Podcasts about Homebase

Nobody seems to know for certain who created the first cyberpunk story, but Katsuhiro Otomo has as strong a claim as anyone. In episode 365, join Luke Elliott & James Bailey as they start their journey into Neo-Tokyo for possibly the most legendary manga of all time, learn the history of manga making into western markets, find a surprising link to "Stranger Things", and admire the sheer technical skill of a master. Join them in the coming weeks as they read volumes 2 & 3, then tackle the renowned anime adaptation! Pickup Akira or any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Intro/Outro Music "Rebels" by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-wKcIkElIc&t=522s Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

Edgar Wright's adaptation of a Stephen King book and 80s Arnold Action flick seemed like a perfect match, so why didn't this movie rise to the level of his very best? In episode 364, join Luke Elliott & James Bailey as they unpack what went right and what went wrong in the jump from page to screen. Topics include a rigid plot skeleton, a surprise cameo, some performances that divided our opinions, and finally cast votes on which they ultimately liked better: the book or the movie. They finish by judging both mediums to the recently covered Bachman-story counterparts with THE LONG WALK. Pickup The Running Man or any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm)+ Home Base: inktofilm.com Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

How to Build a Winning Strategy for Your B2B Brand In a fast-paced business environment, marketers, agencies, and consultants must proactively help clients differentiate their brands in the marketplace. One way of doing this is by analyzing the strategy, messaging, and brand positioning, both for their own brands and key competitors. So how can teams conduct this kind of brand research and competitive analysis in a way that's insightful, efficient, and actionable for planning the next steps? Tune in as the B2B Marketers on Mission Podcast presents the Marketing DEMO Lab Series, where we sit down with Clay Ostrom (Founder, Map & Fire) and his SmokeLadder platform designed for brand research, messaging and positioning analysis, and competitive benchmarking. In this episode, Clay explained the platform's origins and features, emphasizing its role in analyzing brand positioning, core messaging, and competitive landscapes. He also stressed the importance of clear, consistent brand positioning and messaging, and how standardized make it easier to compare brands across multiple business values. Clay also highlighted the value of objective, data-driven analysis to identify brand strengths, weaknesses, and gaps, and how tools like SmokeLadder can save significant time in gathering insights to build trust with clients. He provided practical steps for generating, refining, and exporting brand messaging and analysis for internal or client-facing use. Finally, Clay also discussed how action items and recommendations generated from analysis can immediately support smart brand strategy decisions and expedite trust-building with clients. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4_o1PzF1Kk Topics discussed in episode: [1:31] The purpose behind building SmokeLadder and why it matters for B2B teams [12:00] A walkthrough of the SmokeLadder platform and how it works [14:51] SmokeLadder's core features [17:48] How positioning scores and category rankings are calculated [35:36] How differentiation and competitors are analyzed inside SmokeLadder [44:07] How SmokeLadder builds messaging and generates targeted personas [50:24] The key benefits and unique capabilities that set SmokeLadder apart Companies and links: Clay Ostrom Map & Fire SmokeLadder Transcript Christian Klepp  00:00 In an increasingly competitive B2B landscape, marketers, agencies and consultants, need to proactively find ways to help their clients stand out amidst the digital noise. One way of doing this is by analyzing the strategy, messaging and positioning of their own brands and those of their competitors. So how can they do this in a way that’s insightful, efficient and effective? Welcome to this first episode of the B2B Marketers in the Mission podcast Demo Lab Series, and I’m your host, Christian Klepp. Today, I’ll be talking to Clay Ostrom about this topic. He’s the owner and founder of the branding agency Map and Fire, and the creator of the platform Smoke Ladder that we’ll be talking about today. So let’s dive in. Christian Klepp  00:42 All right, and I’m gonna say Clay Ostrom. Welcome to this first episode of the Demo Lab Series. Clay Ostrom  00:50 I am super excited and very honored to be the first guest on this new series. It’s awesome. Christian Klepp  00:56 We are honored to have you here. And you know, let’s sit tight, or batten down the hatches and buckle up, and whatever other analogy you want to throw in there, because we are going to unpack a lot of interesting features and discuss interesting topics around the platform that you’ve built. And I think a good place to start, perhaps Clay before we start doing a walk through of the platform is, but let’s start at the very beginning. What motivated you to create this platform called Smoke Ladder. Clay Ostrom  01:31 So we should go all the way back to my childhood. I always dreamed of, you know, working on brand and positioning. You know, that was something I’ve always thought of since the early days, but no, but I do. I own an agency called Map and Fire, so I’ve been doing this kind of work for over 10 years now, and have worked with lots and lots of different kinds of clients, and over that time, developed different frameworks and a point of view about how to do this kind of work, and when the AI revolution kind of hit us all, it just really struck me that this was an opportunity to take a lot of that thinking and a lot of that, you know, again, my perspective on how to do this work and productize that and turn it into something that could be used by people when we’re not engaged with them, in some kind of service offering. So, so that was kind of the kernel of it. I actually have a background in computer science and product. So it was sort of this natural Venn diagram intersection of I can do some product stuff, I can do brand strategy stuff. So let’s put it together and build something. Christian Klepp  02:46 And the rest, as they say, is history. Clay Ostrom  02:49 The rest, as they say, is a lot of nights and weekends and endless hours slaving away at trying to build something useful. Christian Klepp  02:58 Sure, sure, that certainly is part of it, too. Clay Ostrom  03:01 Yeah. Christian Klepp  03:02 Let’s not keep the audience in suspense for too long here, right? Like, let’s start with the walk through. And before you share your screen, maybe I’ll set this up a little bit, right? Because you, as you said, like, you know, you’ve built this platform. It’s called Smoke Ladder, which I thought was a really clever name. It’s, you like to describe it as, like, your favorite SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tool, but for brand research and analysis. So I would say, like, walk us through how somebody would use this platform, like, whether they be a marketer that’s already been like in the industry for years, or is starting out, or somebody working at a brand or marketing agency, and how does the platform address these challenges or questions that people have regarding brand strategy, analysis and research? Clay Ostrom  03:49 Yeah, yeah. I use that analogy of the SEO thing, just because, especially early on, I was trying to figure out the best way to describe it to someone who hasn’t seen it before. I feel like it’s a, I’m not going to fall into the trap of saying, this is the only product like this, but it has its own unique twists with what it can do. And I felt like SEO tools are something everybody has touched at one point or another. So I was using this analogy of, it’s like the s, you know, Semrush of positioning and messaging or Ahrefs, depending on your if you’re a Coke or Pepsi person. But I always felt like that was just a quick way to give a little idea of the fact that it’s both about analyzing your own brand, but it’s also about competitive analysis and being able to see what’s going on in the market or in your landscape, and looking specifically at what your competitors are doing and what their strengths and weaknesses are. So does that resonate with you in terms of, like, a shorthand way, I will say, I don’t. I don’t say that. It’s super explicitly on the website, but it’s been in conversation. Christian Klepp  05:02 No, absolutely, absolutely, that resonated with me. The only part that didn’t resonate with me is that I’m neither a coke or a Pepsi person. I’m more of a ginger ale type of guy. I digress. But yeah, let’s what don’t you share your screen, and let’s walk through this, right? Like, okay, if a marketing person were like, use the platform to do some research on, perhaps that marketers, like own company and the competitors as well, right? Like, what would they do? Clay Ostrom  05:32 Yeah, so that’s, that is, like you were saying, there’s, sort of, I guess, a few different personas of people who would potentially use this. And initially I was thinking a little more about both in house, people who, you know, someone who’s working on a specific brand, digging really deep on their own brand, whether they’re, you know, the marketing lead or whatever, maybe they’re the founder, and then this other role of agency owners, or people who work at an agency where they are constantly having to look at new brands, new categories, and quickly get up to speed on what those brands are doing and what’s the competitive space look like, you know, for that brand. And that’s something that, if you work at an agency, which obviously we both have our own agencies, we do this stuff weekly. I mean, every time a new lead comes in, we have to quickly get up to speed and understand something about what they do. And one of the big gaps that I found, and I’d be curious to kind of hear your thoughts on this, but I’ve had a lot of conversations with other agency owners, and I think one of the biggest gaps is often that brands are just not always that great at explaining their own brand or positioning or differentiation to you, and sometimes they have some documentation around it, but a lot of times they don’t. A lot of it’s word of mouth, and that makes it really hard to do work for them. If whatever you’re doing for them, whether that’s maybe you are working on SEO or maybe you’re working on paid ads or social or content, you have to know what the brand is doing and kind of what they’re again, what their strengths and weaknesses are, so that you can talk about that. I mean, do you come across that a lot in your work? Christian Klepp  07:33 How do I say this without offending anybody? I find, I mean jokes aside, I find, more often than not, in the especially in the B2B space, which is an area that I operate in, I find 888 point five times out of 10. We are dealing with companies that have a they, have a very rude, rudimentary, like, framework of something that remotely resembles some form of branding. And I know that was a very long winded answer, but it’s kind of sort of there, but not really, if you know what I mean. Clay Ostrom  08:17 Yeah. Christian Klepp  08:17 And there have been other extreme cases where they’ve got the logo and the website, and that’s as far as their branding goals. And I would say that had they had all these, this discipline, like branding system and structure in place, then people like maybe people like you and I will be out on a job, right and it’s something, and I’m sure you’ve come across this, and we’ll probably dig into this later, but like you, it’s something I’ve come across several times, especially in the B2B space, where branding is not taken seriously until it becomes serious. I know that sounds super ironic, right, but, and it’s to the point of this platform, right, which we’re going to dig into in a second, but it’s, it’s things, for instance, positioning right, like, are you? Are you, in fact, strategically positioned against competitors? Is your messaging resonating with, I would imagine, especially in the B2B context, with the multiple group target groups that you have, or that your company is, is going after? Right? Is that resonating, or is this all like something that I call the internal high five? You’ve this has all been developed to please internal stakeholders and and then you take it to market, and it just does not, it just does not resonate with the target audience at all. Right? So there’s such a complex plethora of challenges here, right? That people like yourself and like you and I are constantly dealing with, and I think that’s also part of the reason why I would say a platform like this is important, because it helps to not just aggregate data. I mean, certainly it does that too, but it helps. To put things properly, like into perspective at speed. I think that might be, that might be something that you would have talked about later, but it does this at speed, because I think, from my own experience, one of the factors in our world that sometimes works against us is time, right? Clay Ostrom  10:19 No, I totally agree, yeah, and, you know, we’re lucky, I guess would be the word that we are often hired to work on a company strategy with them and help them clarify these things. Christian Klepp  10:33 Absolutely. Clay Ostrom  10:34 There are a million other flavors of agencies out there who are being hired to execute on work for a brand, and not necessarily being brought in to redefine, you know what the brand, you know they’re positioning and their messaging and some of these fundamental things, so they’re kind of stuck with whatever they get. And like you said, a lot of times it’s not much. It might be a logo and a roughly put together website, and maybe not a whole lot else. So, yeah, but I think your other point about speed is that was a huge part of this. I think the market is only accelerating right now, because it’s becoming so much easier to start up new companies and new brands and new products. And now we’ve got vibe coding, so you can technically build a product in a day, maybe launch it the next day, start marketing it, you know, by the weekend. And all of this is creating noise and competition, and it’s all stuff that we have to deal with as marketers. We have to understand the landscape. We’ve got to quickly be able to analyze all these different brands, see where the strengths and weaknesses are and all that stuff. So… Christian Klepp  11:46 Absolutely. Clay Ostrom  11:46 But, yeah, that, I think that the speed piece is a huge part of this for sure. Christian Klepp  11:51 Yeah. So, so we’re okay, so we’re on the I guess this, this will probably be the homepage. So just walk us through what, what a marketing person would do if they want to use this platform, yeah? Clay Ostrom  12:00 So the very first thing you do when you come in, and this was when I initially conceived of this product, one of the things that I really wanted was the ability to have very quick feedback, be able to get analysis for whatever brand you’re looking at, you know, right away to be able to get some kind of, you know, insight or analysis done. So the first thing you can do, and you can do this literally, from the homepage of the website, you can enter in a URL for a brand, come into the product, even before you’ve created an account, you can come in and you can do an initial analysis, so you can put in whatever URL you’re looking at, could be yours, could be a competitor, and run that initial analysis. What we’re looking at here, this is, if you do create an account, this is, this becomes your, as we say, like Home Base, where you can save brands that you’re looking at. You can see your history, all that good stuff. And it just gives you some quick bookmarks so that you can kind of flip back and forth between, maybe it’s your brand, maybe it’s some of the competitors you’re looking at and then it gives you just some quick, kind of high level directional info. And I kind of break it up into these different buckets. Clay Ostrom  13:23 And again, I’d love to kind of hear if this is sort of how you think about it, too. But there’s sort of these different phases when you’re working on a brand. And again, this is sort of from an agency perspective, but you first got the sort of the research and the pitch piece. So this is before maybe you’re even working with them. You’re trying to get an understanding of what they do. Then we have discovery and onboarding, where we’re digging in a little bit deeper. We’re trying to really put together, what does the brand stand for, what are their strengths and weaknesses? And then we have the deeper dive, the strategy and differentiation. And this is where we’re really going in and getting more granular with the specific value points that they offer, doing some of that messaging analysis, finding, finding some of the gaps of the things that they’re talking about or not talking about, and going in deeper. So it kind of break it up into these buckets, based on my experience of how we engage with clients. Does that? Does that make sense to you, like, does that? Christian Klepp  14:28 It does make sense, I think. But what could be helpful for the audience is because this, this almost looks like it’s a pre cooked meal. All right, so what do we do we try another I mean, I think you use Slack for the analysis. Why don’t we use another brand, and then just pop it into that analysis field, and then see what it comes out with. Clay Ostrom  14:51 So the nice thing about this is, if you are looking at a brand that’s been analyzed, you’re going to get the data up really quickly. It’ll be basically pop up instantly. But you can analyze a brand from scratch as well. Just takes about a minute or so, basically, to kind of do some of the analysis. So for the sake of a demo, it’s a little easier just to kind of look at something that we’ve got in there. But if it’s a brand that you know, maybe you’re looking at a competitor for one of your brands, you know, there’s a good chance, because we’ve got about 6000 brands that we’ve analyzed in here, that there’s a good chance there’ll be some info on them. But so this is pipe drive. So whoever’s not familiar Pipedrive is, you know, it’s a CRM  (Customer Relationship Management), it’s, it’s basically, you know, it’s a lighter version of a HubSpot or Salesforce basically track deals and opportunities for business, but this so I flipped over. I don’t know if it was clear there, but I flipped over to this brand brief tab. And this is where we we get, essentially, a high level view of some key points about the brand and and I think about this as this would be something that you would potentially share with a client if you were, you know, working with them and you wanted to review the brand with them and make sure that your analysis is on point, but you’ll see it’s kind of giving you some positioning scores, where you rank from a category perspective, message clarity, and then we’ve got things like a quick overview, positioning summary, who their target persona is, in this case, sales manager, sales operation lead, and some different value points. And then it starts to get a little more granular. We get into like key competitors, Challenger brands. We do a little SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, and then maybe one of the more important parts is some of these action items. So what do we do with this? Yeah, and obviously, these are, these are starting points. This is not, it’s not going to come in and, you know, instantly be able to tell you strategically, exactly what to do, but it’s going to give you some ideas of based on the things we’ve seen. Here are some reasonable points that you might want to be looking at to, you know, improve the brand. Make it make it stronger. Christian Klepp  17:13 Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, this is all great clay, but like, I think, for the benefit of the audience, can we scroll back up, please. And let’s just walk through these one by one, because I think it’s important for the audience/potential future users,/ customers of Smoke Ladder, right? To understand, to understand this analysis in greater depth, and also, like, specifically, like, let’s start with a positioning score right, like, out of 100 like, what is this? What is this based on? And how was this analyzed? Let’s start with that. Clay Ostrom  17:48 Yeah, and this is where the platform really started. And I’m going to actually jump over to the positioning tab, because this will give us the all the detail around this particular feature. But this is, this was where I began the product this. I kind of think of this as being, in many ways, sort of the heart and soul of it. And when I mentioned earlier about this being based on our own work and frameworks and how we approach this, this is very much the case with this. This is, you know, the approach we use with the product is exactly how we work with clients when we’re evaluating their positioning. And it’s, it’s basically, it’s built off a series of scores. And what we have here are 24 different points of business value, which, if we zoom in just a little bit down here, we can see things like reducing risk, vision, lowering cost, variety, expertise, stability, etc. So there’s 24 of these that we look at, and it’s meant to be a way that we can look across different brands and compare and contrast them. So it’s creating, like, a consistent way of looking at brands, even if they’re not in the same category, or, you know, have slightly different operating models, etc. But what we do is we go in and we score every brand on each of these 24 points. And if we scroll down here a little bit, we can see the point of value, the exact score they got, the category average, so how it compares against, you know, all the other brands we’ve analyzed, and then a little bit of qualitative information about why they got the score. Christian Klepp  19:27 Sorry, Clay, Can I just jump in for a second so these, these attributes, or these key values that you had in the graph at the top right, like, are these consistent throughout regardless of what brand is being analyzed, or the least change. Clay Ostrom  19:42 It’s consistent. Christian Klepp  19:43 Consistent? Clay Ostrom  19:44 Yeah, and that was one of the sort of strategic decisions we had to make with the product. Was, you know, there’s a, maybe another version of this, where you do different points depending on maybe the category, or, you know, things like that. But I wanted to do it consistent because, again, it allows us to look at every brand through the same lens. It doesn’t mean that every brand you know there are certain points of value that just aren’t maybe relevant for a particular brand, and that’s fine, they just won’t score as highly in those but at least it gives us a consistent way to look at so when you’re looking at 10 different competitors, you know you’ve got a consistent way to look at them together,. Christian Klepp  20:26 Right, right, right. Okay, okay, all right, thanks for that. Now let’s go down to the next section there, where you’ve got, like this table with like four different columns here. So you mentioned that these are being scored against other brands in their category. Like, can you share it with the audience? Like, how many other brands are being analyzed here? Clay Ostrom  20:51 Yeah, well, it depends on the category. So again, we’ve got six, you know, heading towards 7000 brands that we’ve analyzed collectively. Each category varies a little bit, but, you know, some categories, we have more brands than others. But what this allows us to do is, again, to quickly look at this and say, okay, for pipe drive, a big focus for pipe drive is organization, simplification. You know, one of their big value props is we’re an easier tool to use than Salesforce or HubSpot. You can get up to speed really quickly. You don’t have all the setup and configurations and all that kind of stuff. So this is showing us that, yes, like their messaging, their content, their brand, does, in fact, do a good job of making it clear that simplicity is a big part of pipe drive’s message. And they do that by talking about it a lot in their messaging, having case studies, having testimonials, all these things that support it. And that’s how we come up with these scores. Is by saying, like the brand emphasizes these points well, they talk about it clearly, and that’s what we base it on. Christian Klepp  22:04 Okay, okay. Clay Ostrom  22:06 But as you come, I was just gonna say as you come down here, you can see, so the green basically means that they score well above average for that particular point. Yellow is, you know, kind of right around average, or maybe slightly above, and then red means that they’re below average for that particular point. So for example, like variety of tools, they don’t emphasize that as much with pipe drive, maybe compared to, again, like a Salesforce or a HubSpot that has a gazillion tools, pipe drive, that’s not a big focus for them. So they don’t score as highly there, but you can kind of just get a quick view of, okay, here are the things that they’re really strong with, and here are the things that maybe they’re, you know, kind of weak or below average. Christian Klepp  22:58 Yeah, yeah. Well, that’s certainly interesting, because I, you know, I’ve, I’ve used the, I’ve used the platform for analyzing some of my clients, competitor brands. And, you know, when I’m looking at this, like analysis with the scoring, with the scoring sheet, it, I think it will also be interesting perhaps in future, because you’ve got a very detailed breakdown of, okay, the factors and how they’re scored, and what the brand value analysis is also, because, again, in the interest of speed and time, it’d be great if the platform can also churn out maybe a one to two sentence like, summary of what is this data telling us, right? Because I’m thinking back to my early days as a product manager, and we would spend hours, like back then on Excel spreadsheets. I’m dating myself a little bit here, but um, and coming up with this analysis and charts, but presenting that to senior management, all they wanted to know was the one to two sentence summary of like, come on. What are you telling me with all these charts, like, what is the data telling you that we need to know? Right? Clay Ostrom  24:07 I know it’s so funny. We again, as strategists and researchers, we love to nerd out about the granular details, but you’re right. When you’re talking to a leader at a business, it does come down to like, okay, great. What do we do? And so, and I flipped back over to slacks. I knew I had already generated this but, but we’re still in the positioning section here, but we have this get insights feature. So basically it will look at all those scores and give you kind of, I think, similar to what you’re describing. Like, here’s three takeaways from what we’re seeing. Okay, okay, great, yeah, so we don’t want to leave you totally on your own to have to figure it all out. We’ll give you, give you a little helping hand. Christian Klepp  24:53 Yeah. You don’t want to be like in those western movies, you’re on your own kid. Clay Ostrom  24:59 Yeah. We try not to strand you again. There’s a lot of data here. I think that’s one of the strengths and and challenges with the platform, is that we try to give you a lot of data. And for some people, you may not want to have to sift through all of it. You might want just sort of give me the three points here. Christian Klepp  25:19 Absolutely, absolutely. And at the very least they can start pointing you in the right direction, and then you could be, you could then, like, through your own initiative, and perhaps dig a little bit deeper and perhaps find some other insights that may be, may be relevant, right? Clay Ostrom  25:35 Totally. Christian Klepp  25:36 Hey, it’s Christian Klepp here. We’ll get back to the episode in a second. But first, I’d like to tell you about a new series that we’re launching on our show. As the B2B landscape evolves, marketers need to adapt and leverage the latest marketing tools and software to become more efficient. Enter B2B Marketers on a Mission Marketing Demo Lab where experts discuss the latest tools and software that empower you to become a better B2B marketer. Tune in as we chat with product experts. Provide unbiased product reviews, give advice and deliver insights into real world applications and actionable tips on tools and technologies for B2B marketing. Subscribe to the Marketing Demo Lab, YouTube channel and B2B Marketers on a Mission, on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Christian Klepp  26:21 All right. Now, back to the show, if we can, if we could jump back, sorry, to the, I think it was the brand brief, right? Like, where we where we started out, and I said, let’s, let’s dig deeper. Okay, so then, then we have, okay, so we talked about positioning score. Now we’re moving on to category rank and message clarity score. What does that look like? Clay Ostrom  26:41 Yeah. So the category rank is, it’s literally just looking at the positioning score that you’ve gotten for the brand and then telling you within this category, where do you sort of fall in the ranking, essentially, or, like, you know, how do we, you know, for comparing the score against all the competitors, where do you fall? So you can see, with Slack, they’re right in the middle. And it’s interesting, because with a product like Slack, even though we all now know what slack is and what it does and everything. Christian Klepp  27:18 Yeah. Clay Ostrom  27:19 The actual messaging and content that they have now, I think maybe doesn’t do as good of a job as it maybe did once upon a time, and it’s gotten as products grow and brands grow, they tend to get more vague, a little more broad with what they talk about, and that kind of leads to softer positioning. So that’s sort of what we’re seeing reflected here. And then the third score is the message clarity score, which we can jump into, like, a whole different piece. Christian Klepp  27:48 Four on a tennis not a very high score, right? Clay Ostrom  27:52 Yeah. And again, I think it’s a product, of, we can kind of jump into that section. Christian Klepp  27:57 Yeah, let’s do that, yeah. Clay Ostrom  27:59 But it’s, again, a product, I think of Slack being now a very mature product that is has gotten sort of a little vague, maybe a little broader, with their messaging. But the message clarity score, we basically have kind of two parts to this on the left hand side are some insights that we gather based on the messaging. So what’s your category, quick synopsis of the product. But then we also do some things, like… Christian Klepp  28:33 Confusing part the most confusing. Clay Ostrom  28:36 Honestly to me, as I get I’d love to hear your experience with this, but coming into a new brand, this is sometimes one of the most enlightening parts, because it shows me quickly where some gaps in what we’re talking about, and in this case, just kind of hits on what we were just saying a minute ago. Of the messaging is overloaded with generic productivity buzzwords, fails to clearly differentiate how Slack is better than email or similar tools, etc. But also, this is another one that I really like, and I use this all the time, which is the casual description. So rather than this technical garbage jargon, you know, speak, just give me. Give it to me in plain English, like we’re just chatting. And so this description of it’s a workplace chat app for teams to message, collaborate, share files. Like, okay, cool. Like, yeah, you know, I get it. Yeah, I already know what slack is. But if I didn’t, that would tell me pretty well. Christian Klepp  29:33 Absolutely, yeah, yeah. No, my experience with this is has been, you know, you and I have been in the branding space for a while. So for the trained eye, when you look at messaging, you’ll know if it’s good or not, right. And we come I mean, I’m sure you do the same clay, but I also come to my own like conclusions based on experience of like, okay, so why do I think that that’s good messaging, or why do I think that that’s confusing messaging? Or it falls short, and why and how can that be improved? But it’s always good to have validation with either with platforms like this, where you have a you have AI, or you have, you have a software that you can use that analyzes, like, for example, like the messaging on a website, and it dissects that and says, Well, okay, so this is what they’re getting, right? So there’s a scoring for that, so it’s in the green, and then this is, this is where it gets confusing, right? So even you run that through, you run that through the machine, and the machine analyzes it as like, Okay, we can’t clearly, clearly define what it is they’re doing based on the messaging, right? And for me, that’s always a it’s good. It’s almost like getting a second doctor’s opinion, right? And then you go, Aha. So I we’ve identified the symptoms now. So let’s find the penicillin, right? Like, let’s find the remedy for this, right? Clay Ostrom  30:56 Yeah, well, and I like what you said there, because part of the value, I think, with this is it’s an objective perspective on the brand, so it doesn’t have any baggage. It’s coming in with fresh eyes, the same way a new customer would come into your website, where they don’t know really much about you, and they have to just take what you’re giving at face value about what you present. And we as people working on brands get completely blinded around what’s actually working, what’s being communicated. There’s so much that we take for granted about what we already know about the brand. And this comes in and just says, Okay, I’m just, I’m just taking what you give me, and I’m going to tell you what I see, and I see some gaps around some of these things. You know, I don’t have the benefit of sitting in your weekly stand up meeting and hearing all the descriptions of what you’re actually doing. Christian Klepp  31:59 I’m sorry to jump in. I’m interested to know, like, just, just based on what we’ve been reviewing so far, like, what has your experience been showing this kind of analysis to clients, and how do they respond to some of this data, for example, that you know, you’re walking us through right now? Clay Ostrom  32:18 Yeah, I think it’s been interesting. Honestly, I think it can sometimes feel harsh. And I think again, as someone who’s both run an agency and also built worked on brands, we get attached to our work on an emotional level. Christian Klepp  32:42 Absolutely. Clay Ostrom  32:42 Even if we think about it as, you know, this is just work, and it’s, you know, whatever, we still build up connections with our work and we want it to be good. And so I think there’s sometimes a little bit of a feeling of wow, like that’s harsh, or I would have expected or thought we would have done better or scored better in certain areas, but that is almost always followed up with but I’m so glad to know where, where we’re struggling, because now I can fix it. I can actually know what to focus on to fix, and that, to me, is what it’s all about, is, yes, there’s a little bit of feelings attached to some of these things, maybe, but at the end of the day, we really want it to be good. We want it to be clear. We don’t want to be a 4 out of 10. We want to be a 10 out of 10. And what specifically do we need to do to get there? And that’s really what we’re trying to reveal with this. So I think, you know, everybody’s a little different, but I would say the reactions are typically a mix of that. It’s like, maybe an ouch, but a Oh, good. Let’s work on it. Christian Klepp  33:55 Absolutely, absolutely. Okay. So we’ve got brand summary, we’ve got fundamentals, then quality of messaging is the other part of it, right? Clay Ostrom  34:02 So, yeah, so this, this is, this is where the actual 4 out of 10 comes. We have these 10 points that we look at and we say, Okay, are you communicating these things clearly? Are you communicating who your target customer is, your category, your offering, where you’re differentiated benefits? Do you have any kind of concrete claim about what you do to support you know what you’re what you’re selling? Is the messaging engaging? Is it concise? You’ll see here a 7% on concise. That’s basically telling us that virtually no brands do a good job of being concise. Only about 7% get a green check mark on this, and kind of similar with the jargon and the vague words big struggle points with almost every brand. Christian Klepp  34:55 Streamline collaboration. Clay Ostrom  34:58 So we can see here with Slack. You know some of the jargon we got, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), MQLs (Marketing Qualified Lead), if you’re in the space, you could argue like, oh, I kind of know what those things are. But depending on your role, you may not always know. In something like Salesforce marketing cloud, unless you’re a real Salesforce nerd, you probably have no idea what that is. But again, it’s just a way to quickly identify some of those weak points, things that we could improve to make our message more clear. Christian Klepp  35:27 Yes, yes. Okay, so that was the messaging analysis correct? Clay Ostrom  35:33 Yeah. Christian Klepp  35:33 Yeah. Okay. So what else have we got? Clay Ostrom  35:36 Yeah, so I think one other thing we could look at just for a sec, is differentiation, and this is this kind of plays off of what we looked at a minute ago with the positioning scores. But this is a way for us to look head to head with two different brands. So in this case, we’ve got Slack in the red and we’ve got Discord in the greenish blue. And I think of these, these patterns, as sort of the fingerprint of your brand. So where you Where are you strong? Where are you weak? And if we can overlay those two fingerprints on top of each other, we can see, where do we have advantages, and where does our competitor have advantages? So if we come down, we can sort of see, and this is again, for the nerds like me, to be able to come in and go deep, do kind of a deep dive on specifically, why did, why does Discord score better than Slack in certain areas. And at the bottom here we can see a kind of a quick summary. So slack is stronger in simplification, saving time, Discord has some better messaging around generating revenue, lowering costs, marketability. But again, this gives us a way to think about what are the things we want to double down on? So what do we want to actually be known for in the market? Because we can’t be known for everything. You know, buyers can maybe only remember a couple things about us. What are those couple things where we’re really strong, where we really stand out, and we’ve got some separation from the competitors. Christian Klepp  37:18 Right, okay, okay, just maybe we take a step back here, because I think this is great. It’s very detailed. It gets a bit granular, but I think it’s also going back to a conversation that you and I had previously about, like, Okay, why is it so important to be armed with this knowledge, especially if you’re in the marketing role, or perhaps even an agency talking to a potential client going in there already armed with the information about their competitors. And we were talking about this being a kind of like a trust building mechanism, right? For lack of a better description, right? Clay Ostrom  38:03 Yeah, I think to me, what I like about this, and again, this does come out of 10 years of doing work, this kind of work with clients as well, is it’s so easy to fall into a space of soft descriptions around things like positioning and just sort of using vague, you know, wordings or descriptions, and when you can actually put a number on it, which, again, it’s subjective. This isn’t. This isn’t an objective metric, but it’s a way for us to compare and contrast. It allows us to have much more productive conversations with clients, where we can say we looked at your brand, we we what based on our analysis, we see that you’re scoring a 10 and a 9 on simplicity and organization, for example. Is that accurate to you like do you think that’s what you all are emphasizing the most? Does that? Does that resonate and at the same time, we can say, but your competitors are really focused on there. They have a strong, strong message around generating revenue and lowering costs for their customers. Right now, you’re not really talking about that. Is that accurate? Is that like, what you is that strategically, is that what you think you should be doing so really quickly, I’ve now framed a conversation that could have been very loose and kind of, you know, well, what do you think your strategy is about? What do you know? And instead, I can say, we see you being strong in these three points. We see your competitors being strong in these three points. What do you think about that? And I think that kind of clarity just makes the work so much more productive with clients, or just again, working on your own brand internally. So what do you think about that kind of perspective? Christian Klepp  40:08 Yeah, no, no, I definitely agree with that. It’s always and I’ve been that type of person anyway that you know you go into a especially with somebody that hasn’t quite become a client yet, right? One of the most important things is also, how should I put this? Certainly the trust building part of it needs to be there. The other part is definitely a demonstration of competence and ability, but it’s also that you’ve been proactive and done your homework, versus like, Okay, I’m I’m just here as an order taker, right? And let’s just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it right? A lot and especially, I think this has been a trend for a long time already, but a lot of the clients that I’ve worked with now in the past, they want to, they’re looking for a partner that’s not just thinking with them, it’s someone that’s thinking ahead of them. And this type of work, you know what we’re seeing here on screen, this is the type of work that I would consider thinking ahead of them, right? Clay Ostrom  41:18 No, I agree. I think you framed that really well. Of we’re trying to build trust, because if we’re going to make any kind of recommendations around a change or a shift, they have to believe that we know what we’re talking about, that we’re competent, that we’ve done the work. And I think I agree with you. I think like this, it’s kind of funny, like we all, I think, on some base level, are attracted to numbers and scores. It just gives us something to latch on to. But I think it also, like you said, it gives you a feeling that you’ve done your work, that you’ve done your homework, you’ve studied, you’ve you’ve done some analysis that they themselves may have never done on this level. And that’s a big value. Christian Klepp  42:08 Yes, and a big part of the reason just to, just to build on what you said, a big part of the reason why they haven’t done this type of work is because it’s not so much. The cost is certainly one part of it, but it’s the time, it’s a time factor and the resource and the effort that needs to be put into it. Because, you know, like, tell me if you’ve never heard this one before, but there are some, there are some companies that we’ve been working with that don’t actually have a clearly, like, you know, a clear document on who their their target personas are, yeah, or their or their ICPs, never mind the buyer’s journey map. They don’t, they don’t even have the personas mapped out, right? Clay Ostrom  42:52 100% Yeah, it’s, and it’s, I think you’re right. It’s, it’s a mix of time and it’s a mix of just experience where, if you are internal with a brand, you don’t do this kind of work all the time. You might do it at the beginning. Maybe you do a check in every once in a while, but you need someone who’s done this a lot with a lot of different brands so that they can give you guidance through this kind of framework. But so it’s, you know, so some of it is a mix of, you know, we don’t have the time always to dig in like this. But some of it is we don’t even know how to do it, even if we did have the time. So it’s hopefully giving, again, providing some different frameworks and different ways of looking at it. Christian Klepp  43:41 Absolutely, absolutely. So okay, so we’ve gone through. What is it now, the competitor comparison. What else does the platform provide us that the listeners and the audience should be paying attention to here? Clay Ostrom  43:55 So I’ll show you two more quick things. So one is this message building section. So this is… Christian Klepp  44:03 Are you trying to put me out of a job here Clay? Clay Ostrom  44:07 Well, I’ll say this. So far in my experience with this, it’s not going to put us out of a job, but it is going to hopefully make our job easier and better. It’s going to make us better at the work we do. And that’s really, I think that’s, I think that’s kind of, most people’s impression of AI at this point is that it’s not quite there to replace us, but it’s sure, certainly can enhance what we do. Christian Klepp  44:36 Yeah, you’ll excuse me, I couldn’t help but throw that one out. Clay Ostrom  44:38 Yeah, I know, trust me, I’m this. It’s like I’m building a product that, in a sense, is undercutting, you know, the work that I do. So it is kind of a weird thing, but this message building section, which is a new part of the platform. It will come in, and you can see on the right hand side. And there’s sort of a quick summary of all these different elements that we’ve already analyzed. And then it’s going to give you some generated copy ideas, including, if I zoom in a little bit here, we’ve got an eyebrow category. This is again for Slack. It’s giving us a headline idea, stay informed without endless emails. Sub headline call to action, three challenges that your customers are facing, and then three points about your solution that help address those for customers. So it’s certainly not writing all of your copy for you, but if you’re starting from scratch, or you’re working on something new, or even if you’re trying to refresh a brand. I think this can be helpful to give you some messaging that’s hopefully clear. That’s something that I think a lot of messaging misses, especially in B2B, it’s, it’s not always super clear, like what you even do. Christian Klepp  45:56 Don’t get me started. Clay Ostrom  45:59 So hopefully it’s clear. It’s, you know, again, it’s giving you some different ideas. And that you’ll see down here at the bottom, you can, you can iterate on this. So we’ve got several versions. You can actually come in and, you know, you can edit it yourself. So if you say, like, well, I like that, but not quite that, you know, I can, you know, get my human touch on it as well. But yeah, so it’s a place to iterate on message. Christian Klepp  46:25 You can kind of look at it like, let’s say, if you’re writing a blog article, and this will give you the outline, right? Yeah. And then most of the AI that I’ve worked with to generate outlines, they’re not quite there. But again, if you’re starting from zero and you want to go from zero to 100 Well, that’ll, that’ll at least get you to 40 or 50, right? But I’m curious to know, because we’re looking at this now, and I think this, I mean, for me, this is, this is fascinating, but, like, maybe, maybe this will be part of your next iteration. But will this, will this generate messaging that’s already SEO optimized. Clay Ostrom  47:02 You know, it’s not specifically geared towards that, but I would say that it ends up being maybe more optimized than a lot of other messaging because it puts such an emphasis on clarity, it naturally includes words and phrases that I think are commonly used in the space more so than you know, maybe just kind of typical off the shelf Big B2B messaging, Christian Klepp  47:27 Gotcha. I had a question on the target persona that you’ve got here on screen, right? So how does the platform generate the information that will then populate that field because, and when I’m just trying to think about like, you know, because I’ve been, I’ve been in the space for as long as you have, and the way that I’ve generated target personas in the past was not by making a wild guess about, like, you know, looking at the brand’s website. It’s like having conducting deep customer research and listening to hours and hours of recordings, and from there, generating a persona. And this has done it in seconds. So… Clay Ostrom  48:09 Yeah, it’s so the way the system works in a couple different layers. So it does an initial analysis, where it does positioning, messaging analysis and category analysis, then you can generate the persona on top of that. So it takes all the learnings that it got from the category, from the product, from your messaging, and then develops a persona around that. And it’s, of course, able to also pull in, you know, the AI is able to reference things that it knows about the space in general. But I have found, and this is true. I was just having a conversation with someone who works on a very niche brand for a very specific audience, and I was showing him what it had output. And I said, Tell me, like, Don’t hold back. Like, is this accurate? He said, Yeah, this is, like, shockingly accurate for you know, how we view our target customer. So I think it’s pretty good. It’s not again, not going to be perfect. You’re going to need to do some work, and you still got to do the research, but, but, yeah. Christian Klepp  49:13 Okay, fantastic, fantastic. How do, I guess there’s the option, I see it there, like, download the PDF. So anything that’s analyzed on the platform can then be exported in a PDF format, right? Like, like, into a report. Clay Ostrom  49:28 Yeah, right now you can export the messaging analysis, or, sorry, the the messaging ideation that you’ve done, and then in the brand brief you can also, you can download a PDF of the brand brief as well. So, those are the two main areas. I’m still working on some additional exports of data so that people can pull it into a spreadsheet and do some other stuff with it. Christian Klepp  49:49 Fantastic, fantastic. That’s awesome, Clay. I’ve got a couple more questions before I let you go. But this has been, this has been amazing, right? Like and I really hope that whoever’s in the one listening and, most importantly, watching this, I hope that you really do consider like, you know, taking this for a test drive, right? How many I might have asked you this before, because, you know, I am somebody that does use, you know, that does a lot of this type of research. But how much time would you say companies would save by using Smoke Ladder? Clay Ostrom  50:24 It’s a good question. I feel like I’m starting to get some feedback around that with from our users, but I mean, for me personally, I would typically spend an hour or two just to get kind of up to speed initially, with a brand and kind of look at some of their competitors. If I’m doing a deep dive, though, if I’m actually doing some of the deeper research work, it could be several hours per client. So I don’t know. On a given week, it might depend on how many clients you’re talking to. Could be anywhere from a few hours to 10 hours or more, depending on how much work you’re doing. But, yeah, I think it’s a decent amount. Christian Klepp  51:07 Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, this definitely does look like a time saver. Here comes my favorite question, which you’re gonna look at me like, Okay, I gotta, I gotta. Clay Ostrom  51:17 Now bring it on. Let’s go. Christian Klepp  51:22 Folks that are not familiar with Smoke Ladder are gonna look at this, um, and before they actually, um, take it upon themselves to, like, watch, hopefully, watch this video on our channel. Um, they’re gonna look at that and ask themselves, Well, what is it that Smoke Ladder does that? You know that other AI couldn’t do, right, like, so I guess what I’m trying to say is, like, Okay, why would they use? How does the platform differ from something like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude, right? To run a brand analysis? Clay Ostrom  52:00 Yeah, no, I think it’s a great question. I think it’s sort of the it’s going to be the eternal AI question for every product that has an AI component. And I would say to me, it’s three things. So one is the data, which we talked about, and I didn’t show you this earlier, but there is a search capability in here to go through our full archive of all the brands we’ve analyzed, and again, we’ve analyzed over 6000 brands. So the data piece is really important here, because it means we’re not just giving you insights and analysis based on the brand that you’re looking at now, but we can compare and contrast against all the other brands that we’ve looked at in the space, and that’s something that you’re not going to get by just using some off the shelf standard LLM  (Large Language Model) and doing some, you know, some quick prompts with that. The next one, I think, to me that’s important is it’s the point of view of the product and the brand. Like I said, this is built off of 10 plus years of doing positioning and messaging work in the space. So you’re getting to tap into that expertise and that approach of how we do things and building frameworks that make this work easier and more productive that you wouldn’t get, or you wouldn’t know, just on your own. And then the last one, the last point, which is sort of the kind of like the generic software answer, is you get a visual interface for this stuff. It’s the difference between using QuickBooks versus a spreadsheet. You can do a lot of the same stuff that you do in QuickBooks and a spreadsheet, but wouldn’t you rather have a nice interface and some easy buttons to click that make your job way, way easier and do a lot of the work for you and also be able to present it in a way that’s digestible and something you could share with clients? So the visual component in the UI is sort of that last piece. Christian Klepp  54:01 Absolutely. I mean, it’s almost like UX and UI one on one. That’s, that’s pretty much like a big part of, I think what it is you’re trying to build here, right? Clay Ostrom  54:13 Yeah, exactly. It’s just it’s making all of those things that you might do in an LLM just way, way easier. You know, you basically come in, put in your URL and click a button, and you’re getting access to all the data and all the insights and all this stuff so. Christian Klepp  54:29 Absolutely, absolutely okay. And as we wrap this up, this has been a fantastic conversation, by the way, how can the audience start using Smoke Ladder, and how can they get in touch with you if they have questions, and hopefully good questions. Clay Ostrom  54:47 Yeah, so you can, if you go to https://smokeladder.com/ you can, you can try it out. Like I said, you can basically go to the homepage, put in a URL and get started. You don’t even have to create an account to do the initial analysis. But you can create FREE account. You can dig in and see, you know, play around with all the features, and if you use it more, you know, we give you a little bit of a trial period. And if you use it beyond that, then you can pay and continue to use it, but, but you can get a really good flavor of it for free. Christian Klepp  55:16 Fantastic, fantastic. Oh, last question, because, you know, it’s looking me right in the face now, industry categories. How many? How many categories can be analyzed on the platform? Clay Ostrom  55:26 Yeah, yeah. So right now, we have 23 categories in the system currently, which sounds like a lot, but when you start to dig into especially B2B, it’s we will be evolving that and continuing to add more, but currently, there’s 23 different categories of businesses in there. Christian Klepp  55:46 All right, fantastic, fantastic. Clay, man. This has been so awesome. Thank you so much for your time and for your patience and walking us through this, this incredible platform that you’ve built and continue to build. And you know, I’m excited to continue using this as it evolves. Clay Ostrom  56:06 Thank you. Yeah, no. Thanks so much. And you know, if anybody, you know, anybody who tries it out, tests it out, please feel free to reach out. We have, you know, contact info on there. You can also hit me up on LinkedIn. I spend a lot of time there, but I would love feedback, love getting notes, love hearing what’s working, what’s not, all those things. So yeah, anytime I’m always open. Christian Klepp  56:30 All right, fantastic. Once again, Clay, thanks for your time. Take care, stay safe and talk to you soon. Clay Ostrom  56:36 Thanks so much. Talk to you soon. Christian Klepp  56:37 All right. Bye for now.

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Mit dem Song „Feel It Still” ist Portugal The Man vor neun Jahren ein Riesenhit gelungen. Doch die Indie-Band aus Alaska schert sich nicht um Popkonventionen. Das neue Album „Shish“ widmet sich der Umweltkrise und der indigenen Bevölkerung Alaskas. FM4s Christian Lehner hat mit Portugal The Man Band-Leader John Gourley darüber gesprochen, warum es in der Wildnis keinen Kulturkampf gibt und warum Portugal The Man so gerne nach Österreichkommen. Das nächste Malübrigens zur FM4-Indiekiste am 17. März 2026, nach Wien.Sendungshinweis: FM4, Homebase, 25.11.2025, 20 Uhr

Heute nehme ich dich mit in die Zwischenräume einer Weltreise: in die Momente, in denen Stille mehr sagt als Strategie, in denen ein einziger Atemzug die Richtung ändert und in denen Synchronizitäten Türen öffnen, die du nicht planen kannst.Worum es wirklich geht: Wie Erfahrung zur Lehrerin wird. Wie ein winziges Ritual den Tag trägt. Wie feminine Hingabe und klare, maskuline Struktur ein tragfähiges Business bauen. Warum Community nicht „Gruppe“ bedeutet, sondern gelebte Verbindung – und weshalb schöne Räume noch lange keine kraftvollen Räume sind.Du gehst aus dieser Folge mit: einem spürbaren Reminder, wo deine Homebase ist – auch wenn alles schnell wird einer simplen Praxis für Klarheit im Alltag (unter 60 Sekunden) einer neuen Perspektive auf Investition, Energie & Präsenz Lust, deine Räume wieder als Verbündete zu sehenWenn dich diese Folge berührt, teile sie mit jemandem, der gerade auf dem Sprung ist – und abonniere den Podcast, damit du die kommenden Themen nicht verpasst.Zum Arbeiten mit mir findest du alles auf meiner Website. Für tieferes Eintauchen in Feng Shui & Space Activation: Ausbildung, Beratungen & Mentoring.

In Hannah Lühmanns neuem Roman “Heimat” zieht eine Frau mit ihrer Familie in den Vorort einer Großstadt - und befreundet sich dort mit ultrakonservativen Tradwives. Das Dorfleben ist ambivalent: Eine Müttergruppe unterstützt sich zwar gegenseitig, aber hinter den sauberen Fassaden spielt sich anderes ab als auf den perfekt polierten Instagram Kanälen. Als Inspiration für die Kulisse diente Lühmann dabei die Rousseaupark-Siedlung südlich von Berlin – aber nur auf google maps. Mit Anne-Dore fährt sie das erste Mal wirklich nach Ludwigsfelde. Sie gehen spazieren, sprechen mit Anwohnern und unterhalten sich beim Frühstück im Café Homebase über Tradwives, die Suche nach dem richtigen Leben und das Verhältnis von Fakt und Fiktion. Der Ort Die Rousseaupark-Siedlung in Ludwigsfelde https://www.rousseaupark.de/ Café Hombase in Ludwigsfelde https://homebase-cafe.de/ Das Buch Hannah Lühmann "Heimat", Hanser blau, 176 Seiten, 22 Euro Die Autorin Hannah Lühmann wurde 1987 in Berlin geboren und hat u.a. als stellvertretende Feuilleton-Chefin der Zeitung "Die Welt" gearbeitet. Ihr Debüt "Auszeit" erschien 2021, "Heimat" ist ihr zweiter Roman  

Improvements are made to the La'Anatra and the party goes over their plan for a jump to a new mirrorverse. Email us your questions at: FreelanceHeroismPodcast@gmail.com Visit Freelance Heroism on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/freelanceheroism/ We have a Patreon! Any support you can provide goes toward us giving you a better podcast listening experience: https://www.patreon.com/Freelance_heroism Check out Deece's webcomic! http://www.1d4rounds.com/ Find Deece on TikTok here: OH NO! Find the cast on BlueSky: Deece: https://bsky.app/profile/roguist.bsky.social Rae: https://bsky.app/profile/raedrie.bsky.social You can find our gameplay videos on our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6TwfLOFsl192ExdAugebgg/ You can check out our web page here: http://www.freelanceheroism.libsyn.com/ Intro theme is Waltz op. 64 no 2 in c-sharp minor composed by Frédéric Chopin and performed by Olga Gurevich. Licence: The song is permitted for commercial use under license public domain, non copyrighted. http://www.orangefreesounds.com/  

Join Luke & James on the convention floor as they catch up with former guests Remy Nakamura, Curtis Chen, Kate Ristau, Erik Grove, Jessie Kwak, Fonda Lee, Daryl Gregory, Patrick Swenson, and Rachael K. Jones! Each author shares their experiences at the convention and what they've been up to in the years since their last appearance on the podcast. Find our guests books on our bookshop: https://bookshop.org/lists/special-guest-books Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects: https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

Jake Kasden reimagines Jumanji for a modern audience while making clever connections to the original that manages to keep this latest entry in line with the classic Robin Williams-led version. He delivers star-power with The Rock, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, and Kevin Hart, who all give memorable comedic performances. Join Luke & James for this video-game flavored take on a classic adaptation for this former Patreon-exclusive! Pickup any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects: https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

LinkedIn might feel like the “suit and tie” of social media… but your real growth comes from picking a home base; the one place you'll consistently show up with clear messaging and value.   In this episode, I break down:   What a “marketing home base” is and why it matters How to pick the platform that fits you (and your ideal client) The case for choosing depth over being everywhere How to research where your clients actually hang out A realistic six-month test-and-adjust plan Which platforms fit which goals     Book a 1:1 Marketing Clarity Session Need personalized clarity on your content, platform, or messaging? I now offer One Problem → One Solution consultations for $147 and you walk away with a simple, customized one-page marketing action plan. Book Here:  https:/beesimplified.com     Let's Connect LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/biancamarissasmith/  Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/beesimplified.com

Herzlich willkommen zur Episode 43 der Blechgedanken! Unfassbar!

 Ich war diesmal mal wieder live und in Farbe unterwegs und habe die Gunst der Stunde genutzt. Am letzten Wochenende war ich in Köln, und vorher bin ich noch nach Niederkrüchten gefahren. Niederkrüchten – so weit westlich von Mönchengladbach war ich bisher tatsächlich noch nicht, den bis dahin kenne ich die Anfahrt zum BorussiaPark ganz gut, aber Niederkrüchten liegt ja noch ein Stück weiter westlich.

Dort ist die Homebase von Stefan Cloudt und seiner Frau – und damit auch von McCloudt.Wer schon einmal eine Vespa restauriert hat, ist in den letzten Jahren vermutlich über das eine oder andere Produkt von Stefan gestolpert. Wir haben uns allerdings nicht über alle seine Produkte an sich unterhalten, sondern eher darüber, wie man überhaupt dazu kommt. Denn Stefan ist in seinem eigentlichen Beruf gar kein Chemiker.Also: Wie kommt man dazu, sich in solche Themen einzuarbeiten? Was bedeutet das eigentlich? Wie findet man das richtige Produkt, worauf muss man achten, wo bekommt man die passenden Stoffe her, und was heißt das, wenn man so etwas von Grund auf aufbaut? Und vor allem: Warum? Natürlich spielt das Thema Vespa und Community eine große Rolle, genauso wie Musik, Jugend, Subkultur und wie man damit umgeht. Denn über das Schrauben, Fahren und Restaurieren von Vespas ist Stefan letztlich zu dem gekommen, was er heute nebenberuflich macht – sehr zur Freude von uns allen. Ich selbst habe übrigens bisher noch keines seiner Produkte ausprobiert, weil ich noch keine eigene Restauration gemacht habe – aber das kommt bestimmt irgendwann.Was mir wichtig ist/war: es soll keine Verkaufsgeschichte sein, sondern ich wollte einfach mal schauen: Wer steckt hinter dem Menschen Stefan Cloudt?
Und was soll ich sagen – es war ein total schönes Gespräch!Direkt danach bin ich nach Köln zum „Nighter“ von Markus Gogolin im Gloria gefahren. Dort habe ich Olli Hagge sowie Tina und Martin kennengelernt, die aufgelegt haben. Es war ein wunderschönes Wochenende – nur bahnte sich am Sonntag eine Erkältung an. Daher klingt meine Stimme heute etwas nasal, und die Woche hat mich zur Bettruhe gezwungen.Ich wünsche euch jetzt ganz viel Spaß mit dem Gespräch zwischen Stefan und mir – und ich würde sagen: Wir sehen uns auf der Straße! Auch wenn das in dieser Jahreszeit langsam schwieriger wird, denn die Saison neigt sich deutlich dem Ende zu. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Der Blechgedanken -Podcast ist übrigens auf folgenden Plattformen hörbar:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gXyCMSq5s7ZJow0psnPoEApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blechgedanken-geschichten-rund-um-die-vespacommunity/id1620685337Amazon Music;:https://music.amazon.de/podcasts/768b4879-7e50-41c2-8cdc-4ea69d7001db/blechgedanken---geschichten-rund-um-die-vespacommunityGoogle:https://podcasts.google.com/search/BlechgedankenFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/blechgedanken/Kontakt über podcast@blechgedanken,deMehr Infos zu den einzelnen Podcasts gibt es auf der Webseite: https://podcast.blechgedanken.de

In today's episode we talk about Giving Your Players A Home.  Why do we want to give our players a home?  What does it offer for the game?  Should you always give your players a home?  We give you our thoughts and answer all these questions and more in today's episode.Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.comor Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGamingPlease leave us a review or a five star rating wherever you get your podcast.

In the 90s, Director Kenneth Branagh made a wild heavy metal adaptation of the seminal SciFi novel starring himself, Robert De Niro, and Helena Bonham Carter. Join Luke & James in this former Patreon-exclusive Halloween episode as they debate the value of such an over-the-top take on a literary classic. Pickup any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects: https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/  

Director Rodney Ascher presents some of the wild interpretations of The Shining (1980) that persist to this day, each more fantastical than the next. Some theories seem grounded in reality, but others take massive leaps and arrive at outlandish ideas, none more ridiculous than the “moon landing footage was faked by Stanley Kubrick” theory. But is it possible that the entire documentary is actually a meta-exercise in showing fan obsession and over-analysis? Join Luke & James for this former Patreon-exclusive episode! Pickup any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects: https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

Director Francis Lawrence takes time off from directing the Hunger Games franchise to tackle one of the original battle royale stories with THE LONG WALK by Richard Bachman. In episode 362, join Luke Elliott & James Bailey as they discuss changing this Bachman story back into a King story, the changing metaphor behind the grueling contest, how adaptation decisions by the screenwriter and overseen by the author changes the entire message of the story. They end by casting their votes on which was ultimately the better version: the book or the movie! Pickup The Long Walk or any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Familiar Faces video   Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

Enigmatic author Richard Bachman drew comparisons to another famous author from the jump, but it would be years before the truth about him was finally exposed. In episode 361, join Luke Elliott & James Bailey as they strap on their best shoes and take a long walk into the past as they explore the noteworthy history behind this novel, consider toxic masculinity's role in controlling young boys, unpack some surprisingly scandalous moments, and take some time to explain the novel's surprising ending. Join them next week as they compare the 2025 adaptation directed by Francis Lawrence and produced by Stephen King! Pickup The Long Walk or any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Familiar Faces video Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

Paul Verhoeven's adaptation of Heinlein's classic novel divided critics at the time as many found the satire to be indistinguishable from endorsement, but its antifascist subtext plays a bit different in 2025. In episode 360, join Luke Elliott and James Bailey as they compare the film to Helldivers II, try to find the line between satire and approval, recount some surprising behind-the-scenes stories, and finally cast their votes on which version is better: the book or the movie? Pickup any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Familiar Faces video Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

Often called the "Dean of Science Fiction Writers,” Robert A. Heinlein is considered one of the “Big Three” of English-language classic science fiction, but why isn't he read more today? In episode 359, join Luke Elliott & James Bailey as they explore Heinlein's complex legacy of shifting political philosophy, grapple with an explicitly militaristic yet utopian vision of the future, trace the origins of power armor, and lay the groundwork for their comparison next week with the Paul Verhoeven's memorable adaptation. Pickup any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Familiar Faces video Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

Comedy Saved Me Podcast - Episode Show Notes Guest: Thom Tran Episode Description In this powerful episode of Comedy Saved Me, host Lynn Hoffman sits down with multi-talented veteran, comedian, musician, and activist Thom Tran for an inspiring conversation about resilience, healing, and finding purpose through laughter. Thom’s journey from combat soldier to comedy stage is nothing short of remarkable. After enlisting in the U.S. Army at just 18 years old, Thom served as a Communications and Civil Affairs Sergeant within the Army’s Special Operations Community. His military career came to an abrupt end in 2003 when a sniper’s bullet struck the back of his skull during combat operations in Iraq, just four days after crossing the border. Despite his injuries, Thom bandaged himself up and completed his 12-month tour—a testament to his incredible strength and dedication. Following his medical retirement in 2005, Thom discovered that comedy didn’t just change his life—it saved it. He channeled his experiences into stand-up comedy, eventually creating The GIs of Comedy Tour in 2010, a groundbreaking comedic troupe that has performed across the United States and in nearly two dozen countries, bringing healing laughter to military and civilian audiences alike. Lynn and Thom dive deep into how humor became his lifeline, the challenges of transitioning from military to civilian life, and his mission to help other veterans through the transformative power of comedy. Special thanks to Dr. Ron Hirshberg and General Jack Hammond from Home Base for their support of our podcasts and for introducing us to Thom. For information on their amazing work go to https://homebase.org This episode is a testament to the healing power of laughter and the resilience of the human spirit—a must-listen for anyone who believes in the transformative power of comedy. Show Notes Guest: Thom Tran - Veteran, Comedian, Musician, Actor & Activist Key Topics Discussed: • Thom’s early military enlistment at 18 and service in Army Special Operations • Combat injury in Iraq in 2003 and the long road to medical retirement • How comedy became a lifesaving force in his post-military life • Creating The GIs of Comedy Tour and its impact on military communities • Performing for audiences around the world and raising over $50,000 for military families • The healing power of laughter for trauma survivors • Transitioning from soldier to entertainer • Building a career in LA comedy clubs and broadcast radio • Recent recognition at comedy festivals and future projects About Thom Tran: Thom Tran is a Los Angeles-based comedian, musician, and U.S. military veteran who transformed personal trauma into purpose through comedy. After a combat injury ended his Army Special Operations career in 2005, Thom discovered stand-up comedy and never looked back. In 2010, he founded The GIs of Comedy Tour, which has performed internationally and raised significant funds for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. His work has been featured on Netflix’s “Larry Charles’ Dangerous World of Comedy,” and he recently completed a decade-long career as a radio traffic anchor for KNX News. In 2025, he was named to the SLO Comedy Festival “Best of The Fest” and selected as a “Next Wave Top 5 Comics to Watch” at the Blue Whale Comedy Festival. Support the show: https://takinawalk.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Comedy Saved Me Podcast - Episode Show Notes Guest: Thom Tran Episode Description In this powerful episode of Comedy Saved Me, host Lynn Hoffman sits down with multi-talented veteran, comedian, musician, and activist Thom Tran for an inspiring conversation about resilience, healing, and finding purpose through laughter. Thom’s journey from combat soldier to comedy stage is nothing short of remarkable. After enlisting in the U.S. Army at just 18 years old, Thom served as a Communications and Civil Affairs Sergeant within the Army’s Special Operations Community. His military career came to an abrupt end in 2003 when a sniper’s bullet struck the back of his skull during combat operations in Iraq, just four days after crossing the border. Despite his injuries, Thom bandaged himself up and completed his 12-month tour—a testament to his incredible strength and dedication. Following his medical retirement in 2005, Thom discovered that comedy didn’t just change his life—it saved it. He channeled his experiences into stand-up comedy, eventually creating The GIs of Comedy Tour in 2010, a groundbreaking comedic troupe that has performed across the United States and in nearly two dozen countries, bringing healing laughter to military and civilian audiences alike. Lynn and Thom dive deep into how humor became his lifeline, the challenges of transitioning from military to civilian life, and his mission to help other veterans through the transformative power of comedy. Special thanks to Dr. Ron Hirshberg and General Jack Hammond from Home Base for their support of our podcasts and for introducing us to Thom. For information on their amazing work go to https://homebase.org This episode is a testament to the healing power of laughter and the resilience of the human spirit—a must-listen for anyone who believes in the transformative power of comedy. Show Notes Guest: Thom Tran - Veteran, Comedian, Musician, Actor & Activist Key Topics Discussed: • Thom’s early military enlistment at 18 and service in Army Special Operations • Combat injury in Iraq in 2003 and the long road to medical retirement • How comedy became a lifesaving force in his post-military life • Creating The GIs of Comedy Tour and its impact on military communities • Performing for audiences around the world and raising over $50,000 for military families • The healing power of laughter for trauma survivors • Transitioning from soldier to entertainer • Building a career in LA comedy clubs and broadcast radio • Recent recognition at comedy festivals and future projects About Thom Tran: Thom Tran is a Los Angeles-based comedian, musician, and U.S. military veteran who transformed personal trauma into purpose through comedy. After a combat injury ended his Army Special Operations career in 2005, Thom discovered stand-up comedy and never looked back. In 2010, he founded The GIs of Comedy Tour, which has performed internationally and raised significant funds for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. His work has been featured on Netflix’s “Larry Charles’ Dangerous World of Comedy,” and he recently completed a decade-long career as a radio traffic anchor for KNX News. In 2025, he was named to the SLO Comedy Festival “Best of The Fest” and selected as a “Next Wave Top 5 Comics to Watch” at the Blue Whale Comedy Festival. Support the show: https://musicsavedme.net/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send Vanessa a Text MessageOriginal air date: 7/2/24Update: Since this episode first aired, Dr. Elizabeth Bright has released her newest book, The Power of Your Thyroid and Adrenals: How They Shape Your Health Throughout Life and How to Heal. If you've enjoyed her insights, be sure to check out this latest work for an even deeper dive into her approach to women's health.In this BEST OF episode, I sit down with Osteopath and Naturopath, Dr. Elizabeth Bright, to discuss the crucial importance of addressing thyroid and adrenal function when experiencing hormonal imbalances—as well as a host of other health conditions.Dr. Bright explains the significance of a high-fat diet and iodine for thyroid support, and why the thyroid is truly the master regulator of the body. This conversation remains every bit as impactful and relevant today.We cover:Thyroid basics rarely explained by doctorsWhy the thyroid is the body's control centerHow hyperthyroidism can reflect hypo patternsWhen blood markers don't tell the full storyFeeling unwell despite “good” labsWhat stresses the thyroidCommon thyroid-related symptoms and conditionsWhy proper thyroid testing is often missedThe role of fat in thyroid and adrenal healthChallenges women face through menopause and perimenopauseEarly puberty in young girlsPost-pregnancy thyroid changesThe importance of iodine and safe supplementationListener questions on HRT, libido, seasonal thyroid shifts, and moreResources & Links:Dr. Bright's New Book – The Power of Your Thyroid and Adrenals: How They Shape Your Health Throughout Life and How to HealDr. Bright's WebsiteDr. Bright's InstagramConnect with the Podcast:Podcast on InstagramVanessa's Homebase (discount links, etc.)Vanessa on InstagramVanessa on ThreadsPodcast on YouTubePodcast on TikTokPodcast on XEmail: intentionallywellpodcast@gmail.comSupport the showPodcast Website: Intentionally Well with Vanessa LopezThis episode is for informational purposes only. Please consult a trusted health practitioner for individual concerns.

Guest Shayna Hodge (they/them) joins the show once more to round out our coverage on the Marielle Heller adaptation of Rachel Yoder's NIGHTBITCH. In episode 358, join Luke, James, and Shayna as they breakdown Amy Adam's stark portrayal, unpack the changes made to the husband's character, make a surprising “American Psycho” connection, hear about an out-of-pocket question asked to the film's creators, and finally all cast their vote on which one's better: the book or the movie! NOTE: We occasionally refer to the main character as “The Mother,” which is the name used for the protagonist in the novel, without explaining that context. Potentially confusing during our discussion of “the mother” in the movie (meaning Amy Adam's character's mother as seen in the flashbacks). Pickup NIGHTBITCH or any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Patreon Familiar Faces video Shayna Hodge TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@batttykoda IG: https://www.instagram.com/batttykoda/ Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

Send us a textWhat really drives business valuation – and how do you make your company truly exit-ready? In this episode of the Exit Insights podcast, host Darryl Bates-Brownsword is joined by regular guest Kevin Harrington to explore the crucial differences between financial optimisation and strategic value creation.Together, they break down:Why CFOs and business architects play complementary roles in exit planningThe difference between tangible financials and intangible growth driversWhat really impacts your valuation multiple beyond just profitHow to create a business that's attractive to buyers AND scalable post-exitReal-world lessons from Bunnings, Homebase, and other brand misstepsWhether you're 3–5 years from selling or just want to build a more valuable business, this episode will help you get laser-focused on what matters most. 

In this message, Pastor Jay reminds us that church should be more than a building—it's Home Base. A place of safety, rest, and strength where Jesus is seen in how we serve one another. Discover how simple acts of love can shine like a lighthouse and point people back to Him.

Special guest Shayna Hodge (they/them) joins the show to discuss Rachel Yoder's splashy debut novel. In episode 357, Luke Elliott & James Bailey ask about Shayna's immensely popular book club (run on behalf of the “Parallel Worlds” book store), what drew them to this novel, who writes body horror best, the hidden labor women often take on at home, what the boldest/most controversial choice the author made brings to the book, and how we all feel about the unimpressive husband. Join them all again next week when they tackle the 2024 film adaptation by Marielle Heller starring Amy Adams!   Pickup NIGHTBITCH or any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Patreon Familiar Faces video   Shayna Hodge TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@batttykoda IG: https://www.instagram.com/batttykoda/   References Essay: “Rachel Yoder on Navigating Chronic Pain Through Storytelling” Marina Abramović: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramovi%C4%87   Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications   James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/  

Send us a Note or Ask a question Here! Include your name and where you're from and we may just read it on an Upcoming Podcast!After months of silence, we're finally back behind the microphones with some major life updates that have completely transformed our approach to RV living. The biggest news? We've sold our massive Alliance Valor, purchased a home base, and downsized to a more nimble Alliance Delta 252RL travel trailer under 30 feet.This shift wasn't a snap decision. It evolved gradually as we weathered both literal and figurative storms in our full-time RV journey. Texas ice and scorching summer heat tested our resolve, while work commitments kept us closer to "home" than we'd initially planned. The limitations of traveling in such a large rig became increasingly apparent - we couldn't fit in most state parks and national parks, couldn't easily navigate certain areas, and Lauren wasn't comfortable driving our beast of an RV. Those 12-hour travel days left us exhausted in ways they don't now with our smaller setup.Let's bust a common myth: RV life isn't automatically cheaper than traditional housing. For us, costs were roughly equivalent, though this varies widely depending on individual circumstances and choices. We also couldn't ignore the financial reality that while our RV was constantly depreciating, real estate typically appreciates over time. This stability factor, combined with increased travel flexibility, ultimately guided our decision.Don't worry - we're not abandoning RV adventures! With seven trips already planned (including three weeks in Florida and appearances at the Tampa RV show), we're simply embracing a "weekend warrior" approach that offers the best of both worlds. Our new dedicated podcast studio means more consistent content, guest appearances, and exciting new segments coming your way. If you have questions you'd like us to answer in future episodes, send them our way through your favorite podcast platform. Subscribe now so you don't miss a single adventure as we navigate this next chapter of RV Shenanigans!

Author Martha Wells joins LIVE at Seattle Worldcon 2025 to discuss “Murderbot” season 1, adapted by Paul and Chris Weitz for Apple TV+. In episode 356, Luke Elliott & James host their first live-recording in front of a packed room of Martha Wells fans, adding to their “Creative Conversations” series. They kick things off with a special video message from the show's cast for Martha Wells: Noma Dumezweni, Sabrina Wu, Akshay Khanna, Tamara Podemski, Tattiawna Jones, David Dastmalchian, and Alexander Skarsgård! Topics include: the original idea that led to Murderbot's creation, surprise insights into herself after reader reactions, her input and thoughts on the casting of the series' biggest role, her visit to the set (and what she got to take home), and why she pushes back at fans surprised by the show's more comedic tone. Pickup All Systems Red or any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Martha Wells Website: www.marthawells.com IG: https://www.instagram.com/marthawellswriter/ Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/marthawells.com Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writing: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

What to do when the voice in your head is an asshole.   Sebene Selassie is an author and meditation teacher. She writes the popular newsletter remind me to love and her first book is called, You Belong.    Jeff Warren is an author and meditation teacher. He writes the popular newsletter Home Base and is the coauthor, along with Dan, of a book called Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. And he is the co-host of the mind/bod adventure pod. Aaron Schultz aka DJ DRM has crisscrossed the globe for decades playing his own unique brand of dance music. Aaron is also a longtime meditator and Dharma practitioner in the Dharma Drum lineage of Chan Buddhism, and is a passionate devotee of GuanYin Bodhisattva.   In this episode we talk about: How to relate to sticky stories and emotions  How to face unpleasant feelings  The 5 hindrances (that's a Buddhist list of the main problems that arise in meditation) and how sneaky they can be  The potential pitfalls of a “good sit” The role of right effort in meditation  How expectations make us suffer Neurodivergence Working with shame (and how it differs from wise remorse)  The connection between dancing and the Dharma (and why Dan is too self-conscious to dance) Join Dan's online community here Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok Subscribe to our YouTube Channel On Sunday, September 21st from 1-5pm ET, join Dan and Leslie Booker at the New York Insight Meditation Center in NYC as they lead a workshop titled, "Heavily Meditated – The Dharma of Depression + Anxiety." This event is both in-person and online. Sign up here!    Get ready for another Meditation Party at Omega Institute! This in-person workshop brings together Dan with his friends and meditation teachers, Sebene Selassie, Jeff Warren, and for the first time, Ofosu Jones-Quartey. The event runs October 24th-26th. Sign up and learn more at eomega.org/workshops/meditation-party-2025. To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris Sponsors:  Liquid IV: Savor the last bits of summer with Liquid I.V. Tear. Pour. Live More. Go to LiquidIV.com and get 20% off your first order with code HAPPIER at checkout.  AT&T: Staying connected matters. That's why AT&T has connectivity you can depend on, or they will proactively make it right. Visit att.com/guarantee for details.

Today on HBN, we close out Season 9 with a salute to you all, a Grateful Nation, for showing up and supporting the mission of Home Base.We look forward to bringing you new conversations and content in the Fall, and we'll welcome back to the mic, Dr. Ron Hirschberg, as we look to Season 10.On July 26, 2025, 3,000 runners and walkers participated in the 16th annual Run to Home Base, presented by RTX, either in person at historic Fenway Park or virtually around the country. To date, this year's event has raised over $3.6 million - a record-breaking figure for our most critical annual fundraiser - in support of Home Base's mission to heal the invisible wounds of war for Veterans, Service Members, Military Families, and Families of the Fallen at no out-of-pocket cost to them.5 Days left to donate to the Run To Home Base - every dollar counts!  Donate at www.runtohomebase.org.In this episode you'll hear from  Red Sox Broadcaster Tom Caron, who was joined during a Red Sox pregame by Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks and Home Base Captain Kristi Hendriks, both who were guests on this podcast a few episodes ago, as well as Bekah Salwasser of the Red Sox Foundation, and Jack Hammond of the Home Base Program to discuss the impact and importance of the Run to Home Base event.Next, you'll go to the morning of July 26 at Fenway Park for the introductory ceremony for the Run to Home Base.  This year, paying special tribute to Veteran and Service Member First Responders.You'll hear from Tom Werner, Red Sox Chairman; Dr. Richard Carmona, the 17th Surgeon General of the United States; our Executive Director, General Jack Hammond; and an incredible testament to the Home Base Mission and a personal journey in getting his life back - with Army Veteran Ezequiel "Zeek" Grimaldo.Home Base Nation is the official podcast for the Home Base Program for Veterans and Military Families. Our team sees veterans, service members, and their families addressing the invisible wounds of war at no cost. This is all made possible thanks to a grateful nation. For more information on how you can help, please visit us at www.homebase.org. If you or someone you know needs care, you can reach us at 617-724-5202.   Follow Home Base on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn   The Home Base Nation Team is Steve Monaco, Army Veteran Kelly Field, Justin Scheinert, Chuck Clough, with COO Michael Allard, Brigadier General Jack Hammond, and Peter Smyth.   Producer and Host: Dr. Ron Hirschberg   Assistant Producer, Editor: Chuck Clough   Chairman, Home Base Media Lab: Peter SmythThe views expressed by guests to the Home Base Nation podcast are their own, and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by guests are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Home Base, the Red Sox Foundation, or any of its officials.

In a surprising twist, Amazon's adaptation of the Fallout video-game franchise is good! Join Luke & James in this former Patreon-exclusive episode as they reminisce about a beloved series, give their spoiler-free reactions to the show, and reflect on what makes Fallout so iconic in the world of post-apocalyptic fiction. Pickup any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com   Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writings: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/  

In Gore Verbinski's adaptation of RING (and the original Japanese version) analog film takes the spotlight representing a medium in transition. The result is a turning point in modern horror cinema, as the artform transitioned into a more digital age. In episode 355, join Luke Elliott & James Bailey as they compare the film to the Koji Suzuki novel, unpack the filmmaking choices that make this movie feel cursed, relive the nostalgic terror of seeing this movie as children, and finally cast their votes on which version is ultimately best: the book or the movie?    ANNOUNCEMENT: Ink to Film is attending WorldCon 2025 in Seattle where they will be interviewing Martha Wells in their first ever live show! Join them on 8/15 @ 4:30PM. More information on WorldCon 2025 can be found here: https://seattlein2025.org/ Pickup any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writings: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

We are pleased to present this special episode from a podcast headed by our fellow podcaster, friend, and supporter of veterans, Buzz Knight.Buzz has been a force in media, working as a strategist and a media executive for decades. He has an excellent podcast called "Takin' A Walk", a show that focuses on resilience, mental health, and amazing stories through the healing power of music.  We are fortunate to cross-pollinate with Buzz to share an episode of "Takin' A Walk" where he shares an interview with the Chief Executive Director for the Home Base, retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Jack Hammond. General Hammond is a decorated combat leader and private sector innovator who has served on advisory groups for presidents, governors, and businesses. General Hammond led U.S. and NATO forces in combat and counter-terrorism operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. This includes: simultaneously commanding two separate Battalion-level Task Forces on more than one hundred successful intelligence-fused counter-terrorist operations in Iraq.General Hammond, along with chief operating officer Michael Allard, has led a team of both civilian and military staff to take care of more than 40,000 veterans and their families for more than 15 years. On the heels of the 16th annual Run To Home Base just the other day at Fenway Park, we realize more than ever how this shared admission is so vital to serve all of those who have been serving and protecting so many and continue to do so. If you would like to hear more episodes of 'Takin' A Walk,' visit the archives at takinawalk.com. Home Base Nation is the official podcast for the Home Base Program for Veterans and Military Families. Our team sees veterans, service members, and their families addressing the invisible wounds of war at no cost. This is all made possible thanks to a grateful nation. To learn more about how to help, visit us at www.homebase.org. If you or anyone you know would like to connect to care, you can also reach us at 617-724-5202.Follow Home Base on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedInThe Home Base Nation Team is Steve Monaco, Army Veteran Kelly Field, Justin Scheinert, Chuck Clough, with COO Michael Allard, Brigadier General Jack Hammond, and Peter Smyth.Producer and Host: Dr. Ron HirschbergAssistant Producer, Editor: Chuck CloughChairman, Home Base Media Lab: Peter Smyth

Author Koji Suzuki's novel RING sparked a resurgence of horror in Japan and launched a franchise that would shock the world, but what disturbing details from his original story didn't make it to the screen? In episode 354, join Luke Elliott & James Bailey as they try to make sense of Asakawa and Ryūji's characterization, encounter Sadako Yamamura for the first time, try to resist the urge to watch cursed media (fail), and wonder if they'll be next to fall prey to the viral horror. Join them next week when they watch “The Ring” (2002) and relive iconic millennial horror from their childhood.   ANNOUNCEMENT: Ink to Film is attending WorldCon 2025 in Seattle where they will be interviewing Martha Wells in their first ever live show! Join them on 8/15 @ 4:30PM. More information on WorldCon 2025 can be found here: https://seattlein2025.org/ Pickup any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com   Luke Elliott   Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writings: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications   James Bailey   Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

We are pleased to present this special episode from a podcast headed by our fellow podcaster, friend, and supporter of veterans, Buzz Knight.Buzz has been a force in media, working as a strategist and a media executive for decades. He has an excellent podcast called "Takin' A Walk", a show that focuses on resilience, mental health, and amazing stories through the healing power of music.  We are fortunate to cross-pollinate with Buzz to share an episode of "Takin' A Walk” where he shares an interview with our friend and previous guest on the Home Base Nation Podcast, Mary Gauthier.Mary is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, author, and military family member, as well as a huge supporter of veterans. A New Orleans native, Mary spent many years grappling with spiraling addiction, alcohol, and depression before discovering her gift as a songwriter. Through song, she found that she could express things she was unable to express in other ways and gained new confidence through writing and performing.  She has co-written songs with veterans through the Songwriting with Soldiers program.If you would like to hear more episodes of ‘Takin' A Walk,' visit the archives at takinawalk.com.Home Base Nation is the official podcast for the Home Base Program for Veterans and Military Families. Our team sees veterans, service members, and their families addressing the invisible wounds of war at no cost. This is all made possible thanks to a grateful nation. To learn more about how to help, visit us at www.homebase.org. If you or anyone you know would like to connect to care, you can also reach us at 617-724-5202.Follow Home Base on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedInThe Home Base Nation Team is Steve Monaco, Army Veteran Kelly Field, Justin Scheinert, Chuck Clough, with COO Michael Allard, Brigadier General Jack Hammond, and Peter Smyth.Producer and Host: Dr. Ron HirschbergAssistant Producer, Editor: Chuck CloughChairman, Home Base Media Lab: Peter SmythThe views expressed by guests on the Home Base Nation podcast are their own, and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by guests are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Home Base, the Red Sox Foundation, or any of its officials.

This Episodes Questions: Brians Questions: Howdy fellas, Love the podcast!  I'm in the process of building a bench and misjudged how much wood I could get out of a board.  The plans call for two stretchers of 3/4 maple about 65" long and 4.5" wide.  After squaring and thicknessing, I'm down to 0.75-by-65-by-4.25 which is 1/4" too narrow.  I initially thought I'd start over with a new board, but have decided to forge ahead with the slightly narrower stretchers since it won't impact the joiner, should still be plenty strong and will probably be imperceptible.  In this example or others from your experience, how big of a boo-boo do you allow in your projects?  Sorry if you've covered this before, I'm still catching up. Thanks, Bryan In a previous podcast, Brian mentioned he had used raking light after sanding and was impressed by how clearly sanding marks were visible.  I have tried to deliberately use raking light to identify sanding issues.   You can lift a small item at a angle towards an overhead light and sight along the surface which works but if it is larger surface this isn't practical. I have taken an led trouble light and held it at an angle close to surface but rarely see the sanding marks stand out.   At some point in the afternoon sunlight hits the top of a project and marks are clearly visible   .  Any suggestions on  using raking lighting on larger surfaces?  Thanks for the great program, look forward to each new podcast. Dave at Xcuse4tools Custom Woodwork Guys Questions: Appreciate you all and look forward to your podcast. I was making raised panel doors for the cabinets in my shop. The panels are cut on the tablesaw with a tall fence jig and the blade tilted. This works well but leaves a few saw marks on the beveled portion of the panel which need to be cleaned up. The best way i know to sand this area is to wrap sandpaper around a small flat piece of plywood and manually sand it. This is time consuming and you are sanding across grain on two of the four bevels. I was wondering if there are any powered options available. I still have a quarter sheet sander but you hit the outer edge of panel if you use this on the bevel. Have you used a mop or star sanding wheel?  This appears to be good for contours. Hoping you might have some insights possibly with Huy's recent furniture restoration efforts. Thanks, Dave@Xcuse4tools Custom Woodwork Hi there, As always, love the podcast and all of the insights and expertise you share. I'm preparing to do a built-in cabinetry project for our entertainment center. The full set of cabinets will be be about 11 1/2 feet wide. I'm planning to do shaker style doors, but with a beaded pdf panel with vertical beads going across the full width of the panel. I know Guy is probably going to say, “I'd just buy the panels and be done with it”, but let's say that I really wanted to make them myself. How would you recommend cutting all of those beads. I have a Powermatic PM2000 and a nice cast iron router table and handheld routers, but no CNC. I recently saw a video where someone made these kinds of panels with a “Magic Molder” on the table saw. Would love to hear if you have any other methods. Pete Huys Questions: I have been woodworking for 6 years and have learned allot from your podcast. I recently took a finishing class and learned about the different finishes. Mineral spirits is the recommended thinner for oil based finishes. Why does Guy recommend Naphtha. What is the difference between Naphtha and Mineral Spirits. What advantage is there in using Naphtha. Thank you for all the great information you bring to the community. John Gents - Apologies for the long story, but you asked for questions. At the peak of the COVID pandemic I found myself watching far too many YouTube channels and came upon makers using European combination machines. Call it boredom or simply a need for a good excuse to travel during a traffic density period we hope to never see again, I researched a variety of brands and settled on a Robland X-31. This 1,100 pound beast is equipped with a sliding table saw, jointer, planer, shaper and mortiser. It replaced the Delta Unisaw with a 52” Unifence, a 6” Delta clone jointer sold as “Pit Bull,” and a DeWalt DW-735 that I paid $220 because HomeDepot decided to run a price match plus 10-odd percent discount the same week HomeBase was doing its going out of business liquidation. Price shopping for the best planner deal was just a walk-about as both stores shared a common parking lot. So back to the Robland. I convinced myself that I need a change. I started milling logs and the Pit Bull wasn't going to cut face jointing wide boards. I needed a 12” jointer. The 20 by 24 foot shop could not accommodate length of a dedicated 12” jointer, said the little voice in my head. I could sell the Unisaw and the Pit Bull, stuff the DeWalt in a cabinet, it said. The collective footprint of these three tools (the DeWalt was on a mobile base) would be about the same as the X-31, it declared. It will fit into a one-car garage if and when you downsize, it summarized. So off to new custodians these two reliable tools that faithfully served hundreds of tasks. I trekked from Sacramento, California to Yakima, Washington with my 85-year-old dad to pickup a rarely used (red flag as it turned out) green X-31 that had - as the second owner said - sat in the basement of a dentist. Fast forward to today … can't say, yet, if I like or dislike the Robland. It is a pain in the ass to set up. The jointer works great once one learns how to accommodate the relatively short wings. I had electrical problems for the first year. I appreciate the planer's 9” capacity. I miss the efficiency of moving from one dedicated machine to another.  There is little end snipe compared to the 735. I don't know if I'll ever use the mortiser, particularly after buying a Domino. I love the cross cut table. I hate the lack of micro adjustment to the blade height on the table saw. The shaper is a great addition to the shop. It pains me that woodworking with a micrometer was helpful with the Unisaw and is a frustration with the Robland. As I deal deal with these tool grievances, the questions: 1. What would be your advice to a new woodworker to purchase dedicated vs. combination machines? What combination would you recommend and why? 2. We're friends here, right? Did I make a mistake with the Robland? Finally, at risk of being accused of pandering: I agree with Guy's sentiment that the SawStop is a good tool, but its safety feature isn't a replacement for responsible use of power tools. There is a reason SawStop doesn't warranty for injuries. Age for age, I wouldn't trust a 10-year-old SawStop any more than I would a vintage Walker Turner table saw. Hey guys, --------------------------------- First off, thanks for all the knowledge you share—I've been woodworking for a while, but I'm always learning from your podcast. During COVID, I sold my Delta Unisaw, jointer, and DeWalt planer to pick up a Robland X-31 combo machine with a sliding saw, jointer, planer, shaper, and mortiser. I loved the idea of saving space and getting a 12" jointer, but now I have mixed feelings. I like the crosscut table and shaper, but I miss the efficiency and precision of dedicated machines, and the X-31 can be a hassle to set up. So my questions are: 1) For someone just getting into woodworking, would you recommend dedicated machines over a combination unit? Why? 2) Be honest—did I make a mistake going with the Robland? Thanks again for all the insight you share each week. Craig

What if the biggest leap forward for small businesses wasn't about selling more, but reclaiming time? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with John Waldmann, CEO and co-founder of Homebase, to unpack how AI isn't just a Silicon Valley toy for large enterprises but a lifeline for the millions of small businesses keeping local economies afloat. John explains how Homebase's newly launched AI Assistants are transforming everyday operations, automating hiring, scheduling, and admin tasks that once drained hours from already stretched owners and managers. But this is more than a tech play. John shares why he's spent his career championing small business owners, and how Homebase is designed with them, not just for them. We explore how generative AI and real-time personalization are lowering the barrier of entry to entrepreneurship, and why small businesses might actually be outpacing the big players in adopting AI with creativity and speed. From the realities of running a restaurant to designing software that respects the nuances of hourly work, John's perspective offers a refreshing reminder that the goal of AI isn't to replace people. It is to give them more space to do what makes their business special. Could AI finally tilt the playing field in favour of small businesses? And are we doing enough to ensure that human-first values stay at the centre of this technological shift? Listen in, then let us know how you see AI transforming the small business landscape in your world.

We have published 120 episodes since 2019. For this new season, we thought it would be a good idea to look back on some of the highlights of our conversations and select 20 episodes that resonated with veterans, service members, military families, and the civilians who support them.But first up, you'll hear from some of the folks at Home Base who wake up every day with the same mission in mind, no matter what they do at the Center of Excellence in the Navy Yard and beyond. For this episode, you will hear a brief conversation with Air Force Veteran and Regional Associate Director, Regional & Tribal Relations, of Home Base Arizona, Marcus Denetdale. Marcus has been instrumental in facilitating Home Base's partnership with ASU's College of Health Solutions to launch the Warrior Health & Fitness program for Arizona Veterans and their families. He has worked closely with tribal Nations and communities in various capacities. As a nonprofit administrator, he has developed college scholarship programs, recruited Native American college students, and secured research grants for higher education projects totaling over $2.4 million. Marcus has studied civil, environmental, & sustainable engineering within the sustainability specialty area. His research areas include tribal housing, infrastructure & commercial buildings for economic growth and opportunities. His latest project is partnered with ASU to provide safe water access on the Navajo Nation.Following my conversation with Marcus, you'll hear part two of an episode from 2023 with the Pulitzer Prize and Emmy winner Cartoonist, Garry Trudeau. Ron and Garry talk about gaining the trust from military leadership during wartime, with the opportunity to visit Kuwait during the Gulf War after getting the call directly from the battlefield, and how just like visiting Walter Reed, these are chances to Get it Right in order to follow him or her from service member to veteran and from deployment to home. They discuss how he's not really that guy who could ever really tell a joke, and where his humor seems to come from, about his love for putting on a show ever since he was a little kid, and how he shares the mission to support veterans with fellow cartoonist (among other things), Jake Tapper.Run To Home Base: Join Ron and his team and sign up individually or on another team at the 16th annual Run To Home Base on July 26th, 2025, at Fenway Park! Go to runtohomebase.orgPlease visit homebase.org for updates, programming, and resources if you or someone you know is struggling.Home Base Nation is the official podcast for the Home Base Program for Veterans and Military Families. Our team sees veterans, service members, and their families addressing the invisible wounds of war at no cost. This is all made possible thanks to a grateful nation. To learn more about how to help, visit us at www.homebase.org. If you or anyone you know would like to connect to care, you can also reach us at 617-724-5202.Follow Home Base on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedInThe Home Base Nation Team is Steve Monaco, Army Veteran Kelly Field, Justin Scheinert, Chuck Clough, with COO Michael Allard, Brigadier General Jack Hammond, and Peter Smyth.Producer and Host: Dr. Ron HirschbergAssistant Producer, Editor: Chuck CloughChairman, Home Base Media Lab: Peter SmythThe views expressed by guests on the Home Base Nation podcast are their own, and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by guests are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Home Base, the Red Sox Foundation, or any of its officials.

As Paul and Chris Weitz's adaptation rounds out its first season the emphasis on comedy is clear, but how does that compare to the tone of the books by Martha Wells that it's based on? In episode 353, join Luke Elliott & James Bailey as they debate the show's faithfulness, unpack the comedic shift, lobby for slightly longer episodes, and theorize on what might lie ahead in the recently confirmed season 2! ANNOUNCEMENT: Ink to Film is attending WorldCon 2025 in Seattle where they will be interviewing Martha Wells in their first ever live show! Join them on 8/15 @ 4:30PM. More information on WorldCon 2025 can be found here: https://seattlein2025.org/ Pickup All Systems Red or any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writings: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

We have published 120 episodes since 2019. For this new season, we thought it would be a good idea to look back on some of the highlights of our conversations and select 20 episodes that resonated with veterans, service members, military families, and the civilians who support them.But first up, you'll hear from some of the folks at Home Base who wake up every day with the same mission in mind, no matter what they do at the Center of Excellence in the Navy Yard and beyond. For this episode, you will hear a brief conversation with the Admissions Coordinator at Home Base, Zachary Morin. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Zach spent two years serving with AmeriCorps in the Miami-Dade Public Schools, working with middle school students on literacy, social and emotional development, as well as civic engagement. Upon completing his service, Zachary returned to New England to lead the College Ready Communities program in Northern Rhode Island. Here, his work included holistic programming for vulnerable youth populations and overall community engagement initiatives. He also has a creative/performative side, which he will talk about.Following my conversation with Zach, you'll hear an episode from 2023 with the Pulitzer Prize and Emmy-winning cartoonist, Garry Trudeau. Garry is also an Army Commander's Award for Public Service honoree. In this conversation, Garry tells us that not only did his dad and grandfather both serve, but they were also both physicians. He recounts an eye-opening visit to Walter Reed Medical Center, with stories of injury and resilience that not only informed his storytelling but have had lasting impacts on him. As a big fan of author Sebastian Junger, he discusses the innate need for the tribe to survive, and explains a bit of his creative process. Part Two will come shortly.Run To Home Base: Join Ron and his team and sign up individually or on another team at the 16th annual Run To Home Base on July 26th, 2025, at Fenway Park! Go to runtohomebase.orgPlease visit homebase.org for updates, programming, and resources if you or someone you know is struggling.Home Base Nation is the official podcast for the Home Base Program for Veterans and Military Families. Our team sees veterans, service members, and their families addressing the invisible wounds of war at no cost. This is all made possible thanks to a grateful nation. To learn more about how to help, visit us at www.homebase.org. If you or anyone you know would like to connect to care, you can also reach us at 617-724-5202.Follow Home Base on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedInThe Home Base Nation Team is Steve Monaco, Army Veteran Kelly Field, Justin Scheinert, Chuck Clough, with COO Michael Allard, Brigadier General Jack Hammond, and Peter Smyth.Producer and Host: Dr. Ron HirschbergAssistant Producer, Editor: Chuck CloughChairman, Home Base Media Lab: Peter SmythThe views expressed by guests on the Home Base Nation podcast are their own, and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by guests are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Home Base, the Red Sox Foundation, or any of its officials.

Paul and Chris Weitz's Apple TV adaptation of Martha Wells' series “The Murderbot Diaries” sets itself apart from the books from the beginning through shifts in tone, character, and more, but how well are the changes working? In episode 352, join Luke Elliott & James Bailey as they react to Alexander Skarsgård's performance as everyone's favorite SecUnit, learn to love the goofballs humans Murderbot is trying to protect, unpack the changes that push the show into more of a true comedy than the books, and theorize on what's to come in the second half of the season. Also, they include a SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Ink to Film is attending WorldCon 2025 in Seattle where they will be interviewing Martha Wells in their first ever live show! Join them on 8/15 @ 4:30PM. More information on WorldCon 2025 can be found here: https://seattlein2025.org/ Pickup All Systems Red or any of the novels they've covered at the Ink to Film Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/shop/inktofilm Support Ink to Film on Patreon for bonus content, merch, and the ability to vote on upcoming projects! https://www.patreon.com/inktofilm Ink to Film's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (@inktofilm) Home Base: inktofilm.com Luke Elliott Website: www.lukeelliottauthor.com Social Media: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/social Writings: https://www.lukeelliottauthor.com/publications James Bailey Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamebail.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamebail/

We have published 120 episodes since 2019. For this new season, we thought it would be a good idea to look back on some of the highlights of our conversations and select 20 episodes that resonated with veterans, service members, military families, and the civilians who support them.But first up, you'll hear from some of the folks at Home Base who wake up every day with the same mission in mind, no matter what they do at the Center of Excellence in the Navy Yard and beyond. If you are just tuning in to the show, our host, Dr. Ron Hirschberg, and I have reviewed more than 120 published episodes since 2019. We chose 20 or so to share with you again that resonated with veterans, service members, military families, and the civilians who support them.For this episode, you will hear a brief conversation with Dr. Drew Teer who completed his PhD in clinical psychology from Emory University, where he also finished his internship at Emory University's School of Medicine at Grady Memorial Hospital as well as his postdoctoral fellowship with the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program – one of the other Warrior Care Network sites. Drew is passionate about providing science-based treatments for PTSD and other internalizing disorders. His research interests include identifying factors that may influence responses to PTSD treatment and enhancing treatments for underserved and complex trauma populations.Following my conversation with Dr. Teer, you'll hear an episode with 7-time nominated and 2-time Grammy winner and Marine Veteran, Shaggy. For Shaggy, music has been a vehicle to bring different kinds of people together for a shared experience. But it's not just the music that does this; it's his spirit and grit, which were undoubtedly shaped by his Marine background.Run To Home Base: Join Ron and his team and sign up individually or on another team at the 16th annual Run To Home Base on July 26th, 2025, at Fenway Park! Go to runtohomebase.orgPlease visit homebase.org for updates, programming, and resources if you or someone you know is struggling.Home Base Nation is the official podcast for the Home Base Program for Veterans and Military Families. Our team sees veterans, service members, and their families addressing the invisible wounds of war at no cost. This is all made possible thanks to a grateful nation. To learn more about how to help, visit us at www.homebase.org. If you or anyone you know would like to connect to care, you can also reach us at 617-724-5202.Follow Home Base on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedInThe Home Base Nation Team is Steve Monaco, Army Veteran Kelly Field, Justin Scheinert, Chuck Clough, with COO Michael Allard, Brigadier General Jack Hammond, and Peter Smyth.Producer and Host: Dr. Ron HirschbergAssistant Producer, Editor: Chuck CloughChairman, Home Base Media Lab: Peter SmythThe views expressed by guests on the Home Base Nation podcast are their own, and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by guests are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Home Base, the Red Sox Foundation, or any of its officials.

Screenshot of Screenshot.app Eufy Part 2 - Outdoor Cam E220, S380 HomeBase, and Wireless SoloCam S340s Support the Show Security Bits — 6 July 2025 Transcript of NC_2025_07_06 Join the Conversation: allison@podfeet.com podfeet.com/slack Support the Show: Patreon Donation Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation PayPal one-time donation Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle NosillaCast 20th Anniversary Shirts Referral Links: Setapp - 1 month free for you and me Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me Backblaze - One free month for me and you Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you. PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

One of the core values of Buzz Knight Media Productions is supporting the great work of charitable organizations. We love the work of Home Base here in Boston which supports veterans and their families and General Jack Hammond and Dr. Ron Hirshberg do amazing work along with their team. Their podcast is called Home Base Nation and on this episode, the great singer songwriter Mary Gauthier. A Note to our Community Your support means everything to us! As we continue to grow, we’d love to hear what guests you might find interesting and what conversations you’d like us to explore next. Have a friend who might enjoy our conversations? Please share our podcast with them! Your word of mouth recommendations help us reach new listeners that could benefit from our content. Thank you for being part of our community. We’re excited for what’s ahead! Check out our newest podcast called “Comedy Saved Me” wherever you get your podcasts. Warmly Buzz Knight Founder Buzz Knight Media ProductionsSupport the show: https://takinawalk.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What To Do & When - Wedding Planning Step-by-Step21 Wedding BUDGET SAVING Tips Want to ask Jamie your wedding planning questions? Join her in The Master Plan!What did you think about this episode?  What were your takeaways?  I want to hear your feedback!  Screenshot the episode and post your thoughts on Instagram and tag us @wolferandco. You can get your Perfect Wedding Timeline - HERE!Be sure to grab your Ultimate Wedding Day Checklist at https://www.wolferandco.com/engagechecklistYou are also invited to join the Facebook Wedding Community she has created for y'all to support each other. ❤️P.S. — These links may use affiliate platforms where commission may be earned based on clicks and/or purchases, and I would love it if you used them! It won't cost you anything extra, but affiliate links are RAD because they help creators like me to fund the free content we provide.

Find out what makes Liverpool worth at least a day's visit even for those with no interest in Fab Four lore, then hear from renowned classicist Mary Beard about some of the best places outside Italy to see remnants of the ancient Roman empire. And learn why one expert recommends finding a good home base to unlace your boots on a multi-day European hiking trip. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.

An often overlooked secret to improving your meditation practice. Sebene Selassie, an author and meditation teacher. She writes the popular newsletter remind me to love and her first book is called, You Belong.  Jeff Warren is also an author and meditation teacher. He writes the popular Substack newsletter Home Base and is the coauthor, along with me, of a book called Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. And he is the co-host of the mind/bod adventure pod. Register for Meditation Party at the Omega Institute, Oct 24–26, 2025.   In this episode we talk about: The perks of meditating with friends The importance of friendship in chaotic times  How to have difficult conversations  Authenticity vs wanton oversharing Working with the thorny stuff that can come up in relationships Advice for people pleasers Building meaningful relationships in the age of social media Sign up for Dan's newsletter here Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok Ten Percent Happier online bookstore Subscribe to our YouTube Channel Our favorite playlists on: Anxiety, Sleep, Relationships, Most Popular Episodes To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris