Podcasts about himi

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is a reader-supported publication (and my full-time job). To receive new posts and to support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.WhoJoe Hession, CEO of Snow Partners, which owns Mountain Creek, Big Snow American Dream, SnowCloud, and Terrain Based LearningRecorded onMay 2, 2025About Snow PartnersSnow Partners owns and operates Mountain Creek, New Jersey and Big Snow American Dream, the nation's only indoor ski center. The company also developed SnowCloud resort management software and has rolled out its Terrain Based Learning system at more than 80 ski areas worldwide. They do some other things that I don't really understand (there's a reason that I write about skiing and not particle physics), that you can read about on their website.About Mountain CreekLocated in: Vernon Township, New JerseyClosest neighboring public ski areas: Mount Peter (:24); Big Snow American Dream (:50); Campgaw (:51) Pass affiliations: Snow Triple Play, up to two anytime daysBase elevation: 440 feetSummit elevation: 1,480 feetVertical drop: 1,040 feetSkiable Acres: 167Average annual snowfall: 65 inchesTrail count: 46Lift count: 9 (1 Cabriolet, 2 high-speed quads, 2 fixed-grip quads, 1 triple, 1 double, 2 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Mountain Creek's lift fleet)About Big Snow American DreamLocated in: East Rutherford, New JerseyClosest neighboring public ski areas: Campgaw (:35); Mountain Creek (:50); Mount Peter (:50)Pass affiliations: Snow Triple Play, up to two anytime daysVertical drop: 160 feet Skiable Acres: 4Trail count: 4 (2 green, 1 blue, 1 black)Lift count: 4 (1 quad, 1 poma, 2 carpets - view Lift Blog's of inventory of Big Snow American Dream's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himI read this earlier today:The internet is full of smart people writing beautiful prose about how bad everything is, how it all sucks, how it's embarrassing to like anything, how anything that appears good is, in fact, secretly bad. I find this confusing and tragic, like watching Olympic high-jumpers catapult themselves into a pit of tarantulas.That blurb was one of 28 “slightly rude notes on writing” offered in Adam Mastroianni's Experimental History newsletter. And I thought, “Man this dude must follow #SkiTwitter.” Or Instabook. Of Flexpost. Or whatever. Because online ski content, both short- and long-form, is, while occasionally joyous and evocative, disproportionately geared toward the skiing-is-fucked-and-this-is-why worldview. The passes suck. The traffic sucks. The skiers suck. The prices suck. The parking sucks. The Duopoly sucks. Everyone's a Jerry, chewing up my pow line with their GoPro selfie sticks hoisted high and their Ikon Passes dangling from their zippers. Skiing is corporate and soulless and tourist obsessed and doomed anyway because of climate change. Don't tell me you're having a good time doing this very fun thing. People like you are the reason skiing's soul now shops at Wal-Mart. Go back to Texas and drink a big jug of oil, you Jerry!It's all so… f*****g dumb. U.S. skiing just wrapped its second-best season of attendance. The big passes, while imperfect, are mostly a force for good, supercharging on-hill infrastructure investment, spreading skiers across geographies, stabilizing a once-storm-dependent industry, and lowering the per-day price of skiing for the most avid among us to 1940s levels. Snowmaking has proven an effective bulwark against shifting weather patterns. Lift-served skiing is not a dying pastime, financially or spiritually or ecologically. Yes, modern skiing has problems: expensive food (pack a lunch); mountain-town housing shortages (stop NIMBY-ing everything); traffic (yay car culture); peak-day crowds (don't go then); exploding insurance, labor, utilities, and infrastructure costs (I have no answers). But in most respects, this is a healthy, thriving, constantly evolving industry, and a more competitive one than the Duopoly Bros would admit.Snow Partners proves this. Because what the hell is Snow Partners? It's some company sewn together by a dude who used to park cars at Mountain Creek. Ten years ago this wasn't a thing, and now it's this wacky little conglomerate that owns a bespoke resort tech platform and North America's only snowdome and the impossible, ridiculous Mountain Creek. And they're going to build a bunch more snowdomes that stamp new skiers out by the millions and maybe – I don't know but maybe – become the most important company in the history of lift-served skiing in the process.Could such an outfit possibly have materialized were the industry so corrupted as the Brobot Pundit Bros declare it? Vail is big. Alterra is big. But the two companies combined control just 53 of America's 501 active ski areas. Big ski areas, yes. Big shadows. But neither created: Indy Pass, Power Pass, Woodward Parks, Terrain Based Learning, Mountain Collective, RFID, free skiing for kids, California Mountain Resort Company, or $99 season passes. Neither saved Holiday Mountain or Hatley Pointe or Norway Mountain or Timberline West Virigina from the scrapheap, or transformed a failing Black Mountain into a co-op. Neither has proven they can successfully run a ski area in Indiana (sorry Vail #SickBurn #SellPaoliPeaks #Please).Skiing, at this moment, is a glorious mix of ideas and energy. I realize it makes me uncool to think so, but I signed off on those aspirations the moment I drove the minivan off the Chrysler lot (topped it off with a roofbox, too, Pimp). Anyhow, the entire point of this newsletter is to track down the people propelling change in a sport that most likely predates the written word and ask them why they're doing these novel things to make an already cool and awesome thing even more cool and awesome. And no one, right now, is doing more cool and awesome things in skiing than Snow Partners.**That's not exactly true. Mountain Capital Partners, Alterra, Ikon Pass, Deer Valley, Entabeni Systems, Jon Schaefer, the Perfect Clan, Boyne Resorts, Big Sky, Mt. Bohemia, Powdr, Vail Resorts, Midwest Family Ski Resorts, and a whole bunch more entities/individuals/coalitions are also contributing massively to skiing's rapid-fire rewiring in the maw of the robot takeover digital industrial revolution. But, hey, when you're in the midst of transforming an entire snow-based industry from a headquarters in freaking New Jersey, you get a hyperbolic bump in the file card description.What we talked aboutThe Snow Triple Play; potential partners; “there's this massive piece of the market that's like ‘I don't even understand what you're talking about'” with big day ticket prices and low-priced season passes; why Mountain Creek sells its Triple Play all season long and why the Snow Triple Play won't work that way (at least at first); M.A.X. Pass and why Mountain Creek declined to join successor passes; an argument for Vail, Alterra and other large ski companies to participate on the Snow Triple Play; comparing skiing to hotels, airlines, and Disney World; “the next five years are going to be the most interesting and disruptive time in the ski industry because of technology”; “we don't compete with anybody”; Liftopia's potential, errors, failure, and legacy; skiing on Groupon; considering Breckenridge as an independent ski area; what a “premium” ski area on the Snow Triple Play would be; why megapasses are “selling people a product that will never be used the way it's sold to them”; why people in NYC feel like going to Mountain Creek, an hour over the George Washington Bridge, is “going to Alaska”; why Snow Triple Play will “never” add a fourth day; sticker shock for Big Snow newbs who emerge from the Dome wanting more; SnowCloud and the tech and the guest journey from parking lot to lifts; why Mountain Creek stopped mailing season passes; Bluetooth Low Energy “is certainly the future of passes”; “100 percent we're getting more Big Snows” – but let's justify the $175 million investment first; Big Snow has a “terrible” design; “I don't see why every city shouldn't have a Big Snow” and which markets Snow Partners is talking to; why Mountain Creek didn't get the mega-lift Hession teased on this pod three years ago and when we could see one; “I really believe that the Vernon base of Mountain Creek needs an updated chair”; the impact of automated snowmaking at Mountain Creek; and a huge residential project incoming at Mountain Creek.What I got wrong* I said that Hession wasn't involved in Mountain Creek in the M.A.X. Pass era, but he was an Intrawest employee at the time, and was Mountain Creek's GM until 2012.* I hedged on whether Boyne's Explorer multi-day pass started at two or three days. Skiers can purchase the pass in three- to six-day increments.Why now was a good time for this interviewOkay, so I'll admit that when Snow Partners summarized the Snow Triple Play for me, I wasn't like “Holy crap, three days (total) at up to three different ski areas on a single ski pass? Do you think they have room for another head on Mount Rushmore?” This multi-day pass is a straightforward product that builds off a smart idea (the Mountain Creek Triple Play), that has been a smash hit at the Jersey Snow Jungle since at least 2008. But Snow Triple Play doesn't rank alongside Epic, Ikon, Indy, or Mountain Collective as a seasonlong basher. This is another frequency product in a market already flush with them.So why did I dedicate an entire podcast and two articles (so far) to dissecting this product, which Hession makes pretty clear has no ambitions to grow into some Indy/Ikon/Epic competitor? Because it is the first product to tie Big Snow to the wider ski world. And Big Snow only works if it is step one and there is an obvious step two. Right now, that step two is hard, even in a region ripe with ski areas. The logistics are confounding, the one-off cost hard to justify. Lift tickets, gear rentals, getting your ass to the bump and back, food, maybe a lesson. The Snow Triple Play doesn't solve all of these problems, but it does narrow an impossible choice down to a manageable one by presenting skiers with a go-here-next menu. If Snow Partners can build a compelling (or at least logical) Northeast network and then scale it across the country as the company opens more Big Snows in more cities, then this simple pass could evolve into an effective toolkit for building new skiers.OK, so why not just join Indy or Mountain Collective, or forge some sort of newb-to-novice agreement with Epic or Ikon? That would give Snow Partners the stepladder, without the administrative hassle of owning a ski pass. But that brings us to another roadblock in Ski Revolution 2025: no one wants to share partners. So Hession is trying to flip the narrative. Rather than locking Big Snow into one confederacy or the other, he wants the warring armies to lash their fleets along Snow Partners Pier. Big Snow is just the bullet factory, or the gas station, or the cornfield – the thing that all the armies need but can't supply themselves. You want new skiers? We got ‘em. They're ready. They just need a map to your doorstep. And we're happy to draw you one.Podcast NotesOn the Snow Triple PlayThe basics: three total days, max of two used at any one partner ski area, no blackouts at Big Snow or Mountain Creek, possible blackouts at partner resorts, which are TBD.The pass, which won't be on sale until Labor Day, is fully summarized here:And I speculate on potential partners here:On the M.A.X. PassFor its short, barely noted existence, the M.A.X. Pass was kind of an amazing hack, granting skiers five days each at an impressive blend of regional and destination ski areas:Much of this roster migrated over to Ikon, but in taking their pass' name too literally, the Alterra folks left off some really compelling regional ski areas that could have established a hub-and-spoke network out of the gate. Lutsen and Granite Peak owner Charles Skinner told me on the podcast a few years back that Ikon never offered his ski areas membership (they joined Indy in 2020), cutting out two of the Midwest's best mountains. The omissions of Mountain Creek, Wachusett, and the New York trio of Belleayre, Whiteface, and Gore ceded huge swaths of the dense and monied Northeast to competitors who saw value in smaller, high-end operations that are day-trip magnets for city folks who also want that week at Deer Valley (no other pass signed any of these mountains, but Vail and Indy both assembled better networks of day-drivers and destinations).On my 2022 interview with HessionOn LiftopiaLiftopia's website is still live, but I'm not sure how many ski areas participate in this Expedia-for-lift-tickets. Six years ago, I thought Liftopia was the next bargain evolution of lift-served skiing. I even hosted founder Evan Reece on one of my first 10 podcasts. The whole thing fell apart when Covid hit. An overview here:On various other day-pass productsI covered this in my initial article, but here's how the Snow Triple Play stacks up against other three-day multi-resort products:On Mountain Creek not mailing passesI don't know anything about tech, but I know, from a skier's point of view, when something works well and when it doesn't. Snow Cloud's tech is incredible in at least one customer-facing respect: when you show up at a ski area, a rep standing in a conspicuous place is waiting with an iPhone, with which they scan a QR code on your phone, and presto-magico: they hand you your ski pass. No lines or waiting. One sentimental casualty of this on-site efficiency was the mailed ski pass, an autumn token of coming winter to be plucked gingerly from the mailbox. And this is fine and makes sense, in the same way that tearing down chairlifts constructed of brontosaurus bones and mastodon hides makes sense, but I must admit that I miss these annual mailings in the same way that I miss paper event tickets and ski magazines. My favorite ski mailing ever, in fact, was not Ikon's glossy fold-out complete with a 1,000-piece 3D jigsaw puzzle of the Wild Blue Gondola and name-a-snowflake-after-your-dog kit, but this simple pamphlet dropped into the envelope with my 2018-19 Mountain Creek season pass:Just f*****g beautiful, Man. That hung on my office wall for years. On the CabrioletThis is just such a wackadoodle ski lift:Onetime Mountain Creek owner Intrawest built similar lifts at Winter Park and Tremblant, but as transit lifts from the parking lot. This one at Mountain Creek is the only one that I'm aware of that's used as an open-air gondola. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Passages: Matthew 11:28-30Sermon Notes: 1. Your soul knows that rest is real. It must be found.2. The passage today will do just thatI. Come to me all who are weary and burdeneda. Weary and Burdenedi. In a secular wayii. In a religious wayb. Jesus invites us to turn away from those ways and come to Himi. You're weary and burdened because you are searching for your soul to RESTII. I will give you resta. What does it mean?i. Rest for the soulb. What does that look like?i. No more effort to earn God's favorii. To be at peace with Godiii. To end the constant strivingiv. To be without fearv. To have assurance in the one we depend onc. (How do I come to Jesus?)I. Take my yoke upon you, learn from mea. Context of Yokei. Made with specific specs for the oxen, in order for it to pull and till the ground.b. What does it mean to be Yoke to Jesusi. Place of listeningii. Place of intimacyiii. Place of Lordshipiv. Place of Learningc. (Why would i want to get in the Yoke with Jesus and How would that possibly give me rest?)II. I am gentle and lowly in heart—for my yoke is easy and my burden is lighta. 9 descriptions of Jesusi. Jesus has authority over diseaseii. Jesus has authority over all suffering and siniii. Jesus has authority over all disasteriv. Jesus has authority over demonsv. Jesus has authority over sinvi. Jesus has authority to savevii. Jesus has authority over deathviii. Jesus has authority over disabilityix. Jesus has authority over the devilb. Conclusion: He IS GODc. Does not even take His position seriously (gentle)i. Scandal of heavenii. Degrade Himself in order to have you by His side.d. Rest comes when we realize that Christ has done it all for us, and continues to do it all for us.To give please visit: https://www.wearetruelove.com/give Join TLC on our social media for updates!YouTube: https://youtube.com/truelovecommunity Facebook: https://facebook.com/truelovecommunityministry Instagram: https://instagram.com/truelovecommunity

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and to support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.WhoTyler Fairbank, General Manager of Jiminy Peak, Massachusetts and CEO of Fairbank GroupRecorded onFebruary 10, 2025 and March 7, 2025About Fairbank GroupFrom their website:The Fairbank Group is driven to build things to last – not only our businesses but the relationships and partnerships that stand behind them. Since 2008, we have been expanding our eclectic portfolio of businesses. This portfolio includes three resorts—Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort, Cranmore Mountain Resort, and Bromley Mountain Ski Resort—and real estate development at all three resorts, in addition to a renewable energy development company, EOS Ventures, and a technology company, Snowgun Technology.About Jiminy PeakClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Fairbank Group, which also owns Cranmore and operates Bromley (see breakdowns below)Located in: Hancock, MassachusettsYear founded: 1948Pass affiliations:* Ikon Pass: 2 days, with blackouts* Uphill New EnglandClosest neighboring ski areas: Bousquet (:27), Catamount (:49), Butternut (:51), Otis Ridge (:54), Berkshire East (:58), Willard (1:02)Base elevation: 1,230 feetSummit elevation: 2,380 feetVertical drop: 1,150 feetSkiable acres: 167.4Average annual snowfall: 100 inchesTrail count: 42Lift count: 9 (1 six-pack, 2 fixed-grip quads, 3 triples, 1 double, 2 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Jiminy Peak's lift fleet)About CranmoreClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: The Fairbank GroupLocated in: North Conway, New HampshireYear founded: 1937Pass affiliations: * Ikon Pass: 2 days, with blackouts* Uphill New EnglandClosest neighboring ski areas: Attitash (:16), Black Mountain (:18), King Pine (:28), Wildcat (:28), Pleasant Mountain (:33), Bretton Woods (:42)Base elevation: 800 feetSummit elevation: 2,000 feetVertical drop: 1,200 feetSkiable Acres: 170 Average annual snowfall: 80 inchesTrail count: 56 (15 most difficult, 25 intermediate, 16 easier)Lift count: 7 (1 high-speed quad, 1 fixed-grip quad, 2 triples, 1 double, 2 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Cranmore's lift fleet)About BromleyClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: The estate of Joseph O'DonnellOperated by: The Fairbank GroupPass affiliations: Uphill New EnglandLocated in: Peru, VermontClosest neighboring ski areas: Magic Mountain (14 minutes), Stratton (19 minutes)Base elevation: 1,950 feetSummit elevation: 3,284 feetVertical drop: 1,334 feetSkiable Acres: 300Average annual snowfall: 145 inchesTrail count: 47 (31% black, 37% intermediate, 32% beginner)Lift count: 9 (1 high-speed quad, 1 fixed-grip quad, 4 doubles, 1 T-bar, 2 carpets - view Lift Blog's of inventory of Bromley's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himI don't particularly enjoy riding six-passenger chairlifts. Too many people, up to five of whom are not me. Lacking a competent queue-management squad, chairs rise in loads of twos and threes above swarming lift mazes. If you're skiing the West, lowering the bar is practically an act of war. It's all so tedious. Given the option – Hunter, Winter Park, Camelback – I'll hop the parallel two-seater just to avoid the drama.I don't like six-packs, but I sure am impressed by them. Sixers are the chairlift equivalent of a two-story Escalade, or a house with its own private Taco Bell, or a 14-lane expressway. Like damn there's some cash floating around this joint.Sixers are common these days: America is home to 107 of them. But that wasn't always so. Thirty-two of these lifts came online in just the past three years. Boyne Mountain, Michigan built the first American six-pack in 1992, and for three years, it was the only such lift in the nation (and don't think they didn't spend every second reminding us of it). The next sixer rose at Stratton, in 1995, but 18 of the next 19 were built in the West. In 2000, Jiminy Peak demolished a Riblet double and dropped the Berkshire Express in its place.For 26 years, Jiminy Peak has owned the only sixer in the State of Massachusetts (Wachusett will build the second this summer). Even as they multiply, the six-pack remains a potent small-mountain status symbol: Vail owns 31 or them, Alterra 30. Only 10 independents spin one. Sixers are expensive to build, expensive to maintain, difficult to manage. To build such a machine is to declare: we are different, we can handle this, this belongs here and so does your money.Sixty years ago, Jiminy Peak was a rump among a hundred poking out of the Berkshires. It would have been impossible to tell, in 1965, which among these many would succeed. Plenty of good ski areas failed since. Jiminy is among the last mountains standing, a survival-of-the-fittest tale punctuated, at the turn of the century, by the erecting of a super lift that was impossible to look away from. That neighboring Brodie, taller and equal-ish in size to Jiminy, shuttered permanently two years later, after a 62-year run as a New England staple, was probably not a coincidence (yes, I'm aware that the Fairbanks themselves bought and closed Brodie). Jiminy had planted its 2,800-skier-per-hour flag on the block, and everyone noticed and no one could compete.The Berkshire Express is not the only reason Jiminy Peak thrives in a 21st century New England ski scene defined by big companies, big passes, and big crowds. But it's the best single emblem of a keep-moving philosophy that, over many decades, transformed a rust-bucket ski area into a glimmering ski resort. That meant snowmaking before snowmaking was cool, building places to stay on the mountain in a region of day-drivers, propping a wind turbine on the ridge to offset dependence on the energy grid.Non-ski media are determined to describe America's lift-served skiing evolution in terms of climate change, pointing to the shrinking number of ski areas since the era when any farmer with a backyard haystack and a spare tractor engine could run skiers uphill for a nickel. But this is a lazy narrative (America offers a lot more skiing now than it did 30 years ago). Most American ski areas – perhaps none – have failed explicitly because of climate change. At least not yet. Most failed because running a ski area is hard and most people are bad at it. Jiminy, once surrounded by competitors, now stands alone. Why? That's what the world needs to understand.What we talked aboutThe impact of Cranmore's new Fairbank Lodge; analyzing Jiminy's village-building past to consider Cranmore's future; Bromley post-Joe O'Donnell (RIP); Joe's legacy – “just an incredible person, great guy”; taking the long view; growing up at Jiminy Peak in the wild 1970s; Brian Fairbank's legacy building Jiminy Peak – with him, “anything is possible”; how Tyler ended up leading the company when he at one time had “no intention of coming back into the ski business”; growing Fairbank Group around Jiminy; surviving and recovering from a stroke – “I had this thing growing in me my entire life that I didn't realize”; carrying on the family legacy; why Jiminy and Cranmore joined the Ikon Pass as two-day partners, and whether either mountain could join as full partners; why Bromley didn't join Ikon; the importance of New York City to Jiminy Peak and Boston to Cranmore; why the ski areas won't be direct-to-lift with Ikon right away; are the Fairbank resorts for sale?; would Fairbank buy more?; the competitive advantage of on-mountain lodging; potential Jiminy lift upgrades; why the Berkshire Express sixer doesn't need an upgrade of the sort that Cranmore and Bromley's high-speed quads received; why Jiminy runs a fixed-grip triple parallel to its high-speed six; where the mountain's next high-speed lift could run; and Jiminy Peak expansion potential.What I got wrong* I said that I didn't know which year Jiminy Peak installed their wind turbine – it was 2007. Berkshire East built its machine in 2010 and activated it in 2011.* When we recorded the Ikon addendum, Cranmore and Jiminy Peak had not yet offered any sort of Ikon Pass discount to their passholders, but Tyler promised details were coming. Passholders can now find offers for a discounted ($229) three-day Ikon Session pass on either ski area's website.Why now was a good time for this interviewFor all the Fairbanks' vision in growing Jiminy from tumbleweed into redwood, sprinting ahead on snowmaking and chairlifts and energy, the company has been slow to acknowledge the largest shift in the consumer-to-resort pipeline this century: the shift to multi-mountain passes. Even their own three mountains share just one day each for sister resort passholders.That's not the same thing as saying they've been wrong to sit and wait. But it's interesting. Why has this company that's been so far ahead for so long been so reluctant to take part in what looks to be a permanent re-ordering of the industry? And why have they continued to succeed in spite of this no-thanks posture?Or so my thinking went when Tyler and I scheduled this podcast a couple of months ago. Then Jiminy, along with sister resort Cranmore, joined the Ikon Pass. Yes, just as a two-day partner in what Alterra is labeling a “bonus” tier, and only on the full Ikon Pass, and with blackout dates. But let's be clear about this: Jiminy Peak and Cranmore joined the Ikon Pass.Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), for me and my Pangea-paced editing process, we'd recorded the bulk of this conversation several weeks before the Ikon announcement. So we recorded a post-Ikon addendum, which explains the mid-podcast wardrobe change.It will be fascinating to observe, over the next decade, how the remaining holdouts manage themselves in the Epkon-atronic world that is not going away. Will big indies such as Jackson Hole and Alta eventually eject the pass masses as a sort of high-class differentiator? Will large regional standouts like Whitefish and Bretton Woods and Baker and Wolf Creek continue to stand alone in a churning sea of joiners? Or will some economic cataclysm force a re-ordering of the companies piloting these warships, splintering them into woodchips and resetting us back to some version of 1995, where just about every ski area was its own ski area doing battle against every other ski area?I have guesses, but no answers, and no power to do anything, really, other than to watch and ask questions of the Jiminy Peaks of the world as they decide where they fit, and how, and when, into this bizarre and rapidly changing lift-served skiing world that we're all gliding through.Why you should ski Jiminy PeakThere are several versions of each ski area. The trailmap version, cartoonish and exaggerated, designed to be evocative as well as practical, a guide to reality that must bend it to help us understand it. There's the Google Maps version, which straightens out the trailmap but ditches the order and context – it is often difficult to tell, from satellite view, which end of the hill is the top or the bottom, where the lifts run, whether you can walk to the lifts from the parking lot or need to shuttlebus it. There is the oral version, the one you hear from fellow chairlift riders at other resorts, describing their home mountain or an epic day or a secret trail, a vibe or a custom, the thing that makes the place a thing.But the only version of a ski area that matters, in the end, is the lived one. And no amount of research or speculation or YouTube-Insta vibing can equal that. Each mountain is what each mountain is. Determining why they are that way and how that came to be is about 80 percent of why I started this newsletter. And the best mountains, I've found, after skiing hundreds of them, are the ones that surprise you.On paper, Jiminy Peak does not look that interesting: a broad ridge, flat across, a bunch of parallel lifts and runs, a lot of too-wide-and-straight-down. But this is not how it skis. Break left off the sixer and it's go-forever, line after line dropping steeply off a ridge. Down there, somewhere, the Widow White's lift, a doorway to a mini ski area all its own, shooting off, like Supreme at Alta, into a twisting little realm with the long flat runout. Go right off the six-pack and skiers find something else, a ski area from a different time, a trunk trail wrapping gently above a maze of twisting, tangled snow-streets, dozens of potential routes unfolding, gentle but interesting, long enough to inspire a sense of quest and journey.This is not the mountain for everyone. I wish Jiminy had more glades, that they would spin more lifts more often as an alternative to Six-Pack City. But we have Berkshire East for cowboy skiing. Jiminy, an Albany backyarder that considers itself worthy of a $1,051 adult season pass, is aiming for something more buffed and burnished than a typical high-volume city bump. Jiminy doesn't want to be Mountain Creek, NYC's hedonistic free-for-all, or Wachusett, Boston's high-volume, low-cost burner. It's aiming for a little more resort, a little more country club, a little more it-costs-what-it-costs sorry-not-sorry attitude (with a side of swarming kids).Podcast NotesOn other Fairbank Group podcastsOn Joe O'DonnellA 2005 Harvard Business School profile of O'Donnell, who passed away on Jan. 7, 2024 at age 79, gives a nice overview of his character and career:When Joe O'Donnell talks, people listen. Last spring, one magazine ranked him the most powerful person in Boston-head of a privately held, billion-dollar company he built practically from scratch; friend and advisor to politicians of both parties, from Boston's Democratic Mayor Tom Menino to the Bay State's Republican Governor Mitt Romney (MBA '74); member of Harvard's Board of Overseers; and benefactor to many good causes. Not bad for a "cop's kid" who grew up nearby in the blue-collar city of Everett.Read the rest…On Joe O'Donnell “probably owning more ski areas than anyone alive”I wasn't aware of the extent of Joe O'Donnell's deep legacy of ski area ownership, but New England Ski History documents his stints as at least part owner of Magic Mountain VT, Timber Ridge (now defunct, next-door to and still skiable from Magic), Jiminy, Mt. Tom (defunct), and Brodie (also lost). He also served Sugar Mountain, North Carolina as a vendor for years.On stroke survivalKnow how to BE FAST by spending five second staring at this:More, from the CDC.On Jiminy joining the Ikon PassI covered this extensively here:The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and to support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.WhoErik Mogensen, Director of Indy Pass, founder of Entabeni Systems, and temporary owner and General Manager of Black Mountain, New HampshireRecorded onFebruary 25, 2025About Entabeni SystemsEntabeni provides software and hardware engineering exclusively for independent ski areas. Per the company's one-page website:Entabeni: noun; meaning: zulu - "the mountain"We take pride in providing world class software and hardware engineering in true ski bum style.About Indy PassIndy Pass delivers two days each at 181 Alpine and 44 cross-country ski areas, plus discounts at eight Allied resorts and four Cat-skiing outfits for the 2024-25 ski season. Indy has announced several additional partners for the 2025-26 ski season. Here is the probable 2025-26 Alpine roster as of March 2, 2025 (click through for most up-to-date roster):Doug Fish, who has appeared on this podcast four times, founded Indy Pass in 2019. Mogensen, via Entabeni, purchased the pass in 2023.About Black Mountain, New HampshireClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Indy PassLocated in: Jackson, New HampshireYear founded: 1935Pass affiliations: Indy Pass and Indy+ Pass – 2 days, no blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Attitash (:14), Wildcat (:19), Cranmore (:19), Bretton Woods (:40), King Pine (:43), Pleasant Mountain (:48), Sunday River (1:00), Cannon (1:02), Mt. Abram (1:03)Base elevation: 1,250 feetSummit elevation: 2,350 feetVertical drop: 1,100 feetSkiable acres: 140Average annual snowfall: 125 inchesTrail count: 45Lift count: 5 (1 triple, 1 double, 1 J-bar, 1 platter pull, 1 handletow – view Lift Blog's inventory of Black Mountain's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himI first spoke to Mogensen in the summer of 2020. He was somewhere out west, running something called Entabeni Systems, and he had insight into a story that I was working on. Indy Pass founder and owner-at-the-time Doug Fish had introduced us. The conversation was helpful. I wrote the story and moved on.Mogensen didn't. He kept calling. Kept emailing. There was something he wanted me to understand. Not about any particular story that I was writing, but about skiing as a whole. Specifically, about non-megapass skiing. It wasn't working, he insisted. It couldn't work without sweeping and fundamental changes. And he knew how to make those changes. He was already making them, via Entabeni, by delivering jetpack technology to caveman ski areas. They'd been fighting with sticks and rocks but now they had machine guns. But they needed more weapons, and faster.I still didn't get it. Not when Mogensen purchased Indy Pass in March 2023, and not when he joined the board at teetering-on-the-edge-of-existence Antelope Butte, Wyoming the following month. I may not have gotten it until Mogensen assembled, that October, a transcontinental coalition to reverse a New Hampshire mountain's decision to drop dead or contributed, several weeks later, vital funds to help re-open quirky and long-shuttered Hickory, New York.But in May of that year I had a late-night conversation with Doug Fish in a Savannah bar. He'd had no shortage of Indy Pass suitors, he told me. Fish had chosen Erik, he said, not because his longtime tech partner would respect Indy's brand integrity or would refuse to sell to Megaski Inc – though certainly both were true – but because in Mogensen, Fish saw a figure messianic in his conviction that family-owned, crockpots-on-tabletops, two-for-Tuesday skiing must not be in the midst of an extinction event.Mogensen, Fish said, had transformed his world into a laboratory for preventing such a catastrophe, rising before dawn and working all day without pause, focused always and only on skiing. More specifically, on positioning lunch-bucket skiing for a fair fight in the world of Octopus Lifts and $329 lift tickets and suspender-wearing Finance Bros who would swallow the mountains whole if they could poop gold coins out afterward. In service of this vision, Mogensen had created Entabeni from nothing. Indy Pass never would have worked without it, Fish said. “Elon Musk on skis,” Fish called* him. A visionary who would change this thing forever.Fish was, in a way, mediating. I'd written something - who knows what at this point – that Mogensen hadn't been thrilled with. Fish counseled us both against dismissiveness. I needed time to appreciate the full epic; Erik to understand the function of media. We still disagree often, but we understand and appreciate one another's roles. Mogensen is, increasingly, a main character in the story of modern skiing, and I – as a chronicler of such – owe my audience an explanation for why I think so.*This quote hit different two years ago, when Musk was still primarily known as the tireless disruptor who had mainstreamed electric cars. What we talked aboutWhy Indy Pass stepped up to save Black Mountain, New Hampshire; tripling Black's best revenue year ever in one season; how letting skiers brown bag helped increase revenue; how a beaten-up, dated ski area can compete directly with corporate-owned mountains dripping with high-speed lifts and riding cheap mass-market passes; “I firmly believe that skiing is in a bit of an identity crisis”; free cookies as emotional currency; Black's co-op quest; Black's essential elements; skiing's multi-tiered cost crisis; why the fanciest option is often the only option for lifts, snowcats, and snowguns; what ski areas are really competing against (it isn't other ski areas); bringing big tech to small skiing with Entabeni; what happened when teenage Mogensen's favorite ski area closed; “we need to spend 90 percent of our time understanding the problem we're trying to solve, and 10 percent of our time solving it”; why data matters; where small skiing is in the technology curve; “I think it's become very, very obvious that where you can level the playing field very quickly is with technology”; why Entabeni purchased Indy Pass; the percent of day-ticket sales that Indy accounts for at partner ski areas; limiting Indy Pass sales and keeping prices low; is Indy Pass a business?; and why Indy will never add a third day.Questions I wish I'd askedMogensen's tenure at Indy Pass has included some aggressive moves to fend off competition and hold market share. I wrote this series of stories on Indy's showdown with Ski Cooper over its cheap reciprocal pass two years ago:These are examples of headlines that Indy Pass HQ were not thrilled with, but I have a job to do. We could have spent an entire podcast re-hashing this, but the story has already been told, and I'd rather move forward than back.Also, I'd have liked to discuss Antelope Butte, Wyoming and Hickory, New York at length. We glancingly discuss Antelope Butte, and don't mention Hickory at all, but these are both important stories that I intend to explore more deeply in the future.Why now was a good time for this interviewHere's an interesting fact: since 2000, the Major League Baseball team with the highest payroll has won the World Series just three times (the 2018 Red Sox, and the 2000 and '09 Yankees), and made the series but lost it three additional times (the 2017 Dodgers and 2001 and '03 Yankees). Sure, the world champ rocks a top-five payroll about half the time, and the vast majority of series winners sit in the top half of the league payroll-wise, but recent MLB history suggests that the dudes with the most resources don't always win.Which isn't to say it's easy to fight against Epic and Ikon and ski areas with a thousand snowguns and chairlifts that cost more than a fighter jet. But a little creativity helps a lot. And Mogensen has assembled a creative toolkit that independent ski area operators can tap to help them spin-kick their way through the maelstrom:* When ski areas join Indy Pass, they join what amounts to a nationally marketed menu for hungry skiers anxious for variety and novelty. “Why yes, I'll have two servings of the Jay Peak and two Cannon Mountains, but I guess I'll try a side of this Black Mountain so long as I'm here.” Each resulting Indy Pass visit also delivers a paycheck, often from first-time visitors who say, “By gum let's do it again.”* Many ski areas, such as Nub's Nob and Jiminy Peak, build their own snowguns. Some, like Holiday Valley, install their own lifts. The manly man manning machines has been a ski industry trope since the days of Model T-powered ropetows and nine-foot-long skis. But ever so rare is the small ski area that can build, from scratch, a back-end technology system that actually works at scale. Entabeni says “yeah actually let me get this part, Bro.” Tech, as Mogensen says in our interview, is the fastest way for the little dude to catch up with the big dude.* Ski areas can be good businesses. But they often aren't. Costs are high, weather is unpredictable, and skiing is hard, cold, and, typically, far away from where the people live. To avoid the inconvenience of having to turn a profit, many ski areas – Bogus Basin, Mad River Glen, Bridger Bowl – have stabilized themselves under alternate business models, in which every dollar the ski area makes funnels directly back into improving the ski area. Black Mountain is attempting to do the same.I'm an optimist. Ask me about skiing's future, and I will not choose “death by climate change.” It is, instead, thriving through adaptation, to the environment, to technological shifts, to societal habits. Just watch if you don't believe me.Why you should ski Black MountainThere's no obvious answer to this question. Black is surrounded by bangers. Twin-peaked Attitash looms across the valley. Towering Wildcat faces Mt. Washington a dozen miles north. Bretton Woods and Sunday River, glimmering and modern, hoteled and mega-lifted and dripping with snowgun bling, rise to the west and to the east, throwing off the gravity and gravitas to haul marching armies of skiers into their kingdoms. Cranmore gives skiers a modern lift and a big new baselodge. Even formerly beat-up Pleasant Mountain now spins a high-speeder up its 1,200 vertical feet. And to even get to Black from points south, skiers have to pass Waterville, Loon, Cannon, Gunstock, and Ragged, all of which offer more terrain, more vert, faster lifts, bigger lodges, and an easier access road.That's a tough draw. And it didn't help that, until recently, Black was, well, a dump. Seasons were short, investment was limited. When things broke, they stayed broken – Mogensen tells me that Black hadn't made snow above the double chair midstation in 20 years before this winter. When I last showed up to ski at Black, two years ago, I found an empty parking lot and stilled lifts, in spite of assurances on social media and the ski area's website that this was a normal operating day.Mogensen fixed all that. The double now spins to the top every day the ski area is open. New snowguns line many trunk trails. A round of explosives tamed Upper Maple Slalom, transforming the run from what was essentially a cliff into an offramp-smooth drag-racer. The J-bar – America's oldest continuously operating overhead cable lift, in service since 1935 – spins regularly. A handle tow replaced the old rope below the triple. Black has transformed the crippled and sad little mid-mountain lodge into a boisterous party deck with music and champagne and firepits roaring right beneath the double chair. Walls and don't-do-this-or-that signs came down all over the lodge, which, while still crowded, is now stuffed with families and live music and beer glasses clinking in the dusk.And this is year one. Mogensen can't cross five feet of Black's campus without someone stopping him to ask if he's “the Indy Pass guy” and hoisting their phone for selfie-time. They all say some version of “thank you for what you're doing.” They all want in on the co-op. They all want to be part of whatever this crazy, quirky little hill is, which is the opposite of all the zinger lifts and Epkon overload that was supposed to kill off creaky little outfits like this one.Before I skied Black for three days over Presidents' weekend, I was skeptical that Mogensen could summon the interest to transform the mountain into a successful co-op. Did New England really have the appetite for another large throwback ski outfit on top of MRG and Smuggs and Magic? All my doubt evaporated as I watched Mogensen hand out free hot cookies like some orange-clad Santa Claus, as I tailed my 8-year-old son into the low-angle labyrinths of Sugar Glades and Rabbit Run, as I watched the busiest day in the mountain's recorded history fail to produce lift lines longer than three minutes, as Mt. Washington greeted me each time I slid off the Summit double.Black Mountain is a special place, and this is a singular time to go and be a part of it. So do that.Podcast NotesOn Black Mountain's comebackIn October 2023, Black Mountain's longtime owner, John Fichera, abruptly announced that the ski area would close, probably forever. An alarmed Mogensen rolled in with an offer to help: keep the ski area open, and Indy and Entabeni will help you find a buyer. Fichera agreed. I detailed the whole rapid-fire saga here:A year and dozens of perspective buyers later, Black remained future-less heading into the 2024-25 winter. So Mogensen shifted tactics, buying the mountain via Indy Pass and promising to transform the ski area into a co-op:On the Mad River Glen co-opAs of this writing, Mad River Glen, the feisty, single-chair-accessed 2,000-footer that abuts Alterra's Sugarbush, is America's only successful ski co-op. Here's how it started and how it works, per MRG's website:Mad River Glen began a new era in 1995 when its skiers came together to form the Mad River Glen Cooperative. The Cooperative works to fulfill a simple mission;“… to forever protect the classic Mad River Glen skiing experience by preserving low skier density, natural terrain and forests, varied trail character, and friendly community atmosphere for the benefit of shareholders, area personnel and patrons.” …A share in the Mad River Cooperative costs $2,000. Shares may be purchased through a single payment or in 40 monthly installments of $50 with a $150 down payment. The total cost for an installment plan is $2,150 (8.0% Annual Percentage Rate). The installment option enables anyone who loves and appreciates Mad River Glen to become an owner for as little as $50 per month. Either way, you start enjoying the benefits immediately! The only other cost is the annual Advance Purchase Requirement (APR) of $200. Since advance purchases can be applied to nearly every product and service on the mountain, including season passes, tickets, ski school and food, the advance purchase requirement does not represent an additional expense for most shareholders. In order to remain in good standing as a shareholder and receive benefits, your full APR payment must be met each year by September 30th.Black is still working out the details of its co-op. I can't share what I already know, other than to say that Black's organizational structure will be significantly different from MRG's.The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us. 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You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoMatt Jones, President and Chief Operating Officer of Stratton Mountain, VermontRecorded onNovember 11, 2024About Stratton MountainClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Alterra Mountain Company, which also owns:Located in: Winhall, VermontYear founded: 1962Pass affiliations:* Ikon Pass: Unlimited* Ikon Base Pass: Unlimited, holiday blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Bromley (:18), Magic (:24), Mount Snow (:28), Hermitage Club (:33), Okemo (:40), Brattleboro (:52)Base elevation: 1,872 feetSummit elevation: 3,875 feetVertical drop: 2,003 feetSkiable Acres: 670Average annual snowfall: 180 inchesTrail count: 99 (40% novice, 35% intermediate, 16% advanced, 9% expert)Lift count: 14 (1 ten-passenger gondola, 4 six-packs, 1 high-speed quad, 2 fixed-grip quads, 1 triple, 1 double, 4 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Stratton's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himI don't know for sure how many skier visits Stratton pulls each winter, or where the ski area ranks among New England mountains for busyness. Historical data suggests a floor around 400,000 visits, likely good for fifth in the region, behind Killington, Okemo, Sunday River, and Mount Snow. But the exact numbers don't really matter, because the number of skiers that ski at Stratton each winter is many manys. And the number of skiers who have strong opinions about Stratton is that exact same number.Those numbers make Stratton more important than it should be. This is not the best ski area in Vermont. It's not even Alterra's best ski area in Vermont. Jay, MRG, Killington, Smuggs, Stowe, and sister resort Sugarbush are objectively better mountains than Stratton from a terrain point of view (they also get a lot more snow). But this may be one of the most crucial mountains in Alterra's portfolio, a doorway to the big-money East, a brand name for skiers across the region. Stratton is the only ski area that advertises in the New York City Subway, and has for years.But Stratton's been under a bit of stress. The lift system is aging. The gondola is terrible. Stratton was one of those ski areas that was so far ahead of the modernization curve – the mountain had four six-packs by 2001 – that it's now in the position of having to update all of that expensive stuff all at once. And as meaningful updates have lagged, Stratton's biggest New England competitors are running superlifts up the incline at a historic pace, while Alterra lobs hundreds of millions at its western megaresorts. Locals feel shafted, picketing an absentee landlord that they view as negligent. Meanwhile, the crowds pile up, as unlimited Ikon Pass access has holstered the mountain in hundreds of thousands of skiers' wintertime battle belts.If that all sounds a little dramatic, it only reflects the messages in my inbox. I think Alterra has been cc'd on at least some of those emails, because the company is tossing $20 million at Stratton this season, a sum that Jones tells us is just the beginning of massive long-term investment meant to reinforce the mountain's self-image as a destination on its own.What we talked aboutStratton's $20 million offseason; Act 250 masterplanning versus U.S. Forest Service masterplanning; huge snowmaking upgrades and aspirations; what $8 million gets you in employee housing these days; big upgrades for the Ursa and American Express six-packs; a case for rebuilding lifts rather than doing a tear-down and replace; a Tamarack lift upgrade; when Alterra's investment firehose could shift east; leaving Tahoe for Vermont; what can be done about that gondola?; the Kidderbrook lift; parking; RFID; Ikon Pass access levels; and $200 to ski Stratton.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewHow pissed do you think the Punisher was when Disney announced that Ant Man would be the 12th installment in Marvel's cinematic universe? I imagine him seated in his lair, polishing his grenades. “F*****g Ant Man?” He throws a grenade into one of his armored Jeeps, which disintegrates in a supernova of steel parts, tires, and smoke. “Ant Man. Are you f*****g serious with this? I waited through eleven movies. Eleven. Iron Man got three. Thor and Captain f*****g America got two apiece. The Hulk. Two Avengers movies. Something called ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,' about a raccoon and a talking tree that save the goddamn universe or some s**t. And it was my turn, Man. My. Turn. Do these idiots not know that I had three individual comic lines published concurrently in the 1990s? Do they not know that I'm ranked as the ninth-greatest Marvel superhero of all time on this nerd list? Do you know where Ant Man is ranked on that list? Huh? Well, I'll tell you: number 131, behind Rocket Raccoon, U-Go Girl, and Spider Man 2099, whatever the hell any of those are.” The vigilante then loads his rocket launcher and several machine guns into a second armored Jeep, and sets off in search of jaywalkers to murder.Anyway I imagine that's how Stratton felt as it watched the rest of Alterra's cinematic universe release one blockbuster after another. “Oh, OK, so Steamboat not only gets a second gondola, but they get a 600-acre terrain expansion served by their eighth high-speed quad? And it wasn't enough to connect the two sides of Palisades Tahoe with a gondola, but you threw in a brand-new six-pack? And they're tripling the size of Deer Valley. Tripling. 3,700 acres of new terrain and 16 new lifts and a new base village to go with it. That's equal to five-and-a-half Strattons. And Winter Park gets a new six-pack, and Big Bear gets a new six-pack, and Mammoth gets two. Do you have any idea how much these things cost? And I can't even get a gondola that can withstand wind gusts over three miles per hour? Even goddamn Snowshoe – Snowshoe – got a new lift before I did. I didn't even think West Virginia was actually a real place. I swear if these f*****s announce a new June Mountain out-of-base lift before I get my bling, things are gonna get Epic around here.”Well, it's finally Stratton's turn, with $20 million in upgrades inbound. Alterra wasn't exactly mining the depths of locals' dreams to decide where to deploy the cash – snowmaking, employee housing, lift overhauls – and a gondola replacement isn't coming anytime soon, but they're pretty smart investments when you dig into them. Which we do.Questions I wish I'd askedAmong the items that I would have liked to have discussed given more time: the Appalachian Trail's path across the top of Stratton Mountain, Stratton as birthplace of modern snowboarding, and the Stratton Mountain School.What I got wrong* I said that Epic Pass access had remained mostly unchanged for the past decade, which is not quite right. When Vail first added Stowe to the Epic Local Pass for the 2017-18 season, they slotted the resort into the bucket of 10 days shared with Vail, Beaver Creek, and Whistler. At some point, Stowe received its own basket of 10 days, apart from the western resorts.* I said that Sunday River's Jordan eight-pack was wind-resistant “because of the weight.” While that is one factor, the lift's ability to run in high winds relies on a more complex set of anti-sway technology, none of which I really understand, but that Sunday River GM Brian Heon explained on The Storm earlier this year:Why you should ski StrattonA silent skiing demarcation line runs roughly along US 4 through Vermont. Every ski area along or above this route – Killington, Pico, Sugarbush, Mad River Glen, Stowe, Smuggs – lets trails bump up, maintains large glade networks, and generally provides you with balanced, diverse terrain. Everything below that line – Okemo, Bromley, Mount Snow – generally don't do any of these things, or offer them sporadically, and in the most shrunken form possible. There are some exceptions on both sides. Saskadena Six, a bump just north of US 4, operates more like the Southies. Magic, in the south, better mirrors the MRG/Sugarbush model. And then there's Stratton.Good luck finding bumps at Stratton. Maybe you'll stumble onto the remains of a short competition course here or there, but, generally, this is a groom-it-all-every-day kind of ski area. Which would typically make it a token stop on my annual rounds. But Stratton has one great strength that has long made it a quasi-home mountain for me: glades.The glade network is expansive and well-maintained. The lines are interesting and, in places, challenging. You wouldn't know this from the trailmap, which portrays the tree-skiing areas as little islands lodged onto Stratton's hulk. But there are lots of them, and they are plenty long. On a typical pow day, I'll park at Sun Bowl and ski all the glades from Test Pilot over to West Pilot and back. It takes all day and I barely touch a groomer.And the glades are open more often than you'd think. While northern Vermont is the undisputed New England snow king, with everything from Killington north counting 250-plus inches in an average winter, the so-called Golden Triangle of Stratton, Bromley, and Magic sits in a nice little micro-snow-pocket. And Stratton, the skyscraping tallest peak in that region of the state, devours a whole bunch (180 inches on average) to fill in those glades.And if you are Groomer Greg, you're in luck: Stratton has 99 of them. And the grooming is excellent. Just start early, because they get scraped off by the NYC hordes who camp out there every weekend. The obsessive grooming does make this a good family spot, and the long green trail from the top down to the base is one of the best long beginner runs anywhere.Podcast NotesOn Act 250This is the 20th Vermont-focused Storm Skiing Podcast, and I think we've referenced Act 250 in all of them. If you're unfamiliar with this law, it is, according to the official state website:…Vermont's land use and development law, enacted in 1970 at a time when Vermont was undergoing significant development pressure. The law provides a public, quasi-judicial process for reviewing and managing the environmental, social and fiscal consequences of major subdivisions and developments in Vermont. It assures that larger developments complement Vermont's unique landscape, economy and community needs. One of the strengths of Act 250 is the access it provides to neighbors and other interested parties to participate in the development review process. Applicants often work with neighbors, municipalities, state agencies and other interested groups to address concerns raised by a proposed development, resolving issues and mitigating impacts before a permit application is filed.On Stratton's masterplanStratton is currently updating its masterplan. It will retain some elements of this 2013 version. Some elements of this – most notably a new Snow Bowl lift in 2018 – have been completed:One curious element of this masterplan is the proposed lift up the Kidderbrook trail – around 2007, Stratton removed a relatively new (installed 1989) Poma fixed-grip quad from that location. Here it is on the far left-hand side of the 2005 trailmap:On Stratton's ownership historyStratton's history mirrors that of many large New England ski areas: independent founders run the ski area for decades; founders fall into financial peril and need private equity/banking rescue; bank sells to a giant out-of-state conglomerate; which then sells to another giant out-of-state conglomerate; which eventually turns into something else. In Stratton's case, Robert Wright/Frank Snyder -> Moore and Munger -> Japanese company Victoria USA -> Intrawest -> Alterra swallows the carcass of Intrawest. You can read all about it on New England Ski History.Here was Intrawest's roster, if you're curious:On Alterra's building bingeSince its 2018 founding, Alterra has invested aggressively in its properties: a 2.4-mile-long, $65 million gondola connecting Alpine Meadows to the Olympic side of Palisades Tahoe; $200 million in the massive Mahogany Ridge expansion and a three-mile-long gondola at Steamboat; and an untold fortune on Deer Valley's transformation into what will be the fourth-largest ski area in the United States. Plus new lifts all over the place, new snowmaking all over the place, new lodges all over the place. Well, all over the place except for at Stratton, until now.On Boyne and Vail's investments in New EnglandAmplifying Stratton Nation's pain is the fact that Alterra's two big New England competitors – Vail Resorts and Boyne Resorts – have built a combined 16 new lifts in the region over the past five years, including eight-place chairs at Loon and Sunday River (Boyne), and six-packs at Stowe, Okemo, and Mount Snow (Vail). They've also replaced highly problematic legacy chairs at Attitash (Vail) and Pleasant Mountain (Boyne). Boyne has also expanded terrain at Loon, Sunday River, and, most notably – by 400 acres – Sugarloaf. And it's worth noting that independents Waterville Valley and Killington have also dropped new sixers in recent years (Killington will build another next year). Meanwhile, Alterra's first chairlift just landed this summer, at Sugarbush, which is getting a fixed-grip quad to replace the Heaven's Gate triple.On gondola wind holdsJust in case you want to blame windholds on some nefarious corporate meddling, here's a video I took of Kirkwood's Cornice Express spinning in 50-mile-per-hour winds when Jones was running the resort last year. Every lift has its own distinct profile that determines how it manages wind.On shifting Ikon Pass accessWhen Alterra launched the Ikon Pass in 2018, the company limited Base Pass holders to five days at Stratton, with holiday blackouts. Ahead of the 2020-21 season, the company updated Base Pass access to unlimited days with those same holiday blackouts. Alterra and its partners have made several such changes in Ikon's seven years. I've made this nifty chart that tracks them all (if you missed the memo, Solitude just upgraded Ikon Base pass access to eliminate holiday blackouts):On historic Stratton lift ticket pricesAgain, New England Ski History has done a nice job documenting Stratton's year-to-year peak lift ticket rates:The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 76/100 in 2024, and number 576 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Sept. 11. It dropped for free subscribers on Sept. 19. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoMatt Davies, General Manager of Cypress Mountain, British ColumbiaRecorded onAugust 5, 2024About Cypress MountainClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Boyne ResortsLocated in: West Vancouver, British ColumbiaYear founded: 1970Pass affiliations:* Ikon Pass: 7 days, no blackouts* Ikon Base Pass: 5 days, holiday blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Grouse Mountain (:28), Mt. Seymour (:55) – travel times vary considerably given weather, time of day, and time of yearBase elevation: 2,704 feet/824 meters (base of Raven Ridge quad)Summit elevation: 4,720 feet/1,440 meters (summit of Mt. Strachan)Vertical drop: 2,016 feet/614 meters total | 1,236 feet/377 meters on Black Mountain | 1,720 feet/524 meters on Mt. StrachanSkiable Acres: 600 acresAverage annual snowfall: 245 inches/622 cmTrail count: 53 (13% beginner, 43% intermediate, 44% difficult)Lift count: 7 (2 high-speed quads, 3 fixed-grip quads, 1 double, 1 carpet – view Lift Blog's inventory of Cypress' lift fleet)View historic Cypress Mountain trailmaps on skimap.org.Why I interviewed himI'm stubbornly obsessed with ski areas that are in places that seem impractical or improbable: above Los Angeles, in Indiana, in a New Jersey mall. Cypress doesn't really fit into this category, but it also sort of does. It makes perfect sense that a ski area would sit north of the 49th Parallel, scraping the same snow train that annually buries the mountains from Mt. Bachelor all the way to Whistler. It seems less likely that a 2,000-vertical-foot ski area would rise just minutes outside of Canada's third-largest city, one known for its moderate climate. But Cypress is exactly that, and offers – along with its neighbors Grouse Mountain and Mt. Seymour – a bite of winter anytime cityfolk want to open the refrigerator door.There's all kinds of weird stuff going on here, actually. Why is this little locals' bump – a good ski area, and a beautiful one, but no one's destination – decorated like a four-star general of skiing? 2010 Winter Olympics host mountain. Gilded member of Alterra's Ikon Pass. A piece of Boyne's continent-wide jigsaw puzzle. It's like you show up at your buddy's one-room hunting cabin and he's like yeah actually I built like a Batcave/wave pool/personal zoo with rideable zebras underneath. And you're like dang Baller who knew?What we talked aboutOffseason projects; snowmaking evolution since Boyne's 2001 acquisition; challenges of getting to 100 percent snowmaking; useful parking lot snow; how a challenging winter became “a pretty incredible experience for the whole team”; last winter: el nino or climate change?; why working for Whistler was so much fun; what happened when Vail Resorts bought Whistler – “I don't think there was a full understanding of the cultural differences between Canadians and Americans”; the differences between Cypress and Whistler; working for Vail versus working for Boyne – “the mantra at Boyne Resorts is that ‘we're a company of ski resorts, not a ski resort company'”; the enormous and potentially enormously transformative Cypress Village development; connecting village to ski area via aerial lift; future  lift upgrades, including potential six-packs; potential night-skiing expansion; paid parking incoming; the Ikon Pass; the 76-day pass guarantee; and Cypress' Olympic legacy.Why now was a good time for this interviewMountain town housing is most often framed as an intractable problem, ingrown and malignant and impossible to reset or rethink or repair. Too hard to do. But it is not hard to do. It is the easiest thing in the world. To provide more housing, municipalities must allow developers to build more housing, and make them do it in a way that is dense and walkable, that is mixed with commerce, that gives people as many ways to move around without a car as possible.This is not some new or brilliant idea. This is simply how humans built villages for about 10,000 years, until the advent of the automobile. Then we started building our spaces for machines instead of for people. This was a mistake, and is the root problem of every mountain town housing crisis in North America. That and the fact that U.S. Americans make no distinction between the hyper-thoughtful new urbanist impulses described here and the sprawling shitpile of random buildings that are largely the backdrop of our national life. The very thing that would inject humanity into the mountains is recast as a corrupting force that would destroy a community's already-compromised-by-bad-design character.Not that it will matter to our impossible American brains, but Canada is about to show us how to do this. Over the next 25 years, a pocket of raw forest hard against Cypress' access road will sprout a city of 3,711 homes that will house thousands of people. It will be a human-scaled, pedestrian-first community, a city neighborhood dropped onto a mountainside. A gondola could connect the complex to Cypress' lifts thousands of feet up the mountain – more cars off the road. It would look like this (the potential aerial lift is not depicted here):Here's how the whole thing would set up against the mountain:And here's what it would be like at ground level:Like wow that actually resembles something that is not toxic to the human soul. But to a certain sort of Mother Earth evangelist, the mere suggestion of any sort of mountainside development is blasphemous. I understand this impulse, but I believe that it is misdirected, a too-late reflex against the subdivision-off-an-exit-ramp Build- A-Bungalow mentality that transformed this country into a car-first sprawlscape. I believe a reset is in order: to preserve large tracts of wilderness, we should intensely develop small pieces of land, and leave the rest alone. This is about to happen near Cypress. We should pay attention.More on Cypress Village:* West Vancouver Approves ‘Transformational' Plan for Cypress Village Development - North Shore News* West Vancouver Approves Cypress Village Development with Homes for Nearly 7,000 People - UrbanizedWhat I got wrong* I said that Cypress had installed the Easy Rider quad in 2021, rather than 2001 (the correct year).* I also said that certain no-ski zones on Vail Mountain's trailmap were labelled as “lynx habitat.” They are actually labelled as “wildlife habitat.” My confusion stemmed from the resort's historical friction with the pro-Lynxers.Why you should ski Cypress MountainYou'll see it anyway on your way north to Whistler: the turnoff to Cypress Bowl Road. Four switchbacks and you're there, to a cut in the mountains surrounded by chairlifts, neon-green Olympic rings standing against the pines.This is not Whistler and no one will try to tell you that it is, including the guy running the place, who put in two decades priming the machine just up the road. But Cypress is not just a waystation either, or a curiosity, or a Wednesday evening punchcard for Vancouver Cubicle Bro. Two thousand vertical feet is a lot of vertical feet. It often snows here by the Dumpster load. Off the summits, spectacular views, panoramic, sweeping, a jigsaw interlocking of the manmade and natural worlds. The terrain is varied, playful, plentiful. And when the snow settles and the trees fill in, a bit of an Incredible Hulk effect kicks on, as this mild-mannered Bruce Banner of a ski area flexes into something bigger and beefier, an unlikely superhero of the Vancouver heights.But Cypress is also not a typical Ikon Pass resort: 600 acres, six chairlifts, not a single condo tucked against the hill. It's a ski area that's just a ski area. It rains a lot. A busy-day hike up from the most distant parking lot can eat an irrevocable part of your soul (new shuttles this year should help that). Snowmaking, by Boyne standards, is limited, (though punchy for B.C.). The lift fleet, also by Boyne standards, feels merely adequate, rather than the am-I-in-Austria-or-Montana explosive awe that hits you at the base of Big Sky.  To describe a ski area as both spectacular and ordinary feels like a contradiction (or, worse, lazy on my part). But Cypress is in fact both of these things. Lodged in a national park, yet part of Vancouver's urban fabric. Brown-dirt trails in February and dang-where'd-I-leave-my-giraffe deep 10 days later. Just another urban ski area, but latched onto a pass with Aspen and Alta, a piece of a company that includes Big Sky and Big Cottonwood and a pair of New England ski areas that dwarf their Brother Cypress. A stop on the way north to Whistler, but much more than that as well.Podcast NotesOn the 2010 Winter OlympicsA summary of Cypress' Olympic timeline, from the mountain's history page:On Whistler BlackcombWe talk quite a bit about Whistler, where Davies worked for two decades. Here's a trailmap so you don't have to go look it up:On animosity between the merger of Whistler and BlackcombI covered this when I hosted Whistler COO Belinda Trembath on the podcast a few months back.On neighborsCypress is one of three ski areas seated just north of Vancouver. The other two are Grouse Mountain and Mt. Seymour, which we allude to briefly in the podcast. Here are some visuals:On Boyne's building bingeI won't itemize everything here, but over the past half decade or so, Boyne has leapt ahead of everyone else in North American in adoption of hyper-modern lift technology. The company operates all five eight-place chairlift in the United States, has built four advanced six-packs, just built a rocketship-speedy tram at Big Sky, has rebuilt and repurposed four high-speed quads within its portfolio, and has upgraded a bucketload of aging fixed-grip chairs. And many more lifts, including two super-advanced gondolas coming to Big Sky, are on their way.On Sunday River's progression carpetsThis is how carpets ought to be stacked – as a staircase from easiest to hardest, letting beginners work up their confidence with short bursts of motion:On side-by-side carpetsBoyne has two of these bad boys, as far as I know – one at Big Sky, and one at Summit at Snoqualmie, both installed last year. Here's the Big Sky lift:On Ikon resorts in B.C. and proximity to CypressWhile British Columbia is well-stocked with Ikon Pass partners – Revelstoke, Red Mountain, Panorama, Sun Peaks – none of them is anywhere near Cypress. The closest, Sun Peaks, is four to five hours under the best conditions. The next closest Ikon Pass partner is The Summit at Snoqualmie, four hours and an international border south – so more than twice the distance as that little place north of Cypress called Whistler. The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 56/100 in 2024, and number 556 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on June 26. It dropped for free subscribers on July 3. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoJD Crichton, General Manager of Wildcat Mountain, New HampshireRecorded onMay 30, 2024About WildcatClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Vail ResortsLocated in: Gorham, New HampshireYear founded: 1933 (lift service began in 1957)Pass affiliations:* Epic Pass, Epic Local Pass, Northeast Value Pass – unlimited access* Northeast Midweek Pass – unlimited weekday accessClosest neighboring ski areas: Black Mountain, New Hampshire (:18), Attitash (:22), Cranmore (:28), Sunday River (:45), Mt. Prospect Ski Tow (:46), Mt. Abram (:48), Bretton Woods (:48), King Pine (:50), Pleasant Mountain (:57), Cannon (1:01), Mt. Eustis Ski Hill (1:01)Base elevation: 1,950 feetSummit elevation: 4,062 feetVertical drop: 2,112 feetSkiable Acres: 225Average annual snowfall: 200 inchesTrail count: 48 (20% beginner, 47% intermediate, 33% advanced)Lift count: 5 (1 high-speed quad, 3 triples, 1 carpet)Why I interviewed himI've always been skeptical of acquaintances who claim to love living in New Jersey because of “the incredible views of Manhattan.” Because you know where else you can find incredible views of Manhattan? In Manhattan. And without having to charter a hot-air balloon across the river anytime you have to go to work or see a Broadway play.* But sometimes views are nice, and sometimes you want to be adjacent-to-but-not-necessarily-a-part-of something spectacular and dramatic. And when you're perched summit-wise on Wildcat, staring across the street at Mount Washington, the most notorious and dramatic peak on the eastern seaboard, it's hard to think anything other than “damn.”Flip the view and the sentiment reverses as well. The first time I saw Wildcat was in summertime, from the summit of Mount Washington. Looking 2,200 feet down, from above treeline, it's an almost quaint-looking ski area, spare but well-defined, its spiderweb trail network etched against the wild Whites. It feels as though you could reach down and put it in your pocket. If you didn't know you were looking at one of New England's most abrasive ski areas, you'd probably never guess it.Wildcat could feel tame only beside Mount Washington, that open-faced deathtrap hunched against 231-mile-per-hour winds. Just, I suppose, as feisty New Jersey could only seem placid across the Hudson from ever-broiling Manhattan. To call Wildcat the New Jersey of ski areas would seem to imply some sort of down-tiering of the thing, but over two decades on the East Coast, I've come to appreciate oft-abused NJ as something other than New York City overflow. Ignore the terrible drivers and the concrete-bisected arterials and the clusters of third-world industry and you have a patchwork of small towns and beach towns, blending, to the west and north, with the edges of rolling Appalachia, to the south with the sweeping Pine Barrens, to the east with the wild Atlantic.It's actually pretty nice here across the street, is my point. Even if it's not quite as cozy as it looks. This is a place as raw and wild and real as any in the world, a thing that, while forever shadowed by its stormy neighbor, stands just fine on its own.*It's not like living in New Jersey is some kind of bargain. It's like paying Club Thump Thump prices for grocery store Miller Lite. Or at least that was my stance until I moved my smug ass to Brooklyn.What we talked aboutMountain cleanup day; what it took to get back to long seasons at Wildcat and why they were truncated for a handful of winters; post-Vail-acquisition snowmaking upgrades; the impact of a $20-an-hour minimum wage on rural New Hampshire; various bargain-basement Epic Pass options; living through major resort acquisitions; “there is no intention to make us all one and the same”; a brief history of Wildcat; how skiers lapped Wildcat before mechanical lifts; why Wildcat Express no longer transforms from a chairlift to a gondola for summer ops; contemplating Wildcat Express replacements; retroactively assessing the removal of the Catapult lift; the biggest consideration in determining the future of Wildcat's lift fleet; when a loaded chair fell off the Snowcat lift in 2022; potential base area development; and Attitash as sister resort.   Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewSince it's impossible to discuss any Vail mountain without discussing Vail Resorts, I'll go ahead and start there. The Colorado-based company's 2019 acquisition of wild Wildcat (along with 16 other Peak resorts), met the same sort of gasp-oh-how-can-corporate-Vail-ever-possibly-manage-a-mountain-that-doesn't-move-skiers-around-like-the-fat-humans-on-the-space-base-in-Wall-E that greeted the acquisitions of cantankerous Crested Butte (2018), Whistler (2016), and Kirkwood (2012). It's the same sort of worry-warting that Alterra is up against as it tries to close the acquisition of Arapahoe Basin. But, as I detailed in a recent podcast episode on Kirkwood, the surprising thing is how little can change at these Rad Brah outposts even a dozen years after The Consumption Event.But, well. At first the Angry Ski Bros of upper New England seemed validated. Vail really didn't do a great job of running Wildcat from 2019 to 2022-ish. The confluence of Covid, inherited deferred maintenance, unfamiliarity with the niceties of East Coast operations, labor shortages, Wal-Mart-priced passes, and the distractions caused by digesting 20 new ski areas in one year contributed to shortened seasons, limited terrain, understaffed operations, and annoyed customers. It didn't help when a loaded chair fell off the Snowcat triple in 2022. Vail may have run ski resorts for decades, but the company had never encountered anything like the brash, opinionated East, where ski areas are laced tightly together, comparisons are easy, and migrations to another mountain if yours starts to suck are as easy as a five-minute drive down the road.But Vail is settling into the Northeast, making major lift upgrades at Stowe, Mount Snow, Okemo, Attitash, and Hunter since 2021. Mandatory parking reservations have helped calm once-unmanageable traffic around Stowe and Mount Snow. The Epic Pass – particularly the northeast-specific versions – has helped to moderate region-wide season pass prices that had soared to well over $1,000 at many ski areas. The company now seems to understand that this isn't Keystone, where you can make snow in October and turn the system off for 11 months. While Vail still seems plodding in Pennsylvania and the lower Midwest, where seasons are too short and the snowmaking efforts often underwhelming, they appear to have cracked New England – operationally if not always necessarily culturally.That's clear at Wildcat, where seasons are once again running approximately five months, operations are fully staffed, and the pitchforks are mostly down. Wildcat has returned to the fringe, where it belongs, to being an end-of-the-road day-trip alternative for people who prefer ski areas to ski resorts (and this is probably the best ski-area-with-no-public-onsite lodging in New England). Locals I speak with are generally happy with the place, which, this being New England, means they only complain about it most of the time, rather than all of the time. Short of moving the mountain out of its tempestuous microclimate and into Little Cottonwood Canyon, there isn't much Vail could do to change that, so I'd suggest taking the win.What I got wrongWhen discussing the installation of the Wildcat Express and the decommissioning of the Catapult triple, I made a throwaway reference to “whoever owned the mountain in the late ‘90s.” The Franchi family owned Wildcat from 1986 until selling the mountain to Peak Resorts in 2010.Why you should ski WildcatThere isn't much to Wildcat other than skiing. A parking lot, a baselodge, scattered small buildings of unclear utility - all of them weather-beaten and slightly ramshackle, humanity's sad ornaments on nature's spectacle.But the skiing. It's the only thing there is and it's the only thing that matters. One high-speed lift straight to the top. There are other lifts but if the 2,041-vertical-foot Wildcat Express is spinning you probably won't even notice, let alone ride, them. Straight up, straight down. All day long or until your fingers fall off, which will probably take about 45 minutes.The mountain doesn't look big but it is big. Just a few trails off the top but these quickly branch infinitely like some wild seaside mangrove, funneling skiers, whatever their intent, into various savage channels of its bell-shaped footprint. Descending the steepness, Mount Washington, so prominent from the top, disappears, somehow too big to be seen, a paradox you could think more about if you weren't so preoccupied with the skiing.It's not that the skiing is great, necessarily. When it's great it's amazing. But it's almost never amazing. It's also almost never terrible. What it is, just about all the time, is a fight, a mottled, potholed, landmine-laced mother-bleeper of a mountain that will not cede a single turn without a little backtalk. This is not an implication of the mountain ops team. Wildcat is about as close to an un-tamable mountain as you'll find in the over-groomed East. If you've ever tried building a sandcastle in a rising tide, you have a sense of what it's like trying to manage this cantankerous beast with its impossible weather and relentless pitch.We talk a bit, on the podcast, about Wildcat's better-than-you'd-suppose beginner terrain and top-to-bottom green trail. But no one goes there for that. The easy stuff is a fringe benefit for edgier families, who don't want to pinch off the rapids just because they're pontooning on the lake. Anyone who truly wants to coast knows to go to Bretton Woods or Cranmore. Wildcat packs the rowdies like jacket-flask whisky, at hand for the quick hit or the bender, for as dicey a day as you care to make it.Podcast NotesOn long seasons at WildcatWildcat, both under the Franchi family (1986 to 2010), and Peak Resorts, had made a habit of opening early and closing late. During Vail Resorts' first three years running the mountain, those traditions slipped, with later-than-normal openings and earlier-than-usual closings. Obviously we toss out the 2020 early close, but fall 2020 to spring 2022 were below historical standards. Per New England Ski History:On Big Lifts: New England EditionI noted that the Wildcat Express quad delivered one of the longest continuous vertical rises of any New England lift. I didn't actually know where the machine ranked, however, so I made this chart. The quad lands at an impressive number five among all lifts, and is third among chairlifts, in the six-state region:Kind of funny that, even in 2024, two of the 10 biggest vertical drops in New England still belong to fixed-grip chairs (also arguably the two best terrain pods in Vermont, with Madonna at Smuggs and the single at MRG).The tallest lifts are not always the longest lifts, and Wildcat Express ranks as just the 13th-longest lift in New England. A surprise entrant in the top 15 is Stowe's humble Toll House double, a 6,400-foot-long chairlift that rises just 890 vertical feet. Another inconspicuous double chair – Sugarloaf's older West Mountain lift – would have, at 6,968 feet, have made this list (at No. 10) before the resort shortened it last year (to 4,130 feet). It's worth noting that, as far as I know, Sugarbush's Slide Brook Express is the longest chairlift in the world.On Herman MountainCrichton grew up skiing at Hermon Mountain, a 300-ish footer outside of Bangor, Maine. The bump still runs the 1966 Poma T-bar that he skied off of as a kid, as well as a Stadeli double moved over from Pleasant Mountain in 1998 (and first installed there, according to Lift Blog, in 1967. The most recent Hermon Mountain trailmap that I can find dates to 2007:On the Epic Northeast Value Pass versus other New England season passes Vail's Epic Northeast Value Pass is a stupid good deal: $613 for unlimited access to the company's four New Hampshire ski areas (Wildcat, Attitash, Mount Sunapee, Crotched), non-holiday access to Mount Snow and Okemo, and 10 non-holiday days at Stowe (plus access to Hunter and everything Vail operates in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan). Surveying New England's 25 largest ski areas, the Northeast Value Pass is less-expensive than all but Smugglers' Notch ($599), Black Mountain of Maine ($465), Pico ($539), and Ragged ($529). All of those save Ragged's are single-mountain passes.On the Epic Day PassYes I am still hung up on the Epic Day Pass, and here's why:On consolidationI referenced Powdr's acquisition of Copper Mountain in 2009 and Vail's purchase of Crested Butte in 2018. Here's an inventory all the U.S. ski areas owned by a company with two or more resorts:On Wildcat's old Catapult liftWhen Wildcat installed its current summit chair in 1997, they removed the Catapult triple, a shorter summit lift (Lift F below) that had provided redundancy to the summit alongside the old gondola (Lift A):Interestingly, the old gondy, which dated to 1957, remained in place for two more years. Here's a circa 1999 trailmap, showing both the Wildcat Express and the gondola running parallel from base to summit:It's unclear how often both lifts actually ran simultaneously in the winter, but the gondola died with the 20th Century. The Wildcat Express was a novel transformer lift, which converted from a high-speed quad chair in the winter to a four-passenger gondola in the summer. Vail, for reasons Crichton explains in the podcast, abandoned that configuration and appears to have no intentions of restoring it.On the Snowcat lift incidentA bit more on the January 2022 chairlift accident at Wildcat, per SAM:On Saturday, Jan. 8, a chair carrying a 22-year-old snowboarder on the Snowcat triple at Wildcat Mountain, N.H., detached from the haul rope and fell nearly 10 feet to the ground. Wildcat The guest was taken to a nearby hospital with serious rib injuries.According to state fire marshal Sean Toomey, the incident began after the chair was misloaded—meaning the guest was not properly seated on the chair as it continued moving out of the loading area. The chair began to swing as it traveled uphill, struck a lift tower and detached from the haul rope, falling to the ground. Snowcat is a still-active Riblet triple, and attaches to the haulrope with a device called an “insert clip.” I found this description of these novel devices on a random blog from 2010, so maybe don't include this in a report to Congress on the state of the nation's lift fleet:[Riblet] closed down in 2003. There are still quite a few around; from the three that originally were at The Canyons, only the Golden Eagle chair survives today. Riblet built some 500 lifts. The particularities of the Riblet chair are their grips, which are called insert clips. It is a very ingenious device and it is very safe too. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, You'll see a sketch below showing the detail of the clip.… One big benefit of the clip is that it provides a very smooth ride over the sheave trains, particularly under the compression sheaves, something that traditional clam/jaw grips cannot match. The drawback is that the clip cannot be visually inspected at it is the case with other grips. Also, the code required to move the grip every 2 years or 2,000 hours, whichever comes first. This is the same with traditional grips.This is a labor-intensive job and a special tool has been developed: The Riblet "Grip Detensioner." It's showed on a second picture representing the tool in action. You can see the cable in the middle with the strands separated, which allows the insertion of the clip. Also, the fiber or plastic core of the wire rope has to be cut where the clip is inserted. When the clip is moved to another location of the cable, a plastic part has to be placed into the cable to replace the missing piece of the core. Finally, the Riblet clip cannot be placed on the spliced section of the rope.Loaded chairs utilizing insert clips also detached from lifts at Snowriver (2021) and 49 Degrees North (2020). An unoccupied, moving chair fell from Heavenly's now-retired North Bowl triple in 2016.The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 44/100 in 2024, and number 544 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

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由薰在《Blue Moment》当中唱到“她有一个梦 少了你就不完整”。对于一个小小的节目而言，也是一样的。《苏咖啡》频道在2024年的更新计划是每月1期《日音时光机》和1期《被忘录》。【曲目清单】00:14 由薰[Yu-ka] - Blue Moment02:46 The Burning Deadwoods - No Other Way feat. Dedachi Kenta & Sincere04:14 Tokimeki Records - 接吻 feat. Hikari & Melraw (口播时把Tokimeki Records和Melraw说反了！)07:04 Paper Moon Project - Candy feat. 児島未散09:05 Hara Kanako & 倉品翔 - 36011:24 DEEN - Kiss and Hug with paris match14:07 Sakai Yu [酒井優] - Shibuya Night16:44 Lagheads - Dance (feat. HIMI[佐藤緋美])19:21 Yo-sea - Moonlight21:10 LUCKY TAPES - ルージュ feat. 向井太一[Rouge]26:13 Kojikoji / Rin音 - 花束 (Prod. GeG) 【栏目介绍】《日音时光机》是《苏咖啡》频道专注挑选分享日本流行音乐的选曲节目。歌单定稿：2024年1月27日录音工程：2024年1月28日节目编号：苏咖啡 S02 E08【联系susu】听友群助手：onaircafe 回复较慢susu个人IG/Threads：djsusu查看节目原文：https://music.163.com/m/program?id=2536678254&radio=794760602

In this episode, I speak with the Jason Gulya who is one of my top voices of AI and education. Note that this was a conversation we had back in November 2023, but due to a computer crash and loss of files it has taken me time to restore and fix all files. I was able to save this file thank goodness.Here is his bio so you can learn more about himI am currently Professor of English at Berkeley College. I have been working in higher education for about 10 years and--before coming to Berkeley--have held positions at Rutgers University, Raritan Valley Community College, and Brookdale Community College.As a professor I teach onsite and online courses on a variety of topics--including composition, literature, film, and the humanities more broadly. I am also a proud member of the Honors Program faculty at Berkeley. In 2020, I received my college's award for Excellence in Teaching.My research focuses primarily on literature, pedagogy, and grammar. I have published in a wide variety of journals, including (but not limited to) "Literary Imagination," "Pedagogy," "Dialogue," and "eCampus News." I have also written chapters for the books "Allegory Studies: Contemporary Perspectives" (forthcoming from Routledge), "Adapting the 18th Century" (University of Rochester Press, 2020) and "Reflections on Academic Lives" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). My research has been supported by fellowships and grants from Berkeley College, Rutgers University, Harvard University, and Cornell University. WHERE CAN I LISTEN?No matter how you listen to your podcasts I should be there.Check the link here to follow and subscribeAnd I recently started posting on my YouTube channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@coffeechugDirect Link: https://coffeechug.simplecast.com/episodes/190 Challenges & GoalsJason's main challenge is adapting traditional teaching methods to incorporate emerging technologies like AI. His goal is fostering an environment conducive for experimentation and innovative learning practices.How do we face the challenge of reducing low-level managerial tasks without compromising foundational knowledge? Perhaps a goal is to use AI to automate certain tasks, freeing up time for more enriching activities.Surprising TakeawaysJason advocates for educators being open about trying new things, even if they are not fully formed ideas yet.Emphasizing the importance of restorative breaks where individuals engage in mindless yet mentally refreshing activities.Jason would never automate his social presence because he learns from talking and writing.Giving students the ability to choose, not just whether they're using AI, but how they're using it and how it's actually being worked into their process.Emerging PatternsBoth of us are grapple with shifting from traditional learning methods towards technology-enhanced ones.There's a common theme among educators that while automation can be beneficial, it should not replace all human elements in education or daily routines.Key MomentsQuotes from Jason:I think one of the productive things that can come out of this level of disruption is a culture of experimentation.We ask our students to experiment all the time. Like that's that, especially in the K to 12 certainly. And higher ed too that we want our students, you know, we give them something new. We do this all the time. I don't even think about it. We say here's something new to read, something new to watch, something new to process and engage with it. Just experiment, test it out whether it's in, you know, traditional assessment or nontraditional assessment. And so in many ways, we need to just practice that. We need to do that, right? We have this new stuff. So experiment play with it, iterate, see what works And then you kind of go from there. And I think that we all have this desire um from the instructor side for perfection. We want, we think that and I think this is an error. We think that the best way to serve our students is to give them a fully realized polished product, right? Which is the course. But I think the exact opposite is true. I think something changes when you tell students that I'm trying something new, I'm gonna try a different form of assessment and I want your feedback about how it worked. I think that fundamentally changes the feel of the virtual room or actual physical room. So I think that the culture of experimentation is something we need to really, really conserve and prize because that's, that's what we want our students to do. You want them to experiment and play?....sometimes the key to making an assignment A I proof is to create a better assignment.So normally with the essay form, I would spend the first hour looking, not even reading anything, not even like doing like what we all do and what, what we like, you know, giving feedback and engaging with ideas. But going through the Turnitin reports, scanning them, finding information. I would lose an hour to two hours. And then sending emails to students that it came up a 70% on Turnitin. So I'm not doing that anymore. I no longer have that task. So the, the amount of time that I put to create the assignment I save later on at least a little bit.It's not that you're you're saving time but repurposing time and how much better time spent for you and for the students to be engaged in reading their thinking and having conversations about their thinking. That's such a more enriching learning opportunity for everybody involved, the educator and the students versus what we're doing now.What assessment can I create today that I continue to teach? One year, five years, 10 years down the road?  I think that we have to be willing as a part of our job to change how we're assessing things if something does need to change about them.RESOURCESJason on LinkedIn where he shares and I do my learning from him!Reference to his assignment he made AI proof(it includes movie Inception!)

Well today's the third Sunday of Advent — just 8 days to go before Christmas — and the reason we're looking at this passage today is because of a little phrase at the beginning of verse 7 — and if it's possible, I want you to see this. So if you can, either with your own Bible or on your phone or you might have to look with a neighbor, everybody get a look at verse 7. It starts with the words: “in the days of his flesh.” That phrase is important. “In the days of his flesh” is a good literal translation. If you read the NIV translation, it says at the start of verse 7: “During the days of Jesus's life on earth.” That's a good interpretation of what the writer of Hebrews is talking about. He starts verse 7 by pointing us back to the time in history when Jesus lived on this earth as a man. He wants us to think about Jesus living here in flesh and blood like ours. But now why does the writer do this? Why does he bring up Jesus's life on earth?It has to do with the context and I'll explain this super briefly …It starts in Chapter 2, verse 17 (which we saw last week) when the writer tells us that Jesus is our merciful and faithful high priest because in every respect he was made like us. Then at the end of Chapter 4, verse 15 the writer repeats this same idea and says that Jesus is our high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses because in every respect he has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.So Chapter 2, verse 17 and Chapter 4, verse 15 repeat the same idea. It's not just that Jesus is our high priest, but it's that Jesus is our high priest because Jesus became a man like us and actually walked in our shoes. That's what qualifies Jesus to be our high priest. It's because Jesus gets us. That's the point the writer has been making — that's the context — and so now in Chapter 5 he's about to drive that point home. That's why he starts in verse 7, “in the days of his flesh” … or “During the days of Jesus's life on earth.”The writer is about to prove to us, with an example from Jesus's life on earth, that Jesus gets us. And we're on the edge of our seats! This is going to be fascinating. I'm interested in this.And so here's a question for us: What example from Jesus's life might we use to make this point? … If you had to name one scene from Jesus's life that proves that he gets us, what would it be? …In the Days of His FleshWhat about the humble conditions of Jesus's birth? Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, was born in a stable. He had very simple beginnings. The days of his flesh started as something people can relate to.Or what about the time at the wedding in Cana when Jesus turned the water to wine? This was Jesus's first recorded miracle, which is something only Jesus can do, but it was such an earthy miracle. The party host had run out of wine. They had this big wedding celebration, with tons of people, and they ran out of wine, which was probably embarrassing, and Mary, Jesus's mom, was there, and she said: “Jesus, help them out.” And he did. He gave the people wine. In the days of his flesh Jesus met a super practical need. (See John 2:1–12)Or what about that time Jesus came to the home of Lazarus, his friend, after Lazarus had died. Jesus stepped into a place surrounded by the family members and friends of Lazarus and they were all grieving, and Jesus himself was grieved. He was moved and troubled, and the Bible tells us that Jesus wept. In the days of his flesh Jesus was sad. (See John 11:1–44)There's also the time when crowds were following Jesus and parents started bringing their kids to him, in hopes Jesus might touch them and maybe bless them, and the disciples didn't like this. People didn't think kids were that cute in the first-century world, so the disciples were telling these parents to beat it, but Jesus said No, let them come, and then he scooped up the children in his arms, and said, And if you wanna come to me, you need to be like these kids. We either will have Jesus as those who are helpless, or we won't have him. In the days of his flesh Jesus demolished pretense. (See Luke 18:15–17).Or what about the time Jesus spoke to Zacchaeus up in the tree? What a moment! Jesus was on his way into Jericho, and there was another big crowd swarming him, and Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but the crowd was too big and Zacchaeus was too short (the literal Greek there is “wee little man”). Remember what Zacchaeus did? He climbed up in a sycamore tree hoping to get a good view of Jesus as he walked by but rather than pass by him, Jesus came right to him, in the tree, and Jesus looked up and said, Hey, come down, I'm about to go to your house. It was a wonderful surprise for Zacchaeus and amazing irony. In the days of his flesh Jesus had a sense of humor. (See Luke 19:1–10)Then there's the time when Jesus turned the tables on the way James and John thought about greatness. Or there's when Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple. Or in John 4, when Jesus was walking from Judea to Galilee, just before he talked to the woman at the well, the text says, “Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, sat by the well…” Jesus never sinned, but he confronted sin and human weakness head-on, things like selfish ambition or greed or fear or hunger or disappointment or weariness. Jesus knows about all that, and they're all examples of how he gets us, but the writer of Hebrews doesn't talk about any of these examples.Instead, the writer of Hebrews takes us back to one scene in the Gospels when Jesus was alone. If you want to see how Jesus really gets us, if you wanna know how much he knows what it's like to be us, go to the Garden of Gethsemane. …Jesus's Excruciating PrayerNow the writer doesn't mention “Gethsemane” by name, and at one level, Jesus's whole life involved the kind of humiliation we see there, but verse 7 seems to be talking more about a specific event. Jesus “offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death.” This sends us back to the Thursday night before Jesus was crucified. We know that he got alone to pray, in Gethsemane, and the Gospel writers tell us that Jesus agonized in prayer. His soul was sorrowful and troubled, and he pleaded with God the Father, not only shedding tears but even sweating blood, and he cried, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Now the Gospels tell us that Jesus prayed often. He was constantly getting away to a place of solitude for prayer. But Gethsemane was the place where Jesus experienced excruciating prayer … “loud cries and tears” … this was a painful kind of praying … and because Jesus experienced prayer like that, I can be assured that he knows what it's like to be me, and he knows what it's like to be you. According to the argument of Hebrews, because Jesus prayed like this in the days of his life on earth, it verifies that he knows what it's like to be us.And that's what I want us to linger on today. We're going to focus in with one question:How does Jesus's excruciating prayer in Gethsemane make him get us?We're just going to focus on one answer. It's that Jesus had to wait.Jesus Had to WaitWe hate to wait, don't we? If you think about it, pretty much all of popular technology is created to conquer waiting. We've been shaped to think that waiting is a problem, when really, waiting is basic to being human. It's basic to our creaturely existence. And as much as we try to overcome that with our technology, waiting will always be what God expects of us in our relationship with him — and Jesus knows what it's like.Notice in verse 7 that the writer of Hebrews doesn't spell out the exact content of what Jesus prayed, but he does give us the category and manner of prayer. The category is “prayers and supplications” (or “petitions”). This means that Jesus was asking God the Father for something. He requested something. And the manner — how he requested something — was with “loud cries and tears.”So if we put these together, it means that Jesus was earnestly wanting something. This was a please, please, please kind of request.And now add to this that God is described in verse 7 as “him who was able to save him from death.” So get this: Jesus earnestly requested something from him who was able to save him from death.What then do you think Jesus requested? … To be saved from death.This is another reason why I think Gethsemane is in the writer's mind. Jesus earnestly wanted to be saved from death. Jesus asked the Father, If it's possible, remove this cup from me. Now we know that Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him, but he did not relish the cross itself. He despised the shame of the cross. Jesus dreaded his suffering. The Dread of SufferingAnd sometimes I wonder if we really appreciate this fact about Jesus. I think we can tend to think that Jesus was able to endure his suffering because he had special powers as the Son of God. This is complex, and I'm suspicious that somewhere in here in how we think about this, we imagine that Jesus's deity was the underwriter of his endurance. We think: Yeah, he endured unspeakable suffering … but he was God. And it's true that Jesus was never less than God — he was in every respect like his Father, and in every respect like us — so we would be misguided to think that his deity is what got him through his suffering. Gethsemane certainly corrects that. Jesus looked forward to having nails driven through his hands about as much as you would. Just imagine that you knew today that tomorrow, by noon, you were going to have spikes nailed through your hands and feet, and giant thorns crammed in your head, and then before that, you were going to get scourged, beaten 39 times, so that the skin of your bare back is just shredded. And the physical pain wasn't even the worst part. If you knew that was going to happen to you tomorrow, how would you sleep tonight? I get nervous about the dentist! What if you knew in 12 hours you were going to experience the worst pain ever inflicted upon a man? What would you sound like when you prayed?Jesus is like us here … and he prayed hard … it was excruciating prayer … and did God answer him?The WhirlwindThis is not an easy question, because Hebrews says God did. Look at the end of verse 7: Jesus prayed … “to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.” But wait a minute, we know what happened. The Father did not remove the cup. The crucifixion was every bit as horrible as Jesus dreaded, and probably worse. So how was Jesus heard? … it's that Jesus was saved out of death, but he was not saved from dying.The resurrection was God's answer to Jesus's prayer — which means Jesus was not saved from experiencing the horrible thing, he was saved from the horrible thing having the final say.And this means that there was a time, in the suffering of Jesus, when it seemed like his prayer would not be answered. Sunday morning did not happen like that! Jesus had to endure the waiting … which became in Gethsemane a whirlwind of suffering. And we tiptoe into mystery here. Jesus knew and believed that this Father would never abandon him, but then also: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It's a whirlwind, see …I know you won't, but it seems like you are. You've said this. I know this. But then … look around. The big realities and truths of God are less clear in the whirlwind of suffering — and what could be more human than that?We know what God can do. We ask him to do it. But we're stuck in this whirlwind where we're not sure if he's doing anything, and we have to wait. Have you ever been there?No Eagle LandingAnswered prayers are a wonderful thing. I've got a list in my mind of several different prayers I've prayed over the years and the ways God has answered them. And it's amazing. God is good, and we should be so encouraged and rejoice together when God answers our prayers. I saw last week, in a little video, there was a guy who was out fishing, and he happened to see this Bald Eagle a long ways off across this lake, and when he saw the eagle, he prayed, “God, would you let me get close to that eagle today and get a good look at him?” That's what the guy says to the camera, and he's doing a selfie video, telling this story. He asked God to get him get close to the eagle, and then he pans out with his camera and the eagle is standing on this guy's shoulder! No joke!This Bald Eagle came and landed on his shoulder. And I don't even know this guy, I don't know his theology, but I'm like, “Yes! That's awesome!” Can God make an eagle land on somebody's shoulder? Absolutely! But no eagle landed in Gethsemane … and although God does answer our prayers and we're thankful for that, there's a lot of times we don't have Bald Eagles on our shoulders …and Jesus gets that. Jesus prayed an excruciating prayer and he had to wait. Just like you and me. And in the waiting, his obedience was not easy.His Obedience Was Not EasyHebrews 5:8, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” The way the writer says this means it's not what we would assume. Similar to what we talked about earlier, it's natural for us to assume that Jesus as the Son of God somehow came pre-programmed to always obey. Or if we pretend the whole world was a big carnival full of carnival games, we might think that all the games were somehow rigged for Jesus to always win. Like instead of the basketball goal rim being bent in (so that the ball barely fits), we might imagine that when Jesus shot, the rim was stretched out extra wide.We might say: “Because he was a son, obedience was easy.”But Hebrews 5:8 says: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” And we know that was the case for all of Jesus's life, but that was especially the case in Gethsemane. Gethsemane assures us that Jesus's obedience was authentic obedience. It was not laboratory obedience in a controlled environment. This was obedience in the waiting, in the whirlwind … which means although his heart always desired obedience, the practice of that obedience was tested. It was pressured. It was challenged. All of Jesus's obedience was predicated on “not my will, but yours be done” but how Jesus had to live out that obedience was in varied and unpredictable circumstances. It was as varied and unpredictable as the world we step into every day. That was Gethsemane. And Gethsemane became a school. He learned obedience in that waiting, and it was not easy.We Can Go to HimI've heard it said before, by older and wiser Christians, that the deeper you grow in your faith, the more aware you are of your sinfulness. The idea is that as you mature in faith you sin fewer times, but you also become more aware of how pervasive and subtle your sinfulness is. C. S. Lewis said, When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. This gives me some comfort when I feel like an idiot. Which I'd say has increased in the last few years, I hope that's a good sign.Just the other day I was riding in the car with one my children who was driving, and this kid is a good driver. But we were in traffic and there was a moment when they had to hit the breaks, and it was one of those times when you gasp — you can't help it. You just react, and I did … And I've thought long and hard about this … I think Jesus would have gasped too. Jesus had reactions. It was a scary split second. But the problem wasn't the reaction … it was the comment I made right after it.And I knew right away I was wrong. You know there's usually a moment like that, in our sin, where we come to a kind of crossroads and we either go this way and double-down and try to justify our sin and act like it's not a big deal, or we go the other way, admit we're wrong and confess it right away … which, if this way were more comfortable we'd do it more, but it's not. Because you feel the shame and regret. That's not the kind of dad I want to be. That's not the kind of person I want to be. So what do I do with that? … I go to Jesus who learned obedience through what he suffered. He Knows Where We're Coming FromVerse 10: “And being made perfect…” — the idea here is completeness; this is referring to Jesus's resurrection and exaltation after ‘the days of his flesh was mission accomplished,' after he suffered in our place and died on the cross — God raised Jesus and enthroned him, and “he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.”Which means he is not just the Son who reigns, but he's the High Priest who has made atonement for us, and who intercedes for us. Jesus is seated on the throne of his rule, but it's also a throne of grace, and I can go to him. We can go to him! Because he knows where we're coming from. He's been here, in the days of his flesh, full scary split seconds and temptations, and he's been to Gethsemane … to the waiting and the whirlwind. Jesus has been here and he learned obedience. And he is so kind to us. This is where we have to remember Chapter 2 verse 11, that Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters. He really gets us, and one thing that means is that his love for us is a love for us where we are. I want you to know that. Jesus loves you where you are, not where you pretend to be, or even where you aspire to be. Jesus loves us in the days of our flesh, during the days and moments of our lives on this earth in all our weakness and failure.And so the invitation this morning is to come to him. That's the invitation of this Table.

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You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoBenjamin Bartz, General Manager of Snowriver, MichiganRecorded onNovember 13, 2023About SnowriverClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Midwest Family Ski ResortsLocated in: Wakefield (Jackson Creek Summit) and Bessemer (Black River Basin), MichiganYear founded: 1959 (Jackson Creek, as Indianhead) and 1977 (Black River Basin, as Blackjack)Pass affiliations:Legendary Pass (also includes varying access to Lutsen Mountains, Minnesota and Granite Peak, Wisconsin)* Gold: unlimited access* Silver: unlimited access* Bronze: unlimited midweek access with holiday blackoutsThe Indy Base Pass and Indy+ Pass also include two Snowriver days with no blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Big Powderhorn (:14), Mt. Zion Ski Hill (:17), Whitecap Mountains (:39); Porkies Winter Sports Complex (:48)Base elevation:* Jackson Creek: 1,212 feet* Black River Basin: 1,185 feetSummit elevation:* Jackson Creek: 1,750 feet* Black River Basin: 1,675 feetVertical drop:* Jackson Creek: 538 feet* Black River Basin: 490 feetSkiable Acres: 400 (both ski areas combined)* Jackson Creek: 230* Black River Basin: 170Average annual snowfall: 200 inchesTrail count: 71 trails, 17 glades, 3 terrain parks* Jackson Creek: 43 trails, 11 glades, 2 terrain parks* Black River Basin: 28 trails, 6 glades, 1 terrain parkLift count: 11 (1 six-pack, 6 doubles, 1 T-bar, 2 ropetows, 1 carpet)* Jackson Creek Summit: 6 (1 six-pack, 2 doubles, 1 T-bar, 1 ropetow, 1 carpet)* Black River Basin: 5 (4 doubles, 1 ropetow)View historic Snowriver trailmaps on skimap.org.Why I interviewed himI could tell this story as a Michigan story, as a young skier still awed by the far-off Upper Peninsula, that remote and wild and snowy realm Up North and Over the Bridge. I could tell it as a weather story, of glacial bumps bullseyed in the greatest of the Great Lakes snowbelts. Or as a story of a run-down complex tumbling into hyper-change, or one that activated the lifts in 1978 and just left them spinning. It's an Indy Pass story, a ski area with better skiing than infrastructure that will give you a where's-everyone-else kind of ski day. And it's a Midwest Family Ski Resorts (MFSR) story, skiing's version of a teardown, where nothing is sacred and everything will change and all you can do is stand back and watch the wrecking ball swing and the scaffolding go up the sides.Each of these is tempting, and the podcast is inevitably a mash-up. Writing about the Midwest will always be personal to me. The UP is that Great Otherplace, where the snow is bottomless and everything is cheap and everyone is somewhere else. Snowriver is both magnificently retro and badly in need of updating. And it is a good ski area and a solid addition to the Indy Pass.But, more than anything, the story of Snowriver is the story of MFSR and the Skinner family. There is no better ski area operator. They have equals but no betters. You know how when a certain actor or director gets involved in something, or when a certain athlete moves to a new team, you think, “Man, that's gonna be good.” They project excellence. Everything they touch absorbs it. Did you know that one man, Shigeru Miyamoto, invented, among others, the Donkey Kong, Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda, and Star Fox franchises, and has directed or produced every sequel of every game for four decades? Time calls him “the Spielberg of video games.” Well, the Skinners are the Spielberg – or perhaps the Miyamoto – of Midwest skiing. Everything they touch becomes the best version of that thing that it can achieve. What we talked aboutSnowriver's new six-pack lift; why Snowriver removed three chairlifts but only added one; the sixer's all-new line; why Midwest Family Ski Resorts (MFSR) upgraded this lift first; the rationale behind a high-speed lift on a 538-vertical-foot hill; knocking 100 vertical feet off Jackson Creek Summit's advertised vertical drop; “Voyager” versus “Voyageur”; swapping out the old Poma for a handletow; the UP snowbelt; the bad old days of get out of the trees you blasted kids!; Gogebic Community College's ski area management program; Mt. Zion, Michigan; Giants Ridge, Minnesota; the Big Snow time capsule; why MFSR purchased Snowriver; Mount Bohemia; changing the name from “Big Snow” to “Snowriver”; where an interconnect lift could run and what sort of lift it could be; why Snowriver renamed all the lifts and many trails on the Black River Basin side; potential future lift upgrades on both sides of the resort; potential terrain expansion; new and renamed trails and 17 new glades on the 2023-24 trailmap; the small parcel of Snowriver that sits on U.S. Forest Service land; why Black River Basin is only open Thursday through Sunday; and a joint pass to Snowriver, Granite Peak, and Lutsen.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewThe entity now known as Midwest Family Ski Resorts has been running ski areas for decades. I've been running The Storm for four years. So by the time I launched in 2019 and then expanded out of the Northeast in 2021, MFSR had already transformed Granite Peak and Lutsen into modern Midwestern giants. Their work on Granite had been particularly impressive, as they'd transformed Wisconsin's beat-up and decrepit Rib Mountain into a sprawling and modern ski area.I mean look at this dump:And here's the same ski area in 2023:So what a gift when, last year, the company announced the purchase of the side-by-side time capsules then known as Indianhead and Blackjack. A rare chance to see that Skinner magic uncorked on a beat-up backwater, to watch, in real time, that transformation into something humming and hefty and modern.Most multi-mountain operators buy diamonds, ski areas already streamlined and upgraded and laced with modern machines. MFSR digs deeper, finds coal, then pounds it into its final form. It's a rough and expensive way to go, but the strategy carries the great advantage of maximum flexibility to sculpt a mountain into your daydream.The dream at Snowriver is straightforward but impossibly complex: modernize the snowmaking, chairlifts, bedbase, trail network, and grooming; connect the two ski areas with an aerial lift; and establish this snowy but remote complex as a legitimate midwestern destination ski resort. MFSR has, as expected, moved quickly, rebranding the resort; removing five(!) lifts from the Jackson Creek Summit side and building an outrageously expensive six-pack; and making dozens of subtle tweaks to the trail network, adding new runs, renaming lifts and trails, and dropping more than a dozen marked glades onto the trailmap.This period of rapid change, pronounced as it is, will likely be viewed, historically, as a simple prelude. MFSR is not the sort of operator that lays out grand plans and then glances at them through its binoculars every three years. They plan and tear s**t apart and build and build and build. They act how every skier thinks they would act were they to purchase their own ski area. The difference is that MFSR has money, ambition, and a history of transformational action. Watch, amazed, as this thing grows.Questions I wish I'd askedBartz started Ben's Blog, a cool little update series on Snowriver's goings-on. I wanted to get into his motivation and mission here, but we were running long.I also wanted to get into a unique feature of Snowriver a bit more: the huge amount of onsite lodging, which was a big motivating factor in MFSR's purchase, and a large part of the vision for building a sustainable destination ski resort in a region that has struggled to support one.What I got wrongI said that the four Black River Basin Riblet chairlifts dated to the 1970s, and then corrected myself to say that “I believe” one dated to the ‘80s. Ascender, Brigantine, and Draw Stroke date to 1977; Capstan was installed in 1983.Why you should ski SnowriverEver wonder what it's like to ski in 1978? Pull up to Black River Basin, boot up, and walk over to the lifts. There, you just time traveled. Centerpole Riblet doubles, painted ‘Nam chopper green, squeaking uphill, not a safety bar in sight. There's snowmaking, but most of the snow you're skiing on blew in off the big lake 11 miles north. Skiers in their modern fat skis and helmets would blow the illusion, but there are no other skiers to be found.Then a kid skis by, backpack speaker booming, and you're like, “OK phew for a second I thought I'd really time-traveled and would be forced to do things like drive around the block without navigation assistance and carry around a camera that was not also a supercomputer and required $15 to purchase and develop 24 photographs.”If Black River Basin is the past, then Jackson Creek Summit is the future. That sixer landed like an Abrams tank on a Civil War battlefield. I took this video of the old summit double last February:Now look at the top of the six-pack, which sits on more or less the same spot:Wild, right? Snowriver is going to keep changing, and it will keep changing fast. Go see it before you miss what it was, so you can truly appreciate what it will become.Podcast NotesOn the four removed chairlifts on the Jackson Creek Summit sideSnowriver's new six-pack directly or indirectly replaces four old lifts. The resort also switched up the trail network, with a bunch of new glades and a handful of reconfigured trails. Check out the Jackson Creek Summit side of the resort's trailmap from pre-sixer and then today (note, also, all the newly marked glades and renamed trails):On the new trails on the Black River Basin sideMFSR has also renamed most of the lifts and trails on the Black River Basin side, and removed a handle tow (which is now on the Jackson Creek Summit side). Here's a side-by-side of the ski area's 2018 and 2023 trailmaps:On Gogebic Community College and Mt. ZionSo you can actually earn a college degree in ski area management. There are a few schools that do this, one of which is Michigan's Gogebic Community College. From the program's overview page:OverviewThe Ski Area Management Program at GCC is one of the nation's most comprehensive training programs for individuals interested in pursuing a career in the snow sport industry. Technical and academic study is combined with a practical internship which is conducted at major resorts throughout Coast to Coast.  A valid driver's license is required for completion of this program.Unique FeaturesStudents spend their freshman year and the first eight weeks of their sophomore year completing prerequisite courses. During this period, the Mt. Zion Recreation Complex is utilized as a training laboratory. Mt. Zion is our college-owned and operated winter sport complex located on campus which is open to the public.  Co-opThe Cooperative Work Experience assignment (Co-op) is the capstone of the Ski Area Management Program. All sophomore Students participate in the five month internship where they gain important operational experience in an actual resort environment.The huge advantage that Mt. Zion has over similar programs is that it owns an on-site ski area, Mt. Zion. While this is just a 300-vertical-foot bump served by a double chair, it's laced with some twisty fun little runs fed by 200 inches of annual lake effect:On Giants RidgeBartz really launched his career as Mountain Operations Manager at Giants Ridge, a 500-footer in the Northern Minnesota hinterlands. Here's the most recent trailmap:On the UP snowbeltFor such a remote area, the UP is home to one of the densest concentrations of ski areas in America. Five ski areas sit within a 21-mile stretch along the Wisconsin-Michigan border: Whitecap (in Wisconsin), and Mt. Zion, Big Powderhorn, and the two Snowriver ski areas, all in Michigan. Here's how they line up:On the proximity of MFSR's portfolioMFSR's three ski areas are, as a unit, really well positioned to serve the major Midwestern cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Here's where they sit in relation to one another:And here's the distance table between them:On Rick SchmitzRick Schmitz – who owns Little Switzerland, Nordic Mountain, and The Rock Snowpark in Wisconsin – once owned Blackjack, now Black River Basin. He relays that experience, and why he ultimately sold his interest in the ski area, starting at the 39:40 mark of this podcast we recorded together last year:On Mount BohemiaBoho is, as I've written many times, one of the most amazing and unique ski areas in America. It has no grooming, no snowmaking, and no beginner terrain. It's lodged at the ass-end of nowhere, on a peninsula hanging off a peninsula in the fiery middle of Lake Superior. While regional lore credits (or blames) the renaissance of MFSR's Granite Peak with looting Snowriver's skiers, the rise of Bohemia, which opened in 2000, surely drew more advanced skiers farther north. Here's a trailmap:And here's a conversation I recorded with Boho owner, founder, and president Lonie Glieberman last year:On two ski areas becoming oneFor decades, the two Snowriver ski areas now known as Jackson Creek Summit and Black River Basin were separate, competing entities known, respectively, as Indianhead and Blackjack. Observe the varied style of trailmaps of recent vintage:At some point, the same entity took possession of both hills and introduced the “Big Snow Resort” umbrella name. Each ski area retained its legacy name, as you can see in this joint trailmap circa 2018:Then, last year, MFSR changed the umbrella name from “Big Snow” to “Snowriver,” and changed the name of each ski area (though they framed this as “base area renamings”) from Indianhead and Blackjack to Jackson Creek Summit and Black River Basin, respectively. I broke down the name change when MFSR announced it last September.On the Snowriver interconnectBartz provided outlines of four potential interconnect lines. In all cases, Jackson Creek Summit sits on the left, and Black River Basin is on the right:On US 2The Snowriver ski areas both sit off of US 2, a startling fact, perhaps, for skiers who use the same road to access ski areas as far-flung as Stevens Pass, Washington and Sunday River, Maine. US 2 is, in fact, a 2,571-mile-long road that runs in two segments: from Everett, Washington to St. Ignace, Michigan; then breaking for Canada before picking up in northern New York and running across Vermont and New Hampshire into Maine. It is the northernmost cross-country east-west highway in America. Ski areas that sit along or near the route include Stevens Pass and Mt. Spokane, Washington; Schweitzer, Idaho; Blacktail and Whitefish, Montana; Spirit Mountain, Minnesota; Big Powderhorn, Mt. Zion, Snowriver, Ski Brule, and Pine Mountain, Michigan; Bolton Valley, Vermont; and Sunday River, Titcomb, and Hermon Mountain, Maine; among others.On the Legendary PassFor the 2023-24 ski season, MFSR dispensed with offering single-mountain season passes, and combined all three of its properties onto the Legendary Pass. The gold tier, which is now sold out, debuted at $675 last spring. The Silver tier ran $475 early bird, which is not a material increase from the $419 Snowriver-only 2021-22 season pass (which did not include any Granite or Lutsen access):The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 106/100 in 2023, and number 491 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Nov. 14. It dropped for free subscribers on Nov. 21. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoJim Vick, General Manager of Lutsen Mountains, MinnesotaRecorded onOctober 30, 2023About Lutsen MountainsClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Midwest Family Ski ResortsLocated in: Lutsen, MinnesotaYear founded: 1948Pass affiliations:* Legendary Gold Pass – unlimited access, no blackouts* Legendary Silver Pass – unlimited with 12 holiday and peak Saturday blackouts* Legendary Bronze Pass – unlimited weekdays with three Christmas week blackouts* Indy Pass – 2 days with 24 holiday and Saturday blackouts* Indy Plus Pass – 2 days with no blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Chester Bowl (1:44), Loch Lomond (1:48), Spirit Mountain (1:54), Giants Ridge (1:57), Mt. Baldy (2:11)Base elevation: 800 feetSummit elevation: 1,688 feetVertical drop: 1,088 feet (825 feet lift-served)Skiable Acres: 1,000Average annual snowfall: 120 inchesTrail count: 95 (10% expert, 25% most difficult, 47% more difficult, 18% easiest)Lift count: 7 (1 eight-passenger gondola, 2 high-speed six-packs, 3 double chairs, 1 carpet)View historic Lutsen Mountains trailmaps on skimap.org.Why I interviewed himI often claim that Vail and Alterra have failed to appreciate Midwest skiing. I realize that this can be confusing. Vail Resorts owns 10 ski areas from Missouri to Ohio. Alterra's Ikon Pass includes a small but meaningful presence in Northern Michigan. What the hell am I talking about here?Lutsen, while a regional standout and outlier, illuminates each company's blind spots. In 2018, the newly formed Alterra Mountain Company looted the motley M.A.X. Pass roster for its best specimens, adding them to its Ikon Pass. Formed partly from the ashes of Intrawest, Alterra kept all of their own mountains and cherry-picked the best of Boyne and Powdr, leaving off Boyne's Michigan mountains, Brighton, Summit at Snoqualmie, and Cypress (which Ikon later added); and Powdr's Boreal, Lee Canyon, Pico, and Bachelor (Pico and Bachelor eventually made the team). Alterra also added Solitude and Crystal after purchasing them later in 2018, and, over time, Windham and Alyeska. Vail bought Triple Peaks (Crested Butte, Okemo, Sunapee), later that year, and added Resorts of the Canadian Rockies to its Epic Pass. But that left quite a few orphans, including Lutsen and sister mountain Granite Peak, which eventually joined the Indy Pass (which didn't debut until 2019).All of which is technocratic background to set up this question: what the hell was Alterra thinking? In Lutsen and Granite Peak, Alterra had, ready to snatch, two of the largest, most well-cared-for, most built-up resorts between Vermont and Colorado. Midwest Family Ski Resorts CEO Charles Skinner is one of the most aggressive and capable ski area operators anywhere. These mountains, with their 700-plus-foot vertical drops, high-speed lifts, endless glade networks, and varied terrain deliver a big-mountain experience that has more in common with a mid-sized New England ski area than anything within several hundred miles in any direction. It's like someone in a Colorado boardroom and a stack of spreadsheets didn't bother looking past the ZIP Codes when deciding what to keep and what to discard.This is one of the great miscalculations in the story of skiing's shift to multimountain pass hegemony. By overlooking Lutsen Mountains and Granite Peak in its earliest days, Alterra missed an opportunity to snatch enormous volumes of Ikon Pass sales across the Upper Midwest. Any Twin Cities skier (and there are a lot of them), would easily be able to calculate the value of an Ikon Pass that could deliver 10 or 14 days between Skinner's two resorts, and additional days on that mid-winter western run. By dismissing the region, Alterra also enabled the rise of the Indy Pass, now the only viable national multi-mountain pass product for the Midwestern skier outside of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. These sorts of regional destinations, while not as “iconic” as, say, Revelstoke, move passes; the sort of resort-hopping skier who is attracted to a multi-mountain pass is going to want to ski near home as much as they want to fly across the country.Which is a formula Vail Resorts, to its credit, figured out a long time ago. Which brings us back to those 10 Midwestern ski areas hanging off the Epic Pass attendance sheet. Vail has, indeed, grasped the utility of the Midwestern, city-adjacent day-ski area, and all 10 of its resorts fit neatly into that template: 75 chairlifts on 75 vertical feet with four trees seated within 10 miles of a city center. But here's what they missed: outside of school groups; Park Brahs who like to Park Out, Brah; and little kids, these ski areas hold little appeal even to Midwesterners. That they are busy beyond comprehension at all times underscores, rather than refutes, that point – something simulating a big-mountain experience, rather than a street riot, is what the frequent Midwest skier seeks.For that, you have to flee the cities. Go north, find something in the 400- to 600-foot vertical range, something with glades and nooks and natural snow. Places like Caberfae, Crystal Mountain, Nub's Nob, and Shanty Creek in Michigan; Cascade, Devil's Head, and Whitecap, Wisconsin; Giants Ridge and Spirit Mountain, Minnesota. Lutsen is the best of all of these, a sprawler with every kind of terrain flung across its hundreds of acres. A major ski area. A true resort. A Midwestern dream.Vick and I discuss the Ikon snub in the podcast. It's weird. And while Alterra, five years later, is clearly doing just fine, its early decision to deliberately exclude itself from one of the world's great ski regions is as mystifying a strategic choice as I've seen any ski company make. Vail, perhaps, understands the Midwest resort's true potential, but never found one it could close on – there aren't that many of them, and they aren't often for sale. Perhaps they dropped a blank check on Skinner's desk, and he promptly deposited it into the nearest trashcan.All of which is a long way of saying this: Lutsen is the best conventional ski area in the Midwest (monster ungroomed Mount Bohemia is going to hold more appeal for a certain sort of expert skier), and one of the most consistently excellent ski operations in America. Its existence ought to legitimize the region to national operators too bent on dismissing it. Someday, they will understand that. And after listening to this podcast, I hope that you will, too.What we talked aboutWhy Lutsen never makes snow in October; Minnesota as early-season operator; the new Raptor Express six-pack; why the Bridge double is intact but retiring from winter operations; why Lutsen removed the 10th Mountain triple; why so many Riblet chairs are still operating; why Moose Return trail will be closed indefinitely; potential new lower-mountain trails on Eagle Mountain; an updated season-opening plan; how lake-effect snow impacts the west side of Lake Superior; how the Raptor lift may impact potential May operations; fire destroys Papa Charlie's; how it could have been worse; rebuilding the restaurant; Lutsen's long evolution from backwater to regional leader and legit western alternative; the Skinner family's aggressive operating philosophy; the history of Lutsen's gondola, the only such machine in Midwest skiing; Lutsen's ambitious but stalled masterplan; potential Ullr and Mystery mountain chairlift upgrades; “the list of what skiers want is long”; why Lutsen switched to a multi-mountain season pass with Granite Peak and Snowriver; and “if we would have been invited into the Ikon at the start, we would have jumped on that.”Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewFor all my gushing above, Lutsen isn't perfect. While Granite Peak has planted three high-speed lifts on the bump in the past 20 years, Lutsen has still largely been reliant on a fleet of antique Riblets, plus a sixer that landed a decade ago and the Midwest's only gondola, a glimmering eight-passenger Doppelmayr machine installed in 2015. While a fixed-grip foundation isn't particularly abnormal for the Midwest, which is home to probably the largest collection of antique chairlifts on the planet, it's off-brand for burnished Midwest Family Ski Resorts.Enter, this year, Lutsen's second six-pack, Raptor Express, which replaces both the 10th Mountain triple (removed), and the Bridge double (demoted to summer-only use). This new lift, running approximately 600 vertical feet parallel to Bridge, will (sort of; more below), smooth out the janky connection from Moose back to Eagle. And while the loss of 10th Mountain will mean 300 vertical feet of rambling below the steep upper-mountain shots, Raptor is a welcome upgrade that will help Lutsen keep up with the Boynes.However, even as this summer moved the mountain ahead with the Raptor installation, a storm demolished a skier bridge over the river on Moose Return, carving a several-hundred-foot-wide, unbridgeable (at least in the short term), gap across the trail. Which means that skiers will have to connect back to Eagle via gondola, somewhat dampening Raptor's expected impact. That's too bad, and Vick and I talk extensively about what that means for skiers this coming winter.The final big timely piece of this interview is the abrupt cancellation of Lutsen's massive proposed terrain expansion, which would have more than doubled the ski area's size with new terrain on Moose and Eagle mountains. Here's what they were hoping to do with Moose:And Eagle:Over the summer, Lutsen withdrew the plan, and Superior National Forest Supervisor Thomas Hall recommended a “no action” alternative, citing “irreversible damage” to mature white cedar and sugar maple stands, displacement of backcountry skiers, negative impacts to the 300-mile-long Superior hiking trail, objections from Native American communities, and water-quality concerns. Lutsen had until Oct. 10 to file an objection to the decision, and they did. What happens now? we discuss that.Questions I wish I'd askedIt may have been worth getting into the difference between Lutsen's stated lift-served vertical (825 feet), and overall vertical (1,088 feet). But it wasn't really necessary, as I asked the same question of Midwest Family Ski Resorts CEO Charles Skinner two years ago. He explains the disparity at the 25:39 mark:What I got wrongI said that Boyne Mountain runs the Hemlock double chair instead of the Mountain Express six-pack for summer operations. That is not entirely true, as Mountain Express sometimes runs, as does the new Disciples 8 chair on the far side of the mountain's Sky Bridge.I referred to Midwest Family Ski Resorts CEO Charles Skinner as “Charles Skinner Jr.” He is in fact Charles Skinner IV.Why you should ski Lutsen MountainsOne of the most unexpected recurring messages I receive from Storm readers floats out of the West. Dedicated skiers of the big-mountain, big-snow kingdoms of the Rockies, they'd never thought much about skiing east of the Continental Divide. But now they're curious. All these profiles of New England girth and history, Midwest backwater bumps, and Great Lakes snowtrains have them angling for a quirky adventure, for novelty and, perhaps, a less-stressful version of skiing. These folks are a minority. Most Western skiers wear their big-mountain chauvinism as a badge of stupid pride. Which I understand. But they are missing a version of skiing that is heartier, grittier, and more human than the version that swarms from the western skies.So, to those few who peek east over the fortress walls and consider the great rolling beyond, I tell you this: go to Lutsen. If you're only going to ski the Midwest once, and only in a limited way, this is one of the few must-experience stops. Lutsen and Bohemia. Mix and match the rest. But these two are truly singular.To the rest of you, well: Midwest Family's stated goal is to beef up its resorts so that they're an acceptable substitute for a western vacation. Lutsen's website even hosts a page comparing the cost of a five-day trip there and to Breckenridge:Sure, that's slightly exaggerated, and yes, Breck crushes Lutsen in every on-mountain statistical category, from skiable acreage to vertical drop to average annual snowfall. But 800 vertical feet is about what an average skier can manage in one go anyway. And Lutsen really does give you a bigger-mountain feel than anything for a thousand miles in either direction (except, as always, the Bohemia exception). And when you board that gondy and swing up the cliffs toward Moose Mountain, you're going to wonder where, exactly, you've been transported to. Because it sure as hell doesn't look like Minnesota.Podcast NotesOn Midwest Family Ski ResortsMidwest Family Ski Resorts now owns four ski areas (Snowriver, Michigan is one resort with two side-by-side ski areas). Here's an overview:On the loss of Moose ReturnA small but significant change will disrupt skiing at Lutsen Mountains this winter: the destruction of the skier bridge at the bottom of the Moose Return trail that crosses the Poplar River, providing direct ski access from Moose to Eagle mountains. Vick details why this presents an unfixable obstacle in the podcast, but you can see that Lutsen removed the trail from its updated 2023-24 map:On the Stowe gondola I referencedI briefly referenced Stowe's gondola as a potential model for traversing the newly re-gapped Moose Return run. The resort is home to two gondolas – the 2,100-vertical-foot, 7,664-foot-long, eight-passenger Mansfield Gondola; and the 1,454-foot-long, six-passenger Over Easy Gondola, which moves between the Mansfield and Spruce bases. It is the latter that I'm referring to in the podcast: On Mt. FrontenacVick mentions that his first job was at Mt. Frontenac, a now-lost 420-vertical-foot ski area in Minnesota. Here was a circa 2000 trailmap:Apparently a local group purchased the ski area and converted it into a golf course. Boo.On the evolution of LutsenThe Skinners have been involved with Lutsen since the early 1980s. Here's a circa 1982 trailmap, which underscores the mountain's massive evolution over the decades:On the evolution of Granite PeakWhen Charles Skinner purchased Granite Peak, then known as Rib Mountain, it was a nubby little backwater, with neglected infrastructure and a miniscule footprint:And here it is today, a mile-wide broadside running three high-speed chairlifts:An absolutely stunning transformation.On Charles Skinner IIISkinner's 2021 Star Tribune obituary summarized his contributions to Lutsen and to skiing:Charles Mather Skinner III passed away on June 17th at the age of 87 in his new home in Red Wing, MN. …Charles was born in St. Louis, MO on August 30, 1933, to Eleanor Whiting Skinner and Charles Mather Skinner II. He grew up near Lake Harriet in Minneapolis where he loved racing sailboats during the summer and snow sliding adventures in the winter.At the age of 17, he joined the United States Navy and fought in the Korean War as a navigator aboard dive bombers. After his service, he returned home to Minnesota where he graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School, served on the law review, and began practicing law in Grand Rapids, MN.In 1962, he led the formation of Sugar Hills Ski and purchased Sugar Lake (Otis) Resort in Grand Rapids, MN. For 20 years, Charles pioneer-ed snowmaking inventions, collaborated with other Midwest ski area owners to build a golden age for Midwest ski areas, and advised ski areas across the U.S. including Aspen on snowmaking.In the 1970s, Scott Paper Company recruited Charles to manage recreational lands across New England, and later promoted him to become President of Sugarloaf Mountain ski area in Maine. In 1980, he bought, and significantly expanded, Lutsen Mountains in Lutsen, MN, which is now owned and operated by his children.He and his wife spent many happy years on North Captiva Island, Florida, where they owned and operated Barnacle Phil's Restaurant. An entrepreneur and risk-taker at heart, he never wanted to retire and was always looking for new business ventures.His work at Sugar Hills, Lutsen Mountains and North Captive Island helped local economics expand and thrive.He was a much-respected leader and inspiration to thousands of people over the years. Charles was incredibly intellectually curious and an avid reader, with a tremendous memory for facts and history.Unstoppable and unforgettable, he had a wonderful sense of humor and gave wise counsel to many. …On the number of ski areas on Forest Service landA huge number of U.S. ski areas operate on Forest Service land, with the majority seated in the West. A handful also sit in the Midwest and New England (Lutsen once sat partially on Forest Service land, but currently does not):On additional Midwest podcastsAs a native Midwesterner, I've made it a point to regularly feature the leaders of Midwest ski areas on the podcast. Dig into the archive:MICHIGANWISCONSINOHIOINDIANASOUTH DAKOTAThe Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 98/100 in 2023, and number 484 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

前回に引き続き、シンガーソングライターのHIMI氏にインタビュー。レーベル「ASILIS」を立ち上げ、周りにいる仲間や家族と共に精力的な創作活動を続けているHIMI氏。どんなエネルギーが彼を突き動かしているのか…？現代の日本に対する思いや、これからの展望についてインタビューしました。「AFTER THE GIG.」は、混沌とした時代の中で、何者にも左右されずに自らの個性を磨き続けている8人のアーティストへロングインタビューです。CELINEのアーティスティック・クリエイティブ・イメージディレクターを務めるHedi Slimaneは、2000年代の音楽シーンからインスピレーションを受けた2023年のFWコレクション、「Age of indieness」を発表しました。ニューヨーク出身のジャーナリスト・Lizzy Goodmanは、「Age of Indieness」というテーマについて、Hedi Slimaneへインタビューを行いました。以下URLより、この対談の全文が読めます。https://sbwl.to/3ZG21oAこの対談の中で、Hedi Slimaneは、自らのデザインコードは音楽から大きな影響を受けている、と語っています。本プログラムは、「Age of Indieness」について語ったこの二人の対談からインスピレーションを受けて制作されています。アーティスト活動を始めた原体験や現在のスタイルを確立するまでの物語、ファッションと音楽との関係性、自らのクリエイションを通して実現していきたいことついてなど、ここでしか聴けないエピソードをお聴き逃しなく。インタビュアー： JIJI（シンガー/モデル）毎週異なるゲストアーティストをお迎えして、最新エピソードをお届けします。▼ハッシュタグをつけて投稿。プログラムへの感想を募集します。https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?hashtags=after_the_gig▼感想・メッセージはこちらからhttps://sbwl.to/atg-msg

What would you do if you couldn't fail? Today I want to introduce you to Matty, Matty if one of those humans that no matter what's going on, who's in the group, or where you are; he is adding joy and value to the time you get to spend with himI had the pleasure of connecting with Matty through social media and the absolute honor of getting to host him on this creator trip here in JordanWe chat about the joy in meeting new friends, connoting with a new culture, and getting to truly know those that call a place home.He shares how life shifted for him and the impact in making 4 major changes to his life all at once, but how he's so grateful for who he has become and how those choices and his trajectory changed because of them.He shares one of the most valuable takes on imposter syndrome I've heard, and how our action, choice to pursue, and put in the work is what sets us apart from what we want to be and who we become Matty is one that truly pursues life for what can come of taking action towards who he knows he can be, one that values those around him, teaches others from a place of excitement and sincerity for the betterment of another, and one that I am insanely grateful to call a friendSo tune in and meet this beautiful human, one that is consciously making the world around him a better place, by being who he is, and the way he chooses to impact how we experience one another And to you Matty thank you, thank you for taking the time to sit and share such an intentional conversation with me, for the way you observe life and others, for the way you so graciously and constructively communicate that, and for the absolute joy and laughter you have brought into my life, you are a light and a beauty my friend

Riding the SIlk Road Mountain Race is hard enough, but to choose to do it on a cargo bike would make most of us run the other way. For someone like Allan, who lives life behind bars, this was a challenge that was right up his alley.Allan is the founder of Gay's Okay Cycling. Gay's Okay is a small cycling apparel brand with a big, positive, empowering message: that our cycling community welcomes those of all sexual and gender identities, that we are here to change bad attitudes and celebrate our diversity from the grassroots up, while supporting organisations and events that work hard for equal rights and against discrimination.In this episode we chat about the Silk Road and the challenges he faced tacking the route on a bike that was more suited to the streets, but we also touch on trying to bring more diversity to cycling. I appreciated Allan's candor in this discussion and it was a blast to chat with himI hope you enjoy this chat and apologies for this podcast taking so long to come out. Save 15% at Redshift Sports when you use the code MB40Save 50% off your first month of coaching at Cycling 101 when you use the code MB40 at checkout.Save 25% at Dynamic Cyclist when you use the promo code MB40 at checkout.Visit Rollingdale CycleThanks to Ottalaus Inc. for their support.Thanks to Spandex Panda for their support.Thanks to Lakeside Bikes in Invermere for supporting me!

Jack has been through a lot of hardship as a young professional, but the way that he continues to honor and praise God is something that I was drawn to. Read his bio below: I thought I was going to be a priest, but then God told me noI was crushed. All I wanted was to give my life entirely to Him.How could I still do that and live in the world?I discovered the universal call to HolinessNo, I don't hear confessions or celebrate mass or celebrate weddings nor funerals or baptisms.Instead, God has called me to a different path.To still be devoted to him in daily prayer.To still glorify Him in all of my workTo still serve Him and everyone I meetAnd lay my life down for my wife and Him.My mission is still clear I am called to heaven.This is not my home but while I am here I will work with Christ, and bring others to HimI will help others grow in detachment, generosity, and prudence in their financesI will serve with my time, talent, and treasureI will raise a family devoted to ChristI will build a business devoted to ChristI will build a nonprofit devoted to ChristI will build a life devoted to Christ________If you want to join me… schedule a meetingThere is a beautiful plan for your life. And money can be a huge blessing in your life and others lives.We just need to learn the balance of detachment, generosity, and prudence.Let's be saints! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-ziegler-financial-planning/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hampton-dortch/message

#9は、シンガーソングライターのHIMI氏にインタビュー。音楽を愛する一家に生まれ、物心つく前からさまざまな音楽に触れてきたHIMI氏。自らのスタイルを「自然」「素直」という言葉で表現した若きアーティストへ、自由な音楽を生み出すマインドについてインタビューしました。「AFTER THE GIG.」は、混沌とした時代の中で、何者にも左右されずに自らの個性を磨き続けている8人のアーティストへロングインタビューです。CELINEのアーティスティック・クリエイティブ・イメージディレクターを務めるHedi Slimaneは、2000年代の音楽シーンからインスピレーションを受けた2023年のFWコレクション、「Age of indieness」を発表しました。ニューヨーク出身のジャーナリスト・Lizzy Goodmanは、「Age of Indieness」というテーマについて、Hedi Slimaneへインタビューを行いました。以下URLより、この対談の全文が読めます。https://sbwl.to/3ZG21oAこの対談の中で、Hedi Slimaneは、自らのデザインコードは音楽から大きな影響を受けている、と語っています。本プログラムは、「Age of Indieness」について語ったこの二人の対談からインスピレーションを受けて制作されています。アーティスト活動を始めた原体験や現在のスタイルを確立するまでの物語、ファッションと音楽との関係性、自らのクリエイションを通して実現していきたいことついてなど、ここでしか聴けないエピソードをお聴き逃しなく。インタビュアー： JIJI（シンガー/モデル）毎週異なるゲストアーティストをお迎えして、最新エピソードをお届けします。▼ハッシュタグをつけて投稿。プログラムへの感想を募集します。https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?hashtags=after_the_gig▼感想・メッセージはこちらからhttps://sbwl.to/atg-msg

Jesus calls you not to be afraid but to believe in HimI. TWO FEARFUL PEOPLEII. TWO MIRACULOUS RELIEFS

Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:1-8; 2:1-17Text: Colossians 2:6Having Received Christ, Walk in HimI. The Receiving of ChristII. The Corresponding WalkIII. The Only Possibility

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on June 7. It dropped for free subscribers on June 10. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe for free below:WhoMike Hussey, General Manager of Middlebury College Snowbowl, VermontRecorded onMay 15, 2023About Middlebury SnowbowlClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Middlebury CollegeLocated in: Hancock, VermontYear founded: 1936Pass affiliations: Indy Pass Allied ResortReciprocal partners: NoneClosest neighboring ski areas: Sugarbush (38 minutes), Mad River Glen (43 minutes), Pico (45 minutes), Killington (49 minutes)Base elevation: 1,720 feetSummit elevation: 2,720 feetVertical drop: 1,000 feetSkiable Acres: 100 on-trail; 600+ woods and gladesAverage annual snowfall: 200 inchesTrail count: 17 (8 advanced/expert, 4 intermediate, 5 beginner) + 11 gladesLift count: 4 (1 fixed-grip quad [to replace Sheehan double for 2023-24 ski season], 2 triples, 1 carpet – view Lift Blog's inventory of Middlebury Snowbowl's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himI've held Michigan Wolverines football season tickets for the past 15 years. The team's 12-game schedule acts as a sort of life framework for three months each fall. Where the team goes, I often go: Oklahoma in 2025, Texas in 2027, Washington in 2028. Plus Ann Arbor, all the time, for home games. I like big games, ranked opponents, rivalries. This year's home schedule is a stinker: East Carolina, UNLV, Bowling Green, Rutgers, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State. To be a Michigan fan is to assume the boys will win those first six easily before a fistfight with the Buckeyes. In college football, big brand names get nearly all the glory nearly all the time.Skiing is a little bit like that. Ask your friend who skis three to 10 days per year where they go, and you'll likely get a list of familiars: Mammoth, Park City, Breck, Vail. In New England or New York, the list will be some mix of Stratton, Mount Snow, Okemo, Killington, Sugarbush, Hunter, Windham. All fine mountains, and all worthy of three-day Dan's discretionary skiing dollars. They will get his social media posts and elevator chats too. In skiing, as in college football, legacy and brand mean a hell of a lot.Which takes us to Middlebury Snowbowl (though you're probably wondering how). Being a thousand-vertical foot ski area in Vermont is a little like being the Rutgers football team in the Big 10. You know you're going to lose most of your games most of the time: Rutgers is 12-58 in Big 10 play since joining the conference in 2014. And no wonder: officials slotted the team in the East division, alongside blue chips Ohio State (69-6 in Big 10 play since 2014), Michigan (53-22), and Penn State (49-30). Rutgers is 1-26 against those three teams over that span (the one win was versus Michigan in 2014; yes, I was at that game; yes, it was clear that the Rutgers fans had not been there before).Vermont state highway 100 is the Big 10 East of New England skiing: Mount Snow, Okemo, Killington, Sugarbush, Mad River Glen, Stowe, and Smugglers' Notch all sit along or near this north-south route. So does Middlebury Snowbowl. Here's how they all stack up:It's all a little incongruous, this land of giants and speedbumps and not much in between. Skiers have shown little mercy for mid-sized ski areas in Vermont. Snow Valley, Plymouth Notch, and Maple Valley have all gone extinct. Ascutney, now a surface-lift bump, was once an 1,800-footer with a high-speed quad. Magic was shuttered for years before pinpointing a scrappy-rebel narrative upon which it could thrive. Saskadena Six and Quechee are both attached to larger entities who maintain the ski hills as guest and resident amenities. Even Bolton Valley missed a season in the late ‘90s during a problematic ownership transition period.Middlebury Snowbowl, of course, has survived since 1936 as a protectorate of Middlebury College, which owns the facility. But money-losing ski areas subsidized by larger entities are out of fashion. The world knows such arrangements are unnecessary; ski areas can and should be self-sustaining. See: Gunstock, Bogus Basin, Bridger Bowl, Mt. Ashland. Mike Hussey knows this, and he has a vision to make the Snowbowl a strong independent business. Oddly, the small ski area's proximity to giants may finally be a positive – as Killington and Sugarbush have driven peak-day lift ticket prices over $200, the Snowbowl has remained an affordable alternative that delivers a scaled-down but still substantial ski experience. Is this Middlebury's moment? I had to find out.What we talked aboutMiddlebury's huge increases in skier visits over the past few seasons; XC snowmaking at Rickert; miracle March; competing in a rapidly changing Vermont and why megapasses and consolidation have been good for most independent ski areas; Middlebury's parking problem; why Middlebury College owns a ski area; the coolest college graduation ceremony in skiing; Middlebury College 101; the relationship between the college and the ski area; whether the ski area does or can make money; a brief history of HKD Snowmakers; transforming Rikert from a locals' slidepath to a modern Nordic ski area; how the college's board of trustees reacted to suggestions that the school close down Rickert and Snowbowl; how Snowbowl lured students back by changing its season pass structure; the Sheehan chairlift upgrade; reflecting on the Worth Mountain lift upgrade to a triple and why Middlebury went with a quad this time; the importance of Skytrac; why Middlebury is introducing night-skiing and where that footprint will sit; why Middlebury keeps only a minimalist terrain park; navigating Act 250 approval; what's fueling Snowbowl's massive investment; potential future snowmaking and parking upgrades; Lake Pleiad; doing the math on Middlebury's massive acreage counts; glade culture; that wacky trailmap; expansion opportunities; so many season pass options; the season pass punch-card benefit; and the Indy Pass.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewSuddenly, Middlebury is booming. Skier visits popped 20 percent this past winter, after soaring 60 percent during the 2021-22 ski season. And while the college still subsidizes ski area operations, management is reinvesting with the hopes of reaching self-sufficiency long term. This summer, Middlebury will install night-skiing and replace the Sheehan double with a brand-new Skytrac quad.What's going on? Why is a thousand-footer jammed between Killington and Sugarbush exploding? Wasn't the Epkon Godzilla supposed to leave nothing but craters and a dozen super resorts as it bulldozed its way across New England?Skiers seem to be telling us that there is room in the marketplace for a ski area that acts like ski areas did for 80 years. Before $200 lift tickets. Before Colorado HQ. Before checklist tourism. Before the social media flex. Before chairlifts could load the population of Delaware into a single carrier.At Middlebury Snowbowl, a minivan filled with the six members of the Parker family of Hancock Vermont can roll into the parking lot on a weekend morning, pay rack rate for lift tickets, and ski all day without waiting in line. They can wander and explore and not get bored. Middlebury's trail network is limited by big-mountain Vermont standards, but there's plenty there. Especially if there's snow on the ground and the Parker clan can handle some light trees. The place sprawls over hundreds of acres, deceptively large.There's a desire and a demand for places like Middlebury Snowbowl right now. For something easier and cleaner and cheaper. More atmosphere and less circus. A day on skis that's just about the skiing.What I got wrongI described Vermont's Act 250 as a state law that governs how ski areas can develop. That's partially correct but somewhat misstates the purpose and intent of the law, which applies to land use and development as a whole across the state. From Vermont's official Natural Resources Board website:Act 250 (10 V.S.A. Chapter 151) is Vermont's land use and development law, enacted in 1970 at a time when Vermont was undergoing significant development pressure. The law provides a public, quasi-judicial process for reviewing and managing the environmental, social and fiscal consequences of major subdivisions and developments in Vermont. It assures that larger developments compliment Vermont's unique landscape, economy and community needs. …The effects of Act 250 are most clear when one compares Vermont's pristine landscape with most other states.  Protecting Vermont's environmental integrity and the strength of our communities benefits everyone, forming a strong basis for both our economy and our quality of life.The Act 250 process balances environmental and community concerns; a tall order which at times can be complex. Developers, engineers and consultants best navigate the Act 250 process by planning their project, from the earliest stages, with the 10 criteria in mind.As a result of Act 250 and the planning process, project designs, landscaping plans and color schemes fit the landscape.  Act 250 has helped Vermont retain its unsurpassed scenic qualities while undergoing the substantial growth of the last 5 decades.  Act 250 is also critical because it requires development to conform to municipal and regional plans and Vermont's land use planning goals.The Act 250 criteria have protected many important natural and cultural resources — water and air quality, wildlife habitat and agricultural soils (just to name a few) — that have long been valued by Vermonters and that are an important part of the state's economy. No single law can protect all of Vermont's unique attributes — but Act 250 plays a critical role in maintaining the quality of life that Vermonters enjoy.The law, for all its benefits, is often viewed as a regulatory burden that considerably stunted the potential of Vermont's ski areas over the long term. The late Chris Diamond examined the impacts of Act 250 at length in his book, Ski Inc. 2020:In short order, the ski area operators became the bad guys, the most visible incarnation of the capitalist beast, to these newcomers [in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s]. Over time, the enmity – or, at a minimum, distrust – was formalized in a regulatory structure that made day-to-day business life incredibly difficult. Capitalism brings a certain messiness and unpredictability, something the new political majority would not tolerate. Vermont basically tried to have it both ways: a healthy economy and some of the nation's most restrictive land-use laws. Given a ski area's impact on the natural and social environment, they were disproportionately impacted. Water-quality regulations made it impossible or extraordinarily expensive to expand snowmaking operations. Other criteria under the state's landmark environmental law, Act 250, were aimed at growth issues. The permitting process gave significant influence to those representing the status quo. So it shouldn't be surprising to note that, generally, the status quo was protected. For most rural areas, that meant zero or slow growth. An unintended but inevitable result: As decades passed and people moved on, the population base began to shrink. …My view is that the current situation would be less dire if the state's ski communities were as economically vigorous as their Western counterparts. …During the ‘90s, growth in most of Vermont's ski towns ground to a halt. A notable exception was Okemo, where the Mueller family managed a significant terrain expansion, a second base area, and a related real-estate development. Although their operating competence and focus on service were largely the catalysts, they also benefited from their location in the former manufacturing-based economy of Ludlow. Here the status quo was arguably more focused on economic survival. The Muellers also proved themselves exceptionally skilled at navigating the permit process.The bigger challenge for most Vermont resorts remained water for snowmaking. Most have finally managed to navigate their way to a solution and now offer a competitive product, albeit at great cost and with significant delays. (For Mount Snow that process took over 30 years). With that, and all the other changes that are occurring within the ski realm, I do believe they face a brighter future. Vermont ski towns will continue to evolve into important economic centers. But in my view, they will not be what they might have been.Diamond was a smart guy, and ran Mount Snow and Steamboat over the course of several decades. Ski Inc. 2020 and its companion book, Ski Inc. are must-reads for anyone who enjoys this newsletter. But while I agree with much of Diamond's analysis above, I floated this notion of Act 250-as-development killer to a prominent Vermont resort operator last year. That individual waved their hand toward the base area we were sitting in and the stacks of condos rolling up the hillside. “Well, we built all this,” they said. And Vermont does offer considerably more ski-in, ski-out accommodations than, say, New York. Killington is finally moving ahead with their base village, and the state is home to the best and most-advanced lift systems in the Northeast.So something's working there. The truth, as always, is probably somewhere in between the extremes of the build-it-all and build-nothing-at-all fundamentalists.Why you should ski Middlebury SnowbowlEvery year, more megapasses move into the marketplace. But neither Vail nor Alterra has added a new ski area in the Northeast since Windham joined the Ikon Pass in 2020 (Seven Springs, which joined the Epic Pass in 2022, really serves the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest). It's fair to assume that more skiers are trying to cram into an unchanging number of ski areas each season. And while the mountains can somewhat mitigate peak-day crowds with advanced reservations, lift-ticket limitations, and higher-capacity chairlifts, skiers also have a crowd-control mechanism at their disposal: go somewhere else.Savvy Northeast skiers know how to people-dodge. Sure, go to Killington, Sugarbush, Stowe, Loon, and Cannon. They are all spectacular. But on weekends, unlatch the secret weapons on the ski-area utility belt: Plattekill, Berkshire East, Elk, Black Mountain in New Hampshire and Black Mountain of Maine. Excellent ski areas, all, lacking their competitors' size and crowds but none of their thrill and muscle.Middlebury Snowbowl belongs on this list. True, 1,000 feet of vert makes Middlebury the 16th-tallest ski area in the state of Vermont. And unlike people, the ski area can't just buy a bigger pickup truck to compensate. But 1,000 vertical feet is a good ski run. Especially when it's fed by 200 inches of average annual snowfall that doesn't get shredded by Epkonitron hordes trampling off high-speed chairlifts.At some point, each skier has to decide: will they ski the same dozen ski areas they've always skied and that everyone else they know has always skied, or will they roam a bit, taste test, see if they need that high-speed lift as much as they think you do. Or do they give that up – even if just for a day – to view the snow from a different angle?Podcast NotesOn Vermont being a sparsely populated stateDespite its outsized presence in the U.S. ski industry – the state typically ranks fourth in skier visits behind Colorado, California, and Utah – Vermont is tiny by just about any measure. It's the seventh-smallest U.S. state by size and the second-smallest by population, with around 650,000 residents (Wyoming is last with just 580,000). This surprised me, mostly because the state is so close to so many population centers (New England is home to nearly 15 million people; New York to another 20.5 million).On the U.S. ski industry's massive investmentHussey and I briefly discuss the U.S. ski industry's massive capital investment for this past season. The exact number was $812.4 million, according to the National Ski Areas Association.On that punchcardMiddlebury Snowbowl offers one of the best season pass perks of any ski area in New England: each pass includes a punch card good for four lift tickets. This solves a season passholder's greatest irritation: dragging along cheap-ass procrastinating friends who can't be bothered to buy anything in advance but also don't want to donate a lung to pay for a Saturday lift ticket. Or the friend who has an Ikon Pass and is horrified by the idea of paying for another day of skiing beyond that massive investment. The card is transferrable and has no blackouts. On the Indy Pass Allied and XC programsThe Indy Pass has done a marvelous job adapting to a complex industry. This can be a bit confusing, as Hussey outlines in the podcast – some Indy Pass holders show up to Middlebury expecting “free”* lift tickets. But the ski area is part of the Allied Resorts program, which gets skiers half off on non-holiday weekdays, and 25 percent off at other times. I analyzed the Allied program at length here.Lift tickets to Rickert Nordic Center, which Hussey also manages, are included on the Indy Pass and the drastically discounted Indy XC Pass. I discussed that pass here.*Megapass lift tickets are also characterized as being “free,” but that is incorrect: the passholder paid for the pass in advance, and is simply redeeming a product they've pre-purchased.The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing all year round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 49/100 in 2023, and number 435 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Makhosi Himi Gogo Thule is a devoted sangoma, diviner, prayer warrior, and healer. Sangoma is a Zulu term for a seer who brings forth messages from their ancestors to help or serve their community. This gift is a calling & a responsibility rooted in indigenous cultural knowledge. Makhosi's work acts as a bridge into shamanic ceremonial traditions from her lived cultural experiences guided by the elevated ancestors of her lineages from Burkina Faso, South Africa, & Ancient Kemet. Her healing practice is rooted in ancient African cosmologies, initiations & spiritual traditions that elevate our consciousness to return harmony within our inner and outer nature. She walks the path of a wisdom keeper devoted to preserving and honoring the ancestral way of healing.Makhosi details her initiation, where In the Ubungoma tradition is called Ukuthwasa and is a process of cleansing, releasing, death, and rebirth. Similar with the monk path, there are protocols throughout the day that need to be fulfilled, such as dressing up in certain colors, working with plant medicines and different cleanses, and doing prayers, dances, and songs of the tradition. This opens the dreaming tradition wherein you move through this process of cleansing that opens your dreams, lets you see your ancestors who give you instructions, and show you things about yourself that you need to see and understand in order to move on to the next phase of your life. There's no final date; when you're shown and the elders see that you're seeing what you're supposed to be seeing at that moment, then you pass through the next gate or space and graduate. However, for Makhosi, there's no such thing as graduation and that life itself is an initiation.   What we discuss: 01:08 – Introducing Makhosi03:39 – The Time of the Feminine for Makhosi06:26 – Remembrance09:19 – Truth for Makhosi12:03 – Inspiration to Keep Going15:19 – Makhosi's Initiation18:15 – Dreams and the Dreamworld20:54 – Difficulty in Dreaming23:51 – Elders in Society28:41 – The Makhosi Foundation32:59 – Makhosi Embodied37:08 – The Truth and Truly Listening40:51 – Healing in Our Culture44:57 – The Healing of Togetherness49:18 – Helping Others Free Themselves51:46 – Motherhood1:00:05 – Makhosi in Behalf of the Great Mother To amplify your health with GoddessWell products, go to Goddesswell.co to and use the code SISTERHOOD at checkout to buy one and get one free!   Sign up for Moon School a 29-day meditation journey beginning on the New Moon on June 17: https://www.globalsisterhood.org/moon-school   Learn more from Makhosi:   Websites:https://www.makhosistarmother.comhttps://www.makhosifoundation.org   Instagram: http://instagram.com/makhosi_starmother Ancestral Dreams, Omens & Prophecies Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Ld3jfqdgiBstAKO89nwNF   To follow us on Instagram, @theglobalsisterhood @Laurenelizabethwalsh @shainaconners

In this episode, Leah dives deep into the topic of self-love and how it relates to Human Design. She shares her insights and personal experiences on the different ways to cultivate self-love based on your Human Design energy type and other practices. She discusses all of the following:What is self-loveWhy is self-love is importantHow to love yourself deeperWhy Human Design is an important tool for self-loveHow each energy type in Human Design can practice self-love8 ways to cultivate more self-love into your lifeWays I embody self-lovePositive self talk vs negative self talkSelf-love mantrasMANTRAS:Visualize your highest self, then show up as her/them/himI am mine before I am anyone elsesEvery day make a tiny agreement with yourself and follow through with it. You'll start to see yourself as a person who honors their word even when no one is watching, and that's what creates true self-confidence.The way that we speak to ourselves mattersYou are the main character in your storyDo it for your future selfDream until its a realityDo it for youRATE, REVIEW, & SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE:If you are loving this podcast, please consider rating and reviewing the show! Reviews mean the world to me, and they help support me in delivering this free content every week! If you'd take one minute to leave a rating & review, I will forever appreciate it!From your phone, search for The Design Of You Podcast in the Apple Podcasts app or just click here. Scroll down and tap the stars, and select "write a review."Also, make sure you have subscribed to the podcast, so you don't miss an episode!RESOURCES MENTIONED:Join The Method - An Integrated Human Design & Spiritual Wellness JourneyThe Human Design GuidebookADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Lookup your HD chart Decode Your Design Get Your Guidebook Book a reading with Leah IG: @thedesignofyou / @leahmccloud Intro/Outro song is 6am by Young Mooski

Today's episode is JAM-PACKED with all things mindset and manifestation! I'm talking to Himi from Betterday studio all about her journey from quitting her 9 to 5, starting her business in 2020... navigating the impact of the pandemic and now running a hugely successful business that reflects her passion for mindset! In this episode we are covering: How Himi decided to follow her passion, feel the fear and do it anyway by starting her own business Daily mindset and manifestation routines The best things we have manifested (and how you can do the same!) Himi's top tips for anyone else thinking of starting a business and following their dreams and much more **EXCLUSIVE OFFER** We are also announcing the release of our collaboration - THE MANIFEST ANYTHING JOURNAL If you want to say hello to your dream home, a full bank account, more clients, your dream relationship and manifesting ANYTHING your heart desires then introducing THE MANIFEST ANYTHING JOURNAL Use code: PODCAST23 and get a special discount on your order (for a limited time) Go to www.betterdaystudio.co.uk to get yours today You can follow Betterday Studio here: https://www.instagram.com/betterday.studio/ If you enjoyed this episode and felt inspired please let me know! Instagram: @victoria.maskell Email: victoria@victoriamaskell.com Happy Manifesting everyone! Victoria xxx

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Feb. 3. It dropped for free subscribers on Feb. 6. To receive future pods as soon as they're live and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription.WhoBrett Cook, Vice President and General Manager of Seven Springs, Hidden Valley, and Laurel Mountain, PennsylvaniaRecorded onJanuary 30, 2023About Seven SpringsOwned by: Vail ResortsPass affiliations: Epic Pass, Epic Local Pass, Northeast Value Epic Pass, Northeast Midweek Epic PassLocated in: Seven Springs, PennsylvaniaYear opened: 1932Closest neighboring ski areas: Hidden Valley (17 minutes), Laurel Mountain (45 minutes), Nemacolin (46 minutes), Boyce Park (1 hour), Wisp (1 hour), Blue Knob (1 hour, 30 minutes)Base elevation: 2,240 feetSummit elevation: 2,994 feetVertical drop: 754 feetSkiable Acres: 285Average annual snowfall: 135 inchesTrail count: 48 (5 expert, 6 advanced, 15 intermediate, 16 beginner, 6 terrain parks)Lift count: 14­­ (2 six-packs, 4 fixed-grip quads, 4 triples, 3 carpets, 1 ropetow)About Hidden ValleyOwned by: Vail ResortsPass affiliations: Epic Pass, Epic Local Pass, Northeast Value Epic Pass, Northeast Midweek Epic PassLocated in: Hidden Valley, PennsylvaniaYear opened: 1955Closest neighboring ski areas: Seven Springs (17 minutes), Laurel Mountain (34 minutes), Mystic Mountain (50 minutes), Boyce Park (54 minutes),Wisp (1 hour), Blue Knob (1 hour 19 minutes)Base elevation: 2,405 feetSummit elevation: 2,875 feetVertical drop: 470 feetSkiable Acres: 110Average annual snowfall: 140 inchesTrail count: 32 (9 advanced, 13 intermediate, 8 beginner, 2 terrain parks)Lift count: 8 (2 fixed-grip quads, 2 triples, 2 carpets, 2 handle tows)About Laurel MountainOwned by: Vail ResortsPass affiliations: Epic Pass, Epic Local Pass, Northeast Value Epic Pass, Northeast Midweek Epic PassLocated in: Boswell, PennsylvaniaYear opened: 1939Closest neighboring ski areas: Hidden Valley (34 minutes), Seven Springs (45 minutes), Boyce Park (1 hour), Blue Knob (1 hour), Mystic Mountain (1 hour, 15 minutes), Wisp (1 hour, 15 minutes)Base elevation: 2,005 feetSummit elevation: 2,766 feetVertical drop: 761 feetSkiable Acres: 70Average annual snowfall: 41 inchesTrail count: 20 (2 expert, 2 advanced, 6 intermediate, 10 beginner)Lift count: 2­­ (1 fixed-grip quad, 1 handle tow)Below the paid subscriber jump: a summary of our podcast conversation, a look at abandoned Hidden Valley expansions, historic Laurel Mountain lift configurations, and much more.Beginning with podcast 116, the full podcast articles are no longer available on the free content tier. Why? They take between 10 and 20 hours to research and write, and readers have demonstrated that they are willing to pay for content. My current focus with The Storm is to create value for anyone who invests their money into the product. Here are examples of a few past podcast articles, if you would like to see the format: Vail Mountain, Mt. Spokane, Snowbasin, Mount Bohemia, Brundage. To anyone who is supporting The Storm: thank you very much. You have guaranteed that this is a sustainable enterprise for the indefinite future.Why I interviewed himI've said this before, but it's worth repeating. Most Vail ski areas fall into one of two categories: the kind skiers will fly around the world for, and the kind skiers won't drive more than 15 minutes for. Whistler, Park City, Heavenly fall into the first category. Mt. Brighton, Alpine Valley, Paoli Peaks into the latter. I exaggerate a bit on the margins, but when I drive from New York City to Liberty Mountain, I know this is not a well-trod path.Seven Springs, like Hunter or Attitash, occupies a slightly different category in the Vail empire. It is both a regional destination and a high-volume big-mountain feeder. Skiers will make a weekend of these places, from Pittsburgh or New York City or Boston, then they will use the pass to vacation in Colorado. It's a better sort of skiing than your suburban knolls, more sprawling and interesting, more repeatable for someone who doesn't know what a Corky Flipdoodle 560 is.“Brah that sounds sick!”Thanks Park Brah. I appreciate you. But you know I just made that up, right?“Brah have you seen my shoulder-mounted Boombox 5000 backpack speaker? I left it right here beside my weed vitamins.”Sorry Brah. I have not.Anyway, I happen to believe that these sorts of in-the-middle resorts are the next great frontier of ski area consolidation. All the big mountains have either folded under the Big Four umbrella or have gained so much megapass negotiating power that the incentive to sell has rapidly evaporated. The city-adjacent bumps such as Boston Mills were a novel and highly effective strategy for roping cityfolk into Epic Passes, but as pure ski areas, those places just are not and never will be terribly compelling experiences. But the middle is huge and mostly untapped, and these are some of the best ski areas in America, mountains that are large enough to give you a different experience each time but contained enough that you don't feel as though you've just wandered into an alternate dimension. There's enough good terrain to inspire loyalty and repeat visits, but it's not so good that passholders don't dream of the hills beyond.Examples: Timberline, West Virginia; Big Powderhorn, Michigan; Berkshire East and Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts; Plattekill, New York; Elk Mountain, Pennsylvania; Mt. Spokane, Washington; Bear Valley, California; Cascade or Whitecap, Wisconsin; Magic Mountain, Vermont; or Black Mountain, New Hampshire. There are dozens more. Vail's Midwestern portfolio is expansive but bland, day-ski bumps but no weekend-type spots on the level of Crystal Mountain, Michigan or Lutsen, Minnesota.If you want to understand the efficacy of this strategy, the Indy Pass was built on it. Ninety percent of its roster is the sorts of mountains I'm referring to above. Jay Peak and Powder Mountain sell passes, but dang it Bluewood and Shanty Creek are kind of nice now that the pass nudged me toward them. Once Vail and Alterra realize how crucial these middle mountains are to filling in the pass blanks, expect them to start competing for the space. Seven Springs, I believe, is a test case in how impactful a regional destination can be both in pulling skiers in and pushing them out across the world. Once this thing gels, look the hell out.What we talked aboutThe not-so-great Western Pennsylvania winter so far; discovering skiing as an adult; from liftie to running the largest ski resort in Pennsylvania; the life and death of Snow Time Resorts; joining the Peak Pass; two ownership transitions in less than a year, followed by Covid; PA ski culture; why the state matters to Vail; helping a Colorado ski company understand the existential urgency of snowmaking in the East; why Vail doubled down on PA with the Seven Springs purchase when they already owned five ski areas in the state; breaking down the difference between the Roundtop-Liberty-Whitetail trio and the Seven-Springs-Hidden-Valley-Laurel trio; the cruise ship in the mountains; rugged and beautiful Western PA; dissecting the amazing outsized snowfall totals in Western Pennsylvania; Vail Resorts' habit of promoting from within; how Vail's $20-an-hour minimum wage hit in Pennsylvania; the legacy of the Nutting family, the immediate past owners of the three ski areas; the legendary Herman Dupree, founder of Seven Springs and HKD snowguns; Seven Springs amazing sprawling snowmaking system, complete with 49(!) ponds; why the system isn't automated and whether it ever will be; how planting more trees could change the way Seven Springs skis; connecting the ski area's far-flung beginner terrain; where we could see additional glades at Seven Springs; rethinking the lift fleet; the importance of redundant lifts; do we still need Tyrol?; why Seven Springs, Hidden Valley, and Laurel share a single general manager; thinking of lifts long-term at Hidden Valley; Hidden Valley's abandoned expansion plans and whether they could ever be revived; the long and troubled history of state-owned Laurel Mountain; keeping the character at this funky little upside-down boomer; “We love what Laurel Mountain is and we're going to continue to own that”; building out Laurel's snowmaking system; expansion potential at Laurel; “Laurel is a hidden gem and we don't want it to be hidden anymore”; Laurel's hidden handletow; evolving Laurel's lift fleet; managing a state-owned ski area; Seven Springs' new trailmap; the Epic Pass arrives; and this season's lift-ticket limits.        Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewWhen Vail bought Peak Resorts in 2019, they suddenly owned nearly a quarter of Pennsylvania's ski areas: Big Boulder, Jack Frost, Whitetail, Roundtop, and Liberty. That's a lot of Eagles jerseys. And enough, I thought, that we wouldn't see VR snooping around for more PA treasures to add to their toybox.Then, to my surprise, the company bought Seven Springs – which they clearly wanted – along with Hidden Valley and Laurel, which they probably didn't, in late 2021. Really what they bought was Pittsburgh, metropolitan population 2.3 million, and their large professional class of potentially globe-trotting skiers. All these folks needed was an excuse to buy an Epic Pass. Vail gave them one.So now what? Vail knows what to do with a large, regionally dominant ski area like Seven Springs. It's basically Pennsylvania's version of Stowe or Park City or Heavenly. It was pretty good when you bought it, now you just have to not ruin it and remind everyone that they can now ski Whistler on their season pass. Hidden Valley, with its hundreds of on-mountain homeowners, suburban-demographic profile, and family orientation more or less fit Vail's portfolio too.But what to do with Laurel? Multiple locals assured me that Vail would close it. Vail doesn't do that – close ski areas – but they also don't buy 761-vertical-foot bumps at the ass-end of nowhere with almost zero built-in customer base and the snowmaking firepower of a North Pole souvenir snowglobe. They got it because it came with Seven Springs, like your really great spouse who came with a dad who thinks lawnmowers are an FBI conspiracy. I know what I think Vail should do with Laurel – dump money into the joint to aggressively route crowds away from the larger ski areas – but I didn't know whether they would, or had even considered it.Vail's had 14 months now to think this over. What are these mountains? How do they fit? What are we going to do with them? I got some answers.Questions I wish I'd askedYou know, it's weird that Vail has two Hidden Valleys. Boyne, just last year, changed the name of its “Boyne Highlands” resort to “The Highlands,” partly because, one company executive told me, skiers would occasionally show up to the wrong resort with a condo reservation. I imagine that's why Earl Holding ultimately backed off on renaming Snowbasin to “Sun Valley, Utah,” as he reportedly considered doing in the leadup to the 2002 Olympics – if you give people an easy way to confuse themselves, they will generally take you up on it.I realize this is not really the same thing. Boyne Mountain and The Highlands are 40 minutes apart. Vail's two Hidden Valleys are 10-and-a-half hours from each other by car. Still. I wanted to ask Cook if this weird fact had any hilarious unintended consequences (I desperately wish Holding would have renamed Snowbasin). Perhaps confusion in the Epic Mix app? Or someone purchasing lift tickets for the incorrect resort? An adult lift ticket at Hidden Valley, Pennsylvania for tomorrow is $75 online and $80 in person, but just $59 online/$65 in person for Hidden Valley, Missouri. Surely someone has confused the two?So, which one should we rename? And what should we call it? Vail has been trying to win points lately with lift names that honor local landmarks – they named their five new lifts at Jack Frost-Big Boulder “Paradise,” “Tobyhanna,” “Pocono,” “Harmony,” and “Blue Heron” (formerly E1 Lift, E2 Lift, B Lift, C Lift, E Lift, F Lift, Merry Widow I, Merry Widow II, and Edelweiss). So how about renaming Hidden Valley PA to something like “Allegheny Forest?” Or call Hidden Valley, Missouri “Mississippi Mountain?” Yes, both of those names are terrible, but so is having two Hidden Valleys in the same company.What I got wrong* I guessed in the podcast that Pennsylvania was the “fifth- or sixth-largest U.S. state by population.” It is number five, with an approximate population of 13 million, behind New York (19.6M), Florida (22.2M), Texas (30M), and California (39M).* I guessed that the base of Keystone is “nine or 10,000 feet.” The River Run base area sits at 9,280 feet.* I mispronounced the last name of Seven Springs founder Herman Dupre as “Doo-Pree.” It is pronounced “Doo-Prey.”* I said there were “lots” of thousand-vertical-foot ski areas in Pennsylvania. There are, in fact, just four: Blue Mountain (1,140 feet), Blue Knob (1,073 feet), Elk (1,000 feet), and Montage (1,000 feet).Why you should ski Seven Springs, Hidden Valley, and LaurelIt's rugged country out there. Not what you're thinking. More Appalachian crag than Poconos scratch. Abrupt and soaring. Beautiful. And snowy. In a state where 23 of 28 ski areas average fewer than 50 inches of snow per season, Seven Springs and Laurel bring in 135-plus apiece.Elevation explains it. A 2,000-plus-foot base is big-time in the East. Killington sits at 1,165 feet. Sugarloaf at 1,417. Stowe at 1,559. All three ski areas sit along the crest of 70-mile-long Laurel Ridge, a storm door on the western edge of the Allegheny Front that rakes southeast-bound moisture from the sky as it trains out of Lake Erie.When the snow doesn't come, they make it. Now that Big Boulder has given up, Seven Springs is typically the first ski area in the state to open. It fights with Camelback for last-to-close. Twelve hundred snowguns and 49 snowmaking ponds help.Seven Springs doesn't have the state's best pure ski terrain – look to Elk Mountain or, on the rare occasions it's fully open, Blue Knob for that – but it's Pennsylvania's largest, most complete, and, perhaps, most consistent operation. It is, in fact, the biggest ski area in the Mid-Atlantic, a ripping and unpretentious ski region where you know you'll get turns no matter how atrocious the weather gets.Hidden Valley is something different. Cozy. Easy. Built for families on parade. Laurel is something different too. Steep and fierce, a one-lift wonder dug out of the graveyard by an owner with more passion, it seems, than foresight. Laurel needs snowmaking. Top to bottom and on every trail. The hill makes no sense in 2023 without it. Vail won't abandon the place outright, but if they don't knock $10 million in snowmaking into the dirt, they'll be abandoning it in principle.Podcast NotesThe trailmap rabbit hole – Hidden ValleyWe discussed the proposed-but-never-implemented expansion at Hidden Valley, which would have sat skier's right of the Avalanche pod. Here it is on the 2010 trailmap:The 2002 version actually showed three potential lifts serving this pod:Unfortunately, this expansion is unlikely. Cook explains why in the pod.The trailmap rabbit hole – LaurelLaurel, which currently has just one quad and a handletow, has carried a number of lift configurations over the decades. This circa 1981 trailmap shows a double chair where the quad now sits, and a series of surface lifts climbing the Broadway side of the hill, and another set of them bunched at the summit:The 2002 version shows a second chairlift – which I believe was a quad – looker's right, and surface lifts up top to serve beginners, tubers, and the terrain park:Related: here's a pretty good history of all three ski areas, from 2014.The Pennsylvania ski inventory rabbitholePennsylvania skiing is hard to get. No one seems to know how many ski areas the state has. The NSAA says there are 26. Cook referenced 24 on the podcast. The 17 that Wikipedia inventories include Alpine Mountain, which has been shuttered for years. Ski Central (22), Visit PA (21), and Ski Resort Info (25) all list different numbers. My count is 28. Most lists neglect to include the six private ski areas that are owned by homeowners' associations or reserved for resort guests. Cook and I also discussed which ski area owned the state's highest elevation (it's Blue Knob), so I included base and summit elevations as well:The why-is-Vail-allowed-to-own-80-percent-of-Ohio's-public-ski-areas? rabbitholeCook said he wasn't sure how many ski areas there are in Ohio. There are six. One is a private club. Snow Trails is family-owned. Vail owns the other four. I think this shouldn't be allowed, especially after how poorly Vail managed them last season, and especially how badly Snow Trails stomped them from an operations point of view. But here we are:The steepest-trail rabbitholeWe discuss Laurel's Wildcat trail, which the ski area bills as the steepest in the state. I generally avoid echoing these sorts of claims, which are hard to prove and not super relevant to the actual ski experience. You'll rarely see skiers lapping runs like Rumor at Gore or White Lightning at Montage, mostly because they frankly just aren't that much fun, exercises in ice-rink survival skiing for the Brobot armies. But if you want the best primer I've seen on this subject, along with an inventory of some very steep U.S. ski trails, read this one on Skibum.net. The article doesn't mention Laurel's Wildcat trail, but the ski area was closed sporadically and this site's heyday was about a decade ago, so it may have been left out as a matter of circumstance.The “back in my day” rabbitholeI referenced an old “punchcard program” at Roundtop during our conversation. I was referring to the Night Club Program offered by former-former owner Snow Time Resorts at Roundtop, Liberty, and Whitetail. When Snow Time sold the ski area in 2018 to Peak Resorts, the buyer promptly dropped the evening programs. When Vail purchased the resort in 2019, it briefly re-instated some version of them (I think), but I don't believe they survived the Covid winter (2020-21). This 5,000-word March 2019 article (written four months before Vail purchased the resorts) from DC Ski distills the rage around this abrupt pass policy change. Four years later, I still get emails about this, and not infrequently. I'm kind of surprised Vail hasn't offered some kind of Pennsylvania-specific pass, since they have more ski areas in that state (eight) than they have in any other, including Colorado (five). After all, the company sells an Ohio-specific pass that started at just $299 last season. Why not a PA-specific version for, say, $399, for people who want to ski always and only at Roundtop or Liberty or Big Boulder? Or a nights-only pass?I suppose Vail could do this, and I suspect they won't. The Northeast Value Pass – good for mostly unlimited access at all of the company's ski areas from Michigan on east – sold for $514 last spring. A midweek version ran $385. A seven-day Epic Day Pass good at all the Pennsylvania ski areas was just $260 for adults and $132 for kids aged 5 to 12. I understand that there is a particular demographic of skiers who will never ski north of Harrisburg and will never stop blowing up message boards with their disappointment and rage over this. The line between a sympathetic character and a tedious one is thin, however, and eventually we're all better off focusing our energies on the things we can control.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 9/100 in 2023, and number 395 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Dec. 29. It dropped for free subscribers on Jan. 1. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription.WhoRob Clark, CEO of Aspenware, an e-commerce and software company   Recorded onDecember 12, 2022About AspenwareAspenware's website declares that it's time to “modernize your mountain.” As far as corporate sloganeering goes, this is a pretty good one. Skiers – like everyone – live on their phones. Ski areas need to meet them there – to sell them lift tickets, process their lunch order, sign their liability waivers, and rent them skis. This is what Aspenware does. “Close your ticket windows,” one of the company's ad campaigns insists, “you don't need them.” Alterra and Aspen Skiing Company agree. Earlier this year, the companies formed a joint venture to purchase Aspenware.Why I interviewed himI spend a lot of time rambling about lifts and terrain and passes – the meat of the lift-served skiing world; how resorts shape an interesting experience, and how skiers access it and move through it. But a modern ski experience does not just mean fast lifts and great snowmaking and diverse terrain offerings and passes that include the nine moons of Endor. It also means mitigating the ski day's many built-in points of misery, which mostly have to do with lines. Everything we need to do that is already built into your smartphone. Ski areas just have to figure out how to tap that technology to streamline the experience. Aspenware is doing that.What we talked aboutRelocating to New England after nearly two decades in Colorado; Peek'N Peak; Holiday Valley; an Ohio boy goes West; 1-800-SKI-VAIL; running the Vail Mountain ticket windows in the pre-Epic Pass, everyone-buys-a-walk-up-ticket days; the Epic Pass debuts; RFID debuts; RTP in its heyday; a brief history of Aspenware and its evolution into a ski industry technology powerhouse; one of the largest organisms in the world; what it means to modernize a ski area with technology; how United Airlines inspired a pivot at Aspenware; how the ski industry went from an early tech adopter to a laggard; the problem with legacy tech systems; what happens when people ask me where they should go skiing; what happened when Covid hit; why some resorts ticket windows “will never open again”; tech resistance; “I'm on a mission to get technology considered in the same breath as lifts and snowmaking”; do ski areas need tech to survive?; what skiing is competing against; why Alterra and Aspen formed a joint venture to purchase Aspenware; which bits of tech it makes sense to develop in-house; the Shopify of skiing?; which tech skiers should expect in the future; Vail's decision to move Epic Passes to phones next year; I still don't think trailmaps belong on phones (exclusively); interactive trailmaps are terrible; why skiers should own their resort data; the evolution of dynamic pricing; and the one thing that actually makes skiers purchase lift tickets.        Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewAs we all know, Covid supercharged the skiing tech cycle. In the eight months between the March 2020 shutdowns and the November-ish re-openings, the nation's 470-odd ski areas had to figure out how to keep people as far away from each other as possible without blowing up the entire industry. The answer, largely, was by digitizing as much of the experience as possible. Aspenware met that moment, and its momentum has continued in the two years since.Podcast Notes* Rob and I guessed a bit at the debut price of the Epic Pass back in 2008 – it was $579 for adults and $279 for children.* Rob referenced Start with Why, a business leadership book by Simon Sinek – you can buy it here.* I'll make the same disclaimer with Aspenware as I did with OpenSnow: while Aspenware is a Storm advertising partner, this podcast was not part of, and is not related to, that partnership. Aspenware did not have any editorial input into the content or editing of this podcast - which is true of any guest on any episode (Rob did request one non-material cut in our conversation, which I obliged). I don't do sponsored content. The Storm is independent ski media, based on reporting and independently verified facts - any opinion is synthesized through that lens, as it is with any good journalism outlet.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 139/100 in 2022, and number 385 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com.The Storm is exploring the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Dec. 24. It dropped for free subscribers on Dec. 27. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription.WhoShaun Sutner, snowsports columnist for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and Telegram.comRecorded onNovember 21, 2022About Shaun SutnerShaun is a skier, a writer, and a journalist based in Worcester, Massachusetts. For the past 18 years, he's been pumping out a snowsports column from Thanksgiving to April. For the past two years, he's joined me on The Storm Skiing Podcast to rap about it. You should follow Shaun on social media to stay locked into his work:Why I interviewed himI've often said that the best interviews are with people who don't have bosses. That's true. Mostly. But not exclusively. Because journalists are just as good. And that's because they possess many attributes crucial to holding an interesting conversation: on-the-ground experience, the ability to tell a story, and a commitment to truth. Really. That is the whole point of the job. Listen to the Storm Skiing Podcasts with Eric Wilbur, Jackson Hogen, or Jason Blevins. They are among the best of the 122 episodes I've published before today. It's a different gig from the running-a-mountain-and-making-you-want-to-ski-that-mountain post that 75 percent of my guests hold. And these writers deliver a different kind of conversation, and one that enriches The Storm immensely.I'd like to host more ski journalists, but there just aren't that many of them. It's a weird fact of America and skiing that there are far more ski areas than there are American ski journalists. The NSAA lists 473 active ski areas. NASJA (the North American Snowsports Journalists Association) counts far fewer active members. The NBA, by contrast, has 30 teams and perhaps thousands of reporters covering them around the world. There's a lot more happening in skiing than there are paid observers to keep track of it all, is my point here.But there are a few. And Sutner is one of the real pros – one who's been skiing New England for most of his life, and writing about it for decades. His column is enlightened and interesting, essential reading for the entire Northeast. We had a great conversation last year, and we agreed to make it an annual thing.What we talked aboutWell I still can't pronounce “Worcester,” but we didn't discuss it this time which thank God; opening day vibes at Mount Snow; comparing last year's days-skied goal to reality; that Uphill Bro life and chewing up all our pow Brah; surveying the different approaches to New England uphill access; cross-country skiing and the opportunity of the Indy Pass; skiing in NYC; the countless ski areas of Quebec; Tremblant, overrated?; Le Massif; pass quivers; the importance of racing and race leagues to recreational skiing; why the rise of freeskiing hasn't killed ski racing; Sutner's long-running snowsports column; the importance of relationships in journalism; the Wachusett MACHINE; Sutner defends the honor of Ski Ward, my least-favorite ski area; the legacy of Sutner's brother Adam, former executive at Vail, Jackson Hole, and Crystal, who passed away suddenly last year; reaction to PGRI purchasing Jay Peak; what's next for Burke?; the future of Gunstock; Mount Sunapee crowding; Crotched, Attitash, and Wildcat's 2021-22 struggles; what the Epic Day Pass says about Vail's understanding of New Hampshire; whether Vail's pay increases and lift ticket sales limits will be enough to fix the company's operational issues in New Hampshire; the impact of Kanc 8 on Loon and what that could mean for new lifts at Stowe and Mount Snow; New England's lift renaissance; eight-packs and redistributing skiers; let's play Fantasy Ski Resort owner with Sugarloaf; the investment binge at Loon; high-speed double chairs; will Magic ever get Black Quad live?; the rebuilding of Catamount; a New England lift wishlist; Berkshire East; fake vertical; Smuggs' lift fleet; the future of Big Squaw; The Balsams; Whaleback; Granite Gorge; and Tenney.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewWell the intent was to push this podcast out alongside the debut of Sutner's first column of the year, on Thanksgiving Day. I, uh, missed that target. But I'll fix that whole timing bit, and you can expect a Sutner appearance on The Storm Skiing Podcast every Thanksgiving week for as long as he's interested in doing it.What I got wrong* I noted in the podcast that it was a 15-minute drive from Mountain Creek to High Point Cross Country Ski Center in New Jersey – it's closer to half an hour.* Sutner and I referenced Seven Brothers at Loon as an unfinished lift. That was true when we recorded this podcast on Nov. 21, but the lift opened on Dec. 17.* Sutner referenced a New England lift project that he knew about but that was not public yet – it's public now, and you can read about it here.* Shaun referred to a “little-known” summit T-bar at Sugarloaf. It must be a really well-kept secret, because I can't find any reference to it, now or in the past.Why you should read Sutner's columnBecause what I wrote last year is still true:Because it's focused, intelligent, researched, fact-checked, spell-checked, and generally just the sort of professional-level writing that is increasingly subsumed by the LOLing babble of the emojisphere. That's fine – everyone is lost in the scroll. But as the pillars of ski journalism burn and topple around us, it's worth supporting whatever's left. Gannett, the parent company of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, has imposed fairly stringent paywalls on his work. While I think these local papers are best served by offering a handful of free articles per month, the paper is worth supporting if it's your local – in the same way you might buy a local ski pass to complement your Epkon Pass. Good, consistent writing is not so easy to find. Sutner delivers. Support his craft.I wish there was one place where all of Sutner's columns were collected, but the reality of being part of a larger entity is that your work gets mashed together with everything else. Here are direct links to Sutner's columns so far this season:* Skiing Vail Remains a Treasured Rocky Mountain Experience* Plenty of Updates and Upgrades have Crotched Mountain Resort Thriving in New Hampshire* Key Improvements Signal Strong Seasons Ahead for Attitash, Wildcat Ski Areas* World Cup Ski Racing Continues to Thrive at KillingtonSutner's column tends to be less-newsy, more focused on the long-term than the what-just-happened? But, thanks to decades of experience and a deep well of sources, he can fire off a breaking news story in a hurry when he needs to. Earlier this month, for example, he turned around this dispatch about Wachusett's sudden cancellation of its volunteer Ski Patrol program – known locally as “Rangers” – in just a few hours:Wachusett Mountain Ski Area ended its volunteer Ranger program at the start of the ski and snowboard season last month in an unexpected move that could have safety consequences on the mountain's busy slopes, at least in the short term. The ski area apparently was forced into ending or suspending the program due to an investigation by the state attorney general's office into whether treating the Rangers as volunteers violates state labor laws. A spokeswoman for the AG's office declined to comment on whether the office is investigating Wachusett.The case could have national ramifications in the ski industry, where more than 600 ski areas across the country use volunteer ski patrollers under the umbrella of the nonprofit National Ski Patrol, as well as volunteers similar to Rangers. Read the full story here:Podcast Notes* Sutner and I discussed Wachusett quite a bit, and specifically my podcast interview with resort President Jeff Crowley from last year:* We also had a long discussion about Ski Ward, which stemmed from this write-up I published in February:Ski Ward, 25 miles southwest, makes Nashoba Valley look like Aspen. A single triple-chair rising 220 vertical feet. A T-bar beside that. Some beginner surface lifts lower down. Off the top three narrow trails that are steep for approximately six feet before leveling off for the run-out back to the base. It was no mystery why I was the only person over the age of 14 skiing that evening.Normally my posture at such community- and kid-oriented bumps is to trip all over myself to say every possible nice thing about its atmosphere and mission and miraculous existence in the maw of the EpKonasonics. But this place was awful. Like truly unpleasant. My first indication that I had entered a place of ingrained dysfunction was when I lifted the safety bar on the triple chair somewhere between the final tower and the exit ramp and the liftie came bursting out of his shack like he'd just caught me trying to steal his chickens. “The sign is there,” he screamed, pointing frantically at the “raise bar here” sign jutting up below the top station just shy of unload. At first I didn't realize he was talking to me and so I ignored him and this offended him to the point where he – and this actually happened – stopped the chairlift and told me to come back up the ramp so he could show me the sign. I declined the opportunity and skied off and away and for the rest of the evening I waited until I was exactly above his precious sign before raising the safety bar.All night, though, I saw this b******t. Large, aggressive, angry men screaming – screaming – at children for this or that safety-bar violation. The top liftie laid off me once he realized I was a grown man, but it was too late. Ski Ward has a profoundly broken customer-service culture, built on bullying little kids on the pretext of lift safety. Someone needs to fix this. Now.Look, I am not anti-lift bar. I put it down every time, unless I am out West and riding with some version of Studly Bro who is simply too f*****g cool for such nonsense. But that was literally my 403rd chairlift ride of the season and my 2,418th since I began tracking ski stats on my Slopes app in 2018. Never have I been lectured over the timing of my safety-bar raise. So I was surprised. But if Ski Ward really wants to run their chairlifts with the rulebook specificity of a Major League Baseball game, all they have to do is say, “Excuse me, Sir, can you please wait to get to the sign before raising your bar next time?” That would have worked just as well, and would have saved them this flame job. For a place that caters to children, they need to do much, much better.As I'm wont to do, I followed that write-up with casual Ward-bashing on Twitter. Sutner took exception to this, saying that I was oversimplifying it and working on too small a sample size. Which, fair enough. He further defends the ski area's honor in our pod, though frankly I remain salty about the place.* Sutner spoke at length about his brother Adam, a member of Crystal Mountain, Washington's executive team, who died suddenly in April. Shaun wrote his younger brother's obituary, which reads in part:Adam lived and worked overseas in the advertising and tech business in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Paris, Tokyo and Melbourne. He also lived and worked in advertising and the ski industry in New York City, Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and in Vail, Colo., Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Greenwater, Wash.He lived the life he wanted to live.He was widely known for working hard and being a leader in the ski industry profession he loved, often starting work before dawn.Adam loved French Martinis, fast cars and motorcycles, high-speed skiing, music, reading literature and non-fiction, wok cooking, James Bond and art heist caper movies and smoking his beloved cigarillos. He was an ardent fan of international soccer and rugby.He liked to pick up and drop off at the airport the steady stream of visitors who he accommodated, with utmost hospitality, at his various well-appointed homes. He collected watches, fine art and mid-century modern furniture and accessories.He was a witty storyteller, entertaining family and friends with tales of his lifelong travels and adventures. He had an acerbic sense of humor and keen intellect.Read the full obit here:The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 136/100 in 2022, and number 382 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

GROW  Greatness Reached over Oppression through Wisdom Mad DogHindset is 20/20Forgiveness is keyI was 10, just a kid when Momma met The Monster She had 3 kids already when she met the Monster, me and my 2 Brothers, then 1 by the Monster, the baby, her youngestTurned out he was married but he wouldn't let my Momma goThe Monster looked like a normal human being except he had 2 fingers halfway cut off so it looked like The Monster was always giving you the Finger Sign

Thil kan tuah sualmi, kan sual dahmi, kan sualnak pawl Pathian in in ngaidam zo tiah kan ruat nan ziangruangah kan thinlungah a rak lang sal ringring theu? Pathian in in ngaidam taktak lo a si pei maw? Ziangruangah zumtu nunnak ah sual hi a um ringring lai?  Pathian thawn hla zetih um vekin kan ruah theumi teh ziang ruangah a si? Himi ruahnak pawl in ziangmi si in zirh thei? Kanmah le kanmah kan hmuhawk daan le kan ruah awkdaan pawl hi ziangtin kan thei thiam taktak thei ding?

『HYPEBEAST Japan』が注目するカルチャートピックの有識者をゲストとして招き、さまざまな角度から深掘りしていく“DEEP DIVE”。今回のゲストは、ジャンルレスな感覚で唯一無二の存在を確立し、ミュージシャンや俳優としてユニークな存在感を発揮するHIMI。後編では、彼の生き方を物語る自然体なHIMIのファッション観からこよなく愛する川の話について深堀りしていく。次回エピソードの配信の配信日時は、10月4日（火）21:00となるので、お見逃しなく。

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Sept. 16. Free subscribers got it on Sept. 19. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription.WhoSteve Wright, President and General Manager of Jay Peak, VermontRecorded onSeptember 16, 2022About Jay PeakClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Pacific Group Resorts (pending court and regulatory approval)Pass affiliations: Indy PassLocated in: Jay, VermontClosest neighboring ski areas: Owl's Head (1/2 hour), Burke (1 hour), Smugglers' Notch (1 hour), Stowe (1 hour) - travel times approximate and will vary by season and, in the case of Owl's Head, be heavily dependent upon international border traffic.Base elevation: 1,815 feetSummit elevation: 3,968 feetVertical drop: 2,153 feetSkiable Acres: 385Average annual snowfall: 359 inchesTrail count: 81 (20% novice, 40% intermediate, 40% advanced)Lift count: 9 lifts (1 tram, 1 high-speed quad, 3 fixed-grip quads, 1 triple, 1 double, 2 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Jay Peak's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himI'm not even sure what else to say here. I've probably written more about Jay Peak than any other ski area in the country since launching The Storm in 2019. Most of it goes something like this bit I wrote last month:If you're unfamiliar with Jay Peak, think of it as Vermont's Wolf Creek or Mt. Baker: big, rowdy, snowy, and affordable. And, for most of us, far away – the resort sits just four miles from the Canadian border. Jay averages more snow than any other ski area east of the Rockies: 359 inches per year. That's a lot of inches. More than Telluride or Vail or Aspen or A-Basin or Park City. Of course, none of those mountains' base areas sits at 1,800 feet, as Jay's does, meaning the whole New England menu of rain, freeze-thaws, and New Yorkers. But it's enough snow that the place is legendary for glades, typically pushes the season into May, and is one of the only places in New England where you can rack shots like this without the assistance of Photoshop:From a pure skiing point of view, Jay is, more days than not, the best ski area in the eastern United States. Getting a good powder day in New England is like finding a good banana: it happens a lot less often than you would think, but damn is it satisfying when you do. Jay delivers more bananas than anywhere else in Vermont, a state rippling with snowy legends like Sugarbush and Mad River Glen and Stowe and Smugglers' Notch. It's special.That's not hyperbole. Jay Peak has led Indy Pass redemptions for the past two seasons not simply because it sits at the top of the nation's most densely populated region, but because it's a kick-ass mountain.But there are a lot of kick-ass mountains in New England that don't get the love that Jay does. At some point in the skier-snowfall-terrain-cost-stoke algorithm, that maximally boring category called management supersedes the actual skiing in determining public perception of a mountain. For the past six years, Jay Peak has somehow done everything right while everything has gone wrong. In short: the former owners scammed foreign investors out of hundreds of millions in one of the largest immigrant visa scams in U.S. history, the resort tussled with the town over valuation, Vail came to town, Alterra followed, Covid hit, the Canadian border closed, and the whole sales process drug on and on and on. And yet, I'm not sure if the resort's reputation has ever been stronger, its general more respected, its status as the king of New England skiing more secure.And while he will be the last one to admit it, that's almost entirely due to the leadership of Steve Wright, who found himself suddenly thrust into the general manager role as former resort president Bill Stenger was escorted out the door by federal authorities.What we talked aboutRelief; community reaction to Pacific Group Resorts' (PGRI) winning bid to purchase Jay Peak; how much it helps that PGRI already owns Ragged, a New England ski area; reflecting back on this long slow road; why that road was so long; what finally pushed the sales process to its conclusion; how the pool of potential buyers reacted when PGRI made their initial $58 million bid public; the frantic period between PGRI's bid on Aug. 1 and the Sept. 7 auction; auction day; what we know about the two bidders who lost out to PGRI; the final legal formalities that PGRI needs to clear to take final ownership of Jay; what Wright means when he says that PGRI shares Jay's “values”; “You look at an outfit like Pacific, and they've lived it”; whether “Jay will stay Jay,” and what that means; how much autonomy PGRI grants its resort managers; turning the resort around with everything working against them; a realm in which modesty rules; Jay's immediate capital needs; an interesting potential chairlift switcheroo; whether Bonaventure could get an upgrade to a detachable lift, and whether that would be a quad or a six-pack; thoughts on the future of the Indy Pass at Jay Peak; whether Jay Peak will continue to offer affordable lift tickets; will Jay continue to stay open into May?; the West Bowl expansion is dead.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewWell. I wasn't exactly in need of more work to do. The fall podcast lineup is stacked, with the general managers of Pats Peak, Sun Valley, Brundage, Nub's Nob, Winter Park, Bromley, Monarch, Sundance, and Vail Mountain scheduled through November. I already have an episode recorded with the Colorado Sun's Jason Blevins, the best ski reporter in the country. But last week, Jay's six-year run on the front page of skiing's tabloids appeared near its end, as mini-conglomerate Pacific Group Resorts submitted the winning, $76 million bid in an auction for the ski area.We're not quite done here. PGRI's bid is subject to approval by a U.S. District Court in Florida. But after years of uncertainty, we are clear to start envisioning Jay Peak not as that resort stuck in a crazy limbo, but as a place with a promising future under a proven multi-resort operator. Will Jay stick with Indy? Will Jet continue spinning into May? What will happen with Canada back in the mix? Will Jay continue to offer affordable lift tickets as Stowe nears $200 a day and Killington, Sugarbush, Stratton, Okemo, and Mount Snow sink deeper into the triple digits? I don't think anyone really knows. But the person who's best positioned to shape the answers to these question is Steve Wright, who just guided Jay Peak through one of the most tumultuous periods in modern lift-served skiing.Questions I wish I'd askedWe had a quick window to make this happen, so this podcast episode is much shorter than the typical Storm Skiing Podcast. I wanted to talk about the Canadian border re-opening and what that meant for Jay and for skiers. I also wanted to get Wright's reaction to the fact that Jay is no longer an independent ski area, but part of a larger family of resorts. There are so many ways to go with this story, and I am working on a follow-up to get a better sense of how PRGI will approach Jay and the challenges they face as they evolve the ski area.What I got wrongI incorrectly stated that Jay Peak's top 2021-22 lift ticket price was $86 – it was $96, as Wright notes in the interview. I also said PGRI put their “chips” on the table. Should be “cards” I suppose. But I am not Gambling Bro so I'm vulnerable to malapropisms in that realm.Why you should ski Jay PeakThe Storm was founded in and continues to be anchored in the Northeast. For those readers, I have nothing to say that they don't already know. You ski Jay because it's Jay, because doing so gives you the best odds of pretending like you're in Colorado and not freezing-below-human-understanding New England.For the rest of you: should you deign to ski the East, set your GPS for Northern Vermont. Run up the whole Green Mountain Spine. Start at Sugarbush, maybe Killington if you want to experience true New England zeal and madness, then work your way north: Mad River Glen, Bolton Valley, Stowe, Smugglers' Notch, Jay. That's the best skiing we have. The terrain is varied and wild, stuffed with must-ski lines and pods: Paradise at MRG, the Front Four at Stowe, Castle Rock at Sugarbush, Madonna at Smuggs. All have expansive backcountry options for Uphill Bro. The vertical drops are legit: Killington stands at 3,000 feet; Pico, right next door, at 1,967; Sugarbush is 2,600; MRG, 2,000; Bolton Valley, 1,701; Stowe, 2,360; Smuggs, 2,610; Jay, 2,153. Here, in this zone of snow and cold – each of these resorts averages at least 250 annual inches – is your best chance of open glades and fresh snow, and the lowest chance of rain and surface-killing refreeze.Be quiet Shoosh Emoji Bro. Anyone who's skied any of these mountains knows the secret broke out of jail a long time ago. Besides, my encomiums are unlikely to start a mass eastward migration from SLC. But the Eastern reputation, among much of the ski world, is that of an icy realm of unskiable concrete. That happens. But New England skiing – especially Northern Vermont skiing – is good more often than it's bad. And if you want to bust your own stereotypes wide open, there are worse places to start than this snowy kingdom at the top of America.More Jay PeakAs I said above, I've written a lot about Jay Peak. One of my favorites was this article last November examining why Jay and soul sister Whitefish, Montana keep their lift tickets affordable in an era in which big-mountain peak-day tickets can cost more than a space shuttle launch:Last month, I wrote a long piece examining Pacific Group Resorts and what Jay could look like as part of their portfolio. One interesting question: PGRI offers a “Mission: Affordable” season pass at four of its five existing mountains. It started at $379 for the 2022-23 season (they are currently $529). Will Jay follow its new sister resorts, or will it, like PGRI's Mount Washington Alpine out on Vancouver Island, continue to offer passes in its traditional price range (Jay's early-bird 2022-23 price was $749; the current price is $895 through Oct. 10). I'm working on a follow-up story, but here was my first analysis:This is Wright's second time on The Storm Skiing Podcast. His first appearance also coincided with big news – the resort's signing with the Indy Pass in 2020:Oddly, I had scheduled that interview months in advance – the Indy Pass announcement was a complete, and fortunate, coincidence. Here's the story I wrote around that announcement:And here was my flash reaction to PGRI's winning bid last Thursday, which I wrote in a Pennsylvania Burger King on a roadtrip lunch break:The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing all year long. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 98*/100 in 2022, and number 344 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane). You can also email skiing@substack.com.*Don't worry Team, we are not stopping at 100. That is a minimum. We have 16 more podcasts alone scheduled through the end of the year. We're likely to land around 130 articles for 2022. And by the way, this is the 28th podcast of 2022, even with the long break these past two months or so, and we should end with more than 40 for the year. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

『HYPEBEAST Japan』が注目するカルチャートピックの有識者をゲストとして招き、さまざまな角度から深掘りしていく“DEEP DIVE”。今回のゲストは、ジャンルレスな感覚で唯一無二の存在を確立し、ミュージシャンや俳優としてユニークな存在感を発揮するHIMI。これまでの音楽を中心とした表現活動/制作の話とともに俳優としても活躍する彼の自由なアイデンティティの根源について、MC陣と自然体なトークを繰り広げる。 次回エピソードの配信の配信日時は、9月20日（火）21:00となるので、お見逃しなく。

I can't believe he is gone thank you Kazuki Takahashi for creating such an incredible anime and card game! You made mine and many other children's childhoods even more special and memorable – Ed (Host of Suuuper Anime Podcast)  For this appreciation episode we are joined by the Anime Freshman to celebrate one of the greatest story tellers of our generation Kazuki Takahashi, creator of the anime Yu Gi Oh – King of Games. Kazuki Takahashi unfortunately passed away on the 6th July 2022. Our prayers and thoughts go out to his family, friends and loved ones. Rest In Peace!  Discussion Points When did we first start watching Yu-Gi-Oh? What elements of the show drew us to it? When did we start getting truly hooked? What drew us to the show?Did you ever go to the tournament? From the original seriesFavourite Yu Gi Oh episode?Favourite Yu Gi Oh battle?Memorable moment?Favourite Yu Gi Oh character?Favourite Yu Gi Oh card(s) Solo gives a message of hope and warns Ed he is coming for himI ask the Freshman what's more profitable Pokémon or Yu Gi Oh?! Anime Freshman Podcast  - Episode 41 and 20  listen here If you enjoy the podcast, please don't forget to FOLLOW, RATE and REVIEW the show (it takes less than 30 seconds) Please do also share with anyone you fill will enjoy the show. Also, to keep conversation going were super keen to hear your thoughts, questions and opinions on the show's discussion points, so please do drop us a voice note on our website www.suuuperanimepodcast.com or email at www.suuuperanimepodcast.com/contact Suuuper podcast title inspired by Talib Kweli – Memories Live | Listen Here! Social media links Instagram: SuuuperanimepodcastTwitter: @SuuuperanimeFacebook: SuuuperAnimePodcast 

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Feder von Himi Burmeister Nach 35 Jahren künstlerischer Leiter der Villa Romana in Florenz, übersiedelte der „Commendatore“ in sein Bregenzer Haus – Atelier mit Seeblick. Der freischaffende Künstler wurde unter anderem im Dezember 2021 von einer renommierten Galerie in Düsseldorf zur Präsentation seines Oeuvres, sowie umfangreichen Katalogs über Leben und Werk eingeladen.

It's the final episode of this season 3. And it's with my big brother, Kyle.The only other person in this world who truly knows what it is like to live without our mum. I've wanted to record an episode with him from the very beginning if I'm honest, but the time was never right. We just weren't ready to sit down with each other and really look at each other and see the devastation in one another's face. The reality that we're even having this conversation about her. Mum was something to a lot of people. She embodied the word community. A walking, talking safe place for many. But she was our mumIt was tough but relieving to sit down & talk to my brother. To hear how that day played out for him in his eyes & being honest about the way we dealt with the aftermath. How we fell apart to come back together again and what it's like being the oldest sibling when a parent dies. We answered some of your questions too, with some humorous, surprising answers from himI learnt so much about him and likewise him about me. I didn't know the hardest part for him was leaving the hospital. And he didn't know the hardest part for me was seeing her body. If there's one thing I hope you take away from this episode, it's to ask the questions.Have the conversation. You may not get the answers you need or want, but have the bloody conversation. Don't leave it till it's too late. It's not as bad as you think.Thank you for listening and being here for this season. It's been my most consistent season yet and I'm proud! I'll be back in September with the WEEKLY season 4. Big love,Amber xxxFind the community on...Instagram - @thegriefgangpodcastTwitter- @thegriefgangFacebook- The Grief GangIf you like what you hear, please leave a rating and review, it really means a lot.Thank you!Intro and outro music produced by Goodgoodgood Media.Editing by Ross Ramsey-GoldingSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-grief-gang. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Now the number one anime recommendation podcastGod gave me too many things to like and so this last week I have been watching a lot of anime filmsSpecifically two by Mamoru HosodaBelle and the other is The Boy and The BeastWe will start with his most recent film that came out in 2021 BelleThe story is about a girl named Suzu Naito whose mother died when she was very young trying to save another girl in a riverSince her mothers death Suzu has taken a step back from the world and even lost her ability to singIt's not until she is introduced to an online world called "U" where she creates an avatar named Belle that she is able to sing and gain popularity During one of her performances get's interrupted by another avatar called The Beast and it's up to Belle to figure out who this mysterious figure isand try and help.ProsAnimation is very very strong,A deeper theme of connection and kindness is at the forefrontSongs in this are straight up fireBeen listening to them non-stopThe final performance scene is an all-time great animation scene for me.ConsThe world of U and worldbuilding is basically non-existent - Avatars just kinda float around and like things talk crapWhich I guess is kinda the internet in general but it could have been a lot more interesting - Maybe the argument is it's like the metaverse nowWreck it ralph 2 had more worldbuilding and lore about how its world worked.The mystery of who is the beast is not handled in a super interesting wayWeird cause the reveal was actually really greatThe movie retreads some ground we have seen before but I think it's a great intro to animeAgain the songs and animation are fire but I don't think it's Mamoru Hosoda's best work That's because his best work is "The Boy and The Beast" Boom look at that smooth transitionThe Boy and The Beast is about a boy named Ren who after running away from home discovers an entire secrete beast world - Everyone is an animal who walks aroundThere he is taken on as a pupil by Kamatesue a bear who is training to fight in a tournament against his rival Jozen to become Lord of this worldKamatesue is training the boy but Kamatesue is also very flawed and there relationship and mentor-student relationship get's blurredTo me, the real heart of this story is the relationship between Kamatesue and Ren as they start off as begrudging mentors and study but it becomes more of a story of a father and sonI've had a very strained relationship with my dad who was often militant so I related to Ren in this film quite a bit.The film goes further to explore trauma which really heats up with the third act and again this film is beautifully animated.What I think this film does better than Belle by far is pacing there is never a scene when watching at home where I felt like I needed to check my phoneSome really great fight sequences.There are flaws with it some plot points where you say hey wait for a minute but overall the film is such a breeze to watch that it's hard for me to complain.Anyway I hope I convinced you to check out some of Mamoru Hosoda work he has a pretty deep filmography up to this point and I would love if more people heard about himI got a new Instagram hgsf_podcast where you can like and follow I think I might start posting reels asking for episode suggestionsBeen on a couple of

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Organizations can email skiing@substack.com to add multiple users on one account at a per-subscriber enterprise rate.WhoErik Barnes, General Manager of Ragged Mountain, New HampshireRecorded onApril 26, 2022About Ragged MountainClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Pacific Group ResortsSummit elevation: 2,286 feet at the top of Pinnacle PeakVertical drop: 1,240 feet Skiable Acres: 250Average annual snowfall: 100 inchesSnowmaking coverage: 85%Trail count: 57 (40% expert/advanced, 30% intermediate, 30% beginner)Terrain parks: 3Lift count: 5 (1 high-speed six-pack, 1 high-speed quad, 1 triple, 2 surface lifts - view Lift Blog’s  inventory of Ragged’s lift fleet)Why I interviewed himI usually start with the mountain, but this time I’ll start with the man. Barnes spent 33 years at Mount Snow before landing at Ragged last October. That makes him one of the most seasoned ski area heads in a region where experience matters a hell of a lot. As Vail struggled to fully open and manage its New Hampshire properties last year, little, little-known Ragged seemed to do just fine. Outside of a four-day lift failure in early January, the ski area was staffed up and moving all season, in spite of warm December temps and a stubborn rain-snow line that sopped Ragged while its neighbors just to the north tallied a foot-plus in a series of storms. The ski area’s stability in the maw of all this instability demonstrates the importance of appointing experienced leaders such as Barnes to captain this temperamental region’s ships.And this is a pretty nice little ship. Not a super-yacht or anything, but a solid pleasure cruiser. Ragged has all of the things: glades, detachables, that indie vibe, reasonable prices, and an experienced snowmaking and management team that can keep the boat sailing through the Northeast’s it’s-raining-lava-and-elephant-poop winters.It’s pretty easy for a ski area to get lost in New Hampshire. It’s a great ski state with a lot of great ski areas: Waterville Valley, Loon, Cannon, Bretton Woods, Attitash, Wildcat, Black Mountain, Cranmore, Mount Sunapee, Gunstock. King Pine and Pats Peak are two of the best-run small ski areas in New England. So Ragged has some standing-out to do. It’s doing its best, but it’s one of the state’s least-appreciated spots, and I figured it was time to do some appreciating.What we talked aboutRagged’s 2021-22 weather short straw; back when everyone used to learn on a ropetow and how that went; how you get from ski instructor to general manager of Mount Snow; ski school camaraderie and culture; the distinct culture of Mount Snow and why the ski area has been such an incubator of industry talent; how Mount Snow evolved as it was passed along from SKI to American Skiing Company to Peak Resorts to Vail Resorts; 251 fanguns will change your day; building Mount Snow’s Attack of The Planets snowmaking system and what makes it so powerful; what it takes to open a mountain in October in southern Vermont; Barnes’ reaction when Peak Resorts sold their entire portfolio to Vail; “what do you think?” versus “this is what we’re doing”; the East is a different game, Kids; what Vail needs to do to bring its Northeast ski areas up to standards; the particular challenges of running oft-bankrupted and frequently shuffled Ragged Mountain; Ragged’s unique snowmaking and snow-management systems; why Ragged didn’t suffer the same staffing challenges as other New England resorts this past season; how the ski area will respond to Vail’s new $20-an-hour minimum wage; a primer on Ragged owner Pacific Resorts Group and its five ski areas; the insane expenses of lift maintenance; an update on the Pinnacle Peak and beginner area expansions; how much land Ragged owns and what the eventual expansion options look like; Ragged’s big-bomber high-speed lift fleet; the importance of redundancy; whether we could ever see a surface lift serving the Wildside terrain park; Ragged’s extensive, wildly fun, and ever-growing glade network; whether we could ever see night skiing at Ragged; long-term snowmaking upgrades; the ski area’s Mission: Affordable season pass; whether Ragged could ever add reciprocal season pass partner deals, as its sister resort, Powderhorn in Colorado, has done; and whether Ragged has considered joining the Indy Pass.     Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewBecause it’s been nagging at me for years: this “FUTURE EXPANSION” promised on two sides of the ski area on Ragged’s old trailmaps:I see something like this and I become 7 years old. When will it happen? When will it happen? When will it happen? When will it happen? When will it happen? When will it happen? When will it happen? It’s insane. I won’t say that this particular expansion nag is why I started the podcast, but I will say that things like this are exactly why The Storm exists: I am obsessed with the long-term evolution of lift-served ski areas, more immersed, at times, in what a thing could be than what it actually is. This one is particularly compelling, for a number of reasons. First, the trails are already cut, and have been for years:Second, Ragged has done a better job than just about any ski area in New England outside of northern Vermont in developing a balanced ski experience. Loon is a big, well-appointed mountain, but it lacks a strong glade network (which is odd, considering Boyne’s strength in this area up at Sugarloaf). Okemo and Mount Snow host the largest collection of intermediate groomers on planet Earth. Ragged could be a smaller version of this, a glide-and-fly bump for families and the opening-bell groomer brigades. But the ski area makes the most of its two little mountains, and it’s fun to assume that it would develop Pinnacle Peak in the same manner.Ragged is interesting in a lot of other ways. What’s with this weird little conglomerate that owns ski areas in New Hampshire, Maryland, Virginia, Colorado, and coastal BC? That sounds more like a rich person’s inventory of second homes than a logical network of ski resorts. And what’s with the cheapo season pass? And why doesn’t it have a network of reciprocals like sister resort Powderhorn? And oh by the way when will Pinnacle Peak happen? When? When, man? JUST TELL ME AND I’LL STOP ASKING!He didn’t tell me.Questions I wish I’d askedYou know, I didn’t ask what it felt like to leave Mount Snow after 33 years, and I should have. I didn’t ask why Barnes left the mountain, because it was pretty obvious. The new owners, Vail, shuffled executives, as new corporate owners of new corporate things often do. I figured there was no point in dwelling on it. The Storm is sometimes deferential to or critical of the past, but it is mostly about the now and the what’s-to-come (I said mostly, Annoyingly Correct Bro). But it was obvious – in the way Barnes talked about Mount Snow and his time there and the people he worked with and the modern machine that he had helped evolve it into – that this was a man connected to his mountain in a way you might be connected to a kid or a home or a really great dog. He would not have left it on purpose. That was a story that would have been worth getting into, and it was a failure on my part not to.What I got wrongI mentioned the power of Mount Snow’s snowmaking system, and intimated that they were “the first in the Northeast to really build out” such a system. There’s a lot of nuance to that statement, and the way I framed it in the podcast wasn’t clear at all. Here’s what I meant: while every large resort in the Northeast has a snowmaking system that could blow the doors off of any 5,000-acre western rambler, Mount Snow’s is one of the most modern and efficient, able to make the most of its water in a way that is more advanced than many of its competitors (though that gap shrinks yearly as all of the big Northeast mountains continuously upgrade their snowmaking arsenals).I also stated that this was Vail’s fourth season of operating the former Peak Resorts, when it was actually their third, after acquiring the portfolio in July 2019. I also asked Barnes to tell us about Pacific Resorts Group and the five different ski areas that it owns “around the country.” Only four of their resorts are in the United States, however – the other is in British Columbia, Canada.I didn’t get this wrong, but a lot of New England people will accuse me of doing so: I stated that the region did not have the rabid night-skiing culture that the Midwest does. This is true. While Southern New England does feature several extensive night-skiing operations, the total number of ski areas, and the total hours that they operate after dark, are far less numerous than in the Midwest, where nearly 100 percent of the ski areas offer night skiing across 100 percent of their terrain seven nights per week from December to March.Why you should ski Ragged MountainSecrets are a little easier to come by in the West, where bigness is the default and out-of-staters fly by the off-brands to cash in their Epkon coupons at the headliners. Take Sunlight, Colorado, for example, 2,000 vertical feet fading into the rear-views of the Aspen-bound. Or Sugar Bowl, 1,650 acres and 500 inches of snow served by five high-speed quads half an hour closer to San Fran than Palisades Tahoe or Northstar. That’s a little tougher in the East, where the drop-off is fairly severe between the chest-thumbing 2,000-foot bad boy bristling with detachables and the family-owned 500-footer served by a single double chair that’s older than plant life.But there are a few big-but-mine-all-mine-evil-cackling-laugh ski areas dotted around the East. Burke, 2,000 empty vertical feet of goldmine glades served by two high-speed quads just a few miles off (a very remote section of) I-91. Saddleback, modernized and re-opened and glorious with fall lines and glades of all kinds, but far enough out in the wilderness that you have to be careful you don’t turn the wrong way off the edge of the planet on your way to the hill.And Ragged. For 20 years, there has been exactly one six-place detachable chairlift in New Hampshire, and it’s at Ragged Mountain, serving one of two glade-laced peaks. Serving the other, exactly adjacent glade-laced peak is an eight-year-old high-speed quad. There’s a whole complex of beginner lifts at the bottom for kids or whatever you call them. Lift tickets sit comfortably below triple digits. The season pass is one of the cheapest in New England, debuting this year at just $379 (it’s now $479 through Sept. 5). All this sits about equidistant between Interstates 89 and 93.So what gives? How come skiers tend to blow right past Ragged on their way to Waterville Valley or Loon or Cannon? Well, those ski areas are bigger and, despite being farther from Boston, easier to get to, as they’re mostly right off Interstate 93. Each of them tops 2,000 feet of vert and tends to draw more snow than Ragged. Either state- or corporate-owned for decades, New Hampshire’s big resorts have been well-tended-to and well-taken care of, stable wintertime draws for basically the entire history of lift-served skiing.But Pacific Resorts Group, which added Ragged to its far-flung, five-resort network back in 2007, has brought much-needed stability to this rad little mountain. The company has continued to improve the property, cutting new glades and upgrading the lifts. Long-term, they intend to expand onto a third mountain, Pinnacle Peak (as I may have mentioned above), and trails are already cut (also mentioned above). In Barnes, Ragged has one of the most experienced and well-liked ski area managers in the region. As megapass mania transforms the character of many of New Hampshire’s beloved ski areas, sending refugees scrambling for alternatives, Ragged is poised to become something big. Go there before that happens.More RaggedThe excellent New England Ski History website has pages on just about any operating or lost ski area in the region, including Ragged.New England Ski Journal TV visited Ragged back in 2016:Ragged’s dense glade network speaks to the mountain’s long-established identity. Decades before thinned tree runs became ski area mainstays, Ragged called out a cluster of upper-mountain glades on this 1969 trailmap:This has nothing to do with Ragged, but while researching this article, I came across this amazing trailmap of nearby (and now lost) King Ridge ski area. I really have no idea what the hell is going on here, but it makes me vaguely miss the ‘90s, the last decade before the world hyper-connected itself into a bottomless information and ridicule machine and it was possible for absurd things like this to exist in glorious obscurity:The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 46/100 in 2022. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer. You can also email skiing@substack.com. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Aktuelles vom Zukunftstag: Den 8. opta data Zukunftstag verpasst? Kein Problem! Bei update können Sie die wichtigen Themen aus der Hilfsmittel-Session nachhören: Wie ist der Sachstand der aktuellen Berufspolitik und beim Anschluss an die Telematikinfrastruktur. Wie sehen die Digitalisierungspläne der GWQ aus und wieviel Digitalisierung braucht/verträgt die Branche überhaupt? Vier Experten der Hilfsmittelbranche gaben am 30. März 2022 auf Zeche Zollverein die Antworten auf diese Fragen. Update bedanke sich an dieser Stelle - natürlich auch im Namen der opta data - nochmal bei Kirsten Abel, Oliver Harks, Jens Sellhorn und Alf Reuter. Alle Vorträge sehen und hören können Sie unter: https://optadata-zukunftstag.de/

今日のPodcastの収録はI G  L I V EでインタビューしたことをPodcastでもお話します。 一年前に彼女とお会いしましたが、なんと彼女、 インスタのフォロワー、３万人の方が集まっているアカウントをクローズしました。 ビジネスでフォロワーが増やせば成功する？と思っている人、いると思います。 でも、そうではないこと。   今回、このことについて、ビジネスについても彼女とお話ししました。 銀行員をしていたHimiさん、20年に辞職を指定会話一本でいくっていうのを決めたHimiさん、英語をツールとして、ライフコーチとしても女性をもっと元気にさせよう！というのを決めた彼女。 私たち、教えているものは違うけれども結局戻ってくるところ、目指すところはAbundance Life.   「ガツガツやっていると、D Oを意識してやってても、なぜお金稼ぐの？って思ったら、心の平穏を求めているから、だったりする。ガツガツしなくても、「心の平穏」のところにいけばいいわけです。」   私は彼女のインスタで「インスタアカウントのお引っ越しをします」という投稿を見ました。「なんでアカウントを変えるんですか？」ってメッセージを送りました。 その時の彼女の心情を今回のエピソードではお話ししていたり、彼女のビジネスをやっていこう、スキンケアについても広めていこうと決心・ミッションについてもお話ししました。 今回の話に興味がある人、ぜひ最後まで聞いてくださいね。   IG：＠emikorasmussen HP：https://www.herconfidenceherway.com 無料FBグループ『Her way collective』はこちら：https://www.facebook.com/groups/HerConfidenceHerWay 無料F Bグループでは毎週日本の木曜日、アメリカの水曜日に『Wow Wednesday』を開催しています。 Podcast

Do you know what a shaman is? Shamans are people on Earth that are connected to the spiritual world and can help us to tap into our guides and release our energy blockers. In today's episode, I am joined by the wonderful Makhosi Himi. Makhosi is a shaman, Sangoma priestess, diviner, prayer warrior, and healer. Her healing practice is rooted in ancient African cosmologies and spiritual traditions that elevate our consciousness. Through her work with clients, Makhosi is dedicated to using ancestral shamanic practices and ceremonial traditions to facilitate healing, energy activations and growth. Her work has been featured on The Kraal, Wake Up World, MindBodyGreen, and other online publications. In this episode, Makhosi and I have an awakening conversation about what shamanism is and the unique capabilities that she has to tap into the spiritual world. Makhosi shares her story about growing up Catholic, discovering shamanism, her individualized approach to help clients release their energy blocks, her perspective on the current state of the world, and the roots of shamanism. I hope this conversation with Makhosi enlightens you about the role shamans play in our connection to the spiritual world. Tune in to Episode 98 of Uncover Your Magic and learn about Makhosi's spiritual connection as a shaman! In This Episode, You Will Learn:Mikhosi's journey to becoming a shaman (4:30)How Mikhosi takes a unique approach for each client (15:20)Mikhosi's perspective on the state of the world (32:17)The shamanism connection to the elements (42:38)Mikhosi's message to listeners (49:36)Connect with Makhosi WebsitePodcastInstagramYouTubeFacebookLet's Connect!WebsiteFacebookInstagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Logan from the True Commercial Mastermind is great at it and I learned a lot from himI was cold calling tenants to figure out phone number from landlord, soft touchcold called landlord, spoke a lot about myself and asked for authorization to call back in a year or 2Friendly calls around the holidays

In this week's podcast we hear a Jesus story about healing that flips the tables of life as we know it and blesses people in experiences of woe and need. Special guest,  Rev. Mack Smith answers 3 ½ questions about love and reminds us that "God loves you like crazy!" Stay tuned for a lively conversation about blessing and healing. Come and sit... Listen to the needs of people around us... And engage in some table flipping, holy shenanigans.In honor of Black History Month, this episode includes a reading of Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr's poem And What Shall You Say:Brother, come!And let us go unto our God.And when we stand before HimI shall say —“Lord, I do not hate,I am hated.I scourge no one,I am scourged.I covet no lands,My lands are coveted.I mock no peoples,My people are mocked.”And, brother, what shall you say?Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/taraleastman)

In this episode I wrap up on my last night's Ayahuasca ceremony. Enjoy! Rainer Scheurenbrand - Taita Inti{Verse 1}Taita Inti, Father SunCome, come, comeBring your heatTaita Inti, Father SunCome, come, comeBring your knowledgeHe's here for the sake of the river, for the land, for the seaThe power of God is flying in the windHe's here for the sake of the river, for the land, for the seaThe power of God is flying in the windHeya heya heya heyaHeya hеya hoSun, Moon, starsI sing to them once moreHеya heya heya heyaHeya heya hoSun, Moon, starsI sing to them once more{Verse 2}Ayahuasca, caapiPipipi hua-huaCurrupi and CurrupiAyahuasca, caapiPipipi hua-huaCurrupi and CurrupiAs he taught meI came here and called himI'm ever gratefulThat he opens his power to usAs he taught meI came here and called himI'm ever gratefulThat he opens his power to usBird sang; bird flewShe brings his presenceWho here deserves it?Bird sang; bird flewShe brings his presenceWho here deserves it?Taita Inti, Father SunCome, come, comeBring your heatTaita Inti, Father SunCome, come, comeBring your knowledge{Bridge}{Outro}Taita Inti, Father SunCome, come, comeBring your heatTaita Inti, Father SunCome, come, comeBring your knowledge Let's Connect!WebsiteInstagramFacebookLinktree Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve lurched towards another Wednesday and my ceremonial activity of calling in the Wednesday has arrived.Happy Wednesday.It’s actually a sad Wednesday for me today because I think we’ve lost Mike. He used to leave me comments each week and we had a bit of a laugh and he said it was the only podcast he listened to.Somewhere along the way I’ve probably annoyed him and he’s gone. Sorry Mike, for whatever I did. I didn’t mean it. I was just trying to be funny, probably.I may also need to apologise to James Clear for this episode too.Sorry James. In the extremely unlikely event that you happen to listen to this podcast episode, I kind of say some things about you. Be assured though that they’re not really about you, they’re about what you stand for.Surely that’s better, right? It’s not about you as a person, just your entire life’s work.In this week’s episode:We lose Mike and I search for himI refuse to offer Graeme a prizeI offer Thomas a prizeI try not to upset James Clear whilst saying upsetting things about himHave an excellent Not James Clear Wednesday.Bye bye. Subscribe at craigburgess.substack.com

The purpose of this podcast is to expose you to a common conversation Glyn Money and I have in regards to personal growth with the theme of 2020- 2021We talk about past reflections and lots of talk about mushrooms and psychedelic experiences.Glyn Money is a mens coach in Man Cave and a water fasting coach. He is wise beyond his years and serves as a lighthouse for others who wish to express themselves with joy and fun.Glyn is one of my best friends and I strive to be like himI am sure you can learn alot about yourself by listening to this conversationsGlyn Links► Glyn Services:  https://linktr.ee/glynmoney► Glyn Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glyncashmon...Please share, like, comment or forward this onto someone who may need it.Big loveCoreyCorey's Links:► NEW HOW TO DO YOUR FIRST 24 HOUR FAST EBook: https://aboutwellbeing.net/fasting-ebook► RECIPE EBOOK TO UPGRADE YOUR EATING: https://aboutwellbeing.net/recipeebook► YOUTUBE CHANNELl: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4n51XKnn_m-9-rHy-oM4yw►SUBSCRIBE WEBSITE: https://www.coreyboutwell.com/►INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/coreyboutwell/?hl=e►PODCAST HERE: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1336942Eternum Labs Health, longevity and performance supplements eternumlabs.com.auYou can find my website and all my links here:https://linktr.ee/CoreyJBoutwellCorey's website www.coreyboutwell.comSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/coreyboutwell)

Haveyour breakfastI havealready had my breakfast.Tell himto leave.I'vealready told him to leave.He'salready left.Tell herto comb her hair.I'vealready told her to comb her hair.She'salready combed her hair.Write aletter to himI'vealready written a letter to him.Turn onthe stereo.I'vealready turned on the stereo.Tell herto wash the dishes.I'vealready told her.She'salready washed the dishes.Tell himto read Harry PorterI'vealready told him.He'salready read Harry Porter.Take aholiday.I'vealready taken a holday.Tell themto do their homework.I'vealready told them.They'vealready done their homework.Finishyour work.I'vealready finished my work.Sweep thecarpet.I'vealready swept the carpet.Tell herto make the beds.I'vealready told her.She'salready made the beds.Tell hernot to let him know.I'vealready told herHe hasalready known.Don't washthe car today, it will rain.I'vealready washed car.

Haveyour breakfastI havealready had my breakfast.Tell himto leave.I'vealready told him to leave.He'salready left.Tell herto comb her hair.I'vealready told her to comb her hair.She'salready combed her hair.Write aletter to himI'vealready written a letter to him.Turn onthe stereo.I'vealready turned on the stereo.Tell herto wash the dishes.I'vealready told her.She'salready washed the dishes.Tell himto read Harry PorterI'vealready told him.He'salready read Harry Porter.Take aholiday.I'vealready taken a holday.Tell themto do their homework.I'vealready told them.They'vealready done their homework.Finishyour work.I'vealready finished my work.Sweep thecarpet.I'vealready swept the carpet.Tell herto make the beds.I'vealready told her.She'salready made the beds.Tell hernot to let him know.I'vealready told herHe hasalready known.Don't washthe car today, it will rain.I'vealready washed car.

Haveyour breakfastI havealready had my breakfast.Tell himto leave.I'vealready told him to leave.He'salready left.Tell herto comb her hair.I'vealready told her to comb her hair.She'salready combed her hair.Write aletter to himI'vealready written a letter to him.Turn onthe stereo.I'vealready turned on the stereo.Tell herto wash the dishes.I'vealready told her.She'salready washed the dishes.Tell himto read Harry PorterI'vealready told him.He'salready read Harry Porter.Take aholiday.I'vealready taken a holday.Tell themto do their homework.I'vealready told them.They'vealready done their homework.Finishyour work.I'vealready finished my work.Sweep thecarpet.I'vealready swept the carpet.Tell herto make the beds.I'vealready told her.She'salready made the beds.Tell hernot to let him know.I'vealready told herHe hasalready known.Don't washthe car today, it will rain.I'vealready washed car.

Haveyour breakfastI havealready had my breakfast.Tell himto leave.I'vealready told him to leave.He'salready left.Tell herto comb her hair.I'vealready told her to comb her hair.She'salready combed her hair.Write aletter to himI'vealready written a letter to him.Turn onthe stereo.I'vealready turned on the stereo.Tell herto wash the dishes.I'vealready told her.She'salready washed the dishes.Tell himto read Harry PorterI'vealready told him.He'salready read Harry Porter.Take aholiday.I'vealready taken a holday.Tell themto do their homework.I'vealready told them.They'vealready done their homework.Finishyour work.I'vealready finished my work.Sweep thecarpet.I'vealready swept the carpet.Tell herto make the beds.I'vealready told her.She'salready made the beds.Tell hernot to let him know.I'vealready told herHe hasalready known.Don't washthe car today, it will rain.I'vealready washed car.

‘Drag & Spirituality' part deux!! Join a multi-faith international conversation featuring Mango Lassi, Coco Sho-Nell, LoUis CYfer, and hostess, B0NNi33 Vi0L3T. Tune in live @aqueerchaplain on YouTube, Facebook or Twitch!Humza A. Mian aka Mango Lassi is a queer Canadian-Pakistani who currently resides in the GTA. He is a Registered Veterinary Technician who works in the downtown core, and a drag queen who got his start on social media. The focus of his drag is to bring awareness to the existence of queer Desi folk and breaking the chains of toxic masculinity that hold so many queer Desi's back from expressing themselves. With the help of brands run primarily by PoC, Humza has branched into the world of commercial makeup artistry and is currently focusing on representing brands that encourage diversity and inclusion. His most current drag looks can be seen on his Instagram page (@_humzer) and are heavily influenced by his cultural background.YouTube @HumzaMianIG @_humzerFB @Mango Lassi Queenpaypal: humzamian@gmail.comCoco Sho-Nell has been in existence for over 12 years. She began her start in andersonville performing in charity shows at the call bar. Raymond, the man behind the mascara, has been a practicing buddhist since 2004. A lot of my faith is based on acceptance and love of everyone.www.youtube.com/theatrerat80IG @cocoshonellwww.facebook.com/coco.shonell.1twitch: twitch.tv/cocoshonelltiktok: @cocoshonellhttps://youtu.be/zH9rZSufZeM , https://youtu.be/41_wImSZ5Xo , https://youtu.be/vtM7XhnjRmULoUis CYfer he/himI consider myself a spiritualist believing in all different elements of combined religions that ultimately bring us back to dealing with our ego and sense of purpose.IG @mxlouiscyferFB LoUis CYferPaypal.me/lucyjaneparkinsonUrban Village Church IG @UVChurchwww.urbanvillagechurch.orga queer chaplainhttps://taplink.cc/aqueerchaplainhttps://www.patreon.com/bonnievioletSupport the show

俳優の野村周平が、俳優でシンガーソングライターの HIMI に、自分だけの KING とは? 理想の自分とは？ など、質問をぶつけてゆきます。他のエピソードはこちらからどうぞ！https://spinear.com/shows/be-a-king -BE A KING presented by バドワイザー-『BE A KING』は、“自分だけの KING とは？” をテーマに毎回 2 人のアーティストやクリエイターが本音の質問と回答を交わす 15 分間のリレートーク番組。シーンの最前線で表現を続ける彼らの言葉を通して、理想の KING に近づくヒントをお届けします。出演者：tofubeats, AKLO, GUCCIMAZE, コムアイ, 荘子it (Dos Monos), Licaxxx, Saku Yanagawa, ちゃんみな, 野村周平, HIMI, AK-69, 朝倉海

We are back with another episode. This one here is special! We have with us a friend who has been a solid form of counsel for me ever since we met in college. A true accountability partner, and the life of the party (LITERALLY). We have here King IZZ!!! Knowing he is going to hate that I called him that, his real name is Isaiah Gaymon (AKA IZZY). Izzy is an entrepreneur who has his own media company , Vizzual Media, he is a vocalist, marketing and branding consultant ,a husband and now a father!This episode we talk the proper etiquette for operating a black owned business, healing from personal trauma to be healthy partners in our relationships, and we get into the nitty and gritty of why the dating world is so messy.  (I even share the story of when I realized the dating world was a mess). Izzy also gets transparent on what marriage truly entails and when he realized his wife was the one, and we also get the scoop on what fatherhood means for him, and how having a child has changed him. Last but certainly not least we get into why folks fear 30 and why we should not fear it at all. Izzy has been 90% of the reason why my college experience was so lit so it is a true honor to share this platform with himI also apologize in advanced that the audio gets a little wonky towards the end. I appreciate you all for your support while I figure this out and I will continue to get better and better each episode.In the meantime support my mans!Izzy can be found on IG @ IZZYOR_IZZYNOT

This week on The Groovy Tapes Himi comes to the podcast, we discuss in depth about the industry we have all nose dived into, what its always meant for black and brown creatives and how creating has shifted our lives. The Groovy Tapes is an entertainment podcast from the How Tall Are You production company, brought to you by Corey Springer. Go support cheryblosomsss on Instagram (link down below). Accompanied by Tavares Siva, also known as SouthendSiva, a local musical talent to Seattle, who just dropped his latest project; Groovfrmdasouf, available on all platforms. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/corey042/support

There is joy in inviting others to be a part of your celebration. And there is joy in being invited. Again and again, God invites us into fuller ways of being. There is no better time to accept that invitation than now. A fuller way of being… is to embody hospitality. To know the joy of being truly welcome. That's what God is all about… welcoming us… even if it's been years,  if ever, since we've seen HimI hope that's the joy of invitation that I can offer… and you can offer—one that welcomes each other, even if it's been years. Or just seems like that… because you know, Covid

The purpose of this podcast is to expose you to a common conversation Glyn Money and I have in regards to personal growth with the theme of 2020- 2021We talk about past reflections and lots of talk about mushrooms and psychedelic experiences.Glyn Money is a mens coach in Man Cave and a water fasting coach. He is wise beyond his years and serves as a lighthouse for others who wish to express themselves with joy and fun.Glyn is one of my best friends and I strive to be like himI am sure you can learn alot about yourself by listening to this conversationsGlyn Links► Glyn Services:  https://linktr.ee/glynmoney► Glyn Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glyncashmoney/channel/Please share, like, comment or forward this onto someone who may need it.Big loveCoreyABoutWellbeing Links:► To support yourself nutritionally the best, this RECIPE EBOOK will be your bible: https://aboutwellbeing.net/recipeebook► JOIN FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/745755549304570/?ref=share►SUBSCRIBE WEBSITE: https://www.coreyboutwell.com/►FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/coreyaboutwellbeing/►INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/coreyboutwell/?hl=e►PODCAST HERE: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1336942►If you need tips on how to meal prep this article will help you out tremendously: https://www.coreyboutwell.com/post/how-to-prepare-meals

Hello, DEMDE team ihsin kan lo hmuak. Himi a hmaisabik podcast cu kan testnak a siih Pathian zar ih a remcang asilen thuhla lo hlawm ding khal kan timlam rero zo timi kan lo theihter duh. Kan lungawi.

Continuous flow of revelation upon revelation, a tiny bit at a time with that warmth in my heart that something is true brings peace. Prayers for something specific are not answered like we expect, but it is always good.We can collapse the three points of the gratitude triad so instead of God at the top, myself on the left, and who I want to serve on the right it flattens into one line so we are 100% in alignment.As taught in my Masterclass, continuously keeping our eyes on Christ is key to having that constant confirmation, blessings, opportunities, and gifts we need for our path.Today I give myself permission to work in tandem with physical law I release ego and prideI am in Godspace to see and feel truthI am bringing my new beliefs into my heartGod validates my worth and confirms my pathI am His and I am valuable to HimI am receiving confirmation in peace and confidenceI make any correct adjustmentsI am receiving evidencesI am in a continuous flow of revelationMy guidance is God energy within meClick Here for more info on living a life of gratitude.Click Here to find out how to join the Gratitude Call live every weekday morning at 7 am Mountain Time.Click Here to join the “Breakthrough with Gratitude!” Facebook Group. Check out the NEW! Daily GPS Planner. It’s a Gratitude Journal and Planner in one! There is space to write your Inspired Shortcuts, record all your thoughts and impressions from The Daily Gratitude Call and even pages to help you stay focused on your Path of Purpose!To have a 15 minute conversation with Wylene Benson and gain new perspective on an area you desire to change, schedule a time on her calendar by going to this link: askwylene.comTo work more closely with Wylene, email her and click here to learn more about her new book The Seven Gateways – Your Map to Integrity in Life and Business that so many have discovered to be the key to living a life of purpose, fulfillment and happiness!Support the show (https://wylenebenson.com)

Feeling confident in our appearance helps us to forget ourselves and really focus on others. I embrace my womanly beauty, strength, and compassion I feel within myself. Shame is not divine. I choose light and gratitude.Women just need to be and the Lord will meet us where we are and welcome the Lord into our hearts. Mary is a great example as the angel came to her, and the resurrected Christ came to Mary as well.Womanhood and motherhood is a divine gift and role. He will help us be successful. Even women that aren’t able to bear children are still divinely and instinctively mothers.Today I give myself permission to embrace my womanhood/ manhoodI am balanced in my truth and confidenceI am balanced in power, strength, gentleness, and compassionI am honored in motherhood/ manhoodGod meets me where I amI step into my divine missionI show up for perfectly myselfI fully embrace, accept, and love who I amI feel gratitude for all I amI am joyful in my stewardshipI fully embrace the next version if meI am confident in me and my appearanceI have full access to HimI am a divinely called teacherI remember who children belong toI go and do all that is required at my hand with strength and confidenceClick Here for more info on living a life of gratitude.Click Here to find out how to join the Gratitude Call live every weekday morning at 7 am Mountain Time.Click Here to join the “Breakthrough with Gratitude!” Facebook Group. Check out the NEW! Daily GPS Planner. It’s a Gratitude Journal and Planner in one! There is space to write your Inspired Shortcuts, record all your thoughts and impressions from The Daily Gratitude Call and even pages to help you stay focused on your Path of Purpose!To have a 15 minute conversation with Wylene Benson and gain new perspective on an area you desire to change, schedule a time on her calendar by going to this link: askwylene.comTo work more closely with Wylene, email her and click here to learn more about her new book The Seven Gateways – Your Map to Integrity in Life and Business that so many have discovered to be the key to living a life of purpose, fulfillment and happiness!Support the show (https://wylenebenson.com)

As we begin our celebrations of Tongan Language Week 2020, we welcome Rev Kalolo Fihaki who will open our celebrations with a lotu. Rev Kalolo is a former member of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples. Rev Kalolo is the Parish Minister for New Lynn Tongan Methodist Church which is under the Tongan Methodist Vahefonua. Lotu is followed by Himi 391.  See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

As we begin our celebrations of Tongan Language Week 2020, we welcome Rev Kalolo Fihaki who will open our celebrations with a lotu. Rev Kalolo is a former member of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples. Rev Kalolo is the Parish Minister for New Lynn Tongan Methodist Church which is under the Tongan Methodist Vahefonua. Lotu is followed by Himi 391.  See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

As we begin our celebrations of Tongan Language Week 2020, we welcome Rev Kalolo Fihaki who will open our celebrations with a lotu. Rev Kalolo is a former member of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples. Rev Kalolo is the Parish Minister for New Lynn Tongan Methodist Church which is under the Tongan Methodist Vahefonua. Lotu is followed by Himi 391.  See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Leene King sings a Tongan hymn. Follow her musical adventures on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Want to support? Grab a gift from Leene King’s Store: https//teespring.com/stores/leene-kings-store --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leene-king/support

Leene King sings, "Himi 511." Follow her musical adventures on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Want to support? Grab a gift from Leene King’s Store: https//teespring.com/stores/leene-kings-store --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leene-king/support

Leene King sings a Tongan hymn. Follow her musical adventures on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Want to support? Grab a gift from Leene King’s Store: https//teespring.com/stores/leene-kings-store --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leene-king/support

Leene King sings, "Himi 242." Follow her musical adventures on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Want to support? Grab a gift from Leene King’s Store: https//teespring.com/stores/leene-kings-store --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leene-king/support

Leene King sings, “Himi 608.” Follow her musical adventures on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Want to support? Grab a gift from Leene King’s Store: https//teespring.com/stores/leene-kings-store --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leene-king/support

Leene King sings, "Himi 644." Follow her musical adventures on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Want to support? Grab a gift from Leene King’s Store: https//teespring.com/stores/leene-kings-store --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leene-king/support

Leene King sings, "Himi 571." Follow her musical adventures on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Want to support? Grab a gift from Leene King’s Store: https//teespring.com/stores/leene-kings-store --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leene-king/support

Leene King sings, "Himi 436." Follow her musical adventures on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Want to support? Grab a gift from Leene King’s Store: https//teespring.com/stores/leene-kings-store --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leene-king/support

Leene King sings, “Himi 607.” Follow her musical adventures on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Want to support? Grab a gift from Leene King’s Store: https//teespring.com/stores/leene-kings-store --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leene-king/support

Main Idea: A Church that treasures Christ labors for every member to know and become like HimI. You have a responsibility to build up the church. (vs. 11-12)II. Aim for every member to know and become like Christ. (vs. 13)III. Speak the truth in love. (vs. 14-16) Ransomed Community Church is a missional church rooted in historic biblical Christianity that is committed to reaching an ever-changing culture with a never-changing message. Ransomed is located in Florence, Alabama. For more information check out our website: ransomedcommunitychurch.com

When I decided to choose Christ’s yoke, my burden became light.What did Christ mean when he spoke of his yoke being easy...Matt 11:28-30Because we feel Is it harder to attain virtues we retain vices... therefore, leaning on Christ and trusting not in our perfection or effort we can enjoy his light burden as he has asked us to lean on himI pray the Holy Spirit gives the wisdom to comprehend this words of Jesus in a way that you have deep yearnings for him.AmenRemember to send in comments and contributions to tsaspodcast@gmail.com

 I hated my body for the longest timebecause it is what he usedWhy did my dad take what was mine?Leaving me sore and confusedI thought my body had let me downI blamed it for my painThe way I looked filled me with disgustI couldn’t bear the shame!Sex and sexualitybrought out in me such feareven if I liked somebodyI couldn’t let them nearWeight was always an issueI think it’s’ because he was fatI later used food to comfort meand ended up looking like thatFor me, this was unforgivableI felt I looked ugly like himI couldn’t control my eatingI didn’t know where to beginI didn’t always succeedBut I got better every dayThe more I learned to love myselfThe weight just fell awayThen one day I decidedI’ll have no more of thisI tried bringing in love from heaven abovedetermined to find my bliss!

Commentary: Rev Siupeli Taliai Himi 543 9.9.6.6.6.4. 1. Si'i meimei loto leva ke tui, Si'i meimei lave fakamo'ui, Na'a ‘oku ke pehē, “Si'i Laumālie ē, Haʻu ‘i ha ‘aho kehe, Kau tui atu.” 2. ‘Oku pehē nai si'i toko taha, “Oku kei vovo me'a fakamaama, ‘Oua ke ‘osi fai Si'i ngaahi feinga ni, Pea u tafoki ai, ‘O kumi atu. 3. “Te u kumi atu, ka ‘oua si'i, ‘Oku kei toe lahi ‘a taimi, ‘Oku kei ho'atā, ‘Oua ke toe taha: Ka meimei tō ‘a e la'ā, Te u hanga atu.” 4. Meimei mo'ui, ‘oua toloi, Si'i meimei tui, hoko he pō ni. Ko hono taimi ē, Ofi ‘a e Laumālie, Kau ‘a e me'a fulipē Ke tokoni'i. 5. Ha'u he ‘aho ni, kei tali hū Sīsū kei lami, te'eki liliu. Naʻa ko e faka'osi Na'a kuo fiu he o'i “Tā ko e ta'emangoi, Tuku pe ā”. 6. Koe ‘uma'ā ke meimei mo'ui Koe ‘uma'ā ke ofi ke tui Ta'e a'usi ho tatae Ko e ta'elava pē. Meimei mo'ui - kae Mate ‘aupito. * "In service of the people of Tonga" YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNPs13eI560WRBjHJ9dsRng Website: https://himitonga.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/himitonga/message

Commentary: Rev Siupeli Taliai Himi 613 M.N.N. (Ko Hepelu 10:4) 1. Lahi ‘a e fanga manu Na'e tamate'i ‘i mu'a, ‘O ‘atu ko e feilaulau Ke fakahōifua. 2. Kae ‘ikai si'i ‘aonga ‘A e toto na'e malingi Ke ‘ave hia, mo fakanonga ‘A e konisēnisi. 3. Ka ko e ta'ata'a ‘O Sīsū na'e tafea ‘E ma'a ai ‘a e angahala, ‘O mole ‘a e tautea. 4. Si'i feilaulau ko ia ‘Oku fu'u hulu noa; Fe'unga hono mahu'inga Mo e kakai kotoa. 5. Ko hoku laumālie ‘Oku fu'u ngaūe ai ‘O u fakasio tui pē Ki Ho kalusefai. 6. Na'e hilifaki ē Ki si'o ‘ulu na ‘A e hia ‘a hoku laumālie, ‘O u ‘ilo na'a Ke fua. 7. Talu ai ‘eku maʻu Ha koto fiefia; ‘A e nonga, mo e ‘ilopau Kuo mole ‘eku hia. * "In service of the people of Tonga" HimiTonga YouTube Channel https://himitonga.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/himitonga/message

Commentary: Rev Siupeli Taliai Himi 481 1. Faingofua ke lotu ‘Oka toko lahi; Ko hou'eiki ke poupou, He Tu'i ke hapai. Ke ke Tāniela, To'o ho matapā, Hanga ki Selusalema, Lotu toko taha. 2. Fono kia Tāniela Tapu ke ne lotu; Ka ne punou hifo leva ‘O fai ke tu'o tolu. Ke ke Tāniela, etc 3. Hono ‘ikai naʻe pehē ‘A e kau to'a ‘i mu'a; Na'a nau tu'u pē he malele, Taukave ma'a e ‘Otua. Ke ke Tāniela, etc. 4. ‘Oku tu'u honau hingoa Tohi he moʻui: Siosiua, Kēlepi, mo Noa, Na'e ma'u pe ‘enau tui. Ke ke Tāniela, etc. 5. ‘Ā, ‘e mate nai ‘afē Honau ongoongo! ‘Enau tu'u ta'emanavahē, Mo ‘enau lototō? Ke ke Tāniela, To'o ho matapā, Hanga ki Selusalema, Lotu toko taha. * "In service of the people of Tonga" HimiTonga YouTube Channel https://himitonga.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/himitonga/message

Commentary: Rev Siupeli Taliai You can listen to to this hymn on YouTube Himi 545 7.6.7.6. loua (Ko Hapakuke 3:17) 1. Kalisitiani, ‘oua, ‘Oua, ‘e lotosi'i, Neongo ho' mo'ua He fu'u mamahi ni. Tauhi ho' lotolahi, Tuku ho' ilifia: Kei Sātai pe ‘a Sātai; Teʻeki liua Ia. 2. Tangata fakamaama ‘Oku ne ‘ilo pē ‘Inasi he tangata Ke tangi pē mo to'e. Pea ‘oku ne ‘ūkuma, Mo fakama'uma'u; ‘O tali ki he houa ‘E hoko ai ‘a e malu. 3. Kae huanoa kitaua ‘Oku ta ma'u ‘i langi Si'ata Pāletu'a Ke ta falala ai. Ta'etaau ke ta hanu, Pe fakatu'a kovi; ‘E ‘ikai tō ha manu Ta'e te Ne ‘afio'i. 4. ‘Oku Ne fakateunga ‘A e lile ‘o e vao; Me'akai he manupuna ‘Oku ‘ikai ke ngalo; ‘Inasi ‘ene tufa ‘A e lango mo e he'e, Kae huanoa kitaua Si'ene fanga pele. 5. Neongo pē ‘e maumau He ta'u he ngoue'anga, Mate ‘a e fanga manu, Mole falala'anga; Ko au te u loto lahi, Ko au te u fiefia: Kei Sātai pē ‘a Sātai; Te'eki liua Ia.* "In service of the people of Tonga" HimiTonga YouTube Channel https://himitonga.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/himitonga/message

Commentary: Rev Siupeli Taliai Himi 447 (Ko e taha ‘eni ‘i he ng himi ‘a e mu'aki Siasi: pea ‘oku fai'aki ‘i māmani kotoa 'i he ‘Aho ‘o e Laumālie.) 8 laui 6 1. ‘E Laumālie Māfimafi, Ha'u ‘o a'ahi ho kakai. Ko Koe pē naʻe tupu ai ‘A homau ngaahi ‘atamai; Haʻu mo ha ivi mei he Langi, ‘O tufa ke mau fonu ai. 2. Ko Koe ‘a e Taukapo ia, Taupotu ‘i he mahu'inga; Ko e foaki ‘a e Tamai, Me'a ‘ofa ia ne fungani; Si'i Fauniteni he mo'ui, He Maama ta'emafu'ifu'i. 3. Si'ipani fakalangi ē, He lolo fakalaumālie, Lōfitu pē ho' fu'u mafai, He nima tonu he Tamai; ‘A ia pē ne tala'ofa Ke haʻu ‘o fakalea ‘a e noa. 4. Hā'ele mai ‘o fakamaama ‘A homau ngaahi ongo'anga; Ha'u ‘o lilingi pe ho' ‘ofa ‘I homau ‘atamai kotoa; ‘O ngaohi ke mālohi pē ‘A e vaivai homau laumālie. 5. Teke'i ‘a e fili ke mama'o, ‘O tuku pe ke tau fe'ao. Ka takimu'a ‘a e ‘Afiona, ‘E ‘ikai hē homau fononga; Ka te mau hao mei he kovi, ‘O tō ai ha lelei moʻoni. 6. ʻĒ, faka'ilo kia au ‘A e Toko Tolu Toputapu; Kae ‘atu pe ‘a e fakamālō He Tamai pea mo e ‘Alo; Mo Koe foki, Laumālie, ‘I he kuonga fulipē.* In service of the people of Tonga https://himitonga.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/himitonga/message

This hymn can be heard on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9wg_kmTBk8 Commentary: Rev Siupeli Taliai Himi 400 M.NG..& tau (“Ka tā ko ‘Ela Koe ‘oku ke fai fūfūnaki, si'i ‘Otua ‘o ‘Isileli, si'i fai fakamo'ui - ‘Aisea 45:15) 1. ‘Oku fai fūfūnaki pē ‘A e pule ‘a e ‘Otua; Ko e fu'u misiteli ia Talu mei mu'a ‘i mu'a. ‘Oku ne kofu ‘aki Ia Ha ‘ao po'uli fau; Pea ne heka he afā Mo hala he peau. 2. ‘Oku ne ‘ave ‘a e lelei, Kae tuku pe ‘a e kovi: Ko tonu ‘oku lusa pē, Kaukaua pē ‘a loi. Ko Taivasi ta'elotu ē, Kai katoanga ia: Papala fu'u ‘a Lasalosi, Mo nofo fiekaia. 3. Vakai he ngāhi laumālie ‘O e kau Ma'ata. Ko futu ‘enau tangi ē ‘I lalo ‘olita. “'Ei, ‘e sāuni nai ‘afē ‘A homau toto ni?” Kae tuku pe ta'efakamaau ‘A honau fakapoongi. 4. ‘E, ‘oua na'a tau fakaanga ‘A e ngāue ‘a e ‘Otua. ‘Oua ‘e fai mamata pē, Ka e fakatui mu'a. Ko e matamata houhou ē Ko ‘ene ‘ai pulonga; Ka ‘oku malimali pē ʻA si'ono fofonga. 5. Ka malu'aki mai ha ‘ao. ‘Oua ‘e tu'atamaki: Kuo pau ke faifai pea tō, Ko e koto tāpuaki. Ha kovi nai ‘a e talamuka, Mahi ‘a e lau, mo kona; ‘Oua ke fisi pē, mo fua, Ka e faka'ofo'ofa. 6. Ko e tufunga ‘a e ‘Otua: Ko hotau ngaohi ‘eni. ‘Oku tuai ‘a e ngāue ia Ko e ‘ai ke fu'u lelei. Oku ha fakakonga pē Koe'uhi ke tau tui: Ko hono ‘ā'ālonga pē, ‘E hā kotoa ‘amui. * In service of the people of Tonga https://himitonga.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/himitonga/message

Commentary: Rev Siupeli Taliai This hymn can be heard on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYGFlRWhoJ4 Himi 418 M.L. mo e tau 1. ‘E Sīsū, ko ho ta'ata'a, Ho' mate maʻa e angahala, Ho' kikitaki pē ke fai, ‘A e finangalo he Tamai - He me'a ia te u kofu'aki. Ka fakamaau ‘a māmani; He toki kofu kuo ma'a, ‘O puli ai ‘a e angahala. 2. Ka hoko mai ‘a e ‘Aho Lahi, Ko hai ‘e talatalaaki? Te u nonga pē ‘o ‘ikai mā He kofu ‘i ho ta'ata'a. He ko e Lami ‘a e ‘Otua Kuo ne to'o pe ‘a e mo'ua; Kuo ne ‘asinga'i ‘a e hia; Kuo ne hanga ‘o pekia. 3. Si'i toto ne luluku'aki ‘A e Potu Tapu ‘o e langi ‘Oku ne hūfekina ē ‘A e angahala fulipē Fakafeta'i! Tā kuo pau ‘Oku ne hūfekina au. Oku ou tui pē ki ai; Hoku huhu'i kuo fai. 4. Ka ne tatau pē ‘a e kakai Mo ‘one'one ‘o e tahi, Kei lahi pē ‘a ho' pekia Ke ‘ufi'ufi ‘enau hia. Ka hoko mai ‘a e ‘Aho Lahi Ko eni pē te u tu'unganaki “Ko Sīsū kuo ne pekia, ‘O ‘ave ai ‘a ‘eku hia.” * In service of the people of Tonga https://himitonga.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/himitonga/message

This hymn can be heard on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR3pSBsA6-0 Commentary: Rev Siupeli Taliai Himi 375 M.L. 1. Kau ka manatu he ‘Akau, Mo Ia ne tukifa'o ai; ‘Oku mo'u tafu'ua pē ‘A e loto mo e ‘atamai. 2. ‘Oku ‘ikai te u kei toka'i Ha ongoongo, ha koloa; Ko Sīsū ne kalusefai, Ko Sīsū pē te u manakoa. 3. ‘Oiau! He tafe hifo ē ‘A e toto mahuʻinga fau! He ta'ata'a he ‘Otua, Lilingi ke huhu'i au! 4. ‘Oi! He pani ta'ata'a ‘A si'ono fofonga ē! Toto ‘a e ongo nima ia, Tutulu pe ‘a e ongo va'e. 5. ‘Ofa ‘e fakahā ‘e hai! ‘Ofa ka ko ha ‘ofa ē! ‘Ikai feʻunga pē mo Ia ‘A e ‘univeesi fulipē. 6. Ka ne ‘a'aku pē kotoa, Ko e totongi si'i pē ia. Ta'etaau mo ‘ene ‘ofa fau, Ta'etaau he fu'u mamahi'ia. 7. Taau ke ‘atu pe kotoa ʻA hoku laumālie ni; ʻA e loto mo e ‘atamai ʻI taimi mo ‘itāniti.* In service of the people of Tonga https://himitonga.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/himitonga/message

1.  The Blessing of Hungering After God and His Righteousness Matt 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.Hungry for the (right-ness) of God in every area of life, in my health, wealth, family, soul etc. Your life will go in the direction of your most dominant hunger The greatest gift I can give to you is to teach you to hunger for GodHunger for God represents our desire and dependence upon HimI learned this lesson many years ago, it's a grace and a giftI learned that if you feed hunger for God it grows  2. Hunger for Rightness in Our Soul – Mind, Will and Emotional LifePs 107:9 He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness.Ps 34:4, 6 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.3. Hunger for Rightness in Our Families and with a Long Blessed Life that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord promised Deut 30:19-20 I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your children may live;  20 that you may love the Lord your God, 4. Hungering for the Rightness of God in Our Bodies Ps 103:2-3 Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits 3 who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases,5. Hunger for Rightness in Our Finances  Ps 34:10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.2 Kings 18:6-8 For he clung to the Lord; he did not turn away from [faithfully] following Him, but he kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. 7 And the Lord was with Hezekiah; he was successful and prosperous wherever he went Deut 8:10, 13-18 when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them;  and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are  multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied;  when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you from the house of bondage; who led you through (a season of scarcity) who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.' “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth,Don't just get hungry, stay hungry even after he blesses you The hunger to get you there, you will need it to keep you there 6. Hunger for Rightness in My Relationship with GodHeb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (He blesses you with fellowship)Gen 15:1 Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great rewardWebsiteFreedom FacebookFreedom InstagramFreedom SoundcloudP. Jason Lozano FacebookP. Jason Lozano Instagram

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yos4H9PT2jE&feature=youtu.be Luke 8:3 From Their Substance ASK- Leave this week and pray and ask God what he would have you sacrifice for 36mosNow becomes the day when we talk about money because money is the means by which we are going to pay down the building to reach more for God's glory- because it costs money. You would think when a church says “lets pay off the building for God” that it wouldn't create so many questions, but man- it sure does. It shouldn't. But it does. THIS WILL GROW USIf I said- “we're having an old sock drive to rid our house of socks” some people would lose itThis is what this message is about- I want you to realize that any money you give to God is something you should want to do because its for His Glory and the furtherance of His kingdom. Zech 7: 5 “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me? 6 When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves?That was about Israel, the messianic kingdom, the new Jerusalem, but the heart behind it is this- why do you do what you do? Why do we even have church? Do you give money to get money? Go to church to have friends? Is it for YOU or HIMI never want to start a message with an apology- but I need your grace this morning- This is a fair biblical message- but because of the relentless grumbling and complaining from people in churches forever about money- anytime a pastor talks about money its uncomfortable-It shouldn't be- but people go from the nice people to something completely different when it comes to money- Leave churches, attack pastors, churches, ministries over money.My kids always ask for money- I still love them. So do their sports teams, college high school, hospitals, political campaigns, missionaries, non-profits etc But I don't get upset about itAn advertiser can change your heart to make you want to buy their junk, but you give in to gain the adoration of men- and a preacher talks about your money and you want to attack the man of God who is trying to get you to do big things for Jesus and his church. You still watch TV? And if a preacher is taking advantage of you- He'll go to Hell for it. Phil 1 I'm not sure you know how a non-profit works. The profits go to Jesus- not to individuals “I totally trusted him until he started talking about my money” Who's money is it exactly?I don't own this building. No person owns the building. The organization does. 1 Chron 29 16 “O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build You a house for Your holy name is from Your hand, and is all Your own. 17 I know also, my God, that You test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things; and now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here to offer willingly to You.I'm not trying to coerce you- I want you to get it down in your spirit so you can give willinglyNot trying to Guilt you, shame you, manipulate you, You'll notice- every week I challenge youIt is actually not even a huge number- if everyone would tithe and sacrifice- One year. ONEEveryone is in a different financial situation- but God's word gives no provision for those who manage their money inefficiently to be exempt from the support of the Lords houseTalking about money is only uncomfortable for people who Love their money more than God. Don't tithe. Aren't generous. Are ruled by Money. Aren't saved. Want stuff they don't needMatthew 6:24 [ You Cannot Serve God and Riches ] “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Last week I asked you if you were saved. If you wanted to give God glory. Doing big things for God gives him Glory. Sacrifice, giving,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yos4H9PT2jE&feature=youtu.be Luke 8:3 From Their Substance ASK- Leave this week and pray and ask God what he would have you sacrifice for 36mosNow becomes the day when we talk about money because money is the means by which we are going to pay down the building to reach more for God’s glory- because it costs money. You would think when a church says “lets pay off the building for God” that it wouldn’t create so many questions, but man- it sure does. It shouldn’t. But it does. THIS WILL GROW USIf I said- “we’re having an old sock drive to rid our house of socks” some people would lose itThis is what this message is about- I want you to realize that any money you give to God is something you should want to do because its for His Glory and the furtherance of His kingdom. Zech 7: 5 “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me? 6 When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves?That was about Israel, the messianic kingdom, the new Jerusalem, but the heart behind it is this- why do you do what you do? Why do we even have church? Do you give money to get money? Go to church to have friends? Is it for YOU or HIMI never want to start a message with an apology- but I need your grace this morning- This is a fair biblical message- but because of the relentless grumbling and complaining from people in churches forever about money- anytime a pastor talks about money its uncomfortable-It shouldn’t be- but people go from the nice people to something completely different when it comes to money- Leave churches, attack pastors, churches, ministries over money.My kids always ask for money- I still love them. So do their sports teams, college high school, hospitals, political campaigns, missionaries, non-profits etc But I don’t get upset about itAn advertiser can change your heart to make you want to buy their junk, but you give in to gain the adoration of men- and a preacher talks about your money and you want to attack the man of God who is trying to get you to do big things for Jesus and his church. You still watch TV? And if a preacher is taking advantage of you- He’ll go to Hell for it. Phil 1 I’m not sure you know how a non-profit works. The profits go to Jesus- not to individuals “I totally trusted him until he started talking about my money” Who’s money is it exactly?I don’t own this building. No person owns the building. The organization does. 1 Chron 29 16 “O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build You a house for Your holy name is from Your hand, and is all Your own. 17 I know also, my God, that You test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things; and now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here to offer willingly to You.I’m not trying to coerce you- I want you to get it down in your spirit so you can give willinglyNot trying to Guilt you, shame you, manipulate you, You’ll notice- every week I challenge youIt is actually not even a huge number- if everyone would tithe and sacrifice- One year. ONEEveryone is in a different financial situation- but God’s word gives no provision for those who manage their money inefficiently to be exempt from the support of the Lords houseTalking about money is only uncomfortable for people who Love their money more than God. Don’t tithe. Aren’t generous. Are ruled by Money. Aren’t saved. Want stuff they don’t needMatthew 6:24 [ You Cannot Serve God and Riches ] “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Last week I asked you if you were saved. If you wanted to give God glory. Doing big things for God gives him Glory. Sacrifice, giving,

I remember one time traveling to our family’s favorite vacation spot alone, looking forward to meeting my family there after a couple days being apart. I called my husband’s cell phone and his cousin answered. As he took the phone to Clint, I could hear his voice in the distance and his ever present laughter. I seriously had the same butterflies I had when we were first dating. It was so joyful to hear his familiar voice in anticipation of re-uniting with my favorite guy.Home and family means something different to everyone. One of our live callers is leaving her home today, as she is moving to a new space. Emotions were close to the surface at the thought of saying good-bye. Another caller mentioned that he realized ‘home’ encompasses community. As he rode towards his home on a bus, he noticed the shops and familiar sights and sounds of home as it relates to his neighborhood. Even mundane chores bring familiarity that is somehow comforting within home and family.Truth, as it resonates in the heart, feels familiar. I believe the memory of our first home in heaven is there, deep within us. Even if we can’t remember with our brains, we can recognize the familiar truths we knew while we existed in the presence of God and our brother, Jesus.Today, I Give Myself Permission to Embrace the FamiliarI recognize truthI love my homeI am comfortable in my own skinI know who I amI am happyI am content with what isI love my lifeI am grateful for all my experiencesI notice what is true and I align with itI question old beliefs and upgrade them oftenI easily settle into my new adventuresI move quickly and easilyI am familiar with God’s purpose and I trust HimI am familiar with changeThe new life I am embracing is very quickly becoming familiar!Click Here for more info on living a life of gratitude.Click Here to find out how to join the Gratitude Call live every weekday morning at 7 am Mountain Time.Click Here to join the “Breakthrough with Gratitude!” Facebook Group.To have a 15 minute conversation with Wylene Benson about a new perspective on an area of your life you desire to change, contact her directly at this link: askwylene.comSupport the show (https://wylenebenson.com)

There is a counterfeit subconscious belief that God is this loving entity, like Santa Claus, who just sits around all day waiting for people to ask for a wish to be granted. That his only joy is in bestowing blessings upon those who fervently ask for them. Even Job in the Bible, thought that God lived to serve him. I think that I will one day write a book about what I am learning from the life of Job.This morning on our Daily Gratitude Call, I learned more about God than I feel I could have on my own in private study and meditation.I have seen God as a partner, as a loving Father, as a benevolent Being who is all powerful and all knowing. But until this morning, I had never truly seen God as ONE with me, and I with Him.There is a unique way that, with Him IN us, we get to serve humankind. Our natural gifts and talents, amplified through God’s Omniscience and Omnipotence, have the power to heal and uplift humanity. We, collectively, each living in our unique gifts, as One family, with Him IN us, have the power to save the world.We have been taught to surround ourselves with people who we want to become like. Who better to surround ourselves with than the Angels, Christ and our Father in Heaven. Christ and the Father are One. We read this repeatedly throughout the scriptures. For example:“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” -St John 14:6-10If we are One, (interesting that I chose to capitalize the word “One.” I feel it is like a name of reverence because God and Christ are included in that name I take on myself) then our will and the Father’s will are the same. We only choose to do the Father’s will because it is the same as ours. We would not want anything else, because in being out of alignment with the Father, we are out of alignment with ourselves, holding back only ourselves as we rebel against the Father.Unity – it’s not just me – I am not alone. We are moving together as a unit, a whole body with a head, a heart, a soul, feet and hands that are one in purpose for our own benefit and for the benefit of the whole eternal family.Today, I give myself permission to be One with GodGod knows what’s nextI know GodI am One with GodI desire to experience all that God desires for meI choose to be the fullness He knows of meI choose to be One with God and ChristI am the person God knows I amI am in alignment with GodI am HisI am ready to hear Him and move as one with HimI am immovable in my knowledge of my Oneness with GodClick Here for more info on living a life of gratitude.Click Here to find out how to join the Gratitude Call live every weekday morning at 7 am Mountain Time.Click Here to join the “Breakthrough with Gratitude!” Facebook GroupTo learn more about working more closely with Wylene Benson, contact her directly aSupport the show (https://wylenebenson.com)

Shep Hyken interviews Dr. Natalie Petouhoff. They discuss AI in business—what works and what doesn’t work, how it can help companies and employees succeed, and how we can best utilize it. They also discuss the need for diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace. In Shep’s Opening Monologue... He discusses the pros and cons of chatbots. The Interview with Natalie Petouhoff:Companies that become too enamored with chatbots, AI, and other technologies can risk losing touch with their customers.AI shouldn’t replace humans; it’s meant to aid and augment both the employee and customer experiences.AI might be more useful to employees rather than customers. It can eliminate mundane, repetitive task for support center agents and help them build better rapport with their customers, which thereby improves the customer experience.Social media has transformed how customers and businesses interact. Having multiple methods of contact, or channels, removes effort from customers, which customers really like.Contact centers and companies alike need to reorient themselves so that the customer is at the center of their operations. They should be less concerned with statistics and more concerned with people.You don’t have to go above and beyond to create an exceptional customer experience. Most customers simply want a quick, easy, and efficient answer or solution to their problems. Providing that is going above and beyond when that isn’t the standard.Companies and employees need to be able to guide and train their AI so it learns better. AI is not meant to operate in an isolated environment; its intelligence is human-inspired.Companies are no longer competing solely against their direct competitor; they’re now competing against the highest standard for service across the board. AI can help power that without customers even realizing it.When companies don’t have an agile mindset, it can be difficult for them to adjust to how rapidly technology changes. Failing to adapt can spell doom for companies if they don’t respond with urgency and a willingness to learn.Quote: “AI is meant to augment the problem-solving process.” – Dr. Natalie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Find your voice - Episode 5 - Look up by Ashley Nixon #5Tagline: “So you sort of look at the victories of the past, and you rely on them for victories in the future"https://arendeu.com/podcastFind your voice - Episode 5Ashley Nixon grew up with rage, that would spiral his life into turmoil. Drug abuse, prison, fighting both in and out of the ring, dealing with well known drug cartels and gangs he often found himself living a life destined for jail or death. Fortunately it was the former and through his time in prison, Ashley had a realisation towards a better life. His purpose almost became apparent and with hard work, the right mindset and devoting himself to a larger cause Ashley is now on his path to serving others and making a massive difference in the world.His genuine personality, of wanting to serve and now his love for himself having been accepted by the lord, as he puts it, has given him a new life. Born again, is how he describes it and shows that anyone, despite their past mistakes or actions can truly turn their life around.Follow it below:Thanks for listeningFree Audible book sign up:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Audible-Membership/dp/B00OPA2XFG?actionCode=AMN30DFT1Bk06604291990WX&tag=are86-21Best book on Mindset by Carol Dweck: Mindset https://amzn.to/2QajMvZSupport the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/findyourvoiceLinks to me:Website: https://www.arendeu.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/aren.deu/Twitter: https://twitter.com/arendeuFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/aren.singhLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aren-deu-65443a4b/Podcast: https://www.findyourvoicepodcast.com YouTube: http://tiny.cc/51lx6yLinks to guest:Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010604051898#JustDeuIt & #FindYourVoice[Music]welcome to an episode of find your voicea movement led by yours trulyAren do a guy who has overcomecrippling anxiety adversity anddifficulty like so many of you in lifewhose main goal now is to help youcombat your excuses take control of yourlife write your own story and mostimportantly find your voice so nowwithout further ado I welcome the hostof the show himself mr. Aren do what'sgoing on people thank you for tuning into another episode of find your voice myname is Aren and I am the host of theshow so today's episode is one of hopeand one which really does capture yourimagination on what is possible thisindividual has been at rock bottom and Imean rock bottom where he's had thesupport he's had the community and he'shad the people around him to really tryand lift him up but it just wasn'tenough until something changed and I'mnot gonna tell you what that thing isbut I'm gonna let him explain it becauseI think this is such an important storyabout how we so often try and do thingsto please other people we try and fitinto places where we just know we don'tbelong and thankfully for not onlyhimself did he realize this but also forthe community he is now having such amassive positive impact on so I hopeyou're all having a fantastic day and Ihope this interview really does give yousome insight in terms of what's possibleand more importantly just give you asense of hope that people can changefirstly I'm gonna welcome back to theshow so how you doing today my friendyeah I'm doing good thank you yeahreally good thank you privilege to bethere so thank you well I'm verygrateful that you've taken time out yourday to come on so obviously you've heardthe introduction as listeners but Ithink it's more important we hear alittle bit more about Ashley himself andI've heard snapshots and highlightsabout how your world is transformedbasically since I last seen you in thegym so it's gonna be interesting for meas well as you guys is the listener soactually if you wouldn't mind if youcould just give us a run through alittle bit about your life from themoment you can remember basically upuntil where you are right now my rightokay yeahand it's looking back on your life andI'm 30 years old now so as you canimagine I've lived quite a bit for 30yearslisten try and give a bit of a snapshotof my life it's it's when you're readyto start so suppose looking back towhere we met we first met at the boxingclub leading up to that I'd been livingwith my family in Coventry they're agroup of Coventry we had my mom my manand a sister as well never really had adive growing up and then was about 10years old my mum met my now stepdad andbeing a 10 year old lad being the lifeof the family the man of the house andthen certainly having this new man inthe house it kind of I think from therethings began to disrupt in my house myworld was kind of turned upside down alittle bit and to add to that I supposewe moved them from Commons we'destablished when I was about 11 yearsold and so I'm moving to a new area theaccents were funny funny which is I'mreally but I'm sorry no new area Itrying to make new friendsangry and upset with my home situationand so as you can imagine I began tomeet with and get to know other kidsthat were like myself really just angryupset at the world and from there as youcan imagine paint up in school excitedto describe lessons and to get suspendedand get into fights him in there forlong smoking smoking cannabis regulagetting drunk on the weekendsoccasionally was ecstasy involved orcocaine and life for me quite early onin the years began to spiral really Idon't know what it was just one of thosekids that you know I weren't reallyscared of the police instead of schooland my family at home and we and upsetand trying to find a way to expressemotions I didn't quite understand andso through crime and getting intotrouble and I've been involved withyoung offenders and team stuff I andthey put me to trick all connections itwas back in the day connections withsomething that work with young kids totry and provide positive activities forthem so they sent me to the Lions BoxingClub and so that's how I found myself atthe box we talked when I was probablyabout 15 16 years old oh wow yeah yeahyes that's probably my first my hewasn't about that it was yeah my briefmemory of yourself was so I always hadthis thing in my head where I was at themost talented but I would always try andoutwork everyone in the gymand there's probably I'd say a handfulof people that I remember obviously youhad Connor who was like you know one ofthe best boxes in the gym there's a guygood friend of mine called Andy who usedto work really really hard on hisfitness and I remember yourself andthat's pretty much my only memory of youas somebody who when he came in hepretty much gave ease or so in terms oflike work ethic and stuff I fullyunderstand that I just want to quicklytouch on something though that youmentioned that you when you were growingup and you were angry and upset with theworld and stuff was that solely becauseyou had no father growing up or yeah hisighs beautiful thing in it and thenlook looking back I I try now to try andwork out and organize and think what itwas but the time it's hard when you'rein the middle of something and yourlife's a mess in these turmoil sometimesit's hard to put your finger on what itwas I suppose looking back it was diyosI was a little kid in Coventry and I wasten years old had my first girlfriendand things were going while I played forthe football team in my primary schooland then my mom meets my stepdad thisman's in my house and we move so youknow an hour away from my home having tomake new friends and I didn't want thatand I suppose it was just rebellionagainst that really I mean looking backnow I recognize my mom you know she hadme at a very young age and she gave upher youth to be my mom and she had ashot at being happy you know and Iwasn't happy about us being selfish andsuppose there's been a kid notunderstanding the world around you'resuppose absolutely absolutely and Ithink you touched on the point therehindsight's a wonderful thing wesometimes even myself I mean I was neverinvolved with the police or anything butthis stuff I did as a kid or at schooland you cringe when you think back andthink yeah I was are that guy but Isuppose we all know lessons from it andthat's kind of what I'm trying to getfrom this podcast and fun this interviewwith yourself so you've touched onbriefly obviously you got into boxingthen so how did that kind of transformyour life because I know that had amassive impact yeah so this is this isthe first time boxing and so there'sanother second occasion which is afterthis occasion I was there for a whileand it provided that stability and itprovided routine provided disciplinethat sort of thing and I remember thethe Rob this went back when I was a kidsball Marines came in and they didn'tlike a little demonstration in theboxing club and that was me so I thoughtthe rule means I'm gonna become asoldier and I went to the the careersoffice and I told him look I want to bea soldier I want to come and serve andthey asked me about my criminal recordand they basically said look paveyourself a couple years and we'll acceptthat so I tried my best to behave asI've always been a Jacqueline so it'smore a case of not getting caughtexcept for couple years continue to boxcontinue to get fit get healthy and wentdown to limp stone in Devon I've done afour-day selection course for the wrongreasons and which I passed that and alsosets means of the wrong reasons and thenI go into a phone a pub and I've donefor a BH I'd leave that witnessintimidation and as you can imagine thatwas the wrong Marines was my way out myway out of the brokenness my way out ofthe mess it was my way of trying to fixmyself and blooby only stay after thatthe door closed and my life justspiraled from there and things got realbut from then on I went back to the onlything that I really knew other than thatand that was selling drugs so from a kidfrom a young age or worked out you knowthe best way to fund any drug habit thatI'd have would be to sell drugs myselfand along with all the states that cometo that all of the reputation the moneyand the people thinking you're the big Iam and I really started a little kids Iwas an idiot and more Pitt and I've gotcaught up in a world that was massiveway bigger than myself and so that waslike 19 I think that was I startedspiraling and really spiraling in thatcontrol and over the next four years 19to the age of sort of 23 involve wrigleyinvolved in drug dealing and gang lifethat sort of thing I got noticed by someproper thugs like some proper likeorganized crime and I start selling forthese guys and these guys were likeI mean we were selling to likestreet-level lads and then we send tothose that are selling to them on thestreets but occasionally buying from thelocals like the Albanian mafia andselling the house a like it sounds crazywe've seen out loud sometimes I mean Isometimes I get to show this he's notsaying it sometimes I share this throughit sounds like something you see almoston a netflix program like narcos or itmight sound like that but i'll be honestlike this sort of thing happensthroughout the country you know I meanevery town every neighborhood everycouncil estatehave somebody who's involved in thiskind of a lifestyle it's they I'm sureas you know yourself maybe this kind ofthings it's widespread throughout thiscountry and I got caught up in it youknow I'm 1920 from a life away and I canown money really quickly and I'm goingto house parties and people know who Iam and about reputation and peoplerespect me and I'll be honest - they'rescared little kid if a woman's justtrying to vent that anger thatfrustration and finding drugs to maskproblems and issues and it may is just amess man absolute mess but yeah Isuppose you can imagine from that andended up in prison eventually which wasabsolutely the best place for me exactlywhere I belong and looking back nowprison mate was the best thing that everhappened to me just to touch on that soI've previously worked in a prison forabout six months it was part of mysocial work I was doing a master's atthe time and when I went there it wasone of the scariest places I've everbeen personally so I am afraid of thepolice I am afraid of like silly thingsbut when I was there you've seen how howlittle these people have interactionwith their kids or with you know thecommunity will be able to just do stuffI mean you were getting that one hourfreedom a day where they're allowed towalk in like the park kind of area theyhad and I was looking at that and I usedto go work there so obviously I'm therefrom like 9:00 to 5:00 in a I'm so happyto get back home and I used to alwayssay I just come home to the missus and Iwas like because I've had a couple ofscraps here and there and sometimesyou've hit someone the wrong way andthey're falling down and they're notgetting up and you kind of panic and youthink shit this could go in thatabsolutely different way and I literallysat back and I think having experiencedthat from the outside for six months itwas it was eye-opening for me to makesure that I never ever used my hands orgot into an altercation in the wrong wayso if you wouldn't mind like just forthem at listeners here because I thinkit'd be quite interesting a day in thelife of being someone as sort of aprisoner and how long would youtherefore as well yeah okay so I was Iwas quite fortunate and being involvedin the life that was involved you knowand regularly carried firearms and thatwe've you know tens of thousands ofpounds of cocaine transporting it in mycar I could have been given you knowseven ten fifteen you know however manyyearsbut in the end that abh thousand I gotthem for I got given a suspendedsentence at the end of the spin is insmessed up again got given communityorder or whatever it was basically likemy old sentence was just hanging over myhead because I never managed to behavelong enough for it to disappear and inthe end I got caught with about two orthree grams of cocaine which isbasically enough for personal amountthat basically invoked the suspendedsentence and I was given 6 months and 14days so I was well you say six months islike for me I mean I'm not like I coulddo a weekend in there oh yeah I thinkprison ultimately I mean as long asyou're willing to go there behaveyourself get your head down you're gonnabe okay but the reason you're in thereis because that's not something that youdo too easilyabsolutely for this occasion a tourismthe game and so you're okay and thenbeing allowed that's always trying toprove himself always trying to you knowpresent this person you know long okayI've got it together okay and so I findmyself in this prison and in prison is acurrency which is like tobacco andtobacco you're buying drugs you buy ashoe by that and it's the only addictionthat you're allowed and so people cravethe nicotine in animes in prison if youwant to borrow some tobacco from saylike the loan sharks in there they'llgive you however big the pouch is oneweek the next week they want to put theamount back my Gran's this prisonand I thought you know I'm gonna startborrowing tobacco because I wanna smokeaside borrowing some I didn't reallythink about the repayments at all theguy that was borrowed from was only ascrawny looking lad so I didn't reallyfeel too much about it he came on to meone day said Let Me In and pay me backwhat you owe me I basically told him Itold him where to go something on me I'ma painter which is you can imagine was apretty stupid idea and I didn't dobecause I was a tough guy no I don'tknow I wouldn't tell anybody I was a bighard man you know me big toughness justmore pickup in this crazy world but thisguy anyway he goes down and he says manI'm gonna go get my clothes my foot yeahwhatever jog on like you went to go getithis cousin was huge meimagine a massive Commodore basicallycorridors on the sideI mean there's a little central bit andthen another block on either side sortof things so kind of what you see on theTV rooms so I'm on the fifth floor thefifth I'm in the top floor and I'm justHank like basically my hands on therailings just looking over and then thisbig huge guy comes around the corner andhe goes right if that can't be iscausing this guy was huge and so I we'renew in prison if you guys didn't have astrap normally go into a pad one of theprison ward like the cells in thatyou'll have it off of a strap and twoguys will stand outside and keep tryingtill the guards come sort of thing asyou can imagine that's a prettyintimidating prospect when a guy thatthis guy was hugebut he came towards me anyway and sortof like he put himself in the browser aswell and I don't know if used for theproven point to the rest of the windbecause he ended up being the biggestloan shark on the wind load and he's puthis arms over the side I'm over to signhis turn and he goes what are you gonnapay me back and as I turned to talk tohim he just hit me at the side of thehead as hard as he couldI've sort of staggered back I ended uphaving local marks on the side made fourto three weeks because he's doing it onthe landing on the wing the securityguards nearby and so we strapped inflashing 30-second twenty seconds whenAllah and screwy guys jumped on himpinned him to the floor I've turned todecide the scrawny cousins had a go atme then as well and so I won't have anyscraps on the land and the securityguards got involved and and throughbasically the street lighting involvedwas the last one standing but as you canimagine again reputation starts good forthe roof people saying he is not a liaryou know I'm not paying attention to thesystem playing by the prison's ruleslike I said me I was in Indiawhoopee and I got myself into all kindsof trouble but um see ya these guysended up there getting removed off theprison wing moves to another part topresent and tobacco size tutorialbecause that last the ones who weresupplying tobacco they put a price on myhead so that if anyone gave me a hickeyand or a beam or whatever or you knowyou're in prison with a price on you andit's mostly you know stabbed a stickerand so this is the position I foundmyself in all over the game makingthings absolutely the worst I possiblycould for myself really I want to say Iadmire your honesty for for coming upand and sharing this story and I thinkwhat we need to take away from isprobably the most important bits is thatwhile you were doing all this and I'veseen you you're a big lad you yourstrong lad but you just mentioned acouple of things there where you've saidthat you were scared and you know youhad a mask on and you were you were kindof you almost trying to be somebody thatyou maybe you weren't deep down I'm notsure I'm not sure if that's the rightwords but I just feel like you've shownsome vulnerability there and I thinkthere's probably a lot of kids and I'vegot I've got a couple of extended familymembers or friends who are doing similarthings to yourself and it and it's itworries me because I'm always trying totell them but like whose reputation areyou really trying to get and what isthis reputation that you want to beknown for and I want to kind of justspin this a little bit because I don'twant people just thinking that you'reright they're just crap over the worldand going absolutely crazy because thereis light at the end of the tunnel withyour story which is why I find it sofascinating I know recently you've had amassive transformation in your life andI I can tell from your intelligence thatone you realize that you wereaccountable for everything you've takenresponsibility you've accepted that yeahit was your fault so if you wouldn'tmind just just for the listeners as welljust kind of how your life started totransform or what measures you took yeahokay so I think from what you've heardfrom my story already there's a coupleof times I've tried to sort myself outboxing was one and which in the endbecame so incredible at the time I thinktoo young and too stupid to take theopportunity given to me the secondHolmes the rule means trying to solve aself out through the wrong reasonsmany times I've tried and I knew my lifewas a mess I knew I needed help and youI needed a way out but I think with theanger and the frustration and I'll be onlet things go I was trapped you know asI was trapped you know I think I was inprison within my own mind long beforeeverything prison itself and so I thinkpersonally I was at a point of not beingable to help myself at all it's funnybecause I this apart the storyline Ilove this part of story it's not alwaysa part the story that people can alwaystruly grasp time in this prison mylife's in danger there's a price on myhead I'm looking over my shoulderconstantly waiting to get a kick in andit is at this point another prisoner whowas who was in the cell opposite me hecame to me he said may I I think youneed God and then one thing he got inyour life and I for me you want totaking the mick yeah and I'm in prisonmy life's in danger I need you knowbaseball bat or a couple of mates Idon't know and you know that's crazy butI think it's something at that point Idon't know if she's been triggering mesomething caught my attention I don'tknow what it was but a couple of dayslater I'm walking down a prison wing inthe corridor and there's a sign-up sheeton the wall for chapel and I see thisfunctional chapel and and somethingabout it just it just caught myattention it's all about it he just drewme towards it I was like okay what'sthis all aboutI looked at it and I read this timemachine afore it's not for me and I meanI'm not interested I don't care whatthis guy's saying about God I don't wantto know I don't care and I went to walkaway and something is showing me it'sthe strangest thing about it just feltlike there's something tugging at mesomething within was just pulling at meand I look back now and I've got wordsto try and describe what was going on itwas just crazyit was like it was weird it was crazy soit was pulling me towards this song shedoes something more about it than what Iread about it yeah in the end of I'vesort of gone back and as I'm going backtowards it there's like a sense ofexcitement growing I mean almost like asense of adrenalin groaning me know Iwas training some crazy drugs in thisworld but what was going on at thatmoment was it was surreal it's weird andso I thought you know what can I loselet's go and check out what thischappals all about and so I signed up myname and basically what this feat wasabout is if you sign up my name on aSunday a prison guard will come to youso they'd release you from prison theytake you to Chapel I thought okay coolI'll get myself out there so let's goI sign my name a million and the momentI found my name of a centerpiece itmeans I'd never experienced before in mylife well you know I was here I was inprison I was a broken-down scumbag andexactly what I deservedmy life was in danger and if I got me akicked in and I said oh I deserve buthere I was feeling peace feeling asthough there's more to life than whatcurrently experienced more than anypeople as well and that was crazy me totry and for me to look back and likesometimes I catch myself saying now it'stelling this storyabsolutely crazy really yeah I think Ithink this is such a fascinating storybecause it's literally from one extremeto the complete opposite end of thespectrum it's not like you've made amistake you made it the second time andthen you you've kind of sorted yourselfat through whatever means it is you'veliterally I mean I'm listening to thatstory initially and if I didn't know youand say for instance you had alreadytold me half the story I would be likeokay there's no hope for this guy and Isay that because like I said I knowpeople who are who have had a similarlife and I've tried my best to help thempersonally and I tried to kind of changetheir circle of friends their influencetry and change their mindset make themread more do more and sometimes I'll behonest I feel helpless but what you'vejust given me there which you may notrealize is you've given me a sense ofhope that actually ok might not be Godbut there there is a way that we can tapinto people say for instance likeyourself and I'm I'm using your wordshere I'm not calling you this by the wayper say Prince is somebody exactly likea scumbag for example I really sort oftransform their lives so oh yeah that ispowerful powerful stuff so yeah so youstarted you started in prison in termsof so you go to this chapel and then howdid that kind of accelerate afterwardsyeah yeah so I mean I'm in prison andlearned the chapel week-in week-out andI'm trying to study this bad persontrying to get more groups the Bible andstuff like that and hearing about a Godwho who loves me and God he wants thevery best for me a God of second chancesa god of redemption a lot of forgivenessand these are all the things I knew thatI needed so desperately and I remembergoing back to my son and tried my firstever prayer and I'm sort of saying Godyou know if you're out there and you arewho these people say well look I needhelp and I really really need to knowplease how many way the week's all go byI'm coming towards a moment where I likethe opposite gangs in honor these ladsare involved with these little guys okayhere comes to kicking I'm waiting for analarm would go off or a cigar would justturn on the corner you know I mean andlike almost like you leave coincidencesyeah yeah looking at them on the surfacelike this just a coincidence you knowthe main burner like it felt like I wasprotecting me I felt renewed it's nothope was there like I had hope you knownever excusedlike tomorrow's gonna be okay it's gonnabe all right you know me like no matterhow dark and how broken how messed up mysituation was you know what there is away out and things can change and it'sbeautiful me just having that hope justit stirs you online I love that I lovethat message and that's kind of amessage I always try and preach myselves and it's actually something thatkeV it's fantastic and he talks aboutbelief and whether you believe in God orwhether you believe in anything like healways says worst case just believe inyourself because we all need thatotherwise we're lost and I suppose youyou were I think it's fair to say youwere lost for so long and oh yeah youfound your calling and I think that'sfantastic mate it's one it's nice tohear that your life had turned aroundfrom that yes I imagined that youropinion of yourself changed so ratherthan see yourself as this scumbag forexample will keep just using that wordyes how did you start seeing yourselfhow would you explain yourself you okayI'd love to say that instantly BAM mychange completely yes does this newsense of hope there was this sense ofper person of death meaning that my lifehad value and meaning you know I mean itwasn't just some random mess that wasdoomed to fall apart with her but likeprisoners to flying yes I've got thisBible in my hands now I'm trying tolearn to pray but then I'm back in myown neighborhood of I tackle my uncleand my old gang mates who are only myold influences are they're my oldreputation goes before mold you knowknow made all this temptations around melooking I remember the first night comeout of prison you know this Bible in meunder mana going back home and we makecomes running and I'm sniffing coke withhim and I'm wondering why I can't sleepat night you know my doings myself and Ithink the 10-month period be kind ofjust completely wrestling between theidentity that I used to haveand this new identity that I'veexperienced and wanted so much more uhand so does this season of uh you knowat growl bit on the weekend and I'll getinto fights and I've got my jaw brokenbetween I throw my prison before Istarted boxing just a flat-out into afight go out and take drugs then comehome and read my Bible and pray andbelieve in this God that was gonna saveme and set me free it was just a weirdseason of things happening but in thisperiod again like I spoke aboutcoincidences in the prison I believecoincidences we had to start takingplace outside of prison as well so thegang that I was involved in and I said Iwas on tag so I had to be in by sevenfucking line eight o'clock at nightthere was caught in the drugs bust rightat one point four million pounds of drugbust and they're caught with like largeamounts of cocaine large amounts of cashshotguns and literally a big bust it wasacross the news everywhere so they wereremoved from the streets I found out mybest friend was Steven my girlfriend wasin prison so they all removed from mylife and through another series ofcomplete coincidences I was leftisolated and all alone and with nothingmore than the Bible and trying to learnto pray and I believe God removed thebaggage from my life and the brokennessfor my life to really be able to work onmyself and so for me when when you readsome of the things in the bite the biobassoonist stuff the bio says about it'sbeautiful like it's beautifully likesays that every hair that's on your headis numbered God knows you that well andthat intimately in you are of thatimportance and that value in your hairis numb but you don't mean like stufflike it's beautiful and she decided toread this stuff and he starts to tospeak value into your life I think oneof the most powerful things that thatcan happen with things like depressionyou'll have these thoughts that go overand over and over in your head and theycompletely compoundingthe ideas so if you think that you'renothing any worthless and you'rethinking that constantly every singleday you're gonna think you're worthlessand nothing I know it's gonna spiral oras if someone starts to speak words arepositive words are encouragingI think words and words that we believeand the things that we believe aboutourselves are so powerful you've tookthe words right out of my mouth and Iwas gonna say this literally I was gonnasay this later on because how you speakto yourself will determine your life inyour story and your level of happinessmassively in terms of so even myselfI've gone through like anxiety and allthat sort of stuff in my life and interms of like my business for example ifjust use it as an example it's gone muchbetter in the last six months than itwas previously but because my state ofmind and my self-worth and love andeverything was always at its best Isuppose I've always managed to be happyin the moment and happy in the now soirrespective of whether I have morezeros in the end of my bank account atthe end of the day or I have a fanciercar outside on my driveway my level ofhappiness doesn't really change becauseit's an inside job and I think peopleare always trying to personal thingsmaterialistic things whereby they'retrying to get some sort of validationfrom the public or external factors butwhat you really need to do is lookwithin yourselves and until you canstart loving yourself and start lookingafter yourself so how you look afteryourself in the gym or with your dietyou need to look after yourself withyour thoughts so you know massively Iappreciate you saying that mate becauseI'm you did take the words out my mouthI was saving that for later it'simportant we live in a world now whichis so media driven Facebook we've goteverything there are fingertips but themessage of the world is saying to us isyou're not good enough unless you havethis have something to sell they've gota product to get rid off so they canconvince you that you're not good enoughwithout their product that's whatthey're gonna do and if we've seen thesemessages day in and day outno wonder the half of all things were nogood with nothing we're worthlessbecause that's what the world is tellingus that's so powerful it's horrible me Imean it makes people feel inferior and Ithink one of the things I've alwaystried to do so I used to be personaltraining previously a long time ago andI see a lot of personal trainers orthey're not even personal trainers itpeople on Instagram who you've got sixpacks for example and what they're doingis those they'll sell this kind ofcourse or they'll just keep constantlyshowing forwards of their abs and then Iwas getting a lot of people come in withinsecurities because I happens is you goon Instagram everyone's live in theirbest life everyone's got a careveryone's going on holiday a month theyread it to all friends in the middle ofthe night and they doing all this crazystuff and I'm thinking you saying thetruth another reason for this podcast isto give people the the cold hard truththat you're gonna have shit days youknow you're gonna you're gonna have gooddays but it's about trying to work onyour mindset trying to understand thepeople out there like like yourselveswho are going through this as well butthey're coming out on the other sidebasically and they're coming out with itwhether it's theconnection to God or whether it's theirdaily habits or the way they theenvironment we're in in the words for meI find that in the Bible I found that inmy relations with God I find out how hewas guiding me and leading me but thenat the same time then another powerfulpart was the boxing club hmm so I knew Ineeded a good community around me Ineeded friends I needed help you knowand for me as much as I've experiencedGod and his power in prison as much as Iwas now reading the Bible and prayingthe idea of going to church was wasforeign you know me but I rememberedfrom when I was a kid that I had a placewhere I was welcomed I had a place whereI was loved I had a place where I wasaccepted that was my boxing club so Iremember rather sheepishly driving backto my boxing club knowing I left therebecause I've got caught up in drugs andstuff knowing that I'd probably let themall down and wondering how they treat mewant to come back and I member pullingup in there in the carpark in there andthen so keV came out for the doors likeI lost one even recognized me and hesaid come in man we went in and like helet one of the other coaches carry onwith the class and stuff and went up andsign the classrooms upstairsit just checked me like you just heardmy story heard how old my life'sreturning to you know complete hustleyeah yeah except me like and you knowhe's not Christian himself but thevalues that he betrays their godly madethe beautiful and I mean the guy'sincredible May he was my first episodeand the reason he was my first episodeis because the world needs more of keVDylan and I don't think because he'snature and his job and stuff he's notaware of the whole selling himself formarketing himself and I'm kind of I wantto be his advocate because I just feelthat if people spend mine with himmay I mentioned on the podcast the bestyears of my life was when keV wastraining me on a one-to-one basis Iloved him I loved spending time with himI'm similar to keV I'm not a religiousperson but we share the same values andethics and I feel that whatever you findyour power through or your level of Hopethrough hold that tight I've never letgo because that's gonna that's gonna getyou through this world because and justhis way of thinking I mean he could sitthere and feel sorry for himself all thetime or he could judge youthere and I think it takes a big manlike yourself to come out and think okayI've let these people down many timesbefore can I step back in the reason soFairplay for dropping your ego therebecause I think that's another thing hehas we have a big sense of ego growingup yeah and if you can if you can getrid of the ego within yourself I justthink you live a much more fulfillinglifeno absolutely it's a blessing stillbeing a mop it still reading this Bibleand praying and still had these crazyexperiences may his cradles just in acrazy time but I start with the box in abox it becomes a place of stabilitybecomes a place of discipline and aplace where I'm accepted and then let meeven given the privilege of now to coachas well and I'm like somebody's puttingvalue in tomorrow if you see somethingit mean it's calling the help from me aswe've gotten more relation with God thesame things happening and I ended upthen going back to church I start goingto church I'll be honest because a girlinvited me and so I find myself inchurch against trying to buy anothercommunity of people that just love meand accept me for who I amand and then I heard the Gospel messagewhich is the central message ofChristianity that God loves you nomatter what you've done he wants toforgive you for no matter how muchbrokenness and how much pain you'vebrought into this world and wants togive you a second chance and so I sortof accepted that message and I believethrough the boxing and the community hadtheir through the valley the cave wasgiven me through the Bible through myexperience of God something in me justboldly changed and I had a new sense ofwho I was as a person and for me I wasstill taking drugs I never had anytroops counseling no referral workers nodrug dependency no no help or medicationjust gonna show us how we can justsaying this is one going to live for thenext week drugs just went has noaddiction as new need for it there'slike the void that was being filled withthe drugs or the void that has beenfilled with white say was darkness whichis full of light no best hope and it wasjust boom I'm free and you made justthat I just want to touch time thatsorry just before you carry on you makewhat you did there you made a decisionwhen you make a decision like you justmade there with convictionin the church saying listen you knowwhat this is me now this is my newidentity this is the new actually mixinI am no longer that person you've kindof ridding yourself of that past it'sjust powerful mate and I just want toelaborate on that thank you thank youyeah there's a beautiful passage in thebio leases and you must be born again soyou must have your whole life completedand he's set free from stuff so for meI've always wanted to be free the drugsI always knew it was wrong but there'slike something that just held me in itlike I don't know ever just like I saiddidn't have the conviction didn't havinga beliefdidn't have the sense of shrimp to getmyself out but now that moment standingin my church and I message your footmight not believe this is really trueit's almost as if BAM was born again youknow no man all right I felt likesomething just changed like it's crazy Ilove it's a massive change fromobviously where you fit first where wejust touch on that now so you you'reborn again it's your day like now thenbecause I'm hoping and I've got my handscrossed here that you're not on thestreets at any stage selling anythingdoing anything god you made so what'syour kind of like daily routine thatyou're doing that God the drumsdisappeared on peon they don't say onlyonly like you and you're kind of dante'syou're you're downplaying theachievements listen my biggest claim tofame was keV was gonna select me fornovice Nationals and I'd only had onefight previous to that and I took aninjury outside which is a story foranother day but I was so proud of thatbecause I know how hard it is to trainmate so fantastic mate well done forthat so thank you yeah so yeah I've donethe Box in than that and then I wascoaching the club and you know you justshrimp dish shrimp and then I've I wentto my church I was doing like aninternship at the same time trying toget my head into what the hell is thiscrazy Christian world all about why isthe truth a bit as opposed to the theChristianity of this portrayed in themedia what's the real story behind allthen my church said look we want to fundyou and pay for you to go to BibleCollege which is basically University soI went to university degree in thepriorities in church leadershipshe's the first class on this as wellrelations lady who's been in prisonhe's quite yeah massive massiveturnaround I love that from their churchso about six hundred churches in Britainand about three thousand around theworld as well they want to they'verecognized that my life changed Irecognized that there's something of Godin me and something's going on in mylife so they've probably now on to atraining program which is for the nextthree years become an ordained reverenta minister so I'm currently training tobecome a minister and church matebelieve or not may you're giving megoosebumps I contact you see you rightnowI promise you the hairs of light raisedOmaha from drugs to a degree to nowyou're going to be spreading the messageof what you believe in the future and Ibless my little boy and be there for himin an amazing life radically changed meI love the privilege that I have toshare this story because every time Ishare it I'm a I'm so grateful as wellmyself to be able to sit here and speakwith you as well whether honestly thisis this is fantastic and this is this iswhat it's all about spreading this kindof message as well your son's very luckybecause sometimes I feel in a wayyou have an advantage over other peoplebecause you've been you've been in thedark side mate you've been rock bottomand use this in it and you're not you'renot reading a book about somebody who'sbeen on the dark side and then trying tofabricate a story you've lived it youknow not on the other side and it givespeople hope and like likely touched onearlier hope is like one of the mostimportant things in the world cuz ifyou've nothing to hope for and nothingto wish for then life kind of becomesmeaningless you know a powerful man I'mreally happy for you you give megoosebumps mate it's the first timewe've really so I'm looking forward toobviously keeping this friendship goingin the future as well and whenever youdown at the gym is are trying to stuffmy boxing gloves on I love it okay soI'm gonna just switch it a little bitnow and I was gonna ask him at adversitybut I think pretty much hit like so manyaspects of your life in terms ofadversity but if I just put you on thespot a little bit here now for thelisteners he has an only chance to kindof prepare himself for this so let'sjust point to him but I'm sure you'lland you'll on the right answer me interms of adversity so now you've beenborn again and things are going well foryou you've got hmm I mean new missusyou're with your son now you're spendingtime with him things are going well foryou you've got your degree in everythingif let's just say now in the last coupleof months or the last year could youthink of a time where you've hadadversity again but knowing what youknow now and obviously finding the lighthow do you handle it now because I thinkit's really important for people torealize that life can still try andthrow you a curveball and then it's howyou react to it so just give you a bitof a back to do something I'm marriednow and my wife is an incredible womanyou know sometimes I think there must bea god because she's great obviously likeme my wife both came from Bergerbackgrounds she's also got quite a storyof hope and transformation zone andbhavish thing you come from a brokenback ground and that baggage doesn'tjust go away you know I mean they're allmindsets yes I'm a Christian now yes ibelieve in christian principles andmorals but still I'm on a journey untilI see journey and you don't just changejust is it a change that happens overand so the Christian Way obviously wedon't obviously try not to have sexbefore marriage and that's probably oneof the big Christian teachings and stuffI know the sex is a sacred thing savedfor marriage and which for me was veryforeign to the way I used to think andso obviously my wife struggled with thata little bit anyway but we decided thatwe was gonna wait until he's married andwe believe highly in the sanctity ofmarriage the marriage is an incrediblething that it should be entered intolightly and as opposed to our culturetoday is that if something's not workingif you had to throw it away start againand we're in a consumeristic culture soonce you've used something you justthrow it away if something's not workingproperly anymore you get rid of it get anew one and I think sometimes that kindof mentality especially in the 21stcentury carries forward into ourrelationships and so we're not always Idon't think you got to work on arelationship it starts to go wrong wejust think let's chop her out let's geta new model sort of thing and so for aChristian to not have the whole sectorfor marriage and then to get married andto believe that we're married in theeyes of God that we've been broughttogether because you know God wants thevery best for us and you have our veryhigh expectation of marriage and a highview of marriage but as you can imaginesee people that don't live together andthen they start to live together itcauses frictionyeah any two people coming together anytwo people with two different lifestyles and different ways of livingfriction and so I don't know if we hadan idealistic view of what life would belike I think for me I'm away from thefirst years of our marriage I supposewe've struggled a little bit just withthe whole being different people comingfrom broken backgrounds differentexpectations and stuff I did thebeautiful thing of having such a highview on the moment was that rather thanme thinking I'm gonna chop her and get anew one it was like I'm gonna dig inI've been through brokenness before I'vebeen through darkness before I've seenhow bad life from get you ain't gonnaget that bad again and I'm gonna pressthrough and say you saw look at thevictories from the past and you sort ofrely on them for victories in the futureand so me my wife worked out ourdifferences in just a flatironwe're stronger now and more in love nowthan we'd ever be if we hadn't have gonethrough what we went through I'll behonest mate sometimes you come humblywere going on that woman she doesmulatto it and I'm sure if she was inthis room she'd say exactly the samething about me but I love it to bits manand I thinkwithout going through what we wentthrough we won't have what we have nowand suppose yeah I loved that mayor Ithink it's remembering past victories tobelieve that they'll be presentvictories written victories of the pastas a sword not because I want toelaborate on that in a second but justbefore that you were making me smallwhile you were saying that and I waskind of so I put my vulnerability hereI'm a very emotional person so I kind ofget emotional when I hear stuff let upbecause the way I view my wife and mymarriage is the same as you it's it's avery very important thing for me I was abit of a dad back at Union I always madea promise at the moment I get married Iwill do everything in my power to be thebest man that I can be and I so oftensee people who maybe stray or just dojust do things that I don't necessarilyagree with so for me at man-to-manhearing somebody who has that sense oflove and the way you look at your wifemay I hold my heart of team because it'simportant because behind every monthgood man there's a good woman and I'mdoing the stuff that I am fortunate todo now I mean as we speak now and werecord this my wife's at work bless herand my aim is to get her out of workvery soon but if I couldn't have done alot of the stuff I've done in my life ifit wasn't for my wife and I'm verygrateful I love just hearing yourtransformation because although you weredoing all those things in the past thisperson this genuinely amazing person wasalways in there and I'm just glad thatyou managed to find it just to touch onthe victories of the past so what I findthat so powerful was because there's aguy called David Goggins I'm not sure ifyou follow him but he's somebody who Ifollow quite quite a lot religiouslybasically but he mentioned somethingcalled a cookie jar and what he does isall of these he calls it like a jar offuck what he does is every time he'sbeen through shit in his life he puts itinto this imaginary jar of fuck rightand he calls it like the cookie jar andthen what happens is when he's facedwith adversity in life he thinks back tothat Johnny's at hold on a minute I'mthat same guy who's been through all ofthis and I can get visit and goingthrough now and I think you've you'vedone it in your own way you've said thevictories of the past will help yousecure victories of the future which ithink is just as powerful lesson so mayit's fantastic that I mean you don'teven argue there guys and yet you'repreaching the same stuff as this guywho's in millions which is why I sayeveryone's story matters because yourstory matters and it's gonna it's gonnainspire lots of people sothat's fantastic man I wish you and yourwife all the best it'd be great to gether on the show as well which means I'mvery interested yeah I'm sure she wouldbe yeah yeah yeah definitely I'll put itto anywhere she says definitely meyeah she's got great story I love itmate I'm just gonna switch gears againI'm just conscious obviously I'm therunning time as well so where you arecurrently now in your life and I knowyou from like a physical aspect in termsof like your boxing and stuff and beingon the streets you're not really afraidof much or at least it doesn't seem likeyou're afraidbut let me ask you the question right inthis moment right now what is yourbiggest fear hmm okayI mean so fear is also a vulnerablething because we put high value one onfaith I suppose the ante that would befearing it so the opposite of faith isfear so fear for me would be that I'vebeen giving this incredibly beautifullife and I make an absolute mess of it Idon't use every single day to do all Ican to give back to the garden and tothe communities that have built so muchinto me so my fear would be that I mightjust make a mess of things you know Ilove thatso it's a great message and I'mconfident knowing where you are now Iwouldn't have been confident secure togo up I'm confident that you'll do thatmate and you've got a good communityaround you you've got mutual friends andafter this you know I consider you afriend and if you ever need any helpfrom me by all these new reach I am morethan happy to sort it on my hand so onthe basis of that and obviously now youfound your calling and you just touchthat you want to make an impact or justdo the best you can basically would yousay that's your main motivation orinspiration that kind of keeps you keepsyou going every morning or isn'tanything else other than your wife yeahyeah there's a couple of things Isuppose I suppose having a fear issomething to kind of drag you down or itcan propel you forward yeah so like fearis faithful it's believed in theopposite to the lies that we sauce andtell ourselves and for me a great sourceof hope for the future and a drive is isreading the Bible the Word of God andthere's some things in there may youread anything in there for 2,000 yearsnow and like so there's a passion systemall things work together for good forthe good of those who love God andthat's like everyone's thought I've seenpeople with tattoos if it sayseverything happens for a reason it'ssomething that was written in the Bible2,000 years ago some of the stuff that'swritten in there about you know she'smight be transformed by the renewal ofyour mind think on things are abovethink on things that are holy and goodand pure and just training your mind tothink positively to think the best of anegative situation is so powerful so andso yes but for me like in the morningjust haven't you know 20 minutes half anhour an hour even just reading thatcrazy book that inspires you knowbillions of people the world around itthat's a real motivator for me and thenthere's those moments where you seesomeone else they get it and the lightcomes on absolutely and I'm in you can II now work from a Christian company wework with kids that care system okay Imean you think my life's but these kidsmight day something like child sexualexploitation backgrounds and severe drugabuses from young age all kinds ofdomestic abuse and violence and stufflike kids that have been rejected bytheir families and their parents theirloan Society and they come through thesystem and it's basically teaching themat the one end to tidy a bedroom and tocook and clean and the other end tofunction in society and to see them justtake little steps it's beautiful and tobe involved in that kind of a processit's it's beautiful to do that sort ofthing is great it's goodyeah the motivator ultimately it'sliving not for yourself or for othersthere's a great power in buying intoyourself and when you know you no longerneed to let society think your yourwritten you've got it and you don't needto prove you accept yourself then youcan live for others and that's beautifulme Wow it is may may be may beabsolutely and you know I don't discountanything but I just worked so whatreally hit me there was a you might notknow this but I've got siblings who havebeen in the foster care so three mysiblings are whiteJosh Coyle and Kelsey and they camethrough the foster care system but thenwe went through guardianship so theybasicallythe family and my younger sister Illyais adopted as well so that was one ofthe reasons where why I personally wentinto social it because I want you to bethe best damn social worker in the worldand change the world because the life wehave made is a million times better thanthe life these kids have had in killyeah and for you to be doing such agreat thing now I'm just I'm so gratefulthat one you found like however youfound it but two you're also giving backbecause you're gonna be a massivepositive influence on these dude I loveit mate we've got a lot more in commonthan I thought other than boxing yeahwhat thing is I went into social work tocut a long story short because I was thebreaking as a project manager in LondonI was only more money than I knew whatto do it but there comes a time whereyou need something more than money toget you out of bed in the morning and itwas always I just want to help peopleand I send my siblings go through somuch shit that I was like I'm gonnachange the world but then when I gotinto social is the one thing that let medown was there's so much bureaucracythat you can't really change it thatmuch so what I've done is thought okaylet me use my presence and my brand andmy marketing and influences and let'stry and change the worldholistic Lee so reaching out to peoplelike you you've got a community reachingout to community centres and I'm tryingto make an impact where nobody say to meoh you've got a gold do some paperwork9205 I'm I'm doing this on my own and Iwant to kind of change the world as keyshares that sounds my own way but Ican't do it by myself which is why Ineed people like yourselves and othersto share this you'll really get togetherso I love it mate and just on that notethe buzzer has gone off so this is thepart of the show where we getinterrupted we change the script wechange the pattern and we're just goingto go into a quick five 60 secondsQ&A if you're ready yeah sounds good inthree two oneokay buddy the ability to fly or beinvisible or invisible for money or fame[Music]Netflix on YouTube YouTube Coke or Pepsioh would you rather know how you willdie or when you were dying when love ormoney love summer or winter summer yourfavorite place in the whole wideright here and right now love itwould you rather speak all of the actlanguages in the world will be able tospeak to animals all the languages ifyou could abolish one thing in the worldwhat would it be darkness your favoritesong ever oh man Christmas is aChristian song called how great howgreat is our God not for me volumes readminds or predict the future predict thefuture okay okay but time is up so soyou work with money didn't you at theend rather than fame the money or fame Ithink I went from money in the endbecause yeah with money you can do somuch for other people I love it and Ithink sometimes Fame can get in the wayKlein it because means is something thatdrives parade and elegance for me personyou know something I have to check on alot absolutely I love it me I love itokay so we're gonna go back into theinterview style of the questions againnow like I said you keep taking thewords out of my mouth at the minute soin relation to a reflection I always sayhindsight's a wonderful thing and uponreflecting we can always think of wayswhere we can do things quicker or get toa certain place earlier or easier but Ialways say the journey teaches us a lotas well and yeah it's something that Ifeel everything happens for a reasonwhich is kind of what you touch them onso if you can go back to say one momentin your life where maybe you werestruggling or you really found a turningpoint and you could fast track all yourprogress knowing exactly what you knownow what would that time be and whatwould you actually say okay um I thinkthis is difficult is fun I think becauseyou said you put a lot of emphasis onthe journey already I think it's thejourney that makes you who you areand so I mean I think I had to go topresent I won't want to not I've gone toprison because I think that was suchcrucial integral part of my journey toexperience what I experienced I wouldn'twant to stop myself and go in there so Idon't think I would be Who I am todaybut I think it's just something so it'simpolite I mean we always look inward sooften and when we look in words when Ihave people upset and his diet is brokenthen we look out but everything else Ilook so much better I think just lookingup just the words look up I love that Imean personally I've obviously been aman of faith I'd say just look up mm-hmmbut the journey they say it's crewit's hard it is may it molds you intothe person that you are mice well Isuppose it's more for the fact that thereason I always ask this question isbecause I wouldn't change your journey Iwish you suffered less pain in your lifepersonally but at the same time I'mgrateful that you've been through yourjourney and you come out the other sidebecause mate you're gonna do amazingthings in the world and I truly believethat but I just feel that if say forinstance there was another carbon copyof yourself but we can just take away alittle bit of their pain maybe and alittle bit of their hardship if therewas something that we could necessarilysay for I take your own I take youranswer on board I think it's fantasticanswer so thank you thank you so there'sonly really one more question that Ialways like to ask my guests for thelisteners and that is basically if sayfor instance in 150 years time we are nolonger about and you know here's a bookon the table and this book is about youso what would that book be called andwhat would the blurb at the back of ittell us about Ashley Nixon I stuffed methat what would the book be Colin yeahlet's go from the blimp cuz I've thrownthat in myself here from darkness tolight no matter how dark has been thisjourney of darkness will turn to I don'tknow it's hard to think of a blurb on itbecause blows becoming like trying tocapture all of what we've said orparagraph it's I think no matter howdark and how broken things can get thereis always a way outand this story will show you the way outwill help you to be inspired to as wellI love it something along them lines Idon't know I have to pee I love it Ilove that and just thinking out loudwhat I would call it just on this Iwould call it that's coming fromsomebody who does it necessarily followGod but I just think the lessons thatyou just taught me today the lesson thatI live by anyway so it's kind of you'resaying stuff dumb like hold on a minuteis that in the Biblereally and that's fascinating for melike I'm always eager to learn more andtry and become a better person so Iappreciate you for that I just want toend this now because I think it'simportant May and I know you're notalways on social media selling yourstory I always try and get people tosell their stories rather than you knowhaving to see people who are sellingcourses andall that shit on social media I thinkit's more important people sellthemselves and they sell their truestory and what they can offer to theworld and I think you've got somethingto offer so if there's one place thatpeople can connect with you what wouldbe the best way that people can reachout to you I suppose Facebook he's theone for me like I wasn't always onsocial media was always into that sortof thing but I recognized it is a placewhere people connect so powerfully soyou know I mean and people share so muchof themselves on there and so I've got aFacebook account on mine avid post thereis a bit more of my story on there forpeople to recap over if they want to aswell so yeah it suppose Facebookdefinitely and I don't mind peoplesaying formal questions the one okayfantastic so for anyone listening pleasedo reach out it's actually mixing onFacebook I'll put all the links andeverything in the show notes so you canliterally download it what I would justsay and again I'm not trying to add workor anything it's just the kind ofthought off the top of my head is youcould potentially and maybe this issomething in the future mate is maybestart a community it could be called alittle company could be called whateveryou want to call it right and I think ifyou can get people who may be Christiansmay be believers or people that havesinned such a dark place because I'lltell you something there's there's ahell of a lot more people than justyourself you have company thistransformation or or need thistransformation I feel that like you saidFacebook's very powerful maybe thinksomewhere you create this a nice safehaven for people where they feel safeand I just think you've got a greatmessage mate it's been an absolutepleasure speaking to you and yourselveslooting honestly it's been brilliant Ilove to get you back on the podcastagain maybe with your missus or yourmissus on a separate one because I feellike everyone's got a story and I justwant to thank everyone for tuning in asalways thanks for listening and rememberthis podcast is absolutely free so allwe ask in return is for you to sharethis with a friend and drop us a 5-starreview over on iTuneshave an awesome day See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week the boys talk to Donnelle Brooks of Don and the Mobsters! Listen in on a fun chat about the music industry, recording techniques and band politics!Find Don and the Mobsters on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/Donandthemobsters/And on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/artist/2pWS4TRhxxb8kxUMJQdEPF?si=RltVcdZIQ56iw74u4n7vlQ(Don't) Call Me Pretty LyricsLast time I said it's no one or himI was alone for two long yearsBaby, that made me cryLast time I said darling you're the oneNext thing I know he was up and goneBaby, that made me shyCall me pretty call me prettyand i'll do anythingsay you love me, say you love meand you can watch me runningdont call me pretty don't call me prettyif it dont mean nothingyoull drive me crazy drive me crazyif it dont mean nothinglast time i said i've had enoughi was a fool i was in lovebaby that made me crymy little heart is so naivemy hopes get high and then you leavebaby i'm not gonna tryCall me pretty call me prettyand i'll do anythingsay you love me, say you love meand you can watch me runningdont call me pretty don't call me prettyif it dont mean nothingyoull drive me crazy drive me crazyif it dont mean nothingBe sure to Follow My Songs Suck on FacebookCheck out Your Man Alex Smith! on Facebook, Bandcamp, Spotify & iTunesCheck out James's other podcast Unfeatured Articles! on Facebook & iTunesAnd check out the other great podcasts from That's Not Canon Productionswww.thatsnotcanonproductions.com

Clinc provides the world's most advanced conversational artificial intelligence (AI) platform that is changing the way customers interact with businesses. Most businesses use chat technology, which is not optimum, to interact with customers. Clinc, however, has created an innovative platform that is data-driven to ensure a higher level of service. According to Himi Khan, vice-president at Clinc, Clinc uses real-world data to develop AI models that focus on the intent of the questions. As a result, a much more quality of service can be provided because the AI processes the data, determines the underlying intent, and provides the correct answer based on the data consisting of hundreds of examples. The reason that Clinc “understand what people want to say better than anyone on the planet,” according to Khan, is due to the tremendous amount of research conducted in and out of the lab. This research is the basis for a unique platform that improves digital conversations, so businesses can achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction.

I have to say that Mary and I had a special and fantastic time with Anna Lovern. Like I said in the interview I feel so honored to meet and talk to Worship Cafe guests and I did fell a connection to Anna and “Regenerated Soul”, her music has a special and wonderful sound and like Mary said this show was a little nostalgic and sentimental for me personally. First in the sense of Anna being near Pennsauken, I grew up about 5 minutes from that area and Atco Dragway. I used to go there (Atco) every weekend to actually watch the funny cars race, the jet cars take off, yes Ken used to do that, secondly Anna’s songs have a sound that I loved growing up and listening to harder rock music. So yes I enjoyed interviewing her AND the sound is close to who I was growing up. Of course add a great message and songs of personal experience and the musical experience of Regenerated Soul and Anna really speaks to me. I love how Anna has that voice of a modern soul and rock female singer, I just feel God is using her in a special calling with the music. A way to reach people who need healing that are rockers. I actually have four songs I really really love, “Troubled Times”, “Born Again” (and yes I love Mary’s passionate plea for More Cowbell !!!, but I do love cowbells), “Holy Sinners”, and “Live Your Life for Him” (my ultimate Fav) Way to go Anna and Regenerated Soul, four favorite songs from me, and thanks for the nostalgic memories from my past in musical style. I truly pray that your ministry grows and grows in 2018 and you really touch a lot of people through your music and ministry. The five songs that we had back stories to are listed below:1. Troubled Times2. Born Again3. Light of Heaven4. Holy Sinners5. Live Your Life for HimI feel this testimonial will bless you, it’s a good account about how God can do amazing things in your life. If you have time to check this episode of the “Worship Cafe Inspirational Radio Show” please take the time investment, also share it with everyone you know, family, co-workers, friends, and pass it forward on your social media networks such as twitter, and facebook. You can contact Anna Lovern and Regenerated Soul at the links below. Please go by his website and say hello to AnnaFacebook Anna:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009101770779Facebook Regenerated Soulhttps://www.facebook.com/Regenerated-Soul-846741312053101/Reverbnation Regenerated Soulhttps://www.reverbnation.com/regeneratedsoul6God Bless You and have a beautiful dayKen TownshendHosts: Mary Phillips & Ken TownshendShow: Worship Cafe Inspirations Radio ShowRadio Network: WCIR – Worship Cafe Inspirations Radio Network

Hey Havana, ooh na-na (ay)Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na (ay, ay)He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-naAll of my heart is in Havana (ay)There's somethin' 'bout his manners (uh huh)Havana, ooh na-na (uh) He didn't walk up with that "how you doin'?" (uh)(When he came in the room)He said there's a lot of girls I can do with (uh)(But I can't without you)I'm doin' forever in a minute (hey)(That summer night in June)And papa says he got malo in him (uh)He got me feelin' like Ooh-ooh-ooh, I knew it when I met himI loved him when I left himGot me feelin' likeOoh-ooh-ooh, and then I had to tell himI had to go, oh na-na-na-na-na Havana, ooh na-na (ay, ay)Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na (ay, ay)He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na (uh huh)All of my heart is in Havana (ay)My heart is in Havana (ay)Havana, ooh na-na JefferyJust graduated, fresh on campus, mmFresh out East Atlanta with no manners, damnFresh out East AtlantaBump on her bumper like a traffic jamHey, I was quick to pay that girl like Uncle Sam (here you go, ay)Back it on me, shawty cravin' on meGet to diggin' on me (on me)She waited on me (then what?)Shawty cakin' on me, got the bacon on me (wait up)This is history in the makin' on me (on me)Point blank, close range, that BIf it cost a million, that's me (that's me)I was gettin' mula, man they feel me Havana, ooh na-na (ay, ay)Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na (oh, ay, ay)He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na (oh no)All of my heart is in Havana (ay)My heart is in Havana (ay)Havana, ooh na-na Ooh na-na, oh na-na-na (oo-ooh)Take me back, back, back likeOoh na-na, oh na-na-na (yeah, babe)Take me back, back, back likeOoh na-na, oh na-na-na (yea, yeah)Take me back, back, back likeOoh na-na, oh na-na-na (yea, babe)Take me back, back, back(Hey, hey)Ooh-ooh-oohOoh-ooh-oohTake me back to my Havana Havana, ooh na-naHalf of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na (oh, yeah)He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na (ay, ay)All of my heart is in HavanaMy heart is in Havana (ay)Havana, ooh na-na Uh huhOh na-na-na (oh na, yeah)Oh na-na-naOh na-na-naNo, no, no, take me backOh na-na-naHavana, ooh na-na

Now I would like to remind you that if you are enjoying the podcast, you can donate through Patreon for as little as one dollar a month. You donation will help to cover the expenses of hosting for the podcast.   Just Visit http://www.hareoftherabbit.com On this weeks episode, we cove the American Sable rabbit, the news, the word Admire and plant of the week: Lettuce, as well as another rabbit folk tale - Rabbit gets his split lip.   I would like to thank you for taking the time to listen to me today. American Sable Rabbit Information and History The American Sable is one of those little-known breeds that is actually very handsome and useful.   Sable rabbits were discovered in chinchilla rabbit litters separately in California and in England, and developed concurrently within their separate breeding lines on both sides of the world.  Recessive genes in the Chinchilla lines produced an entirely new colour, with a body shape that remained identical to the Chinchilla itself. The very first Sable rabbits are believed to have cropped up in the herd of Mr. David Irving, an Englishman who lived near Liverpool.   He had imported some Chinchilla rabbits from France in the mid-1910s.  The Chinchilla breed was itself still showing evidence of its newness in the various sports seen in the early litters. Shaded brown rabbits, as well as martin-patterned sports, could be found in the nestbox now and again.   The sepia-shaded bunnies in Mr. Irving’s nestboxes invariably landed in the stew pot, because he was focused on the Chinchilla color.  But there were other English breeders who were smitten by the cute-as-buttons sports.  They bred these brown rabbits together just to see what would happen.  What happened was, if the genetics were just right, they could produce more of these very attractive rabbits.   Although the color didn’t entirely breed true - it was never the only color in the nestbox - they could still standardize the type and medium sable hue of the rabbits.  Mr. Irving was instrumental in the spread of Sable rabbits, as they were eventually called, throughout Europe.   Now across the pond as they say, for the American Sables in the USA This American rabbit breed was developed independently from the Sable breed known in England in the early 1900’s.   In California in 1924, Mr. Otto Brock of San Gabriel, California, found the first shaded brown rabbits in the nestboxes of his ‘purebred’ Chinchilla rabbits. The rest of the story of American sable rabbits in California reads much as it did with the breeders in England. At first there were three different color variations among the Sables. There was a lighter brown, a medium brown, and one with tan markings. Of these three color phases, the light and medium browns were bred together to arrive a medium color, brown rabbit with darker points and the tan-patterned was developed into a separate breed called the Silver Sable Marten. With the exception of a few things, the American Sable is identical to the Siamese Sable and Sable Marten of England. The American Sable is slightly larger at an average of eight pounds of a senior buck and nine pounds for a senior doe. In England, the sizes run about two pounds smaller. The Siamese Sable is also shown in Light, Medium and Dark while in the United States, only the Medium color phase is recognized by the ARBA, the American Rabbit Breeders Association. In 1929, the American Sable Rabbit Society was formed. They named the new breed the American Sable, and called for medium-colored shading. The American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA) recognized the breed in 1931. Included were medium-shaded Sables, and the lighter Siamese Sables.  Tan-patterned (marten) sables were also occurring in the US, however instead of recognizing them under the umbrella of the American Sable, they were called Silver Sable Martens, and these were accepted as a new variety of Silver Marten rabbits. After the great start to a challenging breed, the sables did not fare so well, at least in the United States.  The breed never truly caught the fancy of the rabbit breeding community. Like so many breeds, the American Sable got off to a great start.  However, as more new breeds of rabbits were developed, the Sable fell by the wayside.   By 1976, numbers of the Siamese Sable variety bottomed out. The variety was eliminated. Every year the ARBA has a National Convention where thousands of rabbits are shown from all over the world. All of the recognized breeds are shown as well as breeds that are in the process of trying to be recognized as a breed. When only one American Sable was shown at the Convention, it was a wake-up call that the breed was in danger of disappearing. The lone exhibitor, Al Roerdanz, was determined that the breed was not going to die out. After searching the United States, he was able to obtain seven more American Sables. He then imported a trio of Sables from England to breed to the rabbits he already had. Because of the small gene pool, Roerdanz introduced several other breeds to his existing herd of Sables. He added Californians, Chinchillas, and Sable Silver Martens, among other breeds to bring back his breed. Adding the Californians and Chinchillas was not as strange as you might think. The Sable originated from the Chinchillas and so did the Californian breed. Each breed that was added in to the breed was added for a specific reason.     In 1982, numbers of Sables were so low that Mr. Al Roerdanz of Ohio and a few other breeders had to literally re-build the breed. Through the efforts of Al Roerdanz of Kingsville, Ohio, seven purebred American Sables were located and used to revive the breed and increase numbers of animals.  They also used British imports and the injection of new blood mainly via Sable Silver Martens, Sable Rex, Havanas, Californians, and Standard Chinchilla.I  n 1982 Mr. Roerdanz along with several American Sable fanciers formed the American Sable Rabbit Society, which included 13 charter members. That year the breed reached the required quota of animals shown to retain recognition of breed status in the Standard of Perfection, according to ARBA rules, thus saving the breed from extinction.  At the 1983 ARBA National Convention, breed numbers were sufficient to retain the American Sable rabbit breed in the Sable variety. The American Sable is still rare, however not listed as endangered The American Sable has regular commercial type, but is slightly smaller than other commercial breeds such as the Satin or Californian.   It has commercial body type and is suitable for 4-H meat pen project, if you’d like to try something different from the usual Cal’s and New Zealands.  The fur is a rollback.  The namesake feature of this breed is its lovely sable color.  The back of the rabbit is rich sepia brown, which lightens on the rabbit’s sides and darkens to nearly black on the nose, ears, feet, and tail.  This breed is not very popular, but not in imminent danger of extinction thanks to a community of breeders who call themselves “Sablers.” The American Sable rabbit has a commercial-sized body which weights anywhere from 8-10 lbs., with males usually weighing slightly less than the females. These rabbits have a rounded head with vertical, upright ears. The head is rounded, with ears that are held upright and the topline creates a long curve, from the bottom of the neck to the base of the tail. The American Sable rabbit enjoys gentle petting on its back and between its ears. The American Sable rabbit has soft, fine, dense coat that requires more grooming that the average short-haired rabbit, but less than long-haired rabbit breeds like Angoras. Because their coat is so thick, they will definitely shed more during moulting periods. Owners need to be prepared for regular brushings during these heavy shedding periods, especially if your American Sable is an indoor rabbit. Simply groom your rabbit with a slicker brush outdoors 1-2 times per week as necessary during shedding season, and once every two weeks during off-season times. The American Sable rabbit only comes in one color that is accepted by the ARBA. Their head, feet, ears, back and top of tail are a dark sepia color, while the rest of their coat fades to a lighter tan, like a Siamese cat. The Sable coloration is caused by a gene called “chinchilla light,” symbolized by cchl or cch1.  This gene is incompletely dominant over the two below it (Himalayan and REW.)  When a rabbit has two copies of cchl, it looks so dark brown as to be almost black.  This color is called seal.  A correctly colored sable has one copy of cchl and one copy of a lower C-series allele: Himalayan or REW.   Therefore, breeding two correctly colored sables can result in seal, Himalayan, or ruby-eyed white offspring.   The non-showable colors are useful to a breeding program, however, because breeding a seal to a himie or REW will result in 100% correct sables.  Some breeders have crossed Californians (Himalayan-colored breed) into their American Sables to improve type and add some genetic diversity.  As is the case with any crossbreeding project, you will find some people for and others strongly against this practice. American Sables have soft, fine, dense coat that requires more grooming that the average short-haired rabbit. The head, feet, ears, back, and top of the tail are a dark sepia, while the coat fades to a lighter tan over the rest of the body, similar to the coloring of a Siamese cat. The breed's eyes are usually dark with a ruby hue. The eyes are dark but because of a recessive albino gene, the pupils reflect a ruby reddish glow. Kits are born white, silver, or gray.   This extraordinary breed has brown eyes that will appear red when reflected by light. This rabbit carries an albino gene which causes this red glow and also why some kits are born white. Let’s take a closer peek on how the breeders achieved this kind of coloration for the sables. A gene that is called ‘chinchilla light’, which is symbolized by cchl or cch1, causes the coloration of American Sable. This gene, being incompletely dominant over the Himalayan and REW gene, which are below the chinchilla light, causes the darkish brown coloring of the rabbit. It’s so dark that it’s almost black already. This color that stands between dark brown and black is called seal. Ideally, an American Sable with a correct coloring has one copy of cchl and one of either the Himalayan and REW. This also means that for a successful breeding of two correctly colored American Sables, a breeder can achieve a seal, Himalayan or ruby-eyed white offspring A perfectly colored Sable is difficult to produce. Any blotchiness of shading –which can be easily caused by sunburn or molt — is a fault.  The eyes must possess a ruby glow to avoid disqualification on the show table.  A white toenail is also cause for disqualification. There are 4 color variations that possibly will be in an American Sable nest box. 1) Seal which has 2 copies of the c(chl) gene giving it a dark coloration - almost black color. 2) Sable (sometimes referred to as Siamese), this is the accepted show color. 3) Pointed white - Californian or Himi marked - has 2 copies of the ch gene or a ch gene and a c gene. 4) Albino (REW). Breeding a Seal to a Pointed White or an Albino will produce a litter of all show colored Sable. Some kits born white can turn to the gray color which usually occurs 3 days after birth. Those born with the silver-grayish coat are those used for showing. The fur is silky and fine but has coarser guard hairs. The Sable will change colors for many weeks after birth and will begin to molt at approximately 4 months of age. Breeders prefer to keep their Sables in cooler environments and shaded as the heat and sun can cause the sable coloring to lighten. The Standard of Perfection describes the gradations of shading without actually specifying the intensity of hue, other than the "rich sepia brown on the ears, face, back, legs, and upper side of the tail." Weights: Senior Bucks: 7-9 lb: 3.2 – 4.5kg Senior Does: 8-10 lb The UK’s national organization, the British Rabbit Council (BRC), lists their breeds as the Marten Sable and the Siamese Sable. Weights for both varieties: 5-7 lb (2.26 - 3.17 kg) In the UK, both Marten Sables and Siamese Sables come in Light, Medium and Dark shading, the main differences being "width of saddle, in tone and intensity of sepia colours." Judges are instructed to "award the appropriate number of points for shadings and penalise those exhibits which lack shadings, i.e. are self coloured" (BRC-Marten Sables). Care Requirements An American Sable’s diet is like any other rabbits in that it should consist mainly of hay (70 percent), while the rest should be a healthy mix of pellets, leafy greens, fruits, and vegetables. Limit the amount of fruits that are high in sugar. Make sure to stay clear of iceberg lettuce, as it contains too much water and too little fiber to count as a good meal. Fresh pellets should also be made available daily – choose a pellet high in fiber and avoid mixes that include other foods like corn, seeds, or dried fruit. Fresh foods are also an important part of your rabbit’s diet. Dark, leafy greens like kale, romaine lettuce, spring greens, and some spinach should make up approximately 75% of the fresh food given to your rabbit daily, with vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, bell pepper, and summer squash making up the other 25%. Fruits and starchy vegetables should be limited in the diet, but make great treats! Make sure that all fresh foods are washed thoroughly, and uneaten fresh foods should be removed at the end of the day. Fresh water should always be available, either from a sipper bottle or in a stable water bowl. Do not feed your rabbit yard clippings as grass is usually treated with fertilizer, insecticides, pesticides, and other chemicals that can harm your rabbit. Always research, and/or ask your veterinarian about your rabbit’s diet. When it comes to enclosures, this particular rabbit breed can live in either an indoor or outdoor enclosure, so long as they are not exposed to extreme weather temperatures or conditions. Outdoor enclosures need to be raised off the ground to protect them from predators such as racoons, coyotes, wolves, and should be made of wood or metal. A good rule is one square foot per pound of rabbit, so a nine pound rabbit will be comfortable in a hutch that’s 3ft x 3ft – double it if you have two bunnies. It should also be high enough for him to stand up in. The hutch should be placed in a sheltered area and it must be completely weatherproof. The top should be covered from the elements and depending on where you live, it may need to have 3/4 sides covered to protect them from extreme snow and allow air circulation. Indoor enclosures should be made of wire and have a metal or plastic bottom to allow bedding to be laid (wire bottoms are not comfortable for long periods of time and are taxing on your rabbit’s feet). The bedding needs to be spot-cleaned every day and completely replaced at the end of every week. Health issues? American Sables are energetic rabbits who will happily run round inside or out.  All rabbits are susceptible to developing overgrown teeth – the American Sable is no different. This problem is caused by a diet that lacks a proper balance of hay, which is used to slowly grind down teeth naturally. Overgrown teeth can grow into a rabbit’s jaw and face. In order to prevent this condition, make sure to check your rabbit’s mouth regularly for overgrown teeth and always make sure they have a proper diet consisting of mostly hay. Ears should also be checked periodically for ear mites, especially for rabbits who spend most of their time outside. Like most rabbit breeds, the Sable can suffer with a number of health conditions that any responsible owner should look out for and prevent if possible. No rabbit should be housed in quarters with a mesh floors unless they are provided with a resting board. The mesh can wear away the protective fur on the ends of the feet –the hocks – which will in turn expose the delicate skin underneath. This can become raw and broken and causes great discomfort and even infection. The rabbit must be monitored for symptoms of flystrike – particularly in the warmer months. He shouldn’t be allowed to become overweight and unable to groom himself as this will make him susceptible to flystrike. Temperament/Behavior The American Sable rabbit enjoys gentle petting on its back and between its ears.  In order for your rabbit’s personality to flourish, American Sables need to have plenty of time outside of their enclosures.   This attractive rabbit has an equally attractive personality: friendly, mellow, and calm.  American Sables are energetic rabbits who will happily run round inside or out, and once they’ve been tuckered out, will enjoy the company of their human.  They make great pets for singles, couples or families with children, and can live in apartments or homes with or without backyards.  They also can make wonderful companions for seniors.  Most Sable rabbits are placid and friendly (although it must me noted there can be aggressive animals in any breed) and make great pets. They seem to enjoy the company of other pets and will relish having a rabbit friend to lark about with. They also thoroughly enjoy the company of humans and will enjoy playtime immensely. The American Sable enjoys the company of other rabbits. It is generally docile, spending most of the day sleeping. Typically they enjoy the companionship of their owner, but on their own terms. When distressed, the American Sable will make a grunting noise or will, like many other breeds, thump its back foot on the ground in an attempt to scare whatever it is that is bothering them. Rabbits tend to be a little harder to litter train than other animals such as cats and dogs, but it is possible.  Unlike cats, rabbits may need to have a few litter boxes spread out across the house. Rabbits have unique and dynamic personalities and can form close, loving bonds with their owners. Many can be trained to use a litterbox, come when called, and may even enjoy learning tricks. Coupled with the fact that they’re quiet, require relatively little space, and are very low odor, it’s not hard to see why rabbits have become the third most popular pet in the United States and Great Britain. Rabbits May be a poor choice as a pet for young children. They may be soft and cute, but rabbits are easily stressed and frightened around loud noises and activity. Many rabbits do not enjoy being held or cuddled and may bite or kick to get away, and rabbits or the handler can easily be seriously injured in such a struggle. The American Sable rabbit is a meat rabbit breed. They have good body size and very suitable for commercial meat production. With proper care these small animals make excellent and adorable pets. The British Sable Rabbit Club was established in November, 1927, and the British Fur Rabbit Society accepted Sables in both Marten and Siamese varieties. The British Rabbit Council (BRC) is a British showing organization for rabbit breeders. Originally founded as The Beveren Club in 1918, its name first changed to British Fur Rabbit Society and finally to The British Rabbit Society. Today, the BRC among other things investigates rabbit diseases, maintains a catalog of rabbit breeds, and sets rules for about 1,000 rabbit shows annually in the UK. Owners of house rabbits are also encouraged to join the organization to learn how to care optimally for their pets.  The American Sable Rabbit Association was founded in 1929 and the breed was accepted by the American Rabbit Breeder’s Association (ARBA) two years later in 1931.  The American Sable is a rabbit breed recognized by the American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA).  This is a tricky one for ARBA royalty participants, who must remember that although a fairly large rabbit, it is actually a four-class breed.  From what I could tell, the Royalty contest is for youth to compete on multiple levels.   The darkest period in the breed’s history was in the early eighties, when it would have probably been dropped from the ARBA standard if not for the dedicated effort of an Ohio breeder, Al Roerdanz.  Ohio remains one of the strongholds of the American Sable today.  According to the American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA) report in 2005, there are 500 to 800 American Sables in the United States. The American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA) maintains the breed standard for all of the recognized rabbit and cavy breeds for it's international membership.  Recognized breeds are eligible for Registration and Grand Champion recognition. The AMERICAN RABBIT BREEDERS ASSOCIATION, INC. is an organization dedicated to the promotion, development, and improvement of the domestic rabbit and cavy.  With over 30,000 members throughout the United States, Canada, and abroad, its members range from the pet owner with one rabbit or cavy to the breeder or commercial rabbit raiser with several hundred animals.  Each aspect of the rabbit and cavy industry, whether it be for fancy, as a pet, or for commercial value, is encouraged by the organization. Once bred for its fur and meat, the American Sable has made a tremendous comeback over the last 30 years. This is due to determined breeders who refused to let this breed die out, so that future generations can still appreciate the American Sable not only in the show ring but as a loving companion. The American Sable is 1 of 16 breeds that are considered endangered in the United States.  While the American Sable is still around today, it is on the rare rabbit list at number 10. It is a strikingly beautiful rabbit and it would be a real loss to have this breed fade out. If you are interested in helping to save this beautiful breed, visit a rabbit show to learn more about them. http://rabbitbreeders.us/american-sable-rabbits http://www.petguide.com/breeds/rabbit/american-sable-rabbit/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sable_rabbit http://www.raising-rabbits.com/american-sable-rabbit.html http://www.pets4homes.co.uk/breeds/rabbits/sable/ https://rightpet.com/breed-species/small-exotic-mammal/rabbits/american-sable-rabbit https://mysmelly.com/content/small_animals/american-sable.htm http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/americansable.html http://mosaicrabbitry.weebly.com/american-sable.html http://knowledgebase.lookseek.com/American-Sable-Rabbit.html http://www.hotots-satins.com/as.html http://www.second-opinion-doc.com/the-american-sable-rabbit.html http://www.roysfarm.com/american-sable-rabbit/ http://www.second-opinion-doc.com/rabbit-breed-profile-american-sable.html http://www.adoptarabbit.com/breeds/american-sable/ How Rabbit Came by His Split Lip http://umaine.edu/folklife/publications/northeast-folklore-2/passamaquoddy-tales/#Rabbit Note: All of the following tales were found among the E. Tappan Adney Manuscripts in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. All of them were collected by Adney from Governor William Neptune of Pleasant Point Reservation, Maine, in the early 1940’s. Some of the manuscripts were in hurried pencil script, clearly Adney’s own field notes; others were in typescript but appear to be no more than typed-out field notes; still others had obviously been worked over. One Sunday Rabbit start cruisin’ around. By and by see wigwam. It was Kingfisher, and he said, “Come in.” They talk and talk; by and by dinner time. Kingfisher went up brook and dive down [and] ketch big fish. Rabbit say, “Nice dinner.” [That] afternoon, Rabbit say to Kingfisher, “Come see me.” One Sunday Kingfisher come up and find [Rabbit’s] wigwam. Rabbit say, “Come in.” They talked a while. By and by, [Rabbit get] all rigged. [8] A spruce tree lean out over stream. It pretty near dinner time and he walk up tree and, lookin down, he said he’d do same as Kingfisher. By and By Rabbit dove down [and] struck [a] rock and split his lip. Kingfisher heard him call for help. He nearly drown. That’s how Rabbit got split lip. This old Indian story. News! New Orleans Fire Department Captain Ross Hennessey will receive the House Rabbit Society's inaugural Amy Espie Hero Award Sunday (March 19) after he rescued a lop rabbit named Pierre from a house fire in New Orleans last November. Wilborn P. Nobles III, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune New Orleans Fire Department Captain Ross Hennessey was amazed when a lop rabbit named Pierre regained consciousness moments after he rescued the bunny from an Uptown house fire last year. The firefighter said Pierre survived because he was on the floor, and "the difference between the floor and five feet above the floor might be 300 degrees." Hennessey's actions will be honored Sunday (March 19) as the House Rabbit Society plans to give Hennessey its first-ever Amy Espie Hero Award. The nonprofit's award commemorates those who do something extraordinary to help rabbits. The organization's executive director, Anne Martin, said Wednesday that the captain's actions exemplified their award. The incident occurred on Nov. 28, 2016. Neighbors noticed a fire at the home on Calhoun Street, Hennessey said Thursday. Authorities arrived to find the top half of the house ablaze, and the neighbors told firefighters a rabbit was inside. Firefighters extinguished the flames and went through the house before they a saw cage in the corner. He went over to the rabbit and gave him a nudge when the animal suddenly moved. That's when Hennessey said "Damn, I think this rabbit's still alive." The SPCA gave the department an animal resuscitation kit several years ago that authorities had yet to use, Hennessey said. He decided to put it to use on Pierre after he brought the rabbit outside. Hennessey said Pierre "popped back up" moments after the kit delivered oxygen to the rabbit. A Tulane student who owned the rabbit managed to escape earlier and was not on scene when Pierre was rescued, he said. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/03/la_fire_captain_rescues_bunny.html FARMINGTON — The city of Farmington is considering allowing residents to keep up to six chickens or rabbits on residential property. The City Council will discuss changing the code to allow chickens or rabbits during its 6 p.m. March 28 meeting at 800 Municipal Drive in Farmington. City Planner Cindy Lopez explained the number of animals was calculated using the current codes for dogs and cats, and the size of the smallest residential lots in Farmington. She said the code allows for four dogs or four cats or a combination of cats and dogs adding up to four. Currently, any city resident who wants to keep chickens or rabbits has to apply for a special-use permit. The city charges an $80 fee to process those permits and requires the applicant to go to a title company to acquire a list of nearby properties so the city can ask the neighbors for comments. That can cost residents hundreds of dollars, Lopez said during a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Thursday. Many people who have applied for the special-use permits already have acquired chickens or rabbits without realizing it is against code. http://www.daily-times.com/story/news/local/farmington/2017/03/17/city-may-let-residents-keep-chickens-rabbits/99276864/ County ends slaughter ban in code update By Samantha Kimmey 03/16/2017 The Board of Supervisors unanimously lifted a 14-year ban on commercial animal slaughter and expanded size limits for second units on residential properties in Marin. The changes to the development code were among a suite of others  approved on Tuesday. Much of the three-hour hearing that preceded the supervisors’ vote, which followed a series of planning commission workshops and a planning commission hearing, was consumed by public comment on the animal slaughter proposal. Numerous people concerned about animal rights, the environment and property values pled with supervisors to keep the prohibition on commercial slaughter, which has been in place since 2003. But ranchers and agriculture advocates also came out to support the change, arguing that local slaughter is both more humane and in line with consumer demand that all elements of food production be as local as possible. Supervisors largely approved the planning commission versions of the code updates, which will not affect the coastal zone at this time. But they made a few notable amendments. For instance, they expanded allowable rabbit slaughter from only mobile facilities to both mobile and small-scale facilities, despite public outcry from a group called SaveABunny, which stressed that rabbits are companions and pets. A Mill Valley real estate agent with Sotheby’s International Realty, Cindy Shelton, said that lifting the ban would result in a “real estate nightmare” because it would have to be disclosed to buyers. Rabbit advocates also spoke, urging supervisors to prohibit their slaughter under the logic that they are considered companions and pets. The executive director of SaveABunny, Marcy Schaaf, expressed frustration that her group was “lumped” with other activists, like vegans. Numerous ranchers and agriculture advocates stressed the importance of allowing commercial slaughter. “It’s really important to have that option on the table,” said Loren Poncia, who ranches in Tomales. Kelli Dunaj, who has run a ranch in Marshall since 2013, said it was “unfair and hypocritical” to bring up the “bogeyman like property values” to try to stop the proposal. Landscapes, she went on, are “not just eye candy,” but working agricultural fields. Rebecca Burgess, executive director of a group of farmers and artisans called Fibershed, said her group’s mission of sourcing local fiber like wool also means supporting growing animals like sheep for meat. “To develop a sustainable fiber system, we need a sustaining food system,” she said. When public comment ended and the meeting turned back over to supervisors, some of their amendments, like allowing both accessory dwelling units and junior units, were easily agreed on. But they seemed on the fence about how to handle rabbit slaughter. Rabbit advocates had argued that there was little demand for rabbit meat, pointing to Whole Foods, which stopped selling it in early 2016. But when the board asked David Lewis of the University of California Cooperative Extension, he estimated that Marin had between five to 10 rabbit meat producers and that “demand is higher” than supply. Supervisor Damon Connelly indicated that he would support banning rabbit slaughter. Supervisor Katie Rice, who said she did not eat rabbit meat, said she believed that supporting agriculture meant supporting a “farm to table” system. She also said that if supervisors truly believe that slaughter is more humane when done more locally, it seemed improper to force rabbit meat producers to send their animals for slaughter elsewhere. https://www.ptreyeslight.com/article/county-ends-slaughter-ban-code-update The European Parliament is urging the European Commission to adopt measures that would make life better for more than 340 million rabbits raised for food every year in Europe. The parliament voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to recommend outlawing battery cages for rabbits — tiny enclosures with wire-mesh floors no bigger than ordinary letter-size pieces of paper. Animal welfare groups say rabbits are extremely sensitive animals who suffer terribly in such small spaces, with such problems as open, infected wounds, respiratory disease and even cannibalism as the frustrated animals turn against one another. Humane regulations already exist for pigs, cattle and chickens raised for food, but not rabbits. European Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourova said such standards for rabbits should not be an EU-wide concern but one for individual states. http://www.voanews.com/a/european-parliament-calls-humane-treatment-rabbits-raised-food/3766462.html INFORMATION is being sought after the theft of three pet rabbits in Tadley. On March 12, between 11am-2pm, thieves entered the front garden of the property in Swains Close and stole three rabbits from their hutches. One of the rabbits is described as large, and beige in colour. The other is a motley grey coloured lion head rabbit and the last one is also a lion head rabbit, which is descried as black in colour with very long hair. If you have seen the rabbits, or have any information, then you can get in contact with the police on 101 with the reference number 44170093121. http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/15151928.Information_appeal_after_rabbits_stolen_in_Tadley/ Japan loves its different types of bread. Melon bread, pork buns, and several other types of the delicious baked goods are well-loved in the country, as is “usagi pan,” or rabbit bread. Bakers have long created rabbit-shaped bread for some time, but there’s a new version of the rabbit-related bread in town. It can be found at a Tokyo bakery, and it’s an entire loaf that’s shaped like a bunny. That means when you slice it into individual pieces of bread; you get the perfect bunny shaped bread for yummy sandwiches! Just make sure there’s a lot of lettuce on it, for bunnies! The bakery itself is named Lepus as a reference to the rabbit constellation, which is a clever take. The bakery’s rabbit bread loaves are absolutely adorable, and practically begging you to make some particularly adorable creations with. The bakery creates about 24-32 bunny loaves each day, but now Bakery Usagi-za Lepus is seeing a surge in customers wanting the bunny loaves. That means the bakery is probably working overtime to make sure you all get the bunny bread you want and deserve! https://www.geek.com/culture/this-bunny-shaped-bread-in-japan-looks-delicious-and-cute-1692050/  A decades-old Main Line tree stump carved into a family of rabbits has been taken down. But don't worry,  a new improved version will take its place in about a month or so. Last week, crews removed the tree that sat on the former Haas mansion property at County Line at Spring Mill roads in Villanova, after it was found to be deteriorating, Main Line Media News reported. The local landmark, carved by sculptor Marty Long, was known for its festive seasonal decorations. The seven carved bunnies, which represented the members of the Haas family, were often decked out in sporty sunglasses or holding Easter baskets with colorful eggs. The Haas surname derives from the Dutch or German word for hare, according to Ancestry.com. After the Haas parents died, the family donated the 42-acre property to the Natural Lands Trust. The grounds are being converted to public open space and are expected to be completed in about a year, the paper reported. Natural Lands Trust, which now owns the Stoneleigh estate property where the rabbits stood, have commissioned Long to make a new sculpture, the paper reported. The wooden rabbits have been removed and inspected, and if possible the group plans to put some of them on display inside the Stoneleigh mansion, Kirsten Werner, director of communications with the Natural Lands Trust, told the paper. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/Villanova-bunny-tree-removed-Haas-mansion-Stoneleigh.html A California couple who hold the Guinness world record for most bunny-related items now have so much rabbit stuff, they're packing up their floppy-hoppy collection and moving to to a bigger house. Candace Frazee and her husband Steve Lubanski run The Bunny Museum out of their home in Pasadena, Calif., where they house more than 33,000 rabbit-related knick-knacks, as well as six actual rabbits and some cats. Now the self-described "hoppiest place on Earth" is moving to a bigger location in nearby Altadena, set to open with a "grand hoppenin'" on March 20. http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.4011751/bunny-museum-owners-have-so-much-stuff-they-re-hopping-to-a-bigger-space-1.4011761 A series of rabbit holes in an England farmer's field led to a mysterious underground cave, believed to be centuries old. Historic England described the Caynton Caves in Shropshire as a "grotto" that likely dated back to the late 18th or early 19th century and included "neo-Norman decoration to bays between columns, one neo-Norman doorway with beak-heads and roll moulding; decorative quatrefoils and designs abound." http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2017/03/09/Rabbit-hole-in-England-farmers-field-leads-to-700-year-old-caves/6411489071679/  You may have heard of cat yoga or dog yoga, but now a Vancouver university is hosting bunny yoga.  Rabbits were recently added to some yoga classes at Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus. The idea was to help the participants relax and raise money for the Small Animal Rescue Society of B.C. The bunnies roamed free on the yoga mats as participants went through poses during hour-long classes. Participants were allowed to pet or hold the bunnies during the class. The yoga bunnies are available for adoption. http://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/downward-rabbit-bunny-yoga-lands-at-b-c-campus-1.3304440