Transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United States, in the 18th-19th centuries
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Air Date: 3/19/2026 Today we explore the long history of technological disruption — from the Industrial Revolution to the rise of software engineering — and ask whether AI is genuinely different this time, all while autonomous weapons dissolve accountability for the militaries using them and capitalism prevents AI companies from maintaining their ethical aspirations. Be part of the show! Leave a voice message, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Full Show Notes Check out our new show, SOLVED! on YouTube! BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to shop Bookshop.org and Libro.fm for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience! Join our Discord community! TOP TAKES KP 1: How Long Until AI Takes Your Job - Consider This - Air Date 2-23-26 KP 2: Is AI Coming for Our Jobs - Confronting Capitalism - Air Date 2-18-26 KP 3: AI Goes to War Part 1 - Today, Explained - Air Date 3-4-26 KP 4: The AI-Powered War Machines Are Here Part 1 - On The Media - Air Date 3-6-26 KP 5: The Race to Build God AI's Existential Gamble — Yoshua Bengio & Tristan Harris at Davos Part 1 - Your Undivided Attention - Air Date 2-19-26 KP 6: Don't Download Claude, Either. - Why, America with Leeja Miller - Air Date 3-4-26 (00:51:47) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR On Why AI Won't Ruin Your Life — Unless We Let It DEEPER DIVES (01:04:45) SECTION A: LABOR FUTURE A1: Is AI Coming for Our Jobs Part 2 - Confronting Capitalism - Air Date 2-18-26 A2: AI Wont Decide the Future of Work—We Will (with David Autor) Part 1 - Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer - Air Date 2-24-26 A3: How Work Got So Bad Part 1 - Confronting Capitalism - Air Date 3-4-26 A4: AI Wont Decide the Future of Work—We Will (with David Autor) Part 2 - Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer - Air Date 2-24-26 A5: How Work Got So Bad Part 2 - Confronting Capitalism - Air Date 3-4-26 (01:47:01) SECTION B: WARFARE B1: The Race to Build God AI's Existential Gamble — Yoshua Bengio & Tristan Harris at Davos Part 2 - Your Undivided Attention - Air Date 2-19-26 B2: Anthropic–Pentagon Contract Dispute Raises Questions About AI's Use in the Military - Soundside - Air Date 3-4-26 B3: Anthropics AI Ethics Vs. the Pentagon Part 1 - Brian Lehrer A Daily Podcast - Air Date 3-5-26 B4: The AI-Powered War Machines Are Here Part 2 - On The Media - Air Date 3-6-26 B5: AI Goes to War Part 2 - Today, Explained - Air Date 3-4-26 (02:27:37) SECTION C: SURVEILLANCE C1: Anthropic Doesn't Trust the Pentagon, and Neither Should You Part 1 - Decoder with Nilay Patel - Air Date 3-12-26 C2: Anthropic–Pentagon Contract Dispute Raises Questions About AI's Use in the Military Part 2 - Soundside - Air Date 3-4-26 C3: Anthropic Doesn't Trust the Pentagon, and Neither Should You Part 2 - Decoder with Nilay Patel - Air Date 3-12-26 C4: Anthropics AI Ethics Vs. the Pentagon Part 2 - Brian Lehrer A Daily Podcast - Air Date 3-5-26 (02:57:16) SECTION D: CORPORATE POWER D1: The Left Doesn't Hate Technology with Gita Jackson Part 1 - Tech Won't Save Us - Air Date 3-12-26 D2: Don't Download Claude, Either. Part 2 - Why, America with Leeja Miller - Air Date 3-4-26 D3: The Left Doesn't Hate Technology with Gita Jackson Part 2 - Tech Won't Save Us - Air Date 3-12-26 D4: We Need a Moratorium on AI Data Centers NOW. Heres Why. - Senator Bernie Sanders - Air Date 3-11-26 SHOW IMAGE CREDITS Description: Image of a robot walking across the street holding two leather briefcases. A thought bubble shows it is thinking about, or launching as it walks, missiles. Credit: Internal composite design. Images/License: Pixabay Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Listen Anywhere! BestOfTheLeft.com/Listen Listen Anywhere! Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastodon | Threads | X Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com
The war on Iran has increasingly narrowed our optic to focus on oil and its global impact. Yet the 4th Industrial Revolution is not centered on oil, but data. So beyond weapon systems, how could data be a central theme of the war with Iran, aka Operation Epic Fury? We need to look at Kashef... Iran's version of Palantir. Kashef is a not a product for sale, but an intelligence backbone to Iran's entire proxy network that aggregates data about its enemies and distributes targeting intelligence to the groups positioned to act on it. Welcome to the wars of the 4th Industrial Revolution. #BardsFM_Morning #DataIsTheNewCoal #TheWayOfChrist Bards Nation Health Store: www.bardsnationhealth.com EnviroKlenz Air Purification, promo code BARDS to save 10%: www.enviroklenz.com EMPShield protect your vehicles and home. Promo code BARDS: Click here MYPillow promo code: BARDS >> Go to https://www.mypillow.com/bards and use the promo code BARDS or... Call 1-800-975-2939. White Oak Pastures Grassfed Meats, Get $20 off any order $150 or more. Promo Code BARDS: www.whiteoakpastures.com/BARDS BardsFM CAP, Celebrating 50 Million Downloads: https://ambitiousfaith.net Morning Intro Music Provided by Brian Kahanek: www.briankahanek.com Windblown Media 20% Discount with promo code BARDS: windblownmedia.com Founders Bible 20% discount code: BARDS >>> TheFoundersBible.com Mission Darkness Faraday Bags and RF Shielding. Promo code BARDS: Click here EMF Solutions to keep your home safe: https://www.emfsol.com/?aff=bards Treadlite Broadforks...best garden tool EVER. Promo code BARDS26: TreadliteBroadforks.com No Knot Today Natural Skin Products: NoKnotToday.com Health, Nutrition and Detox Consulting: HealthIsLocal.com Destination Real Food Book on Amazon: click here Images In Bloom Soaps and Things: ImagesInBloom.com Angeline Design: AngelineDesign.com DONATE: Click here Mailing Address: Xpedition Cafe, LLC Attn. Scott Kesterson 591 E Central Ave, #740 Sutherlin, OR 97479
In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli sits down with Steve Brown, a leading AI futurist and former executive at organizations including Intel and DeepMind. Brown brings a rare combination of technical depth and leadership perspective, shaped by decades at the forefront of technological change and his work advising leaders around the world on the implications of artificial intelligence.The conversation centers on Brown's book, The AI Ultimatum, and the core argument behind it: AI is not simply another productivity tool or IT upgrade. It represents a fundamental shift in how intelligence is created, scaled, and applied inside organizations. Leaders who treat AI as incremental technology risk missing the much larger transformation underway.Brown explains why he believes we are entering an “intelligence age,” comparable in scope to the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding at a dramatically faster pace. As the cost of intelligence approaches zero, organizations will face new strategic choices about workforce design, value creation, leadership identity, and ethical responsibility. These choices, Brown argues, cannot be delegated or delayed without consequence.Throughout the episode, Mahan challenges Brown to bridge theory and practice. They explore real organizational examples, from AI agents working alongside humans to scientific breakthroughs like AlphaFold, and examine how leaders can shift from efficiency-driven thinking toward value creation, judgment, and human amplification.This is not a conversation about tools or trends. It is a candid discussion about leadership responsibility in a period of accelerated change, and what CEOs and senior executives must rethink now to ensure their organizations remain relevant, resilient, and human-centered.Actionable TakeawaysYou'll learn why delaying AI decisions is itself a leadership choice, and how waiting for clarity can quietly erode organizational value.Hear how the “intelligence age” differs from previous technology shifts, and why its speed changes the role of senior leadership.You'll learn why AI should be viewed as a digital workforce, not just software, and what that means for strategy, structure, and accountability.Hear how leaders must shift from being the source of answers to guiding exploration, judgment, and learning in uncertain conditions.You'll learn why cost-cutting is the weakest use of AI, and where leaders should instead focus to create new value.Hear how AI changes the relevance of experience, narrowing gaps while raising expectations for judgment and insight.You'll learn why ethics, bias, and responsibility do not belong to algorithms, but remain firmly in the domain of leadership.Hear how AI can amplify human capability rather than replace it, when leaders design work intentionally.Connect with Steve BrownSteve Brown Website Steve Brown LinkedInThe AI Ultimatum: Preparing for a World of Intelligent Machines and Radical TransformationConnect with Mahan Tavakoli: Mahan Tavakoli Website Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn Partnering Leadership Website
Stop scrolling at bedtime and start building your family's AI-powered escape plan tonight Summary Unlock the power of AI with this 18-minute crash course tailored specifically for busy parent entrepreneurs navigating online entrepreneurship and digital marketing. In this episode, Ace Allan reveals practical AI mastery techniques designed to dramatically improve your email marketing and digital product creation, leading to higher conversion rates and increased passive income. Busy parents and digital entrepreneurs will learn how to harness AI effectively with a proven 4-part prompting formula, transforming AI from a frustrating tool into your most profitable team member. Discover how to pick the right AI tools, craft master prompts, and apply pull versus push techniques to streamline your online business. Ace illustrates these tactics through real-world success stories, including a Denver mom's leap from a 2% to 23% email conversion in just seconds. This episode is packed with actionable marketing strategies, email marketing tips, and digital marketing insights tailored for parent entrepreneurs looking to build digital products and side hustles that fit their lifestyle. Join us and start building your AI-powered escape plan today. Whether you're a podcast entrepreneur, digital course creator, or looking to make money online with smart marketing strategies, this episode offers clear, practical guidance. Subscribe to the AI Escape Plan Newsletter for ongoing digital marketing tips and entrepreneurial advice to help you grow your online opportunities while protecting precious family time. Key Timestamps 00:00 - Opening - The 10:47 PM reality 00:50 - Episode Overview - The AI crash course roadmap 01:20 - The Brutal Truth - Why you're NOT actually behind on AI 02:05 - Denver mom goes from 2% to 23% email conversion in 12 seconds 03:30 - The Parent Entrepreneur's AI Mastery Framework Introduction 04:50 - Step 1: Pick Your AI Tool and Stick With It - Why tool hopping kills progress 06:20 - Step 2: The 4-Part Prompting Formula (Role, Context, Command, Format) 09:00 - Step 3: Mastering Pull vs Push Technique - Let AI do the heavy lifting 10:50 - Step 4: Create Your Master Prompt - The secret weapon of AI masters 14:30 - The Bigger Picture - Why this matters beyond tactics (Industrial Revolution comparison) 16:35 - Whiskered Wisdom - Your immediate 18-minute action plan Key Insights & Strategies Shared The AI Reality Check 90% of people using AI are doing it wrong and getting mediocre results Tracy's Transformation Case Study Denver mom, 2 kids under 8, project manager at mid-size tech company The Parent Entrepreneur's AI Mastery Framework Step 1: Pick Your AI Tool and Stick With It Stop tool hopping between ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini Masters go deep before they go wide Recommended: Start with ChatGPT (most integrations, biggest community, most forgiving) Step 2: The 4-Part Prompting Formula Every prompt needs four elements: ROLE - Tell AI what to be CONTEXT - Give background information COMMAND - Be specific about what you want FORMAT - Tell it what you want the output to be Before vs After Example: Before: "Write me a marketing email" (4 words) After: "Act like a world-class email marketing expert specializing in busy parent audiences. Here's my previous email that converted well [attach context]. Write me a 150-word email that creates urgency around my time management course for working moms, focusing on the fear of missing their kids' milestones due to work overwhelm, and format it as a ready-to-send email including subject line." Step 3: Mastering Pull vs Push Technique Push Prompting: You do 80% of work, AI finishes last 20% Pull Prompting: Give AI an outcome, have it figure out how to get there Instead of: "Here's my outline, write my blog post" Try: "I need a blog post that converts cold traffic to email subscribers for my parent productivity newsletter. Ask me all the questions you need to create this for me, then give it back in ready-to-publish format." Step 4: Create Your Master Prompt The secret weapon separating AI amateurs from masters Give AI your personal manual Say: "I want to create a master prompt for my role as a parent entrepreneur building digital products and online courses. Ask me all the questions you need to create it for me." AI will ask about: business, audience, goals, constraints, voice, offers Answer using voice-to-text, save result as PDF/Google Doc Resources Mentioned AI Tools ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) - Recommended starting point Claude - Alternative AI tool Gemini - Google's AI platform Automation Platforms Zapier - Workflow automation Make.com - No-code automation platform HighLevel ($97/month) - All-in-one marketing platform Productivity Tools Voice-to-text functionality (phone/laptop/computer) Google Docs for saving master prompts PDF creation for master prompt storage Newsletter Announcement AI Escape Plan Newsletter - Moving to 2 newsletters per week DarkHorseInsider.com Structured journey from beginning to end over the course of a year Designed for busy parents with limited time Focus: Start, grow, and streamline side hustles while protecting family time Action Steps to Take Immediate Action (Right After This Episode) Open ChatGPT (or chosen AI tool) Create your first master prompt using this exact phrase: "Help me create a master prompt for my role as a parent entrepreneur. Ask me the questions you need." Hit enter and answer the questions (use voice mode if available) Save the result as PDF or Google Doc Use it tomorrow - don't try to do everything in one session Subscribe to the AI Escape Plan Newsletter - Now featuring 2 newsletters per week taking you on a complete journey from "I don't know what to do" to "Look at all the things I've done." Specifically designed for busy parents ready to break free from the 9-to-5 grind. Each issue delivers practical, AI-powered strategies to start, grow, and streamline side hustles - all designed to protect your family time while boosting your income. Visit: DarkHorseInsider.com Your roadmap to more money, more freedom, and more of what truly matters.
Oxford historian Lawrence Goldman dismantles modern narratives about slavery, empire, reparations, and British identity | Earn up to 4 per cent on gold, paid in gold: https://www.monetary-metals.com/heretics. Heretics Merch is finally here! Get your own: https://hereticsxandrewgold-shop.fourthwall.com/ Go to https://andrewgoldheretics.com to get exclusive content and the bonus questions. Visit Lawrence's History Reclaimed: https://historyreclaimed.co.uk SPONSORS: Organise your life: https://akiflow.pro/Heretics Earn up to 4 per cent on gold, paid in gold: https://www.monetary-metals.com/heretics/ Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at https://mintmobile.com/heretics In this wide-ranging conversation, Oxford historian Lawrence Goldman joins the Heretics podcast to challenge some of the most widely repeated claims about slavery, colonialism, reparations, and British history. Drawing on decades of academic research and teaching at Oxford, Goldman argues that much of today's debate about empire and slavery is driven more by politics than by historical evidence. The discussion explores how slavery existed across almost every civilization, why the British Empire is often singled out despite broader global contexts, and whether the Industrial Revolution was actually built on the profits of slavery. Goldman also explains why many historians reject the idea that modern societies should pay reparations for events that occurred centuries ago, and why such policies may deepen division rather than resolve it. Along the way, the conversation touches on the Arab slave trade, the economics of abolition, the dangers of judging the past purely through modern moral standards, and how technological change helped make slavery obsolete. Goldman also reflects on the idea of Britishness, the legacy of parliamentary democracy, immigration, national identity, and the cultural tensions shaping Western societies today. This is a deep dive into the historical arguments behind some of the most controversial political debates of our time. #history #reparations #britishempire Join the 30k heretics on my mailing list: https://andrewgoldheretics.com Check out my new documentary channel: https://youtube.com/@andrewgoldinvestigates Andrew on X: https://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok Insta: https://www.instagram.com/andrewgold_ok Heretics YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@andrewgoldheretics Chapters: 0:00 The Reparations Debate 5:00 Who Is Responsible for Slavery Today? 10:10 Slavery Was EVERYWHERE in History 14:30 The ARAB Slave Trade Explained 19:00 Why Britain Developed a Unique Social Culture 23:20 Did Slavery Fund the Industrial Revolution? 27:40 The Problem With Judging History by Modern Morals 33:20 Would Reparations Actually Work? 39:00 The £18 Trillion Reparations Claim 44:00 Is British Identity UNDER ATTACK? 49:10 What Does “Britishness” Really Mean? 53:00 Immigration, Democracy and Cultural Change 59:50 A Heretic Lawrence admires Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
John Cassidy, staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI (Macmillan, 2025) talks about his recent story, "How to Prevent Insider Trading on Trump's Wars" and other recent takes on economics and politics.photo: Karoline Leavitt at her first Press Conference in 2025 (YouTube channel called White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
The war in Iran has economic consequences in terms of the region's oil exports. But how could prediction markets change the picture? On Today's Show: John Cassidy, staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI (Macmillan, 2025), talks about his recent story, "How to Prevent Insider Trading on Trump's Wars" and other news related to the economic repercussions of the Iran war.
Ever feel like you're running a miniature public school in your living room? You're overwhelmed—not because you're doing too little, but because you're trying to do too much using the wrong model.Most homeschool moms recreate the factory model education system they walked away from. They don't mean to, but they do. This system teaches kids what to think, not how to think. It, also, turns them into followers, not leaders. But what if doing LESS actually produced stronger learners?In this episode:✅The 3-question filter to eliminate busy work and focus on what actually matters✅ONE simple practice to start this week to stop overwhelm✅75 reasons you're totally overwhelmed, homeschool mom✅How factory model education creates followers for the Industrial Revolution—not thinkers✅Why depth beats breadth✅How great leaders like Edison and Lincoln learned differentlyReady to break free from factory model education? Grab the free 3-day video course "How to Simplify Your Homeschool" with daily emails, short videos, and printables to help you put it into practice!Resources Mentioned: Free Course: How to Simplify Your HomeschoolCourse: Raising Leaders, Not Followers (17 tips on encouraging a love of learning) Show Notes:Have you ever looked at your homeschool plan and felt like you were running a miniature public school in your living room? Many homeschool moms feel overwhelmed — not because they're doing too little, but because they are trying to do too much and follow the wrong model.The real issue is that, unintentionally, we recreate the system we walked away from. Think about it: three kids, times five lessons a day, times five days a week — that's 75 lesson plans a week. No wonder you're overwhelmed.Most homeschool moms were trained on the factory school model of education. They all come in to first grade, they do all the same things, and they go down the factory line all the way to 12th grade. Everything the same. Tested the same. It's like a factory.This model teaches us that learning must include multiple-choice tests, many subjects a day, and textbooks for everything. We've only had textbooks in the last hundred years — before that, they used real books. This model teaches us that worksheets, grading, and constant assessment is what education is. And even when we leave that school system, subconsciously we recreate it because that's all we know.All that system does is teach your kids what to think, not how to think. Don't you want your kids to know how to think and not just be a follower? That system creates followers — many worker bees. It was built because of the industrial revolution and they needed a lot of workers. So they built an education system that would produce followers.What Thomas Edison's Mom Knew That We ForgetThomas Edison struggled in traditional school. His teacher called him addled. His mother removed him from school and homeschooled him in the 1850s — we're talking almost 175 years ago. How did she homeschool him? Through reading, through curiosity, and through experimentation.That set up Edison to be a leader. He developed the light bulb, but because of curiosity and experimentation and strong character, he said, "I didn't fail a thousand times. I found 10,000 ways to not make a light bulb." He kept experimenting. He kept being curious to figure out an answer.He later credited his mother with giving him the freedom to explore ideas that led to over 1,000 patents — not just the light bulb, a thousand patents. One devoted parent focusing on curiosity can outperform an entire public school system.Why Doing Less Actually Produces Stronger LearnersI think it's not doing less education — it's doing less traditional conveyor belt education and doing more leadership education. Freedom education that gives your kids the freedom in life to pursue whatever they are called to do.One big factor is depth. Depth creates real learning. The brain builds strong connections when ideas are explored deeply rather than just skimmed quickly. Abraham Lincoln had less than one year of formal education. He educated himself primarily through reading a small number of great books repeatedly — what we would call classics.Some of you hear "classics" and you go, "Oh, boring." Well, I consider Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie a classic. I consider The Hobbit a classic. Don't think just because it says classic, it's old and dusty.I remember when my girls were going to read the Iliad. It comes in and it's that thick. I told myself I was reading it with them — if they're in high school and they can understand it, surely as an adult I can read and understand it. It was an awesome book. These books shaped Abraham Lincoln into a great leader. He didn't study a whole bunch of different subjects. He studied fewer ideas and he really dove deeply into them.The Three Question Filter: Cut the Busy WorkBefore you add anything to your homeschool, ask yourself three questions. Does this help my child love learning and think deeply? Does this strengthen their character or their wisdom? Does this move them toward becoming an independent learner with lifetime learning tools?If you say no to one of these, it may just be busy work. And if it's busy work, get rid of it. You can see more learning taking place in 20 minutes than an hour or two of worksheets.I am not asking you to add something to your homeschool. Whatever your kids are already doing, get rid of all the extra stuff if you're overwhelmed and let's just focus on three things this week. Make sure they're reading, make sure they're using thinking skills, and make sure they're growing in their character.What to Do Today: Go Deep Instead of WideAsk yourself this question: if my child mastered three things this week, what would they be? Write them down. If you're driving, say them out loud. What three things could each child master this week? That's what you want to dive deep into.Let your child choose one subject this week — something they are going to go deeper in instead of just passing through and checking off a checklist like public school. If you follow their interest instead of yours, this encourages a love of learning. Let them make a choice of something they're interested in and dive deep into it.Then let them read a short passage about it. Ask them what they learned. What was their favorite part? Have the discussion. For younger kids, start with narration — just let them tell back what they learned. For older kids, ask a question that starts with how or why. How and why questions will get them to start thinking.Reading will produce a love of learning if you can find the right books. Believe me, I had to work hard for one of my children. My son Hunter didn't like to read. I was constantly on the lookout for a good quality book, and it took time and effort on my part. But he's an avid reader now. All of my kids love to read now.What Homeschooling Is Really AboutWhen you simplify your homeschool and you're not trying to do it all, you create space that actually matters — space for a love of learning, for thinking and discussion, for character building, and for leadership development. This is what homeschooling is about for me. I wanted my kids to grow in all four of these areas.Free Resource: How to Simplify Your HomeschoolIf you're overwhelmed and need to simplify, I have a free 3-day video course called How to Simplify Your Homeschool. It comes each day in an email with a short 3 to 5 minute video and a printable of how you could put that into practice.I've had moms say how much this has helped them get off that conveyor belt and start to simplify their homeschool. You can find it at howtoschooolmychild.com/simplify.
Uncle Walt Whitman was on the vanguard of what is categorized as the Romantic era of American literature. The era is marked by an emphasis on individualism, imagination, the spiritual dimension of nature, and skepticism toward the pure rationalism that claimed reason is the primary source of genuine knowledge independent of sensory experience, empirical observation, or tradition. Me thinks this era, earmarked by nature writing, was a reaction to the mephitic air poisoned by the raging and unregulated waste spewed out the ass of the Industrial Revolution.
In this episode I continue with the exploration of men, women, and work. Last week I looked at how the Industrial Revolution broke the initial bond between men and women and what has occurred since then.Watch it here: How the Bond Between Men and Women Broke D... I continue on here with the question - how can men and women find harmony today? I argue that if we continue to look at life from an autonomous egalitarian perspective, we won't be able to.Listen in as I discuss three pillars that we need to come together on if we're going to have a chance. Learn about the different schools of feminist thought pre-suffrage, the importance of motherhood, sacred time versus market time, a recent paper on fertility from Denmark, and much more.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 — The Cost of Equality & Motherhood 00:42 — Intro: Working Together in the AI Age 01:32 — How the Industrial Revolution Divided Us 02:02 — Why "A Man Provides" is a Harmful Mantra 03:30 — The Modern Search for Meaning 05:28 — The 1960s Shift to the Public Sphere 08:01 — The Unquantifiable Value of a Mother 10:04 — Prioritizing Ritual & Community 11:20 — The Danish Fertility Paradox 13:06 — Feminism of Freedom vs. Feminism of Care 17:09 — Masculine Vision & Feminine Manifestation 19:32 — Workplace Double Standards & Maternity 20:47 — Embracing Natural Biological Strengths 21:43 — Building Complementary Businesses Today 24:46 — Why people aren't having kids25:28 — Outro___________________________Beyond the podcast I'm a mindset coach. I help you reprogram the patterns and belief systems that are sabotaging your power, peace, and love life. Ready to make some life changes? Book a free consultation today - https://calendly.com/anyashakh/discov...If you found some value today then help me spread the word! Share this episode with a friend or leave a review. This helps the podcast grow.You can also watch the episodes on youtube hereFollow me on Instagram @anyashakhSubscribe to my weekly newsletter: https://anyashakh.substack.com (Insights about men and women in your inbox every week)
https://youtu.be/_A__xfP6HBM Laurie Barkman, strategic growth advisor, former $100M CEO, M&A expert, and author of The Business Transition Handbook, helps construction, architecture, and engineering firms build scalable, sustainable businesses that create time, freedom, and long-term value. Having experienced a major acquisition firsthand and led companies through significant growth and change, Laurie now focuses on helping mature business owners navigate the complex journey of building enterprise value and preparing for future transitions. We explore Laurie's BUILT Method—Blueprint, Unlock, Integrate, Lead, Transition—a strategic framework designed to help founders of established businesses scale beyond owner dependency and prepare for successful leadership or ownership transitions. Laurie explains how aligning the owner's personal vision with the company's future strategy creates clarity, why measuring enterprise value can unlock new growth decisions, and how proactive transition planning helps entrepreneurs avoid the identity crisis that often follows a business exit. — Take 5 Steps to Transitioning Your Business with Laurie Barkman Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here, the Founder of the Summit OS Group, and today my guest is Laurie Barkman, a strategic growth advisor, former a hundred-million-dollar CEO and M&A expert who’s helping construction and engineering companies build scalable, sustainable businesses that creates time, freedom, and value. Laurie is also the author of the Business Transition Handbook. Laurie, welcome to the show. Steve, thank you so much. I’m so excited to be with you today. Yeah, it’s great to have you. And you have a really interesting niche with the business transition and helping construction or architecture engineering firms. So what brought you to this point? What is your personal why, and how are you manifesting it in your practice? My personal why has been evolving over the years through my career. I think I was always an entrepreneur at heart. I had orbited entrepreneurial companies, like startups, in a big company. I was always the maverick. I was trying to be an intrapreneur and ultimately found myself in a position of finding a way to help business owners in the back part of their journey. While I love startups, I have found that my niche is in working with mature companies—so companies that are over five to seven years old—and helping entrepreneurs in the tough decisions.Share on X It’s the tough decisions that they really wrestle with, feel alone, and I’ve been in executive shoes, right? I’ve been lived that world. I’m living in the entrepreneurial world right now, but again, in this mature space where we think about life differently, we think about transitions differently, and I’ve just kind of embraced that idea, especially as a Gen Xer, of how to help other Gen Xers in that in-between. So is there like a personal reason why you are attracted to this whole idea of the transition? I’ve lived a lot of transitions, especially in the corporate world, going through an acquisition about 10 years ago, I was an outside hire at a third-generation company, and they said, “We’re looking to hire you not for the next three years, but for the next 20,” which was really exciting, but it ended up being three. And the reason why is because a little Bluebird, who wasn’t so little, a global company who was very in acquisitive, I was interested in this business, third-generation company. It was over a billion in revenue. My business unit was about 10% of the total. So again, sizable business unit, and myself and the other executives had to work really, really hard to keep our foot on the gas pedal, making sure that the deal, if we were, was going to go through that we helped make it go through—which we did. It was out of the blue. The company was not on the market. But I saw firsthand the innovation, the growth, and the transition over the three generations of the stories of how it went from one to the next was just so fascinating to me. So when I ultimately was part of the integration team, I left the business. The short answer was that I was just there for three years. And so after that I really saw an opportunity to help other entrepreneurs on their journey. So this notion of that we’re going to grow, we’re going to innovate, and then eventually we’re going to transition—maybe it’s a family business, maybe it’s founder-led. Nonetheless, we want to create value, we want to have good handoffs, and I saw things were working well.Share on X As I mentioned, I joined at the point of the third generation. Then it was up to the corporate gods take it from there. And so I thought about ways to add value and work with inspired entrepreneurs who envision a future legacy for themselves, the people they love, the communities they serveShare on X but they’re just stuck. They feel stuck in some way. They’re kind of on their path. They’re not at the end of the path. They’re on it, and they need that support. That’s really what’s been motivating me and driving me for the last seven plus years. Yeah. That’s a wonderful journey, and it’s a very wordy thing because these entrepreneurs, they build a company, and then they don’t know how to allow it to grow up. And you basically are there and help them with the empty nesting and the pre-empty nesting, getting them into good courage. That’s also very important. So one of the ways you, I understand you do this is you call it the BUILT Method, which is kind of neat because you work with construction, engineering, architecture firms. So what is the BUILD Method is about, and how does it help people? Yeah, the BUILD Method is definitely an acknowledgement that we are in a physical world, and I appreciate you making that connection.Share on X And it’s not lost on our audience, hopefully. It’s such an important space. We really, in a time of AI and such dramatic change, the built environment of architecture, engineering, design companies that are envisioning their futures. There’s like any industry, there’s a lot of changes. And so this is a blueprint, if you will. That’s the “B,” right? It’s a blueprint for what is your vision and what is the firm model, what should it be in the future? It’s really that roadmap of future growth. The “U” is an unlocked. So many of us feel stuck. Maybe we’re stuck in the day-to-day because we have owner-dependent businesses. Maybe we feel stuck because our revenues are plateaued or declining. And we see ourselves as a bottleneck. Maybe we’re a bottleneck for a variety of reasons, which I’m sure we could talk about. The “I” is all about integration. And so, what do we need to do to document our systems and put things in place so that we don’t have risks in terms of not only owner dependency, but any other employees where there could be gaps should someone leave the organization or have some other untimely departure? The “L” is lead, and lead is not used lightly. Lead is really with clarity and not with chaos. And for owner-dependent businesses, people that have companies that can’t thrive without them, this tends to be a real challenge that they want to lead from the front, but they’re not. And they're so in the weeds in the business, they can't see the forest for the trees. They're not working on the business. So really helping my clients find that clarity is so important.Share on X And then the “T”, last but not least, stands for transition. It’s probably my favorite word at this point. And it’s not just transition or change for any sake. It’s good to have that confidence and to be in control, to be in the driver’s seat, and to be proactive about change. It’s why I wrote the book, The Business Transition Handbook. It’s really encouraging entrepreneurs to not think about an exit as a point in time and a finite point in time. It’s why I do talk about exit and I do talk about exit planning, but my recognition is that this is a finite action, and a transition is a journey. It's a path, and that's why my business is named Business Transition Sherpa, because I am with you on your journey. So the BUILT Method is really all about these different aspects and helping entrepreneurs on their journey.Share on X STEVE PREDA: Yeah. This is very cool. And there is a lifecycle to business, and there’s a lifecycle to an entrepreneur as well. And hopefully the business’s lifecycle is much longer than the entrepreneur’s. So someone is going to take it on, and you want to create a great legacy and a great business. So your way of the blueprint or your version of blueprint is different. Is it like what people call mission, vision, values kind of thing or there’s more to it? I think it does start with that. I mean, those are so fundamental, and my overall approach with strategic transition planning is the acknowledgement that there’s different aspects of the planning that we need to do as business owners, and one of those aspects is a blueprint for the business. And the business fundamentals of where do we want to be in five to seven years or ten years. Another part of that, which is a dovetail, is where does the owner want to be? What’s their personal future vision? And we start to intertwine those things, especially in this age and life stage. I work a lot with, as I mentioned, Gen Xers, and so we are in the mid-fifties of our lives, and statistically speaking, we’re about five to seven years away from a significant life transition. A lot of the Gen Xers, especially business owners I work with, are saying, “I’m looking ahead. I see what the baby boomers have done, and I don’t want to do it their way. I want to do it differently. I’m not going to die at my desk, and I want other things out of my life. My business has provided this and that for me, which has been valuable, but I’m ready for something different. I just don’t know what it is.” So we integrate in this blueprint. Their vision is not just for the business, but it's for themselves as well. And it's a big reason why I work directly one-on-one with the owners, founders.Share on X You and I have talked offline about the role of management team. It’s so important for me. It’s really, really important to give that private time and private space for the owner because these are such important questions that will influence the direction of many lives. And if we’re unwavering, it feels a little uncertain, and we don’t want to necessarily showcase that uncertainty to our teams. So the blueprint part of this is a bit of ideation as well. A big part of what we do is we work on what their future vision is, and it takes into account this age and life stage component of what we’ve been talking about. Yeah. That’s really interesting because maybe you find that as well, that sometimes the vision—the individual vision of the entrepreneur and the company’s vision gets confused. And the entrepreneur may not realizing that their vision may be to transition out of the company, but that’s not going to be the vision for the company because the company for them to be able to transition, has to have a much longer view and people have to believe in it, so that even with the founder, they’re going to be successful. So that is an interesting conundrum that I vision for with an entrepreneur like that. Do you find that to be the case? It is a conundrum. I think it’s just a lonely place in our heads and for owners and founders who have a lot on their shoulders. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” right? It’s a saying that means so much. I think that people want to explore options. They don’t want to lock in on something and put all their eggs in that one basket. I have found that owners who create options for eventual transition are better positioned than folks who have placed bets. I could tell you so many stories, Steve. So for example, especially in our engineering, architecture, and design-type of audience, owners sometimes are placing bets on their internal management to buy them out over time. I had one gentleman call me—I’d say he’s a baby boomer. He had a wonderful number two, had been grooming the number two for eventual. What he had envisioned in his mind was of to sell the business to him, and not only did the number two not want that; he resigned. And it felt like such a betrayal. He was so upset. I had talked to him months after this happened, and he was still upset about it. He felt like it was a starting over in a lot of ways for his own exit plan, which it was. And so we try to prevent against that. Yeah, there's a lot of things that we can do to try to figure out if we have the right people in the right seats. And that's important.Share on X I know you spent a lot of time on this as well, working with management to say, “Do we have the right people in the right seats?” And we do assessments, and those are great. Those are skills and strengths, and we should do that. But what I have found is that we don’t do that when it comes to ownership, especially if we think that the owner is inside the company. And we can talk about it—I’ve created an assessment for that because it’s a high-level way to just get your head around. Do people on my team have an ownership mentality or not? We’re not recruiting for that. We’re recruiting for the skills and strengths that we need for that time. And when we’re growing people over a long period of time, you can imagine how that becomes even more of a problem because if we assume they’re an owner, they have a owner mindset, and they don’t—and they’re more cash—oriented versus equity—oriented and other things—that puts us in a trap. Yeah. I think it’s a big trap. I read it somewhere, I know where I read it from. Dan Kennedy, who’s like a small business guru—he was big in the 2000s—and he once said that the worst number in business is one. It’s one salesperson; it’s one successor who will have to come through. I think this is a big mistake of business owners that they try to clone themselves because they think that if they just find one person who is going to be as good as me, and all my problems are solved. Whether you call it an integrator who is going to come in and run the show and I can just be up there and vision and dream about stuff, I think it’s a huge mistake. I much prefer the idea of creating mini-CEOs in your business who can really strategically own their functions. So anyhow, yeah, this is a big problem. But I’d like to move on to the next letter in the acronym, which is “U”. I really love this word: “unlock.” It’s very inspiring. Unlock—how do you unlock? How do you figure out how to open up the floodgates of opportunity or whatever you mean by unlock? I think part of it is a diagnostic around where is the business today and what are some of the things that we’ve set as goals for enterprise value. What is enterprise value? Are we measuring it? Most often we’re not, and the one big unlock is just this recognition that we have set KPIs for our business, which are great, and we’re using them with our teams, and we’re operationalizing those. Love it. Awesome. Keep that going. But what a business owner is not measuring most often is the enterprise value. And if we are measuring that, we might make different choices in how we’re investing our resources if our objective is to increase that value. So we might say, “Well, what is enterprise value?” Okay. So we need to understand that. And then, what is it in measurement terms—either through a professional like myself who can help us understand and not just talking to your buddies at the golf club or what you think your business might be worth? And if we can really get some data around that. You know, I love my analytical entrepreneurs, which is one of the reasons I love this space. They're analytical people, and they like the numbers, and they want to have some structure around it. So that's what we do, is we start with the baselining.Share on X Where is the business today? And let’s set some targets. We look at, “Well, what’s best in class in that particular industry?” So again, the AEC industry, we have some benchmarks around that. And then we have to understand, “Well, what are some of the value drivers?” One big, big value driver, of course, is going to be financial performance. So what’s beyond that? And what are these hidden things that we don’t know that can be detracting value? And so if we dig into those things, it’s like an unlock. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. My best example of that in this conversation is enterprise value. Once you know where your enterprise value is today, you can’t unsee that. And you also can’t unsee the desire for many people, which is, “Oh wow, what if I could increase that?” Then we’re talking about millions of dollars of value at some point in the future. So aligning that with our exercise we talked about earlier, which is our age and life-stage exercise around exit timeline. It’s so powerful because now we can set some targets that are meaningful to our communities, our employees, our stakeholders, and ourselves, and aligning the personal, the business, and the financial towards this overall picture. It’s a major unlock. And do you find that—what is the level of transparency you see that these business owners allow for their team to see? So would they actually show them that this is our profitability, these are our margins, gross profit, this is our overhead, this is our net profit, this is how we calculate enterprise value, and here is how you can help me improve it. Is this how it goes or it’s more everyone is just focusing on a couple of KPIs that are within their program? It’s an evolution. I think a lot of times in the beginning, we keep it a little close because we’re trying to understand it ourselves. And for firms that have developed a cost-of-goods-sold model, a gross profit, they’re already measuring that. Maybe they’re doing that by lines of business. That is really powerful. I have one client in the engineering space that just put that in. And they doubled revenue last year, by the way. So they’re a high-growth company in the engineering space, which is so exciting. They’re doing about $10 million in revenue, and they just put that in for the different lines of business. And how it’s helping them is it’s giving them a year-over-year perspective, which is good. They can see where they’re investing, and they can also see payback opportunities where there’s an intersection with the team. I think is on the business side for growth levers. When we talk about value drivers, and we'll just pick one that's quite common beyond financial numbers, it's our ability to drive recurring revenue, subscription models, and different flavors of…Share on X So for this particular client, we’ve been working on developing a recurring revenue program for them, and we’re at the starting line, but what’s going to be so exciting, I think, not only in terms of their core business growth that they’re seeing, but once we get that recurring revenue program up and running, it’s going to be material. Once the revenues are large enough, of course, it’s going to be material on their enterprise value. And so the dovetail is, well, yeah, he’s not going to launch the subscription revenue business by himself. He needs others to help him do that. But the idea for it and the vision for it and then the unlock right, comes from this type of exploration. Yeah. Wow. That’s great. And it is definitely a challenge that construction companies often struggle with. How do I do a project-based company primarily? How do I drive recurring revenue, subscription models? That would probably deserve its own podcast, this whole topic or maybe a podcast series. Maybe I’ll talk about it another time. I still like us to cover the last letter in the acronym: the transition. Because that’s where I see a lot of people who have sold their business. I was an investment banker in my past life, and I don’t know how many times we saw the business, and the owner was so excited that they basically neutralized the risk, and then they had this big pile of cash, and they bought the boat and they bought the car and the house. And six months later, the boat was collecting water in the marina. You know, they showed the car off to everyone, and it was no longer exciting, but it was very expensive, and they didn’t know where to store it, kind of thing. And then they were getting bored, and they were kind of disappointed because their identity got ahead. How do you deal with it? How do you help people with the identity issue and this whole thinking about transition the right way? You nailed it. That identity is a really big part of why many business owners feel lonely and a bit depressed one year after a sale. There’s many reasons why that could happen. I think the statistics are a little bit over the place, but I do believe that identity is a big part of it. And so if we are working on this together, an example with one of my clients is I gave them a book to read because I got an inkling of what he was interested in, which is themes around justice. And he’s seeking ways to have an impact in his community that are truly outside the business for lots of reasons. But he just innately wants this type of involvement, and we are going through an exploration of what that could look like. He’s in a good place with his business. We're continuing to grow it, and we're working on his growth and enterprise value growth and things like that.Share on X But this sort of sits on this in a parallel path, and it will intersect at some point because we all are human. We have an age and life stage to us, and how he’s envisioning spending his time over the next 10 years. He wants to continue to have a path forward. But we’ve created a space for when we meet, we’re meeting one-on-one, we create that space to really talk about how does he want to spend his time outside the business. And note the timeline here. He’s about 10 years away. And to his credit, he’s saying, “Yeah, I want to start doing something now.” And if that’s how we can think about it, Steve. I think it’s really important. It’s almost like this giant on-ramp. We’re not going to just sell our business and then, all of a sudden we’re going to go have this amazing thing that we’re going to create tomorrow, right? It just takes time. And another way to think about it is like a portfolio—a portfolio of how you look at your identity, how you feel about yourself, and how you spend your time—and has to align. Really, it can align with your core values, it can align with how you want to spend time with people you love. So I have one client, engineering company owner, who is very committed to the church that they support, and he spends a lot of time and a lot of resources. It’s very clear on the company’s website how the company has a policy of donating proceeds from profits to this entity. So it’s well known, and it’s just part of their culture. And in developing his 10-year view, this is part and parcel of it. It’s involving his family members; it’s involving the company. It’s helped fueling a decision around their transition path. They’ve considered lots of different options: Should they sell to a third party? Should they become an ESOP? And the dovetail, I think, for many, is to figure out what is that right fit based on what’s important to you. What’s going to give you that feeling of that completeness and balance that you’re seeking? Wow, that’s amazing. You have people who are thinking about that 10-years out. That is impressive. I’ve never seen that. If a business owner thinks 3-years out about that, it’s already much better than average. So you obviously are inculcating them with the right kind of ideas. So tell me about your business. So let’s switch gears here a little bit. I mean, you ran this a hundred million dollar business for three years, and it got sold; it got integrated. So I’m sure that you had some big challenges there. What is it that you would consider the hardest decision you ever had to make in your business? Yeah, I think in today’s world, I can try to put my coaching hat on for this answer. I’m trying to build a practice that is creating value for others. And so one big thing is to make sure that I’m doing that now with my client relationships and how we measure things. I’m confident that we are doing that, but inherently, if we have one voice, how do we reach many? And I think a lot of companies… it’s like, “Oh, that’s a marketing question.” Yes. And right, it is a marketing question. There’s a lot of things that are dynamically changing in our world. How do we reach the people that we want to reach? How do we share a message? So that is no matter what business you have, I think we can all sort of empathize with that. So I do feel like that is changing a lot. So the challenge is, how do I meet people where they are, right? I think podcasting has been a great vehicle. We’re doing more of that. We’re going to be doing more in-person things as well. I do think that we’re very much in a powerful digital age, and the more digital tools we’re putting in front of us and the more digital time we’re spending. My hypothesis, Steve, is that the value of the interaction—the one-on-one as well as group—is not lost on anybody. That it’s going to be even, probably even more important. And especially as things, and if you’re reading some of these AI articles about potential impact in our economy, there’s going to be a lot of need for us to come together, and lean on each other’s shoulders, and be good, solid resources for one another in times of dramatic change. I fully agree with you. I have that feeling as well that there’s so much alienation that is being caused by the digital stuff, and AI in particular, that people are replacing conversations with chatGPT conversations. I think people will just realize that this is all unreal, or we don’t know whether it’s real or not real. And there’s so much noise because everyone is creating all these posts with AI, and you know what is a real voice here? You won’t know unless you meet the person in person and then you hear their own voice and provided they’re not a robot because that can also happen that you have humanoid robots, but let’s not go that far. So I do agree, and I think that your personal recommendations are going to be even more powerful in the future because you don’t know what is real and what is fake. People also starve. We sit in front of our Zoom screens, and it’s not the same as meeting someone in person. There is a different quality to it, and we are going to starve for it. I was just thinking this morning that I looked at my calendar, and I’m just coming out of my season of spending days with my entrepreneur clients, and it’s over. And next couple months, it’s going to be pretty quiet. I’m going to be in my office, and I’m dreading having to sit here on my own. So I’m thinking about, “Okay, I have to get out there. I have to meet people.” So I’m recording video on this one. Last question. Well, penultimate question to you is, what do you think is the most important question that an entrepreneur should be asking themselves? I’m going to come back to kind of this AI conversation. I think every CEO needs to be using ai. And I think every CEO needs to be considering how their teams can use it and not put your head in sand. I think there’s a lot of impact, positive impact that can be had by just some basic productivity improvements, which is kind of how 95% of AI is being used today. There’s nothing wrong with that. And then from there can lead us to coming up with ways to enhance our business. I have one client that’s using it for proposal development. It’s been a dramatic improvement in quality and time, and that’s just one case study example, but there’s so many others. Following’s. Okay. You don’t have to be a leader. And just being recognizing that AI is going to touch so many aspects of our business and personal lives. And then the other thing is like, don’t stop hiring people because of AI either. There’s a lot of doomsday articles coming out now about the economy and impact of AI. There may be some scary truth to some of those things. And then I’m seeing articles from folks saying, “Look, AI shouldn’t take over your entire business. You’re still going to need smart people. You just want to give them the tools.” As an example, there’s a friend of mine who runs a digital marketing agency, and you might think, “Oh, that’s the kind of business that’s shrinking.” Well, they’re over 200 people, and they’re using AI in very efficient and effective ways. So it’s not a recipe to just dial back your human capital. It’s a recipe to do the unlock and do the think about how you can best use this information to create a scalable practice. Yeah, I think so. Also, this has been seen in history that since the Industrial Revolution, everyone was afraid of losing jobs. And the more technology there is, the more ideas there are for further services, the more demand there is because all the value is being created, and we want to spend that value on more stuff, right? And yeah, I agree that AI is just raising the bar. So every company has to now be AI-empowered and do a lot more. We can’t just deliver what we were delivering a year ago. We have to deliver more, which means that those people who are AI-enabled, they’ll just have to raise their standard. Yeah, I agree with you. So if people would like to learn more about let’s say they have an AEC-type of company—architectural, engineering, construction. Did I get it right? Yes. And they are thinking about the future and the transition and build the blueprint for a great company that has more enterprise value, et cetera, or they read your book and they realize that this is exactly what they need. How can they find you and how can they connect to you? Well, my website’s probably a great place to go, which is btsherpa.com. And if people are interested in that succession assessment that I mentioned earlier, just put slash succession—so btsherpa.com/succession—and you’ll get access to the assessment. You can take it multiple times for different people in mind as well. And so my book is on there, my podcast, and I really do hope that people follow up with me. If you have any questions at all about anything we talked about today. Fantastic. So do check out Laurie Barkman via btsherpa.com/succession if you want to read the materials and download stuff. Thank you, Laurie, for sharing all your great ideas and insights. If you enjoyed the conversation, then stay tuned because every week I bring an exciting entrepreneur, thought leader to the show who will share with you about frameworks about growing your business and making it more valuable. So thanks, Laurie, for coming, and thanks for listening. Important Links: Laurie's LinkedIn Laurie's website
This Women in History Mini-Series with Dr. Victoria Bateman explores the life and contributions of Priscilla Wakefield, a revolutionary figure in financial literacy and women's empowerment during the Industrial Revolution. Wakefield's work in establishing savings banks and community insurance schemes for women highlights her belief in the practical application of mathematics for everyday life. The discussion also addresses the challenges women faced in finance during her time and her lasting impact on feminist economics.TakeawaysPriscilla Wakefield taught ordinary people how to use numbers.She established England's first savings bank for women and children.Wakefield's work was pivotal during the British Industrial Revolution.She recognized the need for financial education among women.Her community insurance scheme empowered women financially.Wakefield's approach to mathematics was practical and accessible.She published influential works on women's rights and economics.Her philosophy emphasized the importance of financial literacy.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Priscilla Wakefield01:19 Priscilla Wakefield: A Revolutionary Mathematician04:28 The Financial Landscape of Georgian Britain06:34 Groundbreaking Contributions to Banking and Finance07:41 Fun Facts and Legacy of Priscilla WakefieldFollow Breaking Math on Substack (https://breakingmath.substack.com/) Twitter (https://x.com/breakingmathpod) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/breakingmathmedia/) Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/breakingmath.bsky.social) Website (https://www.breakingmath.io/) YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingMathPod) Follow Victoria on Website (http://www.vnbateman.com/)Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/women.wealth.power/) Twitter (https://x.com/vnbateman) Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/vnbateman.bsky.social) Follow Autumn on Twitter (https://x.com/1autumn_leaf) Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/1autumnleaf.bsky.social) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/1autumnleaf/) Substack (https://substack.com/@1autumnleaf)
Episode #90: How Microsoft's AI Innovation Officer Actually Uses AI | Dr. Michael J. Jabbour on Thinking, Not Just Tools AI is changing our brains. How we work. How we think. And even how we feel. The question isn't "Should I use AI?" It's "How do I direct the change?" Michael J. Jabbour says he uses AI for 70% of his work. "Not because it's faster. Because it would be irresponsible not to."
On Aiglatson, Peggy Smedley and cohost Dennis Draeger, foresight director, Shaping Tomorrow, talk about obsolescence in this era of AI (artificial intelligence), narrowing in on human vs machine obsolescence. He says the technology industry has always considered humans second and favoring progress over human dignity. They also discuss: · Things that were made obsolete during the Industrial Revolution—and what will happen next in the era of AI. · The Horizon scandal in the United Kingdom—and how it demonstrates how technology can make mistakes. · How cultural narratives spread faster than institutional reforms. https://peggysmedleyshow.com
In this episode I explore what really happened to men and women when work first left the home.The effects of the Industrial Revolution on the bond between men and women is something that is not spoken about often. In the name of productivity, progress, and consumption - we have traded many things most of all meaning.Listen in as I highlight some pieces of history that are important in putting together the puzzle of male and female dynamics.Learn about why the temperance movement started, what first separated men and women, why male vices grew in the nineteenth century, and much more.Perhaps this is all a transition to a more beautiful and whole future state? What do you think? That is something I'll explore in the next episode.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 — Intro: Masculine & Feminine Dynamics00:41 — Welcome & Episode Overview01:22 — Men's Coaching Announcement02:10 — The Industrial Revolution's True Impact03:42 — 1913 News & The End of the Dowry06:09 — Complementary Opposites: The Sun & The Moon09:33 — The Pre-Industrial Reality of Women's Work11:51 — The Heavy Plow & Mechanization of Labor14:46 — Stephen Jenkinson & The Monetization of Goods15:29 — Overworked Men & The Rise of Male Vices17:20 — Why Women Started the Temperance Movement19:14 — Suppressed Grief & The Feminization of the Church21:55 — Post-WWII Comfort & The 1950s Housewife Trap23:38 — Confusing Earning Power With Co-Creational Energy25:40 — Returning to Harmony & Future Dynamics26:51 — Outro___________________________Beyond the podcast I'm a men's mental health coach. I help you reprogram the patterns and belief systems that are sabotaging your power, peace, and love life. Ready to make some life changes? Book a free consultation today - https://calendly.com/anyashakh/discov...If you found some value today then help me spread the word! Share this episode with a friend or leave a review. This helps the podcast grow.You can also watch the episodes on youtube hereFollow me on Instagram @anyashakh
This episode explores the vision of Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind and recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Hassabis argues that 2026 marks a pivotal turning point in human history, as we enter what he describes as an “AI Renaissance”—an era whose impact could be ten times greater than the Industrial Revolution, unfolding at ten times the speed. He predicts that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) could be achieved before 2030, while cautioning that today's AI systems remain in a state of “jagged intelligence,” still lacking robust reasoning and long-term planning capabilities. As the industry enters a phase of consolidation, Hassabis is focused on transforming AI into a scientific engine. Through breakthroughs such as AlphaFold and initiatives like Isomorphic Labs, he aims to reshape drug discovery, while collaborations with the U.S. Department of Energy—such as the “Genesis Project”—seek to accelerate progress in energy innovation. At the core of his vision is the concept of “Radical Abundance.” As AI drives the marginal cost of healthcare and energy toward near zero, society may begin to transition into a post-scarcity era. To navigate this shift, Hassabis proposes new social mechanisms, including a “Global Abundance Dividend,” and emphasizes that AI governance must extend beyond technologists, requiring international cooperation to ensure these technologies benefit all of humanity.本集的內容將帶您深入探索 Google DeepMind 執行長、2024 年諾貝爾化學獎得主 戴米斯·哈薩比斯 (Demis Hassabis) 的遠見。哈薩比斯指出 2026 年是人類歷史的轉折點,我們正進入一個「AI 文藝復興」時代,其影響力將是工業革命的十倍,且發展速度快上十倍。 哈薩比斯預測通用人工智能 (AGI) 可能在 2030 年前實現,但警告現今 AI 仍處於「參差不齊的智能」狀態,必須克服基礎推理與長期規劃的缺陷。隨著行業進入「洗牌期」,他致力於將 AI 轉化為科學引擎,透過 AlphaFold 與 Isomorphic Labs 變革藥物研發,並與美國能源部合作「創世紀任務」以加速能源突破。 他最核心的觀點是 「激進豐饒」(Radical Abundance):當 AI 讓醫療與能源成本趨近於零,人類將邁向「後稀缺」社會。為應對此轉變,他提出「全球豐饒紅利」等社會機制,並強調 AI 治理不能僅留給技術專家,需透過國際合作確保這項技術能造福全人類。 Powered by Firstory Hosting
Good Sunday to you,Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in around 1400, and it is considered one of the first great works of English literature.Try reading it today and you might question the “English” part. Here're the opening lines:Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,It does not get much easier.Canterbury Tales is the story of group of pilgrims who walk from Southwark to Canterbury Cathedral. I have done the pilgrimage myself and I would urge you to as well. The structure is quite simple. To pass the time, the pilgrims have to a storytelling contest and so each tells his or her tale. There are around thirty pilgrims - in effect, thirty professions, and so we get the Knight's Tale, the Miller's Tale, the Wife of Bath's Tale and so on.Here is the interesting part. Since the story was written in 1400 we have had, off the top of my head, the printing press, the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, steam power, fossil fuels, the internal combustion engine, electricity, aviation, nuclear power, computers, the internet, smartphones and now artificial intelligence.And yet, if you look the list of characters below, every single one of Chaucer's professions still exists in some recognisable form today.You could go all the way back to the dawn of civilisation and argue the same thing. We still have farmers. We still have merchants. We still have lawyers, doctors, religious people, soldiers, landlords, craftsmen, entertainers, administrators and hustlers.AI will change the nature of the job, but it will not erase the underlying human needs that created it.Machines put many farm labourers out of work at the turn of the 19th century, but they also generated enormous productivity, which created new industries and new jobs, and, it's worth noting, productivity which enabled us to be able to ban slavery. The net result was not mass permanent unemployment but rising prosperity.What Actually ChangesWhat does get destroyed is power structure.Feudalism has gone. The Church no longer dominates European politics - not the Christian Church, anyway. Guilds have faded. The landed aristocracy has all but gone. In their place we have the modern State, bureaucracy, multinational banks, global corporations, Big Tech, Big Pharma, the mainstream media and so on.AI is more likely to erode existing hierarchies than to eliminate work altogether. It will compress middle layers. It will reduce friction. It will concentrate power in some places and decentralise it in others.If you live in a third world country such as the UK, I urge you to own gold or silver. The pound will be further devalued, as will the euro and dollar. The bullion dealer I recommend is The Pure Gold Company. More here.The winners are likely to include: platforms, energy producers, owners of scare assets, large scale infrastructure, those who control distribution. AI is already being used in manufacturing, agriculture and mining, but so much to replace jobs as to increase productivity. You can't help feeling the physical economy is a better place to be than parts of the digital - at least for now, though I guess robots are next if those Chinese videos doing the rounds are anything to go by.Who else wins? AI and machine learning engineers, obviously, certain content creators, those who get good at prompting will find it useful for anything from medicine to plumbing to consultancy.The losers will be among those whose job is mainly to control access to or verify information that AI can now do instantly. Think: interpreters and translators, proofreaders and editors, coders, copywriters and journalists, graphic designers, sales reps, basic financial advisors. I think long-distance drivers' days are numbered too.The work doesn't disappear but the pricing power and margins collapse.Legacy media distribution - not the content creators themselves, but the distribution gatekeepers who controlled which creators reached audiences. Publishers who mainly performed filtering rather than editing, talent agencies for routine work, certain music labels.The job may technically exist but the power and economics drain away.Chaucer's Cast, ModernisedFinally, below is Chaucer's professional cross-section of medieval England. I have added approximate modern equivalents.* Narrator – content creator (!)* Host – Event organiser, podcast presenter* Knight – Army officer* Squire – Cadet, trainee officer* Knight's Yeoman – Bodyguard, fixer, executive assistant* Prioress – Headmistress, senior religious leader* Second Nun – Clergy* Nun's Priest – Chaplain* Monk – Monk* Friar – Fundraiser, community organiser* Merchant – Import–export, trader, entrepreneur* Clerk – Researcher* Man of Law – Barrister, judge* Franklin – Wealthy landowner, landlord, businessman* Haberdasher – Fashion retailer, Etsy seller* Carpenter – Builder* Weaver – Textile manufacturer* Dyer – Industrial processor* Tapestry-maker – Textile artisan* Cook – Chef* Shipman – Merchant mariner, sailor* Physician – Doctor* Wife of Bath – Self-made businesswoman* Parson – Parish priest* Plowman – Smallholder farmer* Miller – Construction materials supplier* Manciple – Buyer, procurement officer* Reeve – Estate manager, COO* Summoner – Bailiff, compliance officer* Pardoner – Carbon credit broker* Canon – Serial start-up founder, “entrepreneur'* Canon's Yeoman – Startup engineerThe Real QuestionI think a fear frenzy is being whipped up - and I say this as someone who has lost his primary source of income (voiceovers) to AI.The work changes. The tools change. The leverage changes. The power centres change. The underlying human needs do not.There will still be farmers because people eat. There will still be merchants because people trade. There will still be storytellers because people crave stories. Most importantly of all, there will still be opportunities, if anything there will be more of them.AI will reduce headcount in some sectors. It will elevate productivity so dramatically that fewer people are required to produce more output. That is economic evolution.If you are worried about AI taking your job, ask yourself this: are you positioned inside an old power structure that is about to weaken? Or are you aligned with the next one forming?Join the gang.Until next time,DominicICYMI here is this week's commentaryFinally, Charlie Morris and I appeared on In The Company of Mavericks this week to discuss what's been going on with gold, silver and bitcoin. (Charlie writes Atlas Pulse which I heartily recommend. Get your copy here - it's free.)Links to Spotify and Apple podcasts are here: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe
Powering AI 2.0 is no longer just a technology story — it's an energy and infrastructure story reshaping capital markets and the global economy. As artificial intelligence scales from training to real-world inference, electricity demand is accelerating at a pace few anticipated.In this episode of The Bid, host Oscar Pulido is joined by Will Su from BlackRock's Fundamental Equities Group to examine how Powering AI 2.0 is transforming utilities, natural gas markets, renewables, and nuclear power. With data centers expanding rapidly and gigawatt-scale facilities coming online, the AI build-out is driving a structural shift in U.S. electricity demand after more than a decade of stagnation.Will explains why the energy sector sits at the center of AI investing. From the rise of “bring your own power” models to the growing role of natural gas as a dispatchable, scalable fuel source, the infrastructure required to support AI represents one of the largest capital investment cycles in modern history. The conversation also explores renewables, battery storage, and nuclear power — including the limits of restarts and the long timeline for new reactor construction.Key moments:00:00 Introduction Power Is Knowledge: AI's Exponential Energy Appetite02:31 From Tokens to ‘Yottaflops': Why Smarter Models Need More Electricity05:04 Training LLMs vs. Inference: The Next Wave of AI Power Demand06:45 Data Centers at City Scale: How Big Is the Load?11:15 Bring Your Own Power (BYOP): Why Natural Gas Is Back in Focus16:04 Renewables Reality Check: Solar Momentum, Wind Headwinds, and Batteries19:14 Nuclear's Comeback - Restarts Now, New Builds Later21:26 Can AI Beat Humans at Investing? Man + Machine as the Edge23:33 Wrap-Up, What's NextKey insights from this episode:· Why natural gas has emerged as a key “here and now” fuel for AI infrastructure· How renewables and battery storage fit into the AI electricity mix· The long-term outlook for nuclear power and reactor construction· What “bring your own power” means for hyperscalers and utilities· How electrification and reshoring intersect with AI investing· Why the relationship between compute and energy is reshaping stock market trendsPowering AI 2.0, AI investing, infrastructure, capital markets, energy transition, utilities, stock market trends, megaforcesSources: “From CES 2026 to Yottaflops: Why the AMD Keynote Highlights a Turning Point for AI Compute”, AMD 2026; “The Industrial Revolution, coal mining, and the Felling Colliery Disaster”, Lancaster University, 2026; Bureau of Economic Analysis data 2026; “Stargate's First Data Center Site is Size of Central Park, With At Least 57 Jobs”, Bloomberg 2026; “Energy Demand from AI”, IEA 2026; “Scaling bigger, faster, cheaper data centers with smarter designs”, McKinsey 2025; EEI 2024 Review; “Data Centers Ditching the Power Grid, Mark Carney's Viral Speech, and Some Joy”, Clearview Energy; “2024 North American Energy Inventory”, IER;This content is for informational purposes only and is not an offer or a solicitation. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the listener. Reference to any company or investment strategy mentioned is for illustrative purposes only and not investment advice. In the UK and non-European Economic Area countries, this is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. In the European Economic Area, this is authorized and regulated by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets. For full disclosures, visit blackrock.com/corporate/compliance/bid-disclosures.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode explores Granville T. Woods, a brilliant 19th-century inventor who grew up during the Industrial Revolution and helped shape the modern world. You can now access all the discussion guides, podcast episodes, and free resources in one place: The Explore Black History App: https://explore-black-history.passion.io/ Sign up today!Also, check out the Explore Black History Coloring & Activity book.
AI isn't coming.It's here.And whether you're using it or avoiding it… it's already shaping your life.In Episode 83, Drew and Jimmy have a grounded, real-world conversation about artificial intelligence — cutting through the fear, hype, and sci-fi narratives to ask a simple question:Is AI a tool… a trap… or the next leap in human evolution?From dismissing it as “Google on steroids” to realizing it's already integrated into email, marketing, business strategy, and daily life — this episode walks through the awakening.They break down:Why AI is comparable to the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the internetHow avoiding it could put you at a disadvantageThe real risk of over-reliance and cognitive lazinessAI as predictive modeling — not consciousness (yet)Imposter syndrome when using AI creativelyDeepfakes, misinformation, and the responsibility of discernmentWhy AI is only as powerful as the intention behind your promptsThis isn't fear-based doom talk.It's about awareness.AI will not replace your consciousness.But it will amplify your inputs.If you feed it fear, it will reflect fear.If you feed it clarity, it will refine clarity.The question isn't whether AI is good or bad.The question is:Will you use it consciously — or be shaped by it unconsciously?
For forty years, the software engineer was the hero of the modern economy. That era may now be ending, fast. In this episode, we argue that software engineers are becoming the horses of the 21st century. Just as the steam engine replaced animal labour, AI is now eating the lunch of human coders, automating what was once seen as elite, technical, and irreplaceable. Stock markets are already reacting, wiping value from software-heavy firms as investors realise that AI's economic value will be measured the same way steam engines were: by how much labour they eliminate. We trace this moment through history, from the Industrial Revolution to the rise of the nerd after 1984, and ask what happens when an entire generation's promised career suddenly looks like drudge work dressed up as genius. As 'vibe coding' replaces programming languages, and English replaces hieroglyphic code, technical skill is being commoditised at speed. AI is also stripping the human element out of markets, trading, and commerce itself, replacing noisy, emotional trading floors with silent machines trading in milliseconds. As technical skills lose their mystique, the economy may swing back toward the very things machines can't replicate: empathy, creativity, comedy, poetry, and human judgment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Case Western Reserve University turns 200 One of Ohio's oldest colleges, Case Western Reserve University, just turned 200 this month. It traces its founding to Western Reserve College in Hudson in 1826, named after the region which was known then as the Western Reserve of Connecticut. At the time, Northeast Ohio's population was growing, and the Industrial Revolution was leading to opportunities for technical and scientific advancement in Cleveland, with the help of philanthropists like Leonard Case Jr. 200 years later, colleges and universities across the country are facing a completely different environment, from threats to federal and state funding, major enrollment decline, population loss in Ohio and changing attitudes over whether a four-year degree is worth the cost of admission amid major workforce changes and the rapid integration of artificial intelligence. Several long-standing universities in Ohio have had to merge, severely cut staff and programs or close completely as they deal with financial uncertainty and debt. On Thursday's "Sound of Ideas," we'll start by talking to Case Western Reserve University President, Eric Kaler, about the role of higher education today, and how he plans to not only weather the current storm but lead on a global level. Case Western Reserve University was recently named one of the top 30 colleges in the world by Time Magazine. Guests:- Eric Kaler, Ph.D., President, Case Western Reserve University Frederick Douglass' historic speech resonates todayThe power of education and the ability of young people to reshape the world were among the broader themes of a historic commencement speech delivered by abolitionist Frederick Douglass in Hudson in 1854 at what was then known as Western Reserve College. The speech sharply debunked so-called scientific racism, the belief that different racial and ethnic groups have innately differing levels of physical, intellectual and moral development that distinguish them as superior or inferior. Douglass' words are getting renewed attention in an award-winning documentary that features academy students. The film, "Just and Perfect" is being shown as part of this year's multi-city Black History Festival which begins this weekend. CeCe Payne the writer and producer of the film, and Iiyannaa Graham-Siphanoum, the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging for Western Reserve Academy spoke to us recently about the film and how the speech still connects to students today. We originally had this conversation on Jan. 21 in advance of an event at the school commemorating the speech and a campus visit by a descendant of Frederick Douglass. That show was pre-empted by President Trump's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. Guests:- CeCe Payne, Writer & Producer, "Just and Perfect"- Iiyannaa Graham-Siphanoum, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Western Reserve Academy The Menu: Fish Fry Lent began this week. It's the 40-day reflective period observed by Catholics and with that another cherished community tradition has returned as well: fish fry season. From church halls to local breweries, diners will be filling plates with beer-battered cod, fried Lake Erie perch, pierogies and coleslaw. We're talking fish fries on this installment of The Menu, our biweekly look at Northeast Ohio's food scene in partnership with Cleveland Magazine. We're going to talk about where to participate, what to expect, and why this tradition continues to bring people together year after year. Guest:- Dillon Stewart, Editor, Cleveland Magazine
Listen to Zooming In at The UnPopulist in your favorite podcast app: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSS | YouTubeNew Yorker staff writer and economist John Cassidy joins The UnPopulist's Berny Belvedere to discuss his latest book, Capitalism and Its Critics: A History from the Industrial Revolution to AI—a sweeping account of capitalism's resilience told through the eyes of its most formidable challengers.© The UnPopulist, 2026Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X. Get full access to The UnPopulist at www.theunpopulist.net/subscribe
In this episode of Creation's Paths, we sit with Jesus' stark warning that we cannot serve both God and Mammon. This is not a simplistic rejection of money, but a deeper unveiling of allegiance. When wealth becomes savior, security becomes devotion. Together, we explore what it means to return to the One Life and live in right relationship rather than economic fear.Read the full article here: Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.Thank you for Tips / Donations: * https://ko-fi.com/cedorsett * https://patreon.com/cedorsett * https://cash.app/$CreationsPaths* Substack: https://www.creationspaths.com/New to The Seraphic Grove learn more For Educational Resource: https://wisdomscry.com Creation's Paths: A Creation Spirituality Primer Social Connections: * BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/creationspaths.com * Threads https://www.threads.net/@creationspaths * Instagram https://www.instagram.com/creationspaths/#YouCannotServeGodAndMammon #Matthew624 #SpiritualAllegiance #ChristianMysticism #JesusTeaching #EconomicJustice #Christopagan #CreationSpirituality #CreationsPathsChapters:00:00 Introduction: Biblical Warning to the Wealthy02:23 Understanding Mammon: More Than Just Money05:13 The Trap of Self-Isolation Through Wealth08:52 Historical Context: Wealth Before Money10:51 The Industrial Revolution and Wage Slavery12:28 Biblical Commands: Care for the Oppressed13:28 Wage Theft and Profit Extraction14:47 A Christmas Carol: Lessons in Transformation18:25 The Problem with Charity and Control20:14 Modern Feudalism: Same System, Different Names22:22 Restoring Dignity: The Dehumanization of Poverty25:12 Money as Ecosystem: The Flow of Resources26:33 The Math of Wealth Inequality27:14 Building Better Systems30:28 Closing Prayer and Series Information Get full access to Creation's Paths at www.creationspaths.com/subscribe
The spinning jenny and steam power may be the textbook markers of the Industrial Revolution – but Edmond Smith argues the story starts earlier, and runs much deeper. In this conversation with Elinor Evans, he traces the threads of industrialisation from sheep pastures to global markets, revealing how British economic power was built on innovation – but also empire, slavery, and ruthless ambition. ----- GO BEYOND THE PODCAST Curious to go beyond what you learned in the school classroom? Find out more about the Industrial Revolution at https://bit.ly/49H4YMe2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Education On Fire - Sharing creative and inspiring learning in our schools
In this episode of the Ger Graus Gets Gritty series, Professor Dr. Ger Graus OBE tackles what he calls "the most underestimated aspect of a child's learning and growing up"—the role adults play as models in young people's lives. Through personal stories, including his daughter's early obsession with "Mrs. Poole" her nursery teacher, and insights from his global work with Kidzania, Ger reveals how children unconsciously absorb behaviours, values, and dreams from the adults around them, often in ways we never notice.This conversation goes beyond the surface of role modeling to question the fundamental structures of modern education. Ger and host Mark Taylor examine why schools still operate on an industrial-era framework—early start times that conflict with adolescent sleep patterns, restricted bathroom access, rushed lunch periods causing "collective indigestion"—and explore what education could look like if we redesigned it around how children actually learn and thrive rather than outdated factory models."If we want a world that is respectful and that is kind and considerate and that is inquisitive and curious, then we need to begin to lead by example. That is the most important part of our job description when it comes to our young people."Key Takeaways1. Adults are role models whether they realize it or not. Children absorb everything from the adults around them—teachers, parents, neighbours, and community members. This "copied behavior" is one of the most underestimated aspects of learning, and adults must become conscious of the example they set in values, kindness, curiosity, and respect.2. Lead by example, not just instruction. Children learn more from what we do than what we say. Schools that demonstrate values through everyday behaviour—greeting people warmly, showing kindness, opening doors—create cultures where children naturally adopt these behaviors, regardless of socioeconomic background.3. The industrial model of education is outdated and failing students. Current school structures—rigid schedules, minimal breaks, locked toilets, rushed lunches—are remnants of the Industrial Revolution designed to prepare workers for factories. This model no longer serves students' needs or prepares them for modern life.4. Schools should be community-owned "more than schools" Educational institutions need to transform into community hubs that serve broader purposes, with flexible hours (perhaps 8am-6pm), adequate meal times, and involvement from employers and community members. Schools should measure and value different outcomes beyond traditional academics.5. Careers education has failed generations and continues to fail. Adults consistently report that their careers education was either laughable or non-existent. Despite this universal acknowledgment, little has changed. Meaningful change requires creating experiential learning environments where young people can explore possibilities and develop authentic aspirations.Chapters:00:00 - Introduction to the Series01:18 - The Role We Play in Children's Lives13:20 - The Role of Teachers as Role Models21:39 - The Importance of Values in Education33:06 - The Role of Role Models in Education42:21 - The Impact of Role Models in Education55:40 - The Influence of Role...
In this episode of Freedom Motivated , Christina breaks down the 80-year generational cycle and the debt cycle shaping the economy, culture, and opportunity right now, especially for millennials in their peak earning years. She explains why the “boomer blueprint” no longer works, why AI will widen the gap between the masses and leaders, and what entrepreneurs must do to protect their families, build wealth, and lead through the chaos instead of getting consumed by it. Ends with an invitation to the Ireland intensive for offer clarity and a 90-day plan.0:01 Why every entrepreneur needs to understand what's happening right now0:56 The 80-year cycle: pattern recognition = prediction = business advantage1:41 The millennial lie: the plan that worked for boomers isn't available anymore2:19 Millennials split into two camps: “burn it down” vs “why didn't anyone fix this?”4:31 2020 as the predicted global disruption point + why it shapes generations5:45 The opportunity: most people won't lead because it requires discomfort6:48 AI = the new Industrial Revolution: adapt or get left behind8:49 Debt cycle: printing money, currency risk, and what comes next10:46 What wealthy people do: hard assets, recurring income, moving assets strategically12:44 You can't save anyone — but you can save yourself and show the way14:20 Curate your inputs: weakness is contagious (even through ads)15:18 “Being a mom is running a business”: role-modeling resilience + resourcefulness20:22 If your offer isn't selling: the demographic may have changed (or your pricing is wrong)21:47 Invitation: Ireland intensive — clarity, 90-day run, and million-dollar plan23:02 Reality check: if you were capable of the result, you'd already have it (get in the room)
In this episode of The Break–Down, Deputy Editor John Merrick is joined by historian and author David Edgerton to discuss how his historical work has shaped his understanding of the climate crisis, the rise of China as both a major emitter and a green tech powerhouse, the retro revivalism of the British right, and the ubiquity of AI boosterism.The history of the climate crisis is often told as a story about technology. Growing out of the dark satanic mills of the Industrial Revolution and accelerating with new forms of production and consumption in the mid-twentieth century, we are frequently told that it is technological development and innovation that got us into this mess.But technology is also presented as the way out: a new green industrial revolution, expanded nuclear power, or even forms of geoengineering are held up as solutions.In this conversation, Edgerton asks whether a more nuanced history of technology and production might tell us something different about the politics of the climate crisis. And whether it might help us imagine paths beyond fossil-fuelled capitalism altogether.
The "AI Revolution" is here. Is this the biggest economic shift since the Industrial Revolution? We break down what's happening, who's most at risk, and what Catholics should do. Meanwhile, explosive new Epstein file revelations rock the U.K. government. And finally, Vice President JD Vance makes history with the first visit of a sitting VP to Armenia. All this and more on the LOOPcast!Get your FREE PHONE as a new Charity Mobile user with every new line — and FREE SHIPPING — with promo code LOOPCAST at https://bit.ly/LOOPcast-CharityMobile Celebrate the Catholic contribution to the US on its 250th anniversary at the 21st annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast! 1500+ attendees will experience a beautiful morning of prayer, inspiring speakers, and more! https://bit.ly/LOOPcast-NCPB-2026 00:00 Welcome to the LOOPcast04:40 The AI Revolution37:02 Connections Between Keir Starmer, Peter Mandelson, and Jeffrey Epstein51:35 Good News1:00:30 JD Vance Visit to Armenia1:10:38 Twilight Zone 1:21:15 Closing PrayerEMAIL US: loopcast@catholicvote.org SUPPORT LOOPCAST: www.loopcast.orgSubscribe to the LOOP today!https://catholicvote.org/getloop Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-loopcast/id1643967065 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/08jykZi86H7jKNFLbSesjk?si=ztBTHenFR-6VuegOlklE_w&nd=1&dlsi=bddf79da68c34744 FOLLOW LOOPCast: https://x.com/the_LOOPcast https://www.instagram.com/the_loopcast/ https://www.tiktok.com/@the_loopcast https://www.facebook.com/LOOPcastPodcast Tom: https://x.com/TPogasic Erika: https://x.com/ErikaAhern2 Josh: https://x.com/joshuamercer O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons,Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teachesbecause you have revealed them who are eternal truth and wisdom, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. In this faith I intend to live and die. Amen.All opinions expressed on LOOPcast by the participants are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CatholicVote.
Ever wonder why seeing another neurodivergent person succeed can literally change your life? This week, David and Isabelle bring you the second half of their conversation with Jesse Sanchez, Executive Director of the Neurodiversity Alliance, and it goes deep. They're talking about the kind of mentorship that doesn't happen in an office—it happens in moments of "wait, you do that too?" They also get brutally honest about why neurodivergence isn't just a rich kid's diagnosis, it's an intergenerational survival story that intersects with race, class, incarceration, and educational access in ways we desperately need to talk about.Missed Part 1 of this conversation? Catch up here.Jesse shares his own story: growing up with a single mom who left home at nine, a father in federal prison, navigating the world as a first-gen, low-income, multiracial kid—and how none of the incredible educational access programs he benefited from ever addressed the neurodivergent piece. David drops the "glasses metaphor" that'll make you rethink everything. And Isabelle connects the dots between pulling all-nighters, calling it a moral failing, and why our school system was literally designed to create worker bees during the Industrial Revolution (spoiler: neurodivergent brains were never meant to fit that mold).If you've ever felt like an imposter for doing things differently, this episode is your permission slip to stop hiding!Here's what's coming your way:Why real mentorship is exposure to a reality you didn't know existed—not instructions on how to succeedHow seeing a successful neurodivergent person changes the way you view yourself (and why that matters more than any advice)The intersectionality we're not talking about: neurodivergence, unemployment, incarceration, economic insecurity, and social justiceJesse's powerful story of intergenerational neurodivergence and why he's bringing neuro-inclusive practices to NYC public schoolsWhy your all-nighters aren't a character flaw—they're an accommodation (and how that reframe changes everything)The glasses metaphor: imagine never getting glasses until your 30s. That's undiagnosed ADHD.What Jesse would tell his 5-year-old self entering the school system (grab tissues for this one)-------Wait—What's That? Here are some of the terms and people mentioned in this episode explained:Mentorship (the real kind): Not lectures about success—it's living life together and taking the behaviors you like while leaving the rest. It's "try my biscuits and gravy" energy. Exposing someone to a reality they didn't have before.Normalization: Making something feel normal by seeing it modeled by others. When you see another neurodivergent person succeed while doing things differently, it normalizes your own approach and reduces shame.Moral Failing: The story undiagnosed neurodivergent people tell themselves: "I pull all-nighters because I'm lazy/broken/bad"—instead of recognizing it as an accommodation for how your brain works.Accommodation: A strategy that helps you work with your brain instead of against it. Pulling an all-nighter isn't cheating—it's an accommodation. Just like glasses.Intergenerational Neurodivergence: ADHD and other neurodivergent traits often run in families. Jesse talks about his mom's undiagnosed ADHD and how neurodivergence intersects with intergenerational trauma and survival.Intersectionality: How different identities (race, class, neurodivergence) overlap and create unique experiences. Jesse emphasizes how neurodivergence intersects with being low-income, first-gen, Latino—and how that's overlooked in social justice work.Social Capital: The networks and resources you access through community. The neurodivergent community shares social capital—connecting first-gen students with Ivy League students, leveling the playing field.The School System's Origins: Our current education system was designed during the Industrial Revolution to create efficient worker bees for factories. Everything from the bells to the desks to the subjects was built for output and performance—not for neurodivergent brains. Learn more about the factory model of education: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_model_school-------
00:01:00 Intro00:08:30 Cyberpunk Trading Card Game00:16:30 Taste Buds00:19:30 Portal Games00:21:30 Arkwright00:48:30 Miniature Market00:49:30 Arkham Horror: Film Fatale00:59:00 Plum Island: More of a Bad Thing01:07:30 Pondscape01:13:30 Outro Arkwright is an economic engine-builder that revels in its own weight. It drops players into the heart of the Industrial Revolution and asks them to run competing factories—managing workers, improving machinery, manipulating prices, and navigating the volatile tides of supply and demand. What makes it so gripping is the way every lever you pull affects the entire market. Lowering prices might boost sales but crush profits; upgrading machines cuts labor costs but risks unemployment penalties. It's a game where efficiency is power, foresight is everything, and every decision feels like it echoes across an entire industrial landscape. We're heading back to Plum Island to talk about the desperate scramble to evacuate civilians from an infected coastline—and how the new expansion tightens the experience into a sharper, faster, and even more chaotic rescue puzzle. But that's not the only horror creeping into the episode. Marty and Vanessa dive into Film Fatale, the newest scenario for Arkham Horror: The Card Game, where silver‑screen nightmares spill into reality and investigators find themselves trapped in a reel of stylish, cinematic dread. To balance all that terror, we close things out by building something far more peaceful—an entire ecosystem in Pondscape. Frogs, insects, and shifting waterscapes weave together as we try to craft the most harmonious (and high‑scoring) pond possible. It's a gentle puzzle with clever spatial decisions, offering a refreshing contrast to the tension earlier in the show and reminding us how beautifully varied the board‑gaming world can be. Thanks for listening and appreciate all the support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Squarespace: Use the code SILK to save 10% off your first website or domain at https://www.squarespace.com/silk Marley Spoon: Get up to 25 FREE meals at https://marleyspoon.com/offer/silk **************** Access over 120+ Ad-Free episodes of Calm History by becoming a Silk+ Member (FREE for a limited time!) and enjoy over 600 total episodes from these relaxing podcasts: Calm … Continue reading Coal: Early History, Coal Miner Challenges, & The Industrial Revolution | Bedtime Sleep Stories about History
The Industrial Revolution brought much progress but created greater poverty and harsh living conditions for the workers, and the church could not look away. A man who led the church in a program of relief for the poor was the Scottish pastor Thomas Chalmers. Find out how he was able to do this as Linus, Grace, and Sean talk with Sandy Finlayson, author of Chief Scottish Man: The Life and Ministry of Thomas Chalmers. Thanks to the generosity of Evangelical Press, we are pleased to offer two copies of Chief Scottish Man: The Life and Ministry of Thomas Chalmers by Sandy Finlayson. Enter here to win.
Before we move on to more political history, I want to broadly discuss some of the changes sweeping Great Britain and then ultimately the rest of Europe driven by the Industrial Revolution. Today we focus in on "Cottonopolis" - otherwise known as Manchester.Western Civ 2.0
Wuthering Heights is a story full of passion, violence and sexual tension.So it's no surprise that it shocked Victorian readers when it first came out. How did Emily Brontë, the daughter of a clergyman, create such a provocative world? How did the Brontê sisters write about sex and sexuality in their work? And how accurate is the new film to the original story?!Joining Kate today is Dr Claire O'Callaghan, author and Brontë scholar, to take us back to Victorian England at the peak of the Industrial Revolution, and find out more about this scandalous story.For tickets to the live show of Betwixt the Sheets in May, follow the link here https://www.fane.co.uk/betwixt-the-sheets This episode was edited by Hannah Feodorov. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. All music from Epidemic Sounds.Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
SummaryThe keynote explores the relationship between energy and human flourishing, emphasizing the evolution of production methods from the Industrial Revolution to modern Bitcoin mining. It highlights the importance of storytelling in conveying complex ideas and showcases various innovative projects that exemplify the potential of decentralized energy solutions. The discussion culminates in a call to recognize the collective efforts of individuals in achieving continuous production and fostering human flourishing.Takeaways- Energy is essential for human flourishing.- The Industrial Revolution set the stage for modern production.- Henry Ford's vision of continuous production is still relevant today.- Modern technology allows for decentralized production.- Bitcoin mining can be a steward of energy resources.- Stories are crucial for understanding complex concepts.- Innovative projects are transforming energy consumption.- Decentralization empowers individuals in the energy sector.- Continuous production can lead to human flourishing.- Collective efforts are key to achieving sustainable energy solutions.Chapters00:00 Setting the Stage for Energy and Human Flourishing04:55 The Evolution of Production: From Ford to Bitcoin09:55 Stories of Innovation: Real-World Applications of Bitcoin Mining12:48 Decentralization and the Future of EnergyKeywordsenergy, human flourishing, Bitcoin, production, innovation, decentralization, mining, stories, industrial revolution, continuous production
Synopsis: An AI revolution is underway, but so is the resistance.This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donateDescription: An AI revolution is underway, but so is the resistance. People across the country are feeling the strain of the huge energy-sucking data processing centers that AI requires, and telling their elected officials to slow down or stop new big tech projects for firms like OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Data from a 2025 Pew study shows that only 17 percent of Americans think AI will have a positive impact over the next 20 years. But it's a David vs. Goliath battle. Today's guests say AI expansion is not a red or blue issue; it's about who gets to decide how human and natural resources are distributed, who controls the technology, and who stands to benefit. Faiz Shakir is the Founder and Executive Director of the labor-focused news platform More Perfect Union, and serves as a political advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders. John Cassidy, staff writer at the New Yorker, is the author of the recent book, “Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI”, in which he draws our attention back to the Luddites, the 18th century workers whose revolt deserves our closer attention. Plus, our correspondent's coverage of a shocking scene at a public comment meeting in Wisconsin when a local woman was arrested and dragged away. If AI is the new face of capitalism, what is the new alternative?“Luddites, when I was growing up, was a term of abuse. It was people who were sort of antediluvians and didn't understand the modern world. . . . They understood the modern world as it was in their times perfectly, and they saw it was moving against them, and they saw that the political system wasn't coming to their defense.” - John Cassidy“. . . There's more and more pushback, which hopefully portends the possibility that a lot of these communities can strike better deals if they are going to have data centers. There's no reason why we can't be asking that the teachers are well paid, that the electricity rates don't go up, that we have decent affordable housing in those communities. That is all possible because we're playing with incredible amounts of dollars and deep-pocketed people . . . ” - Faiz ShakirGuests:• John Cassidy: Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Author, Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI• Faiz Shakir: Founder & Executive Director, More Perfect Union; Political Advisor & Former Campaign Manager, Senator Bernie Sanders Watch the episode released on YouTube; PBS World Channel 11:30am ET Sundays and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio (check here to see if your station airs the show) & available as a podcast.Full Episode Notes are located HERE.Full Conversation Release: While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation. Music Credits: “Living The Greatest Lie” by TQX and vocals by Shayna Stelle from the album Global Intimacy released on Extra Celestial Arts; 'Steppin' by Podington Bear, and original sound design by Jeannie Hopper'Support Laura Flanders and Friends by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/c/lauraflandersandfriends RESOURCES:*Recommended book:“Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI” by John Cassidy: *Get the Book(*Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. The LF Show is an affiliate of bookshop.org and will receive a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.) Featured Clip Credit: America's Dataland? 1st Amendment Under Attack: There women arrested, produced by Johnathan Klett - Watch the full video Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:• Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor: Are We Entering “End Times Fascism”?: Watch / Listen: Episode Cut and Full Uncut Conversation• Donna Haraway on Cyborgs, “Oddkin” & Resisting the Monoculture of the Mind: Watch / Listen: Episode Cut and Full Uncut Conversation• The Lucas Plan at 50: A Radical Investment in Society, Not the War Machine: Watch / Listen: Episode Cut and Full Uncut Conversations- Brian Salisbury and Hilary Wainwright Related Articles and Resources:• Small Towns Are Rising Up Against AI Data Centers, “We don't want to be the next Data Center Alley,” by Joe Wilkins, May 4, 2025, Futurism• The AI Backlash Keeps Growing Stronger, by Reece Rogers, June 28, 2025, WIRED• The Dangers of AI and Extreme Wealth Inequality, by David Atkins, January 5, 2026, Washington Monthly• At least four Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers, by Tom Kertscher, January 26, 2026, Wisconsin Watch• Anti-data center protesters arrested during Port Washington meeting, by Claudia Levens, Jessie Opoien and Francesca Pica, December 3, 2025, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel• How Sam Altman Outfoxed Elon Musk to Become Trump's AI Buddy, by Keach Hagey, Dana Mattionili and Josh Dawsey, July 17, 2025, The Wall Street Journal• Curtis Yarvin's brave new world: we need a corporate dictatorship to replace a dying democracy' by Boris Munoz, August 19, 2005, El Pais Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jeannie Hopper-Audio Director, Podcast & Radio Producer, Audio Editor, Sound Design, Narrator; Sarah Miller-Development Director, Nat Needham-Editor, Graphic Design emeritus; David Neuman-Senior Video Editor, and Rory O'Conner-Senior Consulting Producer. FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky: https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel
#336: The workplace is on the verge of a transformation as significant as the Industrial Revolution. Just as Bring Your Own Device policies emerged after the iPhone disrupted corporate mobile standards, we are now entering an era where employees may arrive with their own AI teams in tow. The question is no longer whether AI will change hiring and employment - it is how quickly companies will adapt before being left behind by competitors who embrace this shift. Current AI productivity gains remain largely individual rather than organizational. Writing code twice as fast means nothing if the deployment pipeline stays the same speed. But within five to ten years, entire industries face disruption - from primary care physicians to transportation to knowledge work. Companies clinging to restrictive AI policies today risk driving away top talent who have already integrated these tools into their workflows. The intellectual property implications alone - who owns an AI stack trained on company processes when an employee leaves - will require entirely new frameworks for employment law. Darin and Viktor explore these scenarios through the lens of a hypothetical job interview where a candidate brings their own team of AI agents. The conversation surfaces uncomfortable questions about compensation models, corporate governance, and whether we are witnessing the emergence of a new kind of talent that blends human expertise with digital capabilities. YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/devopsparadox Review the podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://www.devopsparadox.com/review-podcast/ Slack: https://www.devopsparadox.com/slack/ Connect with us at: https://www.devopsparadox.com/contact/
Nancy Prial sees multiple catalysts for broad market growth, including Fed policy. Industrials are “the key growth area” for the future and AI is the “next Industrial Revolution.” In megatrends she looks for the suppliers: in the gold rush, miners still needed to eat and buy tools, after all. She highlights Patrick Industries (PATK), Sterling Infrastructure (STRL), Cohu (COHU) and Exzeo (XZO).======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors. Before trading, read the Options Disclosure Document. http://bit.ly/2v9tH6DSubscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about
Friction, the force that resists motion, is synonymous with difficulty and complication. If you've ever replaced tires worn smooth by the road or reached for a can of WD-40 to fix a creaking door hinge, then you know the headache this force can cause. In Friction: a Biography (Harvard UP, 2026), Dr. Jennifer Vail reveals beneath the difficulty and complication a force as enigmatic and intriguing as it is central to the human story. She traces how, from the moment we first harnessed the power of fire to the Industrial Revolution and beyond, the quest to manipulate friction has driven innovation, culture, and even our own evolution. Today, as scientists study friction in the most unexpected of places, they're learning why some viruses lie dormant for years while others devastate our cells immediately; where elusive dark matter might be found; and how the climate crisis ought finally be addressed. And yet, for all they've learned, scientists still haven't cracked the greatest mystery of all: how to bridge the distinct laws that govern friction at its largest and smallest scales. Connecting the discoveries of historical luminaries like Newton, da Vinci, and the Wright brothers to the latest breakthroughs in engineering, Friction is a captivating biography of this unsung hero of the physical world. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
This episode was livestreamed on February 1, 2026.
Reality is Optional with Kris Rubio is a daily comedy-commentary podcast where Kris breaks down documentaries, movies, and trending topics — mixing sharp insight, humor, and personal stories. Each episode turns educational moments into punchlines and reflections, helping you laugh, learn, and question everything you thought was real. New episodes drop Monday through Friday.We've got: wild documentary breakdowns; comedy rants; philosophical tangents; raw honesty; creative storytelling; and daily laughs.
Book a call: https://remnantfinance.com/calendar ! Out Print the Fed with 1% per week: https://remnantfinance.com/optionsEmail us at info@remnantfinance.com !Visit https://remnantfinance.com for more informationFOLLOW REMNANT FINANCEYoutube: @RemnantFinance (https://www.youtube.com/@RemnantFinance )Facebook: @remnantfinance (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560694316588 )Twitter: @remnantfinance (https://x.com/remnantfinance )TikTok: @RemnantFinanceDon't forget to hit LIKE and SUBSCRIBEThis episode examines Jordi Visser's recent analysis on what AI means for the labor market, why this isn't like previous technological disruptions, and how to position yourself financially when the old rules no longer apply.We talk through the psychological impact on anyone raised in the meritocracy, why competing against entities that never sleep and improve every six months is fundamentally different than competing against other humans, and what it actually looks like to build a two-year financial runway.Chapters: 00:00 – Opening segment01:35 – Jordi Visser article introduction 06:45 – The danger of refusing to update with new information 09:15 – I built an arbitrage bot in 12 minutes with zero coding knowledge 14:45 – Q3 2025: GDP up, profits up, employment down 16:30 – "Your labor is no longer required for our prosperity" 19:55 – The original 10,000-year bargain between labor and capital 23:10 – Today's graduates competing against entities 31:45 – Why whole life insurance shines brighter in this environment 40:15 – Uber drivers protesting robo-taxis ten years after disrupting taxis 52:30 – Building your runway 58:00 – Closing thoughts and how to position your assetsKey Takeaways:This isn't the Industrial Revolution 2.0. Previous disruptions eliminated jobs but created surplus that funded new roles. AI breaks that chain—digital employees don't need wages, don't become consumers, and improve exponentially every six months.The math changed. A college degree once guaranteed middle-class stability. Now it puts you in direct competition with entities that work 24/7, remember everything, and have no upper bound on capability.Own assets or get left behind. When capital no longer depends on labor, asset prices can rise indefinitely while wages stagnate. Position yourself on the side of the equation that benefits.Build your runway now. Hans tracks daily burn rate and is targeting two years of expenses in emergency reserves. Calculate yours: monthly expenses ÷ 30 = daily burn. Emergency fund ÷ daily burn = runway in days.Protect, save, grow still applies—maybe more than ever. Guaranteed growth vehicles, physical precious metals, crypto, rental properties, and options trading all have a place in a portfolio built for uncertainty.The social contract between labor and capital has held for 10,000 years: work generates value, value generates wages, wages generate surplus. Q3 2025 may have broken that contract permanently. GDP grew 4.3%, corporate profits hit record highs—and job growth collapsed to near zero. For the first time in history, the economy is thriving without creating jobs.
Synopsis: Only 17% of Americans think AI will have a positive impact over the next 20 years: Hear from labor-focused news platform More Perfect Union's Founder Faiz Shakir and NYer staff writer John Cassidy on who gets to decide how human and natural resources are distributed in the age of AI capitalism.This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donateDescription: An AI revolution is underway, but so is the resistance. People across the country are feeling the strain of the huge energy-sucking data processing centers that AI requires, and telling their elected officials to slow down or stop new big tech projects for firms like OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Data from a 2025 Pew study shows that only 17 percent of Americans think AI will have a positive impact over the next 20 years. But it's a David vs. Goliath battle. Today's guests say AI expansion is not a red or blue issue; it's about who gets to decide how human and natural resources are distributed, who controls the technology, and who stands to benefit. Faiz Shakir is the Founder and Executive Director of the labor-focused news platform More Perfect Union, and serves as a political advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders. John Cassidy, staff writer at the New Yorker, is the author of the recent book, “Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI”, in which he draws our attention back to the Luddites, the 18th century workers whose revolt deserves our closer attention. Plus, our correspondent's coverage of a shocking scene at a public comment meeting in Wisconsin when a local woman was arrested and dragged away. If AI is the new face of capitalism, what is the new alternative?“Luddites, when I was growing up, was a term of abuse. It was people who were sort of antediluvians and didn't understand the modern world. . . . They understood the modern world as it was in their times perfectly, and they saw it was moving against them, and they saw that the political system wasn't coming to their defense.” - John Cassidy“. . . There's more and more pushback, which hopefully portends the possibility that a lot of these communities can strike better deals if they are going to have data centers. There's no reason why we can't be asking that the teachers are well paid, that the electricity rates don't go up, that we have decent affordable housing in those communities. That is all possible because we're playing with incredible amounts of dollars and deep-pocketed people . . . ” - Faiz ShakirGuests:• John Cassidy: Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Author, Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI• Faiz Shakir: Founder & Executive Director, More Perfect Union; Political Advisor & Former Campaign Manager, Senator Bernie Sanders Watch the episode released on YouTube; PBS World Channel 11:30am ET Sundays and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio (check here to see if your station airs the show) & available as a podcast February 4th, 2026.Full Episode Notes are located HERE.Full Conversation Release: While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation. Music Credit: 'Thrum of Soil' by Bluedot Sessions, 'Steppin' by Podington Bear, and original sound design by Jeannie HopperSupport Laura Flanders and Friends by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/c/lauraflandersandfriends RESOURCES:*Recommended book:“Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI” by John Cassidy: *Get the Book(*Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. The LF Show is an affiliate of bookshop.org and will receive a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.) Featured Clip Credit: America's Dataland? 1st Amendment Under Attack: There women arrested, produced by Johnathan Klett - Watch the full video Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:• Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor: Are We Entering “End Times Fascism”?: Watch / Listen: Episode Cut and Full Uncut Conversation• Donna Haraway on Cyborgs, “Oddkin” & Resisting the Monoculture of the Mind: Watch / Listen: Episode Cut and Full Uncut Conversation• The Lucas Plan at 50: A Radical Investment in Society, Not the War Machine: Watch / Listen: Episode Cut and Full Uncut Conversations- Brian Salisbury and Hilary Wainwright Related Articles and Resources:• Small Towns Are Rising Up Against AI Data Centers, “We don't want to be the next Data Center Alley,” by Joe Wilkins, May 4, 2025, Futurism• The AI Backlash Keeps Growing Stronger, by Reece Rogers, June 28, 2025, WIRED• The Dangers of AI and Extreme Wealth Inequality, by David Atkins, January 5, 2026, Washington Monthly• At least four Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers, by Tom Kertscher, January 26, 2026, Wisconsin Watch• Anti-data center protesters arrested during Port Washington meeting, by Claudia Levens, Jessie Opoien and Francesca Pica, December 3, 2025, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel• How Sam Altman Outfoxed Elon Musk to Become Trump's AI Buddy, by Keach Hagey, Dana Mattionili and Josh Dawsey, July 17, 2025, The Wall Street Journal• Curtis Yarvin's brave new world: we need a corporate dictatorship to replace a dying democracy' by Boris Munoz, August 19, 2005, El Pais Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jeannie Hopper-Audio Director, Podcast & Radio Producer, Audio Editor, Sound Design, Narrator; Sarah Miller-Development Director, Nat Needham-Editor, Graphic Design emeritus; David Neuman-Senior Video Editor, and Rory O'Conner-Senior Consulting Producer. 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Minnesota's prairie, in the southwestern part of the state, is a biodiverse ecosystem that's home to buffalo, bees and tall grass. In the book, "Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie," Josephine Marcotty and Dave Hage dig into the significance prairies have to the climate. MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner talks with Hage in depth about the American prairie. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. What drew you to write about the American prairie?The book grew out of a series that Josephine wrote when we were both working with the Minnesota Star Tribune. She was the environment reporter. I was her editor. She had come across a pair of remarkable studies, which showed that today, we are plowing up the continent's remaining grasslands. That's grasslands west of here, into the Dakotas and Montana. We're plowing them up at the rate of a million acres a year. That's about as fast as we're destroying the Amazon rainforest. It's an environmental catastrophe, but nobody's paying attention. It's bad for wildlife, it's bad for clean water and it's especially bad for climate change.How do you think about the prairie in a climate context?These grasslands are one of the greatest carbon sinks on the planet. Grasses inhale carbon dioxide from the air. They exhale oxygen. They take the carbon from that carbon dioxide, and they store it deep underground in Prairie soils. You know, these grasses can have roots that go 8-12 feet deep. It's estimated that the world's grassland soils hold about a third of all terrestrial carbon stocks. Jo Handelsman at the University of Wisconsin says grassland soils hold more carbon than human beings have emitted since the Industrial Revolution. When you plow open those grasslands, you release all that carbon into the atmosphere and you accelerate climate change.Tell us a little bit about how Minnesota is working on plans to protect the prairies.In Minnesota, we still have like 1-4 percent of the original native prairie. You find it in patches around southwestern and western Minnesota. But Minnesota is also home to the largest prairie restoration project in the United States. It's called Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge. It's up near Crookston, Minn., which was running out of clean water because of agricultural pollution. And they said, “Look, if we can convert this back to prairie, one of the things that prairie plants do is that they filter water and they give you clean groundwater.” They said to the city of Crookston, “We can guarantee you years and years supply of clean water, and so now you can go to Glacial Ridge.” It's just beautiful, huge expanse of tall grasses and wildflowers and butterflies and bees, and it's a magnificent spot.What's your main message about climate change and the prairie?Here's an amazing statistic we came across. There's a beautiful researcher, Tyler Lark at the University of Wisconsin, who does amazing work. He's become a buddy of ours, and here are just two data points from Tyler Lark's work: One, he estimates that our current rate of plowing up grasslands is the same as adding 11 million cars to the road every year. It's releasing that much carbon as 11 million new cars to the road. But conversely, he also estimated that if we can just protect the remaining grasslands and wetlands in our part of the country, we could meet 20 percent of our commitments under the Paris Climate Change accords just by leaving prairies and wetlands alone, protecting what we've still got.
Democracy might be a brief historical blip. That's the unsettling thesis of a recent paper, which argues AI that can do all the work a human can do inevitably leads to the “gradual disempowerment” of humanity.For most of history, ordinary people had almost no control over their governments. Liberal democracy emerged only recently, and probably not coincidentally around the Industrial Revolution.Today's guest, David Duvenaud, used to lead the 'alignment evals' team at Anthropic, is a professor of computer science at the University of Toronto, and recently co-authored 'Gradual disempowerment.'Links to learn more, video, and full transcript: https://80k.info/ddHe argues democracy wasn't the result of moral enlightenment — it was competitive pressure. Nations that educated their citizens and gave them political power built better armies and more productive economies. But what happens when AI can do all the producing — and all the fighting?“The reason that states have been treating us so well in the West, at least for the last 200 or 300 years, is because they've needed us,” David explains. “Life can only get so bad when you're needed. That's the key thing that's going to change.”In David's telling, once AI can do everything humans can do but cheaper, citizens become a national liability rather than an asset. With no way to make an economic contribution, their only lever becomes activism — demanding a larger share of redistribution from AI production. Faced with millions of unemployed citizens turned full-time activists, democratic governments trying to retain some “legacy” human rights may find they're at a disadvantage compared to governments that strategically restrict civil liberties.But democracy is just one front. The paper argues humans will lose control through economic obsolescence, political marginalisation, and the effects on culture that's increasingly shaped by machine-to-machine communication — even if every AI does exactly what it's told.This episode was recorded on August 21, 2025.Chapters:Cold open (00:00:00)Who's David Duvenaud? (00:00:50)Alignment isn't enough: we still lose control (00:01:30)Smart AI advice can still lead to terrible outcomes (00:14:14)How gradual disempowerment would occur (00:19:02)Economic disempowerment: Humans become "meddlesome parasites" (00:22:05)Humans become a "criminally decadent" waste of energy (00:29:29)Is humans losing control actually bad, ethically? (00:40:36)Political disempowerment: Governments stop needing people (00:57:26)Can human culture survive in an AI-dominated world? (01:10:23)Will the future be determined by competitive forces? (01:26:51)Can we find a single good post-AGI equilibria for humans? (01:34:29)Do we know anything useful to do about this? (01:44:43)How important is this problem compared to other AGI issues? (01:56:03)Improving global coordination may be our best bet (02:04:56)The 'Gradual Disempowerment Index' (02:07:26)The government will fight to write AI constitutions (02:10:33)“The intelligence curse” and Workshop Labs (02:16:58)Mapping out disempowerment in a world of aligned AGIs (02:22:48)What do David's CompSci colleagues think of all this? (02:29:19)Video and audio editing: Dominic Armstrong, Milo McGuire, Luke Monsour, and Simon MonsourMusic: CORBITCamera operator: Jake MorrisCoordination, transcriptions, and web: Katy Moore
Is universal expansion slowing? What is the Bubble Universe Theory? Will we control AI, or will AI control us? In this special Chuck GPT episode of The LIUniverse, we answer questions from the Annual Global Summit in Erie, Pennsylvania where Dr. Charles Liu gave a talk on “2050 - The Future of Humanity.” To help ask those questions, Chuck and co-host Allen Liu welcome Stacey Severn, our Social Media Manager/Community Director; and physics student Eleanor Adams, our first intern. As always, though, we start off with the day's joyfully cool cosmic thing, suggested by Stacey: the recent discovery of one of the most distant and earliest known galaxies observed, existing just 570 million years after the Big Bang. It's got a supermassive black hole 20 times the mass of ours and was found via gravitational lensing by the Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS) using the James Webb Space Telescope. Then it's time for the main event. Eleanor reads the first Erie audience question from William W., age 13, who asks, “In Bubble Universe Theory, is the force splitting universes apart the same force causing the expansion of the universe, also known as dark energy?” Chuck explains Bubble Universe Theory, aka “Eternal Inflation,” and then how dark energy is different than the forces that cause expansion. Next question: “Have you seen the latest research from South Korea stating universal expansion is actually slowing, thus reducing greatly the amount of dark matter? If it's correct, what are the implications?” Chuck explains the current state of research around the issue, starting with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey at the Kitt Peak National Observatory telescope. DESI gave indications of a change in the amount of dark energy being produced; this new study raises questions about how we measure the expansion of the universe using type 1a Supernova. Next question: “What percentage of our global warming does science attribute to man-created activities vs. a natural progression? Even though the world is getting warmer, wouldn't it be worse if the temperature were getting colder?” Chuck looks at the natural progression of the increase of carbon dioxide and compares it with the larger and more rapid increase in CO2 levels since the Industrial Revolution began. As to whether warming or cooling is better, Allen says that while it's a question of magnitude, neither extreme is desirable. Mark M's question is next: “Will we achieve control or effective management of AI, or will it control, or even define, our daily lives? Allen, whose book on AI is coming out soon, says the answer is far from clear cut. He explains that while there are many efforts to ensure we maintain control, there's no guarantee that we'll succeed. Next question from Erie: “How do we prepare our young children to be successful in the Age of AI?” Eleanor talks about how, like social media, you can't stop or avoid AI, but also, like social media, parents can give their children the tools to help them use it. Next: “Many advanced countries have declining populations, while third world countries are gaining population. How do we get tomorrow's scientific leaders from third world education systems?” Chuck says the best way to ensure an ongoing stream of scientific leaders is for advanced countries to continue to welcome immigrants, while Allen points out it is also important to improve the educational systems and opportunities for research in those third world countries. Stacey reminds us about the impact the internet is having on this issue. With time running out, we squeeze in one last question from Erie: “How can the average person influence science policy in a positive direction?” Our consensus answer: people need to participate, speak out, and support others when they do, too. We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse. Please support us on Patreon. Credits for Images Used in this Episode: Location of CANUCS-LRD-z8.6. – Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Rihtaršič (University of Ljubljana, FMF), R. Tripodi (University of Ljubljana, FMF) Type 1a Supernova. Shown: G299.2-2.9, a type 1a supernova remnant in the Milky Way. – Credit: NASA/CXC/U.Texas Concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last 40,000 years, from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present day. – Creative Commons / Renerpho Chapters: 00:00 - Welcome – Call Me Chuck 01:02 - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing of the Day – CANUCS-LRD-z8.6 08:25 - Chuck Answers Questions from Annual Global Summit, Erie, PA 09:58 - Bubble Universe Theory and Dark Energy 14:17 - Is Universal Expansion Is Slowing? 19:30 - Global Warming 27:28 - Will We Control AI or It Will Control Us? 30:14 – How Can We Prepare Our Children To Succeed in the Age of AI? 36:28 - Where Will Future Scientific Leaders Come From? 42:09 - How Can Individuals Influence Science Policy?
The nineteenth century marked a great change in American history – it was the age of the Industrial Revolution, the Civil War, and a time when science and reason were supposed to erase the myths and fears of the past. And yet, the Devil still managed to rear his ugly head, continuing to serve as a symbol of all the things that Americans hated and feared the most. Social reformers used the Devil to discourage the evils of alcohol and Protestants and Nativists used the Devil as a warning about the evils of foreigners and Catholics. Those immigrants used the Devil for their own devices, creating cautionary tales of the supernatural – like the Devil Baby that shocked Chicago in 1913, creating a mythology that still exists today.Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com* Check out Shopify: https://shopify.com/hauntings* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code HAUNTINGS for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/american-hauntings-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Our Chief Fixed Income Strategist Vishy Tirupattur is joined by Dan Toscano, the firm's Chairman of Markets in Private Equity, unpack how credit markets are changing—and what the AI buildup means for the road ahead.Read more insights from Morgan Stanley.----- Transcript -----Vishy Tirupattur: Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I am Vishy Tirupattur, Morgan Stanley's Chief Fixed Income Strategist. Today is a special edition of our podcast. We are joined by Dan Toscano, Chairman of Markets in Private Equity at Morgan Stanley, and a seasoned practitioner of credit markets over many, many credit cycles. We will get his thoughts on the ongoing evolution and revolution in credit marketsIt's Wednesday, January 7th at 10am in New York. Dan, welcome.Dan Toscano: Glad to be here.Vishy Tirupattur: So, to get our – the listeners familiar with your journey, can you talk a little bit about your experience in the credit markets, and how you got to where we are today?Dan Toscano: Yeah, sure. So, I've been doing this a long time. You used the nice word seasoned. My kids would refer to it as old. But I started in this journey in 1988. And to make a long story short, my first job on Wall Street was buying junk bonds in the infancy of the junk bond market, when most of what we were financing were LBOs. So, if you're familiar with Barbarians at the Gate, one of the first bonds we bought were RJR Nabisco reset notes. And I've been doing this ever since, so over almost four decades now.Vishy Tirupattur: So, the junk bond market evolved into high yield market, syndicated loan market, CLO market, financial crisis. So, talk to us about your experiences during this transition.Dan Toscano: Yeah. I mean, one of the things these markets do is they finance evolution in industries. So, when I think back to the early days of financing leveraged buyouts, they were called bootstrap deals. The first deal I did as an intermediary on Wall Street as opposed to as an investor, was a buyout with Bain Capital in 1993. At the time, Bain Capital had a $600 million AUM private equity platform. Think about that in the scale of what Bain Capital does in private equity today. You know, back then it was corporate carve outs, and trying to make the global economy more efficient. And you remember the rise of the conglomerate. And so, one of the early things we financed a lot of was the de-conglomeration of big corporates. So, they would spin off assets that were not central to the business or the strengths that they had as an organization.So, that was the early days of private equity. There was obviously the telecom build out in the late 90's and the resulting bust. And then into the GFC. And we sit here today with the distinctions of private capital, private credit, public credit, syndicated credit, and all the amazing things that are being financed in, you know, what I think of as the next industrial revolution.Vishy Tirupattur: In terms of things that have changed a lot – a lot also changed following the financial crisis. So, if you dig deep into that one thing that happened was the introduction of leveraged lending guidelines. Can you talk about what leveraged lending guidelines did to the credit markets?Dan Toscano: Yeah, I mean, it was a big change for underwriters because it dictated what you could and couldn't participate in as an underwriter or a lender, and so it really cut off one end of the market that was determined by – and I think the thing most famously attributed to the leveraged lending guidelines was this maximum leverage notion of six times leverage is the cap. Nothing beyond that. And so that really limited the ability for Wall Street firms to underwrite and distribute capital to support those deals.And inadvertently, or maybe by plan, really gave rise to the growth in the private credit market. So, when you think about everything that's going on in the world today, including, which I'm sure we'll talk about, the relaxation of the leveraged lending guidelines, it was really fuel for private credit.Vishy Tirupattur: So private credit, this relaxation that you mentioned, you know, a few weeks ago, the FDIC and the OCC withdrew the leveraged lending guidelines in total. What do you expect that will do to the private credit markets? Will that make private credit market share decrease and bank market share increase?Dan Toscano: I think many people think of these as being mutually exclusive. We've never thought of it that way. It exists more on a continuum. And so, what I think the relaxation of those guidelines or the elimination of those guidelines really frees the banks to participate in the entire continuum, either as lenders or as underwriters.And so, in addition to the opportunity that gives the banks to really find the best solutions for their clients, I think this will also continue the blurring of distinctions between public market credit and private market credit. Because now the banks can participate in all of it. And when you think about what defines in people's minds – public credit versus private credit, in many cases it's driven by what terms look like. Customary terms for a syndicated bond or loan versus a private credit loan.Also, who's participating in it. You know, these things have been blurring, right? There's a cost differential or a perceived cost differential that has been blurring for some time now. That will continue to happen, in my opinion anyway.Vishy Tirupattur: I totally agree with you, Dan, on that. I think not only the distinction between public credit and private credit, but also within the various credit channels – secured, unsecured, securitized, structured – all these distinctions are also blurring. So, in that context, let's talk a little bit more about what private credit's focus has been and where private credit focus will be going forward. So, what we'll call private credit 1.0. Focused predominantly on lending to small and medium-sized enterprises. And we now see that potentially changing. What is driving private credit 2.0 in your mind?Dan Toscano: Well, the elephant in the room is digital infrastructure. Absolutely. When you think about the scale of what is happening, the type of capital that's required for the build out, the structure you need around it, the ability to use elements of structure. You mentioned several of them earlier. To come up with an appropriate risk structure for lending is really where the market is heading. When you think about the trillions of dollars that we anticipate is needed for the technology industry to complete this transformation – not just around digital infrastructure, but around everything associated with it.And the big one I think of most often is power, right? So, you need capital to build out sources of power, and you need capital to build out the data centers to be able to handle the compute demand that is expected to be there. This is a scale unlike anything we have ever seen. It is the backbone of what will be the next industrial revolution.We've never seen anything like this in terms of the scale of the capital needed for the transformation that is already underway.Vishy Tirupattur: We are very much on board with this idea as well, Dan, in terms of the scale of the investment, the capital investment that is needed. So, when you look ahead for 2026, what worries you about the ind ustrial revolution financing that is underway?Dan Toscano: Given all that's going on in the world, this massive capital investment that's going on globally around digital infrastructure, we've never seen this before. And so, when I look at the capital raising that has been done in 2025 versus what will be done in 2026, I think one of the differences that we have to be mindful of is – nothing's gone wrong while we were raising capital in 2025 because we were very much in the infancy of these buildouts. Once you get further into these buildouts and the capital raises in 2025 that are funding the development of data centers start to season, problems will emerge. The essence of credit risk is there will be problems and it's really trying to predict and foresee where the problems will be and make sure you can manage your way through them.That is the essence of successful credit investing. And so there will definitely be issues when you think about the scale of the build out that is happening. Even if you look just in the U.S., where you need access to all sorts of commodities to build out. And you know, people focus on chips, but you also need steel and roofing, and importantly labor.And as we talk to people about the build outs, one of the concerns is supply of labor supply and cost of labor. So, when you run into situations where maybe a project is delayed a bit, or the costs are a bit more than what was expected, there will be a reaction. And we haven't had that yet. We will start to see that in 2026 and how investors and the markets react to that, I think will be very important. And I'm a little bit worried that there could be some overreaction because people have trained themselves in 2025 to think of like, ‘I'm operating in a perfect environment,' because we haven't really done anything yet. And now that we've done something, something can and will go wrong. So, you know, we'll see how that plays out.I am very fixated in 2026 on the laws of supply and demand. When I think about what's going on right now, we usually have visibility on demand. And we usually have some level of visibility on supply. Right now, we have neither – and I say that in a positive way. We don't know how big the demand is in the capital world to fund these projects. We don't know how big that can be. And almost with every passing day, the supply – and what we're hearing from our clients about what they need to execute their plans – continues to grow in a way that we don't know where it ends. And the scale, we're talking trillions of dollars, right? Not billions, not millions, but trillions.And so, I look at that – not so much as something I worry about, but something I'm really curious about. Will we run out of money to fund all of the ambitions of the Industrial Revolution? I don't think so. I think money will find great projects, but when you think about the scale of what we're looking at, we've never seen anything like it before. And it will be fascinating to watch as the year goes on.Vishy Tirupattur: Thanks Dan. That's very useful. And thanks for taking the time to speak to us and share your wisdom and insights. Dan Toscano: Well, it's great to be here.Vishy Tirupattur: And to our audience, thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a review wherever you listen and share thoughts on the market with a friend or colleague today
America’s growth from a rugged frontier nation to the globe’s industrial superpower in the space of 100 years can be explained by one word: coal. Before coal dominance, American buildings were defined by height limits imposed by stonework. The tallest building in the 1830s was Baltimore’s 235-foot tall Phoenix Shot Tower. Transportation also worked poorly without coal. The early wood-fired 4-4-0 locomotives struggled with top freight speeds around 15 mph and pulling trains of approximately 450 tons. The transition to coal and cheap steel enabled the steel-supported 555-foot Washington Monument and allowed massive coal-fired trains to achieve express passenger speeds up to 100+ mph and haul loads over 4,000 tons. For a century the entire world was dependent on coal. It powered railroads, built urban skylines, and provided warmth, light, and power for families rich and poor. Although the American economy soared, society unknowingly suffered from coal’s debilitating health and environmental impacts. Skies were so dirty that on some days, visibility was limited to a few feet. Coal miners frequently died from cave-ins, explosions, or contracting black lung. Towns like Centralia in Illinois were fundamentally destroyed by an underground fire started in 1962 that continues to burn. Today’s guest is Bob Wyss, author of “Black Gold: The Rise, Reign, and Fall of American Coal.” We look at a range of figures that were part of coal’s story, from a largely unknown and unrecognized Pennsylvanian inventor who helped spark the Industrial Revolution to a prominent society clubwoman who clashed with the powerful coal forces in Utah that were fouling the air and sickening residents. It also includes clashes between powerful tycoons, coal miners, and the American public.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.