Podcasts about greater greater washington

DC has a whole host of rules that are the kind of thing where if you know, you know. Is it Malcolm X Park or Meridian Hill Park? Is it Reagan National Airport or DCA? We talked to ClockoutDC's Jade Womack and Greater Greater Washington's Dan Reed last summer about the essential rules to life in DC.  If you like culture hot takes like this, sign up for our morning newsletter Hey DC. You can also become a member, with ad-free listening, for just $8 a month. Learn more about the sponsors of this March 13th episode: Urban Pace Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Metro screwed? It's a question that has less to do with trains and stations than with budgets and balance sheets. Wyatt Gordon wrote extensively about Metro's challenges for Greater Greater Washington and he's here to walk us through the wonky details.  Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter Hey DC. You can also become a member, with ad-free listening, for as little as $8 a month. Learn more about the sponsors of this March 3rd episode: The Pew Charitable Trusts Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the City Cast 6 – our end of year awards for DC's most influential people. Washington Post's Michael Brice-Saddler, Axios' Anna Spiegel, and Greater Greater Washington's Dan Reed join the team to decide who influenced DC in 2024, for better or worse. It's our year-end membership campaign! Member support is critical for helping us tell the stories that connect you to this city we all love. Become a member today, with ad-free listening, for as little as $8 a month. Learn more about the sponsors of this December 9th episode: District Bridges Paulson & Nace Jones Dairy Farm Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starting tomorrow, D.C. is phasing out its Circulator bus routes. Dan Tangherlini, who launched the service when he ran the city's transportation department, is here to tell us how we got here, and what might get lost when the Circulator stops circulating.   You can read Dan's Greater Greater Washington piece on the Circulator here. Our next live taping is Wednesday, Oct. 9 at Black Cat. Come join us to learn about the juiciest election stories of the year, from the fierce clash over ranked choice voting to an indicted councilmember's scandalous reelection bid with zero competition. RSVP here. Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter Hey DC. You can also become a member, with ad-free listening, for as little as $8 a month. Learn more about the sponsors of this September 30th episode: National Museum of Women in the Arts  Paulson & Nace Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where's the coolest place to stand in the Metro? We put the question to Adam Bressler from Greater Greater Washington, who has written an epic explainer about the unusual system that Metro uses to keep stations from becoming D.C. summer sweatboxes.  Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter Hey DC. You can also become a member, with ad-free listening, for as little as $8 a month. Learn more about the sponsors of this August 22nd episode: Maryland Renaissance Festival Alliance Francaise Library of Congress Film Costume Ball Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE And we'd love to feature you on the show! Share your DC-related thoughts, hopes, and frustrations with us in a voicemail by calling 202-642-2654. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

D.C. has a whole host of rules that are the kind of thing where if you know, you know. So ClockoutDC's Jade Womack and Greater Greater Washington's Dan Reed joined to take us to school on the essential rules to life in the District.  If you like culture hot takes like this, sign up for our morning newsletter Hey DC. You can also become a member, with ad-free listening, for just $8 a month. Learn more about the sponsors of this August 13th episode: Paulson & Nace Metropolitan Washington Restaurant Week: (8/12 - 8/18) Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, Prince George's County has been a top draw for Black professionals looking for a suburban life. But lately its demographics have been changing in interesting ways. Greater Greater Washington's Olubusayo Shabi is here to tell us more. Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter Hey DC. You can also become a member, with ad-free listening, for as little as $8 a month. Learn more about the sponsors of this July 11th episode: Babbel PaintCare Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's D.C. Parks Week sponsored by Casey Trees, a week of coverage celebrating D.C.'s green spaces. D.C. was recently named the country's best big city park system by the Trust for Public Land for the fourth time in a row! We are a park city, and not all of our parks are big. Greater Greater Washington's Dan Reed and Kelly Collins Choi of Casey Trees sound off on what makes DC's pocket parks so special.  Learn more about the sponsors of this June 13th episode: Casey Trees Alliance Française Eagle Bank Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter Hey DC. You can also become a member, with ad-free listening, for as little as $8 a month. Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE And we'd love to feature you on the show! Share your DC-related thoughts, hopes, and frustrations with us in a voicemail by calling 202-642-2654. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom is an experienced attorney and lobbyist with a specific focus on housing and community development. Tom's expertise in real estate and housing matters has been featured in numerous publications, including The Baltimore Sun, Money Magazine, Maryland Matters, and Greater Greater Washington. In 2021, Tom was recognized by The Daily Record as a "VIP: Successful by 40" honoree. His practice involves engagement with the leadership of state and local agencies, county government, and the Maryland General Assembly. Tom received a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center and a Bachelor of Arts from Lycoming College. Tom serves on the Board of Trustees for the Maryland Science Center and the Board of Directors for the Baltimore Regional Housing Partnership.

D.C. has a new Police Chief. Will she find a solution to the District's crime surge? How does her appointment change the politics of the crime bill? City Cast's Julia Karron and Dan Reed of Greater Greater Washington talk it out. Plus, we breakdown the future of ranked choice voting and where to watch the Women's World Cup! Check out the local reporting that powers our roundups: Peter Hermann and Emily Davies of the Washington Post have got your primer on the new Police Chief. Martin Austermuhle at DCist has the scoop on the future of ranked choice voting in the District and Arlington. Friend of the Pod Chelsea Cirruzzo from Axios breaks down where to watch the Women's World Cup. Want some more DC news? Then you should sign up for our morning newsletter Hey DC!  Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE We're also on Twitter! Follow us at @citycast_dc!  And we'd love to feature you on the show! Share your DC-related thoughts, hopes, and frustrations with us in a voicemail by calling 202-642-2654. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of D.C.'s top restaurants abruptly shut down Monday under mysterious circumstances. It turns out its an issue that has to do with unions, money, and culture, and Washington Post food reporter Tim Carman walks us through it. Plus, City Cast DC contributor Dan Reed and Mike talk about D.C.'s embrace of ranked choice voting, and the scary specter of extremists on D.C.'s police force. Check out all the local reporting that powers our Friday news roundups: Tim Carman's reporting on Moon Rabbit's closure is must read material. Check out the DOJ's report on Shane Lamond. Dan Reed explained rank choice voting in Greater Greater Washington. Be sure to listen to our episode about how to create your own local tour! Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter Hey DC. Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE. We're also on Twitter! Follow us at @citycast_dc. And we'd love to feature you on the show! Share your DC-related thoughts, hopes, and frustrations with us in a voicemail by calling 202-642-2654. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Yellow Line is coming back! But its route is not quite the same. Plus, D.C.'s proposed budget sets aside a small fortune for building out new pickleball courts, and there's good news for fans of the old 9:30 Club.  As always, our news roundup couldn't happen without the great local reporting in the area: Greater Greater Washington helps us rationalize the Yellow Line changes The Washington Post breaks down the pickleball budget Check out Bowser playing pickleball while making the budget announcement Local NBC Reporter Mark Segraves tweeted out this list of potential pickleball court spots. Testify if you have strong feelings about them! Northern Virginia Mag lists out the upcoming concerts at Atlantis and how you can get tickets before the lottery closes TODAY. Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter Hey DC. Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE. We're also on Twitter! Follow us at @citycast_dc (TRY TO CHANGE IT UP EVERY TIME) And we'd love to feature you on the show! Share your DC-related thoughts, hopes, and frustrations with us in a voicemail by calling 202-642-2654. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's another week where crime stories are in the headlines. Dan Reed from Greater Greater Washington joins us to talk about why this is happening and what it means for how the city operates. Plus, the Reeves Center is getting a facelift, and how do we define D.C.'s sports culture? As always, our news roundups are powered by some awesome local journalism: Katie Mettler and Justin George from the Washington Post were all over the Potomac Avenue Metro Station shooting. Tristan Navera of Washington Business Journal explains what's going on at the Reeves Center. Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter. We're also on Twitter! Follow us at @citycast_dc. And we'd love to feature you on the show! Share your DC-related thoughts, hopes, and frustrations with us in a voicemail by calling 2026422654. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Reed is the regional policy director for Greater Greater Washington, a nonprofit organization that discusses, organizes, and advocates for issues impacting the D.C. region. From building codes to crime stats, to sports and entertainment venues to the future of public transportation, you won't want to miss this lively discussion on how Greater Greater Washington is advocating for a more accessible, vibrant community.

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine delivered yet another blow to Dan and Tanya Snyder as they apparently prepare to sell the Washington Commanders. Sports journalist Kevin Blackistone and Greater Greater Washington's Dan Reed join us to talk about how the latest investigation details could affect the Commanders' sale. We're also talking election results in Maryland and Virginia, and about a wonky D.C. policy about sidewalks. As always, our Friday roundup is powered by great local journalism:  Commanders called out for statement criticizing AG Karl Racine (WashPo Local) Election results and analysis for DC, Maryland, and Virginia (WashPo Local) Vendors unite to decriminalize unlicensed street vending in DC (WTOP) Sign up to testify at the DC Council public hearing on sidewalk vending before 5 p.m. on Monday. There's the news, but for more D.C. events and community, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter and follow us on Twitter at @citycast_dc. And we'd love to feature you on the show! Share your DC-related thoughts, hopes, and frustrations with us in a voicemail by calling 2026422654. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're going a bit transportation heavy in today's episode. Dan Reed of Greater Greater Washington and Martin Austermuhle from WAMU are here to chat about what is going on with those 7000-series trains and how parking in the district may be changing dramatically. Let your voice be heard on residential parking permits! The DC Council public hearing about it is TODAY at noon. Follow this link to keep up. We've got more D.C. news for you on our morning newsletter. It'll be especially useful to you in the lead-up to the Nov. 8 election. Be sure to also follow us on Twitter at @citycast_dc. And share your DC-related thoughts, hopes, and frustrations with us in a voicemail by calling 2026422654. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Montgomery County's Planning Board quit last week in a huge, dramatic shake-up, and it's Dan Reed, from Greater Greater Washington, is here to tell us what's next there. Plus, Dan, Priyanka, and Mike break down the latest Dan Snyder drama, and look through the final designs for D.C.'s most ambitious urban park plan in years. Our Friday roundup is fueled by some great local journalism: Check out the final designs for the 11th Street Bridge park Dan Reed's piece about the MoCo Planning Board shake-up And here's the latest Commanders drama And for good measure, Sally Jenkin's scathing takedown of Dan Snyder For more D.C. news like this, definitely sign up for our morning newsletter and follow us on Twitter. We're at @citycast_dc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 39 of The Lobby, Damian comes to you live from the biggest lobby in Maryland, the MACo Summer Conference in beautiful Ocean City. This is part 6 of a multi-part series with leaders from around Maryland at the biggest gathering of elected officials and insiders in the state.For part 6, Damian is joined by Dan Reed, Regional Policy Director for Greater Greater Washington for a discussion about his new role at GGWash, zoning reform advocacy, and missing middle housing in Montgomery County. Come back tomorrow for part 7 with Mayor Rick Meehan!We hope to see you soon in The Lobby.

In episode 38 of The Lobby, Damian comes to you live from the biggest lobby in Maryland, the MACo Summer Conference in beautiful Ocean City. This is part 5 of a multi-part series with leaders from around Maryland at the biggest gathering of elected officials and insiders in the state.For part 5, Damian joins the legendary Senator Frank Kelly on a very special day to discuss his philosophy of surrendering to win. Join us for a retelling of how Senator Kelly met his wife, battled alcoholism, and made his mark on the Maryland medical system. Then, stick around for a look at the following generation of Kelly's, and their passion for lacrosse.Come back tomorrow for part 6 with Dan Reed, Regional Policy Director of Greater Greater Washington.We hope to see you soon in The Lobby.

You've probably seen the headlines about protestors interrupting Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's dinner at Morton's Steakhouse. But that's not the only "creative" protest around town. Hosts Michael Schaffer and Bridget Todd explain how local activism has evolved with the times and if that evolution translates into real action. Also, Greater Greater Washington is hosting an ANC training, you can register and find out more here. Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter We're also on Twitter! Follow us at @citycast_dc And we'd love to feature you on the show! Share your DC-related thoughts, hopes, and frustrations with us in a voicemail by calling 2026422654 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

01:47 - Nyota's Superpower: To hear and pull out people's ideas to make them more clear, actionable, and profitable! * Acknowledging The Unspoken * Getting Checked 07:15 - Boundaries and Harmony 10:35 - News & Social Media * Addiction * Filtering * Bias 18:54 - The Impact of AI 23:00 - Anyone Can Be A Freelance Journalist; How Change Happens * Chelsea Cirruzzo's Guide to Freelance Journalism (https://docs.google.com/document/d/18rwpMH_VpK8LUcO61czV2SzzXPVmcVhmUigf1_a7xbc/edit) * Casey's GGWash Article About Ranked Choice Voting (https://ggwash.org/view/79582/what-exactly-is-ranked-choice-voting-anyway) * First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy | Derek Sivers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ) 40:13 - The Intersection of Cybersecurity and Employee Wellness: Resiliency * @selfcare_tech (https://twitter.com/selfcare_tech) Reflections: Casey & John: “A big part of resilience is being able to take more breaths.” – Nyota Damien: You can be the expert. You can be the journalist. You can be the first mover/leader. Applying that conscientiously. Nyota: Leaving breadcrumbs. This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep (https://twitter.com/therubyrep) of DevReps, LLC (http://www.devreps.com/). To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode (https://www.patreon.com/greaterthancode) To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps (https://www.paypal.me/devreps). You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well. Transcript: PRE-ROLL: Software is broken, but it can be fixed. Test Double's superpower is improving how the world builds software by building both great software and great teams. And you can help! Test Double is hiring empathetic senior software engineers and DevOps engineers. We work in Ruby, JavaScript, Elixir and a lot more. Test Double trusts developers with autonomy and flexibility at a remote, 100% employee-owned software consulting agency. Looking for more challenges? Enjoy lots of variety while working with the best teams in tech as a developer consultant at Test Double. Find out more and check out remote openings at link.testdouble.com/greater. That's link.testdouble.com/greater. DAMIEN: Welcome to Episode 275 of Greater Than Code. I'm Damien Burke and I'm here with John Sawers. JOHN: Thanks, Damien. And I'm here with Casey Watts. CASEY: Hi, I'm Casey! And we're all here with our guest today, Nyota Gordon. Nyota is a technologist in cybersecurity and Army retiree with over 22 years of Active Federal Leadership Service. She is the founder, developer, and all-around do-gooder at Transition365 a Cyber Resiliency Training Firm that thrives at the intersection of cybersecurity and employee wellness. Welcome, Nyota! So glad to have you. NYOTA: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you. CASEY: Yay! All right. Our first question—we warned you about this—what is your superpower and how did you acquire it? NYOTA: My superpower is to hear, pull out people's ideas, and make them more clear, more actionable, and more profitable. DAMIEN: Ooh. NYOTA: Yeah, that's one of my friends told me that. And how did I get it? I'm a words person. So I listen to what people say, but I also listen to what they don't say. CASEY: What they don't say. NYOTA: Yeah. CASEY: Can you think of an example? NYOTA: Like that. Like when you did that quiet thing you just did, I saw that mind blown emoji because there's a lot in unspoken. There's a lot in body language. There's a lot in silence. When the silence happens, there's a lot when someone changes the topic, like that stuff is a lot. [chuckles] So I listen and I acknowledge all of that. Maybe we all hear it, or don't hear it depending on how you're processing what I'm saying, but we don't always acknowledge it and respect it in other people, DAMIEN: You have to listen to the notes he's not playing. [laughter] Do you ever have an experience where things that are not said do not want to be heard? NYOTA: Absolutely. But that's part of acknowledging and so, you can tell when people are like, “I do not want to talk about that.” So then I would do a gentle topic change and not a hard left all the time, because you don't want to make it all the way weird, but it may be like, “Oh, okay so you were talking about your hair, like you were saying something about your hair there.” I try to be very mindful because I will get in your business. Like, I will ask you a million questions. I'm very inquisitive and maybe that's one of my superpowers too, but I'm also aware and I feel like I'm respectful of people's space most times. CASEY: I really like that in people when people notice a lot about me and they can call it out. When I was a kid, my family would call me blunt, not necessarily in a bad way, but I would just say whatever I'm thinking and not everyone likes it right away. But I really appreciate that kind of transparency, honesty, especially if I trust the person. That helps a lot, too. NYOTA: I was just saying that to my mom, actually, I was like, “You know, mom, I feel like I need a different quality of friend,” and what I mean by that is my friends just let me wild out. Like I ask them anything, I say anything, but they don't kind of check me. They're like, “Well, is that right, Nyota?” Like, Tell me, why are you saying it like that?” But they just let me be like ah and I'm like, “Mom, I need to be checked.” Like I need a hard check sometimes. So now you're just letting me run wild so now I'm just seeing how wild I can get. Sometime I just want maybe like a little check, a little body check every now and then, but I try to be mindful when it comes to other people, though. It's the check I want is not always the check that other people want. CASEY: Right, right. DAMIEN: What is it like when you're being checked? What happens? NYOTA: It's hard to come by these days so I'm not really sure [chuckles] when I'm getting my own, but I'll ask a question. I'll just kind of ask a question like, “Well, is that true?” people are like, “This world is falling apart,” and you know how people are because we are in a shaky space right now and I'm like, “But is that absolutely true for your life?” How is everything really infecting, impacting what have you being exposed to in your own life? So as we have the conversation about COVID. COVID was one of my best years as far as learning about myself, connecting with people better and more intimately than I ever really have before and we're talking virtually. So things are going on in the world, but is it going on personally, or are you just watching the news and repeating what other people are saying? JOHN: That's such a fascinating thing to do to interrupt that cycle of someone who's just riding along with something they've heard, or they're just getting caught up in the of that everything's going to hell and the world is in a terrible place. Certainly, there are terrible things going on, but that's such a great question to ask because it's not saying there's nothing bad going on. You're not trying to be toxically positive, but you're saying, “Let's get a clear view of that and look at what's actually in your life right now.” NYOTA: That part, that part because people are like, nobody's looking for crazy Pollyanna, but sometimes people do need to kind of get back to are we talking about you, or are we talking about someone else? DAMIEN: That's such a great way of framing it: are we talking about you, or are we talking about someone else? NYOTA: Yeah. CASEY: It reminds me of boundaries. The boundary, literally the definition of who I am and who I care about. It might include my family, my partner, me. It's may be a gradient even. [chuckles] We can draw the boundary somewhere on that. NYOTA: Yeah, and I think we also get to speak even more than boundaries about is it in harmony? Because I feel like there are going to be some levels that are big, like my feelings are heard, or I'm feeling like I just need to be by myself. But then there are these little supporting roles of what that is. I think it's as you see, some parts are up and some parts are down because sometimes when it comes to boundaries, it's a little challenging because sometimes there has to be this give and take, and your boundaries get to be a little bit more fluid when they have to engage with other people. It's those darn other people. [chuckles] DAMIEN: But being conscientious and aware of how you do that. It's a big planet with a lot of people on it and if you go looking for tragedy, we're very well connected, we can find it all and you can internalize as much of it as you can take and that's bad. That is an unpleasant experience. NYOTA: Yeah. DAMIEN: And that's not to say that it's not happening out there and that's not to say that it's not tragic, but you get to decide if it's happening to you, or not. NYOTA: Right. DAMIEN: And that's separate from things that are directly in our physical space, our locus of control, or inside of the boundaries that we set with ourselves and loved ones, et cetera. NYOTA: Because it's so easy to – I say this sometimes, guilt is a hell of a drug because sometimes people are addicted to guilt, addicted to trauma, addicted to a good time and not even thinking of all the things that come with those different levels of addiction. So I think we get fed into this news and this narrative, like we were speaking of earlier a of everything's bad, this is a terrible place, everyone's going to hell. Whatever the narrative is the flavor of the moment and there's so many other things. It's a whole world, like you said. It's a whole world and I think the world is kind of exactly what we're looking for. When I was in the military, every town is exactly what you need it to be. [laughter] Because if you're looking for the club, you're looking for the party people in little small towns. But I could tell you where every library was. Don't call me nerdy because I am, but I don't care. All right. I could tell you where every library was. I could tell you where every place to eat. I could tell you all of those things, but then you'll ask me like, “Where's the club?” And I was like, “There's a club here?” Because that's not what I'm looking for. That's not the experience that I'm looking for. So I would dare say every place is exactly what you're looking for, what you want it, what you need it to be. CASEY: We're talking about the news a little bit here and it reminds me of social media, like the addiction to news, the addiction to social media. In a way, it is an addiction. Like you keep going to it when you're bored, you just reach for it. That's the stimulus, that's your dopamine. I think of both of those, news and social media, as a cheap form of being connected to other humans. A bad, low quality, not a deep connection kind of thing. But what we all would thrive if we had more of is more connections to others, which like community, authentic relationships with people. But that's harder. Even if you know that and you say that's your goal, it takes more work to do that than to pick up Facebook app on your phone. I deleted it from my phone six months ago and I've been happier for it. [laughter] NYOTA: Like delete, delete? Like delete? CASEY: Well, it is on my iPad in case I have to post a shirt design into a Facebook group. I'm not gone gone, but I'm basically gone and I know that I don't interact on it and it's boring. I don't post anything. I don't get any likes. I don't even want to like anyone's post and they'll say, “Oh, you're on.” I don't do anything. Like once every three months, I'll post a design. NYOTA: Is that for every social media channel? CASEY: I'm still on Twitter. NYOTA: Twitter. CASEY: I'm still on Twitter and LinkedIn kind of for business reasons. But if I could drop them, I think I would, too. NYOTA: Did you say if you could? CASEY: If I could drop them and not have business repercussions. NYOTA: Mm. DAMIEN: This sounds like a great idea to make more profitable. NYOTA: [laughs] I'm thinking does a lot of your business come from –? I feel like LinkedIn is social, but. CASEY: I wouldn't say that I get new business from these necessarily, but I do end up with clients and potential clients and people I've talked to before saying, “Ph, I saw that thing and now that I saw you wrote a blog post about doing surveys for an engineering org, now I want to talk to you.” NYOTA: Mm, okay. CASEY: Like that is pretty valuable and when I'm writing something like a blog post, I want to put that somewhere. But anyway, I am happier that I'm off of Facebook and Instagram, which I wasn't getting as much value out of. Other than connection to people, the shallow connection to people and instead I switched to messaging people. I have text message threads and group chats and those are much more intimate, much more stuff being shared, more connection to those individuals. NYOTA: I agree with that. What about you John? Like what is your relationship with social media right now? JOHN: So I've always been sort of arm's length with Facebook. So it's been just like eh, I check in every week, maybe just sort of see. I scroll until I lose interest, which is 10 minutes the most and then those are my updates. That's all I see and then occasionally, I'll post a meme, or something. I don't really do a lot there. Usually, I keep it around just for the people that I'm in touch with that are only on Facebook and I only have connection to them. But you bring up an interesting point about there's a positive and a negative to being able to filter your social media. For example, with Reddit and Twitter, you only see the stuff for people you're following and/or the subreddits that you're subscribed to. So you can very much customize that experience into something that isn't full of most of the crap people experience on Twitter, or Reddit. So there's that positive there because you can craft a world that's maybe it's all kitten pictures, maybe whatever, and post about programming, whatever it is. But you do have the problem of filter bubbles so that if you are in something that's a little bit more controversial, you do end up with that echo chamber effect and lots of people jumping in, or if you're in a sub that's interesting to you, that's also very contentious and the threads go off the rails all the time, but you can control that. You can see like, “Well, no, get it out of here. I don't need to deal with that static.” I rely on that a lot to sort of focus in on what I'm using it for, whether it's keeping up with specific friends, or specific topics and then trying to filter out as much of the things I don't want as possible. NYOTA: Is Facebook's your only social media channel? JOHN: No, I'm on Twitter. I don't usually post a lot, usually just retweet stuff and read it. NYOTA: That's kind of lame a little bit. I'm not saying, I'm just saying that your social media choices – [laughter] DAMIEN: Wow. NYOTA: But I think you're are right, though. I'm a lot better off for it because I did find myself going down a social media rabbit. It was easy for me to cut off the news. I actually stopped watching the news in 2007 when I became an officer. They were like, “As an officer, you have to watch the news. You have to be aware of what's going on in the world,” and I was like, “Oh, okay,” and then I walked away from that lady and I was like, “I'm not watching the news anymore.” DAMIEN: Hmm. NYOTA: Because I felt like she was trying to trick me in some kind of a way, but you get what you need. If it's something that I need to know, it comes to me it. It comes to me like. Believe me, it'll come to you. She was a little bit too adamant about what I needed and how the news was a part of it. It just felt a little not right and so, I actually stopped. DAMIEN: The news is a very specific thing like that word, the news [chuckles] Is anything new about it? [chuckles] The news is a group of organizations, a group of media organizations that are all very much alike. The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The L.A. Times, The Chicago Tribune, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC. These are all organizations that operate the same, they cover the same things, and they do them in largely the same way along of course, some political partisan differences. But it's not new and for most people, it does not serve them, or inform them. NYOTA: Yeah. It's very divisive. DAMIEN: I used to get my news from Jay Leno. [laughter] That was better than CNN more and funnier, too. NYOTA: That part. [laughs] I think it's just interesting how it's such a whole world with a whole bunch of people with various levels of experiencing, bumping into each other, and like you're saying, this is what everyone's reporting on. Nothing else happens? Nothing good happens anywhere else? CASEY: Yeah. NYOTA: Nothing? See, that's not true. [laughter] Like that can't be real for me and so, I'm not going to be able to include that in where I spend my time. JOHN: Yeah. I used to have NPR on in the car whenever I was in the car, I was like, “Oh, it'll keep me inform,” blah, blah, blah. But eventually, I was like, “You know what? They still talk about the same crap. They're just from a perspective I agree with slightly more.” But even when they do human interest stuff, or stuff that isn't about a war, or some sort of crisis in Washington, it's still so negatively biased. Even the stuff that's theoretically positive, it still has this weird you should be concerned about this vibe to it and eventually, I was realizing that there's no room for that in my life. DAMIEN: Yeah. We talk about how harmed full Facebook is to society and individuals. But this is not again, new. [chuckles] Facebook optimizes for engagement, which causes harm as a byproduct. It's the AI-fication of what media has been doing ever since there has been mass media. NYOTA: Yeah. It's interesting because there was a moment in there. So I even got on social media because I was always gone. I lived wherever I lived while I was in the military and so, it was a way to let my family know, “Okay, I'm here. Look, I ate this.” [chuckles] All of those things. So there was a part where Facebook made a drastic turn on my feed and I was like, “Ohm this is so bad!” And then I was like, “Okay, wait, wait. Who's bad? Who is this coming from?” So I cleaned up my whole Facebook feed and then it became a happy place again and then now where it is, it's a place where it's only seven people out of the thousand Facebook friends I have. I was like, “Okay, well that's not it either. That's not it.” So it's just interesting how AI has such a impact of what we listen to, or what we talk about. So now it's these days I'm like new shoes, new shoes, new shoes. Because I want that to come up on my – I don't even – you know what I'm saying? Because I know that you're listening, so I'll get it later. So now I almost treat it like an administrative assistant so I can look it up later. [laughter] CASEY: Hilarious. NYOTA: Yeah. JOHN: Please target some ads around shoes to me. NYOTA: I did. Yeah, because they're listening. CASEY: And it works, doesn't it? I know. NYOTA: Yes. CASEY: I know it works. NYOTA: Yes. CASEY: That still blows some people's minds. If you could say the name of a product and you'll see it the next day. If you have your ads on, it's listening and your phone is listening. Everyone's phone is listening. NYOTA: Yes, yes. Because you're looking at something like – I don't even really listen to the music. What is it? Spotify! And then it's like, you're listening to Spotify, but why is my mic on? You want to hear me sing the song? Why does my mic have to be on? I don't understand that part. Like why? They'll be like, “Oh, she has a great voice on her.” Is that why you're listening? [laughter] Why are you listening? I don't understand that part. So I don't know. DAMIEN: There's a deal coming your way. NYOTA: [laughs] Come on. Let's go. JOHN: I assume the public reason for it is so that you can do voice searches and like, “Hey, play me some more Rebecca Black,” or whatever. But who knows what else they're doing with it once you've got it turned on, right? It could be whatever. DAMIEN: Actually listening in on people is not the technically most effective way of getting those results. If you say the brand name of a shoe, it's probably because the people around you are talking about it and what do they search on Google? What ads have they seen? It's easier to say, “Oh, you're in the room with these people who are interested in these things,” or “You're in conversation with these people who are interested in these things. Let me show you these things without honing through massive amounts of audio data.” CASEY: Yeah. Both are possible and that one's easier. I'm sure they both happen and at what frequency, that's hard to study from beyond outside, but we know it's all possible and we know it's happening. If this is news to anyone listening, you can look this up. There are a million articles about it and they explain why and how, and some people did some empirical tests and I don't have any handy, but I've read it over and over and over on the internet and the internet's always right. NYOTA: That's what I heard [laughs] and not from the news. CASEY: I have these Google Home Minis in my house and all of them, the mics are off. So if ever the power cable gets jingled, it says, ‘Just so you know, the mic's off and I have to say it for a really long time. This is a very long recorded message. So that you'll want to turn your mic back on,” and it says that. Can you believe it? [laughter] DAMIEN: That's not the actual text of the message, right? I have to check. NYOTA: These little home speakers are cool in all the worst ways, but the best ways, too. So my Alexa, I'll be asking her whatever and then I'll say, “Thank you, Alexa,” and she'll say, “You're very, very, very, very welcome,” like she's singing, yes. [laughs] DAMIEN: Wow. You people have corporate spying devices in your homes. It's unbelievable. NYOTA: But you have one, too. It's just your phone. So we all have them. DAMIEN: Yeah. She promises me she doesn't listen unless I ask. NYOTA: That's what mine said! CASEY: Mine said it! [laughter] I don't trust them either. I don't even trust that the mic off necessarily works. Part of me is tempted to go in and solder the mic off. I never want the speakers to have the mic. I will not use that feature at my house. But I do want speakers in every room enough that I'm willing to take the risk of the switch not working. NYOTA: Yeah. At this point, I think I've just big brothers watching, or at least listening, [chuckles] Big brother really like, “Oh, I need to turn that off. She's talking about the big brother. We'll blush over here.” [laughs] CASEY: I want to go back to something I was thinking on the news. Sometimes I hear, or I know about things in the world because I'm someone who's in the world sometimes and the topics I want to hear in the news don't always come up. Like, DC Rank the Vote is happening and there was eventually an article about it and another article. I wrote one, eventually. Anyone can be a freelance journalist. So if the news isn't covering stuff you want it to. NYOTA: I like that. CASEY: You can literally write the news, too. NYOTA: Mm. CASEY: They might even pay you for it. DAMIEN: [chuckles] You can write the news, too. Say it again, Casey. CASEY: You can write the news, too. There's a really cool freelance journalism guide, that I'll put in the show notes, by someone in D.C. Chelsea Cirruzzo, I think. I didn't pronounce check that, but she wrote an awesome guide and it led me to getting an article published in Greater Greater Washington, a D.C. publication about ranked choice voting. I was like, “Why is no one talking about this? It's happening here. It's a big problem.” So I wrote about it. Other people write about it, too and they have since then, but you can be the change you want in the world. You can. Journalism is not as guarded and gated as it might seem. NYOTA: That's so interesting because I think what's interesting is we know that. We know that we can contribute, we know that we can write, but then you're like, “Wait, I can contribute! I can write!” CASEY: Mm. NYOTA: So I think that's, thank you for that reminder. CASEY: Yeah. But the how is hard and without a guide like Chelsea's, I'm not sure I would have broken in to do it. I needed her to go through it and tell me this is the process, here's the person in the org, what they do, what they expect and how you can make it easy for them, and you need the pitch to have this and that, has to be timely and like –. All that made sense. I'm like, “Oh sure, sure, sure.” But I couldn't have come up with that on my own, no way. NYOTA: But she bundled it together like that. CASEY: Yeah. DAMIEN: I would have never imagined that's a thing you can do because that's an entire degree program. That's a post-graduate degree program, if you'd like, and I see people who've been doing this for 20 years and do it poorly and they seem like smart people. [chuckles] So what makes me think I could do it? NYOTA: Because we can do whatever we want. CASEY: I mean, these publications do have editors and it's their job to help make the quality, at least meet the low bar at minimum that the publication expects. But if you are really nerded out on ranked choice voting, or something, you might be the local expert. If you're thinking about writing an article, you might be the best person to do it actually. NYOTA: Mm, that's good. That's the quota right there. CASEY: So what are you nerding out about lately? Anyone listening to this, think about that to yourself and is there an article about it you can just share? I like that. I don't have to write every article ever. If not, you can think about writing it. NYOTA: I like that. DAMIEN: And what strikes me is like where the bar is for local expert. Like I believe a 100% that you're the local expert on ranked choice voting because I know enough about ranked choice voting to know that people don't understand it. [chuckles] CASEY: Yeah. And after I wrote the article, I found a group of people and so, now there's like 10 of us at this level where we get it and we're advocating for it. But I'm one of the top 10 at that point still, sure. And there are details of it that I know, details other people know that I don't know, and we're all specialists in different nuanced details and together we're stronger and that's a community, too. It's been a lot of fun advocating for that in D.C. JOHN: That's awesome. NYOTA: It's interesting the visual that I'm getting in my head, like you're over here dancing by yourself and then you back up and they're like, “Oh shoot. Other people are dancing to this same song,” and then you look and you'd be like, “Look, y'all, we're all dancing,” but you're still the lead dancer and they're the backup. [laughter] I don't know why I got that visual. CASEY: I like this image. NYOTA: Yeah. CASEY: I want to give the other organizers some credit. I think they're the lead. But I found them eventually. I couldn't have found them if I didn't write the article probably. I looked it up. I Googled it once, or twice. They have a website, but I don't know, it didn't come up for me right away, or it did, but I didn't know how to contact them and getting into breaking into that community is its own barrier. NYOTA: That's unfortunate. But you're the lead to me. I mean, you're Casey. I mean [laughter] they're okay. CASEY: Thank you. NYOTA: I mean they're okay for what they're doing, but they're not you, so. No shade on what they're doing. CASEY: Sure. JOHN: I just posted a link to a talk by Derek Sivers about how the first followers are actually more important than the first leader and it's a fantastic talk. It's pretty short, but really amusing and it makes such a fantastic point. Like Casey, you were out there, you posted the article and then all these other people show up. So now I've got this like group of 10 and then those people – you and they are all doing outreach and they are expanding that group of people that are up to speed on this stuff and are advocating for it. So there's this nucleus and it's expanding and expanding. CASEY: Yeah, and each person we get, then they can bring in more people, too and it's a movement, it's growing. I think we'll have it soon. There's literally already a bill passed in D.C. It's passed a committee and now it's gone to the bigger committee, the whole process, but there's a real bill that's been passed some steps. NYOTA: You might as well do a TEDx. I mean, you might as well. JOHN: Yeah. CASEY: Good idea. Yeah, yeah. NYOTA: But they just let anybody do them. I have one. They just give them out. They're like, “Let Nyota do it.” “Okay. I'll just – let me do it.” You can do it. You have something to talk about, it's the same. It's like the news. Why not you? CASEY: Yeah. NYOTA: You're already talking about it. CASEY: True. NYOTA: I mean, you get a TEDx, you get a TEDx. [laughter] CASEY: Look at this, Nyota inspiring us. DAMIEN: I'm inspired. Why not me? NYOTA: No, really. DAMIEN: I'm serious. That is not sarcasm. I mean that very sincerely. I'm thinking about all the things I want. I'm going to call Casey later on and go, “Okay. You know how to bring ranked choice voting to a government. How are we going to bring it to another one?” And I think about all the other – CASEY: Yeah. DAMIEN: I'm actually trying to bring ranked choice voting to my neighborhood council. I pushed to an amendment to our bylaws, which has to be approved by another organization, which I can't seem to get ahold of. [laughs] But we're doing it and why shouldn't we be doing it? Why not us? NYOTA: Why not? CASEY: Yeah. Oh, I've got resources to share with you. We'll talk later, Damien. JOHN: Well, that's also great because that again, is going to spread. Once the local organization is doing it, people start getting experience with it. They're like, “Oh yeah, we did it for this thing and it worked out great. Now I sort of understand how it works in practice. Why the heck aren't we doing it for the city council and for the governor?” And like, boom, boom, boom. DAMIEN: Yeah. Ranked choice voting is interesting because as much as people don't understand it, it's really simple [chuckles] and I think overwhelmingly, people need experience with something to understand it. CASEY: Yeah. Yeah. DAMIEN: And we have a lot of experience with plurality voting in this country, in my country at least. We have almost none with ranked choice voting. NYOTA: I think it's interesting how people get so excited about presidential elections and that sort of thing, but your life really happens at your local elections. CASEY: So true. NYOTA: Your quality of life is your local elections, like you're talking about these roads being trashed. Well, that's at the local. Biden and Kamala, they have nothing to do with those potholes all along this road. I think so people miss that. You're like, “Those elections are great. Presidential election, awesome.” But your local elections? Those are what matter for where you live and I'm like, “Why are people missing that?” CASEY: Yeah. DAMIEN: I think it goes back to the news. CASEY: Sure. That's a part. NYOTA: Darn you, news. [laughs] DAMIEN: Right, because national news is leveraged. NYOTA: Mm. DAMIEN: The national broadcast is made once and broadcast to 300 million people in the country. Local news does not have that leverage. CASEY: True. NYOTA: Mm. They need to get their social media presence together then because people are listening to Instagram. CASEY: I'm thinking about everyone's mental model of how change happens, too and I don't think a lot of people have a very developed mental model of what it takes to make change happen. I do a workshop on this actually and one of the examples I use is for gay marriage in the US. You can see the graph; you can look it up. We'll include in the show notes, a picture of gay marriage over time and it's like one's place, one's at another place, like very small amount. Just maybe not even states like counties, or some lower level, a little bit of traction, a little bit of traction, a little traction. Eventually, it's so popular that it just spikes and it's a national thing. But along the way, you might look here from the news that when it became a national thing, that's the first time, that's the first thing you heard about it. But along the way, there was all these little steps. So many little steps, so many groups advocating for it, and the change happened over time. I also think about the curve of adoption. It's a bell curve. For the iPhone, for example, some people got it really early and they were really into this thing. Like PalmPilots were really the earlier edge of smart devices. Some people had that; they're really nerdy. Some people are still holding out on the other end of the bell curve. Like my mom's best friend, she still has a flip phone and she doesn't have any interest in a smartphone. I don't blame her. She doesn't need it. But she's the lagger, the very far end lagger of on this model and to get change to happen, you've got to start on whoever is going to adopt it sooner and actually like get them involved. Like the smaller states, the smaller counties that are going to support gay marriage or whatever the issue is, get them to do it and then over time you can get more of the bell curve. But a lot of people think change happens when you get the national change all of a sudden, but there's so much earlier than that. So, so, so much. Like years. 30, 40, 50, a 100 years sometimes. [chuckles] NYOTA: Yeah. This is the dance that John was talking about that he posted about this. CASEY: The first follower, yeah. NYOTA: Yeah, first followers. But you get to be the first leader if you allow it. If you really want change like you're saying. Instead of looking for someone to follow, [chuckles] we get to decide how we want to live. DAMIEN: Yeah. This seems true at work. If there's a cultural norm you don't like, you can change it by getting your allies on board and aware of it, socializing it and more and more people and gradually over time and eventually, that thing's not happening anymore. Like, I don't know. An example is eating at your desk over lunch. Not the best social norm. I don't want that at places I work. I want people to take a break, rest, and be better off afterwards. But you can get it to happen gradually by getting more people to go to lunch room, or go out of the office and you can change the culture in the office with enough dedication and time if you put your mind it. NYOTA: Yeah. But what we don't get to do is complain about it. Right? [chuckles] CASEY: Mm. Whenever I have some kind of conflict, I think about do I want to accept it and stop complaining, or do something about it? NYOTA: Mm. CASEY: Or I guess the third option is neither and then I'm just frustrated. I don't like to choose that one if I can ever avoid it. [chuckles] Do something, figure out that I can do something like work on it, or accept it, which is kind of giving up. But you can't do every change you ever think of. NYOTA: No. CASEY: It's not really giving up. Acceptance does not mean giving up, but it does mean you can put your mind down and focus on other stuff. NYOTA: Yeah. That's triage. That's what that is. [laughs] CASEY: Triage. Yeah, yeah. [laughter] DAMIEN: That third option is really important because I choose that a lot. It's important to know that and acknowledge it. [chuckles] It's like, oh no, I've chosen to be frustrated. Okay. NYOTA: Yeah. Good. CASEY: And you can, yeah. Sometimes when I choose to be frustrated, it's that I'm still working on it. I'm working on figuring out if I can do anything, or not. I don't know yet. DAMIEN: For me, it's I'm not willing to do, or figure out what it is to do, but I'm also not yet willing to accept it so I just shouldn't to be frustrated. CASEY: Sure, yeah, yeah. DAMIEN: And the frustration. If I acknowledge that and recognize that, the frustration can better lead me to go, “Okay, no.” Making the change stinks. But [chuckles] the frustration is worse and lasts longer, so. NYOTA: And then you start speaking from your frustration, which is even worse [laughs] and then it bleeds over. CASEY: Not effective. NYOTA: Yeah, it bleeds over into other things and because now you're saying stuff like, “See, this is what I'm talking about.” [laughter] No, I don't. No, I don't see what you're – no. Are we talking about the same thing? Because now you're just frustrated all over the place. CASEY: Yeah. [laughter] NYOTA: What are you talking about again? Are you talking about work? CASEY: When someone's in that situation, I have to ask them, “Would you like to be effective at this?” DAMIEN: Ooh. [laughter] NYOTA: Oh, that's a shank. [laughter] CASEY: They might not want to be. They might just want to vent. That's fine. It helps me set my standards, too. Like, do they want support, or do they want to vent? NYOTA: I'm going to write that down. CASEY: I mean, it sounds pointy. Here's my blunt side showing. I meant it. You can answer yes, or no. It's why it's a question. I'm not going to give you obvious answer question. I expect one. NYOTA: Yeah. That's good right there because I'm just getting to the part where I'm like, “Do you want me to help, or you just want me to listen?” Because I'll be like, “Oh, I know the answer to this!” And they'll be like, “Oh, I don't. You always trying to help!” First of all, stop talking to me then. [laughter] DAMIEN: Can you tell my friends that? NYOTA: Right? CASEY: Yeah. NYOTA: Like don't come to me because I just want to help. I've got a solution and if you don't want a solution, don't talk to me. CASEY: Sure, sure. That's the kind of support you're offering. NYOTA: Yeah. CASEY: You're offering that support and if they want it, great. If they don't, sounds like you're setting the boundary. Good. NYOTA: Right, right. Oh, I don't have a – no, I have no problems setting a boundary. Yeah, no problems because the thing is this is your third time. Like at some point, you need to either want to do something, or quit talking to me about this. CASEY: Yeah. NYOTA: Like that part. CASEY: I'm pretty patient supporting friends like that, but there is a limit to the patience. Yeah, three. That sounds like pretty good. I might even go to six for some people before I start telling them no. NYOTA: Mm. CASEY: [laughs] I mean, “You have to do something, or complain to someone else.” NYOTA: Yeah. Like, are you going to do something – are we still talking about this like? CASEY: Yeah. Some people need the support, but it's not necessarily me they're going to get it from because I don't have that much energy and time to put toward that. NYOTA: Yeah. I just think that's important to, but my friends know that already. Like, don't talk to me about your allergies, or don't talk to me about your fitness, or you can't fit your clothes. For me, I don't buy new clothes because I can't fit them. I won't allow myself to do that. CASEY: Some people do. NYOTA: Yeah, so – [overtalk] DAMIEN: I'm sorry. Buy clothes you can't fit? NYOTA: No, I don't buy new clothes because I can't fit my old ones. DAMIEN: Ah, okay. NYOTA: Right. DAMIEN: I know that one. NYOTA: I only buy new clothes because I want new clothes. DAMIEN: Mm. NYOTA: I put that around myself like, it's not because I don't want to go outside and walk, or you know. But then I don't allow myself to get too thin in the other direction either, because that means I'm doing something that's probably not that healthy, like not eating real food. I will just eat potato chips and that's it. [chuckles] So I have to – like, if it's too far to the left, or to the right, then I know that I'm doing something that's not healthy. I've got to reel myself in. I don't have any other checkers. I'm my own self-checker. I don't have a spouse that's going to be like, “Hmm, those jeans look a little snug.” [chuckles] I don't have it. [laughs] It's just – [overtalk] DAMIEN: Well, what I'm hearing, though is it's going to be, you set a high bar for checking people. So for somebody to check you, they're going to have to be really insightful and not candy-coated. NYOTA: I don't like candy. CASEY: Yeah. [laughter] NYOTA: Yeah. CASEY: Like direct. NYOTA: Yeah, because I don't need a bunch of like, “Oh, Nyota. How are you today?!” You don't really have to be like, “Oh, so I heard what you said about that.” I don't think that – that's not right, or however the check comes, like however it comes. CASEY: Yeah. NYOTA: But I want that because I know I'm not right about everything. I know that and I don't pretend to be all-knowing. I just want somebody to kind of reel me in sometimes like reel me in. Please reel me in. [laughter] Because I'll just keep – I'm a habitual line stepper. You know what I'm saying because now I'm just going to keep on seeing what you're going to let me slide with. Even as a kid, my mom was like, “You're always everywhere.” Like, “You're always – like, “We could never find –” I was the kid that why they came out with those harnesses for kids. [laughter] That's – CASEY: What an image. NYOTA: Yeah. I'm that kid because I just want to see, I want to go look, I want to go what's over here. Like what's around. Are you going to let me slide? Are you going to let me say that one? What else you're going to let me slide with? It's that so that's why they created those harnesses for kids like me. [chuckles] DAMIEN: Your bio says your firm thrives at the intersection of cybersecurity and employee wellness. What's the intersection of cybersecurity and employee wellness? JOHN: I was just going to ask that. I want to know! NYOTA: I think it's resiliency. DAMIEN: Mm? NYOTA: Yeah. So cybersecurity is that resiliency within organizations and then that wellness of people is that resiliency that's within humans. When those two come together, it's a healthier—I can't say fully healthy. It's a healthier work environment because when we get to show up to work healthy, resilient, drinking water, getting rest, being able to have emotional intelligence, social intelligence; all of those things are what I count as being resilient. And then when you can show up to work that way, then you're not showing up to negatively impact the network because you're not focused. You're not paying attention. You're clicking on every link because it looked like it – it seemed fine. But had you been like you had one moment of awareness to pause, you would see oh, this is not right. When I put my mouse over that, I see that the link at the bottom is not where I'm supposed to be going. So that place is resiliency at work. DAMIEN: That is an extremely advanced view of security, maybe it's from your time as an officer, but the general view of security is it's this wall you put up and you make the wall really secure, you make the wall really strong and really tall, and that way you keep everything out. It's like, well, no. Anybody who has gone to office training school knows about defense in depth. NYOTA: Right. DAMIEN: Knows you can't maintain any particular perimeter indefinitely. The French found that out to much of their chagrin. [laughs] NYOTA: Oopsie. DAMIEN: That's a Emmanuel line reference. That's not news. [laughter] To go all the way to like – and I see where you're going with this. Phishing emails don't work on people who are calm and relaxed when nothing's urgent. NYOTA: Yes. DAMIEN: Where they can go, where they can stop and think, and have that wherewithal and that energy and that reserve. NYOTA: Right, even at home. Especially how all of these scams are on the rise, Navy, federal, IRS, all kinds of people. If you're just one moment aware, you'd be like, “Wait, have I ever engaged my bank in this way?” DAMIEN: Hm mm. NYOTA: Like ever? Have they ever called me and asked me for my six digit? They called me and I didn't call them? Like, I just think if you just take a breath and then think part of being resilient is being able to take more breaths. DAMIEN: Wow. Yeah. Wow. CASEY: Ooh, I like that line. NYOTA: Yeah. We know that one of the biggest vulnerability to cybersecurity posture of anything that happens is people because we are normally that vulnerability, we're normally that weakness in the network because we are human. So anything that we get to do to reinforce ourselves, guard ourselves up, it's always going to have a positive second, third, fourth order of effects. DAMIEN: How does upper management react to that when you come in and say, “We're going to improve your cybersecurity, give your employees more days off”? NYOTA: So I'm actually new having this conversation within leadership, but they already have leadership corporations, they already have this structure in place. Just haven't heard anyone tie it together specifically to their cybersecurity posture. So there's already a lot of wellness initiatives, you can talk to counselors. I think we already have these initiatives in place, but they're just kind of ethereal, they're kind of out here, but to say, “Now tie that not just to our bottom line, because employees are less willing to have turnover, but let's tie it to the security of the network because our employees are aware and they're more vigilant.” So it's just kind of helping them to see the work that we're already doing within corporations. We get to laser focus that into a place. CASEY: Hmm. I like it that this gives way to measuring the outcome of those programs, too. You can correlate it, too. NYOTA: Yeah, instead of like, “Oh, we're happy at work. We're skipping and holding hands down the hallway.” Well, that may not necessarily be what you want, but you do want less infractions on the network. More opportunities to be successful but not having to spend so many manhours undoing cybersecurity risk. CASEY: I want to zoom out. I want to go meta with you. You're helping them become more resilient. How do you make sure your changes there are resilient? When you leave, they persist? You can Mary Poppins out and they're still the way they were before you arrive. NYOTA: Mm, that's a good question. So during the time that we work together, they also buy a bundle of coaching. They have opportunity to come back for where I can do, like, “Hey, y'all it's time for the refresh,” and not in a lame way. I'm actually creating on workshops now and it involves coloring books. Because when we were in Afghanistan, Iraq, and all the places we colored, and I just feel like coloring saves lives and when I'm saying people, I'm talking about mine, because it is very calming and not those crazy ones that are really small and you have to have a pen. So I'm talking about a 5th-grade coloring book with big pictures where it's relaxing and you're talking amongst your peers. It involves that. Setting them up with skills to be able to well, if you do nothing else, make sure you're playing the gratitude game in the mornings. What is the gratitude game? I play this game with myself. Every morning when I wake up, I say three things that I'm grateful for, but it can't be anything that I've ever said ever before. DAMIEN: Mm hm. NYOTA: I play this game. It's always making you search for the gratitude, always looking for that shiny light. There's always a better today, a better tomorrow, and so, even if there's something as that and drink water, because there's a lot of things that happens when you're dehydrated. There's a lot of clarity that doesn't happen when you're thirsty and so, even if it's just those two things and reminding people, just those two things have even had an impact on my life. Do you see my skin popping? Do you? [laughter] I'm just saying. Water is your friend. [laughs] So just those, just kind of even a pop in, a retraining. Hey, remember. Remember sleep, remember relaxing, remember get up and walk around your cube, and the filter water is so much better. It tastes so much better than bottled water. I'm just, it's better. I'm holding up my filtered water. Picture here, I keep it at my desk while I work if I'm on a lot of calls in a row. NYOTA: Yeah. CASEY: I can go through water. NYOTA: And that's why you're alert. I don't think people understand that being dehydrated really makes you lethargic and you're like, “Are they talking? I see their mouth moving. I can't pay attention. What is happening. What is that?” And being dehydrated is not good. Don't do that. Just take a little sip of water. We're talking about water, just take a little sip of your water. Go get some water. [chuckles] If you're listening, get some water. [laughs] CASEY: Reminders help. I'm going to post one of my favorite Twitter accounts, @selfcare_tech. NYOTA: Ooh. Please. CASEY: And they do a water reminder probably every day. Something like that. So I'll just be on Twitter and I'm like, “Oh yeah. Thanks.” DAMIEN: [laughs] See, we can turn social media even to our good. CASEY: Yeah. We can find some benefit. NYOTA: But we get to decide and I think that's another thing that people don't. Like, they negate the fact that you get to decide. You get to decide where your life is, or isn't. You get to decide where you're going to accept, or not accept. You're going to decide if I work at this job, it's for my greater good, or not. We get to decide that. You've already created your life up to this point. So what does it look like later? We've created this life that we have and people take responsibility for that. Who do you get to be tomorrow? Who do you get to be today? The thing is we always get what we ask for. So I've been asking for a bold community, I've been asking for a community that pushes and pulls me and here comes Casey, here comes Andrea, here comes you guys and I'm like, “I think that's so interesting.” We do get what we ask for you. CASEY: It sounds like you're manifesting the world around you. I like that word. NYOTA: Yeah. CASEY: I don't even mean it in a metaphysical spiritual sense, but even just saying. Back when I was an engineering manager and I wanted to become a PM, I told people I wanted to be a product manager and by telling a lot of people, I got a lot more opportunities than I would have. NYOTA: Yes. CASEY: Telling people was very powerful for that. NYOTA: And in my Christian Nyota way, that's what happens. Miracles come through people. So give people an opportunity to be your miracle. JOHN: So we've come to the time on our show where we do reflections, which is each of us is going to talk about the things that struck us about this conversation, maybe the things will be thinking about afterwards, or the ideas we're going to take forward. Casey, do you want to start us off? CASEY: Yeah. I wrote down a quote from Nyota. She said earlier in this episode, “A big part of resilience is being able to take more breaths,” and I just think that applies anywhere the word resilience applies and I want to meditate on that for over the week. JOHN: I'm right there with you. That is really sinking in and applicable in so many ways. I love it. DAMIEN: Yeah, and involving taking some breaths while you do that, huh? [laughter] I am really inspired by this conversation. The ideas of you can be the expert, you can be the journalist, you can be the first mover, the first leader. Realizing that in my life, I'm going to be looking for ways I want to apply that conscientiously. How to make sure not to try apply it everywhere. [laughs] But I get to decide. I get to decide who I am and who I'm going to be in this world and what this world is going to be like for me, so that's awesome. NYOTA: That is good. I like that one, too. And along those lines for me, it's like when Casey's like, “I mean, I knew this, I knew this, I knew this, I knew this, but when someone had created this bundle for you to be able to follow, I really heard when we do things, leave breadcrumbs so someone can come behind us and also be able to support. Because if you don't – leave some breadcrumbs. So I thought that was – she was like, “I knew these things but she had created this framework for you to be able to do it, too,” and I heard leave some breadcrumbs. So I really like that. DAMIEN: Yeah. John, do you have a reflection for us? JOHN: No, I mean, really, it's the same as Casey's. [laughs] Yeah, that statement is really going to sit with me for a while. I like it a lot. CASEY: I'm going to make a t-shirt of it. NYOTA: [laughs] I love a good t-shirt. DAMIEN: Well, Nyota. Thank you so much for joining us today. NYOTA: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so honored to be amongst such caring, intelligent, thoughtful people and so, I appreciate you all for having me. Special Guest: Nyota Gordon.

On the podcast today: ·       2023 BMW i7 Teaser Video Shows The 7 Series EV Testing In The Cold - BMW Blog ·       Uber, Wallbox Roll Out Additional Collaborations for EV Chargers Across the U.S. - NGT News ·       Tesla factory fire in Fremont is under investigation ·       GM keeps installing EV chargers at its sites even as workers stay remote - Detroit Free Press ·       Law would require new buildings to have electric vehicle charging stations | advantagenews.com ·       Law would make parking in EV charging spots a traffic infraction - Greater Greater Washington ·       Israeli bus operators must buy only electric buses by 2026 - electrive.com ·       EVs to power Kenya's bus rapid transit system | TechCrunch ·       Electric vehicle owners say new Hawaii tax singles them out | Local | kitv.com ·       Details on Latest BYD Han EV Leaked, Range Increased to 715 Km – Pandaily ·       The Hyundai Ioniq Electric Has The Best MOT Pass Rate For An Electric Car In The UK | Carscoops ·       Scania to supply 5 battery-electric vehicles and 1.6 MW of charging equipment ·       Asian Petrolhead Takes Genesis G80 Electric Sedan Out In The Snow

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (5:18).Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments ImagesExtra Information Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 12-17-21.TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of December 20, 2021. MUSIC – ~14 sec - - Lyrics: “When the rains come, when the rains come, is it gonna be a new day?” That's part of “Rains Come,” by the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, Va.-based band The Steel Wheels, from their 2019 album “Over the Trees.”  It opens an update of a previous episode on the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan—an effort to prepare for and adapt to sea-level rise, recurrent flooding, and impacts of climate change.  As in the earlier episode, we set the stage with part of “Cypress Canoe,” by Bob Gramann of Fredericksburg, Va., from his 2019 album “I Made It Just for You.”  The song's a commentary on the current and potential impacts of sea-level rise, and in the part you'll hear, the story-teller bemoans a lack of planning and action to avoid or reduce such impacts. Have a listen for about 20 seconds. MUSIC – ~18 sec – Lyrics: “Half of a city awash in the tides; when I think of what happened, it tears my insides. Oh, we could've been smarter, we could've have planned, but the world caught a fever, infected by man.” Facing current and predicted impacts to coastal areas from sea-level rise and recurrent flooding, Virginia has started planning.   On December 7, 2021, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced completion of Phase One of the Coastal Resilience Master Plan.  Work on the plan started about four years ago accelerated after the November 2020 release of a planning framework identifying guiding principles and specific steps to complete the plan.  Since then, a technical study, the work of a technical advisory committee, and input from some 2000 stakeholders have helped form the plan. The 266-page plan covers the area of Virginia from the Fall Line to the Atlantic coastline, which includes about six million residents.  For those areas, the plan identifies vulnerabilities to, and impacts from, current and expected sea-level rise and increased flooding.  It focuses on ways the Commonwealth can increase resilience, which the plan defines as “the capability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from hazards to minimize damage to social well-being, health, the economy, and the environment.”  A Coastal Resilience Database compiled for the plan includes over 500 examples of projects to adapt to changing conditions and of initiatives to build capacity in information, skills, and tools.  Funding for such efforts may come from various sources, but one key source is the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund, created by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020 and using money accrued from the auction of carbon allowances. Implementation of the plan will be managed by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation in cooperation with the Commonwealth's Chief Resilience Officer and the Special Assistant to the Governor for Coastal Adaptation and Protection.  Phase Two of the plan, with more data and project information, is to be completed by 2024, and updates to the whole plan are supposed to occur every five years. According to the plan's impact assessment, between now and 2080 Virginia is projected to face large increases in residents exposed to coastal flooding, in flood property damage, in roadway miles exposed to chronic flooding, and in losses of tidal wetlands, dunes, and beaches.  As Gov. Northam stated in a December 7 letter accompanying the plan's release, the plan provides a “clearer picture of the scope and scale” of these challenges, catalogs current resilience efforts, and identifies gaps in actions and in information.  Here's hoping Virginia puts its Coastal Resilience Master Plan to good use. Thanks to The Steel Wheels and to Bob Gramann for permission to use this week's music, and we close with about 10 more seconds of Mr. Gramann's “Cypress Canoe.” MUSIC – ~11 sec – instrumental. SHIP'S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this episode.   In Blacksburg, I'm Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This Virginia Water Radio episode is a follow-up to Episode 552, 11-23-20. “Cypress Canoe,” from the 2019 album “I Made It Just for You,” is copyright by Bob Gramann, used with permission.  More information about Bob Gramann is available online at https://www.bobgramann.com/folksinger.html.  This music was used previously by Virginia Water Radio most recently in Episode 552, 11-23-20. “Rains Come,” from the 2019 album “Over the Trees,” is copyright by The Steel Wheels, used with permission.  A July 2019 review by Americana Highways of this album and track is available online at https://americanahighways.org/2019/07/09/review-the-steel-wheels-over-the-trees-is-primary-rhythms-and-organic-melodies/.  More information about The Steel Wheels is available online at https://www.thesteelwheels.com/ and in a July 2015 article at http://whurk.org/29/the-steel-wheels.  This music was used previously by Virginia Water Radio in Episode 552, 11-23-20. Click here if you'd like to hear the full version (1 min./11 sec.) of the “Cripple Creek” arrangement/performance by Stewart Scales that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Scales and the group New Standard, with which Mr. Scales plays, is available online at http://newstandardbluegrass.com. IMAGES Map of the four master planning regions, with their respective and the planning district commissions (PDC) and regional commissions (RC), in the “Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan, Phase I,” December 2021. Map from the plan document, page 9, accessed online https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/crmp/plan. Chart of population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the four master planning regions identified in the “Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan, Phase I,” December 2021. Image from the plan document, page 24, accessed online at https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/crmp/plan. EXTRA INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIRGINIA COASTAL RESILIENCE MASTER PLAN, PHASE I Following is an excerpt from the December 7, 2021, news release from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's office, Governor Northam Releases Virginia's First Coastal Resilience Master Plan; Virginia takes monumental action to build a resilient coast, combating climate change and rising sea levels. “HAMPTON—Governor Ralph Northam today released the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan, providing a foundational and fundamental step towards protecting Virginia's coast. “Virginia's coastal areas face significant impacts from rising sea levels and increased storm flooding.  The Commonwealth, regional and local entities have to take meaningful and continuous action to ensure the long-term sustainability of Virginia's coastal resources and communities. … “Earlier this year, the Commonwealth worked with 2,000 stakeholders to build the Coastal Resilience Master Plan.  This plan documents which land is exposed to coastal flooding hazards now and into the future, as well as the impacts of those future scenarios on coastal Virginia's community resources and manmade and natural infrastructure. “The Master Plan concluded that between 2020 and 2080: the number of residents living in homes exposed to extreme coastal flooding is projected to grow from approximately 360,000 to 943,000, an increase of 160%; the number of residential, public, and commercial buildings exposed to an extreme coastal flood is projected to increase by almost 150%, from 140,000 to 340,000, while annualized flood damages increase by 1,300% from $0.4 to $5.1 billion; the number of miles of roadways exposed to chronic coastal flooding is projected to increase from 1,000 to nearly 3,800 miles, an increase of nearly 280%; and an estimated 170,000 acres, or 89%, of existing tidal wetlands and 3,800 acres, or 38%, of existing dunes and beaches may be permanently inundated, effectively lost to open water. “The Coastal Resiliency Database and Web Explorer is a publicly available database that shows the impact of coastal flood hazards, current and proposed resilience projects, as well as funding sources.  This database will serve as a vital tool to support resilience efforts at the state, regional, and local levels. … “The Commonwealth intends to develop successive updates of the Master Plan on at least a five-year cycle, managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation in consultation with the Chief Resilience Officer, the Special Assistant to the Governor for Coastal Adaptation and Protection, and the Technical Advisory Committee. “The next phase of the Master Plan is anticipated by 2024, will aim to address recommendations of the TAC to broaden the analysis of natural hazards by including rainfall-driven, riverine, and compound flooding, expand and improve the inventory of resilience projects, by continuing to add efforts and working with project owners to better understand the benefits of projects, and extend this critical work beyond the coastal region to encompass statewide resilience needs. …” SOURCESUsed for AudioVirginia Governor's Office News Release, Governor Northam Releases Virginia's First Coastal Resilience Master Plan; Virginia takes monumental action to build a resilient coast, combating climate change and rising sea levels, December 7, 2021. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, December 7, 2021, letter accompanying release of the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan, online (as a PDF) at https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/crmp/document/CRMP-Gov-Letter.pdf. Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, “Community Flood Preparedness Fund Grants and Loans,” online at https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/dam-safety-and-floodplains/dsfpm-cfpf. Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, “Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan,” online at https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/crmp/plan.  The full document and a two-page summary are available on the page.   “Resilience” is defined in the Master Plan “Introduction” on page 5; the areas covered by the plan are identified in the “Introduction” on page 9; who's coordinating the plan is identified in the “Introduction” on page 6. Virginia Legislative Information System (LIS), online at http://lis.virginia.gov/lis.htm. See particularly the following bills related to recurrent coastal flooding: 2014 HJ 16 and SJ 3, calling for formation of the Joint Subcommittee to Formulate Recommendations for the Development of a Comprehensive and Coordinated Planning Effort to Address Recurrent Flooding; 2016 HJ 84 and SJ 58, continuing the work of the joint subcommittee formed in 2014 and changing it to the Joint Subcommittee on Coastal Flooding;2016 SB 282, establishing the Virginia Shoreline Resiliency Fund;2020 HB 22 and SB 320, continuing the Shoreline Resiliency Fund as the Community Flood Preparedness Fund;2020 HB 981 and SB 1027, establishing a carbon allowances trading program for Virginia and providing that some of the revenue from the sale of carbon allowances go to the Community Flood Preparedness Fund. For More Information about Sea Level Rise, Coastal and Tidal Flooding, and Resilience John Boon et al., “Planning for Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding,” Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), October 2008, online (as PDF) at https://www.vims.edu/research/units/legacy/icccr/_docs/coastal_sea_level.pdf. City of Alexandria, Va., “Flood Mitigation,” online at https://www.alexandriava.gov/special/waterfront/default.aspx?id=85880. City of Norfolk, Va., “Flood Awareness and Mitigation,” online at https://www.norfolk.gov/1055/Flooding-Awareness-Mitigation. City of Virginia Beach Department of Public Works, “Sea Level Wise,” online at https://www.vbgov.com/government/departments/public-works/comp-sea-level-rise/Pages/default.aspx. Coastal Resilience, online at https://coastalresilience.org/. Coastal Resilience/Virginia is online at https://coastalresilience.org/category/virginia/. Sandy Hausman, “Online Tool Helps Coastal Communities Plan for Climate Change,” WVTF FM-Roanoke, Va., 10/11/18, 2 min./34 sec. audio https://www.wvtf.org/post/online-tool-helps-coastal-communities-plan-climate-change#stream/0. This is a report about the Virginia Eastern Shore Coastal Resilience Mapping and Decision Support Tool. Joey Holleman, “Designing for Water—Strategies to Mitigate Flood Impacts,” Coastal Heritage, Winter 2019, South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, online at https://www.scseagrant.org/designing-for-water/. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “Sixth Assessment Synthesis Report,” online at https://www.ipcc.ch/ar6-syr/.  Sea level rise is addressed in the “Physical Science Basis” section (by Working Group I), online at https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-i/. The IPCC “Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate,” September 2019, is online at https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/home/. Rita Abou Samra, “Alexandria is already often waterlogged. How will it adjust to climate change?” 9/13/18, for Greater Greater Washington, online at https://ggwash.org/view/69058/alexandria-is-already-often-waterlogged-how-will-it-adjust-to-climate-change. SeaLevelRise.org, “Virginia's Sea Level Is Rising—And It's Costing Over $4 Billion,” online at https://sealevelrise.org/states/virginia/. U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability Program (US CLIVAR), “Sea Level Hotspots from Florida to Maine—Drivers, Impacts, and Adaptation,” April 23-25, 2019, workshop in Norfolk, Va., online at https://usclivar.org/meetings/sea-level-hotspots-florida-maine. Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), “U.S. Sea Level Report Cards,” online at https://www.vims.edu/research/products/slrc/index.php. Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), “Recurrent Flooding Study for Tidewater Virginia,” 2013, available online (as a PDF) at http://ccrm.vims.edu/recurrent_flooding/Recurrent_Flooding_Study_web.pdf.  This study was significant in the Virginia General Assembly's formation in 2014 of the Joint Subcommittee to Formulate Recommendations for the Development of a Comprehensive and Coordinated Planning Effort to Address Recurrent Flooding. Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS)/Center for Coastal Resources Management, “Climate Change and Coastal Resilience,” online at https://www.vims.edu/ccrm/research/climate_change/index.php.  This site includes a 40-second video on sea level rise in Virginia and a 40-second video on nuisance flooding. Wetlands Watch, “Dutch Dialogues—Virginia: Life at Sea Level,” online at http://wetlandswatch.org/dutch-dialogues. William and Mary Law School/Virginia Coastal Policy Center, 7th Annual Conference: “The Three P's of Resilience: Planning, Partnerships, and Paying for It All,” November 15, 2019, Williamsburg, Va., online at this link. RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).  See particularly the “Weather/Climate/Natural Disasters” subject category. Following are links to some previous episodes on climate change, sea-level rise, and coastal flooding in Virginia. Episode 231, 9-15-14 – Climate change impacts in Virginia National Park Service units, including Assateague Island National Seashore. Episode 441, 10-8-18 – on sea-level rise and citizen measurement of king tides. Episode 494, 10-14-19 – on sea-level rise and coastal flooding. Episode 511, 2-10-20 – on sea-level rise and the Saltmarsh Sparrow. Episode 552, 11-23-20 – on the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Planning Framework. Episode 602, 11-8-21 – on photosynthesis, including its relationship to climate change. FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS – RELATED STANDARDS OF LEARNING (SOLs) AND OTHER INFORMATION Following are some Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) that may be supported by this episode's audio/transcript, sources, or other information included in this post. 2020 Music SOLs SOLs at various grade levels that call for “examining the relationship of music to the other fine arts and other fields of knowledge.” 2018 Science SOLs Grades K-5: Earth and Space Systems 4.4 – Weather conditions and climate have effects on ecosystems and can be predicted. Grade 6 6.6 – Water has unique physical properties and has a role in the natural and human-made environment. 6.9 – Humans impact the environment and individuals can influence public policy decisions related to energy and the environment. Life Science LS.9 – Relationships exist between ecosystem dynamics and human activity. Earth Science ES.6 – Resource use is complex. ES.8 – Freshwater resources influence and are influenced by geologic processes and human activity. ES.10 – Oceans are complex, dynamic systems subject to long- and short-term variations. ES.11 – The atmosphere is a complex, dynamic system subject to long-and short-term variations. ES.12 – The Earth's weather and climate result from the interaction of the sun's energy with the atmosphere, oceans, and the land. Biology BIO.8 – Dynamic equilibria exist within populations, communities, and ecosystems. 2015 Social Studies SOLs Virginia Studies Course VS.10 – Knowledge of government, geography, and economics in present-day Virginia. United States History: 1865-to-Present Course USII.9 – Domestic and international issues during the second half of the 20th Century and the early 21st Century. Civics and Economics Course CE.7 – Government at the state level. CE.8 – Government at the local level. CE.10 – Public policy at local, state, and national levels. World Geography Course WG.2 – How selected physical and ecological processes shape the Earth's surface, including climate, weather, and how humans influence their environment and are influenced by it. WG.18 – Cooperation among political jurisdictions to solve problems and settle disputes. Virginia and United States History Course VUS.14 – Political and social conditions in the 21st Century. Government Course GOVT.8 – State and local government organization and powers. GOVT.9 – Public policy process at local, state, and national levels. GOVT.15 – Role of government in Va. and U.S. economies, including examining environmental issues and property rights. Virginia's SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/. Following are links to Water Radio episodes (various topics) designed especially for certain K-12 grade levels. Episode 250, 1-26-15 – on boiling, for kindergarten through 3rd grade. Episode 255, 3-2-15 – on density, for 5th and 6th grade. Episode 282, 9-21-15 – on living vs. non-living, for kindergarten. Episode 309, 3-28-16 – on temperature regulation in animals, for kindergarten through 12th grade. Episode 333, 9-12-16 – on dissolved gases, especially dissolved oxygen in aquatic habitats, for 5th grade. Episode 404, 1-22-18 – on ice on ponds and lakes, for 4th through 8th grade. Episode 406, 2-5-18 – on ice on rivers, for middle school. Episode 407, 2-12-18 – on snow chemistry and physics, for high school. Episode 483, 7-29-19 – on buoyancy and drag, for middle school and high school. Episode 524, 5-11-20 – on sounds by water-related animals, for elementary school through high school. Episode 531, 6-29-20 – on various ways that animals get water, for 3rd and 4th grade. Episode 539, 8-24-20 – on basic numbers and facts about Virginia's water resources, for 4th and 6th grade. Episode 606, 12-6-21 – on freezing and ice, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.

On issues of zoning, housing, and transportation, Greater Greater Washington's policy manager Alex Baca recognizes that while the decisions made are political, the outcomes she wants are simply the ability for all to exist and move with dignity.

In June, TransitCenter released the Transit Equity Dashboard. The dashboard uses maps and graphs to show how transit access varies by race, class, and other demographic factors in 6 major urban regions.TransitCenter Senior Research Associate Mary Buchanan led the development of the dashboard. In this episode, Mary explains the importance of access to opportunity metrics, and how these metrics can be used to measure equity. Mary also shares major findings from the dashboard, and explains how this type of data can bolster advocacy efforts for more equitable service.Ron Thompson is Policy Officer at Greater Greater Washington. Ron joins us to reflect on what the dashboard tells us about inequitable transit access in the DC region. In particular, he describes the East-West divide in the city, and how it affects access to hospitals for Black and Latinx residents.“The data illuminates that in many US regions, the transit systems are providing more access to white people compared to people of color, while at the same time in those cities we know that the demand is much higher from people of color for transit.” - Mary BuchananTo access the Transit Equity Dashboard, click here.To view a video tutorial of the dashboard, click here.For more on Greater Greater Washington, click here.For more on TransitCenter, visit us here. Hosted by Kapish SinglaEdited by Ali Lemer and Kapish SinglaProduced by TransitCenterMusic: “Comma” - Blue Dot SessionsDisclaimer: Political views raised by guests on the podcast do not reflect the views of TransitCenter.

Interview with Burt White — 0:30 - 19:30This year's Focus meeting and pandemic lessons.Measuring LPL's growth.Transitioning from the 60/40 mindset.The role of chief investment officers and where their focus should be.LPL's new householding feature.Interview with Zach Teutsch — 19:45 - 46:45Focusing on a progressive niche.How tax planning fits for a more left-minded client base.Developing and finding the niche.The path not taken at Bear Stearns.Tips to finding one's niche.Related Article:  LPL cuts ties with adviser accused of racism in TikTok videoRelated Article:  A socialist adviser helps far-left clients accumulate wealth while fighting for financial fairnessGuest Bios:Burt White is the managing director of investor and investment solutions and chief investment officer at LPL Financial.Mr. White has served as managing director, investor and investment solutions and chief investment officer of LPL Financial since January 2017. He served as managing director, research, and chief investment officer from 2009 to December 2016. Mr. White is responsible for the strategic direction and continued growth of LPL Financial's research, marketing, products, and investment platforms.Zach Teutsch founded Values Added Financial to help clients live more fulfilling lives by making wise financial, career and other life decisions. Before he launched Values Added Financial, Zach developed the first national financial empowerment programs in the labor movement and reached several hundred thousand union members. After that, he joined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he was a subject matter expert on financial education and empowerment. Zach has taught investment and financial planning topics to groups all around the country and has served individual clients for 15 years. His writing has appeared in Vox (link), The Billfold (link, link, link), and Greater Greater Washington (link). He has taught at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Brown Alumni Association, National Labor College, Congressional Hispanic Staff Association, DC Bar Association, Tzedek DC, Jews United for Justice, The DCJCC, 6th+I, the National Havurah Institute, and for dozens of unions and union locals. 

The Next American Built Environment Episode 3, hosted by Michael Tae Sweeney, a new show about urban planning, architecture and transportation. Alex Baca of Greater Greater Washington joins us to talk about the Washington Post Magazine's controversial article "The Mount Pleasant Miracle" about gentrification in Washington D.C.'s Mount Pleasant neighborhood and housing affordability, school districts and bourgeois retail establishments in and around D.C. Our Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjmuuj7OMP9WhuypLgSFM4Q Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-next-american-built-environment/id1550468942 Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thenabeshow Follow Michael on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mtsw

Good morning, RVA! It’s 37 °F, and welcome to a foggy first workday of 2021. Today, and for the rest of the week, you can expect dry days and temperatures in the 40s.Water coolerThe Richmond Police Department reported a murder this past Thursday. At 4:40 AM on the 2900 block of Richmond Highway, Eusebio Calderon, a man in his 60s, was found suffering from a fatal gunshot wound. I think that puts the final number of people murdered in 2020 in Richmond at 66. That’s five more than in 2019.As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 5,010 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 7 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 403 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 131, Henrico: 170, and Richmond: 102). Since this pandemic began, 564 people have died in the Richmond region. A lot has happened in virusland since last we spoke. In Virginia, we’ve seen over 5,000 new reported cases three out of the last four days (December 31st was our first day ever over 5,000). At 38.6 the seven-day average of new deaths across the state is higher than it’s ever been before. We’re seeing the same sort of thing locally, too, with a seven-day average of new reported cases of 434—twice what it was just a month ago. Here’s the statewide stacked graph and the local new reported cases graph to give you some context. And, in a horrible first for the Commonwealth, a sitting state senator, Republican Ben Chafin Jr., died from the virus on Friday. But it’s not all awful news: In just a couple weeks, over 87,000 Virginians have received their first dose of the COIVD-19 vaccine. You can follow Virginia’s vaccination progress on this new VDH dashboard—which means I started a couple new tabs in my spreadsheet over the holiday.Today, Richmond’s new City Council and School Board members will get sworn in, and we’ll kick off the next four years with our new set of elected officials. It’s like the beginning of a new sports season—so much excitement, so much potential! You know, everyone starts the season undefeated. Welcome: Katherine Jordan, Anne Lambert, Mariah White, Stephanie Rizzi, Shonda Harris, and Nicole Jones (all women!). For the latter set of folks, Kenya Hunter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a nice Get to Know Your School Board Member piece.Speaking of School Board, tonight the (new) Board will have a closed-door session to consider the particulars of extending Superintendent Jason Kamras’s contract. This should be a no-brainer vote for the Board—even for the new folks. It’s absolutely terrifying to think about how some of the previous leaders of RPS would have shepherded the District through the last 10 crisis-filled months. Unfortunately, no-brainer this decision is not for some board members, and now this #KeepKamras petition exists for folks to sign. While I don’t think the Board will dare fire the guy, there is some concern floating around that they’ll only extend his contract by two years instead of four. I think that’s ludicrous. The last thing we need to be doing come next summer is looking for a new superintendent to replace the best one we’ve had in ages. It’ll take years and years to undo some of the damages caused by the pandemic, and we don’t need a shift in leadership right in the middle of that work. So: Sign the petition, and email your school board rep (but keep in mind the new folks probably won’t have email addresses until tomorrow).Wyatt Gordon has a nice overview of the state of transit in the region over at Greater Greater Washington. The tl;dr: Folks are still riding the bus, we still aren’t spending enough money on public transit, GRTC’s CEO is doing a good job, and how the region decides to spend their new regional transportation money is the biggest question mark of all.Also transportation-related: Virginia’s handheld driving ban went into effect on the 1st. It is now against the law to hold your phone while driving, and it is a primary offense for which you can be pulled over. Put down the phone!I guess the pre-RFP engagement phase for Richmond’s potential resort casino has ended, because you can download the full, 53-page RFP here (PDF). I haven’t read through the whole thing, but I do give half an eye role that one of the goals is to create “opportunities for upward economic mobility and wealth building for Richmond residents.” The City’s website has a handful of FAQs that are a bit more accessible than this giant RFP PDF.Finally, via Marc Cheatham, NO BS! Brass released a new video “Applause,” and it’s a great way to start your week.This morning’s longreadThe Very Real, Totally Bizarre Bucatini Shortage of 2020This bucatini mystery has so many twists and turns! I’ve never had bucatini, and now it sounds like I won’t for a while.I’d like to go a step further and praise its innate bounciness and personality. If you boil bucatini for 50 percent of the time the box tells you to, cooking it perfectly al dente, you will experience a textural experience like nothing else you have encountered in your natural life. When cooked correctly, bucatini bites back. It is a responsive noodle. It is a self-aware noodle. In these times, when human social interaction carries with it the possible price of illness, bucatini offers an alternative: a social interaction with a pasta.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

In the episode, we discuss mapping public housing and the displacement of blacks in the district. We also talked about Northwest One and architecture. Sarah Jane Shoenfeld is an independent scholar and public historian. She co-directs the project Mapping Segregation in Washington DC, which is documenting the former extent of racially restricted housing in the nation's capital along with other historic mechanisms of segregation and displacement. Sarah's company, Prologue DC, engages in a variety of history projects, including research for exhibitions and films, historic landmark and district nominations, oral histories, and walking tours. Recent projects include a successful historic landmark nomination for Barry Farm Dwellings—a World War II-era public housing project in Anacostia that is currently slated for redevelopment—and an online tour of African American Civil Rights sites in DC. Sarah was the lead historian for several DC Neighborhood Heritage Trails and has produced historical essays and other content for the Smithsonian Institution, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and the PBS series American Experience, among others. She received an M.A. in History and Certificate in Public History from Northeastern University, and is a graduate of DC's Wilson High School. PUBLISHED WORK "Barry Farm's historic landmark designation was pitted against affordable housing," The Washington Post, Feb. 21, 2020. “The history and evolution of Anacostia's Barry Farm,” D.C. Policy Center, July 9, 2019. "Open Data Meets History: Mapping Segregation in American Cities, Then and Now," Open Cities: Open Data: Collaborative Cities in the Information Era (Palgrave Mamillan, 2019). "Mapping segregation in D.C.," D.C. Policy Center, April 23, 2019. "Race and real estate in mid-century D.C.," D.C. Policy Center, April 16, 2019. Review, Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappucino City, by Derek S. Hyra, Washington History, Spring 2018. "Don't let development push out low-income residents," The Washington Post, March 23, 2018. "How segregation shaped DC's northernmost ward," Greater Greater Washington, Sep 14, 2017. "DC's Comprehensive Plan, a document we use today, preserves the racial segregation of our past," Greater Greater Washington, Jun 13, 2017. "'A Strictly White Residential Section': The Rise and Demise of Racially Restrictive Covenants in Bloomingdale," Washington History, Spring 2017. Review, Just Another Southern Town: Mary Church Terrell and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Nation's Capital, by Joan Quigley, H-AfroAm, Feb 2017. Become an insider by supporting the show at https://glow.fm/archispolly where you can support the show on a recurring or one-time basis!

In the first segment [1:11-16:30], hosts Eric Jaffe and Vanessa Quirk discuss this week's top stories: Why we’re no longer pursuing the Quayside project in Toronto (Dan Doctoroff, Sidewalk Talk) https://bit.ly/2L4Ntcz The death of the office? (Catherine Nixey, 1843) https://bit.ly/2LatRng The startup trying to crack safe autonomous driving (Alex Davies, Wired) https://bit.ly/2zqXOwL In the second segment [16:52 - 23:21], the hosts bring on Sidewalk Labs’ Director of Mobility for Streets, Willa Ng, to answer a listener question about a controversial road diet in Alexandria, Virginia. (Hat tip to these reporters: Jordan Pascuale for WAMU https://bit.ly/2WCayIV / Beth Lawton for Alexandria Living Magazine https://bit.ly/3fz3Mw6 / Canaan Merchant for Greater Greater Washington https://bit.ly/2zhgZct) And in the final segment [23:24 - 26:01], the hosts share what made them smile this week. “Yuppie” turns 40 (Phoebe Mogharei, Chicago Mag) https://bit.ly/3dkL4GS Quarantine Bolero (Tim Teeman, Daily Beast) https://bit.ly/2ywKlUm

Ileana Schinder is a licensed architect in Washington D.C., Virginia and Maryland. A LEED accredited professional and a Passive House Design Consultant, Ileana has nurtured her passion for architecture since first hearing the click of LEGO bricks at the age of 4. Two decades later, she holds a B.A. in Architecture from Universidad Nacional de Cordoba (Argentina) and an M.A. in Communications from American University in Washington, D.C. She has been featured in publications such as The Washington Post, Dwell, Washington Business Journal and Greater Greater Washington. Check out her website :https://ileanaschinder.com/ Become an insider by supporting the show at https://glow.fm/archispolly where you can support the show on a recurring or one-time basis!

What types of preparation and strategy can help you to close on a house in an expensive, high-demand area? Connor Waldoch is a contributor to the city planning website Greater Greater Washington. In this episode, we’ll walk through an article Connor wrote entitled, “We just bought a home in Arlington, and it was really hard. Here’s how we did it.” Connor will detail for us the process that his family went through to ultimately find and close on a home in the Washington, D.C. area. Please feel free to reach out to us with comments and questions! Kevin Mahoney, CFP®: @bykevinmahoney or kevin@illumintfc.com Realtor® Alison Scimeca: @alirun9 or alison@compass.com

This week Francesca and Melissa get mobilized with the movers and shakers in Richmond Transit! Joining us are Julie Timm, CEO of GRTC, Carrie Rose Pace, GRTC's Director of Communications, Adam Lockett, VCU Student and Vice Chair of TAG, and last but never least, our birthday boy Wyatt Gordon, member of TAG, writer of transit related articles for Greater Greater Washington and RVA Mag... Oh! And he's your guy for land use and transportation at Virginia Conservation Network. Get on the bus with us!

Professional sports are a big part of every city's identity and culture. Washington DC has professional teams in almost every major sports league. Rob is joined by Dave Murphy to give our best tips for checking out one of these games. We cover the Nationals (MLB), Wizards (NBA), Capitals (NHL), United (MLS), Redskins (NFL), Mystics (WNBA) plus a handful of others. Dave is Dave is an Army veteran, retired DoD geographic analyst, coach of a championship youth football team, contributor at Greater Greater Washington and (for better or worse) a lifelong DC sports fan. Full show notes for this episode are available on the Trip Hacks DC website.

Relevant reading: An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle over Equality in Washington, D.C., by Kate Masur: https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807872666/an-example-for-all-the-land/ Home Rule or House Rule? by Michael Fauntroy: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780761827146 A Housing Crisis, a Failed Law, and a Property Conflict: The US Urban Speculation Tax, by Katie J. Wells: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/anti.12146 Carving Out the Commons: Tenant Organizing and Housing Cooperatives in Washington, D.C., by Amanda Huron: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/carving-out-the-commons Nicholson St tenant strike coverage on WAMU : https://wamu.org/story/18/10/15/northwest-d-c-residents-go-strike-protest-decaying-buildings-rising-rent/ Irving St tenant strike coverage on Greater Greater Washington: https://ggwash.org/view/71558/a-columbia-heights-rent-strike-highlights-abuses-tenants-face-in-dc DC DSA's housing campaign: https://www.thenation.com/article/democratic-socialist-campaigns-target-isnt-incumbent/

Welcome to the Elevator World News Podcast. This week’s news podcast is sponsored by elevatorbooks.com: www.elevatorbooks.com ELEVATOR, MORE PLANNED FOR NEW METRO ENTRANCE IN D.C. AREA Plans for a second metro station entrance in Arlington County, Virginia, are in the works, Greater Greater Washington reports. The project has been in the planning stages for 15 years but was held up due to construction on the building above it. The new entrance at the Ballston Metro station would add a new mezzanine, as well as elevators and possibly escalators. The design phase of the project is expected to take two more years, and construction could take three years. The project will cost about US$130 million. Image credit: photo by Ben Schumin To read the full transcript of today's podcast, visit: elevatorworld.com/news Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes│Google Play | SoundCloud│Stitcher │TuneIn

Former software engineer David Alpert founded Greater Greater Washington to explore why cities operate the way they do. Along the way, he built a community by blending journalism with advocacy on critical transportation issues in the nation's capital.

Visitors love riding DC Metro, but those who don't have a lot of experience with public transit have a lot of questions about how it works. In this episode of the Trip Hacks DC Podcast, Rob is joined by Matt Johnson, a transportation professional and DC Metro expert. Matt tweets from @tracktwentynine and posts the popular "whichWMATA" Metro photo contest on Greater Greater Washington. Rob and Matt tackle some of the most frequently asked questions that Washington, DC visitors have about riding the Metro.  Full show notes for this episode are available on the Trip Hacks DC website.

In Episode 50, Quinn & Brian discuss: How D.C. and LA are dealing with urban heat issues.     Our guests are Yesim Sayin Taylor and Molly Peterson. Yesim is the founding Executive Director of the D.C. Policy Center and Molly is a renowned reporter focusing on the environment and climate change (and our first returning guest!).   We all remember when Nelly said, “It’s getting hot in herre,” but not a lot of people remember the whole verse: “It’s getting hot in herre, so take off all your clothes / all of the poor minorities in America are suffering and dying before everybody else / Uh, uh, uh, let it hang all out.” But it’s a shame, really, because if we’d just paid more attention to Nelly’s important message back in 2002, maybe we wouldn’t be facing this problem today.   Want to send us feedback?  Tweet us, email us, or leave us a voice message!  Trump’s Book Club:  The Old Man Who Read Love Stories by Luis Sepúlveda  Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason Stearns   Links:   Learn more at https://www.dcpolicycenter.org   Yesim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/yesimsy   Check out https://pactio.us/host/molly-peterson   Molly on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mollydacious   Greater Greater Washington: https://ggwash.org   Connect with us:  Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com!   Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com   Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett   Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken   Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant   Check us on Instagram: instagram.com/ImportantNotImportant   Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp   Pin us on Pinterest: pinterest.com/ImportantNotImportant   Tumble us or whatever the hell you do on Tumblr: importantnotimportant.tumblr.com   Important, Not Important is produced by Podcast Masters Support this podcast

We talk with David Whitehead and David London about the rise of alternative transit options in America. Whitehead is a staff writer for Greater Greater Washington, a Yimby blog in DC. London is the government relations executive for the bikeshare company ofo.  

Rob is joined by local armchair historian Eric Fidler for this episode of the Trip Hacks DC podcast. They developed a list of cool off the beaten path things to see and do in Washington, DC. These are perfect for anyone who has been to DC before and is looking for something different, or for a true urban explorer.  Check out some of Eric's writing on Greater Greater Washington and follow along his adventures on Instagram.  Full show notes for this episode are available on the Trip Hacks DC website. 

This week, the guys tackle...the Eclipse. Jack and Newton are joined by friends of the show, and fellow Planetary Society members, Tom, Gerrit and Jeremy. The group dives into their experience from the Path of Totality and just how special this moment was for all those who participated. And if you did not catch the Livestream from the trip, be sure to head over to the Facebook page to catch up on all of your Ad Astra content!     Links: Listener Submitted Topic The Great American Eclipse! History of Eclipses Joanne’s Post on Greater Greater Washington   Follow Ad Astra on Twitter at @AdAstra_Podcast, on Facebook, and subscribe to the mailing list for future updates and events!

Greater Greater Washington founder (and fellow transportation nerd) David Alpert tells us about his website's MetroGreater contest. We answer hot questions from Metropocalypse listeners. And experts on the psychology of commuting explain how SafeTrack might affect Washingtonians' habits.

June 18, 2014. John Muller discussed his new book on Mark Twain's time as a newsman in the nation's capital. In February 1854, 18-year-old journalist Samuel Clemens composed his first dispatch from Washington. He would return to the city after the Civil War as "Mark Twain." With other newspapermen, including George Alfred Townsend, Twain established the informal Washington Syndicate, which wired news from the capital city all over the country. Speaker Biography: John Muller is an associate librarian in the Washingtoniana Division of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and a Washington-based journalist, historian, playwright and policy analyst. His first book, "Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia," won a public vote to be selected as the DC Public Library's 2013 DC Reads. A former reporter for The Washington Times, Muller is a current contributor to Capital Community News, Greater Greater Washington and other Washington-area media. His writing and reporting have appeared in Washington History, The Washington Post, The Georgetowner and other publications. For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6531