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This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a report from Portland, where locals argue with their Fox News-loving parents over whether their city has really been burned to the ground--and fail to convince them that it hasn't.Then we are joined by Will Wilkinson, a senior fellow, at the Progressive Policy Institute, to talk about how America's growing urban-rural divide--and rural America's embrace of Southern Culture--are redrawing our ideological battle lines from their traditional North-South axis. PlaylistGramatik: "The Unfallen Kingdom"Lil' Troy: "Wanna Be A Baller"
Rich Johnson with the WLNG Fishing Report for the North & South Fork of Long Island.
With the NFL season just around the corner, the nerds wrap up their division previews by debating who the favorite should be in the brutal AFC North, whether we should expect progress or regression from the Browns, and if the Texans could end up as the worst team in recent memory.
Starting off this week at the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park that is 5,300 feet up a mountain in Montana. Next we are on the road to North Dakota to see wild horses, and prairie dogs at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Our last attraction this week is a store that advertises free ice water in South Dakota?
The rapid collapse of Kabul in the final weeks of the US withdrawal has forced a reckoning of not only Washington's failure in the region, but broader questions about US foreign policy and what the Biden administration wants (or is actually able) to achieve. This week Departures with Robert Amsterdam is pleased to welcome a return guest for this special emergency podcast, Prof. Alexander Cooley of Barnard College, who is a highly regarded expert on Central Asian politics and the coauthor of the excellent book, "Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order." According to Cooley, Biden's mishandling of the Afghanistan withdrawal should be understood in the context of his own history on this area of this world, including his opposition to previous surges, and his insistence that the pullout had to happen now without any extensions, without any further excuses to be further, inextricably drawn into a permanent military presence. Robert Amsterdam offers the comment that US policymakers have allowed domestic politics to interfere far too much in high-level strategic decision-making, which makes Joe Biden a lot more similar to Donald Trump than many would care to admit. Cooley also emphasizes just how much the region has changed since the original invasion in 2001, with the development of the SCO structure and the active participation and preparation of foreign interests, including but not limited to both China and Russia. "Let's face it: China does get a global win out of this," Cooley says. "US prestige, credibility is badly damaged. The overall narrative that the US goes into places, doesn't finish the job, and leaves in its wake collapsed states is strengthened. And it allows them to play a greater proactive role in shaping and redefining the region in the North-South axis."
Rich Johnson with the WLNG Fishing Report for the North & South Fork of Long Island.
Delighted to welcome to the show, Lu Williams. Lu is a Londoner who now calls Chester in the Noth of England home and it is also where she performs and runs a room or two through CSHQ, which organises rooms in the Machester/Wales area. Lu gives her experiences of how comedy works in the UK and how she finds performing up North instead of her native London. Unlike Ireland, performing rooms have reopened in the UK and people there are making their tentative steps back into the small, intimate rooms where comedy roars! Dave tries to blag a gig, as usual!
The nerds preview the NFC North + South divisions, discussing everything from Justin Fields' potential as a rookie to the Bucs' status as defending champs!
Rich Johnson with the WLNG Fishing Report for the North & South Fork of Long Island.
Following his $50,000 victory at Florence Speedway's North-South 100, the DirtonDirt.com editorial staff discusses the historical significance of Brandon Overton's 2021 season.
This week we recap the Knoxville Nationals. Duane was on hand to watch Kyle Larson grab his first ever Knoxville Nationals win! We also talk about Brandon Overton getting his first North/South 100 win and we talk about when does a series sanctioning actually start on a race day? This topic comes as there was an incident involving a driver and a car owner hours before a race was scheduled.
Kyle Larson is your 60th Knoxville Nationals champion and we dive into his big win today. We've also got results from the Summer Nationals, a recap of Brandon Overton's North/South 100 win and more.
Rich Johnson with the WLNG Fishing Report for the North & South Fork of Long Island.
EP 76 Will Bucs repeat? What's going on in NOLA? Rodgers is back in GB (for now) Who will be the Bears starting QB? Some of my best bets I am leaning toward as well!
We've got everything you need to know today following night one of the Knoxville Nationals, including results, points, and why things are looking good for David Gravel. We also preview the North/South 100 weekend at Florence for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, look at tonight's Super DIRTcar Series show at Orange County, and there's news about Tyler Erb.
In this episode, Victor Cha is joined by Sue Mi Terry of CSIS and Soo Kim of RAND Corporation for a discussion on recent developments in inter-Korean relations and regime instability in North Korea.
EP 75: Look ahead to HOF Game Steelers Cowboys Intriguing Storylines for each division and teams Updated gambling odds and more
Rich Johnson with the WLNG Fishing Report for the North & South Fork of Long Island.
Rich Johnson with the WLNG Fishing Report for the North & South Fork of Long Island.
Rich Johnson with the WLNG Fishing Report for the North & South Fork of Long Island.
Matsyanyaaya: The Rational Actor TrapBig fish eating small fish = Foreign Policy in action— Pranay KotasthaneNothing succeeds like success. Once you are perceived as being successful, new narratives emerge that trace a neat path explaining how success was attained through grit, foresight, and determination. The role of chance fades in the background. All stories show how the hero withstood the odds, took the right decisions, and defeated a world that was stacked against it. Sometimes, nation-states craft stories with such narrative arcs. The State as the all-knowing decision-maker is imagined as a consistent, value-maximising agent, which chooses each policy as a calculated solution to a strategic problem. This model is what Graham Allison and Philip Zellikow call the rational actor model of decision-making in their classic Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis.The book goes on to show the inadequacy of the rational actor model in explaining foreign policy decisions. It proposes two other decision-making models that take into account bureaucratic resistance, individual initiative, turf battles, and a struggle for power, to better explain government decisions. The key takeaway is that when we don’t understand the internal politics of a nation-state, we instinctively assume it as a black box that churns out decisions based on well-defined goals, well-understood alternatives, and well-projected calculations of costs and benefits of all the available alternatives. Precisely this is how the thinking about China is today on the streets and WhatsApp groups of New York, Delhi, or Lagos. Every act by China is imagined as a calculated move made with a larger long-term goal in mind; a juggernaut that makes no mistakes; an Arjuna that never misses the fish’s eye.A common way in which this narrative commonly plays out is as follows: someone will quote a Chinese leader in the past to show how prudent and far-sighted he was. Virtually, no discussion on China goes by without quotes such as “Cross the river by feeling the stones” or “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting” being used to conjure the image of China as a successful rational actor. So much so that some of these quotes weren’t even said by Chinese leaders and yet continue to circulate in opinion pieces, textbooks, and seminars. Take this quote attributed to Zhou Enlai for example. The story goes that he was asked by French visitors in 1972 about the impact of the French Revolution of 1789, and he sagely replied “It’s too early to say”. This is often cited to prove how the Chinese political system produces master strategists who take the long view. Turns out, he was only talking about the French student protests of 1968 which continued for many years thereafter. And yet, this story has endured.Another quote ninja is Deng Xiaoping, of course. His famous words “to get rich is glorious” is cited in support of how quickly the Chinese leadership was able to adroitly put behind the socialist excesses of the Mao era. The only problem is that it’s not known whether Deng ever said so. In fact, this phrase comes from Oliver Schell’s 1984 book by the same title on Deng era reforms. Then on, this quote has assumed a life of its own.These misattributed quotes are not mere trivia but symptomatic of a larger problem — our inability to deeply understand China. Because we don’t know what’s inside the box, we assume the Chinese system as a rational actor that succeeds because of the foresight of its leaders alone. This view, of course, is incorrect. In edition #44, I discussed four myths emanating from this line of thinking that the party-state is always efficient, always meritocratic, always a military aggressor, and always a sound strategist. To counter the China challenge, a superficial rational-actor model understanding of China is not just insufficient but harmful. It makes the adversary seem far more powerful than it is in reality. We need better models to understand our adversary. If the content in this newsletter interests you, consider taking up the Takshashila GCPP. The certificate course is customised for working professionals. Intake for the 30th cohort ends on 22nd August. Global Policy Watch: China’s Big Tech Crackdown Bringing an Indian perspective to burning global issues- RSJWe often write here about how regulating big tech will need a different framework from the typical antitrust lens that's been used in the past to protect consumers from predatory business practices. The big tech companies pose risk to consumers not through predatory pricing or restriction of choices because of their marketshare. Instead, they abuse their market power in new and different ways. They track usage data without consent in deeply intrusive ways that should spook the average consumer. Their platforms often enable spread of disinformation and creation of echo chambers by directing consumers to content based on algorithms that optimise for engagement. Engagement is different from enlightenment. Never was this more clear in our lives as we see fake news, unscientific notions and rumours scourge our societies. Big tech poses social and political risks that are beyond the ambit of any competition laws. You cannot solve new problems with old solutions. While the west is figuring out the way ahead and making unusual executive choices, China in the past few months seems to be keen to show the world its own way of dealing with big tech. Like many regulations in the past, these are meant to reinforce the only truth in the Chinese policy sphere - the party is the boss. It can do and will do as it pleases. You may call it antitrust regulations with Chinese characteristics. This op-ed in the Chinese state run daily the Global Times gives a view on the line of thinking:“More importantly, the government will not allow internet giants to become rules-makers of data collection and usage. The standards must be in the hands of the government to ensure that giant companies are restrained when they collect personal data and stick to the principle of minimization. No internet giant is allowed to become a super data base that has more personal data about the Chinese people than the country does, not to mention using the data at its own will.For companies like Didi which have gotten listed in the US market and whose largest and second-largest shareholders are foreign companies, China should more strictly supervise their information security to protect both personal data security and national security.”I will let the irony of the Chinese state talking about privacy and on the principle of minimization when it comes to personal data of its citizens wash over all of us for a bit. Over the years there was a ‘nudge and wink’ approach between Chinese regulators and its domestic digital champions on many vexing regulatory issues. None more than the variable interest entity arrangement to list overseas that was a well established way to circumvent Chinese laws. All that is history now. The Story So FarAnyway, a quick recap of the steps China has taken in the past year or so will be helpful to set the context here.In Sep 2020, China issued a new set of rules for regulating financial holding companies with a view to regulate the enormous clout and reach of the shadow banking sector that could threaten the stability of the financial system if left unchecked. On cue, in October 2020, the Financial Stability and Development Committee headed by the Vice Premier raised concerns about the growth of fintechs and their microlending practices. In Nov 2020, Chinese regulators suspended the much anticipated $34 billion IPO of the Ant Financial Group. A record fine and the ‘disappearance’ of its founder, Jack Ma, followed.In the first quarter of 2021, Meituan (the Amazon of services in China) was fined by multiple municipal regulators and it shut down its health insurance service after facing regulatory scrutiny. Its founder, Wang Xing, a classical literature enthusiast, posted a few verses from an ancient Chinese poem about an arrogant emperor and his misguided attempts at stifling dissent. He later deleted the post. I’m not sure if there is an ancient Chinese parable about a dog with its tail between its legs that he knew.Last week, ByteDance (the owner of TikTok) postponed its US listing plans after meeting the Chinese cyberspace regulators. The official line was that ByteDance will take some more time to comply with the new regulations proposed by the Cyber Security Review Office (CSRO).ByteDance didn’t have much of a choice really. Didi, the world’s largest ride-hailing firm with about 500 million users across 15 countries, went public with $4 billion IPO on NYSE on June 30. This despite some public reservations from the CSRO on its data security practices. Didi thought it was still the old world and ignored it. The stock soared on debut and Didi’s valuation rose to $80 billion within a day. Two days later the Chinese state cracked down. It barred it from adding any new users. A few days later it found serious violations in the collection and usage of personal information of its users and ordered all app stores to remove Didi’s main app and its 25 linked apps. By the end of the last week, the cyber security regulator had announced probe into two other US listed Chinese companies - Full Track Alliance and Kanzhun. In the same week, the cyber security regulations were tightened, the overseas listings process was made tougher and variable interest entity arrangement loophole plugged. The world for Chinese digital companies had changed in a matter of weeks.There are two things that interest me in this sequence of events. What’s driving this big tech crackdown in China? And what does it mean for the world and India? I will put my initial thoughts here and I will welcome views from readers with greater knowledge of the subject.This Far And No FurtherThere are two lens to use on the reasons for the crackdown.DomesticThe CPC (Communist Party of China) created the ‘walled’ digital ecosystem that didn’t permit US tech giants to enter China. This led to the emergence of the home-grown champions across sectors that copied business models from the Silicon Valley and supplanted them in China. Over the years these champions built large businesses, innovated on the back of strong technology capabilities and laissez-faire regulations on privacy and data usage and expanded to foreign markets to create virtual monopolies in China. This has meant multi-billion dollar valuations and enormous rise in personal wealth of founders and the management teams. The CPC is now sending out a reminder to these firms on who enabled their rise. This is driven by three fears. One, the growing wealth inequality in the society because of these firms and the sense of anger at their long and tough working environments (9-9-6 is fetishised among them). Two, the CPC is worried about the enormous power and clout these founders wield which left uncontrolled can be a potential risk in future. Three, the rise of unchecked lending through fintech apps and the almost total control of the consumers’ information and choices by these digital monopolies can create rival power centres for the CPC. The CPC which had deliberately enabled a loose regulatory ecosystem to facilitate growth of their big tech companies is reining them back now. All the big tech monopoly issues that the US is wrestling with apply to China too. But with the added flavour of a paranoid state apparatus. The state is now wresting control back. And it has a convenient ideological big stick for beating them with. Big tech is threatening one of CPC’s core objectives - building a harmonious society. Expect more of this.US-China RelationsThe Biden administration has repeatedly made the point that America is in competition with China to win the 21st century. And this competition is going to be technology led. In June, President Biden signed an executive order banning investments in 59 Chinese companies that included some of the largest Chinese digital apps and telecom equipment manufacturers. On June 22, the US Senate passed Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act. This Act prohibits foreign companies from listing their securities on any of the U.S. exchanges if the company has failed to comply with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) audits for two years in a row. Currently, China’s regulators do not allow the PCAOB to inspect audits of companies registered in China and Hong Kong. This act is meant for getting Chinese companies to fall in line. Simply put, US regulators do not want American investors money to go into Chinese companies whose books they cannot audit. Chinese regulators, on the other hand, are wary of US government agencies seeking access to their homegrown champions who have enormous information about their Chinese customer base. The US regulators have given a timeline for Chinese companies to comply or delist. China went a step further. It asked existing Chinese companies with overseas listing to first undergo a thorough cyber security review with them before complying to any US regulations. This is classic one-upmanshipI wouldn’t go as far as saying this is the start of a decoupling phase between the financial markets of US and China. But the signs are ominous. China wants the domestic companies to go for a Hong Kong listing. This allows them to access foreign capital on their own terms. Plus, it keeps the wheel of finance moving in Hong Kong after the fears of it losing its status as a global financial hub in light of China’s actions there in the past year. China doesn’t want US to dictate terms to it. The recent actions suggest it won’t back down from setting the agenda. US also will not have any more of China using its state capacity to build global companies who then snoop for it. This is a deadlock. What Does This Mean?So, what are the implications of these actions? It is a bit early to arrive at any definite conclusions. But if one were to extrapolate and speculate a bit, I will draw a few conclusions.Firstly, this is trade war by another name. This mutual suspicion of intents, the charade of cyber reviews of its companies by China, the further banning of the apps by the Biden administration and the ‘new cold war’ kind of language suggests we could be in for more tit-for-tat responses between the two countries. There will be slowing down of flow of capital between them and it will have an impact on global capital markets and trade flows. Secondly, China’s clampdown on its big tech will provide ammunition to those who want to regulate big tech elsewhere in the world in a more direct way. China might not be the best model to emulate on regulations. Agreed. But the other way to frame this is - if the Chinese state is now being paranoid about the power of its big tech, how badly do we need big tech regulations in a democracy?Thirdly, there will be a slowdown in investments going into Chinese startup and digital ecosystem. Investors don’t like unpredictability and the last year has shown Chinese state can be whimsical in stopping IPOs, slapping fines, changing regulations and clamping down on companies that have huge foreign investments riding on them. This isn’t music for global investors. Expect India and other ‘open’ digital markets to rake in foreign direct investments in their startup ecosystems. Some of this is already seen in India in terms of deal flow in the past two quarters. More will follow. Lastly, there has been a clamour in India for us to emulate the ‘Chinese model’ of creating domestic champions by restricting US big tech companies to build their base in India. There’s a spectre of ‘digital colonialism’ that’s often raised by the sundry ‘Aatmanirbhar’ advocates, the local startup founders (though they are funded by foreign capital themselves), domestic VCs and others with interests in keeping global competition away. They would would like nothing better than to have a digital ‘Bombay Plan’ for the 21st century. The crackdown by the Chinese state on its homegrown companies is a useful reminder to all. The state is nobody’s friend. The state has only one interest. To perpetuate its hegemony. Once you invite it to distort the playing field, it settles down there. Now it wants to play. And that helps no one. India Policy Watch: The North vs South Debate RevisitedInsights on burning policy issues in India- Pranay KotasthaneRamachandra Guha, in an important article for The Telegraph, expresses disappointment that South India counts for too little in national politics, a situation he feels will only worsen in the future:“..for all its social and economic progress in recent decades, in political terms the South continues to count for far too little in the life of the Republic. And it may soon count for even less. On the anvil is a proposal to re-allocate Lok Sabha seats afresh on the basis of population. Were that to happen, the states that serve their citizens moderately well, such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu, will find their negligible influence on the Union government’s policies and priorities declining even further. The states that serve their citizens indifferently or abominably, such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, will find their already considerable influence on the Union government’s policies and priorities escalating even more. This increasing asymmetry shall place fresh burdens and stresses on the already-fragile state of Indian federalism.” [The Telegraph, 19th June]This argument adds weight to the common refrain in India’s federal polity and hence I will follow it through. Specifically, I seek answers to these two questions: what does it mean when people say that the South ‘counts too little for national politics’? And if that’s the case, what would giving the South its due look like? A caveat before we begin this exploration. South and North are completely malleable concepts. Sitting here in Southern India, North is assumed as a short-hand for the economically laggard states in the Indo-Gangetic plain. This conception generally ignores the more prosperous northern states (J&K, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, and Maharashtra) or the less populous hilly ones (HP and Uttarakhand). Essentially, the definition of the ‘North’ gets moulded only to focus on the basket cases. Now, back to the two questions. In my view, there are three dimensions of this detachment.1. Economic SiphoningThe perception: A common grouse you would have come across often is how the South ‘subsidises’ the North; how the money produced by the sweat and tears of factory workers on the outskirts of Chennai is wasted on farm loan waivers in Lucknow. The reality: For one, the figures that the South subsidises the North are quite exaggerated. For example, looking at direct tax data shows that Maharashtra alone accounts for 38 percent of collections. Surely, it’s not true that 38 percent of India’s economic activity takes place in Mumbai. In reality, this striking difference is because of a tax accounting design bug — since most companies are headquartered in Mumbai, taxes paid by them get “collected” in Maharashtra even if the economic activity is carried out by their subsidiaries in another state. That apart, given the shifting economic base since economic liberalisation, it is safe to assume that there is, indeed, some redistribution from the South to the North. More accurately, there is transfer of money from all states that do economically well to states that don’t i.e. even Punjab, Haryana, and Gujarat, apart from most states in the South, would be having net outward flows of government revenue. And this is unavoidable to some extent. The logic is simple — in order to ensure that at least minimum levels of key public services are achieved across the country, the poorer states would need more help from the Union government than the richer ones. Imagine another communicable disease that has been eradicated in a few rich states but not in the poor ones due to lack of funds. Sure enough, this disease will eventually spread to the richer states as well due to inter-state human movement.So, some form of redistribution across states is desirable. This is not a problem per se — no federal system in the world balances government money flow at state borders. Perhaps what makes the problem acute in India is that the stark difference in per capita GDP — the richest, Haryana, has a per capita GDP that is nearly five times that of the poorest, Bihar. More on this issue in this twitter thread.A solution: Given that there are good reasons for why government transfers exist, is there a way out? Indeed, there is. As I have written earlier, focusing on how much money gets transferred from TN to UP is a wrong question to ask. Instead, the focus should be on the government revenue that the union government appropriates from all states as a whole. If the Union is pressured to devolve more money to states via the Finance Commission formula, all states will gain. More on this “monkey and two cats” devolution fable in edition #131.2. Denial of Political PowerThe argument: the South has better socioeconomic indicators and yet its influence on Union government policies will continue to decline because of its lower population growth.The counter-arguments: The Malthusian idea that there should be a political reward for reduction of population is quite unfair to the average Indian, regardless of where she lives. That’s because in a representative democracy, the key factor that’s equated as far as possible is that my vote has the same electoral value as yours. This core principle means that constituencies across India roughly have the same number of voters. What follows from this ‘republican’ principle is that larger and denser states will definitely have more representatives than the smaller and less-dense ones. To overturn this idea because governance in the North is terrible is to punish the individuals in that state twice. This is also a defeatist argument. It assumes that the South is destined to play a shrinking role in the Union government. The solution: The problem on the political front is not with respect to MP, Rajasthan, or Chattisgarh. The real issue is that some of our worst-governed states — UP and Bihar — are also the largest single political entities. They together account for nearly 22 percent of the Lok Sabha seats, making them wield disproportionate influence at the national stage. Splitting a big state such as UP into more manageable parts would negate the advantage it has. Second, if the South wants to influence the Union government more than it currently does, regional parties from the South must work towards extending their presence in the North. Without broad basing their presence across the country, they will have to play a second-fiddle role at the national level. Regional parties need to think beyond the limited notion of one-state, one-language. 3. Cultural UnderrepresentationThe argument: Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan themes crowd out the alternate conceptions about India. I sympathise with this argument. The solution: These concerns get heightened when a Union government insists on ramming down one religion, and one language across the length and breadth of the country. Letting go of this need to assimilate might at least partially assuage the South. On the other hand, state governments should work with each other such that Kannada can be taught in Ahmedabad schools and Telugu in Lucknow colleges. In essence, solutions to the disgruntlements in India’s federal polity require imaginative solutions by both the Union and all States together. Addendum- RSJI agree with Pranay’s counterarguments on the North-South debate. Unfortunately, these are coming up with increasing frequency in the media mostly driven by the contrasting electoral fortunes of BJP in these regions. I will add a few points that are relevant to this topic.Firstly, spatial imbalance is an economic feature at every geographical level. It depends on the level of granularity at which you want to do your analysis. So, you could argue South does better than North at pan India level. But within South, maybe the old Mysore belt is better off than northeast Karnataka (the erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka). Within the old Mysore region, the western part has better socioeconomic indicators than the north. You can go down to the ward or taluka level of a city or a district with this analysis and you will find spatial imbalances. The reason for this is simple. Economic growth tends to spatially cluster because agglomeration of activities increases efficiency and leads to positive externalities. This sets off a virtuous cycle of more investments in social and physical infrastructure which further attracts investments and so on. This agglomeration has been exacerbated in the knowledge intensive and service industries where even migration of labour that helps in redistribution of wealth through repatriation doesn’t happen as much because of the specialised skills needed. So, this idea of using a geographic lens to assess socioeconomic prosperity and then to link it to greater political representation is illogical. You will set off a demand for such unequal representation down to every ward and taluka in the country. It is dangerous to further this line of argument in a democratic republic. Secondly, the question really is that of ‘convergence’ of socioeconomic progress between regions and reduction of spatial imbalances. This is a vexing issue for policy makers. The traditional way of looking at this is how to balance efficiency and equity within a region or a country. Continuing to have economic growth clustered in specific regions gives you efficiency but leads to regional inequities. On the other hand, we have seen top-down attempts to push investments into newer regions rarely work because of variety of factors including network effects and lack of positive externalities. In fact, forcing investments into newer regions through tax incentives or any other means leads to suboptimal results at an aggregate level. The traditional economic clusters lose out on efficiency while the newer regions rarely take off. You get neither efficiency nor equity. This is why like Pranay suggests the solution lies in greater devolution of finances and decision making in our federal structure. The choice or the trade-off is easier to make at a smaller regional unit. Of course, at the national level, the Union must make the investments in developing stronger institutions, spending on public goods and building social infrastructure to improve human development indicators in poorer regions. The answer is obviously not having differential political representation for the better off regions. Like Pranay writes that would be penalising the citizens of poorer states twice over. And if I might add it would be plain stupid. HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters[Article] “The China Discount Widens” writes Robert Armstrong in the Financial Times[Paper] “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox”, the famous 2017 paper by Lina Khan in the Yale Law Journal. President Biden nominated the 32 year-old Lina Khan as the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US antitrust watchdog. [Book] The Paradox of India’s North–South Divide: Lessons from the States and Regions by Samuel Paul and Kala Sridhar, is an excellent economic exposition of some key differences. Get on the email list at publicpolicy.substack.com
Rich Johnson with the WLNG Fishing Report for the North & South Fork of Long Island.
Joanna Ludbrook from Chicken and Frog Books reviews North & South: a tale of two hemispheres by Sandra Morris, published by Walker Books.
Joanna Ludbrook from Chicken and Frog Books reviews North & South: a tale of two hemispheres by Sandra Morris, published by Walker Books.
In this #By2 episode, Saurabh and Pranay discuss three questions:What explains the rising petrol and diesel prices?Why is the Chinese government reversing its one-child policy?What are the implications of the economic and social disparities between India's southern and northern states?अगली #By2 पुलियाबाज़ी में सौरभ और प्रणय तीन मुद्दों पर चर्चा कर रहे हैं:पेट्रोल और डीज़ल १०० का आंकड़ा क्यों छू रहे हैं?चीन की सरकार अपनी “हम दो, हमारी एक” जनसंख्या नियंत्रण नीति क्यों हटाना चाहती है?भारत के उत्तर और दक्षिण राज्यों के आर्थिक व सामाजिक अंतर के क्या राजनीतिक परिणाम हो सकते है?For more:Why Indians Pay Such a High Price for Petrol and Diesel, by Vivek KaulBring Petrol under GST, All Things Policy Podcast episode 598China, the Middle-Aged Kingdom, All Things Policy Podcast episode 223The Paradox of India's North–South Divide: Lessons from the States and Regions, Samuel Paul and Kala SreedharPuliyabaazi is on these platforms:Twitter: https://twitter.com/puliyabaaziFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/puliyabaaziInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/puliyabaazi/Subscribe & listen to the podcast on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Castbox, AudioBoom, YouTube, Spotify or any other podcast app.
Listeners may recall Peter Mandelson, the veteran UK Cabinet Secretary appointed EU Commissioner for Trade in the late 2000s upon helping orchestrate Labour's social-liberal pivot as one of Tony Blair's “spin doctors”. Mandelson's incarnation of the party's notorious “Third Way” didn't just owe to his Europhile credentials and support for Blairite programs. By racking up a string of landslide victories in the northeastern constituency of Hartlepool, his career showcased Labour's potential to press ahead with market-based and socially progressive reforms whilst retaining its historic foothold in working-class communities. Fast forward to May 6th this year, and the party's gradual loss of its core electorate in the intervening decade was nowhere in better display than in the by-election that saw the Tories flip the Hartlepool seat with a voting share 23 points larger. The political realignment underway in British politics is often chalked up to Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn's radical neo-socialism. Yet its contours are in fact proving deeper and more lasting, as voters get to weigh Boris Johnson's promises to level up the North-South divide against Keir Starmer's declared reversion to centrist politics. Beyond local variations, the trajectory for the working-class vote is one of unprecedented disaffection with Labour. This week's episode gauges the causes, extent and nuances of this trend with Paul Embery and Nick Timothy. As always, rate and review Uncommon Decency on Apple Podcasts, and send us your comments or questions at @UnDecencyPod or uncommondecencypod@gmail.com.
“Increased collaborations can save considerable time and money, and most often, breakthrough research comes through collaborative research rather than by adhering to tried and true methods” (Bensal, et al., 2019) In this episode, we explore collaboration with between the Global South and the Global North with our hosts, Ylann Schemm and Ian Evans from Elsevier, as they talk to our guest, Dr. Jennifer Thomson, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town, and President of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD).Episode VoicesJennifer ThomsonEmeritus Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town President of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) Prof. Jennifer Thomson is currently Emeritus Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Previously, she was Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and Director of the Laboratory for Molecular and Cell Biology for the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, before becoming Head of the Department of Microbiology at UCT. Thomson has won numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, including the L'Oreal/UNESCO prize for Women in Science for Africa in 2004 and an Honorary Doctorate from the Sorbonne University. Her research field is the development of genetically modified maize resistant to the African endemic maize streak virus and tolerant to drought and she has published three books on Genetically Modified Organisms: Genes for Africa, Seeds for the Future, and Food for Africa. She is a member of the board of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), based in Nairobi and vice-chair of ISAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of AgriBiotech Applications). Prof. Jennifer Thomson also serves on the National Advisory Council on Innovation of the South African Minister of Science and Technology.Guest Hosts:Ylann SchemmAs Director of the Elsevier Foundation, Ylann Schemm drives technology-enabled partnerships to advance diversity in science, build research capacity and support global health around the world. She has been an integral part of the Foundation's growth since joining as a Program Officer in 2008. In addition, Ylann currently serves as Elsevier's Director of External Partnerships, building on 15 years in corporate relations and responsibility roles and focusing on key technology, gender and sustainability collaborations. Ian EvansIan Evans is Content Director for Global Communications at Elsevier. Previously, he was Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier's Global Communications Newsroom. Based in Oxford, he joined Elsevier six years ago from a small trade publisher specializing in popular science and literary fiction.Prior to this he worked for several years on a leading trade magazine for the electrical retail industry, reporting on new technologies and market trends in consumer electronics. He holds a degree in English literature from the University of Wales, Cardiff, and spends his spare time reading, writing, and playing drums.
Radio Sweden brings you a round-up of the main news in Sweden on June 7th, 2021. Presenter: Dave Russell Producer: Loukas Christodoulou
The man tipped to be the new First Minister, Paul Givan is on with Stephen
Are they going to compromise with each other – or is Stormont in jeopardy?
Water! Earth! Fire! Air! Kinfolkore host Andrea and Paul invite you to explore the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and The Legend of Korra in season 6 of Kinfolkore. From the moments after Book three in ATLA all the way through Book 4 in LOK they dive back into one of their favorite worlds to cover Korra, and just like the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of the Avatar begins anew. Yip Yip!
West side Atlanta’s own DeMario Zachery aka Lil Yo joins to talk Atlanta Falcons and the NFC South. Was Kyle Pitts the right choice at 4th overall (7:03)? What’s next for Julio Jones (10:32)? How will the NFC South shape out (16:12)? We then will be joined by Detroit Hip-Hop recording artist Young Roc to speak on his hometown Lions and the NFC North. He will give his thoughts on the current state of the Lions (27:20). What about the rest of the NFC North (31:55)? Including the Aaron Rodgers saga.
In this episode of our Fireside Chats series we’ll be talking with Ting Lu, our Chief China Economist, and Albert Leung our Asia rates strategist, on their thoughts on the broader view of China and its outlook. We then look at why we expect the economic disparity between China’s north and south to widen further and what this means for China’s credit market if and when default risks rise down the line.
Join Simon Makeham from North South Border Leicester Stud, a veteran sheep showing expert in this celebratory 50th episode of The Sheep Show Podcast! Simon shares some of the secrets to showing sheep, how to prepare your sheep and some ring craft tips for us to consider. In this episode we explore:What is the reason for the North South business continuing to show sheep after all these years and your many successes? What do you enjoy about showing sheep and attending shows?What do you think is the cost of getting sheep ready for a show? Is it worth it? What are the benefits of showing sheep?What approach do you take to show prep – lets start with preparing your sheep? How far out from a show to you start to prepare your sheep? Many people you speak to at shows say stuff like ‘Oh I just took them out of the paddock like this’ – what are your thoughts on this? How realistic is it to expect a sheep to be show ready in a paddock? I know I feed my sheep prior to shows, what do you think is the best thing to feed sheep to prepare them for showing – how early do you start? What about feeding them molasses? What other supplements would you suggest (if any)? What are your tips on halter training? What works and what doesn’t? How do you decide what sheep to include in your group classes? What do you have in your show kit to help you do the final prep with your sheep on show day? What are your best tips for etiquette in the ring? How important do you think the scanning figures are when showing sheep at a major show? What advice would you have for someone starting out in showing sheep?What do you look for when you are judging sheep in a show ring?What is the biggest mistake people make when showing sheep?
What led to Arlene Foster's ouster this week, who will succeed her and what will it mean for politics on the island? To find out we talk to Sam McBride of the Belfast Newsletter. Then Pat Leahy and Jennifer Bray look at the other big political news of the week: the major moves towards reopening the country, and the surprise resignation of Fine Gael TD Eoghan Murphy. The former housing minister's departure means an intriguing byelection will happen later this year.
We speak to Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney.
All month, we're talking about Spies. Tune in to hear incredible stories of intelligence and espionage! Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know -- but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Leading Ladies, Activists, STEMinists, Local Legends, and many more. Encyclopedia Womannica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.Encyclopedia Womannica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, and Brittany Martinez. Special thanks to Shira Atkins, Edie Allard, and Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, and Ale Tejeda.We are offering free ad space on Wonder Media Network shows to organizations working towards social justice. For more information, please email Jenny at jenny@wondermedianetwork.com.Follow Wonder Media Network:WebsiteInstagramTwitter
The Volga begins as a small trickle in the Valdai Hills in the north of Russia, and broadens and expands as it heads south, past the storied medieval cities of Tver, Kostroma, and the great trading hub of the nineteenth century, Nizhniy Novgorod, down to Kazan, the capital of Muslim Tatarstan, then Ulyanovsk, the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin, on to Samara, site of the great peasant revolts led by Stenka Razin and Yemelyan Pugachyov. From there, the river flows down to Volgograd, better known as Stalingrad, where the Red Army pushed back the seemingly unstoppable Nazi offensive during World War II, and finally down to Astrakhan, where the Mongol invaders kept their court until Ivan the Terrible conquered the city in 1556. Then, finally, the mighty river empties into the Caspian Sea. So much of Russian history has played out on the banks of this mighty river. The Volga cleaves European Russia from north to south and divides it from east to west, and for centuries, the mighty Volga has challenged and inspired Russians in their quest for expansion, modernization, and self-identification. The river and its role in Russian history is the subject of a new book by Professor Janet Hartley, Emeritus Professor of International History at the London School of Economics: “The Volga: A History of Russia’s Greatest River” (Yale University Press, 2021). The Volga: A History of Russia’s Greatest River (Yale UP, 2021) examines the role of the river in Russia’s development as a political and economic power, but also the river’s enormous impact on Russian culture and national identity. Though the structure of the book is chronological, Hartley brings in the major events of Russian history as convenient mile markers, but it is the compelling narrative of social history which pulls us into the slipstream of the book. Several through lines emerge in Hartley’s account of “Mother Volga.” The river divides Russia from East to West, and often this division plays out in stories of contrasts: Muslim versus Christian, outlaws versus the state, pirates versus traders, and invading armies pitted against each other. But the river also unites Russia along the North/South axis, acting as a conduit for trade, culture, and political ideas. As Russians struggled through the centuries with their national identity, the Volga offered a potent symbol and cultural touchstone, which was amplified in poetry, painting, song, and later famously in sculpture. Though the river is most commonly evoked as a “mother” figure, Hartley points out that throughout Russian history rulers have often sought to “tame” the Volga: Ivan the Terrible famously had the river whipped, and contemporary poets portrayed the river as a supplicant to Catherine II as she expanded the borders of the Russian empire. Hartley also takes us inside twentieth-century attempts to tame the Volga, which have resulted in lasting environmental harm to the life-giving river, and leaves us hopeful that the generation now coming of age will take on the challenge of redressing this damage. Janet Hartley is Professor Emeritus of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she worked for over 30 years. Jennifer Eremeeva is an American expatriate writer who writes about travel, culture, cuisine and culinary history, Russian history, and Royal History, with bylines in Reuters, Fodor's, USTOA, LitHub, The Moscow Times, and Russian Life. She is the award-winning author of Lenin Lives Next Door: Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow and Have Personality Disorder, Will Rule Russia: A Pocket Guide to Russian History. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
The Volga begins as a small trickle in the Valdai Hills in the north of Russia, and broadens and expands as it heads south, past the storied medieval cities of Tver, Kostroma, and the great trading hub of the nineteenth century, Nizhniy Novgorod, down to Kazan, the capital of Muslim Tatarstan, then Ulyanovsk, the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin, on to Samara, site of the great peasant revolts led by Stenka Razin and Yemelyan Pugachyov. From there, the river flows down to Volgograd, better known as Stalingrad, where the Red Army pushed back the seemingly unstoppable Nazi offensive during World War II, and finally down to Astrakhan, where the Mongol invaders kept their court until Ivan the Terrible conquered the city in 1556. Then, finally, the mighty river empties into the Caspian Sea. So much of Russian history has played out on the banks of this mighty river. The Volga cleaves European Russia from north to south and divides it from east to west, and for centuries, the mighty Volga has challenged and inspired Russians in their quest for expansion, modernization, and self-identification. The river and its role in Russian history is the subject of a new book by Professor Janet Hartley, Emeritus Professor of International History at the London School of Economics: “The Volga: A History of Russia’s Greatest River” (Yale University Press, 2021). The Volga: A History of Russia’s Greatest River (Yale UP, 2021) examines the role of the river in Russia’s development as a political and economic power, but also the river’s enormous impact on Russian culture and national identity. Though the structure of the book is chronological, Hartley brings in the major events of Russian history as convenient mile markers, but it is the compelling narrative of social history which pulls us into the slipstream of the book. Several through lines emerge in Hartley’s account of “Mother Volga.” The river divides Russia from East to West, and often this division plays out in stories of contrasts: Muslim versus Christian, outlaws versus the state, pirates versus traders, and invading armies pitted against each other. But the river also unites Russia along the North/South axis, acting as a conduit for trade, culture, and political ideas. As Russians struggled through the centuries with their national identity, the Volga offered a potent symbol and cultural touchstone, which was amplified in poetry, painting, song, and later famously in sculpture. Though the river is most commonly evoked as a “mother” figure, Hartley points out that throughout Russian history rulers have often sought to “tame” the Volga: Ivan the Terrible famously had the river whipped, and contemporary poets portrayed the river as a supplicant to Catherine II as she expanded the borders of the Russian empire. Hartley also takes us inside twentieth-century attempts to tame the Volga, which have resulted in lasting environmental harm to the life-giving river, and leaves us hopeful that the generation now coming of age will take on the challenge of redressing this damage. Janet Hartley is Professor Emeritus of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she worked for over 30 years. Jennifer Eremeeva is an American expatriate writer who writes about travel, culture, cuisine and culinary history, Russian history, and Royal History, with bylines in Reuters, Fodor's, USTOA, LitHub, The Moscow Times, and Russian Life. She is the award-winning author of Lenin Lives Next Door: Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow and Have Personality Disorder, Will Rule Russia: A Pocket Guide to Russian History. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
The Volga begins as a small trickle in the Valdai Hills in the north of Russia, and broadens and expands as it heads south, past the storied medieval cities of Tver, Kostroma, and the great trading hub of the nineteenth century, Nizhniy Novgorod, down to Kazan, the capital of Muslim Tatarstan, then Ulyanovsk, the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin, on to Samara, site of the great peasant revolts led by Stenka Razin and Yemelyan Pugachyov. From there, the river flows down to Volgograd, better known as Stalingrad, where the Red Army pushed back the seemingly unstoppable Nazi offensive during World War II, and finally down to Astrakhan, where the Mongol invaders kept their court until Ivan the Terrible conquered the city in 1556. Then, finally, the mighty river empties into the Caspian Sea. So much of Russian history has played out on the banks of this mighty river. The Volga cleaves European Russia from north to south and divides it from east to west, and for centuries, the mighty Volga has challenged and inspired Russians in their quest for expansion, modernization, and self-identification. The river and its role in Russian history is the subject of a new book by Professor Janet Hartley, Emeritus Professor of International History at the London School of Economics: “The Volga: A History of Russia’s Greatest River” (Yale University Press, 2021). The Volga: A History of Russia’s Greatest River (Yale UP, 2021) examines the role of the river in Russia’s development as a political and economic power, but also the river’s enormous impact on Russian culture and national identity. Though the structure of the book is chronological, Hartley brings in the major events of Russian history as convenient mile markers, but it is the compelling narrative of social history which pulls us into the slipstream of the book. Several through lines emerge in Hartley’s account of “Mother Volga.” The river divides Russia from East to West, and often this division plays out in stories of contrasts: Muslim versus Christian, outlaws versus the state, pirates versus traders, and invading armies pitted against each other. But the river also unites Russia along the North/South axis, acting as a conduit for trade, culture, and political ideas. As Russians struggled through the centuries with their national identity, the Volga offered a potent symbol and cultural touchstone, which was amplified in poetry, painting, song, and later famously in sculpture. Though the river is most commonly evoked as a “mother” figure, Hartley points out that throughout Russian history rulers have often sought to “tame” the Volga: Ivan the Terrible famously had the river whipped, and contemporary poets portrayed the river as a supplicant to Catherine II as she expanded the borders of the Russian empire. Hartley also takes us inside twentieth-century attempts to tame the Volga, which have resulted in lasting environmental harm to the life-giving river, and leaves us hopeful that the generation now coming of age will take on the challenge of redressing this damage. Janet Hartley is Professor Emeritus of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she worked for over 30 years. Jennifer Eremeeva is an American expatriate writer who writes about travel, culture, cuisine and culinary history, Russian history, and Royal History, with bylines in Reuters, Fodor's, USTOA, LitHub, The Moscow Times, and Russian Life. She is the award-winning author of Lenin Lives Next Door: Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow and Have Personality Disorder, Will Rule Russia: A Pocket Guide to Russian History. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/russian-studies
Would you fly to America to ask ONE question? Why did John Travolta ask Vernon Kay for a selfie, and who is harassing David Cameron on the dance floor? Bolton’s own Vernon Kay joins Chelsea’s Jamie and Francis to tackle the North-South divide. Warning, this episode contains crumpets. Happy Friday, enjoy! XWATCH Vernon’s new show Game Of TalentsSaturday, 10 April at 7:30pm on ITVhttps://www.itv.com/presscentre/ep1week15/game-talentsMore Private PartsFollow us on Socials @PrivatePodcast(TikTok, Instagram, Twitter Facebook & Youtube)New Episode every FRIDAY!Subscribe today so you never miss an episode: https://apple.co/2WHvFfJCreated by Spirit Hosted By Acast#PrivatePartsPodcast See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Would you fly to America to ask ONE question? Why did John Travolta ask Vernon Kay for a selfie, and who is harassing David Cameron on the dance floor? Bolton’s own Vernon Kay joins Chelsea’s Jamie and Francis to tackle the North-South divide. Warning, this episode contains crumpets. Happy Friday, enjoy! XWATCH Vernon’s new show Game Of TalentsSaturday, 10 April at 7:30pm on ITVhttps://www.itv.com/presscentre/ep1week15/game-talentsMore Private PartsFollow us on Socials @PrivatePodcast(TikTok, Instagram, Twitter Facebook & Youtube)New Episode every FRIDAY!Subscribe today so you never miss an episode: https://apple.co/2WHvFfJCreated by Spirit Hosted By Acast#PrivatePartsPodcast See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Find out why date of November 6, 1860 is so important. Learn which Southern State was the first to secede from Union and what it meant regarding control of Federal Property. Learn about Raphael Semmes. Find out where first shots of Civil War were fired. Discover how Blockade Strategies were prevalent for both North & South. Learn which Southern Lighthouse had become most treacherous to what lighthouses themselves were best used for during Civil War. Learn significance behind dates of April 9 & 14, 1865. Discover how Lighthouse Board went about rebuilding to repairing large numbers of Southern Lighthouse's. Learn what oil had been used to keep America's Beacons shining before and during Civil War, but the consequences which followed. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/kirk-monroe/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kirk-monroe/support
Meet Shareef Clayton a trumpet player, producer, musician and leader of his own band "Shareef Clayton Band". Listen to his album entitled "North & South". Shareef shares the importance of practice and putting in the work that his father instilled in him and his journey in becoming a musician and teacher. Facebook: Shareef Clayton @shareefclayton shareefclayton.com
In this rich conversation, Mason sits down with the brilliant herbalist Sajah Popham; Founder of School Of Evolutionary Herbalism and Organic Unity in southern Oregon, for a journey into the otherworldly space of plant alchemy, herbal remedies, spagyric medicine, and the inextricable relationship between man and our magically healing plant friends. Geared with both the Science and esoteric understanding of herbal medicine and trained in real alchemy by the great Robert Bartlett, Sajah brings a holistic understanding of the universal truths and principles that govern plants and healing. Sajah's depth of knowledge and reverence for plants as healers is truly a gift to this world. A guardian of the plant kingdom, he walks his path devoted to healing and teaching people that plants are not something we use mindlessly and forget about once healed. He reminds us they are our allies, guides, and protectors, that we should seek to understand and develop a connection that deepens with time. Make sure you tune in for this one! "If we can imagine back to the first human beings ever to exist on planet earth and think of who was the first teacher of herbal medicine? Well, it was the plants themselves. And that's something that I really want to come back to in my own work." -Sajah Popham Mason and Sajah discuss: Spagyrics and the process of creating medicine. Medical astrology. Medical Alchemy. The three philosophical principles of alchemy (Tria Prima). How do we bring together science and spirituality? Universal themes among ancient medicine systems. Esoteric knowledge and how it relates to plants and healing. The importance of developing a relationship with the plants we utilise as medicines. Looking at people and plants through an energetic lens. The three Doshas of Ayurveda. Integrative medicine; Eastern and Western systems of medicine coming together. Returning to the heart space and sitting in earth energy for healing. Who is Sajah Popham? Sajah Popham (B.S. Herbal Sciences), founder and core instructor of Organic Unity and School of Evolutionary Herbalism, is a student of the universal truths found within both ancient and modern herbal traditions from around the world. The focus of his work is on integrating ancient teachings for a new paradigm of plant medicine, one that is truly holistic in its honoring of the spirit, energetics, and body of both people and plants. His unique synthesis bridges herbalism not only east and west, but north and south, above and below, into a universal philosophy that encompasses indigenous wisdom, Ayurveda, western Alchemy and Spagyrics, Astrology, clinical herbalism, and modern pharmacology. Sajah’s vitalist approach utilizes plants not only for physiological healing and rejuvenation, but for the evolution of consciousness, for a truly holistic practice of plant medicine. Sajah’s teachings embody a heartfelt respect, honor and reverence for the vast intelligence of plants in a way that empowers us to look deeper into the nature of our medicines and ourselves. He lives in southern Oregon with his wife where he teaches at his school, makes spagyric medicines, and practices his art. Resources: School Of Evolutionary Herbalism Facebook (School Of Evolutionary Herbalism) Instagram (School Of Evolutionary Herbalism) YouTube (School Of Evolutionary Herbalism) Evolutionary Herbalism Book The Plant Path Podcast with Sajah & Whitney Popham Organic Unity- Alchemical Herbal Extracts Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or check us out on Stitcher, CastBox, iHeart RADIO:)! Plus we're on Spotify! Check Out The Transcript Here: Mason: (00:00) Hey Sajah. Welcome, man. Sajah Popham: (00:01) Thank you. Mason: (00:02) All right. How are you doing down there in Oregon? Can you tell us a little bit about where you're at, where you've landed in the world and what you're up to there? Sajah Popham: (00:11) Yeah. I live in the Southern part of Oregon State here in the United States and I live out here on 120 acres with my wife, Whitney, where we host our school called the School of Evolutionary Herbalism, where we teach a lot of workshops to herbalists and people wanting to really reconnect with the wisdom of plants and different traditions from around the world that have used plants as medicines. And we also spend a lot of our time out here preparing spagyric herbal extracts for our business, Organic Unity, which is an aspect of the alchemical tradition from Europe and very specific methods of preparing herbs into medicines that concentrates their physical properties, as well as their spiritual and energetic properties as well. Mason: (01:02) What made you get into spagyrics? Sajah Popham: (01:03) [inaudible 00:01:03]. Mason: (01:05) Yeah. Awesome. And I forgot but I think I'd mentioned before we jumped on and coming up to Oregon to go to the American Herbal Guild Symposium in October. Don't know if you're going to be around there, but looking forward to going out to get out there, but I meant the spagyrics. I'm really interested to hear what got you into that aspect of herbalism, because I don't know what it's like in the US whether it's spreading a little bit. I'm sure thanks to yourself, it has, but it hasn't permeated just the everyday herbal community here in Australia. Sajah Popham: (01:39) Yeah. Well, I would definitely say that's true out here in the States as well. When we're talking about alchemy and spagyrics we're getting on a pretty fringy part of herbal medicine that I feel very committed to opening up more to the verbal world. For me alchemy and spagyrics was really the missing link. It was the missing piece of the puzzle for me in terms of my plant path, my journey into the world of herbal medicine. And I was studying at Bastyr University up there in Seattle and in the herbal sciences programme. And for me, as the programme implies, it's a very scientifically oriented programme. So we're studying the botany and the chemistry and the pharmacology and plant constituents and how to best extract them and anatomy and physiology and biochemistry, and a very scientific model of herbal medicine, which I love. I really loved science. Sajah Popham: (02:45) I love that whole aspect of it. But during that time as well I was really deepening just in my own direct connection with the plants. And I think a lot of people experienced this where our lives are changed when a plant heals us. It's like sometimes we're going through our life and we're having a hard time with something, maybe something in our body, maybe something in our heart or mind, and then a plant comes to us and we take that plant into our body and it fundamentally changes who we are and heals us. And so for me having this deep spiritual connection to the plants and this very scientific model of understanding plants, created this little rift inside of me, well, maybe a big rift. It was like, how do I bring these two together? How do I bring together the science and the spirit of herbal medicine? Sajah Popham: (03:41) And I think that's something that's going on on a cultural level as well, just how do we bring together science and spirituality? And that led me to study a lot of different medical traditions, spiritual traditions and eventually that led me to Tuscany, Italy, where I was doing a study abroad trip there. And there was a man that talked about medical alchemy, medical astrology, and he was talking about just all this very esoteric knowledge and how it relates to plants and healing. And I remember it just really clicking something into place for me because in alchemy they utilise chemical terminology to denote a spiritual principle. And that really made a lot of sense to me and how they had methods of preparing plants that would concentrate their chemistry that works in the body, but also methods of concentrating the spiritual properties of the plants and how those influence our minds, our emotions, and ultimately our spiritual growth and evolution. Sajah Popham: (04:56) And that became a very fundamental model for how I perceived plants and practised herbal medicine. I didn't really want to just approach herbal medicine to "fix what's broken in our bodies" because they did so much more for me in my own plant path. I wanted to assist people in that deeper connection to the true self, deeper connection to nature, deeper connection to the spirit that's in all of life. And I believe that the plants have an incredible capacity to do so. And it was through the spagyric preparations that I found it best to help people in that way. Mason: (05:37) And just for my sake, can you take me a little bit through that preparation model? I understand it from way back in a heavily alchemical process, it's probably not something that downloads easily down to a couple of sentences or paragraphs, but just to understand what that process is, if you mind. Sajah Popham: (05:54) Yeah, sure. Well, everything in alchemy, they say everything in nature, or everything in creation has three fundamental principles. What they call Tria Prima or the three philosophical principles, and in alchemy, they see that as they call sulphur, mercury and salt, and this correlates to the soul, the spirit and the body of any particular thing, whether that's a person or a plant or a stone or whatever it is, everything in nature has these three principles and we can see that threefold pattern reflected in a whole lot of different traditions around the world. Ayurveda has its three doshas. Chinese medicine has its three treasures. Astrology has its three modes. There's all manner of Holy trinities, so to speak in different medical, scientific and spiritual traditions. So in spagyrics, which is plant-based alchemy, they say that the sulphur, mercury and salt of a plant corresponds to the essential oils, the alcohol-soluble constituents and the mineral salts. Sajah Popham: (07:07) And so in the spagyric process, the sulphur, mercury and salt are the oil, the alcohol and the minerals are all separated from the plant through different techniques. The distillation, fermentation, rectification, calcination, disillusion these different spagyric processes whereby these three fundamental principles of a plant are separated purified, and then recombined back together into what is said to be an evolved expression of that plant and the soul, the spirit and the body of the plant is present in the medicine. It acts upon the human soul, spirit and body as well. And so in that way, spagyrics are said to have an evolutionary function or the way the old alchemists put it, it has an initiatic virtue, meaning that it's initiating us into a higher level of consciousness. And the thing that's really cool about the that really was what hooked me was, when I was in college and learning how to make herbal medicines, I always wanted the strongest medicine I could get. Sajah Popham: (08:22) And so I would tincture it and re-tincture it and cook it down and boil it in water and extract it and vinegar and put it all together and put a flower essence in there. It's just like I was crazy. I just wanted the whole plant there, but what always ended up happening is I had to throw the plant material away and it always really bothered me. I always felt like there was something there that I wasn't getting. And in the spagyric process, we never throw the body of plant have away. I would say that has the salt principle. And so in spagyric works, once a plant is extracted we'll actually burn the plant down to an ash and then take that ash and run it through some further processes that basically yields crystals. Sajah Popham: (09:14) We extract crystalline mineral salts from the plant that they say, that's the purified body of the plant. And when you have that body of the plant, you're anchoring the intelligence of that plant into its physical body so that then it can influence our physical body in a much deeper way. So we don't throw anything out in the spagyric process. You really get the whole plant. And when you get the whole plant, it's going to work on the whole person. And that to me is one of the foundational elements of what it means to practise holistic herbal medicine. Mason: (09:52) Thanks for explaining it like that as well. That's landed with me so hard, especially with the throwing out the herb after you're done with a tea or a tincture, or maybe doing a vinegar extraction or anything like that. The best we can do here is just get them back into circulation, composting them. But there's this saying, so [inaudible 00:10:09] especially about we've got like in the West, we can all probably agree that we've got that scientific way and reductionist way of approaching herbalism down-packed and gone for the chemistry. The aspect that you're talking about and connecting with the spirit and the personality of the herb, the patterns of the herb, that part of the herb where you can actually develop a relationship. Generally you can say that's a bit deficient. Mason: (10:40) Now, for some reason, I've just started thinking about an array of people out there who are in that frame of mind, where it's like a pill for the ill, "I've got a symptom and I need to knock it on the head." Now that's like in health food stores in major cities, et cetera, there seems to be a glass ceiling on actually being able to go and connect with the spirit of the herb or get out of that mentality of just trying to fix yourself, trying to cure these symptoms. Stay with me because I don't have a question. I'm just going through something here. I'm really interested in talking to ways and it seems like we're already talking to it, to continue to bridge that gap, especially for people who are in the trenches of cities. Mason: (11:37) I know I go off on tangents and some pretty elaborate tangents and recommendations. And I had a lot of moms. Moms come to me and be like, "Mason, cool, your jets now. I got four kids and I need something solid that I can get into now." Let's talk to that a little bit. Let's talk to that in practises that can transfer across whether someone's like in the 9:00 to 5:00 grind in the city or in the country, what are the best ways you find to bridge that gap from the mentality of "fix me" to "let's grow and explore and evolve", especially with getting to know herbal personalities. Sajah Popham: (12:17) Yeah. Great question. I think there's some layers to that. On the one hand you have people that maybe are experiencing health issues, health concerns, and they'd like to take a more alternative route which it's funny that we call it alternative, but it really should be this normal- Mason: (12:38) Yeah. And you're right. Sajah Popham: (12:38) ... to work with nature. And I don't necessarily... It's not everyone's path to have these deep spiritual connections to the plants and to the vegetable realm and I don't think that that would negate the efficacy of someone working with plants in that way. And then on the other end of that spectrum, we have people that are maybe naturopaths or clinical herbalists or the plant people. And those tend to be the people that I'm more communicating with. And so one of the things that I always like to encourage people that are working with the herbs in a deeper way, that we want to have a relationship with those medicines, we want to have a relationship to the plants that we're utilising as medicines. Sajah Popham: (13:33) And it reminds me of something one of my teachers, Matthew Wood says. He says, "Don't be just an armchair herbalist." And I always really liked that because he says, "There's some herbalists out there that just sit in their arm chair and read the books and do the bookwork and the studies, which is great. But that relationship with the medicines we use takes on this whole other level, when we go out into the forest and we find the herb and we pick it and we eat it and we make medicine out of it. And maybe we sit with it and pray with it and make offerings and go through this deeper process of having a relationship with that plant that we're working with. And then when we get that remedy to someone there's an added something special to it, there's an added power to it because we know that plant and that plant knows us. And so we have a deeper connection and relationship to it." Sajah Popham: (14:35) And so one of the things that I think also the different element of your question that I was hearing there is, to me, I'm just thinking of folks living in the city and maybe not having very deep relationship to the natural world. To me, this is one the core sicknesses or imbalances that I think is permeating the world right now is this disconnect from the natural ecosystem that is Gaia and it's ironic because the human being is as much a part of nature as everything else. Sajah Popham: (15:19) It's just that we have created this world. I always say we use the terms world and earth very similarly. But to me they're very different. To me, the world is what is the human mind made manifest. So we think of a city. You're in a city on the concrete and there's the lights and the advertising comes in, the signs and you're literally surrounded by the human mind made into manifest form into something physical, like someone had the idea to make that sign or create this light or this shop and all these things in there. And it's like, mind, mind, mind. It's like, we're surrounded by the human mind and that's the world. But the earth to me is something... The human mind didn't create the earth, something greater than the human mind created the earth. Sajah Popham: (16:15) And I always say it's like the earth is created by the mind of the creator, but it's not really a mind, it's a heart. And so to me, it's like the earth and the natural world of which we're a part of, is an expression of the divine of the love of creation and that when we surround ourselves by a natural habitat, that it strengthens this connection to the human heart. And it's the split between the world and the earth, and the mind and the heart, and the science and the spirit. It's that division that I think is making people sick on a lot of different levels. And so to me, just by having a deeper connection and relationship to the natural world that is giving us life every day, it's like we're all breathing the same air. We're all drinking the same water. We're all being nourished by this food that's grown from the earth. It's like we're all a part of that. Sajah Popham: (17:22) And so when we bring that into a greater level of awareness, I think there's a reassembling of the human spirit that happens. And I think there's something, a deep healing that happens in our hearts where we feel connected to something greater than ourselves. And I think it's interesting that in our modern culture, that we see so much depression and so much anxiety and so much heart disease. I think these are physiological expressions of a split in the location of our consciousness, of being up in the mind and being in the world as opposed to being in the heart and being in the earth. So that's what comes to mind just based on what you were mentioning there. Mason: (18:13) And did you get interested in herbalism especially, and immersing yourself in nature? Were you having the experience of the separation yourself? Sajah Popham: (18:22) Oh, absolutely. I was not raised by hippie parents or in the woods or anything. I grew up in a little suburb between Tacoma and Seattle, Washington. I grew up in about as a conventional lifestyle, as one could imagine eating fast food and going to public schools, nothing too special about me. Mason: (18:49) I'm sure there's lots of special values. I feel something similar then in terms of growing up on the fast food. Growing up I can one-up you and say I went to Catholic school. And so what I'm interested in is talking more about... I don't know about you, but in my early days, I felt even my mind, I sensed I wanted to be unified once again within myself and with the world. I could still feel an excess of that mind energy, being attached to arriving at a place where I can now I'm unified. Almost in a melancholic way that was like, not that I'd actually consciously think this and that makes me better and more in the know than other people. And it was a really fun and interesting process to feel as the mind and body unity began to occur that I've started really falling in love more and more with that process rather than the destination of unifying. And actually there is no destination there at all. Are you feeling me on that one? Sajah Popham: (20:00) Absolutely. Yeah. The way that I think of it especially in the health world, and in the spiritual world as well, I feel like it's so easy for our minds to create some sort of, like you said, a destination, an idealised image of the self, of perfect balance, and we want that so bad. We want that vitality. We want that rejuvenation. We want that perfect health and balance and harmony, and maybe we'll get there for a moment. And then the wind will blow and then create... It's like everything's in constant flux. I love that saying that the only thing that doesn't change is that everything changes. And it makes me think about the Ayurvedic concept of doshas. Sajah Popham: (21:00) These three doshas Ayurveda is really the basis of their anatomy and their constitutional theory and the way they classify herbs of these three doshas of Kapha, Vata, and Pitta, which are composed of our five elements of nature, ether, air, fire, water, and earth. And I love that definition of dosha is basically that which goes out of balance. And so it's the foundation of the way they understand the human organism is that balance itself is a changing phenomenon and that we can only get to a certain place for so long and then that's going to change. And so I think that's always an interesting thing to consider in regards to our health, that there is no end goal, there is no peak of the mountain. It's like we'll get to the peak of the mountain, but then we're going to see four or five more after that, if that makes any sense. Mason: (22:05) Yeah, it does. And I'm only in here talking about gaining relationships with herbs, especially before you were talking about that moment, where if you have a relationship with the herb and the fact that you go through a healing journey with it, or if it heals you or if it helps you gain access to something within your body, then all of a sudden that relationship, it's solid, it's spiritual, you're mates with that herb. I've definitely experienced that. And especially in talking about the Western mindset of coming to herbs is just "fix me". And especially with when for me you're approaching herbalism heavily from the tonics, you're getting into Daoist tonic herbalism in the beginning and really enjoying that and still enjoying that where that sits within a holistic lifestyle, but starting to get schooled a little bit on the fact that there is no balance point. The herb's aren't going to get you balanced. Sometimes they might actually take you off balance so that you can further understand how to come back into balance within yourself. Mason: (23:21) When I began to open up with understanding the varying ways that I can have a relationship with a plant or with a herb and what we were talking about before we jumped on, which I'd like to weave into this is moving away from the textbook. This herb reishi, whatever, is good for the heart, tones the liver, does this to the immune system, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. "Okay, cool. I'm going to use that herb to fix me in this or to get me a balance in this," but then all of a sudden you start actually, with any herb, you start actually introducing it in a way that gives you the opportunity to actually feel what it's doing, and then what your body's doing with that herb. The herb all of a sudden opens up and you go, "Okay, there's no black and white uses when it comes to this herb." And you realise you've opened up a can of worms way bigger than just taking a herb. Sajah Popham: (24:14) Oh yeah. Really good question. It brings multiple points to mind, the first of which is that no one herb is right for everyone. I think one of the things with... Well, let me backtrack a little. I think one of the things that's important to understand about, I would say all traditional systems and models of herbal medicine, is that there's always a context within which a plant is taken into the human body. And most traditions that utilise plants as herbs are just using herbs. They're also implementing diet and nutrition as a major part of their medical practise. And I think this is a critical facet that I think is overlooked often. And no one likes it when I say that, because everyone just wants the magic bullet. If we want them to take the three drops of the tincture and all of your ails and problems are just going to magically disappear and you don't have to change. And I think that's the big piece here is that we all want a quick fix and we want to have a healthy life, but maybe we don't want to change the way we live our life that has led us to the particular state of health or lack of health that we currently have. Sajah Popham: (25:42) And so that's one thing that I always encourage my students and people that I talk to about herbs is if the root cause of, say someone has a chronic digestive symptom, for me, I'm not going to give them some peppermint or fennel or some bitters. I'm going to do a really in-depth assessment of like, "What are you eating every day that might be contributing to this problem? Because it doesn't matter how many herbs I give you. If you eat something that's upsetting your digestive system, am I really helping you by giving you herbs? Actually I could be enabling you to continue living an unhealthy lifestyle that could lead to a deeper, more serious issue in the long term." So for me, it's always taking a step back and looking at someone's overall lifestyle and doing that detective work of like, "Okay, what is it that they're doing that might be contributing to this?" Of course we use herbs to help, but the herbs, aren't just the sole focus of it. Sajah Popham: (26:51) The sole focus is giving people strategies ultimately for how they can optimise living in a very healthy way. So that's the first point that comes to mind. Second point that comes to mind for sure, this is one thing that comes up for me. It's one of my little pet peeves in the herb world and it's the question that I always get, "Oh, what's that herb good for?" To me, I think of plants like people, and that's just the way that I tend to think of them. And I always jokingly say, whenever I talk about this, I say, "You'd never go up to someone when you first meet someone and be like, "Oh, hey. My name's Sajah. What's your name? Oh, Hey Bill. Oh. So what are you good for?" You know, with like, we would never say that to someone but we say it about the plants all the time. And so to me, I'm less concerned about what a plant is good for. I'm more concerned about who that plant is. Mason: (27:53) Can I just point, Sajah, when you bring that up, I don't know whether this is a bit glum, but I think there was a time when humans would talk about other humans that way. And there are probably times when we want to be moving, like humans want to be learning from or moving on from, and I feel like this really brings into that whole, it's that the herbs are working for us. That slave mentality rather than an actual unity, right? Sajah Popham: (28:19) Totally. And to me it's like... And I think that's the thing that it's easy to get stuck in the world of herbal medicine, especially in the realm of, you had mentioned the Chinese tonic herbs and there's this whole world of products, basically a product industry, a multi-billion dollar product industry that says, "Hey, take these herbs and you'll have more energy and you'll sleep better and you'll have a better mood and you'll be smarter and run faster. And everything is going to be okay and you don't have to change. And this herb is good for everyone or this herb is good for this or good for that." And what ends up happening is we lack specificity in our practise of herbal medicine. Sajah Popham: (29:18) So this brings me to talking about traditionally, when a traditional herbalist looks at someone and here I'm really referring to traditional Western herbalism, to Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, things like that. They always understand the uniqueness of the person in front of them. So they're not saying, "Oh, this person has a urinary tract infection. Okay, let's give them all of these herbs that are good for a urinary tract infection." They're going to say, "Oh, here's a unique person with a unique type of urinary tract infection. And we want to select those herbs that are going to be specifically suitable for this unique person with this unique condition." And this is one of my problems with the use this herb for that symptom mindset, is that it often times lacks this level of specificity. And one of the simple ways that we can get more specific is looking at people and plants through an energetic lens, meaning what is the temperature and the moisture quality of the symptom and of that plant? Sajah Popham: (30:40) So take a respiratory tract infection. This is usually one of the easiest organ systems for people to really understand the importance of energetics. Say you've got two different people and from a Western perspective, they both have, say, bronchitis or some respiratory tract infection. And one person, when you hear them cough, it sounds really dry and really wheezy and really harsh and intense, and they've got a bright red face and their tongues really red, and they feel really overheated. The other person say when they cough, it sounds really gurgly and wet and cold, and they feel a bit pale and they feel cold and their tongue is white and has a thick coating and pale. And when they do expectorate something, it's got a thick white pasty look to it. Sajah Popham: (31:39) This is the difference between what we would call basically a hot-dry cough versus a cold damp cough. Now, if we think of the way a lot of herbalists are trained, they say, "Oh, this person has bronchitis. They have a cough. So we want to give them an expectorant." And the expectorant category herbs are just, those that support the cough reflex and are typically used to treat respiratory tract type infections. And in that whole category. So you go to your herb book and you look up expectorants and in that category, and I might list herbs that maybe you all don't use there in Australia, but here in North America, you might see herbs like Lobelia, and Osha, and Lomatia, wild cherry and Coltsfoot and licorice, and marshmallow and pleurisy root and Elecampane. These are all herbs under the expectorant category. And someone might just say, "Okay, we'll just pick some expectorants because these are all herbs that are good for a cough, right?" Sajah Popham: (32:43) But if you look at that list, you see marshmallow root right next to Lobelia right next to something like Elecampane. These are three very different types of expectorants. If you give the marshmallow root to the person with a cold damp cough, it's going to make it worse because marshmallow is a very moistening demulcent type remedy. If you give it to the person with the hot, dry cough, they're going to love you forever because it's going to soothe and cool, everything down and moisten the dried mucus membrane, and really feel very supportive for them. Conversely, if you give the Elecampane to someone with the hot, dry cough, it's going to be very aggravating because Elecampane has these pungent hot oils and resins that are very stimulating and can be very irritating to someone with too much heat and too much dryness in the respiratory tract. But to give it to them with the cold damp cough, and it's going to help loosen up all that phlegm, it's going to make the cough more productive, it's going to stimulate the bronchial tree and the mucosal membranes to clear all of that damp stagnation out of the tissues. Sajah Popham: (33:58) I like to mention that because there's deeper layers of specificity with herbal medicines. And I think it's very important to match the herbs to the person. And this is where we start to run into some problems where they say, "Oh, this herb is good for this condition." That's what can lead to herbs, maybe being used haphazardly, herbs, as you said, that might actually lead to further imbalance if it's not suitable for that person's constitution. And that's where, to me, this integration of herbal energetics is super critical if we're going to practise holistic herbal medicine. And really it's like... The energetics was practised in Western herbal medicine all the way up to the early 1900s. Sajah Popham: (34:56) It's really over the last 100 years or so that we see as this biomedical model has come into place. As we focus more on constituents, as we focus more on the chemistry and such, I think we've lost touch with some of these traditional models of looking at herbs. And I'm all about both. I'm not trying to bash the science in any ways. I think that's all great, super useful, and we know more about some herbal medicines than we have ever before and how they work. It's great stuff, but I don't think we have to throw away thousands of years of accumulated knowledge. Mason: (35:38) I hear you on that one. And I already am looking at the name of your company, Organic Unity, I mean, having a unity spec there in the middle, I love it because you find an integrated model. I mean, there's a lot of people talking about integration which is amazing. And I like looking at that more and more because it gives me... For me, it gives me something to attune to, and I can really... When I get into my envisioning of my dreaming of where I'm moving towards an integrated model, I just see. As you were saying, because growing up, I know how much looking at constituents and looking at the chemistry of say in this example of a herb, how useful it is. Mason: (36:17) And in fact rather than... Because what I did for a while there is I kicked back completely against like a modern medical or modern scientific model just because I'm just like, "It's the devil. I don't want to be identified with it in any way." And so I tried to kick back and identify being someone who doesn't identify with the modern science and medical system, which was just a mess, rather than being a nice, calm, centred person who was just like, "I'm just going to contemplate where this has led me in for me." As you were saying, we can understand so much of what herbs are doing within the body chemically. That can be a catalyst for me in considering deeper and more subtle energetic actions that the herb has within different layers of the body. Have you experienced that dance between those two polars? Sajah Popham: (37:23) In terms of the chemistry and the more subtle properties? Mason: (37:28) Yeah. Sajah Popham: (37:30) Yeah, absolutely. For me, because I was predominantly initially trained in the scientific model, the last number of years for me has been becoming more aware of that connection between really learning the herb from the herb itself, even just through tasting it. One thing I like to talk about is we can understand an herb really almost all the way through simply by tasting it and by understanding what happens through the different properties of those tastes. So for example, you taste something that's very pungent and spicy and hot that typically will stimulate digestive secretions, have a carminative action, typically stimulate circulation of the blood. Oftentimes they're very warming, energetically, oftentimes drying energetically versus you taste something very bitter that typically indicates that it's gonna act upon the liver and gallbladder, it's going to have a cooling drying, energetic action, typically draws the vital force down and in oftentimes have antiseptic properties. Sajah Popham: (38:46) So we can really just through tasting the herbs, understanding the complexity of their tastes through being sensitive to our bodies, being able to be aware of our organ systems and how they're changing, being aware of even our mind and our emotions. For me, it's like when I take a herb, I really do my best to just be very aware of what's going on inside of the wholeness of my being. I really want to feel and understand how that plant is influencing the totality of who I am. And there was another thing that you mentioned there that I really appreciate. I feel like it can be so easy to really go against the modern medical paradigm and be like, "Well, screw those guys. They're poisoning everyone. I don't have any need for it." And I totally resonate with that. That's where I was too in my early 20s. I was just like, "Screw the system. I don't need any doctors or anything like that. I just need my herbs and I'm all good." Sajah Popham: (39:58) And boy that really came back to me and bit me, because I got very sick in my early 20s with Lyme's disease and got faced with the decision of, "Okay, well, we caught it early. You can take some antibiotics and probably take care of this and clear it and not have Lymes disease." Or I could be very rigid in my paradigm and say, "Well, the hell with that. I'm just going to use my herbs, but potentially have Lyme's disease for the rest of my life."And then that was the moment where I realised that Western medicine does have its place because I took the antibiotics and you know what? They healed me. And that was a really big eye-opening experience for me and realising that do not be too extreme... Just for myself personally, I know this isn't for everyone, but for myself, I realised, I need to be able to see where things have their place and not to be too extreme, which I do have a tendency to be sometimes. Sajah Popham: (41:03) So that was a really good learning experience for me to actually be healed by those pills that I was so against for so long. And of course for me, I'm predominantly working with the herbs for health maintenance and things like that. But I do feel that in those extreme situations, that Western medicine can be miraculous. Mason: (41:25) That's so interesting. That's exactly the same thing that happened to me late last year. I had the dregs of my "fuck the system" really hanging on tight. And we were a month away roughly from due date of having our baby. And I went down with this tick, same thing and I went, "That's okay. Get on my herbs. I'll get on everything hard and I'll be fine." And after 10 days I'd had one up period where I was like, "Yeah, I think I'm getting this, I'm getting through this" and then smashed on my back and then had to... I sat there for a whole day meditating on it going, "Do you really want to mess with..." And everyone just saying as well, everyone would just stop the back of a couple of Lyme disease podcasts. Mason: (42:19) So everyone is right up on that now, which is nice to everyone can be in on that conversation of hearing what these of symptoms are and what you're looking down the barrel of. If you too proud to realise that, "Hey, maybe something like doxycycline or whatever it is does have a place to come in." And it could be really... It's interesting because going into an extreme isn't in any sense, whether it's an extreme naturalist or extremist in terms of herbalism, where for me, I'm losing sight of usefulness of other areas of expertise or other people's passions. It really took me far off balance. So man, I'm with you 100% exact same experience in two days, all symptoms were gone. And then I didn't take my finger off the pulse as I'm sure you've probably gone about quite a solid cleanup mission after that, I'm sure. Sajah Popham: (43:10) Yeah. So I would say about two years, it took me to get my digestive system back in balance. Because I was on doxycycline for about six weeks straight. And a boy that really rocked me for sure, but, I'm very grateful to it because I haven't been sick with Lyme disease since then. Mason: (43:34) I found it really interesting because even I was on doxy for three and a bit weeks. Came off that little bit early because I felt that was just for me, I really felt that that was appropriate and it was the time to do that. However, even I was looking into doxy before I took it and saying that it's one of these antibiotics that if there's any there are degrees of severity in which they wipe out the bacteria. But that even it's like a quick uptake in the small intestine. And even then they're like compared to others which get down deep and annihilate the bacterial colonies. Even then I've definitely experienced a setback, but in saying, you've had to spend two years really repollinating. It's amazing appreciation for the use of poison as medicine and that comes up in herbalism as well, right? Sajah Popham: (44:33) Oh, absolutely. I mean, that's actually a pretty big premise of alchemy. The AHS said that the most powerful poisons in the world are also the most powerful medicines and the difference is in dosage and in preparation. So that's the one thing you see in more of the mineral and metallic works in alchemy that they will work with some of the most powerful poisons: mercury, antimony. And there are certain ways of preparing those poisons to make them into a medicine. And they say, like my teacher in alchemy, a man named Robert Bartlett. He makes a medicine from antimony called the Oil of Antimony. And he's seen that cure everything from cancer to all sorts of very serious sicknesses. And in alchemy they say, "The higher you climb the rungs of the ladder in alchemical works, the less medicines you need." And they say that you get to that point of creating what they call the universal medicines, that one medicine that will cure all things. And that's the way that they talk about the Oil of Antimony, but boy you prepare it wrong it's real toxic. Mason: (45:53) Just one thing I don't want to leave the interview without talking to you about is this concept... East West medicine is beautifully ensconced, wouldn't you say in the herbal and the herbal scene with a lot of integrated doctors and a lot of allopathic doctors even taking on Eastern principles into their clinic. I don't know if you'd say that same thing, but do you agree that it's like getting some are getting more and more momentum? Sajah Popham: (46:20) Yeah, absolutely. I think the concept of integrative medicine, bringing in... I think it really started with Chinese medicine really coming to the West and acupuncture becoming much more accepted. I think it's our generation now seeing Ayurvedic medicine becoming much more popularised, much more accepted, much more integrated. I absolutely see the Eastern and Western systems of medicine coming together. And that for me is a really beautiful thing because to me, it's like for me in my plant path, I've always been most interested in the universal principles. So whenever I'm studying I want to see what are the things that pop up all across the world that have withstood the test of time, so to speak? It's like if we see a principle in Ayurvedic medicine, that's also in Chinese medicine system, that's also in Greek medicine, that's also an Arabic medicine, that is also mentioned by Samuel Thompson in North America, that is also mentioned by an herbalist in the Amazon rainforest. It's like, okay, all these people are saying pretty much the same thing, there's got to be something to it. And so for me, that's always been my approach and why I really appreciate integrating these models is because it gives us new perspectives and it gives us a well-rounded understanding and really gives us those universal truths and principles of healing and rejuvenation about plants as well. Mason: (48:22) And then for you, where did the North South aspect of herbalism and lifestyle come into play? Sajah Popham: (48:33) Yeah, well, for me yeah. I was first introduced to the concept of what Michael Tierra calls Planetary Herbology, which is integrating Chinese and Ayurvedic principles into basically classifying Western herbal medicines in a similar way to the way they would in Ayurvedic medicine or in Chinese medicine, which is great. That's been a major foundation for how I work with plants. But as I was saying earlier, for me, there was always this spiritual connection to the plants. There was always a relationship to the plant itself that was very important to me. And one of the things that I've noticed in travelling both through North America and South America and have been very blessed with the opportunity to work with first nations people in both North and South America, is that I saw that the foundation of their whole model of herbal medicine for the healers themselves was based on their relationship with the plants. Sajah Popham: (49:48) And they said, "Anytime you want to use an herbal medicine, you need to have a relationship with that plant. You need to know that plant and that plant needs to know you." And so for me, the integration of East and West is incredible. And I think it gives us an amazing model for clinical practise. I think it gives us an incredible means for understanding people in more depth and how to effectively formulate and administer herbal medicines to people. But the North and South piece for me is really the foundation of all of it because it's that direct relationship, it's that direct knowing with the plants themselves that really is the foundation of herbal medicine. I always say it's like we can think back to the first human beings ever to exist on planet earth and think of who was the first teacher of herbal medicine? Sajah Popham: (50:54) Well, it was the plants themselves. And that's something that I really want to come back to in my own work. And I really see that in a big way in the herbal medicine world is people don't want to just learn them from a book. People want to touch it and taste it and see it and sit with it. And they want to have a vision with it. They want to have a dream with it. They want to have this deeper connection, this deeper relationship to the plants. And to me, that's what the plant path is all about. It's like as an herbalist, it's like we're moving through our road of life. And as we go through our own challenges, our own sickness, our own difficulties on this road of life, different plants will make themselves known to us. And as we learn those plants, we make a good relation with that plant. Sajah Popham: (51:48) It's almost like that plant becomes a part of who we are and we carry that plant inside of us. And it is so much more than just a plant. It's like our friend. It's our ally, it's our guide. It's our protector. It's something that we turn to in our time of need. And when someone else comes to us and ask for that help, it's like the plants have authorised us in a way to use them to help these people. So to me, the North and South model is a little bit more of a spiritual... I would say a little bit more of a spiritual perspective on herbal medicine that is really rooted in learning about the plants from the plants themselves and having a very good spiritual connection to them and having good relations with them. Sajah Popham: (52:39) I remember when I was in the Amazon the last time I was on a plant walk with an herbalist and there's all these plants, we're in the Amazon, right? So it's all these plants and I'm so shocked to finally be seeing them. And I would be asking them a lot of questions like, "Oh, this plant how do you work with it? And what it tastes like? And what's it spirit like?" And I was asking them all these questions and he would always say, "Oh." Basically they would never answer my questions. They would just say, "Oh, you just need to die at that plant." And what they mean when they say you need to die at that plant is basically, you need to take a period of time in isolation and really restrict certain foods from your diet, basically eat a very bland diet and just ingest that plant for a prolonged period of time so that you are building that relationship and that connection and really getting to know that plant from the inside out. And they say that's how you learn in herbal medicine. Sajah Popham: (53:53) They say, "If I tell you, it's not going to have as much power as compared to the plant telling you itself." And they'd say that the way you work with plants built up that way, there's something different about it. There's more power behind it. And that's where we really see these miraculous healings happen through the plants, so where people use a plant in a way that no one else uses it and it works for them. But if someone else was trying to do it, it may not work for them because they don't have that level of connection. So it's the North and South piece of it is... To me, it's a little bit of a more spiritual take on herbal medicine. That certainly is not for everyone, but I think for anyone that is serious about practising herbalism, I think just getting down to the simple piece of it. It's just important to have that good connection and relationship to the plants that you use. I'd rather know 20 plants really well, and have a very deep, good connection with them than know 200 plants superficially. Mason: (55:11) Oh, beautiful man. I really heard you on that one, 100%. If people want to tune with you, you've got evolutionary herbalism there in Southern Oregon. Is that website the best way for people to find out about that? Sajah Popham: (55:26) Yeah. You can go to evolutionaryherbalism.com. I've got my blog on there with lots of free videos and we do some more in-depth, free mini courses that are available there. All of our programmes are available online, so it's all distance learning format. And then we do have live workshops that go alongside with some of those programmes as well. And just started our own podcast this year called The Plant Path. Mason: (55:53) Oh cool. Sajah Popham: (55:54) So be sure to check that out to you and then our spagyric herbal extracts you can check that out at organic-unity.com. Mason: (56:06) Man. I love it. Thanks so much for coming on today. I really enjoyed it and I've really got a lot out of it. Sajah Popham: (56:12) Thank you very much. I really appreciate you inviting me on and then maybe we can do it again sometime. Mason: (56:17) Beautiful. Peace man. Sajah Popham: (56:18) All right. You take care.
Dr. Clayton, relates some of the hardships of taking a church that thought they wanted to change but the only thing that changed was their mind about changing.
British Trivia Annie and David travel across the pond in this special British Trivia episode that has Ant from Yorkshire DJ Beats and Julian as team Shatnerpants go up against Harry and Katherine as team Djungelskog. Annie and David do their best to write British trivia but do they keep the North/South divide in mind? Can you answer questions like: London Zoo lies at the edge of which Royal Park? What was the upmarket fast-food chain started by Sinclair Beecham and Julian Metcalfe in 1986? What's the highest score possible with three darts? Who was the English landscape painter who set much of his work in and around Dedham Vale in Suffolk? The Cockney rhyming slang "can I have a butcher's hook" translates to what in common English? Maracattack was a fitness DVD released by which comedienne? What is the first country you'd reach if you sailed due south from the Isle of Wight? In Alice in Wonderland, who sings of "Soup of the evening, beautiful soup"? If you liked this episode, you might enjoy listening to Peter Rijks and Jamie McCarthy in this sibling rivalry trivia showdown episode. Music Hot Swing, Fast Talkin, Bass Walker, Dances and Dames, Ambush by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Don't forget to follow us on social media: Patreon - patreon.com/quizbang - Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Check out our fun extras for patrons and help us keep this podcast going. We appreciate any level of support! Website - quizbangpod.com Check out our website, it will have all the links for social media that you need and while you're there, why not go to the contact us page and submit a question! Facebook - @quizbangpodcast - we post episode links and silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess. We will also post old videos of us with Katy Colloton. Instagram - Quiz Quiz Bang Bang (quizquizbangbang), we post silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess. Twitter - @quizbangpod We want to start a fun community for our fellow trivia lovers. If you hear/think of a fun or challenging trivia question, post it to our twitter feed and we will repost it so everyone can take a stab it. Come for the trivia - stay for the trivia. Ko-Fi - ko-fi.com/quizbangpod - Keep that sweet caffeine running through our body with a Ko-Fi, power us through a late night of fact checking and editing!
How does it feel to be outside in the middle of winter in New England for over 40 hours, unsupported on 78 miles of snowy trail? Jimmy Mac teamed up with LSE to take on this trail in the worst conditions. Sure they could have tried it without the snow, sleet and driving rain. They could have had someone wiping their arses every few kelo-meeters too. But you always gotta consider the "Why". There will definitely be faster FKT's set on this route, but one would have to try really hard to match the experience of doing it under these conditions. It is a tale of hard fought Finishing Lines, not Finishing Times. Anyway this Episode is a RIUT! LSE Blog The Air Land and Sea We’re on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/show/44etXyR0WbJtmKRKrP7V6M We’re on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cultra-trail-running/id1446356779 Please support Cultra Trail Running Podcast Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/CultraTrailRunning Strava: https://www.strava.com/clubs/CULTRA Twitter: https://twitter.com/blueblazerunner Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cultratrailrunning/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CultraTrailRunning/ Call the Karaoke Line at 203-DOG GENT Outro Music By Nick Byram -Severity
Triathlon can beat up the body, but some train without chronic aches, pains, and stress. Today, we look at some of the reasons and how you can have a healthier training lifestyle. We talk about the concepts of: carrying mental weight, obsessing over niggles, and why gadgets could be part of your problem. Rarely is the problem THEE problem. Don't continually search for answers when they are right under your nose. Topics: Back to baseline Runner’s Shoulder Constant, chronic, pain North/South movement of triathlon Injury free long term training Why do we get aches, pains, strains? Stress and its impact on injuries Carrying physical AND mental weight The simplest answer is usually best Cortisol levels Bad workout followed by great workout? Back tracking to figure out the problem Using people energy Medication effect When we don’t eat enough Do you blame your race on the run? Too much focus = obsession Constantly searching for answers Why do we want complex solutions? Infatuated with NEW Time off? Or do we press through it? Obsessing on pain Links in a chain for our bodies We tend to look for solutions we WANT Does Mike have Gadget Addiction? Rarely is the problem THEE problem --------------- Coach Mike is accepting full-time athletes. Please check out the benefits of Customized Weekly Coaching here or contact Mike directly at: CrushingIron@gmail.com Registration is now open for the C26 Club Training Program. Take the worry and stress out of your 2021 season planning, recovering, taper, etc. For more information, please visit www.C26Triathlon.com/the-c26-club Looking for a swim analysis, personalized zones for training, and an awesome experience? Check out our New C26 Hub Training Center in Chattanooga. C26 Gear is now available (for a limited time) at www.c26triathlon.com/c26-store A great way to support the podcast! Looking for an awesome coach? Former Professional triathlete, Jessica Jacobs is now coaching for C26 Triathlon. Check out her bio and contact information at our Coaching Page on C26Triathlon.com Big Shout out to podcast listener and Wordpress designer Bobby Hughes for helping get the new c26triathlon.com off the ground. If you like what you see and may need a website, check out Bobby’s work at https://hughesdesign.co/ You can also slide by www.crushingiron.com which is now the official blog page for the podcast. Community and coaching information are at www.c26triathlon.com Our 2020 C26 Camps are sold out (other than swim camp) Find out more on our Camps Page. If you'd like to support the Crushing Iron Podcast, hit up our Pledge Page and help us keep this podcast on the rails. Thanks in advance! Are you thinking about raising your game or getting started in triathlon with a coach? Check out our Crushing Iron Coaching Philosophy Video Please subscribe and rate Crushing Iron on YouTube and iTunes. For information on the C26 Coach’s Eye custom swim analysis, coaching, or training camps email: C26Coach@gmail.com Facebook: CrushingIron YouTube: Crushing Iron Twitter: CrushingIron Instagram: C26_Triathlon www.c26triathlon.com Mike Tarrolly - crushingiron@gmail.com Robbie Bruce - c26coach@gmail.com
England has long been divided by an invisible line somewhere north of Watford and south of the Mersey.But do northerners really have more in common with Scots and Welsh people than their fellow Englishmen in London?Dan Jackson, author of The Northumbrians and a former advisor to Cheryl Cole, joins southerner Tom Holland and midlander Dominic Sandbrook to try and decide if we should eat lunch then dinner, or dinner then tea.A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media productionProduced by Jack DavenportExec Producer Tony PastorTwitter:@TheRestHistory@holland_tom@dcsandbrookEmail: restishistorypod@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
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