Podcasts about IP

Take 10 with Tim – August 28, 2026 @ 9:15 amMicrosoft Teams1.Five inning Freddie pitched a gem on Wednesday – 6.0 IP, 2 hits, 0 ER, 4K/0BBa.The Rays core competency is getting their pitchers to throw more strikes. Did they figure something out with Peralta or was it just luck. His next game is against his old team, the Mets next week. Are you starting him?2.Elmer Rodriguez with a nice start on Wednesday against the Astros. 6.0 IP, 3 hits, 3 ER, 6K/2BB. He should have gotten the win, but the bullpen blew it. a.It looks like it was one and down. If you picked him up, would you hold onto him?3.George Kirby has been terrible of late – 5 starts and a 7.13 ERA. He faced off on Tuesday against the red hot Phillies. You have to sit him, right? 7.2 IP, 6 hits, 1 ER, 9K/1BB and the win. a.Paul Skenes – same thing. He's been awful and goes out and fires 6 shutout innings against the Padres – only 4 strikeouts. b.I mean, what do you do?4.Several more pitchers got hurt this week. I'll ask about possibly replacements.a.Shane Bieber – tres major inflammationb.Roki Sasaki is out with a blister c.Carson Whisenhunt – tore UCL – out for the rest of the season and next as well.d.Pete Fairbanks is back on the IL. Who gets the save opportunities in Miami?e.Related – It was reported that Bryce Miller has been pitching through a lat injury for a month. Well, thanks a lot!5.At the end of April, Rafael Devers was hitting .209 with 2 home runs. Since then, he's hit 26 home runs for a total of 28. He should get close to 35 again this season. Should we just ignore early stats with him?a.Do you have any other player that we should just ignore when they get off to a poor start?6.You always say it's not a sprint, it's a marathon, but even marathon's have a sprint at the end and we are there.a.Give us three pieces of advice for fantasy managers the rest of the way.7.How would you handle Ketel Marte?a.Why the Diamondbacks keep putting up with Ketel Marte - The Athletic8.Some rando topic I haven't figured out yet.9.What hitter are you targeting for this weekend's FAAB?10.What pitcher are you targeting for this weekend's FAAB?

In this episode the hosts debate whether a legendary guitar pedal brand with loyal fans, sold-out products, and valuable IP is a hidden bargain—or an unsellable retirement business weighed down by inventory and operational risk.Welcome to Acquisitions Anonymous – the #1 podcast for small business M&A. Every week, we break down businesses for sale and talk about buying, operating, and growing them.Looking to build a professional website in minutes? Try Wix: https://wix.pxf.io/c/6898629/3115214/25616?trafcat=templateHubSpot is the backbone for how businesses scale without chaos. Try them out here: https://go.try-hubspot.com/OeG9VrSubscribe for more episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@AcquisitionsAnonymousPodcast?sub_confirmation=1Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.acquanon.com/newsletterSponsorsAcquisition Lab, the leading community, platform, and fund backing serious acquisition entrepreneurs. The education and deal-search tools are free, and a real board of advisors will talk you out of a bad deal as fast as into a good one. There's no clock and no pressure. See what it's like: sit in on a free live roundtable at acquisitionlab.com/roundtables, and mention Acquisitions Anonymous!Bedrock Quality of EarningsBefore buying a business, make sure the numbers actually hold up. Bedrock Quality of Earnings combines experienced financial diligence with modern AI tools to help buyers avoid expensive surprises. Learn more at https://bedrockqe.com.This week on Acquisitions Anonymous, the hosts review the sale of Boomerang Looper, a well-known guitar pedal company that's been around for nearly three decades. The asking price is just $99,000 for a business producing approximately $312,000 in annual revenue and $75,000 in cash flow, complete with trademarks, intellectual property, manufacturing files, customer lists, and ecommerce storefronts.At first glance, the valuation looks almost too good to be true—but a deeper look raises important questions. The flagship products are completely sold out, much of the remaining inventory appears to be generic accessories, and the retiring owner may have stopped reinvesting in manufacturing. The discussion explores whether buyers are acquiring a recognizable niche brand with tremendous upside or inheriting an operation that has already begun winding down.The panel debates inventory strategy, financing challenges, customer demand, and whether this business could realistically scale beyond its current size. It's a fascinating case study in buying product businesses where the intellectual property may be far more valuable than the current operations.Key Highlights:- Legendary guitar pedal brand listed for $99K with approximately $75K SDE.- Includes trademarks, manufacturing schematics, PCB files, Shopify, Amazon, eBay, and Reverb stores.- Flagship products are sold out, raising questions about production, working capital, and owner motivation.- Hosts debate whether the remaining inventory has meaningful value or is mostly low-end generic products.- Financing may be difficult despite the attractive multiple because current operations appear to have slowed significantly.Subscribe to  weekly our Newsletter and get curated deals in your inboxAdvertise with us by clicking hereDo you love Acquanon and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show!Follow us on Twitter @acquanon Learnings about small business acquisitions and operations.For inquiries or suggestions, email us at contact@acquanon.com

I am Rolf Claessen and my co-host Ken Suzan and I are welcoming you to episode 178 of our podcast IP Fridays! Today's interview guest is Caitlin Byczko, who is partner with Marnes & Thornburg in their IP team. Ken is discussing dupe culture with her. Here is the profile of Caitlin Byczko https://btlaw.com/en/people/caitlin-byczko But before we launch into this very interesting interview, I have some news for you: On August 10th, 2026, Navitas Semiconductor filed suit against Renesas Electronics in the Eastern District of Texas, accusing Renesas of infringing four US patents on gallium nitride semiconductor technology through its SuperGaN product lines. The filing follows a countersuit Renesas brought on July 22nd, 2026, accusing Navitas and two of its employees of misappropriating trade secrets. It shows how patent disputes and trade secret claims between competitors are increasingly being fought on multiple fronts at once, and often as tit for tat. It also emerged on August 12th, 2026, that an EPO Board of Appeal had dismissed an appeal by Atlas Global Technologies and ruled that its WiFi patent, EP 3 353 901, case T 1230/25, could not be maintained in any form at all, even though the original opponents, TP-Link and Vantiva, had already withdrawn their oppositions. That knocked out the basis for several parallel infringement suits at the Unified Patent Court, which were then withdrawn. For suppliers and implementers, the takeaway is that fighting a patent held by a non-practising entity can still be worth it, even once the original opponent has thrown in the towel. On August 10th, 2026, the Unified Patent Court in The Hague fully revoked Maxell’s patent EP 2 061 230, covering technology for handing off content to a second device, and at the same time dismissed Maxell’s infringement claim against several Samsung entities, in cases UPC_CFI_251/2025 and UPC_CFI_769/2025. The judges found the patent to be nothing more than an obvious combination of routine adaptations, with no additional technical effect. And now – let's hear the interview with Ken and Caitlin! A dupe used to be a quiet, slow thing. You’d stand in the cereal aisle, notice the generic box next to the name brand, buy it, tell a friend. Word spread over months. That world is gone. On this episode of IP Fridays, Ken Suzan sat down with Caitlin Byczko, partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP in Indianapolis, to talk about what’s replaced it: a TikTok-driven economy where a single video can sell out a dupe product within hours, sometimes before the original brand’s own team even knows it exists. Byczko litigates and prosecutes trademarks across retail, fashion, luxury goods, technology, and pharmaceuticals, and she’s watched dupe culture evolve from a marketing footnote into one of the more active battlegrounds in trademark law. Here’s what she told us, and why it matters even if your brand has never heard the word “dupe” used about it. Counterfeit and Dupe Are Not the Same Thing, Legally Byczko opened with what she called the most important distinction in this entire conversation: the difference between a counterfeit and a dupe. A counterfeit uses someone else’s actual trademark. Think of a fake Chanel bag stamped with the interlocking C’s, or a fake Louis Vuitton logo. That’s straightforward infringement, and above certain thresholds, a federal crime. A dupe is different. It mimics the look, feel, or performance of a product without using the name or the logo at all. Elf Cosmetics, Zara, Costco’s Kirkland brand, and Quince have all built parts of their business on exactly this model. No one is pretending to be Chanel. They’re offering something that looks and performs similarly, at a fraction of the price, under their own name. Media and social media use “dupe” and “counterfeit” interchangeably. Legally, that’s sloppy, and it matters, because the two categories trigger completely different legal analyses. If There’s No Logo, What Are Brands Actually Suing Over? This is where trade dress comes in. Trade dress protects the overall look and feel of a product: packaging, color combinations, shape, label design. Byczko pointed out that most of us interact with trade-dress-protected products every day without realizing it. The test is likelihood of confusion. Courts look at how similar the products actually look, how sophisticated the shoppers are, and whether there’s real evidence that people were confused. Byczko flagged one case as a genuine roadmap for this area: Van Leeuwen v. Rebel Creamery, an ice cream trade dress dispute that came out of the Eastern District of New York. In her view, the strength of that case came down to how precisely the brand defined its trade dress for the packaging. That precision, she said, did a lot of the work toward the outcome. She’s also watching Lululemon v. Costco, which she expects to be significant partly because it doesn’t rely on trademark and trade dress alone. Byczko noted that brands are increasingly stacking causes of action together: trademark, patent, false advertising, all pointing at the same product. And she’s tracking Sol de Janeiro v. Macau Beauty, a case she finds notable because it pulls in influencer content and testimonials as evidence, not just packaging and trade dress claims. Macau Beauty, she noted, has already been sued multiple times across different jurisdictions. A note for readers outside the US: trade dress as a distinct doctrine doesn’t exist as such in Germany. The closest tools here are the three-dimensional trademark and, more practically, the wettbewerbsrechtlicher Nachahmungsschutz under Section 4 No. 3 of the German Act Against Unfair Competition (UWG). That provision protects product shape, packaging, and get-up against imitation when the original has wettbewerbliche Eigenart, competitive distinctiveness, and the copy creates avoidable confusion about origin, unfairly exploits the original’s reputation, or was built on dishonestly obtained know-how. It’s a narrower, more fact-specific tool than US trade dress, but the underlying logic Byczko describes, define your product’s distinctive features early and precisely, applies just as much on this side of the Atlantic. Why the Evidence Problem Changed Everything Ken asked what’s actually driving the current wave of disputes, and Byczko’s answer was simple: evidence. Ten or twenty years ago, if you sent a cease-and-desist letter or went to trial, you had almost nothing concrete to show about how consumers actually perceived two products. Now you have TikTok comment sections, influencer testimonials, and entire genres of “dupe content” documenting exactly what shoppers think, in their own words, in real time. In the Sol de Janeiro case, Byczko noted that part of the complaint isn’t just about packaging and trade dress. It’s about what influencers said, what claims they made, and what that content reveals about actual consumer confusion or the absence of it. That’s evidence litigators simply didn’t have access to a decade ago, and it cuts both ways: it can prove confusion, or it can just as easily prove there wasn’t any. Why Dupes Took Off: Economics, Status, and a Generational Shift Byczko was careful to frame this part as her personal read, not a sociologist’s conclusion, but it’s a read shaped by watching these disputes up close. Part of it is straightforward economics. Gen Z is shopping under real affordability pressure, and dupes let them participate in trend cycles without the price tag. Byczko cited a projected $12.6 trillion in Gen Z spending power by 2030, a generation too significant for brands to write off. The other part is cultural. A generation ago, owning a visible logo was the status symbol. Now, for a lot of younger shoppers, being the savvy one, the person who finds the dupe first and tells their followers about it, carries its own status. It’s less “I have the real thing” and more “I outsmarted the markup.” Byczko also pointed to growing public skepticism toward paying five or ten times more for a product purely because of the name on the packaging, particularly in beauty and fashion. The PR Trap: When Enforcement Backfires One of the sharpest points in the conversation was about what happens after a brand decides to enforce. Suing over a dupe can read very differently in public than it does in a courtroom. Byczko put it directly: going after a dupe can easily look, to the public, like a big corporation coming down on a small competitor, or worse, on its own customers, the same people who made the original brand aspirational in the first place. She’s seen this dynamic play out repeatedly in high-profile cases. Her advice: treat enforcement as a communication strategy, not just a legal one. Sometimes the smarter move isn’t a lawsuit at all. It’s a quieter cease-and-desist letter, a takedown request, or doubling down on marketing that explains what actually makes the original worth the price. Charlotte Tilbury has leaned hard into this approach, building campaigns around the idea that the original simply can’t be remade. Olaplex ran a similar play with its “OlaDupe” campaign. Legal and marketing, Byczko said, have to work together on this, not in sequence. What Brands Should Actually Do Byczko laid out three practical layers, all before litigation ever enters the picture. First: register your trademarks, and where a product design is genuinely distinctive, pursue trade dress or design patent protection early, before a dupe exists and before you know whether the product will even take off. That timing problem is real. Brands rarely know in advance which product will become the one worth copying. Her advice was to look at long-standing anchor products, the ones that have quietly carried a brand identity for years, and ask whether they’re actually protected. Second: monitor. A large share of dupe disputes start on social media, not in a courtroom. That means someone needs to be watching hashtags and influencer content, not just from direct competitors, but from adjacent or even unrelated brands that could end up duping a product without anyone noticing until it’s already trending. Third, and the one Byczko clearly considers most underused: consumer education and brand storytelling. “This is the original” is a weak pitch on its own in a market flooded with cheap alternatives. What works better is explaining, specifically, what makes a product different: its formulation, its sourcing, its performance, its longevity. Give people a real reason to pay more, not just a claim to authenticity. Where This Goes Next Byczko doesn’t think dupe culture is a passing trend. Her expectation is closer to “there will eventually be a dupe of everything,” and she’s watching an interesting generational pattern where teenage shoppers are teaching their mothers about dupes, who are in turn teaching their own mothers. On the legal side, she expects more clarity as cases like Van Leeuwen work their way through the system, giving brands a clearer formula for how to define and defend trade dress. On the brand side, she expects less reliance on litigation as the primary weapon and more investment in what’s genuinely hard to copy: real innovation, ingredient transparency, and storytelling that a dupe simply can’t replicate. One data point she raised stuck with us: search interest in the word “craftsmanship” is at its highest point in twenty years. After years of leaning into dupe culture, there are signs some consumers are swinging back toward wanting the original, the real ingredient, the real technique, the thing that can’t be copied to the same quality. For brands sitting on distinctive packaging, a signature shape, or a product identity they’ve never formally registered, that’s less a trend forecast than a to-do list. Here is the full transcript: Ken Suzan: Thank you, Ralf. Our guest today on the IP Friday’s podcast is Caitlin Byczko. Caitlin is a partner with Barnes and Thornburg LLP and is based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Caitlin crafts and defends global brand strategies, protecting intellectual property assets with creative solutions and highly tactical advocacy. She excels in trademark prosecution and litigation before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and federal district courts, safeguarding trademarks and digital properties for businesses of all sizes and at every stage of the business life cycle. From startups to Fortune 500 companies, Caitlin manages clients’ intellectual property needs across diverse industries. Her experience spans retail, fashion, luxury goods, sports, technology, agriculture, venture capital and pharmaceuticals. Beyond trademark law, Caitlin brings valuable insights from her law school experience with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA, and her previous work serving in a technology company’s in-house legal department. Her tenacious nature and clever problem-solving skills shine through in complex matters, earning praise from clients and colleagues alike. Caitlin is co-author of “Dupe Culture Meets the Courtroom,” published in Global Cosmetic Industry on March 16, 2026. Welcome, Caitlin, to the IP Friday’s podcast. Caitlin Byczko: Hi, Ken. Thank you so much. I’m very honored to be here. Ken Suzan: Yeah, so Caitlin, today we’re talking about dupe culture, a topic that is rapidly becoming front for many brands around the world. What’s the actual difference between a dupe and a counterfeit? Caitlin Byczko: That is one of my favorite questions. This is the most important distinction to draw when we are talking legally about dupes because the difference, because media and social media often use the words interchangeably and legally they’re very different. A counterfeit is a product that uses someone else’s actual trademark. We often think of a fake Chanel bag with interlocking C’s or a fake Louis Vuitton. It’s relatively straightforward trademark infringement and generally above certain thresholds is a federal crime. A dupe, by contrast, is a product that mimics the look, feel, or performance product without actually using the name or logo. We often think of it in the beauty products, in the fashion space, some brands like Elf Cosmetics, which was in the article you just mentioned, Zara, Costco’s Kirkland brand, Quince, who are all very well known in the dupe space. Ken Suzan: What has led to the rise of dupe culture? I’m reading about it virtually every day. Caitlin Byczko: I feel very strongly about this and I’m always talking about it in my legal and non-legal worlds. It’s a very interesting societal change that I think we’ve seen over the past year. I am a lawyer, I am not a marketer, I am not a sociologist, but in my opinion, social media and influencer culture specifically has really created the kind of rise in dupes that we see today. I don’t think we can talk about modern dupe culture without talking about TikTok specifically. Dupe content is its own genre, essentially on TikTok and on Instagram. There’s a whole vocabulary that people are dupe influencers, where their whole product, everything that they’re doing and selling, all of the content they’re making is dupe related. What’s really changed is the speed, I think, around when other products or when a dupe product comes out, how it can be marketed and how people can find out about it. The speed of commerce itself has increased wildly as a result, in part because of social media. A product used to take months to build a reputation as a good alternative. When we think about things, generic cereal is one thing that I have been talking about with my parents with respect to dupe culture. It was one of the things that there used to be, you would go to the store and there would be the cereal, the name brand cereal, and then there would be the generic version of the cereal, which was usually less expensive. That in a way was a dupe. It took a long time. Your friends knew about the dupe cereal and then you knew about the dupe cereal. Then it all got around. Now a single video can send a dupe product sold out within days, within hours sometimes. Oftentimes, a brand’s own team doesn’t even know about the dupe until it’s already been wildly out. Part of it becomes this legal issue when there are claims coming around the dupe. In the Sol de Janeiro case against Macau Beauty, part of the complaint isn’t just about the trade dress and the packaging, which I think we’ll talk about. It’s about the influencer content and the testimonials and what people are saying about the dupes. There’s so much evidence now and there’s so much content and there’s so much out there regarding dupes on social media, on TikTok, and in other places. Ken Suzan: Yeah, and it’s an ever-evolving story. Every day there’s new social media content, more evidence for a potential gain, right? Caitlin Byczko: Absolutely. Ken Suzan: So if dupes aren’t using a particular brand name, how are companies suing over them at all? Caitlin Byczko: So this is really where trade dress comes in, and trade dress, as most of us know, has been around for a long time. There are a lot of very well-known things that you probably see or use every day that you don’t know are protected by trade dress, but they are. And the trade dress protects the overall kind of look and feel of a product. So if you think about things like packaging, color combinations, shape, label design, when that becomes distinctive enough, right? When consumers see that and kind of immediately understand it has the secondary meaning related to the brand owner, then it can become a protectable trademark. And so the test for trademark infringement is likelihood of confusion. And courts will look at the factors of how similar the products actually look, how sophisticated the shoppers are, whether there’s evidence that people were actually confused. I think one of the big cases in the trade dress space that came out since you and I discussed originally, Ken, is the Van Leeuwen versus Rebel Creamery ice cream case. And so for any of those interested, it’s a very interesting opinion. It just came out of the Eastern District of New York. I think that really helps people, brands specifically, kind of provide a roadmap with respect to how to define a trade dress. I think they did an excellent job there defining what the trade dress was for the packaging. And I think that that had a lot to do with the success. Ken Suzan: Yes. Ken Suzan: Why do you think younger consumers gravitate towards dupes so much more than past generations did? Caitlin Byczko: I think there are a few things that are kind of top of each other. The obvious one is economics. I think younger consumers, especially Gen Z, they’re shopping in an environment where there’s affordability pressure. And I think that dupes let them participate in certain trend cycles without the price tag. Gen Z is a significant demographic behind the growth of dupes. And they have a predicted spending power we saw recently, $12.6 trillion by 2030. Ken Suzan: Wow. That’s incredible. Caitlin Byczko: I think it is really also coupled with more of what I would say is a cultural shift. Again, I am a lawyer and this is just my opinion. But what feels aspirational is really changing, I think. And a generation ago, we saw in the fashion world, there was a really big, people really liked logos. Having a logo, owning a logo was the point. And now for a lot of younger shoppers or even more savvy shoppers, actually being a savvy shopper is the status symbol itself. So for a lot of creators, finding the dupe before anyone else or being the one who tells your followers about the dupe really has its own, and it’s less “I have this real thing” and more, “oh, I outsmarted the markup.” And I think it’s that kind of value. I think younger consumers are more publicly skeptical of the idea that something is worth five or ten times more just because of the name on the packaging. And I think that that becomes the case particularly in beauty and then clothing as well. And so I think it’s coupled with the question of craftsmanship and all of these different things. Like we can’t view anything in a vacuum, which is why I could talk for 500 years about this topic. Ken Suzan: Yeah, definitely. Now brands obviously want to protect themselves. That’s an important thing. But going after a dupe can backfire publicly, particularly on the internet. Can you comment on this possibility and what should brands do? Caitlin Byczko: Sure. I think the biggest thing is what you just said. So I think there’s the legal component. And when we’re assessing this for one of our brand clients, I think we cannot review one without the other. So I think you have to say, do we have this claim? Do we have a protectable trade dress or a look and feel claim? And what is the potential backlash in the public? I think it is also a joint PR concern, because what we see is suing over a dupe can very easily read to the public as, oh, this big brand or big corporation is coming down on a small competitor or on its own customers that made the original brand aspirational. I think that we see this in a lot of the big cases that are out right now. So brands, I think, can start to think about enforcement as a communication strategy first, because sometimes the smarter play isn’t necessarily filing a lawsuit. It’s kind of a quieter cease and desist, a takedown request, or separately, it might be really doubling down on the craftsmanship or on a marketing side of what makes the product worth the price. I think Charlotte Tilbury is a great example of this, who’s really leaned into this kind of “can’t be duped” or “you can’t remake the original” with respect to some of their really core products. And so I think people really need to, or brands really need to, assess: one, how can we define what it is that’s being duped? And again, that’s where I think that Van Leeuwen case, I think, will be really interesting over the next few years, with respect to kind of providing this roadmap to help people say, here is a way that we can try to really define what the trade dress is and then be able to protect it and be able to enforce it. Ken Suzan: Caitlin, are there cases right now, I know we just talked about the Van Leeuwen case, but are there cases right now that you think will actually set the tone for how this area of law develops? Caitlin Byczko: Absolutely. And I think some of the cases probably are even in the works, they’re not even filed yet, which is probably very exciting to us as trademark nerds. I do think the Lululemon versus Costco case will be a big one. It’s not just trademarks and trade dress, as many of them are not. I think a lot of times we see in these cases brands are very smartly using kind of all of the different types of causes of action that they bring: trademark, patent, false advertising, a lot of different things. And so I think that that one is definitely certainly one to watch kind of in the fashion space. And then the Sol de Janeiro versus Macau Beauty. Macau Beauty has been sued multiple times, I think, in various jurisdictions. And so I think part of that one is very interesting to me because I think it’s this, it loops not only trademark protection, but also it brings in false advertising, it brings in influencers, it brings in all of these different things. And so I think, like we had talked about previously, nothing is really viewed in a vacuum. And I think for all of these cases, one really important thing, maybe that we didn’t necessarily have access to 10 years ago, or certainly 20 years ago, is this like just ripe amount of evidence of potential confusion or potential non-confusion. When we go on social media and look at all of these things, and then read the comments and all of this different data that’s out there, it’s fascinating, because if you’re in trial, or if you’re going to trial, you’re sending a cease and desist letter, like there is evidence of what the consumers think right here in front of you, right? And the weight of that evidence obviously depends on what it is. But it’s fascinating the way that you can very quickly identify, you know, is there confusion? Is there not confusion, in a way that you likely could never have even thought to consider 10 to 20 years ago? Ken Suzan: Now beyond litigation, what should brands actually be doing to protect themselves in a dupe-driven market? Caitlin Byczko: I think one of the best things that we can do, right, is starting to register the trademarks. I think that’s an obvious one. And really start to consider where the product is genuinely distinctive. And so if it is genuinely distinctive, pursuing a trade dress or a design patent early, before a dupe exists, before anything happens. And I know that can be difficult, because oftentimes brands don’t know for sure what’s going to take off and what’s not. It can also be a surprise. But I think it’s really pushing brands that when you are innovating and when you are doing something that is truly unique and truly distinctive, or when you’re looking back on your brand assets and saying, this thing has been an anchor brand asset for 10 years, you know, have we sought trade dress protection? Is there a way that we can do that? The second layer really is monitoring, in my mind, because a lot of dupe disputes do start on social media. And I think it is important to have people within a company, if you have a product that you’re really keeping an eye on, or that you’re concerned about being duped or causing confusion, having someone who is keeping eyes on hashtags and influencer content and all of these various things. You know, we’re not watching just your direct competitors, we’re watching other completely different brands, or kind of made-up brands even, who could be duping the product. And then I think the third thing that I see as very important is this kind of consumer education and brand storytelling, which is when we kind of get outside of the purely legal side of it. And, you know, legal and marketing and brand and social kind of all need to work together, right? I think if the only pitch to consumers is “this is the original,” it kind of becomes a weak argument in a market where there are cheap alternatives everywhere. But I think the brands that really explain what actually makes their product different, in its formulation, its sourcing, its performance, its longevity, it really gives people a real reason to say, I want to pay more for this brand because of XYZ, you know, the technology or whatever that is. Charlotte Tilbury is one that I had mentioned. I know Olaplex kind of had a big campaign around “OlaDupe” is what they called it. So I think really unique and interesting marketing also assists with that. Ken Suzan: Caitlin, where do you see dupe culture heading? Is this a trend that plateaus or does it fundamentally change how brands operate? Caitlin Byczko: I think dupe culture itself is here to stay. I mean, I think we are only getting into a world where there is truly going to be a dupe of everything. And it’s not good or bad necessarily. I think it is just where we are in life. And I think, you know, things serve different purposes. And it all depends a lot on how the younger consumers shop. And it’s also changing how older consumers shop. You know, I’ve read a lot about teenage girls teaching their moms about dupes, who are then teaching their grandmothers about dupes, right? So on the legal side, I think we will get clarity eventually. I think right around, you know, all like all of these things, which seem so complex, and we’ll never know the answer. You know, five [years] from now, we will probably have certainly more clarity, because a lot of these cases will move forward. You know, the Van Leeuwen one, which I’ve now talked about multiple times, but I just obviously think it’s very fascinating. I think that that’s one where you have a roadmap, right? And it may be contested, or, you know, everything is very fact-specific in the trademark world. But I think it will open the door to allow people one more aggressive brand enforcement. But it will give people a roadmap proactively to kind of say, if we follow this formula for our trade dress, or, you know, defining our trade dress, then, you know, we have something we can potentially protect. And then I think on the brand side, we’ll likely see less reliance on litigation as the primary weapon and more investment in things that are actually, you know, difficult to dupe: innovation, ingredient transparency, marketing, genuinely interesting brand storytelling is something that we’ve seen. I read this past week that searches for craftsmanship, just like generally the word craftsmanship, and kind of products with craftsmanship, is at an all-time high, than it’s been in like the past 20 years. And so it’s interesting, right, that we have gone from this kind of luxury item or high craftsmanship to this dupe culture that we are in now. But there is some potential shift where people are saying, you know, now, I’ve seen all of this and I have all of these options, but now actually what I do care about is the original, right, the innovation or the ingredient transparency or all of those things that can’t necessarily be copied to the same quality. So it’s why it will just provide us with endless topic of discussion, because I think it will only just keep changing forever. Ken Suzan: That’s right. Caitlin, I want to thank you for spending time with us on the IP Friday’s podcast. This has been very insightful, and I’m sure we’ll be talking about this issue in the months and years to come. Caitlin Byczko: Thank you so much, Ken. I really appreciate it. Ken Suzan: Thank you.

Download MP3 | Watch Video Episode Full Timestamps: https://docs.google.com/document/u/5/d/e/2PACX-1vRq6QUHmEXHlh0ZdrEij1PQXAkPM08WN6x4Rk2nJ954-jwHHzWvUP-cduAoDtkDIXfKGkGTjepM-fHz/pub Watch full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@CastleSuperBeastArchive The End of 2XKO For Honor Lived Duskbloods aka Blood Blood City Trial Gamescom ONL 2026 Highlights GTA6 Leaks: Scumbag on Scumbag Crimes NEW CASTLE SUPER BEAST "LEGACY" SHIRT & DESKMAT AVAILABLE NOW: https://www.orchideight.com/collections/castle-super-beast Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster at http://rocketmoney.com/SUPERBEAST Go to http://heroforge.com/ and use code CASTLE to get 5% off on all orders of physical miniatures. Head to http://quince.com/superbeast for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Visit http://drinkag1.com/SUPERBEAST to save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro! Docket: 2XKO ending support less than one year after launch  Patrick Miller, Team Lead for 2XKO, recently made a lengthy Patreon post regarding the game's cancelation and how it came to be in terms of design and target audience; felt it was worth sharing in full. : r/Fighters ONL 2026 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered Announced, Songs of the Past Gets First Look Final Fantasy VII Revelation Ontos No Law Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons Mega Man Dual Override, and a Mega Man skin for Pragmata: TWINKLE GIRL IS FUCKING DEAD  Tides of Annihilation Silent Hill: Townfall Hoyoverse Nodus Fall SNK's financial results for the fiscal year ending December 2025 show a 10% increase in sales to 5.7 billion yen, but an operating loss of 19.9 billion yen, indicating increased revenue but a widening of losses. GTA 6 leaker Cyberleek is now charging a $165,000 fee for a chance to buy ad space on additional leaks Take-Two has subpoenaed Microsoft and Discord for information on the GTA 6 leaker. They are seeking account data including emails, IP addresses, phone numbers and linked Xbox accounts They're not just hunting the leaker. Take-Two got court approval to pull personal info (emails, phone numbers, IPs, device IDs) from ~100k Discord users across multiple servers... including DarkViperAU's 90k-member server. Most of those people are complete bystanders Take-Two Subpoenas Microsoft And Discord Over GTA 6 Leaks  

────────────────────────────────────────[00:02:12]Flock's Own Patent Calls It a "Dynamic Surveillance Network" — Not a Camera, an Interstate SystemPatent abstract: a system for object-based query of archived video from unrelated sources; changed its name to Flock Safety for marketing but the purpose never changed.────────────────────────────────────────[00:07:40]Florida Police 3D-Printed a Fake Flock Camera as a Decoy — Then Charged a Man With Three Felonies for Destroying ItGrand theft and computer equipment charges for a piece of plastic with no electronics; like charging someone for poaching when they shot a decoy duck.────────────────────────────────────────[00:17:27]Savannah Georgia: Four Officers Arrested for Using Flock to Stalk Personal Acquaintances and Family MembersTwo employees already fired for the same conduct weeks earlier; second wave; now a poster child for police abuse of AI surveillance.────────────────────────────────────────[01:10:42]Nine Federal Circuit Courts Say the Public Can Film Police — but Cops Still Have ImmunityIn the same case the police got qualified immunity for violating rights; you must carry ID and hand it over on demand; Knight: net loss.────────────────────────────────────────[01:16:30]GTA6 Developer Subpoenas Microsoft and Discord to Find a Leaker — Exposing What They Keep on All of UsThey want every account ID, registration email, login IP, phone number, device identifiers, and OneDrive content associated with any server connected to the leak.────────────────────────────────────────[01:42:46]Pennsylvania's Two Measles Deaths Are a Lie — Lancaster Coroner Found No Measles Deaths; CDC Was Refused the DataCounty health commissioner and CDC both asked for data; state won't give it; coroner recorded one death with measles present but not as cause.────────────────────────────────────────[01:45:18]Dolly Parton Died Four Days After Entering a Cancer Center — Knight: That Is TurbocancerRapid-onset aggressive cancer is a known signature of mRNA vaccine damage; admitted Friday, died Tuesday; prominent vaccine promoter at Vanderbilt.────────────────────────────────────────[01:54:14]Canada Hits Back — 25% Tariff on American Fish and Seafood; Maine Lobster in the CrossfireCanadian aluminum, steel, and auto parts making American cars affordable are being cut off; Trump is destroying industry just like he's destroying farms.────────────────────────────────────────[01:01:04]Federal Reserve Meeting in Jackson Hole — Arteman: Interest Rates Are 100% Irrelevant in Five YearsMinutia while the system collapses; can't Volcker-shock out when the Iran war is driving inflation and the debt ceiling is raised $5 trillion.────────────────────────────────────────[00:51:47]Silver Suppression Trade Is Breaking Down — Once It Broke the All-Time High, All Bets Are OffGold to silver ratio hit over 100 to 1 when gold was $3,500; not based on reality; shorts are gone; silver has a lot of room to run. ──────────────────────────────────────── Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code “KNIGHT” For high quality made in America products go to HomeSteadProducts.shop and use promo code “Knight” for 10% off your purchases Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-show Or you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

────────────────────────────────────────[00:02:12]Flock's Own Patent Calls It a "Dynamic Surveillance Network" — Not a Camera, an Interstate SystemPatent abstract: a system for object-based query of archived video from unrelated sources; changed its name to Flock Safety for marketing but the purpose never changed.────────────────────────────────────────[00:07:40]Florida Police 3D-Printed a Fake Flock Camera as a Decoy — Then Charged a Man With Three Felonies for Destroying ItGrand theft and computer equipment charges for a piece of plastic with no electronics; like charging someone for poaching when they shot a decoy duck.────────────────────────────────────────[00:17:27]Savannah Georgia: Four Officers Arrested for Using Flock to Stalk Personal Acquaintances and Family MembersTwo employees already fired for the same conduct weeks earlier; second wave; now a poster child for police abuse of AI surveillance.────────────────────────────────────────[01:10:42]Nine Federal Circuit Courts Say the Public Can Film Police — but Cops Still Have ImmunityIn the same case the police got qualified immunity for violating rights; you must carry ID and hand it over on demand; Knight: net loss.────────────────────────────────────────[01:16:30]GTA6 Developer Subpoenas Microsoft and Discord to Find a Leaker — Exposing What They Keep on All of UsThey want every account ID, registration email, login IP, phone number, device identifiers, and OneDrive content associated with any server connected to the leak.────────────────────────────────────────[01:42:46]Pennsylvania's Two Measles Deaths Are a Lie — Lancaster Coroner Found No Measles Deaths; CDC Was Refused the DataCounty health commissioner and CDC both asked for data; state won't give it; coroner recorded one death with measles present but not as cause.────────────────────────────────────────[01:45:18]Dolly Parton Died Four Days After Entering a Cancer Center — Knight: That Is TurbocancerRapid-onset aggressive cancer is a known signature of mRNA vaccine damage; admitted Friday, died Tuesday; prominent vaccine promoter at Vanderbilt.────────────────────────────────────────[01:54:14]Canada Hits Back — 25% Tariff on American Fish and Seafood; Maine Lobster in the CrossfireCanadian aluminum, steel, and auto parts making American cars affordable are being cut off; Trump is destroying industry just like he's destroying farms.────────────────────────────────────────[01:01:04]Federal Reserve Meeting in Jackson Hole — Arteman: Interest Rates Are 100% Irrelevant in Five YearsMinutia while the system collapses; can't Volcker-shock out when the Iran war is driving inflation and the debt ceiling is raised $5 trillion.────────────────────────────────────────[00:51:47]Silver Suppression Trade Is Breaking Down — Once It Broke the All-Time High, All Bets Are OffGold to silver ratio hit over 100 to 1 when gold was $3,500; not based on reality; shorts are gone; silver has a lot of room to run. ──────────────────────────────────────── Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code “KNIGHT” For high quality made in America products go to HomeSteadProducts.shop and use promo code “Knight” for 10% off your purchases Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-show Or you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

Even after of years practicing and teaching mindfulness and self care, Sarah Olin's preparedness for the emotional and physical demands of motherhood was challenged in many ways. Connect with the guest: @lumoleadership lumoleadership.com Grow with us on ⁠IP+⁠! Informed Pregnancy Media presents two all new intimate short-form video series following Garrett and HeHe's real-time pregnancy journeys as they prepare for an empowered birth and postpartum experience. Each episode features weekly updates with personal photos and videos to help bring these raw stories to life, a visually dynamic guide through each mother's emotional and physical experiences. ⁠Watch Growing with Garrett⁠ ⁠Watch Growing with HeHe⁠ Keep up with Dr. Berlin and Informed Pregnancy Media online! ⁠⁠⁠informedpregnancy.com⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠@doctorberlin⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is finally that time of year! We reveal our hype list for houses, zones, and shows for Halloween Horror Nights 35 at Universal Studios Florida. Sinners and Stranger Things may be the headliner IP's but will they comes anywhere close to the top of our hype lists? Want to be on the show? Leave us a voicemail! (407) 906-4134 Follow HHN 365 on social media: Instagram HHN365 Twitter @HHN365 TikTok: @HHN365pod Join our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/jUD9nZav2U Merch: HHN365.com Featured audio is courtesy of White Bat Audio

Are you tired of drowning in back-office busywork and wondering how AI can actually improve your freight operations without overcomplicating your daily workflows? Today, let's discuss the reality of freight automation with my guest, Alex Reed of Overroute, as we talk about how true AI in transportation is built not to replace but to empower people!  We get real about utilizing robotic process automation to 10x your output, strip the emotion out of your operational decisions, and meet your customers exactly where they are.  Whether you are a small brokerage or a massive enterprise, leveraging the right freight tech and supply chain automation tools is about simplifying the mundane so your team can focus on what actually drives revenue in this highly competitive trucking market.  If you want to stop over-engineering your business and start implementing tech that actually works, tune in to this episode!   About Alex Reed Alex Reed is the founding CEO of Overroute. He has spent his career commercializing technical software and optimization platforms in complex industrial environments. Previously, Alex was the founding CEO of Fluence Analytics, a Tulane spinout he led from lab-stage IP through global commercialization and acquisition by Yokogawa Electric Corporation in 2023. Earlier, he was Associate Director for Operations and Strategy at Tulane-PolyRMC. He was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 (2016), serves as Entrepreneur in Residence at the Lepage Center at Tulane University, and advises founders and investors across deep tech and AI, both personally and through Founder Sherpas.   Connect with Alex Website: https://www.overroute.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/overroute/  

Obfuscating IP Addresses as Hostnames https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Obfuscating%20IP%20Addresses%20as%20Hostnames/33280 Microsoft Paint and Photos Embed Server-Issued GUIDs as Invisible Watermarks in Locally-Generated Images https://xusheng.dev/posts/reversing/mspaint_invisible_watermark/main/ FTP Banners The New Dead Drop Resolver Delivering Novel RATs https://socradar.io/blog/ftp-banners-new-dead-drop-resolver-rats/ My Upcoming Classes https://www.sans.org/profiles/dr-johannes-ullrich

How can the Fast Drafting method help you finally finish your novel? And how do you make progress when you only have 30 minutes a day to write? Jessica Brody shares her tips for finishing first drafts after 20 years as an author. In the intro, Clive Barker's Kickstarter, The Amazon Tax [Seth Godin]; Trad publisher announces “human-originated, AI-facilitated” book, The Everything Code [PanMacmillan; AI policy; CHAPTR]; Holy relics, churches, and memento mori in Bruges and Brussels. This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Jessica Brody is the best-selling author of over 20 novels across different genres and age groups, as well as writing for Disney Publishing. She's also the author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and other books and courses for writers at the Writing Mastery Academy. Her latest book is Page One to Done: Finish Your Novel in 30 Days with the Fast Drafting Method. You can pre-order with bonus extras at JessicaBrody.com/preorder You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes Why a small advance can set you up for long-term success Why 97% of first drafts are never finished How to finish a novel writing 30 minutes a day Why drafting and revising are two different jobs How a pre-writing ritual primes your brain for flow Writing a meta murder mystery after 20 years of teaching plot You can find Jessica at JessicaBrody.com and WritingMastery.com. Transcript of the interview with Jessica Brody Jo: Jessica Brody is the best-selling author of over 20 novels across different genres and age groups, as well as writing for Disney Publishing. She's also the author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and other books and courses for writers at the Writing Mastery Academy. Her latest book is Page One to Done: Finish Your Novel in 30 Days with the Fast Drafting Method. So welcome to the show, Jessica. Jessica: Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm so honoured to be here. My writing community speaks so highly of this podcast, so I'm excited. Jo: Oh, well, thank you, and you were requested, so this is going to be a good one. First up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and publishing. Jessica: Well, I started writing when I was seven. I like to put in air quotes, I wrote my first, quote, “novel” when I was seven. It was about three pages long. I got the bug very early. I didn't realise it was an actual career choice that you could take seriously until way later in life, after I'd already graduated college with a degree in economics and I was working as a financial analyst, and I was just writing on the side for fun. Then, as luck would have it, I got laid off from my job, and I ended up trying to take writing a little bit more seriously in that time. That's when I found the Save the Cat method, which absolutely changed everything for me. Before that, I had loads of rejection letters, and I eventually sold my first novel to St. Martin's Press, and I've been writing and publishing ever since. That was 20 years ago now. Jo: 20 years, wow. It's so interesting. So you were in economics, you were a financial analyst, and you got into writing. Did you have any pushback from either your own brain that was like, “I cannot make money this way,” or your family? Or how did you make that leap? Because we just hear that it's not a career, financially, really. Jessica: I know, and I think I went into it very blindly, using television as my resource of this is how much money I can make writing. Like Sex and the City, she was selling books for lots of money. So I was like, oh, I just have to sell one book, and then I'll be set. That was not the case. My first advance was so much lower than I expected, and what happened, though, was kind of interesting. I sold my first book, way lower advance than I was hoping for. I wasn't making any money anywhere else, so I was taking on all these odd jobs that I could do in my own time. I was doing transcription work, and I was working at a school half the time. I mean, I just had so many really weird jobs. I think what happened was, because I didn't have another financial net to help me, it just pushed me really hard. So once I sold one book, I was like, well, I need to sell another one and another one, and I ended up in this 20-year cycle, which I've slowed down thankfully, since, but of writing so obsessively, I should say. I just kept selling books and selling books. My advances got higher and higher, and eventually I was able to support myself with my writing, but it was not instant at all. Jo: Actually, that's a really good note there, because we often hear so much of these debuts that get paid a ton of money, and then they disappear, and they almost spiral down. Whereas what you've done is spiral up. Which is almost a better way to do it perhaps, with your reputation with traditional publishing. Jessica: It's funny, I tell this story a lot to writers who are looking to get published, that the big advance is not necessarily the end-all be-all. Because I have heard that story before, someone gets a very big advance, and then it doesn't earn out, and they can't sell another book because the publisher's lost money. I had the opposite experience. My advance was so low, and my publisher got worldwide rights. They bought worldwide rights. So they started selling foreign rights of my first book really early on, and I earned out before the book even came out, with just a few foreign sales. That ended up setting me up for success, because I was making money for the publisher from day one, and I was able to sell more books, and so I sort of worked my way up. I really do credit a lot of that to how long I've been able to stay in this game. Jo: No, it's a good way of thinking about it, because people forget the publisher isn't a charity. The publisher has to make money from your book. So it's nice that you make money, but they have to make money, or they're not going to bother, right? Jessica: Yes, exactly. Jo: So let's come back to Save the Cat, because you mentioned that the original method really changed how you write, and then of course you did Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. So I've got that. I imagine a lot of people listening have got that. Tell us a bit about why that methodology made such a difference to you, and why you think it's so useful. Jessica: Well, you'll sense a theme here. I went into this business, like I said, without knowing a lot, and I went into it the way I think a lot of writers do, which is, I had an idea, I sat down, and I tried to write it. I had no guidance, no map, no structure, and I just wrote. I actually finished something, which is surprising, but then I started to get all these rejection letters that basically said similar things, which was, “You're a good writer, you have a good voice, but there's no story here.” I just didn't understand that feedback, because I had finished something. I could print it out and stack it on my desk. Wasn't that a story? Apparently it was not. Then a screenwriter friend of mine that I was talking to about how I was getting all of these rejection letters with the same note said, “You should read this book that recently came out. It's called Save the Cat, and it's for screenwriters, but I think it could work for novels because it just seems to be all about structure and storytelling.” So I read the book cover to cover so quickly, because if anyone's read the original, it's just so readable, and everything started clicking in my mind. I realised, wow, I really don't know how to tell a story. I could plot out everything I had done wrong, and I went back to my book and I started rewriting it from page one with this new structure in mind. When I finished that, I ended up getting an agent for that book, and the agent sold that book. I've been using the method ever since. It just made so much sense to my brain. What I tell writers is, “Use the method that makes sense to your brain.” All storytelling structure methods are basically telling the same story, just with different words, sliced and diced a little bit differently, but structure is structure, and a story is a story. It has to have a beginning, middle, and end. It has to have conflict, it has to have a middle twist, and things like that. So this one worked for my brain, and I started to teach it to other novelists, because at the time there was still just the screenwriting guide. So I started to teach how I was using it to other novelists, and that turned into the book, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. Then I wrote a young adult version of it as well. And I still use it to this day. It's just something that's always made sense to me. Jo: So were you hired by the estate? Blake Snyder died, right? So were you hired to write that, or is that something you arranged? Jessica: It was kind of something that was arranged. I think Blake Snyder Enterprises is the name of the company. Blake Snyder died in 2009, sadly. When I started using the method, I was blogging about it on my blog, and I would share some of my beat sheets of the novels I was writing. The people who had taken over his estate reached out to me and said, “Hey, can you blog for us? Because we don't have a lot of novel content on our blog. We just do screenplay stuff.” And I said, “Of course.” I had a fangirl moment. Oh my gosh, they've reached out to me and this is so exciting. So I started blogging for them, and then that turned into the workshops that I started doing with them. Then we partnered up on the book. I think it was one of those things that felt inevitable, like we were just working toward it. I was living in LA at the time. They're based in LA. And I remember having breakfast with them, and we all just looked at each other and said, “So we need to write a book, right? There has to be a book.” So we ended up sharing the copyright, and, as you see from the title, it says based on the books by Blake Snyder. It's very much his method. Then I brought some of my novel flair and some of my own little tips and tricks that I had picked up over the years and applied it to his method. Jo: I love that. We are going to come to your other book for writers in a minute, but just on that intellectual property sharing, writing in other markets, you also write for Disney Publishing. This is so fascinating to me. Now, there are lots of people who do write for other properties. So how did that come about writing for other properties, and how does that fit into your portfolio of the things that you do? Jessica: Yes, writing for other properties is really fun. It's probably not for everyone. You have to know what you're getting into before you pursue it, because it's very much not your IP. You're writing under someone else's brand, you're in their canon, and there are certain rules you have to follow. So you have guidelines. I found it to be really fun and kind of a break from some of my own stuff, because I didn't have to come up with everything. I didn't have to invent all the new worlds and all the new characters. A lot of them were just given to me, and I could play within the boundaries of that sandbox, and I really found that inspiring. So what happened actually is I was on a writing retreat with a bunch of other writers, and there was a writer at the retreat who already wrote for Disney Press and was supposed to write this new series for them, based on their Descendants series. She said to me, “I really can't do it, but I'd love to recommend someone else to them.” I think we had been talking about how big of a fan I was of Disney or something, and she said, “Do you want me to recommend you?” And I said, “Yes, absolutely.” Another big fangirl moment. So the editor of that series reached out to my agent. They talked to me. They got writing samples from me through my agent, and then before I knew it, I was hired to write, I think the first contract was maybe for two or three of the books, and then we renewed for a few more. It was just really fun. Then I formed a relationship with that editor. We ended up working on another series for younger kids, based on the Disney Princess LEGO series, which was much younger and new for me. It had illustrations. That was a whole new challenge, but I found it really fun. As I said, it was a nice break from writing my own things, because I could write them fairly quickly. They did have very fast turnarounds at the publisher too, but I could use my skills for structure and storytelling and apply it to a world that already existed, and it was a nice pairing. Jo: I love this. So much of what you've done seems to have come from relationships or just putting yourself out there in the world. Jessica: Yes, good observation. I hadn't thought of that. Jo: Whereas I think a lot of people think that it's all about cold pitching. It's not so much, from what you're saying. Jessica: Yes, and I did another IP project with Simon & Schuster called Boys of Summer, which was a young adult novel. That one specifically came from my agent. So a lot of times publishers will reach out to agents and say, “Here's what we're doing. Do you have authors who would fit?” And my agent will often reach out to me and say, “Here's the pitch I got from a publisher. Are you interested in submitting yourself for this?” That's what happened with Boys of Summer. They actually sent out an outline to a bunch of writers who were interested, and I had to write sample chapters to the outline, or I think it was the first couple of chapters or something. I was very gratefully selected to write it. That came about from having an agent, and a lot of times having an agent is a way into IP work. And then those connections can help too. Jo: Fascinating. Right. Well, let's get into your book Page One to Done, which as I said, one of my listeners actually requested to have you on the show to talk about this book, because she said it was absolutely fantastic and helped her finish her book. So why finishing? What is the problem? Why write a book on actually finishing? What are some of the common issues that people have? Jessica: Well, thank you to that listener. I really appreciate it, and here I am because of you. Connections once again. So Page One to Done came out of my own struggle with finishing, and not just finishing, but finishing efficiently and maintaining joy throughout the process of writing a novel. As I said, I was writing very fast and furiously, and my deadlines were piling up, and I started to feel like writing a novel stopped being fun. It started to become a very frustrating process, and I realised that was a lot about how I was approaching the first draft, which, as most writers know, the first draft is very hard. When I started to look further into it, I found this statistic online that's widely accepted in the writing community, which is that 97% of first drafts are not finished. Which is, wow, mind-blowing, but also not that hard to believe once you think about the challenges of writing a first draft. Taking an idea from a seed, developing it into a full plot with character development and arcs and subplots and side characters and themes and all the things that you think a story should have, getting that all onto the page and actually reaching the end. It's very, very difficult, and I never lie about how difficult it is. So I was struggling to finish things quickly, to enjoy the process, and I noticed that other writers were too. I felt like, well, I have this plotting guide that I love, this structure guide, Save the Cat! Shouldn't this be easier once I have an outline? And it wasn't. And that, I think, is because we forget that there's another part of the process. It's not just about developing a compelling character. It's not just about having a well-paced plot. You have to be able to get ideas out of your head and onto the page in a way that doesn't make you want to quit. I think one of the problems with the first draft is most of us write something down, it does not match what's in our head, and we start to get more and more frustrated. The process becomes overwhelming. We're holding too much of the story in our head. We're going back to page one to revise with every new idea we have, so it starts to slow down. The farther we get into the book, the longer that back to page one process takes, and things start to spiral out of control. I think that's essentially what happens to this 97% of first drafts. The writer quits because it's not good enough. It doesn't match what's in their mind, and there's too much to hold, and it starts to become overwhelming. So this is what was happening to me. Even though I was finishing things, the process was still very overwhelming, and I started to experiment with different things. Different mindset shifts that I could make, different ways I could change my writing routine to really enhance the process, to get into flow faster, to stay in flow for longer, things like that. It took me about five years, and I developed this collection of mindset shifts and strategies and routines that I could not only apply to myself, but I turned it into a system that was repeatable, and I started teaching it in my Writing Mastery Academy. I called it the Fast Drafting method, and it's all about letting go of this idea that our first draft has to be perfect or even that good, and just focusing on getting ideas down as quickly as possible, even if that creates a big mess. It's this freeing process of doing that in a way that we don't get in our own way. So I started teaching it to other writers. People were finishing things who had never finished things before. Writers who had taken two years to write a first draft were writing first drafts in weeks. The biggest comment I was getting was, “This is so freeing. This is so liberating. This is so fun.” And it gave people the motivation that they needed to actually sit down and revise the book. Before, either they never finished, so they never got to the revision process, or they were so overwhelmed and bogged down by the two years it took for them to write one draft, they didn't have the energy to revise and get it to the next level. So anyway, all of this is to say it was working for me, it was working for other writers. I turned it into a book called Page One to Done, and it's my three-phase process, mindset, preparation, and drafting, which I equate to running a marathon. You wouldn't run a marathon without proper training and proper nutrition and the right mindset, just like you wouldn't write a novel without the right mindset, the right preparation, and the right skills you need to get to the end. Jo: That's fantastic. You mentioned training there and some of the routine changes. So I hear new writers say, “Oh, I can't write unless I maybe have two hours or three hours to write down stuff, and I never have three hours at a time, so I never have time to write.” I hear that a lot. So what would you say to those people? What is a routine and a mindset shift that might help those people? Jessica: That's great, and I hear that all the time too. I interviewed a handful of authors for this book who had gone through the fast drafting method with me, and I would say the majority of them wrote for 30 minutes to one hour a day and were able to finish their books in a matter of weeks to maybe two months. That's because what I teach in the book is not about the amount of time you have. It's about how you use that time. When you really structure your day and your writing time with intentionality, you do whatever you can to block out distractions, get into flow, stay in flow. I'll give you one amazing tip that basically solves all of these things in a second. But when you really bring intentionality to those 30 minutes, you can write more in 30 minutes than you can in three hours without bringing these kinds of intentional choices. So that's one of the things I teach. You don't need more time. You actually just need to approach the time you have with the right mindsets and the right intentions. So one of the biggest shifts I tell people is just don't write and revise at the same time. For one, it pulls your brain in two different directions and creates the requirement of context switching, because essentially drafting and revising are two different jobs. Drafting is getting ideas out of your head and onto the page. Revising is polishing those ideas. They require very different headspaces and very different skills. So when we try to do both of them at once, we're pulled in two different directions. We're essentially trying to polish something we haven't even figured out yet, so we're polishing in the dark, if you will. It causes our brain to snap back and forth so many times. The term context switching is very big in the zeitgeist today, and that's because it's eating up our brain capacity. So if you spend 30 minutes just getting ideas down without judging them as they're coming out, without trying to revise them as they're coming out, you will get a lot of words down. A lot of that has to do with just what do you expect out of those 30 minutes? If you expect to write a chapter of absolutely brilliant polished prose, you're probably not going to do it, and you're going to feel like you wasted three hours. Then the next time you have three hours, you're like, “Well, no, I'm not going to do that. It's too frustrating, and I don't have three hours to begin with.” But if you sit down with the idea of, “I'm going to get all my ideas down. I'm going to just enjoy this process and live in my story for these 30 minutes,” you will be amazed at how much will come out onto the page. And you can absolutely finish a book that way. So intentionality is how you set up your workspace. Making sure that your phone is on do not disturb, making sure there are no pop-ups on your screen, making sure there are not even windows open behind your document. Every time your mind thinks about something else, you have to bring it back, and that eats brain power. So it's things like that. I have a whole chapter on how to set up a writing routine. One of the biggest tips I give people is to do what I call a pre-writing ritual. This is based in neuroscience, and there are all of these studies that back this up, that our brain does something where it associates an activity with another activity. So let's say right before we sit down to write, every time we do that, we do 10 jumping jacks, just as an example. But we only do 10 jumping jacks before we write. We don't do 10 jumping jacks before we sit down to do our taxes or answer emails. It's just before we write. Your brain starts to create this associative link with jumping jacks and writing. These are ways that we can prime our brain to get into the writing mode, and after doing that a handful of times, you do your jumping jacks, and your brain is literally already in your story before you sit down. It starts to soften that resistance that happens when we think, “Oh, I have to go write now,” or, “I've got to go write a certain amount of words,” or, “I have to work with my story.” It softens that, where it just becomes, “Oh, this is what I'm doing now.” Setting up these pre-writing rituals, which could include jumping jacks, could include something else, a lot of examples we can explore if you want, creates that associative link and allows us to get into the writing zone even faster. So by the time we sit down, we're already primed to go. We're not wasting a lot of that time going, “Oh, should I do it now? Should I do it later? I've got to open my document. Oh, my coffee's a little low.” All the things that we do to delay writing. They start to fall away. Jo: Yes, I mean, I always tell people, you and I turned up on time. We arranged this. We respect each other. We turn up, and we're doing this within a time slot. So I always say to people, “Look, make a calendar entry for your writing,” and do you respect your writing enough to turn up on time and do the work? We had a few minutes of saying hi or whatever, and then we got on with our work, which was this interview. So if you've arranged to start writing for that half an hour, then it is work still, right? You need to turn up and honour that. Jessica: Yes, and actually I have the same tip in the book. I say put it on your calendar, block it off. For the reasons you said, it creates in your brain the idea that this is a serious thing. It's not just a, “Oh, I'll get to it when I get to it,” like folding the laundry. It's like, no, this is what I've decided to do, I'm serious about it, I respect it. Just like any other appointment that you would respect, like lunch with a friend or an important business meeting, you show up for it. You don't go, “I think I'll show up to that business meeting in a few hours when I feel like it.” Also it keeps the routine consistent, because one of the tips I give is to always write at the same time every day if you can, because again, that associative link created in your brain, that habitual routine. So if you put it in your calendar for the days that you're going to write, you won't schedule over it by accident, which is just another logistical thing. I say something similar to what you just said, Joanna, in the book, which is basically, if you booked a massage for an hour, you would stay for the hour, right? Because you paid for this massage. Jo: Hell yes. Jessica: It's important to you. You're not going to get up in the middle and start texting your friends. You want your massage. If you treat your writing like any other thing that's important to you and show up for it consistently, it will show up for you, too. Jo: Yes, and I think the other misconception is that, okay, so that person has made it, and they're at the desk. I listen to rain and thunderstorms in my headphones. That's kind of, I guess, my routine. But that doesn't mean that I can just stream something wonderful. You talked about separating the writing and the editing, but sometimes it really is pretty basic, right? Morgan walked into the room. That will often be my thing, and then I'll be like, “Okay, well, why?” And what was the room like? Or was it even a room? So sometimes you just have to start writing something rather than wait for a perfect sentence. Jessica: Oh, yes, absolutely. Waiting for the perfect sentence, you'll be waiting for a long time. I say waiting for inspiration, you'll be waiting for a long time. My joke is, if I waited to write only when I felt inspired, I'd finish a book about every 20 years, if that. I think that's very important, and I teach a lot of tips and tricks in the book on how to get past that resistance, because of course, we don't want to just sit down and write something that we don't like. We don't want to just write down, “Oh, she stared at her computer for 10 minutes.” But sometimes we have to write that down to get to the next sentence or the next plot point or whatever barrier is in our mind. So one tip I'll tell people is put things you don't like in brackets, the square brackets. It's a really simple tip, and it's one of the tips I share in the book. Just put it in brackets and move on. What the brackets do, at least for people who use it, is it's like scaffolding. It's a reminder to your brain, this isn't permanent. This isn't going to stay. I'm going to come back to this later and fix it once I figure out what the story is and what she's actually doing in the room at this moment. For now, it's there. It's on the page. I can move past it. For me at least, the brackets are just this really nice reminder of the scaffolding. Nope, nope, nope, not perfect, not permanent, moving on. Then you can come back later and flesh it all out. I share a lot of anecdotes from my 20 years of writing novels, and one that I particularly like is I was working on a novel, and I had this scene that was just so awful, where all of my characters were sitting in a room. I had no idea what room it was or what it looked like, and they were talking about their feelings. It was just so awful and boring, but I had to get through this scene because I had to establish certain things that came later. I was complaining and complaining about this scene. I was on a writing retreat at the time, and my writer friends were like, “Let's just do a writing sprint, and we'll all write really fast, and we'll all get through our bad scenes, and we'll move on.” So I did that. I moved past the boring scene. It was still boring all the way to the end, but here's the thing, I couldn't figure out what happened in that scene until I'd figured out the whole story. So I wrote the bad version, and then in the next draft I came back and I was like, “Oh, this scene should take place on this bridge that I wrote in the finale that I didn't even know I needed, and it's this very symbolic bridge, and they can be standing on the bridge, and then they should be talking about this because that's going to pay off in the third act,” and I hadn't even thought of that yet. So all the things were coming together, but I could never have come up with that at the time. If I had just sat there and tried and tried, I probably would have gotten stuck at that scene and quit. So I had to just write the bad version, move past it, and come back later. Jo: Yes, and I think maybe because you're famous for structure, people think that maybe you wouldn't have to do that, because you already came up with that in the plotting. It sounds like you're also putting in those elements and foreshadowing and deepening things in the edit. So that's quite comforting for me as a discovery writer, because I end up doing so much more of that kind of thing in the edits. Jessica: Well, something I like to say is that we're all discovery writers, just different degrees. Because the writing process, no matter how much you plot in advance, is always going to be a discovery process. There are always going to be things you didn't think of. There's always going to be a way to tie things together that you never could have thought of before you started writing. So much of the story evolves and gets processed on the page and in your mind as it's coming out onto the page, and it's delusional to think you can think of all that before you start engaging with the characters. You can come close. I've known writers who have come very close, but almost all writers will discover something that they didn't know in the outline. I would argue that that's actually the fun part of writing. It's not the days when writing goes exactly to plan. They're nice, but they're not necessarily the fun parts. The fun parts are when you sit down to write the scene you thought was going to be the scene, and suddenly this new detail appears, and you go, “Oh my gosh, this totally unlocks everything, and I never even thought of it.” It could be in a text message. It could be on a billboard. It could be something the character just blurts out that you weren't expecting, and suddenly your whole story comes together in that moment, or maybe just the scene comes together. It's those moments, I think, that we write for. So even just expecting the book to come out exactly as you plotted is one of those mindset shifts. If you shift it and think, “This is really fun. I get to discover new things about my story that I wasn't expecting,” that, again, just makes the process a little more fun. So instead of, “Oh, this isn't what I thought it was going to be,” or, “This isn't what I outlined,” which is focusing on what's wrong with the book, it becomes, “Oh, wow, this is teaching me something I never expected about my story, and that's pretty cool.” Jo: Yes, I think that moment, Carl Jung called it, I guess, synchronicity, the moment when these things come together and it feels just incredible, that's the moment we all look for. It does seem to happen on every book. Everything clicks into place, and I look forward to that moment with every book. I did want to ask you about a novel that you have coming out soon as we record this, called How to Write a Murder. Now, this is a new genre for you, and it's quite meta because it's about writers as well. So talk about writing a brand new genre now at this point in your career. What are the challenges of trying to reach a new audience? Why do this book now? Jessica: Wow, great question. I love challenging myself to do something new. I wrote contemporary for many years and then thought, “I'm going to try a sci-fi.” Or, “I'm going to try middle grade now.” I think I go where the story wants, where I'm inspired to go when it comes to story ideas. However, with mystery, it's been one of those things that's always been on the back of my mind, like a wish list, a bucket list. I want to write a murder mystery. I just never had the right idea. Or I never had the time, or I never had the space. Then I finished my last novel contract, and I took a break, because I had been writing on deadlines for years. I took a very, very much needed break from deadlines. For the first time in I think 15 years, I did not have a book deadline. I just asked myself, “Jessica, what do you want to write?” As opposed to, what's the next book that's due? And the answer was very clear. I want to write that murder mystery. I toyed with a few ideas, and then I started to think about, okay, so I wrote this book on plot that a lot of people know and use. What if someone used that book to plot a literal murder? What would that look like? This meta explosion came to mind, which is that I wanted to write a murder mystery that's structured like a plotting guide for murder mysteries. The characters in the book are all writers who are familiar with this plotting guide, and the events of the story are unfolding like the plot of a murder mystery according to this book. You have no idea which one of them is actually using the book to plot the murder, because they all know the book. So one of the taglines is, “One dead body, seven mystery writers, and they all know how to get away with murder.” It was sort of my culmination of everything I'd done in my career. All the plotting workshops I'd taught, all the revision courses I'd taught, and of course this plotting structure method I'd been teaching for years, and I put it into this book. It's a fictional version of Save the Cat! It's called The Bestseller Formula. The premise of this book is that someone is using a murder mystery plotting guide to plot a literal murder. So the reader is learning how to write a murder as they're reading about the murder on the page. Jo: I love it. I know lots of people are going to want that. It does bring the business side of things into more difficulty, because of course you have readers, like you mentioned middle grade, you've got YA books, and obviously, I guess, the writers that you teach will be interested. How is this going to work for your book marketing and your business? Because it also sounds like this might be a standalone. Jessica: It is a standalone as of now. I have some sequel ideas, but we're not pursuing them yet. It is a different market for me, for sure, and that's become a challenge as I'm marketing, because I'm not in the thriller mystery space yet. I haven't written a novel for adults since the very, very beginning of my career. I've been mostly writing for teens and middle grade. The good news is most of my teen readers are now adults, because it's been so long since I wrote for teens. So there's that. I think the book will appeal to mystery readers just because it's a fun mystery, and there's a fun meta element to it. I think it's going to appeal to writers as well. So I'm very much leaning on that, at least for the launch. I hope my writer community will get behind this book, because it's very much an ode to storytelling. It's an ode to writers. I dedicated it to writers. As a writer, you will understand this book on a level that a reader never will. You will get so many of the little inside jokes that a reader might just skim past. So I did very much write it for writers, with the hope that readers will also enjoy it. I had the most fun writing it I've had, I think, of writing any book. Partly I think that was because I wasn't writing it under deadline. I was just writing it for me, but also just because it felt like the book I'd been destined to write for so long. Jo: Fantastic. So we're out of time. So where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? Jessica: How is that possible? I feel like we just started. JessicaBrody.com is the best place to find everything. If you're interested in my writing courses, you can check out WritingMastery.com as well. Jo: Well, thanks so much for your time, Jessica. That was brilliant. Jessica: Thank you, Joanna. I had so much fun.The post From Page One To Done: Fast Drafting Your Novel With Jessica Brody first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Braves take Game 1 against the Dodgers, striking late to win 4-3. Bryce Elder went 6 IP and struck out 5 while giving up 3 and no walks. Raisel Iglesias closes the door in the ninth. Chris Dimino joins the show to discuss the win and the rest of the series moving forward Ford Leadoff gets underway at 6p with First Pitch scheduled for 7:15p. A.J. Smith-Shawver (0-0, 6.23) takes the mound for Atlanta to face Roki Sasaki (5-5, 4.42) for the Dodgers Hear Atlanta Braves Today every Mon-Fri at 7:45a during The Locker Room on 680 The Fan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

D23 2026 wasn't just about the future of the Disney Parks. Disney also unveiled a massive slate of movies, animation, television, and more—and there was so much to discuss that we're splitting our Entertainment Showcase coverage into two episodes! In Part 1, we dig into Disney's upcoming movie and animation slate, including The Simpsons Movie, Lilo & Stitch 2, The Bluey Movie, Ice Age: Boiling Point, the live-action Tangled, Oswald, Incredibles 3, Coco 2, Gatto, Ghost Market, Romy & Michele 2, Frozen 3, Zootopia 3, Hexed, and Clay. Which announcements actually got us excited? Which sequels feel justified? Which originals caught our attention? And how deep into its enormous library of characters and franchises is Disney willing to go? Along the way, we start noticing an interesting pattern: for all the talk about Disney relying on sequels and familiar IP, both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation are still putting original movies on the slate. That raises a much bigger question we'll be coming back to soon. And we're not finished with D23 yet! Part 2 continues with Marvel, Star Wars, streaming, games, and the rest of Disney's Entertainment Showcase. What are your thoughts? Email us at show@magicourway.com, call or text  815-MOWICAN (669-4226), or slide into our social media DMs. Every thought and opinion will forever be welcome on this Disney fan podcast. This is show 643.

With a single step, a world shattered and the stars faltered. Those who witnessed the destruction must face the future and pick up the pieces, but first they must escape the Dragon Path and return home—or at least near it. To do that, though, they'll need to capture Jonathan's airship, the Adventure Beckons, from the Creed of Oracles… This week on Perpetua: Escape the Rumbling Castle! 07 Perpetua Guide [In Progress v.06] NPCs & Monsters [PNMS] Creed of Oracles Infantry [NMCOIN] Typical Traits: Gritty, Grim Type: Humanoid Hunter Level: 10 Rank: Soldier Stats: DEX 10, INS 8, MIG 10, WLP 6 Attacks: Holy Salvo, Forceful Flurry Special Abilities: Summon Platemail Elemental Affinities: RES: Physical | VUL: Dark, Poison In-Game Description: With blessed light armor, rifle, and bayonet, Infantry make up the bulk of the Oracle's ranks. The rank-and-file soldier in the Creed of Oracles. If you decide to rush across the open courtyard when you first arrive to area of the castle, you can fight an infinite number of these guys. They aren't especially hardy, but their Holy Salvo is built specifically to knock out sturdy physical characters, so don't underestimate them! Starter Tip: If you can do it, try to dispel their summoned platemail, it'll make fighting them toe to toe a lot easier. Hovering Pyroclastic Typical Traits: Precise, Devoted, Short-fused Type: Humanoid Support Level: 10 Rank: Soldier Stats: DEX 8, INS 8, MIG 6, WLP 10 Attacks: Ignition, Volcanic Charge Special Abilities: Flying, Bracing Ash Elemental Affinities: RES: AIr, Earth [Can gain Fire] | VUL: Dark, Ice, [Starts with Fire] In-Game Description: A soldier in the robes and armor of the Creed of Oracles with flamethrower and a number of volcanic explosives at their belt. These floating demolitionists punch through your elemental defenses and their volcanic charges are like sticky grenades that give a boost to anything that hits your side of the field. Most importantly: They can cover themselves in a magical ash that will boost their might and give them a Fire resistance. Once they do this, they sort of become solid all-arounders, so it's best to knock them out before they can do that. Starter Tip: Hit them with Dark or Ice damage to bring them down to melee range! Fares, Devout Chef Traits: Tricky, Inventive, Religious, Adaptable Type: Humanoid Saboteur Level: 10 Rank: Soldier Stats: DEX 8, INS 8, MIG 8, WLP 8 Attacks: Poison Vial Special Abilities: Bottled Vigour, Enervating Powder Elemental Affinities: RES: Earth, Fire, Light| VUL: Air, Dark, Ice In-Game Description: A chef of the Creed of Oracles. Master of the Kitchen and Pantry. This guy SUCKS! I don't even mean in combat, he's fine to fight. But as a character, I hate how he can draw you into conflict. There's basically only one way through his conversation tree that doesn't draw you either into combat with him immediately (with reinforcements coming soon after) or up into the Barracks where his friends are. Personally, I prefer to just knock him out ASAP and then sneak up to the hidden passage a few rooms away. Starter Tip: If he manages to poison you, don't forget to use your IP for an Antitote. Poisoned doesn't do damage over times like in some games, instead it saps BOTH your Might and Willpower, so whether it hits a bruiser or a mage, you're in trouble!  Ushala, Conduit Traits: Mysterious, Possessed, Sacrificial Type: Demon Mage Level: 10 Rank: Soldier Stats: DEX 10, INS 8, MIG 10, WLP 6 Attacks: Heaven's Light, Heaven's Glory, Heaven's Call Special Abilities: Flying, Pressure Gauge Elemental Affinities: IMM: Light | RES: Physical, Poison | VUL: Dark | Pressure Points: Dagger, Sword In-Game Description: A member of the Creed who temporary gives their body up to be possessed by the spirit of the holy Oracles.  So, as far as I know, there's two versions of Ushala you can fight. The above is the "standard" one, which is what happens when the Gem Scene goes the way it almost always does. But I've heard that if you manage to get the gem away from the Draconic Elf safely, then Ushala can become possessed (by who? My theory is Lucena) and then she gets a second, much harder phase. Which is saying something, because even this version of her is NO JOKE. Starter Tip: If you can, hit her with Shaken and Poisoned (the status condition, NOT the damage type). All three of her attacks are based on WLP, so it helps to knock that down as far as possible. Sarithe, Shieldmaiden [NMSRSH] Traits: Courageous, Devout, Charismatic, Armored  Type: Humanoid Sentinel Level: 10 Rank: Champion (4) Stats: DEX 8, INS 8, MIG 10, WLP 8 Attacks: Face Me!, Intercepting Javelin Special Abilities: Elemental Shield, Head up, Soldier!, Not this time!, Get behind me!, Strong Will, Honest Heart!, Pressure Gauge Elemental Affinities: IMM: | RES: Light, (Can gain Air, Earth, Fire, Ice) | VUL: Bolt, Dark, Poison |  Pressure Points: Flail, Firearm, Spear, Heavy Weapon In-Game Description: A knight in elementally-charged armor, wielding a tower shield and a javelin that hums with power. Despite being fully kitted out in heavy armor, Sarithe's abilities seem designed to make her a strong support character. She keeps her crew safe not only by taking hits for them, but also by healing them, stopping Opportunities (critical hits), and granting them multiple elemental resistances. Starter Tip: Because she has a pressure gauge (from the Armidirge games), she doesn't take extra damage from the elements she's weak against. Instead, if you can hit her six times with something she's vulnerable to (including her pressure point weapon types), she'll get staggered and she loses all of her actions for the rest of the round. Be sure to take advantage of this!! Hosted by Austin Walker (austinwalker.bsky.social) Featuring Ali Acampora (ali-online.bsky.social), Art Martinez-Tebbel (amtebbel.bsky.social), Jack de Quidt (notquitereal.bsky.social),  Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart), Sylvi Bullet (@sylvibullet), Keith J Carberry (@keithjcarberry) and Andrew Lee Swan (swandre3000.bsky.social) Produced by Ali Acampora Music by Jack de Quidt (available on bandcamp) Cover Art by Ben McEntee (https://linktr.ee/benmce.art) With thanks to Amelia Renee, Arthur B., Aster Maragos, Bill Kaszubski, Cassie Jones, Clark, DB, Daniel Laloggia, Diana Crowley, Edwin Adelsberger, Emrys, Greg Cobb, Ian O'Dea, Ian Urbina, Irina A., Jack Shirai, Jake Strang, Katie Diekhaus, Ken George, Konisforce, Kristina Harris Esq, L Tantivy, Lawson Coleman, Mark Conner, Mike & Ruby, Muna A, Nat Knight, Olive Perry, Quinn Pollock, Robert Lasica, Shawn Drape, Shawn Hall, Summer Rose, TeganEden, Thomas Whitney, Voi, chocoube, deepFlaw, fen, & weakmint This episode was made with support from listeners like you! To support us, you can go to friendsatthetable.cash.

It was one of the biggest weeks in the amusement industry in years, and Mike and EB have a ton to cover. First up: D23 - Disney's biannual fan convention, which featured Neil Patrick Harris hosting a full award-show-style presentation packed with 33 announcements about the future of Disney Parks and Experiences. The guys break down the highlights, including a Carousel of Progress refurbishment featuring new voices from Bryan Cranston and Jamie Lee Curtis, a Coco-themed attraction (the IP's first ever), a Magic Kingdom Villains Land finally getting its official name, and Dream Finder and Figment returning to Journey Into Imagination at Epcot. But the biggest surprise of the night: Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom will see the return of The Yeti. (HE'S HUGE! HE'S HUGE!) Then it's Quick Hits, where Mike and EB dig into the opening of NightFlight Expedition at Dollywood and the genuinely mixed early reactions — much of it, they argue, coming from riders misunderstanding the ride's intentionally storybook visual style. Plus a live call-in from the base of Top Thrill 2 at Cedar Point, giving listeners a real taste of the launch in action. The back half is a can't-miss exclusive: Silver Dollar City's Director of Content and PR, Joey Thorsen, joins the show fresh off the announcement of Miner's Mountain Express, walking through a full POV narration of the ride, introducing its brand-new skunk and bat mascots, discussing the final year of the beloved Thunderation before it closes in January, breaking down how the new Daredevil Pass connects two previously separated areas of the park, and telling the wild true story of how the ride's real 15-story mining head frame ties back to America's 250th anniversary.

The word is "phone." Jackson County DA Angel Myers McIlrath has told the public a grand jury will get everything her office gathered in the Nolan Wells case, and she hasn't said that word since the family put the device on a four-day window. Jennifer Coffindaffer, a 25-year FBI veteran, joins Tony Brueski on the evidence nobody has opened.Everything loud about this case rests on it. Nolan's mother says his July 4 texts and pictures had been wiped when she got the phone from his friends. The friends insist no one touched it. An extraction would expose deletions, timestamps, and any login around the hours he went missing. Seven weeks on, the phone sits with the family and no examiner has touched it.A joint exam at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College lab was agreed July 15 and never scheduled. A 48-hour deadline from the DA followed on August 12, with the parents away. The family countered on August 17 with August 18 through 21. No exam has been announced.Coffindaffer's 25 years in the Bureau aim the questions at the system. The sheriff announced no foul play on day two, ahead of any autopsy, and never requested the phone. A congressional caucus, the NAACP, and Al Sharpton all moved before a single test was run. The three friends gave the FBI their own devices without being asked twice.The family's subpoenas to Snapchat, Meta, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Life360 seek login and IP histories. Those logs may answer the wipe question before the phone does.No one has been arrested. The friends deny erasing anything. The state has its autopsy and its toxicology. The last piece is the one nobody will pick up.Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#NolanWells #HornIsland #TrueCrimeToday #TrueCrime #Mississippi #NolanWellsPhone #BenCrump #JacksonCounty #JusticeForNolan #TrueCrimePodcast

Send us a message with feedback or questions!Welcome to the latest episode of The Florida Project – the podcast where Disney fans celebrate Walt Disney World and all things Disney! In this episode, we'll discuss some nonsense in small topics and then we'll talk about Horizons: Disney Experiences Showcase from this year's D23 Expo!  Next week we'll talk about the Disney Entertainment Showcase with all the television and movie announcements.  All of that and more is coming up on this week's episode of the Florida Project!-- Recorded on August 16, 2026Small TopicsThe Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is arguably the most successful Park IP based franchise. If you were in charge of creating a second park-IP based franchise that must be as successful as Pirates, which would you pick and how would you approach it?Disney+ seems to be moving away from live-action Star Wars and Marvel TV shows. Why do you think people didn't gravitate to the Marvel Television offerings?If you were in charge of creating a chain of Disney Owned and Operated Movie Theaters, what would you do to set your chain apart from the other chains?Discussion TopicD23 - The Ultimate Fan Event, Part II: Disney Entertainment ShowcaseUpcoming EpisodesTBDPlugsJason: @Schmuck00Will: @ThyWillBDunnMichael: @MichaelMcDuckSite: http://www.tfppodcast.comBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tfppodcast.bsky.socialInstagram: http://instagram.com/tfppodcastThreads: https://www.threads.net/@tfppodcastPatreon: http://www.patreon.com/tfppodcastSupport the show

Intrepid Metals CEO Matthew Lennox-King discusses preparations for a 10,000-metre drill program at the Corral Copper Project in Arizona, expected to begin in the second week of September. The program will take a dual-track approach, with roughly half the drilling focused on expanding the known high-grade CRD mineralization and the other half testing potential porphyry targets for the first time. Lennox-King explains the geological evidence supporting the porphyry thesis, upcoming IP work to refine drill targets, and what would constitute a successful discovery. With approximately C$19.5 million in treasury, Intrepid says it has the flexibility to expand the program if drilling delivers success.

Building active income is great, but how do you create real enterprise value? The group analyzes how life insurance agencies are bought and sold at tech-like multiples. Featuring a deep dive into Patrick Bet-David's $250M sale of PHP to Integrity Marketing, this section breaks down how recurring renewal revenue, proprietary tech IP, and team overrides drive high 10x–15x EBITDA exit valuations.

Fantasy Baseball Live – August 23, 2026 @ 3 pmMicrosoft TeamsSegment 1 and 2 – Review the weekend gamesAdditional Topics1.Kade Anderson – Pitched well for 5 innings and ran out of gas in the 6th, giving up two home runs. Thoughts on his outing?2.First George Klassan pitched a gem and Saturday, Ryan Johnson did for the Angels – 7.0 IP, 1 hit, 0 ER, 3K/2BB vs.Tex. Who would you rather pickup?3.Tarik Skubal gets his first win as a Dodger on Saturday4.Craig Kimbrell gets a save on Saturday. He's been DFA'd from multiple team this season. I had lost track, he plays for the Royals now.5.The Angels recalled Christian Moore and he's had a very nice season. I wrote about him to our Patreon members this week.Segment 3 – Waiver WireSegment 4 – Closer ReportSegment 5 – Two start pitchers•Zebby Matthews (Min, 52%) - @ATH (Springs) and CHW (TBD)•Kyle Freeland (Col, 17%) - @Was (Andrew Alvarez) and @ATL (Martin Perez)•Jeffrey Springs (ATH, 37%) – Min (Zebby) and Bal (Chris Bassitt)•Chris Bassitt (Bal, 37%) - @STL (Matthew Libertore) and @ATH (Springs)•Max Scherzer (Tor, 27%) – KC (Seth Lugo) and Sea (TBD)•Carson Whisenhunt (SF, 24%) – Cin (Chase Burns) and ARI (Mitch Bratt)

Get the latest updates from D23 with this quick-hit breakdown of all the major Disney Cruise Line news! We dive deep into the newly revealed details for the Disney Believe, including its bow art, the controversial Toy Story stern font, and the stunning Moana atrium statue. Plus, we break down the teaser trailer of the brand-new mid-sized ship class debuting in 2029 and analyze concept art clues like returning running tracks and outdoor viewing spaces. If you are planning a future Disney Cruise Line sailing, this episode gives you the essential takeaways you need to cruise smarter. Tune in for our initial reactions, itinerary speculation, and rumors about what IP might be landing onboard next!HighlightsDisney Believe Announcements: Initial reactions to the bow art (Tinker Bell), stern statue (Woody & Buzz), and the internet-divisive Toy Story crayon font change.Moana Grand Hall & Atrium Design: Breakdown of the newly revealed Moana bronze sculpture and how its Polynesian color palette and ocean-themed railings compare to existing Wish-class ships.Encanto Restaurant Rumors: Connecting DCL's official press quote about “the magic of family” to recent lookalike performer casting calls in Colombia.Itinerary & Ship Rotation Speculation: Theoretical shifts for the Disney Wish, including potential deployments to Galveston or additional seasons in Europe.Brand-New Ship Class Breakdown: Dissecting the size discrepancy (Disney's press release vs. Meyer Werft's 100,000 gross-ton rating) and why smaller ships are vital for ports like Alaska and Europe.Concept Art Deep Dive: Analyzing the 60-second teaser reel for hints on a full perimeter Deck 4 running track, glass atrium walls, and upper-deck solarium spaces.Lorcana Going Fleet-Wide: Details on the Illumineers Quest activities expanding across Disney Cruise Line ships.Want to be on the show? Fill out this form, and we'll be in contact with you real soon!https://dclpodcast.com/want-to-be-on-the-show/Support our show via Patreon:http://www.patreon.com/dclpodcastUse Christy's Travel Services:https://dclpodcast.com/book-with-christy/Follow the DCL Podcast via:http://www.facebook.com/dclpodcasthttp://www.instagram.com/dcl_podcastFollow Lake at:https://www.instagram.com/mouse.genhttps://www.youtube.com/@MouseGenFollow Christy at:http://www.packyourpixiedust.comhttps://www.instagram.com/packyourpixiedust

Braves avoid getting swept by the Brewers by taking Game 3, 4-2, in the MLB Little League Classic. Michael Harris II went deep and Tyler Mahle went 5 IP only allowing 1 ER while racking up 4 Ks. Barrett Sallee joined The Locker Room to discuss the dismal road trip, odd base running and looked ahead to rival Dodgers coming to town Braves off today as they return home and prepare to faceoff against the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a 7-game home stand that will also include the Rockies and a makeup game against the Giants Hear Atlanta Braves Today every Mon-Fri at 7:45a during The Locker Room on 680 The Fan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kelsi and Trey explore Jane Schoenbrun's Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, one of their favorite and strangest movies of the year. They unpack Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, the fake slasher franchise, Hollywood's obsession with zombie IP, Little Death, Final Girls, queer reclamation, and why Schoenbrun's overwhelming cinematic language can be both exhilarating and deeply uncomfortable. They also discuss “Cinema Dysmorphia," an idea that movies can become so embedded in how we understand ourselves that they help us recognize something about our identity or reality while simultaneously distorting those things. In that way, Camp Miasma becomes a poisoned love letter to horror about the movies that never really leave us. To sign up for free bonus episodes as a free member on Patreon or to access our whole 100+ episode catalogue as a paid member, sign up below!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Become a member of The Extra Credits+ on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok: The Extra Credits⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Extra Credits YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Letterboxd: ⁠The Extra Credits⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠@theextracredits⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter: ⁠@theextracredits⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Send requests, questions, and thoughts to our email: extracreditspod@gmail.com

Braves avoid getting swept by the Brewers by taking Game 3, 4-2, in the MLB Little League Classic. Michael Harris II went deep and Tyler Mahle went 5 IP only allowing 1 ER while racking up 4 Ks. Barrett Sallee joined The Locker Room to discuss the dismal road trip, odd base running and looked ahead to rival Dodgers coming to town Braves off today as they return home and prepare to faceoff against the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a 7-game home stand that will also include the Rockies and a makeup game against the Giants Hear Atlanta Braves Today every Mon-Fri at 7:45a during The Locker Room on 680 The Fan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's the week before Gamescom! Around this time, the Dukes never expect much as Xbox has already fired out their reveals for the year thanks to June's annual showcase. A recent rumor changed all of that! Thanks to NateTheHate, we are officially aware of a sequel to an Xbox owned IP being developed by a third party team which would see a release this year. The Dukes crack open the archives of Xbox and sift through all the dreams of what this could be. One thing is for certain: It's not Banjo. Timestamps: Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement. 0:00 - Intro2:47 - Health is wealth18:26 - An Xbox first party game you've missed27:38 - You can DoorDash games30:22 - Harvey Smith is back43:00 - Sledgehammer was prototyping a Halo game56:05 - Xbox's 25th Anniversary Controller details leak57:46 - Fallout 4's newest update has some serious lore1:21:14 - Xbox is partnering with McDonalds1:30:02 - Kingdom Hearts 4 news galore1:45:04 - Shuhei Yoshida's peculiar advice to Sandfall Interactive1:50:18 - Trails In The Sky gets a unique localization patch1:56:34 - PlayStation's live service struggles continue2:05:35 - Oxenfree studio Night School is shutdown by Netflix2:11:57 - What We're Playing2:29:16 - Xbox has a secret game announcement coming to Gamescom2:59:08 - Wrap Up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The U.S. is hesitant to allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missiles locally, partially to protect U.S. military IP, but more so because it doesn't want Ukraine to do it better.Join the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PeterZeihanFull Newsletter: https://bit.ly/4qtxJD0

We are officially one week out from HHN and officially king off the ONE WEEK UNTIL HHN PODATHON! Join us as we do a deep dive into all of this year's IP houses; Stranger Things, Sinners, Hellraiser, Ozzy Osbourne, and Evil Dead Burn along side our great friend Marc Kleinhenz!

4:48:51 – Frank in New Jersey, plus the Other Side. Topics include: Heavy bus delays, Sonic in Fortnite, characters from different IP universes, independent creators, creative energy, Push The Onsug Random Radio Button, Vic and Sade, Shambles, surrender to the flow, national debt reaches 40 trillion, Dreamies Program 13, Paul is dead, rain, The Exegesis of Philip […]

Kara Sutton returns to the podcast to tell the story of the planned home birth of her fourth baby. Connect with the guest: @ikaraboutyou alwaysfriday.com Grow with us on ⁠IP+⁠! Informed Pregnancy Media presents two all new intimate short-form video series following Garrett and HeHe's real-time pregnancy journeys as they prepare for an empowered birth and postpartum experience. Each episode features weekly updates with personal photos and videos to help bring these raw stories to life, a visually dynamic guide through each mother's emotional and physical experiences. ⁠Watch Growing with Garrett⁠ ⁠Watch Growing with HeHe⁠ Keep up with Dr. Berlin and Informed Pregnancy Media online! ⁠⁠⁠informedpregnancy.com⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠@doctorberlin⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA MOVIE REVIEW What happens to an IP (intellectual property) that nobody watches anymore? Sometimes they devolve into so many gradually deteriorating sequels that the characters find themselves in space. Usually the series get bought by some lesser streaming service so scared little children at a sleepover can watch […]

Building automation systems are more connected than ever. That connectivity brings new capabilities, but it also changes what you need to know to design, install, and maintain them responsibly. In Episode 558 of the Smart Buildings Academy Podcast, we explore IP security fundamentals through the lens of building automation. You'll get a practical framework for thinking about where vulnerabilities can emerge, how building networks differ from traditional IT environments, and why cybersecurity is becoming a core competency for controls professionals. If IP addresses, VLANs, firewalls, remote access, or cybersecurity frameworks have felt like someone else's responsibility, this episode will help you understand how they connect to the systems you work with every day. Topics Covered Why connected building systems require a different approach to security The IP networking concepts every building automation professional should understand How layered security applies to BAS and operational technology environments The risks surrounding remote access, legacy protocols, and third-party connections How controls and IT teams can approach building cybersecurity together As building systems become more connected, understanding how to protect those connections becomes part of doing the job well.

In this episode, we welcome co-directors Christian Hurley and Ben Oliphint, and producer Matt Wassong—the filmmakers behind the horror feature A Most Atrocious Thing, made for just $8,000 and ultimately landing distribution on Roku and other platforms. In our conversation, the team shares the inspiration behind the film, writing it during the pandemic, shooting the feature on a shoestring budget, and navigating its evolving post-production process. They also demystify indie film distribution—sharing their experiences on the festival circuit, making a key connection at Tubi, and other secrets behind the film's success.“The Making Of” is presented by AJA:Futureproofing with IP videoAs production workflows rapidly evolve, IP video is key to building more scalable, future-ready pipelines. To get up to speed on the IP fundamentals and gain insights into the various IP paths – like ST 2110, NDI, Dante AV, and SRT – download AJA's free IP video white paper today.Screamfest 2026October 6-15 | Los Angeles, CAReady for a thrill? Screamfest returns October 6–15 with ten nights of spine-chilling world premieres, terrifying shorts, and exclusive filmmaker Q&As and panels. Catch the newest discoveries in horror on the big screen before anyone else. Don't wait—secure your festival passes and tickets today before they sell out! Learn more hereA Solution Built Around Your WorkflowThe OWC Express 4M2 Ultra is available in a range of configurations to fit your workflow and budget. Choose from ready-to-run solutions with up to 32TB of high-performance NVMe storage, giving you the speed, capacity, and reliability needed for everything from multi-camera editing to demanding VFX and finishing workflows. Available now. Explore hereZEISS Introduces Horizon Anamorphic: Full-Frame 2x Anamorphics with a New Lens Technology PlatformZEISS unveils the Horizon Anamorphic series, a new lineup of full-frame 2x anamorphic cinema lenses designed to deliver a distinctive cinematic look along with a new lens technology platform that answers the need for speed and precision demanded by contemporary production workflows.Spanning 35mm to 200mm across seven focal lengths, Horizon lenses combine their anamorphic look—incorporating a pronounced oval bokeh and stretched sense of spatial depth—with a lightweight, fully integrated motorized system that eliminates the need for external focus or iris motors. Read more hereElgato Prompter XLThe Elgato Prompter XL is a professional all-in-one teleprompter with a 15.6” removable display and a reading range of up to 15 feet. Featuring USB 3.2 connectivity and broad compatibility, it's ideal for live productions and content creation. Available now at Videoguys.com—call 800-323-2325 to learn more.Explore herePodcast Rewind:July 2026 - Ep. 146.Partner with The Making Of:Reach 275K film production industry, broadcast pros, and content creators reading this newsletter. To explore advertising, please email mvalinsky@me.com Get full access to The Making Of at themakingof.substack.com/subscribe

How can you get your books surfaced when readers ask an AI what to read next? What are the hallmarks of authors and businesses that last more than a decade in the indie author industry? Ricardo Fayet gives his marketing tips after more than a decade at Reedsy. In the intro, Expanding Your Book's IP through Merchandising [Wish I'd Known Then]; Guide to writers conferences [Kindlepreneur]; Rick Rubin and Stephen Pressfield on resistance and the muse [Tetragrammaton]; Pulitzer Prize winners disclose AI usage [Nieman Lab]; My new rebuilt fiction site JFPenn.com. Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, self-publishing with support, where you can get free formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Just go to www.draft2digital.com to get started. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Ricardo Fayet is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Reedsy, a marketplace for writers to find vetted freelancers, author training courses, and lots more. He's also the author of How to Market a Book and Amazon Ads for Authors. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How AI search actually finds and ranks the books it recommends Why keywords and search volume are disappearing as marketing metrics Building an internet footprint so your book is worth recommending Why Claude leans on Goodreads while ChatGPT and Gemini lean on Reddit Product is more important than marketing, and how to find your comp titles Passion, business sense and resilience in the authors who last You can find Ricardo at Reedsy.com. Transcript of the interview with Ricardo Fayet Jo: Ricardo Fayet is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Reedsy, a marketplace for writers to find vetted freelancers, author training courses, and lots more. He's also the author of How to Market a Book and Amazon Ads for Authors. So welcome back to the show, Ricardo. Ricardo: Thank you, Jo. It's been a while. Jo: It has been a while. As we were saying, it's been a decade, which is crazy, because you and I see each other at events and things. For anyone who doesn't know you— Tell us a bit more about you, where you're from, and also, what is Reedsy these days and how have things changed? Ricardo: Yes, sure. I think I'm hard to dissociate from Reedsy because my only background really is Reedsy. We started Reedsy right after business school for most of the founders. There are four founders, and I'm one of them. We've been going since 2014, so it's been 12 years. We started around the same time, and you started even earlier than we did, but we've had the chance to meet at quite a few conferences since. I think the main thing we're still known for is our marketplace. Since the very beginning, Reedsy is a curated marketplace where authors can come in and look for editors, cover designers, marketers, ghostwriters, literary translators, author website designers, pretty much any freelancer you would ever need to hire throughout your writing career. That's how we started. That's our main source of revenue and our main business. Since then, as you mentioned, we've also added courses, live events, so we've got a membership under Reedsy Learning. The main thing we're proud of right now is our writing tool, Reedsy Studio, because we've been pouring a lot of engineering talent into it over the past five, six years, and I think it's a really cool writing tool that is 90% free. It also does the formatting, so it's a good alternative to Vellum or Atticus for those who haven't purchased those tools. So there's a lot of things that Reedsy does at this point, which always makes it hard for me to describe what we do. Jo: But you generally serve writers. That's probably the crux of it. Ricardo: Exactly, yes. We're mostly at the production stage. The thing we say is we help authors make beautiful books, right? That's a little bit the tagline that applies to 90% of what we do, though we also help a little bit with the marketing side of things. Jo: And then just tell people where your accent is from. Ricardo: So I'm half French, half Italian from my parents, and I was born in Spain. So depending on my mood and the moment, it might be anywhere from French, Italian, Spanish. It's anyone's guess, really, at this point. Jo: Yes, exactly. You've been part of the indie author ecosystem, as you said, since 2014. You're often at the author conferences, and you stay abreast of everything that's going on. So what are the biggest changes you've seen in the industry since you started out? Like you said, you guys came from business school. You chose to come into the industry at a particular point, and yet things have changed. So what do you think are the biggest changes, and how have you seen authors adapt? Ricardo: It's crazy, the amount of things that happened in the past 10 years. Obviously we came into the industry as a result of Amazon launching Kindle Direct Publishing, and then the Kindle Store becoming one of the number one places where people buy books. That's what enabled self-publishing in the first place as an industry, and obviously we wouldn't exist without self-publishing being a thing. But then I think probably one of the biggest changes that happened was the introduction of Kindle Unlimited and various other subscription models. Perhaps as a response to that, afterwards, I would say direct sales is the other massive change that happened in the industry. The ability for authors to sell direct to their readers via their websites, or running Kickstarters, or basically the ability to reach your customers directly. Now, obviously, artificial intelligence is probably the biggest change of them all, not just in publishing, across every industry, but of course it's going to affect publishing very strongly, or it has already started making big waves. So I would say those are the three main changes that we've seen happening in the industry. Jo: Just interestingly, given that you're French, Italian, Spanish, European— Has the pace of change been the same in mainland Europe? Because you and I have also met up at European conferences, but I just get the sense that each individual European country, the UK included, as I include the UK in Europe, goes at a different speed. Ricardo: No, they definitely do. Our market at Reedsy is all in English. We only have an English website, and I would say 70% of our market is US, then 15% UK, and then Australia, New Zealand, et cetera. We do have clients in continental Europe, but they're mostly going to be American or British expats. A lot of retired people who write books and use Reedsy services. I think the main reason for that is that self-publishing as an industry hasn't really grown in Spain, France, Italy the way that it's grown in the US and the UK, probably because these are countries where book buying habits are a lot more traditional. So all my friends from high school and university in France, they all buy books, they all buy paper books. They all buy from bookstores. They don't really buy from Amazon that much. They love the smell of paper, all these sorts of things. So obviously that makes it harder for indie authors in those countries because they cannot place their books in the places where people buy them, which is traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores, or at least it's much harder. So there is an indie movement in those countries, but it's much smaller. I would say Germany is maybe the exception in Europe, where I've seen more and more full-time indie authors, but I don't think it's a market that's comparable even to the UK. Jo: Interesting. Okay, so let's go to marketing, because you love marketing, you have a newsletter about it, and you have a book, How to Market a Book, same title as mine, and we've found each other in our Also Boughts over the years. You have, however, updated yours several times. 2025 was your last update. Mine was 2016, so yours is definitely the most up-to-date one. So what are your thoughts on how authors can reach readers now? And let's split this into two. Let's start with some tips for new authors who just have maybe one book and are really just starting out. Ricardo: Yes, first of all, sorry for stealing your title. Jo: Oh, you know, it's never been a problem. Ricardo: We were trying to come up with something… I know, I know, I know. But still, we wanted something more original, and then we realised that for SEO purposes, that's the title we should really go for. The good thing is, if you search “how to market a book” on pretty much any retailer, you're going to find your book or mine in any order really, but those are going to be the top two books to this day, thankfully, so I'm good with that. I think in terms of marketing tips for new authors who have just the one book, I'd say, despite all the changes in the industry, the basics of marketing still stay the same. One of my big mantras when it comes to marketing is that product is more important than marketing. So having a great book is going to be more important, in my opinion, than being a great marketer. Having a great product. By that, I generally don't talk about literary value or prose or anything like that, just because I'm not a book critic. I'm not an editor. My opinion on whether a book is good or not is worth zero. From a marketing standpoint, for me, a good book is one that resonates with its intended audience. So the first step for newer authors is to basically figure out who they wrote this book for, right? Have an idea of who their target market is. A great way to do that, without entering into marketing jargon like proto-personas and stuff like that, is to think in terms of comp titles, comparable titles. I think that's probably the base of any marketing, whether traditional publishing houses or indie authors, to think, “Okay, which other books out there are similar to mine?” If your book is completely unique, you have, I would say, 99.9% chance of not selling, because your market doesn't exist, and 0.01% chance of creating your own market and completely dominating it, right? So being unique is not necessarily a bad thing, but I would say 99% of the time, it is. Obviously being unique within an existing niche, within an existing market, that's completely different, but you need to work on some comparable titles. So I would say that's where I would start, and that's one of the things that AI is great at. If you even just plug in your book into an AI chat that has enough context, if you're comfortable doing that of course, or if you plug in a synopsis, like a long synopsis, you can basically ask the AI chats, “Okay, what would be some comp titles?” Either you'll have heard of those books, and you'll think, “Okay, they're good comps,” or you may not have heard of them, in which case I would really recommend buying them and reading them and seeing whether they're comps or not. I think that's where marketing starts. Jo: Yes, and we might come back to that for book discoverability. Well, let's just talk about it now, because I now pretty much use Claude for discovering books as well. I just find that the Amazon search, for nonfiction it works really well, right? As you said, if you want to learn how to market a book, you just search “how to market a book”, and our books are very well titled for that. But for fiction, it's so difficult to find new books and comp titles, especially if you don't write in a clear genre, which I don't. I know lots of people do. So we're writing cross-genre. So in terms of book discoverability, I know you've been looking into SEO for books and all of that. What are your thoughts on how authors can more effectively have their books surfaced if people are using the AIs for finding books? Ricardo: That's a very big topic. That's one of my favourite topics right now. That's what I talk about in my marketing newsletter, and I want to start a Substack on the topic as well, because I think it is the future of book discoverability. As you say, search on Amazon isn't great, and if it's not great on Amazon, you don't even want to imagine on Google Play, Kobo, all these sorts of places, right? If you search on Kobo or Apple Books or Google Play for witch cozy mysteries, the top 10 books are going to have exactly “witch cozy mystery” in the title or the subtitle or the series title, right? Jo: Yes. Ricardo: Search is very simple on those sites, so it's very easy to game, but it's terrible as an experience for readers. So I do think that a big part of search is going to move to AI, and now you have Rufus within Amazon itself that appears as a chatbot and encourages you to talk with it, to ask for recommendations. In the beginning Rufus was really terrible, but now I recommend authors play with it. In general, I recommend when it comes to AI discoverability that authors play with all the AI search tools. So it's going to be Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Rufus within Amazon. Just like we talked about comp titles, right, ask for something like, “What would you recommend for fans of this book? Which other books would you recommend?” Or if you're looking for something specific that describes your book, what books would you recommend on… I think one of your examples was fiction around masonry or something like that, right? Jo: I always say, for example, if you ask for action adventure thrillers on pretty much anywhere, you're going to get 20 books by male authors. For those of us who are female authors, but also who have female main characters, you can then be far more granular. That's just not something that necessarily works on Amazon. So, action adventure thrillers with female protagonists written by female indie authors, which is very specific. That will work in AI, whereas that definitely won't work on Amazon. Ricardo: Exactly. So one of the great things about AI search, and terrible things at the same time, is that the concept of keyword is lost, right? So we title our books How to Market a Book because the keyword that people would search for is “how to market a book”, or “book marketing for authors”. Those were the two keywords that had the biggest search volume if we looked at Google Keyword Planner, or any search tools that give you keyword volume. When it comes to AI search, since it's conversational, and it's very personalised, and it can go as niche as you want, keywords are going to disappear, and search volume as a metric is going to disappear. The search you just told me about, maybe there are 10 people who are going to run it exactly. Most people are going to run variations of that. Since you can go as granular as you want, it's going to be very long phrases, very long sentences. So the whole concept of keywords, search volume, SEO, is going to disappear in favour of what some people call GEO, generative engine optimisation, AIO, AI optimisation, AI search optimisation. There's a bunch of names for it, but it is a different discipline. It still works on the basis of Google SEO because what most of these search engines will do is they're going to search the internet, right? They've been trained on a lot of information, but not all of that information is current. Most of these models have been trained on documents and web pages before 2021. That's why when you used the very early versions of ChatGPT, and you asked it about current events or current books, it didn't find it. It didn't have that information. Now all these models have the ability to search the web, and they do that really effectively. So the first thing they're going to do if you run a search like that is they're going to run dozens of different searches on Google or a similar search engine. Action thriller books with female protagonists. Action thriller books with female protagonists by indie authors. Action thriller books by indie authors. They're going to create what I call a corpus, so a massive document of information with candidates, books that probably meet those criteria that they have found through regular web searches. Then they're going to go through all those books and determine which are the most relevant to recommend, and they'll return with that. Then they'll usually have a verification layer as well, which is, okay, I have these five books that I want to recommend to this user, but I just want to make sure first that they are written by indie authors, that they do have a female protagonist, et cetera. And if I'm not able to verify that, I'll flag it in my answer to them. So there are these three layers. Web search, then ranking of the book candidates, and finally a verification layer, and then they serve you the answer. Obviously, that's really powerful. If that's the way that search is headed, which I firmly believe, then we as authors need to learn how to get our books in there. Jo: Yes. It's so interesting, and I do this all the time. Really niche stuff, like a thriller about anatomical Venuses, which are these models from anatomy museums and stuff like that, with an edge of the supernatural. What is brilliant is that you can find the books that come up. I actually got one that I read and reviewed, and it was fantastic. So I love the more granular thing, but we're really in the very long tail now, right? It feels like you can write a very nuanced book, and it will be surfaced, but only by a few people. So do we have to write our books and then try to not even retrofit them in the way that we used to? We used to try and figure out the seven keywords and all of that kind of thing, and now I almost feel like we just get to be grownups, where you just get to write the book and put it out there, and these things are more intelligent than the search terms. Ricardo: Yes, absolutely. I think in terms of the variety of books that are going to be read and discovered, that's amazing. A little bit like the whole indie publishing movement was amazing, because if you remove the traditional publishing gatekeepers, then suddenly zombie books aren't dead anymore. Zombies are alive again. They've… Jo: Come to life. Ricardo: They've come alive, and so you get a bunch of zombie books again. It's not a small niche audience. It's actually a pretty big niche audience that loves zombie books, and suddenly they have those to consume. This is a little bit similar on a much, much bigger and more granular scale, because anyone can find exactly the kind of book that they're looking for, with the tropes they want, with the type of characters they want, with the type of author they want, and you can basically use any kind of filter. So for discoverability on the side of the reader, that's great. For the authors, it doesn't mean that you can just write whatever you want and then rest, and readers will find them. Because your books still need to have generated a certain internet footprint and a certain review footprint in order to become interesting or recommendable to AI search engines, right? Unless you're the only book that an AI search engine can recommend for that specific search, and yours was very specific, so it might have been the only one. If there are other candidates, the AI search engines are pretty smart. They're going to recommend the candidates that have more reviews, better reviews, or are more famous, that have more, when I talk about internet footprint, more pages talking about them on the internet. That's for me the big finding I've seen. The more pages you have on the internet talking about your book, so that could be book review sites, that could be Goodreads lists, Listopia lists, anywhere on the internet where your book is mentioned, that creates a footprint for it. The more footprints, the more famous your book looks to AI search engines, and so the more worthy of recommendations it is to them. Jo: Yes, and this is one reason why I now ask people, especially when you sell direct, or say you have a Kickstarter and you want reviews, I ask people if they can review on Goodreads. Obviously Goodreads is owned by Amazon, but it is far more searchable by the bots than Amazon is. I sometimes find that Amazon gets blocked. Or Amazon blocks some of the bots, let's put it that way. They might change over time. They own 15% of Anthropic or something. But Goodreads I feel like does get indexed, and I'm not willing to engage on Reddit. I know Reddit is another popular one. Just be very clear on social media, because some people think, oh, I just need loads of influencers to talk about my book, and that will impact the AIs. But I find that social media just almost isn't even there. Ricardo: It depends on which social media. For me, Reddit is a social medium, right? It's a very weird one, but it's obviously the number one social medium used by AI search engines, and it's pretty dodgy stuff with lots of conflicts of interest, because Google has a paid partnership with Reddit. I think Sam Altman has shares in Reddit. So both OpenAI and Google Gemini heavily rely on Reddit for their AI answers, right? If you ask anything from ChatGPT or Gemini, I'd say there are very high chances that in the sources and the citations of the answer, you're going to find Reddit, right? That goes for books as well. Every time you ask for book recommendations, Reddit is going to be big for those two AI search engines. Claude, it's a little bit different. They do have a little bit of a relationship with Reddit, but I don't think it's as big. I found that Claude relies heavily on Goodreads, not Reddit. To me, Goodreads is another social medium at the end of the day, right? It's not the kind of social medium we think of, like… Jo: It's not TikTok. Ricardo: It's not TikTok. TikTok is surfaced a little bit, but not that much. It might become more surfaced in the future, but right now what I've found is, it's really Reddit and Goodreads. Facebook, LinkedIn, but LinkedIn is big for nonfiction topics more than fiction, because there are just not a lot of fiction readers, sorry, talking about their favourite books on LinkedIn. They usually go to other places for that. Jo: Yes, it's really interesting. So obviously TikTok has its own BookTok thing, so some people are finding books on BookTok, and some people like me are finding books through asking Claude, and that's just my overwhelming feeling about the industry. We talked earlier about what's changed. When I started, so 2006, there wasn't even KDP, and then KDP arrives, then you came in 2014, and probably until maybe a few years after that, there was one way to self-publish. Then what's happened since is this kind of splintering. There are so many ways to self-publish. There are so many ways to reach readers. There are so many ways to market. So someone, for example, could sell direct on TikTok Shop, only market through TikTok, and you wouldn't even know that they existed over in another ecosystem, right? So do you feel like that's happened too, this total splintering? Ricardo: Absolutely. I think there are so many different ways in which you can reach your audience now and monetise it as well, that it's absolutely possible. We both know examples of authors who are only visible to their TikTok niche, right? I think the big difference is also monetisation, because earlier you also had different ways of becoming well-known. Like you had Facebook, you had potentially Twitter, back when it was Twitter. Various social media, word of mouth. But where people bought books was Amazon. So that was your monetisation. It was either selling your book on Amazon, or potentially getting KU reads after that when KU launched. Now you can sell on TikTok, you can sell direct, you can run Kickstarters, you can start a Patreon or Substack and make your money through there. There are pretty much infinite ways through which you can monetise your content as a creator. Most of those places will also have a discoverability engine built in, so you can not only sell through there and make money through there, but also grow an audience there. That's probably the biggest competition that Amazon has ever had to face, is this sort of splintering. For us authors and content creators in general, it's amazing, because it's a bunch of different opportunities. Jo: Yes, and I think probably that's circling back to marketing. As we've said, some things have changed, some things stay the same. Is the email list still the number one way to market, do you think, for authors who want a long-term career? Ricardo: I think so. It's just the one thing you really own that allows you to communicate with readers, right? Because even if you build a following on TikTok, TikTok can change. The things we said about Facebook 10 years ago, if you build your Facebook group, Facebook can change, and Facebook changed. Facebook destroyed the reach of pages, and now groups also aren't amazing, et cetera. So the same thing that happened to Facebook can happen to TikTok, can happen to any other social media. Substack is a bit of a hybrid because it is a newsletter, it is a mailing list, but it also has a discoverability engine built in. So I still wouldn't really go all in on Substack. The great advantage there is that you do own the emails, right? So you can move away from it at some point. For me, the email list is the one thing that you are completely in control of. Personally, the main thing I check is my emails every day. I spend more time in my inbox than anywhere else, and I think that's probably the case for most people. So I do think, despite the influx of mails that readers are getting in their inbox, I still think it's one of the most important marketing tools for authors. Jo: Yes, and I still remember when I started my list in December 2008, and I still have people on the list who've been with me that whole time, and have moved email list services several times as well. So I think that's important too. The care of that list too is so important. One of the things that I am annoyed about with Substack, I don't have a Substack, but when I follow some people's, it's always constantly trying to get you to sign up to other people's lists, trying to subscribe you to this or that or the other. I'm like, “That's so annoying.” Now I've found on all these email services they're trying to pair you with other creators and cross-promote and all of this. So it feels like even the email list is becoming a difficult place unless you really protect it. So just protecting your list, I think, and remembering that those are people. Those are people who've bought your books, or people who read your emails. Like people listening to this, these are humans. Sure, some bot might be looking at the transcript, but humans listening to this are individual humans with individual email lists. We tend to forget that, don't we, as you get a bigger list. You think about it as a big number, whereas it's still individual people. Ricardo: Yes, it becomes a number, it becomes metrics, the open rate, the click rate, and all that. But the great thing about email is that you get replies in your inbox. There you remember that they're actual human beings who write you back. I think for readers, the ability to write back to an author and get a response is just amazing, right? If you write to your favourite author and they write back to you, that's the best feeling ever as a reader. So I think email is still one of the best ways to turn your readers into fans and into super fans of your brand, by just interacting with them and answering them. Because yes, you can answer comments on TikTok, Facebook, and all those places, but it doesn't feel the same as an author answering you in your inbox, I feel. So you do get that ability to create a real connection with readers directly through email. Jo: Yes, and I think that trust and the reputation is so important. Just in terms of seeing the authors that you've seen over the years, like I said, you've been going to a lot of the author conferences. You know a lot of the authors in the industry. A lot of people will know you from events. But you've also seen authors come and go, and you've seen vendors come and go. Both of us have seen people arrive, and we'd be like, “Oh, yes, I wonder how long they're going to last.” Then some people do and some people don't. So what are some of the elements that you've noticed about the businesses that last more than a decade? Ricardo: I think they need to solve a genuine problem, or offer a genuinely better solution than one that already exists. I see a lot of businesses come in and they do what another vendor already does, without doing it necessarily better. Those businesses tend to disappear, or linger there, but you don't really hear about them again. When they solve a real need… I still remember when BookFunnel came out, and they've since become massive with one very, very basic thing, which is, “We will take care of delivering your ebook files to readers.” That's how they started, and that's how they became massive. To me at the time, I was like, “That seems like a very small problem,” because I can just email an ebook file. I didn't realise that it was so complicated for a lot of readers to upload files to their Kindle or other devices, and that having a service that takes care of that for you is just massively helpful. I realised that when I published my books, actually. So businesses that solve even micro or apparently very small problems, but they really solve them effectively, they stay. Others that surf on trends, they tend to disappear when the trend disappears. When there's a new marketing trend, and that trend stops working, then those businesses tend to go. Jo: Yes, and what about the authors who last? Because let's face it, most of us don't solve a problem in a different way. Maybe you could say we solve your entertainment problem in a different version to your last book. What about the authors who last long term? What have you noticed about them? Ricardo: Two things. So the first one… Maybe three things. First one is passion. I always say to people who are looking to start self-publishing, I always say that publishing in general is probably one of the worst ways to make money. It's awful. You can pick up any other occupation and it's probably going to be easier to make money. So writers who make a career do it because they need to write, because they have a passion for writing. So a lot of people who come into the industry thinking, “I've heard about all these self-publishing success stories. Surely I can write a book and I can market it. It's not that hard. So that's going to be a great way to make quick bucks,” those generally don't last, because they don't have that genuine passion. The first hurdle they're going to face—and there's going to be a bunch of them along the way—they're going to quit. The second thing is business sense, or business education, the basics of business, right? Thinking in terms of marketing, thinking in terms of who's my reader, unit economics. If I'm selling my books at $3.99, I shouldn't be spending a ton of money. If I just have one book at $3.99, I cannot afford to pay $5 on ads to generate a sale. So those kinds of basic economics or business knowledge, I think, if not a requirement, it's a massive plus. The third thing is resilience. The industry has changed a lot, as you mentioned. There are a bunch of ways now to reach an audience. There are a bunch of ways to make money. It can also be distracting, because you go to one of these conferences and you go back thinking, “Oh, I've got to create my own website, sell direct. I've got to launch my Substack. I have to use Claude Code for my ads,” and three more things, “and I have to set up my TikTok Shop and do TikTok Lives to sell books,” right? Jo: All of those by next week. That's why we go to the conference. Ricardo: Exactly. All those by next week, right? And during that one week after the conference, you have the energy to start implementing all those things, but afterwards you lose that energy and you go back to, “I just want to quit.” So you need to have some sort of resilience, and the business sense of, “Okay, I'm going to try this for the next six months, and I'm going to stick to it, and I'm going to see whether it works or not. And if it doesn't work, I'm not just going to despair. I'm going to try something else.” That goes for marketing tactics, but also goes for books. Most authors I know who make a living writing, they didn't get there with their first book or even their first series. A lot of times I see authors who write a couple of series, and those series do okay. They sell a little bit, but not much, and it doesn't afford them to quit their day job. Then suddenly, based on what they've learned with those first two series and what they've learned potentially going to conferences or listening to podcasts like this, et cetera, they write a third series that's a hit. That's a hit, and that's instantly much easier to market, and that's when they can afford to go full time and write full time, because they've found that sort of product market fit. And product market fit for me is the main thing for marketing in general and for authors in particular. Until you find that, everything is really difficult from a marketing perspective. But finding it usually requires writing more than one book and more than one series, because you're rarely going to get the big lottery ticket on the first try. Jo: Or ever. I think it's really important. I've never had a breakout book, but I've made good money every year. I think, and Hugh Howey said this, that the real story of self-publishing is not the people who make seven figures a year, it's the people who can go on a holiday once a year, or the people who can just put a bit towards their mortgage or whatever. So you may never have a breakout series. I think that's really important, too. Ricardo: That's true. Jo: That's true. You can just keep writing and make all right money and be what we call in the mid-list. Ricardo: Yes, but you've got to keep going. You've got to have that resilience to keep going, probably because it's your passion. Exactly. You're not chasing that seven figure series. You're writing because you need to write. Jo: Yes, and you can't stop, and you get the bug. I think when you're writing that first book, I'm not sure if people understand that you either get the bug or you don't, I think. You've written a couple of books now. Do you think you have the bug, or is it more about the business? Ricardo: I don't have the bug. I definitely don't have the bug. I would've kept writing otherwise. Jo: You're a technologist, right? Ricardo: Yes. I'm more of a technologist, more of a marketer. To write my first book, How to Market a Book, I actually had to write newsletters, because that I can manage, right? One newsletter a week. Now I don't even manage that. I send it once every two weeks when I can even manage that pace. But back then I did one newsletter a week, and that's how I wrote my first book. I then put all these newsletters together, and that was before the age of AI, so I couldn't just dump all that into ChatGPT and tell it, “Create me a book based on that.” I had to do it myself. Jo: Oh, terrible. Ricardo: Terrible, I know. The days when we had to work. No, but that was a really good experiment. The second book, Amazon Ads for Authors, I actually wrote it from scratch, and I didn't love the experience. I loved the finished product, I'm very proud of it, but I didn't enjoy the experience of writing it. Amazon Ads is not the most exciting topic in the world. Even for people like me, who actually enjoy Amazon Ads, it's not super exciting to write about. The fact of having to write that whole book from scratch, I didn't love the experience. So now I do want to write a third book at some point, but I think it'll probably be in the format of the first one. Like, when I finish my series of newsletters on AI search and AI discoverability, I might do a booklet or something around it, but we'll have to see. It's not my favourite thing. It's a good thing I don't need to. Good thing I'm not an author, basically. Jo: No, but I think that's really great to recognise. You actually have written books that support your business, and that is very common for nonfiction writers. That's completely normal for nonfiction authors. So I think that's another important thing for people to recognise, is that the reasons we write are different, the reasons we market are different, and we all have different approaches. As we wind up, and obviously you talked a bit there about how easy it is to generate books with AI, and that is probably one of the biggest things that people are worried about. Now, those of us like you and I have been talking about AI at conferences and things for years now. Neither of us are afraid of it, I think basically because both of us use it, and we're technologists, so we just get on with it. There is so much fear in the community. There's so much negativity. You mentioned Substack, and now they've integrated Pangram, which is renowned for false positives around what is written with AI, and so people are very worried. If we look forward and we look at the next decade, this is not going away. This is going to change a lot of things. So how should authors be thinking about AI, do you think, if they want to prepare for the next decade? Ricardo: I think they need to play around with it, because you and I know that until you actually use it, you don't realise what it's capable of. We've both had these moments of “Oh my God, I'm going to be out of a job,” or “Oh my God, this is incredible,” the kind of things it's able to do. You also realise by using it the things it's not great at, or the things it can be good at but needing a lot of human input. There are courses out there, there are books, there are a lot of things, but for me, the most important thing is to start playing around with it. So you can pick one specific topic to play around with. Either something that you've been meaning to get into for years and haven't done, or something that really annoys you. Looking at the results of your Facebook ads, for example. If you run Facebook ads in the first place, and when you log into your Meta dashboard you cannot make sense of it, take screenshots or download the data, feed it to an AI chat, and talk with it. One of my biggest tips when talking to AI chats is asking them questions rather than asking them for things to do. Because if you just feed it your advertising data and you tell it, “Tell me what I should do,” the chat has no context about what your ads are about, what your goal is, et cetera, et cetera. If you feed it just a screenshot and you say, “Here are my ads. I would like you to help me make sense of them. What do you need to know from me in order to help me with this?” Then it's going to start asking you questions. “Okay, what are you advertising?” They're books. “Okay, what kind of books? Where are you selling? Are your ads going straight to Amazon or retailers, or are they going to your website? If you sell direct, okay, are these conversion ads?” Et cetera, et cetera. So you build that context, and they can help you with it. So that's just one example, but I would pick one thing that you want to test AI with, with zero expectations. Don't expect that by the end of the week you'll have a full system for understanding your Meta ads thanks to AI. You might get to that or you might not, but at least you'll play with it and you'll understand its capabilities, and have a sort of understanding of how it works and how you can potentially use it for other things. I think that's the best way to adapt, because once you play with it, you start thinking. You're walking the dog and you're just thinking, “Ha, I could maybe use it for this thing or that other thing,” and that's how you progressively become more familiar with it. I think there are a lot of worries around AI, but as you say, it's there to stay. So far, I think I was looking at data this morning, and the unemployment rate in the US has stayed stable ever since ChatGPT was introduced two years ago. So there are a lot of narratives out there around how it's going to replace humans, it's going to replace jobs, et cetera, which it might do. I'm not great at predictions usually, but so far it hasn't. What it will definitely do, however, is completely change the way we work. Obviously AI was one of our big reckonings at Reedsy, because we run a marketplace. Our main business model is the marketplace, where authors come in and look for editors, for marketers, for cover designers, for translators, and some of these domains and services are being transformed by AI, right? AI translations are massive right now. We haven't really seen a decline at all on the Reedsy marketplace, but we're prepared for it. It might very well happen, but what we think is happening, or is going to happen, is professionals using AI tools to provide a better output or a faster output or a cheaper output, or all three of these things. So for example, we now have literary translators who say they're open to editing AI translations, right? So you can come in, you can have your book translated with AI, whichever tool or method you choose for that. Then if you want a set of human eyes on it, you can hire a literary translator who's open to working on an AI-translated manuscript, and that's obviously going to be much, much cheaper than paying 10 cents per word from scratch for a literary translator. I'm not necessarily recommending you completely bypass literary translators, or that you go this way, but you have options, right? You have options for different sets of budgets. I think all these human editors, narrators, translators, designers, et cetera, they're not going to disappear, but they might have to reinvent the way they work in the future. Jo: As we all are doing. As you say, for me mostly it's the business side, getting Claude to help me with business stuff. Like even bookkeeping. There are bills that we've all been paying for years that we can now maybe reduce, and reducing costs as well as increasing profit is obviously good business sense. So, interesting times. But just as we wrap up, what are you excited about in what's coming? How do you see Reedsy shaping up in the next decade? What is coming for you and Reedsy? Ricardo: We're really excited about the decade to come, because obviously 10 years for a startup is a long time. I think most startups after 10 years, the founders are gone. Jo: Yes. Ricardo: Or they've exited or they've sold or whatever. We've stayed, we're the same founders, and we're still as excited because I think we have new products, right? We're working on new things. As I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, Reedsy Studio, our writing tool, is probably one of the things we're most excited about, because first, it's getting adopted very fast. It has startup-like growth that we hadn't seen for other products in a long time, and it has very cool technology built in. We probably have a team of 10, 15 engineers now working full time on it and adding a lot of things. So we've added templates for plotting your book, with relationships within different characters and places and magic systems and things like that. We've added writing goals and writing statistics. We still have the free exports. One very cool thing we've added is real time collaboration. So just like Google Docs, you can write in real time with a co-author, or you can get an editor to work in there live with track changes. So you could have an editor working on chapter one while you're writing chapter three, for example. That kind of thing. It's really powerful technology, and that's one of the things we're really excited about for the future. A business, just like authors, we've got to reinvent ourselves. We've got to find ways to keep things exciting and keep motivated, and that is definitely one of them. When adoption goes along with it, then that's obviously super satisfying. Jo: Brilliant. So where can people find you and Reedsy online? Ricardo: So Reedsy you can find at reedsy.com, R-E-E-D-S-Y.com. And there you'll find the whole suite of tools and services. For me, you can find me mostly by email, as I mentioned. That's the one place I check consistently every day, and my email address is ricardo@reedsy.com. So again, R-E-E-D-S-Y.com and ricardo@reedsy.com. You can email me any questions you have about this episode, about AI book discoverability, about marketing, about Reedsy. I always try to answer every email I get, because I think when we started Reedsy, I really appreciated people like you, and some other agents and editors and authors we contacted who were influential in the industry, who actually answered us and took the time to do that. So now I try to answer every email I get, because I feel like we've been very lucky in the beginning to have those people answering our emails, so we should do the same. Jo: Oh, well, thanks so much for your time, Ricardo. That was great. Ricardo: Thank you, Jo. Thanks for having me again.The post Book Marketing, AI Book Discoverability, And Resilience, With Ricardo Fayet first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Mo and Christina take on their 305th film, the brand new Camp Rock 3! Sit back as they discuss a fresh batch of campers, new tunes, and the pitfalls of rebooting existing IP.                          Our Patreon is LIVE!  https://www.patreon.com/moviesthatraisedus We are thrilled to launch our Patreon with exciting perks such as a listener picked bonus movie episode, exclusive Discord, being added to our Close Friends, and a personalized thank you note!   Our merch shop is live! Check out our Raymond the Lifeguard design and so much more!! https://tinyurl.com/vxpbczup    Follow us on instagram @moviesthatraisedus   Follow us on tiktok @moviesthatraiseduspod  Follow us on twitter @mtru_pod     Do you have a movie you want us to cover next? Fill out our form! https://forms.gle/fU5vRfTk8K5Gb7cD8

Service Scout (14 day free trial): https://getservicescout.com/demo.html This is the toughest year to close a sale in home services since 2008. Equipment costs more than ever, credit is tighter, and the customers calling for a replacement are the hardest ones to sell. The problem usually is not your leads. It is what happens when your technician walks in the door. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Justin Riley, CEO and founder of UpFrog, for a straight read on the 2026 home services market and how the best companies are still closing jobs hand over fist. Justin breaks down why likability now beats price, why repair and maintenance calls are the easier win this year, how to lead with the right financing so a customer with tough credit still says yes, and the new tool he built, Service Scout, that briefs your tech on the home, the buyer, and the strategy in 90 seconds before every call. If close rate is where your money leaks this year, this one is the fix. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Upfrog, one of our show partners. Fitting, since today's guest is Upfrog's founder. Upfrog turns paid ad spend into booked, sold system replacements instead of wasted leads. Learn more at upfrog.com. CHAPTERS 0:00 – Raise Your Close Rate by Listening for 90 Seconds 3:01 – From HVAC Apprentice to Founding UpFrog 7:11 – The State of the 2026 Market: Toughest Since 2008 9:04 – Why Close Rate Is the Number One Problem This Year 11:45 – Why Customers Shop for Who They Like, Not Price 13:00 – Why Repair and Maintenance Calls Are the Easier Win 14:03 – The Average Ticket Meat Zone and the Credit Ceiling 17:01 – How Service Scout Was Born 19:12 – Inside a Service Scout Pre Appointment Intelligence Brief 23:30 – The Results: A 5 to 14% Close Rate Lift 24:12 – Leading With the Right Financing to Win Tough Credit 28:02 – Handling the Data Responsibly 31:27 – The Reporting Most Contractors Have Never Seen 33:11 – The Pricing and the ROI Math 36:53 – AI Should Make Your People Super, Not Replace Them 49:30 – The Number One Reason Close Rates Are Down WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - Why 2026 is the hardest year to close a home services sale since 2008, and where the money is actually leaking - Why likability now beats price, and why the replacement estimate is the hardest call to win - How a 90 second pre appointment brief can lift your close rate 5 to 14% - How to lead with the right financing so a customer with tough credit still says yes - What you can learn about a home before the visit, and how to use it without crossing a line - Why the real IP of a home service business is your people, not your AI stack THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY UPFROG System replacement leads from paid ads, nurtured and booked into sold jobs before your team arrives: upfrog.com MARKETSTORM An AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/ CALLRAIL CallRail's Voice Assist is a 24/7 AI voice assistant that answers every call, handles customer questions, and books jobs directly onto your calendar, all without you ever having to step away from the current job. Try Voice Assist for free today at voiceassist.com BREEZY Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code 'SBM' to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://bit.ly/4ihjXkx PHONETAP Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo COMPANYCAM Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at https://companycam.com/ CONNECT WITH OUR HOSTS AND GUEST Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/ Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/ Justin Riley, CEO and Founder of UpFrog: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justintriley/ UpFrog: https://upfrog.com Service Scout (14 day free trial): https://getservicescout.com/demo.html ABOUT SERVICE BUSINESS MASTERY Service Business Mastery helps home service owners run better, more profitable companies. Every week, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch break down the operations, technology, and leadership behind growing an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, with the operators actually doing the work. More at https://servicebusinessmastery.com/ Subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs it. #ServiceBusinessMastery #HomeServices #HVAC #HVACSales #CloseRate  

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 Kurt Farquhar. Television & Film Composer, Founder of Fall Crop Productions and True Music ProNotable Credits: The King of Queens, Girlfriends, The Parkers, Being Mary Jane, The Proud Family, The Neighborhood, Black LightningAwards: 10 BMI AwardsTenure: 38+ years in television Purpose of the Interview The purpose of this interview is to educate and inspire creatives, entrepreneurs, and professionals about longevity, adaptability, and wealth-building behind the scenes. Kurt Farquhar’s journey highlights how sustainable success comes from mastery of craft, relationship-building, and treating creativity as a business—not chasing visibility or fame. Rushion McDonald uses Kurt’s career as a blueprint for: Building mailbox money through residuals Staying relevant across decades of industry change Monetizing intellectual property Leveraging relationships to sustain opportunity Core Themes Discussed Longevity vs. “getting on” Behind-the-scenes success Residual income (“mailbox money”) Adaptability in changing industries Creative originality Relationship capital Diversifying income through ownership Treating art like a business Key Takeaways 1. Staying In Is Harder Than Getting In While many focus on breaking into the industry, Kurt emphasizes that lasting success requires constant reinvention. “The continuing it for the 30-plus years has been way harder than the getting in in the first.” Insight: Longevity requires discipline, humility, and evolution. 2. Behind-the-Scenes Roles Can Be More Sustainable Kurt chose composing over performing, allowing him to age into his career rather than age out of it. “In television and film… all I’ve got to say is John Williams is in his 90s and still composing.” Insight: Choose lanes that allow long-term relevance and recurring income. 3. Residual Income Is Real Wealth Rushion and Kurt discuss “mailbox money”—recurring payments from past work. “If you just had the mailbox money for King of Queens, you’d be fine.” Insight: True financial freedom comes from owning work that keeps paying. 4. Adaptability Is Non‑Negotiable Kurt has survived massive industry shifts—from analog tape to digital production—by embracing change. “Sustain that good idea, change it, polish it up, and mold it for the changing times.” Insight: Talent without adaptability becomes obsolete. 5. Originality Comes From Listening, Not Forcing a Style Kurt avoids creative stagnation by serving the story, not his ego. “I don’t come in every day trying to force the singular style I’ve done for 38 years.” Insight: Longevity depends on collaboration and humility. 6. Relationships Are Career Currency Kurt credits long-term success to consistently showing up for people—before they’re powerful. “If you only call someone once you read they’ve got something coming up, it’s already too late.” Insight: Relationships built without agenda produce lasting opportunity. 7. Saying “Yes” Creates Opportunity Kurt embraces what he calls the power of yes. “I figure I can say yes more than you and end up making more and doing better.” Insight: Opportunity favors those who remain open, prepared, and professional. 8. Ownership Multiplies Creativity Into Business Kurt built True Music Pro, a licensing library used across major networks and streaming platforms. “I realized companies were licensing more of my music than I was… so I built my own library.” Insight: Ownership turns talent into scalable income. Notable Quotes “The journey to stay in is harder than the journey to get in.” “Treat it like a business and it might treat you in kind.” “I do my job, I do it the best I can, and I move on to the next one.” “Character is character. Relationships matter.” “That success doesn’t happen by accident. It happens with care.” Overall Impact of the Interview This interview serves as a masterclass on creative longevity and wealth-building without celebrity dependency. Kurt Farquhar’s story reframes success as: Consistent excellence Relationship stewardship Business ownership Adaptability across generations It is especially powerful for: Creatives seeking sustainable careers Entrepreneurs building IP-based businesses Professionals navigating long-term relevance Anyone pursuing “quiet wealth” over public fame #SHMS #STRAW #BEST Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcastSupport the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Kurt Farquhar. Television & Film Composer, Founder of Fall Crop Productions and True Music ProNotable Credits: The King of Queens, Girlfriends, The Parkers, Being Mary Jane, The Proud Family, The Neighborhood, Black LightningAwards: 10 BMI AwardsTenure: 38+ years in television Purpose of the Interview The purpose of this interview is to educate and inspire creatives, entrepreneurs, and professionals about longevity, adaptability, and wealth-building behind the scenes. Kurt Farquhar’s journey highlights how sustainable success comes from mastery of craft, relationship-building, and treating creativity as a business—not chasing visibility or fame. Rushion McDonald uses Kurt’s career as a blueprint for: Building mailbox money through residuals Staying relevant across decades of industry change Monetizing intellectual property Leveraging relationships to sustain opportunity Core Themes Discussed Longevity vs. “getting on” Behind-the-scenes success Residual income (“mailbox money”) Adaptability in changing industries Creative originality Relationship capital Diversifying income through ownership Treating art like a business Key Takeaways 1. Staying In Is Harder Than Getting In While many focus on breaking into the industry, Kurt emphasizes that lasting success requires constant reinvention. “The continuing it for the 30-plus years has been way harder than the getting in in the first.” Insight: Longevity requires discipline, humility, and evolution. 2. Behind-the-Scenes Roles Can Be More Sustainable Kurt chose composing over performing, allowing him to age into his career rather than age out of it. “In television and film… all I’ve got to say is John Williams is in his 90s and still composing.” Insight: Choose lanes that allow long-term relevance and recurring income. 3. Residual Income Is Real Wealth Rushion and Kurt discuss “mailbox money”—recurring payments from past work. “If you just had the mailbox money for King of Queens, you’d be fine.” Insight: True financial freedom comes from owning work that keeps paying. 4. Adaptability Is Non‑Negotiable Kurt has survived massive industry shifts—from analog tape to digital production—by embracing change. “Sustain that good idea, change it, polish it up, and mold it for the changing times.” Insight: Talent without adaptability becomes obsolete. 5. Originality Comes From Listening, Not Forcing a Style Kurt avoids creative stagnation by serving the story, not his ego. “I don’t come in every day trying to force the singular style I’ve done for 38 years.” Insight: Longevity depends on collaboration and humility. 6. Relationships Are Career Currency Kurt credits long-term success to consistently showing up for people—before they’re powerful. “If you only call someone once you read they’ve got something coming up, it’s already too late.” Insight: Relationships built without agenda produce lasting opportunity. 7. Saying “Yes” Creates Opportunity Kurt embraces what he calls the power of yes. “I figure I can say yes more than you and end up making more and doing better.” Insight: Opportunity favors those who remain open, prepared, and professional. 8. Ownership Multiplies Creativity Into Business Kurt built True Music Pro, a licensing library used across major networks and streaming platforms. “I realized companies were licensing more of my music than I was… so I built my own library.” Insight: Ownership turns talent into scalable income. Notable Quotes “The journey to stay in is harder than the journey to get in.” “Treat it like a business and it might treat you in kind.” “I do my job, I do it the best I can, and I move on to the next one.” “Character is character. Relationships matter.” “That success doesn’t happen by accident. It happens with care.” Overall Impact of the Interview This interview serves as a masterclass on creative longevity and wealth-building without celebrity dependency. Kurt Farquhar’s story reframes success as: Consistent excellence Relationship stewardship Business ownership Adaptability across generations It is especially powerful for: Creatives seeking sustainable careers Entrepreneurs building IP-based businesses Professionals navigating long-term relevance Anyone pursuing “quiet wealth” over public fame #SHMS #STRAW #BEST Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lachi is a blind musician who has produced GRAMMY nominated projects. She's also a GRAMMY trustee. And the voice behind Diseducation — a song built on the idea that the world needs a new way of thinking about disabilityHer latest album, Magnificent, features more than 70 human collaborators at a moment when many in the music industry worry about how AI might be coming to replace them. Cal sits down with her to work through the question at the center of this podcast: How do we get the best out of AI without taking on the worst? For Lachi, AI can open vistas that are closed to the disabled. For a musician, it can also take away a livelihood and steal IP. Lachi and Cal talk about accessibility, authorship, the environmental cost of the data centers powering the future, and what happens when we let AI do the thinking our minds were built to do. It's a conversation about what we all need to do to recognize our best path forward.

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 Kurt Farquhar. Television & Film Composer, Founder of Fall Crop Productions and True Music ProNotable Credits: The King of Queens, Girlfriends, The Parkers, Being Mary Jane, The Proud Family, The Neighborhood, Black LightningAwards: 10 BMI AwardsTenure: 38+ years in television Purpose of the Interview The purpose of this interview is to educate and inspire creatives, entrepreneurs, and professionals about longevity, adaptability, and wealth-building behind the scenes. Kurt Farquhar’s journey highlights how sustainable success comes from mastery of craft, relationship-building, and treating creativity as a business—not chasing visibility or fame. Rushion McDonald uses Kurt’s career as a blueprint for: Building mailbox money through residuals Staying relevant across decades of industry change Monetizing intellectual property Leveraging relationships to sustain opportunity Core Themes Discussed Longevity vs. “getting on” Behind-the-scenes success Residual income (“mailbox money”) Adaptability in changing industries Creative originality Relationship capital Diversifying income through ownership Treating art like a business Key Takeaways 1. Staying In Is Harder Than Getting In While many focus on breaking into the industry, Kurt emphasizes that lasting success requires constant reinvention. “The continuing it for the 30-plus years has been way harder than the getting in in the first.” Insight: Longevity requires discipline, humility, and evolution. 2. Behind-the-Scenes Roles Can Be More Sustainable Kurt chose composing over performing, allowing him to age into his career rather than age out of it. “In television and film… all I’ve got to say is John Williams is in his 90s and still composing.” Insight: Choose lanes that allow long-term relevance and recurring income. 3. Residual Income Is Real Wealth Rushion and Kurt discuss “mailbox money”—recurring payments from past work. “If you just had the mailbox money for King of Queens, you’d be fine.” Insight: True financial freedom comes from owning work that keeps paying. 4. Adaptability Is Non‑Negotiable Kurt has survived massive industry shifts—from analog tape to digital production—by embracing change. “Sustain that good idea, change it, polish it up, and mold it for the changing times.” Insight: Talent without adaptability becomes obsolete. 5. Originality Comes From Listening, Not Forcing a Style Kurt avoids creative stagnation by serving the story, not his ego. “I don’t come in every day trying to force the singular style I’ve done for 38 years.” Insight: Longevity depends on collaboration and humility. 6. Relationships Are Career Currency Kurt credits long-term success to consistently showing up for people—before they’re powerful. “If you only call someone once you read they’ve got something coming up, it’s already too late.” Insight: Relationships built without agenda produce lasting opportunity. 7. Saying “Yes” Creates Opportunity Kurt embraces what he calls the power of yes. “I figure I can say yes more than you and end up making more and doing better.” Insight: Opportunity favors those who remain open, prepared, and professional. 8. Ownership Multiplies Creativity Into Business Kurt built True Music Pro, a licensing library used across major networks and streaming platforms. “I realized companies were licensing more of my music than I was… so I built my own library.” Insight: Ownership turns talent into scalable income. Notable Quotes “The journey to stay in is harder than the journey to get in.” “Treat it like a business and it might treat you in kind.” “I do my job, I do it the best I can, and I move on to the next one.” “Character is character. Relationships matter.” “That success doesn’t happen by accident. It happens with care.” Overall Impact of the Interview This interview serves as a masterclass on creative longevity and wealth-building without celebrity dependency. Kurt Farquhar’s story reframes success as: Consistent excellence Relationship stewardship Business ownership Adaptability across generations It is especially powerful for: Creatives seeking sustainable careers Entrepreneurs building IP-based businesses Professionals navigating long-term relevance Anyone pursuing “quiet wealth” over public fame #SHMS #STRAW #BEST Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcastSteve Harvey Morning Show Online: http://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Could music become Netflix's next big content category? In this episode, we break down Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl's case for bringing music to Netflix, why it could give both Netflix and the music industry more leverage against YouTube, and how advertising could make the opportunity more compelling. We also explore the challenges, from licensing economics and consumer behavior to whether Netflix actually needs a full music offering. Then, on the road to Trapital Summit, Epidemic Sound's VP, Strategic Music Partnerships, Jesper Staffas joins us for a bold prediction: traditional record labels and music companies will increasingly look like IP law firms with music divisions. CHAPTERS 04:39 Why Music Wants Netflix 09:34 The Case for Netflix 10:18 Netflix's Ad Opportunity 13:34 Why Netflix May Pass 16:16 The Consumer Behavior Problem 21:18 Should Netflix Test Music? 25:21 Bold Prediction: Music's Legal Future 26:01 More Lawyers Than A&Rs? 27:30 Music Licensing and Brands Get your tickets here - September 15 in LA: Trapital Summit Tickets SPONSORS Chartmetric: Listen in for our Stat of the Week Symphonic: Distribute your music to one of the largest networks in the industry. Symphonic delivers your music to over 200 digital service providers ensuring that you're monetizing every stream and use of your music on Spotify, TikTok, YouTube, and more TRAPITAL Where technology shapes culture. New episodes and memos every week. Sign up here for free.

Round Table Group is a Premier Sponsor of the ABA Litigation Section. The selection of the Round Table Group as the subject of this interview should not be construed as an endorsement by the American Bar Association of the Round Table Group and its services. ----- Finding the right expert witness for your case can be a challenge. You want a witness who knows the topic, helps you ask the right questions, can handle a grilling from opposing counsel, and resonates with the judge and the jury. Guest Brice David is the senior manager of IP expert witness services at The Round Table Group, a pioneering firm in the field of expert witness referral services. Successful lawyers know the law, but that doesn't mean they understand highly complicated fields involving technology, patents, applications, even finance. That's what experts are for. When it comes to selecting a witness, there's a lot in play, from technical expertise to presentation style to availability to even something as simple as a regional accent or the wrong suit. Hear some real-world stories about what can go wrong (or right) when choosing an expert.  Plus, a quick tip from Lauren Williams on learning to slow down and enjoy the summer. Have a question, comment, or suggestion for an upcoming episode? Get in touch at MRogson@SkywardInsurance.com or JAReederJr@gmail.com. Resources Mentioned:  Round Table Group American Bar Association American Bar Association Litigation Section

For more than a decade, one conference has been getting ahead of the headlines instead of chasing them. Host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Mark Treitel, founder of TechTainment, and Konrad Trope, the conference's co-chair, ahead of this year's event to talk about how a niche gathering on technology, entertainment, and the law grew into one of the country's premier forums for examining AI's legal, ethical, and business impact, and why staying "gutsy" enough to tackle hard conversations before they go mainstream is the whole point. Guests Mark Treitel, Founder, TechTainment A senior intellectual property and technology litigator with Quinn Emanuel, Mark recognized 12 years ago that no conference was seriously addressing the intersection of technology, entertainment, and the law. Rather than wait for someone else to fill that gap, he created TechTainment under the auspices of the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association (LAIPLA). What began as a small gathering of a handful of speakers has grown into a full-day conference featuring more than 30 speakers and nearly 200 attendees from across the country. Konrad Trope, Managing Shareholder, Trope and Trope Konrad comes from a family of eight attorneys whose legal careers date back to 1954, when his father, Eugene Trope, and his uncle co-founded the law firm Trope and Trope. Over the following 75 years, the firm has represented some of Hollywood's most illustrious names, including Cary Grant, Alan Ladd, Nicole Kidman, and Nick Cassavetes. Konrad has focused his own practice on entertainment and intellectual property litigation for the past 40 years. He was introduced to Mark and TechTainment in September 2022 after chairing a panel on ethics in the age of digital media at the seventh annual conference, and became co-chair in January 2023, since carving out a niche recruiting panelists and keynote speakers who are defining the boundaries of artificial intelligence. What is TechTainment? TechTainment is an annual, one-day conference produced by LAIPLA, now held in partnership with the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University (ASU) at ASU's California Center in downtown Los Angeles. The conference brings together leaders in technology, entertainment, business, academia, and law to discuss the issues reshaping every industry, long before those issues become mainstream news. This year's conference: Friday, October 16, 2026, at ASU's California Center in downtown Los Angeles Keynote: David Alpert, CEO and co-founder of Skybound Entertainment, known for transforming intellectual property like Invincible into television, film, games, and tabletop products Panels include: recent developments in AI and entertainment law; recent developments in IP and entertainment law; how AI is changing greenlighting decisions in film and TV (moderated by Konrad, featuring Craig Wagner of Paradigm Talent Agency); managing AI data and addressing bias in prompt design (featuring speakers from Tokyo Broadcasting System, Microsoft, Lexus, DLA Piper, Amazon, and Oracle); algorithms and arbitrators, on implicit bias in tech-driven mediation (featuring Tricia Schaefer and Mike Murray of Vertex); a civility and professionalism panel featuring Dr. Wittcoff, the dean of Washington University School of Law, and a leading Southern California legal ethics expert; and a secret panel still being finalized at the time of recording Panelist Tracy Freed has spoken at all 12 years of the conference Key Topics Covered A new civility requirement for California attorneys Beginning April 1, 2026, every California attorney must annually affirm a civility oath, pledging to conduct themselves with dignity, courtesy, and integrity, alongside new required training on civility and mental health awareness. Mark and Konrad discuss why professionalism and ethical conduct matter more than ever as AI transforms how lawyers practice, and why the legal profession, historically slow to prioritize wellbeing, is finally catching up. Clients "playing lawyer" with ChatGPT Mark shares how attorneys across the profession are now spending more time managing clients who arrive already convinced they've diagnosed their own legal issue using AI tools, requiring lawyers to sort fact from AI-generated assumption before real work can begin. His takeaway: these are powerful tools, but only tools, and lawyers still need the expertise to use them ethically and effectively. The pushback against "AI slop" Mark points to a growing cultural backlash against AI-generated content in entertainment, and a corresponding renaissance of audiences seeking out simple, well-told, human stories, citing the independent film Obsession and anticipation for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey as evidence people still want real actors and real storytelling. Reading, learning, and the future of legal education Both guests raise concerns about AI's effect on critical thinking, particularly in law schools, where the traditional grind of close reading has historically been what makes lawyers effective. Mark argues bluntly that if students lose the ability to read and analyze because AI is doing it for them, the consequences extend well beyond the legal profession. The bigger picture: AI, dystopia, and the future of work The conversation turns to bigger-picture anxieties around AI, from military robotics to questions about what a society looks like if AI eliminates the need to work, framing these as exactly the kind of uncomfortable, ahead-of-the-curve conversations TechTainment exists to have. A shared love of things "AI can't replace" In a lighter moment, Mark reflects on losing an entire digital music collection to digital rights management, and his frustration with ads creeping into the modern moviegoing experience, both examples of technology's tradeoffs even in entertainment he loves. Why they're still doing this after 12 years Mark closes by reflecting on the sheer number of hours he and Konrad have poured into the conference over more than a decade, admitting there were plenty of moments he could have walked away for more billable hours or family time. His answer for why he hasn't: a genuine, long-term commitment to the vision, one he hopes people are still gathering around in 10 or 20 years. How to Get Involved Register and learn more: LAIPLA.net/techtainment Pricing: Multiple tiers are available, including discounted rates for in-house attorneys, law students, LAIPLA members, and ASU alumni, with early bird pricing through the end of August Attend: The conference includes breakfast, lunch, and extensive networking opportunities Sponsor: Sponsorship tiers include Matrix, Luminary, Beacon, and Circuit level sponsors; interested organizations can reach out directly Connect with Small & Gutsy  Website: SmallandGutsy.org  Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org Do you know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way!  

Between 2018 and 2024, the turnover of Portuguese games companies went from around 5 million to nearly 100 million. In this episode, Kalie Moore sits down with Jefferson Valadares, Co-Founder and CEO of partNerd and President of the Portuguese Association of Game Development Companies, to unpack whether a country long known for exporting its best talent can become a home for original IP. Jefferson has seen the industry from nearly every seat, as Studio GM at EA, Executive Producer at BioWare, Head of Mobile at Bandai Namco, and a board member at Rovio before its sale to Sega. They explore what the AAA years taught him about when to spend and when to wing it, why big companies keep funding games they already know won't work, and what he learned running studio acquisitions at Fortis Games about why most deals quietly lose their value.The conversation also goes inside partNerd, the four-person studio he's building now, and why they're making an original co-op game exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2. Jefferson explains the thinking behind designing for asymmetric skill levels so parents, kids, and non-gamers can play together, why GameShare shaped their commercial model, and how hard it is for veteran developers to unlearn best practice and build something genuinely new. He also revisits Doppio, his early bet on voice as a gaming platform, and the timing that led to selling to Fortis in late 2021. Along the way he lays out the Helsinki parallel he sees playing out in Lisbon, why the hardest gap for emerging ecosystems is product rather than engineering or art, and what he thinks the industry is underestimating about the generation that grew up on Roblox and Minecraft rather than GTA.This episode is brought to you by Appcharge, the payments platform built specifically for mobile gaming that processes over a billion dollars annually. Learn more here: https://www.appcharge.com/?utm_source=naavik&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=sponsorship_paymentsWe'd also like to thank Dive for making this episode possible! With its fully managed analytics and LiveOps platform built for game studios, 95% of their clients grow revenue in one year. All of that without having to hire an in-house data team. Learn more here: dive.games/scale.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - Jeferson Valadares: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefersonvaladares/Host - Kalie Moore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaliemoore/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe

It's another "emergency pod" episode of Don't Be Sour, kicked off in a new living room setup with a taste test of the upcoming Appleberry Ghost Sour Strips flavor. Things get chaotic fast as Max fesses up to an elaborate AI-assisted prank on Christian involving a "cracked" gym mirror, before the guys spiral into a wide-ranging debate on everything from mirror-breaking gym etiquette to Claude vs. ChatGPT to who really wears the better cologne. From there the conversation swings through classic homeowner headaches (a $30K irrigation replacement, shower drains clogged with hair, questionable water filtration setups), a surprisingly deep dive into Maxx's struggles with procrastination and ADHD, and a hearty round of movie and TV takes covering Spider-Man, House of the Dragon, and why Hollywood can't stop recycling old IP. The back half gets even more unfiltered, tackling a disturbing documentary on YouTuber EDP445, a play-by-play of Joe's first HOA meeting, and a heated debate over the WNBA's trans-athlete controversy. It's a longer, looser episode packed with random tangents, home renovation drama, and the usual chaotic energy — capped off with an update on the brand-new podcast studio that's finally under construction

In toy world of big IP and mass market appeal, who's looking out for the niches with die-hard and under-serviced fans? Why look no further than Wandering Planet Toys. Gavin Hignight founded the company in 2021 and has since produced successful toys for Laurel and Hardy, Nancy Drew, and The Prisoner (to name a few). This week we're chatting about what toys mean to him and what can be expected in their new Planetoid Raiders Kickstarter that's coming in hot! Bookmark the Planetoid Raiders Kickstarter! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wanderingplanettoys/planetoid-raiders-retro-style-action-figures?ref=4o8k0k Follow Wandering Planet Toys on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wanderingplanettoys Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram [https://instagram.com/aic_podcast], Facebook [https://facebook.com/aicpodcast], X [https://twitter.com/aic_podcast], and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeNtqD5fka34ndNJ4kD0zlw] Start creating a podcast today with Zencastr! Learn more. Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/ Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies Proudly part of the Non-Productive Network

Today we are joined by Ian Goldin, Senior Lead Information Security Engineer, and Mike Horka, Principal Information Security Engineer, from Lumen's Black Lotus Labs, discussing their research entitled "Expanded JDY IoT and SOHO botnet enables rapid vulnerability exploitation." Black Lotus Labs has uncovered a major resurgence of the JDY botnet, a China-nexus reconnaissance network now comprising more than 1,500 compromised SOHO and IoT devices. The botnet uses these devices to conduct targeted scanning and fingerprinting, helping threat actors rapidly identify vulnerable infrastructure—sometimes within hours of a new vulnerability disclosure—and appears to have a particular focus on U.S. military-related networks. The research highlights how compromised routers and IoT devices can be turned into distributed reconnaissance infrastructure that evades traditional IP-based defenses and supports follow-on exploitation. The research and executive brief can be found here: Expanded JDY IoT and SOHO botnet enables rapid vulnerability exploitation

PBS lost 50TB of Data when Cloud backup provider went out of business, Fitness App STILL showing location of our Military while deployed! Delta passenger decided to take his new Hacker skills to the friendly sky, Caller has a solution to his email problem, he was “black-holed” by the email provider as a suspect IP, New Laptop and what do I use to Transfer the data, Bit locker error, Blue Screen error still happening,

Support the show on Patreon! - https://patreon.com/gogOther ways to support the show! - https://gog.show/donateJoin our Discord! - https://discord.gg/r4ZmSHBBuy some merch! - https://shop.gog.show/Welcome back from the vacation from hell, where apparently even California has its head in the sand(y beach). Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled his vision for an AI-powered utopia that mostly boils down to "trust humanity to do the right thing," which is a bold statement from the guy whose $300 million yacht apparently couldn't hear a Coast Guard distress call from a stranded family. Elsewhere, an AI agent booked a gym class by exploiting a security hole and kicking someone else off the waitlist, because nothing says "personal assistant" like accidental cybercrime. The EU is now requiring labels on realistic AI generated content, China is breaking up people and their chatbot companions, and OpenAI reportedly has achieved the ultimate AI ethics breakthrough: having no dedicated ethicist.The surveillance dystopia is also picking up speed. Flock tried to turn hundreds of thousands of rideshare and delivery drivers into a roving army of license-plate snitches, while every Flock camera in one Minnesota city was promptly sawed down and stolen. Meta's smart glasses continue their transformation into the preferred accessory of creeps and pickup-artist assholes, prompting pubs and other venues to ban them outright. Researchers found those glasses being used to secretly record and harass women, proving once again that every shiny new piece of wearable technology eventually gets repurposed as a tool for human depravity. And because apparently your car dashboard wasn't already commercial enough, BMW is now putting Spider-Man ads on the screens you paid tens of thousands of dollars to own.Finally, Apple is facing a class-action lawsuit over an iCloud Private Relay flaw that can expose your supposedly private IP address, Anthropic is watermarking Claude-generated text, SpaceXAI is taking another year to remove a pile of unpermitted gas turbines, and somebody is apparently stealing millions of dollars in AI hardware straight off California highways. We also hit Media Candy with Strange New Worlds, Silo, Broadchurch, Ted Lasso, and The X-Files, sweat through yet another Apple Fitness disaster, celebrate the sweet relief of escaping Spark, and ask the eternal Gen-X question: how did all this technology supposedly make life easier when we're still just sitting here surrounded by 47 goddamn tabs?Sponsors:CleanMyMac - Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use code OLDGEEKS for 20% off at clnmy.com/OLDGEEKSDeleteMe - Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com/GOG and use promo code GOG at checkout.HIMS - Visit Hims.com/gog to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1passwordShow notes at https://gog.show/758Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/NzS9Wo7D0yASHOW NOTESMark Zuckerberg's Answer to Growing AI Safety Concerns Is to Just Trust People to Do the Right ThingMark Zuckerberg's mega-yacht didn't respond to call for help from small boat in AlaskaAn OpenClaw agent reportedly hacked a gym's booking system and kicked someone off a waiting listEU will mandate labels on authentic-looking AI content starting August 2Beijing is forcing a mass breakup with AI loversOpenAI's Only Ethicist Reportedly Left Last Month. She Wasn't ReplacedGoogle's classic Search button is gone in a new AI-first homepageSpaceX's Earnings Show Elon Wiped Out Two-Thirds Of Twitter's Ad BusinessSpaceXAI says it will take a year to fully remove unpermitted gas turbines from its Mississippi data centerFlock Reportedly Tried to Turn Uber Drivers Into Mobile SnitchesAll of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen‘The Worst I've Ever Seen': Cargo Thefts Have Turned Violent in Pursuit of AI HardwareBMW is forcing a weird Spider-Man ad onto its dashboard displaysTesla Driver Tries the Old ‘I Wasn't Driving' Excuse to Get Out of Speeding TicketApple faces class action lawsuit for fraud over iCloud Private Relay flawIs AI Disclosure Day here?Trackalot 1.3 Released!Popular Bars and Restaurants Are Banning Smart GlassesResearchers Show How Meta's 'Pervert Glasses' Are Used to Harass WomenPervert At Large (2013 Remaster)Renting a car and the clerk was wearing meta glasses.Star Trek: Strange New WorldsSiloBroadchurch S3Ted Lasso S4Ride or DieSugarInstadocs: The Prediction GamesBeetlejuice Beetlejuice‘The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn' Has a Perfectly Creepy TrailerNirvanna the Band the Show the MovieSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Take 10 with Tim – August 13, 2026 @ 3 pm ET/2 pm CT Microsoft Teams:1.Let's take a look at the standings.2.All disappointing team (hitters) – my picks. Are these players you will target for next season or are you done?a.Catcher (1st catcher off the board) - Cal Raleigh - .159 BA, 12 home runs in 86 gamesb.1B - Vinnie P (10) - .232 BA, 6 home runs in 79 gamesc.2B – Jose Altuve (6) - .240 BA, 14 home runs, 2 SB in 96 gamesd.3B – Manny Machado (4) – 23 runs but a .215 BA. He does have a .229 BABIP.e.SS – Geraldo Perdomo (9) – After his 27-20-290 season, he's hitting .244 with 9 home runs and 17 SB. His BABIP is .264f.OF – Aaron Judge (1) – He played well in 59 games, but will turn 35 in April.g.OF – Jarren Duran (16) – He's going to go 20-20 (17 HR and 17 SB), but it was expensive as he's hitting .202 with a brutal .260 OBP. Plus, he's sitting against lefties.h.OF – Chandler Simpson (41) – Dreams of stealing 60 bases are going to fall short – he has stolen 33 bases, but only scored 49 runs with no home runs.3.I see where Bryce Harper had to DH for over the weekend because – wait for it – his knees were sore after playing the outfield. 4.Carson Whisenhunt pitched well on Tuesday – 5.2 IP, 4 hits, 1 ER, 2K/3BB – any interest?5.In his last 9 starts, Eury Perez is pitching to a 2.00 ERA with 56K in 53 innings. He only has three wins, but in 6 of those starts, he's gone at least 6 innings. He's 23.a.He was a pass for you for next year a few weeks ago. Do you want to revisit?6.With Devin Williams hitting the IL, Kodai Senga gets his first career save. Hmmm…any interest?7.What hitter are you targeting for this weekend's FAAB?8.What pitcher are you targeting for this weekend's FAAB?

Kara Sutton returns to the podcast to share about the preparations leading up to the planned home birth of her fourth baby. Connect with the guest: @ikaraboutyou alwaysfriday.com Grow with us on ⁠IP+⁠! Informed Pregnancy Media presents two all new intimate short-form video series following Garrett and HeHe's real-time pregnancy journeys as they prepare for an empowered birth and postpartum experience. Each episode features weekly updates with personal photos and videos to help bring these raw stories to life, a visually dynamic guide through each mother's emotional and physical experiences. ⁠Watch Growing with Garrett⁠ ⁠Watch Growing with HeHe⁠ Keep up with Dr. Berlin and Informed Pregnancy Media online! ⁠⁠⁠informedpregnancy.com⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠@doctorberlin⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices