Podcasts about Metaverse

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon It's time for our August new music episode. This month we've got something for everyone, provided everyone likes ambient music and/or vaporwave. We're starting off with an album exploring the long and lonely life of the white dwarf drifting through space. Then we're hitting up the metaverse to check out the latest in dying mall technology. Go grab a copy of these albums and join us in checking them out! Shout Outs Kmart 1989-1992 Live on PowerPCMEs TwitchForbidden Solitaire on SteamCompilation of the Isles Vol. 2 from the Space Island TV DiscordYou Are a Widow, Sirsignalcon 2026 on 直子coed's YouTube ChannelHROT on Steam Albums Discussed Echoes of Dying Stars by NGC 224Meta by Alegria™ Credits Music by: 2MelloArtwork by: Patsy McDowellNight Clerk Radio on Bluesky

Subscribe at http://www.youtube.com/ferrycorsten Check out my tour dates, merchandise & more: https://linktr.ee/ferrycorstenofficial Get my Trance DJ Masterclass: https://djtips.co/ferry-course Welcome to Resonation Radio Episode 296! This week, Ferry Corsten brings you a fresh selection of progressive and electronic music featuring new tracks from Oliver Heldens, Estiva, Cubicore, Cassian & ARCO, MORTEN & David Guetta, GVN, and more. The episode also includes Ferry's brand-new collaboration with legendary producer Paul Oakenfold, "Metaverse," plus an update on his Australian tour before closing the show with Modea's "Part Of Me." Enjoy the music, and don't forget to like, share, and subscribe! Links: http://www.ferrycorsten.com http://www.instagram.com/ferrycorsten http://www.twitter.com/ferrycorsten http://www.facebook.com/ferrycorsten http://www.tiktok.com/ferrycorstenofficial Tracklist:Ferry Corsten - Connect (Intro Edit) [Flashover]Suark - Step by Step [Central Station]R3HAB & Orem - All I Am… [Universal]Presi On & Kuuda - Go Back [X]Braxton & Lauren L'aimant - Holding On (Icarus Remix) [Colorize]Cubicore - Blue Monday [Catalystic]Estiva - Via Balearia [Colorize]Don't Blink - Digital Animal [FCKNG SERIOUS]Oliver Heldens, Kryder & The Young Punx - AEIOU [Heldeep]Cassian & ARCO - Come To Life [Three Six Zero]MORTEN & David Guetta - La Révolution [Future Rave]Paul Oakenfold & Ferry Corsten - Metaverse [Perfecto]GVN - Forever [Enhanced Progressive]Motez - Just You [Sweat It Out!]Modea - Part Of Me [Musical Freedom]

Your kid is going to see the internet, even if you try to block it forever, so we bring in a voice who has been studying the digital world from the beginning. Cybersecurity expert, author, and futurist Winn Schwartau joins us to answer the question parents ask most: “How can I protect my kids online?” His response is blunt and strangely reassuring: you can't, not completely. What you can do is get serious about tools, involvement, and a simple security mindset that works everywhere from banks to families: detect and react.We unpack what healthy digital habits actually look like at home, starting with screen time limits and why the type of screen matters as much as the number of hours. We talk about social media addiction, the like button as a reward loop, and why hundreds of online “friends” can warp teen identity and fuel insecurity. Wynne also explains research suggesting kids raised on constant tech may be wired differently, and why real human connection still takes time and effort.Then we go deeper into misinformation, attention economics, and Winn's upcoming concept of “critical ignoring,” a practical way to fight information overload before it becomes a brain-level DDoS attack. You'll hear simple filters like “I don't care” and “I don't have time,” why “do your own research” is often a red flag, and how to approach source verification with “trust nothing, verify twice.” If you're looking for online safety tips for parents, media literacy for teens, and digital wellbeing strategies that don't rely on fear, this conversation delivers.Connect with WinnCheck out the book The Art & Science of Metawar: How to Coexist With AI-Driven Reality Distortion, Disinformation, & Addiction in the Metaverse. You can also contact Winn on Instagram.If this helps, subscribe, share with a parent friend, and leave a review so more families can find the show.Welcome to Speak Out Stand Out — the show where we build confidence in our future, one voice at a time. I'm your host, Elizabeth Green.I grew up shy, so I know firsthand how life-changing it can be when someone helps you find your voice. Now, I get to help kids and teens do exactly that — and this podcast is a place to share those tools with you.Each week, I talk with experts and inspiring guests about simple, practical and tangible ways to help the young people in Thanks for listing! Be sure to check out the show notes for additional resources including a free public speaking lesson and 52 fun practice prompts.  And if you enjoyed what you heard today, please give us a follow. Thanks for Listening to Speak Out, Stand OutLike what you hear? We would love if you would rate and review our podcast so it can reach more families. Also - grab our free mini lesson on impromptu speaking here. This is ideal for kids ages 6+.Interested in checking out our Public Speaking & Debate courses? Find more here!

From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2022. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL's in these archive episodes are still relevant. Andre Kay is a husband, father of 3 boys, author, investor, and successful entrepreneur. He is the founder of Sociallybuzz and Best Date Ever. He is also the co-founder of MetAiBlock and Kids Maker Lab. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. Metaverse and NFTs are new ways to connect with audiences and monetize. 2. Being present in both physical and virtual worlds creates more opportunities to build and monetize. 3. The metaverse is shaping the future, embrace it, learn it, and start testing now. Practical AI That Works. No Fluff. - MetAiBlock Sponsors HighLevel - The ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies. Learn more at HighLevelFire.com. Strawberry - Discover what's possible with a professional coach by your side. Start today and get 50 percent off your first coaching session at Strawberry.me/fire.

Welcome to Gnostic Insights and the Gnostic Reformation on Substack. Before I get into this week’s episode, let me tell you that the entire uninterrupted interview with Bishop Nathan Wilson of The Gnostic Union is now available on YouTube under Cyd Ropp Gnostic Insights playlist. I’ve tried and tried to upload the captioned transcript underneath the video, but neither YouTube nor my video editing software will cooperate. I can only chalk it up to Demiurgic interference, so this must be one important interview! The link is provided here to go straight to it on YouTube. Please “like” it and forward it to friends. Thanks. This week I exchanged emails with a podcast subscriber that presented me with some excellent questions prompted by recent episodes. I asked his permission to share them with you anonymously. I always treasure sincere observations and questions from subscibers because it prompts my gnosis. So here we go. Hi Cyd how's it going? I hope that all is well with you. I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your series of podcasts with the Bishop. Very interesting to hear some stuff on the unpacking of the original Gnostic texts. I thought that today's pod about your discussion was also very revealing as somebody who loves history, but it's giving me an insight into why you are so suspicious of history—would I be right in thinking that you want your texts to be unfiltered from various historical takes from different flawed human recounters? Yes. It is a common saying that history is written by the victors. This refers to the fact that the winners of wars, both physical killing wars and more subtle ideological wars, write the narratives of their opponents from then on. This is why we have had a couple of thousand years of hearing only one side of the gnostic story and one conventionally accepted version of Christian theology. And we have heard that version from Catholic Councils of the 4th century on down through the Protestant churches of today. The surviving descriptions of the nature of gnosticism were written by those who hated gnosticism, and their work is still read and venerated to this day. And I can tell you that even in the little village I live in, the church folks who have no idea what gnosticism even is are dead set against it and dead set against my efforts of sharing my gnostic insights with them and others—and they let me know of their disapproval. I think these divisive times we are living through now also illustrate how what passes for truth is malleable and untrustworthy. We can all see for ourselves how half of the population characterizes the big picture one way and half of the population characterizes it in a completely different way—and these two sides of the ideological divide are incommensurate with each other. Incommensurate is one of those big words I learned during my graduate studies in rhetoric. It means exclusive—both can't be right—you can't hold both positions—it's either or. So if you extrapolate the culture wars forward a few hundred or a few thousand years into the future, how will history frame the disputes that are currently raging through society? If, for example, socialism finally wins out do you think capitalism will be fairly represented? The reverse is also true, and the winner of this tug of war will be the one who lives to tells the tale. My correspondent goes on to say: I think it must be very appealing to be able to narrow down everything into one text and say that we are only going to look at this one source of right thing for the true knowledge. I think this approach has led us to the Bible and the Koran and other food containers which some followers take quite literally and interpret very strictly. There must be safety and comfort in this approach which could be described as textual at best—literal and possibly in a kind way, and without any judgement, fundamentalist, in its true essence. However, and I expect you are waiting for the but… What is listening whilst listening? He continues: It did occur to me that what you are basically saying is that everything in the Tripartite Tractate is correct. And all of the other texts are interesting, though they may be not to be taken seriously because they are myths. Surely it must've occurred to you that the writer of the Tripartite Tractate was also a human, and ergo—a product of the culture that surrounded him or her? Knowing you to be such a thoughtful and perceptive person, is there something I'm missing here? What is objectively different about the Tripartite Tractate, written by a human, just like all of those other gnostic texts? I am not trying to score points here, I genuinely would like an answer. To which I respond: Truly I do not agree with everything the Tripartite Tractate says and, conversely, much of what the other books say is right, though obscured with layers and language of mythology. The difference between the Tripartite Tractate and the other gnostic texts is that it stands alone and doesn’t depend upon a preexisting mythology to make sense. By that I mean that the Tripartite Tractate is a logical argument that any Sophist would be proud of. It speaks in the language of symbolic logic rather than mythology or (purported) history. The Tripartite Tractate begins with a starting premise (a priori) that in the beginning was consciousness without form. It then proposes a method by which consciousness and its attendant qualities, such as power and love, emanate from the origin and make their way downstream into us and other living creatures. It calls the descent of consciousness a fall, but does not condemn the fall, as it was necessary to escape the purely ethereal and create matter. It describes the fall as a “presumptuous thought” choice by Mr. Rationality itself—Logos. I characterize this presumptuous thought as the first action of “ego” made independently outside of the cooperation of the Fullness. This all seems to me to be an entirely rational argument that simply describes the process of the distribution of consciousness. We don’t have to argue the originating premise because our consciousness is self-evident. We are asking where it came from and going upstream until we reach a logical a priori starting point. A lot of what I share at Gnostic Insights comes from my own Theory of Everything—A Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything—that I conceived and wrote 20 years ago, without benefit of any gnostic texts. So that lens informs my reading of the gnostic books. And I immediately recognized my own T.O.E. when I first read the Tripartite Tractate. The Simple Explanation is written using secular, non-religious language and lots of science and math. My illustrations and charts are different than my gnostic illustrations and charts. But the master chart is identical. The Tripartite Tractate did give me an answer I had been chewing over within the Simple Explanation, that being the difference between living creatures and inert elemental matter. I appreciated that clarification and incorporated it into the Simple Explanation. Otherwise, the book still stands as True. What is meant by True in this philosophical sense is whether or not the argument is coherent and internally consistent and comports with direct observation of the world. Now, as to whether or not I believe that only the Tripartite Tractate is true gnosis and the other gnostic books are mostly mythological–that is not the way I would put it. I don't take the Tripartite Tractate as more holy than other books, and there are a couple of aspects I don't fully understand or agree with. For example, the Tripartite Tractate aligns with other gnostic books in saying that there are three types of humans—the spiritual—called the pneumatic; the ordinary, emotional type called the psychic; and the material, called the hylic. The Tripartite Tractate doesn't seem to think that the hylic types are true second order powers and that they didn't exist in the beginning and will not return to the ethereal home above after death. The final page of the Tripartite Tractate codex is riddled with burned out areas from a fire, yet it seems to say, and I'm filling in some missing words: “While the material beings will be left behind until the end to perish, for they will not give their [missing words—probably acknowledgment of the Christ or allegiance to the Christ ]… If they have returned once more to that which … [missing words—probably worships the demiurge] … in the way that they were… [missing words—probably passing as humans] while they do not exist… [missing words—probably from the beginning] but they had been useful [for the] time that they were among them, even if they are not… [missing words—probably second order powers, —possibly among creation] at first, then… [missing words—possibly they were brought forth] to do something else by means of the power they had in the establishment [to] oppose them.” [yes, I realize I am interpolating a lot of missing words. if you have a more cogent interpretation, please offer it.] This final section of the Tripartite Tractate seems to indicate there are hylics among us with whom we live and work side by side who will not be redeemed at the end of time. This holds out the possibility that there are non-second order powers among us who can pass for living beings—not an uncommon thought in gnostic circles. My brother, Bill, and I contend that all life forms come from above and contain the consciousness and life of the Source. So for a non-living creature were to be born in the usual way is an impossibility. In my mind, the only way a truly non-living hylic so-called “human” could walk among us would be in the form of robotic facsimiles. There are many examples of this in science fiction, such as the cylons of “Battlestar Galactica” and the self-aware bots in P.D. Dick's “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” which became the film called “Blade Runner.” We are now be on the threshold of building and employing these newly constructed robots who appear human, appear conscious, appear living, but are actually programmed imitations that did not exist from the beginning. (Battlestar Galactica carries this very question throughout the series as the cylons become self-aware and question their relationship with God.) If that is the case, then these could be the hylics that will not return to the ethereal because they did not come from the ethereal and the end times would need to be pushed back far enough to accommodate their undetectable assimilation into society. But hey—that's just my notion. And here at Gnostic Insights I try to stick with gnostic insights, not my wild speculations. Cylons of Battlestar Galactica television series. The cylons adapt to become more and more “human.” What is true is that I believe the Tripartite Tractate describes our existence and our origins, as well as our future. But we have to remember it is at least 2,000 year old prophecy and embedded in the language and concepts of that time. Maybe the writer was indeed anticipating androids among us, but that seems an unlikely interpretation. I have been watching quite a few “alternate history” videos lately on YouTube that propose completely different backstories and histories that stretch eons into the past—histories that could indeed have been technologically sophisticated enough to produce androids that blend in with the crowd. But we're getting way into the weeds here. One reason that most readers of the Tripartite Tractate and other gnostic texts think there is an order of unredeemable humans is that they are referred to as “those who belong to the imitation.” The most basic interpretation is that those who we call materialists are the people who only believe what they can see, measure, and taste. In that sense, they belong to the imitation since the imitation is the material projection that is this cosmos. The atheists among them do not believe in the ethereal space Above, or the originating Source, and so by default they belong to the imitation. Yet, if all living creatures are children of the Fullness above, even these will return to the Fullness at the end of time. The way I reason this comes from following the logic of emanation and return—the Fullness would not be Full without them, and it is a basic proposition that nothing of the Source can ever be lost. So you see, the logic is what drives my interpretations, logic—Logos—not mythology. At least that how it seems to me. Another aspect of the imitation is the molecular structure of our world, including our bodies. We inhabit a molecular body. Our living essence, the light of consciousness that makes organisms soft and squishy and alive, literally inhabits an otherwise dead, rocky, elemental body of molecules. So everywhere we go, it goes. And when we “die” and our spirit exits this material cosmos, our hylic body is left behind. It belongs to the imitation—get it? So in this case, the hylic human refers to the elemental molecules that make up our bodies—that inert mud that the Demiurge could not raise up to life, as the mythological version goes. So, this material aspect of our earthly existence is part of the imitation and will not return to the Fullness along with our spirits because it did not exist from the beginning. It is a product of the fall. But I digress—back to the subscriber's email: Secondly, I would like to ask you a question about giving glory to God. I liked what you were saying about turning your attention away from yourself, and your ego, and to look towards the divine and offer up a prayer. I am at the stage of my journey where this is something that does not seem so completely alien, as I am moving gradually away from materialist atheism, which has been caught on my existence for the past 50 odd years. Where I get into trouble is basically the whole business of giving glory to God, because the monad who is omniscience and immutable is hardly likely to need me to do a lot of worshipping or giving glory. This was like a bit controversial, and I'm not trying to argue in bad faith, but wouldn't the demiurge himself be more likely to want humans to give glory to him than the monad? I imagine that giving glory means something to people who have come up in a Christian background, but personally it seems completely irrelevant and unnecessary – A bit like one of those business buzzwords, you hear like synergism or government types talking about inclusiveness or diversity—a sort of empty phrase that could really mean anything you want. It would be really helpful if you could unpack it a bit for me because I'm sure I'm missing something here. Giving glory is not for the benefit of the Father. Giving glory is how we tune into the Father’s resonance. Giving glory is for our benefit, not God's. Now, the God of the Old Testament, the Demiurge—is that jealous, forgetful god that thinks it’s the be-all and end-all. It does like to receive worship and glory because it feeds its ego. But the God Above All Gods, the Father of consciousness and the ALL, doesn’t need our worship and glory—you are right about that. It is we who need to give glory, not It that needs to receive glory. The Totalities of the ALL which were the first emanations from the Son, and the Aeons of the Fullness love to give glory. The Totalities do nothing but give glory to the Father, and that is a pure expression of love and devotion to the Father. It's a good thing for us, way down here in the consciousness stream, that they give unceasing glory, because they are the first emanations out of the Son and the fountain of the consciousness and love that eventually flows into all living creatures. The Totalities that give glory continuously are like an electrical plug that stays connected to the greater originating Source. As above so below—we also connect with the Source when we give glory. And since connecting with the Source cannot be accomplished when ego rules your psyche, you must be humble enough to set your ego aside and pray to/give glory to the greater Source. Surely you recognize that your ego is a lesser being than the Father of everything. If your ego does not allow you to think that, then you are not putting your spiritual foot forward but merely your ego. Our correspondent replies: Dear Cyd As usual- I’m so impressed by your clear and reasoned thinking – it is so elegant and simple. I wish I could think like that. However, there are a few things I would like to push back on respectfully. I have been dialoguing with the Demiurge – Chat GPT – and here’s what the archonic AI came up with in answer to your firm assertion that there is no mythology in the Tripartite Tractate. It basically thinks that it’s an overstatement – and I quote: The text gives an extensive creation story involving:• an unknowable Father;• the Son and the Church;• emanated aeons inhabiting the Fullness or Pleroma;• Logos making a presumptuous, defective attempt to comprehend the Father;• the production of deficiency, psychic and material powers;• a Demiurge who creates humanity;• three fundamental classes of human beings;• and a Saviour who descends to restore what has become divided. [Cyd] Let me pop in here to correct a very important error in this demiurgic version of Gnosticism. It sneaked into its answer a very demiurgic assertion that is not True: • a Demiurge who creates humanity The Demiurge certainly did not create humanity or any other living, conscious being. The second order powers—all living beings—are children of the Aeons of the Fullness, sent down into this lifeless cosmos to remind the Demiurge of the greater power Above, the true source of life, love, and consciousness. I have a habit of calling us the children of the Fullness, but the Tripartite Tractate actually calls us the fruit or the spores of the Fullness. Which is another way of saying the emanations of discreet packages of consciousness, or what I call in Simple Explanation language units of consciousness. To me, this is not mythological but descriptive to the best of our ability. Now, back to the correspondent's email: That is all mythological material. So then it rambles on quoting lots of sources etc BUT what the machine is getting at is that the difference between the Tripartite Tractate and some other gnostic texts is that there is a solid logic framework under the superstructure of mythological language and characters.This fits in with your TOE very neatly – and it is no surprise that you had an ‘OMG’ moment when you discovered the Tripartite Tractate—I would also have thought the same if an ancient text fitted perfectly into a system of thought that I had spent years developing. And you might be right—the uncanny fit could be a ‘tell’ that this truly IS the way of everything. On the less interesting point of contention though – I must disagree with you – there IS mythology in the Tripartite Tractate superstructure – the language is mythological – maybe less so than other gnostic texts. As an aside, as a writer – I would also say -there is nothing particularly bad about being mythological either. To which I reply: I have to laugh at using Dialogue with Demiurge AI as a trustworthy source. lol. I will see your Chat GPT and raise you Microsoft CoPilot AI (poker language, I assume you recognize). My AI says this: “This work presents a restored cosmology of the Fullness — a structural, metaphysical account of creation, fracture, and restoration. It is not myth, nor allegory, nor theology in the conventional sense. It is architecture: a precise description of how consciousness, relation, and harmony operate across the three great phases of existence.” I like that description—that the Tripartite Tractate gives the metaphysical architecture of consciousness rather than a myth. I always like to take the higher, meta view of information, which is literally a step above the normal language and arguments. That’s the secret of how I observe and reconcile seemingly irreconcilable positions—by looking up above the words for the meaning behind them. It seems to me that most people are lost in the language and “can’t see the forest for the trees.” Not meaning you, necessarily, it’s just my observation of how understanding goes awry. By taking the meta approach, the concepts automatically simplify as many points of view and language choices are collapsed into their base meanings. The words I use in my Simple Explanation of gnosis and science and everything else are not written in stone. They are my attempt to convey large concepts in the simple, most recognizable forms. If I say “god” it’s because people are familiar with that term. I offer alternative words, like Source, Mother-Father, Metaverse, the Great One, the Origin, so that people will see that the particular word is less important than what it represents and that what they think of as god has a broader meaning than the meme they have been holding onto. These images from my well-worn copy of the Tripartite Tractate of The Nag Hammadi Scriptures edited by Marvin Meyer, show you the process by which I read and interpret arcane texts. I put the language into illustrated concepts and words I can recognize and understand. The writer shared this final thought from the Chat GPT: There is also a genuine philosophical difficulty: how can a perfect and harmonious divine Fullness generate an irrational act? Saying that Logos possessed the capacity to exceed his proper limits explains the mechanism only by placing the possibility of deficiency inside the supposedly perfect order. He says, I think that is actually a pretty decent question from our AI demiurge—right? I expect that you have a great answer though. To which I reply: As to the Demiurge’s new question that you have put forth in this email—that’s an old canard that is often trotted out to stump theists. “How could a good and perfect God allow for the creation of evil?” I am not at all stumped by that question. The answer can most simply be stated in two words: Free Will. If we begin with the premise that the Father/Source/etc. emanates its entire nature outward with its emanation, then obviously free will is a part of that emanation. After all, it is inarguable that the Source possesses free will. The Aeons have free will. Logos is an Aeon. Logos has free will. While the rest of the Aeons were using their free will to cooperate with each other and to glorify the Father and the Son, Logos used its free will to go in a fresh direction. Logos thought it would be going upward to rejoin the highest glory. The Tripartite Tractate says that Logos didn’t realize this was in impossibility, because no one can approach the power source that is the Origin without being annihilated. And like a magnetic polarity, Logos was repelled by the Source and was knocked out of alignment with the Fullness (the fall). This dissonance became our material cosmos. And because Logos had free will, we have free will. This all flows logically from the a priori definition of the Source. This may sound mythological, but it is not. It could be easily described in scientific terms. Like the way a beam of focused light still allows for stray photons to go off beam. Or boiling water in the kettle mostly clumps together on the top of the water as bubbles, but some bubbles go outward to the edge of the kettle and pop. And so forth. The limit is our language, not the architecture or process. The limit is also imposed by the meme bundle being held the human observer-inquirer when their memes do not allow for certain possibilities to be seen and accepted. It is our meme attachments that limit our capacity to observe and learn. So says me.

Welcome to Gnostic Insights and the Gnostic Reformation on Substack. Before I get into this week’s episode, let me tell you that the entire uninterrupted interview with Bishop Nathan Wilson of The Gnostic Union is now available on YouTube under Cyd Ropp Gnostic Insights playlist. I’ve tried and tried to upload the captioned transcript underneath the video, but neither YouTube nor my video editing software will cooperate. I can only chalk it up to Demiurgic interference, so this must be one important interview! The link is provided here to go straight to it on YouTube. Please “like” it and forward it to friends. Thanks. This week I exchanged emails with a podcast subscriber that presented me with some excellent questions prompted by recent episodes. I asked his permission to share them with you anonymously. I always treasure sincere observations and questions from subscibers because it prompts my gnosis. So here we go. Hi Cyd how's it going? I hope that all is well with you. I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your series of podcasts with the Bishop. Very interesting to hear some stuff on the unpacking of the original Gnostic texts. I thought that today's pod about your discussion was also very revealing as somebody who loves history, but it's giving me an insight into why you are so suspicious of history—would I be right in thinking that you want your texts to be unfiltered from various historical takes from different flawed human recounters? Yes. It is a common saying that history is written by the victors. This refers to the fact that the winners of wars, both physical killing wars and more subtle ideological wars, write the narratives of their opponents from then on. This is why we have had a couple of thousand years of hearing only one side of the gnostic story and one conventionally accepted version of Christian theology. And we have heard that version from Catholic Councils of the 4th century on down through the Protestant churches of today. The surviving descriptions of the nature of gnosticism were written by those who hated gnosticism, and their work is still read and venerated to this day. And I can tell you that even in the little village I live in, the church folks who have no idea what gnosticism even is are dead set against it and dead set against my efforts of sharing my gnostic insights with them and others—and they let me know of their disapproval. I think these divisive times we are living through now also illustrate how what passes for truth is malleable and untrustworthy. We can all see for ourselves how half of the population characterizes the big picture one way and half of the population characterizes it in a completely different way—and these two sides of the ideological divide are incommensurate with each other. Incommensurate is one of those big words I learned during my graduate studies in rhetoric. It means exclusive—both can't be right—you can't hold both positions—it's either or. So if you extrapolate the culture wars forward a few hundred or a few thousand years into the future, how will history frame the disputes that are currently raging through society? If, for example, socialism finally wins out do you think capitalism will be fairly represented? The reverse is also true, and the winner of this tug of war will be the one who lives to tells the tale. My correspondent goes on to say: I think it must be very appealing to be able to narrow down everything into one text and say that we are only going to look at this one source of right thing for the true knowledge. I think this approach has led us to the Bible and the Koran and other food containers which some followers take quite literally and interpret very strictly. There must be safety and comfort in this approach which could be described as textual at best—literal and possibly in a kind way, and without any judgement, fundamentalist, in its true essence. However, and I expect you are waiting for the but… What is listening whilst listening? He continues: It did occur to me that what you are basically saying is that everything in the Tripartite Tractate is correct. And all of the other texts are interesting, though they may be not to be taken seriously because they are myths. Surely it must've occurred to you that the writer of the Tripartite Tractate was also a human, and ergo—a product of the culture that surrounded him or her? Knowing you to be such a thoughtful and perceptive person, is there something I'm missing here? What is objectively different about the Tripartite Tractate, written by a human, just like all of those other gnostic texts? I am not trying to score points here, I genuinely would like an answer. To which I respond: Truly I do not agree with everything the Tripartite Tractate says and, conversely, much of what the other books say is right, though obscured with layers and language of mythology. The difference between the Tripartite Tractate and the other gnostic texts is that it stands alone and doesn’t depend upon a preexisting mythology to make sense. By that I mean that the Tripartite Tractate is a logical argument that any Sophist would be proud of. It speaks in the language of symbolic logic rather than mythology or (purported) history. The Tripartite Tractate begins with a starting premise (a priori) that in the beginning was consciousness without form. It then proposes a method by which consciousness and its attendant qualities, such as power and love, emanate from the origin and make their way downstream into us and other living creatures. It calls the descent of consciousness a fall, but does not condemn the fall, as it was necessary to escape the purely ethereal and create matter. It describes the fall as a “presumptuous thought” choice by Mr. Rationality itself—Logos. I characterize this presumptuous thought as the first action of “ego” made independently outside of the cooperation of the Fullness. This all seems to me to be an entirely rational argument that simply describes the process of the distribution of consciousness. We don’t have to argue the originating premise because our consciousness is self-evident. We are asking where it came from and going upstream until we reach a logical a priori starting point. A lot of what I share at Gnostic Insights comes from my own Theory of Everything—A Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything—that I conceived and wrote 20 years ago, without benefit of any gnostic texts. So that lens informs my reading of the gnostic books. And I immediately recognized my own T.O.E. when I first read the Tripartite Tractate. The Simple Explanation is written using secular, non-religious language and lots of science and math. My illustrations and charts are different than my gnostic illustrations and charts. But the master chart is identical. The Tripartite Tractate did give me an answer I had been chewing over within the Simple Explanation, that being the difference between living creatures and inert elemental matter. I appreciated that clarification and incorporated it into the Simple Explanation. Otherwise, the book still stands as True. What is meant by True in this philosophical sense is whether or not the argument is coherent and internally consistent and comports with direct observation of the world. Now, as to whether or not I believe that only the Tripartite Tractate is true gnosis and the other gnostic books are mostly mythological–that is not the way I would put it. I don't take the Tripartite Tractate as more holy than other books, and there are a couple of aspects I don't fully understand or agree with. For example, the Tripartite Tractate aligns with other gnostic books in saying that there are three types of humans—the spiritual—called the pneumatic; the ordinary, emotional type called the psychic; and the material, called the hylic. The Tripartite Tractate doesn't seem to think that the hylic types are true second order powers and that they didn't exist in the beginning and will not return to the ethereal home above after death. The final page of the Tripartite Tractate codex is riddled with burned out areas from a fire, yet it seems to say, and I'm filling in some missing words: “While the material beings will be left behind until the end to perish, for they will not give their [missing words—probably acknowledgment of the Christ or allegiance to the Christ ]… If they have returned once more to that which … [missing words—probably worships the demiurge] … in the way that they were… [missing words—probably passing as humans] while they do not exist… [missing words—probably from the beginning] but they had been useful [for the] time that they were among them, even if they are not… [missing words—probably second order powers, —possibly among creation] at first, then… [missing words—possibly they were brought forth] to do something else by means of the power they had in the establishment [to] oppose them.” [yes, I realize I am interpolating a lot of missing words. if you have a more cogent interpretation, please offer it.] This final section of the Tripartite Tractate seems to indicate there are hylics among us with whom we live and work side by side who will not be redeemed at the end of time. This holds out the possibility that there are non-second order powers among us who can pass for living beings—not an uncommon thought in gnostic circles. My brother, Bill, and I contend that all life forms come from above and contain the consciousness and life of the Source. So for a non-living creature were to be born in the usual way is an impossibility. In my mind, the only way a truly non-living hylic so-called “human” could walk among us would be in the form of robotic facsimiles. There are many examples of this in science fiction, such as the cylons of “Battlestar Galactica” and the self-aware bots in P.D. Dick's “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” which became the film called “Blade Runner.” We are now be on the threshold of building and employing these newly constructed robots who appear human, appear conscious, appear living, but are actually programmed imitations that did not exist from the beginning. (Battlestar Galactica carries this very question throughout the series as the cylons become self-aware and question their relationship with God.) If that is the case, then these could be the hylics that will not return to the ethereal because they did not come from the ethereal and the end times would need to be pushed back far enough to accommodate their undetectable assimilation into society. But hey—that's just my notion. And here at Gnostic Insights I try to stick with gnostic insights, not my wild speculations. Cylons of Battlestar Galactica television series. The cylons adapt to become more and more “human.” What is true is that I believe the Tripartite Tractate describes our existence and our origins, as well as our future. But we have to remember it is at least 2,000 year old prophecy and embedded in the language and concepts of that time. Maybe the writer was indeed anticipating androids among us, but that seems an unlikely interpretation. I have been watching quite a few “alternate history” videos lately on YouTube that propose completely different backstories and histories that stretch eons into the past—histories that could indeed have been technologically sophisticated enough to produce androids that blend in with the crowd. But we're getting way into the weeds here. One reason that most readers of the Tripartite Tractate and other gnostic texts think there is an order of unredeemable humans is that they are referred to as “those who belong to the imitation.” The most basic interpretation is that those who we call materialists are the people who only believe what they can see, measure, and taste. In that sense, they belong to the imitation since the imitation is the material projection that is this cosmos. The atheists among them do not believe in the ethereal space Above, or the originating Source, and so by default they belong to the imitation. Yet, if all living creatures are children of the Fullness above, even these will return to the Fullness at the end of time. The way I reason this comes from following the logic of emanation and return—the Fullness would not be Full without them, and it is a basic proposition that nothing of the Source can ever be lost. So you see, the logic is what drives my interpretations, logic—Logos—not mythology. At least that how it seems to me. Another aspect of the imitation is the molecular structure of our world, including our bodies. We inhabit a molecular body. Our living essence, the light of consciousness that makes organisms soft and squishy and alive, literally inhabits an otherwise dead, rocky, elemental body of molecules. So everywhere we go, it goes. And when we “die” and our spirit exits this material cosmos, our hylic body is left behind. It belongs to the imitation—get it? So in this case, the hylic human refers to the elemental molecules that make up our bodies—that inert mud that the Demiurge could not raise up to life, as the mythological version goes. So, this material aspect of our earthly existence is part of the imitation and will not return to the Fullness along with our spirits because it did not exist from the beginning. It is a product of the fall. But I digress—back to the subscriber's email: Secondly, I would like to ask you a question about giving glory to God. I liked what you were saying about turning your attention away from yourself, and your ego, and to look towards the divine and offer up a prayer. I am at the stage of my journey where this is something that does not seem so completely alien, as I am moving gradually away from materialist atheism, which has been caught on my existence for the past 50 odd years. Where I get into trouble is basically the whole business of giving glory to God, because the monad who is omniscience and immutable is hardly likely to need me to do a lot of worshipping or giving glory. This was like a bit controversial, and I'm not trying to argue in bad faith, but wouldn't the demiurge himself be more likely to want humans to give glory to him than the monad? I imagine that giving glory means something to people who have come up in a Christian background, but personally it seems completely irrelevant and unnecessary – A bit like one of those business buzzwords, you hear like synergism or government types talking about inclusiveness or diversity—a sort of empty phrase that could really mean anything you want. It would be really helpful if you could unpack it a bit for me because I'm sure I'm missing something here. Giving glory is not for the benefit of the Father. Giving glory is how we tune into the Father’s resonance. Giving glory is for our benefit, not God's. Now, the God of the Old Testament, the Demiurge—is that jealous, forgetful god that thinks it’s the be-all and end-all. It does like to receive worship and glory because it feeds its ego. But the God Above All Gods, the Father of consciousness and the ALL, doesn’t need our worship and glory—you are right about that. It is we who need to give glory, not It that needs to receive glory. The Totalities of the ALL which were the first emanations from the Son, and the Aeons of the Fullness love to give glory. The Totalities do nothing but give glory to the Father, and that is a pure expression of love and devotion to the Father. It's a good thing for us, way down here in the consciousness stream, that they give unceasing glory, because they are the first emanations out of the Son and the fountain of the consciousness and love that eventually flows into all living creatures. The Totalities that give glory continuously are like an electrical plug that stays connected to the greater originating Source. As above so below—we also connect with the Source when we give glory. And since connecting with the Source cannot be accomplished when ego rules your psyche, you must be humble enough to set your ego aside and pray to/give glory to the greater Source. Surely you recognize that your ego is a lesser being than the Father of everything. If your ego does not allow you to think that, then you are not putting your spiritual foot forward but merely your ego. Our correspondent replies: Dear Cyd As usual- I’m so impressed by your clear and reasoned thinking – it is so elegant and simple. I wish I could think like that. However, there are a few things I would like to push back on respectfully. I have been dialoguing with the Demiurge – Chat GPT – and here’s what the archonic AI came up with in answer to your firm assertion that there is no mythology in the Tripartite Tractate. It basically thinks that it’s an overstatement – and I quote: The text gives an extensive creation story involving:• an unknowable Father;• the Son and the Church;• emanated aeons inhabiting the Fullness or Pleroma;• Logos making a presumptuous, defective attempt to comprehend the Father;• the production of deficiency, psychic and material powers;• a Demiurge who creates humanity;• three fundamental classes of human beings;• and a Saviour who descends to restore what has become divided. [Cyd] Let me pop in here to correct a very important error in this demiurgic version of Gnosticism. It sneaked into its answer a very demiurgic assertion that is not True: • a Demiurge who creates humanity The Demiurge certainly did not create humanity or any other living, conscious being. The second order powers—all living beings—are children of the Aeons of the Fullness, sent down into this lifeless cosmos to remind the Demiurge of the greater power Above, the true source of life, love, and consciousness. I have a habit of calling us the children of the Fullness, but the Tripartite Tractate actually calls us the fruit or the spores of the Fullness. Which is another way of saying the emanations of discreet packages of consciousness, or what I call in Simple Explanation language units of consciousness. To me, this is not mythological but descriptive to the best of our ability. Now, back to the correspondent's email: That is all mythological material. So then it rambles on quoting lots of sources etc BUT what the machine is getting at is that the difference between the Tripartite Tractate and some other gnostic texts is that there is a solid logic framework under the superstructure of mythological language and characters.This fits in with your TOE very neatly – and it is no surprise that you had an ‘OMG’ moment when you discovered the Tripartite Tractate—I would also have thought the same if an ancient text fitted perfectly into a system of thought that I had spent years developing. And you might be right—the uncanny fit could be a ‘tell’ that this truly IS the way of everything. On the less interesting point of contention though – I must disagree with you – there IS mythology in the Tripartite Tractate superstructure – the language is mythological – maybe less so than other gnostic texts. As an aside, as a writer – I would also say -there is nothing particularly bad about being mythological either. To which I reply: I have to laugh at using Dialogue with Demiurge AI as a trustworthy source. lol. I will see your Chat GPT and raise you Microsoft CoPilot AI (poker language, I assume you recognize). My AI says this: “This work presents a restored cosmology of the Fullness — a structural, metaphysical account of creation, fracture, and restoration. It is not myth, nor allegory, nor theology in the conventional sense. It is architecture: a precise description of how consciousness, relation, and harmony operate across the three great phases of existence.” I like that description—that the Tripartite Tractate gives the metaphysical architecture of consciousness rather than a myth. I always like to take the higher, meta view of information, which is literally a step above the normal language and arguments. That’s the secret of how I observe and reconcile seemingly irreconcilable positions—by looking up above the words for the meaning behind them. It seems to me that most people are lost in the language and “can’t see the forest for the trees.” Not meaning you, necessarily, it’s just my observation of how understanding goes awry. By taking the meta approach, the concepts automatically simplify as many points of view and language choices are collapsed into their base meanings. The words I use in my Simple Explanation of gnosis and science and everything else are not written in stone. They are my attempt to convey large concepts in the simple, most recognizable forms. If I say “god” it’s because people are familiar with that term. I offer alternative words, like Source, Mother-Father, Metaverse, the Great One, the Origin, so that people will see that the particular word is less important than what it represents and that what they think of as god has a broader meaning than the meme they have been holding onto. These images from my well-worn copy of the Tripartite Tractate of The Nag Hammadi Scriptures edited by Marvin Meyer, show you the process by which I read and interpret arcane texts. I put the language into illustrated concepts and words I can recognize and understand. The writer shared this final thought from the Chat GPT: There is also a genuine philosophical difficulty: how can a perfect and harmonious divine Fullness generate an irrational act? Saying that Logos possessed the capacity to exceed his proper limits explains the mechanism only by placing the possibility of deficiency inside the supposedly perfect order. He says, I think that is actually a pretty decent question from our AI demiurge—right? I expect that you have a great answer though. To which I reply: As to the Demiurge’s new question that you have put forth in this email—that’s an old canard that is often trotted out to stump theists. “How could a good and perfect God allow for the creation of evil?” I am not at all stumped by that question. The answer can most simply be stated in two words: Free Will. If we begin with the premise that the Father/Source/etc. emanates its entire nature outward with its emanation, then obviously free will is a part of that emanation. After all, it is inarguable that the Source possesses free will. The Aeons have free will. Logos is an Aeon. Logos has free will. While the rest of the Aeons were using their free will to cooperate with each other and to glorify the Father and the Son, Logos used its free will to go in a fresh direction. Logos thought it would be going upward to rejoin the highest glory. The Tripartite Tractate says that Logos didn’t realize this was in impossibility, because no one can approach the power source that is the Origin without being annihilated. And like a magnetic polarity, Logos was repelled by the Source and was knocked out of alignment with the Fullness (the fall). This dissonance became our material cosmos. And because Logos had free will, we have free will. This all flows logically from the a priori definition of the Source. This may sound mythological, but it is not. It could be easily described in scientific terms. Like the way a beam of focused light still allows for stray photons to go off beam. Or boiling water in the kettle mostly clumps together on the top of the water as bubbles, but some bubbles go outward to the edge of the kettle and pop. And so forth. The limit is our language, not the architecture or process. The limit is also imposed by the meme bundle being held the human observer-inquirer when their memes do not allow for certain possibilities to be seen and accepted. It is our meme attachments that limit our capacity to observe and learn. So says me.

With the summer holidays just around the corner, we gather for one last comprehensive round of XR news before the seasonal slowdown. → Inspired by Josef Erl's latest newsletter on heise.de — where he declares the end of all-rounder headsets and proposes four new VR categories — Thomas and I discuss what the upcoming autumn hardware wave will actually deliver. → We also untangle the latest rumors surrounding Meta's smart glasses: from "supersensing" devices without privacy LEDs switched on to Meta's aggressive countermeasures against hardware tampering. Plus: Meta is testing paid AI subscriptions. Meanwhile, Illinois has banned smart glasses behind the wheel entirely—we analyze the reasoning behind this drastic move. → In financial news, Even Realities has officially reached unicorn status with a new $150 million investment round. We look at why their camera-free, monochrome display approach is winning over investors. → Furthermore, the first dedicated Metaverse browser has launched, Thomas is explaining what it can actually do and we share our initial impressions. → Finally, we look at UBTECH's new U1 companion. Is this humanoid robot genuinely the future of home assistance, or is it just a highly uncanny, overly flexible smart speaker on legs?

Matt Edelman serves as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, with responsibility for the company's strategy, capital allocation, operations, and long-term growth. Appointed CEO in April 2025 after serving as President and Chief Commercial Officer, Matt architected a comprehensive corporate restructuring, strengthening the company's balance sheet and raising more than $26 million in six months, culminating in a $20 million private placement in October 2025. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Matt drove more than 20x revenue growth, led multiple M&A transactions, oversaw hundreds of brand partnerships, supported the company's successful NASDAQ IPO, and helped establish Super League as a defining force in the emerging category of playable media.   To know more about Matt visit his LinkedIn: @mattedelman   Episode Summary:   Matt Edelman has spent over 30 years at the intersection of media, gaming, and emerging tech — starting at Marvel in the 1990s, helping launch Marvel.com, moving through WME/IMG's global live-events business, and now leading Super League as its Chairman, CEO, and President. In this conversation, Matt walks through his "meandering" career path, what it took to raise $26 million while restructuring Super League from an esports company into a platform that helps brands reach the "gamified consumer," and the leadership lessons he's picked up along the way — from building trust with his team to spotting emerging categories before they have a name.   Key Takeaways:   - Follow where you can have impact, not just what's exciting - More people play video games than watch sports - Reframe the audience to shift perception - Trust is a leader's most important asset - Curiosity drives good leadership, but it needs a check - Younger generations are wired for gamified experiences - Build a personal board of advisors - The human side of your story matters as much as your business story   Episode Chapters:   00:00 – Episode teaser: the stats on gamers vs. sports fans 00:40 – Welcome & guest introduction 01:42 – Welcome, Matt 01:58 – Matt's origin story: from investment banking to Los Angeles 03:36 – The Marvel years: launching Marvel.com and riding the dot-com wave 11:20 – What Super League is and why it matters 16:34 – Matt's evolution as CEO and the importance of trust 19:15 – Listener support shoutout (top 2% of podcasts globally) 19:55 – What inspires Matt: solving business puzzles 22:08 – What legacy Matt wants to leave 23:35 – What's next for Super League and the gamified consumer trend 26:18 – Where to find Matt (LinkedIn) and why the "human side" matters online 29:08 – Final takeaway for listeners: build your personal board of advisors 31:47 – Outro

Who would you date in high school? Listen now as the girls discuss meeting the Devil at the Crossroads, perfect daughters, and the Metaverse. We tangent as usual, we like to shoot the shit here. Please like, subscribe, and leave a review!  Watch live on Fridays at 10:30pm ET: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitch.tv/twogirlsoneship⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on all the socials ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/twogirlsoneship⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Advertise with us & business inquiries: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠twogirlsoneship@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Theme song: TGOS Theme from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pipeman Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find all the other Robots Radio Network shows at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.robotsradio.net/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This show brings always-online to a whole new level! And there's some extreme people in it, even if they're silly most of the time. Apparently Nessa has purple hair in all the art and figures, but red hair in the show itself.   frac time frac time frac time

CATCHER IN THE PSY - 07.08.2026 - #956 BestPodcastintheMetaverse.com Canary Cry News Talk #956 - 07.08.2026 - Recorded Live to 1s and 0s Deconstructing World Events from a Biblical Worldview Declaring Jesus as Lord amidst the Fifth Generation War! CageRattlerCoffee.com SD/TC email Ike for discount https://CanaryCry.Support   Send address and shirt size updates to canarycrysupplydrop@gmail.com Join the Canary Cry Roundtable This Episode was Produced By:   Executive Producers Sir LX Protocol Baron of the Berrean Protocol***   Producers of TREASURE (CanaryCry.Support) Tiffany W, Rebecca T, Sir Darrin, Monica K, Dame Tinfoilhat, Sir Casey the Shield Knight, Alex W, Raoul S   Producers of TIME Timestampers: Jade Bouncerson, Morgan E Clankoniphius Links: JAM   SIR IKE MEGA BOX GIVEAWAY - Rating/Review, screenshot, send to Sir Ike CanaryCrySupplyDrop@gmail.com   POLYTICKS 7:29 Paul Pelosi Hit and Run - Depe got LIFE in prison? (MSN)   PSYOPS 17:33 The Atlantic Celebrating Catcher in The Rye (The Atlantic) Catcher. in the Rye Connection to operation paperclip (Rare)   EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS 1:17:55   BEAST FASHION 1:40:25 Forget logos, young people in China want 'spiritual' luxury (CNN)   METAVERSE 2:15:22 This Giant Spider at Frieze London Will Transport You to a Digital World (Art Net) → Feral Metaverse on STEAM   PRODUCERS 2:22:41 END 2:36:14

This week on Toilet Radio: Joe and Jordan discuss the 250th limited-edition American Independence Day. We take a trip in our time machine and travel ONCE MORE into the Metaverse. That long-forgotten land is now home to Metal Blade Records X KNUCKLEBONZ 360. What is this crap? We investigate. Nergal is more bald than ever. Bad Wolves are trying again with a FOURTH new vocalist. Good luck! Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats are BEEFING with cartoon novelty act Gorillaz over a festival performance! FINALLY, there’s the beef! Kid Rock tells us about his close, personal relationship with Jesus Christ Donald Trump. Finally, Corey Feldman (?) wanted to get Mike Patton (?) to guest on a track but he heard he was in a cult so he got Fred Durst (?) instead. Strange times. Music featured on this ‘sode: Hypersphere – Interlopers This program is available on Spotify. It is also available on iTunes or whatever they call it now, where you can rate, review, and subscribe. Give us money on Patreon to get exclusive bonus episodes and other cool shit.

"I know what it feels like to be the bird in the cage that doesn't sing. I know that feeling and I don't want to go back to that again."Sheila Kazan, creator of the podcast Small Talk with Sheila chats with me about navigating the expectations of her Iranian immigrant parents – who envisioned her becoming a lawyer – and her own desire for creative expression. From discovering the power of acting in a sixth-grade English class to dropping out of law school and working in the heart of Hollywood, Sheila discusses the 'messiness' of a creative life. Now balancing a career in tech with her passion for storytelling, she explains why we should give ourselves the same grace we afford our favourite rom-com characters and why perfectionism is the greatest barrier to artistic fulfilment.The Law School Dropout: Sheila recounts the 'messy and dark' moment she realized she was living someone else's life and her bold move to Arizona to discover who she actually was.Creativity in Corporate Spaces: How Sheila carves out room for her expressive self while working for tech giants like Meta and Slack.The 'Bird in the Cage' Warning: A powerful discussion on the emotional price of suppressing your creative side and why 'just doing it' is the only cure for perfectionism.Ambition vs. Burnout: Practical advice on managing the 'pendulum swing' of a multi-passionate life and recognizing when you're steering towards a crash.You might also like:From Serving Fries to Performing Stand-Up with Rabiah CoonCakes, Crochet and Connecting in the Metaverse with Shawna CureeFrom Law to Literature with Mary AdkinsSupport the showFollow @CreativityFoundPodcast on InstagramWant to be a guest on Creativity Found? Send me a message on PodMatch, herePodcast recorded with Riverside and hosted by Buzzsprout

Sahil Adeem warns Bitcoin and crypto aren't trends but signals of a deeper psychological shift, asking why youth rush blindly into metaverse money and what parenting failures made this inevitable. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when we repeat the mistakes of the early internet? In this episode of Coffey & Code, Ashley Coffey sits down with immersive technology pioneer Ben Erwin to explore one of the most important conversations happening in AI and XR today: why open standards, interoperability, and digital ownership matter more than ever. From his early work building websites in the 1990s to developing projects for the United Nations, the New York Times, and founding the Academy of Immersive Arts & Sciences, Ben shares how decades of experience have shaped his vision for the future of immersive technology. Together, Ashley Coffey and Ben Erwin unpack the intersection of AI, open source software, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), WebXR, creator rights, public media, ethics, and the future of the internet. If you care about where technology is headed—and who gets to shape it—this conversation is essential listening! In this episode, you'll learn: Why open standards matter for the future of AI and XR How Flash's collapse still impacts today's technology decisions The hidden risks of closed platforms and walled gardens Why interoperability is critical for spatial computing The future of digital ownership in AI and immersive media How creator economies can become more ethical and sustainable Why immersive technology needs its own public media ecosystem Lessons startups can learn before building the next generation of AI products What today's AI revolution can learn from the early web Why education and open ecosystems will determine who wins the next decade   EPISODE CREDITS:Produced and edited by Ashley Coffey. Cover art designed by Ashley Coffey.Headshot by Brandlink MediaIntroduction music composed and produced by Ashley Coffey LINKSFollow Coffey & Code on Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, and YouTube for the latest emerging tech updates! Subscribe to the Coffey & Code Podcast wherever you get your podcasts to be notified when new episodes go live. © 2026 Coffey & Code Podcast. All rights reserved. The content of this podcast, including but not limited to text, graphics, audio, and images, is the property of Ashley Coffey and may not be reproduced, redistributed, or used in any manner without the express written consent of the owner. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, serial entrepreneur Nate Alder shares how he built the global outdoor brand Klymit and launched his new venture, Skavengerz. Nate breaks down how he created his first Klymit prototypes for just $150 by hacking together Gore-Tex jackets, wine preservation valves, and Reebok Pump shoes—proving how extreme capital constraints force the creativity needed to scale a brand to a successful acquisition. He also introduces Skavengerz, a geofencing platform designed to pull families off digital screens and reward them for gathering life experiences in nature. Throughout the conversation, Nate delivers a masterclass on modern startup execution, explaining why rapid iteration velocity is the ultimate predictor of business success today.   

THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall Mark Zuckerberg spent seven years and $80 billion attempting to build Horizon Worlds, a virtual reality "metaverse" that peaked at around 200,000 monthly users in October 2022. After years of decay, Horizon froze the creation of new worlds in VR this week, shifting the platform's focus back to mobile and marking the effective end of Meta's virtual reality ambitions. This week, the lads perform an autopsy on both Horizon Worlds and Mark Zuckerberg's dream of the metaverse more broadly, discovering how a platform built on the vision of a revolutionary gaming headset eventually gave way to a world solely inhabited by dozens of eight-year-olds screaming slurs in 360 degrees of immersive 3D. Media Referenced in this Episode: Meta Horizons Worlds for Oculus Quest, including the following worlds: “Horizon Central” “Bobber Bay Fishing” “NBA Arena” “Coldplay Music of the Spheres World Tour” “METDONALD'S” “Pizza Kitchen” “Bad Roommates UPDATED!” “I Spent A Week Alone In The Metaverse” by Jarvis Johnson (August 1, 2023) Kickstarter campaign for Oculus Rift Oculus VR profile on Crunchbase “Happy Go Luckey: Meet the 20-year-old creator of Oculus Rift” by Robert Purchase (Eurogamer, July 11, 2013) “John Carmack's former employer claims he stole tech for Oculus VR when he left” by Ben Gilbert (Engadget, May 1, 2014) “Palmer Luckey: The Facebook Near-Billionaire Secretly Funding Trump's Meme Machine” by Ben Collins and Gideon Resnick (The Daily Beast, September 22, 2016) Palmer Luckey's post about Nimble American on Facebook (September 23, 2016) “Palmer Luckey distances himself from Nimble America group” by Matt Kamen (Wired, September 26, 2016) “Facebook launches beta of Spaces, its goofy and fun social VR platform” by Lucas Matney (TechCrunch, April 18, 2017) The Mark Zuckerberg/Sweet Baby Ray's edit “Zuckerberg blasted for tone-deaf 'magical' VR tour of Puerto Rico” from CNET News (October 10, 2017) Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Flatiron Books, 2025) “Introducing Oculus Quest” from Meta Developers (February 13, 2019) “Oculus Quest Basics Tutorial” from Meta Quest (May 20, 2019) “Everything revealed at Facebook's Oculus Horizon presentation” from CNET Highlights (September 25, 2019) “Building the Tools to Power the Future of Work” press release from Facebook (May 21, 2020) “Growth At Any Cost: Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo — And Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed” by Ryan Mac, Charlie Warzel, and Alex Kantrowitz (BuzzFeed News, March 29, 2018) “Zuckerberg Says He Strongly Disagrees With “The Ugly” Memo By Top Facebook Exec” by Jim Dalrymple II (BuzzFeed News, March 29, 2018) “Facebook Horizon | New Worlds in the Making” from Meta Quest (August 27, 2020) “Facebook launches ‘Horizon Workrooms.' Here's how it works” from CBS Mornings (August 19, 2021) “The Metaverse and How We'll Build It Together -- Connect 2021” from Meta (October 28, 2021) Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook post announcing Horizon Worlds launching in France and Spain Announcement that legs are coming soon Footage of Meta Connect 2024 in Horizon Worlds “What Went Wrong With Horizon Worlds? Former Meta Devs Share Surprising Insights -- And a Solution to Still Save It” by Wagner James Au (March 12, 2025; archived from the original on March 16, 2025) “Eli Roth Brings His Brand of Horror to Meta Horizon Worlds + Meta Quest TV” Meta press release (October 14, 2022) “Why The Metaverse Was Doomed From The Start” by The Art of Storytelling (March 27, 2026) “Zuck Never Understood the Metaverse” by The Morbid Zoo (April 4, 2026) “How Did the Metaverse Fail So Badly?” by Patrick Boyle (April 12, 2026) “What does Meta actually do now?” by Good Work (May 8, 2026) “Meta burned $19 billion on VR last year, and 2026 won't be any better” by Lucas Ropek (TechCrunch, January 28, 2026) Announcement from Meta that Spark will be shutting down in January 2025 “Meta is closing down its VR meeting rooms as part of its wider cull” by Mariella Moon (Engadget, January 16, 2026) “Meta Lays Off 8,000 Employees, as A.I. Casualties Mount” by Eli Tan, Kalley Huang, and Mike Isaac (The New York Times, May 19, 2026) “Backrooms uses the bluntest of metaphors to capture a uniquely Gen Z fear” by Joshua Rivera (The A.V. Club, June 5th, 2026) TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com Interstitial: “Connect Keynote Address 2026” // Written by A.J. Ditty // feat. Brian Alford as “Zucks”

In this encore episode about breathing for better sleep, this episode focuses on how a simple breathing practice may help with relaxation, stress, and insomnia.Alison speaks with Raj Khedun, the editor-in-chief of Keep Fit Kingdom and the creator of the 3-3 Metaverse breathing method. He explains that his interest in the body, fitness, martial arts, and breathing developed over time, alongside questions about human potential, recovery, and the effects of breath on the nervous system and body.They discuss the 3-3 breathing method as Raj explains that it involves breathing in through the nose in three parts and breathing out through the mouth in three parts, with the exhale helping to activate the vagus nerve. He describes it as a simple practice that can be done for 30 to 90 seconds, especially before bed.They also discuss how the method may help reduce mental chatter, stress, and panic, and how it may support sleep by encouraging relaxation. Raj says it should be practiced properly and consistently, and that it can be learned in a way that is easy to remember and repeat.They close with a reminder that a few minutes of breathing practice is a manageable part of a daily routine.HIGHLIGHTS:1:54 Childhood Dreams and Curiosity5:48 From Questions to Training9:13 India Changes Everything11:21 The Three-Three Breathing Method19:17 Relaxing Into the Practice23:42 Breathing for Better Sleepconnect with Rajwebsite: https://keepfitkingdom.com360 Club 1 year birthday!June promo code: 360BIRTHDAYSPONSOR:Cellev8Discount code: THEALISONK ALISON'S LINKS:Website | Facebook | Twitter | InstagramGET MY FREE 4 part Pop-up Podcast SeriesJOIN Borderless Hybrid Innovators FB GroupINNOVATION AVENUE: Fitness and Self-Care Revolution

It's 2023, and Meta Ray-Bans have just helped Mark Zuckerberg turn a corner. After his disastrous investment in the Metaverse, Meta's AI-enabled smart glasses are a welcome victory for the company. But the competition is coming. And so are uncomfortable questions about mandatory data-sharing, worker exploitation, and federal agents using the glasses illegally. If smart glasses are here to stay, the question becomes… is that a good thing? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On March 30, 2026, Rec Room announced they would be closing on June 1, 2026 at noon PDT. I had a chance to speak to former Rec Room employee Shawn Whiting, who previously the roles of Head of Creators, Head of User Acquisition, and Head of Community. He shares some additional context for the past decade of Rec Room including reflections of some of their top milestones, riding the Metaverse hype, the benefits of costs of being available on so many different platforms, the impact of Meta's competing Horizon Worlds, and the challenges of monetization. We also share some of our favorite memories of the platform, and Whiting's time working for Rec Room. Rec Room is officially are closing everything down today at noon PDT, and you can check out their final AMA that was posted yesterday. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

They first made headlines by bolting facial recognition onto Meta's Ray-Bans to show how easily the technology could identify strangers in the street. Now AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio have a product of their own: Mira, a $650 pair of AI glasses, with no camera this time, that quietly transcribes and summarises everything so you can turn your life into a searchable database.

Dans ce 433, le metaverse de Zuckerberg fini de couler, Amandine nous rapporte des Tengas.

     If this isn't a total hoax and MindWar-level LIE about the brain cells learning to play Doom, then the possibilities have probably already far surpassed what they are disclosing at present. The missing piece of the puzzle, the realism that comes from human understanding and cognition could be our own brains plugged into the simulation. We would be manufacturing our own most powerful illusion based on our own standards of what reality looks and feels like. The metaverse wouldn't need to attempt to guess. We would be supplying the data ourselves via anticipation. It would simply use our signals against us to make a flawless reality built for One. Each individual would experience their own reality and a shared experience. It would reinforce the realism. It would be the inescapable dream. Even if you mastered your own mind and conquered the illusion, you would still be inside the dream. There's nowhere to go. The mind is cyclical. It turns you right back to the center. Being aware of the false reality is hardly an escape hatch to break free because it's not a physical reality at all. You would only ever be able to accomplish Lucid Dreaming and it would be fleeting.619-431-0334https://vdo.ninja/?room=4roomMy site:https://SemperFryLLC.comJoin Dr. Glidden's Membership site here:https://leavebigpharmabehind.com/?via=pgndhealth⁠Code: baalbusters for 25% OFFUse Code BB5 here for your 90 Essential Nutrients:https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/brand/azurewell/2326The Azure Whole Food Essential Nutrients are 1. Whole Food Multivitamin, 2. Alaskan Cod Liver Oil, 3. Fulvic-Humic Energy Blend, 4. IP6 Supreme. I also recommend adding the Core Copper.      If we're to believe them at face value without any scrutiny, this is the claim by Cortical Labs:"Researchers at Cortical Labs have successfully trained a cluster of 800,000 lab-grown human and mouse brain cells to play the 1970s video game Pong. In 2026, they extended this to the game Doom. This "mini-brain" sits on a silicon chip (CL1) that translates game data into electrical signals, allowing the cells to act and interact in real-time."How does one even prove that's not a hoax or fraud? The chip is determining what signals from a lump of lab grown Frankenbrain tissue is signalliing? It doesn't have eyes. It's not receiving any discernable stimuli to react to, and even if it was there's a LOT of liberties being taken by said circuit to translate those reactions into gameplay. Personally I think it's a parlor trick. But I do not think it's insignificant. They're releasing this information to the public for some reason. Could it be they are signalling to our brains rather than the lump of Frankenbrain clusters to convey a much darker purpose for mankind moving forward? Could it be a foreshadowing of our future relationship with computing and Artificial Intelligence? Are we the missing component in making AI more rational, and give it the human quality necessary for convincing illusions in their Metaverse? Will we be used to deceive ourselves? Are we the final ingredient for the AI Data Centers? Is this going to be an involuntary mental and physical enslavement in these massive facilities? Will they be using our whole body, or just hacking us up and taking our skulls and brains? Does this sound like Sci-Fi?Make Dr. Glidden Your DoctorUse Code BB5 here for your 90 Essential Nutrients:https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/brand/azurewell/2326The Azure Whole Food Essential Nutrients are 1. Whole Food Multivitamin, 2. Alaskan Cod Liver Oil, 3. Fulvic-Humic Energy Blend, 4. IP6 Supreme. I also recommend adding the Core Copper.Use code BB5 for your discount.https://GivesendGo.com/BaalBustershttps://buymeacoffee.com/BaalBustersBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ba-al-busters-broadcast--5100262/support.

Click For RUMBLE Video   Let's get a full handle on the situation we face should we not liberate ourselves: There's a deeper layer to what's going on and it provides insight into hidden events of the past. The cycle of Inversion, the ever tumbling hourglass of Kronos/Saturn is close to the 180° mark, the RESET position. Today you will hear from people on Instagram videos saying complete monologues nearly verbatim of what I've been warning about and concluding from all the seemingly unrelated elements. Their goal is to kill our electrical grid while maintaining or building their own. We are to be put back into primitive living. We aren't to drive or travel or even be free to roam. Outdoors and farmland will soon be off-limits to us. With the increase in pollution from the preparation of data centers, the chemical toxins sprayed everywhere and on our food, the illness and deaths will be blamed on Hanta or some other convenient "virus" will arise. All homes will be condemned without water and electricity. As best as I can surmise there multiple resets and a complete shift in the energy and rhythm of this realm each time. Resets are synonymous with Mass Murder. Some children too young to remember the world as it was are kept alive and assuredly abused and traumatized, while all of the adults are dispatched of in various ways. Entire civilizations appear to have been blown up or melted down by a force of nature or technology that should NOT have existed in that era. Is the Baalroom/Ballroom a metaphor or code for a bunker entrance to an underground labyrinth? The people will be disposed of in ways unimaginable then the clearing of the structures will commence. America First is the dark mantra, indicating what country will fall to data center takeover and extermination First. The aliens narrative may simply be a cover for these parasitic minions as their true form reveals itself, or it will be something conjured into our realm by the tech like dybbuk, Djinn, or demons. Perhaps they simply come up from underground, and under sea water.There will be plenty of distractions, more outrageous actions, bills, EOs, and declarative statements made by the so-called government. If this was a Sci-Fi horror novel it would be a tough sell. The fact that we can point to this happening in "reality" says something about how short they intend our future to be. We're not supposed to be around to witness most of the changes they're discussing.***Due to the recent events involving the loss of the FTJMedia platform, and how it happened, adaptations to routine need to occur.Rumble Rants, we've discovered increased their take to 50% which makes them more than even YouTube.If you would like to support this Independent broadcast and ensure I can continue to do livestreams, please use these methods below:https://GivesendGo.com/BaalBustershttps://buymeacoffee.com/BaalBustershttps://paypal.me/BaalBustersTo join the cheap tiers on Patreon, use this link:https://www.patreon.com/c/KristosCastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ba-al-busters-broadcast--5100262/support.

This week, we're looking back on Rob's interview with the multi-talented Paris Hilton! The two talked travel, growing up in front of the camera, retiring from clubbing, the Metaverse and her documentary "This is Paris.” This episode came out in June 2022. Make sure to subscribe to the show on YouTube at YouTube.com/@LiterallyWithRobLowe! Got a question for Rob? Call our voicemail at 323-570-4551. Your question could get featured on the show! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For episode 722 of the BlockHash Podcast, host Brandon Zemp is joined by Matt Edelman, CEO of Super League, where they are turning attention into action with playable media across the world's most popular game platforms.Super League delivers full-funnel marketing campaigns built around playable media. From immersive content to direct-response ads, their cross-platform programs reach 94% of Gen Alpha and 92% of Gen Z. 

Robby Yung runs Animoca Brands' investment business — 650 portfolio companies across Web3. At Paris Blockchain Week 2026, he sits with Alex Richardson to argue blockchain's real product-market fit was always agentic commerce, not human consumer apps. Plus the iTunes "false promise" of digital ownership, why 6 billion gamers are the natural mass-adoption vector, and how RWAs bridge the physical and AI-managed worlds.We cover:- Why crypto's real customer was always AI agents- Digital property rights and the iTunes false promise- Gaming as the mass-adoption vector- What the metaverse actually is- RWAs as the AI-physical bridgeChapters:00:16 - Welcome to Paris Blockchain Week01:12 - Overview of Animoca Brands02:13 - Agentic Commerce and Blockchain03:41 - Consumer User Interface04:27 - Digital Property Rights Explained06:12 - Ownership in the Digital Age07:40 - Gaming and Blockchain Adoption09:28 - The Metaverse and AI12:00 - Optimism and Concerns about AI13:00 - NFTs and Their Future15:05 - Tokenization and Digital Twins16:05 - The French Web3 Ecosystem17:54 - Europe's Role in Crypto19:15 - Future Trends in AI and BlockchainFollow Bitcoin.com for more crypto interviews, insights, and market updates.

Tim Cook is stepping down in September, and The Trio has plenty of thoughts on what the Ternus era means for Apple. Kotaro dives into his embedded systems rabbit hole (Raspberry Pis, ESP32s, and a Godot refresher), while Steve sounds the AI hype alarm, comparing the current frenzy to NFTs and the Metaverse, complete with a shoe company that somehow pivoted to GPU data centers on a $50M budget. Steve's monitor saga drags on, the SpaceX/Cursor "announcement of an announcement" gets the skepticism it deserves, and The Trio wraps up with details on the May 14 IRL meetup in Philly.## Chapters00:00 Introductions05:54 Kotaro's Side Project Adventures08:29 Diving into Hardware and Embedded Systems11:17 Raspberry Pi Adventures and Microcontrollers14:02 Creating AI Projects with Raspberry Pi18:19 Exploring DIY Devices and Learning in Tech23:21 Game Development and Learning Curves24:16 AI Tools and Programming Challenges26:55 The AI Hype Update and Economic Realities36:57 Balancing AI Use in Software Development39:53 The Hype Cycle of AI and Media44:32 So Long, Time Apple, and Thanks for All the Fish!53:07 The Future of Apple in the Ternus Era56:43 Steve's Monitor Watch Update58:57 Wrap Up01:00:37 Tag## Show Notes- Tim Cook announced his retirement as Apple CEO, effective September, with hardware chief John Ternus set to take the helm.- The Trio agrees Cook grew Apple into the world's most valuable company, and the MacBook Neo might just be his most quintessential product.- Ternus is seen as more of an engineer/visionary, and Steve is cautiously hoping he'll bring more Jobs-era decisiveness to Apple's product direction.- Kotaro is deep in embedded systems this year, learning Raspberry Pi 5s and ESP32 microcontrollers the hard way (wrong cables, wrong GPIO boards, all of it).- He's built a basic AI chatbot device (think DIY Rabbit R1, hooked to Google Gemini) and is eyeing a 5-inch touchscreen home automation kiosk.- TRMNL, the E Ink dashboard device, comes up as a goal Kotaro is working toward, though the large version is sold out.- GitHub Copilot paused new signups, dropped Opus from Pro plans, and started rationing usage, which Steve reads as AI's economic reality finally catching up.- Steve puts AI hype at NFT/Metaverse levels: a shoe company pivoted to GPU data centers, and SpaceX "announced" it has the option to buy Cursor for $60B without actually buying anything.- Steve's XDR monitor watch continues: he watched a glowing review, still can't justify the price, but is eyeing the nano-texture option for his glare-heavy room.- The Trio closes with news of a PhillyCocoa IRL meetup on May 14 at the Vanguard building, featuring Kotaro on Metal shaders.## Links**Hardware & Devices**TRMNL: https://trmnl.com/ | Rabbit R1: https://www.rabbit.tech/rabbit-r1**Snazzy Labs TRMNL Review**Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWw5NKUx40o**AI Hype Update**We are near peak hype (Primeagen): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAREqdtUN48SpaceX/Cursor ($60B): https://www.reuters.com/technology/spacex-says-it-has-option-acquire-startup-cursor-60-billion-2026-04-21/**One More Thing**IRL Meetup RSVP (May 14): https://luma.com/i00ll61z**PhillyCocoa:** http://phillycocoa.orgIntro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

Stormgate, an indie online multiplayer game, is shutting down its online servers because their provider, Hathora, has been purchased by Fireworks AI who are turning the online game servers into AI servers. Rec Room is shutting down in June, despite having over 150 million players. Snapchat's parent company has purchased some of Rec Room's assets and hired some of the talent to help them foster an online community. Then we talk to Jamie from OLR about April Fools jokes that didn't fool us this year.

Is Silicon Valley actually making progress, or are they just breaking the world for profit? Support my independent journalism: 

When tech billionaires make nice with authoritarians and AI challenges are everywhere, I check in with JONATHAN TAPLIN, Director Emeritus of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, a former tour manager for Bob Dylan & The Band, a producer of films including Martin Scorsese's MEAN STREETS, and the author of MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS: How Google, Facebook and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy and THE END OF REALITY: How 4 Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars and Crypto. We talk about the relationships of AI, democracy, authoritarianism, inequality, billionaires, the arts, and the military. You can learn more at jontaplin.com

Sam Altman's home has been targeted twice in three days, first a Molotov cocktail, then a shooting from a passing car. Apple is testing four designs for AI smart glasses. OpenAI is touting its Amazon partnership while publicly distancing from Microsoft. GPU prices are surging as an agentic AI compute crunch threatens the whole industry. And Mark Zuckerberg is still keen on photorealistic Metaverse avatars. Sam Altman's home targeted in second attack; two suspects arrested (SF Standard) Apple AI Smart Glasses Features, Styles, Colors, Cameras; Giannandrea Leaving (Bloomberg) OpenAI touts Amazon alliance in memo, says Microsoft has 'limited our ability' to reach clients (CNBC) AI Is Using So Much Energy That Computing Firepower Is Running Out (WSJ) Meta builds AI version of Mark Zuckerberg to interact with staff (FT) Learn more at liquid.trade/techbrew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg stood in front of the world and announced that the future of human interaction would be something called the metaverse. He was so confident about this that he renamed his three-billion-user company after it. Over the following four years, Meta spent $88 billion building a virtual world that almost nobody visited, featuring avatars that — for reasons that were never fully explained — did not have legs. Wall Street predicted five billion users. Consultants declared it too big to ignore. A man paid $450,000 to become Snoop Dogg's virtual neighbour. The metaverse peaked at around 900 daily users. This is the story of what went wrong, and what it cost.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3eerLA0⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Derivatives For The Trading Floor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://amzn.to/3cjsyPF⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Corporate Finance: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3fn3rvC ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ways To Support The Channel:Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleOnFinance⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/patrickboyle

In today's episode, Gastor and Shalewa talk about the ending of the Metaverse, Afroman's victory in court and LaRussell's social media vacation.Recorded at FourB StudiosPATREON LAUNCH!For all those that have asked how they can help support the pod - it's finally here! Thanks again to all the Troops and Correspondents who rock with us. Check it out - we'll have some exclusive content and fun perks, plus it really does help!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/WarReportPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Many Thanks to our Patreon Troops & Correspondents for helping us bring this show to life. Shouts to the Correspondents!Tanya WeimanFontayne WoodsMark OrellanaB. EmmerichCharlene BankAskewCharlatan the FraudCynthia PongKen MogulSayDatAgain SayDatAgainLaKai DillStephanie GayleUncleJoe StylenoshCato from StonoJennifer PedersenMarcusSarah PiardAna MathambaLooking to further support? Help our data storage/archiving needs here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/23X55OW4CFU8Y?ref_=wl_share⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram:@WarReportPod@SilkyJumbo@GastorAlmonteTwitter:@SilkyJumbo@GastorAlmonteTheme music "Guns Go Cold" provided by Kno of Knomercyproductions Twitter: @Kno Instagram: @KnoMercyProductions

Our future was pronounced dead last week.I mean that glorious future of The Metaverse, promised to us by Silicon Valley's tech and financial geniuses. Just a decade ago, they were promising us that by now we'd all be playing, working, and relating as digital avatars of ourselves, living out our lives in a phantasmagoric new world of virtual reality.They boldly proclaimed that the next Big Thing in tech, replacing smart phones and all other personal devices would be a “Metaverse,” digitally connecting everyone everywhere. They exclaimed that by purchasing goofy-looking, reality-augmenting headsets, interactions could be done without any in-person human contact. And who better to sell this future than the super-goofy gabillionaire, Mark Zuckerberg?The CEO of Facebook, he was so bedazzled by the digital hokum of the metaverse that he even renamed his corporation “Meta.” Then he pumped a whopping $80 billion into developing and marketing his wondrous new world, including peddling a Meta brand of those magical headsets.Not wanting to miss out on a bonanza, other tech billionaires geniuses joined the virtual reality rush. But it was just fool's gold, for the geniuses had failed to consider an essential factor: Customers. Far from dazzled, buyers pronounced the meta-mess: goofy.Even Zuckerberg has now pulled the plug on his fantasy of a digital, virtual, immersive, avatar world of tech “reality.” Don't think, however, that goofy, avaricious, egomaniacal billionaires have gained any modesty from their Metaverse misadventure. They are the same ones now hurling trillions of public and corporate dollars into erecting intrusive, massive, wasteful AI data centers all across America. Why? To power their profiteering fantasy of replacing humans with AI bots.Do something!Has Big Tech got you down? Ensuring emerging technologies are safe, useful and accessible can feel daunting, but here are 2 great organizations who've been fighting for our rights for a long time:* Electronic Frontier Foundation: eff.org* Fight for the Future: fightforthefuture.orgOn the AI data center front, our friend Clayton Tucker, who is running for Agriculture Commissioner here in Texas, has made this issue a centerpiece of his campaign— these data centers are being forced upon rural areas all over the country. Follow along with his campaign to see how the fights are being won.Jim Hightower's Lowdown 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 jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Rich gargoyles on the red carpet. Polymarket VS your grandma. ALSO: The latest MAGA depravity. PLUS: The retro joys of Providence RI, and song of the week from Deer Tick!!!!Deer Tick - "Christ Jesus": https://youtu.be/bc2mKVF5nRI?si=rNfJ88dnUqkE9cWbCold Brew Patreon: Patreon.com/ChrisCroftonChannel Nonfiction: ChannelNonfiction.com

️ The Baller Lifestyle Podcast – Episode 614 Hosts: Brian Beckner & Ed Daly Episode Description Brian and Ed are back with a loaded episode covering viral internet chaos, celebrity deaths, bizarre news stories, sports takes, and their signature unfiltered commentary. From the absurdity of the Afro Man police lawsuit to Chuck Norris' hairpiece hypotheticals, nothing is off-limits. They also dive into OnlyFans money, Dave Grohl's therapy schedule, Tom Brady's bizarre tribute timing, and why the metaverse was a massive waste of $80 billion. Plus, listener voicemails, Moneyball debates, and the usual mix of sports and cultural nonsense. ️ Timestamps Opening & Housekeeping 00:00 – Intro, welcome back, Patreon plug02:00 – Bonus content preview (Dave Grohl therapy, fitness routine episode) Afro Man Lawsuit & Viral Moment 04:30 – Afro Man vs. Ohio cops recap07:30 – Viral courtroom clips & “Did Afro Man sleep with your wife?”10:30 – Lemon Pound Cake song & cultural explosion13:30 – Why this felt like a rare “win” story Pound Cake Tangent 16:00 – Office food paranoia & trashing baked goods18:30 – The irresistible power of pound cake ️ Celebrity Deaths Segment (“Who Died?”) 20:30 – OnlyFans owner Leo Radvinsky (43)24:00 – Chuck Norris death discussion + legendary hairpiece debate31:00 – Robert Mueller reaction33:30 – Pro wrestler “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey35:30 – Boston singer Tommy DeCarlo37:30 – Buffy actor Nicholas Brendon39:30 – NYC news legend Ernie Anastos nostalgia44:00 – Eminem DJ Lord Sear45:30 – Back to the Future III bartender actor46:30 – Happy Gilmore actress Carrie Ann Fleming47:30 – House fire tragedy (Jesse Pierce)49:00 – Hiking deaths & “Devil's Backbone” dangers52:00 – Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell Sports Segment 54:30 – Cam Skattebo: “CTE and asthma are fake”57:30 – Chappell Roan controversy & bodyguard incident1:02:30 – Celebrity culture & security behavior1:05:00 – John Cena Make-A-Wish story1:07:00 – USA baseball team medal controversy1:09:00 – Tom Brady mistakenly eulogizing Tim McCarver1:12:00 – NFL player uses ChatGPT after girlfriend's death Listener Voicemails & Emails 1:14:30 – David calls in (package finally shipped)1:17:00 – Moneyball discussion (book vs. movie)1:20:30 – Marines & “ugly girlfriend = no confidence” debate1:23:30 – Opening Day baseball complaint email Patreon Tease / Transition 1:26:00 – Patreon plug & wrap for free listeners Patreon Segment Preview Dave Grohl & Infidelity 1:27:30 – Grohl going to therapy 6 days a week1:30:00 – Overanalyzing celebrity relationships Tech, AI & Culture 1:32:30 – OpenAI / Sam Altman rant1:36:00 – Darren Lee & ChatGPT crime angle Wild News Stories 1:38:30 – Man decapitates seagull over french fry1:42:00 – Seagull chaos & childhood bird trauma The Metaverse Collapse 1:44:30 – $80B failure breakdown Morrissey Being Morrissey 1:47:00 – Cancelling shows for being “too cold” Internet & Society 1:49:00 – Anti-masturbation app data leak1:51:00 – Florida cousin marriage law fails Key Topics Afro Man vs police lawsuit fallout Chuck Norris legacy (and hairpiece mystery) Celebrity deaths roundup Sports stupidity & viral moments Tech billionaires & AI criticism Metaverse failure Wild news stories & listener calls Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The trailer for SNL UK is out and Luke and Pete are sticking to their original predictions vis à vis its quality. But there's bigger fish to fry on this fine Monday because video game faces have been yassified and, $80 billion later, the Metaverse is dead.Elsewhere, Luke shouts out Denis Norden and David Niven's wartime pasts and Pete gives his thoughts on contemporary British and Irish stars of the screen.Send us your latest stories, questions and comments here: hello@lukeandpeteshow.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Netflix is bringing K-Pop Demon Hunters on a concert tour… because sequels are for suckers.Zuck just killed the Metaverse… so does Meta need a new name?Asia's moving to 4-Day Work Weeks… because the War in Iran's oil hits everyone different.Plus, Guiness inspectors are making sure your beer is scientifically poured… for 119.5 seconds.$META $DEO $NFLXBuy tickets to The IPO Tour (our In-Person Offering) TODAYNew York, NY (4/8): https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0000637AE43ED0C2Los Angeles, CA (6/3): SOLD OUTGet your TBOY Yeti Doll gift here: https://tboypod.com/shop/product/economic-support-yeti-doll NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today's top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Devil is up to his old tricks. This week, Jimmy and Larry are letting it rip on a little housekeeping as the Core 4 return return next week, a paper thin slubby tee making its maiden voyage as an emotional win, old rappers either head to Vegas and/or change their name, James missed having dinner with Zohran Mamdani by five minutes so we use this opportunity to text our contact on his team about celebrating his one year anniversary of coming on the pod (which clearly got him elected obviously), A24's television shows might just be better than their movies and we use the excellent Neighbors to air out some of our own close proximity beefs, Lawrence finally talks about The Oscars and justice for his goat Paul Thomas Anderson, did Hollywood hate on CGI when it first dropped, the spicy white boy renaissance is officially over as Timothée Chalamet headed home empty-handed and Jack Harlow's transplant syndrome got the better of him, exploring the emergence of Dinergoths and what they mean for society, say so long to the Metaverse as the gamble on VR fails, tech bros have appropriated taste in more ways than one, Buck Mason and a new theory on menswear manifest destiny we're working through in real time, Zara continues to try and convince the world it's real fashion by hiring John Galliano, who wears a fitted in the sauna and much more.

In this week's News Roundup, Bridget and Producer Mike cover the tech news stories you might have missed. Afroman wins lawsuit brought against him by cops who raided his house. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2026-03-19/afroman-verdict-defamation-invasion-of-privacy-lawsuit Afroman's video "Lemon Pound Cake" https://youtu.be/9xxK5yyecRo?si=P7JWA54zklLCWVnM Afroman's video "Will You Help Me Repair My Gate" https://youtu.be/oponIfu5L3Y?si=cgLpG_T6A-JPBbW- Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot cancelled in strangely cruel and surprising manner by Hulu. https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/buffy-reboot-dead-hulu-sarah-michelle-gellar-chloe-zhao-1236692284/ Nicole Kidman glides behind Jeff Bezos and his girlfriend at the Academy Awards, stealing all attention: https://www.threads.com/@rachelarich/post/DV8aFlADT6Q?xmt=AQGzqaZ-H3abT0EW2lfRTONANK8dwciIx844aGm48QTIrQ Former Rolling Stone editor Noah Schactman lands new job at NYT, despite controversial role in misleading reporting to protect a personal friend. https://www.cjr.org/laurels-and-darts/noah-shachtman-nyt-rolling-stone-baltimore-banner-tristan-king-missing-st-helens-oregon-corruption-scandal-mayor.php Columbia Journalism Review analysis on Rolling Stone's inaccurate story about campus rape at University of Virginia: https://www.cjr.org/investigation/rolling_stone_investigation.php Celebrated relationship therapist Esther Perel has a guest on her podcast who is in a relationship with his AI chatbot: https://www.estherperel.com/podcast Mark Zuckerberg finally calling it quits on the Metaverse (mostly): https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/technology/mark-zuckerbergs-metaverse-vr-horizon-worlds.html Playwright Jeremy O. Harris called Sam Altman a nazi at a party: https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/tracewilliamcowen/jeremy-o-harris-openai-sam-altman-nazi Specifically, Friedrich Flick: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Flick Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify. Pre-order our forthcoming audiobook about AI and intimate relationships at LoveAtFirstPrompt.com ! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! || instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc || youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet || bsky.app/profile/tangoti.bsky.social See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) OpenAI leadership says no more side quests 2) The company is focusing on enterprise and coding 3) Does this mean consumer AI is dead? 4) OpenAI's new focus era 5) Why OpenAI is building a Superapp 6) OpenAI partners with the consultants 7) Most first time AI buyers are choosing Anthropic 8) Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says those who use AI to cut jobs lack imagination 9) The Metaverse is dead, or is it? 10) Jeff Bezos is raising $100 billion to automate industrial work 11) Do you dry chat? --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here's 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zuck's Metaverse is a failure, Afroman is winning the hearts of America after winning his defamation suit, the Mets are offering a 999 hotdog/beer option (sort of), the Bachelorette is filled with drama, This Weekend in Fun, & Run it Back. Support us on Patreon and receive weekly episodes for as low $5 per month: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/circlingbackpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch all of our full episodes on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.youtube.com/washedmedia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Shop Washed Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.washedmedia.shop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • (00:00) Fun & Easy Banter • (13:55) Goodbye to the Metaverse • (27:40) Afroman Update • (37:30) Mets Mini 999 • (49:00) The Bachelorette Drama • (58:25) This Weekend in Fun • (1:03:25) Run it Back Support This Episode's Sponsors: - Rhoback: Go to ⁠https://rhoback.com/⁠ and use code LUTES20 for 20% off your first order - Fair Harbor Clothing: Head to ⁠https://www.fairharborclothing.com/⁠ and use code CB20 for 20% OFF your full price order now through 3/31 - Tecovas: Right now get 10% off at ⁠⁠https://tecovas.com/crclbk⁠⁠ when you sign up for email and texts. - Leesa: Go to ⁠https://www.leesa.com/⁠ for 20% off mattresses PLUS get an extra $50 off with promo code STEAM, exclusive for our listeners. - Lola Blankets: Head to ⁠https://lolablankets.com/⁠ and use code STEAM to get 40% OFF your order Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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A very close call, the Afroman trial conclusion, pregnant women vs disabled people, new Iran war bombshells, another CEO takes a bite, Fritz on the Street, Val Kilmer is back from the dead, Trump drops an awkward line at a press conference, the Metaverse is dead and so much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A very close call, the Afroman trial conclusion, pregnant women vs disabled people, new Iran war bombshells, another CEO takes a bite, Fritz on the Street, Val Kilmer is back from the dead, Trump drops an awkward line at a press conference, the Metaverse is dead and so much more!

Almost 5 years ago, we made an episode on then new project of newly named company we knew as Facebook, Metaverse. In this season's finale we look back on the grim predictions we made about the possible impact of it and just how wrong we were given the multi billion dollar failure it came to be while reflecting on impact VR made in gaming industry. Enjoy and see you in season 7!

In this episode of Right About Now, Ryan Alford sits down with entrepreneur and Wealth Accelerators founder Mike Sancho to unpack the unconventional journey that shaped his business mindset. From getting expelled from both high school and college to hitting rock bottom and rebuilding his life through relentless work ethic, Mike shares how adversity pushed him into entrepreneurship The conversation explores Mike's early experiences in network marketing, the lessons he learned from losing income streams that weren't fully in his control, and how those challenges ultimately led him to build his own ventures.  Throughout the episode, Mike emphasizes a mindset of resilience, continuous learning, and creating multiple streams of income as the foundation for long-term financial freedom Topics Covered • Mike Sancho's entrepreneurial journey after being expelled from school • Lessons from hitting rock bottom and rebuilding through work ethic • How network marketing can develop entrepreneurial skills • The importance of diversification and multiple income streams • Amazon wholesale vs drop-shipping business models • Building YouTube Shorts channels through influencer partnerships • Opportunities and risks in NFTs and digital ownership • How the metaverse could impact gaming, commerce, and remote work Mike Sancho Founder — Wealth Accelerators Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themikesancho Website: https://wealthaccelerators.com Ryan Alford Host — Right About Now Website: Ryanisright.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford

We kick things off with the existential dread of FOLLOW UP and the absolute joy of jury duty. While xAI's Grok is busy getting banned in Malaysia and Indonesia for its CSAM-generating "features," the Senate is unanimously passing the DEFIANCE Act to give us some legal teeth against the deepfake machine. Meta is busy nuking 550,000 Australian accounts to appease regulators, while Roblox's age verification is so broken that a drawing of stubble or a photo of Kurt Cobain can get you into the adult lounge. Moving IN THE NEWS, Meta is trading its $70 billion Metaverse graveyard for a Reality Labs layoff and a pivot to AI hardware, fueled by an "AI infrastructure" buildout that's hiring former Trump advisors. Bandcamp is heroically banning AI "slop," Matthew McConaughey is trademarking his own face to fend off the bots, and ICE's AI hiring tool is such a disaster it's accidentally fast-tracking mall security as "officers." Between self-help gurus charging $99 for chatbot "advice," GM finally settling its driver-spying suit with the FTC, and NASA prepping for a February moon shot while China plans to launch 200,000 satellites into our already crowded orbit, the future looks exactly as messy as we expected.For MEDIA CANDY, we've got Lord of the Rings marathons, the diner-bridge of Starfleet Academy, and the usual joy of streaming price hikes hitting our "Premium" plans. We're tracking the 2025 "In Memoriam" and Gabriel Pagan's exhaustive movie list before sliding into APPS & DOODADS. Jony Ive and Sam Altman are reportedly building an hearing aide called "Sweetpea" to kill your AirPods, Siri is officially Google Gemini's new puppet, and Apple is finally bundling its creative apps into a "Creator Studio" subscription trap. Tesla is making Full Self-Driving a subscription-only Valentine's gift (good luck with that), Ring is rebranding surveillance as a "fire-watching" assistant, and a Chinese app called "Are You Dead?" is the new must-have for the lonely. To cap it off, the internet proved its maturity by using "Words.zip"—an infinite word-search grid—to draw a giant phallus, because of course they did.AT THE LIBRARY features the Anthony Bourdain Reader, the return of Bob in the new Laundry Files book, and Jimmy Carr's guide to happiness, which is apparently cheaper than therapy. Then we descend into THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, where the dishwasher-installing, ham-radio-lunching Dave Bittner reveals Disney World has job openings for those of us who spent high school in the AV club. Lucasfilm is finally entering a new era as Kathleen Kennedy steps down, just as Galaxy's Edge admits the original trilogy exists, and we wrap it all up with lock-picking kits and the terrifying realization that Seymour from H.R. 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Go to SetApp and get started today!!!1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1passwordShow notes at https://gog.show/729Watch on YouTube! https://youtu.be/1Y1jnRDw7g0FOLLOW UPMalaysia and Indonesia are the first to block Grok following CSAM scandalSenate passes Defiance Act for a second time to address Grok deepfakesMeta closes 550,000 accounts to comply with Australia's kids social media banRoblox's age verification system is reportedly a trainwreckIN THE NEWSMeta refocuses on AI hardware as metaverse layoffs beginMeta's Layoffs Leave Supernatural Fitness Users in MourningMeta Creates High-Powered Team to Oversee AI Infrastructure BuildoutBandcamp prohibits music made ‘wholly or in substantial part' by AIMatthew McConaughey fights unauthorized AI likenesses by trademarking himselfICE's AI Tool Has Been a Complete DisasterSelf-Help Ghouls Are Charging People Absurd Prices to Talk to Impersonator ChatbotsThe FTC's data-sharing order against GM is finally settledNASA is ending Crew-11 astronauts' mission a month earlyNASA makes final preparations for its first crewed moon mission in over 50 yearsAs SpaceX Works Toward 50K Starlink Satellites, China Eyes Deploying 200KMEDIA CANDYBeast Games Season 2Star Trek: Starfleet AcademyGrumpy Old ListThe Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1069: 2025 in MemoriamDepeche Mode: MAPPS & DOODADSJony Ive and Sam Altman's First AI Gadget May Try to Kill AirPodsApple's Siri AI will be powered by GeminiApple's Mac and iPad creative apps get bundled into “Creator Studio” subscriptionTesla's Full Self-Driving is switching to a subscription-only serviceRing founder details the camera company's 'intelligent assistant' eraAre You Dead?: The viral Chinese app for young people living aloneGive the Internet an Infinite Word Search and the Internet Will Draw a Dick on ItAT THE LIBRARYThe Anthony Bourdain Reader: New, Classic, and Rediscovered Writing by Anthony BourdainObvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Businessman by Robert UpdegraffBefore & Laughter by Jimmy CarrThe Regicide Report (Laundry Files, 14) by Charles StrossTHE DARK SIDE WITH DAVEDave BittnerThe CyberWireHacking HumansCaveatControl LoopOnly Malware in the BuildingHow to Read a Book: A Novel by Monica WoodWalt Disney World Resort is looking for Entertainment Stage TechniciansGalaxy's Edge Will Soon Cover All Eras of ‘Star Wars'Kathleen Kennedy steps down as Lucasfilm president, marking a new era for the Star Wars franchiseSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.