Podcasts about NEA

Synopsis: While biotech is increasingly measured by clinical milestones and financial outcomes, Rahul Chaturvedi welcomes two leaders who argue that true success begins and ends with patients. In this deeply personal and inspiring conversation, Mike Raab, President & Chief Executive Officer of Ardelyx, and Laura Williams, Chief Patient Officer, share how empathy, resilience, and patient advocacy have shaped both their careers and the culture of the company they've built. Mike reflects on an unconventional journey that spans pharmaceutical sales, rare disease leadership at Genzyme, venture capital at NEA, and ultimately leading Ardelyx through some of biotech's most difficult challenges—including a Complete Response Letter, massive layoffs, and a historic FDA reversal that resulted in approval without additional clinical trials. Laura shares her path from rural Mississippi to becoming a physician, recounting the transformative patient experience during the HIV epidemic that inspired her move from academia into industry and ultimately into a pioneering Chief Patient Officer role. Together, they explore what patient-centricity truly means beyond corporate slogans, how Ardelyx embedded patient advocacy into the C-suite, and why empathy must be a core competency for biotech leadership. The discussion also dives into clinical trial diversity, commercializing therapies for underserved populations, navigating regulatory adversity, responsible capital allocation, and the future of building enduring biotech companies. It is a powerful reminder that when patients become the North Star, resilience, innovation, and impact naturally follow. Biography: Mike Raab Mike has served as Ardelyx's President and Chief Executive Officer since March 2009. Before Ardelyx, Mike was a partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the world's largest and most successful venture capital firms, where he specialized in healthcare investments focusing on the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. Prior to joining NEA in 2002, Mike spent 15 years in commercial and operating leadership roles in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. He was senior vice president, therapeutics and general manager of the renal division at Genzyme Corporation, a Sanofi company. In this position, Mike launched and oversaw the sales growth of sevelamer, the leading phosphate binder for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia, with over $1.0 billion in worldwide sales in 2013. Mike was also instrumental in the worldwide launch of Genzyme's therapies for Gaucher disease, Ceredase and Cerezyme. Laura Williams, MD, MPH Laura has served as Ardelyx's Chief Patient Officer since 2025, having joined the company in November 2020 as Senior Vice President, Global Therapeutic Strategies and Patient Advocacy. Laura was later promoted to Chief Medical Officer in 2021. Laura is a life science enterprise leader with extensive experience as a pharmaceutical drug developer, healthcare policy advisor, patient advocate, and portfolio strategist. She is an accomplished, results-oriented, physician scientist and board member who is committed to discovering, developing, and commercializing innovative therapies that address unmet medical need. With nearly 30 years of pharmaceutical experience, across all clinical development phases and multiple therapeutic areas, in both large pharma and smaller biotech, Laura has a proven track-record in drug development, as indicated by her leadership and major contributions toward eight drug approvals.

Today on the podcast, Gail Eichenthal is joined by leaders at the intersection of Arts & Health to celebrate LA Opera's partnerships and impact as we as we reflect on 5 years of LA County Arts and Health Week Summits. Listen in to conversations covering our 5th annual Summit's Core Themes. From Research to Practice with Sunil Iyengar of the NEA; Five Years of Progress with Kristin Sakoda, Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and Advocacy Across Sectors with Co-Director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab Dr. Nisha Sajnani. Then, we'll hear from LA Opera Connects Vice-President Dr. Andréa Fuentes as we look the future of caring for our communities through the arts. LAOpera.org/Summit Arts.gov/Impact/Research LACountyArts.org JameelArtsHealthLab.org

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Marta Renzi is a filmmaker and choreographer who has created over 20 short films, which have screened in over 100 festivals. Marta and her Project Company received a New York Dance and Performance Award (a “Bessie”) in 1992 and the first Dancing in the Streets award in 1995. She has received two videodance commissions from PBS, including one for MOUNTAINVIEW (1989), made in collaboration with filmmaker John Sayles. A seven-time recipient of funding from the NEA, Marta was a Bogliasco Fellow at the Liguria Center for Arts & Humanities in 2013 and a RAW Community Supported Artist in 2014. She served on the Board of Directors of DFA from 2008-2018.

Europe – and the rest of the world – is currently undergoing profound change. The (geo)political landscape is shifting, raising questions about what Europe is. During the European Literature Night, we invite six authors from across the continent to reflect on what it means to transform.Europe will have to define its culture, its values and its future, a future that will hopefully be shaped and informed by taking into account as many voices as possible. It is the very reason the network of European national cultural organisations, EUNIC Netherlands, is inviting six authors from across Europe to De Balie in Amsterdam during Europe Day. In their work, these authors explore what transformation means, within literature, within society and within themselves.About the writers:Małgorzata Lebda (Nowy Sącz, Poland, 1985) is well-known as a poet, with six collections to her name. Among other major accolades, she won the prestigious Wisława Szymborska Award in 2022. Voracious, the winner of Empik's Best Newcomer in Poland and shortlisted for the Conrad, and Angelus and NIKE Prize, is her debut novel. Małgorzata Lebda is also a photographer and marathon runner. She is at the European Literature Night at the invitation of Polish Culture NL. Carolina Pihelgas (Talinn, Estonia, 1986) is an Estonian writer, poet, translator, and editor. Her collection of prose poems Valgus kivi sees (The Light within the Stone, 2019) received the Estonian Cultural Endowment Award for the best poetry book of the year. In 2020, she was appointed Tartu's City Writer Laureate. The author of seven collections of poetry published her first novel Vaadates ööd (Watching the Night) in 2022. The short novel The Cut Line is her second work of prose and her first work to be translated into English and published in February 2026. She is at the European Literature Night at the invitation of the Estonian Embassy in the Netherlands. Artem Chapeye (Kolomyia, Ukraine, 1981) is a Ukrainian writer, translator, reporter and traveller. As a translator of Mahatma Gandhi's texts and believer in non-violent political change, he took up arms and now defends Ukraine. He is author of both creative non-fiction and popular fiction. Four of Chapeye's books were shortlisted for the BBC Ukraine Book of the Year Award: Journey with “Mamayota in Search of Ukraine” in 2011, “The Red Zone” (his debut in fiction) in 2014, “Overrun” in 2015, and “The Ukraine” in 2018. He is at the European Literature Night at the invitation of the Ukrainian Embassy. Iulian Bocai (Oltenië, Romania, 1986) studied Comparative Literature at the University of Bucharest. He has a PhD in intellectual history. He has published five books and dabbles both in literature and nonfiction. His first novel, Ciudata și înduioșătoarea viață a lui Priță Barsacu (The Weird and Endearing Life of Priță Barsacu) won multiple national and international awards and came out in a Dutch translation in 2025 by Charlotte van Rooden. Before going into writing, he spent a decade translating mainly novels and children books from English, French and German into Romanian and has seen literature from both sides of the fence, working both as a writer and editor/translator. He likes writing better. He is at the European Literature Night at the invitation of the Romanian Cultural Institute for the Benelux. Amanda Michalopoulou (Athens, Greece, 1966) is the author of eight novels, three short story collections, a theater play and a novella. She has been a contributing editor at Kathimerini in Greece and Tagesspiegel in Berlin. She is a winner of the Revmata Award (1994), the Diavazo Award for her novel Jantes (1996) and the Academy of Athens Prize for her short story collection “Bright Day” (2013). The American translation of her book I'd Like won the International Literature Prize by NEA in the US (2008) and the Liberis Liber Prize of the Independent Catalan Publishers (2012). Her stories and essays have been translated into twenty languages. Her novels Why I killed my best friend and God's Wife, were short-listed for the ALTA National Translation Award in the US. Her short story Mesopotamia was selected for Best European Fiction 2018 (Dalkey Archive). She is at the European Literature Night at the invitation of the Greek Embassy in the Netherlands. Dmitrij Kapitelman (Kiev, Ukraine, 1986) came to Germany with his family at the age of eight as a “contingent refugee”. He studied political science at Leipzig University and graduated from the German School of Journalism in Munich. He works as a freelance journalist. He is at the European Literature Night at the invitation of the Goethe Institute. In collaboration with: EUNIC NetherlandsProgramme editor: Veronica BaasModerator: Viola Karsten and Veronica BaasZie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hanna har fått en skärmdump som får Nea att STORKNA. Dessutom har tjejerna haft en utekväll som på ”gamla goda tiden” där de bl.a. såg en manlig medieprofils speciella utseenderesa. Dessutom: det mest millennial du kan göra! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Hanna och Nea har både lyckats bli pruttfulla och klämma på olympiers kroppar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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This conversation started 2 years ago, when I ran into Kelly McMahon at a summer conference. Kelly's a kindergarten teacher at Hoover Community School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and I was curious about what that label “community school” means in practice for teachers, students, and the community served by this new model for the area.I've since learned that just because your kids attend Ames Community School District, for example, that doesn't mean they attend a “community school.” Kelly put me in touch with Dave Greenberg and Angelia Ebner, senior policy analysts and community schools program specialists at the National Education Association, who have helped build and support thousands of community schools, as Angelia described it, from “coast to coast and border to border.”And no exploration of the community schools model could be complete without including the story of Sustainable Community Schools in Chicago. Just last year, Major Brandon Johnson announced a near doubling of the number of community schools in the city, bringing the number to 36.I spoke with foundational community organizer, advocate, and elected Chicago Public Schools Board Member, Jitu Brown, about how organizing for Sustainable Community Schools defused the push by elected officials for school closures, privatization, and charter-ization of Chicago Public Schools. For Jitu, the title of School Board member may be new, but he is Chicago born and raised, and he's been organizing around education and all of its related issues since the 90s.While there were just hundreds of community schools in the United States 15 years ago, today there are over 5,000 and growing in nearly every state in the nation. A consistent refrain from every person I spoke with for this episode was that community schools are the future of public education and the alternative to narratives about “failing public schools” that favor privatization as a solution.NEA - What are community schools?NEA - 5 Steps to Kickstarting Community Schools in Your DistrictNEA Community School Measurement Guidance Tool Chicago Sustainable Community Schools Eve Ewing - Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South SideYou can read out directly to Angelia & Dave @ NEA:aebner@nea.org | DGreenberg@nea.org

Teachers’ Unions as Political Power Brokers Major teachers’ unions (e.g., NEA, AFT) have contributed over $1 billion to left‑wing political causes over the past decade. This funding overwhelmingly supports Democratic candidates, progressive activism, and ideological causes unrelated to education. Education System as Ideological Indoctrination Unions have shifted from focusing on education (reading, writing, math) to political indoctrination of students. Declining academic performance is linked to this ideological focus rather than educational reform. Coerced Union Participation Teachers are forced to contribute union dues and face professional consequences if they dissent, framing this as coercive or unethical. Link Between Education, Ideology, and Political Violence Left‑leaning control of education has normalized hatred of conservatives, Christians, and Donald Trump. There is a direct causal line between: union political spending, ideological education, polling data suggesting some Democrats justify political violence, and alleged assassination attempts on Donald Trump. Normalization of Political Violence 25% of Democrats believe political violence can be justified. This reflects a broader cultural shift allegedly driven by education and political messaging. Democratic Strategy Framing Democrats deliberately pursued a “long game” by controlling education from elementary school through universities to shape future voters. Education institutions are culture‑shaping tools rather than neutral public services. Call to Parental Action This is a warning to parents for continued and increased involvement in school boards. This activism is a response to loss of trust, lack of accountability, and ideological overreach. Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast and Verdict with Ted Cruz Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening X: https://x.com/benfergusonshowYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode is presented by Create A Video – The North Carolina teachers union has organized a strike for Friday so members can rally in Raleigh for more money from state lawmakers (who will not be in session at that time). Andrew Dunn is the publisher of Longleaf Politics and  a contributing columnist to The Charlotte Observer and he joins me to discuss the issue.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-kaliner-show--6946691/support.Subscribe to the podcast All the links to Pete's Prep are free!Get exclusive content here!Media Bias Check: GroundNews promo code!Advertising and Booking inquiries: Pete@ThePeteKalinerShow.com  

Spaßeshalber droppen wir hier im ersten Satz mal names, denn welcher verhältnismäßig junge Mensch kann von sich schon behaupten, mit den Legenden Conny Froboess und Günter Pfitzmann zusammengearbeitet zu haben? Unser heutiger Gast kann es, Dennenesch Zoudé, die im Dezember des Jahres 1966 in Äthiopiens Hauptstadt Addis Abeba zur Welt und mit zwei Jahren nach West-Berlin kam. Die politischen Verhältnisse in der Heimat wurden und blieben wackelig, die Rückkehr verschob sich auf ungewisse Zeit und Dennenesch konnte auf Umwegen das tun, wofür sie wirklich brannte: Theater spielen, Singen lernen. Als Schauspielerin arbeiten. Ihre erste Rolle 1992 bestritt sie – daher auch die legendären Verweise – in der früher sehr gefeierten "Praxis Bülowbogen", ein guter Start also. Ein Blick auf Dennenesch Zoudés Stationen zeigt, dass sie sich inhaltlich nicht festlegen lassen möchte, davon zeugen Engagements als Sängerin, klassische Unterhaltungsfilme aber auch anspruchsvollen Theaterstücke. Und nun? Wird es ein ganz neues Projekt geben, über das wir natürlich auch sprechen. Neben all den Geschichten und Songs ihres Lebens. Playlist: Stephanie Mills - Never knew Love like this before Kool and the Gang - Ladies Night Stevie Wonder - For once in my Life Teddy Swims - Lose Control Barry White - You’re the first, last, everything Marvin Gaye und Tammi Terrell - Ain’t no mountain high enough Felix Jaehn ft. Nea, Bryn Christopher - No Therapy Miley Cyrus - Flowers Suzie Quattro & Chris Norman - Stumblin‘In Diese Podcast-Episode steht unter der Creative Commons Lizenz CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

The Great private Capital Reset is upon us. Markets are volatile and driving new economic imperatives. Are VC funds still VC funds, even if they raise billions per fund? What happened to the rest of the market? What is driving VC investments? What do Limited Partners think? What is on their minds? This and more, in episode 76 of Tech Deciphered. Navigation: Intro The State of the Reset: The Hangover from the Party? LP Fatigue and VC Differentiation What Really Matters: Performance.. Returns The Mega Fund Question The Case for Smaller… Rightsized Funds What Comes Next? Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show: Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Bertrand Introduction Welcome to episode 76 of Tech Deciphered. This episode will be about the great private capital reset. As you know, or you have probably heard, there is significant structural transformation in the world of venture capital, and we are probably witnessing a fundamental reset of the private capital stack. We got a huge bubble in 2020, 2021. Fueled by near-zero interest rates. We got inflated fund size, compressed due diligence, and now a generation of zombie funds and zombie startups. Now that rates have normalized, exits have not been as much as expected. LP patience is a warning sign, and I guess the industry is being forced to confront an uncomfortable truth: most VC funds raised since 2017 might not return what their LPs expected. You know, how do we start?   Nuno This is going to be a relatively nuanced episode. Obviously, there is going to be a lot of haves and have-nots, both in terms of VC funds, also in terms of startups. And so I want to start with that. This is going to be more nuanced than all transformational and disruptive.   Bertrand It’s not the end. It’s not the end.   Nuno State of the Reset: The Hangover from the Party? It’s not the end. There’s still huge mega funds that are raising more and more. It’s clear that the music has stopped, right? So if we’re playing the game of chairs, the music has stopped. Around ’22, ’23, we started seeing the first signals that funds had raised way too much money. Firms collectively raised around $669 billion globally in 2021 alone. If we fast forward now to last year, 2025, depending on the sources, we did some internal analysis at Chameleon. We came up with $75.6 billion was raised last year by 493 funds, right? So That’s a significant drop, right, in terms of fundraising. Other sources would say a little bit more. There’s a little bit of a discussion around how much did the top 30 funds capture. If you believe some of the stats out there, they would say that actually top 30 funds captured 75% of all capital raised last year. We did again some internal analysis at Chameleon, and the conclusion we came to, it was closer to 50 to 55%. So not as dramatic as some of the sources out there, but still pretty dramatic. There’s a lot of capital concentration on the top funds. Again, the top 30 funds would’ve raised 50 to 55% of capital or up to 75% according to other sources. So definitely a tremendous amount of concentration. There was a lot more fragmentation in terms of capital raised if we’re looking at the years from 2010, 2011, all the way through 2021. So 2021 would’ve been sort of the peak of non-concentration if you look at that. And that again, now we are getting more and more concentration. There’s more and more of this arbitrage around, I’ll give money to the top funds, I will not give money to the smaller funds, or I’ll give less money to the smaller funds. There’s a little bit of a movement around concentration. We’ll talk about it later and what that means. Are mega funds really better? Are the small funds still the way to go? We’ll talk a lot about that later in today’s episode. There seems to be a little bit of a bifurcation. We could say it’s either bifurcation around top-tier VCs or larger VC funds versus smaller VC funds. My perspective is the bifurcation that we’re seeing right now is more of a bifurcation between funds that are no longer just stepped into the VC space, but they’re actually becoming more and more private equity firms with full asset management range from early stage all the way to late stage. Think of it almost like a private equity hedge fund, quasi, versus classic VC funds. And I think what we’re seeing is the Andreessen Horowitzes, the a16zs of the world, the NEAs, the Sequoia Capitals, just to name a few, becoming more and more broad asset class managers across private equity, whereas you have more classic VC happening in earlier stages. And so that’s the real bifurcation that I think is actually happening.   Bertrand And maybe not really hedge fund, because they are always still long-only funds. So there is no hedging happening, at least as far as I know.   Nuno Well, some of these guys have become RIAs, like A16z has become an RIA, so they can do secondaries.   Bertrand That’s true. Yeah.   Nuno And they can also sell stuff, etc. So I don’t know how aggressive they’re going to be in terms of secondaries and selling and actually doing other kinds of services you can do if you’re an RIA. But it’s not, I think, out of the realm of possibility that they would sort of acquire and sell stock more rapidly. In that way, to your point, Bertrand, maybe they actually become beyond just long guys, right?   Bertrand Yes. Another trend I have seen is some of the larger VC funds seems to have no problem investing in multiple competitors. This was not possible before. I mean, if you’re a VC fund, you had some sort of duty not to invest in the competitors, but now some invest OpenAI, Anthropic at the same time. Do you see that as part of this evolution?   Nuno For sure. And I think there’s a lot of people like the ostrich putting their heads below the ground and it’s like, “Eh, no, no, nothing to see here.” But that does constitute a conflict of interest. And if I’m a startup raising, this assumption that you will not invest in one of my competitors is no longer there, certainly for the mega funds, because of that notion of deployment of capital. Now, some funds will still hide under the notion, actually formally from a fund perspective, we’re not investing in competitors. It just happens that different types of our funds are investing in competitors. Like maybe my growth fund is investing in a competitor to my early stage fund, right? But our funds are relatively independent. So I think there’s a little bit of hide and seek that will go on if you talk to some of the fund managers. Well, they say, well, we’re not investing out of the same fund into these competitors. But between you and I, as we know, a lot of these partnerships actually do a lot of stuff together at the general partnership level. So are there really actual Chinese walls between the funds? Well, it really depends on the partnership. And to be honest, most of the partnerships don’t have very significant Chinese walls between the funds, right? The managing general partners sometimes actually occupy investment committee roles across different funds. So I think the conflict of interest is there. So that’s why I say there’s a little bit of ostrich behavior. Put your head behind the ground or below the ground and just pretend nothing is happening. Just sharing maybe a couple of interesting stats. Global fund closings for 2025, according to our numbers at Chameleon, 1,098 closed. In 2025. Closed is when you start deploying capital, right? Whereas— so it’s not closed down, it’s closed like we start deploying capital. And that number, 1,098, is dramatically down from 1,600 in 2024. And it’s actually the lowest number of closings that we saw since 2014. So again, this is bad, right? It means there’s less funds doing fund closings and deploying capital in the market than since 2014 and dramatically below the 2024 numbers, right? Where we already saw some market readjustments. The number of active VC firms in the US that did 2+ deals, which is not a huge bar, has dropped 38% back to numbers in 2023. So we don’t have numbers that are a little bit more up to date, but basically in 2023, those numbers are already dramatically dropped. So there’s less and less active funds. So there’s funds that might be in the market, but they’re not actually deploying that much capital, not doing that many investment. They’re sort of either zombie funds or relatively passive funds that have passed their investment period. For those listening to us, the investment period for a VC fund is normally between the first 3 to 5 years of the fund, which is when you build your portfolio, when you can invest in new companies. After that time period, everything that you do up to normally what would be year 10 is follow-ons. You put more money into the companies that you’re already invested in, that you already constructed portfolio with during those 3 to 5 years.   Bertrand Yeah, that’s a pretty scary change. And obviously, I guess we’ll come to it, but the time it takes to fully liquidate investments is getting longer and longer. In the old days, we used to talk about VC funds having a 10-year life, maybe a +1/+1 in terms of extension of the fund life. But it looks like it’s taking 16 to 18 years actually to get full liquidity from a fund investment.   Nuno LP Fatigue and VC Differentiation And I think that’s the scariest piece. I mean, just to share some numbers, we in venture capital talk about vintages, right? Which year did your fund start in? Normally when you did your first close onto the fund, as we were saying before, close is when you get all your investors at that moment in time to come in and you do your first close so the next fund starts running. 2018 vintage funds, right? This is now almost 7 years ago. So you should start having— actually 8 years ago almost at this point in time. You should start already getting distributions or you start getting cash back if you’re a limited partner and investor in those funds, you should start getting cash back. Half of all 2018 vintage funds have returned $0 to their LPs. So they’ve had no distributions to their LPs. 2020 vintage, which was a very hot vintage, only 42% have begun any distribution. So 58% have distributed $0, right? 2021, only 25% have done any distributions. Now, I happen to have a 2018 vintage fund and a 2021 fund. My 2018 fund has already distributed over 3x net of fees in distributions, and my 2021 fund’s already over 10% distributed back in distribution. So we’re very proud of that. But in general, the numbers are awful. There’s no liquidity back to LPs. And to your point, that’s kind of a big deal because some of these funds have been going on for 7, 8 years, and where’s the liquidity going to come from? On the other hand, if you look at TVPI, so DPI is distributions to paid-ins cash on cash. But if you look at TVPI, which is total value to paid-in, which also includes the book value or the value that you’re marking it on your books, basically the paper value as we call it for the company, even on that, the median 2017 fund, so 2017 vintage fund has a TVPI, total value to paid-in, of only around 1.76x, which is well below what should be, which is sort of the 2 to 3x benchmark of a really good performing fund. So the median funds are doing very, very poorly overall. So if you add that to the fact of what’s happening and distributions are taking a long time, back to your point, Bertrand, it’s taking like— this should be a 10-year asset class, maybe 11, 12 years, and now it’s looking a little bit like a 15, to 18-year asset class, which is not what most limited partners sign up for. Part of this dynamic, I think, is that we’ve had tremendously overvalued private companies over the last few years, right? Secondly, these companies have just stayed private longer. And I was having a discussion recently with a friend of mine, it’s like, hey, what’s this thing about companies are staying private much longer? Is there some dynamic around secondaries? And the reality is there is a dynamic around secondaries, right? Because if I’m a very large fund and I can get away with doing secondaries on my portfolio, I will get liquidity at some point, right? But someone else is stuck with private stock, which hopefully will IPO, but who knows, right? And so there’s this funny dynamic right now of because of secondaries, because of a couple of other things that are happening in the market, actually a lot of these startups are staying private for tremendous amounts of times, and some of them will IPO and they’ll be huge deals. Some of them might not and might not warrant the latest private valuations that they’ve exercised. And so there’s this tremendous noise that we’re seeing in the mid to late funnel of privately held companies where some are just waiting to be public. Some of them might not be able to go public at anything that is an up round versus private valuations that they’ve had in previous moments and in previous rounds.   Bertrand And obviously the 2 to 3x returns that funds are targeting, and obviously more 3x than 2x, I mean, that was good and nice if it’s a 10-year fund, but if it’s the same 3x for 15 to 18 years, it’s not at all the same rate of return annualized. So it’s a really, really, really big issue if you keep the return the same, but you extend the duration of the fund. Concerning going IPO, there is a lot of complexity going public, the IPO process itself, but also after that when you’re a public company. It changed how you can run the business. Some would argue that we have had an issue with more companies delisting than companies listing on the public market. So I think there might be also separate issues about the efficiency of the public market and maybe a need for change. We went very strongly in one direction for the public market, have post and run, but was it really ultimately the right thing to do? I’m actually not so sure.   Nuno Yeah, I mean, just to be clear, this is anecdotal, but when we tell prospective LPs at Chameleon about our returns, the last few funds, 2018, 2021, the first reaction is, “You must be lying, right? Surely you can’t have distributions already for 2021,” et cetera, et cetera. So clearly there’s almost a state of disbelief right now from limited partners. And liquidity does matter. So clearly you have to move forward. So how did we get to this point where we had this bubble 2021 all around that time space and now things don’t look so good. Well, the macro conditions have changed dramatically. I mean, rates when they were near zero, safer assets yield nothing or yield nothing. So basically you had to push capital into longer duration risk assets like venture capital. And so you had to push it. So the opportunity cost of capital also has fundamentally shifted. Obviously a 3x VC return in 15 years over 10 actually competes very poorly against 5% annual credit returns over several years. So there’s been a readjustment of stuff. And then the public equities in particular, the tech public equities have had a lot of volatility, but some of them have done extremely well, right? Chipsets, things like NVIDIA, the Amazons of the world, Alphabets, et cetera, et cetera. They’ve done very, very well. So why would I invest in a long-term illiquid asset that takes now longer to give me money back, and in some case doesn’t give me back, if I can invest just in public equities, and a variety of other things. The venture debt costs have increased dramatically. The burn rates that were sustainable back in the day with sort of the addition of venture debt, private credit, et cetera, now are overblown at this moment in time. At the end of the day, there’s been a lot of movements also overall in the pipeline in terms of valuations, et cetera, et cetera. Now, I would put a grain of salt into all the numbers I just told you. There still is a little bit of the haves and have-nots in startup land. Certainly in early stage where if you’re a hot AI company, you can get away with raising a Series C or $480 million. This is actually a true story. Series C, right? Not Series C, a $480 million at $4 billion pre-money valuation. Whereas if you are maybe in a space that’s less hot, you’ll have more difficulty in raising money at this point in time, might not be able to even raise a Series C, right? So there’s a little bit of the haves and have-nots happening on the VC side in early stage that has been really amplified by the macro regime and where we’re at, which is actively zero-rate era is done and now the new regime is quite different. And so I can get better returns by doing something else.   Bertrand Kind of makes sense. I mean, if you have some ways the SaaSpocalypse in the public market because there is that fear that AI is going to completely change the game for especially for the more typical software companies. Good luck raising private money to quote unquote just build traditional software companies. You cannot expect a warm embrace from the private market if the public markets are completely destroying that category. I’m not saying that this is there forever, uh, things might change over time, but for sure what’s happening on the public markets always have a very strong impact on the private market.   Nuno Indeed. So what’s happening in this relationship between limited partners and VCs, the general partners? Again, limited partners are the people that give venture capital firms and venture capital funds their capital to actually deploy. And they are a variety of different players, right? Could be endowments, like university endowments, pension funds, family offices, very high net worth individuals, fund of funds, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, in particular, if you look at the institutional investors, the endowments, the pension funds, the fund of funds, they have allocations that they do to different asset classes typically. And the feedback that we’ve received from the market is they are increasingly frustrated with what’s happening in terms of distributions. They’re not getting capital back. It’s like, I gave you capital 8 years ago, 9 years ago, 2017, 2018 vintages, and I’m not getting any capital back. So what the hell’s happening? On paper, it looks maybe the fund’s doing okay or it’s doing great in some cases, but where’s my money? And so that creates a little bit of wait-and-see kind of game on portfolio allocation. As we’re thinking through their re-ups, putting more capital into funds that they’re already actually put capital or putting in capital into new slots, into new fund managers that they want to put money into. They’re like, well, let’s wait and see. I want to get my money back or get some money back first before I redeploy it. Again, this is a little bit the haves and have-nots because we’ve seen, for example, a couple of top-end LPs in terms of returns that have a little bit the opposite problem, right? Because they are into funds that are performing extremely well. They actually are over that period and they want to actually redeploy. But to be honest, the average in the industry right now is a wait-and-see game. It’s like, I want to wait and see, which leads to what can only be characterized— I was hearing someone the other day, one of the top advisors in the LP community, saying this is the worst fundraising environment ever for venture capital. Not the last 20 years, 30 years, like ever, right? Since this became an asset class more institutionally in the late ’60s, early ’70s, Pulse Robo 2 as it was created, this is the worst fundraising environment ever. Oh, wow.   Bertrand And concerning TVPI, let’s not forget that typically it’s not mark-to-market. So the metrics in terms of TVPI, correct me if I’m wrong, you know, but the metrics in TVPI are based on typically the last fundraise. So if the valuation went down but there was no additional fundraise, we wouldn’t know by looking at the TVPI metrics. It will only be updated if there is a new Financing, equity financing, or an exit.   Nuno Yeah, normally most funds act like that. Some funds are a little bit more aggressive and do do mark-to-market, but normally funds would be conservative and say, hey, I’m being conservative, it’s whatever is the last known valuation of the company. And if there wasn’t a priced round, it’s a little bit more obscure than that, right, Bertrand? Because it might actually be the company has raised money on a note, or either convertible note or a SAFE note, and that wouldn’t count as a priced round. So I would say actually, even if it was a cap that’s below with a significant discount, I won’t recognize the assets as a down round. I won’t recognize the asset with a lower valuation because formally it wasn’t a price round. So it’s on the one hand conservative, on the other hand, it’s only relating to price rounds or exits to your point. So it’s sort of, you can be like, hmm, well, we opt to do that because we think it’s actually the most conservative route. Mark-to-market is extremely difficult to do. And who would do the mark-to-market for you, right? It’s like it’s some valuation firm, et cetera.   Bertrand I’m not saying a mark-to-market is easy, but I’m not sure I would call using the last valuation something conservative in the context that most startups will fail. So it’s not clear.   Nuno Well, in some cases it is, some cases it’s not, right? Depends on the startup situation, to be honest. Yeah, yeah.   Bertrand But yeah, at least that’s how it’s done. So for instance, to evaluate the impact of the SaaS apocalypse, it’s tough to know. We will have on the private market. I mean, we will see that in a few quarters. Because if companies still exist in that environment, if they still do additional truly price rounds after that, that’s when I will start to know.   Nuno I mean, just to share a little bit more data, like VC fund close time stretched to 15 months. Basically, it’s just taking a long time to raise money. It’s taking a long time to do your first close, get your fund running. When entrepreneurs complain to me that their fundraising is difficult, I always say, you have no clue how difficult it is compared to ours. First-time funds have collapsed. We had some numbers that only 77 first-time funds actually closed. I assume this is in 2025 versus 215 in 2023. So that’s a huge number. We did some internal analysis on our side and we did some analysis that emerging fund managers, emerging fund managers are normally people that are in their first one or two funds. Basically emerging fund managers gained some ground until 2017. Reaching by then a slice that was 63.7% of all capital raised in 2017. But since then, the capital deployed to emerging managers has been largely reduced to actually 24.2%, right? So it’s gone from 63.7% in 2017 to 24.2%. So this has been a culling of sorts on emerging managers and almost like a slaughterhouse of emerging managers. Compared to previous situations, which is obviously incredibly concerning if you’re an emerging manager starting your VC firm, et cetera, et cetera. So really tremendously problematic for those. We think capital’s not leaving VC. I think we see a lot of the institutionals saying— there’s some numbers as high as 33% of institutional investors plan to invest more in venture in the next 12 months. So I don’t think capital’s leaving VC. I think it’s really concentrating. We’ll come back to the concentration issue later in the episode. And part of that concentration comes from a topic that has been widely spoken in venture capital recently, which is differentiation. How do you differentiate in venture capital if you’re talking to a limited partner, right? How does my firm differentiate versus the firm next to mine? And that’s incredibly, incredibly challenging. Bertrand, what are your thoughts on that?   Bertrand Differentiation is always a question. I mean, if you’re an entrepreneur, Typically, you think fully about the best possible partner for your stage and for your type of business model. You want a VC who understands fully your business model, because if they don’t, then it’s going to be troubled down the line. But that’s true that another piece of the puzzle is that the best VCs help you get more visibility in terms of achieving potential customer deals, in terms of attracting the best talent. And that’s where VCs’ brand names can help. If you can say you have backing by some of the top, most visible names in the industry, and usually these are the mega funds because others have trouble to be as visible, then they have some sort of unfair advantage compared to others. So I can see that there is some level of concentration happening naturally, especially in the later stage from Series B onwards.   Nuno What Really Matters: Performance… Returns Yeah, I mean, we did some analysis internally about What are the top funds that invested in the top performing companies in early stage, Series C, Series A? And we looked at it by size of fund and the top performing normally are funds below $100 million, but in some cases very closely followed by funds between $100 and $500 million. And actually funds above $500 million, so $500 million to $1 billion and then $1 billion and above are actually tremendously underperforming. So this notion of the industry that says, well, the mega funds still see The top investments early on, because they still deploy in Series C and Series A opportunistically, in some cases even spray and pray if they have their own incubation and acceleration programs, is not true. Actually, we verified that over the last 12 to 13 years. It is not 12 to 13 years in vintage, right? So up to a 2021 vintage fund. So we went basically 12, 13 years back from there. And it’s not true. Actually, the most performing are 0 to 100 and then 100 to 500. And as I said, there’s 100 to 500 in a couple of years actually are a little bit better. Than the $0 to $100 million ones. So that’s the first thing that’s a conclusion. And actually, that’s not shocking. If we remember back in the day, Kleiner Perkins used to raise funds up to $600 million, Benchmark raised their $425 million funds. It seems like the sweet spot for a VC fund would be around $500 million at the top end, like maximum. And now somehow people are saying, well, I’m raising a $3 billion VC fund. It’s like, well, it can’t be a VC fund. The return profile is totally different, right? You can’t deploy that capital just based on early stage investing. And by the way, you’re not seeing the guys at early stage, all that you’re seeing, you’re going to make your returns in mid to late stage, right? Back to what we said at the beginning of the episode. So there’s a little bit of the haves and have-nots there. The big guys are raising more and more money, but they’re no longer venture capital. And I think limited partners that are a little bit more evolved, that are a little bit more conscious of this, that have been in the market longer, are realizing that shift. So it’s like if they want to have the alpha of venture capital, they need to deploy to the sub-$100 million funds or the sub-$500 million funds, right? That’s where they need to actually focus their VC capital. They can still deploy to mega funds, but they’re deploying to a different asset class. They’re deploying to a private equity, mid to late stage asset class, which looks maybe a little bit more like a growth fund or something like that. The second part of differentiation is the honest truth is most VC funds are like, I have proprietary network access, right? I’m ex-Stripe or I’m ex-Google or I’m ex-Facebook or whatever, and I have access to that. I mean, we know proprietary networks from that standpoint are no longer true. The whole thing that created Silicon Valley back in the ’70s of what I used to call the country club deals where there were a few people coming out of the big companies, the Fairchilds of the world, later on the Intels of the world, et cetera, et cetera, that made some money along the way that sort of bootstrapped their next companies, were well-known quantity to the existing VCs and raised money relatively easy on ideas, that doesn’t work anymore. Someone was telling me the other day one interesting thing that I wasn’t quite aware of, a lot of it had to do with the NDAs. I don’t know if you knew this, Bertrand, but like the fact that in California, it was sort of the Silicon Valley community sort of imposed this, we don’t sign NDAs thing and Boston continued signing it. And this whole NDA enforcement issue and non-compete, actually not the NDA thing, but more strongly that California did not enforce non-competes. I could leave Fairchild and start a company that magically was doing something that could be considered competitive to Fairchild. And that was sort of part of the acceleration actually of venture capital in California versus, for example, Boston, which was sort of hand in hand at the beginning.   Bertrand Yeah, I mean, I’m a big, big believer in California success coming from not enforcing or banning non-compete agreements. I think it’s a key part of the game. If you lock people into not doing something similar in the next 6 months to 24 months. And the industry has always been moving fast. So this is a significant time where you are blocked to do something very similar. I think it was really an issue. So I think it’s a key part of the game and it has been there. I don’t know how it started, but I think that non-enforcement of non-compete has been a key part of the success of California. I’m actually pleased to say that Washington State is going in the same direction. They are just signing a non-compete ban. And you might remember that at the federal level, I think in 2024, there was also a ban that was put in place to ban non-compete, but this has been reversed by the courts. So this is not there anymore. So that’s why we see a state like Washington State putting their own ban, and we might see more state by state moving in that direction. I think it was not helping at all, this non-compete. I mean, there is obviously stuff that needs to be done, like you cannot steal secrets, you cannot steal IP.   Nuno Yeah.   Bertrand Even stealing employees, there should be some restraints. We need to find the right balance, but you have to be careful there. That was key for the success of California, and I’m glad to see that this is a trend that’s going to go beyond California. And I hope most states will have a ban on non-compete.   Nuno Maybe just to close on the differentiation process, two things. One, I think there’s this notion When you talk to some LPs, that seems to be a little bit ingrained, some LPs that prefer specialized funds. We’ve also done some significant analysis internally and have talked to a couple of datasets other than our own, or people that own datasets other than our own, and the feedback has actually been not so fast. Actually, generalist funds over time cannot perform specialist funds. There seems to be a little bit of a sweet spot around generalist funds. We like to call ourselves multi-specialized at Chameleon, but ultimately from the perspective of specialized versus Generalist funds, the picture’s not as clear as specialized funds outperform generalists or generalists outperform specialized. We’ve seen there are pockets where actually generalists outperform specialized, in other pockets where specialized of a certain size can outperform generalists. So that’s one topic on differentiation that is a little bit broader. And then the final topic on differentiation, it’s really an industry that hasn’t innovated dramatically on where it creates the most value, which is really the picking stage, right? So it’s having great deal flow, very optimal, productive, efficient due diligence with very few resources and the ability to then get into those deals. That’s where most of the value is created. And then hopefully liquidating the asset if there’s an opportunity to do so at the right time, either through secondary trade sales or an IPO or something else. And what we’ve seen is the industry has innovated very little. I mean, the only thing I could point out in terms of core innovation at the top of the funnel has been the creation of the mega funds, the well-known funds, right? Like a16z, Union Square Ventures, et cetera, et cetera. But there needs to be more innovation on that cycle. And that’s why we certainly at Chameleon believe that the future is to have quant and AI-native VC firms that develop their own tooling, their own platforms. We have Mantis in our case that allow you to have this unfair advantage in how you source deals and how you do due diligence, how you get into the deals, et cetera, and how you take it to the next level. And we think that’s the beginning of the next stage is that the industry becomes more tech-enabled, shockingly enough, an industry that has made all its returns on tech or almost all of its returns on tech. That we need to be more tech-enabled ourselves. But I think the writing is on the wall there, and that will be a source of differentiation certainly over the next 3 to 5 years.   Bertrand One thing the industry has innovated somewhat and maybe could innovate even more is providing liquidity beyond trade sale and an IPO, because it’s clear that if VCs want more liquidity without waiting 18 years, you need that liquidity at different stage, not just when it’s time to do an exit, a full exit for the business. And for employees as well. I mean, it’s one thing to stay for a company for 4 years, which is your typical vesting. Maybe you extend that to 6 years, to 8 years, you have a great time at the company. But to think that maybe you have to stick around for 15 to 20 years in order to get liquidity on your stock options. I mean, that’s too much to ask for most people. I mean, people have a life, they have other things to do, other plans, they might want to move, they come at a different stage of life. So you need to provide them liquidity. The new game is we are not going to exit until 15 to 20 years, else it’s truly unfair. It’s not just unfair, but people will say, you know what, I’m going to go across the street, go work for Amazon or Google. I will have RSUs at best regularly that are liquid, and why bother? I mean, we need to find pathways to liquidity for both investors but also employees. There has been a change in that direction, but I think we need more of this change, and maybe not just reserved for the absolute biggest, most successful companies like OpenAI or SpaceX, but also us as well. Hopefully we can find a way.   Nuno Well, now we have these AI companies that actually grow so fast that they will IPO in one year. Now, isn’t that what’s going to happen? They raise They raised $500 million in Series C or $1.4 billion in Series C, and they’re going to IPO in 2 years. No? Is that not the new reality? I’m being facetious.   Bertrand At the same time, I mean, there are rumors that some of them are going to IPO this year. I mean, we talk about OpenAI, about Anthropic. I mean, OpenAI is quite old, but Anthropic is a relatively new business, quote unquote. So I think it’s a good time.   Nuno The Mega Fund Question So maybe it will be true after all. Moving to the next section, are mega funds still venture capital, Bertrand? Are they still venture capital funds?   Bertrand Yeah, I guess venture capital is a term that can encompass from small to very big funds. I truly don’t know. I mean, once you reach a growth stage, are you truly a VC fund? I don’t know. I think some of these definitions are kind of arbitrary from my perspective. What is clear is that you as a business need different providers of capital. And as we just discussed, you as a business, probably need to keep going and stay private for longer. One reason being, again, there is a tremendous cost to being a public company. There are some true strategic disadvantages. And at the same time, just practically, I mean, you need to get bigger and bigger in order to have a chance of a successful IPO. So you cannot just go IPO at a $500 million valuation. I mean, that’s like committing suicide, at least in the US market on NASDAQ. So my point is, you truly have no choice. You need to extend and If you need to extend, then you need to have capital providers that are there at later stage and therefore have more money. Is it still true venture capital? Is it true venture? I don’t know. At some point, it makes sense that from the startups to the capital providers, everyone adjusts to a reality where the life cycle is getting longer.   Nuno We don’t think it is. We don’t think mega funds are venture capital. We have actually some data that shows that they’re not in terms of actual returns. The alphas you can generate, the IRR that you can generate is actually not comparable. We did some analysis again with some of our datasets and from 2012 to 2022, so that’s the datasets that we used so that we had actual distributions and stuff we could take into account and so on and so forth. And looking at IRR, just to share some numbers in terms of IRR over those 10 years on sub-$100 million funds versus above $1 billion funds, the differences are incredibly stark. And this is true for global and US IRR, right? So just to quote some numbers in terms of average, sub-$100 million funds, global IRR of 22.9%, US IRR of 21.6% versus above $1 billion, 9.1% and 9.0%. Median IRR, if we just looked at median, 7.3% and 16.6% for sub-$100 million funds, 7.5% and 8.1% above $1 billion. Top quartile IRR, sub-$100 million, 31% versus 30.4% US IRR. And then above $1 billion funds, 14.7%, 15.5%. So it’s very clear if you sort of cut this in different ways, averages, medians, top quartiles, et cetera, over all these years that sub-$100 million funds are in a very different asset class than above $1 billion funds. They’re in different alpha that you can generate and so on and so forth. Now to the point you made, Bertrand, I don’t fully disagree with the point you made of the bigger funds should become bigger. I just think they’re becoming different things. Now, again, some of these funds will hide under the facts like, well, wait a second, we have all these assets under management, but they’re over different funds. Sequoia, we’re still raising small early-stage funds, $500, $600 million funds. And then we have larger funds for growth, et cetera, et cetera. Andreessen Horowitz, a little bit less clear what they’re actually doing. We heard that they’ve raised $15 billion across funds. I’m not sure if that’s the exact number at the end of the day. But the point is, if I’m a multi-asset class manager, like early growth, et cetera, et cetera, then it still applies what Nunu is saying. I’m still going after the $500 million, $600 million early-stage funds. Well, not so fast, right? Because you still have all this capital with managing general partners that are maybe across funds for which their incentives in particular, both carry and management fees are coming from the larger funds. Et cetera, et cetera. So there’s necessarily conflicts of interest. In many cases, the funds are just straight up big, right? And so they are above a billion. And so I don’t think a lot of these guys are in early-stage investing anymore, right? It may appear that they are, but I don’t think that’s where the returns necessarily are going to come from. And so if you are a limited partner, if you’re looking at your asset class allocation, again, you’re absolutely free to put money into mega funds because that’s the kind of asset class you want to play in. In terms of a blended private equity asset class that has a little bit of growth, a little bit of whatever, or actually a lot of growth, a lot of late stage, and maybe a little bit of early stage. And I want something that’s a little bit more blended, right? But if I still want the alpha venture capital, I need to deploy to funds that are early stage, right? And that’s like up to $100 million, up to $500 million. I think that’s my two cents on that topic. We see crossover things coming around, like guys who do both public and private markets. Again, that starts feeling a bit like a hedge fund. A lot of these funds have also become RAs, as we discussed earlier. So I feel the writing’s on the wall. The mega funds are going more and more after either some mechanism of edging or a mechanism that’s a little bit more blended in terms of private equity than classic venture capital.   Bertrand Yes, I think a few things. One, if you’re an LP, I can imagine that dealing with multiple $100 million funds might be more difficult. You, you need to know the partners, you need to have some background, uh, visibility. You need potentially to change regularly of VC investments. So I can see some level of simplicity if you just focus on the bigger ones, especially if you have a lot of assets you have to put to work. Another piece of the puzzle, I would guess that the bigger funds are able to return money faster because they are at later stage of the cycle. So instead of that 15 to 18 years, maybe they are more in a 5 to 10 year range, while the smaller funds being there more early might be the one who are taking longer to deliver. So I can see that Yes, there is an IRR picture, but there is also time to liquidity that is not the same. So that can probably also influence. And in terms of crossover PE hybrid model, I mean, for sure we have seen some of the public equity investors doing crossover, meaning going into private equity firms like Coatue, like Tiger Global and others. And for companies that are preparing for IPO, there is a lot of value to work with these firms because they have very good visibility and understanding of the public markets. And their presence in the cap table is also a sign of quality, typically for public market investors. So there is a lot of value and logic for them to be there on both sides of the puzzle. But again, the fact that firms keep delaying IPOs, that the market is not so much startup-friendly, makes this model a bit more difficult. But personally, I think there is value there.   Nuno Yeah, I think on the mega fund, just so that I’m not boo-booing everything, I mean, but there’s definitely angles in terms of the asset class that make a lot of sense. And there’s the scalability of the model. The ability to go after Series B, Series C, as well as mid-stage, as well as late-stage, even secondaries over time, to your point, in some cases even public equities. And that level of skill I think matters. We’ve also seen, as we’ve known, we won’t mention any brands, but people will know who they are, that late-stage hedge funds and investors, even if they’ve done okay-ish in growth in private equity, don’t necessarily do well in venture. So it’s clearly a very different asset class, right? So once you start getting venture teams together, The returns are not quite the same. Actually, sometimes they’re not even quite the same as the growth investments. So clearly they’re very good at the growth side, but not so good in early stage. But definitely there is a case for it. The Case for Smaller…Rightsized Funds But if we switch gears maybe to the small, or I would call right-sized funds, maybe just to quote a couple of numbers and then open up the discussion. Small funds do seem to outperform larger funds. There’s a lot of data in the market that shows some of that dynamic outperformance frequency. All the Very historical numbers from Cambridge Associates from 1981 to 2010. 19 out of 30 vintages were won by sub-$150 million funds. We did our own analysis as I was sharing before. Funds between $0 and $100 won most years between around 2010 and 2021. And the years that they didn’t outperform in terms of investing in the top-performing companies in early-stage Series C, Series A, they were outperformed by the $100 to $500 million funds. The $500 to $1 billion funds and $1 billion or above were never even in the same league in terms of performance, of having identified those top performers in terms of quantity over those early-stage investments. Top 10 funds by vintage, 2004 to 2006, 2016 numbers. Top 10 funds, 73% were sub-$100 million. 2004 to 2016, top 10 funds by vintage, 73% of those were sub-$100 million. So there seems to be a little bit of a case that actually smaller funds, sub-$100 million, sub-$500 million in some cases, are outperforming the larger funds over time. Now, these funds are complex in and of itself. The positive of it is small fund GPs like myself, we are deeply invested in our own funds. We’re not there to just make management fee monies. I mean, we’re not making $1 million, $2 million a year in management fees of salary ourselves, like some of the larger funds. So we are there to really get the carry and be less focused on management fees. And so I think there’s a little bit of alignment around that and really taking that kind of perspective on portfolio construction and liquidation, being also more aggressive on the individual time that we spend with our startups. On the negative side, obviously a lot of these smaller funds, not the case of Chameleon, but others out there are single GPs, very little teams or very small teams. And so it’s sometimes difficult to actually do a lot for portfolio companies as well. And this is where the mega funds, for example, a16z notably would say, hey, we have 600+ people that can support you, right? On market development, business development, communications, talent recruiting, all this stuff. Question mark whether that’s the right way to do it in terms of operating model, if technology is not a better way of supplying that value back to your portfolio companies, or if there’s no better way of doing it. But still, that’s one of the appeals of actually dealing with a larger mega fund if you’re a startup, right? That they will have the resources, also the financial resources to put more capital in you. But also, again, if there’s entrepreneurs listening to this right now, and hopefully there are, it’s a two-edged sword, right? Because if you have Andreessen Horowitz putting money in you, or NEA, or General Catalyst, or whatever, putting money in you on a Series C and then not doubling down on the Series A or the Series B, there will be questions, right? Because like they have the capital, they have other funds, so why the hell are they not putting more money in? Um, so, so it’s a little bit of a two-edged sword.   Bertrand Yeah, I think that one is a pretty big one. And on top of it, as we discussed, some of these big firms have multiple funds managed technically by different teams. So you might have convinced the early-stage teams, they have investors, they’re happy, but you don’t convince the growth-stage firm. As you say, it might raise questions because people might think that there is some communication between the early-stage team and the growth-stage team. So why the heck are they not deciding to invest? And as we also discussed, even worse possible situation, what happens if the growth-stage team has invested in your competitor? It’s even more trouble. So I think trying to understand how firms behave, what’s the reputation of the firm, what’s the reputation of the partner you are working with, I mean, can have tremendous importance and impact. When it’s time for you to work with a firm.   Nuno Indeed. I mean, at the end of the day, we still believe that the smaller fund— we at Chameleon discuss the notion that our limit should be $500 million per fund, right? And that’s the logic of it. We think that model is the model that works well in venture capital. We do recognize, as I said before, why mega funds keep raising more and more money, right? It becomes a harm’s race at that end of the market. As I said, probably a slightly different asset class, or if not a significantly different asset class as well. So seeing a little bit both sides of the market, I mean, we often compete with the mega funds, but honestly, a lot of the mega funds are kind to us and they let us in. And this whole notion of elbows out, we haven’t felt it that much in the market. And people see our value at the table. And in many cases, I, I do see the larger funds more and more seeing the value of smaller funds coming in on the same rounds and even in some cases co-leading early stage rounds like Series C. So it’s not like elbows are out everywhere across the board. So I don’t mean to say this is like an all-out war between small funds and big funds and the small funds need to win or the big funds need to win. I think actually there’s a lot of potential for coexistence. My point is more that the asset classes and the returns are quite different over time, and that’s how I would think through it. And if you’re an entrepreneur, you should think about that as well, right? What are the implications of taking money from certain funds versus others in terms of the expected returns, expected time allocated to you? For example, if you’re not doing very well as a as a company, right? Will the big funds spend the same amount of energy on you if you’re not doing great and all of that? So it’s a little bit sort of a beware, open your eyes, both for limited partners and for startups. What do you actually want, right? What do you want from your VC firm if you’re a startup? And what do you want from your VC firm if you’re an LP?   Bertrand I must say, as an entrepreneur, uh, a board member, I have seen some situations where the bigger funds are actually trying sometimes to elbow out the existing investors. Like, uh, we have that much money to put to work, we cannot do less. And you’re like, yeah, but I don’t need that much money. And then they’re like, okay, just don’t let your existing investors do their pro rata. I don’t think it’s great because an entrepreneur, if your investors, your VCs, trusted you earlier stage when it’s more risky, and when it’s becoming less risky, you don’t give them the right to their pro rata because you have to let this big guy come in. That’s not great. Or even if there is not this pro rata issue, when an investor tries to put more money to work than it’s really necessary, it’s also not a good idea as an entrepreneur to take more capital than you could use. It will dilute you more, it will set higher expectations in terms of valuation, it will push you to use that capital faster than maybe would be reasonable. So I think that’s something you want to be careful with the bigger funds. So don’t talk to funds that are in some ways beyond your stage and try to make it work in that context. Or don’t accept to have your strategy change dramatically for no good reason by funds that just want to put too much money to work in your business. And that for me is surprising because it should also be in their best interest not to invest in businesses that are not ready to accept that much capital. But as we have seen, there were in the past some funds that believe that capital is a moat. Was a good idea. So hopefully, I guess we’re a bit behind that. But yeah, I would say entrepreneurs, be careful, find partners that are the right partners for you at your current stage. Sometimes some big names look great, but at the same time, if it comes with a lot of issues, from too much capital to also taking the risk that these partners don’t understand the stage of the business you are in or your industry, Just be careful. There is a lot of value to have firms that are very focused on your stage, on your industry, are finely attuned to that situation.   Nuno What Comes Next? Maybe to end in terms of sections, what comes next? And maybe we can come up with some predictions that are a little bit provocative on what’s going to happen to the market. You, if you’re listening to us, feel free to interact with us on LinkedIn, on X. If you have our email address, shoot us an email as well. We’d love to hear from you if you think these are the right predictions or if we’re totally off. Maybe I’ll throw in the first one, Bertrand, and we’ll go one by one. So we’ll each put one at the table and see where we head. My first one is that we’ll have a huge culling of VC investors. We had this rapid expansion of the VC asset class with arguably at least tens of thousands of firms globally, maybe even over 10,000 in the US. I think we’ll have a culling and the culling will continue and we’ll have several firms sort of getting eliminated over the next couple of years that will have either because they’re having tremendous difficulty doing their first close in their next fund, or the returns are not there, or it’s a firm that has done 3, 4 funds, but for some reason the returns have just gone out of whack in the last few years during the bull years. And so therefore, actually they can’t justify to raise more funds out there. So I predict there will be a significant elimination of active firms in the next at least 2 to 3 years. So maybe by 2028, and we’ll be below, I don’t know, 30% of number of active firms that we are today. The other side of it is I do think if we look beyond that, 2029, 2030, and so on, we’ll have the reemergence of not micro funds, but nano funds where people will start deploying capital very, very early and writing small angel checks, but doing it in a way that it’s sort of not this cottage industry that we’ve had of angel investors. So I think angel investment will be disrupted by people that will use more and more of the AI toolification out there to actually manage their portfolios of 10, 15, 5K investments in a way that is a lot more professional, creating sort of an advent of nano funds.   Bertrand Yeah, makes sense. On my side, in terms of prediction, I think there is a possibility that the mega fund model keeps expanding and looks more similar over time to some PE models. So do we have the top 10 VC firms that look more like a Blackstone than a Kleiner Perkins or Sequoia used to be? That for me will be an interesting question and development. I think that there is some possibility that it keeps going in that direction. A lot of incentives are pushing things that way.   Nuno My next prediction is that DPI, distributions to paid-in cash on cash, just cash back, will become essential for limited partners. I think TVPI, total value to paid-in, that also has in there, as we just said, paper valuations. There’s a lot of disbelief now around the TVPI metric if there isn’t distributions going alongside it. For those who, again, don’t know what TVPI is, it’s total value paid in, but it also includes DPI. So it’s cash on cash component plus a remaining valuation to paid in, an RVPI. And the problem is the RVPI really, in reality, it’s that kind of on-paper valuation that never gets attributed. I think LPs, they’ve seen the writing on the wall and they’re like, dude, just show me your DPI numbers. I don’t care about TVPI. Some LPs will still ask about TVPI just to make sure that the rest is sort of looking in order. Like, show me the money, show me the cash. Actually, it’s not money, show me the cash, right? I want money back.   Bertrand But that’s an issue. I mean, if you’re supposed to raise financing every 3 or 4 years, good luck getting DPI to show for that. So you need to be at least on your third fund in order to be able to show DPI, I guess.   Nuno I mean, my corollary to that, Bertrand, is if you allow me just to have a corollary kind of prediction, is that we’ll see certainly for funds like $50 million and above, $100 million, $200 million, et cetera, even increased concentration, right? I really need to have anchors that believe in me over time. And we might start having, again, the advent— we had it some decades ago, the advent of cap table kind of VCs, right? Like Sutter Hill Ventures, right? Where they’re not really raising funds anymore. And so we might have the advent of that, that we’ll have structures that are created that have more permanent capital allocated to them, or at the very least more concentrated capital by very few players.   Bertrand Interesting. Me on my side, as I shared before, I believe secondaries are, are important and here to stay. Um, in the past, some could argue, is it a distress signal or something? I, I don’t think it’s true anymore. In a world where your average startup might take 15 to 18 years to exit through M&A or IPO, we need to have other options. For funds, for employees, they cannot be expected to stick around for so long and have no liquidity. I mean, it’s just pure madness. It’s just bad alignment at some point to do that. So I think secondaries are becoming the third liquidity pathway for VCs, for employees, and it should be more and more a key part of the game, a key infrastructure in the VC/startups tech industry.   Nuno I mean, on specialized versus generalist funds, I believe we’ll continue seeing the coexistence of those two models where the specialized funds will in many pockets actually outperform generalist funds, but where we’ll continue seeing that the large franchises, the tier one franchises will likely be generalist funds. I mean, we just saw it in the cycle. The AI cycle went upon us. We had a 2021 fund. We could easily adapt and go into AI and figure out that AI was growing very fast. I mean, if you have an ultra-specialized fund and that’s your remit and that’s the only thing you can invest on, very difficult to change even during our investment period. I will put a caveat on that. We don’t call, for example, ourselves at Chameleon generalist. We call ourselves multi-specialized because our scoring models for the verticals that we track are specialized within Mantis. Because the partnership is specialized, we all focus on different areas. And because we have the Kin network that allows us to tap into that level of expertise, Again, I think the world will be specialized coexistence. Some pockets specialized will do very well, certainly on the smaller fund size, but the big franchises will likely look a little bit more generalist. And as I said, multi-specialized from our perspective is the future. We’ll start seeing more and more funds that are multi-specialized like ourselves. Do you want to talk about AI and how it’ll distort the metrics? No.   Bertrand Yes. I think AI is an exciting moment in the tech industry. It feels in some ways that the same way we had a big distortion coming with COVID and work from home in 2020, 2021. 2021, where suddenly everyone and their mother will build a SaaS company or invest in a SaaS company. AI feels a bit of the same. I mean, to be clear, I truly believe it’s deserved. I mean, we are facing a dramatic shift in how computing is being done in terms of value you can get from software. So at the same time, AI will probably distort this matrix for a long time. We clearly see a split where investments are going, in what startups are being created. So I think, yeah, we will see some distortion. And we know that maybe 50% of all deal value is going to AI in 2025. We have seen single rounds reaching 40 billion, like to OpenAI. We have seen, as you discussed, some seed stage investment of 400 million. So AI investing and AI startups are definitely a beast on their own. And will distort VC metrics for a long time. And we might need two sets of metrics in parallel, you know, AI versus everything else. So that would be an interesting bifurcation in the industry in some ways. I would say it’s fair to separate AI versus non-AI. We reach a point where it’s two different beasts.   Nuno Conclusion So in conclusion, AI has changed the world and it’s changing VC as well, as we discussed earlier in the episode. We have a tremendous momentous occasion for the asset class where venture capital is really bifurcating into very large funds, which no longer are in venture capital or seemingly may be distributed between different asset classes, and the smaller funds, sub-$500 million and sub-$100 million, that keep having the better returns, but also with much smaller scale. We’re seeing a culling of the industry where the industry is definitely getting smaller and smaller and more concentrated at both ends, number of VC firms, as well as a number of limited partners per fund and the interest that some of these limited partners have of being more and more concentrated in their own portfolio allocations. And last but not the least, the discussion around specialized versus generalist, where it seems like there’s some clear winners on some asset classes, on some sizes, in some industries, but on others, there’s other kinds of winners. And so maybe the future is multi-specialized, as I framed at the end. Thank you so much for listening. If you want to check us out and if you want to comment, feel free to send us messages on X, LinkedIn, to both myself and Bertrand, as well as send us an email. Thank you so much, Bertrand.   Bertrand Thank you, Nuno.

"When we stop defending expression, we start accepting silence," says Tim Daly, President of The Creative Coalition. "That silence begins when we fail to protect both the First Amendment and the institutions that make creativity possible, including vital federal support for the National Endowment for the Arts. Defending the NEA means defending the artists, storytellers, and cultural voices that help define who we are as a nation."Adds Robin Bronk, CEO of The Creative Coalition, "For nearly four decades, The Creative Coalition has operated at the intersection of art and free speech because the two are inseparable. The First Amendment exists to express inconvenient and necessary truths. When we begin to question the value of that freedom, we are weakening the foundation of our democracy. This is the moment to stand behind expression, not step away from it."The Creative Coalition is the premier nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization of the arts and entertainment community. Founded in 1989 by leaders across the creative sector, The Creative Coalition is dedicated to educating artists on issues of public importance. Led by actor and President Tim Daly, the organization is known for award-winning initiatives - including its signature #RightToBearArts campaign - that leverage storytelling to drive social impact and inspire civic engagement. Most recently, The Creative Coalition established the Entertainment Industry Commission on Family Caregiving. To learn more, visit TheCreativeCoalition.orgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

Hello, I'm Michael Watson joined by Sarah Lee and this is our first episode of Capital Research Center's “Who Funds That?” podcast. I am fond of reminding anyone who will hear me that organized labor is an institutional pillar of “Everything Leftism,” the omnibus ideology of progressive-liberal-socialist politics that relies on every single issue—yes, including that one—has one right answer and every issue relies on all issues following the party line. Today's guest, Rhyen Staley of Defending Education, found documents from the Sunrise Movement, the radical left mobilization group that has shifted focus from the Green New Deal and environmentalism toward the full Everything Leftist agenda, that further prove these ties. He joins us today to discuss his research on Sunrise Movement's guide to planned school disruptions and the role of the teachers' unions in supporting them.A Sunrise Movement training guidebook calls for students to ‘take action monthly' to ‘disrupt business as usual' to bring about a ‘political revolution'Newly obtained slides from a Sunrise Movement membership meeting calls for a ‘political revolution' that includes the ‘need to structurally change the foundations of this country' to achieve ‘Eco-socialism, [a] multi-racial democracy, and Green New Deal legislation'A May Day 2026 Host Toolkit includes training information for a “coordinated day of action” and promotes tactics such as a school ‘walk-in'; NEA provided $1.7M in funding to organization involved with training.K-12 Student Walkout and Protest Tracker

"When we stop defending expression, we start accepting silence," says Tim Daly, President of The Creative Coalition. "That silence begins when we fail to protect both the First Amendment and the institutions that make creativity possible, including vital federal support for the National Endowment for the Arts. Defending the NEA means defending the artists, storytellers, and cultural voices that help define who we are as a nation."Adds Robin Bronk, CEO of The Creative Coalition, "For nearly four decades, The Creative Coalition has operated at the intersection of art and free speech because the two are inseparable. The First Amendment exists to express inconvenient and necessary truths. When we begin to question the value of that freedom, we are weakening the foundation of our democracy. This is the moment to stand behind expression, not step away from it."The Creative Coalition is the premier nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization of the arts and entertainment community. Founded in 1989 by leaders across the creative sector, The Creative Coalition is dedicated to educating artists on issues of public importance. Led by actor and President Tim Daly, the organization is known for award-winning initiatives - including its signature #RightToBearArts campaign - that leverage storytelling to drive social impact and inspire civic engagement. Most recently, The Creative Coalition established the Entertainment Industry Commission on Family Caregiving. To learn more, visit TheCreativeCoalition.orgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

"When we stop defending expression, we start accepting silence," says Tim Daly, President of The Creative Coalition. "That silence begins when we fail to protect both the First Amendment and the institutions that make creativity possible, including vital federal support for the National Endowment for the Arts. Defending the NEA means defending the artists, storytellers, and cultural voices that help define who we are as a nation."Adds Robin Bronk, CEO of The Creative Coalition, "For nearly four decades, The Creative Coalition has operated at the intersection of art and free speech because the two are inseparable. The First Amendment exists to express inconvenient and necessary truths. When we begin to question the value of that freedom, we are weakening the foundation of our democracy. This is the moment to stand behind expression, not step away from it."The Creative Coalition is the premier nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization of the arts and entertainment community. Founded in 1989 by leaders across the creative sector, The Creative Coalition is dedicated to educating artists on issues of public importance. Led by actor and President Tim Daly, the organization is known for award-winning initiatives - including its signature #RightToBearArts campaign - that leverage storytelling to drive social impact and inspire civic engagement. Most recently, The Creative Coalition established the Entertainment Industry Commission on Family Caregiving. To learn more, visit TheCreativeCoalition.orgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

"When we stop defending expression, we start accepting silence," says Tim Daly, President of The Creative Coalition. "That silence begins when we fail to protect both the First Amendment and the institutions that make creativity possible, including vital federal support for the National Endowment for the Arts. Defending the NEA means defending the artists, storytellers, and cultural voices that help define who we are as a nation."Adds Robin Bronk, CEO of The Creative Coalition, "For nearly four decades, The Creative Coalition has operated at the intersection of art and free speech because the two are inseparable. The First Amendment exists to express inconvenient and necessary truths. When we begin to question the value of that freedom, we are weakening the foundation of our democracy. This is the moment to stand behind expression, not step away from it."The Creative Coalition is the premier nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization of the arts and entertainment community. Founded in 1989 by leaders across the creative sector, The Creative Coalition is dedicated to educating artists on issues of public importance. Led by actor and President Tim Daly, the organization is known for award-winning initiatives - including its signature #RightToBearArts campaign - that leverage storytelling to drive social impact and inspire civic engagement. Most recently, The Creative Coalition established the Entertainment Industry Commission on Family Caregiving. To learn more, visit TheCreativeCoalition.orgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

Public education is not partisan, but it is political. Politicians in the statehouse make decisions that impact Ohio's public school classrooms every day. That's why it is so important that our lawmakers hear directly from the educators who know what these policy decisions mean in our schools. Trotwood Madison Education Association President David Graham wasn't sure what to expect when he had a chance to talk to his state lawmakers the first time he joined his fellow OEA members for a Lobby Day at the statehouse. But as he tells us in this episode, he actually really enjoyed the experience, and he wants other educators to give it a try.REWIND | David Graham is no stranger to the Public Education Matters podcast. Click here to listen to an interview with him in Season 5 about learning the ropes as a new Local president and the support he received from NEA. SUBSCRIBE | Click here to subscribe to Public Education Matters on Apple Podcasts or click here to listen on Spotify so you don't miss a thing. You can also find Public Education Matters on many other platforms, including YouTube. Click here for links for other platforms so you can listen anywhere. And don't forget you can listen to all of the previous episodes anytime on your favorite podcast platform, or by clicking here.Featured Public Education Matters guest: David Graham, President, Trotwood Madison Education AssociationAn 8th grade science teacher at Trotwood Madison Middle School, David Graham is in his 18th year of teaching. He has been president of the Trotwood Madison Education Association since the 2024-2025 school year. Graham received his bachelor's degree in Middle Childhood Education from Wright State University, and later pursued a Master of Arts degree in Religion at Southern Evangelical Seminary, graduating in 2025.Connect with OEA:Email educationmatters@ohea.org with your feedback or ideas for future Public Education Matters topicsLike OEA on FacebookFollow OEA on TwitterFollow OEA on InstagramGet the latest news and statements from OEA hereLearn more about where OEA stands on the issues Keep up to date on the legislation affecting Ohio public schools and educators with OEA's Legislative WatchAbout us:The Ohio Education Association represents nearly 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio's schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio's children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio's schools.Public Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May 2020, after a ten-year career as an Emmy Award winning television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. She lives in Central Ohio with her husband and two young children. This episode was recorded on March 12, 2026.

Marc Cox opens Hour 3 with Senator Adam Schnelting discussing low April election turnout and his bill to move St. Charles County school board races to November, aiming to counter union-backed liberal candidates and increase voter representation. The conversation highlights the influence of NEA machines, rural vs. suburban perspectives, and the need for conservative engagement. Later, Kim examines a Connecticut ICU malpractice case spotlighting telehealth use in critical care, weighing staffing shortages, cost incentives, and patient safety concerns, sparking debate on the balance between technology and in-person care. Schnelting also previews his Show Me Prosperity Fund legislation to phase out state taxes for future generations, rounding out a politically and socially charged hour. Hashtags: #SchoolBoardElections #MissouriPolitics #AdamSchnelting #Telehealth #ICUSafety #ShowMeProsperityFund #HealthcareDebate #UnionInfluence

Senator Adam Schnelting discusses legislation to move Missouri school board elections from April to November to increase voter participation and counter the consistent advantage of NEA-backed candidates in low-turnout races. He details the political challenges from Senate Democrats and some rural Republicans, highlights recent controversial library policies in Francis Howell schools, and emphasizes the importance of broader conservative engagement. Schnelting also touches on his Show-Me Prosperity Fund, aiming to eventually eliminate state-imposed taxes in Missouri. Hashtags: #AdamSchnelting #MissouriPolitics #SchoolBoardElections #VoterTurnout #ShowMeProsperity #MarcCox

The April 8th show opens with shockwaves from St. Charles County elections, surprising school board outcomes, and one-vote races, alongside debates over Mizzou cutting DEI-style funding. Hour 2 examines local property tax battles, Jennifer Newsom controversies, and market reactions to the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, with insights from Nicole Murray. Hour 3 focuses on voter turnout, the Surgeon General nomination clash, and the Brian Noem scandal, blending serious analysis with live listener perspectives. The show closes in Hour 4 with Jimmy Failla sharing comedy wisdom for his Chesterfield Factory show, Taylor Riggs breaking down bullish market sentiment, and a deep dive into Missouri school board election tactics, NEA influence, and upcoming legislative reforms to improve turnout. Hashtags: #MarcCox #StCharlesCounty #MissouriElections #Mizzou #DEI #PropertyTax #TrumpIran #StockMarket #SchoolBoard #JimmyFailla #TaylorRiggs #ElectionTurnout #LocalPolitics #FoxBusiness #BrianNoem

Marc Cox wraps the day with Jimmy Failla sharing comedy insights, cab-driving stories, and advice on introducing comedians ahead of his Chesterfield Factory show. Taylor Riggs breaks down the stock market's positive reaction to a tentative two-week ceasefire with Iran, oil and diesel price expectations, and investor sentiment amid Trump-era negotiations. The hour concludes with a critique of Missouri school board elections, low voter turnout, NEA influence, and deceptive initiative petition tactics, highlighting the legislative push to move municipal elections to the fall for higher participation. Hashtags: #JimmyFailla #TaylorRiggs #StockMarket #IranCeasefire #MissouriPolitics #SchoolBoardElections #ElectionStrategy #FoxBusiness

Hour 4 opens with a post-election discussion of property tax outcomes and voter frustrations in St. Charles and surrounding counties. Jen Olson, whistleblower and St. Charles County Director of Elections candidate, joins to discuss the recent settlement between the Wentzville School District and the Attorney General, highlighting sunshine law violations and the perceived “slap on the wrist” for the district. The conversation shifts to Olson's vision for election transparency, including hand-counted ballots with bipartisan oversight and live video of counting tables, alongside commentary on low turnout and NEA-backed school board victories. The segment concludes with Olson promoting her upcoming Gentucky Derby event and its fundraising activities. Hashtags: #WentzvilleSchoolDistrict #SunshineLaw #JenOlson #ElectionTransparency #StCharlesCounty #PropertyTax #SchoolBoardElections #GentuckyDerby #LocalPolitics

Marc Cox talks with St. Charles School Board candidate Josh Wilcutt about his campaign priorities, including student safety, accountability, and strengthening parental involvement. Wilcutt details his personal experience with discrimination against his special-needs son, criticizes the NEA's endorsements of other candidates, and emphasizes responsible use of tax dollars. The segment also covers local property tax freezes, fire and EMS sales taxes, and broader issues like DEI policies and curriculum transparency, giving listeners a thorough look at how school board decisions affect both families and the community. Hashtags: #JoshWilcutt #StCharlesSchoolBoard #ParentalRights #NEA #EducationPolicy #PropertyTax #StudentSafety #DEI

Marc Cox opens the show with Dan Buck filling in for Kim St. Ange, covering St. Charles County's heated council meeting and unanimous approval of an ICE cooperation agreement despite anti-ICE protests. Hour 1 shifts to Cardinals early-season optimism and the controversy surrounding Jaden Ivey's release from the Chicago Bulls for criticizing NBA Pride Month, sparking debate on religious freedom and workplace rights. Hour 2 celebrates the reopening of Granite City Steel's blast furnace, ties the revival to Trump-era policies, and walks through the April Mark Cox Voter Guide, emphasizing conservative school board races and NEA influence. Hour 3 examines NYC daycare policy with Todd Pyro, Virginia gun law changes with Louis Valdez, and continues discussion of Jaden Ivey's firing. Hour 4 focuses on St. Charles County property tax debates, featuring Steve Ehlmann defending ICE cooperation, Ryan Wiggins analyzing Florida and Missouri property tax issues, and a detailed look at Proposition RT, showing how it empowers homeowners and limits future assessment hikes. Hashtags: #MarcCoxMorningShow #DanBuck #StCharlesCounty #ICE #JadenIvey #ChicagoBulls #ReligiousFreedom #GraniteCitySteel #MarkCoxVoterGuide #SchoolBoardElections #ToddPyro #LouisValdez #VirginiaGunLaw #PropertyTaxes #PropRT #RyanWiggins #LocalPolitics #TaxPolicy

Marc Cox celebrates the reopening of Granite City Steel's blast furnace, tying the revival to Trump-era policies and sharing a personal story about working in the steel industry that shaped his work ethic. He then dives into the April Mark Cox Voter Guide, emphasizing the importance of conservative voices in local school board elections, explaining NEA influence, and providing tools for voters to hold candidates accountable. The hour wraps with lighter “In Other News” stories, including a Southwest Airlines seating dispute, a Maryland Chick-fil-A encouraging phone-free family meals, and Passover-friendly Coca-Cola bottles. Hashtags: #GraniteCitySteel #TrumpEra #SteelIndustry #MarkCoxVoterGuide #SchoolBoardElections #NEA #ConservativeVoices #InOtherNews #ChickFilA #Passover #MarcCoxMorningShow

Marc Cox opens the show celebrating Illinois' dramatic March Madness comeback and highlights standout performances, while criticizing nationwide “No Kings” protests as the actions of a vocal anti-Trump minority. Hour 1 also examines Kim St. Onge's “Kim on a Whim” segment on AI, robotics, and autonomous vehicles, including companies like RobotLAB and Waymo, alongside economic and community concerns over proposed Missouri data centers and a successful BackStoppers fundraiser in Washington, Missouri. Hour 2 features Hans von Spakovsky analyzing voter ID disputes and previewing the Supreme Court's birthright citizenship case, with Nicole Murray reporting on oil price surges linked to Middle East tensions, Eli Lilly's $2.75B AI-driven drug deal, Mistral's $830M AI data center financing, PS5 and PS5 Pro price increases, and the emergence of self-driving traffic lights. Hour 3 focuses on Fort Zumwalt school board candidate Mark Pratt addressing low voter turnout and NEA endorsements, Dan Buck dissecting Charles Barkley's March Madness immigration comments, and Kim on a Whim reviewing Drusky's viral parody of Erica Kirk, all while previewing Amendment 3 and local fire and EMS ballot issues. Hour 4 features Kathryn Wagner from Her Health Her Future outlining the campaign to overturn Missouri's 2024 Amendment 3 and educate voters for November, Tom Ackerman breaking down March Madness matchups—including Michigan vs. Arizona and Illinois vs. Yukon—celebrating Cardinals rookie J.J. Weatherholt's historic first two MLB games, and assessing the St. Louis Blues' playoff push, and St. Charles County Councilman Joe Brazel discussing the ICE Memorandum of Understanding to streamline officer processing, advocating for moving school board elections to November, and emphasizing voter engagement with the Missouri Voter Guide. Hashtags: #MarcCox #IllinoisBasketball #MarchMadnessComeback #NoKingsProtests #DonaldTrump #KimOnAWhim #AI #Robotics #Waymo #RobotLAB #MissouriDataCenters #BackStoppers #VoterID #BirthrightCitizenship #OilPrices #EliLilly #PS5 #FortZumwalt #SchoolBoard #DanBuck #CharlesBarkley #EricaKirk #Amendment3 #HerHealthHerFuture #ProLifeMovement #StLouisCardinals #JJWeatherholt #StLouisBlues #StCharlesCounty #JoeBrazel #VoterGuide

Marc Cox opens Hour 3 with Fort Zumwalt school board candidate Mark Pratt, discussing low voter turnout, the NEA endorsement, school safety, curriculum oversight, and the importance of informed voting. The hour continues with Dan Buck on The Buck Stops Here, dissecting Charles Barkley's controversial immigration rant during March Madness and emphasizing the distinction between legal and illegal immigration. Kim closes the hour with Kim on a Whim, analyzing Drusky's viral video parodying Erica Kirk, calling out racial double standards in comedy, and previewing discussion of Amendment Three and local fire and EMS ballot issues. Hashtags: #MarcPratt #FortZumwalt #SchoolBoard #TheBuckStopsHere #DanBuck #CharlesBarkley #ImmigrationDebate #KimOnAWhim #EricaKirk #ViralVideo #MissouriPolitics

Marc Cox interviews Marc Pratte, a Fort Zumwalt school board candidate, about his campaign, local education issues, and strategies to counter NEA-backed opponents. Pratt emphasizes the need for higher voter turnout, strong ground campaigns, and community engagement. He outlines his priorities: maintaining strong academics, responsible fiscal spending, increasing school resource officers for safety, and carefully reviewing new curriculum and books to ensure age-appropriate content. The discussion highlights the importance of common-sense, parent-focused leadership in local school districts and encourages listeners to vote and educate themselves using the voter guide. Hashtags: #SchoolBoardElections #FortZumwalt #MarkPratt #SchoolSafety #CurriculumOversight #VoterGuide #LocalPolitics

Jessica Fuentes and Nicholas Frank discuss Glasstire's recent news coverage, including the University of North Texas' cancellation of Victor Quiñonez's exhibition, Texas art institutions and galleries celebrating milestone anniversaries, and more. “The closure of this UNT exhibition was not a singular event that happened this year, it was part of an ongoing unfolding of new restrictions that are happening, from the closure of DEI offices, which relates back to federal funding and Glasstire has been covering this for over a year now, even in the lead up to the halting of NEA and NEH funding in early 2025.” See related readings here: https://glasstire.com/2026/03/22/art-dirt-in-the-news/ If you enjoy Glasstire and would like to support our work, please consider donating. As a nonprofit, all of the money we receive goes back into our coverage of Texas art. You can make a one-time donation or become a sustaining, monthly donor here: https://glasstire.com/donate

Student loans are a fact of life for many educators who relied on that support to make their education career path possible, or who are now on Parent Plus loans to help their own children achieve their college and career dreams. But, so much has changed with the federal student loan programs over the last year, it can be really hard to keep track of what any of us need to be doing to stay on track with repayments. NEA Member Benefits Affiliate Relations Lead Guy Kendall-Freas joins us for this episode to get us up to speed.GET HELP NAVIGATING YOUR STUDENT LOAN DEBT | Click here to learn more about NEA Member Benefits' Savi Student Debt Navigator tool and other student loan resources  FIND OTHER SAVINGS | Click here for more information on other NEA Member Benefits discounts and resourcesREWIND AND LEARN MORE | Click here and here to hear Guy's interviews on previous Public Education Matters episodes about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.SUBSCRIBE | Click here to subscribe to Public Education Matters on Apple Podcasts or click here to listen on Spotify so you don't miss a thing. You can also find Public Education Matters on many other platforms. Click here for some of those links so you can listen anywhere. And don't forget you can listen to all of the previous episodes anytime on your favorite podcast platform, or by clicking here.Featured Public Education Matters guest:Guy Kendall-Freas, NEA Member Benefits Affiliate Relations LeadGuy Kendall-Freas is the NEA Zone 3 Lead for NEA Member Benefits, where he has been employed since 1996.  A former special education teacher in Ohio, Guy was also a leader in his local, district and OEA.  He served the Ohio Department of Education in several capacities, including the Rules Revision Committee for Special Ed Service Delivery and as one of the first practicing teachers trained as Entry Year Teacher Assessors.  Working from his office in Mansfield, Ohio, he supports members and affiliates in the 13 states comprising NEA's Zone 3.Connect with OEA:Email educationmatters@ohea.org with your feedback or ideas for future Public Education Matters topicsLike OEA on FacebookFollow OEA on TwitterFollow OEA on InstagramGet the latest news and statements from OEA hereLearn more about where OEA stands on the issues Keep up to date on the legislation affecting Ohio public schools and educators with OEA's Legislative WatchAbout us:The Ohio Education Association represents nearly 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio's schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio's children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio's schools.Public Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May 2020, after a ten-year career as an Emmy Award-winning television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. She lives in Central Ohio with her husband and two young children. This episode was recorded on February 25, 2026.

Karen Palmer joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about changing her identity to escape a dangerous ex-husband, being stalked, the consequences of deciding to disappear, coming to grips with the experience of domestic abuse, mistaking grief for maturity, telling a story as truthfully as possible, relinquishing a child, the long-term effect of PTSD, not ever completely knowing ourselves or others, deep truth vs. inconsequential truth, writing about ourself like we are a character, projecting a persona that isn't real, understanding the end of the story late in the writing, moving around in time without losing the reader, believing in a story and the ability to tell it, and her new memoir She's Under Here: a Love Story, a Horror Story, a Reckoning.   Also in this episode: -keeping the faith -trying a story out as fiction first -coming of age with many obstacles   Books mentioned in this episode: -In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado -Bluets by Maggie Nelson  -Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel    Karen Palmer's memoir She's Under Here grew out of her award-winning essay The Reader Is the Protagonist, first published in VQR and selected by Leslie Jamison for inclusion in Best American Essays 2017. She has received a Pushcart Prize and grants from the NEA and the Colorado Council on the Arts, and is the author of the novels All Saints and Border Dogs. Other work has appeared in the Kenyon Review, Arts & Letters, The Rumpus, and Kalliope. She teaches at Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, CO, and lives with her husband in California.    Connect with Karen: Website: www.karenpalmer.com Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/karenpalmer.bsky.social Instagram: instagram.com/karenpalmer1989/ Facebook: facebook.com/palmer.karen She's Under Here can be purchased at:   AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Shes-Under-Here-Karen-Palmer/dp/1643757547?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.V14dH3NYK1_JGqY01snjfw.dGdXTKkQ0h0_uH68hQXjNRQ82iK7rF80ygG6EAeafQ8&qid=1759333809&sr=8-1' BOOKSHOP.ORG: https://bookshop.org/p/books/she-s-under-here-a-memoir-karen-palmer/d5c065268851768c?ean=9781643757544&next=t For a signed copy from Diesel Bookstore: https://dieselbookstore.com/book/9781643757544s Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shes-under-here-karen-palmer/1147279207?ean=9781643757544   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.   More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

What if the biggest education question isn't “public vs. private”… but who is shaping your child's worldview?This week on The Homeschool How To Podcast, I'm joined by documentary filmmaker Spencer Taylor, creator of The Death of Recess (streaming on Angel Studios). Spencer shares what sparked the film—when his school eliminated recess—and how that change connected to a bigger story: the erosion of childhood, creativity, and parental authority in modern education.We talk about:Why removing recess impacts behavior, mental health, and learningThe rise of standardized testing (and what it's costing kids)How education funding and influence shape curriculum decisionsWhy school choice and homeschooling are growing fast after COVIDWhat Spencer discovered when he went undercover at an NEA leadership summitHow parents can reclaim their role without fearIf you're homeschooling, considering homeschooling, or trying to get your spouse on board, this episode will challenge your assumptions—and give you language for the conversations that matter.

For the 43rd episode of "Reading the Art World," host Megan Fox Kelly speaks with Francine Snyder, Director of Archives at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, about her recently published book "I Don't Think About Being Great: Select Writings by Robert Rauschenberg," co-published by the foundation and Yale University Press.Their conversation reveals a side of Rauschenberg that many don't know: his relationship to language and writing. Despite self-identifying as dyslexic, Rauschenberg kept a substantial body of written work—correspondence, artist notes, testimony, speeches, and fragments—which he labeled in his own hand as "file RR writing." Snyder discusses the editorial choice to preserve Rauschenberg's misspellings, cross-outs, and grammatical idiosyncrasies rather than correct them. These visual elements function like collage—intentional word play and phonetic experimentation. The book presents 100 writings selected from nearly 900 in the archive.They discuss several key texts, including Rauschenberg's 1963 artist statement declaring "it is extremely important that art be unjustifiable"—a phrase he arrived at by crossing out "justifiable" in earlier drafts. This refusal of explanation aligns with his resistance to fixed meaning and his insistence that viewers bring their own interpretations. The conversation also addresses Rauschenberg's activism, from founding Change Inc. in 1970 to provide emergency support for artists, to advocating for artist resale royalty rights and NEA funding, to launching ROCI (Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange) in the 1980s to foster artistic dialogue across borders.For anyone interested in postwar American art, artist archives, or how foundations steward intellectual legacy, this episode offers insight into an artist whose relationship to language was as experimental as his visual work.ABOUT THE AUTHOR Francine Snyder is Director of Archives at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, where she has worked since 2015. She specializes in artist and museum archives and in fostering research and scholarship on contemporary cross-disciplinary creative practices. Major initiatives under her leadership include the foundation's Fair Use Policy to reduce barriers to image use, the Archives Research Residency program, and expanded digital archives.PURCHASE THE BOOK https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300282566/i-dont-think-about-being-great/SUBSCRIBE, FOLLOW AND HEAR INTERVIEWS: For more information, visit meganfoxkelly.com, hear our past interviews, and subscribe at the bottom of our Of Interest page for new posts. Follow us on Instagram: @meganfoxkelly "Reading the Art World" is a podcast featuring live interviews with leading authors and writers on important new art books. Megan Fox Kelly is an art advisor and past President of the Association of Professional Art Advisors who works with collectors, estates and foundations. Music composed by Bob Golden

Welcome to an emergency BONUS episode of Revolutions Per Movie! Last week, while I was talking to Jackie and Jill from Target Video, they mentioned the doc We Were There To Be There, which focuses on Target filming The Cramps & The Mutants playing a show at Napa State, a psychiatric hospital in Northern California. So today, here is my conversation with Jason Willis & Mike Plante, who directed We Were There To Be There!!!We discuss how we each discovered Target Video VHS tapes and how it made us feel we weren't alone in our weirdness, the Flipside Video series, how goofy Black Flag was in their videos with Target, Repo Man, fanzines, Greg Turkington (Neil Hamburger) in the crowd of a Target Video shoot for the Meat Puppets, how the film changed its focus during the research phase, tracking down Target Video head Joe Rees in the wilderness, the legal and ethical concerns that arise while making a documentary, the surprising conservatism of San Francisco in this era, the doc's explanation of how The Cramps ended up playing Napa State and the history of the hospital, how Reagan destroyed the inner works of Napa State, the NEA, the footage of The Mutants playing The School For The Deaf, Flipper, Desolation Center, the importance of LSD in the early days of the punk music scene, how the lines between the audience and the bands performing at Napa State were completely shattered, Bryan Gregory's performance, the lost Mutants footage discovered after 40 years and where they found it, The Punk Media Research Collection Archive, Scopitones, Eerie publications, straight edge punk and so much more!Watch WE WERE THERE TO BE THERE:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwwRQVgW-0gBLU-RAY with additional Mutants doc and Napa State performance:https://grasshopperfilm.myshopify.com/collections/new-releases/products/the-cramps-and-the-mutants-the-napa-state-tapes-blu-rayREVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE:Host Chris Slusarenko (Eyelids, Guided By Voices, owner of Clinton Street Video rental store) is joined by actors, musicians, comedians, writers & directors who each week pick out their favorite music documentary, musical, music-themed fiction film or music videos to discuss. Fun, weird, and insightful, Revolutions Per Movie is your deep dive into our life-long obsessions where music and film collide.Revolutions Per Movie releases new episodes every Thursday on any podcast app, and additional, exclusive bonus episodes every Sunday on our Patreon. If you like the show, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing it on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!PATREON:The show is also a completely independent affair, so the best way to support it is through our Patreon at patreon.com/revolutionspermovie. By joining, you can get weekly bonus episodes, physical goods such as Flexidiscs, and other exclusive goods. It helps the show to keep going and is greatly appreciated!TIP JAR:ko-fi.com/revolutionspermovieSOCIALS:@revolutionspermovieBlueSky: @revpermovieTHEME by Eyelids 'My Caved In Mind'www.musicofeyelids.bandcamp.com ARTWORK by Jeff T. Owenshttps://linktr.ee/mymetalhand Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thom Francis welcomes Mary Panza and Charlie Rossiter to Poets Speak Loud stage at McGeary's for the annual Tom Nattell Memorial Reading and Beret Toss on January 28, 2019. +++++ On Monday, January 28, 2019, poets and writers from all over the region gathered at McGeary's in downtown Albany for the annual Tom Nattell Memorial Reading and Beret Toss, paying tribute to one of the founding fathers of the local poetry and spoken word community. This week we are going to hear from two of the poets who took the stage that night - Mary Panza and Charlie Rossiter. Mary Panza was the host for the long-running Poets Speak Loud series, shared a newer piece “No One Escapes the Pain of Being a Person” then on to a couple of older pieces, the memoir of herself over time “Those Black & White Photos,” and then her response to an interviewers question “Why Poetry?” Mary has been a permanent fixture in the Capital Regions poetry/spoken word community since 1988. Her first time reading on the stage of the legendary QE2 cemented her love for performing. She had hosted a number of open mics including a five year run at Borders in the 1990's and a 15 year run with Poets Speak Loud at the Lark Tavern and then McGeary's Irish Pub from 2005-2020. She had her heyday with publishing her work in the 90's when small zines were king. She has published three chapbooks with poet Gina Grega and five small chapbooks with the late Paul Weinman. In 2005, she was elected Vice President of Albany Poets. She has hosted an endless amount of events from poetry, music, spoken word to the extraordinary recycled fashion shows that were Discard Avant Garb. She has a blog entitled Housewife Tuesday since 2012 that can be found on the Albany Poets website. She is currently working on staying as sane as she can in an insane world. Charlie Rossiter, who runs a monthly open mic in Bennington, read a poem “On Reading My Brother's Facebook Post” pondering his childhood and the mentality of Trump supporters. Charlie has a long history of writing and promoting poetry. In Albany, NY in the 1990s, he was host/producer of Poetry Motel a local television program that featured poets being interviewed and reading from their work, which ran for over 100 episodes. In 2000 he co-founded and hosted www.poetrypoetry.com a website that features poetry reviews, commentary, and live recordings of poems by the poets who wrote them. He spearheaded an all-day poetry reading on the grounds of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, and has organized events for 100,000 Poets For Change. Charlie has been awarded an NEA fellowship for poetry, and his books are available at www.foothillspublishing.com where descriptions and sample poems may be perused. Charlie Rossiter also hosted the Poetry Spoken Here podcast.

Boston-based photographer Jim Dow talks about: The Boston art community (which is often connected to the art school and universities) and why he's lived there the great majority of his life (he lives in the house he grew up in); he's a dedicated Mass-hole- there's an edge to people there and you have break that edge; how he navigates random passersby when he's photographing for long sessions with his wooden large-view camera (his exposures range from a second to 20 minutes), with people always around him (here's a short video of a food stand guy singing tango where Jim was doing a shoot); his experiences with the difference between analog and digital photography, each of its pros and cons, and why he uses digital for documenting exhibitions which he's used for his teaching; suggestions for how to best edit documentation of your own work, which starts with photographing on your phone, to get a good sense of color that you can use as a template for your photo editing; how he used the NEA's selection process, of not using artist statements as part of the process for the initial rounds, as a tool to teach his students (including as a guest lecturer at Harvard) about how decisions are made; the Harvard student he had who wrote a study evaluating the value of photography based on economic models; two fully adults students he's had over the years, and how their stories impacted both Jim and his other, younger students; and how the odds of becoming monetarily successful artists are worse than becoming a professional baseball player, at least by one (possibly obsolete?) metric. This podcast relies on listener support; please consider becoming a Patreon supporter of the podcast, for as little as $1/month, here: https://www.patreon.com/theconversationpod       In the 2nd half of the conversation, available to Patreon supporters, we talk about: His own relationship to financial success as an artist, both as a teacher and a photographer, which has added up to a solid middle-class income, and how 'his photography supports his photography,' just barely; how crucial it is for artists to have day jobs; how scarcity and nostalgia play a big role in a photograph's market value; his insights on financial precarity, not only through his students but his own kids, and what he tends to advise kids to do vis-à-vis art school; how he worried about students who thought their path after leaving art school was being an art star – because of those low odds he mentioned – and meanwhile how many mature adult students he had who were in their 30s all the way up to even their 70s, and how they got so much out of his classes with the life experience they brought; how he wrote 'a million' letters of recommendation for students, always starting from scratch (no template); though he didn't want to necessarily become friends with his students, he's become good friends with about 7 of them between early 30s and early 70s; how he saw his students as "peers-in-training;" the visual sophistication of the recent college kids he taught, due to their lifelong exposure to such a vast range of imagery; how the women and the gender fluid students were infinitely more articulate than the men, in his experience; how one of his students, who grew up on a dairy farm, expressed her frustrations with class differences she experienced amidst her fellow students (read: privilege); and his next project, documenting the food stands and other businesses along north-south highway 111, using it as an opportunity to explore the 'hallway doors' along the way.  

On Wednesday's Mark Levin Show, processed foods should be defended against their common portrayal as dietary villains. About 100 years ago, mass urbanization, poverty, and lack of refrigeration made fresh food scarce, expensive, and prone to spoilage or contamination in cities, leading to widespread issues like foodborne illnesses, malnutrition, and short life expectancy. Processed foods, including canning, pasteurization, and preservatives, emerged as a critical solution to feed growing populations safely and affordably, preventing starvation and reducing risks from rancid items. While some synthetic additives may have downsides, they are far safer than historical alternatives like rotten eggs or swill milk. Also, our ​military ​personnel deserve ​our ​respect ​and ​our ​gratitude. They stand ready to act on orders from President Trump to protect current and future generations from Iran. Ordinary Americans strongly support the military, unlike Marxists, Islamists, woke individuals, neo-Nazis, and isolationists. Isolationism against evils like Islamism, Communism, and fascism is suicidal. Later, decades ago Landmark Legal Foundation and other patriot lawyers litigated school choice, starting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They represented a black liberal state representative, Polly Williams, and her constituents in the city's poorest areas, advancing an idea originated by the late Dr. Milton Friedman. The program aimed to let money follow inner-city students—primarily minority and black children—out of failing, crime-ridden, union-controlled, government-run schools to better options, including participating private schools. Despite fierce opposition from Democrats, the NEA, AFT, NAACP, and others, the effort succeeded through multiple victories at the Wisconsin Supreme Court and twice at the U.S. Supreme Court over years. These wins, achieved alongside key colleagues and heroes, established school choice as one of the greatest civil rights victories in modern times, without which it would not exist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The National Education Association is under fire as lawmakers like Mary Miller and Buddy Carter push to revoke its unique federal charter.In this episode, I take a hard look at the NEA's growing political influence inside public schools—and what it means for parental rights, religious liberty, and academic excellence. You'll hear from whistleblower Christina Barton, a former school counselor who risked her career after raising concerns about policies that kept parents in the dark.If you care about who is shaping your child's education—and whether schools are serving families or sidelining them—this is a conversation you don't want to miss.Prime Sponsor: No matter where you live, visit the Functional Medical Institute online today to connect with Drs Mark and Michele Sherwood. Go to homeschoolhealth.com to get connected and see some of my favorites items. Use coupon code HEIDI for 20% off!Show mentions: http://heidistjohn.com/mentionsWebsite | heidistjohn.comSupport the show! | donorbox.org/donation-827Rumble | rumble.com/user/HeidiStJohnYoutube | youtube.com/@HeidiStJohnPodcastInstagram | @‌heidistjohnFacebook | Heidi St. JohnX | @‌heidistjohnFaith That Speaks Online CommunitySubmit your questions for Fan Mail Friday | heidistjohn.com/fanmailfriday

1 - The Teachers' Union is a menace! Corey DeAngelis, school choice Evangelist, joins us again today to explain why and how. How do we prove that the NEA is using children as political pawns now? What leads to these protests possibly being dangerous? How is Oklahoma's school choice enrollment going? Why do teachers need not be afraid of the unions? When are we getting a Corey book? 120 - Is there a worse organization than the UN? Why is former Eagle Seth Joyner squaring off with Brendan Boyle? Your calls. 140 - Kaitlan Collins doesn't realize the hypocrisy of what she said on The Late Show last night. We're going to ban federal law enforcement from being in New Jersey? 150 - Dom Giordano Presents: Progressive Women Gone Wild!

12 - Is Philadelphia a sanctuary city? NBC 10's Claudia Vargas goes toe to toe with the mayor over where the office stands on the matter? 1215 - Side - associated with victory 1220 - Is Wawa in decline? That's seemingly what the city is saying… Your calls. Is Cherelle Parker actually a good mayor? 1235 - Your calls. 1245 - What is the deal with Brian Fitzpatrick? 1 - The Teachers' Union is a menace! Corey DeAngelis, school choice Evangelist, joins us again today to explain why and how. How do we prove that the NEA is using children as political pawns now? What leads to these protests possibly being dangerous? How is Oklahoma's school choice enrollment going? Why do teachers need not be afraid of the unions? When are we getting a Corey book? 120 - Is there a worse organization than the UN? Why is former Eagle Seth Joyner squaring off with Brendan Boyle? Your calls. 140 - Kaitlan Collins doesn't realize the hypocrisy of what she said on The Late Show last night. We're going to ban federal law enforcement from being in New Jersey? 150 - Dom Giordano Presents: Progressive Women Gone Wild! 2 - Enes Kanter Freedom, Human Rights Activist, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, former NBA Player, and NYT Bestselling Author joins us again. Why is Chinese athlete Eileen Gu a traitor for being borned and raised in America, but competing for China in the Olympics? Was Enes critical of China before Daryl Morey's “Free Hong Kong” tweet? He tells us a story about that. What was Enes' conversation with Daryl like on his tweet and the advice he gave Enes? Did Enes' endorsement deals dry up after speaking out against the atrocities in his native Turkey? Will Eileen Gu's deals go away? How are his book sales and reviews going? Who is this athlete that we have who stands opposite of Eileen Gu? How are his travels and life going with a bounty on his head? What is Enes' stance on tanking? 210 - Your calls. 215 - Dom's Money Melody! 220 - What is RFK Jr. doing with his jeans? Parents SOS sounds the alarm on social media use affecting our children as Mark Zuckerberg takes the stand today. 235 - How much are people paying to see Bruce Springsteen? Is the cat out of the bag that he is a phony? 240 - Your calls. 250 - The Lightning Round! Not! 3 - The show goes on! Why do city officials hate Wawa? 305 - Dom has a question for Kirk. What's everyone's shoe size? 310 - Bucks County rules that ICE detention centers will not be in their jurisdiction. Where are the criminals going to get due process? Has Wawa “fallen off”? 320 - Your calls. 330 - Award-winning investigative journalist, author, and Pulitzer finalist Gerald Posner joins us late in the afternoon here. Why does Gerald find it crazy that CHOP has not reversed course on gender affirming care and surgery? Why does Gerald think that people's minds have turned on how Big Pharma and hospitals handle children when it comes to opiates and then subsequently, gender affirming care? What will eventually curtail these hospitals from doing gender-altering procedures? Does Gerald feel the same way on GLP-1 weight loss drugs? What is Gerald working on next? 350 - Just how much is Springsteen charging for tickets in Philadelphia? 4 - We finish where we start. What does “sanctuary city” mean to Mayor Cherelle Parker? Your calls. 415 - The Lightning Round!

Morri Creech is the winner of the 2025 Rattle Poetry Prize. He is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently The Sentence. His book Field Knowledge (Waywiser, 2006) received the Anthony Hecht Poetry prize and was nominated for both the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Poet's Prize. The Sleep of Reason was a 2014 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A recipient of NEA and Ruth Lilly Fellowships, as well as grants from the North Carolina and Louisiana Arts councils, he is the Writer in Residence at Queens University of Charlotte, where he teaches courses in both the undergraduate creative writing program and in the low residency M.F.A. program. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife and two children. Find more at his website: https://www.morricreech.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Quick! Write a poem that moves fast. Include as many unique verbs as possible. Next Week's Prompt: Write a poem that examines a surprising aspect of a job you otherwise generally love to do. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Ep. 175 Hot Headlines: Trump-Kennedy Center Closing? Katie, Josh, and Kevin talk about the President posting about closing the Trump-Kennedy Center for two years for “renovations,” and funding of the NEA, among other topics, because you can't talk about a Presidential social media post without diving into the state of America.  Follow us on social media and let us know your thoughts and questions - https://linktr.ee/nobusinesslikepod Our theme song is composed by Vic Davi.

This week's episode touches upon so many interesting topics for memoirists—from catalyst moments that create the foundational stories of our memoirs; to the ways we can prism experience through “before” and “after”; to the journey of titling and subtitling; to the wild and unpredictable individual journeys that lead to published books. Author Karen Palmer is an insightful guest whose memoir and journey to publication will inspire and propel you along, and remind you to stay the course. Your story matters! Karen Palmer's memoir She's Under Here grew out of her award-winning essay The Reader Is the Protagonist, first published in VQR and selected by Leslie Jamison for inclusion in Best American Essays 2017. She has received a Pushcart Prize and grants from the NEA and the Colorado Council on the Arts, and is the author of the novels All Saints and Border Dogs. Other work has appeared in the Kenyon Review, Arts & Letters, The Rumpus, and Kalliope. She teaches at Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, and lives with her husband in California. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this Friday's episode of Joe Oltmann Untamed, Joe is back and diving headfirst into the accelerating 2020 election fallout federal investigators have seized ballots from Fulton County, Georgia, after months of fierce resistance, exposing what many call a massive cover-up. Emerald Robinson dropped a bombshell: massive post-certification alterations to Dominion voting machines, including hundreds of illegal DLL files per machine, invalidating the certification process itself. Joe ties it straight to Eric Coomer, declaring he's headed to jail along with precinct facilitators and the one big cartel protecting the fraud Ruby Freeman's Obama-linked lawyer Michael Gottlieb sued investigators, and Fulton officials spent millions blocking transparency. Why fight so hard? The truth is surfacing, and consequences are coming fast.Joe welcomes election and cyber-security expert Mark Cook to unpack the raid's implications, Patrick Byrne's fresh insights on DLL problems and hard drive needs (with Tulsi Gabbard mentions), and why Fulton Commissioner Bridget Thorne admitted they've burned millions to hide ballots. From Coomer's admissions of foreign contacts to the broader cartel operations, this is the accountability moment we've waited for people must go to prison.Radical left chaos ramps up with ICE Out Friday: a national strike calls for no work, school, or shopping until "ICE terror ends," with Denver metro protests and thousands of students (pawns of NEA radicals) walking out leading Aurora Public Schools to close due to teacher absences. We play Fox's Don Lemon arrest report, expose manufactured disruptions diverting from fraud revelations, and end with a disturbing clip from a liberal influencer explaining why conservatives "need" them. Tune in truth is rising, commies are crying, and justice is rolling!

We started out the week with a powerful personal testimony of how God can rescue any life even one that is seemly deep in darkness and despair. On In The Market with Janet Parshall this week we shared one woman’s amazing story of finding her hope and faith in Jesus and how to navigate our way through the dark nights that face all of us at one time or another. Parents can not count on the schools as they did in past years. More than ever parents have to be watchful over what their kids are being exposed to in the halls of education as dangerous ideologies and those who support them are actively seeking to indoctrinate kids into followers. We had a very revealing conversation with Janet’s daughter who shared the results of a study of 700 school districts across the country, how school are getting money from outside the U.S. to push radical ideologies and why the president of the NEA is joining a “revolution group” and how that could impact what is taught in the classroom. Artificial Intelligence and its advocates continue commandeering more and more aspects of daily life. We turned to our expert on all things tech to put these changes in biblical perspective for us. He talked to us about the rise of A.I. psychosis, how the implementation of A.I. is damaging or destroying our institutional foundations and whether or not ministries should include the use of A.I. chatbots. Our guest sent out a warning call to Christian parents as he exposed how young believers are turning away from their faith as a result of what they are learning and who they are learning it from in college. He encouraged parents to start early building resilience in their kids to face both the subtle and direct challenges to their faith and how to come out this experience with their walk still intact. Janet and Craig once again invite you to join them for another important exploration of the headlines of the week as they expose them to the unflinching sunlight of God’s truth.Become a Parshall Partner: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/inthemarket/partnersSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of The Holy Grail of Investing Podcast, Christopher Zook and CAZ Partner, Mark Wade, sit down with serial entrepreneur Marc Lore and NEA Co-CEO Tony Florence for a dynamic conversation about reinventing one of the largest industries in the world: food. Together, they explore how Wonder—the vertically integrated food-tech company Marc built after Diapers.com and Jet.com—is transforming the way we cook, eat, and experience convenience. From engineering a kitchen that can run 30 restaurants at once to inventing new cooking processes and delivery models, Wonder represents a complete rethinking of what's possible when technology meets daily life. Marc shares his VCP framework—Vision, Capital, People—and why great founders must constantly challenge the status quo. Tony Florence offers the investor's perspective: what makes elite entrepreneurs different, how NEA evaluates massive markets, and why periods of disruption often create the best opportunities.  This conversation highlights the breakthroughs that occur when innovation, execution, and long-term thinking collide.    Learn more at https://TheHolyGrailofInvesting.com and https://CAZInvestments.com

In fewer than two dozen lines, Cyrus Cassells's poem “Jasmine” offers readers a multisensory, cinematic immersion into late spring life in Rome. Not only is the “sweet, steady broadcast” of jasmine ever-present amid “the joyous braiding of sun and rain”, but there's also Daria, a “crone-glorious” neighbor, with a story about her romance with the gallant Galliano. It's la dolce vita, without overindulgence or artifice. We invite you to subscribe to Pádraig's weekly Poetry Unbound Substack, read the Poetry Unbound books and his newest work, Kitchen Hymns, or listen to all our Poetry Unbound episodes.  Cyrus Cassells, former poet laureate of Texas, is the author of 11 books of poetry, including Is There Room for Another Horse on Your Horse Ranch? (2024), The World That the Shooter Left Us (2022), and More Than Watchmen at Daybreak (2020). Cassells's honors include the 2025 Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers, a Guggenheim fellowship, a Lambda Literary Award, a Lannan Literary Award, an NAACP Image Award nomination, a National Poetry Series selection, two NEA grants, two Pushcart Prizes, and the Poetry Society of America's William Carlos Williams Award. He is a Regents' and University Distinguished Professor of English at Texas State University.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.