Podcasts about IKEA

Leah Solivan, founder and former CEO of TaskRabbit, reflects on building one of the world's most successful gig-economy platforms. She discusses the pressures of scaling a multi-million-dollar business, the stress-related illness that left her in hospital, and the decision to eventually sell TaskRabbit to IKEA. Presenter: Sarah Rogers Producer: Niamh McDermottYou can email the team: businessdaily@bbc.co.uk(Picture: Leah Solivan. Credit: Audrey Anne Photography)

Esto es lo que tienes que saber para empezar el día.LUBAConstructora LUBA ofrece servicios de construcción y contratación, además de proyectos inmobiliarios para quienes buscan su próximo hogar. Conoce sus soluciones y proyectos en constructoraluba.com.———FIXO CARGOEste Mes de los Padres, todas las compras realizadas durante julio con la dirección de Europa de Fixo Cargo participan automáticamente para ganar una de cuatro Gift Cards de 100 euros de El Corte Inglés. Habrá un ganador semanal y, mientras más pedidos realices, más oportunidades tendrás de ganar.———IKEAAprovecha las Rebajas de IKEA para renovar tu sala, terraza o cualquier espacio de tu hogar con descuentos en muebles y decoración. Visita sus tiendas o entra a IKEA.com.do y llévate tus muebles a casa el mismo día.———MISS RDVive la final de Miss República Dominicana 2026 este jueves 30 de julio, a las 8:00 p. m., en el  Watch Party de La Magacín en Dave & Buster's, BlueMall. Los cupos son limitados, así que reserva tu espacio.

Ikea hat etwas gebaut, das Smartphone-Nutzerinnen und -Nutzer positiv überrascht – und Design-Liebhaber direkt abholt.

On this week's show: Apple wants smarter Home cameras, but only if you spring for the 2TB iCloud plan, IKEA quietly makes Matter less annoying, and Matter cameras from Tapo, Aqara, EZVIZ, and friends are finally becoming a real category. We also get into Josh.ai adding DMX and DALI for the fancy-lighting crowd, Sonos trimming some of the people you'd think it should keep, a coax-powered floodlight for those Wi-Fi dead zones, Ecowitt's Kickstarter water tester, new Home Assistant-friendly gear from IoTorero and Third Reality, a pick of the week, project updates, and so much more!The story behind Erling Haaland and his taxidermy raccoon: ‘Lock the doors, let's make this special'HomeTech HeadlinesTHIRDREALITY Smart Wall Outlet, Dual Independent Control for 2 Sockets, Individual Power Monitoring, Zigbee Repeater, Compatible with Home Assistant & SmartThings, ETL CertifiedWQT01: Smart Water Quality TesterChannel Master's Pro Floodlight uses coax to bring smart lighting to your garden's dead zonesApple Intelligence in Apple Home will require the $10-a-month iCloud Plus plan.Sonos Sacks Top Designers Behind its Premium Speakers | iPhone in CanadaJosh.ai Now Offers Native DMX & DALI Support - Residential SystemsIKEA updates DIRIGERA hub with Matter 1.4.2 support and improved network stabilityTapo, Aqara, Ulticam, and EZVIZ: All the Matter-certified camerasIoTorero joins Works with Home AssistantHermes Agent — The Agent That Grows With YouIrriSense 2 | 4-in-1 Smart Sprinkler & Irrigation System | AiperElegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K – Best 3D Printer for Beginners & ProsPrismML — Announcing Bonsai 27B: The First 27B-Class Model to Run on a Phone

Irena Cronin has been studying XR since 2016 — first as Robert Scoble's co-author, now as CEO of Infinite Retina, consulting for clients from IKEA's labs division to a major law firm tracking the industry. She joins Charlie, Ted, and Rony for a blunt assessment of how the biggest companies in tech actually operate.The centerpiece is Rony's question: Meta has spent roughly $120 billion on Reality Labs since acquiring Oculus. Where did it all go? Irena's answer is unsparing — complete mismanagement, no follow-up, and a lack of imagination that money can't fix. Apple gets a different diagnosis. Irena tracked the Vision Pro through hundreds of iterations since 2019 and predicted exactly how it would land. Her real news: it isn't dead. People inside Apple are still working on it intensely while the glasses project ramps up. The news segment covers OpenAI's Apple IP scandal and whether the Valley now operates in a post-IP world.Key Moments:[00:01:30] OpenAI caught in Apple's cookie jar — IP theft accusations on the eve of the IPO[00:05:00] Sherlocking and the post-IP world — how big companies strip-mine startups through fake M&A talks[00:12:00] AI regulation — Hassabis, Altman, and Amodei; Rony's case for why the public gets Cessnas, not F-47s[00:18:45] Irena joins — Infinite Retina, IKEA, and why physical AI is just spatial computing renamed[00:24:30] Why isn't anyone afraid of Google? — fifteen years of planetary data and no strategy to use it[00:33:30] Where did Meta's $120 billion go? — "complete mismanagement" and a failure of imagination[00:38:00] The Vision Pro isn't dead — Apple is still working on it intensely as the glasses ramp up[00:41:45] Why is XR so obscenely hard? — the industry chased consumers before enterprise[00:44:30] The display is everything — why smart glasses "go bonkers" the moment AR hits the lensBrought to you by Zappar and Mattercraft, the leading visual development environment for immersive 3D web experiences. Start building at mattercraft.io. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

อีพีนี้ของ Trace Talk พี่โจ้และเกมมี่ไม่อยู่ เลยชวนนายกั๊ง กาวกีฬา และพี่วิชัยมาพูดคุยหนุกๆ ทั้งข่าวสารบอลโลกรอบสุดท้ายก่อนนัดชิง / ฮาแลนด์ถือแรคคูนกลับนอร์เวย์ / ลีกบาสเก็ตบอลของคุณยายอายุ 50+ / ข่าวขบวนการค้าอวัยวะข้ามชาติ! / การตัดหำตัวเองเป็นเชื้อไฟเผาบ้านคนอื่น / คนโดนเย็บปาก / วิ่งมาราธอนใน IKEA / ยช tie-in สินค้าใหม่จากฮิวเมอฯ / และข่าวอื่นๆๆ มากมาย #SalmonPodcast #UntitledCase #UntitledCaseTraceTalk #ยชธัญ #UCTraceTalk #TraceTalk ---- ติดต่อโฆษณาได้ที่ podcast.salmon@gmail.com หรือ 083-922-9929 (คุณติ๊ก) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

อีพีนี้ของ Trace Talk พี่โจ้และเกมมี่ไม่อยู่ เลยชวนนายกั๊ง กาวกีฬา และพี่วิชัยมาพูดคุยหนุกๆ ทั้งข่าวสารบอลโลกรอบสุดท้ายก่อนนัดชิง / ฮาแลนด์ถือแรคคูนกลับนอร์เวย์ / ลีกบาสเก็ตบอลของคุณยายอายุ 50+ / ข่าวขบวนการค้าอวัยวะข้ามชาติ! / การตัดหำตัวเองเป็นเชื้อไฟเผาบ้านคนอื่น / คนโดนเย็บปาก / วิ่งมาราธอนใน IKEA / ยช tie-in สินค้าใหม่จากฮิวเมอฯ / และข่าวอื่นๆๆ มากมาย #SalmonPodcast #UntitledCase #UntitledCaseTraceTalk #ยชธัญ #UCTraceTalk #TraceTalk ---- ติดต่อโฆษณาได้ที่ podcast.salmon@gmail.com หรือ 083-922-9929 (คุณติ๊ก) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, a conversation with Chris Ames, author of a debut collection of short stories, I Made This Just For You. The characters in this book are perfect avatars of modern life. They work in tech, take designer drugs, assemble IKEA furniture, pursue beauty matching, and rehabilitate their reputations – all while grappling with a perilous sense of unease, held hostage by economic forces beyond their control. I Made This Just for You lives in weird and flirts with normal. The stories explore the tension between authenticity and performance, as characters navigate the anxieties of modern parenthood, the disorienting nature of loss and memory, and the absurd, often dystopian, intersection of the digital and the real. This savage, sideways collection asks: How do we measure the distance between two people? How can we thrive within our own ceaseless routines? And how are we still drawn together, in spite of our messy, broken ways of knowing? Enjoyed what you heard? Click here to purchase the book: https://www.readings.com.au/product/9781761154782/i-made-this-just-for-you--chris-ames--2026--9781761154782

Wenn man sich einen Schwedenurlaub gerade nicht gönnen will, es gibt ja Alternativen.

Ikea-Filiale in Wetzlar gibt einen Blick hinter die Kulissen, Science Center Explorikus erhält wichtige 400.000 Euro Unterstützung und der Wetzlarer Dom zeigt die Ausstellung „Mitten unter uns“. Das und mehr heute im Podcast. Alle Hintergründe zu den Nachrichten des Tages finden Sie hier: Dimension Ikea: Blick hinter die Kulissen in Wetzlar https://www.mittelhessen.de/lokales/lahn-dill-kreis/wetzlar/dimension-ikea-blick-hinter-die-kulissen-in-wetzlar-4987182 Science Center Explorikus: Warum 400.000 Euro wichtig sind https://www.mittelhessen.de/lokales/lahn-dill-kreis/wetzlar/science-center-explorikus-warum-400000-euro-wichtig-sind-5876195 Lions Club Wetzlar ist beim Weinfest dabei https://www.mittelhessen.de/lokales/lahn-dill-kreis/wetzlar/lions-club-wetzlar-ist-beim-weinfest-dabei-5878323 Ausstellung zu sexualisierter Gewalt im Wetzlarer Dom https://www.mittelhessen.de/lokales/lahn-dill-kreis/wetzlar/ausstellung-zu-sexualisierter-gewalt-im-wetzlarer-dom-5853923 Prozess um Schüsse in Gießener Wettbüro: Gutachter sagt aus https://www.mittelhessen.de/lokales/kreis-giessen/giessen/prozess-um-schuesse-in-giessener-wettbuero-gutachter-sagt-aus-5876318 Ein Angebot der VRM.

Your prospect isn't lazy, and they're not “just not a fit.” They're overloaded. When we show up to a sales call carrying a big box of features and benefits, we often assume the buyer will assemble the vision in their head and feel the same excitement we do. But that's like dumping an IKEA cabinet on the floor with no clear end picture and asking them to build it under pressure. Most brains refuse that kind of risk and effort, even when the logic is sound.We break down why deals stall because of the curse of knowledge and the hidden “mental math” we push onto buyers. Then we walk through a practical way to fix it using NotebookLM: capture your real subject matter expertise (docs, manuals, support transcripts, use cases) and combine it with the prospect's reality (sales call notes or recordings, website copy, investor reports, reviews). Put it all into NotebookLM so it functions as a walled garden, pulling only from trusted inputs instead of generic internet guesses.From there, we generate what we call the Golden Path: a customized, step by step map that shows the buyer exactly how they get from current pain to an aspirational future, with fewer imagined risks along the way. The output can become a tailored slide deck, audio overview, or video explainer they can take back to their team to justify the decision and build real momentum. If you want stronger differentiation, faster alignment, and cleaner closes, this is a simple workflow you can start using today. Subscribe, share this with a sales leader who needs it, and leave a quick review telling us where you get stuck most often in the sales process.Send us Fan MailSupport the show

What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't a lack of talent or opportunity—but a rule you've never stopped to question?This week on Entrepreneurial Thinkers, Rob Ryan sits down with entrepreneur, investor, engineer, and TaskRabbit founder Leah Solivan for a conversation that goes far beyond startups and venture capital. Together, they explore the invisible "precedents" that quietly shape our careers, our businesses, and even our identities—and why the people who change the world are often the ones willing to ask a deceptively simple question: Does it really have to be this way?From building and selling one of the companies that helped define the gig economy, TaskRabbit, to IKEA, to launching Precedent VC and championing a new generation of founders, Leah shares how curiosity, independent thinking, and the courage to challenge convention have shaped every chapter of her journey. Whether you're building a business, leading a team, or simply trying to think differently about your own future, this conversation is a reminder that every meaningful breakthrough begins by questioning the assumptions everyone else accepts.Feel free to follow and engage with Leah here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahsolivan/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_solivan/X: https://x.com/labunleashedWebsite: https://www.leahsolivan.com/precedentvcWe're so grateful to you, our growing audience of entrepreneurs, investors and community leaders interested in the human stories of the Entrepreneurial Thinkers behind entrepreneurial economies worldwide.As always we hope you enjoy each episode and Like, Follow, Subscribe or share with your friends. You can find our shows here, and our new Video Podcast, at “Entrepreneurial Thinkers” channel on YouTube. Plug in, relax and enjoy inspiring, educational and empowering conversations between Rob and our guests.¡Cheers y gracias!,Entrepreneurial Thinkers Team.

Get ready for a good show today...we're going through 7 pricing psychology tricks that work even on savvy consumers! Backed by real studies, from why discounts can make a painkiller feel less effective to a 1-cent pricing hack that made 25% more money on eBay. In this episode, we break down the research behind charm pricing, price anchoring, credit card spending, partitioned pricing, and more — plus real test results from their own brands, including a $777 bundle that outsold a $699 control and a free-shipping test that flipped conversion rates. 00:00 Cold open: we've been sleeping on this topic 00:02 The most impactful lever most brands never test 00:03 The Price Placebo Effect: the energy drink study that messed with their heads 00:06 Why running sales year-round can quietly kill your product's perceived quality 00:07 The Nine-Ending Paradox: why $39 outsold $34 by 24% 00:08 Real case study: the $777 Jack Daniels bundle that beat the control price 00:09 The Phonetic Length Effect: why $999 feels bigger than $1,000 00:11 Personal price anchors and the IKEA "4 cups of coffee" pricing trick 00:12 The Credit Card Premium: cash bidders vs. card bidders in a real auction 00:15 Partitioned Pricing: the penny-plus-shipping trick that made 25% more 00:19 The Endowed Progress Effect: the car wash loyalty card study 00:20 Getting "got": a real-time example of a surprise upgrade offer

Longtemps considéré comme un modèle du commerce mondial, Ikea traverse une période délicate. Baisse des bénéfices, fermetures de magasins, suppressions de postes, concurrence d'Amazon et de Temu... Le numéro un mondial de l'ameublement est confronté à un profond changement des habitudes de consommation. Pour rester compétitif, le groupe suédois transforme progressivement son modèle économique. Présent dans plus de 60 pays, avec plus de 800 magasins et un chiffre d'affaires annuel de près de 45 milliards d'euros, Ikea reste le leader mondial de l'ameublement. Pourtant, le groupe suédois traverse l'une des périodes les plus compliquées de son histoire. Ses bénéfices diminuent, son chiffre d'affaires recule légèrement, des milliers de postes sont supprimés et plusieurs magasins historiques vont fermer leurs portes. C'est notamment le cas en Chine, où sept sites doivent disparaître, mais aussi en Suède, le pays où l'entreprise est née. En France également, Ikea revoit son organisation pour s'adapter à un marché devenu beaucoup plus difficile. Historiquement, la force d'Ikea reposait sur son excellent rapport qualité-prix. Mais aujourd'hui, les consommateurs disposent de nombreuses alternatives : Amazon, Temu, Shein ou encore d'autres enseignes d'ameublement proposent des produits comparables, souvent livrés très rapidement. Les habitudes d'achat ont profondément changé. Un modèle historique bousculé par le commerce en ligne Le modèle historique d'Ikea reposait sur ses immenses magasins installés en périphérie des villes. Les clients parcouraient plusieurs kilomètres pour visiter ces entrepôts de près de 30 000 mètres carrés, où ils venaient acheter une simple étagère et repartaient finalement avec des coussins, des verres ou encore des bougies. Mais ce modèle est aujourd'hui remis en question. Avant même d'entrer dans un magasin, les consommateurs comparent désormais les prix sur leur smartphone. Ils souhaitent acheter rapidement et être livrés à domicile en quelques jours, voire quelques heures. Le développement du commerce en ligne bouleverse ainsi le fonctionnement historique d'Ikea. À cela s'ajoute un contexte économique moins favorable. Après les confinements, de nombreux ménages ont déjà renouvelé leur mobilier. Surtout, le ralentissement du marché immobilier pèse directement sur les ventes de meubles : moins de logements vendus signifie aussi moins d'achats d'équipements. Toute la filière est concernée. Enfin, Ikea doit également faire face à une hausse de ses coûts de production, notamment celle du bois, sa principale matière première. La stratégie d'Ikea pour préparer l'avenir Malgré ces difficultés, Ikea est loin d'être en danger. Le groupe reste le numéro un mondial de l'ameublement et conserve un atout de taille : contrairement à de nombreuses grandes entreprises, il n'est pas coté en Bourse. Il n'est donc pas soumis à la pression d'actionnaires exigeant des bénéfices toujours plus élevés chaque trimestre. Cette indépendance permet à Ikea d'accepter une baisse temporaire de ses profits afin d'investir dans sa transformation. Cette stratégie passe notamment par une évolution de son réseau de magasins. Le groupe développe des points de vente plus petits, installés dans les centres-villes ou les villes moyennes, tout en renforçant les services de livraison et de retrait de commandes. L'objectif est d'être plus proche des clients et de répondre à leurs nouvelles habitudes de consommation. Pendant des décennies, Ikea a inventé une nouvelle façon d'acheter des meubles. Son défi est désormais d'inventer une nouvelle façon de les vendre.

Most founders assume that building a great product and serving customers well will be enough to protect what they have built. Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and the new book Incorruptible, argues that the assumption is dangerously wrong.   In this episode of Business For Good, Paul Shapiro sits down with Eric Ries to explore why successful organizations are systematically pulled toward corruption by a force he calls financial gravity. The conversation examines how short-term investor incentives, flawed governance structures, and misaligned compensation hollow out companies from the inside, often without anyone intending it. Eric explains the difference between mission-hopeful companies that merely wish to stay on course and mission-driven companies that have actually engineered structural protections into their governance.   The discussion covers why independent directors have statistically failed to prevent corporate corruption, how industrial foundation structures used by companies like Patagonia, IKEA, and Novo Nordisk produce dramatically better long-term outcomes, and why tenured voting rights could realign shareholder power with genuine stewardship. Paul and Eric also explore how the same forces corrupt nonprofit organizations, using examples from animal welfare and Eric's work with Adopt-a-Pet founder David Meyer.   Things You Will Learn: Why the most successful companies become the most vulnerable targets for corruption, and why it is a systems problem, not a people problem. How financial gravity collapses organizations over time, stripping away the qualities that made them distinctive. Why independent directors have statistically failed to prevent corporate corruption despite being the standard prescription. How industrial foundation structures produce companies that are roughly five times more likely to survive to year 50 than conventionally governed peers. Why tenured voting rights and multi-stakeholder governance could replace the broken one-share-one-vote model.   Tools & Frameworks Covered: Financial Gravity: The systemic force transmitted by financial markets that gradually pulls companies away from their founding mission toward extractive behavior, regardless of the intentions of the people involved. Mission Hopeful vs. Mission Driven: A diagnostic framework for evaluating whether an organization has genuine structural protections for its mission or is simply hoping good intentions will be enough. Constitutional Governance / Industrial Foundation Structure: A corporate governance model where an outside nonprofit foundation or purpose trust serves as mission guardian over a for-profit operating company, used by Patagonia, Novo Nordisk, IKEA, and others, with evidence showing dramatically higher longevity and financial performance. #BusinessForGood #SustainableBusiness #FutureOfFood #AlternativeProtein 

Abby Pawley started by painting surfboards in Virginia Beach, then said yes to a 50-foot mural festival wall that changed everything. Five years later, her work has shown up in Amazon's main entrance, an IKEA Monet collaboration, local landmarks, and commercial spaces across her community. Abby shares how she left a warehouse job with no perfect plan, followed up until clients answered, handled the panic of large-scale projects, and learned to keep painting through the ugly middle when even she needed to trust the process. She also talks honestly about AI-generated client requests, social media pressure, public rejection, and the kind of persistence that can turn a “no” into the next wall.Abby Pawley is the Virginia Beach artist and muralist behind Pawley Prints, creating colorful murals, coastal-inspired pieces, and large-scale commercial work for brands and local spaces. Based in Virginia Beach, her work carries the influence of her high school art teachers, who encouraged her early on, and the community that helped her grow.Connect with Abby:WebsiteIGTikTokCreative Finds:Zibra 1/8" Detail Brush – our most requested size, launching July 30 at enjoyzibra.com (use code BANTER10 for 10% off)In this episode, we discuss:Why Abby left her warehouse job after her first mural, even without a perfect planHow steady follow-up helped turn an Amazon referral into a real projectWhy referrals still require persistence, clear communication, and self-advocacyWhat changes when your work moves from small surfaces to 50-foot wallsHow artists can get through the ugly middle of a project without spiralingWhy Abby's most effective social media posts are often the simple, honest onesHow sharing rejection can build trust with your audience and help other artists keep goingWelcome to Brush & Banter—the podcast where creativity meets real-life hustle. Brought to you by Zibra, we go beyond perfect brushstrokes to explore the messy, magical, and meaningful side of being an artist. We're here to bring you conversations with working artists, practical tips to grow your creative business, and a built-in painting companion for your next project. Brush & Banter is co-hosted by Brie Hansen, President of Zibra; Annie Bolding, Founder of It's a Disco Day Designs; and Lauren Cooper, Founder of Rosemont Lane Design Studio.Connect with Zibra: WebsiteInstagramTikTokFacebook YouTubeBlog

A U.S. Congressman wants Quebec to lift its restrictions on U.S. wine sales in the province. We'll ask him how he recommends Canada should fight back against the tariffs enacted by his Commander-in-Chief. For the second time in a week, U.S immigration agents shoot and kill a driver -- and later say that neither of the men were actually who they were after. More than 150 years ago, Newfoundlanders saved a Scottish stowaway who was found walking barefoot on the sea-ice. Now, his great great grand-daughter has visited the island to say thank youWashington State's attorney general tells us why he thinks the courts are the best place to try to stop the mega-merger between Paramount and Warner BrothersLater this year, 80 athletes will descend on an IKEA in England -- and run a marathon entirely inside the store. Norwegian superstar Erling Haaland returns home with a World Cup souvenir: a taxidermied raccoon hugging a bottle of booze. We'll talk to the Dallas store owner who sold it to him. As It Happens, the Tuesday edition. Radio that discovers one man's trash panda is another man's treasure.

Read the Instructions | Proverbs 13 Wisdom That Could Save You Years of FrustrationHave you ever ignored the instructions because you thought, "I've got this," only to realize later that the mistake was completely avoidable? In this episode of The VIBE with Kelly Cardenas, we're diving into Proverbs 13, where timeless biblical wisdom teaches us why following instructions, seeking wise counsel, staying humble, and applying what we learn can transform every area of our lives.I have to confess something...When Brooklyn and I moved to Carlsbad, our kids were little enough to sleep in bunk beds, so we headed to IKEA to pick one up. Like every responsible dad, I carefully laid out every piece, organized every screw, and diligently read every page of the instructions...Yeah... not even close.I skimmed the instructions just enough to get started. Once I felt confident, my ego whispered those dangerous words:"I got this."Everything seemed perfect until I reached the very last piece.It didn't fit.Naturally, I did what any mature adult would do...I blamed IKEA.Surely they forgot a part.After a few minutes of frustration, I swallowed my pride, went back to the instructions, and discovered the truth.Every piece was there.Every step was there.The only thing missing......was my willingness to keep reading and applying what was already in front of me.That lesson has followed me far beyond building furniture.Proverbs 13 reminds us that wisdom isn't just hearing truth—it's applying it.In this episode we talk about:Why following instructions is a sign of wisdom, not weakness.How pride quietly convinces us we don't need guidance.Why wise counsel always beats isolated confidence.The power of diligence over laziness.Why successful people talk about ideas while unsuccessful people spend their time talking about people.How "Big hat, no cattle" is still one of the best leadership lessons I've ever heard.Why doing the right thing in the dark eventually shines in the light.Why Inchstones always become milestones.Protecting hope at all costs.Building an inheritance that lasts for future generations.Stopping comparison and starting praise.One of my favorite reminders from my Pops was:"Walk with the wise and become wise."The older I get, the more I realize Mama and Pops weren't just giving advice.They were leaving me an inheritance.An inheritance of wisdom.And that inheritance only has value if I actually apply it.So before you assume you already know the next step...pause.Read the instructions.Then live them.If this episode encouraged you, share it with someone who needs the reminder that humility isn't thinking less of yourself—it's being willing to learn.Remember...Speak Life.Your words create worlds.

The latest from the Hawke's Bay, including more flooding in Wairoa, IKEA buying forestry land and becoming the largest forestry owner in the district, and a 60-year-old trawler has been sunk for a Napier diving site.

In Episode 73, Salma Aboukarr joins the show. A creative director and founder, she explains how she moved from painstaking CGI workflows in Blender and 3Ds Max to AI-native campaigns for brands including Coca-Cola, Panasonic, and Google Labs. She breaks down her viral IKEA exploding-room video that helped brands see the commercial potential of generative AI video, the detailed JSON prompting method behind it, and the modern AI creative stack she uses across Claude, Midjourney, Nano Banana, Seedance, FAL.ai, Z-Image Turbo, Qwen, style LoRAs, and custom AI agents.The conversation goes deep on AI advertising, product fidelity, photorealistic skin, color correction, video upscaling, automated client workflows, and why high-end AI work still depends on original concepts, trained taste, and obsessive finishing. They debate whether AI can truly be original, why technical teams struggle to manufacture taste, how creators survive a feed flooded with AI content, and why the next creative moat may come from the experiences, references, and strange little details nobody else can copy.---⏱️ Fast Hour00:00 Meet Salma Aboukarr02:17 From CGI agency to AI-first studio04:44 Product fidelity before AI got good07:34 The duct-taped road to photorealism11:10 Art direction beyond basic prompting14:28 Salma's current AI creative stack16:08 How she stress-tests every new model20:20 Why color correction still matters22:25 The IKEA video that changed everything27:13 Going viral and handling AI backlash30:38 Originality as the next creative moat33:05 Can AI actually be original?38:52 Inside an AI-native creative agency39:55 Z-Image Turbo and aesthetic base models43:06 From client brief to automated pipeline47:54 Style LoRAs for brand consistency49:11 Claude, MCP, FAL, and leaving ComfyUI51:07 The model that cut a day to 15 minutes55:13 Why AI content stopped feeling special01:00:57 The value trapped in AI archives01:02:06 Create for yourself or the audience?01:04:31 Can engineers manufacture taste?01:08:38 Finding inspiration outside the feed01:11:57 Jackie Chan and thumbnail fuel01:15:29 Final lessons from a creative trailblazer#AICreative #AIAdvertising #GenerativeAI #AIVideo #CreativeDirection #Midjourney #ClaudeAI #NanoBanana #SeedanceAI #AIWorkflow #AIAgency #AIContentCreation #BrandMarketing #CreativeTechnology #ProductPhotography #AIBranding #FutureOfAdvertising #FastHours

Swedish furniture company IKEA says it has 'nothing to hide' with its forestry operations and is proud of what it's doing in New Zealand. The company owns 500,000 hectares of forestry around the world, and 43,000 of it is here. Hawke's Bay Tairawhiti reporter Alexa Cook toured one of its plantations.

Hoy recibimos en el estudio a Un Lugar Tranquilo, el nuevo proyecto formado por Abel Guzmán, Aitor Uribarri y Edo Vallejos. En esta charla sincera y cargada de buena energía, descubrimos cómo nació esta banda casi por casualidad tras un reencuentro en IKEA. Los tres músicos, con una larga trayectoria a sus espaldas, nos cuentan cómo han buscado refugio en un sonido crudo, sin artificios y profundamente influenciado por el rock alternativo y el emo de los 90 (atizando guiños a bandas como Sunny Day Real Estate, Fugazi o Karate), convirtiendo su local de ensayo en su particular "terapia" contra el estrés cotidiano. Además, aprovechamos la visita para repasar la actualidad musical de Madrid y presentar el Caloret Fest, una cita imprescindible que tendrá lugar el próximo sábado 18 en las WURLITZER BALLROOM. Por solo 12 euros, podrás disfrutar de un cartel potente que une a Matanzzo, Masa, No Somos Turistas y Un Lugar Tranquilo. Descubre la filosofía detrás de este colectivo que apuesta por el esfuerzo, la escena y la pasión por la música en directo. + info - https://bienvenidoalos90.com Espacio patrocinado por: Dani Go - Fran Cordero Cañas - Jose Manuel Valera - Barullo - Unai Elordui - JulMorGon - David Salamanca Sanz - Jaime Marchica Band - Sr.Jota - Theinvisibleband - jorge - Llorx Miller - Yago Llopis - boldano - estebansantosjuanesbosch - Vicent Martin - Matias Ruiz Molina - Próxima Estación Okinawa - Rosa Rivas - jvcliment - Jaume Solivelles - Javier Alcalde - jmgomez - Ana Isabel Miguélez Domínguez - Iñigo Albizu - Rachael - Naïa - Jaime Cruz Flórez - DOMINGO SANTABÁRBARA - faeminoandtired - Javi Portas - Belén Vaca - Ana FM - tueresgeorge - Eduardo Mayordomo Muñoz - Barrax de Pump - pdr_rmn - fernando - QUIROGEA Integrative Osteopath - J. Gutiérrez - Gabriel Vicente - Carlos Conseglieri - Miguel - Isabel Luengo - Franc Puerto - screaming - HugoBR - angelmedano - Vicente DC - Alvaro Gomez Marin - Alvaro Perez - Sergio Serrano - Isranet - Paco Gandia - ok_pablopg - Crisele - Wasabi Segovia - Dani RM - Fernando Masero - María Garrido - RafaGP - Macu Chaleka - laura - davidgonsan - Juan Carlos Mazas - Bassman Mugre - SrLara - carmenlimbostar - Piri - Miguel Ángel Tinte - Jon Perez Nubla - Nuria Sonabé - Pere Pasqual - Juanmi - blinddogs - JM MORENTE - Rubio Carbón - LaRubiaProducciones - cesmunsal - Marcos - jocio - Norberto Blanquer Solar - Tolo Sent - Carmen Ventura - Jordi y varias personas anónimas. ✌️

Love Island USA has defied every negative trend in TV… Thanks to “The Campfire Effect.”Waymo snitched on teens for drinking in the back seat… Because the car's getting camera-fied.Zuck's latest AI move for Instagram… is turning your photos into AI ads, opting you in by default (and not paying you).Plus, the hottest new investment you can make… is old Ikea furniture: $300 today, $3K tomorrow.$GOOG $META $IKEAGrab your Tickets to the IPO Tour: Our In-Person OfferingSan Francisco 9/23: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C0064AFB5F688BDBoston 10/14: https://tickets.citywinery.com/event/tboy-the-ipo-tour-in-person-offering-8cdhupSeattle 11/4 (21+): https://www.axs.com/events/1446394/the-best-one-yet-ticketsNEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today's top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Ray Cochrane breaks down AI distillation, the teacher-student technique frontier labs now lean on to train smaller, cheaper models. He also covers GPT-5.6’s government-vetted rollout, Claude Sonnet 5 landing on AWS, Maryland’s two-year data center pause, and Microsoft’s climbing carbon numbers. Finally, he wraps with Apple’s $30 billion Broadcom deal, Meta’s tamper-proof recording light, Michigan’s parasite outbreak, and a simulation that erased a super El Niño. – Want to start a podcast? Its easy to get started! Sign-up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Ray if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Cochrane opens with a quick personal update. Longer days have him outdoors, including a float trip on the Sandy River at Dabney State Park, where he found clearer water, clay-like sand, and easy footing. Next week brings both a move and a trip home, so he is stocking up on Trader Joe’s “Power Berries” and IKEA bags at his mom’s request. Then he turns to the lead story. AI Distillation Explained: How Frontier Models Teach Each Other Cochrane’s featured story comes from Hugging Face engineer Sergio Paniego. Distillation is teacher-student training for AI: a capable model generates the training signal, and a smaller student learns to match it. The classic off-policy version compresses giant models into cheap students, either through soft labels or piles of worked answers. Google’s Gemma models and DeepSeek’s R1-Distill line were built exactly this way. However, the industry is now converging on multi-teacher on-policy distillation, or MOPD. Labs build reinforcement-learning specialists for math, coding, and agentic work, then have them grade a single student, word by word, as the student generates its own answers. DeepSeek-V4, MiMo-V2-Flash, and NVIDIA’s Nemotron 3 Ultra all run versions of the recipe, and the Qwen3 team reported better results at roughly a tenth of the GPU hours of raw reinforcement learning. Finally, self-distillation lets models like Cursor’s Composer 2.5 learn from better-prompted versions of themselves. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting $6.99/month, WordPress hosting $12.99/month, domains $11.99. Website builder trial available. Use codes at geeknewscentral.com/godaddy to support the show. GPT-5.6 Arrives With a Government-Vetted Rollout OpenAI shipped GPT-5.6 as a three-tier family: Sol, Terra, and Luna. Sol costs five dollars in and thirty dollars out per million tokens, half of Claude Fable 5’s rate. The benchmarks split: Sol Ultra wins Terminal-Bench at 91.9 percent, while Claude Fable 5 still leads SWE-Bench Pro. Notably, the API launched in limited preview to roughly 20 partners vetted by the U.S. government, though the model went live in Microsoft 365 Copilot on day one. Claude Sonnet 5 Lands on AWS, Plus Quick AWS Wins Claude Sonnet 5 arrived on AWS through Bedrock, pitched as top-tier intelligence at Sonnet pricing. Additionally, Amazon WorkSpaces for AI agents reached general availability, enabling agents to drive full desktop applications securely. OpenSearch gained a log-analytics engine claiming four times the price-performance, and SageMaker now scales inference about twice as fast. Cochrane also flags that Kendra and Q Business move to maintenance mode at the end of July. Anthropic Wants You to Reflect on Your Claude Habits Anthropic launched Reflect, a beta feature that analyzes your past Claude conversations and visualizes how you actually use the assistant. It requires Memory, excludes incognito and health-related chats, and keeps its insights inside the tool. Cochrane loves the idea. He reviews his own transcripts to extract prompt patterns and turn them into reusable skills, and he suggests listeners simply ask their AI to do the same. AlphaEvolve Goes GA on Google Cloud Google made AlphaEvolve generally available to Google Cloud customers on the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. The agent acts as an evolutionary collaborator: provide a baseline algorithm and your goals, and it searches for better, human-readable code. BASF, JetBrains, and Kinaxis are the named early adopters. Meanwhile, Cochrane renews his standing wish that DeepMind release AlphaGo as a playable teacher. Google Adds “How This Ad Was Made” AI Labels Google is adding a “How this ad was made” section to My Ad Center across Search, YouTube, and Discover. Ads built with Google’s own AI tools automatically get the disclosure, backed by invisible watermarks. However, ads made with outside tools rely on advertiser self-declaration. Cochrane points out the limits of voluntary disclosure in an AI-flooded content economy. Microsoft’s Carbon Emissions Climb 25 Percent Microsoft’s new sustainability report shows emissions up 25% in 2025, driven by a data center construction spree. The gross figure is 34 million metric tons before offsets, while other coverage puts the net figure at around 20 million. Water consumption also jumped thirty-four percent, even as Microsoft claims its first water-positive year. Cochrane argues regulation needs to catch up, since Google and Amazon report similar increases. Prince George’s County Pauses Data Centers for Two Years Prince George’s County adopted a two-year moratorium on new data center development, the longest pause in Maryland so far. The resolution blocks new applications, including hyperscale projects, until the council passes real regulations. Water and energy impacts remain open questions the county intends to study. Cochrane gives kudos to residents for making their voices heard. Apple and Broadcom Ink a $30 Billion U.S. Chip Deal Apple is expanding its partnership with Broadcom with a multiyear agreement expected to exceed $30 billion. The deal covers custom silicon and wireless components, with more than fifteen billion chips to be made on American soil. Broadcom’s Fort Collins, Colorado plant anchors the work with a $1.5 billion equipment expansion. Tim Cook framed the deal as accelerating Apple’s commitment to American manufacturing. MSI and Intel Ship the First Arc G3 Extreme Handheld Intel detailed how it co-engineered the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, the first handheld on the Arc G3 Extreme processor. Highlights include a heat-spreading board layout and game-tuning loops that Intel says run Cyberpunk 2077 up to thirty-seven percent faster. The device is on sale now in void purple for around $1,500. At that price, Cochrane jokes he would rather buy a computer. Meta’s Glasses Get a Tamper-Proof Recording Light Meta answered the most common privacy questions about its AI glasses. Photos stay private on the device until the wearer imports or shares them, and a white capture LED blinks during any recording with no off switch. Moreover, newer glasses disable the camera if the LED is blocked, tampered with, or destroyed. Cochrane reminds listeners these claims are Meta grading its own homework, but the blink signal is worth recognizing in public. Michigan’s Parasite Outbreak Tops 1,200 Cases Michigan’s cyclosporiasis outbreak reached 1,251 cases since June 22, with roughly forty hospitalizations along the way. Northwest Ohio adds more than five hundred cases. The parasite typically spreads through contaminated fresh produce, and investigators still have not found the source. Cochrane’s advice: wash your produce, and get tested if your symptoms fit. AI Finds the San Andreas Fault’s Silent Slips Researchers paired AI with borehole strainmeters to detect dozens of hidden slow-slip events beneath the San Andreas Fault’s Parkfield section. Each silent slip releases stress within hours and is reliably followed by low-frequency earthquakes. Together, the findings support a continuous spectrum from silent creep to destructive quakes. The study appears in Nature Communications, and Cochrane hopes it will lead to better earthquake prediction. Cloud Brightening Erased a Super El Niño, in a Simulation Finally, a Science Advances study simulated marine cloud brightening in response to the 1997 and 2015 super El Niño events. Seeding clouds over the eastern Pacific erased the events entirely inside the model. Real deployment would take roughly 2,400 ships spraying continuously, and the simulations showed side effects like extra warming over Europe and Asia. Cochrane finds the weather-machine concept fascinating, yet he questions the consequences of altering cycles the planet runs for a reason. The post AI Distillation: How Frontier Models Teach Each Other #1870 appeared first on Geek News Central.

Has anyone ever told you something you just aren't getting? It could be instructions for building an IKEA table, or a story about something that happened years ago. You are listening, but the pieces just aren't connecting. This is probably how the disciples felt when they heard Jesus talk about how He would bring about His kingdom. They were listening to Jesus, but they didn't fully get the full picture. Today, Pastor Ken shares how all Scripture gives you the full picture of how Jesus will usher in His kingdom on earth. 

49% of Americans under 30 live with their folks… But now it's a financial flex #StayAtHomeSonDriscoll's invented the year-round fresh berry… But this $7B berry brand doesn't grow berries.The US gave Ukraine instructions to DIY Patriot Missiles… It's the Ikea-fication of Defense.Plus, the hot new bachelorette party trend is… The 1-night local blowout.$LMT $FDP $SPYGrab your Tickets to the IPO Tour: Our In-Person OfferingSan Francisco 9/23: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C0064AFB5F688BDBoston 10/14: https://tickets.citywinery.com/event/tboy-the-ipo-tour-in-person-offering-8cdhupSeattle 11/4 (21+): https://www.axs.com/events/1446394/the-best-one-yet-ticketsNEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today's top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If there's one trait nobody wants to claim, it's stinginess. But being stingy isn't about how much money you have. Take Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA—despite his fortune, he lived modestly and even shopped at flea markets. For him, frugality was a habit, not an obsession. But when caution with money turns into an all-consuming need to save at all costs, it can impact not just your finances, but also your relationships. Stingy people rarely see themselves that way. They often think they're just being thrifty. But there's a fine line between being mindful of spending and being a miser. Ebenezer Scrooge, for example, didn't just save—his miserliness defined him, isolating him from others. Psychological factors, from childhood experiences to low self-esteem, can play a role in developing stingy habits. So how do you know if you've crossed the line? What are the root causes of stinginess? And can you change if you realize you're one of them? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the latest episodes, click here: ⁠⁠Which conspiracy theories were actually true?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Are twins really telepathic ?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Is eating fish still good for you?⁠⁠ A Bababam Originals podcast written and realised by Amber Minogue First Broadcast: 19/3/2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A collaborative snack!"I just gave her salsa . . . Ikea style."How can you tell it's REAL love?Chase Bank blows!More skeptics converted by their paranormal experience.

We had a fainter in the house! Also, Widow's Bay is great, Fire Country is absolute garbage, pet problems, ear problems, short horror on Youtube, what makes kids wanna draw, and great places to eat in OREM! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gabriel Glas, Zalto, Riedel, Ikea… ¿en qué momento estás pagando más por el nombre y la sensación que por beber mejor? Hoy vamos a abrir el melón.――――――――――――――――――――――Esto es MeLoDijoBraga El Podcast. Yo soy Mariano Braga y te espero cada lunes, miércoles y viernes con un nuevo episodio lleno de charlas, experiencias, curiosidades y consejos desde mi mirada del mundo del vino. Para más información, te invito a navegar estos enlaces:➡ Recibe gratis “El Boletín Serial”➡ Mi página web➡ Sé parte del club¡Me encantaría que seas parte de esta comunidad gigante de bebedores seriales, siguiéndome en las redes!➡ Instagram ➡ Facebook ➡ Twitter ➡ YouTube ➡ LinkedIn ➡ TikTok ――――――――――――――――――――――No te olvides valorar nuestro podcast ★★★★★ y suscribirte para no perderte nada y que sigamos construyendo juntos la mayor comunidad de bebedores seriales de habla hispana.――――――――――――――――――――――

Der heimische Smart-Home-Zoo hat seine Tücken: Jedes Gerät bringt eigene Apps und Automatiken, die wiederum nicht mit Geräten anderer Anbieter sprechen. Mit Smart-Home-Hubs von Apple, Amazon und Google oder freien Lösungen wie Home Assistant lassen sich die smarten Insellösungen halbwegs unter einen Hut bringen. Doch viele Gadgets funken obendrein proprietär, sodass sich neben dem WLAN-Router einige Funkzentralen ansammeln. Dieses Chaos sollen die Standards Thread und Matter beseitigen. In dieser Ausgabe von c't uplink sprechen wir darüber, wie man Thread-Funk im eigenen Smart Home aufsetzt und stellen fest, dass viele Nutzer bereits Thread-Netzwerke haben, ohne es zu wissen. Zudem beleuchten wir, wie sich das herstellerübergreifende Kommunikationsprotokoll Matter im Alltag bewährt. Dabei zeigen wir, was bereits gut funktioniert, wo Probleme lauern und wie man sie löst. Mit IKEA ist obendrein ein großer Anbieter für den Massenmarkt auf den Thread/Matter-Zug aufgesprungen. Wir beschreiben, was die IKEA-Produkte leisten und welche Vor- und Nachteile sie mitbringen. Zudem besprechen wir, wie man Thread- und Matter-Geräte direkt in Home Assistant einbindet und sich damit die nicht ganz so günstige Thread-Funk-Zentrale des Möbelhauses möglicherweise sparen kann.

The 8th edition of London Climate Action Week (LCAW) wrapped up June 28, and in this episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast we're talking about key takeaways with Nick Mabey. Nick is LCAW's Founder and Chair. He's also CEO and Co-Founder of global climate change think tank E3G.    In the episode, Nick explains why LCAW continued to grow in 2026 — he estimates the week included over 1,300 events across the city and more than 75,000 attendees.   "It was just a huge sense of energy and confidence in the overall project of climate action ... among the politicians, among the businesses," Nick says. "We've worked really hard to make it very clear that climate change is everybody's business."  Nick explains why risk and resilience featured heavily on the LCAW agenda in 2026.   "The structural lack of investment in resilience — whether that's resilience against climate shocks or resilience against energy shocks or resilience against food shocks — is a feature of our economies and our governance which we need to deal with urgently, because we can't afford to keep on paying the price of these disasters," Nick tells us.  We also talk to Climate Group CEO Helen Clarkson to understand how LCAW sets the scene for big upcoming events on the sustainability calendar — like Climate Week NYC in September and the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP31) in November.   Climate Group is the nonprofit that organizes Climate Week NYC in coordination with the UN General Assembly and the City of New York. Helen discusses how the Middle East conflict is leading to rising emphasis on energy security in sustainability discussions, reshaping the energy mix in some parts of the world. She also highlights the importance of framing climate as an opportunity in addition to a risk.   "Business is going to have to adapt and respond, and there's a lot of opportunity in doing that," Helen says. "I think we can see that when people come together like this."  Further listening:   Listen to our podcast coverage of London Climate Action Week in 2025: How these key summer events set the scene for COP30 in Brazil | S&P Global   Listen to our podcast interview with the new Chair of The Earthshot Prize: Climate Week Zurich: How retail giant IKEA built the business case for sustainability | S&P Global  Listen to our podcast coverage about climate and insurance:   How one of the world's largest insurers is building climate resilience | S&P Global  Why all eyes are on insurance in climate risk conversations | S&P Global  Why insurance is becoming central to climate risk conversations | S&P Global  Further reading:   How high-resolution data translates flood risk into financial risk | S&P Global  Copyright ©2026 by S&P Global Disclaimer By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that S&P GLOBAL makes no warranty, guarantee, or representation as to the accuracy or sufficiency of the information featured in this Podcast. The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk.   Any unauthorized use, facilitation or encouragement of a third party's unauthorized use (including without limitation copy, distribution, transmission or modification, use as part of generative artificial intelligence or for training any artificial intelligence models) of this Podcast or any related information is not permitted without S&P Global's prior consent subject to appropriate licensing and shall be deemed an infringement, violation, breach or contravention of the rights of S&P Global or any applicable third-party (including any copyright, trademark, patent, rights of privacy or publicity or any other proprietary rights).   This Podcast should not be considered professional advice. Unless specifically stated otherwise, S&P GLOBAL does not endorse, approve, recommend, or certify any information, product, process, service, or organization presented or mentioned in this Podcast, and information from this Podcast should not be referenced in any way to imply such approval or endorsement. The third party materials or content of any third party site referenced in this Podcast do not necessarily reflect the opinions, standards or policies of S&P GLOBAL. S&P GLOBAL assumes no responsibility or liability for the accuracy or completeness of the content contained in third party materials or on third party sites referenced in this Podcast or the compliance with applicable laws of such materials and/or links referenced herein. Moreover, S&P GLOBAL makes no warranty that this Podcast, or the server that makes it available, is free of viruses, worms, or other elements or codes that manifest contaminating or destructive properties.   S&P GLOBAL EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY INDIVIDUAL'S USE OF, REFERENCE TO, RELIANCE ON, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS PODCAST OR THE INFORMATION PRESENTED IN THIS PODCAST.

Alan and Ian are back along with out roving reporter Wil Chung in a packed episode full of race updates, event chatter, and a few laughs along the way. They cover everything from the sold‑out IKEA and Tesco races to changes in the Spartan Midlands series, plus thoughts on World's Toughest Mudder, and a DQ overturned celebration story. Also in this episode: Alan's WTM injury update and the £40 brunch debate

Ever wonder exactly how far a political party will go to make voting more difficult than assembling IKEA furniture?Stephanie Miller unpacks the absolute circus of the latest GOP voter suppression tactics—from President Trump's obsessive fixation on purging voter rolls to some genuinely laughable claims about citizenship eligibility. If you're looking to laugh through the existential dread and get the actual facts behind the headlines, this is the episode for you.To help us make sense of the madness, the brilliant Karl Frisch and the hilarious Dana Goldberg join Stephanie Miller and the crew to inject some much-needed sanity (and heavy sarcasm) into the discourse.Plus, grab your tissues and a glass of champagne!

Hey sad bois (gender neutral), in response to their upcoming hiatus Mark and Dan are covering the discography of Tulsa natives Cliffdiver, starting with a collection of their early material. Join us as we decide which one is the best and which one is good enough (enough for anyone)! Donate to the below causes: https://translifeline.org/donate/ https://www.pcrf.net/ https://www.newdisabledsouth.org/donate Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2USpYXZEOolw3RXyxIAGffTimestamps: Intro - 0:00 It should have been MUNA - 1:52 Audience Review - 4:08 Current Media - 5:29 --------------------------------Small Hours:01. You Sir, Are Obviously Not A Golfer - 18:39 02. Teaching A Narwhal Empathy - 21:52 03. Why Wouldn't I Wear A Windbreaker? - 26:00 04. Satan Parked My Car - 29:51 At Your Own Risk01. Elwoods - 34:18 02. Are You Still Seeing Graig, the Orthodontist? - 40:01 03. Alone in Your Apartment - 44:05 04. Cameron Diaz - 48:52 05. Lost in IKEA - 52:54 Singles01. The Water Temple is Filled With My Tears and Now I Am Drowning in Sorrow - 57:37 02. Gas City - 1:01:33 03. Cat Heaven Is A Beautiful Place But You Don't Get There If You're Euthanized - 1:06:01 --------------------------------Ranking Time - 1:10:33 Follow or contact us at: the3rdonesucks.bsky.social the3rdonesucks@gmail.com https://letterboxd.com/dellismulligan Hosted by Mark Beall and Dan Ellis. Mixed & Edited by Mark Beall and Dan Ellis. Intro/Outro Music by Dan Ellis. The 3rd One Sucks is a Retrograde Orbit Radio production. Find more great shows like this at www.retrogradeorbitradio.com

What's you IKEA Story?

The industry's brightest minds descend on Cannes every year to celebrate creativity, but what does it take for a campaign to actually cut through the festival noise and stick with audiences long after the awards are handed out? In this special "Walk the Work" episode of Campaign Chemistry recorded live from the basement of the Cannes Lions Palais, Jameson Fleming is joined by 4A's CEO Justin Thomas Copeland. Together, they unpack the creative machinery behind three standout marketing initiatives making waves at the festival: the poignant emotional resonance of 'A Mother's Commentary' in live sports, a community-driven experiment in 'AI for a Day,' and IKEA's genuine stride toward sustainability with its pre-owned marketplace. Tune in to find out how these top-tier campaigns are redefining social impact and what they signal for the future of creative strategy. campaignlive.com Music - Take you Out by Lucid Tides, courtesy of Triple Scoop. What we know about advertising, you should know about advertising. Start your 1-month FREE trial to Campaign US. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

By all logic, one would assume we'd treat AI as a strategic enabler to expand business capacity. Unfortunately, trapped in a lazy efficiency mindset, many leaders are happily accepting predictable pocket change while leaving their greatest value-creation opportunities completely buried under routine noise.  This week, I want to encourage you to do more by unpacking IKEA's automation strategy. They didn't use their chatbot, Billie, to automate their contact center out of existence. Instead, they automated the mundane out of the call center so they could choose long-term strategy. You'll see how they chose to avoided laying off their 8,500-person workforce, and took a path that turned a projected $15 million cost-savings win into a staggering $1.5 billion net-new growth engine.  My goal is to challenge your perspective by breaking down the mandatory, conscious choices you must make to unlock these kinds of results:  ​Refusing to Treat Operations as a Monolith: You cannot operate off assumptions or view complex functions as a single, blocky button. Operational excellence requires a surgical scalpel to look at the raw data and separate the signal from the noise. When IKEA isolated their 3.2 million interactions, they found 47% was pure routine clutter—questions about order tracking and return policies that shouldn't anchor human employees or stall customers. Clearing that noise is what allowed them to look further upstream.  ​Escaping the Efficiency Trap: When an AI tool drops your workload by nearly half, the default corporate playbook tells you to downsize the team and hand the board a rubber-stamped cost cut. But settling for a downsized footprint is a massive failure of business wisdom. We reinvest capital into our businesses all the time to drive growth, yet we fail to do the same with our people. Rather than taking a "kumbaya squishy approach" to protect employee feelings, or acting like a corporate martyr eating the cost of an idle workforce, IKEA dug into their 53% signal to identify deep, consultative customer demands for spatial design—transforming a defensive support line into an offensive sales machine.  ​Killing the Siloed AI Vacuum: A massive workforce transformation will become a flaming dumpster fire if a CIO, CEO, or operations team tries to build a plan in absolute isolation and just hand it off. The dog cannot wag the tail for the teams that actually have to execute. AI cannot bypass the need for human context, creativity, and cross-functional expertise. True victory demands a collaborative engine with zero vacuums, bringing tech, operations, and people teams to the exact same strategic table at the exact same time.  By the end, I hope you're convinced that if you aren't seeing wins with AI, something is broken in this chain. Capturing this upside requires hard work, and if you're too fatigued or exhausted to do the hard work, these results are simply beyond your help. But if you're ready to make these intentional choices, pull your automation analytics, audit your free capacity, and run a true capacity reinvestment scenario, the light at the end of the tunnel is incredibly bright.  ⸻If this conversation was helpful, make sure to like, share, subscribe, or buy me a coffee at ⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/christopherlind⁠And if you'd benefit from help balancing performance, technology, and people, check out my website at ⁠https://christopherlind.co⁠⸻Chapters00:00 – Confronting AI Doomerism and the $1.5 Billion Left Hook04:15 – Deconstructing the Monolith: Separating Tasks from Roles06:45 – Escaping the Efficiency Trap: Rejecting the $15M Headcount Cut13:30 – The Collaborative C-Suite: Overcoming the Siloed AI Vacuum19:00 – Actions: Committing to the Hard Work, Run with Capacity Reinvestment, and Know When to Move On22:45 – Conclusion: Finding the Light in the Corporate Tech Sea  #AIStrategy #OperationalExcellence #ValueCreation #WorkforceTransformation #FutureFocused

Unlike Brits that are discovering how incredible air conditioning is in the US, many Brits overseas are still advocating for the A/C to be illegal. Stateside, an insane NBC article declares the American flag is a red flag. "The American flag: To some, it’s Old Glory. To others, it’s a MAGA hat on a stick." Also on the show: JA MORANT WAS TRADED MID-SHOW TO PORTLAND, should Cam Boozer take his number? We also come up with ideas for the IKEA lot space, and Bill Mahr says if the left becomes even more socialist, he might reconsider his vote. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two authors go head to head in a war of the words! This week - Laura Evans and Pip Landers-Letts join Joe Haddow for a natter. They chat about writing sapphic fiction, big skies, eerie landscapes, the Amazon Kindle Storyteller Award...and the joys of writing in Ikea! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maximos Lih, founder and CEO of Emboldened LLC and former Google Ventures operating partner, explains how leaders win in the agentic age by treating AI failure as a business opportunity rather than a layoff equation. He shows how IKEA reskilled 8,500 service agents to build a $1.4 billion interior design business rather than cutting headcount. Connect with Maximos: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximoslih/

Google is shipping its first smart speaker in six years, and we're starting to test it. The Verge's Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins the show to explain why the Home Speaker matters, whether Google actually cares about the smart home, and more. Then, she helps answer a few questions from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about the power of Ikea and the future of your thermostat. Further reading: The Google Home Speaker sounds good and looks great — but it's finicky Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Horror Short Film Director Roundtable is one of the most important things that we did at the Portland Horror Film Festival. It provided an elevated platform for horror short filmmakers. Oftentimes, this is ground zero for original horror ideas. Unless you are a Hollywood nepo-director, short film creation is where you learn your chops. I wanted to give these creatives an opportunity to share their experiences in making movies, both good and bad, so that we can all learn a little more about the craft. Life as a short filmmaker can be an experience in the shadows. Your films are rarely seen outside of film festivals, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This is where most creative minds hone their crafts. Take a simple concept and do it well. Do you have something scary or funny to tell? Is there an idea that has been lurking in the back of your brain that you have to give life to? A short film will give you the opportunity to learn production, editing, budgeting, and team management. It also places you in a community of people who are open to sharing their work with one another. That’s where the round table fits in. After our discussion, I told the group that, even though I wanted this discussion to be a forum for them to share their wins and losses with each other, I selfishly set up this talk so I could learn more about horror moviemaking. Nine years in on being a small horror press journalist, and I still feel like I am only scratching the surface about what a director has to do. Just how do you do it? These discussions give me more talking points and access to better questions to ask. The Portland Horror Film Festival is one of the best curated horror film festivals in the country. Not only do Gwen and Brian Callahan select some of the best horror short films for their festivals, but they also provide opportunities for short film alumni to showcase their feature films. One of the questions I asked in our roundtable discussion was, “How many of you are looking to be feature film directors?” All of them raised their hands (with the exception of Patrick Hogan, who has already directed a feature film). For these directors, here is some encouraging data. This year alone had FIVE directors who previously presented short films at either PHFF or the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and later had their feature films shown at these festivals. Here are the PHFF Alumni filmmakers who presented a short film and then a feature: Anthony Cousins: Short Films – “The Bloody Ballad of Squirt Reynolds” and “Every Time We Meet for Ice Cream Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes” to Feature Films – Frogman (2023) and Frogman Returns (2026) Jeff Ferrell: Short Film – “Morella” to Feature Film – The Demonatrix (2026) Levi Buchannan: Short Film – “We Said Forever” to Feature Film Sitra Achra (2026) Krsy Fox: Short Film – “What the Spell” to Feature Film – Big Baby (2026) Masaki Nishiyama: Short Film “Smahorror” to Feature Film “The Invisible Half” (2026) Zack Ogle: Short Film “We Got a Monkey’s Paw” to Feature Film – It Needs Eyes (2025) Craig Ouellette: “Str$p” to Feature Film – Straight on Til Morning (2025) Andrew Bowser: Short Film – “Little Willy” to Feature Film – Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Evil (2022) Izzy Lee: “My Monster”, “Dark Signals”, “Rehomed” to Feature Film – House of Ashes (2024) Kenichi Ugana: Short Film – “Visitors” to Feature Film – Love Will Tear Us Apart (2023) Alice Maio Mackay: Short Film – “The Serpent’s Skin” to Feature Film T-Blockers (2023) Matthew John Lawrence: Short Film “Larry Gone Demon” to Feature Film – Uncle Peckerhead (2020) Justin Harding: Short Film “Kookie” to Feature Film – Making Monsters (2019) The PHFF Horror Short Film Director Roundtable Recording: Here is the roundtable discussion. It’s all about the lessons learned. The good, the bad, and the ridiculous. My past experience doing these round tables sometimes put the filmmakers on the spot, and I didn’t want this to be a “stump the directors” exercise. I prepared them with the following questions: Apart from financing, what was the biggest challenge in making your movie? What was the most interesting thing you learned while making this film? How many of you are filmmakers as a second career? What remains a mystery to you as a filmmaker that you think might be answered by one of your peers in this discussion? What piece of advice do you have for your fellow directors? This group really got into the discussion, and had the festival not started up, we could have gone on for quite a while longer. I had a great time, and I believe they did as well. The Horror Short Film Director Roundtable Films: Blindsided Directed by P. Patrick HoganStarring Crystal LoverroPortland Horror Film Festival: Winner of the Devil’s Discord (Best Sound Design) A blind schoolteacher struggles to survive through a nightmarish night when an alien spaceship crashes and unleashes a monstrous predator. This unique horror short film features an all-low-vision cast and places the audience in the POV of a blind protagonist who is only able to hear what happens around her. Director Statements: “Blindsided is a riveting short horror film that takes a unique narrative approach, providing audiences with an immersive glimpse into the harrowing experience of Maria, a blind woman confronting the most terrifying ordeal of her life. The horror remains unseen, both to her and the audience, heightening the suspense and reminding us that sometimes, the most terrifying things are the ones we don’t see coming… This is an innovative short film that ventures into uncharted territory within the horror genre. The narrative unfolds in a tranquil neighborhood, abruptly disrupted by a crashing alien spacecraft and the horrifying monster it unleashes into the night. However, what sets this film apart is the unique perspective from which the story is told – the POV of Maria, a blind schoolteacher living alone. Maria’s desperate struggle to evade the otherworldly predator, guided solely by what she hears, will provide an experience unlike any other horror short. Additionally, to promote diversity and inclusivity, in conjunction with our Disability Authenticity Consultant Vanni Le and Casting Director Danielle Pretsfelder Demchick, all the characters in the film are played by low-vision actors, placing the spotlight on the often-overlooked talent within the low-vision community. We are very proud of Blindsided and look forward to enjoying it in theaters with an audience who doesn’t know what they are about to experience.” Scullion Written and Directed by Trevor GracianoStarring: Whitney Garner as “Samantha”, Cody Parr as “Greg”, and Jim Close as “The Maid” A playful couple test their household chore habits and unknowingly summon a vengeful presence. Director Statements: “We all carry habits inherited from our parents into adulthood. I grew up in a religious household where some of those habits were helpful, but many were not—and they've lingered in ways I don't welcome. Some habits fade with time, while others remain, quietly shaping us in the background. This film explores the struggle to break free from those ingrained patterns, and the imaginative consequences of what happens when they refuse to let go. *It's really just about how to load the communal dishwasher correctly.” Worst Thing You’ve Ever Done Directed by PJ GermainWritten by Autumn Palen and PJ GermainStarring: Brady Gentry, Benjamin Nowak, Bix Krieger, Charlie N. Townsend, Cailyn Rice, Ethan Ahn, Emma Smith Watts, and Erin Rae Kykendall HIGH SCHOOL REALLY SUCKS… and no one knows that better than best friends Aaron and Keith. So when they set out to crash the last graduation party of the summer, emotions fly high, and the culture clash of teenagers finds them playing a simple game that has dire consequences. Director’s Statement: “Before he passed, screenwriter Gil Dennis told me during my time at AFI, “Write what hurts.” That idea has stayed with me; it's the compass I use when choosing the stories I want to tell. When I first read Autumn Palen's original draft of Worst Thing You've Ever Done, it hurt. It transported me back to moments in my own adolescence; memories filled with shame, ridicule, and isolation. But what floored me was its third-act twist. It was something I'd never felt so viscerally in a short script. I knew I had to direct it. What began as a contained character piece evolved into something more personal. I rewrote the script to reflect my own lived experiences, with every character, every event drawn from real moments that left a mark. I wanted to take a character that I felt so intertwined with, and make him someone that the audience would really relate to before reaching the moment where everything changes; the blood-drenched punchline to the twisted joke these high school kids played on each other. I set it during the 90’s, as it was a period of transition for me as an 80’s kid, being on the cusp of the old and new world. I needed the film to be an exploration of adolescent loneliness which dealt with the complexity of the friendships and social hierarchies that often defined who we were at that fragile age. We weren’t quite kids anymore, but we weren’t adults yet either, so how did we approach the consequences of reckless behavior? My team and I knew that casting would make or break the film. To capture that truth, casting was everything. I reviewed over 6,000 submissions, narrowing it down to a callback of who I thought could embody the characters. I needed authenticity, so at that callback, I ditched the script and asked actors, in character, to describe moments like first dates or getting asked to prom. It revealed who leaped from the page and became real. A week before we were to start shooting, my original cinematographer had to back out due to a conflict with the TV series he was currently shooting, and months of planning began to crumble. In the days leading up to whether or not we were going to cancel the project entirely, my long-time collaborator and cinematographer Jeff Billings took on the task. We shot the film over 3 tireless days, and as any director knows, you plan as much as you can; however, the plan eventually goes out the window. So I played a game of pivoting and being malleable myself in order to get what we needed to tell the story. The film is a testament to all the parts working together for a singular goal, and my hope is that when that first music cue drops, the audience is strapped in and ready to ride the roller coaster to that final frame.” https://vimeo.com/1071562836/377ba7d361?fl=pl&fe=cm Cat and Mouse Written and Directed by Brady CatesStarring: Halima Kamara as “Michelle”, Collan Simmons as “Felix, and Ron LaprechtEdited by Luke Oleen Junk, and Hayley Frederick Michelle is caught in a killer’s sadistic and carefully orchestrated game. With danger closing in at every turn, Michelle must outwit and outlast her relentless pursuer. But as the night goes on, unsettling clues reveal that all may not be what it seems. This time, it's the mouse's turn to catch the cat. My Severed Arm Written and Directed by Casey de FremeryStarring: Olivia Rose Prince as “Sidney”, Ryan Romine as “Mason”, and Julia Linger as “Commercial Model”Portland Horror Film Festival: Funny Bone Award for Exceptional Horror Comedy A woman tries to escape a serial killer using DIY videos, but the internet won't stop trying to sell her things first. Director’s Statement: “My Severed Arm is a horror-comedy about a “final girl” who, after fleeing into a cabin in the woods, discovers that her greatest threat isn't the machete-wielding slasher outside—it's the barrage of unskippable ads and paywalls blocking her access to life-saving information. Trapped, bleeding, and desperate to repair the tools around her, she turns to YouTube—but instead of help, she's ambushed by holographic tutorials and polished commercial spokespeople invading the cabin like digital ghosts. The film began with a thought I couldn't shake: what if you had to listen to ads when calling 911? It was a joke at first, but one that felt eerily plausible five minutes into the future. I've learned so many practical things through platforms like YouTube, but over time, that access has been buried beneath monetization schemes, misinformation, and endless self-promotional detours. This story is my response to that frustration—exaggerated into a literal life-or-death scenario. Stylistically, I wanted to evoke the stark, grim energy of Evil Dead or Cabin in the Woods, but undercut it with the absurdity of consumer culture leaking into every moment. That blend of horror and comedy, physical space and digital intrusion, is what drives the tone. At its core, My Severed Arm is about survival—both in the horror-movie and digital sense. It's about what happens when urgency meets algorithm, when access to knowledge is shaped by incentive structures that don't care if you bleed out. The film asks: what good is information if it's hidden behind paywalls, pop-ups, and promo codes? But more than anything, I want the audience to laugh, cringe, and feel that creeping recognition that this isn't the future – it's the now.” Into The Stand Directed by Mackenzie Hamilton and Taylor FuchsWritten by Mackenzie HamiltonStarring: Sarah Rich as “Quinn”, Ariana Raygoza as “Rosa”, and Nick Dietrich Tree planters Quinn and Rosa return to camp for another summer in the wilderness. Rosa is newly sober, and Quinn is quietly anxious about how she'll handle the camp's hard-partying culture. At the welcome-back party, Rosa is tempted to drink, prompting Quinn to intervene. Shaken, Rosa heads into the forest to clear her head, but doesn't come back. When Quinn goes after her, she's met with eerie signs: strange noises, a mangled deer, and an odd light deep in the woods. As the forest closes in, Quinn questions if there is something else out there. Director’s Statement: The woods have always haunted me. Growing up in rural Vancouver Island, I would often cut through forest trails to reach friends’ houses. When it was night, we would meet in the middle of the trail to keep each other safe. Thankfully, we always found each other, but I frequently wondered what if we didn't? What if something else was out there, waiting in the darkness of the woods? Into the Stand is inspired by the many times I scared myself on those trails, letting my imagination run wild. Now that I'm older, my fears are centered around more tangible things, like navigating how to let go of people you love when you can't control what they're going through. This story is deeply informed by themes of sobriety, codependency, and how the urge to help someone can sometimes lead you somewhere dark. Ultimately, Into the Stand is a fun horror made in the community I grew up in with friends who helped bring it to life. My husband and I co-directed this short film, transforming the woods on my parents' farm into a tree-planting camp, and had a blast turning a familiar place into something eerie and cinematic. It's a scary film that is personal and full of heart, and I'm overjoyed to be telling stories in the places that shaped me. –Mackenzie Hamilton and Taylor Fuchs Nurture Written and Directed by Nick SnyderProduced by Sam SnyderStarring: Travis Bilenski as “Ren, and Kailey Rhodes as “Rose”Portland Horror Film Festival: Winner – Goule D’or Best Short On a remote Oregon farm, a couple grieving from a miscarriage finds hope in a mysterious flower. But as it heals her, the flower takes root in him. Nurture is a dialogue-free folk-horror fable about love, grief, and the consequences of taking too much from nature. Director’s Statement: NURTURE marks my return to narrative filmmaking after years of honing my craft in visual effects, motion design, and commercial work. Inspired by the Pacific Northwest and the quiet mythology of its forests, this dialogue-free folk horror short explores grief through the lens of a nature curse. Where grief deepens love and a curse demands sacrifice, NURTURE examines the dangerous hope that something broken can be restored without cost. Other Notable Horror Shorts from the Festival: There were 48 short films shown at the Festival, selected from over 500 submissions. Here are a few notable and favorite films that were also showing at the festival. Famous Directed by Rosita Lama MuvdiWritten by Jordan MonaghanStarring Jordan Monaghan “A young woman desperate for social media fame exploits her father's death to go viral. But the volatile world of internet stardom pushes her to the edge.” Punchy and poignant. Famous taps into the darkest desires of influencers desperate to get likes. Just how far will you go for a few more “likes and subscribes”? Jordan Monaghan chases likes the wrong way in “Famous” (2026) Favela Amarela (Brazil) Written and Directed by Nicolas Lobato and Tiago TuchuStarring Richard Abelha, Giselle Batista, and Sai “A student from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro joins the local drug militia to pay for college and uncovers an NGO linked to powerful politicians that hides dark rituals devoted to the King in Yellow.” I won’t be surprised if this stunning short film also plays at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. It is saturated in Brazilian culture, mixed with a heavy application of Cosmic Horror. Favela Amarela (2026) Wall Udder Written and Directed by Alexandra HaydenStarring Kevin Grady, Sawyer Fuller, and Bries Vannon “A dissatisfied woman confronts repressed feelings of malaise after her partner comes home smelling like milk.” Hysterically gag-inducingly funny! There is a double-punchline gag that brought the house down. Part of the Shorts Gone Wild block at PHFF, where the festival screens the zaniest submitted shorts. This did not disappoint. Ewwww! Who wants some milk? “Wall Udder” (2026) Tooth-Hurty! Directed by Jude MadonnaWritten by Katie SmallStarring Katie Small, Jude Madonna, Brook Hogan, and Tommy HardenPortland Horror Film Festival Winner: Abby Normal Award: For the exceptionally weird and disturbing “Lucy is a people-pleasing writer-photographer whose dream of being an artist remains just out of reach. A comment from her boyfriend about her teeth triggers Lucy to make an appointment for a dental checkup for the first time in years with the mysterious yet heavily advertised Big Smiles Dentistry.” Super clever! There should be more horror movies about trips to the dentist. This made my toes curl and had me in stitches, as well. Say Ahhh! Katie Small in “Tooth-Hurty!” (2026) CHÄIR Directed by Chris McInroyWritten by Chris McInroy and Carlos La RottaStarring Carlos LaRotta, Kim Lowery, and Chloe McInroy “Carl just wanted to sit down. The chair had other plans.” I am always a fan of Chris McInroy. He and Carlos do a crazy short film every year. I am in awe of how these guys make deadpan, silly, and super-gory original content. It won’t be long before they release a greatest-hits compilation, and I will be in line to buy it. This spoof on Ikea furniture assembly is a tribute to all of us who have struggled to assemble the Scandinavian furniture at home. Carlos LaRotta contemplates his struggles putting a chair together in “CHÄIR” (2026) The Bones Exist Directed by Kelsey Bollig and Matthew DuVallWritten by Matthew DuVallStarring: Alex Pena as “Manny”, Siya Maleki as “Diego”, Jack Campbell as “Don Rob”, Michael Manzako as “The Boy”, and Alex Bankler as the Utah Raptor.Portland Horror Film Festival Winner: Tompe L’oiel Award for Best Special Effects In the unforgiving wilderness of 1850s Alta California, a dwindling group of gold prospectors encounters a feral boy who forces the men to confront the horrors lurking in the woods and the sins of their past. This combines two of my favorite genres: Dinosaurs and Westerns. Perhaps not done since The Valley of Gwanji, The Bones Exists shows plenty of raptors hunting cowboys and does so convincingly. Bonus points for showing the most current understanding of raptors as feathered dinos. Munch Munch! “The Bones Exist” (2026) Flush (France) Written and Directed by Raphaël TreinerStarring Eléonore Gurrey as “Marianne” and Christophe Ntakabenura as “Ben” Abominable plumbing and violent deaths. MARIANNE, extremely pregnant, and BEN, a plumber and one-night stand, team up to survive an epic night and face the monsters of a building beset by an unknown evil. I am a sucker for the Trapped in a Bathroom trope, even going so far as to host a Crypticon horror panel on the topic. This film goes to the top (plumbing) shelf. This is Cosmic horror that brings all the icky, goopy, nasty elements you might expect from this theme is on full display. To think that an effective little romance element managed to sneak into the plot, and you have something unusually effective. I love it when the French go weird. Eléonore Gurrey and Christophe Ntakabenura are unlikely allies in “Flush” (2026)

This week we talk about plug-in power, renewables, and Germany.We also discuss inverters, solar arrays, and microgrids.Recommended Book: Consider This by Chuck PalahnuikTranscriptMost climate scientists and knowledgable folks in adjacent fields will tell you that, as a species, we're way behind where we need to be if we're going to avoid a whole lot of negative consequences caused by global climate change.We've blazed past a bunch of tipping points already, and while the worst-case scenarios we were worried about a decade ago are no longer likely because of the energy-generation and related changes we've made globally, since then, the damage caused up to this point is already doing some pretty bad things to our water cycle and other temperature-regulating systems, and that's looking like it will get even worse over the next several decades—even if worse no longer means cataclysmic in the sense of ending all life on the planet.That said, even noting that progress has been a lot slower than most experts would prefer, progress is happening in regards to the deployment of renewable energy sources, and in the replacement and retirement of dirty, carbon- and methane-spewing sources, like coal, petroleum, and gas.As of 2026, the global share of total electricity generation, so all electricity produced by all sources for all purposes, is about 33.8% for renewables, marking the first time renewables have been used to produce more than a third of the total electricity produced, globally; that also means renewables have surpassed coal for electricity generation for the first time.While hydro and wind continue to contribute to the growth of renewables deployment and electricity generation, solar power is by far the biggest growth area for renewables right now, and solar, alone, covers 75% of total electricity demand growth in 2025—which means as countries around the world deploy more electricity generation assets to account for electricity demand growth, three-quarters of that demand is being met by solar. And this is notable because typically that kind of demand, the majority of which arises in huge, rapidly scaling countries like China and India, has up till recently been met by the dirtiest of energy production sources, coal.There's also been a .02% reduction in fossil fuel generation, year-on-year, which is a very small number, but that level of production is massive, and there are a lot of subsidies and other mechanisms that keep fossil fuels flourishing around the world, so every little sliver of fossil fuel energy production reduction is still a pretty significant thing.Many of these renewables-related wins, in recent years, have been attributable to the large-scale installation of solar facilities, backed by massive, utility-scale battery backups, primarily in China.China is by far the largest producer of solar panels and related technologies—Chinese companies produce somewhere between 80-90% of all the key components and perform the same portion of all key manufacturing stages for the global supply chain, while also controlling the vast majority of resources necessary to manufacture solar panels. And it has been on a tear over the past decade or so, installing just a silly amount of solar infrastructure. Which is good, because China is also seeing a lot of growth in energy demand, so if they weren't deploying that much solar, they would likely be deploying that much coal infrastructure, instead.That said, while huge solar arrays are important to renewables growth, there's also been a recent boom in smaller-scale solar energy deployment in recent years, especially but not exclusively across Europe. And that's what I'd like to talk about today: the emergence of so-called ‘balcony solar,' and what it might mean for the further expansion of solar's footprint around the world.—In 2025, Utah, which is a deeply Conservative, Republican state, became the first US state to pass a bill that makes it easier to legally install plug-in solar panel systems.As of mid-2026, about 30 states have followed suit, and even more are considering it, laws allowing for the installation of such solar technologies winding their way through legislative bodies on the back of the popularity and seeming no-downsides nature of this tech product category.Plug-in solar, also sometimes called balcony solar or garden solar, is currently most popular in Germany, which is the biggest market for this product right now, with about four million such systems installed as of 2025.To understand the popularity of this type of solar installation, it's useful to understand that conventional solar installations have typically required a decent amount of electrical surgery to install. They've usually involved a large number of panels operating as an array, and that array has produced quite a lot of electricity that then has to be funneled as a direct current either back into the local grid using what amounts to two-way wiring, which makes these arrays function like any other power plant, or that electricity is converted using an inverter into an alternating current, where AC is the electrical standard, anyway, so that it can directly power a large building like a hospital or school, or be stored in a large battery facility.All of these options require a huge up front investment, and a reworking of local energy infrastructure so that solar can be incorporated. And that investment requirement, and the necessity to hire specialist electricians to get it all done, severely limits the range of this tech, because there are only so many entities that can afford it, only so many spaces that can deploy that number of panels, the number required to make that investment make sense, economically, is generally quite large, and there are only so many specialists of that kind in a given country, so the labor aspect of this is a big deal, too, these sorts of projects often severely backlogged.Plug-in solar, in contrast, is usually sold as a kit with one or two small- to medium-sized panels and a microinverter or plug-in inverter, depending on whether the end-user's existing electrical setup uses an AC or DC current.A home owner or even a renter with a balcony or garden, or the right amount of space outside one of their windows, can buy one of these systems, hang or place the solar panel or panels in a location where they will get a decent amount of sun, and then plug them in, via the inverter, directly to their home's outlet.The electricity generated by the panels is then shared through the building's existing wiring to all of their outlets, and this allows the resident to use that available energy, first, only drawing energy from the local grid when there isn't enough from the solar panels available. And all of this happens automatically—the solar energy is used if available, and if not, energy is drawn from the grid like normal.This creates a layer of essentially free, clean energy for the resident with a usually fairly small up-front cost: these plug-in solar kits can cost as little as $500, with larger systems that generate more electricity costing between $1200 and $3000; so even on the high-end, because there's no additional installation cost, the home owner or renter setting it all up themselves, this is an investment that can easily pay for itself, usually within 2-5 years.There are caveats here, including that not all grid systems are complaint with this use-case, so would-be plug-in solar users have to check to make sure their local setup can handle this sort of application, and there are many places where this product type still isn't legal, in some cases because of concerns about people installing it without checking to make sure their wiring and the local grid can handle it, and in some cases because of old laws that favor local energy grid companies and their business models, or which favor fossil fuel energy production.The explosion in use of this type of small solar setup, though, speaks volumes about how good a deal it is for many people, and even those who don't live in particularly sunny areas—so places where traditional solar arrays wouldn't make sense, economically—are finding them useful, because they still pay for themselves within some number of years, due to energy bill savings. It's also possible to install home-scale battery systems alongside these balcony solar systems, which means even small trickles of solar energy production can add up, and can be used at night, when the sun isn't shining at all.There are quite a few possible ramifications of this trend.At the local, household level, these sorts of systems can dampen the impact of energy price increases, due to global issues, like the gumming up of the Strait of Hormuz, and due to local issues, like the trend of energy companies increasing prices because of new data centers being added to their grid. That, in turn, can reduce the impact of certain aspects of inflation on individuals home owners and renters.Larger-scale, though, these systems also serve as a sort of deconstructed secondary energy grid.In Germany, for instance, as of late 2025, around 1.14 gigawatts of energy was being produced by balcony solar systems across the country. That's 1.14 GW of pressure taken off of local energy grids, and that represents more resilience for these grids, too, as reduced pressure means fewer brown-outs and similar negative fluctuations. It also means people who have such systems won't be as negatively impacted by issues that take down grids; and that means normal, brown-out like issues, but also problems related to potential cyberattacks and hacks and even physical conflicts. That kind of resiliency is what every nation hopes to have, because it makes strikes on them less damaging, and this is one way to achieve that kind of resiliency—a deconstructed network of microgrids, underpinning the macro-scale one—all at a relatively low cost.These sorts of systems are also becoming more widely available, IKEA selling several kits in many countries where they've been made legal, and other retailers, like Lidl and Amazon are also getting in on the action, making these kits more widely available as the trend spreads.China still controls the vast, vast majority of solar energy asset production, so there's a chance, especially in the case of a theoretical future conflict, that they could turn off the tap on this and these types of assets would go away for a time, which would be bad if local grids come to rely on them taking some of the pressure off the local macro-grid.Those theoretical economic warfare concerns aside, though, if legalization continues to spread, plug-in solar could be one of the best and most successful methods for deploying clean energy to areas where it hasn't been a particularly compelling sell, and where local infrastructure or politics has made such deployment unlikely or impossible up till this point.Show Noteshttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/14/opinion/solar-panels-balcony-backyard-plugin.htmlhttps://arstechnica.com/science/2026/04/globally-86-percent-of-the-new-generating-capacity-was-renewable-in-2025/https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/05/soaring-solar-and-a-surge-in-hydro-push-more-coal-off-the-us-grid/https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/04/global-growth-in-solar-the-largest-ever-observed-for-any-source/https://www.iea.org/reports/sdg7-data-and-projections/modern-renewableshttps://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-review-2026/https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/china-solar-cell-exports-grow-73-in-2025/https://rhg.com/research/minerals-metals-and-megawatts-how-chinas-power-generation-drives-its-industrial-metals-ecosystem/https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/what-to-know-balcony-solarhttps://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/balcony-solar-taking-state-legislatures-by-stormhttps://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/balcony-panels-germany-utahhttps://www.energysage.com/news/plug-in-balcony-solar-panels/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balcony_solar_powerhttps://www.pv-tech.org/maine-passes-balcony-solar-law-virginia-and-colorado-to-follow/https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/plug-solar-power-could-be-coming-balcony-near-youhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_panelhttps://www.ingka.com/newsroom/solar-energy-for-the-many-ikea-belgium-to-offer-balcony-solar-kits/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

Recorded live at EIC 2026 in Berlin, Jeff and Jim sit down with Martin Sandren, IAM Product Lead at IKEA, for a wide-ranging conversation covering nearly every corner of modern identity security. Martin shares what has changed since his first IDAC appearance on episode 293, including the rise of AI, growing interest in digital sovereignty, and the maturing shared signals framework. The conversation moves through risk-based defense in depth, tiered MFA rollout strategies, session management, and the real challenge of trusting AI to make security decisions. Martin introduces identity dark matter and explains how IVIP can surface the 95-plus percent of applications that never reach an IGA system. The episode also covers shadow AI, MCP server risks, the SaaSpocalypse debate, and the EU AI Act. It closes on a grounded note: solar panels.Connect with Martin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsandren/Connect with us on LinkedIn:Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.comTIMESTAMPS00:00 Welcome and EIC 2026 intro01:47 What has changed in two years: AI, sovereignty, shared signals03:06 Martin's EIC presentations: AI for IAM and IAM for AI04:46 Can you prioritize one direction over the other?07:13 What would it take to trust AI making identity decisions?09:32 AI-enhanced detection and risk-based session management13:07 Session invalidation and the shared signals framework14:11 Defense in depth and right-sizing privileges18:25 MFA today: any MFA versus phish-resistant MFA19:17 AI chatbots, enterprise LLMs, and shadow AI23:11 MCP servers, NHI risk, and return on risk thinking27:00 AI configuring IAM systems: how close are we?31:30 LLM costs, the SaaSpocalypse, and enterprise AI futures40:10 Identity dark matter and the IVIP concept44:16 CMDB versus IVIP: do you need both?46:18 The EU AI Act and building an AI governance registry49:18 Where to start: get your AI inventory in place first50:00 Closing thoughts and the solar panel tangentKEYWORDSAI for IAM, IAM for AI, identity dark matter, IVIP, IGA, shared signals framework, phish-resistant MFA, defense in depth, session management, MCP servers, NHI, shadow AI, SaaSpocalypse, EU AI Act, AI governance, zero standing privilege, EIC 2026, IKEA, IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Martin Sandren

The Founderz Lounge Episode #92 with Don Varady and Steve Bon.In this episode of Business & Bullsh*t, Don and Steve break down the rise of the super franchisee and what it means for the future of franchising. They get into how larger operators and private equity groups are buying up more territory, why mom-and-pop franchisees may be getting squeezed out, and the risk franchisors take when growth starts to outweigh culture, support, and customer experience.They also unpack the Bricks & Minifigs controversy and why franchisees can't afford to go outside the system, even when they think they have a good idea. Then they shift into Random Bullsh*t with a ridiculous luxury car insurance scam involving bear costumes, an IKEA Swedish meatball lollipop that somehow exists, and a sharp Founderz Hot Take on fake AI experts trying to cash in before they've earned the right to teach anybody.If you care about franchising, business growth, private equity, brand standards, and spotting business nonsense before it costs you, this episode is for you.Timestamps:[00:00] Trailer and Intro[00:49] Founderz Roundup[00:54] The rise of the super franchisee[08:02] Bricks & Minifigs franchise controversy[15:08] Random Bullsh*t[15:08] Operation Bear Claw insurance scam[16:55] IKEA's Swedish meatball lollipop[19:18] Founderz Hot Take[19:27] AI experts are getting out of hand[23:52] What The Hell Is This?[24:05] Dolly Parton x Dollar GeneralKey Takeaways:  • The franchise industry is shifting toward larger operators, and mom-and-pop franchisees are going to feel that pressure more and more. ~Don Varady• Some of the best franchisees are not the most polished on paper. They are the people with no plan B who have to make it work. ~Don Varady• Private equity can help fuel growth, but the wrong partner can hurt culture, customer service, and the long-term health of the brand. ~Steve Bon and Don Varady• “I think that the future of franchising will belong to operators, not just entrepreneurs.” ~Don Varady• Franchisees cannot go outside the system just because they think they have a good idea, because one bad move can create a brand-wide mess. ~Steve Bon• A lot of people selling AI advice right now are trying to monetize something they barely understand, and real results still require actual work. ~Don Varady and Steve BonConnect with Don and Steve…Don Varady:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/don.varady/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donvarady/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-varady-450896145 Steve Bon:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenbon Instagram: https://instagram.com/stevebon8 Tune in to every episode on your favorite platform: Website: https://www.thefounderzlounge.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheFounderzLounge Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Nurr4XjBE747qJ9Zjth0G Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founderz-lounge/id1461825349 The Founderz Lounge is Powered By:Clean Eatz:Website: https://cleaneatz.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CleanEatzLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cleaneatzlife/ Website: https://cleaneatz.com/Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJRGrE-Xv4IMW_DbxSOTGGA Bon's Eye Marketing:Website: https://bonseyeonline.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bonseyemarketing Instagram: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bon's-eye-marketing/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bon's-eye-marketing/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bonseyemarketing9477  

John passes a class without ever opening the textbook and ponders whether he used to preach too long. Meanwhile, Jonnie wonders if train travel is really safe and tells the story of a gift from France that came unassembled—and the strange political path it took to become our symbol of freedom. Plus, a conversation about justice, greatness, and the responsibility we have to one another. Today's episode is NOT sponsored by Boba Tea: "The most refreshing choking hazard." FOLLOW Jonnie W: https://jonniew.com FOLLOW John Driver: https://johndriver.com LISTEN, SUBSCRIBE, SEND MESSAGE, OR SUPPORT at http://talkaboutthatpodcast.com WATCH/SUBSCRIBE on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwjExy_jWIdNvGd28XgF2Dg Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Is the anxiety you're feeling a signal of real connection – or something happening within you that's worth understanding? We're unpacking the complex relationship between anxiety and dating, and how anxiety can often be mistaken for chemistry when it may actually reflect deeper uncertainty or unresolved emotional triggers. We discuss the importance of recognizing your personal anxiety patterns, how the “IKEA effect” can backfire when we lead with our anxiety, and how we can challenge the way we define chemistry, recognizing the difference between grounded excitement from anxiety-driven intensity. Enjoy!-Take the Dating Archetypes quiz now: https://howtobedateable.com/Read our book: How To Be Dateable: The Essential Guide To Finding Your Person and Falling in Love: https://howtobedateable.com/Try the Dateable AI Dating Coach: Get personalized advice trained on our years of podcast episodes, courses and frameworks: https://studio.com/dateableFollow us @dateablepodcast, @juliekrafchick and @nonplatonic. Check out our website for more content. Also listen to our other podcasts The Psychology of Relationships and Exit Interview available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.WE WROTE A BOOK! HOW TO BE DATEABLE (Simon & Schuster) is available now: https://howtobedateable.com/ Want to remove distractions from your dates? Download Brick and get 10% off at https://www.getbrick.app/DATEABLEOur Sponsors:* Avocado Green Mattress: Check out their mattress and furniture sale: https://avocadogreenmattress.com/DATEABLE* Get Rain of Shadows and Endings wherever books are sold or at Kensington Publishing https://www.kensingtonbooks.com* Quince: Get free shipping and 365 day returns at https://quince.com/dateable* Ruggable: Get 10% off your first order, sitewide, with promo code DATEABLE at https://ruggable.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy