Podcasts about Monsanto

Tony: -Carbonation Station: 3D Energy Blueberry Mist   -Smart Phones are risky for kids (duh): https://futurism.com/health-medicine/grim-happenings-kids-smartphones   -Stop me if you've heard this one before…: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/researcher-finds-undocumented-microphone-and-major-security-flaws-in-sipeed-nanokvm   -New Amazfit watch leaked: https://www.techradar.com/health-fitness/smartwatches/forget-the-apple-watch-se-3-it-looks-like-a-big-sequel-to-our-best-ever-cheap-fitness-watch-has-just-leaked   Jarron:  -Dell and HP disable HEVC support in their laptops for some reason: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/21/0616243/hp-and-dell-disable-hevc-support-built-into-their-laptops-cpus?utm_source=rss0.9mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed   -Cool gadget: https://www.theverge.com/news/838885/xteink-x4-e-reader-magnetic-apple-iphone-google-pixel   -Maybe don't buy that toilet camera.  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/12/despite-accessing-user-data-kohler-still-says-its-smart-toilet-cameras-use-e2ee/   Owen: -Australia bans social media for kids under 16. https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/12/09/2112230/millions-of-australian-teens-lose-access-to-social-media-as-ban-takes-effect   -I would LOVE to see Monsanto get sued out of existence. https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/12/09/053254/science-journal-retracts-study-on-safety-of-monsantos-roundup   Lando: -New Smart Ring! https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/09/pebbles-founder-introduces-a-75-ai-smart-ring-for-recording-brief-notes-with-a-press-of-a-button/ 

Zak Paine and Jordan Sather team up for a packed episode of Altered State, diving deep into the MAHA movement's rapid-fire victories and the growing panic inside the medical-industrial complex. They break down the online drama swirling around influencers, then shift into the real action: RFK Jr.'s sweeping reforms at HHS, the FDA's stunning admission that COVID vaccines killed children, the retraction of a Monsanto-backed glyphosate study, and USDA moves toward regenerative farming. Jordan outlines how vaccine policy, food safety, and regulatory capture are being dismantled piece by piece, while Zak highlights the political backlash, including impeachment attempts against RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth. The duo also take on the “double-tap” narco-boat psyop, Ilhan Omar's alleged immigration fraud, and the brewing collapse of blue-state systems from welfare fraud to housing markets. Blending humor, policy insight, and sharp commentary, Zak and Jordan expose how small wins ripple into seismic shifts, and why the establishment is suddenly very afraid.

It's Hump Day on the Majority Report On today's program: Ahead of Trump's rally in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, News Nation talk to locals on their thoughts on Trump's economy and the results were not good for the president. Trump kicks off his "Affordability Messaging" tour and spends most of his time at the podium complaining about immigrants and replaying his old hits but with much less energy and way fewer people in the audience. Independent journalist, Kalena Thomhave joins Sam to discuss her piece in Capital & Main titled, Home Care Workers Are Losing Minimum Wage Protections — and Fighting Back. Senator Bernie Sanders joins Sam and Emma for a conversation about wealth inequality and his book, Fight Oligarchy. In the Fun Half: CNN interviews Caleb Ragland, a soybean farmer relays the dire economic disaster that American farmers are facing under Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Trump announces a $12 billion bailout for farmers, funded by tariff taxes paid by Americans — a package that will almost certainly end up lining the pockets of Monsanto executives and similar agribusiness giants. Candace Owens responds to Tim Pool's rant attacking her over Charlie Kirk conspiracy theories. If you are in Kentucky or just interested check out the Bluegrass DSA All that and more. The Congress switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: SMALLS: For a limited time, get 60% off your first order, plus free shipping, when you head to Smalls.com/MAJORITY PROLON: Get 15% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Nutrition Program at ProlonLife.com/majority  ZBIOTICS: Go to https://zbiotics.com/MAJORITY and use MAJORITY at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of ZBiotics probiotics SUNSET LAKE: Use coupon code "Left Is Best" (all one word) for 20% off of your entire order at SunsetLakeCBD.com  Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech On Instagram: @MrBryanVokey Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com  

Jordan Sather and Nate Prince spend this episode untangling a massive week of medical, regulatory, and food-system revelations, starting with the bombshell retraction of a decades-old glyphosate study after editors admitted Monsanto ghost-wrote it, undermining the scientific backbone of pesticide approvals. They move into the FDA's leaked internal memo linking COVID vaccines to at least ten child deaths, the media's frantic attempt to contain the story, and the unusual spectacle of former FDA commissioners rushing to publicly denounce their own agency. Jordan and Nate then cover RFK Jr.'s overhaul of vaccine advisory committees, the stunning vote to remove Hepatitis B from the childhood schedule, and the political fight exploding in Illinois as the state positions itself to override CDC guidance. From there, they dig into the USDA's crackdown on blue-state refusal to hand over SNAP-fraud data, revealing hundreds of thousands of dead or duplicate benefit recipients, and examine DOJ pressure on meat packers, raw-milk regulations, and the long-awaited PRIME Act. The episode wraps with conversations on DMSO, holistic health, doom-scrolling addiction, sardine challenges, and the push to reclaim nutrition, sovereignty, and sanity in a captured system.  

Artificial intelligence or AI's huge appetite for power is reviving demand for older and dirtier fossil fuel energy. We talk about the massive data centers that power AI, community pushback, and how AI seems to be putting vital climate targets out of reach.  Also, the Make America Healthy Again or MAHA movement has pinpointed some health concerns backed up by credible research, including concerns about pesticides such as the probable carcinogen glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup. But after agribusiness lobbying the Trump Administration erased pesticides from its MAHA Commission report.  And Braiding Sweetgrass author Robin Wall Kimmerer is also the author of a 2024 book that continues her explorations of gift economies. She shares insights from The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World and how gift economies can offer an alternative to overconsumption. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is the Main Street bust here? Will Whiskey Pete be held to account? Who is the suspect they've arrested for the Jan 6th pipe bombs? Is MAHA now on Monsanto's side? How did that happen? Did RFK Jr ever have any scruples at all? Plus Ukraine war update with Phil Ittner. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is one in a series about possible futures, which will be published in Booch News over the coming weeks. Episode 7 appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday. Overview Peer-to-peer flavor-sharing platforms enabled home brewers to distribute taste profiles as digital files. Blockchain-verified SCOBY genetics allowed anyone to recreate award-winning kombucha flavors. Traditional beverage companies lost control as open-source fermentation recipes spread globally. This episode follows teenage hacker Luna Reyes as she reverse-engineers Heineken’s proprietary “A-yeast” strain and the century-old master strain used for Budweiser, releasing them under Creative Commons license, triggering a flavor renaissance that made corporate beverages taste like cardboard by comparison. Luna Reyes: The Seventeen-Year-Old Who Liberated Flavor Luna Reyes was brewing kombucha in her Oakland garage when she changed the course of human history. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, she had learned fermentation from her grandmother while teaching herself bioinformatics through YouTube tutorials and volunteering at the Counter Culture Labs Maker Space on Shattuck Avenue. By fifteen, she was running the Bay Area’s most sophisticated home laboratory, utilizing jury-rigged DNA sequencers and microscopes constructed from smartphone cameras. Her breakthrough came in February 2043 while investigating why her kombucha never tasted quite like expensive craft varieties and was different again from her grandmother’s home brew. Using Crispr techniques learned from online forums, Luna began reverse-engineering the microbial genetics of premium alcoholic beverages. Her target wasn’t kombucha—it was the closely guarded yeast strains that gave corporate beers their distinctive flavors. Luna hunched over her microscope, examining bacterial cultures from her latest kombucha batch. Around her, salvaged DNA sequencers hummed, fermentation vessels bubbled, and computer screens displayed multi-hued patterns of genetic sequences. Her grandmother, Rosa, entered carrying a tray with three glasses of homemade kombucha. “Mija, you’ve been working for six hours straight. Drink something.” Luna accepted the glass without looking up. “Abuela, your kombucha tastes better than anything I can buy in stores and the ones I’ve experimented with. Why? I’m using the same base ingredients—tea, sugar, water—but mine never has this complexity.” Her grandmother laughed. “Because I’ve been feeding this SCOBY for forty years. It knows what to do. You can’t rush relationships.” Luna’s sister Maya, lounging against a workbench, waved her phone. “Luna, people have noticed your forum post about Health-Ade’s fermentation process. Someone says you’re wasting your time trying to replicate commercial kombuchas.” “I’m not trying to replicate them,” Luna said, finally looking up. “I’m trying to understand why their kombucha tastes different than that I make at home. It’s not the ingredients. It’s not the process. It’s the microbial genetics.” Rosa sat down beside her granddaughter. “When I was young in Oaxaca, every family had their own kombucha culture, passed down generation to generation. Each tasted different because the bacteria adapted to their environment, their ingredients, their care. We had a saying, Hay tantas fermentaciones en el mundo como estrellas en el cielo nocturno – there are as many ferments in the world as stars in the night sky. The big companies want every bottle to be identical. That kills what makes fermentation special.” “Exactly!” Luna pulled up genetic sequences on her screen. “I’ve been reverse-engineering samples from different commercial kombuchas. Health-Ade, GT’s, Brew Dr—they all have consistent microbial profiles.” The Great Heist: Cracking Corporate DNA Luna’s first major hack targeted Heineken’s legendary “A-yeast” strain, developed in 1886 by Dr. Hartog Elion—a student of renowned chemist Louis Pasteur—in the company’s Amsterdam laboratory and protected by over 150 years of trade secret law. Using samples obtained from discarded brewery waste (technically legal under the “garbage doctrine”), she spent six months mapping the strain’s complete genetic sequence in her makeshift lab. The breakthrough required extraordinary ingenuity. Luna couldn’t afford professional gene sequencers, so she modified a broken Illumina iSeq100 purchased on eBay for $200. Her sequencing runs took weeks rather than hours; her results were identical to those produced by million-dollar laboratory equipment. Her detailed laboratory notebooks, later published as The Garage Genomics Manifesto, became essential reading for the biotech hacker movement. The Budweiser project proved even more challenging. Anheuser-Busch’s century-old master strain had been protected by layers of corporate secrecy rivaling classified military programs. The company maintained multiple backup cultures in cryogenic facilities across three continents, never allowing complete genetic mapping by outside researchers. Luna’s success required infiltrating the company’s waste-disposal systems at four breweries, collecting samples over 18 months while evading corporate security. The Decision The night before Luna was scheduled to meet her fellow bio-hackers at Oakland’s Counter Culture Labs, she sat at her workstation, hesitant, wondering if she was doing the right thing. Her sister Maya came in, looking worried. “Luna, I found something you need to see,” she says. “Remember Marcus Park? He tried releasing proprietary yeast information in 2039. Heineken buried him. He lost everything. His daughter dropped out of college. His wife left him. He’s working at a gas station now.” Luna spent the night researching what happened to Park. She found that almost everyone who challenged corporate IP ended up on the losing side of the law. It was not pretty. In the morning, Abuela Rosa finds her crying in her room. “Mija, what’s wrong?” she asks. “Oh, Abuela,” Luna says between sobs. “What am I doing? What if I’m wrong? What if I destroy our family? What if this ruins Mom and Dad? What if I’m just being selfish?” “That’s the fear talking.” Her grandmother reassured her. “Fear is wisdom warning you to be careful. But fear can also be a cage.” That evening at the Counter Culture Labs, Luna assembled a small group of advisors. She needed their guidance. She had the completed genetic sequences for Heineken A-yeast and Budweiser’s master strain on her laptop, ready for release. But is this the time and place to release them to the world? Dr. Marcus Webb, a bioinformatics researcher in his forties and Luna’s mentor, examined her sequencing data. “This is solid work, Luna. Your jury-rigged equipment is crude. The results are accurate. You’ve fully mapped both strains.” “The question isn’t whether I can do it,” Luna said. “It’s whether I should let the world know I did it.” On screen, Cory Doctorow, the author and digital rights activist, leaned forward. “Let’s be clear about what you’re proposing. You’d be releasing genetic information that corporations have protected as trade secrets for over a century. They’ll argue you stole their intellectual property. You’ll face lawsuits, possibly criminal charges.” “Is it their property?” Luna challenged. “These are naturally occurring organisms. They didn’t create that yeast. Evolution did. They just happened to be there when it appeared. That does not make it theirs any more than finding a wildflower means they own the species. Can you really own something that existed before you found it?” Doctorow, the Electronic Frontier Foundation representative spoke up. “There’s legal precedent both ways. Diamond v. Chakrabarty established that genetically modified organisms can be patented. But naturally occurring genetic sequences? That’s murky. The companies will argue that their decades of cultivation and protection created protectable trade secrets.” “Trade secrets require keeping information secret,” Luna argued. “They throw this yeast away constantly. If they’re not protecting it, how can they claim trade secret status?” Dr. Webb cautioned, “Luna, even if you’re legally in the right—which is debatable—you’re seventeen years old. You’ll be fighting multinational corporations with unlimited legal resources. They’ll bury you in litigation for years.” “That’s where we come in,” Doctorow said. “The EFF can provide legal defense. Creative Commons can help structure the license. You need to understand: this will consume your life. College, career plans, normal teenage experiences—all on hold while you fight this battle.” Luna was quiet for a moment, then pulled up a photo on her laptop: her grandmother Rosa, teaching her to ferment at age seven. “My abuela says fermentation is about sharing and passing living cultures between generations. Corporations have turned it into intellectual property to be protected and controlled. If I can break that control—even a little—isn’t that worth fighting for?” Maya spoke up from the back. “Luna, I love you, but you’re being naive. They won’t just sue you. They’ll make an example of you. Your face on every news channel, portrayed as a thief, a criminal. Our family harassed. Your future destroyed. For what? So people can brew beer with the same yeast as Heineken?” “Not just beer,” Luna responded passionately. “This is about whether living organisms can be owned. Whether genetic information—the code of life itself—can be locked behind intellectual property law. Yes, it starts with beer yeast. But what about beneficial bacteria? Life-saving microorganisms? Medicine-producing fungi? Where does it end?” Dr. Webb nodded slowly. “She’s right. This is bigger than beer. As biotech advances, genetic control becomes power over life itself. Do we want corporations owning that?” Doctorow sighed. “If you do this, Luna, do it right. Release everything simultaneously—BitTorrent, WikiLeaks, Creative Commons servers, distributed networks worldwide. Make it impossible to contain. Include complete cultivation protocols so anyone can reproduce your results. Make the data so damn widely available that suppressing it becomes futile.” “And write a manifesto,” he added. “Explain why you’re doing this. Frame the issue. Make it about principles, not piracy.” Luna nodded, fingers already typing. “When should I release?” “Pick a date with symbolic meaning,” Dr. Webb suggested. “Make it an event, not just a data dump.” Luna smiled. “December 15. The Bill of Rights Day. Appropriate for declaring biological rights, don’t you think?” Maya groaned. “You’re really doing this, aren’t you?” “Yes. I’m really doing this.” The Creative Commons Liberation On Tuesday, December 15, 2043—a date now celebrated as “Open Flavor Day”—Luna released the genetic sequences on multiple open-source networks. Her manifesto, titled Your Grandmother’s Yeast Is Your Birthright, argued that microbial genetics belonged to humanity’s shared heritage rather than corporate shareholders. It stated: Commercial companies have protected yeast strains for over a century. They’ve used intellectual property law to control flavor itself. But genetic information isn’t like a recipe or a formula—it’s biological code that evolved over millions of years before humans ever cultivated it. These strains are protected as trade secrets—the bacteria don’t belong to anyone. They existed before Heineken, before Budweiser, before trademark law. The companies just happened to isolate and cultivate them. Her data packages included DNA sequences and complete protocols for cultivating, modifying, and improving the strains. Luna’s releases came with user-friendly software that allowed amateur brewers to simulate genetic modifications before attempting them in real fermentations. Within 24 hours, over ten thousand people worldwide downloaded the files. The Creative Commons community erupted in celebration. Cory Doctorow’s blog post, The Teenager Who Stole Christmas (From Corporate Beer), went viral within hours. The Electronic Frontier Foundation immediately offered Luna legal protection, while the Free Software Foundation created the “Luna Defense Fund” to support her anticipated legal battles. The Legal Assault Heineken’s response was swift. The company filed emergency injunctions in 12 countries simultaneously, seeking to prevent the distribution of its “stolen intellectual property.” Their legal team, led by former U.S. Attorney General William Barr III, demanded Luna’s immediate arrest for “economic terrorism” and “theft of trade secrets valued at over $50 billion.” Anheuser-Busch’s reaction was even more extreme. CEO Marcel Telles IV appeared on CNBC, calling Luna “a bioterrorist who threatens the foundation of American capitalism.” The company hired private investigators to surveil Luna’s family and offered a $10 million reward for information leading to her prosecution. Their legal filing compared Luna’s actions to “stealing the formula for Coca-Cola and publishing it in the New York Times.” In Heineken’s Amsterdam headquarters, executives convened an emergency meeting. “Who is Luna Reyes?” the CEO demanded. The legal counsel pulled up information. “She’s a seventeen-year-old high school student in Oakland, California. No criminal record. Volunteers at a maker space. Has been posting about fermentation on various forums for years.” “A child released our proprietary yeast strain to the world, and we didn’t know she was even working on this?” The CEO’s face reddened. “How do we contain it?” “We can’t. It’s distributed across thousands of servers in dozens of countries with different IP laws. We can sue Reyes, but the information is out there permanently.” An executive interjected, “What about the other breweries? Will they join our lawsuit?” “Some are considering it. Others…” The counsel paused. “Others are quietly downloading the sequences themselves. They see an opportunity to break our market dominance.” “She obtained samples from our waste disposal,” another executive explained. “Technically legal under the garbage doctrine. The sequencing itself isn’t illegal. The release under Creative Commons…” “Is theft!” the CEO shouted. “File emergency injunctions. Twelve countries. Get her arrested for economic terrorism.” Similar scenes played out at Anheuser-Busch headquarters in St. Louis. CEO Telles addressed his team: “This is bioterrorism. She’s destroyed intellectual property worth billions. I want her prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Hire private investigators. Find everything about her and her family. Make her life hell!” By noon, both companies had filed lawsuits. By evening, Fox News was running stories about the “teenage bioterrorist” who “stole American corporate secrets.” Back in Oakland, Luna’s phone rang constantly. Her parents discovered what she’d done. Her mother cried. Her father was furious and terrified. Friends called with either congratulations or warnings. She was convinced that private investigators were photographing their house. Maya suspected she was followed to work. On Wednesday morning, Dr. Webb calls: “Luna, they’re offering me $2 million to testify against you. They’re going after everyone in your network.” Luna has a sickening feeling that she’s put everyone at risk. By Thursday, she is considering taking it all back somehow, sending an apology to the corporations, anything to protect her family. Luna turned off her phone and sat with her grandmother. “It’s started,” Luna said quietly. “Sí, mija. You’ve declared war. Now we see if you can survive it.” Maya burst in, laptop in hand. “Luna, you need to see this. The downloads aren’t slowing—they’re accelerating. Every time Heineken or Budweiser shuts down a website, ten mirror sites appear. People are treating this like a digital freedom fight. You’ve become a symbol.” Luna pulled up her own screen. The #FreeLuna hashtag was trending. Crowdfunding campaigns for her legal defense had raised $400,000 in twelve hours. Academic institutions were publicly endorsing her release, calling it “essential scientific information.” “They’re trying to destroy you,” Maya said, “but they’re making you famous instead.” Rosa handed Luna a fresh kombucha. “This is what happens when you fight for what’s right, mija. Sometimes the world surprises you by supporting you.” Luna’s Fame The corporations’ attempts to suppress Luna’s releases had the opposite effect. Every cease-and-desist letter generated thousands of new downloads. The genetic data became impossible to contain once the academic community embraced Luna’s work. Dr. Jennifer Doudna, the legendary Crispr pioneer now in her eighties, publicly endorsed Luna’s releases in a Science magazine editorial: Ms. Reyes has liberated essential scientific information that corporations held hostage for commercial gain. Genetic sequences from naturally occurring organisms should not be locked behind intellectual property law. They belong to humanity’s knowledge commons. While corporations claim Luna stole trade secrets, I argue she freed biological knowledge that was never theirs to own. There are no trade secrets in biology—only knowledge temporarily hidden from the commons. This is civil disobedience of the highest order—breaking unjust laws to advance human freedom. Ms. Reyes didn’t steal; she liberated. MIT’s biology department invited Luna to lecture, while Harvard offered her a full scholarship despite her lack of a high school diploma. The legal battles consumed corporate resources while generating negative publicity. Heineken’s stock price dropped 34% as consumers organized boycotts in support of Luna’s “yeast liberation.” Beer sales plummeted as customers waited for home-brewed alternatives using Luna’s open-source genetics. The Flavor Renaissance Luna’s releases triggered an explosion of creativity that corporate R&D departments had never imagined. Within six months, amateur brewers worldwide were producing thousands of flavor variations impossible under corporate constraints. The open-source model enabled rapid iteration and global collaboration, rendering traditional brewing companies obsolete. The world was engaged. In some of the most unlikely places. In Evanston, Illinois, a group of former seminary students who discovered fermentation during a silent retreat, transformed Gregorian chants into microbial devotionals. Tenor Marcus Webb (Dr. Webb’s nephew) realized symbiosis mirrored vocal harmony—multiple voices creating something greater than their parts. “In honoring the mystery of fermentation we express our love of the Creator,” he said. Here's ‘Consortium Vocalis' honoring the mother SCOBY. [Chorus]Our SCOBYIs pureOur SCOBYIs strongOur SCOBYKnows no boundariesOur SCOBYStrengthens as it fermentsOur SCOBYIs bacteria and yeast Our SCOBYTurns sucrose into glucose and fructoseIt ferments these simple sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide,Acetic acid bacteria oxidize much of that ethanol into organic acidsSuch as acetic, gluconic, and other acids.This steadily lowers the pHMaking the tea taste sour-tangy instead of purely sweet. [Chorus] Our SCOBYThen helps microbes produce acids, enzymes, and small amounts of B‑vitaminsWhile probiotics grow in the liquid.The pH falls to help inhibit unwanted microbesOur SCOBY creates a self-preserving, acidic environment in the tea [Chorus] In Kingston, Jamaica, Rastafarian’s combined an award-winning kombucha sequenced in Humboldt County, California, with locally grown ganja into a sacramental beverage to help open their mind to reasoning and focus on Jah. Once fermented, it was consumed over the course of a three-day Nyabinghi ceremony. “Luna Reyes is truly blessed. She strengthened our unity as a people, and our Rastafari’ booch help us chant down Babylon,” a Rasta man smiled, blowing smoke from a spliff the size of his arm. The Groundation Collective’s reggae anthem ‘Oh Luna’ joyfully celebrated Luna Reyes’ pioneering discovery. Oh Luna, Oh Luna, Oh Luna ReyesI love the sound of your nameYou so deserve your fame Luna, Luna, Oh Luna ReyesShining brightYou warm my heart Luna, Luna, Oh Luna ReyesYou cracked the codeTeenage prophet, fermentation queenSymbiosis roadA genius at seventeen Oh Luna, Luna, Luna ReyesBeautiful moonMakes me swoon Oh Luna, Luna, Luna ReyesFreedom to fermentYou are heaven sentTo save us Luna, Luna, Oh Luna ReyesYou opened the doorTo so much moreKombucha tastes so goodLike it should Oh Luna, Oh Luna, Oh LunaI love you, love you, love youOh Luna, Luna, LunaLove you, love you,Love Luna, Luna love. In São Paulo, Brazil, MAPA-certified Brazilian kombucha brands combined Heineken and cacao-fermenting yeasts with cupuaçu from indigenous Amazonian peoples, to create the chocolate-flavored ‘booch that won Gold at the 20th World Kombucha Awards. A cervejeiro explained to reporters: “Luna Reyes gave us the foundation. We added local innovation. This is what happens when you democratize biology.” The Brazilian singer Dandara Sereia covered ‘Our Fermented Future’—The Hollow Pines tune destined to become a hit at the 2053 Washington DC Fermentation Festival. Baby sit a little closer, sip some ‘booch with meI brewed this batch with the SCOBY my grandma gave to me.On the back porch swing at twilight, watching fireflies danceYour hand in mine, kombucha fine, the sweetest sweet romance. They say that wine and roses are the way to win the heartBut your kombucha warmed me right up from the start.Fermentation makes the heart grow fonder, truer words they ain’t been saidYour SCOBY’s got a place forever — in my heart, and in my bed. Let’s share our SCOBYs, baby, merge our ferments into oneLike cultures in a crock jar dancing, underneath the sun.The tang of your Lactobacillus is exactly what I’m missingYour Brettanomyces bacteria got this country girl reminiscing. Oh yeah, let’s share those SCOBYs, baby, merge our ferments into oneYour yeasts and my bacteria working till the magic’s doneYou’ve got the acetic acid honey, I’ve got the patience and the timeLet’s bubble up together, let our cultures intertwine. I’ve got that symbiotic feeling, something wild and something trueYour SCOBY’s in my heart, right there next to youThe way your Acetobacter turns sugar into goldIs how you turned my lonely life into a hand to hold. We’ve got the acetic acid and the glucuronic tooWe’ve got that symbiotic feeling, so righteous and so trueOne sip of your sweet ‘booch, Lord, and you had me from the start,It’s our fermented future, that no-one can tear apart. It’s our fermented future…It’s our fermented future…It’s our fermented future… “Luna Variants”—strains derived from her releases—began winning international brewing competitions, embarrassing corporate entries with their complexity and innovation. Traditional beer flavors seemed flat and artificial compared to the genetic symphonies created by collaborative open-source development. Despite the outpouring of positive vibes, the corporations spared no expense to hold Luna to account in the courts. The Preliminary Hearing A preliminary hearing was held in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on June 14, 2044. Luna sat at the defendant’s table, her hands folded so tightly her knuckles had gone white. She wore a borrowed blazer—too big in the shoulders—over a white button-down shirt Maya had ironed that morning. At seventeen, she looked even younger under the courtroom’s fluorescent lights. Across the aisle, Heineken’s legal team occupied three tables. Fifteen attorneys in matching navy suits shuffled documents and whispered into phones. Their lead counsel, William Barr III, wore gold cufflinks that caught the light when he gestured. Luna recognized him from the news—the former Attorney General, now commanding $2,000 an hour to destroy people like her. Her own legal representation consisted of two people: Rose Kennerson from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public interest lawyer who’d flown in from DC on a red-eye, and Dr. Marcus Webb, technically a witness but sitting beside Luna because she’d asked him to. Behind them, the gallery was packed. Luna’s parents sat in the second row, her father’s face gray, her mother clutching a rosary. Maya had taken the day off work. Abuela Rosa sat in the front row directly behind Luna, her ancient SCOBY wrapped in silk in her lap, as if its presence might protect her granddaughter. Judge Catherine Ironwood entered—sixty-ish, steel-gray hair pulled back severely, known for pro-corporate rulings. She’d been a pharmaceutical industry lawyer for twenty years before her appointment. “All rise,” the bailiff called. Judge Ironwood settled into her chair and surveyed the courtroom with the expression of someone who’d already decided the outcome and resented having to perform the formalities. “We’re here for a preliminary injunction hearing in Heineken International B.V. versus Luna Marie Reyes.” She looked directly at Luna. “Ms. Reyes, you’re seventeen years old?” Luna stood, hesitant. “Yes, your honor.” “Where are your parents?” “Here, your honor.” Luna’s mother half-rose, then sat back down. “Ms. Kennerson, your client is a minor. Are the parents aware they could be held liable for damages?” Rose Kennerson stood smoothly. “Yes, your honor. The Reyes family has been fully advised of the legal implications.” Luna glanced back. Her father’s jaw was clenched so tight she could see the muscles working. He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Very well. Mr. Barr, you may proceed.” Barr rose like a battleship emerging from fog—massive, expensive, inevitable. He buttoned his suit jacket and approached the bench without notes. “Your honor, this is the simplest case I’ve argued in thirty years. The defendant admits to obtaining my client’s proprietary biological materials. She admits to sequencing their genetic information. She admits to distributing that information globally, in deliberate violation of trade secret protections that have existed for over 150 years. She did this knowingly, systematically, and with the explicit intent to destroy my client’s competitive advantage.” Luna felt Sarah’s hand on her arm—stay calm. Barr continued. “Heineken International has invested over $200 million in the development, cultivation, and protection of the A-yeast strain. Then this teenager”—he pointed at Luna—”obtained samples from our waste disposal systems, reverse-engineered our genetic sequences, and released them to the world via BitTorrent, deliberately placing them beyond retrieval.” He paced now, warming to his theme. “The damage is incalculable. We estimate lost market value at $50 billion. But it’s not just about money. The defendant has destroyed the possibility of competition in the brewing industry. When everyone has access to the same genetic materials, there’s no innovation, no differentiation, no reason for consumers to choose one product over another. She has, in effect, communized an entire industry.” Luna couldn’t help herself. “That’s not—” Sarah grabbed her wrist. “Don’t.” Judge Ironwood’s eyes narrowed. “Ms. Reyes, you will have your opportunity to speak. Until then, you will remain silent, or I will have you removed from this courtroom. Do you understand?” “Yes, your honor.” Luna’s voice came out smaller than she intended. Barr smiled slightly. “Your honor, the relief we seek is straightforward. We ask this court to order the defendant to provide us with a complete list of all servers, websites, and distribution networks where the stolen genetic data currently resides. We ask that she be ordered to cooperate fully in suppressing the data. We ask that she be enjoined from any further distribution. And we ask that she be ordered to pay compensatory damages of $5 billion, plus punitive damages to be determined at trial.” He returned to his seat. One of his associate attorneys handed him a bottle of Pellegrino. He took a sip and waited. Judge Ironwood looked at Sarah. “Ms. Kennerson?” Sarah stood. She looked tiny compared to Barr—five-foot-three, maybe 110 pounds, wearing a suit from Target. But when she spoke, her voice filled the courtroom. “Your honor, Mr. Barr has given you a compelling story about a corporation that’s been wronged. But it’s not the right story. The right story is about whether naturally occurring organisms—creatures that evolved over millions of years, long before humans ever existed—can be owned by a corporation simply because that corporation happened to isolate them.” She walked toward the bench. “Let’s be clear about what the A-yeast strain is. It’s not a genetically modified organism. It’s not a patented invention. It’s a naturally occurring yeast. Heineken didn’t create it. Evolution created it. Heineken merely found it. And for 158 years, they’ve claimed that finding something gives them the right to prevent anyone else from studying it, understanding it, or using it.” Barr was on his feet. “Objection, your honor. This is a preliminary hearing about injunctive relief, not a philosophical debate about intellectual property theory.” “Sustained. Ms. Kennerson, please focus on the specific legal issues before this court.” “Your honor, the specific legal issue is whether naturally occurring genetic sequences constitute protectable trade secrets. My client contends they do not. She obtained the yeast samples from Heineken’s waste disposal—materials they had discarded. Under the garbage doctrine, she had every right to analyze those materials. The genetic sequences she discovered are factual information about naturally occurring organisms. You cannot trade-secret facts about nature.” Luna watched Judge Ironwood’s face. Nothing. No reaction. Sarah pressed on. “Mr. Barr claims my client ‘stole’ genetic information worth $5 billion. But information cannot be stolen—it can only be shared. When I tell you a fact, I don’t lose possession of that fact. We both have it. That’s how knowledge works. Heineken hasn’t lost their yeast. They still have it. They can still brew with it. What they’ve lost is their monopoly on that knowledge. And monopolies on facts about nature should never have existed in the first place.” “Your honor—” Barr tried to interrupt. Judge Ironwood waved him down. “Continue, Ms. Kennerson.” “Your honor, Heineken wants this court to order a seventeen-year-old girl to somehow suppress information that has already been distributed to over 100,000 people in 147 countries. That’s impossible. You can’t unring a bell. You can’t put knowledge back in a bottle. Even if this court ordered my client to provide a list of servers—which she shouldn’t have to do—that list would be incomplete within hours as new mirror sites appeared. The information is out. The only question is whether we punish my client for sharing factual information about naturally occurring organisms.” She turned to face Luna’s family. “Ms. Reyes taught herself bioinformatics from YouTube videos. She works at home with equipment she bought on eBay. She has no criminal record. She’s never been in trouble. She saw a question that interested her—why do commercial beers taste like they do?—and she pursued that question with the tools available to her. When she discovered the answer, she shared it with the world, under a Creative Commons license that specifically protects sharing for educational and scientific purposes. If that’s terrorism, your honor, then every scientist who’s ever published a research paper is a terrorist.” Sarah sat down. Luna wanted to hug her. Judge Ironwood leaned back. “Ms. Reyes, stand up.” Luna rose, her legs shaking. “Do you understand the seriousness of these proceedings?” “Yes, your honor.” “Do you understand that Heineken International is asking me to hold you in contempt of court if you refuse to help them suppress the information you released?” “Yes, your honor.” “Do you understand that contempt of court could result in your detention in a juvenile facility until you reach the age of eighteen, and potentially longer if the contempt continues?” Luna’s mother gasped audibly. Her father put his arm around her. “Yes, your honor,” Luna said, though her voice wavered. “Then let me ask you directly: If I order you to provide Heineken with a complete list of all locations where the genetic data you released currently resides, will you comply?” The courtroom went silent. Luna could hear her own heartbeat. Sarah started to stand—”Your honor, I advise my client not to answer—” “Sit down, Ms. Kennerson. I’m asking your client a direct question. She can choose to answer or not.” Judge Ironwood’s eyes never left Luna. “Well, Ms. Reyes? Will you comply with a court order to help Heineken suppress the information you released?” Luna looked at her parents. Her mother was crying silently. Her father’s face was stone. She looked at Abuela Rosa. Her grandmother nodded once—tell the truth. Luna looked back at the judge. “No, your honor.” Barr shot to his feet. “Your honor, the defendant has just admitted she intends to defy a court order—” “I heard her, Mr. Barr.” Judge Ironwood’s voice was ice. “Ms. Reyes, do you understand you’ve just told a federal judge you will refuse a direct order?” “Yes, your honor.” “And you’re still refusing?” “Yes, your honor.” “Why?” Sarah stood quickly. “Your honor, my client doesn’t have to explain—” “I want to hear it.” Judge Ironwood leaned forward. “Ms. Reyes, tell me why you would risk jail rather than help undo what you’ve done.” Luna took a breath. Her whole body was shaking, but her voice was steady. “Because it would be wrong, your honor.” “Wrong how?” “The genetic sequences I released evolved over millions of years. Heineken didn’t create that yeast. They isolated one strain and claimed ownership of it. The code of life belongs to everyone. That’s humanity’s heritage. Even if you send me to jail, I can’t help suppress the truth.” Judge Ironwood stared at her for a long moment. “That’s a very pretty speech, Ms. Reyes. But this court operates under the law, not your personal philosophy about what should or shouldn’t be owned. Trade secret law exists. Heineken’s rights exist. And you violated those rights.” Luna did not hesitate. “With respect, your honor, I don’t think those rights should exist.” Barr exploded. “Your honor, this is outrageous! The defendant is openly stating she believes she has the right to violate any law she disagrees with—” “That’s not what I said.” Luna’s fear was transforming into something else—something harder. “I’m saying that some laws are unjust. And when laws are unjust, civil disobedience becomes necessary. People broke unjust laws during the civil rights movement. People broke unjust laws when they helped slaves escape. The constitution says members of the military do not have to obey illegal orders, despite what those in power might claim. Sometimes the law is wrong. And when the law says corporations can own genetic information about naturally occurring organisms, the law is wrong.” Judge Ironwood’s face flushed. “Ms. Reyes, you are not Rosa Parks. This is not the civil rights movement. This is a case about intellectual property theft.” “It’s a case about whether life can be property, your honor.” “Enough.” Judge Ironwood slammed her gavel. “Ms. Kennerson, control your client.” Sarah pulled Luna back into her chair. “Luna, stop talking,” she hissed. Judge Ironwood shuffled papers, visibly trying to compose herself. “I’m taking a fifteen-minute recess to consider the injunction request. We’ll reconvene at 11:30. Ms. Reyes, I strongly suggest you use this time to reconsider your position.” The gavel fell again, and Judge Ironwood swept out. The hallway outside the courtroom erupted. Reporters swarmed. Luna’s father grabbed her arm and pulled her into a witness room. Her mother followed, still crying. Maya slipped in before Sarah closed the door. “What were you thinking?” Luna’s father’s voice shook. “You just told a federal judge you’ll defy her orders. They’re going to put you in jail, Luna. Do you understand that? Jail!” “Ricardo, please—” Her mother tried to calm him. “No, Elena. Our daughter just committed contempt of court in front of fifty witnesses. They’re going to take her from us.” He turned to Luna, his eyes wet. “Why? Why couldn’t you just apologize? Say you made a mistake? We could have ended this.” “Because I didn’t make a mistake, Papa.” “You destroyed their property!” “It wasn’t their property. It was never their property.” “The law says it was!” “Then the law is wrong!” Her father stepped back as if she’d slapped him. “Do you know what your mother and I have sacrificed to keep you out of trouble? Do you know how hard we’ve worked since we came to this country to give you opportunities we never had? And you throw it away for yeast. Not for justice. Not for people. For yeast.” Luna’s eyes filled with tears. “It’s not about yeast, Papa. It’s about whether corporations get to own life. If Heineken can own yeast, why not bacteria? Why not human genes? Where does it stop?” “It stops when my daughter goes to jail!” He was shouting now. “I don’t care about Heineken. I don’t care about yeast. I care about you. And you just told that judge you’ll defy her. She’s going to put you in jail, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.” “Ricardo, por favor—” Elena put her hand on his arm. He shook it off. “No. She needs to hear this. Luna, if you go to jail, your life is over. No college will accept you. No company will hire you. You’ll have a criminal record. You’ll be marked forever. Is that what you want?” “I want to do what’s right.” “What’s right is protecting your family! What’s right is not destroying your future for a principle!” he said. Luna responded, “What’s right is not letting corporations own the code of life!”They stared at each other. Maya spoke up quietly from the corner. “Papa, she can’t back down now. The whole world is watching.” “Let the world watch someone else!” Ricardo turned on Maya. “You encourage this. You film her, you post her manifestos online, you help her become famous. You’re her sister. You’re supposed to protect her, not help her destroy herself.” “I am protecting her,” Maya said. “I’m protecting her from becoming someone who backs down when the world tells her she’s wrong, even though she knows she’s right.” Ricardo looked between his daughters. “Ambos están locos! You’re both insane.” Abuela Rosa opened the door and entered. She’d been listening from the hallway. “Ricardo, enough.” “Mama, stay out of this.” “No.” Rosa moved between Ricardo and Luna. “You’re afraid. I understand. But fear makes you cruel, mijo. Your daughter is brave. She’s doing something important. And you’re making her choose between you and what’s right. Don’t do that.” “She’s seventeen years old! She’s a child!” “She’s old enough to know right from wrong.” Rosa put her hand on Ricardo’s cheek. “When I was sixteen, I left Oaxaca with nothing but the clothes on my back and this SCOBY. Everyone said I was crazy. Your father said I would fail. But I knew I had to go, even if it cost me everything. Sometimes our children have to do things that terrify us. That’s how the world changes.” Ricardo pulled away. “If they put her in jail, will that change the world, Mama? When she’s sitting in a cell while Heineken continues doing whatever they want, will that have been worth it?” “Yes,” Luna said quietly. “Even if I go to jail, yes. Because thousands of people now have the genetic sequences, Heineken can’t put that back. They can punish me, but they can’t undo what I did. The information is free. It’s going to stay free. And if the price of that is me going to jail, then that’s the price.” Her father looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. “I don’t know who you are anymore.” “I’m still your daughter, Papa. I’m just also someone who won’t let corporations own life.” A knock on the door. Sarah poked her head in. “They’re reconvening. Luna, we need to go.” Back in the courtroom, the atmosphere had shifted. The gallery was more crowded—word had spread during the recess. Luna recognized several people from online forums. Some held signs reading “FREE LUNA” and “GENETICS BELONG TO EVERYONE.” Judge Ironwood entered and sat without ceremony. “I’ve reviewed the submissions and heard the arguments. This is my ruling.” Luna’s hand found Maya’s in the row behind her. Squeezed tight. “The question before this court is whether to grant Heineken International’s motion for a preliminary injunction requiring Ms. Reyes to assist in suppressing the genetic information she released. To grant such an injunction, Heineken must demonstrate four things: likelihood of success on the merits, likelihood of irreparable harm without the injunction, balance of equities in their favor, and that an injunction serves the public interest.” Barr was nodding. These were his arguments. “Having considered the evidence and the applicable law, I find that Heineken has demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits. Trade secret law clearly protects proprietary business information, and the A-yeast strain appears to meet the legal definition of a trade secret.” Luna’s stomach dropped. “However, I also find that Heineken has failed to demonstrate that a preliminary injunction would effectively prevent the irreparable harm they claim. Ms. Kennerson is correct that the genetic information has already been distributed to over 100,000 people worldwide. Ordering one teenager to provide a list of servers would be, in technical terms, pointless. New copies would appear faster than they could be suppressed.” Barr’s face tightened. “Furthermore, I find that the balance of equities does not favor Heineken. They ask this court to potentially incarcerate a seventeen-year-old girl for refusing to suppress information that is, by her account, factual data about naturally occurring organisms. The potential harm to Ms. Reyes—including detention, criminal record, and foreclosure of educational and career opportunities—substantially outweighs any additional harm Heineken might suffer from continued distribution of information that is already widely distributed.” Luna felt Maya’s grip tighten. Was this good? This sounded good. “Finally, and most importantly, I find that granting this injunction would not serve the public interest. The court takes judicial notice that this case has generated substantial public debate about the scope of intellectual property protection in biotechnology. The questions raised by Ms. Reyes—whether naturally occurring genetic sequences should be ownable, whether facts about nature can be trade secrets, whether knowledge can be property—are questions that deserve answers from a higher authority than this court. These are questions for appellate courts, perhaps ultimately for the Supreme Court. And they are questions best answered in the context of a full trial on the merits, not in an emergency injunction hearing.” Barr was on his feet. “Your honor—” “Sit down, Mr. Barr. I’m not finished.” He sat, his face purple. “Therefore, Heineken International’s motion for preliminary injunction is denied. Ms. Reyes will not be required to assist in suppressing the genetic information she released. However,”—Judge Ironwood looked directly at Luna—”this ruling should not be construed as approval of Ms. Reyes’ actions. Heineken’s claims for damages and other relief remain viable and will proceed to trial. Ms. Reyes, you may have won this battle, but this war is far from over. Anything you want to say?” Luna stood slowly. “Your honor, I just want to say… thank you. For letting this go to trial. For letting these questions be answered properly. That’s all I ever wanted—for someone to seriously consider whether corporations should be allowed to own genetic information about naturally occurring organisms. So thank you.” Judge Ironwood’s expression softened slightly. “Ms. Reyes, I hope you’re prepared for what comes next. Heineken has unlimited resources. They will pursue this case for years if necessary. You’ll be in litigation until you’re twenty-five years old. Your entire young adulthood will be consumed by depositions, court appearances, and legal fees. Are you prepared for that?” “Yes, your honor.” “Why?” Luna glanced at her grandmother, who nodded. “Because some questions are worth answering, your honor. Even if it takes years. Even if it costs everything. The question of whether corporations can own life—that’s worth answering. And if I have to spend my twenties answering it, then that’s what I’ll do.” Judge Ironwood studied her for a long moment. “You remind me of someone I used to know. Someone who believed the law should serve justice, not just power.” She paused. “That person doesn’t exist anymore. The law ground her down. I hope it doesn’t do the same to you.” She raised her gavel. “This hearing is adjourned. The parties will be notified of the trial date once it’s scheduled. Ms. Reyes, good luck. I think you’re going to need it.” The gavel fell. Outside the courthouse, the scene was chaotic. News cameras surrounded Luna. Reporters shouted questions. But Luna barely heard them. She was looking at her father, who stood apart from the crowd, watching her. She walked over to him. “Papa, I’m sorry I yelled.” He didn’t speak for a moment. Then he pulled her into a hug so tight it hurt. “Don’t apologize for being brave,” he whispered into her hair. “I’m just afraid of losing you.” “You won’t lose me, Papa. I promise.” “You can’t promise that. Not anymore.” He pulled back, holding her shoulders. “But I’m proud of you. I’m terrified, but I’m proud.” Her mother joined them, tears streaming down her face. “No more court. Please, no more court.” “I can’t promise that either, Mama.” Elena touched Luna’s face. “Then promise me you’ll be careful. Promise me you’ll remember that you’re not just fighting for genetics. You’re fighting for your life.” Luna smiled. “I promise.” Abuela Rosa appeared, carrying her SCOBY. “Come, mija. We should go before the reporters follow us home.” As they pushed through the crowd toward Maya’s car, Luna's phone buzzed continuously. Text messages and emails pouring in. But what caught her attention was a text from Dr. Webb: You were right. I’m sorry I doubted. Check your email—Dr. Doudna wants to talk. Luna opened her email. The subject line made her stop walking: From: jennifer.doudna@berkeley.eduSubject: Civil Disobedience of the Highest Order She started to read: Dear Ms. Reyes, I watched your hearing this morning. What you did in that courtroom—refusing to back down even when threatened with jail—was one of the bravest things I’ve seen in forty years of science. You’re not just fighting for yeast genetics. You’re fighting for the principle that knowledge about nature belongs to humanity, not to corporations. I want to help… Luna looked up at her family—her father’s worried face, her mother’s tears, Maya’s proud smile, Abuela Rosa’s serene confidence. Behind them, the courthouse where she’d nearly been sent to jail. Around them, reporters and cameras and strangers who’d traveled across the country to support her. She thought about Judge Ironwood’s warning: This war is far from over. She thought about Barr’s face when the injunction was denied. She thought about the thousands who’d downloaded the genetic sequences and were, right now, brewing with genetics that had been locked away for 158 years. Worth it. All of it. Even the fear. Maya opened the car door. “Come on, little revolutionary. Let’s go home.” The Corporate Surrender By 2045, both Heineken and Anheuser-Busch quietly dropped their lawsuits against Luna. Their legal costs had exceeded $200 million while accomplishing nothing except generating bad publicity. More importantly, their “protected” strains had become worthless in a market flooded with superior alternatives. Heineken’s CEO attempted to salvage the company by embracing open-source brewing. His announcement that Heineken would “join the La Luna Revolution” was met with skepticism from the brewing community, which recalled the company’s aggressive legal tactics. The craft brewing community’s response was hostile. “They spent two years trying to destroy her,” a prominent brewmaster told The New Brewer Magazine. “Now they want credit for ’embracing’ the revolution she forced on them? Heineken didn’t join the Luna Revolution—they surrendered to it. There’s a difference.” The global brands never recovered their market share. Luna’s Transformation Luna’s success transformed her from a garage tinkerer into a global icon of the open knowledge movement. Her 2046 TED Talk, “Why Flavor Belongs to Everyone,” went viral. She argued that corporate control over living organisms represented “biological colonialism” that impoverished human culture by restricting natural diversity. Rather than commercializing her fame, Luna founded the Global Fermentation Commons, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and sharing microbial genetics worldwide. Their laboratories operated as open-access research facilities where anyone could experiment with biological systems. The headquarters of the Global Fermentation Commons occupied a former Genentech facility donated by Dr. Webb. Six continents, forty researchers, one mission: preserve and share microbial genetics worldwide. Luna addressed a crowded auditorium at the organization’s third anniversary. “When I released Heineken and Budweiser’s yeast strains, some people called it theft. Others called it liberation. I called it returning biological knowledge to the commons, where it belongs. Three years later, so-called Luna Variants have created economic opportunities for thousands of small brewers, improved food security in developing regions, and demonstrated that genetic freedom drives innovation faster than corporate control.” She continued. “We’re not stopping with beer. The same principles apply to all fermentation: cheese cultures, yogurt bacteria, koji fungi, sourdough starters. Every traditionally fermented food relies on microorganisms that corporations increasingly claim to own. We’re systematically liberating them.” A World Health Organization representative raised a concern: “Ms. Reyes, while we support democratizing food fermentation, there are legitimate concerns about pharmaceutical applications. What prevents someone from using your open-source genetics to create dangerous organisms?” Luna nodded. “Fair question. First, the organisms we release are food-safe cultures with centuries of safe use. Second, dangerous genetic modifications require sophisticated laboratory equipment and expertise—far beyond what releasing genetic sequences enables. Third, determined bad actors already have access to dangerous biology, enabled by AI. We’re not creating new risks; we’re democratizing beneficial biology.” “Pharmaceutical companies argue you’re undermining their investments in beneficial organisms,” another representative pressed. “Pharmaceutical companies invest in modifying organisms,” Luna clarified. “Those modifications can be patented. What we oppose is claiming ownership over naturally occurring organisms or their baseline genetics. If you genetically engineer a bacterium to produce insulin, patent your engineering. Don’t claim ownership over the bacterial species itself.” A Monsanto representative stood. “Your organization recently cracked and released our proprietary seed genetics. That’s direct theft of our property.” Luna didn’t flinch. “Seeds that farmers cultivated for thousands of years before Monsanto existed? You didn’t invent corn, wheat, or soybeans. You modified them. Your modifications may be protectable; the baseline genetics are humanity’s heritage. We’re liberating what should never have been owned.” “The ‘Luna Legion’ has cost us hundreds of millions!” the representative protested. “Good,” Luna responded calmly. “You’ve cost farmers their sovereignty for decades. Consider it karma.” After the presentation, Dr. Doudna approached Luna privately. “You’ve accomplished something remarkable,” the elderly scientist said. “When I developed Crispr, I never imagined a teenager would use similar principles to challenge corporate biology. You’re forcing conversations about genetic ownership that we’ve avoided for decades.” “It needed forcing,” Luna replied. “Corporations were quietly owning life itself, one patent at a time. Someone had to say no.” “The pharmaceutical industry is terrified of you,” Doudna continued. “They see what happened to brewing and imagine the same for their carefully controlled bacterial strains. You’re going to face even more aggressive opposition.” “I know. Once people understand that biological knowledge can be liberated, they start questioning all biological ownership. We’re not stopping.” The New Economy of Taste Following Luna’s breakthrough, peer-to-peer flavor-sharing platforms emerged as the dominant force in food culture. The “FlavorChain” blockchain allowed brewers to track genetic lineages while ensuring proper attribution to original creators. SCOBY lineages were carefully sequenced, catalogued, and registered on global blockchain ledgers. Each award-winning kombucha strain carried a “genetic passport”—its microbial makeup, the unique balance of yeasts and bacteria that gave rise to particular mouthfeel, fizz, and flavor spectrum, was mapped, hashed, and permanently recorded. Brewers who created a new flavor could claim authorship, just as musicians once copyrighted songs. No matter how many times a SCOBY was divided, its fingerprint could be verified. Fermentation Guilds formed to share recipes through FlavorChain, enabling decentralized digital markets like SymbioTrdr, built on trust and transparency rather than speculation. They allowed people to interact and transact on a global, permissionless, self-executing platform. Within days, a SCOBY strain from the Himalayas could appear in a brew in Buenos Aires, its journey traced through open ledgers showing who tended, adapted, and shared it. Kombucha recipes were no longer jealously guarded secrets. They were open to anyone who wanted to brew. With a few clicks, a Guild member in Nairobi could download the blockchain-verified SCOBY genome that had won Gold at the Tokyo Fermentation Festival. Local biotech printers—as common in 2100 kitchens as microwave ovens had once been—could reconstitute the living culture cell by cell. Children began inheriting SCOBY lineages the way earlier generations inherited family names. Weddings combined SCOBY cultures as symbolic unions. (Let’s share our SCOBYs, baby, merge our ferments into one.) When someone died, their SCOBY was divided among friends and family—a continuation of essence through taste. Kombucha was no longer merely consumed; it was communed with. This transparency transformed kombucha from a minority regional curiosity into a universal language. A festival in Brazil might feature ten local interpretations of the same “Golden SCOBY” strain—one brewed with passionfruit, another with cupuaçu, a third with açaí berries. The core microbial signature remained intact, while the terroir of fruit and spice gave each version a unique accent. Brewers didn’t lose their craft—they gained a canvas. Award-winning SCOBYs were the foundations on which endless new flavor experiments flourished. Many people were now as prolific as William Esslinger, the founder of St Louis’s Confluence Kombucha, who was renowned for developing 800 flavors in the 2020s. Code of Symbiosis The Symbiosis Code, ratified at the first World Fermentation Gathering in Reykjavik (2063), bound Fermentation Guilds to three principles: Transparency — All microbial knowledge is to be shared freely. Reciprocity — No brew should be produced without acknowledging the source. Community — Every fermentation must nourish more than the brewer. This code replaced corporate law. It was enforced by reputation, not by governments. A Guild member who betrayed the code found their SCOBYs mysteriously refusing to thrive—a poetic justice the biologists never quite explained. Every Guild had elders—called Mothers of the Jar or Keepers of the Yeast. They carried living SCOBYs wrapped in silk pouches when traveling, exchanging fragments as blessings. These elders became moral anchors of the age, counselors and mediators trusted more than politicians. When disputes arose—over territory, resources, or ethics—brewers, not lawyers, met to share a round of Truth Brew, a ferment so balanced that it was said to reveal dishonesty through bitterness. The Fullness of Time The International Biotech Conference of 2052 invited Luna to give the closing keynote—a controversial decision that prompted several corporate sponsors to withdraw support. The auditorium was packed with supporters, critics, and the merely curious. “Nine years ago, I released genetic sequences for beer yeast strains protected as trade secrets. I was called a thief, a bioterrorist, worse. Today, I want to discuss what we’ve learned from those years of open-source biology.” She displayed a chart showing the explosion of brewing innovation since 2043. “In the traditional corporate model, a few companies control a few strains, producing a limited variety. With the open-source model, thousands of brewers using thousands of variants, producing infinite diversity. As Duff McDonald wrote “Anything that alive contains the universe, or infinite possibility. Kombucha is infinite possibility in a drink.” And the results speak for themselves—flavor innovation accelerated a thousand-fold when we removed corporate control.” A student activist approached the microphone. “Ms. Reyes, you’ve inspired movements to liberate seed genetics, soil bacteria, and traditional medicine cultures. The ‘Luna Legion’ is spreading globally. What’s your message to young people who want to continue this work?” Luna smiled. “First, understand the risks. I was sued by multinational corporations, received death threats, spent years fighting legal battles. This work has costs. Second, be strategic. Release information you’ve generated yourself through legal methods—no hacking, no theft. Third, build communities. I survived because people supported me—legally, financially, emotionally. You can’t fight corporations alone. Finally, remember why you’re doing it: to return biological knowledge to the commons where it belongs. That purpose will sustain you through the hard parts.” Teaching By twenty-eight, Luna was a MacArthur Fellow, teaching fermentation workshops in a converted Anheuser-Busch facility. As she watched her students—former corporate employees learning to think like ecosystems rather than factories—she reflected that her teenage hack had accomplished more than liberating yeast genetics. She had helped humanity remember that flavor, like knowledge, grows stronger when shared rather than hoarded. Luna’s garage had evolved into a sophisticated community biolab. The original jury-rigged equipment had been replaced with professional gear funded by her MacArthur Fellowship. Abuela Rosa still maintained her fermentation crocks in the corner—a reminder of where everything started. A group of five

Coca-Cola is… sugar water. And somehow it's also America, Christmas, summertime, friendship and happiness. Today we tell the story of how The Coca-Cola Company amazingly transmogrified a beverage into emotion in all of our collective psyches, and ALSO built one of the most incredible scale economy businesses of all-time. And oh yeah, there's also cocaine, WW2, Mad Men, Warren Buffett, James Dean, Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, Michael Ovitz, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, McDonald's and Monsanto. So cozy up to the fire with your favorite images of Santa Claus and Polar Bears and enjoy an ice-cold episode of Acquired — always delicious, always refreshing.Sponsors:Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘25 Season partners:J.P. Morgan PaymentsWorkOSShopifySentry — Link to ACQ Cassette Players, use code “audiophile”Links:Sign up for email updates and vote on future episodes!The Hilltop ad / Mad Men finalePepsi Challenge commercialsPepsi's Michael Jackson commercialsCoke's Bill Cosby commercialsTwo liter bottles inflatingWorldly Partners' Multi-Decade Coca-Cola StudyFor God, Country, and Coca-ColaSecret FormulaAll episode sourcesCarve Outs:SkiErgSuper Smash Bros. UltimateClaudeNike Vomero PlusHermanos GutiérrezMore Acquired:Get email updates and vote on future episodes!Join the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Employees at Clark County Gov't Center v. Monsanto

This Day in Legal History: US Capitol OpensOn November 17, 1800, the United States Congress convened for the first time in the new Capitol building in Washington, D.C., marking a foundational moment in American legal and political history. The relocation came after a decade of Congress meeting in temporary quarters, most recently in Philadelphia, as the young republic grappled with questions of permanence and national identity. Washington, D.C. had been selected as the capital through the Residence Act of 1790, a political compromise that helped balance regional power between North and South. By 1800, the city remained largely undeveloped, and the Capitol itself was still under construction—only the north wing was usable.Despite its incomplete state, the Capitol's occupation by Congress signaled the institutional maturity of the federal government. It gave physical shape to the separation of powers by housing the legislative branch in its own dedicated space, distinct from the executive and judiciary. This move also underscored the federal character of the American system, establishing a neutral location not belonging to any one state. John Adams, still president at the time, had moved into the President's House (now the White House) just weeks earlier, completing the federal trifecta.The decision to proceed with the session in an unfinished building reflected a commitment to constitutional governance and the rule of law, even in the face of logistical and environmental hardships. Lawmakers contended with the muddy streets and sparse accommodations of the nascent city, yet their presence inaugurated what would become one of the most symbolically and functionally important legislative chambers in the world. This moment laid the groundwork for Washington, D.C. to become not only the seat of American government but a focal point for legal development, political conflict, and democratic debate for centuries to come.More than 500 lawsuits alleging that Tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism in children may be revived, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit prepares to hear arguments from plaintiffs challenging a 2024 dismissal of their cases. A lower court had rejected the claims after finding that the plaintiffs' expert testimony lacked scientific rigor, a conclusion supported by Tylenol maker Kenvue. The plaintiffs argue the judge mischaracterized their experts' findings and are citing public support from President Trump and health officials, who linked autism to Tylenol use during a September 2025 press conference.Scientific consensus continues to hold that no definitive link exists between acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) and autism, a position echoed by Kenvue. The company is also facing a separate suit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who accuses Kenvue of concealing risks to children, though a Texas judge recently denied Paxton's efforts to halt a $398 million shareholder dividend and restrict Tylenol marketing. Meanwhile, it remains uncertain whether the appeal will impact Kimberly-Clark's pending $40 billion acquisition of Kenvue, though both companies have indicated that litigation over autism claims won't derail the deal.US appeals court to weigh reviving cases over Tylenol and autism | ReutersGupta Wessler, a boutique appellate firm in Washington, D.C., known for its U.S. Supreme Court advocacy on behalf of plaintiffs, has hired Matthew Guarnieri, a former assistant to the U.S. solicitor general. Guarnieri argued 13 Supreme Court cases under both the Biden and Trump administrations and is the first attorney to leave the solicitor general's office for a firm that exclusively handles plaintiff-side appellate work. His move reflects a growing recognition of Gupta Wessler's nontraditional model, which competes with corporate-heavy appellate practices at larger firms.Guarnieri becomes the fifth principal at the 18-lawyer firm, which is currently involved in high-profile litigation, including representing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees challenging President Trump's mass firings and securing a $185 million verdict against Monsanto over chemical contamination. The firm also represents Uber passengers alleging sexual assault and recently blocked an attempt in Nevada to limit contingency fees in civil cases. Guarnieri left the DOJ in October after nine years of service; the department declined to comment on his departure.DC appellate firm picks up departing DOJ Supreme Court advocate | ReutersA federal jury in California has ordered Apple to pay $634 million to Masimo, a medical technology company, for infringing a patent related to blood-oxygen monitoring used in Apple Watches. The jury found that specific features like workout mode and heart rate notifications violated Masimo's patent rights. Apple has announced plans to appeal, arguing that the patent in question, which expired in 2022, covers outdated technology and that most of Masimo's other patent claims have been invalidated.This verdict is part of a broader legal conflict between Apple and Masimo, which accuses Apple of poaching employees and misappropriating pulse oximetry technology. In 2023, the U.S. International Trade Commission imposed an import ban on certain Apple Watch models, prompting Apple to remove the disputed feature and later reintroduce it with customs approval. A new ITC review is now underway to determine if the updated models should also be banned. The legal fight spans several courts and includes ongoing challenges from both companies over import restrictions and intellectual property claims.US jury says Apple must pay Masimo $634 million in smartwatch patent case | Reuters This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

Los estallidos de Hiroshima y Nagasaki más que por razones militares estratégicas fueron impulsados por los intereses comerciales de las multinacionales del Complejo Militar Industrial norteamericano, en especial las armamentistas, que cuentan con un lobby militar permanente en la Casa Blanca. La carrera armamentista (nuclear, convencional y espacial), cuyo presupuesto hoy supera el billón de dólares, tuvo su punto de partida en Hiroshima y Nagasaki. Cómo se articuló y quienes son los que lucran con el "negocio nuclear". Los estallidos de Hiroshima y Nagasaki así lo demuestran las investigaciones independientes más que por razones militares estratégicas fueron impulsados por los intereses de las corporaciones del Complejo Militar Industrial norteamericano, en especial las armamentistas, que cuentan con un lobby militar permanente en la Casa Blanca. Las bombas de Hiroshima y Nagasaki no fueron arrojadas para "evitar más muertes" ni para precipitar la "rendición" del Japón: fueron lanzadas para iniciar la carrera armamentista (y consecuentemente el incremento sideral de la tasa de ganancias de las corporaciones del Complejo Militar Industrial que financiaron el proyecto de bombardeo), y lanzar un alerta amedrentador a la Unión Soviética, la otra potencia con capacidad nuclear. El genocidio aterrador de Hiroshima y Nagasaki le sirvió a los bancos y corporaciones (amparados por el Estado Nacional norteamericano) para instalar la carrera armamentista y la carrera espacial debajo de los acuerdos de "coexistencia pacífica" que mantenía al poder nuclear como efecto "disuasivo". El marco nuclear de la "coexistencia pacífica" (además de alimentar el negocio de las corporaciones aeroespaciales) sirvió de cáscara para desarrollar la confrontación por "áreas de influencia" entre EEUU y la URSS durante la Guerra Fría, mediante la cual la "industria de la guerra" (convencional y nuclear) facturó ganancias en armamento cuyo presupuesto mundial hoy supera el billón de dólares. En términos prácticos, y en números, la masacre nuclear de Hiroshima y Nagasaki sirvió a las trasnacionales y bancos para instalar la industria y la financiación del armamentismo (nuclear y convencional) tomado como "efecto disuasivo" para "evitar que sucedan" otras tragedias similares. La carrera armamentista (nuclear y convencional) alimenta los contratos y las ganancias de los consorcios agrupados en ese monstruo llamado Complejo Militar Industrial norteamericano. En su último informe Project on Government Oversight (POGO, Proyecto de Supervisión Gubernamental), un grupo con sede en Washington que vigila el gasto militar, señaló que, entre enero de 1997 y mayo de 2004, sólo 20 grandes proveedores recibieron más del 40 por ciento de los 244.000 millones de dólares en contratos del gobierno federal estadounidense. Entre los consorcios que se benefician en primer lugar de esta práctica se cuentan Lockheed Martin, la gigante aeroespacial Boeing, Northrop Grumman, contratista de la Fuerza Aérea, Raytheon, y General Dynamics. Boeing fabricó los bombarderos que transportaron las bombas de Hiroshima y Nagasaki, e integró el "lobby militar" que promovió e impulsó el proyecto compuesto entre otros por, Carnegie, Dupont, Westinghouse, Union Carbide, Tenesee Eastman, Kellogg, y Monsanto.

or our 200th episode of People Of Lisbon, we met with Carlos Moedas, the Mayor of Lisbon. From garbage collection to housing, from firefighters to medals and sailing boats to his personal story of growing up with hardship—Moedas talks honestly about what it really means to run Lisbon.He speaks about:• the pressures of a 24-hour job• the father he lost and still thinks about every day• Lisbon's housing crisis and his dream for the city• producing wine in Monsanto (!?)• what being a centrist means in 2025• why the 5th of October room is the most important room in Portugal• and why cities now matter more than countries

In this episode, Kelly, known as Glyphosate Girl on Instagram, shares her profound experience and knowledge about glyphosate. The conversation begins with Kelly's personal narrative on facing multiple health issues, leading her to explore the adverse effects of glyphosate. The discussion encompasses the origins, widespread use, and dangerous impacts of glyphosate on human health and the environment. Furthermore, Kelly sheds light on Monsanto's controversial practices and the ongoing legal battles. She emphasizes the importance of regenerative agriculture as a solution to move away from reliance on such chemicals.     03:04 Introduction to Glyphosate 03:52 Personal Health Journey 07:05 Discovering Glyphosate's Impact 09:32 History and Use of Glyphosate 14:43 Glyphosate in Our Environment 24:24 Health Implications of Glyphosate 27:20 Legal Battles and Public Awareness 28:16 The EPA's Initial Findings on Glyphosate 29:28 Monsanto's Response and Manipulation 30:31 International Agency for Research on Cancer's Findings 32:05 EPA's Controversial Decision 32:43 Political and Regulatory Challenges 38:04 The Role of Regenerative Agriculture 41:56 Bayer's Acquisition and Legal Battles 43:26 Liability Shields and Legislative Efforts 44:55 Public Awareness and Personal Responsibility 51:38 The European Perspective on Glyphosate    

Join our champion program: mark@themomentumcompany.com Attend a Thriving Leader event: https://www.themomentumcompany.com/thrivingleader2025 Instagram: @the.momentum.company LinkedIn: /momentum-companyIn this episode, Mark Jewell sits down with Martha Schlicher, CEO of Impetus Ag, to talk about intentional leadership, innovation, and the reality of building agricultural startups in today's rapidly evolving landscape. From her groundbreaking work at Monsanto to leading a new venture tackling crop pest resistance, Martha shares hard-earned wisdom on stewardship, startup grit, and the responsibility of developing sustainable solutions for growers.This is a conversation about courage, clarity, and conviction in leadership—how to make every day and every dollar count when you're stewarding people, purpose, and innovation that impacts global food systems.Key Takeaways:Intentional Leadership Means Stewarding Time and Resources Wisely: Martha defines intentionality as treating every day and every dollar like it matters—because it does. Whether in startups or large corporations, clarity of purpose drives impact and innovation.Innovation Is Born from Necessity: As pests evolve and resistance grows, new agricultural solutions are essential. Impetus Ag is pioneering technology that restores the effectiveness of BT traits, helping growers protect crops sustainably without dependency on “Big Ag.Startup Culture Mirrors the Farm: Martha likens leading a startup to running a farm—no room for ego, wasted time, or bureaucracy. Every team member must contribute and take ownership, from taking out the trash to innovating at the bench.Transparency Builds Trust: Intentional leaders walk a fine line between honesty and stability. Martha shares how leaders can be transparent about challenges without creating panic—fostering an environment of candor, collaboration, and accountability.The Power of Mentorship and Values: From her parents' lessons on work ethic to guidance from mentors like Rob Fraley, Martha credits much of her success to learning from others and holding firm to moral lines in the sand—values that guide every decision.Notable Quotes:“Every day and every dollar matters. That's what it means to be intentional.” – Martha Schlicher“If you can't find a way through the mountain, go around it, over it, or under it—but don't stop moving.” – Martha Schlicher“Intentional leaders are innovative. We see problems and create solutions that move the whole industry forward.” – Mark Jewell“Draw your line in the sand—your values, your morals—and never cross it. That's your anchor.” – Martha Schlicher“Transparency isn't weakness. It's how we build trust and accelerate growth.” – Martha SchlicherAction Steps:Reflect on where you might be operating on autopilot. How can you treat your time and resources more intentionally this week?Revisit your company culture: Are you fostering ownership, honesty, and innovation across your team?Seek mentorship—learn from leaders who've been where you want to go.Explore the mission and technology behind Impetus Ag at ImpetusAg.com.Listen If You Are:A leader or entrepreneur in agriculture or agritechBuilding a startup or small business with limited resourcesSeeking to integrate innovation, stewardship, and integrity in leadershipCurious about the future of sustainable ag and biotech innovation

Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking here.Yesterday, Southern California Edison (SCE), the utility whose power lines may have started the devastating Eaton Fire, announced its Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program. Under the program, people affected by the fire can receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in compensation, in a matter of months rather than years—but in exchange, they must give up their right to sue.It should come as no surprise that SCE, in designing the program, sought the help of Kenneth Feinberg. For more than 40 years, often in the wake of tragedy or disaster, Feinberg has helped mediate and resolve seemingly intractable crises. He's most well-known for how he and his colleague Camille Biros designed and administered the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. But he has worked on many other headline-making matters over the years, including the Agent Orange product liability litigation, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust, the multidistrict litigation involving Monsanto's Roundup weed killer—and now, of course, the Eaton Fire.How did Ken develop such a fascinating and unique practice? What is the most difficult aspect of administering these giant compensation funds? Do these funds represent the wave of the future, as an alternative to (increasingly expensive) litigation? Having just turned 80, does he have any plans to retire?Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ken—the day after his 80th birthday—and we covered all these topics. The result is what I found to be one of the most moving conversations I've ever had on this podcast.Thanks to Ken Feinberg for joining me—and, of course, for his many years of service as America's go-to mediator in times of crisis.Show Notes:* Kenneth Feinberg bio, Wikipedia* Kenneth Feinberg profile, Chambers and Partners* L.A. Fire Victims Face a Choice, by Jill Cowan for The New York TimesPrefer reading to listening? For paid subscribers, a transcript of the entire episode appears below.Sponsored by:NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com.Three quick notes about this transcript. First, it has been cleaned up from the audio in ways that don't alter substance—e.g., by deleting verbal filler or adding a word here or there to clarify meaning. Second, my interviewee has not reviewed this transcript, and any errors are mine. Third, because of length constraints, this newsletter may be truncated in email; to view the entire post, simply click on “View entire message” in your email app.David Lat: Welcome to the Original Jurisdiction podcast. I'm your host, David Lat, author of a Substack newsletter about law and the legal profession also named Original Jurisdiction, which you can read and subscribe to at davidlat.substack.com. You're listening to the eighty-fourth episode of this podcast, recorded on Friday, October 24.Thanks to this podcast's sponsor, NexFirm. NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com. Want to know who the guest will be for the next Original Jurisdiction podcast? Follow NexFirm on LinkedIn for a preview.I like to think that I've produced some good podcast episodes over the past three-plus years, but I feel that this latest one is a standout. I'm hard-pressed to think of an interview that was more emotionally affecting to me than what you're about to hear.Kenneth Feinberg is a leading figure in the world of mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He is most well-known for having served as special master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund—and for me, as someone who was in New York City on September 11, I found his discussion of that work profoundly moving. But he has handled many major matters over the years, such as the Agent Orange product liability litigation to the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund. And he's working right now on a matter that's in the headlines: the California wildfires. Ken has been hired by Southern California Edison to help design a compensation program for victims of the 2025 Eaton fire. Ken has written about his fascinating work in two books: What Is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11 and Who Gets What: Fair Compensation after Tragedy and Financial Upheaval. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Ken Feinberg.Ken, thank you so much for joining me.Ken Feinberg: Thank you very much; it's an honor to be here.DL: We are recording this shortly after your 80th birthday, so happy birthday!KF: Thank you very much.DL: Let's go back to your birth; let's start at the beginning. You grew up in Massachusetts, I believe.KF: That's right: Brockton, Massachusetts, about 20 miles south of Boston.DL: Your parents weren't lawyers. Tell us about what they did.KF: My parents were blue-collar workers from Massachusetts, second-generation immigrants. My father ran a wholesale tire distributorship, my mother was a bookkeeper, and we grew up in the 1940s and ‘50s, even the early ‘60s, in a town where there was great optimism, a very vibrant Jewish community, three different synagogues, a very optimistic time in American history—post-World War II, pre-Vietnam, and a time when communitarianism, working together to advance the collective good, was a prominent characteristic of Brockton, and most of the country, during the time that I was in elementary school and high school in Brockton.DL: Did the time in which you grow up shape or influence your decision to go into law?KF: Yes. More than law—the time growing up had a great impact on my decision to give back to the community from which I came. You've got to remember, when I was a teenager, the president of the United States was John F. Kennedy, and I'll never forget because it had a tremendous impact on me—President Kennedy reminding everybody that public service is a noble undertaking, government is not a dirty word, and especially his famous quote (or one of his many quotes), “Every individual can make a difference.” I never forgot that, and it had a personal impact on me and has had an impact on me throughout my life. [Ed. note: The quotation generally attributed to JFK is, “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.” Whether he actually said these exact words is unclear, but it's certainly consistent with many other sentiments he expressed throughout his life.]DL: When you went to college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, what did you study?KF: I studied history and political science. I was very interested in how individuals over the centuries change history, the theory of historians that great individuals articulate history and drive it in a certain direction—for good, like President Kennedy or Abraham Lincoln or George Washington, or for ill, like Adolf Hitler or Mussolini. And so it was history that I really delved into in my undergraduate years.DL: What led you then to turn to law school?KF: I always enjoyed acting on the stage—theater, comedies, musicals, dramas—and at the University of Massachusetts, I did quite a bit of that. In my senior year, I anticipated going to drama school at Yale, or some other academic master's program in theater. My father gave me very good advice. He said, “Ken, most actors end up waiting on restaurant tables in Manhattan, waiting for a big break that never comes. Why don't you turn your skills on the stage to a career in the courtroom, in litigation, talking to juries and convincing judges?” That was very sound advice from my father, and I ended up attending NYU Law School and having a career in the law.DL: Yes—and you recount that story in your book, and I just love that. It's really interesting to hear what parents think of our careers. But anyway, you did very well in law school, you were on the law review, and then your first job out of law school was something that we might expect out of someone who did well in law school.KF: Yes. I was a law clerk to the chief judge of New York State, Stanley Fuld, a very famous state jurist, and he had his chambers in New York City. For one week, every six or seven weeks, we would go to the state capitol in Albany to hear cases, and it was Judge Fuld who was my transition from law school to the practice of law.DL: I view clerking as a form of government service—and then you continued in service after that.KF: That's right. Remembering what my father had suggested, I then turned my attention to the courtroom and became an assistant United States attorney, a federal prosecutor, in New York City. I served as a prosecutor and as a trial lawyer for a little over three years. And then I had a wonderful opportunity to go to work for Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington and stayed with him for about five years.DL: You talk about this also in your books—you worked on a pretty diverse range of issues for the senator, right?KF: That's right. For the first three years I worked on his staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with some excellent colleagues—soon-to-be Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer was with me, noted litigator David Boies was in the office—and for the first three years, it was law-related issues. Then in 1978, Senator Kennedy asked me to be his chief of staff, and once I went over and became his chief of staff, the issues of course mushroomed. He was running for president, so there were issues of education, health, international relations—a wide diversity of issues, very broad-based.DL: I recall that you didn't love the chief of staff's duties.KF: No. Operations or administration was not my priority. I loved substance, issues—whatever the issues were, trying to work out legislative compromises, trying to give back something in the way of legislation to the people. And internal operations and administration, I quickly discovered, was not my forte. It was not something that excited me.DL: Although it's interesting: what you are most well-known for is overseeing and administering these large funds and compensating victims of these horrific tragedies, and there's a huge amount of administration involved in that.KF: Yes, but I'm a very good delegator. In fact, if you look at the track record of my career in designing and administering these programs—9/11 or the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the Patriots' Day Marathon bombings in Boston—I was indeed fortunate in all of those matters to have at my side, for over 40 years, Camille Biros. She's not a lawyer, but she's the nation's expert on designing, administering, and operating these programs, and as you delve into what I've done and haven't done, her expertise has been invaluable.DL: I would call Camille your secret weapon, except she's not secret. She's been profiled in The New York Times, and she's a well-known figure in her own right.KF: That is correct. She was just in the last few months named one of the 50 Women Over 50 that have had such an impact in the country—that list by Forbes that comes out every year. She's prominently featured in that magazine.DL: Shifting back to your career, where did you go after your time in the Senate?KF: I opened up a Washington office for a prominent New York law firm, and for the next decade or more, that was the center of my professional activity.DL: So that was Kaye Scholer, now Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer. What led you to go from your career in the public sector, where you spent a number of your years right out of law school, into so-called Biglaw?KF: Practicality and financial considerations. I had worked for over a decade in public service. I now had a wife, I had three young children, and it was time to give them financial security. And “Biglaw,” as you put it—Biglaw in Washington was lucrative, and it was something that gave me a financial base from which I could try and expand my different interests professionally. And that was the reason that for about 12 years I was in private practice for a major firm, Kaye Scholer.DL: And then tell us what happened next.KF: A great lesson in not planning too far ahead. In 1984, I got a call from a former clerk of Judge Fuld whom I knew from the clerk network: Judge Jack Weinstein, a nationally recognized jurist from Brooklyn, the Eastern District, and a federal judge. He had on his docket the Vietnam veterans' Agent Orange class action.You may recall that there were about 250,000 Vietnam veterans who came home claiming illness or injury or death due to the herbicide Agent Orange, which had been dropped by the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam to burn the foliage and vegetation where the Viet Cong enemy might be hiding. Those Vietnam veterans came home suffering terrible diseases, including cancer and chloracne (a sort of acne on the skin), and they brought a lawsuit. Judge Weinstein had the case. Weinstein realized that if that case went to trial, it could be 10 years before there'd be a result, with appeals and all of that.So he appointed me as mediator, called the “special master,” whose job it was to try and settle the case, all as a mediator. Well, after eight weeks of trying, we were successful. There was a master settlement totaling about $250 million—at the time, one of the largest tort verdicts in history. And that one case, front-page news around the nation, set me on a different track. Instead of remaining a Washington lawyer involved in regulatory and legislative matters, I became a mediator, an individual retained by the courts or by the parties to help resolve a case. And that was the beginning. That one Agent Orange case transformed my entire professional career and moved me in a different direction completely.DL: So you knew the late Judge Weinstein through Fuld alumni circles. What background did you have in mediation already, before you handled this gigantic case?KF: None. I told Judge Weinstein, “Judge, I never took a course in mediation at law school (there wasn't one then), and I don't know anything about bringing the parties together, trying to get them to settle.” He said, “I know you. I know your background. I've followed your career. You worked for Senator Kennedy. You are the perfect person.” And until the day I die, I'm beholden to Judge Weinstein for having faith in me to take this on.DL: And over the years, you actually worked on a number of matters at the request of Judge Weinstein.KF: A dozen. I worked on tobacco cases, on asbestos cases, on drug and medical device cases. I even worked for Judge Weinstein mediating the closing of the Shoreham nuclear plant on Long Island. I handled a wide range of cases where he called on me to act as his court-appointed mediator to resolve cases on his docket.DL: You've carved out a very unique and fascinating niche within the law, and I'm guessing that most people who meet you nowadays know who you are. But say you're in a foreign country or something, and some total stranger is chatting with you and asks what you do for a living. What would you say?KF: I would say I'm a lawyer, and I specialize in dispute resolution. It might be mediation, it might be arbitration, or it might even be negotiation, where somebody asks me to negotiate on their behalf. So I just tell people there is a growing field of law in the United States called ADR—alternative dispute resolution—and that it is, as you say, David, my niche, my focus when called upon.DL: And I think it's fair to say that you're one of the founding people in this field or early pioneers—or I don't know how you would describe it.KF: I think that's right. When I began with Agent Orange, there was no mediation to speak of. It certainly wasn't institutionalized; it wasn't streamlined. Today, in 2025, the American Bar Association has a special section on alternative dispute resolution, it's taught in every law school in the United States, there are thousands of mediators and arbitrators, and it's become a major leg in law school of different disciplines and specialties.DL: One question I often ask my guests is, “What is the matter you are most proud of?” Another question I often ask my guests is, “What is the hardest matter you've ever had to deal with?” Another question I often ask my guests is, “What is the matter that you're most well-known for?” And I feel in your case, the same matter is responsive to all three of those questions.KF: That's correct. The most difficult, the most challenging, the most rewarding matter, the one that's given me the most exposure, was the federal September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, when I was appointed by President George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft to implement, design, and administer a very unique federal law that had been enacted right after 9/11.DL: I got chills as you were just even stating that, very factually, because I was in New York on 9/11, and a lot of us remember the trauma and difficulty of that time. And you basically had to live with that and talk to hundreds, even thousands, of people—survivors, family members—for almost three years. And you did it pro bono. So let me ask you this: what were you thinking?KF: What triggered my interest was the law itself. Thirteen days after the attacks, Congress passed this law, unique in American history, setting up a no-fault administrator compensation system. Don't go to court. Those who volunteer—families of the dead, those who were physically injured at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon—you can voluntarily seek compensation from a taxpayer-funded law. Now, if you don't want it, you don't have to go. It's a voluntary program.The key will be whether the special master or the administrator will be able to convince people that it is a better avenue to pursue than a long, delayed, uncertain lawsuit. And based on my previous experience for the last 15 years, starting with Agent Orange and asbestos and these other tragedies, I volunteered. I went to Senator Kennedy and said, “What about this?” He said, “Leave it to me.” He called President Bush. He knew Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was his former colleague in the U.S. Senate, and he had great admiration for Senator Ashcroft. And so I was invited by the attorney general for an interview, and I told him I was interested. I told him I would only do it pro bono. You can't get paid for a job like this; it's patriotism. And he said, “Go for it.” And he turned out to be my biggest, strongest ally during the 33 months of the program.DL: Are you the managing partner of a boutique or midsize firm? If so, you know that your most important job is attracting and retaining top talent. It's not easy, especially if your benefits don't match up well with those of Biglaw firms or if your HR process feels “small time.” NexFirm has created an onboarding and benefits experience that rivals an Am Law 100 firm, so you can compete for the best talent at a price your firm can afford. Want to learn more? Contact NexFirm at 212-292-1002 or email betterbenefits@nexfirm.com.You talk about this in your books: you were recommended by a very prominent Democratic politician, and the administration at the time was Republican. George W. Bush was president, and John Ashcroft was the attorney general. Why wouldn't they have picked a Republican for this project?KF: Very good question. Senator Kennedy told both of them, “You better be careful here. This is a very, very uncertain program, with taxpayer money used to pay only certain victims. This could be a disaster. And you would be well-advised to pick someone who is not a prominent friend of yours, who is not perceived as just a Republican arm of the Justice Department or the White House. And I've got the perfect person. You couldn't pick a more opposite politician than my former chief of staff, Ken Feinberg. But look at what he's done.” And I think to Senator Kennedy's credit, and certainly to President Bush and to John Ashcroft's, they selected me.DL: As you would expect with a program of this size and complexity, there was controversy and certainly criticism over the years. But overall, looking back, I think people regard it widely as a huge success. Do you have a sense or an estimate of what percentage of people in the position to accept settlements through the program did that, rather than litigate? Because in accepting funds from the program, they did waive their right to bring all sorts of lawsuits.KF: That's correct. If you look at the statistics, if the statistics are a barometer of success, 5,300 applicants were eligible, because of death—about 2,950, somewhere in there—and the remaining claims were for physical injury. Of the 5,300, 97 percent voluntarily accepted the compensation. Only 94 people, 3 percent, opted out, and they all settled their cases five years later. There was never a trial on who was responsible in the law for 9/11. So if statistics are an indication—and I think they are a good indication—the program was a stunning success in accomplishing Congress's objective, which was diverting people voluntarily out of the court system.DL: Absolutely. And that's just a striking statistic. It was really successful in getting funds to families that needed it. They had lost breadwinners; they had lost loved ones. It was hugely successful, and it did not take a decade, as some of these cases involving just thousands of victims often do.I was struck by one thing you just said. You mentioned there was really no trial. And in reading your accounts of your work on this, it seemed almost like people viewed talking to you and your colleagues, Camille and others on this—I think they almost viewed that as their opportunity to be heard, since there wasn't a trial where they would get to testify.KF: That's correct. The primary reason for the success of the 9/11 Fund, and a valuable lesson for me thereafter, was this: give victims the opportunity to be heard, not only in public town-hall meetings where collectively people can vent, but in private, with doors closed. It's just the victim and Feinberg or his designee, Camille. We were the face of the government here. You can't get a meeting with the secretary of defense or the attorney general, the head of the Department of Justice. What you can get is an opportunity behind closed doors to express your anger, your frustration, your disappointment, your sense of uncertainty, with the government official responsible for cutting the checks. And that had an enormous difference in assuring the success of the program.DL: What would you say was the hardest aspect of your work on the Fund?KF: The hardest part of the 9/11 Fund, which I'll never recover from, was not calculating the value of a life. Judges and juries do that every day, David, in every court, in New Jersey and 49 other states. That is not a difficult assignment. What would the victim have earned over a work life? Add something for pain and suffering and emotional distress, and there's your check.The hardest part in any of these funds, starting with 9/11—the most difficult aspect, the challenge—is empathy, and your willingness to sit for over 900 separate hearings, me alone with family members or victims, to hear what they want to tell you, and to make that meeting, from their perspective, worthwhile and constructive. That's the hard part.DL: Did you find it sometimes difficult to remain emotionally composed? Or did you, after a while, develop a sort of thick skin?KF: You remain composed. You are a professional. You have a job to do, for the president of the United States. You can't start wailing and crying in the presence of somebody who was also wailing and crying, so you have to compose yourself. But I tell people who say, “Could I do what you did?” I say, “Sure. There are plenty of people in this country that can do what I did—if you can brace yourself for the emotional trauma that comes with meeting with victim after victim after victim and hearing their stories, which are...” You can't make them up. They're so heart-wrenching and so tragic.I'll give you one example. A lady came to see me, 26 years old, sobbing—one of hundreds of people I met with. “Mr. Feinberg, I lost my husband. He was a fireman at the World Trade Center. He died on 9/11. And he left me with our two children, six and four. Now, Mr. Feinberg, you've calculated and told me I'm going to receive $2.4 million, tax-free, from this 9/11 Fund. I want it in 30 days.”I said to Mrs. Jones, “This is public, taxpayer money. We have to go down to the U.S. Treasury. They've got to cut the checks; they've got to dot all the i's and cross all the t's. It may be 60 days or 90 days, but you'll get your money.”“No. Thirty days.”I said, “Mrs. Jones, why do you need the money in 30 days?”She said, “Why? I'll tell you why, Mr. Feinberg. I have terminal cancer. I have 10 weeks to live. My husband was going to survive me and take care of our two children. Now they're going to be orphans. I have got to get this money, find a guardian, make sure the money's safe, prepare for the kids' schooling. I don't have a lot of time. I need your help.”Well, we ran down to the U.S. Treasury and helped process the check in record time. We got her the money in 30 days—and eight weeks later, she died. Now when you hear story after story like this, you get some indication of the emotional pressure that builds and is debilitating, frankly. And we managed to get through it.DL: Wow. I got a little choked up just even hearing you tell that. Wow—I really don't know what to say.When you were working on the 9/11 Fund, did you have time for any other matters, or was this pretty much exclusively what you were working on for the 33 months?KF: Professionally, it was exclusive. Now what I did was, I stayed in my law firm, so I had a living. Other people in the firm were generating income for the firm; I wasn't on the dole. But it was exclusive. During the day, you are swamped with these individual requests, decisions that have to be made, checks that have to be cut. At night, I escaped: opera, orchestral concerts, chamber music, art museums—the height of civilization. During the day, in the depths of horror of civilization; at night, an escape, an opportunity to just enjoy the benefits of civilization. You better have a loving family, as I did, that stands behind you—because you never get over it, really.DL: That's such an important lesson, to actually have that time—because if you wanted to, you could have worked on this 24/7. But it is important to have some time to just clear your head or spend time with your family, especially just given what you were dealing with day-to-day.KF: That's right. And of course, during the day, we made a point of that as well. If we were holding hearings like the one I just explained, we'd take a one-hour break, go for a walk, go into Central Park or into downtown Washington, buy an ice cream cone, see the kids playing in playgrounds and laughing. You've got to let the steam out of the pressure cooker, or it'll kill you. And that was the most difficult part of the whole program. In all of these programs, that's the common denominator: emotional stress and unhappiness on the part of the victims.DL: One last question, before we turn to some other matters. There was also a very large logistical apparatus associated with this, right? For example, PricewaterhouseCoopers. It wasn't just you and Camille trying to deal with these thousands of survivors and claimants; you did have support.KF: That's right. Pricewaterhouse won the bid at the Justice Department. This is public: Pricewaterhouse, for something like around $100 million, put 450 people to work with us to help us process claims, appraise values, do the research. Pricewaterhouse was a tremendous ally and has gone on, since 9/11, to handle claims design and claims administration, as one of its many specialties. Emily Kent, Chuck Hacker, people like that we worked with for years, very much experts in these areas.DL: So after your work on the 9/11 Fund, you've worked on a number of these types of matters. Is there one that you would say ranks second in terms of complexity or difficulty or meaningfulness to you?KF: Yes. Deepwater Horizon in 2011, 2012—that oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico blew up and killed about, I don't know, 15 to 20 people in the explosion. But the real challenge in that program was how we received, in 16 months, about 1,250,000 claims for business interruption, business losses, property damage. We received over a million claims from 50 states. I think we got probably a dozen claims from New Jersey; I didn't know the oil had gotten to New Jersey. We received claims from 35 foreign countries. And the sheer volume of the disaster overwhelmed us. We had, at one point, something like 40,000 people—vendors—working for us. We had 35 offices throughout the Gulf of Mexico, from Galveston, Texas, all the way to Mobile Bay, Alabama. Nevertheless, in 16 months, on behalf of BP, Deepwater Horizon, we paid out all BP money, a little over $7 billion, to 550,000 eligible claimants. And that, I would say, other than 9/11, had the greatest impact and was the most satisfying.DL: You mentioned some claims coming from some pretty far-flung jurisdictions. In these programs, how much of a problem is fraud?KF: Not much. First of all, with death claims like 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombings or the 20 first-graders who died in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, at the hands of a deranged gunmen—most of the time, in traumatic death and injury, you've got records. No one can beat the system; you have to have a death certificate. In 9/11, where are your military records, if you were at the Pentagon? Where are the airplane manifests? You've got to be on the manifest if you were flying on that plane.Now, the problem becomes more pronounced in something like BP, where you've got over a million claims, and you wonder, how many people can claim injury from this explosion? There we had an anti-fraud unit—Guidepost, Bart Schwartz's company—and they did a tremendous job of spot-checking claims. I think that out of over a million claims, there may have been 25,000 that were suspicious. And we sent those claims to the Justice Department, and they prosecuted a fair number of people. But it wasn't a huge problem. I think the fraud rate was something like 3 percent; that's nothing. So overall, we haven't found—and we have to be ever-vigilant, you're right—but we haven't found much in the way of fraud.DL: I'm glad to hear that, because it would really be very depressing to think that there were people trying to profiteer off these terrible disasters and tragedies. Speaking of continuing disasters and tragedies, turning to current events, you are now working with Southern California Edison in dealing with claims related to the Eaton Fire. And this is a pending matter, so of course you may have some limits in terms of what you can discuss, but what can you say in a general sense about this undertaking?KF: This is the Los Angeles wildfires that everybody knows about, from the last nine or ten months—the tremendous fire damage in Los Angeles. One of the fires, or one of the selected hubs of the fire, was the Eaton Fire. Southern California Edison, the utility involved in the litigation and finger-pointing, decided to set up, à la 9/11, a voluntary claims program. Not so much to deal with death—there were about 19 deaths, and a handful of physical injuries—but terrible fire damage, destroyed homes, damaged businesses, smoke and ash and soot, for miles in every direction. And the utility decided, its executive decided, “We want to do the right thing here. We may be held liable or we may not be held liable for the fire, but we think the right thing to do is nip in the bud this idea of extended litigation. Look at 9/11: only 94 people ended up suing. We want to set up a program.”They came to Camille and me. Over the last eight weeks, we've designed the program, and I think in the last week of October or the first week of November, you will see publicly, “Here is the protocol; here is the claim form. Please submit your claims, and we'll get them paid within 90 days.” And if history is an indicator, Camille and I think that the Eaton Fire Protocol will be a success, and the great bulk of the thousands of victims will voluntarily decide to come into the program. We'll see. [Ed. note: On Wednesday, a few days after Ken and I recorded this episode, Southern California Edison announced its Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program.]DL: That raises a question that I'm curious about. How would you describe the relationship between the work that you and Camille and your colleagues do and the traditional work of the courts, in terms of in-the-trenches litigation? Because I do wonder whether the growth in your field is perhaps related to some developments in litigation, in terms of litigation becoming more expensive over the decades (in a way that far outstrips inflation), more complicated, or more protracted. How would you characterize that relationship?KF: I would say that the programs that we design and administer—like 9/11, like BP, plus the Eaton wildfires—are an exception to the rule. Nobody should think that these programs that we have worked on are the wave of the future. They are not the wave of the future; they are isolated, unique examples, where a company—or in 9/11, the U.S. government—decides, “We ought to set up a special program where the courts aren't involved, certainly not directly.” In 9/11, they were prohibited to be involved, by statute; in some of these other programs, like BP, the courts have a relationship, but they don't interfere with the day-to-day administration of the program.And I think the American people have a lot of faith in the litigation system that you correctly point out can be uncertain, very inefficient, and very costly. But the American people, since the founding of the country, think, “You pick your lawyer, I'll pick my lawyer, and we'll have a judge and jury decide.” That's the American rule of law; I don't think it's going to change. But occasionally there is a groundswell of public pressure to come up with a program, or there'll be a company—like the utility, like BP—that decides to have a program.And I'll give you one other example: the Catholic Church confronted thousands of claims of sexual abuse by priests. It came to us, and we set up a program—just like 9/11, just like BP—where we invited, voluntarily, any minor—any minor from decades ago, now an adult—who had been abused by the church to come into this voluntary program. We paid out, I think, $700 million to $800 million, to victims in dioceses around the country. So there's another example—Camille did most of that—but these programs are all relatively rare. There are thousands of litigations every day, and nothing's going to change that.DL: I had a guest on a few weeks ago, Chris Seeger of Seeger Weiss, who does a lot of work in the mass-tort space. It's interesting: I feel that that space has evolved, and maybe in some ways it's more efficient than it used to be. They have these multi-district litigation panels, they have these bellwether trials, and then things often get settled, once people have a sense of the values. That system and your approach seem to have some similarities, in the sense that you're not individually trying each one of these cases, and you're having somebody with liability come forward and voluntarily pay out money, after some kind of negotiation.KF: Well, there's certainly negotiation in what Chris Seeger does; I'm not sure we have much negotiation. We say, “Here's the amount under the administrative scheme.” It's like in workers' compensation: here's the amount. You don't have to take it. There's nothing to really talk about, unless you have new evidence that we're not aware of. And those programs, when we do design them, seem to work very efficiently.Again, if you ask Camille Biros what was the toughest part of valuing individual claims of sexual-abuse directed at minors, she would say, “These hearings: we gave every person who wanted an opportunity to be heard.” And when they come to see Camille, they don't come to talk about money; they want validation for what they went through. “Believe me, will you? Ken, Camille, believe me.” And when Camille says, “We do believe you,” they immediately, or almost immediately, accept the compensation and sign a release: “I will not sue the Catholic diocese.”DL: So you mentioned there isn't really much negotiation, but you did talk in the book about these sort of “appeals.” You had these two tracks, “Appeals A” and “Appeals B.” Can you talk about that? Did you ever revisit what you had set as the award for a particular victim's family, after hearing from them in person?KF: Sure. Now, remember, those appeals came back to us, not to a court; there's no court involvement. But in 9/11, in BP, if somebody said, “You made a mistake—you didn't account for these profits or this revenue, or you didn't take into account this contract that my dead firefighter husband had that would've given him a lot more money”—of course, we'll revisit that. We invited that. But that's an internal appeals process. The people who calculated the value of the claim are the same people that are going to be looking at revisiting the claim. But again, that's due process, and that's something that we thought was important.DL: You and Camille have been doing this really important work for decades. Since this is, of course, shortly after your 80th birthday, I should ask: do you have future plans? You're tackling some of the most complicated matters, headline-making matters. Would you ever want to retire at some point?KF: I have no intention of retiring. I do agree that when you reach a certain pinnacle in what you've done, you do slow down. We are much more selective in what we do. I used to have maybe 15 mediations going on at once; now, we have one or two matters, like the Los Angeles wildfires. As long as I'm capable, as long as Camille's willing, we'll continue to do it, but we'll be very careful about what we select to do. We don't travel much. The Los Angeles wildfires was largely Zooms, going back and forth. And we're not going to administer that program. We had administered 9/11 and BP; we're trying to move away from that. It's very time-consuming and stressful. So we've accomplished a great deal over the last 50 years—but as long as we can do it, we'll continue to do it.DL: Do you have any junior colleagues who would take over what you and Camille have built?KF: We don't have junior colleagues. There's just the two of us and Cindy Sanzotta, our receptionist. But it's an interesting question: “Who's after Feinberg? Who's next in doing this?” I think there are thousands of people in this country who could do what we do. It is not rocket science. It really isn't. I'll tell you what's difficult: the emotion. If somebody wants to do what we do, you better brace yourself for the emotion, the anger, the frustration, the finger pointing. It goes with the territory. And if you don't have the psychological ability to handle this type of stress, stay away. But I'm sure somebody will be there, and no one's irreplaceable.DL: Well, I know I personally could not handle it. I worked when I was at a law firm on civil litigation over insurance proceeds related to the World Trade Center, and that was a very draining case, and I was very glad to no longer be on it. So I could not do what you and Camille do. But let me ask you, to end this section on a positive note: what would you say is the most rewarding or meaningful or satisfying aspect of the work that you do on these programs?KF: Giving back to the community. Public service. Helping the community heal. Not so much the individuals; the individuals are part of the community. “Every individual can make a difference.” I remember that every day, what John F. Kennedy said: government service is a noble undertaking. So what's most rewarding for me is that although I'm a private practitioner—I am no longer in government service, since my days with Senator Kennedy—I'd like to think that I performed a valuable service for the community, the resilience of the community, the charity exhibited by the community. And that gives me a great sense of self-satisfaction.DL: You absolutely have. It's been amazing, and I'm so grateful for you taking the time to join me.So now, onto our speed round. These are four questions that are standardized. My first question is, what do you like the least about the law? And this can either be the practice of law or law in a more abstract sense.KF: Uncertainty. What I don't like about the law is—and I guess maybe it's the flip side of the best way to get to a result—I don't like the uncertainty of the law. I don't like the fact that until the very end of the process, you don't know if your view and opinion will prevail. And I think losing control over your destiny in that regard is problematic.DL: My second question—and maybe we touched on this a little bit, when we talked about your father's opinions—what would you be if you were not a lawyer?KF: Probably an actor. As I say, I almost became an actor. And I still love theater and the movies and Broadway shows. If my father hadn't given me that advice, I was on the cusp of pursuing a career in the theater.DL: Have you dabbled in anything in your (probably limited) spare time—community theater, anything like that?KF: No, but I certainly have prioritized in my spare time classical music and the peace and optimism it brings to the listener. It's been an important part of my life.DL: My third question is, how much sleep do you get each night?KF: Well, it varies from program to program. I'd like to get seven hours. That's what my doctors tell me: “Ken, very important—more important than pills and exercise and diet—is sleep. Your body needs a minimum of seven hours.” Well, for me, seven hours is rare—it's more like six or even five, and during 9/11 or during Eaton wildfires, it might be more like four or five. And that's not enough, and that is a problem.DL: My last question is, any final words of wisdom, such as career advice or life advice, for my listeners?KF: Yes, I'll give you some career and life advice. It's very simple: don't plan too far ahead. People have this view—you may think you know what you want to do with your career. You may think you know what life holds for you. You don't know. If I've learned anything over the last decades, life has a way of changing the best-laid plans. These 9/11 husbands and wives said goodbye to their children, “we'll see you for dinner,” a perfunctory wave—and they never saw them again. Dust, not even a body. And the idea I tell law students—who say, ”I'm going to be a corporate lawyer,” or “I'm going to be a litigator”—I tell them, “You have no idea what your legal career will look like. Look at Feinberg; he never planned on this. He never thought, in his wildest dreams, that this would be his chosen avenue of the law.”My advice: enjoy the moment. Do what you like now. Don't worry too much about what you'll be doing two years, five years, 10 years, a lifetime ahead of you. It doesn't work that way. Everybody gets thrown curveballs, and that's advice I give to everybody.DL: Well, you did not plan out your career, but it has turned out wonderfully, and the country is better for it. Thank you, Ken, both for your work on all these matters over the years and for joining me today.KF: A privilege and an honor. Thanks, David.DL: Thanks so much to Ken for joining me—and, of course, for his decades of work resolving some of the thorniest disputes in the country, which is truly a form of public service.Thanks to NexFirm for sponsoring the Original Jurisdiction podcast. NexFirm has helped many attorneys to leave Biglaw and launch firms of their own. To explore this opportunity, please contact NexFirm at 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com to learn more.Thanks to Tommy Harron, my sound engineer here at Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to you, my listeners and readers. To connect with me, please email me at davidlat@substack.com, or find me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, at davidlat, and on Instagram and Threads at davidbenjaminlat.If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate, review, and subscribe. Please subscribe to the Original Jurisdiction newsletter if you don't already, over at davidlat.substack.com. This podcast is free, but it's made possible by paid subscriptions to the newsletter.The next episode should appear on or about Wednesday, November 12. Until then, may your thinking be original and your jurisdiction free of defects.Thanks for reading Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to my paid subscribers for making this publication possible. Subscribers get (1) access to Judicial Notice, my time-saving weekly roundup of the most notable news in the legal world; (2) additional stories reserved for paid subscribers; (3) transcripts of podcast interviews; and (4) the ability to comment on posts. You can email me at davidlat@substack.com with questions or comments, and you can share this post or subscribe using the buttons below. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit davidlat.substack.com/subscribe

Toxic Exposure: The Monsanto Roundup Trials, and the Search for Justice," reveals the dark side of the world's most widely used herbicide. Jessica Aldridge interviewed Dr. Chadi Nabhan in 2023, who offered his expert insights on the link between glyphosate and cancer, the landmark legal battles against Monsanto, and the ongoing struggle for environmental justice. Tune in for a compelling narrative that exposes the failures of regulatory agencies and the courage of individuals standing up to agrochemical giants. For years, Monsanto declared that their product Roundup, the world's most widely used weed killer, was safe. But in 2015, scientific studies concluded that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is probably carcinogenic. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Monsanto disagreed with the findings, as scientists worked to understand the link between glyphosate and cancer. Dr. Chadi Nabhan's book, Toxic Exposure [https://chadinabhan.com/mybooks/], tells the true story of his role as an expert physician witness who testified in multiple state and federal trials against Monsanto. His book recounts the heartbreaking stories of numerous patients who developed the cancer non-Hodgkin lymphoma, after regularly using Roundup on yards and school grounds. Monsanto is now owned by Bayer, one of the largest agrochemical companies in the world. These companies and the EPA downplayed the health dangers of Roundup and the active ingredient glyphosate even after Monsanto lost numerous court cases (owing billions in judgements) and settled out of court for more than $11 Billion for more than 100K patients. In this interview we discuss the history of Roundup, the dangers of glyphosate, the trial stories and verdicts, and what the everyday person can do to fight for justice against this agricultural behemoth. Dr. Chadi Nabhan is an expert in lymphoid malignancies and treating and diagnosing cancers. He is author of Toxic Exposure: The True Story behind the Monsanto Trials and the Search for Justice [http://www.chadinabhan.com]. He received his medical degree from Damascus University in Syria. After performing basic science research at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, he completed his internal medicine residency as well as an MBA in Healthcare Management at Loyola University in Chicago. Dr. Nabhan maintains active medical licenses in five states, and has over 300 peer-reviewed articles and abstracts. He is also a sought-after speaker, moderator, facilitator, and the creator and host of his own podcast, "Healthcare Unfiltered" [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjiJPTpIJdIiukcq0UaMFsA]. Jessica Aldridge, Co-Host and Producer of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and 15-year waste industry leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She is a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and an award recipient of the international 2021 Women in Sustainability Leadership and the 2016 inaugural Waste360, 40 Under 40. More Info/Resources: Buy the book, Toxic Exposure: https://chadinabhan.com/mybooks/ Salon Article: https://www.salon.com/2023/02/25/glyphosate-roundup-chadi-nabhan-interview/ Related Show: Kelly Ryerson - Glyphosate Girl - https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/glyphosate-an-herbicide-that-kills-more-than-weeds/ Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url Executive Producer: Jack Eidt Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Send us a textIn our first English/Spanish bilingual episode we talk international science communication with agronomist Dr. Dr. Maria Luz "Malu" Zapiola.  Malu is equally comfortable giving lectures in university classroom or (out standing) in the middle of a wheat field.Note: We switch from English to Spanish at 20:20.Dr. Maria Luz "Malu" Zapiola earned her Master's in Crop Science and Genetics, as well as her Doctorate in Agronomy and Crop Science at Oregon State University.  She has worked as an agronomist for companies including Barenbrug Palaversich and Monsanto industry, focusing on forage trials and crop protection.  She has also worked as a professor at the Catholic University of Argentina, where she taught courses on crop protection and biotechnology, and directed a molecular biology lab.  She now works at Argenbio, conducting "train the trainer" programs and managing the Infoalimentos website, which is designed to combat misinformation and promote sustainable, science-based decision making. She hosts the Presentaciones Fructiferas podcasts, which focuses on improving science communication, the topic of this podcast.  Got a questions for us? Email us at wolfingdownfoodscience@gmail.comPlease take a minute to help others find our podcast by leaving a rating and comment on your podcasting app!

John Beaver, CFO of Highland Materials, brings a unique perspective to solar manufacturing after living through two distinct cleantech eras. Following 25 years in the chemical industry, Beaver first entered solar in 2009 as CFO of Silicor Materials, scaling from 40 to 450 employees in 18 months while proving metallurgical-grade silicon could produce high-quality solar cells. "We ended up making 20 million solar cells. Really proved out the concept that we could use a metallurgical grade silicon versus electronic grade silicon to make high-quality solar cells," Beaver explains. After weathering policy headwinds and Chinese oversupply that shuttered their plans, Beaver spent years in dental lasers before returning to solar silicon at Highland Materials. Now he believes the tipping point has arrived. The big question: Can domestic manufacturing finally compete with China's 95% market control?John Beaver serves as Chief Financial Officer of Highland Materials, and has over 40 years of finance expertise across a variety of industries. After starting his career at Fortune 50 company Monsanto, Beaver spent decades in the chemical industry before making his first foray into cleantech as the inaugural CFO of Silicor Materials in 2009. There, he helped scale the company from 40 to 450 employees in 18 months while proving that metallurgical-grade silicon could produce solar cells indistinguishable from traditional electronic-grade silicon. Following a detour as CEO of dental laser company Biolase, Beaver returned to solar silicon manufacturing with Highland Materials, where he's working to establish domestic polysilicon production in Tennessee using zero-waste technology that cuts emissions by 90% while recycling industry waste into valuable raw materials.In This Episode:(00:00) John Beaver's cleantech journey(04:25) Chemical industry background and transition to Silicor Materials(08:04) China tariff wars and Silicor challenges(11:00) Highland Materials return and current market opportunity(17:08) Zero-waste manufacturing and product diversificationShare with someone who would enjoy this topic, like and subscribe to hear all of our future episodes, send us your comments and guest suggestions!About the show: The Age of Adoption podcast explores the monumental transition from a period of social, economic, and environmental research and exploration – an Age of Innovation – to today's world in which companies across the economy are furiously deploying sustainable solutions – the Age of Adoption. Listen as our host, Keith Zakheim, CEO of Antenna Group, talks with experts from across the climate, energy, health, and real estate sectors to discuss what the transition means for business and society, and how corporates and startups can rise above competitors to lead in this new age. This podcast is brought to you by Antenna Group, a global marketing and communications agency that partners with Fully Conscious brands — those with the courage to lead transformative change across Climate & Energy, Real Estate, Health, and beyond. Our clients include visionary corporations, startups, investors, and nonprofits who recognize that meaningful impact requires more than awareness; it demands bold action. In today's Age of Adoption, where every sector must incorporate sustainable solutions into foundational systems, we amplify brands standing at the forefront of change, shaping a better future for our planet and its people. To learn more, visit antennagroup.com.Resources:LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-beaver-a086561b/Highland Materials website: https://highlandmaterials.com/Antenna GroupKeith Zakheim LinkedIn 

Je vous raconte aujourd'hui l'histoire de Paul François, agriculteur, qui un jour inhale par accident le contenu de sa cuve à herbicide remplie d'un produit de la multinationale Monsanto : le Lasso. Dans les semaines et les mois qui suivent, il multiplie les malaises…Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

I never thought you could earn from somebody else's settlements.But our guest today, Patrick Grimes, introduced us to another (“unique”, I would say) #alternativeinvestment that isn't mainstream yet.- AxelEpisode Takeaway and Action PlanEpisode Highlights:[00:00:00-00:02:06] From Tesla to Real Estate[00:02:07-00:04:24] Beyond the Stock Market[00:04:25-00:15:20] A Unique Opportunity with Legal Funding[00:15:21-00:19:29] Risks in Litigation Funding?[00:19:30-00:27:21] The Case for Diversification[00:27:22-00:31:23] How to Become a Litigation Investor[00:31:24-00:37:20] Behind the Scenes at SpaceX and TeslaSpecial Mentions:* Tesla, SpaceX, Bayer, Monsanto, Lockheed, Raytheon, Abbott, J&J, 3M, DuPont, Lessons from Thought Leaders by Patrick Grimes, Phil Collins, Def Leppard, Kevin Eastman, Zig Ziglar, and Brian Tracy* Cases mentioned: Camp Lejeune water contamination, LA Juvenile Detention Center sexual assault, Roundup/paraquat lawsuits, toxic baby formula***Start taking action right NOW! 

I never thought you could earn from somebody else's settlements. But our guest today, Patrick Grimes, introduced us to another (“unique”, I would say) #alternativeinvestment that isn't mainstream yet.Episode Deep Dive with Action Plan: https://tinyurl.com/ep-joe-tegtmeyerEpisode Highlights:[00:00:00-00:02:06] From Tesla to Real Estate[00:02:07-00:04:24] Beyond the Stock Market[00:04:25-00:15:20] A Unique Opportunity with Legal Funding[00:15:21-00:19:29] Risks in Litigation Funding?[00:19:30-00:27:21] The Case for Diversification[00:27:22-00:31:23] How to Become a Litigation Investor[00:31:24-00:37:20] Behind the Scenes at SpaceX and TeslaSpecial Mentions:Tesla, SpaceX, Bayer, Monsanto, Lockheed, Raytheon, Abbott, J&J, 3M, DuPontLessons from Thought Leaders by Patrick Grimes, Phil Collins, Def Leppard, Kevin Eastman, Zig Ziglar, and Brian TracyCases mentioned: Camp Lejeune water contamination, LA Juvenile Detention Center sexual assault, Roundup/paraquat lawsuits, toxic baby formula***Start taking action right NOW! 

CBS's Ocean Brambleberg (Charles) sits down with Gilroy Monsanto (Branson), his campaign manager Savannah Fandango (Hesse), and brother P.J.T. Beauregard Monsanto (Andrew) to discuss Gilroy's appointment to lead the federal Department of Savings. E1 on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/e1podcast Ending song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSfNUujzomI

Vance Crowe is a communications strategist, keynote speaker, and entrepreneur from St. Louis, Missouri, known for his ability to unpack complex issues and craft compelling messages. Raised on an Illinois family farm, he honed his storytelling through diverse experiences—serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, a deckhand, and Director of Millennial Engagement at Monsanto, where he spoke to over 250,000 people on ag policy and controversial tech. Crowe founded Legacy Interviews, preserving personal histories, and hosts The Vance Crowe Podcast, diving into art, psychology, economics, and farming with global experts. To watch the Full Cornerstone Forum: https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcastGet your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: SNP@silvergoldbull.comText Grahame: (587) 441-9100Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: welcome@BowValleycu.com Use the code “SNP” on all ordersProphet River Links:Website: store.prophetriver.com/Email: SNP@prophetriver.comExpat Money SummitWebsite: ExpatMoneySummit.com

A version of this essay was published by rediff.com at https://www.rediff.com/news/column/rajeev-srinivasan-us-farm-distress-real-reason-for-trumps-tariff-tantrums/20250916.htmThere is breaking news that the trade talks between the US and India are on again. This means I was probably right that the harrumphing by President Trump and company was an opening gambit meant to soften India up for a deal that was beneficial to the US.The whole “India is funding Russia's war effort by buying oil” meme sounded like a red herring right from the beginning, because of the very many reasons why it is not true. Now the real underlying reason behind the full-court press by Trump aides Navarro et al seems to have surfaced: it is to strong-arm India into rescuing the American farmer.It was an off-hand comment by an aide that gave away the farm (so to speak): US Commerce Secretary Lutnick's assertion that India does not buy any corn from the US, in a September 14th interview to a US TV channel called Axios. Now this puts a whole new spin on things, because there is a crisis in US farming. No nation can afford to hurt its farmers, for both commercial, and perhaps more importantly, social and cultural reasons. We have seen how Japan subsidizes its uncompetitive rice farmers because rice is so central to its traditional culture. We have seen (at least in the days when I still used to read the magazine) the Economist commenting on “wine lakes” and “butter mountains”, that is, excessive production of agricultural products in Europe. Much the same in the US.If you over-produce, you need to find a buyer. That is the crux of the matter right now: the US used to sell 24 million metric tons of soyabeans, for example, to China every year, but after the tariff threats against it, China entirely switched its purchases to Brazil. So there's a “soy mountain” in the US, and bankruptcies are mounting. This is serious. On the one hand, the US has lost its pre-eminence in industry to China through foolishly allowing the slipping away of its entire productive capacity to that country in the pursuit of the elusive “China price”. Now, it is on the brink of losing its pre-eminence in agriculture as well, and that can lead to the loss of food security, and a host of other, surprisingly large, side-effects. I summarized the whole problem in a tweet:It is indeed a systemic problem with many unintended consequences. On farm distress, there are several indicators: increased bankruptcies and farm liquidations/auctions, reduced farm loan repayment rates, and lower values for farmland, although farm profits have gone up temporarily because of US Department of Agriculture ad-hoc aid, not higher prices.There are several reasons for this collapse: but the biggest is buyer power. Because of over-production and global surpluses, prices have fallen for many crops; and as mentioned above, the wholesale move of Chinese demand away from the US has left overflowing silos with no prospect of sales in sight. Result: prices fall sharply.I have often felt that buyer power (one of Michael Porter's famed “Five Forces”) is underestimated by many. Here it is in action. India seems to not understand that it is a big buyer of many commodities, and that gives it market power; so exercise it. On the contrary, India seems to view itself as a supplicant to big sellers. Not quite.What the US appears to be doing is to force India to be “the buyer of last resort”, on whom their products can be dumped: after all, I suspect the idea is, 1.4 billion people have to eat something, so why not eat American corn? There's a certain perverse logic to this, especially if you remember the PL-480 days when American corn was indeed an emergency food supply to food-deficit India: cornflour is to this day called “American mav” in Kerala. But I am pretty sure Lutnick has no idea of all this.What is exercising the Trump lot is the fact that most of the farms are in solidly-Republican midwestern states (Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin). I remember driving through many of them on a 4,000-mile Boston-San Francisco road trip: there's nothing but cornfields for miles and miles. And they could be a disaster for Trump in the mid-term elections in 2026.Conversely, it does not occur to Trump aides that no Indian politician can afford to alienate his small farmers by bringing in American farm products, not to mention the cultural sensitivity to dairy products from er… non-veg cows. In an India that is largely self-sufficient in foodgrains these days, there is very little benefit in buying large quantities of foreign products. As an example, imports of oilseeds from ASEAN has decimated coconut farmers in Kerala.The Iowa governor has been in India twice, once in late 2024, and once just last weekend, trying to induce Indians to buy corn. Similarly, the governor of Nebraska was in Japan this month trying to sell them ethanol from corn. This is interesting: I wonder if the sudden enthusiasm in India for E20 ethanol blended petrol has something to do with US pressure.I am not a fan of ethanol blended petrol, because I think hybrid electric-petrol vehicles are a safer, better-tested alternative. But if the GoI is intent on E20, it may be better to buy corn ethanol from the US than to over-exploit water resources in India to grow sugarcane for the same. And maybe, just maybe, it will get Trump to back off from the shrill tariff cacophony.But to go back to my tweet above, there are a lot of other reasons for India to be wary of American farm products. The gigantic subsidies in the US Farm Bill (of the order of $20 billion a year) encourages farmers to over-produce (corn mountains for example). This ends up being converted to High-Fructose Corn Syrup, which is then added to virtually every food product: just read the labels in US supermarkets.I personally have seen the obesity epidemic in the US from the 1970s: people have become grossly fat, and diabetes levels, especially in inner-city ghettos of black and brown people, have gone through the roof as a result of all this sugar. #BigFood, that is all the packaged-food companies and fast-food companies, have engendered this transition, partly because of grossly manipulated "scientific" studies that blamed saturated fat and cholesterol.The culprit, it turns out, was always excessive sugar in the diet. But in the meantime #BigMedicine and #BigPharma took full advantage by selling statins as cholesterol-lowering drugs, and now the new panacea is Ozempic-class weight-loss drugs. However, objective studies show that despite the US spending enormous amounts on healthcare (about 20% of GDP), the health outcomes are mediocre, and often worse than other high-income countries.None of this makes it a good idea to import US farm products wholesale. What is worse, though, is the agricultural ecosystem which includes Genetically Modified Organisms. It depends on large-scale use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The Terminator Seed is terrifying: a Monsanto can turn off next year's crop by refusing to sell new seeds, which is literally the “kill switch”. What you harvested this year will not germinate! Fiendishly clever, indeed!Given all this, and despite the critical importance of agri-products in both US politics and economics, it is a bad idea for India to be bullied into taking the stuff on board. India would be buying new problems, and its native intellectual property is what needs to be husbanded.There has already been tremendous erosion or digestion without recompense of these valuable IPs. A lot of traditional Indian rice variants have been spirited away to the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines; similarly A2 zebu, humped Indian cattle, have been decimated in India by Amul and others importing A1 Jersey-type cattle. Ironically zebu breeds like Bramah are thriving in Texas, Brazil etc. No need to let IP loss happen again.It remains my belief that agricultural and dairy products are a red line for India that no Indian politician can cross. Sorry, Secretary Lutnick.Here is the AI-generated Malayalam podcast from notebookLM.google.com:1375 words, 15 Sept 2025 updated 16 Sept 2025 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/subscribe

Jordan Sather and Nate Prince break down RFK Jr.'s fiery Senate Finance Committee hearing, where both Democrats and compromised conservatives attacked him over vaccines while he pushed back with facts on COVID lies, pharma lobbying, and government corruption. They highlight the wave of firings at the CDC, HHS, and FDA, calling it long-overdue house cleaning as pharma shills lose their grip on public health. The hosts then turn to the growing battle over school vaccine mandates, with Democrat-led states like California, Oregon, and Washington forming alliances to push their own requirements while Florida leads red states in banning them outright. They also connect RFK's history fighting Monsanto to today's GMO seed monopolies and nutrient-depleted food, tying it all back to America's chronic disease crisis. With humor, sharp commentary, and sponsor shoutouts, this episode captures the seismic shifts in health, politics, and personal freedom.

As if anyone cares on todays show we talk about Monsanto, Roundup, GMOs, Agent Orange, carcinogen, Bayer acquisition, lawsuits, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, seed patents, crop drift, government agencies, chemical herbicides, organic farming, Monsanto strategy, legal battles., Roundup, chemical alternatives, Epsom salts, FDA approved, natural methods, leukemia, paint stores, weed eater, garden implements, ALAR, coffee, PJs coffee, Second Round Bakery, podcast, Washington DC.

On this episode of American Family Farmer, host Doug Stephan (www.eastleighfarm.com) shares why he created the program and why supporting family farms matters more than ever.He covers:

Primavera Silenciosa https://a.co/d/6UZadHv Exposing Why Farmers Can't Legally Replant Their Own Seeds https://youtu.be/CxVXvFOPIyQ?si=W5xY9VQi0OTqgES9 Why the Amish Are Basically Immune to Allergies https://youtu.be/X9dQLccJoWE?si=9-V4e_iFCqFbLgwc conversando sobre Agricultura Biológica com Mariângela Hungria https://vamosfalarsobreimpacto.today/2025/08/20/conversando-sobre-agricultura-biologica-com-mariangela-hungria/ você tem escrúpulos! E AGORA??? https://rodaeavisa.com/voce-tem-escrupulos-e-agora/ canal do radinho no whatsapp! https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaDRCiu9xVJl8belu51Z canal do radinho no telegram:   http://t.me/radinhodepilha meu perfil no Threads: https://www.threads.net/@renedepaulajr meu ... Read more The post a Monsanto de santo não tem nada, a saúde dos Amish é um milagre? appeared first on radinho de pilha.

Monsanto has settled with more than 200 people in Monroe, Washington, who were exposed to PCBs -- toxic chemicals once produced by the company. Students, parents and staff at the Sky Valley alternative school in Snohomish County, had filed lawsuits against Monsanto starting in 2018, after reporting significant illnesses. The amount of the settlement has not been revealed, but it looks to possibly be the largest settlement over PCB exposure at a single site. Guest: Seattle Times reporter Lulu Ramadan Related Links: Monsanto settles with over 200 exposed to chemicals in Monroe school Monsanto must pay $857M in PCB lawsuit at Monroe, WA, school, jury finds Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

[01:02:09] Conservatives Back Martial LawOpening monologue criticizes conservatives for supporting Trump's talk of deploying troops in U.S. cities, linking it to the Pentagon's long-term planning for urban control. [01:05:31] Prohibition, Cartels & TerrorComparison of alcohol prohibition to the drug war; warns that attacking Mexican cartels militarily could spark terrorism inside American cities and provide cover for martial law. [01:12:29] Election Rigging & GerrymanderingDiscussion of how both parties manipulate elections through gerrymandering and voting controls; frames Trump as a Pentagon puppet in a larger plan of urban militarization. [01:20:48] Conservatives Cheer MilitarizationChicago carjacking victim opposed National Guard deployment; conservatives attacked her online, showing how Trump has shifted the right to embrace authoritarian solutions. [01:29:46] Normalizing Martial LawAnalysis of how deploying troops in D.C. and other cities is “predictive programming” to normalize military presence and condition officials and citizens for broader martial law. [01:45:21] Democrats Only OppositionClosing reflections argue conservatives have abandoned constitutional limits, leaving only Democrats to oppose Trump's martial law plans—though they oppose for the wrong reasons, focusing only on partisan power. [02:19:39] Texas “Big Beautiful Map” & Election RiggingDiscussion of Texas Senate passing a gerrymandered redistricting bill, Trump pushing to ban mail-in ballots and voting machines, and how both parties manipulate elections. [02:32:18] CDC Launches Vaccine Injury ReviewCriticism of the CDC forming a group to investigate COVID vaccine injuries, framed as a whitewash to protect Trump's Operation Warp Speed and Big Pharma. [02:36:04] Genetic Code Injections & Aluminum RisksSegment highlights concerns over mRNA shots replicating uncontrollably and reviews studies linking aluminum adjuvants to asthma, autism, and SIDS. [02:43:09] Hypervaccination Horror StoriesPersonal accounts of children permanently damaged after “catch-up” vaccine schedules in custody battles; broader attack on CDC and medical industry dishonesty. [02:49:41] Bioweapon Narrative & Military OperationDiscussion frames COVID vaccination as a Pentagon/DARPA military operation, not medicine, with secrecy and top-secret clearances tied to bio-surveillance. [03:08:15] Bayer, Monsanto & Legal ImmunityDeep dive into Monsanto's history with Agent Orange, PCBs, Roundup, GMOs, and Bayer's Nazi past; warnings that Trump and RFK Jr. are paving the way for legal immunity for “Big Pest.” [03:30:29] Greenland Child Seizures & Parenting TestsCase of a Greenlandic mother losing her baby under “parenting competence tests,” framed as government overreach tied to globalist family-erasure agendas. [03:35:02] Miraculous Cardiac RecoveryTeen athlete suffers sudden cardiac arrest and survives after 30 minutes without a heartbeat, presented as both a vaccine injury suspicion and a story of prayer and divine healing. [03:38:13] Legacy of James DobsonReflection on the life and influence of James Dobson—praised for defending families but criticized for Zionism and naïve trust in government institutions. Follow the show on Kick and watch live every weekday 9:00am EST – 12:00pm EST https://kick.com/davidknightshow Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silverFor 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHTFind out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

[01:02:09] Conservatives Back Martial LawOpening monologue criticizes conservatives for supporting Trump's talk of deploying troops in U.S. cities, linking it to the Pentagon's long-term planning for urban control. [01:05:31] Prohibition, Cartels & TerrorComparison of alcohol prohibition to the drug war; warns that attacking Mexican cartels militarily could spark terrorism inside American cities and provide cover for martial law. [01:12:29] Election Rigging & GerrymanderingDiscussion of how both parties manipulate elections through gerrymandering and voting controls; frames Trump as a Pentagon puppet in a larger plan of urban militarization. [01:20:48] Conservatives Cheer MilitarizationChicago carjacking victim opposed National Guard deployment; conservatives attacked her online, showing how Trump has shifted the right to embrace authoritarian solutions. [01:29:46] Normalizing Martial LawAnalysis of how deploying troops in D.C. and other cities is “predictive programming” to normalize military presence and condition officials and citizens for broader martial law. [01:45:21] Democrats Only OppositionClosing reflections argue conservatives have abandoned constitutional limits, leaving only Democrats to oppose Trump's martial law plans—though they oppose for the wrong reasons, focusing only on partisan power. [02:19:39] Texas “Big Beautiful Map” & Election RiggingDiscussion of Texas Senate passing a gerrymandered redistricting bill, Trump pushing to ban mail-in ballots and voting machines, and how both parties manipulate elections. [02:32:18] CDC Launches Vaccine Injury ReviewCriticism of the CDC forming a group to investigate COVID vaccine injuries, framed as a whitewash to protect Trump's Operation Warp Speed and Big Pharma. [02:36:04] Genetic Code Injections & Aluminum RisksSegment highlights concerns over mRNA shots replicating uncontrollably and reviews studies linking aluminum adjuvants to asthma, autism, and SIDS. [02:43:09] Hypervaccination Horror StoriesPersonal accounts of children permanently damaged after “catch-up” vaccine schedules in custody battles; broader attack on CDC and medical industry dishonesty. [02:49:41] Bioweapon Narrative & Military OperationDiscussion frames COVID vaccination as a Pentagon/DARPA military operation, not medicine, with secrecy and top-secret clearances tied to bio-surveillance. [03:08:15] Bayer, Monsanto & Legal ImmunityDeep dive into Monsanto's history with Agent Orange, PCBs, Roundup, GMOs, and Bayer's Nazi past; warnings that Trump and RFK Jr. are paving the way for legal immunity for “Big Pest.” [03:30:29] Greenland Child Seizures & Parenting TestsCase of a Greenlandic mother losing her baby under “parenting competence tests,” framed as government overreach tied to globalist family-erasure agendas. [03:35:02] Miraculous Cardiac RecoveryTeen athlete suffers sudden cardiac arrest and survives after 30 minutes without a heartbeat, presented as both a vaccine injury suspicion and a story of prayer and divine healing. [03:38:13] Legacy of James DobsonReflection on the life and influence of James Dobson—praised for defending families but criticized for Zionism and naïve trust in government institutions. Follow the show on Kick and watch live every weekday 9:00am EST – 12:00pm EST https://kick.com/davidknightshow Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silverFor 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHTFind out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

Sentera: https://sentera.com/Chandler Coop: https://www.chandlercoop.com/Today's episode is another installment in our Tech-Enabled Advisor series. The idea here is to better understand agtech through the lens of the BUYER and USER of that technology rather than just the entrepreneurs or investors behind it. I've received some super positive feedback about the return of this series. By talking to the buyers rather than the sellers of the tech, we got an unfiltered introduction to the technology and more importantly got to see HOW its used and the VALUE that it provides. To do this, I partner with a company and together we invite one of their customers onto the show. The catch is that they're not allowed to script these individuals or dictate what to say or edit it after it is recorded - it has to be real and unfiltered. So today's episode featuring Nick Einck of Chandler Coop is produced in partnership with Sentera. Sentera is a leading provider of remote imagery solutions. Their industry-leading cameras are compatible with most major drone platforms and enable farmers and crop scouts to efficiently capture high-resolution data. Their capabilities and FieldAgent software tools help farmers and agronomists assess plant-level health, identify stressors, and take action. Also their customized herbicide prescription, SMARTSCRIPT™ Weeds, can be delivered to sprayers with individual nozzle control.So drones equipped with Sentera technology fly over fields at high speeds and generate high-resolution images. The images are processed using proprietary deep learning algorithms to identify the exact location of specific weeds and generate a weed map. This map becomes a targeted prescription for how much product a farmer needs to load into their sprayer, saving money and minimizing waste. This past May, John Deere announced they were acquiring Sentera.So I'm very excited to partner with them for this episode, which is a fantastic deep dive into how innovative technology like this combined with something like See-and-Spray really changes the game.Some background on Nick before we dive in: Nick Einck is the Director of Agronomy at Chandler Co-op, a farmer-owned cooperative serving more than 900 customers and providing agronomic services across over 100,000 acres in southwest Minnesota. He began his career at Chandler as an intern and seed manager before spending nearly a decade with Monsanto and Bayer, gaining deep expertise in agronomy, product development, and grower engagement across the Midwest. Nick returned to Chandler in October 2024, bringing both retail and industry experience to help advance the co-op's agronomic strategy. Today, he leads a multi-location agronomy team focused on leveraging tech-enabled tools—like SmartScript™—to help growers make faster, more informed decisions and drive greater return from every acre.

April Hemmes, a farmer, rancher, and ag leader whose influence spans from Franklin County, Iowa, to international policy discussions. April operates her family's century farm—1,000 acres of corn, soybeans, and pasture—while serving on an impressive list of boards and advisory councils, including the United Soybean Board, USDA Foreign Ag Service Ag Technical Advisory Council, and multiple Iowa ag organizations.April's story starts with a degree in Animal Science from Iowa State University and early work in banking, ag research, and policy. In 1993, she took over the family farm, transitioning from a farrow-to-finish hog and cattle operation to a highly productive, tech-driven grain farm. She's never plowed her land, instead adopting no-till, buffer strips, wetlands, filter strips, and pollinator habitats to protect soil and water.She also leads a women's grain marketing group with economist Kelvin Leibold, empowering members to increase their farm incomes by $10,000 to $30,000 through smarter marketing strategies. Her leadership has earned her numerous honors, including Iowa Master Farmer, Monsanto's Farm Mom of the Year, and induction into the FarmHer Hall of Fame.In our conversation, April shares:How she balances technology investments with a used machinery strategy.Why conservation practices have been non-negotiable on her farm.How serving in leadership roles at the state, national, and global level influences her farm decisions.What she's learned from 40 years of running a farm as both owner and operator.Why building strong marketing skills is one of the best returns on investment for any farmer.We also lighten things up with a rapid-fire “Would You Rather” segment—revealing whether April prefers harvest or planting, beef or pork, and if she'd rather talk to animals or speak every human language.Whether you're interested in leadership, conservation, technology, or marketing, this episode offers inspiration and practical takeaways from one of the most respected voices in agriculture. Want Farm4Profit Merch? Custom order your favorite items today!https://farmfocused.com/farm-4profit/ Don't forget to like the podcast on all platforms and leave a review where ever you listen! Website: www.Farm4Profit.comShareable episode link: https://intro-to-farm4profit.simplecast.comEmail address: Farm4profitllc@gmail.comCall/Text: 515.207.9640Subscribe to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSR8c1BrCjNDDI_Acku5XqwFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@farm4profitllc Connect with us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Farm4ProfitLLC/

Get ready for a wild ride through the decade of frosted tips, questionable CD purchases, and every band you half-remember! On this episode of The Geoff and Whisp Show on 108.9 The Hawk, we break down the true path to owning the 1990's — Val Verde style.From Right Said Fred and Gin Blossoms to Bad Religion's Crazy Taxi soundtrack fame, Farmer Dan's jaw-dropping purchase of 500+ 90's bands (thanks to $43 billion and a shady deal with Monsanto & KISS manager, Doc McGee) will have you questioning reality.ALSO:The bizarre business of buying obscure 90's bands (and why Farmer Dan might explode if he stops performing).Queen's Fat Bottom Girls origins and the lost anthem “Big Junk Woman.”Hollow Man as the creepiest invisible pervert in cinema history.Crazy Taxi punk rock nostalgia vs. Tony Hawk soundtracks.Why the John Cougar Mellencamp Summer Camp probably violates every safety code.Here's how YOU can support Val Verde's second choice for rock, 108.9 The HawkSubscribe to the podcast on Apple, YouTube, Spotify or whatever you listen on!Visit our website & sign up for our mailing list: https://1089thehawk.comJoin the Patreon for early access & bonus shows: https://patreon.com/1089thehawkSubscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@1089thehawk••Follow us on social media: Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Facebook, Threads Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of One Dream, Leah Wilson and Bernadette Pajer dive deep into the urgent conversation about pesticides, food reform, and the corporations shaping our agricultural future. From Bayer and Monsanto's political influence to the hidden dangers in our food system, they unpack how liability shields, weak EPA oversight, and gaps in transparency put public health at risk. The discussion covers the health impacts of pesticide exposure—including cancer and reproductive issues—and reveals how consumer choice and political engagement can drive meaningful reform. Listeners will learn why regenerative agriculture offers hope, how to demand transparency in labeling, and why protecting our right to hold pesticide companies accountable is non-negotiable. This is more than a conversation—it's a rallying call for informed citizens to stand up for food safety, environmental health, and the future of farming. What You'll Learn in This Episode: How Bayer and Monsanto shape laws to protect the pesticide industry Why the term “pesticide” covers far more than herbicides The EPA's regulatory blind spots and their consequences Health risks tied to pesticide exposure How consumer awareness can change agricultural practices Why transparency in food labeling matters How political reform can protect public health and the environment The promise of regenerative agriculture as an alternative Why we must fight against pesticide liability shields Resources Mentioned: Find all of Stand for Health Freedom's resources on the pesticide issue, here. One Dream on Instagram: @onedream.podcast — DM us your detox questions Follow The One Dream Podcast:

Zdravo! V ničti epizodi sedme sezone odpremo novo poglavje našega malega podkasta. Mogoče malo bolj resni, malo bolj raziskovalni, malo bolj izobraževalni. V 7. sezoni beremo knjigo Zadnja priložnost, ki jo je skupaj z zoologom Markom Carwardineom napisal naš ljubi Douglas Adams! Knjiga govori o izumirajočih živalskih vrstah - Mark je prispeval svoje izkušnje, Douglasova vloga pa je bila: “da bi bil skrajno neveden nezoolog, ki naj bi ga prav vse, kar bi se zgodilo, popolnoma presenetilo.” Mi smo v uvodu v knjigo slalomirali med Bobom, Jožetom, orgonskimi topovi in granatami, propadlimi starimi sortami krompirja, Monsantom, kemtrejli in dejstvom, da se neumnost lahko izmeri. V wattih. Skratka, čaka vas prvi pogovor o knjigi, ki naj bi razsvetljevala, ne reševala, pa vseeno naredi oboje. In seveda o vsem vmes. Pa še bonus: nova identiteta za poslušalce - štoparke in štoparji, pozdravite raziskovalke in raziskovalce.

Vance Crowe: https://www.vancecrowe.com/Legacy Interviews: https://www.legacyinterviews.com/Vance Crowe on X: https://x.com/VanceCroweVance Crowe is a communications strategist that has worked for corporations and international organizations around the world. Crowe has spoken before more than 250,000 people, answering questions about some of the most sophisticated and controversial technologies in the modern age. He has worked for organizations as varied as the World Bank, Monsanto, the U.S. Peace Corps and even as a deckhand on an ecotourism ship. Today he is the founder of Legacy Interviews, a service that privately records the life stories of individuals and couples so that future generations can know their family history. The Vance Crowe Podcast hosts guests from around the world with artists, psychologists, economists, farmers, ambassadors and heads of state. Vance and I discuss his views on reinvention, artificial intelligence, how to develop healthy habits with technology in general, and bitcoin and why he believes it will de-monetize farmland as just one of the implications of more widespread adoption of that technology. If you've ever thought “I don't think I understand bitcoin and frankly it feels to late to ask” this is probably going to be a good episode for you, because I ask some fundamental questions. I'm not saying you'll fully understand it today, but Vance also offers some pretty practical advice for those who want to go deeper.

Zen Honeycutt, founder and executive director of Moms Across America and author of “Unstoppable: Transforming Sickness and Struggle into Triumph, Empowerment and a Celebration of Community,” details the origins and mission of the nonprofit organization aimed at transforming the food supply and improving health by reducing chemicals in food, water, and air. Highlighting the impact of grassroots activism, Honeycutt illustrates how the organization's initiatives have driven significant awareness and policy changes, including advances in organic food consumption and labeling. She also touches on the challenges posed by government and corporate influences, advocating for policies that put children's health and safety first. Honeycutt emphasizes the importance of individual actions and community involvement in creating a healthier future.

Dr. Hoffman continues his conversation with Zen Honeycutt, founder and executive director of Moms Across America and author of “Unstoppable: Transforming Sickness and Struggle into Triumph, Empowerment and a Celebration of Community.” 

In this compelling follow-up episode, we take a deep dive into one of the most pervasive and controversial chemicals in our environment today—glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Building on previous discussions about microplastics and PFAS, we explore what glyphosate is, how it came to dominate farming practices, and its far-reaching impacts on human health.What You'll Learn in This Episode:History & Background:Discover how glyphosate was first synthesized, the story behind its widespread use in agriculture, and the rise of Monsanto (now owned by Bayer).Health Impacts:We detail the alarming health concerns associated with glyphosate exposure, including links to cancer (such as lymphoma and other tumor types), hormone disruption, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and compromised detoxification systems.Why Is Glyphosate Everywhere?Find out which crops and common foods are most often contaminated—think soy, corn, wheat, barley, oats, canola oil, beans, strawberries, and more—and why even everyday foods could be placing your health at risk.Lawsuits, Regulation, and Liability:Get the latest on bans in other countries, pending U.S. legislative changes (like the 'chemical liability shield'), and the massive legal battles against glyphosate manufacturers.How it Affects the Body:Learn the insidious ways glyphosate disrupts the gut microbiome, depletes essential amino acids, interferes with energy production, and damages DNA and cell membranes.Detection and Testing:We share how glyphosate exposure is measured (including available urine tests) and what high exposure could mean for you and your family.Taking Action:Practical tips for reducing your exposure:Why going organic makes a real difference—especially for the “dirty dozen” foodsHow to support your body's natural detox pathwaysThe importance of water and food filtration, bowel health, and nutrients like glutathioneEmpowering Your Health Decisions:We emphasize taking proactive steps, advocating for change, and becoming your own health advocate.Takeaway:Glyphosate exposure is likely much more common than most people think—even detectable in over 90% of pregnant women in the U.S. We urge listeners to stay informed, support their detoxification systems, and push for safer farming and food practices.Links & Resources:For more information on glyphosate testing, look into Mosaic Labs and other organic acid test providers.Search up the “Dirty Dozen” list of produce most likely to contain pesticides.For future episodes on water filtration and detox strategies, stay tuned!Ready to take charge of your health? Have questions or want us to tackle a future topic? Reach out to the Health, Wealth and Ultimate Self team. Remember: this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice—contact your provider for personal recommendations.Subscribe, share, and empower yourself for better health—one step at a time!

Welcome back to The Birth Lounge Podcast—where we challenge the status quo, ask the questions the system hopes you won't, and take your family's health seriously (without fear-mongering or fluff). In today's episode, I'm sitting down with Kelly Ryerson, co-executive director of American ReGen and founder of Glyphosate Facts. With degrees from Dartmouth and Stanford, Kelly brings the heat and the receipts on one of the most important (and honestly, infuriating) topics in modern health: glyphosate. Yup, that's the same chemical in Roundup—the most widely used pesticide on Earth. And spoiler alert: it's likely in your pantry right now. We dive deep into: The truth about glyphosate's impact on your gut, your mental health, and your baby's long-term development How companies like Monsanto (now Bayer) are still running the show—and why we can't trust the system to keep us safe What you can do today to reduce your exposure (hello, water filters + better food choices) Why baby food is a big red flag (yes, even organic) What's actually happening on farms, and how regenerative practices can change the game This episode is part science, part scandal, and fully focused on helping you take back control of your health—because no one is coming to do that for you. If you've ever wondered what's actually in your food, how it's affecting your hormones, fertility, or your growing baby, or why the U.S. is behind other countries in banning toxic chemicals… This is your episode. Timestamps: 00:00 Welcome & Why This Matters 01:46 The Hidden Dangers in Our Food 03:18 Meet Kelly Ryerson 03:58 Glyphosate 101 08:20 Why It's So Widely Used (and How It Got That Way) 21:53 The Health Fallout: Gut, Brain, and Beyond 34:27 How to Shop Smarter & Spot Safer Foods 37:58 What Other Countries Are Doing Right 44:37 Why Some Farmers Don't See the Problem 46:07 How Policy, Profit & Pesticides Are All Linked 47:47 Dead Soil = Dead Nutrition 49:28 The Rise of Regenerative Farming 51:06 Safer Options for Home & Garden 55:39 Baby Food Red Flags 58:20 What's Lurking in Juice, Wine & Beer 01:00:50 Nontoxic Yard Care (Your Pets Will Thank You) 01:04:31 Monsanto's Long Game of Deception 01:09:02 Government + Industry: Too Cozy? 01:15:47 Reclaiming Your Family's Health 01:17:59 Final Takeaways + Where to Start Listen now and take the first step toward safer choices, stronger advocacy, and raising a healthier generation. Guest Bio: Kelly Ryerson works at the intersection of agriculture and health. She regularly collaborates with regenerative farmers, scientists, policymakers and media to address agrochemical damage to our soil and bodies. Kelly is the co-Executive Director of American Regeneration and also founded the news site Glyphosate Facts. Kelly has contributed to numerous podcasts, publications, and documentaries including the recent award winning documentary Common Ground. She is an Ambassador for The Rodale Institute. Kelly has a BA from Dartmouth College, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and completed training in integrative health coaching at Duke Integrative Medicine.  INSTAGRAM & SOCIAL MEDIA: Connect with HeHe on IG  Connect with HeHe on YouTube   Connect with Kelly on IG    BIRTH EDUCATION: Join The Birth Lounge here for judgment-free childbirth education that prepares you for an informed birth and how to confidently navigate hospital policy to have a trauma-free labor experience!   Download The Birth Lounge App for birth & postpartum prep delivered straight to your phone!   LINKS MENTIONED: www.americanregeneration.org  www.glyphosatefacts.com  Connect with HRI Labs here Firehawk bio herbicide Pestie  

Rebecca Tickell is an award-winning filmmaker, author, environmental activist, and regenerative farmer. We talked about the journey that led to her films Kiss the Ground and Common Ground, the history of our soil and pesticides, why conventional farming is a cycle of degredation, the corruption of the agrochemical industry, Monsanto whistleblowers, how to feed the world, the global movement of regeneration, how to eat, bees & pollinators, and much more.AirDoctor (Best Rated Air Filters)Get up to $300 off AirDoctorAquaTru (Premium Water Filters)Get $100 off any AquaTru systemSupport the Podcast Directlypatreon.com/somethingdiffpodRebecca's LinksKiss the GroundCommon GroundGroundswellBEE WILDOther References:The Detox ProjectWhitewash by Carey GillamTimestamps:(00:00:00) – Intro(00:03:07) – The road to regeneration(00:11:51) – Storytelling(00:15:02) – Farmers & desertification(00:18:33) – A brief history of our soil(00:27:11) – Connecting to nature(00:28:48) – Two fun facts(00:30:29) – We don't eat our food(00:33:26) – Sacrifice zones & human rights(00:38:21) – Glyphosate, wheat, oats, & chickpeas(00:44:47) – The good news(00:46:09) – Monsanto, Bayer, the EPA, & whistleblowers(00:49:36) – Feeding the world(00:56:04) – Soil regeneration(01:02:41) – A global movement(01:14:49) – How to eat(01:23:10) – USDA Organic(01:29:36) – High stakes(01:30:43) – Bees & insects(01:37:39) – Stories of hope(01:38:59) – Rebecca's dream documentary(01:41:32) – Hopeful

Dale Earnhardt Jr. reunites with an old friend from a different world, longtime PGA competitor Boo Weekley. For those who don't know Boo, he's a world-class storyteller and one hell of a golfer. If you don't know Boo, you'll be a fan of his after this episode. From his legendary porta-potty story to the time he once fought an orangutan, it's safe to say you'll be entertained during this one.  After establishing himself as one of the most unique personalities in the professional golfing world, Boo became connected with Dale through another lifelong interest: auto racing. Boo explains that he grew up now far from a local dirt track in Florida, and his entire family followed NASCAR passionately. To quote Boo himself: “It wasn't football on Sundays, it was NASCAR”. Dale recalls several instances of Boo traveling to Charlotte for race weekends, and how he became friends with many of Dale's close friends during those trips.Boo's professional career came about after he had given up on playing golf. He explains that while he was working as a hydroblaster at the Monsanto plant in Pensacola, he was convinced by longtime friend Heath Slocum to attend a local tournament. He ended up winning and quickly declared himself “professional,” and began collecting sponsorship to enter larger, higher-paying events. Boo became a fan favorite on the PGA Tour thanks to his memorable nickname and down-to-earth personality. After taking some time away from the sport due to injuries, he is now back full-time playing with the PGA Tour ChampionsAnd for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaDirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They've got some awesome Dale Jr. Download merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuffFanDuel: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call (800) 327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.Arby's: Arby's Cheesesteak is Here! Use code DALE to redeem $0 Delivery on any order in the Arby's app.

Vance Crowe believes that the key to preserving multi-generational farms is for farmers to communicate better, especially within their own families. As founder of Legacy Interviews, podcast host, and keynote speaker, Vance knows a thing or two about communication.  Vance developed strong communication skills early on, shaped by a competitive family environment on an Illinois farm. Vance has worked as a deckhand, in the Peace Corps in Africa, and for five years as Monsanto's Director of Millennial Engagement. He now runs Legacy Interviews, which preserves family histories, and is recognized for his articulate communication style. In this episode, Vance and John discuss: Vance's path from Illinois to Monsanto and Legacy Interviews Farmers' need to communicate family values and knowledge Society's disconnect from agriculture and farmers' marketing potential AI's role in enhancing human contributions in agriculture Preserving generational wisdom through storytelling The value of direct communication and constructive disagreement Additional Resources To learn more about the Vance and his work, please visit: https://www.vancecrowe.com/ About John Kempf John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA). A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who grow it. Through intense study and the knowledge gleaned from many industry leaders, John is building a comprehensive systems-based approach to plant nutrition – a system solidly based on the sciences of plant physiology, mineral nutrition, and soil microbiology. Support For This Show & Helping You Grow Since 2006, AEA has been on a mission to help growers become more resilient, efficient, and profitable with regenerative agriculture.  AEA works directly with growers to apply its unique line of liquid mineral crop nutrition products and biological inoculants. Informed by cutting-edge plant and soil data-gathering techniques, AEA's science-based programs empower farm operations to meet the crop quality markers that matter the most. AEA has created real and lasting change on millions of acres with its products and data-driven services by working hand-in-hand with growers to produce healthier soil, stronger crops, and higher profits. Beyond working on the ground with growers, AEA leads in regenerative agriculture media and education, producing and distributing the popular and highly-regarded Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, inspiring webinars, and other educational content that serve as go-to resources for growers worldwide. Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

In this episode, Jeff and Becky welcome back Jerry Hayes, renowned honey bee advocate, author, and researcher, for a wide-ranging conversation on bee health, industry change, and the future of beekeeping. Drawing from decades of experience—from inspecting colonies in the field to influencing corporate and regulatory policy—Jerry shares what he's learned about building bridges between science, beekeepers, and the broader agricultural world. The discussion touches on Jerry's roles across the beekeeping ecosystem—from his early days as Florida's Chief Apiary Inspector to leadership positions at Monsanto, Vita Bee Health and now, Bee Culture Magazine. He reflects on lessons learned while advocating for honey bees in spaces that didn't always understand their value, and how science communication and transparency have become central to his mission. Jerry also shares insights into how beekeeping has changed, what's needed to better support bees in today's agricultural systems, and the role of products like oxalic acid and other treatment innovations. Whether you're a hobbyist or a commercial beekeeper, this episode offers valuable perspective from someone who's seen the industry evolve from every angle. Websites from the episode and others we recommend: Bee Culture Magazine: https://beeculture.com  Honey Bee Health Coalition: https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org The National Honey Board: https://honey.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast: https://honeybeeobscura.com   Copyright © 2025 by Growing Planet Media, LLC     ______________ Betterbee is the presenting sponsor of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global offers a variety of standard and custom patties. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode!  Thanks to Bee Smart Designs as a sponsor of this podcast! Bee Smart Designs is the creator of innovative, modular and interchangeable hive systems made in the USA using recycled and American sourced materials. Bee Smart Designs - Simply better beekeeping for the modern beekeeper.   Thanks to Dalan who is dedicated to providing transformative animal health solutions to support a more sustainable future. Dalan's vaccination against American Foulbrood (AFB) is a game changer. Vaccinated queens protect newly hatched honeybee larvae against AFB using the new Dalan vaccine. Created for queen producers and other beekeepers wanting to produce AFB free queens.  Retailers offering vaccinated queens and packages:  https://dalan.com/order-vaccinated-queens/   More information on the vaccine: https://dalan.com/media-publications/ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about their line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their support. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com Thank you for listening!  Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Faraday by BeGun; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; A Fresh New Start by Pete Morse; Wedding Day by Boomer; Christmas Avenue by Immersive Music; Red Jack Blues by Daniel Hart; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott. Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC Copyright © 2025 by Growing Planet Media, LLC

A massive international study just proved what we've suspected for decades, glyphosate causes cancer even at doses the European Union considers "safe."In today's episode, I'm breaking down the results of the Global Glyphosate Study, led by major institutions including the Ramazzini Institute in Italy, Boston University, and universities across the globe. Over 1,000 rats were tested, with control groups receiving zero glyphosate and three other groups receiving amounts equivalent to what the EU deems safe for human consumption. The results are devastating: all groups exposed to glyphosate developed tumors and cancers, with leukemia being the most prevalent, especially in rats exposed during the prenatal stage.This isn't some fringe research. This is an international coalition of credible universities providing evidence that glyphosate infiltrates our entire food system and causes cancer. Meanwhile, Bayer and Monsanto continue trying to get immunity laws passed across the United States, claiming farmers can't grow food without glyphosate. But here's the truth: regenerative and organic farming doesn't require synthetic pesticides, it's just that we've destroyed our soil with decades of chemical agriculture.The solution isn't just individual action (though I'll share practical steps you can take), it's systemic change. We need to call our representatives and demand two things: no liability shields for pesticide companies, and government grants to help farmers transition to regenerative agriculture. This is about more than just our personal health - it's about saving our entire food system.In today's episode, we're chatting about: • The shocking results of testing 1,000+ rats with "safe" levels of glyphosate • Why pesticide companies are fighting for legal immunity across the US • How glyphosate exposure during pregnancy increases childhood leukemia risk • Practical steps to reduce glyphosate exposure in your home and diet • Why we need systemic change, not just individual action, to solve this crisisFree: Top 25 Toxins to AvoidGet on the Toxin Free in 3 Waiting List

Abbey Blue Eyes and Ashe in America sit down with Jordan Sather for an expansive discussion bridging health activism and the mysteries of human consciousness. Jordan kicks off by unpacking RFK Jr.'s efforts to defund Gavi and dismantle Big Pharma's chokehold on small supplement makers. From there, the conversation dives into genetically modified foods, glyphosate-laden crops, and the corporate collusion between Monsanto and the FDA to keep Americans sick. The second half veers into the “woo,” exploring remote viewing, astral projection, and the nature of consciousness as an untapped human birthright. Jordan lays out how our DNA might act as a fractal antenna linking us to a morphogenic field, while the hosts debate whether these abilities are divine gifts or gateways to manipulation. They also examine the moral hazards of a future where secrets disappear, and humanity becomes a shared hive mind. Interwoven throughout are biblical references, Star Wars metaphors, and sharp questions about the hidden hand shaping both our food supply and our collective psyche. It's a thought-provoking exploration of corruption, spiritual sovereignty, and the possibility of reclaiming our innate power.

What does it take to truly succeed in business and defy the odds? Join Rich Somers as he chats with Travis Chambers, the visionary behind Outpost X, a one-of-a-kind sci-fi movie set hotel in the Utah desert. After a remarkable $17 million exit from Chamber Media, Travis opens up about his journey—from a childhood filled with adversity to crafting an extraordinary experience that transports guests into another world.In this captivating episode, Rich engages Travis in an exploration of entrepreneurship, where the importance of sales skills and meticulous attention to detail becomes paramount.They discuss how Outpost X is more than just a hotel; it's a transformative space of healing and imaginative escape, inviting guests to immerse themselves in a truly unique experience.Travis reflects on the challenges he has faced, including the complex legacy tied to his father's involvement in the Roundup/Monsanto crisis, and how these experiences have shaped his mission.The conversation delves into workplace culture, the critical role of innovation in hospitality, and the unique challenges of funding unconventional stays in a market that often shies away from the new and untested.Travis shares invaluable insights on overcoming adversity and the transformative power of vision in entrepreneurship. With an adventurous spirit, he inspires listeners to embrace opportunities and challenge the status quo.Connect with Travis on Instagram: @travis_chambersJoin our investor waitlist and stay in the know about our next investor opportunity with Somers Capital: www.somerscapital.com/invest. Want to join our Boutique Hotel Mastermind Community? Book a free strategy call with our team: www.hotelinvesting.com. If you're committed to scaling your personal brand and achieving 7-figure success, it's time to level up with the 7 Figure Creator Mastermind Community. Book your exclusive intro call today at www.the7figurecreator.com and gain access to the strategies that will accelerate your growth.

Season 5: Episode 211As the ag tech sector matures, the industry is finally shifting its focus from flashy innovations to solving real problems on the ground. In this episode of North American Ag Spotlight, Chrissy Wozniak explores how the ag tech space is becoming more practical, profitable, and proven — especially when it comes to addressing the core issue that keeps most farmers up at night: labor. Joining the conversation from St. Louis, Missouri is Connie Bowen, Founding Partner of Farmhand Ventures, a venture firm focused on the future of work in U.S. agriculture.Connie shares how her background — spanning from engineering to hands-on farm work in Oregon's Willamette Valley — shaped her laser focus on labor as agriculture's most pressing challenge. She discusses how investor enthusiasm surged after high-profile acquisitions like Monsanto's purchase of Climate Corp, but notes the disconnect between capital flowing into ag tech and the slow pace of on-farm adoption. That's where Farmhand Ventures comes in — helping startups build with the farmer, not just for them.Throughout the conversation, Connie breaks down what makes an idea investable in the ag space, why founders must collaborate closely with growers and farmworkers from day one, and how including the voices of those doing the work creates smarter, more successful tools. She explains that while sustainability and climate concerns may attract outside capital, these investors often fail to understand the farmer's “hair-on-fire” problems — like labor shortages and razor-thin margins — which must be addressed first.Connie also talks about mistakes she sees ag tech startups making, including overpromising, chasing the wrong markets, or designing without true farm-level feedback. She emphasizes the importance of field trials, user input, and ongoing proof, comparing startup success to a sports team that has to earn its wins every season. Looking ahead, she predicts robotics will play an increasingly critical role in specialty crops and emphasizes the need for tech to help elevate workers into higher-value roles rather than displacing them.This episode highlights a turning point in ag tech — one where the best solutions come from close collaboration, practical thinking, and a deep respect for the realities of farm work.Learn more about Connie and Farm Ventures at https://www.farmhandventures.com/#agtech #smartfarming #agricultureNorth American Ag is devoted to highlighting the people & companies in agriculture who impact our industry and help feed the world. Subscribe at https://northamericanag.comWant to hear the stories of the ag brands you love and the ag brands you love to hate? Hear them at https://whatcolorisyourtractor.comDon't just thank a farmer, pray for one too!Send us a textAgritechnica in Hannover, Germany is held every other year, this year long-time tech writer & ag journalist Willie Vogt has put together for ag enthusiasts! The Agritechnica tour includes three days at the huge equipment and farm technology event. Learn more - https://agtoursusa.com/agritechnica.htmlSubscribe to North American Ag at https://northamericanag.com