Podcasts about normalizing

Kyle and Joe interview Rachel Turetzky & Douglas S. Wingate about their perspectives on the WilsonLeary 8 Circuit Model of consciousness. They recently released a CE approved program on Psychedelic Education Center to train therapists on this model and how to integrate the 8 Circuit Model into your clinical therapy practice. In this episode: Maybe Day and maybe logic: Honoring Robert Anton Wilson and learning to hold beliefs, models, and interpretations more lightly Reality tunnels: How biology, experience, culture, and conditioning filter our perception of reality Robert Anton Wilson's legacy: Guerrilla ontology, stand-up philosophy, Prometheus Rising, and using humor to destabilize rigid beliefs Timothy Leary beyond the caricature: His early work in psychology, the development of the Eight-Circuit Model, and the parts of his intellectual legacy that are often overlooked The first four circuits: Bodily safety, emotional territory, language and symbolic thinking, and social and relational conditioning The upper circuits: Sensory and somatic intelligence, metacognition, archetypal and transpersonal experience, and unitive states of consciousness Metaprogramming: Identifying the beliefs, imprints, and automatic patterns shaping our lives—and developing the capacity to revise them Circuit Zero and Stanislav Grof: Prenatal and perinatal experience, the basic perinatal matrices, and the lasting influence of early development Normalizing unusual experiences: Archetypal encounters, ancestral material, entities, out-of-body experiences, synchronicities, and other phenomena that conventional psychology may struggle to interpret Psychedelics and re-imprinting: How expanded states may loosen entrenched developmental patterns and create opportunities for psychological change Pleasure as therapeutic material: Anhedonia, chronic survival states, the "hedonic intelligence" of Circuit Five, and learning to experience joy without treating it as a distraction from the work Clinical applications: Using the model during psychedelic preparation to identify intentions, developmental imprints, and material that may emerge Medicine and dosage selection: How MDMA, ketamine, psilocybin, LSD, and 5-MeO-DMT may produce different experiences depending on the intention and dose Integration and verticality: Grounding expansive, archetypal, or unitive experiences through the body, emotions, relationships, and everyday life Chapel Perilous: Understanding destabilizing experiences, ontological shock, spiritual emergencies, and the process of reconstructing meaning afterward Beyond psychedelics: Connections with yoga, meditation, occult practice, Chinese medicine, chakra systems, and other psychospiritual traditions The new course: The structure of The Eight-Circuit Model of Consciousness: An Integrative Framework for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, including its 14 lessons, practical exercises, assessments, certification, and continuing-education options

Okay ladies, this one's for YOU. Ever secretly wondered if your wildest desires, romantic daydreams, or untamed fantasies are “normal”? Or maybe you crave more passion, more play, and more pleasure, but aren't sure how to even start that conversation? Enter the powerhouse Caitlin V: sex therapist, intimacy coach, and the straight-talking woman who's helped thousands of women discover exactly what THEY want in bed.In Part 1, we're going behind the scenes of female fantasy: unpacking Twilight, Fifty Shades, why yearning to be desired is at the heart of so much, and how to finally own your erotic power without shame. Caitlin V breaks it all down: why scheduling sex is actually hot (and necessary!), how to safely explore archetypes and kink, and why women's pleasure is far more creative and expansive than you've ever been told. If you're done hiding, done playing small, and SO ready to claim the sex and intimacy you deserve, start here.SHOWNOTESWhy feeling desired is at the core of women's fantasiesScheduling sex vs. spontaneityBreaking down archetypes: Vampires, dominance, surrenderTwilight & the erotic pull of restraint and safetyTaboo, kink, and why your fantasy is more normal (and healing) than you thinkSafely claiming sub/dom play and power dynamicsErotic Blueprints: What actually turns women onHow to break down, name, and ask for your exact desiresExploring the edges: consent, taboo, and reclaiming shame as pleasureFantasies about threesomes and queerness: Normalizing what women wantThe animal, the goddess, and every archetype a woman can beThank you to our sponsors:Shopify: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://shopify.com/lisaOneSkin: 15% off with code LISA at https://oneskin.co/lisaFollow Caitlin V:Website: https://caitlinvneal.comInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/caitlinvictoriousx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CaitlinVFOLLOW LISA BILYEU:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisabilyeu/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/womenofimpactTik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lisa_bilyeu?lang=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisabilyeuSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Many people are told that leaking urine, pelvic pain, or feeling "off" after pregnancy is simply something they have to live with- but that's far from the truth. In this episode, Deb sits down with pelvic floor physical therapist Dr. Sneha Gazi to unpack some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding pelvic floor health during pregnancy and postpartum. Together, they explore what pelvic floor dysfunction actually looks like, why it's so often normalized, and how small changes can make a big difference. Dr. Gazi explains how the pelvic floor works in harmony with the breath, posture, and the rest of the body, challenging the idea that more Kegels are always the answer. She also shares practical ways to support pelvic health throughout pregnancy, what realistic postpartum recovery can look like, and the subtle signs that it's time to seek professional support. This empowering conversation reminds parents that pain and dysfunction are common- but they are not normal, and help is available. Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com Don't forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you've been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies (Apple) or on Spotify! To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Money & Meaning, host Jeff Bernier is joined by Dr. Joy Lere, a licensed clinical psychologist and co-founder of Shaping Wealth. They examine retirement as more than a financial milestone, focusing on the shift in identity, purpose, and daily structure that comes with leaving a career. Joy shares how unmet expectations, loss, and identity challenges can shape the transition, along with practical ways to prepare by building a meaningful life outside of work and continuing to contribute beyond a paycheck.    Topics covered:  Retirement as an existential transition, not just a financial one The gap between expectations and reality in life after work Normalizing loss, stress, and emotional complexity in transitions Building a life outside of work before retiring Balancing meaningful work with other areas of life Continuing purpose and contribution beyond a paycheck Identity challenges when stepping away from a long-held role Shifting mindset from “what you do” to “who you are” Identifying needs fulfilled by work and finding alternatives Avoidance and delaying difficult transitions Processing grief and loss in major life changes Holding both joy and grief during life transitions   Useful Links:    Jeff Bernier on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jeffberniercfp_the-money-and-meaning-show-activity-7202103509700227072-h0Qn/  TandemGrowth Financial Advisors: https://www.tandemgrowth.com/  Joy Lere on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-lere-psy-d  Shaping Wealth: https://www.shapingwealth.com/  Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com) 

On today's totally normal episode of Quick Charge, it seems like EV sales are starting to normalize in the US after the loss of the Federal Tax Credit last September – but they're taking off everywhere else, and Europe is leading the charge!

David Ferrugio lost his father on 9/11 at age 12. Now he hosts Dead Talks, a podcast normalizing conversations about death and grief through hundreds of interviews. His new book, You're Not Dead Yet, explores how grief and loss teach you to live fully. His core belief: when we face death openly, we learn to live more completely. Instead of letting his father's death define him, David learned that loss is inevitable and you choose how you respond. The experience shaped his philosophy about mortality and meaning. He discusses the choice between fear and action, staying open to possibilities, and how normalizing death conversations actually decreases anxiety. David shares a remarkable moment at the 9/11 memorial when he heard his mother's voice speaking his father's name through the audio system at an extraordinary coincidence. He explores what happens when we assign meaning to experiences, how to balance openness without attachment, and why the absurdity of existence proves miracles are possible. His work bridges philosophy, spirituality, psychology, and lived experience through interviews with experts, celebrities, and people with extraordinary stories. Guest: David Ferrugio, Dead Talks Podcast Book: You're Not Dead Yet: How Grief and Loss Can Teach You How to Live (Available for pre-order)Website Instagram  Full show notes Buy my Books HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter ⁠⁠ Join a Science and Spirituality Salon  More at: https://www.wtfjusthappened.net/ IANDS CONFERENCE International Association for Near Death Studies August 27th - 30th Seattle, WashingtonJoin Us Forever Family Foundation Love Knows No Death Summer Grief Transformation Retreat 2026 July 24 @ 4:00 pm - July 26 @ 5:30 pm Chester, Connecticut Join us!

Welcome solo and group practice owners! We are Liath Dalton and Evan Dumas, your co-hosts of Group Practice Tech. In our latest episode, we chat with Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey about how to properly document your therapy sessions. We discuss: Normalizing why documentation is such a struggle for clinicians Dispelling the myth that it is necessary to translate what you're doing into CBT language for insurance reimbursement and why The danger of only considering insurance when documenting Documenting what actually happened in session Acknowledging that progress notes are never going to fully capture the depth of therapeutic transformation AI documentation: is it better? What fundamentals need to be in place for AI to be clinically useful Mistakes Maelisa has seen AI make in clinical documentation Maelisa's upcoming CE training on documentation, featuring live coaching demos to help with skill-building Listen here: https://personcenteredtech.com/group/podcast/ For more, visit our website.   PCT Resources: New CE Training: Beyond CBT: Documenting Somatic, Creative, and Culturally-Informed Interventions Presented by Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey | 3 CE Credit Hours | Live (7/hours 27) and On-Demand This workshop is designed for therapists who want their documentation to reflect the work they're actually doing. Participants will learn a practical framework for connecting contemporary therapeutic interventions to medical necessity, develop personalized intervention language for treatment plans and progress notes, and watch live documentation coaching sessions that demonstrate the documentation process in real time. Includes downloadable worksheets, intervention templates, and on-demand self-study CE course access following the live event.  Explore Dr. McCaffrey's PCT CE course collection on Documentation & Clinical Use of AI Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey is one of the leading educators on ethical, clinically meaningful documentation for mental health professionals. Explore her complete collection of PCT continuing education courses on progress notes, treatment plans, medical necessity, insurance audits, contemporary documentation practices, and the ethical use of AI in clinical work.   Resources: Dr. McCaffrey's book: Stress Free Documentation for Mental Health Therapists Dr. McCaffrey's company: QA Prep Want to continue learning from Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey? Visit QA Prep, her educational platform dedicated to helping mental health professionals create documentation that is clinically meaningful, ethical, efficient, and far less stressful. Explore free resources, self-paced courses, consultation, practical tools, and her Stress-Free Documentation book covering progress notes, treatment planning, medical necessity, AI, supervision, and more. 

PSR Podcast is a listener supported outreach of Be Broken Ministries. DEEP & WIDE: Please help us reach our mid-year fundraising goal of $77K by July 31st. No gift is too small!Partner with us at BeBroken.org/donate. Thank you for your support!----------In this special edition of Family Time* (which we recorded right before Mother's Day), I sit down with Norma Q-Brown, our Family Care Director, and two incredible moms, Sonia and Carol, to talk about having critical conversations with kids around emotions and sexuality. They share their personal experiences using our ministry resources, including the Honest Talk game and Honest Talk book. Together, we explore how building emotional awareness creates the trust needed for kids to open up about harder topics, and why grace, humility, and ongoing dialogue matter more than having all the answers.I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and I think you will too. It is honest, yet hope-filled. If you are a parent in today's world, you don't have to be scared.*Family Time episodes are short, practical conversations to help parents feel more confident and competent in raising kids according to God's design, even in a sex-saturated culture.Topics Covered in this Episode:Importance of emotional awareness in parenting.Tools and resources for facilitating difficult conversations with children.Experiences of mothers in using parenting resources effectively.The foundational role of emotions in discussing topics like sexuality.Building trust and open communication between parents and children.Normalizing ongoing conversations about sexuality rather than a single "talk."The impact of parental reactions on children's emotional development.Encouragement for parents to engage with their children's questions and concerns.The significance of using proper anatomical terms and age-appropriate discussions.The role of grace and community support in parenting challenges.Resources for Next Steps:Critical Conversation Online Course (free)Honest Talk* by John FortHonest Talk: The GameFor more parenting podcasts, go to Bebroken.org/tp-pods and scroll to Family Bundles.*This is an affiliate link. Be Broken may earn referral fees on purchases through this link.----------Please rate and review our podcast: Apple and SpotifyFollow us on our Vimeo Channel.

Normalizing

As therapists, it is easy to fall into the trap of protocol-based treatment—treating a clinical diagnosis like a strict recipe book. But true, transformative patient care requires us to step back from the "cookbook" approach and lean heavily into intentional clinical reasoning and pattern recognition.In this episode, Hallie Bulkin takes the mic for an essential masterclass on the critical distinctions between screening, assessment, and treatment in clinical practice. She unpacks how blurring these clinical boundaries leads to stalled progress and directly impacts overall patient safety.Hallie explores the delicate balance between structural anatomy and true muscle function, provides practical strategies for sustainable habit formation, and highlights why patient-centered decision-making is the key to successful therapy. If you are ready to confidently look at the whole patient, break out of professional silos, and elevate your interdisciplinary collaboration, this episode will completely reframe your daily practice.Key Topics & TakeawaysUnblurring the Boundaries: Clear, non-negotiable definitions separating screening, comprehensive assessment, and actual functional treatment.The Clinical Reasoning Shift: Why relying strictly on protocol-based "cookbook" therapy limits your growth as a clinician and slows down patient outcomes.Anatomy vs. Function: Understanding that structural differences (like a tongue-tie) are only half the battle—how the muscles actually move and compensate dictates the treatment plan.The Referral Strength: Normalizing interdisciplinary care and seeing specialized cross-referrals as a position of clinical strength rather than a limitation.Integrated Care Systems: A high-level look at breaking down professional silos to build a truly holistic, collaborative network for your patients.Soundbites"Screening is simply deciding if more evaluation is needed. It's a decision point, not a roadmap for immediate therapy.""Assessment is about understanding exactly why the dysfunction exists, looking at the entire system from the bottom up.""Treatment is about fundamentally changing muscle function and building sustainable new habits, not just checking exercises off a list."00:00:36 – Welcome to the Untethered Podcast00:01:12 – Defining the distinction between screening, assessment, and treatment00:02:43 – The primary purpose of a screening00:06:23 – Why assessment requires clinical detective work00:11:02 – Treatment: Changing function rather than just exercises00:15:25 – Normalizing the non-linear path of progress00:21:49 – The problem with collecting interventions without clinical reasoning00:25:01 – Anatomy versus function: Why function must drive clinical decisions00:30:13 – Shifting from rigid silos to integrated care00:39:07 – Conclusion and final thoughts on serving patientsLinks & ResourcesFast Myo Screening Tool: Stop guessing during your intakes and download the checklist at FastMyoScreening.com.FREE TRAINING: Ready to bridge the gap between screening and assessment? Join the free Screen The Peds to Feed The Peds Training.RELATED EPISODES YOU MIGHT LOVEWhy Two Therapists Get Different Feeding Outcomes (And How to Fix It)Episode 145: The Missing Link In Your SLP & OT Screenings with Hallie Bulkin, MA, CCC-SLP, COMSTAY CONNECTED

Cameron is joined by Dr. Bushra Alzubaidi, founder of Lysty Aesthetics and Wellness, and they discuss the often-overlooked topic of women's intimate wellness. They explore the societal taboos surrounding sexual health, the impact of aging and childbirth on women's bodies, and the importance of normalizing conversations about intimate wellness. She shares her insights on the consultation process, the creation of comprehensive treatment plans, and the role of peptides in enhancing sexual wellness. The conversationCameron and Dr. Bushra emphasize the empowerment of women to speak openly about their health and the need for a supportive dialogue in the medical community. Dr. Bushra talks about the importance of women's wellness, addressing topics such as urinary incontinence, intimate wellness treatments, and the significance of patient-centric care. She emphasizes the need for open discussions about women's health issues and the evolution of treatments available. They also highlight the importance of building trust in patient-provider relationships and the connection between sexual wellness and overall happiness. Listen In!Thank you for listening to this episode of Medical Millionaire!Takeaways:Women are starting to realize they don't have to separate sexual wellness from aesthetics.Social media has played a significant role in normalizing discussions about intimate wellness.Aging and childbirth can significantly impact women's intimate health.Education is key to empowering women about their sexual wellness options.The consultation process should focus on listening to the patient's concerns first.Intimate wellness issues can affect emotional and mental well-being.Peptides can play a role in enhancing sexual wellness and libido.Women are becoming more empowered to discuss their health openly.Normalizing conversations about intimate wellness is essential for societal change.Providers need to create a safe space for women to discuss their intimate health. Women often hesitate to discuss intimate health issues due to stigma.Urinary incontinence is a common issue that can be treated effectively.Many women are unaware that treatments exist for conditions they think are normal.Patient education is crucial in intimate wellness.The market for intimate wellness is growing and evolving rapidly.Trust and authenticity in patient-provider relationships lead to better outcomes.Sexual wellness is closely linked to overall happiness and relationship stability.Men are increasingly involved in discussions about women's health.Listening to patients' experiences is essential for effective treatment.The future of wellness will focus on holistic approaches to health.Medical Millionaire: The Blueprint for Scaling a World-Class Medical Aesthetics PracticeWelcome to Medical Millionaire, the go-to podcast for forward-thinking Medspa owners, Medical Aesthetics leaders, Plastic Surgery & Dermatology practices, Concierge Wellness clinics, and Elective Healthcare entrepreneurs who are ready to scale with intention and operate like a true, high-performing business.If you're building, growing, optimizing, or preparing to exit your aesthetics or wellness practice, this show is your competitive advantage.Hosted by Cameron Hemphill Your Guide to Sustainable, Scalable Growth Your host, Cameron Hemphill, is one of the most trusted growth strategists in Medical Aesthetics and Elective Wellness.With over 10 years in the industry, Cameron has helped scale 1,000+ practices and more than 2,300 providers, working alongside the most recognized KOLs, national brands, EMRs, tech companies, and private equity groups, shaping the future of aesthetics. From marketing to operations, from finance to leadership, Cameron brings a real-world, data-driven perspective on what it takes to turn a practice into a powerful business engine.What This Podcast Is All About: Each episode takes you behind the scenes of the fastest-growing practices in the country, revealing the systems, strategies, and mindset required to win in today's Medical Aesthetics landscape.Expect tactical insights, step-by-step frameworks, and conversations with:Industry thought leadersTop injectors & medical directorsEMR & tech innovatorsOperations expertsMarketing strategistsPrivate equity & M&A advisorsWellness and longevity pioneersThis is where aesthetics, business, technology, and wellness converge. What You'll Learn on Medical Millionaire Every week, you'll access expert guidance to help you scale profitably and predictably, including:Marketing & Brand PositioningCRM + Lead Management SystemsPatient Acquisition & ConversionEMR Optimization & Tech Stack ArchitectureSales Psychology & Consultation MasteryFinance, KPIs, and Practice EconomicsOperational Workflows & AutomationIndustry Trends Backed by Real Benchmark DataPatient Retention & Lifetime Value ExpansionMindset, Leadership & Team DevelopmentWhether you're opening your first location or running a multi-million-dollar enterprise, you'll gain the clarity and direction to grow with confidence. A Show Designed for Every Stage of Practice Growth Medical Millionaire breaks down the journey into four essential stages, showing you exactly how to move from one to the next:Startup – Build the foundation and attract your first wave of patientsGrowth – Scale revenue, expand services, and strengthen operationsOptimize – Increase efficiency, margins, and customer experienceExit – Prepare your practice for maximum valuation and acquisitionIf You're Ready to Grow, This Is Where You Start. Tune in weekly for actionable insights, expert interviews, and the exact playbooks high-performing practices use to dominate their markets. This is the podcast for Medspa owners who want more than a job; they want a scalable, profitable, industry-leading business. Welcome to Medical Millionaire.Let's build your practice into the empire it deserves to be.

Pears are delicious and can be a healthy part of a diet, but getting consumers on board can be a challenge.

In this episode of the Pipeliners Podcast, Russel Treat talks with Walter Nusbaum, keynote speaker at the 2026 API Pipeline Conference, about his framework for pursuing excellence as a way of life. The conversation explores how unaddressed hazards and violations can gradually normalize failure, using real world examples ranging from the 1999 Texas A&M Bonfire collapse to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster to illustrate concepts like latent error and enabling conditions. Visit PipelinePodcastNetwork.com for a full episode transcript and detailed show notes with relevant links and definitions to insider terms. 

In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, Hallie chats with Victoria Dertouzos—SLP and founder of Speech and Stuttering Therapy of New Jersey—about why stuttering therapy looks so different than it used to, and why that's a good thing. Victoria breaks down what a modern, neurodiversity-affirming approach to stuttering actually looks like in practice, how to assess what you've been missing, and what to say to students who've never felt heard in a therapy room. If stuttering therapy isn't your jam, this one's for you.Bullet Points to Discuss: Why fluency-chasing has let down generations of people who stutter—and what to do insteadWhat covert stuttering is and why your assessment might be missing itHow secondary behaviors develop—and why they're not actually part of the stutterWhat to ask a student who stutters before anything elseHow to handle teachers and parents who just want it “fixed”What a neurodiversity-affirming stuttering session actually looks likeHere's what we learned: You can reduce the struggle around stuttering—but you can't remove the stutter itself.If you're only counting disfluencies, you're missing the whole picture.A student who seems fine might be switching words, skipping answers, and falling behind without anyone noticing.Say “stuttering”—not “bumpy speech.” Normalizing the word helps normalize the experience.Ask the student what they think before you ask what they do. That's where therapy actually starts.Learn more about Victoria Dertouzos: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stutteringtherapyslp/a Website: https://www.stutteringtherapynj.com Supporting Preschoolers Who Stutter: A Teacher's Guide: https://sstnj.myflodesk.com/fssfj7n1d8 Learn more about Hallie Sherman and SLP Elevate:  

Is sustained hemostatic normalization achievable across all hemophilia A patients? Examine the evidence behind today's therapeutic advances. Credit available for this activity expires: 6/26/27 Earn Credit / Learning Objectives & Disclosures: https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/normalizing-hemostasis-achievable-goal-hemophilia-2026a1000jxv?ecd=bdc_podcast_libsyn_mscpedu

Reclaiming the Driver's Seat: Operational Engineering for Service Entrepreneurs with Jillian BaileyIn a recent episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Podcast, host Josh Elledge sat down with Jillian Bailey, the founder of Inspired Growth, to dismantle the systemic operational chaos that frequently caps the revenue and sanity of service-based business owners. Jillian, a veteran corporate architect and systems designer, specializes in helping founders transition out of the exhausting "freedom trap"—the painful irony of leaving a corporate job to achieve lifestyle flexibility, only to become the most overworked, manual operator in their own enterprise. This conversation provides an essential operational roadmap for consultants, agency owners, and service professionals who are ready to eliminate decision fatigue, build automated standard operating procedures, and transition their companies into self-sustaining corporate assets that scale predictably without their daily physical intervention.The Architecture of Order: Systematizing Client Journeys and Eliminating Technical FrictionThe primary constraint strangling the valuation of a scaling service enterprise is almost always the founder's tendency to treat every operational task as a unique, high-touch event that requires their personal approval. Jillian Bailey notes that running an organization without documented workflows inevitably forces the executive team into a cycle of constant, reactive firefighting, which destroys cognitive capacity and introduces massive friction into customer-facing operations. True enterprise scalability is achieved when leadership steps away from the daily minutiae to conduct an honest, top-down audit of the company's ecosystem—mapping out every distinct process from initial lead generation to long-term client onboarding. By transforming fragmented knowledge into clean, repeatable Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), business owners remove personal bias from the frontline, ensuring that the brand delivers a uniform premium experience while dramatically reducing administrative friction.Transitioning an enterprise away from founder-dependency requires a disciplined, non-negotiable dedication to leveraging data-driven technology stacks and automated payment pipelines. Many service providers accumulate severe operational debt by attempting to manage complex scheduling, multi-system client communication, and monthly invoicing manually, assuming that software integration is a luxury reserved only for larger corporations. Real-world profit optimization is unlocked when an organization systematically connects tools like Calendly, Dubsado, and Zapier to automate back-office admin tasks, building a resilient digital infrastructure that moves client delivery along automatically. When independent software modules handle these repetitive pipelines in the background, the business naturally minimizes transaction errors, protects its gross margins against inflation, and frees the internal workforce to focus purely on high-yield strategic initiatives.Sustaining this optimized momentum demands that executive leadership actively cultivate a transparent corporate culture that normalizes behavioral vulnerability and rejects the toxic, un-scalable myth of the perfect founder. When corporate managers hide internal bottlenecks or attempt to absorb operational errors out of fear, it creates silent cracks in the business infrastructure that eventually lead to severe team attrition and severe leadership burnout. Establishing clear, high-accountability feedback loops and celebrating transparent, honest error reporting allows corporate teams to address underlying system failures rather than masking immediate symptoms. When an enterprise synthesizes this authentic communication philosophy with empirical operational diagnostics—such as comprehensive efficiency audits—the business naturally expands its enterprise value. This proactive governance converts the corporate asset from a time-consuming job into a highly automated, passive engine designed to predictably fund the lifestyle of its owner.About Jillian BaileyJillian Bailey is the Founder and Chief Operations Consultant of Inspired Growth, and a premier authority on systems engineering and lifestyle restoration for overwhelmed service entrepreneurs. Drawing from a deep background in corporate lifecycle dynamics, workflow design, and operational psychology, Jillian specializes in helping high-performing founders replace chaotic daily firefighting with permanent, scalable infrastructure. She is a dedicated advisor focused on helping business leaders establish clear operational boundaries, implement high-yield automation, and reclaim true professional autonomy.About Inspired GrowthInspired Growth is an elite corporate consulting and operations advisory firm designed to help small-to-mid-sized service enterprises transition from chaotic, founder-dependent models into structured corporate assets. The firm specializes in delivering comprehensive business ecosystem audits, custom SOP development, automated tech stack integration, and white-glove fractional management services. Through proprietary strategic systems like the Efficiency Audit Quiz, Inspired Growth enables organizations to eliminate administrative bottlenecks, improve client retention, and secure sustainable, scalable profit margins.Links Mentioned in This EpisodeInspired Growth Official Website: inspired-growth.comKey Episode HighlightsThe Freedom Trap Framework: Analyzing why service entrepreneurs unconsciously exchange corporate structures for exhausting, high-volume operational self-employment.The Architecture of Predictable SOPs: Crafting simple, repeatable Standard Operating Procedures to eliminate decision fatigue and streamline team delegation pipelines.The 5-Stage Business Diagnostic Evaluation: Jillian's precise operational method to calm immediate fire fighting, zoom out, and systematically clean up backend workflow debt.Normalizing the "Dirty Secrets" of Scale: Overcoming executive burnout by establishing transparent workplace communication and embracing vulnerability across all management lines.Backend Automation Loops: Leveraging optimized tech integrations across scheduling, data tracking, and customer relationship management to insulate business profit margins.ConclusionThe conversation with Jillian Bailey reinforces that true operational freedom is a direct downstream result of structural precision and data-driven system architecture rather than pure manual hustle. By standardizing internal corporate governance, removing process friction from the frontline, and focusing ruthlessly on automated systems, service leaders can safely transform a volatile, time-consuming business into a highly structured, self-sustaining corporate asset.More from The Thoughtful Entrepreneur

In a world where the lines between civility and violence are increasingly blurred, a concerning trend has emerged on the left. This episode delves into the disturbing reality of how some individuals and groups have become more comfortable with using violence to achieve their goals, rather than engaging in democratic processes. The speaker discusses a recent incident at a UFC event near the White House, where an attempted terrorist attack occurred, and how it's just one example of a larger issue. They also touch on a clip from CNN, where a data analyst highlights a stark divide between Republicans and Democrats on patriotic values, such as displaying the American flag and being proud to be American. The conversation also explores how this growing polarization has led to a concerning lack of pride in America among some Democrats. The speaker argues that this trend is not just about individual opinions, but about a broader cultural shift. They point to the funding of anti-American rallies and protests by certain individuals and groups, and how this has contributed to a culture of violence. The conversation also touches on the importance of understanding what America stands for and why it's exceptional. If you're concerned about the state of our country and the values that are being eroded, this episode is a must-listen. The speaker's analysis and insights will help you understand the complexities of this issue and why it's essential to address it. Join us as we explore this critical topic and discuss the implications for our democracy. Follow Carl Jackson:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carljacksonradioX/Twitter: https://twitter.com/carljacksonshowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecarljacksonshowWebsite: http://www.TheCarlJacksonShow.comStore: https://CarlJacksonStore.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a world where the lines between civility and violence are increasingly blurred, a concerning trend has emerged on the left. This episode delves into the disturbing reality of how some individuals and groups have become more comfortable with using violence to achieve their goals, rather than engaging in democratic processes. The speaker discusses a recent incident at a UFC event near the White House, where an attempted terrorist attack occurred, and how it's just one example of a larger issue. They also touch on a clip from CNN, where a data analyst highlights a stark divide between Republicans and Democrats on patriotic values, such as displaying the American flag and being proud to be American. The conversation also explores how this growing polarization has led to a concerning lack of pride in America among some Democrats. The speaker argues that this trend is not just about individual opinions, but about a broader cultural shift. They point to the funding of anti-American rallies and protests by certain individuals and groups, and how this has contributed to a culture of violence. The conversation also touches on the importance of understanding what America stands for and why it's exceptional. If you're concerned about the state of our country and the values that are being eroded, this episode is a must-listen. The speaker's analysis and insights will help you understand the complexities of this issue and why it's essential to address it. Join us as we explore this critical topic and discuss the implications for our democracy. Follow Carl Jackson:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carljacksonradioX/Twitter: https://twitter.com/carljacksonshowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecarljacksonshowWebsite: http://www.TheCarlJacksonShow.comStore: https://CarlJacksonStore.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

[From June 10, 2025] Mary welcomes back Olivier Melnick to discuss the new normal: antisemitism. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus from France, the son of Holocaust survivors, whose maternal grandfather was killed by the Nazis. Olivier is an internationally known speaker on antisemitism. He holds a BA from Moody Bible Institute and a masters from Dallas Theological Seminary, and has been equipping believers to understand and fight antisemitism since 2000. The ramping up of antisemitism is a complete surprise to some, it’s not that long ago that they were the target of genocide during WW2, and if anyone alive has a parent who fought in that war, the connection is still strong. So why now? How are things different? Today we talk about the stages of normalization from his book, “The Normalization of Antisemitism”. World leaders are not so subtly being drawn into this hate as the world turns their back on Israel. Words matter. Words turn to violence. Even our neighbor to the north is being drawn in. Israel can do nothing right, so they might as well do what they are going to do to stave off the end of the west through violence, immigration, and Islam.   Stand Up For The Truth Videos: https://rumble.com/user/CTRNOnline & https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgQQSvKiMcglId7oGc5c46A

In this episode, Steve Seckler speaks with Dr. Sarah Alsaidi, a psychologist, executive coach, and creator of the Brain in Mind Method, a coaching framework that integrates neuroscience and psychology to help high-performing professionals better understand how their brains work and perform at their best. Dr. Alsaidi explores the critical role of executive functioning in high-performing legal professionals. She demystifies how these mental skills influence productivity, resilience, and well-being, offering practical insights for lawyers and their organizations. This episode offers a blend of neuroscience, practical coaching strategies, and insights into the unique challenges faced by legal professionals, making it a valuable listen for anyone looking to enhance their cognitive skills and resilience in high-stakes careers. Key Takeaways: Executive functioning is like the brain's CEO, involving skills such as planning, organization, and emotional regulation. Microaggressions and cultural factors can significantly impact cognitive functions and focus. Distinguishing between perfectionism and healthy ambition is crucial for sustainable performance. Metacognition, or thinking about your thinking, is essential for identifying effective tools and strategies. Emotional regulation is vital for managing stress and maintaining resilience in high-pressure environments. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction and guest background 02:00 - Relevance of executive skills in legal practice 04:00 - Impact of microaggressions and sociocultural factors on cognition 06:50 - Behavior patterns linked to executive function challenges 11:15 - The importance of giving tools time to work 16:00 - Normalizing individual differences in the workplace 23:00 - Practical tools for self-assessment and improvement 30:00 - Supporting colleagues with executive functioning challenges

We can enhance athletic performance, lose weight with a pill and even take psychedelics to alter consciousness. At what point does all this self-optimization become self-obsession? When does it get in the way of our humanity itself? My guest this week is the German biotech entrepreneur Christian Angermayer, who believes scientific breakthroughs to extend our lives — and even put us in touch with the divine — are close at hand. 0:00 - Intro 01:40 - Investing in longevity, A.I. and psychedelics 6:06 - The vision for the Enhanced Games 13:45 - Normalizing enhancements for everyone 20:02 - Ozempic is the first of many... 30:00 - The five basics for health and well-being 36:52 - Psychedelics trips and spiritual revelations 59:20 - Christian skepticism 01:04:22 - "Jesus is not human-maxxing." Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com.  Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/opinion/better-sex-better-hair-better-sleep-humanmaxxing-is-here.html Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. 01 Introduction This is a follow up to my 4 part series on simple podcasting. In this episode I will discuss a number of experiments with audio filtering. These experiments were inspired by comments by listeners and by other discussions about audio on HPR. I am not an audio expert, so I am doing this partly in order to learn something, but mainly in order to have a bit of fun. I hope that you find this entertaining as well. In a comment on the first episode a listener mentioned something called Solocast and said that the method bore a resemblance to the method that I was using. Here is his comment -------------------- 02 Comment #3 posted on 2026-04-03 07:49:58 by Reto It reminds me about Solocast Hi Whiskeyjack, I really liked your podcast and the topic. I cannot remember about your last, but the sound quality of this one was good on my mobile speakers :) The concept reminded me about the program from Norrist (another host on HPR), while similar does it have some differences HPR 3496 https://hackerpublicradio.org/eps.php?id=3496 As I am not on the future feed, I look forward to your next episode. Cheers, Reto -------------------- 03 End of comment. I did not recall having heard the episode on Solocast, but this sounded very interesting. Solocast was in HPR episode 3496 and was released by norrist on the 27th of December 2021. I listened to that episode and does indeed use use the same basic concept of recording short segments of audio and combining them later instead of creating one big recording and editing it with an audio editor. 04 The main difference is that the work flow that I described involves a lot of manual steps, while Solocast is a short Python program that automates the entire process of presenting your script, recording the segments, combining the segments, and filtering and normalizing the result. I won't try to describe Solocast in detail, instead I would recommend just listening to HPR episode 3496 to get norrist's explanation directly. -------------------- 05 While I wanted to make sure that I credited norrist with having come up with this concept four years before I did, this won't be the focus of this episode. Instead I will talk about audio filtering and various experiments that I ran on several different methods. 06 While looking at the source code for Solocast I noticed that it used a filtering method that resembled one used by Jivetalk, a podcast production program that caught the attention of one of the HPR community news presenters. This method involves taking a sample of quiet audio where there is no speaking taking place, and then using this as input to a noise reduction filter which is applied to the voice recording. The filter subtracts the quiet sample from the voice audio, which should theoretically remove the ambient noise. 07 I decided to apply this method to a number of different audio test recordings which were recorded under different circumstances using different hardware. In this way I could see if the method worked equally well under all circumstances or if there were some sorts of noise which it was suited to and some sorts that were not. 08 While I was at it, I also picked several other filter methods to see how they worked as well. Potentially, some methods may be better under some conditions while other methods were better suited to others. -------------------- 09 I won't present all of my experiments, as that would be a bit dull to listen to. Instead I will describe each method and then present audio samples which illustrate my conclusions. There are two pieces of audio software involved, both of which were also used in my series on simple podcasting. 10 The first is Sox, spelled s o x , and which is short for Sound Exchange. Sox is a command line program for audio manipulation. Sox is Free Software, released under the GPLv2 or later. The other is FFMPEG, which is also a command line program. FFMPEG is also Free Software, released under the LGPL V 2.1 or later, and GPL v 2 or later. Sox actually uses FFMPEG for certain operations. -------------------- 11 Audio Hardware For recording hardware I used the following. 12 Maxwell Headset The first is a cheap Maxwell headset that has an electrical noise problem. Unfortunately I don't have a model number for this headset. I described this hardware, the noise problems that I had with it, and how I created filters to deal with the noise in my series on simple podcasting. Briefly though, this is a headset that has a build in microphone on a boom which allows the microphone to be positioned close to the mouth. It connects with a USB cable. 13 Borne Earpiece and In-line Microphone This is a set of earplugs that go in your ears and connected by wires and a very small microphone built into a small bulge in the cable. It connects using a 3.5mm jack. The model number seems to be BUD250-BL. 14 XTrike Headset This is a gaming headset similar to the Maxwell headset described above. The model number is GH-510 It uses a USB connection. 15 Yanmai Condenser Microphone This is a microphone that comes with a small tripod stand. The model number is SF-910 It uses a 3.5mm audio jack. -------------------- 16 This is not a review of the hardware. Rather, I was trying to create audio problems so that I could test ways to fix them. Therefore, do not take the above list as a recommendation of what to buy. However, you can see that I am not using any expensive audio hardware. If you want to make an HPR podcast, you do not need professional level hardware. -------------------- 17 Audio Samples The audio samples are as follows 18 Quiet This was recorded in a quiet environment at my desk. This is my normal podcasting environment and represents optimal conditions. The main reason for this method is to see how the various filter methods perform when dealing with the electrical noise from the Maxwell headset. 19 Small fan This is a small USB powered table fan approximately 10 cm in diameter. It was located roughly 40 cm or less to the left of the microphone, although this varies depending on the microphone. 20 Traffic This was along a busy street with traffic noise in the background. -------------------- 21 Filter Methods Sox noisered Filter with Audio Profile This method uses the Sox noisered filter. Here is a brief quote from the Sox documentation on this filter. Quote Reduce noise in the audio signal by profiling and filtering. This effect is moderately effective at removing consistent background noise such as hiss or hum. To use it, first run SoX with the noiseprof effect on a section of audio that ideally would contain silence but in fact contains noise - such sections are typically found at the beginning or the end of a recording. End of quote For these tests I recorded a separate noise profile to go with each test. -------------------- 22 Basic Manual Filter This is a basic high and low pass filter pair based on the work I had done in my previous series on simple podcasting. However, based on the tests that I have done for this episode, I decided to get a bit more aggressive in terms of filtering. I use a high pass filter of 120 Hz, and low pass filter of 8 kHz. The each filter is then applied twice to increase its effect. I also added band reject filters to deal specifically with 50 and 60 Hz line noise. -------------------- 23 Complex Manual Filter This uses the manually constructed filter described in my series on simple podcasting. This uses the basic manual filter plus a series of custom bandreject filters to fix specific noise problems with the Maxwell headset. -------------------- 24 FFMPEG afftdn Filter The documentation describes this as "Denoise audio samples with FFT." -------------------- 25 FFMPEG arnndn Filter The documentation describes this as "Reduce noise from speech using Recurrent Neural Networks." -------------------- 26 FFMPEG agate Filter I will pronounce this as "agate" for convenience. The documentation describes this as "A gate is mainly used to reduce lower parts of a signal. This kind of signal processing reduces disturbing noise between useful signals." -------------------- 27 Method The experimental method used was to take each noise sample and apply the different filter methods to it. Where there are parameters which can be adjusted, a script was used to generate a series of different sample files with different parameter values. Not all possible parameters were experimented with, as the goal is to see which method produces what sorts of results under different circumstances, not to get the best possible result for the samples that I happen to have. The method in each case was as follows 28 Step 1 Convert the audio file to FLAC if it is not already in that format. 29 Step 2 Apply a basic high and low pass filter described previously to each sample. The reason for this basic filtering is that it eliminates at least some undesired noise in a fairly fool proof manner, leaving less for the more advanced filter to deal with. This should allow for a better test of the filter under realistic conditions. 30 Step 3 Apply the noise reduction filter being tested. 31 Step 4 Normalize the filtered sample to 17 LUFS according to the EBU R128 standard. The EBU standard is described in my series on simple podcasting. Normalizing adjusts the audio signal to a desired loudness level. This allows for more more consistent sound levels and allows us to hear the results under realistic conditions. I normalize the audio individually for each sample as different recording hardware requires different amounts of loudness adjustment. This is different from the typical podcast process where normalizing takes place as the very last step in the process, but it was necessary in this case. 32 Step 5 Concatenate selected sample audio files to one another to allow for better review and comparing. -------------------- 33 Results The results are grouped according to the type of noise which is being mitigated. This allows for easier comparison of the effectiveness of each technique under different circumstances. I have only picked a few examples of interest out of the numerous experiments that I conducted. -------------------- 34 Quiet Recording Environment with Maxwell Headset This compares how well the various filtering methods work on the noise induced by the electronics in the Maxwell headset. This electronic noise consisted of a noise spike every 1 kHz. This should be representative of electronic noise caused by problems in recording hardware. 35 Manual Filter The manual filter applied a narrow band reject filter every 1 kHz from 1 kHz to 12 kHz. This completely removed the otherwise audible whine caused by the noise. 36 FFMPEG afftdn This method allows for setting a noise floor and then specifying how much the noise floor should be reduced by. The method is very sensitive to getting the noise floor correct for that recording. Set the floor too low and nothing happens. Set it too high, and some distortion results. However it seemed to be moderately effective, but it would seem to require checking it and possibly adjusting it each time it is used. 37 FFMPEG agate This method allows setting a noise floor and then suppressing all sound which falls below that level. This method is very sensitive to getting the noise floor correct for that recording. If set too low (or quiet), it is ineffective. If set too high (or loud), it distorts words which come after a pause, which would typically be between sentences. 38 When set correctly, it completely removes noise in the silences between sentences. However, the noise is still audible during speech. This is because the noise in this case is a higher frequency than normal speech, and so stands out more. It may not be a significant problem for noise which is closer to the main vocal frequency band. Overall, this method is not suitable for this particular problem. 39 FFMPEG arnndn This method used the standard model. A variety of different noise reduction models are available. I only tested it with one, std.rnnn It does not seem to introduce much distortion in the voice signal even with a high amount of mix parameter. 40 However, it is only slightly effective at removing the whine from the signal, even with a high amount of mix parameter. Overall, this method does not appear to be useful for this sort of noise problem. 41 Sox noisered Filter This was effective in removing noise between words, but noise can be heard while words are being spoken. It was better than agate however. 42 Overall Conclusion for the Maxwell Headset Noise When dealing with narrow noise bands that occur at known frequencies, the manual filter is leagues ahead of any of the other tested alternatives. 43 Sample Audio Here is a sample audio recording showing the best overall results The sample is repeated, first with only basic low and high pass filtering, and then with the manually constructed filtering. In the first sample you should hear a high pitched background whine. In the second sample, the high pitched whine is completely removed. 44 (Audio sample inserted here.) -------------------- 45 Traffic Noise This was recorded using the Borne in-line microphone connected to a mobile phone while walking along beside a busy street. This was in dry cool spring weather, and the road was paved with asphalt. This should be reasonably representative of podcasting while walking outdoors in a noisy environment. 46 Basic Manual Filter This used the basic manual filter with high and low pass filters. This did nothing very useful in this case as the signal was already filtered within those limits by the recording hardware anyway. The low sample rate of 8 kHz in the phone limited the upper frequency to 4 kHz. Recall that the sample rate has to be twice the highest frequency that you want to detect. Overall, this is not suitable for this sort of problem. 47 FFMPEG afftdn With a high noise floor, background noise is reduced, but not eliminated. There was not much distortion in the voice. This is only slightly useful for this sort of problem. 48 FFMPEG agate With a high threshhold, background noise is reduced, but not eliminated. There was some distortion in the voice. The background noise could also be heard when speaking, but because the frequency of the background signal was similar to the louder voice signal, it was not as noticeable as it would have been if the two were very different. This is moderately useful for this sort of problem. It may be more useful in situations where the background noise was not quite as loud. 49 FFMPEG arnndn With high amounts of noise reduction, much of the background noise is suppressed, but there is not a lot of distortion in the voice. The background traffic noise is still present, but is significantly less. This offers only a moderate improvement. 50 Sox noisered Filter With small amounts of noise reduction voice is clear but traffic noise is present as a very significant continuous warbling sound in the background. This is no improvement on the original and in fact could be seen as making it worse. With moderate amounts of noise reduction, traffic noise is mostly gone, but there are still various squeaks present. Voice is noticeably distorted. With large amounts of noise reduction, traffic noise is gone but voice is highly distorted. This is moderately useful for this sort of problem, but requires careful adjustment. 51 FFMPEG arnndn Followed by FFMPEG agate This combined two different filters. First, it used arnndn to suppress the background noise to a lower level without much voice distortion. Then it applied the agate filter to suppress the noise levels between words still further. This used the same amount of mix and threshold as was found to be most effective when each of these filters was used on its own. The background noise is almost completely gone while distortion of the voice signal is low. 52 Overall Conclusion for Traffic Noise The arnndn combined with agate filters was the most successful at suppressing background noise while limiting the amount of voice signal distortion. 53 Sample Audio Here is an audio sample for what I felt to be the best overall results, the arnndn filter combined with the agate filter. First is the original audio with basic filtering. This is followed with the same audio after being passed through the arnndn and agate filters. 54 (Insert arnndn plus agate audio sample here) 55 Another Sample Here is a second audio sample showing the Sox noisered profile based filter. I have included this to show how a profile based filter can make things worse if you are not careful how you use it. This repeats the test audio 4 times. The first is with basic filtering only. The second uses low amounts of noise reduction. The third uses moderate amounts of noise reduction. The fourth uses high amounts of noise reduction. 56 (Insert noisered audio sample here) -------------------- 57 Small Fan Noise with Yanmai Microphone This was recorded using the Yanmai condenser microphone. A small fan was set up behind and to the left of the microphone. This is intended to represent situations where someone may have a fan or air conditioner running in the background due to hot weather, or has a loud computer fan. 58 A condenser microphone was used for this test as they are more prone to picking up unwanted noise. However, for practical recording purposes, this sort of microphone is unsuitable for this type of environment. 59 Basic Manual Filter This used the basic manual filter with high and low pass filters. This did nothing useful as the fan noise was in the same frequency range as the voice signal. This may be of more help in cases where the noise is below the 120 Hz cut off used in the low pass filter. 60 FFMPEG afftdn With high amounts of noise reduction, much of the background noise is suppressed, but there is some distortion in the voice. The background fan noise is still present, but is significantly less. Overall this is moderately effective. 61 FFMPEG agate This was effective in removing noise between words, but noise can be heard while words are being spoken. However, this was a small voice sample and it is possible that more problems could occur. With less fan noise than was in this sample this technique may work much better. 62 FFMPEG arnndn With high amounts of noise reduction, much of the background noise is suppressed, but there is not a lot of distortion in the voice. The background fan noise is still present, but is significantly less. Overall this was fairly effective. 63 Sox noisered Filter With small amounts of noise reduction voice is clear but fan noise is present as a slight warbling sound in the background. With moderate amounts of noise reduction, fan noise is gone, but voice is somewhat distorted. With large amounts of noise reduction, fan noise is gone but voice is very distorted. 64 In general this method is fairly successful at dealing with this sort of problem. However, there is a trade off between background noise and voice quality. Getting that trade off correct takes experiment and judgment for each specific situation. 65 FFMPEG arnndn Followed by FFMPEG agate This combined two different filters. First, it used arnndn to suppress the background noise to a lower level without much voice distortion. Then it applied the agate filter to suppress the noise levels between words still further. This got rid of virtually all of the background noise between words. If you listen carefully however, there is a slight buzzing sound in the voice signal. 66 Overall Conclusion for Fan Noise with Yanmai Microphone. Of the methods tested, the arnndn followed by agate filter seemed to offer the most improvement for the least effort and least voice distortion. The arnndn filter on its own seemed the next most preferable to me despite leaving some fan noise in the background. 67 Audio Sample Here is an audio sample for what I felt to be the best overall results, the arnndn filter combined with the agate filter. First is the original audio with basic filtering. This is followed with the same audio after being passed through the arnndn and agate filters. 68 (Insert audio sample here) -------------------- 69 Small Fan Noise Recorded with Headset The following is an observation rather than a filtering technique. When a recording was made using the Maxwell headset and listened to on the headset later or with speakers, the fan was virtually inaudible. When the same recording was listened to with the XTrike headset, it was barely audible with careful listening and only identifiable as a fan because I knew it was there. 70 In situations where there is ambient noise, the best noise reduction technique is probably to move the microphone as close to your mouth as possible, although not directly in front of it, and reduce the gain if there is a gain adjustment in the microphone. This will work far better than trying to remove the noise later. If you are recording an HPR episode at a desk, then an inexpensive headset with boom mike may do the job just fine with minimal effort and expense. -------------------- 71 Conclusions I have tested three noise scenarios - Electronic noise in the audio hardware at specific frequencies. Recording outdoors with an inline microphone in a noisy traffic environment. A noisy fan creating background noise in an office. My conclusions on these are as follows. 72 Electronic Noise in the Audio Hardware at Specific Frequencies If you can use Audacity or some other means to find the frequencies which are causing the noise, the best solution, assuming you don't just replace the hardware, is to manually construct filters to remove those specific frequencies. This is the safest solution in terms of only doing what you tell it to and not producing unexpected surprises some time down the road when something changed in the environment. 73 If you are looking for a fairly automatic filtering method, the Sox noisered profile based filter seems to work fairly well. There is an equivalent filter in ffmpeg, but I did not include that in my experiments as it is harder to use in a script because it does not use a separate noise profile file. 74 Recording Outdoors with an Inline Microphone in a Noisy Traffic Environment. In this situation, the FFMPEG arnndn combined with agate filters seem to be the most successful. The Sox noisered filter may work, but at the cost of more distortion in the voice than is seen in the other methods. 75 An inherent problem with any profile based noise reduction method is that if the background noise is not constant, which it seldom is in that sort of environment, the profile may not represent the background noise which is present later on in the recording. This risks adding more distortion in the voice as the profile and later environments diverge. 76 However, for this application a different microphone that provided a better recording would appear to be advisable. A solution which brought the microphone much closer to the mouth and so resulted in a better ratio of voice signal compared to background noise would appear to be necessary, after which the question of what sort of noise reduction to use would need to be re-evaluated. 77 A Noisy Fan Creating Background Noise in an Office. The Sox noisered filter and the FFMPEG arnndn, afftdn, and agate methods all work to some degree. However, they all need correct selection of parameters to achieve the proper results. When I compared all four methods side by side, I found the arnndn combined with the agate filter to be preferable in terms of the trade off between background noise reduction and distortion of the voice signal. The arnndn filter on its own seemed the next most preferable to me despite leaving some fan noise in the background. 78 However, that is a subjective judgment of a specific noise sample when recorded using a specific microphone. Keep in mind though that many listeners will not be listening in an idea environment. They may be doing things where background noise is present rather than in a very quiet room and so may find a small amount of background noise in the recording to be less of a problem than distortion in the voice signal which may make some words harder to understand. 79 When I conducted the same experiment recorded with the XTrike headset I found that arnndn seemed to offer no noticeable improvement. This may be because the amount of audible fan noise was far less with the XTrike headset to begin with. In other words, there is no single best solution here, and you may have to be prepared to try different options to see which one works in your situation. The important thing is to avoid making things worse by applying filtering that is not appropriate for that situation. The best method may be to use a recording method that doesn't pick up the fan noise to begin with. This can include just using a gaming headset with boom mic. 80 I have one final observation on this point regarding headsets. The Maxwell headset has a foam cover over the microphone while the XTrike headset does not. There was some slight audible wind buffeting noise picked up by the XTrike headset that was not observed with the Maxwell. This seemed to cause particular problems with the Sox noisered profile based filter, as this noise was irregular and after filtering would show up as a warbling sound. If you use a headset and plan to use it in conjunction with a fan, it may be advisable to apply some sort of wind cover over it. 81 Combining Complex Filters In several cases I found that combining several complex filters offered better results than using any single one on its own. The basic strategy though is to first use a method which is good at reducing undesirable noise without introducing excessive voice distortion. Then apply a different filter which is good at reducing small levels of background noise to an even lower level while affecting the voice signal as little as possible. This uses the relative strengths of different filter types to compensate for the weaknesses of the other. 82 Different combinations of filters were most effective for different types of problems. I did not try all possible combinations however. Perhaps a further exploration of this would be worth doing in a later podcast. -------------------- 83 Case Study - Noise in Another HPR Episode Audio In the comments to my second episode on Simple Podcasting (which is HPR4618) where I discussed basic filtering, a couple of listeners brought up an interesting point. Antoine mentioned "declicking" in a post. -------------------- Vance replied 84 Antoine, thanks for mentioning the click removal capability in Audacity! While I already knew about its noise removal filter, I wasn't aware it also had click removal. It might have helped me for HPR4637, where some sort of electromagnetic signal was picked up by my microphone/recorder, a Zoom H2 (the tapping sound was *not* present in the room where I recorded). While click removal does seem to distort speech when applied to it (though to my ears, it doesn't sound as weird as when noise removal is done with speech), I could have applied the filter only to the pauses, where the "tapping" is most noticeable. I will consider doing this in the event that I'm not able to eliminate the source of interference in the future, which would be the best way to go. -------------------- 85 End of quote. I found this interesting as it sounded like another audio problem that could be experimented with. I found a sample of the episode which had the clicks and cut a copy of that segment out to experiment with. These sounds are a series of clicks, or "ticks" would be another way to describe them, in the quiet part of the audio between sentences or phrases. 86 Next I used Audacity to study the sound spectrum. I found a massive 60 Hz noise spike. However, my speakers won't reproduce sound that low, and filtering this out didn't reduce the clicks. The clicks turned out to be bursts of noise across the 100 to 800 Hz band, which is right where the main vocal band also is. This makes it difficult to filter based on frequency. The most promising approach would seem to be to filter based on sound level. 87 I tried all of the individual audio filter techniques mentioned in the other experiments above. None produced satisfactory results except for agate, which makes quiet audio quieter. This completely suppressed the clicks. However, when applied to the entire episode it also distorted the start of a few sentences which began with single short syllables. 88 The agate filter has a number of parameters which could be adjusted to try to deal with these cases, although I did not spend the time to do so. Another solution to this distortion problem is to simply not apply the filter to those parts of the audio which are affected. If you record the audio as a series of small individual files, it would be easy enough to filter before concatenating the files together while skipping those files which contain audio which is not suited to this method. Here are the results of the experiments. 89 FFMPEG afftdn This reduces the size of of the ticks, but they are still present. However, they may be reduced to a level which is considered acceptable. 90 FFMPEG agate This was very effective in removing ticks with the right parameters. However, it can introduce some voice distortion in the form of cutting out the start of a few sentences which began with single short syllables. This can be corrected with a very short "attack" parameter to turn off the filter when it detects sound above a set threshhold. 91 FFMPEG arnndn This was relatively ineffective. 92 Sox noisered This was effective in removing the sounds between phrases. However, it introduces some distortion in the voice signal. 93 I also tried combining filters. FFMPEG afftdn Followed by agate This combined two different filters. First, it used afftdn to suppress the background noise to a lower level without much voice distortion. Then it applied the agate filter to suppress the noise levels between words still further. This got rid of virtually all of the background noise between words. 94 Here is a short audio sample from HPR4637. First is the unfiltered audio. Second is the filtered audio using the combined afftdn plus agate filters. Since the "clicks" are very quiet, you may not hear them unless you are in quiet environment. Quite a few listeners would probably not be aware of the perceived audio problem in this episode if it had not been discussed here. None the less, it makes for an interesting experiment. Here it is: 95 (Insert sample audio here) 96 Overall Conclusion for Noise "Ticks" The afftdn combined with agate filters seemed to offer the best overall results when used with the right parameters. However, the author, Vance, speaks very clearly and evenly, and so his voice is ideally suited for use with this filter. Another author's voice may not be as suited to this filter. 97 The Sox noisered profile based filter offers various degrees of trade off between suppressing noise and distorting the voice signal. As to whether this is an acceptable trade off depends on the particular voice in question and how easily understood it is under normal circumstances with out additional distortion. The afftdn filter may be a fairly safe filter to use on its own while producing acceptable if not perfect output. -------------------- 98 Overall Conclusions I have presented only a few of the experiments that I conducted. My overall conclusion after all of this is that there is no universal audio filtering method that works best in all circumstances. There are instead a number of tools in the toolbox, and picking the right one for the job takes a bit of trial and error. 99 However, if you have a repeatable recording environment, then once you have decided what tool you need you should create a script for it so you can have a repeatable processing setup. These conclusions apply to voice podcasting. Music has a different set of criteria and techniques that work well with basic voice podcasting may produce poor results when applied to music which has a broader range of frequency and just as importantly, a broad range of loudness. 100 If you are used to using filters and effects in Audacity, many of the settings on those correspond to arguments in the command line version of ffmpeg. It is worth learning how to use ffmpeg directly to automate your recording process. 101 The experiments that I conducted were greatly assisted by writing scripts which created multiple versions of audio files with different settings, thereby allowing me to try many different alternatives relatively easily. It also allowed me to concatenate different audio samples into a single audio file and so listen to different versions in quick succession, making subjective listening judgments more reliable. 102 It is important to keep in mind in all this that I am playing with audio filtering mainly to have fun. It is not necessary to do any of this if you think your podcast episode sounds just fine without it. So, don't let any of what I have talked about in all this discourage you from simply recording a podcast and sending it in as is. I will include copies of the filters I have described here in the show notes. -------------------- 103 Related Matters Hardware Characterization Using Audio Signals I found it useful to characterize the hardware that I had in order to understand its limitations better before starting the experiments. This involved playing a signal out through a set of speakers and then recording it through a microphone. 104 I used two types of signal for this. One is type of signal is known as a "chirp" signal. This is a sine wave that steadily increases in frequency as it sweeps across the audio spectrum. The standard audio range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz, but for my purposes I limited the upper frequency to 15 kHz to save time as anything beyond that is not very useful for voice podcasts. 105 By recording the chirp signal with a microphone and analyzing it with a Fourier transform, I could quickly see what each device was capable of. See my previous series on simple podcasting for an explanation of what a Fourier transform is and what software to use to see the results of it. Here is a chirp signal. 106 (Insert Audio Sample Here) 107 In addition to a chirp signal, I also used a series of simple tones of specific frequencies. By using these tones of known frequency I could gain an understanding of the limitations of my speakers and headphones, and just as importantly, my own ears. By understanding these limitations I was able to narrow the range of frequencies that I need to deal with quite considerably and set the high and low pass filters accordingly. These tones are a series of flac files generated with ffmpeg. 108 Here is a a sample audio tone at a 2 kHz frequency. 109 (Insert Audio Sample Here) 110 Copies of the script to create the chirp signal and the tones are in the show notes. -------------------- 111 A "Not a Review" of some of the Hardware that I Used I said that I would not do a review of the hardware that I used. However, some of it deserves mention for either how good or bad it was. I will record each section using the hardware being described. 112 Maxwell Headset This is my original recording hardware. This is a headset with boom mic and USB connection. There is no model number on it, so I don't know the model. This probably cost somewhere between 10 and 25 dollars. The earpieces sit on the ears and do not fully enclose them. This makes it light weight and comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. It has a problem however with electronic noise consisting of a noise spike every 1 kHz. I was able to fix this with a series of filters using FFMPEG. Fixing this problem is what got me started in understanding audio. I will probably continue to use this headset to make podcasts. 113 XTrike Headset, Model GH-510 This is also a headset with boom mic and USB connection. I purchased this headset for the purposes of experimentation for this podcast episode. It cost $12.88. I found it to be surprisingly good for the price. It has fully enclosed ear pieces however, which may make it uncomfortable to wear in hot weather. I may try doing some of my future podcasting using this headset. 114 Borne Earpiece and In-line Microphone This is a set of earplugs that go in your ears and connected by wires and a very small microphone built into a small bulge in the cable. It connects using a 3.5mm jack. The model number seems to be BUD250-BL. It cost approximately $3.00. I bought several sets of these and use them for listening to podcasts from an MP3 player. The ear pieces are pretty good for listening with. The microphone works reasonably well when used in a quiet location. It is less good when in a noisy environment. It is very important however to secure the microphone to your lapel or other location reasonably near your mouth and to point the microphone (that is the small hole) outwards and not simply let it dangle freely. If you let it just hang, you will get poor quality and inconsistent audio. 115 Yanmai Condenser Microphone, Model SF-910 I purchased this microphone for the purposes of experimentation for this podcast episode. It cost $3.88. As it is a condenser microphone, it is prone to picking up background noise more and as such is probably not a good choice for podcasting by single person sitting at a desk. However, it is none the less a surprisingly good microphone for surprisingly little money. 116 iCan USB Microphone, Model M-306 I purchased this microphone for the purposes of experimentation for this podcast episode. This has a USB connection. This was also relatively inexpensive at $7.99, or roughly twice the price of the Yanmai microphone. Unlike the Yanmai however, it is absolutely wretched. There was such a high degree of distortion when recording through it that I found I could not use it in the fan experiments which I had bought it for. I ended up buying the Yanmai microphone for that instead. -------------------- 117 Easy Effects Software The techniques described so far all involve recording audio files and then processing them later to produce the desired result. This is probably the simplest and most straightforward way of doing things if you are making a typical podcast. However, there may be instances where you want to apply filtering or other effects on the "live" signal immediately and not after the fact. 118 There is audio software which can hook into your computer's audio system and do this with a live signal. For Linux, there is a package called "Easy Effects". This is Free Software and comes under a GPL V3 or later license. I installed it from the Debian repository under Ubuntu 24.04. 119 You can create various filters and even chain them together to combine them. I played with it a bit but do not know enough about it to discuss it seriously at this time. However, I thought it would be worth mentioning for the sake of those who may wish to try it out themselves. -------------------- 120 Episode Conclusion After having had some fun with audio and listening to other HPR members talk about audio, I thought I would have some more fun by playing with noise reduction filters. I have no intention of becoming an audio professional, but by doing some experiments I learned a few things and had some fun doing it. I hope that the rest of you found this interest as well. I will see you all again later in another episode of Hacker Public Radio. -------------------- Scripts Basic Filter This shows basic high and low pass filters ( 120 Hz and 8 kHz respectively) and band reject filters for 50 and 60 Hz. # The high and low pass filters. hlpfil="highpass=f=120, highpass=f=120, lowpass=f=8000, lowpass=f=8000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. linefil="bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" # Filter using ffmpeg. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "$hlpfil, $linefil" outputname.flac # ====================================================================== afftdn Filter # noisefloor should be between 20 and 80. noisefloor=$1 # Run the noise reduction. ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af "afftdn=nr=10:nf=-""$noisefloor" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== agate Filter # threshold shoud be between 10 and 80. threshold=$1 # Run the noise reduction. ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af "agate=threshold=-"$threshold"dB:range=-60dB" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== arnndn Filter # mix should be between 0 and 1. mix=$1 # Run the noise reduction. ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af 'arnndn=model=std.rnnn:mix='"$mix" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== sox noisered Filter # Generate the noise profile from a sample of background noise. sox silencefiltered.flac -n noiseprof noise.prof # nramount shoudl be between 0 and 1 sox testrec-filtered.flac noiseout-testrec.flac noisered noise.prof "$nramount" # ====================================================================== Manual Filter for Maxwell Headset Noise # Create a series of band reject filters, from 1 kHz to 11 kHz. ftemplate="bandreject=f=%s000:width_type=h:w=100" kilospikefil=$( seq 1 11 | xargs printf "$ftemplate," ) # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af "$kilospikefil" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== Create a "chirp" signal # Start frequency. f0=20 # End frequency. f1=15000 # Duration of signal. duration=10 ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "aevalsrc=sin(2 * PI * (0.5 * ($f1 - $f0)/$duration * t^2 + ($f0 * t))):s=44100:d=$duration" -c:a flac -af "aformat=sample_fmts=s16" chirp.flac # ====================================================================== Generate Audio Tones toneout () { printf -v freqval "%05d" $1 ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "sine=frequency=$freqval:duration=3" tmptone.flac # Normalize ffmpeg -i tmptone.flac -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=4.0 -ar 44.1k -sample_fmt s16 tone$freqval.flac rm tmptone.flac } # List of frequencies in hertz. freqlist="50 60 100 120 130 140 150 160 170 200 500 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000" for freq in $( echo $freqlist ); do toneout $freq done # ====================================================================== Provide feedback on this episode.

Hey Rockstars! I have another guest on the pod today and I am so excited to bring you along! Please welcome, Amanda Thebe

In this episode, we're playing “normalizing it or not” and giving our honest takes on the everyday debates that come up in marriage, motherhood, friendships, and life. Should you track your husband's location? Is it okay to go through your partner's phone? Should you pull your kids out of school for travel? We talk through the gray areas, the hot takes, and the situations everyone has an opinion on but not everyone says out loud. From relationship boundaries and trust to parenting decisions, friendship dynamics, and modern motherhood, we're sharing what we think is normal, what might be a red flag, and where we think it depends. We want to hear your takes too, are you normalizing it or not? For more exclusive content, join our Patreon here! Stay up to date on all the latest Camp Chaos news here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sickness is not normal for a child of God. Yet, so many of us have learned to normalize our physical and emotional pain, wrapping it in excuses of age, genetics, or circumstance. But what if your breakthrough is waiting on your voice?In this powerful episode, My LORD, My HEALER, we dive deep into Psalm 41 and Matthew 9 to uncover the holistic nature of God's redemptive covenant. King David didn't whisper in his sickness; he vocalized his faith from the bed of suffering.Join us as we dismantle the religious myth of a "divided Gospel"—the idea that forgiveness is guaranteed but healing is an optional extra. Discover how Jesus beautifully weaves pardon and preservation together, proving that the same authority that removes your sin is the very authority that restores your health.In this episode, you'll learn:Why faith never produces in the silence of the heart.The Hebrew meaning of amar (to speak) and yasha (salvation/wholeness).Why soul healing must precede body healing ("God can't heal what you conceal").How the cross of Isaiah 53 addresses the total ruin of humanity—not just legal guilt.Stop normalizing what Jesus paid to defeat. It's time to open your mouth, speak to your pain, and claim the complete covenant package of wholeness.Scripture References: Psalm 41:1-13 (TPT); 1 John 4:17; 3 John 1:2; Psalm 103:2-3; Matthew 9:2-8; Isaiah 53:4-5.

In this solo Q&A episode, I'm diving into your most-asked questions about motherhood, homemaking, and our new farmhouse build. From figuring out how to prioritize marriage when you have little ones, to managing clutter and paper piles, to designing a kitchen that actually works for a real family—I'm sharing what's working (and what's not) in our home right now. I also cover topics like breastfeeding while pregnant, sourdough fermentation timing, pantry organization, and how we're thinking through long-term homesteading plans. If you're navigating the beautiful chaos of family life while trying to live intentionally, this episode is for you. In this episode, we cover: Navigating weddings and events while co-sleeping and breastfeeding a baby or toddler Normalizing having a great marriage with less “perfect” marriage moments in busy seasons How to have a relaxing in-home date night and why it might actually be better Kitchen and pantry flow: am I worried it will be inconvenient to keep the fridge inside the pantry? Design uncertainty and the challenge of visualizing space before living in it Listener tip: what two products every mom should have on hand for allergic reactions Fermenting water kefir safely without explosions Plans to plant fruit trees and long-term property development goals How I avoid countertop clutter and what we do with important documents to keep them from piling up Naturally weaning a toddler when I become pregnant with the next child Why I am choosing old-house charm even if it's not always the most practical or convenient Is it better to long ferment sourdough bread with a small amount of starter? Troubleshooting issues with gritty texture in bread made with freshly-milled flour How I handle going out in public with kids who are constantly getting their clothes dirty View full show notes on the blog + watch this episode on YouTube. ⁠Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make this show possible⁠! RESOURCES MENTIONED ⁠Listen to my conversation with Katie Voetberg on episode 190 of the podcast⁠ ⁠Check out my conversation with Katie & Elisha on their podcast, Now That We're a Family⁠ ⁠NTWAF episode on their recent home build⁠ Join my ⁠FREE masterclass⁠ to learn my 4-step framework for making money on YouTube Master the rhythm of sourdough with confidence in my ⁠Simple Sourdough course⁠ Gain the sewing knowledge and skills every homemaker needs in my ⁠Simple Sewing series⁠ Turn your content creation dreams into a profitable business with my ⁠YouTube Success Academy⁠ Keep all my favorite sourdough recipes at your fingertips in my ⁠Daily Sourdough cookbook⁠ CONNECT Lisa Bass of Farmhouse on Boone | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Facebook⁠ | ⁠Pinterest⁠ Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast?  A guest you'd like me to interview?  Submit your questions and ideas here: ⁠bit.ly/SFLquestions⁠. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this solo Q&A episode, I'm diving into your most-asked questions about motherhood, homemaking, and our new farmhouse build. From figuring out how to prioritize marriage when you have little ones, to managing clutter and paper piles, to designing a kitchen that actually works for a real family—I'm sharing what's working (and what's not) in our home right now. I also cover topics like breastfeeding while pregnant, sourdough fermentation timing, pantry organization, and how we're thinking through long-term homesteading plans. If you're navigating the beautiful chaos of family life while trying to live intentionally, this episode is for you. In this episode, we cover: Navigating weddings and events while co-sleeping and breastfeeding a baby or toddler Normalizing having a great marriage with less “perfect” marriage moments in busy seasons How to have a relaxing in-home date night and why it might actually be better Kitchen and pantry flow: am I worried it will be inconvenient to keep the fridge inside the pantry? Design uncertainty and the challenge of visualizing space before living in it Listener tip: what two products every mom should have on hand for allergic reactions Fermenting water kefir safely without explosions Plans to plant fruit trees and long-term property development goals How I avoid countertop clutter and what we do with important documents to keep them from piling up Naturally weaning a toddler when I become pregnant with the next child Why I am choosing old-house charm even if it's not always the most practical or convenient Is it better to long ferment sourdough bread with a small amount of starter? Troubleshooting issues with gritty texture in bread made with freshly-milled flour How I handle going out in public with kids who are constantly getting their clothes dirty View full show notes on the blog + watch this episode on YouTube. ⁠Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make this show possible⁠! RESOURCES MENTIONED ⁠Listen to my conversation with Katie Voetberg on episode 190 of the podcast⁠ ⁠Check out my conversation with Katie & Elisha on their podcast, Now That We're a Family⁠ ⁠NTWAF episode on their recent home build⁠ Join my ⁠FREE masterclass⁠ to learn my 4-step framework for making money on YouTube Master the rhythm of sourdough with confidence in my ⁠Simple Sourdough course⁠ Gain the sewing knowledge and skills every homemaker needs in my ⁠Simple Sewing series⁠ Turn your content creation dreams into a profitable business with my ⁠YouTube Success Academy⁠ Keep all my favorite sourdough recipes at your fingertips in my ⁠Daily Sourdough cookbook⁠ CONNECT Lisa Bass of Farmhouse on Boone | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Facebook⁠ | ⁠Pinterest⁠ Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast?  A guest you'd like me to interview?  Submit your questions and ideas here: ⁠bit.ly/SFLquestions⁠.

Is seed investing facing an existential crisis? This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Rob Go, Founding Partner at NextView Ventures, to discuss the structural shifts making the "game on the field" harder than ever for early-stage investors.Rob explains why many successful seed VCs are exiting the industry and how the rise of mega-funds and massive accelerators like YC has squeezed traditional seed firms into a narrow "subset" of the market. They dive into the "feeder fund" phenomenon, the arbitrary nature of ownership mandates, and why the $1B–$3B exit range has become a "Death Valley" for startups.Despite the current angst, Rob shares his optimistic "bull case" for 2030, explaining why diminishing competition and a rotation away from late-stage consensus will lead to a healthier venture substrate in the years to come.Subscribe to Carta's weekly Data Minute newsletter: https://carta.com/subscribe/data-newsletter-sign-up/Explore interactive startup and VC data, with Carta's Data Desk: https://carta.com/data-desk/Chapters:00:20 – Intro: Rob Go and the Seed Existential Crisis02:16 – Defining Seed: Betting on anything before PMF03:35 – Why senior seed VCs are exiting the industry05:02 – The Squeeze: Mega-funds vs. Accelerators07:02 – Scarcity vs. Abundance: What's left for seed funds?08:44 – The "Feeder Fund" trap and the factory supply chain12:38 – The risk of taking seed money from a mega-fund13:34 – Breaking down the 4 styles of seed investing15:20 – Why specialist seed funds can be transient19:29 – Super Compounders: Will exits keep getting bigger?21:59 – The "Death Valley" of $1B–$3B exits25:08 – The Blumhouse equivalent for venture capital27:18 – Normalizing secondaries as an exit strategy33:53 – Rant: Why ownership targets are backwards39:04 – Offensive vs. Defensive bridge rounds45:07 – "I've become way more Zen": Why the 2030 outlook is bullish50:18 – OutroThis presentation contains general information only and eShares, Inc. dba Carta, Inc. (“Carta”) is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services, and is for informational purposes only.  This presentation is not a substitute for such professional advice or services nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business or interests. © 2026 eShares, Inc., dba Carta, Inc. All rights reserved.

Today, Peggy talks with Daniel Gaylor, LCSW, OSW-C, ACHP-SW, and a social work supervisor at Moffitt Cancer Center, about what happens after patients and caregivers get through the intense treatment period and begin asking, “Now what?” Daniel explains that recovery does not mean life snaps back to normal. Survivorship brings fear, relief, hope, uncertainty, and exhaustion all at once. Those reactions are normal, and they deserve to be named. Daniel explains why post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can show up after transplant. A transplant is not a routine treatment. It can involve long hospital stays, isolation, major physical side effects, and real fears about survival. When patients return for follow up visits, they may be brought back emotionally to those difficult hospital days. This can make survivorship feel complicated, even when the transplant was successful. Another key theme is slowly letting go. Patients may feel afraid to go out, socialize, eat in a restaurant, drive, or return to activities they once enjoyed. Daniel encourages survivors to start small and to be fair to the situation. It is easy to imagine the worst case. But it also helps to keep yourself honest - say out loud what could happen if things go well. The episode also addresses the “strain of worry.” Daniel describes signs of anxiety and depression, including sleep problems, racing thoughts, trouble concentrating, irritability, sadness, appetite changes, and not wanting to do things that usually bring joy. He reminds listeners that difficult days do not mean failure. Survivors should be able to say, “Today is not my best day,” and ask for help. Peggy and Daniel also talk about toxic positivity. While loved ones often mean well, phrases like “you're lucky to be alive” can minimize a survivor's fear or pain. Daniel encourages honest communication. Patients can thank loved ones for their support while also explaining what would help more. Social connection is another major part of healing. Daniel urges survivors and caregivers to increase connection and reduce isolation. A quick text, a short call, a support group, or a shared conversation can make a real difference. Peggy highlights programs where survivors can meet others who understand graft versus host disease (GVHD) and transplant recovery. Daniel closes with the idea of building a “tool belt.” Each person needs practical coping tools, whether that is a friend, music, journaling, counseling, mindfulness, a book, or a favorite place to reset. Caregivers need their own tool belts too. Transplant affects the whole support system, and survivorship works best when people communicate, ask for help, and remember they are not meant to do this alone. Links: Elephants and Tea: https://elephantsandtea.org/ BMT InfoNet: https://bmtinfonet.org/ Blood Cancer United: https://bloodcancerunited.org/ Thanks to this season's sponsors, Incyte and Sanofi. (00:00) Intro (01:01) Normalizing emotional reactions during recovery (04:22) PTSD after transplant and why it matters (08:59) Slowly letting go after transplant (13:12) Facing the worst case and choosing to move forward (13:53) The strain of worry and mental health red flags (19:31) Toxic positivity and the power of validation (20:26) How to talk with loved ones who are trying to help (22:39) Social health, connection, and friendship (26:43) Support groups, GVHD, and feeling understood (28:07) Building a survivorship "tool belt" (33:08) Why transplant never fully “stops” (36:39) A patient story about resilience and asking for help National Bone Marrow Transplant Link - (800) LINK-BMT, or (800) 546-5268.nbmtLINK Website: https://www.nbmtlink.org/Check out our valued nbmtLINK resource books, some for sale, some free as downloadable, https://www.nbmtlink.org/shop/nbmtLINK Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/nbmtLINKFollow the nbmtLINK on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/nbmtlink/The nbmtLINK YouTube Page can be found by clicking here.This content is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. It is crucial to consult directly with a qualified healthcare professional regarding any medical conditions, treatment options, or other health concerns.The views and opinions expressed by the speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the nbmtLINK. Unless otherwise stated in an official policy, the nbmtLINK does not endorse any specific treatments, products, or services mentioned by the speakers. Reliance on any information provided is solely at your own risk.The Marrow Masters Podcast is produced by JAG Podcast Productions: https://jagpodcastproductions.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jeff and Jim are back with the May 2026 mailbag, answering listener questions from Amsterdam, Mumbai, Austin, and Berlin. Topics include navigating IAM vendor acquisitions, defending against AI deepfakes in remote onboarding, governing contractor and third-party identities, fixing the leaver process in IGA, and tackling a decade of IAM technical debt. The episode closes with unpopular industry opinions: why RFPs are procurement theater, why rip and replace should be normalized, and why one-throat-to-choke vendor thinking usually backfires.IDPro new member discount: https://idpro.org/idac/Connect with us on LinkedIn:Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.comCHAPTER TIMESTAMPS00:00 Intro and SNL nostalgia03:25 AI model roundup: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and usage limits10:16 Identiverse 2026 and IDPro member discount14:53 Q1: Navigating vendor acquisitions (Isabelle, Amsterdam)24:00 Q2: AI deepfakes in identity verification (Rajan, Mumbai)32:32 Q3: Contractor and third-party identity governance (Caleb, Austin)43:00 Q4: The leaver process and IGA scope gaps (Anonymous)51:10 Q5: Tackling IAM technical debt (Tomas, Berlin)57:00 Normalizing rip and replace01:01:00 RFPs, one throat to choke, and other hot takes01:08:00 Wrap-upKEYWORDSIAM, identity governance, IGA, vendor consolidation, acquisitions, deepfakes, identity verification, contractor management, non-employee identity, technical debt, rip and replace, RFP, joiner mover leaver, leaver process, Identiverse 2026, IDPro, IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald

In this episode of The Brave Enough Show, Dr. Sasha Shillcutt and Dr. Christina Radics discuss:  Confidence follows action—not the other way around  Taking routine mini retreats to hold yourself accountable  Normalizing career pivots  "We must be brave enough to take time to ask ourselves what is it that I really want? And not be afraid to follow the answer." - Dr. Christina Radics   Dr. Christina Radics is a dentist and former clinic owner who understands leadership from the inside. She created Leadership Pulse™ to give leaders a safe, structured way to listen to their teams — and make better decisions without burnout, guesswork, or hierarchy getting in the way. This system is coach-led by design, because leadership requires interpretation, not automation.  Website Christina's book    Brave Enough 2026 CME Conference For ten years, women have gathered at the Brave Enough Conference to step away from the demands of medicine and into a space of renewal. This anniversary year, we celebrate a decade of empowerment and sisterhood—ten years of lifting each other up, reigniting purpose, and remembering that none of us has to do this alone. Join us September 24-27, 2026, at the Omni Scottsdale Resort and Spa. Coaching with Dr. Sasha Shillcutt As a leadership coach and a certified Enneagram coach, Dr. Shillcutt provides a personalized coaching strategy to help meet you exactly where you are, according to your personality. She will provide an in-depth look at your current work life challenges, and lead you through a plan to master them using the power of your personality strengths. Follow Brave Enough:   WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | LINKEDIN Join The Table, Brave Enough's community. The ONLY professional membership group that meets both the professional and personal needs of high-achieving women.

Your business can be making more money… while your nervous system still feels financially stressed underneath it.   Because scaling revenue and creating financial stability are not automatically the same thing.   I see women entrepreneurs increase their income, raise their prices, sign more clients, and still feel pressure around money, avoid looking at numbers, struggle to create savings, or wonder why the business still doesn't feel financially supportive yet.   That's the conversation we're having in this episode.   I'm breaking down what actually changes when women learn how to scale well financially—the shifts in stewardship, decision-making, profit, savings, and emotional capacity that allow money to start functioning differently inside your business.   Because real scaling is not just bigger revenue. It's creating a business where money starts supporting your life in a completely new way.   If your income has grown but your sense of financial stability hasn't grown with it yet, this episode will hit home.   In this episode, I talk about: How scaling creates opportunities for greater wealth, stability, and financial power. The difference between increasing revenue and expanding true financial abundance. 4 foundational money habits that support long-term scaling and financial independence. How intentional money stewardship strengthens your business growth. Why normalizing wealth accumulation is essential for sustainable expansion. The mindset shifts that support a richer relationship with money. How to build a business that creates more profit, more peace, and more freedom.   Featured on the Show: Ep #123: Owner's Pay 101: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters: https://www.themoneycoachschoolpodcast.com/owners-pay-101/ Ep #135: Money Guilt and the Fear of Outgrowing the People Around You: https://www.themoneycoachschoolpodcast.com/money-guilt-outgrowing-people/ Ep #136: Freedom-Based Scaling: Why More Clients Isn't the Answer: https://www.themoneycoachschoolpodcast.com/freedom-based-scaling/ Ep #138: Masterful Coaching Is the New Premium: https://www.themoneycoachschoolpodcast.com/masterful-coaching-new-premium/ Raise your rates with clarity and hold them with confidence inside The Pricing Room™: https://kendallsummerhawk.com/pricingroom/ Join Sacred Money Archetypes® Certified Coach Training to get this done-for-you, and brand as your own, money coaching system: https://sacredmoneyarchetypes.com/ Take the Free Sacred Money Archetypes® Quiz: https://www.sacredmoneyarchetypes.com/quiz/pc/ Download my Free Pricing Guide for Coaches: https://kendallsummerhawk.com/pricing/ Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendallsummerhawk/ Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KendallCoach/ What question would you love for me to answer on the podcast, about money, pricing, or coaching? Email me here: podcast@kendallsummerhawk.com The Money Coach School Podcast is for coaches and consultants ready to grow their income through premium pricing, stronger coach pricing decisions, and a more effective client onboarding process. Hosted by money feminist Kendall SummerHawk, each episode delivers powerful money coaching that changes how you think and decide with money—from the money coaching questions that shift your patterns to working through money guilt and expanding your coaching income. Explore the full episode library to receive money coaching that increases your income, strengthens your decisions, and puts you back in charge of how money flows in your business.

It's a timely subject: This week, Corinne Malcolm and Hillary Allen dive into not just the physical side of injury, but the mental skills needed.With Hillary dealing with her own injury right now, she's put a lot of time and thought into building a practical injury toolkit:Normalizing the mental struggle athletes go throughReframing your goalsControlling what you can controlAnd building a recovery identity & communityInjury can disrupt identity, routine, and motivation — but dealing with injuries is also incredibly common for runners. Let's learn together to work on the skills we need during these periods.Follow Us:Join Feisty at the Grand Traverse in Duluth, MN on October 3rd! Use code FEISTY20 for $20 off when you register at https://feisty.co/events/the-grand-traverse/@feisty_media@trail.societySupport our Partners:Injinji: use code  Trailrun15 to get 15% off at https://www.injinji.com/ProBio: Use code Trail20 for 20%-off orders (30%-off + free shipping w/ subscriptions) at https://www.probionutrition.com/rabbit: Visit https://www.runinrabbit.com/ use code: APRILTRAIL for 10% off.

In this episode, Ali Damron shares insights on navigating the emotional and physical challenges that come with busy seasons, hormonal fluctuations, and life's unpredictability. Whether you're dealing with perimenopausal symptoms, overwhelming schedules, or emotional stress, this discussion offers practical advice rooted in understanding and neuroscience. Key Topics: How busy seasons, like end-of-school chaos, amplify emotional stress and overwhelm Recognizing that feelings of anxiety, irritability, or fatigue are normal responses to societal pressures and hormonal shifts The importance of acknowledgment, acceptance, and support during demanding times The impact of hormonal fluctuations in perimenopause on mood, sleep, and resilience Practical self-care strategies: prioritization, trusting others, decreasing mental load The significance of establishing routines: regular meals, hydration, sleep hygiene, movement, and mindfulness How to reduce unnecessary mental and emotional clutter by trusting others and minimizing over-communication The concept of "Recovery on the Run": integrating supportive practices into daily life Timestamps: (00:00) - Introduction: Recognizing seasonal overwhelm and the importance of support (02:36) - The peak of busy end-of-school activities and managing emotional load (04:53) - Normalizing feelings of sadness and anxiety as part of life's chapters (09:16) - Understanding how societal over-stimulation and chronic stress affect our nervous systems (12:44) - Comparing childhood summer freedom to today's over-scheduled summers (13:47) - The intersection of perimenopause, hormonal fluctuations, and emotional reactivity (16:19) - How hormonal shifts increase anxiety and stress sensitivity (18:28) - Managing mental overload and the importance of reducing attempts at control (20:28) - Practical steps for prioritization and gut-checking daily routines (22:34) - Delegating, trusting others, and loosening control in parenting and daily tasks (27:46) - Foundations for hormonal resilience: nutrition, hydration, sleep, movement (30:24) - The simple power of breakfast and hydration for stabilizing mood and energy (32:11) - Setting boundaries with screen time and daily commitments (34:03) - Embracing ebbs and flows; supporting your body's natural rhythm (36:17) - Actionable tips: integrating recovery into busy lives and seeking help Remember, supporting your nervous system and managing expectations are key. By slowing down, trusting others, and taking small daily steps, you can navigate stressful seasons with resilience. If you're feeling overwhelmed, reach out—help is available, and recovery can be integrated into your busy life. Ali's Resources:  Consults with Ali  BIOptimizers Magnesium Breakthrough 10% off using code ALIDAMRON10 www.alidamron.com/magnesium Master Your Perimenopause Course + Toolkit "Am I in Perimenopause?" Checklist.  What Hormone is Imbalanced? Quiz! Fullscript (Get 25% off all supplements) "How To Balance Your Hormones For Better Sleep, Mood, Periods and Energy" Free, On Demand Training Website  Ali's Instagram Ali's Facebook Group: Holistic Health with Ali Damron 

A huge thanks to this episode's sponsor: Hire Overseas: Exceptional Talent for Less - https://www.hireoverseas.com/value Navattic: Interactive Product Demo Software - https://navattic.com/valueIn this episode, Jenny Wanger, a coach for product teams, shares her story of growth and leadership development. Jenny discusses the pivotal moment at SpotHero when she was informed that she would not receive a promotion due to her leadership style, a feedback that deeply affected her. She reflects on how this experience shaped her approach to leadership, focusing on building accountability and receiving constructive feedback. Jenny shares how she turned this difficult moment into an opportunity for personal growth, creating a peer council to help her improve her leadership and communication. This journey of self-reflection ultimately transformed her leadership approach and contributed to her professional success.Things to listen for:(00:00) Intro(01:07) Transitioning from cook to systems(03:58) The journey into product coaching(05:29) Key lessons from strategy panic(07:23) Pushing for promotion at SpotHero(09:21) Missteps during offsite strategy planning(13:36) Leadership transition: a wake-up call(15:01) Thank you to our sponsors, Hire Overseas and Navattic(17:45) Trust and defensiveness in leadership(24:19) Building an inclusive change playbook(26:41) Effective tactics for a listening tour(27:02) The power of small group workshops(29:45) Confidence-building moments in leadership(30:47) Dealing with promotion denial fallout(33:47) Uncovering psychological safety blindspots(37:08) Creating a feedback loop with advisory council(43:50) Avoiding overcorrection in leadership practices(48:00) Confronting imposter syndrome and belonging(51:23) The purpose behind this show(53:27) Normalizing struggle through empathyResources:Connect with Jenny:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennywanger/Connect with Andrew:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewcapland/Substack: https://media.deliveringvalue.coHire Andrew as your coach: https://deliveringvalue.co/coaching

On this Salcedo Storm Podcast:David Clarke is Retired Sheriff of Milwaukee County. He's the President of “Rise Up Wisconsin INC,” And is on the Board of Directors at the Crime Research Center. Sheriff Clarke is the author of the book, “Cop Under Fire”AND Tim Graham is the Executive Editor of NewsBusters, host of the NewsBusters Podcast and coauthor with Brent Bozell of the book Unmasked: Big Media's War Against Trump.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. 01 This is the third in a four part series on simple podcasting. 02 In this episode we will cover the following topics: Analysis of audio noise problems and filtering methods used to deal with specific problems that we may find. Command line recording. Command line playback. Getting information about an audio recording. 03 Introduction When I did my first couple of podcasts I didn't notice that there was a quiet high pitched whine or buzz in the background. Nobody complained about it, but I thought I could do better in subsequent episodes. 04 Creating an Audio Sample If you have a similar problem, the first step is to find out where it is coming from. If there is no audible noise where you are recording, there is a good chance the problem is in the microphone or another part of the audio system. Plug in your microphone and record 2 or 3 seconds of quiet audio where you do not speak into the microphone or make other noise. 05 You will need a minimum amount of data in order to analyze it. For a flac file sampled at 44.1 kHz, 2 to 3 seconds of data should be enough. To get a sample of just electronic noise you can put the microphone in a drawer or somewhere like that if you want to be sure of getting a quiet signal. Any sound recorded in this way should be mainly from the microphone or other electronic elements in the analogue pathway. To get a sample of possible ambient noise, such as fans, make sure the microphone is in the open air in an area which is representative of where it will be when you are recording. -------------------- 06 Analyzing using Fourier Transforms Next you need to look at the wave form. At this point I will describe this using Audacity. I will show other ways later, but Audacity is actually the easiest if you are starting from nothing. You don't need to become an expert in Audacity to use it, just follow the steps I will describe. I myself don't know how to use Audacity beyond using this one feature. 07 We are going to analyze the sound spectrum in our sample. The technique being used is a Fourier Transform. A Fourier transform, often called an "FFT" for fast fourier transform, is a mathematical method of showing a signal in terms of frequency along the x axis instead of time. This allows us to spot troublesome noise frequencies which appear when we don't want them to. The FFT is a very common mathematical technique which is widely used in signal processing, not just in audio. 08 There is software which will create pretty coloured animations of sound waves, but this is not what you want. These are simply decorative patterns and won't tell us what we want to know. -------------------- 09 Using Audacity Install Audacity if you haven't already. Start Audacity. Select file > import > audio, then navigate to your sample and select "open". The file should load. 10 In the wave form part of the window, click anywhere and then type Ctrl-S to select all data points. The chart should turn a slightly darker colour. From the menu, select Analyze > Plot Spectrum. A new window will open, showing magnitude in db on the Y axis, and frequency in hertz on the x axis. For "algorithm" be sure it is set to "spectrum" 11 There are now two settings that we need to play with while we look for problems. One is "size" The default for this is 1024. The other is "axis". The default for this is "log frequency". -------------------- 12 What to Look For What we are looking for are large obvious spikes that stand out in the data. Since our test signal has very little to no actual audio data, any spikes should represent electrical or other noise that doesn't belong there. 13 I have found two combinations of settings to be most helpful in finding problems. These are Size 2048, axis linear frequency. Size 32768, axis log frequency. 14 A small size value can help very narrow spikes stand out from the background more, while a large size value can help separate spikes from surrounding noise. A linear frequency axis can help with seeing all spikes across the full frequency range, while a log frequency axis can help to better see what is happening in the often very crowded lowest frequency range. -------------------- 15 A Real Example of an Audio Problem If you have good audio equipment you may find nothing obvious. If you cannot hear any noise in the signal, there may be none of any consequence and there is nothing for you to do. 16 However, in my case I found two main problems and one lesser one. One problem was a spike at 60 Hz, which is the AC line frequency. There is also a lesser problem of a collection of a broad frequency range of noise below 60Hz. Both of these however will be taken care of by the basic filtering that we looked at earlier so we do not need to worry about them here. 17 The other main problem is I had a large spike at every 1 kHz interval from 1 kHz to 19 KHz. This was noise generated within the head set electronics, or the result of noise on the USB power supply. This is the product of a cheap headset. 18 These spikes are not very large compared to the volume of my voice, but if I do the same sort of analysis of samples where I am speaking, they appear in the intervals between words. This results in a high pitched whine or buzz. This was the source of the background noise or buzz in my first two podcast episodes. I need to get rid of this. 19 One option would be to get a better microphone, but, well, that wouldn't be any fun would it. It would also cost money and I don't want to spend any of that if I don't have to. If you analyze your own signal, you may find a different pattern, or even no noise at all. If you did not find anything when shielding your microphone from ambient audio noise, repeat the same test but with the microphone exposed to acoustic noise in the room. -------------------- 20 Advanced Filtering The next step is to figure out how to get rid of this noise. I have called this section "advanced filtering", but we are actually just making use of a technique that was already covered in basic filtering. 21 To deal with the remaining spikes we can use additional "band reject" filters, each of which removes a specific frequency at 1 kHz intervals from 1 kHz to 12 kHz. We will use this in combination with the filtering that we have already done previously, so we don't need to worry about anything above 12 kHz as we already remove that with a low pass filter. After a small amount of experimenting I came up with the following. 22 Because I am applying a total of 16 filters, 4 for basic filtering and 12 to deal with the specific microphone problems that I have, I have broken up the filters into separate strings. I then generate the 12 new band reject filters from a template. Note that I don't show the "de-esser" filter here. I would recommend adding it as a separate step after doing the sort of filtering we are talking about here. 23 Rather than reading out multiple lines of bash script, I will post them in the show notes. I will give a brief description of them here which you can refer to when reading the show notes. The FFMPEG and Sox versions are very similar in concept so I don't need to go over the Sox version in detail. See the show notes for it. FFMPEG Version Here's the FFMPEG version. # The high and low pass filters. hlpfil="highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. linefil="bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" # Create a series of band reject filters, from 1 kHz to 12 kHz. # Change or remove this part if your recording hardware does not require it. ftemplate="bandreject=f=%s000:width_type=h:w=100" kilospikefil=$( seq 1 12 | xargs printf "$ftemplate," ) # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i input.flac -af "$hlpfil, $linefil, $kilospikefil" output.flac 24 There are a total of 5 lines of bash script. In the first line, we create a string called "hlpfil" which is just the high and low pass filters copied from our previous discussion on basic filtering. In the second line, we create a string called "linefil" which is just the simple bandreject filters to cover 50 and 60 hertz AC line noise filters also from basic filtering. 25 In the third and fourth lines, we create a string called "kilospikefil" containing the new filters. The "f" parameter represents the frequency we are targeting. The "w" parameter represents the "width" of the frequency range we are filtering in terms of hertz. The filter is applied gradually rather than with a sharp cut-off, so to get more filtering action we need to have larger width. In this case I decided to hammer the spike quite aggressively and so used a relatively wide width of 100 hertz. Testing with a voice file did not show any noticeable distortion, so it's an acceptable solution. 26 For this filter we need to create a dozen filter command so we use the shell "seq" command to generate a sequence of numbers from 1 to 12. We then pipe that into the xargs command which applies each number to the next command. The next command is "printf", which takes the number it gets from xargs and applies it to the "ftemplate" string template in a manner very similar to C programming printf string templates. 27 We also have a comma in there to separate each of the individual filters. We then surround this with a $ and () so we can run the command and capture the output into a variable. Then we call ffmpeg and pass it the filters we created by putting the variable names inside a double quoted string, separated by commas. All of this will be in the show notes, so don't worry about trying to get the exact details right now. Sox Version Here's the Sox version. # The high and low pass filters. sxhlpfil="highpass 80 lowpass 12000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. sxfilter="$sxhlpfil $sxkilospikefil bandreject 60 20 bandreject 50 20" # Create a series of reject filters filters, from 1 kHz to 12 kHz. sxftemplate="bandreject %s000 100" sxkilospikefil=$( seq 1 12 | xargs printf "$sxftemplate " ) # Using SOX. sox input.flac output.flac $sxhlpfil $sxfilter $sxkilospikefil 28 The Sox version is very similar with the exception that the command arguments representing the filters must not be in quoted strings as Sox wants to see them as separate arguments instead of parsing a string. -------------------- 29 Confirming the Effect If we apply the above filters and look at this headset noise output file in the Audacity spectrum analyzer we will now see that these noise spikes are almost completely gone. We can now confirm how well this works by using a test audio file. Any normal short voice audio file will do for this. Just talk into the microphone normally and create a voice sample file that is 5 or 10 seconds long, or whatever you feel comfortable with. 30 With the original unfiltered voice audio I can hear a distinct high pitched whine overlaying the voice. With the filtered audio that whine or hum is not detectable. If we then look at the voice file in the Audacity spectrum analyzer, we can see distinct "notches" at the 50 Hz and 60 Hz frequencies, and at every 1 kHz from 1 kHz to 12 kHz. These notches are narrow enough that they won't cause a noticeable problem with voice signals. If we apply this filter to voice samples, the buzz or whine is gone and the voice signal sounds fine. Despite using a very cheap microphone, I now have acceptable quality audio for a podcast. 31 Again I want to emphasize that in this instance I am dealing with deficiencies with my hardware instead of buying a better microphone. These additional filters are intended to deal with the specific hardware problem I am facing. You don't need these additional filters if you cannot detect an audible problem. On the other hand, if you have a different problem you may wish to deal with a different set of frequencies. Finding these problems is the reason for using a spectrum analyzer. 32 FFMPEG has other filtering methods as well. However, as I didn't end up using them I can't really do an adequate job of describing them. If anyone has used them successfully, they are welcome to make a podcast on the subject. -------------------- 33 Completing the Process With these new filters added into the middle of the processing steps, you can now complete the processing by doing the de-essing, normalizing, and review steps as described in the previous episode. -------------------- 34 Command Line Recording I will now cover a separate topic, which is recording using command line programs. I am covering it in this episode as it is a short topic and it is convenient to talk about it here. 35 As well as using GUI based recording programs such as Gnome Sound Recorder, it is possible to record podcast episodes using command line tools such as FFMPEG. As for why you may wish to use command line tools to record audio, there are several reasons. One is that you may simply prefer to do it this way because it pleases you to do so. Another is that it allows the recording step to be included in a script that encompasses other parts of the process, automating what may have otherwise been separate manual steps. 36 However, if you don't find these arguments particularly compelling, then I'm not going to attempt to persuade you to use the command line to record audio. I am doing this part of this episode out of a desire to have a bit of fun and I probably won't be using it much myself. I will however use one of these methods to record this part of this episode. 37 Recording with FFMPEG - The Basics One of the common command line tools you can use is FFMPEG, a package which I have previously mentioned with respect to filtering audio files. Here is an example of how to record using FFMPEG. We call FFMPEG specifying the audio input system as the FFMPEG input, and then specify a file to output to. 38 # Record audio. ffmpeg -f pulse -i default ff.flac 39 Press 'q' to stop. This uses pulse audio on Linux for input "-f pulse", and the default input "-i default". However, this does not specify the the sample rate or mono recording. To do that we need to add a few more parameters as in the following 40 ffmpeg -f pulse -i default -ac 1 -ar 44100 ff.flac 41 "-ac 1" specifies mono output "-ar 44100" specifies 44.1 khz bit rate. 42 Playback with FFMPEG - The Basics FFMPEG can also play back music. In this case however we need to call the "ffplay" program rather than FFMPEG itself. To play an audio file, simply call ffplay and give it the name of the audio file as an argument to the command. For example: 43 # Play an audio file. ffplay podcast.flac 44 We can also call it with the "autoexit" option, which tells ffplay to automatically exit when the audio file has finished playing. ffplay -autoexit ff.flac 45 -autoexit means Exit when the audio file is done playing. 46 To exit in the middle of the recording, press "q' or ESC. To pause the playback, press "p" or space bar. To decrease the volume press "9" or "/". To increase the volume press "0" or "*". 47 To seek forward 10 seconds, press the right cursor button. To seek backward 10 seconds, press the left cursor button. To seek forward 1 minute, press the up cursor button. To seek backward 1 minute, press the down cursor button. 48 The "0" and "9" keys mentioned above are those on the top row of the keyboard, not the ones on the separate numeric pad. 49 While the recording is playing, a graphical window will open which shows a cascading waveform based on the current content. This is purely decorative and does not serve any particularly useful purpose. -------------------- #!/bin/bash # Record a podcast episode segment. # Get the next file name. # First we check if any matching file patterns exist. If they don't, # then we create the first one starting counting at 1. fcount=$( ls [0-9][0-9].flac 2>/dev/null | wc -l ) if (( $fcount < 1 )); then fname="01.flac" else # If there are any matching file patterns, we find the highest number # and increment it by 1. filenum=$( ls [0-9][0-9].flac 2>&1 | cut -d. -f1 | sort | tail -1 ) newfilecount=$(( 10#$filenum + 1 )) fname=$( printf "%02d.flac" $newfilecount ) fi echo "Recording to: $fname" # Record using ffmpeg. # This makes use of pulse audio and the input is the default audio input. # The sample rate is set to 44.1 kHz, and it is recorded as mono (1 channel). ffmpeg -f pulse -i default -ar 44100 -ac 1 $fname echo "Recorded audio to: $fname" # Report on basic information about the audio file that was just recorded. ffprobe -hide_banner $fname -------------------- 50 Sox - Not so Good I did not find the recording or playback features of Sox to be as useful as those of FFMPEG, so I won't bother to cover them here. -------------------- 51 Getting Information About an Audio Recording There are also command line tools which can be used to retrieve information about audio recordings. 52 FFMPEG Version With FFMPEG this is called "ffprobe". For example: 53 ffprobe hpr4566.mp3 54 This will print out a lot of information about FFMPEG itself. To skip that use the hide_banner option. 55 ffprobe -hide_banner hpr4566.mp3 56 This will print out information about the audio recording. This will include things like the duration, bit rate, sample rate, stereo or mono, etc. If the author added metadata tags to the file, it will also show those. HPR add things like the title, author, copyright license, comment, etc. You can extract the ones you want using something like grep and cut. 57 Sox Version Sox has a similar feature, called "soxi". 58 soxi ff.flac 59 However, it may not work on mp3 files if you do not have an mp3 handler for it installed. -------------------- 60 Conclusion In this episode we took a brief look at an example of how to solve an audio problem through filtering. We looked at how to use Audacity to find where the problems were. We then looked at how to apply filters to remove these sources of noise. We also looked at how to record podcasts and get information about audio files using command line tools. 61 In the next episode we will look at alternatives to Audacity for analyzing audio. While Audacity works just fine, this is an opportunity to have a bit fun with some gratuitous hackery. 62 This has been the third episode in a four part series on simple podcasting. -------------------- -------------------- Full Audio Processing Pipeline This version includes the special filters used to fix my headset problems. Use the version from the previous episode if you do not have the same audio hardware problems. #!/bin/bash # Full processing pipeline for making simple podcasts. # ====================================================================== # Concatenate multiple flac files into a single flac file. # This is used to combine podcast recorded segments into a single # flac file for uploading to HPR. concataudio () { outputname="$1" # First create the list file. printf "file '%s'n" [0-9][0-9].flac > podseglist.txt # Now concatenate them ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i podseglist.txt "$outputname" rm podseglist.txt } # ====================================================================== # Basic and advanced filters. filter () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 # Using ffmpeg. # The high and low pass filters. hlpfil="highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. linefil="bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" # Create a series of band reject filters, from 1 kHz to 11 kHz. ftemplate="bandreject=f=%s000:width_type=h:w=100" kilospikefil=$( seq 1 11 | xargs printf "$ftemplate," ) # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af "$hlpfil, $linefil, $kilospikefil" $outputname } # ====================================================================== # De-Essing. deessing () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 option=$3 # De-essing filter. ffmpeg -i $inputfile -filter_complex "deesser=i=0.5:m=0.5:f=0.5:s=$option" -b:a 336k -sample_fmt s16 $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Normalizing the audio to EBU R128 standard for review using ffmpeg. normffmpeg () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 # Normalize to EBU R128 standard. ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=4.0 -ar 44.1k $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Output an MP3 version to help with reviewing. mp3convert () { inputfile=$1 # Get the name of the file and then create the output file name. j=$( basename $inputfile ".flac" ) outputname="$j"".mp3" # Convert to MP3. ffmpeg -i $inputfile $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Concatenate the separate audio files. concataudio fullpod-unfiltered.flac # Basic filtering. filter fullpod-unfiltered.flac filtered.flac # De-essing. This is the version to send for publishing. # The third argument should be "o" for de-essing, or "i" for pass through without de-essing. deessing filtered.flac fullpod.flac o # Normalized for review. normffmpeg fullpod.flac fullpod-norm.flac # Output an MP3 copy for review. mp3convert fullpod-norm.flac -------------------- -------------------- Provide feedback on this episode.

Reframing Anxiety and Emotions: A Deep Dive into Nervous System RegulationIn this episode, Ali Damron explores the human experience of emotions, anxiety, and nervous system regulation, emphasizing a compassionate and normalized approach to mental and emotional health. Discover how understanding your body's signals can lead to better self-awareness and health. Main Topics Covered: The importance of normalizing human emotions and experiences How anxiety and stress are your body's communication tools The role of cognitive distortions and how to identify them Differentiating between thoughts from the anxious vs. wise brain Somatic tracking and other methods to process emotions The connection between repressed anger and chronic physical conditions Practical strategies for emotional regulation and nervous system safety The impact of societal narratives on mental health diagnoses In this episode: Ali discusses the misconception that emotions like anxiety are pathology, highlighting they are normal human signals. She shares insights on how to recognize and validate feelings rather than suppress them. An exploration of cognitive distortions such as catastrophizing and mind reading, with tips to identify and reframe them. Practical tools like feelingswheel.com and somatic tracking for emotional awareness. The link between unprocessed anger, autoimmune diseases, and chronic pain, referencing Dr. Gabor Mate. Emphasizes that a regulated nervous system involves acceptance of highs and lows, not constant calmness. Ali advocates for deeper work to address root causes of stress and emotional dysregulation for lasting health.   Timestamps: 00:00 - Understanding the deeper function of emotions and nervous system signals 01:23 - Surface symptoms and the journey towards nervous system regulation 02:48 - Asking about life to identify hidden stressors 04:35 - The societal narrative around fixing mental health issues 05:42 - Emotions as communication: betrayal, jealousy, sadness, and more 06:42 - Using emotion vocabulary tools like feelingswheel.com 08:33 - Curiosity and self-compassion as keys to emotional resilience 09:57 - Normalizing anxiety and the impact of diagnostic labels 11:18 - Addressing societal pressure to fix or pathologize human struggles 12:46 - The loneliness of emotional suppression and curated vulnerability 13:11 - Thoughts, sensations, and the importance of accepting your current experience 14:08 - Differentiating between thoughts from the anxious vs. wise brain 15:54 - Cognitive distortions: catastrophizing, mind-reading, magical thinking 16:51 - The evolutionary need to belong and its influence on emotional perception 18:06 - Strategies for rewiring anxiety and managing triggers 19:31 - Disengaging from anxious thoughts and feeling emotions physically 21:10 - Processing emotions without pressure or needing to fix them instantly 22:35 - Somatic tracking for emotional regulation and pain management 24:52 - Active strategies to release anger healthily 27:14 - Recognizing and owning anger without shame 31:06 - The nervous system's constant danger scan and creating safety 32:33 - Misconceptions about emotional balance and the reality of regulation 34:23 - The importance of self-acceptance and deeper emotional work Resources & Links: Feelings Wheel Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown Gabor Maté's Work on Emotions & Chronic Disease   This episode encourages a compassionate perspective on emotional health, emphasizing that understanding and accepting our human experience can lead to profound healing and vitality. Ali's Resources:  Consults with Ali  BIOptimizers Magnesium Breakthrough 10% off using code ALIDAMRON10 www.alidamron.com/magnesium Master Your Perimenopause Course + Toolkit "Am I in Perimenopause?" Checklist.  What Hormone is Imbalanced? Quiz! Fullscript (Get 10% off all supplements) "How To Balance Your Hormones For Better Sleep, Mood, Periods and Energy" Free, On Demand Training Website  Ali's Instagram Ali's Facebook Group: Holistic Health with Ali Damron 

Your labs came back clean. Your doctor says your blood work is “normal.” Your weight is “fine.” But your energy is dropping, your thinking feels slower, and there's a ceiling you keep bumping up against. This episode is for that specific situation. It's far more common among high-performing executives and founders than most people realize.Julian walks through exactly how he thinks about it: why standard blood work can't see what's actually happening, the four layers he maps before ordering a single test, and the phased approach he uses to create clarity before adding anything new. If you've been told everything looks normal, but you know something isn't right, this one is for you.— Episode Chapter Big Ideas (timing may not be exact) —0:00 – Welcome & the "normal labs but feeling off" situation 1:54 — Who Julian is & what Executive Health does2:37 — Why "normal" doesn't mean optimal 3:01 — What a standard annual physical actually measures 4:52 — What standard blood work doesn't measure6:15 — Why your TSH in range doesn't mean your thyroid is functioning optimally 7:37 — Why a single morning draw misses the full rhythm of cortisol 9:19 — Why fasting glucose isn't enough10:54 — Why health sovereignty matters 11:31 — The four diagnostic layers Julian maps first12:40— Layer 1: Energy Timeline14:03— What energy patterns actually signal15:13 — Layer 2: Cognitive Quality16:27 — Decision fatigue as an early signal of declining biological capacity18:03 — Layer 3: Lifestyle Load21:38 — Why accumulated stress without recovery creates a compounding deficit22:22 — Layer 4: Environmental Inputs:23:10 — Morning light, circadian rhythm, and why most executives are running a circadian deficit25:02 — Why seven hours of sleep can still leave you depleted25:59 — Overlooked signs of sleep debt26:45 — Constant stimulation and the cost of a nervous system that never downregulates28:34 — The three-phase approach overview: Stabilize, Signal Clarity, Targeted Testing29:23) Phase 1: Stabilize29:56 — Why sleep consistency matters more than duration31:36 — Why sleeping before midnight hits differently34:34 — Meal timing and sleep quality35:31 — Phase 2: Signal Clarity36:34 — Why layering more interventions buries the real problem further37:36 — Phase 3: Targeted Testing38:20 — What targeted testing actually looks like39:00 — Why hormonal health is the foundation40:18 — The skill of slowing down before speeding up40:49 —Why accomplished leaders stay stuck42:04 — Pattern 1: Trusting labs over lived experience43:28 — Pattern 2: Adding tactics instead of creating clarity44:58 — Why complexity feels like progress but often buries the real issue46:15 — Pattern 3: Normalizing subpar performance because external metrics are still moving47:55 — The cost shows up gradually…then suddenly49:11 — The gap between existing and thriving51:06 — How to work with Julian privately— Connect with Julian and Executive Health —LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianhayesii/X — https://x.com/thejulianhayesDon't let your biology become the bottleneck to the enterprise you're building. Book a private call —https://www.executivehealth.io/contactWebsite — https://www.executivehealth.io/***DISCLAIMER: The information shared is not meant to treat or diagnose any condition. This is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes. The content here is not intended to replace your relationship with your doctor and/or medical practitioner. Consult your provider before making any decisions.

Well, there's been another attempt on President Trump's life… but this one, if anything, is even more disturbing. THIS attempted assassin seems perfectly normal — within the Progressive Left's echo chamber of murder.

Guest Sheriff Richard Mack, Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, joins to help break down latest assassination attempt of President Trump. Discussion of the psychology behind the hatred against Trump, political rhetoric, and more. Are crimes rates going down across the nation under Trump?  Will the left back off on the hate, accusations, and attacks of President Trump? Discussion of media playing nice...for a brief moment. Who was the attempted assassin, and where could he have gotten the idea Trump was so bad?

Taking hard feedback is one of the most underrated leadership skills — and most of us are doing it wrong.In this episode, JP, Betsy, and Nate get real about the emotional side of criticism: why feedback feels so personal for coaches and leaders, how to regulate before you respond, and the mindset shift that turns brutal feedback into your greatest tool for growth.Whether you're a coach, athletic director, team leader, or anyone who's ever been stung by a harsh comment — this conversation is for you.

Podcaster and standup Kaytlin Bailey of The Oldest Profession chats about decriminalizing sex work, the real agenda with harmful legislation, how she came to escorting, and her live show that's touring the US in 2026.On the show:Kaytlin Bailey, podcaster and comedianKaren Yates, host and producer of Wild & Sublime, writer, and energy workerMentioned on the show:The Oldest Profession live show and upcoming show dates in New Orleans, Chicago, Denver and moreThe movie Classified: The War on BackpageWe have a ton of resources at Wild & Sublime. Sign up for updates too!Check out our new line of tees and accessories! Be wild & sublime every day! Shipping discounts for orders over $50.Do you feel stuck? Work with host Karen Yates in Zoom groups and one-on-one as she uses the energy of sound to reduce stress and help repattern behavior. Learn more about Biofield Tuning.Show your love for sex-positive podcasting: Leave a lil' tip!Support the showFollow Wild & Sublime on Instagram and Facebook!

What happens when a woman who's been casually watching spirits walk through her bedroom walls for a decade finally learns she's a medium? For Tammy Tocheniuk, it was less of a revelation and more of a remembering. In this episode, Sarah and Jane sit down with the psychic medium and animal communicator who built an extraordinary practice almost entirely on her own terms, with zero formal training and zero apologies for it. Tammy shares how her gifts unfolded in layers, from reading the energy of adults in a room as a child, to waking up in her twenties with multiple spirits standing at the foot of her bed, to accidentally launching her mediumship career by helping a grieving coworker connect with a friend who had been murdered. She talks honestly about what it cost her, including adrenal fatigue, flashbacks from criminal cases, and a full year off from all things spiritual, and about why pivoting to animal communication changed everything. This conversation goes deep into what it actually feels like to communicate with animals in spirit versus animals who are still alive, why animals have a profoundly different relationship with death than humans do, how Tammy navigates one of the hardest conversations a pet owner can have (is it time?), and the reading that brought a husband to tears when his dog remembered the engagement ring around his neck. Tammy also gets candid about normalizing her gifts for her three sons, keeping a regular day job as a cover story, and why doing it her own way, without the usual cookie-cutter mediumship school training, turned out to be exactly right for her. Key Takeaways Psychic and mediumship gifts often emerge naturally over time rather than all at once. For many intuitives, the abilities unfold in layers across childhood, young adulthood, and beyond, whether you're actively seeking them out or not. Sometimes the most validating moment in a medium's journey isn't a dramatic reading. It's simply hearing the right word, the right label, and feeling something click into place like a remembering. Intense mediumship work, especially around trauma, crime, or grief, can lead to real physical and emotional exhaustion. Burnout is real, and stepping back, even for an extended period, is not giving up. It's part of the practice. Setting boundaries around the kind of work you take on is not a limitation on your gifts. It's how you sustain them. Knowing what you're willing to do and what you're not is part of developing as a medium. Not having formal training has both gifts and costs. Your voice stays your own, but mentorship and community matter, especially when it comes to protecting your energy and knowing when to ask for support. Animal communication and psychic work tend to require less energetic output than evidential mediumship. If you're feeling drained, exploring these modalities might offer a gentler on-ramp or a much-needed reset. Animals can be powerful messengers in readings, even when the session is focused on a person in spirit. Don't be surprised when they show up and steal the show. When communicating with animals around end-of-life decisions, the most important thing you can offer a grieving pet owner is peace, not a verdict. Meeting people where they are matters as much as the message itself. Animals have a profoundly different relationship with death than humans do. Their acceptance and presence can be a gift not just to their owners, but to the mediums and communicators who work with them. Normalizing your gifts in your everyday life, with your family, your kids, your language, helps create an environment where intuition is treated as natural rather than strange or scary. "I would wake up at night and there would be a spirit in my bedroom. Sometimes two, three, four of them at one time. And I call it seeing 3D. I was seeing them like a piece of furniture." "I rarely have an animal that's not accepting of death. It's very different than people. They seem to understand intuitively that this is a transition." "Their messages are fairly simple and straightforward. A lot of times, people just want to know: are they still there, and do they remember me?" If This Episode Resonated…Share it with a friend who's been feeling the shift too. Or send it to someone who needs the reminder: You're doing it perfectly! You are the LIGHT!✨ Tammy's Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/tammytochintuitive/ Tammy's Website:  https://www.tammytoch.com/ Tammy's Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/feathersandsmudge1? Website: https://www.mediumcurious.com Explore the Intuition & Mediumship Course: https://www.mediumcurious.com Book a reading with Jane Morgan https://www.janemorganmedium.com/ Book a reading with Sarah Rathke https://www.sarahrathke.com/ Jane's Substack: https://janemorgan.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mediumcuriouspod/

A life that looks steady on the surface can still carry deep, unspoken pain. Alison Byxbe shares a vulnerable and redemptive journey through grief, unexpected diagnoses, and emotional exhaustion, revealing how God met her in the midst of it all. Through the practice of journaling, she discovered not only healing but a deeper intimacy with the Lord, offering a pathway for others to process pain with honesty and hope.___Tune In to Discover▫️ How journaling supports emotional and spiritual healing▫️ The connection between writing and brain integration▫️ Breaking stigma around counseling and mental health▫️ Practical ways to use journaling in everyday life.___Inside the Episode02:00 – Hidden struggles behind a positive exterior05:20 – Grief, diagnosis, and compounded emotional weight10:22 – Normalizing counseling and mental health care17:47 – Why journaling is powerful for healing and brain integration21:24 – Using prompts to unlock deeper reflection23:30 – Practical ways campuses can integrate journaling25:42 – Journaling rhythms and seasons of life26:30 – Pairing journaling with prayer and meditation___To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website, or search for Biblical Higher Ed Talk in your favorite podcast player.The Biblical Higher Ed Talk podcast is brought to you by The Association of Biblical Higher Ed and is proud to be a part of The Higher Ed Marketer Podcast Network. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Send Dr. Li a text here. Please leave your email address if you would like a reply, thanks.In this episode, Dr. Christine Li empowers women to shift from chaos and stress to clarity. She explores why stress and overwhelm often accompany our to-do lists and clutter, and offers practical mindset strategies for releasing negativity and reclaiming agency over daily life. Listeners are guided to recognize their inherent clarity, start with small steps, and embrace success with a lighter, more productive outlook.Timestamps00:00:00 - Introduction: stress and clarity00:01:05 - Dr. Christine Li introduces herself and podcast focus00:01:48 - Clarity during stress for midlife women00:02:42 - Decluttering as a stress trigger00:04:08 - Normalizing anticipatory anxiety00:05:54 - Breaking the cycle of overwhelm00:06:26 - Affirming inner clarity00:08:03 - Tackling clutter and self-doubt00:09:07 - Clearing negativity00:11:01 - Reality vs negative stories about clutter00:13:22 - Clearing internal negativity00:14:08 - Freedom from self-battle00:16:07 - Embracing an open mindset00:17:55 - Progress through small steps00:19:41 - Hope for success and clarity00:20:05 - Free clarity worksheet offered00:20:44 - Closing and connection detailsTo get the free download that accompanies this episode, go to: https://maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com/clarityoverstressTo sign up for the Waitlist for the Simply Productive Program, go to: https://maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com/SPFor more information on the Make Time for Success podcast, visit: https://www.maketimeforsuccesspodcast.comGain Access to Dr. Christine Li's Free Resource Library -- 12 downloadable tools and templates to help you bypass the impulse to procrastinate: https://procrastinationcoach.mykajabi.com/freelibraryTo work with Dr. Li on a weekly basis in her coaching and accountability program, register for The Success Lab here: https://www.procrastinationcoach.com/labConnect with Dr. Christine LiWebsite: https://www.procrastinationcoach.comFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/procrastinationcoachInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/procrastinationcoach/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@procrastinationcoachThe Success Lab: https://maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com/labSimply Productive: https://maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com/SP

We're in our new "month of renewal" format. We're essentially exploring this question throughout the month... what if growth required less effort? This is an encore episode that helps us answer this question. Reminder that we'll be back with new episodes May 1, 2026.  In this episode of Joy Lab, Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek dismantle the idea that balance is a fixed destination you arrive at someday — once the laundry is done, the inbox is empty, and the kids are listening. Spoiler: that day is not coming. Instead, Henry and Aimee reframe equanimity as an active, embodied practice — more like balancing on one foot than standing rigidly still. Drawing on the metaphor of the Equinox, the rhythm of the ocean, and the very real signals your nervous system sends when you've overloaded your plate, they offer two practical, evidence-informed strategies: releasing perfectionism and cultivating outer stillness through the radical act of doing less. Whether you're recovering from burnout, drowning in self-help listicles, or just tired of waiting to feel balanced before you start living, this episode is your permission slip to recalibrate — right now, imperfectly, and with grace.   About: The Joy Lab Podcast is an Ambie-nominated podcast that blends science and soul to help you cope better with stress, ease anxiety, and uplift mood. Join Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek for practical, mindfulness-based tools and positive psychology strategies to build resilience and create lasting joy. Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with the Joy Lab Program.   If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts! And... if you want to spread some joy and keep this podcast ad-free, then please join our mission by donating (Joy Lab is powered by the nonprofit Pathways North and your donations are tax-deductible).   Like and follow Joy Lab on Socials:  Instagram Linkedin Watch this episode on YouTube     Sources and Notes: Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.   Full transcript here   Key moments: [00:01:00] Defining equanimity — calm, serenity, inner peace, and balance Why "balance" is the most relatable word, even if it's overused and under-understood. [00:01:45] The biggest myth about balance: it's a fixed end state Unpacking the belief: "I just need to get my life in balance and then I can…" — and why it keeps failing us. [00:02:45] Balance as a boat on the ocean Waves, storms, narwhals, manatees — navigating it all is the practice. Balance is not the island. [00:03:45] Physical balance as a mirror for life balance Henry reflects on aging, illness, and how something we once took for granted can become a major effort — and what that teaches us. [00:05:30] When life knocks your reserves out — anxiety, depression, significant stress What once seemed doable can feel insurmountable. Normalizing the experience of losing your footing. [00:06:00] The Equinox metaphor for balance Twice a year, day and night are perfectly balanced — and it lasts a moment. Nature doesn't fight the shift. It flows. [00:07:30] Savoring moments of calm and preparing for inevitable shifts The Equinox teaches us to appreciate balance when we find it — and not to be blindsided when it moves on. [00:08:45] Balancing on one foot — balance is in the balancing Aimee reframes physical balance as wobbling, reassessing, and rebalancing — not rigidity. An invitation to ease up on yourself. [00:09:30] Honest check-in: Joy Lab's own season of imbalance Six months of heavy workload, three months of feeling out of balance — and the confidence that recalibration is possible. [00:11:00] Strategy 1: Let go of perfectionism Aimee breaks down how our vision of "balance" is often a vision of impossible perfection — and how that perfectionism causes us to delay our own self-care indefinitely. [00:12:30] How perfectionism anchors the balance myth We stop doing the things that help us recalibrate until we reach a state that never arrives. The invitation to check in and offer yourself grace.   [00:13:45] Strategy 2: Cultivate outer stillness by doing less Henry's personal strategy — and why it runs counter to every "5 Things Highly Productive People Do" headline in your newsfeed. [00:15:30] What the pandemic unexpectedly taught about doing less When life was stripped back, Henry discovered his life could be rich without being packed full. [00:17:00] Why "do less" is the only wellness strategy with nothing to add to your list No gadgets. No hacks. No hooks for perfectionism. Just awareness and the willingness to say no. [00:17:30] Using your body as a navigation app for balance Tuning into the feeling of being rushed and pressured as a signal to change course — no wearable required. [00:19:00] Aimee's body check-in — stomach tension as a balance metric Instead of opening another listicle, go inward. Your nervous system is already telling you what you need. [00:20:00] We are balanced creatures when we allow ourselves to be Balance isn't about biohacking or concoctions. It's inner stillness and inner wisdom — skills we can all build. [00:21:00] Joy Lab Program and community support A reminder that the podcast is community-supported — and an invitation to go deeper in the Joy Lab Program. [00:21:45] Closing quote from Anna Quindlen     Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program. Please see our terms for more information. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at helpline@nami.org. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Thinking about sharing a sexual fantasy—but worried your partner will see you differently? This is where most couples unknowingly start creating distance instead of deeper intimacy.In this episode, we break down the 3 biggest mistakes couples make when sharing sexual fantasies—and why these patterns often lead to pressure, resentment, or emotional disconnection instead of closeness.If you've ever struggled with how to talk about sex, navigate kinks or fantasies, or handle differences in desire, this episode will give you a clear framework for doing it in a way that builds trust, emotional safety, and a more satisfying sex lifeWhat You'll LearnHow shame around sexual fantasies creates distance in relationshipsWhy avoiding conversations about sex limits intimacy and connectionThe hidden risk of pushing a fantasy too quickly after sharing itHow pressure and urgency can lead to coercion (even unintentionally)Why your partner's reaction is shaped by conditioning—not youThe truth about being “sex-positive” without abandoning your boundariesHow to handle mismatched sexual interests in a healthy wayWays to explore fantasies without being 100% sexually compatibleKey TakeawaysOpen communication about sex is essential for long-term intimacyFantasies require consent, pacing, and emotional safetyShame, pressure, and people-pleasing are the biggest intimacy killersYou can accept your partner's desires without participating in everythingGreat sex lives aren't about perfect compatibility—they're about how you navigate differences togetherChapters0:00 Introduction to the topic of sharing sexual fantasies and the common issues couples face.1:05 Introduction to the three biggest mistakes couples make.2:02 Mistake #13:23 Importance of openness and being sex-positive.4:19 Benefits of discussing sex more frequently.5:16 Normalizing conversations about sex.6:34 Importance of consent and communication in sexual relationships.7:31 Variety and novelty in long-term relationships.8:28 Understanding each other fully through sharing fantasies.9:27 Mistake #212:04 Mistake #316:03 Encouragement to maintain personal boundaries.21:32 Exploring fantasies in a healthy way.22:52 Conclusion and encouragement to seek help if needed.Resources & Next StepsIf you're noticing patterns like holding back, pushing too fast, or going along with things that don't feel right, that's exactly what I help couples work through.

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner joins Marc Elias to break down why the rule of law is hanging by a thread. They also discuss the Epstein files cover-up, DOJ ethics violations, and why we need a scorched-earth accountability effort.Support Democracy Docket's mission:https://newsletters.democracydocket.com/anchor-youtube-tuesday00:00 Today's Guest: Glenn Kirschner00:41 One Year In: How is the Nation and the Rule of Law Doing?02:47 What Does the New "Accountability Project" Look Like?05:43 Where Will the Next Generation of Non-Political Prosecutors Come From?07:40 Context: Glenn's History with Eric Holder and Bob Mueller09:42 Unpacking Legal Standards: Probable Cause vs. Likelihood of Conviction11:06 Case Study: The Sean Dunn "Sandwich Throwing" Prosecution17:58 Accountability After Jan 6th: What Was Done Right and Wrong?23:56 Avoiding the "Normalizing" of Political Crimes in 202926:19 Current Events: The Seizure of Ballots in Fulton County28:15 Discussion: The "Presumption of Regularity" in Trump-era Courts35:02 Is the Supreme Court Recalibrating on Executive Power?37:21 Potential DOJ Interference in the Upcoming Election40:13 The Epstein Files: What is Happening with the Missing Records?47:44 Final Thoughts: What Can Everyday Americans Do to Fight Back?