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A 36-season Colorado wilderness outfitter, Scott Limmer, doesn't sugarcoat it: the new 50%-random draw is about to blow up point inflation and gut the predictability that made Colorado elk hunting plannable. We get into that, the big-bull reality most hunters won't admit, and a stack of Africa stories you won't hear anywhere else.In this episode:Why the 2028 draw overhaul tripled the exact point inflation it was meant to fixThe hard truth about how giant public-land bulls actually get killedGlassing a burn, calling pressure, and why elk go nocturnalGetting ambushed by the LRA on a bongo hunt in the Central African RepublicHow Gaddafi's loose weapons fueled Africa's elephant-poaching waveThe wolf "crap show" and where Colorado's right-to-hunt fight standsScott Limmer - https://www.instagram.com/elimminator/Scott's Outfitting Business - https://comanchewildernessoutfitters.com/---FOLLOW CLIFFYouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGrayInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliffPursuit With Cliff Podcasthttps://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/ExperiencesMerchhttps://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER:https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. 01 Introduction This is a follow up to my 4 part series on simple podcasting. In this episode I will discuss a number of experiments with audio filtering. These experiments were inspired by comments by listeners and by other discussions about audio on HPR. I am not an audio expert, so I am doing this partly in order to learn something, but mainly in order to have a bit of fun. I hope that you find this entertaining as well. In a comment on the first episode a listener mentioned something called Solocast and said that the method bore a resemblance to the method that I was using. Here is his comment -------------------- 02 Comment #3 posted on 2026-04-03 07:49:58 by Reto It reminds me about Solocast Hi Whiskeyjack, I really liked your podcast and the topic. I cannot remember about your last, but the sound quality of this one was good on my mobile speakers :) The concept reminded me about the program from Norrist (another host on HPR), while similar does it have some differences HPR 3496 https://hackerpublicradio.org/eps.php?id=3496 As I am not on the future feed, I look forward to your next episode. Cheers, Reto -------------------- 03 End of comment. I did not recall having heard the episode on Solocast, but this sounded very interesting. Solocast was in HPR episode 3496 and was released by norrist on the 27th of December 2021. I listened to that episode and does indeed use use the same basic concept of recording short segments of audio and combining them later instead of creating one big recording and editing it with an audio editor. 04 The main difference is that the work flow that I described involves a lot of manual steps, while Solocast is a short Python program that automates the entire process of presenting your script, recording the segments, combining the segments, and filtering and normalizing the result. I won't try to describe Solocast in detail, instead I would recommend just listening to HPR episode 3496 to get norrist's explanation directly. -------------------- 05 While I wanted to make sure that I credited norrist with having come up with this concept four years before I did, this won't be the focus of this episode. Instead I will talk about audio filtering and various experiments that I ran on several different methods. 06 While looking at the source code for Solocast I noticed that it used a filtering method that resembled one used by Jivetalk, a podcast production program that caught the attention of one of the HPR community news presenters. This method involves taking a sample of quiet audio where there is no speaking taking place, and then using this as input to a noise reduction filter which is applied to the voice recording. The filter subtracts the quiet sample from the voice audio, which should theoretically remove the ambient noise. 07 I decided to apply this method to a number of different audio test recordings which were recorded under different circumstances using different hardware. In this way I could see if the method worked equally well under all circumstances or if there were some sorts of noise which it was suited to and some sorts that were not. 08 While I was at it, I also picked several other filter methods to see how they worked as well. Potentially, some methods may be better under some conditions while other methods were better suited to others. -------------------- 09 I won't present all of my experiments, as that would be a bit dull to listen to. Instead I will describe each method and then present audio samples which illustrate my conclusions. There are two pieces of audio software involved, both of which were also used in my series on simple podcasting. 10 The first is Sox, spelled s o x , and which is short for Sound Exchange. Sox is a command line program for audio manipulation. Sox is Free Software, released under the GPLv2 or later. The other is FFMPEG, which is also a command line program. FFMPEG is also Free Software, released under the LGPL V 2.1 or later, and GPL v 2 or later. Sox actually uses FFMPEG for certain operations. -------------------- 11 Audio Hardware For recording hardware I used the following. 12 Maxwell Headset The first is a cheap Maxwell headset that has an electrical noise problem. Unfortunately I don't have a model number for this headset. I described this hardware, the noise problems that I had with it, and how I created filters to deal with the noise in my series on simple podcasting. Briefly though, this is a headset that has a build in microphone on a boom which allows the microphone to be positioned close to the mouth. It connects with a USB cable. 13 Borne Earpiece and In-line Microphone This is a set of earplugs that go in your ears and connected by wires and a very small microphone built into a small bulge in the cable. It connects using a 3.5mm jack. The model number seems to be BUD250-BL. 14 XTrike Headset This is a gaming headset similar to the Maxwell headset described above. The model number is GH-510 It uses a USB connection. 15 Yanmai Condenser Microphone This is a microphone that comes with a small tripod stand. The model number is SF-910 It uses a 3.5mm audio jack. -------------------- 16 This is not a review of the hardware. Rather, I was trying to create audio problems so that I could test ways to fix them. Therefore, do not take the above list as a recommendation of what to buy. However, you can see that I am not using any expensive audio hardware. If you want to make an HPR podcast, you do not need professional level hardware. -------------------- 17 Audio Samples The audio samples are as follows 18 Quiet This was recorded in a quiet environment at my desk. This is my normal podcasting environment and represents optimal conditions. The main reason for this method is to see how the various filter methods perform when dealing with the electrical noise from the Maxwell headset. 19 Small fan This is a small USB powered table fan approximately 10 cm in diameter. It was located roughly 40 cm or less to the left of the microphone, although this varies depending on the microphone. 20 Traffic This was along a busy street with traffic noise in the background. -------------------- 21 Filter Methods Sox noisered Filter with Audio Profile This method uses the Sox noisered filter. Here is a brief quote from the Sox documentation on this filter. Quote Reduce noise in the audio signal by profiling and filtering. This effect is moderately effective at removing consistent background noise such as hiss or hum. To use it, first run SoX with the noiseprof effect on a section of audio that ideally would contain silence but in fact contains noise - such sections are typically found at the beginning or the end of a recording. End of quote For these tests I recorded a separate noise profile to go with each test. -------------------- 22 Basic Manual Filter This is a basic high and low pass filter pair based on the work I had done in my previous series on simple podcasting. However, based on the tests that I have done for this episode, I decided to get a bit more aggressive in terms of filtering. I use a high pass filter of 120 Hz, and low pass filter of 8 kHz. The each filter is then applied twice to increase its effect. I also added band reject filters to deal specifically with 50 and 60 Hz line noise. -------------------- 23 Complex Manual Filter This uses the manually constructed filter described in my series on simple podcasting. This uses the basic manual filter plus a series of custom bandreject filters to fix specific noise problems with the Maxwell headset. -------------------- 24 FFMPEG afftdn Filter The documentation describes this as "Denoise audio samples with FFT." -------------------- 25 FFMPEG arnndn Filter The documentation describes this as "Reduce noise from speech using Recurrent Neural Networks." -------------------- 26 FFMPEG agate Filter I will pronounce this as "agate" for convenience. The documentation describes this as "A gate is mainly used to reduce lower parts of a signal. This kind of signal processing reduces disturbing noise between useful signals." -------------------- 27 Method The experimental method used was to take each noise sample and apply the different filter methods to it. Where there are parameters which can be adjusted, a script was used to generate a series of different sample files with different parameter values. Not all possible parameters were experimented with, as the goal is to see which method produces what sorts of results under different circumstances, not to get the best possible result for the samples that I happen to have. The method in each case was as follows 28 Step 1 Convert the audio file to FLAC if it is not already in that format. 29 Step 2 Apply a basic high and low pass filter described previously to each sample. The reason for this basic filtering is that it eliminates at least some undesired noise in a fairly fool proof manner, leaving less for the more advanced filter to deal with. This should allow for a better test of the filter under realistic conditions. 30 Step 3 Apply the noise reduction filter being tested. 31 Step 4 Normalize the filtered sample to 17 LUFS according to the EBU R128 standard. The EBU standard is described in my series on simple podcasting. Normalizing adjusts the audio signal to a desired loudness level. This allows for more more consistent sound levels and allows us to hear the results under realistic conditions. I normalize the audio individually for each sample as different recording hardware requires different amounts of loudness adjustment. This is different from the typical podcast process where normalizing takes place as the very last step in the process, but it was necessary in this case. 32 Step 5 Concatenate selected sample audio files to one another to allow for better review and comparing. -------------------- 33 Results The results are grouped according to the type of noise which is being mitigated. This allows for easier comparison of the effectiveness of each technique under different circumstances. I have only picked a few examples of interest out of the numerous experiments that I conducted. -------------------- 34 Quiet Recording Environment with Maxwell Headset This compares how well the various filtering methods work on the noise induced by the electronics in the Maxwell headset. This electronic noise consisted of a noise spike every 1 kHz. This should be representative of electronic noise caused by problems in recording hardware. 35 Manual Filter The manual filter applied a narrow band reject filter every 1 kHz from 1 kHz to 12 kHz. This completely removed the otherwise audible whine caused by the noise. 36 FFMPEG afftdn This method allows for setting a noise floor and then specifying how much the noise floor should be reduced by. The method is very sensitive to getting the noise floor correct for that recording. Set the floor too low and nothing happens. Set it too high, and some distortion results. However it seemed to be moderately effective, but it would seem to require checking it and possibly adjusting it each time it is used. 37 FFMPEG agate This method allows setting a noise floor and then suppressing all sound which falls below that level. This method is very sensitive to getting the noise floor correct for that recording. If set too low (or quiet), it is ineffective. If set too high (or loud), it distorts words which come after a pause, which would typically be between sentences. 38 When set correctly, it completely removes noise in the silences between sentences. However, the noise is still audible during speech. This is because the noise in this case is a higher frequency than normal speech, and so stands out more. It may not be a significant problem for noise which is closer to the main vocal frequency band. Overall, this method is not suitable for this particular problem. 39 FFMPEG arnndn This method used the standard model. A variety of different noise reduction models are available. I only tested it with one, std.rnnn It does not seem to introduce much distortion in the voice signal even with a high amount of mix parameter. 40 However, it is only slightly effective at removing the whine from the signal, even with a high amount of mix parameter. Overall, this method does not appear to be useful for this sort of noise problem. 41 Sox noisered Filter This was effective in removing noise between words, but noise can be heard while words are being spoken. It was better than agate however. 42 Overall Conclusion for the Maxwell Headset Noise When dealing with narrow noise bands that occur at known frequencies, the manual filter is leagues ahead of any of the other tested alternatives. 43 Sample Audio Here is a sample audio recording showing the best overall results The sample is repeated, first with only basic low and high pass filtering, and then with the manually constructed filtering. In the first sample you should hear a high pitched background whine. In the second sample, the high pitched whine is completely removed. 44 (Audio sample inserted here.) -------------------- 45 Traffic Noise This was recorded using the Borne in-line microphone connected to a mobile phone while walking along beside a busy street. This was in dry cool spring weather, and the road was paved with asphalt. This should be reasonably representative of podcasting while walking outdoors in a noisy environment. 46 Basic Manual Filter This used the basic manual filter with high and low pass filters. This did nothing very useful in this case as the signal was already filtered within those limits by the recording hardware anyway. The low sample rate of 8 kHz in the phone limited the upper frequency to 4 kHz. Recall that the sample rate has to be twice the highest frequency that you want to detect. Overall, this is not suitable for this sort of problem. 47 FFMPEG afftdn With a high noise floor, background noise is reduced, but not eliminated. There was not much distortion in the voice. This is only slightly useful for this sort of problem. 48 FFMPEG agate With a high threshhold, background noise is reduced, but not eliminated. There was some distortion in the voice. The background noise could also be heard when speaking, but because the frequency of the background signal was similar to the louder voice signal, it was not as noticeable as it would have been if the two were very different. This is moderately useful for this sort of problem. It may be more useful in situations where the background noise was not quite as loud. 49 FFMPEG arnndn With high amounts of noise reduction, much of the background noise is suppressed, but there is not a lot of distortion in the voice. The background traffic noise is still present, but is significantly less. This offers only a moderate improvement. 50 Sox noisered Filter With small amounts of noise reduction voice is clear but traffic noise is present as a very significant continuous warbling sound in the background. This is no improvement on the original and in fact could be seen as making it worse. With moderate amounts of noise reduction, traffic noise is mostly gone, but there are still various squeaks present. Voice is noticeably distorted. With large amounts of noise reduction, traffic noise is gone but voice is highly distorted. This is moderately useful for this sort of problem, but requires careful adjustment. 51 FFMPEG arnndn Followed by FFMPEG agate This combined two different filters. First, it used arnndn to suppress the background noise to a lower level without much voice distortion. Then it applied the agate filter to suppress the noise levels between words still further. This used the same amount of mix and threshold as was found to be most effective when each of these filters was used on its own. The background noise is almost completely gone while distortion of the voice signal is low. 52 Overall Conclusion for Traffic Noise The arnndn combined with agate filters was the most successful at suppressing background noise while limiting the amount of voice signal distortion. 53 Sample Audio Here is an audio sample for what I felt to be the best overall results, the arnndn filter combined with the agate filter. First is the original audio with basic filtering. This is followed with the same audio after being passed through the arnndn and agate filters. 54 (Insert arnndn plus agate audio sample here) 55 Another Sample Here is a second audio sample showing the Sox noisered profile based filter. I have included this to show how a profile based filter can make things worse if you are not careful how you use it. This repeats the test audio 4 times. The first is with basic filtering only. The second uses low amounts of noise reduction. The third uses moderate amounts of noise reduction. The fourth uses high amounts of noise reduction. 56 (Insert noisered audio sample here) -------------------- 57 Small Fan Noise with Yanmai Microphone This was recorded using the Yanmai condenser microphone. A small fan was set up behind and to the left of the microphone. This is intended to represent situations where someone may have a fan or air conditioner running in the background due to hot weather, or has a loud computer fan. 58 A condenser microphone was used for this test as they are more prone to picking up unwanted noise. However, for practical recording purposes, this sort of microphone is unsuitable for this type of environment. 59 Basic Manual Filter This used the basic manual filter with high and low pass filters. This did nothing useful as the fan noise was in the same frequency range as the voice signal. This may be of more help in cases where the noise is below the 120 Hz cut off used in the low pass filter. 60 FFMPEG afftdn With high amounts of noise reduction, much of the background noise is suppressed, but there is some distortion in the voice. The background fan noise is still present, but is significantly less. Overall this is moderately effective. 61 FFMPEG agate This was effective in removing noise between words, but noise can be heard while words are being spoken. However, this was a small voice sample and it is possible that more problems could occur. With less fan noise than was in this sample this technique may work much better. 62 FFMPEG arnndn With high amounts of noise reduction, much of the background noise is suppressed, but there is not a lot of distortion in the voice. The background fan noise is still present, but is significantly less. Overall this was fairly effective. 63 Sox noisered Filter With small amounts of noise reduction voice is clear but fan noise is present as a slight warbling sound in the background. With moderate amounts of noise reduction, fan noise is gone, but voice is somewhat distorted. With large amounts of noise reduction, fan noise is gone but voice is very distorted. 64 In general this method is fairly successful at dealing with this sort of problem. However, there is a trade off between background noise and voice quality. Getting that trade off correct takes experiment and judgment for each specific situation. 65 FFMPEG arnndn Followed by FFMPEG agate This combined two different filters. First, it used arnndn to suppress the background noise to a lower level without much voice distortion. Then it applied the agate filter to suppress the noise levels between words still further. This got rid of virtually all of the background noise between words. If you listen carefully however, there is a slight buzzing sound in the voice signal. 66 Overall Conclusion for Fan Noise with Yanmai Microphone. Of the methods tested, the arnndn followed by agate filter seemed to offer the most improvement for the least effort and least voice distortion. The arnndn filter on its own seemed the next most preferable to me despite leaving some fan noise in the background. 67 Audio Sample Here is an audio sample for what I felt to be the best overall results, the arnndn filter combined with the agate filter. First is the original audio with basic filtering. This is followed with the same audio after being passed through the arnndn and agate filters. 68 (Insert audio sample here) -------------------- 69 Small Fan Noise Recorded with Headset The following is an observation rather than a filtering technique. When a recording was made using the Maxwell headset and listened to on the headset later or with speakers, the fan was virtually inaudible. When the same recording was listened to with the XTrike headset, it was barely audible with careful listening and only identifiable as a fan because I knew it was there. 70 In situations where there is ambient noise, the best noise reduction technique is probably to move the microphone as close to your mouth as possible, although not directly in front of it, and reduce the gain if there is a gain adjustment in the microphone. This will work far better than trying to remove the noise later. If you are recording an HPR episode at a desk, then an inexpensive headset with boom mike may do the job just fine with minimal effort and expense. -------------------- 71 Conclusions I have tested three noise scenarios - Electronic noise in the audio hardware at specific frequencies. Recording outdoors with an inline microphone in a noisy traffic environment. A noisy fan creating background noise in an office. My conclusions on these are as follows. 72 Electronic Noise in the Audio Hardware at Specific Frequencies If you can use Audacity or some other means to find the frequencies which are causing the noise, the best solution, assuming you don't just replace the hardware, is to manually construct filters to remove those specific frequencies. This is the safest solution in terms of only doing what you tell it to and not producing unexpected surprises some time down the road when something changed in the environment. 73 If you are looking for a fairly automatic filtering method, the Sox noisered profile based filter seems to work fairly well. There is an equivalent filter in ffmpeg, but I did not include that in my experiments as it is harder to use in a script because it does not use a separate noise profile file. 74 Recording Outdoors with an Inline Microphone in a Noisy Traffic Environment. In this situation, the FFMPEG arnndn combined with agate filters seem to be the most successful. The Sox noisered filter may work, but at the cost of more distortion in the voice than is seen in the other methods. 75 An inherent problem with any profile based noise reduction method is that if the background noise is not constant, which it seldom is in that sort of environment, the profile may not represent the background noise which is present later on in the recording. This risks adding more distortion in the voice as the profile and later environments diverge. 76 However, for this application a different microphone that provided a better recording would appear to be advisable. A solution which brought the microphone much closer to the mouth and so resulted in a better ratio of voice signal compared to background noise would appear to be necessary, after which the question of what sort of noise reduction to use would need to be re-evaluated. 77 A Noisy Fan Creating Background Noise in an Office. The Sox noisered filter and the FFMPEG arnndn, afftdn, and agate methods all work to some degree. However, they all need correct selection of parameters to achieve the proper results. When I compared all four methods side by side, I found the arnndn combined with the agate filter to be preferable in terms of the trade off between background noise reduction and distortion of the voice signal. The arnndn filter on its own seemed the next most preferable to me despite leaving some fan noise in the background. 78 However, that is a subjective judgment of a specific noise sample when recorded using a specific microphone. Keep in mind though that many listeners will not be listening in an idea environment. They may be doing things where background noise is present rather than in a very quiet room and so may find a small amount of background noise in the recording to be less of a problem than distortion in the voice signal which may make some words harder to understand. 79 When I conducted the same experiment recorded with the XTrike headset I found that arnndn seemed to offer no noticeable improvement. This may be because the amount of audible fan noise was far less with the XTrike headset to begin with. In other words, there is no single best solution here, and you may have to be prepared to try different options to see which one works in your situation. The important thing is to avoid making things worse by applying filtering that is not appropriate for that situation. The best method may be to use a recording method that doesn't pick up the fan noise to begin with. This can include just using a gaming headset with boom mic. 80 I have one final observation on this point regarding headsets. The Maxwell headset has a foam cover over the microphone while the XTrike headset does not. There was some slight audible wind buffeting noise picked up by the XTrike headset that was not observed with the Maxwell. This seemed to cause particular problems with the Sox noisered profile based filter, as this noise was irregular and after filtering would show up as a warbling sound. If you use a headset and plan to use it in conjunction with a fan, it may be advisable to apply some sort of wind cover over it. 81 Combining Complex Filters In several cases I found that combining several complex filters offered better results than using any single one on its own. The basic strategy though is to first use a method which is good at reducing undesirable noise without introducing excessive voice distortion. Then apply a different filter which is good at reducing small levels of background noise to an even lower level while affecting the voice signal as little as possible. This uses the relative strengths of different filter types to compensate for the weaknesses of the other. 82 Different combinations of filters were most effective for different types of problems. I did not try all possible combinations however. Perhaps a further exploration of this would be worth doing in a later podcast. -------------------- 83 Case Study - Noise in Another HPR Episode Audio In the comments to my second episode on Simple Podcasting (which is HPR4618) where I discussed basic filtering, a couple of listeners brought up an interesting point. Antoine mentioned "declicking" in a post. -------------------- Vance replied 84 Antoine, thanks for mentioning the click removal capability in Audacity! While I already knew about its noise removal filter, I wasn't aware it also had click removal. It might have helped me for HPR4637, where some sort of electromagnetic signal was picked up by my microphone/recorder, a Zoom H2 (the tapping sound was *not* present in the room where I recorded). While click removal does seem to distort speech when applied to it (though to my ears, it doesn't sound as weird as when noise removal is done with speech), I could have applied the filter only to the pauses, where the "tapping" is most noticeable. I will consider doing this in the event that I'm not able to eliminate the source of interference in the future, which would be the best way to go. -------------------- 85 End of quote. I found this interesting as it sounded like another audio problem that could be experimented with. I found a sample of the episode which had the clicks and cut a copy of that segment out to experiment with. These sounds are a series of clicks, or "ticks" would be another way to describe them, in the quiet part of the audio between sentences or phrases. 86 Next I used Audacity to study the sound spectrum. I found a massive 60 Hz noise spike. However, my speakers won't reproduce sound that low, and filtering this out didn't reduce the clicks. The clicks turned out to be bursts of noise across the 100 to 800 Hz band, which is right where the main vocal band also is. This makes it difficult to filter based on frequency. The most promising approach would seem to be to filter based on sound level. 87 I tried all of the individual audio filter techniques mentioned in the other experiments above. None produced satisfactory results except for agate, which makes quiet audio quieter. This completely suppressed the clicks. However, when applied to the entire episode it also distorted the start of a few sentences which began with single short syllables. 88 The agate filter has a number of parameters which could be adjusted to try to deal with these cases, although I did not spend the time to do so. Another solution to this distortion problem is to simply not apply the filter to those parts of the audio which are affected. If you record the audio as a series of small individual files, it would be easy enough to filter before concatenating the files together while skipping those files which contain audio which is not suited to this method. Here are the results of the experiments. 89 FFMPEG afftdn This reduces the size of of the ticks, but they are still present. However, they may be reduced to a level which is considered acceptable. 90 FFMPEG agate This was very effective in removing ticks with the right parameters. However, it can introduce some voice distortion in the form of cutting out the start of a few sentences which began with single short syllables. This can be corrected with a very short "attack" parameter to turn off the filter when it detects sound above a set threshhold. 91 FFMPEG arnndn This was relatively ineffective. 92 Sox noisered This was effective in removing the sounds between phrases. However, it introduces some distortion in the voice signal. 93 I also tried combining filters. FFMPEG afftdn Followed by agate This combined two different filters. First, it used afftdn to suppress the background noise to a lower level without much voice distortion. Then it applied the agate filter to suppress the noise levels between words still further. This got rid of virtually all of the background noise between words. 94 Here is a short audio sample from HPR4637. First is the unfiltered audio. Second is the filtered audio using the combined afftdn plus agate filters. Since the "clicks" are very quiet, you may not hear them unless you are in quiet environment. Quite a few listeners would probably not be aware of the perceived audio problem in this episode if it had not been discussed here. None the less, it makes for an interesting experiment. Here it is: 95 (Insert sample audio here) 96 Overall Conclusion for Noise "Ticks" The afftdn combined with agate filters seemed to offer the best overall results when used with the right parameters. However, the author, Vance, speaks very clearly and evenly, and so his voice is ideally suited for use with this filter. Another author's voice may not be as suited to this filter. 97 The Sox noisered profile based filter offers various degrees of trade off between suppressing noise and distorting the voice signal. As to whether this is an acceptable trade off depends on the particular voice in question and how easily understood it is under normal circumstances with out additional distortion. The afftdn filter may be a fairly safe filter to use on its own while producing acceptable if not perfect output. -------------------- 98 Overall Conclusions I have presented only a few of the experiments that I conducted. My overall conclusion after all of this is that there is no universal audio filtering method that works best in all circumstances. There are instead a number of tools in the toolbox, and picking the right one for the job takes a bit of trial and error. 99 However, if you have a repeatable recording environment, then once you have decided what tool you need you should create a script for it so you can have a repeatable processing setup. These conclusions apply to voice podcasting. Music has a different set of criteria and techniques that work well with basic voice podcasting may produce poor results when applied to music which has a broader range of frequency and just as importantly, a broad range of loudness. 100 If you are used to using filters and effects in Audacity, many of the settings on those correspond to arguments in the command line version of ffmpeg. It is worth learning how to use ffmpeg directly to automate your recording process. 101 The experiments that I conducted were greatly assisted by writing scripts which created multiple versions of audio files with different settings, thereby allowing me to try many different alternatives relatively easily. It also allowed me to concatenate different audio samples into a single audio file and so listen to different versions in quick succession, making subjective listening judgments more reliable. 102 It is important to keep in mind in all this that I am playing with audio filtering mainly to have fun. It is not necessary to do any of this if you think your podcast episode sounds just fine without it. So, don't let any of what I have talked about in all this discourage you from simply recording a podcast and sending it in as is. I will include copies of the filters I have described here in the show notes. -------------------- 103 Related Matters Hardware Characterization Using Audio Signals I found it useful to characterize the hardware that I had in order to understand its limitations better before starting the experiments. This involved playing a signal out through a set of speakers and then recording it through a microphone. 104 I used two types of signal for this. One is type of signal is known as a "chirp" signal. This is a sine wave that steadily increases in frequency as it sweeps across the audio spectrum. The standard audio range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz, but for my purposes I limited the upper frequency to 15 kHz to save time as anything beyond that is not very useful for voice podcasts. 105 By recording the chirp signal with a microphone and analyzing it with a Fourier transform, I could quickly see what each device was capable of. See my previous series on simple podcasting for an explanation of what a Fourier transform is and what software to use to see the results of it. Here is a chirp signal. 106 (Insert Audio Sample Here) 107 In addition to a chirp signal, I also used a series of simple tones of specific frequencies. By using these tones of known frequency I could gain an understanding of the limitations of my speakers and headphones, and just as importantly, my own ears. By understanding these limitations I was able to narrow the range of frequencies that I need to deal with quite considerably and set the high and low pass filters accordingly. These tones are a series of flac files generated with ffmpeg. 108 Here is a a sample audio tone at a 2 kHz frequency. 109 (Insert Audio Sample Here) 110 Copies of the script to create the chirp signal and the tones are in the show notes. -------------------- 111 A "Not a Review" of some of the Hardware that I Used I said that I would not do a review of the hardware that I used. However, some of it deserves mention for either how good or bad it was. I will record each section using the hardware being described. 112 Maxwell Headset This is my original recording hardware. This is a headset with boom mic and USB connection. There is no model number on it, so I don't know the model. This probably cost somewhere between 10 and 25 dollars. The earpieces sit on the ears and do not fully enclose them. This makes it light weight and comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. It has a problem however with electronic noise consisting of a noise spike every 1 kHz. I was able to fix this with a series of filters using FFMPEG. Fixing this problem is what got me started in understanding audio. I will probably continue to use this headset to make podcasts. 113 XTrike Headset, Model GH-510 This is also a headset with boom mic and USB connection. I purchased this headset for the purposes of experimentation for this podcast episode. It cost $12.88. I found it to be surprisingly good for the price. It has fully enclosed ear pieces however, which may make it uncomfortable to wear in hot weather. I may try doing some of my future podcasting using this headset. 114 Borne Earpiece and In-line Microphone This is a set of earplugs that go in your ears and connected by wires and a very small microphone built into a small bulge in the cable. It connects using a 3.5mm jack. The model number seems to be BUD250-BL. It cost approximately $3.00. I bought several sets of these and use them for listening to podcasts from an MP3 player. The ear pieces are pretty good for listening with. The microphone works reasonably well when used in a quiet location. It is less good when in a noisy environment. It is very important however to secure the microphone to your lapel or other location reasonably near your mouth and to point the microphone (that is the small hole) outwards and not simply let it dangle freely. If you let it just hang, you will get poor quality and inconsistent audio. 115 Yanmai Condenser Microphone, Model SF-910 I purchased this microphone for the purposes of experimentation for this podcast episode. It cost $3.88. As it is a condenser microphone, it is prone to picking up background noise more and as such is probably not a good choice for podcasting by single person sitting at a desk. However, it is none the less a surprisingly good microphone for surprisingly little money. 116 iCan USB Microphone, Model M-306 I purchased this microphone for the purposes of experimentation for this podcast episode. This has a USB connection. This was also relatively inexpensive at $7.99, or roughly twice the price of the Yanmai microphone. Unlike the Yanmai however, it is absolutely wretched. There was such a high degree of distortion when recording through it that I found I could not use it in the fan experiments which I had bought it for. I ended up buying the Yanmai microphone for that instead. -------------------- 117 Easy Effects Software The techniques described so far all involve recording audio files and then processing them later to produce the desired result. This is probably the simplest and most straightforward way of doing things if you are making a typical podcast. However, there may be instances where you want to apply filtering or other effects on the "live" signal immediately and not after the fact. 118 There is audio software which can hook into your computer's audio system and do this with a live signal. For Linux, there is a package called "Easy Effects". This is Free Software and comes under a GPL V3 or later license. I installed it from the Debian repository under Ubuntu 24.04. 119 You can create various filters and even chain them together to combine them. I played with it a bit but do not know enough about it to discuss it seriously at this time. However, I thought it would be worth mentioning for the sake of those who may wish to try it out themselves. -------------------- 120 Episode Conclusion After having had some fun with audio and listening to other HPR members talk about audio, I thought I would have some more fun by playing with noise reduction filters. I have no intention of becoming an audio professional, but by doing some experiments I learned a few things and had some fun doing it. I hope that the rest of you found this interest as well. I will see you all again later in another episode of Hacker Public Radio. -------------------- Scripts Basic Filter This shows basic high and low pass filters ( 120 Hz and 8 kHz respectively) and band reject filters for 50 and 60 Hz. # The high and low pass filters. hlpfil="highpass=f=120, highpass=f=120, lowpass=f=8000, lowpass=f=8000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. linefil="bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" # Filter using ffmpeg. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "$hlpfil, $linefil" outputname.flac # ====================================================================== afftdn Filter # noisefloor should be between 20 and 80. noisefloor=$1 # Run the noise reduction. ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af "afftdn=nr=10:nf=-""$noisefloor" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== agate Filter # threshold shoud be between 10 and 80. threshold=$1 # Run the noise reduction. ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af "agate=threshold=-"$threshold"dB:range=-60dB" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== arnndn Filter # mix should be between 0 and 1. mix=$1 # Run the noise reduction. ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af 'arnndn=model=std.rnnn:mix='"$mix" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== sox noisered Filter # Generate the noise profile from a sample of background noise. sox silencefiltered.flac -n noiseprof noise.prof # nramount shoudl be between 0 and 1 sox testrec-filtered.flac noiseout-testrec.flac noisered noise.prof "$nramount" # ====================================================================== Manual Filter for Maxwell Headset Noise # Create a series of band reject filters, from 1 kHz to 11 kHz. ftemplate="bandreject=f=%s000:width_type=h:w=100" kilospikefil=$( seq 1 11 | xargs printf "$ftemplate," ) # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af "$kilospikefil" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== Create a "chirp" signal # Start frequency. f0=20 # End frequency. f1=15000 # Duration of signal. duration=10 ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "aevalsrc=sin(2 * PI * (0.5 * ($f1 - $f0)/$duration * t^2 + ($f0 * t))):s=44100:d=$duration" -c:a flac -af "aformat=sample_fmts=s16" chirp.flac # ====================================================================== Generate Audio Tones toneout () { printf -v freqval "%05d" $1 ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "sine=frequency=$freqval:duration=3" tmptone.flac # Normalize ffmpeg -i tmptone.flac -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=4.0 -ar 44.1k -sample_fmt s16 tone$freqval.flac rm tmptone.flac } # List of frequencies in hertz. freqlist="50 60 100 120 130 140 150 160 170 200 500 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000" for freq in $( echo $freqlist ); do toneout $freq done # ====================================================================== Provide feedback on this episode.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. 01 This is the third in a four part series on simple podcasting. 02 In this episode we will cover the following topics: Analysis of audio noise problems and filtering methods used to deal with specific problems that we may find. Command line recording. Command line playback. Getting information about an audio recording. 03 Introduction When I did my first couple of podcasts I didn't notice that there was a quiet high pitched whine or buzz in the background. Nobody complained about it, but I thought I could do better in subsequent episodes. 04 Creating an Audio Sample If you have a similar problem, the first step is to find out where it is coming from. If there is no audible noise where you are recording, there is a good chance the problem is in the microphone or another part of the audio system. Plug in your microphone and record 2 or 3 seconds of quiet audio where you do not speak into the microphone or make other noise. 05 You will need a minimum amount of data in order to analyze it. For a flac file sampled at 44.1 kHz, 2 to 3 seconds of data should be enough. To get a sample of just electronic noise you can put the microphone in a drawer or somewhere like that if you want to be sure of getting a quiet signal. Any sound recorded in this way should be mainly from the microphone or other electronic elements in the analogue pathway. To get a sample of possible ambient noise, such as fans, make sure the microphone is in the open air in an area which is representative of where it will be when you are recording. -------------------- 06 Analyzing using Fourier Transforms Next you need to look at the wave form. At this point I will describe this using Audacity. I will show other ways later, but Audacity is actually the easiest if you are starting from nothing. You don't need to become an expert in Audacity to use it, just follow the steps I will describe. I myself don't know how to use Audacity beyond using this one feature. 07 We are going to analyze the sound spectrum in our sample. The technique being used is a Fourier Transform. A Fourier transform, often called an "FFT" for fast fourier transform, is a mathematical method of showing a signal in terms of frequency along the x axis instead of time. This allows us to spot troublesome noise frequencies which appear when we don't want them to. The FFT is a very common mathematical technique which is widely used in signal processing, not just in audio. 08 There is software which will create pretty coloured animations of sound waves, but this is not what you want. These are simply decorative patterns and won't tell us what we want to know. -------------------- 09 Using Audacity Install Audacity if you haven't already. Start Audacity. Select file > import > audio, then navigate to your sample and select "open". The file should load. 10 In the wave form part of the window, click anywhere and then type Ctrl-S to select all data points. The chart should turn a slightly darker colour. From the menu, select Analyze > Plot Spectrum. A new window will open, showing magnitude in db on the Y axis, and frequency in hertz on the x axis. For "algorithm" be sure it is set to "spectrum" 11 There are now two settings that we need to play with while we look for problems. One is "size" The default for this is 1024. The other is "axis". The default for this is "log frequency". -------------------- 12 What to Look For What we are looking for are large obvious spikes that stand out in the data. Since our test signal has very little to no actual audio data, any spikes should represent electrical or other noise that doesn't belong there. 13 I have found two combinations of settings to be most helpful in finding problems. These are Size 2048, axis linear frequency. Size 32768, axis log frequency. 14 A small size value can help very narrow spikes stand out from the background more, while a large size value can help separate spikes from surrounding noise. A linear frequency axis can help with seeing all spikes across the full frequency range, while a log frequency axis can help to better see what is happening in the often very crowded lowest frequency range. -------------------- 15 A Real Example of an Audio Problem If you have good audio equipment you may find nothing obvious. If you cannot hear any noise in the signal, there may be none of any consequence and there is nothing for you to do. 16 However, in my case I found two main problems and one lesser one. One problem was a spike at 60 Hz, which is the AC line frequency. There is also a lesser problem of a collection of a broad frequency range of noise below 60Hz. Both of these however will be taken care of by the basic filtering that we looked at earlier so we do not need to worry about them here. 17 The other main problem is I had a large spike at every 1 kHz interval from 1 kHz to 19 KHz. This was noise generated within the head set electronics, or the result of noise on the USB power supply. This is the product of a cheap headset. 18 These spikes are not very large compared to the volume of my voice, but if I do the same sort of analysis of samples where I am speaking, they appear in the intervals between words. This results in a high pitched whine or buzz. This was the source of the background noise or buzz in my first two podcast episodes. I need to get rid of this. 19 One option would be to get a better microphone, but, well, that wouldn't be any fun would it. It would also cost money and I don't want to spend any of that if I don't have to. If you analyze your own signal, you may find a different pattern, or even no noise at all. If you did not find anything when shielding your microphone from ambient audio noise, repeat the same test but with the microphone exposed to acoustic noise in the room. -------------------- 20 Advanced Filtering The next step is to figure out how to get rid of this noise. I have called this section "advanced filtering", but we are actually just making use of a technique that was already covered in basic filtering. 21 To deal with the remaining spikes we can use additional "band reject" filters, each of which removes a specific frequency at 1 kHz intervals from 1 kHz to 12 kHz. We will use this in combination with the filtering that we have already done previously, so we don't need to worry about anything above 12 kHz as we already remove that with a low pass filter. After a small amount of experimenting I came up with the following. 22 Because I am applying a total of 16 filters, 4 for basic filtering and 12 to deal with the specific microphone problems that I have, I have broken up the filters into separate strings. I then generate the 12 new band reject filters from a template. Note that I don't show the "de-esser" filter here. I would recommend adding it as a separate step after doing the sort of filtering we are talking about here. 23 Rather than reading out multiple lines of bash script, I will post them in the show notes. I will give a brief description of them here which you can refer to when reading the show notes. The FFMPEG and Sox versions are very similar in concept so I don't need to go over the Sox version in detail. See the show notes for it. FFMPEG Version Here's the FFMPEG version. # The high and low pass filters. hlpfil="highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. linefil="bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" # Create a series of band reject filters, from 1 kHz to 12 kHz. # Change or remove this part if your recording hardware does not require it. ftemplate="bandreject=f=%s000:width_type=h:w=100" kilospikefil=$( seq 1 12 | xargs printf "$ftemplate," ) # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i input.flac -af "$hlpfil, $linefil, $kilospikefil" output.flac 24 There are a total of 5 lines of bash script. In the first line, we create a string called "hlpfil" which is just the high and low pass filters copied from our previous discussion on basic filtering. In the second line, we create a string called "linefil" which is just the simple bandreject filters to cover 50 and 60 hertz AC line noise filters also from basic filtering. 25 In the third and fourth lines, we create a string called "kilospikefil" containing the new filters. The "f" parameter represents the frequency we are targeting. The "w" parameter represents the "width" of the frequency range we are filtering in terms of hertz. The filter is applied gradually rather than with a sharp cut-off, so to get more filtering action we need to have larger width. In this case I decided to hammer the spike quite aggressively and so used a relatively wide width of 100 hertz. Testing with a voice file did not show any noticeable distortion, so it's an acceptable solution. 26 For this filter we need to create a dozen filter command so we use the shell "seq" command to generate a sequence of numbers from 1 to 12. We then pipe that into the xargs command which applies each number to the next command. The next command is "printf", which takes the number it gets from xargs and applies it to the "ftemplate" string template in a manner very similar to C programming printf string templates. 27 We also have a comma in there to separate each of the individual filters. We then surround this with a $ and () so we can run the command and capture the output into a variable. Then we call ffmpeg and pass it the filters we created by putting the variable names inside a double quoted string, separated by commas. All of this will be in the show notes, so don't worry about trying to get the exact details right now. Sox Version Here's the Sox version. # The high and low pass filters. sxhlpfil="highpass 80 lowpass 12000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. sxfilter="$sxhlpfil $sxkilospikefil bandreject 60 20 bandreject 50 20" # Create a series of reject filters filters, from 1 kHz to 12 kHz. sxftemplate="bandreject %s000 100" sxkilospikefil=$( seq 1 12 | xargs printf "$sxftemplate " ) # Using SOX. sox input.flac output.flac $sxhlpfil $sxfilter $sxkilospikefil 28 The Sox version is very similar with the exception that the command arguments representing the filters must not be in quoted strings as Sox wants to see them as separate arguments instead of parsing a string. -------------------- 29 Confirming the Effect If we apply the above filters and look at this headset noise output file in the Audacity spectrum analyzer we will now see that these noise spikes are almost completely gone. We can now confirm how well this works by using a test audio file. Any normal short voice audio file will do for this. Just talk into the microphone normally and create a voice sample file that is 5 or 10 seconds long, or whatever you feel comfortable with. 30 With the original unfiltered voice audio I can hear a distinct high pitched whine overlaying the voice. With the filtered audio that whine or hum is not detectable. If we then look at the voice file in the Audacity spectrum analyzer, we can see distinct "notches" at the 50 Hz and 60 Hz frequencies, and at every 1 kHz from 1 kHz to 12 kHz. These notches are narrow enough that they won't cause a noticeable problem with voice signals. If we apply this filter to voice samples, the buzz or whine is gone and the voice signal sounds fine. Despite using a very cheap microphone, I now have acceptable quality audio for a podcast. 31 Again I want to emphasize that in this instance I am dealing with deficiencies with my hardware instead of buying a better microphone. These additional filters are intended to deal with the specific hardware problem I am facing. You don't need these additional filters if you cannot detect an audible problem. On the other hand, if you have a different problem you may wish to deal with a different set of frequencies. Finding these problems is the reason for using a spectrum analyzer. 32 FFMPEG has other filtering methods as well. However, as I didn't end up using them I can't really do an adequate job of describing them. If anyone has used them successfully, they are welcome to make a podcast on the subject. -------------------- 33 Completing the Process With these new filters added into the middle of the processing steps, you can now complete the processing by doing the de-essing, normalizing, and review steps as described in the previous episode. -------------------- 34 Command Line Recording I will now cover a separate topic, which is recording using command line programs. I am covering it in this episode as it is a short topic and it is convenient to talk about it here. 35 As well as using GUI based recording programs such as Gnome Sound Recorder, it is possible to record podcast episodes using command line tools such as FFMPEG. As for why you may wish to use command line tools to record audio, there are several reasons. One is that you may simply prefer to do it this way because it pleases you to do so. Another is that it allows the recording step to be included in a script that encompasses other parts of the process, automating what may have otherwise been separate manual steps. 36 However, if you don't find these arguments particularly compelling, then I'm not going to attempt to persuade you to use the command line to record audio. I am doing this part of this episode out of a desire to have a bit of fun and I probably won't be using it much myself. I will however use one of these methods to record this part of this episode. 37 Recording with FFMPEG - The Basics One of the common command line tools you can use is FFMPEG, a package which I have previously mentioned with respect to filtering audio files. Here is an example of how to record using FFMPEG. We call FFMPEG specifying the audio input system as the FFMPEG input, and then specify a file to output to. 38 # Record audio. ffmpeg -f pulse -i default ff.flac 39 Press 'q' to stop. This uses pulse audio on Linux for input "-f pulse", and the default input "-i default". However, this does not specify the the sample rate or mono recording. To do that we need to add a few more parameters as in the following 40 ffmpeg -f pulse -i default -ac 1 -ar 44100 ff.flac 41 "-ac 1" specifies mono output "-ar 44100" specifies 44.1 khz bit rate. 42 Playback with FFMPEG - The Basics FFMPEG can also play back music. In this case however we need to call the "ffplay" program rather than FFMPEG itself. To play an audio file, simply call ffplay and give it the name of the audio file as an argument to the command. For example: 43 # Play an audio file. ffplay podcast.flac 44 We can also call it with the "autoexit" option, which tells ffplay to automatically exit when the audio file has finished playing. ffplay -autoexit ff.flac 45 -autoexit means Exit when the audio file is done playing. 46 To exit in the middle of the recording, press "q' or ESC. To pause the playback, press "p" or space bar. To decrease the volume press "9" or "/". To increase the volume press "0" or "*". 47 To seek forward 10 seconds, press the right cursor button. To seek backward 10 seconds, press the left cursor button. To seek forward 1 minute, press the up cursor button. To seek backward 1 minute, press the down cursor button. 48 The "0" and "9" keys mentioned above are those on the top row of the keyboard, not the ones on the separate numeric pad. 49 While the recording is playing, a graphical window will open which shows a cascading waveform based on the current content. This is purely decorative and does not serve any particularly useful purpose. -------------------- #!/bin/bash # Record a podcast episode segment. # Get the next file name. # First we check if any matching file patterns exist. If they don't, # then we create the first one starting counting at 1. fcount=$( ls [0-9][0-9].flac 2>/dev/null | wc -l ) if (( $fcount < 1 )); then fname="01.flac" else # If there are any matching file patterns, we find the highest number # and increment it by 1. filenum=$( ls [0-9][0-9].flac 2>&1 | cut -d. -f1 | sort | tail -1 ) newfilecount=$(( 10#$filenum + 1 )) fname=$( printf "%02d.flac" $newfilecount ) fi echo "Recording to: $fname" # Record using ffmpeg. # This makes use of pulse audio and the input is the default audio input. # The sample rate is set to 44.1 kHz, and it is recorded as mono (1 channel). ffmpeg -f pulse -i default -ar 44100 -ac 1 $fname echo "Recorded audio to: $fname" # Report on basic information about the audio file that was just recorded. ffprobe -hide_banner $fname -------------------- 50 Sox - Not so Good I did not find the recording or playback features of Sox to be as useful as those of FFMPEG, so I won't bother to cover them here. -------------------- 51 Getting Information About an Audio Recording There are also command line tools which can be used to retrieve information about audio recordings. 52 FFMPEG Version With FFMPEG this is called "ffprobe". For example: 53 ffprobe hpr4566.mp3 54 This will print out a lot of information about FFMPEG itself. To skip that use the hide_banner option. 55 ffprobe -hide_banner hpr4566.mp3 56 This will print out information about the audio recording. This will include things like the duration, bit rate, sample rate, stereo or mono, etc. If the author added metadata tags to the file, it will also show those. HPR add things like the title, author, copyright license, comment, etc. You can extract the ones you want using something like grep and cut. 57 Sox Version Sox has a similar feature, called "soxi". 58 soxi ff.flac 59 However, it may not work on mp3 files if you do not have an mp3 handler for it installed. -------------------- 60 Conclusion In this episode we took a brief look at an example of how to solve an audio problem through filtering. We looked at how to use Audacity to find where the problems were. We then looked at how to apply filters to remove these sources of noise. We also looked at how to record podcasts and get information about audio files using command line tools. 61 In the next episode we will look at alternatives to Audacity for analyzing audio. While Audacity works just fine, this is an opportunity to have a bit fun with some gratuitous hackery. 62 This has been the third episode in a four part series on simple podcasting. -------------------- -------------------- Full Audio Processing Pipeline This version includes the special filters used to fix my headset problems. Use the version from the previous episode if you do not have the same audio hardware problems. #!/bin/bash # Full processing pipeline for making simple podcasts. # ====================================================================== # Concatenate multiple flac files into a single flac file. # This is used to combine podcast recorded segments into a single # flac file for uploading to HPR. concataudio () { outputname="$1" # First create the list file. printf "file '%s'n" [0-9][0-9].flac > podseglist.txt # Now concatenate them ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i podseglist.txt "$outputname" rm podseglist.txt } # ====================================================================== # Basic and advanced filters. filter () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 # Using ffmpeg. # The high and low pass filters. hlpfil="highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. linefil="bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" # Create a series of band reject filters, from 1 kHz to 11 kHz. ftemplate="bandreject=f=%s000:width_type=h:w=100" kilospikefil=$( seq 1 11 | xargs printf "$ftemplate," ) # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af "$hlpfil, $linefil, $kilospikefil" $outputname } # ====================================================================== # De-Essing. deessing () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 option=$3 # De-essing filter. ffmpeg -i $inputfile -filter_complex "deesser=i=0.5:m=0.5:f=0.5:s=$option" -b:a 336k -sample_fmt s16 $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Normalizing the audio to EBU R128 standard for review using ffmpeg. normffmpeg () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 # Normalize to EBU R128 standard. ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=4.0 -ar 44.1k $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Output an MP3 version to help with reviewing. mp3convert () { inputfile=$1 # Get the name of the file and then create the output file name. j=$( basename $inputfile ".flac" ) outputname="$j"".mp3" # Convert to MP3. ffmpeg -i $inputfile $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Concatenate the separate audio files. concataudio fullpod-unfiltered.flac # Basic filtering. filter fullpod-unfiltered.flac filtered.flac # De-essing. This is the version to send for publishing. # The third argument should be "o" for de-essing, or "i" for pass through without de-essing. deessing filtered.flac fullpod.flac o # Normalized for review. normffmpeg fullpod.flac fullpod-norm.flac # Output an MP3 copy for review. mp3convert fullpod-norm.flac -------------------- -------------------- Provide feedback on this episode.

Paying Attention! with Tom Duggan Today Tom and Intern Girl chatted at the beginning of the show about the $9.6M defecit in the Methuen schools upcoming state rep race between Francisco Paulino and Councilors Celina Reyes and Ana Levy, the pettiness of Methuen Mayor Beauregard whining about councilors missing a special meeting after he missed three in a row, Lawrence mayor Brian DePena fighting in court to disburse the 400 abandoned properties in the city through the LRA which is a separate entity from the city ...Then the geniuses behind the SeVmar brand, SeVmar restaurant, Jocelyn's at SeVmar Tom's guest Jocelyn and Kelvin Severino. 

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. Basic-Filtering 01 Introduction This is the second episode in a four part series on a simple way to create your own HPR podcast episode. 02 This episode will cover the following topics: Basic filtering.. De-essing to improve voice quality. And normalizing to adjust audio levels for easier reviewing. 03 Filtering is removing unwanted noise from an audio signal. There are several ways of doing this. It is possible to do this with Audacity, but I don't know how so I won't try to describe that method. It is possible however to filter using command line tools such as FFMPEG and Sox. When assembled into shell scripts, these tools can become part of an automated process that you can use over and over again for each HPR episode that you record. 04 In a later episode I will discuss how to analyze audio signals to find the sources of noise that can be reduced or eliminated with filters. In this episode however I will discuss basic filtering that you can apply routinely without doing any analysis beforehand. 05 Sources of Noise A question that you may have is "why is there noise in the recording?" There are many sources of undesirable noise. 06 A very common one that you may not be aware of is electrical noise that works its way into the electronic recording circuits and is imperceptible to you until you play back the recorded audio. The most common noise signal is what is commonly called "line noise" and is a low frequency hum at 50 or 60 Hz from the electric power lines and reflects the 50 or 60 Hz frequency of the AC power lines feeding your recording hardware. 07 You may be familiar with this low frequency hum from when it emanates from large electrical hardware such as transformers as it makes the laminations vibrate. However, it can also work its way indirectly into electronic equipment as well. Good quality audio hardware may filter all or most of this out, but it is present in a lot of consumer grade hardware. 08 Other sources of electrical noise may reflect specific problems in your recording hardware. I will discuss one such problem with my microphone that I had to address. Still other sources of noise may reflect actual physical audio noise around you, such as fans. Placing the microphone close to your face will help in dealing with a lot of these problems, but you may find filtering to be of some help here as well. 09 Audio Frequency Range Let's start with some basics. A good quality stereo of the type you may have at home is typically rated to perform between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. This is the widest possible range that we need to consider. In reality, this is a far wider range than is needed for a voice oriented podcast. It is also well beyond the range of the hardware that many of your listeners will be using to listen to the podcast. 10 For example, the speakers that I have connected to my PC and a number of headphones and earphones that I have tested drop off drastically below 80 Hz or above 8 kHz, or even above 6 kHz in many cases. This is not audiophile quality hardware, but it is representative of the sort of hardware that a lot of your listeners will be using when listening to podcasts. And to be honest here, a lot of people will have difficulty hearing anything above 8 kHz even with the best quality audio hardware due to hearing loss from environmental noise exposure or age. 11 You can get a good idea of what different frequencies sound like by generating sine waves using either FFMPEG or Sox. Here's an example of generating a 1 kHz sine wave using FFMPEG. A copy of this will be in the show notes. ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "sine=frequency=1000:sample_rate=44100:duration=3" 01000hz.flac This creates a sine wave at 1 kHz and at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz for a duration of 3 seconds and saves it to a flac file named 01000hz.flac 12 Here's the same using Sox. sox -n -r 44100 -b 16 01000hz.flac synth 3 sine 1000 The -b 16 specifies using 16 bit audio to encode it, and the "sine 1000" element specifies the frequency in hertz. 13 You can test this out at different frequencies to get a feel for how your hardware responds. What the effective limits on typical hardware audio range means is that we can quite safely filter out a large part of what is considered to be the "audio range" without any noticeable loss of quality. For the purposes of our discussion here then I will limit the frequency range to between 80 Hz and 12 kHz, and that is being generous. You can probably narrow that, particularly at the top end, without any problems. 14 At the low end, the typical rule of thumb recommended by most people seems to be that for the average male voice you can set the lower threshold at 80 Hz, and for the average female you can set it at 160 Hz. Note that you don't *have* to set the threshold higher for a female. Rather, it is just that you typically *can* set it higher if you wish. Note also that these are averages, and may not reflect an actual individual. 15 Simple Filters We will now create some simple filters using the same command line software mentioned in a previous episode in this series. These are FFMPEG and Sox. 16 First let's define some terminology. A high pass filter passes through frequencies which fall above a certain threshold and blocks frequencies which are below that frequency. A low pass filter passes through frequencies which fall below a certain threshold and blocks frequencies which are above that frequency. 17 In reality there isn't an abrupt cut-off in the filters. Instead there is a gradual roll off or sloping off of amplitude below or above the specified filter frequency. This is for two reasons. One is that if there was an abrupt cut off then it would risk introducing audible distortion in the signal for frequencies on the margin. 18 The other reason is that this is how hardware filters traditionally inherently worked when they were made out of electronic components such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors. The sharpness of this cut off can be adjusted, but we won't be fiddling with it in that sort of detail. You will sometimes see filters specified in terms of "poles". This has to do with describing how filters were constructed using electronic components. Don't worry about it, it doesn't really matter. 19 Here is a typical high pass filter using ffmpeg which filters out frequencies below 80 hertz. # High pass filter. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "highpass=f=80" outputfile.flac Here is a typical low pass filter using ffmpeg which filters out frequencies above 12 kHz. # Low pass filter. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "lowpass=f=12000" outputfile.flac 20 Here is a filter which combines the two. # Combined filters. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000" outputfile.flac And here is the same thing using Sox. sox inputfile.flac outputfile.flac highpass 80 lowpass 12000 21 Filtering Out Specific Frequencies Recall that I mentioned that a common source of noise is the 50 or 60 Hz AC power line frequency working its way through the electronics of your recording device. Because filters operate gradually and the 80 Hz lower filter threshold is close to 60 Hz, the high pass filter may not deal with this adequately. 22 Now it happens that your listeners may not be able to hear this 50 or 60 Hz noise anyway because their audio hardware won't reproduce it. That by the way includes you not being able to hear it either when you review your recording before uploading it. However, there may be some HPR listeners who are sitting back sipping a glass of wine and listening to your episode on their stereo and who can hear it. That suggests that we ought to do something about it just in case. 23 I will get into how to analyze audio signals in a later episode, but for now just accept that I looked at the frequency spectrum of a sample recording using my hardware and found a large 60 Hz noise spike which I wanted to address. 24 Experimenting with additional high pass frequencies up to 120 Hz did not improve things much with respect to the 60 Hz problem. There are other parameters which could be tweaked, but at this point it would seem most promising to attack the 60 Hz spike problem directly using a different filter method. To deal with the this 60 Hz spike we can use a "band reject" filter, which removes a specific band of frequencies. We will use this in combination with the filtering that we have already done above. 25 After a small amount of experimenting I came up with the following. I also added in a 50 Hz filter while I was at it, for the benefit of those living in areas with 50 Hz electrical supply. These filters will be included in the show notes, so don't worry if you can't quite understand all the details from a verbal description. 26 Here's the FFMPEG version. # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i input.flac -af "highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000, bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" output.flac 27 This as the following elements A high pass filter at 80 Hz, A low pass filter at 12 kHz, A band reject filter centred at 60 Hz and with a width of 20 hertz. A similar band reject filter centred at 50 Hz. 28 Here's the Sox version. # Sox version. sox input.flac output.flac highpass 80 lowpass 12000 bandreject 60 20 bandreject 50 20 Note that with sox, don't quote the filter definition strings or else it will result in an error as sox doesn't see enough parameters. This is not a problem with ffmpeg. 29 The band reject filter knocks the stuffing out of the 60 Hz line noise, and the 50 Hz parameter should do the same for that frequency as well. This basic filter should be able to be applied to any podcast audio recording without causing any problems. You can probably reduce the low pass frequency from 12 kHz down to 8 kHz without any problems, but I would suggest that you test it with your voice before making that decision. 30 I will come back to filtering out specific frequencies again later when I discuss how I solved a specific problem with the hardware that I am using. However, we have to discuss how to analyze audio signals before we can do that sort of technical troubleshooting, and I will cover that in a later episode. -------------------- 31 De-Essing An additional type of filtering is "de-essing". When recording audio, the microphone or environment may result in "s", "sh", "ch" and possibly other sounds to be exaggerated. These are all higher frequency elements of voice recordings. "De-essing" attempts to soften these sounds by selectively reducing the volume on the frequency band which contains these sounds. 32 Software Filters De-essing is accomplished via software filters. FFMPEG and Sox both have de-essing filters. For FFMPEG, the de-essing filter is built in. For Sox however, we must install an optional plug-in. I will cover this is more detail when I discuss using Sox for de-essing. 33 Do You Need De-Essing? The first thing to make clear however, is that you may not need to worry about this. If you think the audio sounds just fine the way it is, you don't need to do any de-essing to it. De-essing is a very subtle change, and you would probably need to do some careful before and after comparisons of audio samples to tell the difference. I didn't know that a thing called de-essing even existed before I started doing the research to make this podcast episode. However, at this point we are doing things more for fun than out of necessity, so I'll describe it anyway. 34 De-Essing with FFMPEG De-essing with FFMPEG is relatively simple. The filter is built in, and there are just three values to adjust. On the other hand, it is not really obvious what these values mean in practical terms. 35 I will however warn you to not rely on the AI search results from Google to understand this feature. The AI, in my experience, just makes stuff up about it and tells you to use options that don't exist and values that are not valid. I found that the only useful information came from FFMPEG's own web site, and from examples written by actual humans. 36 I then experimented with different values to see what effects they had. Since the results are rather subtle, fine tuning isn't really that necessary and I found that I could arrive at some reasonable values fairly quickly. I will provide the parameters that I found useful for me, and I suspect they would probably work for you as well. 37 Here is a typical de-essing command. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -filter_complex "deesser=i=0.5:m=0.5:f=0.5:s=o" -b:a 336k -sample_fmt s16 outputfile.flac 38 The important arguments are i, m, and f. i is intensity for triggering de-essing. The allowed range is 0 to 1. The default is 0. By experimentation I found that "0" means no de-essing, and "1" is maximum de-essing. I found that setting it to "0.5" gave satisfactory results. 39 m is the amount of "ducking on the treble part of sound". The allowed range is 0 to 1. The default is 0.5. By experimentation I found that "1" means no de-essing, and "0" is maximum de-essing. I found that setting it to "0.5" gave satisfactory results. 40 f is how much of the original frequency content to keep when de-essing. The allowed range is 0 to 1. The default is 0.5. By experimentation I found that "1" means no de-essing, and "0" is maximum de-essing. I found that setting it to "0.5" gave satisfactory results. 41 Setting "m" or "f" too high can result in a distorted output as too much of the original sound is cut out. The defaults of 0.5 in both cases gave audible improvements without noticeable distortion. 42 There is an additional parameter called "s". This controls whether the de-essing filter does anything. Setting it to "o" is the normal and default mode. Setting it to "e" causes it to output just the components that it would normally have filtered out. This is useful for testing purposes so you can see what and how much is being filtered. You only use this when experimenting with different values. Setting it to "i" causes the input to be passed through without de-essing. This would be useful in scripts where you want to use a variable to control whether or not to use the de-esser while still creating the expected output file. 43 There are two other elements of the command which were included but are not strictly speaking part of the de-essing filter itself . These are " -b:a 336k" and "-sample_fmt s16". " -b:a 336k" sets the audio bit rate to 336k. "-sample_fmt s16" sets the audio sample format to 16 bit. I found it necessary to specify these in order to prevent the de-essing filter from changing formats. They are not part of de-essing however. 44 De-Essing with Sox You can also de-ess with Sox. However, this is more complex for several reasons. One reason is that Sox does not have its own de-essing filters. Instead it uses optional plug-ins, and you must find and install these. The actual plug in may vary depending on what operating system you are using. The other reason is that it deals with the issue in fairly low level parameters, and so is a bit more complex to describe. Because of this I will skip over describing this in detail and just give a very brief overview. If anyone would like me to describe in more detail how to de-ess with Sox, then send in a comment and I will do a short episode on it later. 45 Sox De-Essing Overview To de-ess with Sox, you first need to install the plug-ins. On Linux, these will be the TAP ladspa plug-ins. TAP stands for "Tom's Audio Processing" plugins. ladspa stands for "Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API" To install the TAP plugins on Ubuntu, using the following command. sudo apt install tap-plugins The plug-in we need is called "tap_deesser.so". 46 In order to use the plug-ins, you need to set the path as a variable. On Ubuntu this is. export LADSPA_PATH="/usr/lib/ladspa:" I put the above in the shell script which calls the Sox de-esser. 47 To use the Sox de-esser, you do the following: sox inputfile.flac outputfile.flac ladspa tap_deesser tap_deesser -30 4500 48 tap_deesser tap_deesser tells it which plugin to use. We need to state tap_deesser twice because the first is the name of the ".so" file and the second is the name of the plugin. A single "so" file can contain multiple filters, although in this case there is only one. -30 is the threshold in dB at which to start to apply the filter. 4500 is the frequency in Hz that the filter centres around. 49 The TAP web page has a table of recommended frequencies. These are: Male 'ess' 4500 Hz Male 'ssh' 3400 Hz Female 'ess' 6800 Hz Female 'ssh' 5100 Hz You will need to do some trial and error to find what works best for you. 50 De-Essing Summary De-essing can be used to make minor improvements to voice quality by reducing certain harsh sounds which may be exaggerated by a microphone. If it sounds like a lot of work you can probably simply not bother with it and not really miss it. -------------------- 51 Normalizing Normalizing a signal means adjusting it to meet a specified level. For audio it means adjusting the volume or sound level. You may wish to normalize the audio of your recording to make it easier to listen to when reviewing it. The copy that you send to HPR however should be the original un-normalized version. 52 Sound level is measured in two ways, dB and LUFS. The latter is a more sophisticated way of measuring things which takes into account how the human ear perceives loudness. I won't go into a lot of detail in that regards, other than to say that just accept LUFS as a unit of perceived loudness that is the international standard. LUFS stands for "Loudness Units referenced to Full Scale", and is part of the EBU R128 standard, where EBU stands for European Broadcast Union. In both cases the measured value is a negative number, with numbers smaller in magnitude being louder. Smaller in magnitude means closer to zero. 53 HPR will adjust the sound level for publication, but if you wish to check the audio before uploading it can help to adjust it to something close to what HPR will do so that you can listen to it at a volume which most listeners will hear. In my case full volume on the audio system input produced a sound level which was much lower than a typical HPR episode. However, the volume level in the flac file itself can be adjusted using ffmpeg. 54 Measuring Volume Level First we need to see what the volume level is for a typical HPR podcast. To do this we use ffmpeg. In this example we are using an episode named "hprpodcast.mp3". Pick an episode which you think is suitable and copy the file to the working directory. 55 In the following script we use a volumedetect filter. The text we want normally outputs to standard error, so we have to do a bit of bashery to redirect this to standard output so it will go through a pipe. We then grep for the string "I:". This will have the average volume level in "loudness units" (LUFS). Then we extract the number, giving us a target LUFS level. 56 ffmpeg -i hprpodcast.mp3 -filter:a ebur128=framelog=quiet -f null /dev/null 2>&1 | grep "I:" | cut -d: -f2 57 Unfortunately I can't find a Sox feature which handles EBU loudness, so we need to work in dB instead. Here is the sox version. However, note that this may not work on mp3s if sox mp3 handing is not installed. 58 sox hprpodcast.mp3 -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev 59 You can use either of these for measuring the volume or sound level of an audio file. However, note that individual episodes from HPR may vary a bit in terms of loudness. In the samples that I looked at, this however was less than 1 LUFS or dB while my own recording was roughly 5 LUFS lower in volume than a typical HPR episode. -------------------- 60 If you Google for the EBU R128 standard the AI result will confidently tell you to use a target of -23 LUFS. However, this is wrong, which shouldn't be of any surprise if you are familiar with using AI. 61 The -23 LUFS figure is for broadcast television. There is in fact no standard level for podcasts. However, there is apparently a general industry convention of using somewhere around -17 LUFS. If I look at the first two HPR episodes that I did, HPR normalized them to -16.8 LUFS and -17.8 LUFS, while the original FLAC files that I submitted were -21.6 LUFS and -22.3 LUFS respectively. 62 So HRP appear to be targeting somewhere around -17 LUFS as well. We will therefore use -17 LUFS as our target for our own copy for review. -------------------- 63 The nice thing about using the EBU filter in FFMPEG is that this is very simple. Here is the FFMPEG version. 64 ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=7.0 -ar 44.1k outputfile.flac 65 "I" is the LUFS target. LRA is the loudness range target. The default value is 7.0 so I used that. TP sets the maximum true peak. The default value is -2.0. so I used that. -------------------- 66 With Sox things are a bit more difficult. There is no direct method of setting the loudness that I am aware of, so we need to measure the current sound level in dB, do some calculations, and then apply that as a gain factor to the output. 67 First we need to subtract the measured db level from our flac file from the target db level from the HPR episode we decided to use as a sample. Bash by itself normally just does integer math. However, we would like to have at least one decimal point of resolution to work with. The simple solution is to do this calculation using bc, the shell arbitrary precision calculator. 68 Then take this new value and use it in a "volume" filter. The number which we give sox is the amount to increase or decrease the volume by. Sox will then output a new file with the new volume level. You can now listen to this file under conditions more closely approximating what it will be like after HPR have done their own audio adjustments and normalizaton on it This helps when listening to the file for any problems before you upload it. 69 Rather than reading 5 lines of complex shell script to you, I will put a copy of it in the show notes. level=$( sox $inputfile -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" ) leveldb=$( echo "$level" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev ) targetdb="-18.9" volumechange=$(echo "scale=2 ; $targetdb - $leveldb" | bc ) sox $inputfile $outputname gain "$volumechange" -------------------- 70 Normalization should be the last thing you do to the file. It should be done after any noise filtering, such as low pass, high pass, bandreject, etc. If you normalize first, you will be amplifying the noise as well as the desired signal. 71 The exact normalization level used for review purposes doesn't matter, as HPR will apply their own later. All we are doing at this point is adjusting the volume to something which approximates a normal episode so you can listen to it for final review. 72 When you send your file to HPR, send the original *unnormalized* version, not the normalized version. When you normalize an audio signal, if you are not careful you may introduce things which cause problems with later additional processing. HPR probably do more things to the audio than just normalizing and so they need the unnormalized file so that they can do their own normalizing last. -------------------- 73 If at this point you are happy with the recording as is, you are ready to send the *unnormalized* version to HPR. The scripts to implement the features discussed in this episode will be in the show notes. 74 Conclusion In this episode we covered basic filtering using ffmpeg and sox. We discussed what noise was and some of the origins of noise. We talked about the audio frequency range and the limitations of common hardware used to record and listen to podcasts. We covered basic high and low pass filters used to limit the audio frequency range in order to remove possible low and high frequency noise. 75 We discussed specific filters to eliminate 50 and 60 Hz electrical power noise. We talked about de-essing, what it was, why you may wish to use it, and some basic de-essing filter implementation details. We discussed normalizing, what it is, why you may wish to use it, and how it relates to podcasting conventions. 76 In the next episode we will discuss analyzing audio signals to help find the sources of noise problems. We will also discuss creating filters to eliminate any problems that we found. In my case I had a problem with the microphone that I use, and I describe how I used filters to deal with that problem. 77 This has been the second episode in a four part series on simple podcasting. -------------------- EBU R128 Loudness Measurement using FFMPEG #!/bin/bash echo "EBU r128 loudness measurement using FFMPEG" for inputfile in *.flac *.mp3 ; do level=$( ffmpeg -i $inputfile -filter:a ebur128=framelog=quiet -f null /dev/null 2>&1 | grep "I:" | cut -d: -f2 ) echo $inputfile $level done -------------------- DB Sound Level Measurement using Sox #!/bin/bash # Sox version. May not work for mp3 if an mp3 format handling is not installed. echo "dB sound level measurement using Sox." for inputfile in *.flac *.mp3 ; do level=$( sox $inputfile -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" ) leveldb=$( echo "$level" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev ) echo $inputfile $leveldb done -------------------- EBU R128 Loudness Normalization using FFMPEG #!/bin/bash # Adjust the volume to a desired level. for inputfile in *.flac ; do j=$( basename $inputfile ".flac" ) outputname="$j""-normff.flac" ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=4.0 -ar 44.1k $outputname echo $outputname done -------------------- DB Sound Level Normalization using Sox #!/bin/bash # Adjust the volume to a desired level. for inputfile in *.flac ; do j=$( basename $inputfile ".flac" ) outputname="$j""-normff.flac" # Measure the volume level and extract the mean volume. level=$( sox $inputfile -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" ) leveldb=$( echo "$level" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev ) # Calculate the difference in dB desired. Scale specifies the number of decimal places. # Target db is the volume measured on hpr4506 (UCSD-P-System). targetdb="-18.9" volumechange=$(echo "scale=2 ; $targetdb - $leveldb" | bc ) echo "Using sox: File: $inputfile Original level: $leveldb Change by: $volumechange" # Adjust the volume. sox $inputfile $outputname gain "$volumechange" done -------------------- Full processing pipeline for making simple podcasts using FFMPEG #!/bin/bash #!/bin/bash # Full processing pipeline for making simple podcasts. # ====================================================================== # Concatenate multiple flac files into a single flac file. # This is used to combine podcast recorded segments into a single # flac file for uploading to HPR. concataudio () { outputname="$1" # First create the list file. printf "file '%s'n" [0-9][0-9].flac > podseglist.txt # Now concatenate them ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i podseglist.txt "$outputname" rm podseglist.txt } # ====================================================================== # Basic filters. filter () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 # Using ffmpeg. # The high and low pass filters. hlpfil="highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. linefil="bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af "$hlpfil, $linefil" $outputname } # ====================================================================== # De-Essing. deessing () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 option=$3 # De-essing filter. ffmpeg -i $inputfile -filter_complex "deesser=i=0.5:m=0.5:f=0.5:s=$option" -b:a 336k -sample_fmt s16 $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Normalizing the audio to EBU R128 standard for review using ffmpeg. normffmpeg () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 # Normalize to EBU R128 standard. ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=4.0 -ar 44.1k $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Output an MP3 version to help with reviewing. mp3convert () { inputfile=$1 # Get the name of the file and then create the output file name. j=$( basename $inputfile ".flac" ) outputname="$j"".mp3" # Convert to MP3. ffmpeg -i $inputfile $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Concatenate the separate audio files. concataudio fullpod-unfiltered.flac # Basic filtering. filter fullpod-unfiltered.flac filtered.flac # De-essing. This is the version to send for publishing. # The third argument should be "o" for de-essing, or "i" for pass through without de-essing. deessing filtered.flac fullpod.flac o # Normalized for review. normffmpeg fullpod.flac fullpod-norm.flac # Output an MP3 copy for review. mp3convert fullpod-norm.flac -------------------- -------------------- Provide feedback on this episode.

Aubrey Masango chats with Galeboe Modisapodi, Employment Relations & Employee Benefits Consultant and Accredited Commercial Mediator at Molatudi Advisory Services (MAS), to unpack the Labour Law Amendment Bill. They dive into the proposed changes, key feedback, and what's next for implementation. Tags: 702, Aubrey Masango show, Aubrey Masango, Bra Aubrey, Labour Law Amendment Bill, Galeboe Modisapodi, Legal Matters, Basic Conditions of Employment Act, BCEA Employment Equity Act, EEA, Labour Relations Act, LRA, National Minimum Wage Act, NMWA, Unemployment Insurance Act, UIA The Aubrey Masango Show is presented by late night radio broadcaster Aubrey Masango. Aubrey hosts in-depth interviews on controversial political issues and chats to experts offering life advice and guidance in areas of psychology, personal finance and more. All Aubrey’s interviews are podcasted for you to catch-up and listen. Thank you for listening to this podcast from The Aubrey Masango Show. Listen live on weekdays between 20:00 and 24:00 (SA Time) to The Aubrey Masango Show broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj and on CapeTalk between 20:00 and 21:00 (SA Time) https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk Find out more about the show here https://buff.ly/lzyKCv0 and get all the catch-up podcasts https://buff.ly/rT6znsn Subscribe to the 702 and CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfet Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Offseason Continued:“LRA Kinda Live: Pt. 2”on-site @ the LRA 2025 Expow/ Brad WattsListen. Subscribe. Share.The Eat the Boot Podcast is sponsored by Cheba Hut Toasted Subs in Baton Rouge and features music from Louisiana based singer/songwriter, Adam Dale, from the album “Shadowtown”.  www.eattheboot.com

In this episode of The Compendium, we revisit the explosive rise and spectacular fall of Kony 2012 — the viral video that promised to stop Joseph Kony and his LRA army, but became a cautionary tale about social media activism. From the $30 action kits to celebrity endorsements, evangelical funding, and a public meltdown, we unravel how a glossy campaign captured the world's attention… and why it ultimately failed to do anything… at all. We give you just the Compendium, but if you want more, here are our resources: Kony 2012 – Wikipedia Kony 2012 viral video - Youtube Kony 2012 ampaign background – official website Host & Show Info Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox About: Kyle and Adam are more than just your hosts, they're your close friends sharing intriguing stories from tales from the darker corners of true crime, the annals of your forgotten history books, and the who's who of incredible people. Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland by Aleksey Chistilin Trailer Music: Stealy Move by Soundroll Community & Calls to Action ⭐ Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts

The Offseason Continued:“LRA Kinda Live: Pt. 1”on-site @ the LRA 2025 Expow/ Mark LatterListen. Subscribe. Share.The Eat the Boot Podcast is sponsored by Cheba Hut Toasted Subs in Baton Rouge and features music from Louisiana based singer/songwriter, Adam Dale, from the album “Shadowtown”.  www.eattheboot.com

Troisième et dernier reportage de notre série dans le nord de l'Ouganda, à l'occasion de l'audience par contumace de confirmation des charges contre Joseph Kony à la CPI. Le leader de l'Armée de résistance du Seigneur (LRA – acronyme en anglais) est accusé de crimes de guerre et crimes contre l'humanité pendant le conflit qui a ravagé le nord de l'Ouganda entre la fin des années 1980 et le milieu des années 2000. Depuis, le groupe armé s'est exporté dans d'autres pays d'Afrique centrale. Fin 2023, 134 anciens membres, incluant femmes et enfants, ont été rapatriés de Centrafrique vers l'Ouganda. C'est le plus grand retour de repentis de la LRA ces dernières années. Après un an et demi en centre de réhabilitation et l'obtention d'une amnistie, les anciens rebelles sont retournés à la vie civile depuis quelques mois, dispersés dans plusieurs petits groupes dans la région nord du pays. Reportage dans le district de Pader, au nord de l'Ouganda Devant une maison en briques entourée de champs de sésame, de maïs et de soja, Walter Okot fait sécher les dernières récoltes : « Quand je suis arrivé en Ouganda, j'ai eu le sentiment de revenir à la maison. J'étais très heureux. On recommence à peine notre vie, mais c'est bien mieux que ce qu'on vivait avant de revenir. » Derrière le rideau d'entrée, l'ancien rebelle a entreposé son vélo et quelques ustensiles de cuisine, parmi les biens accumulés depuis son retour en Ouganda… Les cinq membres de son groupe ont tous passé entre 20 et 30 ans au sein de la LRA, avant de quitter l'unité principale de Joseph Kony : « C'était en 2018, nous devions le rejoindre au Darfour où il était à l'époque. Il n'avait déjà plus beaucoup de soldats. Mais on a entendu des rumeurs d'exécutions et d'arrestations parmi les rebelles, c'est ce qui nous a poussé à partir. » À écouter aussiOuganda: aux origines de Joseph Kony [2/3] Le retour des repentis en Ouganda Les rebelles s'installent alors à Mboki, à l'est de la Centrafrique, jusqu'à leur rapatriement en 2023. Enlevé par la LRA adolescent, Thomas Onayo, 45 ans aujourd'hui, reprend ses repères dans sa région natale, où il a pu revoir une partie de sa famille : « Ils m'ont accueilli et m'ont assuré que j'étais toujours le bienvenu à la maison. Tout le monde était heureux et m'a embrassé, mais ma mère m'a expliqué la situation de la famille. Beaucoup de nos terres ont été vendues, et ils survivent sur le peu qu'il reste. » Pour éviter les conflits familiaux, accompagnés par des ONG, les repentis ont reçu des terres, des maisons et des formations pour les aider dans leur réintégration. Jimmy Otema, de l'organisation Terra Renaissance : « On les a formés pour les activités qu'ils ont choisies, mais aussi sur leurs compétences sociales. Avec les chefs traditionnels, nous avons fait en sorte qu'ils soient accueillis par les cérémonies traditionnelles de réconciliation. Et puis, nous organisons parfois des réunions entre les anciens LRA et les communautés voisines. » Un processus de réintégration lent et progressif, destiné à mener à l'indépendance économique des repentis, qui attendent la finalisation de leur atelier de menuiserie pour pouvoir commencer à travailler. À écouter aussiEn Ouganda, le regard des victimes de Joseph Kony sur la nouvelle procédure de la CPI [1/3]

Deuxième épisode de notre série dans le nord de l'Ouganda. Ce mardi 9 septembre, la CPI ouvre une audience inédite de confirmation des charges par contumace contre Joseph Kony, le chef du groupe armé de l'Armée de résistance du Seigneur (LRA – acronyme en anglais), groupe qui a mené pendant presque deux décennies, jusqu'au milieu des années 2000, une guerre civile contre le président Yoweri Museveni. Traqué depuis l'émission d'un mandat d'arrêt par la CPI en 2005, mais toujours introuvable, le fugitif, prophète autoproclamé, est accusé de crimes de guerre et crimes contre l'humanité dans un conflit qui a causé la mort d'au moins 100 000 personnes selon l'ONU. Reportage dans son village natal, à Odek, dans le nord de l'Ouganda Lakoc Pa Oyo grimpe l'escalier pour monter le bloc rocheux surplombant les cultures de maïs autour du village d'Odek : « Ici, on est à Got Awere. C'est la montagne où Joseph Kony venait chercher de l'eau sainte. » Au sommet, de l'eau s'amasse à proximité de l'antenne récemment installée. Le voisin d'enfance de Joseph Kony se rappelle les débuts de la rébellion. Après le coup d'État de l'actuel président Yoweri Museveni en 1986, son ancien ami se présentait comme un prophète appelant à la protection de la communauté locale des Acholis : « Nous avions peur que Museveni, qui avait pris le pouvoir à des Acholis, viendrait se venger. Alors les Acholis devaient partir au combat pour l'en empêcher. Et puis, ça nous rappelait le coup d'État contre Milton Obote d'Idi Amin Dada, qui avait ensuite mené des massacres contre nous. » À écouter aussiEn Ouganda, le regard des victimes de Joseph Kony sur la nouvelle procédure de la CPI [1/3] Dans une région marquée par les violences communautaires suivant les multiples coups d'États post-indépendance. Lakoc Pa Oyo rejoint pendant huit mois la LRA : « On se battait, mais c'était plus dur pour nous. Il y avait plusieurs groupes rebelles, et ceux qui auraient dû se regrouper s'entretuaient, alors j'ai décidé de partir. » Seules quelques motos empruntent la piste en terre qui traverse le village, pas épargné par le groupe armé. En 2004, le commandant de la LRA, Dominic Ongwen, y mène une attaque sanglante. Assis sur un banc devant sa boutique, Banya Wilson, élu local pendant la guerre, défend comme beaucoup à Odek le chef rebelle enfant du village : « Tout n'était pas de sa faute ! Il n'a jamais voulu les massacres ou les enlèvements. Mais quand il envoyait ses commandants, ces derniers menaient leurs propres missions, c'est ça qui se passait. » Pour le commerçant, la justice doit aussi passer par un retour de Joseph Kony dans son village natal : « Le juger en son absence, ce n'est pas une justice. C'est comme si on ne jugeait personne. Il faudrait réussir à l'amener ici, que les gens puissent entendre ce qu'il a à dire, et l'entendre leur demander pardon. » Les habitants attendent surtout les réparations annoncées par la CPI suite au procès de Dominic Ongwen. 52 millions d'euros répartis dans la région entre plus de 50 000 victimes et des projets communautaires. À lire aussiOuganda: des victimes d'un ex-seigneur de guerre mitigées suite aux indemnisations promises par la CPI

C'est une première à la Cour pénale internationale. Vingt ans après le mandat d'arrêt émis contre lui en 2005, une première audience de confirmation des charges est prévue par contumace du 9 au 11 septembre dans l'affaire concernant le chef présumé de la LRA, l'Armée de résistance du Seigneur, Joseph Kony. Traqué depuis 20 ans entre l'Ouganda, la RDC, la Centrafrique et le Soudan, Joseph Kony est suspecté de 36 charges de crimes de guerre et crimes contre l'humanité au cours du conflit sanglant mené par la LRA dans le nord de l'Ouganda de la fin des années 1980 au milieu des années 2000. À Gulu, principale ville du nord, les survivants du conflit attendent le début de cette première procédure. De notre correspondante à Kampala, Dans les bureaux du réseau des Victimes et enfants de la guerre à Gulu, tous les membres se préparent à suivre à la radio l'audience de la Cour pénale internationale (CPI). Parmi eux, Ochaya Bosco Ojok, resté pendant sept ans en captivité au sein de l'Armée de résistance du Seigneur, la LRA. « Après m'avoir enlevé, ils ont aussi enlevé mon frère qu'ils ont tué devant mes yeux, et c'est pour ça que je suis toujours autant en colère. Il faut qu'ils continuent la procédure, et qu'on obtienne des réparations pour toutes les années perdues en captivité », espère-t-il. En cercle, dans le jardin de l'association, les avis des survivants sont partagés. Est-il pertinent de poursuivre une procédure sans le principal intéressé ? Aucun doute pour Brenda Angom, enlevée par la LRA à l'âge de sept ans : « La procédure contre Joseph Kony est très importante, encore plus que celle contre Dominic Ongwen, car il est le chef et que Dominic Ongwen avait, lui aussi, été enlevé. C'est enfin une audience contre la bonne personne, celle responsable des atrocités en Ouganda, et même pour mon propre enlèvement, je lui en veux encore. » Deux décennies après la fin du conflit qui a ravagé le nord du pays, seuls deux commandants de la LRA ont été jugés et condamnés : Dominic Ongwen à la CPI en 2021 et Thomas Kwoyelo en Ouganda en 2024. Mais après 20 ans de traque, Stella Lanam, survivante, doute de voir un jour Joseph Kony derrière des barreaux. « Est-ce que c'est raisonnable de commencer une procédure en l'absence de Joseph Kony ? S'il ne revient pas, qu'est-ce que va faire la CPI ? On va suivre l'audience, mais ce qu'on veut en tant que victimes, c'est que les responsables rendent des comptes et que justice soit faite », estime-t-elle. Une justice que l'audience de confirmation des charges par contumace doit accélérer, espère Nobert Dacan, directeur de l'ONG Foundation for Justice and Development Initiative (FJDI), basée à Gulu : « Prenons ce qu'on peut pour l'instant. Cela fait des années qu'on cherche à arrêter Kony, mais sans succès. Est-ce que ça veut dire qu'on doit attendre ? Des victimes meurent de vieillesse tous les jours. S'il y a l'opportunité d'une procédure de ce genre, c'est déjà ça. » Une première procédure que l'activiste salue. Mais avant d'éventuelles réparations aux victimes ou condamnation, Joseph Kony, doit d'abord être arrêté et remis à la CPI. À lire aussiOuganda: des victimes d'un ex-seigneur de guerre mitigées suite aux indemnisations promises par la CPI

Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA) President and CEO Stan Harris joins us on this week's Biz Talks to share what's up with the closings we've been seeing, what the big issues are right now, what the LRA is doing to help, and why right now is the perfect time to help our favorite spots.

In Northern Uganda, a community once torn apart by war is regrowing its future—one tree at a time. In this episode, we travel to Bar Opok, a rural village in Northern Uganda, to learn how a resilient community is reclaiming its forests. Once devastated by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency, the land was stripped bare, its people displaced, and its environment left vulnerable to erosion, heat, and storms.Meet Walter Atine, village chairman, and John Ogwal, founder of the Dwok Can Ipur Group, whose grassroots reforestation efforts are helping restore both the landscape and community spirit. With support from organizations like Kijani Forestry and a growing network of determined residents—including youth and women like Evelyne Awor—the village has planted over 5,000 trees, welcoming back biodiversity and hope.And, you'll hear from young leader Benard Odongo, whose passion for nature is inspiring a new generation, and experience the sounds of Bar Opok—from birdsong to local music—captured in the heart of the reemerging forest.This episode was hosted by Ivy Prosper. It was produced by Emma Stuart Kiss and it was edited by Tara Sprickerhoff and Emma Stuart-Kiss. More about Nature Answers: Rural Stories from a Changing Planet at farmradio.org/natureanswersThis is a Farm Radio International podcast produced thanks to funding from the Government of Canada.

A Bunch of Bread and SugarThe Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA) plays a pivotal role in supporting the state's vibrant hospitality industry through advocacy, education, and community engagement. Britney Ford, serving as Chapter Member Service Coordinator for regions including Acadiana, Cenla, Baton Rouge, and Southwest Louisiana, is instrumental in fostering member engagement and organizing key events such as board installations and regional fundraisers . Her efforts are central to the LRA's mission of uniting and empowering Louisiana's foodservice professionals. Listen. Subscribe. Share.The Eat the Boot Podcast is sponsored by Cheba Hut Toasted Subs in Baton Rouge and features music from Louisiana based singer/songwriter, Adam Dale, from the album “Shadowtown”.  www.eattheboot.com

On the latest SITREP (Situation Report), Congressman Crenshaw explains how the Republican House strategy at the start of the 119th Congress and gives us the Civics 101 on how the legislative process works. He covers the possibility of overturning Biden's sweeping ban on offshore oil and gas leases, U.S. investors making a bid for TikTok, and the possibility of turning Greenland into a U.S. territory. And he examines the shifting political dynamics in Syria and Lebanon as Iran's influence in the Middle East wanes.   The House passes the Laken Riley Act (LRA)   Addressing the Democrats “anti-immigrant” charges   Leader Thune's strategy to pass LRA in the Senate   What you need to know about House rules and the legislative process   Parliamentary Procedure 101   Biden's sweeping offshore oil and gas leasing ban   Why reversing Biden's ban will be difficult   Kevin O'Leary makes a bid for TikTok   Make Greenland Great Again!   Gulf of AMERICA   Iran's diminishing influence in the Middle East   A cautious step forward in U.S. – Syria relations

El 7 de enero de 1946 marcó un hito significativo en la historia radiofónica nacional con la inauguración de la primera estación de Frecuencia Modulada en nuestro país. Fue el entonces Director de Correos y Telecomunicaciones, Oscar Laciar, el encargado de dar inicio a esta nueva era, apenas 13 años después de que el sistema fuese patentado en Estados Unidos por Edwin Armstrong. Este hecho ubicó como pionera a Radio del Estado que ya en la década del `40 realizaba transmisiones de prueba en FM entre las 12 y las 13 así como entre las 20:30 y las 22:00. LRA7, posteriormente conocida como FM Radio Nacional se posiciona entonces como la emisora de FM más antigua de Sudamérica. Recordamos este hecho con el testimonio sonoro que se constituye en una prueba irrefutable y  conserva en el Archivo Histórico de Radio Nacional. Ficha técnica Música y testimonios Waltz Air No. 25, Op. 127 (1946) (Alberto Williams) Valentín Surif [1995 del Álbum Alberto Williams Música para Piano] 1946-01-07 Laciar, Oscar (Director General Correos y Telecomunicaciones) Inauguración LRA 7 FM Nacional (Palacio de Correos y Telégrafos) 1946-05-01 SIGLA AM – FM 1946 Recuerdos de Bohemia (Enrique Delfino - Manuel Romero) Aníbal Troilo (Radio - El Mundo) Edición: Fabián Panizzi

A court in Uganda has sentenced Thomas Kwoyelo, a former senior commander of the rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army, to 40 years in prison for war crimes including murder, rape, enslavement and torture. Victoria Nyanjura was 14 years old when she was abducted by the group from her school in Northern Uganda. She was forced to work for the group and was repeatedly raped. Victoria shares her thoughts on the sentencing and recounts her experience at the hands of the LRA.Also a review of this year's BRICS summit, as Ethiopia and Egypt join the blocAnd why does asthma, a chronic lung condition, remain undiagnosed in children on the continent?Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Patricia Whitehorne, Sunita Nahar, Daniel Dadzie and Joseph Keen in London Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard

Craig is joined on the show by departing Chief Exec of the Labour Relations Agency, Don Leeson, to talk about: The career that led him to the LRA How the work of the agency has evolved How the world of work in general has evolved What the LRA's place is in the current world of work What Don would like his legacy to be What's coming next for him And much more!!!

Sam Childers shares his journey from a 1% outlaw biker to the infamous Machine Gun Preacher. In this episode, Sam shares his incredible transformation from living a life of crime to taking on Africa's most elusive warlords and saving thousands of children from dangerous militias. With a Hollywood movie made about his life starring Gerard Butler, Sam's real-life story is filled with action, redemption, and bravery. Get an inside look at the battles he's faced, the lives he's saved, and what it takes to become a true warrior for justice. #SamChilders #MachineGunPreacher #TrueStory #OutlawBiker #AfricaWarlords #ChildRescue #GerardButler #TrueCrime #RedemptionStory #Humanitarian #RescueMission #Warlord #InspirationalStory #LifeTransformation #CrimeToHero Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Connect with Machine Gun Preacher: https://www.machinegunpreacher.org/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/MGP Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 Sam Childers on Books, Movies, and Documentaries 00:05:33 Embracing Life Without Retirement 00:11:07 Transition from Wealth to Missionary Life 00:16:49 The Stigma Around Motorcycle Clubs 00:22:15 Surviving the Worst Bar Fight: A Turning Point 00:27:50 Legal Struggles and Redemption 00:33:31 First Trip to Africa and Witnessing Atrocities 00:39:54 The Origin of "Machine Gun Preacher" 00:46:28 The Horrors of Child Soldiers and the LRA 00:51:25 Confronting Rebel Groups in Africa 00:57:03 Soldier Encounters and Survival Stories 01:03:08 Building a New American Style Strip Mall 01:09:04 Experiences During the Coney War 01:15:08 The Story Behind the "Never Stopped" Documentary 01:20:36 Facing Family Challenges with Alzheimer's 01:26:01 How Clyde Carter Changed My Life 01:31:57 Angels of East Africa: A Long-Term Mission to Save Children Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thomas Kwoyelo, a child soldier-turned-rebel commander in the notorious Lord's Resistance Army has been found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in a landmark case in Uganda. He denied all 78 charges that were brought against him. Who is he and what role did he play in the LRA?Also a conversation with a journalist travelling around Sudan, bearing witness to what's happening in the country And what's behind the violence against other African nationals in South Africa?Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Bella Hassan, Rob Wilson, Joseph Keen and Nyasha Michelle Technical Producer: Chris Kouzaris Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard

A Ugandan man, some of whose family and friends were abducted in the East African country, tells the story of his journey from war-torn childhood to becoming the youngest ever African nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.Victor Ochen grew up in northern Uganda at a time when the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, was terrorising the region with violent abductions, forced child soldier recruitment, and widespread atrocities against civilians.For 21 years the focus of his life was survival, struggling to find enough to eat in a variety of internal displacement camps.To mark International Youth Day, UN News' Julia Foxen spoke to Mr. Ochen about how his choice of nonviolence at only 13 forever transformed his life, highlighting the immense vulnerability of youth in conflict zones alongside their potential to transform the future of society.

Send us a Text Message. In this episode of "Thinking 2 Think," we explore war and the devastating conflicts that have torn apart South Sudan and Uganda. From the brutal civil wars in South Sudan to the terror inflicted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, we examine how political and ideological battles turn deeply personal and dehumanize entire populations. Our special guest, Mansuke, a refugee who survived these horrors, shares his story, giving a human face to the atrocities and highlighting the resilience of those affected. Join us as we delve into the complex interplay of politics, religion, and personal suffering in these regions, and reflect on the urgent need for peace and reconciliation. Support the Show.Purchase my book on critical thinking: The Logical Mind from any major book store or simply by clicking on the following links: https://a.co/d/jdOm9pI https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?uZBbvqij7WRGoezaZG6c6L5tcjbl9VZB2vE9UAB9j2b Click here to give your kids or teens the gift of critical thinking with the Tuttle Twins books!

Gloria Laker Aciro was a teenager when war upended her family's life in Northern Uganda. The Lord's Resistance Army, led by the infamous Joseph Kony, were known for their brutality, and for kidnapping children and making them child soldiers or child brides. As a young displaced person, Aciro became a journalist so the world would know about the suffering in Northern Uganda: The abductions, killings, the ambushes, the destruction. But after a few years, she wondered if focusing on bloodshed was the right approach. What if journalists like her could help bring peace to the country? Today, Aciro is director of the Peace Journalism Foundation of East Africa. Peace Journalism -- as you might remember from one of our previous episodes -- is when editors and reporters make choices that improve the prospects for peace. She covers peace and conflict, refugee issues, and the environment, and trains journalists around East Africa in peace journalism. Aciro was a finalist for the 2022 Women Building Peace Award given by the United States Institute of Peace. And in 2019, she received a Golden Jubilee Medal awarded by Ugandan President Yoweri, for her coverage of the LRA conflict and her contributions to current peace efforts in Northern Uganda. Aciro sat down with Making Peace Visible Education Director Steven Youngblood to reflect on her decades in the field in Uganda, and the real impact of peace journalism in the face of war and gang violence. Music in this episode by Xylo-Ziko and Joel Cummins. ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. The Associate Director of Making Peace Visible is Steven Youngblood. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

How does someone become a child solider? More importantly, how do they escape? Anthony Opoka joins the podcast with Mick Mulroy and Eric Oehlerich to share his journey from unwilling soldier in Kony's LRA to crusader for the freedom of child soldiers. Don't miss his incredible story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does someone become a child solider? More importantly, how do they escape? Anthony Opoka joins the podcast with Mick Mulroy and Eric Oehlerich to share his journey from unwilling soldier in Kony's LRA to crusader for the freedom of child soldiers. Don't miss his incredible story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As many as 300,000 child soldiers are currently being forced to fight around the world. The UN deems it a global security issue because radicalized, militant, dehumanized children grow up to be radicalized, militant, dehumanized adults. One of the most egregious episodes in modern history was Joseph Kony's 30-year reign of terror in Uganda, southern Sudan, and Congo as his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) kidnapped as many as 37,000 boys and girls, turning the males into fearsome, soulless soldiers and the girls into slaves, sexual and otherwise. Two of those young people—Anthony Opoka and Florence Okori—escaped and survived to later bear witness at the LRA war crimes trial in the Hague. Their harrowing and triumphant story is the basis for ALL THE GLIMMERING STARS and was brought to Sullivan by a former squadron commander of SEAL Team 6 and the former CIA chief in Uganda. “In an earlier life I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, and I responded to the tale and the cause immediately. I went to Uganda and spent weeks with Anthony and Florence. I also came away believing that their story brought to life in a novel could have a dramatic impact on the way kids in war zones are treated. To that end, I wrote the novel with the intention that it would not only grip readers with a remarkable story well-told, but also contribute to End Child Soldiering, a non-profit that works to prevent kids being forced into combat and to rehabilitate youngsters who have already suffered that tragedy.”Despite its haunting depiction of the shocking and desperate situation Anthony, Florence and many others endured, ALL THE GLIMMERING STARS is a remarkably life-affirming tale, filled with humanity and love. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

On Daybreak Africa: A new report says wars in Sudan, Gaza, and the DRC have displaced a record 76 million people. Plus, over 25 million people across Sudan, South Sudan and Chad are trapped in a spiral of deteriorating food security. Campaigning is in full swing with two weeks left before South Africa's May 29 election. A new TB vaccine is to be tested in South Africa. An international court reassures Uganda's LRA victims on reparations. Uganda signs an IGAD protocol guaranteeing the free movement of good and people. UN officials assess the impact of El Niño on Malawians and assure help. For this and more tune to Daybreak Africa!

Kate Adie presents dispatches from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, the United States, Croatia and France.The brutality of Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army once made headlines around the world, as #Kony2012 became a global social media cause. While the world soon moved on, the forgotten victims of LRA violence living in the Democratic Republic of Congo are still trying to heal. Hugh Kinsella Cunningham reports from Haut-Uele province.The Islamic Revolution in Iran put an end to a once thriving cabaret culture and music scene. But over the years, people have still found ways to party - albeit underground and out of sight of the religious police. Among them was Faranak Amidi, who's met some of Iran's women DJs, who dream of playing to clubbers all over the world.A controversial court ruling in Alabama has divided Christian conservatives on the issue of reproductive rights, as the state's supreme court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered as children. Nomia Iqbal reports on the schism that has emerged between pro-life Republicans.Rab Island off the north coast of Croatia was once home to a lesser-known Italian concentration camp, where some 4,000 people were killed during World War Two. Mary Novakovich visited the island, where she met a woman who began her life in one of the camps.And our Paris Correspondent Hugh Schofield takes on the challenge of running the city's half-marathon - with some welcome assistance from The Rolling Stones.Producer: Serena Tarling Production coordinator: Katie Morrison Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

In 2002, a Catholic nun arrived in Gulu, a town in northern Uganda, to help set up a sewing school for locals. For years, the town had been the target of brutal attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army, led by the warlord Joseph Kony. The rebel group was known for kidnapping children and forcing them into becoming soldiers. As the LRA was being chased out of Uganda, those who were captured arrived at the school seeking refuge. Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe shares the shocking stories of those who escaped captivity with George Crafer.(Photo: Sister Rosemary at St Monica's. Credit: Sewing Hope Foundation)

We talk about NFL combine winners in this hour. We also talk about the Saints potenitally trading Marshon Lattimore. Steven Hightower joins us to talk about the golf tournament and LRA.

Liza Fleissig, with her partner Ginger Harris-Dontzin, opened the Liza Royce Agency (LRA) in early 2011. From picture books through adult projects, fiction and non-fiction, LRA welcomes strong voices and plot driven works. In our animated and exciting conversation Liza and I discuss her career, some of the books she has sold recently, her advice for aspiring authors, and her thoughts about the role of the literary agent. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University, emeritus) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 240,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Liza Fleissig, with her partner Ginger Harris-Dontzin, opened the Liza Royce Agency (LRA) in early 2011. From picture books through adult projects, fiction and non-fiction, LRA welcomes strong voices and plot driven works. In our animated and exciting conversation Liza and I discuss her career, some of the books she has sold recently, her advice for aspiring authors, and her thoughts about the role of the literary agent. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University, emeritus) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 240,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What’s Trending: Rantz is delighted over Biden administration conflict on waiving laws to build more border wall, Mariners Jerry Dipoto apologizes for telling the truth and Jake Skorheim (KIRO Nights) details how much it costs to go to a pumpkin patch in 2023.  LongForm: Sheriff Derek Sanders says the DOC is trying to sneak another LRA for sex offenders into the county without giving any info, plus the department continues to struggle with recruitment.  Quick Hit: Light punishment given to intoxicated woman who touched a teen. 

 Lance Knuckles, the Director of the Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) for the city of St. Louis, joins Total Information AM to discuss the city's efforts to acquire and return vacant properties to private ownership. Knuckles explains the recent changes in the pricing policy, allowing properties to be sold at adjusted prices based on their location and value changes. He emphasizes the importance of leveraging assets and inventory to attract residents and consumers to invest in the city's properties. Knuckles also highlights the challenge of revitalizing properties with derelict structures and the need for partnerships to accelerate redevelopment. He discusses the discontinuation of the Motor Own program and the upcoming launch of a new website to simplify the process for potential buyers. The interview ends with Knuckles expressing excitement about the progress and measurable impact expected in the city's revitalization efforts.

The episode features an interview in Kaplankaya during Harvest with Dennis Okwera, a model and activist, sharing his inspiring life journey from growing up in Uganda during a civil war to becoming a successful model in London. Dennis was raised by his grandmother after his parents separated, and he will discuss his experiences during the conflict in Uganda, where children were abducted to become child soldiers. Despite his challenging upbringing, Dennis managed to escape to London, where he was scouted to become a model. He used his earnings to support his community in Lumule, Uganda, particularly focusing on education for the children there.[2:20] Life During the Civil War:Discuss Dennis' experiences during the civil war in Uganda, focusing on the LRA's abduction of children to make them child soldiers.[6:50] Safe Spaces in Lumule:Describe the incident in Lumule when rebels used a bell to signal safety, allowing children to run to school amid the conflict.[10:09] Life in London:Talk about Dennis and his brother's journey to London to join their father, highlighting their challenges, including difficulties in attending school due to legal issues.[12:00] Entry into Modeling:Discuss Dennis' entry into the modelling world, including initial resistance from his father and eventual acceptance by modelling agencies.[14:30] Modeling Career and Philanthropy:Explore Dennis' modelling career, focusing on his efforts to support his community in Uganda, including sending money to aid education and providing necessities like sanitary products for girls.[18:00] Return to Lumule:Describe Dennis' emotional return to Lumule, reconnecting with family members, and experiencing a profound sense of belonging.[20:16] Community Support Initiatives:Discuss Dennis' initiatives to support education, including providing meals for children to enhance their focus and attendance in school.[24:00] Fundraising and Future Plans:Explain how Dennis raises funds for his community initiatives and outline his plans for supporting education and well-being in Lumule.[26:00] Harvest of the Day:Discuss what gives Dennis hope, highlighting moments or aspects that inspire him to continue his philanthropic efforts.Closing:Promote the upcoming episode in Kaplankaya, teasing the continuation of Dennis Okwera's inspiring story, emphasizing his escape from Uganda and his impactful contributions to his village.Note: To support Dennis Okwera's initiatives, listeners are encouraged to visit the provided GoFundMe link: https://gofund.me/f2d1ff02Join us next week for another inspiring episode featuring the anthropologist Wade Davies, discussing coca leaves and their importance in Columbia. Don't miss the next episode of Harvest!Harvest Series is produced in partnership with Athena Advisers and Capital PartnersYou can follow us on Instagram : @Harvestseries, or @rose.claverie for updatesand watch our filmed podcast or speakers on Youtube : Harvest Series.Sound editing by @lesbellesfrequencesTechnicians in Kaplankaya : Joel Moriasi, Hanan Yasir and teamMusic by ChambordArtwork : Pedro Vidigal & Davide d'AntonioThe...

This week's EYE ON NPI passes the vibe check - it's Vybronics' Rectangular LRA Vibration Motor (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/v/vybronics/rectangular-lra-vibration-motor) and friends - a series of linear resonant actuators, AKA LRA, used to create vibration/haptic feedback. Haptics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haptic_technology) were first used in airplanes - where originally there was a mechanical connection between the pilot controls and the plane steering. That is, when turning or tilting the yoke, it would mechanically control any flaps (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_flight_control_system). However, that means that the pilot would have to be strong enough to move the flaps while also keeping track of all the different controls needed - a recipe for disaster because a tired or confused pilot could make a catastrophic mistake! So, instead, the control of aircraft turned to hydro-mechanical and then servo-electrical. You might see the same on modern cars: instead of the steering wheel directly controlling the tire angle, it now send a signal that is interpreted by motors that do the actual movement, also known as Drive by wire. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_by_wire) The trade-off with drive or fly-by-wire is that there's less need for strength and speed by the person in the cockpit - but they do lose the mechanical feedback that would normally be fed back through the mechanical linkages. That feedback is important because it allows you to feel when something might be blocking or fighting against the motion - in planes you can tell the airspeed and the craft's stress level. Sure you can put this information in a gauge of some sort but it requires the operator to look and interpret a number when the feeling is more intuitive. Thus the invention of force feedback or...haptics! Haptics have been tirelessly used in automotive and aircraft for decades, when in the 90's they had a bit of a resurgence as part of VR interfaces. If you're in a 3D rendered virtual world, you want to feel when you bumped into something or grabbed an item successfully. For gaming, an early form of 'play by wire' we've moved from the 1994 Aura Interactor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aura_Interactor) to being included in almost every game controller, like the 1997-released N64 Rumble Pak (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumble_Pak) and Playstation DualShock (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DualShock) as vibrational feedback when moving or taking damage. Mobile devices are also big users of haptic feedback - originally as vibration alert for 'silent mode' - but now also for typing and UX feedback. For vibration feedback, a basic ERM motor such as the Vybronics VZ43FC1B5640007L (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/vybronics-inc/VZ43FC1B5640007L/12323649) will do fine - turn it on to cause a vibration that can be detected even when the phone is in a bag or pocket. But if you want to have 'sharper' feedback, these ERMs aren't as good because they take time to turn on and get up to speed. So they're good for big motion but not quick motion. That's when you want to use LRAs - Linear Resonant Actuators. (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/v/vybronics/rectangular-lra-vibration-motor) Vybronics makes a wide range of LRA vibration motors (https://www.digikey.com/en/supplier-centers/jinlong-machinery) in addition to their wide range or ERM's. You can select from different sizes - larger ones will of course have a stronger feedback response, but will require more energy and size. ERM's are really easy to drive: provide a positive DC voltage and the motor starts moving. LRA's are harder to control, you will need an AC waveform to kick-start the resonant motion. (https://www.vybronics.com/lra-assembly-drawing) Our favorite driver is the TI DRV2605 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/DRV2605LDGSR/5014144) which we even have a breakout board (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/2305/5356831) to make it easy to connect up to a Vybronics LRA. The DRV2605 even comes with a wide range of built-in waveform actions (https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/drv2605.pdf) to make integration very easy. Vybronics also has some examples of how to mount their motors with PCB contacts to allow the motor to vibrate within a cavity.(https://www.vybronics.com/mounting-with-spring-contacts) Vybronics' Rectangular LRA Vibration Motors such as the VLV152564W (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/vybronics-inc/VLV152564W/19203005) will make the vibe right in your product that requires tactile haptic feedback to improve your user experience. With their small cases and high strength, they'll turn glass touchscreens and capacitive touch buttons into something that feels like a mechanical control surface. Order today and DigiKey will ship your motor instantly so that you can be tick-tack-bzzt'ing your way to a haptic cyber-future by tomorrow afternoon.

Anything but First World Problems There's nothing good to watch on TV. I can't decide what to order from the extensive menu at this restaurant. I have too many clothes and not enough closet space. The barista at my coffee shop spelled my name wrong on my cup. My phone is too big to fit comfortably in my pocket. Oh no… My phone battery is dying, and I forgot my charger. I can't find my favourite flavour of sparkling water at the grocery store. Do these problems seem familiar to you? These are first-world problems, and I'm just as guilty of having them: I've been frustrated when my phone was dying, and I'd forgotten my power bank at an Ed Sheeran concert in Atlanta. And you've heard me complain about Starbucks getting my name wrong on an overcharged cup of tall Americano. In this episode, we're going to be dealing with other problems, like: “Should we give our 13-year-old baby girl away to be married to an older man, or should we keep her here and risk that she will be abducted and turned into a sex slave.” That's the kinda stuff we'll be dealing with in this episode, as Susan Laker will tell her life story. WARNING It's also a story that will be hard to listen to. It's heartbreaking, and with so many graphic details, that will not be suitable for children. At the same time, I feel this might be the most important episode of The Radio Vagabond that I've done up until now.  My name is Palle Bo. Welcome back to the third and final part of my miniseries from the Acholi Quarter in Kampala, Uganda. INTRO I hope you have had a chance to listen to the first two episodes from The Acholi Quarter in Uganda, where Susan Laker, a small but mighty woman in her late 30s, took us around. She's the co-founder and leader of 22STARS Foundation's work here, always helping children and families in need with a big smile. But let me tell you, her journey wasn't always a straight path. This tale is a wild one, full of crazy twists and turns. It could be a movie, maybe something like The Color Purple, set in Uganda. CHILD BRIDE Her parent gave her away to be married when she was just a child. She was angry at her parents when this happened and didn't understand why.  “I was 13 years old when I was force into early marriage by my parents.” Most of us would say that there is nothing that would justify that. But her parents had a good reason. “By that time, I didn't know the reason. I was just mad but later on, you realize they did that to protect me from being abducted from the LRA Rebels.” LRA REBELS The LRA Rebels, or “The Lord's Resistance Army,” was a rebel group operated in Uganda and other Central African countries, started by Joseph Kony in 1987. The LRA would typically attack villages at night, using guns, machetes, and other weapons. They would kill or maim those who resisted, burn down homes, and loot property. They would then abduct children. They used to abduct children, even babies, from their mothers and were forced to march long distances to LRA bases deep in the bush. And were then subjected to brutal initiation rituals, during which they were beaten, sometimes with their peers, and forced to kill other children or adults. The abducted children were then trained as soldiers and used to attack civilians, other rebel groups, and government forces, using guns, sticks, and pangas – large, heavy, machete-like knives. The LRA's tactics of abducting children were particularly savage and brutal. The children were forced to serve as soldiers, porters, and sex slaves. The group often targeted vulnerable communities, including schools and churches, and used violence and intimidation to abduct children. And then, the children were subjected to intense physical and psychological abuse. They used violent initiation ceremonies to break the children's spirits and force them to commit atrocities. The children were often forced to kill or maim their own families or fellow abductees to break their spirits and brainwash them into cutting ties to their former lives. The LRA also used brutal methods of discipline to maintain control over the children. This included beatings, torture, and even execution. Susan gave me examples of how brutal the methods were: “They cut off your lips, they cut off your private parts – like the breasts. If not, they put the padlock. They tie your lips, and then some are beaten to death. Some they chop of their neck. They were killed. Those who tried to escape, they were stoned to death.” In addition to their role as soldiers, the girls among the abducted children were often forced into sexual slavery and forced marriages. “Some of them ended up giving birth and some of them ended up dying giving birth because they were so young. Some of them died because they were mistreated. Also, there was no in facility to take care of a pregnant woman, so some of them got sick and died because there was no medication.” The children were also used as human shields in battles, which put their lives at even greater risk. JOSEPH KONY In 2012, a video campaign called "Kony 2012" from the organization Invisible Children went viral, bringing international attention to the LRA's atrocities and Kony's role in them. The campaign and its creator, Jason Russell, set out to make Kony famous, and they definitely succeeded in that. Joseph Kony was born in 1961 in a village in northern Uganda. He grew up in a Catholic household and was initially drawn to religion but dropped out of school and joined the rebel group led by a distant relative, Alice Lakwena. She had claimed to have received messages from the Holy Spirit and was leading a rebellion against the Ugandan government. When Lakwena's rebellion failed, Kony formed his own group, the LRA, in 1987. And like Alice Lakwena, he also claimed to have a hotline to God. He said that he was a spiritual medium and that his commands came directly from the spiritual world and were not to be questioned. Kony was known for his mysticism and claimed to have supernatural powers, including the ability to turn bullets into water and to communicate with spirits. He was also notorious for his brutality and didn't just have his brainwashed followers do all of the dirty work. He's believed to have personally participated in many of the LRA's atrocities. So, he was a self-appointed messiah and said his government was based on the Ten Commandments. But then he went on to break every one of them.  In 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Kony and four of his top lieutenants for crimes against humanity and war crimes. However, he's managed to hide, and still to this day – almost 20 years later, Kony's whereabouts are unknown. Although the LRA's activities have declined significantly in recent years, the group remains active and has been responsible for sporadic attacks and abductions that continue to be reported in the region. The LRA's use of children for soldiers, waiters, and sex slaves has devastated the children who were abducted and their families. Many of the children who escaped or were rescued suffered from depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.  SUSAN'S PARENTS' CHOICE Enough about the LRA and its creepy leader, Joseph Kony. I just wanted you to get a little bit of perspective on what Susan's parents were trying to save her from when they gave her away for early marriage at the age of just 13.  It's just so hard to fathom. What a choice for parents to make. “Should we keep our child here with the risk that the brutal LRA Rebels will take her and turn her into a sex slave – or maybe cut off her lips and private parts? Or stone her to death… And maybe brainwash her and she will come back here and kill us in our sleep. Or should we give her away to be married to that older soldier, who will probably do what he likes and most likely get her pregnant soon, but then might also be able to keep her alive…?” I have no idea if this was what Susan's parents were thinking at the time. We can only speculate because this is so far away from anything most of us have even thought about having to consider. Think about that before you get frustrated that there's too much to choose from on a menu at a restaurant or that you have too many clothes and not enough closet space. SUSAN'S SON I met her son, Derek, just before I sat down with Susan to hear her story. And we're not talking about a little boy. No, he's a grown man. Taller than me and very handsome. I know that Susan only is in her late 30s, so I'm very surprised to find out that she could have a son in his mid 20's.  “I ended up giving birth to my son at the age of 13 – the boy you just saw. And at the age of 14, I had a miscarriage, because it was so soon, and I was so young. And then at the age of 15, I gave birth to my second daughter, who is now 22.” Let that sink in: At 13, she was sent off to marry an older man and had a baby within a year. Straight away, at the age of 14, she got pregnant again but had a miscarriage. And straight away again, she got pregnant for the third time and had her second child at 15, basically when she was a child herself.  I don't know much about the father of her kids. Maybe he was a good man who felt it was his right because she was his wife, and he protected her. I don't know more about him than what Susan just told me here. I was just about to ask her about that when she told me that he suddenly – and unexpectedly got sick and died.  “Then their father mysteriously fell sick for one week and passed on. I didn't even know he was sick. I didn't know what he suffered off anything.” There she was, at 16, a widow with two children. So, she went home to her parents, who forced her to marry another soldier – for her safety.  And shortly after that, she had another baby. Three children and two husbands – still as a teenager. THE SECOND HUSBAND DIES TOO Susan's new husband was sent to Somalia as a soldier and never returned. She never heard from him again, and Susan was getting increasingly frustrated and unable to feed herself and her children. Not only was Susan frustrated and hungry. She was also suffering with her health and getting more and more weak. Then in the middle of all this, they were kicked out of the house they were in. As things got increasingly hopeless, Susan's sisters came to her aid. They helped her get on a bus here to Kampala. Susan barely made it to Kampala alive. She was unconscious when the bus arrived at Kampala with her and her three small children. Immediately she was rushed to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with HIV, cancer, and tuberculosis. AFFORDING MEDICATION When Susan Laker defied all odds and she was able to fight herself back to consciousness and life for her children, she was just 23. She had a ten-year-old boy and two girls nine and four.  She managed to stay alive but was now faced with another problem. The children didn't go to school, and Susan herself couldn't read, write, or speak English. That meant that she couldn't get a job making decent money to feed herself – and now also afford the expensive medicine for her tuberculosis, cancer, and HIV. KIDS WORKING AT THE QUARRY She was too weak to work, so she had no option but to have her children work for her. A ten-year-old, an eight-year-old, and a five-year-old crushing stones in the stone quarry from early in the morning every day. As you heard in the latest episode, this is hard work and poorly paid.  On some days, the 10-year-old boy, Derek, was able to crush enough stones to make 1000 Ugandan Shillings, the 8-year-old girl, Peace, could 500 shillings, and the little 5-year-old girl around 200 shillings. That's 1700 shillings and not even half a dollar – 41 Euro cents and 48 American cents for a long day of hard work from early morning. FIGHTING DEADLY DISEASES ON AN EMPTY STOMACH Susan was on strong medication when all of this was happening, and that's not something you should take on an empty stomach. So, the doctors gave her some food and milk to have before the medicine. And that helped. After nine months she was tuberculosis-free and ready for chemotherapy to fight off her Stage 2 cancer. Another nine months later, she was declared cancer-free too. She also got treated with medicine to keep the HIV virus suppressed, and after five years on medication, her CD4 counts showed that the virus was not detected anymore. Of course, she still takes her HIV medicine every day, but she is fully recovered from all three deadly diseases. And at this point, we've almost come full circle from where we started in the first episode. This was around the time when Susan met Stella for the first time in 2008. Stella helped Susan, who went back to school and learned to read and write – and speak English with Stella when she came back a few years later. Together they founded 22STARS paper jewellery business and the 22STARS Foundation. SUPORT 22STARS With a lot of willpower and a bit of luck meeting the Dutch/German woman Stella Romana when she did, she managed to turn life around for herself and her children. And together, they continue to do the same for many more people in the community. Again, go to Foundation22Stars.org to see the different ways of supporting. If you want to get involved with the good work 22STARS Foundation is doing, helping families in Uganda, go to www.foundation22stars.org, and see what you can do. You can sponsor a child, or support emergency needs by simply making a donation to one of the different programs such as nutrition, microloans, computer lessons, music classes, or medicine. I've linked to all of this in the note section of your podcast app and on theradiovagabond.com. Thank you to Susan Laker for sharing her inspiring story. My name is Palle Bo, and I gotta keep moving. See you.

Anything but First World Problems ·       There's nothing good to watch on TV. ·       I can't decide what to order from the extensive menu at this restaurant. ·       I have too many clothes and not enough closet space. ·       The barista at my coffee shop spelled my name wrong on my cup. ·       My phone is too big to fit comfortably in my pocket. ·       Oh no… My phone battery is dying, and I forgot my charger. ·       I can't find my favourite flavour of sparkling water at the grocery store. Do these problems seem familiar to you? These are first-world problems, and I'm just as guilty of having them: I've been frustrated when my phone was dying, and I'd forgotten my power bank at an Ed Sheeran concert in Atlanta. And you've heard me complain about Starbucks getting my name wrong on an overcharged cup of tall Americano. In this episode, we're going to be dealing with other problems, like:  “Should we give our 13-year-old baby girl away to be married to an older man, or should we keep her here and risk that she will be abducted and turned into a sex slave.” That's the kinda stuff we'll be dealing with in this episode, as Susan Laker will tell her life story.  WARNING It's also a story that will be hard to listen to. It's heartbreaking, and with so many graphic details, that will not be suitable for children. At the same time, I feel this might be the most important episode of The Radio Vagabond that I've done up until now.  My name is Palle Bo. Welcome back to the third and final part of my miniseries from the Acholi Quarter in Kampala, Uganda.  INTRO I hope you have had a chance to listen to the first two episodes from The Acholi Quarter in Uganda, where Susan Laker, a small but mighty woman in her late 30s, took us around. She's the co-founder and leader of 22STARS Foundation's work here, always helping children and families in need with a big smile. But let me tell you, her journey wasn't always a straight path. This tale is a wild one, full of crazy twists and turns. It could be a movie, maybe something like The Color Purple, set in Uganda.  CHILD BRIDE Her parent gave her away to be married when she was just a child. She was angry at her parents when this happened and didn't understand why.  “I was 13 years old when I was force into early marriage by my parents.”  Most of us would say that there is nothing that would justify that. But her parents had a good reason.  “By that time, I didn't know the reason. I was just mad but later on, you realize they did that to protect me from being abducted from the LRA Rebels.” LRA REBELS The LRA Rebels, or “The Lord's Resistance Army,” was a rebel group operated in Uganda and other Central African countries, started by Joseph Kony in 1987. The LRA would typically attack villages at night, using guns, machetes, and other weapons. They would kill or maim those who resisted, burn down homes, and loot property. They would then abduct children. They used to abduct children, even babies, from their mothers and were forced to march long distances to LRA bases deep in the bush. And were then subjected to brutal initiation rituals, during which they were beaten, sometimes with their peers, and forced to kill other children or adults. The abducted children were then trained as soldiers and used to attack civilians, other rebel groups, and government forces, using guns, sticks, and pangas – large, heavy, machete-like knives. The LRA's tactics of abducting children were particularly savage and brutal. The children were forced to serve as soldiers, porters, and sex slaves.  The group often targeted vulnerable communities, including schools and churches, and used violence and intimidation to abduct children. And then, the children were subjected to intense physical and psychological abuse.  They used violent initiation ceremonies to break the children's spirits and force them to commit atrocities. The children were often forced to kill or maim their own families or fellow abductees to break their spirits and brainwash them into cutting ties to their former lives. The LRA also used brutal methods of discipline to maintain control over the children. This included beatings, torture, and even execution.  Susan gave me examples of how brutal the methods were:  “They cut off your lips, they cut off your private parts – like the breasts. If not, they put the padlock. They tie your lips, and then some are beaten to death. Some they chop of their neck. They were killed. Those who tried to escape, they were stoned to death.” In addition to their role as soldiers, the girls among the abducted children were often forced into sexual slavery and forced marriages.  “Some of them ended up giving birth and some of them ended up dying giving birth because they were so young. Some of them died because they were mistreated. Also, there was no in facility to take care of a pregnant woman, so some of them got sick and died because there was no medication.” The children were also used as human shields in battles, which put their lives at even greater risk.  JOSEPH KONY In 2012, a video campaign called "Kony 2012" from the organization Invisible Children went viral, bringing international attention to the LRA's atrocities and Kony's role in them. The campaign and its creator, Jason Russell, set out to make Kony famous, and they definitely succeeded in that. Joseph Kony was born in 1961 in a village in northern Uganda. He grew up in a Catholic household and was initially drawn to religion but dropped out of school and joined the rebel group led by a distant relative, Alice Lakwena. She had claimed to have received messages from the Holy Spirit and was leading a rebellion against the Ugandan government. When Lakwena's rebellion failed, Kony formed his own group, the LRA, in 1987. And like Alice Lakwena, he also claimed to have a hotline to God. He said that he was a spiritual medium and that his commands came directly from the spiritual world and were not to be questioned.  Kony was known for his mysticism and claimed to have supernatural powers, including the ability to turn bullets into water and to communicate with spirits. He was also notorious for his brutality and didn't just have his brainwashed followers do all of the dirty work. He's believed to have personally participated in many of the LRA's atrocities. So, he was a self-appointed messiah and said his government was based on the Ten Commandments. But then he went on to break every one of them.  In 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Kony and four of his top lieutenants for crimes against humanity and war crimes. However, he's managed to hide, and still to this day – almost 20 years later, Kony's whereabouts are unknown.  Although the LRA's activities have declined significantly recently, the group remains active. It has been responsible for sporadic attacks and abductions that continue to be reported in the region. The LRA's use of children for soldiers, waiters, and sex slaves has devastated the abducted children and their families. Many of the children who escaped or were rescued suffered from depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.  SUSAN'S PARENTS' CHOICE Enough about the LRA and its creepy leader, Joseph Kony. I just wanted you to get a little bit of perspective on what Susan's parents were trying to save her from when they gave her away for early marriage at the age of just 13.  It's just so hard to fathom. What a choice for parents to make.  “Should we keep our child here with the risk that the brutal LRA Rebels will take her and turn her into a sex slave – or maybe cut off her lips and private parts? Or stone her to death… And maybe brainwash her and she will come back here and kill us in our sleep. Or should we give her away to be married to that older soldier, who will probably do what he likes and most likely get her pregnant soon but then might also be able to keep her alive…?” I have no idea if this was what Susan's parents were thinking at the time. We can only speculate because this is so far away from anything most of us have even thought about having to consider.  Think about that before you get frustrated that there's too much to choose from on a menu at a restaurant or that you have too many clothes and not enough closet space. SUSAN'S SON I met her son, Derek, just before I sat down with Susan to hear her story. And we're not talking about a little boy. No, he's a grown man. Taller than me and very handsome. I know that Susan only is in her late 30s, so I'm very surprised to find out that she could have a son in his mid 20's.  “I ended up giving birth to my son at the age of 13 – the boy you just saw. And at the age of 14, I had a miscarriage, because it was so soon, and I was so young. And then at the age of 15, I gave birth to my second daughter, who is now 22.” Let that sink in: At 13, she was sent off to marry an older man and had a baby within a year. Straight away, at the age of 14, she got pregnant again but had a miscarriage. And straight away again, she got pregnant for the third time and had her second child at 15, basically when she was a child herself.  I don't know much about the father of her kids. Maybe he was a good man who felt it was his right because she was his wife, and he protected her. I don't know more about him than what Susan just told me here. I was just about to ask her about that when she told me that he suddenly – and unexpectedly got sick and died.  “Then their father mysteriously fell sick for one week and passed on. I didn't even know he was sick. I didn't know what he suffered off anything.” There she was, at 16, a widow with two children. So, she went home to her parents, who forced her to marry another soldier – for her safety.  And shortly after that, she had another baby. Three children and two husbands – still as a teenager.  THE SECOND HUSBAND DIES TOO Susan's new husband was sent to Somalia as a soldier and never returned. She never heard from him again, and Susan was getting increasingly frustrated and unable to feed herself and her children.  Not only was Susan frustrated and hungry. She was also suffering with her health and getting more and more weak. Then in the middle of all this, they were kicked out of the house they were in.  As things got increasingly hopeless, Susan's sisters came to her aid. They helped her get on a bus here to Kampala. Susan barely made it to Kampala alive. She was unconscious when the bus arrived in Kampala with her and her three small children. Immediately she was rushed to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with HIV, cancer, and tuberculosis. AFFORDING MEDICATION When Susan Laker defied all odds and she was able to fight herself back to consciousness and life for her children, she was just 23. She had a ten-year-old boy and two girls nine and four.  She managed to stay alive but was now faced with another problem. The children didn't go to school, and Susan herself couldn't read, write, or speak English. That meant that she couldn't get a job making decent money to feed herself – and now also afford the expensive medicine for her tuberculosis, cancer, and HIV.  KIDS WORKING AT THE QUARRY She was too weak to work, so she had no option but to have her children work for her. A ten-year-old, an eight-year-old, and a five-year-old crushing stones in the stone quarry from early in the morning every day. As you heard in the latest episode, this is hard work and poorly paid.  On some days, the 10-year-old boy, Derek, crushed enough stones to make 1000 Ugandan Shillings, the 8-year-old girl, Peace, could 500 shillings, and the little 5-year-old girl, around 200 shillings.  That's 1700 shillings and not even half a dollar – 41 Euro cents and 48 American cents for a long day of hard work from early morning.  FIGHTING DEADLY DISEASES ON AN EMPTY STOMACH Susan was on strong medication when all of this was happening, which you should not take on an empty stomach. So, the doctors gave her some food and milk before the medicine. And that helped. After nine months, she was tuberculosis-free and ready for chemotherapy to fight off her Stage 2 cancer. Another nine months later, she was declared cancer-free too.  She also got treated with medicine to keep the HIV virus suppressed, and after five years on medication, her CD4 counts showed that the virus was not detected anymore.  Of course, she still takes her HIV medicine every day, but she is fully recovered from all three deadly diseases. And at this point, we've almost come full circle from where we started in the first episode. This was around the time when Susan met Stella for the first time in 2008.  Stella helped Susan, who went back to school and learned to read and write – and speak English with Stella when she came back a few years later. Together they founded 22STARS paper jewellery business and the 22STARS Foundation. SUPORT 22STARS With a lot of willpower and a bit of luck meeting the Dutch/German woman Stella Romana when she did, she managed to turn life around for herself and her children. And together, they continue to do the same for many more people in the community.  Again, go to Foundation22Stars.org to see the different ways of supporting.  If you want to get involved with the good work 22STARS Foundation is doing, helping families in Uganda, go to www.foundation22stars.org, and see what you can do. You can sponsor a child or support emergency needs by simply donating to one of the different programs, such as nutrition, microloans, computer lessons, music classes, or medicine. I've linked to all this in the note section of your podcast app and theradiovagabond.com.  Thank you to Susan Laker for sharing her inspiring story.  My name is Palle Bo, and I gotta keep moving. See you.

Dail Chambers, Farmer in North St. Louis claims that LRA is unfairly taking her land. 

Emil Langballe, Lukasz Konopa and Face2Face host David Peck talk about their new film Theatre of Violence, Christianity and conflict, radicalization,nature versus nurture, restorative justice, government oppression, and why retributive justice doesn't work.Watch the trailer here and head to Hot Docs for more information.Synopsis:Can you be an executioner and a victim at the same time? At the age of 9, Ayena's client, Dominique Ongwen, became one of at least 20.000 children abducted by rebel leader Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda. Ongwen was brainwashed by Kony, who used a combination of Christianity, witchcraft and torture to turn the children into loyal LRA soldiers in the rebellion against president, Yoweri Museveni.Ongwen quickly learned that it was a matter of kill or be killed - and he rose to the rank of commander before one day surrendering to the authorities and the following prosecution in The Hague. He is charged with 70 different counts of crimes, including torture, rape and murder. But his defence lawyer, Ayena, wants him acquitted because he believes Ongwen is not responsible for the way his life turned out. In addition, the outcome of the trial threatens to reopen old wounds at home in Uganda seeing that Ongwen and the LRA are part of the Acholi people of northern Uganda, where Kony founded his brutal army in response to the equally brutal crackdown on the Acholi people by the incumbent president, Museveni. Personally, Ayena has a lot at stake. He must not only get justice for his client and his people - but also try to explain to the Western-based International Criminal Court what kind of country Uganda is, and what the potential consequences of the verdict might be.About Emil and Lukasz:Lukasz Konopa has a master's degree in Documentary Film Directing from the UK's National Film and Television School (NFTS) and an MA in sociology from the University of Warsaw, Poland.His documentaries have been featured at festivals, such as Hot Docs, Camerimage, Visions du Reel and SXSW. His film After won the CILECT Best Documentary film award, which is chosen by the association of the world's major film and television schools. Currently splitting his time between Tel Aviv, where he works as a cinematographer on documentaries produced by one of Israel's top production companies, Heymann Brothers Films; and Denmark where he has just completed his first feature length documentary with Made in Copenhagen.Emil Langballe graduated from UK's National Film and Television School in 2013. His graduation film Beach Boy was honoured at such film festivals as Karlovy Vary, Thessaloniki, Tampere and Hot Docs. The Wait premiered at IDFA. His latest films Q's Barbershop and A Married Couple both premiered in competition at CPH: DOX.Image Copyright: Emil Langballe, Lukasz Konopa & Dogwoof Films.F2F Music and Image Copyright: David Peck and Face2Face. Used with permission.For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.With thanks to Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of LRA 36. Paul made this recording on Sunday, March 19, 2023, starting at 02:21 UTC in McGrath, Alaska on 15,476 kHz. He was using an ATS25 max radio , an Emtech ZM2 tuner, a DXE preamp, and a 15 foot wellbrook loop.

Adam was named president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber in April 2008. A native of Lake Charles, LA, he previously served as the deputy director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA). Knapp was a key figure in the creation of the entity, which is designed to facilitate the state's recovery efforts in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Prior to his LRA tenure, he served as economic development advisor to two governors and the policy director for Louisiana Economic Development (LED). At LED, he managed the department's economic policy initiatives, such as workforce development reform, entrepreneurial development, and risk capital accessibility. He directed the development and advancement of state legislative priorities, including the creation and refinement of important economic incentives, such as the Angel Investor Incentive, the Research and Development Tax Credit, the Film Investor Tax Credits, and the Quality Jobs Program. Under Governors Foster and Blanco, Knapp worked on economic policy and was also a vital part of the team that successfully recruited or retained such companies as Union Tank Car, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, and Albemarle Corporation, among others. Prior to state government, he worked for Accenture, one of the world's premier technology and management consultancy firms, as an emerging technology consultant. Knapp graduated from Davidson College in 1996 and also studied at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and Julius-Maximilians Universität in Würzburg, Germany.To learn more about the work of the Foundation, please visit braf.org.

Local Victims, International Expectation. The host for this show is Laura Rubio Krohne. The guest is Katherine Weissel. Discussion on the international support provided to war crimes prosecutions in Uganda, East Africa. After the extensive civil conflict between militia group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and the Ugandan authorities, several leaders of the LRA were arrested and detained. Some were prosecuted by the ICC and some by the Ugandan authorities with the support from experts from the international community. One such international investigative expert, Katherine Weissel, was part of a team in 2018 providing capacity-building support to one of those prosecutions. ThinkTech Transitional Justice is coordinated together with Project Expedite Justice. Find out more about PEJ: https://www.projectexpeditejustice.org/https://twitter.com/ExpediteJusticehttps://www.linkedin.com/company/project-expedite-justiceHelp PEJ keep up the good work! Donate at: https://www.projectexpeditejustice.org/donateThe ThinkTech YouTube Playlist for this show is https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQpkwcNJny6nvnsCUQK__a7FKdy-crWoxPlease visit our ThinkTech website at https://thinktechhawaii.com and see our Think Tech Advisories at https://thinktechadvisories.blogspot.com.

In this episode, I host Daniel Choudry, better known as “Sales Warrior.” Daniel was born in northern Uganda and later on moved to Kampala. While on the podcast he talks about his childhood background and he also shares a story on how he got abducted by the LRA rebels led by Joseph Kony. Tune in to listen to the full conversation --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bonny-kibuuka/message

An airhacks.fm conversation with Daniel Kec (@danielkec) about: Daniel previously on airhacks.fm in "#120 Reactive Programming, Helidon, Kafka and Project Loom", helidon project “warp” becomes Helidon Nima, Project Loom on Jersey, obstructing virtual threads, yielding a virtual thread, throttling the concurrency, the future of reactive programming, the Helidon book, websocketstream spec, Streams API, Event Sourcing with Oracle database and helidon, helidon on AWS Lambda, AWS serverless container, OCI JDBC vs. OCI Cloud, JEP 290: Filter Incoming Serialization Data, LRA implementation by Helidon, Long Running Actions with Helidon, Goran Opacic on LRA in "#210 The Cloud is Slower Than Your Local Machine", LRA is about compensation, Transaction Manager for Microservices, FN Java, Helidon modular routing, Helidon is using Jersey, Daniel Kec on twitter: @danielkec

In the latest episode of TAG, we chat with Latino Rifle Association President, P.B. Gomez, about the deliberate irony of the organization's name, how the LRA is opposed to certain cultural norms of gun ownership, why gun “laws with good intentions have consequences for marginalized communities,” and his goal of making more gun safety education content available in Spanish.Dr. Siegel also joins us for another edition of “Siegel's Scope,” where he talks about police shootings of Black victims and how the issue is being framed inaccurately. He explains why rates vary so much across the country and why body cams and implicit racial bias training are not the right solutions.Host: Mathew LittmanGuest: P.B. GomezProducer: Ernesto ChavezvaldiviaExecutive Producer: Adria MárquezEditor: Stephanie Genuardi Cunnane

Does the advent of new portable ultrasounds create opportunities for POCUS in both low-resource countries and combat support hospitals? Raj Gupta (@dr_rajgupta) joins leaders from the #ASRAGlobalHealth SIG (Mark Brouillette and Lena Dohlman) and #ASRAPOCUS SIG (Melissa Byrne) to discuss clinical applications, handhelds, limitations and barriers, and more. Streamed 8/23/2022. Guests:- Mark Brouillette, MD (@markbrouillette)-Commander Brendan Byrne, MD-Melissa Byrne, DO, MPH (@dr_melissabyrne)-Lena Dohlman, MD, MPH -Omar Hyder, MD, MS-Moses Siaw-Frimpong, MDReferences:Hilbert-Carius P, Struck MF, Rudolph M, et al. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) practices in the helicopter emergency medical services in Europe: results of an online survey. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2021;29(1):124. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-021-00933-yDuncan PGA, Mackey J. Point-of-care ultrasound at Role 1: is it time for a rethink? BMJ Mil Health. 2020;166(6):406-10. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmilitary-2020-001466Sullivan JF, Polly M, Roman JW, et al. Utility of point of care ultrasound in humanitarian assistance missions. Mil Med. 2021;186(Suppl 1):789-94. https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usaa348Savell SC, Baldwin DS, Blessing A, et al. Military use of point of care ultrasound (POCUS). J Spec Oper Med. 2021;21(2):35-42. https://doi.org/10.55460/AJTO-LW17Dohlman LE, Kwikiriza A, Ehie O. Benefits and barriers to increasing regional anesthesia in resource-limited settings. Local Reg Anesth. 2020;13:147-58. https://doi.org/10.2147/LRA.S236550LinksPrehospital, Austere and Tactical Ultrasound: https://www.acep.org/emultrasound/subcommittees/prehospital-austere-tactical-ultrasound/asra.com/sigs/globalasra.com/sigs/pocus________________Thanks to The Preps from Philadelphia, PA for the music: “Hindsight" and “Left Behind". The band features Steve Breslin on vocals/guitars, Bryan Schwenk on guitars/vocals, Jeff Frederick on bass, and Eric Schwenk on drums.

Patricia Tamowski and Scott Douglas join the show to spread hope for anyone with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and Dementia. Yes, you can actually reverse these debilitating diseases! Patricia and Scott have dedicated their lives to bringing together the top health experts in the field and uncovering the best therapies to treat neurodegenerative disease and restore people's lives. You'll learn about the root causes preventing people from healing, what you can do to immediately start addressing these diseases, and the role of emotional trauma and heavy metals in ALS. You will also learn about their incredible upcoming 2022 Healing ALS Conference, and hear some amazing stories of people who completely reversed this "terminal" illness.  On today's podcast, you will learn: What is ALS and neurodegenerative diseases? How you can treat ALS using a functional medicine approach. The root causes of ALS. How heavy metals can impact ALS. Why you must address emotional trauma to reverse these diseases. Proven healing modalities from experts like Dr. Lee Cowden. LRA tests and surprising foods that can prevent healing. Why you must protect yourself from EMF. Patricia and Scott's incredible 2022 Healing ALS Conference!   Patricia Tamowski's Bio: Patricia is principle researcher for Healing ALS. She has interviewed over 30 ALS reversals and dozens of integrative and conventional medical practitioners. She is producer for the upcoming documentary series, Healing ALS and co-author of Healing ALS, the upcoming book. She founded Healing ALS and Healing Advocates along with her partner Scott Douglas. Patricia has also interviewed MS, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's reversals. She is committed to educating the public about the true cause of disease and how to reverse it. Patricia is co-host of Healing ALS Sunday Community Meetings. She is a former software engineer and information technology project manager. She created the Healing ALS Registry along with dedicated members of the Healing ALS Volunteer Team. Scott Douglas' Bio: Scott Douglas has worked closely with the Healing ALS Community for over ten years. He hosts the Sunday Community meetings along with Patricia Tamowski. Scott is also one of the directors of the ALS Wellness Center in Colombia South America. ALSWellnessCenter.org. Scott is creator of the Healing Advocates YouTube channel with over 70 videos and over 4,500 subscribers. Scotts work includes being the director of Healing ALS, the upcoming docuseries. He is an Emmy Award nominee with 30 years' experience at NBC, CBS, and ABC as a journalist and photographer. His work has appeared on PBS, Today Show, 48 Hours, and NBC Nightly News, involving interviews with the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev. As a videographer and director of over 30 interviews with those who have successfully reversed ALS, his experience with investigative journalism on health in Seattle, Washington at NBC Affiliate King TV brings a wealth of information for our Healing ALS Community. You can sign up for their incredible Healing ALS Conference 2022 by going to . Use code MYERS for $50 off when you register!  

Dr. Patriann Smith talks to us about race, language, and immigration. Dr. Smith is known for her transdisciplinary research at the intersection of linguistics, (im)migration and race in literacy education. Her forthcoming book, with Drs. Arlette Willis and Gwendolyn McMillon, Affirming Black Students' Lives and Literacies: Bearing Witness, will soon appear in Teachers College Press. Dr. Smith is a member of the Board of Directors of the Literacy Research Association (LRA) and co-author of LRA's recent report, Advancing Anti-Racism in Literacy Research. Dr. Patriann Smith is an Associate Professor of Literacy Studies in the College of Education at the University of South Florida. Check out her guest page on the Classroom Caffeine website for the resources Dr. Smith mentions in her episode.To cite this episode:Persohn, L. (Host). (2021, Nov 23). A conversation with Patriann Smith. (Season 2, No. 14) [Audio podcast episode]. In Classroom Caffeine Podcast series. https://www.classroomcaffeine.com/guests. DOI: 10.5240/CDCE-5B71-CBFF-6CC8-F68A-X