Podcasts about Great hall

The Silly History Boys most Dear Uncle is off on tour with the Story Forge Show! And YOU are invited…on an hilariously unique family-friendly theatrical adventure!  Join the ludicrously learned (and undeniably loopy) duo, Professor Doctor Lee Hithersay and Doctor Professor Robert Rhys Bond, as they embark on a quest to forge three brand-new myths live on stage! Will your adventure unfold on the sun-drenched shores of Ancient Egypt, amidst the icy fjords of Viking legend, or in the inky depths of Neptune's ocean? The choice is yours! Shape the narrative, suggest the world, and even take centre stage as the hero of your very own myth (participation entirely optional, shy souls still welcome!). Forge your own unforgettable story and become a legend – you'd be mad to myth it! Nice Things People have said about Story Forge...     TICKET LINKS and Venues all Below      Suitable for ages 7+ Running time 1 hour and no interval     Derby Theatre September 20th, 11am and 2pm https://derbytheatre.co.uk/event/story-forge/     Maesteg Town Hall November 6th at 1.30 https://awenboxoffice.com/whats-on/the-story-forge-make-your-own-myth/   Hoole Community Centre in Chester September 21st at 1.30pm https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/chester/hoole-community-centre/rubbish-shakespeare-company-silly-history-boys-the-story-forge-make-your-own-myth/e-lellam   Chelmsford theatre, Saturday the 27th of September  11.30 and 14.30 https://www.chelmsfordtheatre.co.uk/event/the-story-forge-make-your-own-myth   Farnham Maltings, the Great Hall, Sunday the 28th of September. 11am and 2.30 https://farnhammaltings.com/events/the-story-forge   Friday the 3rd of October, 6pm https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/chester/tarvin-community-centre/the-story-forge-make-your-own-myth-the-rubbish-shakespeare-company-silly-history-boys/e-xokpvr    Gosforth Civic Theatre, 4th of October, Newcastle 11am and 2pm https://www.gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk/whats-on/the-story-forge-make-your-own-myth   Queens Hall Hexham, 5th of October, at 2pm https://www.queenshall.co.uk/whats-on/the-story-forge-make-your-own-myth   The Stables Milton Keynes, 11th of October at 2pm  https://stables.org/event/rubbish-shakespeare-company-the-silly-history-boys-the-story-forge   Story Forge Warwick Arts Centre, October 12th. 11.30 and 2.30 https://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/whats-on/nvO-the-story-forge-make-your-own-myth/   Story Forge Armly/Leeds, St Bartholomew church, for Red Ladder Theatre Company  https://www.redladder.co.uk/whatson/story-forge/   Dorman Museum November 9th. 11.30 and 2.30 https://online1.venpos.net/ConsumerSite/VisitDateTime?LID=936&PID=440cf6d7-e6ee-48c9-aee5-b0e31a1d3d1a&LNG=en&VD=2025-11-09T00%3A00%3A00     The Story Forge was banged together with the molten talents of these nice people…   Performed by Lee Hithersay, Robert Rhys Bond and Oliver Wilson, Ryan Byrne and Daniel Bradley  Props and costume design by Alice Rowbottom Set design by Alex MacDonald Lighting Design by Beccy Hillam Written by Robert Rhys Bond and Lee Hithersay Directed by Mark Smith    

President Xi Jinping reaffirmed on Thursday China's commitment to maintaining, consolidating and developing its relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, saying that this position will never change no matter how the international situation evolves.Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during a meeting with Kim Jong-un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.Kim arrived in the Chinese capital on Tuesday to attend commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the World Anti-Fascist War.This marks his first visit to China since early 2019, and also the first time since becoming the top leader of the DPRK that Kim has appeared alongside more than 20 world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, when they attended the grand military parade on Wednesday in Beijing."I feel pleased to meet with you again after six years," Xi said, recalling his state visit to the neighboring country in June 2019, during which he had felt a closeness as with family members between the two countries.Xi said Kim's attendance at the commemoration demonstrated the DPRK's firm commitment to safeguarding the victorious outcome of World War II, and also provided an important opportunity for the two parties and countries to further advance their friendly and cooperative relations.China will, as always, support the DPRK in pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions and in opening new prospects for its socialist cause, Xi said.He expressed Beijing's readiness to strengthen high-level exchanges and strategic communication with Pyongyang, deepen exchanges of experience in party and state governance, enhance mutual understanding and friendship, and promote closer interactions at all levels as well as practical cooperation in various fields.Xi noted that in the face of unprecedented global challenges, he has successively put forward the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, as well as the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Governance Initiative, all of which have received active support and response from the DPRK.He called on the two countries to strengthen strategic coordination in international and regional affairs to safeguard their common interests.On the Korean Peninsula issue, Xi said China has always upheld an objective and fair position and stands ready to continue working with the DPRK to safeguard peace and stability on the peninsula.Kim said he was filled with deep feelings to be meeting with Xi again after six years."Over these six years, China has undergone tremendous changes and development, which has left a strong impression on me. What I feel even more profoundly, however, is the enduring friendship between the peoples of the DPRK and China that has never changed," he said, noting that no matter how the world situation may evolve, the friendship will remain forever.He also reaffirmed that the DPRK will continue to firmly support China's position on issues concerning its core interests, and support China in safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.Kim also expressed gratitude to China for its long-standing, unswerving support and assistance for the cause of socialism in the DPRK.Kim added that his country is willing to maintain close exchanges between the two parties and governments at all levels and deepen mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation to deliver more tangible results, among other things.He said the DPRK appreciates China's fair position on the Korean Peninsula issue and stands ready to continue strengthening coordination with China at the United Nations and other multilateral platforms to safeguard their common and fundamental interests.Accompanying Kim on the visit were DPRK Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and senior officials from key departments of both the WPK Central Committee and the DPRK government.On Thursday evening, Xi had a chat over tea with Kim and hosted a banquet in his honor.

An evening gala was held on Wednesday in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. About 6,000 Chinese and foreign guests gathered to attend the gala. A relative of the Flying Tigers veteran was moved to tears when talking about his feeling after watching the performance. Who were invited to the gala? Follow China Daily reporter Peng Yixuan to the Great Hall of the People and find out!

President Xi Jinping said humanity faces "a choice between peace and war” as China paraded a huge arsenal of weapons – including nuclear missiles – in Beijing yesterday. Xi's military parade, watched over by Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, seemed a provocation to the west – most notably, Donald Trump – and a signal of his will to redraw the world order, lessening China's reliance on the US. In today's episode, the BBC's Celia Hatton considers: how long will China's friendships last with world leaders who have for years been its rivals? Producers: Hannah Moore and Lucy Pawle Executive Producer: James Shield Mix: Travis Evans Senior News Editor: China CollinsImage: Xi Jingping at a WW2 anniversary reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Florence Lo/Reuters

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The ninth Sunday after Pentecost - Pastor James Pierce

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Hour 4: The Great Hall of Fame Debate full 2160 Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:22:00 +0000 oAbVsdNJEM7naIvXWqBl6cCfOWmDvpCO sports The Morning Roast with Spadoni and Shasky sports Hour 4: The Great Hall of Fame Debate Weekdays 6-10 am with Spadoni and Shasky. © 2025 Audacy, Inc. Sports False https://player.amperwavepodcasting.com?feed-link=https%

Are you ready to put your wizarding skills to the test?

In this very special episode of CORVETTE TODAY, we celebrate 40 years of the famous Corvette Hunter, Kevin Mackay and his Corvette Repair shop in Long Island, New York. Kevin joins your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, to reminesce about his career and the history of the famous Corvettes he has hunted down, purchased and restored. Kevin tells you how he started his Corvette career, his very first repair shop,many of the cars that he has preserved for Corvette history.  He also talks about induction into the Great Hall of Bloomington Gold plus his famous cutaway 1953 Corvette VIN #003 that is on permanent display at the National Corvette Museum. If you love Corvette history, do not miss this show!  Get to know Kevin Mackay, up close and personal, on this episode of CORVETTE TODAY!

Send us a textIn this episode, we rank the seven most important sets of the Harry Potter films. Enjoy!Topics/Summary:·      2:11 #7: Ollivander's Wand Shop. We aren't there for too long, but what goes on here is extremely important. This is where Harry got his first wand and learned of the twin cores, themes that would follow him forever.·      9:49 #6: Gringotts's Bank. This beats Ollivander's because more happens here. Harry gets his fortune here, and it is the first building he went in in Diagon Alley. This is also the site of their flight from the security after getting the Hufflepuff Cup from the Lestrange vault.·      16:36 #5: Platform 9 ¾ and the Hogwarts Express. What an iconic set. We take these two for granted after seeing the films so many times, but we can't deny just how integral they are for the story and just how much we would miss them if they were gone. ·      21:10 #4: The Ministry of Magic. The first time we go here is in the fifth book, but it is one of the most important places for the story after that. It represents the forces of evil trying to take away Harry's freedom, the freedom of the rest of the wizarding world by extension. ·      25:18 #3: The Burrow. There is a incredible amount of character with the Burrow. It is messy, but full of family. As Voldemort's power grows, it comes to represent all that is good with the wizarding world and the resistance that will never stop fighting. The Burrow is true to itself.·      29:05 #2: 4 Privet Drive. This is a now brainer. 4 Privet Drive is a tough place for Harry, but it is the place where he grew up and learned about himself and his past whether he likes it or not. Name a more iconic place than the cupboard under the stairs, I dare you. When Harry is saying goodbye to this home in the final book, we realize just how much his childhood home meant to him despite all he went through within its walls.·      34:42 #1: The Great Hall. This is where the story begins and ends. Harry is sorted here and finds his friends and family. In the end, this is where he has one final duel with Voldemort and claims victory for the wizarding world. Having anything you want to hear or say? Click here for a voice submission or here for text. ThePotterDiscussion@gmail.comthepotterdiscussion.comNox

Attending a New York Yankees game at Yankee Stadium is a phenomenal experience for locals and tourists alike.With its deep history, cheap ticket prices (generally), and a fun atmosphere, it's an activity we highly recommend!

Join Sam, Sierra, Sophia, and special guest Amy (Revelio and Expecto Podtronum) as they dive headfirst into a world of magical love triangles, adapting tropes, and enough will-they-won't-they to fill the Great Hall. So grab your butterbeer, popcorn, settle in, and get ready to swoon, cringe, and laugh out loud as we reimagine Harry as a romantic lead. Join the discussion:  https://threebroomstickspod.com/episode-63-what-if-harry-potter-was-a-rom-com/ In this episode:   We all forget movies exist Tropes on tropes on tropes Rom-Coms, not just for adults Kreacher and Dobby OTP Forget about Ginny Book 6 is Ron's Rom-Com Suddenly a pro Ministry pod?! Cormac and Hermione: masters of the breakup Lestrange constantly gets obliviated Voldemort has amazing love speeches For more from our guest, Amy Hogan: Expecto Podtronum: http://www.expectopodtronum.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/expectopodtronum/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expectopodtronum TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@expectopodtronum Twitter: https://x.com/expectopod Revelio: http://www.reveliopodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RevelioCast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reveliopodcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reveliopodcast Twitter: https://x.com/Revelio_Podcast Contact: Website: https://threebroomstickspod.com/ Email: 3broomstickspod@gmail.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/3broomsticks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/threebroomstickspod/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/threebroomstickspodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/threebroompod YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@ThreeBroomsticksPodcast

The guys sample Labatt Blue in the very town that it's brewed. Founded in 1847, Labatt Brewing Company is the largest brewer in Canada. This episode was recorded Feb 25th 2025 at The Great Hall in Toronto.Labatt Blue is available in select stores. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textIn this episode, we analyze the larger implications of Fred's death. Enjoy!Topics/Summary:·      2:14 Fred is killed in the Battle of Hogwarts in the seventh book. It really represents the death of Harry's past, and puts into starker contrast the fact that he can never go back. Of course, Harry can't go back to events that have already happened, but this is just a symbolic death that more absolutely illustrates the finality of this battle.·      12:34 This is not a game. Fred is light-hearted and full of life and humor. He is a character who we except to live forever. We know that there will be some death, but Fred seems almost removed from this. So when he is killed, it is a shocking blow that really shows us that this battle will not be without blood.·      15:48 The battle will not be without sacrifice. Voldemort has to sacrifice a lot to get where he is. Killing and making horcruxes is his MO. Fred's death shows us that Harry and the others also have to make sacrifices in order to win. Those sacrifices will often be in the form of death.·      23:13 The end of Percy's arc. He returns to Hogwarts for the beginning of the battle, then witnesses the death of his brother. These are the two major events in the story that mark the end of his arc. He made choices in early books that he may come to regret, and the time he spent with the ministry took him away from his family and gave him less time with Fred. This is the fragmented ending he merits.·      29:40 It makes it personal for the Weasleys. Seeing some members of the Order dead is terrible. But it's not quite personal for other people. To see Fred dead in the Great Hall hits right at home for them.Having anything you want to hear or say? Click here for a voice submission or here for text. ThePotterDiscussion@gmail.comthepotterdiscussion.comNox

The United States Oath of Citizenship is the destination of some of the brightest minds and biggest hearts that call our nation home. Inspired by the naturalization ceremony at Ellis Island's Great Hall on Constitution Day 2022, this episode traces the paths of our hosts' ancestors.  We'd like to honor every family's story by sharing the origins of Lissa & Thom from their roots in Italy and Poland. The Crisis Cast team invites you to share your story. Simply record a voice memo and email it to theccasteam@gmail. Be sure to include your first name and where you listen to our show.

Send us a textIn this episode, we discuss the Battle of Hogwarts in the TV show. Enjoy!Topics/Summary:·      2:09 The charge of the houselves. This moment is only in the book, but is impactful. Kreacher has finally found something that he believes in, and it would be a shame if his arc ends without that final resolution of charging into battle. This shows us that everyone is involved. ·      10:21 Fred's death. This is one of the most shocking deaths in the battle because it represents the death of Harry's past. Fred was full of life and humor with so much ahead of him, but that all came to an end. We don't even get to see it in the film, despite the fact that it is a big moment in the book.·      15:56 Peeves. He is famously left out of the films, but he has been cast in the TV show. Peeves in fighting on the front lines along with all the rest of the students. This is impactful because he was once the thorn in the side of the castle, but know he puts his jokes aside to stand and fight. It highlights just how important this battle is.·      19:39 The epic final showdown. It is epic in the film, but it's not the same as the book. As cool as it is to watch, I prefer the sequence in the book because of the symbolic nature of the Great Hall and the more final sense in the air.·      24:23 Details that we should include, or not. The flying duel in the air is super weird. They crash into the castle and Voldemort squishes their heads together? I'm good. Harry breaking the elder wand in the film is a great detail that should be included in the TV show. I also want to have a more effective explanation for the transfer of ownership of the elder wand, because it was the motivation for Snape's murder.Having anything you want to hear or say? Click here for a voice submission or here for text. ThePotterDiscussion@gmail.comthepotterdiscussion.comNox

Help MuggleCast grow! Become a MuggleCast Member and get great benefits like Bonus MuggleCast! Patreon.com/MuggleCast  Grab official merch! MuggleCastMerch.com Pick up overstock merch from years past, including our 19th Anniversary Shirt! MuggleMillennial.Etsy.com On this week's episode, get your copy of The Quibbler (and quickly transfigure it) before Umbridge bans it! Join Andrew, Eric, Laura and Micah as they enjoy a brief compliment from Snape and finally get through *that* door at the Department of Mysteries! Chapter-by-Chapter continues with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 26: Seen and Unforseen. MuggleCast last discussed this chapter on Episode 463! Could Hermione have been a little softer on Harry concerning Cho? Does she share any blame for double-booking him in Hogsmeade? Hermione criticizes her friends reactions to the outcome of the Quidditch match. Does she have any fun outlets? Harry is having FOMO watching Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor. But let's face it, it's not easy watching from the sidelines! Shockingly, Snape comes the closest he ever has to actually caring about teaching Harry Occlumency, but... of course... has to have the last laugh! We draw comparisons between Lupin teaching Harry the Patronus Charm and Snape teaching Harry Occlumency. Should Harry be farther along given he's been at this for two months? How did Harry get through the Department of Mysteries door during his Occlumency lesson when he's never been there in his dreams? The hosts agree that Dumbledore had Firenze in his back pocket to take over for Trelawney. Who did Dumbledore have on tap as a replacement for Hagrid? Voldemort finally learns only he or Harry can retrieve the prophecy. How is this not more common knowledge in the Wizarding World? How would've things been different if Voldemort never wasted time with this plan? Harry has direct line of sight into Voldemort's plan with Lucius Malfoy, Sturgis Podmore, Broderick Bode and Avery. Why not leak this info to The Quibbler? Odds & Ends cover The Streisand Effect and The Astronomy Tower MVP: Best All-Time Trelawney Moments (before she was fired) Lynx Line: Our patrons write Harry a short piece of fan-mail OR hate-mail to be delivered via Owl Post to the Great Hall at breakfast! Quizzitch: In banning The Quibbler, Umbridge only raises more interest in it. The concept of banning something only making it more popular is colloquially known as The Streisand Effect, after actress Barbara Streisand sued a photographer for publishing a photo in 2003. What was the photo of?   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you ready to put your wizarding skills to the test?

Send us a textIn this episode, we talk about moments in the films that should be in the TV show. Enjoy!Topics/Summary:·      2:10 Harry breaking the elder wand. In the book, Harry simply repairs his own wand then returns the elder wand to Dumbledore's grave. It's a nice message, but the film does this much better. Harry snapping the wand and throwing it off the bridge shows a much more powerful ending and a more finite ending to a painful journey. ·      10:04 McGonagall teaching the students to dance. This is a really funny scene and one that deserves a spot in the TV show. But it is also a perfect example of what is to come. Just as Harry has to learn to dance, he also has to learn how to fight and hunt Voldemort. ·      15:15 Harry and Hermione in the tent. After Ron leaves, Hermione wallows in sadness. Harry sees this and leads her in a dance. This illustrates Harry and Hermione's relationship which is one we don't get to see to often. ·      19:14 A weird Voldemort death. Voldemort isn't human at the end, but in the book, he just dies and they put him in a room off the Great Hall. The film makes the wise decision of showing a weird death fitting of someone who has departed humanity, and the TV show should be taking notes. This moment should be more than an old man keeling over.·      24:21 Neville's bridge. He is always making progress, and this last sequence is the final test for him, a test he passes. This bridge scene where he takes down a hoard of death eaters is such an important scene that isn't in the book, and the TV show should include it to finish off Neville's arc in style.Having anything you want to hear or say? Click here for a voice submission or here for text. ThePotterDiscussion@gmail.comthepotterdiscussion.comNox

Welcome to the eight episode of ‘Yer a Wizard', a Harry Potter Sleep Saga where you are the main character.  Your First Morning at Hogwarts! In tonight's episode you will spend a cosy morning in the castle, on your first day of School. You will meet a wonderful new companion, and enjoy a magical breakfast feast in the Great Hall, before being summoned by the Headmaster… If you would like to enjoy ad-free content, exclusive sleep stories, live readings and more, then you can join our wonderful Patreon community here: https://www.patreon.com/sleepycatmeditations  Note: There is no intentional copyright infringement in this meditation. This is an original sleep story, based loosely on the fictional world of Harry Potter created by JK Rowling.

Welcome back to the 227th episode of The Cup which is our a weekly (give or take, TBD, these are unprecedented times) performing arts talk show presented by Cup of Hemlock Theatre. With the theatres on a come back we offer a mix of both reviews of live shows we've seen and continued reviews of prophet productions! For our 227th episode we bring you a Duet Review of Ophis, the latest immersive dance show presented by Transcen|Dance Project. Join Mackenzie Horner and special guest Graeme McClelland, as they discuss how this piece is a reclamation of Medusa and her myth, the plethora of reasons to see this production more than once, and unique and innovative reinterpretation of the God figures of this tale.Ophis is playing at The Great Hall (1087 Queen St W, Toronto, ON) until April 13th, 2025. Tickets can be purchased from the following link: https://www.transcendanceproject.com/tickets This review contains many SPOILERS for Ophis. It will begin with a general non-spoiler review until the [26:37] mark, followed by a more in-depth/anything goes/spoiler-rich discussion. If you intend to see the production, we recommend you stop watching after that point, or at least proceed at your own risk. Follow our panelists: Mackenzie Horner (Before the Downbeat: A Musical Podcast) – Instagram/Facebook: BeforetheDownbeatApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3aYbBeNSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3sAbjAuGraeme McClelland – Instagram: instagraeme999Follow Cup of Hemlock Theatre on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter: @cohtheatreIf you'd like us to review your upcoming show in Toronto, please send press invites/inquiries to coh.theatre.MM@gmail.com

In Chapter 23, Harry takes the boys to The Great Hall for an important announcement about the next steps of the Magilympics, which might lead to a bonerific experience from Harold!Hey! I'm all over the internet doing dumb stuff that I think is cool.Go find me somewhere!!!▶️ Youtube Channel: ⁠youtube.com/radiomike⁠✍️ Read my Blog: ⁠radiomike.substack.com⁠

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 23:00:00 +0000 https://seesee.podigee.io/s3e18-andrei-ionita 8b306c6e95ffcb5e607b501afe394bac In this episode, we have an in-depth conversation with Andrei Ioniță, the prodigious Romanian cellist and winner of the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition. We explore the emotional profundities and rich spectrum of colors that the cello can evoke, and how it reflects the subtleties of human emotion. Andrei shares his thoughts on playing Bach, discussing the personal connection he has with his instrument and his journey as a musician. He also reflects on the nuances of gut strings, the importance of good posture for a cellist, the physical sensation of the cello resting against his body, and how this intimate embrace influences emotional expression and depth of sound, particularly in the intense, low register passages. In this episode dedicated to music, Andrei also discusses his Romanian heritage and how the voice of Romania speaks through his bow, offering a personal insight into his cultural identity. In this episode, he takes us inside his experience during the 15th Tchaikovsky Competition and talks about his most difficult decisions as a musician. Most powerfully, Andrei opens up about how he conveys his whole soul through his music, sharing the courage it takes to be vulnerable and break through at the highest emotional peaks, only to let go and invite the listener into a shared human experience through his playing. This episode is a real treat for the ears and the heart! Andrei Ioniță's carrier it's a journey of emotional reflection and artistic courage – You'll understand what it is meant to “play from the gut”. Website: https://www.andreiionitacellist.com https://www.haefligerproduction.com/andrei-ionita https://www.symphonikerhamburg.de/laeiszhalle-orchester-symphoniker-hamburg/andrei-ionita-135 Instagram: ionita_andrei94 Facebook: Andrei Ioniță - Cellist This episode's Playlist and Playlist's credits: · Papandopulo, Boris. Rhapsodia Concertante: I. Introduzione Tempo Libero. Performed by Oliver Triendl and Andrei Ioniță. On Boris Papandopulo: Works for Piano & Strings, CPO-555106-2, 2021.CD · Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich. Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 (var. VII e Coda : Allegro vivo). Performed by Cellist Andrei Ioniță and the Münchener Philharmoniker conducted by Valery Gergiev recorded at the Philharmonie im Gasteig (Munich, Germany), on May 12, 2017 20:00 © A Coproduction by Munich Philharmonic Orchestra & Telmondis // In Association with medici.tv & Takt1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6dyn2LRxVo · Brett, Dean. 11 Oblique Strategies No. 1. Listen to the Quiet Voice. Performed by Andrei Ioniță. On Oblique Strategies. Orchid Classics ORC100096, 2019. CD. · Brett, Dean. 11 Oblique Strategies No. 5. What are the Sections Sections of? Performed by Andrei Ioniță. On Oblique Strategies. Orchid Classics ORC100096, 2019. CD. · Brahms, Johannes. Cello Suite No. 1 G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prelude. Performed byAndrei Ioniță. On Oblique Strategies. Orchid Classics ORC100096, 2019. CD. · Brahms, Johannes. Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major BWV 1007: III. Courante. Performed by Andrei Ioniță. On Oblique Strategies. Orchid Classics ORC100096, 2019. CD. · Brahms, Johannes. Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114: I. Allegro. Performed by Pablo Barragán, Andrei Ioniță, and Juan Pérez Floristán. On Brahms: Complete Clarinet Sonatas & Trio. IBS Classical, 2018. CD. · Papandopulo, Boris. Concertino in modo antico, OP.56 II Aria. Performed by Oliver Triendl, Amaury Coeytaux, Vanessa Szgeti, and Andrei Ioniță. On Boris Papandopulo:Works for Piano & Strings, CPO-555106-2, 2021.CD · Dmitri, Shostakovich. Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor, Op.40. The XV International Tchaikovsky Competition. Performed by Andrei Ioniţă: Cellist and Seong-Jin Cho: Pianist. Concert recorded at the Salle des Combins (Verbier, Switzerland), on July 25, 2018. © Idéale Audience with the participation of medici.tv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHPd1dN89bM · Dmitri, Shostakovich. Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107 4. Allegro con moto. Performed by Andrei Ionuț Ioniță with the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. The XV International Tchaikovsky Competition's Winners' Concert. Recorded at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, on July 2, 2015. © MUSEEC/medici.tv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzaCNTlJciI · Dmitri Shostakovich. Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107 with the Draft. Performed by Andrei Ionuț Ioniță Orchestra of the Shostakovich State Academic Saint Petersburg Philharmonic conducted by Nikolai Alexeev. Cello: Final Round - Candidate #2 - First Prize - Recorded at the Grand Hall of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, on June 28, 2015, 7:45 p.m. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfkQt0gSiJI · Henryson, Svante. Black Run. Performed by Andrei Ioniță. On Oblique Strategies. Orchid Classics ORC100096, 2019. CD. · Enescu, George: Piano Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 16: II Andante mesto. Performed by Catalin Serban, Andrei Ioniță, Karolina Errera, Suyeon Kang. On Mélodies Infinies: Fauré & Enescu Piano Quartets. Naxos 8.551477, 2024. CD · Papandopulo, Boris. Rapsodia Concertante: I. Introduziene. Tempo libero. Performed by Oliver Triendl, Amaury Coeytaux, Vanessa Szgeti, and Andrei Ioniță. On Boris Papandopulo: Works for Piano & Strings, CPO-555106-2, 2021.CD · Rachmaninoff, Sergei: Sonata -Moll OP 19. Lento- Allegro moderato. 2. Allegro scherzando. 3 Andante. 4 Allegro mosso. Performed by Andrei Ioniță and Andrei Ioniță (Violoncello), Catalin Serban (Piano). Kammermusik am Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung in Zusammenarbeit mit Konzertleben e.V. January 17th, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqpFqwfoBDg · Saint-Saëns, Camille. Concerto No.1 in A minor for Cello and Orchestra Op. 33. Performed by Solist Andrei Ioniță and the Filarmonica George Enescu conducted by Stefan Ausbury Opening Concert October 7th, 2020, at the Romanian Athenaeum lived-streamed on the Institutions Website and YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktTHMbFcyp4 · Papandopulo, Boris. Rapsodia Concertante: I. Introduziene. Tempo libero. Performed by Oliver Triendl, Amaury Coeytaux, Vanessa Szgeti, and Andrei Ioniță. On Boris Papandopulo: Works for Piano & Strings, CPO-555106-2, 2021.CD · Rachmaninoff, Sergei: Sonata -Moll OP 19. Lento- Allegro moderato. 2. Allegro scherzando. 3 Andante. 4 Allegro mosso. Performed by Andrei Ioniță and Andrei Ioniță (Violoncello), Catalin Serban (Piano). Kammermusik am Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung in Zusammenarbeit mit Konzertleben e.V. January 17th, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqpFqwfoBDg · Fauré, Gabriel: Piano Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 15: III Adagio. Performed by Catalin Serban, Andrei Ioniță, Karolina Errera, Suyeon Kang. On Mélodies Infinies: Fauré & Enescu Piano Quartets. Naxos 8.551477, 2024. CD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktTHMbFcyp4 · Saint-Saëns, Camille. Concerto No.1 in A minor for Cello and Orchestra Op. 33. Performed by Solist Andrei Ioniță and the Filarmonica George Enescu conducted by Stefan Ausbury Opening Concert October 7th, 2020, at the Romanian Athenaeum lived-streamed on the Institutions Website and YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktTHMbFcyp4 · Brahms, Johannes. Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114: I. Allegro. Performed by Pablo Barragán, Andrei Ioniță, and Juan Pérez Floristán. On Brahms: Complete Clarinet Sonatas & Trio. IBS Classical, 2018. CD. · Papandopulo, Boris. Rhapsodia Concertante: III. Danza. Allegro. Performed by Oliver Triendl and Andrei Ioniță. On Boris Papandopulo: Works for Piano & Strings, CPO-555106-2, 2021.CD Albums: Available in all Platforms https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/album/3Cqhwf6m3Gl8i0HfDTzln1 https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=C5463 https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/artist/4ITCrIEQbzQVUO8CPHhdLP 3 18 full no Cellist,World famous orchestras,world famous conductors,Tchaikovsky Competition,Bach,Shostakovich,Enescu,Fauré,Gut strings,Posture Dr. Cecilia Ponce Rivera

Emmy-nominated writer, stand-up comic and actor Josh Johnson may be the most prolific comedian on the internet right now. You might recognize him as a regular correspondent on The Daily Show, or maybe you've come across his sharp political critique on TikTok (where he has 2 million followers), or watched one of his longer, philosophical stand-up routines on YouTube (where he has 1.5 million subscribers). Josh is currently touring the country (catch his Flowers Tour in a city near you), but he took a break this week to sit down with Kara at the Great Hall at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. They discussed Josh's entrepreneurial approach to distributing and owning his work, how to make dry political topics like tariffs funny and relatable, what Elon Musk should really be doing with his money and how the ultimate antidote to fear is community. Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are you ready to put your wizarding skills to the test?

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Unveiling the Emperor's Secret: The Quest for the Lost Yùxǐ Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2025-03-23-22-34-02-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 在紫禁城中，春天的阳光轻轻洒在古老的宫墙上，风中飘散着一丝淡淡的花香。En: In the Zǐjìnchéng, the spring sunlight gently kissed the ancient palace walls, and a faint scent of flowers drifted through the breeze.Zh: 在这宏伟的建筑群中，一个不安的谣言正在悄声传开。En: Within this magnificent architectural complex, a restless rumor was quietly spreading.Zh: 皇帝的玉玺失踪了，这个拥有神秘力量的历史宝物不见了。En: The emperor's yùxǐ, a historical treasure with mysterious powers, had vanished.Zh: 此时正值清明节，阴雨时节增添了几分紧迫感。En: It was just at the time of the Qīngmíng Jié, and the rainy season added a sense of urgency.Zh: 梁是个年轻的历史学家，满怀对中国历史的热爱。En: Liáng was a young historian, full of passion for Chinese history.Zh: 他站在太和殿前，眺望着眼前的宫殿。En: He stood in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, gazing at the palace before him.Zh: 他听过玉玺的种种传说，相信其拥有神秘力量。En: He had heard various legends about the yùxǐ and believed it possessed mysterious powers.Zh: 他知道找到它不仅是出于责任，也是为了证明这些传说。En: He knew that finding it was not only a responsibility but also a way to prove these legends.Zh: 梅是博物馆的策展人，她对于玉玺的传说总是抱有怀疑态度。En: Méi was a museum curator who always held a skeptical attitude toward the legends of the yùxǐ.Zh: 她更关心其历史价值以及对文化遗产的保护。En: She was more concerned with its historical value and the protection of cultural heritage.Zh: 此刻，她正在旁边的珍宝馆忙碌，为即将举行的清明节展览做准备。En: At the moment, she was busy in the Treasure Hall next door, preparing for the upcoming Qīngmíng Jié exhibition.Zh: 与此同时，珍，一个古董收藏家，有自己的计划。En: Meanwhile, Zhēn, an antique collector, had his own plans.Zh: 他面无表情地穿梭在人群中，有意无意地探听有关玉玺的消息。En: He weaved through the crowd with an impassive expression, casually gathering information about the yùxǐ.Zh: 对于他来说，拥有这样一件绝世珍宝是一生的追求。En: For him, possessing such a rare treasure was a lifelong pursuit.Zh: 这一天，梁决定与梅携手，寻找线索。En: On this day, Liáng decided to team up with Méi to search for clues.Zh: 夜幕降临，他们走过宫殿后的小路，来到御花园，试图理清玉玺失踪的那一天发生的事情。En: As night fell, they walked along the narrow paths behind the palace and reached the imperial garden, trying to piece together what happened on the day the yùxǐ disappeared.Zh: 就在他们讨论得激烈时，珍悄然加入了他们的行列。En: Just as their discussion grew intense, Zhēn quietly joined their ranks.Zh: 他博学多才，对藏品了如指掌，但他的动机不由得让人怀疑。En: He was knowledgeable and had an excellent grasp of collectibles, but his motives made others question him.Zh: 很快，矛盾浮出水面。En: Soon, tensions arose.Zh: 珍似乎对玉玺的了解过于熟悉，梁开始怀疑他的意图。En: Zhēn seemed overly familiar with details about the yùxǐ, making Liáng question his intentions.Zh: 他心里挣扎，是否应该相信这位深藏不露的收藏家？En: He wrestled with himself over whether to trust this enigmatic collector.Zh: 梅的犀利言辞让珍难以抵赖，她坚持这是一个共同解决的问题，而非个人利益的角逐。En: Méi's sharp words left Zhēn no room to deny; she insisted that it was a problem to be solved collectively, not a personal competition for gain.Zh: 经过一番辩论，梅在大殿的古老书架中找到了一条重要线索。En: After much debate, Méi found a crucial clue in the ancient bookshelves of the Great Hall.Zh: 线索指引他们前往皇极殿的地下密室，一个从未被人知晓的地方。En: The clue led them to an underground chamber in the Huángjí Diàn, a place previously unknown to anyone.Zh: 三人合力推动陈年的石板，终于找到隐藏的密室。En: Together, the three of them pushed aside an aging stone slab to finally uncover the hidden chamber.Zh: 那里，正是安放玉玺的地方。En: There, the yùxǐ was resting.Zh: 梁小心翼翼地拿起玉玺，感受到一种前所未有的力量。En: Liáng carefully picked up the yùxǐ, feeling an unprecedented power.Zh: 他转过身，看见珍悄然无声地离去，消失在远处的阴影中。En: He turned around to see Zhēn quietly slipping away, disappearing into the distant shadows.Zh: 最终，梁和梅成功地将玉玺带回，并在清明节展出了这份珍贵的文化遗产。En: In the end, Liáng and Méi successfully returned the yùxǐ and displayed this precious cultural heritage during the Qīngmíng Jié.Zh: 紫禁城在阳光下闪耀着历史的光辉，而梁则开始明白，传说与现实只有一线之隔。En: The Zǐjìnchéng shone in the sunlight with the glory of history, and Liáng began to understand that the line between legend and reality is a fine one.Zh: 信任与怀疑同样重要，唯有携手才能守护历史的真相。En: Trust and suspicion are equally important, and only by working together can they protect the truth of history.Zh: 故事的结尾，紫禁城依旧平静，风中再次飘来花香，仿佛一切未曾改变。En: At the story's end, the Zǐjìnchéng remained peaceful, with the scent of flowers wafting through the air once more, as if nothing had ever changed. Vocabulary Words:gently: 轻轻地magnificent: 宏伟的complex: 建筑群restless: 不安的rumor: 谣言vanished: 消失了historian: 历史学家passion: 热爱gazing: 眺望curator: 策展人skeptical: 怀疑的heritage: 遗产collector: 收藏家weaved: 穿梭impassive: 面无表情的intention: 意图enigmatic: 深不可测的suspicion: 怀疑debate: 辩论clue: 线索underground: 地下chamber: 密室slab: 石板unprecedented: 前所未有的slipping: 悄然无声地离去distant: 远处的displayed: 展出glory: 光辉wafting: 飘来truth: 真相

Last Friday, President Trump spoke before a gathering at the Department of Justice to lay out what was seen largely as a grievance fest, singling out individuals and media organizations he perceives as his enemies. Main Justice hosts Andrew Weissmann and Mary McCord lay plain the unorthodox nature of a speech like this, especially before a department that is meant to maintain independence from the executive branch. But that was just the start of a wild weekend, after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, just as a court order blocking their removal was filed. So, Andrew and Mary tackle the latest developments in several buckets before breaking down the Supreme Court's consideration of the request by the president to lift the pause on his birthright citizenship executive action.Want to listen to this show without ads? Sign up for MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts.

That Thing You Pardieu  College kid Tom Hanks plays RPG Mazes And Monsters and quickly descends into madness and murder in this notorious 1982 TV movie. Did Maze Controller Chris Makepeace (Meatballs) make the fantasy too real by swapping out dice bags and painted figurines for a live-action campaign inside a dangerous cave? Or did the future Oscar winner simply get too wrapped up in a delusional Method Acting quest to become his holy man character, forsaking his studies and sex with girlfriend Wendy Crewson (The Santa Clause)? Join us in the Great Hall to find out!

That Thing You Pardieu College kid Tom Hanks plays RPG Mazes And Monsters and quickly descends into madness and murder in this notorious 1982 TV movie. Did Maze Controller Chris Makepeace (Meatballs) make the fantasy too real by swapping out dice bags and painted figurines for a live-action campaign inside a dangerous cave? Or did the future Oscar winner simply get too wrapped up in a delusional Method Acting quest to become his holy man character, forsaking his studies and sex with girlfriend Wendy Crewson (The Santa Clause)? Join us in the Great Hall to find out!

Tonight on The Last Word: Donald Trump's trade war creates global unease and market chaos. Also, Trump gives a politicized speech inside the Justice Department's Great Hall. Plus, Vladimir Putin launches new strikes despite ongoing peace negotiations. And Republicans are advised to avoid in-person town halls. Sen. Peter Welch, Andrew Weissmann, Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman (ret.), and Jane Kleeb join Ali Velshi.

Send us a textIn this episode, we discuss how certain things give the wizarding world its magic. Enjoy!Topics/Summary:·      1:38 Owls. Owls are closely tied to the story because they are symbols for magic. In the beginning, owls are the first introduction we have to the wizarding world. Later, Hedwig's death represents the beginning of a new era for Harry and the difficulty of the path ahead.·      7:34 Moving portraits. They aren't at the very core of the story, but they are integral for the overall feel of the castle. The point of a painting is for it to be frozen in time, which is why the portraits moving are such a fascinating part of Hogwarts.·      12:57 Hogwarts grounds. One of the most interesting parts of the grounds is their lack of magic. Of course, there is a giant squid and a forbidden forest, but its just the lake, the mountains and the castle. Nature surrounding the castle is very important for the feel of the story.·       17:35 Diagon Alley. This is the first place where Harry sees a bunch of wizards and magical things in one place. Essentially, this is the first place he lands after entering the world of magic. For him, this is the coolest place he has ever seen. Later in the story, the darkness represents the state of the wizarding world as a whole.·      21:59 Great Hall. This is a fantastic place. It has an enchanted ceiling, candles floating in the air, and suits of armor and torches everywhere. You really can't beat the ambiance of the Great Hall. The beginning and the end of the story as we know it happens in the Great Hall, which speaks to its importance.·      25:30 Quidditch. Something that can never be replaced is quidditch. What is the story without this sport? There is so much development of the story and of characters that would be lost without quidditch. Just like the rest of the things in this episode, all these little details are the very things that make this series so great.Having anything you want to hear or say? Click here for a voice submission or here for text. ThePotterDiscussion@gmail.comthepotterdiscussion.comNox

Federal workers across the country are bracing for layoffs, including more than 40,000 right here in Colorado. So, how are Denverites handling all the DOGE cuts? Then, DIA turns 30 today! Producer Paul Karolyi and host Bree Davies are joined by political consultant Deep Singh Badhesha to talk about everything from the famed airport's Blucifer conspiracy theories and tales of a luggage-eating baggage system to the renderings of the next Great Hall renovation and a surprising DIA-Elon Musk connection. Plus, a Colorado lawmaker brings her newborn to Congress, a puppy heist in Centennial, and more wins and fails of the week.  Paul discussed our latest interview with Mayor Johnston and the 5280 feature on Scott Derrickson, Colorado director of The Gorge — which you can watch now on Apple TV+. Bree mentioned her friend Alisha Sweeney's long local radio career and the upcoming 303 Day concert. Deep talked about his excitement for the 2026 elections and his new Substack!  Producer Olivia would love you to see these pictures of “the Modobag.”  Get your tickets to HEYDAY now! We're putting on an indoor fair with urban flair, like a classic county fair but with a very cool Denver twist. Join us on March 8 for classic carnival games, vintage arcade games, Denver-themed balloon art, and a full day of grandstand entertainment, featuring some of your favorite guests from the podcast. It's family friendly, too, if you wanna bring your kids. Get those tickets now at www.heydaydenver.com. What do you think? Text or leave us a voicemail with your name and neighborhood, and you might hear it on the show: 720-500-5418‬ For even more news from around the city, subscribe to our morning newsletter Hey Denver at denver.citycast.fm. Follow us on Instagram: @citycastdenver Chat with other listeners on reddit: r/CityCastDenver Support City Cast Denver by becoming a member: membership.citycast.fm/Denver Learn more about the sponsors of this February 28th episode: CAP Management Looking to advertise on City Cast Denver? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Understanding the love life of James VI & I can give us a better picture of the man himself in his entirety, and not simply through the lens of his kingship, or the politics of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.   So in this episode, Chief Historian Tracy Borman is once again in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace, joined by Gareth Russell to discuss the subject of his latest book 'Queen James; the life and loves of Britain's first King'.     To take part in our survey and be in for a chance to win a £100 voucher, visit:  https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/HRPPodcastSurvey/       Please be aware this episode contains themes of homophobia, grooming, and child abuse, that some listeners may find distressing.  

Best friends Jac and Amy conduct a literary analysis of Sarah J. Maas's debut novel, Throne of Glass. In this episode, they discuss chapters 23 - 26. Each episode is broken into 2 parts. This is part 2 of this week's episode. Come back next Tuesday where we discuss chapters 27 - 31. (Spoilers for Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, and Heir of Fire will be discussed. Any larger series or other SJM spoilers will be reserved for the end of Thursday's episode in part 2.) Every episode, Jac and Amy use their combined 13 years of literary academic training to analyze and give voice to reasons why you may love or hate today's popular books. They embrace and respect modern fantasy, romance, and romantasy books written by women. And so, it is in their nature to analyze these books as you would any other novel you might have discussed in school. Chapter summary for this week's episodes: Celaena dreams of being broken in Endovier, and is saved by Chaol waking her to the day of Samhuinn. Though she is able to spend time with her friends in the palace throughout the day, Celaena is confined to her bedroom during the evening's festivities. But a phantom breeze calls Celaena's attention to draft in her room, which leads her to a hidden door safeguarding secret passages to forgotten parts of Rifthold's stone castle. During her illicit exploration, Celaena uncovers a secret route to escape the castle and a hidden window to spy on the Great Hall. When she realizes Chaol is returning to check on her, Celaena rushes back to her room, where Chaol and Dorian both pay her a visit. But the night's adventures don't end there, and Celaena is greeted by her dead ancestor, fate, and the evil that lurks beneath the castle. The morning brings ill tidings of another death of a king's champion. Sponsors: Start your hair growth journey with Nutrafol. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month's subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code BOOKTALK. Let's keep the conversation going! Submit your thoughts to our form on our website (https://booktalkforbooktok.com/) for a chance to have your thoughts discussed during a future mini-episode, or on a Patreon-exclusive episode. Want to support the show? Follow us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/booktalkforbooktok Or check out our merch: https://www.etsy.com/shop/booktalkforbooktok Follow us! Instagram: @BookTalkForBookTok TikTok: @BookTalkForBookTok YouTube: @BookTalkForBookTok For all other information, visit our website https://booktalkforbooktok.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Best friends Jac and Amy conduct a literary analysis of Sarah J. Maas's debut novel, Throne of Glass. In this episode, they discuss chapters 23 - 26. Each episode is broken into 2 parts. This is part 1 of this week's episode. Stick around for part 2, which airs on Thursday. (Spoilers for Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, and Heir of Fire will be discussed. Any larger series or other SJM spoilers will be reserved for the end of Thursday's episode in part 2.) Every episode, Jac and Amy use their combined 13 years of literary academic training to analyze and give voice to reasons why you may love or hate today's popular books. They embrace and respect modern fantasy, romance, and romantasy books written by women. And so, it is in their nature to analyze these books as you would any other novel you might have discussed in school. Chapter summary for this week's episodes: Celaena dreams of being broken in Endovier, and is saved by Chaol waking her to the day of Samhuinn. Though she is able to spend time with her friends in the palace throughout the day, Celaena is confined to her bedroom during the evening's festivities. But a phantom breeze calls Celaena's attention to draft in her room, which leads her to a hidden door safeguarding secret passages to forgotten parts of Rifthold's stone castle. During her illicit exploration, Celaena uncovers a secret route to escape the castle and a hidden window to spy on the Great Hall. When she realizes Chaol is returning to check on her, Celaena rushes back to her room, where Chaol and Dorian both pay her a visit. But the night's adventures don't end there, and Celaena is greeted by her dead ancestor, fate, and the evil that lurks beneath the castle. The morning brings ill tidings of another death of a king's champion. Sponsors: Start your hair growth journey with Nutrafol. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month's subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code BOOKTALK. Let's keep the conversation going! Submit your thoughts to our form on our website (https://booktalkforbooktok.com/) for a chance to have your thoughts discussed during a future mini-episode, or on a Patreon-exclusive episode. Want to support the show? Follow us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/booktalkforbooktok Or check out our merch: https://www.etsy.com/shop/booktalkforbooktok Follow us! Instagram: @BookTalkForBookTok TikTok: @BookTalkForBookTok YouTube: @BookTalkForBookTok For all other information, visit our website https://booktalkforbooktok.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hour 4 with Joe Starkey: What is Russell Wilson's argument to come back to the Steelers? The poll results of our question are in and people would prefer Justin Fields. 70% of voters picked Fields over Wilson, Mason Rudolph, and Daniel Jones. MLB Network analyst Ron Darling compared Paul Skenes to Dwight Gooden. Joe compares the impact Skenes has to Caitlin Clark. Derek Shelton shared his message to the Pirates.

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is Paul Marden.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website SkiptheQueue.fm.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter  or Bluesky for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcast.Competition ends on 5th March 2025. The winner will be contacted via Bluesky. Show references: https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/zakmensah/Zak Mensah is the co-CEO of Birmingham Museums Trust. He is passionate about helping their service make an impact by focusing on the needs of over 1 million visitors. He is encouraging the organization to adopt a "digital by default" approach. Zak's mission is to ensure that their people, skills, and services remain adaptable to the rapidly changing landscape of the cultural sector. He is exploring new ways of doing things, including innovative business models, partnerships, and arts-related KPIs, while sharing as much as possible publicly.With a background in staff development and digital, Zak has been involved with the web since the late 90s and has seen its influence grow in all aspects of life. Prior to joining the arts sector in 2013, he helped small businesses, charities, Jisc, universities, and the Heritage Lottery Fund "do" digital well.Zak also runs his own consultancy to promote positive change and keep his skills sharp. His goal is to make a ruckus. https://www.vam.ac.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyakino-wittering/Amy Akino-Wittering is Head of Operations and Commercial at Young V&A, which opened July 2023 and recently won Art Fund Museum of the Year and Kids in Museums, Family Friendly Museum of the Year awardsResponsible for the general management of Young V&A she directly manages the visitor experience and teams, catering contract, volunteering and back of house operations, collaborating closely with central V&A colleagues to deliver operations and income for Young V&A. Previously Amy worked at V&A South Kensington as Senior Visitor Experience Manager-Sales and was on the opening project team leading on visitor experience and retail at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery.She started her career at Imperial War Museums working across sites from assistant to management roles in Retail and Admissions and systems management.  https://www.hampshireculture.org.uk/​​https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-sapwell-b3b2a281/Paul Sapwell has been Chief Executive at independent arts and culture charity Hampshire Cultural Trust since 2018, having joined the trust in 2016 as Chief Operating Officer following an early career primarily in hospitality and leisure. Paul is a passionate believer in the transformative power that cultural experiences can have on the wellbeing of individuals and communities, and a prominent advocate for the role of commercial growth, underpinned by a flexible, entrepreneurial team culture, in sustaining museum and arts organisations. Transcription: Paul Marden: The museums and culture sector are facing unprecedented headwinds. Static or reducing funding from local government, fewer grants from trusts and foundations, all while dealing with increased people costs. The continued headwinds from cost of living crisis. But this sector continues to deliver more with less and support the cultural life of our country. Paul Marden: Welcome to Skip the Queue. I'm your host, Paul Marden and in today's episode recorded the Science Museum at the Association of Cultural Enterprises View from the Top event. I'm joined by Amy Akino-Wittering, Head of Operations and Commercial at Young V&A. Zak Mensah, Co CEO of Birmingham Museums Trust, and Paul Sapwell, CEO of Hampshire Cultural Trust. Paul Marden: And we're going to talk about how the cultural sector can innovate in order to thrive. Anyone that's listened to the podcast before will know. And this is the nervous bit. Paul Marden: We always start with an icebreaker question which my lovely guests victims have not been prepared for. So, Zak, I'm afraid you go first, my friends. So if you were a cartoon character, which cartoon character would you be? Zak Mensah: That's easy. I think I would be the thing that gets chased by the. Is it the wild Cody who runs around all his home? But I'd be the. What's the little, the stupid Roadrunner. Yeah, so I would be Roadrunner because you constantly are literally running 100 miles an hour and then a giant piano lands on you at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon, but you respawn on the Monday and you start all over again. Pretty much feels like me. Paul Marden: I love that. I love that. Amy, you're next. Let's think of all of the inventions over the last hundred years that were offered. Flying cars, those sorts of things. What is the one thing were promised that you really miss and think we really need in our lives? Amy Akino-Wittering: I think a Time Turner, which is basically from Harry Potter. Basically you can just go and do things like six. They do six days all at once. Paul Marden: You can be Hermione if you've got a Time Turner. Amy Akino-Wittering: Yeah, great. Paul Marden: Excellent. I love that, Amy. Thank you. Paul. Paul Sapwell: You said these were going to be under no pressure. I wouldn't have liked. I wouldn't have liked either of those. Paul Marden: Oh, well, you're not going to like this one then. I'm sorry, mate, I'm, I, I live in Hampshire. Paul runs Hampshire Cultural Trust. Paul. Paul Sapwell:  Oh, even better. Paul Marden: Saints or Pompey? Paul Sapwell:  Oh, blimey. Okay, well that's, I'm an Arsenal fan. Paul Marden: So there we go. Paul Sapwell: I couldn't possibly answer Saints or Pompey? I mean, we border both. So I would just be in so much trouble if I pick one or the other. So I can. I've got to get out. Paul Marden: Are you dodging that one? Paul Sapwell: Yeah. I thought you might watch Arsenal regularly. Paul Marden: I thought you might. So we are going to start with a question from somebody from the audience, a young man named Gordon. Apparently he might be a millennial. And he says, After 15 years of turmoil, financial crash, austerity, Brexit, Covid, we face continuing cost of living issues, rising national insurance and a Trump presidency. Are we doomed in 2025? Or to put it slightly better, what are the biggest risks for your organisation and the wider sector, and what are you each doing to thrive in the year ahead? And I'm going to start with you, Paul. Paul Sapwell: That's an easy question, isn't it? Paul Marden: You can thank young Gordon. Paul Sapwell: Brilliant Gordon, Yeah. I mean, I think 2025 is going to be an incredibly tricky year, but to sort of look further than that. I'm certainly an optimist, but I think we're in a time of transition, particularly in terms of our sector, in the cultural sector, in terms of what's going to fund us and what's going to sustain us going forward. You know, I think the years of the level. I think a lot of the speakers have touched on it, but the years of the level of public sector funding is, whatever happens with this government and next is going to be going down and we just have to face that. I run an organisation which we started out in 2019. We're about 85% publicly funded. Now we're 34% publicly funded with the same turnover, I hasten to add. Paul Sapwell: And so we've made a good go of it, but I think the headwinds this year are really difficult. That said, I think that we have to be confident investing for the longer term and particularly, obviously, in this conference in areas of commercial growth. I think that, okay, the growth projections have been downgraded. I am confident that we will, as the decade continues, move into a period of growth. And we've got to be looking at the long term rather than the short term. The trick is, of course, not running out of money in the short term. And that's a really difficult place to be. Paul Marden: In the water, just here. Paul Sapwell: I don't have an easy answer to that, but I think fundamentally, you've got to give the customer what they want and the customer is still there. Paul Sapwell: And we have a fantastic product. But we've got to certainly pivot much further towards what customers want commercially, in my view, than putting as much emphasis as probably we did 10 years ago on trying to find more and more public funding, because I think that's going down. Paul Marden: Zak, have you got any thoughts on that? Zak Mensah: Yeah, I mean, in terms of money, just generally people want to back winners. So I think one of the difficult things that internally we can all say it's doom and gloom, because it does feel that doom and gloom. There are definitely days, weeks and months. I think it's right to say that it's doom and gloom. Like you can be optimist but still understand it's difficult time. And I think a lot of our, you know, a lot of our workforces certainly feel that, it can feel very difficult because every year they ask, will they have their job? Right. And that's a really fair question to ask. And we sometimes as leaders kind of say, “Oh, if we can get through the next two years, but two years for normal staff are sometimes a very long time to try and say, “You or may have not have a job to make life through.”Zak Mensah: So I think that's something I always think back in back of my mind. I think a lot of the difficulties, whichever flavour of government is about understanding how to be more savvy, about understanding the trends, about things that are fundable. Because there are lots of things that were funded 10, 20 years ago, that money has dried up. And so we've all got to think about, for example, a lot of people now looking at, well, being a speaker this afternoon was talking about more on EDI, for example, and how younger people certainly are interested in having more of a purpose driven business. Is how for us, we can make sure we're focused on the, what I was called, the user need. So the needs that people use us. Zak Mensah: Because if you can concentrate and focus on what they want, whether it be money, otherwise that ultimately does lead to a business model. Because there's no point saying just because museums and galleries have been around for 100 to 200 years, they have an absolute right to exist. The only way they exist is because every decade or whatever there's another crisis comes along and a group of people, including ourselves here, live in this room, but also listening to this make it happen. Like, we've got to convince councillors, government, businesses to be part of that journey. Because the funny thing I will say is that, you know, at Birmingham Museums, the art gallery was founded in 1885 by industry people. It was industry people that founded it. It was industry people who wanted the city to have great arts. Zak Mensah: And so now we're turning back to those same people and saying, "We need you to now step up and contribute." It doesn't always have to be money. It could be in kind support, could be advocacy. That's the kind of thing that we need to do as leaders right now, in addition to the normal making the money work and stretch as far as we can. Paul Marden: Absolutely. Amy, what are you doing at Young V&A to thrive in the year ahead and face some of these challenges? Amy Akino-Wittering: Yeah, absolutely. So we've now been open for just over two years, so I feel kind of, well, coming up to two years. And so I feel we're kind of in that stage where we kind of opened and sort of just try to make sure that we are operationally savvy. And last year was very much about refining that. And I think this year is very much about what's next and how can we build upon kind of success of opening, looking at ways in which we can innovate through doing new kind of commercial opportunities, but also how can we develop our audiences. And as well as part of kind of the wider V&A, we've got two more sites opening as well. Amy Akino-Wittering: So how as an organisation are we going to work together to kind of be in this new family of sites and work together through there? So I think for us in the kind of coming year is all about, what's next? We've opened the door. We started with a really strong foundation and a really strong vision, but then how can we keep on innovating and keep iterating that to improve? Paul Marden: Excellent. I'm going touch on stuff that Lewis talked about a minute ago. One of his reflections I really liked was thinking about how do we create a space for colleagues to engage with some of these really important issues that have been on the PowerPoints. Zak, maybe you could start. What do you think your organisation can do to act as bottom up catalyst for change as opposed to trying to drive these changes from the top down? Zak Mensah: I think the first thing is about understanding that there are a lot of people who do want to be able to voice their hopes and fears around a whole host of subjects, whether it be specifically around, if you're ethnic minority, about your fear of living in the UK, if you have climate, lots of important subjects people want to talk about. You know, I think certainly internally, and I'll be very clear about this, I think there's a very different view sometimes about the difference between internal and the external voice of the organisation. So what we see a lot of is staff individually believe that as a service there are lots of things we could and should be talking about publicly that may or may not directly align with how as a leader we see it. Zak Mensah: So, you know, there are lots of fights we do get into. We can't get into every single fight. And sometimes there's a real fine balance around what we decide to go for. So if you take during Black Lives Matter example, me and Sarah Shropshire started in November 2020, there was an expectation that immediately we would be like the spokesperson for the whole museum sector about black and brown issues. And like, it's really hard to say, actually. I am not speaking on behalf of every single person in the whole country. I do take it seriously and we set up internally ways people to talk about it, but didn't always feel appropriate. Zak Mensah: And I'll give another example is around, for example, war. Any one time there's something like 15 global conflicts happening and, you know, we talk and go backwards and forwards internally sometimes about, you know, do we talk about them publicly? If we talk about them internally, how we talk about them, do we single one out or do we talk about them all? Are they equal? How do you equally talk about things are very horrific for a number of people?Zak Mensah: And knowing that we've got staff from dozens of countries who all have different views on how their homeland or area they're interested in is impacted. Things are very horrific for a number of people. But I do think that there's always. It's always really tricky because the best conversations and the best conversations need care and a lot of the conversations happen in like, pockets that we have no control over. Zak Mensah: And so it's again, how do you set an environment as a leader that is allowing the bottom up to do their own thing, but in a way that isn't going to be detrimental to the whole workforce? Because I think it is. Again, I mentioned it's been. It's really tricky and that's the simple truth. It is no easy answer to these things because if it was easy, we'd all solved it. Yeah. But acknowledging it there, it's the elephant in the room, I think is really important and growing to be more and more important for us as leaders. Paul Marden: I think Lewis was saying it's really important to know where you stand on issues and it is okay for you to have a stance on issues that says, I'm not going to make a stand on this one issue. I thought that was a really interesting perspective. Imy's talk. I think were talking a lot about the journey of Titanic Belfast, which I love as a museum, to go to a museum that emotionally moved me as much with so very few actual artefacts. I just think it's an amazing storytelling experience. But you talked a little bit about the team and what you do to be able to nurture that team. And one of the things that we're talking about is trying to get 110% out of everybody getting to more with less, getting them to innovate. Paul Marden: How do you balance all of those challenges and not break the people and maintain a 98% retention rate like Titanic does? Paul? Paul Sapwell: Well, maintaining a 98 retention rate, I think fairly unprecedented and huge congratulations. I mean, I think it follows on a bit from what Zak was saying, actually. You know, it's tough, isn't it, being leaders in terms of whether you're making that kind of external message or whether you've got a tough internal message. I mean, I've always taken a stance that you've got to be as transparent as you possibly can be and people will go a long way with you if it doesn't appear that things are being taken in a dark room somewhere. And I think for us, what we've tried to do is to put in the mechanisms for that to happen. I've been really fortunate to work with a fantastic people director, Hampshire Cultural Trust. Paul Sapwell: One of the first things, I think you've also got to make a stance, by the way, on people being important. One of the first things I did as CEO was say we need a people director. It's quite rare in the heritage sector. I came from hospitality, it was the norm. It's an odd thing that people and HR doesn't always sit at the top table. Sometimes it's sort of delegated down in operations or even finance. So I think that's really important and we needed a strategy and part of that is putting in place a lot of the stuff that you talked about of the Titanic, which I think is really impressive. And we're somewhere on that journey, but not quite as far along, but proper employee forums where you listen. Paul Sapwell: I meet with an employee elected employee forum quarterly and talk to them about all issues with nothing off the table. We also have an EDI group with a mix, again, senior leadership on there talking about these issues. And I think that, you know, if there was one thing I would say it's, you're not always going to be able to give easy answers, are you? This year we're being hit with an enormous national insurance hit to the staff costs and that is going to affect pay. I can't pretend that it isn't. And if we're going to not run out of money in the next few years, we're going to have to give less of a pay increase this year than we would like to. Paul Sapwell: But we've been talking about that openly since it hit and I hope that our team will go, will understand, but obviously that doesn't make it, make it easy. And I think the same is true with the issues that you're talking about. You can't take a stance on every single issue that comes through each of these forums every quarter, but you have a conversation about it. And I think that's the most important bit for me. Paul Marden: Amy, I'm going to segue wide away from today's talks. Regular listeners will know that I'm a Trustee of Kids in Museums and I was chatting with my fellow trustees about today's event and we wondered, given the impact of the cultural sector, on the impact that it has on the lives of young people and how there are so many challenges at the moment for disadvantaged young people to engage in the sector. You know, we all know that post Covid, many schools have cut their school visits into museums and galleries. I pick you because Young V&A was the winner of Kids in Museums Family Friendly Awards last year. So let's just start with you and talk about what are the innovative things that you've done to break down barriers to encourage children and families to engage in the museum. Amy Akino-Wittering: Yes, of course. So Young V&A when we kind of opened its entire purpose is about engaging children. It's all about kind of that creative confidence in Generation Alpha. And so the whole museum has been designed with and for young people. So its target audience is between naught to 14 year olds. We spoke with over 22,000 young people in the development of the museum to hear what do they want from it. I think there's a survey which said that 40% of children thought that museums were boring and it weren't places for them. So, well, what can we do as we've got this opportunity to redevelop, to make sure that it is a place that people want to go and enjoy and be themselves. Amy Akino-Wittering: And so that was kind of like the North Star in terms of what every kind of decision in the kind of opening and making and running of Young V&A is really centred around this as well. And so it goes from the aesthetic in terms of the height of things, the bright colours from this swirling staircase that we have at Young V&A, which came from an idea that someone wanted to helter skelter in the space to the tone of voice in our interpretation and also how the objects are displayed. We've got objects from across the V&A, we've got over 2,000 objects. But it's not just the museum as was the Museum of Childhood collection, it's from across all of the different departments of the V&A. And it's been curated with that kind of child centred and child focused way. Amy Akino-Wittering: Co design is also a really kind of core part of it as well. So we kind of co designed with local audiences and children for various design displays and also co curation. So each gallery was co curated between the learning team and the curatorial team as well. And then obviously we've kind of got to actually open the building and have a team to deliver that visitor experience. And again, that is all very much fed through that audience lens. And so we looked at our structures of, you know, what types of people do we want in the space? You know, our core audience are children. We need people who want to engage with that audience. It's a very specific kind of audience, but also we are a hyper local organisation as well and so how can we encourage applicants from the local boroughs? Amy Akino-Wittering: So we drove a very inclusive recruitment process where we basically did a behaviour led process for recruitment, we redid all the job descriptions, went out into our local community, did workshops and CV surgeries and basically just made it as easy as possible for people to apply and get interview. And the kind of core things that were looking at was behaviours. We can teach people how to go on a till or to learn how to do fire evacuations, but actually it's much harder to get people because that's what the job is. You know, the majority, you know, all your visitors will come to a touch point with the front of house team. They are your most important ambassadors. Amy Akino-Wittering: So we need to make sure that we've got the best kind of resources and time and structure in place to support them, to give the best possible experience that we can. So we spent a lot of time doing that. We spent a lot of time as well working Kids in Museums come in and do training about specific family engagement training as well, which has been really beneficial. And then also we really believe that, you know, the customer experience, the visitor experience is directly impacted by the employee experience. You can't expect the team to deliver this amazing, joyful visitor experience if actually they're pretty miserable behind the scenes. So how can we make sure that the structures that we have and the environment that we have is reflective of how we want them to be on the floor as well? Amy Akino-Wittering: So we make sure that we have forums to make sure that, you know, people can have their say. We make sure. So we did this team charter, which was this sort of collaborative effort to see, like, how do you want to feel in the workplace, but also how do you want your visitors to feel? And actually, it was all very similar in terms of the outcomes that came from that kind of exercise. And it's these kind of agreement that we have together to how we're going to work together and those kind of things which we do to ensure. It's that kind of frequent communication and making sure that we're on the same page and it kind of brings that joy which then comes out to the visitors. Amy Akino-Wittering: And that is kind of I think all those things together has all really helped in terms of when someone comes into the space, children, they're front and centre. They really feel like it's a place for them and they've got kind of people around them which really get them and that they will help facilitate their curiosity and things like that. So that's what we've done. Paul Marden: Amazing. Paul, have you got some thoughts? Paul Sapwell: Yeah. I love what you're saying about the visitor. The visitor services guys on the front desk. I mean, they are the most important people, essentially, and that's why I was nodding vigorously. I think that's part of what I was talking about earlier in terms of pivot into more of a commercial view, because a commercial company completely relies on their customer who comes in. And I think my experience of being in an organisation that's moved out of being run predominantly by a council to one that's independent now was, I've got to be honest, at the start, that wasn't how it felt. Paul Sapwell: And actually you could produce big lists of visitor figures, but ultimately, if they went up or down, it didn't really matter because the funding was going to stay the same, whatever, and there would be other metrics, and I think that's the big shift in mentality, because if you don't give the customer what they want, and that means really valuing people on your front line. And, you know, we've had conversations at the Museum Association about it, about how there's almost been that divide in museums between the people who talk to your customers and the museum staff. And I think that's a really. Or people who would see themselves doing proper museum work. And I think that, you know, that's something we've got to. We're moving in the right direction, but we've got to move quicker. Paul Marden: All of our best memories, aren't they, of going to these places are not necessarily about the amazing artefacts, it's the stories that your team tell people when they interact with them. You feel so happy as a result of it. I think of some amazing experiences. Zak, have you got any thoughts on this? Innovative ways in which we make museums family friendly, how we encourage make them more children friendly? Zak Mensah: Well, the first thing is it's something like 50% of people have children. And so knowing that is in the UK is a thing. Just knowing that as a fact. Right. Means that thinking then about families who will come, but also the staff workforce. Because again, like, you know, if your staff, you're your biggest advocates we just talked about is making it friendly for people to have children in the workforce means that most people recommend it and word of mouth is the biggest way that you can influence people and then from that when people come. So we've got nine venues overall pre pandemic, have a million visitors a year. Zak Mensah: We say we're family friendly, but I've got two young children and quite often the experience, not just my place, but other places doesn't actually say match up with that because like just saying to a seven year old, you must love art, doesn't really work, right, if it's Blue. Paul Marden: Can't tell them. You can't just make them like, yeah. Zak Mensah: I can't tell anything because anyone in my family anything. If you convince about bluey=, then you've got another chance. But you know, you've got to think about actually what is their experience going to be. So, you know, have you got picnic area? Have you got toilets? Lots of toilets. Do you allow your staff, for example, in previous roles? We allow people, if they want to do potty training, they could do potty training in the gallery. Because the reality was if they didn't use the potty that they had in their bag, it was going somewhere else. And so I remember watching in horror as someone literally tried to scoop up a child and move their parent out of a gallery to start to go to the toilet. Zak Mensah: And I was like, there was no way they were going to make it out that door. I would love to have that CCTV footage because I bet that was quite interesting. But, you know, it sounds, you know, some sort of flippant and fun. Zak Mensah: But that's the little thing because like all those little things about making it, you know, enjoyable. Because if you can make it enjoyable for the. For the parent or the guardian, you can make it fun for the, you know, for the kids. You know, you have to have sharp crayons and pencils. Whatever it is, like always things that's really kids don't want much. That's the little thing because like all those little things about making it, you know, enjoyable. Right. Like, if you can give them almost that version of experience to make people think it's good. Because I think we sometimes dissociate the child's experience with the fact they're with someone else. So actually you've got to make it good for the people that they're with. And quite often people do it, you know, who take. Zak Mensah: They might take the extended family. So they'll say like, you know, I'll take my niece or whatever, I'm there. And they don't usually actually have to have the children. So sometimes they need help as well, you know, to make sure the experience. Paul Marden: Extra needs to be able to solve the kids' problems. Zak Mensah: Absolutely. So for me it's about making it that friendly from that perspective. So often with school trips, for example, it's how can you make the school trips fun? Because I see quite a lot of kids on school trips that they sort of being marched through and forced to go. So then they're less likely to recommend it to their parents and their parents just like to come. So for me, it's kind of like trying to use that learning visit which often people's first. Most people tell me, I've been to museum as a child and they usually get towards school age, secondary school, and they don't go anymore. Paul Marden: Yes. Zak Mensah: So it's like, how do we make sure that. I don't think as a sector where family friendly enough, other than those people who already are super engaged, they make the kids have fun. I'm probably talking about my trauma now. Paul Marden: Let's return today's speakers. Let's just talk a little bit about Mike's discussion of using behavioural models to influence buying decisions. Yeah. What are the biggest behavioural barriers that you see within your organisation? In terms of visitor experience, from kind of awareness through to decision making, what could you do? What could you change? Zak Mensah: So the first obvious one is a lot of people are terrified of being in spaces because they're not sure how to behave. There's this weird secret code that doesn't. It's not actually written down anywhere that people think the museum experience has got to be quiet, that it's got to be. That you've got to know what you're looking at. It can't just be fun. And actually having. Just having fun is a really important part of what you want to do. So for us, I think the problem is, as well as once you work in the sector, those barriers are invisible because you just work there. You feel comfortable now coming. Yeah. And so the behaviour part is super interesting. And so, for example, it's a phrase I sometimes use around, like. Zak Mensah: It's around this idea of, like, “People like us do things like this”, which I stole from Seth Godin. So, you know, what we did, for example, is w e now don't have staff uniform because we've got quite a diverse. We're dividing diversity in Birmingham and we want people to feel comfortable and recognise people outside the building who then might be going, like, sure, I might. Hoodies, for example. If you wear a hoodie, you might own. The museum's. Not for me, the museums for other people who wear suits, etc. So actually, if they see staffing. Yeah, if they see staff in hoodies or whatever, in hijabs or niqab, whichever outfit they want to wear, then that is a signal about those people are welcome. Zak Mensah: That's one example where that idea came from the team about how we can show and tell and do what we say we're going to do, rather than just saying, “Oh, but we're really friendly museums are great and come in.” Because actually they are intimidating from the outside. They're often intimidating intellectually. Paul Marden: Yep. Zak Mensah: The train, the media, all the time is being really high brow all the time. So it's like actually we. We have to find ways to accept that those barriers exist. And that often means finding people who don't use you to actually tell you that. And we've just finished a citizen's jury, for example, which had almost 30 people who are representative of the city come in and 80% of them at the first meeting said they didn't think the museum is relevant to them. Those are ordinary people who live in the city who. That's 80% of those people. Four in five people don't think the museum is relevant for them, even though we know that we could make it relevant to them. And that was a really sad, shocking figure, but also is motivating. Zak Mensah: And I think our job, you know, as leaders is how do we help people feel inclusive, to be an inclusive space and then like. And go for it. Paul Marden: Excellent. Thank you, Amy. Amy Akino-Wittering: Yeah, I think a lot of what we have done as well is to try and go out of our four walls of Young V&A as well. So we do a lot of kind of community engagement as well through kind of the learning team as well as for volunteering programme. Like we rocked up at stores at Whitechapel Market and kind of saying, “This is our kind of programme”, just chatting with people where they haven't heard of Young V&A even though it's down the road. And so it's like, how can we, yeah, kind of go out and about and also kind of advocate across as well. And then also it's like when people do kind of take that step to actually go onto our site and then come into the building making sure that the visitor experience is as inclusive, as welcoming as possible. Similar. Amy Akino-Wittering: We also just have aprons and they can wear whatever they want underneath and just again, so as people feel relaxed and they feel when our audiences come in, they say, oh yeah, no, that's something that I might wear. Or you know, they just feel more kind of settled and at home. So that's something that's really important that we kind of do as well. Paul Marden: Lovely, Paul. Paul Sapwell: The biggest challenge for us, I mean being a smaller organisation and a brand that isn't known. As well as it could be, I think our biggest challenge now is that customer journey from online through to what you get when you arrive and we're not consistent enough. And I know we'd all talk about this forever but you know, big commercial organisations do this really well. You know, you're going to sell a ticket within a couple of clicks from a social media piece, you're going to get a follow up email that looks exciting and you know, then your product is either going to arrive or you're going to arrive at it and it will be like you thought you were buying. And I'm not sure that we always do that. Paul Sapwell: I've got to be honest and I think to do that you've got to put a lot of investment in it. And that's what we're part of the strategy that we've launched, we launched back in November is about that. Paul Sapwell: And again, that comes back to, you know, commercial mindsets that matters. It matters that we put the right image in whatever way that is to the right customer who we're trying to attract. We've got to understand those customers better and then make sure that's, that's seamless. And, you know, we run 20 venues. They're really different. We've got everything from the Great Hall, Mediaeval Hall in Winchester, which is full of people on from travel trade have come off of cruises and things. And then we've got Milestones Museum in Basingstoke, which is a sort of family living history museum. Paul Sapwell: They don't get any international tourists. So having a really limited pot of marketing to be able to go all these sort of areas is really difficult. But I think that would be the challenge. But thinking about it holistically, really, because it's the same person who clicks on the social media ad to the person who ends up arriving in your venue. And that needs to be really consistent. Yeah, it sounds like cash is the barrier. We're going to try and work with it. But that's the important bit for me. Paul Marden: I'm grinning like the village idiot because this is what I advocate all the time. I'm looking at my marketing friends in the audience who would also share. Share your thoughts on this. We know from the Rubber Cheese survey that it's eight to 10 steps it takes people to checkout. I tried to buy tickets for an aquarium last year and they made me enter a password along with the names and addresses of everybody that was joining me and then told me off three times for getting the password wrong in the checkout process. I had to be really to buy those tickets and. Paul Sapwell: Well, yeah, you touch on. Yeah. I mean, we could have a whole conversation, but no, I mean, we love a complicated ticketing system in the cultural sector, don't we? I mean, with all the right intentions. I mean, even the list in some places of different concessions. I mean, you don't want to go. I think I'm that or I'm that. You know, and it's done with the right intention. But it's an enormous barrier. Paul Marden: Yeah, completely. Paul Sapwell: And you know, we make things so complex and I don't have the fix, but I know we've got to fix it. And that means putting sort of. Again, learn from companies who do this really well rather than. Yeah. Looking for ideas ourselves. Lots of people do it really well out there. That's what we got to do. Paul Marden: Thinking of lots of my team who might think that this is something somebody should solve. Zak Mensah: The fix is simple, isn't it? Because you just said then that there are other people doing it well. What we're not really good at artists actually copying people. Zak Mensah: Like just copy someone else who's done it better than us. It's really. It really does annoy me. Let's just say that what always happens is that we make decisions by committee, don't we? So it would have been two steps, but then someone from marketing said, but you've got to have a newsletter. And someone from another team would say, “You've got to also ask for this. And then you've got to do this. Then you've got to try and get the kids to come for school trip.” Before you know it, people mean well and they've made it really complicated. I think sometimes it's like, actually, let's just do the simplest thing. Let's do all the hard work to remove those barriers and then we can try and flog them stuff when they get there. Paul Marden: So friend of mine, Andy talks a lot about you don't go to a fine dining restaurant and walk up to the maitre d and he says to you, “Would you like a table, by the way, are you going to have dessert? And would you like a coffee? And what are you going to have for your starter main course and dessert? Oh, right, I'll take you to your table.” You have a conversation with people and you lead them and you don't try and pack everything into the very first time you ever talk to the potential client. Zak Mensah: Which is why Greg's does so well. Paul Marden: Yeah, look guys, I could carry on about this conversation, but we are the barrier to everybody getting to their drinks and nibbles and so we've got. Paul Sapwell: Including us. Paul Marden: I know, sorry. We've got a couple of things that I must cover. So we always ask our guests for a book recommendation. It can be a novel, it can be work related. So Zak, would you like to go first with yours? Zak Mensah: Yeah. Turn the ship around! I think it's David Marquet. It's a book about a nuclear submarine commander who basically realises all these stupid rules. And so he just said to everyone, just tell me you intend to. So say to him, I intend to turn the ship left, I intend to take holiday, etc, because he realised that there were so many stupid rules and I think museum will have loads of stupid rules. It's a really good thing. And I know most of you won't read the book because most people say, “Yeah, I'll read it. They don't read it.” There's a 10 minute YouTube video. Surely you can spend 10 minutes of time if you can't be bothered to do that. There is literally a 30 second Wikipedia article about it. But please don't do it. Paul Marden: Zak feels very strongly about this. Paul, your book recommendation, please. Paul Sapwell: Well, last year I read Wild Swans by Jung Chang and I'm trying to find a way of getting into a business conversation. I think there's so much that comes out of that book, but I think, yeah, striving for Utopia is often, you know, the book. Right. Most people in terms of living under communist China and we know we could go on about utopian things that haven't worked, but I think there's, for this conversation, that's perhaps where we need to think, you know, going forward here. There isn't a sort of utopian way that things should be done for our sector. There is, you know, we're making our way here and yeah. Obviously it's a fantastic book. Paul Marden: Excellent. Thank you, Paul. Amy, your recommendation? Amy Akino-Wittering: Yeah, so mine isn't linked to like professional development at all. Mine. Paul Marden: Well, you did have one. Amy Akino-Wittering: Well, I did have one and you were like, no, just go for your favourite one. So I was like, Persuasion by Jane Austen. It's a classic. Paul Marden: We've got, we've got big anniversary at the moment, haven't we? In Chawton where Jane Austen lived has got big thing about 200 years, 250 years? Amy Akino-Wittering: Celebration for the whole year. So I'm gonna go in. Paul Sapwell: Yeah, everyone's trying to get in on this, by the way. I just have to put this out there. You know, she was born in Hampshire. Paul Marden: I know. Paul Sapwell: Born in Hampshire, actually. Born Basingstoke. Paul Marden: I know.Paul Sapwell: Yes. Paul Marden: There's a lot of celebrations for Jane this year. Paul Sapwell: Yeah, everyone's trying. I've seen so many angles for her. Oh, she was here and she went to the toilet. Fair enough. I mean, it's a big celebration. Paul Marden: If you'd like a copy of the book or any of these books, head over to Bluesky and like and repost the show announcement saying, I want Zak, Paul or Amy's book. And the first person to do that will get the book sent to them. Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this episode, then please leave us a five star review. It really does help more people to find us and remember to follow us on Bluesky , X or Instagram for your chance to win the book. Thank you very much, everybody. Paul Sapwell: Thank you. Amy Akino-Wittering: Thank you. The 2024 Visitor Attraction Website Survey is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsDownload the 2024 Rubber Cheese Visitor Attraction Website Survey Report

This week, a TON of updates coming to the Disneyland Resort Hotels, two new stores are open in Downtown Disney, a new President for the Resort, Celebrate Soulfully is returning, we talk to Teresa about her latest cruise on the Disney Fantasy, and more! Please support the show if you can by going to https://www.dlweekly.net/support/. Check out all of our current partners and exclusive discounts at https://www.dlweekly.net/promos. News: Some big updates are coming to the hotels at the Disneyland Resort. This Spring, Napa Rose will close to undergo a refurbishment that will bring French oak flooring and columns, which is the type of wood used to make wine barrels, new lighting, and materials throughout the restaurant. Expanded counters will allow more guests to experience the open kitchen, and a new outdoor patio will be added. – https://disneyparksblog.com/dlr/exciting-new-additions-hotels-of-disneyland-resort/ Two new Concierge lounges will be coming to the Disneyland Hotel and Disney's Grand Californian. The High Key Club will open at the Disneyland Hotel, celebrating Disneyland in 1955. The overall aesthetic will be mid-century modern and will nearly double the previous club-level lounge in the Adventure Tower. A second club-level lounge will open at the Grand Californian. The new two-story space will celebrate the California Craftsman style and be located on the 5th and 6th floors overlooking the Great Hall lobby. This space should open in 2026. – https://disneyparksblog.com/dlr/exciting-new-additions-hotels-of-disneyland-resort/ All guests of the Grand Californian will benefit from this next update. New decor will added to every guest room, including the Disney Vacation Club Villas. The new designs will feature bright colors inspired by California wildflower blooms. – https://disneyparksblog.com/dlr/exciting-new-additions-hotels-of-disneyland-resort/ Two new suites are coming to the Pixar Place Hotel. The new suites will feature two bedrooms. The Coco Suite will have Oaxacan [Wah-Hah-Kihn]-style architecture with terracotta tiling, Mexican artisan quilted and woven pieces, a fireplace, and more. The Incredibles Suite will be a mid-century modern design with a “spy-fi” twist. A room designed by Edna Mode herself will be one of the spaces, along with a hand-scanning prop at the entryway, among other special effects. These rooms should open this summer. – https://disneyparksblog.com/dlr/exciting-new-additions-hotels-of-disneyland-resort/ Two stores in Downtown Disney have finally opened! Disney Wonderful World of Sweets, which replaces Marceline's Confectionary opened last week. The shop is spacious and offers many of the same items as Marceline's. A new offering is the Werther's Original Caramel popcorn. There is a nod to Marceline, MO in the train display in the window. Storyland Boutique, which is in the old Wonderground location, also opened offering a ever-changing theme. Currently, the theme is “cure, cuddly, and plushy.” The store currently has create-your-own headbands, plush characters, and Pooh and Stitch merchandise. – https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2025/01/22/phenomenal-popcorn-news-theres-a-new-disney-store-selling-werthers-caramel-popcorn/#more-1003589 https://www.micechat.com/344054-disneyland-news-downtown-disney-expansion/ The Disneyland Resort will have a new President starting in March. Ken Potrock, the current President, will be moving to overseeing Disney's involvement in the 2028 Olympics. The new President, Thomas Mazloum (maz-lowm), came from Disney Cruise Line and “Signature Experiences.” – https://www.micechat.com/408393-new-disneyland-president-what-needs-to-change-under-mazloum/ https://www.micechat.com/408424-disneyland-update-takeovers-makeovers-sugar-rush/ Last Friday was Anaheim Ducks Day at the resort. There was a cavalcade, guests had the chance to ride an attraction with players, a fan zone to test your hockey skills, and more. – https://www.micechat.com/408424-disneyland-update-takeovers-makeovers-sugar-rush/ Celebrate Soulfully will be returning to the Fantasyland Theatre on February 8th and February 15th. Award-winning artists and community choirs from across Southern California will take part. The headliner is 6-time Grammy nominated, and 2-time Dove award-winning musician DOE. The second week will feature Grammy Award-nominated gospel singer Melvin Crispell, III. There are some specialty dishes at Tiana's Palace and Troubadour Tavern. – https://www.micechat.com/408424-disneyland-update-takeovers-makeovers-sugar-rush/ Two iconic engineers responsible for their work on the Matterhorn are being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame posthumously. Karl Bacon, who passed away in 2008 at 98, and Ed Morgan, in 2009 at 93, worked for Arrow Development, the company Disney hired to work with them to create attractions for Disneyland. Karl and Ed came up with the idea of tubular steel tracks to make the attraction possible. The ceremony will be held in Washington, D.C. on May 8th. – NEWS: 2 Engineers Behind an Iconic Disney Attraction Will Be Honored at “The Greatest Celebration of American Innovation” | the disney food blog D23 Gold Members can take advantage of a deal at a local hotel. The Anaheim Hotel is offering 15% off direct bookings, which include a members-only welcome gift, two breakfast vouchers, and 23% off food and beverage at The Pizza Press, the attached restaurant. The offer is valid through December 14, 2026 to all active D23 Gold Members. – This Disneyland Hotel Is Offering an EXCLUSIVE Discount (with FREE Breakfast!) | the disney food blog SnackChat: Valentine's Day Foodie Guide – https://disneyparksblog.com/disney-experiences/disney-eats-valentines-day-foodie-guide-2025/ TriviaLand: *Warning Spoilers* https://www.livescience.com/56261-kidney-stones-roller-coaster.html Discussion Topic: Teresa and Vern's Disney Cruise – Jan 2025

In this episode, we revisit the reading of Reverend Martin Luther King's 1963 "Letter From A Birmingham Jail". It was performed annually as a staged reading in the Great Hall of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library prior to the library's renovation. Today, we continue that tradition in virtual form, blending voices familiar and new, including DC Public Library staff and community members.

Spend a bookish weekend with us in a country manor house! For centuries, nobles and ne'er-do-wells have gathered on country estates for a bit of leisure, a lot of sumptuous food, sparkling conversation, and general good cheer. You're invited to join us at Trevor Hall for a modern take on the traditional manor house weekend. Together, we'll make ourselves at home in this historic Georgian mansion surrounded by the picturesque North Wales countryside. We'll talk about books, share gourmet meals in the Great Hall, play parlor games, ramble in the Welsh hills, listen to stories by candlelight, and be dazzled by an illusionist from London. Our weekend begins in Manchester, England — a UNESCO City of Literature. We'll take over a boutique hotel in the city center where we'll enjoy an evening pub meetup, spend the night, and start our morning with a breakfast fry-up. Then we're off to the Elizabeth Gaskell House for a private tour of the Victorian villa where the author wrote her classic novel ‘North and South' (and entertained literary friends like Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens). After a restorative tea-and-cake break, we'll ride together via private motor coach — just over an hour — through the rugged countryside to Llangollen, a charming historic town on the River Dee in North Wales. Our destination: Trevor Hall. The Hall is a Georgian mansion on a wooded hilltop overlooking green slopes dotted with sheep and horses. After a tour of the house and gardens, we'll ease into country living in the Hall's luxurious (and tastefully eclectic) rooms. With literary activities, entertainment, and surprises planned throughout the weekend, you're sure to be delighted — and have plenty of time to connect with old and new bookish friends. For complete details about the weekend and lots of photos, visit strongsenseofplace.com/weekend. For early access to tickets for a Readers' Weekend at Trevor Hall, join our Patreon. To be notified the minute tickets go on sale, join our free Substack newsletter. Parts of the Strong Sense of Place podcast are produced in udio. Some effects are provided by soundly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Raise your sustainable Celtic Christmas tree while listening to Celtic Christmas Music #81. Joseph Carmichael, Seán Heely, The Barra MacNeils, Cedar Dobson, The McDades, Irish Christmas in America, Brobdingnagian Bards, Screaming Orphans, Mary-Kate Spring Lee, Cherish the Ladies WELCOME TO CELTIC CHRISTMAS MUSIC I am Marc Gunn. I am Celtic musician and host of Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. We are promoting Celtic culture through Christmas cheer all year long. That's right. I am planning bonus episodes in the off-season to keep you in the Christmas spirit throughout 2025. If you hear music you love, please support the artists. You can find a link to all of the artists in the shownotes as well as how to support this podcast at CelticChristmasPodcast.com THIS WEEK IN CELTIC CHRISTMAS MUSIC 0:06 - Joseph Carmichael “Snowdrift” from Single 4:36 - WELCOME 5:17 - Seán Heely "Medieval Carols in the Great Hall” from So Merry as We Have Been 9:40 - The Barra MacNeils "O Holy Night” from The Christmas Album 14:23 - CHRISTMAS SHOWS Last time, I mentioned some of the artists with Celtic Christmas Concerts. I missed Sean Heely, The Barra McNeils, Screaming Orphans, the McDades, and The Irish Rovers. Basically, many of the artists in this week's episode have Celtic Christmas concerts. 15:17 - Cedar Dobson "Good Christian Men Rejoice/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Joy to the World” from A Whistle Wonderland: Christmas Melodies in a Celtic Style 18:13 - The McDades "Snow Snow” from A Winter Collection 23:02 - SUSTAINABLE CHRISTMAS TREES If you've been following me for a while, I am continually looking for more sustainable ways to live. Christmas is a great time to do just that. We Celts have long had an important relationship with the land and our environment. So I'm gonna offer a bunch of thoughts in the coming months. l read an article on “What's The Most Sustainable Christmas Tree?” You can find a link in the shownotes. One of the most-interesting things I read was about Artificial Trees. You might think they are the most-sustainable. But it turns out that they are typically made with some of the worst, most-toxic types of plastic, polyvinyl chloride (PVC). My family prefers real Christmas trees. But there's always a catch, isn't there. The challenge with a regular tree is finding one that is sustainably sourced. Meaning is it shipped from across the country? Or is it locally grown? Or even better, is it a tree you can replant in your yard when the holiday is over? I'll be honest. Replanting is more than we will do. However, did you know you can rent a Christmas tree? Yeah. That's what I said when I read that. It's not available in all areas. But it is possible to rent one. Then it will be planted afterward. If you're artsy, maybe you can build your own Christmas tree. You could use a plant around the house or build a tree from scrap lumber around the house. Do a search for Christmas tree alternatives and you'll find a ton of options. As for disposing of your tree, don't send those Artificial Trees to the landfill. Instead give it to someone, donate it, sell it or repurpose it. That's the best way to keep it out of the landfill. The same goes with regular trees. Sustainable Jungle writes: “Real trees that end up in landfills can be detrimental to the environment. This is because the tree decomposes and produces methane gas, which is 26 times more harmful than CO2 in terms of climate change potential.” So see if there are local collection services or repurpose the tree instead of sending it to trash. 26:12 - Irish Christmas in America "Air_March_Polka - The Snowy-Breasted Pearl, Freedom for Ireland” from A Long Way From Home 31:51 - Brobdingnagian Bards "Bog Down In Christmas” from Christmas In Brobdingnag 36:28 - Screaming Orphans "You Are All Mine (At Christmas Time)” from Happy Christmas Volume 2 39:30 - Mary-Kate Spring Lee "O Little Town of Bethlehem/Celia Connellen” from Carol of the Child 43:13 - THANK YOU FOR SPREADING CHRISTMAS CHEER! Podcast advertising pays for some of the hosting fees of this show. But the podcast creation is entirely funded by your generosity. Your kindness pays for our engineer, graphic design, and promotion of the podcast. It allows me to buy the music I play here. It also pays for my time creating the show. As a Patron, you get ad-free episodes and a private feed to listen to the podcast. All that for as little as $1 per month. HERE IS YOUR THREE-STEP PLAN TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST Go to our Patreon page. Decide how much you want to pledge every month, $1, $5, $10, or $25. Keep listening to Celtic Christmas Music to celebrate Celtic culture through Christmas cheer. You can become a generous Christmas Patron at patreon.com/celticchristmas . 45:14 - Cherish the Ladies "All on a Christmas Morning / The Carol of the Twelve Numbers” from Cherish the Ladies Ultimate Christmas Mix 48:42 - CLOSING Celtic Christmas Music was produced by Marc Gunn and our Christmas Patrons on Patreon. The show was edited by Mitchell Petersen with Graphics by Miranda Nelson Designs. Visit our website to subscribe to the podcast. You'll find links to all of the artists played in this episode. Please tell one friend about this podcast. Word of mouth is the absolute best way to support any creative endeavor. Finally, remember. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and discuss with others how you can make a positive impact on climate change. Promote Celtic culture through Christmas music at CelticChristmasPodcast.com. Nollaig Shona Daoibh! #celticchristmas #celticchristmasmusic  

Uncovering the Mysteries of Denver International Airport (Part 1) Denver International Airport (DIA) isn't just a travel hub—it's a focal point for some of the most bizarre and fascinating conspiracy theories in the world. In Part 1 of this two-part episode, we dig into the airport's mysterious origins, from its massive $2 billion budget overrun and unexplained construction delays to the infamous automated baggage system that never worked. We explore the theories surrounding hidden underground bunkers, unmarked buildings, and secret tunnels that some believe were built for government or elite use. But that's just the start. We also examine the apocalyptic murals and strange symbols throughout the airport, which conspiracy theorists claim hint at a sinister New World Order agenda. Are the runways designed to send a coded message? What's the significance of the time capsule with Masonic markings buried beneath the Great Hall? Join us as we unravel the secrets buried beneath DIA's runways and set the stage for even more mind-blowing revelations in Part 2. "Thanks for listening, but remember, don't tell anyone about what you heard today, because this podcast is a secret!"

Send us a textIn this episode, we discuss some major updates for the Harry Potter TV show from an interview with some of the executives. Enjoy!Topics/Summary:·      Read the article here·      1:18 The first season will be eight hours long. That is a heck of a lot longer than the few hours we had for the first film, so what might this mean? The hope is they won't face problems of time. If the season comes out and they make some excuse about cutting something for time, we will know something was up.·      8:21 30,000 submitted tapes? Wow. That is the number of people who auditioned for the trio. Now we have to continue to ask the age-old question, who will they cast? Will the actors play the characters from the film or the book? They had better be really good at acting and find a middle ground between the characters we know and the names on the page. ·      19:08 Peeves will be included. That was an explicit statement they made. Hopefully, this will tell us that they are in fact trying to include as many things from the books into the show as they can.·      21:16 They will keep the iconic sets and expand what we haven't seen. They said that they want to explore the aesthetics of the castle further, while keeping the iconic sets such as the Great Hall. This is great news! Changing the original and iconic sets would be a certain disaster.·       25:40 “No one can replace Alan Rickman, but we can find the next generation.” This is great news. Alan Rickman is impossible to top, and it is good that the filmmakers have realized this. Snape is technically 31 in the first film, and Rickman has a much more ancient air about him. It is good that they aren't trying to replace who we know and love, but expand upon their characters and show us more facets of who they are.·      29:09 Mark Rylance and Cillian Murphy and are two names that have come up for Dumbledore and Voldemort respectively. The filmmakers themselves have thrown Rylance's name around before. He isn't perfect, but it might work well depending on how they spin it. Ralph Fiennes himself put a stamp of approval on Murphy's name for Voldemort, but Murphy seems just a bit too young to capture Voldemort essence.·      33:25 “We have a much larger sandbox.” I hope what they mean by this is they are going to use the basis of the films to expand into places we haven't seen and characters we haven't met. They have such a good chance to make this a fantastic series, all they have to do it grab it.Having anything you want to hear or say? Click here for a voice submission or here for text. ThePotterDiscussion@gmail.comthepotterdiscussion.comNox

James and Oliver Phelps reflect on their journey to landing their iconic roles as Fred and George Weasley, sharing humorous stories about their audition, where they skipped school and traveled hours to join thousands of hopefuls. They reminisce about their on-set antics, from inventing ways to pass the time to unforgettable pranks with co-stars like Rupert Grint, where they'd crack up in scenes and create games to stay entertained. They discuss their excitement in blending the magical world with baking on Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking, describing the unique set with nods to the Great Hall and the awe-inspiring edible creations the contestants bring to life. James and Oliver express a deep appreciation for the bakers' artistic skills, recalling moments of pure wonder at seeing elaborate designs take shape under pressure. They describe how the show's competitive yet community-driven atmosphere makes it accessible to audiences beyond the Harry Potter fanbase, creating a sense of connection across generations. Follow Food Network on Instagram: HERE Follow Jaymee Sire on Instagram: HERE Follow James Phelps on Instagram: HERE Follow Oliver Phelps on Instagram: HERE Learn More About Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking: HERE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trump's tariffs could remake world trade. The Wall Street Journal's Greg Ip explains the president-elect's plan and how the world is preparing. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn and Haleema Shah, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Andrea Kristinsdottir and Rob Byers, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members President-elect Donald Trump and China's president Xi Jinping outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2017. Photo by Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carla Hall dishes on her role as a judge on the new baking competition, Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking. She shares her excitement for the show, from working on iconic sets like Platform 9 ¾ and the Great Hall to collaborating with hosts and former Harry Potter actors. She describes the high-energy atmosphere, where self-taught and professional bakers alike create awe-inspiring structures that embody the spirit of the wizarding world. Carla discusses the unique challenges, including balancing intricate visuals with delicious flavors, and shares her approach to judging with co-judge Jozef Youssef, whose shared life parallels fostered an instant bond. Alongside her tales of magical sets and wardrobe, Carla reveals her admiration for the incredible details of the sets and props, from enchanted forests to floating candles. She also reflects on embracing the unexpected in her own life, fueling her own magic and creativity. Follow Food Network on Instagram: HERE Follow Jaymee Sire on Instagram: HERE Follow Carla Hall on Instagram: HERE Learn More About Halloween Baking Championship: HERE Learn More About Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking: HERE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.