Podcasts about kaiser foundation

In this episode, we confront a pervasive issue: anxiety and depression. Did you know that according to the Kaiser Foundation, half of us are grappling with emotional and mental health? Shocking, isn't it? Join us as we unpack these statistics, delve into scripture, and discover practical strategies for finding peace amidst the chaos.Drawing from Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, we explore the dangers of trying to tackle life's challenges alone. Reflecting on the resilience of our church community, we confront the reality that many Christ followers have dropped out of church, particularly in the tumultuous year of 2020. But fear not, for there is hope.Through biblical insights and personal anecdotes, we learn to identify the signs of anxiety and depression, realizing that even figures in the Bible wrestled with these issues. We tackle misconceptions surrounding prayer and anxiety, debunking the notion that prayer alone can banish worry. Instead, we discover practical steps, inspired by Philippians 4:6-9, to redirect our worries and find solace in God's promises.Join us as we embark on a journey of self-discovery and faith, learning to guard our hearts and minds against the onslaught of anxiety. Whether you're facing mountain tops or valleys, know that you are not alone.

Welcome to another insightful episode of the FCC Talk podcast! In this episode, we dive deep into the complex and prevalent issue of anger, exploring its manifestations in our modern world and how we, as Christians, can navigate it with grace and wisdom.Join us as we unpack staggering statistics revealing the widespread struggles with mental and emotional health challenges, as well as the increasing prevalence of anger in society. Drawing from sources such as the Kaiser Foundation and the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey, we shed light on the urgency of addressing this issue in our communities and churches.Delving into the biblical perspective on anger, we explore how Jesus himself experienced and expressed anger in response to injustice, offering a nuanced understanding of this powerful emotion. Through passages like Ephesians 4:26 and Exodus 17, we learn valuable lessons on how to acknowledge and process our anger without succumbing to sin.Our discussion extends beyond mere acknowledgment to practical application, offering actionable steps to respond to anger in constructive ways. From seeking self-awareness and introspection to choosing empathy and understanding in our interactions, we provide a roadmap for fostering healthier relationships and communities.With insights from biblical wisdom and contemporary research, this episode equips listeners with the tools and mindset needed to navigate anger with grace, compassion, and hope. Tune in to FCC Talk and join the conversation on transforming anger into a force for positive change in our lives and world.

For Mark Zemelman, Kaiser Foundation's recently retired GC, joining the legal department was a full circle experience—his father was one of the first physicians in the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, which is the KP medical group in Southern California. Mark shares with Merle Vaughn his self-directed career journey and how his cultural background has informed his unwavering commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Alex Garrett Podcasting covers the Kaiser Foundation's glaring research of those losing Medicaid as COVID Federal Emergency powers are set to expire 1-11-22. (https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/what-happens-when-covid-19-emergency-declarations-end-implications-for-coverage-costs-and-access/) HHS statement on rolling back Emergency Powers and Medicaid Eligibility (https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/404a7572048090ec1259d216f3fd617e/aspe-end-mcaid-continuous-coverage_IB.pdf MSNBC article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/millions-at-risk-of-losing-health-insurance-if-us-ends-covid-public-health-emergency-in-january/ar-AA1391iJ)

Alex Garrett Podcasting covers the Kaiser Foundation's glaring research of those losing Medicaid as COVID Federal Emergency powers are set to expire 1-11-22. (https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/what-happens-when-covid-19-emergency-declarations-end-implications-for-coverage-costs-and-access/) HHS statement on rolling back Emergency Powers and Medicaid Eligibility (https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/404a7572048090ec1259d216f3fd617e/aspe-end-mcaid-continuous-coverage_IB.pdf MSNBC article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/millions-at-risk-of-losing-health-insurance-if-us-ends-covid-public-health-emergency-in-january/ar-AA1391iJ)

Alex Garrett Podcasting covers the Kaiser Foundation's glaring research of those losing Medicaid as COVID Federal Emergency powers are set to expire 1-11-22. (https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/what-happens-when-covid-19-emergency-declarations-end-implications-for-coverage-costs-and-access/)HHS statement on rolling back Emergency Powers and Medicaid Eligibility (https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/404a7572048090ec1259d216f3fd617e/aspe-end-mcaid-continuous-coverage_IB.pdfMSNBC article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/millions-at-risk-of-losing-health-insurance-if-us-ends-covid-public-health-emergency-in-january/ar-AA1391iJ)

Ronald Copeland, Senior Vice President of National Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Policy & Chief Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Officer at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals discusses his past experience & what led him to Kaiser, what he's currently focused on, how he's thinking about investments, and more.

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/KAnfe8VSL_4   Here is some notable healthcare-related business news for this 3rd Week of August, 2022.   Diseases of the cornea rob nearly 13 million people worldwide of their sight yet only 1 in 7 victims are able to obtain cornea transplants due to tissue shortages.  To answer that shortfall, a Swedish bioengineering company LinkoCare has developed a technique to create replacement cornea tissue using purified skin collagen from pigs.  The pig hydrogel protein is introduced into the diseased cornea restoring its shape and optical characteristics without invasive or expensive surgery.   https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-022-01408-w     JD Power, the customer satisfaction survey people, have ranked Medicare Advantage Plans.  The best one turned out to be the Kaiser Foundation's Health Plan offering.  It was followed by Humana, Highmark, United HealthCare, BlueCross/BlueShield of Michigan, Aetna, Anthem now called Elevance, Cigna, and, bringing up the rear, Centene. Buyer beware!     https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2022-us-medicare-advantage-study     Minnetronix Medical, a company that has developed many devices for marketing by others including Medtronic and Abbott, has now come out with its own product called MindsEye.  This expandable portal is introduced into brain tissue and provides a tiny retractor system that permits surgical microscope views, the safe passage of imaging fibers, and the introduction of micro instruments.   https://medcitynews.com/2022/08/minnetronix-commercializes-its-own-product-a-minimally-invasive-deep-brain-access-port/     And finally….NYU is partnering with Fermilab's Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center to create cutting edge quantitative MR imaging utilizing high speed quantum computers.  The additional computing power permits higher resolution imaging that more clearly differentiates tissue properties separating normal from cancerous.  It also facilitates the use of artificial intelligence techniques to better automate the diagnostic process.   https://www.dotmed.com/news/story/58464     There you have the latest healthcare-related business news for this 3rd Week of August, 2022, 2022.   #cornea #medicareadvantage #jdpower #neurosurgery #brainportal #mr #cancer #quantumcomputing    

According to Kaiser Foundation data, around 49 percent of the country's total population receive group health insurance – health benefits provided by the employer. The remaining 51% have to figure out their healthcare coverage on their own. This can be a tricky slope to navigate, especially with evolving regulations around state laws. The ACA made sweeping changes to the industry in 2008, but that has only created pools of beneficiaries; not necessarily widespread solutions. Having the support and guidance of a professional advocate in the field can make all the difference to a positive research experience. But, as a business owner and business founder, with a rapidly growing and scaling business, how can you offer the kinds of benefits that attract and retain top talent? And how can you afford health benefits for a rapidly expanding workforce? And, how do you make smart choices for your employees, and your business? Today, we'll speak with Dr. Noor Ali, a Bangladeshi-American medical doctor who champions the way for business owners and business founder, and creates fresh perspectives on health insurance options from an inside lens. —> Are you ready to join the most impactful community of extraordinary women in the world? Accelerate your success by defining your vision, growing your leadership, expanding your influence, and leaving a lasting legacy. Learn more: https://leadhershipglobal.com/join-us/ 

This episode features Janet Liang, Executive Vice President, Group President & Chief Operations Officer at Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plans. Here, she discusses responsibilities in her role, improving healthcare access, what virtual care will look like after the pandemic, and more.

This episode features Janet Liang, Executive Vice President, Group President & Chief Operations Officer at Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plans. Here, she discusses responsibilities in her role, improving healthcare access, what virtual care will look like after the pandemic, and more.

TODAY'S BONUS EDITION: Chris' take is that class matters in some of the same ways that color does when it comes to systemic inequality. He believes there is a combined interest in addressing many of the same core issues- including policing, and argues it's not an either/or, it's an 'and'.  Also: In his Morning Newsletter, NYT's David Leonhardt looks at the class gap that exists in people not yet vaccinated, and those who are skeptical. While the dividing lines most often talked about are Republicans and also Black and Latino populations (for different reasons) there is also an analysis beyond: the gap in class.  These groups each have working class populations. And when you look at the numbers (via Kaiser Foundation) divvied up by class (using college as a delineator) those most hesitant to getting the shot are non-college educated, regardless of race.


In this episode i cover my years of following the Libertarian Party, & how i believe their ideas are by far, better than the other two, but they continue to fail in focusing on the ties between monopolies, bankers, & government. I ask, are they purposely being led astray, or have they just failed to educate themselves on the way our system really works? On day one, Libertarians learn taxation is theft, & the govt. is inefficient, & ineffective, but are any of the leaders from the Party informing them that corporate funded NGO's & tax exempt organizations are behind much of the liberty killing legislation that stamps out free market competition? Do they know groups like the Council On Foreign Relations have been behind nearly every bad foreign policy measure since WW1? Do they know that the same CFR, Atlantic Council, & Aspen Institute types are in every single presidential administration? Is it just a club, or are Libertarians serious about fighting the enemies of freedom? Do they not understand GovtCorp is moving towards a global private public partnership, & The Great Reset is being pushed by Corporatists, as well as the (S)tate? I ask all these tough questions, & more as we dive down the rabbit hole, far beyond the mainstream. Thank you

Cheers, & blessings.

 CFR/Globalists In Biden Administration•

Laura J. Richardson, Lisa O. Manoco, Eric S. Lander, Thomas J. Vilsack, William J. Burns, Loyd T. Austin, Alejandro M. Mayorkas, John F. Kerry, Susan E. Rice,
Anthony Blinken, Janet Yellen, Linda Thomas Greenfield, Cecilia Rouse, Jeffery Zients, Jon Finer, Gina Raimondo, Colin Kahl, Kathleen Hicks, Wendy Sherman,
Eric Lerner, Michael Morell- All CFR Members 

Victoria Nuland is a former CFR/PNAC member with her husband Robert Kagan
Biden Himself was listed as a member in the 1990's. Avril Haynes Bilderberg Attendee, Jake Sullivan, a member of the Carnegie Endowment and the Marshall Fund, Bruce Reed- Co-Chair of Aspen Institute.   5 Aspen Institute members are now serving in the Biden administration, including Deputy Treasury Secretary nominee Adewale Adeyemo, NEC Director Brian Deese, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Jeffrey Zients. #kissinger

 

CFR Corporate Members
https://www.cfr.org/membership/corporate-members

CFR, & The Media
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2018/02/wikileaks-exposes-how-council-on-foreign-relations-controls-most-all-mainstream-media/



The Reece Committee: Social Science As A Tool For Control https://sagaciousnewsnetwork.com/the-reece-committee-social-science-as-a-tool-for-control/

Full text of "Dodd Report to the Reece Committee on So-called Philanthropic Organizations• https://archive.org/stream/DoddReportToTheReeceCommitteeOnFoundations-1954-RobberBaron/Dodd-Report-to-the-Reece-Committee-on-Foundations-1954_djvu.txt

Foundations, America Foundations; Their Power And Influence https://archive.org/details/FoundationsTheirPowerAndInfluenceReneAWormser1958

NGO's & Foreign Policy

https://www.globalissues.org/news/2019/07/12/25453

The Rockefeller File
https://youtu.be/bnY3nBzkG0o


Why isn't the CFR in the History Books? - Bilderberg


United Nations, & Their NGO's

https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/conference-of-states-parties-to-the-convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-2/list-of-non-governmental-organization-accredited-to-the-conference-of-states-parties.html


“Political scientist Lester Milbraith observes that the influence of [the] CFR throughout the government is so pervasive that it is difficult to distinguish CFR from government programs: ‘The Council on Foreign Relations, while not financed by government, works so closely with it that it is difficult to distinguish Council actions stimulated by government from autonomous actions."


Brief History of The CFR
http://www.hirhome.com/cfr.htm

Groups Libertarians, & Everyone Else Should Be Watching. Follow Their Social Media To See Where Policies Are Headed•
The Council On Foreign Relations (CFR), Foreign Affairs, Atlantic Council, Aspen Institute, World Economic Forum, Brookings Institute, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Endowment, Center for a New American Security, Bilderberg Group, Rand Corp, Center For American Progress, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Trilateral Commission, Open Society Foundation, Club of Rome, Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs), Bank of International Settlements, Council For National Policy, Rhodes Scholarships, Schwarzman Scholarships, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Heritage Foundation, Kaiser Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, Wilson Center Quotes From Imperial Brain Trust https://thirdworldtraveler.com/New_World_Order/ImperialBrainTrust_CFR.html 

Oddcast Episodes On The Subjects of This Show•

Bankers Love Communism
https://theoddmanout.podbean.com/e/the-oddcast-ft-the-odd-man-out-ep24-bankers-love-communism/

Illuminated Institutions-CFR=NWO Pt.1
https://theoddmanout.podbean.com/e/the-oddcast-ft-the-odd-man-out-ep23-illuminated-institutions-cfr-nwo-pt1/


Illuminated Institutions-CFR=NWO Pt.2

https://theoddmanout.podbean.com/e/the-oddcast-ft-the-odd-man-out-ep29-illuminated-institutions-cfrnwo-pt-2/


The Philosopher's Blackrock

https://theoddmanout.podbean.com/e/the-oddcast-ft-the-odd-man-out-ep-30-the-philosophers-blackstone/

UN Agenda 21, Target Earth
https://theoddmanout.podbean.com/e/the-oddcast-ft-the-odd-man-out-ep19-agenda-21-target-earth/


UN, Unconstitutional, Unholy, & Unneeded Pt.1 
https://theoddmanout.podbean.com/e/the-oddcast-ft-the-odd-man-out-ep-6-unconstitutional-unholy-unneeded-pt1/


U.N. -Unconstitutional, Unholy, & Uneeded Pt.2 
https://theoddmanout.podbean.com/e/the-oddcast-ft-the-odd-man-out-ep-8-unneeded-unconstitutional-unholy-pt-2/


2 Corinthians 3:17
"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."   Odd Man Out Patreon     https://www.patreon.com/theoddmanout   Patreon-Welcome to The Society Of Cryptic Savants   https://www.bitchute.com/video/C4PQuq0udPvJ/       All Odd Man Out Links   https://linktr.ee/Theoddmanout   
Their Order Is Not Our Order!            

A recent Kaiser Foundation study indicates we could save 350 billion dollars annually if we paid all physicians and hospitals at Medicare rates. It sounds good in theory, but what's the rest of the story? You can't reduce one person's expense without cutting another's revenue, so who bears the real cost of our "savings"? Ron discusses the real-world impact of the study on the medical community.

On this episode, Ceci Ruth Williams-Brinkley is president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc. In this episode of Her Story hosted by Ceci Connelly, President and CEO of The Alliance of Community Health Plans, we sit down with Ruth Williams-Brinkley, President of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc. Ceci and Ruth discussed how Ruth’s experience growing up in the segregated south and training as a nurse prepared her for an unconventional career path culminating as CEO for several hospital systems prior to her current role at The Alliance of Community Health Plans.

ACA, COBRA, Medicaid, and healthcare in a pandemic. Today Jackie Lee chats with Larry Levitt, Executive VP for Health Policy at Kaiser Foundation, on all things healthcare in midst of COVID-19.

EP 52 -  Collecting Email Addresses to GrowYour List This is the second to last episode in our email marketing series. If you haven’t listened to the others, I’d encourage you to start with episode 47 for the email marketing series and if you want to learn a little more about marketing, listen to episodes 44 and 45. In episode 47 we talked about list segmentation which is about managing your list, but it’s important to always be growing your list as well - why because that is new prospects for you. That’s part of marketing. In episode 47 we also talked about looking at your website for different ways you are collecting email addresses. Today we’ll take that a little deeper. Getting email addresses doesn’t just come from people visiting your website. You can ask on your social media posts, you can have give aways, contests, webinars, workshops, community events, things where people need to sign up for something and give you their email address in the process.   Why do you need to grow your list?  If you are someone that is investing in social media you might be thinking, “do I really need to do worry about email marketing?” My answer to this is  if you aren’t, you might be out of business before everyone else. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and whatever new platform is developed is rented space for you. Today, they are all free. Today, they control what people see, unless you pay them. It’s basically a pay to play game for them. So if you aren't paying, not many people are seeing your content. When FB first started with the business pages, as a trainer, I was telling everyone to create one. Those that did, those early adopters, had their pages seen...for awhile. Then FB went public and then they needed to start making money. So then the business pages weren’t seen as much and if you wanted your business page to be seen, you had to pay. Now its advertising The newest thing is groups. Build your community in a group. For now, everyone is seeing what is posted in your group. Before long, FB will have ads in the groups and you’ll have to decide how valuable it is.  I don’t fault FB. They are a business. Businesses need to make money. In the case of social media, it’s offered to the consumer for free, they get use to things, it’s almost like an addiction but AI decides what the consumer sees. The people you want to target might not be in their sightline.  By having the email addresses, you own it. You aren’t dependent on paying FB or even worrying about if FB exists because you reach your prospects and clients on your terms. Personally, I think that’s much better than having your business dependent on another! It’s really important to understand that social media is rented. You don’t really have people’s contact information. It’s hard for you to reach out to them.  With email marketing, you are in their inbox and as long as you are sending valuable content, they'll keep you there! Ok, enough about that.  I’ve used Constant Contact as my ESP for many years and I’ve been one of their partners for a long time as well. Since I’m not actively doing marketing for others today, I reached out to other CTCT partners in our community and asked them what they see as good ways of growing your list today.  Some of the ideas I’m discussing today are coming directly from them and these are people who are working with clients everyday, helping them with their marketing. If you want to check them out, check out the show notes at thebusinessofinsurance.com where I’ve linked to their websites where they were available.  What can you do to grow your list? Website - This is a no brainer and can be done a few different ways. In episode 47 I suggested you do a website audit.  Where are you collecting email addresses on your website? In my opinion, you should have some form of email capture on almost every page of your website. From giving things away to just getting more information, if you don’t ask, you won't’ collect.  This ties into what Amy Morales of Kapeesh Marketing says because she feels that many small business owners feel embarrassed or too modest to ask customers to follow them online or join some kind of digital marketing effort. Just as these business owners champion "shop small" and "shop local," they should feel empowered and completely capable of asking friends and customers to support them online and join them on an email list. I think some of this is because we don’t want more emails in our inbox so why should we ask other people for their email. I understand this but if you are sending out valuable information, people should be happy to get your emails. It’s the people that send out useless information that people will unsubscribe to.  I’ve seen this a lot over the years myself. I even see it today with the clients in my CEO roundtables at Select Business Team. People don’t want to seem pushy or upset anyone so they don’t ask for the emails and they don’t put the tools on the website or other platforms to get people’s contact information.  Just start with capturing an email, then you can get more sophisticated to capture other information.  Now I’m in complete agreement with Vee Tanner of The Biz Tech Wiz   who says, don’t put ‘sign up to get my newsletter on your website.  That worked 20 years ago, but it doesn’t work today. Not many people are going to knowingly sign up for your newsletter today. Some will, but many of us are in email overload, so we only want emails that we can use or benefit from! I recently started playing pickleball and I’m interested in playing in a particular community so when I found out someone was sending an email in that community about pickleball, I did sign up. It’s valuable to me! So while some people in certain circumstances will sign up when it says sign up for our newsletter, you would be better off calling it something else. If you just have the newsletter then say something like Get Information On Protecting Your Family or if you are focused on the B2B market, say something like  Get Details on Managing Your Business. Ideally you want to say something about staying in touch and offering something to download or get my free checklist or tool that benefits you. Amy Morales says this is what is working and can be done in several different ways. So, what can you give away? This is the million dollar question many of you will ponder.  Throughout this email marketing series, I’ve given you a few ideas but here’s a few more: Fire Escape route planning tool The most overlooked insurance purchases (cancer, umbrella, LTC, event, cyber Hiring a nurse advocate Caring for your Pets The topics for what you can give away are unlimited. It will take time to develop or you can purchase a white labeled piece which will save you a lot of time and probably money if you purchase it this way. Michael Loschke of Arista Advisors suggests that you have to have a compelling value proposition and the key objective is to become a close trusted advisor. He follows the advice of financier and philanthropist, Michael Milken's and suggests creating deep emotional relationships" (something to which every agent/sales pro should aspire) - Health, Wealth and Children. BTW, the latter is often pets for seniors and empty-nesters. ;) Ask people join your list  by phone or email or online zoom, "He’ll say to people, our clients receive special email offers and content on health, wealth, and children. May I add you to our VIP list?" Another way to Build your List is Webinars Webinars - Citrin Cooperman  is a large CPA firm and they have been doing almost weekly webinars on PPP loans during the pandemic. They hit the market early with their webinars and now they are pivoting to other topics but when they started the webinars, no one else was doing them. They kept going when others only did a few. Now they have pivoted but they’ve built up a loyal following because of what they offered during the pandemic. It’s not too late to start doing webinars around the pandemic. One of the hot issues that I’ve been reading about is mental health. Kaiser Foundation put together a return to work guide and a large portion was focused on addressing mental health. Aetna is doing a big webinar in June 2020 and a section is on mental health.  Does mental health apply to insurance?  You decide. While webinars are a great way to offer a service, if you promote the webinars on social platforms, when people sign up for the webinar you now capture their email address. During the webinar, I would offer another opportunity to give them something and have them sign up directly into your email platform to show that they signed up, but you could use their email address from signing up for the webinar and upload into your ESP pretty safely.  Workshops are very similar to webinars but are face to face. In 2020, I’m not sure how many people you will get to attend an in person workshop because of Covid. If you are listening to this podcast in 2021 or 2022, it might not be an issue at all! Like with webinars, your workshop topics can be about anything that will bring people together and help you grow your prospect list and email list. You can advertise them on your social platforms, send snail mail invitations, promote through your referral partners, put up flyers in different venues. Everything is focused on getting people to register or attend so that you can obtain their email address and you can stay in touch with them. There is a larger agency outside of Baltimore that started doing events a few years ago and 20 people showed up, now they have close to 100 people showing up every month. (at least prior to Covid they did) They’ve built their list by having these monthly events with speakers and inviting people - growing their list and their prospects at the same time.  Networking events  - Networking events is another strategy you can implement for growing your list. I like to call it offline to online. They  could be from ones you put together or ones put together by chambers, associations, social organizations or anyone bringing together a group of people for the purpose of meeting others.  One way you could build your list from these events is sending out a nice to meet you email afterwards, and having a link to give them something that they have to sign up for to receive. Or maybe you have a link to a webinar you are offering and you send them a link in the nice to meet you email.  Technically, if you have their email address you might be tempted to add them to your email list and you might be able to do this without getting into trouble, but if they sign up for something themselves, you are pretty much in the clear if you were ever reported. Again, get creative. If you go to a business networking event, maybe you have link to a business resource or maybe, and yes, I’m bringing up podcasting again, maybe you ask the person you met to be a guest on your podcast and you have them sign up on your website to get the details and that puts them into your list.  Another thing you could do is have people text to join your list. I’ve done this at speaking events in the past. I’ll ask the audience if they want to get a copy of the slides. Most people do so I’ll have a text number set up for them to text right there, they put in their email address and then they are emailed the slides. I now have their email address and am building my list! Jason Silver also suggested using a QR code. Other ways you could do this is to put it on the back of your business card. If you are in an office and clients come to your office, you could have them scan the QR code right there to get something.  Next, think about contests Jonathan Blotner - https://blotnermassmedia.com/  Contest marketing - sign up for a chance to win xxx maybe it’s a photo contest, Their friends vote on the best photo and the one with the most votes wins, but the votes have to be verified with their email address.  You might need to work with your marketing team to create and implement this, but I think it’s a great idea.  We’ve talked about giving things away on your website, having contests, having webinars, hosting events and attending events. There are many ways to grow your list but you have to be intentional about doing it.  Part of marketing is about nurturing relationships. Some people will find you on the internet, some people will be referred to you but not everyone is ready to buy when you talk to them. So what is your strategy to get them to like you, to trust you, to try you and get them ready to buy from you.  Email marketing is one tactic that you should be doing consistently. In the next episode I'm going to talk about marketing automation. It is how to take all of the ideas I’m talking about here for growing your list and automating the processes. For the most part, once the process is set up, it works automatically. It’s how you build your list even in your sleep! I hope the ideas we’ve been talking about are helpful.  BEFORE WE CLOSE OUT THE SHOW -  If you like what you’ve heard, please go to iTunes also know as Apple Podcasts and leave a review. It really helps with us getting noticed and helps the Apple Podcast algorithms as well! If you know someone that should hear this content, please share the episode with them. If you want to learn more about marketing, join the FB group called the Business of Insurance. I’ll link to it in the show notes and I look forward to meeting you there! If you want to connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, mention you heard the podcast in your request. It helps me identify the spammers from the listeners! UNTIL THEN, KEEP CREATING OPPORTUNITIES SHOW THE LOVE If you haven’t done so already, please like or subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast player. We are on all of the platforms including spotify, IheartRadio and Apple podcasts. If you are listening to this podcast online and don’t know how to listen to podcasts on your phone, reach out to our host, Debbie DeChambeau and she'll help you. CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST ON SOCIAL FACEBOOK GROUP FACEBOOK PAGE TWITTER   ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance podcast is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA - an entrepreneurer, business advisor, insurance professional  and content creator. Her goal is to inspire you to think differently and explore ideas that disrupt the status quo.  Debbie has an extensive business and marketing background with a focus of helping insurance professionals be more successful.  She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and produces three other podcasts, Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed and Seniors We Love.   Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.   SPECIAL KUDOS TO OUR CONTRIBUTING CONSTANT CONTACT MARKETERS: Amy Morales of Kapeesh Marketing and Make it Pop: Small Business Marketing Podcast heymakeitpop.com says that many small business owners feel embarrassed or too modest to ask customers to follow them online or join some kind of digital marketing effort. Just as these business owners champion "shop small" and "shop local," they should feel empowered and completely capable of asking friends and customers to support them online and join them on an email list. Most often it is that 1 on 1 conversation with clients and customers where they agree to join a list. Simply asking every client and customer when you shake their hand or meet with them if they're interested in receiving updates from you (and if they agree have them fill out an opt-in form) can be a great, engaged list builder. Jason Silver suggested using a QR code.  Michael Loschke of Arista Advisors suggests that you have to have a compelling value proposition and the key objective is to become a close trusted advisor. We propose offering significant value in the form of useful content. For 10 years, I have repeated financier and philanthropist, Michael Milken's advice for "engendering deep emotional relationships" (something to which every agent/sales pro should aspire) - Health, Wealth and Children. BTW, the latter is often pets for seniors and empty-nesters. ;) Asking by phone or email or online zoom, "Our clients receive special email offers and content on health, wealth, and children. May I add you to our VIP list?" Vee Tanner of The Biz Tech Wiz  don’t put ‘sign up to my newsletter and stay in touch but using ‘download, get my free checklist or tool that benefits you is working Jonathan Blotner - https://blotnermassmedia.com/  Contest marketing - sign up for a chance to win xxx maybe it’s a photo contest, Their friends vote on the best photo and the most votes and the email address verifies the votes.

The Kaiser Foundation with Suzanne Schreiber GKFF. Talking about our community KBOB 89.9 FM 

How do you become a science writer? What if you didn’t even think you liked science as a kid? What if, instead of “serious journalism”, you spent the first half of your career covering celebrities and royals, even becoming the London Bureau Chief for People magazine?Then you’re in perfect shape, at least if you’re our guest, Lydia Denworth. She tells us how she made that transition, going from People through Redbook to Scientific American using the dual powers of curiosity and ignorance (and more relevantly, the willingness to admit it). We also discuss getting grants for non-fiction research, pitching scientific topics and the literary aspect of science writing—and Friendship, which just happens to be both the topic and the title of Denworth’s latest book. Episode links and a transcript follow—but first, did you love last week’s #WritersTopFive: Top 5 Ways to Win at Newsletter Subject Lines? Because I did (and I’m winning.) This Monday: Top 5 Things to Do When Your WIP Feels Like It’s In Flames. Support the podcast you love AND get weekly #WriterTopFives with actionable advice you can use for just $7 a month. As always, this episode (and every episode) will appear for all subscribers in your usual podcast listening places, totally free as the #AmWriting Podcast has always been. This shownotes email is free, too, so please—forward it to a friend, and if you haven’t already, join our email list and be on top of it with the shownotes and a transcript every time there’s a new episode. LINKS FROM THE PODCAST#AmReading (Watching, Listening)Jess: Open Season (Joe Gunther Mysteries #1), Archer MayorKJ: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman (catch it on my #BooksThatWon’tBumYouOut series HERE)Lydia: The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission that Changed Our Understanding of Madness, Susannah Cahalan The Ruin, Dervla McTiernanBonus Book Rec for Lydia: The Mountains Wild, Sarah Stewart Taylor (because “those Irish really know how to do dark”).Our guest for this episode is Lydia Denworth.This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwritingfor details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s Inside-Outline template.Find more about Jess here, Sarina here and about KJ here.Follow KJ on Instagram for her #BooksThatWon’tBumYouOut series: short reviews of books that won’t make you hate yourself and all humanity.If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.Transcript (We use an AI service for transcription, and while we do clean it up a bit, some errors are the price of admission here. We hope it’s still helpful.)KJ:                                        00:01                    Hey there listeners, it’s KJ. Our guest today is a science writer extraordinare, and we’ll be talking everything from grants to the literary and storytelling aspects of that form of nonfiction—but before we do, here’s something else for the nonfiction authors out there: If that’s the your kind of work, our sponsor, Author Accelerator, can help—and you don’t have to go all in with full-on book coaching if you’re not ready. Check out their new four-week long nonfiction framework program that will help you nail down your structure before you start to write (or after you’re writing and realizing—dang, this thing needs a backbone!). Authors of self-help, how-to and academic texts will find the shape of their books, create a working one-page summary that reveals that shape at a glance and develop a flexible table of contents to guide you through the drafting and revision process. You can find a lot more (including previews of much of the material) by going to https://www.authoraccelerator.com/nonfictionframework. Is it recording?Jess:                                     01:11                    Now it's recording.KJ:                                        01:13                    Yay!Jess:                                     01:13                    Go ahead.KJ:                                        01:14                    This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone like I don't remember what I was supposed to be doing.Jess:                                     01:14                    Alright, let's start over.KJ:                                        01:14                    Awkward pause, I'm going to rustle some papers.Jess:                                     01:14                    Okay.KJ:                                        01:14                    Now one, two, three. Hey, I'm KJ Dell'Antonia and this is #AmWriting. #AmWriting is the podcast about writing all the things. Writing fiction, nonfiction, short fiction, long nonfiction, short nonfiction, I could probably go on like that forever. We are the podcast about writing pitches, proposals, essays, and essentially, as I say, every week, this is the podcast about sitting down and getting your writing work done.Jess:                                     02:00                    I'm Jess Lahey. I am the author of the Gift of Failure, How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed. And a forthcoming book about preventing substance abuse in kids. So I'm not so much writing this week as I'm deep, deep in the edits. You can find my work at the Atlantic, the New York Times, Washington Post, and at jessicalahey.com.KJ:                                        02:22                    I am KJ Dell'Antonia. I am the author of the forthcoming novel, The Chicken Sisters as well as How To Be a Happier Parent, which is out in hardback now. And will be coming in paperback soon to a bookstore near you and you can find me on Instagram at kjda and everywhere else at kjdellantonia and kjdellantonia.com.Jess:                                     02:48                    We have a guest today. We have a very patient guest. We've had to reschedule this guest an embarrassing number of times and I'm so excited that she's finally with us. And this is really timely because we've had some questions about exactly what this writer does in the #AmWriting Facebook group. So I would love to introduce to you Ms. Lydia Denworth. She is a science writer. She is a contributing editor to Scientific American, she writes the Brainwaves blog for Psychology Today, she's written three books, one called Toxic Truth on lead. A book that I really, really love called I Can Hear You Whisper. I keep it in the literacy section of my bookcase, actually, along with some other fun books, like Language at the Speed of Sight and her new book that will be coming out at the end of January on January 29th called Friendship. So this is a really appropriate and wonderful and exciting book to talk about on this podcast. Since of course I get to podcast with my best friends. So Lydia, welcome so much to the podcast.Lydia:                                  03:59                    I am so happy to be here. Thank you.Jess:                                     04:02                    Well and again, thank you so much for your patience. We've had a couple of recording dates fall through and so I'm just so glad you stuck with us through our timing snafus.Lydia:                                  04:12                    Not a problem at all.Jess:                                     04:15                    Well, we have burning questions. Not only ours, but some of our listeners, but we always love to start with the question of how you got started, how you got started writing and how you landed in the genre that you landed in.Lydia:                                  04:30                    And that in my case is a pretty interesting story because it is absolutely the case that science was the last thing I would have predicted that I would do. I was the person who took the bare minimum of science classes all through high school and college. And I was intimidated by it, I didn't think I was all that interested in it. I always wanted to be a writer and I wanted to be a nonfiction writer. So I was that kid who read the New Yorker and John McPhee and things like that when I was in high school and said, 'This is what I want to do.' But science did not come into it and I have had a relatively long career. And the first half of it was all general interest journalism, kind of. I worked for People magazine, if you can believe.Jess:                                     05:37                    Do you feel the need to go back and comment on the important social issues of our day?Lydia:                                  05:41                    I so do not, but at one point, I was a London Bureau Chief at the time that Princess Diana died for People magazine. So I have this whole past as a celebrity journalist and I worked for Newsweek for a bunch of years. And it was only when I was writing my first book, so about 15 years ago, after let's say a good 15 years in journalism, I that I really sort of became a science writer. And at that point I was doing - the way I describe it as I was freelancing and I was doing those social issue features that you would find in women's magazines, like Redbook and Good Housekeeping. So maybe it was sex harassment or lead poisoning. But I came to the issue of lead from a children's health perspective more than anything. I wrote a lot about education, Jess, you'll appreciate that. And you know, I did things like that and it was in writing that first book that I suddenly found that this, it's basically a dual biography of two of the men who were way out ahead of people understanding that lead was as harmful as it was. And then they got into this massive fight with industry over it and you know, their scientific careers were almost ruined, but they fought on, they are heroes, and they got lead taken out of all kinds of things. We know now with Flint that the story's not done. I first got into this because I was interested in a guy named Herb Needleman who was a psychiatrist and was looking at lead in kids' bodies, but the other guy was a geochemist at Cal Tech. And he was the one that understood that lead was all around the environment. And I started having to read his journal articles and oh my God, they were impenetrable to me.Jess:                                     07:42                    It's such an education, not only just being able to get through the language, but getting at the statistics. I mean, that's a big part of understanding whether you've been looking at something worth reading or citing.Lydia:                                  07:55                    Absolutely. And so, the long story short was that in working on that book, though, I found that I actually was better at all of that than I thought. And I happen to think, that to some extent, my lack of background in science has worked in my favor. I am not afraid to admit complete ignorance. I do it on a regular basis with really brilliant people. And so I just keep asking questions and I think that everybody has to do that as a reporter. But you're especially humbled when you're digging into something that you don't know anything about.Jess:                                     08:42                    Well, and your second book, you started writing about hearing because of your own personal experience. And that happens to be the area of nonfiction that I love - when it's sort of your own personal investment and personal experience that then turns into scientific exploration. So it's not just about intellectual curiosity, it's about emotional curiosity as well. And that's what really comes through in I Can Hear You Whisper because it is also partly your story.Lydia:                                  09:10                    Absolutely. So I had done this one book of popular science in the lead book, but then the question is always, you know, what are you going to do next? And here was my kid, my youngest son, Alex is is now 16, but he was just little then and and he is deaf and he uses a cochlear implant. And so I kind of felt like I had this story sitting there. But then the thing that I came to realize is that because he had this cochlear implant relatively early in the world of cochlear implants that I was essentially living a cutting edge science story. And in addition to the technology piece of it, I realized it was really a story about the brain because sound getting into the brain and what comes from that oral language and literacy. And I'm thrilled that the book is in your literacy section, by the way. That's just perfect. But you know, there was so much that I didn't know about deafness, and hearing, and sound, and reading and how it's all related until I had a kid. I mean, the first deaf kid I ever knew was my own son (in any meaningful way). So you're just starting over, and it was several years before I said, 'Oh wait, I think I really need to write about this.'.Jess:                                     10:37                    So your most recent book, the book that we're just really excited to talk about, this book Friendship. This came at a really, really good time for me. In the sense of one of the statistics that you quote is that the strengths of your friendships at around 50 predicts your health at 80. And I'm just about to turn 50 and I feel like I'm at a phase in my life where I have really strong friendships and so I am feeling good about my health at 80.KJ:                                        11:09                    Me too. I really loved that line.Jess:                                     11:09                    I really liked that.KJ:                                        11:11                    I think we're all at a moment when (and it may be sort of a cohort moment) but when everybody's looking around and just going, you know, what really matters to me is my people. Like my people, people. I mean some of those are digital people and that's cause some of those are real friendships, right? But lots of them are real people, or you know, real people that are like really right in front of you, and I just feel like this sort of decade or two of segwaying away from being able to touch the people you love when you're with them has sort of really changed our perspective in a great way and I think your book really informs that.Lydia:                                  11:54                    Yeah, I hope so. I mean, I do feel, and I'm hearing from people, that yes, my timing might be good here because everybody's thinking about this. People have seen the headlines that loneliness is a killer, which it is - as deadly as smoking. That's always been the story. But the flip side of what does friendship actually give us and how is it protective and how does it make us resilient? And the fact that there is a biology and an evolutionary story to friendship is the piece that most people do not know. And you know, this is a book of science. It's the science of friendship. But it is so personal and relevant to people's lives and what I hope they do is come away understanding why friendship and relationships are as important as diet and exercise for your health. And I'm not trying to add to people's burden for what they have to do. I think instead, I'm hoping to give them permission to go hang out with your friends. Your body will thank you.KJ:                                        13:01                    Well, I have questions about how you pitched the book because it has that dual identity, but let's not start there, right, Jess?Jess:                                     13:13                    I know KJ and I have some very specific questions about the way the book Friendship came about in terms of not just the pitch, but also the funding aspect. And I wasn't sure if that's where you wanted to start, KJ, but I'm dying to know about your funding.KJ:                                        13:31                    Which came first, Lydia?Jess:                                     13:31                    Lydia has funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and every nonfiction writer wants to know, Oh my gosh, how can I get money to do this project? Because research is expensive. In fact yesterday I was just thinking about this because someone texted me yesterday saying, 'If I don't get a book contract soon, I'm not going to be able to write this book because I'm out of money to put into the resources.' This is actually an AmWriting listener, so hopefully she's listening to this episode. And I texted back, 'I just dumped almost 200 bucks on a textbook that I must have in order to just make sure I'm really where I need to be with the research.' So how on earth did you get the funding and which came first - the contract for the book or the funding for the book?Lydia:                                  14:20                    The contract for the book came first. So I had a contract with Norton and I had an advance, but I will say it wasn't a stellar advance. My advances - so I've had three and they are all over the place and the middle one was by far the biggest. And so I was a little disappointed not to get more this time, but it also meant I had to get my butt in gear and get more money if I was going to do this. So fortunately the Sloan Foundation does do these grants for science writers, in particular. They are also (since a lot of this audience is female) people might be happy to know that they are looking to support female science writers and they are looking to support projects that are about women. In my case, this book is not specifically about women, but there happened to be quite a lot of female scientists featured in the book. They're kick ass, they're wonderful and they are all through the book. And so the combination of my being a female science writer and what I was writing about, they happily gave me a grant. The only thing I wish is that I had applied a little earlier. Since you all like to get into the nitty gritty of things, you have to make up a budget and there is a lag time from when you apply to when (should you be so fortunate as to get any money) when you start getting money. And so my budget, I originally had it for an entire calendar year that I was going to be writing the book. But I discovered that it couldn't start until, let's say I originally said January to December and then in fact, and I had like a monthly salary for myself in there, and then it turned out that they said, 'Well, our fiscal year is June, so you can't start till June 1st. So I basically had to lop off five months' worth of that money I was asking for, so had I known and gotten the application in even just a few months earlier, I probably could have made it from January to December and gotten myself more money. So let this be a reminder to not let this stuff linger.Jess:                                     16:43                    Well can you apply for funding before you have a book contract or did they require you to have the book contract before you apply?Lydia:                                  16:49                    You know, I can't remember exactly. I do believe that you can do it either way, but they did want a copy of my contract. So if you don't have a contract, I think there are some other requirements. I'm forgetting. it's been a little while since I did all that. And I will say, the reason I was aware of this in the first place was because I had met one of the people from the Sloan Foundation at at a party, at the World Science Festival here in New York several years earlier. And at that point my previous book I Can Hear You Whisper would have been perfect because they also are very interested in technology and the science of technology and things like that. But I didn't know about their grant program in time. Now in that book, I happen to have gotten a healthy advance, so that was okay. So the time around, I said, 'All right, I'm gonna write to him.' They added some money in order for me to be able to hire a science advisor who actually was one of the people who's featured in the book, but I paid him. It's Robert Seyfarth, it says so in the book so I can say, he's one of the leading primatologists in this work. And he would have read some of the book ahead of time anyway, but he read it all multiple times and was so in my corner and so helpful. And also so demanding and critical. I could see what it would be like to be their graduate students. So anyway, but it was so helpful and I wouldn't have done that if it hadn't been for the Sloan Foundation request. But it was really helpful.Jess:                                     18:49                    Maybe we'll include the link for applying for these kinds of grants in the show notes so the people can know exactly what we're talking about.KJ:                                        18:55                    I think the Kaiser Foundation does something similar, too. I know they do it for journalism.Lydia:                                  19:04                    I'll have a look and see. At one point I did find a link that had kind of a list of grants and fellowships that give you some money. I'll see if I can find it for you. But at the Sloan Foundation it is through the public interest piece cause it doesn't sort of jump out and say books right away. So just FYI to people. It does have to be pretty sciency for Sloan. but there are, as KJ just said, there are these other things like Kaiser that maybe if it's more health related and other things. You know, there's more out there than I think people realize.Jess:                                     19:41                    Absolutely. There's USC Annenberg School does it for health writing as well. There's just a bunch of great places to go. So, you have the money, you have the book contract, and so you get started on the research. The question I get most often from the nonfiction writers is (and the reason I talk about it so much) is about organization of research. And I have a multipart question having to do with this. But how do you organize your research?Lydia:                                  20:11                    Not as well as you, Jess. I look at what you do and I when you show pictures of your shelves, I think, Oh boy. That's something to aspire to. So one thing that I do is that I am still the kind of person who prints out everything. I just find it very, very hard. First of all, I would like to make sure I have the hard copy. And when I'm reading through complicated scientific work, I find it a lot easier to do it with a pencil in my hand and kind of marking it up. And I don't know, it helps me. Maybe I'm showing my age, I'm just over 50. I'm 53 now as of three weeks ago. I do plenty online, so I have piles of files. For this book. I filed everything according mostly to the individuals that were at the forefront of whatever piece of science it was I was writing about, or by subject, if that made sense. Like social media. I have a couple of files about the science of social media that were by subject. I think that the trick about research, cause I can go so deep, and there's always more to research. And so figuring out when to stop...Jess:                                     21:44                    That actually leads to my next question. Someone specifically asked, how do you know when it's time to stop and when it's time to start the writing? Because the research can go on forever, as you stated.Lydia:                                  22:01                    Yes. So for me it has been very important. There comes a point where I decide to start writing, in part to figure out whether I'm done with my research or not. Because there are holes sometimes that pop up when you start to actually write it and you think you might think you've got everything. So this book, people will see, mixes animal research and human research because there's been a lot of both in this subject and the animal research is actually where the big strides and understanding biology and evolution have taken place, in terms of social behavior. But I will say that I went to a whole bunch of conferences about monkeys and apes. And finally I was at one and I said, you know, Lydia, you've done enough, you know enough about monkeys, you have permission to stop on this front. And so that was just one piece of it. But I knew I was going like sort of too far down. But then writing helps me to discover. I mean by that point you may not have heaps of time to really go far on some new tangent. But for instance, the social media chapter, there was new work happening right up until the last second. And so I was changing that chapter quite a bit between having turned in my book and turning back in the first past proofs. Because there was new science and I had been to new conferences and been talking to new people.Jess:                                     23:37                    I actually just hit pause on editing a chapter because of that textbook I mentioned. And then three or four new studies and one meta study that just came out. And in order to make sure that what I'm writing about today and fingers crossed you know, when the book comes out is as up to date as possible. But it's really hard to say, well now I'm done. For me there tends to be this moment. I continue to do online classes, and webinars, and things like that. And there tends to be this moment where I'm listening to the webinar and I'm like, I know all this and that's when I know, okay, if I know this it's probably time for me to put a lid on researching this topic.Lydia:                                  24:22                    I think that is exactly right. And I have definitely had that experience, too. But I will also say that there are some pieces of it where, especially with science, where if you're feeling that your grasp is maybe not as strong as you'd like it to be, but sometimes you do just have to wade in. I mean, I do anyway. And see where it goes and see how... My problem in my writing often, is that I have a tendency to get into the weeds and then I have to cut all that out, but I've got to write it. I've got to write it. This is not relevant to the organization and research, but I do feel that an important thing about writing about science and even if you don't really write about science, if you adopt a little bit of a science writer's approach, you're really forced to think about whether your audience is with you. And whether you've given them enough handholding, and enough signposting so that they can follow along with the story, and what's important, and why, and what's not. And so then when I go back over what I've written, I'm usually trying to figure out, tracking along with someone who doesn't know it as well as I do and see, do they really need to know this?Jess:                                     25:50                    I was going to say, that's the question I constantly have. Which is when I was going through and I realized, oh my gosh, I have a chapter that's like 20,000 words. Does my reader really need to know how many casks of beer there were on that first ship that sails?KJ:                                        26:07                    That's our new standard for too much research is if you know the details of what was in the hold of the first ship that your topic involved. Yeah, that's it. We've got a black line there, people. This is good.Jess:                                     26:40                    The problem with me is I love those details. And in some places it paints an incredible picture, like your ability to say here's how many bananas might be useful, but for the most part it's really important to say, does my reader, does my listener need to know this thing in order to understand the broad concept? And that's usually my last pass edit when I'm cutting is, oh wait a second, these next four paragraphs are so irrelevant to anything.Lydia:                                  27:15                    Just for the record, I want to state that part of why I had that detail and part of my point in the story was that these monkeys were a source of fascination for everybody at the time and so much so that they were featured in the New York Times at the time that they were traveling and then in Life magazine. And so I was sort of making the point that the New York Times was so interested that they counted the amount of pounds of bananas. But you're still right. They still didn't need to know that.Jess:                                     27:47                    The line I often say is from On Writing where Tabitha King criticizes Stephen King for writing too much about these intervening years in this one character's life. And he's like, 'Yeah, but it's really important.' And she said, 'Yeah, but you don't have to bore me with it.'.Lydia:                                  28:02                    Exactly. You maybe need to know it, but your reader might not need to know it.Jess:                                     28:14                    KJ, did you want to jump in? I've been hogging the mic.KJ:                                        28:20                    No, it's been great. I'm riding along and taking notes.Jess:                                     28:25                    Excellent. Obviously for me, this book came along at a really great time for me because I love talking about adolescents, and relationships, and friendships. But what I was most interested in with your book right now is thinking about virtual friendships and in-person friendships. And you talk a little bit about how much time you need to spend in what you call sort of togetherness makes for a friend. And there's a quote in the book about the fact that it takes 50 hours of togetherness to make a friend and 200 hours to make a best friend. So what if we spend 50 hours, you know, chatting about stuff, maybe tweeting at each other, are we allowed to still be friends or do we have to have 50 hours of in-person time?Lydia:                                  29:14                    We can still be friends. But I will say that what's interesting about social media is that most people, their online life and their offline life sort of mirror each other. People talk all the time about how the word friend is devalued currency by Facebook and things like that. But the truth is, most people know who their real friends are, who their closest friends are. And we sort of all have concentric circles of people really close, and then a little further out, and a little further out. And I would argue that if you only have a relationship online, it's more likely to be in the outer reaches of your social circles, which is fine. That's an important place to be. Those relationships have all kinds of benefits. But most of us, our closest friends, we use social media as kind of an extra channel to deepen the relationship but not exclusively.Jess:                                     30:21                    I like thinking about it that way. And you also mention that quality is important over quantity, anyway. So the quality of those relationships and you also give me a license to sort of let go of some of those fraught relationships that may not be in my best interest because you talk about the fact that ambivalent or the sort of frenemy relationships are not necessarily good for our health in the same way that all positive relationships are.Lydia:                                  30:50                    They turn out to be actually bad for your health, which surprised the researchers. They thought maybe the good outweighs the bad. But no, biologically speaking, if when they look at your blood pressure and the aging in your cells and your immune system, they see that relationship... So, just to define our terms since we are talking about science writing. So an ambivalent relationship is one that makes you feel both good and bad. Like a frenemy, like you said. And also it's important to say that the people who've done this research had a pretty broad way of measuring that. If you weren't a hundred percent terrific all the time about this relationship or it wasn't 100% positive, then it was ambivalent. And the truth is that's like half our relationships though, have some negative to them.KJ:                                        31:43                    I was going to say, that's pretty broad.Lydia:                                  31:46                    It is pretty broad and they're still sort of perfecting. You know, this research is relatively new, but it's kind of pointing to an interesting and important idea though. Which is that yes, we don't actually have to maintain every relationship. Like some of your older friends where you have shared history but who now are actually quite draining. Maybe you don't have to stay friends with those people. I'm giving you permission there, too. But for the relationships where you can't or don't want to end the relationship or sort of really minimize the relationship, then you should be working on the quality of it. Because that is really the critical thing. The research is so clear that the quality of relationships matters most and matters more than whether it's a relative or not. So that's another thing I think I would just like to point out about friendship is that the science kind of blurs the lines that we've always clung to about the importance of family over friends and things like that. Friends tended to be dropped down to the bottom, but we actually use the word friend. Like if you say your spouse is your best friend, you're trying to convey something about the quality of your relationship. Right? And not everybody would say that about their spouse. Some do, some don't. And in fact there's a hilarious study that found that in Jacksonville, Florida, something like 60% of the people said that their spouse was their best friend. And in Mexico city it was like 0%, which I don't think tells us about...KJ:                                        33:29                    It has more to do with how we define it, more than anything else.Lydia:                                  33:32                    Exactly. Exactly. But you know, the point is let's at least think about this.KJ:                                        33:40                    I like that they both start with F. It's one category for me. You know, important time with friends or family, that's one thing. That's the F section. So I wanted to come back to this question of here you were as a writer with this idea that encompassed a really deep scientific piece, but also what I think we could call a service piece. You know, the idea of friendship and how it helps us. Exactly what we're getting into talking about right now. How did you structure the pitch for this book to include both of those things?Lydia:                                  34:24                    So I think of myself more as a literary science writer, for lack of a better phrase. And that is a thing compared to really self-helpy science. So I wouldn't exactly say that this book, (and I didn't pitch it as self-help), and yet, if you read this book, you will absolutely come away knowing that you should invest in your friendships and here's a bunch of ways to do it.KJ:                                        34:59                    I wondered if there was pressure to push it in that other direction.Lydia:                                  35:02                    So some, and this is a constant tight rope that I feel I walk as a science writer is because yes, most of what's out there and that has a really big audience is the stuff that is so super accessible that it doesn't include a lot of the details that I find really interesting and important. I will say this. To specifically answer your question, what I did was pitch this book as the kind of friendship book that has not yet been written because it would have serious science in it. And that is what is new, and interesting, and important to know. And it sort of informs everything that's in those self-help articles. And so I was positioning myself in my pitch and it helped that my previous two books were similar. You know, so I have a certain style of writing. And if you are (like I am) a contributing editor at Scientific American, people do expect you to be on the serious side of science, but still completely accessible. I mean that is the thing - no matter who you are, you have to write it as if anybody will understand it. I try hard, you know.KJ:                                        36:25                    Your scientific audience is not necessarily experts in everything.Lydia:                                  36:29                    No. And in fact, one of the things that's really interesting is this book covers so much ground and so much territory that some of the experts in it, when they read it then said, 'Oh, but I, I love how you wrote about my piece, but I didn't know anything about this other thing.' And I found that I was bringing them together, somewhat. Because I was talking to everyone across the board, you know, not in the little silos that people tend to work in. But, I just want to say though, that there's a real tension. So, you know, my agent would say, 'You really need to come up with a way to pitch this that will appeal to everybody.' But then for instance, the Sloan Foundation, their question was how sciency will this be? Because we are only really interested in it if it is in fact a science book. But you can write a science book that has all kinds of story in it. I mean, science is story. You know, it's figuring out how we know things, and there's a lot of plot twists, and intriguing problems, and it's the evolution of thought in some ways. So I ended up deciding that I have to be me. You know, you do you, right? Don't you guys say that? And that I was pitching it as not self-help, but yet in the overview of the proposal, it really did say that this book will put friendship at the center of our lives. It will show us these important things we need to know. And one of the things I say a lot is that is that we think we know all about friendship because it's familiar. But in fact there's a huge amount we don't know. And also we do not in fact prioritize it always quite to the extent that we think we do. And so those kind of larger statements that are in the proposal and that I talk about when I do publicity are very much about sort of trying to pull people in and tell them why this is relevant to their lives.Jess:                                     38:36                    I think one of the reasons that I loved - I mean I love this book - but I really loved I Can Hear You Whisper because there was this really personal element and that I love reading science books that are also part memoir and that's also a really difficult line to walk. In fact, the book I'm editing now turned out to be so much more memoir than I ever expected it to be. In fact, I was really scared of it becoming a memoir and yet all of a sudden now I'm at the other end after a couple of years and it is very much a memoir. So much so that we've amped up that side of it. But I think that's what makes the science personal. And I think that's what helps people say, 'Oh, Oh, so that's why it matters. That's why these numbers matter. That's why these statistics matter because they're about personal stories.' And I think you do a beautiful job of walking that line, which can be really hard to see sometimes.Lydia:                                  39:27                    It can. And thank you, I appreciate that. I will just point out (as a sort of craft example) that the introduction to this book starts on this island in Puerto Rico where people are studying monkeys and that's a pretty surprising place to start a book on friendship you might think. And yet, I think it's interesting because it's surprising, and it makes for a really great scene, and it also sort of signals that this is a new way of thinking about friendship. So I wrote all that with some other stuff about the big picture stuff in that intro. But I ended that chapter with me coming back from Puerto Rico and finding my then 17 year old son on the couch with his best friend where they were playing video games and it felt like they had never left from when I went to Puerto Rico to when I came back. It was as if they had never left. So there's a scene there in which I am doing the typical parent thing of don't you guys have anything better to do? And don't you ever get up off this couch and all that stuff. And then I suddenly realized, and this did really happen, I said, 'Oh wait, hang on a minute, Lydia. They look a lot like those monkeys you were just watching in that they are hanging out together, and they are laughing, and they're joking, and they're literally sitting in proximity on the couch, and maybe you are only seeing the video game as a parent and you are not seeing the visceral connection that is going on between these kids. And so I put that scene at the end of that first chapter or the introduction specifically to get at exactly what you're asking about. To show why and how this stuff is useful in thinking about our own lives and our own relationships and friendships.Jess:                                     41:20                    And that's great storytelling. I just, I love that. I am smiling from ear to ear. I mean, to me that's when you have those moments when you're writing. I talk about this all the time about that buzz, when you really feel like, oh my gosh, it's happening. The writing is coming together. And in those moments where you say, 'That's the story.' That's when my heart just flutters. I just get so excited.Lydia:                                  41:46                    Exactly. I tried to do that all through this book. I didn't really want to just sort of throw in a whole lot of random people that you only meet briefly. So I decided that the memoir part, I do have sort of myself, and my family, and my good friends kind of sprinkled through the book because that seemed like the most organic way to get at what's true about relationships. And I fully recognize that we are a little subsection, that doesn't make it a diverse thing. But that's not the point. The point is just to sort of provide those kinds of moments of recognition and resonance for readers.Jess:                                     42:31                    That's what it's all about. Speaking of which, cause we are getting to the end of our time. I hate making these jarring transitions cause I could talk about this book for ages because I love it so much and I love science writing so much, but we are running out of time and so I would love to talk about what you have been reading and what KJ and I have been reading. Do you have anything you'd like to shout out book wise?Lydia:                                  42:53                    I would love to. On the sciency front, I have been reading Susannah Cahalan's new book, The Great Pretender. Have you read it?Jess:                                     43:04                    I'm really excited because I loved Brain on Fire.Lydia:                                  43:06                    Yes. And this is such an interesting book because it really is about the history of psychiatry and mental health. But it's this totally great story about a study that was done years ago that kind of where they sent sane people into insane asylums essentially, and tried to reveal. You know, it was like the investigative journalism of science about what does it take to get out of an insane asylum?Jess:                                     43:38                    But that's why I haven't started reading it yet. Because frankly, I know about this experiment. In fact, we were looking at the book and my husband pointed to it and he said, 'Oh, I know that experiment.' And he was explaining it to me and I said, 'That is terrifying to me.' Like being a sane person in an insane asylum and then having to like prove that you're not insane, yet that makes you look insane. That whole concept freaks me out.Lydia:                                  44:05                    And then there's a real plot twist though in this whole book. But it turns out that that study is not everything that we thought it was. And so there's an extra

Drew Altman took a relatively small grantmaking foundation and transformed it into a media powerhouse. As the President and CEO of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, better known as KFF, Drew has turned his organization into one of the most influential and valuable non-partisan sources of health news in the country. What other foundation can say that about their field of interest? Drew sat down with Eric to talk about how Kaiser has charted new territory in the field of news media at a time when in-depth coverage of a host of important issues is becoming much harder to come by. And don’t miss Drew’s full-throated endorsement of the role that communications plays in advancing the goals of foundations and the nonprofits they support. It’s practically a love letter to communications!    

Drew Altman took a relatively small grantmaking foundation and transformed it into a media powerhouse. As the President and CEO of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, better known as KFF, Drew has turned his organization into one of the most influential and valuable non-partisan sources of health news in the country. What other foundation can say that about their field of interest? Drew sat down with Eric to talk about how Kaiser has charted new territory in the field of news media at a time when in-depth coverage of a host of important issues is becoming much harder to come by. And don’t miss Drew’s full-throated endorsement of the role that communications plays in advancing the goals of foundations and the nonprofits they support. It’s practically a love letter to communications!    

A year ago, Hurricane Maria destroyed Puerto Rico. The past 12 months have brought disorganized recovery efforts, an estimated thousands of deaths and an island that refuses to let go of its resiliency. In The Thick is dedicating a two-part special series to honor this tragic anniversary. In Part 1, Maria and Julio talk to two Puerto Rican journalists: Arelis Hernández, from The Washington Post, and Bianca Padró Ocasio, from The Orlando Sentinel, who've both been covering the impact of Hurricane Maria. They discuss the aftermath of both climate change and the federal and local politics. ITT Staff Picks:The recent poll from The Washington Post and the Kaiser Foundation about the impact of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.Julio’s latest think piece about Trump's lies around Hurricane Maria's death toll, in NBC News. Bianca's personal essay of her experience watching the hurricane destroy her home from afar, in The Orlando Sentinel.Arelis' latest report on the seaside town of Naguabo, Puerto Rico, via The Washington Post. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Glenn Horowitz is an agent in the sale and placement of culturally significant archives to research institutions nationwide. Among the many authors, artists, musicians, designers, and photographers he have represented are Norman Mailer, James Salter, Deborah Eisenberg, David Foster Wallace, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Grushkin, the Magnum Group, Nadine Gordimer, and Danny Fields, to name but a few. I met Glenn in his Manhattan offices. We talked about, among other things, the imaginative "packaging of authors' archives, the maturing of research institutions, kaboosing like collections, natural sympathies, technology coming on line, letterpress printing as a nostalgic gasp, the shift to digital, Bob Dylan's archive, the Woodie Guthrie Center, the transformation of Tulsa, the Kaiser Foundation, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Watergate and the University of Texas, the importance of the creative process, New Criticism, identity politics, the melting of textual studies, the growing importance of ancillary material; Bernard Malamud, Bob Giroux, Strand Bookstore, envy, small versus major research institutes, Michael Ondaatje, Canada's lack of interest in its writers' papers, Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies, Conrad Black, FDR, and archives as a non-traditional market. 

We were happy to have Bassey Ikpi sit in on our chatfest. Bassey is a Nigerian born, American raised writer and mental health advocate. She has been featured in international publications and media outlets from fashion magazines to profiles chronicling her work and life as a mental health activist. Bassey has written for several media platforms from digital to print on the topic of mental health and pop culture. With social commentary being a focus of her work, Bassey has  recorded original poems for Girl Effect’s Invisible Barriers, the Kaiser Foundation’s, HIV/AIDS campaign, Knowing Is Beautiful and There is No Comfort In Silence for Global Grind and World AIDS Day. She is the founder of the mental health organization The Siwe Project and creator of #NoShameDay. She is currently working on her first memoir, Making Friends With Giants (Harper Perennial), out fall 2018. You can follow Bassey on Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat: @basseyworld We also were All a Twitter about The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu (yes, still!) and sounded our air horn for two athletes who prove that boundaries only exist in our minds. Listen in!

Special Guest: Tracye Lynn McQuirter, MPH, is a speaker, author, and 20-year vegan who helps people achieve extraordinary health through better food choices. She directed the nation's first federally funded began nutrition program and worked on legislation to improve federal nutrition guidelines. McQuirter has been featured in the Washington Post, Ebony and Essence and has been a guest on NPR, Fox 5 (Washington, D.C.) and NBC 4 (Washington, D.C.), among many others. She was a contributing writer for Heart & Soul magazine and a nutrition consultant for the Black Women's Health Imperative. McQuirter is a graduate of Amherst College and New York University, where she received her master's of public health nutrition. By Any Greens Necessary: A Revolutionary Guide for Black Women Who Want to Eat Great, Get Healthy, Lose Weight, and Look Phat , is an inspirational and honest guide that will change women's perspectives on their food, bodies and lives. http://www.byanygreensnecessary.com Special Guest: Len Torine, Executive Director of the American Vegetarian Association.Len created, and was consultant to many natural foods restaurants in the New York metro area, including: 'Veggies', 'The Celery Bunch', and 'The Slimmery'. His book, "Light Cuisine" sold almost 1 million copies.Len went on to open his own franchised chain of health-conscious restaurants, The Diet Gourmet Shoppes. The concept was featured on CNN and  the Regis Philbin Show. Len was chosen to be a participating member of Project Lean, funded by the Kaiser Foundation. In 1994 Len co-founded VeggieLand, a strictly vegetarian manufacturer in Parsippany, N.J. http://www.amerveg.org/index.html

Mandisa Thomas of the Black Non-Believers of Atlanta (BNOA) will be our guest host this Sunday. Blacks account for over 500,000 cases of HIV out of the 1.1 million cases in America. The AIDS diagnosis for Blacks is 9 times than that of whites. Per the Kaiser Foundation, in 2009 only 33% of African Americans claim that they have heard of AIDS as compared to 62% in 2004. Black Americans have been disproportionately affected by HIV/IDS since the epidemic beginning, and that disparity has deepened over time. In the Black community, HIV impacts women, youth, gay, and bi-sexual men the most. Why has the Black church not stepped up to educate and assist the community that it claims to represent, love, and reside in?