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So many offices out there think growth has to come from new patients. Tiff and Kristy share specific areas in your practice where you can increase what you're pulling in. This includes fee analyses, unscheduled patients, a finely tuned schedule, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiffanie (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. We love podcasting. We love giving out so much great information. And more than anything, we really love sharing our journeys with you guys, us consultants here on the team. We get to be in office with you, a lot of you. we get to be on the road, we get to go to CE courses, we take a ton of CE courses. The gal who's podcasting with me today is a CE maniac. she's always just looking things up and   And learning and growing. So we get to learn and grow. We get to boots on the ground, test things out, and then we get to deliver those ideas and those thoughts here to everyone on this platform. So thank you for being a valued listener. We hope that you enjoy today's content and please, please, please share with a friend something that we're very passionate about is reaching as many people as we possibly can on this platform and others. So whether you are a current client, a future client, or a forever podcast listener alone.   We just ask that you share this information, you pass it along to a friend, so that they can get some great nuggets as well. And Kristy, I have Kristy here with me today. And like I said, Kristy, you are just like a learning magnet. I love it because you just have this broad spectrum, this range of things that you love consuming, and you bring so much knowledge to the Dental A Team consulting team. So, Kristy.   Thank you for being here with us today. I am excited for today's topic. and before we dive in, how are you? How has your podcasting been? You listen to, you consume a lot. And then you you're   DAT- Kristy (01:37) Yeah.   Tiffanie (01:38) someone that consumes but also utilizes what you consume, which I think is a special skill. So how are you? How's your world? How's your learning? What's new for you?   DAT- Kristy (01:47) Yeah, it's going good, Tiff. it's beginning of the week, so it's always fun to dive in and hear the things. I think lately it's really been around insurance and getting payments on time. They're doing some sneaky stuff with payments, so keeping clients apprised to that and making sure the revenue's coming in. But beyond that, like you're right. I I do like to to listen and stay up on things so that we can share with our   not just our clients, but even like you said, future clients or people listening to the podcast.   Tiffanie (02:22) Yeah, I agree. I know you're gonna say insurance. That has been a bug this year. Insurance   DAT- Kristy (02:27) Mm-hmm.   Tiffanie (02:27) the insurance bug is what we will call it. and   DAT- Kristy (02:30) Yeah.   Tiffanie (02:30) I love it because I know I can I can pick your brain for so many things and you do stay up on so many forums and you're always reading. but then on the opposite end of that spectrum, like I know I I know you will what does Kiera call you? A truffle, a truffle hunter, right? Like you're gonna find those truffles in the forest.   within the insurance and the billing world, but also you love leadership, like growth and development and this the non-dental leadership podcast of the world and books and we're always talking about that stuff. So I think it's really cool and very valuable for everybody and and gives you just a ton of credibility as we speak to a lot of the things we're gonna talk about.   DAT- Kristy (03:15) thank you, Teff.   Tiffanie (03:16) Of course. and yes, it is early in the week starting my   Starting my Monday podcasting is really fun. And starting my Monday podcasting with Kristy brings it down. It's only 10 a.m. and I feel like it has been a whirlwind this morning. So knowing   DAT- Kristy (03:31) Yeah.   Tiffanie (03:31) that I'm here, I'm like, okay, actually we're gonna breathe. So I hope all of our listeners feel that. Kristy brings a sense of calm to every every space that you enter. so thank you for doing that for me today. I need it.   DAT- Kristy (03:44) Absolutely, my pleasure.   Tiffanie (03:46) So, Kristy, this is something I think you're really great at. I do go through and and this was the first podcast on our list, and I was like, Yeah, this is Kristy's podcast. If we do no more   DAT- Kristy (03:56) Mm-hmm.   Tiffanie (03:56) today, it's at least this one. And we really wanted to speak to the podcasting world here and and dental listeners about how to find growth within a practice without physically growing the practice. And this is something that has come up a lot. And I think Kristy.   I've at least had a lot of I've been experiencing this. I've had a lot of practices that are like tapped out on space, right? Like physical space. And after 2020, right? The year of 2020, March to December, this massive boom, right? We had this tank of like, what are we gonna do? And then we just had this massive boom and this influx. And so I think what I saw happen is a ton of practices remodeled or they did expansions, they added as much as they physically could.   And they're kind of tapped out. I know I have you know some that are like if I build anymore, I don't have parking where my patients gonna park. And so   DAT- Kristy (04:50) That's seven.   Tiffanie (04:51) they're finding themselves in this space or they're finding themselves in this space where maybe they don't have the finances right now to physically build or the capability and it doesn't make sense to. So we push growth. We're always saying, you know, seven to ten percent, ten percent is our goal, at seven percent is a minimum, a bare minimum to keep up with inflation. And my   Clients, you know, a lot of my practices are looking at me like, okay, Tiff, like that's crazy. So I wanted to chat today through some ideas that we utilize and Kristy that you bring to the table specifically to increase that like dollar per hour, that bottom line, that production collection space without physically increasing maybe even our patient base. Cause Kristy also have got a ton of practices.   that are struggling for new patients. We're like scraping the bottom of the braille all trying to find new patients. So yeah, that's where we're at. We're just like, how do you grow without pouring water on a plant and growing it, you know?   DAT- Kristy (05:52) Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Tip, I love this subject because so many offices think that it all has to come from new patients, you know? And sometimes new patients can be expensive if we're looking for outside marketing, right? And we have so much to tap into within our practices already. And first and foremost, I always like to say when's the last time you did a fee evaluation? a lot of people after COVID.   really didn't tap into this. And I speak to doctors almost every day who think they were at the 80th percentile. And when we look at it, they're down in the 40th or 50th percentile, you know? And I also say tip with that, a lot of docs are hesitant to to look at this because they're like, I'm so high PPO. And I always say, hey, if you don't raise your fees, they're never going to raise theirs either. So   Tiffanie (06:47) Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (06:48) Taking a look at that first and foremost is huge.   Tiffanie (06:51) I totally agree with that. It's something that's overlooked. I love what you said about the PPO space because so many doctors are like, what difference does it make? I'm tied to these fee schedules or nobody ever sees my UCR. Well, they do. The insurance companies see it. And I actually have a practice, I don't remember who I was podcasting with, but we spoke about them a couple weeks ago that they do their fee analysis and updates in during the summer. It's their slow time and so   DAT- Kristy (07:16) Mm.   Tiffanie (07:18) they do it during the summer.   when there's space and there's time because January, you know, that's an influx of just   DAT- Kristy (07:24) Basically.   Tiffanie (07:25) yeah, is it crazy. And so they move that task to the summer, which I think is really smart. And we actually just went through and did a fee analysis and found that they're they have a couple of insurances that are paying in network almost to their UCR fees. And their UCR fees are not low, right? They're getting like a thousand to eleven hundred dollars for a crown.   So when we requested a fee increase, right, they're like, hey, we're already paying 90% or 95% of your UCR, so we're denying it right now. And to your point, Kristy, they need to change their UCR because their insurances are following those UCR fees, right?   DAT- Kristy (08:06) Yeah.   Tiffanie (08:07) And so many practices overlook that and just go with the flow, and they just like muscle memory, they just keep.   you just keep doing it, right? You're like Dory, just keep swimming and you just don't think about what's behind you. And increasing   DAT- Kristy (08:20) Yeah.   Tiffanie (08:21) those UCRs makes a massive difference, especially when you're a PPO   dentist in the area that's at that 50th percentile. You need to be way higher. And if no one's seeing those UCR fees, great. Then guess what? You don't have to have that conversation with your with your patients.   that their fees are increasing because you increased fees. Like no now your insurances see those fee increases and then you can request fee increases from them for your fee schedules.   DAT- Kristy (08:49) Yeah, exactly. I think it's a it's a huge missed opportunity if if you haven't looked at them in a while. And and I like to say look at once a year. I mean, it it really is worth it and it fluctuates. And don't forget your products if you're selling products. Like make   Tiffanie (09:05) Yes.   DAT- Kristy (09:05) sure you're updating those and looking at invoices. Make sure you're you're charging the correct, you know, a lot of offices don't add on for like   toothbrushes and that sort of stuff, you could actually be going in the hole if you haven't looked at it in a while. So   Tiffanie (09:20) Absolutely. I have had so many practices that were that look back, you know, they haven't done it in three, four years and they look at it and they're like, my gosh, I'm literally losing money on fluoride. Like, we haven't updated our fees, so my fluoride costs more than what I'm charging my patients. And I'm like, Yeah, and that's an easy   DAT- Kristy (09:37) Crazy.   Tiffanie (09:38) one. And even like to your point the oral bee and crest and all of them, they increase inflation, right, is everywhere. So if your goodie bags are, you know, costing a certain amount   Add that in too. Take that into consideration because you've got to pay for those somehow, and we forget that those freebies are coming out of our overhead somewhere. We've got to make   DAT- Kristy (09:59) Yeah,   agree with you, Tiff. you know, the other area that I like is looking at your unscheduled patients. I mean,   Tiffanie (10:07) Right.   DAT- Kristy (10:08) so many of my practices have a whole practice within a practice and and we get busy and we think we we don't have time to call on those. And I like to say it's a proactive and a reactive approach and making sure we're touching it every single day is huge.   Tiffanie (10:25) Yeah.   Yeah, and to your point, that's a like a reactivation campaign. This is not just it's also including, but it's not just patients who were due last month that didn't come in. Those are very top of mind. We're hitting those. 90% of our our our practices are hitting those recare due. Recare coming up, recare six months past due, one year past due. This is patients who haven't been seen in 18, 24, 36 months because   To your point, there's a practice practice within a practice. I have practices, I know we both do. The physical practice has been around for 30 plus years. You may have been the newest dentist, the newest owner. So maybe you've only been there for two, three, five years, and you're thinking active patient count, but you've got 30 years of this physical space being there of patients who per perhaps haven't seen a dentist or been touched by your recare efforts.   DAT- Kristy (11:21) Yeah, absolutely. And I love those ones because you already have a relationship with them. So   Tiffanie (11:25) Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (11:26) you even if you've physically inactivated them, you can run an inactivated campaign and and systematically touch these people to remind them, Hey, I'm still here. We'd love to see ya, you know.   Tiffanie (11:39) Yeah.   Yeah. I have a lot of clients that do that reactivation campaign and they're like, okay, but what if they've moved? What if they decided not to come? He's like, great, then you get to clean up your system as well and remind those patients, no matter where they live, they need to see a dentist. So if our goal is to ensure that our patients are healthy, you're still handling that because you're still reminding them to find a dentist and   To me, those are new patients, right? And you said earlier, like a lot of a lot of practices will put all their eggs in a basket of a new patient. And I think that comes from the early 2000s of everything was new patients. There were so many consulting companies and I just everything we heard in dentistry was new patients. You heard nothing else, new patients in production. And that's evolved a ton because I think people got tired of being new patient mills, right? Where it was like,   We see so many patients, but we're not worried about what's happening to them after they leave that first appointment. And that has dramatically shifted. And that's where this comes into play. So even if you haven't physically, maybe you've been there for a year or three years, you haven't met that patient yet, that's okay. That patient   DAT- Kristy (12:49) Sure.   Tiffanie (12:50) has a relationship with the practice, with the building, it's memory, it's driving up to the place that you've gone.   three, four, five times for your dental care. That's my dentist, right? That's my dental practice. So then you have that opportunity now to build the relationship one-on-one with that person as they enter.   DAT- Kristy (13:10) Yeah, agree with you, Tiff. it it's look at the number because I bet you would be surprised at how many patients you have sitting out there. And if truly you are at a capacity, you guys can go through those and look at them strategically. If they have outstanding treatment, those patients potentially could be could be coming back in not just hygiene, but in the doctor's chair too. So   Tiffanie (13:32) Yes. Yes.   DAT- Kristy (13:34) yeah, there's a gold mine sitting out there most of the time, and it just takes tapping   Tiffanie (13:36) Yeah. Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (13:38) into it.   Tiffanie (13:39) I have a practice that had nineteen thousand patients had touched this physical building at one point or another. Nineteen thousand people in this small town. And I was like, Yeah, stop paying for new patients. Just just physically hit those patients with emails. You just automated emails that go out once a month and you're gonna get you're gonna get patients back because I've seen it and you're gonna get patients that call and say, Hey, actually I moved out of town. Great.   clean up our system. So I love those.   DAT- Kristy (14:06) Yeah.   You know, Tiff, even to that point, how many offices look at how many new patients they get, but take it one step further and see, okay, we had thirty new patients this month, but only twenty rescheduled for another appointment. So making   Tiffanie (14:21) Right. Mm-hmm.   DAT- Kristy (14:22) sure when we have them or having those conversations to keep them and capture them as they're coming in as well.   Tiffanie (14:29) Yeah, I have I had that conversation last week with a client and they asked the great question of okay, is that that they scheduled for their treatment or they scheduled their six month recare? And I said, Great question because I love definitions and both   DAT- Kristy (14:41) Yeah.   Tiffanie (14:43) because so many patients, Kristy, so many people are like, yeah, sure, we'll schedule. And then they cancel in two weeks   DAT- Kristy (14:49) Mm-hmm.   Tiffanie (14:50) or six months right before their visit, right? And you never see them again. So if they had treatment diagnosed and didn't schedule that, but they scheduled their six month visit.   That's a little fishy to me. So I said both. And that   DAT- Kristy (15:01) Yeah.   Tiffanie (15:02) leads into that case acceptance space too. We're only watching we're only watching case acceptance of an overall and we're not differentiating to are the new patients accepting versus just maybe recare's accepting that we've already had this relationship because then you're seeing what's that relationship we're building with the new patients? Are they sticking or are they canceling?   DAT- Kristy (15:23) Yeah, 100%, Tiff. I think there's a couple other areas too that come to mind for me when it comes to the growth. And it goes back to what you were saying in the case acceptance realm. Like what I found lately is people really have to have some strategic resources for patients to accept treatment, you know?   Tiffanie (15:43) Mm.   DAT- Kristy (15:44) So from the realm of finances, making sure we have ways that patients can say yes.   Tiffanie (15:50) Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (15:50) You know,   and really measuring when they don't, what what stood   Tiffanie (15:54) Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (15:55) in the way.   Tiffanie (15:56) Yeah, I love that. And that seems to be I think in for my client base, what I've seen is scheduling hurdles and finances, making sure   DAT- Kristy (16:05) Yep.   Tiffanie (16:06) that there's an easy way to say yes to the price. and making sure that blocked scheduling or whatever it is that you choose to use for your scheduling that it that it works. I've got a lot of patient or a lot of clients that   their patient appointments, like they're just throwing things on the schedule to try to fill it. Like especially the ones that are struggling to fill a schedule, they're just grabbing whatever they can. And   DAT- Kristy (16:31) Mm-hmm.   Tiffanie (16:33) without utilizing a blocked scheduling method and filling it in that way, we do a really big disservice because I think Kristy, what I've seen at least, is sometimes those patients that are in, those appointments that are in that should be an hour, are now taking an hour and a half, two hours because there's other stuff mixed in.   And so then we are making our days longer and like, okay, if we're scheduling that, now I need two hours in the future. You probably didn't. You probably just didn't schedule correctly around it. And so you're actually losing a ton of time throughout your day to be more productive. And to your point, Kristy, that's the growth. If we can condense our schedule and do things more effectively and more efficiently, we can add more production onto the schedule.   DAT- Kristy (17:20) Agree with you. again, too, in this day and age, a lot of people don't like taking a lot of time off work. So consider   Tiffanie (17:27) Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (17:27) doing more on your patient while they're there. Give them give them the choice, you know, let them decide. Are you the type of patient that likes to do what more in one treatment, you know, or do you   Tiffanie (17:39) Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (17:39) want to come more frequently?   Tiffanie (17:41) Yeah, and that goes into your being able to say yes to the treatment. I think that's a that's a space as well because if you come at me with like two, three, four appointments, I might be like overwhelmed by the idea and not want to start anything because I can't finish it. And if   DAT- Kristy (17:57) Yeah.   Tiffanie (17:58) my schedule is too difficult to envision being able to finish all of these appointments in a timely manner, I might just back away and say, you know what, I'm not ready to start anything because I can't figure out how to do it all.   DAT- Kristy (18:09) Yep, agree with you, Tiff. And lastly, I think I hear a lot of doctors say, All my patients are so healthy. All my patients   Tiffanie (18:16) Yes.   DAT- Kristy (18:17) are so healthy. And I I truly think that that's a huge missed opportunity too. It's a great time to take a step back and just say, Hey, what are your long-term goals for your teeth? And maybe now that you've repaired damage in my mouth or gotten rid of infection, this is a perfect time to talk about the cosmetic things that a lot of doctors   Tiffanie (18:37) Wonderful thing.   DAT- Kristy (18:37) love doing, right?   Tiffanie (18:39) Yep, I had that conversation with two or three doctors just last week that I do we hear that constantly, right? Well, I need new patients because my patients are healthy. That's fantastic because what if you could do really fun work on healthy patients? There's ortho, right? And ortho, I love when when practitioners look at ortho as a way to prevent future issues, right? So if you're misaligned, especially the lower anterior.   Always right. There's always something there. So it's perio, it's chip teeth in the future, it's losing teeth. Like, how can we help how can ortho become a preventative measurement? And then to your point, cosmetics, whitening. My fiance just asked me the other night. Like he hasn't talked to his dentist at all about it, but he's got two, he's got an implant with a crown and he's got a crown.   And they're discoloring. They're they're years old. They're probably like six years old at this point, right? And so they're discoloring. And he's like, What do I even do? Right? Thank goodness. I'm here and I I'm like, well, let me give you your options. You can do four,   DAT- Kristy (19:46) Yeah.   Tiffanie (19:46) six, eight. Let me tell you what I would do. Let me tell you who I would like all of these things. But he isn't talking to them about it. He's talking to me about it. So how many patients do we have that don't even have someone to talk to about it? They're just sitting there wondering.   Could this be better and afraid to say something because it's an embarrassing or confusing or an unknown? Like so many things hold us back.   DAT- Kristy (20:13) Yeah, it's crazy. A lot of my clients have heard this story, but the same thing happened with my mother-in-law. Like literally   Tiffanie (20:19) Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (20:20) when I was in practice, you know, family would come, but she went somewhere with her friends and she saw somebody with a beautiful smile. And next thing you know, she's going to their dentist. Yeah, she came back.   Tiffanie (20:30) Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (20:32) But my doctors were like, What the heck? And I'm like, But you never asked or showed the possibilities, you know. So don't   Tiffanie (20:36) Yeah. Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (20:39) forget about your healthy patients. Like, take that step back. And this is a   perfect time to discover is there anything you don't like about your smile, you know.   Tiffanie (20:47) Yeah. I   love that you gave that a story because my fiance literally asked me, Who would I need to go to? Is that something that insert his dentist name can do? And I was like, Wow, this is wild. This is wild. And   DAT- Kristy (21:03) Yeah.   Tiffanie (21:04) so I've had so many people, I'm in Phoenix, right? We're both in Phoenix, right? So Scottsdale   DAT- Kristy (21:08) Yeah.   Tiffanie (21:09) is right around the corner, right? Just   DAT- Kristy (21:11) Mm-hmm.   Tiffanie (21:11) a little a little twenty-five to forty-five minute drive, depending on where you are in the valley.   Everyone thinks you have to go to Scottsdale for cosmetic treatment, right? I   DAT- Kristy (21:21) Yeah.   Tiffanie (21:22) can't get whitening, I can't get veneers. If I'm going to get veneers, right? We have people and legitimately there are a lot of dentists there, a lot of dentists everywhere who do great work. Scottsdale and LA. People fly in from other states to get dentistry done in Scottsdale and LA because they think that's where they have to go.   His people don't know. He's worked with he's been a patient at this practice since he had the emergency situation with his front teeth.   DAT- Kristy (21:51) Well.   Tiffanie (21:52) And he's like, should I go to him? And I'm like, I can't speak to his work, but I can say he he does them. You know,   DAT- Kristy (21:58) Yeah.   Tiffanie (21:59) so it's like you just don't know what you don't know. And so if we're not having those conversations, I think that's a massive space of growth. And if you're not someone who loves to do that, fine.   What do you love to do? You know, how many missing teeth are there? Do you like bridges? Do you like implants? Do you like how many missing teeth are within your recare? How many missing teeth are coming down the pipeline of patients that are in your database?   DAT- Kristy (22:25) One hundred percent. And or even maybe you've added new services to your service mix that even your existing patients don't know you're doing.   Tiffanie (22:33) Yeah, yeah. I agree. And it doesn't have to be Botox, fillers, threads. Like you don't have to be   DAT- Kristy (22:37) Right. Yeah.   Tiffanie (22:40) like, okay, well, I've tapped out my crowns and my fillings. Like I've gotta offer these other things. If you want to offer it, great, do it. But if it's not like a desire that you have to be this aesthetic dentist in that capacity, don't do it. You don't have to do all on force. Find something that you love.   that you can add to your service mix or something that's within your service mix to Kristy's point that your patients just don't even know that's there.   DAT- Kristy (23:09) Yeah. And lastly to wrap it, Tiff, I think so many people don't realize tapping into their own patients to earn that growth, like through social media and that sort of reviews, referrals, you know what I mean? Like give your patients a reason to refer and and even talk about you. Like bring that presence around so your existing patients can share why they love you and others will follow them.   Tiffanie (23:38) Yeah. Yeah. Don't be the dentist that your patients are like, I don't know if they're accepting new patients or not. Let me call and find out. Like, no, just let them call and find out. So I agree.   DAT- Kristy (23:46) Yeah.   Tiffanie (23:47) I agree. I think fee schedule increases. So if you haven't done them recently within the last year, do it. I do love the idea of moving that to the summer or whatever your slow period is. If you're a pediatric dentist, don't do it in the summer. and then looking at service mixes, so what can you do more of?   And looking at your schedule and making sure that you're utilizing as much time as you possibly can and that this that the schedule makes sense. I love that.   DAT- Kristy (24:14) Agree with you   and don't forget that reactivation.   Tiffanie (24:17) Activation, that was the other one. Yeah. Don't   forget those 19,000 patients that are sitting in your database somewhere. So, yes, I love   DAT- Kristy (24:21) Yeah.   Tiffanie (24:23) that. Kristy, these were phenomenal ideas. Thank you so much. thank you for   DAT- Kristy (24:27) Absolutely.   Tiffanie (24:28) making it easy. Thank you for helping so many clients. And for our listeners, if you need some Kristy wisdom, you need some Dental A Team help, please reach out. We're always here. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com or TheDentalATeam.com website. You can sign up for a quick free consultation as well to see if   what ideas we have. It doesn't mean you're signing up. It just means hey, tell me, tell me what are some ideas that you guys have. And we have a ton of free resources on that website as well. Drop us a five star review as always and let us know how we can best help you. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Thanks guys.  

Nineteen million dollars. That is what an Interscope executive testified d4vd's contract was potentially worth. His financial manager said he had already earned more than ten million. Prosecutors say Celeste Rivas Hernandez was fourteen years old and threatening to talk — and that the money is the reason she is dead.Over five days, prosecutors laid out a timeline that allegedly begins when Celeste was eleven and ends with her remains in a Tesla trunk while d4vd headlined festivals and appeared on late-night television. The evidence included chainsaws, bodycam footage, an inflatable pool, texts about an abortion, and a notarized form from her parents permitting her to travel overseas with him.This is your Q&A. Ten questions from the audience. The money. The evidence. The system failures. Tony holds nothing back.End Links:Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDisclaimer:This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.Hashtags:#D4vd #CelesteRivas #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #LosAngeles #Interscope #MurderCase #JusticeForCeleste #ListenerQA #TrueCrimeToday

Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial visit the Duxbury home where the Massachusetts mother allegedly strangled her three young children before attempting to take her own life. Nineteen-year-old Amish man pleads guilty to aggravated murder after smothering a woman and offering to help her family prepare for her funeral. Testimony begins in New York trial of a father accused of drowning his nine-year-old daughter during a vacation, then reporting her kidnapped. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Summary Hybrid work isn't simply about where people are most productive. New research shows that working remotely tends to satisfy our need for autonomy, while office days strengthen our sense of connection, with both playing a vital role in sustaining motivation. Rather than debating attendance, effective leaders intentionally design office days for collaboration and relationship building, and remote days for focused, independent work.   Transcript Hello and welcome to episode 234 of the Leadership Today podcast, where each week we share practical tips to improve your leadership. This week we look at the hidden motivation trade-off in hybrid work. The debate about hybrid work often comes down to a single question: where are people most productive? Are they better off working from home or in the office? While that's an understandable question, new research suggests it may not be the most helpful one. Instead of asking where people work best, perhaps we should be asking which psychological needs are being met in each environment. A recent diary study published in the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology followed 187 employees over ten working days, collecting almost 3,000 daily observations. Rather than simply measuring productivity or job satisfaction, the researchers looked at three fundamental psychological needs identified in Self-Determination Theory: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Autonomy is our need to feel we have choice and control over our work. Competence is our need to feel capable and effective. Relatedness is our need to feel connected to other people. These three needs are important because they underpin high-quality motivation. When they're met, people are more likely to feel engaged, energised and willing to contribute. When they're frustrated, motivation tends to become more controlled, draining and less sustainable. The findings paint a much more nuanced picture of hybrid work than many headlines suggest. On remote workdays, employees experienced greater autonomy. They felt they had more control over how they structured their work and, importantly, they maintained their energy better throughout the day. The researchers found that this greater sense of autonomy was associated with lower declines in energy during the afternoon and evening. However, there was a trade-off. On office days, employees experienced greater relatedness. They felt more connected to the people around them. While office work didn't provide the same autonomy benefits, it did satisfy an equally important psychological need to belong. This suggests that the question isn't whether remote work is better than office work, or vice versa. Each environment appears to support different aspects of motivation. For leaders, this changes the conversation. Rather than arguing about how many days people should be in the office, we should be asking what each day is designed to achieve. If someone comes into the office simply to spend eight hours attending virtual meetings with headphones on, they've probably lost much of the autonomy of working from home without gaining the connection that office work can provide. Likewise, if someone works remotely every day without meaningful interaction, they may enjoy greater independence but gradually lose the sense of belonging that helps teams perform well over time. The best hybrid leaders think less about attendance and more about purpose. Office days should be designed around the activities that benefit most from human connection. Coaching conversations, creative problem-solving, mentoring, relationship building, onboarding new team members and tackling complex issues together are all likely to benefit from being face-to-face. Remote days, on the other hand, can be protected for focused work, thoughtful analysis, writing, planning and tasks that benefit from uninterrupted concentration and greater flexibility. This research also reminds us that motivation isn't like one bucket that we are either filling or depleting. Motivation is shaped by the environment leaders create. We influence motivation every time we decide how work is organised, how meetings are scheduled and how much choice people have over the way they complete their work. There are three practical areas you can consider this week. First, look at your team's calendar. Are office days genuinely designed around collaboration and connection, or are people simply working alone in a different location? Second, think about remote work. Are people given enough autonomy to benefit from working remotely, or have online meetings gradually filled every available hour? Finally, ask your team a simple question: "When do you feel most energised during your working week?" Their answers may tell you far more than another debate about office attendance. The key takeaway is that hybrid work isn't primarily a location challenge. It's a motivation design challenge. Remote work tends to support autonomy. Office work tends to support connection. Great leaders understand that both needs matter, and they intentionally design work so their people experience the benefits of each. As always the reference we used is in the show notes. If you did enjoy this episode, please take a few moments to rate and review it on your preferred podcast player - that helps others to find it. Have a great week.   Reference Olafsen, A. H., Kujanpää, M., Stenling, A., Tafvelin, S., & Bentzen, M. (2026). Daily need experiences across office and remote workdays. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology.     Leadership Today On-Demand Special Offer We have a great deal for podcast listeners on our Leadership Today On-Demand subscription. Just go to www.leadershiptoday.com and checkout using the promo code PODCAST for 25% off an annual subscription. Leadership Today On-Demand is a video subscription service that allows you to work on your leadership in your own time and at your own pace. It is available online and through our Apple iOS and Android apps for phones and tablets. Our mission is to help you to become an even better leader. Your subscription brings together all of our video content in one place including: - Five online courses with workbooks - Five five day challenges with workbooks - Nineteen recorded webinars - A searchable library of 170+ "how to" quick videos on a range of leadership challenges That's over $4,500 of content for less than the price of a single online course. And there are more videos added each week.   Get Connected Find out ways to get connected here: https://leadership.today/connect

Three cases sitting in front of three different systems. None of those systems have delivered what was promised.Nolan Wells was an eighteen-year-old who went to a boat party on Horn Island, Mississippi, and was the only one who did not come home. The state performed an autopsy and retained his throat. The trachea, hyoid bone, and laryngeal cartilage. Nineteen days later, no results released. The family's independent autopsy came back undetermined. A grand jury referral is pending.Nancy Guthrie has been missing from her Tucson home for close to six months with no arrest and no suspect named. On the same day in July, three FBI sources gave three contradictory answers about the ransom notes. A retired FBI agent told a national audience the case is cold. Genetic genealogy testing on DNA from her home started five months ago with no public update.Lindsay Clancy's jury is seated. Both sides agree she killed her three children. She was prescribed thirteen psychiatric medications in four months. After the children died, she was intubated in a hospital bed and wrote a single question on a whiteboard. The prosecution reads it as guilt. The defense reads it as confusion.A grand jury with subpoena power is pending in Mississippi. Three FBI sources in Arizona cannot agree on the nature of their own central evidence. A medical system in Massachusetts prescribed thirteen drugs, ignored a husband saying his wife had turned into a zombie, and the state now wants to prove that patient was sane beyond a reasonable doubt. None of these institutions delivered what they were built to deliver.Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer examines all three cases, the systems behind each, what connects their failures, and why none of them have produced the answers these families need.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#NolanWells #NancyGuthrie #LindsayClancy #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #JenniferCoffindaffer #FBI #GrandJury #InsanityDefense #PostpartumPsychosis

Three families asked the system for something basic. Answers. Protection. Help. None of them received it.Nolan Wells was eighteen. He went to a boat party on Horn Island, Mississippi, and was the only one of the group who did not come home. The state retained his throat during the first autopsy. Nineteen days later, no findings released. The independent autopsy returned undetermined. A grand jury is pending.Nancy Guthrie has been missing from Tucson for nearly six months. Three FBI sources gave three different answers about the ransom notes on the same day. A former FBI agent called the case cold on camera. Genetic genealogy testing began in February. Five months later, nothing.Lindsay Clancy's jury is seated in Plymouth Superior Court. Both sides agree she killed her three children. She was prescribed thirteen psychiatric medications in four months. Her husband told the doctors she had become a zombie. After the children died, intubated and unable to speak, she wrote a single question on a whiteboard. The prosecution and defense cannot agree on what that question means.A grand jury with subpoena power. An FBI that cannot agree on its own evidence. A medical system that prescribed thirteen drugs, ignored the husband's warnings, and now wants to prosecute the patient it failed. The institutions in each of these cases had one job and none of them did it.The grand jury can subpoena testimony under oath. The genetic genealogy lab has had DNA for five months and said nothing. The medical system that prescribed thirteen drugs and ignored the husband's warnings is now the same system the prosecution needs to prove produced a sane patient. Each institution had one responsibility and none of them fulfilled it.Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer examines all three cases, the thread connecting them, what the grand jury and the trial and the investigation should produce, and what the institutions handling each one owe to the families who are still waiting.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#NolanWells #NancyGuthrie #LindsayClancy #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #JenniferCoffindaffer #FBI #GrandJury #InsanityDefense #PostpartumPsychosis

Nolan Wells. Nancy Guthrie. Lindsay Clancy. Three cases. Three families. Three systems that have not delivered what was needed.Nolan Wells went to a boat party on Horn Island over the Fourth of July and was the only one who did not return. The state retained his throat during the first autopsy. The independent autopsy came back undetermined. A grand jury has been referred. Nineteen days after the state kept those structures, no findings have been released.Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Tucson home nearly six months ago. Three different FBI sources gave three irreconcilable answers about the ransom notes on the same day in July. A former FBI agent publicly declared the case cold. DNA went to a genetic genealogy lab in February. Five months of silence.Lindsay Clancy's trial is underway. Eighteen jurors seated. Both sides stipulate she killed her three children. She was on thirteen medications in four months. Her husband told the doctors she had turned into a zombie. After the children died, she was intubated, unable to speak, and wrote one question on a whiteboard. Nobody can agree on what it means.The grand jury has subpoena power. The FBI's genetic genealogy lab has had DNA for five months. The medical system prescribed thirteen drugs in four months and now the state wants to prove the patient was sane. Every one of these institutions had one responsibility. Not one of them delivered.The phones belonging to everyone on that island will produce a digital record no one can rewrite. The genetic genealogy lab has had DNA from Nancy's home since February and has shared nothing. The medical records in Massachusetts will show a system that prescribed thirteen drugs, ignored the husband, and now expects a jury to call the patient sane. The pattern across all three cases is the same. The institutions failed, and now the families are the ones carrying the burden.Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer examines all three cases, what connects the institutional failures, what the grand jury and the FBI investigation and the trial should produce, and what happens next in each one.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#NolanWells #NancyGuthrie #LindsayClancy #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #JenniferCoffindaffer #FBI #GrandJury #InsanityDefense #PostpartumPsychosis

Eighteen-year-old Nolan Wells went to a boat party on Horn Island, Mississippi, over the Fourth of July. He was the only one of the group who did not return. He was the only Black member of the group. His body was found by a park ranger two days later.During the first autopsy, the state retained his throat. The trachea, hyoid bone, and laryngeal cartilage were all kept. Nineteen days later, the state has released nothing about what they found in those structures. The family's independent pathologist said that kind of retention is standard when there is concern about compression.The family's independent autopsy returned undetermined as both cause and manner of death. The pathologist said he could not rule out non-accidental factors. Seven questions from that examination remain unanswered. The official state autopsy is still pending.The DA has referred the death investigation to a grand jury. That body has subpoena power the sheriff does not. It can compel sworn testimony under penalty of perjury. The friends who were on the island have been telling their version publicly. Whether those versions survive an oath is the question this investigation is now designed to answer.Whether the public statements made by the people who were there hold up under sworn testimony is a question the grand jury is designed to answer. And the phones belonging to Nolan and every friend in that group will produce a digital trail of every message, every search, every deletion, and every gap. Digital forensics does not rely on anyone's recollection.Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer examines the throat retention, the grand jury path, what the phone data will reveal, and how long investigations like this take before producing answers.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#NolanWells #HornIsland #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #JenniferCoffindaffer #JacksonCounty #BenCrump #Mississippi #GrandJury #Autopsy

During the first autopsy on eighteen-year-old Nolan Wells, the state of Mississippi retained specific structures from his throat. The trachea. The hyoid bone. The laryngeal cartilage. When the family's independent pathologist later reviewed the case, he noted that this kind of retention is standard when there are concerns about compression injuries.Nolan went to a July Fourth boat party on Horn Island with a group of friends. He was the only one who did not come home. Two days later, a park ranger found his body at the island's northwest tip. He was the only Black member of the group.The independent autopsy returned a finding of undetermined cause and manner of death. The pathologist could not rule out that non-accidental factors contributed to or caused the death. The official state autopsy has still not been released. Nineteen days after retaining the throat structures, the state has said nothing about what those tissues revealed.The DA referred the case to a grand jury. Ben Crump announced the independent findings at the NAACP National Convention. The national board passed a resolution calling for transparency.Whether the public accounts given by the people who were on that island hold up under oath is the next question. A grand jury can compel testimony that no media interview can. And the phones belonging to everyone in that group will produce a digital record of every message sent, every call placed, every search made, and every deletion attempted.Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer breaks down what the throat retention signals about where investigators think this case is heading, what the grand jury's subpoena power changes, what the phone evidence will show, and how long an investigation of this scope takes before it reaches a grand jury.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#NolanWells #HornIsland #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #JenniferCoffindaffer #JacksonCounty #BenCrump #Mississippi #GrandJury #Autopsy

There used to be a middle ground in the Lindsay Clancy case. As of July 9, there isn't one anymore. Prosecutors dropped all three strangulation charges against Lindsay Clancy that day, calling them redundant. What that filing actually did was erase the space between the two remaining verdicts: life without parole, or not criminally responsible. No compromise. No lesser finding for the jury to land on if they're not fully convinced either way. Lindsay is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, at their Duxbury, Massachusetts home in January 2023. She's pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. She'd checked herself into a psychiatric hospital on New Year's Eve after telling her husband she was having thoughts of hurting her children. She was discharged. Nineteen days later, the children were dead. Her attorney puts her medication count at roughly thirteen psychiatric drugs across about four months, with a dose increase and a sleepless night the day before it happened. The narrowing didn't stop there. On July 13, the judge blocked women who've survived postpartum psychosis from testifying about the condition in their own words. On July 20, the first morning of jury selection, prosecutors moved to challenge the defense's own experts, the third motion in eleven days aimed at limiting Lindsay's defense. Patrick Clancy, her husband, is on the defense witness list. He's also suing her healthcare providers and has publicly asked people to forgive her. Two jurors were seated by lunch. The trial is expected to run four to eight weeks, and whatever verdict comes out of it, there's no door left open in between. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. Hashtags #LindsayClancy #PatrickClancy #TrueCrimeToday #TrueCrime #PostpartumPsychosis #InsanityDefense #DuxburyMassachusetts #ClancyTrial #PlymouthSuperiorCourt #CriminalResponsibility 

The day before Lindsay Clancy killed her three children, her medication was increased. Nobody has fully explained why that decision was made, or by whom. She'd already been on roughly thirteen different psychiatric drugs across about four months. Her own malpractice lawsuit describes that final dose increase, paired with a night without sleep, in the hours before Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, died in their Duxbury, Massachusetts home. She's pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. She'd checked herself into a psychiatric hospital on New Year's Eve after telling her husband she was having thoughts of hurting her children. She was discharged. Nineteen days later, the children were dead. Jury selection began July 20 in Plymouth Superior Court. That same morning, before a single juror was seated, prosecutors moved to challenge her defense experts, the third motion in eleven days aimed at limiting her defense. Prosecutors had already dropped all three strangulation charges on July 9, calling them redundant, a move that erased any middle ground between the two remaining verdicts: life without parole, or not criminally responsible. On July 13, the judge blocked women who've survived postpartum psychosis from testifying about the illness in their own words. That leaves the jury with paper: prescription records, a dosage change, a malpractice complaint describing exactly how the medication was mishandled. Two jurors were seated by lunch. The trial is expected to run four to eight weeks. Patrick Clancy, her husband, is on the defense witness list. He's also suing her healthcare providers and has publicly asked people to forgive her. Thirteen drugs, one increase, one sleepless night, and a question nobody in that courtroom has fully answered yet. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. Hashtags #LindsayClancy #PatrickClancy #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #PostpartumPsychosis #DuxburyMA #ClancyTrial #InsanityDefense #MentalHealthSystem #JurySelection 

Nobody in Plymouth Superior Court knows yet if Lindsay Clancy is going to take the stand in her own defense, and it might be the single biggest decision left in this trial. Lindsay is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, at their Duxbury, Massachusetts home in January 2023. She's pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. She checked herself into a psychiatric hospital on New Year's Eve after telling her husband she was having thoughts of hurting her children. She was discharged. Nineteen days later, the children were dead. Her attorney puts her medication count at roughly thirteen psychiatric drugs across about four months, with a dose increase and a sleepless night the day before it happened. Jury selection began July 20, opening with prosecutors moving to challenge the defense's experts, the third motion in eleven days aimed at limiting who speaks for Lindsay. Prosecutors had already dropped all three strangulation charges on July 9, and on July 13 the judge blocked women who've survived postpartum psychosis from testifying about it in their own words. Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta, host of Defense Diaries, joins Tony Brueski to break down whether a jury can hold two ideas at once: that someone can plan something and still be nowhere near reality, and how the Massachusetts burden of proof in insanity cases shapes the prosecution's strategy. They dig into what Patrick Clancy testifying, suing his wife's doctors, and asking the public to forgive her actually does to a jury's read of this case. Three children are dead. This trial is about a system that had every warning and did nothing with it. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. Hashtags #LindsayClancy #PatrickClancy #HiddenKillersLive #TrueCrime #BobMotta #PostpartumPsychosis #InsanityDefense #DuxburyMA #ClancyTrial #PlymouthSuperiorCourt 

In 2007, Lionel Messi was photographed bathing baby Lamine Yamal. Nineteen years later, Yamal's Spain defeated Messi's Argentina in the 2026 World Cup Final, turning the image into one of soccer's strangest viral conspiracy theories.We uncover the true story behind the Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal UNICEF photoshoot, the mysterious number 19 connections, the theory that Messi transferred his powers to Yamal, and claims that FIFA scripted the perfect passing of the torch.Was it coincidence, destiny… or a prophecy hidden in plain sight?Watch the full episode on YouTube:▶ https://bit.ly/TheoriesOfTheThirdKindYTSupport the show + unlock bonus episodes:

Nineteen stories this week and not one of them wanted to be the headline — which is honestly kind of great. Palo Alto Networks bought a company called Embrace that may or may not count as a Portland startup depending on how you squint (its president and VP of engineering are right here, so I'm counting it), two local apps picked up Apple Design Awards, and then things just kept coming — a plant-poison checker named after somebody's cat, an app that scores your Spotify for yacht-rock content, a whole association of small companies trying to out-organize Big Tech. No anchor, just volume — and I'm genuinely energized by that.LINKS:Apple Design Awards 2026 — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/20/two-portland-apps-recognized-by-apple-design-awards-2026/Apple Design Awards — https://developer.apple.com/design/awards/World Reborn (Apple Game of the Day) — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/23/medford-made-world-reborn-lands-apple-game-of-the-day-honors/Wicked Saints Studio — https://www.wickedsaints.studio/Palo Alto Networks acquires Embrace — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/22/palo-alto-networks-acquires-embrace/Embrace — https://embrace.io/Lewis & Clark $1M Google grant — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/22/your-next-cybersecurity-hire-could-come-from-lewis-clark-thanks-to-a-1m-google-grant/Lewis & Clark announcement — https://www.lclark.edu/live/news/58507-lc-lands-1-million-in-google-funding-for-cybersecurityBoulder Care $1.8M grant — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/20/boulder-care-lands-1-8m-grant-to-further-opioid-addiction-efforts/Paige Hendrix Buckner joins the Check Writers Room — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/22/all-raise-ceo-paige-hendrix-buckner-joins-the-check-writers-room/Little Tech may be for you — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/23/tired-of-big-tech-holding-all-of-the-power-little-tech-may-be-for-you/Little Tech Association — https://www.little.tech/LinkedIn Cities on the Rise — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/22/linkedin-highlights-both-portlands-among-cities-on-the-rise/Quilld (branding/rebranding) — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/22/branding-is-hard-rebranding-is-even-worse-quilld-is-here-to-help/Quilld — https://quilld.ai/Rami (plants + pets) — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/21/helping-houseplants-and-housepets-cohabitate-rami/Rami — https://getrami.app/Is it yacht rock? — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/21/looking-to-answer-the-age-old-question-is-that-yacht-rock-playing-theres-an-app-for-that/Is It Yacht Rock? app — https://madegglabs.com/apps/is-it-yacht-rock/Lemonvite (ad-free invites) — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/22/tired-of-ads-cluttering-your-invites-look-at-lemonvite/Lemonvite — https://www.lemonvite.com/Fan the Flame (Portland Fire app) — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/23/portland-fire-fan-youll-want-this-app-burning-a-hole-in-your-pocket/Fan the Flame — https://fantheflame.app/funnr (kids' schedules) — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/22/managing-your-kids-social-schedule-just-got-funnr/Chain React 2026 visitor guide — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/24/attending-chain-react-2026-in-portland-heres-a-visitor-guide-to-help-you-make-the-most-of-your-stay/Y Combinator F26 apps (close July 27) — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/24/reminder-y-combinator-applications-for-f26-close-july-27-2026/Y Combinator apply — https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/Pitch Latino Portland (apps due July 30) — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/23/reminder-pitch-latino-portland-applications-are-due-in-a-week/Pitch Latino — https://www.latinofounder.com/pitchlatinoDevOps Days Portland (Sept 8–10, code SILICONFLORIST) — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/07/21/need-a-little-more-devops-in-your-life-go-to-devops-days-portland-with-a-discount/DevOps Days Portland — https://devopsdays.org/events/2026-portland-or/welcome/

Summary Being busy does not protect people from boredom, and boredom does not mean someone has spare capacity. New research shows employees can be bored and burned out at the same time. This episode explores how role conflict, limited autonomy and poorly designed work create this combination, and what leaders can do about it.   Transcript Hello and welcome to the Leadership Today podcast, where each week we share practical tips to improve your leadership. In this episode we explore whether it's possible to be both bored and burned out, and what that means for us at work. We often think of boredom and burnout as opposites. A bored employee does not have enough to do, while a burned-out employee has far too much. One needs more work and the other needs less. But new research suggests that this neat distinction does not reflect how people actually experience work. Research shows it is possible to be extremely busy and still be bored. It is also possible to be both bored and burned out at the same time. A recent longitudinal study examined different profiles of boredom, burnout and work engagement. Rather than assuming every employee fell somewhere on a simple line from disengaged to engaged, the researchers found several distinct combinations. Some people experienced the familiar pattern of high burnout and low engagement. Others experienced boredom and burnout together. At first, that may sound contradictory. But think about a person whose day is packed with repetitive tasks, constant interruptions, unclear priorities and unnecessary administration. They may be exhausted by the volume and fragmentation of the work while also feeling under-stimulated by its content. They have too much to do, but it still doesn't feel challenging, meaningful or worthwhile. That is one reason simply reducing workload may not solve every wellbeing problem. Managing workload matters enormously, but the design and quality of the work matter too. The research found that role conflict predicted less favourable wellbeing profiles. When people face incompatible expectations or competing priorities, they expend significant energy without necessarily experiencing progress or purpose. By contrast, autonomy, learning opportunities and cognitive demands were associated with healthier wellbeing patterns. Cognitive demands do not mean overwhelming people with complexity. They involve providing enough challenge to keep work interesting and engaging. There are three practical implications for leaders from this research: First, don't just look at workload alone. Someone can have a full calendar and an overflowing task list while still feeling deeply under-challenged. Ask not only, "How much work do you have?" but also, "Which parts of your work are energising or stretching you?" Second, reduce role conflict. Clarify priorities when expectations compete. If everything is urgent, people can spend enormous amounts of energy shifting between demands without feeling they have accomplished anything meaningful. Leaders add value by deciding what matters most. Third, increase healthy challenge and autonomy. Look for opportunities to give people ownership, involve them in problem-solving, rotate responsibilities or build new skills. The goal is not to add more tasks - it is to create better work. It is also worth paying attention to mixed signals. A person who appears disengaged may not lack motivation. They may be depleted by the wrong kind of demands. Someone who asks for more challenging work may not have spare capacity. They may be looking for work that feels more worthwhile than the tasks currently exhausting them. The takeaway is that wellbeing is not simply about how hard people work. It is also about what they are working on, how much control they have and whether the work provides clarity, learning and meaning. Great leaders do not just manage the quantity of work. They improve its quality. As always the reference used in this podcast is in the show notes. Have a great week.   Reference Toscanelli, C., Parmentier, M., Urbanavičiūtė, I., & Hirschi, A. (2026). The dynamics of well-being at work: Longitudinal profiles of boredom, burnout, and work engagement. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2026.2699462   Leadership Today On-Demand Special Offer We have a great deal for podcast listeners on our Leadership Today On-Demand subscription. Just go to www.leadershiptoday.com and checkout using the promo code PODCAST for 25% off an annual subscription.  Leadership Today On-Demand is a video subscription service that allows you to work on your leadership in your own time and at your own pace. It is available online and through our Apple iOS and Android apps for phones and tablets. Our mission is to help you to become an even better leader. Your subscription brings together all of our video content in one place including: - Five online courses with workbooks  - Five five day challenges with workbooks - Nineteen recorded webinars  - A searchable library of 170+ "how to" quick videos on a range of leadership challenges  That's over $4,500 of content for less than the price of a single online course. And there are more videos added each week.   Get Connected Find out ways to get connected here: https://leadership.today/connect 

Lindsay Clancy case coverage — she understood one thing better than almost any defendant who has ever sat in a courtroom like this, and both sides want to use it.Her profession put her inside the delivery room for a living. She knew the screening questions. She knew the warning signs. She knew what a patient has to say to be taken seriously and what gets waved off. Prosecutors intend to argue that knowledge is proof she was in control. Her lawyers intend to argue it proves the failure was never hers.Tony Brueski and criminal defense trial attorney Bob Motta, host of Defense Diaries, cover this case end to end across three segments.The first works through the Commonwealth's evidence, including the note prosecutors say she left on her phone about her older children and the timeline they say shows she measured her husband's errand. The second breaks down the defense after a judge barred women who have experienced postpartum psychosis from testifying, leaving expert witnesses to carry the entire concept. The third is the hardest one — what justice means when a not criminally responsible verdict leads to a locked hospital and a conviction leads to mandatory life with no judicial discretion of any kind.Somewhere in the middle of all of it is a mental health system that received every warning available. She told her husband she was having thoughts of hurting her kids. She admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital. Nineteen days after her discharge, all three of her children were gone.Cora was five. Dawson was three. Callan was eight months old.END LINKSJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDISCLAIMERThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.HASHTAGS — 10#LindsayClancy #PatrickClancy #HiddenKillersLive #TrueCrime #PostpartumPsychosis #MaternalMentalHealth #DuxburyMurders #MentalHealthSystem #InsanityDefense #TrueCrimeCommunity

How can organic writing and leaning into the pivot help your stories stand out? And how can you pitch a story as a discovery writer if you genuinely don't know what's going to happen next. Steven James gives his writing tips after more than 20 years as an author. In the intro, Better Than Free in an Age of AI [Kevin Kelly on Tim Ferriss; Kevin Kelly on The Creative Penn]; Future Vision XPrize; A Different Kind of Bucket List. Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, self-publishing with support, where you can get free formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Just go to www.draft2digital.com to get started. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Steven James is the multi-award-winning and international bestselling author of 21 novels across thrillers, YA, and science fiction, with more than a million copies sold, as well as the author of non-fiction craft books for writers, a writing teacher, and the host of The Story Blender podcast. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How to lean into organic writing, and what to focus on instead of plot How characters unfold on the page, and why an attitude beats a background Producing an outline for an agent or publisher when you genuinely don't know what happens next Don't pitch the plot, pitch the pivot The four choices you have in every scene, and why logic plus surprise is the engine of story Faith, moral clarity and big questions You can find Steven at StevenJames.net. Transcript of the interview with Steven James Jo: Steven James is the multi-award-winning and international bestselling author of 21 novels across thrillers, YA, and science fiction, with more than a million copies sold, as well as the author of non-fiction craft books for writers, a writing teacher, and the host of The Story Blender Podcast. So welcome to the show, Steven. Steven: Thanks for having me, Jo. Good to be here. Jo: Great to have you on the show. First up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and publishing. Steven: Oh, gosh. Well, the thing is, when I was a kid, I fell in love with stories. My uncle would always, whenever we got together for the holidays—Christmas, New Year's and so on—he would take my sister, my brother and myself into a corner of the room while the other adults had coffee, and we would just sit there, and he would get this look in his eye and he'd say, “I'm going to tell you a story.” We were transported to another world. We were swashbuckling with pirates, or facing down a grizzly bear in Alaska, or flying over the desert on a flying carpet, or whatever. I fell in love with imagination and stories and everything. So I started reading as much as I could, mostly short stories. They had a programme at our library called the paperback book exchange, where you bring a paperback book and you leave it, and you can take any one of the paperback books that they had. You could keep it as long as you wanted. If you wanted it for your life, that's fine, or you could just bring it back as soon as you finished reading it. Anyway, I went crazy over the summers reading short stories, mainly. As I got older, I was like, “I think I want to be a storyteller.” So I actually got my master's degree in storytelling. Then I started to travel and tell stories, but I had three little daughters at home, and I was like, “I don't want to be gone 300 days a year when they are growing up.” So I ended up starting to write stories instead of travel, and then it just kind of shifted in that direction. That was in '97. Oh my goodness, that's long. '97, '98. So then I started to write books, and then eventually in 2007, I think, my first novel came out. Now, mainly, I've been writing novels ever since. Jo: It's so interesting. Was it a job, storytelling? Is that what you did before you became a book writer? Or did you have a different job? Steven: I mostly would go to events, conferences, schools and so on, and do a family-friendly storytelling show. So I would tell personal stories, some folktales reimagined. I would go to different events around the country. Mostly it was that. Then I started to shift. I wrote for magazines for a while—80 different magazines I wrote for over those years, a couple of hundred different articles, stories. I was like, “I'm just going to try to make a living telling stories.” So the shift has gone back and forth between actually telling stories and writing stories, but these days, I don't know. I'm still speaking. I'm still out there teaching. Jo: That's so interesting, because it's obviously a completely different thing to tell a story in person than it is to write a story. So when you decided to shift that way, what did you have to learn and unlearn? Because your thoughts on the page are so different to when you can make eye contact with an audience. Steven: That's a good point. I kind of started by telling stories back when I was in college, so I sort of moved from telling to writing. And you're right, there's so much that's lost, whether it's eye contact or pauses. On a printed page, there's always the same amount of space between every word—a space. But when you tell stories, obviously you pause for effect in different places, different areas, and so it's quite different. So if I have an idea for a story, I usually have to decide, is this going to be written or told? And then I do it in that medium. Then if I want to, let's say, tell a written story, I almost have to relearn it, or retell it very differently. You have gestures, body language. All of those things are obviously lost in text, so they are very different. I think for me it's been good, because when I tell stories, I hear different characters speaking, so that when I write, usually dialogue comes fast to me. I can hear what people are saying. I don't always know where they are. I don't always know the setting. I don't even know the scene necessarily, but I can hear the dialogue. Then it also helps me to step into the characters, like when I'm writing different points of view, so that I think I can do a good job of getting into that character's mind, as if I were that person. I think some of that comes from just telling stories. Jo: You've taught so many writers over the years, and it's interesting you said that you hear characters' dialogue. I see visual film in my mind. I don't hear any voice at all. It's all silent. I struggle with dialogue, but I do great world building. Do you find that this really is different by the author? I feel like we fall into these different groups. Steven: Yes, I do. I kind of feel like that's very true as far as what comes first, whether it's a description of a place, whether it's the action. I mean, basically a story has dialogue, narration—or we call it sometimes exposition—and description. Those three things. Every story has those three things, and those are the three that we use to tell a story, a novel. So some people tend to drift into one or the other as sort of their default setting: dialogue, description, or action. That's true. I think also something else that's interesting about writers is they tend to fall into either the camp of being a wordsmith or a storyteller. Not everyone, but I feel like some people are wordsmiths, where I read what they're writing, and I'm like, “Man, this is so powerful, evocative,” whatever. Maybe there's no story there. It's just really interesting writing. Other people just are natural storytellers, and they have to really work on the wordsmithing. I think that's me. I'm more naturally just a storyteller, but it takes me a long time to get the descriptions to where I want them, to choose exactly the right word. That takes me more effort. Some people have to build up the storytelling muscles. I have to build up the wordsmithing muscles. Jo: Well, part of the reason I wanted to talk to you is because you talk about this thing called organic writing in your book Story Trumps Structure, which is out now in a second edition. I call it discovery writing, so similar to you. But most people in the writing community seem to obsess about plotting and planning. So talk about your process of organic writing. You say in the book, “Trust the fluidity of the process.” Tell us more about that. Steven: Well, I remember in high school even, when my teacher got up front and he kind of got this very almost wise look on his face, and he goes, “A story is something with a beginning, a middle, and an end.” I'm sitting there in high school like, “Well, so does a bratwurst. What are you talking about here?” A description of a chair has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The sentence, “Preheat the oven to 450 degrees,” has a beginning, a middle, and an end. My view is that saying a story is something that has three acts is like saying that a pizza is something with three toppings. It might have three. It might have one. It might have five. So the idea for me is not to worry about structure, trying to tick off the boxes of a template, a formula you find online, a fill-in-the-blanks kind of a thing. But instead, to actually look at what lies at the heart of the story—the character, the tension, the struggle, the pursuit, the pivots and plot twists, and the payoff at the end. As you develop those aspects of the story, I feel like you need to worry less and less about following a formula. The more you understand what lies at the heart of a story, I feel like the less you need to plot and the less you need to write by the seat of your pants. A lot of people say, “Oh, you write by the seat of…” No, I don't write by the seat of my pants, because I know what a story contains, so I know that in a certain scene a character will make certain choices that are unpredictable but that escalate the tension, and different things like that. I'm a huge proponent of discovery, as you say, or organic writing. I won't get the quote exactly right, but Ray Bradbury said something along the lines of, “Plot is the tracks left in the snow after your characters have run by on their incredible destinations. It cannot precede action. It is the chart that remains when an action is through.” So he's saying plot is not what precedes action. After the action, you have plot. So the whole idea of trying to plot out a story before you write it is going about writing exactly backwards. Plot doesn't precede action. It's the result. So I always tell people, “Don't worry so much about the plot. I want you to look at the pursuit.” A plotter might say, “Well, what should happen?” And they'll just come up with something. But an organic writer—a pursuit-based question would be, what does the character want? Now, when I know what the character wants, I will know what should happen. So literally, it will lead me to the story. Focusing on plot will not necessarily lead you to the story. It might lead you down the wrong track. Jo: Then in terms of your actual writing process— Do you start writing without knowing the ending? Do you write in order? Is the organic side also in the process? Steven: I've never started a book where I know how it will end. So I usually start with either a character that's fascinating or, in some cases, a premise, a question. Then as I write, I explore the possibilities of where it might go. I've tried to outline a scene—like one scene, not a whole book—and it never works. I can't even outline one scene. I've tried, and I'm like, okay, that's… What I end up with is completely different from it, so it's just a waste of time and effort for me to try to outline or plot out a story. I'm much more interested in the pathway the characters will take as they face obstacles and setbacks in their pursuit. As the struggles and the tension develop, what choices will they make? That's how the story will unfold for me. Jo: I'm similar. Then I also wonder— Do you do character sheets and character bios, or do the characters also unfold organically? Steven: Absolutely, I don't do any of the sheets and bios and stuff. The characters really come to me as I write. I begin to get to know them. I always tell people, a character with an attitude is more interesting than a character with a background. So a lot of people will spend a lot of time on, like, where's this character gone to college, and what's their first pet's name, all that stuff. I'm not trying to dump on that idea. I get that that can be helpful. But I'm like, how would I know that until I've spent time with them? Then once I begin to spend time with them, I'm writing and I'm like, “Nah, this doesn't seem like what that character would really say or do,” so I have to go back and rejigger the story to hopefully make it fit with that character. Then I like to give the characters some sort of attitude. I'm not talking about a negative or judgy attitude, but an attitude about something that is unique or different, and that makes them not a template character, not an archetype or whatever, but unique. Sort of this constellation of unique traits, characteristics, maybe wounds, flaws and so on, that create a character where you're like, “This is a character like none I've ever seen before. I want to spend time with this character.” Jo: Then you're spending time with the character by writing what's happening, as opposed to writing loads of stuff beforehand and then starting to write. You're actually finding all of this out during the process of writing. Steven: Yes, and I think it's kind of like getting to know someone. If I were to say, “Okay, I'm going to write down Jo's bio,” or whatever—okay, I'm making stuff up, because I don't know you super well. If we were to spend time together, hang out, whatever, talk, over the course of time I would start to know, oh, she likes this, she doesn't like that. This is important to her. This is what she would weep or pound the table over—whatever, all of the things that come with time. It's like a friendship in real life to me. So I can't sit down and tell you what a character in real life would think and say and do if I don't know them, but the more time I spend with them, then the more I'm able to predict that accurately. I think the mistake a lot of people make is they think, “I'm going to get to know this character with a background,” and then they start writing it, and instead of looking at the context, they look back at the—I don't know what you call it—the background or something like that. I always feel like what you mentioned earlier is, like, hold it loosely in your hand. Trust the fluidity of the process. As you're writing, you have an instinct. “Ah, I think this character would say this or do this.” So trust that. Trust that instinct. Trust that moment in the story, instead of trying to go back to an outline, back to a character description, or whatever it might be. So I'm a big proponent of looking at the context—not just what happened, but what is the result? So looking at the impetus and the implication of the choices and the activities. When something occurs, what would the character naturally say or do or think or respond? Then what would that cause? What's the implication that that would have on the rest of the story, on the rest of the characters? So, really trying to keep your finger on the pulse of the story, and adapt as you move forward through it. Jo: I love all of that, but I also am very aware that you've been in traditional publishing for over 20 years, and one of the things with agents and publishers is that they often ask for an outline. So how do you manage that? Or how did you more earlier in your career, because I imagine they just trust you now. Earlier in your career, or people listening who want to pitch but they write in this organic way, how do we deal with that kind of thing? Steven: Well, okay, so there's two good questions. One is about producing an outline for an agent or editor or publisher and so on. The other is how to pitch a story. So the first: I would write the premise down, and maybe a paragraph or two, and then where I think it might go. Basically, I would focus on the questions that the characters will face, maybe the moral dilemmas, the sacrifices they have to make, the world they live in. I kind of know that stuff, and I can write a couple of paragraphs about that. But beyond that, I just don't know what's going to happen, so I can't really provide more. I'm looking at my shelf at the books that I've done, and mostly that's what I've done is kind of a couple of paragraphs focusing on the premise and the problem, the struggle, and so on like that. As far as pitching a story, I always tell people, “Don't pitch the plot, pitch the pivot.” I think that there's a screenwriter—I think that he talks about this a little bit. I've not read the book Save the Cat, but people have told me, “Oh, he kind of brings this up in that book.” The idea is to pitch the irony instead of what occurs. So sometimes when I tell people to pitch, or I give them ideas, one process that you can use is: when, must, before, or else. So, when this occurs, this character must do something before this, or else. So you have the character, you have the struggle, you have the inciting incident, you have the stakes, and you have the countdown. It works well for thrillers. So for instance, like Jaws. When a man-eating shark starts eating people in a small seaside village, the sheriff must stop him before more people die and the town loses its economy. So there you have when, must, before, or else. Now, no one's going to buy the story based on that, because there's no irony, there's no pivot. It's just a description of the plot, and that's what most people pitch. So I always tell people, pitch the part of the story that you wouldn't expect. So for instance, in there you might pitch: when a shark starts eating people in a small seaside village, the only one who can stop him is afraid of the water. Now you're like, “Oh, well, that's interesting. How does that happen? What happens there?” With my book Broker of Lies, the pitch was something like, when a high-level Pentagon redactor ends up on the run, he must stop a terrorist attack before he's neutralised by the people he trusts the most. So the pivot is that the people he trusts at the Pentagon the most are actually trying to neutralise him because he's on the run, and all that kind of stuff. So why would they be trying to do that? Well, that's interesting. So it's always looking for the irony, the pivot. Why is this character the last one in the world who would ever be equipped to tackle this problem or face this issue? So that's one way to do a pitch. Obviously there's lots of them, but I think your goal with a pitch is to get them to say, “Tell me more.” It's not necessarily to summarise the whole story. Jo: That's great advice. So you teach writers—I first saw you at ThrillerFest, I think it was 2012—and you do events, you run writing retreats. So you work with a lot of authors, and I wondered, what are the challenges that you see from authors with, say, five books? So not the beginner authors, because obviously there's a lot of challenges. But those who, let's say they've got the three to five books, things are going all right, but they're like, “How do I get to the next level?” What are the craft issues, or the business issues as well, that mid-list authors face? Steven: Well, business, I'm not the guy to ask. I could try to answer that, but I mean, basically: meet your deadlines and write something amazing. Try to be easy to work with, but also stand up for what you wrote as far as working with editors. It's sort of a fine line you have to walk. The one thing that over the last few years I've really noticed in a lot of writers who are in that space is that they don't have many pivots. They tend to write predictable stories, and that's why they tend to stay where they're at—whether it's because they're following an outline or a plot formula or whatever it is. So when I talk about a pivot, I mean a moment in the story where something happens that's both unexpected and inevitable. For instance, if you're reading a story, you want things to make sense. You want them to be logical. That's one thing. But you don't want them to be too predictable. If it's too predictable, it's boring. It's like, I'm not interested. So we also want surprises. We want these two things. We want logic, and we want surprise. When those two things meet and you have a moment in the story where it's like, “I didn't see that coming, but that totally makes sense,” that's what we want, and we want that in every scene. I feel like a lot of authors don't have that in every scene. Now, you might say, “Well, every scene?” Well, yes, because basically those two factors, logic and surprise, can only meet in four different ways. You could have something that's very logical but has no surprises. That's going to be boring. It's going to be too predictable. We don't want that. You could have something that is very surprising but not logical. It makes no sense. A lot of stuff is surprising, but that's not what we want, because it's unbelievable, and it's like, what is going on here? You could have something that has neither logic nor surprise, which obviously we don't want that. The only other option is to have a moment that is both logical and surprising. So you have a choice in every scene. You have four choices, actually. You can have it be predictable and boring. You can have it be nonsensical. You can have it be unbelievable. Or you can have a pivot. So I find myself trying to really coach people on pivots. They'll say, “Oh, well, do I need it in every scene?” I'm like, “You can choose, but do you want it to be predictable or boring or nonsensical, or do you want it to really drive the story forward?” I think it's because people have been taught structure and plot and three acts and all this kind of stuff, but they haven't been taught this idea—even though it's not something I made up. Aristotle, in Poetics, thousands of years ago, put it a little bit differently, but he said, “The reversal of the situation”—what I call the pivot—”is the moment at which the action veers around to its opposite”—that would be what I call surprise—”subject always to a rule of probability or necessity”—which is the logic. So he's basically saying the same thing in just a little bit different language, but you have these three factors. You have logic, you have surprise, and you have them come together in a specific moment. I don't know why it's not taught more. I have never found anyone who teaches pivots. I have not found any books, so I wrote a book recently about how to use pivots. It's so central, and I think great storytellers naturally do it. You'll read a book, or you'll maybe watch a show, and you're like, “Oh, I didn't see that coming. That totally makes sense.” I don't see anyone else out there really focusing on teaching that. So that's a huge thing for me, really, to help people move up in their writing, elevate it to a different level. Jo: Is that Delve, Pivot, Propel? Steven: Yes. That book came out a couple years ago. We just re-released it. I updated it some, but it talks pretty much in depth about pivots and how to actually use those to propel the stories forward. Jo: Maybe you could just give us one tip on how to do that, because going back to the organic writing—let's say I've been organically writing, and every time a character has a decision to make, I think at that point about what I want to write and I write it. Are you suggesting that we go back in the edit and look at the end of every scene and redo it? Because I can't imagine that I would get this right every time. I would need to do that in an edit, I think. Steven: I think for me, when I'm writing, I'm always asking myself a series of questions. One is, what would the character naturally do? I want to make it believable and natural. Let them do it. I want to escalate the tension, so I'll ask myself, “How can I make things worse?” Then I'll always ask myself, how can I add a pivot to this scene? So as I'm writing a scene—again, I don't know how it will end when I start it—but if I use the first idea that comes to mind, probably a lot of readers would guess that as well, because it's the first idea that comes to mind. It's probably logical and probably predictable. That's why most stories end up being too predictable. It's because we go with the first idea that maybe we had. So I try to discard that. Maybe the second idea, just discard it. Then I start thinking, okay, now if I've discarded the obvious, what is going on? What's below the surface? So to answer your question, I'm looking for what isn't what it appears to be, or who isn't who they appear to be, or a surprising way to bring together plot threads that I didn't see related before. So it's always looking for the unexpected, the surprise, because most of the time that is what we're missing. Now, if you have a great surprise, then you have to lean into making it believable. So you've got to move into that idea of, well, what would the character naturally do? You can't just have him do something ridiculous and then say, “Oh, it's for my twist.” No, you can't do that. You've got to play fair. So it has to be believable, causally related, logical, and surprising. That's what you're shooting for. Those are the questions going through my mind. So as I'm working on a scene, I'm like, “How could I end this?” Or include something that people won't see coming right away. The best ideas always come to me then. It's so interesting. A lot of people will say, “Oh, don't write organically,” or, quote, “by the seat of your pants,” whatever they'll say, “because then you might write yourself into a corner.” I'm like, “Yes, absolutely write yourself into a corner. That's what I'm trying to do in every scene.” And then you write yourself out of a corner in a way that's logical and surprising. The best twists I've ever come up with have been when I'm in a corner. So why would I warn people against going to the place where the best ideas await them? That just seems mean. Why would I do that? No, I want you to have the best possible ideas. So yes, look for corners, write yourself into them, and then write yourself out of them in a way that's both logical and surprising. Jo: I guess also it needs to be genre specific. We write mainly thrillers, and there is this fine line, isn't there? I love Stephen King, but one of the most unbelievable endings is Under the Dome. I still remember feeling betrayed. I don't know if you've read that one, but— Steven: Oh, no. Jo: I was like, “I'm sorry, you've just changed genre in the last chapter of the book. What is going on here?” Steven: That's actually interesting. The fourth question I ask… So I ask, what would the character naturally do? How can I make things worse? How can I add a pivot? But the fourth question is, what promises have I made that I have not yet kept? So genre, to me, is a promise. You build up a promise in your writing at the beginning of the book, and then I feel like as we write, we have to honour that. So if we bring something up that's super interesting, bring it back or whatever. Keep your promises. Keep your narrative promises. It's true of really any genre. Let's say you're writing a romance. You want to respect the conventions, but not fall into the clichés. So there's going to be a moment where the lovers meet, right? They haven't met before. I don't know what they call it, a meet cute or a cute meet. I think they call it a meet cute, I guess. Jo: Yes. They do. Steven: Anyway. So they're going to meet, right? And you're like, “Oh, I'll just have them meet.” Well, try to do it in a way we haven't seen before. Add something else to the scene. Add a third element, as my friend Bob Dugoni likes to say. Add something a little bit that we're like, “Huh, I've never seen that before.” We know they're going to meet, but let them meet in a way that we don't anticipate, that we can't predict right away, that isn't exactly by the numbers, and then you're going to be on the right track. Jo: So then, talking about reader expectations and genre, I wondered if I could also ask you about your Christian faith, because many people listening are people of faith, and some people want to write a Christian book. Other people want to bring their faith into, say, a mainstream type thriller in an authentic way. So how do you balance your faith and your writing? Because I think you have some series that are more sort of Christian than others. Steven: It's interesting. When my first novel came out—The Pawn, like a chess piece, The Pawn—back almost 20 years ago. Gosh, 20 years ago. Nineteen. But anyway, when it came out, someone wrote to me and said, “Is this a Christian book?” I'm like, “What would make a book not Christian?” I'm like, maybe if it has a lot of idolatry, or witchcraft, or maybe sexuality or graphic violence. Then I'm like, oh, wait, that's… No, that's the Old Testament. So it's interesting, because people have asked me similar questions over the years. My books are not sermons in disguise. I'm trying to write great stories that anyone of any background or faith will enjoy. I always ask big questions. I let my characters wrestle with questions that matter, I think. Do my choices matter? Is there hope? Is there a God? Is there no God? Do I have free will? Can I find forgiveness? Can I offer forgiveness? Can I extend it, or whatever? So I always try to base the stories on something deeper. I do believe that there is good and there's evil in the world. That's part of my worldview. So when people talk about moral ambiguity, I don't want to write or read something that's morally ambiguous. I want moral complexity, but I also want moral clarity. So whenever you write, the question is, what are you justifying and what are you condemning? And if you're justifying something that's morally—I would say wrong, actually—then I don't feel like that's the kind of book I would want to write. So I want to write stories that explore good and evil, that explore our world, human nature, in an honest way. I feel like when you write honest stories, people, no matter what their background or whatever faith, then they will connect with it. I think a lot of people, if they start off with an agenda—whatever that agenda might be, let's say it is a Christian agenda, like I want people to trust in Jesus, let's say—so they write a story. Well, what you're doing, you're actually starting your story with an answer, and drama is not built on answers, it's built on questions. So you're actually diminishing the amount of tension. You're also diminishing the possibility of a pivot, because we all get where you're going. It's predictable, but there's probably no surprise. You're diminishing the payoff at the end, because we're like, “I saw that coming. I exactly knew where you were going with this.” So instead, I don't start with an answer. I always start with a question, or in some cases a moral dilemma, like, what's more important, protecting the innocent or telling the truth? That's interesting to me. If I had to choose between the two, would I tell the truth or would I protect the innocent? It's interesting, because people might come down on different sides of it. They might say, “Oh, you should always tell the truth,” or they say, “You always should protect the innocent.” I'm like, okay, well, let's explore it. Let's literally ask the question. So I come from a certain worldview, but I've written characters who have very different worldviews from me. I'm always just trying to be honest with the character, ask big questions, tell a story that examines human nature and sort of the paradoxes of the human condition in a way that will resonate with really whoever the readers might be. Jo: And of course that worldview is part of your author voice and part of what readers come to you for. I also notice that you have some pretty diverse different series. How do you manage that diversity of series under your one brand? Do you find your readers move from one to the other, or do you have different readerships? Steven: You mentioned the B word—brand. That's what publishers are always telling me: “What's your brand?” I'm like, “I don't know. You tell me what my brand is.” I've done fantasy, science fiction, conspiracy. I've done spies and police procedurals and crime and suspense, thrills, whatever. So I would say the one thing that really ties all my stories together is probably just suspense. They are stories with suspense. Some are more high concept thrillers, some are more dark fantasy, but they're built around suspense. So I guess that would be intelligent suspense, maybe, if I was trying to come up with a brand. Something like that. Because I don't want them to be dumbed down. They're not dumbed down stories, so they're a little bit more complex than you might find in other places, but always built around the idea of suspense. Suspense to me is basically—my definition is apprehension born of concern. So we're concerned about a character, and we're apprehensive because there's peril around the bend, or right in front of them. So I want the readers to really care about a character, and then try to build the story and the suspense around that empathy or sympathy that we have for the character. Jo: I think it's really interesting, because again, you mentioned 2007—we're coming up on 20 years since first published. The publishing industry has changed a lot. So what do you think has changed most in publishing for you, and what are your thoughts on routes to market for new authors these days? Or even established authors who are finding that things have changed, which they obviously have. Steven: Well, I'm not a marketer, I'm not a businessman. I'm just a storyteller at heart. So I just keep writing stories that I would be intrigued with reading, stories that I feel like are resonant. Then I look for publishers for those. I've been to a variety of different publishers over the last decade. I've done some different types of stories. I feel like you have to just write the story instead of trying to write for a specific market trend or something like that. So I might not make as much as some of my friends, I might not sell as many books, but I feel like I have to write certain stories if they grab ahold of me. There's a Native American—I think the Pawnee tribe, anyway, in the United States—but they were saying that all the stories that exist are out there already, and when one finds you, it's your job to share it with the world. I think that's kind of interesting. Sometimes—maybe it's just true for you, I don't know, Jo—but it's like a story will grab hold of me, or an idea, and I'm like, “I can't shake it.” That's a story that I want to tell the world. I would say that stories are becoming shorter, dumber. People are trying to write faster. They're trying to write several books a year, and as a result of that, some of the quality has gone down. This is all unfortunate. I'm still sort of a dinosaur. I still tend to write longer, complex stories. But people have shorter attention spans and whatever, and they're not reading as much. The structure of stories, I think, is changing slightly, where people will have to spend more time on a hook to really grab the attention of the readers. Then there might be a longer slow period, or more info dumping, which I'm not a fan of. So they kind of look like, “I want to get readers hooked at the beginning, and then get them to flip pages.” So I tend to set up my stories a little bit differently than that. So I'm not the best guy to ask about marketing and sales and stuff like that. I feel like, write a story that will not let you go. And if you do that, I feel like that's the kind of story that will resonate with readers, because there's a deep honesty to it. You care, you're passionate about it. It's not just something you're trying to spin out just to sell books. That's my view. Jo: I guess I also feel that writers are doing other things. So you have non-fiction, you have your podcast, you do events. I see you sell books direct from your website. It's like the business expands into multiple streams of income, so that the art doesn't have to pay all the bills. Steven: That's interesting. I do love to teach writing at conferences, events, and speak at different things. So I guess if you think about it that way, my brand might be just story, or storytelling, or something like that. Really trying to get out there, and whether it's speaking or writing, just tell a great story. So it's so interesting when I work with publishers and they'll ask, “What's your brand?” Basically it's like, “What's your box?” is really what they're asking. What box can we stick you in that will make it easy for us to package you and sell you? I know myself, and just a lot of authors that I know, we don't think in a box. Every one of my stories is not boxy. It's not the same. They're different. I know a lot of authors like that too. So it's unfortunate. I get it, that it's part of them trying to market and sell the books. I understand that, but I think being honest, genuine with the story, doing the very best you can, writing a worthy book, and then letting them come up with a way to categorise it, is probably the best bet. I don't know. Jo: We're almost out of time, but this is obviously a podcast, and you have a podcast. So tell us about The Story Blender Podcast and what people might find over there. Steven: Yes, I appreciate it. Basically, I interview some of the leading writers and storytellers in the world every week, and the goal is for great storytellers to share the secrets of great storytelling. So I basically pick their brains, kind of like what you were doing with me today, and find out what projects they're working on, and really just try to get insights into storytelling. So it's tons of fun. I've been doing it now for a number of years, and I guess I've interviewed over 250 different authors and writers from around the world, and so I always enjoy it. It's a ton of fun. It's The Story Blender, and people can find it anywhere. Jo: So where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? Steven: Probably the best place is StevenJames.net. I think I'm on different socials @readstevenjames, so you can look me up there—Facebook, Instagram, X, and so on. I think they're all under readstevenjames. Check out the website, drop me a note. I always enjoy hearing from readers. Jo: Well, thanks so much for your time, Steven. That was great. Steven: Thanks, Jo. I appreciate it. Good luck. The post Organic Writing And The Power Of The Pivot In Fiction With Steven James first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Lindsay Clancy postpartum psychosis defense — the women who could explain it best have been shut out of the courtroom by a judge's order.Kevin Reddington asked to call women who have survived postpartum psychosis so a jury could hear what it does to a person from someone who has actually been inside it. Judge William Sullivan said no. That leaves the defense explaining the most important concept in the case entirely through paid clinicians, in a trial where the Commonwealth is seeking a first-degree murder conviction.The rest of the defense file is documentation. Lindsay Clancy told her husband at the end of December that she was having thoughts of hurting her kids. She admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital on New Year's Eve and was discharged. Nineteen days later, Cora, Dawson, and Callan were dead. Her attorney has said she was prescribed roughly thirteen psychiatric medications over about four months, and both she and her husband are suing the providers who wrote them.Criminal defense trial attorney Bob Motta joins Tony Brueski for an honest look at whether any of this is enough. Can a jury be convinced that planning and psychosis coexist? How much did that ruling actually cost her? And what does a jury do with a father who buried three children and then asked strangers to forgive the person who killed them?There is also the question every person following this case wants answered — whether the woman at the center of it will ever open her mouth in that courtroom.The defense's position is simple. Every institution that could have stopped this had the information and did nothing with it.END LINKSJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDISCLAIMERThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.HASHTAGS — 10#LindsayClancy #KevinReddington #TrueCrimeToday #TrueCrime #PostpartumPsychosis #MaternalMentalHealth #MentalHealthSystem #DuxburyMurders #BobMotta #TrueCrimePodcast

The Lindsay Clancy insanity defense has a problem, and it is not the evidence — it is who a Massachusetts judge will and will not let into the courtroom.Kevin Reddington's plan was to have women who have survived postpartum psychosis describe it to the jury themselves. Real people, real experiences, no expert reports. Judge William Sullivan shut that down. Only clinicians retained for the trial may explain the condition, which puts the defense in the position of asking twelve people to believe in something they will only ever hear about secondhand and on somebody's dime.The underlying case Reddington is building is documented in medical records and two civil lawsuits. Lindsay Clancy told her husband at the end of December that she was having thoughts of hurting her kids. She admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital on New Year's Eve. Nineteen days after her discharge, all three of her children were gone. Her attorney has put the prescription count at roughly thirteen psychiatric medications over about four months.Criminal defense trial attorney Bob Motta joins Tony Brueski to work the defense side. Whether this case can function as the spotlight on a broken mental health system that it probably should be. How a jury processes the idea that planning and psychosis are not opposites. What to do with Patrick Clancy, who lost all three of his children and then publicly forgave the person responsible.And the hardest strategic call in the case — whether to put a paralyzed, fragile defendant in front of a prosecutor who will not go easy on her, because she is the only person alive who can tell that jury what she heard.Cora was five. Dawson was three. Callan was eight months old. The defense says none of it had to happen.END LINKSJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDISCLAIMERThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.HASHTAGS — 10#LindsayClancy #KevinReddington #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #PostpartumPsychosis #MaternalMentalHealth #InsanityDefense #PlymouthCounty #MurderTrial #TrueCrimePodcast

Lindsay Clancy trial update — the defense went into jury selection already down a weapon, and it happened in a pretrial ruling most people never heard about.Judge William Sullivan denied Kevin Reddington's request to call women who have been through postpartum psychosis as witnesses. No lay testimony about the condition. Experts only. For a defense whose entire case depends on a jury genuinely understanding an illness almost none of them have encountered, that ruling matters more than any piece of physical evidence in the file.What Reddington still has is a timeline that reads like an indictment of everyone who touched her chart. At the end of December, Lindsay Clancy told her husband she was having thoughts of hurting her children. She checked herself into a psychiatric hospital on New Year's Eve. She was released. Nineteen days later her three children were dead. Her lawyer puts the medication count at roughly thirteen psychiatric drugs in about four months, and her malpractice suit describes a dose raised the day before with no sleep that night.Criminal defense trial attorney Bob Motta, host of Defense Diaries, joins Tony Brueski to break the defense down honestly — what works, what does not, and what a jury is likely to reject on instinct. A lot of people watching this are on medication a doctor handed them. They deserve a straight answer about what these drugs can and cannot do.Then there is Patrick Clancy, testifying and suing at the same time, and the decision Reddington may have to make about putting his client on that stand.The defense is not arguing she did not do it. It is arguing that everybody else had a chance to stop it.END LINKSJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDISCLAIMERThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.HASHTAGS — 10#LindsayClancy #PatrickClancy #HiddenKillersLive #TrueCrime #PostpartumPsychosis #MentalHealthCrisis #Polypharmacy #DuxburyMurders #InsanityDefense #TrueCrimeCommunity

The Hawks put the foot down in the first half, and cruised pretty comfortably in the second, posting a satisfying 70-point win over the Tigers. Main Event Mitch Lewis booted five, Wiz helped himself to five of his own, and we were treated to first goals galore in what was a lovely day at the footy! We're back to recap the action with a brand new edition of the Hawk Talk Podcast! Don't forget to follow us on our social channels, including X - @HawkTalkPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the evening of Thursday the 3rd of May 2007, a British couple on holiday in the resort of Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve coast finished dinner with friends at a tapas restaurant, roughly 50 metres from the ground-floor apartment where their three children were sleeping. Kate and Gerry McCann had, over the course of the evening, taken turns checking on the children at approximately half-hour intervals. Their eldest daughter, three-year-old Madeleine, was in the front bedroom with her two-year-old twin siblings. At approximately 10:00 pm, Kate McCann returned to Apartment 5A of the Ocean Club resort for her turn to check. She walked through the unlocked patio door. She looked into the children's bedroom. The twins were still asleep. Madeleine's bed was empty. The window in the room was open. Nineteen years later, Madeleine McCann has never been found. Portuguese police initially treated the case as an abduction, then as a homicide, then closed it, then reopened it. Kate and Gerry McCann were themselves named as formal suspects, then cleared. Multiple men have been investigated over the years, including a German convicted paedophile named Christian Brueckner, who remains the primary suspect of German prosecutors. The case has generated more media coverage than any missing child case in modern European history. The story of the little girl who vanished from Apartment 5A, of the parents whose lives were destroyed by the search for her, and of a mystery that, at the time of this recording, has still never been solved.Become a Patreon or Apple + subscriber now for ealry and ad free access from as little as $1.69 a week. All the details hereSubscribe to Crime at Bedtimes Youtube channel HERE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nineteen people in Indonesia have been convicted and jailed for trafficking dozens of babies, selling some of them for adoption in Singapore.Also in the programme: Kuwait says several desalination and power plants were damaged in Iranian attacks as Tehran continues to strike its neighbours as part of its war with the US; the sixteen year-old Indian who's proud to call herself one of the cockroaches; and the spread of childhood obesity in Italy, the home of the Mediterranean diet.(Photo: Indonesia sentences members of a baby trafficking syndicate up to 7 years in prison, Bandung - 21 Jul 2026. Credit: EPA)

Why do we keep repeating the same unhealthy relationship patterns? In this episode of Harder Than Life, relationship educator Mark Groves joins Kelly Siegel to explore how childhood trauma, self-abandonment, betrayal, shame, and emotional wounds continue to influence adult relationships. Mark shares the personal experiences that inspired his bestselling book Liberated Love, explaining why unresolved pain often leads us to choose emotionally unavailable partners, avoid difficult conversations, and disconnect from ourselves in the name of love. Together, Kelly and Mark discuss healthy boundaries, emotional availability, IFS therapy, nervous system healing, anxious and avoidant relationship patterns, masculinity, self-worth, and why healing happens through honest relationships—not by avoiding them. The conversation also explores AI relationships, social media addiction, digital detox, dopamine, and why genuine human connection is becoming one of the most valuable skills of the modern world. This episode is for anyone searching for:

Join me this week as I have a special guest, author Kristina Thornton. Her second novel is due to be released on the 28th July, published by Harpeth Road Press, and is titled Forty Going on Nineteen. As you may guess from the title, it has a little bit of a time travel vibe, though there is no de-ageing or battling with school bullies. Instead, our main character is about to turn forty (and for anyone who has experienced this, you'll know it's a mental hurdle), and her best friend encourages her to revisit what her life was like when she was nineteen. We have friends, family and the reappearance of an old crush, as well as a visit from the ex! There are also emotional revelations, realisations and the battling of a few fear demons (not in the literal sense, of course). Find out more about Kristina Thornton: Kristina's Website Facebook Instagram Buy Forty Going on Nineteen TikTok

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ 5月16日で《ピアノ万葉集》は完結しました ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■《ピアノ万葉集》プロジェクトは2026年5月16日に完結しました。でもここは大事な場所なので、前に創った《ピアノ万葉集》の曲をお届けします。ただ、すみませんが、前に流した曲ですので重複しています。=================================================nineteen hun..

Encore registration - "Piano Ten Thousand Leaves" was completed on May 16, 2026. And as a post-completion activity, I hope to deliver it to people 1000 years from now. And so, I have begun "Piano Ten Thousand Leaves - beyond completion -- The Millennium Forest --". I will not be creating any new songs, but I will select one song from the 4536 songs I previously created and re-register it here. ===================================================== 《ピアノ万葉集》は2026年5月16日に完結しました。 そして完結後の活動として、1000年後の皆様に届けたいと考えています。 そして、《ピアノ万葉集》完結世界 -- 深森千年紀 -- を始めています。 そして新しい曲は創りませんが、前に創っている4536曲の中から１曲を選んでここで再登録させて頂きます。 =========================== The Complete Works of Piano Ten Thousand Leaves Vol.3-2 =========================== #spotify: https://open.spotify.com/intl-ja/album/3Vm796tVBoyWIEp1mLOpD6?si=XAl79oycSLew593UEF2VkQ #AppleMusic: https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-complete-works-of-piano-ten-thousand-leaves-vol-3-2/6787596397 #amazonmusic https://amazon.co.jp/music/player/albums/B0H7PGFDNP?marketplaceId=A1VC38T7YXB528&musicTerritory=JP&ref=dm_sh_TvnOaWB0wpvmYJqquVwEz0Do6 ＃YoutubeMusic: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nwzdnA7O232R4vuv1c1duYeQAx9i9Rtak&si=5ojmgsW5cxlv0h_h #LineMusic https://lin.ee/5SED98v #AWA https://s.awa.fm/album/17c47b59557f20fb0620?t=1783245626 --- All Music Streaming Services: 全曲視聴可能なのが嬉しいですね… https://linkco.re/rqBErhU1 =========================== The Complete Works of Piano Ten Thousand Leaves Vol.3-1 =========================== VOLUME3-1 just released! Gentleness, carried on 4,536 leaves of sound. #spotify: https://open.spotify.com/intl-ja/album/5aSDLOUFLgmoK0Nu5uYvxK?si=FxFC1shbTNmcVsbGuZzufw #AppleMusic:  #amazonmusic https://amazon.co.jp/music/player/albums/B0H6VDD1KC?marketplaceId=A1VC38T7YXB528&musicTerritory=JP&ref=dm_sh_Ke44Vvf27v9Scn17Q3GlghCkH ＃YoutubeMusic: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_keXkSwBS2JvaxE-tEwAuXmIOe4CzSijgY&si=tJYfAwa-8cQ8sUyh #LineMusic https://lin.ee/pOzyULD #AWA https://s.awa.fm/album/95f94c20e913e538ed09?t=1782684025 --- All Music Streaming Services: 全曲視聴可能なのが嬉しいですね… https://linkco.re/AAZ0NrcQ

SOCIALISM IS BLACK AND WHITE A poll came out of Michigan this week showing the socialist winning white Democrats and getting destroyed by Black Democrats in the same primary, and the explanation the internet landed on within the hour was that Black voters secretly agree but have been beaten into silence by a wicked country. We take that apart with a street in Detroit that no longer exists. Then we head to Europe, where a committee of publicly funded broadcasters just published twenty-three pages of cartoon diagrams instructing camera operators how to point a lens at a woman running, five years after that same continent fined a team of women a hundred and fifty euros apiece for putting shorts on. And the U.S. House voted 308 to 117 this week on what time it is, so we brought in Camellia Peterson to explain why the clock in Jefferson City is federal property.

Summary Humility is often overlooked as a leadership strength, yet research links it to higher trust, engagement, creativity, and performance. Learn why humility is far more than being nice and discover practical ways to demonstrate confidence, openness, and a willingness to learn.   Transcript Hello and welcome to episode 232 of the Leadership Today podcast, where each week we share practical tips to improve your leadership. When we think about great leadership, humility isn't always the first quality that comes to mind. We often focus on confidence, vision, decisiveness, or influence. Yet some of the most effective leaders demonstrate humility. They don't pretend to have all the answers, they're quick to recognise the contributions of others, and they're always learning. It turns out that humility isn't just a nice leadership quality, it has a measurable impact on how people experience their leader. Two recent research reviews back this up. The larger paper brought together 212 separate studies on leader humility and found that, above everything else, humble leadership predicts how satisfied people are with their leader and how much leaders involve others in decisions. It also improves how well teams and individual followers perform. A second review, of 53 studies covering more than 16,000 people found humble leadership is linked to stronger trust, deeper engagement, greater job satisfaction, more creativity, and better performance at the individual level. The second review also answered a question that's followed humility research for a while: is this just transformational leadership, servant leadership, or ethical leadership wearing a different name? The answer, in large part, was no. Humility contributed something beyond those other styles when predicting how people think and feel about their work. It has its own distinct influence. So what does humility look like in practice? Across this research, humble leaders share three things in common: They have an accurate understanding of their own strengths and limitations They genuinely appreciate the strengths and contributions of others, and They're open to feedback, learning, and changing their views when presented with new information. In other words, humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's having an accurate view of yourself while recognising that others have valuable perspectives and capabilities too. So what can leaders do to develop greater humility? First, become comfortable saying "I don't know" or "I was wrong". Many leaders worry that admitting uncertainty will undermine their credibility. In reality, people often trust leaders more when they're honest about what they know and what they don't know. It also creates an environment where others feel safe to admit mistakes, ask questions, and learn. Second, give credit generously. When someone on your team contributes an idea, solves a problem, or helps achieve a result, make sure people know where the contribution came from. It's a simple habit, but it sends a powerful message that leadership isn't about personal recognition, it's about helping others succeed. And when people feel their contributions are noticed and valued, they're more likely to continue contributing. Third, regularly seek feedback from the people around you. One simple question is, "What's something I do that gets in the way of you doing your best work?" The key is not just asking the question, but listening carefully to the answer. Resist the urge to explain or defend. Instead, thank the person for their feedback, reflect on what you've heard, and look for opportunities to improve. The key point is that humility isn't weakness. it's not a lack of confidence, and it's certainly not about downplaying your strengths. Humility is having the confidence to recognise that you don't have all the answers and that other people have valuable insights to contribute. People are more willing to trust, engage with, and follow leaders who are continuing to learn and grow. Have a great week.   Research references Chandler, J. A., Johnson, N. E., Jordan, S. L., Brian, D. K., & Short, J. C. (2023). A meta-analysis of humble leadership: Reviewing individual, team, and organizational outcomes of leader humility. The Leadership Quarterly, 34(1), 101660. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1048984322000637   Luo Y, Zhang Z, Chen Q, Zhang K, Wang Y, Peng J. (2022) Humble leadership and its outcomes: A meta-analysis. Front Psychol. 2022 Dec 21;13:980322. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.980322. PMID: 36619057; PMCID: PMC9811147.   Leadership Today On-Demand Special Offer We have a great deal for podcast listeners on our Leadership Today On-Demand subscription. Just go to www.leadershiptoday.com and checkout using the promo code PODCAST for 25% off an annual subscription. Leadership Today On-Demand is a video subscription service that allows you to work on your leadership in your own time and at your own pace. It is available online and through our Apple iOS and Android apps for phones and tablets. Our mission is to help you to become an even better leader. Your subscription brings together all of our video content in one place including: - Five online courses with workbooks - Five five day challenges with workbooks - Nineteen recorded webinars - A searchable library of 170+ "how to" quick videos on a range of leadership challenges That's over $4,500 of content for less than the price of a single online course. And there are more videos added each week.   Get Connected Find out ways to get connected here: https://leadership.today/connect

At her own gender reveal Nicole Blain stormed off clutching a pink knife after finding out she was having a girl. Nineteen days after her daughter Thea was born, she was dead. Blain blamed another child for the injuries. A pathologist ruled that was impossible. This is the case of Nicole Blain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Immerse yourself in captivating science fiction short stories, delivered daily! Explore futuristic worlds, time travel, alien encounters, and mind-bending adventures. Perfect for sci-fi lovers looking for a quick and engaging listen each day.

What if the reason your restaurant isn't built to last is because you designed it to survive instead of dominate?Philippe Massoud opened ilili in November 2007, a 10,000 square foot Lebanese restaurant in New York City, nearly $7 million in debt, in the middle of a financial crisis, with critics questioning whether anyone wanted Lebanese fine dining at that scale. Nineteen years later, the restaurant is still breaking records.In this conversation, we get into why going smaller and safer is often the riskiest move an operator can make, how Philippe grew revenue 30% annually for five consecutive years after weathering the financial crisis, and why running a restaurant with two guests in mind changes everything.If you're building something real in a market that keeps getting harder, this episode is the one to hear.To learn more about ilili, visit ililirestaurants.com._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com

Doomscrollin hosted by Sam Tripoli and Midnight MikePlease support our sponsors:Ultra: Ultra is the ultimate guilt-free pouch — delivering instant focus and mental clarity, without nicotine or caffeine. New customers can use code DOOM to get 15% off at Take Ultra dot com. That's  TakeUltra.com for 15% off with code DOOM. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. PLEASE support our show and tell them our show sent you.Data brokers profit from selling your personal information—but Cloaked helps you take it back. It monitors the dark web for exposed data and includes a built-in VPN, password manager, AI-powered spam call filtering, and up to $1 million in identity theft insurance. Go to Cloaked dot com slash DOOM for a free security scan and 30% off any Cloaked plan. Privacy isn't dead. It's Cloaked.Sam Tripoli's 5th Crowd Work Special "Hero Live From Batavia" Drops May 2nd On Youtube.com/SamTripoliComedyCheck out WordWarDebate.com for the next great debate event.Grab Tickets To Sam Tripoli's Live Shows At SamTripoli.com:Miami, FL:  7/30-8/1Lawerence, KS: 9/17-9/19Tulsa, OK: 10/9-10/10Austin, TX: Dec 11th-13thPlease check out Sam Tripoli's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/samtripoliPlease check out Midnight Mike's Internet:The OBDM Podcast Website: https://ourbigdumbmouth.com/Twitter: https://x.com/obdmpodCheck out the Naked Gardener's Band:The 3rd Pyramid Band - Topichttps://bit.ly/4fpNMMrPlease check out the content creators featured on this episode:1) World cup trophy reimagined in patagonia @ev_handd2) Seven point crown statue too coincidental @mr.miracle.official3) Venezuela earthquake fake kidnapping network exposed  @hotmomfits4) The bell adamec year drug revelation @human_history_on_drugs4) Foot juice convention health scare @TB4YPODCAST5)The single word that changes everything @cvnty_chanel6) Books written under totalitarian rule @stevenjreese7) Nineteen seventy three's year strange happenings @pastor.joshmcpherson8) Skate culture died twice and why @designculture.studio9) Gay or straight game show zingers @JCalixteTV10) Seeing eye thirteenth pillar secrets revealed @kcstayvigilant11) Statistics don't tell the whole safety story @linaseiche12) The fifth element unveiled from the ether @cultivateelev813) Waters deepest secret below surface light vanishes @hiddenplacesinamerica14) Red nose, slit eyes, big feet giants red @jakeshieldspod15) Talking dog spells words in Germany @brittantolford16) Nine years cycle unveiling hidden agenda @riaan_swiegelaar17) The history you've been lying to @igorkryan18) Racial win rates unmasked by python code @leo.taps19) W2Gay @cameronwhittyt20) An HOA's nightmare @djkrell21) Famous japanese outfielder large hobby @_johnfranklin__22) Are clowns just white face?  @mysteryboyspodcast23) A punishment @thedaily.id_24) e- learning ragebait  @nicogrigg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A total of 19 players on Ohio State's roster picked up an extra season of eligibility late last month when the new "5-to-play-5" rule was instituted by the NCAA. Who are the 19 players? And which of them might take advantage of the extra year?Also, how does the Buckeyes' running back room stack up with some of the better ones we've seen around these parts?Dave Biddle flies solo on the Wednesday 5ish and tackles that and more.

Tenicka Boyd was 21 years old and a new mother when she took a job working for President Obama. Nineteen years later, her daughter is a college junior living in Japan, Tenicka is a fashion voice, former ACLU staffer, and one of the most self-possessed women I've had on the couch. She is also refreshingly honest about the parts of her story most women tuck away.In this episode, we get into the conversation Tenicka is best known for online—the honest one about money and motherhood. What it means to enter motherhood with resources, and what it costs when you don't. Why "living for your kids" is not the compliment we've been told it is. Why she believes we're not owed motherhood, and what it looks like to choose it with your eyes wide open.From there we get into her reflection on early motherhood and the loneliness of being out of sync with the girlfriends who are now having their first child, the leap from a full-time career in politics to content creation—when she eclipsed her ACLU salary in one quarter—and why she refuses to work a sixty-hour week for herself. We talk about the uniformity that's crept into creator culture, the political history of fashion, and why she wants us to expand the definition of luxury beyond European heritage houses. She names the African, Caribbean, and diaspora designers currently defining her closet—from Hertunba to FeNoel to Tongoro to Desiree Iyama.And then we get into decadence as refusal. Refusal of shrinking, of quiet luxury culture, of the mad dash to 40. Refusal of the small life the world has convinced women to accept.This is a conversation about what it looks like to give yourself permission to live a life your ancestors couldn't have imagined for you.Her affirmation this week: "I am my great, great-grandmother's wildest dream." Cheers to that.

Nineteen years ago, a group of women came together at Christopher Newport University and built something truly special. I got to sit down with my very dear friend, Leslie Hepburn, to reflect on the journey of our acapella group, the Newport Pearls, who still gets together for annual retreats 19 years later. This episode is a celebration of the community that forms when friends choose each other, again and again, on purpose—and plenty of insight to create something similar in your own life. PARING DOWN (SHANNON LEYKO): Sign up for my newsletter! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The L.E.S.S. Express⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.shannonleyko.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@shannonleyko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@shannon_leyko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@shannonleyko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.facebook.com/shannonleyko.paringdown⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Blog & Additional Support (free trial!)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TAKE THE QUIZ!!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ "What's Your Decluttering Type?" & receive a customized playlist with 10 episodes of Paring Down for your exact needs. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠PARING DOWN RESOURCES⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CLICK HERE for free checklist, hacks, worksheet, & more!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ SPONSORS: $250 off Air Doctor Pro air purifier:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://airdoctorpro.com/ -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Use code PARING Ethical, luxury women's clothing at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quince.com/paring⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order! Get 15% off your first order of organic bedsheets and more at Boll & Branch (⁠https://BollAndBranch.com/paring⁠) plus free shipping with code PARING Zenni Optical offers beautiful eye glasses starting at just $30- (⁠https://zenni.com/PODCAST⁠) use code PODCAST15 for 15% off your first order Green Chef is the leading sustainable meal kit - (⁠https://Greenchef.com/50paring⁠) use code 50paring to get 50% off your first month, then 20% off for two months Make custom gifts with Zazzle - save 25% on your first order (⁠https://Zazzle.com⁠) K12 Powered Schools offers tuition-free virtual public school- Enroll online today (⁠https://K12.com/paring⁠) 20% OFF any AquaTru water purifier when you go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠AquaTru.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and use promo code PARING Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michele has been part of our community for eight months, and in that time she went from believing she was fundamentally broken to telling me she hasn't felt that way since. In this conversation she walks me through the marriage she entered without ever praying about it, the year that took her mom and nearly her faith, and what it's actually looked like to hear God's voice in the small, practical stuff of her life. Toward the end we pray together, and something opens up in her about why it's felt safer to keep love out than risk it leaving again.Michele is a member of our Receive Academy community who's spent the last eight months learning to recognize God's voice in her everyday life, from prayer to parenting to driving in traffic.Here's what we explore:▪️ How a belief that she was fundamentally broken kept her from expecting God would actually come through for her, and what shifted once that healed▪️ The morning she finally saw Jesus' eyes after eight months of sensing Him near without seeing them▪️ What happened when she started asking God how much to earn before her DoorDashing shifts▪️ Realizing she had pictured God acting like her mother instead of trusting Him as Father▪️ A live prayer where we get underneath a fist wrapped around her heart, holding pain because letting love in once meant watching it leaveChapters00:00 Intro01:05 Becoming a Single Mom at Nineteen and the Miracles That Followed04:05 Marrying Without Ever Praying About It06:56 Growing Up in a Split Faith Family and Hearing Her First Name From God08:54 A Year That Took Her Mom, Her Son's Faith, and Nearly Her Own11:19 Six Weeks of Hearing Not Yet Before Joining the Community13:16 Seeing His Eyes and Feeling Time Stretch16:23 Healing the Belief That She Was Broken20:36 Asking God How Much to Earn and Realizing She'd Pictured Him Like Her Mother27:24 A Live Prayer for the Fist Around Her HeartIf something in this stirred something in you, I'd love for you to sit with it. And if you want to keep going deeper into hearing God's voice for yourself, the Hearing God Challenge is a great next step.

Summary Quiet quitting isn't usually about laziness or a lack of motivation. Research suggests it's often a sign that the relationship between an employee and their organisation has become unbalanced. Discover how leaders can spot the warning signs early and rebuild engagement through better conversations and clearer expectations.   Transcript Hello and welcome to episode 229 of the Leadership Today podcast, where each week we share practical tips to improve your leadership. This week we explore how to re-engage a "quiet quitter".   Over the past few years, you've probably heard the term "quiet quitting" - the idea that some people are stepping back from their roles to just do the bare minimum. It's one of those phrases that quickly gained popularity and sparked plenty of debate. Some people viewed it as a sign that employees had become less committed. Others saw it as a healthy rejection of unrealistic work expectations.   But the important question is what causes someone who was once engaged, enthusiastic, and willing to go the extra mile to start doing only the minimum required in the first place? Recent research suggests the answer has less to do with motivation and more to do with relationships and fairness.   Researchers studying quiet quitting have found that one of the strongest predictors is employees' perceptions of the exchange relationship they have with their organisation. In simple terms, people compare what they're contributing with what they're receiving in return. When they feel the relationship has become unbalanced and they don't see a way to improve it, they often respond by reducing their discretionary effort. Importantly, this doesn't necessarily mean they're planning to leave. Instead, they adjust their level of investment. They continue to do their job, but they stop contributing the extra effort that often drives innovation, collaboration, and performance.   The research also points to an important leadership influence. Teams whose leaders maintain regular conversations about both work and wellbeing appear less likely to experience quiet quitting. In other words, leaders who stay connected with their people are often better able to identify and address issues before disengagement takes hold. So what can you do to reduce the risk of quiet quitting?   First, have open conversations about expectations. Work relationships involve an ongoing exchange. What is the employee contributing? What are they receiving in return? Have either of those things changed recently? These discussions can sometimes uncover relatively small issues that, if left unaddressed, gradually erode engagement.   Second, make sure your one-on-one meetings cover more than just tasks and deadlines. It's important to understand how people are feeling about their role, what's energising them, and what's becoming frustrating or difficult. These conversations often provide early warning signs that someone may be disengaging.   Third, if you notice a drop in effort or enthusiasm, get curious rather than critical. It's tempting to focus on the behaviour itself. However, quiet quitting is often a symptom rather than the problem. Understanding what has changed is usually more productive than immediately trying to correct the behaviour.   The key point is that quiet quitting is rarely about laziness. More often, it's a signal that something in the relationship between the employee and the organisation has shifted. As leaders, we may not be able to solve every issue, but we can create the conversations that help us understand what's really going on. And often, that's the first step towards rebuilding engagement.   Have a great week.   Research references: Galanis, P., et al. (2023). The quiet quitting scale: Development and initial validation. AIMS Public Health, 10(4), 828 to 848. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10764970/   Dilchert, S., et al. (2026). Expanding Our Understanding of Quiet Quitting: Antecedents, Correlates, and Consequences. Human Resource Management. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hrm.70038   Leadership Today On-Demand Special Offer We have a great deal for podcast listeners on our Leadership Today On-Demand subscription. Just go to www.leadershiptoday.com and checkout using the promo code PODCAST for 25% off an annual subscription. Leadership Today On-Demand is a video subscription service that allows you to work on your leadership in your own time and at your own pace. It is available online and through our Apple iOS and Android apps for phones and tablets. Our mission is to help you to become an even better leader. Your subscription brings together all of our video content in one place including: - Five online courses with workbooks - Five five day challenges with workbooks - Nineteen recorded webinars - A searchable library of 170+ "how to" quick videos on a range of leadership challenges That's over $4,500 of content for less than the price of a single online course. And there are more videos added each week.   Get Connected Find out ways to get connected here: https://leadership.today/connect

Series: Looking For A True King True Friendship 1 Samuel 20Pastor Matt Sfura

Laura Delano was a high-achieving student—straight-A's, national squash ranking, class president—whose private suffering led to an early bipolar diagnosis and a lifetime prognosis of medication. After initially resisting, she spent the next decade immersed in elite psychiatric care, accumulating multiple diagnoses and nineteen medications, only to worsen and be labeled "treatment resistant." Following a suicide attempt at twenty-seven, Laura began asking a forbidden question: what if the treatment itself was the problem? Choosing to leave behind drugs and diagnoses, she became an outspoken ex-patient, writer, and advocate—working with individuals, families, and clinicians to address psychiatric drug withdrawal, patient rights, and the deeper social forces shaping modern mental health.  In this episode, Dr. Brian, Dr. Tro, and Laura talk about… (00:00) Intro (02:06) Laura's bipolar diagnosis and how it impacted her life as a young person (14:20) Psychiatric drugs and the polypharmacological approach to addressing mental health issues (23:04) The metabolic, spiritual, and emotional issues underlying psychiatric disorder (31:08) How Laura finally realized that the answer to her psychiatric problems was not more meds and traditional psychiatric care (34:10) Major issues in the psychiatric health care system (36:47) Anti-psychotic drugs, food addiction, and alcoholism (40:41) Finally coming off of all the psychiatric drugs that Laura had been on for half her life (48:17) Gut health, lifestyle factors, and mental health (50:49) Why it is so hard to find your way out of the psychiatric care system (55:13) Safe de-prescription and informed consent in psychiatric care (01:03:03) Fake empathy, moral corruption, and systemic issues in medical care that are perpetuating these major problems (01:09:10) Outro For more information, please see the links below. Thank you for listening! Links: Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.lowcarbmd.com/ Resources Mentioned in this Episode: Laura's recent appearance on RFK's podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUOJ3lTfDF0 Laura Delano: Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance (book): https://www.lauradelano.com/book/unshrunk Website: https://www.lauradelano.com Inner Compass Initiative: https://www.theinnercompass.org X: https://x.com/LauraDelano IG: https://www.instagram.comlauradelano/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/laurafdelano Dr. Brian Lenzkes:  Website: https://arizonametabolichealth.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianLenzkes?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author Dr. Tro Kalayjian:  Website: https://toward.health Twitter: https://twitter.com/DoctorTro IG: https://www.instagram.com/doctortro/ Toward Health App Join a growing community of individuals who are improving their metabolic health; together.  Get started at your own pace with a self-guided curriculum developed by Dr. Tro and his care team, community chat, weekly meetings, courses, challenges, message boards and more.  Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/doctor-tro/id1588693888  Google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.disciplemedia.doctortro&hl=en_US&gl=US Learn more: https://toward.health/community/

Jordan Sather and Nate Prince are back in a pre-recorded episode packed with substance. Nearly two thirds of American men are overweight or obese, but for the first time in 50 years obesity rates have ticked down. Is it MAHA, peptides, or just economic stress cutting back the Cheez-It budget? RFK sends a formal letter demanding answers from a medical journal that quietly removed a study linking vaccines to SIDS, and Big Pharma's media allies are furious that someone had the audacity to ask why. Ron Johnson and Rand Paul keep pressing on COVID shot injuries while legacy media stays conspicuously silent. Nineteen medical schools just signed a nutrition education pledge requiring 40 hours of training as a graduation standard. The US lost 140,000 farms and 20 million acres between 2017 and 2022, and Jordan has thoughts about developers, HOA lawns, and the slow death of the American farmer. And finally, a new full body imaging machine using ultrasonic waves scans you head to toe in 60 seconds with no radiation. Imagine a $30 full body scan. Jordan is already imagining it.

Acts 16:22-40 | 18 June 2026

Nineteen-year-old Jack shares how he stopped ignoring his Type 1 diabetes and took control of his health to pursue his dream of becoming a professional airline pilot. ABLEnow save for today's needs or invest for tomorrow Eversense CGM Medtronic Diabetes Tandem Mobi ** Use code JUICEBOX to save 20% at Cozy Earth  CONTOUR NextGen smart meter and CONTOUR DIABETES app Dexcom G7 Go tubeless with Omnipod 5 or Omnipod DASH * Get your supplies from US MED  or call 888-721-1514 Touched By Type 1 Take the T1DExchange survey Apple Podcasts> Subscribe to the podcast today! The podcast is available on Spotify, Google Play, iHeartRadio, Radio Public, Amazon Music and all Android devices The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here or buy me a coffee. Thank you! *The Pod has an IP28 rating for up to 25 feet for 60 minutes. The Omnipod 5 Controller is not waterproof.  ** t:slim X2 or Tandem Mobi w/ Control-IQ+ technology (7.9 or newer). RX ONLY. Indicated for patients with type 1 diabetes, 2 years and older. BOXED WARNING:Control-IQ+ technology should not be used by people under age 2, or who use less than 5 units of insulin/day, or who weigh less than 20 lbs. Safety info: tandemdiabetes.com/safetyinfo Disclaimer - Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast or read on Arden's Day is intended as medical advice. You should always consult a physician before making changes to your health plan.  If the podcast has helped you to live better with type 1 please tell someone else how to find it!  

Most people overlook a chilling truth: some pasts refuse to stay buried—and they can come back in the most unsettling ways. In this gripping episode of Suspense, Lloyd Nolan stars as Maury Swartz, a sharp-talking salesman who becomes entangled in a haunting mystery that could cost him everything—including his life.Swartz's journey begins with what seems like a routine business venture—finding a room in a sketchy Chicago neighborhood. But that room, once perfectly preserved as a shrine to a mysterious woman named Laverne, hides a sinister secret. As Swartz digs deeper, he uncovers connections that stretch far beyond a simple disappearance, leading to a dilapidated theater and a dark secret lurking in the shadows. From a closed theater on State Street to a strange, ominous phone number that refuses to be dialed, every step reveals a piece of the puzzle—and a danger that's all too real.You'll discover:How seemingly innocent clues—a picture, a key, a forgotten phone number—can unravel a hidden crime.The unsettling psychology of obsession, and how it blurs the line between the past and present.The meticulous plan of a murderer hiding behind a ghostly facade, and the chilling final showdown in an abandoned theater.The importance of intuition and perseverance when confronting the unknown—lessons that resonate long after the story ends.This episode is a masterclass in suspense, blending eerie atmosphere with a narrative that keeps you guessing until the final, shocking moment. If you believe that some ghosts are better left undisturbed, or if you're fascinated by stories where the past refuses to die, this is essential listening.Perfect for mystery lovers, true crime enthusiasts, or anyone who enjoys a story of retribution and buried secrets. Don't wait until you see shadows moving—hit play now and see how a ghost from the past can turn deadly.

Kevin Bright was nineteen years old when Dennis Rader shot him twice and left him for dead in his sister Kathryn's house in Wichita on April 4, 1974. Kevin survived. His sister did not. Before Kevin went into surgery, with one of Rader's bullets still inside his head, he gave Wichita detectives a description of the man who had attacked them.A police sketch artist drew the face. On April 23, 1974, that drawing ran on the front page of the Wichita Eagle. Nineteen days after the attack. Dennis Rader was free in Park City, Kansas. He would remain free for the next thirty-one years.In his own 2005 confession, Rader said the sketch was, in his words, uncomfortably close to him. He said no one ever came for him.In the second chapter of True Crime Today's five-part BTK investigation, host Tony Brueski walks through every piece of Dennis Rader that the Wichita Police Department had in evidence rooms during the years he was still operating. A sketch in 1974. A confession letter inside a library book in 1974. A voice tape in 1977. A poem in a sealed package in 1979. A neighbor of his killed in 1985 and one of his own residents killed in his own jurisdiction in 1991.The chase did not close because Wichita Police were incompetent. The chase did not close because Dennis Rader was a mastermind either. The chase did not close because the system, in a small city in the 1970s and 80s, did not yet know how to look at its own data. And the people paying the price for that gap, including a grieving husband suspected of his wife's murder for eighteen years, did not deserve to carry the cost.END LINKSJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDISCLAIMERThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.HASHTAGS#BTK #DennisRader #KevinBright #BTKKiller #TrueCrimeToday #SerialKillers #Wichita #ColdCase #TrueCrime #WichitaPD

Damn Interesting Podcast: Chile's audacious 1970s-era plan to network and automate the country's entire economy, hindered by political upheaval and CIA maneuvering. Long-time listeners might recognize this story, we did a version of it years ago. The original narrator for this piece joined forces with one of our competitors, and together they have been aggressively poaching our catalog to make videos. So we've decided to start removing his name and voice from our podcast.

Nineteen years as the Archdiocese of Washington's exorcist ended within a week of Monsignor Stephen Rossetti posting a video that called most UFO sightings demonic.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/exorcist-ufosLook for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.#WeirdDarkness, #WeirdDarkNEWSNOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is NOT an AI voice.

The investigation into Ted Bundy's second year of killing began with a traffic stop nobody planned. Sergeant Bob Hayward, a twenty-two-year veteran of the Utah Highway Patrol, was sitting in his cruiser outside his own home in Granger, Utah, at 2:30 in the morning when a tan VW Beetle passed with its headlights off. He chased it. He searched it. What he found inside — a ski mask, a pantyhose mask with eyeholes cut by hand, a crowbar, an ice pick, rope, and handcuffs — was a kit assembled by someone who had thought about what he was going to use it for.The driver was Ted Bundy. He had no record. He was released on his own recognizance.Two days later, Salt Lake County Detective Jerry Thompson read the arrest report and connected the name to Carol DaRonch — the eighteen-year-old who had fought her way out of a Volkswagen nine months earlier after a man posing as Officer Roseland tried to handcuff her at a mall. Thompson called Mike Fisher in Colorado, who had the Caryn Campbell case. He called Bob Keppel in King County, who had eight names and a stack of tip cards.For the first time, three states realized they had been working the same case for nineteen months without knowing it.The women between those states — Nancy Wilcox, Melissa Smith, Laura Aime, Debby Kent, Caryn Campbell, Julie Cunningham, Denise Oliverson, Lynette Culver, Susan Curtis — crossed jurisdictions nobody had connected. Five states. Five agencies. No shared file.This is the second of five conversations in Ted Bundy: History's Hidden Killers. The investigative thread that finally tied the cases together — and the survivor and the accident that made it possible.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#TedBundy #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #Utah #Colorado #CarolDaRonch #Survivor #SerialKiller #TrueCrimePodcast #ColdCase

May 28, 2026; 5pm: Nicolle Wallace covers another chapter in the Trump grift, urging cash-strapped Americans to buy Dell computers. Donald Trump is personally invested in Dell to the tune of at least a million dollars. Nineteen days after Trump asked Americans to buy from Dell, the government inked a nearly $10 billion dollar contract with the company. For more, follow us on Instagram @deadlinewh To listen to this show and other MS NOW podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. For more from Nicolle, follow and download her podcast, “The Best People with Nicolle Wallace,” wherever you get your podcasts.To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.