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Hugo Lloris saves the day, again! If not for his two Herculean efforts, LAFC would have left the nation's capital with narry a point. As it was, our defense holds strong again, and LAFC plays DC United to a 0-0 draw. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

  A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Hosts Miko Lee & Guest Host Mia Nakano celebrate Bayanihan in Ballhalla. Bayanihan is a core Filipino cultural value of community unity, and Balhalla is the home arena of the Golden State Valkyries. Apex Express was invited to join Filipino Heritage Night at the Valkyries game. We speak with the community behind this cultural celebration. That includes Al Perez, artists Venazir Martinez and Kristian Kabuay, and coach Carolyn Sideco about the history of Philippines and basketball. Links for more information: More information on our guests: Golden State Valkyries Al Perez, President of the Filipino American Arts Exposition Artist Venazir Martinez DJ P-LO Cultural Practitioner Kristian Kabuay Carolyn Sideco Coaching Kapwa Raquel Redondiez SOMA Pilpinas     Show Transcript: [00:00:00] Opening: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express. [00:01:13] Miko Lee: Welcome to Apex Express. I'm your host, Miko Lee, and tonight is Bayanihan in Ballhalla. Bayanihan is a core Filipino cultural value of community unity, and Balhalla is the home arena of the Golden State Valkyries. Apex Express was invited to join Filipino Heritage Night at the Valkyries game. Tonight, please join me and my guest host, Mia Nakano, as we speak with the community behind this cultural celebration. That includes Al Perez, artists Venazir Martinez and Kristian Kabuay, and coach Carolyn Sideco about the history of Philippines and basketball. Join us. Today I have the honor of having my bestie with me who's gonna co-host Welcome to Apex, Mia Nakano.  [00:01:59] Mia Nakano: Hi, Miko. Thank you for having me.  [00:02:01] Miko Lee: I was invited to a Valkyries game, and I said, “Oh, my gosh, I need somebody with me that can speak basketball.” And so I thought of you.  [00:02:10] Mia Nakano: And here we are. And the Valkyries do put on a show. That's one of the things that makes them so great.  [00:02:15] Miko Lee: Yeah, it was super fun. It was Filipino Heritage Night, and so we got a chance to talk with the different artists that are there, what is the night about, what's the cultural celebration. What were some of the things that stood out to you?  [00:02:28] Mia Nakano: I think that it really got to the roots of, one, what a great sports city San Francisco and then just the broader Bay Area is, and two, the deep connections to the Filipino community that exists within the Bay Area. When you look at how historically the Warriors really came up and the fan shots from when they were at Oracle Arena, the huge fan base that was there initially was the Filipino community. To see that translate in a very different way as the Valkyries are coming up in the WNBA as this incredible team, second year, on their way to probably making the playoffs for the second year in a row, bringing that community back, particularly with all the connections of the artists, the activations, and even the food that they have in Chase Arena brings it full circle. [00:03:26] Miko Lee: Having Natalie Nakase as the coach there is so powerful and important representation for Asian Americans as well. The other thing that stood out to me was I did not know there was this history of basketball in the Philippines, and then to talk to the different guests on our show tonight about what that history represents, where it comes from, the connection to colonization, and then also how it's really developed into its own cultural phenomena in the Philippines. [00:03:55] Mia Nakano: I played basketball- All throughout junior high and high school and was very immersed in it in Southern California, but I had no idea that basketball was the national sport of the Philippines. After we came back from the game, I did a little a bit of a deep dive, and it was really wonderful to see that it actually started in the Philippines as a women's sport? And it was making sports more accessible to folks, and also very clearly connected to,, roots of colonization and religion. But to still have that anchor and connection there, and then this interesting juxtaposition where right now there has still never been a Filipina player in the WNBA. There are folks who people really thought were almost gonna make it. So there's still that one last phase that they need to break into this sport that is their national sport, but in the United States they're not quite there yet in terms of representation.  [00:04:55] Miko Lee: And talking with Coach Caroline, which people can hear later in the episode, about that history and how it was intended to be this women's sport in the Philippines because it was easier. They thought they'd give it to the women to play. But the men were watching going like, “Oh, this looks fun. This looks more fun than baseball. So it really just took off. I love that transition for that it went and across the country. A few of our guests talked about tenement basketball courts. It's just so wildly different from this country.  [00:05:25] Mia Nakano: I think that that is contextually just how sports are played in a lot of different countries in the world where they don't have access. When you think about people playing football, right, like soccer, in different areas where they are playing barefoot. They are playing in dirt or, like, fields that are not necessarily fields. I think that in the context of playing basketball differently in the Philippines versus the United States or even in European leagues, when the United States goes to play in the Olympics, even though you have the USA women's team, USA men's teams who are supposed to be the best of the best in the world, the way that the game is played at that particular level and arena is quite different. And so they all have to adjust to the physicality, to how calls are called just slightly differently. With smaller players in the WNBA what I find really incredible, and this is what Carolyn talks about a little bit, is like the layup packages? When you get close to the rim, you don't have a Filipino who just goes up and makes a regular layup. They do it with flair, right? There's a part of that maybe is a little bit of showmanship, but also it's a part of trying to sneak your way around bigger players so that you can get the basket. And anybody that you play against, even in a league that is familiar to you, you're gonna have to change your game up, and play to your strength, and also just know what you can't do in the game, and go to another person who has more of those strengths  [00:07:03] Miko Lee: One of the other things that stood out to me in talking with one of the artists, Christian, who was there in the outside, in the cultural area, and he was doing, pre-Filipino writing with folks, and we'll interview him later in the episode. He was saying how he does this activity at a lot of different games, but it was very different. That was the first time at the Valkyries, and he said the crowd was so different, that it felt like back in the day. It felt like community. There weren't tech bros. You feel like it, The audience was way more women, As someone that goes to Warriors' and Valkyries' games, do you notice a difference in the audience?    [00:07:41] Mia Nakano: The first Valkyries game that I had the opportunity to go to last year was their Pride Night, and that is the game that my wife and I always go to for the Warriors. It's a special feeling there. I noticed there was a whole parking lot area for strollers on different levels. There was such great energy, and people just talking about the game, people cheering or rooting for players on the other team. There was not a lot of negative energy going around. When Christian mentions, the tech bro energy, the people rolling around with Patagonia shirts, and sweatshirts, that is so true. You truly feel this family environment that's also very queer friendly. There's so many folks of color, and they're not just there because the team's winning, because last year we didn't know if the team was gonna win or not. They were just showing up. The Valkyries have really created such a strong culture that is team based. That's what you see with the Valkyries, but I also think that that's a testament to the coach, to the players, who really trust in one another, and to the community that we have in the Bay Area. I think even the players did not understand when they came here what they were stepping into, and they talk about talking to other players on opposing teams who are like, “Is it always like this? Is it every night?” They're like, “Every single night, this is how our fans are, and we love it.”  [00:09:14] Miko Lee: So it's in different WNBA hometowns it's not like that? [00:09:18] Mia Nakano: Absolutely not. The Valkyries have sold out every single game from day one. They are the first WNBA team, and I think the first women's professional sports team, to reach $100 billion in valuation. then you see other teams, like the Atlantic Dream, who are playing in arenas of 3,500, or the Dallas Wings, who are playing in much smaller arenas, even though they have all these franchise players like Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers and AZ Fudd. The Dallas Wings are actually moving to the same arena that the Mavericks are gonna play in next year. It's an interesting juxtaposition given where the context of our world is at, who's in office right now, the battles that we're having to fight to keep women's rights, queer rights, trans rights in the forefront and not have them stripped away. Yet on the other side of this, we have this huge, meteoric rise of women's sports, and it's not just basketball. It's baseball. It's hockey. It's all these different leagues that are starting to emerge and have huge fan bases where you can watch women's professional sports all year round. They're nationally televised games. [00:10:31] Miko Lee: Thank you for the history lesson and current events of women's sports. I love it. One of the other things that was really special for this Filipino heritage night was the halftime show where they had DJ P-Lo playing. And then they brought onto the court, the director of SOMA Pilipinas, Raquel Redondiez, and she runs San Francisco's Filipino Cultural Heritage District. She got her name on a Valkyries jersey, and was announced in the halftime moment as a big show. [00:11:05] Mia Nakano: I had a conversation with her said, ” the work that you are doing, particularly in this moment, bringing together the artists, the culture of Filipinos and Filipino history is so critical right now because so many of our communities, cultures, and stories are getting erased, that we are the culture bearers and culture keepers, and so thank you for doing that work.” [00:11:31] Miko Lee: SOMA Pilipinas, for those that don't know, was established as a Filipino cultural heritage district in 2016 and was one of the first in the state designated as an arts district by California Arts Council in 2017. So they do so much great work, they host great things from the, United States of Asian America Festival every year. Self-defense workshops for women. I've taken those in Kapwa Gardens that were amazing. They do mental health services for Filipino folks and provided groceries and COVID education and, Filipino language training, and then artists, as you were saying. They pulled together all these different folks, for this wonderful night to introduce a sense of heritage and a sense of pride that was really powerful. [00:12:19] Mia Nakano: , It's a really lovely connection back to the Filipinos banding together with Chinese American folks in Chinatown that really helped create the broader Asian American movement and what that word and power even means. [00:12:38] Miko Lee: From the I-Hotel to today [00:12:40] Mia Nakano: exactly, and all of that being really anchored and rooted in San Francisco, as well as everything that Larry Itliong did with union organizing that I think has just recently started to get recognized in the broader social justice movement.  [00:12:58] Miko Lee: I'll put links to past shows that we've done on the I-Hotel, on Larry Itliong, because folks, if they don't know about either of those movement le- leaders and huge moments in our Asian American history, they should. It's powerful part of our labor and housing rights history. Were there other things that stood out to you at this Valkyries game? [00:13:20] Mia Nakano: I know that this is probably not gonna be a surprise to you, but the fact that we honestly just got to go behind the scenes and see the inner workings of what the Valkyries, the tunnels and getting lost and trying to figure out where we're going. [00:13:34] Miko Lee: It was a maze down there, by the way. It was like, which direction? Go to this press room. No, this press room. This place. It was very much kind of, in theater-wise, it's like going backstage and seeing how the tech is done.  [00:13:46] Mia Nakano: The thing that was the most exciting about this unique experience was being able to see Natalie Nakase talk after the game, and the snippet in here is really incredible because it shed light into not just who she is as a coach and how she approached the game, but her investment in people, and the importance of seeing people for their full selves, and the importance of the whole WNBA as a league, as a business. They have a lot of money and power, so who are we gonna lift up? It's a always a very intentional choice of what is happening at Chase Arena, at the Valkyries nights, these heritage nights that really uplift so many wonderful communities that are doing incredible work.  [00:14:36] Miko Lee: We're gonna get a chance to do an interview with Coach Natalie in a different episode, so stay tuned for that. Is there anything else that you would like to share with our audience?  [00:14:45] Mia Nakano: Go see a Valkyries game. Go to Balhalla. It will change your life.  [00:14:50] Miko Lee: Experience Balhalla. Okay. Thank you for joining me, and hopefully you'll join me back when we do an interview with Coach Natalie too.  [00:14:59] Mia Nakano: Oh, absolutely.  [00:15:00] Miko Lee: To frame the conversation, we start with Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase, the first Asian American woman to coach a WNBA team. Last year, she was named WNBA Coach of the Year, and at the post-game presser, a reporter asked her, “Tonight is Filipino National Heritage Night, so can you talk a little bit about what it means for fans to be seen around the league?” This is her response. [00:15:25] Natalie Nakase: Yeah. It's huge. I love the fact that we can celebrate and acknowledge different cultures. I'm really big on that. I think it gives people almost like a superpower or a confidence for, you know, the day to be recognized like that and to be celebrated for everything that their, their culture brings. it also, I think, educates people about different cultures. And so I love the fact that we're super intentional about that because I think we have to do that more than not. And, it's exciting. I think this world needs more celebration. I think this world needs more love, more care, especially when some people are not seen as much. [00:16:01] Miko Lee: In the very loud outdoor Chase Arena area, we spoke with several of the folks involved in Filipino Heritage Night at the Valkyries. Please note that the sound quality is due to the nature of being outside a really excited fan base at the game. First off, listen in as we hear from Al Perez, who helped to curate this community celebration. [00:16:23] Al Perez: Hello, my name is Al Perez. I am a community organizer. I'm serving as president of a nonprofit called the Filipino American Arts Exposition, and we partnered with the Valkyries to help curate their cultural activation for Filipino Heritage Night tonight. [00:16:41] Miko Lee: Since the Valkyries are named after women warriors, is there a Filipina version of a woman warrior? [00:16:48] Al Perez: Absolutely. We have one that's local. Her name is Victoria Manalo Draves. She was the first American woman to win two Olympic golds in the Olympics in nine- 1928. She happens to be Filipina-American. So yeah, she was born and raised here in, in San Francisco Bay Area, so we're very proud of her to be, to represent us and be the warrior and an inspiration for all of us.  [00:17:11] Miko Lee: Excellent. And since Valhalla or Valhalla is the space that we want to get to, what is the Filipino version of that place you want to see? [00:17:19] Al Perez: Wow. [00:17:20] Miko Lee: That perfect world you wanna get to. [00:17:21] Al Perez: I think for us, we have this tradition called bayanihan. That's when we help each other towards a common goal. Yes. No matter how Herculean that task is, it's just coming together to help each other. So it's not necessarily a destination. It's more like an attitude of, coming together as a community towards a common goal, towards a cultural pride and community empowerment. [00:17:46] Miko Lee: Great. And tell us what you're doing here today with all these groups. [00:17:47] Al Perez: So we have an outreach table here because we're part of the organizing committee to curate tonight's event. So we actually have an event next weekend called the Pistahan Parade and Festival. It's the largest Filipino cultural celebration in the country, happening August 8th and 9th at the Yerba Buena Gardens, so please come check us out. There's a big parade down Market Street on Saturday to kick off the festival weekend, and then the festival's at the Yerba Buena Gardens, 11 to 5. We're here to promote that event as well as all our other upcoming events in the fall. We're also curating the Filipino Heritage Night with the Golden State Warriors, with the Giants, San Jose Sharks, and San Jose Earthquakes. And then one more. October is Filipino American History Month in the country. So we also produce official celebration proclamation by the mayor at City Hall. So we have a reception, we have entertainment, and we light the City Hall building with Philippine flag colors.  [00:18:42] Miko Lee: And when folks are coming out to these Filipino nights, what should they expect? What's happening?  [00:18:47] Al Perez: Our goal is to be here to be in community, to help showcase our beautiful culture, our traditions. So when these events happen, we usually have, cultural performances, either a pre-game or a halftime. Tonight you're gonna see, P-Lo, a Filipino rapper and a hip hop singer. Here in the plaza we have some basketball hoops, because basketball is a big thing in the Philippines, our national sport. There's also, Sarap Shop is a concession inside. They have Filipino food there. Our goal is to get people a little taste of our Filipino culture, so hopefully they'll be inspired to, to learn more about our community and our culture. [00:19:29] Miko Lee: And what's your dream for the game tonight?  [00:19:31] Al Perez: Of course, to win, right? Number, yeah, number one, Valkyries to win. And also, I hope that people will come and learn about our culture, and to appreciate it more. Maybe it will inspire them to try some Filipino food, or even come to our Pistahan Festival next weekend. Also Señor Sisig is right here in the plaza. They also do fusion Filipino food. I'm hoping that, by being here, people can get to be a little bit more familiar and curious about Filipino culture and community. We have such a, vibrant and diverse culture, we love to be in community. Our food's delicious, and entertainment's fantastic. So come check us out wherever and whenever you can.  [00:20:14] Mia Nakano: I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the artists who are here and the community organizations that are here tonight.  [00:20:19] Al Perez: So there's several of us nonprofit organizations here. Our group's the Filipino American Arts Exposition, our mission is more about broadening awareness and deepening understanding of Filipino culture and traditions by doing these cultural events. There's another group here called Young Filipino Professionals Association, or YFPA. They're more about, , uplifting young entrepreneurs, young career-minded, individuals to help them on their path to being more successful. There's also SoMa Pilipinas Cultural District is here. That's a new, relatively new, neighborhood in San Francisco. You know, there's Chinatown, there's Japantown, there's North Beach, so now we also have a Filipino community. It's called SoMa Pilipinas, they're also celebrating their 10th anniversary this year as being, designated as a cultural district. There's also Venazir is a visual artist. She's doing live art mural here inspired by Filipino culture and the intersection of culture and basketball. So it's a great way for people to kind of learn about our fine arts, our visual arts, and our he- heritage. Kristian Cabuay is doing script writing of traditional pre-colonial Philippine script. You know, Chinese and Japanese have their own script writing. The Phi- Filipino community also did before we were colonized by Spain. It's kind of almost forgotten and almost wiped out, so there's a few people now that's trying to revive that, that old tradition of writing .. It's called Baybayin.    [00:21:42] Mia Nakano: Can you talk a little bit about the history or why basketball is the national sport of the Philippines?   [00:21:48] Al Perez: Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah, why is basketball the national sport? I'm not sure exactly, but I think it has to do when after the Philippines was colonized by Spain, and then it, the country became, a commonwealth of the United States, right? And during that time, a lot of Americans came to the Philippines, to establish educational institutions, and one of them is sports. It just got introduced to us, and somehow it clicked. Everybody loves basketball. No matter where you are in the Philippines, in every little barrio, every little town, there's always a game happening [00:22:21] Miko Lee: So are people playing in school, like they start in elementary school, or is it more community based?  [00:22:26] Al Perez: I think it's both. It's just kinda grow, ingrown when you're just a kid growing up in your community. There's always basketball around you, surrounded by basketball. And then of course in more, elementary, high school, it became more teams dynamic, and you got competitions , intramural games. Even between little neighborhoods and little towns, they also have competitions. It's really a big deal. In fact, they love NBA. All the American basketball players are so popular. Everybody knows who they are. [00:22:54] Miko Lee: Al mentioned artist Venazir Martinez, and we pulled her away from the beautiful mural she was creating to talk with us. Again, this is outside, so the sound is quite loud. Venazir is a muralist and a visual anthropreneur. She weaves a tapestry of narratives that explore the connections between human traditions and the ever-changing landscapes that shape them. Listen as she tells us about her work and how she utilizes a symbolic red thread [00:23:25] Venazir Martinez: I'm Venazir Martinez. I am a muralist and a visual entrepreneur, and I am invited to create a live painting for the Golden State Valkyries. [00:23:36] Miko Lee: What has inspired you to create this work of art? [00:23:39] Venazir Martinez: So first and foremost, of course, women empowerment, and we have a lot of very talented Filipino Americans who play basketball. In the Philippines, because I grew up in the Philippines, basketball is such a huge deal. Everywhere in the most promote areas in the Philippines, basketball is their way of enjoying themselves and just pretty much having a time of their life. Basketball tenements are everywhere in the most remote areas in the Philippines. There's this concept of Filipino resiliency that I wanted to incorporate in my work, there are basketball hoops that is made out of wood scraps and like discarded metals. I wanted to highlight that part of Philippine ingenuity. That's why I'm here is to just shed light on that beautiful concept of Filipino ingenuity that we have.  [00:24:40] Miko Lee: I love that. Thank you for sharing. Can you break down what a basketball tenement is?  [00:24:44] Venazir Martinez: Oh, basketball tenement. So tenement courts, these are,.. How do I say this? In America, there's basketball courts that is, like, roofed. Okay. With a roof, and-  [00:24:54] Miko Lee: Like in a gymnasium.  [00:24:56] Venazir Martinez: In a gymnasium, yes. But in the Philippines, anywhere can be a basketball tenement court. They'll just put up a basketball hoop in a pole, like an electricity pole, and they can already play basketball in that area. [00:25:12] Miko Lee: So their court's just made up anywhere. Yeah. Anywhere in the community.  [00:25:14] Venazir Martinez: Anywhere in the community, in the most remote areas in the Philippines, they do that all the time. I grew up in the Philippines, so, it's that really is an immersive experience of having to see basketball really change lives for young people in our community. [00:25:32] Miko Lee: So we're at a WNBA game, and I'm wondering if there was a woman basketball player that you looked up to when you were growing up.  [00:25:39] Venazir Martinez: Growing up, my dad plays basketball. That's the only experience I know that, remembering what basketball is like. ‘Cause I'm mostly in martial arts. But here I am trying to experience a different, like, more empowering way of sports. And it's when I came to America that I experienced this kind of really, it's kind of empowering.  [00:26:01] Miko Lee: And since the Valkyries are women warriors, is there a Filipina equivalent of the woman warrior? Is there a Filipina equivalent of a woman warrior? [00:26:01] Venazir Martinez: There's a lot. There's a lot of very empowering Filipina. First and foremost, it's the Filipina community leaders that I know of in the Bay Area. They are my women warriors. They helped me from the ground up. They created a home for me. They, you know, so they welcomed me. The filipina community in the Bay Area welcomed me. They're all women.  [00:26:31] Miko Lee: Who would you say are some of those folks, some of those women?  [00:26:34] Venazir Martinez: Sonia Villarin, she wears so many hats. She's president of Filipina Food Movement, founder of summer camp in the University of the Philippines Alumni Association in San Francisco. She was the, senior vice president for Bank of America Global Leasing, and she welcomed her home to me and, pretty much, helped me establish my life here as an artist. So those are my women warriors. [00:27:00] Miko Lee: And when people see your beautiful work, what do you want them to walk away with feeling? [00:27:05] Venazir Martinez: I want them to take a second look again in my work, because these, my work pretty much talks about Filipino immigrants, and immigration at large, and pretty much our contributions and the harvested hopes that we have contributed in this cultural landscape,  [00:27:28] Miko Lee: this show is a pop-up tonight, so where can folks find out more about your work or see your work in the community? [00:27:34] Venazir Martinez: I have a huge, huge mural, 2,500 square feet mural in 5th and Folsom in San Francisco, downtown San Francisco in SoMa. It's called Ani, meaning to harvest. There's one in downtown Santa Cruz. There is one in Yuba City. There are multiple murals in Michigan, in New York, mostly in Queens. It's pretty much everywhere, but if you follow the red thread, which is my signature, my artist signature, you'll know that it's my work.  [00:28:08] Miko Lee: Thank you so much. Thank you so very much. Appreciate you taking the time. Another artist presenting their work was Kristian Kabuay working on pre-Philippines calligraphy. His line was so long that we ended up interviewing him separately. Christian is an artist, entrepreneur, futurist who specializes in endangered writing systems and tattoos from the Philippines. Hello, and welcome to Apex Express. Can you tell me your name, your background and what you were doing at the Valkyries Filipino Heritage Night? [00:28:40] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah. My name is Kristian Kabuay. I'm a cultural practitioner specializing in our old, uh, pre-colonial, I say pre-Philippine, writing system and tattooing traditions. I was at the Valkyries, Filipino Heritage Night to interact with the community. I've done a lot of work with the Warriors, you know, going back to Oracle for these cultural nights, the Giants, as well. So most of the teams in the Bay Area, but it was my first time with the Valkyries, and it was quite different. [00:29:16] Miko Lee: How was it different?  [00:29:17] Kristian Kabuay: The vibe was, um… I'm telling everybody that it was my first Valkyries game, too. So the vibe was different. It reminds me of the old Oracle, it wasn't full of, like, tech money that are, you know, Patagonia vests watching the game. It felt very homegrown and it just brought me back to those days in old Oakland A's and when the Warriors were in Oracle. [00:29:42] Miko Lee: What does that evoke for you? What is that feeling like?  [00:29:46] Kristian Kabuay: It gives me a stronger sense of community and the audience is different. The demographics is different. There isn't that toxic male energy. I don't have to worry about someone being drunk and going off and, it was very homey and welcoming. It brings back, as a kid, when I used to watch A's games in the bleachers, watching at Oracle, the community, and not everyone was there to be seen. They were really there for the team.  [00:30:15] Miko Lee: Oh, I love that. I actually do feel like it is, it's such a we're together community vibe. [00:30:20] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah. They even had the wave. I know some snooty teams, they don't have the wave, so-  [00:30:26] Miko Lee: That wave went on for a long time, too.  [00:30:29] Kristian Kabuay: Exactly. I've been to a lot of games. They're, “Oh, I don't wanna look stupid,” or whatever? So that's a big part of my childhood.  [00:30:36] Miko Lee: So I was gonna try and talk with you at the game like I did the other artists, but you had a huge line waiting to see you and talk to you. Talk with me a little bit more about your art form and this pre-clo colonization form of writing.  [00:30:52] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah. Most civilizations had a writing system. It was prior to the land alphabet when the Spanish came and colonized the Philippines in the 1500s. We have this writing. There's only one ethnolinguistic group left in the Philippines that writes it. I come from a background of calligraphy, graffiti and abstract art. When I started to practice it, I incorporated those things. Later I found that I had to become an educator. Then starting to do the cultural festivals. Then you make your parents proud. It wasn't until I started to interact with the community that, there was this responsibility. I didn't come from a highly academic background, but I was being invited to Stanford and Berkeley to give talks about this. So, you know, that imposter syndrome kicked in. Because of the efforts that I've started in, 2010s, the idea of education around this specific writing system, my service isn't really needed. It's out there. Wikipedia, even AI can do it now, and there's a lot of influencers on TikTok that are, building on the stuff that I did 10 years ago. It goes in line with my idea of putting myself out of business. ‘Cause if it's a cultural practice, then you shouldn't be this gatekeeper, this apex of this this knowledge or this practice. It needs to be spread  [00:32:15] Miko Lee: What is the writing system called?  [00:32:17] Kristian Kabuay: A couple names. One of the popular names is Baybayin, and that literally means to spell. It's an adverb, but then it became a noun. So there's many different names depending on the languages in the Philippines.  [00:32:30] Miko Lee: And you said that there's a village of folks that still utilize it. Have you been there?  [00:32:34] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah, I was there in 2016 with a research trip. I stayed with them for a few days to learn, a bit about more about the culture and to donate some time and volunteer, 'cause there's the Mangyan Heritage Foundation. I did some technology work with them. But then also meet with the elders that were there. The village elder did an interview for a film project that I'm doing, but also met the heirs, the daughters in the family that ultimately inherited this practice. [00:33:02] Miko Lee: And so they know that you're teaching this cultural practice around the world, and what is their opinion of that? What do they think?  [00:33:09] Kristian Kabuay: They like it, because it's a different perspective, and a lot of questions. When I go home they go, “Oh, why are you interested in this?” It's a totally different perspective. ‘Cause out here, we have our identity, and the diaspora issues. But back home, because of circumstances, colonization, et cetera, then, the priority is to eat, to live, not to preserve these cultural practices. I've had some indigenous elders tell me that when People come over there, to do their dissertation and they need to figure out their paper to get their PhD. They ask them, “What are you doing to preserve this?” It's kind of extractive or, like, information gathering. Honestly, it really is you strip it down, it is, survival: food, clothing, and shelter.  [00:33:52] Miko Lee: When people were standing in line for you at the actual Valkyrie's game, what were they asking you to write? Were they asking you to write notes or their name, or what was the request?  [00:34:03] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah. Yeah, the line… I was telling people I've never had a line that long when I've done the Warriors. So- … you know, it's kind of different.  [00:34:10] Miko Lee: That's interesting. Just saying [00:34:11] Kristian Kabuay: Yes. I was writing mainly people's names- Mm um, and some words. Maybe a, a good third were non-Filipino, some were there just curious and asking and cultural sharing. Someone knows a Filipino and they go, “Oh, can you write mahal kita?” Like, I love you. And so, we pick up things, just here in the Bay Area. I have conversations with people wanna hear a family name that I never heard about. I say, “Whoa, where's your family from?” Kids learn the stories on how they combine names and some of the origins. It's always interesting when I do this with folks. [00:34:44] Miko Lee: I love that. And you're also a tattoo artist. Do you use some of this writing in your tattoo artistry?  [00:34:51] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah, I do. And that's where the separation between the art and the cultural practice is. Where the writing wasn't tattooed traditionally, but that's where I kind of balance the art. And I separate those two where art is my expression, my personal expression on paper or maybe even on a body, but a cultural practice is more about them and their lineage. So I have to be clear to make those two distinctions.  [00:35:20] Miko Lee: So a question I've asked all the different people that have been involved in this night is that the Valkyries are based on women warriors, and I wonder if there's a Filipina woman warrior that comes to mind to you? [00:35:32] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah, there is. There's one that, part of the lore. Where my dad's from, in his area called Pangasinan, the land of the salt. There's a princess warrior named Princess Urduja that was thought of as a great warrior. This specific Princess Urduja has that Valkyrie's spirit. All the artwork that you see and Academics will say, “Oh, it's you're romanticizing,” and things like that. But you know what? We need a little romance in our lives, right? And romance leads to action.  [00:36:03] Miko Lee: Ah, we certainly do. I'm wondering, with all those people, the long line that stood waiting for you, and you're having these conversations, what would you like them to walk away with after interacting with you?  [00:36:14] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah. That's why there was a sign, and I took a picture of it. It doesn't say, Philippine writing. So it says pre-Philippine calligraphy. I made that term up in 2007 as a way to jolt someone's idea of what pre-Hispanic, pre-colonial is. ‘Cause those things kinda just fly overhead. But if I said pre-Philippines, people, they take a step back and they, “What's that mean?” Or they try to have a smart comeback, “Well, what were we before then?” And my question's always then, “Well, I don't know. Let's talk about it.” That gray area, that being uncomfortable, leads to more curiosity, and ultimately, that's what I want folks to go ahead and, you know… oh, I have this banana leaf. I ran out of index cards. I brought 100 of them. I had these banana leaves that I just meant to decorate the table. I said, “You know what? Let me write on these banana leaves like how our ancestors did.” People are asking, “Oh, what, we wrote on banana leaves?” I'm all, “Yeah, we wrote on, organic materials.” So this thing is probably gonna wilt away in a few weeks or a month or so, but that's how it is. So it's a metaphor for our physical selves, but then also, the message. Maybe they can go ahead and learn how to write it themselves or until we reconnect again. [00:37:31] Miko Lee: Hmm. That's beautiful. And how can our audience find out more about you and your work?  [00:37:36] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah, you can just search for me online. My last name's K-A-B-U-A-Y. First name's Kristian, both with a K. All over the internets and the socials, pretty easy to find.  [00:37:46] Miko Lee: Thank you. And we'll put links to your website in our show notes, so thank you so much for chatting with me today. [00:37:52] Kristian Kabuay: Thanks, Miko [00:37:54] Miko Lee: I honestly didn't know that basketball was such a revered sport in the Philippines. So wanting to find out more, I reached out to a bunch of community folks, and multiple people said, “Reach out to Coach Carolyn Sudeco. She's the one. She's in the know.” So talking to me from her vacation spot halfway around the world is Coaching Kapwa's Carolyn Sudeco. Welcome, Carolyn Sideco, to Apex Express. I'm so happy to have you here.  [00:38:19] Carolyn Sideco: Thank you for having me.  [00:38:21] Miko Lee: Can you first start by telling me who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? [00:38:27] Carolyn Sideco: Oh my gosh, my people are, collectively, folks who identify as, Philippinics, Filipina, Filipino, and American, and, migratory, and those who claim blood relation and those who I'm still looking for. I live in San Francisco, California, Ohlone land, and also in the land of Choctaw Bulbancha, which is New Orleans, Louisiana. Those are the two places I reside.  [00:39:04] Miko Lee: Can you share about your work with Coaching Kapwa?  [00:39:08] Carolyn Sideco: Coaching Kapwa is what I love to do, and my background professionally is as a certified athletic administrator. I'm a physical educator at the high school level by profession, by certification, by training. But really what I love to do, and so what I do in my consultancy, is I explore and I examine and I think about and learn about everything related to sports cultures and how the culture of sports in all its various ways affect our societies. Specifically, I geek out over learning about my own Filipino American histories and other peoples. Learning that through the concept or the constructs of culture and how sports really is, for me, the funnest way to investigate who I am and who we are to each other. I call myself a sports relationship coach. I am a sports cultures consultant. I also like to identify as a sports liberator. [00:40:16] Miko Lee: Ooh, can you break down what a sports liberator is? [00:40:20] Carolyn Sideco: Miko, I took that from a friend of mine, Danya Cabello, also from the East Bay. Played at Cal, played professionally, and when I first met her years ago, she identified as such, and I said, “That is exactly the kind of person that I wanna be, like, in sports.” I wanted sports to be a way that I could share with people who we are to one another. I wanted to teach young people that they can express themselves in a way that helps make them feel free. With my background in sports administration, I was feeling like the sports industrial complex was really the antithesis of that. And what a lot of people in my profession were striving for was this success that was not defined in the same way that I was defining what my liberation was, and what I felt through sports. So I adopted that. I asked Dania, “Can I call myself a sports liberator too?” And she said, “Girl, you call yourself whatever you want.” So that's what I go by.  [00:41:37] Miko Lee: Ooh, thank you for sharing. That's so interesting in the midst of our kind of capitalization of sports, how corporate it has become. Interesting. Thanks. I also wanted to thank you for sharing with me, Rafe Bartholomew's Hoop Nation and Cassidy Hubbard's, Hoop's Paradise. So those, along with your YouTubes, really gave me a grounding in the connection to between basketball and the Philippines. I'll put a link to those in the show notes for other people that like to do deep dives like me. But can you just give our audience a sense of why basketball is so popular in the Philippines?  [00:42:10] Carolyn Sideco: I learned about the history of basketball and Filipino culture in the Philippines through various people, Rafe Bartholomew one of them, and his book Pacific Rims. A friend of mine here in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kevin Santos, was doing his master's thesis on the history of basketball in the Philippines, and putting an ethnic studies frame on it, so he was the one who actually, practiced his thesis and presentation with me, and I learned a lot through him, and through other people as I was learning about this myself, and how basketball when it was initially, or as we, the modern game of basketball was invented, by Dr. Naismith in Massachusetts with the peach tree basket. Most of us are familiar with that history, but also that was around the time of the Philippine-American War, and US colonization was at its beginning. And so what did the United States export, was its culture, and a lot of that was through sports, mainly baseball, 'cause baseball was already the national pastime. Basketball was relatively new, and basketball was taught in the Philippines also, like in conjunction with the American education system by teachers, by the Thomasites, and by others who were using that form of colonization. They gave basketball to the women and the girls, because it was the lesser sport. It was the newer sport, so it was the lesser sport. They gave it to the women. The men were supposed to play baseball. The Philippines is a collective society- Baseball is a spread out sport, and people aren't close to one another. You're out on a field, it's hella hot, and it's boring. [00:44:17] Miko Lee: Agree. Totally agree …  [00:44:19] Carolyn Sideco: it's easy, to make this assumption that these people playing baseball were watching the girls and women play basketball, and it's faster. Close to one another. It's easy to make a space. So they started playing basketball.  [00:44:39] Miko Lee: Also, you don't need all the things. You need a ball. [00:44:41] Carolyn Sideco: Exactly. In the early days, you didn't even need shoes. Yeah. So it took off in that way because basketball already itself was an activity that Filipino people, kinda took hold of already, and they made it their own. Trained teams started forming and the Philippines had national teams that were already very successful in Asian context, so Asian tournaments they were dominating. In 1975, the Philippine Basketball Association became the first men's, basketball league in Asia, and the first after the NBA in America. So the Philippines has had a long history of relationship with the sport of basketball, but because it's been so long, the sport itself was formed in response to all the cultural aspects that were already existing, right? a lot of town squares had basketball courts 'cause it was so easy to put there. So the same plazas, meeting spaces where people would have their town gatherings, social places, were also courts  [00:45:56] Miko Lee: And why do you think or just surmise that basketball has taken off more than, football or American term soccer, which is developed so much in other countries, which is also a little bit more communal? [00:46:08] Carolyn Sideco: My opinion is that American colonization, in the United States dictated, much more the United States cannot dictate because football or soccer is a more global sport, and the US didn't have as much stake in guiding that as a colonization tool as they did basketball. [00:46:29] Miko Lee: Hmm. Interesting. Speaking of the colonization and politics, I'm wondering about the connection between basketball and politics. In, Cassidy's podcast, they were talking about a politician who released their own basketball shoe, which is wild to me. Yes. So I wonder if there's other connections between basketball or politics, and if that's generally somebody who's more on the colonizer's viewpoint or more conservative viewpoint. Hmm.  [00:46:58] Carolyn Sideco: Hmm. Interesting. I, hmm, I go back and forth with this a lot, Miko, the colonizing tool that is sports, especially the capitalistic sort of, extraction, of sports, right? Of its players, who I like to think of as workers. They're also workers, right? The professional, Philippine Basketball Association is not much different than even professional sports in America with the way they're set up, right? You have owning groups or companies, and so you have these ways that exploitation and that workers' rights are… how do I say it? Because it's at the professional level, these concepts are very much at play, excuse the pun. The Philippines also has a governmental arm related to sports. So sports in and of itself is recognized, right? It doesn't have as much of this sort of altruistic thing as, as we say in the United States, like the sports is like the good of mankind, like that sort of thing. Like, I think, you know-  [00:48:08] Miko Lee: The kind of Olympic idea of unity, it brings us all together. [00:48:11] Carolyn Sideco: Right, like that, those conceptual sorts of virtues.  [00:48:15] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm.  [00:48:15] Carolyn Sideco: Yeah. So in the Philippines, I think it's so much more practical because it's fun, and you could get in a game anywhere, and it's accessible. Mm-hmm. It's accessible to all strata, economic strata, right? You see basketball courts everywhere, in rural areas in cities. Everywhere you'll see basketball courts. The Philippines itself as a country- I think that relationship to sports is something different than the American relationship to professional sports, where dominance and, winning and, beating others and making as much money as possible in that is at the forefront. In the United States even with youth sports now. I do some consulting work, especially in youth sports spaces, and the privatization and the extraction of the youth sports space is, is… We could go on all day about that. I think, this is obviously from a Filipino American perspective. For sure. I've never lived in the Philippines. I was born in the Philippines, but my relationship to the Philippines is also, being mitigated by how I experience American sports, right? So when I think about how I've experienced basketball when I've gone to the Philippines, , and it's the same as any aspect of that culture, right? It's warm, it's welcoming, it's friendly, and those are the cultural aspects that kind of, , supersede the fact that basketball… Basketball has its place, but it's in service to the cultural needs, right? To the need to be social, to participate in a town gathering. It's so sociopolitical.- And because it is, it's still a colonizing tool, right? But it's still mitigated in a way that I think just like Filipino basketball players are so, like, quick. They're known for quickness, agility, and finesse, and, like, drama, right? I used to joke around, like, you can always tell where a Filipino basketball player is in the United States 'cause no Filipino who has Filipino blood in them can do a regular layup. Like they have to make it all fancy. I think that, those sorts of aspects that are not tangible, that bring to light, the way a culture of people affect the sport. it enables a culture to push out through the boundaries of that sport what was given to them. What was given to them is, “This is how you play. These are the rules,” and all that kinda stuff, and that's great, but Filipino history of basketball is always, like, how do you integrate all the really cool things about your culture? It's something that's very different, and it emerges as something that's not quite American. [00:51:36] Miko Lee: Thank you so much. I'm wondering how our audience can find out more about you and your work.  [00:51:43] Carolyn Sideco: They can, follow me on Instagram at coachingkapwa, K-A-P-W-A. Kapwa is the Filipino word for the concept of interrelationship, interconnectedness. And so everything I learned about being, being a person really is through being a good teammate, and sports is the funnest way, like I've said before to practice being a good teammate  [00:52:12] Miko Lee: Thank you so much, Coach, for sharing with me about Sports Liberation and your work, and I'll put links to all that in our show notes. And I thank you so much for joining us on Apex Express.  [00:52:23] Carolyn Sideco: Thank you, Miko [00:52:25] Miko Lee: Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about our show and our guests tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preti Mangala-Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me Miko Lee, and edited by Ayame Keane-Lee. Have a great night.    The post APEX Express – 8.13.26 – Bayanihan in Ballhalla appeared first on KPFA.

Episode 302-Not Getting Tired of Winning Also Available OnSearchable Podcast Transcript Gun Lawyer — Episode Transcript Page – 1 – of 12 Gun Lawyer — Episode 302 Transcript SUMMARY KEYWORDS Gun Lawyer, New Jersey assault firearm law, Third Circuit Court, Supreme Court, stay granted, unconstitutional laws, Second Amendment, sensitive places, National Firearm Act, suppressors, Jordan Salinas, good guy with a gun, training, legal advice, gun rights. SPEAKERS Evan Nappen, Teddy Nappen, Speaker 2 Evan Nappen 00:16 I’m Evan Nappen,. Teddy Nappen 00:18 And I’m Teddy Nappen. Evan Nappen 00:20 And welcome to Gun Lawyer. Well, my friends, the wins keep coming. These are great times. You know, we have suffered from the oppressors on our gun rights for decades upon decades, and now we are seeing the collapse of all their machinations over the years. It is great and getting greater. And so, just within this short period of time, we’ve had the spectacular win in New Jersey in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the full en banc panel, all the judges, of course, finding that New Jersey’s 36-year-old assault firearm law and magazine law is unconstitutional. It’s a fantastic decision, as we’ve discussed, written by a Biden-appointee judge who happened to be the first woman of color appointed to the Appellate bench. That is fantastic and has multi-dimensional impact, of course, having that great decision. Evan Nappen 01:52 Now, with that having been said, yes, a stay has been granted in terms of the implementation of the finding of unconstitutionality. So, that stay is granted essentially because traditionally these kind of stays do get granted, especially when the Supreme Court itself of the United States has taken this issue and has granted certiorari over the assault weapon, what New Jersey calls assault firearm law under Viramontes and Grant. They’ll be deciding that. Essentially we’ll have a decision by next June on that issue affecting the nation. Now, New Jersey has got their stay because they’re requesting the Supreme Court of the United States to grant certiorari over New Jersey’s case, and the stay has been granted pending the final resolution, essentially, of these issues, or at least in good part, these issues by the United States Supreme Court. So, in the meantime, Teddy Nappen 03:12 I don’t know if you caught what the AG Davenport wrote in their press release, Dad. Page – 2 – of 12 Evan Nappen 03:20 Well, they can continue to irreparably harm law-abiding, honest gun owners over these unconstitutional laws until that finally happens. But what exactly did Davenport say as they try to turn an utter defeat into some sort of short-term victory? Teddy Nappen 03:45 We are thrilled that the Third Circuit this morning stayed its ruling on our assault weapon / large capacity magazine case while our petition to the U.S. Supreme Court proceeds. That ensures this 36-year law will remain in place. (https://www.njoag.gov/statement-from-attorney-general-jennifer-davenport-on-third-circuits-grant-of-a-stay-in-assault-weapons-large-capacity-magazines-case/) 36 years of going after people, putting them in jail, taking away their rights, providing ruining their lives. Evan Nappen 04:07 Hey, wait, Teddy, are you reading from their news release? Teddy Nappen 04:11 Oh, you know, I read their news release and then added the little context that they forgot. Evan Nappen 04:16 Did they actually use the word “assault weapon”? Teddy Nappen 04:20 Yes. Evan Nappen 04:20 Or did they say “assault firearm”? What did they say? Teddy Nappen 04:21 Assault weapon. Evan Nappen 04:22 Davenport called it “assault weapon” law? Teddy Nappen 04:26 Yes, assault weapons. Evan Nappen 04:27 Okay, just so you know, this is the top law enforcement attorney for New Jersey who is calling their law something it is not. We do not have an “assault weapon” law. We have an “assault firearm” law. Now, granted, it’s a similar issue, and you know it’s the same idea of going after New Jersey’s version of semi-automatics. But you would think if you’re a lawyer, and you’re a lawyer for the State that has this case that you might want to refer to it as the actual name that your State utilizes, because that term “assault firearm” is the term embedded in New Jersey’s law. It is a defined term under N.J.S. 2C:39-1. Page – 3 – of 12 They are called “assault firearms” in New Jersey by law, by law. But you know, why would she bother actually using the correct legal term when discussing laws? That would be amazing, wouldn’t it? Teddy Nappen 05:46 Well, Dad, I mean, just the abuse alone, just to give you the one-to-one. You’ve had many times where people have been charged with having a “assault firearm”, and it’s not. But they love to abuse it and just use whatever term they want. I mean that goes right back to Josh Sugarmann, and his whole idea of making that term “assault firearm” to confuse the public so they could pass their laws. I mean. Evan Nappen 06:10 Yep, it’s exactly that. Well, Sugarmann wrote the manifesto “Assault Weapons and Accessories in America”. That’s what laid the groundwork for this issue. It finally has one foot in the grave, is bedridden, on its deathbed, and the Supreme Court will hopefully administer the coup de gras in June 2027. I believe the odds heavily, heavily favor us, virtually to the point of I would be shocked if we lose. I just don’t see that happening, and the antis know it as well. Those oppressors get it that they’re going to lose on this issue. Teddy Nappen 06:54 It’s Viramontes and Grant. Evan Nappen 06:58 Yeah. Those are the two cases that Supreme Court has granted certiorari on. Just so you know, one is a local law out of Cook County, Illinois, that bans assault weapons, and has incorporated into the definition, magazines into their definition of assault weapon. So, the Supreme Court might actually address the magazine issue because it’s actually part of Viramontes’ law itself. e may see that. The Grant case deals with Connecticut’s assault weapon ban, state law, and when they challenged in Connecticut, they didn’t challenge the magazine portion. They only challenged the so-called assault weapon portion. New Jersey’s case, in the Cheeseman v. Platkin case, that court addressed both assault firearms, aka assault weapons, and magazines. And now, with New Jersey requesting certiorari, meaning requesting the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case, it also opens up the magazine issue. So, the Supreme Court that can do anything it wants might choose to address the magazine issue in the Viramontes and Grant decision. They might even, arguably, they could even take up New Jersey’s case and make it part of that. They might, and what most likely they’re going to just have it in a holding pattern. Evan Nappen 08:47 And we have the Duncan case that deals with magazines as well out of California, the Duncan v. Bonta case (25-198(. So, what it means is, if the Supreme Court doesn’t deal with magazines by next June, but just the guns, then they may very well take New Jersey’s case and Duncan with the split in the circuits there, and then deal with magazines. Like I said, they might do it all together. They might not. But New Jersey proceeding with this actually weirdly in the long run may present and give us a great opportunity because it presents magazines as a complete win by the court from our circuit. So, this may be one of those situations where you know the word to New Jersey is be careful what you wish for. This Page – 4 – of 12 is very interesting to follow. But I believe that all these laws are going to go to the dustbin of history. It’s just a matter of time. Evan Nappen 09:59 But as I have advised listeners, even when this decision came out, not to do anything because of the ability to get a stay. To wait and see. Well, that’s proven correct. I’s been proven out to be the wise thing to do, and have our listeners not end up being GOFUs by obtaining the firearms and magazines that are not yet technically lawful. So, for these continuing months, New Jersey is still free to enforce the magazine and assault firearm laws. Of course, if you have such a case or such a charge, your attorney, if they’re anywhere competent, will raise these very important issues and hopefully get your matter, your criminal matter, stayed pending the outcome and preserve the constitutional issues on your behalf in fighting it. So, be careful. Don’t end up with a GOFU where you’re facing these charges and your current counsel isn’t doing anything about it. I’ve had a number of those cases coming to me from other attorneys, where the client is like, my attorney never raised the constitutionality on these issues. Well, that is a huge mistake because you need to raise these issues, preserve these issues, because ultimately your odds of success are so great here, and it is essentially, arguably, malpractice to not, especially now, raise the constitutional issues if someone is facing in New Jersey or in the Circuit that has decided that these laws are unconstitutional. So, it’s very important that you be aware of that. Teddy Nappen 12:05 Would it be better if the Supreme Court does the other two cases and then take this one up as a mag separately, or is it better to do it all in one go? Evan Nappen 12:13 The best for everyone would be complete victory as soon as possible. However, if they’re not going to do that, if they’re just going to address guns now and then we have these cases to address mags, fine. We’ll fight the fight, and there you go. But the important thing, honestly, is that they’re taking the cases. Remember, for years they did not take these cases, and instead, luckily, wisely, maybe by planning it correctly-I don’t know-maybe intentionally, the groundwork got laid for the challenges to ultimately be successful. Because look, way back in May of 1990, I was an attorney. I remember this horrible New Jersey assault firearm law and magazine law passing. It was disgusting. Of course, it also became the Evan Nappen Full Employment Act. But the fact is, they passed this ridiculous law, and I remember thinking at the time, yeah, you know, in my heart, I knew this has got to be contrary to the Second Amendment. But we did not have any of the cases at that time. We didn’t have Heller finding that the Second Amendment is an individual right. We didn’t have McDonald incorporating the Second Amendment to the states. We didn’t have Bruen laying out the test of constitutionality and what test is to be used to see if guns laws, if gun laws are proper and constitutional. We didn’t have any of that. We didn’t have the giant body of historical research that is critical in these wins. We didn’t have any of it. Evan Nappen 14:08 And what the pro-second amendment gun rights side has done is nothing short of Herculean. All the forces together have built this fortress of the ability to defend and to fight and to take on the fight and to attack. Built this up so that we’re now in a position to have victory after victory. Yet, we see another Page – 5 – of 12 victory, another victory. Just determined in the Fifth Circuit, a nationwide injunction as applied to the members of the parties and their members, such as NRA and GOA and SAF, and FPC, etc. (https://www.nraila.org/articles/20260805/federal-court-strikes-down-nfa-registration-requirements-for-suppressors-short-barreled-rifles-and-short-barreled-shotguns-in-nra-case) All joining, attacking the National Firearms Act under a legal argument that was made possible by President Trump in the Big Beautiful Bill. Remember, the Big Beautiful Bill, which was a reconciliation bill, that was dealing with money, taxation, funding, money. When it’s done as a reconciliation, then what you have is no need or ability to run a filibuster. Since simple majorities can pass the reconciliation bills under the Senate rules, the Democrats, the anti-Second Amendment rights oppressors, could not stop its passage because they would. You know they would demand the 60, have the filibuster cloture, and the laws would die on the vine. But this did not, because it only needed simple majority. In that bill there was a specific repeal of the taxes. The taxes that get paid on suppressors, short barrel shotguns, short barrel rifles, on any other weapon, and silencers. The tax was eliminated to zero. And by doing that, it opened up the ability for the Big, Beautiful Lawsuit that was just a success in the Fifth Circuit, and how it worked was not based on Second Amendment arguments. It was based on jurisdictional arguments. Evan Nappen 16:55 You see, the National Firearms Act is premised upon the federal power of taxation. It is not founded upon the federal power of interstate commerce. Nor is it founded upon the military power. The federal government’s powers are limited. And back in the ’30s, when the National Firearms Act passed, they did not have the insane expansion of the commerce powers under the federal government. Therefore, the first national gun laws, which the NFA was, was jurisdiction by taxation. They imposed a $200 tax on suppressors, short barrel rifles, etc. Now, $200 in 1934 was just a little bit under $5,000 in terms of it being adjusted for inflation. So, imagine today passing a law that said any semi-automatic firearm that you want to possess, you must pay a $5,000 tax to the federal government in order to obtain it. Evan Nappen 18:26 You see how prohibitive that makes the possession, and then go through a registration scheme that is hidden in a pretext of taxation, which is blatantly excessive. And what has happened is by the elimination of the tax to zero, the court essentially said if there’s no tax, then there’s no law. Therefore, the NFA collapses in the enforcement proceedings regarding the paperwork, registration, printing. All the things that get done on the acquisition of NFA items. That law has been stayed for seven days, even though this is a permanent injunction. There’s been a seven-day stay to see if it progresses further, but that is a tremendous win on yet a different front of fighting for Second Amendment liberty. ‘ve had both of these great wins, and we have a lot to be proud of, and a lot to be optimistic about. Teddy Nappen 19:39 Regarding the big win with the NFA, I always want to see what is the what are the gun rights oppressionists? What are they pushing on this one? The Trace didn’t bring up something. However, Giffords, they’re flipping out, and I love this. (https://giffords.org/press-release/2026/08/giffords-reacts-to-federal-court-striking-down-background-checks-for-firearm-silencers-short-barreled-rifles-and-shotguns/) They go right to the. Just laugh, just reading it. This came from Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill. Remove the tax on these devices. The court has struck down the National Firearms Act, requiring background check and registration of firearm silencers, short barrel rifles, and shotguns. Page – 6 – of 12 Silencers and short barrel firearms, and other than handguns, are rarely used in crimes today because current laws have stopped them. Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding. Logical fallacy alert, everybody! Logical fallacy alert. Correlation does not equal causation. Saying that this will stop that these things have prevented crime does not make it so. What is your argument? Oh, they didn’t. They don’t have access. Even though prior to that, they weren’t used in crime. Generally speaking, as well. Number one is handguns on that front. But I love how they just try to toss that in every time. Just a red herring every single time, and they try to push it. Evan Nappen 20:56 Yeah, they’re just propagandists, and they’re losing left and right. It’s going to end up, my friends. You can mark my words. It’s going to end up that their entire world of gun law schemes, machinations, all these things that they have hoisted upon us as they die. I am greatly enjoying watching these gun laws die. As they die off and are impossible to find workarounds that, as well, get killed and die off. That they’re simply going to be left with only one mission, and their one mission of the oppressors, the one mission of the Second Amendment rights haters, will be to repeal the Second Amendment. And that’s where a fight’s going to end up. A fight over the oppressors trying to remove the Second Amendment. Of course, they’ll push this through their socialist, communist political movement. Remember, they want to make all kinds of institutional, governmental, radical changes, including getting rid of the Senate, including ending the nine-person Supreme Court and expanding it, getting rid of the presidency being elected where it’s an appointed, et cetera, and going at all different constitutional rights and turning America into a communist nation, and in so doing, they will also push. And Teddy, I think they even are saying, even now, to get rid of the Second Amendment. And you’ll see them joining hands. You’ll see the anti-Second Amendment rights folks joining hands with the Communists, with the DSA, the Democrat Socialist Wing, as the Democrat Party in its civil war implodes over the monster that the Democrats have created themselves. This is their Frankenstein that is now running loose on them. Teddy Nappen 23:27 Yeah, and quite frankly, just going back to them where they have pushed and pushed and pushed, where they said we don’t. They and there was a great video where this guy was basically trying to argue the socialist dilemma of the Second Amendment because it’s that catch 22 where they want to ban arms but they need arms for the revolution. For their great, you know, seize the means of production, but they cannot because they still push for red flag. They still push for universal background checks. Evan Nappen 23:58 Teddy, it’s like the meme with the guy sweating as to which button to push, you know. Ban guns so that you get, you know, so they could disarm the populace, or don’t ban so that their radical, violent Left can have access to firearms. Right? You know, they’re conflicted over that choice. Yeah. But regardless of what politics may lay in the future, right now the wins in court and legislatively. Okay. Remember, this is a combination. The reconciliation bill, etc. That’s all an important legislative changes that open the door to the ability to win on the front of the NFA tax attack and the big beautiful lawsuit. We are making tremendous gains and wins. And it is absolutely a reason to be optimistic. Page – 7 – of 12 Evan Nappen 25:03 I’m looking forward to seeing the decision in Koons and Siegel cases. Those that’s the case that addresses New Jersey’s sensitive places. We’re waiting for that same full en banc panel of the Third Circuit. Now, this is the same court that just killed New Jersey’s assault firearm and magazine law. That same court will be rendering an opinion over the constitutional validity of New Jersey’s sensitive places in the very near future. We’re going to see it. We’re just a matter, any day they can come out with that decision. Keep in mind, it’s going to be very important in countering and destroying the Carry Killer bill that Murphy and company got enacted. They did it. How? They did it because of their hissy fit to the Bruen decision, mandating carry permits get issued. So, they tried to make it so that this insane matrix of sensitive places makes it so incredibly difficult to actually exercise that right. is same court that gave us this fantastic pro-Second Amendment decision will be coming out with the sensitive places decision shortly. I’m cautiously optimistic about that. Keep in mind that the vote of the judges on the assault firearm magazine case. That was a panel of 15 judges, and the vote was 10 on our side, and five against us. So, it was 15 judges. One of the judges that opted to stay in was a judge that had been on a temporary assignment in, and that judge was a known opponent to Second Amendment rights. So, of course he wanted to stay in, and of the votes of the 10 to five ruling, one of the five judges was the anti-Second Amendment judge, but that judge is not part of the decision that will come out of Koons and Siegel. Therefore, it’s a 14-judge panel. And if we see the same voting as occurred on assault firearms and magazines, we should see a 10 to 4 ruling. Keeping our fingers crossed here in favor of knocking out New Jersey’s sensitive places, which would be really fantastic. And so, hang in there, folks. We’ve suffered a long time, but our suffering is slowly but surely being relieved. Evan Nappen 28:18 Hey, let me tell you about our good friends at WeShoot. WeShoot has some pretty cool offers and things happening. They’re offering the Bull Armory Ultralight Pro, and Bull is proudly recognized as North Jersey Friends of NRA Gun of the year for 2026. It’s lightweight. It’s exceptionally accurate, and it’s built for everyday carry. The pistol earned its title through outstanding performance, craftsmanship, and innovation. You can check out that Bull Armory Ultralight Pro at WeShoot. WeShoot is also offering Hornaday Critical Defense ammunition. Now, you know, Critical Defense and that Hornaday line of Critical Duty, as well, is one of the most trusted names in personal protection. That round is designed and engineered for reliable expansion, and dependable feeding, and confidence when it essentially matters most. And let me tell you, the Hornaday Critical Defense and Critical Duty, those are polymer-tipped rounds that perform arguably even better than hollow nose. But are not hollow nose bullets under New Jersey law because the nose is actually not hollow. It’s got an insert filling the hole. So, because of that, it is an ideal round for carry in New Jersey. You can’t carry, at the moment, actual hollow nose, but you can carry Critical Defense or Critical Duty. And frankly, it’s got advantages over hollow nose. Evan Nappen 30:12 Not just because it performs as well or better, but also because of the nose having the polymer plug. It actually feeds even more reliably than hollow nose. So, it’s actually far superior, at least in these terms, to your normal hollow nose ammunition. So, check out Critical Defense at WeShoot. Also, WeShoot has the Ruger Mini-14 Ranch rifle. Now that Mini 14, that’s an American classic. It’s earned its reputation through decades of proven reliability, versatility, and timeless styling. And let me tell you Page – 8 – of 12 about the Ruger. The new Rugers are incredibly accurate. You know the old Ruger with the pencil barrels-they were called pencil barrels. They weren’t known for their accuracy. hey functioned well and sure looked cool when the A-team had them rolling, right? But accuracy-wise, not so much. However, the new Rugers are extremely accurate. The barrel is thickened toward the base, and it is a redesign that gives incredible tack driving accuracy to the new Ruger Mini-14s. The Ranch rifle will be able to deliver for you, and of course, it’s set so you can not only have the scope rings, the classic Ruger scope rings, but even a Picatinny rail that fits in where you could put the rings, and then you could Picatinny it up to whatever optics you like as well. So, Ruger has come a long way, and the new Mini-14 is something you need to check out. I really do love the new Mini. I have one myself and greatly appreciated having had the old ones as well. So, you can get yours at WeShoot. Weshootusa.com is their website. Evan Nappen 32:26 I want to also remind you that if you want to get a New Jersey carry permit, you really should get it. Join our ranks of 100,000 or more here of permitted carry holders. The more folks we get with carries, the closer we get to constitutional carry. So, make sure you’re part of that. You can get your CCARE certification from WeShoot. They have all the great training there. It’s a fantastic facility. It’s a wonderful resource, conveniently off the Parkway in Lakewood, New Jersey. So, make sure you stop by and check out their website as well. weshootusa.com. You’ll be glad you did. Evan Nappen 33:10 Let me also shamelessly plug my book, New Jersey Gun Law. The Bible of Jersey Gun Law. You need to have it. It’s over 500 pages, 120 topics, all question and answer, so that you don’t become a GOFU. Make sure you have that book. Go to EvanNappen.com. You’ll see the big orange cover right there. Click it, and you’ll have it in a matter of days. Go to EvanNappen.com to get your New Jersey Gun Law book. Hey, Teddy, what do you have for us today in Press Checks? Teddy Nappen 33:48 Well, as you know, Press Checks are always free, and I imagine you’ve caught all about the In and Out shooting. What happened there? Evan Nappen 33:59 Well, maybe our listeners aren’t aware of that. would be surprised, but they may not know there was a major shooting that took place at, at and outside of and around this In / Out Burger in Idaho. Hey, I don’t know if any of you’ve ever eaten at In / Out Burger. It’s a West Coast thing. I really do love In / Out Burger. Just a side note, by the way, guys. But anyway, I digress. So, I could have well seen myself ending up at In / Out Burger in Idaho if I was out there. And Teddy Nappen 34:33 Isn’t there mustard on the burger that they do? Evan Nappen 34:35 No, no, that’s Whataburger. Another great burger chain. Oh, listen, we’re gonna have to call this the Burger Show shortly, instead of the burger lawyer, hamburger lawyer. Page – 9 – of 12 Teddy Nappen 34:44 What’s the best at In / Out? Evan Nappen 34:47 I like to get you know they have the secret menu and all that. I get the protein wrap where they take their In / Out Burger and they wrap it in lettuce. You know, I’ve lost over 200 pounds, and I avoid the carbs. I love the lettuce wrap, the protein. They call them the protein wrap. They wrap their In / Out burgers strictly in lettuce, so you have no carbs, and they’re delicious in-out burgers. So, that’s my favorite. But their stuff is really delicious. However, on this particular occasion, it was not so good. We had a bad guy going there with a gun and decided he was going to shoot up the place. And lo and behold, what happened, Teddy? What happened? A fellow by the name of Jordan Salinas. Go ahead. Teddy Nappen 35:35 Yes, good guy with a gun. Jordan Salinas, where he was with his girlfriend, and they had planned a quiet Saturday. You know, going horseback riding, so and you know, going out for a nice lunch in Twin Falls. And as the gunman Chad Williams has been identified, who was shooting up the In-N-Out, Jordan drew his holstered FN five seven semi-auto pistol with a suppressor to fire back and save the people inside. (https://www.ammoland.com/2026/08/armed-citizen-used-a-suppressed-pistol-to-save-lives-at-twin-falls-in-n-out/) Evan Nappen 36:10 Okay, so first of all, that gun standard has a 20 round magazine, and it’s readily available to have a 30-round mag, so that gun with its standard capacity magazine, you would you would up until the recent case, and even though there’s a stay at the moment, you still can’t have that handgun with the standard capacity magazine. But I’m confident we will be able to. So, you couldn’t have that gun in New Jersey unless you had a lame 10-round magazine in it. Which what’s the point when you have an FN five seven that can hold 20 or even 30 of the five seven ammo? And then his gun has a silencer or suppressor on it, which is just great. Again, that is prohibited in New Jersey because New Jersey doesn’t allow silencers at all. So, here we have this crime being committed by this Chad fellow, and lo and behold, the hero, the good guy with the gun, breaks out his five seven with the suppressor and starts laying down fire on the bad guy. It was fantastic, and he was credited, wasn’t he, by law enforcement with saving lives, Who’s Crowder? Teddy Nappen 39:28 Stephen Crowder, Gladworth Crowder. He did a full breakdown on it, where it’s about training, where you just do enough to where you can handle yourself in a situation. And what Evan Nappen 39:36 did he? What did he say hasn’t been? Page – 10 – of 12 Teddy Nappen 39:39 So the one thing that caught is the fact that he’s has a suppressor attached to it, and it was identified in one of his other videos as he uses an FN five seven USG fitted Tactical Solutions Axiom suppressor, firing Vanguard 55 grain subsonic five sevens. Evan Nappen 40:00 Nice. Teddy Nappen 40:00 That was I so that may not now they may not be his exact rig at that moment, but that was what was reported to what he was practicing with. But that being said, this is one to one of what he was using in the and so Evan Nappen 40:12 you know when you step back, Teddy, and look at this. Normally, when there is some bad guy shooting up soft target area, the antis just cheer because they get to do a blood dance to try to attack and oppress gun rights, because it’s the old saying of they never let a tragedy go to waste. However, here the entire thing was turned on its ear because we had an armed civilian who saved lives and did it with a 20 to 30 round capacity handgun with a suppressor, okay, and so this completely turned around this incident to be one of the greatest current examples of why citizens need to be armed and ready and trained, and so the antis can’t even respond because in their normal blood dance that they like to do, it just always goes back to well. Look, we had a good guy with a gun make the difference. That’s the key, and it’s so important, so great that Jordan Salinas was there to save the folks that he did. He rendered aid even to the injured after. He’s just a great person as well. It was amazing to see this, that, and it so turned it around that I’m going to put on my conspiracy hat the way we sometimes see happen with the shootings that they use to go against our gun rights, I’m going to put my conspiracy hat on and say I think this, given how the outcome was, that this was a false flag operation run by us, because it’s had such tremendous-I’m just kidding about that. Of course, it’s not run by us. We, but you know, yeah, Candace Owens might run with it. Oh yeah, it was-it was the pro-gun side that engineered the entire thing. To no, but the thing is, the impact has been tremendous, and it’s now iconic of Jordan Salinas in his position. It’s like as iconic as Sophie Cunningham pointing is Jordan Salinas in his perfect firing position with his suppressed five seven. Seeing Teddy Nappen 42:57 the I’ve been seeing the citizen cowboy joke that’s been circling. Oh yeah, Evan Nappen 43:02 as compared to Citizen Vigilante, it’s now Citizen Cowboy. Teddy Nappen 43:06 Yeah, Citizen Cowboy because he has. But he’s Citizen Page – 11 – of 12 Evan Nappen 43:09 Defender. He’s not a vigilante. He’s a defender. He’s a defender at the moment. Being a man, imagine that being a man. Actually, is that your greatest example of so-called toxic masculinity, right there, called saving lives. I guess so. The Teddy Nappen 43:25 the other thing is, and I want to take this step further. I see where we win in the argument of common use. I want this to be a common thing where people are using suppressors in self-defense shootings. I want people to start carrying and doing that. I think there’s a lot of advantages to Evan Nappen 43:44 having them in self-defense shootings because Teddy Nappen 43:46 if you go back to the old where it was like we’re using 45 for the stopping power or nine, this guy had a five-seven with the suppressor. We were putting out more rounds, and you’re protecting your hearing on that. So it’s definitely that new frame. It’s a very interesting Evan Nappen 44:01 choice, and I’m sure on the technical side, people will can always debate what’s the best. But the bottom line is, well, someone Teddy Nappen 44:09 was going to say like, but look, what’s really the best Evan Nappen 44:11 is that a good guy with a gun helped save the day, and that’s what really matters. Evan Nappen 44:17 And Teddy, I need to tell you about this week’s GOFU because I’ve been seeing a lot of it. GOFUs, as you know, are Gun Owner Fuck Ups. It’s where gun owners make expensive mistakes, costly mistakes, and you get to learn for free. I got to tell you, this week’s GOFU something I see. You know, when it comes to restoring rights, when it comes to getting an expungement, I have to say, do not do it yourself. Seek professionals that know how to do it. I’ve been getting more poorly, improperly done pro se, where the individual themselves tried to expunge their record. There’s too much to that law. Too many complications. Too many nuances. Too many things you have to know to do it right. And when you do it wrong, it’s 10 times more difficult to fix it, and it can end up costing you. If you expunge poorly, and then you apply to get your firearm because you think your rights are restored and they’re not, you end up with a denial. Now you end up with falsification of the application because you wrote no when you should have wrote yes. You wrote no because you thought you were expunged, but you didn’t do it properly. We see this all the time. There is an entire procedure. There are things you need to know. You need to go to a professional. Whether, you know, and I just don’t mean me. Like some attorney. We do them at my firm. We do plenty of expungements. We help people with that. It’s great. But you need to make sure whoever is doing your expungement really understands it, and especially does it Page – 12 – of 12 with gun ownership in mind. Because when it’s done poorly, it can absolutely come back and bite you in the behind. Evan Nappen 45:54 Hey, this is Evan Nappen and Teddy Nappen, reminding you that gun laws don’t protect honest citizens from criminals. They protect criminals from honest citizens. Speaker 2 46:01 Gun Lawyer is a CounterThink Media production. The music used in this broadcast was managed by Cosmo Music, New York, New York. Reach us by emailing Evan@gun.lawyer. The information and opinions in this broadcast do not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney in your state. Downloadable PDF TranscriptGun Lawyer S5 E302_Transcript About The HostEvan Nappen, Esq.Known as “America's Gun Lawyer,” Evan Nappen is above all a tireless defender of justice. Author of eight bestselling books and countless articles on firearms, knives, and weapons history and the law, a certified Firearms Instructor, and avid weapons collector and historian with a vast collection that spans almost five decades — it's no wonder he's become the trusted, go-to expert for local, industry and national media outlets. Regularly called on by radio, television and online news media for his commentary and expertise on breaking news Evan has appeared countless shows including Fox News – Judge Jeanine, CNN – Lou Dobbs, Court TV, Real Talk on WOR, It's Your Call with Lyn Doyle, Tom Gresham's Gun Talk, and Cam & Company/NRA News. As a creative arts consultant, he also lends his weapons law and historical expertise to an elite, discerning cadre of movie and television producers and directors, and novelists. He also provides expert testimony and consultations for defense attorneys across America. Email Evan Your Comments and Questions  talkback@gun.lawyer Join Evan's InnerCircleHere's your chance to join an elite group of the Savviest gun and knife owners in America.  Membership is totally FREE and Strictly CONFIDENTIAL.  Just enter your email to start receiving insider news, tips, and other valuable membership benefits.   Email (required) *First Name *Select list(s) to subscribe toInnerCircle Membership Yes, I would like to receive emails from Gun Lawyer Podcast. (You can unsubscribe anytime)Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.var ajaxurl = "https://gun.lawyer/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php";

Adam Finnegan didn't set out to write a book about biological warfare. He just wanted his life back. In 2016, a single tick bite launched him into a living hell of dizziness, vertigo, searing headaches, and a fatigue so profound it stole the man he used to be. He walked the halls of modern medicine only to be told he'd be fine in a few weeks, and when he wasn't, that he wasn't sick at all. He was a ghost in his own body, abandoned by the very system designed to heal him.His Lyme disease diagnosis wasn't an ending; it was a terrifying beginning. It was a key that unlocked a door he never knew existed. As he fought for his own health, a single, haunting question drove him: Why? Why was this disease, and the chronic illness it created, such a medical mystery? Why were so many being told they weren't sick?His personal battle for survival became an all-consuming obsession for the truth. This quest led him down a rabbit hole of classified history, to a German virologist named Dr. Erich Traub and the top-secret labs of Plum Island. In a Herculean effort no other researcher had undertaken, Finnegan, fighting his own debilitating symptoms, collected and translated Traub's entire archive of German research. He discovered the scientist's chilling work on "immune tolerance” the very mechanism that allows a pathogen to hijack the body and create chronic illness, turning it into a "Great Imitator" that evades diagnosis.The Sleeper Agent: The Rise of Lyme Disease, Chronic Illness, and the Great Imitator Antigens of Biological Warfare was born from a seven-year battle for survival. It is the direct result of one man's refusal to accept his fate. This isn't just a book; it's a roadmap of his personal investigation, a journey that began with his own symptoms and ended with a staggering revelation: the science behind his suffering may have been engineered in a laboratory as a weapon of war.Finnegan turned his personal pain into a relentless pursuit of the facts, meticulously documenting his findings with official records, declassified documents, and the testimony of intelligence insiders. This is the story of how a man fighting a disease in his own blood uncovered a biological secret hidden in the shadows of history. His fight is your fight, and his discovery is a revelation that could change everything we thought we knew about chronic illness.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

There's been a flurry of policy announcements in Andy Burnham's first week as PM - but there is something more significant in the words he has been using to describe his mission. He's talked about reversing forty years of neoliberalism, about re-industrialising Britain, ending trickle down economics - fundamentally reshaping the British State and its driving purpose.He promised, on the steps of Downing Street, to be a "circuit breaker", delivering the biggest change to the country since Thatcher. It's big talk - and the stakes are high. But how can he put that into action? How can he demonstrate this new form of politics? What even is the neoliberalism he is trying to wind back anyway?Neal Lawson has been an influential Labour thinker, advisor, and campaigner for decades. He knows Burnham well - he is one of the driving forces behind 'Manchesterism' - and heads the left wing ideas factory Compass. He came into the News Agents studio to discuss just the Herculean task facing Andy Burnham - and what Britain might look like if he succeeds.The News Agents is a Global Production.The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

We're proud to welcome Allen Eyles, author of 1966's The Marx Brothers: Their World of Comedy—the first book to seriously analyze the team's output—and its successor, 1992's The Complete Films of the Marx Brothers, for his first-ever podcast on these landmark works. The conversation ranges from Eyles' favourite (see what we did there) British comedians to his accidental status as the world's foremost authority on the missing Horse Feathers footage. Along the way, he recalls the Herculean efforts needed to study Marx films in the pre home-video era, and reflects on his evolving opinions of the Brothers' filmography.

Eng v NZ Daily 2026, 2nd Test, Oval, Day 5: England needed a miracle performance without their miracle man. Realistically, any of the three sessions or near 300 runs required were going to take Herculean efforts against the Kiwis high-quality attack, and it was their leader, Matt Henry, who took the best figures for a New Zealander against England. The post-mortems will be wide-ranging. Does Brendan McCullum have one Test to save his job? Ben Jones joins Daniel Norcross. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/thefinalword⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and win a signed copy of Wisden, or a case of Stomping Ground: browse their range at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠stompingground.beer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Welcome back Step One! Get 15% off with code FINALWORD15: ⁠⁠⁠⁠uk.stepone.life⁠⁠⁠⁠ Experience England's cricket tour of South Africa 2026/27 LIVE with Gullivers Sports Travel. Find out more and book at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gulliverstravel.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Check out the Lord's Performance Centre for School Holiday activities and courses: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lords.org/lords/performancecentre⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Stop snoring with 10% off a Zeus device: use code TFW2026 at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠zeussleeps.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get your This is W̶o̶m̶e̶n̶'̶s̶ Cricket t-shirt here, and learn about Lacuna Sports bespoke cricket wear, created by women for women:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lacunasports.co.uk/en/shop/limited-edition/world-cup-t-shirt/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get your big NordVPN discount: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nordvpn.com/tfw⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or 10% off ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Duncan Fearnley ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠bats and kit with code TFW10 or 15% off Step One clothes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠uk.stepone.life/discount/TFW148⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or 10% off BIG Boots UK boots and socks at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠bigboots.co.uk/?ref=thefinalword⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find previous episodes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠finalwordcricket.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Title track by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Urthboy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Having recently returned from a trip to Capri, we were once again reminded why it's so popular. Yes, it's touristy, and yes, finding authenticity in Capri can feel like a Herculean effort. But at the end of the day, it's one of the most beautiful places in Italy, not only for its views, but also for its nature and (believe it or not!) tranquility.In this episode we discuss getting there, getting around the island (including getting to Anacapri), and the general vibe of the island. You can join our Patreon for free! Want a shout out on the podcast? Check out our paid tiers. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/cw/theitalytravelpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠For articles written by us about Italy, check out our website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠onlyabag.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠If you'd like to support us by using affiliate links, but don't have the time to hunt them down, we have put them all in one place! Head over to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.onlyabag.com/affiliate-links⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and you can see all of the companies we have partnerships with and you can use them to support Only A Bag (which we deeply appreciate). Thanks for listening! xDarcy and Nathaniel

Soumil Arora and Kunal Shah discuss the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix where Andrea Kimi Antonelli won for the first time, while also scoring his 5th consecutive race win. Lewis Hamilton, in company of his love interest Kim Kardashian, conquered hearts and Charles Leclerc, as he finished 2nd in Monaco. Isack Hadjar claimed his first podium for Red Bull Racing, while Pierre Gasly, who crossed the line in 3rd place, lost the podium due to a series of time penalties. Most of us watch F1 for firecrackers, not just tire management. But the Monaco GP? It's a slow burn that somehow managed to deliver chaos, penalties, and surprises—without much overtaking. If you think Monaco is just a pretty track and a fancy casino, think again. Kimi Antonelli's jaw-dropping mastery and the puzzling penalties for guys like Gasly and Russell are rewriting the rules of racing drama. This episode is your ticket inside the legendary Monaco madness. You'll discover how Antonelli's relentless streak puts Lewis Hamilton in the rearview mirror, and why Monaco's impossible-to-pass layout makes leading all laps a Herculean feat—a feat Antonelli just pulled off in style. We break down the wild penalty saga that turned Piastri into an accidental hero, the mysterious 0.1 km/h over rule that robbed Gasly of a potential podium, and the ongoing duel between Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari that's shaping up for the long haul. Why does all of this matter? Because if you thought F1 was predictable, Monaco just wiped the smug grin off your face. This episode is perfect for die-hard fans craving behind-the-scenes chaos, or anyone who loves a good underdog story—like Antonelli, the teenage phenom with a future so bright, it's blinding. Get ready for race stories that sound like script drafts—except they're real, and they're spectacular. And stay tuned: with Red Bull's upcoming upgrades, fierce title fights, and the legends of the sport giving us more than just horsepower—this season isn't over yet. Spoiler: it's about to get even more exhilarating. Ready for a wild ride through scandal, strategy, and speed? Hit play now—because Monaco's madness is only just beginning. Chapter markers: 00:00 Introduction to Monaco Madness 05:12 Kimi Antonelli's Mastery 12:45 Penalty Drama Unfolds 20:30 Piastri's Accidental Heroics 28:15 The 0.1 km/h Controversy 35:40 Red Bull vs. Mercedes vs. Ferrari 42:55 Future of F1: Upgrades and Battles 50:10 Conclusion: The Unpredictable Season #F1 #F1Podcast #MonacoGP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pam Bondi told House Oversight lawmakers that Todd Blanche, who served as her deputy at the Justice Department and whom Donald Trump plans to nominate as attorney general, was “in charge” of the DOJ's handling and release of the Epstein files. Bondi said she did not personally conduct the document review and had delegated oversight of the process to Blanche, even as she defended the department's broader handling of the records. Her testimony came amid continued criticism from lawmakers and survivors over redactions, disclosure mistakes, and the department's compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Bondi acknowledged that there had been redaction errors, but insisted the department had been committed to accountability and transparency.The testimony also showed Bondi trying to walk a narrow line: distancing herself from the operational mistakes while denying that she was blaming Blanche. She praised him as ethical and described the review as a “Herculean task,” but the transcript backed up Democratic lawmakers' claim that she repeatedly pointed to Blanche as the person managing the release. Bondi also said she learned about Ghislaine Maxwell's controversial prison transfer from news reports and had nothing to do with it, rejected the idea of a Maxwell pardon, and refused to discuss private conversations with Trump. Afterward, Democrats urged House Oversight Chair James Comer to bring in Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel for questioning as the Epstein files fight continued to widen.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Pam Bondi claims Todd Blanche was ‘in charge' of ‘entire release' of Epstein files | Pam Bondi | The Guardian

Pam Bondi told House Oversight lawmakers that Todd Blanche, who served as her deputy at the Justice Department and whom Donald Trump plans to nominate as attorney general, was “in charge” of the DOJ's handling and release of the Epstein files. Bondi said she did not personally conduct the document review and had delegated oversight of the process to Blanche, even as she defended the department's broader handling of the records. Her testimony came amid continued criticism from lawmakers and survivors over redactions, disclosure mistakes, and the department's compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Bondi acknowledged that there had been redaction errors, but insisted the department had been committed to accountability and transparency.The testimony also showed Bondi trying to walk a narrow line: distancing herself from the operational mistakes while denying that she was blaming Blanche. She praised him as ethical and described the review as a “Herculean task,” but the transcript backed up Democratic lawmakers' claim that she repeatedly pointed to Blanche as the person managing the release. Bondi also said she learned about Ghislaine Maxwell's controversial prison transfer from news reports and had nothing to do with it, rejected the idea of a Maxwell pardon, and refused to discuss private conversations with Trump. Afterward, Democrats urged House Oversight Chair James Comer to bring in Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel for questioning as the Epstein files fight continued to widen.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Pam Bondi claims Todd Blanche was ‘in charge' of ‘entire release' of Epstein files | Pam Bondi | The GuardianBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-moscow-murders-and-more--5852883/support.

Pam Bondi told House Oversight lawmakers that Todd Blanche, who served as her deputy at the Justice Department and whom Donald Trump plans to nominate as attorney general, was “in charge” of the DOJ's handling and release of the Epstein files. Bondi said she did not personally conduct the document review and had delegated oversight of the process to Blanche, even as she defended the department's broader handling of the records. Her testimony came amid continued criticism from lawmakers and survivors over redactions, disclosure mistakes, and the department's compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Bondi acknowledged that there had been redaction errors, but insisted the department had been committed to accountability and transparency.The testimony also showed Bondi trying to walk a narrow line: distancing herself from the operational mistakes while denying that she was blaming Blanche. She praised him as ethical and described the review as a “Herculean task,” but the transcript backed up Democratic lawmakers' claim that she repeatedly pointed to Blanche as the person managing the release. Bondi also said she learned about Ghislaine Maxwell's controversial prison transfer from news reports and had nothing to do with it, rejected the idea of a Maxwell pardon, and refused to discuss private conversations with Trump. Afterward, Democrats urged House Oversight Chair James Comer to bring in Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel for questioning as the Epstein files fight continued to widen.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Pam Bondi claims Todd Blanche was ‘in charge' of ‘entire release' of Epstein files | Pam Bondi | The GuardianBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

Adam's youngest son, John, locked himself in the bathroom. No big deal — kid's fine, sang songs in there for forty-five minutes like a champ. The problem was the doorknob. Broken cam, broken spring, faceplate screws on the wrong side, and no way in. So Adam did what any father of six at the end of a long day does: he took an angle grinder to the thing and ground the entire doorknob into a pile of metal shards on the floor. Dave's suggestion — order the door open under holy obedience — came in a little too late.Then Dave told on himself. Reseating a toilet, scraping the wax ring, already in a state of borderline rage. He bumped the tank against the tile and cracked it. In a fit of Herculean fury he hoisted the seat over his head, ready to Hulk-smash it into a million pieces — and heard, somewhere, his guardian angel. Jesus doesn't want you to do this. He set it down. Didn't destroy it. And got rewarded for it: American Standard honored a lifetime warranty he didn't know he had and shipped him a $1,600 toilet, free, to replace the $200 one he broke. Resisting the rage paid out at eight to one.Then a quieter note. Baby Mary is still in the NICU. They got her off the breathing tube — she lasted about 24 hours before she had to be re-intubated. Good progress, long road still ahead. Oklahoma City's two hours off, the kids are out of school, and the Minihans are looking at hiring a nanny. But Adam wanted to brag on Lady Haylee. A stranger at the NICU left her a handwritten note and a crochet sweater with Mary's name on it — telling Haylee her faith had been an encouragement, that God is using her right there in that place. Haylee wasn't trying to be a witness. She was just being a mother in a hard place. That's exactly why it landed. Keep praying for Mary.This week's pour: Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered Straight Bourbon from Nevada H&C Distilling out of Las Vegas. 59.29% ABV — hand-written on the bottle, so every batch runs a little different. Hot, full-flavored, plenty of grit. Jim's yummy scale gave it a 6.0, which broke the scale, because the scale apparently only went to four until tonight.Then the real work. The spiritual significance of manual labor. Summer's coming — the season of labor — and the guys make the case that work isn't a curse of the fall. Adam was tending the garden before sin entered the world. His very name comes from the dirt — adamah — made from it, named for it, made to work it. St. Augustine: what's more wonderful than to watch God's creation respond to human hands? Aquinas gives his four reasons for manual labor — obtain your livelihood, remove idleness, curb concupiscence ("I'm almost too tired to sin"), and give alms from the surplus. And the deeper distinction: servile work, done out of necessity, and liberal work, done for the sake of rest. We don't work to work. We work so we can look at what we've made, see that it is good, and rest. Same thing a man does in the soil, he does for his wife — order the environment so the thing entrusted to him can thrive. Protect, provide, establish.It's hard. It's supposed to be. What did you think hard was going to be? The man who can fix things is a threat to the throwaway culture — and the same will that fixes a thing is the will that prays the rosary on the morning you'd rather not. Raise your glass.TOPICS COVEREDAdam grinding his kid's bathroom doorknob into shards with an angle grinder after his son John got locked inDave nearly Hulk-smashing a toilet seat in a fit of rage — and the guardian angel that stopped himHow resisting the rage earned Dave a free $1,600 American Standard toilet under a lifetime warrantyBaby Mary update — off the breathing tube for 24 hours, re-intubated, long road still aheadThe Minihans looking at hiring a full-time nanny with the kids out of schoolThe handwritten note and crochet sweater a stranger left Lady Haylee at the NICUHow you carry suffering as a Christian can be a witness even when you're not trying to be oneBourbon of the week: Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered Straight Bourbon, Nevada H&C Distilling, 59.29% ABVJim's yummy scale hitting 6.0 and breaking its own four-point ceilingWhy we even have to talk about manual labor when it used to be everybody's daily lifeAttention as agency — guarding what you direct your mind toward in a world built to fracture itAcedia, apathy, and becoming a cog flung to and fro like Francesca in Dante's ninth circle"The world fears the man who can fix things" — Fr. Mori of Clear Creek AbbeyThrowaway culture and why things are programmed now instead of built to be repairedAdam's M6 Marketing memo on "character without exception" — work and life are one line, not twoManual labor in Genesis — Adam tending the garden before the fall, not afterAdamah — why the first man was made from dirt, named for dirt, and made to work itSt. Augustine on God's creation responding to human handsAquinas's four necessities of manual labor: livelihood, removing idleness, curbing concupiscence, giving alms"I'm almost too tired to sin" — why a hard day's work curbs temptationServile work vs. liberal work — laboring out of necessity vs. laboring for the sake of restJosef Pieper and the Catholic mind: we work so that we can restWhy hard is supposed to be hard, and how it trains the willChoosing to pray the rosary on the morning you've already decided you won'tSelf-sacrificial love — doing the dishes when you don't want to, because she shouldn't have toPrayer as both work and rest — peace as the tranquility of order in this life, rest in the nextWhy unstructured, leisurely time is where the desire to write, paint, and create actually surfacesPassing the habit of manual labor — and the courage to fix things — down to your kids"It's not about the nail" — the philosophy of life behind refusing to just throw things awayREFERENCED IN THIS EPISODEBooks & Writings:In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity by Josef PieperLeisure, the Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper (Pieper's broader work on work and rest)Adam's Substack, The Grounded Builder — recent article on five overlooked books worth readingThe Book of Genesis (the creation and naming of Adam; the call to tend the garden)Dante's Inferno (the ninth circle; Francesca in the second circle, flung to and fro)Shakespeare's As You Like It (staged locally by the Sheard family and other homeschool families)Saints & Historical Figures:St. Thomas Aquinas (the four necessities of manual labor; servile vs. liberal work)St. Augustine ("what is more wonderful than to observe the workings of nature...")Adam (the first man — adamah, made from and for the dirt)People:Adam Minihan (host; founder of M6 Marketing; writes The Grounded Builder on Substack)Dave Niles (host)Jim (in studio — keeper of the yummy scale; shipping Patreon gifts; prays with Hallow)Fr. Mori of Clear Creek Abbey ("the world fears the man who can fix things")Brandon Sheard (quoted the same line; the Sheard family staged the Shakespeare production)Dan (Dave's father-in-law — never trusted a man who works with music on in the background)Josef Pieper ("the peepster" — Adam's favorite German philosopher)Bob Ross (Dave's aspirational painting instructor)Lady Haylee MinihanLady Pamela NilesPrograms & Institutions:Clear Creek AbbeyHallow (prayer app — Jim uses it; not a sponsor)M6 Marketing (Adam's company)SPONSOR BLOCKSponsor: Select International Tours — selectinternationaltours.comWhen Adam and Dave decided to lead their first pilgrimage, one name kept coming up: Select International Tours. They're the best. Having used them, the guys can vouch for it. Wherever in the world you want to go, Select has a tour ready. Whether you're looking to lead a pilgrimage or attend one, head to selectinternationaltours.com and see everything they offer. You won't regret it.Support the show: patreon.com/thecatholicmanshow — Patreon gifts are shipping out again, and the Catholic Man Show Glencairn glass is being paused soon (maybe back around Christmas). If you want one, become a patron now — you've got about four minutes.

Ken and Lima react to the Cleveland Cavaliers' dominant Game 7 victory over the Pistons to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. They break down the Herculean efforts of Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen while discussing the strategic role of James Harden in the playoffs. The discussion also shifts to Kenny Atkinson's leadership and his anecdote about a pre-game dinner with owner Dan Gilbert.

In the days of yore, clothes were scrubbed with soap, brushes, and sheer elbow grease. But today, laundry detergents have revolutionized the way we clean our garments. These modern marvels remove stains without requiring Herculean effort. But navigating the overwhelming array of choices in the detergent aisle can be overwhelming.  The French consumer magazine 60 millions de consommateurs carried out an extensive study in February 2020 to answer just this question. They scrutinized 25 different washing powder brands. Their evaluation criteria included chemical risk, environmental impact, health considerations, washing efficiency, and color preservation. There's so much choice how do you sort through it all? What were the results? Should you  make your own washing to avoid chemicals? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: ⁠⁠⁠What threat does the Year 2038 problem pose to our computers?⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Which foods shouldn't be eaten together?⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠What is social jet lag?⁠⁠⁠ A podcast written and realised by Amber Minogue. First Broadcast: 13/5/2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Turns out, the truth leads to a very complex set of circumstances. In order to prove Vaeolin's innocence of the regicide, the party needs evidence. And to top it off, Finavir has been tasked with accomplishing this Herculean deed. But with the prime suspect's own account describing a lapse in memory, it seems he might be doomed to keep the title of King Slayer.Support Us:Please consider contributing to the production of the podcast.Patreon: https://patreon.com/missingrollplayerfoundAbout:The Gate Chronicles (aka TGC) is an actual play RPG run in the Pathfinder RPG system. It is the second series running concurrently with Sword Art Online: AOD.Contact Us:Email: info@missingrollplayerfound.comFollow Us:Website: https://missingrollplayerfound.com/Linktree: https://linktr.ee/rollfoundMusic Attribution: Epidemic Sounds (Jakub Pietras - Heirloom,, G-Yerro - The Treasure Hunt)Michael Ghelfi Studios (A Friendly Wager, Broken Lutes & Rusty Daggers, There's A New Bard in Town)Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfiMonument Studios (Arendelle, Hybrid Ambience, General Tavern B, Town Tavern C)Link: https://www.monumentstudios.net/Tabletop RPG Music (Greenwood, Solace)Link: https://www.patreon.com/cw/tabletoprpgmusicOther Music and Sounds by Syrinscape Link: https://syrinscape.com/?att_missing_roll_player_foundBecause Epic Games Need Epic Sounds 

Most of us assume that following God requires something big from us. A dramatic life change. A heroic sacrifice. Some kind of extraordinary effort. But that assumption gets in the way of our relationship with God. God doesn't expect us to be or do something extraordinary to prove we're worthy of following him. God just wants us to follow him.

Most of us assume that following God requires something big from us. A dramatic life change. A heroic sacrifice. Some kind of extraordinary effort. But that assumption gets in the way of our relationship with God. God doesn't expect us to be or do something extraordinary to prove we're worthy of following him. God just wants us to follow him.

Adam Finnegan didn't set out to write a book about biological warfare. He just wanted his life back. In 2016, a single tick bite launched him into a living hell of dizziness, vertigo, searing headaches, and a fatigue so profound it stole the man he used to be. He walked the halls of modern medicine only to be told he'd be fine in a few weeks, and when he wasn't, that he wasn't sick at all. He was a ghost in his own body, abandoned by the very system designed to heal him.His Lyme disease diagnosis wasn't an ending; it was a terrifying beginning. It was a key that unlocked a door he never knew existed. As he fought for his own health, a single, haunting question drove him: Why? Why was this disease, and the chronic illness it created, such a medical mystery? Why were so many being told they weren't sick?His personal battle for survival became an all-consuming obsession for the truth. This quest led him down a rabbit hole of classified history, to a German virologist named Dr. Erich Traub and the top-secret labs of Plum Island. In a Herculean effort no other researcher had undertaken, Finnegan, fighting his own debilitating symptoms, collected and translated Traub's entire archive of German research. He discovered the scientist's chilling work on "immune tolerance” the very mechanism that allows a pathogen to hijack the body and create chronic illness, turning it into a "Great Imitator" that evades diagnosis.The Sleeper Agent: The Rise of Lyme Disease, Chronic Illness, and the Great Imitator Antigens of Biological Warfare was born from a seven-year battle for survival. It is the direct result of one man's refusal to accept his fate. This isn't just a book; it's a roadmap of his personal investigation, a journey that began with his own symptoms and ended with a staggering revelation: the science behind his suffering may have been engineered in a laboratory as a weapon of war.Finnegan turned his personal pain into a relentless pursuit of the facts, meticulously documenting his findings with official records, declassified documents, and the testimony of intelligence insiders. This is the story of how a man fighting a disease in his own blood uncovered a biological secret hidden in the shadows of history. His fight is your fight, and his discovery is a revelation that could change everything we thought we knew about chronic illness.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

The Ramble Intercontinental Senate lies in ruin after Jimbabwe destroyed both Donaco and Spelgium. All hope seems lost, but a ray of light has broken through. Is that... the Luke Nation?Marcus is back on his feet, ready to referee a Biddy bout between these two Herculean beasts.Get your Ramble merch HERE.Find us on Bluesky, X, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and email us here: show@footballramble.com.Sign up to the Football Ramble Patreon for ad-free shows for just $5 per month: https://www.patreon.com/footballramble.***Please take the time to rate us on your podcast app. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** The Football Ramble, the original and best football podcast. Brand new podcasts every single weekday throughout the Premier League season and every day throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode, Matt Tamanini is in conversation with lighting designer Jen Schriever, who is taking on the Herculean technical and creative task of lighting what is reportedly the second-most expensive musical in the history of Broadway, “The Lost Boys.” Along with director Michael Arden, Schriever is co-designing this adaptation read more

Quemuel Arroyo is the Chief Accessibility Officer for New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He was previously the Chief Accessibility Specialist at the New York City Department of Transportation. Quemuel has both a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Design and History of Architecture from New York University.

After a historic happening in Frisco this past Saturday the Agenda lads have convened to talk all about FC Dallas 3 San Diego FC 3. Ryan, Garrett, and Steve talk all about Petar Musa's Herculean performance resulting in his second career hat trick with the Burn, a feat no one else has accomplished. They also break down a strategy change for Dallas, discuss Nolan Norris' first start of 2026, and what to take away from Dallas' three game stretch against title contending foes.Then it's interview time and this week Bernard Kamungo joins the program. The Abilene Dream himself talks about his offseason, what he wants to accomplish in 2026, and THAT assist to Musa that helped him cap his triple score evening.To close out the show the lads break down what they found interesting in MLS this past week while also taking a peek at the USMNT roster drop for their March camp with under 100 days to go until the 2026 World Cup. 4:39 FC Dallas-San Diego FC review37:16 Bernard Kamungo interview51:54 The Week in MLS/USMNT roster newsThe FC Dallas Agenda publishes (almost) every Wednesday during the regular season as a part of the FC Dallas Radio Network. The hosts of the FC Dallas Agenda are Ryan Figert, Garrett Melcer, and Steve Davis. The executive producer of the FC Dallas Radio Network is Sam Hale. 

Welcome back to the 275th episode of The Cup which is our a weekly (give or take, TBD, these are unprecedented times) performing arts talk show presented by Cup of Hemlock Theatre. With the theatres on a come back we offer a mix of both reviews of live shows we've seen and continued reviews of prophet productions! For our 275th episode we bring you a Duet Review of he Herald, written and directed by Jill Connel, presented in its world premiere by It Could Still Happen and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Join Mackenzie Horner and Ryan Borochovitz, as they discuss Herculean labours, manosphere argonauts, and the things they've barely retained from theatre school. The Herald is playing at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street, Toronto, ON) until March 14th, 2026. Tickets can be purchased from the following link: https://buddiesinbadtimes.com/show/the-herald/ This review contains many SPOILERS for The Herald. It will begin with a general non-spoiler review until the [19:35] mark, followed by a more in-depth/anything goes/spoiler-rich discussion. If you intend to see the production, we recommend you stop watching after that point, or at least proceed at your own risk. Follow our panelists: Mackenzie Horner (Before the Downbeat: A Musical Podcast) – Instagram/Facebook: BeforetheDownbeatApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3aYbBeNSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3sAbjAu Ryan Borochovitz – [Just send all that love to CoH instead; he won't mind!]; if you enjoy his theatre thoughts, more can be found at https://nextmag.ca/search/borochovitz Follow Cup of Hemlock Theatre on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter: @cohtheatreIf you'd like us to review your upcoming show in Toronto, please send press invites/inquiries to coh.theatre.MM@gmail.com

Bernie Taylor of beforeorion.com rejoins the show to discuss Gobekle Tepe and Ephesus. But, as always with Taylor, he's got a swerve. We're talking Avionoids, whether Artemis was the goddess at “the Temple of Artemis”, what is Anatolia, and more. We talk lions, palm dates, Amazons, Herculean murders, hunter gatherers to agriculturalists, and Hittites! That's just a sampling. Plenty of zodiac and astronomy too. 

In January 2026, nearly a decade after hitting record on their first book episode, The Losers' Club completed their Herculean task. From 1974's 'Carrie' to 2025's 'Never Flinch', the Losers covered each and every title in King's Dominion with expansive book episodes. Now, they're going to do what anybody does when they complete a gargantuan catalogue in pop culture: rank them. Behold, The Definitive Stephen King Book Ranking! In the following months, the Club will countdown King's published novels -- specifically, novels (no collections) -- from worst to best. Today, they begin this journey with their picks for 66 to 59. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to another episode of the Following Films Podcast. Today, we are exploring a project that is equal parts hilarious, bizarre, and incredibly poignant: the animated feature film MARS. This film marks the final project from the legendary cult comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U'Know, serving as a bittersweet and brilliant capstone to the legacy of the late, beloved Trevor Moore. Joining me to discuss the Herculean effort required to bring this vision to the big screen is the film's director and producer, Sevan Najarian. He has been a vital force in the alternative media landscape for years, and in this episode, we trace his fascinating career path, from his early days getting into the director's chair for animation to his involvement with the irreverent and influential world of Channel Zero.We also dive deep into the "scrappy" and often painstaking labor of love that was the production of MARS. Conceptualized over a decade ago, the film follows Kyle, a man who enters a contest to go to the Red Planet mostly to escape his impending wedding, only to find himself stranded with a crew of lunatics on a ship that is anything but luxury. With an 8-city screening tour kicking off February 20th at participating Alamo Drafthouse locations and a wider theatrical release on March 13th, there has never been a better time to celebrate the return of the WKUK. So, let's get into my conversation with Sevan Najarian about the decade-long journey to the Red Planet, the evolution of his career, and why this story is more relevant today than ever before.

In this episode, we hear from Lisa LaBruno and learn about her version of "work/life balance" as she remains a busy industry partner. Over the last year, as the executive director at the RILA Communities Foundation, Lisa has worked to connect local law enforcement, district attorneys, and retailers to achieve focused results against the worst offenders. How are they accomplishing this Herculean task? We hear from Lisa how the RCF has found success and is now replicating its framework in other communities and testing new formats.

Becoming a doctor is a huge accomplishment unto itself, requiring years of study, sacrifice and discipline. But if you're a smart, driven, black Latina it can often feel like a Herculean feat. Dermatologist Dr. Laura Scott and her close cohort of friends created a bond that strengthened and protected them as they navigated and excelled at Harvard University and beyond. Today, under her Instagram handle LauraLacquer, she has a large and growing audience that look to her for inspiration and a little bit of lacquer.Follow Laura on Twitter and IG @laurascottandco. If you loved this episode, listen to Fran Medina and Melissa Alcantara for more on health and influencing. Show your love and become a Latina to Latina Patreon supporter! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chuck Meehan is Chief Creative Officer of Pavone Group and a veteran creative leader with decades of experience shaping iconic, culture-driving campaigns. A four-time Super Bowl creative, Chuck has worked with global brands and top-tier talent to create work that breaks through noise and pressure.Chuck has led creative teams at major agencies and worked on campaigns for brands including General Motors, Hellmann's, McDonald's, Del Taco and Universal Orlando Resort. His Super Bowl work includes back-to-back GM spots featuring Will Ferrell and Mike Myers as Dr. Evil, as well as large-scale brand activations that extended far beyond the broadcast.Big ideas come from interpreting the brief in an unexpected way and connecting dots others don't see.If an idea can't be explained clearly in one sentence, it's not fully formed.Super Bowl advertising is a six-month marathon that requires protecting the idea through intense internal and external pressure.The most successful Super Bowl spots extend beyond the ad itself into brand activations and social storytelling.Celebrity-driven campaigns only work when the talent serves the product and idea, not the other way around.AI should be used to amplify creative thinking, not replace the struggle and reps required to develop great ideas.In-person collaboration plays a critical role in mentoring young creatives and building strong creative culture.Great creative leadership is about creating an environment where people feel safe to take big swings and learn from misses.   QUOTES “The Super Bowl is the coolest thing and it's the most terrifying thing. And what's hard about it is, a lot of them start in August. So if you make it to February, that's six months of your life.” (Chuck)“If you can survive that gauntlet and somehow get to the Super Bowl with a great spot, it's a Herculean feat for sure. It's an amazing thing and it's a bit of a horrible thing at the same time.” (Chuck)“That (GM Dr. Evil) brand activation actually became a bigger story than even the spot in a sense. So yeah, that was a thing where we just didn't stop at the spot.” (Chuck)“By the Monday after the Super Bowl, the whole world's moved on. Brands looked at that and thought that if I'm spending that much money, why don't I release the spot a week ahead of time and get more out of it.” (Chuck)“When it comes to a Super Bowl commercial, you've got to put three-act story in 60 seconds. That's the discipline. When I've worked with people outside advertising, they don't quite get it. It's a very specific art.” (Chuck)“It's good because over the years, as a creative director, ECD, GCD, CCO, I'm constantly critiquing work. I'm constantly critiquing ideas. And most of them don't get past me, which is kind of the drill. The ones that do interpreted the brief in a way I didn't expect.” (Chuck)“I always tell creatives, show me a different way of looking at something. And even when I've judged shows, it's always the stuff that I'm like, how did they get there? Ninety-nine percent of things I can see where they're going.” (Chuck)“If you can tell me it in one sentence, you have an idea. And if you can't explain it, you don't know it.” (Chuck)

A simple reading of Prabhupāda's books brings us into the presence of Prabhupāda. It nourishes us, it maintains us, and it becomes an industry unto itself—that is, people come from all parts of the world just to hear because the experience is unique; just hearing Prabhupāda's voice, reading his books straight through. Oftentimes people think, 'I've already done that. I know what Prabhupāda says.' He says: "sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja," as Rādhikā Ramaṇa Prabhu pointed out one time. Prabhupāda wanted to make sure that in every purport, everyone got the full meal, just in case they only read one purport in their life. But there's something else about Prabhupāda's books which is understandable only when we go into them very deeply, and that is that they're as deep as the ocean. Every time we read, we realize that assimilating what Prabhupāda has given would require a Herculean effort. Another thought along those lines is that Prabhupāda gave a Herculean effort to write the books. It's legendary that he wrote whenever he could, and he said, 'Drops of water wear the stone away.' He sacrificed his sleep in order to translate and commentate during the night time. I thought once while reading that I cannot write like Prabhupāda wrote; I never will. However, at least I can try to put in the same effort reading Prabhupāda's books that he put into writing them. What if I tried to catch up on that level? Since Prabhupāda already said, 'You must also read my books,' it means the potency is there, and that goes for everyone. Assimilating what's in Prabhupāda's books is only realizable for those who try to read all of the books, because once you do, you see that upon completing the Bhāgavatam, you'll realize, 'Oh, I was only able to take away a fraction of this.' So, I'm eager to express enthusiasm that everyone who would like to may make it a lifetime endeavor to read all of Prabhupāda's books. Read them with your friends, read them with your family, and if you get consistent, it's amazing how you'll find that you go through each book miraculously. And what I mean by that is...(14:36) ------------------------------------------------------------ To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=launch2025 ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature collection: https://iskconsv.com/book-store/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=launch2025 https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=launch2025 https://thefourquestionsbook.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=launch2025 ------------------------------------------------------------ Join us live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FanTheSpark/ Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-bhakti/id1132423868 For the latest videos, subscribe https://www.youtube.com/@FanTheSpark For the latest in SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/fan-the-spark ------------------------------------------------------------ #spiritualawakening #soul #spiritualexperience #spiritualpurposeoflife #spiritualgrowthlessons #secretsofspirituality #vaisesikaprabhu #vaisesikadasa #vaisesikaprabhulectures #spirituality #bhaktiyoga #krishna #spiritualpurposeoflife #krishnaspirituality #spiritualusachannel #whybhaktiisimportant #whyspiritualityisimportant #vaisesika #spiritualconnection #thepowerofspiritualstudy #selfrealization #spirituallectures #spiritualstudy #spiritualquestions #spiritualquestionsanswered #trendingspiritualtopics #fanthespark #spiritualpowerofmeditation #spiritualteachersonyoutube #spiritualhabits #spiritualclarity #bhagavadgita #srimadbhagavatam #spiritualbeings #kttvg #keepthetranscendentalvibrationgoing #spiritualpurpose

Social media is time consuming to do well, so maintaining two separate profiles feels like a Herculean task… but is it confusing to use one profile to speak to two separate audiences? Tune in to hear our take on how to approach this strategically… and perhaps save your sanity in the process.   Take Kirsty's assessment to pinpoint your communication style, and get personalized insight on where you excel, where you could improve, and some strategies to try this week.   Join Amy's newsletter and get weekly insights on how to build and grow a sustainable business that fills your coffers and feeds your soul.    Got a question? Click here to ask us!   

Travis Timmons shares with host Andrew Stotz how a decade of frustration running his physical therapy practice turned into joy once he discovered Deming's philosophy and embraced systems thinking. Through PDSA cycles, clearer processes, and genuine team involvement, he transformed Fitness Matters from chaotic growth to a scalable organization getting stellar outcomes. His story shows how small businesses can create stability, joy in work, and remarkable results by improving the system rather than pushing harder.   TRANSCRIPT   0:00:02.1 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz and I'll be your host as we continue our journey into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today I'm here with featured guest Travis Timmons. Travis, are you ready to tell us about your Deming journey?   0:00:19.7 Travis Timmons: Hey Andrew, thanks for having me. And yeah, very excited to share our journey and how impactful it's been on both our company, but also me personally and my family. So, super excited to kind of share where we started before Deming and where we're at today. So I'll just dive right in if that sounds like a good...   0:00:39.9 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. And I think just for the audience here, I'll just mention that Travis is physical therapist, founder and president of Fitness Matters in Columbus, Ohio, going on his 27th year of business. And you know, you and I have had some discussions. You've had a lot of great things that you've written and we've gone through and I think it's really an exciting story, particularly for a small mid sized business owner who's just frustrated as hell that things aren't going the way that they want. And I think your frustration a long time ago was a driving force. So I'm excited for you to share your story. So yeah, take it away.   0:01:22.6 Travis Timmons: Yeah, very excited. Yeah, 2000 is when we started, January 2000. So coming up on 27 years, as you mentioned, do physical therapy and wellness. And the first 10 years I was in business, pretty good at being a physical therapist. Started my own business and had no idea how to run a business. I knew a lot about physical therapy, but just kind of shooting from the hip in regard to business. Spent about a decade struggling, frustrated. We were growing, but growing slowly, growing chaotically. No process, it was just a, it was a heavy burden, to be honest with you. We were growing, but it was kind of Herculean effort on my part.   0:02:10.1 Andrew Stotz: I'm just curious how you were feeling at that time. Like there's gotta be a better way or this is the way business is and I just gotta muscle through this or how were you feeling at the time?   0:02:21.0 Travis Timmons: I was feeling frustrated and isolated. Didn't quite know where to turn. Yeah, I guess that's how, and just a burden. Didn't want to let the team down, I did not want the business to fail. I knew we had something different to offer. Just really had no idea how to scale that in a professional way. And along the journey was very fortunate to have a client who had a very successful business, took me under his wing. Ray Crook is his name. Started mentoring me and as luck would have it, he was familiar with Dr. Deming and a very long story short, after several meetings with him over time, some mentoring, I'd read the book along the way, the E-Myth Revisited and had some learnings from that book that really jumped out at me and came to the conclusion, both with reading that book and some feedback from Ray of basically, hey, it's time to grow up and turn this into a real business. If you're going to do this, let's do it right. And at that, around that time he introduced me to Kelly Allen with the Deming Institute. And you know, so we were 10 years into some chaos, had really no process, just would try stuff, see if it stuck or didn't.   0:03:43.5 Travis Timmons: If that didn't work, didn't really have any way to measure if stuff was working well. So really just a lot of chaos. And became introduced to Deming through Kelly Allen about 10 to 11 years into our journey and man, was that a breath of fresh air in terms of like having a direction to go in. After a few meetings with Kelly, him getting a better understanding of what was important to me, I think him just really understanding that I was serious about wanting to turn our organization into a large, professionally run and well run organization that would have a positive impact on people's lives, both team members and clients. I think he kind of, I think that we were so bad off he took pity on me to begin with, just to be honest with you, and he was like, man, this guy needs a lot of help. He could do some good in the world with what the services they have to offer. But if he doesn't figure out how to run a business professionally, they're never going to scale.   0:04:44.0 Andrew Stotz: And it's interesting that you reached out. I mean, there's a lot of people that are stuck in that situation and they really don't, either they don't reach out or they're afraid to reach out or you know, maybe they think there's no solution or nobody's going to help me. And you know, certainly when you're small, you also don't have huge budgets to hire people to come in and fix your business. You know, I'm just curious, like what drove you to even reach out?   0:05:09.8 Travis Timmons: I think I was fortunate enough to, A, have the mentor with Ray. And then secondly, have always been a believer in you got to check your ego at the door and know that you don't know everything. I think I've seen Business owners that are afraid to admit they don't know everything and so they keep things insulated and that just doesn't get you anywhere.   0:05:35.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:05:36.3 Travis Timmons: So I just was fortunate kind of how I was raised as arrogance isn't a good thing, so check your ego at the door and learn from, learn from people smarter than you. And so I kind of took that fully at heart and like, all right, I have no idea how to run a business. I need to learn how to do that from really smart people. Read a lot of business books over the years, but the Deming philosophy, when I was introduced to that at the two and a half day seminar, went to that. I got to the Deming two and a half day in, I think that was 2013. So I was 13 years into the entire journey by the time I had met with Kelly, done some learning. And then at a time where the Deming two and a half day was offered in Ohio to where I could get to it, to your point earlier, budget plays into things for small businesses. So I was able to drive to that one and that two and a half day seminar just opened my eyes up to things that I knew in my heart but had no idea how to make that happen.   0:06:46.2 Travis Timmons: And what I mean by that, Andrew, is one of the key things I took away from that first two and a half day is Deming's belief that roughly 96% of issues within an organization are not people issues, but they're process and system issues. And that aligned with my worldview of if you hire good people, which we did, they show up every day wanting to do a good job as long as they have a good system and process to work within something that's professionally put together. So that was takeaway number one that really resonated with me. And the person responsible for said system is me. There's no passing the buck as the owner. And that resonated with me. It's a big responsibility to own a business in terms of the people and clients you're responsible for. And there's no passing the buck. You're responsible for the system at the end of the day.   0:07:42.3 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. I remember when I was 24 attending Deming seminar, when I was working for Pepsi, and it was a little bit different situation than yours. I could see, though, the same thing resonated with me. I could see that people were hemmed in by the system. And even though many people in the factory had really good intentions and they wanted to do a better job, they literally couldn't because they didn't have the tools or the budget or the this or the that. And a lot of times it's easy for senior management, particularly in a big company, to say figure it out, your job is to figure it out. But that only goes so far and there's eventually a point of exasperation for people working in a company that, like, I just, there's a limit here and I'm not going to kill myself trying to do something that I can't change. And so it just, I was coming from a very different perspective as an employee in a huge company versus you at a perspective of, this is my company, I set the rules.   0:08:46.5 Travis Timmons: Yeah, can do whatever we want. And you mentioned something there. It reminds me of a quote from that first two and a half day, and it still sticks with me a decade and a half later. Almost a lot of businesses complain about the term. We have a lot of dead wood in terms of employees. And the quote, I remember Kelly sharing this, it's like, well, did you hire dead wood? Because if you did, that's on you. Or did you hire live wood and kill it and that's on you from your standpoint of, from a system. And I'm like, man, 100% true. And I hired, I had good people on our team, but we didn't have good processes to keep from killing that live wood I would say. So, yeah. And to your point on budget, yeah, I had and still do have quite a bit different budget than Pepsi. Right. So one of the other things that jumped out at me early on that made Deming very approachable and something I could engage with very easily as a small business owner was the concept of PDSAs, the Plan-Do-Study-Act.   0:09:58.5 Travis Timmons: That was a game changer for us because I was like, all right, I don't have to hire a big business consultant. We don't have to hire or pay for a bunch of software. There's very simple things we can do via the Plan, Do Study Act PDSA method that we can create systems or improve upon systems and those little experimental ways and not have to bet the farm. You know, you see a lot of businesses that try to go through these huge transformative activities, bring in a new software to fix all their problems. Things that are very expensive with no real way of understanding what their aim is, what their theory is, or even if it'll work. So, yeah, your comment on budget there, I think, is what makes Deming so approachable for any size organization, but the budget's really not a limit from the PDSA standpoint. So those were some of my key takeaways very early on on my first two and a half day Deming, it was an eye opener and just really resonated with how, how I saw the world in terms of from a human level. Just had zero idea as a physical therapist with no business training on how to implement and run a professional organization.   0:11:13.8 Travis Timmons: So as things evolved, kind of went from the kind of the term chaos to process. So after that two and a half day, I went back to our team, which was small at the time. I think we had, we were a very small company at the time. I think we had 10 employees, nine or 10 team members at the time and just presented to them like, hey, this is going to be how we run our organization. There's this thing I heard about this guy called Dr. Deming. Some of it's going to seem a little odd, but this is how we're going to do things. And just started out early on, like just with PDSA, educated them on what that meant and we're all going to work on things together. So immediately it started enforcing a culture of improvement and collaboration and voice. Rather than Travis just coming up with random ideas, we worked on them together, made the system visible and then put some experiments in place. I talked to them about operational definition. That was a new term to me and gave them some examples. We wanted every client to have a good visit with us.   0:12:29.2 Travis Timmons: What in the heck does a good visit mean? Right. We didn't have an operational definition of that, so we created an operational definition of this is a good visit at Fitness Matters. So those were some fun things early on.   0:12:42.3 Andrew Stotz: I'm curious. There's two things, the first one is for someone that really doesn't know anything about PDSA, the Plan, Do, Study, Act process or cycle. Could you give an example either of one that you did early on or one that you think is the best illustration of the application of PDSA so people can understand what you're saying, because I know it's a big part of what one of the, let's say, tools that you've used in your process.   0:13:10.1 Travis Timmons: Yeah, one of the early on ones we did that was fun to do with the team because it changed our pricing model for our private pay team. Quick example, like we do personal training and Pilates muscle activation technique. Traditionally in that world, people buy those visits one at a time or you'll buy a package of 10 or 20 at a time at a discounted rate, volume, volume pricing, right. So we had that, we had 10 pack and 20 pack of personal training. We had a 10 pack and 20 pack of Pilates, same for muscle activation technique. And we had clients that would do sometimes all three of those services, but for them to be able to optimize their discount, they had to buy a 20 pack of Pilates, a 20 pack of personal training, and then the same with muscle activation technique. So after learning some things with Dr. Deming at the two and a half day that Kelly presented at, it's like we got to be easier to do business with. Be easy to do business with and how can we do that? So our PDSA was how can we change our pricing model on the private pay services to be easier to do business with and optimize how clients can move in our system freely.   0:14:25.9 Travis Timmons: So part of the concept of PDSA is you trial it, you put your whole theory together of what you think will be true. How are you going to study it? How long are you going to try it? So we had four clients that we knew well, that we told them, we're trying this new pricing model. Would you be willing to experiment on this with us? So we didn't roll it out company wide. We just tried it with a small segment, and we called it Fitness Matters Dollars and the do the Fitness Matters Dollars package. Then the client could use that discounted bundle of money for any of our services. So the discount applied to any of the services they did rather than having to buy a bunch of different packages. So the beauty of it is you can try it small. Had we gotten it wrong, we could have thrown it out and only five clients would have experienced the error. And they knew they were part of an experiment and they were happy to help us improve. It was a big win. That was 12 years ago. That's still how we do our pricing today.   0:15:29.1 Travis Timmons: It makes it very easy for clients to optimize their health within our system and not have to spend a bunch of money with us and have a lot of monetary resistance moving about our system. So that's one example that comes to mind.   0:15:41.4 Andrew Stotz: That's a good one. And I think if you think about, let's say an accountant may say, well, but wait a minute, the cost of three different services is different and that's the idea of how do we simplify this for the client, and that's interesting. Now, did you write it down, did you go to a Whiteboard. How did you actually go through that process?   0:16:02.9 Travis Timmons: Oh, that's 13 years ago. You're testing my...   0:16:06.5 Andrew Stotz: Oh, well, you can think about a current one, too.   0:16:09.6 Travis Timmons: 12 years ago. Yeah. When we're doing a current one, we'll get together as a team. Like, we're having our annual team off-site the end of January. And we'll come up, we try to come away with three, maybe four PDSAs as a team, and we'll write it up on the whiteboard. What's the problem we're trying to solve? Another key quote I've learned from Kelly Allen over the years is "the problem named, is the problem solved." So we want to make sure we're naming the right problem first. What really is the problem? So we talk about that through our entire company so that I'm getting feedback from all pieces of the system and then we'll map it out. Sometimes we'll do fishbone charts to look where in the process are we trying to do an experiment? And then there's the PDSA kind of chart that we'll use for bigger ones so we can study it. What's our aim? What's our theory? What do we think is going to happen with this experiment? How long are we going to study it, and what's our expected outcome? So part of the PDSA magic, as you know, is what are you trying to accomplish by what method, in what time frame, and what do you think is going to happen so you can go back and test your theory after you've studied it? So, yeah, sometimes we, if it's something bigger system-wide, we put it down on paper. We have a PDF that's fillable for each new PDSA.   0:17:35.5 Andrew Stotz: And for some people listening, they may think, well, I mean, isn't that what business does? I mean like owner comes up with an idea and says, yeah, I think we could try this and see what happens. Right. And ultimately everybody's kind of poking in the dark in business. We're not given a manual nobody really knows what we're doing. What's the difference between the way that you are poking in the dark, trying to hey, let's try this, let's try that compared to the PDSA.   0:18:08.5 Travis Timmons: I don't think I learned that till my second Deming two and a half day. So the second time I went, I took some senior team members with me so we could get more eyes around what in the world is this Deming person, who is Dr. Deming? What's this System of Profound Knowledge? To answer your question, I think the realization I had that I didn't have before, kind of going down the Deming journey is I didn't view our business as an entire system. I lacked that awareness of system view versus pieces and parts view. Pre-Deming, there's a problem over here and you go chase that fire and then another problem pop up over here, and to your point like there's lots of books out there on how to solve problems or you know, you hear like there's books out there on ownership thinking. And you know, it's like, well, do you have a culture and a system and by what method do you give people the ability to have that ownership thinking? Yeah, I think that's was the big aha of looking at the entire system. Whereas previously I was looking at it in silos and only trying to solve problems when a fire arose rather than system operationally efficient, trying to get efficient and optimizing the entire system. So that was probably one of the big aha's for me. Didn't happen day one. But as I got to understand Deming more, the system view of how it all has to be working together for optimization just changes your lens totally.   0:19:51.5 Andrew Stotz: So you've talked about PDSA, you've talked about operational definitions, you've talked about systems thinking, three core principles. One last thing on PDSA is like, I wonder what percent of the total value of doing PDSA comes from doing PDSA. In other words, the actual part of forcing yourself to get people in a room to discuss what's the problem, the Fishbone diagram, think about what's our aim, what's our theory, what's our hypothesis? Let's write that down. How are we going to study that? How we know if our hypothesis was true and you know, that type of thing. And sometimes I, after listening to you, I was thinking it, I suspect that a large amount of the final benefit you get from a PDSA is really front end loaded in all the work that you do to set it up.   0:20:48.3 Travis Timmons: Yeah, yeah. Going back to your comment earlier Andrew, on when you were at Pepsi, if I heard you correctly, you didn't really have the ability to share voice or to have an impact on the system. I think you're spot on, the PDSA itself, a couple things, number one as a small business owner, you got to check your ego at the door. Your team sees stuff happening that you don't have visibility on and they're probably going to have better ideas on how to fix it than you might if you're removed from it a step or two. And then the culture of like, oh, Travis is going to listen to my ideas. I find value in that. And then when we implement a change, like nobody likes change. Right? But when you've worked on it collectively as a team and you're ready to move forward with it, that's a game changer. You're not pushing a string at that point. Everybody's leaning in because they understand they're part of the solution and you're allowing that. Where a lot of businesses are top down, command and control, that doesn't usually work very well. So yeah, I think you're spot on, Andrew.   0:22:02.5 Travis Timmons: I think that so much happens with the PDSA process from a culture and team involvement. And if you don't have that, you're going to have a hard time retaining team members, in my opinion.   0:22:16.9 Andrew Stotz: So you look like a pretty relaxed guy compared to probably what you were like many years ago when this all was going on. Maybe take us through. Okay, so you're implementing these things and what's happening, what changes are happening, what transformation is going on with you and with your organization?   0:22:36.9 Travis Timmons: Yeah, so it's a multi-year process that we went through. Still a lot of work, you know, it's not like, hey, this just solves every problem. It just changes all the lenses you look through and you have a by what method path. Here's how we are going to think about our business. So that got rid of a lot of confusion for me. I knew how we were going to go from this size business to my, we had a BHAG, Big Hairy Audacious Goal from Good to Great. We wanted to have four facilities. At the time I went through Deming, we had one. We wanted to have four facilities or more to see if we could replicate our high level of care, team member engagement, all those things. So we were working, I was working just as many hours then. It just was not frustrating, it was exciting. It was a lot of collaboration that was energizing and everything as we scaled got easier. I was not going to be able to scale our business with what I was doing because had I scaled it, the headaches would have just been out of control. The loss of revenue, like there would have just been so much inefficiency on our organization.   0:24:00.4 Travis Timmons: So I would say for that next from 2013 through 2018, we got really locked in. So we spent about, I was a little conservative at the time. I was also in Army National Guard, so had a trip across the pond and just wasn't quite at a point where I could financially roll the dice and start multiplying locations and stuff like that. But around 2018, 2019, we got to the point where the team knew Deming well. I felt like we put a lot of systems, processes in place that were replicatable and I'm like, all right, here comes a real big PDSA. We're going to go get another clinic, we're going to go do another location, and we're going to test it. So that was a big PDSA. A lot of the ones we had done up to that were small. At some point you got to go a little bigger. And we were very confident in our model. So we acquired a practice in our town and like, hey, 80% of what they do is what we do, 20% is not Deming and service lines and stuff like that. So our theory, our PDSA, was can we acquire and put Fitness Matters, culture and process in place and grow?   0:25:26.3 Travis Timmons: And we did. We were very successful with that. I had team member retention with that. You know, a lot of times when you buy out another business kind of, people head for the doors, including the owner. That owner is still working with us six years later, then we started growing. It's like, all right, here we go. We can do another one. We can do another one. Put leadership in place at each location that understand Deming. We have our processes written down. We have operational definitions written down. People know what PDSA is. If they're new to our team, it takes them about six months to figure out what all these acronyms mean. So now we're going quicker since, you know, since in the last four years, as an example, we've tripled our physical therapy volume and doubled our private pay wellness volume. And in the service line, that's fairly fast growth. Probably not fast in the IT world, but in the service line growth in a very competitive market with how physical therapy and referrals work. There aren't many private practices left out there because it's so competitive where we're thriving.   0:26:41.4 Andrew Stotz: It seems like a hard business. It seems like a hard business to scale because there's this personal aspect, there's this interaction. You know, think about the exact opposite. I don't know, let's say Instagram or whatever. There's zero personal interaction. It can scale to billions. What are the constraints to growth that you feel in your business.   0:27:03.3 Travis Timmons: So constraints are reimbursement from health insurance, referrals from physicians, because health care is consolidating. So a health care system buys up smaller organizations, physicians, and then they have physical therapy within those systems and then they're highly encouraged to refer their physical therapy in-house. So that's a big challenge for us. So we don't, we're not owned by physicians. So we have to, we have to be the best at what we do for physicians and clients to want to choose us. So one of the things Dr. Deming really big on at quality, right. You have to continually have a system that has improving quality as you grow. And the way we grow is we have our outcomes. So how well a patient does at the end of a plan of care is roughly 35% higher than national average. We're 35% above the competition because of our processes, our system, our clients, how we look at integrating our clients from the first visit, the first phone call, follow-on visits, the entire, again, thinking back to that system conversation. And I think a lot of businesses, if they haven't been exposed to Deming, they miss that very critical piece of, if your sales isn't aligned with your implementation, isn't aligned with your billing process, anywhere along that service line, going through that fishbone, if it's all not good, like we could give excellent physical therapy care, but if we have a horrible billing system, we lose clients, end of story. If we have a horrible process of answering the phone to schedule evaluations, we're out of business.   0:29:00.0 Travis Timmons: Could have the best physical therapists in the world. So, yeah, that's what it's allowed us to do from a scaling and fun standpoint. And kind of now almost 27 years in we're at a point where, one of the litmus tests I had, like, if we do this well, if we really are all-in on Deming and it's system process definitions and we have it mapped out, this should run without Travis. And I see a lot of business owners are the choke point. Like they want to be the problem solver for everything. Everything has to flow through them, slow stuff down. You're not getting all of the information from your team that could solve problems so much quicker. So one of my litmus tests early on was like, if this really works well, the business should run without me present certainly for weeks and weeks at a time. And we're there. So that's why I look Relaxed now. I didn't look this relaxed a decade ago. So, it's fun, it's fun.   0:30:11.5 Andrew Stotz: I was looking for my Out of the Crisis book, but I went online and I wanted to highlight two of the 14 points because it's something that you mentioned about improving your process and all of that. And the first one is the first point and you know, it's the first point for a reason. And number one is "create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive and stay in business and provide jobs." And number five is "improve constantly and forever, the system of production and service to improve quality and productivity and thus constantly decrease costs." So how do you embody that in your business, this, because when I first read the "constancy of purpose," I originally thought it meant pick your direction and stay constant with that. But then I started to realize, no, no, it's about how are we improving our product and service.   0:31:18.9 Travis Timmons: Yeah. So if you're not evolving with, technology is everywhere. Right. So if you're not paying attention to that within how it impacts your business and constantly trying to optimize how technology interfaces with your business, you're in trouble. So, like, we're right now getting ready to, I'd say once a year we do something fairly large within technology. Next year we're going to probably be changing our documentation software because there's a newer one out there that instead of having four different softwares we have to interface with, there'll be one. So that cuts down on rework, that cuts down on learning time for a new team member. There's less resistance for clients to understand how scheduling and billing work. So I don't know if I'm answering your question, Andrew, but I think from a standpoint of, I think it was Jack Welch I heard say years ago in an interview, "there's two ways a business is going. You're either growing or you're dying." And that resonated with me, there's no sitting still because if you do, you're going to get run over. So that's always looking through, can we make it easier to schedule?   0:32:40.0 Travis Timmons: Like right now we don't offer online scheduling for physical therapy. We will in 2026. And if we don't figure that out, it could be a reason that we would eventually go out of business. So I just looked through that mindset. There's always somebody coming after you.   0:32:58.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, yeah, that's...   0:33:00.3 Travis Timmons: Complacency doesn't work.   0:33:01.3 Andrew Stotz: I like to think about when I was young and I took a break and I stood still. I was standing on the flat ground, no problem. But now with my 87 year old mother, if she goes one day, two days, three days without movement, she's going backwards and it's harder to catch back up. And I start to realize she's operating on a plane that has been slanted against her. And eventually the slant will win against all of us. But in the world of business if you think, well it's not about growing or dying, well, there's someone out there trying to take your business by providing a better product or service. And that's just the reality that actually is invigorating to know that, and as Dr. Deming said to have a great competitor is such a valuable thing. If you're just poking around and you're doing okay in market you're probably not going to improve as much. So that the focus on improvement is something that I just find really fascinating. There's another question that I have which is these days, way I look at like the job of leadership is that it's like imagine a very strong magnet ahead of you and you're constantly pulled to that magnet.   0:34:37.7 Andrew Stotz: That magnet is the average, the consensus what everybody's doing. And you can't help but feel that force. And if you don't realize that you're being affected by that force, you're just being pulled into it. And what I mean by that is if you say, well, what if we tried something different, a different way of doing something and then you go to customers, no, sorry, your competitor does this. If you don't do that, I'm not going to give you the business. And so you're naturally drawn towards the center or towards consensus, but what you're doing is trying to pull your business and yourself and your thinking and your team away from that and saying there's a different way. And how hard is that?   0:35:24.4 Travis Timmons: It's hard. You have to have a different lens. Comment earlier, the problem named is the problem solved. One of the things, I love that analogy. I've never heard it described that way. In physical therapy it's very common for a physical therapist to have two or three patients scheduled at the same time because the problem that was named by most organizations is poor arrival rate. And if you have holes in your schedule you're not getting paid. So they look at that as a revenue loss. So to answer your question, that's where our industry is. Like you got a double, triple book or you're going to have lower revenue. Well, what that does is it increases, in my opinion, increases the likelihood that people are not going to come because they're going to have a bad experience, they're going to have poor outcomes. Physicians are going to stop referring because their patients aren't getting better. So problem named is the problem solved? And we pulled, I like that magnet. I'm going to use that one. But pulled away and said, no, if we provide one on one care at a very high level and the entire system works well for the patient, they're going to show up, they're going to continue to show up.   0:36:49.0 Travis Timmons: They're going to be happy to pay for the service we're offering because it's going to be exceptional. And because they show up, they're going to get better. And because they get better, they're going to go tell their doctor and then more doctors are going to refer to us. And that's thinking much differently. So that gets to the problem name, problem solved. Or using your magnet example, we are like, physicians come and talk to us all the time. They're like, are you really only seeing the patients one-on-one? Are you really doing that? Because nobody else says they can do that. It's like, yes, we are. That's exactly how we're doing it. And that's why you're here talking to us right now. Because it's so much different. You can't, there's some things that are just immeasurable. Like Dr. Deming talks about that quite a bit. We don't have to market, we don't spend... I shouldn't say, we don't have to market. We don't spend nearly the amount of money on marketing that our competitors do because we have physicians saying, hey, what's different over there? That's invisible. Right? That's invisible.   0:37:56.9 Andrew Stotz: And they weren't saying that in the beginning, but over the time they got that...   0:38:01.4 Travis Timmons: Yeah, yeah. It's a process, but you know, like the flywheel. We use that flywheel example. And now it's like, we're having a hard time hiring enough team members to keep up with the growth. One of the other thing's, "joy in work." Dr. Deming talks about joy in work a lot. And that's to your question earlier about continual improvement and jobs. So we exist, there's a lot of burnout in healthcare. You can't hardly open a business article.   0:38:37.7 Andrew Stotz: Seems paradoxical.   0:38:40.4 Travis Timmons: But it's because two and three patients at a time burdened with administrative stuff. So we also exist because, man, it's so fun when you have a team member join you from one of those other organizations and we've had eight new team members we've hired since July. And I have what I call a fresh eyes lunch with them a month in. And every one of them has said, my spouse can't believe how much happier and more enjoyable I am to be around. If that doesn't motivate you to want to continue to grow, I don't know what does. So that's the joy in work piece that Dr. Deming talked about a lot.   0:39:24.6 Andrew Stotz: And let's now talk about one other thing, which is I was just talking, I gave a speech last night in Bangkok to some business owners and then we had a dinner out and I was explaining to them that like, there's a disease that's come from America, not from Wuhan, China, in this case. It's come America, it's spread all across Thailand. And you really have to be careful with this disease. It's a deadly disease. And I said, and particularly Thailand, where there's harmony. People enjoy working together. They want a fun environment, they want to make friends at work. It's a little, it's very different from a US work environment where it's like, go there, deliver, go home, separate lives. That's not the way Thai people see work. And the disease is, the disease of individual KPIs and saying everybody, by optimizing each individual, we are optimizing the whole. And I'm trying to get them to realize like, there's another way. And I'm curious I'm sure if you're getting people from the bigger institutions and stuff, they're being KPI'd to death. And how do you, how do you manage the idea that I don't want to optimize the individual, I want to optimize the whole system, but yet I also want employees to know they gotta do a good job. So how do you manage that?   0:41:03.2 Travis Timmons: It's hard when somebody comes, because you're right, there's a lot of PTSD. I've got an example from today. So we turned on, within our system, there's a net promoter score that can be sent out to patients automatically after their first couple visits with us. And we turn it off and on from time to time just to get the voice of the customer, right. I think Dr. Deming talks about the voice of the customer and who all. So it's like, hey, we haven't done that in a while. We're going to turn it back on. And there were several therapists that were like, wait a minute, you're scoring me? And then if I get a low score, I'm in trouble. So we have to spend a lot of time educating the team on some of that old head trash. It's like, no, this is to study the system and where we can improve either improving our operational definition, whatever it is, give the team member tools on how to handle a difficult client. But to your point, you have, people's brains are so wired in the way you just described. So part of it is we, we let them know up front, like, here's why we don't have employee of the month at Fitness Matters.   0:42:15.4 Travis Timmons: Here's why we don't have the parking lot for employee of the month at Fitness. Like, all of those rewards, how all of the negative unintended consequences that can go along with that. Like even giving an individual an award in a group setting. Like, we had a team who's one of my clinic directors, the business she came from before, they had like a WWE, like the heavyweight wrestling, big champion belt. They had one of those. And each week somebody would give the belt to whoever they thought was the best employee that week. And she didn't get it for like two months in a row. And she was crushed. She's like, people don't like me. So it's fun to talk about the negative unintended consequences of the individual reward, the individual competitions. We could talk for an hour about motivating via monetary motivation. That's probably a whole nother podcast. But to answer your question, we have to make it very known why we don't do those things. Because as much as people hate some of that stuff, they also expect it. Yeah, why don't, why don't we have employee of the month? You mean I'm not going to get in trouble if I get a low net promoter score from one patient?   0:43:34.3 Travis Timmons: It's like, no, we know we hire good people. We know you do your best job every day. They could be upset because their billing didn't go correctly. So we just need to know. So I don't know if that answers your question, but it's a big thing because you do have to still track KPIs or you're out of business. Like, you do have to know what's going on within your system to measure it. It's just that concept of we all are responsible for the output of the system and the system has to produce exceptional results.   0:44:06.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, yeah.   0:44:07.9 Travis Timmons: And we have to have a weight by what method. We have to have a system to create whether you're doing plumbing, electrical work. Like if you're going to scale a business, you have to have a repeatable product that can scale.   0:44:23.2 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. And one of the answers to that too is if you believe 94% of the problems come from the system, then even when an employee is identified as having a bad net promoter score, then the question is, does the 94% apply in that situation? Well, generally yes. And so let's dig in. I have some people that ask me like my, one of the guys last night at this event works for a bank and they have put KPIs into everything. And he was saying, I just can't escape. But another guy was like, well, I have my own business and I can do what I want. I've implemented KPIs, but what should I do? I said the first step in disentangling yourself from this individual KPI situation is just to disconnect compensation to the KPI. So just right there, there's still incentive for the employee to do something bad for the organization to do their best. But when you remove that compensation aspect, you've really taken away a huge part of the incentive. So even if you have to keep KPIs, take away the tie to compensation and then they say, well, that's the whole reason why we're supposed to do it is have the tie to compensation.   0:45:44.5 Andrew Stotz: And I said, yes, it's a little bit of a circular references cannot be resolved.   0:45:49.7 Travis Timmons: Right. Yeah. And I think we even give examples to the team as much as we can around why we don't do those type of things. Here's what would happen. And most people have worked in organizations when you point it out to them. So again, Dr. Deming talks about making the system visible. Point it out to them. If I bonused you like you see this, this used to be a thing at car dealerships. When you're buying a car, hey, you're going to get a call to rate your experience with me. If you don't give me a 10, it's going to impact my pay. And you're like, what? So we talk about that like hey, the net promoter score. If we did the same thing here and bonused you on every 10, then you're going to be bothering your patients to fill that survey out. Or if you're afraid they're going to give you low score, you're not going to, you're going to encourage them not to do it. And then me as the owner, I'm not going to hear about system breakdowns. So to answer your, I think it's an important thing that a lot of businesses like number one, don't tie compensation to your KPIs.   0:46:58.3 Travis Timmons: Like just, it's an output of the system and then explaining it to them and giving examples over time because their brains even though they hated it, like we don't do performance reviews, annual performance review. And people hate them. And I still get asked like hey, when are you doing my annual performance review? It's like do you want to do one? Well no.   0:47:21.2 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. We dropped performance appraisals in 2016 in my coffee business here in Thailand and we never looked back. We didn't come up with any particular stunning replacement. We just knew it was bad and we were willing to just walk away from what was bad. I want to wrap up and just get into the... What are the, let's talk about kind of extrinsic versus intrinsic. There's some external factors that we can say this Deming implementation provided these benefits to our company and then there's this internal or intrinsic benefits that you're getting. Maybe you can go through some of those benefits of where you're at now, what you're able to do now and we'll close it on that note of kind of what's the hope for somebody that's stuck in the situation. They're the entrepreneurial seizure, they're the technician, they're great at physical therapy, they start their physical therapy business and they're just scaling chaos basically. Tell us about, give us hope.   0:48:37.8 Travis Timmons: Yeah, no, happy to, the reason I have had the opportunity to speak in a lot of different settings about Dr. Deming and the reason I do it is because it's brought so much joy to me personally and to a ever growing team. It's having a positive impact on lives and the more I can do that, that gets to the intrinsic motivation. So the joy in work, there's a lot of bad organizations out there that just suck the life out of people. So that's my intrinsic motivation at this stage of the game of if Fitness Matters is bigger, so more jobs, there's more people having a positive experience in life and our outcomes being 35% higher, our community is getting healthier. So that's the intrinsic motivation at this stage. It's fun. I know again, we're not perfect. So continuous improvement to our conversation earlier. But the intrinsic motivation is the busier Fitness Matters gets, the busier Fitness Matters gets because of high outcomes and it's positive experience for more people in life. Extrinsically, I guess that gets to community outcomes. So that's intrinsic and extrinsic. You know, extrinsically, if you get this figured out, it's very easy to scale a business.   0:50:06.0 Andrew Stotz: And tell us about your scale, where are you at or where are your averages versus national averages? You know, what have you accomplished that's driving that external factors, let's call it.   0:50:19.4 Travis Timmons: Yeah. So a couple things. One, externally, a practice like ours nationally on average is growing at 9% to 10%. We're currently clipping along at 25% to 30%. So you know, that flywheel effect and chaos is no longer there. So we have process, so it's easier to scale. The other extrinsic piece is because of our outcomes and continuing scale, we're able to negotiate better rates with our insurance companies to reinforce our strong desire to keep one-on-one care model. So Deming talks about who all is part of your system. So insurance companies are part of our system and we don't have a lot of control over them. But because our data is so powerful externally, we have been able to negotiate higher rates than most of our competitors because our data speaks for itself.   0:51:23.2 Andrew Stotz: Faster growth, the ability to negotiate better terms because you're delivering better product and service generally means higher profit margins.   0:51:34.2 Travis Timmons: Yes.   0:51:34.6 Andrew Stotz: Fast growth with higher profit margins generally means you're generating more cash and you're no longer in cash crisis all the time and you have resources to decide, okay, now we want to expand or we want to invest or whatever.   0:51:50.9 Travis Timmons: Right.   0:51:51.4 Andrew Stotz: Is that...   0:51:51.9 Travis Timmons: Yeah, the cash crunch was real those first 10 years. So yeah, to your point, when you get to the other side of that and process is a big part of that so you're having a whole counting process, but yeah, you get to that size. But yeah, the intrinsic piece, one of the reasons I talk about Deming as much as I can. I've got two sons that are in college. My hope is there's more companies in the world today than there were 10 years ago that know about Deming, because that means there's a higher likelihood that my boys will work at a Deming company. And just seeing what a lot of companies do to people, we as owners have a big responsibility, I feel, we have a big responsibility to have a positive impact on our employees. And you're, as an owner, are responsible for that, in my opinion. And if you get it right, man, is it fun to look in the mirror or sit down with a team member or their spouse and be proud of, be proud of what you built. That's at the end of the day, the intrinsic motivation.   0:52:57.9 Travis Timmons: If you can be proud of what your product is and proud of the impact you're having on your team to where you're not sucking the life out of them, but actually intrinsically motivating them. There's not much else you can accomplish in business that was worth more than that, in my opinion.   0:53:18.5 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, wonderful. That's a great way to end it. What's the likelihood that our children are going to be working in a Deming company? Well, that's the whole reason why we are here talking about it. So, Travis, I want to say on behalf of everyone at the Deming Institute, I want to thank you for this discussion and of course, for listeners out there and viewers, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. This is your host, Andrew Stotz. I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, and I believe it's probably one of Travis's too people are entitled to joy in work.   0:53:56.0 Travis Timmons: Love it. Love it. Thank you, Andrew.   0:53:58.0 Andrew Stotz: Yep.

Episode Summary: In this episode of Backstage Bay Area, we sit down with two-time Grammy Award-winning pianist and composer Taylor Eigsti. A Menlo Park native who released his debut album at age 14, Eigsti has evolved from a local prodigy into one of the most versatile and celebrated voices in modern jazz. Fresh off his 2025 Grammy win for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album (Plot Armor), Eigsti joins us to discuss his deep Bay Area roots, the emotional architecture of his latest compositions, and his upcoming homecoming performance at SFJAZZ.In This Episode:·       From Prodigy to Peer: Eigsti reflects on his upbringing in a music-filled household, the profound influence of his late sister and father, and the pivotal mentorship he received from local legends like Dr. Herb Wong and Bud Spangler.·       The Animation of "Sparky": We dive into the backstory of "Sparky" from the album Tree Falls. Eigsti reveals how the 1987 animated film Sparky's Magic Piano—a childhood favorite about humility and practice—inspired the track's structure and its complex, 130-track production.·       Crowdsourcing a Symphony: Eigsti breaks down his massive 2022 commission for the Hewlett Foundation, "Imagine Our Future." He explains the Herculean task of weaving over 100 diverse submissions from Northern California youth—ranging from poetry to visual art—into a cohesive piece for a 12-person ensemble.·       Turning Grief into Art: In a deeply personal segment, Eigsti opens up about "Fire Within" from his latest album, Plot Armor. He discusses the process of adapting his late mother's writings on dementia into lyrics, brought to life through a poignant collaboration with vocalist Lisa Fischer and guitarist Julian Lage.·       SFJAZZ Preview: A look ahead to his January 17th double bill at Miner Auditorium with saxophonist Melissa Aldana. Eigsti introduces his band for the evening—Oscar Seton (drums), Charles Altera (guitar), and Jonathan Marin (bass)—and hints at the unique energy of this specific lineup.Featured Music:·       "Sparky" – from Tree Falls (2021) ·       "Fire Within" – from Plot Armor (2024) Key Links:·       Get Tickets for SFJAZZ show: Taylor Eigsti & Melissa Aldana at SFJAZZ (Jan 17)·       Stream the Album: Listen to Plot Armor on Spotify·       Watch: Sparky's Magic Piano (YouTube)·       Artist Website: Taylor Eigsti Official Site

The Black Stars are back and bolder than ever. In this episode, we break down Ghana's high-stakes mission to the 2026 FIFA World Cup and their "Herculean" draw against England, Croatia, and Panama. We dive deep into the "Otto Addo Doctrine," exploring how a €200 million arsenal of talent—led by the brilliance of Mohammed Kudus and the veteran leadership of Jordan Ayew—aims to exercise the ghosts of 2010. Can Ghana's high-octane pressing and clinical transition speed propel them to become Africa's ultimate disruptors? Tune in to find out why you write off the Black Stars at your own peril. Ghana Black Stars, 2026 FIFA World Cup, Mohammed Kudus, World Cup Group L, African Football.

In the days of yore, clothes were scrubbed with soap, brushes, and sheer elbow grease. But today, laundry detergents have revolutionized the way we clean our garments. These modern marvels remove stains without requiring Herculean effort. But navigating the overwhelming array of choices in the detergent aisle can be overwhelming.  The French consumer magazine 60 millions de consommateurs carried out an extensive study in February 2020 to answer just this question. They scrutinized 25 different washing powder brands. Their evaluation criteria included chemical risk, environmental impact, health considerations, washing efficiency, and color preservation. There's so much choice how do you sort through it all? What were the results? Should you  make your own washing to avoid chemicals? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: ⁠⁠What threat does the Year 2038 problem pose to our computers?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Which foods shouldn't be eaten together?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠What is social jet lag?⁠⁠ A podcast written and realised by Amber Minogue. First Broadcast: 13/5/2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former NFL star Chris Long joins the show to pull back the curtain on the "Tua" discourse and explains why the average fan underestimates the Herculean effort required to win a single NFL game. Then, we dive into a massive Week 16 slate: The Philadelphia Eagles look to lock up the East, while the Bears and Packers prepare for a Saturday night war. Plus, Dave pitches a wild "Call Out" playoff format—imagine Bo Nix choosing Denver's first-round opponent on live TV. (Photo by Matt Durisko/AP) Rundown: -Dave pours cold water on the College Football Playoffs -Best #35s in NFL history -Chris Long on Tua -Top Game of the Week AUDIO Football America! is available wherever you listen to podcasts. Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/football-america/id1831757512 Follow us: Dave Dameshek: https://x.com/dameshek Chris Long: https://x.com/JOEL9ONE Host: Dave Dameshek Guests: Chris Long Team: Gino Fuentes, Mike Fuentes Director: Danny Benitez Senior Producers: Gino Fuentes, Mike Fuentes Executive Producer: Bradley Campbell Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans, Washington Commanders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Send us a textThe 20th edition of the Arctic Report Card was released on December 16th, 2025 with an impressive compilation of scientific reports on the Arctic. Today's conversation is with editor and long-time contributor, Rick Thoman, who is an award winning climate specialist at IARC's Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness(ACCAP). Rick has attempted retirement more than once, but his passion for all things Arctic and climate fuel numerous newsletters and also news rooms as he is truly an expert on this topic. His positive impacts are felt amongst Arctic peoples and also for being a wonderful liaison between the scientific community and Arctic policy makers. The Arctic Report Card is an annual report supported by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) with Pan-Arctic perspective and an independent editorial team. The efforts of scientists and climate specialists to create this robust scientific peer reviewed report is in Ricks words, "Herculean"!  The amount of work contributed to this scientific document is extremely important in documenting climate change in the Arctic, which is warming at an alarming rate. Rick discusses highlights that include surface air temperatures and impacts on intensity of storms, including Typhoon Halong, as well as terrestrial snow cover, Greenland Ice Sheet, sea ice, glaciers, marine algae, tundra greenness...all in relatable terminology from complex and hard earned scientific data.  The Report Card is intended for a wide audience, including scientists, teachers, students, decision-makers and the general public interested in the Arctic environment and science. It is encouraged that the Report Card to be utilized and studied, as the scientific community has created it to be an easily read report for the general population to better understand the complexities of the warming Arctic.Here is the link to the 2025 Arctic Report Card:https://arctic.noaa.gov/report-card/report-card-2025/This year held a photo contest for the cover of the Arctic Report Card:https://globalocean.noaa.gov/2025-arctic-report-card-photo-video-contest/Here is the full PFD on the 2025 Arctic Report Card. https://arctic.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ArcticReportCard_full_report2025.pdfBe sure to visit this year's Arctic Report Card 2025 for all of the in-depth scientific review of the things that have caught attention of this year's events. Here is the executive summary of the 2025 Arctic Report Card:https://arctic.noaa.gov/report-card/report-card-2025/executive-summary-2025/Thank you for listening the the Alaska Climate and Aviation Podcast!Katie Writerjournalist/pilot/photographerktphotowork@gmail.com907/863-7669PS. If you enjoy the Alaska Climate and Aviation Podcast, become a subscriber. Thanks for tuning in! Click here if you'd like to support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/951223/supporters/newphoto credit: Joana Kristin Steffens~finalist for Arctic Report Card Photo ContestSupport the showYou can visit my website for links to other episodes and see aerial photography of South Central Alaska at:https://www.katiewritergallery.com

The Acritic Songs are a collection of Byzantine folk songs whose origins date back to the 9th-11th centuries. These songs celebrate the exploits of the "Acritae," or the frontiersmen, who patrolled the empire's periphery, protecting it from Saracen (Arab) marauders. Though we don't know the exact contexts in which these songs were performed, we know that they appealed to the bottom rungs of society, the disenfranchised and the down-trodden, as the songs were adopted and adapted all over the Greek speaking world -- including, of course, Cyprus. These songs were passed down in oral tradition and adapted linguistically in Cyprus in a way that reflected its own social and political realities. The stories themselves generally fell into two categories: those that celebrate royal authority and look towards God or the State as a source of comfort and protection (ca. 9th-12th centuries) and those which celebrate the hero fighting authority and resisting the cosmic order which is dated after the 13th century (see: Charopalema i.e., Digenis' battle with Death). For this particular song, as interpreted and performed by Michalis Christodoulides Costas Charalambides and Areti Kasapi (and can be purchased here)*, we hear an excerpt from "Ο Κάουρας" (i.e., The Crab). In the song, a giant, monstrous crab chokes the waters of a village/town, terrorizing the community. One of the most notable Acritic heroes, Digenis Akritas, is called upon to defend the people from its terror. The story of the Giant Crab evokes Herculean themes. Those familiar with Greek mythology might identify Digenis's battle with Hercules fighting Karkinos that came to assist the Lernean Hydra. Next month, I welcome back Dr. Chrysovalanti Kyriacou to discuss the Acrites and the Byzantine Warrior Hero! The Acritic Songs on YouTube *Στες Άκρες Των Άκρων - Ακριτικά Τραγούδια Της Κύπρου: Μιχάλης Χριστοδουλίδης, Αρετή Κασάπη, Κώστας Χαραλαμπίδης **Artwork by Dimitris Skourtelis 

Sybrand Buma bows out as coalition negotiator, leaving behind an iconic photograph and a Herculean task to form a new government. His successor, Maastricht university professor Rianne Letschert, pays tribute to the Schoof cabinet when she almost steers off the road as she takes the call offering her the job. Ajax stop the rot with a dramatic late comeback in Azerbaijan. Dick Advocaat is declared safe from US aggression off the coast of Venezuela. And this year's top Google searches suggest that punctuality is becoming another endangered Dutch tradition.

A couple horror fans chat Native American tropes in horror, finding a place for "mid" level entertainment, and the Herculean effort and endurance of shoveling mulch.  Enjoy Speakpipe - Send us a voice message www.RuminationsRadioNetwork.comwww.instagram.com/ruminationsofredrumwww.instagram.com/RuminationsRadioNetworkTwitter: RuminationsRadioNetwork@RuminationsNhttps://www.patreon.com/RuminationsRadioMusic and Production by Mitch Proctor for Area 42 Studios and SoundEpisode Artwork Charles Langley and Mitch Proctor for Area 42 Studios and Soundhttps://www.patreon.com/RuminationsRadio ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Tom Haberstroh and Dan Devine dissect the corpse of the Los Angeles Clippers' franchise! The pair react to the Clippers' 3 AM disposal of Chris Paul and discuss potential new destinations for the 40-year-old veteran guard. They also analyze both the historical and current woes of the Clippers, noting the Herculean offensive efforts from James Harden and horrific team defense. Norman Powell's success in Miami is also discussed, making this episode deliciously miserable for fans in Clipperland.(1:05) The Big Number: Clippers send Chris Paul home(30:57) The Little Numbers: LAC half-court defense(35:35) The Little Numbers: James Harden's offensive impact(41:04) The Little Numbers: Clippers missing Norm Powell

Two-evenly matched teams were locked in a tight affair that came down to the wire and a literal last second kick, however, some Seahawks fans will leave the game concerned, worried whether Sam Darnold is about to turn into the pumpkin from Cinderella or whether the team this year is ready to stand up become a true contender. Let's get into this complicated game, and see the good in what continues to develop. Use promo code NEST on Sleeper and get 100% match up to $100! https://Sleeper.com/promo/NEST. Terms and conditions apply. #Sleeper Link to my YouTube Channel. Live on Wed and Sunday, 5PM PST...https://www.youtube.com/@TheHawksNest12thman?sub_confirmation=1 Link to my Patreon....https://www.patreon.com/thehawksnest Twitter...@SeahawksNester Twitch...@TheSeahawksNest   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The GASP team has opened Pandora's box of spanking!  Join us to hear about the Herculean task the GASP team and volunteers are pulling off this time. All your favorites are back, plus some new and exciting additions you'll hear about here first! Are you ready for: merriment, games, a dionysian feast, activities, classes, Littles tents, vending, a summer camp experience, and lots more?? There's even room for the Tops to join in the activities this year! Do you have the Midas touch? Even if you don't, the spanking Bottoms sure hope you have the spanking skill set to deliver a sound and welcomed spanking.  And of course, there will be plenty of bratting, mischief, antics and all the revelry GASP is known for. Who knows what the faces that launched a thousand ships may have up their sleeves. Rubber duckies? Sass? Insolence? Or something else?  Join us at the spanking Elysian Fields for GASP 2026.

In this episode, a top influencer joins us to reveal what's new in social media, how creators can pivot in 2025, and her experience launching products on Amazon and TikTok Shop.

In a story from ancient Greek philosophy, Hercules faces a choice between two paths: one promising pleasure and ease; the other, hardship and struggle — but also growth and greatness. According to today's guest, this ancient parable is more relevant than ever.Dr. Paul Taylor, a psychophysiologist and the author of the new book The Hardiness Effect, returns to the show to argue that comfort has become our default mode — and it's making us mentally and physically sick. To reclaim health and meaning, we must actively choose the path of arete — a life of effort, engagement, and challenge.Paul first outlines the four traits that define a psychologically hardy person and how we grow by embracing and even relishing discomfort. We then dive into the physiological side of hardiness. We discuss how intentionally seeking stressors can strengthen both body and mind and some of the practices and protocols that lead to optimal health. We end our conversation with what tackling heroic, Herculean labors looks like today.Resources Related to the PodcastPaul's previous appearance on the AoM podcast: Episode #941 — How to Avoid Death by ComfortAoM Podcast #1,087: Why You Need the Good Stress of SocializingAoM Podcast #793: The New Science of Metabolism and Weight Loss with Herman PontzerThe Choice of Hercules AoM podcast on the benefits of sunlight"Don't Die: Eat More Small Fish" by Michael EasterAoM Article: Nature's Prescription — The 20-5-3 Rule for Spending Time OutdoorsNorwegian 4X4 HIIT ProtocolAoM article on Zone 2 CardioOmega-3 testingConnect With Paul TaylorPaul's websiteSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Like many Canadian small towns, Carberry, MB had become a healthcare desert. In 2023, the small ER closed and the last doctor left. Carberry embarked on the fight of its life to get healthcare back. Just days before the first of two new MDs starts work, Dr. Brian Goldman visits Carberry to learn about the Herculean efforts it takes for one town to reinstate healthcare, and make sure they don't lose it again.

Recently Alex Shandrovsky had me as a guest on his show, the Investment Climate Podcast to talk about The Better Meat Co.'s recent funding round. When it came out, more than one Business for Good listener heard it and told me they thought it would make a good episode to release to our audience too, so this episode is simply the conversation Alex and I had for his podcast. If you've been following the alternative protein sector (and the broader biotech sector), you've likely seen the wave of challenges that fermentation, cultivated, and plant-based startups have faced over the past few years. As recent AgFunder News reporting confirms, ag and food tech investment is at a decade-long low. One active food tech VC even declared that foodtech investing is “maybe as bad as it's ever been.” Some days, building a startup in our sector can feel like being a player in Squid Game—with about the same odds of survival. While layoffs, bankruptcies, shutdowns, and cash-free acquisitions have been rampant in our sector lately, BMC has never conducted layoffs. Instead we've always been very frugal, and we tightened our belt even further in the past year, all while continuing to make important progress toward our aspirations of slashing humanity's footprint on the planet. This has been true in the midst of the three-year litigation we endured, the collapse of our bank and subsequent (temporary) loss of all funds, the painfully wintry investment climate for alt-protein, and other seemingly innumerable challenges. Our ethic of frugality will certainly continue in this new era of scaleup for our company.  This financing is hardly the end of our story. Receiving investor dollars isn't our goal; it's solely a means to the end of building a profitable business that will help put a dent in the number of animals raised for food. Raising a round is akin to having someone provide the clothes, tents, and food you'll need to climb Everest…but you still need to actually go climb the mountain—hardly a guaranteed outcome.  I've often said these days that we've shifted from what felt like a Sispyphean feat of fundraising to now merely a Herculean feat of scaling. Nearly all startups fail. The vast majority never see their seventh birthday, which BMC recently celebrated. Our company is still far from successful, but we now have a real chance to birth into the world a novel crop that can help feed humanity without frying the planet. We will judiciously use these new funds to work hard to finally let the Rhiza River flow.  Alex and I discuss the story of how this funding round came about, and where we may be going from here. 

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2025 is: Herculean • her-kyuh-LEE-un • adjective Something described as Herculean (often uncapitalized as herculean) is characterized by extraordinary power, extent, intensity, or difficulty. // Although starting a garden sounded fun in theory, the constant weeding and pest control turned it into a herculean task. See the entry > Examples: “Strong doesn't even properly describe [Ashton] Jeanty's Herculean, how-is-he-doing-that kind of strength. Before his sophomore year of college, he squatted 575 pounds. [Coach James] Montgomery thought that Jeanty had maxed out. He was wrong. Now Jeanty easily squats 605 pounds ‘like a hot knife through butter,' Montgomery says.” — Mirin Fader, The Ringer, 5 Dec. 2024 Did you know? The hero Hercules, son of the god Zeus by a human mother, was famous for his superhuman strength. As penance for a madness-induced murder spree (the victims were his family), he was forced to perform twelve enormously difficult tasks, or “labors.” These ranged from descending into the underworld to bring back the terrifying dog that guarded its entrance to destroying the many-headed monster called the Hydra. The feats he accomplished explain how Herculean in the 16th century came to be used for any job or task that's extremely difficult or calls for enormous strength.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2025 is: Herculean • her-kyuh-LEE-un • adjective Something described as Herculean (often uncapitalized as herculean) is characterized by extraordinary power, extent, intensity, or difficulty. // Although starting a garden sounded fun in theory, the constant weeding and pest control turned it into a herculean task. See the entry > Examples: “Strong doesn't even properly describe [Ashton] Jeanty's Herculean, how-is-he-doing-that kind of strength. Before his sophomore year of college, he squatted 575 pounds. [Coach James] Montgomery thought that Jeanty had maxed out. He was wrong. Now Jeanty easily squats 605 pounds ‘like a hot knife through butter,' Montgomery says.” — Mirin Fader, The Ringer, 5 Dec. 2024 Did you know? The hero Hercules, son of the god Zeus by a human mother, was famous for his superhuman strength. To pacify the wrath of the god Apollo, he was forced to perform twelve enormously difficult tasks, or “labors.” These ranged from descending into the underworld to bring back the terrifying dog that guarded its entrance to destroying the many-headed monster called the Hydra. The feats he accomplished explain how Herculean in the 16th century came to be used for any job or task that's extremely difficult or calls for enormous strength.