Podcasts about mco

California Democrats are considering a new tax to preserve Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented immigrants amid a budget shortfall. While Governor Newsom has proposed freezing enrollment, progressive lawmakers argue that cutting access would harm vulnerable communities. No formal tax proposal has been introduced, but discussions include expanding the MCO tax or introducing a targeted surcharge. Polls show most Californians oppose taxpayer-funded healthcare for undocumented residents, raising questions about political feasibility. Advocates say the move is about equity and public health, while critics warn it could deepen fiscal strain and fuel political backlash. Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Broeske & Musson' on all platforms: --- The ‘Broeske & Musson Podcast’ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you listen to podcasts. --- ‘Broeske & Musson' Weekdays 9-11 AM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Facebook | Podcast| X | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Messiah in America, by Brett Stewart, a production of MCO, a worthy companion to Handel's Messiah.

Tracey Ryniec, Zacks Value Stock Strategist, previews the 2025 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. (0:40) - What To Know Heading Into Berkshire Hathaway's Annual Meeting (7:30) - Breaking Down Warren Buffett's Stock Holdings That Should Be On Your Watchlist Right Now (33:20) - Episode Roundup: BRK.B, AAPL, AXP, BAC, CVX, OXY, MCO, KHC

Tracey Ryniec, Zacks Value Stock Strategist, previews the 2025 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. (0:40) - What To Know Heading Into Berkshire Hathaway's Annual Meeting (7:30) - Breaking Down Warren Buffett's Stock Holdings That Should Be On Your Watchlist Right Now (33:20) - Episode Roundup: BRK.B, AAPL, AXP, BAC, CVX, OXY, MCO, KHC Podcast@Zacks.com

S&P Futures are trading lower this morning however the liquidity is rather low as most exchanges across the globe remine closed for the Easter holiday. Tariff and trade talks remain the key factor for the markets. Discussions on tariffs with South Korea and India are scheduled for this week. President Trump continues to press Fed Chair Powell to lower interest rates which Powell is reluctant to due ahead of a possible increase in inflation this summer. The Justice dept antitrust trial continue today. NFLX is higher this morning after announcing positive earnings results on Thursday. China is warning countries not to make trade deals with the U.S. Huawei Technologies plans to start mass shipments of its AI chip to Chinese customers which is negative for NVDA. The week ahead is a big week for earnings announcements, reports from MMM, MCO, LMT KMB, RTX, VZ, SAP & TSLA are scheduled for tomorrow.

The I-4 expansion just got bumped up, and it's a big deal for Orlando. We're also talking Magic playoffs, a tourism boom at MCO, new permits at Cars Land, major UCF construction, what's next for downtown Kissimmee, and Orlando was just ranked the best place to get married.

In this episode, I dive into the world of multi-club ownership (MCO) and multi-club investment (MCI) — a topic I've been fascinated by ever since writing my first ever journal article on it back in 2003.As someone who works closely with club owners, players and agents, I've seen how the rise of MCO is challenging the way football operates, both on and off the pitch.I share my thoughts on:⚖️ Why UEFA and FIFA are increasingly concerned about integrity and influence

In this episode, Jeremy is joined by Disney Cruise Line expert Chris from DCL Cruising Dad to kick off a two-part trip report from his recent 7-night Western Caribbean sailing aboard the Disney Treasure. Part 1 dives into the early stages of the journey—from pre-cruise planning and travel tips to embarkation day and the first full sea day aboard Disney's newest ship.Chris shares his experience flying into Orlando, staying at the Hyatt in MCO, and using Disney Cruise Line's ground transfers to Port Canaveral. You'll hear about first impressions of the Treasure, highlights from embarkation day, and early experiences like lunch, pool time, the AquaMouse, and dinner at 1923. Plus, they explore stateroom details, Cast Member magic, Palo brunch, Oceaneer Club, character meet-and-greets, and more.Whether you're new to Disney cruising or a seasoned sailor, this episode is packed with insider tips and expert insights to help you prepare for your next voyage!www.DCLCruisingDAD.comX (Twitter) @DCLcruisingDADInstagram @DCLcruisingDADTikTok @DCLcruisingDADYouTube @DCLcruisingDAD2022Email: DCLcruisingDAD@gmail.comThreads @DCLcruisingDADFacebook @DCLcruisingDadMEI-Travel – Expertise. Ease. Value.No matter where you want to go, our trusted partner MEI-Travel, will handle the planning so you can focus on the memories. They offer free vacation planning services and have nearly 20 years of experience creating memorable vacations. Visit MEI-Travel for a fee-free, no-obligation quote today!Follow Us on Social MediaFacebook GroupFacebook: @MainStMagicTwitter: @MainStMagicTikTok: @MSMPodcastInstagram: @MainStMagicVisit Us Onlinewww.MainStMagic.comwww.MainStreetShirts.comGet Dining Alerts!Find last-minute and hard-to-find Disney dining reservations with MouseDining.com! Get text and email alerts when popular theme park dining reservations open up. Get last-minute seating! Get the next table! Set your alerts now! Get the next reservation!Visit our Partnerswww.MSMFriends.comThanks to TFresh Productions for our theme song

This is the Live Call-in Show from this past Sunday night, April 6, 2025!  Mike and Scott were taking your calls for the hour as Scott had just returned from his epic Hawaii trip where he spent a lot of time at Disney's Aulani Resort!  He gave some highlights and answered some questions about activities around the resort like the luau, snorkeling, mixology classes and more!  We also got some great calls with thoughts on the Springtime Surprise races, celebrating an 8th birthday at Walt Disney World with an "all WDW Transportation Day!", and we hear about Paul's epic journey from MCO to Walt Disney World - via bike!  This and more on today's show!   Come join us in the BOGP Clubhouse this week at www.beourguestpodcast.com/discord.  Please visit our website at www.beourguestpodcast.com.  Thank you so much for your support of our podcast! Also, please follow the show on Twitter @BeOurGuestMike and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/beourguestpodcast.  Become a patron of the Be Our Guest Podcast over at www.patreon.com/BeOurGuestPodcast.  Thanks to our friends at The Magic For Less Travel for sponsoring today's podcast!

Nei 290 miliardi di stock di NPL stimati per fine 2024 in Italia (il dato viene dal Market Watch NPL di Banca IFIS) ce ne sono moltissimi che hanno un sottostante immobiliare. Un asset messo a garanzia di un finanziamento ma che non sempre si riesce a liquidare in tempi brevi. Spesso perché, banalmente, non esistono le condizioni di mercato per farlo. Ed emerge quindi la necessità di una gestione attiva di questi immobili. Ne abbiamo parlato con Juan Pablo Marino, Managing Partner di Mco real estate, società nata nel 2013 e specializzata proprio nella gestione di società con asset immobiliari in dissesto finanziario. 

Drunken brawl results in ear biting incident. RIP to the D.O.E. Dog drowned in bathroom at MCO. Jonathan Savage has the latest on the continuing Russia/Ukraine attempts at peace. Your Texts and talkbacks

For MCoBeauty CMO Meridith Rojas, the ability to democratize the beauty industry lies in the power of dupes.  “We're in this moment, in this cultural zeitgeist, where people don't want to have to spend $1,000 on a face of beauty and don't want to be left out of the trends,” said Rojas. “We really want to create luxury for everyone. And of course, we have amazing dupes, but we also have some homegrown innovation. The combination has been really magnetic, and our community is growing in the U.S. so fast. We have a very exciting year ahead of us.”  Dupes, the colloquial term for a lower-priced product inspired by a luxury category leader, makes up about half of MCo's offering. Unlike counterfeits or copies, which are often associated with unsafe formulas and flagrant IP violations, dupes are in their own category and are incredibly popular globally.  MCoBeauty sells recognizable dupes for popular products from brands like Charlotte Tilbury, Drunk Elephant, Sol de Janeiro and Laneige for around a third of the price. For example, MCo Beauty's best-selling Flawless Glow Foundation retails for $14.99, and its Miracle Flawless Pressed Powder goes for $9.99. Similar products from Charlotte Tilbury retail for $49 and $28, respectively. It also offers non-dupes, like its best-selling XtendLash tubing mascara, which sells for $13.99. MCoBeauty was launched in Australia in 2016 by founder Shelley Sullivan, a former modeling agency owner. It is currently the top-selling color cosmetics brand in Australia and New Zealand, according to Greg Barker, MCoBeauty's evp of North America. As previously reported by Glossy in December, MCoBeauty launched its U.S. expansion at the end of 2024 with entry into 1,700 Kroger stores, which include regional grocery stores like Smiths, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Frys, Ralphs and more. The expansion also includes DTC sales via MCoBeauty's site and Amazon. This week, MCo Beauty also launched into 1,300 Target doors and on Target.com.  Rojas joined The Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss MCoBeauty's U.S. expansion and the marketing strategy supporting it. She shared anecdotes about the company's OOH and digital marketing successes, including advice on building a digital community, connecting with influencers early in their careers, getting the best community UGC and hiring digitally-minded celebrities to lead social-first campaigns.

A bill to require certain students to repeat kindergarten advances in Frankfort, lawmakers advance a measure that some say could help protect victims from violent partners, the full Senate passes a bill aimed at what the FBI says is the fastest growing crimes against children, and a medical student wins first place in a contest that combines science and art. 

BTS tertiaires : SAM, NDRC, GEA, MCO, CI : quels sont les prérequis, les différences et les débouchés ?Les intervenants de cette conférenceAliette LOMBARD DE BUFFIERES, Proviseure adjointe du lycée Jean LurçatAnimé par Patricia DUVERNEUIL, Directrice du CIO EIOLes Conférences du Salon Post BacDans le cadre du partenariat conclu entre AZIMUT et le Salon PostBac, nous relayons la diffusion de l'ensemble des conférences à l'attention de notre communauté de parents. Ces conférences ont été enregistrées dans les conditions du direct lors du Salon PostBac les 10 et 11 janvier 2025.Animées par les psychologues de l'Éducation nationale, spécialistes du conseil en orientation , les conférences du Salon Postbac 2025 permettent de dresser le tableau de l'offre de formation et des choix qui se posent.Pour en savoir plus sur le Salon Postbac : https://www.reussirpostbac.fr/ℹ️ SUIVEZ L'ACTUALITÉ DE L'ORIENTATIONInscrivez-vous à la newsletter Les Clés de l'orientation : https://azimut-orientation.com/abonnez-vous-a-la-newsletter/ ( vous recevrez en cadeau un guide téléchargeable)

I highlight the incredible support I received from volunteers and attendees, including a helpful staffer named Hunter, whose mother, Wendy, played a key role in pre-event planning. I describe my challenges in the exhibit hall due to noise and crowd density, my enjoyment of the sessions, and memorable networking encounters, including a conversation about podcasting with AI and public speaking opportunities. A humorous moment came when I received a $5 Wawa gift card—a nod to the convenience store's origins near my Swarthmore home. This episode underscores the sense of community at PodFest, offering inspiration and practical tips for navigating events as a visually impaired attendee. Show notes at https://www.iCantCU.com/279  Links Mentioned (product links are affiliate links so that I may earn a commission.) Ziggy's favorite birthday present: https://amzn.to/3ZpuLTO Be My Eyes app (free): https://www.bemyeyes.com/  Seeing AI app (free): https://www.seeingai.com/  Index of That Real Blind Tech Show episodes: https://www.icantcu.com/trbts/  Watch iCantCU episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@iCantCU Support iCantCU When shopping at Amazon, I would appreciate it if you clicked on this link to make your purchases: https://www.iCantCU.com/amazon. I participate in the Amazon Associate Program and earn commissions on qualifying purchases. The best part is, you don't pay extra for doing this! White Canes Connect Podcast Episodes 122 In Episode 122 of White Canes Connect, listeners revisit the 2024 NFB of Pennsylvania State Convention in Erie, featuring Daniel Lubiner's insightful presentation, "Braille: The Language of the Blind." Find the podcast on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/white-canes-connect/id1592248709  Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1YDQSJqpoteGb1UMPwRSuI YouTube Https://www.youtube.com/@pablindpodcast White Canes Connect On Twitter Https://www.twitter.com/PABlindPodcast My Podcast Gear Here is all my gear and links to it on Amazon. I participate in the Amazon Associates Program and earn a commission on qualifying purchases. Zoom Podtrak P4: https://amzn.to/33Ymjkt Zoom ZDM Mic & Headphone Pack: https://amzn.to/33vLn2s Zoom H1n Recorder: https://amzn.to/3zBxJ9O  Gator Frameworks Desk Mounted Boom Arm: https://amzn.to/3AjJuBK Shure SM58 S Mic: https://amzn.to/3JOzofg  Sony ZV-E10 camera : https://amzn.to/4fFBSxM  Sennheiser Headset (1st 162 episodes): https://amzn.to/3fM0Hu0  Follow iCantCU on your favorite podcast directory! Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/icantcu-podcast/id1445801370/  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3nck2D5HgD9ckSaUQaWwW2  Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/iCantCU-Podcast-Podcast/B08JJM26BT  IHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-icantcu-podcast-31157111/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/davidbenj  Reach out on social media Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/davidbenj Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidbenj Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidbenj LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbenj Are You or Do You Know A Blind Boss? If you or someone you know is crushing it in their field and is also blind, I want to hear from you! Call me at (646) 926-6350 and leave a message. Please include your name and town, and tell me who the Blind Boss is and why I need to have them on an upcoming episode. You can also email the show at iCantCUPodcast@gmail.com.

¿Deberías dejar el café? ☕ Descubre si esta popular bebida está ayudando o perjudicando tu salud. En este video, exploramos los beneficios y riesgos del café respaldados por la ciencia, y al final te damos recomendaciones prácticas para saber si deberías reducir su consumo o dejarlo por completo. Hablaremos de: ✅ Cómo el café afecta tu rendimiento físico y mental. ✅ Los beneficios antioxidantes y sus posibles riesgos ocultos. ✅ Ansiedad, insomnio y otros efectos de la cafeína en exceso. ✅ Alternativas saludables al café para quienes quieren reducirlo. Mira hasta el final para descubrir todo lo que necesitas saber sobre esta bebida tan popular. ¡Este video podría cambiar tu forma de consumir café para siempre!

In this episode: Justin goes to a birthday party, drives a Tesla, and configures your BIOS. The compliments department is, as always, available at podcast@searls.co. Have some URLs: This is the combination air fryer / grill I bought Microsoft dropped support for non-SecureBoot PC updates last month Aaron's puns, ranked Nobody Cares Things we learned about LLMs in 2024 Judge ends man's 11-year quest to dig up landfill and recover $765M in bitcoin The Consensus on Havana Syndrome Is Cracking (News+) Meta kills diversity programs, claiming DEI has become “too charged” Google kills JavaScript-free searches Sonos still seems kinda fucked 5090s seem kind of like a scam The official Elder Scrolls: Oblivion remake leaked Switch 2 was unveiled Guy with 200bpm heart rate complains his watch isn't working (before admitting his heart isn't working) The Diplomat Conclave Severance Season 2 is out Marvel Rivals is a hit (with the Thirstlords) Indiana Jones and the Great Circle P.T. A Short Hike Transcript: [00:00:29] Well, good morning, everyone. If it's evening, where you are, well, it's not here. So that's just what you get. You get a good morning. You can save it for later, put it in your pocket, and then the next time the sun comes up, you can just remember, ah, yes, someone did wish me a good morning today. [00:00:48] You are currently, your ears are residing inside of Breaking Change, which is an audio production. Not to be confused with Breaking Bad, certainly not Breaking Good, just broken. [00:01:03] You know, now that officially, officially or unofficially, TikTok is down. It's unreachable in the U.S. Aaron has reported, our Seattle correspondent, for the broadcast, that even over his VPN, he can't get to TikTok. [00:01:24] His arms are itchy. He's scratching. He, ah, I hope, wherever you are, I hope that you and your loved ones and your teenagers are okay. [00:01:33] But yeah, anyway, now the TikTok is down. Maybe some of you are here, because you've got nothing else to do, and you need something to fill that void. So thank you for joining. [00:01:45] Something that I've been meaning to do at the beginning of this, of the show, for the last, well, seven versions, has been to kindly ask that you go into your podcast player of choice, and you rate and review the show. [00:02:02] I would prefer five stars on a five-star scale, but if it was a ten-star scale, you know, ten stars would be better. [00:02:10] Thumbs up, or whatever. Write a little review explaining why the fuck somebody would want to listen to an explicit language, you know, tech-adjacent programmer-ish gaming movie, whatever the fuck this is. [00:02:23] Dialogue, uh, because, uh, I have found that breaking change is a really hard pitch, you know, when, when, when, when explaining to people, it's like, oh, this is me talking, just like drive-time AM radio used to be, except instead of talking about a bunch of politically charged propaganda, uh, we're just hanging out, uh, and instead of having a commute, you know, you're walking a dog, or you're doing the dishes. [00:02:50] Although, I guess, you know, maybe you listen on a commute. [00:02:53] I, I, I've heard, I've heard from, from listeners on road trips, listening to entire episodes all in one stretch, and that's something else. [00:03:03] Uh, I have not heard from a lot of commuters, so if you listen to this while you're commuting, shout out at podcast at searles.co, uh, you know, if you're driving, don't, don't try to rate and review, you know, in a distracted fashion. [00:03:16] But, but next time you think of it, you know, you, you, you slam that five-star button. [00:03:20] You know what, it's, it's, I got a lot of subversive elements, you know, in my cadre of people, because I am a total piece of shit, and I attract, I attract the good and the bad, everyone in between. [00:03:32] But some of us, you know, we, we, we appreciate a good troll. [00:03:35] There is no better way to stick it to the man and, and confuse the hell out of people than for all of you to go and give this five stars in, in, in iTunes and, in your podcast player. [00:03:46] And then have a whole bunch of people, you know, have it surface in the algorithm for others. [00:03:51] And then they listen to this, and then they're like, what, what, what the fuck is going on to my ears right now? [00:03:55] Uh, I am very confused. [00:03:57] And if that's you, hell, you know what? [00:03:59] Oh, shoot. [00:03:59] But I'm, I'm speaking from the past. [00:04:01] Maybe this is the, the future where this is a lot of five-star reviews and some, some, some rando outside of Argentina is, is, is getting this put into their feed for them. [00:04:11] And now they're like, four minutes have passed. [00:04:14] What am I doing with my life? [00:04:15] Well, hello. [00:04:16] You are also welcome. [00:04:17] Good morning to you as well. [00:04:18] Uh, by the time you're listening to this, you know, I'm recording Sunday morning. [00:04:24] First thing, uh, I know from experience that it can be hard to pretend to work during a Trump inauguration. [00:04:33] So, uh, I figured that instead of pretending to work, you could be here with me instead if you're listening on Monday. [00:04:41] And if you're, if you're fortunate enough to have Monday off, um, you know, I guess one difference between the, uh, uh, the previous Trump inauguration. [00:04:51] And this one is that the, you know, inclusivity backlash against the Trump admin, you know, that has now recently receded. [00:05:02] If you're to believe the Bezos and billionaire class, uh, uh, has resulted in way, way more people who don't work at post offices getting MLK junior day off. [00:05:13] So I suppose many of us are not working on Monday, but regardless, this is a version 29 of the program titled super switch. [00:05:24] Which, you know, depending on the audience, I think a lot of, you know, probably what I mean by that. [00:05:29] We'll, we'll talk about it later. [00:05:30] Uh, in life news, it feels like it's been a way more than two weeks since I talked to y'all. [00:05:37] Uh, uh, uh, when you live in a theme park, there's just a lot going on. [00:05:42] People coming and going stuff to do, uh, uh, stimulation overload. [00:05:49] That's why I sound so just, you know, demure downbeat chill here is because I am exhausted permanently all the time. [00:06:02] Cause every time I leave the house, I am, I am just overstimulated. [00:06:05] Uh, last night we went to a birthday party of a friend, uh, in the, uh, Orlando proper part of Orlando, [00:06:12] whereas we live in theme park, Orlando. [00:06:14] So we had to, uh, drive over the, uh, the treacherous terrain known as I four, the deadliest stretch of highway in the United States in terms of, uh, only in terms of the number of people who die on it. [00:06:26] And the party was, uh, it was funny cause our, our friends, uh, they're building a house on this beautiful lake, huge property. [00:06:34] It's, it's absolutely gorgeous. [00:06:36] It's going to, the house is a custom build. [00:06:39] And a couple of years ago, uh, the one who's, whose birthday ended up being said, you know, we're going to have my 45th birthday party here at the house. [00:06:47] After it opens the water slide, you're going to DJs. [00:06:50] We're going to have, it's going to be a big blowout fest. [00:06:52] It's going to be awesome. [00:06:53] And then his husband was like, you know, it's, it's not going to be ready yet. [00:06:57] Don't get your hopes up. [00:06:58] And, uh, uh, sure enough, uh, both things came to pass. [00:07:04] The house is nowhere near ready. [00:07:05] It is an active construction site. [00:07:07] And they trolled us hard. [00:07:08] They said, Hey, come to this hotel. [00:07:09] We're going to have, you know, uh, uh, free valet or whatever. [00:07:12] And then like, like we go into like a normal kind of like typical ballroom thing and you get a cocktail. [00:07:19] And then these construction workers show up and they, they, they, they heard us into buses. [00:07:24] Uh, and so people are in their cocktail attire, you know, Becky wore, uh, I don't know if you'd call them heels, [00:07:32] but elevated shoes for, for first time in a while, more of a flats person, which I respect. [00:07:39] Cause I'm also a flats person and, uh, we all get into the bus and everyone's dressed up. [00:07:44] And then, uh, they, they, they drive us to, uh, the active construction site. [00:07:47] That is our friend's house. [00:07:49] And, uh, they had, uh, the events planners and everyone like, like actually just decorate the shit out of, you know, what, what is a lot of concrete block first floor of most homes around here is concrete. [00:08:01] And so the bones of the house are up and they just decorated it with kind of construction paraphernalia, orange cones. [00:08:07] All of the staff had, uh, you know, orange vests on, uh, we were all given hard hats. [00:08:11] Uh, the theming was truly on point. [00:08:15] Weather was perfect. [00:08:16] Uh, and, uh, you know, it was a big raucous affair, raucous raucous, you know what I mean? [00:08:23] So that was great. [00:08:24] Uh, we didn't even stay out that late, but I feel like I got hit by a truck, uh, this morning. [00:08:29] Uh, I, I kept it to a two drink maximum, which is my new go-to rule of thumb. [00:08:34] Uh, uh, cause I always end up barely regretting the third from a, from a, an ability to sleep perspective. [00:08:43] Afterwards, uh, other life stuff, you know, like the logistics following the death of my father. [00:08:48] First of all, thank you very much for many of you wrote in to express sympathies, uh, probably don't, don't need to put them all in the mailbag. [00:08:55] Cause that after a certain point, it started reads like, you know, reading birthday cards on air, uh, in terms of they all, you know, not to diminish anyone's, uh, extension of grief, uh, or, or, or sharing their own stories. [00:09:08] But there's a certain, you know, beginning, middle and end format to, to, to, to, to, no one knows what the fuck to say. [00:09:15] I don't know what to thank you. [00:09:18] Um, but yeah, like I know just sort of like finances and, and forensics front of trying to figure out how to tease out all the complexities of his life that he never really told anyone about and didn't certainly didn't document, uh, that the work continues still trying to help my mom consolidate her situation. [00:09:36] It's been, you know, just a lot of very procedural. [00:09:42] All right, find all the stuff, organize the stuff, come up with a to-do list, figure out how to like approach this, make all the phone calls that you need to make to all these institutions to, to, to, to, to iron it out and to, to continue fact finding or to, to, to give, you know, furnish whatever documentation they need. [00:09:57] And, and, and because it's been so, uh, I guess transactional wrote, like not to say it's colored my perception of dad or anything, you know, one way or another. [00:10:11] Uh, but it's definitely, when I look back on this era of my life, of course, his passing is going to stand out in sharp relief, but like, that was like a week of stuff. [00:10:21] And then the rest of it is going to be like three months of stuff. [00:10:25] Uh, and so I wonder how that's going to affect how I, how I, how I look back on it. [00:10:28] But one of the things I noticed is a lot of different service providers, uh, like banks, for example, that have, uh, uh, you know, bills coming up, you know, you got a credit card bill and let's say it's due. [00:10:45] Uh, I, I don't know why I'm blanking, but January 25th and then January 18th comes around and it says, Hey, you have a statement due January 25th. [00:10:54] Or you got an upcoming bill or you, your bill is ready to be paid. [00:10:58] And when I get an email like that, so I just got one from dad or, you know, for dad's account from us bank. [00:11:05] And I was like, shit. [00:11:07] Cause I know he didn't have auto pay set up in a lot of places. [00:11:09] Uh, and like, do I have that login? [00:11:12] Like, you know, do I have to coordinate with mom to get the SMS thing? [00:11:15] Like I get into it. [00:11:16] And then sure enough, like, cause I thought I'd set up auto pay. [00:11:19] I even had a to-do list that said, set up auto pay for this. [00:11:21] And, uh, auto pay was set up. [00:11:23] It was just emailing me unnecessarily anyway. [00:11:25] You know, if you're going to have a recurring payment or an auto payment set up, it, you know, it's, it's okay to notify the customer that there's another bill coming, but it would be really sweet. [00:11:36] If like auto pay is enabled, just so you know, you're going to, you're set to auto pay this on X and X date, uh, because if you got, you know, as many cards as some people have, uh, it can get kind of exhausting to, to just worry about, uh, well, I hope that's, that's all set up. [00:11:53] So it's, uh, things like that are just like random nonsense stressors and the amount of context switching, because you're constantly getting emails and calls from different, from all corners. [00:12:03] I normally screen my calls really aggressively, but you know, this month I've got a pretty much [00:12:08] answer it no matter who's calling, which is not my favorite. [00:12:10] And I've, I've found myself falling into something that I never thought I would do. [00:12:17] Uh, maybe it's cause I turned 40 this week, but I'm, uh, I've always associated this with like [00:12:24] an old, a generational thing. [00:12:26] When somebody asks me a yes, no question, I've started saying yes or no. [00:12:31] Like the literal word, yes. [00:12:33] And that might sound mundane to you, but in my family growing up, the word, yes, always felt [00:12:41] violent because everyone always had more to say, or they had a compulsion to soften it, you know, [00:12:49] like, yeah, sounds a lot, um, neutral, accepting, open, soft. [00:12:58] Then yes, there's a certain like hardness to yes. [00:13:01] You ask a yes, no question. [00:13:02] The person says, yes, it feels like there's a period at the end of that. [00:13:05] And when you say, yeah, or okay, or all right, or, you know, you give some sort of like, you know, [00:13:11] like an invitation to either continue with a follow-up question or, you know, be, be open to maybe a retort or something. [00:13:20] And so I had a colleague once who is, you know, the previous generation who is my superior. [00:13:25] And, uh, his name was Daryl. [00:13:28] Daryl's a lovely person. [00:13:29] But every time I asked Daryl a question and I was asking him a lot of questions because I didn't know shit about fuck. [00:13:34] And he knew a lot of things about everything he would, he would answer every yes, no question with just the word yes or the word no. [00:13:43] And it felt so stifling and cruel and like, you know, like, why is he shutting me down like this? [00:13:51] Even though he's literally answering in the affirmative, there's something about the word yes. [00:13:55] When unadorned with any sort of softeners or explanation or exposition or, or, or, or, or justification or, or invitation to, to, to follow up that feel there's the finality of it feels just rude, even though it is very literally fine. [00:14:12] So I caught myself doing that and I guess I've become a yes man. [00:14:16] Other life stuff. [00:14:22] Our ninja, we have a, uh, we seem to have like every ninja kitchen appliance, um, just in some sort of rotation around, uh, you know, our, our kitchen and it feels to me like every modern home that every year, the, there's like a, a counter surface inflation where the counters keep getting bigger. [00:14:44] The kitchen islands keep getting bigger. [00:14:46] And then the, almost a, um, sort of like how a, a gas will expand to fill its container. [00:14:54] Like ninja appliances will continue getting invented to fill all available counter space in every home. [00:14:59] Uh, and the reason that ninjas been so successful is that unlike Hamilton beach and Cuisinart and stuff like their, their products are actually pretty good and do what they say on the tin. [00:15:09] But we had a, uh, one of the air fryer units that can also, you know, pretend to be a grill, even though like all that's really happening is a hairdryer is blowing downward onto your food and any sort of heating element underneath is indirect. [00:15:20] Uh, we had one of those and, you know, it just kind of got grody and gross from lots of oil and, and repeat washings and, you know, food stuck to the basket. [00:15:31] And it was, it was, it was no longer, you know, how sometimes you use one of these appliances, you don't clean it as intentionally or as frequently as maybe the instruction manual tells you to. [00:15:42] And eventually your food starts tasting like, you know, the bottom of the, uh, the, the, the, the, the deep fryer at, at McDonald's, like, just like that oil tarry kind of like, you know, afterglow. [00:15:55] Which makes, it takes, it really takes the shine off of, uh, whatever the omega threes that you're trying to get out of your fishes. [00:16:00] Uh, so, so we, we bought a new one and what I really wanted out of a new one was one with like multiple heating elements. [00:16:08] Like where, where there was an actual grill that could sear stuff and cook from the bottom up, but also a convection oven that could crisp it up and, and, and, and sort of dehumidify. [00:16:18] And amazingly, Ninja does sell this product. [00:16:22] Uh, it was called, uh, see if I can link to it. [00:16:25] The Ninja convection plus grill. [00:16:27] Oh no, that wasn't it. [00:16:28] It's, it's got a name. [00:16:29] Uh, something, something, grid IG 651. [00:16:35] Okay. [00:16:35] There you go. [00:16:35] I'll put a link in the show notes. [00:16:37] Uh, so the IG 651, whatever, it's got like a barbecue griddle on it. [00:16:41] It seems, it seems nice. [00:16:43] Uh, and it does exactly that. [00:16:46] It's got like a big wide surface element. [00:16:48] You can, you, you plug it in. [00:16:49] It's a very complicated, unnecessarily. [00:16:51] So a complicated thing where it's, it looks like you kind of take a George Foreman style griddle. [00:16:55] It's angled forward, meaning like it's got, you know, uh, I said griddle at just like the slabby kind of, of, of metal slats, slats, you know, where you, you put the burger on it. [00:17:07] And then it's like, you know, remember the George Foreman marketing? [00:17:10] I'm sure you do like, you know, like it's like at the, like, like the, the squeezing iconography to, to indicate like the fat is coming out and then that will make this healthier, even though the fat is often the best part. [00:17:20] Uh, so it's, it's got that it plugs into some like electrical, you know, electrode input thing with two little donguses. [00:17:28] I don't know why I'm even trying to explain this. [00:17:30] It's fine. [00:17:30] And you plug that in, you can wash it separately, but you can put a griddle on top that kind of maps to it. [00:17:36] So it'll pick up that heat. [00:17:37] And that is a flat surface, which can be nice. [00:17:40] If you're, if you're maybe, you know, toasting a sandwich or something. [00:17:46] And yeah, the thing about it, the thing about that search was that trying to answer the question of what heating elements are in this smart cooking appliance proved to be extremely difficult. [00:18:00] You go to the Amazon listing, you go to the product page. [00:18:03] I read up on every single Ninja product that does this. [00:18:06] I started looking at other products that do this. [00:18:09] I started looking at things that ran themselves as smart ovens that, you know, advertise having, uh, multiple heating elements, you know, like the June oven did this. [00:18:16] I think that's out of business now. [00:18:18] Tovala did this. [00:18:18] I think that's going out of business now where they would have, you know, like, um, maybe a microwave element plus a steam cooking element, or maybe they'd have a convection fan inside and also, um, an induction plate underneath. [00:18:31] And none of them have really taken off in the U S unfortunately, uh, such that. [00:18:39] It is a product category that the consumers are educated about, like what they're getting into in Japan. [00:18:45] There's a product called health. [00:18:46] You know, like literally like health EO, but THs are hard and it's got like the basic models have four or five different ways to heat your food. [00:18:56] And then like, it's really smart in that you, you punch in a code, like a recipe code, and it'll just do everything cradle to grave for you with the advanced sensors that it has. [00:19:04] And kind of move between whatever combination at whatever point in the cooking process, all of those heating elements need to be arranged. [00:19:11] And so things come out almost better than a human could do them because they never have to be removed from this hermetically sealed environment, you know, for people's hands to come in and, and, and adjust how the thing is being heated. [00:19:26] Because in Japan, that product has been so successful that the two or three different tiers of that product, not only are they all good, but like, no one needs to be explained what's there. [00:19:36] Like the, the, the, the, it could just be like the higher level of literacy and, and, and education generally in Japan. [00:19:42] But in general, like, it's just, it's really straightforward. [00:19:46] And here, it seems to be that like people just want a device that they can throw food in. [00:19:52] And then as long as they're picking off a menu and it has words like grill, they will feel good about it. [00:19:58] And no one's going to ask, where's the heat coming from? [00:20:01] How is this getting cooked? [00:20:02] Which now that I say it, of course, like Americans don't give a fuck how the thing gets accomplished or without it gets accomplished well, typically, uh, just that, uh, you know, they know what box to put the food in and then the button to hit, which is, you know, a little bit condescending, but, you know, y'all have earned it in my opinion. [00:20:20] Uh, so yeah, we got it. [00:20:22] It works. [00:20:22] Uh, uh, as far as I know, I turned it on the preheating started. [00:20:26] We have not yet, you know, broken the seal and actually cooked with it yet, but I'm glad, I'm glad to have that because I think, I think, I think. [00:20:32] Shit will turn out better, especially salmon, which is increasingly the number one thing that we were using our air fryer for, which was an inefficient, uh, use case. [00:20:40] Speaking of the parks being really busy, uh, and, and life here being overstimulating on Friday, I found myself really testing the fences on this new being 40 year old thing. [00:20:55] I, uh, got up at 5am with Becky. [00:20:59] We had a special event at Disney's Hollywood studios that started at six. [00:21:03] We got there. [00:21:04] There were other people there. [00:21:05] We went to bed early, you know, to, to, to, to be able to, to do this and not be super groggy and miserable, had a great time. [00:21:13] And then we had some friends coming into the park just about an hour after that, that, that event wrapped. [00:21:18] And so we went and visited with them for a little bit. [00:21:20] Then we came home and tried to recover some sort of a productive day by then it was noon. [00:21:25] Uh, and then that evening, cause the same friends that they had their big day, I wanted to debrief with, uh, uh, my buddy before he, uh, John, his name is John. [00:21:35] He is a listener of the program. [00:21:38] So hi, John. [00:21:38] Hello. [00:21:40] Uh, when to do debrief with him. [00:21:43] So we went over to a bar called trader Sam's, which is a grog grotto. [00:21:47] It's in the Polynesian resort hotel. [00:21:49] And it's one of my favorite bars because it's got like a lot of like little imagineering knickknacks and stage elements that, that have since become very common at Tiki bars. [00:21:58] But we got in there, we spent a couple hours and then pretty soon I realized, Oh fuck, it's midnight. [00:22:03] And I've literally been Disney it up to some extent, uh, since 6am. [00:22:10] And so, you know, I actually, I got a second wind in there, but I ultimately didn't get, get to bed until like two. [00:22:16] Uh, so that was a, it was a big day. [00:22:19] I feel like I did all right. [00:22:20] Uh, from an energy level perspective, I think I, I was the person that I needed to be in all of the interactions I had that day. [00:22:28] And that's probably the most I can say. [00:22:29] Uh, I'm simultaneously finding that my body is falling apart. [00:22:33] My, my, uh, left hip is pretty grumpy. [00:22:38] Uh, it's just some sort of like a constant dull discomfort, uh, feels like a dislocated shoulder, but no matter how much PT I do, [00:22:46] I, I, I seem to never fully, fully beat it. [00:22:49] Um, I need a smart, the smart oven equivalent for, for, uh, you know, muscle therapies that people do. [00:23:00] It's like, Oh, you can get some of the, it'll, it'll apply the icy hot and also, you know, drill you with a Theragun and also massage you and also use the, you know, resistant bands exercises to strengthen it. [00:23:09] Uh, just all simultaneously. [00:23:10] Cause it's like this round robin of, of attempts I've had to, to restore this fucking hip. [00:23:17] Uh, it has been great. [00:23:19] So that's been a constant thing. [00:23:21] New things are like my right knee now hurts like hell. [00:23:23] My left, my left heel, just the skin started cracking from how dry it's been here. [00:23:28] And of course it's still way more humid here than the rest of the nation, but apparently my skin is so used to the humidity, uh, that I just woke up one morning and it hurt to walk because all my skin was exposed because all my skin and my foot had cracked. [00:23:40] You know, like what the hell's going on? [00:23:42] So, uh, if you're, uh, approaching 40 and you're worried about it, good. [00:23:48] I don't know that I recommend it so far, uh, but I'm still here, still kicking. [00:23:53] Uh, uh, well, I, so far I almost didn't make it to be honest. [00:23:59] Uh, you know, well, I, if I'm going to talk about this next topic, uh, it's something that's come up in the show before. [00:24:09] And so I think that technically makes it follow up. [00:24:11] So let me hit this button right here. [00:24:13] Yeah. [00:24:20] So speaking of dying right before you turn 40, I, I'd mentioned that I four interstate four that runs east, west in, uh, through bisecting Orlando. [00:24:37] It's, uh, known to be, and I fact checked this against GPT cause I knew I'd probably end up talking about it. [00:24:45] Deadliest stretch of highway in the U S and you know, I'm a, I'm an experienced driver insofar as I've been driving for 24 years. [00:24:54] I don't like love it. [00:24:56] I'm not a car guy. [00:24:57] Uh, I, I feel like I drive fine, relatively safely, probably more on the conservative side. [00:25:05] Overall. [00:25:06] I do speed from time to time, but you know, as long as if you're in America and you're speeding, as long as you use the phrase flow of traffic, uh, you can do whatever you want. [00:25:17] And the problem is that when you live in theme park Orlando and you need literally anything that is not entertainment and hospitality related, uh, like for example, you know, I, I, and this is what puts this into the followup bucket of content. [00:25:35] Uh, I've been talking on and off about having, uh, struggling with snoring. [00:25:38] You know, I've been, uh, uh, doing that thing that a lot of middle-aged husbands start doing and deciding to interrupt their spouse's sleep by, by, by suddenly picking up this cool new habit. [00:25:49] That is just making wheezing sounds all night long. [00:25:53] And mine's really inconsistent. [00:25:56] It's clearly triggered by something. [00:25:57] Couldn't really tell what, you know, is it diet or whatever. [00:26:00] It's like clearly like none of the symptoms of apnea. [00:26:03] So that's probably not it. [00:26:04] Given that I feel fully rested after like four hours and I've never feeling short of breath. [00:26:08] Uh, you know, the new Apple watch has an apnea detection and it seems to not be detecting any apnea. [00:26:16] So I finally got a sleep study ordered and the doctor who is a very nice lady, she, you know, she's just like the reality of insurance right now is, uh, I will put in a request for an in, in a let in lab sleep study. [00:26:33] So we can watch you because the alternative is an at home sleep study. [00:26:36] And based on everything you're saying, there is a 0.0% chance that that at home sleep study is going to find anything. [00:26:44] Uh, and then I was like, well, then let's just do the in lab. [00:26:46] Like you're saying, well, she's like, oh, the insurance will surely deny based on what you're saying, uh, an in lab sleep study. [00:26:53] Uh, you have to do, you have to go through the motions of this at home sleep study first, and then it has to show nothing. [00:27:00] And then I can put in a script again for the in lab. [00:27:04] Uh, and, and then the prior authorization will go through and then you'll be able to do that. [00:27:09] And so I have to kind of do this performative nothing operation, just nothing like procedure, operation procedure. [00:27:18] It's over, you know, like diagnostic, you know, just to check some boxes and money is changing hands invisibly to me at every step. [00:27:27] Of course, for the most part, thanks, thanks to having health insurance. [00:27:30] So I, I, I schedule this and it's an at home sleep study. [00:27:36] Like there are services that mail these units, you know, they could ship it. [00:27:40] I could, I don't know, find a courier or something, but nope, this one, I have to drive to the other fucking side of Orlando, which is, you know, it's 20 miles, but it's like a 45 minute hour long adventure. [00:27:49] And I have to calling them the rules of the game were that I had to, uh, drive there Sunday night to pick it up, come back Tuesday night to drop it off. [00:28:00] And they, because of sleep study locations, this is like an actual, you know, testing center. [00:28:07] Uh, they literally open at 6 30 PM in the evening. [00:28:10] Uh, you know, so that's when their shift starts. [00:28:13] So I had to get there at 6 30. [00:28:15] So that means like, I'm basically fighting through rush hour into town and then pick it up and now I'm coming back home and now it's like eight. [00:28:22] So I guess I'll just eat dinner by myself or whatever. [00:28:25] Uh, and it's not like in a part of town where it's like, Hey, we can go downtown and like make a date, make a night date night out of it and go to like a fun restaurant. [00:28:33] It's like, this is a, I don't know what I, I have many times in this program suggested you should move to Orlando. [00:28:41] Orlando's great. [00:28:41] I love life in Orlando, but like whenever I leave the bubble of like theme park party time, Orlando, where everything's just really, really nice and customer service is incredible. [00:28:50] And the food's really great. [00:28:52] And, and it's just a party. [00:28:53] Uh, and I go to like real Florida. [00:28:56] I'm like, Oh yeah, I need to stop recommending people move to Orlando. [00:28:59] Cause this is like the median experience. [00:29:01] And I wouldn't, I would not, I can't do this for an hour. [00:29:05] I don't know how I would possibly live here. [00:29:07] No offense to Orlando, but I, uh, I went and I picked it up. [00:29:12] I drove my car there on Sunday night and traffic was pretty bad, but it's always pretty bad. [00:29:18] I had numerous cases of people jumping in front of the car on the way onto the highway. [00:29:23] Once I was on the highway, I get into the new express lanes, which do make things easier. [00:29:27] You pay a toll and you get, uh, you know, expedited traffic. [00:29:30] Um, and somebody had pulled over into the shoulder. [00:29:34] And as soon as he pulls over, he just whips open his, his driver's side door off of the shoulder. [00:29:41] And now the door is in my lane. [00:29:43] And there's of course, somebody on my left causing me to, uh, flip out and have to slam the brakes to, to the point of like, you know, bad enough that smoke is happening. [00:29:53] Right. [00:29:53] Like you can smell the burnt tire because this dude is just like, I'm on the highway. [00:29:57] I can open my door. [00:29:58] I'm a, I'm a big man. [00:29:59] I'm driving a truck. [00:30:00] So I chose not to blow his door off. [00:30:05] Uh, then on the way home, it was one of those ordeals where, uh, it's a, a sign said congestion, like eight, four miles ahead. [00:30:16] I was like, oh, four miles. [00:30:17] Okay. [00:30:17] Maybe I'll find an opportunity to take, get off the highway or I'll get onto the express lane and try to avoid it. [00:30:21] And, uh, Apple maps was saying I should turn right at the Kia center, which is like where the Orlando magic play. [00:30:27] And then take three more rights and then get back on the highway. [00:30:30] And I was like extremely convinced that this was just some sort of, you know, Apple maps fuckery. [00:30:36] Uh, and, and the nav and the computer being wrong because it often is, I was like, I'm going to stay on the highway. [00:30:42] I'm a smart guy and the instant that I passed that exit that it wanted me to take, everything became a parking lot and, and such a parking lot that it became road ragey pretty quickly with people driving and shoulders and honking and trying to edge each other out and motorcycles going between lanes. [00:30:58] And, and, and there's just a, you know, there's probably a metric that you could use for any civilization called like, uh, TTMM time to Mad Max. [00:31:10] And Florida has a very low TTMM, you know, it doesn't take long at all for every man for himself, uh, instincts to seemingly kick in. [00:31:22] So I, I did the rerouting and now, now the phone is telling me, all right, well, you know, literally it's so demoralizing. [00:31:32] You see the ETA to your home arrival move literally 40 minutes immediately because I chose not to take it's very wonky prescription of three right turns. [00:31:42] And now I realized in hindsight, the reason it wanted me to do that is there's a direct entrance onto the express lane. [00:31:47] And so not only did the ETA go up, not only do I have the regret that I didn't listen to the computer for, for telling me to do a stupid thing, but I also now am shamed by the insult on wounds here. [00:31:58] The left of me, the express lanes are wide open and there's just like five cars just having a great time going 80 miles an hour to get to where they want. [00:32:05] And everybody else is left in just this, this, this, this absolutely falling down style, uh, traffic jam, uh, or just after dark. [00:32:17] I did get home, I, I took a side street and it was one of those ordeals where you, you know, you take the side street, go up a couple of blocks, you go, you know, uh, turn left, kind of go, I don't know, maybe a half mile just past wherever, whatever accident was causing the congestion. [00:32:34] Then you get back on the highway. [00:32:34] And the problem was, of course, we all have automated navigation systems. [00:32:41] They all reroute us. [00:32:42] And so that was immediately backed up there that it was three traffic lights of people in the left lane, trying to, to turn onto that third traffic light. [00:32:52] And I, it would have been another 20 minutes just waiting for those light changes. [00:32:56] And so I just, you know, fortunately I had a brain and I was like, all right, I'm going to just blow past this and go in the right lane and drive forward three, three intersections and then do a U-turn turn right. [00:33:08] And then I, I successfully beat the rush and I got home and I, it merely only wasted 20 minutes of my time, but here, this story has already wasted five minutes of your time. [00:33:16] So it was death defying because even once off the highway, virtually none of those drivers had ever been on those side streets or in that neighborhood before. [00:33:27] And they were all driving like it and they were all driving like it and it was dark and there were not adequate streetlights. [00:33:31] So, uh, you know, it's not just that like Florida drivers are bad, but like you are surrounded by a certain number of frazzled dads who just picked up rental cards, cars from MCO, who are trying to get to their Disney hotel, who just had a flight delay, whose kids are screaming. [00:33:48] And nobody's happy like that is the default and that is the best case energy because like, you know, that's before you consider the, the, the capital F capital M Florida men and the tweakers and everyone else that just kind of contributes to this diverse fabric of society that we live in. [00:34:08] So, uh, that was a bad experience. [00:34:12] I, I did get home, you know, I am still with us, but by the time I got home, I was, I was so fried. [00:34:18] Like I, I, I, I, I didn't want to hang out. [00:34:22] I didn't want to talk to Becky. [00:34:22] Just wanted to like pour a whiskey and collapse. [00:34:25] Uh, the stress level is so high. [00:34:28] Like, and you can, I looked at my watch, right. [00:34:30] And I was looking at like the heart rate history and I was like, you know, I was white knuckling it. [00:34:34] Um, and that's, and that's partly on me, right? [00:34:36] Like I just, I don't, I don't like that kind of driving. [00:34:39] I don't like that stress. [00:34:39] Two days later, when I had to drop this device off, uh, the device itself was terrible, by the way, it was probably less sophisticated than my Apple watch and probably reading like less accurate, uh, heart rate. [00:34:57] And, and even the, the modern Apple watch like does track breathing. [00:35:00] That's how it does a sleep apnea thing, uh, uh, through the magic of gyroscopes. [00:35:05] And, uh, this device is a piece of shit and I'm sure somehow the rental fee for, for a one-time use was $1,500 to my insure. [00:35:12] Uh, and I'm sure it found nothing. [00:35:15] I can totally, like, I don't know how it would find anything. [00:35:17] Uh, it looked like it was built out of, you know, Teddy Ruxpin era, you know, technology in the mid eighties with, with the, the quality of the, the, the straps and the plastic. [00:35:29] I could just, but when I had to, when it, when time came to drop it off, I really did not want to repeat that experience on a weeknight when you, you know, traffic would be even worse. [00:35:41] And so I, I humbly asked my brother who has a Tesla, I said, Hey, uh, there's another follow-up item. [00:35:48] We, we, we, we picked it up together just in October. [00:35:51] I think, uh, I said, Hey man, like, can I swing by or you swing by drop off your Tesla? [00:35:59] He did some stuff to do at our house anyway. [00:36:01] And he's got the full self-driving like, like, uh, they keep renewing a 30 day trial for him. [00:36:09] And, uh, you know, full self-driving isn't, it is, uh, the car will drive itself. [00:36:14] You don't have to touch the wheel. [00:36:16] It, it, it, it, it's very conservative. [00:36:18] It has three modes, chill, uh, normal and hurried or hurry. [00:36:23] I've never tried hurry. [00:36:24] I don't need to try hurry. [00:36:26] I just stick on chill because at the end of the day, as long as I get to where I'm going, [00:36:29] I sort of don't care. [00:36:30] I'm not in a big rush. [00:36:32] Uh, I have the luxury of not needing to be anywhere in any particular pace. [00:36:37] As long as I leave on time, you know, I'm, and I'm going to get there by the time I promise [00:36:41] the chill is good with me and the, you have to supervise it. [00:36:48] And it was the case when the full self-driving crap and Tesla's first hit that people were, [00:36:55] you know, at first it was just like pressure testing the steering column. [00:36:58] And so people would like use like, uh, uh, weights, like, like weighted wristbands and [00:37:04] stuff to like make it trick the steering column into thinking that somebody was holding onto [00:37:08] the wheel. [00:37:08] Uh, and now they have cameras that look at you like inside the cabin and that, that camera [00:37:15] is using some amount of intelligence to determine that you're distracted or not. [00:37:19] So if you are looking a lot at the central, uh, tablet, it'll bark at you and say, Hey, pay [00:37:23] attention to the road. [00:37:25] If you're looking at your phone, it'll do the same. [00:37:26] If you're looking at a watch, you know, like I've had it even like when I'm talking to the [00:37:30] watch and looking forward, have it bark at me. [00:37:31] And as soon, as soon as it does it, it makes a beep and then it gets increasingly aggressive [00:37:36] and beeps louder. [00:37:37] You impressively. [00:37:39] I say this because like, you know, I'm sure that the reason it's like this is because Tesla [00:37:43] is trying to minimize it's like legal liability for accidents caused by its system. [00:37:47] If, if, if, if you ignore its beeps three times in a day, uh, you, you get a strike, the system [00:37:56] will disengage and you will be forced to manually drive your car like a plebeian for the rest [00:38:01] of the day. [00:38:01] At least that's how Jeremy explained it to me. [00:38:03] If you get five strikes, I want to say it is, um, you're just exited from your, you're ejected [00:38:12] from the full self-driving program. [00:38:14] And I am impressed not only that it's as aggressive as it is, like, you know, if you got to look [00:38:22] at the screen for something, you've got to adjust it. [00:38:23] You basically have seven or eight seconds to, you know, fix the mirrors or whatever it is [00:38:28] before you got to be looking at the road again. [00:38:29] I'm also like finding myself that when I'm driving his vehicle, I actually am significantly less [00:38:36] distracted than in my own Ford escape, which has car play. [00:38:39] And I typically don't touch the phone itself, but I, um, you know, I tune out a little bit [00:38:44] or, uh, you know, might look at something or might be tapping away at the, uh, you know, [00:38:49] the eye messages and, and, and, and whatnot seemingly longer in those cases than like what the Tesla [00:38:55] would let me get away with. [00:38:56] So I'm paying more attention to the road because the computer is telling me to, or forcing me [00:39:01] to, and I am also doing less of the driving. [00:39:05] So, you know, my foot's off the pedal, my foot, my hands are off the steering. [00:39:08] And when they say supervised, it's actually like the right word, like it is doing the [00:39:14] driving, but like the, it feels almost like a pilot co-pilot thing where I, your head's [00:39:22] on a swivel. [00:39:23] Like I can look to the left and I can look to the right and I have far greater situational [00:39:27] awareness as the car is driving. [00:39:28] Now, granted a lot of these like semi-autonomous and, and adaptive, you know, uh, uh, uh, assistance [00:39:35] in cars will for most people lull them into a false sense of security and result in further [00:39:44] driver inattentiveness and unsafety, right? [00:39:46] Like people will, you'll train them out of the vigilance that you need at all times when [00:39:52] you're the one driving a vehicle or being driven in a vehicle. [00:39:55] However, like the particular, and maybe it's just cause I'm kind of coming in and chapter [00:40:00] four of this particular saga of full self-driving and robo taxis will be here in six months as [00:40:05] Elon Musk. [00:40:06] And of course they're not there, but it seems like at least the way that I've experienced [00:40:13] full self-driving when I've used it, it seems to me like I feel a thousand times safer because [00:40:21] the combination of the car, mostly doing the right thing, mostly making the conservative [00:40:25] choice, absolute worst case. [00:40:27] It haunt, it blares at you and you need to take over, uh, combined with my own hypervigilance [00:40:35] of not, you know, I constitutionally do not trust computers and you know, Jeremy doesn't [00:40:41] either. [00:40:42] And so when we're driving these things, we're looking around all the time where we're, we're, [00:40:45] we're sort of, because we have a curiosity and how the technology works, like trying to think [00:40:49] about how is it thinking through this? [00:40:51] Like, like we have a lot of, for example, um, automated gated communities where like the, [00:40:56] the gates will open and closed when you're, when you're entering and exiting. [00:41:00] It's like, we, we look at the little like computer screens, like how does it, how does it, what [00:41:04] does it think is in front of it right now? [00:41:05] It sees that there's an obstruction. [00:41:07] Uh, and if it opens too slowly, is it thinking it's a permanent obstruction or is it going to [00:41:11] wait and then proceed after the thing opens automatically? [00:41:14] Like there's a lot of little moments like that, where it's actually kind of interesting [00:41:17] to see how, you know, how the car reacts and then it gets a software update and then how [00:41:22] the car reacts after that. [00:41:23] And then additionally, there's the typical ebb and flow of software updates generally where [00:41:28] there's regressions, right? [00:41:29] Like there was a version of this, uh, system that, that the ability, like it used to blow [00:41:35] past this one particular speed bump, uh, uh, near our neighborhood, uh, because it didn't [00:41:41] have sufficient paint on the road to indicate that it was a speed bump. [00:41:45] And then there was a software update and then it perfectly negotiated all four speed bumps [00:41:49] just right in a row every single time. [00:41:52] And then there was another update and now it blows past the third speed bump again. [00:41:56] And so, uh, I think that people who are technology enthusiasts who maybe follow this stuff and [00:42:05] understand how, what software is, how it works, that updates are not a pure linear, you know, [00:42:11] march of progress, I think the idea that there would be regressions in software releases or [00:42:18] even, uh, non-determinism in how the, how the computer car operates, that's totally natural [00:42:24] to me. [00:42:24] And I expect it now. [00:42:25] I, I grown at it and I think like, this is, this is probably a bad idea in aggregate and [00:42:31] at a population level. [00:42:33] I suspect that the average driver would be confused by that the same way that like the [00:42:38] average person is terrified of updating their phone or their computer because they associate [00:42:43] software updates with, uh, uh, you know, newness and unawareness and, and, and, and, and, and all [00:42:51] the things that they finally had working, no longer working. [00:42:54] And when they, but when you talk about the, the march of progress and technology, they sort [00:43:00] of have a, what it is, is whenever anything goes wrong with technology, if you're not, if [00:43:08] you're not primed to know that it's burning you is, it seems like people mostly blame themselves [00:43:13] instead of blaming the technology. [00:43:15] And if that's your, if that's the way you use your phone or your computer, uh, you [00:43:21] know, when, when the car makes a mistake, you might not realize it as a car making mistake [00:43:26] and you might not have the hypervigilance. [00:43:27] That's like, you know, a more adversarial, like, like, I feel like I'm constantly spot checking [00:43:31] it. [00:43:31] And I, and while I am surprisingly impressed with how well it's been negotiating everything [00:43:37] that we've thrown at it so far, it's made one or two mistakes and I've, I've, I've, [00:43:41] I've, I've dealt with it, but on net, like it's driving waste. [00:43:45] Way more safely than I am way. [00:43:47] And it's, it's taught me a few things. [00:43:49] It's like, Oh yeah. [00:43:49] Like whenever I do this at an intersection, like that's really dumb. [00:43:52] Like it's doing this way better. [00:43:53] Uh, I can't think of a specific example, but like, I'm pretty impressed. [00:43:58] And so I thought, well, I'll ask Jeremy to borrow the car because I've got this natural [00:44:03] experiment now, same time of day, uh, same location. [00:44:07] So I already know how to get there. [00:44:08] It's a, it's a little bit goofy, but like, because I was just there, I'm not going to feel [00:44:12] like I'm learning how to get, get there and also learning how to use this. [00:44:15] Auto driving system simultaneously. [00:44:17] And, uh, holy shit. [00:44:20] Like, yes, I had people jump out in front of the car. [00:44:23] It was even worse this time at the particular intersection before you get to the, to, to [00:44:27] I four and the car like saw them out of its blind spot while it was turning, right. [00:44:32] It saw them on the left camera and breaks perfectly. [00:44:37] Uh, and I, uh, my first reaction was like, I would not have caught that. [00:44:40] I probably would have cut it real close. [00:44:44] Uh, almost hitting these people. [00:44:45] Uh, you get onto the highway and then this is why I emphasize like I four is like the deadliest [00:44:51] highway in America because it's, it is, it is not like driving on the highway, wherever [00:44:59] the fuck you live like anywhere I was ever in Michigan or Ohio or anywhere else in the [00:45:04] U S or certainly anywhere I've driven in Japan. [00:45:06] Those are the only places I suppose I've driven or Canada. [00:45:09] Like, yes, sometimes it's a little stressful driving on the highway. [00:45:12] Like that's not what this is. [00:45:14] This is, you have to practice extreme defensive driving. [00:45:18] And if you actually want to get where you're going, you also have to practice offensive [00:45:21] driving. [00:45:21] Uh, so having, uh, you know, nine cameras and nine directions is just necessary for basic [00:45:28] like assurance of survival. [00:45:31] Like when I'm on I four, I, I feel constantly under threat. [00:45:35] Uh, and something happens every time. [00:45:39] So we get on the highway and that stuff does happen. [00:45:42] Uh, you know, the car on its own decided to take the express lanes by itself, which was [00:45:46] incredible, but like people were like, I was trying to merge into a lane. [00:45:50] And then as, as the things, well, it was trying to merge into a lane. [00:45:53] And as it was changing lanes, somebody who didn't even have a blinker on starts edging in [00:45:58] and the car knows I'm going to back off. [00:45:59] Uh, there was another case of somebody swerving into our lane, like very close to the car and [00:46:05] the car, you know, defensively, you know, switch to the right lane, which was wide open [00:46:11] to prevent the risk that like, you know, it might have to break. [00:46:14] Suddenly there wasn't enough distance between the cars. [00:46:16] And that was stuff that like, I only was actually even able to piece together. [00:46:19] What the fuck was it doing after the fact? [00:46:20] Like looking at the map and looking around me, it's just, it went great. [00:46:28] Got there, dropped the shit off, turned around, you know, the parking is wonderful too, because [00:46:34] it'll back into every parking spot. [00:46:36] You just tap the screen. [00:46:37] Like it'll see the parking spots. [00:46:38] You just tap which one you want and just, it handles it for you. [00:46:40] It parks way better than I park. [00:46:42] I don't know, man. [00:46:43] And on the ride home, not only, you know, everything around me felt like it was on fire and chaos, [00:46:50] but because I had a buddy who was doing the driving and I could just kind of be, you know, [00:46:54] patrolling and looking around, I actually got a, a low heart rate notification on my watch, [00:47:00] which I get, I get them frequently. [00:47:01] Cause I have a low resting heart rate, but like it would say, Hey, your, your heart rate's [00:47:05] been under 40 beats per minute for the last 10 minutes. [00:47:08] And, uh, which I, if that's not you, that's like, if that's not typical for you, that might [00:47:14] sound scary, but like, no, my, my resting heart rate when I'm actually like de-stressed and, [00:47:17] and just chill is like typically like 38. [00:47:20] So the fact that I could be on I4 with a heart rate under 40 feeling completely safe more than [00:47:27] anything, it's not about going fast or whatever. [00:47:29] It's like feeling like I've got a team of two that are dedicated to getting me home safely, [00:47:32] me and this computer. [00:47:34] Uh, it was a revelatory experience now that look, I realized it's a complicated situation [00:47:44] because Elon is a big old bucket of assholes and the politics of it are all fucked. [00:47:50] Uh, you know, the right time to buy a Tesla was, was when, uh, everyone agreed that, that [00:47:54] they were cool and EVs were good and the planet deserves saving. [00:47:57] Uh, but yeah, I got, I totally saw where, where my brother was coming from and all of his friends [00:48:03] who, who, who, who are similar technologists who, who have these things and who are, you [00:48:07] know, who got on board in the very recent hardware three or hardware four era of Tesla. [00:48:12] Um, particularly with like the, the, the entry level models that are higher volume and therefore [00:48:17] kind of more, uh, consistently produced, you know, the cyber truck, for example, more, most [00:48:26] expensive, but lowest volume and has the most problems. [00:48:29] The model Y at this point is pretty boring and dull, but like, you know, if, if you, if [00:48:34] you are like me and just kind of think of cars, the modern day car is just a tablet with wheels. [00:48:40] This is a, you know, and I, yes, I had, I had low expectations. [00:48:46] I had a high level of suspicion, but it went great. [00:48:48] And, uh, uh, I, I, I successfully dropped off my snoring thing. [00:48:55] I can't wait to get the results. [00:48:57] That'll tell me that, uh, you know, nothing happened. [00:48:59] Another bit of follow-up. [00:49:01] I think I'd mentioned that I, uh, I had used rocket money. [00:49:05] So, you know, it used to be called true bill and then quick and loans bought it. [00:49:08] And, uh, the, as quick and loan started branding itself as rocket and having this rocket suite [00:49:13] of products, rocket money became, it's, you know, a consumer entree into upselling it to [00:49:18] other products and rocket monies, you know, promises. [00:49:21] It's going to help you, uh, visualize all your subscriptions and even negotiate a tiny, tiny [00:49:27] sliver of those subscriptions. [00:49:28] And the one that I yielded to it was my spectrum account. [00:49:32] So my ISP had, had gradually been charging me more and more to the point where it was [00:49:36] like $145 after tax every month for the same internet program. [00:49:39] That was like a hundred dollars when I moved here. [00:49:41] And I was very skeptical when rocket money said, Hey, we just saved you $893 a year, uh, by, [00:49:48] by lowering your monthly bill to 70 bucks. [00:49:50] And they sent me a new modem as well. [00:49:53] And I was like, I don't need a new modem. [00:49:55] It's the, it's, it's the model number. [00:49:56] It looks almost identical. [00:49:57] And I, I was actually at UPS returning that modem. [00:50:01] And I just thought to myself, what if this modem is somehow better? [00:50:04] Cause I had not been super blown away by the performance of my current one. [00:50:09] And so I, I went to the trouble of unplugging the old one, plugging in the new one, setting [00:50:13] it up, calling to activate and it, my, my connection now is rock solid. [00:50:19] So, so just by doing this price hack thing, I now have a modem that works way better. [00:50:23] I was able to activate it myself without having some tech come over here. [00:50:25] So that's a, that's a win, but the statements were still showing up $140. [00:50:29] And I was really skeptical that like this would materialize, but sure enough, this week I got [00:50:35] a statement for $70. [00:50:36] Uh, and I guess that means I owe rocket money 35% of whatever it saved me. [00:50:42] And I don't know how that's, I don't know how that's paid or when that works. [00:50:45] I'll figure it out. [00:50:47] But if you're, if you're willing to, basically I would recommend rocket money to anyone who [00:50:52] is currently paying sticker price for whatever utilities, it's probably mostly ISPs and cell [00:51:00] phone bills. [00:51:01] If you're paying for like a normal plan that is still available and you're paying top dollar, [00:51:06] uh, call them, give it a try. [00:51:08] But if you're like, you know, like I am with T-Mobile grandfathered in on some 12 year old [00:51:13] plan that has been replaced five times. [00:51:15] And there's no like, like the most likely case then is it's going to put me on the latest plan [00:51:19] and sign me up for all of the new throttling and four ADP video and the shit that you don't [00:51:24] want, uh, in terms of limitations. [00:51:26] So check out rocket money. [00:51:30] I, I, I was extremely skeptical and now this is, this is a rocket money ad. [00:51:34] Uh, although it is unpaid. [00:51:36] If you want to be a sponsor of the program podcast at seerls.co, uh, another followup item. [00:51:47] I, let me tell you what it took to connect. [00:51:53] My Xbox controller to my, to my gaming PC. [00:51:58] So, uh, I have an Xbox series elite to whatever you call it. [00:52:04] A nice, the fancy Xbox controller that costs like $170. [00:52:07] And I like this controller. [00:52:09] It's got the little paddles in the back. [00:52:11] It's got, you know, a nicer grip, uh, interchangeable thumb sticks and D pad and stuff. [00:52:16] It's a very nice product, but it's, it's, you know, talk about low volume things that [00:52:21] aren't as reliable. [00:52:21] It has a lot of reliability issues and my right bumper button, like next to the right [00:52:27] shoulder, it had been like very, very, um, it would miss like 70% of the clicks. [00:52:36] And because the right bumper isn't the most important button in the world. [00:52:39] Like it just meant like, uh, I guess I'm just not the kind of guy to throw grenades or whatever [00:52:43] the right bumper is typically assigned to, I got a replacement relative, like a, a, a cheap [00:52:50] replacement through Microsoft support channel. [00:52:52] I think they charged me $70. [00:52:53] They didn't require me to ship back the old one. [00:52:55] Uh, the replacement came and I plugged it into the computer to start set up and pairing. [00:53:00] And the Xbox accessories app was like, this is too out of date to be able to configure your [00:53:06] controller, which was weird because windows update, which I checked frequently had said [00:53:10] that I was up to date, but there was a little message at the bottom saying, uh, windows is [00:53:16] up to date. [00:53:16] Important security updates have not been applied. [00:53:19] Make sure that your computer is turned on, which is weird because if I'm manually updating [00:53:22] and nothing's saying that it's like, where are these secret security updates that aren't [00:53:26] happening? [00:53:26] And when I dug into my actual windows version, it said I was on 21 H two. [00:53:32] So the naming scheme for these major windows releases seems to be the, the two digit year [00:53:39] followed by H one for first half of the year and H two for second half of the year, which [00:53:44] is, um, real dumb. [00:53:47] I'm going to say just a dumb way to name things, you know, numbers are good. [00:53:52] You know, I, I, I get it now why it's named that. [00:53:56] But 21 was, uh, if you, if you decode the version several, several numbers ago, it was [00:54:02] three, at least it was at least two H one ago. [00:54:05] And why was I on such an old version? [00:54:10] It turns out I'll share like a, an article from, from just December, the, the windows 11 [00:54:16] required computers to have secure boot enabled using the trusted platform module or TPM equivalent [00:54:22] encryption. [00:54:23] And that's to certify or to be able to attest that like the, the operating system has not [00:54:28] been tampered with and so forth. [00:54:29] And then this has all sorts of like DMCA, DR, DRM, um, uh, and, uh, HDCP, all this sort [00:54:36] of a content encryption, copyright protection, uh, ostensibly it's quote unquote security. [00:54:41] And it, and it's the, like making sure from a malware perspective that the veracity of [00:54:45] the system files are all in place and so forth. [00:54:47] But like a lot of nerds were not on board because they want to rip blue waves or whatever it is. [00:54:51] And this might make it marginally more difficult, but gaming motherboards were like the last ones [00:54:57] to the party to support secure boot. [00:54:59] And even though I built my gaming PC, well, after windows 11 launched the BIOS that it [00:55:04] shipped with did not support secure boot. [00:55:06] Um, it didn't support, uh, I don't think like booting from UEFI drives correctly either. [00:55:13] So I'd set it up just like a normal basic fucking computer and it worked for however long it [00:55:18] worked. [00:55:18] But apparently in December, Microsoft was just like, and you get no more updates at all. [00:55:22] No more security updates, no more, nothing, which is why I started getting that message. [00:55:25] Uh, if you want to be on the latest and greatest version of windows 11, you must have secure boot. [00:55:30] Problem now is like, it's been several years. [00:55:34] And so figuring out what kind of motherboard I even have, I'm too lazy to like open the case [00:55:38] up and look at it. [00:55:39] And so I, I found the particular model number in my Amazon orders. [00:55:42] So step one, you know, I figured out what was happening. [00:55:45] I guess step, step zero is I get this new controller and I immediately regret it. [00:55:49] Uh, step two, figure out what's happening. [00:55:52] Step three, check my Amazon orders, identify the motherboard. [00:55:55] Uh, step four, I went to the motherboard website. [00:55:58] I find that there, a BIOS update is available and it's, it adds the secure boot functionality [00:56:03] because apparently the encryption software hardware is on the device, which is great. [00:56:07] So I download the BIOS and then I start flashing it. [00:56:12] Uh, not, you know, not that kind of, get your head out of the gutter. [00:56:15] I, it, it requires, uh, you know, identifying there's a, there's a particular USB port on [00:56:23] the back of the, of the motherboard. [00:56:25] That is the only one that can flash the BIOS and you have to look for it. [00:56:30] This is like M dash flash on it. [00:56:31] So you put it in there, you know, you restart, you, uh, boot into the BIOS and I, uh, got [00:56:39] it to update that, that part was actually pretty easy. [00:56:41] Then you go into the, the BIOS and it, you know, I don't know what BIOS stands for. [00:56:45] So if you're not like a PC person, this might not make sense, but you, you, the, the, it's, [00:56:49] it's the little bit of software that runs before the computer really starts. [00:56:52] And you can typically get there by hitting a key like F12 or delete. [00:56:55] And it's, you know, if you weren't raised on windows, uh, it's, it's, it's a weird [00:56:59] under, underbelly that sometimes you have to go into. [00:57:02] It's got a lot of arcane settings. [00:57:04] None of them make any sense. [00:57:05] It's a lot of acronyms that aren't explained, even though modern BIOS systems typically have [00:57:09] tooltips, it'll be like, what is, you know, what is MDR? [00:57:12] And it's like this, this option determines whether you have MDR turned on and off. [00:57:16] And there's like room for two more paragraphs to just maybe spell out what the fuck MDR is. [00:57:20] Uh, I turned on the secure boot, figure that out. [00:57:25] Uh, chat GPT is wonderful for stuff like this. [00:57:27] Like it gave me step-by-step directions because like, there's probably 800 forum, forum posts, [00:57:31] like detailing the same thing. [00:57:33] Uh, after reboot, nothing worked and like the computer would not boot. [00:57:39] I turned on secure boot, which required turning on UEFI, which is like a related technology of [00:57:44] like a more modern boot system for computers. [00:57:46] And it turns out it's because that my drive partition map is master boot record MBR, which [00:57:51] is like from the DOS era. [00:57:53] And that was the default when I set it up in 21 or 2020. [00:57:56]

In today's episode, we revisit our episode with Josh Vire, Vice President of Value-based Operations at CHESS Health Solutions, where he discussed what has been learned during the move to managed Medicaid in North Carolina and what CHESS brings to the table with its all-patient solution.Josh Vire, welcome to the Move to Value podcast.Thank you, Thomas. Thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here.So, Josh, let's talk about managed Medicaid. First, can you tell me what is managed Medicaid?Sure. It may be easiest to start by sort of describing how traditional Medicaid works. In traditional Medicaid, typically this operates under what's called a fee for service payment model. This model is going to reimburse providers directly for every service that they provide to Medicaid beneficiaries. And generally the upside to this model is that it's going to allow for the flexibility and provider choice for the beneficiaries. But what we often see is that this leads to fragmented care and ultimately the incentives in this fee for service type model really incentivizes the volume of services over outcomes. So, in contrast to that, Managed Medicaid utilizes alternative payment models including capitation and what are called value-based payments. And the way that the capitation works is that a managed care organization or a MCO as they're referred to will receive a fixed monthly payment per Medicare beneficiary that's going to cover all their health care needs. And then that fixed payments are paid regardless the amount of services that are provided. And then those MCOs are going to use those funds to incentivize providers to be more cost effective in their care as well as incentivize sort of tighter coordination of the care. And then what they can layer on to those, as I mentioned, is the value-based care payments which are intended to reward providers based on the quality and outcomes of care rather than just the quantity of services provided. And so in theory, right, this would encourage more efficient, high-quality delivery of care. In addition, managed Medicaid may employ other payment models that are along that continuum of value based care payments, which could be like pay for performance or bundle payments. But really the goal there is to align the incentives to focus on driving down total cost of care as well as improving health outcomes for beneficiaries.Well last December North Carolina made the transition to managed Medicaid and Chess spent the year prior to that establish establishing the infrastructure and beginning to make preparations to offer this service. Can you tell me why this decision was made and a little bit of the story about how Chess built this service line.Absolutely. CHESS has a decades plus long history of working with providers to transform care delivery to value based care. And historically our focus has been on traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage and commercial contracts. But as we went through our engagements with our value partners and then as we began to have discussions with providers across the state, we heard consistently that one of their pain points was the need to work with of having to work with multiple enablement companies to serve all their patients. So some enablement companies only work with MA or maybe the traditional Medicare options or commercial. But no one was really acting as sort of a one stop shop in in serving the entire patient population for these providers. So our decision to expand our services to include Medicaid was really driven by our desire to be what we call an all-patient solution, which essentially just means we want to be able to align incentives across the provider's entire patient population. And really that's because we believe this is how true transformation can and will occur, not in certain segments, but by treating all patients with an...

Experience the transformative power of music with our extraordinary guest, Brandon Stewart, co-founder and CEO of Millennial Choirs and Orchestras (MCO). As a conductor, pianist, vocalist, composer, and arranger, Brandon brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to our conversation about music education and performance. From his inspiring journey of establishing MCO alongside his brother Brett back in 2007 in Orange County, California, to their expansion into Arizona, Brandon shares unforgettable stories, including a moving account of conducting during a New York City blackout. Join us as we uncover the profound impact of MCO's remarkable performances and their commitment to inspiring excellence and passion through music.Discover the unique opportunity MCO offers for families to perform together and create deep connections through sacred classical music. With participation ranging from young children to adults, MCO has become a beacon of unity. Brandon discusses the importance of patriotism in their programs, especially for youth, as a means to foster unity in a divided nation and instill pride in American history. As we reflect on Brandon and his brother's familial and environmental influences, we explore how these shaped their passion for the arts and their vision for MCO's future.Unpack the synergy between parenting, mentorship, and musical excellence as Brandon shares insights on balancing family life with artistic aspirations. Learn about the importance of supportive parents and mentors from Brandon's own journey from Juilliard to Brigham Young University. Through personal anecdotes, Brandon reveals how unconditional love and honest feedback nurture well-rounded individuals. He also previews exciting upcoming MCO events, including the much-anticipated "Messiah in America" production, and contemplates what it truly means to be a gentleman in modern society. Join us for a conversation that promises to inspire and resonate with anyone dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in music and life.Check out the show on any of your favorite platforms and give us a like and follow if you like our content! Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gentlemen-project-podcast/id1536669294Audiblehttps://www.audible.com/pd/The-Gentlemen-Project-Podcast-Podcast/B08LG4HBLR?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdpAmazon Musichttps://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6a91bd19-279b-41f5-bab2-b2cecfed7beb/the-gentlemen-project-podcastFacebookhttps://www.facebook.com/thegentlemenprojectpodcastInstagram https://www.instagram.com/thegentlemenprojectpodcast/Twitterhttps://twitter.com/gentprojectpod?lang=enLinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/the-gentlemen-project-podcast

Weird head tapping routines, toy lobsters on stage - Part 2 of Stage Fright uncovers the strange and diverse pre-concert routines some musicians go through, and what happens if you freeze in the middle of a performance. Fight or flight, to leave the stage or not to leave the stage, that is the question. And then the taboo topic of Beta Blockers enters the conversation... Host and MCO violist Yannick Dondelinger brings to a close this double episode of frank, funny and intimate discussion with MCO musicians around the effects, the origins, and some controversial solutions to having stage fright…. For a full transcript of the episode, please visit our website. 

I'd write more here, but I've got places to be. Becky, Jeremy, and I are going to engage in some holiday festivities. We have a couple gingerbread houses to make and a tree to trim. And no nog to speak of. Really, that's all you get by way of show notes this time as a result, deal with it. Send your complaints to podcast@searls.co and they will be read on air. Some bullet points below the fold: My 90-minute, outdated guide to setting up a Mac Aaron's puns, ranked Jim Carrey is 62 and can't even retire I bought my 8 year old a switch and didn't realize how much games cost Teen creates memecoin, dumps it, earns $50,000 Startup will brick $800 emotional support robot for kids without refunds Install the Mozi app (manifesto here | app here) Vision Pro getting PSVR2 controllers The 2024 Game Awards news roundup Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet looks badass, but is it too inclusive for The Gamers? We don't talk about Luigi An invisible desktop app for cheating on technical interviews (HN comments) Sora is out, but it's not good yet Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is out, and it is good yet Emudeck is so great it shouldn't be legal, and some people probably think it isn't Pikmin Stay tuned to my YouTube channel for upcoming LIVE streams Transcript: [00:00:00] Thank you. [00:00:29] Good morning, internet. [00:00:32] I started speaking before I realized, as an asynchronous audio production, it's actually pretty unlikely that it's the morning where you are. [00:00:43] Although, if it is the morning, coincidentally, please feel free to be creeped out, check over your shoulder. [00:00:51] Today was, I woke up with Vim and Vigor this morning, super excited to take on the day, thinking maybe I've got what it takes to record an audio production today. [00:01:07] And then we have an elderly coffee pot. [00:01:11] I don't want to completely put the blame on it because we were using it wrong for several years. [00:01:24] And it's a long story that I will shorten to say, any piece of consumer electronics or appliances in America, the half-life keeps decreasing. [00:01:37] And so when I say elderly coffee pot, I mean that we bought this coffee pot post-COVID. [00:01:42] And it's already feeling like, oh, we should probably get a new coffee pot, huh? [00:01:45] What happens is, from time to time, heat will build up in the grounds dingus. [00:01:55] I'm just realizing now that I'm like, you know, I'm not a coffee engineer. [00:01:58] Some of you are. [00:02:00] But, you know, of course, we all know that the dingus is connected to the water spigot, which is above the craft. [00:02:09] And what happens, as far as I can tell, is once in a while, you get all that hot water and grounds swirling around. [00:02:20] And if it clogs at all, like if it doesn't release just so, the whole little undercarriage, again, this is a technical term, just stay with me. [00:02:30] And we'll pop forward like three millimeters, which is just enough for the water to kind of miss its target on the craft and then spray all who's he what's it's, as well as for the spigot to start just kind of like splurring, you know, this water coffee slurry everywhere. [00:02:49] And so I went after, you know, but then you still get the triumphant ding dong sound that the coffee is ready. [00:02:56] So I walked over to the coffee expecting like, yes, it's the best, best way to start my day or whatever. [00:03:06] Pull out the coffee. [00:03:07] And the pot is too light. [00:03:10] And I had a familiarity of like what that means. [00:03:13] It means like there is water somewhere. [00:03:17] And it's not in this pot. [00:03:19] And so it's just like, you know, this big, big machine we actually have we've put because of our Mr. [00:03:26] Coffee's, you know, elderly onset incontinence. [00:03:33] We have we have put the entire coffee pot on a tray, like a rimmed silicone tray that you would use for like, I guess, a dog feeding bowl, right? [00:03:45] A dog, you know, messily eats food and slaps water around and stuff. [00:03:49] And you don't want it all over your hardwood. [00:03:50] Like you'd put this underneath that and it would catch some of the water. [00:03:53] So we I spent the first 30 minutes of my waking life today getting my hopes up that I was going to have coffee, followed by, you know, painstakingly carrying this entire cradle of of of coffee pot full of hot brown liquid. [00:04:10] That would stay in all of my clothes and, you know, get on the cabinets and stuff with a silicone underbelly thing. [00:04:18] And just kind of like, you know, we've got one of those big we're very fortunate to have one of those big farmers, farmer house, farmhouse. [00:04:25] I never know what to call it. [00:04:27] Steel, basically a double wide sink. [00:04:30] So what's nice about a double wide sink is that if you've got a problem in your kitchen and you're only a few steps away, whether it's the coffee pot part of the kitchen or the fridge or the freezer or the God forbid, the range or the oven, you can just sort of strategically hurl whatever it is you're holding just about into the into the sink. [00:04:51] And then once it hits the sink, it's, you know, the the the potential damage is limited. [00:04:57] So I gently hurled my coffee apparatus. [00:05:02] Is that the plural of apparatus? [00:05:04] One wonders into the into the into the sink and then spent the next 20 minutes, you know, scrubbing them and all to make another pot. [00:05:13] And Becky, of course, walks down the minute that the second pot is about to be finished. [00:05:18] And I'm like, I've already seen some shit and I'm going to go record a podcast now. [00:05:22] And that swallow you just heard was me having a sip of coffee that was not disgusting, but not great. [00:05:31] But I'll take it over where I was an hour ago. [00:05:39] Thank you for for subscribing as a as a true believer in breaking change. [00:05:47] We're coming up on one year now. [00:05:49] It's hard to believe that it's already been a year, not because this has been a lot of work or a big accomplishment, but just because the the the agony of existence seems to accelerate as you get older. [00:06:03] It's one of the few kindnesses in life and so as we whipsaw around the sun yet again, we're about to do that. [00:06:11] This is the 26th edition version 26 of the podcast. [00:06:17] I've got two names here to release titles and I haven't picked one yet. [00:06:22] So as a special. [00:06:24] Nearing the end of the year treat. [00:06:29] I'm going to pitch them both to you now, right? [00:06:31] So so we're in this together. [00:06:33] I like to think this is a highly collaborative one person show. [00:06:37] Version 26 rich nanotexture. [00:06:42] And that's a nod to the MacBook Pro has a nanotexture anti-glare screen coding option. [00:06:52] It's a reference to the rich Corinthian leather that was actually it's a Chrysler reference. [00:06:58] It's a made up thing. [00:06:59] There is no such thing as Corinthian leather, but like that's what they called their their seating. [00:07:03] And Steve Jobs referenced that as being the inspiration for I think it was the iPad calendar app. [00:07:13] With the rich Corinthian leather up at the top during the era of skeuomorphic designs back in 2010, 2009, maybe I can't remember exactly when they I think it's 2010 when he had his famous actually leather chair demonstration of the iPad. [00:07:28] Maybe the reason that that stood out to me was the car reference because it is it is an upsell. [00:07:34] The nanotexture $150 if you want to have a don't call it matte finish. [00:07:41] The other one, so that's option one, rich nanotexture. [00:07:46] And I didn't love it because I couldn't get texture. [00:07:49] I couldn't get the same Corinthian, right? [00:07:53] Like you want that bite, the multisyllabic bite that adds the extra, you know, the gravitas of a luxury good. [00:08:04] Yeah, texture just didn't have it for me. [00:08:06] But then if you change that word, it doesn't make sense. [00:08:08] So I mean, the other option two that came to mind version 26 don't don't by the way, don't think I'm going to edit this in post and fix it. [00:08:19] I will not. [00:08:20] I will ultimately land on one of these and that will be the title that you saw on your podcast player. [00:08:25] Or maybe some third thing will come to mind and then this conversation will be moot. [00:08:29] I do not think of this collaborative exercise. [00:08:32] Just imagine it's a it's a it's a quantum collaboration. [00:08:37] So by observing it, that's you actually took part. [00:08:41] You opened your podcast player and then the yeah, the entangled, you know, bits just they coalesced around one of these two names or some third name. [00:08:58] It's all just statistics version 26 Luigi's Mansion, which is a nod to two things at once. [00:09:05] I'm going to talk a little bit about GameCube, but also I'll probably not escape mentioning Luigi Manjoni Manjoni man. [00:09:15] You know, I haven't been watching the news. [00:09:17] I don't know how to pronounce his name, but it looks enough like mansion that I was like, oh, man. [00:09:21] I bet you there's a Nintendo PR guy whose day just got fucking ruined by the fella who is a overnight folk hero. [00:09:30] More attractive than most assassins, I would say. [00:09:35] Great hair. [00:09:36] Good skin. [00:09:37] Apparently, skincare Reddit is all about this fella who murdered in cold blood the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. [00:09:45] If you haven't caught the news, if you're even less online than I am. [00:09:51] And yeah, so I'm trying to decide. [00:09:53] I think Luigi's Mansion is probably going to win. [00:09:56] It's more timely. [00:09:57] It's the first time the name Luigi has come up in the last year. [00:10:00] And I may have mentioned nanotexture before when discussing Apple's very compromised studio display. [00:10:11] So I'm leaning Luigi's Mansion, but, you know, don't tempt me. [00:10:15] I might switch. [00:10:18] I'm going to just keep drinking coffee because I got to power through this. [00:10:21] Let's talk about some life stuff. [00:10:24] I so when we last talked that way back in the heady days of version 25, I had just gotten off a plane from Japan. [00:10:34] I was still a little bit jet lagged. [00:10:36] I recorded later in the evening. [00:10:38] I was tired. [00:10:39] You know, I was still overcoming. [00:10:41] I listened to the episode, realized I was overcoming a cold. [00:10:44] You know, then Becky shortly thereafter, after recording, she developed a pretty bad cough. [00:10:51] And so we've both been sleeping relatively poorly. [00:10:53] And I can't complain about this cough because her having a cough for four nights is nothing like me snoring on and off for over a year. [00:11:02] And I think the fact that her cough is consistent is actually a kindness compared to the sporadic nature of my snoring, where it's like I might go a week without it. [00:11:11] And then all of a sudden there's like, bam. [00:11:14] So she doesn't, you know, it's like sneaks up on her and that's not fair. [00:11:17] So so she's got a cough and I haven't been sleeping particularly well. [00:11:20] Maybe that's it. [00:11:22] I also, you know, I wanted to dry out because I was living on shoe highs, you know, canned cocktails in Japan for way too long. [00:11:30] Just drinking, you know, five whole dollars of alcohol every day, which is an irresponsible amount of alcohol. [00:11:36] It turns out. [00:11:40] Yeah, that's one nice thing about living in Orlando and theme park Orlando is that the average price of a cocktail here is seriously $20. [00:11:49] I think it is. [00:11:51] I am delighted and surprised when I find a cocktail under $20. [00:11:55] That's any good. [00:11:55] In fact, the four seasons right around the corner, their lobby bar has a some of the best bartenders in the state of Florida. [00:12:05] Like they went all kinds of awards. [00:12:06] And so when you say a lobby bar, you think it sucks. [00:12:09] But it's actually it's like it's a it's a restaurant with a room if you're ever around and they still do a happy hour with like $4. [00:12:18] It was $4 beers. [00:12:19] I think they finally increased to $5 beers draft beer. [00:12:23] And it's all craft. [00:12:25] You know, it's all fancy people stuff. [00:12:27] And they do it's I think it's $10 margaritas, French 75s, and they got some other happy hour cocktail. [00:12:37] It was highballs for a while. [00:12:39] Whiskey highballs was like probably centauri toki or something. [00:12:43] I gotta say like that $10 margarita. [00:12:47] They'll throw some jalapeno in there if you want some tahini rim, you know, they do it up. [00:12:52] They do it well. [00:12:54] But that might be the cheapest cocktail I've had in all of Orlando is at the Four Seasons. [00:13:01] Famous for that TikTok meme of the Four Seasons baby, if you're a TikTok person. [00:13:06] Anyway, all that all all this drinking talk back to the point. [00:13:11] I've been not drinking for a week. [00:13:12] And I, you know, I'm back to tracking my nutrients every day. [00:13:17] The things that I consume and adding up all of the protein and carbohydrate and realizing [00:13:21] if you don't drink, it's actually really easy to blow past one's protein goals. [00:13:25] And so I had one day where I had like 240 grams of protein, which is [00:13:28] enough protein that you'll feel it the next morning if you're not used to it. [00:13:34] And I still was losing weight. [00:13:38] I lost like five or six pounds in the last week. [00:13:43] And to the point where it was like, you know, I was feeling a little lightheaded, [00:13:47] a little bit woozy because I wasn't drinking enough is the takeaway. [00:13:52] So so thank God we got to go to a Christmas party last night. [00:13:57] It was it was great Gatsby themed. [00:13:58] And I dressed up like a man who wanted to do the bare minimum to not get made fun of at the party. [00:14:05] So I had some some suspenders on instead of a belt, which was the first time I ever put on suspenders. [00:14:13] They were not period appropriate suspenders simply because they had the, you know, the [00:14:18] little class B dues instead of how they had some other system for I don't I don't fucking know. [00:14:25] Like I, I had chat GPT basically helped me through this. [00:14:28] And it's like, hey, you want these kinds of suspenders? [00:14:30] I'm like, that sounds like an ordeal. [00:14:31] How about I just get some universal one size fits all fit and clip them in? [00:14:36] I also had a clip on bow tie. [00:14:37] So that worked. [00:14:39] When you think clip on bow tie, I guess I'd never used one before, but like it, I always [00:14:45] assumed it would just be like, you know, like a barrette clip that would go in front of the [00:14:49] front button and look silly for that reason. [00:14:51] And maybe that's how they used to be. [00:14:53] But it seems these days, if you want to spend $3 on a fancy clip on bow tie with a nice texturing, [00:14:58] I'll say, uh, it's just pre it's a pre tied bow with a still wraps around your neck. [00:15:04] It's just, it has a class mechanism, which seems smart to me, right? [00:15:08] I don't know what. [00:15:09] Look, if you're really into men's fashion, uh, there's this weird intersection or this tension [00:15:19] between I'm a manly man who, who ties my own shoes and, you know, kills my own dinner and [00:15:25] stuff. [00:15:25] And I, I, for fuck's sake, tie my own bow tie from scratch every day. [00:15:29] Right? [00:15:29] Like there's a toxically masculine approach to bow ties, but at the same time, it is such [00:15:35] a foofy accoutrement. [00:15:37] It's like an ascot, um, that the idea of like a manly man, like a man trying to demonstrate [00:15:43] his manliness by the fact that he doesn't use a clip on bow tie, uh, came to mind yesterday [00:15:50] when I was, uh, struggling even with the clasping kind. [00:15:54] I was like, man, I wish I could just get this to anyway. [00:15:58] Um, I had a vest at a gray vest. [00:16:03] This is all brand new territory for me. [00:16:05] Uh, yeah, I, I've, I've leaned pretty hard into the t-shirt and shorts and or jeans life [00:16:10] for so long. [00:16:12] Uh, the, the fella in front of us when we, when we were checking in, cause they took little [00:16:16] photos of you, uh, all of the women had the same exact flapper dress from Amazon, you know, [00:16:22] with the, the, the, the hairband thing with the, you know, fake, the polyester peacock tail. [00:16:28] Becky's looked the best. [00:16:29] I'm not gonna, I'm not even lying. [00:16:32] Uh, uh, her dress actually fit. [00:16:35] He had some, uh, very ill fitting flapper costumes that these women couldn't even move in. [00:16:40] Um, it was interesting. [00:16:42] Uh, but the, the fella in front of us at check-in was wearing a, a, a full blown, you know, tuxedo [00:16:48] get up that he brought from home. [00:16:50] And he was talking about, Oh yeah, well he's got two of them and his wife, you know, ribbed [00:16:54] him a little bit that he could only fit in one. [00:16:55] I was like, man, owning a tuxedo, that's nuts. [00:16:58] Like, and then it like turns out he's like got all these suits and these fancy clothes and [00:17:02] he's an older gentleman. [00:17:05] Uh, but my entire career only the first few years did I have to think about what I was [00:17:10] wearing and, and it never really got beyond pleated, you know, khakis and a starched shirt. [00:17:18] And, and I had, I had to wear a suit maybe on two sales calls. [00:17:22] Um, and they were always the sales calls that were just, uh, there were certain sales demos [00:17:30] when I was a, a, a baby consultant, these really complex bids. [00:17:39] I remember we were at cook County once, uh, uh, the, the county that wraps Chicago and it [00:17:44] has a lot of functions and facilities that operate at the county level. [00:17:48] So, but of course we're in Chicago in some, you know, uh, dystopian office building. [00:17:54] That's very Gothic, I should say. [00:17:57] And the, the solution that we were selling was a response to a bid around some kind of [00:18:05] document, electronic document ingestion and, and, and routing solution. [00:18:09] And so what, what that meant was it was like a 12 person team. [00:18:14] It was a big project working on this pitch. [00:18:18] And most of the work and most of the money came from the software side at the end of the [00:18:23] process. [00:18:23] It's like, you're going to get IBM file net and you're going to get all these different, [00:18:26] uh, enterprise tools. [00:18:28] And we're going to integrate, uh, with all your systems and, and build these custom integrations [00:18:32] that you've asked for here and here and here. [00:18:33] But the, the, the hard part is the human logistics of how do you get all of their paper documents [00:18:41] into the system. [00:18:42] Uh, and that was my job was I had to get paper and then scan it, uh, with a production, big [00:18:50] Kodak funkin fucking scanner. [00:18:52] Uh, and then use, what was it? [00:18:54] Kofax capture or something like a, like an OCR tool of the era. [00:18:59] And the thing about it is that scanning is not, was not ever a science and neither is [00:19:07] OCR, the OCR stuff and OCR stands for optical character recognition. [00:19:10] So you'd have a form and you'd write on the form, like, you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, some, [00:19:15] some demo address and name and all this. [00:19:19] I spent. [00:19:22] So like the people doing the software, like they, they could just like click a button and [00:19:26] like, they could even just use fakery, right? [00:19:29] Like, Oh, the API is not really there, but I'll always return this particular, like, let's [00:19:33] call it an XML soap message. [00:19:34] And so the, the software guys clocked in, clocked out, got back to their billable work. [00:19:39] I, because the stakes were so high in this particular, uh, and I'm here right now explaining [00:19:46] all of this nonsense because I had to wear a suit and that was also really bad, but I [00:19:51] was in Chicago late at night with a group of like, at that point it was like 9 PM and it [00:19:54] was just me and two partners. [00:19:56] Cause the partners had a sickness called avoid family, stay at work. [00:20:02] And, uh, I, I was just running over and over and over again where I'd like, you know, [00:20:09] I'd take the paper, I'd put it through the scanner and it would get 90% of the OCR stuff [00:20:13] done, or I'd get it perfect. [00:20:15] And it would scan everything just right, which would result in the downstream, you know, after [00:20:21] the capture, like all of my integrations, like would route it to the right thing. [00:20:24] So that like, it was basically a game of mousetrap or dominoes where like my task was both [00:20:29] the most important to being able to demonstrate, but also the most error prone, but also the [00:20:37] least, uh, financially like, um, valuable to, to our services company. [00:20:42] And so I had no support, uh, on top of that, they, the, our fucking it people pushed out some [00:20:49] kind of, um, you know, involuntary security update security and bunny quotes that, that [00:20:57] slowed my system down dramatically in the course of just like a day. [00:21:01] And I had, I had no way to test for this. [00:21:04] So I remember I was up at like 11 PM at that point, trying to make this work consistently [00:21:10] and realizing that the only way to get it to run it all required me to, um, install a virtual [00:21:16] machine, put windows in the virtual machine, install all this software inside that virtual [00:21:22] machine, and then run it there because only in the black box of an encrypted virtual machine [00:21:27] image or, uh, you know, a virtual machine, like disc image, could I evade all of the accountant [00:21:33] bullshit that was trying to track and encrypt and, and, and muck with files and flight and [00:21:38] so forth. [00:21:39] And so it was only around like probably one 30 or two that I got to bed and our, our demo [00:21:46] was like at seven in the morning and I had to wear a suit. [00:21:47] So if you ever wonder, Hey, why is Justin always just in a, a t-shirt and shorts? [00:21:54] Uh, I would say childhood trauma, fuck suits. [00:21:59] The only, the only time I associate like nice clothes, you know, having a lot of [00:22:03] having to dress up is church shit. [00:22:05] I didn't want to go to. [00:22:06] And usually it's like the worst church shit. [00:22:09] Like there's some cool church shit out there, you know, youth group where everyone's a horny, [00:22:14] right. [00:22:15] And singing pop songs to try to get people in. [00:22:17] That's as church shit goes, that's above average. [00:22:21] But when you're talking about like, Hey, you know, this aunt you've never heard of died and [00:22:27] we got to go all the way to goddamn Dearborn to sit in a Catholic mass, that's going to [00:22:32] be in Latin. [00:22:33] And they're going to, you know, one of those, you know, you should feel bad for him because [00:22:39] he's abused. [00:22:39] But one of the altar boys, he's going to be waving that little like incense thingy, [00:22:43] the jigger back and forth and back and forth like a metronome. [00:22:46] And, uh, you're going to get all this soot in your face, all of that, you know, frankincense [00:22:51] and myrrh and whatever the fuck they burn. [00:22:52] And, uh, yeah, then they're going to play some songs, but they're not going to be songs you [00:22:57] want to hear. [00:22:57] And you're going to be uncomfortable because I bought you this suit at JC Penny when you [00:23:01] were like nine and you're 12, you're 12 now, and you've gained a lot of weight, but [00:23:06] here we are. [00:23:07] And then you got to go and, you know, like, don't worry because after the service, there's [00:23:12] a big meal, but it's mostly just going to be, you know, styrofoam plates and plastic forks [00:23:16] and, uh, cold rubbery chicken. [00:23:19] And then a whole lot of family members who want to pinch your cheeks, uh, had an aunt that [00:23:24] always wanted to, um, put on a bunch of red lipstick and kiss me and leave kiss marks. [00:23:30] And she thought that was adorable and everyone else thought it was funny. [00:23:33] And for whatever reason, I wasn't a fan, uh, that's the kind of, uh, yeah, so anyway, moving [00:23:45] right along the, uh, the, the other than having to dress up, the, the Christmas party was really [00:23:50] nice because it had an all you can drink martini bar. [00:23:52] So that, that helped that took the edge off a little bit since I hadn't been drinking for [00:23:57] the previous week. [00:23:57] Uh, and it was, you know, uh, they, they had a great bartender, the, the, I assume that [00:24:07] that people drank gin martinis back in the day of Gatsby, but it seemed to be a vodka forward [00:24:12] martini bar, which I appreciated. [00:24:15] Uh, as I get older and my taste buds start dying, uh, I found myself going from dry martinis [00:24:23] to martinis with an olive to martinis with two olives to me asking for like a little bit of [00:24:30] olive juice and then drinking the martini and realizing that wasn't quite enough olive juice. [00:24:34] So that's just disgusting, but, um, it's where, uh, it's one of the signs of age, I guess. [00:24:43] Uh, so the martini bar was good. [00:24:46] Uh, they also had an aged old fashion that they'd made, you know, homemade, um, with like nutmeg [00:24:51] and cinnamon in there. [00:24:52] That was impressive. [00:24:53] Uh, so yeah, had a, had a big old Christmas party last night, had a couple of drinks, uh, [00:25:00] and, and, uh, because of the contrast, whenever I go, you know, go a week without any alcohol [00:25:06] and then I have some alcohol and then I wake up the next morning and I'm like, oh yes, I [00:25:11] know what people mean now that alcohol is poison. [00:25:13] And it's a mildly poisonous thing because I feel mildly poisoned. [00:25:19] Um, and, and I just usually feel that most days until I forget about it. [00:25:23] So it's a data point, uh, to think about, uh, uh, I, I, I had a good, good run for, [00:25:30] for a while there, just cause like when you live in a fucking theme park and there's nowadays [00:25:34] alcohol everywhere that I go and every outing, I had a good run for a few months. [00:25:40] Um, not last year, the year before where I just didn't drink at home as a rule to myself. [00:25:46] I was like, you know, I'm not going to pour any liquor for myself at home unless I'm entertaining [00:25:49] guests. [00:25:50] And, uh, even then go easy on it because I I'm, I'm, I'm going to just the background radiation [00:25:56] of existence in when you live in a bunch of resorts. [00:25:59] Uh, I'll, I'll get, I'll get, I'll get plenty of alcohol subcutaneously. [00:26:05] Um, a contact tie. [00:26:07] So maybe I'll, maybe I'll try that again. [00:26:10] I don't know. [00:26:11] It's the stuff you think about in mid December when you're just inundated with specialty food [00:26:17] and drink options, uh, do other life stuff that isn't alcohol or religion or clothing [00:26:27] related. [00:26:28] Oh, uh, uh, I've been on a quest to not necessarily save a bunch of money, not necessarily. [00:26:35] Uh, I was going to say, uh, tighten my belt, but, uh, I don't know what the suspender equivalent [00:26:43] is because I did not wear a belt last night. [00:26:45] I just wore suspenders. [00:26:46] Uh, I've been interested in, in not budgeting either. [00:26:52] Just, I think awareness. [00:26:54] Like I want, I know that a lot of money flies through my pockets every month in the form of, [00:27:01] um, SAS software subscriptions and streaming services. [00:27:05] I mentioned this last, uh, last go round that I was recommending, Hey, let's say, go take a [00:27:11] look at like our unused streaming subscriptions of those. [00:27:14] Uh, yesterday I did cancel max. [00:27:16] Cause I realized that, uh, if I'm not watching a lot of news, I'm not going to watch John Oliver [00:27:20] and, and they frankly, a lot of HBO's prestige shows haven't been besides they cut a Sesame [00:27:28] street and it just so happened that I canceled that day. [00:27:31] So maybe there's a, some data engineer at HBO who's like, Oh man, people are canceling because [00:27:37] we got rid of Sesame street. [00:27:38] Uh, that would be good. [00:27:40] That would be good for America to get that feedback. [00:27:43] Uh, yeah. [00:27:44] I just want awareness of like, where's the money going and in what proportion and does that sound [00:27:50] right to me? [00:27:50] Uh, and I've, there are software tools for this. [00:27:53] Uh, they are all compromised in some way. [00:27:57] For example, we just, uh, we'd used lunch money in the past, which is a cool app. [00:28:02] And it has the kind of, you know, basic integrations you would expect. [00:28:06] I don't know if it uses plaid or whatever behind the covers, but like you, you connect your, your, [00:28:11] your checking accounts, your credit card accounts. [00:28:14] It lists all your transactions is very, um, customizable in terms of rules that you can [00:28:21] set. [00:28:21] It has an API. [00:28:22] Jen is a solo co-founder and she seems really, really competent and lovely and responsive, [00:28:27] which are all great things. [00:28:29] But the UI is a little clunky for me. [00:28:32] I don't like how it handled URLs. [00:28:33] It was like, once you got all the transactions in there and, and set up, it didn't feel informative [00:28:41] because there wasn't like a good reporting or graphs that just kind of at a glance would [00:28:45] tell you, this is where your money's going. [00:28:46] At least for me. [00:28:47] Uh, additionally, like it, it can't do the Apple card. [00:28:51] That's the, that's become the crux for a lot of these services is that, um, Apple card [00:28:55] only added support for reading. [00:28:59] Uh, well now you can read, uh, uh, so I, Apple added away on iOS and specifically iPhone [00:29:07] OS to read, uh, transactions from Apple card, Apple savings and Apple cash. [00:29:14] And this was like nine months ago, if that, but copilot, uh, money is one of two apps maybe [00:29:22] that supports this. [00:29:23] And so if you, if you have, we have, we each have an Apple card and we use it for kind of [00:29:29] our silly stuff whenever we're, you know, using a tap to pay. [00:29:33] So, so if, if you want to track transactions and you don't want to manually export CSVs [00:29:40] from your wife's phone every 30 days, which is the process that I'd fallen into with, with [00:29:44] lunch money, then you, you basically have copilot money. [00:29:50] And then there's another one, maybe Monarch, uh, the copilot money. [00:29:53] People are always talking about this other app called Monarch. [00:29:55] I haven't checked it out. [00:29:55] I don't know if that's why they like it or if it's just the other one that's being developed [00:29:59] right now in this post mint apocalypse, as we all grapple with the fact that mint was [00:30:04] always bad, uh, but people got into it and I don't copilot money is like nice, but like [00:30:11] it, like, for example, like if I'm, uh, if I buy a, uh, if I put $10, the equivalent of [00:30:19] $10, so 1000 yen on my Starbucks card in Japan, which is totally separate because of course it [00:30:25] is there's two Starbucks cards. [00:30:27] There's the one in Japan and then the one in the rest of the world. [00:30:30] So you open the Japanese only app, you put a thousand yen on it. [00:30:33] Uh, you pay for that with Apple pay. [00:30:36] So which goes to my Apple card and copilot money will read that transaction. [00:30:40] But if you read like the text in the merchant description, it's literally like [00:30:44] staba day and it's like all no spaces. [00:30:47] It's just like 40 characters in a row to, and if you really squint, you can kind of see [00:30:52] Starbucks, Japan, um, you know, app store payment, which is, you know, like I want to [00:31:00] change that to Starbucks, Japan, and then set up a rule to just like always change that. [00:31:05] So I don't have to like memorize these random ass merchant names. [00:31:08] Uh, apparently like after, after two hours of setting up copilot money yesterday, I realized [00:31:13] that there's like both no way to set up that kind of rule. [00:31:16] The only rule that it supports is categorization of, of spending fine, but then if you set [00:31:22] up a rule and you don't like it, there's no way to edit the rules cause there's no UI for [00:31:25] rule editing. [00:31:26] And so then, you know, where do you go, but read it and you're like, okay, well there's [00:31:30] a subreddit. [00:31:30] And then like, what's half the post in the subreddit? [00:31:32] It's about, Oh, of course it's a bunch of dads who are like, I can't see my rules and I have [00:31:36] to contact support. [00:31:37] And it's been nine months. [00:31:38] And I was like, Oh God. [00:31:39] So that's, uh, if anyone's got any great budgeting software that supports Apple card, you let me [00:31:46] know. [00:31:47] Uh, and also isn't a part-time job. [00:31:50] I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna spend all day on this. [00:31:52] I'm not, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna check in on this, uh, the four times a year that I, that [00:31:58] I wake up in a cold sweat wondering, Oh my God, how many subscriptions do I have? [00:32:02] Which is, uh, I, I really missed my calling by not being a dad, I guess. [00:32:07] But it did land me on looking at rocket money. [00:32:11] Uh, so, so, so there was an app called true bill that marketed heavily with like a lot of [00:32:19] other DTC apps where the pitch was, we will negotiate your bills for you. [00:32:26] And by bills, I think that one of the reasons why this, this, this business probably struggled [00:32:31] is that there's really only two that they could reasonably negotiate on your behalf. [00:32:37] You know, you, you imagine they've got a call center or they've got people who've, who [00:32:40] are trained, who have scripts that they follow, who, who will doggedly keep calling back until [00:32:44] they get what, you know, the discount, the, just the steps that you would have to go through [00:32:48] if you wanted to call Comcast or Verizon, they, they, they, they can basically could basically [00:32:57] only really negotiate your ISP and your cell phone carrier. [00:33:01] Cause those are the two sort of, you know, that are, that are transactional enough that [00:33:08] are regionalized or nationalized enough that they, that they could train on. [00:33:11] And then of course, like they, they're the ones that like get you in with a teaser rate and [00:33:15] then gradually turn up the heat over the course of a couple of years. [00:33:19] Well, Quicken Loans bought, they rebranded as rocket and then rocket fill in the blank [00:33:26] with other products. [00:33:26] And they bought true bill around the same time. [00:33:29] And I, my understanding from a distance is that true bill, uh, uh, that became rocket money [00:33:36] in order to be an entree into other rocket star services. [00:33:41] So like you, you now, when you install rocket money, it's still got the negotiation thing. [00:33:46] Cause that's what they market it on, but you have to slog through so much like, no, I'm actually [00:33:52] all set with credit and, and, and, and debt repayment services. [00:33:57] And I'm, I'm already all set with financial advisors and retirement goals. [00:34:00] I just get me to the, to the thing where I can pay you 35% of whatever you save me on [00:34:06] my ISP bill. [00:34:07] And so of course, you know, like I, I, I signed up for the first time, went through the app [00:34:12] onboarding. [00:34:13] I was not impressed with the bugginess of the app, but I was able to soldier on through [00:34:19] it. [00:34:19] And where I landed was I was, uh, following its little setup wizard for first. [00:34:27] Spectrum, which is my internet provider. [00:34:28] And I was, I'd initially paid a hundred dollars when I moved here in 2021, uh, a month for, [00:34:36] for one gig down, call it 30 megabits per second up. [00:34:40] And I can't get a, another ISP here. [00:34:43] They had an exclusive agreement. [00:34:44] They're building neighborhoods bullshit. [00:34:47] Uh, and I, I, so I can't get higher upstream and that really gets in my crawl. [00:34:53] Nevertheless, they have increased prices about $15 a year. [00:34:59] Each time I'm here to the point now where I think my monthly, you know, debit is like $150, [00:35:05] $145 and you fill it out and you give them your pin number. [00:35:11] You got this customer pin that like, you know, is secures your account. [00:35:14] I'm like, eh, all right, well, that's four digits, you know? [00:35:17] And besides I'm already on like this one dead simple plan. [00:35:20] It's just their normal plan. [00:35:22] And it's, you know, like I'm paying top dollar for it. [00:35:26] So what's the worst that they could do if they, if somebody else were to call and change [00:35:30] my plan up, you know, like it, it wouldn't cause that much lasting damage. [00:35:34] Cause it's not like I'm on some teaser rate. [00:35:36] It's not like I've got a great deal as it is. [00:35:38] So I let them do it. [00:35:39] And three days later, I had low expectations, right? [00:35:42] Cause you go on Reddit, speaking of Reddit, you go on and you, you search other people's [00:35:46] experiences and people will say, oh yeah, well like the, you know, I, some of them are [00:35:52] pretty hyperbolic. [00:35:53] It's like, you know, like they, they changed my plan to this and now I'm stuck with this, [00:35:57] you know, TV subscription for the next four years. [00:35:59] And then they charged me a thousand dollars in imagined savings that never materialized. [00:36:03] I'm like, shit. [00:36:04] All right. [00:36:04] Well, that's, that's not good. [00:36:06] But I, I gave them a shot. [00:36:08] They came back three days later and they said, congratulations. [00:36:12] We saved you $859. [00:36:14] I was like, what the, excuse me over the next 12 months. [00:36:18] And it turned out that they got me from $142, $145 down to 70 flat. [00:36:25] You multiply that by 12 and then indeed comes out to eight something. [00:36:28] And I was like, damn. [00:36:29] All right. [00:36:30] And so I've been, I've been looking for the other shoe to drop like ever since, like something [00:36:36] is fishy here. [00:36:37] Like I, they didn't sign me up for other services. [00:36:39] I did receive, I'm looking over at it now. [00:36:43] I did receive a relatively large box that has a, you know, one of those wifi modem router [00:36:50] combo units in it. [00:36:51] That was partly like apparently part of the deal. [00:36:54] I don't know if they canceled my service and then in one fell swoop also signed me up for [00:36:58] service. [00:36:58] But now I've got this gigantic fucking wifi thing that wouldn't even fit in my patch box [00:37:02] if I wanted it, which I don't. [00:37:04] So I'm, I'm, I'm currently in this ether of like, well, if my modem that I rent is still [00:37:11] going to work, I rent for $0. [00:37:14] It's one nice thing about spectrum. [00:37:15] If my modem that I rent is still going to work, uh, maybe I can just keep this wifi thing in [00:37:20] the box and not call anyone. [00:37:22] And maybe everything will keep working and I'll pay the $70 a month, or maybe I should send [00:37:27] the other one back, but then that might trigger some other thing. [00:37:30] Right. [00:37:30] I, so look like, do I recommend the service? [00:37:36] I don't really, I don't, we'll see. [00:37:38] Right. [00:37:39] Like call me in a year. [00:37:40] I should set a reminder. [00:37:41] Oh, I'm sure if something bad happens, I'll, I'll be right on the airwaves screaming about [00:37:47] it. [00:37:47] Like I, like I do, but even after this experience, saving me a lot of money, like what I trust [00:37:53] them with my T-Mobile account, right. [00:37:54] Where I have been grandfathered in on what was called the one choice plus plan in 2014 [00:38:01] or whatever. [00:38:02] And it's genuine, honest to God, unlimited data without any real throttling. [00:38:08] As far as I can tell, until you get to some absurdly high number where you can watch your [00:38:12] videos in HD on your, you know, like, like it's, it's, it's a good one. [00:38:16] It's better than their magenta crap. [00:38:18] Um, and a lower price than their magenta max thing. [00:38:21] Well, we got three lines. [00:38:22] You got, you know, the watches and I would love to pay less for that, but I just don't [00:38:27] try like you, you, you fill out the rocket money form, uh, with the, uh, the, the, it wants [00:38:34] your T-Mobile, like login information. [00:38:36] And that's, that was a bridge too far for me. [00:38:40] I got there and I was like, you know, I could just imagine this going poorly. [00:38:44] You know, these plans are so complicated and feels like even when I call T-Mobile and I [00:38:48] ask, Hey, how's the weather? [00:38:49] Like they click a button and it fucks up my shit for two weeks. [00:38:52] So I'm, I'm, I'm good. [00:38:55] I can probably afford a cell phone bill. [00:38:57] Uh, I just, I just would prefer not to have to pay it. [00:39:01] Only one other life item in the last week, I was given a special opportunity. [00:39:11] Um, I've talked about massages a couple of times on this program and the, uh, I mentioned, [00:39:15] uh, the one I went, uh, the one I had most recently in a previous episode, I, I, I was, I was wrapping [00:39:29] up my massage with a human like you do. [00:39:31] And the human said, have you, have you tried our robot massage? [00:39:36] And, uh, I didn't know how to take that. [00:39:38] And I said, I, I've heard of it. [00:39:41] I know Becky tried it. [00:39:43] If you check Becky's, um, Becky Graham, you'll see, uh, there's a video of her, uh, getting [00:39:48] felt up by a robot. [00:39:50] Uh, I forget the name of the company, but it's, it's, uh, it's like a robot that tries to simulate [00:39:59] the experience of a human massaging you. [00:40:02] So it's, uh, you're on a bed, you're face down. [00:40:06] It's, uh, got arms that kind of go back and forth, uh, on a track and they, they push and [00:40:13] whatnot. [00:40:13] And it kind of reminds me of the white birthing robot from star Wars episode three at the end [00:40:21] when, when Luke and Leah are being born, it does everything short of make the cooing [00:40:26] sounds to get the babies to calm down. [00:40:28] You know, like I, you do have a tablet and you can, you can pick out these pre-baked Spotify [00:40:34] playlists while it's pushing on you. [00:40:36] Anyway, all that to say, I signed up, um, mostly cause it was free. [00:40:41] So I had a 30 minute trial and, uh, the fact is trying to imitate humans was really interesting [00:40:49] to me because I had just spent a month in Japan, uh, getting, uh, what'd you call it? [00:40:54] Uh, massage chairs, our hotel chain that we stay at has always has massage chairs and even [00:41:01] bad massage chairs in Japan are pretty intense. [00:41:03] Uh, uh, but, but good ones are just like, you know, you go in there and it's just like, [00:41:09] I'm sure there's been, you've probably seen a horror movie image, right? [00:41:13] Where it's like, you sit in a chair and then like 25 hands grab all the parts of your body [00:41:18] simultaneously and that is meant to be horrific. [00:41:20] But if those hands, if there was some nice music playing and it was illuminated and those [00:41:25] hands were massaging you simultaneously all over your body, maybe it would be pretty, pretty [00:41:29] great. [00:41:29] And so that's what a Japanese massage chair is like. [00:41:33] Cause they, they don't have this arbitrary conceit that a massage must happen in a format [00:41:39] that resembles how it would happen if a single human on a bed surface was rubbing your tiddly [00:41:45] bits, which is what this robot is. [00:41:49] Right. [00:41:49] And so it's trying to think of another analog, right? [00:41:55] Like where we, we kind of retain the artifice of the way that it used to be before we automated [00:42:00] it. [00:42:00] And, and in some, sometimes we do that to keep people being comfortable like that rich [00:42:05] Corinthian leather. [00:42:06] It's like, we wanted to look like a traditional calendar. [00:42:08] So people know what they're looking at instead of just a bunch of boxes. [00:42:11] It's like, Oh yeah, this looks like a placemat style calendar that I would have had on my desk. [00:42:15] And then eventually that ages out. [00:42:16] And the younger people are like, I've never seen a calendar on a desk, even though my dad [00:42:20] grew up with one, you know? [00:42:24] So maybe that's it, right? [00:42:25] Like, like sometimes that's why we would have a robo massage that like, you know, pressures [00:42:31] and needs you, you know, kind of with just the two arms up and down in particular points, [00:42:35] sometimes at the same time, sometimes just one arm, you know, it's, it's, it's less efficient [00:42:41] is my immediate frustration. [00:42:43] Cause it's like, you could have 45 fucking arms going to town all over my body and I'd [00:42:49] get way more work done in 30 minutes. [00:42:52] Right. [00:42:52] Cause I'm just trying to min max my existence, but instead by, by, by, by imitating a human [00:42:59] massage, like nothing is really gained because I can't see it. [00:43:03] I'm facedown. [00:43:04] I'm looking at a silly tablet and watching imagery, imagery of forests and, and, and ocean waves [00:43:10] and whatnot, and I'm kind of getting a, you can look at a weird overhead view of what [00:43:14] your body is looking at, looking like right then, you know, like it scans your body and [00:43:19] then has like a little illustration of like, here's where I'm pushing you. [00:43:21] Here I go. [00:43:22] It's, it seems more to me like they designed this, you look at this unit and it's just like, [00:43:31] this has got to cost at least 15 grand. [00:43:34] This is an expensive, complicated piece of equipment. [00:43:38] It feels like a lack of imagination, uh, to, to somebody had the idea, let's take human [00:43:47] masseuses out of the equation and just make a robo masseuse thing that we could put in spas [00:43:53] when, uh, you'd actually have a better experience. [00:43:56] It would be cheaper. [00:43:57] And there's like more prior art at Panasonic or these other companies in Japan. [00:44:01] If you just made a, you know, massage chair, but that would be boring, I guess. [00:44:08] Uh, and massage chairs, like you, you hear the word massage chair right now as you're listening. [00:44:13] And if you haven't had like a real one, you know, at a Japanese Denki-yasan on the third [00:44:17] floor, where all the salary men on their way home tell their wives, oh, I got a, I got a big meeting [00:44:24] with the boss and then they go to, they go to Yamada Denki or they go to Yodabashi camera. [00:44:28] And then they just, you know, they take their briefcase and they set it down next to one of the [00:44:33] trial units of the massage chair. [00:44:34] And then they, they, they, they, they go into this little like sensory deprivation pod and [00:44:39] they get all their bits smushed simultaneously and they got a remote control and they can [00:44:45] say, just do it hard. [00:44:46] And then they can forget their worries for, for 15 minutes until, uh, one of the staff has [00:44:52] to remind them that, uh, they don't live there and that they have to go home now. [00:44:56] If you haven't had that experience, uh, you probably, when you hear a massage chair, think [00:45:02] of like those $2, you know, leather chairs that are, you know, just like our just normal [00:45:08] fucking chairs that may be vibrate, like the vibrating bed equivalent that you see at an [00:45:12] airport. [00:45:12] Um, this is not what I'm talking about. [00:45:15] So get your head out of there and, and go Google, you know, for high end Japanese massage [00:45:22] chair, and you might get some idea. [00:45:24] Uh, also I, uh, in the course of a 30 minute massage, I encountered so many fucking Android [00:45:32] tablet bugs. [00:45:33] I, I didn't, I gave them a lot of feedback cause they, this is sort of a trial that they're [00:45:37] doing. [00:45:37] They wanted to want to know how, what I thought. [00:45:40] And I gave them a lot of this perspective and feedback about like, well, you know, this [00:45:44] skeuomorphic design, yada, yada. [00:45:45] But I didn't even touch any of the software stuff. [00:45:49] Cause like there's an absolutely nothing that they're going to be able to do with that much [00:45:52] less like they won't even be able to communicate this back to the company in a way that's helpful, [00:45:55] but it was, you know, it would freeze or the display would become non-responsive. [00:46:01] One time I had the music just turn itself all the way up. [00:46:05] The, um, the, so many things about this design are meant to make you feel comfortable are [00:46:13] meant to make you feel safe. [00:46:14] Like if, if you, it moves at all, or if it detects anything is off at all, it basically [00:46:20] like will, will disengage entirely and reposition itself. [00:46:23] And then you have to actively resume the massage. [00:46:26] And then it's got to put the little flappy doos back over you. [00:46:30] Like it's really worried about people flipping out about this robot pressing up against them. [00:46:36] And it extends to, to like, you know, you pick your firmness, like light, medium firm. [00:46:41] And I clicked firm. [00:46:42] And then there, you could see there was like a little like pressure bar on the right. [00:46:47] And that even though I'd clicked the firm preset, I wasn't at a hundred percent pressure. [00:46:52] And I was like, well, that, that won't do. [00:46:54] And so I jacked it up to a hundred percent right out of the gate. [00:46:56] And the whole time, 30 minutes, like you could, uh, [00:46:59] Hmm. [00:47:01] It, I knew that a massage was happening. [00:47:05] Like I knew when contact was being made, but like, it was not a massage. [00:47:08] It was, it was somebody kind of like, like, like back rub would be generous. [00:47:14] It was like somebody like took an open palm hand and just pressed it. [00:47:18] Just, just, just an obnoxiously against different parts of my body and no firmness beyond that. [00:47:26] So you got a robo massage. [00:47:29] It's limited in what it can do. [00:47:33] Cause it's trying to imitate a human. [00:47:34] It's very worried about liability, which is why I imagine the max firmness is light pressure. [00:47:39] Uh, and it's fussy and it's buggy. [00:47:42] And of course it can only do very limited regions of the body. [00:47:45] Like if I was a massage therapist, I'd be like, Hey, sweet. [00:47:49] You know, I'm going to keep having a job longer than all these programmer juckle fucks. [00:47:52] You're going to get replaced by a Claude and open AI. [00:47:56] So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm confident that a massage therapist is going to be a, a lucrative, you [00:48:03] know, going concern as a career for a little while programming. [00:48:08] I'm not so sure of, but most of us listening have already made our choice, whether we're [00:48:14] going to be massage therapists or programmers. [00:48:16] So we're just going to have to see how this, how this plays out. [00:48:19] All right. [00:48:20] Well, that's all, that's everything going on in my life. [00:48:23] So let's, uh, well, let's follow up on stuff that had been going on in my life and is now [00:48:30] continuing or is once again, I started to realize that there's a, there's a certain theme to this [00:48:37] show. [00:48:37] Hmm. [00:48:38] All right. [00:48:46] There's basically two major areas of follow-up today. [00:48:51] Um, but somehow the two of them take up 11 bullet points in my notes. [00:48:59] So I'll try to be expeditious. [00:49:02] The first is I bought a, uh, M4 pro MacBook pro, I guess an Apple nomenclature, a MacBook pro [00:49:13] left parentheses, 2024, right parentheses with M4 pro. [00:49:19] I think is probably maybe the 2024 is at the end. [00:49:22] Maybe they don't put the date now that they have the chip name. [00:49:25] In any case, I needed a computer that was built for Apple intelligence, which is how they also, [00:49:32] they crammed that in the fucking name. [00:49:34] Um, and like the, every subheader says Apple intelligence on it, which, you know, I mean, [00:49:40] if you're, if you're a marketing dude, it's the thing that, you know, like you gotta, every [00:49:48] year is a struggle to goose people into, to buying computers. [00:49:51] And, uh, it's been a while since they've had anything new to say that your computer can do. [00:49:56] So it makes sense, but come on. [00:49:59] It can't even make Genmoji yet. [00:50:02] Uh, just if you've, if you've downloaded it, used 18.2 iOS or iPadOS, uh, go turn on the, [00:50:13] um, you know, the AI feature, if it's available in your region and language, and then you open [00:50:19] the image playground app and you click through there and let it download all of the image [00:50:24] playground shit, uh, in particular, the image playground itself, where you can take a person [00:50:30] and a place and kind of like, you know, create sort of a, uh, a witch's brew of bad imagery [00:50:35] and then, and then have a keep swiping to the right as, as they just all look bad that I have [00:50:43] no, no need for, but Genmoji, or at least the promise of Genmoji, I like quite a lot. [00:50:49] I enjoy, you know, um, typing in little like name, like, so we were at the parks, uh, with [00:50:57] our friends last week and it was a Jollywood Knights event, which is also Gatsby themed. [00:51:06] There's a reason why ordering 1920s era costumes on Amazon in Orlando was like not an overnight. [00:51:13] It was like a two, three day leg because this, this Jollywood Knights 1920s era themed, uh, [00:51:21] ticketed event at Hollywood studios has been going on. And it was one of those nights. And so some [00:51:26] flapper lady in line, she had a purse that had a phone handle on it. And her husband, who now that [00:51:34] I think back on this was dressed very similarly to how I dressed myself last night. So something tells [00:51:39] me he was sort of a long for the ride in this, she picked up the phone handle off of her purse and [00:51:46] handed it to Becky. And then he, you could sort of see him on the phone being a bad ventriloquist [00:51:53] and talking to her on the phone. So like his cell phone was somehow communicating to the purse phone. [00:51:59] It was very, it reminded me of get smart, you know, like that spy TV show from the sixties that was on [00:52:05] Nick at night in the eighties or nineties when I would have watched it. Uh, of course it didn't [00:52:10] work. And then we were just in line and it was like, sorry, we're in line. It didn't work. And then, [00:52:14] and then of course the way that lines work, right. As you turn left, turn right. And now it's up, [00:52:18] here's the same people again. And so they're like, all right, try again. So she picks up the purse [00:52:23] phone and here's the guy talk. And she's like, yes, this is indeed a telephone. That is a purse. [00:52:28] My reaction, my contribution to this experience was to try to generate a Genmoji for the group [00:52:35] that I was with. That was like purse phone. And, uh, wouldn't you know it, uh, it struggled to like, [00:52:43] I was like purse with a phone handle on top. And it was, it gave me like one with like a, [00:52:49] like a locker combination lock instead of a rotary dial in the middle. It was all, it was not, [00:52:54] not good. And, and I think like a lot of these Genmoji, in addition to being bad and not good, [00:53:01] they are when they, there's, they have to be so detailed because usually it's people mashing up [00:53:07] different concepts. They have to be so detailed that when in line with texts, you have to squint [00:53:12] and you can barely see what they are. And then if they're as a tap back, you have no hope of knowing [00:53:16] what they are. Like if it's of a person, for example, like it's, you're going to get like 80% shirt [00:53:21] and then like 10% head. So you're not going to be able to tell who's what. Uh, so those need work [00:53:27] and no one wants my Genmoji. My, my brother has formally requested. I stopped sending them and, [00:53:32] uh, I will, I will take that request under advisement. Anyway, uh, bought a MacBook pro. Um, [00:53:42] Oh, I've got a, I've got a parenthetical as a C notes. All right, well, here's eight more bullet [00:53:50] points. I'm going to rattle through these. So Becky, actually, it was her idea. She wanted to [00:53:54] get me this. We were in Japan. She's like, Hey, you know, I heard you talking about the nanotexture [00:53:57] display. And like, of course, you know, the, the, the brighter screen and us being in Orlando, [00:54:01] you never use a computer outside or out of the house. So she wanted to buy it. And she said, [00:54:06] it was just really complicated. I didn't want to fuck up. I didn't want to get you the wrong set of [00:54:09] options. I asked Aaron and Aaron didn't know either. He said he hadn't really been on top of it. [00:54:16] Uh, and I was like, honey, that's so I didn't say like, bless your heart. I, it was a such a sweet [00:54:23] gesture. And it is true that I've been curious about it. Um, but I didn't feel like, uh, I had [00:54:30] to get one right this minute. Uh, and, and honestly, the, the, the 14 inch MacBook pro is still too heavy. [00:54:36] I, I, I, I lifted tonal my, my weightlifting robot, uh, reported in my tonal wrapped because [00:54:46] everything has to do a goddamn wrapped dingus to try to share in social media as if like, you know, [00:54:52] one assumes that all these wrapped posts just go to the goddamn bottom of every algorithm because [00:54:57] they're all the same. But in any case, it showed me a little wrapped video and it said, I wait, [00:55:02] I, I lifted one and a half million pounds last year or over the course of 2024. And I was like, [00:55:07] that's a lot of weight that I lifted. I, yesterday I did the equivalent of like, you know, 250, [00:55:12] 275 pound deadlift barbell deadlift. And that was hard, but not too hard. It's the max weight that, [00:55:20] that tonal can do. Um, I, I, I, I like to think I'm pretty strong now. Uh, that four pound fucking [00:55:31] MacBook pro is backbreakingly heavy, no matter where I am, I'll pick it up and like, that is denser than [00:55:40] it looks. It's a, it's like when you pick up a baby, that's like a little bit too dense, you know, [00:55:46] and you're just like, Oh wow. I was expecting this to be more fun. This is just going to give [00:55:51] me pelvic floor problems. If I do this for more than exactly 30 seconds and then hand it back to [00:55:57] its mother who surely has pelvic floor issues. Um, I don't want to be carrying around this MacBook pro. [00:56:05] I don't want to carry it with my arms. I don't want to carry it in a bag. I don't want to carry it [00:56:09] into the car. I don't want to carry it, you know, uh, in a Starbucks. I want to hire a Porter to [00:56:16] bring it around to me, you know, from place to place. Maybe, maybe they could also saddle up and [00:56:23] have a, uh, vision pro. So that's what I really want. Uh, at least until, and unless Apple releases [00:56:30] the 12 inch MacBook pro, uh, that we were promised in our early years. [00:56:34] Anyway, when Becky said that it was hard to configure and figure out what she'd want to order [00:56:43] or what I would want her to order. And as a result would have made a pretty lousy gift because [00:56:49] the likelihood of her getting it right. Where if you look at the number of configurations for these [00:56:53] seeing this thing, like astronomically small, I actually spent, I sat down, I look, I, I said, [00:57:01] I didn't need the thing. And then I come home and then within a day and a half, uh, my MacBook air is [00:57:07] crying because it's out of storage to the point where like I composed an email and I hit send on the email [00:57:12] and then Apple mail reported, yo, we just barfed on all this and just deleted all your shit. Cause we [00:57:17] ran out of disk space, no warning. And in modern day Mac OS, you don't get to know how much disk space [00:57:23] you have because all of it is like optimized storage. So like whether it's your iCloud drive [00:57:29] or it's your Apple photos, once the system is under any sort of, um, storage stress, it'll, [00:57:35] it's supposed to detect that and start deleting shit. Your phone does this too. So sometimes like [00:57:41] you're like, like I was importing a bunch of raw images on the phone and it said, Oh, you're out of [00:57:45] storage. And then I knew, because I know how it works under the hood, even though it exposes zero [00:57:49] controls or visibility as to what is going the fuck on. I knew that when it ran out of storage, [00:57:54] the right solution was sit and wait for 30 seconds while it deletes shit in the background and then [00:57:59] just hit import again. Right. Well, I, that didn't work in this case. Like I actually went and deleted [00:58:05] like a hundred gigabytes of garbage. It's a small SSD. It's a 512 gigabyte MacBook air. I deleted all this [00:58:11] stuff, but, um, from my iCloud drive on another computer, because this one was finder was completely [00:58:17] unresponsive. Uh, and it never got better because it had suspended all iCloud drive syncing as a, [00:58:24] probably like some sort of like memory safeguard or storage safeguard to like make sure I didn't, [00:58:27] it didn't fuck up anything in the cloud. And so like even going, I'm not going to, [00:58:33] most of that storage was in my iCloud drive, which is how it got full while I was overseas. [00:58:38] And when I came back, I, I didn't have like, I could, I could have gone through and like run [00:58:47] RM dash RF from the terminal and deleted stuff from the iCloud drive to like as a, as an emergency break, [00:58:52] like get, get this SSD empty enough that the operating system can run and then figure it out. [00:59:00] But then of course it would have synced all of those deletions up to the cloud and deleted the [00:59:03] same things off of my other computers. So this is a tractable problem. And I, I, I ultimately did solve [00:59:10] it, but I, I realize now why Apple markets so much of its pro devices to photos and video people, [00:59:20] because photos and videos take up a shit ton of space. Uh, they have different performance [00:59:26] characteristics than programming and, and the, their needs in many ways are higher than what you need. [00:59:33] If you're just writing Ruby code, right? Uh, it just so happens that Swift, the programming language [00:59:38] that they wrote is also like, we'll, we'll take advantage of all of these cores during compilation [00:59:42] in a way that like a lot of local development in other languages won't. [00:59:45] But in my last year of doing a lot more video work, doing a lot more audio work, I can definitely [00:59:52] understand now like, Oh yeah, like the, the MacBook air actually is inappropriate for a lot of the [00:59:57] workflows of the things that I do. So that experience, I came to Becky and I was like, look, I know I said [01:00:05] I didn't need this, but I think I might need this. Um, where need is in very, you know, very gentle [01:00:12] text. It's, it's a thin font variant to say, I need this. What I mean to say is like, I, it would save [01:00:19] me a lot of time and stress and headache and, uh, uh, rework to have a better computer, a more [01:00:26] capacious computer. And of course you can't upgrade the storage and your existing max. So here we are. [01:00:32] Um, but anyway, I was in the configurator for the new MacBook pro. And the first decision you got to [01:00:36] make is do I want a regular M4 chip, which I did not, or one of the pro ones, which is a, you know, [01:00:43] 12 or 14 core. I want to say a chip, uh, which is a huge upgrade over the M3 pro the M3 pro had a way [01:00:53] more efficiency cores and the M4 pro has more performance score. So it's like a, it's doing [01:00:57] much better in synthetic benchmarking that that's impressive. It's a big year over year change or the [01:01:02] M4 max, which is, you know, uh, an incremental improvement over the M3 max, but to the extent [01:01:10] that it's better than the pro it's like, you know, got another meat and quote unquote media [01:01:14] e

From childhood trauma, to professional bow shake, to the elephant in the room - Beta Blockers. Some times you swallow the stage, and sometimes the stage swallows you… Stage fright is something we can all relate to, wether presenting a speech, teaching class, or chairing a meeting. This is especially true for the musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, who are out there on the worlds concert stages in front of thousands of people, every week, every year. Join host and violist Yannick Dondelinger for a double episode of frank, funny and intimate discussion with MCO musicians around the effects, the origins, and some controversial solutions to having stage fright. For a full transcript of the episode, please visit our website. 

This is the Live Call-in Show from this past Sunday night, November 17, 2024!  Tonight, Mike and Scott are back together and we had a blast taking your calls for the hour!  The password to tonight's show was again your favorite side with the Thanksgiving meal and we got some great ideas!  We discussed thoughts on the re-launched Reflections Resort coming to Disney's Fort Wilderness area soon with Mohawk from Scotland, also had a great conversation with Paul from Lake St. Louis about how he plans to bike from MCO to Walt Disney World for Springtime Surprise, Scott shared his worst meal ever at Walt Disney World and much more!   Come join us in the BOGP Clubhouse this week at www.beourguestpodcast.com/discord.  Please visit our website at www.beourguestpodcast.com.  Thank you so much for your support of our podcast! Also, please follow the show on Twitter @BeOurGuestMike and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/beourguestpodcast.  Become a patron of the Be Our Guest Podcast over at www.patreon.com/BeOurGuestPodcast.  Thanks to our friends at The Magic For Less Travel for sponsoring today's podcast!

We spend a lot of time griping about the insidious power of corporate health insurance in our healthcare system here. But you would expect that taxpayer funded public programs for our most vulnerable friends and neighbors are free from profiteering right?  Sadly, no. Medicaid - the public program that serves the lowest income Americans, plus some people with disabilities, and a lot of the country's long-term care - has been extensively privatized in most states. Hoping to trim budgets, most states have outsourced Medicaid recipients to “Medicaid Managed Care Organizations,” which are actually private insurance companies. And with private insurance comes the barriers to care we know all too well, like prior authorizations, denial of claims, and narrow networks. These are all part of the private insurance/public programs business model: the more care they avoid paying for, the more money from those capitated payments they get to keep. But today we have a rare ray of sunshine: a state showing there's another way to provide care, not just coverage, to some of their most vulnerable residents. In 2012 Connecticut kicked the private insurance-run Managed Care Organizations out of their Medicaid program. They took on Big Insurance and won. Our guest today will walk us through how it went down. Sheldon Toubman has been a litigation attorney for Disability Rights Connecticut since 2021, and a leader of the efforts to remove Managed Care Organizations from the state's Medicaid program. Before that, he was a staff attorney with New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA), where he spent 30 years representing and working on behalf of Medicaid enrollees. He engages in a variety of strategies on behalf of people with disabilities, from litigation to legislative advocacy and public education through media, webinars and other means. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM7dRzHkVu0&t=1804s Show Notes Sheldon tells us that before 2012, Connecticut's Medicaid program was bifurcarted: eligible kids, pregnant people, and families were in a capitated Managed Care Organization (MCO) model and people with disabilities were in a fee-for-service program. (Medicaid is funded with federal dollars, but unlike Medicare, states design the programs and make all the decisions about plans.) With a fee-for-service model, the state takes on the risk. With the MCO model, the MCO receives a per-person/per-month fee (a "capitated payment") from the state, and they have to provide the care; if the patient requires less care, the MCO keeps the money, but if the patient requires more care, the MCO has to pay for the amount above the per-person/per-month fee. MCOs had a financial incentive to deny care so they could recoup more money. Beginning in the late 1990s, Medicaid advocates began a campaign of lawsuits and lobbying to remove Managed Care from their Medicaid program. Hartford, Connecticut is known as the insurace capital of the US, so this was a tough fight. Insurance companies fought this campaign because public programs are a major profit center for insurers, often more profitable than private employer-sponsored insurance. The insurance industry claimed they provided excellent care for less money, and coordinated care in a way that's not possible with the fee-for-service model. The insurance industry also ran ads about all the jobs they provide, and legislators were afraid to tangle with them. When the state asked for data about how the MCOs spent public dollars, they refused to provide it. So advocates only had anecdotal information, and it was hard to refute the claims the MCOs made about how well they served patients. One of the anecdotal complaints they heard the most was the lack of access to providers. Advocates convinced the state to check the insurance company provider network lists, so the state instituted a Secret Shopper survey to analyze them. They found that patients could get an appointment with supposed in-netw...

Today's discussion centers on the pitfalls of exercise and why many individuals struggle to see results despite their hard work. Overtraining syndrome, which can lead to persistent fatigue, irritability, and a lack of motivation, is a significant barrier to achieving fitness goals. The episode explores how excessive exercise can disrupt hormone levels, particularly in women, impacting energy, recovery, and overall well-being. Additionally, the relationship between diet and exercise is examined, emphasizing the importance of balanced nutrition for optimal performance and recovery. Tune in as we delve into practical strategies for finding the right balance between exercise intensity, recovery, and nutrition to enhance your fitness journey.Takeaways: Overtraining can lead to negative side effects, including persistent fatigue and irritability, impacting workout motivation. Women should adjust workout intensity according to their menstrual cycle for optimal performance and recovery. Chronic inflammation caused by excessive exercise without recovery can impair immune function and performance. Nutrition quality, not just calorie count, is essential for effective workout recovery and overall health. Exercise can disrupt hormonal balance, particularly in women, leading to menstrual irregularities and lower energy levels. Proper recovery, including sleep and rest days, is crucial for achieving fitness goals and preventing burnout. Nutrigenomics and how they impact your nutrition and exercise to ensure optimal results.West Wellness and Longevity LinksAre you ready to make change but don't know where to start. Book a free 30 min consultation here.https://www.westwellnessatx.com/get-started Have questions? Feel free to reach out to me at: tarawest@westwellnessatx.com Follow me on instagram @westwellnessatxStudy Links:Nieman, D. C. (1994). Exercise, infection, and immunity. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 15(S3), S131-S141. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2007-1021128Pedersen, B. K., & Fischer, C. P. (2007). Physiological roles of muscle-derived interleukin-6 in response to exercise.Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, 10(3), 265–271. https://doi.org/10.1097/MCO.0b013e3282f3f81aMountjoy, M., et al. (2014). The IOC consensus statement: beyond the female athlete triad—Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). British Journal of Sports Medicine, 48(7), 491-497. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2014-093502Van Cauter, E., et al. (2014). Sleep loss and the pathophysiology of insulin resistance. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 99(6), 2198–2207. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2014-1737Szabo, A., et al. (2013). Exercise addiction in sportsmen. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 14(4), 436-445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.03.003Malhotra, A., et al. (2015). It is time to bust the myth of physical inactivity and obesity: you cannot outrun a bad diet.Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 57(4), 322–329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcad.2014.11.006Ludwig, D. S., et al. (2002). The glycemic index: physiological mechanisms relating to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 76(1), 274S–280S. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/76.1.274Ferguson, L. R., et al. (2017). Nutrigenomics, the microbiome, and gene-environment interactions for health.Nutrients, 9(11), 1133. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9121133Hansen, M., et al. (2005). The...

S&P Futures are moving lower this morning as the market prepares for a host of earnings announcements this week. China's PBOC lowered two of its short-term lending rates this morning. Shares of Boeing are higher this morning as a deal to end the months-long strike is said to have been reached. Merger talks between Humana and Cigna are said to have restarted. Starboard appears to have taken a stake in KVUE. Tuesday morning earnings announcements are schedule for GE, GM, MMM, MCO, LMT, RTX, TXN, & VZ. In Europe, markets are lower with banks and insurance stocks moving lower. Oil prices are higher by more the +1.50% this morning.

Sustainable ETFs for Sustainable Investors. More… It also covers top Zacks ranking alternative energy stocks such as Talen Energy Corporation. By Ron Robins, MBA Transcript & Links, Episode 140, October 18, 2024 Hello, Ron Robins here. Welcome to this podcast episode 140 published October 18, 2024, titled “Top Sustainable Companies and Funds for 2024.” It's presented by Investing for the Soul. Investingforthesoul.com is your site for vital global ethical and sustainable investing mentoring, news, commentary, information, and resources. Remember that you can find a full transcript and links to content – including stock symbols and bonus material – on this episode's podcast page at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts. Also, a reminder. I do not evaluate any of the stocks or funds mentioned in these podcasts, and I don't receive any compensation from anyone covered in these podcasts. Furthermore, I will reveal any investments I have in the investments mentioned herein. Additionally, quotes about individual companies are brief. Please go to this podcast's webpage for links to the articles and more company and stock information. ------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Climate & ESG Investment Funds to Know About Now, I'm leading this podcast with this article titled 10 Climate & ESG Investment Funds to Know About. It's by Trinity Sparke and can be seen on onegreenplanet.org. Here's some of what Ms. Sparke says about her picks. “1. The Brown Advisory Sustainable Growth Fund (BAFWX) The Brown Advisory Sustainable Growth Fund, part of the Brown Advisory Funds family, boasts total assets of $9.9 billion as of June 30, 2024. This large growth fund has consistently aimed to deliver significant returns while aligning with sustainable investment principles. Over the past year, it has achieved an impressive return of 17.11%. 2. Nuveen Winslow Large-Cap Growth ESG ETF (NWLG) With a focus on long-term capital appreciation, the Nuveen Winslow Large-Cap Growth ESG ETF seeks out high-quality companies that demonstrate above-average earnings growth potential… The fund takes an integrated approach to ESG investing, incorporating environmental, social, and governance considerations, as well as assessing controversy inputs to mitigate risks. 3. Praxis Growth Index Fund (MMDEX) The Praxis Growth Index Fund is designed to pursue capital appreciation through a thoughtfully curated portfolio of stocks that mirror the performance of the U.S. large-cap growth equity market. It operates under a stewardship investing framework, incorporating responsible investment criteria into its selection process… The Praxis Growth Index Fund is ideal for investors looking to balance growth potential with ethical investing. 4. Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF (ESGV) The Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF stands out with its low expense ratio of just 0.09% and an appealing dividend yield of 1.08%. Since its inception in September 2018, the fund has delivered an average annual return of 13.31%. With nearly 1,500 holdings, the ETF offers a highly diversified portfolio predominantly composed of U.S. stocks… The Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF is an excellent choice for investors seeking growth alongside sustainability. 5. Pimco Enhanced Short Maturity Active ESG ETF (EMNT) The Pimco Enhanced Short Maturity Active ESG ETF is designed to preserve capital while maximizing income for its investors. With an expense ratio of 0.24% and an appealing dividend yield of 5.05%, this actively managed ETF emphasizes high-quality, short-term, dollar-denominated debt… [This fund] focuses on securities from issuers whose ESG practices align with PIMCO's investment strategy, making it a strong option for socially conscious investors. 6. iShares MSCI Global Sustainable Development Goals ETF (SDG) The iShares MSCI Global Sustainable Development Goals ETF is dedicated to investing in companies that contribute positively to addressing significant social and environmental challenges, as identified by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. With an expense ratio of 0.49% and a dividend yield of 1.82%, this fund has delivered an impressive average annual return of 8.16% since its inception in April 2016. 7. Fidelity U.S. Sustainability Index Fund (FITLX) The Fidelity U.S. Sustainability Index Fund offers a cost-effective option for ESG investors, featuring an impressively low expense ratio of 0.11% and a dividend yield of 0.99%. This passive index fund is designed to track the MSCI USA ESG Index, providing broad exposure to a diverse array of U.S. companies across various industries and market capitalizations. As of the latest data, [this fund] has delivered a robust average annual return of 15.65% over the past five years… The Fidelity U.S. Sustainability Index Fund has outperformed its large-cap blend category average over the past two, three, and five years. 8. Calvert US Mid Cap Core Responsible Index Fund (CMJAX) Established nearly 50 years ago, the Calvert US Mid Cap Core Responsible Index Fund is a strong contender for investors seeking significant exposure to mid-cap stocks. With an expense ratio of 0.49% and a dividend yield of 0.81%, this fund emphasizes responsible investing in businesses committed to positive social and environmental practices… Over the past five years, [the fund] has achieved an average annual return of 9.48%. 9. BlackRock Sustainable Advantage CoreAlpha Bond Fund (BIAAX) The BlackRock Sustainable Advantage CoreAlpha Bond Fund offers an actively managed approach to fixed-income investing, emphasizing bonds that not only provide income but also have the potential for positive societal impact. With an expense ratio of 0.54% and a dividend yield of 3.78%, this fund aims to balance capital appreciation with income generation. However, it has faced challenges in the current interest rate environment, with an average annual return of -0.47% over the past five years. 10. American Century Sustainable Growth ETF (ESGY) The American Century Sustainable Growth ETF is designed to provide a total return that surpasses its benchmark over market cycles by employing a growth-oriented U.S. equity strategy that integrates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. As of September 27, 2024, the fund boasts a year-to-date total return of 34.45%, reflecting its strong performance in a competitive market.” End quotes ------------------------------------------------------------- The 10 Largest Funds Aligned to Sustainable Development Goals The second article I'm covering might appeal to European investors in particular. It's titled The 10 Largest Funds Aligned to Sustainable Development Goals by Liz Angeles and found on morningstar.com. Note: the ESG Risk Rating Assessments below. Five globes are the best, and one globe is the worst. “1. Northern Trust UCITs Common Contractual Fund — NT World SDG Screened Low Carbon Index Fund A EUR ACC Morningstar Rating: 5 Stars ESG Risk Rating Assessment: 4 Globes The investment objective of the fund is to closely match the risk and return characteristics of the MSCI World Select ESG Leaders Low Carbon Impact G Series Index with net dividends reinvested… 2. DWS Invest SDG Global Equities XC Morningstar Rating: 4 Stars ESG Risk Rating Assessment: 4 Globes While it does not have as its objective a sustainable investment, it will invest a minimum proportion of its assets in sustainable investments as defined by the EU's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation… The subfund is actively managed and is not managed in reference to a benchmark, according to fund literature. 3. NT Europe SDG Screened Low Carbon Idx Fd A EUR Inc Morningstar Rating: 4 Stars ESG Risk Rating Assessment: 4 Globes The investment objective of the fund is to closely match the risk and return characteristics of the MSCI Europe Select ESG Leaders Low Carbon Impact G Series Index with net dividends reinvested, according to fund literature… Over the past two years, it beat the category index by an annualized 2.1 percentage points and outperformed the category average by 4.6 percentage points. And more importantly, when looking across a longer horizon, the strategy outpaced the index, according to Morningstar Manager Research. 4. Robeco Global SDG Engagement Equities I EUR Capitalisation Morningstar Rating: 2 Stars ESG Risk Rating Assessment: 3 Globes The subfund aims to provide long-term capital growth while at the same time promoting certain ESG characteristics and integrating sustainability risks in the investment process. A primary objective is to drive a clear and measurable improvement in a company's contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals over three to five years. 5. Federated Hermes SDG Engagement Equity Fund Class X USD Accumulating Morningstar Rating: 3 Stars ESG Risk Rating Assessment: 3 Globes The investment objective of the fund is to provide long-term capital appreciation alongside positive societal impact. The fund will seek to achieve its investment objective over a rolling period of any five years, by investing at least 80% in equity and/or equity-related securities of, or relating to, small- and mid-capitalization companies domiciled in, or that derive their income from, developed and emerging markets, according to fund literature. 6. Northern Trust UCITS FGR Fund—Emerging Markets SDG Screened Low Carbon Index FGR Fund A EUR Dis Morningstar Rating: Not available ESG Risk Rating Assessment: 4 Globes The investment objective of the fund is to closely match the risk and return characteristics of the MSCI Emerging Markets Select ESG Leaders Low Carbon Impact G Series Index with net dividends reinvested… The fund aims to avoid or minimize holdings in companies breaching international norms, including the U.N. Global Compact or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to Morningstar Manager Research. 7. Northern Trust UCITS FGR Fund — North America SDG Screened Low Carbon Index FGR Fund A EUR Morningstar Rating: Not available ESG Risk Rating Assessment: 5 Globes The investment objective of the fund is to closely match the risk and return characteristics of the MSCI North America Select ESG Leaders Low Carbon Impact G Series with net dividends reinvested. 8. CT (Lux) SDG Engagement Global Equity XR EUR Acc Morningstar Rating: 4 Stars ESG Risk Rating Assessment: 5 Globes The portfolio aims to achieve long-term capital growth and support sustainable development, according to fund literature… The fund aims to avoid, or limit exposure to, companies in violation with international norms, such as the U.N. Global Compact or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. No companies held by this fund are recognized as being involved in controversies at a high or severe level, according to Morningstar Manager Research. 9. NEF Ethical Global Trends SDG I Cap Morningstar Rating: 3 Stars ESG Risk Rating Assessment: 2 Globes The subfund seeks an attractive long-term rate of return, measured in euros, through investment primarily in equity securities of companies domiciled in developed countries, but investment may be made in equity securities of companies domiciled in emerging countries. The subfund seeks to invest mainly in stocks issued by companies with high-quality ESG profiles and that contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the United Nations, according to fund literature. 10. Northern Trust UCITS FGR Fund — Europe SDG Screened Low Carbon Index FGR Fund A EUR Morningstar Rating: 4 Stars ESG Risk Rating Assessment: 4 Globes The investment objective of the fund is to invest at least 85% of its assets in the master fund, the investment objective of which is to closely match the risk and return characteristics of the MSCI Europe Select ESG Leaders Low Carbon Impact G Series Index with net dividends reinvested… The fund aims to avoid, or limit exposure to, companies in violation with international norms, such as the U.N. Global Compact or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” End quotes. ------------------------------------------------------------- IBD's 100 Most Sustainable Companies For 2024 This third article is about one of my favorite companies' rankings. It's titled IBD's 100 Most Sustainable Companies For 2024. It's by Annie Stanley and found on investors.com. Here are some quotes from Ms. Stanley. “More than three quarters (77%) of individual investors around the world say they want to invest in companies or funds that aim to achieve market-rate financial returns while also considering positive social and/or environmental impact, according to a recent report from Morgan Stanley… To build IBD's 2024 list of the 100 Most Sustainable Companies, we started with Morningstar's U.S. and global Low Carbon Transition Leaders Indexes… The indexes target the best-scoring 50% of companies from each sector, by market capitalization… We selected the companies with the highest IBD Composite Rating — all with scores of 80 or better, putting them in the top 20%. Finally, we ranked the companies by the climate management score, using the IBD Composite Rating to break any ties. Topping the list this year is Moody's (MCO), demonstrating that a company that provides data on ESG factors can itself be a model of sustainability best practices. U.S. gas and electric utility Southern Co. (SO) is next on the list, and consumer giant Colgate-Palmolive (CL) is third… Two more utility companies, Alliant Energy (LNT) and NRG Energy (NRG), finished fourth and fifth, respectively, on this year's IBD 100 Most Sustainable Companies list.” End quotes. ------------------------------------------------------------- Additional Articles 1. Title: Sustainable Investing Replaces ESG. See The Top Green Stocks By Industry Category on investors.com. By Annie Stanley. 2. Title: The top 10 best-performing ESG funds of the decade on financial-planning.com. By Rob Burgess. ------------------------------------------------------------- Ending Comment These are my top news stories with their stock and fund tips for this podcast “Top Sustainable Companies and Funds for 2024.” Please click the like and subscribe buttons wherever you download or listen to this podcast. That helps bring these podcasts to others like you. And please click the share buttons to share this podcast with your friends and family. Let's promote ethical and sustainable investing as a force for hope and prosperity in these troubled times! Contact me if you have any questions. Thank you for listening. Now my next podcast will be November 1st. I'll talk to you then! Bye for now.   © 2024 Ron Robins, Investing for the Soul

Dr. Brett Stewart is a conductor, composer, pianist, and vocalist. He has taught music to youth and adults for nearly three decades and—together with his brother—founded Millennial Choirs & Orchestras. He is also a composer-in-residence for MCO, having composed and arranged well over one hundred works for the organization, including the full-length oratorio Messiah in America, and the full-length patriotic work To Be American. Brett received a doctorate degree in Choral Conducting with cognate studies in Composition from the University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music, a master's degree in Choral Conducting from California State University, Long Beach, and a bachelor's degree in Piano Performance from Brigham Young University. Extremely active and busy with his family and religious life, Stewart devotes his career time exclusively to MCO and other composing projects. Brett and his wife, Mindy, are the parents of seven children and live in northeast Texas. Links Millennial Choirs and Orchestras MCO on YouTube Messiah in America on YouTube "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" There is already a discussion started about this podcast. Share your thoughts. Transcript coming soon Get 14-day access to the Core Leader Library Highlights Coming soon The Leading Saints Podcast is one of the top independent Latter-day Saints podcasts as part of nonprofit Leading Saints' mission to help Latter-day Saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org. Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Reyna and Elena Aburto, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, Lynn G. Robbins, J. Devn Cornish, Bonnie Oscarson, Dennis B. Neuenschwander, Anthony Sweat, John Hilton III, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Blair Hodges, Whitney Johnson, Ryan Gottfredson, Greg McKeown, Ganel-Lyn Condie, Michael Goodman, Wendy Ulrich, Richard Ostler, Kirby Heyborne, Taysom Hill and many more in over 700 episodes. Discover podcasts, articles, virtual conferences, and live events related to callings such as the bishopric, Relief Society, elders quorum, Primary, youth leadership, stake leadership, ward mission, ward council, young adults, ministering, and teaching.

Piff is back from her birthday trip with bestie, sister-in-law, and her podcast co-host Sav, and is ready to share all the details.  This trip had some highs and lows.  Mostly highs, but as you'll hear, there was some debacle with their late night Mears journey from MCO to All-Star Movies.  In the end, Piff made it home with a new lightsaber in hand and a touch of sadness that the birthday fun was over.  For this year at least! Trip Dates: August 22-25, 2024 Post Trip Interview: recorded 9/3/24   Episode Specific Links: Subscribe to the Pixie Dust with a Twist Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! Pixie Dust with a Twist is on Instagram and TikTok Listen Sav's birthday episodes: Pre-Trip and Post-Trip Lightsaber Mount (Amazon Associates Link…doesn't cost you any more, but Virginia would earn a small commission if you purchase this item with this link!)   Be Our Guest: Do you have an upcoming trip you'd like to share?  Submit your trip information here to be considered as a podcast guest.   Get in Touch: If you would like to reach out to Virginia for something other than a trip report guest submission (for that use the link above!), you may email whereilongtobepodcast@gmail.com.   Follow: Instagram: @whereilongtobepodcast Facebook: @whereilongtobepodcast Website: whereilongtobepodcast.com

Want to support Global Value? https://www.patreon.com/GlobalValue Chuck Akre owns 21 stocks in his portfolio worth 13.3 billion dollars. In this video we're covering his top 10 biggest positions including one that doesn't show on his normal filings. Starting with Costar Group (CSGP). Akre's other stocks include Brookfield (BN), Visa (V), Roper Technologies (ROP), O'Reily Automotive (ORLY), American Tower (AMT), KKR (KKR), Constellation Software (CSU), Moody's (MCO), and Mastercard (MA). Chuck Akre is a legendary, long-term value investor who founded Akre Capital Management in 1989. He coined the "three-legged stool" investing approach that analyzes strong business models, healthy rates of return, and reinvestment opportunities. Akre invests in a small number of stocks that he believes to be exceptional businesses. His portfolio has significant holdings in high-performing stocks that demonstrate long-term growth potential and stability. Thank you for watching. ❤️ Please support the channel by checking out our affiliates. All commissions are reinvested to improve the quality of videos! - TIKR is the website I use for financial data in my videos. Join me and 250,000+ investors worldwide by using TIKR in your investment analysis. Referral link - https://www.tikr.com/globalvalue - Check out Seeking Alpha Premium and score an exclusive 20% off plus a free 7 day trial! Affiliate link - https://www.sahg6dtr.com/H4BHRJ/R74QP/ - Try Sharesight https://www.sharesight.com/globalvalue (remember you get 4 months free if you sign up for an annual subscription!) - Discover investing resources by shopping at my Amazon storefront! Affiliate link - https://www.amazon.com/shop/globalvalue

For Episode 394, Jon and Brendan are craving Southeast Asian food and head to Sticky Rice, which specializes in Lao cuisine. If you've never been, you can enjoy lots of small plates to share with friends and family and you won't break the bank. This week's topics include a Winter Park commissioner's campaign manager getting in big trouble, the Mormon Chuch annexing 50,000 acres of land into the City of Orlando, more parking for MCO, Taste of College Park, and Orlando Pride keeps winning all the games, y'all. This week's episode was sponsored by Enzian Theater, Credo Conduit, and JustCallMoe.com. Tune in to Bungalower and The Bus on Real Radio 104.1 FM every Friday at 8 p.m. or catch the podcast to stay in touch with all of the latest headlines, new restaurants, and best-bet events to attend this week.

Edgar Jimenez, the District 2 Representative from MCO, talks about the early days of his first term. Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.twu555.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TWU Local 555⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TwuLocal555⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TWULocal555⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X/Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TwuLocal555⁠⁠⁠⁠ *music by Skilsel from Pixabay

Mit einer App für die „Vision Pro“-Brille bringt das Mahler Chamber Orchestra seine Musik direkt ins Wohnzimmer. Wie diese Technologie das Hörerlebnis verändert, verraten die Macher im Interview.Seit seiner Gründung 1997 ist das Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) ein Ensemble mit einigen Besonderheiten: Es legt Wert auf seine eigene künstlerische Identität und eine demokratische Struktur. Denn geleitet wird das Orchester von den Musikern selbst, in Zusammenarbeit mit einem Managementbüro. Das MCO ist schon in mehr als 40 Ländern auf fünf Kontinenten aufgetreten. Die Musiker pflegen ein kammermusikalisches Ensemblespiel: Das Repertoire reicht von der Wiener Klassik und frühen Romantik bis zu zeitgenössischen Werken und Uraufführungen. „Alle MCO-Musiker verbindet der starke Wunsch, ihre Beziehung zum Publikum kontinuierlich zu vertiefen“, beschreibt das Orchester sich selbst. Passend dazu hat das Orchester kürzlich eine App für Apples neue „Vision Pro“-Computerbrille veröffentlicht. Diese App soll eine neue Möglichkeit bieten, Orchestermusik zu erleben: Die Nutzer können reale und virtuelle 3D-Umgebungen erkunden und mit ihnen interagieren. Sie können sich frei im virtuellen Raum bewegen und die Musik aus der Mitte der Musiker heraus erleben. Für uns interessant genug, genauer nachzufragen, wie es funktioniert. Die App bietet Raumklangaufnahmen, die in Zusammenarbeit mit Henrik Oppermann erstellt wurden. Diese Aufnahmen sollen den Zuhörer physisch, mental und sozial in den Musikprozess einbeziehen. Timothy Summers, Geiger des MCO und Mitarbeiter der MCO-App, sagt: „Zuhören bedeutet nicht nur zu erleben, sondern auch zu erforschen.“ Wir haben mit Summers und Oppermann gesprochen.

In episode 2 of the Addicted To DVC Podcast Gary talks about his most recent stay at Walt Disney World.  He did a split stay starting at the Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge.  We talk mainly about the Resort and his dining.  We end on check-out day as he heads over to Disney's Beach Club Villas.  Thanks for listening and welcome home!!!   0:00 Introduction 7:13 Arrival into MCO and check-in at Boulder Ridge 17:45 Dinner at 1900 Park Fare and Magic Kingdom 24:03 Breakfast at Tusker House and Disney's Animal Kingdom Park 29:16 Disney's Hollywood Studios and dinner at Artist Point 36:15 Dinner at Steakhouse 71 and Magic Kingdom 41:00 The Wonders of the Lodge Tour and check-out 44:51 Wrap-Up   Support the Show Luxury Travel Advisors LLC - Book your next Disney World vacation with Mike....His services are completely free and you will support a small business. (luxurytraveladvisorsllc.com) Magic Candle Company - Bringing the Vacation to you....On your next purchase use discount code (wdwbtg) at check-out to receive 15% off your purchase. (www.magiccandlecompany.com)   Helpful Links Check out our YouTube Channel (youtube.com/@dvcaddicts) Social media (@dvcaddicts)

Roboburger is billed as the “World's First Burger Chef In a Vending Format.” RoboBurger condenses the average kitchen by 99% into just 12 square feet, including refrigeration, heating, ventilation, prep line and cleaning. Burgers are automatically grilled and assembled in under 4 minutes. Roboburger RoboBurger was invented by Audley Wilson, a data scientist; Dan Braido, a Rutgers PhD grad; and Andy Siegel, a serial entrepreneur. Audley and his team have been working on Roboburger for about five years but Audley's passion for robotics goes all the way back to his childhood. Audley has been passionate about robotics and automation from a young age, and one of his teenage years robotics prototypes got him a scholarship at Carnegie Mellon. RoboBurger was in beta phase up until SharkTank. They launched their first beta location in a dive bar in Jersey City in 2020. They launched an NSF-certified model in 2022. The units now – generation 5 – are UL certified and are launching in locations from Indiana to Missouri. Future locations for Roboburger machines include colleges, airports and rest stops. Friends encouraged Audley to take his idea to Shark Tank since the earliest days of the Roboburger process. Shark Tank producers noticed the media coverage about RoboBurger and reached out to Audley in 2022 with an offer to appear. It wasn't until 2023 that Audley and his team decided the machine was reach for a prime time appearance.  QUOTES “No one ever went bankrupt trying to feed America burgers.” (Michael) “One of the biggest challenges (with Roboburger) has been the health requirements. Getting that NSF certification was a gargantuan challenge and getting our UL certification on top of that was even more.” (Audley)“We clean the griddle after every burger. We do heat sanitization every four hours. We've actually got our cleaning process certified by a third party.” (Audley) “(One of our goals is to) make food service accessible for vending.” (Audley)“People are starting to shift to a higher convenience lifestyle. How can I get what I want, when I want it, wherever I am.” (Audley) “When you get to Shark Tank, it's just one go. You're standing on a carpet. It's live. There are no cuts.” (Audley)“Shark Tank was a really interesting experience. I've done thousands of pitches over the years, but I've never had one (like Shark Tank).” (Audley) “We're very happy with the (Shark Tank) deal. Those are exactly the sharks that we wanted to make a deal with.” (Audley) TRANSCRIPT 00:01.57vigorbrandingHello there to Fork Tales. Today’s guest is Audley Wilson. Now, typically, I have chefs on. Typically, I have restaurateurs. But today, we have a robotics expert. ah He is a burger expert and founder and CEO of Robo Burger, the world’s first burger chef in a vending machine. That’s right. He makes burgers within a vending machine. He also recently appeared on Shark Tank to pitch his idea to the investors. Audley, thank you so much for joining us today. 00:31.42Audley WilsonWell, thank you so much, Michael, for having me on. I’m excited to be speaking with you. 00:36.82vigorbrandingAwesome. wow You and I got to meet, I think it was a little over a year ago and I i saw you then again in LA and I got to actually not only see you, but I also saw the Robo Burger. So that’s super cool and I i got to test it. I got to have the burger and it was ah it was impressive. So let’s start with some background about rogo Robo Burger. I’m sorry, it’s like a tongue twister. ah Tell us about Robo Burger and how it all got started. 00:58.35Audley Wilsonhey five times but So, oh man. Well, so it’s a long story. I’ve been working on a robo burger for in this current incarnation for about five years, but I’ve been working on food robotics over the course of my, for my entire life and burger machines for about 20. So, uh, you know, my first burger machine, my first food machine, uh, got me into Carnegie Mellon. Uh, and like, you know, then it was really focused on. residential kitchens, right? So like, how can you make an entire kitchen, fully automated? 01:31.33Audley WilsonAnd yeah so, you know, talk about really ahead of your time. um So like, that was, that was my first machine, and it was really, could do a variety of different meals. 01:34.72vigorbrandingRight. 01:40.23Audley WilsonBut really all it can make well is rice and chicken. when Yeah, it’s ah but first i college kid that’s great. 01:44.40vigorbrandingSo, but was that something that you did before? yeah Was that something you did before school? Like before you got into the into Carnegie Mellon or was it a contest or talk about that? 01:51.97Audley WilsonYeah. Yes, I was working on this since ah when I was in high school. 01:56.90vigorbrandingThat’s crazy. 01:57.18Audley WilsonSo when I was in high school, I was there, so you know, constantly working on this crazy machine because I was like, you know, I got to feed myself in college. So why not just have a crazy machine that could do it? um And but really, one of the challenges was it was trying to do so many things in one machine. So it was a super, super, super complicated. um But yeah, so that was that was what I was working on in high school. um I’ve been making food, ever since I learned, I self taught electrical computer engineer. So when I was like eight years old, my dad started teaching me how to do electronics. And then I was like, this is this is awesome. Took his college textbooks and started going through those. And I was like, you know so I taught myself electronics. And then I was like, well, if I could make motors move and lights turn on, why not make a food machine? I was watching the Jetsons a lot back then. 02:44.85vigorbrandingUh huh. 02:44.83Audley Wilsonum you know, because it was on constant replay back in the 80s. So was it was like, okay, you know, like, I can make, I can make, you know, Rosie goes up to a machine and she enters what she wants. And then she, you know, outcomes as like, you know, ham on a bone or whatever. ah yeah and I wanted to make that machine. 03:03.40vigorbrandingThat is, that’s crazy. That’s it’s wild. And you know I gotta to say, you’re probably the only human being on earth that can say, I’ve been working on a burger machine for 20 years. 03:13.02Audley WilsonYes, taking a little longer than I expected. 03:13.63vigorbrandingah but But you’re dedicated your life to the burger machine. I think that’s awesome. I mean, you know. 03:19.72Audley WilsonOh, yes, definitely. um you know In college, yeah when I got into CMU, one of the reasons I got in was actually because of that that’s residential food machine. 03:29.71vigorbrandingSure. 03:29.84Audley Wilsonum and In college, own they CMU was awesome and know they they were able to fund some of my development. I was working on the machine throughout the time period. My junior year, i was I was an entrepreneurship major there, so my junior year I had to start a business. So, that’s when I started my first business, which was actually a restaurant. um So, because I was like, okay, my robot isn’t there yet. um If I actually want to dedicate my entire life to food robotics, I should probably learn how to to cook and how a restaurant works. um So, I started a restaurant, you know, because there’s no simpler way to do that. um 04:03.50Audley Wilsonyeah But yeah that’s really yeah everyone’s like, that’s a horrible idea. Don’t do this. This this industry is hard. And you know I definitely learned that that’s the case. 04:13.68vigorbrandingyeah 04:13.75Audley Wilsonum and But to what it was excellent about that time period is they it ah enabled me to really understand what the problem was that I wanted to solve. um you know the labor What I was facing was massive labor problems, um you know tons of really really long hours that I needed to cover, a lack of consistency between my chefs on the weekend or the the late night shifts, um you know and also the size of the kitchen. right My kitchen took up a large space, like you know how can I make this all smaller? 04:39.33vigorbrandingRight. 04:43.44Audley WilsonAnd then like you data. There was like no data in my kitchen. I got data really by putting it in at the end of the day, so I didn’t really have that much data back in 2004. So you know that’s that’s what i wanted to solve like how could i just make this that and it like hit me like one night when i was uh when i was closed down my restaurants like wow what if i just like made this a lot simpler to go back to an automated food restaurant that that ma machine i was working on upset focus on commercial. One thing, just the burger, because it’s yeah like’s it’s pretty standardized for the most part. 05:16.00vigorbrandingHmm. 05:19.52Audley Wilsonright you know Top bun, bottom bun, patty, and anything else that goes on in the in the middle there. 05:22.28vigorbrandingOkay. 05:26.00Audley Wilsonso like you know It’s consistent. um so yeah I could do one thing over and over and over and over again. and At that time period, I really wanted to like automate the whole back end of a Burger King. but 05:36.58vigorbrandingYeah, that’s it’s fascinating. So when you did your restaurant i mean and obviously you summed up everybody’s issues in the restaurant business. I mean, quality of food, consistency, the the labor shortage and just the cost of labor. I mean, you know, ah you’re you’re talking to everybody here and that makes ah that makes a ton ton of sense. um but But just real quick on your on your restaurant, like when you started a restaurant, it was at one location, was it a QSR, was it a focused, it it was it one of those where you focused on just one sort of type of food or one one sort of like like li burgers or a hot dogs or anything like that. Talk talk about that a little bit. 06:11.34Audley WilsonYeah, so I was writing a trend back in 2004. I’m not sure if you remember hookah lounges. They had just came through New York City. 06:17.58vigorbrandingSure. 06:19.21Audley WilsonSo one of my friends dragged me to a hookah bar in LES, you know, checked out the scene. I was like, this is actually pretty cool. This is an experience I haven’t had before. And, you know, it didn’t exist in Pennsylvania at the time. So, you know, I was the first hookah bar in Pittsburgh. um yeah so I opened opened the the concept there at first it was a hookah bar mediterranean tea and drinks and then i then i built out the kitchen myself and with my friends and my fraternity brothers built out the kitchen so went through the whole ah you know process of getting all the like the licenses and everything there so that’s what i learned about the permitting processes which. 06:59.52vigorbrandingUh-huh. 06:59.86Audley Wilsona big part of our life now. And yeah and then then after that, we turned it into a whole music scene. We had like lines around the block. It was it was pretty cool. um and It was Mediterranean food was the ultimate focus. um Because it was so hard to build out the kitchen, we ended up going all electric um you know using these huge pizza ovens to heat up legs of lamb because we couldn’t do a stack. And that’s really one of those things I think my machine really solves for. you know it’s a vetless solution So you can put it anywhere, just plug it in literally, cleans the air, filters it. 07:27.98vigorbrandingYeah. 07:35.57Audley WilsonBecause they told me it was like 100,000 to put in my vent, ah just just the vent solution. 07:37.84vigorbrandingOh, sure. 07:40.66Audley WilsonI was like, really, this is crazy. um So I unfortunately limited the options that I had in my my establishment. 07:48.17vigorbrandingYeah, and you are obviously a serial entrepreneur. I feel like you you can see something and you can, you know, and it’s not a problem. It’s an opportunity, right? And everyone says that, but I think it’s obvious you’ve executed on that all across the board from evolving your hookah thing to the to the robotics. to If I can do electronics, why can’t I make burgers with it? too I’ve got to eat. So therefore, I should make something that can feed me. It’s pretty crazy. That’s that’s awesome. And you know it just goes to show, I guess, that that that drive and positivity and and the and the willing to have your eyes wide open and and execute. 08:20.60vigorbrandingThat’s the key, execute. 08:21.19Audley WilsonAll 08:21.52vigorbrandingAnd I think it’s awesome. So I get to talk to a lot of entrepreneurs, but I’m really i’m really impressed by all that you’ve done. 08:26.79Audley Wilsonright. 08:27.36vigorbrandingIt’s really, really super cool. So, okay, we’ll get to Robo Burger here. 08:29.93Audley Wilsongo 08:31.40vigorbrandingNow, why why not pizzas? why and but eat Why not hot dogs? Why not chicken wings? Why why burgers? 08:37.09Audley WilsonYeah, again, it’s the standardization. um One of the hardest parts of food machines and in general, when I’ve been building them, has been dispensing the ingredients, right? So, you know, if you have like too wide a variety of ingredients, then it could be like challenging. um But really, I love burgers. ah Back in the day, I was eating probably about five burgers a week. um yeah know So it’s pretty ah pretty high pretty high percentage of burgers. 09:07.61Audley Wilsonum and you know And I think they’re really the design of it. I love the sandwich. yeah It’s like ah the perfect meal on the go. 09:14.05vigorbrandingYep. 09:16.30Audley WilsonYou know you could grab it. You could take it in your car. I think it’s just a very convenient form of of heating yeah what I think it’s a little more sloppy. 09:25.77vigorbrandingWell, look, yeah and no one’s ever going to, yeah no, no, one I don’t think anyone ever go really bankrupt trying to feed America burgers. 09:28.80Audley Wilsonyeah 09:33.69vigorbrandingCause I mean, that’s definitely, uh, it’s definitely on the forefront of, uh, I think America’s palette for, uh, uh, for a lot of reasons, but. 09:34.35Audley WilsonYeah. 09:40.37vigorbrandingSo, but like, okay, vending machines, they’ve been around for a while as far as food, hot food, but obviously pre-made and, you you know, soggy thing, not necessarily good for sure. 09:49.14Audley Wilsonyeah 09:50.50vigorbrandingah You know, what what were some of the challenges with putting the process into a 12 square foot box? And talk about the process of your burger because it is not just you know, ah just reheated. It’s not just a microwaved pre-made sandwich. I think maybe that might be even a drawback. Maybe people might think, well, geez, this is probably what this is, but it’s not. It’s it’s it’s made fresh. 10:10.34Audley WilsonYeah. 10:11.16vigorbrandingSo can you talk a little bit about that and then some of the um some of the challenges? 10:15.55Audley WilsonYeah, throughout this journey, I’ve been blessed to have two really good co-founders, Andy Siegel and Dan Bredo. Dan was my CTO. hes Me and him went to Carnegie Mellon together. So he’s really been faced with having to conquer these insane hurdles of really taking an entire commercial kitchen and putting it into 12 square feet um and getting and NSF and UL certified as such. 10:30.03vigorbrandingThanks. 10:40.26Audley Wilsonum So you know one of the biggest challenges, again, was ah you know the, you know, all the health requirements, right? You know, getting that and NSF certification was a gargantuan challenge, and then getting our UL certification on top of that was even more. You know, you always hope that there is some governing body that is ultimately saying, is this good is this safe and am I going to die by eating this? what these these um These groups are there for, um you know, their standards really have pushed us to the next level in making a much better, safer um thing, but ultimately the the ah challenges are or great. um So some of them, you know was you know, most vending machines start with food in a pre-packaged container and they stay there the entire time. 11:30.83vigorbrandingMmhmm. 11:31.17Audley Wilsonhours actually starts in a package. We open the package, dispense the part, the components from there, close those packages, then cook and assemble everything and then put it into a second, into a final packaging. So, you know, due to that, the food touches, you know, food touching zones for all the chefs out there, you know, obviously everything needs to be cleaned. You know, so how do you actually cook? So we, like I guess you could go through the cooking process for ah listeners who don’t know how this machine works. So Roamer Burger, when you after you’ve done ordering what you like on the screen and paying, it’s going to then take a frozen patty out of the freezer, put it onto a griddle, and cook it on both sides. 12:14.66Audley WilsonWhile that’s cooking, it’s going to dispense buns from the toaster into the toasters from our sealed dispensers, and and then start toasting those. Once the buns are toasted, it’s then going to grab a box, put the buns into the box, add the chosen condiments, get the patty, and then get grab go over and get cheese a layer of cheese on top, and then go out to the user and where the user will see it come out, and then the clamshell box will close. So that’s ultimately the process. That’s our our patented procedure for making a burger. 12:46.19Audley Wilsonum We have five patents there. So those are like we have five different inventions. um First one is the oven system, the way we actually cook it on a griddle. 12:50.62vigorbrandingMm hmm. 12:55.89Audley Wilsonyeah So that like yeah we’re actually cooking that. Making it really you know, you really get to the char we really you know, it’s the same way you would want a patty cooked the toasters or another patent that we had because ultimately we had to toast the but toast the bun and also perfectly dispense it our first burger machine back in 2019 that we put that we we were we put live in Andy’s Bar in Jersey City it would flip the buns half the time like ah 13:26.69Audley Wilsonah Every time, just with the buns half the time. It was, it was, it was the worst. We called it a lucky burger because they just kept it. But it was like, we were always lucky. It was horribly unlucky with the the buns. 13:36.98vigorbrandingMm 13:38.74Audley WilsonIt’s, you know, but that’s the thing, you know, these simple, these products are very soft and delicate, you know, the bun. 13:43.78vigorbrandinghmm. 13:44.11Audley Wilsonum And you actually have to get it there right side up every single time. um And, you know, every, everyone’s, everyone is used to having a burger but prepared one way. So, you know, if it’s ever done wrong. um The next, next patent we had was our dispenser, which is actually what holds all these, uh, these a bench, all these, uh, the buns and the top on the bottom button and the paddy sit in different dispensers. So that was a real challenge because, you know, the buns are soft. Um, sometimes, sometimes things can stick. How do you actually you know dispense it every single time? Um, so that was a huge challenge for us. 14:20.49vigorbrandingMmhmm. 14:20.83Audley Wilsonevery Every step was just huge hurdles, but my team must have a really good team, people really solving these problems. it The list just keeps going, but you now now everything is really down to the hardware mechanisms have been perfected, and now we’re getting to do some really, really cool things on the software side, which is really exciting. 14:42.88vigorbrandingYeah, very cool. And it is amazing because, excuse me, the the the the burger is grilled and it’s not just nothing. And that’s the thing, I guess I wonder that that you have to not not overcome, but I think people would just assume because why wouldn’t you that, oh, it’s pre-made, pre-packaged, it’s in a microwave and that’s not it at all. And in fact, I’ll say, I’ll give some plugs here. You know, um Quench, our agency does CPG, food and beverage. ah We started in Pennsylvania and your buns are Martin’s potato rolls, which are very famous here in Pennsylvania, and they are making their rounds around the country, and it’s a really quality product. And and I think Heinz Ketchup is what you’re using too, another Pennsylvania brand. 15:19.59Audley WilsonYeah, so yeah, yeah we love Heinz. The machine that you know has these Heinz bagged products in it. So pretty much all of our condiments start in the Heinz bags and then they get stayed sealed throughout the entire system and that’s like one of those big tests that they also make sure. 15:37.29vigorbrandingYeah. 15:37.29Audley WilsonHow do you actually clean these lines? Have you guys ever had a beer line in your in your restaurant? right Lines are the worst. 15:41.48vigorbrandingYep. Yep. 15:42.87Audley WilsonYou got to clean them. 15:44.02vigorbrandingThat’s right. 15:44.03Audley WilsonSo like you know the machine also has like automatic processes to clean our condiment lines and systems like that because Every line is a problem um if you don’t have an actual cleaning solution. 15:54.10vigorbrandingYep. 15:54.22Audley WilsonSo a machine will automatically do soap, sanitizer, hot water. It has built-in hot water heater. Pretty much, we have as many many things that you could possibly fit into 12 square feet. um and you you know Everything that you would expect to be in your in a restaurant is inside of this. 16:12.20vigorbrandingYeah, and candidly, there’s there’s there’s there’s ah I mean, you guys are cleaning after every burger. So we hear about health inspectors. We hear about, oh, don’t go back in their kitchen, you know about restaurants. Oh, boy, you don’t want to see what it looks like back there. But you guys are actually cleaning after every every burger. and and and and you know and and So the the sanitation part of this thing, the the health part of this thing is like first, foremost, and and extremely well thought out. 16:27.01Audley WilsonYeah. 16:37.05vigorbrandingIs that correct? 16:38.22Audley WilsonYeah. 100%. You know, that’s been, uh, from the very beginning, it was like, you have to get the and NSF certification. Otherwise we can’t do this. We have to be able to really scale this across the country. Um, you know, in the and NSF, you know, that blue sticker that says and NSF, that was our goal from the beginning. 16:51.00vigorbrandingMm hmm. Mm hmm. 16:53.73Audley Wilsonum So, you know, like we clean off clean the the griddle after every burger, we do heat sanitization after every four hours, we do every day, it does a the daily soap, sanitizer, hot water treatment, you know, the three bin sink that you, you know, obviously required by the health department, um we do that process. And we’ve actually gotten our cleaning cleaning procedure certified by a third party. um like, you know, after you months and months and months of usage and doing the cleaning process, you know, in like, indetectable levels of microbes. So, you know, we did the whole culture growth and everything. My, Dan, he’s a PhD, so it’s been ah insane to have him on, you know, fighting this battle because he’s 17:37.98Audley Wilsonyeah He’s really been leading the charge. We’re actually going to the American ah the Association of Food and Drug Officers’ Apto conference next week to present the machine to all of the health the big health officials around the country because you know we’re we’re we’re not we’re we’re not shy now to show what we’ve done because it’s it’s been challenging to get here, um but it’s pretty cool. 17:54.22vigorbrandingVery cool. 18:01.29vigorbrandingYeah, ah yeah you should be you should be incredibly proud. and You know, you always are smiling and you’re always laughing. and I can only imagine how many obstacles you faced. And so you you’re you have the perfect attitude as ah as an entrepreneur because you’re you’re willing to smile and figure out the next thing. And that’s that’s ah that’s a gift. It sounds obvious, but boy, it’s so hard. And yeah, yeah. 18:21.34Audley WilsonOh man, yeah, those was hard days where it’s just like, you’re just like, you go home, you’re like, I don’t even know how we’re gonna, I don’t know how to put a smile on the face. 18:28.18vigorbrandingYeah. 18:29.13Audley Wilsonit And then you go in the next day, it’s like, gotta kick, gotta kick ass today to enter. 18:32.63vigorbrandingYeah, that’s right. That’s right. That’s absolutely right. All right. So you opened up your first row robo burger pop up in Jersey city in 2022. 18:36.44Audley WilsonYeah. 18:39.98Audley Wilsonyeah 18:41.01vigorbrandingHow many locations you have now and then where do you see your machines being successful? 18:45.62Audley WilsonYeah, so it’s been we’ve been in the beta period up until Shark Tank. so That was actually when we had pulled our our machines for all of our beta machines from the market. so First, we and we actually launched our first um unit to the market in 2020. That was in that that dive bar in Jersey City. 19:00.78vigorbrandingOkay. 19:03.87Audley WilsonThen in 2022, we introduced our and NSF certified Mark II generation Two model to the mall and then we then after that we went to a pilot flying J and a couple other locate in the college in Queens and a couple of the locations um to you know, just perfecting the technology getting up to the next levels and then now we just got our and NSF or UL certification for our generation five units and those are the units now we’re rolling into the market. 19:28.50vigorbrandingMm hmm. Hmm. 19:33.91Audley WilsonSo we have ah we we just launched our first units like a month ago into the market in ah in a business in a business and a business location with Pfizer. And now we’re and we’re launching with Penn Entertainment some casinos. in Pennsylvania they’re who are actually launching in their location in Indiana and then in their location in St. 19:51.77vigorbrandingMmhmm. 19:57.67Audley WilsonLouis this month and then next month we’re launching with another location for that same business and then machines after machines so going into a bunch of airports in terms of where we see the best bits you know convenience It’s really like where we are the the kitchen for convenience, both unattended retail as well as the traditional convenience store. So we we really are we really are looking forward to working with partners there. Bending, obviously. Bending partners, who we’re now able to 20:32.03Audley WilsonMake food service accessible for vending, which has really never been the case before. Food service previously was always prepared food, and distribution just dropping it onto to a cold case. and Now we’re talking about real food service, you know being able to offer their customers a higher so higher level solution. airports. We’re going into Orlando, MCO, and we’re going to be going into a few other airports throughout the country when our partners in the travel hospitality industry. And, you know, we’re excited to go into a few colleges. 21:05.70vigorbrandingSure. 21:06.61Audley WilsonHopefully our album amount is over the course of the next few months. So I’m just really excited to start getting this technology out there. 21:11.14vigorbrandingThat’s awesome. Well, it makes sense. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. You know, it’s kind of interesting because, ah you know, candidly, I was watching the your episode of Shark Tank, and we can talk about that. yeah But when I was watching, I was watching with my wife, and my you know, my wife’s smart. 21:23.90Audley Wilsonyou 21:26.40vigorbrandingShe’s like asking questions like, yeah do you really need um a vending machine that serves burgers? She was impressed by how fresh it was and all that. and i said to her i said well but like Someone did the first vending machine for a soda. and At the time, you could get a soda at your house, you get a soda at a grocery store, you get a soda probably at a convenience store. so There’s plenty of places to get a soda. Why did you need to build a refrigerator, put it somewhere? and and When you think about it from that perspective, i mean it probably seemed a bit outlandish and maybe almost unnecessary But yet, let’s face it, ah soda vending machines are huge. 21:58.43vigorbrandingSo why not burgers? why i mean it makes total When you look at it from that perspective, I think it makes total sense. 22:00.66Audley WilsonIndeed. 22:02.65vigorbrandingBecause again, to your point, like colleges or airports, there’s people that want to have a decent, ah you know a good quality food experience, and places aren’t open. And especially now after COVID, there’s so many issues with employees and you know cutting down hours and and and all of that that you you’re you’re actually answering. You’ve been working on the solution to a problem that probably has been exacerbated over the last couple of years. you know it’s a 22:27.50Audley WilsonYeah. it It’s interesting as well. 22:28.14vigorbrandingso 22:29.57Audley WilsonThink back to like even like 2000, like there were so many more cafeterias, like, you know, in every business that was open, c catering to the office. 22:34.22vigorbrandingRight. 22:38.83Audley WilsonObviously there’s more work from home now, which has sort of caused a sort of shift, right? 22:40.66vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 22:43.75Audley WilsonSo people have gone from like these, the cafeterias and people sort of moving back into this unattended retail. 22:46.82vigorbrandingRight. 22:50.78Audley WilsonVending solution. Um, you know, so going back to the world where the the automat was a solution, right? You know, so if you think back about that back in the 50s, there was the automat Um, so I think people are really starting to shift back to this high high convenience, right? How can I get what I want when I want it wherever I am? um And at the same time businesses need to handle for the fact that there’s ah you know, there’s less labor out there um at ah significantly higher rates than it was yeah I’m thinking back to minimum wage when I had my restaurant in 2004 was six dollars six dollars an hour 23:22.47vigorbrandingYeah, sure. Yeah. 23:25.27Audley WilsonI’m like, wow, I can’t even imagine. so you like having like you know I had 20 people. like I can’t imagine having that many people in a tiny small business with today’s minimal wages and increased food costs. 23:33.43vigorbrandingRight. Right. 23:41.09Audley Wilsonso you know like the The challenges are getting are bigger for the operator than ever. But yeah know by by going to the small unattended footprint, people are able to you know the distribute their costs over multiple locations, and make more money, um and and find new opportunities for growth. 24:01.13vigorbrandingThat’s great. so i mean we We talked briefly about the Shark Tank episode. I think people are really interested because it is ah as an entrepreneur, i mean i like I said, it’s one of those things where I’d sit there and and and focus on. I couldn’t watch it late at night because my brain would be spinning. you know i I loved it trying to figure out the angles. Would I do the deal? If I was selling the idea, how would I sell it? you know Looking at it from a marketing perspective, looking at it from a business perspective, it’s just you know my head’s going to explode. so Talk about that. like did you Did you pitch your idea? Did they come to you? What was the experience like? Did they do run-throughs? Talk a little bit about that and how the whole thing came together. i mean we see you know What do we see? Like 15 minutes, 12 minutes of any segment. um and you know but But what all is in there? i mean how How does that all work? I’d love to hear hear sort of like the behind the scenes a little bit. 24:51.43Audley WilsonYeah. Yeah, I remember when I started working on my burger machine back in the day, you know, Shark Tank had came out and they were everyone was like, you should go on Shark Tank with this idea. So it was crazy to to actually go on Shark Tank eventually. The way it all came about was through, I guess, you know media When we launched our first mission our first Gen 2 machine in the mall here in Jersey, we got 4.4 billion impressions, like 43 million in earned media value. 25:22.69Audley WilsonSo like we just got so much media. 25:23.32vigorbrandingMm hmm. 25:24.93Audley Wilsonum like I remember my wife ah my wife’s mom from Moldova saw us on TV and filmed it and sent us the video in Moldova. 25:30.52vigorbrandingMm 25:35.28Audley WilsonI was like, wow, this is… And I think that shows that like you know people have a lot of interest in this type of technology, and burgers specifically burgers are completely automated in a vending format. 25:39.48vigorbrandinghmm. 25:48.13Audley Wilsonum So that’s when we got the eye of the, I think, Shark Tank team. 25:54.63vigorbrandingGotcha. 25:54.68Audley Wilsonum So at that point they you know they reached out to me back back in 2022. I didn’t even respond because I’m like, there is no way I’m going on Shark Tank with this machine. It is way too early. I need to itate iterate, iterate, iterate, iterate, iterate, iterate, iterate. And then we did probably about 100 more iterations after that. 26:14.76vigorbrandingwow 26:14.72Audley WilsonAnd then you know a year later, i yeah like i get ah i get a response I get the same email again. It’s like, hey. I was like, wait, hold on. Did I respond the last time? And that’s what I realized. I didn’t respond like, wow, I’m a horrible person. ah hu So like, you know, it’s like, all right, you know what? I think we’re ready. So we responded, then then that pretty much got us into the process. And then we we had to do our practice pitches where, um you know, the producer’s feedback to me was usually around, you know, like every everyone did great, upset oddly, more energy. 26:49.93Audley Wilsonbut So my other two partners, they’re like very photogenic. So they like yeah they they really love being on camera. um but So yeah that was that was ah that was a fun process of you know just trying to you try to actually get nailed the pitch, because you get to practice, or they’re practicing it amongst ourselves um with some of our friends, trying to like, you this is you know this is what we’re, or what do you think about this these lines guys? 26:56.32vigorbrandingah 27:14.59vigorbrandingMm hmm. 27:15.64Audley Wilsonum And then, Yeah, but yeah we never when you actually get to Shark Tank, it’s just one go. it’s You get on stage, and you know that youre you’re there that you’re standing on this carpet, and the next, to you know the door’s open, and and it’s it’s live. it’s a the never no no No cuts. 27:36.12vigorbrandingGot it. 27:36.28Audley Wilsonyou and there you know they The team there is amazing. There’s so many cameras trained on your every move. um they’re you know they’re They’re amazing. um Yeah, it but it was ah it was really it was a really interesting experience. It was, you know, I’ve done thousands of pitches, you know, over the over the years, you know, thousands, but this one was, you know, I never had one. It was, you know, quite the same film where, you know, it’s going to be viewed by everyone and with everyone’s ah full ego and energy and enthusiasm coming for television, you know, in terms of the the judges on the other side. So, you know, it was quite an experience. 28:13.83vigorbrandingThat’s awesome. so So I read somewhere that that entrepreneurs who appear in the show required to meet with a show psychologist afterwards, just to make sure you weren’t beat up too bad or tortured by the experience. Was that true? Did you guys talk to somebody afterwards? 28:24.62Audley WilsonThat’s 100% true. That’s 100% true. I know, like, everywhere they told us before, it was like, ah that’s weird. And then author words, it was like, it actually was it was nice to talk. Like, we were all very over the moon and excited. So it was nice to, you know, they they really, you know, they’ve been doing it for 15 years. 28:40.86vigorbrandingYeah. 28:45.31Audley WilsonThey know what they’re doing. It’s an impressive of organization. 28:46.60vigorbrandingYeah. Yeah. I mean, I’m sure. Hey, and you guys got a deal. Congratulations. I’m sure some people are over there and they’re in the fetal position crying in the corner. You know, like I spent most of my life, bill you know, dedicated to this business and they’re telling me it’s a terrible idea. So, ah but but yeah. 28:58.91Audley WilsonYou know, at one point, and you you know you you saw the episode, at one point in the middle of the episode, it’s like, wow, that’s good to be me. 29:05.63vigorbrandingYeah. Well, my wife said, Oh, they’re not going to get a deal. I’m like, well, just watch. Let’s see. You know? And, uh, you’re, by the way, you said about not being photogenic. I disagree with you, but your, your, your partner, the CMO was hilarious because he got a lot of closeups because in the beginning they were saying some stuff that wasn’t so nice and his eyes are just like, you look like a deer in the headlights. It was awesome. So he made he made for good TV. That’s for sure. That guy’s he’s a character you can tell. 29:26.93Audley Wilsonyeah 29:28.22vigorbrandingUh, but. 29:28.42Audley Wilsonyeah he’s so He’s definitely a character. He used to be on ah TV commercials back in the day, like Mr. Bubbles and all this other stuff. And and he’s ah you know he he’s is ah quite a character. 29:41.26vigorbrandingYeah. And so you you you got in with Mr. Wonderful, Kevin O’Leary and Michael Rubin. So you got a $1.5 million dollars loan at 9%. And are you are you happy with the deal? Have you guys ah gotten any traction? 29:52.16Audley WilsonYeah, we’re very happy with the deal. These are exactly the sharks that we wanted to work with. 29:54.39vigorbrandingOK. 29:57.73Audley Wilsonyeah We wanted to we wanted to know work with Mr. Wonderful. We wanted to have him ah up on stage and interacting with the machine. ah And that that was before we found out who the guest shark was going to be. 30:08.71vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 30:08.88Audley WilsonAnd it was Michael Rubin. And we’re like, wow, Michael Rubin. That’s really cool. So like you know we ended up getting exactly the sharks that we wanted to do a deal with. two sharks and especially after coming to a point where we thought we were going to have like zero sharks at one point. 30:23.43vigorbrandingYeah, yeah. 30:23.51Audley Wilsonis So you it was it was ah was it it was just a it was ah it was a lot of fun um after it was done. It was the most intense 34 hours and but of my life, the most intense 34 hour trip to LA ever. 30:41.85vigorbrandingYeah, I’ll bet. 30:41.91Audley Wilsonum It was just nonstop. 30:44.97vigorbrandingThat’s awesome. Okay. So let’s talk back to back on the rubber burger. Can you share some details about what you’re, you’re cooking up for the future? I mean, like, you know, some people want bacon on their burgers. You know, we know the lettuce and tomato thing and fresh vegetable. That can be obviously comp an issue. Can you talk a little bit about maybe some of the decisions you made to do things, not to do things and some potential ideas of what you might do next? 31:00.46Audley WilsonYeah, 31:04.12Audley Wilsonyeah so so let let’s talk about lettuce and tomatoes first. The reason we didn’t do do lettuce and tomatoes first is Dan would always say is because of E. 31:08.15vigorbrandingYeah. 31:13.30Audley Wilsoncoli and some of the challenges there and being able to detect it. 31:13.77vigorbrandingHmm. 31:16.27Audley Wilsonum It actually is just another hurdle for the operator and our goal is trying to reduce hurdles for the operator to be able to deliver road burger to their end consumer. So yeah that’s why we’re not offering it our first first iterations of these units. um In time, we’d like to operate. But actually, the operators that we’ve been working with haven’t been asking for that so much. But we’d love to be able to do it so that we can do more brand partnerships with you some of the bigger fast food companies that are out there that do use lettuce and tomatoes. In terms of bacon, we would like to do bacon. 31:52.30Audley WilsonWe’re not sure how or when. We definitely want to add it to our lineup. In terms of coming soon, what we’re working towards, we want to be able to make the unit smaller. We want to have a smaller unit that we can even reduce the cost to the operator even more. 32:05.61vigorbrandingMm 32:10.34Audley WilsonWe want to be able to make a bigger unit that can really be able to do really high volume. you If you think about replacing the back end of burger production for any of the big fast food companies. and So we want to be able to go about bigger and smaller while constantly just trying to reduce the cost to the operators that way. Because at the end of the day, like yeah I’m an operator, Andy’s andy’s had ah three restaurants as well. 32:32.35vigorbrandinghmm. 32:33.68Audley Wilsonum you like We know how how annoying it is to actually take a portion of your profits out of your pocket to fund X and Y expenses. So we just want to make it lower and lower and lower so that way they can make more money. 32:46.69vigorbrandingthat’s fantastic 32:47.31Audley WilsonThat’s really where our focuses are on. Um, and, uh, you know, faster, you know, it’s currently takes us about four minutes to make a burger. We like to be able to get more throughput, you know, cause at the end of the day, you know, it’s all, if you’re there, which is multiple people right now, we can, we can spread, if there are multiple machines, we can spread orders across a few, the cluster of units, but you know, we don’t want to be ah that same unit to be able to make burgers two times as fast. 33:11.36vigorbrandingYeah. Yeah. And if I remember correctly, your, your machine currently can hold like 50 burgers, right? Like so, uh, it stacks. 33:17.53Audley WilsonYeah. 33:18.40vigorbrandingYeah. So, and I mean, depend obviously depending on how many you sell that someone’s got to come in and then service the machine and, and restock it and everything else. 33:25.40Audley WilsonExactly. 33:26.22vigorbrandingSo yeah, that makes total sense. 33:27.31Audley WilsonExactly. 33:27.63vigorbrandingSo so 33:28.47Audley WilsonSo in some of the airport applications in the busy or high volume, then yeah what we’re they’re doing is putting multiple machines, two, three, four machines in like clusters and then multiple clusters throughout the locations. So that’s ah really what we’re building towards that world where you have food anywhere, anytime. Because we’ve all been to that airport where yeah um the your flight gets delayed. 33:48.16vigorbrandingYeah. 33:50.29Audley WilsonYou’re there till like 2 AM. m yeah The bar closed down at 8 PM. 33:52.45vigorbrandingYeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, no doubt. 33:56.34Audley Wilsonjust there waiting 33:57.88vigorbrandingYep, I totally, totally. 33:58.23Audley Wilsonyeah so well 33:59.76vigorbrandingI’ve experienced it pretty much every week. you know I’m on a plane every week and ah you know every other week umm I’m in a situation similar to that. like When do I eat? When should I get something? What can I get? What’s the quality I can get? you know And then with delays and layovers and canceled flights, you never know when where you’re going to be. So I think it’s i think um it makes a ton of sense. Now, I have a couple of other just really simple questions for you. 34:21.39Audley WilsonAnd you’re just there waiting. 34:21.65vigorbrandingAnd I know your burger’s great. I’ve had it. So between, I’ll say, Burger King, McDonald’s, and Wendy’s, who makes the best burger? 34:28.40Audley Wilsonah wendy um Wendy’s, Dave Thomas all but all day long, but Shake Shack is definitely my my favorite here as a New Yorker. 34:33.92vigorbrandingYeah, right. 34:39.09Audley Wilsonum yeah I’m a big Shake Shack fan. 34:42.94vigorbrandingYeah, I totally and you know what i agree with exactly what you said. I do agree with Wendy’s out of those three. And I i love Shake Shack. I’m a diehard Phillies fan. They have one down outside the stadium or inside the stadium. And that’s that’s usually my go to that or hot dog. Of course, it’s a baseball game. um And, you know, I was at Burger America in New York and who does the smash burger? and ah the Mr. Mott’s and he said he dedicated his life to the hamburger. So you two have a lot in common. You ought to yeah you you ought to connect. 35:07.38Audley WilsonOh, man, yeah. 35:08.79vigorbrandingHe’s a 35:09.12Audley Wilsonum but i ever I think that’s I’d love to connect to it. another 35:11.99vigorbrandingYeah. Yeah. And so now like one final meal, if you have to, you could pick anything other than your burger. I can’t let you just pick your burger, but anything, what would your, yeah what would your final meal be? 35:19.30Audley WilsonOh, definitely. Yeah, let’s see. 35:22.01vigorbrandingWhat would it be? And where would you have it? Why? 35:26.91Audley WilsonProbably lobster and oysters um on a beach in Jamaica. 35:30.29vigorbrandingVery good. 35:33.31vigorbrandingOh, nice. Well done. I like that. I can, I can picture that. That’s fantastic. 35:37.01Audley WilsonBecause I’m Jamaican, because I’m Jamaican, and whenever me and my wife are down there, I love love hitting up a nice lobster um but from like the rust, the shack on the beach. 35:41.71vigorbrandingThat’s great. 35:50.49vigorbrandingThat’s fantastic. Ollie, you were wonderful. Is there anything else you want to mention about what you’re up to or anything else about the ah Robo Burger? 35:58.65Audley WilsonYeah, well, you know, so right now we’re offering robo burger for sale for the first time really to the general public. Previously, we’ve only been working with like some of the, the biggest players that manage food and, uh, and convenience. So now we’re actually, uh, selling these units. 36:14.19vigorbrandingFantastic. 36:14.15Audley WilsonSo if anybody is interesting in getting their hands on the unit, we’d love to speak with you. Um, come check us out on our website, the robo burger.com th E robo burger.com. Um, and, uh, looking forward to speaking with you. 36:27.91vigorbrandingAli, you are awesome. I appreciate your time and I love your passion and congratulations on your success and your fortitude, I’ll say. You just smile and keep going forward. So, I mean, it’s amazing and I’m really, really impressed by what you’ve done. Thank you. 36:41.09Audley WilsonWell, thank you so much. I appreciate speaking with you. 36:44.92vigorbrandingGood deal. 

Have something you wanna tell us? Send us a message and it could end up on the show! Aloha Hawaiian Kitchen is one of Orlando's newest restaurants  opening just minutes away from MCO! But do these flavors from the big island fly high? Or are we looking at the Spirit airlines of Hawaiian cuisine? Tune in as Dylan scores a rare victory, Carlos raves about harmonic pork, and Sophie is crowned queen of fish sandwiches. This is Talk With Your Mouthful: Aloha Hawaiian Kitchen!Support the show on Patreon for access to unedited episodes, exclusive shows, and more! Find us at patreon.com/mouthfulpodWant more TWYMF content? You can check us out on our social media accounts for behind-the-scenes videos, pictures from the episodes, cocktail recipes, listener polls, and much more!Twitter: @MouthfulpodTikTok: TalkWithYourMouthfulInstagram: mouthful_podThreads: mouthful_pod

May 2, 2024 - New York State Budget Director Blake Washington discusses the recently adopted state budget, including the MCO tax, financial transparency, and education aid.

Topics of Discussion: No Festivals at EPCOT this summer Park Anniversaries Victoria & Albert's receives a Michelin Star Savi's Workshop updated Payment Policy Smellephants on Parade coming to Storybook Circus New Bus Line will bring you to Disney World from MCO for $2

This week on Tour Life, Uli & Brodie talk to about Music City Open, Jeff Spring explains what happened at MCO, and a Champions Cup PreviewChapters:12:25 Jeff Spring26:55 Music City Open1:08:32 Manufacturer Cup Update1:10:11 FPO1:13:35 Champions Cup1:17:56 EDWIN STATS1:19:25 Wild Story of the Week1:21:58 Listener QuestionsWatch the show live Tuesday nights at 8PM EST here: http://bit.ly/FoundationPodcasts

Charlie Eisenhood and Josh Mansfield discuss the security threat from the Music City Open before previewing the Champions Cup, where they take a deep dive into player performance at Northwood, make some fun predictions, and lock in their picks.0:00 MCO's Suspension of Play13:30 Champions Cup Preview15:15 Tattar vs Missy, Recent MPO Results28:00 MCO's Poorly Tuned Course32:45 Champions Cup Burning Questions40:10 Surprise Winners, Weather Impacts48:00 Champions Cup Picks

Want to fly to SFO from MCO on a united 757-300? Well starting in May, you can do just that! They will use the aircraft during the summer months on this route.

No episódio, Rodrigo Capelo e Irlan Simões entrevistam Paulo Bracks, executivo de futebol e ex-diretor de clubes como Vasco, Internacional e América-MG. Na conversa, ele conta a experiência na SAF do Vasco, cujo controle pertence ao grupo americano 777 Partners, e como o clube-empresa se organiza em termos de processos e demandas internas e externas. As particularidades do MCO (multiclub ownership), quando times de vários países são comprados pela mesma companhia, também são explicadas pelo profissional, do ponto de vista do departamento de futebol.

  In this episode, MCO's Outreach and Education Manager, Valentina-Katharina Georgoulopoulos, joins host Yannick Dondelinger to explore the concept of "Heimat" (home and belonging). With members originating from 27 diverse countries, "Heimat" holds much significance for the MCO. Valentina shares insights into crafting a unique concert format, that was developed in collaboration with the MCO musicians. Specifically tailored for younger audiences, Valentina and Yannick uncover both the challenges and rewards of engaging young listeners.  Join them to discover "Heimat" and explore how our upcoming school festival in Berlin aims to further immerse students in the journey of finding their sense of home.      

The company reported positive two-year results for its Phase 2 clinical trial of MCO-010.

Today Mike, Rikki and Pam share their best tips on packing, getting through airport security, what to bring on the plane, car rental and ride-share strategies at MCO and much more! Thanks to Listener Katelyn over on the Discord for today's show topic, we are discussing all of the aspects on how we actually get our Disney trips started! Please share your tips over on the Discord channel at www.beourguestpodcast.com/discord. We hope you enjoy today's podcast!  Please visit our website at www.beourguestpodcast.com.  Thank you so much for your support of our podcast! Become a Patron of the show at www.Patreon.com/BeOurGuestPodcast.  Also, please follow the show on Twitter @BeOurGuestMike and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/beourguestpodcast.   Thanks to our friends at The Magic For Less Travel for sponsoring today's podcast!

Episode Summary: In this episode of Blasphemous Nutrition, Aimee shares two key questions that can simplify meals and improve overall health. She emphasizes the importance of protein and produce as the foundation of nutrition, based on her 30 years of study and two decades in practice. Aimee discusses the impact of protein on weight management, blood sugar stability, and satiety and highlights the dose-dependent relationship between produce consumption and reduced mortality from all causes. She then provides practical tips for incorporating protein and produce into meals, both at home and when dining out. Key Takeaways:Protein and produce are the two most important components of a healthy diet.Protein preserves lean muscle mass, aids in glucose tolerance, and provides satiety.Consuming more produce is associated with reduced mortality from all causes.Aim for one quarter to one third of your plate to be filled with quality protein sources.Incorporate four to five servings of produce per day, focusing on green, yellow, and orange vegetables.If these nutrient-dense foods give you tummy troubles, seek professional assistance so that you can resume a broader diet.Notable Quotes:"When people make a commitment to produce and aim to make up to half of their plate from vegetables and a smattering of fruit, they find that they ache less, their labs normalize, their energy stabilizes, and their cravings plummet." - Aimee"Protein is a powerful tool for a healthy weight as it preserves our lean muscle mass, which then has a huge influence on our ability to tolerate glucose and our overall metabolic health." - Aimee"Vegetables can play a multifactorial role in keeping us vital into our elder years." - AimeeResources:Photography by: Dai Ross Photography Podcast Cover Art: Lilly Kate Creative Blasphemous Nutrition on SubstackWork with AimeeEmail a screenshot of your review to blasphemousnutrition@gmail.com!Book Recommendation: Metabolic Effect by Jade TetaElango, Rajavel et al. “Evidence that protein requirements have been significantly underestimated.” Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care vol. 13,1 (2010): 52-7. doi:10.1097/MCO.0b013e328332f9b7Kurata, Hideaki et al. “Dietary protein intake and all-cause mortality: results from The Kawasaki Aging and Wellbeing Project.” BMC geriatrics vol. 23,1 479. 9 Aug. 2023, doi:10.1186/s12877-023-04173-wAune, Dagfinn et al. “Fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer and all-cause mortality-a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies.” International journal of epidemiology vol. 46,3 (2017): 1029-1056. doi:10.1093/ije/dyw319Breakdown of the Aune paper with most protective produce options: https://thesynapse.net/fruit-and-veg-10-better-than-5/

As vice president of concessions at Orlando International Airport (MCO), Tracy Harris combines her skills in data analysis with her creativity and desire to help exceed passenger expectations. MCO's evolution from a utilitarian concessions program into a passenger-focused venue offering a broad variety of brands and services culminated two years ago with the opening of Concourse C, which balances pre- and post-security concessions, offers immersive media experiences and provides passengers a spacious, comfortable way to travel. Now, the airport is working on a master plan to bring its A and B terminals to new standards as well.

Czabe goes SOLO today! But there's a ton to discuss.Jay Bilas claims CBB is not "ruined" but what would he know? Recruiting was easy, finding this kind of NIL money is hard! UMass to the MAC. Golf exhibitions! NFL mulling rule changes. Don't let your kids become running backs. Peter King "retires." Vegas comps drying up. Breakfast for dinner? Ryan Clark gets his "bag." Airport shopping at MCO? MORE....Our Sponsors:* Check out Indeed and use my code CZABE for a great deal: https://www.indeed.com/ * Check out Rosetta Stone: https://www.rosettastone.com/* Check out Tecovas and use my code CZABE for a great deal: http://www.tecovas.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Virginia welcomes back Miranda and Corey Benfield to share all the details of their recent 36-hour trip to Walt Disney World.  This magical, but speedy jaunt was planned to celebrate Corey's new career as a firefighter (his first day on the job was the day after they returned home!).  Luckily, one of the titles Miranda is proud to have is travel planner, so she had all the details covered.  The visit included a stay at Disney's Boardwalk Villas, a very special Jollywood Night, lots of good food and drinks, and tapping into three of the four parks.  Not even a return flight fiasco could dampen the holiday spirits of these two Disney fans!   Trip Dates: November 18-19, 2023 Post Trip Interview: recorded 11/25/23   Episode Specific Links: Interested in connecting with Miranda to plan your dream vacation?  You can use this Linktree to fill out a trip inquiry or email Miranda directly at miranda@101-vacations.com.  Miranda is proud to be affiliated with 101 Vacations Travel Agency where they promise “if you can dream it, we can make it happen”. Follow all of Miranda and Corey's adventures @BippityBoppityBenfields on Instagram and YouTube Disney's Boardwalk Villas Lost Bros “Magic Carpet Oasis” Sweatshirt (aka MCO carpet!) Video: Holidays in Hollywood Muppet Variety Show Video: Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM!   Be Our Guest: Do you have an upcoming trip you'd like to share?  Submit your trip information here to be considered as a podcast guest.   Follow: Instagram: @whereilongtobepodcast Facebook: @whereilongtobepodcast   Subscribe and Review: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts  Amazon Podcasts Pandora RSS Feed

Hey Lifers! Welcome to therapy Thursday! It's time to unpack your deep and dark dilemmas! First up today we chat about a girl who had the longest running grudge we've ever heard of. Crazy or correct? We will leave that to you to decide.We also hear what your most petty acts were. Vibes for the week:Laura: Mac face and body and MCo beauty xtend mascara Britt: Book trilogy - The Bronze Horseman by Paulina SymmonsThe questions we unpack this week are: -I am getting married in 3 weeks! I don't know if I am getting the normal cold feet to the legit ick. My partner has never been good when comforting me or saying the right things if I am upset. Today I found out our family dog has untreatable cancer and we don't know how long she has to live. All I wanted to do was tell him everything and have a simple hug and kiss for comfort When I told him about my dog all he said was ‘awww sad' and then after an awkward silenceI said ‘so what should we have for dinner?' and then left to shower and cry alone. I know your partner can't be everything but is it normal to expect comfort and empathy at times like this? The episode with Mark Groves is here! - Create the love - Uncut with Mark Groves -I'm 22 and I have been in a relationship for almost 2 years and I love him so much. We live together and have traveled all around together. He truly is my person. The only issue is, he's starting to go bald both at the back and in front. How do I broach this subject without making him feel bad about it, and to open up the discussion so that he doesn't feel like I'm attacking his looks? -Recently my dad gave my sister his car - roughly worth about $20k as he no longer needed the car. My sister is a single mum with a good job earning good money. I have two young children and a husband. When I brought up to my dad that I was a bit hurt that he gave my sister a car and my family didn't get anything, he told me he didn't think of the car as money and basically dismissed my feelings as he didn't see it that way. My question is am I being unreasonable to expect something as well?   GET TICKETS TO OUR LIVE SHOW HERE  If you have a question please send it on it to life uncut podcast on Instagram hereJoin us on tiktok Or join the facebook group here Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! xxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.