Podcasts about in defense

Today, I'm thrilled to connect with Rowan Jacobsen. Rowan writes about science, nature, and the world's lesser-explored corners for publications including Harper's, Outside, The Atlantic, Scientific American, Smithsonian, and The New York Times, among others. He is the author of nine books, has lectured at Harvard and Yale, and has appeared on CBS, NBC, and NPR. In today's conversation, we discuss his unique and fascinating new book, In Defense of Sunlight, which explores the nuances surrounding light exposure. We look at the value of sun exposure and vitamin D, and Rowan explains why light acts as a master regulator in the body and how our modern lifestyles may be disrupting our natural biology more than we realize. We examine the effects of shift work, cortisol rhythm dysregulation, and the minimum effective dose of sunlight intensity and exposure, and Rowan breaks down how UVA and UVB wavelengths impact our physiology. We also cover the importance of nitric oxide production, and Rowan shares recommendations from his work. Stay tuned for an eye-opening conversation on why sunlight may be one of the most overlooked foundations of human health. For those who enjoy reading about science, I highly recommend Rowan's book! IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: Why so many people fear any sun exposure rather than aiming for sensible, moderate exposure How light acts as a master regulator for circadian biology Why does spending most of the day indoors with artificial lighting make it harder to maintain healthy circadian rhythms? How shift work disrupts the body's normal repair processes How cortisol and melatonin work together as part of a coordinated daily rhythm What research shows about cloudy outdoor environments providing higher light levels than most indoor spaces  The differences between how UVA and UVB exposure impact the body How ultraviolet light can trigger nitric oxide release Practical ways to support your circadian health Connect with Cynthia Thurlow   Follow on X, Instagram & LinkedIn Check out Cynthia's website. Submit your questions to support@cynthiathurlow.com  Join other like-minded women in a supportive, nurturing community: The Midlife Pause/Cynthia Thurlow.  Purchase Cynthia's book, The Menopause Gut. Cynthia's Intermittent Fasting Transformation Book The Midlife Pause Supplement Line Connect with Rowan Jacobsen On his website Rowan's book, In Defense of Sunlight, will be available online and in bookstores on June 16th 

Kimberly explores the surprising science of sun exposure with Rowan Jacobsen, challenging common fears about sunlight and revealing its profound health benefits. Learn how to balance sun safety with the need for natural light to improve health, mood, and longevity.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Sunlight and Health02:52 The Historical Perspective on Sunlight06:00 Understanding Skin Cancer and Sun Exposure08:50 The Benefits of Sunlight Beyond Skin Cancer12:02 Sensible Sun Exposure and Aging14:56 Circadian Rhythms and Sunlight17:56 Alternatives to Natural Sunlight20:58 Vitamin D and Its Importance24:41 The Vitamin D Dilemma29:59 Sunlight and Fertility33:40 In Defense of Sunlight38:53 The Impact of Light on Children43:44 Sunscreen InsightsSponsor: ANIMA MUNDI OFFER: Anima Mundi is giving Feel Good Podcast listeners they're largest discount of the year. It's a great opportunity to treat yourself or a friend to some soothing self-care by going to AnimaMundiHerbals.com and use the code: SOLLUNA20 for 20% off your purchase. USE LINK: AnimaMundiHerbals.com Code: SOLLUNA20 for 20% off your purchase.Rowen Jacobsen Resources: Book: In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure (June 16th, 2026) (Simon & Shuster) Website: rowanjacobsen.com Social: @unrealrowanjacobsen Email: rowanjacobsen@gmail.comBio: Rowan Jacobsen writes about science and nature and the less-explored corners of the world for Harper's, Outside, The Atlantic, Scientific American, Smithsonian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, MIT Technology Review, Businessweek, and others, and his work has been anthologized in The Best American Science & Nature Writing and other collections. He has received awards from the James Beard Foundation, the Society of American Travel Writers, and the Overseas Press Club. He is the author of nine books, including A Geography of Oysters, Fruitless Fall, and Truffle Hound, which have been named to Best Book of the Year lists by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, NPR, and Publishers Weekly. He has performed with Pop-Up Magazine, lectured at Harvard and Yale, and appeared on CBS, NBC, and NPR. He has been an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow, writing about endangered diversity on the borderlands between India, Myanmar, and China; a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, focusing on the environmental and evolutionary impact of synthetic biology; and a Nova Media Fellow, researching the science of sun exposure. His new book, In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure, will be published by Scribner on the Summer Solstice, 2026.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode from 2022, Alex speaks with Moin Yahya about debates both new and old surrounding the causes and history of inflation. References: Inflation and Paper Money: An Historical Perspective: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4076420  In Defense of the Free-Banking Stablecoins: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4056359  George Selgin's page at the Cato Institute: https://www.cato.org/people/george-selgin  Thanks to Our Patrons Thanks to our patrons, including Kris Rondolo, Amy Willis, and Christopher McDonald. To support The Curious Task, visit: https://patreon.com/curioustask

Photo credit: Jerry Wierwille. In this second episode you’ll hear the second half of the debate: rebuttals, open discussion time, audience questions and answers, and closing statements. Subjects discussed include: traditional, Chalcedonian views about Christ’s two natures and whether these imply one too many persons the worship of Jesus which claims are essential to the gospel whether an immortal being can die the meaning of theos (god or God) as applied to Jesus in a few New Testament passages whether it is coherent to suppose anyone is both human and divine John 8:58 Jesus’s faith in God whether a Protestant should trust the “ecumenical” councils practical and spiritual consequences of viewing Jesus as God’s human Messiah vs. as a Godman Some of the arguments for Jesus’s full deity deployed by Dr. Bird here are addressed in my UCA Conference presentation in Sydney, about a week after this Melbourne debate. And many of the topics are also covered in my newly released book Monotheism, Heresy, and the Bible (UK)–such as the meanings of theos in the New Testament (ch. 1). Links for this episode: Tuggy, Monotheism, Heresy, and the Bible Dr. Michael Bird's YouTube channel Dr. Bird's blog, Substack Exposing The Council of Nicaea with Dr. Dale Tuggy (UCA UK Conference 2025) Dale Tuggy – What John 1 Meant (UCA Conference 2021) Dale Tuggy and James White debate: “Is Jesus YHWH?” Dale Tuggy vs James White | John 1 Is Not Trinitarian podcast 291 – From one God to two gods to three “Gods” – John 1 and early Christian theologies Bock and Loke on Jesus's “blasphemy” in Mark 14 – Part 2 a reading of Philippians 2:5-11 podcast 227 – Who Should Christians Worship? A letter from the Lord Jesus: About God and Me (Revised) https://youtu.be/l_ZeKzAvaYg?si=4DXENxVYIQIqTkZp Hurtado on the early worship of Jesus Larry Hurtado on early Christians' worship of Jesus podcast 333 – The Arguments of “God's Death” Kermit Zarley on “My Lord and my God.” Tuggy, “Craig’s Contradictory Christ,” TheoLogica, 2023 podcast 343 – Craig's Contradictory Christ – Part 1 podcast 344 – Craig's Contradictory Christ – Part 2 Jesus's argument in John 10 podcast 143 – Dr. Timothy Pawl's In Defense of Conciliar Christology – Part 1 podcast 144 – Dr. Timothy Pawl's In Defense of Conciliar Christology – Part 2 podcast 63 – Thomas Belsham and other scholars on John 8:58 podcast 235 – The Case Against Preexistence Romans 9:5 @ biblicalunitarian.com podcast 146 – Jesus as an Exemplar of Faith in the New Testament Will Barlow – The “Throne Room Problem” – Responding to Trinitarian Claims about John 12:41 Scott Williams, “Discovery of the Sixth Ecumenical Council's Trinitarian Theology: Historical, Ecclesial, and Theological Implications” podcast 334 – “Who do you say I am?” podcast 11 – Tertullian the unitarian Thomas Gaston – Dynamic Monarchianism: The Earliest Christology (book) This week’s thinking music is “Ship of Theseus (Instrumental)” by Lemon Knife.

Today we are delighted to share an episode from our colleagues on “The Ezra Klein Show,” originally published on March 31. Ezra interviewed author Michael Pollan, whose best-selling books include “The Omnivore's Dilemma,” “In Defense of Food,” and “How to Change Your Mind.” Pollan's latest book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness,” came out earlier this year. It's an exploration of what consciousness is, and the book is — as our review put it — “highly pleasurable to read.” Mentioned in the episode: “The Descriptive Experience Sampling method” by Russell T. Hurlburt and Sarah A. Akhter “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” by Thomas Nagel The Hidden Spring by Mark Solms Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio “The Oxford Handbook of Spontaneous Thought” by Kalina Christoff and Kieran C. R. Fox Book Recommendations: The Blind Spot by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser and Evan Thompson Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann Being You by Anil Seth You can find transcripts and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Kim Freda. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Isaac Jones. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show's production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Michelle Harris, Rollin Hu, Emma Kehlbeck, Jack McCordick, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Listen to and Follow the “Book Review” Podcast Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadio We Want to Hear From You We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to thebookreview@nytimes.com. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week on The Pet Buzz, Petrendologist Charlotte Reed discusses dogs in hot cars with the  Director of Communications at In Defense of Animals, Fleur Dawes, and holiday summer pet safety summer with the ASPCA Medical Director of the ASPCA Poison Control Hotline veterinarian, Dr. Tina Wismer.

The Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais has set off a redistricting race to the bottom. States, particularly in the South, are scrambling to redraw their maps to undercut Black representation — all in the name of partisanship.It marks the end of a project, since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, to restrict the right to vote. And the frenzy that has ensued represents the worst of partisan impulses. Listen as Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, creator of the popular Substack The Long View, and author of the recent book In Defense of Partisanship, discusses how we got here — and how lessons from history can help us develop a more productive two-party system and a more equitable democracy. Check out The Long View here: https://julianzelizer.substack.com.Check out In Defense of Partisanship here: https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/in-defense-of-partisanship.Recorded on May 20, 2026.The Brennan Center is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to repair, revitalize, and defend our systems of democracy and justice so that they work for all Americans. The Brennan Center cannot support or oppose any candidate for office.

Welcome to Day 2864 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom. Day 2864 – “The Love and Grace of Jesus”  based on Luke 7:36-50 Putnam Church Message – 04/19/2026 The Good News According to Luke: “The Love and Grace of Jesus.”   Last week's message was: “In Defense of a Doubter,”  and we learned that “There is room near Christ for a doubter who still wants the truth.” Today, we continue with our nineteenth message from Luke's narrative of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Today's message is: “The Love and Grace of Jesus.” We will explore how Jesus's Love and Grace extend to those others reject. Our core passage today is Luke 7:36-50, which is found on page 1604 of your pew Bibles.  Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman 36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[a] and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Opening Prayer Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word, which is living, true, and full of grace. Thank You for sending Jesus, who does not turn away the broken, the ashamed, the doubting, or the weary. As we open this passage today, open our hearts as well. Let us see ourselves honestly, see Jesus clearly, and receive Your mercy gladly. Break down our pride, soften our judgment, and teach us again what real love and real grace look like. May Your Holy Spirit speak to each person here in a personal way. And may we leave this place forgiven, changed, and filled with peace. In Jesus' name, amen. As we continue in this nineteenth message in our journey through Luke's Gospel, we come to one of the most tender, powerful, and unforgettable scenes in the ministry of Jesus. Luke has already been showing us who Jesus is. He is the One with authority to teach. He is the One with power to heal. He is the One who speaks hope into impossible situations. He is the One who raises the widow's son. He is the One who reassures the doubter. And now here in Luke 7:36–50, He is the One who receives the sinner. This is not just a story about a woman with a bad reputation. This is not just a story about a Pharisee with a hard heart. This is a story about the love and grace of Jesus. And if we are honest this morning, every one of us needs this story. Because some of us know what it is to feel like that woman—ashamed, wounded, carrying a past we wish we could erase. And some of us, if we are really honest, know what it is to sound a little too much like Simon—composed on the outside, religious on the surface, but cold in the heart. This story meets both kinds of people. It confronts the proud, and it comforts the broken. It exposes false religion, and it magnifies the beauty of grace. So let us walk into Simon's house and watch what happens when love and grace sit at the same table. A Simple Object Lesson Here are two jars, one beautifully polished and sealed on the outside, and the other cracked open and spilling perfume. Most of us would naturally be drawn first to the neat one. It looks respectable. It looks controlled. It looks presentable. But the truth is, the sealed jar may hold nothing that blesses anyone. The broken jar, however, fills the whole room with fragrance. That is our story in today's message. Simon looks polished. The woman looks broken. But Simon offers Jesus almost nothing. The woman pours out everything. Sometimes the people who look the most put together are the least aware of their need for grace, while the people who know they are broken become the very ones through whom the beauty of Christ fills the room. That brings us to our first of four truths or points in our message today. In your bulletin insert on the side, it says The Love and Grace of Jesus. Main Point 1: Jesus welcomes the people; / religion pushes people away. Luke tells us that a Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to his home for dinner. Jesus accepted the invitation. Even that is grace. Jesus was willing to go into the home of a man who did not really understand Him and may not even have honored Him properly. Then suddenly, into that carefully managed dinner walks a woman the text calls “a sinful woman.” That phrase tells us everything about how the town saw her. She had a label. She had a reputation. She had a history. People did not say her name first; they said her shame first. And yet she comes. She comes into a place where she is unwelcome. She comes into a room where eyes will judge her. She comes near Jesus with tears, perfume, humility, and love. Now, in that first-century setting, this would have been a shocking scene. Meals among the wealthy would sometimes take place in semi-open courtyards, where others might observe from the edges. But this woman does not stand at the edge. She moves toward Jesus. / She falls at His feet. She wets His feet with tears. / She uncovers and lets down her hair. / She wipes his feet with her hair. / She kisses them. / She anoints them with perfume. Imagine this picture – in polite society, it would have been scandalous. What a picture. / The Pharisees saw contamination. / Jesus saw a heart. The religious world saw a problem to manage. / Jesus saw a soul to restore. This is the pattern we have seen throughout Luke. Jesus speaks to fishermen, touches lepers, heals servants, raises the dead, encourages doubters, and now receives a woman with a ruined reputation. Again and again, Luke shows us that Jesus moves toward the very people others avoid. This reminds us of the woman at the well in John 4. Society had pushed her to the margins, but Jesus met her there and offered living water. It reminds us of the woman caught in sin in John 8, when others reached for stones, but Jesus reached for redemption. It reminds us of Matthew 9, when Jesus sat at the table with tax collectors and sinners and said, “I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” (NLT). Now let's bring that into our day. As hard as we might try otherwise, we still label people, do we not? Divorced. Addicted. Difficult. Political. Unstable. Rich. Poor. Tattooed. Lazy. Obese. Uneducated. Too far gone. We may think they are not our kind of people. We may

Rowan Jacobsen writes about science and nature and the less-explored corners of the world for Harper's, Outside, The Atlantic, Scientific American, Smithsonian, and many other publications. He is the author of nine books, including In Defense of Sunlight. On this episode of Nature Revisited, Jacobsen upends everything you thought you knew about sun exposure, shedding light on a quiet revolution that is transforming our understanding of sunlight's effects on human health. Outlining the growing case for the importance of modest sun exposure for our health and well-being, citing up-to-date studies on the effects of sunlight on human health, Jacobsen presents a much-needed, lucid assessment of not only what the sun can do for us, but how a lack of sun could actively be harming us. https://www.rowanjacobsen.com/ In Defense of Sunlight book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/In-Defense-of-Sunlight/Rowan-Jacobsen/9781668092163 Listen to Nature Revisited on your favorite podcast apps, on YouTube, or at https://noordenproductions.com Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/bdz4s9d7 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/5n7yx28t Subscribe on Youtube Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bddd55v9 Podlink: https://pod.link/1456657951 Support Nature Revisited https://noordenproductions.com/support Nature Revisited is produced by Stefan van Norden and Charles Geoghegan. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions - contact us at https://noordenproductions.com/contact

When it comes to the phenomenon that is consciousness, there is one point on which scientists, philosophers, and artists all agree: it feels like something to be us. Yet the fact that we have a subjective experience of the world remains one of nature's greatest mysteries. How is it that our mental operations are accompanied by feelings, thoughts, and a sense of self? What would a scientific investigation of our inner life look like when we have as little distance and perspective on it as fish do of the sea? In A World Appears, Michael Pollan traces the unmapped continent that is consciousness, bringing radically different perspectives—scientific, philosophical, literary, spiritual, and psychedelic—to see what each can teach us about this central fact of life. When neuroscientists began studying consciousness in the early 1990s, they sought to explain how and why three pounds of spongy gray matter could generate a subjective point of view — assuming that the brain is the source of our perceived reality. Pollan takes us to the cutting edge of the field, where scientists are entertaining more radical (and less materialist) theories of consciousness. He introduces us to "plant neurobiologists" searching for the first flicker of consciousness in plants, scientists striving to engineer feelings into AI, and psychologists and novelists seeking to capture the felt experience of our slippery stream of consciousness. In Pollan's exploration of consciousness, he discovers a world far deeper and stranger than our everyday reality. Eye-opening and mind-expanding, A World Appears takes us into the laboratories of our own minds, ultimately showing us how we might make better use of the gift of awareness to more meaningfully connect with our deepest selves. Michael Pollan is the author of ten books, including This Is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind, Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. He is also the author of the audiobook Caffeine. A Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellow, Pollan has taught writing at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Harvard University. In 2010, Time named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world. Jon Mooallem is the author of three books, Wild Ones, This is Chance! and the essay collection Serious Face. He lives on Bainbridge Island.  Buy the Book A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness Elliott Bay Book Company

Welcome to Day 2859 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom. Day 2859 – “In Defense of a Doubter”  based on Luke 7:18-35 Putnam Church Message – 04/12/2026 The Good News According to Luke: “In Defense of a Doubter.”   Last week's message was: “He is Risen Indeed!” We will celebrate the resurrected Christ and the assurance we have in the salvation that He brings. Today, we return to Luke's narrative of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Today's message is: “In Defense of a Doubter.” We will explore the doubts of Jesus's cousin, known as John the Baptizer. Our core passage today is Luke 7:15-35, which is found on page 1603 of your pew Bibles.  Jesus and John the Baptizer 18 John's disciples told him about all these things. / Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” 20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?'” 21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22 So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy[a] are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 23 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” 24 After John's messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 25 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. 26 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is the one about whom it is written: “‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'[b] 28 I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 29 (All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus' words, acknowledged that God's way was right, because they had been baptized by John. 30 But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.) 31 Jesus went on to say, “To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: “‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.' 33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.' 34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' 35 But wisdom is proved right by all her children.” Opening Prayer Father, thank You that You are not threatened by our questions and not surprised by our weakness. Thank You that in Jesus Christ You meet us not only in strength, but also in struggle. As we open Your Word today, give us honesty, humility, and hope. Help us to see that doubt does not have to destroy faith, and that Your Son is still enough / even when life does not make sense. In Jesus' name, amen. Introduction There is a kind of faith that sounds strong but is actually fragile. It never asks hard questions. It never admits confusion.  It never confesses pain. It smiles through gritted teeth and calls that spirituality. But the Bible gives us something far more honest than that. The Bible gives us John the Baptizer. The same John who leaped in Elizabeth's womb at the presence of Christ. The same John who thundered in the wilderness. The same John who said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The same John who pointed away from himself and toward Jesus. And now in Luke 7, that same man is in prison, and he is asking a question he never expected to ask: “Are You the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” (Luke 7:19) That question surprises us. But Luke includes it because he wants us to learn something important: A season of doubt does not automatically mean the death of faith. Sometimes doubt is rebellion. Sometimes doubt is unbelief. But sometimes doubt is the cry of a wounded believer trying to reconcile what he knows about God with what he is living through. And that is where many believers live at one point or another. You may trust God and still have questions. You may love Christ and still ache. You may believe deeply and still struggle honestly. So today we are going to stand in defense of a doubter—not to glorify doubt, but to understand what Jesus does with it. Main Point 1: Faith Can Be Shaken Without Being Destroyed Luke 7:18–20 John's disciples come to Jesus and ask the question straight out: “Are You the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” Let's not rush past how astonishing that is. John was not a casual observer. He was not a spiritual dabbler. He was not a man who had built his beliefs on rumors. He knew the prophecies. He had heard the voice of God. He had publicly identified Jesus. He had baptized Jesus. He had seen the Spirit descend. And yet now, from a prison cell, John is trembling. Why? Because circumstances can shake even the strongest believers. John expected the Messiah to come with power, to cleanse, to judge, and to bring visible kingdom change. And yet Herod still sits on the throne, evil still seems to prosper, and John himself—the faithful prophet—sits forgotten in a dungeon. If Jesus is truly the Expected One, why does the world still look so wrong? That is not a foolish question. That is an agonizing one. And many of us know something about it. A praying parent watches a child drift farther from God. A faithful wife buries a husband too soon.  A godly man loses his job while dishonest people advance. A believer fights disease, grief, betrayal, or depression and quietly wonders, “Lord, where are You?” That does not mean the believer has become an unbeliever. It may mean the believer has run out of easy answers. Object Lesson — The Storm-Bent Tree Imagine a strong tree in a storm. The wind bends it. The branches whip. Leaves tear loose. For a while, it looks unstable. But when the storm passes, the roots remain. That is John. He is bent, but not uprooted. He is shaken, but not blown away. And that is a needed reminder. A believer can be deeply troubled and still deeply rooted.   Matthew's Parallel Helps Us Matthew 11 records this same incident. Matthew gives us the same question, the same prison setting, and the same answer from Jesus. That tells us this was not a minor moment in Christ's ministry. The Spirit wanted the church to remember that even the greatest prophet of that generation went through a dark night of the soul. So, if you are in a season of doubt, do not assume that the struggle itself means your faith is fake. Some doubt is corrosive. But some doubt is the painful honesty of a real disciple asking, “Lord, help me understand.” Related Scriptures Psalm 73 — Asaph struggling with the prosperity of the wicked. Habakkuk 1 — “How long, O Lord?” Mark 9:24 — “I...

Today on The Editors, Rich, Charlie, Phil, and Dan discuss Marco Rubio's recent comments, the data center freakout, and much more. Editors' Picks: Rich: NR's editorial “In Defense of Data Centers” Charlie: Noah's post “That Same Old Song” Phil: Jeff's piece “Katie Porter Gives California's Game Away at the Debate” Dan: Christopher Schneider's piece “I'm Not a Pundit, I Just Play One on TV” Light Items: Rich: John Sterling Charlie: Trivia night Phil: Yankees Dan: Texas Sponsors:VaerCatholic CharitiesUnder Their Own Vine & Fig Tree by Dr. J. B. Boone Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Animal Liberation Is Part of the Social Justice Tapestry To recognize animal exploitation as a justice issue is to confront our own participation in it. Veganism asks that we examine every day what we eat, buy, wear, and normalize. These changes reach into our habits and social relationships, forcing us to confront uncomfortable truths about our behaviors and practices. At the same time, this is precisely what makes it so powerful, because individuals are inspired to create meaningful change through everyday actions. Listen to today's episode written by Hope Bohanec at HumaneHoax.org #vegan #plantbased #plantbasedbriefing #humanehoax #animalliberation #speciesism #veganism Vegan, plant based, plant based briefing,  ===================   For more details visit: https://www.humanehoax.org/ Hope for the Animals Podcast Episode - I'm a guest discussing some chapters of this book: https://hopefortheanimalspodcast.org/episode-80-the-humane-hoax-book-club-session-2/  =================== Hope Bohanec has been active in animal protection and environmental activism for over 30 years. She is the editor of the recently released book, The Humane Hoax: Essays Exposing the Myth of Happy Meat, Humane Dairy, and Ethical Eggs, published by Lantern Publishing and Media, and the author of the first book ever written on the subject of the Humane Hoax, The Ultimate Betrayal: Is There Happy Meat?. Hope is the Executive Director of Compassionate Living and the host of the Hope for the Animals Podcast. She co-founded the Humane Hoax Project, the Ahimsa Living Project and has organized hundreds of online and in-person events including the Humane Hoax Online Conference, the Humane Hoax Chicken Webinar, and the Sonoma County VegFest. Over the last three decades, Hope has worked for the national non-profits United Poultry Concerns and In Defense of Animals and contributed chapters to several anthologies. =================== FOLLOW THE SHOW ON: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@plantbasedbriefing     Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GONW0q2EDJMzqhuwuxdCF?si=2a20c247461d4ad7 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/plant-based-briefing/id1562925866 Your podcast app of choice: https://pod.link/1562925866 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlantBasedBriefing   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/plant-based-briefing/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plantbasedbriefing/     

This week, we're featuring a recent, live interview that I did at Firestorm books with Vicky Osterweil, anarchist writer and worker, author of In Defense of Looting and more recently The Extended Universe: How Disney Killed The Movies and Took Over the World (Haymarket, 2026). Vicky is a member of the Collective of Anarchist Writers (CAW), and you can also find her on Bluesky and what she's thinking about what she's watching at Letterboxd. During the chat Vicky talks about intellectual property and how it overlaps between entertainment and other elements like technology and medicine, the shaping and limiting effects IP has on popular culture and imagination, the film industry and more. To hear Vickys past appearances on our show check out: In Defense of Looting with Vicky Osterweil The Interregnum: Roundtable with Vicky Osterweil Announcements Support Jason Reynard Walker Incarcerated activist and journalist Jason Reynard Walker is asking for support as he nears the end of his state sentence in Texas prisons and before starting his Federal sentence. He's concerned about the shifting of his release dates around that may put him in a dangerous position where he's more likely to have a hit on him placed by prison authorities. Read more at: https://jasonsprisonjournal.com/a-rogue-within-tdcjs-bureaucracy-changed-my-release-date-with-malice-aforethought-to-get-me-murdered/ . ... . .. Featured Track: TFSR by The Willows Whisper

In a world obsessed with consumption, we may try to buy our way into a sense of belonging. But a true feeling of “home” isn't found in the latest trends or newest decor. It's actually built by aligning our spaces with our deepest, core needs. The link between our environment and our well-being goes far beyond aesthetics. On today's show, author Leidy Klotz offers research-backed strategies for designing spaces that move beyond what's “on-trend” and instead meet our core human needs of agency, growth, and connection. Resources mentioned: Episode #184: In Defense of Subtraction In a Good Place: How the Spaces Where We Live, Work, and Play Can Help Us Thrive (via Bookshop.org)   This show is listener-supported. Thank you for supporting! Join our (free!) Facebook community here. Find your tribe. Sustainable Minimalists are on Facebook, Instagram + Youtube @sustainableminimalists Say hello! MamaMinimalistBoston@gmail.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode we are discussing reading slumps as our Topic of the Month. Why do they happen? How do we get out of them?Join us next week for our second "In Defense of Unpopular Tropes" when we'll have author Vicky Walklate with us!If you'd like to watch this episode with captions, you can find links to You Tube and Spotify here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/SFFRomCast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ along with our social media details. We'd love to hear from you! Don't forget to vote on our Season Thirteen Book Series polls!All our music has been taken from the following track: https://uppbeat.io/t/danijel-zambo/fairytales (License code: 43DIFSVAZ90MEEQ8) Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!)

In Defense of Thomas. Enjoy this week's homily.

It's the day of the ball! Edmund gifts Fanny a SECOND chain, and Fanny decides to get over Edmund just as Edmund starts to doubt his feelings for Mary. Henry offers to take William to town and flirts up a storm with Fanny (respectfully). Fanny is the belle of the ball, despite her wishes. Topics discussed include pasta necklaces, our In Defense of Edmund Drinking Game, Fanny's cup size, what Mary Crawford sees in Edmund, pros and cons of Henry and Edmund, and Regency ragers.Becca's Study Questions: Topics discussed include angel hair vs. bucatini (or the Mary necklace vs. the Edmund necklace), Edmund's feelings about Mary's flaws now vs. the beginning of the book, Fanny's coming out, whether she's softening on Henry, and whether Edmund and Mary are over.Funniest Quote: "She had all the heroism of principle, and was determined to do her duty; but having also many of the feelings of youth and nature, let her not be much wondered at, if, after making all these good resolutions on the side of self-government, she seized the scrap of paper on which Edmund had begun writing to her, as a treasure beyond all her hopes, and reading with the tenderest emotion these words, “My very dear Fanny, you must do me the favour to accept” locked it up with the chain, as the dearest part of the gift."Questions moving forward: Is this the end of Mary and Edmund? What will happen between Henry and William on the carriage ride?Who wins the chapters? Fanny!Glossary of Terms and Phrases:a la mortal (phrase): to the deathchequered (adj): marked by fluctuations in fortunenegus (n): a beverage made of wine, hot water, lemon juice, sugar, and nutmeg,Glossary of People, Places, and Things: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dawson's Creek, Hamilton, Hot N ColdNext Episode: Mansfield Park Volume II Chapters 11-12Our show art was created by Torrence Browne, and our audio is produced by Graham Cook. For bios and transcripts, check out our website at podandprejudice.com. Pod and Prejudice is transcribed by speechdocs.com. To support the show, check out our Patreon! Check out our merch at https://podandprejudice.dashery.com.Instagram: @podandprejudiceTwitter: @podandprejudiceFacebook: Pod and PrejudiceYoutube: Pod and PrejudiceMerch store: https://podandprejudice.dashery.com/

The Power of Ritual! In this episode, we learn from David Andersen about Christian ritual. What's the purpose and goal of ritual? How does Christian ritual differ from other religious rituals? Where do we find ritual and ceremony outside "religious" observances? When we forget or ignore ritual and ceremony, what is the effect on individuals, groups, and societies? That and much, much more in this episode of the podcast. SHOW NOTES:  In Defense of Christian Ritual https://shop.1517.org/products/9781948969642-in-defense-of-christian-ritual?_pos=1&_sid=ce681aa45&_ss=r A Q&A with David Andersen on "In Defense of Christian Ritual" https://www.1517.org/articles/a-q-a-with-david-andersen-on-defense-of-christian-ritual Calvary (2014) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2234003/?ref_=fn_t_1 Witting or Unwitting Ritualists https://www.doxology.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/58_Witting-or-Unwitting-Ritualists-by-John-Kleinig.pdf    More from 1517: Support 1517 Podcast Network: https://www.1517.org/donate-podcasts 1517 Podcasts: http://www.1517.org/podcasts 1517 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1517org 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/channel/1517-podcast-network/id6442751370 1517 Events Schedule: https://www.1517.org/events 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education: https://academy.1517.org/   What's New from 1517: 1517 Youtube: How God Still Speaks Today https://youtu.be/oqTGOUe7YG0?si=ZAdFLVhZYmSNgzsp  Being Family by Dr. Scott Keith https://shop.1517.org/products/9781964419961-being-family  A Reasoned Defense of the Faith by Adam Francisco https://shop.1517.org/collections/coming-soon/products/9781964419879-a-reasoned-defense-of-the-faith Stretched: A Study for Lent and the Entire Christian Life by Dr. Christopher Richmann https://shop.1517.org/products/9781964419381-stretched  The Essential Nestingen: Essays on Preaching, Catechism, and the Reformation https://shop.1517.org/products/9781964419121-the-essential-nestingen  Philip Melanchthon's Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Translated by Dr. Derek Cooper https://shop.1517.org/products/9781964419299-philip-melanchthons-commentary-on-ecclesiastes    More from the hosts: Donovan Riley https://www.1517.org/contributors/donavon-riley  Christopher Gillespie https://www.1517.org/contributors/christopher-gillespie   CONTACT and FOLLOW: Email mailto:BannedBooks@1517.org  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BannedBooksPod/  Twitter https://twitter.com/bannedbooks1517   SUBSCRIBE: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BannedBooks Rumble https://rumble.com/c/c-1223313  Odysee https://odysee.com/@bannedbooks:5 Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/banned-books/id1370993639  Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2ahA20sZMpBxg9vgiRVQba  Overcast https://overcast.fm/itunes1370993639/banned-books    MORE LINKS: Tin Foil Haloes https://t.me/bannedpastors St John's Lutheran Church (Webster, MN) - FB Live Bible Study Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/356667039608511  Donavon's Substack https://donavonlriley.substack.com Gillespie's Sermons and Catechesis https://outerrimterritories.com/recent-sermons Gillespie Coffee https://gillespie.coffee   Gillespie Media https://gillespie.media  

The Pugs engage a fun piece by Malcolm Guite entitled: In Defense of Pints and Pipes. Here they delve into the fashionable cultural obsession with physical health and wellness which has led ironically to all sorts of psychological unhealthiness. Could the issue be a loss of a proper view of the human, especially a view that has no place for the human soul? Article: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/health/in-defense-of-pint-and-pipe Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/ Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

The Pugs engage a fun piece by Malcolm Guite entitled: In Defense of Pints and Pipes. Here they delve into the fashionable cultural obsession with physical health and wellness which has led ironically to all sorts of psychological unhealthiness. Could the issue be a loss of a proper view of the human, especially a view that has no place for the human soul?Article: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/health/in-defense-of-pint-and-pipeSupport the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

The Pugs engage a fun piece by Malcolm Guite entitled: In Defense of Pints and Pipes. Here they delve into the fashionable cultural obsession with physical health and wellness which has led ironically to all sorts of psychological unhealthiness. Could the issue be a loss of a proper view of the human, especially a view that has no place for the human soul? Article: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/health/in-defense-of-pint-and-pipe Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/ Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

The Pugs engage a fun piece by Malcolm Guite entitled: In Defense of Pints and Pipes. Here they delve into the fashionable cultural obsession with physical health and wellness which has led ironically to all sorts of psychological unhealthiness. Could the issue be a loss of a proper view of the human, especially a view that has no place for the human soul? Article: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/health/in-defense-of-pint-and-pipe Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/ Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

Episode 9 comes in swinging this week. L, Christie, and Audree talk for nearly 3 hours. After a catch-up chit chat at the beginning, the hosts get into discussions about "Long-Distance Call" & "Time Is On My Side." We're spiraling so close to the finale of Spn: S3! Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Don't forget to check out the visuals for this episode on Instagram, drop comments of your thoughts on our takes, and rate/like and subscribe! TW: Discussions/mentions of suicide within the Spn episode. Episode Links: Marry-Me Chickpea recipe Orphaned on the Ocean by Terry Jo Duperrault The Survival Of Terry Jo Duperrault: Mass Murder On The High Seas MFM Rewind of the Terry Jo Duperraut survive story episode Past Lives film Her film Once film Once the Broadway Show  Superman (2025) film “What Happened to Dean's Jacket?” video essay  Chris Hansen and “To Catch a Predator” The Princess Bride: TheROUSes (Rodents of Unusual Size) scene  Peacemaker on HBO Spirit Island boardgame Dead of Winter game Cards Against Humanity card game Our Patreon collection of “Chatty Episodes” Reference to Sid and Nancy Corridor Crew discussing the FX of Supernatural 3.15 The Fellowship of the Rings Extended Edition actor commentary “In Defense of Bela Talbot” Steven Williams (actor) Like/Rate/Review & Subscribe to the show on: Apple Spotify Youtube Patreon And anywhere else you listen to podcasts! Email us at: samgirlretrospectivepod@gmail.com Follow us on IG for visuals and updates. Follow us on Tiktok for clips and memes. Images from Supernatural Archive.

In honor of Women's History Month, I'm rereleasing a show with one of the most dynamic, intelligent, and all around fantastic women in wine: Laura Catena of Bodegas Catena Zapata in Mendoza, Argentina. Photo from Laura's website: https://indefenseofwine.com   We discuss her life as a doctor, a mom, and the head of a wine empire. We cover the history of Malbec and how her family aided the meteoric rise of Argentine wine and of the comeback of the Malbec grape around the world.  A fun, sharp-as-a-tack woman, you'll learn a ton about Malbec, Mendoza, and a few life lessons (it's all about the B+!) from this fascinating podcast!     I've edited it to take out some outdated information and for conciseness, but it is well worth the listen -- still a great, educational, and fun show after all these years! Please look at Laura's web site on wine and health for the most accurate, up to date, and factual information on wine and health: In Defense of Wine   Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today! www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople _______________________________________________________________ To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes    

Michael Pollan is an author and journalist whose books include “The Omnivore's Dilemma,” “In Defense of Food,” and “How to Change Your Mind." His most recent is “A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness."www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646644/a-world-appears-by-michael-pollanwww.michaelpollan.substack.comwww.michaelpollan.com Perplexity: Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at https://pplx.ai/rogan. Get 30% off + 2 free gifts at https://ARMRA.com/rogan This video is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://BetterHelp.com/JRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile struck a girls' school in the Iranian city of Minab during strikes on an adjacent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval base. The attack killed at least 165-175 people, most of them children inside the school. The Pentagon has launched a formal investigation into the incident. President Trump was asked about the strike in multiple press interactions, where he suggested that Iran could be responsible and stated he did not know enough details while noting that the Pentagon is investigating. Iranian authorities have condemned the attack as a deliberate war crime carried out by the United States and Israel. No final conclusions from the ongoing Pentagon investigation have been publicly released. WE ALSO COVER: 172 million barrels of oil released from reserve. Trump declares victory in Iran. SAVE Act gets a 50th supporter? James Talarico is a DANGER for Texas. Zohran Mamdani hosts anti-Israel protester. 00:00 Pat Gray UNLEASHED! 01:14 BYU News 02:19 Oil Prices 04:20 Karoline Leavitt on Hormuz Oil 05:55 Oil Tankers Attacked by Iran 12:00 Iranian Girls' School Controversy 13:34 Trump on Iranian Girls' School 15:03 Fetterman on Iranian Girls' School 22:40 Trump Declares Victory? 25:50 More of Cardboard Ayatollah 28:25 Trump on Oil Release 31:26 Trump on Thomas Massie 32:43 Ed Gallrein Mocks Thomas Massie 34:15 Jake Paul Running for Office?! 36:41 In Defense of Thomas Massie 38:50 Trump on John Thune/SAVE Act 41:22 Lisa Murkowski on SAVE Act 42:10 John Cornyn on Filibuster 43:00 SAVE ACT/Filibuster Discussion 49:27 Proof Thomas Massie is Not a RINO 52:21 Caller Mikey 53:35 Caller Mitch (McConnell?) 54:53 Caller George 56:11 Caller Dennis 57:57 Who Really IS James Talarico??? 1:09:07 Eric Swalwell LIVES in California! 1:15:06 PAT41 1:16:42 Zohran Mamdani Hosts Mahmoud Khalil 1:18:44 NYPD Chief Aaron Edwards on NYC Attacks 1:20:32 Muslim Prayers in Mamdani's City Hall 1:21:19 Moving Muslims Out? 1:27:41 Bill & Hillary Clinton in NYC 1:31:39 JD Vance as Senate Majority Leader? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our third episode of season twelve we're tackling our first Topic of the Month, with a discussion about spice in romance novels. Open doors, closed doors, too much information, how it's changed over the years and whether authors feel pressure to include it these days are just some of the points we cover!Join us next week for our first "In Defense of Unpopular Tropes" when we'll have The Cosy Cup Book Club with us!If you'd like to watch this episode with captions, you can find links to You Tube and Spotify here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/SFFRomCast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ along with our social media details. We'd love to hear from you! All our music has been taken from the following track: https://uppbeat.io/t/danijel-zambo/fairytales (License code: 43DIFSVAZ90MEEQ8) Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!)

In Defense of Shame. Tyler Knott Gregson discusses shame, both healthy and unhealthy, and how he thinks healthy shame is disappearing with negative consequences.

The delicious, healthful prune has long had a cross to bear: It's best known for making people poop. In the late 1990s, the California Prune Board set out on a quixotic mission to amend this sales-flattening reputation. It would attempt to rechristen this ancient fruit in the hopes the prune could one day be as unencumbered as an apricot, a raisin, or a fig. In a world where every product and person increasingly believes it's one good rebrand away from changing how they are seen, the story of the prune's attempt to become the “dried plum” is a telling tale about the impossibility of escaping who you really are—and the freedom that comes with self-acceptance. You'll hear from Richard Peterson, retired Executive Director of the California Prune Board; food writer and chef David Liebovitz; lawyer and lobbyist Dan Haley; and Kiaran Locy, Director of Brand and Industry Communications at the California Prune Board.This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was edited by Evan Chung, our supervising producer. It was produced by Katie Shepherd. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Sources for This EpisodeBarry, Dave. Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, Ballantine Books, 2002. Brasher, Philip. “FDA Approves Prune Name Change,” ABC News, Feb. 1, 2001. Brasher, Philip. “Where's the beef? Kids give prune burgers the taste test,” Associated Press, Jan 29, 2002. Cimons, Marlene. “A New Wrinkle for the Prune Industry,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 1999.Crespi, John M., Harry M. Kaiser, Julian M. Alston, and Richard J. Sexton. “The Evaluation of Prune Promotion by the California Dried Plum Board,” The Economics of Commodity Promotion Programs: Lessons from California, Peter Lang USA, 2005. Davis, Glenn. “French History in Your City: San Jose, California - the Pellier Brothers,” Yale National Initiative, Sep. 2015. Fabricant, Florence. “In France, the Prune Holds a Noble Station,” The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2001.Fabricant, Florence. “Responsible Party: Richard Peterson; Rejuvenating The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Aug. 13, 2000. Fabricant, Florence. “Underapprecaited: The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Oct. 12, 1983.A Fortune In Two Old Trunks. Sunsweet, 1947. Fullan, Genevieve. “In Defense of Prunes,” Eater, Jun 21, 2022. Gellene, Denise. “New Wrinkle in an Old Story,” Los Angeles Times, Oct 16, 1997. Good Wrinkles. Sunsweet, 1951. Kamen, Al. “Sunday in the Loop: Plum Outta Luck,” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1999. Koger, Chris. “Dried plums no longer: California prunes have new brand,” The Packer, Nov. 15, 2022. Lucas, Greg. “Who'd Have Thought? Pruneburgers / Juicy, tender and low-fat, they're surprising hits in school cafeterias,” San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 9, 1999.Martin, Ronda Beaman. “Stan Freberg—His Credits and Contributions to Advertising,” M.A. Thesis, Texas Tech University, Dec. 1986. McKay, Leonard. “Louis Pellier,” San Jose Inside, Sep. 25, 2006.Morse, Rob. “Hold the prunes, hold the lettuce,” San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1999. “Prune gets $10 million makeover -- as dried plum,” CNN, Sep. 13, 2000.Rao, Tejal. “In Praise of the Prune,” The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 16, 2017.Roach, Mary. “The power of prunes,” Salon, Nov. 5, 1999.Waters, Michael. “When the Dried Plum Lobby Tried to Make Pruneburgers Happen,” Atlas Obscura, April 13, 2018. Zasky, Jason. “Prunes: Turning Over a New Leaf,” Failure Magazine, Apr. 16, 2002. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The delicious, healthful prune has long had a cross to bear: It's best known for making people poop. In the late 1990s, the California Prune Board set out on a quixotic mission to amend this sales-flattening reputation. It would attempt to rechristen this ancient fruit in the hopes the prune could one day be as unencumbered as an apricot, a raisin, or a fig. In a world where every product and person increasingly believes it's one good rebrand away from changing how they are seen, the story of the prune's attempt to become the “dried plum” is a telling tale about the impossibility of escaping who you really are—and the freedom that comes with self-acceptance. You'll hear from Richard Peterson, retired Executive Director of the California Prune Board; food writer and chef David Liebovitz; lawyer and lobbyist Dan Haley; and Kiaran Locy, Director of Brand and Industry Communications at the California Prune Board.This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was edited by Evan Chung, our supervising producer. It was produced by Katie Shepherd. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen.Sources for This EpisodeBarry, Dave. Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, Ballantine Books, 2002. Brasher, Philip. “FDA Approves Prune Name Change,” ABC News, Feb. 1, 2001. Brasher, Philip. “Where's the beef? Kids give prune burgers the taste test,” Associated Press, Jan 29, 2002. Cimons, Marlene. “A New Wrinkle for the Prune Industry,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 1999.Crespi, John M., Harry M. Kaiser, Julian M. Alston, and Richard J. Sexton. “The Evaluation of Prune Promotion by the California Dried Plum Board,” The Economics of Commodity Promotion Programs: Lessons from California, Peter Lang USA, 2005. Davis, Glenn. “French History in Your City: San Jose, California - the Pellier Brothers,” Yale National Initiative, Sep. 2015. Fabricant, Florence. “In France, the Prune Holds a Noble Station,” The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2001.Fabricant, Florence. “Responsible Party: Richard Peterson; Rejuvenating The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Aug. 13, 2000. Fabricant, Florence. “Underapprecaited: The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Oct. 12, 1983.A Fortune In Two Old Trunks. Sunsweet, 1947. Fullan, Genevieve. “In Defense of Prunes,” Eater, Jun 21, 2022. Gellene, Denise. “New Wrinkle in an Old Story,” Los Angeles Times, Oct 16, 1997. Good Wrinkles. Sunsweet, 1951. Kamen, Al. “Sunday in the Loop: Plum Outta Luck,” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1999. Koger, Chris. “Dried plums no longer: California prunes have new brand,” The Packer, Nov. 15, 2022. Lucas, Greg. “Who'd Have Thought? Pruneburgers / Juicy, tender and low-fat, they're surprising hits in school cafeterias,” San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 9, 1999.Martin, Ronda Beaman. “Stan Freberg—His Credits and Contributions to Advertising,” M.A. Thesis, Texas Tech University, Dec. 1986. McKay, Leonard. “Louis Pellier,” San Jose Inside, Sep. 25, 2006.Morse, Rob. “Hold the prunes, hold the lettuce,” San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1999. “Prune gets $10 million makeover -- as dried plum,” CNN, Sep. 13, 2000.Rao, Tejal. “In Praise of the Prune,” The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 16, 2017.Roach, Mary. “The power of prunes,” Salon, Nov. 5, 1999.Waters, Michael. “When the Dried Plum Lobby Tried to Make Pruneburgers Happen,” Atlas Obscura, April 13, 2018. Zasky, Jason. “Prunes: Turning Over a New Leaf,” Failure Magazine, Apr. 16, 2002. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The delicious, healthful prune has long had a cross to bear: It's best known for making people poop. In the late 1990s, the California Prune Board set out on a quixotic mission to amend this sales-flattening reputation. It would attempt to rechristen this ancient fruit in the hopes the prune could one day be as unencumbered as an apricot, a raisin, or a fig. In a world where every product and person increasingly believes it's one good rebrand away from changing how they are seen, the story of the prune's attempt to become the “dried plum” is a telling tale about the impossibility of escaping who you really are—and the freedom that comes with self-acceptance. You'll hear from Richard Peterson, retired Executive Director of the California Prune Board; food writer and chef David Liebovitz; lawyer and lobbyist Dan Haley; and Kiaran Locy, Director of Brand and Industry Communications at the California Prune Board.This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was edited by Evan Chung, our supervising producer. It was produced by Katie Shepherd. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen.Sources for This EpisodeBarry, Dave. Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, Ballantine Books, 2002. Brasher, Philip. “FDA Approves Prune Name Change,” ABC News, Feb. 1, 2001. Brasher, Philip. “Where's the beef? Kids give prune burgers the taste test,” Associated Press, Jan 29, 2002. Cimons, Marlene. “A New Wrinkle for the Prune Industry,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 1999.Crespi, John M., Harry M. Kaiser, Julian M. Alston, and Richard J. Sexton. “The Evaluation of Prune Promotion by the California Dried Plum Board,” The Economics of Commodity Promotion Programs: Lessons from California, Peter Lang USA, 2005. Davis, Glenn. “French History in Your City: San Jose, California - the Pellier Brothers,” Yale National Initiative, Sep. 2015. Fabricant, Florence. “In France, the Prune Holds a Noble Station,” The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2001.Fabricant, Florence. “Responsible Party: Richard Peterson; Rejuvenating The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Aug. 13, 2000. Fabricant, Florence. “Underapprecaited: The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Oct. 12, 1983.A Fortune In Two Old Trunks. Sunsweet, 1947. Fullan, Genevieve. “In Defense of Prunes,” Eater, Jun 21, 2022. Gellene, Denise. “New Wrinkle in an Old Story,” Los Angeles Times, Oct 16, 1997. Good Wrinkles. Sunsweet, 1951. Kamen, Al. “Sunday in the Loop: Plum Outta Luck,” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1999. Koger, Chris. “Dried plums no longer: California prunes have new brand,” The Packer, Nov. 15, 2022. Lucas, Greg. “Who'd Have Thought? Pruneburgers / Juicy, tender and low-fat, they're surprising hits in school cafeterias,” San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 9, 1999.Martin, Ronda Beaman. “Stan Freberg—His Credits and Contributions to Advertising,” M.A. Thesis, Texas Tech University, Dec. 1986. McKay, Leonard. “Louis Pellier,” San Jose Inside, Sep. 25, 2006.Morse, Rob. “Hold the prunes, hold the lettuce,” San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1999. “Prune gets $10 million makeover -- as dried plum,” CNN, Sep. 13, 2000.Rao, Tejal. “In Praise of the Prune,” The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 16, 2017.Roach, Mary. “The power of prunes,” Salon, Nov. 5, 1999.Waters, Michael. “When the Dried Plum Lobby Tried to Make Pruneburgers Happen,” Atlas Obscura, April 13, 2018. Zasky, Jason. “Prunes: Turning Over a New Leaf,” Failure Magazine, Apr. 16, 2002. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The delicious, healthful prune has long had a cross to bear: It's best known for making people poop. In the late 1990s, the California Prune Board set out on a quixotic mission to amend this sales-flattening reputation. It would attempt to rechristen this ancient fruit in the hopes the prune could one day be as unencumbered as an apricot, a raisin, or a fig. In a world where every product and person increasingly believes it's one good rebrand away from changing how they are seen, the story of the prune's attempt to become the “dried plum” is a telling tale about the impossibility of escaping who you really are—and the freedom that comes with self-acceptance. You'll hear from Richard Peterson, retired Executive Director of the California Prune Board; food writer and chef David Liebovitz; lawyer and lobbyist Dan Haley; and Kiaran Locy, Director of Brand and Industry Communications at the California Prune Board.This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was edited by Evan Chung, our supervising producer. It was produced by Katie Shepherd. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Sources for This EpisodeBarry, Dave. Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, Ballantine Books, 2002. Brasher, Philip. “FDA Approves Prune Name Change,” ABC News, Feb. 1, 2001. Brasher, Philip. “Where's the beef? Kids give prune burgers the taste test,” Associated Press, Jan 29, 2002. Cimons, Marlene. “A New Wrinkle for the Prune Industry,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 1999.Crespi, John M., Harry M. Kaiser, Julian M. Alston, and Richard J. Sexton. “The Evaluation of Prune Promotion by the California Dried Plum Board,” The Economics of Commodity Promotion Programs: Lessons from California, Peter Lang USA, 2005. Davis, Glenn. “French History in Your City: San Jose, California - the Pellier Brothers,” Yale National Initiative, Sep. 2015. Fabricant, Florence. “In France, the Prune Holds a Noble Station,” The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2001.Fabricant, Florence. “Responsible Party: Richard Peterson; Rejuvenating The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Aug. 13, 2000. Fabricant, Florence. “Underapprecaited: The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Oct. 12, 1983.A Fortune In Two Old Trunks. Sunsweet, 1947. Fullan, Genevieve. “In Defense of Prunes,” Eater, Jun 21, 2022. Gellene, Denise. “New Wrinkle in an Old Story,” Los Angeles Times, Oct 16, 1997. Good Wrinkles. Sunsweet, 1951. Kamen, Al. “Sunday in the Loop: Plum Outta Luck,” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1999. Koger, Chris. “Dried plums no longer: California prunes have new brand,” The Packer, Nov. 15, 2022. Lucas, Greg. “Who'd Have Thought? Pruneburgers / Juicy, tender and low-fat, they're surprising hits in school cafeterias,” San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 9, 1999.Martin, Ronda Beaman. “Stan Freberg—His Credits and Contributions to Advertising,” M.A. Thesis, Texas Tech University, Dec. 1986. McKay, Leonard. “Louis Pellier,” San Jose Inside, Sep. 25, 2006.Morse, Rob. “Hold the prunes, hold the lettuce,” San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1999. “Prune gets $10 million makeover -- as dried plum,” CNN, Sep. 13, 2000.Rao, Tejal. “In Praise of the Prune,” The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 16, 2017.Roach, Mary. “The power of prunes,” Salon, Nov. 5, 1999.Waters, Michael. “When the Dried Plum Lobby Tried to Make Pruneburgers Happen,” Atlas Obscura, April 13, 2018. Zasky, Jason. “Prunes: Turning Over a New Leaf,” Failure Magazine, Apr. 16, 2002. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The delicious, healthful prune has long had a cross to bear: It's best known for making people poop. In the late 1990s, the California Prune Board set out on a quixotic mission to amend this sales-flattening reputation. It would attempt to rechristen this ancient fruit in the hopes the prune could one day be as unencumbered as an apricot, a raisin, or a fig. In a world where every product and person increasingly believes it's one good rebrand away from changing how they are seen, the story of the prune's attempt to become the “dried plum” is a telling tale about the impossibility of escaping who you really are—and the freedom that comes with self-acceptance. You'll hear from Richard Peterson, retired Executive Director of the California Prune Board; food writer and chef David Liebovitz; lawyer and lobbyist Dan Haley; and Kiaran Locy, Director of Brand and Industry Communications at the California Prune Board.This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was edited by Evan Chung, our supervising producer. It was produced by Katie Shepherd. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen.Sources for This EpisodeBarry, Dave. Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, Ballantine Books, 2002. Brasher, Philip. “FDA Approves Prune Name Change,” ABC News, Feb. 1, 2001. Brasher, Philip. “Where's the beef? Kids give prune burgers the taste test,” Associated Press, Jan 29, 2002. Cimons, Marlene. “A New Wrinkle for the Prune Industry,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 1999.Crespi, John M., Harry M. Kaiser, Julian M. Alston, and Richard J. Sexton. “The Evaluation of Prune Promotion by the California Dried Plum Board,” The Economics of Commodity Promotion Programs: Lessons from California, Peter Lang USA, 2005. Davis, Glenn. “French History in Your City: San Jose, California - the Pellier Brothers,” Yale National Initiative, Sep. 2015. Fabricant, Florence. “In France, the Prune Holds a Noble Station,” The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2001.Fabricant, Florence. “Responsible Party: Richard Peterson; Rejuvenating The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Aug. 13, 2000. Fabricant, Florence. “Underapprecaited: The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Oct. 12, 1983.A Fortune In Two Old Trunks. Sunsweet, 1947. Fullan, Genevieve. “In Defense of Prunes,” Eater, Jun 21, 2022. Gellene, Denise. “New Wrinkle in an Old Story,” Los Angeles Times, Oct 16, 1997. Good Wrinkles. Sunsweet, 1951. Kamen, Al. “Sunday in the Loop: Plum Outta Luck,” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1999. Koger, Chris. “Dried plums no longer: California prunes have new brand,” The Packer, Nov. 15, 2022. Lucas, Greg. “Who'd Have Thought? Pruneburgers / Juicy, tender and low-fat, they're surprising hits in school cafeterias,” San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 9, 1999.Martin, Ronda Beaman. “Stan Freberg—His Credits and Contributions to Advertising,” M.A. Thesis, Texas Tech University, Dec. 1986. McKay, Leonard. “Louis Pellier,” San Jose Inside, Sep. 25, 2006.Morse, Rob. “Hold the prunes, hold the lettuce,” San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1999. “Prune gets $10 million makeover -- as dried plum,” CNN, Sep. 13, 2000.Rao, Tejal. “In Praise of the Prune,” The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 16, 2017.Roach, Mary. “The power of prunes,” Salon, Nov. 5, 1999.Waters, Michael. “When the Dried Plum Lobby Tried to Make Pruneburgers Happen,” Atlas Obscura, April 13, 2018. Zasky, Jason. “Prunes: Turning Over a New Leaf,” Failure Magazine, Apr. 16, 2002. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is consciousness for, and why did it evolve? Can we change our “default” consciousness? These are some of the questions that Michael Pollan says began to preoccupy him after his first psychedelic experience, which altered his ordinary consciousness so profoundly that he wanted to learn everything he could about the mysteries of sentience, thought and selfhood. We talk to him about what he uncovered and challenges of studying a phenomenon that he says we'll never understand completely. Pollan's new book is “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness.” Guests: Michael Pollan, author, "A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness" - professor emeritus, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism; his other books include "In Defense of Food," "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "How to Change Your Mind." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Record Store Day is once again on the horizon. RSD is easily one of our fave days of the year. And part of the countdown is the release of the RSD list of special releases. So as is tradition around here we like to go over the list "on the air" and share which records are on our own (want) list. Go to www.recordstoreday.com and make your own picks. Musically, we crank some new and used from Obituary, Visigoth, In Defense, Delilah Bon, Death Dealer, Thron, Deliverance (UK) and we introduce Norwegian bashers Rioter in our "Indie Spotlight". Horns Up and Happy Hunting!

When neuroscientists scanned the brains of people going along with a group, they expected to find lying. What they found instead was something far stranger. The group wasn't changing people's answers. It was changing what they actually saw. We'll get to that study in a minute. But first, I want you to remember the last time you were in a meeting, and you knew something was wrong. The numbers didn't add up. The risk was being underestimated. And someone needed to say it. Then the most senior person in the room spoke first: "I think this is exactly what we need." Heads nodded. Finance agreed. Marketing agreed. The consultant agreed. And by the time it was your turn, you heard yourself saying, "I have some minor concerns, but overall I think it's solid." You're not alone. Research shows that roughly half of employees stay silent at work rather than voice a concern. And among those who stayed quiet, 40% estimated they wasted 2 weeks or more replaying what they didn't say. Two weeks. Mentally rehearsing the point they should have made in a meeting that's already over. That silence isn't a character flaw. It's your neurology working against you. And today I'm going to show you exactly why it happens and how to stop it.  It starts with what was happening inside your head during that meeting you just remembered. Why Your Brain Surrenders to the Group Most people know about the Asch conformity experiments from the 1950s. People were asked to match line lengths, and seventy-five percent went along with answers that were obviously wrong. That result gets cited everywhere. But the more important study came fifty years later, and it revealed something the Asch experiment never could. In 2005, neuroscientist Gregory Berns at Emory University put people inside an MRI machine and ran a similar conformity task, this time with three-dimensional shape rotation. Like Asch, he planted actors who gave wrong answers. But unlike Asch, he could watch what was happening inside people's brains while the conformity was occurring. Berns expected the MRI to show activity in the prefrontal cortex, the brain's decision-making center, when people went along with wrong answers. That would mean they were knowingly lying to fit in. Just a social calculation. That's not what the scans showed. People who conformed showed no increased activity in decision-making regions. Instead, the activity showed up in the parts of the brain that handle visual and spatial perception, the occipital and parietal areas. The group wasn't changing people's answers. It was changing what they actually saw. Their brains were rewriting their experience to match the room. And the people who resisted the group? Their scans told a different story. Heightened activity in the amygdala, the brain's threat detection center. The same circuitry that fires when you encounter physical danger lit up when someone disagreed with the group. Berns put it plainly. The fear of social isolation activates the same neural machinery as the fear of genuine threats to survival. When you caved in that meeting, your neurology wasn't malfunctioning. It was doing exactly what it was designed to do. Keep you safe inside the tribe. This is why what I call mindjacking works so well. Algorithms manufacture social proof by showing you what's trending, what your friends liked, and what similar people chose. Your wiring responds the same way it does at the conference table. You're fighting your own threat-detection system every time you try to hold an independent position within a group. You can't turn off the wiring. But you can learn to catch it in the act. And that starts with one critical distinction. The First Skill: Separating Updating from Caving Sometimes the people around you know something you don't. Changing your mind in a group isn't always a surrender. Sometimes it's the smartest move in the room. The real skill is knowing which one just happened. You can test this in real time. When you feel your position shifting in a group, ask yourself three questions. First: Did someone introduce information I didn't have before? If the CFO reveals a data point that genuinely changes the calculus, updating your view isn't a weakness. It's intelligence. That's new evidence. Second: Can I articulate why I changed my mind, in specific terms? If you can say, "I shifted because of the margin data in Q3 that I hadn't seen," that's a real update. If you can only say, "I don't know, everyone seemed to think it was fine," that's capitulation. Third: Would I have reached this same conclusion alone, with the same information? This is the killer question. If the answer is no, and you only arrived at this position because others were already there, you haven't updated. You've surrendered. Getting this wrong is costly. And not just the one time. When you capitulate and call it updating, you train yourself to stop trusting your own analysis. Do it enough times, and you won't even bother preparing, because you already know you're going to defer. That's how capable people slowly become passengers in rooms where they should be driving. Capture those three questions somewhere you'll see them. They're your real-time check on whether you're being open-minded or spineless. Those questions work when you're already in the meeting and the pressure is live. But what if you could protect your thinking before the pressure even starts? The Pre-Meeting Lock-In The most important thing you can do to protect your independent thinking doesn't happen during the meeting. It happens before. I call it the Pre-Meeting Lock-In, and it takes less than two minutes. Before any meeting where a decision will be made, write down three things:  Your position  Two or three key reasons supporting it What would it take to change your mind Put it on paper. Put it in a note on your phone. Just get it out of your head and into a form you can reference. Why does this work? Because once the discussion starts, your mind is going to quietly edit your memories of what you believed. You'll start thinking, "Well, I wasn't really sure about that point anyway." Your pre-meeting notes are an anchor against that self-deception. They're a record of what you actually thought before the social pressure arrived. You want to see what happens when someone has the analysis but doesn't lock it in?  The night before the Challenger launch in January 1986, engineer Roger Boisjoly and his team at Morton Thiokol had the data. They knew the O-ring seals were dangerous in cold weather. They'd written memos. They'd run the numbers. They recommended against launching. But when NASA pushed back hard on the teleconference, Thiokol management called an off-line caucus and excluded the engineers from the room. When the call resumed, management reversed the recommendation. Boisjoly had the analysis. His managers had heard it. But under pressure from their biggest customer, the conclusion got edited in real time. Boisjoly later described it as an unethical forum driven by what he called "intense customer intimidation." He fought like hell, but the room won. That's the most extreme version of the problem. Life and death. But the mechanics are the same in every conference room. The analysis exists. The pressure arrives. And without something anchoring you to what you actually concluded, the room rewrites the story. There's a bonus effect to the Lock-In, too. When you've documented what it would take to change your mind, you've given yourself permission to be genuinely open. You're not being stubborn for the sake of it. You're saying, "Show me evidence that meets this threshold, and I'll update." That's intellectual honesty with a backbone. But you can know exactly what you think and still fail if you can't get anyone else to hear it. How to Dissent and Actually Be Heard Most dissent fails not because it's wrong, but because it's delivered badly.  Blurting out "I think this is a mistake" when the group is already aligned feels like an attack. People get defensive. Your point gets ignored, not because it lacked merit, but because your delivery threatened the group's cohesion. You triggered the same threat response in them that you've been learning to manage in yourself. Charlan Nemeth, a psychologist at UC Berkeley, has studied dissent for decades. You'd expect her research to show that dissent helps groups when the dissenter is right. When someone spots a flaw that everyone else missed. That makes intuitive sense. But that's not what she found. Nemeth discovered that when someone voices a genuine minority opinion, the entire group thinks more carefully. They consider more information, examine more alternatives, and reach better conclusions. And the group benefits even when the dissenter turns out to be wrong. Even when you're wrong, the act of dissenting makes the group smarter. Your disagreement forces everyone out of autopilot. Decades of research by Moscovici supports this. Minority voices don't just influence people in the moment. They shift perception afterward, in private, long after the meeting ends. That's the good news. The catch is in how the dissent happens. Nemeth tested what happens when dissent is assigned rather than authentic, when someone plays devil's advocate because they were told to. It doesn't produce the same effect. Groups can tell when disagreement is performative. The cognitive benefits only show up when the dissent is authentic. When someone actually believes what they're saying. That means the goal isn't just to voice disagreement. It's to voice it in a way that people can actually receive. And the hardest version of this isn't when you have a minor concern about an otherwise good plan. It's when the whole direction is wrong, and finding something to praise would be dishonest. In those moments, the move is to separate the people from the position. "I respect the work that went into this, and I know this isn't what anyone wants to hear, but I think we're solving the wrong problem." You're honoring the effort while challenging the direction. You're not attacking the tribe. You're trying to save it from a bad bet. When the stakes are lower, and you do see genuine merit, you can lead with that. "The market timing argument is strong, and I want to make sure we've stress-tested one thing before we commit." Same principle. You're working with their wiring instead of against it. Either way, your dissent has value beyond being right. Remember that. It's worth holding onto when your amygdala is screaming at you to stay quiet. Everything so far has assumed you're in a room with other people. Your amygdala can't tell the difference between a conference table and a phone screen. The Rooms You Can't See You're not just in meetings. You're in invisible rooms all day long. And most of the time, you don't even know you've walked into one. Every time you scroll past a post with ten thousand likes and think, "I guess that's the right take." Every time you read three articles with the same conclusion and stop questioning it. Every time an algorithm shows you what similar people chose, and you choose it too. Those are rooms full of nodding heads. And your amygdala responds to them the same way it responds to the conference table. Think about the last time you researched a major purchase. You probably started with some idea of what you wanted. Then you read reviews. Then you checked what was trending. Then you asked friends. By the time you decided, how much of that decision was yours? How much of it was the room? Or think about how you form opinions on topics you haven't studied deeply. You read a few articles. They mostly agree. You adopt the consensus. That feels like research. But Berns' scans tell us what's actually happening. Your brain isn't independently weighing the evidence. It's detecting a consensus and rewriting your perception to match. The same process that happens at the conference table is happening every time you open your phone. Mindjacking doesn't need to override your thinking. It just needs to make sure you never finish thinking for yourself before the crowd's answer arrives. And once it arrives, your neurology does the rest. The group doesn't just influence your answer; it shapes it. It rewrites your perception. The Lock-In works for these invisible rooms, too. Before you research a major purchase, write down what you actually want and what you're willing to pay. Before you dive into reviews and opinions, commit your criteria to paper. Before you ask friends what they think about a decision you've already analyzed, record your conclusion. Give yourself the same protection from algorithmic conformity that you'd want before walking into a boardroom. The skill isn't being contrarian. It's being first. First, to your own conclusion, before the room, any room, gets a vote. This is your challenge for the week. Think of one meeting you have coming up where a decision will be made. Before you walk in, open your notes app and type three lines. Line one: what you think. Line two: why. Line three: what would change your mind. That's it. Then sit in that meeting and watch what happens to your thinking when the room pushes back. I think you'll surprise yourself. What if the person you can't resist isn't your boss, your colleagues, or the algorithm? What if it's you? What happens when the decision you need to make threatens something deeper, when being wrong would mean something unbearable about who you are? That's where we're headed next. Closing If this episode gave you something useful, hit that subscribe button. I'm building a complete thinking toolkit here in the Thinking 101 series. If you got value today, share it with someone who could use it, especially anyone heading into a big meeting this week. Drop a comment and tell me: what's the hardest group you've ever had to disagree with? I read every comment and reply. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next episode. Endnotes/References "roughly half of employees stay silent at work rather than voice a concern" / "forty percent estimated they wasted two weeks or more": VitalSmarts, Costly Conversations: Why The Way Employees Communicate Will Make or Break Your Bottom Line (Provo, UT: VitalSmarts, December 2016). In a study of 1,025 employees, 70 percent reported instances where they or others failed to speak up effectively when a peer did not pull their weight. Half wasted seven days or more avoiding crucial conversations. Forty percent estimated they wasted two weeks or more ruminating about the problem. A 2021 follow-up study by Crucial Learning (formerly VitalSmarts) of 1,100 people found the rumination figure had risen to 43 percent. The script's "roughly half" is drawn from the VitalSmarts finding that the majority of the workforce reported conversation failures, with half losing seven or more days to avoidance behaviors. Primary source: https://www.vitalsmarts.com/press/2016/12/costly-conversations-why-the-way-employees-communicate-will-make-or-break-your-bottom-line/. Follow-up study: https://cruciallearning.com/press/costly-conversations-how-lack-of-communication-is-costing-organizations-thousands-in-revenue/ "the Asch conformity experiments from the 1950s": Solomon E. Asch, "Effects of Group Pressure upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgments," in Groups, Leadership and Men, ed. Harold Guetzkow (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Press, 1951), 177–190. The expanded report was published as Solomon E. Asch, "Studies of Independence and Conformity: I. A Minority of One Against a Unanimous Majority," Psychological Monographs: General and Applied 70, no. 9 (1956): 1–70. Asch conducted the line-judgment experiments at Swarthmore College. Participants judged which of three comparison lines matched a standard line, with confederates unanimously giving incorrect answers on critical trials. Across conditions, approximately 75 percent of participants conformed at least once, and the mean conformity rate was approximately one-third of critical trials. Group sizes varied across experiments, typically with 6–8 confederates and one real participant. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1952-00803-001 "neuroscientist Gregory Berns at Emory University put people inside an MRI machine": Gregory S. Berns, Jonathan Chappelow, Caroline F. Zink, Giuseppe Pagnoni, Megan E. Martin-Skurski, and Jim Richards, "Neurobiological Correlates of Social Conformity and Independence During Mental Rotation," Biological Psychiatry 58, no. 3 (August 1, 2005): 245–253. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.04.012. The study used functional magnetic resonance imaging with a mental rotation task. Participants (n=32, ages 19–41) judged whether three-dimensional shapes were rotated versions of each other while four confederates provided answers. Conformity was associated with functional changes in the occipital-parietal network (visual and spatial perception regions), not the prefrontal cortex. Independence was associated with heightened activity in the right amygdala and right caudate nucleus, regions linked to emotional salience and threat detection. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15978553/ "The group wasn't changing people's answers. It was changing what they actually saw": Berns et al., "Neurobiological Correlates of Social Conformity," 245–253. The researchers isolated the specifically social element of conformity by comparing brain activation when wrong answers came from a group of people versus when they came from computers. Conformity to group-sourced wrong answers produced greater activation bilaterally in visual cortex and right intraparietal sulcus, overlapping the baseline mental rotation network. Berns interpreted this as evidence that social conformity operates at a perceptual level rather than merely at a decision-making level. Full text PDF: https://pdodds.w3.uvm.edu/files/papers/others/2005/berns2005.pdf "Heightened activity in the amygdala": Berns et al., "Neurobiological Correlates of Social Conformity," 245–253. Participants who gave independent (correct) answers when the group was wrong showed significantly increased activation in the right amygdala and right caudate nucleus. The amygdala is associated with processing emotionally salient stimuli and threats. Berns described these findings as "consistent with the assumptions of social norm theory about the behavioral saliency of standing alone." The script's characterization that "the fear of social isolation activates the same neural machinery as the fear of genuine threats to survival" is an accessible paraphrase of this finding, consistent with the broader social pain literature (e.g., Eisenberger, Lieberman, & Williams, 2003), though Berns' paper does not use that exact language. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15978553/ "engineer Roger Boisjoly and his team at Morton Thiokol had the data": Roger M. Boisjoly, "Ethical Decisions — Morton Thiokol and the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster" (paper presented at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Annual Meeting, December 13–18, 1987). First presented as a talk at MIT in January 1987. Boisjoly, a specialist in O-ring seals and rocket joints at Morton Thiokol, documented how engineers recommended against the January 28, 1986 launch based on concerns about O-ring performance in cold temperatures. During the pre-launch teleconference, Thiokol management called an off-line caucus, excluded the engineers, and reversed the no-launch recommendation under pressure from NASA. Boisjoly described the forum as constituting "the unethical decision-making forum" driven by customer pressure. He was awarded the Prize for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Online Ethics Center at the National Academy of Engineering hosts Boisjoly's full account: https://onlineethics.org/cases/ethical-decisions-morton-thiokol-and-space-shuttle-challenger-disaster-introduction. See also Russell P. Boisjoly, Ellen Foster Curtis, and Eugene Mellican, "Roger Boisjoly and the Challenger Disaster: The Ethical Dimensions," Journal of Business Ethics 8, no. 4 (April 1989): 217–230. doi:10.1007/BF00383335. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00383335 "Nemeth discovered that when someone voices a genuine minority opinion, the entire group thinks more carefully": Charlan J. Nemeth, In Defense of Troublemakers: The Power of Dissent in Life and Business (New York: Basic Books, 2018). Nemeth's research program at UC Berkeley, spanning four decades, demonstrated that exposure to minority dissent stimulates divergent thinking, broader information search, consideration of more alternatives, and higher-quality group decisions. The finding that dissent improves group performance even when the dissenter turns out to be wrong is documented across multiple studies. See also Charlan J. Nemeth, "Minority Influence Theory," IRLE Working Paper No. 218-10 (Berkeley: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, May 2010). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1pz676t7 "Decades of research by Moscovici": Serge Moscovici, Elisabeth Lage, and Martine Naffrechoux, "Influence of a Consistent Minority on the Responses of a Majority in a Color Perception Task," Sociometry 32, no. 4 (December 1969): 365–380. In the original experiment, participants viewed blue slides while two confederates consistently called them green. The consistent minority condition produced a shift in approximately 8 percent of majority judgments toward the minority position, and roughly one-third of participants conformed at least once. In the inconsistent minority condition, the effect was negligible (approximately 1.25 percent). The script's claim that "minority voices don't just influence people in the moment — they shift perception afterward, in private" draws on Moscovici's subsequent conversion theory and research on the delayed and private effects of minority influence, including afterimage studies showing genuine perceptual shifts. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2786541 "Nemeth tested what happens when dissent is assigned rather than authentic": Charlan J. Nemeth, Joanie B. Connell, John D. Rogers, and Keith S. Brown, "Improving Decision Making by Means of Dissent," Journal of Applied Social Psychology 31, no. 1 (2001): 48–58. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2001.tb02481.x. Groups deliberated a personal injury case under three conditions: authentic dissent (a genuine minority viewpoint), assigned devil's advocate (a member told to argue the opposing side), and no dissent. Authentic dissent was superior in stimulating consideration of opposing positions, original thought, and direct attitude change. The devil's advocate condition did not produce the same cognitive benefits, suggesting that groups detect and discount performative disagreement. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2001.tb02481.x. See also Charlan Nemeth, Keith Brown, and John Rogers, "Devil's Advocate versus Authentic Dissent: Stimulating Quantity and Quality," European Journal of Social Psychology 31, no. 6 (2001): 707–720. doi:10.1002/ejsp.58.

Guests: Ronald J. Pestritto & Daniel Darling Host Scot Bertram talks with Ronald J. Pestritto, dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship and Charles and Lucia Shipley Chair in the American Constitution at Hillsdale College, about the rise of the administrative state and his recent provocation Government by the Unelected: How it Happened, and How It Might Be Tamed. And Daniel Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and fellow at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, discusses the Christian obligation to patriotism and his new book In Defense of Christian Patriotism.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of The Moonshots Podcast, hosts Mike and Mark dive deep into Michael Pollan's groundbreaking book In Defense of Food, a manifesto challenging the modern diet culture and the industrial food system. With his iconic mantra, “Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much,” Pollan explores how the Age of Nutritionism has hijacked our relationship with food and why it's crucial to return to real, whole foods.Through insightful clips from Pollan and engaging conversations, Mike and Mark uncover how processed foods and health claims have misled us. They also discuss actionable steps we can take to reclaim our health by eating mindfully.Together, they explore key themes such as: •

When was the last time you dabbled in something? In this episode of Disrupted, author Karen Walrond talks about the joys of dabbling and the space where dabbling and activism meet. She shares how trying activities like sports, pottery or baking—even if you're not good at them—can expand our definition of self. We also visit Jason Ramos' New Haven dance studio, Baila Con Gusto CT, where dabblers learn how to Salsa, Bachata and Merengue in community with one another. Plus, Spanish artist Esther Gonzalez reads her essay, “How to Reset Your Artistic Life.” GUESTS: Karen Walrond: Author of ‘The Lightmaker's Manifesto’ and ‘Radiant Rebellion’. Her latest book is ‘In Defense of Dabbling: The Brilliance of Being a Total Amateur’ Jason Ramos: Founder of Baila Con Gusto CT, a dance studio in residence at St. Paul & St. James Church in New Haven Esther González: Artist and author of the essay ‘How to Reset Your Artistic Life.’ Find her artwork on Instagram. And read more of her essays on her Substack, Journal Rash. Special thanks to the students at Baila Con Gusto CT who spoke to us about what inspires them to dance.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

K.D. Battle reads his essay "In Defense of Bad Meditation" from our Winter 2026 issue.K.D. Battle is a multi-genre writer and teacher living in Kalamazoo—he's a father, Navy submarine veteran, and a composer of musical theatre, and more. Battle's poems, stories, and essays have been published in anthologies and literary journals like White Wall Review, Line of Advance, and Vita Poetica, and he recently won the Wright Memorial Writing Award. He earned his MFA from Western Michigan University, where he is now pursuing a PhD and serves as the nonfiction editor for Third Coast. Battle is a Buddhist and invites you to walk the Dao with kindness, humility, and grit.

Introduction (0:00:00). Rankings! The Break (0:04:08). Results from NTC Regionals and the National Trial League Finals.NTC Case Balance Data (0:05:14). What did we learn from the first 450 ballots? In Defense of Our Judge, Part II (0:14:52). We do some "real" journalism! An update on Judge Roberts and the NCAA eligibility case.NTC Predictions Contest (0:18:38). Who won Week 1? And who are they picking in the five regions happening this weekend?Mailbag Question (0:48:18). When do you "lock" materials?

Is wine really as dangerous as headlines claim? In Episode 83 of Read Between the Wines, our host Pierre Ferland sits down with Dr Laura Catena, physician and fourth generation vintner behind In Defense of Wine.  Together they unpack the growing war on wine, the World Health Organization messaging, and the role of Movendi International in pushing a zero nuance narrative. Dr Catena explains what the science actually says about moderate drinking, the J curve, and why age and drinking pattern matter. We dig into The Lancet Global Burden of Disease debate, NASEM versus ICCPUD, and the difference between absolute and relative risk, including breast cancer discussions. You will also hear why Mediterranean style wine with food, social connection, and context cannot be reduced to a single molecule. If you care about wine culture, public health, and honest data, this episode is for you. For fans of evidence, terroir, and real life.   For more information about our Podcast, visit us on the web: https://readbetweenthewines.com Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betweenthewinesmedia Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/read-between-the-wines  

Anfang 2026 haben die USA ihre Ernährungspyramide auf den Kopf gestellt: Protein und Fett oben, Brot und Getreide ganz unten. Die Empfehlung für Protein wurde von 0,8 auf 1,2–1,6 Gramm pro Kilogramm Körpergewicht fast verdoppelt. Butter und Vollfett-Milch sind plötzlich wieder erlaubt. Und das Motto lautet: „Eat Real Food.“Gleichzeitig kritisiert die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung diese Empfehlungen.Wer hat Recht? Und was bedeutet das für Dich?In dieser Folge erfährst Du, was die Wissenschaft tatsächlich über Protein, Fett und verarbeitete Lebensmittel sagt – jenseits von Schlagzeilen und Ideologie. Du bekommst konkrete Zahlen, eine einfache Faustregel für Deinen Proteinbedarf und drei simple Taktiken, die Du sofort umsetzen kannst. Egal, ob Du abnehmen, Muskeln erhalten oder einfach gesünder essen willst.____________*WERBUNG: Infos zum Werbepartner dieser Folge und allen weiteren Werbepartnern findest Du hier.Nur diese Woche: Sichere Dir Dein #DRNBLBR Gym Towell – solange vorrätig: drnblbr.de.____________Erwähnte Tools und Ressourcen:Johanna Bayer: quarkundso.deMichael Pollan: „In Defense of Food“ (Buch)Yazio Pro (Ernährungs-App)Mark Maslow: „Looking Good Naked – Die Gesamtausgabe“ (Südwest Verlag)Literatur:USDA/HHS (2025): Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030. realfood.govHelms E (2026): Beyond the Headlines: The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a MASS Perspective. MASS Research Review, Vol. 10, Issue 2.Snetselaar LG et al. (2021): Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025: Understanding the Scientific Process, Guidelines, and Key Recommendations. Nutr Today, 56(6):287-295.de Jesus JM et al. (2024): Addressing misinformation about the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Am J Clin Nutr, 119(5):1101-1110.Monteiro CA et al. (2018): The UN Decade of Nutrition, the NOVA food classification and the trouble with ultra-processing. Public Health Nutr, 21(1):5-17.Krebs-Smith SM et al. (2010): Americans do not meet federal dietary recommendations. J Nutr, 140(10):1832-1838.Pineda E et al. (2024): Food environment and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Nutr Prev Health, 7(1):204-211.Leydon CL et al. (2023): Aligning Environmental Sustainability, Health Outcomes, and Affordability in Diet Quality: A Systematic Review. Adv Nutr, 14(6):1270-1296.Herforth AW et al. (2020): Introducing a Suite of Low-Burden Diet Quality Indicators That Reflect Healthy Diet Patterns at Population Level. Curr Dev Nutr, 4(12):nzaa168.Pollan M (2008): In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. Penguin Press.____________Shownotes und Übersicht aller Folgen.Trag Dich in Marks Dranbleiber Newsletter ein.Entdecke Marks Bücher.Folge Mark auf Instagram, Facebook, Strava, LinkedIn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mailbag (0:00:00). When is the last day of the year when it's appropriate to say "Happy New Year"?Catching Up (0:03:25).  A basketball roadtrip, lying at the poker table, and staying optimistic amid terrifying world events.The Break (0:15:37). A new national champion.In Defense of Our Judge (0:16:27). Judge Jim Roberts was well known to the trial advocacy community. Now he's well known to the national sports community.NTC Predictions Contest (0:22:45). Robert Little and Phil Pasquarello are back with their picks for Weekend One. At stake? Just their children's names.Susan Poehls (0:58:38). We mourn the loss of a friend and celebrate the life of a legend.

Today's poem is In Defense of “Candelabra with Heads” by Nicole Sealey. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today's poem pulls back the curtain on the revision process, showing us how it's about more than just the text on the page. The poet refers to an earlier poem of theirs, an ekphrastic poem based on a sculpture by Thomas Hirschhorn. His work “Candelabra with Heads” features mannequins bandaged in brown duct tape and hung from a wood frame. This poet revised her poem of the same name to remove the last line, but later went back and reinstated it.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

January 5, 2026 Daniel Darling,author, pastor, thought leader, Directorof The Land Center for Cultural Engage-ment @ Southwestern Baptist Theologi-cal Seminary, & Assistant Professor ofFaith & Culture @ Texas Baptist College,who will address:“IN DEFENSE of CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM” Subscribe: iTunes TuneIn Android RSS Feed Listen:

As this year comes to a close, we're releasing a Best of 2025 series—by no means objective, and making plenty of tough decisions to leave a few favorites out. Each of these will also be posted in the public feed. We'll be back early in the new year with new episodes. This episode was originally released April 28th for Death Panel patrons. To support the show and help make episodes like this one possible, become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod Original description: Beatrice speaks with Vicky Osterweil about some of the major events that happened during our parental leave—from Trump's kidnapping of protesters for political speech to the proposed autism registry—and what the first months of Trump's second term tell us about the administration's particular approach to fascism. Find Vicky's pieces "On Rubicons Crossed" and "Fascism Minus Kampf" at CAW Journal: https://www.cawshinythings.com/ Find Vicky's book, In Defense of Looting, here: https://bookshop.org/a/118130/9781645036692 Show links: We're testing out a new Bookshop.org page (still under construction), where you can find books by past guests and book recommendations from the hosts. Find it here: bookshop.org/shop/deathpanel Get Health Communism here: bookshop.org/a/118130/9781839765179 Find Tracy's book Abolish Rent here: bookshop.org/a/118130/9798888902523 Find Jules' latest book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, here: bookshop.org/a/118130/9781804291603 Outro by Time Wharp: timewharp.bandcamp.com/track/tezeta

What if everything you've been told about alcohol and health is wrong—or at least incomplete?In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Laura Catena, a Harvard and Stanford-educated physician and fourth-generation vintner behind Argentina's legendary Catena Zapata. As the driving force behind the 'In Defense of Wine' campaign, Dr. Catena is not here to tell you that wine is a miracle cure—she's here to cut through the noise and present what peer-reviewed science actually says about moderate alcohol consumption.Dr. Catena believes the current conversation around alcohol and health has veered away from accurate science, reduced to oversimplified headlines that ignore nuance. She walks us through two landmark reports—one from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and another from the American Heart Association—that challenge the prevailing black-and-white narratives. These aren't studies cherry-picked to support the wine industry; they're comprehensive reviews that acknowledge both the potential benefits and real risks of alcohol consumption.In this episode we discover what moderation actually mean? We explore the breaking research on wine and health, but we also zoom out to examine the larger picture: the undeniable dangers of smoking, the rapid rise of weight loss drugs and cannabis, and how industrialization and processed foods have fundamentally reshaped both what we consume and our overall health. Dr. Catena argues that informed decision-making requires understanding the full spectrum of evidence—not just the parts that fit a particular narrative.Whether you're a wine lover, a health enthusiast, or simply someone trying to make sense of conflicting headlines, this conversation offers a refreshing perspective grounded in science, context, and honesty. To find out more about Dr Laura Catena's In Defense of Wine Campaign, you can visit her official website here: In Defense of Wine and watch her informative YouTube video here: Wine & Health by Dr. Laura CatenaResearch Papers and Insights Discussed:NASEM report and the American Heart Association's review.Ozempic Curbs Drinking—So What Does That Mean for the Alcohol Industry? | SevenFifty Daily This episode was brought to life by the exceptional writing of the talented Rachael Mamane, a James Beard-nominated author and culinary researcher. Since 2016, Bottled in China brings you into the food and drink scene through conversations with the some of the most happening personalities. Hosted by Emilie Steckenborn, the show is your one spot for all things food, beer, wine and spirits from across the world. Connect with us on LinkedIn or Instagram @bottled.in.chinaPodcast available on iTunes, Spotify , online or wherever you listen to your episodes! Subscribe to Bottled in China to follow the journey!Check out our new website & find out more at https://www.thebottledshow.com

Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This episode is a special one: Haseeb reads his new essay, In Defense of Exponentials, a manifesto pushing back against the rising financial cynicism dominating CT. He breaks down why new chains launch into unprecedented hate, why revenue-based valuation models misunderstand the nature of exponential technologies, and why believing in ETH, SOL, and open financial systems still makes sense. It's a zoom-out moment for the space — a reminder that crypto's exponential arc is far from over. Show highlights