Podcast appearances and mentions of mike nice

Kakashi Hatake vs Satoru GojoTwo legendary mentors. Two fan-favorite icons. One ultimate debate.Can the Copy Ninja outsmart the Infinity? Or does Gojo flex his god-tier powers and erase the competition?We're breaking down powers, strategy, mentorship, and legacy in our latest episode of The Village Hidden in The Shed hosted by Mike Nice & Sid Floyd.Who wins in a no-holds-barred fight?Who's the better teacher?Who would YOU follow into battle?Tune in now and let the debate begin.

With the Straw Hats living through what seems to be a glorified "bad trip", The Village speculates as to the real identity and motives behind the actions of the alleged Prince Loki of Elbaf, and what trouble this could spell for the Straw Hat crew. "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network.

In the Season 6 premiere of "Double M," hosts Marv and Mike Nice are joined by Gary Washburn, a distinguished national NBA and Celtics writer for the Boston Globe. Gary delves into his path to journalism, recounting his experiences covering a range of sports and providing keen insights into the NBA. He addresses the challenges of representation in sports media, speaks on his relationship with Coach Joe Mazulla, and weighs in on the perennial debate between LeBron James and Michael Jordan. The episode also highlights Gary's reflections on unforgettable players and moments, offering invaluable advice for aspiring journalists and basketball aficionados alike.

The Village breaks down the new information regarding Shinjutsu and all of the types of Shinjutsu that are known to the Naruto Verse. Out of all these unique powers, which would be the best to have? Which one would you chose? "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network.

The next Devil Fruit to awaken in One Piece may have already happened, and if so, to who? The Village breaks down the theories and possibilities surrounding the next awakening, and which Devil Fruit user would have the most potential if it happened to them. "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network.

All of the Original Characters from Naruto Shippuden, and even Boruto, all pale in comparison to the current cast of the Two Blue Vortex manga. All of our favorite heroes and villains wouldn't stand a chance against this new generation, and The Village is here to talk about it. "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network

Can Himawari Uzimaki and Sarada Uchiha already defeat the current versions of Sasuke and Naruto!? "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network.

The Village breaks down One Piece theories, recent developments, and how Luffy's top ranking crew members would fair against his opponents. In this episode we focus mostly on the battle between Vinsmoke Sanji and Rob Lucci. "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network.

In this episode of Double M Live, Mike Nice & Cool Sam are joined by Jet and Dave, as they delve into a detailed preview of Wrestlemania 40. They analyze the WWE's evolution under Triple H's leadership, discussing new talent, storytelling, and women's wrestling. The panel shares their excitement for the cinematic quality of WWE, comparing it to the Marvel universe. They speculate on match outcomes, including the tag team and Intercontinental title matches, and the involvement of wrestlers like Naomi, Jade Cargill, and The Rock. The episode is a blend of predictions, excitement, and analysis of WWE's direction and Wrestlemania's potential impact on the future of pro wrestling.

In this episode of the "No Look Podcast," host Marvin and guests Jet and Mike Nice discuss the Boston Celtics' winning streak and playoff prospects, emphasizing their potential to win the championship. They analyze the Celtics' challenges, including matchups with Eastern Conference rivals and the mental toughness required for playoff success. They pay tribute to retiring commentator Mike Gorman and debate the authenticity of Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game. They also critique the "Dynasty" documentary's portrayal of the Patriots and Bill Belichick. The episode includes a Fantasy draft on impactful sports documentaries. The conversation is engaging, blending sports analysis with personal anecdotes and friendly banter.

Saturn & Kizaru vs Everyone on Egghead, and more "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network

If you have a story about art, culture, or community, share it with us at rob@thetruthinthisart.com for a chance to be featured on 'The Truth In This Art' podcast.Follow The Truth In This Art on Twitter, Threads, IG, and Facebook @truthinthisartJoin host Rob Lee as he sits down with the dynamic comedian, actor, model, and radio show host, Larry Lancaster. Larry shares his journey into comedy, the importance of authenticity in his performances, and the challenges of navigating controversial topics. Don't miss this insightful and entertaining conversation!

Kuma comes back to fight Saturn, and is reunited with his daughter Bonney! But how exactly did he break Vegapunk's bioengineering and regain his free will? "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network

Gambit joins The Village to break down The Future Island Arc of the One Piece manga and explore all the elements of Egghead Island, Vegapunk, Jaygarcia Saturn, theories and more... Guest: @gambitraps Video: https://youtu.be/Z5zszpfZh9Y "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network

The Village breaks down Chapter #1098 of the One Piece manga and explore all the options of who could be Bonney's Father, how Ginny got sick with Sapphire Scale, Saturn's Devil Fruit, and more... Video: https://youtu.be/9CubI3ZbZHs "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

Desde la WWC El Showman Mike Nice llega a La Vuelta Podcast con Dennis Rivera.

Part 1 of 2 - The Village breaks down the facts from fiction concerning Utakata, the Six Tails Jinchuriki, and what is actually Canon or NOT when discussing his existence and backstory. The depth of the word 'Canon' becomes the true topic of discussion as we try and discover what non-manga mediums can or should be referenced to support claims or theories about a character or series. Video: https://youtu.be/WfdHGycMh3M "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

Part 2 of 2 - The Village breaks down the facts from fiction concerning Utakata, the Six Tails Jinchuriki, and what is actually Canon or NOT when discussing his existence and backstory. The depth of the word 'Canon' becomes the true topic of discussion as we try and discover what non-manga mediums can or should be referenced to support claims or theories about a character or series. Video: https://youtu.be/y3KqiDmbpnM "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

The Hidden Shed breaks down Ch. 1097 of the One Piece manga, Kuma and his backstory, Dragon's history, Bonny's mother, possible theories and more... Video: https://youtu.be/XpRsoLg_wfI "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

The Hidden Shed breaks down the 3rd chapter of "Two Blue Vortex" Boruto manga, the Rasengan Uzuhiko, possible theories and more... Video: https://youtu.be/D2YWjnuTdrk "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

The Hidden Shed breaks down the 2nd chapter of "Two Blue Vortex" Boruto manga Video: https://youtu.be/3E6MNOywWV4 "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

In this episode of Double M Live, host Mike Nice and executive producer Cool Sam introduce Tizy, a singer-songwriter, as their special guest. Tizy discusses her love for music, her inspirations, and her experiences attending music schools. Tizy also talks about her target audience and the thought process behind her music. The conversation then shifts to Tizy's passion for fashion and her journey as a stylist and designer. They discuss the challenges of designing clothes and compare it to writing songs. The episode concludes with discussions about Tizy's performances, her thoughts on karaoke, her background, and upcoming music projects. They also discuss memorable concerts and dream dinner guests. A very fun episode make sure you check it out

The Village reviews the new One Piece live action series on Netflix. We go over our opinions and takes on the first season over all, as well as, changes to the story line, what was added and what was left out, the cast and how well or poorly they represented the characters in the anime, special effects, theories, and more! We know how strongly some fans may feel about this topic so if you are concerned that we left anything out or got something wrong please let us know in the comments. Video: https://youtu.be/gxgMQDK0B-Y "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded at Alien Entourage Studios Brought to you by Alien Entourage & The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

The Village breaks down the differences in watching anime with English Dub versus English Subtitles with Japanese audio. We discuss the pros and cons of each, and explore certain shows or forms of entertainment that could be better or worse in either setting. We know how strongly some anime fans feel about this topic so if you feel we left anything out or got something wrong please let us know in the comments. Video: https://youtu.be/6ifsnzxEs8Q "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

The Hidden Shed breaks down the new chapter of the Boruto manga, where we find ourselves in post-time skip Konoha with a new Hokage, new enemies, and an intro into the vision Kishimoto had for this series before it was taken over by the studio. Also we explore some One Piece theories, and of course dip back into Naruto Shippuden to lend to our takes on this current storyline. Video: https://youtu.be/hCsSwWMtns4 "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Pickle Pat the Thinker, & ShedTech8 Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

In this podcast episode, Double M discuss the recent trade involving the Boston Celtics, where Marcus Smart was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies. They reflect on Smart's time with the team and express their emotional attachment to him. They also discuss the need for a shake-up in the team's lineup and the skepticism about whether Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown can fill the leadership void. Double M also touch on the lack of hip hop songs or albums reaching number one on the Billboard charts in 2023 and speculate on the reasons behind it. They compare the decline of dancehall music to the rise of afrobeats and discuss the differences between the two genres. Finally, the episode concludes with a discussion on vitiligo awareness month and the personal connection Mike Nice has to the condition.

"Hawk Eye vs Red Hair"Episode #6 of "The Shedverse" (Season 2 of Village Hidden in The Shed), an anime crossover pinning two characters from separate universes up against each other in a fight to the death to see who would win. In this episodehowever we explore the combat between two titans of One Piece; Dracule Mihawk and Red Hair Shanks, and who would emerge victorious in a battle sparked by years of rivalry and notoriety. Guest:- ShedTech8 @shedtech8 - Co-host of "The ShedCast" & "Sports Shmorts "Village Hidden in the Shed" Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

Esta semana en el podcast Luis Gomez y este servidor Miramos Aniversario 50 pero en vez de un simple review estaremos analizandolo con que funciono, que no funciono y damos critica constructiva usando la Misma historia de la WWC como referencia.Entre los temas que tocamos: Hablamos de lo super positivo que salio de este evento y le damos flores a la produccion del evento entre otras cosas. Explicamos el porque este evento tuvo la reaccion que ha tenido. Hablamos dl creativo en detalle en comparacion con La historia de otros aniversarios. Hablamos del Placing de las Luchas en el evento y como esto contribuyo en gran manera al mal sabor de los fans del evento. Hablamos de cada Lucha lo que funciono, que no funciono Hablamos de la Historia que llevo a la Lucha entre Bronco y MIke Nice y porque debido a esto Mike Nice no tuvo ni un minuto de break en esta Lucha. Ray vs Eddie T& L vs La Revolucion y que hubiese funcionado Mejor aqui Hablamos de la Lucha por el titulo Universal Le contesto a Mi buen amigo CHaparro sobre Comparar a Intelecto a Hogan y Cena y le explico porque JAMAS se puede hacer la comparacion Explico que Luchador de la Historia es Intelecto. Le damos critica Constructiva a Intelecto asi que envienle el podcast Hablamos del evento estelar y le sugerimos algo que s epudo haber hecho para protejer a Gallo en esa Lucha , Cuidar a Chicky y tambien como haber hecho un final feliz para la gente que vio esa Lucha donde no dejo el mal sabor que dejo. Hablamos de la negacion de los fans de la vieja escuela a Poder aceptar la Lucha libre Moderna entre otros temas --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/luis-cuevas/support

("Fated Battle Between Brothers"- Naruto Shippuden)  ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ - Genjutsu vs Taijutsu - Is Amaterasu even deadly? - Ultimate Attack vs Ultimate Defense - Did Itachi know who Tobi really was? ... and more Guest: - ShedTech8 @shedtech8 - Co-host of "The ShedCast" & "Sports Shmorts" This episode is sponsored by Kunoichi Farms @kunoichifarms- Maine Medical caregiver "Bringing you the best cannabis products lady ninja style" Video: https://youtu.be/RoqVBeXJ3bY Village Hidden in the Shed hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

This week, Jessica is changing in ways we've never imagined. She's a Target and one succinct email person now. June stays the course and is once again sharing life lessons from TikTok, and it's the return of Snack Chat. Then, Elise Loehnen (Pulling the Thread podcast, On Our Best Behavior) joins to talk about it ALL! The three dig into manicures, what drew Elise to being a seeker, the ‘other side', and her powerful NYT article on motherhood and her new book, “On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good.” Deep Divers please show us your snacks! #showusyoursnax  Find Elise's book here: https://www.eliseloehnen.com/onourbestbehaviorRead Elie's New York Times Article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/opinion/motherhood-lessons-children-parenting.html Listen to Homophilia's tribute to Mike Nice here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/honoring-mike-nice/id1267538496?i=1000611847936 Deep Dive Merch https://kinshipgoods.com/collections/deep-dive  June's new Amazon Store https://www.amazon.com/shop/junedianeJessica's Amazon Store https://www.amazon.com/shop/Stclairjessica                                     You can follow The Deep Dive on Twitter @thedeepdivepod                       June Diane Raphael @MsJuneDiane on Twitter @junediane on Instagram                        Jessica St. Clair @Jessica_StClair on Twitter @stclairjessica on Instagram                      Check out the Jane Club at www.janeclub.com                       Send us your questions to thedeepdive@earwolf.com

Trifulca Media Presenta: En La Clara Con La Trifulca Con Gerardo Rodriguez y Omar Vázquez quienes hablan de lo más reciente en ruta a Aniversario 50 de la WWC en Puerto Rico. Sigan a Trifulca Media en: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TrifulcaMedia?mibextid=LQQJ4d Instagram https://instagram.com/u latrifulcawrestlingmedia?igshid=dhkuulk3mb5x Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/TrifulcaMedia YouTube https://youtube.com/channel/UCVZ0 #wwcluchalibre #gallotheproducer #raygonzalez #chickystarr #xavant #arrodillados #lactadores #enlaclaraconlatrifulca #trifulcamedia

("Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant"- Naruto Shippuden)  ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ - Jiraiya vs Konan - Jiraiya vs Pain - Might Guy vs Pain - Orochimaru vs Pain ... and more Guest: - ShedTech8 @shedtech8 - Co-host of "The ShedCast" & "Sports Shmorts" This episode is sponsored by Kunoichi Farms @kunoichifarms- Maine Medical caregiver "Bringing you the best cannabis products lady ninja style" Video: https://youtu.be/sugdO7IEpWo Village Hidden in the Shed hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

Sid Floyd and Mike Nice are back on the pod for the 1st time in video and it was hilarious. We tell stories about the last few times we've chilled in NYC and discuss one of the craziest hypotheticals my stoner brain has conjured up. Like, share, subscribe, and give a review where you can so these stories can continue. Follow these dudes @mikenicect and @sid_floyd

This week, we're joined by Deanna Cheng and Drew Pokorny to pay tribute to our late friend Michael Hannus, aka Mike Nice. Matt reveals their "Golden Eagles" origin story, and Drew and Deanna recall their days performing sketch comedy with the funniest man they've ever known. Dave also shares his own experience of meeting Mike at Matt's wedding, and a moment he captured that Matt will treasure for years to come. Prepare for lots of laughs (and more than a few tears) as we unpack the strange nature of grief and salute this incredible human. Fly high, Eagle. 

Tokyo Treat Review - Who is the Strongest Sage? Episode #8 of "The Shedverse" (Season 2 of Village Hidden in The Shed), an anime crossover pinning characters from separate universes up against each other in a fight to the death to see who would win. In this episode however, we explore who is the strongest Sage in all of Naruto, meanwhile enjoying and reviewing the variety of Japanese snacks provided by Tokyo Treat. Guest: Tech @shedtech8 - Co-host of The Shedcast Video: https://youtu.be/jqHHVaDw77g The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 2 Episode #8 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix Remixed by TrackGonEat

("Itachi Pursuit"- Naruto Shippuden)  ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ - Orochimaru vs Sasuke - What if Orochimarusuccessfully got Sasuke as a vessel? - Orochimaru vs the 5 Kage - Orochimaru Kekkei Genkai ... and more Guest: - ShedTech8 @shedtech8 - Co-host of "The ShedCast" & "Sports Shmorts" This episode is sponsored by Kunoichi Farms @kunoichifarms- Maine Medical caregiver "Bringing you the best cannabis products lady ninja style" Video: https://youtu.be/omFeZkFiuzA Village Hidden in the Shed hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

Tokyo Treat Review - Worst/Best Anime Characters Episode #7 of "The Shedverse" (Season 2 of Village Hidden in The Shed), an anime crossover pinning characters from separate universes up against each other in a fight to the death to see who would win. In this episode however, we explore who are the worst and best characters in several anime across The Shedverse, all while enjoying and reviewing the variety of Japanese snacks provided by Tokyo Treat. Guest: Tech @shedtech8 - Co-host of The Shedcast Video: https://youtu.be/z51rGdKRfUc The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 2 Episode #7 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix Remixed by TrackGonEat

2023 Anime News Updates: - (0:00-13:09) Demon Slayer - Season 3 - (13:10-2320) Record of Ragnarok - Season 2 - (23:20-29:30) Vinland Saga - Season 2 - (29:35-32:19) Attack on Titan - Final Season - (32:20-37:19) Chainsaw Man - Season 2 & Manga - (37:20-45:59) My Hero Academia - Dark Deku & Kohei Horikoshi - (46:00-48:54) One Piece - Netflix Live Action Series - (48:55-54:53) Naruto - Character Vote Video: https://youtu.be/-vULkbtY0A8 The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 2 Episode #6 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix Remixed by TrackGonEat

Tokyo Treat Review - "The Choji-verse" Episode #5 of "The Shedverse" (Season 2 of Village Hidden in The Shed), an anime crossover pinning characters from separate universes up against each other in a fight to the death to see who would win. In this episode we explore who could match up against Choji Akamichi (Naruto); Dr. Tony Tony Chopper (One Piece) and Franky aka "Cutty Flam" (One Piece) and who would emerge victorious. Guest: Tech @shedtech8 - Co-host of The Shedcast Video:https://youtu.be/EJxts20XcQI The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 2 Episode #6 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix Remixed by TrackGonEat

("Three Tails Appearance"- Naruto Shippuden)  ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ - Guren vs Naruto - Crystal Style Jutsu - Non-Cannon... - 4th War!? ... and more Village Hidden in the Shed hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

"The Speed of Light: Hokage vs Admiral" Episode #4 of "The Shedverse" (Season 2 of Village Hidden in The Shed), an anime crossover pinning two characters from separate universes up against each other in a fight to the death to see who would win. In this episode we explore the masters of speed; Minato Namikaze (Naruto) and Barsalino Kizaru (One Piece) and who would emerge victorious in a battle as fast as light itself. Video: https://youtu.be/cFc0fVfLhyE Guest: - ShedTech8 @shedtech8 - Co-host of "The ShedCast" & "Sports Shmorts" Village Hidden in the Shed Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

("Akatsuki Supression Mission" #2- Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ - vs Kakashi - vs Ino-Shika-Cho - vs Hashirama - Kakuzu compared to Shinoki from his era ... and more Guest: - ShedTech8 @shedtech8 - Co-host of "The ShedCast" & "Sports Shmorts" Village Hidden in the Shed hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

This week I was up in NH/ME for shows and did a pod with the Shedcast. We talk about the amount of edibles we're on while recording, all the shenanigans we got into, and how I clogged a toilet at the New Years show. Like, share, and subscribe so I can perform at venues with better plumbing. Follow these dudes: Sid Floyd: @sid_floyd Mike Nice: @mikenicect Jeffery Doomer: @jefferydoomer ShedTech: shedtech8

("Akatsuki Supression Mission" #1 - Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ - is Hidan a wack character? - Could Shikamaru win with no prep time? - How immortal is HIdan really? - is Hidan the weakest member of the Akatsuki? ... and more Video: https://youtu.be/HBio5LW1Oo0 Village Hidden in the Shed hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

Tokyo Treat Review - "The Choji-verse" Episode #3 of "The Shedverse" (Season 2 of Village Hidden in The Shed), an anime crossover pinning characters from separate universes up against each other in a fight to the death to see who would win. In this episode we explore who could match up against Choji Akamichi (Naruto); Ant-Man (Marvel) and Neji Hyuga (Naruto) and who would emerge victorious. Guest: Tech @shedtech8 - Co-host of The Shedcast Video: The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 2 Episode #3 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix Remixed by TrackGonEat

("Guardian Shinobi 12" #2 - Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ - vs. Yugito (Two-Tails Jinchuriki) - vs. Chiriku - vs. Asuma - Who is the stronger Shinobi between the two of them? ... and more Village Hidden in the Shed hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix by TrackGonEat

"Tokyo Treat Review - "The Choji-verse" Episode #2 of "The Shedverse" (Season 2 of Village Hidden in The Shed), an anime crossover pinning characters from separate universes up against each other in a fight to the death to see who would win. In this episode we explore who could match up against Choji Akamichi (Naruto); Godzilla and The Colossal Titan (Attack On Titan) and who would emerge victorious in a battle of gargantuan proportions. Video: https://youtu.be/N8bjUAFa4Uc The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 2 Episode #2 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix Remixed by TrackGonEat

("Guardian Shinobi 12" #2 - Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ - Is this arc doo-doo? Or not? - Asume vs Kazuma - 12 Guardian vs 7 Swordsman - Unique Reanimation Jutsu ... and more Video: https://youtu.be/VtSbomHnrg0 Village Hidden in the Shed hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix Remixed by TrackGonEat

("Guardian Shinobi 12" #1 - Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ (0:00) - Reintroduction to Edo Tensei (9:00) Asuma + Sarutobi and the foreshadowing of Shippuden (20:00) Naruto vs Fūka (36:00) Fūka's Jutsu ... and more Video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/KokmFzP3PTE The Village Hidden in The Shed hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat The Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix Remixed by TrackGonEat

"A Battle of Sand: The Kazekage vs Mr.0" Episode #1 of "The Shedverse" (Season 2 of Village Hidden in The Shed), an anime crossover pinning two characters from separate universes up against each other in a fight to the death to see who would win. In this episode we explore the masters of sand; Gaara (Naruto) and Crocodile (One Piece) and who would emerge victorious in a desert battle. **Stick around for the extended bonus audio from after the episode where the debate got even more heated** Youtube: https://youtu.be/P3g0bYLDTA4 The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 2 Episode #1 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat the Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix Remixed by TrackGonEat

My dudes, Sid Floyd and Mike Nice returned to the pod along with Ish Gupta. We talk movie theater disturbances, turning into animals, and we learn I didn't know Lou Gehrig was white. There's so much more and it's hilarious. Please listen, subscribe, and write reviews where you can or you'll get Lou Gehrig's disease. Follow these dudes and support them as well: Sid Floyd @sid_floyd Mike Nice @mikenicect Listen to their podcast, The ShedCast on all platforms you find pods @shedcast Ish Gupta @doofyish

("Shed Theory #1 - Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ (2:00) - Can "Fan Theories" be legit? (6:00) Is Wood Release really genetic? (11:30) DNA compatibility (15:30) Tsunade gets pregnant (18:30) Orochimaru: Fate or Strategy? (26:30) Similarities in personality (27:40) The Tobirama Helmet (33:00) Age fits the timeline (38:00) Dan Kato father of Yamato or Minato? ... and more The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 1 Episode #7 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat The Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix Remixed by TrackGonEat

Cool Sam & Mike Nice breakdown of the latest in WWE News and the future of the business.

("Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission" #1 - Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ (0:00) - 4 Tailed Beast Cloak, Kakashi & Mangekyo Sharingan (7:40) Sasori's Genjutsu (8:30) Introduction to Sai & Yamato (25:30) Sage Modes (41:40) Orochimaru's Jutsu ... and more The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 1 Episode #6 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat The Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network Naruto - "Wind" Trap Remix Remixed by TrackGonEat

("Kazekage Rescue Mission" #5 - Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ (0:00) - Jinchuriki & Plot Holes (10:00) Legend of the Mangekyo Sharingan (17:00) Deidara vs Kakashi & Naruto (24:00) Deidara vs Team Guy (34:00) Chiyo revives Gaara ... and more The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 1 Episode #5 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat The Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network

("Kazekage Rescue Mission" #4 - Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ (0:00) - Background into Lady Chiyo & Puppet Master Justu (9:30) Sasori vs Sakura & Lady Chiyo (21:00) Did Sasori let himself get killed? (24:30) Is Sasori part Uzimaki? ... and more The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 1 Episode #4 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat The Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network

1st EVER Crossover episode between "Sports Shmorts" & "The Shedcast" featuring Big Tone, Big Zo, Mike Nice, Sid Floyd, Lank, & High Steaks !!! - UFC - Next title matches - Evolution of the sport - NBA - Trades - More trades - Growing a team vs trading for one - MLB - Best Catcher of our era - Subway Series - Fantasy recap - NFL - NIL deals - CTE - Crazy Coaches ... and wayyyy more Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network

("Kazekage Rescue Mission" #3 - Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ (0:00) - Plot recap & Shapeshifting Technique - 30% chakra clone (10:15) Kisame vs Team Guy (21:50) Itachi vs Team Kakashi + Lady Chiiyo (35:00) IBest Bijou fit for Kisame (41:00) Shadow Clones vs other types of clones ... and more The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 1 Episode #3 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat The Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network

("Kazekage Rescue Mission" #2 - Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ (0:00) - Sasori's infiltration of Sunagakure (The Village Hidden in the Sand) (11:11) Sasori vs Kankuro (21:30) Did Sasori intend to let Kankuro live or die? The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 1 Episode #2 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat The Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network

("Kazekage Rescue Mission" #1 - Naruto Shippuden) ~WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS~ (0:00) - Introduction into Naruto Shippuden, The Akatsuki, and Tailed Beasts (21:15) Deidara vs Gaara (46:40) Sasori vs Sunagakure (49:30) Edo Tensei and Lord 3rd (54:20) Who wins in unhindered fight to the death? (1:11:30) Is Gaara an Uzimaki?? The Village Hidden in The Shed - Season 1 Episode #1 Hosted by Mike Nice, Sid Floyd & Pickle Pat The Thinker Recorded in The Shed Brought to you by The Shed Network

The Shed Boys are back ladies and gentlemen! Sid Floyd and Mike Nice stopped by again to riff about our degenerate youths, our preferred fates, and a bunch of other nonsense. I'm too high and lazy to come up with a description right now. Enjoy.   Go subscribe and review it please! If not, I hope you have a mediocre life.

Mike Nice & Cool Sam catch up on the whirlwind of the WWE. Between Sasha & Naomi getting suspended & Stephanie McMahon stepping down there's a whole lot to talk about.

Yes Offense Episode 51 is up on YouTube, iTunes, and Spotify!!!   My favorite CT rap duo blessed the pod again this week. Musicians Sid Floyd and Mike nice stopped by to discuss how weird Anime intros can get, throwing up in your bed, and some fellas who were not so kind to our reptilian brethren.   Please like, share, and leave a review wherever you can. If not, Russia wins.   

This week I hung out with 2 hilariously, talented musicians, Sid Floyd and Mike Nice. We talk about crazy shows that always seem to happen at Toads Place, Sid opening up for real hip hop legends, and I open up about my long running feud with Method Man. This episode is so dope! If you're a real hip hop fan, check this episode out!   Like, share, and subscribe so I can meet and confront Method Man

Mike Nice cuenta sobre TODO lo que pasó para convertirse en luchador profesional hasta llegar a CWA. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lucha-libre-online/support

Nos sentamos De Entrevista con el actual Campeón Mundial de la CWA, Showman Mike Nice.

[0:00-37:30] 1st half Rob talks his new crusade against Trolley Lines and offers very valuable financial advice for anyone who has ever been in an accident, particularly one involving bikes, parked cars, and surprise trolley lines that come out of no where and trip up innocent bystanders. [38:30-1:07:00] 2nd half Mike Nice joins in The Shed to discuss - Sid stay big doggin' - Prince Harry - Secret Pentagon Soldiers - Lux & Lav with Bernie Sanders and more **Sneak Peak at new Shedcast Music after the episode** "Hors D'oeuvres (Blue Sky) by Sid Floyd & Mike Nice" Please go to TheBlackCaptain.com and support that project. Sponsors: Yodelta.com Promocode - RYM (If that's not up yet use promo code: Gas) SheathUnderwear Promocode - RYM Yokratom - No Promocode needed (Already best possible price) DryEnergy.com - Promcode - Run1

[0:00-37:30] 1st half Rob talks his new crusade against Trolley Lines and offers very valuable financial advice for anyone who has ever been in an accident, particularly one involving bikes, parked cars, and surprise trolley lines that come out of nowhere and trip up innocent bystanders. [38:30-1:07:00] 2nd half Mike Nice joins in The Shed to discuss - Sid stay big doggin' - Prince Harry - Secret Pentagon Soldiers - Lux & Lav with Bernie Sanders and more **Sneak Peak at new Shedcast Music after the episode** "Hors D'oeuvres (Blue Sky) by Sid Floyd & Mike Nice" Please go to TheBlackCaptain.com and support that project. Sponsors: Yodelta.com Promocode - RYM (If that's not up yet use promo code: Gas) SheathUnderwear Promocode - RYM Yokratom - No Promocode needed (Already best possible price) DryEnergy.com - Promcode - Run1

What do Archie, Biblical Apocalypse fiction, and Erik Estrada all have in common? It turns out each of these appeared in stories published by Spire Christian Comics.  Join us as we journey through history to learn about and cringe at one of the craziest publishers to come out of the 1970s. ----more---- Episode 6 Transcription [00:00:00] Jessika: Yeah. How are you going to display your deceased cult leader's body if you don't have a Tik Tok? Welcome to Ten Cent Takes, the podcast where we predict the coming of the end of days. One issue at a time. My name is Jessika Frazer and I am joined by my cohost, the savior of sweets, Mike Thompson. Mike: Eeeeeey. Jessika: The purpose of our podcast is to study comic books in ways that are both fun and informative. We want to look at their coolest, weirdest and silliest moments, as well as examine how they're woven into the larger fabric of pop culture and history. Today, we're taking a turn for the religious as we look at  Spire Christian Comics. We'll look at the [00:01:00] history behind the publication, the comics and the books they were based upon and discuss how Archie played a role in trying to educate the youths about Jesus. Mike: What. Jessika: Yeah, that's happening. Okay. I know we say this every week, but this was once again a rabbit hole filled episode. So buckle up, friends. Mike: It's almost like we're developing a theme. Jessika: Oh no. Yes. I like it though. Mike: They're worse themes to have. Jessika: There are. There are. Before we get to our main topic and the one cool thing we've read and talked about lately, let's call upon the fact that it is May 4th and May the Fourth be with you, Mike. Mike: And May the Fourth be with you. Jessika: Well, I thank you. For the record: Let it be known that I am wearing an R2D2 printed dress and I have Leia buns. So I am dressed appropriately and I saw that your household was also celebrating. [00:02:00] Mike: Yeah. We festooned everything, but we didn't have any Star Wars outfits to wear, unfortunately. So we just threw up  Star Wars comics around the household in front of our Vader poster and other things that we have. But I have a couple of the really old Dark Horse comics that I absolutely love and adore. Jessika: That's so fun. I love it. Well, we like to do something each week called One Cool Thing You've Read or Watched Lately. Mike, why don't you start us off? Mike:  Sure. So this weekend I wound up reading through DC’s Doomsday Clock collection on Hoopla.  It's basically the official comic book sequel to Watchmen.  It finally delivers the payoff that DC set up back in 2017 when they revealed Dr. Manhattan was involved in the creation of both the New 52 and Rebirth universes. Have you read Watchman?  Jessika: I haven’t read it, no. Mike: Okay.  It's one of those iconic series that everybody loves to talk about. [00:03:00] And to be honest, it's one that I never really enjoyed because I felt that I had a pretty nihilistic tone. But I've read it. I appreciate what it did for comics in the era. It was interesting. I read this and I actually was pretty sour at the start, mainly because I wasn't sure that I liked the story because again, it felt pretty nihilistic and ugly. That said, I actually really enjoyed the way that everything paid off at the end. Primarily the idea that there's now a quote unquote metaverse in the DC continuity, which feels like honestly the best response to all the different universe resets that they've been doing since the 80s   it wound up being  hopeful with a surprisingly sweet ending. I mean, it's not as good as the HBO series that came out around the same time, but it's pretty damn good. How about you?  Jessika:  I recently purchased the comic book Fangs by Sarah Anderson.  Mike: I haven’t heard of this. Jessika:  [00:04:00] it's super adorable. It's about the unfolding relationship of a vampire and a werewolf and how they relate. And co-exist in random life situations. Yeah. Like the werewolf eating garlic and going to kiss the vampire. And she has a reaction to it.  Mike: That’s really cute, actually. Jessika:  Yeah. Or their inability to take a selfie together because she doesn't show up on camera. So all of his friends are asking , we haven't ever seen your girlfriend before. Like, why can't you just post a picture? Mike: Oh, that's great. Jessika: So I highly recommend this. If you're looking for a lighthearted fun and wholesome comic, it's just been super nice and mellow, and it's been a good ease to my busy brain. Mike: Nice. Yeah, I'll have to check that out. Jessika: Onto our main topic,  Spire Christian Comics. So I mentioned on a prior episode that I ran across some use comics, at an estate sale for a dollar each. [00:05:00] So how could I not buy all of them? I legit didn't even look at them until after I'd left the sale. But when I did all, I was in for a real treat. The Archie one that was in the stack really didn't catch me off guard. That one seemed pretty basic Archie from the looks of the cover, but the other one was amazing.  Do you remember, I messaged you a picture of the covers and you were the one who discovered  the Spire Christian Comics brand for us. Mike: Yes I do. Jessika:  Yeah, that was fun. I just could not believe I found these. And when I sat down to do my research, I wasn't sure how much information there really was surrounding these. But like I said earlier, buckle up friends. This was a rabbit hole journey that I will gladly take you on. One that includes Jesus,  Archie, Erik Estrada, and more. [00:06:00]  Mike: Wait, the guy from CHIPS? Jessika: Yes, the very same. Mike: Is this more or less embarrassing than that weird  land sale thing that he was doing about 10 or 15 years ago? Jessika: I'll let you decide we will talk about it. Mike: I'm strapping in, my body is ready. Jessika: Well, before we dig too deep, and since we'll be talking about religion a lot, this episode, Mike, what is your religious background and where do you currently stand?  Mike: Um, so I like to joke that my family views me as the failed experiment because I didn't really turn out like they were hoping. And a large part of that is basically because I swiped left on organized religion as soon as I got a choice. Patton Oswalt talks about the concept of "it's all chaos be kind" in his special Annihilation, and that's kind of where I stand these [00:07:00] days. But I grew up surrounded by a religion. I was raised Episcopalian. We went to church almost every Sunday. And a large portion of my bedtime stories were from the Bible story book. My mom is from Texas also. So I've got several Baptist ministers on that side of the family, including a televangelist. Yeah. And to his credit, he has never been implicated in a scandal.  There's never really been anything bad about him. I don't want to name him because, you know, I don't want to make things awkward, but  and his family have always been very kind to my family. I know they helped my mom out a lot when she was in college. And I see him on TV or I used to, when I had TV,  I would see him appear every now and then on the early morning, sermon services every now and then. And I certainly didn't agree with everything he said, but it was just  always weird and surreal to turn on the TV, at say 6:00 AM, while I was getting ready for work or whatever and there he was. [00:08:00] I mean, growing up me and my siblings would actually go to Texas for  portions of our summers. And we would go to church with our extended family. So it was really different than what we were used to. I actually, I wasn't allowed to get my driver's license until I met certain criteria for my parents. One of those things was that I had to get confirmed and I never really had much of a personal connection with religion. And my parents made the mistake of telling me that I didn't have to go to church anymore after I got confirmed. So I wound up taking them up on that, and that was kinda much to their chagrin. And then additionally, my first degree was in history and my oral exit exam was a presentation talking about the Catholic church and how it would cement its power around the world by breaking up old nations and then forming new ones that were beholden to it. So I'd like to think I'm relatively well-informed about the various aspects and sects of Christianity, but I don't really have any spiritual [00:09:00] beliefs of my own. I just, I try to be a good person for the sake of being a good person. Not because I want to be rewarded in a theoretical afterlife. Jessika: Yeah, I agree with that. It makes me nervous when people tell me  or make it appear that religions the thing holding them back from making bad decisions. I'm like, that's really creepy. So I guess religion is for you, like. But I was raised for the first part of my life as a Lutheran, and that included  going to church. We did preschool at the Lutheran church, but we didn't continue going to church after middle school-ish. There was just some congregation changes, I think with the pastor that my parents are just like, "Oh, we don't really like this new guy." I'm sure life just got busy. Cause you know, I was however, from 11 until I was probably about 20 actually, was involved in a Masonic girls organization, which had backgrounds in religion. But that felt very secular. We definitely had some [00:10:00] girls who were Jewish. We had girls of all different religions, girls were Catholic and we actually made it a point of the person who was the Honored Queen or the kind of president they were voted in. Mike: Was that the actual term, was it honored queen? Jessika: It was honored queen, by the way, past Honored Queen, here we are. It's a whole thing. You have to memorize so much stuff. Mike: So can I just next time I see you in person, just be like, Hey Queen.  Jessika: Oh yeah. I'm actually a queen. So it's fine. And that term doesn't leave me cause I may past Honored Queen, so still a queen. Yeah. But as honored queen, they made it a point for, in at least in our Bethel. I don't know if everybody did this but in our particular chapter we would go with the honored queen to her church. I didn't have a church at the time, so I don't think I even did that. But we went to a Catholic church. We went to some Episcopalian. I mean, we, we did a lot of different [00:11:00] church visiting and so I did get a lot of hear a lot of different aspects and like ways manners that this information or information in general was being portrayed. And at this point in my life, I consider myself agnostic because the, "are we alone out there?”question seems a little above my pay grade to answer, in my opinion.  I'm not willing to commit that there's  nothing happening, but I'm also  not willing to commit to, yes, this is happening. So I'll leave it to other people to figure that whole thing out for me. Mike: That seems like a pretty fair stance to take. Jessika: Yeah. Just stay out of it. Someone wants to bring me along. They can, I guess.  So I want to list the resources that I use whole researching this topic and want to make sure I give these websites  the proper credit. So Baker [00:12:00] publishing group.com. You don't read comics dot com, Christian comics, international.org, comics alliance.com, biblio.com, wikipedia for one article, and Hal Lindsey's there's a new world coming through archive.org, which has a wonderful text to speech accessibility feature, which saved me a great deal of time. Mike: I didn't know that they did text to speech. That's rad. Jessika: It was amazing. Yeah. And I figured that out and you can speed it up. So I listened to it at two times the speed.  Mike: Nice. That’s really cool. Jessika: So yeah, that being said it did mean that I was listening to Hal Lindsey, uh, his book in robot speech. Cause it wasn't like a normal voice. It was text to speech like robot, lady speaking. So that was a trip to hear about the rapture through that. Mike: I mean, if you're going to listen to narration about the Rapture, I guess a robot on meth does seem like the best way to do it. Jessika: Oh, I would say so. [00:13:00] I wouldn't have it any other way. So Spire Christian comics were published through what is now the Baker publishing group, but was originally founded in 1870 as the Fleming H Revell company by a man by the same name, along with his brother-in-law, American evangelist Dwight L Moody. Their ultimate goal was to make Christian literature both more plentiful and more widely available, but they didn't start with comics and the company didn't entertain that idea until many years and many significant organizational changes had gone by, there seemed to be so much drama surrounding the ownership and running of this company, which I'm not going to get into here, that there was no mention in their company's history that these comics were even ever published.  Mike: Really? Jessika: Yeah.  Mike: That’s wild. Jessika: Yeah. Kind of funny, huh? Mike: Yeah, that's crazy. Jessika: In 1972. Al Hartley, freelance illustrator for comics like Archie and [00:14:00] Marvel was hired to make adaptations of some of the popular Christian novels that had been published by the Fleming H Revell company. This felt like a very appropriate and timely move for Hartley who had recently become a Born-Again Christian in 1967 and had chosen to quit working with Marvel because the owner at the time, Martin Goodman, asked Hartley to illustrate some risque scenes for some of his men's magazines, Hartley preferred quitting, rather than sacrificing his moral values in his art.   Mike: Was Hartley the artist who actually illustrated the books we read for today? Jessika: Yes, He was. Hartley was the one who illustrated the ones that we read for this episode. Although I'll talk about a little bit later, there is a little bit of mystery surrounding the artistry with There's A New World Coming, even though his name is on the cover.  I want to give you an example of one of the [00:15:00] adaptations that Hartley penned, other than the one you and I read. And we'll talk about that one in a little bit,  I'm gonna send you the, a couple of things to look at.  And the first one is the cover of the novel, the Cross and the Switchblade. Can you please describe this for me? Mike: This really looks like  a low budget thriller from the 19... probably the 1960s is what I  associate this with. There's three colors. Well, four. There's four colors. There's yellow, green, black, and white. So. The background is entirely green. There is a really, it's like a really rough illustration style of a very stylized dude running with a knife. And the knife stands out because this dude is entirely done in scratchy, all black kind of almost pencil. And then the knife is the one piece of white. He is running from another shadowy figure. There is, it looks like a ruined city in the [00:16:00] background then much more clearly illustrated drawn in white is a church, cause you can see the steeple with,  the large cross and it says the Cross And The Switchblade. "The thrilling, true story of a country preacher's fight against teenage crime and big city slums!" Which, OK. Written by the Reverend David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrell and John and Elizabeth Sherrell's billing on this title is a little bit smaller than the Reverend David and, it's $1.95 from Spire Books. Jessika: Oh yeah. Spoiler alert It is self starring. Yeah that is why his name is so large. His name is all up in that thing. He didn't even change it It's just in there.   The next is the cover of the movie adaptation.  Can you please describe the cover and read the first couple actors names at the bottom there for me.  Mike: Jesus Christ. Okay. So the title the [00:17:00] cross and the switchblade  is spray painted across some decaying brick. It's standing out from all the other graffiti that's on there and it says “now an explosive motion picture.” It's got what I'm assuming is the reverend, kind of like a  glamour shot. And then he's surrounded by smaller  shots of all the different people who are going to be taking an active role in this story. On the other side of his head it looks like he's being menaced by a "street tough," I don't quite know how to describe the kid other than that. He looks like a character from the Outsiders. That's just immediately where I'm going  cause he's got a leather jacket and it looks like M and M written on the back of his jacket I'm not entirely sure. Cause it's sort of cut off and then underneath them there's a bunch of young men of various ethnicities running and they're all holding  bats, I guess.  I'm not seeing any switchblades other than the one  that's being held by the tough who's menacing the priest. And then there is - Oh my God- so  there is the original book cover that I just [00:18:00] described  in the lower corner and it says next to it  "bares the raw needs at the core of drug addiction, racial hatred, and violence. NEVER -in all caps- has a film been more timely." Um starring Pat Boone as David Wilkerson with Eric Estrada. Oh, there he is. I'm not recognizing any of the other names. Jessika: No. Those were the only ones I needed. He's the street tough  Mike: I was going say  now that I realize that Erik Estrada is in this that is a very young Erik Estrada who is clearly in the salad days of his career. God. Jessika: Lastly  can you please describe the cover of the comic adaptation for me? Mike: I don't know if I want to. Wow. Okay This is way different! So it's again David Wilkerson's the cross and the switchblade is that the same style? [00:19:00]  It's meant to look like it's graffitied on and that there's the dripping graffiti. There's no delicate way to say what it actually looks like. It looks like jizz.. Jessika: It does. It's bad Mike: It’s really unfortunate. Like I don't know how else to describe it.  And then you have a well-dressed for the seventies dude  being menaced by again Erik Estrada his character  and he's surrounded by a bunch of   people of color who are all staring on and not really concerned  with the impending violence that's about to happen, except for one white girl who looks terrified. And then Erik Estrada character’s going "I could kill you, preach." And then the preacher is going, "yes you could Nicky. You could cut me up in a thousand pieces,  and every piece will say I love you." Jessika: Ugh, vomit. Mike: Oh God everything about this is just it is extra. Jessika:  It's a whole thing. [00:20:00] Mike:  Every variation that we've seen has started off at 11 and then it's just kept on turning it up from there. Jessika: Yeah and spoiler: Thematically, the racism is there for just…  Mike: You don’t say. Jessika: Yeah. Oh yeah It's just  rampant. Mike: Based on just what little I'm seeing here it looks like a literal white savior Jessika: Oh that's a hundred percent what it is. So really the comic was an adaptation of a movie that was an adaptation of a book. So the TLDR is that Nicky, played by Erik Estrada as we saw, is a troubled gang leader in New York city finds Jesus. Mike: I gotta say that does not look like New York on the comic cover. Jessika: No it doesn’t. They didn't do a great job with that. I don't know why, it's not hard to make a city look like New York. You can pretty much pen [00:21:00] any random looking city. And it probably is going to look like part of New York. But good job guys. Mike: Well especially because  you said that Al Hartley was a Marvel artist. Like all of the Marvel stories back then were taking place in New York. It’s not like he didn’t know what it looked like. Jessika: Maybe he forgot this time. Mike: Alright, whatever. Jessika: So Erik Estrada finds Jesus through the help of a persistent small town priest who comes to the big city to make a big difference in the lives of the troubled youth, who in his estimation just need to find Jesus's love. And that's how Erik Estrada became a comic book character, because the comic is based on him. That is based on his actual person I'm sure you've noticed. Mike: I wouldn't want to admit that that comic character was based on me but all right. Jessika: I mean there's probably a reason you haven't heard about it.   Mike: How successful was this movie? I've never heard of this before.  Jessika: I haven't heard of it either [00:22:00] And you know I didn't look that up unfortunately. Yeah. So it's a mystery. Maybe I'll update us later. Maybe I'll do more research about the Cross and the Switchblade. Along with book adaptations, the comics were also centered around the comic series that Hartley is  arguably best to known for: Archie. Hartley reached out to John Goldwater, who was the president of Archie at the time, who agreed for Archie to be included in the Spire Christian Comics publications. The comics themselves were meant as an introduction to non-believers to bridge the religious gap in a manner that was friendly to all ages. In total there were 57 comic titles published under Spire Christian comics, 19 of them were Archie.   Mike: Wow.  Jessika: Yeah I know, right? 12 were biographical and they did actually pull, I was reading on another article,  they did pull some of the themes from the Spire [00:23:00] comics and put them into regular Archie but just de-Jesused them. So if you read one you might say this sounds really familiar. Well it's probably because you've read  what actually was an adaptation version which was now regular what we would consider.  There were 12 biographical or autobiographical comics including the likes of Johnny Cash and a handful of stories pulled directly from the Bible along with other miscellaneous adaptations and some Christian comics aimed at younger children. Hartley wrote and drew most of the comics himself but other notable figures involved Dick Ayers and Dan DeCarlo. The comics weren't all wholesome and morality-filled, however, and we talked about that a little bit earlier. There were some really problematic aspects of some of these Spire comics including that rampant racism I talked about. Even in the Archie comic that you and I read there are racist generalizations about Native Americans and their [00:24:00] clothing, speech patterns, and general attitudes and demeanors which I did not love. Opposite, in fact. There's also a comic, one of the ones considered a biography, was titled wait for it "Hansi: The Girl Who Loved the Swastika." Mike could you please describe this cover for us. Give us a treat, please. Mike: This is one of those comics also that is truly infamous, especially in the age of the internet. It's one of those things that I've at least been aware of for a few years And every time you see, it it just throws you a loop. So basically it says and  in big bold letters “Hansi” and then in smaller red lettering “the girl who loved the swastika.” And it's this very Aryan looking [00:25:00] German girl in  1930s peasantware and she is standing in front of a motorcade. There's Hitler and some concerned looking you know Nazis and then the crowd around this motorcade is throwing up the right hands and there's swastikas everywhere. Like, everywhere. It's let's see one, two, three, four, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. There are 11 swastikas on this cover and she just she looks so happy and carefree. It's wild. It's one of those things where every time you see it, the shock never goes away. Jessika: Yeah it's that's a whole vibe, not going to lie. It was based on a book titled I Changed The Gods in 1968 which, interesting title, cuz what did she really do? And it follows the life story of a German born evangelist Maria Anne Hirschman as she is indoctrinated into the [00:26:00] Hitler Youth but was later rescued by American troops.  She immigrates to the U S later in life and realizes how she had in her words been brainwashed. The comic is not subtle. Obviously. You talked about the cover just now. It's not subtle at all.  Mike: No, not even a little. Jessika: No no.  It also has a lot of really raw and adult themes like rape and violence and is incredibly overt with its Cold War propaganda at the end of the comic it was really something.    Mike: That makes sense that they would go into themes like that because it's not approved by the Comics Code so they could just throw whatever they wanted in it. Jessika: Precisely. Well Spire Christian comics were published until 1988 and were later reprinted as New Barber Christian Comics as that was one of the ever-changing names of that publishing company. Mike: Hm. That's actually longer than I would have expected for that first run. Jessika: Yeah. I thought [00:27:00] so, too. So good on them I mean that was a lot, it was a lot of publications that they did. I was surprised at how many. Mike:  Do you know if they were being sold on newsstands or were they just exclusively in  Christian bookstores. Jessika:  That's a really good question I'm not a hundred percent on that  Mike: It could’ve been both.  Jessika:  It could’ve been both, absolutely. Mike: I know that those were really those were pretty big up until the nineties. I remember couple of the local malls had Christian bookstores. Jessika: Oh absolutely. We have some still in town.  Mike: Oh, really? In Petaluma? Jessika: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I pass by a Christian science reading room on my walks with my dog. So they're around.  Mike: Hmm  Jessika: You and I read through one of those Archie's.  Mike: Sure this was effectively an anthology of Archie shorts that take place in different times and places [00:28:00] Each of the stories stars Archie and it has him facing challenges and eventually overcoming them with pretty vague help from God. Examples include him being a medieval blacksmith, he tries to slay a dragon so he can win the hand of princess Veronica. He and Jughead are space explorers visiting quote unquote twin planets with very different morality systems. There's a story about him being a World War One fighter pilot who… I'm not entirely certain what they were fighting against. Was it anti-Christian propaganda?  Was that the true enemy? Jessika: I think so, it really wasn't made abundantly clear. Mike: Yeah and then there's also this there's a really weird one which involves him randomly walking into a spooky mansion that's owned by Beelzebub, who basically traps wayward teens by getting them to sell their souls in exchange for their heart's desire. Jessika: Yeah. He was just a creepy old dude. He wouldn't let teenagers leave.  That was really what it was. Mike: I didn't understand the payoff of that, but [00:29:00] okay. Jessika: So  tell us a little bit about your thoughts on the comic as a whole. Mike: Yeah. I've got a soft spot for Archie  I fucking loved Mark Waid's run a couple of years ago. It's honestly one of the best comics out there.  Riverdale is one of my favorite horny guilty pleasures.  And the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is also a blast. Side note: the Josie and the Pussycats movie one of my favorite soundtracks. Like, that soundtrack legit slaps. We should watch it together. We should do a viewing party sometime. Jessika: Let's I'm a hundred percent into that. Yes. Mike:  Yeah. So going back to this comic, the stories didn't really work for me?  Archie books are already incredibly family-friendly and the forced morality of evangelical Christianity just felt really… I don't know. It just it fucking rubbed me the wrong way. And on top of that the godly [00:30:00] decisions  involved prayer and strict adherence to religious tenants which I don't remember seeing anything about queer people in that Archie comic.   That kind of makes sense because Kevin Keller didn't appear until  2010. But I remember Beelzebub trying to tempt Archie with women of loose morals. And it's really bizarre to see that kind of hand ringing,  especially now,  about teenagers possibly having premarital sex because we're almost 50 years in the future from this and that is very much an accepted reality at this point. These days, at least in our household, it's like just make sure that everyone is consenting to what's going on and use protection. Jessika: Exactly. Mike: I’m assuming you and I are on similar wavelengths about this but I’m curious to hear what you thought. Jessika: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought the religious theme was just so incredibly heavy handed. It was forced together with the Archie narrative and Archie, like you said, [00:31:00] he's an overall wholesome dude in general in my opinion. But the morality lessons were really in your face. Like there's the one where he's in a saloon and he orders a milkshake. And this guy is  trying to force him to drink alcohol, and he's like "I don't want to drink alcohol." And it's like okay guy this is just so like nobody's actually going to go into the world and try to force you to drink alcohol unless you join a frat. Please don't do that though.  Mike: That would’ve been way better have Archie go join a frat. That would’ve been way better. Jessika: It would’ve have made more sense. Look at I'm already making more sense for Archie. Call me, Archie. Mike: Also it actually makes a lot of sense for Archie to go into a saloon and order a milkshake.  I kind of love that but then the follow up of “no, you need to order alcohol?” That’s dumb.  Jessika: It didn't make any sense. Overall I thought the comic was cute, had some messages, whatever. There was one section that really bugged me, though. And it was the twin planets where the two planets were exactly the [00:32:00] same except one was making good choices, the other one was making bad choices and the bad choices it was like not cleaning up after yourself. And I get there's a point some of bad choices. What was another one? Mike: Everyone steals from everyone else?  Jessika:  Yeah. Exactly exactly it's just so funny. And I get there's a point but some of the bad choices are listed as complete freedom and equality.  Mike: Yeah, that stood out to me, too. Jessika: That was bad. That was listed as bad. And I was like pump the brakes. Like, we live in a society. Come on.  Mike: This was in an era where the civil rights wasn't even really history. The Civil Rights movement was still going on. I could definitely see that as being a not terribly subtle dig at equality for minorities. Jessika: Yeah, yeah. I can agree [00:33:00] with that. That's how I took it as well. And, okay, did they do that entire Pelican sequence just so they could make that stupid bird joke at the end? Because that's how it felt I didn't like it. It was stupid.  Mike: I re-read that fucking thing three times And I was like… Jessika: They literally did it just so that they could make a stupid bird joke. Oh Christianity isn't for the birds. You literally just had a whole lesson about how there was a bird teaching another bird Christianity and then you  negated it by saying Christianity isn't for the birds. And I don't know what you want out of this Mike:  That felt like  a lot of those stories was these stupid kind of punny slogans at the end of  every one of these short stories. I really found myself getting grumpy as I continued to read them because I was just sitting there and going these are dumb. And no kid is going to think Christianity is cool because… Jessika: No.  Mike: Anyway, moving right along.  Jessika: Let's move on to [00:34:00] the absolute jewel of my retro collection these days, which is Hal Lindsey's There's A New World Coming.  Before I get too far into this comic or the book it's based on I felt like you all needed a little bit of background on Hal Lindsey to really understand what we're up against here.  Mike: I’m so excited because I want to know who the fuck this guy was.  Jessika: This is very broad strokes cause I didn't want to be here all night and I'm sure you  didn't either but very interesting go check it out. So he was born Harold Lee "Hal" Lindsey in Dallas Texas in 1929. He dropped out of university to be in the Korean War, was briefly a tugboat captain -because why not- and after a failed marriage and contemplating suicide he found Gideon's Bible and became born again Christian. He entered Dallas Theological Seminary in 1958 and had his first book published in 1970. Since then, he's [00:35:00] written more books of which he sold millions of copies and has moved on with the times to include broadcasting his messages via radio and television. Messages that range from prophetic to conspiratorial. And I want to add this blip from biblio.com. Mike, do you mind reading this for me. Mike: ”Virtually none of Lindsey's verifiable predictions have been confirmed by history.” Jessika: Great. Thank you. Mike: Is this guy still doing his thing? Is he still spreading the good word? Jessika: He's 91. He's 91. He's fucking kicking  I think  he from what it sounds like he retired quote unquote whatever that means. I think he's still shouting into the ether. Yeah he's around. So speaking of predictions let's talk about those predictions of Hal Lindsey's. So there's A New World Coming. [00:36:00] First of all can you do us a solid and describe the cover of this thing, which is a journey all in itself.  Mike: It is  this is actually I would say the most subtle of the comic covers we looked at tonight. The top half is bold yellow and it says Hal Lindsey There's A New World Coming. And there are three kids getting flown through space on this very weird kind of color spiral. And in the background you can see the spiral is emanating from earth. It's actually really cool looking.  It looks like it's some sort of weird  cosmic sci-fi space opera way I can describe it.  Jessika: Yeah. Very 70s.  Mike: It's very seventies especially the fashion for the older of the kids because  they've got the bell-bottoms they've got the seventies collar and  the big heels on the guy  and also plaid pants.  The [00:37:00] two older characters are holding hands, kind of? I don't know, it looks almost like the dude is grabbing the woman by the wrist and dragging her along. Jessika: Yeah. He really took her on a journey, apparently. Mike: Yeah and then the third kid who was also a narrator.  By the way, we never fucking learned these kids' name, do we? Jessika: We don’t learn anything about them.  Mike: I don’t think we ever get an official introduction to them, either. Jessika: No it's just assumed that this woman is stupid  and sinful and needs to be taught better. That’s kind of what is presumed.  Mike: But honestly this is kind of  the first panel of the comic book because when you open the comic it actually it starts with them on this weird cosmic voyage. Jessika: Yeah. Now the cover is just the start of this banana grams comic and even nuttier book which, by the way I also listened to in it's 308 page entirety. Mike: Okay I didn't realize that this was actually a comic adaptation of a much larger source text. Jessika: Yeah. Oh [00:38:00] let's just say there's a reason this book was able to be condensed into a 32 page comic. The whole premise of both publications is dun dun duh The Rapture. Or as I much prefer to call it "the great snatch" Mike: I’m so glad you called that out, because I was going to call that out if you didn’t. That is the highlight of this book. Jessika: And they put it in such bold  different colored letters. It was in big red letters: The Great Snatch! And it was this woman flying into the air.  Mike: I was gonna say: It’s this woman… oh my god. Jessika: Oh I bet she is the great snatch.  I was laughing so hard when I read that. The long and the short is that Jesus Christ will be coming back to earth. The true believers will be abducted, without dying apparently,  [00:39:00] and eventually transported to what will be new heaven and new earth which is just one thing by the way. Both the comic and the book talk about the supposed events the mark the start to Christ’s second coming. Interesting fact I found about this comic in particular while the art is signed by Hartley on the cover, there is speculation that there were potentially multiple other artists involved in illustrating this comic, as some of the styles don't match up to Hartley’s through and through.  Mike: Yeah ,I noticed that some of the styles weren't quite cohesive. Jessika: You can tell they tried, but you can tell there's definitely some weirdness in there. And I was wondering what that was about when I was reading it myself. Mike: Yeah And also some of the faces  of some of the guys I was like, oh  you were clearly an extra from an Archie comic that has been inserted here. Jessika:  Exactly. And her face is so similar to so many other Hartley ones. The comic is a pretty faithfully distilled version of the book. [00:40:00] Although in my opinion is done in a much more organized and cohesive manner. The book provides much more scripture to back up his claims repetitively.  Mike: Well, they did that in the comic, too. Jessika: Oh they did but they didn't repeat them over and over and over and over again because that is what they did in the book. The same Bible passage would show it multiple times within very few pages. I'm just like didn't I just hear this Bible passage you're doing it again.  It was just it was a whole headache. There were also works of other authors referenced to build his case. But I found yet another interesting rabbit hole that I was unknowingly already knee deep in. One of the authors that Lindsey mentioned as being "a powerful writer of our time" and one he uses as an example is Carlos Castaneda. Which immediately piqued my interest as I was actually in the process of listening to a podcast about this very person.  Mike: Do I  want to know? Jessika: [00:41:00] Yes  Mike: OK, was it bad? I got a feeling that it’s bad. Jessika: You'll know right when I call out what podcast it is. And I want to give a huge thank you to Cult Podcast for this next information.  Mike: Welp. I have my answer. Jessika: Yup Yup I was right in the middle of the second of a two part series on Carlos Castaneda that they had done. And I heard that name within Lindsey's and I was like I guess I have to listen to the rest of that podcast before I really get involved. Now Castaneda pretty much went out to get cigarettes one day and left his family to go do a project in Mexico. No joke. He just left, not really a cigarettes part. That's kind of the Cult Podcast joke but  he left his family for a series of years so that he could go [00:42:00] and do an anthropological study in Mexico.  Mike:  How big was his family I'm curious.  Jessika: He had a wife and kids, at least a couple of kids.  Mike:  What a shitheel. Jessika: Oh absolutely. Cause like multiple years. Like he was just like bye. So he did the one thing you're not supposed to do when studying anthropology: Get involved in the local rituals and ceremonies anthropologists are supposed be studying the culture not getting involved.  Kind of a look don't touch kind of a thing. Mike:  Yeah they’re supposed to be neutral observers. Jessika: Yeah. Strip club rules. So this already a no-no in the scientific community. But he came back, wrote this killer thesis, followed by a best-selling book or two, got a ton of credit and notoriety based on his studying with this traveling shaman named Don Juan. I'm sure you'll be shocked to find out that there was no Don Juan and Castaneda's multi-year anthropological project in Mexico turned out to be more of a [00:43:00] vacation where Castaneda did a lot of peyote, slept with a lot of women, and scoured libraries so that he could pull bits and  pieces out of books and plagiarize them to make his own. So he used a bunch of different spiritual books out of them to make his thesis books coming up.  Mike:  Woooow. Jessika: Yeah. It wasn't until years later that somebody recognized one of the  pieces of his book and were like, "wait a second. That sounds like something I've read from this other book." And then it was just this whole can of worms where he was like “wait and this is plagiarized and this is plagiarized.” Mike: It was so much easier back then to pull off this kind of shit. I feel like I missed my opportunity to cheat my way through school, because even by the time that we were going through high school and college they were starting to get really aggressive about spot checking for plagiarism and things like that.  Now it's really hard to actually plagiarize stuff because of all  the software that’s out there. God damn. [00:44:00] Jessika: It was also easier to have a second family. Mike:  Before the age of social media. Jessika: Yeah. Change your name and… Mike: Can you even have a cult these days without social media? Jessika: You might be able to but I think probably a lot of them would be hinged on social media at this point. Like some of those other ones that have been really recent. Mike: You got to have those influencers who'll sell your cult on Tik ToK. Jessika: Oh my gosh. I find it fascinating that Lindsey chose to use this particular author to showcase the section of his argument for morality which is regarding abstaining from drugs by the way.  Mike:  I mean, probably he just didn’t know. Probably this dude hadn’t been exposed yet. Jessika: Oh no no. Check it out Castaneda most certainly did not abstain from drugs, as I mentioned. And in the book Lindsey makes some vague reference to drugs only being necessary at the beginning of the spiritual journey. So it's like he really was pro-drug but he's also  anti-drug. It was really strange. I re-read that section And I was like I don't know what you're talking [00:45:00] about.  And he credited Castaneda with ceasing to use drugs after a certain point. However it was really just that Castaneda was pretty burnt out after all of his heavy drug use and had to stop doing drugs for health reasons rather than spiritual ones. So while Lindsey doesn't list an exact date at the Rapture, he does make the following prediction. Mike, will you read this blurb from again biblio.com for me. Mike: Yeah, absolutely. “Hal Lindsey forecasted the end of days would be within the generation of the establishment of Israel. That was 1948. He concluded a generation in the Bible was 40 years. Therefore in 1988 Jesus would establish his kingdom.”  Jessika: So clearly that happened according to plan. 1988 was a crazy year, wasn't it? Jesus came back… Mike: Yeah. 1988 was 32 years ago and I don't remember the [00:46:00] rapture happening so Jessika: I mean, I was two, but I don't either.  Mike: yeah  Jessika: And we went to church and I wasn't taken is all I'm saying. What were your overall thoughts on the comic?  Mike: Hmm Hmm Hmm. Honestly the whole thing feels like just one giant drug trip which, now that I have this perspective, makes a lot more sense. But mainly that was because of all the swirling colors in the backgrounds and the clouds that are present throughout the entire comic.  I just don't know how else to summarize it.  It also feels like Hal Lindsey really used this for his own self promotion more than anything else.  For example, he gets top billing on both the cover and on the first page but the comic's narrated by these three nameless teens who were taken on a magical journey through the Rapture and end times when this girl opens her Bible to the book of Revelations. And then they narrate everything that's supposed to happen [00:47:00] and everything about it It's just this really passive boring exposition.  I don't understand who the target audience for this was.  Biblical apocalyptic fiction was such a massive thing in the nineties and it could definitely be made to feel more exciting. But it always feels universally terrible whenever it's done in  a quote earnest way.  I came of age during the era of those God awful fucking Left Behind books  and Tribulation Force and all of the media that they've put out around it. And it was just really not good. It actually makes me mad because this shit never feels like a good story it's always a vehicle for its creators’ egos. And again the Left Behind stuff, like Kirk Cameron I know was really involved with that too for a while. That dude's just a giant fucking shitheel. Whatever. But honestly  the best moment in this book is when everyone is getting raptured, and one of the kids that refers to the moment as the Great Snatch, like we were talking about.  The moralizing also feels really vague.  If you look at that one page that talks about societal [00:48:00] decay where they list all this really generic stuff like the decline of the family unit and then it shows a bunch of people going into and this was the quote “alternatives to marriage course.” Jessika: Like what is that? There's not a thing that's called that  Mike: I don't know. Like my family is literally the embodiment of alternatives to marriage, because  I'm registered as a domestic partner with Sarah. And we did it basically because it was the easiest thing to do during lockdown so that we could make sure that we're taken care of in case something happened to the other person basically we could mail it in. But we get all the same benefits but that wasn't thing back then. Gay marriage wasn't a thing back then. Was it just living together in sin and common law marriage? I don't understand what that was but everything about that  felt like it was that possibly racist argument that's  not quite being racist. But  one of the ongoing things is there's that decline of the black family that they love to sit there  and [00:49:00] pontificate on in conservative media where they talk about black fathers abandoning their families and stuff like that. And I've been around enough of that that it drives me up the wall whenever I hear it. I was kind of bored and kind of mad as I read through this thing because it was just it felt like they really squandered the opportunity to do something really weird and memorable here. Jessika: What I thought was really funny too about their  timing the events I was looking at the different events that they were listing and they were like "fire from the sky" I was like do you know many times that we could say fire from the sky and like a volcanic eruption or the blitzkrieg or you know there's all these different points in history. Any of these events could have been just this whole situation could have been popped into a different time period and anybody could have felt like they were in the apocalypse. We could be in the apocalypse right now, 2020 was a whole shithole. We had like death wasps. Mike: Yeah Yeah. My favorite was the one where   the helicopters coming out of the earth was that it [00:50:00] and there's a quote where it's talking about insects coming forth  with battle armor and they're giant. And they're like, “look he perfectly described helicopters 2000 years ago!”  Jessika: Yeah. He could have been talking about death wasps see? The killer bees. 2021, guys, maybe it's the coming apocalypse I don't know someone should be asking these questions now. Mike: Well I mean it certainly wasn't like Donald Trump wasn't the antichrist because he was supposed to bring us into a false peace or something like that. Jessika:Yeah That was not peaceful I know you would've thought though it really had pegged for that If I were going to say anything.  Mike: Yeah God. So it sounds like we're kind of aligned on this but I’m curious to hear your take on this comic. Jessika:  What I did like about it and just know I was so entrenched in this whole topic, because I listened to the book and then I also read the comic and I was just so refreshed that it wasn't the book, that I was like a little relieved.  I do love that it's an absolute time capsule [00:51:00] just like the estate sale I found it in the estate sale Literally They had  avocado green  carpet. Yeah like what is I a fringe or no a what's it called?  Mike: Shag. Jessika:  Shag. Thank you. Yeah they had avocado green shag.  just it was 1970 threw up in there. It was great I loved it. Mike: Could you rake the shag carpet? Was it that worn down? Jessika:  Oh it was like it was Yeah It was like it needed good rake first of all. But I did like the fashion and the overall vibe, cause that's just kinda my style anyway. So I was right there with the illustrations and the outfits drawn in the comic. And honestly if taken ironically the comic is funny as heck.  it's dated It obviously represents that has come and gone  without the promised fall of Armageddons hammer. So that was Spire  Christian comics for you in a nutshell. Mike: I don't know what I expected any expectations but [00:52:00] this blew away any expectations I could’ve had. Jessika: I mean hard same. Well let's mosey on along to our Brain Wrinkles which is the one thing that we just can't stop thinking about. Mike why don’t you start us off?   Mike: So there was a new clip for the upcoming Cruella movie that dropped this week. And… have you seen any of the trailers for this? Jessika:  I’ve seen one of them, and I generally don’t watch trailers but I was curious. Mike: Yeah I rolled my eyes so hard when that movie was announced. And every time I see something from it though I keep getting more interested.  I'm actually really digging how punk rock they're making Cruella. It's got a very 1970s British punk vibe which is 100% my jam. And also the cast in this movie is so fucking good. We're not going to pay to see it, obviously we're going to wait until it comes to the common folk on Disney Plus. But I'm curious to see what they do with her. I'm [00:53:00] not sure every villain needs a redemption arc which is something been seeing a lot of lately like the Maleficent movies,  but I appreciate it when it feels really well done Like the case with Harley Quinn, like I was talking about last week. Jessika: Yeah. Segues right into my brain wrinkle which is every once in a while on a daily basis, because I'm queer as hell, I think about Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. And I think “good for her.” And also like goals of getting out of that bad relationship that Harley was in.  Ivy's so much better for Harley than that toxic ass joker. So. That whole relationship was skeevy I didn't like it. It was one sided and controlling and manipulative and I've never liked it. It's always kind of sat with me in a weird way.  And so when they had this spin I was like “thank goodness.” [00:54:00] Mike: Even when I was in my twenties and I saw people sharing those memes of “Oh  you just need someone crazy like you” and it's Harley and the Joker and I'm like “he's abusive!” Jessika: Yes. Yes.  Mike: Even I could see that. And I was terrible in my twenties. Jessika: It should be pretty obvious but somehow it just isn’t. I don't know    Jessika: Thanks for listening to Ten Cent Takes. Accessibility is important to us. Text transcriptions of each of our published episodes can be found on our website.  Mike: This episode was hosted by Jessika Frazer and Mike Thompson, written by Jessika Frazer, and edited by Mike Thompson. That's me. Our intro theme was written and performed by Jared Emerson Johnson of Bay area sound. Our credits and transition music is pursuit of life by Evan McDonald and was purchased with a standard license from Premium Beat. Our banner graphics were designed by Sarah Frank who goes by cut_thistles on Instagram. Jessika: If you'd like to get in [00:55:00] touch with us, ask us questions, or tell us about how we got something wrong, please head over to tencenttakes.com tencenttakes@gmail.com. You can also find us on Twitter: The official podcast account is tencenttakes.  Jessika is jessikawitha and Jessika is spelled with a K and Mike is vansau, V a N S a U.   Mike:   Stay safe out there. Jessika: And support your local comic shop.

- Choking alone at home (start) - Officially Inaugurated (13:00) - What's next for Trump? (22:00) - No Gender Nancy & The new Secretary of "Health" (30:00) - Soldiers Sleeping in the Capital(41:00) - New Press Secretary (48:00) - John Brennan "retired" ?? (1:19:00) - Trump; Pardons & Peace TF Out (1:24:00) and plenty more... Guests: - Sid floyd @sid_floyd - Mike Nice @mikenicect - 2Shoes Sponsors: YOKRATOM (For 21+) & SHEATH UNDERWEAR & The ShedCast

- Choking alone at home (start) - Officially Inaugurated (13:00) - What's next for Trump? (22:00) - No Gender Nancy & The new Secretary of "Health" (30:00) - Soldiers Sleeping in the Capital(41:00) - New Press Secretary (48:00) - John Brennan "retired" ?? (1:19:00) - Trump; Pardons & Peace TF Out (1:24:00) and plenty more... Guests: - Sid floyd @sid_floyd - Mike Nice @mikenicect - 2Shoes Sponsors: YOKRATOM (For 21+) & SHEATH UNDERWEAR & The ShedCast

The Capital has been stormed, what now? - Trump Concedes (13:00) - Leader of the Proud Boys arrested (24:00) - Should Gov. officials have private security? (32:00) - Answering Emails (36:00) - Covid Corruption (49:00) - Aliens (57:00) Guests: - Sid floyd @sid_floyd - Mike Nice @mikenice_ct - 2Shoes Sponsors: YOKRATOM (For 21+) & SHEATH UNDERWEAR & The ShedCast

The Capital has been stormed, what now? - Trump Concedes (13:00) - Leader of the Proud Boys arrested (24:00) - Should Gov. officials have private security? (32:00) - Answering Emails (36:00) - Covid Corruption (49:00) - Aliens (57:00) Guests: - Sid floyd @sid_floyd - Mike Nice @mikenice_ct - 2Shoes Sponsors: YOKRATOM (For 21+) & SHEATH UNDERWEAR & The ShedCast

Paul, Nugget and Mike (Nice & Easy) are here this week to talk about the NFL playoffs and prop bets from our friends over at Monkey Knife Fight! The host Rich "Prop King" Maletto was in need of a siesta this week, so Paul Ryan did his best to keep the show on the tracks. The guys talked prop bets, picked their winners for the weekend games, and predicted which teams they think will go to the playoffs and which teams they want to go to the playoffs. Enjoy the show, tell a friend! Be sure to Like, Subscribe and Review on your favorite podcast app. Any and all feedback on the pod is welcome. You can find the guys on Twitter at: Rich: @bodaciousbeer Daniel "Nugget": @Nuggie_Wuggie Mike: @cdpiglet Paul: @Paul_Ryan15 Don't forget to follow the podcast Twitter page: @ATB_FantasyShow

Michigan Militia Judge Amy Cohen Barrett Freedom of Speech Sen. White House & 'Dark Money' And more Music: Sid Floyd & Mike Nice - "Voices" https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMiOGW3uZMluAxjfpnBYS4u6ky47c_m6R Special thanks to: YOKRATOM (For 21+) & SHEATH UNDERWEAR

What's going on world ?! Today we are blessed to have everyone on the mic! Diaz, Cabaio, Joey No Toes, Los, Mike Nice and myself. We talk about some sports, streaming entertainment, and of course our favorite game "Friend or Foe". We have our words of the day on tap let see what Mike Nice Thinks of them. Thanks for listening please like, share, and follow that way you know when a new episode drops!!

This episode Torrez, Mike Nice, Cabaio, and Joey no toes are back. The topic continues to be Corona Virus. We will be in our new studio next episode and we have a few surprises!

Was up world!! I hope this episode finds all of you safe and Corona free. Today's episode it is Torrez and Joey No Toes. Mike Nice will be back for the next episode. We talk about what everyone else is taking about the Corona virus. Big shout out to every one working in the medical field, police officers, military, national guard, local government and etc. etc. We are grateful for all that you all do. Please subscribe so you get notified when a new episode drops and please leave a review and tell your friends and family about us.

Mike Nice and DJ Meze cover Double M this Week. They review Celtics/Pacers series and look forward the Bucks Matchup. Time 100 released it's 100 most influential people of 2019 and not 1 person from the Hip Hop community was on it and Double M took offense to that. In Boward County, Florida caught on video were 2 police officers brutally beating an unarmed 15 year old African-American kid. Double Speaks on this and the power of allies and so much more TUNE IN.

Andy is joined by TV producer/show runner Drew Pokorny and comedian Mike Nice. They discuss Phish concerts, Star Wars, superhero movies, pro wrestling, social media censorship and politics. Follow us on Twitter - twitter.com/DentReport Follow us on Instagram - www.instagram.com/dentreport Follow Andy Ruther on Twitter - twitter.com/AndyRuther Follow Drew on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thisisdrew Follow Mike on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/michael.j.nice/

For those of you that don't already know Mike Jackness, he runs an ecommerce business approaching 10m a year in revenue, and is the co-host of the EcomCrew Podcast. On the Podcast Mike shares his direct experience with listeners to help them grow their ecommerce businesses. If you've tuned in to our Podcast regularly, you've heard Mark and I talk about how multiple revenue streams increase the overall value of your business (by de-risking it). So…if you want a more valuable business why not expand it to include email? But email marketing is dead right? All junk mail and spam. If that's true why does Mike get an open rate of 30% on his emails…and generate over 52% of his revenue for ColorIt from email? Because it works…and he does it in a “helpful”, customer friendly way. On today's Quiet Light Podcast Mike shares his process with email marketing using Klaviyo, and talks about how their Facebook synchronization feature enhances his customer reach and overall return on investment. The Facebook ads produce a whopping 1500% return on investment! You can learn about Klaviyo through their online training feature, and listen in to the EcomCrew Podcast and pick up additional tips and strategies. Mike and Dave also offer specific training such as importing from China, Launching on Amazon and finding your product niche. Episode Highlights: Using Klaviyo email marketing software to produce over 50% of revenues Add on the Facebook Synchronization piece and boost your ROI (1500% in Mike's case) Email marketing should be “helpful”. Treat the customers the way you want to be treated. The “trifecta” as a marketer includes an email address, a facebook messenger list and have the customer pixel'd. Google, Yahoo, AOL etc. look for a high open rate. Remove customers who don't open emails after 13 weeks. There are no “secret 10 step plans” that work for every model. Know your business variables and apply them to increase your success. EcomCrew Podcast has produced over 150 Podcasts. And yes..the best episode is #88. Knowing the value of your business and planning for an exit – is the smart thing to do. Transcription: Mark: Oh welcome back from Italy. Joe: Thanks man, it's good to be back. Mark: Ah is it really? Joe: Yeah that's a good question, I don't know. Mark: Well welcome back all the same. I'm sure everybody's glad to hear you instead of me for a change. Joe: I'm a little tanner and a little fuzzy. I haven't shaved in a couple weeks. Mark: Yeah. Joe: Haven't trimmed it a couple of weeks I should say. Mark: Haven't trimmed … are you missing the espresso and the- Joe: Oh man café, ginseng, the views of the ocean. We were at the coast for most of the times as you now we're in Rome as well but up in the north and coast of Italy is absolutely gorgeous. Mark: Hey I got a business idea for you. I think you and I need to start a podcast about traveling to Italy and of course, you would have to go onsite for that. Joe: I think it's a great idea. Let's do it. Mark: All right you guys we're going to shut down Quiet Light Brokerage and move on to a new business, new venture; a podcast about Italy but stay tuned for that. But in the meantime, we do actually have something related to Quiet Light Brokerage and that is … and to buying and selling online businesses; you talked to a mutual friend of ours, somebody who's been a friend of Quiet Light Brokerage for a while Michael Jackness. Joe: Mr. Mike Jackness from EcomCrew. Mike and I go back to him at e-commerce shield presentation he did on email marketing and a Klaviyo on what he does within his ColorIt Company, the adult coloring book company. And you would think email marketing is dead but this guy generates 52% of his revenue from email marketing. Has like a 30% open rate and just nails it, hammers it down and produces a ton of revenue that way and does Facebook synchronization. He talks about it all, on his Facebook synchronization that's part of Klaviyo, don't want to get too technical but he gets a 1500% return on investment. You and I have talked about this all the time, diversification of revenue streams does what to a business other than add more revenue; it's more valuable, right? Mark: It absolutely reduces the risk, increases stability, yeah. Joe: That's right. So we talked about that. We talked about the ability to expand beyond your typical just one source of revenue e-commerce business whether it be your Shopify store or your Amazon FBA site using tools like Klaviyo and Facebook Messenger, things of that nature. And then we talked a little bit about EcomCrew what they do there. EcomCrew is yes a podcast Mike and Dave have been doing it for almost three years now and they just simply help people. They've got a … my favorite subject is the under the hood section where they actually talk to an e-commerce owner about the problems within their business and try to help them right there right on the podcast sharing a lot of detailed information for people to help themselves. Mark: That is pretty cool. He has a ton of knowledge absolutely. The podcast they have is fantastic. I think the topic itself is really fantastic especially as people are trying to build up more integrated marketing systems. You know this idea of having their email coincide with a live Facebook audience and the marketing that you're doing there. Really really kind of advanced stuff but really good stuff and those numbers are staggering; 1500% ROI on Facebook. Joe: Yeah, huge. Mark: Incredible. Joe: Huge and he started small. He started testing little things just like everyone else. It's not like he had all this knowledge, he figured it out along the way. And just to put some numbers behind Mike and his expertise he's hoping that 2018 will be the year when his business overall hits the 10 million dollar revenue mark. So he's not a small player, he's doing a great job. Somebody that is now traveling around the world doing presentations and speaking on E-commerce Group Podcast subject and on email marketing and e-commerce in general, so definitely somebody worth listening to. Mark: You know one thing I do want to say before we jump into the episode, when people are listening to these numbers and hearing things like 1500% ROI, 10 million dollars breaking this year, I think it can be really intimidating for some people that are maybe at the beginning stages to hear this and to see all the opportunity and see so many advanced stuff these people are doing. We did an episode with Dan from Science of Skill who pulled about two million dollars of revenue from an email list of about 11 or 12,000 people. We've talked to Bjork Ostrom from Food Blogger Pro who is completely dominating that world. And I think the one thing just to keep in mind if you're hearing these episodes and seeing what some of these people are doing don't be overwhelmed by it and understand something that you alluded to Joe; he's done this over time. Focus on this continual improvement every day, small little group improvements and you can work yourself up. These guys didn't jump up to this in one month they did this over time. Joe: Yeah and on the podcast EcomCrew, he'll talk to and work with people that are doing 50,000 dollars a year in revenue and that's what they do under the hood and they help that. He'll also do it for folks that are doing half a million in revenue or five million in revenue but you know at all stages there's different tools and resources that can be used to help people grow their business. And bottom line is Mike's just a really nice guy. He's an expert in the arena. He's sharing the information. He's not afraid of competition. He says if I share information about my business and competition comes up and bites me in the heels it's because I didn't do a good enough job in promoting my own products. Mark: That's awesome. All right let's get to it. Joe: Hey folks it's Joe from Quiet Light Brokerage and today I've got Mike Jackness on the line with me. Hey Mike how's it going? Mike: Good man, it's good to be here. It's good to see you, I wish it was in person but it's … at least we're actually … we're in the same room. Joe: I agree. Good to see you as well and I know you've been traveling the world, good to be back in San Diego I hear right? Mike: It is man, like I can live anywhere in the world I want. At least we could at the time when we moved here I was like we had a virtual business but it's we're kind of anchored down here now but I want to be here and I feel sad whenever I had to go somewhere because it's San Diego, it's a pretty awesome spot. Joe: Well you got good problems. You're kind of a big shot now; you're travelling the world [crosstalk 00:06:51.0] all over the place. For those folks listening that don't know you why don't you, as you know we don't do formal introductions here at Quiet Light. Why don't you share a little bit of background on yourself? So what your history is, what you're doing now so that they understand who we're talking to today. Mike: Yeah no problem it's always [inaudible 00:07:07.3] to talk about yourself but I'll give it a shot. I've been doing this online marketing stuff for … this dates me for about 15 years. I actually quit my job back in 2004 and I've been doing this stuff ever since. Like some I retired in between a couple businesses that we were doing for a couple years and RVed around the country and got bored of being retired so we got sucked back into the business again and it was an e-commerce this time and we started doing that a few years ago. It's been almost five years now and are on the road to build an eight figure business this year. We'll get to crack eight figures this year or next year and along the way we've been documenting all that on EcomCrew. So it's been a much different environment than what I was doing before which was affiliate marketing where everybody was really guarded; you never talked about anything you did because everyone was kind of a competitor and going after the same traffic. But in e-commerce, it's like this multi-trillion dollar industry and you're never going to be the one selling all the things in your niche. And one of the things that we do is coloring for adults and I always say like I'm never going to select all the gel pens in the world. So talking about what we do and being open about it I think has been cool and yeah it might create some competitors but if they can catch me I feel like it's my fault. It's kind of been my philosophy plus I'm just more secure about everything I do now that I'm a little bit older. And I look at the things that come out of it positively, which is getting to meet people like you which would never happen if it wasn't for EcomCrew and speaking and all these things. So and for the most part like 99% of what we do; helping other people doesn't adversely affect us and for the one [inaudible 00:08:41.9] that does you know so be it whatever. Joe: Well you just touched on it what you do believe and I'm … for people listening EcomCrew is just that. It's what we do at Quiet Light, it's helping other people. Help them first then things come back to you. And I've seen you do presentations on the adult coloring books and the email marketing behind it. I've listened to the EcomCrew podcast; I worked with Dave as you know as well. So I want to talk about both but let's just answer the simple question first about email marketing; you know I'm an old school direct marketer, I've been self-employed since 1997 believe it or not. Mike: Nice. Joe: It was radio direct marketing back then and then the next evolution at that point was email right? As old isn't email marketing dead, are you making any money with it? Mike: Yeah and it's a trick question right, or it's a blue question, it's a softball question. You know when I first got into doing email marketing for e-commerce I felt the same way and I had drug my feet forever and it's probably one of my bigger regrets in this business for a couple reasons. Number one, I think its human nature to approach stuff in life and in business the way that you think about it yourself. So for me, I flipping hate email. It's my biggest nemesis. I cannot get to Inbox 0 no matter how hard I try. It … I'm unsubscribing for more things than I'm subscribing to just to try to get email under control and I just viscerally have this negative hatred in reaction towards email. So you know I didn't want to get into emailing people because I … you know how I am I like to treat others like I like to be treated. So for me, that was the conflict more than anything. It's like I'm going to start emailing people and I wouldn't want to even receive these emails myself. So that was the basis for the whole thing to start with so I was slow at doing it. But listening to other people talk and going to other you know a lot of these conferences and you still hear email as a prevalent thing and it's important; you should be doing email etcetera etcetera. So eventually I started dipping my toes into it and what I realize now many years later first of all email is 52% of our revenue. I was just looking before doing this podcast; it's 52% of our revenue for ColorIt. So it's a massive amount of our business. But our open rates- Joe: That's 52% of nearly an eight figure business. Mike: So just to … yeah [inaudible 00:11:07.1] that's just on ColorIt.com so we also sell on Amazon and Amazon is two thirds of our business so … but it's two thirds of a million dollar business because ColorIt.com does about a million dollars a year. And as a business overall ColorIt is bigger than that because you add in the Amazon component. But yeah what we do on ColorIt.com like when it's our own website and we control all of our own destiny; email marketing is a mass sort of part of that and it has a massive halo effect that you can't directly determine. But it has a massive halo effect on our Amazon business as well. Because people are reading these emails and they eventually go buy on Amazon. We have a lot of data on this but you can't … it's not empirical, you can't tell definitively like exactly what's going on there. But I mean totally you can look at the numbers and say okay by doing these things over here that it's affecting the stuff over here. So it definitely makes a big difference. Joe: Yeah for sure and then we're going to talk about open rates there in the email before I interrupt. Mike: Yeah. So our open rates are close to 30% so they hover somewhere 28 to 32% depending on what stage we are on scrubbing or list. So one of the things that we work really hard on is email deliverability; making sure things end up in the primary inbox, not in spam; that we are providing value to people so they want to open our emails. So that's been a really big angle for us so we kind of use the 80-20 rule here where at least 80% of our emails are helpful and they're not hitchy in any way of what we're trying to sell you something. And it's really more like 90-10. The vast majority of what we send out is helpful tips and tricks or things you want to know. So for instance in the coloring space; how to blend your shade with colored pencils, how to blend with markers or something like that, how to sharpen your pencils. Here's a time lapse video of how to draw this particular drawing and here's a free copy of it. Here's some stuff from our community other people submitted you might want to like it out as well. We're doing a giveaway this month or fan of the month contest. All these types of things that add value and every now and then once every six weeks or so or eight weeks we're releasing a new product and that will be a part of the sequence. Or maybe there's a Mother's Day sale or the month it's going to be come up soon it'd be a 4th of July sale. But very few of our emails are in that realm and most of them are in here are some helpful tips and tricks. So let's apply that to something besides coloring let's like it like tactical.com, your emails will be 10 things to bring on your next hiking adventure, how to prepare for an emergency, things to put in your bug out bag, what to do when the lights go out; whatever the types of things that we're doing in tactical world. Things that are like truly helpful for people especially I mean right now we're getting into hurricane season so we're going to be releasing a lot of content about that. And you know the fact of the matter is that most people just aren't prepared. Like a hurricane comes or an earthquake, a tornado comes whatever and you have no food and water or a flashlight that are is or all dead whatever it might be. It's actually quite helpful to people to bring us the forefront of their mind even if you just think about it for a second you can actually help save someone's life in this case. So these are the types of things we'll provide and every now in that cycle he check out on your products this might help you as well. So the vast majority we do is trying to train people to want to open our emails, to kind of like … you know and humans are very habit forming creatures. It only takes a few times of doing something to make it a habit. So we try to make this a habit for them and that's our approach. Joe: Yeah it seems to have worked with your open rate which is pretty phenomenal. Let's back up a step, what email software are you using; what do you prefer? Mike: So we're using Klaviyo for almost everything at least in the e-commerce space. You know Klaviyo is just heads and tails above everything else when it comes to e-commerce. It has a direct integration with Shopify, you can build segments within Klaviyo, people that have done particular things and then generate emails based off of that. And probably the feature that it has that's most valuable is the ability to then take those segments and synchronize those segments with a Facebook audience and then you can … it can currently run Facebook Ads to that group of people which is highly effective. And the thing that really got me going with this was actually a really funny story because I had just got done presenting at E-commerce Fuel; I think you might have actually been there. I was talking about email marketing and I was like- Joe: That was Savannah? Mike: Yeah. I think it was in Savannah. And I was like gloating about email marketing and all these cool things that we're doing and at the time that I was really … all I really focused on was mostly email marketing. And what I had said there was at the time our open rates where between 20 and 25% which is still double industry average and we've since improved that. But I was really proud of that fact and someone came up to me after the show. A good friend of mine, Kevin Stucco and he was like well what about the 75% of people that aren't opening your email? And I was just like … it was an instant like aha moment. It kind of knocked me down a peg because I was like all … kind of like in that gloating mindset but it was actually a really good point. Even … you know I was looking at it from one perspective of we're double or more than double the industry average on open rates on email. But what he made me think about was what about all these people that aren't opening email. And one of the things that Klaviyo at the same time was coming out with was that synchronization feature. So we started getting really heavy into Facebook Ads. And what you can do is if for instance there's like someone … let's say your average order frequency is 80 days so what we do as a win back sequence at 90 days we offer them a coupon; the comeback as an email. Well, why not run an ad to them, a Facebook Ad at the same time and Klaviyo makes that really easy. So yeah there's going to be basically three things that can happen; either they're going to open your email, they're going to see your Facebook Ad, or they'll do both. Some people going to see both of your email and your Facebook Ad. But either way, throwing the Facebook stuff into it is a much more effective approach. So it's been really successful for us and now we have these Facebook Ads that run 100 or 1500 to 2000% return on Ad Spend. Joe: Wow. Mike: But the most effective ads that we run are- Joe: It's incredible. Mike: Yeah. Because if you think about it I mean it's a super small audience, we're putting a really small budget together and these are like highly primed people. These are someone that's already bought from us. They kind of maybe forgot about us, you send and ad to them 10% off of course they're much more likely to convert than someone that's called traffic. It's way … this is what people forget about in e-commerce; it's way easier to sell someone something the second time than the first time. But the problem is that we all get our high off of getting new customers so that's what we always focus on is those angles. But what really brings the profitability to e-commerce is nurturing the existing customer. Joe: Lifetime value of a customer. Mike: Yeah. Joe: Repeat customer acquisition all that good stuff. So Klaviyo is the software of choice. Your emails separate yourself out from the mass emails that we get just by being as helpful as possible. So you don't wind up in the unsubscribe section and then combine and sync with Facebook which is great to go back out to those folks. On the emails themselves, how many are you sending on a day or week or things of that nature, and do you have any concerns about people opting out and do you make it easy enough for them to unsubscribe? Mike: Yeah. So we were sending millions of emails a month now literally; the number is actually crazy. We were just looking at our Klaviyo account the other day and it shows you the number of emails you've sent out. And in this particular account we're looking at it was actually just yesterday and it was 200,000 emails we had sent out and we were just like four days into the billing cycle. And I was like uh-oh like oh excuse me something might be wrong with … I think they were sending like … maybe people are getting two emails of the same thing or something. We kind of dug into it for a few minutes and realized just like the actual frequency, the number of emails we're sending is like in the millions a month now and it's actually accurate. And that's what we want to be happening it's just that we didn't quite have our … even have our heads around it. Joe: At the millions a month, how many is one individual getting? Mike: It really depends. It depends on how they came in to our system and what part of the sequences that they're in. There are some situations where someone might get an email from us literally every single day. So if they are coming in to one of this new lead magnet flows that we have which is basically I call this this the trifecta; this might be like a little bit of a version of what we're talking about today because we're talking about email but just as a real quick side note the trifecta to me as a marketer is getting them on a Facebook Messenger list, getting them Pixeled so I can also have their Pixel data, and getting their email address. So to me like- Joe: What's the Pixel part? Mike: So the Pixel part is just it when someone visits your website that's a piece of code that you have on your website that the Facebook Pixel or the Google Pixel and by having this script on your website you now know that someone has visited you and you know that they visit a particular pages or that they took particular actions. You don't know individually who they are like I don't know that Joe Valley visited my website today but I … you are in a bucket that I can say like I want to know all the people that did X, Y, and Z and you'll be in the bucket and I can then advertise to you in a particular way by being in that bucket. So what we do for Facebook campaigns or most of our campaigns is this whole … again the provide value first angle. So we'll offer people something for free whether it's free downloadable content, free drawings, a lead magnet whatever might be or offer them a free plus shipping off or maybe … so we start with these really compelling low friction offers and then send them to a Facebook Messenger flow. Which is basically are you definitely interested in this; yes or no. If they say yes we give them a link to a page and when they get to that page they're now Pixeled. So we have them on our Facebook Messenger list I can market to them that way. I have them Pixeled so I can remarket to them that way. And then that landing page will have a spot to give us their email address and I can market to them that way. And when they come through one of these flows for free downloads let's say we don't just give them all the free downloads in one day. We give them an email every single day for 30 to 45 days. It's actually a very long sequence where … so it's a 20 free download program or promotion I would say. And so we're giving them a download every other day and in between that we're giving them some other value. So and we tell them we're going to send you 20 free downloads, you're going to get one every other day. We don't tell them they are going to get another email every other day in between but they still open those as well. Joe: Yeah. Mike: And those other emails are still value, it's the how to blend or shade kind of emails or things like that, here are some stuff from our community and in it dispersed within there is here's a coupon for the book that you were just downloading these drawings from and things like that. So in that circumstance, their getting emailed incredibly frequently but the baseline minimum that people are getting email from our company is six times a month. That's the absolute minimum, someone, what would get. Joe: And that's fine. I've seen people … I've seen your presentation and I've heard people say man that's a lot of emails but if they don't want then they opt out. Mike: Yeah so- Joe: And your open rates- Mike: Exactly let me let me hit on that just real quick because it's a really important point. Again treating people like I'd like to be treated; I don't … if I don't want the email like I want to be able to number one at least [inaudible 00:22:39.8] easily unsubscribe so we make that easy for people. And I want them to be able to easily unsubscribe. What people … the shady email marketers don't get is you're actually hurting yourself more by trying to jam it down their throat because you want the open rates to be high. And Google and Hotmail and Yahoo all the different email platforms look at your stats of your open rates just like Google is looking at click to rates in inorganic search. And if your open rates are high, way higher than average; they're gonna say though this is content that people probably want we're going to put this in the main inbox. If you dip below a certain point you'll end up in the in the promotions tab, if you dip below even a certain point from that you'll end up in spam. And there's like no way to get yourself out of there. So we want to keep our open rates as high as possible probably for our own best interest right? So it's- Joe: Yeah. Mike: We make it easy to unsubscribe and if you don't open one of our emails for 13 weeks we unsubscribe you for yourself. So we figure after 13 weeks you know which is going to be probably something that range of 20 emails that we've sent out if you haven't opened one of those emails in that longer a time period you're probably just done with us and we'll just stop emailing you. And in that way … that's one of the reasons why our open rates continue to be as high as they are and we keep on adding our net gain every month is way higher than our unsubscribes or people we're removing. We've got something like 60,000 active emails on ColorIt where you know some people might look at that list and they would say it's 200,000 or something because we're not constantly scrubbing it. Our emails are active; these are 60,000 people that are actively open … we have 60,000 people that have opened at least one of our emails in the last quarter which is a much better stat in my mind than looking at the total number of people we've ever signed up. Joe: I totally agree. We're constantly asking that question in our client interviews and trying to drill down into the relative usefulness of those total emails. Yeah for those that are listening can you touch on, I mean it's probably overwhelming for both buyers and sellers that are listening in terms of if they've never done email marketing if they don't know how to do any Facebook marketing. I want to ask a question; let me first touch on the fact that for those that are not doing these now, for those that are getting revenue from one channel your business is going to be 20 to 30% less valuable than one from multiple channels and you also … and that's because of the risk. You're at a greater risk of a catastrophe if you're 100% Amazon business or 100% email marketing business, or 100% Facebook. You want to spread out and do all of them and have more sort of legs on the stool to balance out the business. Buyers will love that. They'll pay more for it. Mike: Yeah. Joe: And figure how to do it so what kind of training would you recommend for anybody looking to learn Klaviyo, anybody learning Facebook marketing? Mike: I mean we obviously do ourselves some I mean that's a kind of a loaded question but- Joe: It's funny, wasn't actually for people listening it wasn't a loaded question because I didn't know that. I know that you're doing … I know I've listened to EcomCrew you know I know Dave well, I know you well know and I love your Under the Hood sessions and I didn't really hear that you're actually doing the training sessions on Klaviyo and email marketing so let's … on Facebook so let's move to that. Let's talk- Mike: So we have a new thing called the EcomCrew Premium and what we were doing is like releasing a course every couple of months and charging 500 to 1,000 dollars per course depending on what the course was on. We did one on importing from China. Then we did another one on how to launch products on Amazon the white hat way without doing any black hat tactics. And as we kept on releasing courses we were getting emails of people just like this is getting expensive. It's like our core fans are like they're just buying everything we do, it was getting expensive and I also felt like starting to feel like a kind of a used car salesman in some respect because you're just constantly trying to sell them something different every couple of months. So we just said you know what like … because you know how Dave and I are like and we just we're not like that so- Joe: [inaudible 00:26:36.0] Mike: Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Joe: [inaudible 00:26:38.4] Mike: Okay well that makes more sense though he is Canadian so like by default he's just like already 40% nicer. Joe: It's it. Mike: Yes so we came up with this subscription model which is you just pay once a month, then you get access to everything that we've already done; everything that we're going to do in the future. And it includes webinars twice a month and the training we're about to release depending on this podcast will be released. The next one we're doing is on Facebook Messenger and we actually have a webinar later today as recording this on that topic as well. So we give those webinars to our EcomCrew Premium members as well. So we're constantly talking about this stuff and whatever's going on more current. The Klaviyo we don't actually have a course on yet I mean that was something that I learned on my own. I'm not really sure if there's one out there. We are going to be doing one on that but as a part of our subscription model, you also get access to us to ask questions so you can just email questions if you're having a hard time with Klaviyo as if for instance we would just help you with that as well. It's any type of e-commerce stuff we would help with. But Klaviyo is simple and it's complicated at the same time. Like I can understand why it would be overwhelming. I'm kind of a tech guy so I naturally kind of gravitate towards the stuff and figure it out. When I realize when it's complicated is when we hire a new employee and I had to explain to them how to do it and I see their eyes kind of glaze over. It's like I'm trying to explain the difference between a segment and a list or a flow and a campaign or how to synchronize something to Facebook and they're just like … you've been kind of giving that look and I … and then I understand that some things come harder to certain people. It'd be the same look I would give somebody if you asked me to do rock climbing or something. I'd be like yeah that's not going to happen. I'm not going to be able to do that. So yeah I don't know besides just Klaviyo's own website for that like what the best way to go about that is. Joe: So yeah you sell a very visual product you know with ColorIt and the tactical gear stuff you know common sense makes sense, between your connections with the EcomCrew and the Under the Hood Segments what's the strangest … I don't want to say, I don't want to call somebody's product or service strange but the thing that you would think would not necessarily work via email marketing that or Facebook that they get a shot and actually made a difference in their business. Mike: Yeah I mean let me start by saying give you like a whole another kind of answer to this real quick. What I always say when I when I speak at events or do these podcasts, whenever wherever I'm talking about and this comes up, one of the things that drives me crazy I mean you're in the same industry I'm in there is a lot of people out there that are like follow my secret 10 step plan, do these exact things and sprinkle this special dust in your business and you'll be a millionaire overnight. Those ads are on our Facebook feed like nonstop. We also go to events where some of these people speak and it drives me nuts. So I'm always cautious and tell people look like you have to use … you know your business better than anyone else and there's like all these variables that kind of go into it. You have a different margin than I might have or maybe there's a Facebook audience site that directly matches up with what you're doing. Maybe you have the ability to get user generated content really easily or you can make a lead magnet or a free plus shipping offer. If you have a lot of repeat business opportunity maybe you don't like I mean … so I try to talk about all these different types of businesses that we've been involved in and how we've approached it. And the thing that's cool about us now is we have four brands. We're doing things in coloring and hot and cold therapy we have a baby brand and we have a tactical brand. I'm gonna start talking a lot more about like our different approach for each brand but what your … the question you're asking is and I think that the answer to it really is that every business is unique. You have to follow maybe a basic outline of what people … like I'm doing with email marketing, here is like the different approaches we've taken with our different niches but you know it's hard to just say like do these exact 10 things. I mean there's a couple of things you want to do by default with email. You want to definitely have like an abandoned card sequence; that applies to everybody. You want to have a win back campaign; that applies to everybody. But what doesn't apply to everybody is 20 free downloadable coloring pages. That doesn't make sense for anybody else except for us. Joe: Right. Mike: Or like here's how to prepare for an emergency that probably doesn't apply to most businesses. You have to think out of the box and more importantly than anything is try a bunch of different concepts and don't be afraid to fail. This is where I think people get hung up like the human nature which I'm different in this regard for whatever reason. I'm wired differently. I just don't care about embarrassing myself or doing something that doesn't work. So you know I'll try 10 or 20 different things until I find the one that resonates and gives some traction where you know somebody else might try something once or twice and just give up. You have to keep on trying different concepts until you find the one that really seems to resonate and then with something in the world of Facebook when you find the thing that resonates or in email marketing it really seems to work. You'll get stats that are completely different than what you've done to that point. I mean 10 times better, 20 times better and you'll kind of hit that thing that kind of … that really works and I'm hoping that kind of answers the question. I mean I'm always reluctant to talk about other people's business specifically that we've run into at EcomCrew because I'm always pretty protective of the things that they're doing. Joe: Yeah. Mike: I never want to break anyone's confidence but I think that that is probably the best approach. And one last thing that I'll mention is when we got started in e-commerce with treadmill.com and I always talk about this. So it's like that's the most different thing that we've done compared to the other things that we're doing now. The approach there would be way different than selling something like a coloring book because you're only going to sell someone one treadmill. You've got no chance at a second sale. In fact, you just hope that they don't return it because it turns out to be like the most expensive clothes rack they ever bought right? Joe: Exactly. That's right. Mike: So I mean you have to take a different approach with that. And it's a much longer term sale cycle that you're not going to spontaneously sell somebody a 2,000 dollar treadmill. This is sort of like well long thought out, multi-year struggle with weight or whatever it might be that drives them to buying this treadmill, much different way to approach it so you've got to take a different approach there than selling somebody a sort of coloring pens or something. Because like yeah you can put an ad up, they're 30 bucks. Someone won't think twice about buying that and it can be a very spontaneous purchase versus the other way around. So you got the like … it's kind of like what you do, I mean people … like it's a very long sell cycle when you are trying to get someone to sell their business or purchase a business. That doesn't spontaneously just happen. So you're having to take a different approach with your email and your marketing than someone else that's actually selling widgets that are something that people just want to buy like that so- Joe: And it's interesting; it's the exact same approach you take in email marketing which is help as many people as you can. Be [inaudible 00:33:45.2] as you can and it generally is it's the right way to do it number one. But it generally works. You build relationships with either customers or clients like you sell from whatnot that they come around and work well. Mike: [inaudible 00:33:57.3] that works pretty well in life too by the way. Joe: That is [inaudible 00:34:00.6] life lessons from Mike Jackness. Mike: Yeah. Joe: We're running short on time but I want to talk about just EcomCrew briefly. I want people to now how to listen in because if you're in the e-commerce world you got to listen to Mike and Dave on EcomCrew because all they do is help people. Talk about that for just a minute; when did you start it, how do they download, listen to it, that kind of thing. Mike: We started it I guess it's been three years ago, three or four years ago. It's kind of hard to … I lose track of time. And we're out at Episode 150 something on the podcast as of recording this. My favorite episode we ever did was Episode 88 though, which was the Joe Valley EcomCrew podcast so- Joe: [inaudible 00:34:37.6] we talked today. Mike: I did. I just I was just looking on this great. But it's been a weekly podcast and we've now gone to twice a week. So twice a week we are talking about e-commerce stuff because between Dave and I we have plenty of things to talk about. We might even go to three times a week I just don't know if I have the time to do it. But as you're growing a business with the speed that we are there's plenty of talk about and I love talking about it because it produces a lot of cool stuff. I mean like I said it helps me meet people like you know but it also … it's really embarrassing to have to get on a podcast and start like you were … because I talk about my goals and the things that we're like looking to do. When you have to get on the podcast and say like I didn't get this done it's like there's nothing better than peer review and peer pressure. So I keep on pushing it till I get stuff done. So it's been very helpful for me as well. So yeah there's the podcast component so on iTunes E-C-O-M-C-R-E-W but we also have a blog which Dave does almost all of that content, EcomCrew.com all of that stuff is free. We even have actually a free … three free courses under the My Ecom Career Area none of that requires giving us a penny. It's just kind of us giving back. And you know I hope our long term strategy just like you is if we help people in they get an affinity towards the things that we're telling them and teaching that eventually they would want to become a premium member. But even if they don't like you were pretty financially secure and happy with what we're doing and all the other stuff is free. So definitely come check us out. Joe: It's awesome. Thanks Mike. I appreciate it. Anybody listening I would highly highly recommend you go to EcomCrew and check it out, download, listen to the podcast; definitely Episode number 88. Mike: Best episode ever. Joe: Ever. Mike: It actually was one of our best or highly rated episodes. And people are always interested in buying and selling their business. I mean it's something you should always be thinking about it's just I think people often wait too long to be thinking about these things and- Joe: Nine times out of 10. Mike: Yeah. Joe: Planning in advance should be probably number five. Mark doesn't like it but plan in advance you're going to understand the valuations and you do things like we talked about today which is [inaudible 00:36:41.1] email marketing and you'll [inaudible 00:36:43.6] business and get high value profit so [inaudible 00:36:46.6]. I appreciate your time today Mike I know you're a busy guy. Mike: No problem, thanks. Links: Ecomcrew.com EcomCrew Premium Episode 88 Klaviyo.com Klaviyo Facebook Snyc

1:15- Dont'a Hightower free agent future  8:29- DL draft talk grades 15:01- Mike Nice Grades and depth breakdown

1:00-Harris' prediction 10:18-Tyler's prediction 21:10-Marv's prediction 30:30- Mike Alongi's prediction 42:28- Mike Nice prediction

Donald Trump was just elected the 45th President of the United States on the heels of endorsements from Tom Brady and Coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots.  The CLNS Radio Patriots Post-Game crew of DJ Meze and Mike Nice have immediate reaction from this stunning news on this bonus edition of Patriots Beat.

When technology doesn’t work when it should, is it a tech fail? Or perhaps because humans are creating the technology, fails should be more accurately called a human fail? In this episode, we discuss various types of “fails”, including the latest popular Pokémon Go, why we can’t vote online and the biggest fail of all, a data breach. Pokémon Go full access, tech fail or win Is it possible to delete an entire company with one line of code? Why can’t we vote online? Should one person be blamed for a tech fail? Technologies that can predict your next security fail Parting Gifts Pokémon Go full access: tech fail or win? Cindy: This week, I’m calling our show #techfails. But in preparing for this show and thinking deeply about our fails, I just want to echo what Kilian has been voicing these past couple of episodes, that when our technology fails; like for an instance, if my Skype for business isn’t working, then my first thought is, “Oh, it’s a tech fail. I can’t believe it’s not working.” But we’re the one creating the technology. So, for me, it feels, at the end of the day, a human fail. Let’s discuss this and debate it for a bit. To set the context, there was an article in the Harvard Business Review, and eventually turned into a LinkedIn post too. It’s titled “ A New Way for Entrepreneurs to Think About IT.” It said that IT’s primarily known as a necessary evil, IT support or IT as a product. With many different types of technologies at our fingertips, we can really do a blend of both. For instance, APIs have really changed how firms interact and share information with each other. And we really take this for granted these days, because back then you’d have to get permission from legal to sign contracts before experimenting with partnerships. Now you can easily partner up with another service within API or use OAuth . It’s really increased our productivity, but it can also have some potential problems if we’re not careful. For instance, if you downloaded Pokémon Go earlier this week, you might have been given Google full access. That meant that the Pokémon people could read all your emails and send out emails for you. But since then they fixed it. I think, Kilian, they fixed it pretty quick. Kilian: Yeah, in about, I think, 24 hours, more or less, they had a patch out that it addressed it already. I think, as opposed to a technology fail, that might be a technology win, for a company really taking these concerns seriously and addressing it as soon as it’s kind of brought up. Mike: Before we get into that, I just want to know, what’s your guys’ level? How you been doing on Pokémon Go? Have you been getting out there, doing your Pokémon? Cindy: I’ve been…I actually downloaded it at the office. And I could have thrown something at somebody, but I didn’t. I’m like, “Well, I’m just doing this for work, so better not start running after people and throwing stuff at them.” Mike: You couldn’t convince the rest of the office that playing Pokémon Go was part of your job? Cindy: Actually, we had a mobile photography class earlier this week, and Michelle, our HR person, was walking around telling people that Pokémon’s gonna be there. She was doing that for me. Mike: Nice. How about you, Kilian, have you tried it? Kilian: No, I haven’t downloaded it. That would require going outside and interacting with things, maybe. Mike: The first couple ones show up right around you. And I think this is kind of where I was going with this, which is that a lot of this…in terms of tech fails, this is really about managing complexity. In terms of IT, trying to manage these external services, it’s about managing complexity on an organizational level instead of a personal one. Because when you think about what is involved for this stupid game of Pokémon Go, you’re talking about interacting with geosynchronous orbital satellites for GPS, the internet to get all these apps, these multiple different services. And to pull all that together requires this huge thing. The security issue came about because Google was asking for OAuth access, and that’s just when you use Google to log into it. You log in with your account and it has these things. And it’s so complex because even though it doesn’t look like it, it actually uses Google Maps data underneath. A trick you can do, is if you have Google Maps installed on your iPhone, you can enable offline map access. And in order to achieve the app to app communication on your sandbox apps on the iPhone, it needs all these extra permissions, and it’s just insane trying to make that work. It’s so easy when you’re building something to just like, just give me all the permissions, and we’ll slowly back it down until where it’s supposed to be. Cindy: Do you think this is kind of like, “okay, we’re gonna use external service, and then just not really look at the settings because we’re so focused on making Pokémon Go just a wonderful experience?” Mike: Well, that’s the consumer side. The level we work at, people try to look at something like Amazon web services, which this article mentions. It is fantastically complex. It’s something like 60 different individual services that do individual things and also overlap with other ones where like, oh, there’s like six different ways to send an email with AWS. There’s 20 different ways to put a message in a queue to be picked up by something else. Just trying to wrap your head around like, what actually is it doing, is just insane. And it’s possible to do the stuff. I think it’s just a really hard equation of, “Do we bring this in-house and have a dedicated person for it? Is that more or less of a threat than having this outside?” Something I see a lot of is…coming more from the app side of things is, people swearing up and down that, “I’m gonna get on a virtual private server somewhere for ten bucks a month, put my own version of Ubuntu on it and keep it up to date.” And it’s really hard to imagine that that is as secure as having a dedicated security team at AWS or Heroku or one of the other Azure platforms as a service. It’s that same scenario, sort of, at the organizational level, that either it’s a tremendous amount of effort to maintain and secure all those things yourself, or you’re essentially paying for that in your service contract. Cindy: I think those are all really good questions to ask, and it requires a huge team. Is it possible to delete an entire company with one line of code? Cindy: I kind of want to transition into another fail that’s different than asking good questions and figuring out the architecture. The next fail is a fail on many different levels. It would be interesting for us to discuss. Back in April, there was an article published and shared over 65,000 times when a small hosting company with a little over 1,500 users said that he deleted their customer’s hosted data with a single command. Then later we found out that he was just trying to market his new Linux service for his company. And then people were outraged, “He didn’t do a better job backing up,” they were outraged that he lied to server fault, like a community that really helps one another figure stuff out. It’s security, and backing up, and just technology, it’s complicated. I was a little skeptical reading the article with the headline that said “One Person Accidentally Deletes His Entire Company With One Line of Bad Code.” As you’re responsible for hosting data, you should have multiple backups. One of my favorite comments is, how do you even accidentally type that you accidentally deleted stuff? What are your thoughts and reactions to this article? Mike: Kilian, you want to go? I have my own thoughts. Kilian: Sure. First off, that’s a terrible job of advertising. I don’t know what he’s advertising for. Like, “Host with us and I might break your stuff.” I think the point he was probably going for is that it’s easy to make mistakes, so get a dedicated person that knows better. But I don’t think that really came across. For the actual command itself, a lot of people are in such a hurry to automate and make things easier that it is easy to make mistakes, especially as Mike mentioned earlier, with these vastly complicated systems with dozens of ways to do the same thing. The more the complex the system gets, the easier it is to make a mistake. Maybe it could be that disastrous. But a lot of things really have to go wrong, and kind of poor decisions made throughout the chain. But it’s conceivable that someone could have done that. Mike: Specifically, to the question that’s asked on server fault, which is like a question and answer side for these issues. There’s a lot of utilities that can either take a single or multiple different directories as arguments. So you say, “Hey, copy these two things,” or “Copy this one thing.” And so, in this, the person, they put a space so they have like: /pathfolder /. And so, that last slash got interpreted as the root of the volume they were on. And so, hey, we just destroyed everything, and everything includes all your keys and stuff. Something we talk a lot about in here is layered security, but you need layered backups and recovery as well. That was really the answer to this, is that they were on a virtual private server. In addition to just backing up the local data, their database, the files on it, it takes system images of your entire VPS and keeps it somewhere else. I am incredibly paranoid with backups, especially backups of systems like this. So I always try to even just get it out of the system that…if it’s on…in this case, it was Hetzner, which is a European hosting system, that you get that out onto S3 or you get it out on to Rackspace cloud or something else, just to try to make that a better scenario. Kilian: That’s a great point, is having multiple different…you can’t have one single point of failure in a system like this. Otherwise, you could be very vulnerable. Even for myself when I, for example, backup pictures off of my camera, I have to go to my laptop, I have to go to a network share, and then I have a separate hard drive that I plug in just for that, and then unplug and put it away afterwards. So I have three different places for it. Not that they’re that valuable like a hosting system, but silly things happen sometimes. You know, if I lose power or power surge, I lose two of my systems for some reason, I still have that hard drive that’s sitting in a drawer. Mike: I have a lot of discussions with people where they have backups and this very elaborate system. They’re like, “All right, I have my local network attach storage here, then I got this ‘nother server, and then I rotate them and do all this stuff.” That’s awesome until their house catches on fire and they lose everything. And that’s the stuff you have to think about. It’s like these things come in in weird ways, especially everything is so interconnected and everything is so dependent upon each other that you can just have these weird cascading levels of failure. And from very crazy sources of stuff. Like, DNS goes like a DNS server gets a DDoS attack. And then that actually ends up taking down like a third of the internet just because everything is so connected.  Why can’t we vote online? Cindy: Our next fail…I want to know if you guys think that our inability to vote online is a human fail or a tech fail. What do you guys think? Or any opinion, really. Mike: It’s all in the execution, like all this stuff. That if there was a verifiable, cryptographically secure way of knowing that you could vote, that would be a very positive thing, potentially. It’s a really interesting mix of software and technological concerns, and people, and sociological and political concerns. What I just said about having almost a voting receipt that says, “Great, you used your key to sign, and you have definitely voted for this person and done this thing.” One of the reasons that’s never been done, even on most paper stuff, is that that was a huge source of fraud that in like the olden days, when they had voting receipts, you would go and turn them into your councilman and they would be like, “Great, here’s your five bucks for voting for me in this election.” So that’s just something that’s not done. That’s not a technical issue. It’s certainly possible to do those things, but it leads to all these other unforeseen, I don’t know if you’ve heard of the cobra effect kind of things, these horrible unintended consequences. Cindy: I think this article on why we still can’t vote online was just very thoughtfully written. It talked about how it can potentially destabilize a country’s government and leadership if they don’t get voting online right. It was really just like, wow, I can’t believe a researcher at The Lawrence Livermore National Lab said, “We do not know how to build an internet voting system that has all the security, and privacy, and transparency and verifiable properties that a national security application like voting has to have.” And they’re worried about malware, they’re worried about ransomware, they’re worried about being able to go in and track, do a complete security audit. They said something interesting too about how, in the finance system, sure, you have sensitive data, and you can go back and track where the money went more or less, if you have these systems in place. But you might not necessarily be able to do that with voting, and someone can say, “I voted for so and so,” and then change it to somebody else, and they can’t go back and verify that. There are so many elements that you need to consider. It’s not just Pokémon, or you’re not trying to create a wonderful gaming experience, or you’re not trying to back things up. They’re a multitude of things you need to take in to consider. Kilian: The one big thing, and I think the heart of it, was the need for anonymity in the voting process. That’s kind of the way it was set up to avoid coercion and some other problems with it, is you need to be anonymous when you cast that vote. By putting it online, the real down side is… Like, if you think about online banking, it’s important to know and verify that you are who you say you are, and have a transaction of that entire process so you can ensure…it’s kind of both parties know that the money transfer from X to Y or so on and so forth. And you have the track of the steps. But when you try and introduce anonymity into that equation, it completely falls apart. Because if you have that tracking data going back to somebody casting a vote, then they could be a target of coercion or something like that. Or if the opposition party finds out, they could go after them for not voting for whoever. Cindy: Yeah, they did that with Nelson Mandela. Kilian: Yep. And then the other thing too is, as a person casting a vote, if you think about it, you’re kind of trusting the system. It’s completely blackboxed you at that point. So when you click the button and say, “I vote for candidate XYZ,” you have no idea, because, again, you want to be anonymous. You don’t have that verification of the system that says, “Hey, my vote wasn’t changed to candidate ABC in the process.” You kind of have to go along with it. Even if you look back at some of the physical problems with the George W. Bush election with the ballots not lining up right with the little punches. It was punching for… I forget what the other candidate’s name was. Cindy: Al Gore? Kilian: No, no, no. It was like Paton Cannon or somebody. Whoever the third party candidate was. But they were saying, “No, no, I voted for Al Gore…” whoever, but it registered somebody else. They had to go back and manually look at that, and look at the physical paper to see that to validate that. But if you think in a digital system, if you click the button, you have no way to audit that really. Because if the system says, “No, you’ve voted for this guy,” you have no proof, you have no additional evidence to back that up, and that’s the big problem. Cindy: They actually showed this in “The Good Wife,” the TV show that is no longer around, or they just ended. The voters would go in and they would vote for someone, but then it would also give the other person five additional more votes. I think another thing to…they didn’t mention it, but I think politicians or just that kind of industry are kind of a tad bit slower in the technology side. Because Barack Obama’s campaign really set the tone for using technology and using social media to kind of engage the voters. It’s kind of like he really changed how now politicians are marketing and connecting with people. I don’t know, do you feel like they’re kind of behind? Or maybe that’s just me? Kilian: My personal opinion is, we have laws that don’t make sense with where technology’s at, because they are slow. We’re still running on laws, and been prosecuting cases with laws that were made in the ’80s and early ’90s, and even older in some cases, where technology was vastly different than what we have today. This might be off topic, but there was just, I think, a ruling that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act could theoretically mean that if you share your Netflix password, it’s a federal crime. Now, that’s open to interpretation, but that was a story I had seen the other day. We have all this technology and it’s evolving much, much faster than the people making the regulations can kind of keep up with it. Mike: I just want to see a Poke stop at every voting registration. Cindy: Mike has Pokémon on his mind. Kilian: It’s great, it’s good fun. Cindy: Now I have Pokémon…I actually visualized us playing Pokémon at a voting station. That would be interesting. It’s too hot and humid in New York to do that. Kilian: Vote to vote or play Pokémon. Cindy: I almost want to say Poke because it’s so hot. Kilian: Well, to the candidates out there, the first one to get on top of this making a Poke stop at the voting booths in November might seize the election with the youth vote. Mike: A Pokémon at every pot. Should One Person Be Blamed For A Tech Fail? Cindy: Let’s also kind of think about potential fails, though. We’ve seen Target, Sony, the data breaches. And so, when fails happen that costs them their jobs, do you think one person should be blamed for all of it or can we also kind of say, “We don’t have the technology right yet”? Mike: It’s interesting. What we’re talking about is, there have been a lot of very large data breaches. And what seems to happen is, it happens and then depending upon how much press it gets, the CEO has to resign or doesn’t. Or in the case of the OPM, the director. The parallel that I like to think of is Sarbanes Oxley, which has had a lot of other consequences. But the big one was that the chief executive has to sign off on the financials of the company. Before, it was always there were a lot of scandals where it was like, “I’m just running the company. My CFO and the accounting group, they were doing their own thing with the funds. And I wasn’t aware that this…” Then we said this like 10,000 pounds of coconuts we had on the dock, they were rotten were actually good. We counted those in the asset, all of those kind of shenanigans. And just that thought that, okay, the finances and the statements that are put out, that is an executive level sign off, that there’s a responsibility at that level to ensure that those are correct. What we’re seeing is sort of that happening on the IT security side. That maintaining integrity of your customer’s data, of the people you’re responsible for, that is something that the executives need to say is a priority, and to ensure that in any way they can. That if they aren’t doing that, that’s their job, that they failed at their job. Now, looking through these kind of stories, you typically find that the person in charge is not a network security person, because there’s not a lot of people that get their CISSP and then say, “I’m qualified to be CEO.” That’s just not how the normal job progression works. But they need to have people in place, and they need to make sure that the right things are happening, despite not having the personal expertise to implement those but that they make it a priority and they give budget, and they’re able to balance it against the other needs of the company. Technologies that can predict your next security fail Cindy: In order to come back from a security or technology fail…there was an article about “There’s new technology that can predict your next security fail.” They are essentially talking about predictive analytics. I really like a quote that they wrote that, “It’s only as good as the forethought you put into it, and the questions that you ask of it.” If you don’t think about it, if you don’t have a whole team to work on this huge security and technology problem…because there’s only so much you can…in terms of big data, machine learning, predictive analytics, there’s a lot of stuff, a lot of elements that you’re unable to kind of account for. So if you don’t consider all the different elements in security, you can’t build that into the technology that we build. What are some other things you think that can help companies prevent or come back from a tech fail or a security fail or a human fail? Kilian: The only thing I could get in my mind there was asking the right questions. For me is from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. If you ask it, what’s the meaning of life, the universe and everything, it’s gonna give an answer. But what’s the question you’re really trying to get out of it? That’s all I can think of in my head. I think that’s one thing people get stuck in a lot of times, is asking the wrong questions that they need from their data. I’m sorry, Mike, I cut you off there. You were gonna say something. Mike: I’m in agreement with you, Kilian, because I think too often the question posed is, “Are we secure?” There’s no crisp answer to that. It’s never gonna be yes, we’re 100% good, because the only way to do that is not to have any data, and not to have any interactions with customers. If that’s the case, then you don’t have a business. So you have to have something. You still have to have people interacting, and the moment you have two people interacting, you’re vulnerable at some level. They can be tricked, they could do anything. And then you have networks, and the networks are talking. So it’s much more about, what is the level of risk that you find acceptable? What steps can you take towards mitigating known dangers? How much effort and time and money can you put behind those efforts? There’s no quick fix. Something we talk about a lot on this is that data is, in a lot of ways, like a toxic asset. It’s something that you need to think about like, “Oh, we have all this extra data. Well, let’s try and get rid of some of it. Just so we don’t have it around to cause us a problem, just so we don’t have it around to be leaked in some way.” There’s lots of different ways to do that and lots of benefits of doing so. Parting Gift Cindy: Now in the parting gift segment of our show, where we share things we’re working on, or something we found online that we think our viewers and listeners would appreciate. I just read that Chrysler, the car brand, is offering a bug bounty between $150 to $1,500 for finding bugs. But you can’t make it public. And also, I just updated top InfoSec people to follow. I included a whole bunch of other women that were missed. So check that out at blog.varonis.com. Mike: Who’s the one person you think we should follow that we weren’t before? Cindy: I definitely think we should be all following Runa Sandvik. She’s the new InfoSec security person. She writes about the Info security at the New York Times. She also worked on Tor, and she did this really cool rifle hack. And she wrote about that. Or someone wrote about her hack on Wired. Any parting gifts, Mike? Mike: I was gonna recommend Qualys’ SSL lab server test. If you’re unaware of what it is, you can put it in your website and it will run through all the different ways in which you’ve screwed up setting it up properly to be secure. It gives you a nice letter grade. So, a couple interesting things about this. One: It’s really hard to make one of these yourself, because to do so, you have to maintain a system that has all of the old, bad libraries on it for connecting on SSL1 and 2 and 3 that are deprecated. Just so you can make the connections and say, like, “Yes, this remote system also connects with this.” So it’s not something you want to do, and it’s not something you can do trivially. So it’s great that this is an online service. And then two: I think it’s really interesting how…they essentially just made up these letter grades for what they consider as an A, A+, B. But in doing so, they were able to really improve the security of everyone. Because it’s one thing to say, “Okay, out of 200 possible things we comply with, 197 of them.” It’s a different thing to know, “Okay, we got a failing grade because one of those three things we didn’t do was actually really, really bad and exploitable.” And to be able to compare that across sites, I think, just has a lot of incentives to make everyone improve their site. Like, “Oh, gosh, this other site is a better grade than us. We should definitely improve things.” So for those reasons, I think it’s a really great part of the security ecosystem and a great tool for all of that. Cindy: Kilian, do you have a parting gift? Kilian: I was reading an article the other day, it was pretty interesting how we all come to rely on our phones and our digital assistance, like Siri or Google Now, to make our lives easier to interact with a device. Some researchers started thinking that, “Hey, this is a good avenue for exploitation.” They started kind of distorting voice commands so they can embed it in other things, to get your phone to do stuff on your behalf. So, it’s just an interesting thing to keep aware of and how you’re using your digital assistance, because other people could start to exploit it by issuing voice commands to it to maybe direct you to a malicious site or something. It’s one more thing to kind of keep in the back of your mind.   Subscribe Now Join us Thursdays at 1:30ET for the Live show on Youtube, or use one of the links below to add us to your favorite podcasting app. iTunes Android RSS The post TechFails – IOSS 15 appeared first on Varonis Blog.

They are Nikki Hernandez (aka DJ Nikita) and JT Williams (aka DJ Tweezy) of Central Florida, USA. Together they form Phat Kidz and they're this week's specials guest on The Armory Podcast. Press play. Get down. For the complete track listing for this mix visit: http://djzachmoore.com/podcast/the-armory-podcast-068/ In April of 2013 the duo (Nikita & Tweezy) formed their group, now known as “Phat Kidz“. Hailing from the Breaks State of Florida & with 12 years under their belt, these two are a force to be reckoned with.  Their signature sound of Phat basslines, 808 drums, glitchy vocals & synthlines have made heads turn.In just under one year they released close to 30 edits/rubs, gaining them much attention on Soundcloud. In 2014 they released chart topping tracks on Beatport under Breaks R Boss, Gigabeat, Stars & Knights out of Spain, Dog Eat Dog Records, and Ravesta Records. Their tracks have been played in numerous venues Worldwide, mixsets & podcasts by some very notable artists such as The Crystal Method & LO Iq? Phat Kidz have had the honor of sharing the stage with the Freestylers, Dj Icey, Dj Magic Mike, Stanton Warriors, Shortee & Faust of Urban Assault, Aphrodite, Mike Nice of Mike & Charlie, KMFX, & Tony Faline, just to name a few.  In 2013 and 2014 Phat Kidz took the stage playing massive breakbeat events such as Future Sound of Breaks “Leaders Of The True School“, WMC Massive “Bring On The Beats”, FSOB Miami playing for Future Sound Of Breaks All Stars.  In March 2014 they were also invited to play in New Orleans for “Fat Tuesday”, also known as “Mardi Gras“. Be sure to keep up and follow the Phat Kidz on Beatport, iTunes, Spotify, Juno Records, Soundcloud, Facebook and YouTube today so you don't miss out on what is coming up next…This is just the beginning! Connect with Phat Kidz here: https://www.facebook.com/PhatKidzFl http://www.beatport.com/artist/phat-kidz/397237 http://earthdanceflorida.org/nikita-tweezy/ https://soundcloud.com/phatkidznikita http://facebook.com/djnikitafl http://facebook.com/officialtweezy Artwork by www.jempanufnik.com