Podcasts about Mark Twain

Join Kosta and his guest: Dr. Troy Smith, Author, Historian and Professor of History at Tennessee Tech University.In this episode: In 2021 you started writing an opinion column in the Sparta Expositor called “A Liberal Dose”. This column began at the request of the Expositor's Editor looking to add more progressive commentary after the events of January 6th and the insurrection on our nation's capital. After writing your column for more than 4 years you've been asked to take a step back from the publication citing security concerns and threatening messages directed at you specifically. My first question starts here: who do you think is actually being protected by this column getting ending? Freedom of speech in America is a hot topic. Not to make light of the situation, but it has been for about 250 years. When you think about the moment we're in: the tragic assination of Charlie Kirk, the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel, the cancellation of Stephen Colbert and contributors like you across the country, what does this mean for the freedom of speech and what can we do to protect it? As Mark Twain famously said, “History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes.” You know a lot more about history than me, and I want to take this opportunity to ask you, what comes next? What comes next in the United States? What comes next in Cookeville?Read Dr. Troy Smith's Blog:  https://tnwordsmith.blogspot.com Shop Dr. Troy Smith's Published Works on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/author/B004G7QU7A?ccs_id=b910bd69-aade-430a-b2a9-220a051d438eBetter Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a product of Morgan Franklin Media and recorded in Cookeville, TN.Join us with Plenty Downtown Bookshop at A Novel Affair: A Jane Austen Gala for Literacy on November 8, 2025 at Putnam County Convention Center. Find out more about A Novel Affair: A Jane Austen Gala for Literacy and buy tickets here:https://plentybookshop.com/gala

Today is a day where we let our interests dictate the flow. We discuss everything from the Three Rivers Dam in China, to waste management, to the museumification of society. We also talk Mark Twain, Animorphs, and the infamous Action Park. Wash all that goodness down with a shot of snail vodka and nice helping of surströmming for a pallet cleanser… We also did something very visual in this episode: we looked through a LOT of Animorphs covers. This segment will be available to watch on our YouTube soon!Plus! Rob tries to book William Sanderson for some voice acting roles! How will it turn out?! Tune in to find out!And if you enjoy what we are doing here at the Pit and would like to support us further, please check us out our patreon, where we have exclusive extended episodes! Today, we get an update on Metaphysical Megan and look into the TLC special My Husband's Not Gay from 2015. We also have some merch for sale up on our Etsy, as well as a limited run of embroidered beanies out now! Only a few left… Shoot us a DM on IG if you're interested.EtsyLinktreeYoutubePlaybacksong at end of episode: Larry Sellers - Wizdumb & Hash AdamsInstagram:@madshroommc@ruining_your.childhood@feral_williams@aralessbmn@blackmagicnoize206@strangeloopanimation

When a podcast asks Unspookable to collaborate, especially if it is one of our all time favorite podcasts with one of the coolest hosts in the business, we will jump at the opportunity. We are thrilled to present this special Halloween Edition of The Past and The Curious featuring Unspookable creator Nate DuFort. Give it a listen and if you want more cool, quirky, and surprising stories from history (with the best musical accompaniment), go subscribe to The Past and The Curious wherever you listen to podcasts. Did a no-longer-living Mark Twain send a novel from the great beyond with a Ouija Board? Find out about the real story with help from our pal Nate DuFort of the podcast, Unspookable. Looking for merch from Unspookable and your favorite Soundsington Media shows? Head on over to our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dashery store ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, hats and more. ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://soundsington-media.dashery.com Advertise on Unspookable: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertising@airwavemedia.com

Mark Twain. „Tomo Sojerio nuotykiai“. Skaito aktorius Saulius Čiučelis.

Mark Twain. „Tomo Sojerio nuotykiai“. Skaito aktorius Saulius Čiučelis.

A reading of "A Ghost Story" by Mark Twain for Halloween!!! Enjoy the story and have a GREAT Halloween!!!! Have FUN and Be Safe!!!! The Old Man's Podcast Team!!   Get everything you need to start your own successful podcast on Podbean here: https://www.podbean.com/tomspodcastPBFree   Visit our webpage where you can catch up on Current / Past Episodes and read Shonda's Blogs! www.theoldmanspodcast.com  

Mark Twain. „Tomo Sojerio nuotykiai“. Skaito aktorius Saulius Čiučelis.

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." Mark Twain

Mark Twain. „Tomo Sojerio nuotykiai“. Skaito aktorius Saulius Čiučelis.

Welcome to Book Club Day at the Professional Left, where we're spoiling a 141-year-old novel that remains the undisputed champ of American literature—and revealing why it's more relevant than ever.What does Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn teach us about the struggle for America's soul in the age of Trump? Huck faces an agonizing choice: turn in his friend Jim and save his soul, or commit what he believes is a mortal sin and "go to hell." What happens when a sound heart collides with a deformed conscience?Why are the Duke and the King—usually portrayed as "lovable scamps" in film adaptations—actually dangerous grifters who sell Jim back into slavery for "forty dirty dollars"? How does Huck transform from a passive, undecided observer into an activist with a plan? And what can we learn from his refusal to accept the "Both Sides" lie of his era?We're fighting the same battle Twain declared war on: a culture that wraps monstrous lies in scripture and protects them with passive, silent complicity.All right, then—we'll go to hell.More at proleftpod.com.Not safe for work. Recorded live from the Cornfield Resistance.Stay in Touch! Email: proleftpodcast@gmail.comWebsite: proleftpod.comSupport via Patreon: patreon.com/proleftpodMail: The Professional Left, PO Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791Support the show

AI therapists and caregivers. Digital tutors and advisors and friends. Artificial lovers. Griefbots trained to imitate dead loved ones. Welcome, to the bustling world of AI-powered chatbots. This was once the stuff of science fiction, but it's becoming just the stuff of everyday life. What will these systems do to our society, to our relationships, to our social skills and motivations? Are these bots destined to leave us hollowed out, socially stunted, screen-addicted, and wary of good-old-fashioned, in-the-flesh human interaction? Or could they actually be harnessed for good? My guest today is Dr. Henry Shevlin. Henry is a philosopher and AI ethicist at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) at Cambridge University. In a series of recent papers, Henry has been exploring this brave new world of "social AI" and its philosophical, ethical, and psychological dimensions. Here, Henry and I sketch the current landscape of social AI—from dedicated platforms like Replika and CharacterAI to the more subtly social uses of ChatGPT and Claude. We consider several tragic cases that have recently rocketed these kinds of services into public awareness. We talk about what's changed about AI systems—quite recently—that's now made them capable of sustained relationships. We linger on the possible risks of social AI and, perhaps less obviously, on the possible benefits. And we consider the prospects for regulation. Along the way, Henry and I also talk about his 81-year-old father, his teenage self, and, of course, the kids these days; we consider whether social AI, in its potential harms, is more like social media or more like violent video games; we talk about "deskilling" and it's opposite "upskilling"; and we of course take stock of a certain elephant in the room. Alright friends, this is a fun one. We've been wanting to explore this dawning age of social AI for some time. And we finally found, in Henry, the right person to do it with. Enjoy!   Notes 3:00 – The piece in The Guardian—'It's time to prepare for AI personhood'—by Jacy Reece Anthis. 5:00 – The Replika subreddit.  9:30 – News coverage of recent research on the bedside manner of AI systems. 10:30 – For a recent paper on AI by the philosopher Ophelia Deroy, see here. 11:30 – For some of Dr. Shevlin's recent writing about "social AI", see here and here. 13:30 – OpenAI's recent report, 'How People Use ChatGPT'. 16:30 – For examples of popular media coverage of recent (tragic) cases involving chatbots, see here, here, here, and here. 21:00 – The paper by Rose Guingrich and Michael Graziano on how users describe their relationships with chatbots. 24:00 – The precise quote by Mark Twain is: “Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.” 25:30 – The classic paper on Mary's room by Frank Jackson. 27:00 – Dr. Shevlin has also worked on questions about animal minds (e.g., here), as well as a number of issues in AI beyond “social AI” (e.g., here, here). 30:00 – The classic essay by Isaiah Berlin on hedgehogs and foxes. 32:00 – The classic paper on ELIZA, introduced by Joseph Weizenbaum in 1966. A version of ELIZA that you can interact with. For work by Sherry Turkle, see here. 34:00 – Dr. Shevlin's recent paper about the “anthropomimetic turn” in contemporary AI. 41:00 – For recent work on whether current chatbots pass a version of the Turing test, see here.  45:00 – Ted Chiang's story, ‘The Lifecycle of Software Objects,' was re-published as part his collection of short fiction, Exhalation. 46:00 – For Dr. Shevlin's recent writing on machine consciousness, see here. 48:00 – For more on the possibility of consciousness in borderline cases (like AI systems), see our past episodes here and here. 52:00 – The study on whether people attribute consciousness to LLMs. 54:30 – A recent paper on griefbots by scholars at the University of Cambridge. A popular article about the phenomenon. 55:30 – A blogpost describing the so-called DigiDan experiment. 1:00:00 – Some of the potentially positive social qualities of AIs are discussed in this essay by Paul Bloom.  1:19:30 – For more on Iain Banks' culture series, see here. 1:20:30 – A popular article on the phenomenon of hikikomori.   Recommendations The Oxford Intersections: AI in Society collection The new podcast, Our Lives with Bots   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, which is made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Indiana University. The show is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd. Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter here! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com. For updates about the show, visit our website or follow us on Bluesky (@manymindspod.bsky.social).

AI is the latest tech bombshell that is touching or impacting virtually all users of technology in the modern world. Accordingly, tech users need truly understand the landscape of received wisdom and its problems. So, how do you think about AI…and how should you think about AI? Join Kevin as we dive into the fascinating world of the problems with received wisdom, Artificial Intelligence, and supernatural intelligence. // Download this episode's Application & Action questions and PDF transcript at whitestone.org.

Mark Twain once said that he could “live for two months on a good compliment.” Just like we need oxygen, food and water, we need encouragement and praise to be healthy. And as much as you may enjoy hearing a good word about yourself, kids truly thrive on encouragement and praise.Read PostParenting EbookOther Parenting PostsHarvest ConferencesJokes to share with kids

This two-part video series provides a deep historical analysis of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD), tracing its ingredients from 19th-century New England intellectual and social revolutions to its status as America's de facto civic religion. We argue that MTD collapsed when the sexual and moral revolutions forced a devastating fracture between its Christian heritage and its core principles of self-actualization and benevolence, leading to the polarized political landscape of today.Moralist Therapeutic Deism Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eHYMzanOvs&t=4679s @triggerpod   @InterestingTimesNYT   @JonathanPageau   @PaulVanderKlay 00:00:00 - Introduction and Recap00:10:07 - MTD, Chicago, and Obama00:13:00 - Cornell as Microcosm00:25:15 - Tim Keller on programatic secularism00:35:55 - Mainline Christianity00:37:45 - Wokeness and MTD00:47:05 - MTD and Partisanship00:49:20 - Arena vs Agent00:51:00 - Donald Trump 00:56:15 - Nationalism vs Globalism01:03:40 - Who killed MTD?01:05:55 - Competing Arenas01:08:25 - The future of Christian NationalismIn this video I mention:Aaron Renn, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Baker, Alfred, Allen C. Guelzo, Amos, Andrew Jackson Davis, Ann Lee, Anagarika Dharmapala, Arthur Conan Doyle, Athanasius, Barack Obama, Benjamin Franklin, Billy Graham, Black Lives Matter, Bud, Buddha, Calvin, Cathleen Falsani, Catherine Fox, Charles B. Rosna, Charles Carroll Bonney, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Charlie Kirk, Christian Smith, Christopher Pearse Cranch, Clement of Alexandria, Conrad Grebel, Constantine, David Bentley Hart, Deepak Chopra, Donahoe, Donald Trump, Eddie Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Elijah Muhammad, Eliott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Elizabeth Keckley, Ellen Todd, Emilie Todd Helm, Emanuel Swedenborg, Epictetus, Erica Kirk, Ernst Troeltsch, Ezra Klein, Fanny Hayes Platt, Faustus Socinus, Finney, Fox Sisters, Franz Anton Mesmer, Fred Shuttlesworth, Frederick the Wise, Friedrich Nietzsche, Galen, George Barna, George Fox, George W. Bush, Gregory of Nyssa, Henry Clay, Henry David Thoreau, Henry James, H. P. Blavatsky, H. Richard Niebuhr, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harold Ockenga, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Helen Schucman, Hosea Ballou, J. Gresham Machen, Jacob Blake, James, James Comey, James Lindsay, James Russell Lowell, Jared Sparks, Jean H. Baker, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Jesus Christ, Jim Lindsay, John, John Adams, John Bunyan, John D. Rockefeller, John Henry Barrows, John Locke, John Milton, John Murray, John Stott, Jonathan Edwards, Jordan Peterson, Joseph Priestly, Joseph Smith, Judith Skutch, Julius Dresser, Kant, Karl Menninger, Karlstadt, Kate Fox, Kenneth Minkema, Koot Hoomi, Kyle Rittenhouse, Lelio Socinus, Leonard Zusne, Lou Malnatis, Luke Thompson (  @WhiteStoneName  ), Lyman Beecher, Madame Blavatsky, Margaretta Fox, Marianne Williamson, Mark Parker (  @MarkDParker  ) , Mark Twain, Mary Baker Eddy, Mary Todd Lincoln, Matt Herman, Meister Eckhart, Melinda Lundquist Denton, Mesmer, Micah, Michael Bronky, Michael Servetus, Monophysite, Morya, Moses, Nancy Pelosi, Napoleon Bonaparte, Nettie Colburn Maynard, Newton, Niccolò Machiavelli, Nicholas of Cusa, Norman Vincent Peale, Oprah, Origen, Paul, Paul Tillich, Paul Vanderlay, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, Plotinus, Proclus, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ramakrishna, Rick Warren, Robert Schuller, Robin D'Angelo, Rod Dreher, Ronald Reagan, Ross Douthat, Rowan Williams, Rudolf Steiner, Samuel Johnson, Septimus J. Hanna, Shailer Mathews, Shakers, Shadrach, Socrates, Soyen Shaku, Swami Vivekananda, Tad Lincoln, Tertullian, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Starr King, Tracy Herman, Virchand Gandhi, Victoria Woodhull, Warren Felt Evans, William Ellery Channing, William James, William Lloyd Garrison, William Newton Clarke, Willie Lincoln, Winthrop, Zwingli.

Send us a textIn this episode, Mike and Doug weave between Mark Twain's obsession with wealth, the Beatles' messy breakup, and their own journeys as songwriters. Along the way they ask whether art is meant to sustain us financially, or if it belongs alongside chopping wood and carrying water. Doug shares a Nashville story that contrasts cover-band grind with the raw heart of songwriting, while Mike experiments with AI tools that reflect his music back to him — sparking questions about what machines can't capture: the soul. Together they explore insecurity, paradox, and the strange beauty of making art in the mess of real life

As we continue shaping the introduction to NeuroHarmonics, we're presenting a three-part series on Walter Russell. We touched on his work a few years ago, but we're returning to it now because his life so clearly illustrates what our method is all about. Since NeuroHarmonics blends timeless human wisdom with insights from modern brain science, we'll begin with some core wisdom principles and then see how Russell's extraordinary life embodied one of its deepest truths. Here are a few key teachings to consider: 1.    There is an infinite intelligence behind all creation—call it God, or any name you like. 2.    Our understanding of this power is always limited by our finite minds. 3.    This remarkable power lives within every person and can be called the “Indwelling God Presence.” 4.    Because it is always within us, we can choose to uncover it and connect our awareness to it. 5.    Focusing on it makes us better human beings and greatly increases our inner fulfillment and happiness. Now, how does Walter Russell fit in? Born in poverty in Boston in 1873, he left school after the fourth grade. Yet he became a world-renowned painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, and spiritual philosopher. He was also a multi-millionaire New Yorker and a close friend of presidents, kings, poets, and artists. So how did this disadvantaged fourth-grade dropout achieve such heights? Amazingly, Russell claimed it was simple: he tapped into the Indwelling God Presence within him, which was the source of his wisdom, creativity, and initiative. This first episode in our Walter Russell series offers the amusing story of how I first heard of him, along with an overview of his extraordinary life. As it unfolds, keep in mind that he credited everything to the Indwelling Presence he contacted within himself. And most important of all, he insisted that anyone could do the same. In his view, the question was never if it works—the only question was whether you will try it. Enjoy the story…    Episode 40 – Self-Bestowed Genius                         I have found that every once in a while, some unexpected information can come from an unexpected source and make an unexpectedly major change in your outlook on life. Something like that happened to me a few years ago.             I was in the pool behind our condo and a stranger came over and introduced himself to me.  We struck up an informal conversation with one random topic casually leading to another. At one point he asked me if I had ever heard of someone named Walter Russell. I drew a complete blank. The name meant nothing to me at all and I said so.             Looking surprised at my ignorance, he launched into a string of hyperboles about this person I'd never heard of - that he was one of the most multi-talented people who ever lived, that his rags-to-riches story was one of the classics in American History, that he was a teacher of Consciousness Evolution, who claimed that we can all become geniuses if we want to and that Walter Cronkite had called him the “Leonardo DaVinci of our time,” when he announced his death on national TV in 1963. And on and on and on.            Then, he said with a sly smile, that Walter Russell was so brilliant and so prolific that he made Benjamin Franklin look like a “schlepper.”           Now, I'm pretty familiar with US history and culture, and I've been aware of Consciousness Evolution since the idea first caught my eye in the early 70s, and in all this time, I had never once heard of Walter Russell. So naturally, I was skeptical. After all, if this Russell guy was so great, how come I had never heard of him?           The stranger's looks didn't help dispel my doubts either. He was obviously a bit “out there.” A not-quite-former hippie in his mid-sixties, it seemed like he had not-quite-returned from wherever it was that his last acid trip had dropped him off.            And frankly, his Ben Franklin “schlepper” comment rubbed me the wrong way. Schlepper is a fairly nasty Yiddish term with a host of meanings, one more pejorative than the next.  It's basically a lazy dim-wit who can only perform menial tasks and can't be trusted. Just your average dolt. Now, I have always been a huge fan of Franklin's, and idea of applying the term to him just didn't sit well with me.           Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the stranger in the pool did a perfect Groucho Marx impersonation. It turned out that he did Groucho impressions for a living, and he broke into a string of jokes that were actually pretty funny. Impersonation seemed like it was second nature to him.              Then, he looked over to the far corner of the pool, rolled his eyes, sang “Hello, I must be going” and swam away. An instant later, he was playing Groucho to a few well-groomed ladies who had just come into the pool.           It was a mildly amusing event at the pool during a pleasantly uneventful summer, and I made a lukewarm mental note to look this Walter Russell up someday. I jotted the name down, stuck it in a junk drawer and forgot about it.           At least six months must have gone by before I stumbled on the note again. I was sort of killing time, which is something I've been known to be a master of, so I thought I'd do a quick Google search.           I was expecting to find a few miniscule bits of information that I'd browse for a few moments, then move onto something else. But what I found really was something else and in a matter of seconds, I couldn't believe what I was reading. And I don't mean that as a figure of speech. What I mean is that I actually couldn't believe what I was reading. It seemed preposterous, like it couldn't possibly have been true. I had never seen anything quite like it before.           Walter Russell had been a prominent 20th century figure, a self-made millionaire who lived in New York City and had a studio in Carnegie Hall.  A master painter and sculptor, he had also started a large architect firm in the city and had been intimately involved with the construction and financing of seventeen significant buildings. He owned a stable of Arabian horses in Central Park and was a renown equestrian. He took up figure skating in his forties and won the US national championship against competitors in their twenties. And later in life, as he got involved in the study of chemistry, he helped upgrade the periodic table of elements.           His name was always in the papers and he ran with quite a crowd - Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Edison, Nicola Tesla and FDR, to name just a few. Not to mention his close friend Thomas J. Watson, Sr., who founded IBM.           And yet not one person that I knew had ever heard of him. It was incredible. How could someone who had accomplished so much, in so many different fields, on such a grand scale, be so unknown? It didn't make sense. After all, this wasn't ancient history and it certainly didn't happen in a vacuum.           I was astounded and kept reading. Two books that were several decades old caught my eye – “The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe,” and “The Secret of Working Knowingly with God.” The titles surprised me. I didn't see their connection to the subject matter I had been reading.           I looked them up and the price was right, so I ordered them blind. When they came a few days later, it was immediately clear that this whole story ran much deeper than I thought.  I was stunned by the books and couldn't put them down.           To begin to grasp the depth of the story, the first thing to understand is that Russell was basically uneducated. Born into a very poor family in Boston in 1871, his parents got him in a job in a grocery store when he was about 10 years old.  To help support the family, he dropped out of school after the fourth grade and never went back. So, amazingly given all that he had accomplished, he had no college, no high school or even junior high.           Yet, he went on to become one of the most accomplished people in history - a self-made millionaire, friend to presidents and kings, an internationally renowned painter, sculptor, musician, architect, scientist, sportsman, businessman, and master teacher. His resume was obviously well-documented and his vast accomplishments were completely verified.           Although what he did was truly amazing, even more amazing was how he said he did it. According to him, from the time he was a young boy, he experienced a series of inner illuminations that continued throughout his entire life. And these inner illuminations tapped him into a vast storehouse of wisdom, indeed the wisdom of the universe.           It all started when he was seven years old.  He was playing marbles with some friends and suddenly, “Something tremendous happened to me, something indescribable, something so beautiful, so wonderful, a sort of complete blotting out of everything concerning the physical universe, concerning my body.           “A great burst of changing colors – blue, violet, orange seemed to fill and pervade all space and me. I was swallowed up in it. Then that ceased and there was a blinding flash and I stood motionless.”           He couldn't function at all for several hours and it took him over a week to recover his normal consciousness. But he really wasn't the same. In fact, he was never the same again.           It happened to him again the following May. And then it happened every May for the rest of his life. Every seven years the episode would be particularly intense, lasting for several days at a time. Once, he was in the altered state, in tune with this universal intelligence for 39 days.           Following each experience, he would find that he was different, as though his whole being had been elevated. Sublime understandings would crystallize in his mind. He seemed to have direct access to new levels of information. His existing talents would deepen or he would develop new ones.           For example, he could play the piano at a young age, but following one of the episodes, he was suddenly able to write and play advanced musical compositions, with a depth of emotion and pathos that was extraordinary. Everyone noticed the changes and several of the formal pieces he composed were played by symphony orchestras throughout the world.           The exact same thing happened with his skill as an artist. He had some talent and training, but it expanded exponentially after one of his episodes and he started churning out masterpieces. He soon became the artistic director of Colliers Magazine, and his series of pictures called, “The most beautiful children in America” won several awards.      He drew a portrait of Teddy Roosevelt's children that hung in the White House for a time.             On another occasion, his talent as a sculptor manifested instantaneously. He created over fifty masterpieces including busts of Thomas Edison and Mark Twain that are breath-taking in their level of realism.           Soon afterwards, in a completely different arena, he invented the concept of the co-op apartment in Manhattan and personally drew-up the first co-op lease in history, which his lawyer said was perfect in its legal detail.           It was all so hard to believe, not to mention that it was all done by a fourth-grade dropout. But he said that he had been granted the ability to transcend his mind's normal thought processes and tap directly into the intelligence of the universe which, he said, is all-knowing.            This intelligence is divine in nature and is the home of all our noble human virtues including wisdom, love and compassion, according to him.  He termed it the very life force which sustains us all and carries the genius of our consciousness on every plane - physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual.           Russell's work output continued to explode, much of which required extreme precision. And his incredible achievements were acknowledged at the highest levels. For twelve consecutive years, he was the main trainer of the entire IBM sales force. Thomas J. Watson, the company's Founder and President, said that Russell's accomplishments were equal to seven lifetimes of achievement, all performed at peak levels of excellence.           His life became an example of a most lofty ideal – that of being able to live in a state that he termed “ecstatic joy,” while remaining completely grounded and succeeding brilliantly in his life.            According to him, this rarified state, where the inner and outer worlds are in complete harmony, is not only completely natural, it is the way we are meant to live.  And he said that it doesn't diminish with age. In fact, it increases.               He was living proof. He remained in good health well into his old age, with his awareness fully intact, enjoying profound happiness and fulfillment. He finally passed away exactly on his 92nd birthday, and that was in 1963, when the average life expectancy for an American man was sixty-six!           He always held that this genius intelligence exists within every single one of us and we are each capable of connecting with it exactly as he had. We can all become much greater than we think, but we have to make the decision to open up to it ourselves to it and connect with it in a way that is our own.           “Many have asked if I could more specifically direct them how to kindle that spark of inner fire which illuminates the way to one's self. That I cannot do,” he wrote. “I can merely point the way and tell you of its existence. You must then find it for yourself.” And he famously added, “Mediocrity is self-inflicted. Genius is self-bestowed.”           Now if you're like I was when I first got exposed to this story, with all of its implications, you're probably pretty blown out. It's a lot to absorb, on many levels.           He left behind an enormous amount of material on the subject of consciousness evolution and expansion.  His writings are vast and the subject matter is profound. A great place to start is with his “Five Laws of Success.”            In the next episode, we'll explore them and you may be surprised by how simple, natural and powerful they are. Like all of Russell's teachings, they are meant to be practical. You just try them on for size and see how they fit.           Well, that's the end of this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let's get together in the next one.

Laura channels the timeless wit and wisdom of Mark Twain—not only as the legendary author and humorist, but as a soul continuing his purpose on the other side. His message reminds us to lighten up, discover the gold within our own stories, and allow our voices to shine with creativity and truth.Mark Twain (born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910) grew up along the Mississippi River in the small town of Hannibal, Missouri. His childhood surrounded by riverboats, storytelling, and the colorful characters of a frontier town would later inspire his most famous works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.He showed us that humor is more than entertainment—it's a powerful tool for truth and transformation, capable of opening minds, dissolving prejudice, and inspiring change.For more information about Laura and her work you can go to her website www.healingpowers.net or find her on X @thatlaurapowers, on Facebook at @realhealingpowers and @mllelaura, and on Instagram, TikTok and Insight Timer @laurapowers44.

Charli is joined by Tyler Madden this weekJoin us at EPIC, November 5th and 6th at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, TXFind us @EmpoweringPumps on Facebook, LinkedIn,  Instagram and Twitter and using the hashtag #EmpoweringIndustryPodcast or via email podcast@empoweringpumps.com   

In this episode, Christy brings in Mark Twain and Charlie Chaplin. Their lives were both a dance between humor and seriousness. They both had alter egos - Samuel Clemens with Mark Twain and Charlie Chaplin with the Tramp. They explian how humor is used to teach and to heal. To join the Inner Self reading waitlist with Christy email garybodley @ gmail . com To learn more about Christy Levy, click here. To book a 55-minute connect call with Gary, click here For more info about the new 7 Rays Activations program, please click here  

 The frame house, known as the Mark Twain Boyhood Home, was constructed about 1843 or 1844. The Clemens family lived here until leaving town in 1853. Following their departure, this became a rental property. In 1911 it was scheduled for demolition to make way for a larger building.The Hannibal Commercial Club (forerunner to the Chamber of Commerce) started a fund drive to save the house. Mr. George Mahan stepped forward, purchased the house, fixed it up, and gave it to the City of Hannibal on May 15, 1912. For several years, a caretaker lived in most of the rooms and showed the parlor to the public.1935, the Mark Twain Centennial celebration included a museum in the lobby of the B&L Building, at Fourth and Broadway. The museum was popular and led to the erection of the stone museum adjacent to the Boyhood Home. This museum included living quarters above the museum, so the caretaker moved out of the Boyhood Home. The remaining rooms of the home were then opened to the public.The metal viewing platform was installed over the winter of 1984-1985 in preparation for the Mark Twain Sesquicentennial. A full restoration of the Boyhood Home occurred in 1990-1991. This included rebuilding two rooms at the rear that had been removed in about 1885.The Boyhood Home has been open to the public since 1912, making it one of the earliest historic preservations in the country. It is on the National Register of Historic Buildings and is designated as a National Historic Landmark. https://marktwainmuseum.org/http://www.yourlotandparcel.org

Percival Everett, né en 1956 en Géorgie aux États-Unis, est l'auteur d'une vingtaine de romans dont «Effacement» (2001), qui explore les stéréotypes raciaux dans le monde littéraire, et adapté au cinéma sous le titre «American Fiction» en 2023. Ont suivi «Blessés», «Montée aux enfers» et «Châtiment» dans la veine du polar. Son nouveau roman «James», couronné par le National Book Award et le prix Pulitzer de la fiction en 2025 revisite le classique «Les Aventures de Huckleberry Finn» du point de vue de Jim, l'esclave en fuite.   Traduit de l'anglais (États-Unis) par Anne-Laure Tissut « Ces gamins blancs, Huck et Tom, m'observaient. Ils imaginaient toujours des jeux dans lesquels j'étais soit le méchant soit une proie, mais à coup sûr leur jouet. [...] On gagne toujours à donner aux Blancs ce qu'ils veulent. » Qui est James ? Le jeune esclave illettré qui a fui la plantation ? Ou cet homme cultivé et plein d'humour qui se joue des Blancs ? Percival Everett transforme le personnage de Jim créé par Mark Twain, dans son roman Huckleberry Finn, en un héros inoubliable. James prétend souvent ne rien savoir, ne rien comprendre ; en réalité, il maîtrise la langue et la pensée comme personne. Ce grand roman d'aventures, porté par les flots tourmentés du Mississippi, pose un regard incisif entièrement neuf sur la question du racisme. Mais James est surtout l'histoire déchirante d'un homme qui tente de choisir son destin. (Présentation des éditions de l'Olivier)

Tonight, for our monthly Snoozecast+ Deluxe bonus sleep story, we'll read the opening to Mark Twain's “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court” published in 1889. While we at Snoozecast adore ALL our listeners equally, our monthly bonus episodes like this one are specifically made for our Snoozecast+ Deluxe premium subscribers. If you are not a Deluxe subscriber, you will here a trimmed version of the story. To learn more about our 2 premium subscription options, go to snoozecast.com/plus. As a non-Deluxe listener, Tonight's satirical novel tells the story of Hank Morgan, a 19th-century engineer from Hartford, Connecticut, who, after a blow to the head, finds himself transported back in time to the England of King Arthur. The book was one of the earliest major works of time-travel fiction, predating H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by six years. At the same time, it sat firmly in Twain's style: humorous, biting, and rooted in American sensibilities. Though filled with fantastical elements like knights, castles, and magic, the story is just as much a sharp social commentary as it is an adventure. When first published, the novel stirred controversy for its irreverent treatment of Arthurian legend, but over time it has come to be recognized as a clever and influential blend of satire, science fiction, and historical fantasy. — read by 'V' — Sign up for Snoozecast+ to get expanded, ad-free access by going to snoozecast.com/plus! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain. Arthur C. Brooks once said, “Kindness and warm-heartedness are the antivenom for the poisonous contempt coursing through the veins of our political discourse.” Just because you disagree doesn't mean you have to be disagreeable.

Brian and Al are back for another issue of The Silver Surfer (#38) as the Surfer and Thanos have their final battle...well, that's what the Surfer thinks! Plus, discussions about Nebula's leadership, the appreciation of animation and quotes by Mark Twain! A World On Fire: An All-Star Squadron Podcast Bluesky Comics.org Facebook Firefly "I'll Be In My Bunk" Into the Knight Podcast Jason Voorhees Jonathan Hickman Marvel.fandom- Silver Surfer #38 My Dress-Up Darling Office Space OHOTMU or NOT Podcast Queensberry Rules The Restoration Shirobako X Opening Music- Lino Rise “Intro Pompeii” https://www.yummy-sounds.com Licensed Under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0   Closing Music- Sound Design Provided by Jason Donnelly http://www.djpuzzle.com All Rights Reserved

When you think of great pseudonyms you probably think of Mark Twain, Butch Cassidy, The Red Baron and others.  Those are pretty classic. One celebrity trotted out what might be the worst pseudonym in history. 

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. –Mark Twain Check out John Lee Dumas' award winning Podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire on your favorite podcast directory. For world class free courses and resources to help you on your Entrepreneurial journey visit EOFire.com

Jason Fraley interviews actor Richard Thomas, who stars in "Mark Twain Tonight" at the National Theatre in Washington D.C. this Saturday and Sunday, inheriting the role of Mark Twain from the late Hal Holbrook. They also discuss his Emmy-winning TV career in “The Waltons,” “The Americans” and “Ozark,” as well as his Tony-nominated Broadway career in “The Little Foxes” and touring as Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” (Theme Music: Scott Buckley's "Clarion")

 John Isaac Jones's new biographical novel on Samuel Langhorne Clemens, A/K/A Mark Twain, brings the fascinating life of America's most famous humorist to you in vivid, captivating detail. His time - 1840s-1910 America. Wagon trains moving west; California gold rush; telegraph invented; War between the States; Lincoln assassinated; the golden spike; Custer massacred; the trail of tears; invention of electric light, the telephone, and the automobile; the Spanish-American War; political events leading to WWI. His loves - His strait-laced, highly-religious mother Jane who vowed he was "born to be hanged!"; Laura Hawkins, his childhood sweetheart to whom he was unable to commit; Ina Coolbrith, the beautiful California poetess and lover who vowed to hold him; his beloved wife Olivia who urged him to become “a serious writer;” his oldest daughter Susan whom he worshipped from the day she was born until the day of her death.His genius – Samuel Langhorne Clemens, news reporter, steamboat pilot, gold miner, lecturer, world-traveler, adventurer, author of the classic Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn books; the first man to circumnavigate the world on a steamship; singlehandedly invented the travelogue genre when he wrote Innocents Abroad; later books, including A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Roughing it, Life of the Mississippi and the short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, earned him the title “The father of American literature.”https://johnisaacjones.com/#content http://www.yourlotandparcel.org

durée : 00:05:30 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Philippe Garbit - L'émission "Histoires sans dessins" proposait en 1965 une lecture d'extraits de "Notes sur Paris" dans lesquelles Mark Twain tournait en ridicule la façon qu'ont les prêtres français de dire la messe... - réalisation : Virginie Mourthé

What is your data trying to tell you? In this episode, John Dues talks to Andrew Stotz about why most leaders misread data, overreact to single results, and miss the real story. Discover how Deming thinking exposes when change is truly happening and how to use a process behavior chart to listen to the real story. Plus, find out why nine years of ‘stable' results may still demand transformation. Tune in and rethink data-driven leadership!    0:00:02.2 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we dive deeper into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussion with John Dues, who is part of the new generation of educators striving to apply Dr. Deming's principles to unleash student joy in learning. The topic for today is understanding variation is the key to data analysis. John, take it away.   0:00:27.8 John Dues: Andrew, it's good to be back. Yeah. So, we've just started the school year in Ohio, so I thought doing a session on goal setting would be a good place to kick off the year. And I was thinking a lot of leaders, school leaders and leaders in general, are setting goals around this time period. And I was really thinking about having this Deming lens. I was thinking, how did I set goals before I sort of started understanding this approach? And it's, you know, this is one of those things where if you really stop and think about it, goal setting is a lot harder than it seems at first glance. Things like, how do you set a reasonable goal? And then once you've gotten to that place, how do you know if things are improving? How do you know if things are getting worse? And I was thinking how powerful this understanding variation method is for folks that may be struggling with those questions.   0:01:32.9 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. In fact, that's a great question for the listener and the viewer. Like, how do you set goals? How did you set goals in the past? How have you improved that? And I was thinking when you were speaking, I didn't set goals. I gave proclamations. You know, 20% of I want to see this and that. And they were just stretch targets without any means or methods. So yeah, interesting.   0:01:55.2 John Dues: Yeah. How do you set the target? Was it arbitrary? Is it based on some standard that you heard somewhere? A lot of times you have no idea sort of what's behind that target or you've sort of associated it to something that's familiar. Like in my case, we often sort of set goals that sort of mimic the grade scale. So, you know, 80% is a common goal for something like test scores, you know.   0:02:23.7 Andrew Stotz: But they don't even call them goals anymore. They call them, let me remember, I think it's called KPIs.   0:02:30.0 John Dues: KPIs, targets, you know, lots of different things for sure. And I think what I've seen is that a lot of the reason that goal setting is so hard is because you, well, one, you misinterpret your data in the first place. And a lot of that misinterpretation, at least in the education sector, is because leaders don't have the knowledge. They don't know about natural variation. They're typically making comparisons between some current performance level, some previous value. But those two things, those two data points don't show you, don't convey the behavior of that data across time. So, what we do and what I did before I sort of discovered this method is you overreact to a single data point. Probably less frequently, you underreact to the data because you don't have this understanding of, you know, how much is the data moving up and down sort of naturally almost no matter what you're doing. Now, that's not always the case, but that's the case that I've found in a lot of situations. And so until you start to take that into account, those natural ups and downs, then you just misinterpret the data over and over again, usually by overreacting is what I've seen.   0:03:54.9 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:03:56.0 John Dues: So there's, you know, I think as a starting point, people in the Deming community will be familiar with, a lot of people. But others listening to this probably have never heard of this idea of dividing variation into, I've heard it described as like two flavors. There's the routine variation, what I call natural variation, things vary naturally no matter what you're doing. And then there's exceptional variation where things are so different that there is reason to pay attention to this. And what I found through studying this is, the key is knowing how to tell the difference between those two types of variation. And don't do that, lots of confusion, lots of wasted effort. And so that's really where the power of this methodology comes into play. And for anybody that's studied this, you sort of realize that you have to have a tool to make that differentiation. It's not arbitrary. And so that's where what I call the process behavior chart, some people call the control chart, where that comes into play because that tool allows us to tell what type of variation is present. And it also allows us to tell if the system is predictable or unpredictable. And once we have that understanding, then we can chart an improvement sort of roadmap that makes sense.   0:05:21.8 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. In fact, I've applied two of the things, you know, one of the things to my pass rates and admission rates, I applied the process chart, the control chart, based upon your recommendation a long time ago. And it did help me to kind of think if, you know, in my case, I wanted to break out of that standard outcome that I was getting. And so I realized, something has to change substantially in the system in order to get a different result than this variation that I was getting. That was the first thing. And then the second one, a couple of nights ago, I was giving a lecture and I was using your work that you and I have talked about, as well as Mike Rother's stuff on goal setting and having the target. And then there's that obstacle. And what I realized when I gave a little talk on it and I used the diagram and I showed the obstacle, it became kind of apparent to everybody like, oh, yeah, there's an obstacle there that we don't know how to solve.   0:06:27.6 John Dues: Yeah.   0:06:28.3 Andrew Stotz: And that's where PDSA came in. And we started talking about that, as you have taught previously. So, yeah, I'm excited to hear what you have to say today.   0:06:38.2 John Dues: Yeah. And the Mike Rother model, I mean, he does have this target that's this long term target that's pretty hard to hit. And you don't really know what you're going to do. But the difference there then in the situation I'm describing is that that in Mike's model, that target is knowingly outside of the current sort of capability of the system. And they're coming together as a team and saying, how do we get to that target six months from now or a year from now? And we're working towards that rather than someone has just arbitrarily set some target, without a realization that the system isn't capable of hitting that currently. Those are two completely different scenarios. Yeah. So, I think I'll share my screen. Well, actually, before I do that, I would just say, too, because I know sometimes when I introduce these things, a lot of times people get scared away because they think the math is hard. And what I would say there is that there's the creation of a process behavior chart probably takes about fourth grade level math skills. You really only need to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.   0:07:49.3 John Dues: That's it. But the thinking, I think, actually can be taught all the way down to the kindergarten level. And I've actually seen kindergartners explain the data on a process behavior chart. So, if anybody gets scared away at this part, the math is simple and the thinking is also pretty simple and powerful once you sort of have the basics. So, I'll go ahead and share my screen so the folks that are watching have a visual to follow along on. And for those that don't, I'll do my best to describe it. When we're talking about a process behavior chart, and this one's sort of an annotated version so that things are clear. But basically a process behavior chart is just a time sequence chart. It has upper and lower natural process limits, and we plot data for some measure that we're interested in. And the chart typically has a central line so that we can detect a trend of those plotted values toward perhaps either limit. So, this particular chart, the data is the percent of students who scored proficient or higher on the Ohio third grade reading state tests from spring 2004 through 2015.    0:09:06.8 John Dues: So, I've labeled sort of some of those key parts of the chart. So, just kind of call those out. Again, the red lines are the lower and upper natural process limits, sort of bound where you'd expect the data to be in a stable system.   0:09:21.1 Andrew Stotz: And those are 1, 2, 3 standard deviations or what?   0:09:28.1 John Dues: Well, this particular chart, it's what I call a process behavior chart. So it's actually, it's not standard deviation. It's based on a measure of dispersion called the moving range. And then there's a formula that smarter people than me figured out sort of how to use that moving range to set the red lines. But the important thing to know about the limits is that they're set empirically. And that just means that they're based on the data. And so they are where they are, not where I want them to be necessarily. I don't get to choose where they are, how wide they are, where they're placed numerically is based on the data itself. And then that green center line for this particular chart is the average of all the blue dots. And then the blue dots is each year of, again, testing data.   0:10:19.4 Andrew Stotz: 2004 to 2015 as the x-axis, yep.   0:10:27.0 John Dues: Yeah. So, you have a decade and a half or so, or sorry, a decade plus of data here. So, a good amount of data. So, you can kind of see how things are performing over time on this third grade reading test. And so the purpose of the chart, like we talked about, is to separate those two flavors of variation, the routine and the exceptional. And this chart is a really great example of just natural or routine variation. So, I'm looking for patterns in the data, like a single data point that would be outside the end of those red process limits. And you don't see that. The results for these years instead are just bouncing around an average of about 78.5%. Now there's some years where it's a little higher than that and some years where it's a little lower. But the point is none of those increases and decreases are meaningful. There's only that natural variation present. But the problem is, in the typical data analysis method, what I call the old way, the simple sort of limited comparison, is that a leader will rely on comparisons between the current figure and some previous value.   0:11:48.9 John Dues: And probably the most common and why I chose this data, at least in my world, is a leader will compare last year's test scores and this year's test scores. That's very, very common. But the problem is, again, that what I'm calling a limited comparison, the comparison between two years of data, it doesn't take natural variation into account. So, what happens is we try to ascribe meaning to those increases or decreases between data points when in reality there's often no difference to be found. And I have a really great example of this. Let me switch my screen here. So, there's a lot of information here, but it's pretty simple to understand. So, this is a snapshot from 2017/2018 state test results. And so this is a document that was published by our Department of Education here in Ohio back during those school years. And the thing is, it may be eight or so years old, but it's as relevant today as when it was published eight years ago. We're still making the same sort of mistakes. So, we're basically, when we look at the data in this chart, we're basically being led to believe that there's been this meaningful decline in performance in third grade ELA.   0:13:16.4 John Dues: That's what's signified by that red arrow in the first row of the table. So, you have the ELA data says that in '16/'17, 63.8% of our third graders were proficient. And in the following year, 61.2% were proficient. And there's this red down arrow to say, oh, things got worse this school year, at least when it was published. But then if you look at the blue box, the text for those that have video, in the text it says we're not supposed to worry because, "third grade saw decreases this year, but has maintained higher proficiency than two years ago." So. Then you start to think, well, which is it? Should I be worried about my third grade ELA state test scores because of the most recent decrease, you know, as of when this was published? Or should I not worry because the scores are better than they were two years prior to that?   0:14:21.7 Andrew Stotz: And that depends what side of the argument you're on.   0:14:24.4 John Dues: Depends what side of the argument you're on. What story do you want to tell with this data, right?   0:14:30.3 Andrew Stotz: So, it's bad enough to be potentially misled by this probably common variation, but then to have both sides of an argument be misled at the same time.   0:14:41.0 John Dues: Right, yeah. Ultimately it seems like what they're trying to do is show improvement because you have this big headline up here that says, Ohio students continue to show improved achievement in academic content area.   0:14:55.2 Andrew Stotz: Yay!   0:14:58.5 John Dues: But there's a way to actually answer these questions definitively using this method, right? And so what I did was I took the data from the three years of the state testing for third grade ELA from this state education department publication, and I just plotted it on a process behavior chart. And then I continued plotting it for the more recent data that's happened since this, because three data points isn't a lot, so I kept plotting it. And so now we have, going all the way back to the first year of data in this state testing document, we have 2015/2016 data, and of course now we have data all the way up through the end of the last school year, 2024/2025. So, we have nine data points. So I plotted it, right? It looks like this. So, here's those same data as the first three data points, spring 2016, spring 2017, spring 2018.   0:15:58.3 John Dues: That's from the table from the previous slide. And then I've continued plotting things for, you know, spring of 2018, '19, '21, '22, '23, '24, and '25. So, now we have nine years of data. And what we can see is, just like what I would have predicted, even if I had only had those three years to work with that were from the state testing document and not the more recent data, but there's no evidence of improvement. It's definitive. And so you see these nine data points. They're just simply bouncing around this average of 61%. That's what the green line shows. It's almost perfectly balanced, in fact. So, three of the points are actually below the average. One point is almost right on the line, the average line. And then there's five points above. And if you follow it from point to point, it increases, then decreases, then increases, then decreases, then increases very slightly for a couple or three or four years in a row. Right? But there's no signals or patterns in this data to indicate any changes of significance. Right? So claims like, you know, yeah, we've declined in this most recent year from that testing document or, oh, we shouldn't worry too much because it's better than two years ago. All of that is nonsense.   0:17:24.6 Andrew Stotz: So, the title should have been nine years of no improvement.    0:17:29.7 John Dues: Nine years of no improvement. Nine years of stable data. And the thing is, a lot of data looks just like the state testing data over time. Not only in education, but in other things. And how I've heard this described by people that use this methodology is that, claims of improvement are often nothing more than writing fiction. And I think that's a very good description for what we see here. And the thing is, is like, I'm not trying to throw the person that wrote that document under the bus. All I'm saying is that there's a better way to be looking at data like this, a way that makes more sense.    0:18:24.9 Andrew Stotz: It made me think of the Mark Twain quote, rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated.   0:18:39.9 John Dues: Give me one second here. My screen switched on me. There we go. Okay. So, when I think about this data, there's no real decline in performance, there's no real increase in performance. It's just stable performance. I think the key for leaders, systems leaders especially, is that this system, the way we would describe it is it's producing predictable results, and it's performing as consistently as it is capable. And so it's a waste of time to explain the natural variation in a stable system. Because what people would say is that there's no simple single root cause for this noise.   0:19:24.5 Andrew Stotz: And I think it's even better way of saying it. It's not a waste of time, it's a waste of your career.   0:19:32.6 John Dues: That'd be a very apt way of describing this.   0:19:36.0 Andrew Stotz: It kind of goes back to the point that Dr. Deming said, which was that, a manager could spend his life putting out fires and never improve the system. And every little thing above and below was a little, little mini emergency or a response was made every year because of the under or over, you'd just spend, you know, it would just be whack-a-mole.   0:20:01.9 John Dues: Yeah. But I think the thing for people to understand is I'm saying this system is performing as capable as it is, or as the performances is what this particular system is capable of. But that doesn't mean just because it's stable and predictable, like this one is, you know, it's up above 61% one year, and then it's down below it a little bit or right on the line. That doesn't mean that stable means acceptable. It doesn't mean stable is satisfactory.   0:20:37.1 Andrew Stotz: I'm thinking that this is neutral, you know, it's an observation rather than a judgment.   0:20:42.5 John Dues: Yeah. It's just what is. It's the process is producing what you would expect it to produce because it's stable and predictable.   0:20:49.8 Andrew Stotz: I want to just mention that my mind's wandering because I know that you help people with these types of charts. And when I was working with a hospital here in Thailand, they had a great room that they set up that was all blacked out and it was full of these great computer screens and guys in their technicians, like 10 of them in this room. But the room was dead silent, blacked out 100%. And they were radiologists and all the x-rays, MRIs, and everything that were being done on the machines outside were coming into them and then they were making their judgments on it. And then they would submit that and then the doctors would very quickly get a read on that. And I was just thinking, imagine being a person that just all day long looking at these types of charts. Like just any system can be described by the... And then what's your judgment on this? Yep, common cause. That's it.    0:21:50.9 John Dues: Yeah. And I think it obviously doesn't mean that there isn't work to be done. Like in this case, even though it's stable and predictable, so if I was putting a bet down on what the results are for spring 2026, at the end of this school year, I'd put my money somewhere between, let's call it 55% and 65%. And I'd be right almost every single time, I think, as long as nothing changes. But that doesn't mean, like I said, it doesn't mean there's not work to be done because when you look at this, this means that about 60% of third graders are proficient in any given school year on this Ohio third grade state test, which means that two in five students are not reading proficiently. So, the improvement roadmap, there has to be some fundamental changes to how we do third grade reading instruction, curriculum, assessment. Something fundamental has to change if we want to get a different set of results.   0:22:54.8 Andrew Stotz: And one of the things that I've kind of come to believe in my life, right or wrong, I'm not exactly sure, but it's like having traveled to so many countries and seen so many places, I kind of feel like people get what they demand. Like the population of a country, if they don't demand certain behavior from politicians, they don't get it. And so on the one hand, this is a neutral thing, but I think you can also make a judgment that the population of Ohio is not in a continuous uproar to see this change.   0:23:39.0 John Dues: Yeah. Well, I would say very few people even have this picture in their head, whether it's educators or the general public, because every time we get one of these state testing reports, it usually has only two or three years of data. So no one even remembers what happened.   0:24:01.9 Andrew Stotz: I agree that they don't have clarity, real good clarity like you're bringing us here. They have an understanding of what's happening generally. And this is what, so the reason why I'm mentioning that is because part of the benefit of trying to understand the state of a system is to understand that the level of change or work or new thinking that has to go into saying, modifying, let's just say that the population was in an uproar and they decided that they wanted to get to 90% proficiency from 60%. The level of rethinking is such a huge thing. And I think what this chart tells me is like, that's kind of what's set in stone. And in order to move beyond what's set in stone, there is a whole lot of work and a whole lot of new thinking that has to go into that. And it must be continuous. And that's part of the constancy of purpose. And you do it for three years and then a new guy comes in and he changes it. And then next thing you know, it's not sustained.   0:25:17.4 John Dues: Yeah. I mean, yes, you'd have to do something significant and then you'd have to stick with it. That constancy of purpose phrase is right on because you'd have to, first you'd have to develop the right plan and then you'd want to test it. But then once you started seeing some evidence of improvement, you'd have to stick with that plan for a decade or more to see those types of results. And that's really hard when the political will shifts, the focus shifts, you have a pandemic, whatever the thing is, you have less money for school, whatever that thing is or any combination of that, it makes it very challenging to sustain.   0:25:57.8 Andrew Stotz: And the reason why I'm raising this point is because it just kind of really hits me that take away Ohio, take away education, take away all of those things and just produce a control chart on any process in any business, in any school, and you're gonna see the current state.   0:26:17.3 John Dues: Yep, absolutely. Yeah. You can use this in any setting, any data that occurs over time, you could use this methodology.   0:26:24.8 Andrew Stotz: And one of the questions I have in my mind as I was thinking is like, why change it? The level of effort required to sustainably change that is just incredible. And you could argue that, okay, there's companies that build a competitive advantage by saying, that's not the status quo that we want to exist in and therefore we're gonna create a whole new business built around something different that produces a result that's considerably better than that. But it happens for sure, but we're much more likely in our lives if we were to see that to just let it be.   0:27:03.6 John Dues: Yeah. Yeah. And when you get it down, when you sort of zero in and get down to the sort of local level, there are schools that sort of performed in this sort of general fashion that made changes at the building level and then got significantly different results. So, it becomes a little easier. It's not easy, but it becomes easier when you're talking about a single school building and coordinating the efforts there versus trying to do that across all the school buildings.   0:27:32.9 Andrew Stotz: And I think this is what, when Dr. Deming talks about leadership, this is what he's talking about.   0:27:39.1 John Dues: Yep. Yep. And I think, you know, the good thing is here, if this is resonating with you, whether you're a school leader or the leader of some other type of organization, you know, you've probably struggled to interpret your most important data. So, before I discovered this method, I didn't really have a method per se. I'd put numbers in a table and then try to look at them and try to sort of ascertain what was happening on. And so I think it's, you know, if you've never heard of this, it's totally fine. Most of us were never taught how to understand variation in our data. But I think there's two sort of big ideas I would take from this as we've talked about this. The first is just taking natural variation into account. Just meaning plot your data over time, plot your dots, and look at how it's moving up and down over time. So, that's the first big idea, this idea of natural variation. Things are going to move up and down just naturally, no matter what's happening, even if nothing of significance has occurred.   0:28:47.6 John Dues: And then big idea two is that you can use this chart, this process behavior chart methodology to differentiate between those two types of variation that I talked about, the routine or natural variation, and then the exceptional variation. And then once you do that, you're gonna get some very powerful insights into what your data looks like, because people are gonna say, oh, I know why that happened. I know why that looks like that. Now that I see it like this, I have an understanding for why the patterns look like they do. And then you can start to turn that sort of type of analysis into better outcomes. And that's really the point of doing this is that you, you know when to react, when not to react, you are making sound decisions based on a logic, a logical model, a logical data model. And the best part is it's very simple. Like I said, a fourth grader can do the math required to create the chart. And I've seen kids as young as five or six interpreting the data in a chart. So, that means that we can all do it for sure. It's not actually that difficult.   0:30:00.6 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. And I was just thinking of Newton's law of inertia, meaning an object stays at rest until acted on by an outside force.   0:30:12.7 John Dues: Yeah.   0:30:13.8 Andrew Stotz: And I think what you're showing is the state of inertia.   0:30:18.5 John Dues: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The state of inertia. And I think it's just, you know, you don't know what you don't know. But once you see this and, I did some of the figuring this out on my own reading about it, listening to other people talk about it, but I talk to a lot of people and got a lot of guidance. So if this has piqued your interest, my suggestion is reach out to somebody that has done this before, at least at the start. Because there are a lot of, you know, while I am saying you can create a chart with fourth grade math and I've seen kindergartners analyze the charts, there is some learning, there is some technicality to it. And so I think if you have a coach, even better because you're gonna learn it so much faster and be able to sort of turn that learning into results so much faster.   0:31:07.0 Andrew Stotz: And maybe the starting point is trying to figure out of all the different measures that I've got in my business, in my school, in my life, what's one that I get regularly? And I like data that comes out more than annual because then it's just such a long process. So if I have daily data, weekly, monthly, you know, those types of data points, then from that, you know, and what's one thing in your life that would be a data point that you'd like to look at? And I would even argue the first step is just to start collecting it into, let's say, an Excel file and just collect that raw data. And you can make a chart of that raw data. And the benefit of the process, you know, control chart and the process chart is that what you're seeing is, you know, tools within that chart to help you interpret. But even if you just start by figuring out what data point you wanna look at, start collecting it, do a month or two of getting that data, and then you can start saying, okay, now I'm gonna apply these tools, nothing wrong with that.   0:32:21.2 John Dues: Yeah. And you wanna show it to people, like whether that's teachers or students, you wanna show them the data that you're collecting because they're gonna be a part of that improvement process, no matter what type of data that you're looking at, at least in schools, you're always gonna want the front line people to be a part of that process.   0:32:39.4 Andrew Stotz: And the way I did that in my area of research when I was an analyst and I had a research, was I wanted to see the data of the output of our research operation. How much did we produce? I didn't have a strong opinion as to whether we should produce more or less or whatever. I just wanted to understand them. And so I started plotting that data on a weekly basis, and I labeled it pretty well. And then I just put it up on the wall, and I didn't talk about it. And I put it up, and people looked at it, and I didn't go and explain it, and I didn't put control limits or anything like that. I just put the data up. And I remember a Thai lady that worked for me came to me, and she said, I figured you out. And I was like, what are you talking about? And she said, I was out to lunch with a friend of mine, and she asked me, how many reports do you publish a month? And she said, my employee said, I publish six reports in a month. And my friend said, what?   0:33:45.4 Andrew Stotz: And she said, how many do you do? She said, I only do two in a month. And she said, what are Andrew's targets for you? My God, to get six reports. And then my employee said to her, he doesn't have any target for me. And then that employee of mine came back to see me after that lunch, and she said, I get it. You just put it up on the wall, and it raised the awareness for all of us, and we all looked at it, and then it influenced the way we thought about our job without you telling me, get four or six or two. And so sometimes, and I did that exact same thing when I worked at Pepsi when I was in 1989 when I joined Pepsi in the factory in Buena Park in particular, where I would put up on the wall, here's everybody's error rates from last night. And I would post that, and then the employees would just look at it and go, that's wrong. Okay. Fine, great, tell me. Let's look at the data.   0:34:44.8 Andrew Stotz: And I kept all the underlying data that was manual in my hands in stacks, and then they would go, oh, okay, so I did get that wrong. Let me fix that. And then I fixed it and put it back up, but it didn't look much prettier after I fixed it. And then all of a sudden, people started looking at it, and then they started having new information they never had. And I hadn't studied with Dr. Deming by that time, so I didn't even understand anything to do with the chart, but just putting up the chart without any major commentary is fascinating.   0:35:12.9 John Dues: Yeah. It starts those conversations, starts getting people sort of more involved, more engaged with the work. Yeah, I think those are all really smart moves that we often don't do.   0:35:25.2 Andrew Stotz: And I think that was why my boss suggested I go to a Deming seminar, because he saw me starting to do that, and then he had heard about Deming and knew a little bit, and then he was like, yeah, this guy could be suited for that.   0:35:36.6 John Dues: Yeah. It sounds like it was fate or something like that.   0:35:41.6 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. Definitely. So, I'm going to wrap up just by saying that, for the listeners and the viewers out there, I think a big takeaway is figure out that one data point, just one. You don't need five, just one that comes out consistently, daily, weekly, monthly, you know, something that's relatively regular, and then start collecting that data. Write it down on a, you know, I do have times that I just write it down on a manual chart, in my notebook. Write it down there. You don't even need Excel. Just start collecting that data and thinking about the collection of the data, what time of the day you get it or what time of the week or what time of the month, and then start collecting it. Then the second stage is start to, you know, obviously, if you can go to an expert, someone like John or others, reach out to them, LinkedIn or other place, you know, and say, hey, I've got this data. Can you help me? And then they can easily do the calculations and then send you back the Excel file and say, here it is with all the calculations, which you did to me on one of mine, and that was great. And then get that help, and then start to move yourself slowly into the process because I think one of the things that I take away from it is that this really is the present, and it is an accurate representation of what the system is capable of.   0:37:10.2 John Dues: That's right. Yeah.   0:37:10.8 Andrew Stotz: And if you don't understand that, then you're just going to be beating your head against the wall. So, anything you would add?   0:37:18.9 John Dues: No, just beat your head against the wall and you make stuff up about what is happening. That's often what happens. Yeah.   0:37:27.0 Andrew Stotz: Then you become AI. You're hallucinating.   0:37:30.1 John Dues: Yes.   0:37:31.0 Andrew Stotz: Well, John, on behalf of everyone at the Deming Institute, I want to thank you again for this discussion. And for listeners, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. And you can find John's book, Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, The System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools, on amazon.com. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, and that is that people are entitled to joy in work.

durée : 00:18:45 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Philippe Garbit - En 1985, John Taylor, avec un accent parfaitement anglo-saxon, éclairait une partie de l'œuvre de Marc Twain longtemps méconnue, car censurée par la famille de l'écrivain. - réalisation : Virginie Mourthé

durée : 00:58:26 - Le Book Club - par : Marie Richeux - Dans son dernier roman, prix Pulitzer 2025, l'auteur américain Percival Everett propose une réécriture audacieuse des "Aventures de Huckleberry Finn" de Mark Twain. De Jim, esclave et personnage secondaire, il fait le héros et narrateur de son récit : un geste à la portée politique et littéraire. - réalisation : Vivien Demeyère - invités : Percival Everett romancier américain

How does literature enrich our understanding of ourselves and of others, in ways that STEM fields and other forms of knowledge cannot? What is contained within the language of reading that you don't encounter with other art forms like painting or film?Arnold Weinstein is a Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Brown University and the author of several books. His latest two publications are The Lives of Literature: Reading, Teaching, Knowing and Morning, Noon, and Night: Finding the Meaning of Life's Stages Through Books.Greg and Arnold discuss how literature offers unique and invaluable insights into the human experience, bridging historical and cultural divides. Their conversation examines the connections between literature and self-discovery, the challenges of teaching literature in a contemporary academic setting, and the enduring relevance of classic works from authors like William Faulkner, William Shakespeare, and Mark Twain. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Life doesn't come in disciplines01:02:54: Literature helps you see history. That philosophy, et cetera, needs a good dosage of literature, which is why we created that course and let the disciplines—not the people, the disciplines themselves—do battle with each other. And there's no obvious answer here. There's no winner or loser. But the students were confused. They wanted to get what's the right take on this. Well, has anybody ever offered the right take on reality? Universities come packaged in disciplines. Life doesn't. It doesn't. All of our major problems cannot be solved with any single discipline, including economics and, you know, and coding.Literature makes us more human09:25: It's a good workout to read literature. It makes us more generous, as being able to award the notion of humanity to other people. Because I do not think you can kill them. You cannot stamp them out if you do not think back.Why great books leave you uneasy30:13: We are supposed to exit literature course, not exactly being more confused, but more embattled in a sense to see that other ways of being, as well as other ways, other values that people might have, is a kind of absolutely basic "meat-and-potatoes" element of human life. You cannot just live in your own silo, in your own scheme, even though you are locked in it. That's the point. We cannot exit ourselves.History isn't a fairy tale40:51: If we read the books, it only tells us what we want to know, which is what we are headed towards in this society today with the current political scene. Any text that is critical of American history is considered broke and therefore removed. And I'm worried that we are going to get a generation of people who think that American history is a fairy tale, which it is not, and no amount of rhetoric can change that. That we can police and prohibit these certain kinds of texts can take over the Kennedy Center, but we cannot, in fact, change what all of that is about, which is that we are still paying the bill for the history of racism and slavery in this country. It is not solved. We can just try to put it under the rug, but it is not solved by any means. So it is in that sense that the discomfort is required. If it simply massages us, say, "oh, this is terrific," then I think we are reading the wrong book.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Harold BloomFranz KafkaThe MetamorphosisSøren KierkegaardWilliam FaulknerMark TwainAdventures of Huckleberry FinnJamesBenito CerenoBlaise PascalWilliam ShakespeareKing LearHamletOthelloIagoToni MorrisonNaked LunchGuest Profile:Profile at Brown UniversityWikipedia PageProfile at Roundtable.orgGuest Work:Amazon Author PageThe Lives of Literature: Reading, Teaching, KnowingMorning, Noon, and Night: Finding the Meaning of Life's Stages Through BooksNorthern Arts: The Breakthrough of Scandinavian Literature and Art, from Ibsen to BergmanA Scream Goes Through the House: What Literature Teaches Us About LifeRecovering Your Story: Proust, Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner, MorrisonNobody's Home: Speech, Self, and Place in American Fiction from Hawthorne to DeLilloThe Great Courses - Classic Novels: Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature

We have such an episode for you today!  We are staying true to both our Missouri and nerdy roots to bring you the life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens better known as Mark Twain, America's Favorite Humorist.  We learn of his many jobs including Riverboat Pilot, Prospector, Newspaper man, journalist, printer's devil, and of course, writer extraordinaire!  We talk his rivalry with Bret Harte and the flop that was Ah Sin.  We discuss his similarities to Ambrose Bierce and other modern writers that loved him or were influenced by his work.  We reference a lot of past episodes including:  Ambrose Bierce - Episode 199Ernest Hemingway - Episode 233 with Brenda from Horrifying HistoryEpisode 251 - Sharon KinneEpisode 264 - Matilda Joslyn GageAnd Season 1 - Episode 1 of the Family Role Podcast - A Kiln in Cobblepot.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.

In 1867, Mark Twain became one of the most high-profile pilgrims to the Land of Israel at the time, becoming an "influencer" of his generation with reports of his journey. In "A Bridge to Your Roots" Israeli tour guide and author, Shai Shvalb followed Twain's route, bringing together thousands of years of history, Biblical insight, multiple languages and cultures, and multi layers of excavations and modern history to life. Join us as we journey through the land and the millennia, bringing Biblical and modern Israel to life, from the comfort of your own home. PLEASE DONATE TO THE GENESIS 123 FOUNDATION ISRAEL EMERGENCY FUND AT WWW.GENESIS123.CO Get your copy of "A Bridge to Your Roots" https://www.amazon.com/dp/9659324006 To join us making special events like this possible, please give generously at https://genesis123foundation.revv.co/soldierssocialwelfareGet information about how you can join FOOTSTEPS at https://genesis123.co/footsteps/For information about and how to register for Root & Branch, please go to www.RootandBranchIsrael.comConnect with the Genesis 123 Foundation at www.Genesis123.co and learn how you can host Shabbat in your community.FB - www.facebook.com/Genesis123Foundation Twitter - @Genesis123FIG - Genesis_123_FoundationFind out how you can be part of Run for Zion and bless Israel with every step at www.RunforZion.com.

Send us a textMike and Doug dive into Mark Twain and Beatles deep cuts, swap stories about their own songwriting, and laugh about Care Bear hats at a Darius Rucker show. The talk drifts into authenticity, slowing down creatively, and Doug's raw reflections on health, ego, and the fear of being “phony.”

From The Chilling words of Mark Twain's visit in the 1860s of a desolate wasteland to God's WORDS FULFILLED THROUGH THE SCRIPTURES. This discussion Rabbi will illuminate many passages so we can see the marvelous day we are in.

Short: Mark Twain Down UnderOne hundred and thirty years ago this month, Mark Twain, creator of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and hailed as the world's funniest man, arrived in Australia for the start of a months-long speaking tour. Aussies loved the famous visitor – and those attending his shows were treated to a very modern form of entertainment: American stand-up comedy.It's easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free, early and bonus episodes. Hit either of these links:Patreon: patreon.com/forgottenaustraliaApple: apple.co/forgottenaustraliaWant more original Australian true crime and history? Check out my books!They'll Never Hold Me:https://www.booktopia.com.au/they-ll-never-hold-me-michael-adams/book/9781923046474.htmlThe Murder Squad:https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-murder-squad-michael-adams/book/9781923046504.htmlHanging Ned Kelly:https://www.booktopia.com.au/hanging-ned-kelly-michael-adams/book/9781922992185.htmlAustralia's Sweetheart:https://www.booktopia.com.au/australia-s-sweetheart-michael-adams/book/9780733640292.htmlEmail: forgottenaustraliapodcast@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

http://www.attractionchecklist.com - In July 2025, Tom Sawyer Island in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom closed for good.  Let's take one last walk around the Island before the memory fades on this episode of Attraction Checklist. Attraction audio recorded on May 21, 2025. TRANSCRIPT: This episode we're off to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom to take a stroll around Tom Sawyer Island.  The Walt Disney World guide map described this attraction saying: Brave this Mark Twain-inspired hideaway. There are no age or height requirements or a thrill level listed for this attraction. Before we board a raft, here are five fast facts about Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom. 1. Tom Sawyer island opened at Magic Kingdom on May 20, 1973. 2. The Fort on the Island, Fort Langhorn, was originally called Fort Samuel Clemens, but the name was changed in 1996 in a moment of synergy with the Walt Disney Pictures film Tom & Huck. 3.  The barn on the island used to have an effect that made it seem like it was on fire.  Viewed primarily from the riverboat, this effect was ended in 2005. 4. In August 2024, Disney announced that Tom Sawyer Island would be closing to make way for a new Frontierland expansion themed to the Pixar movie Cars. 5. Tom Sawyer Island official closed on July 7, 2025.  Bringing the 52 year life of Tom Sawyer Island to a close. Let's go explore Tom Sawyer Island.  Along for the adventure, the Huck to my Tom, is John B. deHaas and after we check out the attraction we'll give you our thoughts on it.  This is a binaural recording so if you have headphones, put them on now as we visit Magic Kingdom's Tom Sawyer Island for the very last time. The attraction audio recorded for this episode is available exclusively to the Saturday Morning Media Patron Patron.  Support the show and get fun Bonus content over at http://www.patreon.com/saturdaymorningmedia Episode edited by Stephen Staver FOLLOW US https://www.instagram.com/attractionchecklist/ https://www.facebook.com/attractionchecklist https://www.linkedin.com/company/saturday-morning-media http://www.youtube.com/user/SaturdayMorningMedia?sub_confirmation=1 FOLLOW GRANT http://www.MrGrant.com https://instagram.com/throwingtoasters/ SOURCES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Sawyer_Island https://blogmickey.com/2025/06/rivers-america-tom-sawyer-island-closing-date/ https://www.disneylists.com/2024/07/9-facts-secrets-tom-sawyer-island-2-2/ Show ©2025 Saturday Morning Media/Grant Baciocco  

Mark Twain once said find a job you enjoy and you'll never work a day in your life. Lovely idea but let's be honest, it feels more fairy tale than fact in today's world. So what is the best job for introverts really? Spoiler alert, it is not hiding away with spreadsheets just because someone decided introverts do not do people. Absolute tosh. In this episode I get real about the career choices we make, the myths that keep us playing small and how to experiment our way towards work that actually lights us up. We introverts are not defined by a personality label, we are defined by what brings us alive. So pin back your lug'oles, because this is your reminder to stop shrinking to fit and start expanding to flourish.   ** Key Points **   Challenge career myths Experiment with work Find what lights you up     #FlourishingIntroverts #WorkThatLightsYouUp #NoMorePlayingSmall   *** Resources *** Visit https://hub.flourishingintroverts.com/resourcesp for tools and resources mentioned during the podcast.  

A compendium of rare cross-cultural and historical accounts of extrasensory perception• Provides accounts of ESP ranging from ancient Greek myth, traditional North and South American, African, and Polynesian stories to individuals like Rumi, Charles Dickens, and Carl Jung• Considers unexplained ESP-related happenings, including bilocation, the ability to locate lost items, early knowledge of one's own death, and perceptions regarding the well-being of loved onesWhether a premonition of an impending event, a warning of potential danger, or an unlikely synchronistic experience, such things are surprisingly common, even if they often cannot be clearly explained.Taking readers on a historical and cross-cultural voyage through extrasensory experiences, Daniel Bourke documents, contextualizes, and sheds light on these mysterious phenomena. From the plains of Peru and the haunted highlands of Scotland to the snowy taiga forests of the Far North and the Indigenous cultures of Australia and America, Bourke examines the strange psychic occurrences that seem to appear in all places, at all times. These include instances of bilocation, premonitions about the coming of visitors, intuitions of the location of lost items or treasures, the discovery of cures by telepathic means, and even accurate pre-perceptions about one's own demise or the perilous situation of a loved one. He looks at the renowned Greek seers, including Iamos, who announced the death of Hercules at the moment it occurred; the far-reaching visions of the shaman in a trance who might warn his tribe of danger; and the witches, wizards, and heroes of legend and romance who were privy to secret knowledge through magical means. Bourke's survey incorporates rare accounts from people all around the world and across the ages, including figures like Rumi, Saint Anthony, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Carl Jung.Shedding light on our cultural and mythic past, Bourke shows that wherever you look in the world, whatever culture or time, telepathic tales are unfolding all around us.Daniel Bourke is an author, poet, and songwriter. He has a background in the natural sciences, the arts, and the video game industry. He has previously been published in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, New Dawn Magazine, and the journal Darklore and is the author of Apparitions at the Moment of Death. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.https://shepherd.com/bboy/2024/f/daniel-bourkeBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/earth-ancients--2790919/support.

What is Trump's strategy in deploying the National Guard to L.A., then D.C., and now probably Chicago and New York? Does he want the military in the street of blue cities for the midterms next year? They will still elect Democrats to the House. John Nichols comments.Also: ‘Huckleberry Finn' is America's great anti-slavery novel, but there's a secret behind it: Mark Twain, the author, wasn't always anti-slavery and anti-racist; in fact he fought, briefly, for the Confederacy. Adam Hochschild explains how Twain changed his mind. (Adam reviewed Ron Chernow's new bio of Twain in the latest issue of The Nation magazine.)Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

As part of the "25 for '25" series, Jacke starts the episode with a look at #20 on the list of Greatest Books of All Time, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Then he reclaims a previous episode devoted to Lorraine Hansberry, author of A Raisin in the Sun, a brilliant playwright who died at the tragically young age of 34. (The Hansberry episode, which was originally released in February 2021 as Episode 310, was lost from the archives for several years.) Join Jacke on a trip through literary England (signup open through the end of September)! The History of Literature Podcast Tour is happening in May 2026! Act now to join Jacke and fellow literature fans on an eight-day journey through literary England in partnership with ⁠John Shors Travel⁠. Scheduled stops include The Charles Dickens Museum, Dr. Johnson's house, Jane Austen's Bath, Tolkien's Oxford, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and more. Find out more by emailing jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or masahiko@johnshorstravel.com, or by contacting us through our website ⁠historyofliterature.com⁠. Or visit the ⁠History of Literature Podcast Tour itinerary⁠ at ⁠John Shors Travel⁠. The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at ⁠patreon.com/literature ⁠or ⁠historyofliterature.com/donate ⁠. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at ⁠thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Darkness Radio Presents:  Telepathic Tales: Precognition and Clairvoyance in Legend, Lyric, &Lore with Researcher/Author, Daniel Bourke! Whether a premonition of an impending event, a warning of potential danger, or an unlikely synchronistic experience, such things are surprisingly common, even if they often cannot be clearly explained. Taking readers on a historical and cross-cultural voyage through extrasensory experiences, Daniel Bourke documents, contextualizes, and sheds light on these mysterious phenomena. From the plains of Peru and the haunted highlands of Scotland to the snowy taiga forests of the Far North and the Indigenous cultures of Australia and America, Bourke examines the strange psychic occurrences that seem to appear in all places, at all times. These include instances of bilocation, premonitions about the coming of visitors, intuitions of the location of lost items or treasures, the discovery of cures by telepathic means, and even accurate pre-perceptions about one's own demise or the perilous situation of a loved one. He looks at the renowned Greek seers, including Iamos, who announced the death of Hercules at the moment it occurred; the far-reaching visions of the shaman in a trance who might warn his tribe of danger; and the witches, wizards, and heroes of legend and romance who were privy to secret knowledge through magical means. Bourke's survey incorporates rare accounts from people all around the world and across the ages, including figures like Rumi, Saint Anthony, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Carl Jung. On today's show, Tim sits down with Daniel and talks about why through history our ancestors have tried to contact us to warn us about impending danger, give us the cure for certain diseases, tell us where there is hidden treasure, and give us certain messages from beyond! Get "Telepathic Tales" here:  https://bit.ly/4lM0nLA Sign up to go with Dacre Stoker and Mysterious Universe Tours to Romania here:  https://mysteriousadventurestours.com/tour-item/draculas-haunted-halloween-romania-tour/ Want to attend JUST Dracula's Vampire Ball at Bran Castle? Click this link to find out how: https://mysteriousadventurestours.com/tour-item/draculas-vampire-ball-at-bran-castle-a-private-halloween-experience/ Travel with Brian J. Cano to Ireland for Halloween for 11 days and get 100 dollars off and break it into 10 easy payments here:  https://www.mysteriousadventurestours.com/darkness_radio/ Make sure you update your Darkness Radio Apple Apps! and subscribe to the Darkness Radio You Tube page:  https://www.youtube.com/@DRTimDennis #paranormal  #supernatural  #metaphysical  #paranormalpodcasts  #darknessradio  #timdennis #danielbourke #telepathictales #precognitionandclairvoyanceinlegenclyricandlore  #death #ghosts  #spirits  #spectres #hauntings  #demons #apparitions #tokens #visions #messengers #angels #guardianangels #spiritguides #Psychics #mediums #empaths #grief #loss #deathandmourning #soulcontracts #dreams #shaman #medicinemen #healing #signs #intuition  #neardeatheexperience 

What if the dead never stopped writing? From Mark Twain and Shakespeare ghostwriting books, to A.I. uncovering ancient secrets, to CIA psychics claiming the Ark of the Covenant's resting place — this week's Paranormal 60 News is packed with stories that blur the line between history, mystery, and the supernatural.Dave Schrader, Chachi, Sweet-T, and Greg also uncover eerie discoveries in Jerusalem, Navy UFO patents, the dangers of Annabelle, and the latest “solution” to the Bermuda Triangle. Hold tight — this is one news edition you won't forget.Ghost Writer Edition - The Paranormal 60 NewsPLEASE SUPPORT THE ADVERTISERS THAT SUPPORT THIS SHOWHappiness Experiment - https://go.happinessexperiment.com/begin-aff-o2?am_id=podcast2025&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=michaelFactor Meals - Get 50% off your first order & Free Shipping at ⁠⁠www.FactorMeals.com/p6050off⁠⁠ & use code: P6050off at checkoutMint Mobile - To get your new wireless plan for just $15 a month, and get the plan shipped to your door for FREE, go to ⁠⁠www.MintMobile.com/P60⁠⁠Shadow Zine - ⁠⁠https://shadowzine.com/⁠⁠Love & Lotus Tarot -  ⁠⁠http://lovelotustarot.com/⁠⁠PLEASE RATE & REVIEW THE PARANORMAL 60 PODCAST WHEREVER YOU LISTEN! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode 203, Gayle Weiswasser, co-founder of Wonderland Books, an independent bookstore in Bethesda, Maryland, returns to the podcast with Sarah for a one-year check-in on the shop's journey. From holiday-season chaos to surprising customer favorites, Gayle shares what worked, what didn't, and why she still handpicks every title on the shelves — plus the biggest lessons (and mistakes) from year one. Plus, Gayle shares some great book recommendations. This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog. Highlights Gayle shares what it was like to open the bookstore right before the holiday season. How the store's first year compared to their original projections and expectations. The now-dispelled fears Gayle had before opening. Why she's glad they curated every book in their inventory themselves, and why they still do all the book buying in-house. The course correction Wonderland had to make in their romance section. The biggest mistake they made before opening their doors. Which genres and titles have become customer favorites and which don't seem to sell well. How they plan and host book events — and why those events are such a key part of the store's community success. The books that taught them exactly how (and how not) to decide how many copies to order. The surprising punch poetry has packed with customers. Whether Gayle's own reading life has bounced back after the pre-opening stress and time crunch. Gayle's Book Recommendations [39:12] Two OLD Books She Loves One's Company by Ashley Hutson (2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [39:25] Sam by Allegra Goodman (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [42:46] Other Books Mentioned The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe (2020) [44:40]  The Girls from Corona del Mar by Rufi Thorpe (2014) [44:42]  Two NEW Books She Loves The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [45:01] What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[47:18] Other Books Mentioned The Wedding People by Alison Espach (2024) [46:56] Pretty Things by Janelle Brown (2020) [49:06] One Book She DIDN'T Love Back After This by Linda Holmes (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [49:55] Other Books Mentioned Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (2019) [51:14]  Flying Solo by Linda Holmes (2022) [53:34]  One NEW RELEASE She's Excited About Wreck by Catherine Newman (October 28, 2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[53:57] Other Books Mentioned Sandwich by Catherine Newman (2024) [54:03]  Last 5-Star Book Gayle Read The Names by Florence Knapp (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [55:34] Books from the Discussion Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2025) [16:30]  Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (2025) [25:41]  The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025) [26:39]  The Wedding People by Alison Espach (2024) [26:40] The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (2023) [26:42] James by Percival Everett (2024) [30:09] Heartwood by Amity Gaige (2025) [31:28] Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (2025) [31:38] Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green (2025) [31:55]   Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams (2025) [32:00]  Cher: Part One: The Memoir by Cher (2024) [32:25]  Gwyneth: The Biography by Amy Odell (2025) [32:35]  Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old by Brooke Shields and Rachel Bertsche (2025) [33:07] Yoko Ono: A Biography by David Sheff (2025) [33:10]  My Friends by Fredrik Backman (2025) [38:29] 

“The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise,” said Mark Twain. In this, our final episode marking the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we consider how efforts to control the Mighty Mississippi – a river engineered from its Minnesota headwaters to its Gulf Coast outlet – have responded to the devastating storm, and how New Orleans' relationship to the river has changed. Can the city keep up with the pressure that climate change is putting on this engineered system, or is retreat the only viable response? Plus, a wetland recovery project that aims to bolster protection from hurricanes and flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward. Guests: Boyce Upholt – Journalist and author of “The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi River”  Nathaniel Rich – Author of “Second Nature: Scenes From a World Remade” and the New York Times Op-Ed, “New Orleans' Striking Advantage in the Age of Climate Change”  Harriet Swift – New Orleans resident Andrew Horowitz – Historian, University of Connecticut, author of "Katrina: A History, 1915-2015" Rashida Ferdinand – Founder and Executive Director of Sankofa Community Development Corporation, overseeing the Sankofa Wetland Park and Nature Trail in New Orleans Jason Day – Biologist, wetland Scientist, Comite Resources in Louisiana Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.                    ©2025 Big Picture Science, All Rights Reserved Search formSupport the show   or   Get the Podcast and follow us on social media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 503 of The Astrology Podcast astrologer Rod Chang joins me to discuss the long and fascinating history of comets in astrology, how astrologers viewed them as omens in ancient times, and creating a new foundation for interpreting them today. While comets are a notable astronomical phenomenon and are famous in legends from ancient times as powerful omens, there has been very little discussion about their meaning or use in modern astrology. Part of the reason for this is that they appear so infrequently, are difficult to calculate, and are not included in most astrology software, which has led to them being largely overlooked by contemporary astrologers. We begin the discussion by exploring the long history of comets in astrology, noting the contrast between the Western tradition and the Chinese tradition. In the West, research into comets was set back for centuries by Aristotle's mistaken belief that they were merely atmospheric phenomena. In the Chinese tradition, however, comets were meticulously documented for thousands of years, where they were often referred to as "broom stars" that could sweep away the old government or indicate the need for reform. This eventually led to a rich history of astrological interpretation, which we are only now beginning to recover and understand. During the course of the episode we talk about what comets are from an astronomical perspective, as well as how their erratic and unpredictable nature became a key part of their astrological interpretation. Traditionally comets were interpreted as omens that signified major disruptions, the death of prominent people, and important turning points in history. Their meaning was often derived from their visual appearance, such as their color or the shape of their tail. While often viewed as negative omens that coincided with natural disasters or the death of rulers, there are also instances where they were interpreted positively. Towards the end of the episode we discuss how contemporary astrologers are now in a much better position to study comets, with new tools that allow us to calculate their positions and go back and research what was happening in the world when major comets appeared in the past. This is a large part of the focus of Rod's new book titled Comets in Astrology, where he identifies some of the most important "Great Comets" in history and documents the events that coincided with their appearance. We hope that this discussion provides a good foundation for a subject that will become an exciting new area of research in astrology in the years to come. Rod's book was just released August 13, and you can get it now: Comets in Astrology on Amazon You can find out more information about Rod on his website: RodChang.com This episode is available in both audio and video versions below. Timestamps 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:05 Rod's journey into studying comets 00:02:40 Why comets are overlooked in modern astrology 00:07:09 What is a comet? 00:10:04 Short-period vs. long-period comets 00:16:55 Erratic and unpredictable quality of comets 00:19:18 Aristotle's error vs. Chinese documentation 00:24:30 Edmond Halley, Brahe, and Kepler 00:28:58 Recent comets: Pons-Brooks 00:33:52 Decline of astrology hindered comet research 00:36:39 Researching historical comets and mundane events 00:39:01 What defines a “Great Comet” 00:51:04 Chinese “broom stars” and political significance 01:01:06 Comets as omens 01:11:47 Death of prominent people 01:15:02 Mark Twain and Halley's Comet 01:25:52 Observational astronomy 01:36:18 Comet's tail and directionality 01:40:03 Positive interpretations of comets 01:43:27 Setting a foundation for comet research 01:48:11 Rod's upcoming work, website, and classes 01:51:29 Concluding remarks Watch the Video Version of This Episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-UtgNIRCnY –