Podcasts about Innovation

Roleplaying games and the Marvel universe may be fictional, but they can also teach us a lot about morality in the real world. Christopher Robichaud is a Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. In this episode, he shares ways we can explore important, everyday issues in fun, safe, and unexpected ways. Christopher has made a career out of teaching ethics and philosophy using pop culture, dissecting moral questions using anything from zombie apocalypse simulations to superhero narratives. He received his doctorate in philosophy from MIT. In 2015 he won the Innovation in Teaching Award at the Harvard Kennedy School for creating a day-long simulation--using design elements from old school tabletop roleplaying games like D&D--where policy students wielded their leadership skills and confronted ethical dilemmas to deal with a zombie pandemic. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscriptsFill out our survey at bit.ly/BHSurvey6 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Jess Larsen Show on Innovation & Leadership, Jess sits down with Seth Streeter, Co-Founder of Mission Wealth, for a conversation about building an $18B wealth management firm, redefining what true wealth means, and helping successful leaders design a more fulfilling next chapter. Seth shares how he and his co-founder started with zero assets under management and built Mission Wealth around independence, objectivity, comprehensive financial planning, and a proactive service model. Instead of simply managing investments, Seth explains how the firm focused on understanding the whole client, including their business, family, taxes, estate planning, real estate, lifestyle, and long-term goals. Jess and Seth also dig into the growth journey from $1B to $18B, including the power of partnerships, referral channels, customer experience, company culture, and learning how to get out of your own way as a founder. Seth explains why saying no can be more important than saying yes, how service businesses can scale without losing their human touch, and why taking care of your team becomes a competitive advantage. The conversation then turns to Seth's deeper mission: helping high-achieving CEOs, founders, and leaders find purpose beyond financial success. After his own personal journey through burnout, divorce, the financial crisis, and a search for deeper meaning, Seth began helping others explore what comes after achievement, from relationships and adventure to creativity, service, and legacy. This episode is a thoughtful look at wealth, leadership, service, purpose, and what it really means to build a life that feels successful from the inside out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Show Notes: United Methodist pastors Matt Rawle and Rachel Billups — co-founders of the Hub for Innovation and co-authors of Dream, Dare, Disrupt — join Chris and Eddie to talk about what ministry looks like on the other side of COVID. Matt traces how something as basic as a funeral changed (Saturday mornings became Thursday afternoons, live-streamed on Facebook), and the two walk through the four-movement framework from their book: curiosity, leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Along the way: a metaverse prayer experiment that outlived its Oculus headsets, Matt's idea of "prevenient technology," what happens when you actually ask kids how they'd rather light the acolyte candle, and why Rachel and Matt both insist that endings — not just beginnings — are a feature of healthy ministry, not a bug. They close on their working definition of innovation: not gadgets, but creativity meeting utility — illustrated by a community garden that grew its ministry by simply adding chairs.Resources & Links:Dream, Dare, Disrupt: How Experiments, Risk, and Embracing Failure Can Build Life-Giving Ministry — Matt Rawle & Rachel Billups (Friendship Press): https://www.friendshippress.org/products/dream-dare-disrupt-how-experiments-risk-and-embracing-failure-can-build-world-changing-ministryThe Sandbox: Playing Toward What's Next in Your Ministry — companion workbook, Rawle & BillupsHub for Innovation: https://www.hub4innovation.orgMatt Rawle: https://www.mattrawle.comRachel Billups: https://www.rachelbillups.com

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we're joined by Sam Hamstra, Lead Pastor of Anthem Church, a fast-growing, multi-ethnic and multi-generational church serving Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland. Anthem became an independent church in March 2020—the same week the world shut down—and has since grown to multiple locations and thousands of people. In this conversation, Sam shares how clarity around mission, values, discipleship, and vision has helped Anthem develop a distinct ministry culture and sustain healthy growth. Does your church know exactly who it is and how it does ministry? Are your leaders aligned around a shared playbook—or are you borrowing someone else's model without adapting it to your context? Sam offers practical lessons on creating organizational clarity that shapes everything from calendars to leadership development. Move from imitation to innovation. // Sam is quick to acknowledge how much Anthem learned from churches and networks that came before them. But even before Anthem launched, he began recognizing that another church's model could not simply be copied and pasted into Northwest Indiana. The local culture, demographics, ministry environment, and people were different. Healthy leaders learn from others while also doing the harder work of discerning what God is uniquely calling their church to become. Clarity takes courage. // Copying an established model feels safe because leaders can see evidence that it works somewhere else. Developing your own approach requires greater faith because the outcome is less predictable. Sam believes churches must have the courage to move into that uncertainty. Rather than endlessly chasing the next successful strategy, leaders should prayerfully identify the unique blueprint God has given their church and commit to it. Define your “way.” // Inspired by Patrick Lencioni's The Advantage, Sam and his leadership team spent roughly nine months working through five foundational questions: Why do we exist? How do we behave? What do we do? How do we live? Where are we going? Their answers eventually became what they call “The Anthem Way”—a framework that brings clarity to mission, values, discipleship, spiritual formation, and long-term vision. Mission and vision are not the same thing. // Anthem's mission is to lead people to know Christ and make Him known. That mission remains constant because it flows from the Great Commission. Vision answers a different question: where is God taking this particular church? Separating those ideas has helped Anthem distinguish between the timeless calling of the church and the specific future they believe God is leading them toward. Let your discipleship pathway drive the calendar. // One of the biggest benefits of clarity has been simplifying Anthem's yearly ministry calendar. Instead of allowing every ministry to bring new ideas and events to the table, leaders evaluate opportunities through their defined discipleship pathway. The result is greater focus and consistency. Sam says their annual rhythm has remained largely the same for years, helping both staff and attenders understand what comes next. Boring can be a strength. // Churches often feel pressure to constantly create something new, but Sam has learned that repetition can be one of the greatest drivers of health. Anthem maintains a weekly prayer gathering, predictable discipleship rhythms, and recurring ministry events rather than continually reinventing the calendar. The goal is not novelty. It is consistency around the few things the church believes matter most. Create intentional invite moments. // Anthem builds four major invite opportunities into its annual rhythm: Easter, a Summer Kickoff, Homecoming, and Christmas. These predictable moments give the congregation specific opportunities to invite friends and family. Sam has seen the church grow following these events because people know when the church is intentionally creating space for them to bring someone who may not normally attend. Values have to become behaviors. // Anthem's core values include “We Love People,” “We Choose Joy,” and “We Bleed Passion.” But Sam emphasizes that values only matter when people can see them lived out. Loving people means creating a culture where people can belong before they behave. Choosing joy means approaching ministry with gratitude rather than obligation. Bleeding passion means refusing to settle for the status quo and remaining willing to change as God leads. Use clarity to protect multisite culture. // As Anthem expands to additional locations, the Anthem Way provides clear boundaries for what must remain consistent. Sam is not claiming Anthem's approach is the only way to do church, but he does believe it is important for every one of their locations to understand and embody Anthem's distinct way of doing ministry. That documented clarity gives leaders freedom while protecting the culture across campuses. Check out Anthem Church’s About page to see how their story, mission, values, and discipleship pathway fit together. You can also follow @SamHamstra and @ThisIsAnthemChurch on Instagram. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. Really looking forward to today’s conversation. This is a funny one because literally yesterday I was talking to a church in a coaching call. We were talking about this exact issue that we’re going to unpack today. They’re wrestling with these things. I know that this is going to help you. So you’ve tuned in for a great conversation today with Sam Hamstra. Super excited to have him. He and his wife, Taylor, they founded Anthem Church in March 2020 with a vision and heart to lead people to know Christ and make them know known. Rich Birch — Over the past few years they have seen this mission become a reality, continues to grow. It’s a multi-ethnic, multi-generational family made up of thousands of people from all walks of life in Northwestern Indiana, Chicagoland, and beyond. It’s one of the fastest growing churches in the country. So honored that you’re with us today, Sam. Welcome.Sam Hamstra — Rich, so honored to be with you. This is a full circle moment for me. I’ve been following you for quite some time. So super honored to be on your on your show.Rich Birch — Oh, come on. That’s I’m glad you’re here. We, we’ve got a lot to learn from you today. So March, 2020, it’s one of those dates that sticks in all of our brains. Cause like, we all know, what were you doing? March 15th, 2020. We all can say exactly what we’re, where we were. That’s a wild month to, to launch.Rich Birch — It’s funny because I keep bumping into people who are telling a similar story. They’re like, we started during the pandemic, right at the beginning, right after that sort of thing. Give us a picture today and kind of from that moment all the way on to today, kind of bring the story, bring us, tell us a little bit about Anthem. Give us a flavor of the church.Sam Hamstra — Yeah, so we currently today we’re headquartered in Hammond, Indiana, which when we say Indiana, different people have different thoughts. But we’re we’re actually butting up to Chicago.Rich Birch — Yep.Sam Hamstra — Joking around right now, we’re going to be the future home of the Chicago Bears soon.Rich Birch — Nice.Sam Hamstra — Yeah. But um yeah, so we’re headquartered in Hammond. Our second location is in Merrillville, Indiana, about 30 minutes from here. So currently um our family’s grown to about 2,500 people in English. And we also have a Spanish service as well. And God’s done a phenomenal work over a six-year time frame.Sam Hamstra — Yeah, so we did launch in March of 2020. Our first Sunday was the same Sunday the world shut down.Rich Birch — Wow.Sam Hamstra — And so the third week of March was our first service on the internet.Rich Birch — Dude, that’s amazing.Sam Hamstra — Yeah.Rich Birch — That’s incredible.Sam Hamstra — Yes. So in God’s divine plan, kind of underneath our origin story, we we were actually a part of a church in Tinley Park, Illinois. We were a location of that church called Christian Life Center.Sam Hamstra — And our senior pastor and I, Pastor Jerry McQuay, we had been having an ongoing conversation about him making us independent, which is a whole long story. And he decided to really lean into what he believed God was doing in our lives and in this region and made us independent in God’s divine plan. That started in March of 2020. Rich Birch — Wow.Sam Hamstra — And so we transitioned from being a multi part of a multi site church a location up to being independent in March. And yeah, we started with nothing. We didn’t have any cameras, didn’t have anything. I called our media guy and said, do you have anything at your house? And he brought it. Yeah.Rich Birch — What gear you got in your basement? Yeah, that’s amazing.Sam Hamstra — Yeah and he he brought a camera from his house. And yeah, that’s how we started. One continuous shot streaming online. And that was the start of Anthem Church in March of 2020.Rich Birch — Wow. Yeah, that’s amazing.Sam Hamstra — So God’s done a great work.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s amazing. That’s incredible. That’s cool to hear and fun to see where it’s come, you know, since then. When you look back on that experience, you know, a lot of what you’re trying to define in those early days of a church, you’re trying to bring clarity to like, what is our approach? And part of what we do is you know, we there’s ah there’s, I think, some good copying and pasting. You’re like, hey, here’s the way they do it over here. Maybe we could try a little bit that. But then eventually you start kind of coming up with your own way. You kind of birth your own a approach, playbook, you might call it. Rich Birch — When did you start to feel… ah the kind of transition from, hey, I just want to do it like in this case, either CLC or another church over there. And you started to realize, hey, there’s something unique here at Anthem. And we got to try to define some of that. Talk us through maybe from um a timeline point of view or from a revelation point of view, like, oh, this is kind of things I started to see. Talk us through what that looked like.Sam Hamstra — Yeah, so about two years before we launched Anthem, God started to really kind of do a work in our heart just on unique DNA. And we were coming out of like heavily influenced by ARC, Church of the Highlands, and learned so much from there.Sam Hamstra — And we’re seeing just how like clarity really was so important on where we’re going.Sam Hamstra — And so we were coming in there and I just was really praying and seeking the Lord on, okay, this is great. But in our context here, there’s some some differences, there’s some nuances.Sam Hamstra — This is, um we’re over here. what What does this look like here? And so really took the foundation of that and started looking at what does this look like? So when we started Anthem, it was with the thought of, we really want to lean into this unique blueprint of how God designed us and what God has called us to here. Sam Hamstra — So it really started from the jump from from day one. And so but it was a couple years ahead of time to say, OK, this is great. Let’s let’s use this. Let’s we’ve been imitating. Let’s imitate now move to a little bit of innovation and what the Lord would have for us.Rich Birch — Yeah, and there’s obviously there’s like an art and science to that, right? There’s like the, the yeah, insert whatever church, Church of the Highlands is fantastic. They’re doing a great thing, but you’re not Birmingham, Alabama. And you know and so there’s cultural differences, there’s community differences, there’s different resources and all that. That’s like the kind of science-y part of it. Rich Birch — But then there’s the art part of it, which is a little bit more… like intuitives, it’s like vibes, that kind of thing. How did you discern, okay, what are those things that we should be thinking about that are different that you start, or maybe things you started to see, evidence you started to see like, oh, maybe this isn’t working, just importing. Was there evidence of that that you saw?Sam Hamstra — Yeah, so like, and it was like small things, you know, just on approach to Sunday service. Rich Birch — Right.Sam Hamstra — You know, like, hey, this is open door, we don’t do this on Sunday. And we had just been starting to see like pretty early on, we’re we’re reaching lost people through like a hard approach to the gospel.Sam Hamstra — And it was just like, it wasn’t really seeker sensitive. Rich Birch — Sure.Sam Hamstra — It wasn’t, not saying they are, but just, it was just a little bit different in in our context where people were coming from. On the multi-ethnic side, it was just some approaches being super intentional with sounds, sights, all of that in in our context. And so, and even on the discipleship model, you know, groups, what kind of groups are we doing? How are we setting these up?Sam Hamstra — And so it was definitely like these nuances in the different categories, I would say, of discipleship that we started to pay attention to. That that was really the start, I think, of innovating what we have now.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s cool. Why do you think so many of us just reach for someone else’s model rather than doing the longer, harder, deeper, like it’s more annoying work to try to define you know our own thing and and then ultimately to document it which we’re going to get to here. what What did you actually do to kind of try to codify that? But why do you think we avoid that as leaders?Sam Hamstra — Yeah, so I think on one end, what’s established, you can see that the model works. And so um there’s great success you’re seeing. I mean, it’s working everywhere. And so I think it’s safe. And so deep down, it’s like this is established. I see it work. And so I can kind of press play on this. And and I know to a level that this this works. Sam Hamstra — And so it takes courage to do something that you haven’t seen before. Rich Birch — Right.Sam Hamstra — And deep, deep down, i think in our hearts, to me, that’s probably foundational thing. It’s like, man, I haven’t really seen this so his is going to require some courage, require some faith to press into the unknown.Rich Birch — Right. Right. Sam Hamstra — And so I do think that unknown word leads to some different decisions sometimes.Rich Birch — Well, and your church is an interesting um example just because it’s grown so quickly. I, you know, even in the… the lead up to it, I was thinking about, you know, the word, the term church plant.Rich Birch — Like, I don’t know when that term, you know, I was talking with a church that had been around for 30 years and they’re a big church. They’re like 20,000 people. And they, the lead pastor was like, well, we still think of ourselves as a church plant. And I’m like, yeah, I don’t at some point you stop being a church plant and just be, you start being a church. Rich Birch — And I think actually this is one of those, one of those differentiations is when you start saying, okay, like we’re going to, we believe that kind of God’s called us to this unique thing. There’s something in there. You built something that I think you call the Anthem Way. Sam Hamstra — Yeah. Rich Birch — Walk us through what that is. How does it function? What is the Anthem Way? Help us understand that.Sam Hamstra — Yeah, so this was actually birthed in an odd place. I was reading “The Advantage” by Patrick Lencioni,…Rich Birch — Yeah. Sam Hamstra — …and he was talking about organizational health, and one of the keys is clarity. Rich Birch — Yes.Sam Hamstra — And I had I have kind of, I’m somewhat of a mutt in church in my upbringing. Rich Birch — Love it.Sam Hamstra — So I’ve been in a lot of different environments and seen to a lot of different things. And so it was really just kind of like looking like, how can we just be crystal clear on who we are, where we’re going and different things. And so I read that book and in that book, he actually laid out these questions that he was like kind of pointing to every successful organization needs to answer.Sam Hamstra — And Iwas kind of seeing that with some of the stuff I’ve been hearing. And I’m like, and there’s a couple of missing pieces for me that he pointed to that I thought was so important in church world that I would actually point to that have been some of the biggest things I think that have been what I would call probably the secret sauce of what we’ve seen as far as clarity. Sam Hamstra — Just the separation of something simple, but the difference between mission and vision, you know, why we exist compared to where we’re going. And so, yeah, I read that book and in there he laid out questions that you need to answer. I took that to our leadership team and we wrestled with these probably for about nine months. Sam Hamstra — I’m just going back and forth on wording, how we say things. question by question in five different questions. We answered those and we gave it a name called the Anthem Way. And so that was the foundation, but I want to give credit where credit is due. It came through the book, The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni. Yeah.Rich Birch — Yeah, no, that’s great. That’s fantastic. And I, you know, one of the things I love that you’ve hit on here is I’ve talked in other contexts that our vision, well, this is the problem with with vision, mission stuff is it’s like, first you have to have a conversation. How do you define vision? How do you define mission?Sam Hamstra — Yeah.Rich Birch — But the big thing that we’re called to, the big idea, it comes from Jesus, right? We’re supposed to reach people and grow them up in in in relationship with him. All churches should have that as their core. That is at the core of what we do. Sam Hamstra — Yeah. Rich Birch — But getting clear on how we do that, you know, these other questions I’m assuming has helped give you a bit of a more of an edge, something that’s a little bit different. Do you want to rattle through the five questions… Sam Hamstra — Yeah. Rich Birch — …and maybe some high level, I know we can’t get into all the detail, but kind of high level how you’ve answered it. And then the follow-up I’m going ask you is, which are those couple that have given you what you think are the biggest distinctives around Anthem… Sam Hamstra — Yeah. Okay. Rich Birch — …that kind of that that kind of, um you know, that provide that edge that’s a little different, you think.Sam Hamstra — Yeah. So five questions and I’ll rattle them off quick. But so first one is why do we exist? Mission – the mission question, um which you just said it, I 100% agree, you know, every church really is called to the same thing. Let’s make disciples who make disciples, the Great Commission is still our first priority.Sam Hamstra — And so the way we say that is to lead people to know Christ and make them known. That was something we just prayed into language. We want to share language that people could really rally around. Sam Hamstra — Next question is how do we behave? The values question. We wanted to boil down in our culture those not aspirational values like truly who we are. So we boil those down to three things and wrestle with the language a lot. We wanted them actionable, but we choose joy. We love people and we believe passion. Sam Hamstra — And those all have disclaimers and really feed into our culture of what we call multi-everything. We love people from all walks of life, belong before you behave, and all that falls in there.Sam Hamstra — What do we do? Patrick Lencioni was talking about how that’s really your your business definition, so to speak, not for external use, but internal. We answered that with, we provide defined discipleship pathway.Sam Hamstra — It’s what we do day in and day out. It’s why we wake up in the morning. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’re not a country club. We’re not here to make money, we’re a church and and this is this is how we do, like what we do to ah to reach our why.Sam Hamstra — How we live is the spiritual question for us. We wanna make disciples. So we wanted to be able to weigh spiritually what a disciple is. And so we looked at Acts 2:42, which we felt like was a really good, definition of these handles on a disciple. And so we have five kind of disclaimers on what we want to see in our people at our church. And we offer resources on those, but from daily devotion to prayer to we share our Jesus story. How do you testify? How do we share? How do we make Christ known?Sam Hamstra — And then the last one is where are we going, which is the vision question. And we’ve we’re wrestling with the timing right now. We currently have a 10 year vision statement, which is just kind of pointers on like, this is where we believe God is taking us as a people.Sam Hamstra — And so those five questions are give us the framework for what we call the Anthem Way. What I’ve seen, as basic as it sounds and in our context. And I don’t know if this resonates with anybody. One of the most frustrating meetings I had in church context was the yearly calendar meeting.Rich Birch — Yeah, so true.Sam Hamstra — And I just felt like everybody was coming every year with their own ideas. Some of them had to do with our mission, some didn’t. And these are just in past experiences. And so it just felt like everybody was trying to, and some, you know, just different reasons, good, bad, indifferent.Sam Hamstra — And what what gave me great clarity was to look at our defined discipleship pathway and say, this is how we create our calendar. And um that’s been one thing that has simplified everything for us.Sam Hamstra — So every year in the last six years, our our yearly calendar flow has been the same. And our people are starting to understand it. The next steps fall within it when we even, you know, baptisms, we’re doing it this time. And So that’s been one thing is basically that sounds like what do we do?Rich Birch — No, no, that’s good. I like it.Sam Hamstra — I found a lot of confusion on that in the past, on like, how do we do groups? How do we have services? To define everything within that in the discipleship pathway, to me has been life-giving, not only for us as a team, but as as our church as well.Rich Birch — Yeah. Pull that apart a little bit more. I think, because I think this is where we fall down on this type of work is, you know, and, and I know it’s none of the people that are listening in, but there are churches that like, they do a retreat and we’re like, we’re going away. We’re going we’re reading Lencioni. We’re going to define the five questions. We even make a snappy poster and we put it up on the wall. And then we go back to business as usual. It’s the same thing we’ve always done. But you’ve been able to make the connection there, particularly with the calendar.Rich Birch — Maybe talk us through, give us some examples of how this work is shaping, how you’re actually defining, you know, how you operate as a church.Sam Hamstra — Yeah, so one example I would say is prayer. I had somebody call me and I like to think our prayer culture is strong. And they said, how did you get your prayer culture strong? And I said, well, this is really mind blowing. We have a weekly prayer meeting.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Sam Hamstra — And so because of that, and and still as the lead pastor still today, I take responsibility for leading that because I believe it’s it’s a high value for the church. Rich Birch — Right.Sam Hamstra — So it’s on the calendar. We you know And we’re not adding to it. It’s just 6 p.m. to 7 every Thursday. And we support it, which I think is the secondary layer behind that because it’s important. Now we have staff support. We have worship team support. We’re, we’re like staying very focused, on a few things rather than getting broad and going to a retreat and saying, this is a silver bullet. I don’t think there, I think the whole thing is a silver bullet, the whole pathway.Rich Birch — Right. Sure.Sam Hamstra — And so we always say, you know, I took this from somebody, but, you know, we want to be Ruth’s Chris, not Ponderosa. We want a one page menu and we really want to just do that.Rich Birch — Yep.Sam Hamstra — And it might even get boring. And we we’re trying to learn that boring is good.Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah. Boring stuff grows churches. I love it.Sam Hamstra — Yeah.Rich Birch — One of those five is sharing Jesus. Every disciple has one mission, to make Christ known. We don’t keep the gospel to ourselves. We share it through our words, our actions, our lives, wherever we go. We carry the hope of Jesus to a world that needs him.Rich Birch — Unpack some ways that that value drives behavior at the church, that actually drives calendaring and and you know what you’re talking about, that sort of thing.Sam Hamstra — Yeah, so deep, you know, we always want to empower everybody to be inviters and not just share. I think the key word in that is share your Jesus story. You know, we have to be people who understand how to share a testimony outside the four walls with it, you know, with a pretty quick invite to be like, hey, come be part of this community if you don’t have a community.Rich Birch — Right.Sam Hamstra — And so that is really through calendaring. We that’s really probably intrinsically baked into what we’re doing. So anytime I bring a guest to church, I’m saying it from the pulpit. And this is my friend. They’re here. I invited celebrating those through baptisms.Sam Hamstra — We let people testify of so you’re hearing stories of that. And then really resourcing people to make Christ known by sharing their story, teaching them how to do that.Sam Hamstra — So In the context of the calendar, um you know I took this from your playbook, sir, so thank you. We wanted to create four big events in our flywheel… Rich Birch — Yep. Love it. Sam Hamstra — …that are big invite events, that these are the moments where you need to bring 10 people. Rich Birch — Right. Sam Hamstra — We have found in our calendar since day one that we are seeing people respond to that and our church grows after every single time we do a big event. Rich Birch — That’s great.Sam Hamstra — And so we’re we’re doing four quarterly things.Rich Birch — Are those are those four the same every year? Are they, are they, yeah.Sam Hamstra — Yeah, yes.Rich Birch — So what are they? What are those four? If you don’t want me asking.Sam Hamstra — So, you know, Easter, of course… Rich Birch — Yep. Sam Hamstra — …summer kickoff was something we just created… Rich Birch — Yeah, great. Sam Hamstra — …to start the first Sunday of June. We rented a football field and we just say, bring everybody. We don’t… Rich Birch — That’s great. Sam Hamstra — …in our culture here, this is one thing, like, we’re like, we don’t shrink in the summer. This is a great time to grow.Rich Birch — Keep going forward. Yep. Love it.Sam Hamstra — Yeah. And then we created something years ago called Homecoming, just, you know, it was really show up Sunday, invite day. Rich Birch — Yeah. Yep. Sam Hamstra — And then Christmas. Rich Birch — Love it.Sam Hamstra — So those are our four homecomings in November on the calendar. It just kind of flows quarterly for us that way.Rich Birch — That’s great. I love it. Well, I love what we’ve seen in fastest growing church in the country, friends that are listening in, is, you know, lots of churches will get, they have two big days, Christmas and Easter. But what we see is the behavior that you’re doing, which is you kind of end up having to make up a couple other days where you’re kind of injecting energy. We’re recording this in the summertime. You know, lots of churches have pulled a page out of Life Church’s book around At the Movies. And they, at the movies is one of their biggest attended days of the year on the the front end of that.Rich Birch — It’s just made up. There’s no reason for you to come the first week of August… Sam Hamstra — Yeah, absolutely. Rich Birch — …but they’ve decided, hey, we’re going to do that. That’s great. So we’re going to link to your about page where a lot of this is on that that page.Sam Hamstra — Yeah.Rich Birch — On the how our core values, how we behave: We love people. We bleed passion. We choose joy. There’s some unique stuff in there. So talk me through. We love people, I think could be universally true of lots of churches… Sam Hamstra — Yeah. Rich Birch — …but I’m not sure that every church would say we bleed passion. We choose joy. Talk me through those as how those are kind of a unique thing that is helping you define what it means to be Anthem.Sam Hamstra — Yeah, so you know on the love people thing, is you do hear that a lot. And I found there’s a difference between hearing it than living it out. And in religious environments sometimes, you know, I think we all pray we wanna reach the lost until you reach the lost. Rich Birch — True.Sam Hamstra — And our first service, our first Easter Sunday here, we only had one door into our auditorium. And I still remember we had the whole back of the auditorium smelled like weed.Rich Birch — Oh, wow. Okay. Love it.Sam Hamstra — And it was like this tense moment, you know, like of like, okay, this is what we pray for.Rich Birch — Yes.Sam Hamstra — And kind of diving deep into that. So we really own that language within that of we belong before we behave. And so we’re, you know, you can come from all walks of life and we believe Jesus died for all people. So we love all people.Sam Hamstra — And then the we choose joy…Rich Birch — I love that. Before we move on, the thing I love about that… Sam Hamstra — Yeah. Rich Birch — …that you’re calling out, that I do think is a nuance that we miss in too many churches, which is oftentimes we say we want to reach people. But what that comes with is messy pastoral care, hard conversations, stuff that doesn’t make sense, and long nights. Like, it’s just hard. Rich Birch — And, um you know, if you’re, it’s easy to reach Christians from the other church across town. It’s hard to reach people who don’t normally journey in this stuff.Sam Hamstra — Yeah. Yeah.Rich Birch — And I love I love that story, even of your opening weekend with the the smell of weed in the back of the room.Sam Hamstra — Yeah.Rich Birch — I love it.Sam Hamstra — Yeah. Definitely messy.Rich Birch — That’s great. Yes, yes, love it.Sam Hamstra — Yeah. You know, the “We choose joy” has just been, um i think one of the greatest testimonies we had was from somebody that just, it was their first time guest. So like, man, everybody feels like they’re the same here. Everybody’s so happy. And we just wanted to build in just this, we believe that, you know, joy should be a badge that every believer wears. It’s just been, you know, you go into the different environments and some people just, it seems like a chore to be alive.Sam Hamstra — And so we just wanted to drive in. This is a privilege to be part of what God is doing in the earth in this hour, even if it doesn’t look perfect. Rich Birch — That’s great. Sam Hamstra — And then with “We bleed passion”, um that’s really our way to say here, you know, if you’re looking for a place that’s content with status quo, you’re probably not going to like it here. We’re always going to be changing. We’re always going to be moving. We’re always going to be shifting. We always want to go with where the Lord is leading. And so we’re a sending church. Don’t get comfortable. There’s always going to be more services. There’s always going to be new churches. Sam Hamstra — So we tried to to really get that in the DNA from the front side.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. I love it.Rich Birch — I love that “we choose joy”. When I was at Liquid Church, are one of our three in this in this coupling was “Church is fun”. And you know the way we would talk about that is we would say, you know we we we say good news or we say gospel. We’re like, we should be gospel people or we should be good news people. Rich Birch — But what that actually means, how that actually should work itself out in our culture is when people interact with us, those people are a lot of fun to be around. Sam Hamstra — Yeah. Rich Birch — Because they’re redeemed people who have figured out, man, we’re following a God who loves us dearly. So what that should actually like, I love the way you’ve said it, we choose joy. Joy should be the natural outcome of our churches… Sam Hamstra — Yes. Rich Birch — …which is, again, that should not be rocket science, but it’s amazing how much that is a cultural difference or can be a huge cultural difference in many churches.Sam Hamstra — Yes. 100%. Yep.Rich Birch — That’s cool. So um you’ve been using this really throughout your how you develop leaders, how you onboard people, how you, you know, how do you come back to this time and time again? What are you using? How are you using these tools in your leadership development, in your raising up of volunteers, that sort of thing?Sam Hamstra — Yeah, so foundationally, I got to give credit where credit is due once again on this. I heard University of Kentucky’s baseball coach say this about culture, and it was like the best thing I’ve ever heard. He totally transformed his program, and he said it was culture at at the root of it. He said culture is every day. Culture is what you accept, and culture is what you reinforce.Rich Birch — It’s good.Sam Hamstra — And so we try to keep that in front of us as much as we can. It’s you know not something we just say we want to lead the way every day. So within these three, we actually just came out with 10 leadership values that all fit within those three…Rich Birch — Oh, that’s cool.Sam Hamstra — …that give a little more language to our leadership, like, you know, we love people, so we park in back. And so really speaking to the culture of, you know, we put other people first, we serve. Rich Birch — Oh, that’s good.Sam Hamstra — And so, you know, we try to outdo each other. You know, I park about a half mile away from church on Sundays. We don’t we don’t do pastor parking, you know, or anything like that. umAnd so just, it’s every day.Rich Birch — Yes.Sam Hamstra — We do a value at every single one of our pre-service huddles on Sunday. So we’re taking those three values every Sunday, one, here’s what we’re doing.Sam Hamstra — And then Leadership Pipeline, we implemented this two years ago and we’re teaching our Anthem way across the board to a new set of leaders three times a year. And so we really zone in on culture a lot. We’ve just realized people coming from a lot of different places and what makes our culture, our culture are these distinctives. And so we’re teaching those and then really trying to walk them out. And the best testimony we’ve been hearing is people say, yeah, we see that in the leadership of the church. So that’s been really cool to hear.Rich Birch — That’s really cool. I love it. And friends, this just reminds me of the like such a foundational thing we’ve all got to get right and work on and then repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.Rich Birch — We’ve got to keep on top of this language and and just come back to it time and time again. So you’re multi-site, you’re you’re going to launch more campuses down the road. Sam Hamstra — Yeah.Rich Birch — How does this tie into that conversation around, you know, there can be in you know, some multi-site churches, there’s like this tension of uniformity, you know, versus autonomy. And like, how how does that how does how does your thinking work out with the Anthem Way in multiple locations?Sam Hamstra — Yeah. So I want to preface this with I’m new, so I am figuring this out in real time. Rich Birch — Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.Sam Hamstra — I’m coming from from being a campus pastor to now being in the position I’m in. We’re two years into our first ah plant location campus. So and we’ve seen it be successful.Sam Hamstra — But what we’ve agreed on is we are going to be uniform in the Anthem Way. So we’re choosing uniformity and everything that falls within that box of the Anthem Way. Um, and so that has been like the running lanes for us to define what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, the way we talk, the way we move, our style of church, um, and all of that. So that’s been, you know, we’ve been really struggling with, with, with what you just said, that uniformity versus unity versus, you know, autonomy. Sam Hamstra — And so, the Anthem Way is to become our framework on how we’re starting locations. And we feel like as long as everybody’s in sync with all, and it and it entails a lot, right? I mean, how we do church, our approach to a lot of things.Sam Hamstra — And so that’s been that’s been our overarching theme is we want to be uniform in this. Rich Birch — yeah that’s good. Sam Hamstra — And so that’s what we’ve been trying to make sure it’s documented, ready to go.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Yeah, that’s an interesting, that’s like a, we could have a whole other half an hour just on on on that issue.Sam Hamstra — Yeah.Rich Birch — But one of the things we have seen over the long arc of the multi-site movement is churches that are choosing clarity and um and more, yeah, an understanding of, in your case, what is Anthem and how do we do what we do, those churches are the churches that, from my perspective, and not just statistically, are actually benefiting more from the multi-site movement. Rich Birch — The churches where they’re like, hey, let’s spend a lot of time. It can actually be the worst model because it’s like, we have a lot of people thinking about all the different ways you could potentially do church. As opposed to saying, no, no, like this is the way we’re not, we’re not saying this is the best way. We’re just saying it’s our way. We’re not saying that this is the only way to do it.Sam Hamstra — Yeah.Rich Birch — We’re just saying this is the way we do it. And, um and we’re okay with that. We’re settled on on that as an issue.Sam Hamstra — Yeah. That’s good. That’s good.Rich Birch — That’s interesting. Is there anything that changed or that has changed as you, I realize you’ve influenced ben to this from the beginning, but like, has there been anything that has kind of changed as you got clearer on the Anthem Way over the over the years? You know, something you cut or improved or, you know, is there anything that jumps to mind on that front?Sam Hamstra — Yeah, we’re would I might use the word refined rather than changed. Rich Birch — Sure. Yep, that’s good. Sam Hamstra — I was just talking to our discipleship director this morning just on, you know, is there is there a small group model? So like our three kind of handles in our discipleship pathway are know Christ, grow in Christ, and and make Christ known.Sam Hamstra — And, you know, our small group model isn’t working. We added what we call the Mosaic School of Ministry, which is is another thing in Grow. And we’ve actually seen way more interest and success in that. And so, you know, we have a way higher percentage right now going through what we call a School of Ministry, which is classes and and discipleship then we’re getting in small groups. Sam Hamstra — And so we’ve been just kind of wrestling with that a little bit. Like, is that culture, is it good, is it bad? And so I think those those refining moments have have really changed. We started off, though, I feel soft saying this, but it worked in our context. But we would start every year with 21 days of prayer and fasting in the beginning. And do 21 days again in the fall.Rich Birch — Love it.Sam Hamstra — We’ve actually gone down to seven days to start the year. There’s seven days in the fall. We just feel like we’re seeing actually better results with more people getting involved just with those minor tweaks, just to say this…Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.Sam Hamstra — …his is we’re we’re seeing bigger impact there. Rich Birch — Sure. Sam Hamstra — But so I think those refining things have been really good.Rich Birch — Has there been any of that refining that has come not from you, but from a member of your team? Like, has anyone called you out or called the church out on like, hey, like on prayer or on any of these where, you know, like when that’s happened in my life, I kind of like that. Sam Hamstra — Yeah.Rich Birch — I’m like, oh, well, that’s a pleasant thing that just happened there, even though it feels weird to be the person being called out.Sam Hamstra — Yeah.Rich Birch — Have you had any experiences like that?Sam Hamstra — Yeah. Yes. I’m laughing because, yeah, I’ve had quite a few. I could point to the one with prayer fasting. Rich Birch — Yes. So somebody on our team was like, hey, pastor, you know that there’s really no a place in the Bible where there’s a three week corporate fast. Rich Birch — Sure. Sam Hamstra — Yeah like where the whole church is coming together for three weeks and I’m like well I got a challenge, I’m gonna look. And I’m like sure enough you know, I’m maybe somebody could find it, but it was like these times and seasons where people come together for specific things of like, oh man you’re right. Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah, love it. Sam Hamstra — So and so that was like one of those um yeah it’s it’s definitely happened quite quite a bit and so which I love that too and so it’s been such a blessing of solid team that feels free to speak when when they need to.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. Well, this has been a good conversation, just as we’re kind of coming to land. If you think about a church out there that feels like okay they’ve listened to this and they’re like okay, we maybe they’ve opened up your website. And they’re like, hey, we’re not as clear on this that as we could be, we need to get much clearer on that.Rich Birch — What’s kind of one first step that you would encourage people to take? What would be kind of the best first step towards getting clarity on this front?Sam Hamstra — Write the vision, make it plain so that he that reads it may run.Rich Birch — Dude, I love it. And with that, we end the episode. That’s fantastic. No, that’s great. Unpack that a little bit.Sam Hamstra — Um, you know, I for so much of my life, I was always looking to be so unique and so different. Rich Birch — Right.Sam Hamstra — And I felt like I just needed the next best thing. And it was wasn’t until I just locked into this is what the Lord has for us. And it might sound like somebody else it might look and that’s OK, but this going to be very unique to us. And this is what we’re doing. And just to be very clear on that and then just this is for me, but I get bored so easily. And to just, just not get bored and just keep doing the same thing in the same direction day after day.Rich Birch — Right.Sam Hamstra — And in that that flywheel, to use your words, it does work. And just to see that go and to to get very clear and and simple and and let people know where you’re going and just keep saying the same thing over and over is so life-giving.Rich Birch — That’s so good. So good.Rich Birch — Well, I really appreciate you being here today. If we want to send people anywhere online to track with you or to track with the church, where do we want to send them?Sam Hamstra — So first name, last name would be all my personal stuff. So @samhamstra, last name H-A-M-S-T-R-A.Sam Hamstra — And all church stuff is weareanthemchurch.com. And then weareanthemchurch on social as well.Rich Birch — Love it. So good. Appreciate that, Sam. Thanks so much for being here. Honored that you take some time to be with us today.Sam Hamstra — Yeah, thanks so much, Rich, my honor.

On this episode of FreightWaves Today, Malcolm Harris and Zach Strickland break down the latest developments shaping freight, logistics and the broader economy. The show opens with the latest headlines, including an EPA proposal that could change how diesel exhaust fluid warnings work, a series of commercial vehicle safety enforcement blitzes and rising Pacific container rates amid strong peak-season demand and port congestion. Then, Ainsley Williams, VP of Automation and Innovation at Kenco, joins the show to discuss the expansion of Kenco's Innovation Lab in Chattanooga from 10,000 to 30,000 square feet. She explains how the larger facility will allow Kenco to test interconnected warehouse robotics, automation systems and emerging technologies in a real-world environment before deploying them for customers. Zach then dives into the latest SONAR data, examining the impact of Labor Day on tender rejections, freight volumes and spot rates across van, reefer and flatbed markets. Later, Matt Pyatt, CEO and co-founder of Arrive Logistics, joins the show to discuss Mubadala Capital's majority investment in Arrive, the company's growth strategy and what the deal means for its future. Pyatt also shares his outlook on freight demand, capacity, truckload rates and why he believes the market remains highly susceptible to disruption. Finally, the FreightWaves team examines the latest JOLTS and ADP employment data with economist D.J. Donahue, looking at what the numbers reveal about the labor market and the health of the economy. Subscribe to FreightWaves for the latest news, data and analysis from across the transportation and logistics industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since the passage of Proposition E in 2024, San Francisco has expanded its use of technology in public safety, including drones, automated license plate readers, and the city's new Real Time Investigations Center. As these tools become part of everyday policing, they've prompted conversations about how the city can pursue safer streets while protecting privacy and civil liberties. How should new technologies be evaluated and overseen? What transparency and accountability measures make sense? And what can San Francisco's experience teach other cities considering similar approaches? Join us for a thoughtful conversation about technology, public safety and civil liberties—and what responsible innovation looks like in practice. Featuring: Chief Derrick Lew, SFPD Barry Friedman, professor, NYU School of Law; founding director, Policing Project Marisa Rodriguez, CEO, Union Square Alliance Moderated by Megan Cassidy, San Francisco Chronicle Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode we reunite with Everpure technologists and frequent friends of the podcast Andrew Miller and JD Wallace for a deep dive into our major product announcements from June at our Accelerate conference. One year after our influential 15 architectural decisions series debuted, the team returns to uncover the latest Everpure platform advancements and explain why these specific innovations are significant for today's enterprise data environments. We explore the concept of the unified data plane, moving beyond traditional storage hardware to address modern performance, efficiency, and cloud flexibility needs. We then dissect new developments like the FlashArray XL190 and performance breakthroughs for FlashBlade, while discussing how Everpure is shifting its strategy to meet the demands of a data centric world rather than an application centric one. Beyond hardware, Andrew and JD explain the business value of these technologies, emphasizing how Evergreen One Overdrive helps customers handle demand spikes and how Everpure is adapting to the fragmented virtualization landscape. This technical breakdown provides the foundation for understanding how Everpure has evolved into a comprehensive data management platform. We also set the stage for part 2 around intelligent control plane and data intelligence with data context. Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Everpure experts: https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/ 00:00 Coming Up and Intros 03:15 Strategic Implications and EDC 07:45 Keynote and Data Primacy 16:29 Launch Announcements Setup 18:06 FlashArray XL//190 with Turbo 22:11 FlashBlade Benchmarks 24:38 Virtualization Integrations 31:01 Portworx and Kubevirt 33:46 File and Object 36:58 Everpure Data Stream GA 37:58 Evergreen//One Overdrive

For Dr. Erek Ostrowski, the quality of our reflection is the quality of our coaching. In this episode of The Coach's Journey Podcast, he describes how intentional, multifaceted reflection produces new understanding and enables us to take action in ways we could not previously envisage.As well as holding a PhD in Organisational Development and Change, and being a senior leadership and executive coach who founded Verve Coaching, Erek is the author of The Capable Group Coach, which “invites coaches and organisations to embrace the complexity, relational depth, and unique human potential that only group coaching can unlock”.Erek's passion for group coaching, which he believes can help us to address a crisis of meaning that is emerging in the workplace, has fuelled his rise to the very top of his field, and in discussion with host Alex Whitton he explains why there is an increasing demand for group coaching from forward-thinking organisations.The vital importance of experimentation in coaching is a focus of this conversation, and Erek and Alex discuss how coaches can ensure their work is grounded in a solid evidence base while freeing themselves up to be guided by the knowledge that emerges through play and by trying out new things. Erek also speaks sagely about the indispensible value of curiosity in a multifaceted career, and about the tremendous cost we risk if we fail to attend to our gut instincts.This episode is packed full of wisdom and insight from a true innovator and thought leader, who shares his expertise on how to increase the value of your work by developing a practice that produces impact, meaning and possibility far beyond what takes place in the coaching room.Erek and Alex also talk about:• How often practice leads research and the power of learning through doing • The nuanced approaches required when working in different group coaching contexts• How shiatsu and embodied work inform Erek's practice• The different possibilities that open up when working with a capabilities-based model rather than a competencies-based model• How to attune yourself to emergent demand, and create something that people really want!• The benefits of getting involved in scholarship to your positioning in the field of coaching• The crucial differences between group coaching and team coachingTHINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:- Systems theory https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/psychology/systems-theory - Organisational theory https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/organisational-theory - The GROW model https://www.coachingcultureatwork.com/the-grow-model/- David Kolb, learning cycle - https://www.britishschoolofcoaching.com/kolbs-learning-cycle-in-coaching/- John Dewey, Learning by doing - https://www.simplypsychology.org/john-dewey.html- William Bridges, Transition theory - https://wmbridges.com/about/what-is-transition/- Malcolm Knowles, adult learning theory - https://infed.org/dir/welcome/malcolm-knowles-informal-adult-education-self-direction-and-andragogy/- The Capable Group Coach, by Erek Ostrowski https://www.routledge.com/The-Capable-Group-Coach-Bridging-Knowledge-and-Practice-for-Transformative-Learning-and-Change-in-Groups/Ostrowski/p/book/9781041158516 - Tony Grant, https://instituteofcoaching.org/author/grant-anthony- Irvin Yalom, The Theory and Practices of Group Psychotherapy https://www.yalom.com/- David Drake, https://www.davidbdrake.com/- Ken Giglio, Mindful Leadership https://mindful-leaders.com/- Jevons Paradox, https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2025/02/04/g-s1-46018/ai-deepseek-economics-jevons-paradox BIOGRAPHY FROM EREKDr. Erek J. Ostrowski, PhD, PCC, is a senior leadership and executive coach, coaching author and researcher, and founder of Verve Coaching. With over 25 years of experience, he designs and facilitates systemic coaching interventions for senior leaders and organizations navigating rapid change, growth, and scale. His collaborative approach engages leaders in reflection and inquiry that drives business outcomes while fostering a culture of learning and positive change.Erek's practice spans healthcare and academic medicine, financial services, entrepreneurial firms, higher education, and creative services. He partners with physician leaders, executives, faculty, founders, and leadership teams, and is widely recognized for his pioneering research on group coaching.At the University of Pennsylvania, Erek is an affiliated faculty member in the Organizational Dynamics programs, where he chairs the Leadership and Organizational Coaching (LOC) master's concentration. He co-edited Innovations in Leadership Coaching: Research and Practice and is the author of the newly released The Capable Group Coach (Routledge, 2026).Erek holds a PhD in Organizational Development and Change and an MA in Human and Organizational Systems, both from Fielding Graduate University. He is a credentialed coach with the International Coaching Federation (PCC) and a certified coach supervisor through Oxford Brookes University.

Everyone wants innovation. But what exactly are we asking for?In this Post-Pod, Marc and Vassilis unpack their conversation with Fiona Stevenson, co-author of Built for Breakthrough, and start with one of the simplest problems: organizations frequently use the word “innovation” without agreeing on what it actually means.Breakthrough? Disruption? A game changer? Incremental growth? A new tactic?That distinction matters because, as Fiona argued, an idea doesn't become innovation until it is implemented and creates value.From there, the conversation turns to the organizational conditions that innovation requires. Marc and V discuss why teams rush to solutions before properly understanding the problem, why genuine innovation creates fear, and how the pursuit of certainty can push organizations toward safer incremental improvements.They also revisit Fiona's Six I's framework:Identify → Insights → Inspiration → Ideation → Iteration → ImplementationRather than treating those stages as a checklist, Vassilis argues they should be viewed as multipliers. Skip one and you risk weakening the entire system.The conversation closes with two bigger questions.First, if innovation requires focused thinking, why do we expect it to happen between back-to-back meetings?And second, if AI is giving us unprecedented productivity gains, will we use that extra capacity to explore new possibilities — or simply fill it with more of the same work?A Post-Pod about innovation, uncertainty, AI, marketing and why being busy isn't the same thing as building the future.Chapters00:00 Welcome to the Post-Pod00:21 Why “Innovation” Means Different Things to Everyone01:43 What Kind of Innovation Are We Actually Asking For?02:24 Defining Innovation Before Starting the Work02:53 An Idea Isn't Innovation Until It Creates Value04:04 Are We Solving Before Understanding the Problem?04:47 The Optimization Trap06:42 Why Fear Kills Innovation08:39 Why Incremental Innovation Feels Safer10:04 Fear Creates Overanalysis10:21 “How Might We?” vs. “We Should”11:10 Fiona's Six I's of Innovation11:40 Innovation as a Multiplicative System12:53 Is Intuition the Seventh I?13:20 How Marketing and Innovation Overlap14:28 Should Marketing Be an Innovation Function?17:39 Innovation Doesn't Happen Between Meetings18:32 Are We Using AI for Efficiency or Growth?19:48 Why AI Should Create Possibility20:08 AI Increases the Need for Discernment20:55 Final Thoughts

On Earth, 3D printed tissue collapses under its own weight. But in space, things are a bit different.

Fluent Fiction - Italian: Autumn Hustle: A Race Against Time in Milano's Heart Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/it/episode/2026-09-03-22-34-02-it Story Transcript:It: Le foglie gialle e rosse cadevano lentamente dai rami degli alberi attorno all'ufficio nel cuore di Milano.En: The yellow and red leaves were slowly falling from the branches of the trees around the office in the heart of Milano.It: Dentro le vetrate moderne, il tempo sembrava scorrere più veloce.En: Inside the modern glass windows, time seemed to pass faster.It: Le tastiere clattavano incessantemente, i telefoni squillavano e l'aria era carica di tensione.En: Keyboards were clattering incessantly, phones were ringing, and the air was thick with tension.It: Alessandro, un ambizioso project manager, aveva un obiettivo chiaro: presentare la proposta per vincere un contratto importante.En: Alessandro, an ambitious project manager, had a clear goal: to present the proposal to win an important contract.It: Giulia, con i suoi anni di esperienza, era concentrata davanti al suo schermo.En: Giulia, with her years of experience, was focused in front of her screen.It: Aveva dei dubbi.En: She had doubts.It: Il progetto era stato concepito in fretta e alcune parti non erano chiare.En: The project had been conceived quickly, and some parts were not clear.It: Ma il tempo stringeva.En: But time was running out.It: Matteo, il nuovo arrivato, osservava tutto con occhi pieni di entusiasmo.En: Matteo, the newcomer, observed everything with eyes full of enthusiasm.It: Voleva dimostrare il suo valore.En: He wanted to prove his worth.It: "Giulia, dobbiamo finire questo oggi," disse Alessandro, la voce ferma ma gentile.En: "Giulia, we have to finish this today," said Alessandro, his voice firm but kind.It: "Non possiamo perdere questa occasione."En: "We can't miss this opportunity."It: Giulia si morse il labbro.En: Giulia bit her lip.It: "Ci sono delle parti che non mi convincono, Alessandro.En: "There are parts that don't convince me, Alessandro.It: Credo che dovremmo ricontrollare."En: I think we should double-check."It: Alessandro scrollò le spalle.En: Alessandro shrugged.It: "Non abbiamo tempo.En: "We don't have time.It: Dobbiamo andare avanti."En: We need to move forward."It: Matteo intervenne con timidezza ma determinazione.En: Matteo intervened with shyness but determination.It: "Forse possiamo esaminare solo i punti di cui Giulia è preoccupata.En: "Maybe we can just review the points Giulia is worried about.It: Ho un'idea che potrebbe aiutare."En: I have an idea that might help."It: Alessandro e Giulia si scambiarono uno sguardo.En: Alessandro and Giulia exchanged a glance.It: Era un sacrificio di tempo, ma forse valeva la pena ascoltare Matteo.En: It was a sacrifice of time, but perhaps it was worth listening to Matteo.It: Con un po' di riluttanza, decisero di seguire il suggerimento di Matteo.En: With some reluctance, they decided to follow Matteo's suggestion.It: Mentre controllavano i dettagli, Giulia scoprì un errore significativo che avrebbe potuto compromettere tutto.En: While checking the details, Giulia discovered a significant error that could have compromised everything.It: "Eccolo!En: "Here it is!It: Questo avrebbe potuto rovinarci!"En: This could have ruined us!"It: esclamò, indicando lo schermo.En: she exclaimed, pointing at the screen.It: Alessandro impallidì.En: Alessandro turned pale.It: "Mancano solo pochi minuti alla scadenza!"En: "There are only a few minutes left until the deadline!"It: La squadra si riunì con urgenza.En: The team gathered urgently.It: Matteo, con la sua freschezza, suggerì alcune modifiche rapide.En: Matteo, with his fresh perspective, suggested some quick changes.It: Giulia annuì, vedendo che le sue preoccupazioni iniziavano a dissolversi.En: Giulia nodded, seeing her concerns starting to dissolve.It: Insieme, modificarono l'errore e apportarono le correzioni necessarie.En: Together, they fixed the error and made the necessary corrections.It: Appena in tempo, Alessandro inviò il documento.En: Just in time, Alessandro sent the document.It: Si lasciò andare su una sedia, soffiando un sospiro di sollievo.En: He let himself fall into a chair, blowing a sigh of relief.It: "Grazie ragazzi."En: "Thank you guys."It: Quel giorno, tutti impararono qualcosa.En: That day, everyone learned something.It: Alessandro capì quanto fosse importante ascoltare e adattarsi.En: Alessandro understood how important it was to listen and adapt.It: Giulia capì l'importanza della fiducia nel lavoro di squadra.En: Giulia understood the importance of trust in teamwork.It: Matteo, invece, scoprì il valore delle sue idee.En: Matteo, on the other hand, discovered the value of his ideas.It: Mentre si guardavano intorno nel silenzio che seguì, sapevano di aver dato il massimo.En: As they looked around in the silence that followed, they knew they had given their best.It: Fuori, le foglie continuavano a cadere nel lento ritmo dell'autunno a Milano, ma dentro l'ufficio si era creato un nuovo equilibrio, proprio come le foglie che trovano il loro posto nel vento.En: Outside, the leaves continued to fall in the slow rhythm of autumn in Milano, but inside the office, a new balance had been created, just like the leaves finding their place in the wind. Vocabulary Words:the leaves: le fogliethe branches: i ramifalling: cadevanothe keyboards: le tastierethe proposal: la propostahad doubts: aveva dei dubbiconceived quickly: concepito in frettatime is running out: il tempo stringevathe newcomer: il nuovo arrivatoobserved: osservavato prove: dimostrareto bite: mordersito double-check: ricontrollareshrugged: scrollò le spalleworth: valorereluctance: riluttanzathe suggestion: il suggerimentoto compromise: compromettereexclaimed: esclamòthe deadline: la scadenzato gather: riunirsiurgency: urgenzanod: annuireconcerns: preoccupazionito dissolve: dissolversia sigh: un sospiroa chair: una sediarelief: sollievoimportant: importantethe balance: l'equilibrio

Live from the GNE MainStage, Rakesh Bachoe, Head of Design & Development, AMS-IX, Chris Dietzel, Head of Products & Innovation, DE-CIX, and Richard Petrie, CTO, LINX share how years of collaboration on automated interconnection are helping shape a more standardized approach for the industry. By bringing proven IX capabilities into the Mplify LSO API ecosystem,... Read More The post Internet Exchanges: Scaling Interconnection Through Automation appeared first on Mplify Alliance.

In this episode of The Influence Factor, Alessandro Bogliari chats with Danny Farris, Senior Director of Content for the San Francisco 49ers, to explore how NFL teams use social media, storytelling, and fan engagement to strengthen their brands and connect with audiences. Danny shares key marketing moments, effective content strategies, and his perspective on the trends shaping the future of sports marketing.

She spent over two decades building other people's brands, and then motherhood gave her a problem she never expected to have: too much breast milk.  Jenney Korasick is the co-founder of It's My Leche, a first-of-its-kind company born from her own experience with breastfeeding. After finding herself with more milk than she knew what to do with, she began donating it to other mothers and quickly realized just how many women needed access to breast milk and how few options existed to help them. That realization led her to create a company that is giving mothers access to real breast milk, but in a completely different way.  In this episode, Emily sits down with Jenney to explore what happens when you take something so personal to motherhood and turn it into a mission. They talk about what happens when breastfeeding doesn't go the way you imagined and the stigma and misconceptions that still surround breast milk. Jenney also takes us behind the scenes of what it looks like to build a business around something that didn't really exist before and what she hopes to change for the next generation of moms. Whether you're a mother navigating breastfeeding, a mom who has ever felt like motherhood wasn't supposed to look this way, or a woman building something from personal experience, this episode will remind you that sometimes the most powerful change begins when we're willing to challenge the way things have always been done.  What You'll Learn: Why motherhood requires more flexibility than perfection The surprising science behind freeze-dried breast milk Why building a community can be more powerful than traditional marketing The glass-ball vs rubber-ball approach to balancing motherhood and business How motherhood can expand your capacity instead of limiting it Timestamps: (01:20) - From Brand Builder to Mom Entrepreneur (04:01) - The Freezer That Started It All (10:38) - What Parents Really Need from Formula (13:58) - Why So Many Moms Stop Breastfeeding (16:29) - Breaking the “All or Nothing” Mindset (17:13) - Turning Breast Milk into Powder (20:50) - How Long Does Breast Milk Actually Last? (26:26) - Safety Checks Behind Donor Breast Milk (28:42) - Why Leche Pays Its Breast Milk Donors (35:46) - The Reality of Building Something Completely New  (41:53) - The Power of Building a Business Around Your Audience (47:05) - Why Successful Moms Don't Actually “Do It All”  (55:07) - What Your Calling Can Give You That Success Can't (58:56) - The Unexpected Way Motherhood Expands You Are you looking for safe, human breast milk for your baby? Go check out It's My Leche and use code EMILY at checkout for a special discount | https://itsmyleche.com/  Connect with Jenney: Website | https://itsmyleche.com/  Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/itsmyleche/  Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/itsmyleche  TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@itsmyleche  More from Emily & FORDIVINE: Website |  https://meetemilyford.com   Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/itsemily         Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/itsemilymethod    YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/c/ITSEMILYFORD  Called & Crowned Podcast | https://www.instagram.com/calledandcrowned/  FORDIVINE | https://www.fordivine.com/discover

For 1990s evangelical teens, punk, hardcore, and ska were a gateway to a passionate, edgy way to express their Christianity outside the mainstream. But was the music and the message enough to keep the evangelical faith? In this episode, originally published in October 2023, hosts Andrew Gill and Leah Payne follow three Christian punk rock stories from Dr. Bradley Onishi of Axis Mundi Media, author D.L. Mayfield, and Tim Whitaker of The New Evangelicals as they share their stories of loving, leaving, or holding on to evangelical Christianity - and the music that fueled their teenaged devotion.--Do you have a Christian rock story to tell? Want to respond to this episode? Leave us a message at ‪(629) 204-4264‬.If Rock That Doesn't Roll is important to you, support us on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/rtdr (join via the website, not the iOS app for a 30% discount)If you'd like to make a one-time donation: https://coff.ee/rtdrIf you can't afford a donation, please tell five friends about the show.You can connect with us on Instagram or by emailing RTDRpod@gmail.comSign up for our Substack to keep up with show developments.Buy RTDR merch here (deeply discounted Sept. 4-7)Do you like coffee? Try Larry's Coffee and support the show. The first time you spend $15, we get $30.

In this episode of Beyond The Loop, Dr. Patty Lindstrom, Founder of Creative Logic, and Bill Pasmore, Professor of Practice in Social Organizational Psychology at Columbia University, explore how purpose can transform everyday work into meaningful impact. Drawing on her doctoral research and book, Purpose at Work, Patty introduces a practical, evidence-based model showing how organizations that operationalize purpose build three critical conditions: Clarity in direction, decisions, and priorities; Confidence through trust, shared values, and collaboration; and Commitment to sustainable performance and resilience over time. The conversation moves beyond inspiration to application, examining how leaders embed purpose into strategy, culture, and daily decision-making to drive coordinated execution, meaningful innovation, and long-term value creation. From what happens when clarity, confidence, or commitment breaks down, to how the best leaders activate purpose across their organizations, this episode offers a roadmap for why purpose is no longer optional — it's foundational.   Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.    Thank you to our podcast sponsor, Shure Incorporated. For nearly 100 years, Shure Incorporated has developed best-in-class audio products that provide high-quality performance, reliability, and value. Headquartered in Niles, Illinois, our history of innovation and expertise in acoustics, wireless technology, and more enables us to deliver seamless, transparent audio experiences to a global audience. Our diverse product line includes world-class wired and wireless microphones, networked audio systems and signal processors, conferencing and discussion systems, software, a loudspeaker, and award-winning earphones and headphones. Find Shure on: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram 

What happens when you stop thinking about trees and agriculture as separate systems? In this episode, sixth-generation Australian farmer and engineer Michael Taylor explains what decades of planting trees have taught his family about farming, resilience and innovation. On their New England Tablelands farm, “Taylor's Run,” the Taylors began planting trees for a practical reason: shelter. But over generations, those trees have become part of a much bigger story about agroforestry, biodiversity, natural capital, and the complex interactions at work across a farming system. Michael discusses why farming, despite his engineering background, is one of the most complex systems to manage. He shares the lessons that have emerged over decades of tree planting, as well as the mistakes. And the unexpected benefits those experiences have revealed.The conversation also explores what happens when we try to put numbers around nature. Michael discusses how natural capital accounting and data can help demonstrate, in tangible figures, some of the things farmers already see and observe in their landscapes. Sarah and Michael also discuss: How trees can influence wind, moisture, ground cover and livestock protection Why some innovations only reveal their true value over decades How agroforestry can create value beyond timber What natural capital accounting can tell us about farm systems The limits of trying to simplify complex natural systems Useful Links: Valuing natural capital on Australian farms — Tenacious Ventures Shifting from climate measurement to risk mitigation — Tenacious Ventures Mark Wootton on carbon-neutral farming at Jigsaw Farms — Tenacious Ventures Natural Capital - Forico CSIRO Natural Capital Handbook Bambra Agroforestry Farm — practical Australian agroforestry resources Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) - Textile Exchange Australian Farmer of the Year Michael Taylor shows how farming diversity can lead to sustainability - ABC News For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness. [00:2:00] Farming is a complex system [00:20:00] Innovation reveals its value over time [00:24:00] Data can make farmer knowledge visible

Can the Philippines become a testbed for Southeast Asia's clean-tech future? Kicking off Season 19 of Cleaning Up, guest host Marie Cheong meets Jaime Z. Urquijo, Urban Estates Group Head at Ayala Land, one of the Philippines is largest real estate and development companies. Ayala Land is a subsidiary of the Ayala Corporation, which has been part of the Philippines' economic story for almost 200 years, and ACEN, its energy platform, has gone from a standing start in 2011 to more than 7GW of renewable capacity across Asia-Pacific. Marie and Jaime explore how the Philippines can build cleaner energy, transport and cities from the start while its economy and population continue to grow. They discuss replacing coal with renewables, retiring coal plants early, building resilient cities and making growth less carbon-intensive. From batteries and rooftop solar to green steel and electric buses, they ask what it will take for the Philippines to leapfrog to a cleaner, more resilient economy. Topics covered in this conversation: The Philippines' clean-energy challenge Can growth be decoupled from emissions? Making corporate sustainability profitable ACEN's renewable-energy transformation Southeast Asia's renewable-energy gold rush Can coal plants retire early? Building resilient cities for climate Electric buses and better transport Green steel and cleaner construction Leadership Circle: Cleaning Up is proud to be supported by its Leadership Circle. The members are Actis, Alcazar Energy, Arup, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Cygnum Capital, Davidson Kempner, EcoPragma Capital, EDP, Eurelectric, the Gilardini Foundation, KKR, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, National Grid, Octopus Energy, Quadrature Climate Foundation, Schneider Electric, SDCL and Wärtsilä. For more information about the Leadership Circle, visit cleaningup.live Links: Jaime Urquijo's bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaime-urquijo-96526799/ Ayala Corporation: https://ayala.com/ Ayala Land: https://ayalaland.com/ ACEN: https://www.acenrenewables.com/about-us/ Monsoon Wind Project: https://www.monsoonwindasia.com/ Marie's past appearance on Cleaning Up: https://youtu.be/RE2ZeGd8aaI Acronyms: WBCSD: World Business Council for Sustainable Development BPO: Business Process Outsourcing SBTI: Science Based Targets Initiative. MDC: Makati Development Corporation. EDC: The Energy Development Corporation EPIRA: Electric Power Industry Reform Act FIT: Feed-In Tariff ETM: Energy Transition Mechanism BRT: Bus Rapid Transit System ICE: Internal Combustion Engine LGU: Local Government Unit Chapters: 00:00: Intro 04:34: The Philippines 07:49: Ayala's history 10:42: Sustainability strategy 16:16: Net zero 27:32: Energy liberalisation 34:09: Regional challenges 36:27: Coal retirement 42:07: Resilient cities 47:45: Green steel 52:14: Green construction 54:55: Innovation tailwinds 58:27: Energy decentralisation 59:07: Future growth 01:01:43: Outro

Kris Oldland, founder of Field Service News and Managing Director of 1927 Media, joins Sarah Nicastro for a candid conversation about selling the business he spent thirteen years building, what he observed about the field service industry during his time away, and the B2B publishing platform he's built to replace the model he believes is broken — one that treats readers as partners, not commodities.

For this episode, let's revisit a strategy skills classic interview with the author of The Illusion of Innovation: Escape "Efficiency" and Unleash Radical Progress, Elliott Parker. The Illusion of Innovation tackles the problem with innovation inside big companies, having activities that feel like innovation but lead to value destruction, not progress. This book explains why meaningful innovation naturally emerges from deliberate inefficiency and how large corporations can harness the power of small teams—startups—to drive radical change through systematic experimentation. Elliott Parker is the founder and CEO of High Alpha Innovation, a venture builder that partners with corporations, universities, and entrepreneurs to co-create startups that solve compelling problems. He built his career in strategy consulting at Innosight, the firm founded by Clayton Christensen, in corporate venturing, and as an entrepreneur bringing new ideas to market. To date, he has launched over 40 venture-backed startups. Originally from California, Elliott currently resides with his family in Indiana. He earned a B.S. in Finance from BYU and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Get Elliott's new book here: https://rb.gy/hkcl2w The Illusion of Innovation: Escape "Efficiency" and Unleash Radical Progress   Claim your free gift: Free gift #1 McKinsey & BCG winning resume www.FIRMSconsulting.com/resumePDF Free gift #2 Breakthrough Decisions Guide with 25 AI Prompts www.FIRMSconsulting.com/decisions Free gift #3 Five Reasons Why People Ignore Somebody www.FIRMSconsulting.com/owntheroom Free gift #4 Access episode 1 from Build a Consulting Firm, Level 1 www.FIRMSconsulting.com/build Free gift #5 The Overall Approach used in well-managed strategy studies www.FIRMSconsulting.com/OverallApproach Free gift #6 Get a copy of Nine Leaders in Action, a book we co-authored with some of our clients: www.FIRMSconsulting.com/gift

Wayne and Rob conclude their discussion on the last five year's of Bona product innovations. Follow Bona US Professional online: Website: https://www1.bona.com/en-us/professional/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/BonaProfessional Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bonauspro/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonapro.us/

In this episode of the Foster Friendly Podcast, hosts Travis Vangsnes and Kristen Allender reflect on the impactful leadership of Brian Mavis (co founder of America's Kids Belong) who is taking on a new ministry role and stepping out of the organization and the podcast. They share his memorable quotes and leadership principles that have shaped AKB's work in the nonprofit sector, emphasizing the importance of community support, family over programs, and the need for asset-based approaches to community change. The conversation shifts to the Foster Friendly initiative, highlighting its recent achievements in Tennessee, including an innovation award and the activation of over a thousand businesses to support foster families! They also delve into the Foster Friendly app, explaining its purpose and how it connects foster families with community resources. Finally, they look ahead to upcoming conversations and initiatives, emphasizing the importance of sharing stories and experiences from those who have experienced foster care.Download the Foster Friendly App:https://americaskidsbelong.org/foster-friendly-communities/foster-friendly-app/Pickup a copy of Brian's book- Go Upstream: Diving Into Foster Care To Heal 10 Social Woundshttps://a.co/d/04kn7GW0Learn more how your business can become Foster Friendly:https://americaskidsbelong.org/foster-friendly-business/ TakeawaysBrian Mavis transitioned to a local pastoring role, leaving a significant impact on America's Kids Belong.Personal hobbies, like horseback riding, can provide essential self-care and stress relief.The right people in an organization matter more than impressive credentials.A great family is more beneficial than any program for children in need.Real community change should focus on existing assets rather than deficits.Leadership should prioritize retention of current supporters before recruiting new ones.Humility in leadership includes acknowledging past mistakes and learning from them.Community support systems are crucial for fostering families.Equine therapy can be a valuable resource for emotional well-being.Collaboration among sectors is essential for effective community change. Trust is essential in the nonprofit sector.Collaboration can lead to greater impact.Brian Mavis was a visionary leader.Foster Friendly has activated over a thousand businesses.The Foster Friendly app connects families with resources.Community support is crucial for foster families.Innovative solutions can emerge from unexpected partnerships.Recognizing the contributions of individuals is important.Future conversations will focus on aging out of foster care.National Adoption Awareness Month will bring new resources. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Foster Friendly Podcast.Learn more about being a foster or adoptive parent or supporting those who are in your community.Meet kids awaiting adoption.Join us in helping kids in foster care by donating $18 a month and change the lives of foster kids before they age out.Visit AmericasKidsBelong.org and click the donate button to help us change the outcomes of kids in foster care.

What if the AI arms race has no finish line?In this episode of Your AI Injection, Deep Dhillon sits down with Rob May, CEO of Neurometric, to challenge one of Silicon Valley's favorite assumptions, that whoever builds super-intelligence first gets to keep it. Drawing on over a decade of AI investing and two prior startups, Rob lays out a public prediction he's willing to stand behind. He believes that once any lab crosses the threshold into true super-intelligence, open source versions will follow within months, not years. The two also get into the "jagged frontier" of AI capability, the strange reality that today's most powerful models can be brilliant at one task and shockingly bad at the next, and what that means for how companies actually deploy AI. There's also a simpler question underneath it all. If AI keeps getting cheaper and easier to use, will we just find more excuses to use it, whether we need it or not?Learn more about Rob May here: https://www.lin kedin.com/in/robmay/ and Neurometric here: https://www.neurometric.ai/Check out some of our related content here: 90% of AI's Power for 10% of the Cost. Is the AI Arms Race a Giant Waste of Money? With Bruce Yang of AgnesAIExploring Artificial General Intelligence: Intent, Intellect, and Innovation with Lucas Hendrich of the Forte GroupIs This the End of Traditional Coding? How AI Orchestration Might Render Developers Obsolete with Laly Bar-Ilan of Bit

SummaryWhat should every new teacher know before they are asked to improvise, differentiate, or innovate? Gene Tavernetti argues that one of the most important foundations is fluency in explicit instruction—not just hearing about it in professional development, but learning to design it, deliver it, practice it, and receive feedback until the work becomes automatic.Gene explains why that fluency matters in real classrooms: it reduces the number of decisions teachers have to make, gives them a reliable baseline for accommodations and modifications, helps schools eliminate instructional variables before moving students into intervention, sharpens their ability to evaluate purchased or AI-generated materials, and creates a common language for collaboration. The goal is not to make every lesson look the same; it is to give teachers a strong instructional foundation from which they can adapt intelligently.Chapters0:00 — Better Teaching introduction0:41 — What new teachers need to know1:52 — Why training and coaching matter3:10 — Reason 1: Build fluency and automaticity5:19 — Reason 2: Create a baseline for accommodations6:22 — Reason 3: Eliminate instructional variables8:02 — Reason 4: Evaluate curriculum and AI-generated lessons10:08 — Reason 5: Build a common professional language12:31 — Explicit instruction is a foundation, not a restriction14:55 — Better Teaching outroShow NotesGene Tavernetti helps educators strengthen explicit instruction, lesson design, and instructional coaching.Gene's website: tesscg.comGene's books include Teach Fast, Focus, Adaptable Structured Teaching and Maximizing the Impact of Coaching Cycles.Follow Gene on Bluesky and X: @gtavernetti This podcast sponsored by:The Bell Ringer, a weekly newsletter providing news, tools, and resources on the science of learning, written by education reporter Holly Korbey. Subscribe here. 

Send us Fan MailDr. Sasha Thackaberry-Voinovich founded Newstate University in 2026, bringing 20+ years of education leadership from executive roles at SkillsWave, Pearson, LSU and SNHU. She holds a PhD from Kent State and authored "The Power Worker" and "How to Grow Enrollment in Online Higher Education."Hosted by Matthew Rascoff This episode is part of the Edtech Insiders HigherEd Podcast Series, featuring conversations with leaders shaping the future of higher education.

The sovereignty conversation has so many layers, from compliance and data residency to questions about resilience and access to the tech stacks that keep businesses running. As geopolitical uncertainty, supply chain disruptions, and evolving regulations reshape the landscape, leaders are challenged to balance sovereignty with the speed and flexibility required to innovate. In this episode, we get a pulse check from our experts about prevailing sovereignty concerns and hear their perspectives on what it takes to build resilience without sacrificing innovation. Featured experts Bill Echikson, Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA); Founder, E+Europe Logan Wolfe, Partner, Global Lead - AI Strategy and Sovereign Transformation, Kyndryl

On this episode of the Foil Life Podcast, Luc Moore sits down with Clinton Filen (recently stepped into Chief Brand Officer at NAG) to talk about the transition after two decades in design and brand management, what it takes to keep innovation moving inside a large multi-sport company, and where foiling, winging, kiting and windsurfing are heading next.They recap Clinton's path from childhood windsurfing on the South African coast through early kiting and wing prototypes, time in Maui and Australia (Severn/Airush), and the last six months at North Action Sports Group. The conversation covers design philosophy, building a culture of innovation versus commercial reality, lowering barriers to entry while keeping depth for obsessed riders, how foiling is connecting previously separate sports, current go-to gear, and the disconnect between a 40–60-year-old buying audience and much younger marketing.Episode Highlights:- Six months into the North role: keeping core talent (kite and wing designers), adding graphic design and admin capacity, and a shout-out to the original New Zealand team that built the brand- Design approach: thinking in systems and architecture, staying radically open-minded, questioning line lengths, aspect ratios and connection systems, then dropping back into “who is the customer and how do we make it more fun”- Innovation reality: most disruption still comes from outside the industry; entrenched connection systems can slow change; useful cross-pollination between wing, kite, windsurf and foil- Barriers to entry vs. mastery: easier assembly, lower cost and more approachable gear for people who ride a few days a month, while still offering the nuance that keeps daily riders chasing the last 5 seconds of glide- Current riding: MIDI Pro boards as a daily driver, Boost masts, exploring foil-drive, Nervas wings, and the more speed-focused Modes — plus prototypes already in the works- Growing the pie: foiling as a gateway sport (pump foil on lakes, foil-assist, wing), speaking differently to first-time buyers versus five-year veterans, and why waterman culture beats putting people in boxes- Advice for junior designers: curiosity first, radical open-mindedness, self-discipline, humility, and remembering it was a team that got you thereVisit: https://northactionsports.com/

On this episode of Accelerating Government, host Dave Wennergren talks with a group of leaders about ACT-IAC's recently released Federal HR Management Technology Market Research Report.Guests:Jim Cook, founder and CEO, Action to Impact Strategies, LLC and chair, ACT-IAC Institute for Innovation. https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-cook-10ab23a/Gary Washington, chief strategy officer at ACT-IAC, former USDA CIO and past president of the American Council for Technology. https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-washington-995413a5/Mark Abel, vice president, Capture and Strategic Growth and Go to Market Executive for Workforce Solutions, Maximus Federal. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-abel-2ab9931/Steve Krauss, principal, SLK Executive Advisory LLC and long-time ACT-IAC volunteer leader. https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-krauss-b9b22/Additional Resources:To read the ACT-IAC Federal HR Management Technology Market Research Report: https://www.actiac.org/documents/federal-human-resource-management-technology-market-researchTo learn more about ACT-IAC, please visit our website: https://www.actiac.org/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bringing research, prototyping, production, and shipping under one roof can turn American manufacturing into a faster engine for water innovation.Rob Gledhill, CEO of Blue-White Industries, offers an inside look at how the Huntington Beach company develops and manufactures equipment used in water and wastewater treatment.Blue-White produces chemical metering pumps, flow meters, instrumentation, and complete chemical-feed systems for drinking water, industrial processes, and wastewater facilities.Its Studio 53 research department brings engineers together with production workers, customer-service representatives, returns specialists, and customers to sketch ideas and rapidly test prototypes.When rising demand strained production, employees built a second assembly line in three days and doubled manufacturing capacity within two weeks.The same emphasis on simplicity reduced one developing product from about 30 parts to 11 while cutting its production timeline from 16 weeks to one week or less.Production 3D printers, CNC machines, injection-molding equipment, welders, and laser cutters allow the company to make many components in-house instead of waiting for parts delayed in international supply chains.Engineers also follow products into the field to see how operators use, misuse, or modify them, turning those observations into the next round of design changes.The tour shows that “Made in America” can be more than a label of origin. It can also be a manufacturing strategy built around speed, supply-chain resilience, institutional knowledge, and continuous improvement.waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.

Thanks to some clever engineering, NASA's Voyager 2 has enough power to continue doing science in interstellar space.

The category of "Gnosticism" has shaped how generations of scholars have understood a remarkably diverse collection of ancient writings. Michael A. Williams, author of the influential Rethinking Gnosticism, joins Shirley Paulson to trace the history of that category, reconsider assumptions about the Nag Hammadi writings, and explore what emerges when we read the texts individually. Their conversation offers a more nuanced picture of ancient readers, diverse interpretations, and the surprisingly hopeful worlds some of these writings reveal. Michael Williams is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion and Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he was a faculty member since 1976. His PhD is from Harvard University, and his two highly important and influential books are The Immovable Race: A Gnostic Designation and the Theme of Stability in Late Antiquity and Rethinking Gnosticism: An Argument for Dismantling a Problematic Category. He's the author and coeditor of several other books and articles, including two volumes of essays: Charisma and Sacred Biography and Innovation in Religious Traditions. His work has led him to an increasing suspicion of many conventional generalizations about "gnosticism." Related research interests have included scribal practices and ancient book manufacture and the cultural significance witnessed in the selection and arrangement of content in codex manuscripts that contain multiple writings. A complete transcript is available on the shownotes page at https://earlychristiantexts.com/beyond-gnosticism/  

Volkswagen embodies the profound challenges facing Germany's automotive industry: high costs, changing markets and increasingly fierce international competition are putting the iconic carmaker under pressure. Economics professor John De New explains why the crisis extends far beyond Volkswagen, what mistakes he believes have been made in recent years, and why innovation and long-term strategies are crucial to the future of the industry. - Volkswagen steht für die tiefgreifenden Herausforderungen der deutschen Autoindustrie: hohe Kosten, veränderte Märkte und ein zunehmend harter internationaler Wettbewerb setzen den Traditionskonzern unter Druck. Wirtschaftsprofessor John De New erklärt, warum die Krise weit über Volkswagen hinausgeht, welche Fehler aus seiner Sicht in den vergangenen Jahren gemacht wurden und warum Innovation und langfristige Strategien für die Zukunft der Branche entscheidend sind.

Seegras für den Hausbau – Auf der Ostseeinsel Poel werden jedes Jahr mehrere Tonnen Seegras angeschwemmt. Der Unternehmer Vincent Marnitz entwickelt daraus einen umweltfreundlichen Dämmstoff. Das Interesse ist groß.

In the AI revolution, one of the critical constraints is how much additional electricity can be made available to power new data centers. And it is often argued that one of the key constraints on the growth of electricity supply is capacity in the equipment supply industry. The rate at which electricity supply can grow is determined in part by how fast the equipment industry can supply new turbines, transformers, switchgear and circuit breakers.In this episode Roger Martella, Chief Corporate Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer at GE Vernova, one of the world's largest suppliers of electrical equipment, joins the show to explain how the company is meeting the challenge of soaring demand. Roger talks to host Ed Crooks and regular contributor Melissa Lott, Partner for Energy at Microsoft, about his route from industrial Pennsylvania to the leadership team at GE, via the Environmental Protection Agency. And he explains why, when the old conglomerate GE broke up, he chose to go with the energy business. The company is driven by a sense of purpose, he says: bringing electricity to the world both raises living standards and supports decarbonization.Electricity demand growth created by new data centers for AI is one driver for GE Vernova's rapidly growing order book, but not the only one. The company is also responding to other sources of growing demand around the world, including the need to strengthen energy security in Europe and to support economic growth and development in emerging Asia.In the US, GE Vernova has announced $1.3 billion in investment and 1,800 new manufacturing jobs, to support expanded production of switchgear, circuit breakers and turbines. It plans to increase its turbine manufacturing capacity from 18 gigawatts a year to 30 gigawatts a year by 2030.Roger rejects the idea that equipment supplies are the main bottleneck restricting electricity supply growth. Other issues, including permitting and grid interconnections, are more fundamental difficulties for project developers. If anyone has built a turbine stand, but doesn't have a turbine to out on it, he says, he will find a turbine. Ed raises the issue of the industry's cyclicality. The gas turbine market has been through boom and bust in the past, and the uncertainty over the future of AI naturally raises the question of whether we are in another bubble today. Roger's answer is that the company is looking at the range of needs that are driving electrification, not making a bet solely on AI.As its production increases, GE Vernova needs to hire more workers. Roger, Ed and Melissa discuss the familiar consensus around skilled trades. Just about everyone agrees that America and other countries need more electricians, plumbers and welders to deloiver the build-out of infrastructure. But skills shortages persist. So what are the solutions that would actually increase the workforce in these sectors to meet demand? Are pay, job security, training and the status of industrial work being addressed in the right ways?One of the more exciting technologies for meeting electricity demand in the 2030s and beyond is the new generation of nuclear plants using small modular reactors (SMRs). GE Vernova has a new nuclear plant using SMRs under construction at Darlington in Ontario, and is targeting commercial operation by 2030. Ed pushes on the key question: can SMRs move from a promising concept to a repeatable, cost-competitive business? Roger says the first project has to be a proof point. The nuclear business cannot be run as a hobby, he says. The lessons from the first-of-a-kind Darlington plant must be used to drive down costs for subsequent units.The discussion also covers High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission and cutting-edge technologies for grid management, including uses for drones and AI. Roger ends with a message to policymakers: the missing ingredient is policy durability. If the industry is to invest enough to meet long-term needs, it has to have policy frameworks that survive political cycles, court challenges and changes of administration.This episode of Energy Gang is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Richard Braden and Dr. Tessa Forshaw, co-authors and innovation educators from Stanford, challenge common myths about creativity and reveal why innovation is a skill anyone can develop, not an innate talent reserved for a select few. Drawing on cognitive science, design thinking, and real-world consulting experience, they explain how “innovation hesitation” holds people back and how adopting the right mindset can unlock creative problem-solving, collaboration, and breakthrough thinking. The conversation explores the science behind creativity, divergent and convergent thinking, neuroplasticity, team innovation, and practical strategies for overcoming uncertainty in business and life.

This week on Catalyst, Tammy is joined by not just any executive coach — she's welcoming her very own executive coach onto the podcast. Anna Pool is an executive coach, author, and President of Executive Savvy, and has been working with Tammy for years. Anna shares her non-traditional background: 20 years living and working in an ashram, where she devoted her life to yoga, meditation, and enlightenment. She explains how this experience informs her practical approach to presence, nervous system regulation, and resilient leadership. She and Tammy also discuss why so many leaders are stuck in chronic stress today. Anna introduces the concept of the red, green, and blue zones, and teaches simple ways to return to the green zone before reactive decisions take over.Please note that the views expressed may not necessarily be those of NTT DATALinks: Anna Pool Daniel Goleman - Emotional Intelligence A ten-minute meditation on reconnecting with the Green Zone led by Anna Anna's latest Linked In article on the Red ZoneLet Go - Sanskrit/English chanting written and produced by AnnaLearn more about Launch by NTT DATASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

DR'We Know We Got This Wrong': Target Apologises and Pulls 'Offensive' Halloween Costume After Racist Backlash; Target Executive Chair Brian Cornell Sells 50,000 Shares for $8.2 Million; WHO DO YOU BLAME?Executive Chair/former CEO (since 2014) Brian Cornell: still 21% influence!CEO Michael Fiddelke: 16% influence; started at Target in 2003; formerly COO and CFOWhy does the corporate page not list his years of service in two separate bios??Dmitri Stockton: 8 years tenure; the double-DEI hater (Deere & Company) Mr. Stockton provides the Board with senior leadership, marketing / design / brands, human capital management, capital deployment, information security / data privacy, financial management, risk management, reputation management, and sustainability and governance skills developed over his more than 30 years of service with General Electric Company in senior leadership positions with escalating levels of responsibilityMarketing / Design / Brands: Target's brand and focus on style and design are the cornerstones of our strategy to offer a preferred shopping experience for our guests that differentiates us in the marketplace.Reputation management: To be successful, we must preserve, grow, and leverage the value of our reputation with our guests, Team Members, vendors, and our shareholders and appropriately respond to crisis events affecting them.A random executive?Chief Merchandising Officer Cara Sylvester: joined Target in 2007Chief Community and Stakeholder Engagement Officer Kiera Fernandez: joined Target in 2001Chief Stores Officer Adrienne Costanzo: joined Target in 2004Black CFO representation falls 25% from 2021 peak as diversity levels off: The number of Black finance chiefs in Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies ticked down to 15 this year, according to the report from Crist Kolder Associates. WHO DO YOU BLAME?Tractor Supply Co.: Fully eliminated its DEI goals, retired carbon emission targets, and withdrew sponsorships from social and cultural events.Deere & Company: Ended participation in social awareness parades and pledged to eliminate diversity quotas and identity-based affinity group funding.Target: Scaled back its "Racial Equity Action and Change" roadmap, modified its strategy for Pride Month merchandise, and adjusted internal diversity goals.Walmart: Ended key equity training programs, modified its third-party seller guidelines, and scaled back specific minority supplier programs.Lowe's: Ended participation in external LGBTQ+ advocacy surveys and consolidated its employee resource groups under a centralized oversight structure.Ford Motor Company: Scaled back internal diversity targets, stopped participating in third-party workplace index surveys, and unlinked executive pay from DEI metrics.Harley-Davidson: Discontinued its dedicated DEI function, eliminated diversity quotas for supplier contracts, and ended HRC index reporting.Molson Coors: Removed DEI quotas from executive incentive plans and stepped back from external diversity rankings.Meta: Reorganized its human resources departments, eliminating specialized DEI teams and specific supplier diversity programs in favor of broader recruitment practices.Amazon: Phased out several internal affinity programs and explicit representation targets for hiring.McDonald's: Retired numerical demographic goals for senior management roles and paused external workplace diversity surveys.Goldman Sachs: Ended its policy requiring companies it takes public to have at least one diverse board member.The double (and triple?) dippers:Dmitri Stockton: director at Target & DeereJohn May CEO/Chair Deere & Ford Motor directorMarvin Ellison: CEO/Chair at Lowe's after 15 years at TargetJim Farley: CEO Ford Motor & McDonald's director & former Harley-Davison director MMTrump 2.0/ElonShareholder opposition to executive pay eases globallyEurope: NO VOTES for past year fell nearly 6 percentage points year-over-year to 25.2%, the lowest average level since at least 2018.United States: Say on Pay Average Support (S&P 500): Rose to 90.4% (up from 89.7%). Failed Votes (12 years tenure, only 4 of the 11 directors got tagged as having meritThe number of committees - SIX different committees with SIX members in each (except audit which is 5) for 10 directors at the time - they needed to add ANYONE because they were exhausted from so many committee meetingsRich Stoddart DRMember of Nom/CG (also Audit, “Innovation”, and “Social Responsibility”)Was CEO of Leo Burnett - advertising agency that handled massive portion of Nestle USA advertising. Presley was CEO of Nestle USA.Callaway Golf CEO met with backlash over apology for Good Good video depicting abuseThe ad: In the footage, Good Good personality Garrett Clark charges at Alexis Miestowski, knocks her onto the grass, then stands over her and says, "Do not touch my new driver."The company issued a statement on Friday, but CEO Chip Brewer did a social media post this morning stating: "That approval should never have happened. Mistakes were made, and we are taking the matter very seriously. I want to make it clear that we sincerely apologize for the video." He did not apologize to women.WHO DO YOU BLAME?EVP and President of Callaway Golf Glenn Hickey who leads sales and marketing, whose prior work includes being a bond trader and getting a business degree from San Diego State, but was absent for the “don't shove a woman in an ad” lesson (possibly)Good Good and its CEO Matt Kendrick who made the ad for Callaway and posted, “Interesting that @CallawayGolf asks us to make an ad then approves it then asks us to take the fall then drops us in a coordinated media blitz and covers it up by giving a million dollars away thinking everyone will be ok with it. 30 for 39 will be legendary.” He also apologized. But clearly more annoyed at Callaway than, you know, sorry for women?The women on the board and the management team - they should have caught this before it got out! Oh, what? There's TWO women on the board (one auditor who is ex-Boeing, a company with no challenges, and the other a Chief People Officer at a food company) and ONE woman in management (Chief People Officer)? None of whom would have seen the ad??? Oops.Tom Dundon - who, according to the Callaway 2026 Proxy Statement, has been a director since “not applicable” - but does own more than 10% of the stock and has 56% influence over the company according to Free Float data MM

Taking the risk no one else will: how Medical 21 is working to replace harvested blood vessels with an artificial coronary artery that becomes part of the patient's own body. In this episode, Manny Villafana, Founder and CEO of Medical 21, returns to discuss his team's progress in developing an artificial coronary artery for bypass surgery. Drawing on more than five decades of medical device innovation, he reflects on how his earlier companies helped create longer-lasting pacemakers and lifelong heart valves that transformed cardiovascular care. Manny explains how Medical 21's graft is designed to grow into a living blood vessel made from the patient's own cells, potentially eliminating the need to harvest vessels during bypass surgery and reducing pain, recovery time, infection risk, and costs. He also shares updates on the company's preclinical progress, partnership with the Mayo Clinic, fundraising efforts, and why pursuing seemingly impossible ideas is essential to advancing medicine. Tune in to learn how bold thinking, regenerative technology, and a willingness to take risks could reshape coronary bypass surgery! Resources: Connect with and follow Manny Villafana on LinkedIn. Follow Medical 21 on LinkedIn and explore their website!

Join On The Range Podcast hosts Rick Hogg of War HOGG Tactical and Mark Kelley of Kelley Defense live from the NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits for an inside look at the firearms industry with special guest Jahred Gamez of SDS Arms. Recorded on the show floor during our visit to the NRA Annual Meeting, this episode covers SDS Arms' multi-brand strategy, feature-rich firearms at aggressive price points, and what serious shooters should know about platforms from Military Armament Corp, Tokarev USA, Inglis MFG, and Spandau Arms—from pistols and PCC-style designs to hunting shotguns and range-ready gear. Join the On The Range Podcast CREW at otrcrew.com for exclusive training videos, bonus content, and support the show. CREW members get members-only firearms training, extra episodes, live Q&As with Rick and Mark, early access, and a private community built for law enforcement, military, and responsibly armed citizens who want to be 1% better every day. Rick and Mark bring more than 60 years of combined Special Operations, combat, and law enforcement experience to a practical conversation on product value, training mindset, industry trends, and how to choose reliable firearms without overpaying. Whether you are a concealed carrier, hunter, instructor, or new shooter walking the NRA exhibit hall, this episode delivers clear takeaways you can use on the range.Train hard. Stay safe. See you On The Range. Watch & follow On The Range Podcast | Join the CREW | War HOGG Tactical | Kelley Defense | SDS Arms | NRA Annual Meetings | NRA | Jahred Gamez / Okayest Shooter Keywords: On The Range Podcast, Rick Hogg, Mark Kelley, War HOGG Tactical, Kelley Defense, Jahred Gamez, SDS Arms, NRA Annual Meeting, NRAAM, NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits, firearms training podcast, Second Amendment, pistols, shotguns, Military Armament Corp, MAC firearms, Tokarev USA, Inglis, Spandau Arms, firearms industry, gun show Houston, law enforcement training, responsibly armed citizens, 1% Better Everyday, OTR CREW

Traditional sports broadcasts are evolving into multi-platform cultural ecosystems driven by social media, gaming metaverses, and athlete creators. NBA 2K Media CEO Andrew Perlmutter explains how media brands can build participatory off-court entertainment that converts casual viewers into lifelong fans. Key Highlights

In "Scaling Logistics Innovation at Descartes Systems Group", Joe Lynch and Dan Cicerchi, the General Manager of Transportation Management Solutions at Descartes Systems Group, discuss the strategic integration of trustworthy AI to enhance existing core logistics technology and solve practical pain points across the global supply chain. About Dan Cicerchi Dan Cicerchi is the General Manager of Transportation Management Solutions at Descartes Systems Group, where he leads strategy and innovation for one of the industry's most widely adopted logistics technology platforms. A seasoned entrepreneur and logistics tech pioneer, Dan co-founded MacroPoint, a real-time freight visibility solution that transformed how brokers, shippers, and carriers track and manage loads. Following its acquisition by Descartes, he has continued to champion technology that drives efficiency, transparency, and resilience across global supply chains. With decades of experience spanning startup growth and enterprise leadership, Dan is passionate about applying practical AI and automation to solve the freight industry's most pressing challenges. He frequently shares insights on freight visibility, fraud prevention, and the future of transportation management. About Descartes Systems Group Descartes Systems Group is a global leader in providing on-demand, software-as-a-service solutions designed to improve the productivity, performance, and security of logistics-intensive businesses. Headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, with offices and customers worldwide, Descartes helps shippers, carriers, freight forwarders, and logistics service providers connect, collaborate, and automate across the supply chain. Its portfolio includes transportation management, visibility, customs and regulatory compliance, and e-commerce logistics solutions. By combining deep industry expertise with innovative technology, Descartes enables organizations to streamline operations, reduce costs, and deliver superior customer experiences. Thousands of companies around the world rely on Descartes' logistics network and software to move goods more efficiently, mitigate risk, and stay ahead in an increasingly complex global marketplace. Key Takeaways: Scaling Logistics Innovation at Descartes Systems Group In "Scaling Logistics Innovation at Descartes Systems Group", Joe Lynch and Dan Cicerchi, the General Manager of Transportation Management Solutions at Descartes Systems Group, discuss the strategic integration of trustworthy AI to enhance existing core logistics technology and solve practical pain points across the global supply chain. Trust First: AI adoption in logistics must be built on governance and trust, using frameworks like NIST to ensure data security and accountability. AI Augments, Doesn't Replace: AI is a powerful enhancer for core systems (TMS, visibility), not a standalone replacement. Its primary role is to improve efficiency. Focus on Practical Pain Points: Start AI implementation by targeting tedious manual tasks (e.g., check calls, data entry, carrier onboarding) for rapid, measurable ROI. Stability Over Startups: Partnering with existing, integrated tech vendors (like Descartes) ensures greater stability, expertise, and roadmap alignment than relying on new AI-only startups. Audit Your Current Tech: Before investing in new AI, ensure you are fully utilizing the latest features and integrations of your current mission-critical systems. Build Trust with Staff: Overcome internal resistance by layering AI into current workflows and establishing clear performance baselines (ROI) before deployment. Enhance What Works: The path to resilience is through strategically integrating AI into proven, existing workflows step-by-step, not by chasing every new technology trend. Learn More About Scaling Logistics Innovation at Descartes Systems Group Dan Cicerchi | Linkedin Descartes Systems Group | Linkedin Descartes Systems Group The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube

Climate tech is scaling fast. But the data shows huge gaps in industrial decarbonization, carbon removal, energy storage, and the capital needed to turn breakthrough technologies into profitable businesses.Company bio:Speed & Scale is a climate action initiative built around measurable objectives and key results (OKRs) for reaching net-zero emissions, originating from John Doerr's Speed & Scale framework. https://speedandscale.comIts Climate Tech Map, developed with partners including Breakthrough Energy, Elemental Impact, Energy Innovation, McKinsey Sustainability, and Stanford's Doerr School, organizes thousands of climate technologies into a navigable roadmap of decarbonization opportunities.https://climatetechmap.comGuest bios:Ryan Panchadsaram is co-author of Speed & Scale and an investor at Doerr Capital, where his work spans climate technology investing, philanthropy, and climate strategy; his earlier career includes entrepreneurship and public-sector leadership. Quinn is Director of Research at Speed & Scale, and an investor at Doerr Capital, where she helps translate complex climate, technology, and market data into actionable frameworks for investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and professionals entering climate tech.Seven things you'll learn in this episode:Why steel, cement, and food may offer more climate-tech whitespace than the crowded energy sector.Why climate technologies need a green discount, not just cost parity.How deep tech founders can prove their path from expensive prototype to profitable scale.Why manufacturing talent often needs to join a climate startup earlier than founders expect.Why long-duration energy storage is emerging as a major investment opportunity.Where climate capital is surging—and where promising technologies are still starved for funding.Why successful leaders should spend more time creating than consuming.--Join our confidential CEO community.Private CEO group for VC/PE-backed climate tech founders navigating capital, strategy, and scale. Capped at 45 CEOs.→ entrepreneursforimpact.com Join 40,000 professionals who get our newsletter.Climate tech finance, strategy, leadership. 2-min read.→ entrepreneursforimpact.substack.comLeave a podcast review.If you got value, take 30 seconds and do the community a favor. It helps push more capital and talent toward scalable climate solutions.

On this episode, Mark Simon talks to Kuwilileni Williams-Hauwanga, the deputy director of Audience & Innovation at Capital B, a newsroom that covers stories of crucial importance to Black people across the country, such as politics, health, criminal justice, the environment, and rural issues.Kuwilileni is an accomplished multimedia storyteller who previously worked at the Brookings Institution, IndieWire, Business Insider, and Buzzfeed. Our conversation focused primarily on an oral history project that Kuwilileni is helping to lead. It's the For The Record Archive, a joint venture of Capital B and PushBlack intended to provide 250 oral histories of the Black American experience.We talked about Kuwilileni's work history, the project's origins, why it's important, and provided examples of the different types of oral histories shared.  Kuwililileni's salutes: MLK 50 and The 19thSubscribe to our newsletter hereYou can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors here,Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org Mark Simon's website MarkSimonmedia.comMark Simon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-simon-92355124/

When Elena Aylott was asked to lead HR at Oriflame Cosmetics, she initially saw the function as administrative and feared becoming a “chief firing officer.” Instead, she saw an opportunity to rethink what the people function could be. In this revisited episode, Dart and Elena explore how to remove the friction that gets in the way of good work, create individualized experiences at scale, and build workplaces where people can develop their potential, form meaningful relationships, and feel a sense of belonging.Elena Aylott is the Founder & CEO of Aylott Group and the former VP of Global Communications and Employee Experience at Oriflame Cosmetics. During her time at Oriflame, she worked to transform the employee experience across more than 60 countries.In this episode, Dart and Elena discuss:- Why Elena didn't want to lead HR- Making HR more human- Why companies create bad performers- Creating personal experiences at scale- The power of small moments- Building a team without HR professionals- How language shapes culture- The real meaning of personal branding- Building one community at work- Creating transformational experiences- And other topics…Elena Aylott is the Founder & CEO of Aylott Group and the former VP of Global Communications and Employee Experience at Oriflame Cosmetics. She spent 16 years at Oriflame, including seven years leading the company's global people function. She is also a Business and Leadership Advisor to Wisory, a Certified Leadership Coach for the EuroAcademy Leadership Institute, and a member of the TEDxStockholm Speakers' team.Resources mentioned: The Employee Experience Advantage, by Jacob Morgan: https://www.amazon.com/Employee-Experience-Advantage-Employees-Workspaces/dp/111932162XThe Power of Moments, by Chip and Dan Heath: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Moments-Certain-Experiences-Extraordinary/dp/1501147765The Experience Economy, by Joseph Pine: https://www.amazon.com/Experience-Economy-Updated-Joseph-Pine/dp/1422161978Mass Customization, by Joseph Pine: https://www.amazon.com/Mass-Customization-Frontier-Business-Competition/dp/0875843727Connect with Elena:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenaaylott/Aylott Group: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aylottgroup/Work with Dart:Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what's most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.

Show SummaryOn today's episode, we're having a conversation with Registered Nurse, Military Spouse, and Workforce Development Advocate Tracy Steele, founder of Community Cultivator, an organization dedicated to strengthening well-being, belonging, and career stability for military spouses through community connection and professional developmentEpisode Partner:Our sponsor this week is Aetna, a trusted health care company, committed to serving Veterans, military families, and caregivers through meaningful, community-centered care. Provide FeedbackAs a dedicated member of the audience, we would like to hear from you. If you PsychArmor has helped you learn, grow, and support those who've served and those who care for them, we would appreciate hearing your story. Please follow this link to share how PsychArmor has helped you in your service journey Share PsychArmor StoriesAbout Today's GuestCommunity Cultivator was founded by Tracy Steele, SPHR, CPRW — a longtime military spouse, workforce development leader, and advocate for military spouse employment and community connection.​After more than two decades navigating military life, Tracy experienced firsthand the challenge of constantly rebuilding career momentum, professional networks, and community with every move. Through strategic volunteering, networking, and workforce development leadership, she became passionate about helping military spouses recognize their value and confidently pursue meaningful opportunities.But she realized military spouses needed more than job resources alone. They needed connection, belonging, and access to opportunities that could grow with them wherever military life led next.​So she built Community Cultivator.​What started as a vision in San Diego is growing into a nationwide movement helping military spouses build stronger careers, deeper connections, and lasting opportunities together.Links Mentioned During the EpisodeCommunity Cultivator WebsiteForeign Born Military Spouse NetworkSugar Bear Foundation WebsitePsychArmor Resource of the WeekThis week's PsychArmor Resource of the Week is the PsychArmor course 15 Reasons to Hire a Military Spouse. As an employer, you are looking for untapped talent pools. One talent pool that can be overlooked is the diverse and highly educated group of military spouses. Take this course to learn the top 15 Reasons to Hire a Military Spouse. You can find the resource here: https://learn.psycharmor.org/courses/15-Reasons-to-Hire-a-Military-Spouse Contact Us and Join Us on Social Media Email PsychArmorPsychArmor on XPsychArmor on FacebookPsychArmor on YouTubePsychArmor on LinkedInPsychArmor on InstagramTheme MusicOur theme music Don't Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran, and clinical mental health counselor for service members, veterans, and their families.  You can find more about the work that he is doing at www.veteranmentalhealth.com  

How do you bring discipline to innovation without stripping away the creativity that makes it powerful in the first place? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Stephen Parkins, Innovation Strategist and Founder of Culturedge, to unpack what it really takes to turn innovation into a strategic asset rather than a side project fueled by hope and enthusiasm.  Stephen brings an outside-in perspective shaped by an unconventional career spanning financial markets, startup entrepreneurship, and senior innovation roles within complex global organizations. That distance from the usual corporate playbook allows him to challenge some deeply held assumptions about how innovation should work and why so many well-intentioned efforts struggle to deliver measurable returns. We talk openly about the tension between creativity and structure, and why innovation does not fail because teams lack ideas, but because organizations lack clarity, consistent decision-making, and shared language. Stephen offers a thoughtful perspective on innovation management systems, including the much-debated ISO standards, and explains why guardrails are often misunderstood as constraints.  Drawing on real-world experience from large enterprises, he argues that structure, when well designed, creates the conditions for better experimentation, smarter risk-taking, and stronger alignment between innovators and the core business. The conversation also dives into strategy, funding, and culture, particularly the invisible friction between those running today's business and those inventing tomorrow's. Stephen shares how portfolio thinking, exposure to risk, and optionality can shift innovation from theater to real value creation.  We also explore his work as co-founder of Strategy Quest, a simulation-based approach that helps leaders practice decision-making under uncertainty, surface blind spots, and learn through consequence rather than theory. It is a compelling look at how scenario thinking and simulated environments can prepare the next generation of innovation leaders to see around corners. If innovation is meant to help organizations grow stronger in uncertain times, what needs to change in how leaders think about risk, culture, and decision-making, and are we brave enough to build systems that actually support that ambition?  

The AI infrastructure race is largely about getting more computing into data centers faster. But increasingly, operators also need a plan for getting yesterday's hardware back out while it still has value. In this episode of the Data Center Frontier Show, recorded live at the third annual DCF Trends Summit in Reston, Virginia, DCF Contributing Editor Doug Black speaks with Josh Humm, Data Center Solutions Manager at Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations, about how accelerated AI hardware cycles are changing IT asset disposition, or ITAD. Humm says traditional enterprise infrastructure might remain in service for three to five years. Newer GPU systems, by comparison, can face refresh cycles of just 18 to 24 months. That compressed timeline is colliding with another AI-era reality: the equipment itself is getting heavier, more specialized and more difficult to remove. AI systems can include liquid-cooling manifolds, proprietary configurations and units weighing 5,000 to 6,000 pounds, requiring specialized rigging and decommissioning procedures. At the same time, valuable processors, memory, storage and networking components can depreciate quickly once equipment is taken offline. “The faster we can get the materials out of your building, the more it's worth, the more we can return to your program,” Humm says. The result, he argues, is that ITAD should become part of lifecycle planning rather than something operators begin thinking about only when hardware reaches end of life. The conversation examines how operators can design decommissioning workflows into facility operations, maintain defensible chains of custody, securely destroy data and determine whether retired equipment should be resold whole, harvested for components or recycled. Humm also discusses the risks created by vendor handoffs across onsite decommissioning, transportation, processing, remarketing and recycling. He recommends scrutinizing providers for data-security and environmental certifications, downstream transparency and the ability to scale as AI refresh projects grow larger. The economics can be substantial. Humm describes a recent project involving an approximately 8- to 10-MW enterprise data center in Colorado whose owner was migrating from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud. Dynamic removed racks and equipment, wiped hard drives onsite and shredded drives that could not be successfully sanitized. After roughly three months, Humm says the project returned more than $17 million net to the customer — about $15 million more than expected. That outcome highlights a larger issue emerging around AI infrastructure: decommissioning is not necessarily just a disposal cost. In a strong secondary market for memory, processors and other components, disciplined asset disposition can return capital to the next hardware cycle. Black and Humm close with two questions operators should ask prospective ITAD partners before a major refresh begins: Can I trust you? And can you scale with me? As GPU infrastructure turns over faster, those questions are likely to become a much larger part of data center operations.

Why do organizations say innovation is mission-critical, then create conditions that make innovation almost impossible?Fiona Stevenson has spent her career on both sides of that problem.After 12 years at Procter & Gamble, she co-founded The Idea Suite, an innovation consultancy that has worked across hundreds of innovation projects. She is also the co-author of Built for Breakthrough: Why Innovation Fails and How Smart Leaders Get It Right.In this conversation, Fiona joins Marc and Vassilis to unpack why innovation usually fails long before the idea itself is tested.They explore the famous Febreze story and why understanding the actual consumer problem changed the brand's trajectory, before getting into the organizational conditions required for innovation to survive.Fiona explains why big innovation ambitions often collide with tiny budgets, part-time teams and unrealistic timelines; why past data can become dangerous when designing for the future; and why innovators need to build evidence instead of waiting for certainty.The conversation also covers Fiona's six-stage innovation framework:Identify → Insights → Inspiration → Ideation → Iteration → ImplementationAnd perhaps a seventh: Intuition.Plus:Why “we should…” is not an ideaWhy “How might we?” is such a powerful innovation questionHow AI is dramatically lowering the cost of prototypingWhy AI should be an input, not the final outputHow implementation destroys good ideas through “death by a thousand cuts”Why innovation needs dedicated time, not calendar scrapsHow to create an innovation charterWhy the best first step is simply defining the problem properlyIf your organization wants innovation but struggles to actually get ideas into market, this episode is for you.Enjoy the show!Chapters:00:00 Why Innovation Dies Before the Whiteboard01:36 Meet Fiona Stevenson02:16 From P&G to Innovation Consulting04:07 Moving From Client Side to Consulting05:41 The Febreze Innovation Story09:09 Why Consumer Understanding Comes First10:59 What Is Innovation, Really?13:02 The Uber Opportunity Fiona Turned Down14:24 Different Types of Innovation16:23 Big Innovation Ambitions vs. Organizational Reality17:44 Why Stakeholder Alignment Matters20:16 The Innovation Charter21:24 Fear and the Unknown22:00 Why Past Data Can Mislead Innovation23:48 Why Great Marketers Can Struggle With Innovation25:29 Getting Innovation Out the Door27:24 The Future Has No Data28:04 Challenging Assumptions With First Principles30:00 AI as a Tool for Building Evidence32:00 AI, Prototyping and Creative Potential32:51 AI Should Be an Input, Not the Output34:15 “We Should” Is Not an Idea36:03 Why “How Might We?” Changes the Conversation37:39 Fiona's Six I's of Innovation39:09 Insights, Inspiration & Ideation40:28 Why Iteration Matters41:53 Implementation and Death by a Thousand Cuts42:18 Protecting the Idea's DNA42:45 Is Intuition the Seventh I?45:05 Why Skipping Steps Kills Innovation47:06 The Most Undervalued Stage48:49 How Innovation Survives Budget Pressure50:17 Why Innovation Can't Be a Side Job51:39 What to Do Monday Morning53:48 Why Innovation Needs Champions54:26 It's Never Too Late to Redefine the Problem55:41 Built for Breakthrough Resources56:11 Where to Find FionaLink to the book:Built for Breakthrough - https://www.builtforbreakthrough.com/

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Bisa Lewis.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Bisa Lewis.