Podcasts about Mark Twain

Accountability is supposed to help teams deliver results, but the word often lands like a threat. We kick off by calling out why “accountability” sounds like a crime scene term, how that framing kills ownership, and what a healthier culture of accountability actually looks like when you're trying to hit team key results without turning leadership into blame management.From there, we connect the dots to the leadership system behind our work at Lone Rock Leadership: Clarity, Alignment, and Movement. Once a destination is clear and execution is moving, the same challenges show up everywhere from hospitals to manufacturers to finance: who owns outcomes, how we lead through change, and how we make better decisions faster with real buy-in. We also share the behind-the-scenes reality of writing a book that makes complex ideas simple, including the Mark Twain reminder that cutting words is often the hardest part.Then you'll hear chapter one of our new fable, The Wall: The Choice Between Accountability And Surrender. Meet Nate Ward as he walks into a high-stakes interview that literally puts him on a stage, under lights, in front of juror-like observers who see what he's been missing. It's not embarrassment, it's exposure and it forces the question: are you choosing accountability or quietly surrendering one comfortable morning at a time?If this hits home, subscribe, share the episode with someone on your team, and leave a review so more leaders can find it.--Visit the Lone Rock Leadership Website:https://www.lonerock.ioConnect with me on LinkedIn or to send me a DM:https://www.linkedin.com/in/russleads/Tap here to check out my first book, Decide to Lead, on Amazon. Thank you so much to the thousands of you who have already purchased it for yourself or your company!--About the podcast:The Lead In 30 Podcast with Russ Hill is for leaders of teams who want to grow and accelerate their results. In each episode, Russ Hill shares what he's learned consulting executives. Subscribe to get two new episodes every week. To connect with Russ message him on LinkedIn!

As we chase wealth, we often forget that we are rich.

At twelve, Julie stared at a clawed arm at the end of her bed for seven seconds and then went back to reading, and the two decades that followed are why a UFO investigator spent weeks taking her statement.DEEP-DIVE ARTICLE about Archer Avenue & Resurrection Mary: https://weirddarkness.com/resurrection-mary/EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/EncountersOfJulieREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mtepz5jcFEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: If you've listened to Weird Darkness for any length of time, you know that I will often suggest someone who has had a paranormal disturbance in their home or life, reach out to a pastor or priest for guidance. But what exactly happens when the Catholic Church starts investigating the paranormal? (When The Catholic Church Goes Ghost Hunting) *** Many states around America say they have the most haunted road in the country. And while the words “most haunted” are somewhat subjective, it's hard not to see why people outside of Chicago consider Archer Avenue not only the top spooky street in America, but the most haunted on the planet. (The Anguish Of Archer Avenue) *** After allegedly murdering her husband in 1960, Sharon Kinne shot her lover's pregnant wife. Then, she evaded justice and escaped to Mexico only to kill again — before vanishing without a trace. (The American Murderess Who Disappeared in 1969) *** Modern courtrooms aren't equipped or knowledgable enough to determine whether or not ghosts are real, but that hasn't stopped ghosts from appearing in several court cases! (Court Cases Involving Ghosts) *** When you hear of a two-headed creature you typically think of two heads side-by-side growing from the neck and shoulders area. But have you ever heard of a creature growing another head on the very top of it's other head? It happened… and not to just any creature. It was a human boy who lived much longer than anyone expected. (The Bengal Boy With Two Heads) *** Buried alive inside the castle walls, the Finnish Maiden immured still haunts the medieval building of Olavinlinna Castle. (The Maiden of Olavinlinna Castle) *** The case of “Julie” from Carlisle in the United Kingdom is an intriguing one not only because it unfolded over many years, but because it appears to straddle the line between apparent reptilian entities and paranormal activity. (The Encounters of Julie)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00.00.000 = The Foreboding00:01:03.125 = Show Open00:03:46.357 = The Encounters of Julie00:21:34.557 = The Bengal Boy With Two Heads ***00:26:40.964 = When The Catholic Church Goes Ghost Hunting00:38:00.163 = The Anguish of Archer Avenue ***00:50:12.310 = The Maiden Of Olavinlinna Castle00:55:15.646 = The American Murderess Who Disappeared In 1969 ***00:1:03:06.483 = Court Cases Involving Ghosts01:13:33.193 = Show Close01:14:40.612 = SONG: “Archer Avenue” by Dark Weirdness01:18:51.465 = Bloopers*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:SONG: “Archer Avenue” by Dark Weirdness: https://weirddarkness.com/music“When The Catholic Church Goes Ghost Hunting” by Mariel Loveland for Ranker: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5b5y7fyc“The Anguish Of Archer Avenue” by Sabrina Ithal for Graveyard Shift: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/x6sy6fxa“The American Murderess Who Disappeared in 1969” by Neil Patmore for All That's Interesting:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/429crjvz“The Bengal Boy With Two Heads” by Kaushik Patowary for Amusing Planet (includes photos):https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3s3dpwme“Court Cases Involving Ghosts” by Jim Rowley for Graveyard Shift: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mtpfhf5v“The Maiden of Olavinlinna Castle” posted at Moon Mausoleum: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ybfsypnj“The Encounters of Julie” by Marcus Lowth for UFO Insight: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/4696c2yx(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: March, 2022LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://weirddarkness.com/OFFICIALWeird Darkness looks at a clawed arm at the foot of a child's bed in Carlisle, a boy born in Bengal in 1783 with a second head growing atop his own, the Vatican office that vets miracles and demonic possession, the Chicago road that produced Resurrection Mary, a Finnish maiden entombed alive in a castle wall, a Missouri housewife who killed at least three people and vanished, and the court cases where ghosts turned up as evidence.It opens with the woman investigators call Julie, twelve years old and reading in bed in Carlisle, England, in 2000 when a black arm ending in white talons came over the foot of her mattress. Dave Hodrien of the Birmingham UFO Group interviewed her in early 2022 about twenty years of reptilian sightings, poltergeist activity, and shadow figures that followed her from that bedroom into the hospital wards where she later worked as a senior nurse.From there comes the boy born in the Bengali village of Mundul Gaut in May 1783 with a second head sitting inverted on top of the first, an upper head that wept and tried to nurse while its expressions ran independent of the child's. A cobra killed him at four, a salt agent for the East India Company robbed his grave, and his skull still sits in the Hunterian Museum in London as a specimen of craniopagus parasiticus, a parasitic twinning that occurs in two or three births out of five million.The Vatican's paranormal caseload runs through the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and the Consulta Medica, a board of Italian Catholic physicians who rule on whether a healing has any natural explanation, with Michael O'Neill of MiracleHunter.com estimating that 99.9 percent of investigated miracles are medical. Father Lampert puts genuine demonic possession at one case in five thousand, and the Vatican's revised 1999 guidelines require priests to consult mental health professionals before any exorcism is approved.Archer Avenue follows, the old Native American trail southwest of Chicago where Resurrection Mary has hitchhiked between the O'Henry Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery since the 1930s, and where police answering a call on August 10th, 1976 found the cemetery bars bent apart and scorched with handprints. The same stretch carries phantom monks at St. James of the Sag, a cloven hoofprint outside Kaiser Hall, a driverless hearse, the Maple Lake ghost light, and Red Gate Woods, where the world's first nuclear reactor lies buried from the Manhattan Project.Olavinlinna Castle, built on a lake island in southeastern Finland in 1475, holds the legend of the lord's daughter who opened the gate for her Russian lover and was condemned for treason and immured alive in the courtyard wall, with a rowan tree of white flowers and red berries said to have grown where she died.Sharon Kinne told police in March 1960 that her toddler had shot her husband, collected $230,000, and was acquitted of killing her lover's pregnant wife before fleeing to Mexico City, where she shot a man in a motel room and earned the nickname La Pistolera; she walked out of Iztapalapa prison during a blackout on December 7th, 1969 and has never been found.The episode closes on hauntings that reached a courtroom, from the 1917 Ouija-board novel Jap Herron credited to Mark Twain's ghost to Stambovsky v. Ackley, the 1991 Ghostbusters ruling that made a Nyack house legally haunted, and Gerald Brittle's $900 million suit daring Warner Bros. to prove the events behind The Conjuring actually happened.

You've probably been told that anxiety is a reaction to what's happening in your life. But my guest today says that's not the whole story. Most of your anxiety isn't a reaction to what's actually happening — it's a reaction to what you're imagining might happen. You get an email that says "can we talk tomorrow?" and your mind writes an entire disaster. Your brain then releases the same stress hormones whether the threat is real or imagined. My guest is Dr. Cassandra Vieten, a licensed clinical psychologist and director of research at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UC San Diego. Her new book is Imagine That. Some of the things we discuss are: Why you're imagining far more than you think — and how your brain reacts as if what you're imagining is actually happening The Mark Twain quote about worry that will stop you in your tracks Why "just think positive" backfires — and what to do with your imagination instead Your imagination profile — why some people see vivid pictures, others hear narrated stories, and both are valid ways of imagining How to visit your future self — and the surprising question to ask when you get there How to tell the difference between rumination and imagination The dragon-in-the-village metaphor Dr. Vieten uses for addiction — and why a good story can reach truths your logical mind can't The Therapist's Take: My top three strategies for using your imagination to grow mentally stronger Related Episodes ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠318 — How to Turn Anxiety Into a Competitive Advantage With a 2-Minute Play That Tricks Your Brain ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠144 — 7 Surprising Strategies That Fix Anxiety (Even Though We Fear These Things Will Make Anxiety Worse) Links & Resources ⁠Imagine That Connect with the Show Buy a copy of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Amy on Instagram —⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AmyMorinAuthor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign Up for My Newsletter —⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amymorinlcsw.com/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sponsors Lola Blankets - Head to⁠⁠⁠ LolaBlankets.com⁠⁠⁠ and use code STRONGER to get 40% OFF your order. AirDoctor — Head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠AirDoctorPro.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and use promo code STRONGER to get UP TO $300 off today! One Skin — Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠oneskin.co/STRONGER⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and use code stronger to get up to 30% off your first 3 subscription orders Quince — Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quince.com/stronger⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns! Boll & Branch — Get 20% off sitewide at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BollAndBranch.com/stronger⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with code stronger. Square — Get up to $200 off Square hardware at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠square.com/go/STRONGER⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Dupe — Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dupe.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to finally feel confident about what to buy. Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mentally Stronger Premium⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for exclusive content like weekly bonus episodes, mental strength challenges, and office hours with me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the summer break, the 15-Minute History team will be republishing some of your favorite episodes. This episode originally aired on October 4, 2021.---The steamboat passed the port and he looked out at the brown, muddy water. The heat was failing and the humidity began to soak his clothes. Soon it would be twilight and the lighting bugs would begin to flash on the shoreline. As the boat moved downriver, he saw an old wooden raft hitched to a tree near the shore. It had a battered steering rudder, and the logs that were tied together looked so beaten he would have guessed it impossible to serve any function other than kindling. He watched the water move the raft back and forth and smiled to himself, thinking about the hands that made it and what possible experiences someone might have on a craft like that.He turned to the north in the direction they were heading and wondered how a craft like that could get up the river without capsizing. He wondered what would have happened if he had a craft like that. It didn't make sense now, but it would have been wonderful for his youth. He wondered how he might have used it. He wondered, and he dreamed.Join us as we teach you about Mark Twain, his life, and his contribution to the literary world. 

"If you always tell the truth you never have to remember anything!" (Mark Twain)

This week on Sent from Disneyland, we cruise down the Rivers of America with two vintage postcards featuring the Mark Twain, dating from 1971 and 1974. Then we head into the curio cabinet for a look at the history of Disneyland floating pens. We'll explore how these novelty pens were developed, their connection to the 1962 Seattle World's Fair and Space Needle, and several Disneyland examples from the 1960s through today—including Mark Twain, Tinker Bell, the Disneyland Railroad, and more. Plus, an incoming postcard, a story about the mysterious Postcard Bandit, and why finding an old postcard can sometimes mean giving it a second chance to complete its journey. Below are some of the regulars on Art Throw Down, Follow all of them on Instagram anyway for great art and postcards in your Instagram feed: Hipstadufus, luluvision, jlynch9923, greenmosspaper, georgemailsart, state_of_the_funyun, RussRomano2021

Today we're doing a throwback episode to one of our favorites from the early days of Stories Podcast. The Celebrated Jumping Frog! Samuel is looking for information about his old family friend, Leonidas Smiley, and he's convinced that Simon Wheeler can help. Based on the classic story by Mark Twain about persistence and history and of course, a celebrated jumping frog! Check out Stories RPG our new show where we play games like Starsworn with all your Max Goodname friends, and Gigacity Guardians featuring the brilliant firefly! https://link.chtbl.com/gigacity Draw us a picture of what you think any of the characters in this story look like, and then tag us in it on instagram @storiespodcast! We'd love to see your artwork and share it on our feed!! If you would like to support Stories Podcast, you can subscribe and give us a five star review on iTunes, check out our merch at storiespodcast.com/shop, follow us on Instagram @storiespodcast, or just tell your friends about us! Check out our new YouTube channel at youtube.com/storiespodcast. If you've ever wanted to read along with our stories, now you can! These read-along versions of our stories are great for early readers trying to improve their skills or even adults learning English for the first time. Check it out.

Send us Fan MailThis week, Becker Shareholder Kathleen “Katie” Berkey, AICP, sits down with Donna DiMaggio Berger and explains how she helps clients deal with all sorts of issues related to their property. As Mark Twain once said, “Buy land, they're not making it anymore,” and truer words have never been spoken. Land remains invaluable and there is often a developer looking to build, renovate, or demolish any given property. When a project like this commences, it can bring a host of headaches and trouble to those living next door.Katie Berkey is a Florida Bar Board Certified Specialist in City, County, and Local Government Law and is a certified Professional Planner by the American Institute of Certified Planners. Katie is the only practicing professional to hold both credentials in Southwest Florida and one of eight statewide. She represents clients in zoning, land use, and planning matters and represents clients in local government administrative matters before city and county commissions, councils, and boards. Katie has been recognized by various publications and organizations as one of the best lawyers in America, a Florida Rising Star, a member of the Legal Elite, a Legal Up & Comer, one of the Top 40 Under 40, and Woman of the Year!Conversation highlights include:How can volunteer boards, managers, and association residents stay alert to possible land use changes in their vicinity?How to determine if a proposed new development presents an incompatible commercial use with the existing neighborhood?What are typical deal points in a shared use agreement with a developer?How prevalent is the NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) mindset?What kind of next-door development do people fear the most?Why do local building departments often cite the association for certain violations when it might be the owners who created the violation without the association's knowledge or consent?Who should attend a municipal or county Code Enforcement hearing with an attorney?What can be done when a city wants to repave streets in a community or enforce traffic violations but is requiring an onerous indemnification agreement from the association?BONUS: Katie discusses various valuable resources for working moms and discusses her work with the Mother's Milk Bank of Florida.Related Links:Article: “‘NIMBY' to ‘YIMBY'” – FCAP Managers Report Article: Mind the Invisible Lines: Easements Every Board Encounters Online Class: Board Certification: Condo/Co-Op 4-HourOnline Class: Board Certification: HOA 4-Hour

Mark Twain once wrote that "if people learned to walk and talk the way we teach them to read and write, everyone would limp and stutter. This week, Michael shares a simple metaphor for why life can seem so hard and how it's actually simpler than you might think.  In this episode: An Army officer's insight into the manual on marching The "blind school" metaphor  Trusting your real-time insight over borrowed instructions What happens when you let yourself not know long enough to begin to know

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

Mona Charen is joined by Bill Kristol to discuss Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson for the August edition of The Bulwark Book Club with viewers. Published in 1894, the novel tells the story of two boys—one born into slavery, the other the master's son—who were switched in the cradle. They'll discuss how the book relates to our world today, and whether Mark Twain is more relevant than ever.Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MONACHAREN at https://www.oneskin.co/MONACHAREN #oneskinpod

Part of "Proverbs: How to Build a Life," Andy Rodgers picks up the second half of a two-part look at wise counsellors. Last week Grant Clark asked why we need trusted voices and who has permission to tell us something we do not want to hear. This week turns to the follow-on question: once we have discerned that someone is qualified to speak into our life, how do we get the most out of what they say. The message covers therapists, pastors, spiritual fathers and mothers, GC members, and friends.Andy opens by distinguishing two things that are often confused. Therapy is a practice: a trained professional with a set of skills, a licensed person helping a specific person with a specific problem, with ethics, accountability, and evidence based practices behind it. Therapy culture is something else. It is when the language of therapy and a therapeutic orientation become the way you engage every relationship in your life, and when organizations, schools, churches, and the political sphere all route their questions back to what feels good therapeutically rather than what is good. "How does that make you feel?" is an excellent question in a counselling room and a poor one for setting the economic direction of a nation or for asking what a passage of Scripture means.He is explicit that this is not an anti therapy message. Restored started a therapy centre, has subsidised thousands of dollars of therapy for people in the church who could not afford it, and runs the Restored Counselling Network. Good therapists using good practices are very helpful. A number of the people writing against therapy culture are themselves therapists.On reading for authorial intent rather than feeling, he points to Mark Twain, who prefaced a later edition of "Huckleberry Finn" by telling readers the book is not an allegory and asking them not to treat it as one. His English class spent fourteen weeks treating it as an allegory anyway. That is survivable with a novel. It is a real problem with Scripture, and a bigger one when the same instinct is used to determine what marriage is, what your identity is, and what is good and true and beautiful.## Four markers of therapy culture1) Concept creep. Precise language meant to help us see something clearly starts to mean more than it meant, and once it means everything it means nothing. Gaslighting comes from a 1938 play and describes a genuinely abusive man deliberately making his wife doubt her sanity. It is real and it is rare. It now gets used for ordinary cognitive dissonance. Andy walks through a recent scheduling mix up with a fellow pastor where he genuinely felt confused, and notes that memory is fallible and two people can remember the same event differently. Choosing the gaslighting reading would have turned a good friend into someone dangerous who had to be removed from his life. Choosing "maybe I forgot that" carried far less pressure and required villainising no one. The same creep has happened to abuse, to trauma, and to narcissism. Genuine narcissistic personality disorder runs around one percent, so it cannot be everyone's dad, just as borderline personality disorder cannot be everyone's mom. Naming everything as abuse diminishes our ability to help the people actually experiencing it.2) Boundaries become walls. Boundaries are a biblical idea: knowing where you stop and another person begins, holding your values, refusing to be manipulated. To be a Christian you have to have firm boundaries. But for many people boundaries have come to mean cutting out anyone who makes them uncomfortable, which is avoidance, and which most good therapists will tell you leaves you less mature because you never learn to handle difficult people or hard conversations. Seventy three percent of millennials have gone no contact with a close friend or family member in the last two years, half of those tied to their parents' politics. Disagreeing with your parents is normal. Cutting them off is new. Where there is genuine danger or a history of abuse the calculation is different, but the usual work is helping people figure out what they can realistically expect from a relationship and how to show up in it.3) Validation becomes authority. Being heard matters, but being heard is a means, not the end. It creates a space safe enough to look at what is hard to look at. If someone has to tell you that what you want is good, that will keep you from wisdom, because sometimes what you want is dumb. Andy is candid that he has plenty of dumb ideas himself and needs godly, loving, wise people alongside him for exactly that reason.4) Diagnosis becomes identity. Restored is not anti diagnosis. The DSM categories are genuinely useful for describing patterns of behaviour, understanding how someone relates to others, and explaining a tendency. They are never an excuse to hurt people or to continue in sin. Andy speaks openly about his own ADHD, the forgotten texts and missed medications, and the systems he has had to build to take responsibility for it. Most diagnoses people receive are not their fault, but to thrive and love people well they still have to do the work. God's standards do not decrease; some people simply need more help in a given area than the average person.The irony he draws out: something you went to in order to see clearly now makes the world look more threatening than before. Something you went to in order to protect your relationships has produced more isolation. Somewhere you went to be heard has made you unreachable.He notes the same dynamic can quietly reshape a GC, where groups drift into venting and status updates rather than asking what Scripture says and what Jesus is calling us to. It is fine to say a thing is hard. The question is whether the group helps you then go and do it.Two tests run underneath the whole message. If we are engaging counsel in a way that makes us more fragile rather than more resilient over the long term, something is wrong. And if we have adopted a worldview that makes us less open to insight we do not want to hear, it is keeping us from becoming wise.## We get the most out of the counsel we receive when we do five things1) Choose the right story2) Are discerning about who we let counsel us3) Engage honestly4) Work towards a goal5) Seek sanctification over validation## Choose the right storyThere are no neutral worldview people. Everyone speaking into your life is answering a set of questions whether or not they say so out loud: What is a person? What is a man, a woman, a mother, a father? What is parenting? What is marriage? What is sexuality and what is it for? What is actually wrong with us? How do people change, by insight, by empathy, by repentance, or by better tools? And what is the goal of a life, which decides the goal of counselling.The Bible says we are image bearers of God, made with inherent dignity, value, and worth, created to be known and loved. That is a different story from being a bag of chemicals and neurons colliding. Andy is careful that these are not simple either / ors. We are image bearers and we do have physical bodies that God chose for us. Scripture names three broad things that can be wrong: a fallen body in a fallen world, with real physiological realities; sin committed against us by others, which covers much of what people bring to therapy as wounding, shame, and pain, and which is not their fault; and our own sin, the lies we tell ourselves and the ways we try to live independently of God.He pushes back on starting the story at Genesis 3. God made us wonderful, beautiful, and glorious, and sin damaged it. One of the worst things about sin is that it diminishes the good person God created you to be. He is now restoring that, like a fine painting, over years and with patience.Repentance and clinical tools are not rivals. A tool can make repentance easier. Andy uses his own example: externalising what he cannot hold in his head helps him forget less and love his wife better. But the decision to get help in the first place is an issue of the will. Someone whose trauma triggers leave them in fight or flight is not at fault for being triggered, and may still need to deal with the thing they have been avoiding, because the people around them are still getting hurt even when the motive is not bad.The question that matters is what wins when two stories are mutually exclusive. When a view of the world conflicts with the Scriptures, the Scriptures need to win. He works this through cognitive behavioural therapy, the most used approach in talk therapy, whose core claim is that emotions and behaviours run downstream of thoughts. He agrees that is broadly true, finds CBT tools genuinely helpful, and notes that CBT ironically has the most in common with biblical counselling. But Scripture carries a category the therapeutic world often does not: we do not only have bad thoughts, we have bad desires upstream of our thoughts. James says our conflicts come from wanting something and not getting it."The tools are great. They're just not everything. There's not one tool that solves life. The only person who solves all of life is Jesus."## Be discerning about who you let counsel youCounsel in a person's heart is deep water, and a person of understanding draws it out. Good counsellors ask good questions and get beneath the surface.Does a therapist need to be a Christian? Andy says it depends on the issue, and that for some things it is close to vital. Marriage is his clearest example, because a counsellor is helping you understand the story you came from and the story you are building, and it helps enormously if they share a Christian understanding of marriage, sexuality, communication, and desire, even if they use plenty of clinical tools alongside it.Better is open reprimand than concealed love, and the wounds of a friend are trustworthy while the kisses of an enemy are excessive. Friends who only ever validate you are not evil, but they will not help you grow. If you talk about your marriage, do it in an honouring way, and be wary if your friends always take your side. You want someone willing to play devil's advocate and ask what you can do, since you are the only person who can do what you can do.Practical advice for choosing, drawing on Eliza Huie's "How to Get the Most Out of Your Counseling," a sixty page book he recommends. Most people do not know they are allowed to interview a counsellor about their modality, their approach, and their worldview. Questions worth asking:How do you integrate your faith and your work?What do you think is wrong with people?Do you ever talk about sin in the work that you do?Will you ever challenge me, even if I do not love it in the moment?What do you specialise in?Licensure tells you what someone is trained in. It tells you nothing about their worldview and nothing about their character. It is a good place to start, not a place to stop. Be wary of anyone who treats everything, the way some restaurants serve cheeseburgers, spaghetti, and sushi off one menu. Andy helped a friend look for OCD treatment and found that of the hundreds of providers listed who said they treated OCD, none listed ERP, the approach both the International OCD Foundation and the American Psychological Association name as the first line treatment. Claiming to treat OCD without it is like claiming to treat bacterial infections without antibiotics.## Engage honestlyThe one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy. Andy points out what the verse does not say. It does not say concealing is wicked. It says concealing does not work. If you want to lose weight without discussing what you eat, or want your knee treated without describing the pain, you will not get far.Two reasons we are not honest. The first is the fear of man, which Proverbs calls a snare, over against the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. The question is whether you are more aware of what a person thinks of you or what God thinks of you. He notes a related risk: keeping the same therapist for years with no goal, until they function as a friend your insurance covers, at which point you want them to like you and become less honest. The second reason is pride, wanting to be seen a particular way.He also distinguishes being authentic or transparent from being vulnerable. Plenty of people will tell you a great deal, sometimes more than they should about others, without ever being open to having any of it challenged. Vulnerability is being open to someone speaking into it. This cuts the other way too. Not everyone is owed your depths, and dumping ninety minutes of heavy material on a friend who did not ask for it is its own marker of therapy culture.## Work towards a goalThere is profit in all hard work, but endless talk leads only to poverty. A goal means direction rather than a deadline, and it lets a counsellor, pastor, or friend stay within their expertise. Andy cites a clinical psychiatrist who said that having a long term psychologist with no goal is having a bad friend you pay to be your friend.The arithmetic matters. You are awake roughly one hundred and twelve hours a week. A forty five minute session is well under one percent of your life and will not change it on its own. Implementing what you learn during the other ninety nine percent will. It is the personal trainer problem: the workouts do not do themselves.## Seek sanctification over validationA fool does not delight in understanding but only wants to show off his opinions. Wanting to be understood is human and God given. Wanting to change and become like Jesus is a supernatural work of the Spirit. The danger is letting "finding someone who gets me" become the destination of the journey rather than a stage in it, and then asking the church to function as a therapeutic community on those same terms.Andy makes the case that the church has an enormous amount to offer if we engage it rightly. There are people in the room who handle money well and would change your life if you had the humility to open your budget to them. There are people who have worked through hard things in their marriage who could mentor you without being your therapist. He cites Rebecca McLaughlin quoting a Harvard researcher that attending church weekly is "like a miracle drug," with measurable effects on depression, anxiety, self control, addiction, and burnout. Churches are also good places to work through attachment wounds, because good attachment work aims at being able to trust other people rather than depending on one safe person indefinitely, and because Scripture defines how we are allowed to treat one another, which is part of what makes a church safe.He closes on what he calls the most underrated thing, even among Christians: spending time with Jesus. He describes a retreat at a monastery with a group of people mostly in their sixties and seventies, including a retired psychiatric researcher, a doctor and psychiatrist, recently widowed and in real pain, and firmly pro therapy. After several hours of solitude she came back and said she thought she had saved five to ten thousand dollars of therapy in three hours, because it had all been resistance. She knew what she needed to do and did not want to do it."Jesus knows how to lovingly say, I love you, but we got to do this. And he took me by the hand and walked me to where I needed to go. He shepherded me."The flip side he wants to press: when someone says they need help with their marriage, ask whether they have prayed about it, whether they have spent any time asking the Lord how to treat their spouse differently, whether they have looked at what God's word says about parenting or marriage. You may well need tools to obey those commands in a healthy way. The question is whether you started with what God wants.The Spirit is the parakletos, the counsellor, the one who comes alongside, and he loves to give wisdom. James says God gives wisdom generously to those who ask without being double minded, and double minded means you have already made up your mind, so you are not actually open. You want someone to co-sign. You want validation, not revelation."Don't build a life where you protect yourself from hard things that can help you grow."Andy's closing prayer asks that Restored would become a humble people who can receive, and a contemplative people able to sit with an idea or a thought or a passage of Scripture and weigh it in God's presence, rather than running to social media or ChatGPT or a podcast or a friend. Clinical tools can help us do that, but those tools are a sail on a sailboat. We still need God's wind. And it asks that we would believe God's word is better for us than the word of any expert or of ourselves, that his word is not handcuffs but guardrails on a path, keeping us from going off the side of a mountain.Verses referenced:Genesis 3Proverbs 9:8Proverbs 9:10Proverbs 14:23Proverbs 18:2Proverbs 20:5Proverbs 27:5-6Proverbs 28:13Proverbs 29:25Romans 12:2Philippians 4:8James 1:5-8James 4:1-21 Peter 5:7

TABLE OF CONTENTS THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW 8-14-2026.Jeff Bliss discusses the severe threats posed by a potential "super El Niño," which could lead to massive coastal erosion, mudslides, and heavy rains in Los Angeles, similar to the damage seen in previous severe weather years. He also reports on active wildfires in California, such as the Timber Fire in Monterey County and the Bug Fire near the Nevada border, noting that humans cause roughly 90 to 95% of these blazes. Shifting to entertainment, Bliss describes the highly anticipated opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which features the "Skywalker Grill"—a restaurant causing excitement among Los Angeles foodies for its Michelin-star potential. Additionally, Bliss covers the landmark $12.8 billion purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers by a group involving Jared Kushner and Bob Iger. Finally, he touches on the legal controversy surrounding the Paramount-Skydance merger and David Ellison's threat to move production out of Hollywood. (1)Gene Marks shares insights from White House advisor Kevin Hassett regarding the validity of government economic data, with Hassett favoring durable goods orders and unemployment claims over revised surveys. Marks reports a generally positive outlook for small businesses, citing an uptick in optimism and a four-year high in manufacturing activity driven by the AI and data center explosion. He notes that while tariffs and $4 gasoline remain concerns, many businesses are absorbing costs without significant impact on sales. Marks characterizes the United States as an "entrepreneur's paradise" because of the ease of starting a business and the high availability of capital. He highlights that nearly half a million new business applications are filed monthly, supported by record levels of private debt and venture capital. Marks concludes that despite various uncertainties, the small business sector remains resilient and is continuing to hire. (2)Jim McTague provides a report on the "mixed" economy of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, observing that retail activity is picking up due to back-to-school shopping despite inflationary pressures. He notes that discount giants like Costco are packed as shoppers seek relief from high prices, while tourism traffic at local hotels and amusement parks has lightened midweek. McTague also highlights local opposition to data centers, making them a contentious political issue for upcoming elections. A central focus is the "Heritage Paris" patisserie at Park City Mall, where a French chef sells premium handcrafted pastries. McTague describes high-end offerings like the "Popcorn Illusion" pastry priced at $17.95, illustrating a market for luxury food even in a cautious economy. He humorously recounts his own difficulty resisting these treats while on a low-carb diet, emphasizing that the shop is a significant draw for local residents. (3)Lorenzo Fiori describes a "disaster" situation in Europe caused by severe drought and record heat, with water restrictions implemented in Swiss towns and critically low levels in northern Italy's Po River. The drought has turned the normally green Alps brown and disrupted lake navigation. Simultaneously, Sicily's Mount Etna has entered a prolonged eruption phase, spewing ash for seven days and forcing the cancellation of 700 flights at Catania airport during the peak tourist season. Fiori notes the chaos caused by tourists seeking "eruption selfies" in dangerous areas. For a cultural reprieve, he recommends the Bernina Express rail journey, which reaches the highest railway point in Europe. He also shares a traditional recipe for polenta with Gorgonzola cheese, paired with local Valtellina wine, though he expresses concern that the drought may soon impact milk production from Alpine cows. (4)Bob Zimmerman details the robotic mission by startup Catalyst to rescue NASA's Swift Space Telescope, utilizing innovative software to maneuver a servicing craft despite thruster failures. He highlights SpaceX's massive Starshipproduction line in Boca Chica, noting that four prototypes are ready for monthly launches and upcoming orbital refueling tests. Zimmerman also discusses Lockheed Martin's strategic investments in rocket startups like Firefly to secure launch capabilities. On the international front, he reports on Poland's successful protest against Starlink roaming restrictions and Vietnam's first satellite contract with an American company, SpaceX, signaling a shift toward U.S. ties. Additionally, Zimmerman covers the State Department's efforts to pull India away from Russian space partnerships and NASA's collaboration with the Department of Energy on nuclear propulsion for Mars. He concludes with breathtaking imagery of stars orbiting the Milky Way's central black hole. (5)Alex Wright, author of Empire of Ink: The Printers, Rogues, and Radicals Who Invented the American Newspaper, Part Two: Wright recounts the history of American newspapers, focusing on the Civil War's impact on journalism. He highlights George Smalley's groundbreaking combat reporting at Antietam, where Smalley wrote a vivid account on a night train to secure the "scoop of all scoops" for the Tribune. Wright also explores "soldier-published" newspapers that provided a slice of camp life and the origins of Stars and Stripes. Moving west, he describes the dangerous life of frontier editors, such as Mark Twain, who carried revolvers to defend against aggrieved readers and occasionally fled town to avoid duels. Wright explains how newspapers became "gold mines" by discovering the revenue potential of patent medicine advertising, which once accounted for half of all ads. He concludes by drawing parallels between the fragmented, anything-goes media landscape of the 19th century and today's digital era of content creators and AI. (6)Henry Sokolski examines the "Golden Dome," a proposed $185 billion space-based missile defense project that mirrors the Cold War-era SDI. He warns that the program's lack of transparency is "suicidal" for its funding, as Congress remains in the dark about its primary mission. Sokolski notes that while technology is closer to practicality than 40 years ago, current threats are often low-cost drones rather than intercontinental missiles. In the energy sector, he highlights Elon Musk's $10 billion "Project Crystal Sun" solar factory in Texas, which Musk frames as capturing the "fusion reactor" of the sun. Sokolski observes that even conservative states are voting with their pocketbooks for renewables as battery storage investments double. Finally, he touches on a mutual defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, suggesting a "Sunni NATO" is emerging due to a lack of confidence in U.S. security guarantees. (7)Angela DiFulvio explains a theoretical method for detecting nuclear weapons in low Earth orbit to prevent catastrophes like the 1962 Starfish Prime experiment, which destroyed a third of existing satellites. She describes an "inspector" satellite designed to induce a unique radioactive signature from fissile material using high-energy protons. DiFulvio details technical challenges, such as "pulse shape discrimination," to distinguish weapon-related neutrons from background cosmic radiation in the harsh space environment. She suggests that an international agency like the IAEAmight oversee these inspectors to ensure space remains weapon-free. DiFulvio emphasizes that while tests can occur in classified environments, more research is needed on the survivability of sensing electronics. She warns that a modern orbital nuclear detonation would be catastrophic for global infrastructure, specifically mentioning the vulnerability of massive constellations like Starlink. (8)

Alex Wright, author of Empire of Ink: The Printers, Rogues, and Radicals Who Invented the American Newspaper, Part One: Wright recounts the history of American newspapers, focusing on the Civil War's impact on journalism. He highlights George Smalley's groundbreaking combat reporting at Antietam, where Smalley wrote a vivid account on a night train to secure the "scoop of all scoops" for the Tribune. Wright also explores "soldier-published" newspapers that provided a slice of camp life and the origins of Stars and Stripes. Moving west, he describes the dangerous life of frontier editors, such as Mark Twain, who carried revolvers to defend against aggrieved readers and occasionally fled town to avoid duels. Wright explains how newspapers became "gold mines" by discovering the revenue potential of patent medicine advertising, which once accounted for half of all ads. He concludes by drawing parallels between the fragmented, anything-goes media landscape of the 19th century and today's digital era of content creators and AI. (6)

This week on Sent from Disneyland, we're shaking things up with a pair of vintage Disneyland postcards and a look at one of the park's most practical—and collectible—souvenirs: salt and pepper shakers. Our first postcard takes us back to July 1957, with the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad arriving at Main Street Station. The postcard sender braved a sweltering day at Disneyland, staying from noon until 10 p.m. Then we head to the Rivers of America in 1969 aboard the Mark Twain, before exploring two early Disneyland salt and pepper shaker sets from my collection. From characters and Main Street imagery to the Mark Twain and Columbia, these little souvenirs offer a fun glimpse into Disneyland merchandise of the 1950s and '60s. We'll also look at the history of novelty shakers and the surprising tradition behind the number of holes in the tops of salt and pepper shakers. Plus, an incoming postcard from Cleveland, a little postcrossing history, and another reminder that you never know what story a postcard might tell.   Below are some of the regulars on Art Throw Down, Follow all of them on Instagram anyway for great art and postcards in your Instagram feed: Hipstadufus, luluvision, jlynch9923, greenmosspaper, georgemailsart, state_of_the_funyun, RussRomano2021

This country ballad is adapted from quotes by Frank Daley, Abraham Maslow, William Shakespeare, Satchel Paige, and Mark Twain.Do what you love. But first, know who you are. Or you'll choose your love wrong. — Frank DaleyMusicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to ultimately be at peace with themselves. What human beings can be, they must be. — Abraham MaslowThis above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night of the day, thou canst not be false to any man. — William ShakespeareNever let the odds keep you from pursuing what you know in your heart you were meant to do. — Satchel Paige, baseball pitcherThe two most important days in life are the day you are born and the day you discover the reason why. — Mark Twain, novelistDo What You Love lyricsDo what you loveBut first, know who you areOr you'll choose your love wrongThat is the beginningThe beginning of self-knowledgeAsk yourself: Who are youAnd what are you doing here?In this jobIn this relationshipIn this countryOn this planet?Musicians must make musicArtists must paintPoets must writeIf they are ultimatelyTo be at peace with themselvesWhat human beings can beThey must be, they must beThis above allTo thine own self be trueAnd it must followAs the night follows dayYou cannot be false to any manNever let the oddsKeep you from pursuingWhat you know in your heartYou were meant to doThe two most important daysIn life are the day you are bornAnd the day you discoverThe reason why you were bornDiscover your reason nowThe two most important daysIn life are the day you are bornAnd the day you discoverThe reason why you were bornDiscover your reason nowBook Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bookmarketing.substack.com/subscribe

One of the most feared inventions ever was the Linotype machine. Debuting in 1886, it was designed to eliminate tens of thousands of newspaper jobs, specifically the hand-compositors—the highly skilled workers who painstakingly picked individual metal letters out of wooden trays to set type. The Linotype instead would cast an entire line of type in molten lead (hence "line-o'-type") on the spot, working six times faster than a compositor and threating to eliminate 85 percent of the workforce (much like today’s fears of AI wiping out any white-collar job that involves a computer screen). Meanwhile in Hartford, Mark Twain was hemorrhaging his life savings into a rival typesetting machine so complex that one patent examiner allegedly went insane reviewing its 850 drawings. Both these stories show the dominance of the media world on America’s first two centuries. They also show that Linotype represents a classic example of productivity-induced market expansion. It didn't reduce the need for workers; it radically altered the economics of publishing. Newspapers grew in size because it was more affordable to print more pages, and total employment skyrocketed. Today's guest is Alex Wright, author of Empire of Ink: The Printers, Rogues, and Radicals Who Invented the American Newspaper. We discuss how the United States printed itself into existence with founding documents pulled from hand presses, why the Post Office Act of 1792 created a hidden subsidy worth $56 billion in today's dollars that turned the early republic into the most newspaper-saturated society on earth. We also dig the abnormally large body count of dead editors (because airing an important person’s dirty laundry usually lead to a duel), and the race between Twain's doomed Paige Compositor and Ottmar Mergenthaler's Linotype, the machine that Thomas Edison called the eighth wonder of the world and that ended up destroying the freewheeling printshop culture that had defined American journalism for a century but also expanded it into something different.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc? This question leads to a discussion about her life and legacy, alongside insights into Mark Twain’s views and the role of Isabelle Romée. The conversation also touches on contemporary issues, including Amnesty International’s stance on abortion, providing a rich exploration of faith and morality. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 06:00 – Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc 16:50 – Mark Twain 21:50 – Isabelle Romée 28:00 – CA books translated 36:50 – Amnesty International and abortion

Sure, more money is better than less…but only to a point, only within reasonable boundaries. Full episode with Ron Chernow: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube

SUSO33 nos habla del proceso de creación de 'El fluir de las imágenes', el mural que rayó en vivo, en 90 minutos como parte de la exposición 'Arte urbano. De los orígenes a Banksy' de la Fundación Canal. El artista ha sido reconocido este año con la Medalla al Mérito en las Bellas Artes.Xaviera Torres nos habla del interés que han generado los eclipses a lo largo de la historia en la literatura, y de cómo influyeron obras de Mark Twain o William Shakespeare.Cerramos el programa con un nuevo viaje cultural y esotérico en la sección Triangular de Carlos G. Fernández, que nos lleva hasta una tienda de discos en Esauira, en Marruecos. Una tienda que, en realidad, es una librería.Escuchar audio

“A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth can tie its shoes.” This old adage continues to show its truth in an age of misinformation and AI deepfakes. Ironically, the saying itself is attributed to Mark Twain, despite there being no evidence the famous American writer ever said it!  Something like this is what happens in the wake of Genesis 3 as the book of Genesis continues on from the story of humanity's tragic fall. In Genesis 3, we see humans begin to believe a lie implanted into their minds by Satan. We saw what happened to the first couple of people who believed it, and it's safe to say that it wasn't pretty. But what does it look like when this lie goes viral? When it starts to be believed and lived at a large scale? When it becomes the default way of thinking and viewing the world for all people? It's the question the next few chapters of Genesis seeks to answer, and in this study we're going to see how the next generation of humans have some ugly consequences from the lie's spread. While this is a grim story, it also is filled with signs of hope and comfort, too, because it foreshadows the gospel if we know where to look.

Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) joins Mona Charen for a conversation about why character still matters in leadership, how America lost many of the institutions that once helped build it, and what the military can teach about integrity, responsibility, and moral courage in an era of political double standards.Upgrade your everyday. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to https://Quince.com/MONA. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK, too.Programming note: This Wednesday! Join us for the next edition of The Bulwark Book Club. Mona Charen and Bill Kristol will discuss Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson with you LIVE at 1:30 p.m. EDT. Drop your questions, comments, and thoughts on the book in the comments of this post.Published in 1894, the novel tells the story of two boys–one born into slavery, the other the master's son–who were switched at birth. Watch your inbox for a link on Wednesday to watch the show.

Jak se inspirovat literaturou a co s vyzrálou cuketou?

Fergus Bordewich returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs with the spectacular story of the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia: a world's fair designed to mark America's 100th birthday, but also a moment of reckoning for a nation sliding headlong into the Gilded Age. The extravaganza attracted 10 million Americans—nearly 20 percent of the population. Among them were P. T. Barnum, Frederick Douglass, and Mark Twain. Visitors from around the world also attended, including Dom Pedro, the emperor of Brazil. On display were inventions that signaled the changing landscape of American life, from the typewriter to the telephone to Heinz Tomato Ketchup. This celebration of America's first century came at a moment when its future seemed more precarious than ever, as big money threatened to overwhelm the government, underpaid workers waged the first national labor strike, feminists demanded rights for women, Native tribes went to war to repel the advancing settlement of the West, and Black Americans struggled to exercise their hard-won freedoms. And looming over the fair was the presidential race of 1876—a highly contested election that would determine the fate of Reconstruction and permanently reshape the Republican party. Fergus Bordewich animates these converging crises through the lives of four protagonists—Rutherford B. Hayes, Alexander Graham Bell, railroad magnate Tom Scott, and sculptor Edmonia Lewis—revealing an America striving to live up to the promise of its founders while bracing for the tidal wave of change on the horizon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Sent from Disneyland, we dive beneath the surface with a 1961 postcard featuring Disneyland's Submarine Voyage, complete with the Nautilus emerging from Submarine Falls. The postcard message gives us a glimpse of a guest's first impressions of one of Disneyland's most futuristic attractions. The history segment takes us to 1987 and the opening of Star Tours, where I pull a commemorative Star Tours Inaugural Flight watch from my collection. We'll look at the unusual 60-hour opening weekend, the watch's design and original warranty, and the mystery of why it says only "January 1987." Then we head back to Frontierland in 1967 with a postcard featuring the Mark Twain and Cascade Peak—and a cast-iron skillet-shaped Trading Post ashtray from my collection. We'll explore this unusual piece of Disneyland merchandise and the history of the Frontierland Trading Post. Plus, an incoming package from the Going to Guides Gazette packed with Disneyland snack-themed goodies sparks another discussion about the fun of snail mail and joining a mail club. Thanks for listening to Sent from Disneyland! Please subscribe, leave a 5-star rating and review, and share the podcast with a fellow Disney history or postcard fan. Below are some of the regulars on Art Throw Down, Follow all of them on Instagram anyway for great art and postcards in your Instagram feed: Hipstadufus, luluvision, jlynch9923, greenmosspaper, georgemailsart, state_of_the_funyun, RussRomano2021

Once again, Darrell Castle discusses war but with a little diplomacy and an historical reminder that technology constantly changes but human nature never changes. Transcription / Notes THE HUMILIATION FACTOR Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 7th day of August in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm afraid my beat is war once again but with a little diplomacy and an historical reminder that technology constantly changes but human nature never changes. For the history lesson I have to go back to December 7th, 1941, and perhaps even a few days before that. This story is important because of the title to this report but also because yesterday, August 6 was the 81st anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan. The United States was engaged in diplomacy with Japan regarding Japan's invasion of China and Roosevelt's refusal to sell them more oil until they left China. The Japanese had to import virtually all their raw materials and they got oil primarily from the U.S. The Japanese had behaved so horribly in China that Roosevelt tried to persuade the Europeans to join him in a conditional boycott but they refused so he decided to do it himself. If you want to know more about how the Japanese behaved in China I recommend Iris Chang's book “The Rape of Nanchang, The Forgotten Holocaust of World War ll. Well, at least the two sides were talking to each other through diplomats around a conference table in Washington D.C. The Japanese knew that if the U.S. continued to refuse to sell them oil they would have to get it by conquering the oil and rubber rich nations of the South Pacific so they made plans to do just that. Those nations could not be conquered with the U.S. Navy at large in the Pacific so Japan's plan included that Navy's destruction in an attack we know as Pearl Harbor. Admiral Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Fleet, had given orders that a war warning had to given to the American diplomats about one hour before the attack but delays of various kinds caused the warning to be delivered one hour after battleship row was burning. The Japanese believed that when the decadent, luxury loving, American people were confronted with this debacle they would demand that their leaders negotiate a way out of it. There were an awful lot of American members of Congress and the Senate who were in office because they were opposed to fighting European wars. There was an America first contingent which measured about 140 members. How could any nation so divided muster the will to fight a long bloody war, but the Japanese were catastrophically wrong in their assessment. Immediately after the attack the America first group voted to disband. Charles Linberg, the most outspoken and most famous antiwar advocate tried to join the Army Air Corps. Men lined up around the block in every city in America. School boys lied about their age to enlist. Keep in mind that in Japan every radio receiver in every military unit was tuned to American broadcasts in order to discern the mood of the people. Military transcriptionists took down every word of every broadcast and on December 8th at 12:30 PM they were turned in for FDR's speech. He spoke for only 6 minutes and none of it was a call for patience or negotiation but instead he called it a day that will live in infamy. The American people and the President were fueled to righteous anger by the deceptive nature of it. The term sneak attack was on everyone's lips and worse because it happened while the two sides were negotiating. That's a long history report, folks, but there is a reason for it. The reason is that another sneak attack, conducted while the two sides were negotiating has now happened. The anger, the determination to fight on no matter how long it took that fueled American resolve is now being felt by citizens of The Islamic Republic of Iran. Yes American diplomats were negotiating with Iranian diplomats when the U.S, and Israeli bombers struck. The attack didn't just destroy Iranian military targets, but it killed their supreme leader and almost his whole family including his 14-month-old granddaughter. The next day American bombs struck a girls school and around 160 little girls were killed but just to make sure it was hit again. How are these people supposed to feel about negotiating with America to end this war. How can they be expected to ever trust an American's word again. The problem continues almost daily as U.S. negotiators, if there are any besides the president, continue to go back on their word which is diplomat speak for lying. For example, the 14-point Memorandum of Understanding the president announced the other day called for Iran to control the Strait of Hormuz. The next day the president reneged on that point. I read someone the other day and I can't remember who said it, but he said President Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize because he has ended the Iran War 7 times and number 8 is coming soon. Think about the mindset that the U.S. sneak attack must have created in the minds of the Iranian people. Before it happened there did seem to be a lot of unrest and a lot of division. People were in the streets protesting the harsh measures of the regime and that regime proceeded to kill thousands of them. I imagine the President was told that his sneak attack would have the same effect on the Iranian people that the Japanese thought Pearl Harbor would have on the American people. Both those assumptions were catastrophically wrong. Instead of causing the Iranian people to riot and overthrow their government it brought them together. The hated Mullahs were once again respected leaders. Thousands attended the Ayatollah's funeral. I think it was Mark Twain who said history doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes. Now the situation is so much worse for the U.S. and of course for Israel which was, apparently, the reason for the sneak attack. The Strait is at least a very dangerous place and ships can't sail without extreme danger. The entire world's economy teeters on the brink of depression. Oil and other needed mineral resources are soaring in price since about 20% of them have to pass through that chokehold. Meanwhile the President has announced a new deal being brokered by his Board of Peace involving peace in Gaza. The lynch pin would require Hamas, a terrorist group financed by Iran, to give up its arms and identify all its tunnels etc. In other words, Hamas would cease to exist and Israel would leave Gaza so that the U.S. and the Middle East members of the Board such as the Saudis and the Gulf States could rebuild it and everyone would prosper. The moment the deal was announced Netanyahu said the President sent it to him and he didn't like it. He said Israel would not leave Gaza until Hamas completely disarmed and Hamas Says it will not disarm until Israel leaves. Qatar is apparently kicking Hamas out of its country and rumors have it moving its operations to Turkey which is apparently the President's hope for the role of ensuring Middle East peace. My point in all this is that it is humiliating and embarrassing, or it should be. This country is supposed to be trusted because we have laws and rules, and we are supposed to stand for something. There are things we simply will never do and financing another country's crimes is one of those things. The first law of the land of course is the Constitution because it says it is the supreme law of the land. It restricts the power of leaders and they all take an oath to it but for most that means nothing. The standard of completely disarmed is virtually impossible to know or measure and that leaves the door open for this conflict to continue indefinitely. In the meantime, Reuters reports that the U.S. has expended more than 80% of its antimissile defense missiles. The Iranians are very smart people and they have been for a long time. They just keep putting missiles into U.S. bases and into Israel knowing that only a few will get through but it requires the U.S. to expend its supply and what then. The President announces what turns out to be a temporary halt to bombing, I guess. The U.S. position with regard to Israel and the Middle East is indefensible and I guess that's why they no longer try to defend it. The attitude seems to be the old one made famous by Baghdad Bob. You are not seeing this so just move on because everything is fine. I chose humiliation as the title of this Report because it is humiliating for a great nation to force people to pay for their own destruction. A foreign nation somehow persuades the U.S. to give it money so it can use that money to buy U.S. politicians who will then vote to fund its expansionist wars. I'll close this report on our humiliation with a few words from old friend and economist Bill Bonner. “No matter how cynical you are, its probably not enough. Perhaps Donald Trump is playing a different game altogether. He marshalls DOGE to cut spending but does not actually cut a dime out of the swollen federal budget. He makes grand theater out of tariffs but trade deficits continue unmolested. No more foreign wars, he pledges and then attacks Iran.” Finally, folks, the way out of this seems very difficult to bear but wouldn't it be better to quit now so we can manage the withdrawal rather than wait until we are forced out. The Iran War was a mistake we should admit and we are sorry we made it. We are especially sorry for those Iranian school girls and we will pay compensation to their families. It's the same decision made by the French after Dein Bin Phu when we decided to take up their war. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

"Goldsmith's Friend Abroad Again" by Mark Twain is a sharp satire that critiques the United States' self-proclaimed identity as the "Home of the Oppressed," highlighting the stark reality of inequality faced by Chinese immigrants in 19th century San Francisco. Twain's unflinching exploration of injustice serves as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggles for equality and fair treatment that resonate today. The book exposes the hypocrisy of a society that prides itself on freedom while marginalizing entire communities. Its enduring themes of social justice and the quest for dignity make it a compelling listen for anyone interested in the complexities of American identity and the historical context of immigration.

Our kids don't always need another lecture. They don't always need us to explain it one more time. They need us to help them see it.

In this episode of the Teach Different podcast, hosts Steve and Dan Fouts explore a quote by Mark Twain, “whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”  They discuss the psychology behind groupthink, the importance of critical thinking, and the potential dangers of majority opinion. The conversation also touches on practical applications of these ideas in educational settings, particularly in discussions about peer pressure and democracy. Throughout the episode, the hosts emphasize the value of reflection and the need to consider counterclaims in order to foster deeper understanding and critical thinking skills. The episode wraps up with some essential questions for further discussion. If you enjoyed this episode please let us know by contacting us through our website www.teachdifferent.com and stand a chance to get access to all our program materials. We would love to hear from youEpisode Chapters00:00 - Introduction to Teach Different and Mark Twain's Quote04:05 - Exploring Groupthink and Majority Opinion10:10 - The Psychology Behind Following the Majority12:42 - The Tyranny of the Majority and Critical Thinking18:57 - Counterclaims and the Importance of Reflection22:19 - Practical Applications and ConclusionImage Source: Charles Noel Flagg, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Mark_Twain_MET_ap17.96.jpg 

Check out this link to buy DB's Books[link] Season 22 bonus episodes 90-112   Title and Author Brief description 90 “The Empty House” — Algernon Blackwood A classic haunted-house story: two curious visitors enter a long-abandoned house and slowly realize the old violence inside it has not gone away. 91 “The Judge's House” — Bram Stoker A student rents a gloomy old house once owned by a cruel judge, then finds the place still ruled by rats, dread, and a hanging shadow. 92a “Laura” — Saki / H. H. Munro A sharp, darkly funny reincarnation story about a mischievous woman who may return after death in a very inconvenient form. 92b “Man-Size in Marble” — E. Nesbit A newly married couple dismisses a local legend about marble knight effigies that walk at night; this proves unwise. 93 “Phantasmagoria” — Lewis Carroll A comic ghost poem, more playful than frightening, about ghostly rules, manners, and the absurd bureaucracy of haunting. 94 “Schalken the Painter” — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu A Gothic tale of art, money, and damnation, centered on a young painter, a lost love, and a sinister suitor who may not be alive. 95A “The Shadows on the Wall” — Mary E. Wilkins Freeman After a family death, strange shadows appear on the wall, turning grief, guilt, and suspicion into a supernatural judgment. 95B “Tales of Treasure” — Anonymous A very short treasure-haunting piece; more of a compact eerie anecdote than a full plotted ghost story. 96 “The Trial for Murder” — Charles Dickens A murder victim's ghost appears around the trial of the accused killer, pushing the living world toward justice. 97A “Uncle Abraham's Romance” — E. Nesbit A gentle, melancholy ghost-romance about an old man, a beautiful portrait, and a love story touched by death. 97B “The Beast in the Cave” — H. P. Lovecraft An early Lovecraft story: a man lost in a cave hears something coming through the dark, and the final reveal is grim and human. 98 “The Ebony Frame” — E. Nesbit A haunted-portrait romance in which a woman in an old picture seems able to step out of the frame, but at a terrible cost. 99 “The Red Room” — H. G. Wells A skeptic spends the night in a supposedly haunted room and discovers that the true ghost may be fear itself. 100 “The Bell in the Fog” — Gertrude Atherton A Henry James-flavored Gothic story about an inherited English estate, old portraits, reincarnation, and family tragedy. 101 “The Ghost Club” — John Kendrick Bangs A comic supernatural story about crime, ghosts, and absurd afterlife logic; lighter and more satirical than scary. 102A “A Ghost Story” — Mark Twain Twain turns the haunted-room setup into a comic ghost story, playing with superstition and mistaken identity. 102B “A Psychical Prank” — John Kendrick Bangs Corrected from “Physical Prank.” A humorous Bangs ghost tale built around spiritualism, trickery, and supernatural mischief. 103 “A Midnight Visitor” — John Kendrick Bangs A comic supernatural visit in the night, with Bangs's usual mix of ghosts, manners, and absurd afterlife complications. 104A “A Quicksilver Cassandra” — John Kendrick Bangs Corrected author/title. A satirical ghostly fantasy about prophecy, warning, and not being believed. 104B “The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall” — John Kendrick Bangs A funny Christmas ghost story about a soggy apparition who floods the ancestral house every year. 105 “The Chromatic Ghosts of Thomas” — Ellis Parker Butler A comic “ghost cat” story involving Thomas the cat and a colorful supernatural problem. 106 “Phantom” — Arnold Bennet       107A “An Astral Onion” — Elia Wilkinson Peattie A strange little supernatural story with Peattie's mix of humor, domestic life, and odd spiritual machinery. 107B “The Haunted Orchard” — Richard Le Gallienne A lyrical ghost story about an orchard haunted by memory, beauty, and possibly the spirit of a young girl. 108 “Glamis Castle” — Elliott O'Donnell A haunted-castle account built around the legends of Glamis, full of old-family dread and spectral atmosphere. 109 “The Return of Imray” — Rudyard Kipling Corrected spelling: Kipling. A colonial ghost/mystery story about a vanished man whose return is not what anyone expects. 110A “Since I Died” — Elizabeth Stuart Phelps A sentimental supernatural piece told from beyond death, focused on grief, love, and the living left behind. 110B “On the Northern Ice” — Elia Wilkinson Peattie A short icy ghost story, also known in some listings as “The Spectre Bride.” 111 “The Withered Arm” — Thomas Hardy A dark rural tale of jealousy, folk belief, class, and bodily curse, with the bleak fatalism Hardy does so well. 112 “The Yellow Wallpaper” — Charlotte Perkins Gilman A woman confined for a “rest cure” becomes obsessed with the room's wallpaper; psychological horror and feminist classic.

Check out this link to buy DB's Books[link] Season 22 bonus episodes 90-112   Title and Author Brief description 90 “The Empty House” — Algernon Blackwood A classic haunted-house story: two curious visitors enter a long-abandoned house and slowly realize the old violence inside it has not gone away. 91 “The Judge's House” — Bram Stoker A student rents a gloomy old house once owned by a cruel judge, then finds the place still ruled by rats, dread, and a hanging shadow. 92a “Laura” — Saki / H. H. Munro A sharp, darkly funny reincarnation story about a mischievous woman who may return after death in a very inconvenient form. 92b “Man-Size in Marble” — E. Nesbit A newly married couple dismisses a local legend about marble knight effigies that walk at night; this proves unwise. 93 “Phantasmagoria” — Lewis Carroll A comic ghost poem, more playful than frightening, about ghostly rules, manners, and the absurd bureaucracy of haunting. 94 “Schalken the Painter” — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu A Gothic tale of art, money, and damnation, centered on a young painter, a lost love, and a sinister suitor who may not be alive. 95A “The Shadows on the Wall” — Mary E. Wilkins Freeman After a family death, strange shadows appear on the wall, turning grief, guilt, and suspicion into a supernatural judgment. 95B “Tales of Treasure” — Anonymous A very short treasure-haunting piece; more of a compact eerie anecdote than a full plotted ghost story. 96 “The Trial for Murder” — Charles Dickens A murder victim's ghost appears around the trial of the accused killer, pushing the living world toward justice. 97A “Uncle Abraham's Romance” — E. Nesbit A gentle, melancholy ghost-romance about an old man, a beautiful portrait, and a love story touched by death. 97B “The Beast in the Cave” — H. P. Lovecraft An early Lovecraft story: a man lost in a cave hears something coming through the dark, and the final reveal is grim and human. 98 “The Ebony Frame” — E. Nesbit A haunted-portrait romance in which a woman in an old picture seems able to step out of the frame, but at a terrible cost. 99 “The Red Room” — H. G. Wells A skeptic spends the night in a supposedly haunted room and discovers that the true ghost may be fear itself. 100 “The Bell in the Fog” — Gertrude Atherton A Henry James-flavored Gothic story about an inherited English estate, old portraits, reincarnation, and family tragedy. 101 “The Ghost Club” — John Kendrick Bangs A comic supernatural story about crime, ghosts, and absurd afterlife logic; lighter and more satirical than scary. 102A “A Ghost Story” — Mark Twain Twain turns the haunted-room setup into a comic ghost story, playing with superstition and mistaken identity. 102B “A Psychical Prank” — John Kendrick Bangs Corrected from “Physical Prank.” A humorous Bangs ghost tale built around spiritualism, trickery, and supernatural mischief. 103 “A Midnight Visitor” — John Kendrick Bangs A comic supernatural visit in the night, with Bangs's usual mix of ghosts, manners, and absurd afterlife complications. 104A “A Quicksilver Cassandra” — John Kendrick Bangs Corrected author/title. A satirical ghostly fantasy about prophecy, warning, and not being believed. 104B “The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall” — John Kendrick Bangs A funny Christmas ghost story about a soggy apparition who floods the ancestral house every year. 105 “The Chromatic Ghosts of Thomas” — Ellis Parker Butler A comic “ghost cat” story involving Thomas the cat and a colorful supernatural problem. 106 “Phantom” — Arnold Bennet       107A “An Astral Onion” — Elia Wilkinson Peattie A strange little supernatural story with Peattie's mix of humor, domestic life, and odd spiritual machinery. 107B “The Haunted Orchard” — Richard Le Gallienne A lyrical ghost story about an orchard haunted by memory, beauty, and possibly the spirit of a young girl. 108 “Glamis Castle” — Elliott O'Donnell A haunted-castle account built around the legends of Glamis, full of old-family dread and spectral atmosphere. 109 “The Return of Imray” — Rudyard Kipling Corrected spelling: Kipling. A colonial ghost/mystery story about a vanished man whose return is not what anyone expects. 110A “Since I Died” — Elizabeth Stuart Phelps A sentimental supernatural piece told from beyond death, focused on grief, love, and the living left behind. 110B “On the Northern Ice” — Elia Wilkinson Peattie A short icy ghost story, also known in some listings as “The Spectre Bride.” 111 “The Withered Arm” — Thomas Hardy A dark rural tale of jealousy, folk belief, class, and bodily curse, with the bleak fatalism Hardy does so well. 112 “The Yellow Wallpaper” — Charlotte Perkins Gilman A woman confined for a “rest cure” becomes obsessed with the room's wallpaper; psychological horror and feminist classic.

What does it mean to walk in the footsteps of an ancestor whose life connected China and America more than a century ago?In this episode, Ben Lee shares how moving to Wuhan in 1992 pushed him to learn Chinese for survival—and eventually led him back to a remarkable family legacy. His great-grandfather was part of the Qing Dynasty's Chinese Educational Mission, became an early voice in Chinese American literature, and even crossed paths with Mark Twain.Ben and Jared explore heritage, identity, education, and the lifelong rewards of learning Chinese. Ben also shares practical advice for learners, including why the best approach is simple: start, keep going, and accept that there will always be more to learn.Links from the episode:“When I was a boy in China” by Yan Phou Lee | Project Gutenbert and AmazonMandarin Companion Graded Readers

These Are Our People Max Kozak Download Psalm 106,Praise the Lord!Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!2 Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord, or declare all his praise?3 Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!4 Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people; help me when you save them,5 that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.6 Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.Mark Twain famously said that history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. That's why I love reading narrative nonfiction. Whether it's Shackleton, or John Adams, there is something uniquely “sticky” about gleaning important lessons other men have learned in the context of hearing their stories. And that's what we'll see the Psalmist setting out to do here, in Psalm 106.Similar to last week, the bulk of this Psalm is another recounting of Israel's history. And the story pretty much picks up where we left off last week. God has demonstrated his mighty power and covenant love by rescuing his people out of Egypt — and now, finally, Israel is about to cross the Red Sea and be on their way to the promised land. But although the story continues, the focus shifts. Psalm 106 has been described as “the dark counterpart to Psalm 105,” because its main focus is on the sin and rebellion of God's people. And we need to see both. Let's pray again, and then we'll jump in.Father, you are a mighty God who shows steadfast love to his covenant people. That was true when you led Israel out of Egypt to the promised land — and it's true now, as you lead us by your Spirit, through your Word. Help us to see and receive what you want to show us this morning in your Word, I pray in Jesus name, amen.1. The Tension: Blessing Belongs to the RighteousBefore we get into the story, we notice that there is a tension introduced in the first few verses that continues throughout this Psalm.After calling Israel to praise the Lord and give him thanks (v.1–2), the Psalmist reminds Israel that blessing belongs to the righteous: “blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times.” (v. 3)He then personally appeals to God's blessing — asking that he would get in on the prosperity, gladness, and glory of God's covenant people (v.5). He says remember me (when you show favor to your people). Help me (when you save them). He wants to be included in their prosperity and the blessings of their inheritance.But if you read ahead, you'll say time out, this makes no sense.First, we'll see later in the Psalm that Israel is in exile when this psalm is written. The “prosperity and gladness” that he wants to get in on is far from Israel's current reality.Second, he's just linked God's blessing to righteousness, but the history that he then goes to great lengths to recount reveals that Israel's track record is the opposite of righteousness. And remember, God's covenant with Israel includes not just blessings for obedience, but also, curses for disobedience (laid out famously in Deuteronomy 28). And as we go through the story we'll see that it's the curses, not the blessings that fit Israel's track record.So that's the elephant in the room — the tension from the start is this: if blessing belongs to the righteous, how can the psalmist identify himself with Israel's wickedness, and yet appeal to God's blessing?2. Israel's Dark Pattern of SinThe story picks up in v.6:“Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.”Now, before we analyze the story, it's important to recognize what he's not doing and what he is doing. First, He is not denouncing or rejecting his heritage. It's clear in verses 4 and 5 that he has tied his identity to God's chosen nation. “Ride or die,” he has linked his fate to that of God's covenant people. At the same time he is not hiding their wickedness. He calls sin, sin, no matter where he sees it. There is no protecting reputations or sugarcoating here.It's also worth noting that he is not “taking on” or “repenting for” his father's sins. There is no “group guilt” going on here. Scripture is clear:“Each will give an account of himself to God.” (Rom 14:12)And yet, he's honest enough to see himself in their story. He does not say “well if it were me in that wilderness, man, I'd do better” — the arrogant attitude that C.S. Lewis calls “chronological snobbery.”Instead, he leads us through a hard, honest look at Israel's history, and a hard honest look at his own heart to identify the dark pattern of sin and rebellion that cuts through every human heart. “Both we and our fathers have sinned.”If last week's history lesson was meant to show us: “wow, this is our God,” this week's history lesson reveals the flip side of the coin: “uff, these are our people.”The Red Sea (vv. 7-12)And we see their first failure at the Red Sea. Israel is on the cusp of leaving Egypt. They are about to walk free after 400 years of slavery. God had absolutely humiliated Pharaoh. Round after round, demonstrating both his power and his covenant love through his Judgement on Egypt, culminating in the death of every firstborn, and making Pharaoh finally relent and let Israel go. So here they are — their Fourth of July moment. And we see rebellion right at the starting line.“Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.” (v. 7)Pharaoh changes his mind, the Israelites see the chariots coming, and they turn on Moses and God saying “did you bring us out here to die?! Didn't we tell you in Egypt to leave us alone?”The Psalmist's first charge begins with “they did not consider God's works” — literally, they gave them no thought — “And forgot the abundance of his love.” Not paying attention, and forgetting, are high-stakes moral offenses, when it comes to our posture towards God. Remembering is a reflection of what we value, and God has given his people provisions for our remembering with many rhythms, disciplines, and reminders to reinforce our attentiveness to Him. Take advantage of them! Meditate on his word daily, tell of his wondrous works to one another, teach them to your children!But instead, Israel's forgetting here reveals their disregard for God and it results in rebellion. Yet God still intervened: He split the sea, destroyed the Egyptian army, and brought them out of Egypt. And for a brief moment, “they believed his word and sang his praise” (v.12). And they lived happily ever after … right?No, instead, we see the fickleness of their trust immediately in the next verse.Wilderness Cravings (vv. 13-15)“But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel. 14 But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; 15 he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.” (v. 13)Instead of delighting in the Lord who just saved them, they forget again, and their hearts are corrupted by disordered desires.They had “wanton cravings” for food — literally translates “they crave-craved” food — to the point of putting God to the test: trying to manipulate God into proving himself to them on their terms.There is nothing wrong with their desire for meat, nor with asking God to provide good things we crave. But when you combine forgetting God and disordered desires, our cravings become deadly. Yet God gives them the meat they wanted, and his anger came with it in a wasting disease, where many people died, giving that place the name “graves of craving.”The Coup Against Moses (vv. 16-18)We'll skip over verses 16-18, but basically a group of prominent men, driven by jealousy rises up against Moses in a coup … God intervenes … the ground opens and swallows the leaders alive … and fire from heaven consumes the rest.The Golden Calf (vv. 19-23)Then comes the infamous golden calf episode. Verse 19:“They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image. 20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. 23 Therefore he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.”Israel forgets again, and this time the whole nation rebels in idolatry. Instead of worshipping God, their savior, they chose to worship pretty much the most pathetic thing they could find. An ox, (that's a male cow) that eats grass. It was pathetic, but more importantly, it was deeply wicked, and a betrayal of their God. And we see its seriousness in verse 23:“Therefore he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.”After everything from Abraham to Moses, God was ready to wipe them out and start over with Moses. That's the gravity of the situation. And there's no doubt that they deserved destruction, on the spot — ground opening up, or fire coming down. But Moses stands in the breach — a military image: when a wall has been breached, the city's about to get sacked except for a champion who steps into the gap, inserting himself to rescue the people.So what's going on here? Is Moses opposing God? Was God overreacting? Not at all. God is displaying here both the gravity of their sin, while also laying the groundwork for what it will ultimately take to deal with it. God wants Israel to know that the only thing that kept them from experiencing the just wrath of God was God's chosen one interceding on their behalf. And because of Moses' intercession, the flood of God's wrath is held back, at least for now, and without any delusions about what their sin deserves.The Spies Refuse the Promise (vv. 24–27)Then, on the very edge of the promised land, twelve spies are sent to scout it out. Ten of them give a cowardly report that ignites fear in the nation: “giants, fortified cities, no chance.” And Israel, again, ignores God's promise.“They despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise” (v.24).The result: an entire generation dies in the wilderness, without entering the promised land.Phinehas' Intercession (vv. 28–31)Fast forward to verse 28. Israel is now in Moab, right on the doorstep of the land, and they rebel again. This time they join themselves to the Moabites by worshiping their pagan idols and committing sexual immorality with them. So God's anger breaks out in a deadly plague against his people.And here in the midst of this plague, someone again intercedes — but this time it looks a little different. Phinehas (Aaron's grandson) sees a blatant demonstration of rebellion happening openly between a leading Israelite man and a prominent Moabite woman, so he grabs his spear, and executes judgment on both: with one thrust, deals with sin on the spot. And as the text says:“he intervened, and the plague was stayed, and that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever” (v.30–31).“Intervened” is an interesting choice of word. It's that intercession language again. Moses turned away God's wrath through intercessory pleading. Phinehas turns away God's wrath through intercessory action, executing justice for sin on the spot. Both are described as acts of intercession that hold back the flood of God's judgement against Israel, for now.And there's an important application for us here: Confront sin in your life head-on. Do not coddle sin, or it will destroy you. That requires calling sin what it is, and not concealing it. Phinehas confronted sin out of his righteous Zeal for the Lord and out of his love for his people. So confront sin starting with your own heart, and then commit to helping one another confront sin in Life Groups. The stakes are too high for a Minnesota-Nice coddling of sin. Sin dishonors God and when left unchecked will destroy you! Help each other root it out, in love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.Defiling the Land (vv. 34–40)Fast forward to verse 34. Israel is finally in the promised land. You'd think, after everything they've been through, they would have learned. Instead, once they're finally in the land, they again, immediately disregard what God commands. God had told them to destroy the Canaanites, but instead…“They did not destroy the peoples, as the Lord commanded them, 35 but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did. 36 They served their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; 38 they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. 39 Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds. 40 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage;”Instead of obeying God and executing righteous judgement (like Phinehas) to remove the evil from the land, they became just like them. They served their gods, and polluted the land with the blood of their own sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to demons!These are dark, dark verses. It should make us sick to our stomach. And it's an important reminder of the trajectory of sin. It is never satisfied staying where it is. It always drags you further and further into darkness, long before you see it's true ugliness.What's our view of sin? Does it make us sick? There's an ever-present danger of minimizing sin and there are many reasons for this. For one, the world around us celebrates it, and it's easy to grow accustomed to it. But also, because we've never seen the full extent of it's depravity. Don't get me wrong, we've seen enough. But, throughout all of history, in countless ways, God always restrains sin from its full expression. Whatever wickedness you have seen (both in your own heart, and in the world around you), is just the tip of the iceberg. Don't underestimate it. And this Psalm helps us not to underestimate it. They sacrificed their own children to demons! Sin is infinitely offensive to God, and it will keep dragging you further and further into it's bottomless pit.So here they are, the ugliness of their hearts on full display. And God can't stand it. He abhors them. He says “Get Out.” Right back into the hand of the nations to be ruled by those who hate them (v.41).Verse 6 opened things up with “Both we and our fathers have sinned” and verse 43 bookends it with his summary:“Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity.”Or as the NIV puts it, “they were bent on rebellion.”This wasn't occasional, nor was it circumstantial. Bent. It's who they are and, if we're honest, it's who we are as well. This isn't just Israel's reality, or a uniquely wicked generation. It's the condition of the human heart. From Adam to us, history rhymes in a dark pattern of sin and rebellion against God.“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23)And it brings us back to our original tension: if blessing belongs to the righteous, how can the psalmist (and how can we) who identify with Israel's wickedness, appeal to God's blessing?Well, Psalm 106 doesn't fully resolve that tension. In a way, it is a true cliff-hanger. The main melody of Psalm 106 is Israel's dark pattern of rebellion and the psalm ends with Israel in exile. But even so, there is a powerful countermelody of God's mercy throughout this psalm, most clearly in verse 44 right after their rock bottom moment.3. God's Countermelody of Mercy“Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. 45 For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 46 He caused them to be pitied by all those who held them captive.”Unlike Israel, who forgets God's covenant at every turn, God never forgets his covenant. The great miracle of Psalm 106 is God's unwavering commitment to his people despite their sin. Time after time he preserves Israel when they deserve to be swept away in his righteous judgment. In every example we've walked through, anything short of Israel's utter destruction is an example of God's countermelody of mercy — his covenant love inserting itself between Israel's guilt and the judgement they deserve.But how? On what basis does “nevertheless” get to happen? God is no less just here than he was when he wiped out Korah's rebellion. So what holds the flood back?Our psalm has already alluded to it twice, both times incomplete. Moses stood in the breach — interceding through pleading, but absorbing nothing himself. Phinehas interceded through judgment — dealing with sin decisively, but only for one sin, not to mention that they were destroyed in the process. These examples highlight two halves of the same tension. What we need is someone to do both. Someone who will stand in the breach in our place, and satisfy God's justice on our behalf.The tension of Psalm 106 and it's hints of intercession both point forward in time to Christ's intercession on the cross once and for all. Romans 3:23-26 reminds us plainly: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”Jesus is God's answer to the tension. The Son of God became a man, lived the righteous life we couldn't, and stepped into the breach for us receiving the full judgement for our sins on the cross. He accomplished what Moses and Phinehas pointed to. He satisfied the judgment that our sin demanded, and displayed God's covenant mercy for all who trust in him. He takes the judgement for our sins, and we inherit the blessings of his righteousness. Intercession, completed.This is what makes the psalmist's plea in verse 47 possible.“Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.”He trusted that God in his mercy and justice would make a way to gather his people for worship and thanksgiving despite their track record. And it's why he can appeal to God's blessing despite his own sinfulness. Every “nevertheless” in Israel's history was borrowed against the cross. Every time God held back the flood, he was holding it back until it could finally, fully fall on his Son, in our place. That was true for Israel, and it's true for us. These are our people, and this is our God!And that brings us to the table.The TableThe table reminds us of where God's mercy and justice meet. No longer in tension, not in some uneasy compromise, but both fully satisfied at the cross.That's what this bread and this cup remind us of. His body, broken for us. His blood poured out for us. Christ took our sins upon himself, and we receive the blessings of His righteousness. We don't come to this table because our track record is any better than Israel's, we come because Christ stood where we should have stood, and declared “It is Finished.”As we celebrate the Lord's table together, this meal is a meal for the members of Cities Church, but if you have trusted in Jesus we invite you to eat with us.If you have not trusted in Jesus, we ask that you let the bread and the cup pass, but let this psalm be your invitation. As Tim Keller notes, you are more sinful than you know, and more loved than you imagine. Trust in Jesus today.

Present Condition: Gods Grace Romans 11:1-6 The Proof of Gods Faithfulness (v. 1) Pauls exasperation Pauls example The Preservation of Gods Remnant (vv. 2-4) Elijahs discouragement Gods encouragement The Provision of Gods Grace (vv. 5-6) The election of grace (God elects salvation by grace) The exactness of grace (God rejects salvation by works) More to Consider For centuries people have been puzzled by the nation of Israel. The Roman government recognized the Jewish religion, but it still called the nation secta Nef ariaa nefarious sect. The great historian Arnold Toynbee classified Israel as a fossil civilization and did not know what to do with it. For some reason, the nation did not fit into his historical theories. Paul devoted all of Romans 11 to presenting proof that God is not through with Israel. We must not apply this chapter to the church today, because Paul is discussing a literal future for a literal nation. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 550. The Jew is the symbol of eternity.... He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can never disappear. The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity. Leo Tolsty The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality? Mark Twain

Before the Hearsts and the Pulitzers, before the front page as we know it, the American newspaper was built by teenagers covered in soot, women who risked hanging, and editors who settled arguments with pistols. Alex Wright joins Blaine DeSantis to talk about Empire of Ink, his sweeping history of how a young republic printed itself into existence between the 1700s and the close of the 1800s. It's a project that started as a personal search into Wright's own family of country newspaper publishers in Georgia and turned into fifteen years of research.The conversation moves fast and covers ground most newspaper histories skip entirely. Wright explains what a printer's devil actually was and why the job cut a man's life expectancy in half. He tells the story of the entrepreneur who imported Egyptian mummies by the boatload because their wrappings were cheaper than American rags, and the French naturalist who watched wasps chew wood into pulp and wondered whether people could do the same thing. There's Mary Katherine Goddard, whose name appears at the bottom of the first Declaration of Independence to carry the signers' names, an act she knew could be read as treason. There's the Vicksburg Sentinel, which burned through eight editors in roughly a dozen years, several of whom died in the line of duty.Wright also takes us to the corners of the story that shaped whole communities. The Cherokee Phoenix, published in an alphabet invented from scratch by Sequoyah, became a political voice for the Cherokee people until their press was taken from them. In San Francisco, Yee Gen hand-built a workaround for printing thousands of Chinese characters and launched the first Chinese American paper. Union soldiers carried portable presses into camp and printed papers with blank pages so the men could write home on the other side. And a young Samuel Clemens swept floors as a print shop apprentice before he ever thought to call himself Mark Twain. If you have ever suspected that today's media chaos is something new, this episode is a useful corrective.

“It's too easy to look back at sciences of the past and say they were all fools. The exact same thing is gonna happen two hundred years from now when people look back at us.” — Paul Stob on the lessons of phrenology Step right up. Over the road from P.T. Barnum's American Museum in 19th century New York stood the city's more metaphorical circus — the Phrenological Cabinet, where admission was free and you could hold a murderer's skull in your hand. After the Barnum museum, it was the second most popular show in town. Although back then phrenology — the supposed science of skull size and head bumps — wasn't seen as the province of tricksters or clowns. So who created this 19th century American obsession with skulls, who created the phrenology phenomenon? In his new book, Empire of Skulls, the Vanderbilt scholar Paul Stob tells the phrenology story through the wealthy Fowler family — Orson, Lorenzo, and Charlotte — who financed and promoted this American circus. It was the Fowlers, Stob explains, who shaped phrenology into the intellectual glue of 19th century American progress and convinced reformers like Walt Whitman, Susan B. Anthony, John Brown, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton of its social value. The appeal was self-improvement, that most American ideal. In Europe, your skull was your fate; in Fowler's America, you could supposedly reshape your brain like a bicep in order to grow new bumps. A gym for skulls. And, in P.T. Barnum fashion, it toured, bringing replica skull collections to the utopian communes of mid 19th century America. And in good (or bad) American fashion, this bunk often had a darker subtext with skulls pilfered from native burial mounds and, inevitably, a slaveholding phrenologist wing. Not everyone bought a ticket. Mark Twain visited Lorenzo Fowler's London depot incognito and was told his skull shape indicated an absence of humor. Three months later, he reappeared, this time as Twain, and got the reverse prognosis. But what finally killed phrenology wasn't Twain but the hitherto unparalleled bloodshed of the Civil War. Not even the Fowlers could glean much positive from the mountains of actual skulls at Gettysburg or Antietam. The circus had ended. Now it's the Fowlers who are the freaks. We gawk at them rather than their skulls. Step right up. The show must go on. Five Takeaways •       The Intellectual Glue of American Reform. From the 1830s to the 1860s — the era of reform — practically every movement to improve the young republic was led by believers in phrenology: abolition, women's suffrage, temperance, prison and education reform. Whitman, Susan B. Anthony, John Brown, Stanton, and Mott were all sympathetic; Orson Fowler barnstormed Massachusetts with his Amherst friend Henry Ward Beecher, who swore by phrenology for the rest of his life; John Brown Jr. worked at the Fowlers' Phrenological Cabinet until Bleeding Kansas called him west. The reason was one word: improvement. Even the enslaved, the phrenologists argued, must be freed — because every human being deserves the chance to improve.•       Curl Your Brain Like a Bicep. European phrenology said your skull was your fate. The Fowlers Americanized it: exercise a mental faculty, they taught, and the brain deposits new gray matter that literally pushes out the skull — self-improvement you could measure with calipers. Parents brought children for readings, returned years later, and found the head had grown just as prescribed: to the Fowlers, concrete proof. The ideal male head measured twenty-three inches around, the female twenty-two — women started in a different place, but nothing said they couldn't climb. And in 1843's Hereditary Descent, Orson made an argument radical for his century: that race mixing was a positive good for humanity.•       Second Only to Barnum. For three decades the Fowlers' Phrenological Cabinet at Clinton Hall — free of charge, unlike the American Museum kitty-corner across the street — was the second most visited tourist attraction in New York City. Visitors could hold a murderer's skull and feel for themselves why he killed, or trace the bumps of statesmen and writers. The empire was literal: the global skull trade of the era, from Samuel Morton's Crania Americana to skulls pilfered from native burial mounds, stocked the shelves. The Fowlers were millionaires, not billionaires — and Orson spent his share on a sixty-room octagon mansion, flagship of the 500-odd octagon houses he inspired across America.•       Twain's Two Visits — and the Birth of “Pseudoscience.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. said reading a brain through a skull was like reading the inside of a safe by feeling the knob — and coined the word “pseudoscience” specifically for the phrenologists. Mark Twain ran the experiment: visiting Lorenzo Fowler's London depot incognito, he was told his organ of mirthfulness was a divot; three months later, business card presented, it was off the charts. Stob still insists on calling phrenology a science — because that is how its era understood it, because it was more accurate than much of the competition, and because one of the fathers of American neurology emerged from the Fowlers' own circle.•       We Are the Phrenologists Now. What killed phrenology was the Civil War: three decades of promising heaven on earth ran skull first into carts of actual skulls, and the utopia of self-improvement died on the battlefield. But the impulse never did. Phrenology, Stob argues, was self-help before the word existed — and its descendants fill the airport bookstore: astrology, Myers-Briggs, the Enneagram, the genetic ancestry kit, all of them, in his words, scientifically garbage yet enormously significant in people's lives. The uncharitable reading of the past is a trap. In two hundred years, Stob warns, they will look back at our sciences of the self exactly the way we look at the Fowlers. About the Guest Paul Stob is Director of the Program in American Studies at Vanderbilt University, where he also teaches in the Department of Communication Studies and the Program in the Communication of Science and Technology. His research focuses on nineteenth-century American intellectual culture — religion, democracy, populism, and social movements. He is co-author, with Stephen Lucas, of The Art of Public Speaking, now in its fourteenth edition. His first trade book is Empire of Skulls: Phrenology, the Fowler Family, and a New Nation's Quest to Unlock the Secrets of the Mind (Counterpoint, April 14, 2026). References: •       Empire of Skulls: Phrenology, the Fowler Family, and a New Nation's Quest to Unlock the Secrets of the Mind by Paul Stob (Counterpoint, April 2026). Jennifer Wright in The New York Times Book Review: “A thoroughly researched and intriguing work.”•       The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby by Michael Blanding — the recent Keen On episode on the Greens, this show's previous installment of ...

688. Joining us today are Johnette Downing and Scott Billington. Combining Johnette's celebrated career as a children's author and musician with Scott's background producing over 100 roots, blues, and Louisiana heritage albums, this powerhouse couple celebrates regional music through their children's duo program, Swamp Romp, and their broader archival and biographical projects. Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 222 years. Order your copy today! This week in the Louisiana Anthology. "Life on the Mississippi." Mark Twain. The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable. Considering the Missouri its main branch, it is the longest river in the world—four thousand three hundred miles. It seems safe to say that it is also the crookedest river in the world, since in one part of its journey it uses up one thousand three hundred miles to cover the same ground that the crow would fly over in six hundred and seventy-five. It discharges three times as much water as the St. Lawrence, twenty-five times as much as the Rhine, and three hundred and thirty-eight times as much as the Thames. No other river has so vast a drainage-basin: it draws its water supply from twenty-eight States and Territories; from Delaware, on the Atlantic seaboard, and from all the country between that and Idaho on the Pacific slope—a spread of forty-five degrees of longitude. The Mississippi receives and carries to the Gulf water from fifty-four subordinate rivers that are navigable by steamboats, and from some hundreds that are navigable by flats and keels. The area of its drainage-basin is as great as the combined areas of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Turkey; and almost all this wide region is fertile; the Mississippi valley, proper, is exceptionally so. This week in Louisiana history. July 24, 1769. Alejandro "Bloody" O'Reilly reclaimed New Orleans for Spain. This week in New Orleans history. July 24, 1947: The first streetcar on the St. Charles line was fitted with air conditioning, a welcome relief during the peak of the New Orleans summer. This week in Louisiana. COOLinary New Orleans ' Month‑Long Restaurant Specials August 1'31 Citywide New Orleans, LA Website: neworleans.com/coolinary New Orleans restaurants launch their annual COOLinary promotion on August 1, offering a full month of discounted prix‑fixe menus designed to bring locals out during the summer slowdown. More than a hundred restaurants across the city participate, from fine‑dining institutions to neighborhood favorites: Two‑course lunches: $28 or less. Three‑course dinners and brunches: $58 or less. Citywide participation: Restaurants in the French Quarter, Uptown, Mid‑City, the Marigny, and beyond. COOLinary has become one of New Orleans' most beloved summer traditions, giving locals a chance to try new spots ' or revisit classics ' at special seasonal prices. Postcards from Louisiana. Molly Ringwalds play at the Italian Heritage Festival. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

High-performing young lawyers are more willing than ever to walk if a firm won't invest in them. In this episode, Steve and Cheryl unpack what it really takes to build a culture of connection, mentoring, and resilience that keeps top legal talent thriving instead of burning out.   In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Cheryl Donaldson discuss: Mark Twain quote, risk-taking, and non-linear careers Early travel, psychology training, and “Lead from the Soul” Parenting, modeling behavior, and long-game training with kids How Gen Z and young associates think about big law, AI, and mobility Law firm culture, connection vs. disconnection, and practical retention strategies   Key Takeaways: Taking risks and embracing non-linear career moves creates depth, perspective, and resilience that ultimately make professionals more effective and fulfilled. Whether with children or associates, change comes from consistent training over time, not one-off conversations or quick fixes. The newest generation of lawyers is highly thoughtful about how they want to live and work—and they will leave if a firm's culture doesn't align with their values. Connection, structure, and clear expectations are the three pillars of a healthy firm; without all three, feedback and performance demands quickly backfire. In a tech-heavy, hybrid world, leaders must intentionally replace lost in-person contact with deliberate relational touchpoints if they want loyalty, sustainability, and long-term talent.   "They're going to be confident to leave if they're not getting what they need or what they want. They're going to be mobile." —  Cheryl Donaldson   Check out my new show, Be That Lawyer Coaches Corner, and get the strategies I use with my clients to win more business and love your career again.   Join the Be That Lawyer Community and connect with ambitious lawyers who are serious about growing their book of business, strengthening their brand, and becoming confident, consistent rainmakers.   Ready to go from good to GOAT in your legal marketing game? Don't miss PIMCON—where the brightest minds in professional services gather to share what really works. Lock in your spot now: https://www.pimcon.org/   Thank you to our Sponsor! LEX Reception: https://www.lexreception.com/partners/bethatlawyer Rankings.io: https://rankings.io/ Lawyer.com: https://www.lawyer.com/   Ready to grow your law practice without selling or chasing? Book your free 30-minute strategy session now—let's make this your breakout year: https://fretzin.com/   About Cheryl Donaldson: Cheryl Donaldson is a licensed marriage and family therapist, consultant, international speaker, and author of Lead from the Soul. Drawing on more than 30 years of clinical experience, she works with individuals, organizations, and legal professionals to strengthen leadership, wellbeing, and workplace culture through the integration of psychology, spirituality, and self-leadership.   Connect with Cheryl Donaldson:  Website: https://cheryldonaldson.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-donaldson-ma-lmft-lcpc-3b9254292/   Connect with Steve Fretzin: LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin Twitter: @stevefretzin Instagram: @fretzinsteve Facebook: Fretzin, Inc. Website: Fretzin.com Email: Steve@Fretzin.com Book: Legal Business Development Isn't Rocket Science and more! YouTube: Steve Fretzin Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911   Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

Don't wait. Don't hold back. Tell them. Tell them again.

This week, Zac sits down with legendary Magic illustrator Donato Giancola to discuss his remarkable career, from illustrating Thran Tome, Steel Golem, Chrome Mox, Mirari, and Shivan Dragon, to painting book covers for Mark Twain, Jules Verne, Lord of the Rings, and much more. Along the way, Donato shares stories about breaking into the industry, his creative process, the influence of comics and fantasy art, and why Magic has always been just one part of a much larger artistic journey. We discuss:Breaking into Magic during MirageThe story behind Thran TomeSteel Golem and Chrome MoxPainting Magic packaging artWorking on Lord of the Rings and classic novelsComic book inspirations including Walt Simonson and Bill SienkiewiczWhy Donato stepped away from MagicThe changing relationship between artists and Wizards of the CoastAdvice for aspiring illustratorsWhat makes great fantasy art timeless If you grew up with Magic during the Mirage through Mirrodin era, this conversation is packed with nostalgia, incredible stories, and a behind-the-scenes look at some of the game's most beloved artwork.#MagicTheGathering #MTG #FantasyArt #DonatoGiancola #MagicArtist00:00 Introducing Donato Giancola00:48 The Story Behind Thran Tome02:30 Hidden Details in the Box Set Artwork03:25 Discovering Fantasy Art05:20 First Professional Illustration Jobs09:58 Breaking Into Magic: The Gathering12:31 Working with Wizards of the Coast14:07 Artist Rights & Leaving Magic15:15 Life Beyond Magic Illustration16:50 Painting Tolkien's Middle-earth20:47 Getting Started with Magic Art22:05 Construct of Time & Chrome Inspirations25:45 Steel Golem Memories29:29 Comic Book Influences32:31 Painting Mordenkainen & Modern Magic34:16 Favorite Magic Illustrations36:46 Advice for Aspiring Artists38:51 The Importance of Finishing Your Work40:00 Closing Thoughts Timestamps

This week, Zac sits down with legendary Magic illustrator Donato Giancola to discuss his remarkable career, from illustrating Thran Tome, Steel Golem, Chrome Mox, Mirari, and Shivan Dragon, to painting book covers for Mark Twain, Jules Verne, Lord of the Rings, and much more. Along the way, Donato shares stories about breaking into the industry, his creative process, the influence of comics and fantasy art, and why Magic has always been just one part of a much larger artistic journey. We discuss:Breaking into Magic during MirageThe story behind Thran TomeSteel Golem and Chrome MoxPainting Magic packaging artWorking on Lord of the Rings and classic novelsComic book inspirations including Walt Simonson and Bill SienkiewiczWhy Donato stepped away from MagicThe changing relationship between artists and Wizards of the CoastAdvice for aspiring illustratorsWhat makes great fantasy art timeless If you grew up with Magic during the Mirage through Mirrodin era, this conversation is packed with nostalgia, incredible stories, and a behind-the-scenes look at some of the game's most beloved artwork.#MagicTheGathering #MTG #FantasyArt #DonatoGiancola #MagicArtist00:00 Introducing Donato Giancola00:48 The Story Behind Thran Tome02:30 Hidden Details in the Box Set Artwork03:25 Discovering Fantasy Art05:20 First Professional Illustration Jobs09:58 Breaking Into Magic: The Gathering12:31 Working with Wizards of the Coast14:07 Artist Rights & Leaving Magic15:15 Life Beyond Magic Illustration16:50 Painting Tolkien's Middle-earth20:47 Getting Started with Magic Art22:05 Construct of Time & Chrome Inspirations25:45 Steel Golem Memories29:29 Comic Book Influences32:31 Painting Mordenkainen & Modern Magic34:16 Favorite Magic Illustrations36:46 Advice for Aspiring Artists38:51 The Importance of Finishing Your Work40:00 Closing Thoughts Timestamps

Chris has a furry room party with Bubsy. Kelley fights to the death over an omelette. Josh subjects the cast to a 3000 photo slideshow. This episode brought to you the original Isekai author: Mark Twain. Question of the Week Tell us how you do vacations. Sit in hotel and play games? Touch grass? Explore and play your Switch in weird locations? Check out the show notes here! The post RPG Cast – Episode 819: “Chewbacos” appeared first on RPGamer.

He spent his career debunking fake mesmerists and mediums — then dreamed his brother's funeral weeks before it happened. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli trace Mark Twain's strange turn toward telepathy and ask what the Catholic has to say about it. The post Mark Twain Super-Psychic: His Shocking Telepathy & Death Dream appeared first on StarQuest Media.

He spent his career debunking fake mesmerists and mediums — then dreamed his brother's funeral weeks before it happened. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli trace Mark Twain's strange turn toward telepathy and ask what the Catholic has to say about it.

NOTE: When you sign up for Patreon, PLEASE do it through a web browser (Safari, Chrome, etc.) and NOT an app on your iPhone. The Apple app charges 30% !!! If you just click on the link above, it should be fine. In today's episode, Becket Cook sits down with Larry Alex Taunton, author, columnist for The Federalist, and host of the podcast Ideas Have Consequences, to discuss his insightful article, "Outrage Over Texas Teaching the Bible is Anti-Intellectual." They unpack the Texas State Board of Education's decision to include Bible sections in the K-12 curriculum, exploring why this move is essential for understanding Western civilization, literature, history, and moral foundations. From Forest McDonald's lessons on intellectual honesty to the Bible's influence on figures like Shakespeare, Faulkner, Mark Twain, and the Declaration of Independence, this conversation reveals how biblical literacy shapes everything from capitalism and science to human rights and restraint on evil impulses. Larry Alex Taunton and Becket Cook also address leftist outrage, Drag Queen Story Hour, Richard Dawkins' evolving views on Christianity vs. Islam, and why removing the Bible from public schools has led to cultural decline since 1963. Perfect for fans of Christian apologetics, education reform, Western history, and conservative thought, this episode makes a compelling case for the Bible as the "prequel to everything" in the West. The Article: https://thefederalist.com/2026/07/03/outrage-over-texas-teaching-the-bible-is-anti-intellectual/ Larry Taunton's Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ideashaveconsequences?si=GI8Hjsm5AAb7Pv06 The Becket Cook Show Ep. 247 Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

 How many of us wish we could tear ourselves away from our phones and spend more intentional time with our kids and families?

In 1917, a dead Mark Twain "wrote" a novel through a Ouija board — and the lawsuit that followed forced everyone to ask who really owns a book authored from the afterlife.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/ghostwritingREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/366f2snyFEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Did Mark Twain write a new novel after he was dead? If so, how? *** Though David Parker Ray's girlfriend Cindy Hendy helped him commit numerous rapes and murders in the 1990s, she was released in 2019 and walks free today. *** Louis Le Prince vanished under mysterious circumstances, but did he willingly decide to hide from the outside world, or was he murdered? *** A man has a dream so disturbing that he's deeply affected by it well after he dreamt it. And the reason it stuck with him could be that it wasn't a dream after all – but a premonition of something horrible to come. *** Shortly after finishing her junior year of high school, Alissa Turner disappeared, never to be seen alive again. Her murder would've gone unsolved if not for the social media platform, TikTok. *** Humans have been fascinated with Mars ever since we learned it was a planet. But why are we so obsessed with it? Is it simply our next step towards deep-space travel, or are we drawn to it for a more basic reason… because our ancestors originated from there? *** There are many UFO sightings on record, but ones that are accompanied by missing time are particularly interesting. Perhaps not least as they might suggest something more akin to alien abduction than just a mere sighting. We'll look at one particular incident that took place in Nebraska in 1966.CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:02:26.278 = Do Copyright Laws Apply To Spirit Writing?00:13:54.317 = The Murder Solved Through TikTok ***00:19:27.188 = The Nebraska Time Affair00:35:44.438 = The Strange Dreams of Mr. Moir ***00:40:33.850 = Did Our Ancestors Live On Mars?00:52:06.275 = The Toy Box Killer's Girlfriend ***01:01:04.695 = The Strange Disappearance of Louis Le Prince01:06:58.396 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“The Nebraska Missing Time Affair” by Marcus Lowth for UFO Insight: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckjf4xe“The Toy Box Killer's Girlfriend” by Marco Margaritoff for All That's Interesting: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8k8j79“The Strange Disappearance of Louis Le Prince” by Jan Bartek for Ancient Pages: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p9f5zdd“The Strange Dreams of Mr. Moir” posted at Anomalien: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/33za3tej“The Murder Solved Through TikTok” by Olivia McCormack for Bust.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/42s9je2z“Did Our Ancestors Live On Mars?” posted at Earth-Chronicles.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/4j8pcrwe“Do Copyright Laws Apply to Spirit Writing?” posted at Esoterx.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/nzsen4v5(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: December, 2022This episode of Weird Darkness moves through posthumous authorship, serial murder, a vanished film pioneer, a TikTok-cracked cold case, alien abduction, Martian origins, and a premonition dug out of the ground.It opens in 1990s New Mexico, where Cindy Hendy helped David Parker Ray abduct, rape, and torture as many as sixty women inside the trailer he called his "Toy Box," a space fitted with ceiling mirrors that forced victims to watch their own suffering. Hendy tracked down targets and stood by while Ray tormented them with electric shocks and medical instruments, until Cynthia Vigil escaped on March 22, 1999, running naked into traffic in Elephant Butte with a dog collar around her neck after stabbing Hendy in the neck with an icepick. Sentenced in 2000 to thirty-six years, Hendy was released on July 15, 2019, because her plea deal predated a law requiring violent offenders to serve eighty-five percent of their terms, and she walks free today.From there the episode crosses to France and the case of Louis Le Prince, born in Metz in 1841 and credited as the forgotten father of motion pictures for building a sixteen-lens camera in 1888. He boarded a train from Dijon to Paris on September 16, 1890, waved off by his brother, and was gone when the train arrived, luggage and all. Thomas Edison spent years asserting sole ownership of cinematography, and Le Prince's son Adolphe, who testified against him, was found shot dead on Fire Island in 1902; a diary entry attributed to Edison and dated September 20, 1890, reportedly records that a man named Eric called from Dijon to say "Prince is no more."Next comes the disappearance of Alissa Turney, a Phoenix teenager last seen on May 17, 2001, after finishing her junior year and arguing with her stepfather, Michael Turney, who claimed she ran away to California. A 2008 search of his home turned up twenty-six homemade explosive devices and a ninety-eight-page manifesto, and he served time on federal bomb charges before his release in 2017. Alissa's younger sister, Sarah Turney, built a TikTok following past one million people around the hashtag campaign for her sister, and in August 2020 Michael Turney was charged with the murder.The episode then turns to a lonely road outside Columbus, Nebraska, on September 5, 1966, where a seventeen-year-old riding his motorcycle to meet his girlfriend's parents saw a completely circular object hovering roughly a hundred feet overhead, ringed with green, red, and yellow lights and emitting a low hum he felt resonate through his body. His engine raged and his wheels spun, but the bike held frozen in place; a five-minute trip took over thirty minutes, and he could never account for the missing time. The same night, radar at Finland Air Force Station in Minnesota tracked an oval craft with the same colored underside, prompting two F-89 jets to scramble from Duluth before it vanished.The Mars segment follows, examining why NASA, SpaceX, and Elon Musk remain fixed on a cold desert planet, and the fringe claim that human life may have originated there billions of years ago before Mars lost its magnetic field and its atmosphere was stripped away by solar wind. The piece leans on the detail that astronauts in space drift toward a 24.9-hour circadian rhythm matching the Martian day, and cites Haim Eshed, former head of Israel's space program, who claimed a secret underground base on Mars where American astronauts and aliens work together, alongside NASA scientist Jim Green's proposal to shield the planet with an artificial magnetic field placed at the Sun-Mars L1 point.Mark Twain surfaces next, seven years after Samuel Clemens died in 1910, when a novel called "The Coming of Jap Herron" appeared in 1917, purportedly dictated by his spirit through a Ouija board to Emily Grant Hutchings and Lola V. Hays. Hutchings, a Hannibal-born writer who had corresponded with Twain in life, had earlier channeled a supposed seventeenth-century spirit named Patience Worth, and psychical researcher James Hyslop tested the Twain claim by asking the ghost to relay the line "Hyslop is a cabbage head," a message that never arrived. Because Harper and Brothers held exclusive rights to Twain's work, his daughter Clara Clemens moved to block publication, and the resulting suit against publisher Mitchell Kennerley ended with every copy pulled from shelves.The episode closes in June 1870 near Boyndie, Scotland, where farm bailiff William Moir dreamed of a bloodied corpse lying on sloping ground near the shore, and weeks later helped carry a drowned asylum inmate over that exact spot, watching blood appear on the dead man's face when the body slipped from its board. The vision returned relentlessly through 1871 until, in January 1872, Moir took a spade to a place called Stakeness and unearthed a human skull and skeleton estimated to be at least fifty years old, in ground where villagers recalled a man named Elder had vanished decades earlier, reportedly murdered in the very room where Moir later slept. The discovery did not free him; he sank into a religious depression and died in October 1873.

To borrow from Mark Twain, “bad news can travel halfway around the world, while good news is still putting on its shoes.” When an influential believer falls into sin, it seems like we hear about it at the speed of light. But how do we reach out to someone who’s helped us, when they’re the ones who need help? Pastor Greg Laurie answers that question today on A NEW BEGINNING. We’re considering a story about Noah in the book of Genesis. This godly man sinned. But we can learn from this biblical account. Experience the Harvest Crusade on July 11 when you watch online! — Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years. Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

-- On the Show: -- Donald Trump plays golf and hosts a vacant state fair while the federal government neglects rising grocery costs and stagnant wages -- Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leadership preemptively claim the midterm elections will be stolen due to slipping approval ratings -- Companies tied to the sons of Donald Trump and Howard Lutnick seek $9 billion in federal financing for mining projects in Kazakhstan -- Donald Trump publicly declares the war with Iran is over while the United States military conducts new airstrikes against Iranian missile sites -- Trump repeatedly claims absolute victory in international diplomacy before terms are finalized, damaging American negotiating leverage -- Right- wingers falsely claim Donald Trump's state fair on the National Mall is packed despite video evidence showing empty grounds -- Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defends a conditional ceasefire while revealing that Jared Kushner is leading diplomatic talks in Doha -- Trump posts to social media about bogus property damage at the Reflecting Pool and planning an expensive federal golf course -- Senator Roger Marshall defends strict voter restrictions by comparing fraud claims to the proactive licensing of commercial airline pilots -- On the Bonus Show: Bill Maher receives the Mark Twain award, the Daily Wire thinks it's a billion dollar company, an Alaska judge puts the other Dan Sullivan back on the ballot, and much more...