations that have tried to kind of get a scope and scale of what that actually looks like. Again, I mentioned the RBC climate Institute last year. It had a study that came out, and I believe they, they peg this at, I think was $2 trillion was the was the amount that they expected this to cost? Where's the money coming from? Well, you know, that's a really good question, and it's one that we've been engaging in for a number of years now. And I'll try not to be, like, totally pedantic on this, but you know, if you can consider from a public policy standpoint, if we believe that expanding the electricity system is necessary to decarbonize the Canadian economy, then essentially, what you're saying is that expanding the electricity system is a public good from, you know, from an economic theory standpoint, if it's a public good, well, then it is something that should be borne by that taxpayer, not the ratepayer, right? And so, you know, part of this discussion is, who needs to bear the costs for building out a clean, non-emitting electricity system so that the rest of the economy can decarbonize. Should it be the electricity customer, or are there parts of this, this core infrastructure, that that are regarded as a public good, and it's something that this paid for by the taxpayer, you know, and we see this in other sectors, other sectors as well, where, you know, certain things are perceived to be public good and their taxpayers supported. And we saw a bit of a recognition and a realization that this made sense to a degree in the federal government's budget in 2023 where, you know, they essentially pledged one in every $8 in new spending was going to clean electricity projects through a variety of needs. You know, the investment tax credits, the Canada infrastructure bank, a number of funding mechanisms. So, I mean that those kinds of dollars from the federal government was a commitment to building infrastructure that really is unheard of at a national level since the Second World War. So, you know, it really kind of moved clean energy and electrification into the category of, well, I guess it's a public good. Because, you know, there's a recognition that if the federal government wants to achieve these policy objectives, it needs to put some federal dollars in. So, you know that determination is and whether it's a public good or not, has been made in favor of the taxpayer versus the rate there. Now, again, you know, you could easily say, well, hang on a second, the rate payer and the taxpayer the same person, except that it doesn't quite work the same way. You know, do we want to attach to the customers' bills, every single customer, the cost of you knows, this, this expansion of our infrastructure or not. And you know, electricity bills are not something that fall, as taxes do disproportionately on those that are wealthier, right? And so, it is a little fairer. Now, you know, in terms of the specific investments, you know, I think exactly how this is going to happen and how it's going to roll out. Those details are still being worked out by some of our members. But I do want to highlight that, you know, the approach here that we're seeing from the government, which we appreciate, is, you know, a one that is so far technology and agnostic, which we think is the right way to go. So, you know, we there isn't, like, a right way or a wrong way to generate electricity. So, you know, the future that we see is going to be an all of the above future that will encompass wind and solar and nuclear and traditional hydro and and hydrogen and carbon capture and storage and more. Not only does that give us, you know, the greatest flexibility, and gives us the ability to balance different types of generation, dispatchable versus non dispatchable. But it also gives us, you know, overall, a far more flexible system. So, you know, that's the what the future is going to look like. So, to, you know, to give you the short answer, it'll be all of the above, and it'll be probably $2 trillion. You know, I kind of touched on this a couple of times, but No, first and foremost, the energy transition, if you will, as I noted earlier, can't be paid exclusively by the ratepayers, right? You know, this is an overall objective that we have. And so, you know, the infrastructure build is so large that that it needs to be, certainly, parts of it need to be paid through the tax system, and that that is progressive in a way that rates are not progressive to begin with. Now, you know, but boy, addressing vulnerable customers absolutely critical. Now there's a variety of things that that could be tried. You know, in the United States that there's a Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program that it helps keep families safe and healthy through initiatives that assist families with energy costs this, I think they call it the LIHEAP provides federally funded assistance to reduce the costs associated with home energy bills, energy crises, weatherization and minor energy related home repairs. So you know, a similar initiative in Canada could be there to assist the but the most vulnerable, you know, as you're aware, you know, your most vulnerable customers are the ones that have the least capacity to do things like weatherization, and so, you know, there's an example of a national program that we could look at as a model.   Trevor Freeman  15:16 Francis is spot on there when he talks about not only the energy transitions potential impact on our most vulnerable. So those living in energy poverty areas are struggling with energy affordability, but also everybody who's looking to make improvements to their homes where they live in order to reduce costs and participate in the energy transition. That brings us to my next clip that I'd like to share with you, and that's a conversation I had with Sarah Grant. Sarah Grant's a good friend of mine who also happens to be an expert in her field, which is helping everyday Canadians on their journey to decarbonizing their homes so that they can contribute to Canada's energy transition. Looking at, what are the things you do in a home to decarbonize. How do you go about that? That process, Sarah and her company, Goldfinch energy are based out of Toronto, and I was really great to hear what she had to say about what it takes to decarbonize a home.   Sarah Grant  16:18 Okay, going from large to small so the largest source of emissions in a home is your space heating. Typically, the emissions are about the same as driving a sort of a mid to large sized car. You know, most people drive, on average, 15,000 kilometers a year. The emissions are going to be about the same so that's going to be the biggest one, if someone is looking and they're a little bit overwhelmed, and the best alternative is a heat pump. So these are they come in many different forms, but the most common, and I think the most common scenario for most homes, is if you have forced air, so ductwork and these kind of heat pumps can extract heat from the air outside. A lot of them can work up to minus 30 degrees. So even up to minus 30, they're able to grab latent heat in the air and pump it inside, and then it gets pumped around your house. The cool thing about them is that they can also work in reverse. So in the summer, they act just like an air conditioner. In fact, the technology is very much the same as an air conditioner, just that they work in reverse in the winter too, so they can also cool. So these are called Air source heat pumps. And yeah, if someone has forced air and they have a gas furnace or an air conditioner or both that need to be replaced, an air source heat pump is, a great option. A lot of the folks that we've worked with that have switched we talked about comfort, sort of, some of the side benefits, I would say, of a heat pump is they're typically quieter, if designed and sized and installed properly, they're quieter both the outside and the inside aspects of a heat pump, and the air from the vents is a lot more comfortable. So, we got a heat pump about three years ago, and the first winter we had it installed, my father-in-law came over for dinner one night and just stood in front of the vent, kind of like a cat basking in that warmth, and said, Oh my gosh, this is way more comfortable. It's not that dry, scorched air that a lot of people associate with, with four stairs. So that's, that's an air source heat pump. You can also, there are also ground source heat pumps, but for a lot of you know urban areas, these ground source heat pumps involve drilling into the ground, either horizontally or vertically, to extract heat from the ground. They, they, I have worked with a few homes in sort of more rural areas where it does make sense, but the costs associated with them are, are really high, and often there's not enough space in urban areas, so they're not quite as common. And I'd say, sort of, just to kind of close the conversation on, we'll conclude it on the on the heating side of things, if you do have another source of like heat, maybe it's maybe it's cast-iron radiators or baseboards, there are also heat pumps that can help you as well. So, with cast iron radiators, they're what's called air to water heat pumps. So, they'll the outdoor unit will look similar to someone who has forced air. So, it's an it's going to extract heat from the outside air, and it'll transfer it to water now that can then go through your cast iron radiators, or maybe have in floor heating or what have you. They're not as common, but the technology has existed for a long time in Europe, and there are more products and contractors that I'm working with that are becoming more comfortable with installing this technology. And last there are called ductless heat pumps. So if you don't have ductwork or cast iron radiators, or maybe have baseboards, or maybe there's a space where you know the ductwork just isn't sufficient, these ductless heat pumps can be installed. They can either go on the wall, on sort of these big white boxes. If you've been to Asia, you're probably familiar with them because they exist there, either in the form of heat pumps or or air conditioners, or you can have little floor mounted ones as well, which look a little bit slicker, I suppose, but they do cost a little bit more. So that's heating for hot water. There are kind of two main options if you want to get off of fossil fuels. Usually that's, yeah, um, for most of us, that's with the gas, but there could be propane as well. So, if you want to get off of fossil fuels with your hot water, the heat pump technology exists with hot water as well. Heat Pump hot water tanks is what they're called. Are actually confusingly, sometimes hybrid tanks, because they use heat pump technology, but then also have an electric coil so they operate. They can operate like a simple electric tank if, if needed. And they come with a little like Wi Fi app too. So, they are, like, four times more efficient than a gas hot water tank. So, you will save a little bit by switching to them. But the way they work is they'll extract heat from your basement, actually, so from your basement air and transfer that to the water. So I would say about half the people I work with end up going with them because they have a space where it makes sense. Maybe their basement is large and they can put it kind of in the corner and a big mechanical room or a workshop where they're not going to go into it. So if it, if that heat pump reduces the temperature by two degrees or so, it's not a big deal. But for me, my home is pretty tiny, and we're using every nook and cranny with five of us in it. So we opted for an electric tank and then paired it with a timer so that it only reheats the water overnight when electricity, if you're on time of use, is cheapest, and that's also when our Ontario grid is using the non-fossil fuel related forms of power production, like nuclear and water, so that can work, if you're really lucky, and you have an open an unfinished basement and a good space to install what's called a drain water heat recovery system. These are super cool, very simple technologies that can transfer the heat from any water that you've already used, like from your shower, and transfer it to the fresh water before that fresh water then goes into whatever heating mechanism you have, so they can work with anything, even if you have a gas hot water tank, a drain water heat recovery system is a good way to kind of preheat the water by extracting the heat from the hot water you've already used. A lot of hospitals I know in Toronto are starting to use these kinds of systems as well. So two main options, electric tank, you pump out water tank, and then those drain water heat recovery systems as well, and hot water. So, you know, I said you're heating, heating your house. It's usually about kind of 8080, or so percent of a home emission, home emissions hot water is, is around 15 to 20% just to give an idea of sort of how it fits into the relative picture. But ultimately, I wouldn't say, you know, do one over the other, unless you know, if you have, if you have a hot water tank that's broken, replace that with a with an electric tank or heat pump, hot water tank. Don't, don't just say, Oh, it's only 20% I shouldn't do that one. It's still worth it. Every little appliance that you can get off of fossil fuels is one step closer to then being able to disconnect from the gas utility or what have you, and sets you up for, ultimately, like, a little bit of savings too, because you're no longer paying for that delivery fee to have access to that fossil fuel in your house. So cooking, cooking is cooking is probably, to be honest, like, the most fun of all of these just because, you know, it impacts your daily life. If, like, hot water and heating and cooling are one of those things where you don't like, I don't think about my heat pump unless it's not working properly, which we haven't had an issue with. But, you know, it just sits there and it does, it does its thing, and I'm happy to have it off of fossil fuels. But for cooking, switching, for us switching. We switched from a gas stove to an induction stove about a year ago, and it's amazing. Like, I've got little kids, and I love that. I feel comfortable teaching them how to cook on this stove just because of the way the induction stove works. You're not the whole cooktop doesn't get heated up in the same way you accidentally leave, like a rag or a paper towel on the stove, not going to catch on fire. We did have a few of those incidences with our former gas stove and like, it's really quick. I know that there's a lot of stats and data about how quick you can heat up water, but it's one of those things that you don't believe it until you sort of experience it yourself. So yeah, so we got, we got a nice slick induction stove, because our gas stove was kind of reaching its end of life, and we are starting to smell some of the gas as well, even when it wasn't on, which I know is an issue, that's, that's, you know, something that's, that's hazardous for our help. And you know, there's a lot of research and evidence out there related to like respiratory issues and gas related cooking. So if you do have a gas stove and aren't able to afford to switch now, make sure you're using your exhaust, like your range hood properly, not just when you're using the top, but when you're cooking in the oven too. But yeah, if you're able to switch it out, then you can just really leave here knowing that you're not, you're not using some sort of like fossil fuel to cook with. And so your house is cleaner, and you're making the planet a bit cleaner as well.   Trevor Freeman  25:56 So with that clip, we can all kind of plan out our projects for 2025 and beyond, if we haven't already great to hear that from Sarah again, those are some real, tangible actions that we can take, or we can plan to take in the near future. So the conversation that you just heard with Sarah is really focused around homeowners, but in the context of a kind of an urban setting, you know, you've got access to contractors, you've got access to expertise, you've got access to supply chains. But there are a whole host of people, our neighbors, in our fellow country, people living in remote communities that are just not connected to a national grid or a provincial grid, or even to a natural gas grid. In some cases, I had a really great chat with Gemma Pinchin from Quest Canada, who is leading some research on how rural and remote communities, including many indigenous areas, can engage in the energy transition equitably and sustainably. And we talked about some of the challenges that those areas and communities face. So have a listen to this chat with Gemma Pinchin.   Gemma Pinchin  27:09 Through quest projects, particularly the net zero community accelerator, which works with communities to the end goal is to create community energy and emissions plan we saw, and also through policy work and those kinds of pieces, we saw that there was the net zero transition is sort of chugging along, but there's kind of been a gap. The Transition tends to focus more on the urban context. You know, urban population centers, the big cities, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, those kinds of places, and that we saw as leaving out a really big chunk of Canadians. I think the statistic off the top of my head is 1/5 of Canadians live in rural and remote places. So it's not a small statistic. So we wanted to make sure that, as the net zero transition was moving along and progressing, that this large group of Canadians weren't forgotten about, and the net zero transition is going to rely, and has been relying, on rural land, rural populations, you know, to house Renewable Energy for Food production as well as carbon sequestration. So leaving this big group of people out is just kind of inconceivable, I guess. And what quests saw was that this was happening. So we started this research project to sort of make sure that those voices were being heard and considered as Canada moves through the net zero transition. So I think there's this idea that a one size fits all solution for every community, and that solutions that work in urban centers will work in rural centers, and that's just not the case. For example, something obvious like transportation, and my literature review highlighted that within urban centers, the most sustainable option would obviously be public transport. But if you apply that same lens to a rural community. You know, cars are bad, and we shouldn't be using them. Rural communities, it's almost impossible to be sustainable in net zero because they don't have the public transport option. So in that context, looking at it with a different lens, looking at it with a rural lens, you would look at sort of like consolidating car trips or making sure that services like health care and groceries and you know, the things that we take for granted in urban centers, making sure those are close, like they're kept in communities, like a lot of services are kind of moving out of rural communities. And that doesn't necessarily seem like a net zero issue, but when people in those communities have to drive, like, three times as long to get to their doctor, that's a huge, you know, emissions issue, you know. And it's just it was an interesting look at the way that we're even myself, before I was doing this, I was like, well, cars are bad, like, you know, like, gas, cars aren't great for emissions, but the reality is, for rural communities, they need this transportation that there's no there's no other way for them to get around, and it would be incredibly isolating, and you can't function as a society if you're just stuck in your house, you know, so having that different lens, and looking at it in a different context, I think that's really, really important as we move rural communities through this net zero transition. Well, in those communities that aren't connected to, you know, natural gas or the electricity grid, diesel used to be their only option. You know, modern life, we need electricity power like we need to power modern life. You can't have a modern existence without some form of power. So, you know, diesel, they are completely reliant on diesel, the ones that aren't connected. I mean, it's frustrating because there's these communities do tend to be quite far away from the power grid infrastructure. So, it's usually considered economically non-viable to connect those remote communities to the provincial power grids, because these communities are also very small. So it's a small number of people that you would have to spend all this money for the infrastructure to get, you know, the power lines to them and Canada, Ontario, Canada, both of them are very big, so there's many communities that exist quite far away from power lines or existing grid infrastructure. So yeah,diesel just it's kind of been their only option for power to have a modern existence up until, I would say, Now, well, recently. So I think in terms of, I mean, for rural and indigenous communities, I definitely think we need more research like what I'm doing, I think these are voices that haven't necessarily been heard, and if we're going to have an energy transition, we need to include these voices. And I think the best way to do that is to sort of do research like mine and figure out what, what their needs are, and how we can, how we can progress to that next step, there's, I mean, there's some amazing thinking, specifically of like, indigenous organizations that are already doing great work in this, this space, like indigenous clean energy and the Center for Indigenous Environmental Research. So they're, they're already doing this, but just consolidating all of that, that, and having people governments actually listen, I think is really, really important. I think, yeah, those voices just need to be heard and listened to. Otherwise, we're not going to get anywhere. It'll be like you said, like we just putting in technology and then just kind of, like leaving it there, and that's not, it's not going to that's not going to work. We're not going to get anywhere with that, that sort of approach. So making sure you know, local context is understood and local voices are heard.   33:33 And finally, to wrap up this episode, I wanted to share a clip of a conversation that I had with two really brilliant folks from EY Global, Greg Guthridge and Nicholas Hancock. I talked to Greg and Nicholas about the fact that, in the end, we are all end users of energy. It doesn't matter what your role is in the energy transition. It doesn't matter where you live, where you work. We're all consumers of energy, and we all need to live in homes that have heat and cooling in some places of world. We work in buildings that are like that. We need to get around and charge our devices and cook and so we all have a stake in this. We all have a role in this. And my conversation with Greg and Nicholas really talked about their work in helping industry and businesses navigate this energy transition and inspire and influence action amongst all kinds of consumers, because not everybody approaches the energy transition in the same way. And it was really great to chat with Nicholas and Greg about how they see the approach to the energy transition with consumers.   Greg Guthridge  34:41 Yeah, Trevor, I'm glad you brought up the word customer, because we use that word as kind of an overarching term. And let me maybe, if you don't mind, I'll dive in a little bit more on that, because customer is actually, you know, I'll use it on occasion, but it's actually a bit of an old fashioned. And believe it or not, it's that we try to use the term consumer, or, even better, omisumer, when we talk about the participants in the energy experience moving forward. And we're picking these words carefully, because customer kind of implies a one way interaction. Consumer implies that you're dealing with a customer or a participant that's, that's two way that's engaging, you know, in a much more active capacity. And then you get into omnisumer, which is the, what we believe, really the consumer of the future. These are participants that are, you know, multi channel, Multi Product, multi provider, a many to many kind of experience. So you'll hear me use them all interchangeably. But really, what we're trying to convey is that, you know, the good old days of somebody at the end of the value chain just receiving a bill for our energy that they take for granted is disappearing. Now to your actual question, you know, around, you know, the different strata of consumers. We do think of it in terms of, there's residential customers, you know, the mass market, the people at home, and then we have a number of other sort of major categories that, that we think about. There's small and medium businesses, large, commercial and industrial. There's a category which we call mush, which is municipal and universities and schools and hospitals. And then there's a, you know, kind of new categories of consumers that are forming a peer to peer and prosumer, type of consumers that that are trading energy, you know, they've got, they might have electric vehicles or solar or storage, and they're not just consuming electricity for their own benefit. They're actually selling it back into the grid or to others, and, you know, becoming more of a business partner along the way. So the takeaway here is that what used to be a passive, one way customer experience is now leaning into a much more two way, engaged and much more complex consumer experience between the energy provider and their participants. Trevor, I'm going to start the response to this, and then I'm going to hand it over to Nicholas Hancock, who leads our research, to give a bit more of a some color commentary on how we structured our research, but to start up with we, we really, you know, make about four or five years ago, we started to really think about the supply and demand of the energy transition, and a lot of focus around the world is on the supply side, building the infrastructure, building in New, renewable and green and sustainable sources, getting all of the technology to get, you know, cleaner power from one place to another, from an engineering perspective, and what we really started to realize is that as part of the energy transition, if you think about it, we're trying to do a generation of change in just a couple of decades. And on the demand side of this equation, we've got a bunch of very complex consumers, consumers that you know interact and behave irrationally with different behaviors. Some will be very excited about the energy transition. Others will be very reticent, and everything in between. And so in order for the energy transition to accelerate and to achieve the benefits that we're all looking for, we need to find a way to engage the consumer in ways which, frankly, are going to really push the envelope with consumers. So we started our research program, and Nicholas Hancock, who's on, has been leading the charge. And I think Nick, if you don't mind, can you give us a quick overview on the global nature of the research and how we've approached it?   Nicholas Handcock  39:00 Yeah, absolutely. So we started our research program about three years ago, really trying to take a global view mixing regions that are both, some of them really leading out there on the front edges of the energy transition. So we've got countries, for example, like Sweden, that are, you know, kind of further down the path as well as, you know, North America, which is, I would say, a little bit more in the middle. And then we've got some countries that are maybe lagging or taking their own paths in the energy transition, we've included countries like China, Singapore. We included Indonesia last year. So really, a global view of what are consumers kind of thinking in terms of how they approach the energy transition, what sort of products and services are they interested in, and what are the values and preferences that they bring to it when it comes to their energy providers, but also a broader ecosystem of providers that we see emerging out there, you know, who are they really interested in turning to when it comes to advice, when it comes to learning about solutions, purchasing them, and even things like, for example, control over solutions in the home, which when it comes to energy flexibility in the future is really important. We've been exploring how to different consumers approach and feel about this. And so what we did is we developed a survey. We're entering our fourth year of doing that. Now we work with a third party to do those surveys online across the globe. So it is sort of an independent third party that helps us to perform those and then we take those results back and take a look at what we see. And to your point, Trevor around, sort of the voices of the transition we've been looking at, how do some of those different groups break out? What are the different values of different aspects of those consumers out there? Because even sitting around the dinner table, I'm sure everybody can feel we don't all have the same opinions when it comes to energy, and even more so, when it starts to come to things like changes to your home or changes to your vehicles. So that's really what we've been exploring for the last number of years.  You know, what we did is, having looked at all these different markets, we found some pretty interesting similarities and the percentages of the population that fit into these five categories. It varies quite significantly, market by market, country by country, geography by geography, but there is some there's a way for us to more simply think about a incredibly complex, fragmented, distributed customer base, residential, mass market customer base into what we think are really simply five different categories. And we the organization of these five categories. We've thought about them from a behavioral perspective, from a value from you know, what's their interests and how do they plan to engage? And sort of in sequence here, I'll talk about the five, and I'll put them in the order of from most active to least active. I'll describe each of these. And the key thing here to keep in mind is that there's no wrong place to be as a residential customer, and you can actually flip around. You can move from one place to another almost overnight. So it's quite a fluid approach here. But the first category is what we call the energy champions. They're the savvy customers. They're actually the customers that have been the first to move and the ones that we see in the news already, they're probably already using new energy products and services in their home. They might have solar on the roof. They could potentially have storage. They might already be using an electric vehicle. We make fun of this category a little bit. They're usually the ones that pre order their iPhone. They might already have a have a have an interest in the new Tesla truck or some other, you know, device. They're absolutely the innovators. They're the early movers, and they're interested in spending time researching. They're going to pay attention to where their energy source is coming from, and they're going to be quite active. So those are the energy champions, the next category is what we call the energy enthusiasts, and this is actually the one that that we have to pay the most attention to. They're the fast followers. They're the energy conscious category. And when they when they observe what the champions are doing, and when they get a bit more comfortable and they start to move, a actually will influence the whole market, and as the enthusiasts maybe slightly a little more cautious, but they're also, you know, the fast followers. So once they can see the value proposition, once they're convinced that the technologies and capabilities are for real, then they're going to move. They may not pre order their iPhone, but they're probably pretty close in terms of thinking about how they're going to advance into the energy market. The next category is the novice category, or the agnostics. And what's interesting about these this category is this segment of customers or consumers. They they're actually, you know, pretty passive. They can see the value proposition. They can see that there's, there's a lot of people taking interest in it. But for a number of different reasons, they're not moving. They're very novice, they're very they're very agnostic, and it's because they're starting to think about other things like, well, all right, I can see that I can save money, or I can do something that will improve the environment, but it's just going to take too much time, or I have other priorities or whatever. So as a as an industry, we need to find a way to kind of activate and excite. We need to make it as effortless and frictionless as possible for this category of consumers to move, and they will move, and they will do things, but they're just influenced by a whole lot of other variables that, that you know, that, that they believe are a higher priority. The fourth category is what we call the bystanders, or the skeptics, and they are the ones that are a little bit they're not, they're bit mistrusting, frankly, of the messaging around the energy transition, around sustainability or environmental and they're probably going to take a fairly skeptic approach to, is this for real? Is it really going to provide me benefit? Is it really going to, you know, advance my personal capabilities. And so what's interesting about this group is they're, they're actually very interested in new energy products and services, but for different reasons. So they're going to want, you know, more control. They're going to want, maybe, off grid capabilities. And so they they're actually as interested as the others, but the way you approach them is going to be very, very different. And the final category are the allies. And this is a, you know, energy is a household necessity, and this category is very dependent. There they might have, you know, income challenges. They might have other challenges that that that we have to look after. It is a critical household service that we provide, and we need to make sure that we look after, you know, the low income, the vulnerable, the medical dependencies that you find in the allies or the dependent category. So the range of consumers across these five will vary. We've got a great little quiz that you can take out there on ey.com or you can go out and answer some questions, and it'll tell you which kind of consumer you are today. But it's yeah, we see that most consumers will fit into one of these five categories and then move from there, depending on what's happening in their life experiences.   Trevor Freeman  46:49 Okay, well, there you have it. I hope that those clips give you a sense of some of the different aspects of the energy transition, what it is and how it impacts all of us. I really encourage you, if you haven't already listened to those, to go back and have a listen to those and other episodes from this year. I think it's been a great year of great conversations, and what I hope comes through, not just the conversations you've heard today, but all the episodes that we have is this idea that there is hope, and that may be kind of a funny thing to hear, but oftentimes, when we're hearing about climate change and the energy transition and the challenges that we face, it can be discouraging, but there's some really great and interesting things happening and some innovation that's happening. And as someone that works in this space, I think it's really important to be aware of the context that we work in, but also be optimistic and to focus on the really cool and great things that we're doing. And I think that that goes across most, if not all, of the guests that I've had on the show this year, really hearing their passion and their hope for what is to come. So have a listen. Take some hope from that as you relax over the holidays, as we round out this year. So as we round out this episode, I do want to give another thanks to all the guests that we've had on the show this year. We certainly couldn't do this without the fantastic and amazing people that we bring on to chat with. Goodness knows, you don't want to just hear me ramble on episode after episode. So really appreciate people taking the time to come and share their thoughts and insights with us. I also want to say a huge thank you to the team that is behind pulling these episodes together. This is a multi person contribution with folks across Hydro Ottawa and our partners that help us pull this together. And I want to especially call out Morgan Barnes for his help and really pulling the content and the feel and the texts together behind these episodes. It's me rambling here behind the microphone, but really Morgan and I work together to pull together what the theme and the thread of these episodes are so big. Thanks to Morgan for his thought leadership in this and his dedication and hard work and helping pull these things together. Morgan, you're the best. Okay, so with that, my team is always kind of after me to answer these rapid fire questions that you often hear at the end of episodes, but they also gave me an out because, because I don't intend to do that. So the out is what is one of my favorite holiday traditions. So I'm going to, I'm gonna pivot and pull that one as we go into the holiday season here. And I think I was reflecting on this, I think one of my favorite holiday traditions, at least in the last little while, as I've kind of built a family and have a growing family, is going and getting that Christmas tree. And a number of years ago now, we moved houses, and it's not a big house. It's a house in Ottawa here, but we have this small part of the back of our house that has a really high ceiling. And so as we were out the first year, we always go to one of those, cut your own cut your own tree farms and cut our tree down, and I had this idea that, Oh, we've got a really high ceiling, so we've got to get a really tall tree. And that kind of started a bit of a precedent now, where I can't go out and get just a little tree anymore. The kids want, well, I say the kids, it's probably more me, but the kids and I both want the that tall tree that kind of scrapes the ceiling as we put it up. So that's always fun trying to find that right tree, the perfect shape to cut it down, to haul it back to the car, and try not to pull too many muscles doing it. So I'd say that's one of my favorite holiday traditions, and then to sit in the house and have that nice, fresh smelling Christmas tree for at least a few weeks. So, that's my favorite holiday tradition. Thanks for joining us in 2024 we really appreciate you listening. We appreciate the conversations. As always, don't hesitate to reach out to us, Thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com Is our email address. We would love to hear from you, love to hear your ideas and thoughts on topics and guests. So there we are at the end of the year, and we look forward to connecting with you again in 2025 where we will be back with more episodes, more guests, more conversations about energy in the energy transition. Thanks so much for listening.  Thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Thinkenergy podcast. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and it would be great if you could leave us a review. It really helps to spread the word. As always, we would love to hear from you, whether it's feedback comments or an idea for a show or a guest. You can always reach us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com  

Screenwriters Peter Straughan (Conclave) and Zack Baylin (The Order) discuss their latest projects and previous work, their process, and much more. Peter Straughan is a writer and playwright. His most recent screenplay is the 2024 film Conclave. Before Conclave, Peter's screenwriting credits have include The Goldfinch, Our Brand is Crisis, Frank and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the latter of which received several accolades including a 2011 Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. In addition, he wrote the 2015 television adaptation of Wolf Hall, which earned him a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special. Zach Baylin is a writer whose 2024 credits include The Order and Bob Marley: One Love. His other credits include Gran Turismo, Creed III and King Richard, the last of which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. --- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast  

Michelle Redfern sits down with Lizzy Goldfinch to explore the crucial intersection of money, leadership, and women's potential. Lizzy shares her professional expertise and personal experiences to illuminate how financial literacy and independence are foundational for closing the leadership gender gap. The conversation focuses on breaking down harmful money myths, embracing financial empowerment, and taking actionable steps to build wealth and create choices.Whether you're navigating your career, seeking financial freedom, or dreaming of a larger impact in your community, this episode will inspire you to take control of your financial future.Episode HighlightsThe “3 Ds” of Financial Vulnerability:• Death, Divorce, and Domestic Violence often leave women in precarious financial positions.• Women aged 55+ are the fastest-growing demographic of homeless people in Australia, emphasizing the need for financial independence.Why Money Matters:• Financial resources give women the power of choice and freedom, enabling them to escape abusive situations or transition careers without fear.• By 2034, women are projected to control 65% of Australia's wealth, making financial literacy more crucial than ever.Reframing Harmful Money Mindsets:• Common limiting beliefs:• “I'm not good with money.”• “Money is vulgar or shameful to talk about.”• Empowering reframes:• “I'm learning to get better with money.”• “I love money and the choices it brings.”Investing in Yourself:• Warren Buffett's advice: The best investment you can make is in yourself.• Tips for self-investment: podcasts, networking, online courses, and continuous learning.The Power of Choice Through Money:• Financial independence allows women to:• Volunteer and engage in meaningful causes.• Leave unsupportive workplaces or unhealthy relationships.Practical Tips to Build Wealth:• Create a “Runaway Fund” for emergencies or unexpected life transitions.• Start small with consistent saving and investing—compounding interest is a game changer.• Keep a record of your accomplishments to ensure fair remuneration at work.Leadership Call to Action1. Examine Your Money Mindset:Identify any limiting beliefs you have about money. Write them down and consciously work to reframe them into empowering affirmations.2. Start Building Wealth Today:Open a savings account and set up an automated transfer—even $5 per paycheck can snowball over time.3. Prepare for Your Next Salary Negotiation:Document your accomplishments and contributions to the business. Set a target remuneration goal and plan your negotiation strategy now.4. Get Educated:Listen to podcasts like She's on the Money, read books like The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape, or follow Lizzie Goldfinch for actionable financial insights.5. Support Your Community:Use your financial resources or time to give back in meaningful ways—whether by mentoring, volunteering, or donating to causes you care about.Connect with Lizzy Goldfinch:Resources Mentioned in the Episode:• The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape• The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko• PepTalkHer App by Meggie Palmer • The Snowball - Warren BuffetMake sure to subscribe to Lead to Soar on your favourite podcast platform and share this episode with women in your network who are ready to take control of their financial futures. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Market intelligence shows that the Asia-Pacific media and entertainment market, valued at $1.28 trillion in 2024 and projected to reach $1.62 trillion by 2029, is a key region for global content consumption and production. Responding to industry demand, UK-based content financing firm Goldfinch is set to open its Singapore office, marking its significant expansion into Asia. Justin Deimen, Managing Partner at Goldfinch Asia and Executive Director of the Intercultural Theatre Institute, shares more about successful financing models in the West and how Goldfinch Asia's innovative credit-driven funding model will spur more opportunities for film and TV projects in this region. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On our latest show: Birding by Ear with Donna Posont; listening to the beautiful Lawrence's Goldfinch; and talkin' turkey with Mike O'Connor.

In this special episode from the Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival, Anna Smith hosts a panel discussion on women in leadership within the film industry. In the third iteration of this panel, Anna is joined by three international industry leaders: Kirsty Bell, CEO of the Oscar-winning production company Goldfinch, international film publicity strategist Mia Farrell and Oscar-nominated producer Rebecca Pruzan. Together, they explore the pathways to landing leadership roles, the skills needed to thrive once there, and the shifting dynamics of gender and race in the film industry. Kirsty Bell shares her experiences starting Goldfinch as a family business and reflects on directing A Bird Flew In—the first film shot during the pandemic, which pioneered COVID protocols on set. She also highlights the importance of supportive men in her life, and how they've played a role in her career. Mia Farrell offers insights from her career as a publicist, discussing her passion for elevating films through strategic PR, as well as her advocacy for greater diversity in the industry. She tells the audience about the genesis of her impactful Screen Daily article, "Why are so few Black people in positions of power in the arthouse film PR sector?'”. Mia also shares her experiences working on The Dads, a heartfelt documentary on fatherhood and trans youth, directed by Luschina Fisher, and available on Netflix. Rebecca Pruzan discusses her transition from a career in IT and consultancy to becoming an Oscar-nominated producer. She reflects on the identity politics at play in producing her short film IVALU, highlighting the challenges of navigating cultural sensitivities in storytelling and discussing the reaction to the film on its festival journey. This episode is in partnership with Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival. You can find out more about the Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival here: https://www.evolutionfilmfestival.com/tickets A reminder that you can read a transcript of our episodes on Apple Podcasts by clicking the ‘transcript' option in settings in the episode description. Sign up to the Girls On Film newsletter below: http://eepurl.com/iEKaM-/ or email girlsonfilmsocial@gmail.com to be signed up. Become a patron of Girls On Film on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/girlsonfilmpodcast Follow us on socials: www.instagram.com/girlsonfilm_podcast/ www.facebook.com/girlsonfilmpodcast www.x.com/GirlsOnFilm_Pod www.x/annasmithjourno Watch Girls On Film on the BFI's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX…L89QKZsN5Tgr3vn7z Girls On Film is an HLA production. Host: Anna Smith Executive Producer: Hedda Lornie Archbold Producer: Charlotte Matheson Intern: Anna Swartz Audio editor: Benjamin Cook House band: MX Tyrants © HLA Agency

We are honored this week as we are joined by Bafta Winning screenwriter Peter Straughn to talk about his latest film Conclave which stars Ralph Fiennes and is out NOW! Peter who is known for writing the feature films Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Mrs Radcliffs Revolution, Sixty Six, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Frank, The Snowman and The Goldfinch chats with Pope 'Dom' Francis III and Cardinal 'Giles' Archibald ii about his rather excellent feature Conclave based on the book of the same name. They talk themes and plot, story structure and tone. His humble beginnings to indie film darling to Academy Award nominee. Writing an Oscar level drama contender with comedy and drama thrown into the heady mix. Conclave is in cinemas now. SHORT FILM SHOWCASE Center Frame https://www.centerframe.com/industry-showcase. WATCH our interview with Elizabeth Olsen and Carrie Coon on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-TU39BmwLI&t=167s. PODCAST MERCH Get your very own Tees, Hoodies, onset water bottles, mugs and more MERCH. https://my-store-11604768.creator-spring.com/ COURSES Want to learn how to finish your film? Take our POST PRODUCTION COURSE https://cuttingroom.info/post-production-demystified/   PATREON Big thank you to: Serena Gardner Mark Hammett Lee Hutchings Marli J Monroe Karen Newman Want your name in the show notes or some great bonus material on film-making? Join our Patreon for bonus episodes, industry survival guides, and feedback on your film projects!   SUPPORT THE PODCAST Check out our full episode archive on how to make films at TheFilmmakersPodcast.com   CREDITS The Filmmakers Podcast is written, produced and edited by Giles Alderson @gilesalderson Logo and Banner Art by Lois Creative  Theme Music by John J. Harvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Alley and Nicole as they break down the final book in the Plated Prisoner series, Goldfinch by Raven Kennedy. They talk all about their favorite moments and some of the theories they had that came true. As always, the first 20 minutes are spoiler free.

It is always great to get the Senator in the studio and talk Colorado Elk hunting. We are joined via phone bu Team Trilogy Outdoors pro staffer, Rick Austin. Rick and Sen. Goldfinch just got back from another trip out to the west to chase Elk. Rick was fortunate enough to draw a black powder tag for Elk and was excited to put the stalk on what would hopefully be his first bull. The hunt was exciting and it's always great when the Senator gets to describe his hunts with his hunting partner. We wish Rick's wife, Heidi best of luck in just a few weeks at her first attempt at a bull Elk with rifle. We are also joined this week by Capt. Jason Burton of MIFC. Known as the Flounder Pounder, Jason was busy this week with helping coordinate some assistance and relief efforts for our friends in the WNC area that was ravaged by Hurricane Helene. JAson made the trip up this week wijth one of the trucks that was loaded down with essentials. He shares a lot of things that the media is not gonna share and he shares the reaction and opinions of the many locals that he was fortunate enough to spend time with on his trip. Please understand that this is not going away anytime soon. These people are going to need help over the coming weeks and months. We are trying to use our platform to get the information and awareness out in every way possible. The incredible outpouring that you have shown so far is mind blowing and we hope to keep up the pace and to continue doing for others, No donation is too small and any time you can volunteer to help organize or sort through the donated items is greatly appreciated. Enjoy!Trilogy Outdoors Media Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/trilogy-outdoors--5441492/support.

Most Canadians are eager to combat climate change. But how? One actionable area is reducing emissions from our homes. In episode 141 of thinkenergy, Sarah Grant, founder and co-owner of Goldfinch Energy, shares ways you can reduce your home's reliance on fossil fuels. Goldfinch Energy is a women-owned, Toronto-based organization offering energy assessments, clean tech roadmaps, and green renovation support services. Listen in to learn about home decarbonization and electrification solutions. Related links   Goldfinch Energy: https://www.goldfinchenergy.ca/  Sarah Grant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-grant-89ba152b/ Natural Resources Canada Energy Advisor program: https://natural-resources.canada.ca/energy-efficiency/homes/professional-opportunities/become-registered-energuide-rating-system-energy-advisor/20566  Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-cem-leed-ap-8b612114/  Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en     To subscribe using Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl   To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited   Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa   Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod Transcript: SPEAKERS Trevor Freeman, Sarah Grant Trevor Freeman  00:07 Welcome to think energy, a podcast that dives into the fast, changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators and people on the front lines of the energy transition. Join me, Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional and up and coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts, feedback or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at thinkenergy@hydroauttawa.com, hi everyone, and welcome back. And welcome back from the summer. As you know, think energy paused over the summer, and hopefully you got a break over the summer as well, time to rest and be rejuvenated. There were certainly times of that for us here. I was able to get out and do some camping and canoeing with the family, which, if you're not from Canada, if you're if you're not in Ontario, there's some fantastic camping and canoeing spots here, so come and check them out. But it was also a busy summer. Things, some things do slow down, and others just seem to fill in that empty space in the calendar. So, we've been busy and hard at work. One of the things we've been doing is spending some time thinking about what this next season of think energy has in store. There are lots of great topics to explore, lots of interesting and smart people out there to talk to the world of the energy transition and energy in general is not slowing down. In fact, it's picking up steam quite a bit. So, lots to dive into this season. We may take a different approach on some topics, on some episodes. We might try out some new things. So yeah, come along for the ride. So today, for our first episode of the season, we're going to kick things off with something close to home, and you will forgive me for that very intended and poor pun, because we're talking about home decarbonization and electrification. We know that most Canadians want to do something about climate change. The data shows us this, and you can go back and listen to my conversation with David Caletto from abacus data for more information on this. We want to live in a society that isn't producing harmful emissions that are jeopardizing our future, but it often feels like so much of that is out of our control. So when it comes to climate action, what we often look to is those things that are in our control, which, for those fortunate enough to own their own homes, is the emissions that result from where we live and, by extension, for somehow we get around the city, so our vehicles, even that action, however, can be daunting if we don't know where to start and we don't know what our options are, and we're relying on contractors, or tradespeople who tend to take maybe a more traditional, fossil fuel based approach. There are great contractors out there, but sometimes it's hard to find them, so today we're going to explore that a little bit. Now I do want to throw a quick caveat out there to say that this conversation is really through the lens of kind of a single family or semidetached home, and through the lens of those that either own their own home, or at the very least have some decision making. Power for that home. Decarbonizing multi-unit buildings like apartments or condos or decarbonizing for renters, is a whole different but equally important conversation that I do plan on tackling at another time. So my conversation today is with Sarah Grant, who is the co-founder and co-owner of Goldfinch energy. Goldfinch energy is a Toronto, Ontario based, women owned small business that is dedicated to helping Canadians reduce their homes reliance on fossil fuels. They offer energy assessments, clean tech roadmaps and green renovation support services. Sarah has degrees in engineering and computer science. She's held leadership roles in renewable energy and local food systems, and is a certified energy advisor. And is really someone who's just passionate about tackling climate change and passionate about talking about it as well. So, I think you're going to enjoy the conversation today. Sarah, welcome to the show.   Sarah Grant  04:21 Thanks for having me   Trevor Freeman  04:22 so. Full disclosure to our listeners here, Sarah and I have actually known each other for quite a long time. And I was trying to do the math there, I think it's like getting close to 20 years now, and we know each other from a different line of work. We both were in international developments and worked overseas for a while. So, I think my first question is, tell us how you came to be in the home energy business. That's a bit of a shift from international development. And then tell us a little bit about what Goldfinch energy does.   Sarah Grant  04:53 Awesome. It is true. It is a bit of a shift, although I have always been interested in big, big problems that the world is facing, and working in international development, yeah, I guess 20 or so years ago, I could already see the impacts of the climate crisis, working with subsistence farmers, hearing them tell the stories of how they would plant and um, reigns weren't as predictable as they had been before. And so, when it was time for me to come back to Canada live a bit closer to family, it was something that I was always interested in, and felt like it was another global problem that I could start working on more locally, more specifically, sort of how Goldfinch was born was, to some extent, out of the pandemic. So, some goodness came out of that. Early in the spring, I was working in another sort of climate focused endeavor, a nonprofit that it was clear wasn't going to do very well with the pandemic ongoing, and a friend actually approached me and said, hey, I have this idea. She herself had been working in the sort of climate change world and had had a furnace die, and had asked about heat pumps, and was just laughed at. So, she ended up with a oversized, gas guzzling furnace to continue to heat her home and knew she could have done better. So, Goldfinch energy was sort of born out of that idea that we're not alone. Many of us want to do something, and our homes are a large portion of our individual commissions. If you are lucky enough to own a home, that is, and there are small steps, big steps you can take. All of it matters. And so that's Goldfinch. So, we then, early on, decided, in order to help people, it was going to be useful to become energy advisors. So, I took some training. Actually, it's a really interesting program the federal government through Natural Resources Canada administers the, I guess, the industry of being an energy advisor. And so, there are sort of two exams you take. And so, we studied in 2020, and launched Goldfinch energy with the idea that, after doing some market research as well that, you know, what was really going to be helpful was being able to help people sort of break down the complexity of what's going on with their homes, what they can do to address the climate change crisis. And also, you know, with a home, it's also not just about that. It's about maybe making it a bit more comfortable, or maybe there's a planned renovation that someone might want to do to change the layout, what have you. And so, we establish golden energy to help people make their homes better for the planet and for themselves.   Trevor Freeman  07:52 Great. Yeah, it's, I think I hear that a lot from folks, and it's in my own experience of, you know roughly that you want to do the right thing, you know, roughly that, yeah, I want to, you know, reduce carbon, but I don't know how. And the answer I'm going to get from my average contractor is not going to point me in that direction. I'm hoping that we're seeing some change, and folks like you guys are maybe pushing that a little bit, but it's great to know that there's organizations out there that can provide that direct support. So, I mean, what we're talking about today is pretty much home electrification, or, let's say, home decarbonization. And so, let's pull apart what that looks like. And there's probably a few different scenarios of how a homeowner could approach this work. There's the one that you described where your furnace kind of dies in the middle of January, which is my own experience a number of years ago. And you have to make a really quick decision. But let's park that scenario for now. Let's talk about if you have time, if you know you want to do this, and you can start planning now, what where do you start? And, oh, you know, looking through the services that you guys provide, you have the energy assessment, the cleantech roadmap, talk us through some of those tools that you use to help people kind of start their decarbonization journey.   Sarah Grant  09:16 So, this is a great question. The best way to start is just by getting a sense of where your home is now. A lot of the homes that I work in, I'm based in Toronto, are 100 plus years old. So, you know, when they were first built, didn't have any insulation. They leaked like a sieve. They were probably heated with wood or some type of fossil fuel. And you know, different expectations were had and over the over the decades, often homes have had a myriad of homeowners and renovations or no renovations. So, an energy assessment is a way for someone to better understand what's going on with their home right now and our clean tech roadmap, then segues from that and helps goes deeper into okay, I now know where my home is losing heat, where you know how efficient or not it is, what levels of insulation exist in behind the walls and in the attic, and you know how drafty it is. There's a cool tool that we use to measure that, the clean tech roadmap, then puts that assessment and translates that into helps people translate that into a plan that they can then ideally act on. So, this plan includes details like, Okay, what you know if you are going to be renovating the basement, stay and want to finish that space. What are the recommended insulation materials that you should use? And how should you treat water? Because, you know, often basements are a little bit below the water table. So, what does that look like? How can we better air seal that space to make it less drafty as well? And maybe you're going to be touching the heating or the hot water. So, what are the options there? What are some contractor names? So, it's really designed to give people all the tools that hopefully they may need if they have the time to not only understand where their home is at, but what they can do and then even have everything at their fingertips to start to seek out quotes and start to take action on their home in the way that's best suited to them. So, some homeowners are able and fortunate enough to kind of do everything in one big bell swoop of, you know, a big, big renovation, perhaps, or, you know, over a few months' time, able to kind of get, get everything off the list. A lot of the homeowners that we work with aren't in that sort of circumstances. A lot of homeowners who just bought a house, so the house is new to them, but maybe 100 years old. And so, having that clean tech roadmap in their hands then allows them to sort of say, Okay, well, what? What do we want to do this year and the next year, and I've had people that, you know, we worked with four years ago, have who have come back to me a few years later and said, Okay, well, now we're ready to do this? Can you help us which, which is so great, so it's designed to sort of meet people where they are, where they are, with their goals, with their budget and their lifestyle. Because not everyone can afford to kind of do all the you know the right things all at once.   Trevor Freeman  12:24 Yeah, so, I think like having someone in to one understand what's there, because not everybody knows exactly what's in their house, as you said, and then have that plan. That doesn't mean you have to implement the plan today all at once, but knowing you know when this piece of equipment goes or when I work on this part of the house, here's what I'm going to do, here's the things I need to consider. And having that kind of in your back pocket. Or when you do that work is super helpful. You touched on something else that I want to ask you about, which is, you know, oftentimes when we think about decarbonizing our homes or changing out big pieces of equipment. Of course, we're thinking of, you know, our heating system, our cooling system, our hot water system, but you mentioned a couple other things. So, what are some things to address before getting into those big equipment purchases? You know, changing out your furnace. What should what should you do in advance of that?   Sarah Grant  13:20 I mean, first and foremost, you know, if you have a home and you have issues with water, with mold, those are kind of, you know, structural issues. Those are aspects that tend to, you know, they're top of the list. But, you know, assuming, let's assume, you know, we're talking about homes that kind of don't have those pressing needs. Some of the some of the items that are ideal to address before electrifying are involve making your home better at keeping the heat in. So that's really comes down to just insulate, more insulation where you can, to the extent that you can, and reducing air leakage. So, a lot of people are familiar with insulation. Usually, most contractors these days, if someone's renovating a kitchen, will find a way to add some insulation. Reducing air leakage is still, I would say, not as much on a contractor's radar as it would be ideal. A lot of the green contractors and architects that I work with, it's sort of as important, or even more important, and to us it is as well. So, in the winter, the insulation for your house is kind of like your sweater, and if you don't have any sort of windbreaker, you're going to have a lot of air leakage. So, the air leakage for your home is kind of like adding a windbreaker. Sorry, I started to talk about it like with homeowners, like there are different levels of air leakage. So, level one just involves walking around with a caulking gun and doing what you can to seal up the gaps and the cracks, maybe around the windows. In the window trim, maybe along the baseboards. People often have a good sense of some of the larger sources of air leakage, because they feel drafty, and so that's kind of level one, air leakage. Level two could involve maybe doing a little bit more in the basement, around what's called the rim joist. So, if you look up in your basement and your basement is unfinished where the sort of the ceiling joists meet the walls, those are often a huge source of air leakage. And there's a lot that can often be done to reduce air leakage there. And there are different products. I don't know if we want to get into that today, but I'll just leave it at that for now. And level three is if you are going to be replacing the siding from the outside or from the inside, gutting your house, adding an air barrier, which is a material that serves to reduce the air leakage. Overall, it is like wrapping your house in a big windbreaker. If someone is able to do that, if you're able to say, if you have siding on the outside of your house that you need to be replaced. Adding an air barrier can have the most significant impacts in terms of reducing air leakage. So, you asked, sort of, where should someone start? I think, you know, it does come back to a lot of people I find replace their siding or replace their windows, maybe more for esthetic reasons, or they have reached their end of life. But reducing air leakage, doing what you can if you're replacing your siding, to also add insulation, isn't always on people's minds. So again, back to having that plan. If you have a plan, if you know, okay, when I need to redo my flat roof or redo my siding or redo my windows, I'm going to be thinking about these extra pieces that will ensure that I'm going to take a few more steps to make my house do a better job of keeping the heat in, by adding more insulation, by reducing air leakage. Those are great, great first steps when possible.   Trevor Freeman  16:54 And the added benefit, I think, of that, and this is important for people to know, is there's a huge comfort impact there. I mean this, we're not even really talking yet about energy savings and carbon you will just have a more comfortable home if it's less drafty, if it holds the heat in better, keeps the heat out in the summer, and that is one of the drivers for some of these changes that we're talking about here today. It's not just because you really care about climate change, it's also because you want a more comfortable and efficient home.   Sarah Grant  17:25 100% I think that comfort just like someone having a broken furnace. Well, maybe not exactly, but similar to, I think, is can act as that trigger, as that motivator, to push people. So I do often have people calling and saying, Hey, like, can you come and do a consult? Because we don't often use the third floor of our house. It's just not as comfortable. And so we'll figure out what's going on and help people make a plan to address that. And ideally, you know, I find when I'm able to do that, I'd rather help someone make a better use of existing space than help them plan out an addition. Um, I have sometimes ended up talking people out of an addition, because upon sort of discussing their house real, we've realized, okay, like they don't use their basement because it's unfinished, it's dark, it's damp, it's, you know, it's the scary, cobwebby place. And so we develop a plan that involves adding more sunlight and making it comfortable, making it not so damp and scary, and that helps. They're already heating that space. It's sort of a space that you're already sort of half there. And so energy wise, you're making an improvement, and have avoided making your house bigger, which is maybe required, but it can be avoided, is better too.   Trevor Freeman  18:49 Okay, so I want to dive into the things that probably people are most familiar with when we talk about reducing our own fossil fuel consumption in a home. And so these are your big users, like how you heat your space, how you heat your water, and for some people cooking. So especially those first do space heating and water heating. The majority of Canadians at least use some kind of fossil fuel to heat their homes, especially here in Ontario. So that's typically natural gas cooking is a little bit more of a mixed bag, but there's a lot of gas cooking out there. So maybe talk us through what would be the sort of low to no carbon option for each of those three things.   Sarah Grant  19:31 Great, okay, going from large to small. So the largest source of emissions in a home is your space heating. Typically, the emissions are about the same as driving a sort of a mid to large sized car. You know, most people drive, on average, 15,000 kilometers a year. The emissions are going to be about the same so that that's going to be the biggest one, if someone is looking and they're a little bit overwhelmed, and the best alternative is a. Heat pump. So these are they come in many different forms, but the most common, and I think the most common scenario for most homes is if you have forced air. So ductwork and these kind of heat pumps can extract heat from the air outside. A lot of them can work up to minus 30 degrees. So even up to minus 30, they're able to grab latent heat in the air and pump it inside, and then it gets pumped around your house. The cool thing about them is that they can also work in reverse. So, in the summer, they act just like an air conditioner. In fact, the technology is very much the same as an air conditioner, just that they work in reverse in the winter too. So they can also cool. So these are called Air source heat pumps. And, yeah, someone has forced air and they have a gas furnace or an air conditioner or both that need to be replaced. An air source heat pump is, is a great option. A lot of the folks that we've worked with that have switched, you know, you talked about comfort, sort of some of the side benefits, I would say, of a heat pump is they're typically quieter if designed and sized and installed properly, they're they they're quieter both the outside and the inside aspects of a heat pump, and the air from the vents is a lot more comfortable. So we got a heat pump about three years ago, and the first winter we had it installed, my father in law came over for dinner one night and just stood in front of the vent, kind of like a cat basking in that warmth, and said, Oh my gosh, this is way more comfortable. It's not that dry, scorched air that a lot of people associate with poor stairs. So that's, that's an air source heat pump. You can also, there are also ground source heat pumps, but for a lot of you know urban areas, these ground source heat pumps involve drilling into the ground, either horizontally or vertically, to extract heat from the ground. They I have worked with a few homes in sort of more rural areas where it does make sense, but the costs associated with them are really high, and often there's not enough space in urban areas, so they're not quite as common. And I'd say sort of, just to kind of close the conversation on we'll conclude it on the on the heating side of things, if you do have another source of like heat, maybe it's, maybe it's cast iron radiators or baseboards. There are also heat pumps that can help you as well. So with cast iron radiators, they're what's called air to water heat pumps. So they'll the outdoor unit will look similar to someone who has forced air. So it's an it's going to extract heat from the outside air, and it'll transfer it to water. Now that can then go through your cast iron radiators, or maybe have insular heating or what have you. They're not as common, but the technology has existed for a long time in Europe, and there are more products and contractors that I'm working with that are becoming more comfortable with installing this technology. And last there are what's called ductless heat pumps. So if you don't have ductwork or cast iron radiators, or maybe have baseboards, or maybe there's a space where the ductwork just isn't sufficient, these ductless heat pumps can be installed. They can either go on the wall, on sort of these big white boxes. If you've been to Asia, you're probably familiar with them because they exist there, either in the form of heat pumps or air conditioners, or you can have little floor mounted ones as well, which look a little bit slicker, I suppose, but they do cost a little bit more. So that's heating for hot water. There are kind of two main options if you want to get off of fossil fuels. Usually that's yeah, for most of us, that's with the gas, but there could be propane as well. So, if you want to get off of fossil fuels with your hot water, the heat pump technology exists with hot water as well. Heat Pump hot water tanks is what they're called. Are actually, confusingly, sometimes hybrid tanks, because they use heat pump technology, but then also have an electric coil. So, they operate, they can operate like a simple electric tank, if, um, if needed. And they come with a little like Wi Fi app too. So they are, like, four times more efficient than a gas hot water tank. So you will save a little bit by switching to them. But the way they work is they'll extract heat from your basement, actually, so from your basement air and transfer that to the water. So, I would say about half the people I work with end up going with them because they have a space where it makes sense. Maybe their basement is large and they can put it kind of in the corner and a big mechanical room or a workshop where they're not going to go into it. So, if it, if that heat pump reduces the temperature by two degrees or so, it's not a big deal. But for me, my home is pretty tiny, and we're using every nook and cranny with five of us in it, so we opted for an electric tank and, um. And then paired it with a timer so that it only reheats the water overnight when electricity, if you're on time of use, is cheapest, and that's also when our Ontario grid is using the non-fossil fuel related forms of power production, like nuclear and water. So that can work if you're really lucky and you have an open an unfinished basement and a good space to install what's called a drain water heat recovery system. These are super cool, very simple technologies that can transfer the heat from any water that you've already used, like from your shower, and transfer it to the fresh water before that fresh water then goes into whatever heating mechanism you have. So, they can work with anything, even if you have a gas hot water tank, a drain water heat recovery system is a good way to kind of preheat the water by extracting the heat from the hot water you've already used a lot of hospitals I know in Toronto are starting to use these kinds of systems as well. So two main options, electric tank, you pump out water tank, and then those drain water heat recovery systems as well, and hot water. So, you know, I said you're heating, heating your house. It's usually about kind of 8080, or so percent of a home emission, home emissions hot water is, is around 15 to 20% just to give an idea of sort of how it fits into the relative picture. But ultimately, I wouldn't say, you know, do one over the other, unless you know, if you have, if you have a hot water tank that's broken, replace that with a with an electric tank, or heat pump hot water tank. Don't, don't just say, Oh, it's only 20% I shouldn't do that one. It's still worth it. Every little appliance that you can get off of fossil fuels is one step closer to then being able to disconnect from the gas utility or what have you, and sets you up for, ultimately, like a little bit of savings too, because you're no longer paying for that delivery fee to have access to that fossil fuel in your house. So cooking, cooking is cooking is probably, to be honest, like, the most fun of all of these just because, you know, it impacts your daily life. If like, hot water and heating and cooling are one of those things where you don't, like, I don't think about my heat pump unless it's not working properly, which we haven't had an issue with. But, you know, it just sits there and it does, it does its thing, and I'm happy to have it off of fossil fuels. But for cooking, switching, for us, switching. We switched from a gas stove to an induction stove about a year ago, and it's amazing, like I've got little kids, and I love that. I feel comfortable teaching them how to cook on this stove, just because of the way the induction stove works, the whole cooktop doesn't get heated up in the same way you accidentally leave, like a rag or a paper towel on the stove, not going to catch on fire. We did have a few of those incidences with our former gas stove. And, like, it's really quick. I know that there's a lot of stats and data about how quick it can heat up water, but it's one of those things that you don't believe it until you sort of experience it yourself. So yeah, so we got, we got a nice flick induction stove, because our gas stove was kind of reaching its end of life, and we were starting to smell some of the gas as well, even when it wasn't on, which I know is an issue, that's, that's, you know, something that's, that's hostages for our help. And, you know, there's a lot of research and evidence out there related to, like respiratory issues and gas related cooking. So, if you do have a gas stove and you aren't able to afford to switch now, make sure you're using your exhaust, like your range hood, properly, not just when you're using the top, but when you're cooking in the oven too. But yeah, if you're able to switch it out, then you can just break a little easier knowing that you're not, you're not using some sort of like fossil fuel to cook, cook with, and so your house is cleaner, and you're making the planet a bit cleaner as well.   Trevor Freeman  29:11 That's definitely one of those other benefits of going down that path. And everyone we're in a similar vein, I cook with electric resistance now, but our stove is near its end of life, and I've excited to get that induction stove, because everybody I talked to just sort of says it's one of the coolest things that you can add to your kitchen. So, I'm excited about. One other big source of fossil fuels in our daily lives that people will be familiar with, obviously, is, is our cars, how we drive, how we get around. Most folks still have an internal combustion engine car, and we know that for people that are going to switch to an EV if they can, the preferred choice to charge is at home. People want to be able to charge their vehicles at home. So what are some considerations when it comes to owning an EV at your house, as you're trying to decarbonize   Sarah Grant  30:06 Awesome. I'm glad you asked this question, because I was trying to figure out a way how to bring up electric like capacity in a home, knowing that you know, if you do electrify every appliance in if someone does electrify every appliance in their house, they may not need to upgrade. A lot of us are on 100 amp service, and I was able to, you know, install an induction stove switch from gas to induction switch from a gas hot water tank to an electric tank with that drain water heat recovery system and a timer switch from a gas furnace to a heat pump. And we had 100 amps, and we're fine with that. We didn't have any breakers trip or anything. And I've worked with a lot of homes where that's the case. I should just say, even before someone's going to switch to an EV though, the kind of the two main aspects, two main elements that may require an upgrade, would be an EV charger and, um, electric backup, resistance heating. So with a heat pump, they are amazing for so many reasons I've kind of already talked about they're more comfortable, they're quieter. You know, climate fighting machines that work on electricity, but they're not like electric baseboard heaters. They're using one unit of electricity to generate about three units of heat. So they're great. Their capacity isn't as high as as a gas furnace or our propane furnace may be. So if that's the case, and if your house, you haven't been able to do all the things you can to insulate and to reduce heat loss, then the largest heat pump may need to come with an electric resistance heating and these can, if they're working, can draw a lot of electricity. So the way this works with a heat pump is, on a cold day, the heat pump is going to always operate. And then if your thermostat notices, hey, my house isn't able to stay as comfortable. It's not getting to whatever, you know, 22 degrees, it'll then ask for the electric resistance oil to turn on and give a boost to the heat pump. So, um, you're not going to generate like, your bills aren't going to be excessive, like they would be if someone's heating with just electric heating, but larger electric resistance heating requires a pretty big breaker, like a 40-amp sort of thing. So, if, if that's the case, then that may be something that triggers you into the okay, maybe I need to upgrade to 200 amps EV chargers as well. They come in many different forms. We actually I'm just at my in laws cottage, and my father-in-law, very generously, installed an EV charger here, because we were lucky enough to purchase an EV a few months ago and so he put in one that's also on a 40-amp breaker, but you can get ones and put it on a 30 amp breaker, you put on a 50 amp breaker. So with upgrading and with switching everything to electric, I find that's an area that I think things still are evolving and changing. You know, I typically, I was previously doing sort of a what a lot of electricians or HVAC contractors would do with just sort of adding up all the all the aspects on the panel and sort of saying, Okay, well, if you're running your stove and your heat pump and your hot water all at once, here's sort of based on those breakers, here's how much electricity you're going to draw. And if that number is greater than 100 Okay, someone should upgrade which, which tends to be a little bit conservative. So, what we are now doing is, if you have the ability to access your electricity bills and look at sort of your hour-by-hour consumption, there is a way that homeowners can actually figure out, kind of like, what's my peak, what's my worst? Like, draw, I'm probably not using the right terms here, but, um, but. Or you could actually simulate that and just, you know, on a, on a like a really hot day, turn on make sure your air conditioner is running. Turn on. You all your, you know, your dryer, your electric stove, whatever kind of make it the worst-case scenario that you could reasonably see happening in your house and then go on and log into your utility data. And there's a way that you can look at like hour by hour, and it'll tell you your draw and based on that, if you look up online, there's a way to sort of translate that kilowatt draw into amps. And what I've found when I translate people's draw into amps is that like someone who's on 100-amp panel, who's got, you know, their electric dryer and their air conditioner and their induction stove running typically draws between 20 and 40 amps. That's way below the 100 amp. Environment and so upgrading, this is a long winded way of saying upgrading everything you know, from fossil fuels, switching your car, getting an EV charger, may or may not require you to upgrade to 200 amps, but if you have the ability to sort of do a little bit of research online, try and figure out what your draw is, so that, because you may not actually need to upgrade alive, find a lot of contractors are somewhat conservative and are telling people to upgrade before they necessarily need to. And the cost to upgrade can be around five or so $1,000 so at least what I've seen in Toronto and so that kind of cost can actually turn people off.   Trevor Freeman  35:42 Yeah. So, I that's a great point to bring up Sarah. And I think we, we see that, of course, with our customers a lot as well. And I think it's important to know that the quick and easy way to determine if you need a panel upgrade is, as you said, to add up the numbers on the breakers, and if you if you're bumping over 100 yep, that's a panel upgrade. But that's not necessarily the most accurate way, because it's rare that we use the full amount of each breaker. And so looking at your utility data, or having your electrician, your contractor, help you, look at your utility data, can tell you that you maybe don't need a panel upgrade, that you can operate all this equipment that we're talking about on your 100 amp panel, and most utilities in Ontario, at least, I know for you in Toronto, and definitely for any of our listeners in our service territory in Ottawa, you can access Your hourly utility data online through whatever portal you have with your utility. So definitely go and check that out   Sarah Grant  36:47 if you end up realizing that your kind of on the cusp and you may need to upgrade. One of the other things that you could do instead is install a smart switch. So, there are products of their levatron is one that I know of. There are even smart panels that give you at your fingertips through a phone app, the ability to sort of say, oh, okay, I want to charge my car, so maybe I'm going to, sort of not let people draw electricity from other aspects in my home, or vice versa, you can kind of turn off and on your car charger. You can even run your whole panel as well. So, sort of the smart switching aspect is a way that, if you're kind of on that cusp, can enable you to avoid a service upgrade and also get some really cool data at your fingertips as well about your electricity consumption.   Trevor Freeman  37:42 Yeah, I'm really glad you brought that up, and I've seen those as well. They're super exciting. And, you know, as a kind of a data nerd, it'd be awesome to have that granular data. And what's every circuit in my house doing? But I think at its most basic, it's basically saying, yeah, like, you can't run your electric clothes dryer and charge your EV at the same time. So it kind of forces one or the other, you know, and whatever slot in whatever piece of equipment you want there, which keeps you under that, that threshold for your panel, no matter what, even if all your things add up to more, you're still going to stay under because it won't let them go on the same time. So that's a great piece of technology. So, I want to quickly ask you about electricity generation and storage, where probably, if anybody kind of wanders around, you're seeing more and more solar panels on roofs. We're hearing more about home battery storage, although that hasn't quite taken off widespread yet, but it is out there. So how would something like that factor into a homeowner's plan?   Sarah Grant  38:42 Yeah, I think that typically, it's kind of one of the later aspects for a homeowner plan. So you know, if you were listening and you're someone who is interested in doing what you can to reduce your carbon footprint, you know the largest things you can do, the single largest thing is to install a heat pump. Get your heating off of off of fossil fuels, and install a heat pump. And, you know, do what you can to reduce your heat loss by adding insulation, making it less leaky. Solar panels are a fantastic complement to that, and I find they, you know, we include them in a clean tech roadmap, and we show people the impact. And some people do choose to do them first just because they're excited, and it is, to some extent, an investment in reduction of your energy bills. So, you know, the sooner you can get the panels on your roof, the sooner you can start to save and no longer spend, you know, and to some extent, also solar panels, at least in Ontario, they're producing their peak amount of electricity at a time when we're using our electricity grid in Ontario, mostly as nuclear and water. But you. Uh, you know, during peak times, we do have some gas power plants that their benefit is to kind of come on quickly and produce electricity really quickly, so that we can make up that that time, say, five o'clock on a really hot August day when everyone comes home from work or six o'clock and turns on their air conditioner and, and, and, but at that same time, solar panels are in peak production. So, you know, I know, I'm sure you've had other podcasts to discuss, sort of our electricity grid, so we don't need to get into more details. But you know, it is something that each can do to offset and reduce that sort of gas peak your plant consumption by putting panels on the roof. And I think a great aspirational goal for everyone would be to be net zero. Just as you know, I know, City of Toronto has a net zero goal as a city overall, so getting each home to net zero would certainly one way to achieve that goal. So there's some savings involved for us. We put panels on, like four years ago, and based on how much we're saving per year and how much we spent, we'll have saved as much in electricity as we spent in 11 to make up the cost in 11 years' time, the cost the return on investment, isn't as great now because we were able to leverage a federal rebate that is no longer available, but For so that'll probably extend the return on investment. For many people to sort of 15 to 20 years' time frame. The reduction in use of our gas peaker plants is another, another benefit and, um, no, I'd say the other like, sort of the pleasant side, again, comfort benefit for us, although I wouldn't say invest in it only for this. It's kept our house more comfortable in the summer. So these solar panels are absorbing the sun's energy, the sun's heat. So it's now no longer the sun's no longer cooking our roof as it used to. And although we did add insulation there, the panels are way more effective at just absorbing that energy. And so our second floor is able to stay a lot more comfortable as well. As far as sort of storage goes, You're right. I'm starting to see more and more batteries. But you know, a few years ago, I hadn't seen really any, any in people's homes. The costs, I know, and sort of the thread tape involved in getting them approved was still quite high. But they are a fantastic option if you do have solar panels, or if you're someone who's concerned about making your house more resilient in the event of a power outage, they're a good option to have, obviously, better than, better than a gas generator, which would be the alternative if you want some form of energy on hand in case the grid goes down. But yeah, this is sort of, I would say, if you're thinking about your house and where solar panels and storage could fit in, I would probably put them sort of later on the list. Again, decarbonize by getting, like, electrify everything in your house as much as possible. Do what you can to insulate and air seal, and if you're lucky enough to have a little bit left over solar and storage are great as well.   Trevor Freeman  43:04 Yeah, it's that's a great way to put it. I certainly look at them as supporting tools to someone looking to decarbonize and electrify their house. To your point, you don't get a lot of carbon reduction just from solar, partly, especially in Ontario, because our grid is primarily clean, primarily carbon free, but during those peak solar production hours, that's also typically our peak emission hours from the grid in Ontario. But what solar panels and storage, to a lesser extent, can do is give you some predictability in your energy costs. So, you're kind of locking some portion of your energy cost in the day you put those panels on, and if electricity prices increase, you've got that predictability based on what you put on your roof. So just getting close to the end of our conversation here today, Sarah, I want to ask you two more questions. One, I alluded to this at the beginning, and as did you there are those scenarios where you haven't done any planning or prep. You know that maybe decarbonizing or moving to a more modern piece of equipment is something you want to do, but you haven't done any work on that, and it's January, and all of a sudden there's no heat coming from your furnace. And you get someone to look at it and they say, yep, you need a new one. What can you do? In that sense, are there contractors out there who can turn around and put a heat pump in as quick as they can put a furnace in? Or are we not there yet? What's kind of on the horizon for folks in that situation?   Sarah Grant  44:36 Yeah, there are a lot of contractors out there who can put in a heat pump as quickly as they would a gas furnace. The rebate program that the federal government offered, which is unfortunately no longer available, did a lot of work to, I would say, get homeowners asking contractors about heat pumps, and that then got a lot of contractors on board with installing key pumps. And. And I'm finding actually, right now, we're in a good space, because a lot of manufacturers brought in a lot of stock, and so there's actually an excess of a supply of heat pumps, so the costs have come down a little bit, which is nice in the absence of rebate. So, yeah, the installation itself is, you know, if you're replacing a gas furnace with heat pump, it's no more or less complicated, to be honest, typically should take about, you know, just into two days, or maybe just under, like, you know, one, a full day, and sort of, and then some. And I would say the sort of the biggest, the biggest lost opportunity is, is, you may not, you may not have a contractor that feels comfortable getting you all the way off of gas. So I find a lot of contractors are more comfortable with recommending what's called a hybrid system, where you would have a heat pump and a gas furnace installed in your house. And in this case, the heat pump will always get the first opportunity to provide heating in a house, but then the gas furnace will kick on. Um, at some point. And I find in this case, like the heat pumps are, tend to be a little bit undersized, and so they may not, it's a bit of a lost opportunity. They may not be able to heat as long into the winter as if it was sort of the right size for your home. And you know, instead of the heat pump going all the way, which is the case if you get all the way off of fossil fuels, it'll switch over to the gas furnace as needed. So just like a hybrid car, you know, with a battery and gas in the car itself, this sort of system is still a great step in the right direction, though. So certainly, if you're stuck in the middle of a winter night or a hot summer's day and you've got no cooling or no heating call around, and you know, if you don't like the first answer, if you have still, there are still some contractors that are misinformed about heat pumps and will sort of say, Oh, well, they don't work greater. But I would say, for the most part, in the last four years, things have changed dramatically, and contractors are now on board, and because they have an excess of supplier are eager to, eager to sell them and install them.   Trevor Freeman  47:05 That's great to hear. And I think the important thing there is you're not going to know unless you ask, and if you don't get that answer the first time, you know, take another couple calls. Try call around, because there are, there are contractors out there who can support you in that. And kind of like you said, this is, you know, when you're replacing your major heating equipment in your house, that's your once in a kind of 10-to-15-year period, if not longer, to get that right. And if you lock yourself into something you didn't really want, then it's hard to hard to change course a few years down the road. So, take the time if you can, to ask those questions. Okay, last question for you here, before we wrap up, I want to zoom out a little bit and talk about just the overall process of retrofitting more homes. You know, you made the point earlier. There's a lot of homes out there. If we can start moving all these homes off fossil fuels, it's going to go a long way towards hitting our climate goals. How do we speed that process up? What programs or regulations or policies have you seen, or would you like to see that and kind of encourage these transitions?   Sarah Grant  48:13 Oh, I love that question. Yeah. I mean, if I had a magic wand and could change things, I would definitely like to see more, more incentives, more zero interest financing out there. You know, the homes that I've seen that have been able to get all the way off of fossil fuels, install solar panels, do what they can to insulate were able to access in the city of Toronto anyway, a zero-interest loan that went up $225,000 came with its own $10,000 incentive. They also accessed what is no longer available, the up to $10,000 incentives. So up to 20k of incentives, zero interest loan, those like of the homes that we work with, they're about 20% that have achieved that kind of like the got to sort of net zero, significant energy reduction, and we're able to, you know, access that level of financing and rebates. Those programs are not available anymore. Or at least, the City of Toronto offers their low interest loan. It's no longer zero interest, and doesn't have the incentives anymore. So that typically showed me that, you know, it's possible, but we do need more financing and support in place for people. You know, there's a there are a lot of great models in Europe and in Germany, the energy sprawl model exists where basically big like panels can be installed on the outside of people's homes that have insulation, that have an air barrier, that kind of come with the Windows already well installed those sort of options as well. If, if, if feasible, can also do a lot to accelerate our rate of decarbonizing or electrifying in in Canada. In that regard, there's a lot happening in the sort of the low income Social. Housing space. And I feel very honored or privileged to be just a small actor in that space and collaborating with many fantastic actors that are not only sort of retrofitting a large number of homes, at least in Toronto, but also treating it as an opportunity to sort of help think about how we can get to scale and how we can accelerate this and so they are changing contractors mindsets and impacting the availability of stock and supply. So, yeah, we need, we need, we do need more policies and support and levers in place, and then, as well, the sort of the contractor industry, there's a lot of training and support that's also needed. So it's a big, it's a big, exciting problem with lots of opportunity, but, yeah, lots of work to happen in order for us to achieve our net zero goals.   Trevor Freeman  50:50 Yeah, I think we have seen that there's a role for funding and financing to help lower that initial barrier of some of this, you know, still fairly nascent technology, although it's becoming more commonplace, but there is a role for those programs, and when they are in place, you know, your experience has shown they work, you're seeing more projects go through when there are funding and financing programs compared to when there aren't. So it's good to know that the programs work, and we just need to see more of them, so that's great. Okay, Sarah, we always wrap up our interviews with kind of a series of questions that I pose to all guests. So as long as you're ready, I'll dive right in. What is a book that you've read that you think everybody should read?   Sarah Grant  51:35 That is a great question. That's fun. I'm an avid reader, so it's hard to it's hard to answer this, to be honest, one book that comes to mind that I think everyone should read is called Ishmael. It's a book about a talking gorilla, and it it definitely changed the trajectory of my life. I read it when I was about 20 years old, I think, and in, you know, studying to become an electrical engineer, thinking about my next steps. I was in my last year of university, so maybe I was a bit older, but, yeah, it's a fantastic book that has, I think, still stood the test of time. I come back to it every few years and reread it.   Trevor Freeman  52:18 Awesome. I could be wrong here, my memory is hazy, but that rings a bell. I feel like maybe many, many years ago, you told me about that book. It's possible. I think we, for those of you who don't know this international development thing, Sarah and I did. A lot of us went through that path of being an engineering school and deciding there's got to be something more out there, and I want to have an impact in a different way. And that took a lot of us down to different courses in our lives. But if someone offered you a free round trip flight anywhere in the world, where would you go?   Sarah Grant  52:54 Okay, I hope that they're going to offset the emissions, if they're offering or I will offset the emissions, where would I go? I mean, I've always wanted to go to so assuming it's a carbon neutral flight, I've always wanted to go to New Zealand, and I used to play rugby. So I would definitely go catch a few rugby games and watch the All Blacks do their traditional Māori dance and hike the hills and the mountains and just sort of see the, see the landscape in New Zealand.   Trevor Freeman  53:29 Who is someone that you admire?   Sarah Grant  53:32 Okay, so, I mean, this is going to get real, really quick, so I would say, you know, I this is and a bit cheesy, but I'm going to say my kids, I've got three, and they're six, eight and 10, they're all very aware of their role in the world. They go to an alternative school, so perhaps that's part of it, but I just think perhaps it's also just being a kid of this age. And they are the reason we bought an electric car sooner than we could afford, because they started crying when we would go in the gas car, and they were concerned about the emissions. And so, I admire my kids. I admire their awareness and their ability to speak up when, when, when something happens. A few months ago, my partner came out to all of us as a trans person, and this is where I said it was going to get real, pretty quick, because my kids have taken it so well, like, they've taken it in stride. They've My daughter has embraced it. She's like, Oh my God. Now I have two moms I can, like, I'm not the mom that's going to take her to get pedicures, but she now has a mom that can take her to get pedicures. So, it's, I guess what I'm saying is, there was their awareness. and their resilience is astounding.   Trevor Freeman  55:03 Yeah, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing both of those things, and I echo that and seeing the way that my kids and kids you know that are aware of this stuff really find ways to identify their role in this and find ways to sort of advocate, even without knowing all the big picture and knowing all the nuance to it. And maybe that's even better, that they're just going based on kind of hard and what they know. So that's fantastic. Thanks for sharing that. Our final question here, before we wrap is, what is something about the energy sector or the work that you do, or something that you see coming in the near future that you're really excited about.   Sarah Grant  55:48 So there's so much to be excited for. So, um, one thing that is that is giving me a lot of excitement is, is the low income, the social housing work that I'm involved in because, because of the potential to help accelerate things, because we're all working in a very different way, I think traditionally, you know, and in any space, there's a lot of competition, but all of us who are working, whether It's I'm working with some architects, with some contractors, the owners, their land trust organizations, of these buildings, everyone is operating with the idea that, you know, we should be collaborating. And so there's a lot of knowledge sharing, a lot of investing in each other's awareness and connections. And, you know, it's net it's net positive. It's resulting in a lot more than if we were kind of just, like, holding our cards close and being like, Oh, you hired me to do this, and I don't want to tell you how I did it, because then maybe you're not going to hire me next time I'm happy, if I get worked out of a job to some extent. And what it means for gold trench energy is that we need to kind of keep adapting. Like, four years ago, the conversations I was having with homeowners are very different from the conversations now, and that's amazing, because four years ago, people didn't, lot of people didn't know about heat pumps, and I know that's still the case, but a lot of people that were hiring us didn't know, and now, four years later, they do, and so that evolving knowledge and enhancing Understanding and the fact that there are people out there who are working in a collaborative manner, I think that's going to get us a lot farther, faster, and honestly, it's just way more fun to collaborate with people.   Trevor Freeman  57:32 Yeah, totally. I echo that. I've said it on this podcast before. That one thing I've noticed having been kind of in this space now for close to 15 years in the sort of energy building sector, it feels like things are moving faster and more widespread. There are more people that are aware of the need to decarbonize. There are more people working on that. There are more people working on it in different ways, which is really exciting to see. So that's something definitely that I'm also quite excited about. So Sarah, it's been great chatting today. Thanks so much for sharing your experience and telling us a little bit more about what you do. And yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time to chat.   Sarah Grant  58:15 You're welcome. Thanks for having me.   Trevor Freeman  58:17 Thanks, Sarah, thanks for tuning in to another episode of The thinkenergy podcast. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and it would be great if you could leave us a review. It really helps to spread the word. As always, we would love to hear from you, whether it's feedback, comments or an idea for a show or a guest. You can always reach us at thinkenergy@hydroauttawa.com  

Sunlight on the wing

Sunlight on the wing

Staying at Pullman King George Square, central to all the latest goings on from Roma St Parklands to City Hall, to Sixteen Antler rooftop bar & Goldfinch eatery, to a sneaky peek of Queens Wharf.

Join Sam and Terri as they dive into the essence of innate health, the power of processing emotions, and the difference between seeking external pleasure and finding internal peace.

A TIFF 2024 RUNDOWN: 1:47 - Previously Announced TIFF Premieres: We get the obligatory Family Guy reference out of the way. Then we discuss how Eden is about hot people on an island, why we need to be right about Nightbitch, and whether We Live In Time is more Brooklyn or Goldfinch. TIFF GALAS & SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS: 4:01 - Opening Night with Nutcrackers from David Gordon Green and that stupid Adam Sandler movie that one of us thinks is great. 6:25 - Closing Night with Rebel Wilson's The Deb 7:48 - From Cannes to TIFF: Anora, Bird, Emilia Perez, Oh Canada, Rumours, & The Shrouds. 9:40 - Better Man via Robbie Williams starts a whole Pearl Jam riff 11:20 - A cryptic Conclave book report. 12:07 - Other big name films we've been following forever like Hard Truths from Mike Leigh, Heretic from A24, Piece by Piece from Lego, The End from the artist formerly known as Michael Shannon, The Fire Inside from MGM, The Return from a ripped Ralph + Will & Harper from Sundance. 15:25 - The Piano Lesson announces the Washington family takeover of Hollywood. NEW TIFF ARRIVALS INTO THE OSCARS LANDSCAPE: 18:07 - 40 Acres has Danielle Deadwyler vs Canadian Cannibals! 19:04 - Familiar stories modernized with Brett Goldstein in All Of You, banshee Barry vs Christopher in Bring Them Down, Sandra Oh in Can I Get a Witness?, a jacked Orlando Bloom in The Cut, plus The Motorcycle Diaries director is ironically back in I'm Still Here. 21:48 - The Last Showgirl has us hoping for a Pam Anderson Oscars campaign 22:58 - Millers in Marriage is the next from Edward Burns that's better than The Family Stone. 24:32 - Relay seems like Hell or High Water or The Accountant. 25:09 - Riff Raff seems funny with Jennifer Coolidge, Bill Murray and Pete Davidson 26:10 - Sharp Corner stars Ben Foster who may or may not walk off into the woods. 27:22 - The Order intrigues us with Hoult, Law, Smollett, Maron, Baylin, etc. 29:10 - The Penguin Lessons is probably not Mr. Popper's Penguins. 29:44 - Pedro Paramo and why his bonafides make it a potential contender 31:13 - Sketch seems like a funny Harold and the Purple Crayon w/ D'Arcy Carden & Tony Hale. 32:27 - Unstoppable and how we hope Jlo gets some good press with this one. 34:14 - Without Blood is the next from Angelina Jolie and Cinecitta Studios. THE 81ST VENICE FILM FESTIVAL: 35:18 - A Recap of the News on the Jury, Tributes, and Opening Night Film 36:19 - Maria and why Angelina Jolie could be a favorite for the Volpi Cup. 37:01 - Queer and why Luca Guadagnino's work promises a high floor 38:15 - Pedro's Room Next Door and how we get sidetracked re: premise writing. 39:43 - Joker Folie à Deux and our mixed review of the second trailer. 43:44 - April and how M2 has faith in this director. 44:38 - The Brutalist and the allure of the mysterious and wealthy client 46:34 - Babygirl and when we momentarily lose our morality. 47:58 - Harvest and the intrigue of good young actors. 48:45 - Wolfs and the callback that also includes your obligatory Tarantino reference. 49:28 - Baby Invasion and why it has to be Harmony Korine. 50:12 - Intriguing Venice Docs and why M2 owes you some doc reviews. THE NYFF OPENING NIGHT FILM ANNOUNCEMENT - NICKEL BOYS 51:00 - Aunjanue Ellis as a Supporting Actress play, the history of previous Opening Nighters from NYFF at the Oscars, and another major contender centered on a child protagonist. (Plus, we get a quick happy story from Uncle Mike). 55:25 - OUR OUTRO and how to contact us. Plus, you hear about a handful of upcoming episodes, get some Austin Powers quotes, and a discussion on how we would do Telluride if we ever go.

In this captivating episode of Bad at Sports Podcast, we bring you a special recording of a panel discussion held at the Goldfinch Gallery. The event, which saw an enthusiastic turnout with every painter in Chicago turning out for this standing room only discussion, delves into the intricate world of painting. "Team Contemporary Painting" panelists, Leslie Baum and Andreas Fischer, share their insights on a range of topics, including painting techniques, materials, subjects, and the generation of content. They also explore the dynamics of collaboration among painters, shedding light on how artists work together and maintain their individuality in the art world. Leslie Baum, a distinguished painter known for her vibrant and dynamic works, joins Andreas Fischer, whose thought-provoking pieces have garnered critical acclaim, in a conversation moderated by Justin Witte. Justin, the Curator and Director at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art, guides the discussion with his profound understanding of contemporary art and its evolving https://www.atthemac.org/cleve-carney-museum-of-art/ https://goldfinch-gallery.com/ https://lesliebaum.net/ https://goldfinch-gallery.com/artists/66-andreas-fischer/overview/   Image Andreas Fischer, "Grandma is Mountians", 2024 

Alisha Wolf is a psychotherapist and coach who has developed a niche expertise in understanding and healing from toxic workplaces using self-regulation, self-compassion, and the creation of a coherent narrative. Alisha has been helping her clients navigate out of toxic workplaces and over the years she's gained incredible insight on how we build our stories around toxic workplaces, how we can get stuck in that narrative and she's here to help us get unstuck. In this interview, Alisha talks about the role of righteous anger, how we can get stuck in "thought court" against our toxic workplaces, and the role of radical self-acceptance. To learn more about Alisha and the work she offers, visit GoldfinchWellness.com

BYOB: The Bring Your Own Book Podcast is back with a new look for season 4! In this trailer, they are re-introducing themselves and sharing what types of content listeners can expect from the podcast. The hosts, Nikki and Kelly, talk about their love for reading and how they started the podcast. They explain the meaning of BYOB and how it has evolved from featuring cocktails to focusing on book discussions. They discuss the different types of episodes they will have, including book reviews, bookish discussions, and author interviews.Also new this season, listeners can now send BYOB fan mail! Click the link at the bottom of the show notes to send Nikki and Kelly a message.Episodes mentioned:The Raven Boys by Maggie StiefvaterThe Goldfinch by Donna TarttTruly Devious by Maureen JohnsonInterview with Rebbeca YarrosInterview with Jennifer L. ArmentroutInterview with Mazey EddingsSocials:Tiktok: @bringyourownbookpodcastInstagram: @byobookpodcastFacebook: @byobookpodcastYoutube: @bringyourownbookpodcastSend Nikki & Kelly a message! :)

In this episode, the Blockworks research team examines Solana's transaction failures and the network's ongoing struggles to handle high transaction volumes. The conversation then turns to the MakerDAO and Aave debacle, debating the risks and merits of MakerDAO's decision to collateralize DAI with Ethena's stablecoin. They also touch on the recent default on Goldfinch and the broader challenges facing on-chain private credit markets. Finally, they explore the rise of Pump.Fun and the resurgence of meme coins. As always remember this podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. - - Follow Brick: https://twitter.com/0x___Brick Follow Matt: https://twitter.com/MattFiebach Follow Sam: https://twitter.com/swmartin19 Follow Ren: https://twitter.com/purplepill3m Follow Blockworks Research: https://twitter.com/blockworksres Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3foDS38 Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/3SNhUEt Subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3NlP1hA Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use 0X10 to get 10% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there! Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home - - https://x.com/_nishil_/status/1777048334664081548 - - Timestamps: (0:00) Introduction (1:08) Enabling Arbitrum Stylus (5:08) Velodrome DEX on Bitcoin (7:40) Solana & SUI Airdrops (13:39) dYdX Permissionless Smart Contracts (18:15) dYdX Segment: Axelar (22:53) Solana Transaction Failures (31:57) Aave & MakerDAO Debacle (43:37) Goldfinch Default (51:43) Pump.Fun Meme Infrastructure - - Check out Blockworks Research today! Research, data, governance, tokenomics, and models – now, all in one place Blockworks Research: https://www.blockworksresearch.com/ Free Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on 0xResearch is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Dan, Sam, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

There is ALOT happening in South Carolina government and politics! Where did the mystery 1.8 billion dollars come from? What's Constitutional Carry? How is S.C. faring in National Politics? What is the Yankee Tax?Vincent and Joel sit down with guest, Senator Stephen Goldfinch, to discuss the outdoors, South Carolina Wildlife, preservation, Senator Goldfinch's family and background, the NEW judicial screening process, news about Stephen Goldfinch's statewide office future, and how he's paving a path to lead S.C.  into an environmentally friendly future, and so much more!Get your latest Statehouse update and hear firsthand the rationale behind some of the legislature's most controversial bills. Join Senators Sheheen and Lourie in this week's episode where they take a deeper look at upcoming legislation and lawmakers' actions in S.C. Support the showKeep up to Date with BITBR: Twitter.com/BITBRpodcastFacebook.com/BITBRpodcasthttps://bourboninthebackroom.buzzsprout.com

We are very fortunate in South Carolina to have our legislators at the forefront of our resources and the decisions that are made pertaining to them. In both the House and Senate we have the Fish,Game, and Forestry Committee's that is made up of our representatives and senators. Most of these are outdoorsmen and women just like their costituents and they care about the impacts that all of these have in our state. We are fortunate to have our very own Sen. Goldfinch serving on this committee and we are also fortunate that Sen. Chip Campsen(District 43) is the chairman of this committee in the senate. This week we have Sen. Campsen join us to talk about several pressing issues here in South Carolina. At the top of that list is the fact that our timber business in South Carolina is in a decline and the impoortance of this to our states economy is one that may surprise most. We dive into the issues and we also discuss in detail the possible resolutions that have been brought to the attention of the statehouse and the committee's. We hope that our men and women in the timber and pulp wood busness in our state know that there are people working to help save your future and to help ensure this sector of our state economy continues to thrive and grow, Enjoy!!! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/trilogy-outdoors--5441492/support.

Ian welcomes two of the creative forces behind the new movie Adam the First : writer/director Irving Franco and star Oakes Fegley!The film centers on Adam (Fegley), a 14-year-old boy who embarks on a journey to find his birth father, after tragedy forces him from the home he grew up in. In this modern spin on the classic hero's journey, Adam encounters various father figures who contribute to his understanding of the world and himself--culminating in one of the most moving endings you'll see all year.In this conversation, the guys talk about crafting this very personal yet ambitiously universal story; how Oakes sees Adam as a different kind of character from the troubled youths he's played in films like Pete's Dragon, The Goldfinch, and The Fabelmans; filming that emotional final scene; and more!Plus: Watch Ian tap dance around spoilers like nobody's business!Adam the First is now playing in select theaters.Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!Show LinksWatch the Adam the First trailer.Learn more about Adam the First and other projects from Electric Entertainment.

Accomplished in traditional filmmaking with Goldfinch, Oscar and BAFTA winning producer Phil McKenzie set his sights on changing the film industry by leading the charge in Film3 with his work at watch & earn Film3 streaming platform myco. Listen to his insightful chat with Jordan. Brought to you by The Squad. ------------------------------- JORDAN BAYNE OFFICIAL WEBSITE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.jordanbayne.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TWITTER ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/jordanbayne⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ INSTAGRAM ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/jordan_bayne⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LINKEDIN ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-bayne⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------------------------------ The Film3 OG and the Next Wave of Cinema Podcast is hosted by Jordan Bayne, the award winning filmmaker and thought leader behind the Film3 Movement. This podcast has conversations with the cutting edge thought leaders, artists, filmmakers and creators who are trailblazing the Film3 Movement alongside Jordan and The Squad to create a better future for filmmakers. ------------------------------ RESOURCE LINKS THE SQUAD OFFICIAL WEBSITE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.filmsquad.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ THE SQUAD TWITTER ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Film3Squad⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ THE SQUAD DISCORD ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠discord.gg/K9DEfNaSYn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ THE SQUAD INSTAGRAM ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/film3squad⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ THE SQUAD YOUTUBE ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF-bQ4_cNRth0XE-C60wzvw⁠⁠⁠ ------------------------------ PHIL MCKENZIE X https://twitter.com/PAWmckenzie PHIL MCKENZIE INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/pawmckenzie/ PHIL MCKENZIE LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-mckenzie/ GOLDFINCH X https://twitter.com/goldfinchent GOLDFINCH LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/company/goldfinchentertainment/ GOLDFINCH IG https://www.instagram.com/goldfinchuk/ MYCO X https://twitter.com/myco_io MYCO LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/company/myco-io/ MYCO IG https://www.instagram.com/myco.io/ BIO: Phil McKenzie Phil McKenzie is an Oscar and BAFTA winning producer, the cofounder of Goldfinch the leading UK finance and production company, as well as myco the worlds first web3 watch & earn streaming platform and First Flights the award winning short film fund and educational hub. Click SUBSCRIBE so you never miss an episode.

It's Donna Tartt appreciation week! Michelle joins us for our deep dive into The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt's brilliant, award-winning novel about art, drugs, loss, and not always getting what you want. Also this week Joseph read Death Valley by Melissa Broder and Duty Free Art by Hito Steyerl, Michelle read A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister and Fire and Blood by George R R Martin, and Saph read Son of Rosemary by Ira Levin and Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories. This week's listener recommendation request comes from Edward who is looking for a great (auto)biography. Joseph recommends Girl In A Band by Kim Gordon. Saph recommends Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner and Take Away by Angela Hui. Michelle recommends Clothes Clothes Clothes, Music Music Music, Boys Boys Boys by Viv Albertine, Seabiscuit: The True Story of Three Men and a Racehorse by Laura Hillenbrand, and Educated by Tara Westover. Also mentioned in this episode:The Secret History and The Little Friend by Donna TarttMilk Fed by Melissa BroderGreat Expectations by Charles DickensWhores of Yore Twitter accounte-fluxSee the Novel Thoughts bookshop page for all books mentioned in this episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Special announcement: WE LAUNCHED AN ONLINE COMMUNITY AND A PATREON! :') Join our Patreon to become a member of the Espresso Epilogues book club, join our Discord server to meet like-minded people, and access some really cool (I promise) merch. We'll love you forever and probably include you in our next gratitude meditation. In this episode, we (attempt to) speed-review the books we read in 2023! The good, the bad, the 5-star favorites, the 1-star disappointments. Including books like 100 Years of Solitude, The Island of Missing Trees, The Goldfinch, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Crime and Punishment, White Nights, Piranesi, Swimming in the Dark, and more. Thank you for listening! To contact us, see some great book memes, or give us episode ideas: Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠@espressoepilogues⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@espresso.epilogues⁠⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠

Chris Williams welcomes Jeff Woody and Shawn Nuetzman of Goldfinch Athletics to discuss getting into shape, where to start with New Year's resolutions, and the nutrition behind it all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DENIS O'HARE has been nominated 3 times for Emmy Awards for his work in THIS IS US and AMERICAN HORROR STORY. Other television appearances include THE NEVERS, TRYING, TRUE BLOOD, AMERICAN GODS, THE GOOD WIFE, and BIG LITTLE LIES. He won the Tony Award for Richard Greenberg's TAKE ME OUT (Obie Award, Drama Desk Award) and an OBIE for his performance in AN ILIAD of which he is also the co-writer. Other stage credits include ASSASSINS (Tony nomination), SWEET CHARITY (Drama Desk Award), CABARET, INHERIT THE WIND, MAJOR BARBARA, ELLING, RACING DEMON, HAUPTMANN, INTO THE WOODS, TEN UNKNOWNS, and TARTUFFE at London's National Theatre. Film credits include INFINITE STORM, SWALLOW, LATE NIGHT, THE GOLDFINCH, NOVITIATE, THE NORMAL HEART, DALLAS BUYERS CLUB, THE PROPOSAL, DUPLICITY, MILK , CHANGELING, CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, MICHAEL CLAYTON, A MIGHTY HEART, HALF NELSON, GARDEN STATE, 21 GRAMS, THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY, PRIVATE LIFE, and THE PARTING GLASS of which he is the screenwriter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Capt. E and the Senator are back in the Trilogy Outdoors studio this week. Lots of great topics as they discuss coyote regulations here in South Carolina as well as some great "off topic" conversation. Also in this episode, Rick Austin and his wife Heidi joined the Goldfinch's for an elk hunt out in Colorado. Heidi was blessed to be drawn for a bull tag in Colorado and they sat around the campfire and had a great discussion about women in hunting. It's great to have the Senator back in the states and recovering well from his surgery. 2024 is a big year in this country. Senator Goldfinch as well as many of our friends of Trilogy Outdoors are up for re-election and we hope that you will get out and support them and all the things that we love to enjoy about the outdoors. These are very important times ahead and we can only make changes at the ballot boxes. Enjoy!!!!!!!!! Happy Thanksgiving!

This week on the TeamBuildr coaches round table we have Tucker Herzberg from Goldfinch Sports Performance on the show. Tucker has been the director of sports performance at Goldfinch for 3+ years and has been using Teambuildr the whole time. Find out some of the great ways he uses it in his programming. ___TRY US OUT:24 hour access for ONLY $1: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/monthly-order___CONNECT:

There are works of weird fiction that dispense their strangeness so subtly that many readers never pick up on it, books that allow themselves to be pass for mundane, the better to haunt us after we put them down. Donna Tartt's debut novel The Secret History, published in 1992, is such a work. On the surface, it is a brilliant, yet completely naturalistic, telling of the lead-up and aftermath of a murder. But The Secret History is also a work of the depths, and readers who go in seeking the Weird will find it lurking on every page. More than a masterpiece of psychological exploration, it is a story about the resurgence of the old god Dionysus, and a chronicle of fate; fate conceived, in the manner of the Ancient Greeks, as a cosmic force. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird sountrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Donna Tartt, The Secret History (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781400031702) Robertson Davies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson_Davies), Canadian novelist Weird Studies, Episode 98 on Exotica (https://www.weirdstudies.com/98) M. R. James (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._R._James), English author Weird Studies, Episode 3 on “The White People” (https://www.weirdstudies.com/3) E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781773239187) Jean Cocteau, La Machine Infernale (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9782253009160) John Crowley, Little, Big (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780061120053) Star Trek: The Next Generation, “The Outrageous Okana” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708816/) Weird Studies, Episode 110 on “The Glass Bead Game” (https://www.weirdstudies.com/110) Gabriel Faure, Nocturne No. 11 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8vrmePFUdg) Pierre-André Boutang, L'Abécédaire de Gilles Deleuze (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyXMmx2Ofgs) Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780316055444)

On this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, editor Kelley Dixon (OBI-WAN KENOBI, THE GOLDFINCH, BREAKING BAD) joins us for a conversation about all things editing. Kelley starts by sharing her experience working in the MGM/UA mailroom and delivering script pages to the editorial department where she quickly found herself helping cut scenes. Kelley later describes learning the potential applications of visual effects if money is no object and how that insight expanded her way of thinking when approaching editorial problems on projects with relatively larger budgets. We discuss how editing can be used to bring the audience into the state-of-mind of a character and how Kelley works with a director to realize their vision in the edit. Throughout the episode, we debate whether or not editing is an invisible art, and we contemplate our favourite note: “Can you just make it better?” - This episode is sponsored by Fiilex Instagram: @fiilexled

***THIS IS AN EPISODE FROM THE ARCHIVES! We're starting to put our back catalogue on our new feed as we migrated to podbean a few months ago, but couldn't transfer everything at once. This was originally released on 9/27/19.*** Mulder and Mr. Positivity discuss what they've seen lately and Mulder completes the Movie Challenge on The Crow. Movies discussed in this episode: Last Blood (2019), The Goldfinch (2019), Ad Astra (2019), The Handmaiden (2016), The Crow (1994), Blood Rage (1987) and The King of Comedy (1982). You can follow us on Twitter/X right HERE. Brett/Wolfie's Twitter/X can be found HERE. If you feel so inclined, you can support the show financially by grabbing some WTM merch right HERE. You can find Mulder on Letterboxd HERE. Wolfie's profile can be found HERE.

On the morning of 12 October 1654, in the Dutch city of Delft, a sudden explosion was followed by a thunderclap that could be heard more than 70 miles away. Carel Fabritius - now known across the world for his exquisite painting 'The Goldfinch' - had been at work in his studio. He, along with many others, would not survive the day.In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to The Observer's art critic Laura Cumming whose new book, Thunderclap: A memoir of art and life & sudden death, reveals her passion for the art of the Dutch Golden Age and her determination to lift up the reputation of Fabritius. This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg.Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians including Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up here >You can take part in our listener survey here >For more Not Just The Tudors content, subscribe to our Tudor Tuesday newsletter here > Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Found throughout North America, the common sunflower can grow up to ten feet high, towering over other herbs and grasses. And that's only half the story: their roots can reach just as deep in the soil. They're rugged, adaptable plants that bring beauty — and food — to the ecosystem. Planting sunflowers in a public green space or a backyard can benefit pollinator insects as well as finches and other birds that seek out their seeds, which often last well into the winter.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

We asked ChatGPT, “What's the scoop on the future of Visual Art and AI?” It told us that AI has waltzed into the world of art like a rockstar crashing a ballroom dance. Machine learning algorithms are joining forces with artists and tech gurus to defy the limits of the canvas, cooking up art like a gourmet chef crafting a delicious culinary masterpiece. These include generative art, where algorithms breathe life into pixels and polygons – and AI's collaboration with artists that will make your imagination cartwheel. More: Flair-packed Style Transfer. Mind-bending Neural Doodle. Dreamlike Deep Dream. Mind-blowing AI-enhanced image editing. Mind-expanding AI-assisted 3D modeling. And always, we asked ChatGPT to sprinkle cinematic stardust with fictional movie character quotes about art: • “Every artist has their own unique voice. It's our duty to let it out and let it be heard.” Jackson Maine in A Star is Born (2018) • “The purpose of art is to provoke, to challenge, and to make people feel something they've never felt before.” Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011) • “I don't want to be just a painter; I want to be Van Gogh.” Theo Decker in The Goldfinch (2019) • “Artists have to be selfish sometimes, right? Gotta do what you gotta do to create something special.” Cole Carter in We Are Your Friends (2015) We'll ask S.A. Grant, Sandy Davies, Ursula Wong, and Winona W. Wendth for their predictions that could leave Dali, Rembrandt, Picasso, and Warhol in awe. Join us for The Future of Art and AI: What Would the Giants of Art Say? – Part 2. Hold onto your beret, this ride's about to take off!

We asked ChatGPT, “What's the scoop on the future of Visual Art and AI?” It told us that AI has waltzed into the world of art like a rockstar crashing a ballroom dance. Machine learning algorithms are joining forces with artists and tech gurus to defy the limits of the canvas, cooking up art like a gourmet chef crafting a delicious culinary masterpiece. These include generative art, where algorithms breathe life into pixels and polygons – and AI's collaboration with artists that will make your imagination cartwheel. More: Flair-packed Style Transfer. Mind-bending Neural Doodle. Dreamlike Deep Dream. Mind-blowing AI-enhanced image editing. Mind-expanding AI-assisted 3D modeling. And always, we asked ChatGPT to sprinkle cinematic stardust with fictional movie character quotes about art: • “Every artist has their own unique voice. It's our duty to let it out and let it be heard.” Jackson Maine in A Star is Born (2018) • “The purpose of art is to provoke, to challenge, and to make people feel something they've never felt before.” Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011) • “I don't want to be just a painter; I want to be Van Gogh.” Theo Decker in The Goldfinch (2019) • “Artists have to be selfish sometimes, right? Gotta do what you gotta do to create something special.” Cole Carter in We Are Your Friends (2015) We'll ask S.A. Grant, Sandy Davies, Ursula Wong, and Winona W. Wendth for their predictions that could leave Dali, Rembrandt, Picasso, and Warhol in awe. Join us for The Future of Art and AI: What Would the Giants of Art Say? – Part 2. Hold onto your beret, this ride's about to take off!

We asked ChatGPT, “What's the scoop on the future of Visual Art and AI?” It told us that AI has waltzed into the world of art like a rockstar crashing a ballroom dance. Machine learning algorithms are joining forces with artists and tech gurus to defy the limits of the canvas, cooking up art like a gourmet chef crafting a delicious culinary masterpiece. These include generative art, where algorithms breathe life into pixels and polygons – and AI's collaboration with artists that will make your imagination cartwheel. More: Flair-packed Style Transfer. Mind-bending Neural Doodle. Dreamlike Deep Dream. Mind-blowing AI-enhanced image editing. Mind-expanding AI-assisted 3D modeling. And always, we asked ChatGPT to sprinkle cinematic stardust with fictional movie character quotes about art: • “Every artist has their own unique voice. It's our duty to let it out and let it be heard.” Jackson Maine in A Star is Born (2018) • “The purpose of art is to provoke, to challenge, and to make people feel something they've never felt before.” Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011) • “I don't want to be just a painter; I want to be Van Gogh.” Theo Decker in The Goldfinch (2019) • “Artists have to be selfish sometimes, right? Gotta do what you gotta do to create something special.” Cole Carter in We Are Your Friends (2015) We'll ask S.A. Grant, Sandy Davies, Ursula Wong, and Winona W. Wendth for their predictions that could leave Dali, Rembrandt, Picasso, and Warhol in awe. Join us for The Future of Art and AI: What Would the Giants of Art Say? – Part 2. Hold onto your beret, this ride's about to take off!

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest crypto news. This week, the crew is joined by Goldfinch co-founder Blake West to talk about the momentum around asset tokenization. Whether it's private credit (what Goldfinch specializes in) or U.S. Treasurys (what Robert's new venture Superstate will tackle), real-world assets (RWAs) are en vogue among the crypto set. What's driving this fresh interest in an old concept that has failed to take off? Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights:  how Blake got into RWAs why Robert launched his new company Superstate why Robert hates the term “real-world asset” why the only actual RWA in the blockchain space is the U.S. dollar, aka stablecoins why other non-native crypto assets have struggled to migrate onto blockchains how having on-chain T-bills could push demand for stablecoins why private credit is a good thing to bring on chain, according to Blake what the not-so-obvious benefits of bringing these things onto blockchains are whether Arkham's model of de-anonymizing people goes against the ethos of crypto Hosts Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly  Robert Leshner, founder of Compound Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly  Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures Guest: Blake West, cofounder of Goldfinch Disclosures Links Unchained: Compound Founder Creates ‘Superstate' to Bridge TradFi and Blockchains Arkham Launches Bounty Marketplace to Trade Crypto Wallet Intel MakerDAO Mulls Proposal to Allocate $750 Million More to US Treasuries MakerDAO Has Brought in Real World Assets. Is It Worth the Risk? CoinDesk: Tokenized U.S. Treasurys Surpass $600M as Crypto Investors Capture TradFi Yield Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We asked ChatGPT: “Tell me about the future of Visual Art and AI.” ChatGPT response: Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly popular tool in the field of art, with artists and technologists exploring the potential of machine learning algorithms to generate and manipulate images, music, and other creative works. AI applications can assist visual artists in creating art, improving their workflow, and exploring new creative possibilities. We asked ChatGPT: “Tell me about DALL_E.” ChatGPT response: DALL-E is a state-of-the-art AI language model developed by OpenAI that can generate images from textual descriptions. The name “DALL-E” is a combination of the artist Salvador Dali and the Pixar character WALL-E. With DALL-E, users can input textual descriptions of objects, scenes, or even abstract concepts, and the AI will generate a corresponding image. We asked ChatGPT: “Send me quotes about artists from fictional characters in real movies.” ChatGPT response: – “Every artist has their own unique voice. It's our duty to let it out and let it be heard.” [A Star is Born, 2018] – “The purpose of art is to provoke, to challenge, and to make people feel something they've never felt before.” [Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, 2011] – “I don't want to be just a painter; I want to be Van Gogh.” [The Goldfinch, 2019] – “Artists have to be selfish sometimes, right? Gotta do what you gotta do to create something special.” [We Are Your Friends, 2015] We'll ask Sandy Davies, Ursula Wong, S.A. Grant, Nicky Jurd, and Morgan O'Donnell for their take on The Future of Art and AI: What Would Dali, Rembrandt, Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse and Pollock Say?