Podcasts about japanese prime minister

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy joins Patricia Karvelas with Jacob Greber, Sarah Martin and Andrew Probyn on the couch.

Albanese is in hot water for what seems to be sexualised comments about the Japanese Prime Minister. Plus, China is causing panic in the Pacific but it's also overtaking the West in technology; what could this mean?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Japan and the UK sign a $12 billion floating wind deal for 5.9 GW, Muehlhan buys Coverwind Solutions in Spain, and US grid reform stalls as MISO, PJM, and SPP fast-track fossil resources over wind. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! The Uptime Wind Energy podcast, brought to you by StrikeTape. Protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit striketape.com. And now your hosts Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall. I’m here with Rosemary Barnes, just back from Japan, in Matthew’s stead. Yolanda Padron is on special assignment. Well, Rosemary, what happened in Japan? You, you spent a, a week touring the country and looking at, uh, some energy projects. What did you learn?  Rosemary Barnes: I was there for just five, five nights. I went over for an, um, an, a systems engineering conference by INCOSE. I was doing a keynote presentation there, and also spoke to some of their… They’ve got this program, an international programming for, like, upcoming leaders. Um, and yeah, it was funny, the topic that I chose for [00:01:00] that was how you can combine an online presence with a serious professional career. Uh, ’cause, you know, like, a lot of the advice that you see about building an online presence is, like, totally compat- incompatible with being taken seriously in a, uh, you know, in a, a job like engineering. So that was pretty fun. And then on the last day, I was able to arrange a tour of a community. Like, we went to this village near Fukushima, and they, a- after the Fukushima, uh, or the earthquake that led to the Fukushima, uh, shutdown, that town, some power lines came down, and that, that village was without power for three months. So in response to that, they’re like, “Community power for the win.” At this place, like, there was literally steam coming out of the ground just, you know, randomly. It’s an onsen town, so you know, like, it’s, um, it’s built around tourism for these hot baths. And so they put in a couple of geothermal power plants, small ones, and, um, also some hydropower. But the reason why I wanted to go there was ’cause, you know, ge- [00:02:00]geothermal is such an obvious solution for Japan, for the energy, but they only have… .3% of their electricity is generated by geothermal currently. And, um, the main reason is that the onsen community in Japan is really opposed to it. They’ve lobbied against it because they’re worried that, um, you know, the onsen community needs heat to come out, hot water to come out of the ground, and geothermal takes hot water out of the ground, so they’re just worried that they’re incompatible. Um, now I think the science says that that’s not really true, that the, there isn’t, they’re not the same resource and that one doesn’t affect the other. The wastewater from the geothermal is not really wastewater. It’s just water that is not as hot as it was when it came up. Um, that goes down then into the onsen because it’s a good temperature. And then some of the even cooler water, about 21, 23 degrees, they’re using that to raise shrimp.  Allen Hall: Well, just speaking of Japan, uh, the Japanese Prime Minister was just in the UK and a [00:03:00] big deal was signed between Japan and United Kingdom, £9 billion worth, which is about 12 billion US dollars, uh, to work together on 5.9 gigawatts of floating wind capacity in the UK, uh, across three different projects. W- And the goal is to get some Japanese partners working with, uh, the UK companies involved with it to suss out how to do offshore wind. And as we all know, Japan is gonna, is headed there right now and is going to need a little bit of a primer on how to do it. And, and, well, they should because, uh, there’s been some really successful efforts in the UK and up north, Northern Europe. Uh, so the, the goal of this is to, to get these projects underway and, and Japan’s committing all this money, which, uh, sure, it’s a nice boost to the UK at the moment. It gets a little turbulent over there if you’ve been watching the news. Rosemary [00:04:00] Tying back to your experience in Japan recently, is there a big push internally? Do you see that internally in Japan for offshore wind and even offshore floating wind in Japan, or are they really prepping for it in country?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I’d say I went over there thinking that Japan was, like, oddly not bothered about wind energy of any flavor. Um, ’cause, you know, like onshore wind, they’ve got problems because the good ri- wind resource is right on the ridges, and they’re getting just hammered by lightning, and they’ve got some, like, really interesting responses to how they think that they should manage that, that in my opinion are just gonna kill… Like, you would never bother to have an onshore wind farm if these, um, regulations go ahead. So offshore they have got, um, a bit of a, an, a fixed bottom resource, and they’ve had several auction rounds geared towards that, but they’re, um, they haven’t gone well. I think that, like, people have promised… It, it’s a similar story to elsewhere in the world. Uh, people have, like, bid, like, [00:05:00] bid down to quite low prices and then not been able to deliver and pulled out. Mitsubishi just recently paid some, uh, some huge penalty for not going ahead with a, a project. There isn’t actually that much fixed bottom potential, um, for Japan. So, um, if they wanna have a significant amount of wind energy in their grid, which they should, because they’re, like, honestly it is probably the best or one of the couple of best options to provide big chunks of their electricity supply, then it needs to be floating. Um, and the government is actually pushing on that. I thought they weren’t doing too much, but I did talk to someone from this group, Flora. It is a group that is, um, that, that is trying to form partnerships with other countries, but also with manufacturers to try and set the framework up so that it can, like, l- lay the groundwork for commercialization to happen without being prescriptive. Flora is in there [00:06:00] to try and, you know, get the pieces in place to be able to allow, um, you know, uh, innovation and competition to happen much, much faster.  Allen Hall: What’s the most complicated piece technically that needs to be solved before Japan can really move forward? Is it the money piece? I mean, um, um, I said technically, but I feel like there’s always this money aspect to it, which is important, but on the technology side, i- is it, is there any technology that remains to be solved or is it just the will to do it? Rosemary Barnes: Basically in any engineering question, the answer is money, like, when you come down to it. So, like, it’s almost boring to say, yeah, it’s, it’s money. Floating offshore wind- Too hard, too niche for most people to consider it a mainstream thing, but it’s the legitimate, like, good contender for Japan. And you know what? That presents opportunity. It can actually be good to have to do something hard. Um, and Japan has the opportunity to be the [00:07:00] country where, you know, it’s the country where floating wind makes the most sense, so they can be the ones, if they’re smart about it, they can be the ones where the smart technologies evolve. There will at least be little niche things that they develop that will go on to succeed, and Japan really needs some new big manufacturing industry to… Like, their car industry is obviously, um, has been so important, the automotive manufacturing, and it’s declining now relative to China. Um, so I am also hopeful that they can, you know, build that up a bit more, but I don’t think that they’re going to, you know, topple China, so they are looking for new industries that will be the new… Yeah, do for them what the auto industry did from, yeah, from the ’70s onwards. Actually, you know, like, you can tie it back in a nice loop back to the oil crisis in the ’70s because that’s when the world was like, “Oh, actually small, efficient cars are, are quite a smart idea.” And Japan had those because it was so [00:08:00] constrained in terms of, you know, the oil that it could bring in was expensive. Not having their own fossil resources, they learned to conserve it, and then that turned out to be, you know, a big advantage for them.  Allen Hall: Using the 1970s gas price crisis and the movement towards Japanese cars in the United States, I mean, timing is everything. And Japan was in, uh, Honda in particular, was in the United States. I think Toyota was too, if I remember correctly. And when gas prices went through the roof, uh, yeah, they were very efficient cars, and not the most reliable at the moment, but obviously they’ve changed quite a bit and s- they are, particularly Honda and Toyota, are probably two of the more reliable blan- brands you can buy in the States today. So things change, right? You’re just getting your foot in the door. But that, that break point is, is coming pretty soon, I would say, in, in terms of timing. I- is it the right time for Japan to move into floating offshore? It’s gonna be within the next couple of years, don’t you think, Rosie?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, yeah, def- [00:09:00] definitely. Um, and yeah, I mean, I, it, it, it does frustrate me that any money is being spent on, um, hydrogen and ammonia imports. I, I would just rather that they just, just, just do the LNG until you figure out alternatives.  Allen Hall: That makes more sense.  Rosemary Barnes: Gas is better than… You know, like ammonia, for example, they’re locking in these coal power plants for additional years, making investments, um, you know, thinking that this is gonna be part of their future. They’re gonna end up burning coal, y- you know? At least gas is flexible enough to support renewables, and so it can, you know, like speed the rollout of, of wind. And they do have a fair bit of solar too in Japan. Floating solar, actually. They invented that there, and have actually got quite, quite a lot of it. Allen Hall: Gas is gonna be the answer short term. I think in the relationship between the United States and Japan has always been pretty solid since after World War II, that the United States would be willing partners to help Japan stand up any [00:10:00] technology, probably except for wind, which is just bizarre.  Rosemary Barnes: One of your maybe, um, unexpected legacies in Japan was, I say you, I mean the USA, they’ve got, um, not just the, like, silly American power plug design where you’ve got, like, the parallel pins that just fall out, so they’ve got that. But they also have 110 volts. Like, where else in the world is, is, thinks that’s a good idea? I had, um, my little travel steamer I’d taken over there, hairdryer, useless. Absolutely useless.  Allen Hall: That’s all you  Matthew Stead: need.  Rosemary Barnes: I blame you personally, Allen. I hold you personally responsible for my wrinkled clothing. Allen Hall: Delamination and bondline failures in blades are difficult problems to detect early. These hidden issues can cost you millions in repairs and lost energy production. CIC NDT are specialists to detect these critical flaws before they become expensive burdens. Their nondestructive [00:11:00] test technology penetrates deep into blade materials to find voids and cracks traditional inspections completely miss. CIC NDT maps every critical defect, delivers actionable reports, and provides support to get your blades back in service. So visit cicndt.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions Well, the wind service sector is consolidating as we’ve all watched over the last year or two, and Mjolner Wind Service is one of the most aggressive buyers in the field. Uh, the Danish company has signed to acquire Cover Wind Solutions of Spain, including Cover Sun Solutions and Cover Renewable, with the deal expected to close by the end of June. This is Mjolner’s 11th acquisition since 2023. Now, Cover Wind fills a geographic gap for Mjolner. Uh, they are [00:12:00] involved in Spain and France and, uh, already involved in covering the Nordics a little bit and Central Europe. So there’s a, a big play here, and, and decommissioning is really the, the story underneath of th- all this is on the decommissioning side. Uh, Mjolner views turbine end-of-life services as an important future growth area, and obviously it is. Particularly in Spain, there’s been a lot of turbines that will be, uh, brought down and new turbines put up in the next 10 years, and Cover Wind gives Mjolner that ability. And as we all know, Mjolner just recently acquired our Canadian friends, AC883. So yeah, they have been on quite the spin recently, and that’s not even Yeah, sl- a sliver of what’s happening on the consolidation effort, uh, we didn’t talk about last week, but we, we should have, which was Fairwind acquiring Rope Partner in the States. And Rope Partner is a [00:13:00] longtime blade repair company and has been seen for years, as long as I can remember honestly, as the go-to blade experts on complex repairs. The, the, the most trained up, most, uh, technicians. On the technician side, they’re, they, they, they always had the highest trained people to what I remember, and also they would ta- tackle some of the most complex blade problems, and now they’re part of Fairwind. So there is movement, Matthew. A, a lot more than I thought there would be, because after COVID, a lot of companies just disappeared, but now it does seem like they’re being acquired, which is a, a good result, I guess. Matthew Stead: Yeah, I think there’s a strong opportunity, and, uh, and maybe the first point is that actually doing an M&A successfully is actually really hard. Um, I, I’ve personally been through two, uh, two M&As, um, and it is, it is really hard to get an M&A right. And so I think, you know, [00:14:00] these companies are showing that, um, you learn, you can do better, and, you know, it, it, it is hard. So congratulations for them for achieving that. Um, but the second part I think is also, you know, the industry maturing, uh, gaining scale is also, you know, necessary and, you know, driving, you know, but– and these people should be able to drive their, you know, better margins and so forth through, through scale. So, you know, I, I think, um, I think we had a bit of quick chat about it previously, but, um, this is, you know, a really good thing.  Allen Hall: Does it change the way we think about, uh, independent service providers?  Matthew Stead: Yeah, I think it’s gonna continue. I mean, this is not the end of it. Um, you know, in– even in what we do, there’s been various, you know, mergers and acquisitions in, in our space or, and investments, you know, cross-investments. So I, I just see this continuing. You know, like SkySpecs, um, you know, growing their, their CMS, um, business and their financial arm. Um, this is just gonna continue.  Allen Hall: [00:15:00] Is it more activity, uh, related to the availability of AI? It’s– It does seem like that’s playing into some of the decisions that are being made on the mergers and acquisition in renewables, is you start to see more discussion of, hey, we’re going to, uh, apply new techniques, machine learning. A lot of times you’ll see that, particularly in Europe, and then here in the States it’s almost all AI, where they’re- In order to have a, a very successful AI venture, you need to bring in the brainpower to feed that AI. And it does seem like there’s a lot of, of senior companies getting grabbed that could be part of a larger artificial intelligence play. Matthew Stead: You remind me of the, um, the dotcom boom and bust. I don’t know. I’m, I’m a little bit more skeptical, um, on the value actions on the, on the AI side of things.  Allen Hall: Really?  Matthew Stead: It certainly… It’s a massive, um, massive, um, transformation for the industry, and you know, I mean, what I, what, what we can all do is, is massive. [00:16:00] But, um, my former employer, a consulting business, bought a AI company for a billion dollars, and I, I, I just can’t see the value. So, um, anyway, I’m, I’m a bit skeptical about valuations and AI, and, um, I’m not as bullish as many people are.  Allen Hall: Really? Uh, because it does seem like more recently, the shift has been from the number of engineers you have in your company times a million dollars a head, that’s the way it was, uh, not that long ago. And now it does turn into how many senior people you have, that’s the multiplier. Because they’re trying to take that knowledge and all that data resource that you have, like at a, a rope partner where they’ve prepared really complex problems for years. That data set is amazing if you could get your fingers on it. Matthew Stead: Uh, yeah, yeah. And I, you know, I completely agree with you, but I just think it’s being oversold and overcooked and overbaked.  Allen Hall: I see it as growing instead of it declining. I don’t think it’s cooling off. I think we’re just at the precipice of [00:17:00] it. As we get better at using some of these AI tools, if we’re gonna build data centers in space, ’cause that’s gonna be the, the linchpin to all this, is if it gets to data centers in space, then we can leverage massive data sets and learn something from them and get better. Matthew Stead: I love change, but, um, I, I think that’s ri- ridiculous, to be honest. Um, I know we’ve spoken about it a number of times, but data centers in space just seems stupid to me. But, but yeah, going back to your original point, Alan, um, yeah, we, we can definitely do better with you know, more insights around our data and getting more out of our data. I mean, data is the new oil. You know, we’ve been saying that for the last 10 years. Um, yeah, I’m, I’m full, I’m fully on board with that, but I’m just a little bit of a, a little bit of a negative Nancy on, um, some of these overhype  Allen Hall: The line to connect a new wind project to the U.S. grid has been one of the industry’s most stubborn bottlenecks. And a new report from Advanced Energy [00:18:00] United drafted by Grid Strategies and the Brattle Group finds that seven major U.S. grid operators have made progress, at least some, on generator interconnection reform since FERC Order 2023 took effect. So that was the order that said we need to fix this interconnect queue problem. There are just too many people in line and we need to give some ranking to them. But progress on paper has not yet translated into projects moving through the queue faster. And a newer problem is emerging. Fast track interconnection policies at MISO, PJM, and SPP are directing limited system headroom towards, drum roll, utility-affiliated and fossil-heavy resources at the expense of independent clean energy developers. So the game is being rigged a little bit at the moment where they want to push forward [00:19:00] gas and other fossil fuel type generation in front of solar and wind, which are less costly and quicker to get up and running. This can’t last long, right? E- eventually the people living in, uh, MISO, PJM, and SPP are gonna have a little bit of a revolt on how power prices are gonna bump up accordingly. Matthew Stead: There’s been numerous other attempts to stifle wind, um, and those numerous other attempts, uh, tend to be overwritten and, uh, ruled out and thrown out in courts. And, um, it, it just seems like this is, well, if that didn’t work, we’ll, we’ll try something else.  Allen Hall: It’s a delay tactic.  Matthew Stead: Yeah, exactly. Then becomes another one. Well, you know, just wait for that one to be thrown out.  Allen Hall: I don’t know who said the famous saying, time is money, but time is money, and if you can [00:20:00] delay a project from happening, it costs money to sit on the sidelines and you’re, you’re paying interest on a loan or your investors are getting upset because they’re not seeing the returns. So the easy game in most situations like this is just to drive the schedule to the right, even if it’s by a couple of months. It’s expensive.  Matthew Stead: Yeah. If there’s two things I wish I didn’t know about, the first one is telecommunications and how rubbish it is. I just wish I didn’t, wish I didn’t know about telecommunications and the need for cellular and satellite and blah, blah, blah. I wish I didn’t know about that. The other one I wish I didn’t know about, because I wish it wasn’t a problem, was just grid connections and grid and networks.  Allen Hall: How bad it is.  Matthew Stead: Yeah. Rosie, if you can jump in, but you know, the New South Wales-South Australian Interconnector Grid, um, is just being energized now. I don’t know if it’s one or two years late. Um- And they’re trying to recover a billion dollars from the general [00:21:00] public  Rosemary Barnes: Is it only a billion? I thought it, when I looked at the stats, um, it was like near tripling of the, of the project cost  Matthew Stead: My understanding is the government screwed it up or the, uh, the, the operator screwed it up in terms of the transmission lines, and then want, wants to claim it back from the general public ’cause they, they screwed up. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. It’s a weird thing ’cause you, you know, it’s like, I think it’s like this everywhere in the world that the, yeah, transmission companies or network companies, they get a regulated rate of return on their, on their project, so they invest. But then it’s like what’s that rate of return for? It’s not money for nothing, right? It’s for them, you know, like taking on some risk and y- you know, some sorts of things are, are built into that. Um, but it’s kind of like if you, you get that amount approved and then you stuff up your project management so it drags out and takes a lot of money, then you’re also gonna be compensated additionally for having done a bad job with your project [00:22:00] management. The kinds of delays are not unforeseeable. You know, like I’ve been a project manager in my past. You don’t just make your best case scenario and then kind of just assume that that’s, um, how much it will cost and not, y- you know, not come up with, um, contingency plans for if, uh, if predictable things happen. It’s not, there’s no like black swan events in here. It’s just, um, you know, things that happen every now and then. And it is one of those like key principles of like delivering on big projects, um, that Ben Slibbert, you know, in that, that book, um, How Big Things Get Done, he goes over and over and over again that you need to keep your project as short as possible ’cause the longer it is, the more like surprises you’ll have along the way and it will cost more. And I just don’t think that they, like they need to go read that book and then do a better job with their project planning and scenarios.  Allen Hall: You know who’s read that book clearly is, I, I’ll bring up the name, I know it’s gonna cause controversy, [00:23:00] Elon.  Rosemary Barnes: I knew you were gonna say that.  Allen Hall: Well, you know why I say that? Because there was an interview with him and I was skimming through some nonsense and then this little interview popped up, and he was talking about how quickly they need to get things rolling. And it’s like one year you’re getting s- first year you’re getting started, second year you’re just growing like crazy, and third year is infinity. And the only way that makes sense is that you’re just pouring every resource on this problem to shorten the schedule That’s it  Rosemary Barnes: You, you do. You have, you have to do the, the, you know, the parts of your project where surprises are gonna happen. Like you can… There are surprises and you know, don’t know what they, they are gonna be. However, you can guarantee that there will be surprises. Like you, you know going into a years-long project that several things are gonna happen that are, you know, gonna surprise you. And so you can plan for that. And the best planning that you can do is to make sure that once you start actually, you, you know, you’re gonna spend time in planning to, um, get it right, but once you actually start [00:24:00] the phase of your project where delays cost money, then you, you just plan as, do everything you can to keep that as short as possible, and it will be, it’ll be cheaper. Even if it sounds more expensive, oh, we’ve gotta, you know, pay crews overtime to, you know, do a night shift or something like that, um, you know, you need to consider, consider that because the, there will be delays and they cost. And it’s just, like at this point, maybe 100 years ago you could get away with being surprised by that, but y- you know, like project management has come far enough now that we know, we know this. It’s just basics.  Allen Hall: But infrastructure projects are tough because they don’t see the revenue on the backside that much sooner. It’s sort of a very flat 3% growth industry Unlike a lot of other things  Rosemary Barnes: But that’s it, like just to contain costs, you have to have a small project.  Allen Hall: They will, but they’ve always historically gotten paid for those overruns and continue to make their 3%. If there was some sort… Back to Matthew’s point, if there was some sort of, uh, [00:25:00] disincentive to be late, they would hurry, maybe even spend a little bit of their own money, but there would have to be some massive upside, which is the problem, right? They can’t have a massive upside.  Rosemary Barnes: But that’s why I’m s- I’m saying that the situation where costs blow out and they still get… Like, they get… They make more money by having done a bad job because it costs more. You know, like that is not, it’s not okay.  Allen Hall: Is it more money or just paying the bills that they had when they were building the thing?  Rosemary Barnes: It depends how much we let them get away with, but their preference is to make, just be, “Oh, we could never have known that there would be a flood.” It’s like, okay, yeah, like, was it like a 1 in 50 years flood or something? So yeah, on average, that particular event wasn’t gonna happen, but there’s probably, you know, like 20 different categories of 1 in 50 year things that could have happened, and if your project lasts for five years, you’re gonna have a few of those. You just are. You know? It’s not, it’s not bad luck. It’s just like, just normal statistical variation [00:26:00] that y- Yeah, so I, I, I really think it’s important to, um, to not just say, “Oh. Oh, poor you,” ’cause it’s, it always sounds like a sob story. “Oh, a flood. Who could have known?”  Allen Hall: Who could have known it rains?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I mean, I, I don’t know. Like, I often talk about how people don’t know what, um, engineers do, and we don’t get enough res- respect for, for what we do, and people don’t get it. But I think project managers is, if anything, worse. People don’t respect project management as a, um, a, I don’t know, is it a profession? But, you know, as an ex- ex- field of expertise and don’t, don’t know how much of a difference it makes to have a good one, and also that it is not that hard to be a good project manager. You just have to actually do it.  Matthew Stead: Can I make a suggestion that actually is the reverse of Darwin theory? We’ve got to come up with a name, but you know, the dumber you are, the more money you make. Also, for the record, um, Elon does have a lot of, um, philosophies and approaches which I do support. The efficiency, automating things after you’ve done them manually, only [00:27:00] doing the bare minimum, you know, all those sorts of things, doing things fast. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, there’s a lot, a lot of good product development and engineering that you can learn from Elon, and you do not have to take the, like, weird personal stuff along with it. You are able to pick and choose which aspects you, you learn from.  Allen Hall: But it does take a specific kind of person to weather that storm. If you wanna play in that sandbox, y- you better be ready because it’ll be hard and fast and not very forgiving. So you just have to know that going in, which can be great, and it can be a great experience, uh, for a lot of engineers, but it isn’t for everyone. As wind energy professionals, staying informed is crucial, and let’s face it, difficult. That’s why the Uptime Podcast recommends PES Wind Magazine. PES Wind offers a diverse range of in-depth articles and expert insights that dive into the most pressing issues facing our energy future. Whether you’re an [00:28:00]industry veteran or new to wind, PES Wind has the high-quality content you need. Don’t miss out. Visit peswind.com today. In this quarter’s PES Wind magazine, which you can download at peswind.com, there’s an article from TGS 4C about vessel traffic around offshore wind farms. And this is kind of interesting bec- because they looked at some major wind farms off the coast of the UK, Dogger Bank B, Dogger Bank C, and Sofia. Uh, and obviously there’s a lot of marine traffic around those, but you don’t really realize the scale and how, uh, it affects the, the traffic on the water. The– When they had looked at these three wind farms, they realized, uh, they had about 860, uh, transits in 2021 around that area, and that went to more than 20,000 by [00:29:00] 2025. So the amount of economic and commercial activity that was happening around those wind farms exploded. And when you have that many ships in the water, it does change the nature of that area and also how other ships transit through the area, around that area. Uh, it’s an interesting piece because if you look at where those wind farms are, Matthew, th- that’s kind of a narrow stretch in there where there is a lot of ship traffic already. So y- you create this, uh, artificial barrier for some of the ship traffic, and you’re trying to understand how that is affecting the flow in and out. But I think the, the bigger piece is you can tell how well a development is progressing on offshore wind by looking at the ships and who’s where and when. Matthew Stead: I think this is interesting topic. Um, I, I– To be honest, I don’t completely get it. Can you explain it to me?  Allen Hall: If I’m an investor in these projects, if I’m the government, if [00:30:00] I’m the, uh, the power company that’s gonna handle the power coming off these sites, I really need to know how it’s going. And the way that I look at it in the States when I look at offshore projects here, ’cause we could do something very similar, who’s out on, on the ocean? Where are they? What tower are they at? How many towers are running? You can kinda tell that. Are they, are they just doing surveys or are they laying cable? Or is there something more active happening? And where are the ships from? Are they installation vessels? Are they driving monopiles? What’s going on out in the water? It does give you a really good sense where they are in the project. Kind of back to Rosemary’s point on, on managing big projects, you– schedule is everything You can tell. You can really tell.  Matthew Stead: Thinking about it a different way. So it’s a bit more like shadow monitoring. So it’s just a way of, it’s a way of independently monitoring and checking progress, making sure that there’s transparency as to what’s going on. Allen Hall: I think there’s a lot of [00:31:00] value in that data set. And as, uh, more operators start to use that data set and more companies start to use that data set globally, uh, they’re gonna be doing offshore projects, I think, differently in, in terms of efficiency. They- they’re learning as they go.  Matthew Stead: Yeah. Isn’t that one of the classical, um, sort of mathematical problems about how to optimize, uh, courier deliveries? We’ve gotta talk about quantum computing at some point too, so.  Allen Hall: We probably should. But for right now, I need everybody to go to peswind.com and download this quarter’s magazine. A lot of good articles in there, and it’s a great free download. Tons to learn. Go to peswind.com. That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us on LinkedIn. And if you found value in today’s conversation, please leave us a review. It really helps other wind energy professionals discover this [00:32:00] show. For Matthew and Rosemary, I am Allen Hall, and we’ll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

What if better management starts with seeing connections that were there all along? In this conversation, Balaji Reddie and Andrew Stotz unpack one of the most powerful and overlooked ideas in management: that everything is connected. Drawing on Dr. W. Edwards Deming's systems thinking, he explains why the problems we face today were set in motion long before we noticed them, and why the solutions are rarely where we think to look.    Along the way, a cup of coffee becomes a window into five years of invisible effort, hydrogen and oxygen defy everything we'd expect, and a classroom game reveals that cooperation isn't a soft ideal — it might just be human nature. Whether you run a team of two or a global organization, this episode will quietly shift the way you read a situation, ask a question, or respond to a problem. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.2 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we dive deeper into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussions with Balaji Reddie, an educator and trainer in the teachings of Dr. Deming and quality management generally. The topic for today is connectedness, which will help you see things you normally would not see. Balaji, how are you?   0:00:30.7 Balaji Reddie: I'm good, I'm fine.   0:00:32.5 Andrew Stotz: Nice to connect with you.   0:00:34.1 Balaji Reddie: Yes, same here.   0:00:35.3 Andrew Stotz: Connectedness day.   0:00:36.5 Balaji Reddie: Yeah, connectedness, absolutely. Yeah, we chose this term very carefully, right?   0:00:42.6 Andrew Stotz: I suspect you have, given your precision.   [laughter]   0:00:47.4 Balaji Reddie: Yeah, to see things that you normally would not see, let me attribute this to Henry Neave, who said that he heard Deming say this during his last three or four seminars in England, right? In Britain rather. Yeah, I think it was mostly in England. And he said, when he heard him say that, he said, "I am not here to teach you anything new. I'm here to make you see things that you normally would not see." And I would like to just expand on that and say when you see things differently, obviously, you observe, you record different things. And when you record different things, you ask different questions. When you ask different questions, you get different answers. And when you get different answers, you draw different conclusions. When you draw different conclusions, you take different decisions. And when you take different decisions, you get different results. It's insanity to expect different results by asking the same questions every single time. So management is not so much about giving the right answers as much as it is about asking the correct questions. And I think Dr. Deming helps you do that. He helps you ask the correct questions.   0:02:02.2 Balaji Reddie: Now coming to the word connectedness. We spoke about the System of Profound Knowledge, a unified theory of leadership and management, where Dr. Deming brings together four sciences. And the first one he says about systems thinking, or what he called as appreciation for a system, appreciation for a fact that everything is systemic. There's nothing that happens in isolation, right? And the second one, of course, he said was understanding variation, then understanding theory of knowledge and understanding psychology. But he said, all four are equally important, et cetera. And then comes the, I won't say contradictory, but a chapter before Profound Knowledge on systems especially. So that's where I decided to use the word connectedness, that all these are connected. What did he mean by that? So I believe he wanted people to learn about connectedness and systems first.   0:03:01.6 Balaji Reddie: So let's dive right there. What did he always say about systems, or connectedness as we say here? And let's get into his definition for system. And he says that "a system is a network," right, "of interdependent components that work together to achieve the aim of the system." And then he says "every system must have an aim. Without an aim, there is no system." And very well articulated throughout this book which he wrote, he always began with aim of the chapter. Even in Out of the Crisis, he always started with aim of a chapter. So network of interdependent components. So let's just break it down, because the three important words are network, interdependent, and aim. And he says aim comes first because without the aim, there is no system.   0:04:00.6 Balaji Reddie: Right. And he goes on to tell us what the aim of a system should be. Okay. He says here that the recommended aim should be for everybody to gain. Now, in one of the paragraphs there, management's job, where he says should be to make it clear, the first step is clarification. Everyone in the organization must understand the aim and how to direct their efforts towards the aim, right? And everyone must understand, okay, this is important. The danger and loss to the whole organization from a team that seeks to become a selfish, independent profit center. Right. So he says here we need to give both, why we need to do what we need to do. And he says the aim precedes the system. Now, I would like to leave this discussion right here. We will cover this in our 14 Points, our session on the 14 Points, because I believe the word aim and purpose are, they go hand in hand. Aim gives us a direction and purpose gives us the reason why we exist, right? And so the direction of all the efforts, you can see the development. He says here, he gives some examples that the system must create something of value. In other words, results. The intended results along with consideration of recipients and of cost mold the aim of the system. So he said it should be something that makes life better for everyone.   0:05:39.8 Balaji Reddie: Now, he was talking about a man-made system here. Remember, he wrote this for organizations, but I think I mentioned this before that this can equally be applied to natural systems, if you want to really study them in detail. I remember talking to Barbara Lawton about this, and I said, "Natural systems, they do have an aim. It's just that we've not understood it." The purpose and aim of, in fact, that was the basis for my paper, which I delivered at the Deming Research Seminar in 2002. And the title of my paper was Deming and Ecology. And I was trying to put together the thoughts of the physicist Fritjof Capra, who wrote some wonderful books like The Tao of Physics, The Turning Point, The Web of Life, and The Hidden Connections. And The Systems View of Life is also one of the sub-books or booklets that he came out with. But these were his wonderful books. At the time, he had not yet written The Hidden Connections, right? So based on his three books that I had read up until then, of course, one was called Uncommon Wisdom, where he reproduced some of the interviews he had with some systems thinkers in the world, including people not from conventional systems thinking. For example, he also reproduced his interaction with the then Prime Minister or the ex-Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, and how he spent time with her, because he was over here in India for quite some time studying the language Sanskrit and studying the texts over here, because he learned about systems thinking even deeper.   0:07:25.1 Balaji Reddie: So over there, he wanted to, he raised a question, what is the purpose? So I wanted to use Dr. Deming's theories to understand the purpose of a natural system and what is the purpose of man [laughter] in this natural system. So that was my theory. And that's when this aim thing became more and more clear. And Barbara said, "No, you're right. There is an aim. It's just that we're trying to understand it. Without that, you won't have the system working so beautifully. There is something that is at work." Right. And he says here, management of a system. And then he says that a system includes the future. And now here's where, when you talk about system includes the future, he mentions Peter Senge in his book, if you know about The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. And that's where this fantastic statement comes in because he says delayed effects. So although, Deming never used these words directly, but here I am putting among the first principles of systems thinking is that cause and effect are not closely related in time or space. Right. And that gives a lot of frightening conclusions, or inferences that you can draw from this. If I say that, by the way, that cause and effect are not closely related in time or space, and if I ask you what you understand by this statement, your first knee-jerk reaction would be what I do today, the consequences would be felt in another time at another place. Absolutely right. That's exactly what this means. But the converse is also true. What we get to see in front of our eyes, the origins are at another time and another place.   0:09:15.9 Balaji Reddie: So we only see the event, but systems thinking teaches us there are no events in this world. There are only eventualities. Now, this comes into play when you start doing a study, typically when people learn about quality, and then the first thing they learn is to, okay, identify a problem and try to solve it, right? And then they start asking the question, "Why did this happen?" And then you draw a fishbone diagram, which is, you know, one of the most popular tools. But the problem there is you need to arrange the causes logically and not categorically. And you also need to take into account that these causes are also related to each other. You can't isolate them. And the fact that, there could be an element of time over here, right, that this is a delayed effect that you're seeing. So the effect comes much later. And sometimes it could be weeks and months. So you have to take that into account, right? So the cause and effect are not true, which means then the next corollary from this statement is that seemingly disconnected events turn out to be connected. And so when you are studying something that's happening in front of your eyes, very quickly you ask the question, "What else happened a month ago, a week ago, that we seem to have missed? Are we missing something here?" So that's one of those things that we need to get into, right? We need to go backwards in time and not look at the localized stuff here. We need to look in space all around and try to figure out where and how we need to change things.   0:11:06.1 Andrew Stotz: It's also interesting to think about all the things that have to have happened for an outcome to occur today the way you want it, that is the right outcome.   0:11:19.8 Balaji Reddie: Yes.   0:11:21.4 Andrew Stotz: And a good example I use for that, and I was just talking two different times this week with my team, is coffee. Coffee is a really interesting one, because when you go to a coffee shop, they make you a cup of coffee, they give you a cup of coffee, but what you don't realize is that there was a farmer, took him five years to grow that tree. And then they had to pick it at the right time. You pick it at the wrong time, it goes wrong.   0:11:47.4 Balaji Reddie: Oh, yeah.   0:11:48.3 Andrew Stotz: They put it into some water. They leave it in too long, it's fermented. They leave it in too short, it doesn't, the shell doesn't come off. And then if they, once they've worked on it, if they have their grinders that are getting off the mucilage off of it, if they're too tight, well, then you're going to get a little slice off the top of the bean. And then when that goes to the roasting machine, that's going to burn right there because there's no protection in that area. But they got to get all of those things right all the way to that barista. And if that barista just basically doesn't check the water temperature, it's done.   0:12:29.5 Balaji Reddie: It's done. [laughter]   0:12:29.9 Andrew Stotz: You throw it away. And when you think about it, I have another lesson that I give to young people about capitalism, that how all of these decisions are happening all along the way. And when that happens, there's waste in the system. And that waste goes back all the way back to the effort of the farmer five years ago when they planted that tree.   0:12:51.8 Balaji Reddie: That's right.   0:12:52.3 Andrew Stotz: And so reducing waste is not only good for you and good for costs in general, but it has a respect for the process, a respect for the system.   0:13:04.0 Balaji Reddie: Yes. Connectedness. Reconnected. [laughter]   0:13:07.6 Andrew Stotz: Well, and the other thing I tell them is I say, and here you have a coffee bean coming from this country that's then being shipped to this country. They never met.   0:13:16.8 Balaji Reddie: Yeah.   0:13:17.1 Andrew Stotz: And that's capitalism. You trade. In fact, they may not speak the same language.   0:13:23.1 Balaji Reddie: Absolutely.   0:13:23.5 Andrew Stotz: Or they may even be enemies. They may hate each other.   0:13:26.9 Balaji Reddie: Yeah.   0:13:27.4 Andrew Stotz: And yet they trade.   0:13:29.5 Balaji Reddie: Yeah.   0:13:31.1 Andrew Stotz: And so it's a voluntary connectedness that happens through capitalism. Anyways.   0:13:37.2 Balaji Reddie: Yeah. The right quality and uniformity are foundations for commerce, prosperity, and peace. [laughter] That's Deming for you.   0:13:46.1 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:13:46.3 Balaji Reddie: I think he chose that sentence so beautifully. It goes into the Deming Medal. He knew what he was talking about. So he was talking about systems, and I think profound knowledge came towards the end of his life, and rightly so. It came as a revelation, as a catharsis. I think he went through all of that, especially, I think it was between '88 and '89, if I'm not mistaken. Jaki Graham talks about this very, very funnily. She says that they were giving him pure oxygen and maybe that made his brain cells go alive. [laughter] And he could think so clearly. He was getting pure oxygen. And so his thought process...   0:14:31.0 Andrew Stotz: By the way, for the listeners out there, you may feel like I feel when I think about how Dr. Deming didn't really come out with the System of Profound Knowledge until he was, early '90s, let's say, '90s. You think to yourself, okay, I still have time to come up with my incredible insight on...   0:14:52.4 Balaji Reddie: Correct.   0:14:52.9 Andrew Stotz: Bringing together all my experience.   0:14:55.1 Balaji Reddie: Yeah. So because I think I shared this with you before that when you read Mary Walton's book and he says, "No, I don't think I'm ready to establish an institute," and he only did it one month before he passed. So I think by that time he was quite sure what he created was quite amazing, and it'll stand the test of time, right? And although, the title of the book is The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education, I believe it is industry, government, education, and healthcare. Because when he was in Japan, he said Japan must see itself as a system. And when he got the Deming Medal, that's what he said. Oh, sorry, when he got the Emperor's Medal, the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure. And he was talking to the Japanese Prime Minister. And he said, "You all must see yourselves as a system." And the four sectors of industry, government, education, and healthcare must work together. So he meant it as in the broadest sense of the term, right? And that's why this word system. So the first thing, of course, cause and effect are not closely related. Seemingly disconnected events turn out to be connected. The third important thing here in systems thinking is the reductionist thinking that we have.   0:16:12.0 Balaji Reddie: We believe the word analysis means dissection. And if you look deeply and read the book Mind and the World Order, what is the purpose of analysis? The purpose of analysis is not dissection. That's just the act of breaking a system down. But the purpose of analysis is interrelationships, establishing the interrelationships or understanding the connectedness. And I find it quite funny because people say analysis is dissection, and so they came up with a new term, really not necessary, synthesis, bringing it all together. There was no need for that term. You're not engaging in what, tautology? [laughter] You didn't need that. Analysis itself means dissecting and understanding relationships, right?   0:17:02.2 Andrew Stotz: Hmm.   0:17:03.3 Balaji Reddie: And so he said here, we have that reductionist thinking, but we forget that in a system, you have what are called synergistic relationships. You cannot understand a system by breaking it down into its components and studying the components separately and then believing that the components and their attributes and what they do gives the output of what we see. No, you could be completely wrong here. It's not what they do separately. Okay, it's a good thing to understand the components of a system and study them and maybe even establish connectedness, but sometimes what the results you see are quite contrary to what they could be giving separately. I'll give you an example here. Take the case of water. Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen. You cannot study and draw conclusions about water by studying the attributes of hydrogen and oxygen separately. You'd be making a mistake, a grave error. Okay, let's do that. Hydrogen, a highly inflammable gas, catches fire like this. Oxygen feeds fire. But you put them together and they give you something that quenches fire. Hydrogen is not wet. Oxygen is not wet. But water is wet. [laughter] How do you explain this?   0:18:25.9 Balaji Reddie: All right. If you take the case of sugar, it's a hydrocarbon. Try tasting hydrogen. All right, try tasting carbon. Now put them together and see what you get. Now, can it not be then that you are studying a system and when you break things down and you're studying the components separately, you could be making the same error? It's not what they do separately, it's what they do together. It's the same with sections in a company, departments in a company, companies themselves. Today, we use this sophisticated term, supply chain, call it what you will. I love to use the word provider network. I don't like using the word supplier any longer. I like to use the word provider, because today we're living in a different world. We're getting activities done by someone else, and you can't say he's supplying me this activity. He's providing me this service, right? So provider is a better term to use than supplier. And it's no longer a chain. It's a network, right? It's more lateral. It's all over the place. It's not linear. You're doing a huge disservice by using the term supply chain, because it's not bringing out what exactly is happening right there.   0:19:38.3 Balaji Reddie: And today's supply chains or provider networks are globally dispersed. So you need to have something that connects them. You just said that, the farmer could be in a different country, speaking a different language, maybe he didn't even know where it is being used, and they could hate each other, but they have to work, [laughter] you need to work together. So there's some kind of connectedness that comes in once again. But here's where people make mistakes. So you're talking about synergistic relationships. So sometimes in a team, now here's where all that incentive pay and choosing employee of the month can destroy a system.   0:20:18.8 Balaji Reddie: It could have been the entire team that did well, and they did well because they worked as a team. And it was synergistic, where some components had to, I can't use the right word, but maybe had to underperform so that the system came out ahead. It's like the organs of the human body, right? That's an interconnected, interdependent system. You have a primary function of each of the organs, but there are many other functions we are still discovering, right? For example, if you take the case of ears, besides hearing, they're responsible for balance in our body, right? Eyes, besides sight, they are also responsible for balance in our body. If you try this yoga position, you know, there's a yoga, so to say, yeah, you stand on one leg. And then you lift one leg off the ground and put the ball of your heel on the knee, the other leg's knee. And then you hold your hands above your head to form like a namaste or a triangle. As long as your eyes are open, you stand upright. Shut your eyes, you fall. It's a system and we don't even realize it, right? So this is something we're still...   0:21:38.3 Andrew Stotz: You also fall in that posture when your teacher says, as mine did once, "Now you're in the position. Now raise your other leg."   [laughter]   0:21:54.5 Andrew Stotz: My yoga teacher didn't come yesterday, but I did my sessions every day. But I haven't been able to do that one yet.   0:22:03.6 Balaji Reddie: We had that joke in school. Why does the crane stand on one leg? [laughter] 'Cause if it raised the other leg, it'd fall. [laughter] So it continues standing on one leg. So yes. So you have the synergistic relationships which exist, all right? And it's so difficult then to establish these interrelationships. And sometimes they're visible, sometimes they're not, all right? And sometimes you get to see the results right up front. Sometimes you get to see them in time delay. And that is why Deming said continual improvement. It never stops. Continual learning. You can never say you have complete knowledge of a process or a system. You can never say that, right? And now comes the best part. When you say here that all these are interconnected and there's synergy and then there's cause and effect not closely related in time and space, the output of a system, that is why, is subject to variation. And that's why the study of variation becomes important, right?   0:23:16.2 Balaji Reddie: And when you draw a diagram saying, suppose you say this is a system and all the components are there and you draw the interconnectedness and you draw an arrow and you say, "Okay, you're getting the system is subject to variation," right? Can you with absolute certainty say that because here, because the funny thing is each of the component's performance is also subject to variation, right? So can you say that, this combination gave me this output? You can never say that. You can only say it's probable, might be somewhere here. And so I think Walter Shewhart's greatness was in recognizing that what is natural to a system and what is not natural. When do you start asking the question, "What do I know about this?" When you cannot predict. When you can predict with a certain amount of certainty that this is going to happen.   0:24:14.6 Balaji Reddie: It is between these two limits. Well, then that's when you say, "Okay, I think I know quite a bit about this, but I don't know much. I want to reduce those limits, because I want to be as certain as possible when I make a prediction." And that was what was continual learning. It was not so much about cost. It was as much as it had to do about understanding and predicting. I know what's going to happen next. To a certain extent, this will happen. This will happen, right? And that's where the understanding of variation comes in. Okay, and then he brought in the third, that in variation, you saw that there were what he called as random variation and assignable variation, or what Deming had common and special cause variation. Common causes belong to the system and special causes are alien to the system under study, right? And so say it's easier to identify the special causes because they tell you something is not right. And so you can say, "I know it happened." You can isolate and say, "This is the cause," right? It makes it easier for you then to isolate that, study it, but...   0:25:30.1 Andrew Stotz: I just had that happen this morning.   0:25:32.4 Balaji Reddie: Okay.   0:25:33.7 Andrew Stotz: I'll give you an example.   0:25:35.2 Balaji Reddie: Yeah, sure.   0:25:36.0 Andrew Stotz: I've been working with my accounting team and what we're trying to do is make sure we have on-time and accurate monthly financial statements. And I've chosen those words very, very carefully. And what I've done with the team is ask them, there's no pressure in this. All I'm asking you to do is pick a day that you think we will be able to have on-time and accurate monthly financial statements. And then they pick their days for each month to the end of the year, which pretty much certainty accounting is a repeating of a similar function. And so then as I was talking with them throughout that day, I said, "Why are these boxes piled up around here?" And they said, "Well, the room that we store them in is getting full." The paper, 'cause you have a regulation in Thailand, you have to have your accounting documents for up to six or eight years on premises in case the revenue department comes. So I said, "Well, show me that room." And we went to the room and it was an absolute mess. It's like people have been dumping boxes and papers in there for five years.   0:26:51.6 Balaji Reddie: Wow.   0:26:52.6 Andrew Stotz: And I said, "Okay. You got to clean up this room this month." They're like, "Ah, it's going to take us two months." I said, "Look, this is critical." And they agreed. And so they have now completed that task, but it consumed so much of their time to do that. And it looks beautiful now. But they're two days late on the on-time and accurate monthly financials. And if we were to look at that on a control chart, we would see that it's a big deviation from what they've been able to do. But that special cause is almost meaningless, just as meaningless as the random variation in the sense that this was just a simple situation where there was a trade-off, they made the trade-off, and it's an acceptable trade-off.   0:27:43.1 Balaji Reddie: Yeah, I'd like to put it this way. When you know why it has happened, it's not that harmful, right? As long as you can predict when we do something. It's the unpredictability that makes a special cause harmful. And that's why when I used the term that Deming's thinking was about reducing or eliminating harmful variation, that is things which get out of your hand and you usually don't know why it's happening. So once you get to know, I believe that this could be connected, yeah, that's a good place to start, right?   0:28:15.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. Now, someone that doesn't understand the situation and look back over time may not understand what that cause was, which I'm thinking that I want to develop kind of a note-taking system where we actually write down what was that so that we have a record and an understanding of it. But...   0:28:37.1 Balaji Reddie: Yeah. And so when you say here that there's so many, that complete knowledge is not possible, and that's where you start thinking that was Deming being a pessimist to say complete knowledge is not possible, unknown and unknowable. But no, he was just being realistic. But he did not leave us right there. He said the way you can make the unknown as known as possible is through the theory of knowledge. And that's how the whole thing is. It's beautifully done, what the theory of knowledge is. But he says here, very simply, one of those exercises which you see in the new edition of The New Economics on page 58. But if you go to the old edition, right? That's, I believe, on... Where would that be? Page 84. The example he gives there, effect, the plans and their effect, area A, B, and C, the matrix diagram, if you see that?   0:29:50.0 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:29:50.5 Balaji Reddie: That he says was devised by Henry. And then, of course, he picked on that and put it into his book. I got a chance to actually work on this in the form of a game. And the game, I would break up the audience into four or five groups of five people each and then say, "You're department A, department B, department C," and then have a host of projects lined up for them. And I say, "Now you're going to be ranked and rated based on how you do as a department." And so they would choose those projects where only they were benefiting, right? And obviously, that's what you see in the first table. A chooses three projects, and B chooses two projects, and C chooses three projects. And you see the plus signs there indicating that it's for them, for them alone. And then they are exposed to the fact that, wait a minute, now we're going to give you some extra information. You chose these projects because they were good for you, but now we're going to tell you that these were bad for the others, right? And only one of them was good.   0:30:59.9 Balaji Reddie: And I say, "Okay, now here's this extra information you've been given. Now what are you going to do?" All right. And I said, "I'm giving you five minutes to... Because the company is going to do badly, right? And even though you get a good rating, but the company does badly and eventually the company might have to shut down. So what would you want to do now? I'm giving you five minutes to rectify this." You know, Andrew, not even five minutes was necessary. They would come back within two or three minutes and say, "Let's just choose those projects where everyone gains." And I was surprised the first time that happened. And that's why Deming said cooperation is the key and it is natural. It's just that we have brought in this competition thing. So competition is not natural. He says cooperation is natural. [laughter]   0:31:53.9 Andrew Stotz: And that, in Asia, and I can speak to Thailand, what I like to tell people here in Thailand for managers and people running business is that the core strength of Thai people is that they want to work together. So when you break them up and you put them into groups and then you incentivize them either by group or by individual, you destroy one of their core strengths.   0:32:28.7 Balaji Reddie: Right.   0:32:29.1 Andrew Stotz: That's not a core strength of American. A lot of Americans don't want to work together. They just want to do their own thing. Right? They've been trained to be independent and they don't want that hassle. But in Asia, particularly in Thailand, where we're struggling to bring more and more value, what's happened is the KPI mentality of divide and conquer really is damaging. And it brings me to another point or question that I wanted to mention, and that is about the natural... My mom has a saying, and it's "inch by inch, it's a cinch, yard by yard, it's hard." And what she was telling me was to break things down into manageable parts and then work on the next right part, and then you will start to make progress. And we have studied under Adam Smith and the concept of how division of labor brings value, can increase output. And so there's a whole side of things. And then we're incentivized as individuals, particularly in the West, but let's say generally that, if it's to be, it's going to be up to you and you got to make yourself performance and your department's performance. I don't care about the others. I care about what you're doing with yours.   0:32:54.6 Andrew Stotz: So there's an accountability aspect and it all comes together to give people the perception that, hey, I need to break this down into smaller parts. And so there's just this natural inclination to do that. And if you were to say to people, you can't break it down into individual parts, that also doesn't work. You have to be able to understand the different parts and their interconnectedness, going back to what you're saying.   0:34:26.8 Balaji Reddie: Yes.   0:34:27.1 Andrew Stotz: But there's a lot of different things that I'm saying here. But I think the thing that I'm saying is that the pressure on most people is to divide and conquer, to say, "I'm going to go and look at this department and you and your performance." And what Deming was saying was, you've got to look wider than that if you're really going to be successful. Tell me where I'm right or wrong or give me some guidance.   0:34:53.5 Balaji Reddie: Yeah. I mean, that's exactly how it is. And I just told you that when I saw this happen, it was like an eye-opener. And then what happened after that was, okay, there were some other projects which where we were not going to do well, but the company's going to come out ahead. So why don't we choose those? And that's exactly what you see in the table, that they choose certain projects where they themselves are... Now that's real optimization, right? That's getting the best for everyone.   0:35:23.4 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:35:24.8 Balaji Reddie: And today it's become an overused and abused term. For anything they use the word optimize. I think Deming was way very clear about this 30 years ago when he came up with this idea. And he said it's for everybody to gain. It's not compromise, it's optimization. Right? So I, of course, have a different take on optimize and we'll see that next week when we come into four parts of profound knowledge. So I'd like to end here with talking about cooperation is the key and I think we realized why.   0:35:59.1 Andrew Stotz: Okay.   0:35:59.8 Balaji Reddie: Deming says it's not about each other, it's win-win. The system should... And he gives that lovely example in the same chapter, the last example, where he talks about the truck company, the two truckers who used to keep their establishment open. Alternately overnight so that both could gain and they would use each other's resources. He said, "I was surprised when I called the pickup truck and I saw that the truck was from his competitor. He sent his competitor's truck to pick up my car." That was a classic case of cooperation. So since he ends with that, he ends that chapter, I'd like to also speak about that. Cooperation is the key because we are dealing with something very complex, right? And none of us is as strong as all of us. It's not just about, like you said, because cause and effect are not closely related, it is imperative now that we need to work together. So that was with systems thinking. Cause and effect are not closely related. There exist synergistic relationships. Seemingly disconnected events turn out to be connected. And outputs are the result of a myriad of inputs. You can never say you know everything. So that was systems thinking for you as they apply to the elements of profound knowledge as well.   0:37:33.3 Andrew Stotz: Great.   0:37:33.7 Balaji Reddie: Next week, we'll get into profound knowledge.   0:37:37.1 Andrew Stotz: You know, I think my ending thought on this goes back to the concept of meditation.   0:37:45.4 Balaji Reddie: Okay.   0:37:45.9 Andrew Stotz: Concept of insight meditation or Vipassana or...   0:37:52.6 Balaji Reddie: Vipassana.   0:37:53.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. So part of what I understand about meditation is the idea of clearing our mind in this moment. It may also be just observing our mind and just observing all that's happening and going on, which is fine. And let's say that a meditation master may be able to clear their mind. But let's just say that what we're trying to do is come down to this instant, this moment. And I remember during COVID when a lot of pressures were on in my business and stuff, I used to meditate and focus on one saying, which is, "I'm okay right now at this moment."   0:38:36.7 Balaji Reddie: Right.   0:38:37.1 Andrew Stotz: And why this is interesting is because let's say this moment is time zero. What you've just explained is that there's about 50 million things before time zero that have been connected in one way or another that got you to time zero.   0:38:55.1 Balaji Reddie: Yes.   0:38:55.3 Andrew Stotz: And you also said that a system, as Deming said, is a system includes the future.   0:39:00.2 Balaji Reddie: Future.   0:39:01.2 Andrew Stotz: And that's going to be a function of all the different things that happen after time zero, the interconnected things. And it just made me realize, ah, so the value of meditation, I can see it even more now when I think about all the connections on both the future side and the past side. And so it just helped me think about it from that perspective, a little bit different, but anyways.   0:39:23.4 Balaji Reddie: Yep.   0:39:24.9 Andrew Stotz: So I just want to thank you for taking the time. And in fact, what I was thinking is that I need to do more interviews with our advisors and other board members of the Institute, including yourself, because they've all got a lot to say. And I've got some discussions going on with that right now. So I'm looking forward to that. And so I appreciate the discussion and the journey that you're taking us on. And just for the listeners out there, remember to go to deming.org and jump into DemingNEXT to continue your journey.   0:40:03.8 Balaji Reddie: Yes, absolutely.   0:40:05.3 Andrew Stotz: There's so much, so much to learn and explore. So I'm going to wrap it up there. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, and that is, "People are entitled," that includes you...   0:40:21.7 Balaji Reddie: Yes.   0:40:22.4 Andrew Stotz: Are entitled to joy in work.

Nightlife News Breakdown with Philip Clark, joined by Clare Armstrong, the ABC's chief digital political correspondent, based at Parliament House in Canberra.   

0:00 - Intro 15:00 - Trump Retreat 32:00 -PBD Show humiliated by Dave Smith 52:24 - The Bibi Files 1:05:00 - Will there be a Ground War? 1:13:15 - American Casualties under reported. 1:22:15 - Is Shaytan behind it all? 1:26:15 - Trump with Japanese Prime Minister 1:30:15 - Conserving Gas and Energy EPISODE LINKS YOUR GIFTS SUPPORT THE MAD MAMLUKS PODCAST: Please support us on https://Patreon.com/themadmamluks You can also support us on PayPal https://themadmamluks.com/donate VISIT OUR SOCIALS FOR MORE DISCUSSIONS: Twitter https://twitter.com/TheMadMamluks Instagram https://www.instagram.com/themadmamluks/ Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@themadmamluks SIM: https://x.com/ImranMuneerTMM MORT: https://www.tiktok.com/@morttmm Harry: https://x.com/MrHarry198 Shaykh Amir: He is too pious for Social Media. GUEST SOCIALS Twitter: ----------- #palestine #palestineisrael #gaza #genocide #themadmamluks #podcast #honesty #oppression #israel #oud #syria #syriancivilwar

On issue number 4373 of the Bugle, Andy is joined by Nish Kumar and Tom Ballard, as the they update on the Iran war, discuss Trump's joke writing skills, and delve into the latest controversy with the UK's Trump wannabe Nigel Farage!

At this moment, Jim and Amos make fun of Trump's verbal tactics with the Japanese Prime Minister. They also figure out if Epstein's island was racist, why women use cotton balls, and the potential Bill Cosby Special. Jim's special "Two Limb Policy" is out now on Netflix! ADS: MOOD: Head to http://www.mood.com and find the functional gummy that matches exactly what you're looking for, and let Mood help you discover YOUR perfect mood. Don't forget to use promo code ATM when you check out to save 20% on your first order. MONARCH: Use code ATM at http://www.monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50% off at monarch dot com code ATM. BLUECHEW: Get 10% off your first month of BlueChew Gold with code ATM. Visit http://www.BlueChew.com for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast. SOCIALS: Jim Jefferies Website: ⁠https://www.jimjefferies.com⁠ IG: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jimjefferies⁠ FB: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/JimJefferies⁠ Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/jimjefferies⁠   Amos Gill IG: @abitofamosgill FB: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/AmosGillComedy/⁠   Theme Song: "Rein It In Cowboy" by the DoohickeysSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Bread Sandwich was toast, and now he's…untoasted as Donald Trump un-undorseses him for the seat he already has in Congress. Then, what would you do with $200 billion dollars? If the answer isn't “probably start World War III,” well, then you have a better fiscal policy than the President of the United States! Speaking of our 47th favorite president ever, he went ahead and embarrassed the entire nation several more times, including making a “joke” about Pearl Harbor to the Japanese Prime Minister. Colorado Republicans remain the least serious political party in the country, and we're including Oklahoma Democrats. And finally, our favorite local television station may about to become our least favorite local television station, unless our Attorney General continues his streak of winning lawsuits against the Trump administration.But first...he's running for the opportunity to take on Rep. Jeff "Bread Sandwich" Hurd in the race for the Third Congressional District. Alex Kelloff joins us to talk about being a fourth generation Coloradan and how he can win in November.That's it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we'll see you next time!

On tonight's live, Andy & DJ discuss Trump bringing up Pearl Harbor while meeting with the Japanese prime minister, Nick Shirley unveiling an even bigger fraud in California and Afroman winning a lawsuit against police over mocking their 2022 raid.

On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, we break down the dangerous escalation of Trump's war after joint U.S.-Israeli strikes hit a major Iranian gas field—strikes his own administration initially confirmed, only for Trump to later deny responsibility as Iran retaliates and the crisis spirals. We cover the explosive hearings where Trump's intelligence officials are grilled over shifting narratives and lies, the stunning rebuke from U.S. allies who are refusing to back his reckless actions, and the deeply disturbing Oval Office meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister that's raising alarms worldwide. Plus, the latest updates on Trump and the Epstein scandal as the White House and Republicans do everything in its power to cover it up. It's another chaotic, high-stakes moment with global consequences—and Ben, Brett, and Jordy unpack all of it and more. Subscribe to Meidas+ at https://meidasplus.com Get Meidas Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com Deals from our sponsors!  Wildgrain: Wildgrain is offering our listeners $30 off your first box - PLUS free Croissants for life - when you go to https://Wildgrain.com/MEIDAS to start your subscription today. Pocket Hose: Text MEIDAS to 64000 for your 2 free gifts with the purchase of any Pocket Hose Ballistic hose. The Perfect Jean: F*%k your khakis and get The Perfect Jean 15% off with the code MEIDAS15 at https://theperfectjean.nyc/MEIDAS15  #theperfectjeanpod HIMS: To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Hair Loss, Weight Loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/meidas Dose Daily: Save 30% on your first month of subscription by going to https://dosedaily.co/meidas or entering code: MEIDAS at checkout! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That's at least what leaders are saying on the Hill. If it takes beyond Easter, they say they won't return home until Democrats agree to fund TSA, Coast Guard, and other essential Homeland Security functions. But that's not all. The SAVE Act has made it to the Senate floor, so now what? Senator Marsha Blackburn returns to discuss it as well as her partnership with the President to begin a discussion about federal oversight of AI. Meanwhile, red state governors are fighting the good fight. Hear from Missouri's Governor Mike Kehoe on his successful push to put eliminating the state's sales tax on voter's ballots this year. To his south, Governor Sarah Sanders of Arkansas kept it classy as yet another restaurant she visited turns vicious over politics. Plus, the Japanese Prime Minister and press corps visit the White House and President Trump lands a hilarious line in response to criticism over the strike on Iran. A new film is out on April 3rd you'll likely love called "A Great Awakening." Stigall talks with the filmmaker behind the project. And plenty more to discuss on Open Line Friday! -For more info visit the official website: https://chrisstigall.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisstigallshow/Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisStigallFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.stigall/Listen on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/StigallPodListen on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/StigallShowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stephanie Miller tackles the jaw-dropping moment from FDRB that left everyone questioning diplomacy and decorum. From discussing President Trump's baffling comments to the Japanese Prime Minister to the ongoing chaos surrounding U.S. foreign policy, the conversation is both hilarious and thought-provoking. With guests John Fugelsang & Frangela!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

President Trump is requesting $200 billion to continue military operations in the Iran war, and Mark breaks down why the president needs the funding immediately. In other news, the Japanese Prime Minister spoke with President Trump yesterday, and a Pearl Harbor joke he made during the conversation caused widespread shock. CBS News is cutting 6% of its staff as top editor Bari Weiss vows to overhaul the network's news division. Mark interviews John Carney of Breitbart News. They discuss when the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to oil tanker traffic. The prolonged closure has kept oil prices elevated, driving up gas prices and threatening to slow the broader economy. John also explains why gas prices in California and New York tend not to fall even when oil prices drop. Additionally, the conversation touches on whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell will remain at the helm of the Federal Reserve. Today is Barron Trump's 20th birthday! Governor Kathy Hochul is acknowledging that New York City has lost a significant portion of its tax base. Zohran Mamdani's wife, Rama Duwaji, has allegedly deleted her Twitter account after liking posts that are anti-Semitic. Governor of Arkansas Sarah Huckabee Sanders was reportedly asked to leave a restaurant in Arkansas. CBS News Radio has announced it will shut down completely on May 22nd. Mark interviews Fox Business reporter Charlie Gasparino. Charlie warns that New York City's budget is heading for serious trouble due to mismanagement by the city government. He also notes that more JPMorgan employees are now based in Texas than in New York. Charlie shares insight from sources on when the Strait of Hormuz is expected to reopen - and the outlook is worth hearing.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Trump is requesting $200 billion to continue military operations in the Iran war, and Mark breaks down why the president needs the funding immediately. In other news, the Japanese Prime Minister spoke with President Trump yesterday, and a Pearl Harbor joke he made during the conversation caused widespread shock. CBS News is cutting 6% of its staff as top editor Bari Weiss vows to overhaul the network's news division.

President Trump is requesting $200 billion to continue military operations in the Iran war, and Mark breaks down why the president needs the funding immediately. In other news, the Japanese Prime Minister spoke with President Trump yesterday, and a Pearl Harbor joke he made during the conversation caused widespread shock. CBS News is cutting 6% of its staff as top editor Bari Weiss vows to overhaul the network's news division. Mark takes your calls! Mark interviews John Carney of Breitbart News. They discuss when the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to oil tanker traffic. The prolonged closure has kept oil prices elevated, driving up gas prices and threatening to slow the broader economy. John also explains why gas prices in California and New York tend not to fall even when oil prices drop. Additionally, the conversation touches on whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell will remain at the helm of the Federal Reserve.

President Trump is requesting $200 billion to continue military operations in the Iran war, and Mark breaks down why the president needs the funding immediately. In other news, the Japanese Prime Minister spoke with President Trump yesterday, and a Pearl Harbor joke he made during the conversation caused widespread shock. CBS News is cutting 6% of its staff as top editor Bari Weiss vows to overhaul the network's news division. Mark interviews John Carney of Breitbart News. They discuss when the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to oil tanker traffic. The prolonged closure has kept oil prices elevated, driving up gas prices and threatening to slow the broader economy. John also explains why gas prices in California and New York tend not to fall even when oil prices drop. Additionally, the conversation touches on whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell will remain at the helm of the Federal Reserve. Today is Barron Trump's 20th birthday! Governor Kathy Hochul is acknowledging that New York City has lost a significant portion of its tax base. Zohran Mamdani's wife, Rama Duwaji, has allegedly deleted her Twitter account after liking posts that are anti-Semitic. Governor of Arkansas Sarah Huckabee Sanders was reportedly asked to leave a restaurant in Arkansas. CBS News Radio has announced it will shut down completely on May 22nd. Mark interviews Fox Business reporter Charlie Gasparino. Charlie warns that New York City's budget is heading for serious trouble due to mismanagement by the city government. He also notes that more JPMorgan employees are now based in Texas than in New York. Charlie shares insight from sources on when the Strait of Hormuz is expected to reopen - and the outlook is worth hearing.

President Trump is requesting $200 billion to continue military operations in the Iran war, and Mark breaks down why the president needs the funding immediately. In other news, the Japanese Prime Minister spoke with President Trump yesterday, and a Pearl Harbor joke he made during the conversation caused widespread shock. CBS News is cutting 6% of its staff as top editor Bari Weiss vows to overhaul the network's news division. Mark takes your calls! Mark interviews John Carney of Breitbart News. They discuss when the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to oil tanker traffic. The prolonged closure has kept oil prices elevated, driving up gas prices and threatening to slow the broader economy. John also explains why gas prices in California and New York tend not to fall even when oil prices drop. Additionally, the conversation touches on whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell will remain at the helm of the Federal Reserve.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Trump is requesting $200 billion to continue military operations in the Iran war, and Mark breaks down why the president needs the funding immediately. In other news, the Japanese Prime Minister spoke with President Trump yesterday, and a Pearl Harbor joke he made during the conversation caused widespread shock. CBS News is cutting 6% of its staff as top editor Bari Weiss vows to overhaul the network's news division.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When a Japanese reporter asked the president why he did not announce his plan to attack Iran, the response was priceless.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Super Micro smuggled NVidia chips to China. Thune warns Senate's April recess could be canceled if DHS shutdown continues. Trump administration backs $200 million push for a cancer vaccine. Squad-backed Democrats lose Illinois primaries in progressive setback Culvers to open in odd location downtown. Today’s Popcorn Moment: Trump's presser with Japanese Prime Minister, and his reference to Pearl Harbor. Today on the Marketplace: Half Gallon Cup Holder car adapter. Australian heckled by Islamists in his own country New Indiana law updates Ivy Tech governance, doubles down on workforce mission8:16: Trump to take Kharg Island? Russia coming to the aid of Cuba. What's that TV Theme Song? Film Friday: Superman. Autism racketSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Culvers to open in odd location downtown. Today’s Popcorn Moment: Trump's presser with Japanese Prime Minister, and his reference to Pearl Harbor. Today on the Marketplace: Half Gallon Cup Holder car adapter. Australian heckled by Islamists in his own countrySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"We must endure the unendurable." Only Nitwit Nero could confess doing a Pearl Harbor in front of the Japanese Prime Minister.   

"I do not need the President to be offering any retractions," but it would be nice to hear what the Japanese Prime Minister thought about it. We're referring to the joke, and the poll, about Trump's Pearl Harbor comment.

When a Japanese reporter asked the president why he did not announce his plan to attack Iran, the response was priceless.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When a Japanese reporter asked the president why he did not announce his plan to attack Iran, the response was priceless.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tune into this high-energy episode of the Rita Cosby Show as Rita unpacks the latest explosive developments in the US military success against Iran. Hear the audio of President Trump's viral, jaw-dropping "Pearl Harbor" mic-drop moment with the Japanese Prime Minister, and find out how his intense public pressure forced "wimpy" European allies to finally find their spines and help secure the Strait of Hormuz. Breitbart investigative reporter Josh Klein drops by to reveal massive polling numbers showing massive voter support for the military operation. Plus, a heartwarming "Back the Blue" tribute to a Pennsylvania hero cop and a fiery takedown of a vile, brewing New York political scandal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump was with the Japanese Prime Minister and made a joke about Pearl Harbor, our allies are finally going to help with our efforts during the war, a day 1 recap of March Madness along with a day 2 preview, and what do you think are the most recognizable rock band logos of all time? We have the details on all of those stories and so much more as we head into the weekend!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

President Trump is meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister and was asked why he didn't inform Japan of the strikes. The President's answer to that question has the media spinning. Plus, Joe Kent kicks off his podcast tour with an appearance on Tucker Carlson's podcast.  Visit the Howie Carr Radio Network website to access columns, podcasts, and other exclusive content.

President Donald Trump says he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike any more Iranian energy sites after an attack on one led to an Iranian hit on energy infrastructure in Qatar; President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirm a report that the Administration sent to Congress a request for $200 billion in Iran war supplemental spending; President Trump in a White House meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, when asked why Japan did not get advanced warning of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, said, "we didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? OK, why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?"; Senate Homeland Security Committee approves the nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to be Homeland Security Secretary, by one vote, thanks to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA); House Oversight Committee Democrats walk out of a closed briefing in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation with Attorney General Pam Bondi after she would not commit to complying with a committee subpoena for a sworn deposition; Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) renames a holiday that had honored the late labor rights leader Cesar Chavez after this week's revelations that he sexually abused young women. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Washington Stand's Casey Harper reports on the SAVE America Act debate in the Senate, the confirmation hearings for Secretary of Homeland Security, and President Trump's meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister. Randy Fine, U.S. Representative

President Donald Trump will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the White House for a bilateral meeting. It's the Japanese prime minister's first trip to the United States since taking office last October.Takaichi told reporters that she hopes to discuss restoring peace in the Middle East, saying global peace and stability are under threat. Japanese officials say the two sides will work to deepen cooperation in regional security, critical minerals, energy, and China-related issues.Top Trump administration intelligence officials, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and FBI Director Kash Patel, testify before the House Intelligence Committee at their annual hearing, focusing largely on the security implications of the Iran war.

Today on The Scott Jennings Show, Scott broadcasts live from Louisville, Kentucky with breaking developments in the Iran conflict and its impact on global energy markets, mounting chaos at U.S. airports amid the DHS shutdown, Trump gives a hilarious answer to a reporter's question about Japan and Pearl Harbor while the Japanese Prime Minister visited the Oval Office, and key interviews from Capitol Hill to the Middle East. Call Lear Capital at 800-880-2424 or visit https://LearScott.com https://www.ifcj.org See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beef Liver and Deer Liver which is best. President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister press conference. March Madness with Damian Mitchell and his recent taping of Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of Segments - Isn't it Ironic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beef Liver and Deer Liver which is best. President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister press conference. March Madness with Damian Mitchell and his recent taping of Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of Segments - Isn't it Ironic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beef Liver and Deer Liver which is best. President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister press conference. March Madness with Damian Mitchell and his recent taping of Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of Segments - Isn't it Ironic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beef Liver and Deer Liver which is best. President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister press conference. March Madness with Damian Mitchell and his recent taping of Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of Segments - Isn't it Ironic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Markwanye Mullin went toe to toe with Rand Paul, new updates out of Iran, what will Trump say during the Japanese Prime Minister's White House visit today, and a bracket preview as March Madness begins! We have the details on all of those stories and so much more on this Thursday...See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Will a snap vote give Sanae Takaichi the mandate that she seeks to push forward her agenda? Plus: China’s strategic support for Iran and we interview Caroline Avedon, the curator of the Richard Avedon: Facing West exhibition.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Performers are totally over it, and their end-of-year burnout is highly relatable content. But also, are we, the crowds, worse than we've ever been? This week a 90s rock legend ripped into a concert-goer at a Melbourne show and we want to know — do any of us know how to behave any more? And, in what seems like very unsurprising news, adult content creator Bonnie Blue has been arrested in Bali. But why did she take her 'bang bus' there in the first place? Plus, scams. Amelia has a scam story that will make your hair stand on end, Holly says fears of being ripped-off make holiday shopping harder than battling traffic at the carpark and Jessie wonders what living in an era of mass distrust is doing to us all. Also, Pammy and Liam, Katy and Justin, Kylie and Timmmeeee — we're bringing you the celebrity romance and fauxmance updates not one of us asked for. Oh, and bananas. Support independent women's media What To Listen To Next: Listen to our latest episode: Things You Fantasise About When You're Single Listen: The Most Surprising Relationship Red Flag Listen: The Seven Year Friendship Rule Listen: The 6 Different Types Of People Pleasers Listen: The Thing You Can’t Say About Having Kids Listen: The Good Guest's Guide To Wedding Etiquette Listen: The Woman Who 'Caused' Family Estrangement Connect your subscription to Apple Podcasts Discover more Mamamia Podcasts here including the very latest episode of Parenting Out Loud, the parenting podcast for people who don't listen to... parenting podcasts. Watch Mamamia Out Loud: Mamamia Out Loud on YouTube What to read: Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau just hard-launched their relationship. 'Celebrities keep pulling PR stunts and I'm officially exhausted.' MIA FREEDMAN: 'What the Taylor concert was really like.' A woman, a glass box, and 2,000 men. We’ve been here before, and it never ends well. 'I watched Bonnie Blue's documentary. She had me convinced until the final 5 minutes.' THE END BITS: Check out our merch at MamamiaOutLoud.com GET IN TOUCH: Feedback? We’re listening. Send us an email at outloud@mamamia.com.au Share your story, feedback, or dilemma! Send us a voice message. Join our Facebook group Mamamia Outlouders to talk about the show. Follow us on Instagram @mamamiaoutloud and on Tiktok @mamamiaoutloudBecome a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Japan Stands Up for Taiwan While Canada Demurs: Colleagues Charles Burton and Gordon Chang report that Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi recently declared that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be a "survival threatening situation" for Japan, authorizing the mobilization of self-defense forces; this statement has triggered a massive propaganda campaign from Beijing demanding a retraction, as a successful invasion of Taiwan would likely require violating Japanese sovereignty, while in contrast Canada remains reluctant to support Tokyo or criticize Beijing, hoping to secure trade benefits and diversify exports away from the U.S., leaving Japan isolated by its allies. 1937 SHANGHAI

Episode 164.2: SB Halftime Alternatives, Japanese Prime Minister, Rising Sun Flag, NY Mayor Race, Monkey Truck, Whitehouse Ball Room, Deaths, and Rare Charachter Wheated SB

PREVIEW Japanese PM Sai Links Taiwan Blockade to Existential Threat, Enabling Collective Defense. Lance Gatlingdiscusses Japanese Prime Minister Takahichi Sai's comments regarding collective defense concerning Taiwan. This concept, enabled by a 2015 law, allows Japan to partner with other nations for national security purposes. Sai suggested that if Taiwan is threatened or blockaded, it could be construed as an existential threat against Japan. Her unscripted remarks, made during a parliamentary budget committee meeting, implied that Japan might engage in collective defense under those circumstances. Guest: Lance Gatling. 1942 MANILA

Pakistan's leader strengthens grip on the country, Taiwan makes new push for support in Europe and a Chinese envoy in Osaka makes threat against the Japanese Prime Minister after comments about Taiwan.

 Trump Demands Higher Defense Spending from New Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi. Lance Gatling reports on President Trump's visit to Tokyo and his meeting with the new Prime Minister, Takaichi. Trump is expected to demand increased defense spending. Takaichi plans to accelerate doubling the defense budget to 2% of GDP. A major concern is Trump asking Japan to stop buying energy from Russia, which supplies Japanese LNG. Takaichi enjoys surprisingly strong domestic support. 1958

Dangerous category 5 Hurricane Melissa barrels toward Jamaica with threats of severe flooding and landslides. Food assistance threatened as government shutdown continues. President Trump continues his Asia trip with a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister today. CBS News Correspondent Jennifer Keiper with tonight's World News Roundup. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sanae Takaichi is not just set to be the first female prime minister of Japan -- and someone whose childhood hero was the legendary Margaret Thatcher. She also launched her global claim to fame by saying she “wanted to abandon the idea of work-life balance” and planned to “have everyone work like a workhorse.” Well, this has generated some push back from people who are apparently happy with Japan's 0 percent real GDP growth for over 30 years. In today's episode, David analyzes why Takaichi is starting off as his favorite leader on the planet. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's Tuesday, September 9th, A.D. 2025. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Kevin Swanson Nigerian Muslims kill and injure Christian farmers On August 27th, when five Nigerian Christians went to check on their farms  located in Bauchi State, they found Fulani Muslim herdsmen grazing their cattle on the land owned by the Christians.  The argument led to the Muslims killing a Christian farmer and wounding three others, reports Morning Star News. Rev. Samson Habila, local chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, said, “We solicit that we all go on our knees for prayers to our loving God to bring this conflict to a swift end for the betterment of our land and people.” In a separate incident on the same day, Muslim herdsmen assaulted two Christian women and a teenager who were on their way back from their farm. Naomi Sabo, was cut on her hand with a machete, her teenage son was cut with a machete, and a third victim, another Christian woman, had her ear cut off by the Muslims. In a span of two weeks in late August, hundreds of Nigerian Christian farmers lost their crops to Muslim Fulani herdsmen who took their cattle to graze on them. According to Open Doors' 2025 World Watch List, Nigeria is the 7th most dangerous country on Earth for Christians. Of the 4,476 Christians killed for their faith worldwide during the reporting period, 3,100 of those Christians -- or 69% -- lived in Nigeria. Russia launched 800 drones against Ukraine Russia has stepped up its drone attacks on Ukraine, in its largest salvo since the beginning of the war, reports KGOU Radio. The aggressor launched 800 drones over the weekend — hitting the government building in Kyiv for the first time. Japanese Prime Minister resigns Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has announced his resignation.   Japan's economy is still hurting. The nation's real Gross Domestic Product is just now recovering to 2019 levels, after an extended 5-year recession. Japan's national debt is the highest in the world, at 255% of GDP.   The Japanese government's proposed budget for 2026 represents another 8% increase, year over year.  Indeed, 27% of the budget is set aside just to service the nation's debt. G7 vs BRICS The Group of 7 or “G7” nations includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.  BRICS is now recognized as the competing force opposing the G7 nations. BRICS includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. In a BRICS summit, spearheaded by Brazil's socialist president, Luiz Lula, the mostly southern and eastern world powers worked on what they called “joint responses to tariffs and sanctions under the Trump administration and discussions on a multipolar world order.” Thousands of Brazilian protestors object to trial of Jair Bolsonaro Tens of thousands of Brazilians have taken the streets over in the last week, protesting the trial of Brazil's former president, Jair Bolsonaro, reports the Associated Press. He is facing 46 years in prison for allegedly supporting an attempt to overturn the 2022 election. Plus, Bolsonaro's opponents also claim that he encouraged a protest on January 8, 2023 that resulted in several millions of dollars of damage to the capital building. Brazil's Supreme Court is expecting to sentence the former president later this week. Bolsonaro was a pro-life president, and opposed homosexual marriage for his country. The current president, Luiz Lula, has committed himself to the pro-abortion and LGBTQ agenda for the nation since his election in 2022. 47% of Brazilians receive welfare In a related story, 47% of Brazilians receive a welfare check from the government. The most welfare dependent states are in the north and northeast of the country. These twelve states record more welfare recipients than jobs among their residents. The socialist candidate in the last election, Lula de Silva, won 10 out of 12 of these states. He only won the votes with three other states in the election. God is sovereign over all. Jesus told Pontius Pilate, “You would have no authority over Me at all unless it had been given you from above.” Company that profits from porn fined $5 million The Canadian company Aylo has been fined $5 million by the US Federal Trade Commission for portraying certain egregious forms of sexual sin on its websites (which include PornHub).   This amounts to a slap on the wrist for a company operating on an estimated $700 million of annual income. That's about 0.7%. The Federal Trade Commission has charged the company with allowing non-consensual and child-abuse related material on its websites. Democrats blocking all Trump's civilian nominees The U.S. government has come to loggerheads. Thus far, not a single Trump civilian nominee has been confirmed by a voice vote through the US Senate — due to Democrat filibusters. That's the first time this has occurred in the nation's government in a century. That compares to 65% of Trump's nominees clearing the Senate by voice vote in his first term and 57% of Joe Biden's nominees confirmed by voice vote.   GOP Senate Majority Leader John Thune is considering pulling the nuclear option, or a rule change, to speed up the approval process, according to the Daily Caller. Few Americans, Christians included, believe we are sinful American Christians are pretty much agreed on this statement: “Sin is real, but people are basically good at heart.” That according to the latest George Barna survey. The pollsters discovered that 82% of Catholics and 70% of self-identified born-again Christians believe in “The basic goodness of humanity.” And only 57% of Catholics and 85% of self-identified born again Christians believe Romans 3:23 — that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  Meryl Streep to voice Aslan in new “Chronicles of Narnia” And finally, Netflix plans to release the next movie installment of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia story in November of 2026. Filming began last month which included a well-publicized street chase of Jadis, “the White Witch” last weekend. Brace yourself. Greta Gerwig, best known for directing the feminist hit film “Barbie” released in 2023, is directing this next Narnia release. Not surprisingly, Meryl Streep is slated to voice Aslan.  (The character of Aslan, Lewis's Lion, is meant as a personification of Jesus Christ). Movieguide, the Christian ministry led by founder Ted Baehr, calls this “a dangerous cultural shift,” and has initiated a petition to "respect the theological foundation of the story.” Close And that's The Worldview on this Tuesday, September 9th, in the year of our Lord 2025. Follow us on X or subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.