Podcast appearances and mentions of mike thomas

A special week of video features kicks on on The EP Podcast. (For the audio version of this podcast, check your subscription feed.) Dr. Mike Thomas is a Science and Physical Education Department Chair and Instructional Coach at Evergreen Park Community High School. He is also a District 124 School Board member. We have so much to ask him about the end of the school year at EPCHS and his unique educational perspective. We also want to hear about the boat races.   Brought to you by The First National Bank of Evergreen Park!  Find the account that is right for you today! Get the latest news and information concerning everything going on in and around Evergreen Park and stay connected to your neighbors! Evergreen Park residents join Chris Lanuti at his 9-foot homemade basement bar each week. Listen, interact & get all of your free subscription options at theEPpodcast.com​!

A special week of video features kicks on on The EP Podcast. (For the video version of this podcast, check your subscription feed.) Dr. Mike Thomas is a Science and Physical Education Department Chair and Instructional Coach at Evergreen Park Community High School. He is also a District 124 School Board member. We have so much to ask him about the end of the school year at EPCHS and his unique educational perspective. We also want to hear about the boat races.   Brought to you by The First National Bank of Evergreen Park!  Find the account that is right for you today! Get the latest news and information concerning everything going on in and around Evergreen Park and stay connected to your neighbors! Evergreen Park residents join Chris Lanuti at his 9-foot homemade basement bar each week. Listen, interact & get all of your free subscription options at theEPpodcast.com​!

In this episode of R Weekly Highlights: We have a six-month follow-up perspective from an early Positron user, how the current landscape of AI tools perform when learning the ropes with the Tidyverse, and how you can create your first Observable plot while using R for data munging.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Jon Carroll - @jonocarroll@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @jonocarroll.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy (Bluesky) & @carroll_jono (X/Twitter)Positron: current joys and painsLearning the tidyverse with the help of AI toolsObservable for R usersEntire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W15Supplement ResourcesPositron +1e https://open-vsx.org/extension/grrrck/positron-plus-1-eVanishing Gradients episode 47 (The Great Pacific Garbage Patch of Code Slop with Joe Reis) https://vanishinggradients.fireside.fm/47Observable color palette viewer https://observablehq.com/plot/features/scales#color-scalesObservable Plots (R/Pharma 2024 Workshop Series) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6fP68XnacMSupporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixSunny Side Up - Yoshi's Island DS - ZackParrish - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04558Costa Del Sol DANCE - Final Fantasy VII - Posu Yan - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00095

In his long career, magazine writer and biographer Bill Zehme had one white whale: the enigmatic TV giant Johnny Carson, whom Zehme called "The Great American Sphinx." In 2002, Zehme landed one of the most coveted assignments for a magazine writer: an interview with Johnny Carson-the only one he'd granted since retiring from hosting "The Tonight Show" a decade earlier. Zehme, who had been a diehard Carson fan since childhood, was tapped for the Esquire feature story thanks to his years of legendary celebrity profiles that included several high-profile show hosts-the resulting piece portrayed Carson as more human being than showbiz legend. Shortly after Carson's death in 2005 and urged on by many of those closest to Carson, Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography. He toiled on the book for nearly a decade-interviewing dozens of Carson's colleagues and friends and filling up a storage locker with his voluminous research-before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. When he died in 2023 his obituaries mentioned the Carson book, with New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman calling it "one of the great unfinished biographies." Yet the hundreds of pages Zehme managed to complete are astounding both for the caliber of their writing and how they illuminate one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history: A man who brought so much joy and laughter to so many millions but was himself exceedingly shy and private. In CARSON THE MAGNIFICENT (Simon & Schuster; hardcover; on sale 11/05/2024), Zehme traces Carson's rise from a magic-obsessed Nebraska boy to a Navy ensign in World War II to a burgeoning radio and TV personality to, eventually, host of "The Tonight Show"-which he transformed, along with the entirety of American popular culture, over the next three decades. On a much more intimate level, Zehme also chronicles the turmoil and anguish that accompanied the success: four marriages plagued by infidelity and turmoil, troubles with alcohol that spurred physical and psychological cruelties, an emotional guardedness that was rooted in the criticisms of his hard-to-please mother, the struggles to connect with his children, and the devastation he felt at the loss of his middle son, Ricky, who died at age 39 when his car plunged off an embankment along the California coast. In one passage, Zehme notes that when asked by an interviewer in the mid-80s for the secret to his success, Carson replied simply, "Be yourself and tell the truth." Completed with help from journalist and Zehme's former research assistant Mike Thomas, CARSON THE MAGNIFICENT offers just that: an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was, told in parts with Zehme's trademark stylistic flourishes and astute insights. Zehme had an uncanny ability to capture his subject's essence, no matter how elusive or famous they were. This book, arguably the apex of his esteemed career, is the shining example of what Zehme did best, and readers will come away with a richer understanding of an American icon.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

By some minor miracle (even on April Fools) the R Weekly Highlights podcast has made it to episode 200! We go "virtual" shopping for LLM-powered text analysis and prediction using the mall package, and how recent advancements in the grid and ggplot2 packages empower you to make use of highly-customized gradients. Plus listener feedback!Episode LinksThis week's curator: Jon Calder - @jonmcalder@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter)Text Summarization, Translation, and Classification using LLMs: mall does it allThe guide to gradients in R and ggplot2Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W14Supplement ResourcesMall: Run multiple LLM predictions against a data frame with R and Python https://mlverse.github.io/mall/Announcing rixpress https://brodrigues.co/posts/2025-03-20-announcing_rixpress.htmlHack your way to scientific glory https://stats.andrewheiss.com/hack-your-way/538Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/TwitterMike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixDark World Jazz - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Gux - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00156

Mike Thomas is co-author of the book about Johnny Carson called,  Carson the MagnificentMike talks:-How he took over the book after Bill Zehme passed away-Johnny was married four times-Carson and his drinking, what Johnny said to 60 Minutes "I found out I didn't drink well"-Smoking coming back from a commercial -What was his relationship like with Ed McMahon ... and so much more ...   To subscribe to The Pete McMurray Show Podcast just click here

Johnny Carson was the iconic host of The Tonight Show every evening. Scott Watson talks with Mike Thomas about the late-night host and the new book, which takes a closer look at the television icon. More at Hearingvoicesradio.com and WHTCSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In his long career, magazine writer and biographer Bill Zehme had one white whale: the enigmatic TV giant Johnny Carson, whom Zehme called "The Great American Sphinx." In 2002, Zehme landed one of the most coveted assignments for a magazine writer: an interview with Johnny Carson-the only one he'd granted since retiring from hosting "The Tonight Show" a decade earlier. Zehme, who had been a diehard Carson fan since childhood, was tapped for the Esquire feature story thanks to his years of legendary celebrity profiles that included several high-profile show hosts-the resulting piece portrayed Carson as more human being than showbiz legend. Shortly after Carson's death in 2005 and urged on by many of those closest to Carson, Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography. He toiled on the book for nearly a decade-interviewing dozens of Carson's colleagues and friends and filling up a storage locker with his voluminous research-before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. When he died in 2023 his obituaries mentioned the Carson book, with New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman calling it "one of the great unfinished biographies." Yet the hundreds of pages Zehme managed to complete are astounding both for the caliber of their writing and how they illuminate one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history: A man who brought so much joy and laughter to so many millions but was himself exceedingly shy and private. In CARSON THE MAGNIFICENT (Simon & Schuster; hardcover; on sale 11/05/2024), Zehme traces Carson's rise from a magic-obsessed Nebraska boy to a Navy ensign in World War II to a burgeoning radio and TV personality to, eventually, host of "The Tonight Show"-which he transformed, along with the entirety of American popular culture, over the next three decades. On a much more intimate level, Zehme also chronicles the turmoil and anguish that accompanied the success: four marriages plagued by infidelity and turmoil, troubles with alcohol that spurred physical and psychological cruelties, an emotional guardedness that was rooted in the criticisms of his hard-to-please mother, the struggles to connect with his children, and the devastation he felt at the loss of his middle son, Ricky, who died at age 39 when his car plunged off an embankment along the California coast. In one passage, Zehme notes that when asked by an interviewer in the mid-80s for the secret to his success, Carson replied simply, "Be yourself and tell the truth." Completed with help from journalist and Zehme's former research assistant Mike Thomas, CARSON THE MAGNIFICENT offers just that: an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was, told in parts with Zehme's trademark stylistic flourishes and astute insights. Zehme had an uncanny ability to capture his subject's essence, no matter how elusive or famous they were. This book, arguably the apex of his esteemed career, is the shining example of what Zehme did best, and readers will come away with a richer understanding of an American icon.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

Mike Thomas and Marlin Beitzel unpack last week's Fellowship Family meeting  as they give more details on the FBC staff transitions (specifically related to Mark Carey and the “preaching team”) along with answering questions that have been submitted by the congregation. Links:Leadership Visions FutureThe Role of Elders and DeaconsFellowship Family Podcast- March 18, 2022

Thriving in a multi-lingual data science lifestyle while authoring your next Quarto project, putting LLMs to the scientific test with parsing manuscripts, and replicating a life-saving spatial visualization originally created over 170 years ago!Episode LinksThis week's curator: Ryo Nakagawara - @R_by_Ryo@mstdn.social (Mastodon) & @rbyryo.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @R_by_Ryo) (X/Twitter)Creating multilingual documentation with QuartoThe ellmer package for using LLMs with R is a game changer for scientists{SnowData} 1.0.0: Historical Data from John Snow's 1854 Cholera Outbreak MapEntire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W12Supplement ResourcesWes McKinney & Hadley Wickham (on cross-language collaboration, Positron, career beginnings, & more) https://youtu.be/D-xmvFY_i7UTabby Quarto extension https://quarto.thecoatlessprofessor.com/tabby/Plotting the Past: The 1854 Cholera Outbreak Visualized in R https://simplifyingstats.wordpress.com/2025/01/18/plotting-the-past-the-1854-cholera-outbreak-visualised-in-r/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixLost in a Nightmare - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Palpable - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03001Cammy's London Drizzle - Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - MkVaff - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00453

Giving your package documentation site a little personality and much more with {pkgdown} customization, plus a novel new package to bring the power of LaTeX to all of your plots!Episode LinksThis week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter)Customize your expedition: Create a unique documentation for your R PackageLaTeX Typesetting in R: The 'xdvir' PackageEntire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W11Supplement Resources{xdvir} package vignette https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/xdvir/vignettes/xdvir-intro.htmltinytex- A lightweight, cross-platform, portable, and easy-to-maintain LaTeX distribution based on TeX Live https://yihui.org/tinytex/Adding arm64 to r2u https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2025/03/04#046_arm64_comes_to_r2uWebsite for tidyplots use cases https://tidyplots.org/use-cases/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixA View from the Top (of Shinra HQ) - Final Fantasy VII Remake - TheManPF, Andre Beller, jnWake, Kev Ragone, Michelle Dreyband, newmajoe, Ronin Op F - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04777

Mike Thomas of the Catholic Land Movement joins me to talk about Catholic Land Movement news. We also share about our apple orchards and cider.The purpose of the Catholic Land Movement is "a rural resettlement of Catholics onto productive property which they own".This is a network of Catholics supporting one another to help people start homesteads, and to help make homesteads and small farms thrive. They do this through helping folks find land, as well as skill swapping and workshops.The Catholic Land Movement is now up to 30+ chapters.Mike and his team visited Rome to discuss their mission and were able to meet with Pope Francis.Now is a 501c3 and you can donate to help the Catholic Land Movement.We also share about apple trees, progress in our orchards, my challenges with fire blight, and lambing season on the homestead.It has been so cold that his cider froze. How Mike will recover and try to to restart the fermentation.We also talk about Lent and Mike's recent tweet: "Time to use Lent to purify myself, to conquer my disorder and weakness. Time to build a foundation."Show notes for this episode: Ep. 156 - How the Catholic Land Movement is Empowering HomesteadingGrow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.Grow Nut Trees.comNEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.Thriving Food Forest Design:We can create an edible foodscape, an orchard, or perennial kitchen garden so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.Start your journey to Thriving with a free 30 min consult, a discovery call to learn your vision and goals for your land.

After our recent conversation with the author of the wonderful nine-book series The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls, Mike Thomas, and in line with our own Bestseller Lunch Plan at Brand Builders Group, we have laid out a four-step process that serves as a great longtail sales strategy. We begin with the importance of adequate market testing before exploring word of mouth, having a complete product, relying on a tunnel-vision marketing strategy, and the power of giving your product away to those in your target market. To end, we discuss the universal human condition of being willing to do more when our actions are incentivized.

Our candid takes on the state of CRAN's role in light of recent package archival events, how creative use of LLMs could greatly streamline your next literature review, and a few great illustrations of lazy being a good thing in your R session.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Eric Nantz - @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter)Is CRAN Holding R Back?How to use large language models to assist in systematic literature reviewsLazy introduction to laziness in REntire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W08Supplement ResourcesA guide to contributing to open-source Python packages https://arilamstein.com/blog/2025/01/02/a-guide-to-contributing-to-open-source-python-packages/Continue https://www.continue.dev/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixGurgling Desert Pond - Final Fantasy Random Encounter - blackguitar - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02555Hotel Rhumba - Earthbound - The Pancake Chef - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00526

In the ever-evolving world of prehospital care, understanding toxidromes and street drugs is essential for EMS providers. This dynamic course offers a comprehensive look into the effects, assessment, and trends of substance use from two distinct yet complementary perspectives.Join Dr. Ryan Stanton, a renowned emergency physician, as he dives into the physiological effects and clinical assessment of toxidromes. Learn how to identify and manage patients presenting with overdose or toxic exposures to ensure safe and effective care in the field.Then, gain real-world insights from Spokane Police Officer Mike Thomas, who brings years of law enforcement experience to the table. Officer Thomas will explore the latest trends in street drugs, including what's being seen on the streets today, how they're distributed, and the challenges they present to first responders.Support the showhttps://www.facebook.com/EMSconnectonline https://www.youtube.com/@EMSconnect

Today, we discover how to become a bestselling author by going all-in on one marketing strategy. We are joined by Mike Thomas, legendary author of The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls nine-book series – a time-traveling epic that helps kids explore the Bible and their faith. After explaining where the idea for his widely popular series came from, Mike describes how his novels began as a simple Word document printout and evolved into the complete work of art you see today and why he chose to go all-in on influencer marketing after his first book launch. We unpack strategies for getting your book into the hands of many readers as quickly as possible, the various book marketing options and their budget considerations, the power of word of mouth, and the importance of choosing your words very carefully when approaching potential marketing partners. To end, we get an overview of the expected timeline from publishing to marketing to your book becoming a bestseller, and Mike details the pros and cons of other marketing avenues like Facebook and Amazon Ads.

An illuminating set of tips for making the best out of the phrase "fifty shades of grey" in your next monochrome visualisation, how the unique formatting features of the Scotland census data were tamed with the power of R, and how the first-ever native mobile application powered by R has opened the doors wide open for innovation across many parts of data science.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Jon Carroll - @jonocarroll@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @jonocarroll.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy (Bluesky) & @carroll_jono (X/Twitter)Designing monochrome data visualisationsThe life changing magic of tidying text filesRlinguo — Why Did We Build It?Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W07Supplement ResourcesColorBrewer palettes https://colorbrewer2.orgJohn's GitHub repository for tidying census files https://github.com/johnmackintosh/tidy-scotland-censusIntroducing Rlinguo, a native mobile app that runs R https://rtask.thinkr.fr/introducing-rlinguo-a-native-mobile-app-that-runs-r/mirai v2.0 - Continuous Innovation https://shikokuchuo.net/posts/25-mirai-v2/Key considerations for retiring/superseding an R package https://epiverse-trace.github.io/posts/superseding-bpmodels/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music powered by OCRemixChillout - Mega Man 2 - sedure - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01175Black Genesis - Final Fantasy VI Balance & Ruin - Brandon Strader, Rexy - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02796

Context is king in a trifecta of R packages harnessing LLMs to be your virtual assistant in package development and data science, plus the world (of data) is at your fingertips for data exploration and sharing your insights using the innovative closeread Quarto extension.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Jonathan Kitt - @jonathankitt.bsky.social (Bluesky)Three experiments in LLM code assist with RStudio and PositronGapminder: how has the world changed?Downloading datasets from Our World in Data in REntire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W06Supplement ResourcesFrom hours to minutes: accelerating your tidymodels code https://youtu.be/pTMiDHFIiPQ?si=4qZC3_NLUVhD5hAaEffecient Machine Learning with R https://emlwr.org/Closeread: Bringing scrollytelling to Quarto https://youtu.be/KqLxy66B3lQ?si=w7DIB4QhYk2u6cLGCloseread Posit contest submissions https://forum.posit.co/tag/closeread-prize-2024Extract Information From Images and PDFs With R & LLMs https://3mw.albert-rapp.de/p/extract-information-from-images-and-pdfs-with-r-llmsusgs geological survey mapping water https://waterdata.usgs.gov/blog/acs-maps/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixCosta del Sol DANCE - Final Fantasy VII - posu yan - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00095Aerobotics - Mega Man 8 - Just Coffee - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03323

Mike Thomas, co-author with the late Bill Zehme of a new biography of Johnny Carson called Carson the Magnificent.

Ready to bring your next presentation slides to the world of Quarto? Our first highlight has a batch of power tips you can use for your next slide deck. Plus terrific insights from first-time contributors to open-source software.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Jon Calder - @jonmcalder@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter)Seven tips for creating Quarto revealjs presentationsFrom Novice to Contributor: Making and Supporting First-Time Contributions to FOSSEntire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W05Supplement ResourcesEmil Hvitfeldt's blog https://emilhvitfeldt.comGitHub Desktop https://github.com/apps/desktopGitKraken https://www.gitkraken.com/lazygit https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygitCoworking mini-hackathons https://ropensci.org/blog/2025/01/24/coworking-hackathons/ ShinyConf 2025 https://www.shinyconf.comPosit::Conf 2025 https://posit.co/conference/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music powered by OCRemixThe Narshemellow - Final Fantasy VI Balance & Ruin - XPRTNovice - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03141

Bringing a little tidy magic to creating flowcharts in R, how data.table is addressing recent shifts in R's C APIs, and another showcase of R's visualization prowess in the realm of brain imaging. Episode LinksThis week's curator: Ryo Nakagawara - @R_by_Ryo@mstdn.social (Mastodon) & @rbyryo.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @R_by_Ryo) (X/Twitter)Flowcharts made easy with the package {flowchart}Use of non-API entry points in data.tableIntro to working with volume and surface brain data Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W04Supplement Resourcesflowchart - R package for drawing participant flow diagrams directly from a dataframe using tidyverse https://bruigtp.github.io/flowchartMermaid - Generation of diagrams like flowcharts or sequence diagrams from text in a similar manner as markdown https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaidDiagrammeR - Graph and network visualization using tabular data in R https://rich-iannone.github.io/DiagrammeR/RNifti https://github.com/jonclayden/RNiftigifti https://github.com/muschellij2/giftiCRAN Cookbook https://r-consortium.org/posts/user-friendly-technical-cookbook-style-cran-guide-for-new-r-programmers-ready/2024 Posit Year in Review https://posit.co/blog/2024-posit-year-in-review/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music powered by OCRemixSecrets Abound (Matoya's Cave) - Final Fantasy: Random Encounter - Midgarian Sky - https://encounter.ocremix.org/Succumb to the Wilderness - Wild Aarms: ARMed and DANGerous - Level 99 - https://armed.ocremix.org/

The R Weekly Highlights podcast returns for Our first episode of 2025! We learn how hosted and self-hostem LLM's perform in the summarization of Bluesky R posts, as well as how models hosted on Azure infrastructure summarize cycling destinations. Lastly, we visit the visualization corner once again to bring a little (or a lot) of color in your next graphics created with R.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batool664 (X/Twitter)Bluesky conversation analysis with local and frontier LLMs with R/Tidyverse.Harnessing Azure OpenAI and R for Web Content Summarisation: A Practical Guide with rvest and tidyverseWorking with colours in REntire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W01Supplement ResourcesRasa open-source documentation https://rasa.com/docs/rasa/Brand.yml https://posit-dev.github.io/brand-yml/{rix} updates https://docs.ropensci.org/rix/news/index.htmlStrategic Investment Analysis: Key Questions Generated by DoTadda's Knowledge Platform https://www.spsanderson.com/steveondata/posts/2024-12-26/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music powered by OCRemixPeacemaker - Sonic Adventure - halc - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02187The Quick and the Blue - Mega Man 2 - The Megas - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02090

Mike Thomas works with Football Saskatchewan and Regina Youth Flag Football League where he joined the show to talk about the upcoming Flag Football season. He gave information for signing up and how this year was smoother then others.

Today episode we answer the important question on what age is the best time to marry? Leading this discussion is Barney Shynkaruk and Sharky for the Thursday Edition of the SportsCage. Guests Include: Corey Mace, Arash Madani, Mike Thomas and Glen Suitor.

Email comments or guest ideas (to reply, include your email address)In Episode 57, leading Asia energy economist Mike Thomas of The Lantau Group shared insights on 2024 trends and the 2025 outlook. He highlighted improved investment fundamentals, growing demand for renewables, and significant market reforms in Malaysia and the Philippines. Looking ahead, Mike expects continued renewable growth despite geopolitical uncertainties, more solar-hybrid projects, and evolving challenges in gas flexibility. Mike also thinks that while nuclear power's future remains uncertain in Southeast Asia, small modular reactors show long-term promise.REFERENCES: TLG InsightsABOUT MIKE: Mike Thomas is the Managing Director and a founding partner at The Lantau Group with over 30 years of consulting experience, focussing on the energy sector.  He advises a wide range of energy sector stakeholders on strategic, regulatory, and competition matters; sustainability; market design and development; and commercial transactions.  Prior to co-founding in 2010, he headed the Asia Pacific Energy & Environment practice of a global consulting firm.  Mike has an MPP from Harvard Kennedy School, United States and a BA in Economics from Carleton College, United States. More specifically, within the Asia Pacific region, he has led many significant engagements involving the robust application of economics and analytics to a wide variety of business, policy, and regulatory challenges affecting the electricity and gas sectors.  He works extensively with multinationals on sustainability strategies, focussing on the best options in different markets, and on the regulatory and policy changes needed to support increasing renewable energy contracting options.  He has testified or advised as an industry economic expert in commercial contract disputes before courts or arbitral panels in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Australia, and on disputed regulatory matters before regulatory authorities in New Zealand, Australia, and the Philippines.  His experience in commercial matters includes market forecasts and revenue simulations for numerous renewable energy and conventional energy projects and market assessments in South Asia, North Asia, ASEAN, and Australia/New Zealand.FEEDBACK: Email Host | HOST, PRODUCTION, ARTWORK: Joseph Jacobelli | MUSIC: Ep0-29 The Open Goldberg Variations, Kimiko Ishizaka Ep30-50 Orchestra Gli Armonici – Tomaso Albinoni, Op.07, Concerto 04 per archi in Sol - III. Allegro. | Ep51 – Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G, Movement I (Allegro), BWV 1049 Kevin MacLeod. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Musician Mike Thomas joins Devin Crow in our year-end celebration with Golden Road Mango Cart, Dogfish Head 120 IPA and lots of nonsense conversation. 

Maybe late-night TV shouldn't be called “late-night TV” anymore, with so many viewers consuming it in clips the morning after, on their phones. Yet the genre's hallmarks — the avuncular host, the sidekick, the band, the monologue, the desk, the guests — linger. Most were stamped on America's consciousness by Johnny Carson.A new biography about an old reliable, Bill Zehme's “Carson the Magnificent” harks back to an era when doom and scroll were biblical nouns and Carson's “Tonight Show” was a clear punctuation mark to every 24-hour chunk of the workweek — less an exclamation point, maybe, than a drawn-out ellipsis. “They want to lie back and be amused and laugh and have a nice, pleasant and slightly … I hate the word risqué … let's say adult end to the day,” is how a producer in 1971 described the millions tuning in from home, to Esquire.Carson went off the air in 1992, after three decades on “Tonight,” and left this Earth in 2005. Zehme, a journalist known for his chummy celebrity profiles, struck a book deal almost immediately but struggled to get purchase on his subject— “the ultimate Interior Man,” he despaired to a source, “large and lively only when on camera” — and then was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. He died himself last year at 64, and a former “legman” and friend, Mike Thomas, has finished the project, giving it a doubly valedictory feel.There were plenty of earlier books to consult, like “King of the Night,” by Laurence Leamer (who wrote about Joanne Carson in “Capote's Women”), “And Now … Here's Johnny,” by a young Nora Ephron, and the memoirs of Carson's eternal second banana, Ed McMahon. His lawyer's tell-all, published in 2013, is tellingly unmentioned. Zehme and Thomas have taken, if not the high road, the yellow brick one, with Carson's Midwestern background left in dusty black and white while the nitty-gritty of show business is buffed to a high Emerald City sheen.Give the authors points for changing up the standard chronological format. We don't get to Carson's birth date of Oct. 23, 1925, in Corning, Iowa, until the 107th page; his rebirth on Oct. 1, 1962, in NBC's Studio 6B, midwifed by Groucho Marx, being the main event.On air, Carson would take on various goofy guises, including the turbaned Carnac the Magnificent. The book's title, and its light glide over his womanizing and sometimes violent alcoholism, suggest that in real life, too, he was a master of disguise and escape. After an unpleasant first date with Jody, he gives her a cactus in a bedpan with a note reading: “Sit on this. It will remind you.” After they married, she would sometimes wake with bruises. “Did he hurt you, Mom?” Joanna's son asks after blowups. Zehme attributes such behavior to a booze-poisoned “doppelgänger”; he credits Carson with destigmatizing divorce without considering how swiftly, today, his whole operation would be canceled.Visiting a proto-couples counselor, Carson “would taste shrinkage for the first time,” but he was far more comfortable overseeing Carson's Couch. He might have been his own best analyst. “My job is to give them that feeling,” he told the “Tonight Show” regular Tony Randall of his drowsing masses, “that there will be a tomorrow.” How very yesterday.

The future of R-Universe looks even brighter for 2025 and beyond, revisiting the key factors for possibly switching to the Positron IDE, and why there is more than meets the eyes when it comes to the potential of LLMs and AI (even in highly-regulated industries).Episode LinksThis week's curator: Eric Nantz - @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @theRcast (X/Twitter)R-Universe Named R Consortium's Newest Top Level ProjectPositron vs RStudio - is it time to switch?Summer is Coming: AI for Shiny, R, and PharmaEntire issue available at rweekly.org/2024-W50Supplement ResourcesrOpenSci Blog Post https://ropensci.org/blog/2024/12/03/r-universe-r-consortium-tlp/Positron IDE - A new IDE for data science https://drmowinckels.io/blog/2024/positron/Fun with Positron https://www.andrewheiss.com/blog/2024/07/08/fun-with-positron/Open VSX Registry https://open-vsx.orgPower Mode Extension https://open-vsx.org/extension/hoovercj/vscode-power-modeJoe Cheng's slides from R/Pharma keybote https://jcheng5.github.io/pharma-ai-2024/#/title-slideR Consortium Submissions Pilot 2 Shiny Application https://github.com/RConsortium/submissions-pilot2Daniel Sebanes Bove & Joe Cheng - Discussion of R/Pharma Keynote https://youtu.be/AU1MmcXYnJ0?si=A3V9JHYdZLiz-lvvPractical Tips for Using Generative AI in Data Science Workflows https://youtu.be/rPeOdc8jTSE?si=APtIhpRqlh2I_Ek1Apple Music Wrapped in R https://www.andrewheiss.com/blog/2024/12/04/apple-music-wrapped-r/Predicting Best Picture at the 2025 Academy Awards https://www.markhw.com/blog/oscars2025Navidrome - Your Personal Streaming Service https://www.navidrome.org/Scrubbing your music with Maloja https://wenkdth.org/posts/maloja-scrobbling/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixThe Traveling Band's Last Song - Wild Arms: Armed and Dangerous - Artem Bank - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02588Secrets Abound - Final Fantasy - Midgarian Sky - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02452

Author of “Carson the Magnificent,” Mike Thomas, joins Steve Dale to talk about his book about Johnny Carson, the iconic entertainer who redefined late-night television and reshaped American culture. Listen in while Mike shares that the legendary Bill Zehme began the book to which he was able to bring home and share with the world.

“In general, magazine profiles are to biographies as inland lakes are to oceans,” writes the late entertainment journalist and ghostwriter Bill Zehme in The New York Times best-selling Carson the Magnificent. “Far less sprawling and easier to navigate.”   This is true—and readers need look no further than Zehme's latest (and last) book, completed posthumously, for confirmation. Zehme, who collaborated on memoirs with Jay Leno and Regis Philbin and was a frequent contributor to Esquire, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Vanity Fair, worked on his Carson biography for over a decade, before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. When he died in 2023, The New York Times cited “Carson the Magnificent” in his obit as one of the entertainment world's “great unfinished biographies.”  Enter podcast guest Mike Thomas, Bill Zehme's former research assistant and longtime friend, who was tapped to complete the project, which was an immediate New York Times best-seller upon its publication last month. “Everything I needed (and so much more) was there, somewhere, stashed in long-unopened binders and torn envelopes and dusty bins,” Mike Thomas writes of this collaboration. “It was mostly a matter of sifting through the stockpile, extracting and sorting the relevant material and reaching out to a handful of Bill's sources, all of whom were eager to help, for further illumination. But I've never lost sight of the fact that, despite my contributions, this is Bill's book.” The book, Mike says, has been a blessing, gifting him the chance to keep connected to a close pal with whom he can no longer communicate directly—a mentor who cheered him on during his own career as arts and entertainment features writer at the Chicago Sun-Times, as a regular contributor to Chicago magazine, and as the author of two critically-acclaimed books of his own—The Second City Unscripted and You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman. Learn more about Mike Thomas: Instagram Threads Grantland profile of Jan Hooks Mentioned on the show:  The Bob Book, by Bill Zehme and ATT guest David Rensin Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

This week, Mike Thomas, co-author of the Johnny Carson biography Carson the Magnificent, sits down with Rick Kogan of the Chicago Tribune to discuss the highly anticipated biography—twenty years in the making—of the entertainer who redefined late-night television and reshaped American culture. Thomas—who finished the project Bill Zehme started after Bill’s passing—shares insights into the [...]

What a way to close out the month of November with this batch of highlights! The ultimate teaser for the first-ever native mobile Shiny application (and yes, it is real), how you can expand your network on Bluesky from the friendly confines of R, and the potential of the S7 object-oriented paradigm to streamline and validate function parameters. Plus late-breaking news on the integrations of Bluesky and Quarto!Episode LinksThis week's curator: Tony Elhabr - @tonyelhabr@skrimmage.com (Mastodon) & @TonyElHabr (X/Twitter)You've Been Waiting for Native Mobile Apps with R? The Wait Is Over.Expand your Bluesky network with R and the atrrr packageS7 & Options objects - reimagining readr::read_csv()Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2024-W48Supplement ResourcesObtainium: Get Android apps straight from the source https://github.com/ImranR98/ObtainiumF-Droid: Free and open-source Android app repository https://f-droid.org/en/{atttr} Wrapper for the AT protocol behind Bluesky https://jbgruber.github.io/atrrr/Bluesky network analyzer https://bsky-follow-finder.theo.ioBluesky comments extension (James Blastula) https://quarto.thecoatlessprofessor.com/bluesky-comments/Bluesky comments for Quarto (Garrick Aiden-Buie) https://pkg.garrickadenbuie.com/quarto-bluesky-comments/Classes and objects (S7 documentation) https://rconsortium.github.io/S7/articles/classes-objects.html{roxy.shinylive} A roxygen2 extension for Shinylive https://insightsengineering.github.io/roxy.shinylive/main/Introducing WebR to TLG Catalog (Pawel's talk from R/Pharma 2024) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaoDUrUscZASpotify Wrapped: R and ggplot2 Edition https://rpubs.com/colebaril/spotify-wrappedNavidrome: Your personal music streaming service https://www.navidrome.org/Tailscale https://tailscale.com/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixCammy's London Drizzle - Super Street Fighter II - MkVaff - https://sf2.ocremix.org/Voodoo, Roots 'n Grog - Secret of Monkey Island - Diggi Dis feat. Alex Jones - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02180

On the Friday, November 22, 2024 edition of The Garry Meier Show Cocktail Hour LIVE, Mike Thomas will be aboard to discuss his book, “Carson The Magnificent” which completes the biography of the late long-time star of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson, begun in 2002 by journalist Bill Zehme. We'll also share a pre-recorded interview with Laurie Kane from inside the TreeTime showroom about some of the special seasonal offerings from GarrForce sponsor TreeTime.com.

On the Friday, November 22, 2024 edition of The Garry Meier Show Cocktail Hour LIVE, Mike Thomas will be aboard to discuss his book, “Carson The Magnificent” which completes the biography of the late long-time star of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson, begun in 2002 by journalist Bill Zehme. We'll also share a pre-recorded interview with Laurie Kane from inside the TreeTime showroom about some of the special seasonal offerings from GarrForce sponsor TreeTime.com. The usual nonsense and yappetizers will make appearances too. The livestream starts at 6 p.m. Eastern/5 Central, exclusively on the GarrForceLIVE YouTube channel.

Mike Thomas joins Episode No. 8 of the Golf's Next GEN podcast to share his experiences as a longtime PGA professional, insights from coaching his son, Justin Thomas and his perspective on the importance of junior golf in shaping the next generation of players. He also reflects on balancing mentorship, family and the evolving landscape of the sport.

A summary of key contributions to the R language itself from R Dev Day at the Shiny in Production conference, and visualizing ice thickness in Greenland with the power of the tidyverse and leaflet.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Jon Calder - @jonmcalder@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter)R Dev Day @ SIP 2024Greenland ice thicknessEntire issue available at rweekly.org/2024-W47Supplement ResourcesR Contribution Working Group https://contributor.r-project.org/working-groupR Translations Status Dashboard https://contributor.r-project.org/translations-dashboard/R Development Guide https://contributor.r-project.org/rdevguide/Connect local Positron IDE to Gitpod via SSH? https://github.com/r-devel/r-dev-env/issues/193#issuecomment-2383816303Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixIce Cap Zone (Pulse Mix) - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - MkVaff - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04400

New books focused on Johnny Carson and Shirley MacLaine offer intimate portraits of two of television and Hollywood's biggest stars. Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show for 30 years, becoming an unparalleled nighttime staple and unifying force within American culture. His life is the subject of Carson the Magnificent, a new biography co-written by Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas, who took over the decades-long research project after Zehme died in 2023. In today's episode, Thomas joins NPR's Scott Simon to discuss the divisions between Carson's public and private personas. Then, Shirley MacLaine's personal photo walls feature pictures of dignitaries, starlets and leaders like the Obamas, the Dalai Lama, Dolly Parton, Stephen Hawking and others. In her new book, The Wall of Life, MacLaine uses her photo collection as a way to tell her life stories through a scrapbook format. In today's episode, she speaks with Here & Now's Robin Young about past lives, enduring friendships in Hollywood, and the balance between reality and fame.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The innovations of the R community never cease to amaze us! How a programmatic approach to generating markdown was vital to a high-profile Quarto site, a novel infograph of Bob's Burgers sentiment analysis, and updates to the next evolution of object-oriented programming in R.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Ryo Nakagawara - @R_by_Ryo@mstdn.social (Mastodon) & @R_by_Ryo) (X/Twitter)Guide to generating and rendering computational markdown content programmatically with QuartoBob's Burgers Episode Fingerprints by SeasonS7 0.2.0Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2024-W46Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike-thomas.bsky.social & @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixCammy's London Drizzle - Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - MkVaff - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00453Bar Hopping - Streets of Rage 2 - jaxx - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00437

CarneyShow 11.15.24 Tom O'Keefe, Mike Thomas, Aaron Mahke, Alex Stone, Paul Kopsky, Know the Show by

Kelly sits down with old friend Mike Thomas to talk about “Carson the Magnificent,” a book about the iconic talk show host Johnny Carson. The legendary Bill Zehme began the book but never finished it. Years after Bill’s death, Mike was brought on board to complete the book. “And so, like sun and moon and […]

Dean Richards, entertainment reporter for WGN, joins Bob Sirott, to provide the latest news in entertainment. Bob and Dean discuss Chris Martin’s fall on stage and talk of a Game of Thrones movie. They also talk about the release of “Carson the Magnificent” by Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas and Kim Kardashian’s fashion statement.

Author of Carson the Magnificent, Mike Thomas, joins Bob Sirott to talk about how the project began, how he knew Bill Zehme, and how Zehme became fascinated with Johnny Carson. He also remembers Carson’s TV personality versus what he was like off-camera, Carson’s challenges with alcohol, and why he’s still such a compelling subject decades […]

I can say in all honesty that today is a momentous occasion here on the podcast! Why do I say that? Because today is the culmination of a nearly 20-year journey to hold a very special book in my hands. It's titled, Carson the Magnificent, and it's the long-awaited biography of one of my entertainment heroes, the late Johnny Carson. For those who aren't very familiar with Johnny Carson, he was the host of NBC's Tonight Show for 30 years, from 1962-1992. They called him “The King of Late Night” because he ruled the late-night airwaves for decades. When Johnny Carson retired from the Tonight Show in 1992, at the top of his game, he famously went into his retirement cave and rarely came back out except for a few public appearances in the years afterwards. That's why it was such a big deal when the writer and journalist Bill Zehme was able to score an interview in Esquire magazine in 2002, ten years after Carson retired. It was the only formal interview that Carson had granted since his retirement. A few years later, Carson agreed to let Zehme write his full biography. The book was announced, and he went to work on it. Then the years crept by and the book never came out. Zehme got cancer, which obviously stalled progress on the book. Then he passed away last year with most of the book written, but still incomplete. Over the years it had become known as one of the great unfinished biographies, almost achieving legendary status, but not for reason that Zehme or the publisher wanted. But then earlier this year, nearly 20 years after Zehme started work on the Carson biography, Simon & Schuster announced that Chicago writer Mike Thomas would be taking up the reigns of the book and completing Zehme's work. This was the perfect match because Thomas was a well-established entertainment writer, as well as a friend and former research assistant of Bill Zehme. You have to understand how excited I was to see this announcement earlier this year. This is no exaggeration: for the last 20 years, every 6-8 months I would try to find some little scrap of news about the book. That's how excited I was. So when I saw that Simon & Schuster was still going to release the book, I was over the moon. Which brings us today. I knew the book was coming out on November 5, so a few weeks ago I got in touch with Mike Thomas to see if he'd be interested in talking about the book here on the podcast. He graciously agreed, and with the help of Anne Pearce, the Associate Director of PR at Simon & Schuster, we arranged this conversation. So that's how this conversation came about. It's more backstory than usual, but I thought it might be interesting for listeners. Let me tell you a bit about my guest! Mike Thomas is the author of two critically acclaimed books, The Second City Unscripted: Revolution and Revelation at the World-Famous Comedy Theater and You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman. He spent more than fourteen years as an arts and entertainment features writer at the Chicago Sun-Times and is a regular contributor to Chicago magazine. He lives in Chicago with his family. In this conversation, we dive into all sorts of topics related to Mike, his writing career, and of course the book that brought us together, Carson the Magnificent. Our conversation topics include: How he knew he wanted to be a writer. How he became acquainted with Bill Zehme in the 1990s. Why Bill struggled to finish the Carson book. Mike's process of taking Bill's work and seeing it to completion, and what it was like to pick up the writing mantle from someone else. Mike's advice for people who want to begin or expand their career as a writer. Many thanks to Mike Thomas for an engaging and inspiring conversation! If you love Johnny Carson or entertainment biographies, you'll love Carson the Magnificent. And if you're a ghostwriter, editor, or biographer, you'll love the book even more because it's a perfect example of telling someone's story without getting in the way. In this case, Thomas had the double task of telling two stories: Caron's life story, and the story of Zehme's journey to complete the book. My hat is off to a job well done!

Bringing tidy principles to a fundamental visualization for gene expressions, being on your best "behavior" for organizing your tests, and how data.table stacks up to DuckDB and polars for reshaping your data layouts.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Jon Carroll - @jonocarroll@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @carroll_jono (X/Twitter)Exploring the tidyHeatmap R packageDon't Expect That "Function Works Correctly", Do This InsteadComparing data.table reshape to duckdb and polarsEntire issue available at rweekly.org/2024-W43Supplement ResourcestidyHeatmap: Draw heatmap simply using a tidy data frame https://stemangiola.github.io/tidyHeatmap/Novel App knock-in mouse model shows key features of amyloid pathology and reveals profound metabolic dysregulation of microglia https://molecularneurodegeneration.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13024-022-00547-7Shiny App-Packages chapter on writing tests and specifications https://mjfrigaard.github.io/shiny-app-pkgs/test_specs.htmlWANT CLEANER UNIT TESTS? TRY ARRANGE, ACT, ASSERT COMMENTS https://jakubsob.github.io/blog/want-cleaner-test-try-arrange-act-assert/Super Data Science Podcast 827: Polars: Past, Present and Future, with Polars Creator Ritchie Vink https://www.superdatascience.com/podcast/827duckplyr: A DuckDB-backed version for dplyr https://duckplyr.tidyverse.org/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixBlack Feathers in the Sky - Kid Icarus: Uprising - MkVaff - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04200Cross-Examination - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - PrototypeRaptor - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01846

David Letterman once said about Bill Zehme, "...he was also emblematic of that era when profile writers were often cooler than the people they were profiling. Whenever he interviewed me, I tried inhumanly hard to impress the guy..."Bill was a good friend for most of the 30 years I've been in Chicago and Carson was foundational in our relationship. On this episode I talk with one of Bill's best friends, Mike Thomas, who worked with Bill for years. Mike has been a great writer at the Chicago Sun-Times forever and he's authored two terrific books of his ownWhen Bill died, Mike was the absolute best choice to finish this bookOf course we talk about Carson but we spend time detailing the run of the GOAT, Bill Zehme, as wellGet the book and share this new episode of LIVE FROM MY OFFICESHOW NOTESYou can contribute to this 100% rated organization on charitynavigator.org, Colon Cancer Coalition.The works of Bill Zehme are too numerous to list, Google him and buy them all!*Mike Thomas also wrote the books we list below...get them too!The Second City Unscripted: Revolution and Revelation at the World-Famous Comedy Theater.You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman.Subscribe to Live From My Office on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.Win an ABT gift card by emailing me three of your friends emails who you think would like the show, and include your mailing address in the email. Check out the details here.Email the show with any questions, comments, or plugs for your favorite charity.

A helpful way to organizing your growing collection of unit tests, how interfacing with LLMs just got easier in the R ecosystem, and a clever use of AI to summarize a large collection of blog posts.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Eric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Nested unit tests with testthatshinychat: Chat UI component for Shiny for RCreating post summary with AI from Hugging FaceEntire issue available at rweekly.org/2024-W42Supplement Resourceselmer: Call LLM APIs from R https://hadley.github.io/elmer/Joe Cheng's sidebot app (R edition) https://github.com/jcheng5/r-sidebotEDA Reimagined in R: GWalkR + DuckDB for Lightning-Fast Visualizations https://medium.com/@bruceyu0416/eda-reimagined-in-r-gwalkr-duckdb-for-lightning-fast-visualizations-05b011e8ae39Apache superset https://superset.apache.org/Postprocessing is coming to tidymodels https://www.tidyverse.org/blog/2024/10/postprocessing-preview/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.infoGet in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixPachelbel's Ganon - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - djpretzel - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00753Voodoo, Roots 'n Grog - The Secret of Monkey Island - Alex Jones, Diggi Dis - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02180

A monumental achievement for bringing the Nix package manager to reproducible data science, travelling deep through the in-place modification rabbit hole across multiple languages, and a sampling of sage advice from the Data Science Hangout.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Tony Elhabr - @tonyelhabr@skrimmage.com (Mastodon) & @TonyElHabr (X/Twitter)Reproducible data science with Nix, part 13 -- {rix} is on CRAN!In-Place ModificationsData Career Insights: Lessons from four senior leaders in the data spaceEntire issue available at rweekly.org/2024-W40Supplement Resourcesrix rOpenSci review: https://github.com/ropensci/software-review/issues/625Determinate Systems Zero to Nix guide https://zero-to-nix.com/ vec - A new vector class with added functionality https://jonocarroll.github.io/vec/rray - Simple arrays https://rray.r-lib.org/Libby Heeren's podcast Data Humans https://libbyheeren.com/podcast.html or https://datahumans.libsyn.com/siteA Bayesian Plackett-Luce model in Stan applied to pinball championship data https://sumsar.net/blog/bayesian-plackett-luce-model-pinball-competition/ Cover and modify, some tips for R package development https://masalmon.eu/2024/09/24/cover-modify-r-packages/Supporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info Get in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mikethomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) and @mikeketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixTorvus Clockwork - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - DarkeSword - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01507Home is Where You Belong - Final Fantasy IX - Reuben Spears, Earth Kid - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04135

How the latest release of patchwork is saving a cozy space for gt tables, a new package in the ggplot2 ecosystem to lend a guide for your guides, and a prime way of using R to brute-force the answer to a mathematical brain-teaser.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Tony Elhabr - @tonyelhabr@skrimmage.com (Mastodon) & @TonyElHabr (X/Twitter)patchwork 1.3.0{gguidance}: Extended guide options for 'ggplot2'Prime numbers as sums of three squares. by @ellis2013nzEntire issue available at rweekly.org/2024-W39Supplement Resourcesgt 0.11.0 release notes https://gt.rstudio.com/news/index.html#gt-0110Being free from constraint https://www.data-imaginist.com/posts/2024-01-05-patchwork-1-2-0/#being-free-from-constraintgguidance: A guided tour vignette https://teunbrand.github.io/gguidance/articles/tour.htmlCreate a free Llama 3.1 405B-powered chatbot on an R package's GitHub repo in

Ep 239 Extreme Fighting Batlecade 2 - Donald ZuckermanDonald Zuckerman & John Perretti came together to create the Extreme Fighting Battlecade series; although they only had 4 events, what they put together can be described as the beginning of the sports “Modern Era”. Donald Zuckerman and John Perretti discuss an event that had its participants arrested and international scrutiny of the sport as a whole. This is a must listen for the hardcore history fans. Ep 239 Extreme Fighting Batlecade 2 - Donald Zuckerman0:00 Lytes out intro0:19 Joey Venti's guest introduction0:47 interview start 0:58 current life 1:29 plugs/ promotions 2:08 meeting John Perretti 4:21 Extreme fighting 1 forced to move locations 6:00 how Exteme fighting 1 came to be 16:10 John Perretti bringing in gloves and weight classes 20:33 issues holding Extreme fighting 2 in Canada 22:52 Mike Thomas 34:05 John Perretti dealing with fighters not showing up 38:47 hosting weigh ins 48 hours before event 41:28 Orlando Weit honeymoon trip during event 43:23 fighters not allowed to use bare fist at event 44:41 Ring announcer Scott Berlinger46:33 feelings when first fight bell rang  47:29 fighters getting arrested at the hotel 50:30 struggles with the production crew during event 55:10 getting turned into the police57:39 debuting the first 155 pound fight in MMA59:16 negotiations with the Gracie's 1:04:12 rumor of bribing Federico Lapenda1:06:07 fighter pay 1:08:15 John Perretti explains the tournament format 1:09:09 belts not getting recognition 1:10:27 Executive producer Anthony Guccione1:13:34 discovering Carlos Newton 1:14:22 Conan Silviera vs Carl Franks1:17:24 acquiring Madison Square GardenFor event 1:17:52 creation of the Cage 1:20:21 not getting credit for modernizing MMA 1:25:31 interview wrap up/ outro   Subscribe to the Lytes Out Podcast:https://www.youtube.com/@LytesOutClipsSocials: Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/groups/1027449255187255/?mibextid=oMANbwInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/lytesoutpodcast/iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lytes-out-podcast/id1568575809 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3q8KsfqrSQSjkdPLkdtNWb Mike - The MMA Detective - @mikedavis632 Cash App - $mikedavis1231Venmo - Mike-Davis-63ZELLE: Cutthroatmma@gmail.com / ph#: 773-491-5052 Follow the #LOP team on Instagram: Chris - Founder/Owner - @chrislightsoutlytle Mike - MMA Detective - @mikedavis632 Joey - Assistant - @aj_ventitreTyson - Producer - @ty.green.weldingAndrew - Timestamps - @ambidexstressAndy - Social Media Manager - @martial_mindset_Outro song: Power - https://tunetank.com/t/2gji/1458-power#MMA #UFC #NHB #LytesOutPodcast #LytesOut #MixedMartialArts #ChrisLytle #MMADetective #MikeDavis #MMAHistory #OldSchoolMMA #FiftyFightClub #MMAPodcast #FightPodcastSupport the show

Steve and Jeff responded to texts from WWL listeners about Michael Thomas and LSU football. The guys explained Thomas' week one suspension for violating the NFL's personal conduct rules. Jeff also reviewed Thomas' recent decline on and off the field. They projected LSU's season opener vs. USC as a "home game" for the Tigers in Las Vegas. Steve and Jeff spoke to a WWL listener about the Saints' QB situation.