Podcasts about if michael

Michael Lawrence joins the podcast today to talk about Florida's water issues and how you can help, even if you don't live in Florida. Michael lives in Kentucky, but loves to fish in Florida and wanted to make a difference. Michael texted me with his ideas so I decided to have him on the podcast to let everyone know. Check out this episode to find out how you can help, because Florida NEEDS YOUR HELP. If Michael can help support the state of Florida from outside the state, so can you! Do you have ideas like Michael's? Text me at 305-930-7346 and let me know. WIN A FISHING VACATION AT HAWKS CAY! Click Here to Enter: http://tackledirect.tv If you have questions or suggestions for the show you can text Tom at 1 305-930-7346 This episode has been brought to you by Waypoint TV. Waypoint is the ultimate outdoor network featuring streaming of full-length fishing and hunting television shows, short films and instructional content, a social media network, Podcast Network. Waypoint is available on Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, IoS devices, Android Devices and at www.waypointtv.com all for FREE! Join the Waypoint Army by following them on Instagram at the following accounts @waypointtv @waypointfish @waypointsalt @waypointboating @waypointhunt @waypointoutdoorcollective Find over 150 full episodes of Saltwater Experience on Waypoint You can follow Tom Rowland on Instagram @tom_rowland and find all episodes and show notes at Tomrowlandpodcast.com Learn more about Tom's Television shows by visiting their websites: Saltwater Experience Into the Blue Sweetwater   Contact Tom through email: Podcast@saltwaterexperience.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode, I chat with Michael Anthony about his continual journey of self-growth. Michael was born to a hyper-abusive drug addict mother who cut his finger off at 4 years old, a step-father you pray you never have, and a racist grandmother that pushed him into having an identity crisis. By the time he was 9, his family was in poverty and often homeless all while being members of the Mormon Church. At twelve, he was adopted by his grandmother and quickly turned to drugs and alcohol to survive the continued abuse. Despite multiple learning disabilities and not graduating high school on time, Michael found success in Corporate America in his early twenties. Upon finding his success, the large influx of money, initially, only made things worse. Michael found himself morbidly obese, high and drunk daily, and ultimately self-sabotaging everything around him. It was not until finding his inner power through his Mirror Moment and choosing to do whatever it took to work through childhood trauma that his life really began. On this episode we dive into: Childhood abuse and addiction The effects money can have on addiction Michael’s journey through self-growth and practising meditation Creating and executing, self-discipline Overcoming childhood abuse What you can do to set yourself up for success (mentally) in the aftermath of experiencing abuse The take-home: Today, Michael Anthony is the author of the best-selling book “Think Unbroken” and is a coach, mentor, and educator for adult survivors of child abuse. Michael spends his time helping other survivors get out of, "The Vortex" to help people become the hero of their own story and take their lives back. Michael is also the host of The Michael Unbroken Podcast, teaches at Think Unbroken Academy, and is on a mission to create change in the world. Michael is the perfect example of how you really can come out of - AND, overcome anything! If Michael’s story resonates with you, know that you are not alone. It’s all about making a decision and moving forward warriors, and I believe that each and every one of you has the power within you already, just like Michael did - to move forward too! Get in touch with with Michael Anthony: Business Instagram: @michaelunbroken Website: https://www.thinkunbroken.com Think Unbroken Academy: https://www.thinkunbroken.com/academy Listen to The Michael Unbroken Podcast: Click here Book: Think Unbroken: Understanding and Overcoming Childhood Trauma — I am now working with one of my favourite brands, Puratae! I have been searching for some time now to find a product from a company where I truly feel aligned with the brand and all of the contents within the product. These greens are 100% clean and are packed with high nutrient-dense vitamins and minerals in every serving and they are truly serving my body and mind well! I start every day with my Puratae greens and the product (honestly) tastes like candy. Puratae also donates 10 meals to children in need for every bag of product sold - so if you are looking for a high-quality product that is going to be a huge step in helping you reach your goals, go check it out at: muvelife.puratae.com. Use discount code: MUVE10 at checkout for 10% off!

The season finale of Star Trek Discovery Season 3 is here, aptly titled "That Hope is You Part 2." We learn the full and complete truth behind the cause of the burn, and we see a resolution to the Emerald Chain / Osyraa plot. My response is mostly positive to this episode. I was happier with the cause of the burn than I think a lot of people will be, but let's dig in and talk about the episode. ----more---- Transcript Welcome to Nerd Heaven I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars And I am a Nerd   This is episode 50 of the podcast. Today, we’re talking about the season finale of Star Trek Discovery Season 3. That Hope is You Part 2.   The last 13 weeks have been a wild ride. I certainly feel this has been a strong season, the best that the modern Trek era has given us so far.   The description on Memory Alpha reads   As the Emerald Chain tightens its grip and the mystery of the Burn is finally solved, Burnham and the crew have one last chance to save themselves – and the Federation. (Season Finale)   This episode was written by Michelle Paradise It was directed by Olantunde Osunsanmi And it first aired on the 7th of January 2021.   Make it so.   While I was watching the teaser to this episode, before the opening titles had even shown, I turned to my wife and said “I know who directed this episode.” First time I’ve ever picked up on a director from their style. Olantunde Osunsanmi likes to do weird things with the camera, film stuff upside down and have the camera rotate around as the scene goes. Sometimes it’s a bit much for me. I feel that if the filmmaking draws too much attention to itself, it pulls me out of the story. But there were some moments in this episode where I found it effective.   We open with a beautiful shot of a gormagander flying through the skies of the simulated environment on Su’kal’s planet. We saw them in the background two episodes ago, but we get confirmation here that they are actually gormaganders. Space whales. I think they look awesome. We encountered them in season 1 but didn’t really get to see them in full flight like this.   The holographic narrator explains that gormaganders have spent more time on the Federation’s endangered list than any other species. However, this image is of a pup found in 3052, so that gives me hope that the species may be starting to recover by the 32nd century.   Su’kal is still unwilling to listen to Saru talk about his true nature.   Saru has to tread very carefully with him. If he causes Su’kal too much emotional distress, he may trigger another burn, and that could destroy what remains of the Federation. It’s a tricky situation. Saru’s greatest resource in this struggle is his Kelpien nature. But how does he convince the young man of his true species, when the holodeck has made him look human? (and I talked two weeks ago about how illogical it was that the holodeck made him look human, assigning seemingly random species to everybody.)   And then Adira shows up. This is the first time Culbert and Saru have seen her, so we’re backtracking a little in time, this is probably happening whiler Michael and Book are hurtling through the transwarp corridor at the start of last week’s episode.   The holodeck has made Adira look Xahean. Nice little callback to season 2. Adira gives them the medicine. It won’t cure them but it’ll buy them time until they can be rescued.   And then the real shock. Gray appears - looking like a Vulcan. And Culbert and Saru can see him. The holodeck recognises Gray as a separate independent lifeform, which is fascinating. The nature of Gray is still a big mystery, and it’s not resolved in this episode. We’ll have to look forward to season 4 for further exploration of this. But the fact that the holodeck recognises Grayt as a lifeform tells us something. It’s very interesting.   And I love the way Culbert and Gray react to each other. Gray is so thrilled to be seen. And Culbert embraces him like a long-lost son. It’s pretty cool.   It’s so weird so see him in full Vulcan makeup, but with blue hair and a big smile on his face. It seems that Gray can experience some form of sensation because when Culbert hugs him, he feels it. 32nd century holograms would be much more advanced than those we saw in the 24th century, so I can buy that.   Meanwhile, a battle rages at Starfleet headquarters. The Veridian is bombarding the shield. I imagine it won’t hold forever.   Voyager is ordered to fire on the Veridian. Nice to hear it referenced again. All other ships are ordered to fire on Discovery. IT seems Vance is very willing to sacrifice that ship and crew to safeguard the rest of Starfleet. And as horrible as it is, I do understand that. Even taking the spore drive into account, it’s a numbers game.   All hope for negotiation is gone at this point. As soon as Booker told Osyraa about the dilithium planet, she no longer needed the Federation.  Book is no longer willing to help her get to the planet, because she killed Ryn last week. It was sad to see him go, but he was the logical choice to die. Not a regular or semi-regular, but not a redshirt either. That meant his death hurt more. Osyraa has a truth serum so she doesn’t need Book to be cooperative.   So because Vance wouldn’t accept her proposed peace, and because she no longer needs them, she’s gone from wanting to ally with the Federation, to wanting to obliterate them completely. Out of spite.   Tilly and the bridge crew’s rebellion is going well, but it’s short-lived because Osyraa is turning off life-support on their section of the ship. Not much they can do about that.   Starfleet headquarters are about to lose their shield. Stammets appears, begging Vance to let him return to Discovery so they can rescue Saru, Culbert and Adira. Sadly for him, Vance agrees with Michael. They have to keep Stammets far away from Discovery, to ensure Osyraa doesn’t learn the secrets of the spore drive.   I’m not sure Vance speaks with enough compassion when he says “I know what you’re sacrificing here. I’m sorry.” But then he’s in the middle of a desperate battle and the shield is going down. He did well to be able to speak with Stammets at all given the circumstances.   And that’s when the Vulcans arrive. A fleet from Ni’var. I called it last week. Michael sent a good-bye message to her mother, so Gabriel got Ni’Var to send the cavalry.   Michael convinces Osyraa to let her hail Vance. She tries to talk Vance into letting them go. They can afford to lose the spore drive as long as Stammets is safely hidden away.   The way she locks eyes with Vance through the viewscreen and says “Trust me” suggests some hidden communication between them. Michael has a plan. She needs him to let Discovery go so she can implement it.   Vance isn’t happy, but he lets them go. But Osyraa won’t give the bridge crew their life support back. “They had their chance,” she says.   Osyraa needs Aurellio to provide the truth serum. He’s not so willing to cooperate. He’s seen what Osyra is capable of. And the use of the drug, combined with Book’s empathic abilities, will make the experience excruciating. Aurellio doesn’t want to inflict that kind of pain on Book. Autellio is a good man.   We learn a little about how Orion physiology differs from human. Like a lot of characters in sci-fi TV, they may look similar to humans, but under the skin, there are a lot of differences. But all of this is a metaphor for Osyraa’s feelings. Her moral compass. It’s much more complicated than Aurellio’s. In other words, she can find ways to mentally justify all sorts of horrible things in her mind.   I suspected, last week, that Aurellio was Osyraa’s husband. That seems not to be the case. She refers to “his family.” Not “our family.” She’s fond of him, but she keeps him around because he’s useful to her. Zareh says this is a no-win scenario for Michael, but she replies that she doesn’t believe in those, which is a direct reference to Kirk. It was a little bit on the nose for me. That’s Kirk’s thing. Give Michael her own thing.   This is when Michael starts to implement her plan. She pretends to give in, to want to convince Book to tell Osyraa what she wants to know, but as soon as she’s close to him, she attacks the regulators, taking their phasers and activating a forcefield. She and book are now separated. And they run off into the ship.   To reboot the ship’s computer, and restore the crew’s command codes, somebody has to be present at the data core. Not sure that makes sense, logically, but it works for dramatic tension.   We learn why Michael couldn’t beam with her com badge last week. The emerald chain have got transport inhibitors on the ship. Okay. That makes more sense. And I see why they’d do that from a story-telling perspective. If Michael could beam anywhere, she wouldn’t have had to crawl around the ship, and that was half the fun of last week’s episode. Michael sends a cryptic message to Tilly. She wants the crew to set off an explosion on the warp nacelle. It’ll knock Discovery out of warp. The dots can’t do it because of reasons, so it has to be done by a human.  We learn that Owo can hold her breath for a long time. Growing up on her home planet, she used to dive for abalone in the underwater caves. I believe they dive for abalone here in Tasmania. Anyway, that makes her well suited for this mission.   Meanwhile Michael and Book are gonna head for the data core. But annoyingly, we get yet another reference to people consuming synthahol a century before it will be invented.   Saru speaks to Su’kal of Kelpien cuisine. He admits he is a Kelpien, but has no proof to offer. But you can see in Su’kal’s face that he’s mulling it all over. Su’kal admits he has noticed that the Holo sometimes changes things.  We learn why Su’kal is so hesitant to talk about the outside. The holo told him the Federation would come from outside to rescue him. But they never came. It’s almost like he’s lost his faith because he feels let down. Of course, the Federation have come now. Just not as soon as Su’kal was hoping. This gives Saru an opening to explain the burn to him. Now he has Su’kal’s attention. He wants to understand because this is his life.   Saru can relate to Su’kal’s hesitance to leave the only world he’s known. He had to choose to leave Kaminar all those years ago. He’s getting through to him in a way that nobody else could. Whatever is behind the locked door that terrifies Su’kal, he has to face it. The monster from the folk tale is trying to help him. To encourage him to face his fear.   But Su’kal isn’t ready to believe that. He wants to see the elder.   Culbert and Adira need to explore outside the edge of the simulation but the radiation is too strong out there. Lucky for them, they have holo-gray. Radiation can’t hurt him because he doesn’t have a real body. Of course, he’s also holographic, so his body shouldn’t work outside the simulation. Bit of a plot hole there. But maybe it works. The ship they’re on has holographic emitters. Holograms can probably be sustained anywhere on the ship, not just within the confines of the simulation.   Culbert explains his theory about Su’kal. He believes that because he was born on this planet, his body was adjusted to be able to interact with dilithium in unique ways. Dilithium has a subspace component. Su’kal’s scream traveled at the resonant frequency of dilithium’s subspace components. That’s what hit every ship’s warp core during the burn.   Whatever happened to him 125 years ago was much worse than whatever upset him today.   Gray learns that the ship is falling apart. They need Su’kal to help them, and they need him to do it now.   Unfortunately, the elder is gone. The program is degrading. The Elder’s stories calmed Su’kal. But he doesn’t have that anymore. In a nice tender moment, Saru explains “you have us. You are not alone.”   Michael and Book are still making their way to the data core. We get an extended action sequence through the turbo shafts.   Discovery’s shuttles don’t travel through a shaft as such, they float through open space, through rings that kinda appear and disappear as needed. It looks pretty cool. But is it logical?   My issue with this is there is so much wide empty space inside the ship for the turbolifts to fly through, that just isn’t needed.   This whole sequence felt very Star Wars. Star Wars favours what looks cool over what is logical. You know, you’ll have characters fighting with lightsabers, surrounded by all this cool looking technology which looks awesome but doesn’t appear to have any meaningful reason to exist. Think of the duel between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon and Darth Maul in Episode 1.   This turbolift sequence looked great. It was cool and fun, but I had to suspend my disbelief a bit more than I feel I should when watching Star Trek.   Anyway, Michael arrives at the data core. But Osyraa has gone there to meet her. So we get our obligatory season finale fist-fight between the hero and the villain. And it’s another great action scene. We get to see Book kill Zareh while Michael takes on Osyraa. Meanwhile, Owo makes it to the nacelle and sets off the explosion. The dot rescues her just before the explosion, essentially sacrificing itself. The episode plays the loss of the dot as a significant thing. But it’s just an avatar. It’s not like the destruction of this robot is gonna mean the death of the sphere data AI.   We see last year how impossible it was to completely destroy that data. The reboot Michael is trying to perform won’t do it. If it were that simple, they’d have just reboot the computer last year, rather than travelling into the future.   Osyraa almost kills Michael by pushing her into this weird well of programmable matter. It reminded me of Superman 3 actually, that scene that seemed so creepy when I was a kid, when the woman gets eaten by the computer and turned into a cyborg. Completely ridiculous of course. And way, Michael shoots out of the wall, kills Osytraa and escapes. It was an odd ending to the fight, but again, it looked cool.   So the ship is rebooted. Starfleet are now in command again, life support is back up, and the ship is out of warp, so reinforcements can catch up.   They still have a problem, though. Discovery has been sucked inside the Veridian.  Michael has an idea about that, and Tilly tells her to implement it, effectively putting Michael in command. She is the ranking officer on the ship. Even though Tilly is first officer. She’s gonna blow up the Veridian by ejecting Discovery’s warp core. But how will Discovery not be destroyed as well? The only way is to jump away. Stammets can navigate the jump because he has tardigrade DNA. But Aurellio thinks Book can do it as well, because of his magic nature powers. Makes sense. It’s a nice little development, in my opinion.   Book gives us a little hint as to his back-story. We learned weeks ago that Cleaveland Booker isn’t his real name. Apparently, it was the name of his mentor. He took that name and tries to live up to it every day. Interesting.   Jumping the ship is proving harder for Book than they’d hoped. Michael keeps telling him to jump, but nothing happens. Then the Veridian explodes. This is fake tension. We know they’re not gonna destroy the discovery and kill all the crew. So I kinda wish they’d just shown discovery jumping away. Don’t get me wrong. The lead-up to the explosion was wonderfully tense. But the fake-out didn’t work for me.   We learn what Su’kal is really afraid of. It’s turning off the holo. Behind the door are the holo controls. He hasn’t been in here since he was a child. Gray is afraid. Once the holo is turned off, he’ll disappear. Adira will still be able to see him, but that’s not enough for him. Again, I like how Culbert comforts him. “We’ve got you gray. We’ll find a way to help you be truly seen”   This moment, as Su’kal goes to deactivate the holo is the emotional heart of the episode, of the season, really. Once the program has ended, we find that we’re not in a holodeck as such, just a normal room on the ship. I understand that in the 32nd century, holograms can be projected anywhere, so in one sense, they don’t need a holodeck as such, but it’s still practical to have a dedicated room. I mean, shouldn’t they have been tripping over chairs and things? The holodeck uses force fields to keep you in a confined area during the simulation. I suppose this could be done anywhere on the ship but it just seems a little impractical. But for story-telling reasons, it makes sense for them to be here. Where they can immediately see Su’kal’s mother. (although it would have made sense for her to have died in the holodeck, as she activated the program for her son.) Su’kal’s next order is a brave one. “Computer, show me what happened here, so I can be free.” But his new friends have prepared him for this moment. So Su’kal’s mother had already put him in the simulation. So he didn’t have to watch her die. She told him not to touch the controls until the federation arrive. But he turned off the simulation. He saw everyone dead but his mother. And she was really sick from radiation poisoning. The poor kid watches his mother die in front of him, and he screams like he’s never screamed before. He sends out the shockwave that causes the burn. I suspected this would be the case.    Saru tells him he is no longer alone. And then Su’kal turns around to see Saru in his Kelpien form. It’s a beautiful moment. Saru just gained a brother.   So. Now we know the full complete details about what caused the burn. What do I think about it? I suspect many will not like it. Two weeks ago, many were saying “is that it? A Kelpien child screaming?”   And I can understand that from a certain perspective, it could feel anticlimactic. Like a weak payoff. But you know what. As I think about it, I think there’s a real poignance to the entire galaxy being ripped apart by the heartfelt anguish of a child seeing its mother die. And the sentimental family man in me really likes it. So … I’m good with this. I like it. This is definitely the best pay-off that Star Trek Discovery (or Picard) has given us. So this is very much a positive response from me. It’s very emotional. Very character-focussed.   Anyway, Discovery arrives just in time to rescue them. And they return to Starfleet headquarters. The epilogue of the episode kinda ties together everything into a common theme. The human need to connect. Gray feels that very strongly. Su’kal felt that need growing up all alone with nothing but holograms to keep him company. The various scattered worlds have felt it on a global scale, the need to connect with the rest of the galaxy.   This is hit home at the very end with a quote from Gene Roddenberry. “In a very real sense, we are all aliens on a strange planet. We spend most of our lives reaching out and trying to communicate. If during our whole lifetime we could reach out and really communicate with just two people, we are indeed very fortunate.”   Stammets is very happy to be reunited with Culbert and Gray. He gives Michael a look. It’s not quite a complete forgiveness of what she did, but I think there is some genuine gratitude that she rescues them. I think it’ll take a while for these two to regain their former friendship. But I think it’ll happen.   It was nice to see little glimpses of Doctor Pollard and Jet Reno.   The emerald chain has fractured without Osyraa. That kinda feels a little sudden. But thinking about it, a fractured chain could be worse. A whole lot of independent mercenaries out there just looking to their own interests.   But it’s nice to see the Federation beginning to rebuild. The Trill have returned and the Vulcans and Romulans of Ni’var are considering it.   Saru is taking some time off, helping Su’kal settle in on Kaminar. He is reportedly wanting to consider his future, which I suppose means he’s not sure he wants to remain in Starfleet. I’m not sure I buy that. He loves his homeworld and he’ll be very happy to see it again. He’ll always have a bond with Su’kal, but Starfleet is his life. His passion.   And it’s wonderful to finally see Sahil, the lone guy on the Federation outpost from the first episode of this season. He’s now been commissioned as a Starfleet Officer with the rank of Lieutenant. I really wanted to see him again. It would be nice if we see more of him next season.   And that’s when Vance has a heart to heart with Michael. First, nice to know Vance is a family man. He has a wife and daughter, off somewhere else where they’re safe. I love that. Vance has come to respect Michael’s unique way of doing things.    Michael, and the other Discovery crew have had to wrestle with how to live in this new time more than the people who are native to it, because she came from a different time. That allowed Michael to see new ways of doing things. And she has taught Vance a thing or two.   Now I have very mixed feelings about what happens next. Vance offers Michael command of Discovery. Apparently it’s Saru who wants Michael to be the captain. But Vance agrees.   She’s a little hesitant, but Vance needs somebody commanding that ship now. There is an important job to be done. The dilithium from that planet needs to be distributed around the galaxy to those that need it. Only Discovery can carry out that mission.   So Michael accepts.   So we now have captain Michael Burnham of the USS Discovery.   Now on one hand, I like this. Michael has what it takes to be a captain. She wasn’t ready when Georgiou first suggested it back in The Vulcan Hello, but she’s learned a lot since then. She’s grown up a lot.    And this effectively solves what I’ve been calling the Michael Burnham problem. The idea that we have a lead of this show, who isn’t the captain of the ship, so they have to make everything be about her, because they have to constantly justify the fact that she is the lead character. With her in the captain’s chair, well, it works just like any other Star Trek show.   his is good for Michael’s character. It’s the next logical step for her arc.  So I like that.   But what about Captain Saru. I’ve loved Captain Saru this season. His arc throughout the whole season has been him learning to be a better captain. If he’s no longer going to be captain then it feels like that was all for nothing. And I hate that. I don’t want Saru to leave the show. And I know he’s returning for season 4, which they’re filming right now. And I definitely don’t want him to get demoted down to serving under captain Burnham. So where does that leave his character? Command of another ship? That could work, but it would probably mean we’d see less of him next season as the show would follow Burnham on Discovery.   This leaves me with great concerns for how Saru’s character will be treated next season, and I’m not happy about it.   So like I said. Mixed feelings.   It IS cool to see that the Discovery crew are finally wearing the new Starfleet uniforms. So looking at the crew’s colours, Culbert is in white for medical. MAkes sense. Stammets is in science blue. Obviously. Tilly is also in science blue. She was technically engineering when she first started, I believe. I wonder what this means for her position as first officer. Will she serve as Michael’s number one? If so, she should probably be in command red. Although maybe she’ll be like spock and have a joint position as science officer and first officer. If they do keep her as first officer, that should at least promote her to Lieutenant. Realistically, she should be at least Lieutenant Commander to be first officer. Detmer and Owo are both in engineering yellow, which is kinda weird. Owo might make sense, as operations tends to be yellow. But I’d expect Detmer, as helm officer, to be in red.  But maybe the colours work a little different in the 32nd century than they did in the 24th. It has been a very long time.   And another surprise. Adira is in Starfleet uniform. So have they been fast-tracked through Starfleet academy given prior experience in the earth defence force? Maybe. Maybe Adira will be a cadet serving on Discovery kinda like Tilly was in season 1.   Book is also on the bridge, but not in uniform. The episode, and the season, ends with a classic Star Trek fanfare, and then the TOS theme playing over the ending credits.   I’m not sure ths TOS theme fits as well here as it did with the last two seasons, but I think it’s meant to signify that Starfleet of the 32nd century are returning to former ideals of exploration and peaceful coexistence.   Next season should prove interesting. I’m very keen to learn what it will be about. I wonder when we’ll get our first trailer. Not for a while. But I assume we’ll get a few verbal tidbits from Alex Kurtzman or Michelle Paradise at some point.   So that was Star Trek Discovery season 3. As I said at the start, I thought it was a very strong season. The best so far. I really enjoyed it. Discovery has well and truly established itself as a Star Trek show next to all the others at this point. I nitpic things from time to time, but no Star Trek show has ever been perfect. But the last 13 weeks have been a wonderful experience. Well. That was quite a ride. It’s been a lot of work putting together weekly podcasts in a timely manner. I’m glad I moved my release date from Saturdays to Mondays, because it just took a little of the pressure off.   But I’m looking forward to taking it a little bit easier now that I won’t be covering a show airing for the first time.   I’ve mentioned it a couple of times before, but starting next episode, I’m going to begin covering Stargate Universe. It’s a show that not a lot of podcasters or youTubers have talked about. It’s actually a pretty divisive show, a little like Discovery.   I’m going to move back to a fortnightly schedule. I’ll do my first Stargate episode next week, and then I’ll be back the week after as well, because I’ll be covering the 3-part pilot over a course of two episodes, But then I’ll be taking my first week off. From that point, we’ll be on the fortnightly schedule.   I hope you’ll continue to join me into the future, but if Stargate isn’t your thing and you want to part ways here, then thank you very much for joining me through Star Trek Discovery. This certainly won’t be the last time we cover Star Trek on Nerd Heaven. I’ve always loved Star Trek. It’s my primary fandom.   Anyway, There’s a lot of very cool stuff to talk about in Stargate Universe. In a lot of ways, it was ahead of its time. It feels very much like a modern sci-fi show. It was heavily influenced by Battlestar Galactica, which, in a way, has shaped all sci-fi TV ever since, including both Discovery and Picard.   I’ll be here next week to talk about the episodes Air Parts 1 and 2.   Until then, have a great week. Live long and prosper.   Make it so.

In our last episode of 2020, come join our B3 holiday party and get to know teammates Robyn, Michael, Alexa, Gina, Paige, Joe, Mehdi and Kelsey! No science in this one, just some holiday cheer as we sit around the proverbial Zoom fireplace to ask and answer some comical questions. Episode notes: If Michael were a wrestler, this is the song he would walk out to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WN0T-Ee3q4 If Mehdi were a wrestler, this is the song he would walk out to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw

In the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery, Michael Burnham must choose between loyalty to Starfleet, and her captain, and helping a friend. Cleaveland Booker has located a black box that could provide vital information into the source of the burn, but he has been captured. This was a solid action episode with some nice connections to the larger arc, in both plot and character. ----more---- Transcript Welcome to Nerd Heaven I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars. And I am a Nerd   This is episode 43 of the podcast. Today, we’re talking about Star Trek Discovery “Scavengers”   The description on Memory Alpha reads After receiving a message from Book, Burnham and Georgiou embark on a rogue mission to find him, leaving Saru to pick up the pieces with Admiral Vance. Meanwhile, Stamets forms an unexpected bond with Adira.   This episode was written by Anne Cofell Saunders It was directed by Douglas Aarniokoski And it first aired on the 19th of November 2020.   Make it so.   We begin the episode with a zooming out shot of the USS Discovery, which has undergone an extensive refit to bring it in line with 32nd-century technology.  As we pull back, we see the name and registry have been repainted. NCC 1031-A. Okay. That’s kind of a big deal. So this is now the Discovery A. But is that valid? The letter is added to the registry when a brand new ship is constructed and given the name of an iconic ship. But this isn’t a new ship. It’s a refit to the same ship. It’s a very extensive refit, but then, so was the refit to Kirk’s original Enterprise in Star Trek The Motion Picture. But that ship was not the Enterprise A. It was just the Enterprise. The Enterprise A was a brand-new ship that first appeared at the end of Star Trek IV after the original was destroyed in Star Trek III.   So...technically, this shouldn’t be the Discovery A. However, it could be argued that this refit is even more extensive than the one from The Motion Picture. And maybe the rules for registry numbers have changed over the centuries. So … I think we can just accept it. I’ll admit that I do get a bit of a kick out of the A.   This refit has taken 3 weeks. They’ve installed programmable matter, which makes a lot of sense. They’ve also detached the nacelles. Saru says this is to make the engines more efficient and the ship more maneuverable.   The nacelles are floating next to the ship. I’ll admit, this whole detached nacelles thing is a bit weird to me. My first reaction is, that’s silly and doesn’t make any sense. My second reaction is, 930 years have passed. We SHOULD be seeing things that are so wacky and out there that they seem to make no sense. That’s actually logical. So the more unbelievable it is, the more believable it is. I assume the nacelles are kept close to the ship by some kind of tractor beam or gravity field. How does the power get to them? Wireless power, I suppose. That’s already kind of a thing.   So ultimately, I approve, even though I think it’s weird.   In the briefing meeting, Saru gets some insight into the kinds of missions that Starfleet is now carrying out.   Helping with food shortages.  Delivery supplies. Helping planets that are facing solar flares.It’s all very humanitarian aid, and the distances can cause significant difficulties.   Saru immediately sees where Discovery could help. The spore drive would save a lot of time in helping these people. I like how Vance agrees that he could use ten Discoveries, but since he only has one, he needs them to stay close, ready to serve as a rapid response unit.   When Vance says “Rapid Responder” one of the other captains acts like Vance has sprouted a second head. His reaction seems to be way overdone. I kinda get the feeling that maybe this guy was the previous rapid responder. Maybe he’s feeling outed.    But Vance tells them all about the spore drive. It’s classified information that is not to leave the briefing room.   We’ve never really seen a scene like this, with a bunch of captains getting their assignments from the admiralty. It probably happened a lot during the dominion war.   It’s nice to see that all the captains are wearing a similar uniform to the admiral, but with different rank insignias. It’s good. I really like this uniform. It’s my favourite of all the new uniforms.   Argeth is on Yellow. Alert. The Emerald chain, the Andorian and Orion Syndicate, might be making a move sometime in the next 12 hours. Nobody knows  what they want on Argeth, but Vance is determined to make sure they don’t get it. When things come to a head, that’s when Saru needs to jump in and save the day.   So the crew of Discovery are receiving their new com badges. Just like the ones all the other Starfleet officers wear. But for some reason, they don’t exchange their uniforms for the new ones. That seems a little odd.   Anyway, there are practical reasons for adopting the new badges. In the 24th century, Starfleet made the badges communicators, rather than just decorative. By the 32nd Century, they’re so much more. They’re also tricorders, holo padds, as well as communicators, and personal transporters. This is all a very logical evolution of the technology. I like it a lot. They kept the user interfaces on the new consoles similar, so it would be easy for the crew to adjust. But at the same time, it’s adaptive, programmed to analyse the way people work, and conform to whatever would be most useful for them. It’s all very clever.   The crew seem to really like it.   There’s an ongoing joke about Linus beaming into random parts of the ship because he doesn’t know how to set the coordinates properly on his personal transporter. It’s amusing, if a little overdone.   And then they’re hailed by Grudge the Cat, who has decided to pay them a visit. I love how she’s just staring at the screen purring.   Michael has been looking for the black boxes of ships destroyed during the burn, to get information about what caused the phenomenon.   Book was on his way to the Bajoran exchange (another DS9 reference) But he heard about a black box on Hanhau, which is Emerald Chain territory. He programmed the ship to bring Grudge here to Starfleet headquarters if he didn’t return after 24 hours. Seems like he’s in trouble.   So technically, Grudge didn’t fly the ship. Pity.   Naturally, Michael wants to go rescue him. Not just because the black box could be invaluable, but also because she cares very much about Book. The black boxes record the time of detonation, and they don’t all match. This suggests it didn’t all happen at once. It had a point of origin that swept outwards. With a third black box, they could triangulate that point of origin. This is valuable information.   Saru understands how important this is to Michael, but he can’t authorise this mission. They need to be ready to jump to Argeth at a moment’s notice. Admiral’s orders.   He’s seen how vulnerable the federation is. How important these humanitarian missions are. Of course, his big mistake here is not taking this to the Admiral. He’ll learn this lesson at the end of the episode. But instead, he flatly forbids Michael from doing anything about Book or the black box.   We all know where this is heading. We know what Michael is going to do. She’s always had this rebellious streak that leads her to take matters into her own hands. And while she’d made some progress keeping that side of herself in check, the last year of working on her own as a free spirit, outside any chain of command, has only made things worse.   She can’t let this go. So she goes to Georgiou. The only other person on this ship who doesn’t care about chain of command. Gorgeous is always up for an unsanctioned mission.   But she makes a very astute point. Michael is gonna cause a lot of problems for Saru by doing this. He’s trying to win Vance’s trust and prove the legitimacy of Discovery’s dedication to Starfleet. If Michael goes ahead with this, it will definitely hurt that.   But that’s not enough to dissuade Michael.   Her dilemma feels very real here. She has two very strong motivations. A man she clearly loves, whether that love is romantic or not, and critical information to solving the mystery of the burnt. But it’s not just about the mystery to her. She genuinely believes the Federation will never get itself together until they learn the truth.   What do you think about that? I think I need a little more convincing. I agree it’s very important for them to find answers. If they know how and why it happened, they’re better able to determine if it’ll happen again and prevent it.   But I’m not convinced that the Federation can never again rebuild and stand proud without that information.   Book has actually made a pretty big sacrifice here for Michael. He’s put aside his own work to try to recover this black box - a very dangerous mission - because he knows it is important to her.    In a sense, they are both being very self-sacrificial here. Book put himself in danger for her, and she is risking her entire career for him. And that’s basically what love is. Self-sacrifice. The definition of love is putting the needs of another person ahead of your own needs.   Book’s ship continues to slowly grow on me. The asymmetry still bugs me, but I’m starting to understand the design. The bridge on the side kinda gives me millennium falcon vibes, but way more futuristic. I really like the shot that starts as a purely CGI exterior of the ship flying at warp, and then zooms in on the bridge. We spend a reasonable amount of time looking through that window watching Michael and Georgiou walking around and talking. It’s very effective and adds some real believability to the ship as an environment.   Georgiou can tell there is romantic tension between Michael and Book. She’s quite amused by it. But I love when Michael tells her she isn’t qualified to judge on matters of the heart, since her emotional spectrum ranges from cranky to homicidal. Which it definitely does. But in some twisted way, Georgiou does feel some form of love. She loves Michael like a daughter. A replacement for the one who betrayed her.   And that’s when Georgiou has the first of her episodes. It’s not exactly a seizure, it seems more emotional than physical. But she’s suddenly overwhelmed by what I assume are memories. She sees her hand covered in blood, and cries over someone called San. I wonder who that is.   Something weird has been going on with Georgiou ever since she was interrogated by that bloke with glasses. I am really curious what he’s done to her. Michael has noticed something is not right.   Hanhau is a private salvage yard. Not open to new customers. The general public are expected to do their business at the local Bajoran exchange. But Georgiou talks them into letting her land with promises of large quantities of dilithium.   I think we’re getting some information in this episode to help us get some idea of where the new Starfleet headquarters are situated in the galaxy.   Federation space is primarily in the alpha quadrant. Their early adversaries, the Klingons and the Romulans are primarily in the beta quadrant. The core of federations worlds are near the border between the quadrants. Worlds like Bajor and Cardassia are much deeper into the alpha quadrant, a long way from the border with the beta.   Michael indicated she could get to Hanhou, complete the mission, and be back, at warp speed, within 12 hours.   Hanhau is close to a Bajoran Exchange. I’m not sure exactly what that is, but it’s clear near Bajor.   So I think we can say that Starfleet headquarters is pretty deep into the alpha quadrant. Near the outer parts of what was considered Federation space back in the 24th century. And then the scene we’ve all been waiting for. Tilly meets Grudge. Apparently, she’s not a cat person, but, I’ll admit, she’s doing pretty well. It’s a cute scene. I genuinely laughed when Tilly asks Grudge if he ate Michael. Admit the cuteness and humour of this scene, Tilly learns that Michael has stolen Book’s ship and left on the mission.   The wide shot of Hanhau as they descend on the settlement looks awesome.   Tolor, the Orion they’re dealing with is the nephew of Osyra, leader of the Emerald Chain. There’s a lot of slave labour on this world. I guess the Orions are back to their old tricks. But it’s not slaves as a commodity to sell. These people are working because they owe Osyraa. Naturally, Georgiou wants to meet her, as she sounds like her kind of girl. Seriously, how long do you think it will be before Georgiou goes full rogue and tries to take over the galaxy for herself? The only thing that’s holding her back from doing that, at this point, is Michael. Well, that and the weird seizures. I suspect that’s part of some plan to disarm the danger that she represents to the galaxy.   It’s time for our next DS9 reference. Self-sealing stem bolts from the 24th century. And we’ll meet an actual Bajoran shortly. It’s almost as if Alex Kurtzman had a listening device in my office, when I’ve been talking about how I want more love for DS9. I guess I’m not the only person who has felt that way.   Georgiou says she wants items from before 2400, which was the end of the 24th century. And the guy holds up an old TNG phase. Nice. but apparently, it contains parts for a later time. I wonder if the writers actually meant pre-2300, which would be the 23rd century. So was this all just part of the act, to give Michael time to find Book? Or is she genuinely interested in old technology? I can’t see Georgiou being nostalgic, especially for stuff that’s not even from her native universe.   Michael has re-jigged Book’s cat-finder to locate him. And he’s close.   He’s a slave working here. And this is where we meet Lai, the Bajoran. And I’m thrilled to say his makeup effect looks just like it did on Deep Space Nine. I guess it’s kind of hard to mess up a Bajoran nose. Notice he’s not wearing an earring. So either it’s forbidden for slaves to adorn themselves, or he doesn’t believe in the prophets. We also meet Ryn, an Andorian slave who is responsible for implanting all the newcomers. Seems most of the slaves view him as a traitor. But Book is kind to him. When Lai tries to steal a water ration, Tolor makes an example of him. From a writing perspective, it's useful because it demonstrates how difficult it is for people to escape this prison.   So Adira is back on the ship, after having some kind of medical examination last episode. She seems a bit workaholic. Doesn’t want to explore the ship. Gray wants to see more of Discovery, but he can only go where Admira goes. And she’s not interested.   Stamets is annoyed that his spore lab has been messed with. Things are not where they used to be. But he’s quite impressed when he learns that Adira has upgraded the interface, so he doesn’t have to have metal plugs in his arm anymore.   Michael finally makes contact with Book. And he says what people always say in this situation. “You weren’t supposed to come and rescue me.” And then she says what the rescuer always says. “I had to.” They’ve got 40 minutes to rescue him and get the black box, before he is sent up to work on a ship above for a week. He’ll be harder to rescue from there.   This is where we learn more about Ryn. He was born into the Emerald Chain, but tried to rally people against the organisation. They were starting to listen so Osyraa cut off his antennae and made him the guy who implants the slaves.   Now, this is interesting. We know from Enterprise that Andorian antennae grow back. So maybe she did something to prevent that, like cauterising the stumps or something. I dunno. This is why he’s a pariah to everyone.   Saru has a quiet word with Tilly about Michael. Tilly knows even less than Saru. Saru is feeling pretty distrustful of Michael now. As much as he did when they were back on the Shenzhou. Which is kinda sad, given how close they seemed to have become last season.   This is really interesting because Tilly acts in a way other than what we might expect. Certainly not how Saru expected. But it makes sense. She makes a good point. She pushes for Saru to tell the Admiral. It’s a delicate time for the Discovery crew at the moment. Things will look bad if the Admiral finds out from someone other than Saru. Tilly loves Michael like a sister but she also cares for this crew.   Tilly is trying to be understanding of Michael’s motives, but Saru believes Tilly would never have done this, had she been in Michael’s situation.   It’s time for the jailbreak. Ryn is in on it too. He’s retrieved the black box for Book.   Saru is explaining Michael’s disobedience to Vance, but promises, they are still ready to carry out their mission, even without their first officer. He overhears a line about a ship returning and undergoing a baryon sweep. This is a process that the Enterprise D once underwent. It’s meant to eliminate Baryon particles from the starship’s hull. Let’s hope this ship doesn’t get taken over by terrorists like the Enterprise did.   Vance tells him that diplomacy is failing. Discovery will need to jump soon.   The prison riot is on. But the perimeter fence is still up. Michael and Georgiou have to take it down, but they have their hands full with Tolor and his thugs. It’s all standard action scenes, which Discovery does pretty well.   I was listening to a writing podcast the other day. In it, one of the presenters said “if your character has seizures, you’d better make sure they have one in the middle of the climactic battle.” It was The Six Figure Author podcast, if you’re interested.   Anyway, this is exactly what happens here. Georgiou is about to shoot Tolor when she has another episode.and drops the gun.   Fortunately, she comes to just in time to bring the fence down, as Tolor beams away.   The slaves all escape, but Ryn is shot with one of those cool ring phasers. I thought, at this stage, that Ryn was a gonner. But Book isn’t willing to give up on him.   And then Book’s ship turns into a transformer! Seriously, it breaks into a bunch of separate parts and reconfigures itself. Except the new configuration doesn’t seem to look any different to my eyes. I’m not sure what the point of this reconfiguration was, but it was visually pretty cool. Another example of those “seems silly, but believably silly given the century” things. I imagine the same technology that lets the nacelles hover next to the ship is also responsible for this transformation.   I’d like to understand a lot more about what the transformation actually means, and why it happens.   Book beams aboard with Ryn. Georgiou takes out Tolor’s ships. One of them looks like an old Miranda class. The crashing scene looks awesome. Comparable to anything you’d see in a big-screen movie these days.   Michael is more freaked out that Georgiou doesn’t know what’s up with her episodes than she is about the episodes themselves. From Georgiou’s point of view, until she understands, there’s no point revealing her weakness, because she doesn’t know what help to ask for. This is a reasonable attitude for a Terran from the mirror universe. Over there, she’d be killed for showing any kind of weakness.   Stamets sits down with Adira in the mess hall. He’s noticed her talking to herself. She decides to open up and explain the whole situation with Gray. Adira speculates that this has happened because they were so close, and the symbiont passed from one to the other. I’m betting there’s more to it than that. But it’s a reasonable theory.   They get Ryn back to the ship, and Doctor Pollards says he's going to make it. Which is nice. Poor guy deserves a break. Michael has to go face the firing squad, but on the way, she has a little moment with Book. And they finally kiss.  I get the impression this is their first kiss. That they were both honest about not having been romantically involved during the past year.   Stamets sees a lot of himself in Adira. Somebody who lost a person they loved, but then, got them back in some form.  Stamets says he believes Adira. And I want to believe him. But part of me wonders if he still thinks of this as a bit more metaphorical than literal. Is this just part of her grieving process, like he went through with Hugh, or is she literally carrying Gray’s soul around with her? Either way, Stamets is willing to take it at face value and definitely not ridicule.   As he and Hugh get ready for bed they talk about Adira. Stamets is starting to think that he can be a help to her. Something of a mentor. It’s not a role he ever thought he’d find himself in.   It’s time for Saru and Micahel to face the Admiral. He points out that Saru was right to follow orders but he also needs to trust his judgement. He should have brought this opportunity to Vance, who might have considered the intel worth the risk. He may have actually authorised the mission. They’ll never know now.   I really like this because they’re not turning Vance into the stereotypical bad admiral. He’s a reasonable guy, even though there’s a lot of antagonism between him and Michael because of their differing opinions.   I love that this is a learning opportunity for Saru as well. He’s a good captain, but he’s an inexperienced captain.   Vance doesn’t think Burnham deserves special consideration for saving the galaxy by going through that wormhole. She was doing her duty. She starts each new assignment at zero along with everyone else. In the end, Discovery didn’t have to jump. I’m guessing the happenings on Hanhau stole away Osyraa’s focus. Michael saved lives on that planet, which is the only reason she’s not in the brig. Vance leaves her punishment in Saru’s hands.   So he does what he doesn’t want to do, but honestly, the only thing he can do. He relieves her of her role as first officer. She will be restricted to chief science officer duties. Even Michael agrees this is right.   It’s all about trust, and right now, he can’t trust her to the extent that a captain should trust their number one.   I’m starting to think that Michael will never really fit in with Starfleet. She’ll always be the rebel that just can’t manage to follow orders. It makes me wonder how long she’ll hang around Discovery. I guess she has to stay associated with them for as long as the show runs, since it’s called Discovery, and she’s the lead.   So now I’m wondering who the new number one will be. I hope they address this next week and not just ignore it.   It was nice to see Book again. This was a solid episode. Nothing mind-blowing, but a good fun action story, with some good character connections to the larger whole. I enjoyed it. Next week, we have the episode Unification III. I’m really curious about this. One of the most iconic two-part stories from Star Trek The Next Generation was Unification I and Unification II. The story was based around Spock’s attempts to re-unify the Romulan and Vulcan people. How will this episode tie into that? There’s gotta be some connection. The name is too much of a coincidence to be .. well .. a coincidence. So I’m really looking forward to finding out what the deal is.   One of my favourite authors, Brandon Sanderson, has just released the 4th book in his Stormlight Archive series. The minute it happened, I sent a link to my wife, so she can buy it for me for Christmas. I’m looking forward to reading it. I might do a couple of podcasts episodes about the book next year, kinda like what I do with my Lord of The Rings series, which I haven’t forgotten about. I haven’t been walking as much as I should, so I’ve gotten a little behind with the whole Walk to Mordor Challenge that it’s all based around. Anyway, nothing is set in stone. But we’ll see.   Don’t forget, you can get the first book in my Jewel of The Stars series for just 99 cents on all major eBook retailers, or you can read it for free on Wattpad.   Have a great week, and I’ll see you for Unification III next time. Live long and prosper. Make it so.  

Jon, Randall, and Michael discuss finding you the money you don’t know about. Michael can find you the money you don’t know about or find the people for whom you are holding money. His professional calling is all about matching owners with the assets that they either don’t know about or don’t know how to get. After practicing law for a few years, Michael put his knowledge and experience to work as a private investigator. No, he doesn’t wear Hawaiian shirts or trail cheating husbands at 3:00 am. His team instead uses their experience and skills for the following: Find money in the hands of governments and private entities (insurance, oil & gas, ERISA, etc.) and track down the owners Do all the legwork for executors to find and recover all the assets due their probate estates Represent entities (corporations, universities, hospitals, nonprofits, government agencies) to proactively search for and recover their unknown assets Do you want to learn more? Just email mzwick@assetsinternational.com or call 248-557-4960 and he will respond. If Michael can help you, he will. If he can’t, he’ll do his utmost to refer you to someone who can. Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience/ Website: https://jondwoskin.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin/ Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon’s Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big!   Connect with Michael Zwick: Website: https://assets-international.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/assetsinternational1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/AssetsIntl Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Assets-International/283907494833

If you were in the forest and were looking for evidence that a particular kind of animal lived in the area, you would look for the unique signs and tracks that would tell you the animal had been there. The devil also leaves tracks—and they’re not very hard to find. The prophet Daniel had been fasting for 21 days. Why he was fasting is not entirely clear except that he wanted to understand some earlier prophecies. He was in Babylon - more specifically, in the old region of Persia, along the banks of a river called Hiddekel. As he stood there, staring into the water, he sensed a presence. Looking up, he saw what appeared to be a man. It was, however, a most singular man. Daniel describes him as dressed in white linen, with a solid gold belt. His body, according to Daniel, was like beryl, his arms and legs like polished brass. But what turned Daniel’s knees to jelly and left him trembling was the face of the man. The best Daniel could do was to describe his face as the color of lightning and his eyes like lamps of fire. When Daniel saw this “man,” he collapsed in a heap, face down upon the ground. He was sure enough that what he saw was a spirit, but he did not know how to respond. The “man” (by now we suspect he is an angel) put out his hand and took Daniel and pulled him up on to his hands and knees. This is what Daniel heard him say: Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days. Daniel 10:12–14 KJV Now the vision Daniel received in answer to his prolonged prayer is fascinating enough, but in the process of revealing the vision, the messenger of God dropped a small piece of tantalizing information. Most of us believe that God is all powerful, that all He has to do is say the word and all powers, human and demonic, fall down before Him. Yet here is an emissary of God who is held up for three weeks by someone called the “Prince of Persia.” Who is this “Prince of Persia” and how was he able to thwart an angel of the Almighty? Consider the picture. Daniel fasts and prays to God. God hears him and immediately dispatches an answer. The problem is that Daniel is inside the Kingdom of Persia, and God’s messenger has to fight his way in! It is no small battle - it takes three weeks to make it. Think what this means. There was a spirit being, called the Prince of Persia, who was strong enough to stand off an angel of God for three weeks. In the end, it takes two to one odds to win, and the battle is still not over. Michael, another Prince of God, keeps the Prince of Persia busy while the angel comes to Daniel to deliver the message. One would have thought that God could have whispered in Daniel’s ear, or that the angel could simply have materialized in Daniel’s room. Apparently not. What this story reveals to us, almost as an aside, is that there is a spiritual world alongside our world, invisible to us, but real, vibrant, alive and dangerous. We use the word infrastructure to describe the physical structure underlying our society - water pipes, sewers, utilities - things underground and invisible, but real and necessary nonetheless. What comes as a shock is the fact that there is also a spiritual infrastructure - unseen, not sensed, invisible, but nonetheless real and powerful. Not only is there a spirit world co-existing with our own, but there are spiritual battles routinely fought around us, and the outcome is by no means automatic. The angel revealed to Daniel, not only that he had to fight his way in, he was going to have to fight his way out. “Now you understand why I have come to you,” he said, “and now I must return to fight with the Prince of Persia” (verse 20). Then, he introduced a newplayer: “. . . and when I am gone forth, lo, the Prince of Grecia shall come.” If you know your history, you might suppose the Prince of Grecia was Alexander the Great, but the context seems to be running at a different level. This seems to be yet another spirit being, identified with yet another country, for he proceeds to say, “There is none that holds with me in these things except Michael your prince” (verse 21). So this angelic messenger, alongside Michael, will be in full combat with two other spirit beings, the Prince of Grecia and the Prince of Persia. One can almost imagine the clashing of great spiritual swords. There is no one place in the Bible where you can read all about the spirit world. We find a hint here, an idea there, a glimpse over there. We are left to put it altogether and draw inferences about the nature of this spirit world. Presumably, God wants us to know it is there, but He does not want us to know too much about it. He certainly doesn’t want us to dabble in spiritism. The more attention you give to the devil, the more likely he is to show up. Nevertheless, it is in our interest to understand what God does reveal to us about this spirit world. Take a moment to read Isaiah 13 and 14. The prophet calls it “the burden of Babylon.” It is a prophecy dealing with Babylon in history, and Babylon at the end time. Late in this prophecy the prophet takes up a proverb against the King of Babylon. In an initial reading, you find yourself assuming that he is talking about a human being who ruled over the Kingdom of Babylon. Then, the prophet names the King of Babylon and describes him: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Isaiah 14:12–14 KJV This is not a description of a human being. Lucifer had been in heaven. He had been cast out of heaven. He had actually engaged in a revolt against the Most High God. Lucifer is universally understood to be the devil. We commonly think of a great archdemon when we speak of the devil. What we often don’t consider is the possibility that there is more than one demon prince. Ezekiel describes yet another. He calls him the King of Tyre and says of him: […] Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. Ezekiel 28:12–15 KJV As we read this passage, the realization grows that we are dealing with a great spirit being who was once at the very throne of God, who is called “the anointed cherub,” and who apparently turned against God. Now we either have Satan in two separate situations - one is the King of Babylon, and the other is the King of Tyre - or we have a king of Babylon and a king of Tyre, both of whom are powerful spirit beings. Our knowledge of spiritual things is somewhat limited and we have to be careful about the inferences we draw. Nevertheless, we can be absolutely certain that there is a spirit world out there and that major events take place in that world - some of these things affect our world. Spirit Warriors Joshua had an encounter with one of these great warriors just before the Battle of Jericho. Shortly after the Passover, Joshua was standing not far from Jericho. He turned and saw a man standing opposite him with a sword drawn in his hand. This was not just any man. Joshua challenged him: “Are you for us or are you for our enemies.” The man looked at him and said, “No, but as captain of the Lord’s host am I come” (Joshua 5:13-14). If you have one of those Bibles with marginal notes, you will see that the word captain comes from the Hebrew word for prince. This “man” identified himself as the prince of the Lord’s host. He isn’t named in this passage, but “The great prince which stands for the children of thy people” is none other than Michael (Daniel 12:1). Michael seems to be a major player. Jude calls him an archangel and shows him in conflict with the devil (Jude 1:9). John, in the Book of Revelation, saw him as a leader of a band of angels fighting against the dragon who is also identified as the devil (Revelation 12:7). So at the moment when Israel is about to do battle under God’s direction for the very first time, Michael the prince is there as captain of the Lord’s host. We can’t know for certain, but it seems likely that there was a spiritual prince of the Canaanites. Joshua needed to understand that not only would he fight a physical battle, but a spiritual battle as well. We would love to know more about these things. For example, why did the devil want the body of Moses and why did Michael have to go to battle with him over it? But Jude didn’t bring it up to explain all that. His point was that even when Michael the archangel was disputing with the devil he dared not bring a railing accusation against him (verse 9). Whatever else Michael may have felt about the devil, the devil was a prince with great power. That power had to be respected. I sometimes think of this when I see some holiness preacher dancing across the stage claiming he’s going to “twist the old devil’s tail tonight.” If Michael, the archangel, dared not bring a railing accusation against the devil, who are these preachers to say “I’m going to handle the old devil; we’re going to get a hold of the devil tonight; we’re going to root him out of here.” They aren’t going to run the devil anywhere. They don’t even know where he is, and they have little idea of what he is doing. Jude gave us one other passing clue about the devil. The devil wanted the body of Moses. One can only presume it had something to do with the confirmed necrophilia that exists in so much of the occult. You see it everywhere in occult objects and occult books. Perhaps Satan was going to turn Moses’ body into a cult object. Seven Churches, Seven Angels John is introduced to seven angels in the first part of the Book of Revelation. Once again, they are not the point of the story. We learn about them almost as an aside. John fell into a vision and in the vision he saw a man standing in the middle of seven golden candlesticks holding seven stars in his right hand. An angel told John that the seven candlesticks were the seven churches and the seven stars were the angels of the seven churches (Revelation 1:20). We would love to know more about that, but that is all we get. Then he proceeds to address a letter to each of the angels. This is one of the puzzling things about Revelation 2 and 3. The letters in this passage are not addressed to the brethren of these churches, their elders or their deacons. Each letter is addressed to the angel of each church. One would gather from this that all angels are not alike, because each of these churches develops a totally different character, a different spirit, a different attitude. And when God says, “I have somewhat against you,” He is criticizing the angel, not the church. Not everything in this spirit world is sweetness and light. These are intelligent, active, creative spirit beings who are thinking, working, fighting, arguing, and bickering. They are there. We don’t see them - thank God. We are largely unaware of them. It’s only on very rare occasions that a little tear between our world and theirs allows us somehow, momentarily, to interact with someone in that other world. But the other world is there, it is active, and it is powerful. Guardian Angels You may have heard of guardian angels. You may even have wondered if they are biblical. Well, they are. Jesus let drop this nugget of information while He was talking to His disciples about little children. He warned them severely against offending or harming little children, saying: Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 18:10 KJV Now you may wonder where your child’s guardian angel was when the child fell out of a tree and broke his arm. What we forget is that there are many things in this world more dangerous to children than climbing trees. There are worse things that could happen to a child than falling out of a tree and breaking an arm. The charge given to guardian angels is not to prevent your children from getting hurt while they are having a good time. Children get hurt as a part of living. They take chances, they have successes, they have failures. It’s all a part of growing up and a part of developing character. It teaches us how to handle pain, how to learn from disaster, how to live with broken arms and even broken heads. As bad as physical danger is, that is not where the most serious danger lies with children. There is danger to children from a spirit world and from the wars that rage unseen around us. Seeing to it that your child doesn’t get hurt physically is your job. Your guardian angel is there to see to it that the child is protected from that spiritual war. The Dominant Spirit Among all the spirits that ebb and flow in this world, there is one that is dominant. There is a familiar passage in the fourth chapter of Matthew that describes one of those rare occasions where a human being finds himself in direct confrontation with the devil. It is the temptation of Christ. It is not what one might have expected. Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights and had become very hungry. The devil came to Him and said, “Here are some stones. If you are the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” His first challenge to Jesus was a challenge of His relationship with God. Jesus’ response was simple. He said, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds our of the mouth of God.” Defeated on this issue, the devil took Him up to the pinnacle of the Temple. He said, “If you be the Son of God, cast yourself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.” Once again Jesus answered, “It is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” As an aside, notice that Jesus’ defense against temptation every time is the written Word of God. Also notice that each time Satan’s challenge is to His relationship with God: “If you be the Son of God.” Finally there is the third temptation. The devil took Jesus up to an exceedingly high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and promised, “All these things will I give thee, if thou will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:8). Satan was the dominant spirit of this world. He was able to give the power of the Prince of Persia, the Prince of Grecia, the Prince of Tyre, all to Jesus Christ - if only Jesus would worship him and accept his dominance. Once again Jesus appealed to the written Word of God, saying, “It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” This was the strongest response Jesus gave to Satan, because this is the commandment Satan had broken. Jesus did not rail at the devil. He did not call him names. But He faced and defeated him precisely on the point where Satan had failed. The question of obedience to God and the maintenance of the relationship with God was a major difference between Jesus and the Son of God, and Lucifer as the prince of this world. Later, when Jesus was giving His last instructions to His disciples, He said, “I’m not going to be able to talk with you much longer because the prince of this world comes and has nothing to do with me” (John 14:30). Now all that was coming toward Jesus at that time was Judas, some priests, and some soldiers. They were merely flesh and blood human beings. But by this time, Satan had entered Judas. The prince of this world was instrumental in the murder of the Son of God. It was a part of his plan. It was a part of his efforts to defeat the Father in whatever effort the Father might make. Spirits That Work And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience[.] Ephesians 2:1–2 There are three important things to understand from this Scripture. First, the prince of the power of the air is a spirit. The wording suggests a discrete spiritual being. Second, this is a spirit that works. “Work” is a simple word, and a word we easily understand. In this passage it’s in the present tense, which means he is working - that there is a constant, deliberate working of the prince of the power of the air. The third point to note is that the prince of the power of the air works in a certain category of people - the “children of disobedience.” These are people who simply do not obey God. Paul says that in time past we walked “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.” Walking according to the course of this world is nothing but “going with the flow.” What happens when you decide not to go with the flow? There is another short passage dealing with Michael the prince that sheds some light: And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. Daniel 12:1 KJV Where is the connection between Michael standing up and the beginning of the Great Tribulation? Surely Michael isn’t the one who carries out the Great Tribulation. The tribulation is a time of trouble upon Israel. Michael is the prince who is the “guardian angel” of all Israel. Why should he be the one who causes all the trouble? Think about it for a moment. When you “go with the flow” in this world, when you don’t disagree and merely drift along with what people want to do, do you get much “tribulation?” If there is a temptation that comes your way and you merely give in to it, where is the struggle? When you go with the flow, when you walk according to the course of this world, you have relatively less conflict in your life. You probably have no spiritual conflict at all. All you’re doing is making yourself comfortable. But when you stand up for what is right, when you start resisting the flow, when you start trying to do the right thing, that is when the opposition starts. Satan will not resist you when you’re going with the flow - after all, it’s his flow. It’s when you start resisting the flow that you get enemies - human and spiritual. This is a point that bothers many people. When they make a decision to obey God, it is then that their lives seem to fall apart. They are naturally disturbed by this because they believe that obeying God ought to bring blessings, peace, happiness - everything ought to work. Why, people wonder, are all these things happening to me? The answer is simple. God is not the one doing these things to you. You have stood up for God and now you have made enemies and those enemies are the enemies of God. Jesus said plainly, “If they hate me they will hate you.” Then if we stand up for Him, will we not be hated by somebody? If it works this way at the individual level, you can expect the same thing when it applies to the nation of Israel as a whole. As long as our nation is going with the flow, as long as the spiritual world around us is not doing anything in particular, then there is no war to be fought. But when Michael, the prince that stands for Israel, stands up to resist the devil, all hell breaks loose - quite literally. When this all begins to break, the prophet lets us know that it is going to spill over into our world in ways that we cannot even imagine. There will follow a time of destruction and death in the world that your Bible describes as the Great Tribulation. A Time of Trouble And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Revelation 12:7–9 KJV Michael is obviously a major player in this drama. The devil apparently mounts assaults against the throne of God, and Michael and his angels fight against him. Also interesting in this passage is that the devil has angels. Apparently, one-third of the original cast of angels joined Satan in his rebellion and were cast out of heaven with him. The bad news for us is that they were cast out into the earth (verse 9) - and they’re still here. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. Revelation 12:12 KJV Satan is your enemy. He is called “the accuser of the brethren,” and he is busy accusing us before God day and night (verse 10). The Book of Job is the story of what can happen to a man when God allows Satan to have access to him. What exactly is our protection? How is it that the devil is not able to wipe us out? Having said that he is our accuser, the prophecy goes on to say, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (verse 11). It is the blood of the Lamb that stands between us and the evil infrastructure of this world. They cannot touch us unless God allows it. The saints also overcame the devil by “the word of their testimony,” by what they stood for, by what they confessed in their life, what they did, what they said. They also overcame him because they didn’t love their lives unto the death. They knew what was at stake in this great combat for God, and that it was God’s duty to see that they survived. When the prophet says “woe unto the world” because the devil has come to us - along with the host of his fellows - what is it that the world has to fear? From the Bible we learn that there are many kinds of spirits in the world. There is an ebb and flow of them in, through, and around all society. On occasion, what the Bible describes as a “spirit” may sound like a mere human attitude. But the implication as you read about them in the Bible is not that they are merely attitudes. These attitudes have come from somewhere. The Bible describes many “spirits.” On the one hand, there is the Holy Spirit. Then there is a ministering spirit, a spirit of judgment, and “the spirit of Elijah” which seems to be distinct in and of itself. There is a spirit of truth, a spirit of glory, a spirit of knowledge, a spirit of prophecy, a spirit of understanding, a spirit of wisdom. On the other hand there is a hardened spirit, a dumb spirit, a foul spirit, a perverse spirit, an unclean spirit. There is a spirit of antichrist, a spirit of bondage that will bind people where they cannot move. There is a spirit of divination that has to do with calling up messages from the dead. There is a spirit of error where some people can’t seem to ever get their feet in the right way. There is a spirit of fear that keeps us from being able to be confident, going ahead in our lives. There is a spirit of jealousy that comes upon people so that they are unreasonable. There is a spirit of slumber which keeps us from being spiritually awake when we need to be. There is a spirit of whoredoms that probably accounts for those people who are obsessed with sex and carried away with it. There is a spirit of infirmity that leaves people too weak to do the things they need to do. These are all given to us in the Bible as though they were discrete spirits that work and do things in this world. How do they work? A demon spirit can possess a person, but demon possession is rare. What is much more common in this world - and is very familiar to us all - is simple temptation. But the Bible tells us very little about the mechanics of temptation. I presume God doesn’t tell us because we don’t need to know that - in fact, it might be better for us if we didn’t. The truth is that you and I are rarely tempted by demons. It may happen that we find ourselves thinking thoughts that are not our own - thoughts that we believe came from a source other than ourselves. These are not difficult to deal with. It is simply a matter of prayer, of turning to God, of asking for God’s help, and then putting your mind on things that are good. It’s not a complicated problem to solve as long as you overcome it by “the blood of the Lamb” and by your testimony. There is however, a much more grave type of temptation in the world. It is more serious, because we usually don’t recognize it as temptation - at least we don’t recognize it as coming from the devil. Tracks Imagine yourself standing in a forest with a friend. Your friend turns to you and asks, “What kind of wildlife do you suppose there is in this forest? Have you seen any?” Standing where you are, you will see birds, perhaps a squirrel. You’re not likely to see much else, but you know that is not all the wildlife there is in this forest. But even as a total amateur, if you’ll take the time to slow down, study the ground, look at the trees, look at the bark, you’ll become aware that there is more here than meets the eye. For example, you may see branches of a bush that are broken and you might suspect that there has been something there to break those branches. You may see trees with bark knocked off. If you look carefully at the ground, you may see little brown pellets on the ground. As you study the ground a little more carefully, you see the distinctive tracks of deer. You may be lucky enough to find where the deer have bedded down. Their beds are very distinctive and it’s obvious what they are. You don’t have to be a professional tracker to see these things. You can kneel down and look at the dung and see if it’s shiny. If it is, it’s very recent. The deer may have passed this way a moment before you. If it’s obviously dried out, then it may have been some period of time. If it rained last night, and you see a clearly formed deer track, you’ll know that the deer passed this way since the rain. There has been no weathering of the tracks. If you’re walking down a snowy mountain trail, following the boot tracks of one of your friends, and you see a deer track in his boot track, you can conclude that the deer had passed between you. You don’t have to know a lot if you’re in the forest or the field. You just have to look. Now the world is like a forest in this regard. All you have to do is slow down, take a look around you and tell me what you see. If you realize there is a spiritual infrastructure in the world and that there are spirits that work in the children of disobedience, there ought to be something that gives you hints. For example, if you attend a PTA meeting at your children’s school, you may learn that some of the teachers and parents are concerned about children dabbling in the occult. Some parents are concerned because their children have been bringing home games that have to do with wizards, witches, trolls, and dragons. It isn’t as though some demon came along and gave these to the children. They get these things, these ideas, from other kids who get them from other kids. If you look at some of the games children are playing - especially some of the computer games that are out - you don’t have to be a specialist to see the tracks of the devil going right through the middle of your local school. The tracks are there. You just have to look. Drop by your local video rental store and take a look at the different kinds of movies that children can rent. Talk to the clerks at the video store. Who rents these splatter movies, horror movies, demon movies? The largest number of viewers of them are children and teenagers. The video stores aren’t supposed to rent adult movies to children, but they get them anyway. Take a look at the titles, the jackets. Can you see the tracks of the devil through your local video rental store? If there is a horror movie on in the local movie, make your way down there about the time the movie starts and see who is going in. Read the movie reviews. You’ll find the tracks of the devil walking right through the movie industry. But don’t make the mistake of looking for traditional demons and hobgoblins when you look for the tracks of the devil. It’s much more subtle than that. How many movies have you seen in your lifetime that make religion look good? One observer made a strong case that Hollywood hates religion. Movie after movie makes ministers, Christian people, or devout people look like fools, idiots, and worse. Why do they do that? One would naturally suppose that they do it to make money. But the truth is that movie after movie of this type has consistently lost money. When you’ve lost money on film after film making fun of religion, why would a movie studio come along and make a turkey like The Last Temptation of Christ? Perhaps they made it for its artistic value. But the critics panned the movie as art. It was, they said, one of the worst movies of that type to come along. The truth is it would have lost even more money if religious people had not given it so much publication by picketing the movie houses. Oddly enough, the movies that make religion look good make money. The movies that make religion look bad don’t make money. Then why do they do it? Do you see the tracks of the devil in the movie industry? It has been well publicized recently that some of the greatest talent in the movie industry has been lost to AIDS. The reason is that so many people in the arts are homosexuals. Now does it take much imagination to understand why a class of people, whose conduct is condemned in both the Old and the New Testament, might hate God or hate religion? Can we understand why they might want to make religious people look like fools or idiots? The tracks of the devil are all over the movie industry. Higher Education I stumbled across the tracks of the devil where I should have expected them but didn’t. I found them in academia. I read an excerpt from a speech by Christina Hoff Sommers, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Clark University. In the speech, she expressed her concern over the inroads the feminist movement was making in university curricula. However, she drew a very sharp distinction between what she called equity feminists and gender feminists. Equity feminists, she said, are those women who are simply concerned about equality - equal opportunity and equal rights. They are the women who have fought for the right to be able to go into a bank and borrow money on the same basis as a man. In years gone by, banks were reluctant to lend to women to start a business or build a home. It didn’t matter if she had the same income as a man, they just didn’t do it. Equity feminists fought for a change in this area and they were right. On the other hand, there are what Ms. Sommers calls the gender feminists. According to her, the gender feminists are those who are out to abolish gender altogether. In doing her research, she looked at dozens of textbooks in use in colleges across the country. She found evidence of a clear anti-family agenda coming from gender feminists. One, for example, claimed that the family “is a cornerstone of oppression that enforces heterosexuality and imposes the prevailing masculine/feminine character structures on the next generation.” According to gender feminists, the family is the problem. The family, they say, is the root of oppression that imposes heterosexuality on our society. Some feminists look forward to the day when the miracle of science will allow us to alter basic human functions like insemination and lactation and gestation. Perhaps one woman could inseminate another, even men could lactate and nurse a baby. Fertilized ova could be transferred into women’s or even men’s bodies. There probably is a little revenge written into that last one. Gender feminist literature is replete with proposals for abolishing marriage and the family in favor of various forms of androgyny or bisexuality. Yet another authority, Richard Wasserstrom, former president of the American Philosophical Association, argues that all the differences between the sexes are arbitrary and irrelevant. He concluded that in a truly just society we would no more notice the sex of a person with whom we were romantically involved than we would notice the color of their eyes. He recommended bisexuality as the ideal romantic relationship because heterosexuality, even homosexuality, is a reflection of bigotry. Ms. Sommers concludes that war has been declared, not on inequality, but on gender. She saw that the hidden agenda of the gender feminists could not be achieved without reeducation. They are pursuing their goals vigorously through colleges and universities. The gender feminist’s highest priority today is getting rid of the traditional curriculum in colleges and ensuring that feminists and their views occupy a prominent place in every college and every university. They have had a lot of success. For example, you can send your daughter to the University of Nebraska where she can take a course in Twentieth Century Lesbian Novels. The University of New Mexico would offer her a course in Heterosexism and the Oppression of Women. Perhaps she could go to Queen’s College City University of New York, and take a course called The Lesbian in Literature and Honors Tutorial. As I read all this, I slowly became aware that there are two hidden agendas. The front line agenda of the feminists movement is equality. The hidden agenda below that is the elimination or abolition of the family. But there is still another agenda even more hidden and even more serious. I saw it because I was standing still and looking for tracks. There were tracks enough in the mere idea of the elimination of the family. But because I was looking, I found yet another hidden agenda: The Abolition of the Father. Men and women are prone to blame one another for the destruction of the father’s role. They are both right. The men went a long way down that road before women ever started. The fathers have failed, and the mothers have failed, so there is no reason to point fingers at one another because of our gender. What we need to understand is that the devil has been among us. He has come and he has gone, but his tracks are still here. The attack on the family has very nearly succeeded. We’ve gotten to the place where we have one divorce for every marriage in our society. That is not a practical maximum for divorces. We’ll need to have two divorces for every marriage for a while until we get rid of all the marriages. The goal, you see, is the elimination of marriage and the family altogether. Babies are being killed off before they can be born. In the name of reproductive freedom, women and their doctors are destroying the results of fatherhood. The very idea of the father is fading away. This is not merely a war on men who father children. It is a war on the very idea of father. But even the most radical gender feminists don’t understand the depths of what they are doing. They are not the author of the anti-father agenda. It is buried deeper than that. Think about it. Who is there in this world who has more reason than anyone else to hate the Father, despise the Father, destroy everything the Father stands for? It is the devil, of course. And the destruction of everything the Father stands for is the hidden agenda behind the abortion movement. It is the hidden agenda in the hard core feminist movement. Who suffers, who gets hurt? The children, of course. What most people don’t realize is that most of the poor people in this country are children. Not only that, but most of the poor children are poor because of the destruction of the family - they have no father. It is so simple. Ninety-four percent of the married couples in the United States are not poor. The poverty problem in this country is a direct result of the systematic destruction of the family. Poverty is a spiritual problem. Child abuse is a spiritual problem. The sexual abuse of children is a spiritual problem. The solution of these problems will have to be spiritual. Not only does Satan have to be bound, this entire rotten spiritual infrastructure in the world has to be taken away. Satan Bound It seems that it is ultimately God’s plan to gather all this corruption together in one place. John saw it in vision: And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 2And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Revelation 18:1–2 The truth is that the Kingdom of God cannot be established on this earth until God deals with this corrupt spiritual infrastructure. For Christ to return and to attempt to impose His government on this earth while all that is still here would be an exercise in futility. In fact, it would be destructive because of the continuing war. It is impossible to overstate the importance of this one event in the plan of God. All the foul spirits must be gathered together and dealt with, and Satan himself must be bound. What do we do until then? We are stuck here, and the spirit world ebbs and flows and backs and fills all around us constantly. The tracks are everywhere to be seen. There is a short passage in the book of James that is helpful: But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:6-7). That will take care of one side of the issue, but there is more here. In verse 11, James admonishes us, “Speak not evil of one another, brethren.” Bear in mind that Satan is the accuser of the brethren, and that there is no better way to conjure up the devil than to start accusing one another. When we’re doing that, we can’t have the protection we need from the accuser of the brethren. You’re helping him make his tracks. And this brings us directly to another point. Stay involved with a church. When there is a war on, the last thing you want is to be alone. One person by himself might fall, while two can stand. You need support, you need encouragement from people who care about you. There are many times when you know what to do - you just need someone else to say, “Yes, you’re right - do it!” You need to have a place to go for knowledge so you can be taught, so you can learn, so you can grow. You need to have a place to go so there will be someone to pray for you, someone who knows about you, someone who is aware of you, someone who cares about you. If you are alone, you don’t have that. You need a place to go for correction, where there will be someone to tell you when you’re wrong. You need a preacher every once in a while to admonish you from God’s Word and to warn you against doing stupid things with your life. Above all, you need a place to go for love - where there are people who care. If there is no place at all to go, write a letter. Keep in touch. Use the telephone. Use the cassette recorder. Do what you can to reach out and stay in touch with God’s people. It’s a jungle out there, and the jungle is full of wild animals. You have no business going out in the dark alone. You should reach out to one another. You should support one another and care about one another. But remember, when all is said and done, you don’t need to be afraid of these spirits running around in the jungle. Those who are with us are greater than all the powers of all of them. Michael Medved - Hollywood vs. Religion Christina Hoff Sommers - Feminism and the College Curriculum

You are going to enjoy this episode as we talk to someone who is a great speaker and storyteller. Our guest for today is a serial entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and sales expert. He is none other than, Michael Altshuler. He helps individuals and organizations reach their goals both professionally and personally. We talked about his experience in a TV show, how we managed to get in, the lessons he learned. He also shares some very deep story that I am certain we are all going to learn something from. You are definitely in for a treat, so make sure you stay tuned.Where to find Michael Altshuler:Website: www.michaelaltshuler.comEmail: Michael@michaelaltshuler.comToday's key takeaways:[0:00] Introduction[1:57] If Michael looks familiar (if you're watching this on Youtube) here's why[3:06] His American Gladiator experience[7:25] Be willing to do things that others aren't willing to do [10:13] What happened after the show?[12:08] On selling his copier company[14:16] What do top-notch leaders do now that are different [16:51] The most beautiful thing a leader can do[19:27] The permanent changes that Michael sees [22:35] Tip(s) for people who are doing their business over Zoom[28:00] “Train your people well so they can leave your company. Treat them well so they never do.” - Richard Branson[31:40] Just do one thing better each day consistently[34:29] “The bigger the ‘why', the bigger the ‘try'.”[36:45] Two powerful forces in the world[38:48] Ask yourself, “What do you stand for as a leader?”[42:23] Michael shares a very sensitive life story[47:35] Michael's challenge for all leaders[49:29] What keeps Michael busy these days[51:20] Where to find Michael?[54:00] Episode wrap up with a poem: The Dash by Linda EllisText LEADER to 617-393-5383 to receive The Top 10 Things That The Best Leaders Are Doing Right NowFor questions, suggestions, or speaker inquiries, contact me at john@lauritogroup.com

Tune in as we chat with Michael Maximilian Moss - Co-Founder & CEO & Lilian Schiffler - Creative Director at PromoMii.  PromoMii allows you to create amazing trailers, promos and short videos with AI-Powered software - NOVA. If Michael had to choose one word to describe himself, it would have to be – building. He loves to build solutions and has started four companies, with his first one being when he was 21. Currently, Michael is working on PromoMii - developing tech solutions that will help millions of creatives maximise the potential of their videos. Lilian is a London based award winning creative director with 12 years experience in media campaign production, video editing and art direction. Currently working at PromoMii, Lilian is responsible for establishing the product's UX, UI and branding and steering the direction of the product. We discuss: Validation Startup fundamentals Building Bridges Growth Mindset What's on the roadmap And much more… This podcast is hosted by bluedropstudio.com a Digital Marketing & Creative Content Agency based in London, UK

We had the pleasure of interviewing Karl Michael over Zoom video! “If there’s one thing you need to know about me,” says Karl Michael, “it’s that I never give up. Ever. I’m as persistent as it gets.”If Michael’s improbable life story isn’t proof enough of that, just take a listen to his extraordinary new single, “Highs And The Lows.” Stirring and soulful, the track showcases the British-born songwriter’s remarkable gifts as both a craftsman and a performer, mixing addictive hooks and slick, mesmerizing production with soaring vocals and deep, probing lyrics. Recorded in Michael’s newly-adopted hometown of Nashville, TN, it’s a mature, philosophical slice of R&B-tinged pop, one that takes stock of the rocky path that’s brought him from the depths of despair to the heights of success and right back down again more times than he cares to count. See, Michael’s already written with some of the biggest names in music and penned massive hits for plenty of other artists, but now, he’s finally ready to do it for himself, and the result is some of the most honest, vulnerable, and captivating material he’s ever created.“I hope my career can serve as an example,” Michael says. “I truly believe that anything’s possible if you want it bad enough and you’re willing to put in the work.”Growing up in a rough neighborhood, Michael relied on that resilience to beat the odds and break from the cycle of crime and poverty that surrounded him. At 16, he struck out on his own for Nashville, where a family friend had offered to help him get a fresh start. When he landed in the States, though, Michael found himself singled out by a customs officer who was suspicious of his status as an unaccompanied minor. Despite possessing the appropriate paperwork, he was detained, questioned for more than five hours, and eventually handcuffed and forcibly sent back to England.“I couldn’t believe it,” Michael says. “I was devastated. But I wasn’t going to let it stop me.”Back in Britain, Michael picked up a job working at McDonalds to make ends meet while he reassessed his future. Obsessed with films and movie stars, he’d always dreamed of becoming an actor, and when a friend tipped him off about open auditions at the Midlands Academy of Dance and Drama, it seemed like a golden ticket.“I had no training in the arts whatsoever, and I certainly didn’t have the money for school, but I went and auditioned anyway,” Michael remembers. “They wanted to see some acting, so I did a scene. They wanted me to dance, so I did the worm. They asked me to sing, so I walked over to the window, spit out my gum, and sang them a tune. When I opened my eyes, I had a full ride scholarship.”As a youngster, Michael hadn’t been exposed to a whole lot of music, but at school, it became his singular obsession. He fell in love with rap and grime and soul and R&B, and he supplemented his natural gifts with a fierce work ethic. As much as he loved performing, though, he found the school to be an imperfect fit (he remembers some of the more well-off students mocking him for having to work part-time at the local co-op), and so, after six months, he set out on his own again.Michael didn’t realize it at the time, but he was about to begin a long, strange odyssey through all the promises and pitfalls the music industry had to offer. Over the course of the next decade, he would land not one, but ​two major label record deals, only to watch them both fall apart before they could even get off the ground. He would make more money than he’d ever seen in his life, only to wind up broke again, sharing a cramped one-room apartment with a sibling while tending bar and handing out flyers to pay the rent. And he would become a star on one of the most popular singing shows on UK television, only to find that the success left him feeling lonelier and more depressed than ever before.“At the end of the day,” Michael explains, “being in some label-made band or singing someone else’s songs on TV, that’s just not who I was. I realized I had to be true to myself as an artist and a songwriter .”So Michael returned to the studio, where he continued to collaborate on a variety of projects while he plotted his next moves. Some of his tunes became major hits for other artists—“Can We Dance,” which he wrote with Bruno Mars, racked up more than 81 million streams on Spotify for The Vamps, while “Beautiful Me” amassed more than 16 million plays on YouTube for Dappy—but all the while, he knew he belonged onstage himself, and when he landed a deal with global publishing powerhouse Primary Wave, he leapt at the chance to finally get to Nashville.“Nashville absolutely saved me,” says Michael. “Everything about the place was so inspiring to me as a songwriter, and every time I had to leave, I was plotting how I could make it back as soon as possible.”It was on one of those trips to Nashville, which Michael now calls home, that he began penning material for himself, writing a series of intoxicating singles (starting with “Highs And The Lows”) that would land him his first record deal as a solo artist, this time with breakout label Riser House. Recorded with all-star producers Jon Levine (Dua Lipa, Alessia Cara) and Scott Spock (Rihanna, Britney Spears), the new tunes were undeniable pop gems, hinting at everything from James Arthur and Musiq Soulchild to Maroon 5 and Sam Smith as they reflected on the emotional rollercoaster of Michael’s personal and professional life. The minimalist “Wait A Minute,” for instance, grapples with the last gasps of a crumbling relationship, while the rousing “Beautiful Creature” celebrates the power of love in all its forms, and the throbbing “Explicit” and funky “Tunnel Vision” playfully navigate the minefields lust and desire. Each could be a radio smash on its own, but taken as a collection, they reveal the evolution of an artist who continues to grow stronger and more intuitive with each and every song he writes.“I’ve given other people hits,” Michael says matter-of-factly, “but it’s my turn now.” Persistence, it seems, pays off.We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com.www.BringinitBackwards.comAmerican Songwriter Podcast Network#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod  #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork

If Michael hears 'if it saves just ONE life' ONE more time... Sweden hasn't locked down, hasn't enforced a mandatory mask policy, and isn't even convinced the science proves that masks even work. The result? Sweden is doing just fine, and so is their economy. The United States cannot fall into the trap set by leftists that there is some magical path to the complete annihilation of the COVID-19 virus itself. Our sights should be set lower - to contain it, treat it, and possibly develop a safe and effective vaccine for it. But just like polio, cholera, measles, and several other diseases we have nearly eradicated - there will always be an odd case, even if we reach all of the goals alarmists say we must achieve.

On today's episode of TMWYK, we're talking about the Skull and Bones, and I don't mean the Jolly Roger. This Order at Yale is a secret society for the rich and powerful. We'll cover the founding of the group along with some of its history, and then jump into the rumor mill for some conspiracy talk. We'll fill in the gaps for Joshua Jackson and Paul Walker.And then, Hello? Can you hear me? SOS. Yes, we're stranded. We're gonna tell you about some famous survival stories from people marooned on an island, trapped at sea, and circumstances that drive you to eat your frozen best friend. If Michael #1 and I are stranded I'm eating his calf with a side of fava beans and a nice chianti. This is Tell Me What You Know!

On this week's episode, Michael and I talk about everything from HIV positive living to how toilet paper is the new currency. He is one of the most unique guests we've ever invited onto the podcast because he is an Individualist on the Enneagram personality assessment. Michael asked for the chance to share his story with others so that it may help just one person! He believes that the fear of rejection is what holds people back in relationships. If Michael's message resonated with you today, please don't hesitate to reach out to him on Facebook. Or for professional help, please contact Dr. Mallory Blake at The Center for Shared Insight in Denver and the staff there is available for telehealth care as well!

Michael Serbinis is a serial tech entrepreneur who first found success as an early innovator in the internet and cloud storage space. There, he rubbed elbows with now-iconic names like Bill Gates and Elon Musk. He’s helped to build, launch, and sell multiple businesses including docSpace, Zip2, and Kobo with over $1B in exits.   Today, Mike is the CEO and Founder of League Inc., a healthcare platform that’s set to disrupt the insurance world. He’s also become an advocate for integrating health and mindfulness programs into the workplace.   This week, Michael gives listeners an inside look into what it takes to grow a company from the initial idea to the final exit, why perseverance is key to success, how wellness is taking over the startup world, and so much more.    In this conversation with Michael Serbinis, you’ll also learn:   The importance of sleep and performance His background growing up in an immigrant family How Michael built a jet propulsion system at 16 years old  What this project taught him about problem-solving, communication, and teamwork Why learning about engineering changed Michael’s life How Michael found his resilience His experience working with Bill Gates in early ‘90s How Michael met and worked with Kimbal and Elon Musk What a strong workplace culture means to Michael Why wellness, mindfulness, and meditation in the workplace is growing How companies are integrating wellness into the workplace What Michael sees for the future of wellness in the workplace If Michael thinks mindfulness in the workplace is just a trend How to ensure your company practices the values they preach What life and leadership lesson Michael learned from Wayne Gretzky  About the growth and exit of his first cloud-based company, docSpace Why Michael created Kobo, a rival to the Kindle e-reader How he sold Kobo at just the right time What Michael did while taking time off work When he decided to get back into the business world Why Michael wanted to solve major problems in the healthcare industry How his newest venture, League, can help healthcare be less confusing What innovative tools make League potentially disruptive to healthcare Which audience is League primarily targeting What Michael envisions for the future of League And so much more!   Enjoy my conversation with Mike Serbinis!   Connect with League & Mike Serbinis League’s Website: https://league.com/us LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/mserbinis Twitter: https://twitter.com/mserbinis Make This Your Year of Positive, Mindful Leadership! Discover why more leaders are practicing mindfulness at the workplace. Join Rob and the donothing team at the 2020 donothing Leadership Retreat in the Colorado Rockies! Experience extraordinary leadership-focused events including the exclusive MindTravel SilentHike with Murray Hidary, meditation teachings with expert instructors, opportunities to connect with other like-minded leaders, and so much more!Get out of your comfort zone and take the most rewarding leadership challenge of your life! Learn more at www.donothingbook.com/retreat.   Follow Rob Dube on Social Media LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/robdube Facebook: www.facebook.com/rob.dube.1 Twitter: twitter.com/robddube   Instagram: www.instagram.com/robddube YouTube: bit.ly/2FYdckW   Rob Dube’s Website www.donothingbook.com     donothing Podcast Subscribe to the donothing podcast to discover simple, practical tips and tools from mindful, high-performing leaders that you can implement in your leadership philosophy today.  www.donothingbook.com/podcast    Buy the donothing book (now available as an audiobook, too!) amzn.to/2y9N1TK

Summary:In this 100th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host welcomes Michael Kitces of the Nerd’s Eye View blog, XYPN, and AdvicePay, to talk about product iteration, specialization within the field of financial planning and more. Episode Highlights: ● 01:40: – Michael ended up in financial services by accident after majoring in Psychology and minoring in Theatre in undergrad. ● 02:55: – Michael had a job selling life insurance policies, and he hated it and was bad at it, but luckily ended up finding mentorship from the one certified financial planner in the company. ● 06:25: – Michael sees the evolution of the fintech space as having several small epochs. ● 08:35: – Developers tried making a holy grail all-in-one software which resulted in every area of the program being mediocre. ● 09:02: – The rise of APIs have turned the industry upside down, allowing financial planners to create their own perfect all-in-one solution. ● 12:55: – Small companies that specialize can evolve so much faster than any enterprise software ever could. ● 16:22: – Michael observes that most fintech software companies in the US are homegrown, with developers trying to solve problems, rather than big venture-funded startups. ● 18:00: – Scaling your product to enterprise solutions means pivoting to a lot of enterprise features and iterations instead of iterating on your core product for end users. ● 19:45: – Because enterprise companies evolve more slowly, when they approach smaller companies for solutions they’re often asking them to move backwards to match where their advisors are in their mindsets. ● 22:20: – Michael believes that financial planning software has the most room for disruption of any software category. ● 25:30: – It is still useful to know old, antiquated programming languages because companies that have evolved slowly and are still written in old code need people who understand that architecture in order to modernize it. ● 27:45: – Michael sees a lot of companies trying to solve culture and training problems with technology instead of addressing the real issues. ● 29:20: – Companies trying to pivot to financial planning advice without certified financial planners means the employees are selling the plan as a product rather than providing advice as added value. ● 31:10: – In order to reduce liability that comes up with offering advice, companies centralize their planning departments and put excessive compliance procedures in place. ● 33:24: – A lot of specialized programs are cropping up to streamline processes for things like planning for your money management in the event that you are cognitively impaired with dementia, for parents and children managing student loans, etc. ● 37:50: – If Michael could make one change to the industry it would be to decrease the requirements to be called a financial advisor. ● 39:00: – The biggest challenge Michael has faced is figuring out how to get out of his own way. ● 40:53: – What excites Michael and gets him out of bed in the morning is, surprisingly, checking his email. 3 Key Points 1. The development of APIs has allowed for much faster iteration and development. 2. You can’t solve company culture problems with tech. 3. The fintech space has so much room for disruption and specialization. Tweetable Quotes: ● “You’re still going to get out-expertised, out-devved, out-scaled, out-manned, because the independent companies have been able to get so large. I think it’s a thing that could not have happened until the internet showed up and API connectivity became possible.” – Michael Kitces Resources Mentioned: ● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook ● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn ● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact ● https://www.kitces.com/ ● https://www.kitces.com/blog/category/21-financial-advisor-success-podcast/ ● https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/ ● https://advicepay.com/ ● https://twitter.com/MichaelKitces ● https://www.pinnacleadvisory.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we are talking to Michael Cockrell about evacuation, Michael is a contributor to Soundings Magazine a bay area publication. He just completed a series on emergency evacuations. If Michael sounds familiar, we had him on the show to talk about the Public Safety Shutdowns in California. Guest BioMichael Cockrell’s public service career has included law enforcement, water conservation enforcement, and emergency management. After 35-years at San Joaquin County’s Office of Emergency Services (OES), he retired as Director in December 2017. His OES experience between 1982-2017 included a wide range of emergencies and disasters such as floods, earthquake recovery, mass-casualty incidents, train derailments, hazardous materials releases, droughts, extreme heat and cold events. His education includes Associate and Bachelor degrees in Social Science, concentrating in Administration of Justice, and, a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. He has also completed many continued-education courses on administration and emergency management. Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5g-emergency-management-todd-de-voe-mpa/Soundings Magazine, evacuation story: https://soundingsmag.net/2019/09/13/know-before-you-have-to-go/FEAT Final Report: https://water.ca.gov/LegacyFiles/floodsafe/docs/Governor's-Flood-Emergency-Action-Team-FEAT-May10-1997-OCR.pdf FEAT Report products: https://www.caloes.ca.gov/cal-oes-divisions/planning-preparedness/plans-publications Locations to find FEMA P&P-7/February 1981 “U.S. Crisis Relocation Planning”: https://www.worldcat.org/title/us-crisis-relocation-planning/oclc/10364859 State & local EAS Plans: https://www.caloes.ca.gov/cal-oes-divisions/warning-center/california-state-warning-plan/emergency-alert-system NOAA Weather Radio:- Coverage: https://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/coverage/ccov.php?State=CA- About: https://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/index.phpAdvertisersTitan HST https://www.titanhst.com/

Chris Micklatcher started off as a lawyer in Portland, Maine, focusing on estate planning and tax work. The transition to tax resolution came 30 years ago when a client came into his office that needed some help with his back taxes. Back then, it was very easy to find new clients, but now the market for the business has completely changed. [5:40] There are around 3,300 counties in the United States, and for some of them, when the IRS files a tax lien, you will be able to find that info on their website. You can also buy a list from a list broker of federal tax liens. [6:55] Chris met Michael and signed up to his Tax Domination program in Orlando. Prior to that, Chris did tax resolution work in addition to general law work, but it wasn’t a focus of the business. He wanted to do something he loved, and he found that people really appreciated the tax resolution service, which is very different from the experience of working with law clients. [8:30] The tax resolution side of Chris’s business was around $5000 a month. After purchasing the Tax Domination program and coming into the mastermind group his tax resolution business has grown to $55,000 a month with additional deferred revenue each month as well. [12:00] Chris has hired four employees to help with the workload and is now hoping to start retiring slowly, minimizing his work schedule over time. His team handles approximately $850,000 in yearly revenue. [14:55] The first major lesson that Chris learned was putting the processes in place and understanding the value of his time. Before the program Chris never spent any time on marketing, he did most of that on the fly. Now he spends a minimum of half a day a week focusing on marketing and trying to think outside the box. Eliminating the deadwood in both clients and employees was the third major lesson. The concept of Chris’s employees selling his business for him changed the way he thought about hiring. [16:45] When people call your office off of your marketing, the first impression they have is the person who answers the phone, and most practitioners don’t give that enough thought. Your front office people have to be very good. There is a big difference between a receptionist and an intake person. [18:15] Non-Filers are some of the most common clients that Michael has been seeing, mainly due to the focus of his marketing efforts. [20:35] This is the first time in seven years that the IRS has gotten over $300 million added to their budget from Congress. The pendulum is swinging back now to compliance enforcement. [23:25] If Michael had to do it all over again, he would have set aside one day a week to plan his marketing strategy out. You also have to understand that you will be overloaded with business, so you need to be able to complete the business that comes into your office. [24:30] Many practitioners believe that marketing is below them, and that once they open up shop, they deserve the business. For Michael, the problem was never marketing, it was delegating the work to an employee. The key thing is being able to hire the right people and being able to delegate in confidence. [26:15] You want to put yourself out there as a tax resolution expert because everyone thinks an accountant is a tax resolution expert as well, but that usually leads to a bad experience for the customer. There are three distinct areas of taxes: tax planning, tax preparation, and tax resolution. You can do all three, but the way you present your business matters. [27:45] You need to brand yourself because it will put you into a position of authority. Tax resolution in the only field of taxes where you are solving a big problem which is why it’s the most lucrative and profitable. Resolution is here to stay whereas planning and preparation are slowly being automated and commoditized. [30:15] You can succeed as long as you like working hard. The ones that just want to get by are going to have a very tough time in this business. [31:50] Most colleges teach branding and image marketing, but any business can be successful if they know how to do direct response marketing. [34:05] Michael has a turnkey program that has been very valuable for Chris in his business and helped him understand the key areas that he needed to focus on to grow his tax resolution business.     Mentioned in this episode: Fresh Start Tax Solutions Michael Rozbruch's Tax & Business Solutions Academy

Hello again!Thanks for finding the Add More Mouse podcast, your guide to adding a little more Disney knowledge and enjoyment to your life. This week, your muscular (yet sensitive) hosts Dave and Mike are wrapping up their impromptu Disney pirates miniseries by taking a look at the 1994 film, Muppet Treasure Island! But if Dave loves the Muppets so much, why does he have such a lukewarm take on this movie? If a movie was made with such obvious care, how can it be so boring? If Michael hasn't seen the first Muppet movie, is he really just a Muppet poseur? And where on earth are the jokes? The boys also discuss the history of the Muppets at Walt Disney World. Also included in this episode: Mike and Dave prove just how little they know while trying out some questions from Dave's newly acquired Disney edition of Trivial Pursuit.You can email the show at addmoremouse@gmail.com (the next person who emails the show will win a special Disney prize!), and you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Thanks for listening!

This week I am chatting with Michael Green, house flipper and podcast host of the Flip Factor. Michael has an incredible story: at 17, Michael found himself thrown into a paddy wagon with handcuffs around his wrists. Faced with a four year jail sentence Michael had a lot of time to think. He thought about how if his life up to that point. His negative patterns and limiting beliefs had eaten away at his foundation like hungry termites. Michael had a choice, he could either continue these patterns and let his life crumble around him, or he could step up and fix it. Since then Michael has gone on to achieve great things with his business, podcast, and his life! He truly lives up to the Never-Say-Die positive attitude to back himself, own his mistakes, and use them as the building blocks for a better future. This is a must listen to episode full of great life advice and actionable steps to changing your life for the better. If Michael can do then so can you! What are you waiting for! Be Bold, Be Brave and Go Give Life a Crack!

Once saved always saved: with Michael RowntreeIn this theology podcast Michael Roundtree comes on to discuss eternal life and the once saved always saved position. We discussed Hebrews 6, Colossians 1:21-23, and Hebrews 3. We also discussed the difference between the historical Calvinistic position of "perseverance of the saints" and Michaels position of once saved always saved. Is there eternal security? can you lose your salvation? Imagine a person comes to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus, they bear fruit and then fall into a lifestyle of sin. furthermore, they die in that lifestyle of sin without repenting. A historical position of Calvinism would say this person was never "truly saved". An Arminian might say that they walked away from their salvation. Michael would say "if they were really saved then they will find themselves in heaven without a reward or with a little reward". This is quite an interesting interview, Michael is not quite antinomian, because he does not deny the need for preaching repentance to believers and non-believers. However, we thoroughly disagree on the matter of our eternal destination for the unrepentant individual who might have at one time believed the Gospel. This conversation boils down to "Can a Christian really commit apostasy?". If Michael is correct the answer is no. Michael does not believe you can lose salvation.

Michael & Ethan present themselves as co-teachers of an Advanced Creative Writing Course, in which their promising (but potentially troubled) student Daniel Brown has offered them his thriller novel. They take out their red pens and give writing advice. In this episode:Alternate titles are offered, such as, "Everything Michael & Ethan Know About Physics," "Hyperbole Cast," "Suck-It, Podcast!" "Just Good Advice with Michael & Ethan," and "Bad Podcast Ideas."Trigger warning: Michael & Ethan don't like The Da Vinci Code.If Michael dies, arrest Ethan.They talk about the concept of a prologue. It takes up a good chunk of the episode.They don't talk about the text of the book for half an hour.They help someone.They've been reading Don Quixote for...a long time.They offer a general apology, but Ethan specifically apologizes to the French.Next month they'll be reading and discussing Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) andEthan Bartlett (@bjartlett)"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission."The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

Instead of looking at Christmas from the point of view of Matthew or Luke, we are looking at it from the point of view of Revelation. We are looking for Jesus to come the second time. Ancient Jewish scholars thought it might be two different messiahs, but we know that it is one messaiah coming two times. The first time as a lamb and the second time as a lion. We call this season Advent. It is the coming of Christ.Whenever you talk about Revelation you get one of two reactions. Because of the images and the subject it is too frightening and so somepeople won’t look at it at all. Others get into it too much. They try to interpret the times based upon all of the images in Revelation. Both extremes are not good. What we learn form it is that you are blessed if you read it.Revelation show us that all of the evil in this world will be cast down and conquered. There will come a time when there is no more sickness, no more pain, no more tears!Jesus is the word of God, the Holy Spirit is the breath of God. The father gives us the breath to speak the word!Satan exists to accuse you to God and to yourself. He is a liar. Two extremes about the devil. One is that he doesn’t exist or is like a cartoon character. The other is to think he is all powerful. Both are wrong. Don’t focus on the devil, focus on JESUS! When He came, he conquered the devil. The devil is not as strong as Jesus. We read in Revelation 12 that Micael the angel defeated the devil in a battle in heaven. If Michael can defeat the devil, you can be sure that Jesus can!We know Jesus is coming back because he promised that he would in John 14. Jesus has made a place for you and will come back to bring you there.Satan is working against Jesus and all who believe in Him. But his only weapon is through lies. Jesus can protect you from those lies. Don’t believe them. As soon as you do, satan is winning. You have an enemy and his name is satan and he goal is to destroy you. The way to overcome that is to believe the truth which is Jesus.In Revelation 19 there is an invitation to a wedding. The wedding it between Jesus (the groom) and the church (His bride). Let’s look at the coming of Jesus. He is the rider on a white horse. His name is faithful and true. The white horse symbolizes purity. He comes with justice to judge and he goes to war to deliver us from evil. We sometimes think he just wants to crush the devil. But more than that he comes to deliver us from evil. Jesus is described as having eyes like a fiery flame. It is symbolic meaning that he sees eerything. Wherever he looks there can be no darkness. On his head are many diadem crowns. Remember that the devil has seven crowns, Jesus has MANY. Too many to count! He has a name written that no one knows except himself. The name of Jesus contains so many facets that nobody except Him knows it all. He is dressed in clothing dipped in blood. But not the blood of his enemies. It is the blood of the lamb that takes away the sins of the world. And he is called the Son of God. A sharp sword is coming from His mouth. It is not an actual sword. But His word cuts between good and evil with truth. It cuts through confusion. He rules with a rod of iron. It is a sceptre that is strong and cannot be changed.He has another name written on his thigh and on his side. It is King of Kings and Lord of Lords!Translation to Swahili by Fils Ekanga

This week’s episode is the last episode in our series on new models of Primary Care! Our guest today, Michael Greeley, is a General Partner at Flare Capital Partners. Prior to co-founding Flare Capital Partners, Michael was the founding General Partner of Flybridge Capital Partners where he led the firm’s healthcare investments. Michael’s current and prior board seats include HealthVerity, Iora Health, Predilytics, TARIS Biomedical, and Welltok. Michael also serves on the Industry Advisory Board of the Cleveland Clinic and Boston Children’s Hospital, as well as serving on several other boards including the New England Investors’ Committee of Capital Innovation. Michael is most excited about the convergence of healthcare and information technologies and the profound opportunities to transform healthcare and writes about this and other topics on his blog www.ontheflyingbridge.com In this episode we cover: Michael’s background, work at Flare Capital, and his specific areas of investment interest How Flare Capital’s  investment in Iora Health came together and what led him to say yes Michael’s general thoughts on entrepreneurs trying to build standalone primary care models and if he thinks this helps or could create more fragmentation in the system Where Michael sees the future of these New Models of Primary Care heading Michael’s thoughts around a blog post he wrote in that “if V1 of the Healthcare technology sector was triggered but the HITECH Act of 2009, the sector is now entering V2.0 where the commentary is focused on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality solutions to make the healthcare system “capital light” to drive meaningful operating efficiencies from the significant investment of the past three years." What opportunities Michael believes will develop over the next few years If Michael sees a growth in early stage investment over the next few years or if he thinks we’ll see the percentage grow in Series B and later investments Why Michael thinks "Brands will become even more important” Links mentioned in the show: Steve Kraus at Bessemer Ventures https://www.bvp.com/team/stephen-kraus https://ontheflyingbridge.wordpress.com/2017/02/21/potential-next-steps-where-to-invest/ Connect with Michael: Twitter LinkedIn Blog Connect with Flare Capital Partners: Website Connect with Healthbox Follow us on Twitter and @ChuckFeerick Subscribe and leave a review in iTunes Have guest suggestions or topic ideas for the podcast? Send them to us at ideas@healthbox.com Listen to this episode on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Libsyn

Michael Bungay Stanier was banned from his high school graduation for "the balloon incident", was sued by one of his Law School lecturers for defamation, and has held a number of jobs where he had little or no impact. Through his experiences, he founded Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do more great work. On today's show, he discusses his latest book with Roger, The Coaching Habit and how you can say less, ask more, and change the way you lead others.   Key Takeaways: [1:45] What was Michael's defining moment? [6:45] What is Michael up to these days? [8:20] Michael talks about his latest book, The Coaching Habit. [13:30] Slow down on giving advice, but stay curious for longer. [17:00] If Michael could pick one type of person to read his book, it would be the busy manager. [20:30] Did you know that boys are much more emotionally expressive than girls are in early childhood? [22:00] There are seven essential questions you need to ask yourself. Michael explains further. [25:40] Believe it or not, people do not learn when you give them really great advice. [25:55] People really learn when they have a moment to reflect on what just happened. [28:30] The Coaching Habit has been the #1 coaching book on Amazon since it launched 9 weeks ago. [29:40] What legacy would Michael like to leave behind?   Mentioned in This Episode: www.mantalks.com/ www.boxofcrayons.biz/ www.thecoachinghabit.com/ The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier www.mankindproject.org/   Music Credit: Parlange & Latenite Automatic (www.jesusparlange.com – www.lateniteautomatic.com)

If Michael we're more of a dork than he already is this is where he would write that this episode is more than meets the eye. But since it isn't he won't. As the title suggests this is the Transformers episode, or at least the first of them. Listen as Michael discusses his early Transformers experiences, plays some music from the 1986 soundtrack and does a little compare and contrast on a song from TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE and ROCKY IV. All this plus some quick and dirty reviews and the video podcast pick of the week.

If Michael we're more of a dork than he already is this is where he would write that this episode is more than meets the eye. But since it isn't he won't. As the title suggests this is the Transformers episode, or at least the first of them. Listen as Michael discusses his early Transformers experiences, plays some music from the 1986 soundtrack and does a little compare and contrast on a song from TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE and ROCKY IV. All this plus some quick and dirty reviews and the video podcast pick of the week.

If Michael we're more of a dork than he already is this is where he would write that this episode is more than meets the eye. But since it isn't he won't. As the title suggests this is the Transformers episode, or at least the first of them. Listen as Michael discusses his early Transformers experiences, plays some music from the 1986 soundtrack and does a little compare and contrast on a song from TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE and ROCKY IV. All this plus some quick and dirty reviews and the video podcast pick of the week.

If Michael we're more of a dork than he already is this is where he would write that this episode is more than meets the eye. But since it isn't he won't. As the title suggests this is the Transformers episode, or at least the first of them. Listen as Michael discusses his early Transformers experiences, plays some music from the 1986 soundtrack and does a little compare and contrast on a song from TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE and ROCKY IV. All this plus some quick and dirty reviews and the video podcast pick of the week.