Podcasts about The Joneses

Have you ever felt like you were constantly chasing "more"? Yet, we are more than our possessions, acquisitions, accumulations, and titles, and Enough is actually a choice we control. Looking at what we have rather than what we're missing frees us for living and experiencing, instead of numbing and buffering.  We can be mindful and sensual, to experience the fireworks in our lives. Living fulfilled rather than filling a void; addition by subtraction, rather than distraction.  

Today I'm joined by Locus Robotics, a super innovative technology brand that is creating ground-breaking robotics technology, with the right mix of power and flexibility, to improve warehouse productivity. Locus design and build innovative autonomous mobile robots, that work collaboratively alongside people in the fast paced logistics and fulfilment industries. With Locus's powerful and intelligent autonomous solutions, workers can pick 2x-3x faster with near-100% accuracy and less labor, delivering higher productivity and a better workplace. Today Kait Peterson, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Locus Robotics, joins me to chat all about the company: what they do; the importance of flexibility in supply chain; using robots to empower people; and how automation can drive a competitive advantage. With Locus's powerful and intelligent autonomous solutions, workers can pick 2x-3x faster with near-100% accuracy and less labor, delivering higher productivity and a better workplace. Get your business the competitive edge it needs with our innovative technology Say goodbye to underperforming warehouses and fulfillment centers – let Locus help you optimize your space for maximal efficiency Keep up with the Joneses (or rather, the Amazon) by implementing Locus into your supply chain – we promise you won't regret it   IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:   [07.08] The current landscape of the warehousing industry and its challenges, from labor shortages to the knock-on effect of port delays. “Warehouses are the new bottleneck… The key is going to be all about throughput.” [08.01] With robot sales reaching record highs, Kait reflects on how the industry is thinking about, and implementing, robotics solutions. “There are two methodologies for implementation, but the key is to have a robotics solution that improves efficiency and productivity, but also makes your workers lives better, so you can keep and maintain the talent you have.” [09.31] An overview of Locus Robotics – what they do and how they help their customers. “We focus on collaborative robots in the warehouse – we have robots that work seamlessly with your workforce.” [11.19] A closer look at LocusOne, the technology platform that powers the Locus robots. [12.07] How, and why, brands are using Locus as a competitive advantage in a challenging market. “A lot of our customers see it as such as competitive advantage, that they don't want anybody else to know that they're using Locus!” [13.34] The relationship between people and robots, and why Locus's solution is all about empowering people, not replacing them. “We're centered on the people… We were originally a logistics company that saw the problems in the warehouse and used robotics to solve them.” [15.56] A closer look at onboarding, integration and training with Locus, and the flexibility that the solution can bring. [17.46] The ideal client for Locus. [19.11] Two case studies showing how Locus work with their customers to design customized solutions for complex omnichannel challenges. [21.07] From safety to customer satisfaction, the many and varied benefits of robotics. “Now is the time to get into robotics!” [23.04] The future for Locus Robotics.   RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED:   Head over to Locus Robotics's website now to find out more and discover how they could help you too. You can also connect with Locus Robotics and keep up to date with the latest over on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, or you can connect with Kait on LinkedIn. If you enjoyed this episode, why not check out our blog, What are Autonomous Robots?  8 Applications for Today's AMRs, written by Jason walker, co-founder and CEO of Waypoint Robotics, a leading provider of heavy payload capacity and omnidirectional AMRs, that was acquired by Locus in 2021. Or why not read all about The Warehouse of the Future, as predicted by logistics expert Gwynne Richards. Check out our other podcasts HERE.

We spend so much time working on our business, but do we even have time for ourselves?   Joining us again for another episode is Sterling White. He is a seasoned real estate investor and proud founder of Sonder Investment Group. With more than a decade of experience, he and his current partner have been directly involved with both buying and selling over 100 single-family homes and scaled his personal portfolio to up to 500 units.   Sterling believes that when we work on ourselves, we bring more value to our business and to the people around us. He talks about how he is taking a step back and finding ways to improve himself. He also shares important strategies and mindsets we need to navigate the current market conditions.   [00:01 - 07:49]  Positioning Yourself in a Market Shift Welcoming Sterling back to the show The market is shifting and now is a good time to sell Real estate is overpriced but it's still better to invest than to leave the capital sitting in the bank They are hitting a pause on their previous acquisition strategies due to the economic environment and will be flipping the switch once things start to turn   [07:50 - 20:59] Keeping Your Mind Sharp Sterling is improving himself by doing things beyond just business Accept these truths: People are going to be people There are things that you cannot control, especially what's happening in the market It's important to be self-aware in order to make sound investment decisions Practice patience and avoid FOMO Assess risk and protect your downside If given a chance, what's one thing Sterling would do differently in his career?    [21:00 - 21:58] Closing Segment Reach out to Sterling!  Links Below Final Words Tweetable Quotes   “We've got quite a bit of uncertainty that's going on with the rise of the interest rates and I just believe that what people are paying for properties right now is just not sustainable.” - Sterling White “People are going to be people and they're acting in their best interest, which many of the times, their best interests may not be in your best interest.” - Sterling White “I've learned from people who are further along than me in their journeys, they've had those dry spells where they didn't acquire. But when they did acquire and things did shift in the market, they really scaled.” - Sterling White   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------   Connect with Sterling at SterlingWhiteOfficial.com and subscribe to his YouTube channel!   Resource Mentioned: How To Scale Commercial Real Estate: Scaling Your Multifamily Real Estate Business With Sterling White  Connect with me:   I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns.     Facebook   LinkedIn   Like, subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you listen on.  Thank you for tuning in!   Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below:   [00:00:00] Sterling White: The first point is being self-aware and that's one of the things that through philosophy, I've also been studying human psychology. And it's just one of those things that, to answer the question that you have is human beings, I wouldn't call it irrational, but it's human nature, so meaning that if something's going up, let's say an investment in stocks or crypto, whatever it is, let's say stocks, that when everything's going up, that's when people have the fear of missing out effect and they start investing.  [00:00:41] Sam Wilson: Sterling White is a multifamily investor in the Midwest. He has owned up to 500 units. He's also been a BiggerPockets contributor since 2014 Sterling. You've been on this show before, and certainly appreciate you coming on back here again with us today. Welcome to the show.  [00:00:55] Sterling White: Yes. And thanks for the intro there and the energy, the tone, and everything. I think I just may clip that part and just have it at the beginning of my podcast or just whenever I enter a room, I'll just pull my phone out and play that.  [00:01:09] Sam Wilson: That's awesome, man. Sterling, it's great to have you back on, you know, there are for our listeners, maybe they didn't catch your previous episode, there are three questions I ask every guest who comes in the show: in 90 seconds or less, can you tell me where did you start? Where are you now? And how did you get there?  [00:01:23] Sterling White: Yeah. So started in Indianapolis, Indiana rougher parts of the city single mother, fraternal twin brother, ended up getting into real estate. This was 2009 when things were not so good in the economic environment. As a construction laborer, I read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad which rich and wealthy people did not get that way by being laborers, so then I started buying single family. I got up to 150 and then transitioned 2017 to multifamily, got up to about 500 units. So there we go. That's 31 years and 60 seconds I believe is what I did.  [00:01:56] Sam Wilson: Yeah, you did, man. You definitely kept it under the 90-second threshold there. Certainly appreciate that. That is awesome. So you scaled up to 500 units in your own personal portfolio. And then things have changed. We've had a market shift, like tell me what you guys are doing today and how you guys are positioning yourself. [00:02:15] Sterling White: Yeah. So I've been selling over the years and just have one apartment left, which is 156 units, which is now under contract and waiting to close. There was a fire at the property and now going back and forth with insurance. So it really pushed it along, but actually received a million dollars more than what we had on our five-year projections. And we're two years into the project. So that just goes to show with where we're at in the market at this moment. And I believe that there's going to start to be even more of a shift so want to have that dry powder available and ready.  [00:02:48] Sam Wilson: That's really kind of wild. So, I mean, and we're seeing that across how many assets, I mean, everybody in the multifamily business seems like, oh, we're hitting our projections sooner than what we thought. We are getting more than what we projected. And it seems like for you, you think it's a good time to sell?  [00:03:03] Sterling White: Oh, yeah, for sure. With what people are paying and it's just one of those moments that, well, the perfect time I would've said would've been, what, six, eight months ago, but now is the other from that. But it's what people are paying in the overall sentiment and people are, I mean, just wanting to park their money in real estate. So when you get all of this influx of cash, yeah, it's a really good time to sell.  [00:03:26] Sam Wilson: What do you expect? So what do you expect to happen? A lot of times you look at market dynamics to say, okay, now is a great time to sell. That is because there is anticipation of something different in the future. What are you anticipating?  [00:03:39] Sterling White: So one, we've got quite a bit of uncertainty that's going on, the rise of the interest rates, and also, I just believe what people are paying for properties right now is just not sustainable. And I'll give you a prime example. The 80-unit that we sold, bought it for 3.35 million in 2018, and then a year and a half, two years later sold it for 5 million. I have no way, how that person made those numbers work 'cause we're actually operating the property, we're saying, how did they make that work. So I believe those deals will start to come around.  [00:04:12] Sam Wilson: So what you're saying is that you are in, and again, that this is kind of not asking to predict the future, but your conclusion is that people have a hypothesis. That there's people that have overpaid for properties. And then they're going to come back here in the near, you know, 6, 12, 18 months and say, oh my gosh, we've overpaid for these. And now we have to unload 'em at a discount and you're anticipating picking those up.  [00:04:37] Sterling White: Yeah. And I made that mistake overpaying for a property and ended up having to sell what was this, 12 months, a year and a half after that, 'cause didn't raise enough cash to take care of the improvements, because overpaid for the property. And if would've raised that money up front, it would've affected the investor returns. So it was already an okay deal, without raising the cash. So in essence is that same mistake, I believe, people are making. Not everyone, I'm sure some people are, buying deals at a good price, but just from what they bought it for. I just have no clue how they're making it work.  [00:05:11] Sam Wilson: I mean, and again, that's not your problem necessarily when someone else is overpaying for a property, you just, but you can obviously collect the proceeds from whatever it is they're willing to overpay so you see it is now a good time to sell. You think, yes. What do you do with that capital once you have it? I mean, that's something that a lot of people are, you know, questions that a lot of investors and us as a passive investor but also active investors have is how do we protect the purchasing power of our capital? I mean, the published inflation rate is, what, 9%? Let's say you get a windfall of millions of dollars. You unload all your assets. So you're sitting on millions and you go, oh, now what do I do with it? How do you protect that from the, you know, erosion of inflation?  [00:05:52] Sterling White: That is a great question 'cause I don't have the answer to that 'cause one real estate's overpriced. And then I've invested into other sectors and when I invested it ended up getting cut and some of those investments getting cut in half and actually went down. So it's exactly what you mean, it's uncertain times with what to do with their cash. I still decide to invest it because having it in the bank is you're losing money due to inflation, but I don't have the answers to that. It's very tough right now.  [00:06:20] Sam Wilson: Absolutely. Absolutely. Are you guys still in the acquisition game? I mean, are you still looking at assets, still underwriting? Are you doing anything on that front?  [00:06:30] Sterling White: Not at this moment. I just haven't, 'cause the approach that I've always taken is, on the multifamily side, is the direct to owner and outreach. So build a whole entire system with that. And it's a lot of work that goes into that. And so for that is the amount of work versus the ROI and what I saw from an economic environment, just couldn't justify the efforts that we put in for the ROI that we got.  [00:06:54] Sam Wilson: Yeah. And you guys had, for those of you, again, that are just tuning in and have not heard Sterling's first episode, when we conclude this, I'll go back and find the actual episode number. Normally I know that if I have a repeat guest and I didn't look that up ahead of time, so I apologize, but if you go back and find that episode, you'll hear some really creative sourcing strategies and outreach strategies for acquisitions. Sterling did some really cool things. I won't repeat those here, but certainly, worth a re-listen or a first-time listen if you want to go back and find that episode and find some really cool methods that Sterling was using to find direct to owner deals. So that's really interesting. So you're saying that the amount of time and effort that it takes to ramp up, especially your really unique strategy is just not there right now. [00:07:35] Sterling White: Correct. Exactly. And still, once things do start to turn, already have that foundation set and the knowledge, it's just returning it back on.  [00:07:44] Sam Wilson: Right. It's flipping the switch and then you have, you know, capital in the bank and it's flipping the switch. What are you doing right now to really stay sharp? And then to know when the market is turned to a point to where you want to get back in? [00:07:58] Sterling White: So it's stabilizing the current assets being that apartment, but also is I've taken on more, I wouldn't say more, but different hobbies. Meaning is I've taken the time to step back and actually sharpen more of my acts, meaning, my mindset which is taking on more philosophy, learning a different language. And so those are more things and rabbit holes I've actually gone into during this time.  [00:08:22] Sam Wilson: Now that's really cool. And, you know, there's always that confluence of money and time that people rarely run into in life. Like, you know, everybody seems to work for those golden years where it's like, oh, Hey, you know, look, we're retired. And we got time on our hands and money in the bank. And it's like, that's just, you know, it happens at few intersections, I feel like, in most people's lives. So it sounds like you may have found that intersection albeit potentially temporary. And this is what you're pouring into. So tell me on the philosophy side of things, why do you think it's important to really work on the way you think? [00:08:55] Sterling White: And I wish more people actually talked about, these types of things, 'cause, yes, business is fantastic, always want to improve on that side, but I believe actually as a human being, you improve yourself. Not only you'll be better of value to people out there and just the common world, but also in your, business as well. One of the philosophies I've been studying or just, reading up on is, like, stoicism, there's daoism. And just one of the things I've taken on is that people are going to be people, accepting that, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and just to not take anything personal that some people may do and that they're acting in their best interest, which many of the times, their best interests may not be in your best interest. So accepting that. And then also is the things that you can control and can't control, which there's a lot of things out of our control, such as if Sam came on this podcast and just leaned in onto me and said, you know what, you were I don't know, make some things up, you're a bad investor, you're underwriting all this. I can't control that, but I can control my actual response to it.  [00:09:54] Sam Wilson: Right. Yeah, man, and that's funny. You mentioned that. Somebody said it, that life is 10% what happens to you and 90%, how you respond to it. There we go. Get my numbers right. And getting that mindset set to where when things happen that are outside of your control, you can just go, you know, I can't fix that. The only thing I can do right now is decide how much energy I want to devote to whatever that event was and then figure out how I want to respond to it. And outside of that, I got to just let it go.  [00:10:22] Sterling White: Yeah. And I'll give you an example. In my earlier days, when I started the companies I had that is I was working on myself, but there was always, there's different layers to it. And I'll give you a prime example. If someone sent over a not so nice email to me and they had multiple points is sometimes I would just each and every point I would respond back to that email. But now I'll give you an example. If an employer, someone sends that over to me, I'll just, instead of emailing and respond to 'em or getting triggered or frustrated or mad, one, I don't take it personal and I'll just hop on the phone call with them, just to talk it out, and completely take the angle. And many times is it actually what they had in the email was not intended of how I actually perceived it.  [00:11:05] Sam Wilson: Right. Right. That's absolutely great. Yeah. I find that as well, hitting those things or not hitting 'em on the head, but just addressing 'em head on. It's like, Hey, you know what? We're not going to email back and forth. We're not going to chat over whatever it is, Google Chat. We are going to just talk. And a lot of times that, whatever you had perceived is not actually what was going on there. That's really cool. How is this affecting you as an investor? And maybe if you're working on your personal philosophy, how does it affect the way that you foresee yourself investing in the future? [00:11:34] Sterling White: Well, there was that one example that I just mentioned there from the business side, but also the accepting things that I can't control is I I'm not able to control what's out there in the economic environment, such as the Fed increasing the interest rates or let's say some Black Swan event happens in the war. We'll have World War III. Hopefully, this doesn't get banned for me saying that, but it is that those are events that I cannot control. So in the event that those do happen, I believe that will actually be an opportunity for investing because when there's blood in the streets, that's the best time to actually invest. [00:12:08] Sam Wilson: Yeah.  [00:12:09] Sterling White: Counterintuitive advice though 'cause when it's actually happening, you're like, oh gosh.  [00:12:13] Sam Wilson: Yeah, I know. And you bring up an interesting point there and it's something I've I've long thought about, but I don't have an answer to, which is that investors typically invest at the completely wrong times. Going back to your point there in the beginning, which is that you're unloading all your assets because people are paying numbers for 'em that you can't have it make mathematical sense. You're like, this is just dumb. Sure. You can buy it. I'll let you buy it for that. No problem. But one of the things that I struggle with is getting out in front of, you know, 'cause we syndicate opportunities, I don't know if you syndicate your deals or if it's all in-house, but you know, educating our investors for the right time to invest to when everybody else is afraid, being able to instill confidence in the people around us. How do you see yourself doing that?  [00:12:58] Sterling White: Yeah, it's one, the first point is being self-aware and that's one of the things that through the philosophy, I've also been studying human psychology and it's just one of those things that, to answer the question that you have is human beings, I wouldn't call it irrational, but is human nature. So meaning that if something's going up, then let's say an investment in stocks or crypto, whatever it is. Let's say stocks, that when everything's going up, that's when people have the fear of missing out effect and they start investing. And then once things start to, a Black Swan event happens in the economy, when it's at the top, because at the bottom when people were scared, that's actually when the wealthy and the smart money came in. And then when things start to go up, retail or the common investor comes in at the top, the smart money actually starts selling off. And then let's say a Black Swan event and then from there, at the bottom, then that's when retail starts to sell. So it's just understanding that psychology and just when things are fearful, and let's say in the real estate market, 2008, 2009, 2010, that was actually the best time to buy. [00:14:06] Sam Wilson: It most definitely was the best time to buy. [00:14:08] Sterling White: But the scariest.  [00:14:09] Sam Wilson: Oh, for sure, for sure. 2009, I mean, could you imagine going out and taking down a 30 or 40 million apartment complex? In 2009? People would be like, so you're doing what again? Like, is anybody making money in that? None of their friends are making money in it. There's not these, you know, 2x, 3x equity multiples in two and a half years that everybody's seeing. So it's a really interesting kind of thing that you have to figure out is how to communicate to investors and instill confidence, you know, when everything does seem to be, or could potentially be going in the direction that most people aren't comfortable with.  [00:14:41] Sterling White: Exactly.  [00:14:42] Sam Wilson: Tell me this. If you were to give advice to somebody else looking to get in the business right now, or looking to scale their commercial portfolio, and somebody came to you and said, Hey, Sterling, I'm looking to jump in, man. What should I do right now? What would you tell ' em?  [00:14:56] Sterling White: So is this a person just getting started?  [00:14:59] Sam Wilson: Let's say they're like you and they had a single family portfolio, but they want to get out of that game and get into bigger assets.  [00:15:05] Sterling White: So I would say is, I mean, one, patience, but also is if you're on social media or whatever the case is. You're saying, okay, I need to get a deal now 'cause I see all these other people getting into it and I haven't, and I no longer want to be in single family, and I need to get this, deal now is the way to deal more credibility or whatever reason, you're just in that mindset that in more of a non-patient is I would just say patience. It's okay. I know we're in the microwave age and it seems as if everything happens overnight, but that's not the case. And one thing I've learned, 'cause if we're speaking in today's, terms on in 20 22, is that, one, yes, I haven't acquired anything for the past several years, but I've learned from people who are further along than me in their journeys. They've had those dry spells where they didn't acquire. But then when they did acquire, when things did shift in the market, they really scaled during those periods of time. So that's one thing as I always study others, but also constantly take a step back and practice patience as much as I can.  [00:16:06] Sam Wilson: Man, that's great. That's great advice. Yeah, because, I like the way you put that in the microwave age because it's so true. It's so true. We see it. We hit the button and 30 seconds later, we got a hot, well, I'm going to call it a meal. I'm not going to call it food, but I'm not going to call it a meal. Most of what comes out of a microwave, I'm not going to qualify, I wouldn't qualify as probably food, but either way, it's something to eat. So we're used to that instant. And especially as you see on LinkedIn or you see on Facebook or BiggerPockets, and you're like, oh, Hey, cool. So and so just acquired another massive, you know, transaction. You're like, golly, I'm just sitting on my thumbs. Oh, maybe.  [00:16:40] Sterling White: Yeah. And you don't know what all the work that they had that went into that. That could have been an owner that they've been following up for three, four years now that they just didn't have the time to put all that in the actual post or give that backstory, or they could have just overpaid for the deal. You don't know none of these things. So, and that's the thing that, what is it, the self-development and mindset, I went into is just keeping up with the Joneses is that is one of the worst things. And that's why I work to not be on social media as much as I can off of it. [00:17:12] Sam Wilson: That's interesting. That's very, very interesting. Yeah, because the FOMOs and the feelings of like, I'm not doing enough or I'm not moving fast enough or things like that, none of that really generates any positivity, I think, in our life, or actually moves the needle for us. So I think that's a really, really cool point. Tell me this, so you guys, you're selling off your portfolio, you're working on yourself, you're working on your mindset, you are developing your own philosophy. You said you're learning a language as well?  [00:17:39] Sterling White: Yeah, Spanish. I can speak it, but [speaks Spanish]. I don't want to get too much, but it's difficult.  [00:17:45] Sam Wilson: It's difficult when people talk to you. Yeah.  [00:17:47] Sterling White: Si.  [00:17:48] Sam Wilson: I caught it. I caught it. Well, you're ahead of me, man. I can't speak it. So I can't. And then that's that's really, really cool. I love the ability and the willingness to keep your mind sharp. That's a really big, I think, piece of the puzzle. I guess the last question maybe for you is this. You know, so we talked about some risks that are out there in the marketplace and you see people overpaying for things. Are there other risks that other people are taking on right now that you feel like you've found a creative way to offset and/ or avoid altogether? [00:18:17] Sterling White: I'd say is believing that cap rates are going to keep steadily compressing. So that's one risk when looking at and analyzing deals, let's say right now, it's the current properties trading at, let's say a five cap instead of underwriting in, let's say a three to five a year projection that it's going to be at a four, maybe even the three. I'm just using that, for example purposes, that likely just keeping at a five, five and a half, or maybe even a six. So that's what I would say is a mistake, to avoid.  [00:18:43] Sam Wilson: No, I think that's really, really great. Yeah. And who knows? Who knows where the cap rates go and who knows, the Fed may come out and, just keep interest rates where they are. They might cut 'em. They might just keep raising 'em. I don't know  [00:18:56] Sterling White: Who knows? But that is the thing. As an investor, you just have to assess your risk and protect your downside. And I see it, commonly people not protecting their downside. And a quick story is that there was an investor, they were buying a property, and they were buying the property based upon a corporation signing on to the lease, which would be premium rates for their tenants. And I asked them, well, what does the deal look like if the corporation does not sign on 'cause they didn't get anything on paper. And they said I wouldn't buy the deal. And that's what I mean, it's just not protecting their downside. 'Cause if they buy the deal in that case, the corporation doesn't sign on, now what are they going to do? It's not protecting their downside 'cause they couldn't ship that to market 'cause it doesn't make sense.  [00:19:37] Sam Wilson: Yeah. Oh, man. That's, yeah, that's scary stuff when you hear deals that they're only good deals based upon one major investor or one major source of... [00:19:46] Sterling White: Everything has to go right basically. [00:19:48] Sam Wilson: Exactly, it's like, I mean, it is owning a business with one major client. It's like the people that, oh, this is my million-dollar-a-year client. And then what do you do when that client goes somewhere else? You're toast.  [00:19:58] Sterling White: Exactly, yeah.  [00:19:59] Sam Wilson: Man, that's wild. Sterling, one last question for you here is this. If you would rewind the tape over your entire investing career, what is one thing that you would do differently and why? [00:20:09] Sterling White: Man, and I know you probably get this quite often is if I were to change something that could be, I don't know if you watched the movie, The Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kucher. But basically, he kept going back in time to always change one little thing, but when he would change that thing, it would impact the future heavily because of that one. So that's the thing is that, but if I were to go back, just for the podcast purposes, I would say being more patient with myself when it comes to accepting the things that you can't control and not control. And when first, initially starting out, I had to have so much control that in this department, this department, this, and really get into the nuts and bolts and oversee. But if you want to quickly scale and then also free up your mind from that, 'cause there's a lot of mental energy that goes into that. So that's what I would just tell myself that you don't, just learn to let go. [00:20:59] Sam Wilson: Man. I love it. Absolutely love it. Sterling, thank you for taking the time to come on yet again here on the podcast. Look forward to, you know, putting this out and letting the world hear where you guys are in your investing career. Certainly love it and love what you guys are doing. If our listeners want to get in touch with you or learn more about you, what is the best way to do that?  [00:21:16] Sterling White: Yes, you could find me at sterlingwhiteofficial.com. One more time, that is sterlingwhiteofficial.com. And then on YouTube, I contribute quite a bit of content on a weekly basis. Just type in Sterling white. Look for a bald, handsome guy. I'll come right on up.  [00:21:29] Sam Wilson: Sounds great. Sterling. Thank you again. Have a great rest of your day.  [00:21:32] Sterling White: You too. 

We all fall victim to this, at one point or another we compare ourselves to someone else. But to what extreme do we do it? to change our complete appearance and who we are or just to feel better inside. Join Keith and Wood as they discuss their journey on keeping up. #swcs #sowhutchusayin #keepingup #botox #vanity --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sowhutchusayin/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sowhutchusayin/support

Today Pastor Charlie Headley takes a look at the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5. We look at why Ananias and Sapphira lied, what the real sin they committed was, and how even in our mistakes God is still a gracious and Holy God. ---------------------------------------- Connect with us on Social Media: Website: nbcc.com/ Facebook: facebook.com/nbccnorco Instagram: instagram.com/nbccnorco YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6S-3n9PVnXm8zSPHAYVyGw ---------------------------------------- If you have any prayer requests or questions, please message us on our social media or send us an email at hello@nbcc.com. Don't forget to rate and subscribe to the podcast! ---------------------------------------- Join us in person, Sunday's at 9am & 10:30am https://goo.gl/maps/PEe1rzXWKBv

Hey y'all! In this episode I explain the meaning of “Keeping up the Joneses”. In today's society it can be extremely difficult not to compare yourself to other peoples lives. We are all so uniquely different and we need to learn how to live in our own individual truth. Sometimes you can't keep up because you aren't in the same race and that's okay! Thanks for tuning in and be sure to enter the giveaway on Insta @theunknownjourneywithjas --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jasmin-newsome/support

Scarface was a movie about a criminal with low self esteem but a big ego. Ego he referred to as balls. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sauceondulee/message

Lots of things are being pounded into our kids heads as truth, which often leads to risky behavior and bad results. These are the top 4

Charles C. Mann is the author of three of my favorite history books: 1491. 1493, and The Wizard and the Prophet. We discuss:why Native American civilizations collapsed and why they failed to make more technological progresswhy he disagrees with Will MacAskill about longtermismwhy there aren't any successful slave revoltshow geoengineering can help us solve climate changewhy Bitcoin is like the Chinese Silver Tradeand much much more!Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here. Some really cool guests coming up, subscribe to find out about future episodes!Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes.If you enjoyed this episode, you may also enjoy my interviews of Will MacAskill (about longtermism), Steve Hsu (about intelligence and embryo selection), and David Deutsch (about AI and the problems with America's constitution).If you end up enjoying this episode, I would be super grateful if you shared it. Post it on Twitter, send it to your friends & group-chats, and throw it up on any relevant subreddits & forums you follow. Can't exaggerate how much it helps a small podcast like mine.Timestamps(0:00:00) -Epidemically Alternate Realities(0:00:25) -Weak Points in Empires(0:03:28) -Slave Revolts(0:08:43) -Slavery Ban(0:12:46) - Contingency & The Pyramids(0:18:13) - Teotihuacan(0:20:02) - New Book Thesis(0:25:20) - Gender Ratios and Silicon Valley(0:31:15) - Technological Stupidity in the New World(0:41:24) - Religious Demoralization(0:44:00) - Critiques of Civilization Collapse Theories(0:49:05) - Virginia Company + Hubris(0:53:30) - China's Silver Trade(1:03:03) - Wizards vs. Prophets(1:07:55) - In Defense of Regulatory Delays(0:12:26) -Geoengineering(0:16:51) -Finding New Wizards(0:18:46) -Agroforestry is Underrated(1:18:46) -Longtermism & Free MarketsTranscriptDwarkesh Patel   Okay! Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Charles Mann, who is the author of three of my favorite books, including 1491: New Revelations of America before Columbus. 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, and The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World. Charles, welcome to the Lunar Society.Charles C. Mann   It's a pleasure to be here.Epidemically Alternate RealitiesDwarkesh Patel   My first question is: How much of the New World was basically baked into the cake? So at some point, people from Eurasia were going to travel to the New World, bringing their diseases. Considering disparities and where they would survive, if the Acemoglu theory that you cited is correct, then some of these places were bound to have good institutions and some of them were bound to have bad institutions. Plus, because of malaria, there were going to be shortages in labor that people would try to fix with African slaves. So how much of all this was just bound to happen? If Columbus hadn't done it, then maybe 50 years down the line, would someone from Italy have done it? What is the contingency here?Charles C. Mann   Well, I think that some of it was baked into the cake. It was pretty clear that at some point, people from Eurasia and the Western Hemisphere were going to come into contact with each other. I mean, how could that not happen, right? There was a huge epidemiological disparity between the two hemispheres––largely because by a quirk of evolutionary history, there were many more domesticable animals in Eurasia and the Eastern hemisphere. This leads almost inevitably to the creation of zoonotic diseases: diseases that start off in animals and jump the species barrier and become human diseases. Most of the great killers in human history are zoonotic diseases. When people from Eurasia and the Western Hemisphere meet, there are going to be those kinds of diseases. But if you wanted to, it's possible to imagine alternative histories. There's a wonderful book by Laurent Binet called Civilizations that, in fact, does just that. It's a great alternative history book. He imagines that some of the Vikings came and extended further into North America, bringing all these diseases, and by the time of Columbus and so forth, the epidemiological balance was different. So when Columbus and those guys came, these societies killed him, grabbed his boats, and went and conquered Europe. It's far-fetched, but it does say that this encounter would've happened and that the diseases would've happened, but it didn't have to happen in exactly the way that it did. It's also perfectly possible to imagine that Europeans didn't engage in wholesale slavery. There was a huge debate when this began about whether or not slavery was a good idea. There were a lot of reservations, particularly among the Catholic monarchy asking the Pope “Is it okay that we do this?” You could imagine the penny dropping in a slightly different way. So, I think some of it was bound to happen, but how exactly it happened was really up to chance, contingency, and human agency,Weak Points in EmpiresDwarkesh Patel   When the Spanish first arrived in the 15th and 16th centuries, were the Incas and the Aztecs at a particularly weak point or particularly decadent? Or was this just how well you should have expected this civilization to be functioning at any given time period?Charles C. Mann   Well, typically, empires are much more jumbly and fragile entities than we imagine. There's always fighting at the top. What Hernán Cortés was able to do, for instance, with the Aztecs––who are better called The Triple Alliance (the term “Aztec” is an invention from the 19th century). The Triple Alliance was comprised of three groups of people in central Mexico, the largest of which were the Mexica, who had the great city of Tenochtitlan. The other two guys really resented them and so what Cortes was able to do was foment a civil war within the Aztec empire: taking some enemies of the Aztec, some members of the Aztec empire, and creating an entirely new order. There's a fascinating set of history that hasn't really emerged into the popular consciousness. I didn't include it in 1491 or 1493 because it was so new that I didn't know anything about it; everything was largely from Spanish and Mexican scholars about the conquest within the conquest. The allies of the Spaniards actually sent armies out and conquered big swaths of northern and southern Mexico and Central America. So there's a far more complex picture than we realized even 15 or 20 years ago when I first published 1491. However, the conquest wasn't as complete as we think. I talk a bit about this in 1493 but what happens is Cortes moves in and he marries his lieutenants to these indigenous people, creating this hybrid nobility that then extended on to the Incas. The Incas were a very powerful but unstable empire and Pizarro had the luck to walk in right after a civil war. When he did that right after a civil war and massive epidemic, he got them at a very vulnerable point. Without that, it all would have been impossible. Pizarro cleverly allied with the losing side (or the apparently losing side in this in the Civil War), and was able to create a new rallying point and then attack the winning side. So yes, they came in at weak points, but empires typically have these weak points because of fratricidal stuff going on in the leadership.Dwarkesh Patel   It does also remind me of the East India Trading Company.Charles C. Mann   And the Mughal empire, yeah. Some of those guys in Bengal invited Clive and his people in. In fact, I was struck by this. I had just been reading this book, maybe you've heard of it: The Anarchy by William Dalrymple.Dwarkesh Patel   I've started reading it, yeah but I haven't made much progress.Charles C. Mann   It's an amazing book! It's so oddly similar to what happened. There was this fratricidal stuff going on in the Mughal empire, and one side thought, “Oh, we'll get these foreigners to come in, and we'll use them.” That turned out to be a big mistake.Dwarkesh Patel   Yes. What's also interestingly similar is the efficiency of the bureaucracy. Niall Ferguson has a good book on the British Empire and one thing he points out is that in India, the ratio between an actual English civil servant and the Indian population was about 1: 3,000,000 at the peak of the ratio. Which obviously is only possible if you have the cooperation of at least the elites, right? So it sounds similar to what you were saying about Cortes marrying his underlings to the nobility. Charles C. Mann   Something that isn't stressed enough in history is how often the elites recognize each other. They join up in arrangements that increase both of their power and exploit the poor schmucks down below. It's exactly what happened with the East India Company, and it's exactly what happened with Spain. It's not so much that there was this amazing efficiency, but rather, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement for Xcalack, which is now a Mexican state. It had its rights, and the people kept their integrity, but they weren't really a part of the Spanish Empire. They also weren't really wasn't part of Mexico until around 1857. It was a good deal for them. The same thing was true for the Bengalis, especially the elites who made out like bandits from the British Empire.Slave Revolts Dwarkesh Patel   Yeah, that's super interesting. Why was there only one successful slave revolt in the new world in Haiti? In many of these cases, the ratios between slaves and the owners are just huge. So why weren't more of them successful?Charles C. Mann   Well, you would first have to define ‘successful'. Haiti wasn't successful if you meant ‘creating a prosperous state that would last for a long time.' Haiti was and is (to no small extent because of the incredible blockade that was put on it by all the other nations) in terrible shape. Whereas in the case of Paul Maurice, you had people who were self-governing for more than 100 years.. Eventually, they were incorporated into the larger project of Brazil. There's a great Brazilian classic that's equivalent to what Moby Dick or Huck Finn is to us called Os Sertões by a guy named Cunha. And it's good! It's been translated into this amazing translation in English called ​​Rebellion in the Backlands. It's set in the 1880s, and it's about the creation of a hybrid state of runaway slaves, and so forth, and how they had essentially kept their independence and lack of supervision informally, from the time of colonialism. Now the new Brazilian state is trying to take control, and they fight them to the last person. So you have these effectively independent areas in de facto, if not de jure, that existed in the Americas for a very long time. There are some in the US, too, in the great dismal swamp, and you hear about those marooned communities in North Carolina, in Mexico, where everybody just agreed “these places aren't actually under our control, but we're not going to say anything.”  If they don't mess with us too much, we won't mess with them too much. Is that successful or not? I don't know.Dwarkesh Patel   Yeah, but it seems like these are temporary successes..Charles C. Mann   I mean, how long did nations last? Like Genghis Khan! How long did the Khan age last? But basically, they had overwhelming odds against them. There's an entire colonial system that was threatened by their existence. Similar to the reasons that rebellions in South Asia were suppressed with incredible brutality–– these were seen as so profoundly threatening to this entire colonial order that people exerted a lot more force against them than you would think would be worthwhile.Dwarkesh Patel   Right. It reminds me of James Scott's Against the Grain. He pointed out that if you look at the history of agriculture, there're many examples where people choose to run away as foragers in the forest, and then the state tries to bring them back into the fold.Charles C. Mann   Right. And so this is exactly part of that dynamic. I mean, who wants to be a slave, right? So as many people as possible ended up leaving. It's easier in some places than others.. it's very easy in Brazil. There are 20 million people in the Brazilian Amazon and the great bulk of them are the descendants of people who left slavery. They're still Brazilians and so forth, but, you know, they ended up not being slaves.Slavery BanDwarkesh Patel   Yeah, that's super fascinating. What is the explanation for why slavery went from being historically ever-present to ending at a particular time when it was at its peak in terms of value and usefulness? What's the explanation for why, when Britain banned the slave trade, within 100 or 200 years, there ended up being basically no legal sanction for slavery anywhere in the world?Charles C. Mann   This is a really good question and the real answer is that historians have been arguing about this forever. I mean, not forever, but you know, for decades, and there's a bunch of different explanations. I think the reason it's so hard to pin down is… kind of amazing. I mean, if you think about it, in 1800, if you were to have a black and white map of the world and put red in countries in which slavery was illegal and socially accepted, there would be no red anywhere on the planet. It's the most ancient human institution that there is. The Code of Hammurabi is still the oldest complete legal code that we have, and about a third of it is about rules for when you can buy slaves, when you can sell slaves, how you can mistreat them, and how you can't–– all that stuff. About a third of it is about buying, selling, and working other human beings. So this has been going on for a very, very long time. And then in a century and a half, it suddenly changes. So there's some explanation, and it's that machinery gets better. But the reason to have people is that you have these intelligent autonomous workers, who are like the world's best robots. From the point of view of the owner, they're fantastically good, except they're incredibly obstreperous and when they're caught, you're constantly afraid they're going to kill you. So if you have a chance to replace them with machinery, or to create a wage where you can run wage people, pay wage workers who are kept in bad conditions but somewhat have more legal rights, then maybe that's a better deal for you. Another one is that industrialization produced different kinds of commodities that became more and more valuable, and slavery was typically associated with the agricultural laborer. So as agriculture diminished as a part of the economy, slavery become less and less important and it became easier to get rid of them. Another one has to do with the beginning of the collapse of the colonial order. Part of it has to do with.. (at least in the West, I don't know enough about the East) the rise of a serious abolition movement with people like Wilberforce and various Darwins and so forth. And they're incredibly influential, so to some extent, I think people started saying, “Wow, this is really bad.”  I suspect that if you looked at South Asia and Africa, you might see similar things having to do with a social moment, but I just don't know enough about that. I know there's an anti-slavery movement and anti-caste movement in which we're all tangled up in South Asia, but I just don't know enough about it to say anything intelligent.Dwarkesh Patel   Yeah, the social aspect of it is really interesting. The things you mentioned about automation, industrialization, and ending slavery… Obviously, with time, that might have actually been why it expanded, but its original inception in Britain happened before the Industrial Revolution took off. So that was purely them just taking a huge loss because this movement took hold. Charles C. Mann   And the same thing is true for Bartolome de Las Casas. I mean, Las Casas, you know, in the 1540s just comes out of nowhere and starts saying, “Hey! This is bad.” He is the predecessor of the modern human rights movement. He's an absolutely extraordinary figure, and he has huge amounts of influence. He causes Spain's king in the 1540s to pass what they call The New Laws which says no more slavery, which is a devastating blow enacted to the colonial economy in Spain because they depended on having slaves to work in the silver mines in the northern half of Mexico and in Bolivia, which was the most important part of not only the Spanish colonial economy but the entire Spanish empire. It was all slave labor. And they actually tried to ban it. Now, you can say they came to their senses and found a workaround in which it wasn't banned. But it's still… this actually happened in the 1540s. Largely because people like Las Casas said, “This is bad! you're going to hell doing this.”Contingency & The Pyramids Dwarkesh Patel   Right. I'm super interested in getting into The Wizard and the Prophet section with you. Discussing how movements like environmentalism, for example, have been hugely effective. Again, even though it probably goes against the naked self-interest of many countries. So I'm very interested in discussing that point about why these movements have been so influential!But let me continue asking you about globalization in the world. I'm really interested in how you think about contingency in history, especially given that you have these two groups of people that have been independently evolving and separated for tens of thousands of years. What things turn out to be contingent? What I find really interesting from the book was how both of them developed pyramids––  who would have thought that structure would be within our extended phenotype or something?Charles C. Mann    It's also geometry! I mean, there's only a certain limited number of ways you can pile up stone blocks in a stable way. And pyramids are certainly one of them. It's harder to have a very long-lasting monument that's a cylinder. Pyramids are also easier to build: if you get a cylinder, you have to have scaffolding around it and it gets harder and harder.With pyramids, you can use each lower step to put the next one, on and on, and so forth. So pyramids seem kind of natural to me. Now the material you make them up of is going to be partly determined by what there is. In Cahokia and in the Mississippi Valley, there isn't a lot of stone. So people are going to make these earthen pyramids and if you want them to stay on for a long time, there's going to be certain things you have to do for the structure which people figured out. For some pyramids, you had all this marble around them so you could make these giant slabs of marble, which seems, from today's perspective, incredibly wasteful. So you're going to have some things that are universal like that, along with the apparently universal, or near-universal idea that people who are really powerful like to identify themselves as supernatural and therefore want to be commemorated. Dwarkesh Patel   Yes, I visited Mexico City recently.Charles C. Mann Beautiful city!TeotihuacanDwarkesh Patel Yeah, the pyramids there… I think I was reading your book at the time or already had read your book. What struck me was that if I remember correctly, they didn't have the wheel and they didn't have domesticated animals. So if you really think about it, that's a really huge amount of human misery and toil it must have taken to put this thing together as basically a vanity project. It's like a huge negative connotation if you think about what it took to construct it.Charles C. Mann   Sure, but there are lots of really interesting things about Teotihuacan. This is just one of those things where you can only say so much in one book. If I was writing the two-thousand-page version of 1491, I would have included this. So Tehuácan pretty much starts out as a standard Imperial project, and they build all these huge castles and temples and so forth. There's no reason to suppose it was anything other than an awful experience (like building the pyramids), but then something happened to Teotihuacan that we don't understand. All these new buildings started springing up during the next couple of 100 years, and they're all very very similar. They're like apartment blocks and there doesn't seem to be a great separation between rich and poor. It's really quite striking how egalitarian the architecture is because that's usually thought to be a reflection of social status. So based on the way it looks, could there have been a political revolution of some sort? Where they created something much more egalitarian, probably with a bunch of good guy kings who weren't interested in elevating themselves so much? There's a whole chapter in the book by David Wingrove and David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything about this, and they make this argument that Tehuácan is an example that we can look at as an ancient society that was much more socially egalitarian than we think. Now, in my view, they go a little overboard–– it was also an aggressive imperial power and it was conquering much of the Maya world at the same time. But it is absolutely true that something that started out one way can start looking very differently quite quickly. You see this lots of times in the Americas in the Southwest–– I don't know if you've ever been to Chaco Canyon or any of those places, but you should absolutely go! Unfortunately, it's hard to get there because of the roads terrible but overall, it's totally worth it. It's an amazing place. Mesa Verde right north of it is incredible, it's just really a fantastic thing to see. There are these enormous structures in Chaco Canyon, that we would call castles if they were anywhere else because they're huge. The biggest one, Pueblo Bonito, is like 800 rooms or some insane number like that. And it's clearly an imperial venture, we know that because it's in this canyon and one side is getting all the good light and good sun–– a whole line of these huge castles. And then on the other side is where the peons lived. We also know that starting around 1100, everybody just left! And then their descendants start the Puebla, who are these sort of intensely socially egalitarian type of people. It looks like a political revolution took place. In fact, in the book I'm now writing, I'm arguing (in a sort of tongue-in-cheek manner but also seriously) that this is the first American Revolution! They got rid of these “kings” and created these very different and much more egalitarian societies in which ordinary people had a much larger voice about what went on.Dwarkesh Patel   Interesting. I think I got a chance to see the Teotihuacan apartments when I was there, but I wonder if we're just looking at the buildings that survived. Maybe the buildings that survived were better constructed because they were for the elites? The way everybody else lived might have just washed away over the years.Charles C. Mann   So what's happened in the last 20 years is basically much more sophisticated surveys of what is there. I mean, what you're saying is absolutely the right question to ask. Are the rich guys the only people with things that survived while the ordinary people didn't? You can never be absolutely sure, but what they did is they had these ground penetrating radar surveys, and it looks like this egalitarian construction extends for a huge distance. So it's possible that there are more really, really poor people. But at least you'd see an aggressively large “middle class” getting there, which is very, very different from the picture you have of the ancient world where there's the sun priest and then all the peasants around them.New Book ThesisDwarkesh Patel   Yeah. By the way, is the thesis of the new book something you're willing to disclose at this point? It's okay if you're not––Charles C. Mann   Sure sure, it's okay! This is a sort of weird thing, it's like a sequel or offshoot of 1491. That book, I'm embarrassed to say, was supposed to end with another chapter. The chapter was going to be about the American West, which is where I grew up, and I'm very fond of it. And apparently, I had a lot to say because when I outlined the chapter; the outline was way longer than the actual completed chapters of the rest of the book. So I sort of tried to chop it up and so forth, and it just was awful. So I just cut it. If you carefully look at 1491, it doesn't really have an ending. At the end, the author sort of goes, “Hey! I'm ending, look at how great this is!” So this has been bothering me for 15 years. During the pandemic, when I was stuck at home like so many other people, I held out what I had since I've been saving string and tossing articles that I came across into a folder, and I thought, “Okay, I'm gonna write this out more seriously now.” 15 or 20 years later. And then it was pretty long so I thought “Maybe this could be an e-book.” then I showed it to my editor. And he said, “That is not an e-book. That's an actual book.” So I take a chapter and hope I haven't just padded it, and it's about the North American West. My kids like the West, and at various times, they've questioned what it would be like to move out there because I'm in Massachusetts, where they grew up. So I started thinking “What is the West going to be like, tomorrow? When I'm not around 30 or 50 years from now?”It seems to be that you won't know who's president or who's governor or anything, but there are some things we can know. It'd be hotter and drier than it is now or has been in the recent past, like that wouldn't really be a surprise. So I think we can say that it's very likely to be like that. All the projections are that something like 40% of the people in the area between the Mississippi and the Pacific will be of Latino descent–– from the south, so to speak. And there's a whole lot of people from Asia along the Pacific coast, so it's going to be a real ethnic mixing ground. There's going to be an epicenter of energy, sort of no matter what happens. Whether it's solar, whether it's wind, whether it's petroleum, or hydroelectric, the West is going to be economically extremely powerful, because energy is a fundamental industry.And the last thing is (and this is the iffiest of the whole thing), but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the ongoing recuperation of sovereignty by the 294 federally recognized Native nations in the West is going to continue. That's been going in this very jagged way, but definitely for the last 50 or 60 years, as long as I've been around, the overall trend is in a very clear direction. So then you think, okay, this West is going to be wildly ethnically diverse, full of competing sovereignties and overlapping sovereignties. Nature is also going to really be in kind of a terminal. Well, that actually sounds like the 1200s! And the conventional history starts with Lewis and Clark and so forth. There's this breakpoint in history when people who looked like me came in and sort of rolled in from the East and kind of took over everything. And the West disappears! That separate entity, the native people disappear, and nature is tamed. That's pretty much what was in the textbooks when I was a kid. Do you know who Frederick Jackson Turner is? Dwarkesh Patel  No.Charles C. Mann So he's like one of these guys where nobody knows who he is. But he was incredibly influential in setting intellectual ideas. He wrote this article in 1893, called The Significance of the Frontier. It was what established this idea that there's this frontier moving from East to West and on this side was savagery and barbarism, and on this other side of civilization was team nature and wilderness and all that. Then it goes to the Pacific, and that's the end of the West. That's still in the textbooks but in a different form: we don't call native people “lurking savages” as he did. But it's in my kids' textbooks. If you have kids, it'll very likely be in their textbook because it's such a bedrock. What I'm saying is that's actually not a useful way to look at it, given what's coming up. A wonderful Texas writer, Bruce Sterling, says, “To know the past, you first have to understand the future.”It's funny, right? But what he means is that all of us have an idea of where the trajectory of history is going. A whole lot of history is about asking, “How did we get here? How do we get there?” To get that, you have to have an idea of what the “there” is. So I'm saying, I'm writing a history of the West with that West that I talked about in mind. Which gives you a very different picture: a lot more about indigenous fire management, the way the Hohokam survived the drought of the 1200s, and a little bit less about Billy the Kid. Gender Ratios and Silicon Valley Dwarkesh Patel   I love that quote hahaha. Speaking of the frontier, maybe it's a mistaken concept, but I remember that in a chapter of 1493, you talk about these rowdy adventurer men who outnumber the women in the silver mines and the kind of trouble that they cause. I wonder if there's some sort of distant analogy to the technology world or Silicon Valley, where you have the same kind of gender ratio and you have the same kind of frontier spirit? Maybe not the same physical violence––– more sociologically. Is there any similarity there?Charles C. Mann   I think it's funny, I hadn't thought about it. But it's certainly funny to think about. So let me do this off the top of my head. I like the idea that at the end of it, I can say, “wait, wait, that's ridiculous.“ Both of them would attract people who either didn't have much to lose, or were oblivious about what they had to lose, and had a resilience towards failure. I mean, it's amazing, the number of people in Silicon Valley who have completely failed at numbers of things! They just get up and keep‌ trying and have a kind of real obliviousness to social norms. It's pretty clear they are very much interested in making a mark and making their fortunes themselves. So there's at least a sort of shallow comparison, there are some certain similarities. I don't think this is entirely flattering to either group. It's absolutely true that those silver miners in Bolivia, and in northern‌ Mexico, created to a large extent, the modern world. But it's also true that they created these cesspools of violence and exploitation that had consequences we're still living with today. So you have to kind of take the bitter with the sweet. And I think that's true of Silicon Valley and its products *chuckles* I use them every day, and I curse them every day.Dwarkesh Patel   Right.Charles C. Mann   I want to give you an example. The internet has made it possible for me to do something like write a Twitter thread, get millions of people to read it, and have a discussion that's really amazing at the same time. Yet today, The Washington Post has an article about how every book in Texas (it's one of the states) a child checks out of the school library goes into a central state databank. They can see and look for patterns of people taking out “bad books” and this sort of stuff. And I think “whoa, that's really bad! That's not so good.” It's really the same technology that brings this dissemination and collection of vast amounts of information with relative ease. So with all these things, you take the bitter with the sweet. Technological Stupidity in the New WorldDwarkesh Patel   I want to ask you again about contingency because there are so many other examples where things you thought would be universal actually don't turn out to be. I think you talked about how the natives had different forms of metallurgy, with gold and copper, but then they didn't do iron or steel. You would think that given their “warring nature”, iron would be such a huge help. There's a clear incentive to build it. Millions of people living there could have built or developed this technology. Same with the steel, same with the wheel. What's the explanation for why these things you think anybody would have come up with didn't happen?Charles C. Mann   I know. It's just amazing to me! I don't know. This is one of those things I think about all the time. A few weeks ago, it rained, and I went out to walk the dog. I'm always amazed that there are literal glistening drops of water on the crabgrass and when you pick it up, sometimes there are little holes eaten by insects in the crabgrass. Every now and then, if you look carefully, you'll see a drop of water in one of those holes and it forms a lens. And you can look through it! You can see that it's not a very powerful lens by any means, but you can see that things are magnified. So you think “How long has there been crabgrass? Or leaves? And water?”  Just forever! We've had glass forever! So how is it that we had to wait for whoever it was to create lenses? I just don't get it. In book 1491, I mentioned the moldboard plow, which is the one with a curving blade that allows you to go through the soil much more easily. It was invented in China thousands of years ago, but not around in Europe until the 1400s. Like, come on, guys! What was it? And so, you know, there's this mysterious sort of mass stupidity. One of the wonderful things about globalization and trade and contact is that maybe not everybody is as blind as you and you can learn from them. I mean, that's the most wonderful thing about trade. So in the case of the wheel, the more amazing thing is that in Mesoamerica, they had the wheel on child's toys. Why didn't they develop it? The best explanation I can get is they didn't have domestic animals. A cart then would have to be pulled by people. That would imply that to make the cart work, you'd have to cut a really good road. Whereas they had these travois, which are these things that you hold and they have these skids that are shaped kind of like an upside-down V. You can drag them across rough ground, you don't need a road for them. That's what people used in the Great Plains and so forth. So you look at this, and you think “maybe this was the ultimate way to save labor. I mean, this was good enough. And you didn't have to build and maintain these roads to make this work”  so maybe it was rational or just maybe they're just blinkered. I don't know. As for assembly with steel, I think there's some values involved in that. I don't know if you've ever seen one of those things they had in Mesoamerica called Macuahuitl. They're wooden clubs with obsidian blades on them and they are sharp as hell. You don't run your finger along the edge because they just slice it open. An obsidian blade is pretty much sharper than any iron or steel blade and it doesn't rust. Nice. But it's much more brittle. So okay, they're there, and the Spaniards were really afraid of them. Because a single blow from these heavy sharp blades could kill a horse. They saw people whack off the head of a horse carrying a big strong guy with a single blow! So they're really dangerous, but they're not long-lasting. Part of the deal was that the values around conflict were different in the sense that conflict in Mesoamerica wasn't a matter of sending out foot soldiers in grunts, it was a chance for soldiers to get individual glory and prestige. This was associated with having these very elaborately beautiful weapons that you killed people with. So maybe not having steel worked better for their values and what they were trying to do at war. That would've lasted for years and I mean, that's just a guess. But you can imagine a scenario where they're not just blinkered but instead expressive on the basis of their different values. This is hugely speculative. There's a wonderful book by Ross Hassig about old Aztec warfare. It's an amazing book which is about the military history of The Aztecs and it's really quite interesting. He talks about this a little bit but he finally just says we don't know why they didn't develop all these technologies, but this worked for them.Dwarkesh Patel   Interesting. Yeah, it's kind of similar to China not developing gunpowder into an actual ballistic material––Charles C. Mann   Or Japan giving up the gun! They actually banned guns during the Edo period. The Portuguese introduced guns and the Japanese used them, and they said “Ahhh nope! Don't want them.” and they banned them. This turned out to be a terrible idea when Perry came in the 1860s. But for a long time, supposedly under the Edo period, Japan had the longest period of any nation ever without a foreign war. Dwarkesh Patel   Hmm. Interesting. Yeah, it's concerning when you think the lack of war might make you vulnerable in certain ways. Charles C. Mann   Yeah, that's a depressing thought.Religious DemoralizationDwarkesh Patel   Right. In Fukuyama's The End of History, he's obviously arguing that liberal democracy will be the final form of government everywhere. But there's this point he makes at the end where he's like, “Yeah, but maybe we need a small war every 50 years or so just to make sure people remember how bad it can get and how to deal with it.” Anyway, when the epidemic started in the New World, surely the Indians must have had some story or superstitious explanation–– some way of explaining what was happening. What was it?Charles C. Mann   You have to remember, the germ theory of disease didn't exist at the time. So neither the Spaniards, or the English, or the native people, had a clear idea of what was going on. In fact, both of them thought of it as essentially a spiritual event, a religious event. You went into areas that were bad, and the air was bad. That was malaria, right? That was an example. To them, it was God that was in control of the whole business. There's a line from my distant ancestor––the Governor Bradford of Plymouth Colony, who's my umpteenth, umpteenth grandfather, that's how waspy I am, he's actually my ancestor––about how God saw fit to clear the natives for us. So they see all of this in really religious terms, and more or less native people did too! So they thought over and over again that “we must have done something bad for this to have happened.” And that's a very powerful demoralizing thing. Your God either punished you or failed you. And this was it. This is one of the reasons that Christianity was able to make inroads. People thought “Their god is coming in and they seem to be less harmed by these diseases than people with our God.” Now, both of them are completely misinterpreting what's going on! But if you have that kind of spiritual explanation, it makes sense for you to say, “Well, maybe I should hit up their God.”Critiques of Civilization Collapse TheoriesDwarkesh Patel   Yeah, super fascinating. There's been a lot of books written in the last few decades about why civilizations collapse. There's Joseph Tainter's book, there's Jared Diamond's book. Do you feel like any of them actually do a good job of explaining how these different Indian societies collapsed over time?Charles C. Mann   No. Well not the ones that I've read. And there are two reasons for that. One is that it's not really a mystery. If you have a society that's epidemiologically naive, and smallpox sweeps in and kills 30% of you, measles kills 10% of you, and this all happens in a short period of time, that's really tough! I mean COVID killed one million people in the United States. That's 1/330th of the population. And it wasn't even particularly the most economically vital part of the population. It wasn't kids, it was elderly people like my aunt–– I hope I'm not sounding callous when I'm describing it like a demographer. Because I don't mean it that way. But it caused enormous economic damage and social conflict and so forth. Now, imagine something that's 30 or 40 times worse than that, and you have no explanation for it at all. It's kind of not a surprise to me that this is a super challenge. What's actually amazing is the number of nations that survived and came up with ways to deal with this incredible loss.That relates to the second issue, which is that it's sort of weird to talk about collapse in the ways that they sometimes do. Like both of them talk about the Mayan collapse. But there are 30 million Mayan people still there. They were never really conquered by the Spaniards. The Spaniards were still waging giant wars in Yucatan in the 1590s. In the early 21st century, I went with my son to Chiapas, which is the southernmost exit province. And that is where the Commandante Cero and the rebellions were going on. We were looking at some Mayan ruins, and they were too beautiful, and I stayed too long, and we were driving back through the night on these terrible roads. And we got stopped by some of these guys with guns. I was like, “Oh God, not only have I got myself into this, I got my son into this.” And the guy comes and looks at us and says, “Who are you?” And I say that we're American tourists. And he just gets this disgusted look, and he says, “Go on.” And you know, the journalist in me takes over and I ask, “What do you mean, just go on?” And he says, “We're hunting for Mexicans.” And as I'm driving I'm like “Wait a minute, I'm in Mexico.” And that those were Mayans. All those guys were Maya people still fighting against the Spaniards. So it's kind of funny to say that their society collapsed when there are Mayan radio stations, there are Maya schools, and they're speaking Mayan in their home. It's true, they don't have giant castles anymore. But, it's odd to think of that as collapse. They seem like highly successful people who have dealt pretty well with a lot of foreign incursions. So there's this whole aspect of “What do you mean collapse?” And you see that in Against the Grain, the James Scott book, where you think, “What do you mean barbarians?” If you're an average Maya person, working as a farmer under the purview of these elites in the big cities probably wasn't all that great. So after the collapse, you're probably better off. So all of that I feel is important in this discussion of collapse. I think it's hard to point to collapses that either have very clear exterior causes or are really collapses of the environment. Particularly the environmental sort that are pictured in books like Diamond has, where he talks about Easter Island. The striking thing about that is we know pretty much what happened to all those trees. Easter Island is this little speck of land, in the middle of the ocean, and Dutch guys come there and it's the only wood around for forever, so they cut down all the trees to use it for boat repair, ship repair, and they enslave most of the people who are living there. And we know pretty much what happened. There's no mystery about it.Virginia Company + HubrisDwarkesh Patel   Why did the British government and the king keep subsidizing and giving sanctions to the Virginia Company, even after it was clear that this is not especially profitable and half the people that go die? Why didn't they just stop?Charles C. Mann   That's a really good question. It's a super good question. I don't really know if we have a satisfactory answer, because it was so stupid for them to keep doing that. It was such a loss for so long. So you have to say, they were thinking, not purely economically. Part of it is that the backers of the Virginia Company, in sort of classic VC style, when things were going bad, they lied about it. They're burning through their cash, they did these rosy presentations, and they said, “It's gonna be great! We just need this extra money.” Kind of the way that Uber did. There's this tremendous burn rate and now the company says you're in tremendous trouble because it turns out that it's really expensive to provide all these calves and do all this stuff. The cheaper prices that made people like me really happy about it are vanishing. So, you know, I think future business studies will look at those rosy presentations and see that they have a kind of analogy to the ones that were done with the Virginia Company. A second thing is that there was this dog-headed belief kind of based on the inability to understand longitude and so forth, that the Americas were far narrower than they actually are. I reproduced this in 1493. There were all kinds of maps in Britain at the time showing these little skinny Philippines-like islands. So there's the thought that you just go up the Chesapeake, go a couple 100 miles, and you're gonna get to the Pacific into China. So there's this constant searching for a passage to China through this thought to be very narrow path. Sir Francis Drake and some other people had shown that there was a West Coast so they thought the whole thing was this narrow, Panama-like landform. So there's this geographical confusion. Finally, there's the fact that the Spaniards had found all this gold and silver, which is an ideal commodity, because it's not perishable: it's small, you can put it on your ship and bring it back, and it's just great in every way. It's money, essentially. Basically, you dig up money in the hills and there's this long-standing belief that there's got to be more of that in the Americas, we just need to find out where. So there's always that hope. Lastly, there's the Imperial bragging rights. You know, we can't be the only guys with a colony. You see that later in the 19th century when Germany became a nation and one of the first things the Dutch said was “Let's look for pieces of Africa that the rest of Europe hasn't claimed,” and they set up their own mini colonial empire. So there's this kind of “Keeping Up with the Joneses” aspect, it just seems to be sort of deep in the European ruling class. So then you got to have an empire that in this weird way, seems very culturally part of it. I guess it's the same for many other places. As soon as you feel like you have a state together, you want to index other things. You see that over and over again, all over the world. So that's part of it. All those things, I think, contributed to this. Outright lying, this delusion, other various delusions, plus hubris.Dwarkesh Patel   It seems that colonial envy has today probably spread to China. I don't know too much about it, but I hear that the Silk Road stuff they're doing is not especially economically wise. Is this kind of like when you have the impulse where if you're a nation trying to rise, you have that “I gotta go here, I gotta go over there––Charles C. Mann   Yeah and “Show what a big guy I am. Yeah,––China's Silver TradeDwarkesh Patel   Exactly. So speaking of China, I want to ask you about the silver trade. Excuse another tortured analogy, but when I was reading that chapter where you're describing how the Spanish silver was ending up with China and how the Ming Dynasty caused too much inflation. They needed more reliable mediums of exchange, so they had to give up real goods from China, just in order to get silver, which is just a medium of exchange––but it's not creating more apples, right? I was thinking about how this sounds a bit like Bitcoin today, (obviously to a much smaller magnitude) but in the sense that you're using up goods. It's a small amount of electricity, all things considered, but you're having to use up real energy in order to construct this medium of exchange. Maybe somebody can claim that this is necessary because of inflation or some other policy mistake and you can compare it to the Ming Dynasty. But what do you think about this analogy? Is there a similar situation where real goods are being exchanged for just a medium of exchange?Charles C. Mann   That's really interesting. I mean, on some level, that's the way money works, right? I go into a store, like a Starbucks and I buy a coffee, then I hand them a piece of paper with some drawings on it, and they hand me an actual coffee in return for a piece of paper. So the mysteriousness of money is kind of amazing. History is of course replete with examples of things that people took very seriously as money. Things that to us seem very silly like the cowry shell or in the island of Yap where they had giant stones! Those were money and nobody ever carried them around. You transferred the ownership of the stone from one person to another person to buy something. I would get some coconuts or gourds or whatever, and now you own that stone on the hill. So there's a tremendous sort of mysteriousness about the human willingness to assign value to arbitrary things such as (in Bitcoin's case) strings of zeros and ones. That part of it makes sense to me. What's extraordinary is when the effort to create a medium of exchange ends up costing you significantly–– which is what you're talking about in China where people had a medium of exchange, but they had to work hugely to get that money. I don't have to work hugely to get a $1 bill, right? It's not like I'm cutting down a tree and smashing the papers to pulp and printing. But you're right, that's what they're kind of doing in China. And that's, to a lesser extent, what you're doing in Bitcoin. So I hadn't thought about this, but Bitcoin in this case is using computer cycles and energy. To me, it's absolutely extraordinary the degree to which people who are Bitcoin miners are willing to upend their lives to get cheap energy. A guy I know is talking about setting up small nuclear plants as part of his idea for climate change and he wants to set them up in really weird remote areas. And I was asking “Well who would be your customers?” and he says Bitcoin people would move to these nowhere places so they could have these pocket nukes to privately supply their Bitcoin habits. And that's really crazy! To completely upend your life to create something that you hope is a medium of exchange that will allow you to buy the things that you're giving up. So there's a kind of funny aspect to this. That was partly what was happening in China. Unfortunately, China's very large, so they were able to send off all this stuff to Mexico so that they could get the silver to pay their taxes, but it definitely weakened the country.Wizards vs. ProphetsDwarkesh Patel   Yeah, and that story you were talking about, El Salvador actually tried it. They were trying to set up a Bitcoin city next to this volcano and use the geothermal energy from the volcano to incentivize people to come there and mine cheap Bitcoin. Staying on the theme of China, do you think the prophets were more correct, or the wizards were more correct for that given time period? Because we have the introduction of potato, corn, maize, sweet potatoes, and this drastically increases the population until it reaches a carrying capacity. Obviously, what follows is the other kinds of ecological problems this causes and you describe these in the book. Is this evidence of the wizard worldview that potatoes appear and populations balloon? Or are the prophets like “No, no, carrying capacity will catch up to us eventually.”Charles C. Mann   Okay, so let me interject here. For those members of your audience who don't know what we're talking about. I wrote this book, The Wizard and the Prophet. And it's about these two camps that have been around for a long time who have differing views regarding how we think about energy resources, the environment, and all those issues. The wizards, that's my name for them––Stuart Brand called them druids and, in fact, originally, the title was going to involve the word druid but my editor said, “Nobody knows what a Druid is” so I changed it into wizards–– and anyway the wizards would say that science and technology properly applied can allow you to produce your way out of these environmental dilemmas. You turn on the science machine, essentially, and then we can escape these kinds of dilemmas. The prophets say “No. Natural systems are governed by laws and there's an inherent carrying capacity or limit or planetary boundary.” there are a bunch of different names for them that say you can't do more than so much.So what happened in China is that European crops came over. One of China's basic geographical conditions is that it's 20% of the Earth's habitable surface area, or it has 20% of the world's population, but only has seven or 8% of the world's above-ground freshwater. There are no big giant lakes like we have in the Great Lakes. And there are only a couple of big rivers, the Yangtze and the Yellow River. The main staple crop in China has to be grown in swimming pools, and that's you know, rice. So there's this paradox, which is “How do you keep people fed with rice in a country that has very little water?” If you want a shorthand history of China, that's it. So prophets believe that there are these planetary boundaries. In history, these are typically called Malthusian Limits after Malthus and the question is: With the available technology at a certain time, how many people can you feed before there's misery?The great thing about history is it provides evidence for both sides. Because in the short run, what happened when American crops came in is that the potato, sweet potato, and maize corn were the first staple crops that were dryland crops that could be grown in the western half of China, which is very, very dry and hot and mountainous with very little water. Population soars immediately afterward, but so does social unrest, misery, and so forth. In the long run, that becomes adaptable when China becomes a wealthy and powerful nation. In the short run, which is not so short (it's a couple of centuries), it really causes tremendous chaos and suffering. So, this provides evidence for both sides. One increases human capacity, and the second unquestionably increases human numbers and that leads to tremendous erosion, land degradation, and human suffering.Dwarkesh Patel   Yeah, that's a thick coin with two sides. By the way, I realized I haven't gotten to all the Wizard and Prophet questions, and there are a lot of them. So I––Charles C. Mann   I certainly have time! I'm enjoying the conversation. One of the weird things about podcasts is that, as far as I can tell, the average podcast interviewer is far more knowledgeable and thoughtful than the average sort of mainstream journalist interviewer and I just find that amazing. I don't understand it. So I think you guys should be hired. You know, they should make you switch roles or something.Dwarkesh Patel   Yeah, maybe. Charles C. Mann   It's a pleasure to be asked these interesting questions about subjects I find fascinating.Dwarkesh Patel   Oh, it's my pleasure to get to talk to you and to get to ask these questions. So let me ask about the Wizard and the Prophet. I just interviewed WIll McCaskill, and we were talking about what ends up mattering most in history. I asked him about Norman Borlaug and said that he's saved a billion lives. But then McCaskill pointed out, “Well, that's an exceptional result” and he doesn't think the technology is that contingent. So if Borlaug hadn't existed, somebody else would have discovered what he discovered about short wheat stalks anyways. So counterfactually, in a world where Ebola doesn't exist, it's not like a billion people die, maybe a couple million more die until the next guy comes around. That was his view. Do you agree? What is your response?Charles C. Mann   To some extent, I agree. It's very likely that in the absence of one scientist, some other scientist would have discovered this, and I mentioned in the book, in fact, that there's a guy named Swaminathan, a remarkable Indian scientist, who's a step behind him and did much of the same work. At the same time, the individual qualities of Borlaug are really quite remarkable. The insane amount of work and dedication that he did.. it's really hard to imagine. The fact is that he was going against many of the breeding plant breeding dogmas of his day, that all matters! His insistence on feeding the poor… he did remarkable things. Yes, I think some of those same things would have been discovered but it would have been a huge deal if it had taken 20 years later. I mean, that would have been a lot of people who would have been hurt in the interim! Because at the same time, things like the end of colonialism, the discovery of antibiotics, and so forth, were leading to a real population rise, and the amount of human misery that would have occurred, it's really frightening to think about. So, in some sense, I think he's (Will McCaskill) right. But I wouldn't be so glib about those couple of million people.Dwarkesh Patel   Yeah. And another thing you might be concerned about is that given the hostile attitude that people had towards the green revolution right after, if the actual implementation of these different strains of biochar sent in India, if that hadn't been delayed, it's not that weird to imagine a scenario where the governments there are just totally won over by the prophets and they decide to not implant this technology at all. If you think about what happened to nuclear power in the 70s, in many different countries, maybe something similar could have happened to the Green Revolution. So it's important to beat the Prophet. Maybe that's not the correct way to say it. But one way you could put it is: It's important to beat the prophets before the policies are passed. You have to get a good bit of technology in there.Charles C. Mann   This is just my personal opinion, but you want to listen to the prophets about what the problems are. They're incredible at diagnosing problems, and very frequently, they're right about those things. The social issues about the Green Revolution… they were dead right, they were completely right. I don't know if you then adopt their solutions. It's a little bit like how I feel about my editors–– my editors will often point out problems and I almost never agree with their solutions. The fact is that Borlaug did develop this wheat that came into India, but it probably wouldn't have been nearly as successful if Swaminathan hadn't changed that wheat to make it more acceptable to the culture of India. That was one of the most important parts for me in this book. When I went to Tamil Nadu, I listened to this and I thought, “Oh! I never heard about this part where they took Mexican wheat, and they made it into Indian wheat.” You know, I don't even know if Borlaug ever knew or really grasped that they really had done that! By the way, a person for you to interview is Marci Baranski–– she's got a forthcoming book about the history of the Green Revolution and she sounds great. I'm really looking forward to reading it. So here's a plug for her.In Defense of Regulatory DelaysDwarkesh Patel   So if we applied that particular story to today, let's say that we had regulatory agencies like the FDA back then that were as powerful back then as they are now. Do you think it's possible that these new advances would have just dithered in some approval process that took years or decades to complete? If you just backtest our current process for implementing technological solutions, are you concerned that something like the green revolution could not have happened or that it would have taken way too long or something?Charles C. Mann   It's possible. Bureaucracies can always go rogue, and the government is faced with this kind of impossible problem. There's a current big political argument about whether former President Trump should have taken these top-secret documents to his house in Florida and done whatever he wanted to? Just for the moment, let's accept the argument that these were like super secret toxic documents and should not have been in a basement. Let's just say that's true. Whatever the President says is declassified is declassified. Let us say that's true.  Obviously, that would be bad. You would not want to have that kind of informal process because you can imagine all kinds of things–– you wouldn't want to have that kind of informal process in place. But nobody has ever imagined that you would do that because it's sort of nutty in that scenario.Now say you write a law and you create a bureaucracy for declassification and immediately add more delay, you make things harder, you add in the problems of the bureaucrats getting too much power, you know–– all the things that you do. So you have this problem with the government, which is that people occasionally do things that you would never imagine. It's completely screwy. So you put in regulatory mechanisms to stop them from doing that and that impedes everybody else. In the case of the FDA, it was founded in the 30 when some person produced this thing called elixir sulfonamides. They killed hundreds of people! It was a flat-out poison! And, you know, hundreds of people died. You think like who would do that? But somebody did that. So they created this entire review mechanism to make sure it never happened again, which introduced delay, and then something was solidified. Which they did start here because the people who invented that didn't even do the most cursory kind of check. So you have this constant problem. I'm sympathetic to the dilemma faced by the government here in which you either let through really bad things done by occasional people, or you screw up everything for everybody else. I was tracing it crudely, but I think you see the trade-off. So the question is, how well can you manage this trade-off? I would argue that sometimes it's well managed. It's kind of remarkable that we got vaccines produced by an entirely new mechanism, in record time, and they passed pretty rigorous safety reviews and were given to millions and millions and millions of people with very, very few negative effects. I mean, that's a real regulatory triumph there, right?So that would be the counter-example: you have this new thing that you can feed people and so forth. They let it through very quickly. On the other hand, you have things like genetically modified salmon and trees, which as far as I can tell, especially for the chestnuts, they've made extraordinary efforts to test. I'm sure that those are going to be in regulatory hell for years to come. *chuckles* You know, I just feel that there's this great problem. These flaws that you identified, I would like to back off and say that this is a problem sort of inherent to government. They're always protecting us against the edge case. The edge case sets the rules, and that ends up, unless you're very careful, making it very difficult for everybody else.Dwarkesh Patel   Yeah. And the vaccines are an interesting example here. Because one of the things you talked about in the book–– one of the possible solutions to climate change is that you can have some kind of geoengineering. Right? I think you mentioned in the book that as long as even one country tries this, then they can effectively (for relatively modest amounts of money), change the atmosphere. But then I look at the failure of every government to approve human challenge trials. This is something that seems like an obvious thing to do and we would have potentially saved hundreds of thousands of lives during COVID by speeding up the vaccine approval. So I wonder, maybe the international collaboration is strong enough that something like geoengineering actually couldn't happen because something like human challenge trials didn't happen.Geoengineering Charles C. Mann   So let me give a plug here for a fun novel by my friend, Neal Stephenson, called Termination Shock. Which is about some rich person just doing it. Just doing geoengineering. The fact is that it's actually not actually against the law to fire off rockets into the stratosphere. In his case, it's a giant gun that shoots shells full of sulfur into the upper atmosphere. So I guess the question is, what timescale do you think is appropriate for all this? I feel quite confident that there will be geoengineering trials within the next 10 years. Is that fast enough? That's a real judgment call. I think people like David Keith and the other advocates for geoengineering would have said it should have happened already and that it's way, way too slow. People who are super anxious about moral hazard and precautionary principles say that that's way, way too fast. So you have these different constituencies. It's hard for me to think off the top of my head of an example where these regulatory agencies have actually totally throttled something in a long-lasting way as opposed to delaying it for 10 years. I don't mean to imply that 10 years is nothing. But it's really killing off something. Is there an example you can think of?Dwarkesh Patel   Well, it's very dependent on where you think it would have been otherwise, like people say maybe it was just bound to be the state. Charles C. Mann   I think that was a very successful case of regulatory capture, in which the proponents of the technology successfully created this crazy…. One of the weird things I really wanted to explain about nuclear stuff is not actually in the book.

Fawzya interviews psychic Samantha Jones. Don't miss this amazing conversation as they discuss how Samantha uses her amazing gift to help people live their best lives. Since Samantha was a young child, she could communicate with animals in a way others couldn't, “knew things” and had vision of things to come. After the passing of her mother in 2004, Samantha built a strong relationship with the spirit world, eventually opening her medium and psychic abilities. Connecting people to their loved ones on the other side, bridging the gap between people and animals and helping people better navigate life, are just a few of the ways Samantha helps her clients live happier, healthier, and more prosperous lives. Samantha strives every day to show people the beauty of the universe we live in and hopes to make a big enough impact to change the world. In addition to being a psychic medium & animal communicator, Samantha is also a Reiki Master, certified spiritual coach, energy healer and aspiring writer. She co-hosts a weekly podcast with her husband, Danny, called Spiritual Philos-O-Chatter with The Joneses. In this hour long, listener interactive podcast, Samantha and Danny discuss all things metaphysical, spiritual, and philosophical. Together Samantha & Danny try to help people along their spiritual journeys, to bring more Peace and Love to their lives. Samantha lives in Southern California with her husband, Danny, 17 year old stepdaughter, Marina, 2 Great Danes and a Labrador Retriever. In her spare time Samantha enjoys hiking, dancing, and traveling as often as she can. She is a self-proclaimed Disney Nerd and loves her Los Angeles Kings!

How do you get started in house hacking? There's several strategies for brand new investors getting started and the biggest investors in the industry looking to pocket some serious change and save a buck or make an extra buck. Today, Clint Coons of Anderson Business Advisors talks to Kelton Todd with Women's Real Estate Investor Network. Also, Kelton is co-owner of Todd Team Investments. Whether mentoring one-on-one or delivering a keynote presentation, there is one word that describes Kelton's goals—results. Kelton inspires others to take action and change the direction of their lives through creating their own financial freedom. He is now offering Empire Academy, a fully comprehensive, results-oriented real estate investing education program. Highlights/Topics: College Roommate Strategy: Buy a house, live rent-free in bedroom, rent out the rest Vacation Home: Rent out just a bedroom or entire place temporarily to generate revenue Challenges: Look out for drugs, parties, and things like that in college towns Relationships: Know if you can live with person; different personalities create conflict American Dream Strategy: Buy property using government-backed loans with little down FHA: Via same loan process, acquire duplex, triplex, or quadplex and rent out other units Women's Real Estate Investors Network: Good foundation, education, understanding Ultimate Empire Builder Strategy: Buy something small and turn it into something big Moving Up: You become the Joneses that everyone's trying to keep up with Risks: You must be willing to take some risk to make money—inflation isn't slowing down Resources: Women's Real Estate Investors Network https://womensrein.com/ Women's Real Estate Investors Network Terms of Use https://withoutfearofherfuture.com/ Airbnb https://www.airbnb.com/ VRBO https://www.vrbo.com/ HomeAway https://homeaway-com.com/ 26 U.S. Code 121 Exclusion https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/121 Clint Coons https://andersonadvisors.com/clint-coons/ Anderson Advisors https://andersonadvisors.com/ Anderson Advisors on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaL-wApuVYi2Va5dWzyTYVw  

Dan Moore helps us come back down to earth.It's easy to get caught up in the world of reports, gut feelings and keeping up with the Joneses. But Dan Moore of Vistadash has a way of seeing through the buzzwords and talking about what actually matters. Be prepared for metaphors, laughs and great insights into the world of business intelligence.What we talk about in this episode:0:00 Intro with Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier.7:58 Having been through several acquisitions, Dan talks about the different ways that his company has had to navigate them.11:03 Dan thinks that Vistadash can be the biggest business intelligence platform in automotive. He talks about the difference between knowing the score and watching the game film.15:32 For most companies, data works best for you when there is a human element, according to Dan. We're still a ways off from a truly effective AI because the data volume isn't there.22:28 The three prongs of selling cars are the product, marketing, and the people and process. Making sure that you have the right mix of those three things is a key that Dan talks about.⭐️ Love the podcast? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your LinkedIn or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! We have a daily email! ✉️ Sign up for our free and fun-to-read daily email for a quick shot of relevant news in automotive retail, media, and pop culture.

In today's business world, it's easy to get caught up in the rat race and feel like you need to have the best systems in place, use this and that app to be successful or enroll in a thousand different courses.   However, the truth is that you don't need all that stuff to run a successful business.    What's more important is having a clear vision for your business and being able to execute on that vision. What you do need is passion, determination, and a willingness to work hard. With these things, you can build a successful business from the ground up. So don't get caught up in trying to keep up with the Joneses – focus on running your business, and you'll be just fine.   Forget everything you've been told about business! It's time to break the rules and create an unstoppable business that allows you to live the radical life you really want.   In this episode, we are joined by Business and Mindset Coach for fellow rebel-hearted Mamas, Ami Dehne. Ami, believes that intuition, trust, and a willingness to constantly examine and shift our mindset are all keys to living a creative and meaningful life. She spent over ten years in senior leadership positions which allowed her to make a big impact in her local community -- but her true passion for helping people was calling her to do more.     Listen as she discussed what it means to be a Disruptor (someone who displaces their current way of thinking and being and has had the willingness to step outside the guardrails of our status quo and traditions to live a life worth living) and what it takes to walk the path of a life rich with meaning and connection.   Check Out Ami Dehne: Find Out More About Ami Dehne Follow Ami  on Instagram Visit Ami's FB Page Book Your 60-Minute Idea Activation with Ami Apply to Ami's Passion to Profit Business Accelerator   About Your Host: Find Out More About Heather Doran Follow Heather on Instagram Like Heather's FB Page Join Heather's No-Cost Membership   Show Notes:   Heather Doran 03:03 - Do you need XYZ to start doing what you are good at? Ami Dehne 04:11 - I've struggled for a long time in my life, trying to find work that I care about. Because for me waking up every day and giving my time to something that I don't align with is a really big struggle.    Heather Doran 06:05 - I'm like, Holy Sh*t, I totally broke the rules on what I was supposed to be doing. I'm supposed to have a house, I'm supposed to have this whole status quo of what it means to like, be an adult and all that BS.    Ami Dehne 10:22 - I keep preaching, like yeah you need to do something that you love to do in your day to day. But the reality is, we live in a culture that needs money to survive. It's an energetic exchange. And when the money's not there, it makes it hard to keep going. I just want to put that out there that yes, it's great to do something that you love but it's also important to make money while you're doing it. There's nothing wrong with making money. You just had an exchange of energy.    Ami Dehne 27:20 - I think that is so important as moms to change the narrative of what it means to be a mom, because I had a mom that wasn't lit up that she wasn't living a full life.  And I think that it is such a gift to our children to show them what it looks like when we can start taking the steps to put our own oxygen mask on for ourselves because it gives them the permission to then go out and do the same thing. And that they're not going to be following blindly that the steps that you're saying you go you get a job, you go to university, get a job, you have kids and all of the things but the be like actually, no, this is this is that doesn't work for me. And I'm going to do it a different way.    Ami Dehne 30:42 - What I am helping moms do is how to set boundaries for themselves. So they can say yes, and they can say no, and they need to say no.   Ami Dehne 36:15 - So one of the things that happens when we start our own businesses is we feel like we have to have a website.   Ami Dehne 40:32 - we business isn't complicated. We complicate business.   Ami Dehne 41:36 - We struggle with this, like shiny object syndrome, where we just like go to the next thing because it's shiny, because the thing that we're doing isn't working for us.

Are you going to Jones's house, or are you going to the Joneses' house? And how much of a difference does it make? Find out on this episode of Grammar Minute!

House Of Slaughter #8 from BOOM! Studios | Writer(s): James TynionIV Sam Johns | Artist(s): Werther Dell'Edera Letizia Cadonici | $3.99  The Joneses #5 from AWA/Upshot (W) Michael Moreci (A) Alessandro Vitti, Ive Svorcina $3.99 Break Out #3 from Dark Horse Comics (W) Zack Kaplan (A) Wilton Santos $3.99 Dogs Of London #4 from AfterShock Comics | Writer(s): Peter Milligan | Artist(s): Artecida | $3.99 Ocean Will Take Us #5 from AfterShock Comics | Writer(s): Rich Douek | Artist(s): Carlos Olivares | $3.99 West Of Sundown #5  from Vault Comics | Writer(s): Aaron Campbell Tim Seeley | Artist(s): Jim Terry | $4.99 Forever Forward #1 from Scout Comics | Writer(s): Zack Kaplan | Artist(s): Arjuna Susini | $4.99 Pentagram Of Horror #4 from Black Caravan | Writer(s): Marco Fontanili | Artist(s): Marco Fontanili | $5.99 Vampiress Carmilla Magazine #11 from Warrant Publishing Company | Writer(s):  Various | Artist(s): Various | $5.95 We Only Find Them When Theyre Dead #13 from BOOM! Studios | Writer(s): Al Ewing | Artist(s): Simone Di Meo | $3.99 Minor Threats #1  from Dark Horse | Writer(s): Patton Oswalt Jordan Blum | Artist(s): Scott Hepburn | $4.99 Other Mind MGMT Bootleg #3 from Dark Horse | Writer(s): Matt Kindt | Artist(s): David Rubin Bill Crabtree | $3.99 Shock Shop #1 from Dark Horse | Writer(s): Cullen Bunn | Artist(s): Danny Luckert Leila Leiz | $3.99 A Town Called Terror #6 from Image | Writer(s): Steve Niles | Artist(s): Szymon Kudranski | $3.99 Golden Rage #2  from Image | Writer(s): Chrissy Williams | Artist(s): Lauren Knight | $3.99 Basilisk #11 from BOOM! Studios | Writer(s): Cullen Bunn | Artist(s): Jonas Scharf | $3.99 Highball #1  from Ahoy Comics | Writer(s): Stuart Moore | Artist(s): Fred Harper | $4.99 Last Line #1 from AfterShock Comics | Writer(s): Richard Dinnick | Artist(s): Jose Holder | $4.99 Phantasmagoria #1 from Black Caravan | Writer(s): El Torres | Artist(s): Joe Bocardo | $4.99 Once & Future # 29 from BOOM! Studios (W) Keiron Gillan (A) Dan Mora $3.99  Prodigy Icarus Society #3 from Image Comics (W) Mark Millar (A) Matteo Buffagni $3.99  This week's that guy that was in that show is Dabs Greer

You can smell the new car scent from your house. Your neighbor has a new car, and you are jealous. In this episode, Art discusses why you should stop envying your neighbor's car. Plus, he talks about how you can get your automobile sinking fund going today.Notes:1. The Bible tells us not to envy. 2. Keeping up with the Joneses is real.3. Cars are depreciating assets.4. Your neighbors probably used debt to get that car.Listener question answered:Should I use all my savings for as a down payment on a house?Resources mentioned:The Essential Emergency Binder | Buy it here: https://www.artrainer.com/essential-emergency-binderEpisode Sponsor:Most churches struggle to get people to give. SecureGive has created a system that helps churches increase giving so their ministry is funded to reach their community. SecureGive helps churches increase giving in 3 ways: software that makes giving easy, a custom growth strategy, and ongoing stewardship resources. They stand out by offering a real ministry partnership, the most cost-effective solution with the lowest processing rates, and the most comprehensive giving platform available. Use the code 'RAINER20' to get 20% off your first year! Learn more here: https://www.securegive.com/

Football is finally back! Last GHJ pod before the 2022 season kicks off. Come get the freshest takes on league predictions and fringe player hype levels.

 Today, I'm excited to introduce you to Jill Keuth, a life coach helping women come home to themselves and live a more courageous life. You'll feel inspired after listening to this powerful interview where Jill shares her journey and tips you can start using today to shine brighter in your personal and professional life. In this Episode: Jill shares how she organically entered the world of coaching and how her mother has been an inspiration in her journey How motherhood changed her career trajectory The ways she worked through many identity crises Insight into her journey as a life coach The different ways she taps into courage and her true self Jill's one message for the world Tips on moving from your head to your heart The ways she's grown her business with divine purpose How she's expanding her offerings by hosting her first retreat Ways to trust the certainty within yourself Tips on saying yes to your potential   Jill Keuth is the founder of Be Courageously YOU and a Whole-Person Life Coach for high achieving, accomplished women who are rocking their professional lives and yet still feeling the need for something more in life. Jill leads them to become the empowered women they are in every area of their life and room they are in -whether it's the board room, courtroom, operating room, or living room.  She knows first hand the demands of our hopes and dreams, careers, marriages, motherhood, and the elusive “keeping up with the Joneses”. Jill delights in helping her clients experience more purpose, love, joy, and expansion, changing their lives and the lives of those around them. It is time that we stop being exhausted by our habits of perfectionism, people pleasing, over doing, and overachieving. It is time to remember who we have always been, step into the Truth of who we are, and live up to our fullest potential. Jill's passion for creating an equitable world, led her to starting an Anti-Racist Book and Accountability Group in May 2020. Her group,”Courage, Privilege, and Evolution,” quickly grew to over 50 women all desiring to step into awareness of our own privilege and racism, to begin to understand and see all the ways that a white supremacist society has helped us, harmed us, and shaped us so that we can be a part of dismantling the system, rather than supporting it. "When we tap into our heart and live our lives authentically. We show up to the wholeness of who we are." -Jill Keuth To learn more about Jill and her work you can check out her website. You can also connect with her on Facebook or Instagram. Let's Meet Jill Keuth. Jill Keuth Show Notes

I Hate This Place #4 from Image | Writer(s): Kyle Starks | Artist(s): Artyom Topilin Lee Loughridge | $3.99 Public Domain #3 from Image | Writer(s): Chip Zdarsky | Artist(s): Chip Zdarsky | $3.99 Radiant Black #17 from Image | Writer(s): Kyle Higgins | Artist(s): Marcello Costa | $3.99 Rogues Gallery #2 from Image | Writer(s): Hannah Rose May | Artist(s): Justin Mason Triona Farrell | $3.99 Grim #4  from BOOM! Studios | Writer(s): Stephanie Phillips | Artist(s): Flaviano | $3.99 Gun Honey:  Blood for Blood #1 from Titan Comics (W) Charles Ardai (A) Ang Hor Kheng $3.99 Bunny Mask Hollow Inside #4 from AfterShock Comics | Writer(s): Paul Tobin | Artist(s): Andrea Mutti | $4.99 End After End #1 from Vault Comics | Writer(s): David Andry Tim Daniel | Artist(s): Sunando C | $4.99 G.I.L.T. #5 from Ahoy Comics | Writer(s): Alisa Kwitney | Artist(s): Mauricet | $4.99 Pentagram Of Horror #3  from Black Caravan| Writer(s): Marco Fontanili | Artist(s): Marco Fontanili | $5.99 A Calculated Man #3 from AfterShock Comics | Writer(s): Paul Tobin | Artist(s): Alberto Alburquerque | $4.99 Blue Flame #9  from Vault Comics | Writer(s): Christopher Cantwell | Artist(s): Adam Gorham | $3.99 Other Beware The Eye Of Odin #3 from Image | Writer(s): Doug Wagner | Artist(s): Tim Odland Michelle Madsen | $4.99 Farmhand #20 from Image | Writer(s): Rob Guillory | Artist(s): Rob Guillory Jean-Francois Beaulieu  | $3.99 Book Of Shadows #2  from Valiant Entertainment | Writer(s): Cullen Bunn | Artist(s): Vicente Cifuentes | $3.99 Other Dogs Of London #4 from AfterShock Comics | Writer(s): Peter Milligan | Artist(s): Artecida | $3.99 Forever Forward #1 from Scout Comics | Writer(s): Zack Kaplan | Artist(s): Arjuna Susini | $4.99 House Of Slaughter #8 from BOOM! Studios | Writer(s): James TynionIV Sam Johns | Artist(s): Werther Dell'Edera Letizia Cadonici | $3.99 Ocean Will Take Us #5 from AfterShock Comics | Writer(s): Rich Douek | Artist(s): Carlos Olivares | $3.99 Pentagram Of Horror #4 from Black Caravan | Writer(s): Marco Fontanili | Artist(s): Marco Fontanili | $5.99 Vampiress Carmilla Magazine #11 from Warrant Publishing Company | Writer(s):  Various | Artist(s): Various | $5.95 We Only Find Them When Theyre Dead #13 from BOOM! Studios | Writer(s): Al Ewing | Artist(s): Simone Di Meo | $3.99 West Of Sundown #5  from Vault Comics | Writer(s): Aaron Campbell Tim Seeley | Artist(s): Jim Terry | $4.99 Minor Threats #1  from Dark Horse | Writer(s): Patton Oswalt Jordan Blum | Artist(s): Scott Hepburn | $4.99 The Joneses #5 from AWA/Upshot (W) Michael Moreci (A) Alessandro Vitti, Ive Svorcina $3.99  

Nobody's perfect. Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, including physicians. Perfectionism in medicine can spill over into physicians' personal finances. In this episode of the Finance for Physicians Podcast, Daniel Wrenne talks to Dr. Michael Myers about physician perfectionism. Michael is professor of clinical psychiatry at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center and author of eight books covering everything from physician suicide and mental health to physician marriages. Topics Discussed: • Tyranny of Perfectionism: Extreme perfection can affect productivity • Good Enough: Strive for excellence, but find and accept balanced portion • Human Humor: Welcome to medical school, you're (not) the best and brightest • Imposter Syndrome: Message of perfectionism leads to inferiority • Survive and Thrive: Perfectionism is expected, to err is human • Demographics and Diagnoses: Diverse physician and patient population • Signs: Worry too much, stay too late, struggle with competence and confidence? • House of Medicine Stigma: Should doctors ask for or need help? • Physician Personalities and Psychiatry: Self-resolve or seek help with triggers • Money Management: Most physicians are not gifted in economics/business • Marriage and Money: Keeping up with the Joneses linked to perfectionism • Privilege or Poverty: Physician's upbringing is pressure to maintain or do better • Married to Doctors: Say and do something in a loving manner; listen and get help • Co-parenting: Compliment and cut back on child's activities; time is not unlimited LINKS: www.WrenneFinancial.com

Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/cantdisappointpodcast for our live You Can't Diss a Pre-Show every week along with exclusive podcasts, livestream events, postcards and many ways to influence our show on a weekly basis!   This week's episode of Community dives deep into relationship trauma, accepting when someone doesn't like you and keeping up with the Joneses - but I can't keep track of any of it with all this extra space in my 2015 Honda CRV!   Send in your trivia, episode MVP and favorite funny moment for next weeks episode to cantdisappointpodcast@gmail.com! Also, please follow us on Facebook, Instagram (cantdisappointpodcast) and Twitter (@youcantdisappod)! Thanks for listening and leave us a review on your favorite platform of choice!

(2:30) FSU AD pulling for Miami? (6:00) Are reporters told what to report? (14:00) FSU keeping up with the in-state Joneses? (19:00) Duquesne thoughts (26:00) LSU thoughts (35:00) Wake Forest thoughts (38:00) Game watching behavior (44:00) Will Aslan disavow Lane if Mike gets more w's in 2022? (47:00) Some Duquesne over/unders (53:00) What will success look like in 2022 (58:00) Monk (1:02:00) Big margin of victory a spark for excitement? Music: DMX - What's My Name Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(2:30) FSU AD pulling for Miami? (6:00) Are reporters told what to report? (14:00) FSU keeping up with the in-state Joneses? (19:00) Duquesne thoughts (26:00) LSU thoughts (35:00) Wake Forest thoughts (38:00) Game watching behavior (44:00) Will Aslan disavow Lane if Mike gets more w's in 2022? (47:00) Some Duquesne over/unders (53:00) What will success look like in 2022 (58:00) Monk (1:02:00) Big margin of victory a spark for excitement? Music: DMX - What's My Name Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Agency owners love to ask what others are charging or what services they are providing. They dig into the competition for insight on their own planning.Continue Reading → The post ALP 162: Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Wealthy people don't do average work. They create value and get paid for it. If you want to be wealthy, you need to do the same. Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as an "average job." There's only creating value and not creating value. Don't be fooled by the Joneses; they're doing average work and are nowhere near wealthy. So what can you do to start creating value? It all starts with understanding your passion and pursuing it relentlessly. Average work won't create wealth, but this will!

Meet Jeanetta Spencer, during her undergrad years, she got a car loan, was heavily influenced by friends/family to get credit cards, and was encouraged by her financial aid advisors at her university to take on student loan debt. She graduated undergrad at the age of 20 with her dream job and $57,000 worth of debt. After graduating she tried to keep up with the Joneses during her first year of teaching. In Todays show with Anthony she will be discussing the following: - Way's to chart and monitor your money growth - Cash envelopes- to monitor spending/stay on budget - Creating alternatives for entertainment - How she took advantage of 0% interest rate on student loans during pandemic. Take A FREE Online Singles Playbook Quiz:

Agency owners love to ask what others are charging or what services they are providing. They dig into the competition for insight on their own planning.

Pastors Ben and Tony ask what's wrong with Christian parents trying to keep up with the Joneses.

The h-index, or Hirsch index, measures the research impact and productivity of a particular scientist. Since its inception in 2005, it has become a standard way to somewhat objectively quantify an individual's research impact. In this episode, you will learn what it is, what is expected of this H-index from researchers at different stages of their research careers, and ethical practices in increasing your H-index. We also raise concerns in the un-intended use of H-index for the academic world we are in today. Reference list: Music by RuthAnn Schallert-Wygal (schallert.wygal@gmail.com) References: https://www.journal-publishing.com/blog/good-h-index-required-academic-position/ https://phys.org/news/2020-07-albert-einstein-mediocre-h-index-bogus.html http://www.webometrics.info/en/hlargerthan100 https://www.aacc.org/cln/articles/2019/september/scientific-impact-and-the-h-index https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/102/46/16569.full.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index#Comparing_results_across_fields_and_career_levels https://www.slideshare.net/AnneWilHarzing/citation-metrics-across-disciplines-google-scholar-scopus-and-the-web-of-science Contact list: If you have any comments about our show or have suggestions for a future topic, please contact us at info@thisacademiclife.org. You can also find us on webpage https://thisacademiclife.org and on facebook group “This Academic Life”. Cast list: Prof. Kim Michelle Lewis (host) is a Professor of Physics and Associate Dean of Research, Graduate Programs, and Natural Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University. Prof. Pania Newel (host) is currently an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at The University of Utah. Prof. Lucy Zhang (host) is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Support This Academic Life by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/this-academic-life

Modern society has, for better or worse, influenced the adoption of wide-scale consumerism. This shift is relatively new for our species, and marketing experts have tapped into human psychology to maximize our desire to purchase and consume goods. This shift can also influence how and why we pursue happiness through consumption and trying to "keep up with the Joneses." Today's guest on the podcast, Jeff Freestone, was influenced heavily by the Minimalists, a pair of podcasters and authors named Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. This duo helps millions of people live meaningfully with less by encouraging a more minimalistic lifestyle. By examining his own life, Jeff has been able to embrace nature photography's role in pursuing a more wholesome lifestyle that is less focused on consumption and more focused on enjoyment of nature. On this week's episode, we discuss: The influence of minimalism on Jeff's photography journey, Finding meaning in life through nature photography, Discovering and appreciating smaller scenes, Photographing alone vs. with other people, Tips for photographing alone, How Jeff has found success in such a short amount of time, Jeff's preference for photographing close to home, Jeff's approach to social media, And a lot more! Other topics/links discussed on the podcast this week: Join me over on Nature Photographer's Network and use the discount code FSTOP10 for a 10% discount. Enter the Natural Landscape Photography Awards. Support the podcast on Patreon. My articles on OnLandscape about some of the recommended guests and Jeff. Here is who Jeff recommended on the podcast this week: Paul Hoelen.  Luke Tsarke. Richard Martin. Alfredo Mora. Ron Coscorossa. I love hearing from the podcast listeners! Reach out to me via Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter if you'd like to be on the podcast or if you have an idea of a topic we can talk about. We also have an Instagram page, a Facebook Page, and a Facebook Group - so don't be shy! Did you also know we have listener after-parties on Twitter Spaces? This is a great opportunity to interact with other listeners, guests, and the host (when I can) regarding your thoughts on the episode. We also have a searchable transcript of every episode! Thanks for stopping in, collaborating with us, and listening. See you next week. P.S. you can also support the podcast by purchasing items through our B+H affiliate link.

We kick off this episode by reading some listener comments and questions and addressing some quick thoughts on long-term care insurance. Then, Maggie shares some recent observations on time as she's transitioning into her new early retirement life. What is Parkinson's law?Parkinson's law is the adage that work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion. Or said another way, the more time you allow for a task, the less effort you will put into it. If we give ourselves an entire week to complete a task, then the task will increase in complexity and fill that entire week. The task itself might be able to be completed in 30 minutes or 2 hours, but we will spend time stressing about it or worrying about how we'll get it done. Then we'll just likely wait until the last minute to get it done anyways. So the extra time we might allow ourselves to do a task isn't necessarily filled with the work needed to do the task or improve the quality of our work. If you're familiar with procrastination, which we think we all are, then you're already familiar with Parkinson's law; you just maybe didn't know the term. Research suggests that when given a task we consider how much time is available to do it versus how much time we need to complete it. So our mindset shifts us to take as much time as we have versus as much time as we truly need. What can we learn from Parkinson's law with our TIME?Recognize that the goal posts are always moving, either by you or by others for you. Getting more done won't make you feel on top of it.Set shorter deadlines. You will worry and stress less and get creative with better ways to do things. Yes, it's a self-imposed deadline but set it and respect it, and it can do wonders to keep you focused. Time-box your work. You could use something like the Pomodoro technique, which is effective for many people. This method breaks down your work time into 25-minute chunks with 5-minute breaks in between. You can use this approach to put time limits on various work and activities and create more focus. Be realistic. Work smarter, not harder. Be judicious and selective about where your time goes.Save the new time you've gained for what matters to you. If something took you 2 hours and you found a way to do it in 1, don't then double your output and return to 2 hours. Keep that time free.Remember YOU control your time, and in theory, you have 100% control over it. Yes, things will come up you can't anticipate. But you choose how to respond. You choose if you watch TV or if you do something else. You choose how effectively you spend at least some of your time at work. Understand this concept. A deadline won't increase productivity, but understanding and accepting the idea of Parkinson's law and adjusting our habits and work practices can. How can we apply Parkinson's law to FIRE?5am Joel, who we've had on the podcast a couple of times, even leverages Parkinson's law to think about the length of our careers. In an excellent article he writes he says, “Careers are supposed to be 40 years long, so we allow them to be 40 years long. If we truly believe that time is 100% within our control, we can choose how long we want our career to be.”  We love this!How can we apply Parkinson's law to money?The same principle applied to money would be: your spending will expand to fill the amount of money you have available. If we have more money, we're more likely to spend it. It's akin to lifestyle inflation or keeping up with the Joneses. It's a lot easier to keep up with Jonese's if you technically have that amount of money available. How can we apply Parkinson's law to improve our finances?First off, when you have less time, you spend more money to outsource work or create efficiencies. So if you get better with time, you 100% will get better with money.When you constrict the amount of money you have, just like time, you will realize you can get by on so much less and still be happy. Hide your money from yourself. Put it into your 401k, your IRA, your brokerage account, or real estate.  Avoid lifestyle inflation. We did a whole recent episode on this, and we talk about it often. Don't move the goal posts for what you think makes you happy. If you are always wanting something more you will never be happy.Set a budget and stick to it. This could be budget categories or an overall spending target for the year. Pretend you have less than you do. It works for us. Practice delayed gratification. Eventually, you can spend money on something, but first, you have to pay yourself, be within your budget, and all of the things we discussed.…Top 3 takeaways:Understanding Parkinson's law will add value to your life. No one is immune to it until you find your ways to overcome it. It applies to your time and money.Consider what you can do to commit to overcoming Parkinson's law with your time and money, and start forming those habits!Show References:Bose Noise-Cancelling HeadphonesMostlyMinimal Life - How noise cancelling headphones make me a better parentBook: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for MortalsBook: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of LessAmerican Express Platinum Card Referral LinkFriends on FIRE podcast #158 - Control your lifestyle to find financial freedomRich + Regular Blog: The overemployed working two full-time remote jobs5am Joel Blog: Retire Early with Parkinson's law---Follow friends on FIRETwitterInstagramFacebookLinkedInLeave us a voicemail or text us: 404-981-3370eMail us at:  friendsonfiremm@gmail.comVisit our website: www.friendsonfire.org---Other LinksMaggie's Blog: Mostly Minimal LifeMike's Book: Your New Relationship with Money

The IndyCast's Joe Stuber and Keith Voss are joined by The Magic of John William's Laird Malamed and Ron Longo with a full length movie commentary for Indy's third adventure. So keep up with the Joneses as they discuss trivia, anecdotes and lots more!

Age 31, 2003 - Keeping Up with the Joneses has caused me to become much more materialistic, my drug addiction took off, and my life started falling apart in front of my eyes. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The IndyCast's Joe Stuber and Keith Voss are joined by The Magic of John William's Laird Malamed and Ron Longo with a full length movie commentary for Indy's third adventure. So keep up with the Joneses as they discuss trivia, anecdotes and lots more!

Instagram is changing its algorithm and user experience. Kylie Jenner isn't happy about it. She once critically wounded Snapchat by saying she never goes there anymore. Now she's created a PR issue for the platform. But the changes to Instagram go far beyond pissing off a Kardashian. Instagram is now outwardly saying video is better. They're prioritizing it over the their heritage approach of photography. They're also testing features that are much like TikTok. This is largely because TikTok is beating them at the game of creating stickier user experiences. Instagram can't continue to dominate the social media platform usage among a certain population if the Joneses have built a better mousetrap. So they have to keep up. And these changes change the way influencers and creators have to approach their roles. It also changes the way brands need to think about influencers.  Katie Stoller has been watching the algorithm changes, and Kylie Jenner's reaction, along with the rest of us in the space. She's an influencer marketing and public relations consultant and pro. I invited her to come on the show to talk about the layered complexities of the influencer space, how to design the right solutions for brands and clients when its hard to know what size influencer, what type of creator, what type of content and such will work. But I invited her to do that the week the Kylie Jenner re-post of a meme begging Instagram to let Instagram be Instagram, so our conversation had to include both.  Katie is of like mind. She's a public relations pro by trade, even worked at some of the major PR firms over the years. She's currently handling influencer marketing for Fiat Growth, a Silicon Valley based investment and growth company largely in the FinTech space.  Our conversation will be very useful for those of you on the brand and agency side to better understand the complexities of building smart influence approaches, but then we'll also get into this Instagram UX and algorithm discussion. Katie was the guest, but she asked me a few questions and I jumped out of character a bit to wag my finger at some folks. An entertaining discussion is here for you today. This episode of Winfluence is presented by Tagger, a complete influence marketing software solution. Check them out for a demo today at jason.online/tagger. A full show transcript is available at https://jason.online/katiestoller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With much appreciation the Intro and Outro music is courtesy of the Goran Ivanovic/Fareed Haque DUO

For some folks, they are likely in debt at least partially because they were trying to impress someone along the way.

Far-right talk show host Alex Jones took the stand on Wednesday in one of his many defamation cases. Jones has spent the last decade lying repeatedly about the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting and claiming that it was a hoax.In headlines: Republican Congresswoman Jackie Walorski died in a car accident, the Justice Department is investigating over 100 cases of threats made against election workers, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan.And we chat with Zayd Dohrn, host of Crooked's “Mother Country Radicals,” about his award-winning podcast.Show Notes:Crooked's “Mother Country Radicals” – https://bit.ly/3PRGhjPVote Save America: Fuck Bans Action Plan – https://votesaveamerica.com/roe/Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whataday/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

From Qoheleth to the Rich Young Ruler, we hear tale after tale from the Bible of the woes of riches. But when is it that God calls us to store up riches and treasures? Listen to Monsignor Cihak as he answers this very question.

Welcome to Day 1964 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom First-Rate Person – Daily Wisdom Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps. We are on Day 1964 of our Trek, and it's time to explore another nugget of wisdom, which includes an inspirational quote and some wise words from Gramps for today's trek. Wisdom is the final frontier in gaining true knowledge. So we are on a daily trek to create a legacy of wisdom, seek out discernment and insights, and boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend; this is Gramps. Thanks for coming along on today's trek as we increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%2016%3A16&version=NLT (Proverbs 16:16)  How much better to get wisdom than gold, and sound judgment than silver!    If you apply the words you hear today, over time, it will help you become more healthy, wealthy, and wise as you continue your daily trek of life. So let's jump right in with today's nugget: Today's quote is from Judy Garland, and it is: Always be a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of someone else. First-Rate Person God has created each of us individually as unique imagers of Him. Therefore, God does not desire for us to be someone else. Instead, he desires us to utilize our abilities and talents to further His kingdom and bring glory to Him. It is tempting to try to ‘keep up with the Joneses' or to imitate someone well-known or famous, but then we would only be a shadow of someone else instead of the full radiance of ourselves. No one can take your place, and you cannot take anyone else's place. Nor should you want to. As a unique imager of God, you have a special place within God's kingdom. Therefore, always strive to be all you can be for God's glory and let others do the same. God has already equipped you for whatever tasks He has called you to. He will see you through as He did with Joshua when he assumed leadership of the Hebrew nation. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua+1%3A6-9&version=NLT;NIV (Joshua 1:6-9) “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” As you ponder this nugget of wisdom for yourself, please encourage your friends and family to join us and come along tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.' If you would like to listen to any of our past 1963 treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. In addition, I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player to automatically download each day's trek. Finally, if you would like to receive our weekly newsletter,' Wisdom Notes,' please email me at guthrie@wisdom-trek.com. Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most importantly, your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal. As we take this trek together, let us always: Live Abundantly (Fully) Love Unconditionally Listen Intentionally Learn Continuously Lend to others Generously Lead with Integrity Leave a Living Legacy Each Day I am Guthrie Chamberlain….reminding you to 'Keep Moving Forward,' ‘Enjoy your Journey,' and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday'! See you next time for more daily wisdom!  

It's the root of all evil, but is it really? Money is like any scarce resource. It can inspire confusion, lies, fights, hoarding, and bring out the ugliest parts of humanity. However, money is ultimately a neutral force. Nobody can live without it, and most people would do wonderful things given enough money. However, in spite of its importance to all, our culture has an awkward time talking about it. Today's guest would like to change that.   Eileen Joy, the Money Coach for Moms, went from complete bankruptcy to a comfortable life as a financial coach. Of course, it took plenty of hard work and determination, but stability is not an impossible goal for anybody. Eileen wants to empower both mothers and children with a financial education, so they can navigate a world that's historically left them in the dark. The first step to financial empowerment is to grow beyond our negative associations with wealth and to bust the stigma. What is a “money mindset,” and how can our money finally start working for us?   Topics covered: Some surprisingly easy ways to begin growing money Always go over your bills. What exactly is “Keeping up with the Joneses?” How well are the Joneses even doing? “Cash Energy” vs “Digital Energy,” and why we should know our way around both   Further Resources: Eileen's site: https://www.momswhomoney.com/ Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/EileenJoyMoneyCoach/ Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/eileenjoymoneycoach/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/momswhomoney/  Moms Who Money Podcast: https://eileenmt.podbean.com/ Check out the New World Normal membership community: https://nwncollective.com/

With high wages come the higher costs of living and even higher taxes. How do high-income earners get out of living paycheck to paycheck and truly achieve financial independence?   Orthopedic surgeon Julius Oni has seen real estate work firsthand and it enabled him to buy time and geographic freedom back and enjoy the fruits of his labor with people he loved. Today, he talks about how he discovered the potential of multifamily investing and why minority professionals like him should start creating passive cash flow. He also gets into his experiences as an angel investor and the incredible value one could bring and gain in helping young businesses grow.   Julius Oni is the CEO and Co-founder (Investor relations) of XSITE Capital Investment LLC. Before joining XSITE Capital, Julius' investment focus was single-family real estate and angel investing. Over the past five years, Julius has invested in over 50 start-ups and currently sits on the advisory board of four healthcare-related start-ups. He graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Plattsburgh, obtained his medical degree with AOA honors from Howard University College of Medicine, and completed residency and fellowship at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and Rush, respectively. Julius works as an orthopedic surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland, with sub-specialization in hip and knee replacements, and was voted Top Doc for Joint Replacement by Baltimore Magazine in 2019 and 2020. His interests include travel, music, global health, and spending time with his family. Julius and the XSITE Capital team host a rapidly growing multifamily-focused monthly meetup where they provide resources and add value to individuals interested in growing their wealth and changing their financial future.    Do you want to build wealth for yourself and your family? You need THE LAUNCHPAD. Click here to learn more!   [00:01 - 15:31] Who is Julius Oni?  Julius shares his journey in the medical field Spending money after fourteen years of delayed gratification Why single-family real estate did not work for him Rethinking about his career and learning about the potential of multifamily Joining conferences made him realize how underrepresented health care professionals and minorities are in the asset class   [15:32 - 21:38] True Passive Income Is True Financial Freedom Here's the truth: High-income earners have higher taxes and higher loan burdens The dangers of lifestyle creep Through passive income, professionals can actually achieve financial independence without being tied to their jobs    [21:39 - 33:06] Setting Small Startups for Success Julius talks about investing in his brother's company What is an angel investor and how to become one? Angel investing vs Crowdfunding Julius' own experience, building relationships with businesses Websites to check out The high risk, high reward nature of angel investing Julius reveals his investment strategy Why real estate is still the best investment   [33:07 - 35:06] Closing Segment  Watch out for part 2 of our conversation with Julius! Key Quotes  “I realized that there was a great opportunity to take the gospel of multifamily into our communities of healthcare professionals, underrepresented minorities, immigrants, people that just did not have ready access to this asset class.” - Julius Oni   “You had the lifestyle creep 'cause now everybody's looking at you. You're the orthopedic surgeon… How come you're still driving your Honda Accord from undergrad or medical school, you know? So you want to keep up with the Joneses, you want to take a vacation, nice vacation with your family.” - Julius Oni   “When you have true passive income, well, you just could be sleeping, eating, you know, doing whatever you are and the money is still coming right into the account.”  - Julius Oni Resources Mentioned: Y Combinator Techstars CrowdStreet Fundrise SeedInvest   Connect with Julius Oni through the XSITE Capital website and follow them on LinkedIn and Facebook. Let's get connected!  You can find Nicole on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. Visit her website https://noirvestholdings.com    LEAVE A REVIEW & SHARE THE WEALTH by SHARING this EPISODE with someone who wants to learn the secret strategies of the wealthy and build an abundant life. You can listen to previous episodes of Share the Wealth Show here.

Count Crowley Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter #3 from Dark Horse | Writer(s): David Dastmalchian | Artist(s): Lukas Ketner | Colors: Lauren Affe | Letters: Frank Cvetkovic | $3.99 Silver Coin #12 from Image | Writer(s): Stephanie Phillips | Artist(s): Michael Walsh | Colors: Toni Marie Griffin and Michael Walsh | $3.99   Do A Power Bomb! #2  from Image Comics (W/A)  Daniel Warren Johnson $3.99 The Joneses #4 of 5 from AWA/Upshot (W) Michael Moreci (A) Alessandro Vitti, Ive Svorcina $3.99 Grim #3 from BOOM! Studios (W) Stephanie Phillips (A) Flaviano $3.99 Manor Black Fire In The Blood #4 from Dark Horse | Writer(s): Cullen Bunn Brian Hurtt | Artist(s): Brian Hurtt | Colors and Letters: Tyler Crook | $3.99    Blood-Stained Teeth #4 from Image | Writer(s): Christian Ward | Artist(s): Patric Reynolds | Colors: Heather Moore | Letters: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou | $3.99 Ice Cream Man #31 from Image | Writer(s): W. Maxwell Prince | Artist(s): Martin Morazzo Chris O'Halloran | $3.99 Bunny Mask Hollow Inside #3 from AfterShock Comics | Writer(s): Paul Tobin | Artist(s): Andrea Mutti | $4.99  G.I.L.T. #4 from Ahoy Comics | Writer(s): Alisa Kwitney | Artist(s): Mauricet | $4.99  Shudder Magazine #6 from Warrant Publishing Company | Writer(s): Various | Artist(s): Various | $5.95 Lonesome Hunters #2 from Dark Horse | Writer(s): Tyler Crook | Artist(s): Tyler Crook | $3.99 Farmhand #19 from Image | Writer(s): Rob Guillory | Artist(s): Rob Guillory Jean-Francois Beaulieu | $3.99 Locust Ballad Of Men #1 from Scout Comics | Writer(s): Massimo Rosi | Artist(s): Alex Nieto | $4.99  Ocean Will Take Us #4 from AfterShock Comics | Writer(s): Rich Douek | Artist(s): Carlos Olivares | $3.99  Where Starships Go To Die #2 from AfterShock Comics | Writer(s): Mark Sable | Artist(s): Alberto Locati | $3.99 She Bites #1  from Scout Comics | Writer(s): Hedwig Hale | Artist(s): Alberto Hernandez R. | Letters: Dave Lanphear | $4.99    Rogues' Gallery #1 from Image Comics (W) Hannah Rose May (A) Justin Mason, Triona Farrell $3.99 A Calculated Man #2 from AfterShock Comics | Writer(s): Paul Tobin | Artist(s): Alberto Alburquerque | $4.99    Rocketeer The Great Race #4 from IDW Publishing | Writer(s): Stephen Mooney | Artist(s): Stephen Mooney | $4.99   Other Canto Tales Of The Unnamed World #2 from IDW Publishing | Writer(s): David M. Booher | Artist(s): Drew Zucker | $3.99 Beware The Eye Of Odin #2 from Image | Writer(s): Doug Wagner | Artist(s): Tim Odland Michelle Madsen  | $4.99 I Hate This Place #3 from Image | Writer(s): Kyle Starks | Artist(s): Artyom Topilin Lee Loughridge | $3.99 Public Domain #2 from Image | Writer(s): Chip Zdarsky | Artist(s): Chip Zdarsky | $3.99 Radiant Black #16 from Image | Writer(s): Kyle Higgins | Artist(s): Marcello Costa | $3.99  Radiant Red #5 from Image | Writer(s): Cherish Chen | Artist(s): Darko Lafuente Miquel Muerto | $3.99   Rogue Sun #6 from Image Comics (W) Ryan Parrott (A) Abel $3.99    Book Of Shadows #1 from Valiant Entertainment | Writer(s): Cullen Bunn | Artist(s): Vicente Cifuentes | $3.99 Hit Me #5 from | Artists | Writers & Artisans | Writer(s): Christa Faust | Artist(s): Priscilla Petraites Marco Lesko | $3.99 House Of Slaughter #7 from BOOM! Studios | Writer(s): James TynionIV Sam Johns | Artist(s): Werther Dell'Edera Letizia Cadonici | $3.99 Something Is Killing The Children #25 from BOOM! Studios | Writer(s): James TynionIV | Artist(s): Werther Dell'Edera | $4.99 We Only Find Them When Theyre Dead #12 from BOOM! Studios | Writer(s): Al Ewing | Artist(s): Simone Di Meo | $3.99 Wrong Earth Meat #1 from Ahoy Comics | Writer(s): Tom Peyer | Artist(s): Greg Scott | $4.99    This week's That Guy in That Show is William Daniels  

Jim and Matt talk about where David Bakhtiari stands headed into Packers training camp. Then, they throw some stones before reacting to breaking wide-receiver news from ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Recorded  July 24, 2022In today's episode we are discussing the scenarios which temp us to lie and how we handle such situations. We aren't liars per se however we do believe in the little white lie. We aren't liars per se but we do think there is value is omission for certain circumstances. If we are being honest, we aren't fully honest all the time yet we are perfectly fine with that.  Join us.The  would-you-lie scenario list from this episode includes:Someone shows you their ugly babyYour friend's husband calls you looking for his wife who you suspect is cheating on himYou see your friend's husband on what looks like a romantic dateYour friend asks you what you think of her relationship ( and you think she needs a divorce)Your friend is super excited to move forward on her TERRIBLE ideaYour resume needs a boost for this particular job. You you "embellish"?Would you lie about your summer vacation to "keep up with the Joneses"?You witness someone doing something wrong. Do you snitch?Do you lie by omission?Will you lie if you believe you can get away with it?Will you lie to protect someone's feelings?If the truth would hurt me do I really want the honest truth?If you believe someone is lying to you do you call them on it? Please support our podcast:Please rate/review, subscribe and share!!Shop: Etsy storeCashapp Tip Jar: $GirrrlPodcastDonate: PatreonHave a question or topic you want us to talk about? We want to hear from you!!Twitter: @girrrlpodcastInstagram: @girrrlpodcastFacebook: @girrrlpodcastEmail us: Talk2Us@girrrlpodcast.com

In today's episode, the boys talk about the effects of excessive exposure to sex, sus dreams, being solution oriented, and Nappi's family vacation. Who doesn't like a good ole white family vacation? Matching shirts, going to a lake, making s'mores, playing board games, and going for a bike ride (with a helmet of course). From the outside, it seems like perfect family bonding time. However, just beneath the surface there is still typical family drama at play. At the end of the day, not every white family can be the Joneses.

Brad Hallen joins us on the show and talks about his long storied career playing with a plethora of artists over the years including The Joneses, Ministry, Elliot Easton, Aimee Mann, Johnny Winter, Duke Robillard, Susan Tedeschi, his current band The Nervous Eaters etc.. Lots of cool stories from a musician, who's career spans over 40 years... Music The Charms "So Pretty"(theme music) Nervous Eaters "Wild Eyes" Nervous Eaters "Loretta" Recorded on July 19 by Mike Nash at Voice Motel, Somerville MA This podcast was supported by Baby Loves Tacos(Pittsburgh PA) and Disorder Vintage(Boston MA) --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/blowingsmoketr/support

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Keeping up with the Joneses.” It captures the problem that Solomon identified in the book of Ecclesiastes, thousands of years before the American dream was a thing to aspire to: “And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another” (Eccl. 4:4). Today’s proverb zeros in on what envy can do to our hearts. Maybe you’ve experienced envy while on social media. There you see your “friends” experiencing success. Maybe one friend was promoted, another published a book, and yet another is at a beach resort. Rather than rejoice with others, it is easy to allow envy to rot our bones. The image is graphic. To rot is to waste away, to eat away at something. Envy destroys us. The Bible has many warnings about envy. “Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple” (Job 5:2). And in the New Testament envy is listed among other sins (Gal. 5:21, 26; 1 Tim. 6:4; James 3:6; 1 Peter 2:1). We also learn that envy is the opposite of love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud” (1 Cor. 13:4). Even if we deleted our social media accounts so we couldn’t see the joys and accomplishments of our friends, we might still struggle with envy. It is helpful to remind ourselves that God has called us to something better. Rather than feeling bitter and envious about what He has given others, we are to have a spirit of thankfulness for what we have been given. If you struggle with this sin, here are two things to try: 1) Thank God regularly for the good things He’s given you; and 2) Rejoice in the gifts He has given your friends. >> Envy is destructive. It can wreck our relationships and blocks us from having a proper relationship with God. We are called not to envy, but to love one another.

The Epps are dating, but not everyone is on the same page. The Merrifields bond with Lea, but red flags leave them questioning things. The Joneses have a potential sister wife, but the distance between them is worrisome. Nick Davis brings home a surprise.Seeking Sister Wife - Season 4 Episode 3 'Can't Clip These Wings'Follow us on Instagram @marriedtorealitypodFind out more at marriedtorealitypodcast.comContact us at marriedtoreality@gmail.comCurrently covering 90 Day Fiance, Married At First Sight, Below Deck, Seeking Sister Wife See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're bringing this one back from the archives in light of four brand-new Keeping Up With the Joneses movies premiering Fridays starting July 8. Happy listening - and watching! Naomi and Megan are joined by Real Housewives star Kandi Burruss to dissect “Keeping Up With the Joneses: The Wrong Family,” the first film in a new LMN mini-series. This movie follows Robin, played by Vivica A. Fox, who is the matriarch of a wealthy and powerful family that's dominated life in and around the seaside town of Pacific Hills. When Robin and her four stepdaughters start receiving grave threats, they will stop at nothing to protect their business and their family. You can watch this movie at: https://www.mylifetime.com/lmn/movies See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.