Podcasts about Mandarin Chinese

Most school uniforms are retired while they are still perfectly wearable. Children cycle through them on a predictable annual schedule as they grow, which sends a steady stream of usable clothing toward the landfill at the same moment families on tight budgets are paying to replace what their kids have grown out of. The waste side of that equation is substantial: the EPA estimates Americans generated about 17 million tons of textiles in 2018, and roughly 11.3 million tons of it was landfilled. Ethan and Desmond Hua, brothers from San Mateo, California, looked at textile waste and the cost of raising a family and saw a single solvable loop. In 2020, while they were still in middle school, they founded the HOPE Uniforms Program — HOPE stands for Help Our Planet Earth — a student-led nonprofit that collects gently used school uniforms families have outgrown and redistributes them, free, to families who need them. What began in one elementary school, run out of the family garage, now serves about 10 schools across three districts. By the brothers' count, HOPE has kept more than 14,000 uniforms out of landfills, redistributed over 12,000 of them, and served more than 1,400 households, saving those families an estimated $141,000. On this episode of Sustainability In Your Ear, Ethan and Desmond discuss why reuse sits a rung above recycling, how two teenagers built a multilingual logistics operation with a live inventory system, and what it took to talk Costco into donating 2,000 new uniforms. Ethan's work has earned him a 2025 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes and a Samaritan House Young Samaritan Award.The environmental case rests on a point that's easy to miss: the highest-value thing you can do with a garment is keep it whole and in use. What makes HOPE worth attention is the operations as much as the intent. The brothers engineered the return step directly into the model: families request uniforms through a website available in English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese; the uniforms are returned when kids outgrow them; and Ethan and Desmond spot-check and reissue them. That return loop, paired with a deliberate decision to treat families as repeat customers who deserve a dependable service, is what converts a one-time donation into a repeating cycle. The approach is also honest about scale — a garage operation in San Mateo County will not move the national textile-waste numbers on its own. The brothers' wager is replication; Ethan's dream is HOPE in another garage, and then another, and the model is plain enough for a motivated student in another district to copy. Whether thousands of small local loops can add up to a circular economy is the open question this conversation puts on the table.To find out more about HOPE — and to donate uniforms, request them, or start a program in your own community — visit hopeuniformsprogram.com and follow the program on Instagram, @hopeuniformsprogram. If you know a teen making a difference for the planet, the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes recognizes young changemakers each year. And to find reuse, donation, and recycling options for textiles near you, search the Earth911 recycling directory.Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介这期节目我跟大家简单聊聊我今年暑假的安排，包括回中国、中亚旅行、北海道旅行，还有暑期网课的计划。因为六、七月到八月初有很多事，《五分钟中文》的更新可能不会像平时那么及时，也希望大家见谅。In this episode, I share my summer plans, including my trip back to China, travels to Central Asia and Hokkaido, and my summer teaching schedule. Since I'll have a lot going on from June through early August, podcast updates may not always be as timely as usual. Thank you for your understanding.今回は、中国への帰国や中央アジア旅行、北海道旅行、そして夏休み中の授業予定について簡単にお話しします。6月、7月から8月初めにかけて予定が多いため、『五分钟中文』の更新がいつもより遅くなることもあるかもしれませんが、ご了承ください。#旅行 #TravelPlan #暑假安排 #Summer #夏休み #暑假计划 Send us Fan MailSupport the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介很多外国人看到中国游客在海外大量购物，都会觉得“中国人是不是特别有钱？”这一期节目，我想跟大家聊聊中国游客背后的“伴手礼文化”。为什么很多中国人出国以后，会帮家人、朋友、同事买很多礼物？我也分享了自己和朋友的真实经历。Many foreigners think Chinese tourists are very rich because they often buy a lot of things overseas.In this episode, I talk about the gift culture behind Chinese tourists' shopping habits and why many Chinese travelers buy gifts for family, friends, and coworkers. I also share some personal stories and observations.海外でたくさん買い物をする中国人観光客を見て、「中国人はお金持ちだ」と感じる外国人も多いです。今回は、中国人観光客の“お土産文化”についてお話しします。なぜ中国人は家族や友達、同僚のためにたくさんお土産を買うのか、そして私自身の体験についても話しました。#中国游客 #伴手礼 #人际关系 #海外旅行 #旅游购物 #お土産文化 #中国人観光客 #中国の社会文化 #中国の人間関係 #Guanxi #ChineseGiftCulture #ChineseSocietySend us Fan MailSupport the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

Recorded May 21, 2026. A lecture by Professor Michael Cronin, Chair of French 1776, Trinity College Dublin The Trinity Long Room Hub Annual Humanities Horizons Lecture for 2026 was delivered by Prof Michael Cronin, on A STEM Strategy for Modern Languages? Mapping Ireland's Multilingual Futures. 250 years ago the first Chairs in Modern Languages in these islands were established in Trinity College Dublin. The TCD Chairs in French and German are the oldest, continuous Chairs in these languages in the world. But what of the future? How does Ireland build on its pioneering role in modern language education to make modern languages central to social cohesion, psychological wellbeing and economic prosperity on the island? The lecture argues for the benefits of a concerted strategy to make modern languages a strategic asset in the future development of our island community. About Michael Cronin Michael Cronin is 1776 Professor of French and Senior Researcher in the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation. Michael Cronin received his BA from Trinity College Dublin, his MA from University College Dublin and his PhD from Trinity College Dublin. He has taught in universities in France and Ireland and has held Visiting Research Fellowships to universities in Canada, Belgium, Peru, France and Egypt. He is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, an elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy and the Academia Europaea, an Officer in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques. Michael Cronin is the author of 13 monographs, the co-editor of seven edited collections and the author of over 150 refereed articles and book chapters. His work has been translated into 16 languages including Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Korean and Modern Greek. Among his published works are Across the Lines: travel, language, translation (Cork University Press, 2000), Translation and Globalization (Routledge, 2006), Translation and Identity (Routledge, 2006), The Expanding World: towards a politics of microspection (Zero Books, 2012), Translation in the Digital Age (Routledge, 2013), Eco-Translation: translation and ecology in the Age of the Anthropocene (Routledge, 2017), Irish and Ecology/An Ghaeilge agus an Éiceolaíocht (FÁS, 2019) and Eco-Travel: journeying in the Anthropocene (Cambridge University Press, 2022). His research interests are in the areas of eco-criticism and bio-cultural diversity. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介这一期《5分钟中文》，我想聊聊为什么很多外国人会觉得中国人特别有钱。很多中国游客在海外旅游的时候，看起来都很爱花钱、买很多东西。但其实，这背后还有一个很多人没有意识到的原因，那就是：中国人出国旅游本身就有比较高的签证门槛。这一期节目，我会跟大家聊聊签证、免签，还有为什么很多能够出国旅游的中国人，其实已经是“被筛选过”的人。In this episode of 5 Minute Chinese, I talk about why many foreigners think Chinese people are rich.Chinese tourists abroad often appear to spend a lot of money, but another important reason behind this impression is the relatively high visa barrier for Chinese travelers.In this episode, I talk about visas, visa-free travel, and why many Chinese tourists overseas have already been “filtered” by the visa system.今回の《5分钟中文》では、「なぜ外国人は中国人はお金持ちだと思うのか？」というテーマについてお話しします。海外旅行をしている中国人観光客は、お金をよく使う印象があります。でも、その背景には、中国人が海外旅行をするためには比較的高いビザ取得のハードルがある、という理由もあります。今回は、ビザやビザ免除、そして海外旅行できる中国人が実はすでに「選ばれた層」であるということについてお話しします。#中国游客 #签证 #免签 #海外旅行 #出境游 #旅游消费 #ChineseTourists #中国観光客Send us Fan MailSupport the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介这一期《5分钟中文》，我想聊一个很多中国人对美国人的印象：美国人特别有钱。美国收入确实很高，但很多人可能没有注意到，美国很多收入其实是税前收入，而且美国人也有很多固定的大额支出。另外，美元的购买力优势，也会让美国人在出国旅游的时候显得“很有钱”。In this episode of 5 Minute Chinese, I talk about a common impression many Chinese people have about Americans: that Americans are very rich.While incomes in the US are indeed high, many people may not realize that these numbers are usually before taxes, and Americans also have many large fixed expenses. At the same time, the strong purchasing power of the US dollar can make Americans appear especially wealthy when traveling abroad.今回の「5分钟中文」では、多くの中国人が持っている「アメリカ人はとてもお金持ち」というイメージについて話します。実際にアメリカの収入水準は高いですが、その多くは税引き前の数字です。また、アメリカでは保険や医療など固定費も大きいです。一方で、ドルの購買力が強いため、海外旅行ではアメリカ人がとても裕福に見えることもあります。#美国生活 #中美文化 #美国收入 #美国印象 #美元 #AmericanLife #ChinesePerspective #CulturalDifferencesSend us Fan MailSupport the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

David Osman of IRF is joined by Paul Cavey, the Founder of East Asia Econ. ----more---- In this podcast, Paul Cavey of East Asia Econ explains that there are two terms of trades shocks playing through in East Asia at present, one positive, one negative. He points out that the A.I. boom and the strength of the global semiconductor sector have helped the stock markets of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to reach new record highs recently, despite the Gulf war and the oil price shock. With respect to China, Paul discusses the evidence that suggests the Chinese economy is stabilising and should pick up once there's a US-Iranian peace agreement and the oil market starts to normalise. In Japan, Paul says there are expectations that the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates to combat the rise in inflationary pressures, thereby helping to support a stronger yen exchange rate, but this is not a done deal. In South Korea and Taiwan, Paul highlights how the growth-inflation trade off is influencing monetary policy and could result in a strengthening of the Korean won and the Taiwanese dollar versus the US dollar.   Paul Cavey has been living in East Asia for over twenty years – in Taipei, Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Paul is currently living in Taiwan and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. He has been analysing the Economies of the East Asian region, with a particular focus on China, for over 25 years. Previously, Paul has been the Chief Regional Economist at several leading firms, notably the Economist Intelligence Unit, Macquarie Securities and Wellington Management. East Asia Econ provides high-quality research and thematic analysis of Macroeconomic and Market Issues in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.”

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介这一期节目，我想跟大家聊聊中国外卖员的现状。中国的外卖为什么这么快、这么方便，而且还这么便宜？很多外卖员每天长时间、高压力地工作，只为了按时送达、多接几单、多赚一点钱。这一期我们也会聊聊平台算法，以及中国便利外卖背后的故事。In this episode, I want to talk about the reality of food delivery workers in China. Why is food delivery in China so fast, convenient, and inexpensive? Many delivery riders work long hours under intense pressure just to deliver orders on time, take more orders, and earn a little more money. We'll also talk about platform algorithms and the story behind China's ultra-convenient delivery culture.今回のエピソードでは、中国の配達員の現状についてお話しします。なぜ中国のフードデリバリーはこんなに速く、便利で、しかも安いのでしょうか。多くの配達員たちは、時間通りに配達し、少しでも多く稼ぐために、長時間・高ストレスの中で働いています。今回は、プラットフォームのアルゴリズムや、中国の便利なフードデリバリーの裏側についてお話しします。#中国外卖 #外卖员 #中国社会 #中国生活 #算法 #FoodDelivery #Convenience #中国の生活 #フードデリバリSend us Fan MailSupport the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

How is the German market different to English speaking markets, and why might it be worth looking into translation? What are the best ways to translate, self-publish and market your books in German? With Skye MacKinnon. In the intro, thoughts on feeling empty after a book, and the benefits of SubStack for authors [Stark Reflections; Wish I'd Known Then]; AI-Assisted Artisan Author webinars 16 and 23 May. This episode is sponsored by Publisher Rocket, which will help you get your book in front of more Amazon readers so you can spend less time marketing and more time writing. I use Publisher Rocket for researching book titles, categories, and keywords — for new books and for updating my backlist. Check it out at www.PublisherRocket.com This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Skye MacKinnon is the award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of over 70 books across romance and children's books under multiple pen names, most of which are also available in German, which is her bestselling market. Her latest book for authors is Self-Publishing in German: How to Translate, Publish and Market Your Books. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes Why the German-speaking market is much bigger than just Germany, and which genres sell best there Title protection laws, the Impressum, and translator copyright How to find and vet human translators, and what a quality translation actually costs The current state of AI translation for fiction, and why quality assurance passes are essential Distribution decisions: the Tolino Alliance, Skoobe, libraries, and why IngramSpark doesn't work in Germany Marketing in German: BookDeals, LovelyBooks, ads, BookTok, and why pre-orders matter even more You can find Skye SkyeMacKinnon.com and her children's books at IslaWynter.com. Transcript of the interview with Skye MacKinnon Jo: Skye MacKinnon is the award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of over 70 books across romance and children's books under multiple pen names, most of which are also available in German, which is her bestselling market. Her latest book for authors is Self-Publishing in German: How to Translate, Publish and Market Your Books. Welcome, Skye. Skye: Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Jo: This is such an interesting topic. But first up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and publishing. Skye: I've always loved writing, but I was always told, “Well, you can't be an author. Get a proper job.” So I became a journalist and did that for a few years, but there was always that love of creative writing. At some point when I was getting more active on social media, I was following some other indie authors and realised they're just like me. They're not special people. I had always pictured authors as these mythical beings high up above the rest of us. That gave me the courage to put out my own book. I self-published from the start, never even looked into trad publishing, and that was in 2017. I was really lucky because my first series totally hit it off. I was able to quit my job a year later and I have been a full-time author ever since. I started with romance and then, by accident, got into children's books. Which has been great fun. I don't even have children myself, but it's just that palette cleanser in between. Writing about cute animals and unicorns and just bringing some fun into everything. Nowadays I have about five or six pen names, depending on how you count, across genres, although most of it is romance, and that's my bread and butter really. Jo: Yes, I'm certainly one of those people who wish I could write romance. It always just seems to be the most profitable market in any language, I guess. Let's get into the book. It's a fantastic book. I've been through it myself. It's really packed full of everything you need, so we can't cover everything. Let's start by considering the German language in general. Why is German a good language market to consider expanding into? And for anyone who might not realise, why is it more than Germany? Skye: Well, Germans love to read, and depending on the statistic that you look at, they're generally seen as the third largest book market in the world after English and Mandarin Chinese. So it's a huge market, even though you think of Germany as a small little country in Europe. As you said, it's much more than Germany. Yes, you've got about 83 million people in Germany, but then you've also got Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, parts of Belgium, Luxembourg, and even Italy. So if you look at the whole footprint on the map, it is much bigger than just the one country. A lot of young people there still read and go to bookshops. There's a huge bookshop culture. You will find, if you go to a high street there, way more bookshops than you do here in the UK, for example. There's demand for quality and for really gorgeous books. They have been way ahead of the curve when it comes to special editions and sprayed edges, and they also like translations. I found one statistic where about two thirds of all newly released titles in German are actual translations. Readers are used to translations, but until a few years ago it was all trad-published translations. So this transition is coming now. It's coming very, very fast, especially with AI. They generally are very open to translations as long as the quality is there. Jo: So what about specific genres then? Obviously we mentioned romance there, and romance is not just one genre anymore. Whatever they're writing— How can somebody tell if it's worth expanding into German? How do we do this? It takes time and effort and money, potentially. Skye: It can take a lot of money, so it is worth doing research. There's one easy way, which is just looking at your current sales and looking at how many books you're selling in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at the moment in English. That can give you an indication of which of your books might be already quite popular there. Sometimes it's quite surprising. A lot of my books sell very differently in German than they do in English. I've got one series that did okay in English, and I almost didn't translate it. The German version is, I think, my second bestselling series in German and has completely surprised me. So sometimes it's worth just experimenting a bit. Otherwise, obviously as you said, romance is doing really well. There are a few surprises though. I had a chat with Draft2Digital and they gave me lots of information from their statistics, and they said about 40% of all the western title sales on Draft2Digital are actually in Germany, which is just a huge percentage. Jo: In English? Skye: Across languages. Jo: Mm-hmm. Skye: Germans, to be fair, they love their westerns. My dad in Germany, he has been watching westerns for I don't know how many decades. It is one of those things that is just really popular there. Another thing is anything that is set in other countries and really has the location as almost like a character. There's lots of Cornwall, Scotland, different islands, but also mountains and cities. So if your book is set in, even in New York City, if it has a clear setting—if it's not just that it could be any city—then that's a good one to think about translating. In general, most genres can do well. There's a few where you have to be a bit careful. Second World War books, for example. If you have a book that portrays every single German as a Nazi and as evil, it might not do as well in Germany. So some common sense when it comes to historical books. Otherwise, just look at German retailers, look at what is selling there—and not just Amazon. Places like Thalia, which is part of the Tolino Alliance, and they have about 40% of the market. So it's really important to look at them too, and not just at Amazon. Jo: We'll come back to the distribution in a minute. There are some important differences between the German market and the US/UK market. Obviously we're talking about a different language, but of course there are a few things that are different that some people might not think about. So give us a few of those things that people definitely need to think about. Skye: Okay, so even before you start publishing, you need to be aware that title protection is a thing in Germany. Your book can't have the same title as an already published book. That is a law that is basically there to avoid readers being confused. So if you had five books with the same title, readers might not realise which book is by which author. You have to do your research and check if anyone else is using your title. There are some exceptions—if it's a completely different category, so if there's a children's book with that title but you write spicy romance, then the chance that the reader gets confused is much lower. Quite often you can then contact either the author or the publisher and ask, “Can I get written permission to use that title?” I did that for one of my series and it was totally fine. Just be sure to get it in writing, because if your book suddenly becomes a huge bestseller, they might reconsider. So title protection is an important one. You need to research that before you publish. One thing that people sometimes get confused about is reusing their English title. That's totally fine because it's your own title. So if your English title hasn't been used and you want to keep that same title, that works. It's just about other people's books where you can't use those titles. Another important legal bit is the Impressum. It's the copyright page. To be fair, websites that are targeting German readers or a German audience have to have that Impressum. It's usually on page two of the book, and it has things like your legal name, your address, and then the usual things like the translator's name, cover design, and other things you would usually put on a copyright page. The problem is that technically you need to put your legal name in there unless you have a limited company, in which case you can also put the business name there, and your address. A lot of people obviously don't want to do that for privacy reasons, especially romance authors where it's sometimes a bit sketchy when it comes to some readers who get a bit too obsessed. There are services where you can pay a monthly or yearly fee and then use their address. It's a bit of a legal grey zone, but a lot of German authors are doing it because—especially as indie authors—we don't always want to put our legal address out there. Jo: Just for people listening, I use my accountant's address. That's quite common. I mean, you have to share your address on your email for anti-spam laws and all that kind of thing. As you say, there are ways to use other addresses. That just needs to happen. What else then do we need to think about? Skye: There are things about the translator. A lot of things that people are sometimes scared about is when they hear that there is a copyright issue with translators and they think, “Oh, my translator has the copyright. I can't do anything.” Actually, the translator is seen as an author—almost like a co-author of the translation in German law—because, to be fair, it's not just putting one word into another. Translation is quite a creative job, especially when it's fiction. It is a very creative job where the translator has to put a lot of their own creativity into it. So in German law, they're recognised as the creator of that translation and therefore have certain rights. But you as the author, as soon as you have a contract with your translator—which is why you always, always, always have to have a contract—you get the usage rights. This means it's exactly the same as with your English books. You can do with them what you want. You can get audiobooks, you can do print books, you can do whatever you want in different formats. It just needs to be clear in a contract that the translator is giving you the usage rights of that translation. That's something that people sometimes find a bit scary, but actually it's really simple. Translations have been done for so long. It's a normal thing. It's just called slightly different. It has to be set out in a contract. Jo: Just on that, that's when the translator themselves is in Germany, because if they are based somewhere else, still doing a German translation, that's not necessary. So that's something else for people to consider. Skye: Yes, definitely. To be fair— I would always try to get a translator based in the country. I mean, I'm a native German speaker, but I've been in Scotland for so long now that I am not confident enough to translate my own books anymore because I'm not surrounded by German 24/7 and my grammar is slightly off and I don't have that up-to-date, modern lingo. So if it's a translator who's only just moved somewhere else or a few years, that's fine. But if it's someone who's been in the US or UK or somewhere else for 20 years, I would be a bit more hesitant. That's just a personal perspective on that. One other thing that's different is Sie and du. There are two different kinds of “you” when you talk to someone. There's the formal Sie, which you use basically amongst adults, in business contexts. But even my German grandma—she had a friend and they used the formal Sie for about 10 years as friends because in German etiquette, the older person has to offer the younger person the informal du, and they never did that for some reason. We found it hilarious as kids that they were still using the formal Sie as really good friends. So there's an entire culture there that people who haven't been to Germany or haven't lived there for a while just find a bit difficult, because there are so many different unwritten rules about when you use Sie and when you use the informal du. It's weakened a bit over the years and nowadays even strangers would sometimes use the informal du depending on the context. It really depends. A good translator will usually handle that themselves. They will find a scene where, for example, especially in romance, you meet as strangers in the beginning, so you use the formal Sie, and then at some point that formality turns to informality. The translator will usually choose that moment and add a little extra scene or a sentence where they either offer it to each other or they just naturally switch into it. But then there might be an internal little monologue of, “Oh, he just used the informal du—I guess we're at that stage,” or, “I really appreciate that.” Just to make it more natural, because that's something I quite often see with AI translation where that doesn't happen, and readers get confused. Why did they just switch from Sie to du without any kind of acknowledgement of that? Jo: This is the same in Spanish and other languages, I imagine. Skye: Yes, French as well. Italian too, I think. A lot of European languages have this. Jo: I think that's something that English speakers just don't get. It is a really interesting moment. I guess that might not happen so much in other genres—that really is a thing in romance. I was just thinking about some of my thrillers. They may never have time to get to du. Skye: But then sometimes using du can also be a rude thing. So if you have an antagonist who really doesn't like your protagonist, they might just use du as a rude sort of address. Again, that's something that English speakers just wouldn't understand or even think of because we just have the one “you.” Jo: We just have the one. Jo: It's the tone. Of course, it's the tone. Skye: Exactly, yes. Jo: Okay, well let's get into the actual translation of the books themselves. Over the years I've worked with lots of humans. I've also licensed my rights. I've used different AI tools. I mean, there are tons, but as we record this— What are the options that are available for translations? Give us some tips on working with humans and finding humans. Because it can be super pricey. And of course most of us will never know about the quality until we publish it. Skye: Oh, yes, definitely a note on that. I found that quite often you will already have German people on your newsletter list or on your social media, and most of them will be super happy to give you some feedback on your translation. That's something I've used a lot. Not for German, because I speak the language, but when I did French and Italian translations. My French is—well, it used to be quite okay. It is passable at best now. So I would never feel confident enough to rate a translation. So I asked my newsletter list, “Are there any French people here who would be happy to read the book? I'll send you a free copy at the end, and some swag.” There were a surprising number of people who got back to me. The same applies to German and other languages, because if you don't speak the language, you sometimes lack the confidence of knowing if this is any good. Getting some reader feedback is super helpful. For finding human translators, the easiest of course is word of mouth, and I'm a big fan of that because you get instant feedback on whether someone is good or not and whether it's easy to work with them. Then there are freelancer platforms. Reedsy is one where everyone is vetted, so that's pretty good. But there are tons of other ones like Upwork and Fiverr, though there you have to do all the vetting yourself, so that takes a lot more time and effort. There are also more and more agencies—translator agencies who specialise in doing indie book translations. There's Literary Queens, there's Valentine Translations, there are tons of them. Then there's also, which I think a lot of authors ignore or don't know about, translation databases. There are two databases for German translators, for example, where you can search and you can usually narrow it down to whether you want literary translators, what kind of fiction or nonfiction you want. An important thing is that a literary translator is very different from a standard translator who translates birth certificates or formal documents. You want someone who has experience with fiction if you write fiction. Someone who knows about adding drama through language. Sometimes, for example, when you have an action scene, you might have shorter sentences. If you have someone who doesn't know about stuff like that, they might just think, “Oh, in German it sounds really nice to have this really long sentence.” Those little nuances are where having an experienced literary translator is a big bonus. There are some platforms that do royalty-split translations that have been quite popular in the past. Most of them I wouldn't really recommend because you just don't get those professional translators there. You usually get people who speak the language but don't really have much experience. So you might end up with a pretty bad translation, or people might just be using AI translations without telling you. If you use a human translator, always, always get a sample, because yes, they might have amazing credentials, but until they've actually translated one of your books or a scene from your book, you don't really know how good they are. I like to always use, if I write romance, a slightly sexy scene, because sex seems to show you if someone can translate or not. It's just what I've found, because if it sounds absolutely awkward or more like mechanical rather than an emotional, spicy thing, then that's a clear point for me to say, “No, thank you. I'll look for someone else.” Action scenes, sexy scenes, really emotional ones, dialogue that has a bit of colloquial language or humour—those are good scenes to choose as a sample because that really shows you if a translator can do their job or not. Then, again, have some German people from your list give you feedback on that. Also, if you work with human translators, always try to make sure that they will be available for your entire series. And not even just a series—if you have lots of books, try to grab that translator, lock them in your basement, and never let them go, because you want their style for all your books. Just like you have a style as an author, translators have a style and that will always shine through, as much as they try to be as close to your original. A bit of their style will always come through. It helps to have the same translator for at least the same series, preferably for as many of your books as possible. You really want to tell them in the beginning, “This series has nine books. I want you to do all of these, even if we only do a few of them at the beginning. Are you available to do the rest later?” Because you don't want to end up having to find a new translator in the middle of the series. That gives you a whole lot of extra work with trying to have a world bible that explains which words get translated and which get left as the original, and stuff like that. When it comes to non-human translation, it's very different because of course you don't need to do all that vetting. Tools have different capabilities and abilities, but in the end, if you put your book into a translation tool, you will always get a slightly different output. So it's not quite the same where you need an entire vetting process. Jo: Just on the human translation, I think I'd be right in saying that every single author in the world would love to have the best human translator translating their book, whatever genre it is. That would just be amazing for all of us. But let's face it, that's extremely expensive. So if I've got, let's say, a 70,000-word thriller, how much money are we talking about? An approximate number, so people know what that might be. Skye: Usually it goes by the word, but by the target language word count. Although it depends on the translator, traditional translators usually go by the target language because that's what they actually produce as their output. The average at the moment is anything from about seven to nine euro cents per word as the medium price. You will find cheaper people. You can go up as high as you want really. I have definitely seen translators who charge 15 cents and above per word, but those will usually be the ones who have worked with a lot of trad publishers who are used to being paid like that. Although even in trad publishing, the rates are going down. With more and more authors wanting translations, I think in general rates are going down. Good for us, not so good for the translators. You're definitely looking at thousands, even if you translate novellas. Then it depends—some translators have editing included, sometimes they don't. A lot of them will have arrangements with other translators where they give the translation to another translator for them to edit it. Sometimes that's included in the price, sometimes it's extra. Always make sure it gets edited, because just like when we write a book, it will never be exactly perfect. I say that as someone who writes very clean because I have a journalism background, so I'm used to writing really fast and clean for deadlines, but there will always be a few typos that just wriggle their way in. Typos are evil like that. It's the same with translations. Jo: So we are probably looking at 2,000 to 10,000 pounds, dollars, euros. We are talking about quite a lot, and this is the main reason I think that now, with AI becoming a lot better, people are looking at this. Originally—and I don't even know, probably eight years now since I did my first, might even be a decade or more—I did at some point do a version in DeepL, which was an early AI translation tool. This was nonfiction, and then paid an editor, a German editor, to then edit that in German. Those books still get good reviews. But now people are looking at options like GlobeScribe and ScribeShadow, or even just using Claude or ChatGPT. I'm actually working at the moment on a Claude Code pipeline through lots of different QA passes. That's been really interesting for me, because I can say, “Okay, now you are a reader who likes these kinds of books. Read it for that.” And because we can now put really big books in, I can actually get a lot of really interesting feedback. So I feel like there's a lot of potential with AI—potential for good stuff, potential for bad stuff too. So talk a bit about that and what to watch out for with AI. Skye: Okay, so I'm very much pro-AI and I use AI in lots of different things in my business, just to preface that. However, with translations, I'm still a bit wary, just because I have seen a lot of bad AI translations. To be fair, I've experimented with it myself for one of my other pen names. It was readable. It was definitely readable. It had sometimes beautiful, gorgeous prose. Really. But there were, occasionally—quite often even—bits where I stumbled as a native speaker. It's readable and, if I just need a little quick book in between, I would be mostly happy with that. I would read it. It's the same as some of the early KU days where you found a lot of bad quality writing, but you just wanted to read it because the story was pretty good or because you were reading it in KU and so it didn't really matter that much. There is that spectrum of quality where you have the, “Yes, it's good enough to read,” but, “Is it good enough to be up to your standards?” That's a decision that everyone has to make for themselves. If they want the same quality that they put into their English book, or if they're fine with just offering that book to a new audience because maybe you wouldn't be able to do it otherwise. I totally see that. Translation is so expensive. I don't even know how much I have spent on translations over the past few years. I'm lucky that most of my books make it back within the first weeks or months. I've never had a book that didn't make its money back, but I have heard a lot of people where that's not the case. It is a lot of investment and I would never tell someone to go into debt or anything to do translations. Do it when you're at a time where you can afford it, or where you can also afford the loss if it doesn't work out. Now, AI has changed that slightly because it now opens it up to almost anyone. Some of the AI translation tools are a few hundred pounds, but if you do it in Claude or ChatGPT or something where you already have a subscription, it can actually be quite cheap. You can do it for a few dollars or pounds. I love, by the way, having someone in the UK. I'm so used to automatically saying everything in dollars, but actually I should be using pounds. I think if you know what you're doing—and you clearly do, with your several passes, you know what you're doing with AI—but if someone just puts their book into Claude or ChatGPT or some random tool, it might just not be good enough. Jo: Let's say it won't be good enough if you just do that. We know that. You have to have QA passes—quality assurance. You have to have rules per genre. There are ways of doing it. It's kind of like you have to get to know how translation works. It's a process. It's not just a translation, like you put something in Google Translate or a menu or something, because we do care. I think that's really important. Skye: Yes. I think if you don't know how AI works—that you need detailed prompts, that you need a style guide, that you need all that extra material and not just your book, all those rules—then please don't do it. If you value your German readers—and I think sometimes when I see people just churn out those translations without doing any quality control, using exactly the same cover or even just putting a German flag on it or something—I really feel bad for German readers because they're not being valued as having the same sort of value to us as authors as our English-speaking readers. Maybe I'm a bit biased there because I read in multiple languages. I want to be able to get the same sort of quality in all languages. I want the author to think of me as being special because I'm their reader and I'm their customer. I think we are on the way where AI translation can be almost autonomous. I would personally always have a human look over it. I know what I'm doing, and I'm almost happy with my translation system that I've built now in AI, but it still needs that human touch for a few things. It still needs me to tell the AI, for example, “This is where we switch from Sie to du.” This is where I need to keep certain words in. For example, I write a lot of Scottish books, and so words like “glen” or “loch”—they are words I want to stay the same in my German translation. I don't want to translate it to the German equivalent of “lake” because that just misses that Scottish context. Things like that need instruction. A human translator will usually know that and chat to you about which words you want to keep and which ones you want translated. AI just needs our guidance, our helping hand, and if we don't know enough about the target language, we just miss knowing that. Now, a lot of tools do it all for you basically, and they set up all these rules. I think many of them are at a very advanced stage now. But AI isn't perfect and it likes to hallucinate, it likes to add random things. So I will always still have a human touch at the end, even if it's just a quick edit. A lot of people think that they just need a proofread after an AI translation, but AI doesn't really make typos—or not to an extent that humans do. So proofreading isn't really what's needed for an AI translation. It is actual editing where you go for the style, the phrasing, and sometimes the context. There's one example I always like to give. I have an alien romance where they go on a honeymoon, and because he's an alien and she's human, he misunderstands and thinks she wants to go to an actual moon. So it's a little pun in the book. It doesn't work in German at all because the word “honeymoon” has nothing to do with moons or planets in German. An AI would probably just try to translate that in a way that's quite close to the original. But my German translator, she had to come up with several different ways of fixing that issue, because humour is hard. It's hard even for humans to get the humour translated in a way that is still funny but also culturally appropriate. If you have a book that is full of puns, it gets harder with AI. I am not saying it's impossible, but it needs a lot of handholding. Jo: Yes, I think humour is hard to translate in general, isn't it? Let's move on to the distribution, because again, having done quite a lot of different languages over the years, I do use Amazon KU for my books in German and Italian and Spanish and some French. So I haven't gone wide in terms of ebook and print or audio, in fact, because I have a lot of books and it is hard to go wide in English, let alone in other languages. But you mentioned earlier that Thalia has 40% of the market or something, and that special editions and print books are important. So what are the decisions we have to make around the actual publishing? Skye: In Germany they did a really cool thing, and I wish they'd done that in other countries. When the bookshops saw that Amazon was growing and posing a threat to them—not just with print books but also with ebooks—a lot of the German bookstores got together and they formed the Tolino Alliance. They have big book chains like Thalia, but also I think it was over 1,500 indie bookshops that all got together. They all support this ecosystem for ebooks, which means they all share the same e-readers. They share the same sort of backend for the shops, which made it really easy for them because they didn't all have to develop an ebook system. It saved them a lot of money. It made it really easy to tell readers, “This is the Tolino system. You can get your books at our bookshops, but you can read them on your Tolino e-reader no matter where you get the books from.” The Tolino e-readers are actually the same as Kobo e-readers, just rebranded. They've got that big advantage there—these independent bookshops and book chains all got together. Now it's hard to find numbers because Amazon doesn't really like to share their numbers, but it's about 40% of the German ebook market, which means it rivals Amazon. They have about the same. Then the rest is split by Apple Books, Google Play, and some of the smaller players. So it is a huge chunk of the market. I'm wide with pretty much all my English books. So for me, I looked into KU, but when I saw that I was going to miss out on 60% of the market—even if Amazon has 45%, that's still a big chunk—I decided to go wide. To be fair, I haven't regretted it, because Tolino are amazing to work with. I like to compare them to Kobo because they have a really lovely human team where you can just email them and tell them, “I've got a new release coming up,” and they will put you into different promos and it's all free. Jo: Do you publish direct to Tolino, or do you use Draft2Digital? Skye: Yes, you can publish direct to Tolino and that's actually the best way of doing it. You don't have access to their marketing opportunities if you use a distributor. The Tolino dashboard is annoyingly all in German, but by now every browser has a translating plugin built in. I know lots of authors who don't speak a single word of German who navigate Tolino very successfully. They started with only ebooks in the beginning, and then about two weeks after the first edition of my book on German translations was published, they introduced print books, which meant my book was immediately out of date. I was fuming. But this time they introduced audiobooks a few weeks before my Kickstarter launch for the second edition, so this time the audiobook part is included. I was very happy about that, because it was a pain to just tell everyone, “Well, this book is out now but it's actually missing a big part of how to do print books in Germany.” So Tolino does print, ebooks, and audiobooks. And just because you're in KU with your ebooks doesn't mean you can't publish your print books via Tolino. I highly recommend that, because IngramSpark—which most of us indies use for distribution for print books—doesn't get you into the German bookstores. They used to. Then German stores have fixed price laws where books have to be the same price in all stores, and IngramSpark kept going against that. They kept sending them the wrong prices. So German bookstores at some point just said, “Nope, we've had enough of this. We no longer take books from IngramSpark.” So now Tolino, in my opinion, is the best way of getting your books listed in German online bookstores, but they can also help you get into brick-and-mortar stores. One of my books was featured by them, I think two years ago, and it was in about 300 of their shops all across Germany. It had its own little pedestal and it was amazing. Tolino love working with their indie authors. They also love romance, which is always a bonus because some stores are more prudish than others. It's really easy to work with them. They speak perfect English, so you can do all your communication outside of the dashboard in English. Their audiobooks feature is very new. Until they did that, it was much harder for German audiobook distribution because places like Findaway Voices and other distributors wouldn't get you into the Tolino Alliance stores for audio. That's a big chunk that we were missing out on. I was always looking for ways to get my German audiobooks into those stores, but the German distributors that I found were really difficult to upload to, to be honest. I'm a very technical person, but it challenged even me. I did not like that experience at all. At some point I really just gave up and wanted to throw my computer out of the window. So when Tolino introduced that, I was celebrating internally. The only problem with their distribution at the moment for audio, because it's so new, is that you can't exclude any shops. So it's all or nothing. They will get you into all the different places, including Audible, Spotify—you name it, lots of different streaming services and retailers—but you can't exclude any. So while they don't actually want exclusivity, if you published it yourself at the same time through ACX or Findaway Voices or something else, you would have duplicates, and of course, we try to avoid those. Jo: Is it human narration only, or do they also accept AI narration? Skye: They accept AI narration. The thing with Tolino is that they want everything made very clear. If you publish any books with them that have an AI production aspect, you need to put that into your Impressum. For audiobooks, there's a box to tick to make it clear. Jo: Hmm. Skye: So they are open to it all. You just need to declare it. Jo: Which I think should be true everywhere, to be fair. Skye: Oh, definitely. And a lot of German distributors—while I was researching for this book, one thing I always looked at is, “Do they need you to declare your AI use?” More and more German distributors and retailers now want you to do that. I think that's the way it's going. It's not a judgement thing. I think it's just making it clear to readers. In Germany, it's all about transparency. That's why there are all those laws with GDPR—everyone will have heard about that one by now. But there are lots of other laws where it's all about consumer rights and transparency, and that's one of them. Jo: Is there anything else on the distribution side we need to think about? Skye: One thing I like to highlight is libraries, because that's quite a big thing in Germany too. They love books and bookstores and they love libraries. Some of the ways we get our English books into libraries—like a distributor like Draft2Digital for OverDrive—OverDrive is growing in Germany. There are other systems like Onleihe, just to name one. You can't get into those through, for example, Draft2Digital or PublishDrive or StreetLib. Tolino gets you into those. There are also subscription platforms that are growing. I think it's the same as in the English-speaking market. People love a subscription, and I love them. I just don't like exclusivity. So I very much support any subscription platform that doesn't require me to be exclusive to them. Skoobe is one of them. They used to be an independent platform, and then the Tolino Alliance bought them. So now they're integrated into the Tolino stores. That means it's really prominent. Basically, any time you go to an ebook on, for example, Thalia, it will have a banner there saying, “You can also get this in our subscription.” So it's taken a while to grow, but actually in December I now made more with their subscription programme than I made in book sales. I think three of my books were in their top 10 in December. To be fair, that was a pretty good month. But it definitely shows that it can take a while to grow these subscription platforms, but when you do, it can be really successful and very much worth it. So I highly suggest looking into those sorts of platforms too, not just the standard retailers and the platforms that you're already used to. Jo: Fantastic. So we've now got translations, they're on the various stores, and then just like in English, one of our next challenges is actually marketing the books. Now this becomes another challenge, because one of the reasons I am in KU for foreign languages is because you get the five free days and you can do Amazon ads. I mean, you can do Amazon ads for wide books too, but it's easier to know that there are some options for marketing at all. I don't do email marketing. I don't do social media, so I'm pretty bad at marketing in foreign languages. So what are your suggestions for those who want to do more active marketing in German especially? Or even if we don't speak German, it can't be all the personal stuff. But are there also advertising things like BookBub? What are our options basically? Skye: There are quite a few things. It's not quite as easy as in English, of course, but I think sometimes you have to remember that you already have most of the material for marketing when you've released a book. You will have made graphics in English, you will have written a newsletter, you will have done some social media posts. All that material is already there, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can just translate that, and for that, AI translation is really good because it's very quick. You don't have to bother your translator. You can just get that done. That's what I had to remind myself, because in the beginning I did everything from scratch and it took me forever and I was hating it. Then I realised, well, I could just look at the newsletter I wrote three years ago when that book released in English and translate that. That's done within a minute and I can send that out. So remember that you have a lot of content already. There's no BookBub or nothing as big as BookBub. There is a site called BookDeals, which sends out newsletters for both reduced or free books and also for new releases. I use them for pretty much all my new releases, or at least always the first in series. They're nowhere near as big as BookBub, so don't expect miracles, but I generally always break even or a bit more. It's hard to tell, of course, especially if you do several things for a new release. But my instinctive look on this is that it's worth it. BookDeals is the big one. There are a few other promo sites, but to be honest, I've not really found any of them to give me a positive ROI. I experiment with them occasionally and I listed them all in my book just for completeness, but BookDeals is the big one. Then there is LovelyBooks, which is the German Goodreads. Some Germans also use Goodreads, so always make sure to have all your German books listed there. But LovelyBooks is the big one. I love that place because people are so much kinder than on Goodreads. I avoid Goodreads completely. If I need a review, I send my assistant there to look at reviews. I don't go there. It is scary. LovelyBooks—the name is kind of telling. It is a more lovely place. People are generally more friendly. They are probably a bit more critical when they write reviews than they are on retailers, but I have found it really nice to build a community there. You can do these book clubs where you give away a copy of your book, either as print books—or I always do ebooks because I don't want to send books to Germany. Then people discuss the book as a sort of book club and then they review it at the end. I have had great success with that. I've built up a community of readers who will now buy my books too, even if they don't get them for free. I found some beta readers through that. So I love LovelyBooks. The annoying thing again is it's in German. However, their support all speaks English and you can email them with questions. They're really good. Even if you don't plan to run any book clubs or anything like that because you don't speak the language, I would always advise just setting up an author profile there because it makes it easier for your books to be found. You can track reviews, you can track reads, and that just gives you an extra place to get more visibility for free. Ads—there's not much difference compared to what you do for your English-language books. The one thing is with Facebook ads, now because of EU data protection laws, it's much harder to target because people can opt out of ads and targeting. In general, cost-per-click ads are cheaper than in the US or the UK, so that's a bonus. BookTok is big and only growing there. I don't really do social media for my German books because I just don't have the bandwidth. I wish I could, and I know some people who outsource that. In an ideal world, I would have a social media account for every single language, but it's not an ideal world and I just have limited hours in the day. But even just creating an account so that people can tag you, so that people can find you, can already be a good start. One thing that's not maybe a marketing strategy as such, but something I like to highlight, is pre-orders. If you write in series, always, always make sure that the next books in your series are up for pre-order, because— German readers have been burned so many times by authors or even publishers who just translate book one in a series and then stop. They are quite hesitant sometimes to start a new series when they see it's book one of something and they don't see the next book up for pre-order. To be fair, it's similar in English. I always make sure to have a pre-order up for the next book. Because people would just not read the series until it's complete or until they know it will be complete at some point. So always set up a pre-order if you can. Don't set it up when you don't actually know when your translation is being done, or choose a date far in the future. Just make it very clear to your readers that you are intending to translate the entire series, that you're not going to disappoint them, that they're not just wasting their money on a book one only to never find out what happens next. Jo: Fantastic. Well, this is a big decision for people to make, I think, because there's no point in doing one book in German and then not doing anything else, in the same way as doing one book in English or any language. You have to think about investing in an audience. So lots for people to think about. The book is fantastic. It's called Self-Publishing in German. So where can people find you and your books online? Skye: For my author-facing things, just go to SkyeMacKinnon.com/authors, and there you find the book about German translations. You also find more information on what I do. You can book consultations with me. I love doing those one-to-ones, especially about translations, because you can really dive into someone's catalogue and look at what would be a good strategy for someone, rather than just in general. Otherwise, it's SkyeMacKinnon.com for all my romance. If you want adorable children's books, it's IslaWynter.com. That's Wynter with a Y. Jo: Brilliant. Well, thanks so much for your time, Skye. That was great. Skye: Thank you so much for having me.The post Self-Publishing in German: How to Translate, Distribute, and Market Your Books with Skye MacKinnon first appeared on The Creative Penn.

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介现在正好是中国的五一假期，也就是大家常说的黄金周。这期节目聊一聊中国黄金周的起源和变化，从1999年的制度开始，到后来的假期调整，以及为什么很多人会在这个时间集中出行。China is currently in its May Day “Golden Week.” This episode looks at the origins and changes of China's Golden Week, from its start in 1999 to later adjustments, and why so many people travel during this period.現在、中国は「ゴールデンウィーク」です。このエピソードでは、中国のゴールデンウィークの起源と変化について話します。1999年に始まった制度からその後の変化、そしてなぜこの時期に多くの人が移動するのかを紹介します。#黄金周 #五一假期 #中国旅行 #中国假期#GoldenWeek #ChinaGoldenWeek #ChinaHoliday #ChinaTravelSend us Fan MailSupport the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介中文：这期节目聊聊美国高中的毕业舞会（prom）。除了简单介绍一下毕业舞会是什么、大家一般会怎么准备，我也分享了今年发生的一个小插曲。由于音响问题，舞会一度没有音乐，很多学生提前离开。作为老师，我也有一些不一样的感受和想法。English:In this episode, I talk about prom in American high schools. I briefly introduce what prom is and how students usually prepare for it, and I also share a small unexpected incident this year. Because of a sound system issue, the dance had no music for a while, and many students left early. I also share my thoughts as a teacher.日本語：今回のエピソードでは、アメリカの高校のプロムについて話します。プロムとは何か、どのように準備するのかを簡単に紹介しながら、今年起きた小さなハプニングについてもお話しします。音響トラブルでしばらく音楽が流れず、多くの生徒が早めに帰ってしまいました。先生としての感想も共有します。#毕业舞会 #美国高中 #校园生活 #美高 #Prom #HighSchoolLife #AmericanHighSchool Send us Fan MailSupport the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介 这一期我们来聊三个看起来很简单，但其实很多中文学习者都会犯的错误：“都”、“也”和“和”。这些词你可能都认识，但用起来却不一定自然。为什么会这样？以及有什么更有效的学习方法？这一期我们一起聊一聊。 In this episode, we talk about three simple but very common mistakes Chinese learners make: “都”, “也”, and “和”. You may know these words, but using them naturally is another story. Why do these mistakes happen, and what's a better way to learn? Let's explore together. 今回のエピソードでは、中国語学習者がよく間違える「都」「也」「和」という3つの簡単そうで難しいポイントについて話します。単語の意味は分かっていても、自然に使うのは意外と難しいものです。なぜこうした間違いが起こるのか、そしてより効果的な学び方について一緒に考えてみましょう。#中文学习 #学中文错误 #都也和 #中文副词 #汉语表达#LearnChinese #ChineseMistakes #ChineseAdverbs #UseChineseNaturally#中国語学習 #中国語の間違い #副詞の使い方Send us Fan MailSupport the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

When Amy Aed was still a teenager, she started a travel blog, Wandering Everywhere, that quickly got attention. This was in a different world, where blogs were exploding with popularity, and access to freebies soon made Amy realize she had more than just a hobby on her hands. Extensive travel followed, with one place capturing her heart: Taiwan. Amy studied Mandarin Chinese and became fascinated with the local culture and production of tea. This led her on a journey, meeting with small farmers, learning the ritual and artistry associated with tea, and, of course, drinking many warm and invigorating mugs. The result is Amy's new book Leaf by Leaf: A Journey Through Tea, Tradition, and the Legends Behind the Leaves which she will soon be going on a book tour in the UK to promote. Amy joins the Travel Writing Podcast to talk travel writing, travel blogging, AI, and her self-publishing journey.

Teaching is hard work, so every now and then you might need to come up with an excuse to take a week off, like "surgery" or something. But being the responsible teacher that you are, you're going to need to find someone to take those pesky classes off your hands. Learn how to use Mandarin Chinese to find that substitute teacher in this lesson. Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/1609

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介中文 这一期我从一个很小的生活经历开始，聊到了“周末”这个看起来很理所当然的概念。周末真的一直存在吗？在中国，双休制度是怎么一步一步形成的？为什么现在很多人反而感觉没有真正的周末？这一期我们一起聊聊周末的变化。English In this episode, I start from a small personal experience and explore the idea of the “weekend.” Has the weekend always existed? How did the two-day weekend develop in China? And why do many people today feel like they no longer truly have weekends? Let's talk about how weekends have changed.日本語 今回のエピソードでは、ちょっとした日常の出来事から「週末」という概念について考えます。週末は昔からあったのでしょうか？中国ではどのようにして週休二日制が生まれたのでしょうか？そして、なぜ今、多くの人が「本当の週末がない」と感じているのでしょうか。週末の変化について一緒に考えてみましょう。#周末#双休 #内卷 #周末 #中国社会 #中国生活 #Weekend#WorkLifeBalance#ChinaLife #996Send us Fan MailSupport the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

Interview recorded - 10th of April, 2026On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming on Catherine Austin Fitts. Catherine Austin Fitts served as Managing Director at Dillon, Read & Co and as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George H. W. Bush — before leaving government to document what she describes as a systematic looting of public finances on a scale most people still find difficult to believe. She is also the publisher of The Solari Report, and managing member of Solari Investment Advisory Services, LLC and Sea Lane Advisory, LLC.During our conversation we spoke about the shifting global order, Chinese control, Mr Global, Bank of international settlements, US governments financial corruption. I hope you enjoy!0:00 - Introduction1:56 - Shifting global order6:00 - Chinese control7:15 - Pushing Russia out of financial system9:16 - Western geopolitical strategy15:03 - Mr global18:54 - Bank of International Settlements31:19 - China & BRICs?32:24 - US government lost money37:04 - Protecting your wealth43:44 - Less transparency44:24 - One message to takeaway?Catherine served as managing director and member of the board of directors of the Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. Inc., as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in the first Bush Administration, and was the president of Hamilton Securities Group, Inc. Catherine has designed and closed over $25 billion of transactions and investments to-date and has led portfolio and investment strategy for $300 billion of financial assets and liabilities.Catherine graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (BA), the Wharton School (MBA) and studied Mandarin Chinese at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She blogs for the Solari Report at solari.com.Catherine Austin Fitts:Website - https://solari.com/X - https://x.com/solari_theWTFinance -Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfniTunes -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-fatseas-761066103/Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介这期节目我分享了一次在美国看演唱会的经历，也聊了学习日语给我带来的改变。不仅让我认识了新的朋友，也让我和喜欢的偶像有了更多互动。语言有时候真的可以打开一个新的世界。In this episode, I share my experience attending a concert in the US and how learning Japanese changed that experience. It helped me make new friends and even interact more with my favorite idols. Language can truly open up a new world.このエピソードでは、アメリカでのコンサート体験と、日本語を学んだことでどのようにその体験が変わったかについて話します。新しい友達ができたり、好きなアイドルとの交流も増えたりしました。言語は本当に新しい世界を広げてくれます。#演唱会 #应援板 #追星体验 #学日语 #语言学习 #新体验 #ConcertExperience #KpopConcert #FanExperience #LearnJapanese #LanguageLearning #NewExperienceSend us Fan MailSupport the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Annie Lee moderates a panel with African and Asian Americans about the impacts of Birthright Citizenship and the need for Surviving Through Solidarity. Guests include: Lisa Holder, Ming Hsu Chen, Don Tamaki and Michael Harris.   Link to an APEX Episode on Wong Kim Ark from March 20, 2025 Show Transcript [00:00:00] Opening Music: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.   [00:00:40] Miko Lee: Welcome to Apex Express. I'm your host, Miko Lee, and tonight we will listen to a recent event, Birthright Citizenship, Surviving Through Solidarity that took place at Chinese for Affirmative Action. Just yesterday, on April 1st, the Supreme Court heard the case around birthright citizenship. This event that you're gonna listen to was highlighting Asian and African American solidarity. As you might know, the cases of dread Scott in 1857 and Wong Kim Ark in 1898 are linked as landmark Supreme Court cases that directly defined and redefined American citizenship specifically about race and birthright. While Dred Scott denied citizenship to people of African descent, Wong Kim Ark's case utilized the subsequent 14th Amendment to solidify birthright citizenship for children born to foreign nationals. I'm just noting that in this conversation, because it was a panel discussion that was live, there was some irregular use of microphones, so sometimes the audio can be a bit spotty. Please bear with us, and if you want to review the transcript, check out our website, kpfa.org, apex Express. And last year we also covered the story of Wong Kim Ark and have included this past show in our show notes. Now let's listen in to moderator Annie Lee, Lawyers Michael Harris and Don Tamaki, Lisa Holder of Equal Justice Society and Ming Chen of UC Law.   [00:02:20] Annie Lee: Everyone. My name is Annie Lee and I am the managing director of policy at Chinese for Affirmative Action. Welcome to CAA's office here in San Francisco, Chinatown. And thank you all for being here today for our discussion: Birthright Citizenship Surviving through Solidarity. CAA and Stop AAPI Hate are proud to co-sponsor this event because it matters to us. CAA has been around since 1969 and we are a community based organization that provides direct services to lingual working class Chinese immigrants. And we also try to improve their lives through policy and advocacy. And in 2020, we co-founded Stop AAPI Hate, which is the national leading aggregator of anti-Asian hate incidents. And we know at Stop AAPI Hate that anti-immigrant policies are anti-Asian hate. So why are we here right now? March marks two anniversaries of two Supreme Court cases. One is Dred Scott and the other is Wong Kim Ark. These are two seminal cases in US history. And next week on April 1st, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the lawsuits challenging Trump's birthright citizenship executive order. So we are here to talk about birthright citizenship because it's an issue that is near and dear to both the Black and Asian communities.   [00:03:46] Without further ado, I am so thrilled to welcome this panel of amazing folks. Let's start with Michael Harris. Michael Harris here on my right is a retired attorney. He, for many, many years led the juvenile justice division at the National Center for Youth Law, an incredible litigator and advocates, and I'm so proud that he's here. He's also on the Equal Justice Society Board. Next to Michael is Don Tamaki. Don is a lawyer at the firm Minami Tamaki, and you might know him because he was part of the legal team that successfully got reparations for Japanese Americans after decades of fighting that injustice. So thank you Don. Don and Lisa, actually, spend time together on the California Reparations Task Force. And so this is Lisa Holder next to Don. Lisa is the president of the Equal Justice Society, which is based in Oakland, an incredible legal organization that has been in many, many fights, including, they filed an amicus brief in support of birthright citizenship, and that brief discusses why this is an issue for the Black community. And last but not least, we have Professor Ming Chen, who is a law professor at UC Law, and she's also the faculty director of the RICE Program, which is Race, Immigration, Citizenship, and Equality. So thank you so much to my panel and let's dive in. So some of you know, but I am a former US history teacher, so I often worry that people don't adequately understand American history and I fear that people don't understand reconstruction and the 14th Amendment. So let's start with the origin of birthright citizenship. What is birthright citizenship and where did it come from and why does its origin matter for understanding what's happening today? So Ming, I'm gonna start with you because you're a law professor and then others chime in. Lisa, Michael, Don. 'cause I think you'll have more to add.   [00:05:45] Ming Chen: Great. Thank you so much Annie, and thank you to CAA for having us all. I'm really excited to be part of this conversation, which I think is going to be really the beginning of a series of conversations over the next few months. So you're starting in the right place, Annie, in asking us what birthright citizenship is, because that is the heart of what the common lawsuit will be about: who gets to be a citizen in the United States. And that's actually why I named my organization RICE. I think the emphasis is on the “C” [citizenship], because I do think it is something that brings together immigrant communities, as well as all of the different communities within the United States that have been expanding, over time. Getting to the, legal text I, I think it's important to remember first that birthright citizenship is bigger than the United States. Worldwide there are at least two ways of becoming a citizen. One is by birthright and the other is by naturalized citizenship. So we're talking about the birthright half. And the United States is not alone. It's among countries mostly in the Western hemisphere that have chosen to focus on the “jus soli” version of birthright citizenship, which is “soli” is soil. So it's birth by touching US soil. And the idea behind that theory was always meant to be an egalitarian one. It's one that is about the idea that anyone can become a citizen, right? In contrast to the older system that Europe and other countries use, “jus sanguinis,” which is to say that citizenship could only be inherited by blood and heritage. Right? So I think right from the very beginning, it tells us what the text and the history of our 14th amendment citizenship clause intended to accomplish, which was to have an egalitarian spirit, a fresh start, and a continual renewal of what it means to be an American.   [00:07:33] Lisa Holder: Just sort of continuing on the path that Ming just opened up for us, birthright citizenship is very much connected to the African American experience. Particularly because the genesis of that right, really was a reversal of the construct and the regime of the enslavement era, right? Everyone's aware that during that era, descendants of Africa were not considered humans, much less citizens. And the legal cases that were brought where people try to have their citizenship, and their humanity acknowledged, the courts universally said, no, you are not citizens and Black people have no rights that white people need to respect. Right. And so that was the case, law of the land until, after the Civil War, when we had the 13th, 14th, and 15th, amendments were lifted up and embedded into our laws. You also had the Civil Rights Act of 1866 where that body of law was overturned and enshrined into our constitution was a new law that said that freed people are citizens and they do have rights that everyone needs to respect and rights to equality. You know, we know that there have been problems executing that [laughs] but at least enshrined in our laws and enshrined in our constitution that is where the birthright citizenship, constitutional law came from. It came out of that experience.    [00:09:21] Michael Harris: I just want to add a couple things to that. I mean, it's very distinguished scholars, they're hitting it really hard. Two things, universality and so I wanna talk about that first. I got one more coming forward. It's universal. Birthright citizenship is universal. And what I mean by that is everybody gets to be a citizen who's born here in the United States. Period. It's universal, applies to everybody. It doesn't matter if you're Black or white or Asian, none of that matters. That's really important. The other thing is it's that this criteria is not something that's subjective, nobody gets to decide. It's automatic. If you're born here, you automatically have citizenship. Those two things being automatic and being universal I think are really important. And this, we'll talk about this more as we go through the conversation, but those two things are what makes birthright citizenship so powerful and why they keep coming to try and take it down because it's universal so everybody gets it and it's automatic. Nobody can take it away. So let's, we'll I'll just leave it there for now, but we'll come back to that.   [00:10:33] Annie Lee: Don, this one's for you. So the 14th Amendment passes in 1868. Like Lisa said, it's to reverse Dred Scott, where the Justice Taney wrote that Black people had no rights, which the white man was bound to respect. And so they had to repudiate that through the 14th amendments, they have universal and automatic birthright citizenship with very, very few exceptions for like diplomats kids. Okay, that's like so, so narrow. So 14th Amendment passes in 1868, but it takes another 30 years for a Chinese American man named Wong Kim Ark to establish that birthright citizenship actually applied to the children of immigrants. So Don, can you tell us Wong Kim Ark's story, who was he, what happened to him and why did the federal rural government make him this test case?   [00:11:22] Don Tamaki: Just a couple words about context. I mean, one of the remarkable things about the case is it occurred during especially California's ultra racist, ultra virulent racist period. It's a contradiction in that regard. So just taking you back to the origins of where this racial pathology comes from, of course we focus, tend to focus on Asian American history, but actually you have to begin with Black history and indigenous history in the country. So in 1619, the first enslaved people were brought to America. And you know, 12 million people were kidnapped off the west coast of Africa. 2 million died during the middle passage. 400,000 were dropped off in America, and the million other millions ended up in the Caribbean, in the Brazil in Haiti, Jamaica, et cetera. And from there, slavery in America continued for 246 years. Two and a half centuries. Civil war happened in 1865. It concluded, and for another 100 years, Jim Crow exclusion infected America. And San Francisco, by the way, was heavily Jim Crow until the 1960s and into the 1970s. The vestiges of that exclusion and discrimination directly are rooted in the Black American experience.   [00:12:52] Michael Harris: And it's still present here today. That's why we have a Chinatown. That's why we have a Japantown in San Francisco because of what Don just did.    [00:13:00] Don Tamaki: Redlining and racial covenants.    [00:13:02] Michael Harris: That's right.    [00:13:03] Don Tamaki: Exclusions, redevelopment, and so on. So people think of California as being like a enlightened state. Well, California did enter the union in 1850 before the Civil War. 1849 enslavers came to California and they brought their human property with them. So there were probably at least 1500 enslaved people in California. 1865 Civil War ended, but Democrats in 1868 rose to power saying they would vote against any law that would have any equality between , Black Californians, indigenous people, and Chinese folks. And beginning toward late 1800s, that's when the bulk of Asian American immigration began. First Chinese American coming during the gold rush, and then Japanese Americans have followed and so on. And so, Jim Crow seeped into all that. Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882. California was known as a strong Klan state by the end of the 1800s with strong Ku Klux Klan chapters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Riverside, San Jose, Anaheim and so on. And so this was a toxic stew that Chinese immigrated into and other groups too. So unsurprisingly, tons of anti-Asian legislation policies, exclusion, follow. So Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco in 1873 to Chinese parents who lived and operated a business here. His parents continued to reside and remain in the United States until 1890, and then they departed for China. Probably no doubt because of the inhospitable conditions here. And racial terror was part of that, including the race riots here in Chinatown. And now that I mention it between 1865 to 1935, 352 people were lynched in California. Eight of those were Black Californians, but the rest were indigenous, Chinese, and persons of Mexican descent.   [00:15:18] So that was the environment. Wong Kim Ark continued to live in California into his twenties, reportedly working as a cook in San Francisco. And at the age of 21 he actually made two trips to China. He made a trip to China when he was 17 to visit his parents. Stayed there a year, came back without incident worked, came back here, worked till he was 21, then went back to China to visit his parents at that point. And when he attempted to reenter the United States, he was denied entry and detained with a threat of deportation upon the sole ground that he was not a citizen of the United States. Of course he was born here. So the issue was you know, birthright citizenship was the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment did it apply to Wong Kim Ark. And the interesting thing is about the case is that the court ruled in his favor. All persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. And those words are now, today becomes crucial. And people, I think we on the panel will talk about the implications of that language subject to the jurisdiction thereof. And it established this principle that basically was reaffirmed repeatedly throughout our history for this 100 year plus period. To get to your last question, why did the court do this? I think scholars smarter than me can explain this, but I'll give you some clues. The court ruled in Wong Kim Ark's favor despite the virulent context of the era, because that's what the plain and expansive language of the 14th Amendment says.   [00:17:02] All persons didn't say formally enslaved, didn't say Black Americans. It said all persons. That's what the plain expensive language of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 says: all persons and as Lisa referred to. And the congressional record of the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1862, where legislators are debating these issues they clearly understood, and the record shows that if you include this expansive language, it will apply to groups like Chinese and Asians. And so with that understood it was adopted and ratified in 1868, 14th Amendment, and it was reaffirmed in other legislation like the Immigration Act of 1940. They just assumed that if you're born in this country, you're an American citizen. It was applied throughout the turbulent history involving my community, Japanese Americans. As you recall, 1942, 125,000 people were rounded up and put in concentration camps and the first generation were ineligible to become citizens. They were given identity cards marking them as enemy aliens. 2000 people died in those camps, but people were born in those camps. And the government, despite the fact that we were at war with Japan, understood that if you're born in this country. And even if your parents were quote, “enemy aliens,” you're gonna be classified as American citizens. And maybe lastly, the court ruled in favor of Wong Kim Ark because the 14th Amendment was trying to repair the harm done by Dred Scott v. Sandford, which was to provide human beings who've been here for two and a half centuries, the right to become an American citizen with all the benefits that go with that, like voting for instance. And recognizing that if you don't have those rights, you don't have anything, you are you, you're nothing. And for Japanese Americans, for instance, who are born in those camps, can you imagine if they didn't have birthright citizenship? They're not part of Japan. They're not part of America. Where are they? They're stateless. They have no home. They have no rights. And so it would create another underclass of people who have no rights for, and for which the 14th Amendment was trying to remedy which was you know, to provide a pathway. And so I guess you could say that's why, that's the incongruity of why Wong Kim Ark came out that way. In my opinion.   [00:19:59] Ming Chen: Maybe what I could add to the conversation is not just sort of who is included but who is not included. Because I think that's actually a much more small and specific group than the current dialogue would have you believe. So in the very language of the 14th Amendment, this idea of subject to the jurisdiction thereof. It refers to three exceptions and only three exceptions. One is for Native Americans, and that is because as of 1924 there wasn't a need to grant citizenship through the 14th Amendment because there were other provisions to grant citizenship to Native Americans. The second exception is for those who are children of diplomats. And the reason for that is because they have citizenship in their home country and their parents are only on a temporary post to the United States with the understanding that they're here in the United States in service to their home country. And I think that actually points to the limited meaning of the third exception, which is the one that I have to say, I have a really hard time understanding is part of the debate now. Because I think up until now, you know, this debate renews itself a couple times every year. Every time there's a new census, every time there's redistricting on all of the anniversaries, and usually the fight is about subject to the jurisdiction thereof. But the third exception, which has come into the dialogue, is about the language of accepting children of invading armies. And that is one that I have not thought we needed to argue about. It really becomes a touch point as Don mentions this history with internment and the children of a group of enemy aliens. I think that gives it a whole new historical read.   [00:21:48] But one of the reasons that this argument, I guess I should first explain the argument because it may not be obvious to you as it was not obvious to me the first time I heard it, which was about 18 months ago. And so the argument is that the children of invading armies referring mostly to the children of immigrants coming across the US Mexico border should not be considered birthright citizens. So that's kind of what the public debate, what the insinuation is behind some of the current effort to chip away at Wong Kim Ark through the executive order. There have been many efforts to chip away through legislation. I don't know how frequently it's been attempted through constitutional amendment, which is what it would actually require. That's a very, very high bar that's almost never met. I think most people haven't really made a serious, serious effort there. But what I think is kind of stunning to me in the sort of momentum behind the current moment is that Judge Ho who himself is a birthright citizen. Took up this language and this argument about the children of invading armies after previously saying that he agreed with this interpretation that children of undocumented immigrants, children of temporary visas all of these different legal statuses in addition to all of these racial groups, would immediately be citizens. And the argument he tried to make is that it wouldn't include the group at the border because historically it wouldn't have included enemy aliens or invading aliens either. And I think that what is so surprising to me is that a) that there is meant to be this historical analog between what would've been happening at the time of the Civil War and what is happening now at the US Mexico border. We are not having a civil war. We are not in active military conflict at the US Mexico border. I'll set aside other US military conflicts and how we wanna use that terminology. But I think that's really important because I, I feel like it's almost a trick, you know, to turn what is a media frame that's meant to be like clickbait, right? The idea that there is an invasion at the border, right. That we're being flooded with people who don't belong here. And to try to turn that into a legal argument saying this is actually an invading army and that takes this group outside of the 14th Amendment.    [00:24:19] Michael Harris: That's, I was gonna ask you a follow up question because we haven't been invaded that many times by armies I mean, maybe the War for Independence when the British sent ships over and took over Boston for a while. I could see how if they had kids, I mean, that's a stretch, that might apply to this. But I think the rhetorical device, they're touching on where they speak of people who come into the United States without proper documentation as an invading army or an invading whatever. They use that terminology quite often. Is that enough to bootstrap into this exception?    [00:24:59] Ming Chen: I, not to me, [audience and panel laughter] I think not to serious legal scholars and jurists. I mean, and you know, I'm not trying to be inflammatory by saying that. I think there are a lot of people who are pretty far away from me on a legal and political spectrum who would also say that this argument is pretty unprecedented. To try to say that that would be enough to bootstrap it into the actual text of the constitution or the spirit of Wong Kim Ark. So I think it's going really, really far. And I think too far, and I hope that if that becomes a line of discussion during the oral argument, that it would be cut off pretty quickly.   [00:25:38] Annie Lee: Well, let me punt it to Lisa then. If it's pretty clear based on the text, based on the legislative history, based on, just everything in the last 125 years that has said very clearly that birthright citizenship is universal and automatic. Why is Trump doing this? Like, what is being attempted legally, but also politically? And Lisa, you take a stab at this first and then others can chime in.    [00:26:04] Lisa Holder: Yeah. You know, why is Trump doing this? [audience and panel laughter] There's many layers, you know? And it, this is a strategic play and you have to sort of think about this in a layered way. Like there's a long term strategic play. There's a short term strategic play, there's a procedural strategic play, but that sort of bootstraps and brings in a much more moral and narrative rhetorical play. Procedural play. The short term strategic play has a lot to do with the midterm elections. Right, right. And also limiting people of color's ability to pick people who look like them as their representatives. Right. Because all of a sudden you're not only putting into question people's citizenship based on birth and turning this into a lineage thing where you have to bring me proof that your parents or their parents were born here or something like that, or were naturalized. So you're starting to put into question in a practical measure, people's access to the franchise, people's access to the voting booth. Right. And you're also starting to create a chain effect. So people are actually afraid to go to the voting booth. Right. And then you couple that with moving the migration of ICE. Now ICE is in the airports. Guaranteed by November, ICE will be in the voting booth, right? So you create this chilling effect. And then in terms of having representation that looks like you having people of color represent you in the US House of Representatives, your state representative. When you put birthright into question in this way, you're also gonna be able to challenge people who are running for office, people of color, running for office and say, well, you can't really run because you need to prove. And that is a rhetorical issue that we have seen being used already with both Harris and Obama, you know, because they were brown, Black people. Their birthright citizenship was, they were manipulating that rhetoric and that narrative.   [00:28:25] So this is not coming out of the outta left field. It's iterative and it's a it's rhetoric that has been, you know, percolating up for a long time. This is just a culminating moment. The long term strategy is really about white supremacy. We know that, you know, all of the social science shows that in 20 years this, the country will be a majority minority country, right? And people of color will have a huge amount of power in terms of, you know, in terms of the vote, right? Because of that, switch to majority minority and white people will be in the minority. And so, this is about, from a long term perspective, ensuring that certain people maintain their power as an electoral block. Right? So that's sort of like a long term electoral politics play. And then finally, the procedural issues are what's outstanding, okay? As Ming mentioned, if you are going to use procedure to overturn a constitutional amendment that is a, an astronomical feat to accomplish, right? Because you need two thirds of all of the representatives in Congress, and then on top of that, you need 75% of the states to ratify that process. So overturning a constitutional amendment is virtually impossible. But what we have here is trying to do the same thing. One person trying to do the same thing using the powers of the executive office. It is unprecedented. It is absurd. It has no legal viability, but it is a political moment where this man sees an opportunity because of the bias that we see in the judicial branch, in the court system. And that is being leveraged for the executive to to do something that is unprecedented and that is actually procedurally impossible, right? For one person by just signing a document all of a sudden disenfranchising 13 million people. That is not the democratic process. It's quite the opposite.   [00:30:38] Michael Harris: I just wanted to add to that. The Senate and the House of Representatives are both very narrowly controlled by the Republicans, and so it's really important to Trump to maintain that control. He'll only be able to continue doing these outrageous things by virtue of getting a rubber stamp from Congress. And so either house going the other way would put a stop sign in front of him and make it much more difficult for him to do all those things. All this money he's spending he would not be able to do that if Congress was actually active in doing it's job. Cause under the Constitution, spending is supposed to be controlled by the Congress, not by the Executive. So everything's upside down, but that's only working because Congress is allowing him to do that and not trying to stop him. If the Democrats are able to take over the Senate or the House where there's only a three or four seat margin right now that would make it much, much, much harder for him to pull these things off. And so anything he can do to get an advantage in that way I think is also part of what they're trying to do and trying to pull off.   [00:31:48] Ming Chen: One other thought, and you know, I'm trying very hard to not be professorly in the sense of using jargon or highfalutin terms, but I'm just curious, has anyone in this room heard the term perpetual foreigner before? A few of you have, I mean, I think it's really pertinent here. The first time I heard of this idea was when I started to learn from other Asian American law professors when I was still in college. I think that idea was that for certain groups of people, including Asian Americans, it doesn't matter whether you are actually a citizen by law or how many generations you've lived in the United States, right? So I'm a birthright citizen like Wong Kim Ark, but I think the first time I heard about it was, you know, this idea of Asian Americans not being able to be Americans socially in terms of belonging regardless of whether they are themselves, the child of citizens or immigrants and if they're the sixth generation children, right. I remember taking a Chinatown tour with David and is that where we are about six generations out for a lot of the descendants. So even if you were in the sixth generation that if you look Asian, that you will still be seen as being foreign. And so I think that idea has animated a lot of the work that I do. Like why it is that a lot of the work I do on race centers Asian Americans and then a lot of the work I do on immigrants centers, the naturalization process.   [00:33:16] But I think it's also important to recognize the breadth of that idea. Again, this idea of trying to blur the line between actuality, like what is real and what sounds like a fancy argument. Right. And I think what Lisa said, you know, her brief reference to the challenges against Barack Obama and Kamala Harris when they were running for a highest offices. You know, I think again, there's not, it's not a coincidence. I mean, to me that's the perpetual foreigner at work again. Because it's the idea that not only that Black people cannot possibly be the leader of this country, right? Sort of the, the figurehead of this country, but that for Barack Obama, the child of one international student on a lawful, probably f visa at the time, or that for Kamala Harris, the child of two lawful immigrants, that they cannot be birthright citizens that would be eligible for president. So there's a lot of commonality in that argument. And I think, you know, people forget, I think people assume that if you're talking about groups who are not Asian right, or who are not Latinx, that we're not talking about foreignness, we're only talking about race. And certainly we are talking about race, but we're not talking about it exclusively.   [00:34:33] Michael Harris: And then in addition to all of that is just the straight up racism of it. And that's supported by this notion of white supremacy. And what I mean when I say that, Lisa has touched on this already, is that there is a hierarchy of racial groups. And we're not all created equal. There's a hierarchy and the top group is, you already know, I don't have to say it, is the whites [laughter], and then below that are the other people like us who look different. And the reason there's, they're able to put these groups out there and get people to buy into that belief system is because we look different. And so this is why the perpetual thing is perpetual it's because we still look different. And that is a key part of the white supremacy. They still want to buy into this notion that white people are superior. And the only way they can make that work is by saying that people who look different are inferior.   [00:35:34] Annie Lee: I love this discussion because it's so real. And what you are saying essentially is you're talking about belonging and you're talking about power. Like who gets to belong in America? And then that is necessarily connected with who has power in America, who deserves to have power in America. But I know that we all belong in America and that we have power. So I wanna shift this conversation now to what can we do? And so beyond the courts everybody tune in next week. But beyond the courts, what is the role of community organizing, state and local policy advocacy? Public education in defending birthright citizenship and fighting against the attack on birthright citizenship is one sliver of everything that he has done. So many executive orders that came out on day one. So how, how do we, as everyday people fight white supremacy? What can we do when they are redistricting and trying to take away our franchise right before the midterm elections? What do we do when they're using courts that they've already packed with their federal society judges? And so what, what can an average regular person do? And Don I'm gonna go to you first.    [00:36:47] Don Tamaki: Let me say something in a very far less intellectual way than my colleagues here. This is a very old playbook. The playbook of demagoguery is very old. He said the old is humanity. And there are three elements to that playbook. One, appeal to prejudice, however, that is, race, skin, color, religion, whatever. Secondly, fear monger and scapegoat. And thirdly trafficking, conspiracy theories, fake news, false information, erasure of history. That's how you control the culture. And it worked in 1619. It worked in 1882. It worked in Germany in 1933. And it works today, you know, 2016, 2020. You know, when Chinese were blamed as spreaders of the Chinese virus. Asian Americans, when Mexicans were characterized as drug dealers and rapists when Jews and immigrants were portrayed as replacing good white people. This dehumanizing [of] people where one more Black man killed during an encounter with law enforcement barely evokes a shrug because it is so normal. It is so normal, folks, and so it works. And so, you have the candidate Trump running for office and say to a national audience that, to the people of Springfield, Ohio, that Haitian immigrants are eating your dogs and cats and getting away with it. Or the images of the Obamas transposed on cartoon apes. And this is really Jim Crow stuff. This is Antebellum stuff. And it's a recycling of the same playbook. And so the first part of organizing is being aware of what's going on. This is not a new thing. Okay, it's just a racial pathology that churns in one form or another, and it has an origin. It predates us. And so I, I think part of that is educating ourselves how everything is interconnected.   [00:38:58] And since we're talking about Black Asian solidarity, I'll just say a couple things. I mean, the civil rights movement had three triumphs that we all should remember. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of '65 began the dismantling of Jim Crow, which I, as I said, was a hundred year phenomenon following the end of the Civil War and the Immigration of Act of 1965. The third act. It ended as, you know, racist quotas. It prioritized family ties and skills and it greatly increased Asian immigration. As a result, the majority of AAPIs today are post 1965 Americans whose very presence here was made possible by the Black Civil Rights Movement. How many of us know that, you know? I mean, everybody focuses not everybody, but people tend to focus on their own peculiar predicament as if it's unique to our own situation. And in fact, it's all, quite connected. So I think part of this organizing process is realizing, you know, it's Martin Luther King, the oft quoted statement where he says we may have come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. And especially in connection with what's happening and, and you're seeing it in different parts of the country where sure, immigrants are being targeted in Minneapolis, but then you have thousands of Minneapolitans that, you know, ordinary people, business folks, teachers, laborers, protesting in Sub-Zero weather against what, what happened? And, and yeah. You know what, can we do protest work? I hope everybody's out there on March 28th, you know, this Saturday on the No Kings March.    [00:40:51] Michael Harris: Not just protesting, running them out of town.    [00:40:55] Don Tamaki: Well, [audience and panel laughter] Gregory Bovino, Gregory Bovino, who was the leading charge? Gone. Kristi Noem. Gone.    [00:41:03] Michael Harris: Yes, right.    [00:41:05] Don Tamaki: 2000 ICE agents in Minneapolis reduced to much smaller numbers. That's right. Their plans then launching Ohio trashed. You know, so that's why you, so boycotts, boycotts work. Ask Elon Musk. Ask Target. Local elections, Michael mentioned the midterm elections. It is if we don't, if Democrats don't get back the House, the country's cooked. So, I mean, everybody should be involved one way or the other in that. Raising money, you know, we are part of a, a fundraising group called CAPA21, and there are other groups out there, but those are, those things are crucial to funnel money toward swing elections and critical races. The education part I think is essential. If you consider the velocity change in terms of the civil rights movement, Japanese American redress and reparations was a 20 year movement. And it was full of education of the public. Civil rights movement, same thing. The philosophy of change on marriage equality or LGBTQ rights and all those things happened because they became normal. They were, they started out as ideas that people thought were preposterous. You know, that'll never change.    [00:42:26] Michael Harris: Right.    [00:42:26] Don Tamaki: And Jim Crow will never end. And San Francisco can segregate Asian Americans within Japantown and Chinatown. It, it will never change. But that idea of change, which were thought preposterous happens. But it requires civic engagement. So just examples.   [00:42:46] Michael Harris: I want to amplify two things that Don said. One is there will be a march this Saturday a No Kings March, and it's really, really important for people to show up for that march. ‘Cause the one thing that's devastating to a government is to have its people out there visible on the streets saying what the government is doing is wrong. Because you can spin certain things, you can lie about certain things, but bodies in the streets you can't lie about. It's there and it's real. So that's one thing that's really important, really. But I would encourage all of you if you can, if you are able, please join us and come out on Saturday. The other thing I want to add to the Don's excellent list is there's a few groups in the Bay Area and in San Francisco that does postcards. And their strategy is they identify particular jurisdictions where it's a very close race and it'll be pivotal if a Democrat can win over a Republican, say in a House or maybe even like the Texas Senator race. That one's probably gonna be very close too. And they send postcards to people encouraging them to vote. Don't sit it out. And those extra votes can be the difference between winning and losing. And that might flip the House might flip the Senate. So those are some other additional items.    [00:44:11] Ming Chen: I think at a much more basic level, it's just like telling, telling your story, telling the story of America. Because, you know, when we talk about all these rhetorical tricks, I mean, I think what it means is that that narrative is gaining a lot of power. And so I think you have to reclaim the narrative, right? You have to tell the counter story which happens to be the real story of what's happening. This is something that I actually haven't talked about this publicly, but my daughter she's like on the brink of being 13, not yet a teenager. It made me really sad that she came back from her well-funded, pretty liberal public school about a month ago crying because she said that in her Mandarin Chinese class, there was a child who was saying that Asian people eat dogs. And then writing swastikas on the chalkboard and singing Nazi songs making fun of the women in the room, I guess they're girls in the room saying that they're all lesbian without knowing anything about them. And it just made me really profoundly sad because I'd like to think that a lot of ignorant narrative is because people don't know better, right? I mean, as an educator, I hope that education will simply solve it. And it made me really sad to hear that again. You know, I'm, I'm on the brink of Berkeley. I basically live in Berkeley, right? So one of the most densely populated PhD overeducated people in America. And to be three generations in and to still have this story being told in the classrooms was really distressing to me. And even more distressing that it isn't just the like Chinese people that eat dogs as being a stereotype from those who are not educated, but it's something she might have heard on TV from the highest offices in the land, right? Something she might've heard the vice president say, for example. And so I just think it's so important and doesn't take education, doesn't take a law degree, right? To be able to tell that story. And so I was really, really proud that my daughter you know, did file a complaint with the principal that she came home and told us about it. And you know, her two parents who are civil rights and immigration lawyers, [laughter] but also that she's been like talking to her classmates right, about the fact that that's not true. That's not right. She's been comforting the other kids in the classroom who don't share the same background that she does. And I feel like that kind of work is just as important.    [00:46:45] Michael Harris: I want to add something to that. We have to take note of the fact that a lot of these types of comments really vile, racist things and not just about Asians, it's also some of the things about Black people, young people are saying. Part of it is because it's very easy to say things like that online because you can do it anonymously and not have to, you know, stand up and back up your comments, so to speak. And another part of it is our culture. We gotta be real about this. When I was growing up, I'm sure you were told this too, as the country became more educated and got more exposed to people of color and more people got higher education, all this crazy stereotypical racist stuff would go away because people would know better. That's what they told me the whole time I was growing up and now we know that's not true [audience laughter] because the reverse is happening. It's growing because some people are making money by putting stuff like that online and selling t-shirts and hats and stuff like that. Or starting, you know, whatever they start. There's this guy, Alex Jones, who made millions of dollars doing that kind of stuff. So some people are making money off of it. Other people are just buying into that ideological tip and are using that to gain power and influence and clicks. So we just have to be aware that this is a current going on in our society right now. And it's happening and it's growing and we, we need to be aware of it and start thinking about ways how we can put it to rest. Cause it's, it's happening.    [00:48:30] Annie Lee: Thank you so much. I do wanna give our audience some time to ask any questions that you all might have. So if you have a burning question to ask our illustrious panel now is your opportunity.   [00:48:45] Audience member: I was wondering how does this with, with the rhetoric of, of Washington pushing for IDs for voting how will that impact on people's presence at the voting booths and validating their ability to vote?   [00:49:04] Michael Harris: I think what you're referring to is the Safeguard [SAVE America] Act is now in Congress, and if it's passed and signed by the president, then it'll become law. And what it will require is anyone who wants to vote will have to have a photo ID. And even if you registered, you have to prove you're a citizen. So those two steps are, I think, designed to suppress the vote of people of color. I mean, I think it's very straightforward. This has been what Republicans have been trying to do for ever since the case that Don just mentioned passed and they were able to start doing this stuff. And I agree. It goes back to the notion that in 20 years, America's going to be a majority minority country. There's gonna be more people of color than white people. And I think that I'm just gonna come out and say that freaks them out. It really freaks 'em out. I think a lot of them have lived their whole lifetime where only white people were in charge, running stuff, and they can envision a future not too far off where that might not be the case anymore. And that's scary. It shouldn't be. I mean, we're all the same. It's all gonna be, you know, and there's Black Republicans and Black Democrats and there's Asian Republican. I don't know why they're so freaked out about it, but but they are freaked out about it. And a lot of this is to suppress the vote so that they can continue to stay in power and will not have to give up the power that they would lose otherwise.   [00:50:35] Lisa Holder: Yeah, I mean, it's always been about limiting the franchise, right? And since the time that it expanded beyond white males with property, there's been a battle to keep it as limited as possible. You know? And when you think about what happened after the Civil War, after the 13th, 14th, and particularly the 15th Amendment were passed and African Americans were allowed to vote, you had a 100 year backlash. Where 10,000 African Americans were murdered and lynched. Most of those were people who were trying to mobilize their communities to enter into the franchise and exercise the right to vote. That's the retrenchment that we're seeing being reiterated right now. Right. And we know that during that period, there were all kinds of hoops that, for instance, Black people had to jump through because of those Black Codes where you had to, for instance, prove that you can read this particular statement. Right. Or, you know, just like all kinds of random hoops that you had to jump through. And so when we see these barriers, these gatekeepers, like, oh, you have to have an ID. If this birthright citizenship goes through, no, no, no you can't bring in your birth certificate. You know, we need some proof of your parent, of your lineage. Right. And it's really is combined with that narrative and that rhetorical aspect, that Ming was articulating because although in fact we are America. America looks like us, Americans look like us. The alternative narrative where white predominance is the point is always going to be pushed where no, no, no, we are different. We are not normal and we are not America. And so that's, that's the narrative piece that all of this leads to. And that's why this story of storytelling that Ming talked about is so important. And also it is so important to just constantly push back to resist, to vote. To run for office when you look like an American.   [00:52:45] Audience member: My question is, if the executive order passes, what can we do to resist? Because one of the things is it will also disenfranchise women because it's about proving your identity that matches your birth certificate. Right. And there are really so many people that will not have their names to match their identities. And so what can people do to, to, to counter if that should happen?   [00:53:11] Don Tamaki: The legislative answer? Well, there'll be court challenges, no doubt    [00:53:15] Audience member: but, but before, let's say the midterm election.   [00:53:18] Michael Harris: Call your representative, fax 'em, email 'em, get your friends to do that, because it's pending in Congress right now.   [00:53:25] Don Tamaki: But elections have consequences is the point. And it people who says, well my vote doesn't count, doesn't matter. Everybody, both parties the same. Elections have consequences. I, I guess the only other thing to remember, I keep, you know, repeating this, the solidarity and connectedness bears repeating because the story keeps recycling. It's very recycled story about voter suppression. You know, the Civil War ended in 1865, 12 years of reconstruction. Lincoln is assassinated shortly after during the beginning of reconstruction and thereafter, you know, a deal was struck in the contested election of 1876. Federal troops are withdrawn from the south and then the voter suppression comes in literacy tests, poll taxes.   [00:54:19] Annie Lee: Mm-hmm. Grandfather clauses.   [00:54:21] Don Tamaki: Yeah. I mean in Virginia. During reconstruction 140,000 formerly enslaved people registered to vote after the collapse of reconstruction it was reduced to 21,000. California had you know, poll taxes. Other states had literacy tests and whatever, and it's now repeating because folks don't like the results of an election. The answer is not to, you know, broaden your net and appeal to upfront (?) policy. The answer is to suppress voting, stop people from voting. And so again, it's a matter of awareness I think we have to realize the game plan. And it makes it so important about who is voted into the dials and levers of the controls that run the country. So that's critical.    [00:55:13] Ming Chen: I can jump onto that. go vote. But I think it's also, you know, it's early enough to say, get your documents in order. Right? Go and be ready to vote in a way that won't draw question, right? So you don't have to wait for the lawsuit. And I will say for that, as someone who spends most of my days working with 20 something year olds who move all over the country, a lot of it is about sort of get your ducks in order, right? So if you don't have a driver's license with the current address that matches your name, you can fix that now. So many people who don't have a normal ID because they never learn how to drive, right? So make sure you go get that document. You mentioned marriage, Anna, and I remember I moved to New York at the same time that I got married and trying to get my name on the document when I was it, you know, it's like this endless loop, right? Because you're getting a new ID because of your address. If you don't have that, you can't get your social security card, if you don't have that you can't validate the marriage certificate, right? There's just this endless loop. And you have to get all of that in order, right? So I think maybe there needs to be two parts to our voter mobilization this year, right? It's get yourself ready, sort of like arm up and then vote so that your vote will actually end up counting.    [00:56:33] Miko Lee: Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about our show and our guests tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preti Mangala-Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me Miko Lee, and edited by Ayame Keane-Lee. Have a great night.   The post APEX Express – 4.2.26 – Surviving Through Solidarity. appeared first on KPFA.

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介这期节目我聊了我准备去看TWICE演唱会的一些想法，也分享了一些美国演唱会场馆的常见规定，比如透明包、安检，还有我平时会带的一些东西，比如充电宝和折叠水瓶。另外我也简单聊了一下我对美国和亚洲演唱会氛围的一些观察。In this episode, I talk about my upcoming TWICE concert and share some common rules in U.S. venues, such as the clear bag policy and security checks. I also share a few things I usually bring, like a power bank and a collapsible water bottle, as well as some observations about differences between concert culture in the U.S. and in Asia.今回のエピソードでは、これから行く予定のTWICEのコンサートについて話しながら、アメリカの会場でよくあるルール（クリアバッグやセキュリティチェックなど）を紹介します。また、モバイルバッテリーや折りたたみボトルなど、私が持っていくものや、アメリカとアジアのコンサート文化の違いについても簡単に話しています。#美国演唱会 #演唱会 #透明包 #TWICE演唱会  #concertculture #clearbagpolicy #twiceconcert #usconcertSend us Fan MailSupport the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介中文简介：这期节目，我分享了我最近观看 The Peking Acrobats 演出的体验，并借此介绍中国杂技这一传统表演艺术。中国杂技有两千多年的历史，以人体技巧为核心，融合力量、平衡与控制。这期我也介绍了两个让我印象最深的节目：空中绸吊和高椅。通过这些表演，我们可以更好地理解中国杂技的魅力。English Description:In this episode, I talk about my recent experience watching The Peking Acrobats and introduce Chinese acrobatics as a traditional performing art. With a history of over 2,000 years, Chinese acrobatics focuses on strength, balance, and body control. I also share two acts that impressed me the most: aerial silk and chair balancing.日本語紹介：今回のエピソードでは、The Peking Acrobatsの公演を見た体験をもとに、中国の伝統芸能である雑技について紹介します。雑技は2000年以上の歴史があり、身体のコントロールやバランス、技術が特徴です。特に印象に残った「空中綢吊」と「高椅」の演目についても話しています。#中国杂技 #空中绸吊 #高椅 #中国文化 #传统艺术 #杂技表演#ChineseAcrobatics #AerialSilk #ChairBalancing #ChineseCulture #PerformingArts发短信给我！ Send me a text!Support the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:Broadcaster: Xing Xing Guangbo Diantai (Star Star Broadcasting Station)Date of recording: March 16, 2026Starting time: 2358 UTCFrequency: 19.052 MHzReceiver location: ThailandReceiver and antenna: Kiwi SDR with Wellbrook loopMode: Single Side BandNotes: This is a "numbers station" broadcasting in Mandarin Chinese, presumably sending encrypted messages to Taiwanese intelligence agents in mainland China, from Taiwan. It appears to follow a set daily schedule, and begins each transmission with the tune of a Chinese folk song played on a flute. This is followed by station ID, given twice, and a few announcements in Mandarin, then a sequence of numbers read in groups of four. An excellent article about this station can be found on the Mount Evelyn DX Report written by Rob Wagner VK3BVW in May 2025.

The Israeli Defense Force pushes Hezbollah further north into Lebanon to protect those living in the north of Israel. Meanwhile, Ukraine worries that American focus has drifted away from their war with Russia. And, how should we feel about AI data centers being built in towns and cities around the US? Mike Cosper and Clarissa Moll discuss these headlines, and then Mike sits down with The Wall Street Journal's China bureau chief Jonathan Cheng to talk about the Christian evangelical roots of the founding leader of North Korea, Kim II Sung. REFERENCED IN THE EPISODE: Korean Messiah - Jonathan Cheng GO DEEPER WITH THE BULLETIN: Join the conversation at our Substack. Find us on YouTube. Rate and review the show in your podcast app of choice. ABOUT THE GUESTS: Jonathan Cheng is the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, overseeing a team of more than two dozen correspondents and researchers in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore and New York. Previously, Mr. Cheng was the Seoul bureau chief for the WSJ. He speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, French and Korean, and his book Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult will be published in April of this year. ABOUT THE BULLETIN: The Bulletin is a twice-weekly politics and current events show from Christianity Today moderated by Clarissa Moll, with senior commentary from Russell Moore (Christianity Today's editor-at-large and columnist) and Mike Cosper (senior contributor). Each week, the show explores current events and breaking news and shares a Christian perspective on issues that are shaping our world. We also offer special one-on-one conversations with writers, artists, and thought leaders whose impact on the world brings important significance to a Christian worldview, like Bono, Sharon McMahon, Harrison Scott Key, Frank Bruni, and more. The Bulletin listeners get 25% off CT. Go to https://orderct.com/THEBULLETIN to learn more. “The Bulletin” is a production of Christianity Today Producer: Clarissa Moll Associate Producer: Alexa Burke Editing and Mix: Kevin Morris Graphic Design: Rick Szuecs Music: Dan Phelps Executive Producer: Erik Petrik Senior Producer: Matt Stevens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介中文 这几年，在中国，“考公”越来越火。越来越多的人选择参加公务员考试，希望获得一份稳定、有保障的工作。为什么公务员考试变得越来越热门？“铁饭碗”这个说法又是什么意思？这一期《五分钟中文》，我们就来聊一聊这个话题。English In recent years, more and more people in China have been taking the civil service exam. Many hope to secure a stable job with reliable benefits. Why has the civil service exam become so popular? And what does the expression “iron rice bowl” mean? In this episode of 5 Minute Chinese, we talk about this social trend and learn a useful Chinese expression.日本語 ここ数年、中国では公務員試験（いわゆる「考公」）を受ける人がますます増えています。多くの人が安定した仕事を求めているからです。なぜ公務員試験はこれほど人気なのでしょうか？また、「鉄飯碗」という言葉はどういう意味なのでしょうか？今回の「5分中国語」では、この話題についてお話しします。#考公 #公务员考试 #铁饭碗 #公务员 #就业 #经济#CivilServiceExam #IronRiceBowl #ChinaJobs #GovernmentJobs发短信给我！ Send me a text!Support the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Frances, Dorian, and Rebecca as they discuss ORLANDO by Virginia Woolf and chat about their current reading. For our next episode, we will discuss THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE by Gloria Naylor, a choice Rebecca has made based upon some love Hanif Abdurraqib shared for the novel in a recent podcast. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in April. Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books! Books mentioned: Orlando by Virginia Woolf The Waves by Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf Harriet Hume by Rebecca West The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated from the Danish by Martin Aiken The Witch by Marie Ndiaye, translated from the French by Jordan Stump The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated from the Dutch by David McKay Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur, translated from the Persian by Faridoun Farrokh Taiwan Travelogue by Shuang-zi Yang, translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Lin Ling Small Comfort by Ia Genberg, translated from the Swedish by Kira Josefsson There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas Trouble Maker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford by Carla Kaplan Shattered: A Memoir by Hanif Kureishi The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Stern Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor Read Rohan Maitzen on Orlando at her blog Novel Readings. Further resources and links are available on our website at onebrightbook.com. Browse our bookshelves at Bookshop.org. Comments? Write us at onebrightmail at gmail Find us on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/onebrightbook.bsky.social Frances: https://bsky.app/profile/nonsuchbook.bsky.social Dorian: https://bsky.app/profile/ds228.bsky.social Rebecca: https://bsky.app/profile/ofbooksandbikes.bsky.social Dorian's blog: https://eigermonchjungfrau.blog/ Rebecca's newsletter: https://readingindie.substack.com/ Our theme music was composed and performed by Owen Maitzen. You can find more of his music here: https://soundcloud.com/omaitzen.

This lesson is for our boldest, hardiest, and most probably craziest users out there. We're listening in today as one such athlete discusses ironman triathlons in Mandarin Chinese; if you're like us, you'll probably relate much more to the astonished listener than the competitor! Learn how to talk about triathlons and the intensive preparation they require in today's upper-intermediate lesson. Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/1911

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介这一期我们聊一聊“夏令时”（Daylight Saving Time）。为什么有些国家每年要把时间往前调一个小时？这样做真的能节约能源吗？为什么现在很多人开始反对夏令时？中国以前也曾经实行过夏令时，后来为什么取消了？这一期我们一起简单聊聊夏令时背后的原因和影响。In this episode, we talk about Daylight Saving Time. Why do some countries move the clock forward by one hour every year? Does it really save energy? Why are more people questioning it today? China also experimented with daylight saving time in the past. Why was it eventually canceled? In this episode, we explore the reasons and impacts behind Daylight Saving Time.今回のエピソードでは「サマータイム（Daylight Saving Time）」について話します。なぜ一部の国では毎年時計を1時間進めるのでしょうか。本当にエネルギーの節約になるのでしょうか。そして、なぜ現在ではサマータイムに反対する人も増えているのでしょうか。中国でもかつてサマータイムが実施されたことがありますが、なぜ廃止されたのでしょうか。今回はサマータイムの背景と影響について簡単に紹介します。#夏令时 #DaylightSavingTime #时间制度 #时区 #北京时间 #时差 #节能 #全球时间 #时间文化发短信给我！ Send me a text!Support the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介今年暑假，我原本计划一放假就飞去北海道，但后来决定把行程往后推一个月。我分享了为什么6月底去更适合登旭岳、看富良野花田，也谈到了一个新的计划——和爸妈一起去中亚旅行。气候、时间和旅行体验之间的关系，其实会影响整个行程的节奏和感受。In this episode, I share my updated summer travel plans. I explain why I postponed my Hokkaido trip to late June for better hiking and flower season conditions, and I talk about a new plan to travel to Central Asia with my parents. Timing and climate can shape the entire travel experience.今回は夏の旅行計画についてお話しします。北海道旅行を6月末に変更した理由や、両親と中央アジアへ行く新しい計画について共有します。気候やタイミングが旅の体験に与える影響についても考えます。#日本旅游 #JapanTravel #北海道 #Hokkaido #札幌 #Sapporo #大雪山 #Daisetsuzan #中亚旅游 #CentralAsiaTravel #旅行计划 #TravelPlanning #暑假 #SummerVacation发短信给我！ Send me a text!Support the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️ If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

The full scale invasion of Ukraine began four years ago today. Ukraine Unbroken is an evening of five new plays written in response to the war. David Edgar talks about his, Five Day War, which imagines the puppet government waiting to move in when Kviv falls, and the other dramas. Between the plays Ukrainian musician Mariia Petrovska sings and plays the bandura. She talks about her involvement and the bandura, the national instrument that was once banned. And Mariia plays and sings live in the studio.As Oscar-winning British cinematographer Sir Roger Deakins looks back at his career through his visual memoir Reflections: On Cinematography, he talks to Samira about his practical and inventive approach to working on many iconic films such as 1984, O Brother Where Art Thou, 1917, tackling sci fi on Bladerunner 2049 and Bond with Skyfall. The government has announced the introduction of new legisation to introduce monitoring by Ofcom of streaming services. Front Row explores the implcations of this.And we consider the novels selected for the International Booker Prize longlist, announced today with writer and head judge Natasha Brown. The books in contention are: The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German by Ruth Martin We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from Spanish by Robin Myers The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated from Dutch by David McKay The Deserters by Mathias Énard, translated from French by Charlotte Mandell Small Comfort by Ia Genberg, translated from Swedish by Kira Josefsson She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from German by Ross Benjamin On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre, translated from Italian by Antonella Lettieri The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur, translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin KingPresenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介在冬奥会闭幕之际，这一期聊一聊“唯金牌论”这种心态。在奥运这样的国际赛事中，成绩往往被放在非常重要的位置。这种结果导向的思维，与中国长期以来的体育体制以及社会期待之间存在一定的关联。同时，年轻一代运动员的心态也正在发生变化。金牌、压力与成功之间的关系，或许值得我们重新思考。In this episode, recorded at the close of the Winter Olympics, I reflect on what is often described as a “gold medal mentality.” In international competitions, medals are frequently treated as the primary measure of success. This results-oriented mindset is closely linked to China's long-standing sports system and broader social expectations. At the same time, younger athletes may be approaching success in new ways. It might be worth reconsidering how we define success under pressure.冬季オリンピックの閉幕に合わせて、今回は「唯金牌論」という考え方について考えてみます。国際大会ではメダルが成功の基準として強く意識されることがあります。その背景には、中国の体育体制や社会的な期待との関係もあります。一方で、若い世代のアスリートの考え方にも変化が見られます。成功の意味について改めて考えてみる回です。#冬奥会 #奥运会 #冰雪运动 #滑雪 #金牌 #体育 #运动员 #成功 #压力 #冬季运动 #Olympics #WinterSports #Skiing #GoldMedal发短信给我！ Send me a text!Support the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️ If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介中文今年的春节，我去参加了本地华人社区举办的春节晚会。这一期节目，我和大家聊聊在美国参加春节晚会的感受，也对比了一下中国电视上的春晚和海外春晚的不同。English This Chinese New Year, I attended a local Spring Festival gala organized by the Chinese community in the U.S. In this episode, I talk about my experience and compare it with the Spring Festival Gala broadcast on Chinese television.日本語今年の春節に、アメリカの華人コミュニティが主催する春節晩会に参加しました。今回のエピソードでは、その体験についてお話しし、中国のテレビで放送される春節聯歓晩会との違いについても少し触れています。#春节联欢晚会 #春晚 #海外春节 #海外华人 #传统文化 #相声 #小品 #语言类节目 #SpringFestival #ChineseNewYear #LunarNewYear #OverseasChinese发短信给我！ Send me a text!Support the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️ If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

Aida Wang is a top-billing legal recruiter at Just Legal who specialises in private practice placements for bengoshi (Japan-qualified lawyers). With a unique background as a professional translator and interpreter between English and Mandarin Chinese, Aida brings a fresh perspective on bridging communication gaps - not just between languages, but between lawyers and law firms.Aida shares practical advice on deal sheets, career planning, and why speaking to a recruiter from day one of your legal career journey in Japan can change your career trajectory.If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we'd love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we'd love it if you would leave us a message here!In this episode you'll hear:The critical importance of creating and maintaining a deal sheet from day one of your careerWhy you should speak to a recruiter early in your career, not just when you're actively lookingThe biggest misconception about Japanese bengoshi lawyers How Aida helps candidates and clients create compelling stories to help find a perfect matchAbout AidaAida Wang is a Tokyo-based legal recruiter specialising in Bengoshi (Japan-qualified lawyer) searches for private practice, with a particular focus on supporting  associates and counsels as they navigate the critical transition points in their legal careers.Currently a Principal Consultant at Just Legal, Aida works with both Japanese and international law firms, recruiting Japanese Bengoshi and foreign-qualified attorneys across a wide range of practice areas. She is known for her thoughtful, relationship-driven approach and for offering market insight that goes well beyond simply filling roles. In her first quarter at Just Legal, Aida quickly made her mark as a top biller which is a reflection of her proactive mindset, deep preparation, and ability to truly understand both candidates and clients.Before moving into legal recruitment, Aida spent over a decade working as a Chinese–English freelance translator and interpreter, including roles in media, film, and news translation. This earlier career laid the foundation for what has become a defining theme of her professional life: bridging gaps - between languages, cultures, expectations, and ultimately, legal careers. Her background in interpreting gives her a rare ability to listen carefully, read between the lines, and translate what lawyers want into what the market is really asking for.Aida holds a Bachelor's degree from National Chengchi University in Taiwan, along with a Master's degree in Interpreting and Translation from the University of Bath in the UK. She has also completed Japanese language studies at Keio University. Having lived and worked in Taiwan, the Bahamas, the United States, the UK, and Japan, she brings a genuinely global perspective to her work. She is a native speaker of Mandarin and English, with business-level Japanese, and regularly supports cross-border legal careers in the Japanese market.Through her conversations with Bengoshi across multiple practice areas, Aida frequently hears one recurring challenge: how to develop clients and bring in work before holding a partner title. This insight shapes much of her advisory work with senior associates who are thinking carefully about long-term career sustainability, visibility, and progression within private practice.Outside of work, Aida enjoys cooking and crafting with her eight-year-old son, a creative counterbalance to her professional life that reflects the same curiosity and care she brings to her career.Connect with AidaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsinyuaidawang/ Just Legal: https://www.justsearchgroup.com/justlegal/consultants/aida-wang LinksAfternoon Tea: https://www.afternoon-tea.net/ Connect with Catherine LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair

We hope all of our employed users have perfect jobs that are extremely fun and have great benefits and high salaries. Unfortunately, we have yet to meet someone who has never had a job that they despised. Today's Upper-Intermediate lesson joins three coworkers who have had less than satisfactory jobs in the past. Tune in and learn the invaluable skill of how to complain about previous jobs in Mandarin Chinese! Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/1871

Links:Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtJxxePRMtUDownload the free Fluency Cheat Sheet here: https://imlearningmandarin.com/Check out flashcard website Hack Chinese here: https://www.hackchinese.com/--One year ago, Chris reached out with an ambitious goal: deliver his wedding speech entirely in Mandarin Chinese. His Chinese wife's family would be gathering in Sichuan, and he wanted to connect with them authentically - not just survive the conversation, but thrive in it.The Challenge:Working full-time in the UK with limited study hoursInconsistent tones and pronunciationOnly 12 months until the weddingThe Method:Chris joined the ILM Gym's 12-month coaching program, focusing on:- Months 1-6: Controlled Output Training to polish tones and pronunciation- Months 7-12: Wedding speech preparation and natural conversation flow- Daily practice using the four-step personalized immersion methodThe Result:Chris absolutely nailed it. His wife's family was in stitches at his jokes, he communicated effortlessly with his in-laws, and he delivered his speech with confidence and clarity—complete with some Sichuan dialect thrown in for good measure.As Chris said: "I forgot I was speaking Chinese a lot of the time; it just felt really natural."Want Similar Results?If you're impressed with Chris's transformation, you can download the free fluency cheat sheet containing details of the exact method he used at imlearningmandarin.com

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介中文大家好，欢迎收听新一期的《5分钟中文》。 在这一期节目中，我聊了聊为什么在中国和美国，学校对“有没有网站”这件事的重视程度会如此不同。这不仅仅是网站设计好不好看的问题，而是背后信息获取方式、使用习惯和功能定位的差异。如果你曾经上过中国学校的网站，或者对这个现象有自己的观察，希望这一期能给你一些新的理解角度。EnglishIn this episode of 5-Minute Chinese, I talk about why school websites in China often look outdated. The issue is not just about design or technology, but about how information is shared, how websites are used, and what role they play in different systems. This episode explores the contrast between China and the U.S. and the assumptions we often make when judging credibility based on websites.日本語今回のエピソードでは、中国とアメリカで「学校のウェブサイト」がどれほど重視されているか、その違いについて話します。デザインや技術力の問題ではなく、情報の伝え方や利用習慣、ウェブサイトの役割の違いが背景にあります。中国の学校のウェブサイトを見たことがある方にとって、新しい視点になるかもしれません。#中国学校网站 #学校官网 #中美教育差异 #微信 #教育文化差 #ChineseSchoolWebsites #EducationCultureChina #ChinaVsUS #WeChat #中国の学校 #学校ウェブサイト #中米教育比較 #微信 #留学发短信给我！ Send me a text!Support the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️ If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介中文 在这一期《5分钟中文》中，我回顾了自己的日语 N3 考试经历。 从考试当天在华盛顿 DC 遭遇堵车、考场环境不理想，到对自己表现、尤其是听力部分缺乏信心，我一直觉得自己考得并不好。 但成绩出来后，结果却完全出乎意料，也许不少人会对这种感觉产生共鸣。English In this episode of 5-Minute Chinese, I look back on my experience taking the JLPT N3 exam. From getting stuck in traffic on the way to the test center in Washington, D.C., to an uncomfortable test environment and a lack of confidence—especially during the listening section—I truly felt I hadn't done well. When the results were released, however, the outcome turned out to be completely unexpected. Some listeners may find this experience relatable.日本語 このエピソードでは、JLPT N3 試験を受験した体験を振り返ります。 試験当日のワシントン DC での渋滞、あまり快適とは言えない試験環境、そして特にリスニングに対する自信のなさから、「うまくできなかった」と感じていました。 ところが、結果を見てみると、点数は予想外のものでした。この感覚に共感される方もいるかもしれません。#JLPT #N3 #日本語学習 #試験体験 #N3 #日语考试 #考试经历 #听力测试 #LanguageExam #listeningtest #语言考试发短信给我！ Send me a text!Support the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️ If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

Protecting your ideas can be the difference between building momentum and watching someone else run with your work. In this episode of Unstoppable Mindset, I sit down with patent attorney and entrepreneur Devin Miller to explore what founders and business owners really need to know about patents, trademarks, and intellectual property. Devin shares how his background in engineering, startups, and law shaped his approach to innovation, and he breaks down the real differences between provisional and non-provisional patents in clear, practical terms. We talk about common mistakes entrepreneurs make, how legal protection supports growth instead of slowing it down, and why understanding intellectual property early can help you compete with confidence. I believe this conversation will give you clarity, direction, and a stronger foundation for protecting what you work so hard to create. Highlights: 00:01:18 – Hear how growing up in a small town shaped Devin's approach to problem-solving and business.00:12:53 – Learn why Devin combined engineering, business, and law instead of choosing a single career path.00:19:32 – Discover how a student competition turned into a real wearable technology startup.00:30:57 – Understand the clear difference between patents, trademarks, and copyrights.00:33:05 – Learn when a provisional patent makes sense and when it does not.00:53:52 – Discover what practical options exist when competitors copy or knock off your product. About the Guest: Devin Miller is the founder of Miller IP, a firm launched in 2018 that helps startups and small businesses protect their inventions and brands without breaking the bank. He's overseen over a thousand patent and trademark filings with a 95 percent success rate on patents and an 85 percent success rate on trademarks, making sure garage inventors and side hustlers get the same high-quality service as big tech. Before starting his firm, Devin spent years at large law firms working with clients like Intel and Amazon, but he found his true passion in helping scrappy entrepreneurs turn ideas into assets. He blends legal know how with an entrepreneur's mindset, offering flat fee packages, DIY legal tools, and hosting webinars and a podcast series to demystify IP. A lifelong runner who knocks out 10+ miles a day and 30-40 miles daily biking (except Sunday), Devin listens to audiobooks and podcasts while training for marathons. When he's not drafting office action responses or co-hosting Inventive Journey, you might catch him brainstorming the next Inventive Youth program or sipping coffee while sketching partnership agreements. Ways to connect with Devin**:** If you'd like to talk strategy or swap running playlist recs, feel free to schedule a chat at http://strategymeeting.com LinkedIn profile  https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawwithmiller/ Firm website [https://www.lawwithmiller.com](https://www.lawwithmiller.com "https://www.lawwithmiller.com") About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Well, hello to all of you, wherever you happen to be today, you are listening to or watching or both unstoppable mindset and I am your host. Mike hingson, our guest today is Devin Miller, who founded the company, Miller IP, and he'll tell us all about that and what that means and so on as we go through this. But I will tell you that he is a lawyer. He deals with patents and other things and a lot of stuff relating to startups. I think that's going to be a lot of fun to talk about. So without any further ado, as it were, Devin, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here. Thanks for having me on. Excited to be here. Well, we're glad. We're glad you're here. Can you hear me? Okay, now I hear you. Devin Miller  02:06 Well, we're sorry for the delay, but I said I'm excited to be here and looking forward to chatting. Michael Hingson  02:11 Well, perfect. Well, let's start. I love to always do this. Let's start kind of at the beginning. Why don't you tell us about the early Devon, growing up and all that? Devin Miller  02:21 You know, I I'm happy to do. I don't know there's anything that probably stands out. I was probably fairly typical. So I was raised in a religious family, so we're attended church regularly every week. And I had a couple sisters, an older and a younger one, and was went through, went through schooling and or studied, probably the typical course. So I don't know there's anything stands out. I was in a small town, so grew up as, probably not as small as I'd like it to be anymore, but a small farming town, and it was, it was kind of always enjoyed the small town fill, and actually am back to being in that same hometown where I live now with my family. But yeah, so I did that, and I did probably the at the time, the typical thing with the it's growing up with kids and sports and doing things, and went through high school and and after that, jumped or went off to college. But I don't know if there's anything in particular that stands out in my mind, other than probably, at least in my mind, a pretty typical childhood and upbringing, but enjoyed it nonetheless. But happy to provide any details or I can jump into a bit about college. Michael Hingson  03:38 Well, where did you go to college? Devin Miller  03:40 Yeah, so I went to Brigham, young university, just or BYU, just out here in Utah. So I went off to so, or I graduated high school and I went off to a year of college. So I went off to BYU, kind of intending to go into electrical engineering, which is what I or one of the degrees I ended up studying with, and then I did that for a year, and after which I went off and did a served a religious mission for my church, so Church of Jesus Christ, or Latter Day Saints, otherwise nicknamed Mormon. So I went off and went to Taiwan for about two years. So didn't have any idea, even at that point where Taiwan was and certainly didn't know the language, but when studied that, or they have a training center where you get an opportunity to study it for about three months. So I studied it and then went off to Taiwan and served that religious mission for my church for a couple years before coming back to the high school, or good, not the high school to college to continue my studies. Michael Hingson  04:43 I several, several comments. One, I know what you mean about small hometowns. We moved from Chicago, where I was born, to California when I was five, we moved to a town called Palmdale, and it was a very small rural town about 60. Five miles north of Los Angeles. I don't know what the population was when we first moved there, but it couldn't have been more than 1000 or 1500 people spread out over a little bit of a distance. For me, it was great, because without there being a lot of traffic, I was able to do things I might not have done nearly as well in Chicago things like riding a bike, learning to ride a bike and walking to school and and not ever fearing about walking to school for any reasons, including being blind. But oftentimes I once I learned how to do it, I rode my own bike to school and locked it in the bike rack and then rode home and all that. But then Palmdale started to grow and I'm not quite sure what the population is today, but I live in a town about 55 miles east of Palmdale called Victorville, and as I described Victorville growing up, it was not even a speck on a radar scope compared to the small town of Palmdale, but we we moved down to Southern California from the Bay Area my wife and I to be closer to family and so on. In 2014 we wanted to build a house for Karen, because she was in a wheelchair her whole life. So we wanted to get a a house that would be accessible. And my gosh, the only place we could find any property was Victorville. And at that time, in 2014 it had 115,000 people in it. It has grown. Now it Devin Miller  06:31 has grown. And it tends to be that, you know, it feels like everybody's always kind of chasing the small town then, or people find out about it. Everybody moves in. It's no longer a small town, and then you're off to chasing the the next small town, wherever that might be. So it's kind of a perpetual cycle of of chasing that small or at least for the people to like it. Not everybody loves it, but I'm certainly a proponent of chasing that small town feel from from place to places, as you're trying to or trying to find or recreate what you probably grew up with. So it is a it is a cycle that everybody I think is chasing, Michael Hingson  07:09 yeah, well, for me now, my wife passed away in 2022 we were married 40 years. And so the thing about it is that there are probably advantages for me living alone, being in a place that has a few more people and a few more of the kind of amenities that at least somewhat larger towns have, like a Costco and some some restaurants. We actually live in a homeowner's development, a homeowner's association called Spring Valley Lake, and I live within walking distance of the Country Club, which has a nice restaurant, so I'm able to go to the to the restaurant whenever I choose, and that's kind of nice. So there's value for me and being here and people say, Well, do you ever want to move from Victorville now that your wife died? And why do I want to do that? Especially since I have a 3.95% mortgage? You know, I'm not going to do that, and I'm in a new house that. Well, relatively new. It was built in 2016 so it's pretty much built to code. And insulation is great. Solar is great on the house. Air conditioning works, so I can't complain. Devin Miller  08:20 No, sounds like a good setup, and it's kind of one where, why, if you enjoy where you're at, why would you move to go somewhere else that you wouldn't necessarily enjoy? So it just sounds like it works out. Michael Hingson  08:29 Well, it does, and I can always, as I need to being a keynote speaker and traveling, there's a shuttle that'll take me down to the nearest airports. So that works out. Well, that's awesome. So you went to, I'm a little bit familiar with the the whole LDS missionary program, Mission program, we we were not part of the church, but we lived, when my wife and I got married, we lived in Mission Viejo and we had neighbors right next door to us, who were members of the church, and they came over one day and they said, we have an issue. And I said, Okay. And my wife said, Okay, what's the issue? Well, we have a couple of missionaries coming in, and the only homes that are available to these two boys are homes that already have young female girls in them. So they really can't be in those homes. Would you be willing to rent your one of your rooms to missionaries? And so we said, and well, Karen said, because she was a member of the Methodist church, we said, as long as they don't try to mormonize us, we won't try to methodize them. And we would love to do it. And it worked out really well. We had a couple of missionaries for a while, and then they switched out. And eventually we had a gentleman from Tonga for a while, and we actually had a couple girls for for a while. So it worked out really well, and we we got to know them all, and it was a great relationship. And they did their work, and at Christmas time, they certainly were invited to our Christmas parties. We. Had every year a party. What we actually had was what we call a Christmas tree upping. We got the tree, we brought it into the house, and we invited all of our friends and neighbors to come and decorate the tree in the house. Because, needless to say, we weren't going to do that very well. Karen especially wasn't going to be able to stand up and decorate the tree. So we got them to do all the tree decorations and all that, and we fed them. So it worked out. Devin Miller  10:26 Well, it's awesome. Sounds like, great. And you hit on. I said, that's probably my, my favorite part of the Christmas is a Christmas tree. So growing up, we always had a real live tree, but it was always, you know, it was downstairs in the basement, and had lower ceilings. And so I was always kind of the opinion, hey, when I grow up, I want to have the a huge, you know, kind of like in the newbies at 20 plus or 20 or 20 plus foot tree, yeah. And lo and behold, we, or at least the couple houses that we build have always had, at least in the living space, have had the pretty high ceilings. And so that's always what we do. We'll go out and we'll cut down a live tree. So we'll go out to kind of in nature, to the forest, where they let you cut them down, and we'll, we'll cut down, usually it's around a 20 plus foot tree, and then have it strung up in the house. And I always tell my wife, I said, I'd rather that one could be my Christmas present. I'd be just as happy, because as long as I have my tree, it's a good Christmas for me. Michael Hingson  11:23 Yeah, oh, I hear you. Well, one of the boys who lived next door to us went off on a mission to, I think it was Argentina, and was gone for, I guess, two years. What was really funny is when he came back, it took him a while to re acclimatize his speaking English and getting back his American accent. He was he definitely had much more of a Spanish accent, and was much more used to speaking Spanish for a while. So the the three month exposure period certainly got him started at the at the center there in Utah. And then he went off and did his missionary work and then came home. But, you know, it's, it's got to be a wonderful and a very valuable experience. How do you think it affected you? Devin Miller  12:10 Yeah, I think I said, I think it would be, you said it probably well, is it like one where to say, Hey, this is the most fun time in your life, and you'll never have a more fun time. I don't know that. It's kind of like, you know, I liken it to I so I like to do a lot of running, so or in older years. I don't know that I was as much in younger years, but kind of discovered not that I love running, per se, but love to get out and decompress and otherwise, kind of have a time where I don't have a lot of intrusions or other things that are pressing in on life. And so with that, you know, I've done a number of marathons and marathons, you know, everybody again, says, Well, did you have fun? Or was it a good or was it good marathon? So I don't know that it's ever fun. I don't and do it, but it's a good accomplishment. You it's, you go out, you set your mind to something, and then otherwise, at the end of the day, you reach your goal. And, you know, kind of has the that sense of accomplishment and learning and become improving yourself. That's probably a lot of how I like in a mission is, you know, you have a lot of stresses of learning a new language, being in a different culture, doing something that you're unfamiliar with or not accustomed to, and at the end, you know, you learn a lot of things, you are gain a lot of skills. You hopefully impact a lot of people's lives for the better. And so it is definitely one of those where it's a great accomplishment, but it's not, you know, it's not one way to say, hey, this was a fun vacation where I got to go play for two years. So it it works out well, and I would absolutely do it again. Michael Hingson  13:31 Yeah, I'm sure you learned a lot, and you probably learned a whole lot more in a lot of ways, than most of the people that you you visited with because you treated it as an adventure and an adventure to learn. So that's pretty cool, absolutely. So you came back from that and you went back to college, and did you continue in electrical engineering? Or what Devin Miller  13:56 did you do? Yes and no. So I did continue in electrical engineering. Or so I came back and, you know, the intent was, and what I continue to do is to study electrical engineering. I did add on a second degree, which I was a Mandarin Chinese and so I can't remember, I mentioned I I served in Taiwan for those couple years and had an opportunity to kind of, you know, learn and study the language. So as I was doing that, I kind of came back and said, Well, if I've already put in the effort to learn the language and to study it, I might as well, you know, utilize it, or add it to the degree. And so I I really started, or I added that as a second degree to the first degree. So I came out with both the degree in Chinese or man or Chinese, as well as electrical engineering. So yes, continue to study that. And then from that, you know, kind of just as a part of that story. So I was coming out, kind of getting, you know, the senior year, kind of getting towards the end of that degree, and looked at and said, you know, what do I want to do when I grow up? And I still know if I know the full answer, but I did look at it and say, Hey, I, you know, I don't know exactly what I want to do when I grow up, but I don't, I like engineering. Engineering, but I don't want to be an engineer in the sense that, you know, not that I didn't like engineering, but it was one where a typical electrical engineers, you come out of graduate school, you go work for a big company. You're a very small cog and a very big Will you work for. You know, 1015, years, you gain enough experience to have any say your direction and what projects you work on or really have any impact. Not saying that's not really what I want to do when I grow up, or when I start into the working world. And so kind of with that, I, you know, I had a couple interests I enjoyed, you know, kind of the startup, small business, kind of that type of world. And I also found it interesting to on the legal aspect of intellectual property, so patents, trademarks, and really more. At the idea of, hey, you're going to work with a lot of cooling or cool inventions, cool people are working on a lot of unique things, and you get a lot more variety. And you get, you know, kind of be more impactful. And so that was kind of the the Crossroads I found myself at saying which, you know, kind of which direction I want to go. And, you know, kind of, rather than take one or the other, I kind of, I split the road and decided I was going to do both. So I went off to graduate school and did both an MBA or a master's in business administration as well as a law degree, kind of focused more on intellectual property. So went off and studied both of those kind of with the intent of, you know, I don't want to just be fit into one box or do just one thing, but I'd like to keep a foot in the business world, startup world, and have an opportunity to pursue my own business as well as doing the law degree. So I did that in a Case Western Reserve out in Cleveland, Ohio, studying both of those degrees Michael Hingson  16:34 when you were getting your degree in manner, in Chinese. Was that all about speaking the language, or was it also involved in history and civilization and understanding more about China? What was it like? Devin Miller  16:47 It was really more, certainly, there was a or, I guess, are you saying within college or within the mission itself? 16:54 In college? Okay, yeah. I mean, it was, Devin Miller  16:57 it was still primarily focused on the language. You know, the nice thing is, you can test out of a number of the, you know, entry level or their beginning classes, as long as you can show a proficiency. So there may have been some of that, and you still got, you know, some of the classes, would you still study a little bit of poetry, or, you know, within the language context, they've used poetry as a way to kind of learn different aspects of the language. You'd get a little bit of history, but pretty, or vast majority of focus was kind of both speaking as well as the the written and, you know, those are really as opposed to, like English speaking, where it's phonetics and you can or sound out and kind of understand what a you know, what something means by sounding it out, you don't have to know the word in order To, you know, to pronounce it. Chinese is not that way. So you have characters that are just every character you have to memorize. There is no phonetics. There's no way that you can look at a character and sound it out. And so there's a large amount of just memorizing, memorizing, you know, 20,000 characters to read a newspaper type of a thing. And then on the flip side is you have to learn the language, which is, you know, which are already focused on that, more on the mission, but you have to do pronunciation, so you can say the same word with different tones and it has entirely different meaning. So really, there was enough there on the language side, they tended to primarily focus on that, just because there was quite a bit there to Michael Hingson  18:19 dive into. It's a complicated language. Devin Miller  18:23 It it is certainly or uniquely different from English. I would say probably English to Chinese speakers is the hardest language because it's the most different from their language. And vice versa for English speaking Chinese is at least one of the this or harder languages because it is entirely different. So it is one that has a lot of intricacies that you get to learn. Michael Hingson  18:45 I took German in high school for three years, and then in college, I did a lot of shortwave listening and encountered radio Japan a bunch. So I actually took a year of Japanese, and I think from a written language, it's a lot more complicated than spoken language. I think it's a lot more straightforward than Chinese and a lot of ways easier to learn. But even so, it is different than than Latin languages by any standard. Devin Miller  19:16 But it is. It's an animal in and of itself, but it makes it fun. Michael Hingson  19:21 Yeah, that's right, it does make it fun. Incident. And then, as I said, it was an adventure. And all of that was, was an adventure. My master's is in physics. That was an adventure. And until you spend a lot of time dealing with physics and hopefully getting beyond just doing the math, you learn how much of a philosophical bent and how much about society and the way things work really is wrapped up in physics. So again, it's it's kind of fun, and unlike a lot of physicists or engineers. I've never thought that one is better or worse than the other. I think they both have purposes. And so as a physics person, I never pick on engineers. Devin Miller  20:11 I am, I wouldn't pick up. I wouldn't pick on any physics or physicists or physics majors, either, because that's equally, if not more difficult. And so there's a lot of learning that goes on and involved with all of them. But they're all of them are fun areas to Michael Hingson  20:26 study with. They are. So once you you got your master's degrees, and you you got your law degree, what did you go off and do? Devin Miller  20:36 Yeah, so I mean, I would probably back it up just a little bit. So kind of during that period where I was getting the degrees, couple things happened. Had a couple kids. So started out first kid while I was doing the, I guess the second year where I was in under or doing the law and MBA degree, doing it as a joint degree. And so had the had a kid. And then during that same period, the next year, about a year about a year and a half later, had another kid. And so that puts me as a it's a four year program, if you combine both of them together. And so I was in the kind of the third year, the four year program. And while I was doing those studies, you know, I had a I was doing a couple things. One is, I was doing the both, or studying both majors, raising the family. I was working about 20 hours as a law clerk or for a law firm, and then during that, I can't remember or if it was a flyer, or if it was, you know, an email or whatnot, but came across a business competition, or it's kind of a, it was kind of a, a multi disciplinary competition wherever, you know, people of different degrees and different fields of study would get together, you form a group of four or five, and you work on developing an idea, and then you would enter it into the competition and see how it goes. And so we did that the first year, and we did something, an idea to make Gym Bags less smelly, and then enter that in and took second place. And during that period, next year comes along, we're all in our final year of our degree. And as we're doing that, we are studying the degree and or entering the competition again. And we decided to do something different. It was for wearables. You know, this is before Apple Watch, or, you know, the Fitbit, or anything else. It was well before I knew that, but we just said, Hey, when I was there, thinking, hey, wouldn't it be cool I'd ran my or, I think, my second marathon that time. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could monitor your hydration level so that you can make sure you're staying well hydrated throughout and it helps with the air, not being a sore and being, you know, quicker recovery and performing better. And so out of that, took the genesis of that idea, entered it back into the business comp, or that is a new idea, into the business competition, and did that with the partners, and took second place again, still a little bitter, or bitter that about that, because the people that took first place has entered the same thing that they entered the previous year, but polished, or took the money they've earned previously and polished it made it look a little nicer, and won again because it looked the most polished. But that aside, was a great, or great competition. Enjoyed it. And from that, you know, said, Hey, I think this is a good idea. I think it can be a, you know, something that you could actually build a business around. And so said, Hey, or kind of told the the people that were in the the group with me, you know, we're all graduating. We're going different directions. Would be pretty hard to do a startup altogether. So why don't we do this? Or why don't you guys take all the money that I got, you know that we you're in some reward money, or, you know, prize money. If you take my portion, split it amongst yourselves, and I'll just take ownership of the idea, whatever it is, where, you know, wherever I take it, and simply own it outright, you know, basically buying them out. And so that's what I did. So coming out of, you know, getting the MBA in the law degree, that was kind of always the intent. So, or coming out of school, I went and joined a law firm here in Utah. Was a full time patent attorney, and then alongside, you know, had the side hustle, what I'd really say is kind of a second full time job to where I was, you know, pursuing that startup or small business alongside of doing the law firm. So that was kind of the the genesis for, as I graduated full time attorney working, you know, with a lot of our cool clients and other things, and then also incorporating the desire to do a startup or small business. And that's kind of been, really, the trajectory that I've taken throughout my career is really, you know, finding ways to combine or to pursue both interests together. Michael Hingson  24:26 What happened to the business? Devin Miller  24:28 Yeah, so it so it's still alive today. I've been, I exited. Now it's been a couple year and a half, two years somewhere in there. Have to think back. So it started out. So with the business I started out, it was actually one where, rewinding just a little bit when we when I got started, my dad was also an electrical engineer. He'd actually, you know, he's well or farther into his career, and he done a number of different things across their medical devices through his career. And so he kind of, or he joined on as kind of doing it with us. Hustle with me, and we took that, started to build it. We brought on some additional team members. We brought on an investor, and actually built out and grew the business. It also evolved. So we were starting to test or test out the technology have it with some colleges and some other, you know, athletes, which was a natural place to start it at and about that time, and we were getting kind of to that next hurdle where we either needed to get a further investment or cash infusion, you know, to kind of take it to a more of a marketable, you know, a except a Polish full or ready to go to market type of product. And at that time, as we're exploring that we had or came or got connected with somebody that was more in the diabetes monitoring, they were doing it more from a service base. But you know, the overlay as to kind of how the technologies are overlapped with what they're doing tended to work out pretty well. And so we ended up combining the business to be one, where it was redirected a lot of the technology we developed underlining to be more of a wearables for the diabetes monitor. So that was a number of years ago. I stayed on doing a lot of, some of the engineering and development, primarily more in the intellectual property realm, of doing a lot of patents and whatnot. And then about a year and a half, two years ago, got bought out, was exited from that company and and that continues on today. It's still alive and growing, and I kind of watch it from, you know, from a distance, so to speak, or kind of continue to maintain interest, but don't are not necessarily active within the business anymore. So that was kind of a long answer to a shorter question, but that's kind of where the business eventually evolved to. Michael Hingson  26:36 So now I'm sure that the company is doing things like developing or working with products like continuous glucose monitors and so on. Devin Miller  26:46 Yep, yeah, that's kind of the direction as to what they're headed you Michael Hingson  26:49 well, and what's what's been interesting about several of the CGM type devices is that for people who are blind, there's been a real push to try to get some of them to be accessible. And what finally occurred about a year ago, maybe two years ago, is that one of the devices that's out there was approved to actually incorporate an app on a smartphone, and when the app came out, then it was really easy, although it took an effort to convince people to pay attention to it and do it, but it became technically a lot easier to deal with access, because all you had to do was to make the app accessible. And so there now is a continuous glucose monitor that that is accessible, whereas you wherein you get all the information from the app through voiceover, for example, on the iPhone or through talkback on a android phone that you get when you're just looking at the screen, which is the way it really should be anyway, because If you're going to do it, you should be inclusive and make it work for everyone. Devin Miller  28:06 No, that's cool. Yeah, there's a number of I think, between, you know, being a prevalent, you know, issue that people are dealing with, to, you know, different trying to address things earlier on, and also to motivate people do healthier lifestyle. And kind of the direction I think, is headed where a lot of the the company that's continues on today, from our original technology, is on the non invasive side. So a lot of them have, you have to have a patch, or you have to have periodically prick, or put an arm, you know, arm, right? Something where has a needle in the arm. And this one is kind of trying hair working to take it to that next level, to where it's no longer having to be invasive, and it's really all without having air with sensors that don't require you to have any sort of pain or prick in order to be able to utilize it. So kind of fun to fun to see how the industry continues to evolve. Michael Hingson  28:55 Well, today, we're working on that, and tomorrow, of course, the tricorder. So you know, we'll, we'll get to Star Trek 29:03 absolutely one step at a time. Michael Hingson  29:05 Yeah, but I've kind of figured that people were certainly working on non invasive technology so that you didn't have to have the sensor stuck in your arm. And I'm not surprised that that that's coming, and we'll be around before too long, just because we're learning so much about other ways of making the measurements that it makes sense to be able to do that. Devin Miller  29:31 Yep, no, absolutely. You know, it is a hard nut to crack. The body is very complex. A lot of things going on, and to measure it, not invasively, is certainly a lot that goes into it, but I think there's a lot of good, good technologies coming out. A lot of progress is being made, and certainly fun to continue to see how the health devices continue to hit the market. So certainly a cool area. Michael Hingson  29:53 So why did you decide, or maybe it was a natural progression, but why did you decide to go into patent law? Yeah. Devin Miller  30:01 I mean, I think it was probably a natural progression, and in the sense that, you know, it is one where overall desire was, Hey, I like engineering from the sense I like to think or how things work and kind of break things down and to have a better understanding. So really, intellectual property law and patents and trademarks and others allowed me to work with a lot of startups and small businesses, see a lot of cool things that they're developing still play a hand in it, and yet, also not, you know, be mired down to a long project over multiple years where you, you know, you're a small cog in a big wheel. And so, yeah, that was kind of one where it fit well within kind of the overall business, you know, business desire and business aspect of what I wanted to accomplish, and also just overall, you know, enjoying it or enjoying it. So that's kind of where it might, you know, it married well with the the desire to do startups and small businesses, as well as to work with a lot of other startups and small businesses. Michael Hingson  30:55 That's a lot of fun, to be able to deal with startups and see a lot of new and innovative kinds of things. And being in patent law, you probably see more than a lot of people, which does get to be exciting in an adventure, especially when you see something that looks like it has so much potential. Yep. Devin Miller  31:14 No, it is. It is fun. I get to see everything from I've worked on everything from boat anchors to credit card thing or devices that help elderly people to remove them more easily, from their wallet to AI to drones to software other or software platforms to medical devices. So it gives a ability to have a pretty good wide exposure to a lot of cool, different, you know, very different types of innovations, and that makes her just, you know, a fun, fun time, and be able to work or work with the air businesses as they develop. Are all those different technologies? Michael Hingson  31:50 Well, on the the law side of things, what's the difference between a provisional patent and a non provisional filing? Devin Miller  31:57 Yeah, so, so I don't back it up, and I'll get to your question. But maybe I'd set the stages to when you're looking at what is the difference between a patent and trademark and copyright, because a lot of times when people look at that, that's probably a good question too. Provisional trademark, or I want a, you know, or a non provisional copyright, or whatever it might be, and kind of get the terminology mixed up. So if you're to take it one step back, a provisional patent app or a patent is something that goes towards protecting an invention. So something that has the functionality that does something, that accomplishes something, a trademark is going to be something that is protecting of a brand. So name of a company, name of a product, a cash, phrase, a logo, and those type of things all really fall under trademarks and copyrights are going to be something that's more creative in nature. So a painting, a sculpture, a picture, a book, you know, all those type of things are going to fall under copyrights. And so really, when you're looking at it, you know, kind of breaking it down initially, you look at it as you know, which one is it. And so now to your question, Michael Hingson  32:58 well, before you go there, before you go ahead, before you go there. So if I'm writing software, does that fall under patent or copyright? I would assume if the software is to do something, it would be a patent. Devin Miller  33:12 So software primarily is under a patent. So there's, technically, you can copyright software. Now there's, it's pretty limited in its scope of protection. So if you're to do or software and do it under a copyright, really, all it protects is the exact way that you wrote the code. So you know, got it using this exact coding language. If somebody come along, copy and paste my code, you'll be protected. But it doesn't protect the functionality of how this code works or what it does. It is purely just how you wrote the code. So most of the time, when you're looking at software, it's really going to be more under a patent, because you're not going to want to just simply protect the identical way that you wrote the code, but rather what it does and what it does, yeah. So yep. So yeah, you for if you're to do as as your example, software, primarily, you're going to it's going to fall under patents. Michael Hingson  34:01 Okay, so anyway, back to provisional and non provisional. Devin Miller  34:05 Yeah, so, and when you're looking at doing a patent, you can do there's a couple different types of patents. One is a design patent. It really just goes to something the esthetic nature, the look and feel of a of an invention. So if you're thinking of the iPhone, you know, used to have the curved edges. I had the circle or a button at the bottom. It had, you know, the speaker placement and all those things. And it was just that outward appearance, not the functionality, could go under a design patent, but what the primary patent, which is what most people pursue, is what's called the utility patent application. And the utility patent application is really going towards the functionality of how something works. So the utility, how it works, what it does, and then kind of the purpose of it. And so with that, when you're looking at pursuing a utility patent application, there are a couple different types of patents that you can or types of utility patent patent applications. So. As you mentioned, one is called a provisional patent application. The other one is called a non provisional patent application. So a provisional patent application is kind of set up primarily, a lot of times for startups or small businesses where they're going to have a some product or an innovation that they're working on. They're in earlier stages. They're wanting to kind of protect what they have while they continue to develop it, and kind of flush it out. So provisional patent application is set up to be a one year placeholder application. So it will get, you know, you file it, you'll get patent pending, you'll get a date of invention, and it'll give you a year to decide if you want to pursue a full patent application or not. So you can file that gives you that one year time frame as a placeholder. The non provisional patent application would be the full patent application. So that would be what has, all the functionality, all the features, all the air, formalities and air, and it will go through the examination process. We'll go look at it for patentability. So those are kind of the difference provisional, one year, placeholder, less expensive, get your patent pending, versus the non provisional, that's the full patent application and gives you kind of that, or we'll go through examination. Michael Hingson  36:12 Do most people go through the provisional process just because it not only is less expensive, but at least it puts a hold and gives you a place. Devin Miller  36:22 It really just depends on where people are at. So kind of, you know, a lot of times people ask, Hey, well, what would you recommend? And I'll usually say, hey, there are typically two reasons why I would do a provisional patent application. And if you don't fall into either of those camps, then I would probably do a non provisional patent. Got it. So generally, the two reasons I get one is certainly budgetary. Give you an example. So our flat fee, you know, we do our primarily everything, flat fee in my firm, and a provisional patent application to prepare and file it, our flat fee is 2500 versus a non provisional patent application is 6950 so one is, Hey, your startup, small business, to have a limited funds, you're wanting to get a level of protection in place while you continue to pursue or develop things, then you would oftentimes do that as a provisional patent application. And the other reason, a lot of times where I would recommend it is, if you're saying, Hey, we've got a initial innovation, we think it's going to be great. We're still figuring things out, so we'd like to get something in place while we continue to do that research and develop it and kind of further figure it out. So that would be kind of, if you fall into one of those camps where it's either budgetary overlay, or it's one where you're wanting to get something in place and then take the next year to further develop it, then a provisional patent application is oftentimes a good route. There are also a lot of clients say, Hey, I'm, you know, we are pretty well. Did the Research Development getting ready to release it in the marketplace. While we don't have unlimited funds, we still have the ability to just simply go or go straight to a non provisional so we can get the examination process started, and then they'll go that route. So both of them are viable route. It's not kind of necessarily. One is inherently better or worse than the other is kind of more where you're at along the process and what, what kind of fits your needs the best. Michael Hingson  38:09 But at least there is a process that gives you options, and that's always good. Absolutely, patent laws, I well, I won't say it's straightforward, but given you know, in in our country today, we've got so many different kinds of things going on in the courts and all that, and sometimes one can only shake one's head at some of the decisions that are made regarding politics and all that, but that just seems to be a whole lot more complicated and a lot less straightforward than what you do With patent law? Is that really true? Or are there lots of curves that people bend things to go all sorts of different ways that make life difficult for you? Devin Miller  38:50 Um, probably a little bit of both. I think that it so. The law, legal system in general, is a much more slower moving enemy, so it does have a bit more of a kind of a basis to anticipate where things are headed in general. Now, the exception is, there always is an exception to the rule. Is that anytime the Supreme Court gets involved with patent law cases, I'd say 95% of the time, they make it worse rather than better. So, you know, you get judges that none of them are really have an experience or background in patent law. They've never done it. They really don't have too much familiarity with it, and now they're getting posed questions that are fairly involved in intricate and most of the time when they make decisions, they make it worse. It's less clear. You know, it's not as great of understanding, and it otherwise complicates things more. And so when you get the Supreme Court involved, then they can kind of make it more difficult or kind of shake things up. But by and large, it is a not that there isn't a lot of or involved in going through the process to convince the patent and examiner the patent office of patentability and make sure it's well drafted and has the it's good of coverage and scope, but at least there is, to a degree, that ability to anticipate. Hate, you know what it what's going to be required, or what you may likely to be looking at. You know? The other exception is, is, you know, the, ironically, I think the patent office is the only budget or producing or budget positive entity within all of the government. So every other part of the government spends much more money than they ever make. The Patent Office is, I think the, I think the postal office at one point was the other one, and they have, now are always in the in the red, and never make any money. But, you know, they are the patent office. Now, the problem with that is, you think, great, well now they can reinvest. They can approve, they should have the best technology, they should be the most up to date. They should have, you know, all the resources because they're self funding, and yet, there's always a piggy bank that the government goes to raid and redirects all those funds to other pet projects. And so, or the patent office is always, perpetually underfunded, as ironic as that is, because they're getting, always getting the piggy bank rated, and so with that, you know, they are, if you're to go into a lot of the patent office, their interfaces, their websites or databases, their systems, it feels like you're the onset of the or late 90s, early 2000s as far as everything goes. And so that always is not necessarily your question, but it's always a bit aggravating that you know you can't, as an example, can't submit color drawings. People ask, can you submit videos? Nope, you can't submit any videos of your invention, you know, can you provide, you know, other types of information? Nope, it's really just a written document, and it is line drawings that are black and white, and you can't submit anything beyond that. So there's one where I think eventually it will sometime, maybe shift or change, but it's going to be not anytime soon. I don't think there's any time on the horizon, because they're kind of stuck it once they move, moved over to the lit or initially onto the computer system, that's about where that evolution stopped. Michael Hingson  41:51 Well, the other thing though, with with videos, especially when you get AI involved and so on, are you really seeing a video of the invention. Or are you seeing something that somebody created that looks great, but the invention may not really do it. So I can understand their arguments, but there have to be ways to deal with that stuff. Devin Miller  42:13 Yeah, and I think that even be prior to AI, even we just had, you know, videos been around for 20 or 30 years, even, you know, digital format or longer. That probably, and the problem is, I think it's more of the search ability. So if you have a drawing, you can more easily search drawings and compare them side by side, and they'll do it. If you have a video, you know what? What format is the video? And is it a, you know, dot movie, or dot MOV, or is it.mp for is it color? Is it black and white? How do you capture it? Is it zoomed in as a kind of show all the details? Or is it zoomed out? And I think that there's enough difficulty in comparing video side by side and having a rigid enough or standardized format, the patent office said, man, we're not going to worry about it. Yes, so we could probably figure something out, but that's more work than anybody, any administration or any of the directors of the patent office ever want to tackle so it's just always kind of kicked down the road. Michael Hingson  43:06 Do they ever actually want to see the invention itself? Devin Miller  43:12 Not really, I mean, you so the short answer is no. I mean, they want to see the invention as it's captured within the the patent application. So the problem Michael Hingson  43:21 is, the drawing, they don't want to see the actual device, or whatever it is, well, and a lot Devin Miller  43:24 of times, you know as a inventors, they you know as a patent applicants, as the inventors and the owners, you're saying, hey, but I want to show them the invention. Problem is, the invention doesn't always mirror exactly what's showing in the patent application. Because you're on generation three of your product patent application is still in generation one, yeah, and so it doesn't mirror, and so the examiners are supposed to, they don't always, or aren't always good, and sometimes pull things and they shouldn't, but they're supposed to just consider whatever is conveyed in the patent application. Yeah, it's a closed world. And so bringing those additional things in now you can, so technically, you can request a live in office interview with the examiner, where you sit down live. You can bring in your invention or other or details and information, and when you do it live, face to face with an interview, you can walk them through it. Most very few people attorneys ever do that because one clients aren't going to want to pay for you to one of the offices, put you up in a hotel, you know, sit there, spend a day or two to or with the examiner to walk them through it. It just adds a significant amount of expense. Examiners don't particularly like it, because they have to dedicate significantly more time to doing that. Yeah, they're allotted, so they lose they basically are doing a lot of free work, and then you're pulling in a lot of information that they really can't consider. So you technically can. But I would say that you know, the likelihood of the majority of attorneys, 99 point whatever, percent don't do that, including myself. I've never been to do a live or live one, just because it just doesn't, it doesn't have enough advantage to make it worthwhile. Michael Hingson  44:58 Well, in talking about. About the law and all the things that go on with it. One of the things that comes to mind is, let's say you have somebody in the United States who's patenting, or has made a patent. What happens when it all goes to it gets so popular, or whatever, that now it becomes an international type of thing. You've got, I'm sure, all sorts of laws regarding intellectual property and patents and so on internationally. And how do you get protection internationally for a product? Devin Miller  45:32 File it in each country separately. So, you know, there are people, and I understand the inclinations, hey, I want to get a worldwide or global patent that covers everything in every country. The short answer is, you can't. I mean, technically, you could, if you file a patent into every country separately, nobody, including when I used to work or do work for companies including Intel and Amazon and Red Hat and Ford. They don't have patents in every single country throughout the world because they just don't have enough marketplace. You know, you go to a very small, let's say, South African country that you know, where they just don't sell their product enough in it, it just doesn't make the sense, or the courts or the systems or the patent office isn't well enough to find, or it's not enforceable enough that it just doesn't capture that value. And so there isn't a ability to have a global, worldwide patent, and it really is one where you have to file into each country separately. They each have their own somewhat similar criteria, still a different, somewhat similar process, but they each have their own criteria in their process that has to go through examination. So when you're looking at you know when you want to go for whether it's in the US or any other country, when you're deciding where you want to file it, it's really a matter of what marketplaces you're going to be selling the product into. So if you look at it and you know, I have as an example, some clients that 95% of their marketplace is all in the US, that's where they anticipate, that's probably where they're going to sell it. Well, yes, you could go and find, if you have 2% of your marketplace in Japan, you could go file a patent and get it into Japan, but you have such a small amount of your marketplace that's probably there that it doesn't make sense. And vice versa will have as an example. And a lot of times in the medical devices, they'll a lot of times file both in the EU as well as in the US, because those are two of the predominant medical device and are places where a lot of innovation is going on, where there's a lot of focus on utilization, development, medical devices, and there's just a lot of that demand. And so you're really going to look at it is which, where's your marketplace. The other times are the people, a lot of times, they'll get tripped up on so they'll say, Well, I probably need to file into China, right? And I said, Well, maybe because the inclination is, well, everybody just goes to China. They'll knock off the product. And so I want to have a patent in China so that I can, you know, fight against the knockoffs. And that isn't while I again, understand why they would ask that question. It wouldn't be the right way to convey it. Because if you if all it is is they you have no real, you know, no desire, no plan, to go into China. You're not going to sell it. You're not going to build a business there. If they're knocking it off and just just doing it in China, so to speak, then they're not. There isn't going to be a need to file a patent in China, because you don't have any marketplace in there. There's nothing really to protect. And if somebody makes it in China as a just picking on China, making as an example, and imports it into the US, you can still enforce your patent or otherwise do or utilize it to stop people from importing knock off because it's in the US, because they're, yeah, exactly, they're selling it, importing it, or otherwise doing activities in the US. So it's really a matter of where your marketplace is, not where you think that somebody might knock it off. Or, Hey, I'm gonna get a try and get a global patent, even though my marketplace is really in one or two spots. Michael Hingson  48:38 What about products like, say, the iPhone, which are commonly used all over. Devin Miller  48:44 Yeah, they're going to do, they'll do a lot of countries. They still Michael Hingson  48:47 won't do. They'll still do kind of country by country. Devin Miller  48:50 Yeah, they'll now, they'll do a lot of countries. Don't get me wrong, a lot of right. Phones are sold throughout the world, but they'll still look at it as to where it is, and they still have, you know, issues with them. So one of the interesting tidbits as an example, so going back and rewinding your time, taking apple as an example. You know, they came out with, originally, the iPod, then they had iPhone, and then they had the iPad. Now the question is, when they originally came out with their watch, what did they call it? 49:17 Apple Watch? Apple Watch. Now, why Devin Miller  49:20 didn't they call the I wash, which is what it made sense. It goes right along with the iPhone, the iPad, the iPhone, you know, the all of those iPod on that. And it was because somebody had already got a trademark in China that was for a different company, unrelated to the apple that had it for the iWatch. And so when Apple tried to go into the country, they tried to negotiate. They tried to bully. They weren't able to successfully get the rights or to be able to use I wash within China. China was a big enough market, and so they had and rather than try and split it and call it the I wash everywhere but China and trying to have the Apple Watch in China, they opted to call it the Apple Watch. Now I think they might. Of eventually resolve that, and I think it's now can be referred to as the I watch, I'm not sure, but for, at least for a long period of time, they couldn't. They called it the Apple Watch when they released it, for that reason. So even if you have, you know, a big company and one of the biggest ones in the world, you still have to play by the same rules. And why, you can try and leverage your your size and your wealth and that to get your way, there's still those, there's still those hindrances. So that's kind of maybe a side, a side note, but it's kind of one that's interesting. Michael Hingson  50:30 So that's the trademark of how you name it. But how about the technology itself? When the Apple Watch was created, I'm assuming that they were able to patent that. Devin Miller  50:39 Yeah, they will have, I'm sure they probably have anywhere from 30 to 100 to 200 I mean, they'll have a significant amount of patents, even it's just within the Apple Watch, everything from the screen, the display, how it's waterproof, how it does communications, how does the battery management, how does the touch, how does the interface, all of those are going to be different aspects that they continue to, you know, did it originally in the original Apple Watch, and are always iterating and changing as they continue to improve the technology. So generally, you know that, I'm sure that you will start out with as a business of protecting you're getting a foundational patent where you kind of protect the initial invention, but if it's successful and you're building it out, you're going to continue to file a number of patents to capture those ongoing innovations, and then you're going to file it into all of the countries where you have a reasonable market size that makes it worthwhile to make the investment. Michael Hingson  51:32 So if you have a new company and they've got a name and all that, what should new businesses do in terms of looking and performing a comprehensive search for of trademarks and so on to make sure they are doing the right thing. Devin Miller  51:49 Yeah, a couple of things. I mean, it wanted, if you're it depends on the size of company, your budget, there's always the overlay of, you know, you can want to do everything in the world, and if you don't have the budget, then you have to figure out what goes in your budget. But if I'll take it from kind of a startup or a small business perspective, you know, you first thing you should do is just as stupid and as easy as it sounds, you should go do a Google search. Or, now that you have chat GPT, go do a chat BT search and a Google search. But, you know, because it's interesting as it sounds, or, you know, is you think that, oh, that's, you know, kind of give me or an automatic I'll have still even till today, people come into my office. They'll say, Hey, I've got this great idea, this great invention, and a Lacher getting a patent on it, and they'll start to walk me through it. I'm like, you know, I could have sworn I've seen that before. I've seen something very similar. We'll sit down at my desk, take two minutes, do a Google search, and say, so is this a product that you're thinking of? Oh, yeah, that's exactly it. Okay. Well, you can't really get a patent on something that's already been invented and out there, and so, you know, do a little bit of research yourself. Now there is a double edged sword, because you can do research and sometimes you'll have one or two things happen. You'll not having the experience and background, not entirely knowing what you're doing. You'll do research, and you'll either one say, Hey, I've done a whole bunch of research. I can't really find anything that's similar. When, in fact, there's a lot of similar things out there. There's a patent, and people will say, yeah, it's the same, it's the same invention, but my purpose is a little bit different. Well, you can't if it's the exact same or invention. Whether or not you say your purpose is different, doesn't get around their patent and same thing on a trademark. Yeah, their brand's pretty much 53:20 identical, but they're Devin Miller  53:21 doing legal services and I'm doing legal tools, and so it's different, and it's, again, it's one where there's there they have a false sense of security because they rationalize in their head why it's different, or vice versa. You also get people that will say, Hey, this is even though it's significantly different, it's the same purpose. And so while, while they really could go do the product, while they could get a patent or a trademark, because they think that it's just overall kind of the same concept, then they talk themselves out of it when they don't need to. So I would say, start out doing some of that initial research. I would do it if I was in their shoes, but temper it with, you know, do it as an initial review. If there's something that's identical or the same that's out there, then it gives you an idea. Probably, you know, you're not going to be able to add a minimum, get or patent their intellectual property protection, and you may infringe on someone else's but if you you know, if there's, there's some differences, or have to do that initial research, that's probably the time, if you're serious about, you know, investing or getting business up and going, you've probably engaged an attorney to do a more formal search, where they have the experience in the background and ability to better give a better understanding or determination as to whether or not something presents an issue. Michael Hingson  54:32 Yeah, well, that's understandable. If I've developed something and I have a patent for it, then I suddenly discovered that people are selling knockoffs or other similar devices on places like Amazon and so on. What do you do about that? Because I'm sure there must be a bunch of that that that does go on today. Devin Miller  54:53 Yeah, yes, it does. I mean, I wouldn't say it's not as probably as prevalent as some people think. In other words, not every single. Product, right, being knocked off. Not everything is copied. Sometimes it's because, you know, either I don't have the ability, I don't have the investment, I don't have the, you know, it's not as big enough marketplace, I don't have the manufacturing, I don't have the connections, or it is simply, am respectful, and I'm not going to go do a discord because I'm not going to try and rip off, you know, what I think is someone else's idea. So it doesn't happen that as frequently as I think sometimes people think it does, but it certainly does occur. You know, there's a competitive marketplace, there's a profit incentive, and if there's a good product that's out there that people think they can do something with, and there's a motivation to do it, either because people are unaware that it's an issue, or that they they're unaware that they can't copy it or is protected. And so if you get into that, you know, there's a few potentially different recourses. One is, you know, a lot of times you'll start out with the cease and desist.

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介中文在这一期《5分钟中文》中，我分享了自己去年夏天在日本白马村登山的一次经历。 这次登山并没有成功登顶，但却让我对“判断力”“量力而行”和“知难而退”有了更深的体会。 有时候，选择停下来，本身就是一种智慧。EnglishIn this episode of 5-Minute Chinese, I share a hiking experience from last summer in Hakuba, Japan. Although I didn't reach the summit, the experience taught me a lot about judgment, knowing one's limits, and when to turn back. Sometimes, choosing not to continue is the wiser decision.日本語今回の「5分間中国語」では、去年の夏に日本・白馬村で経験した登山の話を紹介します。 登頂には至りませんでしたが、判断力や無理をしないこと、引き返す決断の大切さについて考えさせられた体験でした。#登山经历 #旅行 #判断力 #Hiking #Travel #DecisionMaking #hakuba #登山 #白馬 #判断力发短信给我！ Send me a text!Support the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️ If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

Have you ever had that problem where you buy seats "together" (consecutive seat numbers), but it turns out they're actually not "together" (split across different rows rather than adjacent)? So have we! And we've decided to do something about this problem: create a Mandarin Chinese lesson about it. Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/1597

On this week's podcast, I speak with Robert Kilsby, a former Australian Special Forces Special Air Services Regiment Vietnam combat veteran. Born on Boxing Day in 1951 in the small coal-mining town of Leigh Creek, South Australia, Robert's early years were steeped in the spirit of adventure—bushland escapades, go-kart races, and the kind of rugged independence that would come to define his life. By age 14, Robert had already experienced one of life's hardest lessons—his parents' separation. But instead of falling, he rose. He understood something rare at that age: that people, even parents, are human. That insight marked the beginning of a lifelong journey of resilience, purpose, and service. In 1969, just one day after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, Robert began his military career. He joined the Australian Regular Army with a determination to be a part of the Vietnam War before it ended. Not long after, at just 18 and a half years old, he became one of the youngest soldiers to be badged as an SAS Trooper—an elite path marked by grit, humour, and unstoppable drive. From high-risk operations, including those with SEAL Team 1 in Vietnam, to developing unconventional warfare tactics back home, Robert helped shape the future of Australia's Special Forces. His career spanned infantry, intelligence, Mandarin Chinese language training, and leadership roles in SASR counterterrorism operations. His post-military life has been just as extraordinary. From founding Veterans In Motorsport – Australia, to paddling 2,450 kilometres down the Murray River at age 70 to raise funds for homeless veterans. Even after facing down stage 4 cancer in 2022 and open-heart surgery in 2024, Robert's next mission is already underway: becoming a keynote speaker and author. His message? 'Ultimate Freedom – How to Be in Charge of Yourself' from his 2026 book Ultimate Freedom – The Five Fundamental Principles to Being In Charge of Yourself. A philosophy forged in fire, lived on two battlefields—one in combat, the other in life.  You're about to hear from a man who's never stopped pushing limits—who embodies courage, service, and reinvention.  Presenter: Adam Blum Guest: Robert Kilsby Editor: Kyle Watkins

节目简介｜Episode Description｜エピソード紹介中文｜Chinese在这一期《5分钟中文》中，我跟大家分享了我星期六参加的一个日本文化活动——書き初め（Kakizome），也就是新年里的第一次书写。我聊了这个活动的内容、现场的体验，以及为什么我觉得这样的文化活动对学习语言、了解不同文化来说都很有意义。 如果你也在学习中文，欢迎你留意一下自己城市里的文化活动，也许会有意想不到的收获。EnglishIn this episode of 5-Minute Chinese, I talk about a Japanese cultural tradition called Kakizome, the first calligraphy of the new year. I share what the event was like and why cultural experiences like this can be meaningful for language learners and for understanding different cultures. If you're learning Chinese, I also encourage you to look for cultural events in your own city—you might be surprised by what you find.日本語｜Japanese今回の『5分間中国語』では、私が土曜日に参加した日本の伝統文化「書き初め（Kakizome）」についてお話しします。新年に行う最初の書写という習慣や、実際の体験、そして言語学習や異文化理解にとって、こうした文化活動がなぜ大切だと感じたのかを紹介しています。 中国語を勉強している方にも、ぜひ身近な文化イベントに目を向けてみてほしいと思います。#書き初め #书法 #文化活动 #博物馆 #书法体验 #Kakizome #NewYear #CulturalEvent #Museum #Calligraphy  #新年 #文化体験发短信给我！ Send me a text!Support the show如果您喜欢我的播客，欢迎通过下方方式表达您的支持。您的支持对我来说是巨大的鼓励。但无论如何，我都很感激有您作为听众。能够每周与您分享几分钟的时光，对我来说是莫大的荣幸。❤️ If you enjoy my podcast, you're welcome to show your support through the options below. Your support means a great deal to me and is a huge source of encouragement. But no matter what, I'm truly grateful to have you as a listener. It's an honor to share a few minutes with you each week!❤️ ☕

Spoken Mandarin can feel like an onslaught of similar sounds, half-recognised tones and unknown words. To add insult to injury, it's often too fast! Should you slow it down? If so, how?#learnchinese #listening #speed #rateofspeech #fast #slowLink to article on Hacking Chinese: Chinese listening, fast and slow: Three ways of slowing down Mandarin speech: https://www.hackingchinese.com/chinese-listening-fast-and-slow-three-ways-of-slowing-down-mandarin-speech/Beyond tīng bu dǒng, part 4: Learning to process spoken Mandarin quickly and effortlessly: https://www.hackingchinese.com/beyond-ting-bu-dong-part-4-learning-to-process-spoken-mandarin-quickly-and-effortlesslyThe Fluent Listener: Navigating Spoken Mandarin Like a Fish in Water: https://www.hackingchinese.com/courses/the-fluent-listener-navigating-mandarin-like-a-fish-in-waterLearning Chinese through comprehensible input: https://www.hackingchinese.com/learning-chinese-comprehensible-inputLearning the third tone in Mandarin Chinese: https://www.hackingchinese.com/learning-the-third-tone-mandarin-chineseLearning the neutral tone in Mandarin: https://www.hackingchinese.com/learning-the-neutral-tone-in-mandarinListen more than once: How the replay button can help you learn more Chinese: https://www.hackingchinese.com/listen-more-than-once-how-the-replay-button-can-help-you-learn-more-chineseUsing Audacity to learn Chinese (speaking and listening): https://www.hackingchinese.com/using-audacity-to-learn-chinese-speaking-and-listeningThe 10 best free C listening resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners: https://www.hackingchinese.com/the-10-best-free-chinese-listening-resources-for-beginner-intermediate-and-advanced-learnersBeginner Chinese listening practice: what to listen to and how: https://www.hackingchinese.com/beginner-chinese-listening-practice-what-to-listen-to-and-howThe best YouTube channels for learning Chinese: https://www.hackingchinese.com/the-best-youtube-channels-for-learning-chineseMore information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found at https://www.hackingchinese.comMusic: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)

There are quite a few forms of address for people in Mandarin Chinese, and being the nice, polite student that you are, you want to use the most appropriate one when you meet someone new. In this lesson, learn how to ask what you should call someone. Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/1587

As the year wraps up, we are replaying some of our favorite conversations from 2025, including this one!What if bankruptcy, a global financial crisis, and other hurdles along the way aren't the end of your brand, but instead a way to help you define what it truly is?Agility requires a willingness to experiment and adapt, not just in your technology stack, but also in your organizational structure and the very culture of your company. It also demands a deep understanding of your customer and a commitment to delivering personalized experiences.Today, we're going to talk about building a resilient brand in the face of uncertainty, balancing the need for both efficiency and innovation, and the critical role of company culture in achieving long-term success. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Shawn D. Nelson, CEO at Lovesac. About Shawn D. Nelson Shawn D. Nelson is the author of Let Me Save You 25 Years: Mistakes, Miracles, and Lessons from the Lovesac Story. He is the founder and CEO of the Lovesac Company, which designs, manufactures, and sells such furniture as modular couches and bean bag chairs. Nelson holds a BA in Mandarin Chinese from the University of Utah and a Master's degree in Strategic Design and Management from Parsons, The New School for Design in New York City, where he later became an instructor. Shawn D. Nelson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawndnelson/ Resources Lovesac: https://www.lovesac.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Palm Springs, Feb 23-26 in Palm Springs, CA. Go here for more details: https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/ Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://ratethispodcast.com/agileConnect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the year wraps up, we are replaying some of our favorite conversations from 2025, including this one!What if bankruptcy, a global financial crisis, and other hurdles along the way aren't the end of your brand, but instead a way to help you define what it truly is?Agility requires a willingness to experiment and adapt, not just in your technology stack, but also in your organizational structure and the very culture of your company. It also demands a deep understanding of your customer and a commitment to delivering personalized experiences.Today, we're going to talk about building a resilient brand in the face of uncertainty, balancing the need for both efficiency and innovation, and the critical role of company culture in achieving long-term success. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Shawn D. Nelson, CEO at Lovesac. About Shawn D. Nelson Shawn D. Nelson is the author of Let Me Save You 25 Years: Mistakes, Miracles, and Lessons from the Lovesac Story. He is the founder and CEO of the Lovesac Company, which designs, manufactures, and sells such furniture as modular couches and bean bag chairs. Nelson holds a BA in Mandarin Chinese from the University of Utah and a Master's degree in Strategic Design and Management from Parsons, The New School for Design in New York City, where he later became an instructor. Shawn D. Nelson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawndnelson/ Resources Lovesac: https://www.lovesac.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Palm Springs, Feb 23-26 in Palm Springs, CA. Go here for more details: https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/ Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://ratethispodcast.com/agileConnect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Almost every serious discussion about options to constrain the development of advanced AI results in someone raising the question: “But what about China?” The worry behind this question is that slowing down AI research and development in the US and Europe will allow China to race ahead.It's true: the relationship between China and the rest of the world has many complications. That's why we're delighted that our guest in this episode is Kayla Blomquist, the Co-founder and Director of the Oxford China Policy Lab, or OCPL for short. OCPL describes itself as a global community of China and emerging technology researchers at Oxford, who produce policy-relevant research to navigate risks in the US-China relationship and beyond.In parallel with her role at OCPL, Kayla is pursuing a DPhil at the Oxford Internet Institute. She is a recent fellow at the Centre for Governance of AI, and the lead researcher and contributing author to the Oxford China Briefing Book. She holds an MSc from the Oxford Internet Institute and a BA with Honours in International Relations, Public Policy, and Mandarin Chinese from the University of Denver. She also studied at Peking University and is professionally fluent in Mandarin.Kayla previously worked as a diplomat in the U.S. Mission to China, where she specialized in the governance of emerging technologies, human rights, and improving the use of new technology within government services.Selected follow-ups:Kayla Blomquist - Personal siteOxford China Policy LabThe Oxford Internet Institute (OII)Google AI defeats human Go champion (Ke Jie)AI Safety Summit 2023 (Bletchley Park, UK)United Kingdom: Balancing Safety, Security, and Growth - OCPLChina wants to lead the world on AI regulation - report from APEC 2025China's WAICO proposal and the reordering of global AI governanceImpact of AI on cyber threat from now to 2027Options for the future of the global governance of AI - London Futurists WebinarA Tentative Draft of a Treaty - Online appendix to the book If Anyone Builds It, Everyone DiesAn International Agreement to Prevent the Premature Creation of Artificial SuperintelligenceMusic: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain DeclarationC-Suite PerspectivesElevate how you lead with insight from today's most influential executives.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Whether you prefer a high-end salon or that guy cutting hair under the bridge, this lesson will cover all the Mandarin Chinese a guy needs to simply make his hair shorter (and then a bit shorter). Beware, though: learning this material could result in massive hair loss. Use with caution. Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/1519

In this episode of The Christian Wellbeing Show, Stuart stands in for Michelle and gives the reason for the show's lack of episodes for the past few weeks. He then delivers an encouraging message for the listener during these turbulent times. Recently shared at a church meeting in the UK, the listeners found the message extremely poignant and helpful for their own lives.Reflecting on Psalm 46, Stuart asks the pertinent questions:What are we to do in the face of the very troubling times in which we're living?Where and how can we find strength and help?What's happening to the world and where is it headed?He elaborates on the current political, economic, and social chaos, and draws parallels with historical biblical contexts where God's people faced oppression and injustice. You'll learn about:A wonderful move of God that is taking place among the younger generationIncredible happenings in the midst of chaos and troubleWhere the world is going in spite of the problems we see.Join Stuart in this episode, ‘Is There Refuge in These Troubling Times?' and find comfort in the storms, peace for your heart, and hope for the future.ABOUT THE HOSTMichelle has been a believer for over 37 years, involved in full-time Christian ministry for 35 years in six countries on three continents, and is a master of transition and cross-cultural expert. Originally from the UK, Rev. Dr. Michelle has a doctorate degree in ministry (D.Min) with specialisms in Cross Cultural Mission and Natural Health & Nutrition and is ordained by Church For The Nations, Phoenix, USA. With huge experience of personal trauma, she is certified in grief, crisis and trauma counselling and Animal-Assisted-Therapy & Activities (AAT/AAA), is a trauma awareness trainer, and a C-PTSD survivor. She is author of the book, ‘Surviving Trauma, Crisis & Grief', printed in English and Mandarin Chinese and endorsed by US traumatologist and author, the late Dr H Norman Wright, formerly one of America's most prominent Christian counsellors. Michelle is a ministry co-founder, speaker, truth-teller, voice for freedom, advocate for the family, and has a passion for natural, healthy living and seeing people's lives improved. She homeschooled her three children, has ten grandchildren, is an artist, dog lover and keen gardener with a love for self-sufficiency.Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor and it is recommended that you speak to your GP, doctor, or health professional of your choice regarding any medical concerns you may have.ABOUT THE CO-HOSTStuart is a fifth-generation believer and has been teaching the Word of God for over 40 years. Since quitting his career as a corporate administrator with a top 100 UK plc, he has been involved in full-time, cross-cultural ministry in six countries on three continents. He is the author of several books and is a trained life coach (kingdompurposecoaching.com), a natural ability consultant, and ordained through Church for the Nations, Phoenix. Stuart has a bachelor's degree in business and a doctorate degree in Christian Ministry, with a specialisation in Cross-cultural and Kingdom Mission.LINKShttps://linktr.ee/ChristianWellbeingShow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've all met one of those people that seems to be allergic to everything. Sure, it's not their fault, but that doesn't stop others from being annoyed at the dinner table. In this lesson, learn many sentences patterns related to expressing "allergies," "allergic," and "allergic reaction" in Mandarin Chinese, while also experiencing some fun social tension. Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/1512

What if bankruptcy, a global financial crisis, and other hurdles along the way aren't the end of your brand, but instead a way to help you define what it truly is?Agility requires a willingness to experiment and adapt, not just in your technology stack, but also in your organizational structure and the very culture of your company. It also demands a deep understanding of your customer and a commitment to delivering personalized experiences.Today, we're going to talk about building a resilient brand in the face of uncertainty, balancing the need for both efficiency and innovation, and the critical role of company culture in achieving long-term success. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Shawn D. Nelson, CEO at Lovesac. About Shawn D. Nelson Shawn D. Nelson is the author of Let Me Save You 25 Years: Mistakes, Miracles, and Lessons from the Lovesac Story. He is the founder and CEO of the Lovesac Company, which designs, manufactures, and sells such furniture as modular couches and bean bag chairs. Nelson holds a BA in Mandarin Chinese from the University of Utah and a Master's degree in Strategic Design and Management from Parsons, The New School for Design in New York City, where he later became an instructor. Shawn D. Nelson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawndnelson/ Resources Lovesac: https://www.lovesac.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Register now for Sitecore Symposium, November 3-5 in Orlando Florida. Use code SYM25-2Media10 to receive 10% off. Go here for more: https://symposium.sitecore.com/Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Palm Springs, Feb 23-26 in Palm Springs, CA. Go here for more details: https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/ Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if bankruptcy, a global financial crisis, and other hurdles along the way aren't the end of your brand, but instead a way to help you define what it truly is? Agility requires a willingness to experiment and adapt, not just in your technology stack, but also in your organizational structure and the very culture of your company. It also demands a deep understanding of your customer and a commitment to delivering personalized experiences.Today, we're going to talk about building a resilient brand in the face of uncertainty, balancing the need for both efficiency and innovation, and the critical role of company culture in achieving long-term success. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Shawn D. Nelson, CEO at Lovesac. About Shawn D. Nelson Shawn D. Nelson is the author of Let Me Save You 25 Years: Mistakes, Miracles, and Lessons from the Lovesac Story. He is the founder and CEO of the Lovesac Company, which designs, manufactures, and sells such furniture as modular couches and bean bag chairs. Nelson holds a BA in Mandarin Chinese from the University of Utah and a Master's degree in Strategic Design and Management from Parsons, The New School for Design in New York City, where he later became an instructor. Shawn D. Nelson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawndnelson/ Resources Lovesac: https://www.lovesac.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Register now for Sitecore Symposium, November 3-5 in Orlando Florida. Use code SYM25-2Media10 to receive 10% off. Go here for more: https://symposium.sitecore.com/Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Palm Springs, Feb 23-26 in Palm Springs, CA. Go here for more details: https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/ Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company