Podcasts about Northern California

In this week's podcast we discuss some of the positive outcomes of the OBBB towards the Solar Industry.About Jamie Duran & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Solar Harmonics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Brought to you by Solar Harmonics in ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Northern California⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, who invite their customers to “Own Their Energy” by purchasing a solar panel system for their home, business, or farm.  You can check out the website for the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ top solar energy equipment installer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Solar Harmonics, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.In each episode we discuss questions facing people making the decision to go solar. The solutions to your questions are given to you – straight  – by one of the leading experts in the solar industry, Jamie Duran, president of Solar Harmonics.Feel free to search our library for answers to questions that you're facing when considering solar.About Adam Duran & Magnified MediaSolarcast is produced and co-hosted by Adam Duran, director of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Magnified Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. With offices in downtown San Francisco & Walnut Creek, California, Magnified⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Media is a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠digital marketing agency⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ focused on digital marketing, local and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ national SEO, website design⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and lead generation for companies of all sizes.Magnified Media helps company leaders master their marketing by:• getting their website seen at the top of Google rankings, and• getting them more online reviews,• creating media content that engages with each client's target audience.In his spare time, Adam enjoys volunteering on the board of several community-based non-profits and his own weekly podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Local SEO in 10⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

In this episode of the Foreign Area Officer Podcast, I interview Julie Tully and her husband U.S. Navy CAPT(R) John Tulley. We discuss Julie's transition from a cowgirl in Northern California to a 'nomadic Navy spouse' and the dynamic journey from her career in agriculture to becoming a Foreign Area Officer (FAO) spouse, living and working in Europe and Africa for fifteen consecutive years. The conversation delves into the couple's experiences living in Cameroon, Nigeria, and Djibouti and the impact of their roles there. They touch on memorable challenges, the importance of self-reliance, and the significant contributions spouses make to the FAO mission. Julie also shares the inspiration and stories behind her book, 'Dispatches from the Cowgirl,' offering a deeper look into the FAO lifestyle and its challenges and rewards.   Learn More about Julie's work at www.JulieTullyWriter.com   Books Discussed: Dispatches of a Cowgirl, by Julie Tully Broadway in Benghazi, by Anna Linvill Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)   00:00 Introduction and Disclaimers 00:45 Meet the Guests: John and Julie Tulley 01:19 Julie's Journey: From Cowgirl to Navy Spouse 03:37 Life on the Ranch and Transition to FAO 04:55 The FAO Lifestyle: Challenges and Adaptations 14:11 John's Naval Academy and Submarine Experience 19:16 Discovering the FAO Career Path 22:07 Julie's Perspective: Public Relations and FAO Life 25:46 Adventures and Challenges in Africa 34:16 The Importance of Teamwork in FAO Assignments 43:10 A Hospital Emergency Room in Nigeria 57:04 The Commissary Conundrum 59:10 Internet Surprises in Nigeria 59:47 Defining Home Across Continents 01:09:18 Experiencing Local Cultures Through Staff 01:34:19 Honoring a Fallen Hero in Djibouti 01:49:14 Reflections on the FAO Life  

Ruth: Meditations on God's Kindness (Week 2)Ruth 2:1-17Sitting on a farm in Northern California is one of the world's largest corn mazes. Boasting 42 acres of corn, visitors flock to the farm year after year to have a go at the challenging maze. Upon entering the maze, the path feels sporadic and random at best; guests don't have the proper perspective to see that an intricate design has been carved into the field. While some maze-goers can feel lost and unsure at times, the farmers know exactly where they are and where they need to go to work through the picture. Life can feel similar to walking through a corn maze. What we see as dead-ends and endless circles are actually purposeful steps God has ordained to lead us exactly where we need to be. Maybe we expect to go right but end up needing to go left or must double back to move forward. God has the sovereign top-down view to see it all, and our job is to trust and obey as we walk through it. Tomorrow morning come and see just how God works this out for Naomi and Ruth.

Leaders Who Create Moments: Join Jason Squires as he sits down with event planner Rick Tan, co-owner of Tan Weddings & Events, a premier wedding and event planning company based in Northern California. Together with his wife Jennifer, the Tans specializes in turning vision into reality—designing experiences that leave a lasting impression. Tune in as Jason and Rick explore how to create meaningful moments through the power of listening, storytelling, and creativity. Learn how their team brings client ideas to life, crafting celebrations that are both personalized and unforgettable. Whether you're an aspiring event planner, a creative professional, or someone looking to elevate your next gathering, this episode is packed with practical insights and inspiration for designing moments that matter.

John Gray  John Gray is the author of the most well-known and trusted relationship book of all time, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. USA Today listed his book as one of the top 10 most influential books of the last quarter-century.  In hardcover, it was the #1 bestselling book of the 1990s. Dr. Gray's books are translated into approximately 45 languages in more than 100 countries and continues to be a bestseller. Dr. Gray has written over 20 books. His most recent book is Beyond Mars and Venus. His Mars/Venus book series has forever changed the way men and women view their relationships. John helps men and women better understand and respect their differences in both personal and professional relationships. His approach combines specific communication techniques with healthy, nutritional choices that create the brain and body chemistry for lasting health, happiness, and romance. His many books, blogs, and free online workshops at MarsVenus.com provide practical insights to improve relationships at all stages of life and love. An advocate of health and optimal brain function, he also provides natural solutions for overcoming depression, anxiety and stress to support increased energy, libido, hormonal balance and better sleep. He has appeared repeatedly on Oprah, as well as on The Dr. Oz Show, TODAY, CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, and others. He has been profiled in Time, Forbes, USA Today, and People. He was also the subject of a three-hour special hosted by Barbara Walters. John Gray lives in Northern California, where for 34 years he happily shared his life with his beautiful wife, Bonnie, until her passing in 2018. They have three grown daughters and five grandchildren. He is an avid follower of his health and relationship advice. Link to Show Notes on Website https://fabulouslyketo.com/podcast/240. Resources Mentioned John's free gift Connect with John Gray on social media Twitter: https://x.com/MarsVenus Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Mars.Venus.John.Gray Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johngraymarsvenus_official/ Website Details: https://www.marsvenus.com/ The Fabulously Keto Diet & Lifestyle Journal: A 12-week journal to support new habits – Jackie Fletcher If you have enjoyed listening to this episode – Leave us a review By leaving us a review on your favourite podcast platform, you help us to be found by others. Support Jackie Help Jackie make more episodes by supporting her. If you wish to support her we have various options from one off donations to becoming a Super Fabulously Keto Podcast Supporter with coaching and support. Check out this page for lots of different ways to support the podcast. https://fabulouslyketo.com/support Or You can find us on Patreon: https://www.patreon. com/FabulouslyKeto Connect with us on social media https://www.facebook.com/FabulouslyKeto https://www.instagram.com/FabulouslyKeto1 https://twitter.com/FabulouslyKeto https://www.youtube.com/@FabulouslyKeto Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FabulouslyKeto Music by Bob Collum Recommend a guest We would love to know if you have a favourite guest you would like us to interview. Let us know who you would like to hear of if you have a particular topic you would like us to cover. https://fabulouslyketo.com/recommend-a-guest We sometimes get a small commission on some of the links, this goes towards the costs of producing the podcast.

The Attenuating Puritan by Robert McGuinessEmbark on a contemplative journey with our altruistic hero, a reflection of purity in words and deeds, yet occasionally marked by ancestral toxins. With unwavering conviction, he dances under the world's weight, marching into the unknown, his steps marked by hope and staunch faith.Bound by a noble quest to restore the splendor of Eden, his every gesture is a sacrifice, a stride towards the pristine and divine. Amidst adversities, he stands a fortified pilgrim, mastering the shackles of mind and body, emerging as a triumphant victor, a mirror to us all daring to confront our reflections.He is the champion of tainted sacraments, a crusader against the clutches of heavy metal and forever chemicals, hinting that our destinies might be cradled in such hands. As we tread the path of love eternal, each step taken is righteous, a gentle move towards the boundless cosmos that binds us in love.In The Attenuating Puritan, every breath taken is a whisper of attenuation, every quenched thirst a sigh of grace, and every bounty received a step closer to the celestial, encapsulating a tale of hope, resilience, and the ceaseless quest for the divine amidst the terrestrial.Robert Gary McGuiness was born in Bay Shore, New York, on February 8, 1954. He graduated from Smithtown Central High School in 1972. After school he travelled west to Arizona and eventually to California, where he has lived since 1976. He was an active part of the "back to land" movement and homesteaded off the grid in Northern California. He has two children, three wonderful grandchildren and a dog named Marbles. Amazonhttps://robertmcguinessbooks.com/http://www.KingPagesPress.com  

Send us a textYasmin Radjy is the Executive Director of Swing Left and Vote Forward, and was featured recently in The Atlantic after her organization released data showing some of ther field and canvassing tactics in the 2024 election did not work. In this conversation, Yasmin talks her family's path as Iranian refugees to the US, how the '08 Obama campaign shifted her perspective on practical politics, founding Resistance School in the aftermath of the 2016 election, her stints as National Political Director at Planned Parenthood and in the Biden Administration, the importance of measuring and disclosing what tactics do and do not work, and the new ideas and projects on which she's focused during an incredibly turbulent time in American politics.IN THIS EPISODEYasmin talks her family's journey as immigrants fleeing the Iranian Revolution of the late 1970s...The inherent politicization of being an Iranian-American...Yasmin becomes active in partisan politics while in college...Yasmin's world is turned upside down knocking doors as a Northern California liberal in small town Ohio in 2008...Yasmin's take on what makes an effective political organizer...Yasmin forms "Resistance School" in the aftermath of the 2016 elections - a program utilized by hundreds of thousands of activists...Yasmin's time as Organizing Director & National Political Director at Planned Parenthood...How Yasmin took the reins at Swing Left and the role it plays in the progressive infrastructure...Findings highlighted in a recent Atlantic article of what Swing Left did in 2024 and what worked and didn't work...Why Yasmin believes it's critical for organizations to publicize findings about its work, especially when programs don't move the needle as planned...The difference in the aftermath of Trump's 2016 win versus Trump's 2024 win...Questions Yasmin wants future research to answer to sharpen grassroots activism...The one trait Yasmin looks for in hiring staff at Swing Left...

Nick Eicken is the founder of CyberAuthority and a seasoned Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) with deep roots in both military and civilian cybersecurity leadership. A U.S. Army veteran who built top-secret communication networks as a signal officer, Nick transitioned to the private sector where he's guided organizations across nonprofit, manufacturing, government, and consulting spaces. His firm, CyberAuthority, focuses on helping small and midsized businesses build defensible, scalable security programs through ethical, vendor-neutral vCISO services.In this episode, Nick shares his journey from military service to launching his own cybersecurity practice. He and Greg Schaffer explore the value of standardizing the vCISO model, building trust with clients by understanding their business "why," and how to make cybersecurity frameworks like the NIST CSF approachable for SMBs. Nick also discusses the critical distinction between internal CISOs and third-party vCISOs, the importance of ethical independence from MSPs, and the need for transparency. The conversation wraps with insights on stress management, homebrewing, family life in Northern California, and upcoming CyberAuthority initiatives—including cybersecurity offerings for retirees entering one of the most vulnerable phases of their digital lives.

Selling to BTS Decision-Makers with Amrit Dhillon‑BainsSelling and managing luxury weddings is hard enough. Add multiple decision makers, deep cultural traditions, and high emotional stakes — and it becomes a true test of your sales and client service skills.In this episode, Sam sits down with Amrit Dhillon‑Bains, founder of Anaïs Events, a Northern California–based planning and design firm specializing in upscale, highly personalized South Asian weddings. Amrit brings a rare blend of creativity, business acumen, and cultural insight to her work, helping families plan multi‑day celebrations with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of guests — while keeping everyone aligned.Amrit shares how she:Identifies and maps out key stakeholders early in the processGains trust and buy‑in from even the quietest or most resistant decision makersHandles sensitive family dynamics with empathy and authorityPrepares clients to make informed budget decisions without alienating themPersonalizes proposals and sales conversations for each unique family and situationBalances flexibility and boundaries to maintain a sustainable businessWhether you work in luxury weddings or simply want to improve your ability to sell and serve complex client groups, this episode is packed with insights you can apply right away.Connect with Amrit Dhillon‑Bains:Instagram: @anaiseventsWebsite: www.anaisevents.com

Today on the Show: Ziad Abbas, Executive Director of the Middle East- Children's alliance joins us for a Gaza update and to talk about a major action MECA is sponsoring later this month. Also we continue our drum-beat reporting on the Homeland Security Sweeps, taking place now across the state and the country: We'll be joined in Los Angeles by  long-time radical immigrants rights activist, Juan Jose Gutierrez, and in Sonoma county in Northern California, by seasoned civil rights and human rights attorney  Omar Figueroa The post Gaza Update w/ Ziad Abbas of MECA appeared first on KPFA.

Join us for a captivating conversation with Melanie Lane Durham, a remarkable mom, wife, and entrepreneur from Northern California who has beautifully blended her passion for beauty with holistic healing. Starting as an esthetician, Melanie evolved her career into owning a one-of-a-kind hair and healing studio, where she combines plant-based, non-toxic hair care with energy healing practices like Reiki and chakra balancing. She shares how the COVID-19 shutdowns inspired her to create a more intentional and personal space for her clients, both in-person and virtually, offering everything from hair loss support to Oracle card readings. In this episode, we also dive into Melanie's inspiring new children's book, Everyday Magic—written during a deeply challenging time in her life. The story serves as a gentle, empowering reminder to find magic in the ordinary through mindfulness and gratitude. As we explore her journey from the beauty industry to publishing, Melanie opens up about imposter syndrome, the courage it takes to act despite fear, and how she defines true empowerment. Tune in for a rich, honest conversation about authenticity, healing, and the magic of living fully aligned. Connect with Melanie on Instagram @magicbymelanie and explore Everyday Magic on her website, Amazon, or Ingram.   Connect with Melanie:Website: www.magicbymelanie.com Instagram: @magicbymelanie Facebook: Magic By Melanie TikTok: magicbymelanie Let's keep the conversation going!Website: www.martaspirk.com Instagram: @martaspirk Facebook: Marta Spirk Want to be my next guest on The Empowered Woman Podcast?Apply here: www.martaspirk.com/podcastguest  Watch my TEDx talk: http://bit.ly/martatedx Love cozy mysteries? Meet Nora Bardin, a lifelong puzzle solver turned author, who crafts fast-paced, feel-good whodunits. Her stories are packed with charm, suspense, and satisfying twists—whether you're fireside or on your lunch break. Escape into a world where justice always wins. Discover Nora Bardin's books now on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nora-Bardin/author/B0F3Y5BP4R  

AIA Fellowship for Small Firm ArchitectsIn this episode, Mark R. LePage sits down with Jim Zack, an accomplished architect and master craftsman, and Je'Nen Chastain, a business strategist and creative entrepreneur, to explore the path to achieving AIA fellowship. Jim reflects on his roots growing up on the Northern California coast, his journey from builder to architect, and his lifelong passion for merging design and construction. He shares how his early DesignBuild projects shaped his career and led to his advocacy for architect-led DesignBuild practices nationwide.Je'Nen brings her unique perspective as a strategist helping architects shape their stories and advance their careers. She discusses her collaboration with Jim on his fellowship submission, offering a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to build a compelling portfolio and gain recognition within the AIA. Together, they highlight the critical role of mentorship, storytelling, and community support in elevating small firm architects to new levels of leadership.Listeners will come away with practical advice and inspiring insights on navigating the fellowship process, overcoming challenges, and celebrating professional milestones.This week at EntreArchitect Podcast, AIA Fellowship for Small Firm Architects with Jim Zack & Je'Nen Chastain.Connect with Jim online at zackdevito.com or find him on LinkedIn, and connect with Je'Nen at apostropheconsulting.com or find her on LinkedIn. Check out Jim's fellowship submission and learn more about applying for AIA Fellowship here.Referenced in this EpisodeEA102: Risks and Rewards with Architect Developer Jim Zack [Podcast]EA185: The Passion, The Process and Problems of Running a Design/Build Architecture Firm [Podcast]EA572: Je'Nen Chastain – Guiding Architects Through The Process of Change [Podcast]Please Visit Our Platform SponsorsArcatemy is Arcat's Continuing Education Program. Listen to Arcat's Detailed podcast and earn HSW credits. As a trusted provider, Arcat ensures you earn AIA CE credits while advancing your expertise and career in architecture. Learn more at Arcat.com/continuing-education.Visit our Platform Sponsors today and thank them for supporting YOU... The EntreArchitect Community of small firm architects.Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

RE-RUNOn This episode, Tim is back and we go live for you all! Tim talks about his trip to Northern California and then they discuss creatures, beasts, and monsters that are in the Bible! Later on Johnny McMahon of the Iron Show joins the show to tell what he knows about creatures and monsters of the Bible. Finally Bobby has some Crazy News, and as always Pastor Chips Ross has a good devotional for us! Later on We talk about a ghost man picture at Johnny friend's house and have the picture up for you to see in the spreaker app at 165:12 Mark. Share this episode with your friends!Also if you are into Sasquatch check out the documentary on Hulu...here is a preview of the 3 part series... https://youtu.be/G8pVypMhub8here is the famous Patterson Bigfoot film... https://youtu.be/xVo6Vj0_XboCheck out Cravings wood grill Restaurant website: very Yummy! http://cravingswoodgrill.com/Check out our website at LetsGetJackedUp.com https://sites.google.com/view/lets-get-jacked-up-on-christ/homeor at FringeRadioNetwork.com email us at LetsGetJackedUp@gmail.com We are Live every Thursday at 8:30pm ish Pacific Time on FringeRadioNetwork.com or download the Spreaker app and find us under Fringe Radio Network. https://www.spreaker.com/show/fringe-radio-network Let's Get Jacked Up Specifically is here: https://www.spreaker.com/show/lets-get-jacked-upproducer & engineer of the show is Tim Parrish and co-hosts of the show is Bobby & Karen RaymonProducer of Bobby's Crazy News: is Bobby Raymon & Tim ParrishIntro song "Myself" is written and played by Tim Parrish & his Band "Eternal Element" check out their stuff at: https://www.reverbnation.com/eternalelementOutro song is written and played by Well Done You-Jackhammer check their Facebook page here:https://www.facebook.com/welldoneyouband/special thanks to:Owner, Producer and Engineer of FringeRadioNetwork.com is Johnny McMahon

Episode SummaryThe good-hearted and visionary Orin Carpenter joins the podcast this week to explore the connection between art and society. As a fine artist who uses mixed media to make evocative and abstract art with social commentary, Orin carries a rich sense of the artist's social function. Orin's pieces are journeys into the layers of personal experience and American truths. His art deals with themes of identity, race, conflict, change, and healing.Orin's abundant passion for art's ability to initiate dialogue is the heart of our conversation today, and as we take our next steps in our meditations on Social Cohesion, Orin is a delightful gift and an authentic voice to have in the mix. His wise and creative soul brings body and shape to our adventure, bringing us to new ground and new thought as we consider human nature and America's social contours.We Paint These Truths (Yes, it is meant to echo 'We Hold These Truths') begins with Orin recounting how art entered his life. By providing a compelling portrait of the influences and circumstances that awakened the artist within him, we come to understand the forces that shaped his early life and the incredible response he had to them. Growing up in a black family in the South, being born just a few months after the assassination of Dr. King, finding black characters in Marvel comic books that he could relate with, the local library trips with his mother, the legacies of the Harlem Renaissance, and jazz music and their album covers were all pieces in his purpose puzzle.Along the way, we experience the energy and passion of Orin's art ethos. For him, art is both personal and social. It acts as a medium and metaphorical space that connects people, fosters dialogue, and helps us see each other in ways that debate alone cannot. For Orin, art serves as a conduit for restoring dignity, a means to acknowledge uncomfortable truths and a platform for honest conversations about justice and equity. In a moment of profound honesty, Orin shares the lived truths he navigates in his American experience and the way dualities of belonging have driven his expressions.Throughout the conversation, we find that Orin is a valuable guide, not just in his connection to the power of artistry but also in his rich sense and vision of art as both expression and activism. Orin's spirit of "artivism" encourages us to reconsider the role art plays in shaping our outlook and in its power to create a more compassionate and cohesive society.You're heartily invited to listen in as we journey with Orin and turn the philosopher's stone over together on this matter of Social Cohesion.*****About Orin Carpenter: Orin is a fine artist, high school art teacher, and Doctor of Philosophy in Education. He lives, creates, and works in Northern California.Check out Orin's art and get in touch with him about workshops at his webpage.

In this episode, Maggie sits down with Melissa Moore, Horticulture Program Co-Coordinator and Cannabis Instructor at SUNY Niagara, to explore the Pain Points of transitioning from the legacy cannabis market to the legal landscape — and what it means for cultivators, educators, and aspiring professionals in the space.  From Monkeys to Marijuana – Melissa takes us on her unique career path from biological research in Panama to farming in Northern California, where her hands-on work with organic crops and cannabis ignited a passion that brought her back to New York to educate the next generation. The Legalization Learning Curve – Discover the real-life struggles of cannabis farmers navigating the harsh realities of compliance, taxation, and limited financial resources in the post-legalization world.  Building a Cannabis Curriculum – Learn how SUNY Niagara's cannabis program is providing hands-on experience in cultivation, processing, and culinary applications, setting students up for success in this growing industry.  Key Pain Points Discussed: The emotional and financial toll of legalization on legacy growers The differences between California and New York cannabis regulations Why small cannabis businesses face steeper barriers than other startups How educational institutions are stepping in to bridge the gap  Whether you're in cannabis, education, agriculture, orpolicy, this episode is packed with personal insight, professional growth, and thought-provoking conversation around the real Pain Points of the cannabis industry.  

NASCAR heads back to Sonoma Raceway this weekend. KCBS' Mike DeWald spoke to several drivers -- including a couple with Northern California ties -- about what they expect from this weekend's race and what growing up in the region has meant for them and their careers.

Lesner Cardenas has been missing since the afternoon of 5/29/25 in the Mount Shasta area of Northern California.  His phone has not been active since he disappeared.   Lesner is a 21 year old Latino male with brown eyes, black hair, and brown skin.  He is 5 foot 5 inches tall, between 140 and 155lbs.  We do not have a description of the clothing he was last seen in aside from the detail that he had a backpack and some level of hiking gear.  If you have any information regarding his case, please contact Sergeant Josiah Ferrin of the Redding Police Department at 530-225-4200.  Lesner's family and friends desperately want to bring him home safe. Sources https://www.sfgate.com/northcoast/article/mount-shasta-disappearance-lesner-cardenas-mystery-20383486.php https://www.facebook.com/groups/joettas.redding.crime.community.alert.shasta.co/posts/lesner-noe-velasquez-cardenas-has-disappeared-and-his-case-is-full-of-contradict/1418600522742230/ https://krcrtv.com/news/local/search-continues-for-missing-redding-man-last-seen-at-mount-shasta-trailhead https://www.facebook.com/theawarefoundation/posts/missinglesner-noe-velasquez-cardenas-of-redding-ca-was-involved-in-a-vehicle-acc/1036440448594078/ https://www.reddit.com/r/mystery/comments/1lkfctg/he_took_a_taxi_to_mt_shasta_and_vanished_the/ https://people.com/man-survives-car-crash-then-decided-to-head-on-hike-now-hes-missing-11754211 https://www.facebook.com/ReddingPolice/posts/pfbid02oAkijSj2FSJzRorRp7Rz9S1JsmAeK2TaQ7vCUqySfvcxJoTwx81CsLa4CYMtGicUl https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article308497265.html https://websleuths.com/threads/ca-lesner-noe-velasquez-cardenas-21-redding-29-may-2025.745815/page-2 https://locator.ice.gov/odls/#/search https://krcrtv.com/news/local/mystery-behind-redding-mans-disappearance-leaves-family-and-friends-shocked https://www.facebook.com/ReddingPolice/posts/pfbid0Hh4pcKDHpW4X3WMFspw2brC7p7rA6yFhsZS2zDeNYSSePFEdSjpQWHdnBkMnm79Ll https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/search-continues-for-missing-redding-man-in-area-of-mt-shasta/article_539d8fe1-dd3c-4a58-8c9b-eba7e18c5ec6.html https://mydeathspace.com/vb/showthread.php?47253-Lesner-Noe-Velasquez-Cardenas-(21)-missing-after-a-car-accident-and-being-dropped-off-to-hike-Mt-Shasta https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKiTPXQhG_O/  

This week, Meghan is joined by Mary Rossi, President Rossi Claim Services Corporation, an elite independent adjuster firm based out of Northern California.

My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers,The 1990s and the dawn of the internet were a pivotal time for America and the wider world. The history of human progress is a series of such pivotal moments. As Peter Leyden points out, it seems we're facing another defining era as society wrestles with three new key technologies: artificial intelligence, clean energy, and bioengineering.Today on Faster, Please! — The Podcast, I chat with Leyden about American leadership in emerging technology and the mindset shifts we must undergo to bring about the future we dream of.Leyden is a futurist and technology expert. He is a speaker, author, and founder of Reinvent Futures. Thirty years ago, he worked with the founders of WIRED magazine, and now authors his latest book project via Substack: The Great Progression: 2025 to 2050.In This Episode* Eras of transformation (1:38)* American risk tolerance (11:15)* Facing AI pessimism (15:38)* The bioengineering breakthrough (24:24)* Demographic pressure (28:52)Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. Eras of transformation (1:38)I think we Americans tend to reset the clock in which we get in these dead ends, we get in these old patterns, these old systems, and the things are all falling apart, it's not working. And then there is a kind of a can-do reinvention phase . . .Pethokoukis: Since World War II, as I see it, we have twice been on the verge of a transformational leap forward, economically and technologically. I would say that was right around 1970 and then right around 2000, and the periods of time after that, I think, certainly relative to the expectations then, was disappointing.It is my hope, and I know it's your hope as well, that we are at another such moment of transformation. One, do you accept my general premise, and two, why are we going to get it right this time?If I'm hearing you right, you're kind of making two junctures there. I do believe we're in the beginning of what would be much more thought of as a transformation. I would say the most direct parallel is closer to what happened coming off of World War II. I also think, if you really go back in American history, it's what came off of Civil War and even came off of the Founding Era. I think there's a lot of parallels there I can go into, I've written about in my Substack and it's part of the next book I'm writing, so there's a bigger way that I think about it. I think both those times that you're referring to, it seems to me we were coming off a boom, or what seemed to be an updraft or your “Up Wing” kind of periods that you think of — and then we didn't.I guess I think of it this way: the '50s, '60s, and '90s were exciting times that made it feel like the best was yet to come — but then that momentum stalled. I'm hopeful we're entering another such moment now, with so much happening, so much in motion, and I just hope it all comes together.The way I think about it in a bigger lens, I would just push back a little bit, which is, it's true coming off the '90s — I was at WIRED magazine in the '90s. I was watching the early '90s internet and the Digital Revolution and I sketched out at that time, in my first book but also cover stories in WIRED, trying to rough out what would happen by the year 2020. And it is true that coming off the '90s there was a Dot Com crash, but temporarily, honestly, that with the Web 2.0 and others, a lot of those trends we were talking about in the '90s actually just kept picking up.So depending how big the lens is, I would argue that, coming off the '90s, the full digital revolution and the full globalization that we were starting to see in the early to mid-'90s in some respects did come to fruition. It didn't play out the way we all wanted it to happen — spreading wealth all through the society and blah, blah, blah, and many of the things that people complain about and react to now — but I would argue that a lot of what we were saying in those '90s, and had begun in the '90s with the '90s boom, continued after a temporary pause, for sure.The Dot Com boom was just frothy investment. It crashed, but the companies that come out of that crash are literally trillion-dollar companies dominating the global economy now here on the west coast. That was some of the things we could see happening from the mid-'90s. The world did get connected through the internet, and globalization did, from a lens that's beyond America, we took 800 million peasants living on two bucks a day in China and brought them into the global economy. There's all kinds of positive things of what happened in the last 25 years, depending on how big your lens is.I would say that we've been through a largely successful — clearly some issues, “Oh my gosh, we didn't anticipate social media and that stuff,” but in general, the world that we were actually starting to envision in the '90s came about, at some level — with some flaws, and some issues, and we could have done better, but I'm saying now I think AI is bigger than the internet. I think the idea that humans are now working side-by-side with intelligent machines and being augmented by intelligent machines is a world historical event that is going to go beyond just connecting everybody on the planet through the internet, which is kind of what the '90s was, and the early Digital Revolution.This is a bigger deal, and I do think this transformation has the potential to be way bigger too. If we manage it right — including how we did it positively or negatively in the last 25, 30 years off the '90s — if we do this right, we could really pull off what I think is a reinvention of America and a much better world going beyond this. That's not a prediction that we're going to do that, but I think we certainly have the potential there.While I was preparing for our chat, I recalled a podcast I did with Marc Andreessen where we discussed AI — not just its potential to solve big problems and drive progress, but also about the obstacles, especially regulatory ones. He pointed out that those barriers are why we don't have things like widespread nuclear power, let alone fusion reactors.When I asked why he thought we could overcome those barriers this time around, he said we probably won't — that failure should be the baseline because these obstacles are deeply rooted in a risk-averse American society. Now, why isn't that your baseline?My baseline is that America — again, I'm taking a bigger lens here, which is we periodically come to these junctures in history in which you could say, from left and right, there's kind of an ossification of the old system. What happens is the old ways of doing things, the old systems, essentially get kind of stuck, and ossified, and just defunct, and long in the tooth, and all different ways you can describe it. But what happens at these junctures — and it happened coming off World War II, it happened after the Civil War, I happened after in the Founding Era too, coming off the colonial world — there is an incredible period of explosion of progress, essentially, and they usually are about 25 years, which is why I'm thinking about the next 25 years.I think we Americans tend to reset the clock in which we get in these dead ends, we get in these old patterns, these old systems, and the things are all falling apart, it's not working. And then there is a kind of a can-do reinvention phase that, frankly, is beyond Europe now. The great hope of the West is still going to be America here. But I think we're actually entering it and I think this is what's happening, and . . . I've read your book, The Conservative Futurist, I would call myself more of a “Progressive Futurist,” but I would say both left and right in this country have gone too extreme. The right is critiquing “government can't do anything right,” and the left is critiquing “the market, corporations can't do anything right.”The actual American framework is the Hamiltonian government, coming off Lincoln's government, the FDR government. There is a role for government, a vigorous kind of government presence that can drive change, but there's also a great role for the market too.There's this center left and center right that has now got to recalibrate for this next era of America. I think because the old system — and from the right, the old system might be big bureaucratic government that was born out of World War II, the great welfare state bureaucracies, also the Pax Americana. Trump is kind of banging against, dismantling that old thing that's been going for 80 years and, frankly, is kind of run out of steam. It's not really working. But the left is also coming out, carbon energy, and drilling for oil, and industrial pollution, and all that other stuff that was coming off of that scaling of the 20th century economy is also not working for the 21st century. We've also got to dismantle those systems. But together, looking forward, you could imagine a complete reinvention around these new technologies. AI is a huge one. Without question, the first among equals it's going to be the game changer around every field, every industry.Also clean energy technologies, I would argue, are just hitting the point of tipping points of scale that we could imagine a shift in the energy foundation. We could see abundant clean energy, including nuclear. I think there's a new re-appreciation of nuclear coming even from left-of-center, but also potential fusion on the horizon.I also think bioengineering is something that we haven't really got our heads into, but in terms of the long-term health of the planet, and all kinds of synthetic biology, and all kinds of things that are happening, we are now past the tipping point, and we know how to do this.I think there's three world historic technologies that America could get reinvented around in the next 25 years. I think the old system, left and right, is now done with this old thing that isn't working, but that opens up the potential for the future. So yes, what Andreessen's talking about is the late stage of the last gummed-up system that wasn't working. For that matter, the same thing from the left is complaining about the inequality, and the old system isn't working now the way it was, circulating wealth through society. But I think there's a way to reinvent that and I actually think we're on the verge of doing it, and that's what I'm trying to do for my project, my book, my Substack stuff.American risk tolerance (11:15)I think there is an elite on the right-of-center tech and the left-of-center tech that sees the same commonalities about the potential of the technology, but also the potential for transformation going forward, that would be healthy. Do you feel that there's enough ferment happening that, institutionally, there will be enough space for these technologies to flourish as you hope? That the first time that there's a problem with an AI model where people die because some system failed, we're not going to be like, “We need to pause AI.” That the next time with one of these restarted nuclear reactors, if there's some minor problem, we're not going to suddenly panic and say, “That's it, nuclear is gone again.” Do you think we have that kind of societal resilience to deal? I think we've had too little of that, but do you think there's enough now, for the reasons you're talking about, that we will continue to push forward?I think there's absolutely the chance that can happen. Now, like Andreessen said, it's not a prediction like, “Oh, this will be fine, it's all going to work out.” We could also go the way of Europe, which is we could get over-regulated, over-ossified, go back to the old days, be this nice tourist spot that, whatever, we look at our old buildings and stuff and we figure out a way to earn a living, but it's just getting more and more and more in the past. That's also a possibility, and I suppose if you had to bet, maybe that's the greater possibility, in default.But I don't think that's going to happen because I do believe more in America. I'm also living in Northern California here. I'm surrounded for the last 30 years, people are just jam packed with new ideas. There's all kinds of s**t happening here. It's just an explosive moment right now. We are attracting the best and the brightest from all over the country, all over the world. There is no other place in the world, bar none, around AI than San Francisco right now, and you cannot be here and not just get thrilled at the possibility of what's happening. Now, does that mean that we're going to be able to pull this off through the whole country, through the whole world? I don't know, there is a lot of ambiguity there and this is why you can't predict the future with certainty.But I do believe we have the potential here to rebuild fundamentally. I think there is an elite on the right-of-center tech and the left-of-center tech that sees the same commonalities about the potential of the technology, but also the potential for transformation going forward, that would be healthy. For example, I know Andreessen, you talk about Andreessen . . . I was also rooted in the whole Obama thing, there was a ton of tech people in the Obama thing, and now there's a ton of tech people who are kind of tech-right, but it's all kind of washes together. It's because we all see the potential of these technologies just emerging in front of us. The question is . . . how do you get the systems to adapt?Now, to be fair, California, yes, it's been gummed up with regulations and overthink, but on the other hand, it's opened itself up. It just went through historic shifts in rolling back environmental reviews and trying to drive more housing by refusing to let the NIMBY shut it down. There's a bunch of things that even the left-of-center side is trying to deal with this gummed-up system, and the right-of-center side is doing their version of it in DC right now.Anyhow, the point is, we see the limits on both left-of-center and right-of-center of what's currently happening and what has happened. The question is, can we get aligned on a relatively common way forward, which is what America did coming off the war for 25 years, which is what happened after the Civil War. There were issues around the Reconstruction, but there was a kind of explosive expansion around American progress in the 25 years there. And we did it off the Revolution too. There are these moments where left-of-center and right-of-center align and we kind of build off of a more American set of values: pluralism, meritocracy, economic growth, freedom, personal freedom, things that we all can agree on, it's just they get gummed up in these old systems and these old ideologies periodically and we've just got to blow through them and try something different. I think the period we're in right now.Facing AI pessimism (15:38)The world of AI is so foreign to them, it's so bizarre to them, it's so obscure to them, that they're reacting off it just like any sensible human being. You're scared of a thing you don't get.I feel like you are very optimistic.Yes, that is true.I like to think that I am very optimistic. I think we're both optimistic about what these technologies can do to make this country and this world a richer world, a more sustainable world, a healthier world, create more opportunity. I think we're on the same page. So it's sad to me that I feel like I've been this pessimistic so far throughout our conversation and this next question, unfortunately, will be in that vein.Okay, fair enough.I have a very clear memory of the '90s tech boom, and the excitement, and this is the most excited I've been since then, but I know some people aren't excited, and they're not excited about AI. They think AI means job loss, it means a dehumanization of society where we only interact with screens, and they think all the gains from any added economic growth will only go to the super rich, and they're not excited about it.My concern is that the obvious upsides will take long enough to manifest that the people who are negative, and the downsides — because there will be downsides with any technology or amazing new tool, no matter how amazing it is — that our society will begin to focus on the downsides, on, “Oh, this company let go of these 50 people in their marketing department,” and that's what will be the focus, and we will end up overregulating it. There will be pressure on companies, just like there's pressure on film companies not to use AI in their special effects or in their advertising, that there will be this anti-AI, anti-technology backlash — like we've seen with trade — because what I think are the obvious upsides will take too long to manifest. That is one of my concerns.I agree with that. That is a concern. In fact, right now if you look at the polling globally, about a third of Americans are very negative and down on AI, about a third are into AI, and about a third, don't what the hell what to make of it. But if you go to China, and Japan, and a lot of Asian countries, it's like 60 percent, 70 percent positive about AI. You go to Europe and it's similar to the US, if not worse, meaning there is a pessimism.To be fair, from a human planet point of view, the West has had a way privileged position in the last 250 years in terms of the wealth creation, in terms of the spoils of globalization, and the whole thing. So you could say — which is not a popular thing to say in America right now — that with globalization in the last 25 years, we actually started to rectify, from a global point of view, a lot of these inequities in ways that, from the long view, is not a bad thing to happen, that everybody in the planet gets lifted up and we can move forward as eight billion people on the planet.I would say so there is a negativity in the West because they're coming off a kind of an era that they were always relatively privileged. There is this kind of baked-in “things are getting worse” feeling for a lot of people. That's kind of adding to this pessimism, I think. That's a bad thing.My next book, which is coming out with Harper Collins and we just cracked the contract on that, I got a big advance —Hey, congratulations.But the whole idea of this book is kind of trying to create a new grand narrative of what's possible now, in the next 25 years, based on these new technologies and how we could reorganize the economy and society in ways that would work better for everybody. The reason I'm kind of trying to wrap this up, and the early pieces of this are in my Substack series of these essays I'm writing, is because I think what's missing right now is people can't see the new way forward. That's the win-win way forward. They actually are only operating on this opaque thing. The world of AI is so foreign to them, it's so bizarre to them, it's so obscure to them, that they're reacting off it just like any sensible human being. You're scared of a thing you don't get.What's interesting about this, and again what's useful, is I went through this exact same thing in the '90s. It's a little bit different, and I'll tell you the differentiation in a minute, but basically back in the '90s when I was working at the early stage with the founders of WIRED magazine, it was the early days of WIRED, basically meaning the world didn't know what email was, what the web was, people were saying there's no way people would put their credit cards on the internet, no one's going to buy anything on there, you had to start with square one. What was interesting about it is they didn't understand what's possible. A lot of the work I was doing back then at WIRED, but also with my first book then, went into multiple languages, all kinds of stuff, was trying to explain from the mid-'90s, what the internet and the Digital Revolution tied with globalization might look like in a positive way to the year 2020, which is a 25-year lookout.That was one of the popularities of the book, and the articles I was doing on that, and the talks I was doing — a decade speaking on this thing — because people just needed to see it: “Oh! This is what it means when you connect up everybody! Oh! I could see myself in my field living in a world where that works. Oh, actually, the trade of with China might work for my company, blah, blah, blah.” People could kind of start to see it in a way that they couldn't in the early to mid-'90s. They were just like, “I don't even know, what's an Amazon? Who cares if they're selling books on it? I don't get it.” But you could rough it out from a technological point of view and do that.I think it's the same thing now. I think we need do this now. We have to say, “Hey dudes, you working with AI is going to make you twice as productive. You're going to make twice as much money.” The growth rate of the economy — and you're good with this with your Up Wing stuff. I'm kind of with you on that. It could be like we're all actually making more money, more wealth pulsing through society. Frankly, we're hurting right now in terms of, we don't have enough bodies doing stuff and maybe we need some robots. There's a bunch of ways that you could reframe this in a bigger way that people could say, “Oh, maybe I could do that better,” and in a way that I think I saw the parallels back there.Now the one difference now, and I'll tell you the one difference between the '90s, and I mentioned this earlier, in the '90s, everybody thought these goofy tech companies and stuff were just knucklehead things. They didn't understand what they were. In fact, if anything, the problem was the opposite. You get their attention to say, “Hey, this Amazon thing is a big deal,” or “This thing called Google is going to be a big thing.” You couldn't even get them focused on that. It took until about the 20-teens, 2012, -13, -14 till these companies got big enough.So now everybody's freaked out about the tech because they're these giant gargantuan things, these trillion-dollar companies with global reach in ways that, in the '90s, they weren't. So there is a kind of fear-factor baked into tech. The last thing I'll say about that, though, is I know I've learned one thing about tech is over the years, and I still believe it's true today, that the actual cutting-edge of technology is not done in the legacy companies, even these big legacy tech companies, although they'll still be big players, is that the actual innovation is going to happen on the edges through startups and all that other thing, unless I'm completely wrong, which I doubt. That's been the true thing of all these tech phases. I think there's plenty of room for innovation, plenty of room for a lot of people to be tapped into this next wave of innovation, and also wealth creation, and I think there is a way forward that I think is going to be less scary than people right now think. It's like they think that current tech setup is going to be forever and they're just going to get richer, and richer, and richer. Well, if they were in the '90s, those companies, Facebook didn't exist, Google didn't exist, Amazon didn't exist. Just like we all thought, “Oh, IBM is going to run everything,” it's like, no. These things happen at these junctures, and I think we're in another one of the junctures, so we've got to get people over this hump. We've got to get them to see, “Hey, there's a win-win way forward that America can be revitalized, and prosperous, and wealth spread.”The bioengineering breakthrough (24:24)Just like we had industrial production in the Industrial Revolution that scaled great wealth and created all these products off of that we could have a bio-economy, a biological revolution . . .I think that's extraordinarily important, giving people an idea of what can be, and it's not all negative. You've talked a little bit about AI, people know that's out there and they know that some people think it's going to be big. Same thing with clean energy.To me, of your three transformer technologies, the one we I think sometimes hear less about right now is bioengineering. I wonder if you could just give me a little flavor of what excites you about that.It is on a delay. Clean energy has been going for a while here and is starting to scale on levels that you can see the impact of solar, the impact of electric cars and all kinds stuff, particularly from a global perspective. Same thing with AI, there's a lot of focus on that, but what's interesting about bioengineering is there were some world historic breakthroughs basically in the last 25 years.One is just cracking the human genome and driving the cost down to, it's like a hundred bucks now to get anybody's genome processed. That's just crazy drop in price from $3 million on the first one 20 years ago to like a hundred bucks now. That kind of dramatic change. Then the CRISPR breakthrough, which is essentially we can know how to cheaply and easily edit these genomes. That's a huge thing. But it's not just about the genomics. It's essentially we are understanding biology to the point where we can now engineer living things.Just think about that: Human beings, we've been in the Industrial Revolution, everything. We've learned how to engineer inert things, dig up metals, and blah, blah, blah, blah, and engineer a thing. We didn't even know how living things worked, or we didn't even know what DNA was until the 1950s, right? The living things has been this opaque world that we have no idea. We've crossed that threshold. We now understand how to engineer living things, and it's not just the genetic engineering. We can actually create proteins. Oh, we can grow cultured meat instead of waiting for the cow to chew the grass to make the meat, we can actually make it into that and boom, we know how it works.This breakthrough of engineering living things is only now starting to kind of dawn on everyone . . . when you talk about synthetic biology, it's essentially man-made biology, and that breakthrough is huge. It's going to have a lot of economic implications because, across this century, it depends how long it takes to get past the regulation, and get the fear factor of people, which is higher than even AI, probably, around genetic engineering and cloning and all this stuff. Stem cells, there's all kinds of stuff happening in this world now that we could essentially create a bio-economy. Just like we had industrial production in the Industrial Revolution that scaled great wealth and created all these products off of that we could have a bio-economy, a biological revolution that would allow, instead of creating plastic bottles, you could design biological synthetic bottles that dissolve after two weeks in the ocean from saltwater or exposure to sunlight and things like that. Nature knows how to both create things that work and also biodegrade them back to nothing.There's a bunch of insights that we now can learn from Mother Nature about the biology of the world around us that we can actually design products and services, things that actually could do it and be much more sustainable in terms of the long-term health of the planet, but also could be better for us and has all kinds of health implications, of course. That's where people normally go is think, “Oh my god, we can live longer” and all kinds of stuff. That's true, but also our built world could actually be redesigned using super-hard woods or all kinds of stuff that you could genetically design differently.That's a bigger leap. There's people who are religious who can't think of touching God's work, or a lot of eco-environmentalists like, “Oh, we can't mess with Mother Nature.” There's going to be some issues around that, but through the course of the century, it's going to absolutely happen and I think it could happen in the next 25 years, and that one could actually be a huge thing about recreating essentially a different kind of economy around those kinds of insights.So we've got three world-historic technologies: AI, clean energy, and now bioengineering, and if America can't invent the next system, who the hell is going to do that? You don't want China doing it.Demographic pressure (28:52)We are going to welcome the robots. We are going to welcome the AI, these advanced societies, to create the kind of wealth, and support the older people, and have these long lives.No, I do not. I do not. Two things I find myself writing a lot about are falling birth rates globally, and I also find myself writing about the future of the space economy. Which of those topics, demographic change or space, do you find intellectually more interesting?I think the demographic thing is more interesting. I mean, I grew up in a period where everyone was freaked out about overpopulation. We didn't think the planet would hold enough people. It's only been in the last 10 years that, conventionally, people have kind of started to shift, “Oh my God, we might not have enough people.” Although I must say, in the futurist business, I've been watching this for 30 years and we've been talking about this for a long time, about when it's going to peak humans and then it's going to go down. Here's why I think that's fantastic: We are going to welcome the robots. We are going to welcome the AI, these advanced societies, to create the kind of wealth, and support the older people, and have these long lives. I mean long lives way beyond 80, it could be 120 years at some level. Our kids might live to that.The point is, we're going to need artificial intelligence, and robotics, and all these other things, and also we're going to need, frankly, to move the shrinking number of human beings around the planet, i.e. immigration and cross-migration. We're going to need these things to solve these problems. So I think about this: Americans are practical people. At its core, we're practical people. We're not super ideological. Currently, we kind of think we're ideological, but we're basically common-sense, practical people. So these pressures, the demographic pressures, are going to be one of the reasons I think we are going to migrate to this stuff faster than people think, because we're going to realize, “Holy s**t, we've got to do this.” When social security starts going broke and the boomers are like 80 and 90 and it is like, okay, let alone the young people thinking, “How the hell am I going to get supported?” we're going to start having to create a different kind of economy where we leverage the productivity of the humans through these advanced technologies, AI and robotics, to actually create the kind of world we want to live in. It could be a better world than the world we've got now, than the old 20th-century thing that did a good shot. They lifted the bar from the 19th century to the 20th. Now we've got to lift it in the 21st. It's our role, it's what we do. America, [let's] get our s**t together and start doing it. That's the way I would say it.On sale everywhere The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were PromisedFaster, Please! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fasterplease.substack.com/subscribe

In the first episode of our five-part series featuring the chefs from Visit Vacaville's Farm to Table Dinner 2025, host Alyssa Pardini sits down with Chef Megan Smith of Ironwood American Bistro. Megan shares the inspiration behind her vibrant salad course, made with local produce, foraged fennel pollen, and garden-fresh chive blossoms. She also talks about her culinary journey and how she now focuses on teaching approachable, nutrition-focused cooking classes. Destination Vacaville? Let's go! 

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has banned all NOx producing water heaters and furnaces.  What does that mean?  Current gas water heaters and furnaces produce NOx making this rule a defacto ban on all gas water heaters and furnaces in 9 Nor Cal Counties.  Find out what that means for you and it's financial implications to over a million home owners.  Sponsored by Good Patriot Realty - A Salute to Home Ownership Stephen Theard Good Patriot Realty Broker/Owner CA DRE 01700019 GoodPatriotRealty.com #RealEstate #HomeOwnership  #usa #goodpatriotrealty   #california  #californiamoving #americandream #stephentheardsellshomes #siliconvalleyrealestate  #homebuyers #homesellers #gasapplianceban #gaswaterheaterban @gasfurnaceban #waterheater #furnace #gas #liquidgas

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald, interviewed Dr. Farrah Laurent. A former emergency room nurse turned entrepreneur and career coach, shares her journey from bedside care to building a six-figure business helping new nurses land high-paying jobs and launch their own ventures. The conversation explores nursing as a lucrative and flexible career path, the importance of mindset, and the power of personal branding.

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald, interviewed Dr. Farrah Laurent. A former emergency room nurse turned entrepreneur and career coach, shares her journey from bedside care to building a six-figure business helping new nurses land high-paying jobs and launch their own ventures. The conversation explores nursing as a lucrative and flexible career path, the importance of mindset, and the power of personal branding.

My guests today are the filmmaker Jonathan Berman, director of "Commune", Elliott Sharp, the film's composer, and one of its producers, Christian Ettinger. In 1968, two hippies hiking near Mt. Shasta in Northern California stumbled across an unlikely property for sale: an abandoned goldmine and surrounding land, 300 acres for $22,000. Fueled by contributions from the Doors, the Monkees, Frank Zappa and others, they bought the property and named it Black Bear Ranch. It quickly became the prototypical 1960s commune, with the motto “Free Land for Free People.” Utopian communities have always been a part of the United States, but in the 60's and 70's their audacious goal was to reshape the world with free love and common property – creating a revolutionary movement that would spread to the rest of society. But utopia is different for each person, and these experiments often brought strife, jealousy and sometimes even endangered lives. Featuring interviews with several Black Bear alumni, including actor/activist Peter Coyote, alongside a wealth of photographs and home movies, this acclaimed documentary offers a candid look into the joys and difficulties of free love, nude farming, survival in the wilderness, multiple-parent childrearing and other fascinating aspects of communal living. "Commune" is enjoying a new theatrical release based on its recent 4K restoration. It will be screening at DCTV's Firehouse Cinema beginning Friday, July 11th.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded its latest Term. And over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has continued to duke it out with its adversaries in the federal courts.To tackle these topics, as well as their intersection—in terms of how well the courts, including but not limited to the Supreme Court, are handling Trump-related cases—I interviewed Professor Pamela Karlan, a longtime faculty member at Stanford Law School. She's perfectly situated to address these subjects, for at least three reasons.First, Professor Karlan is a leading scholar of constitutional law. Second, she's a former SCOTUS clerk and seasoned advocate at One First Street, with ten arguments to her name. Third, she has high-level experience at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), having served (twice) as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.I've had some wonderful guests to discuss the role of the courts today, including Judges Vince Chhabria (N.D. Cal.) and Ana Reyes (D.D.C.)—but as sitting judges, they couldn't discuss certain subjects, and they had to be somewhat circumspect. Professor Karlan, in contrast, isn't afraid to “go there”—and whether or not you agree with her opinions, I think you'll share my appreciation for her insight and candor.Show Notes:* Pamela S. Karlan bio, Stanford Law School* Pamela S. Karlan bio, Wikipedia* The McCorkle Lecture (Professor Pamela Karlan), UVA Law SchoolPrefer reading to listening? For paid subscribers, a transcript of the entire episode appears below.Sponsored by:NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment at nexfirm dot com.Three quick notes about this transcript. First, it has been cleaned up from the audio in ways that don't alter substance—e.g., by deleting verbal filler or adding a word here or there to clarify meaning. Second, my interviewee has not reviewed this transcript, and any transcription errors are mine. Third, because of length constraints, this newsletter may be truncated in email; to view the entire post, simply click on “View entire message” in your email app.David Lat: Welcome to the Original Jurisdiction podcast. I'm your host, David Lat, author of a Substack newsletter about law and the legal profession also named Original Jurisdiction, which you can read and subscribe to at davidlat dot Substack dot com. You're listening to the seventy-seventh episode of this podcast, recorded on Friday, June 27.Thanks to this podcast's sponsor, NexFirm. NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment at nexfirm dot com. Want to know who the guest will be for the next Original Jurisdiction podcast? Follow NexFirm on LinkedIn for a preview.With the 2024-2025 Supreme Court Term behind us, now is a good time to talk about both constitutional law and the proper role of the judiciary in American society. I expect they will remain significant as subjects because the tug of war between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary continues—and shows no signs of abating.To tackle these topics, I welcomed to the podcast Professor Pamela Karlan, the Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law and Co-Director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law School. Pam is not only a leading legal scholar, but she also has significant experience in practice. She's argued 10 cases before the Supreme Court, which puts her in a very small club, and she has worked in government at high levels, serving as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice during the Obama administration. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Professor Pam Karlan.Professor Karlan, thank you so much for joining me.Pamela Karlan: Thanks for having me.DL: So let's start at the beginning. Tell us about your background and upbringing. I believe we share something in common—you were born in New York City?PK: I was born in New York City. My family had lived in New York since they arrived in the country about a century before.DL: What borough?PK: Originally Manhattan, then Brooklyn, then back to Manhattan. As my mother said, when I moved to Brooklyn when I was clerking, “Brooklyn to Brooklyn, in three generations.”DL: Brooklyn is very, very hip right now.PK: It wasn't hip when we got there.DL: And did you grow up in Manhattan or Brooklyn?PK: When I was little, we lived in Manhattan. Then right before I started elementary school, right after my brother was born, our apartment wasn't big enough anymore. So we moved to Stamford, Connecticut, and I grew up in Connecticut.DL: What led you to go to law school? I see you stayed in the state; you went to Yale. What did you have in mind for your post-law-school career?PK: I went to law school because during the summer between 10th and 11th grade, I read Richard Kluger's book, Simple Justice, which is the story of the litigation that leads up to Brown v. Board of Education. And I decided I wanted to go to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and be a school desegregation lawyer, and that's what led me to go to law school.DL: You obtained a master's degree in history as well as a law degree. Did you also have teaching in mind as well?PK: No, I thought getting the master's degree was my last chance to do something I had loved doing as an undergrad. It didn't occur to me until I was late in my law-school days that I might at some point want to be a law professor. That's different than a lot of folks who go to law school now; they go to law school wanting to be law professors.During Admitted Students' Weekend, some students say to me, “I want to be a law professor—should I come here to law school?” I feel like saying to them, “You haven't done a day of law school yet. You have no idea whether you're good at law. You have no idea whether you'd enjoy doing legal teaching.”It just amazes me that people come to law school now planning to be a law professor, in a way that I don't think very many people did when I was going to law school. In my day, people discovered when they were in law school that they loved it, and they wanted to do more of what they loved doing; I don't think people came to law school for the most part planning to be law professors.DL: The track is so different now—and that's a whole other conversation—but people are getting master's and Ph.D. degrees, and people are doing fellowship after fellowship. It's not like, oh, you practice for three, five, or seven years, and then you become a professor. It seems to be almost like this other track nowadays.PK: When I went on the teaching market, I was distinctive in that I had not only my student law-journal note, but I actually had an article that Ricky Revesz and I had worked on that was coming out. And it was not normal for people to have that back then. Now people go onto the teaching market with six or seven publications—and no practice experience really to speak of, for a lot of them.DL: You mentioned talking to admitted students. You went to YLS, but you've now been teaching for a long time at Stanford Law School. They're very similar in a lot of ways. They're intellectual. They're intimate, especially compared to some of the other top law schools. What would you say if I'm an admitted student choosing between those two institutions? What would cause me to pick one versus the other—besides the superior weather of Palo Alto?PK: Well, some of it is geography; it's not just the weather. Some folks are very East-Coast-centered, and other folks are very West-Coast-centered. That makes a difference.It's a little hard to say what the differences are, because the last time I spent a long time at Yale Law School was in 2012 (I visited there a bunch of times over the years), but I think the faculty here at Stanford is less focused and concentrated on the students who want to be law professors than is the case at Yale. When I was at Yale, the idea was if you were smart, you went and became a law professor. It was almost like a kind of external manifestation of an inner state of grace; it was a sign that you were a smart person, if you wanted to be a law professor. And if you didn't, well, you could be a donor later on. Here at Stanford, the faculty as a whole is less concentrated on producing law professors. We produce a fair number of them, but it's not the be-all and end-all of the law school in some ways. Heather Gerken, who's the dean at Yale, has changed that somewhat, but not entirely. So that's one big difference.One of the most distinctive things about Stanford, because we're on the quarter system, is that our clinics are full-time clinics, taught by full-time faculty members at the law school. And that's distinctive. I think Yale calls more things clinics than we do, and a lot of them are part-time or taught by folks who aren't in the building all the time. So that's a big difference between the schools.They just have very different feels. I would encourage any student who gets into both of them to go and visit both of them, talk to the students, and see where you think you're going to be most comfortably stretched. Either school could be the right school for somebody.DL: I totally agree with you. Sometimes people think there's some kind of platonic answer to, “Where should I go to law school?” And it depends on so many individual circumstances.PK: There really isn't one answer. I think when I was deciding between law schools as a student, I got waitlisted at Stanford and I got into Yale. I had gone to Yale as an undergrad, so I wasn't going to go anywhere else if I got in there. I was from Connecticut and loved living in Connecticut, so that was an easy choice for me. But it's a hard choice for a lot of folks.And I do think that one of the worst things in the world is U.S. News and World Report, even though we're generally a beneficiary of it. It used to be that the R-squared between where somebody went to law school and what a ranking was was minimal. I knew lots of people who decided, in the old days, that they were going to go to Columbia rather than Yale or Harvard, rather than Stanford or Penn, rather than Chicago, because they liked the city better or there was somebody who did something they really wanted to do there.And then the R-squared, once U.S. News came out, of where people went and what the rankings were, became huge. And as you probably know, there were some scandals with law schools that would just waitlist people rather than admit them, to keep their yield up, because they thought the person would go to a higher-ranked law school. There were years and years where a huge part of the Stanford entering class had been waitlisted at Penn. And that's bad for people, because there are people who should go to Penn rather than come here. There are people who should go to NYU rather than going to Harvard. And a lot of those people don't do it because they're so fixated on U.S. News rankings.DL: I totally agree with you. But I suspect that a lot of people think that there are certain opportunities that are going to be open to them only if they go here or only if they go there.Speaking of which, after graduating from YLS, you clerked for Justice Blackmun on the Supreme Court, and statistically it's certainly true that certain schools seem to improve your odds of clerking for the Court. What was that experience like overall? People often describe it as a dream job. We're recording this on the last day of the Supreme Court Term; some hugely consequential historic cases are coming down. As a law clerk, you get a front row seat to all of that, to all of that history being made. Did you love that experience?PK: I loved the experience. I loved it in part because I worked for a wonderful justice who was just a lovely man, a real mensch. I had three great co-clerks. It was the first time, actually, that any justice had ever hired three women—and so that was distinctive for me, because I had been in classes in law school where there were fewer than three women. I was in one class in law school where I was the only woman. So that was neat.It was a great Term. It was the last year of the Burger Court, and we had just a heap of incredibly interesting cases. It's amazing how many cases I teach in law school that were decided that year—the summary-judgment trilogy, Thornburg v. Gingles, Bowers v. Hardwick. It was just a really great time to be there. And as a liberal, we won a lot of the cases. We didn't win them all, but we won a lot of them.It was incredibly intense. At that point, the Supreme Court still had this odd IT system that required eight hours of diagnostics every night. So the system was up from 8 a.m. to midnight—it stayed online longer if there was a death case—but otherwise it went down at midnight. In the Blackmun chambers, we showed up at 8 a.m. for breakfast with the Justice, and we left at midnight, five days a week. Then on the weekends, we were there from 9 to 9. And they were deciding 150 cases, not 60 cases, a year. So there was a lot more work to do, in that sense. But it was a great year. I've remained friends with my co-clerks, and I've remained friends with clerks from other chambers. It was a wonderful experience.DL: And you've actually written about it. I would refer people to some of the articles that they can look up, on your CV and elsewhere, where you've talked about, say, having breakfast with the Justice.PK: And we had a Passover Seder with the Justice as well, which was a lot of fun.DL: Oh wow, who hosted that? Did he?PK: Actually, the clerks hosted it. Originally he had said, “Oh, why don't we have it at the Court?” But then he came back to us and said, “Well, I think the Chief Justice”—Chief Justice Burger—“might not like that.” But he lent us tables and chairs, which were dropped off at one of the clerk's houses. And it was actually the day of the Gramm-Rudman argument, which was an argument about the budget. So we had to keep running back and forth from the Court to the house of Danny Richman, the clerk who hosted it, who was a Thurgood Marshall clerk. We had to keep running back and forth from the Court to Danny Richman's house, to baste the turkey and make stuff, back and forth. And then we had a real full Seder, and we invited all of the Jewish clerks at the Court and the Justice's messenger, who was Jewish, and the Justice and Mrs. Blackmun, and it was a lot of fun.DL: Wow, that's wonderful. So where did you go after your clerkship?PK: I went to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where I was an assistant counsel, and I worked on voting-rights and employment-discrimination cases.DL: And that was something that you had thought about for a long time—you mentioned you had read about its work in high school.PK: Yes, and it was a great place to work. We were working on great cases, and at that point we were really pushing the envelope on some of the stuff that we were doing—which was great and inspiring, and my colleagues were wonderful.And unlike a lot of Supreme Court practices now, where there's a kind of “King Bee” usually, and that person gets to argue everything, the Legal Defense Fund was very different. The first argument I did at the Court was in a case that I had worked on the amended complaint for, while at the Legal Defense Fund—and they let me essentially keep working on the case and argue it at the Supreme Court, even though by the time the case got to the Supreme Court, I was teaching at UVA. So they didn't have this policy of stripping away from younger lawyers the ability to argue their cases the whole way through the system.DL: So how many years out from law school were you by the time you had your first argument before the Court? I know that, today at least, there's this two-year bar on arguing before the Court after having clerked there.PK: Six or seven years out—because I think I argued in ‘91.DL: Now, you mentioned that by then you were teaching at UVA. You had a dream job working at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. What led you to go to UVA?PK: There were two things, really, that did it. One was I had also discovered when I was in law school that I loved law school, and I was better at law school than I had been at anything I had done before law school. And the second was I really hated dealing with opposing counsel. I tell my students now, “You should take negotiation. If there's only one class you could take in law school, take negotiation.” Because it's a skill; it's not a habit of mind, but I felt like it was a habit of mind. And I found the discovery process and filing motions to compel and dealing with the other side's intransigence just really unpleasant.What I really loved was writing briefs. I loved writing briefs, and I could keep doing that for the Legal Defense Fund while at UVA, and I've done a bunch of that over the years for LDF and for other organizations. I could keep doing that and I could live in a small town, which I really wanted to do. I love New York, and now I could live in a city—I've spent a couple of years, off and on, living in cities since then, and I like it—but I didn't like it at that point. I really wanted to be out in the country somewhere. And so UVA was the perfect mix. I kept working on cases, writing amicus briefs for LDF and for other organizations. I could teach, which I loved. I could live in a college town, which I really enjoyed. So it was the best blend of things.DL: And I know, from your having actually delivered a lecture at UVA, that it really did seem to have a special place in your heart. UVA Law School—they really do have a wonderful environment there (as does Stanford), and Charlottesville is a very charming place.PK: Yes, especially when I was there. UVA has a real gift for developing its junior faculty. It was a place where the senior faculty were constantly reading our work, constantly talking to us. Everyone was in the building, which makes a huge difference.The second case I had go to the Supreme Court actually came out of a class where a student asked a question, and I ended up representing the student, and we took the case all the way to the Supreme Court. But I wasn't admitted in the Western District of Virginia, and that's where we had to file a case. And so I turned to my next-door neighbor, George Rutherglen, and said to George, “Would you be the lead counsel in this?” And he said, “Sure.” And we ended up representing a bunch of UVA students, challenging the way the Republican Party did its nomination process. And we ended up, by the student's third year in law school, at the Supreme Court.So UVA was a great place. I had amazing colleagues. The legendary Bill Stuntz was then there; Mike Klarman was there. Dan Ortiz, who's still there, was there. So was John Harrison. It was a fantastic group of people to have as your colleagues.DL: Was it difficult for you, then, to leave UVA and move to Stanford?PK: Oh yes. When I went in to tell Bob Scott, who was then the dean, that I was leaving, I just burst into tears. I think the reason I left UVA was I was at a point in my career where I'd done a bunch of visits at other schools, and I thought that I could either leave then or I would be making a decision to stay there for the rest of my career. And I just felt like I wanted to make a change. And in retrospect, I would've been just as happy if I'd stayed at UVA. In my professional life, I would've been just as happy. I don't know in my personal life, because I wouldn't have met my partner, I don't think, if I'd been at UVA. But it's a marvelous place; everything about it is just absolutely superb.DL: Are you the managing partner of a boutique or midsize firm? If so, you know that your most important job is attracting and retaining top talent. It's not easy, especially if your benefits don't match up well with those of Biglaw firms or if your HR process feels “small time.” NexFirm has created an onboarding and benefits experience that rivals an Am Law 100 firm, so you can compete for the best talent at a price your firm can afford. Want to learn more? Contact NexFirm at 212-292-1002 or email betterbenefits at nexfirm dot com.So I do want to give you a chance to say nice things about your current place. I assume you have no regrets about moving to Stanford Law, even if you would've been just as happy at UVA?PK: I'm incredibly happy here. I've got great colleagues. I've got great students. The ability to do the clinic the way we do it, which is as a full-time clinic, wouldn't be true anywhere else in the country, and that makes a huge difference to that part of my work. I've gotten to teach around the curriculum. I've taught four of the six first-year courses, which is a great opportunityAnd as you said earlier, the weather is unbelievable. People downplay that, because especially for people who are Northeastern Ivy League types, there's a certain Calvinism about that, which is that you have to suffer in order to be truly working hard. People out here sometimes think we don't work hard because we are not visibly suffering. But it's actually the opposite, in a way. I'm looking out my window right now, and it's a gorgeous day. And if I were in the east and it were 75 degrees and sunny, I would find it hard to work because I'd think it's usually going to be hot and humid, or if it's in the winter, it's going to be cold and rainy. I love Yale, but the eight years I spent there, my nose ran the entire time I was there. And here I look out and I think, “It's beautiful, but you know what? It's going to be beautiful tomorrow. So I should sit here and finish grading my exams, or I should sit here and edit this article, or I should sit here and work on the Restatement—because it's going to be just as beautiful tomorrow.” And the ability to walk outside, to clear your head, makes a huge difference. People don't understand just how huge a difference that is, but it's huge.DL: That's so true. If you had me pick a color to associate with my time at YLS, I would say gray. It just felt like everything was always gray, the sky was always gray—not blue or sunny or what have you.But I know you've spent some time outside of Northern California, because you have done some stints at the Justice Department. Tell us about that, the times you went there—why did you go there? What type of work were you doing? And how did it relate to or complement your scholarly work?PK: At the beginning of the Obama administration, I had applied for a job in the Civil Rights Division as a deputy assistant attorney general (DAAG), and I didn't get it. And I thought, “Well, that's passed me by.” And a couple of years later, when they were looking for a new principal deputy solicitor general, in the summer of 2013, the civil-rights groups pushed me for that job. I got an interview with Eric Holder, and it was on June 11th, 2013, which just fortuitously happens to be the 50th anniversary of the day that Vivian Malone desegregated the University of Alabama—and Vivian Malone is the older sister of Sharon Malone, who is married to Eric Holder.So I went in for the interview and I said, “This must be an especially special day for you because of the 50th anniversary.” And we talked about that a little bit, and then we talked about other things. And I came out of the interview, and a couple of weeks later, Don Verrilli, who was the solicitor general, called me up and said, “Look, you're not going to get a job as the principal deputy”—which ultimately went to Ian Gershengorn, a phenomenal lawyer—“but Eric Holder really enjoyed talking to you, so we're going to look for something else for you to do here at the Department of Justice.”And a couple of weeks after that, Eric Holder called me and offered me the DAAG position in the Civil Rights Division and said, “We'd really like you to especially concentrate on our voting-rights litigation.” It was very important litigation, in part because the Supreme Court had recently struck down the pre-clearance regime under Section 5 [of the Voting Rights Act]. So the Justice Department was now bringing a bunch of lawsuits against things they could have blocked if Section 5 had been in effect, most notably the Texas voter ID law, which was a quite draconian voter ID law, and this omnibus bill in North Carolina that involved all sorts of cutbacks to opportunities to vote: a cutback on early voting, a cutback on same-day registration, a cutback on 16- and 17-year-olds pre-registering, and the like.So I went to the Department of Justice and worked with the Voting Section on those cases, but I also ended up working on things like getting the Justice Department to change its position on whether Title VII covered transgender individuals. And then I also got to work on the implementation of [United States v.] Windsor—which I had worked on, representing Edie Windsor, before I went to DOJ, because the Court had just decided Windsor [which held Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional]. So I had an opportunity to work on how to implement Windsor across the federal government. So that was the stuff I got to work on the first time I was at DOJ, and I also obviously worked on tons of other stuff, and it was phenomenal. I loved doing it.I did it for about 20 months, and then I came back to Stanford. It affected my teaching; I understood a lot of stuff quite differently having worked on it. It gave me some ideas on things I wanted to write about. And it just refreshed me in some ways. It's different than working in the clinic. I love working in the clinic, but you're working with students. You're working only with very, very junior lawyers. I sometimes think of the clinic as being a sort of Groundhog Day of first-year associates, and so I'm sort of senior partner and paralegal at a large law firm. At DOJ, you're working with subject-matter experts. The people in the Voting Section, collectively, had hundreds of years of experience with voting. The people in the Appellate Section had hundreds of years of experience with appellate litigation. And so it's just a very different feel.So I did that, and then I came back to Stanford. I was here, and in the fall of 2020, I was asked if I wanted to be one of the people on the Justice Department review team if Joe Biden won the election. These are sometimes referred to as the transition teams or the landing teams or the like. And I said, “I'd be delighted to do that.” They had me as one of the point people reviewing the Civil Rights Division. And I think it might've even been the Wednesday or Thursday before Inauguration Day 2021, I got a call from the liaison person on the transition team saying, “How would you like to go back to DOJ and be the principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division?” That would mean essentially running the Division until we got a confirmed head, which took about five months. And I thought that this would be an amazing opportunity to go back to the DOJ and work with people I love, right at the beginning of an administration.And the beginning of an administration is really different than coming in midway through the second term of an administration. You're trying to come up with priorities, and I viewed my job really as helping the career people to do their best work. There were a huge number of career people who had gone through the first Trump administration, and they were raring to go. They had all sorts of ideas on stuff they wanted to do, and it was my job to facilitate that and make that possible for them. And that's why it's so tragic this time around that almost all of those people have left. The current administration first tried to transfer them all into Sanctuary Cities [the Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group] or ask them to do things that they couldn't in good conscience do, and so they've retired or taken buyouts or just left.DL: It's remarkable, just the loss of expertise and experience at the Justice Department over these past few months.PK: Thousands of years of experience gone. And these are people, you've got to realize, who had been through the Nixon administration, the Reagan administration, both Bush administrations, and the first Trump administration, and they hadn't had any problem. That's what's so stunning: this is not just the normal shift in priorities, and they have gone out of their way to make it so hellacious for people that they will leave. And that's not something that either Democratic or Republican administrations have ever done before this.DL: And we will get to a lot of, shall we say, current events. Finishing up on just the discussion of your career, you had the opportunity to work in the executive branch—what about judicial service? You've been floated over the years as a possible Supreme Court nominee. I don't know if you ever looked into serving on the Ninth Circuit or were considered for that. What about judicial service?PK: So I've never been in a position, and part of this was a lesson I learned right at the beginning of my LDF career, when Lani Guinier, who was my boss at LDF, was nominated for the position of AAG [assistant attorney general] in the Civil Rights Division and got shot down. I knew from that time forward that if I did the things I really wanted to do, my chances of confirmation were not going to be very high. People at LDF used to joke that they would get me nominated so that I would take all the bullets, and then they'd sneak everybody else through. So I never really thought that I would have a shot at a judicial position, and that didn't bother me particularly. As you know, I gave the commencement speech many years ago at Stanford, and I said, “Would I want to be on the Supreme Court? You bet—but not enough to have trimmed my sails for an entire lifetime.”And I think that's right. Peter Baker did this story in The New York Times called something like, “Favorites of Left Don't Make Obama's Court List.” And in the story, Tommy Goldstein, who's a dear friend of mine, said, “If they wanted to talk about somebody who was a flaming liberal, they'd be talking about Pam Karlan, but nobody's talking about Pam Karlan.” And then I got this call from a friend of mine who said, “Yeah, but at least people are talking about how nobody's talking about you. Nobody's even talking about how nobody's talking about me.” And I was flattered, but not fooled.DL: That's funny; I read that piece in preparing for this interview. So let's say someone were to ask you, someone mid-career, “Hey, I've been pretty safe in the early years of my career, but now I'm at this juncture where I could do things that will possibly foreclose my judicial ambitions—should I just try to keep a lid on it, in the hope of making it?” It sounds like you would tell them to let their flag fly.PK: Here's the thing: your chances of getting to be on the Supreme Court, if that's what you're talking about, your chances are so low that the question is how much do you want to give up to go from a 0.001% chance to a 0.002% chance? Yes, you are doubling your chances, but your chances are not good. And there are some people who I think are capable of doing that, perhaps because they fit the zeitgeist enough that it's not a huge sacrifice for them. So it's not that I despise everybody who goes to the Supreme Court because they must obviously have all been super-careerists; I think lots of them weren't super-careerists in that way.Although it does worry me that six members of the Court now clerked at the Supreme Court—because when you are a law clerk, it gives you this feeling about the Court that maybe you don't want everybody who's on the Court to have, a feeling that this is the be-all and end-all of life and that getting a clerkship is a manifestation of an inner state of grace, so becoming a justice is equally a manifestation of an inner state of grace in which you are smarter than everybody else, wiser than everybody else, and everybody should kowtow to you in all sorts of ways. And I worry that people who are imprinted like ducklings on the Supreme Court when they're 25 or 26 or 27 might not be the best kind of portfolio of justices at the back end. The Court that decided Brown v. Board of Education—none of them, I think, had clerked at the Supreme Court, or maybe one of them had. They'd all done things with their lives other than try to get back to the Supreme Court. So I worry about that a little bit.DL: Speaking of the Court, let's turn to the Court, because it just finished its Term as we are recording this. As we started recording, they were still handing down the final decisions of the day.PK: Yes, the “R” numbers hadn't come up on the Supreme Court website when I signed off to come talk to you.DL: Exactly. So earlier this month, not today, but earlier this month, the Court handed down its decision in United States v. Skrmetti, reviewing Tennessee's ban on the use of hormones and puberty blockers for transgender youth. Were you surprised by the Court's ruling in Skrmetti?PK: No. I was not surprised.DL: So one of your most famous cases, which you litigated successfully five years ago or so, was Bostock v. Clayton County, in which the Court held that Title VII does apply to protect transgender individuals—and Bostock figures significantly in the Skrmetti opinions. Why were you surprised by Skrmetti given that you had won this victory in Bostock, which you could argue, in terms of just the logic of it, does carry over somewhat?PK: Well, I want to be very precise: I didn't actually litigate Bostock. There were three cases that were put together….DL: Oh yes—you handled Zarda.PK: I represented Don Zarda, who was a gay man, so I did not argue the transgender part of the case at all. Fortuitously enough, David Cole argued that part of the case, and David Cole was actually the first person I had dinner with as a freshman at Yale College, when I started college, because he was the roommate of somebody I debated against in high school. So David and I went to law school together, went to college together, and had classes together. We've been friends now for almost 50 years, which is scary—I think for 48 years we've been friends—and he argued that part of the case.So here's what surprised me about what the Supreme Court did in Skrmetti. Given where the Court wanted to come out, the more intellectually honest way to get there would've been to say, “Yes, of course this is because of sex; there is sex discrimination going on here. But even applying intermediate scrutiny, we think that Tennessee's law should survive intermediate scrutiny.” That would've been an intellectually honest way to get to where the Court got.Instead, they did this weird sort of, “Well, the word ‘sex' isn't in the Fourteenth Amendment, but it's in Title VII.” But that makes no sense at all, because for none of the sex-discrimination cases that the Court has decided under the Fourteenth Amendment did the word “sex” appear in the Fourteenth Amendment. It's not like the word “sex” was in there and then all of a sudden it took a powder and left. So I thought that was a really disingenuous way of getting to where the Court wanted to go. But I was not surprised after the oral argument that the Court was going to get to where it got on the bottom line.DL: I'm curious, though, rewinding to Bostock and Zarda, were you surprised by how the Court came out in those cases? Because it was still a deeply conservative Court back then.PK: No, I was not surprised. I was not surprised, both because I thought we had so much the better of the argument and because at the oral argument, it seemed pretty clear that we had at least six justices, and those were the six justices we had at the end of the day. The thing that was interesting to me about Bostock was I thought also that we were likely to win for the following weird legal-realist reason, which is that this was a case that would allow the justices who claimed to be textualists to show that they were principled textualists, by doing something that they might not have voted for if they were in Congress or the like.And also, while the impact was really large in one sense, the impact was not really large in another sense: most American workers are protected by Title VII, but most American employers do not discriminate, and didn't discriminate even before this, on the basis of sexual orientation or on the basis of gender identity. For example, in Zarda's case, the employer denied that they had fired Mr. Zarda because he was gay; they said, “We fired him for other reasons.”Very few employers had a formal policy that said, “We discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.” And although most American workers are protected by Title VII, most American employers are not covered by Title VII—and that's because small employers, employers with fewer than 15 full-time employees, are not covered at all. And religious employers have all sorts of exemptions and the like, so for the people who had the biggest objection to hiring or promoting or retaining gay or transgender employees, this case wasn't going to change what happened to them at all. So the impact was really important for workers, but not deeply intrusive on employers generally. So I thought those two things, taken together, meant that we had a pretty good argument.I actually thought our textual argument was not our best argument, but it was the one that they were most likely to buy. So it was really interesting: we made a bunch of different arguments in the brief, and then as soon as I got up to argue, the first question out of the box was Justice Ginsburg saying, “Well, in 1964, homosexuality was illegal in most of the country—how could this be?” And that's when I realized, “Okay, she's just telling me to talk about the text, don't talk about anything else.”So I just talked about the text the whole time. But as you may remember from the argument, there was this weird moment, which came after I answered her question and one other one, there was this kind of silence from the justices. And I just said, “Well, if you don't have any more questions, I'll reserve the remainder of my time.” And it went well; it went well as an argument.DL: On the flip side, speaking of things that are not going so well, let's turn to current events. Zooming up to a higher level of generality than Skrmetti, you are a leading scholar of constitutional law, so here's the question. I know you've already been interviewed about it by media outlets, but let me ask you again, in light of just the latest, latest, latest news: are we in a constitutional crisis in the United States?PK: I think we're in a period of great constitutional danger. I don't know what a “constitutional crisis” is. Some people think the constitutional crisis is that we have an executive branch that doesn't believe in the Constitution, right? So you have Donald Trump asked, in an interview, “Do you have to comply with the Constitution?” He says, “I don't know.” Or he says, “I have an Article II that gives me the power to do whatever I want”—which is not what Article II says. If you want to be a textualist, it does not say the president can do whatever he wants. So you have an executive branch that really does not have a commitment to the Constitution as it has been understood up until now—that is, limited government, separation of powers, respect for individual rights. With this administration, none of that's there. And I don't know whether Emil Bove did say, “F**k the courts,” or not, but they're certainly acting as if that's their attitude.So yes, in that sense, we're in a period of constitutional danger. And then on top of that, I think we have a Supreme Court that is acting almost as if this is a normal administration with normal stuff, a Court that doesn't seem to recognize what district judges appointed by every president since George H.W. Bush or maybe even Reagan have recognized, which is, “This is not normal.” What the administration is trying to do is not normal, and it has to be stopped. So that worries me, that the Supreme Court is acting as if it needs to keep its powder dry—and for what, I'm not clear.If they think that by giving in and giving in, and prevaricating and putting things off... today, I thought the example of this was in the birthright citizenship/universal injunction case. One of the groups of plaintiffs that's up there is a bunch of states, around 23 states, and the Supreme Court in Justice Barrett's opinion says, “Well, maybe the states have standing, maybe they don't. And maybe if they have standing, you can enjoin this all in those states. We leave this all for remind.”They've sat on this for months. It's ridiculous that the Supreme Court doesn't “man up,” essentially, and decide these things. It really worries me quite a bit that the Supreme Court just seems completely blind to the fact that in 2024, they gave Donald Trump complete criminal immunity from any prosecution, so who's going to hold him accountable? Not criminally accountable, not accountable in damages—and now the Supreme Court seems not particularly interested in holding him accountable either.DL: Let me play devil's advocate. Here's my theory on why the Court does seem to be holding its fire: they're afraid of a worse outcome, which is, essentially, “The emperor has no clothes.”Say they draw this line in the sand for Trump, and then Trump just crosses it. And as we all know from that famous quote from The Federalist Papers, the Court has neither force nor will, but only judgment. That's worse, isn't it? If suddenly it's exposed that the Court doesn't have any army, any way to stop Trump? And then the courts have no power.PK: I actually think it's the opposite, which is, I think if the Court said to Donald Trump, “You must do X,” and then he defies it, you would have people in the streets. You would have real deep resistance—not just the “No Kings,” one-day march, but deep resistance. And there are scholars who've done comparative law who say, “When 3 percent of the people in a country go to the streets, you get real change.” And I think the Supreme Court is mistaking that.I taught a reading group for our first-years here. We have reading groups where you meet four times during the fall for dinner, and you read stuff that makes you think. And my reading group was called “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty,” and it started with the Albert Hirschman book with that title.DL: Great book.PK: It's a great book. And I gave them some excerpt from that, and I gave them an essay by Hannah Arendt called “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship,” which she wrote in 1964. And one of the things she says there is she talks about people who stayed in the German regime, on the theory that they would prevent at least worse things from happening. And I'm going to paraphrase slightly, but what she says is, “People who think that what they're doing is getting the lesser evil quickly forget that what they're choosing is evil.” And if the Supreme Court decides, “We're not going to tell Donald Trump ‘no,' because if we tell him no and he goes ahead, we will be exposed,” what they have basically done is said to Donald Trump, “Do whatever you want; we're not going to stop you.” And that will lose the Supreme Court more credibility over time than Donald Trump defying them once and facing some serious backlash for doing it.DL: So let me ask you one final question before we go to my little speed round. That 3 percent statistic is fascinating, by the way, but it resonates for me. My family's originally from the Philippines, and you probably had the 3 percent out there in the streets to oust Marcos in 1986.But let me ask you this. We now live in a nation where Donald Trump won not just the Electoral College, but the popular vote. We do see a lot of ugly things out there, whether in social media or incidents of violence or what have you. You still have enough faith in the American people that if the Supreme Court drew that line, and Donald Trump crossed it, and maybe this happened a couple of times, even—you still have faith that there will be that 3 percent or what have you in the streets?PK: I have hope, which is not quite the same thing as faith, obviously, but I have hope that some Republicans in Congress would grow a spine at that point, and people would say, “This is not right.” Have they always done that? No. We've had bad things happen in the past, and people have not done anything about it. But I think that the alternative of just saying, “Well, since we might not be able to stop him, we shouldn't do anything about it,” while he guts the federal government, sends masked people onto the streets, tries to take the military into domestic law enforcement—I think we have to do something.And this is what's so enraging in some ways: the district court judges in this country are doing their job. They are enjoining stuff. They're not enjoining everything, because not everything can be enjoined, and not everything is illegal; there's a lot of bad stuff Donald Trump is doing that he's totally entitled to do. But the district courts are doing their job, and they're doing their job while people are sending pizza boxes to their houses and sending them threats, and the president is tweeting about them or whatever you call the posts on Truth Social. They're doing their job—and the Supreme Court needs to do its job too. It needs to stand up for district judges. If it's not willing to stand up for the rest of us, you'd think they'd at least stand up for their entire judicial branch.DL: Turning to my speed round, my first question is, what do you like the least about the law? And this can either be the practice of law or law as a more abstract system of ordering human affairs.PK: What I liked least about it was having to deal with opposing counsel in discovery. That drove me to appellate litigation.DL: Exactly—where your request for an extension is almost always agreed to by the other side.PK: Yes, and where the record is the record.DL: Yes, exactly. My second question, is what would you be if you were not a lawyer and/or law professor?PK: Oh, they asked me this question for a thing here at Stanford, and it was like, if I couldn't be a lawyer, I'd... And I just said, “I'd sit in my room and cry.”DL: Okay!PK: I don't know—this is what my talent is!DL: You don't want to write a novel or something?PK: No. What I would really like to do is I would like to bike the Freedom Trail, which is a trail that starts in Montgomery, Alabama, and goes to the Canadian border, following the Underground Railroad. I've always wanted to bike that. But I guess that's not a career. I bike slowly enough that it could be a career, at this point—but earlier on, probably not.DL: My third question is, how much sleep do you get each night?PK: I now get around six hours of sleep each night, but it's complicated by the following, which is when I worked at the Department of Justice the second time, it was during Covid, so I actually worked remotely from California. And what that required me to do was essentially to wake up every morning at 4 a.m., 7 a.m. on the East Coast, so I could have breakfast, read the paper, and be ready to go by 5:30 a.m.I've been unable to get off of that, so I still wake up before dawn every morning. And I spent three months in Florence, and I thought the jet lag would bring me out of this—not in the slightest. Within two weeks, I was waking up at 4:30 a.m. Central European Time. So that's why I get about six hours, because I can't really go to bed before 9 or 10 p.m.DL: Well, I was struck by your being able to do this podcast fairly early West Coast time.PK: Oh no, this is the third thing I've done this morning! I had a 6:30 a.m. conference call.DL: Oh my gosh, wow. It reminds me of that saying about how you get more done in the Army before X hour than other people get done in a day.My last question, is any final words of wisdom, such as career advice or life advice, for my listeners?PK: Yes: do what you love, with people you love doing it with.DL: Well said. I've loved doing this podcast—Professor Karlan, thanks again for joining me.PK: You should start calling me Pam. We've had this same discussion….DL: We're on the air! Okay, well, thanks again, Pam—I'm so grateful to you for joining me.PK: Thanks for having me.DL: Thanks so much to Professor Karlan for joining me. Whether or not you agree with her views, you can't deny that she's both insightful and honest—qualities that have made her a leading legal academic and lawyer, but also a great podcast guest.Thanks to NexFirm for sponsoring the Original Jurisdiction podcast. NexFirm has helped many attorneys to leave Biglaw and launch firms of their own. To explore this opportunity, please contact NexFirm at 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment at nexfirm dot com to learn more.Thanks to Tommy Harron, my sound engineer here at Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to you, my listeners and readers. To connect with me, please email me at davidlat at Substack dot com, or find me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, at davidlat, and on Instagram and Threads at davidbenjaminlat.If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate, review, and subscribe. Please subscribe to the Original Jurisdiction newsletter if you don't already, over at davidlat dot substack dot com. This podcast is free, but it's made possible by paid subscriptions to the newsletter.The next episode should appear on or about Wednesday, July 23. Until then, may your thinking be original and your jurisdiction free of defects. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit davidlat.substack.com/subscribe

Taro Arai, Chief Dreaming Officer of Mikuni Sushi, shares how he built a $90 million sushi empire from humble beginnings in Sacramento. In this inspiring episode of The Mark Haney Show, Taro opens up about entrepreneurship, family business, faith, creativity, and how Mikuni became one of the most beloved restaurant brands in Northern California. Taro's journey began when his family immigrated from Japan with nothing but a dream. As a teenager in Sacramento, he delivered newspapers to help support his family—eventually funding the launch of what would become Mikuni Restaurant Group. Today, Mikuni operates 10 locations with over 1,400 employees and a fiercely loyal fanbase. In this episode, we cover: • The $300K miracle that launched Mikuni Sushi

Send us a textIt is really important to center grace in your life, especially right now with everything going on in the world. So I'm excited to introduce today's guest on Dem Bois Podcast, because he went so far as to use the word “grace” in his name. In this episode, Grayson Thompson, a Black Jamaican American queer transgender cowboy poet and mental health therapist, shares his journey of identity, family dynamics, and the art of writing. He discusses the significance of his name, the complexities of his relationship with his mother, and the impact of his transition on his life and work. Grayson also reads his poetry, which reflects his experiences and thoughts on love, loss, and acceptance, emphasizing the importance of visibility and representation in the LGBTQ+ community.We talk:03:03 Grayson's name and identity journey11:46 The role of a mental health therapist20:23 The significance of family and legacy31:34 Eldership and visibility43:15 Reflections on life and death50:52 The importance of community and supportEpisode References:Donahue (TV Series 1967–1995)8 Mile (2002)Sand Bodied Florida Boy Foglifter Journal Read more about Grayson in his bio below:Grayson Thompson [he/him] is a Black, Jamaican-American, queer transgender cowboy poet who moonlights as a mental health therapist. A mouthful, Grayson is Foglifter Press's 2024 Start A Riot! Chapbook Prize Winner with “Sand Bodied Florida Boy” (June 2025) and Winner of Write Bloody Publishing's 2024 Jack McCarthy Book Prize (forthcoming September 2025). Grayson has been featured in Cathexis Northwest Press, Cleaver (nominated for Best of the Net Anthology), Poetry Online, and other spaces. A teaching assistant for poet Buddy Wakefield's Writer's Anonymous, he supports emerging and established writers. A wanderer, he lives in Northern California and in awe of the oceanInstagram: @graysonwritespoemsWriting: www.graysonwritespoems.comMental Health: www.graysonlthompson.comDonate today to support Transmasc Gender Affirming Grants and Community Wellness Packages for Trans Men of Color! The Visibility = Possibility™️ Merch is here! Introducing a groundbreaking collaboration crafted by Emilio Perdomo (featured on episode 37). This isn't just merch--it's a movement! We're empowering trans men of color with creative freedom to design their interpretation of Visibility = Possibility™. Think of it like major brands collaborating with athletes, but this time, our community takes center stage. Every purchase supports our vital programs! Craving more Connection? Dem Bois Community Voices Facebook Group is a safe, moderated sanctuary where trans men of color can connect authentically, discuss podcast episodes, share powerful experiences, and build support networks. Dem Bois YouTube Channel! - @demboisinc Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else: Behind-the-scenes magic, engaging YouTube shorts, and insider perspectives.

THE MIND IS BURNING is the continued story of the Hirsch family whom we first met in the beloved cult podcast, Dear Franklin Jones. Stranger than fiction, this audiobook memoir follows Jonathan Hirsch's childhood in a cult in Northern California, experience caring for his father battling dementia, and the complicated journey of losing a loved one who mistreated you.On April 9th, 2019, Jonathan got the dreaded call: his father Thomas had been rushed to the ER. He'd known for a while that Thomas's health was in decline, but at this pivotal moment, he had no choice but to step into the role of caretaker—a role Thomas himself was never able to grasp.Thomas was a Hungarian refugee turned spiritual seeker, and Jonathan was along for the ride as his parents chased the high of enlightenment. Thomas's quest eventually led the family to Franklin Jones: known as either a charismatic, eccentric guru or a cult leader and sexual predator, depending on whether you were inside or outside his orbit. Although Jonathan left home the day he turned eighteen, almost twenty years later, he was pulled back into the chaotic fold when Thomas was diagnosed with dementia. This poetic yet propulsive audiobook memoir was created for the listening experience given Hirsch's expertise as an expert aural storytelling, and poses the question: What do we owe each other as family? Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

In this episode of Mavericks in Healthcare, we sit down with Dr. Todd Smith, Senior Vice President and Chief Physician Executive at Sutter Health, for a powerful conversation on transforming healthcare from the inside out. Dr. Smith shares how Sutter is addressing clinician burnout, workforce shortages, and access challenges by focusing on culture, operational partnerships, and technology that truly supports providers. He unpacks the value of dyadic leadership, the rollout of ambient AI to reduce administrative burden, and a bold plan to expand ambulatory care across Northern California. With a clear-eyed view of what keeps him up at night and what gives him hope, Dr. Smith offers a candid look at what it takes to build a system where clinicians can thrive and patients get the care they need - when and where they need it.

I always enjoy having the opportunity to speak with business professionals and leaders. Fidel Guzman not only is such a professional, but he also works in the corporate training arena teaching his company's employees and leaders about leadership and continuous improvement. Fidel comes by his talents honestly. He grew up in an environment where he needed to learn and grow. He secured a Bachelor's degree and an MBA both from Northeastern Illinois University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. Fidel started out wanting to be a kindergarten teacher, but he ended up taking a different road. He went to work for a company where he helped people progress within various industries. The company he worked for was bought by ION Group in Chicago, IL. Fidel flourished and became the Manager of Internal Training for the company. Mr. Guzman is quite adaptable and can train people within the organization even though they may well have their own expertise in different industries. Fidel and I talk about everything from leadership, the future of corporate training and we even take time to explore how AI is and will become more a part of his work and the work we all do. When not working Fidel has various outside activities. His most loved efforts go, of course, into being part of a family. He also serves as Vice President of Education for Toastmasters International. He loves to be involved in Mixed Martial Arts. He keeps quite busy at a variety of activities and clearly loves the challenges he gets to address along the way. About the Guest: Fidel Guzman is a dynamic and enthusiastic Learning & Develoment professional with a proven track record in instructional design, project management, and training development. With a Master of Business Administration from Northeastern Illinois University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude, Fidel has consistently demonstrated his commitment to excellence and continuous improvement. His extensive experience spans various industries, including finance, telecommunications, and fitness, showcasing his versatility and adaptability. Currently serving as the Manager of Internal Training at ION Group in Chicago, IL. Fidel and his small but mighty team facilitate onboarding programs and training initiatives for over 13,000 employees globally. He has experience developing comprehensive new hire onboarding curricula and career progression pathways for multiple departments, ensuring effective and innovative learning solutions. Fidel's leadership extends beyond his professional role, as he actively participates in numerous company committees focused on community volunteer events, work-life balance education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Fidel's passion for personal and professional development is evident in his certifications, including “Creating a Coaching Culture” from SHRM and “Coaching Skills for Leaders and Managers” from PMI. Fluent in both Spanish and English, he leverages his bilingual skills to connect with a diverse audience. Outside of his professional endeavors, Fidel enjoys podcasting, judo, triathlons, hiking, and poetry, reflecting his well-rounded and adventurous spirit. In addition to his professional achievements, Fidel has a strong commitment to volunteerism and community involvement. He is serving as the Vice President of Education for Toastmasters International and has been an MMA class instructor and coordinator at St. Bruno Elementary. His dedication to helping others is further demonstrated through his role as an academic tutor at Berwyn Public Library. Ways to connect with Fidel: (1) Fidel Guzman, MBA | LinkedIn New Podcast- The Hero in the Mirror on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/44xD76FcF5YFMNyuigFmBm?si=2so3OWJdQby6F91ZaY1AUg The Hero in the Mirror also on Youtube: (3) HerointheMirror - YouTube About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Greetings, everyone. I am Michael Hingson, and you are listening to unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet, and today we get to do the unexpected. And of course, what the unexpected is is anything that doesn't have anything to do with inclusion or diversity. So that's most things you know, in a lot of ways. Anyway, our guest today is Fidel, and am I pronouncing it right? Guzman, yes, you got it. Oh, my goodness. Comes from listening to Guzman's who play baseball. Okay, I'll take that. That's a way. So Fidel reached out to me some time ago. We're going to be doing some speaking to his company ion. But in the meanwhile, I also convinced him that he had to come on unstoppable mindset and talk with us, tell us about himself, tell us a lot about what he does and why he does it, and help to contribute to our general theme, which is that we're all more unstoppable than we think we are, and we usually underrate ourselves. So we we try to improve by discovering that more people are unstoppable than we think they are, and that we thought they were. So that works out. Well, Fidel has a degree in business. He has a Masters of Business Administration. You graduated sigma cum laude, which is pretty cool. And I did cum laude, but I didn't get to do sigma or Magna, but that's okay, but that's okay anyway. Fidel, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here.   Fidel Guzman ** 02:56 Michael, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.   Michael Hingson ** 03:00 Well, my pleasure, and I'm looking forward to to chatting and talking about some businessy things and anything else that you want to talk about. So let's start this way. It's always fun to do this. Why don't we start by you telling us kind of, maybe, about the early Fidel growing up and some of that stuff, and what got you started down the road of life as it were.   Fidel Guzman ** 03:20 Yeah, yeah, that's all right, yeah, let's let's go back. Let's go back to where it all started,   Michael Hingson ** 03:25 long time ago,   Fidel Guzman ** 03:30 definitely. So I'm born and raised in Los Angeles, Compton, Huntington Park area. I come from Mexican parents. They they they came here to the United States to give their their family a better future. Some first generation Mexican American, very proud. So actually, we do have a little diversity in here on this call. Oh, good. There we go. Yeah. So first generation Mexican American, my family traveled a lot when I was young. My dad's a truck driver, so wherever there was work, he would take us along. So we grew up and raised Los Angeles. I was seven or eight, then we ended up going to Mexico for a couple years, in Dallas, then St Louis, and then we ended up here in Chicago, here in the Midwest. Wow. Winter, the winters here were a bit surprising and tough. When I was in elementary school, I remember the first snow that I saw. It was, it was beautiful. After two weeks, I was like, All right, when is it? When is it gonna go away? And I was in for the the rude awakening that it's gonna it's gonna stick around for, for a few months or so, yeah, but I've had, you know, since then here, here in Chicago, we started to grow our roots. And I have five brothers and a sister. So I have a big family, a big Hispanic family, and I went to high school. My freshman year, I went to Lane Tech. Tech for all my folks who are familiar with the Chicagoland area. And then I ended up going to transferring over to Morton West in Berwyn. After I graduated high school, I went to Northeastern Illinois University, my alma mater, I got my undergrad in business management and marketing, and also got my Masters in Business Administration. So I am a proud double alumni from Northeastern Illinois University, and I really owe this, this community of Northeastern Illinois University, a lot with respect to the great teachers that they have there, the community that they try to build, and the friends and that I made along the way, as well as the education, of course, that helped, really helped me expand my career opportunities. After I graduated from Northeastern Illinois University with my undergrad, I started my first real corporate role inside of backstop solutions. And backstop solutions was a still, you know, it was a great company to be a part of lots of mentors. If I can, actually, I would like to give a quick shout out to a few mentors that I had along the way, such as Deanne Falk, Richard fu our CEO, our legacy CEO, Clint Coghill, Sarah Schroeder, and the current head of learning and development under ion. Alexander Lloyd and I really want to thank them for all their mentorship and leadership, because it's really helped me get and grow to the person that I am today. So with that, yeah, I am the manager of internal training at ion. We came I came in via an acquisition, when backstop was acquired, and throughout that period, like I was, I had some some free time, so to say, and ended up getting my Masters in Business Administration.   Michael Hingson ** 06:48 And so along the way, did you get yourself married and all that? Oh, my   Fidel Guzman ** 06:52 wife is going to kill me. Yes. Along the way, sorry about that. No, yeah, yeah, of course, yeah. Can't forget, can't forget about those significant others. But yes, I am married. My wife has a master's in occupational therapy, so she's in the medical field, and I'm in, like, the business learning and development side of things, so our conversations are pretty interesting, as well as our perspectives on things. I also have a daughter. She's 16, going on 17 people are usually very surprised when I tell them the age of my daughter, but had her early when I was in my early 20s, so young dad and she was a blessing. I wouldn't, wouldn't have it any other way.   Michael Hingson ** 07:33 That's that is great. Why did you decide to go into business and study business in college.   Fidel Guzman ** 07:42 So interestingly enough, when I got into college, I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. I wanted to be cool Mr. Guzman, because I also really I love kids. I love working with kids. I was also a mixed martial arts program coordinator and instructor at an elementary school on the south side of Chicago for three years, and that was during my undergrad. And I taught all grades kindergarten through eighth grade, some of the basics in boxing, wrestling, jiu jitsu and kickboxing, so a bit of both. But as I was going through through my clinicals, as I was going through the the Yeah, the education aspect of it, I ended up wanting to switch majors. So I was like, I was like, hey, there's probably a lot more opportunity, a lot more opportunity for growth inside of the business segment. So I ended up switching my majors to business management, marketing, and somehow learning just found its way back into my life. So a lot of the stuff that I learned from some of those, those preliminary courses in in education. I mean, still, still resonate to this day, right? Understand your audience. Understand which students are visual learners, which ones are experiential learners. Which one need more repetitive exercise to to drill something in? So, yeah, the universe did not, did not lead me too far away from, from from teaching and being an instructor, and here I am. I know   Michael Hingson ** 09:08 that feeling well. So a couple things. First of all, I was born in Chicago, but we moved to California when I was five, but in Chicago, you start kindergarten at the age of four. So I went for a year to a special kindergarten class that my parents and others advocated for, for premature, blind kids, because there were a whole bunch in the Chicago area during the whole baby boomer area, a number of children were born prematurely and given a pure oxygen environment, which caused them to lose their eyesight. And so the bottom line is that happened to me among others. And so I went to the Perry school. I don't even know if it's around anymore. Somebody told me it wasn't around anymore, but that's where I went to school. And went there for a year of kindergarten, learned braille and other things. And then we moved to California. So I always wanted to be a teacher as well, and I came at teaching from a different standpoint, as you did. That is to say, Well, I wanted to be a teacher. My first job out of college wasn't directly teaching, except I ended up having to write training materials and do other things like that, and then I ended up going into sales, and what I learned is that the best sales people are really teachers. They're counselors. They guide and they help people, especially when you're dealing with major account sales, they help people look at products. They teach about what their product does and the really good sales people are brave enough to admit when their product might not be the best fit for someone, because it's also all about building trust. And good teachers are concerned about building trust as well. Of course.   Fidel Guzman ** 10:57 Yeah, one of my teachers when I was close to graduating, you know, one of the things that you know this teacher, Dr funk, if I remember correctly, he instilled in us, if you're able to synthesize what you learned and explain it to a five year old, you've done a good job. Like you, you you yourself understand that particular concept or that particular topic. And I really took that to heart. So now, you know, and a lot of these roles, if, from the the main instructor, I want and need to be able to explain it, you know, to my kid, to explain it in in simple terms. And, of course, you know, expand on it if needed. But, but   Michael Hingson ** 11:40 it ultimately comes down to you can provide all the information you want, but they have to teach themselves, really, and they're not going to do that, and they're not going to listen to you if they don't trust you. So trust is a vital part of what we do,   Fidel Guzman ** 11:56 exactly spot on,   Michael Hingson ** 11:58 and I have found that that developing that trust is so extremely important. I learned a lot about trust from working with guide dogs, right from the very first guide dog that I obtained back in 1964 when I was 14. It was all about building a team and I and although I didn't know how to really externally, say it necessarily, until many years later, internally, I understood that my job was to build a relationship and that I was going to be the team leader, and needed to be able to gain trust, as well as trust my teammate in in what we did. So worked out pretty well, though. So, you know, I was that was pretty cool. So what does ion do? What is ion?   Fidel Guzman ** 12:49 Yeah, I yeah for sure. So ion is a essentially, you can, you can think of it as a software company for the investment community. We provide a number of different platforms for them to streamline their processes and track information, or be end users of that of data.   Michael Hingson ** 13:07 So people buy your software and do what   Fidel Guzman ** 13:11 they can either leverage the data that's being provided to them, or they can include data within specific platforms.   Michael Hingson ** 13:20 Are you starting to see that this whole concept of so called AI is valuable in what you do, or, as I am working with that yet,   Fidel Guzman ** 13:30 yes, definitely, we are big on streamlining processes and making sure that we're maximizing the best use of everyone's time, and AI really has a really important component in that. So for for learning and development, one of the ways that we're using AI is for content creation, so whether it's just creating a simple outline for a course or starting to use that to create slides, but there, we're also taking a look at the way AI can be used on a regular basis to provide feedback for reps like let's say someone finishes a demo. If they want to do some self reflection, they can leverage AI to get some feedback on what worked well what didn't. Was there enough engagement? How was my use of technology, so on and so forth. So not only is AI being used from, you know, creating content, but also as, like a ad hoc instructor and and way to generate feedback,   Michael Hingson ** 14:31 well, and it offers so much versatility, you can really have it go many different ways. So it is very possible it can be an instructor, as you say, an ad hoc instructor, but it really can present its information in a good teaching way too. So you can have conversations with it. You can do the same sorts of things that you would do with a teacher. I think that AI clearly, is here to stay, but I think. Think over time, AI is going to evolve a lot. I am not of the opinion that AI will replace people for a variety of reasons, but I think that it's here and it's up to us to be smart as to how we use it.   Fidel Guzman ** 15:14 Definitely. I think one of the the tips that we always give people is AI does a really great job of a number of different things, but it's always going to need that human touch at the end of at the end of the day. So don't just take don't just take some content that AI has created and take it to heart. Make sure to review it. Make sure to put that personal touch on there and have it speak your language. Have it really resonate with the audience as well, especially that, oh, go ahead. Or also just on Super mechanical, super scripted,   Michael Hingson ** 15:49 well, and I think as AI grows, it's going to try to emulate, or we're going to use it to try to emulate people more and more, but it still isn't going to get to the point where it truly is me or you, and we do have to put our mark on it. I've used it to help create several articles, and what I've done when I do that is I'll tell it what I want it to write about, and let it do it, and it comes up with some pretty good ideas that I incorporate into the article, that I create, between what it provides and what I add to the mix. And it really should be that way. Exactly what I've really found interesting is the number of people like in classrooms, who say teachers, who say, you know, it's really harder and harder and harder to tell when a student uses AI to write a paper or if the student is doing it themselves. And the first time I heard that, immediately, my idea of what to do was something like this, let the student use AI if they want to, let the have ai do the whole paper. What you ought to do is to have one day after all the students turn their papers in, where you bring each student up to the front of the class and say, defend your paper. Now you have one minute if they don't really know, yeah. I mean, if they don't know what's going on, then they're not going to be able to do very well, and they fail.   Fidel Guzman ** 17:19 Yes, I am a big proponent of comprehensive exercises and also public speaking. How well? How well can you articulate the thought that you gave in that paper? Right? Some of those different talking points, right? Can you convey the same message in front of the classroom?   Michael Hingson ** 17:38 Yeah, and, and, you can tell if a person is just not necessarily a great public speaker, they're nervous, as opposed to whether they know the subject. And those, in a sense, are two different things. But you can use the fact that students are at the front of the classroom to help make them better speakers, too, which is a good thing.   Fidel Guzman ** 17:59 Yeah, no, yeah. I agree with you. If they are using AI, just, you know, turn around a paper, have them present in front of the classroom. Yeah, let's, let's talk a bit more about your paper, yeah, and, and really have it be an interactive exercise. I think that's really where the end goal is going to be, now that AI has really taken over the way the classroom dynamic has changed. So having more of those interactive exercises, really taking a look at comprehension, whether somebody really understands that topic, and giving giving students and an audience an opportunity to discuss, how do we how do we create a hive mind mentality around this particular topic, especially in a classroom, right whether, whether that's in a school setting, in academia, or whether that's in a corporate setting, inside of an office.   Michael Hingson ** 18:54 Several months ago, we had a guest on unstoppable mindset, who's an executive leadership coach in Northern California who was a major proponent of AI. And when he worked with companies, and especially with presidents and leaders who were stuck on how we evolve and how we grow, he would bring AI into all those meetings, and one day he was dealing with one such situation where he told the president, you got to use you ought to use AI to get some great ideas. The President took that to heart, called his senior leadership staff in and said, take the rest of this day and create ideas about how you think we ought to do things better, and so on, and use AI to do it. And when everyone came in the next day, they had a lot of innovative and creative ideas, and all loved the fact that he encouraged them to use AI. And that led to. Us having a discussion about, is AI going to really take over the jobs that people do? And both of us agreed, no, AI won't. Ai can't replace anyone. We can fire somebody and then put AI in their place, which doesn't really work well. But what is a better thing is let ai do what it does well. So example that he gave was say, you have autonomous vehicles. As autonomous vehicles become more and more prevalent, like trucks that are delivering supplies, like shipping vehicles and so on, let the autonomous vehicle drive, but the driver needs to still be in the cabin and needs to be behind the wheel, even though they're not doing anything, because they are going to let the autonomous vehicle do what it can do. But you can give those people other assignments to do for the company that will keep them busy and do things that otherwise might not be done quite as efficiently. So the bottom line is, you keep people busy, you use the autonomous vehicle, and it's a win win situation all the way around.   Fidel Guzman ** 21:08 Yeah, great. I I've heard something very similar to that, and maybe if I can, if I can synthesize this, it's going to be that we want to remove manual task out of people's times, and we want them to focus on more higher value add activities. Do   Michael Hingson ** 21:29 you think that's fair? I think that's true. Isaac Asimov, years ago, the science fiction writer, wrote a really wonderful science fiction story about a young man who lived in a society where everyone had a particular job to do, and you were matched with your talents. And so there you you're you take a test when you're, like, eight years old and or or even younger, and that starts you down the road of what it is you're supposed to do for the whole country. And then you take another test several years later, and that locks you into what you're trained to do. So you always do the same task, but you do it well, because that's what you're trained to do. Well, this kid was in the whole process taking his tests, and he just wasn't comfortable with what was going on. And eventually he ran away. And what, you know, he he took the last test, apparently they looked at him kind of funny when they looked at the results and he didn't like what was going on. And he just left. He said, I'm not going to do this. I don't, I don't. I don't want to be an engineer. I don't want to do whatever it is that they want. And they eventually caught up with him, and they caught him, and they said, Why'd you run away? And he told them, and then said, No, you don't understand what just happened. Some people in society are the people who create the tests, create the processes, and don't get trained to do a specific thing, because they're the innovators and the inventors that keep society going, and you're one of those kids, and this was like, what, 50 years ago that he wrote that? So it's, it is, it is really interesting, but, but very true and, and the reality is, we can be as creative as we choose to be, and some people are more creative than others, but there are always tasks that we can find for anyone to do, and that will make them very happy,   23:40 absolutely, definitely.   Michael Hingson ** 23:42 So it works out. You know, it does work out really well. Well, a question for you. You have a leadership philosophy, needless to say, and you lead a lot in instructional design, what, what are the core principles, or what are the things that kind of make up how you teach leadership, and what it is that you teach people to do, and how do you go about team development?   Fidel Guzman ** 24:13 Yeah, I think some of the core principles that I that I really focus on with learning and development and instructional design. Number one, it has to be collaboration. It really does take a community to put some some really good training sessions and training opportunities in place, and it's really leveraging all the expertise from different subject matter experts. Give them a chance to share their perspectives and their insights on certain things, but also, really, just to enhance, you know, the the use of these training programs, because people are more keen to listen to like, oh yeah, this guy's a subject matter he's an expert in this particular. Their space and for them to to hop on. So I think that collaboration aspect is, you know, getting the Lean In from managers like, hey, this training is important. Your employees are going to benefit from this training, whether it's just for to develop their their education, to develop their career, whatever that may look like. But I want to say one of the, the first guiding principles is going to have to be collaboration. The second one is going to have to be most likely continuous improvement. As we start to roll out a lot of these different training sessions, whether it's public speaking, whether it's product training, whether it's industry training, if we roll it out, we keep our ear to the ground and make sure that we're receptive to the feedback. We take a look at what works well, what doesn't work well, what needs to be tailored. How can we, how can we also manage this across different time zones? So ion is super global company, I want to say, over 13,000 employees in over 13 plus countries. So also managing what those training programs look like for everyone, for everyone, across the board. So besides the collaboration, besides the continuous improvements or the I like to also say that the Kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, right, making those small improvements, the last one I want to say is going to be innovation. How can we incorporate, right? We were talking about AI. How can we incorporate some of these ladies, latest tech trends into what our training delivery looks like, whether it's something as simple as, how do we include more polls throughout a lecture to keep people engaged and participate? How do we include knowledge checks at the end of every session to make sure that people are walking away with some of the key takeaways. So, yeah, collaboration, continuous improvement and innovation. Yeah, how do we stay innovative and stay creative? I think having having some fun, staying creative along the way Definitely, definitely resonates with your audience as you're trying to do different things and trying to keep things as engaging and and fun as possible.   Michael Hingson ** 27:06 What do you say to someone who says, Look, I've really learned all I need to learn. I'm not really interested in learning anything new. That is, I know, isn't that? Yeah, but you hear it a lot, I'm sure, or too much. I   Fidel Guzman ** 27:22 think some people get comfortable right, like, Hey, I'm comfortable with what I know. And learning does require a certain level of mental energy, and it also requires a certain level of you being willing to take on a new challenge, to take on and learn something new. So to them, I would genuinely ask, what's your interest? How can we supplement what this interest looks like? You know, what are your interests in other avenues? And I think that will plant a seed to let them know that learning and development should be something learning, right? Just learning in general, it should be something that you should do throughout your life. I recently started a podcast called the hero in the mirror, and I wanted to take a moment and actually, thank you, Michael. I don't know if you remember our initial conversation. But we were talking, we were talking about, you had asked me, What ideas do you have? What are you working on? Are you working on, any books, any podcasts? And I had mentioned, I was like, Hey, I actually have an idea for a podcast. And you pause for a moment, and you were like, what's stopping it? Yeah, and it was, it was kind of like, it kind of took me back. I'm like, What? What is stopping me? Right? And sometimes, and in coaching, we call it interference, like you're you probably have a fear of failure. You have a fear that something's not going to go right, or this task seems enormous, that you don't know where to start. Yeah, so making small, small mental changes, making small steps, I think, definitely add up. Since then, Michael, I've had I've had three episodes. I've had some great guests hop on and share their story of resilience and triumph. And as I'm starting to do more episodes, I'm I'm hearing stories of people willing to have that, that mindset of, I want to continue to learn, I want to continue to expand on the person that I am and make myself well rounded in these different, different areas. So So, long story short, if somebody says I don't, I don't need to learn anything, there's always room for growth. There's always room for interest, what, what interests you, and how? And how can we follow that interest and and supplement it with some some training content.   Michael Hingson ** 29:49 I know, for me, I'm extremely comfortable with what I know, and I'm extremely comfortable with what I've learned, but I'm also very uncomfortable in knowing there's a lot of stuff I don't know and that i. Still need to learn. So I love to learn right from the very beginning, when I first discovered the internet, I regarded it and still do, no matter what there is with the dark web and everything else, I think the internet is a treasure trove of information, and it's so fun to discover new things online. And there's so many ways to go. We've got so many places where we can go get books that we never had access to before all of us. There's so many places where we can go to learn about organizations, about people. They're just so many wonderful things, and it's only one way, because I also think there is a lot to be said for real personal interactions, but I think the internet is a wonderful treasure trove that gives us the opportunity to learn a whole lot that we don't necessarily know about, subjects that we don't know anything about.   Fidel Guzman ** 30:55 The Internet is a double sided sword. It is. You can find information that will support right? Maybe you know an opinion that you have on the other side of that, you can find lots of information that does not support independent opinion that you have. And also it's a rabbit hole. Soon as you start going out that rabbit hole. But the one thing I do appreciate from the internet is the channels of communication that it's built. Yeah, and I'm appreciative of being able to have connected with you on LinkedIn, and that's turned out to us having this podcast here today.   Michael Hingson ** 31:34 I think that for me, I'm not as interested on going online and in finding something to change an opinion as much as I am finding something that will tell me about something that I didn't know as much about. Now I might change my opinion from what I thought it might be, but I I really love to try to really get as much as possible into dealing with facts or substance to teach me things, and then I'll form my own opinion from that. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Of course,   Fidel Guzman ** 32:11 gets a good grounding of all the all the materials, synthesize it yourself.   Michael Hingson ** 32:19 Yeah, I think we should do that. I think we have to be the one to synthesize whatever it is we're dealing with. That's That's our responsibility, and that should always be the way it is, which is, and I don't want to get political or anything, but which is one of the reasons that I say any politician who says, Trust me will be the first person I won't trust until I verify. I am a firm believer in trust, but verify. I don't care who it is. I think it's so important that we really take the time every single person needs to take the time to study what's going on, and and, and really look at all sides of something. I think that's important. I listen to newscasts regularly, and I like to listen to newscasts from all sides. Some I find why I don't want to listen to them very much, because of what they do or don't do, but I still think that it's important to really understand all sides of a subject.   Fidel Guzman ** 33:29 Absolutely, I totally agree with you.   Michael Hingson ** 33:32 So you know, I think it is kind of neat to to have that opportunity, and I think we learn so much when we take the time to really study. I'm amazed. I was at a restaurant once, and my wife and I were there. We were talking about newspapers and what we get from newspapers or online, and our waitress came up and Karen said, so do you read the newspaper? And this woman's 30 years old, and she says, No, I don't. I don't have time, you know. And how little she learns, because she doesn't really seek information, which is too bad.   Fidel Guzman ** 34:07 Yep, you people have to be receptive. People have to be receptive to to gaining new bits of information. And sometimes people are just happy knowing like you, like you mentioned earlier, just happy knowing what they're what they know, just comfortable in in their own space, until some more power to that, more more power to them, more power to them,   Michael Hingson ** 34:31 until something happens to disrupt the happiness and surprises them, because they really didn't learn enough to know that that was a possibility. Yep, I never thought I would be doing a podcast, but when the pandemic occurred, I started to learn about it, and learned all the value of it. Now, I had been at our campus radio station at UC Irvine for six years, and I was program director one year, so I understood radio, and when I started learning about podcasts. They went, this is really pretty cool, and I had never thought about it, and had never been interviewed on a podcast, but I realized I know what I can can do with this, and I know that I can sound intelligent on the air. And so I started to learn about it, and here we are now, just today, actually, we published online and in YouTube episode 324 of unstoppable mindset since August of 2021 Congratulations, Michael. Well, thank you. It's a lot of fun. We actually went to two episodes a week in August of 2022 Oh, wow, because we had such a huge backlog. Yeah, and I don't mind having a huge backlog, but it was growing way too much. So we went to two episodes a week, and and it's a lot of fun to to do it. And as and as I love to tell people, for me, the most important thing is I get to learn from every single person who comes on the podcast. It's so neat to be able to do that, of course. So it works out really well. Well for you, what kind of challenges have you faced? What have you done to overcome challenges, and what are some of the biggest challenges you faced, and how you did you deal with them?   Fidel Guzman ** 36:17 Okay, yeah, that's great. That's some of the questions I use on on my podcast, here in the mirror. So I'm on the I'm on the other side of that chair today. Yes, no, it's good. It's good. It's a good question. So I want to say, you know, there are, there are three main, three main challenges that really stand out for me. One I'm very vocal about, and that is my speech impediment, my stuttering problem. It was really bad when I was little kid. I had a speech pathologist. Even now, talking to you on this podcast, I have to be very conscious with what I'm saying. Some of the listeners might might have caught it in the beginning when I get too excited about a particular topic, or if I haven't formulated my thought yet, but the speech impediments is something that has really made public speaking a passion for me. It was hard for me to have a voice when I was a little kid, I used to try to raise my hand and answer a question when I was in elementary school, and the teacher would be like, All right, next one like you had, you had your turn. And so I, you know, I've struggled, you know, to have a voice. I struggled with just completing sentences, and the way that I overcame that is through a speech pathologist that really gave me the confidence to believe in myself. I remember one exercise she gave me one day is she grabbed me from my classroom. She would pick me up from my classroom every Tuesday and Thursday, and she picked me up one day, and I was kind of down in the dumps. I didn't really like going to the class. We weren't really advancing much. And she's like, Hey, we're going to try something different tonight. Different today. She's like, today I'm going to have the order of pizza. And I was still a little little fat kid, like fourth or fifth grade, so I was like, oh, yeah, I'm all for it. What's going on here? And she was like, but the catch is, you need to order this pizza without stuttering. And you know, right away, kind of my heart dropped. And she's like, okay, like, don't, don't worry, we're gonna practice exactly what you want to order. And she's like, What do you want? And I'm like, Well, I want a large pepperoni pizza with an RC, a two liter RC Cola delivered to McPherson Elementary. And she's like, okay. She's like, write it down. I'm like, Alright, great to like, write it down again. I must have written it like, 10 times. She's like, No, now practice it. So about 15 minutes of doing that, she was like, All right, I think you're ready. She hands me the phone and, you know, I pick it up. My heart's in my throat, and I'm just like, like, I'm like, hi, you know, I want to order a large pepperoni pizza with a two liter RC Cola delivered to McPherson elementary for Fidel Guzman, and I was just astonished. I hung up the phone. I was happy for two reasons. Number one, I was going to get some pizza. Number two, I was able to say it a complete, full sentence without stuttering. And she she really believed in me and instilled in me that confidence that I could overcome this. But it wasn't an overnight success. It still required me go going to the speech pathologist, you know, throughout my elementary school, throughout all those years, and even as an adult, continuing to practice and hone that in in high school, doing presentations, in college, doing presentations. So right now, I am the VP of education for our America's Toastmasters Club, and this is one story i i always tell people, and they're like, No, you don't stutter. I'm like, if I get too excited, I'll lower my words. But that was that was one challenge, that was one challenge, and it's. Is it's still something I have to be very conscious of. And I've caught myself a couple times earlier in this podcast where I kind of mumble a little bit or get caught up in a particular word. But besides that one, I want to say that the second one was more of my in college. In college, I struggled paying for school. I mentioned I'm first generation Mexican American, and I was one, one of the first, first of my brothers to attend college full time. And I did all I could to make ends meet, two, three jobs, just paying for tuition. Financial aid was great, you know, it really helped me with a portion of that, but a lot of it really ended up, you know, being due onto me. And then I had my daughter, and it was just a struggle. I was like, How can I be a dad? How can I be a student? How can I work on my career? And I had gone to a financial aid workshop, and the one thing that stood out in this workshop was when they were talking about scholarships granted in high school when you're about to graduate, they talk to you about it, but it doesn't. It doesn't really materialize until you're until you receive that bill. Yeah, you're just like, hey, here's, here's a $2,000 bill for this college class. And you're like, oh, man, this is, this is not, this is not cheap. It's pretty expensive. And the one thing you know that stood out was, you know, let the scholarships, and they started talking about scholarship applications, and I found that there were a couple common denominators with the scholarships. Number one, they wanted two letters of two letters of recommendation. Number two, they want an essay. What are you going to do with your degree? How are you going to make a positive impact in the community? And number three, sometimes, typically an interview. And so I ran with it. I was like, they want two letter, letters of recommendation. They want one essay. They want an interview. No problem. And I made that my part time job. On the weekends, I would just apply, apply, apply. And I started getting some small wins. I started getting a $250 scholarship here, a $500 scholarship there, $1,000 scholarship, you know, here, and all of it started to add up, and it started to gain momentum. And I was lucky enough to get, get, get accepted for a number of different scholarships and complete my my college education, and even, you know, be strong willed enough to go back and do it again and try to try to get my masters. So those were two, two big ones, but I'll pause here and see if you have any questions around those two challenges for me. Michael, no,   Michael Hingson ** 42:41 but I I really admire what you did. You You made a choice and you followed it through. And I think that's of course, the whole issue is that we have to make choices and we need to follow through. And if we find that, we need to refine our decisions. We do that. I know when I was a student and a program director at the university radio station, I wanted everyone to listen to themselves. I thought it was a great idea to have everyone listen to themselves on the air. And the way you do it is you record it and you give it to them. And I didn't anticipate how hard that was going to be, because for me, I was used to doing it for myself, yeah, but I I didn't realize how much resistance I was going to get from literally everyone at the radio station, they were not interested in and I'm thrilled about doing it at all. What I and the engineer at the station did eventually was to put a cassette recorder in a locked cupboard, and whenever the microphone was activated, the recorder would go on. So, you know, you didn't have to hear the music. You just wanted to hear yourself talk. And we, we really took a major step and said, You have to listen to these recordings. We gave each person a cassette. We expect you to listen to these recordings and improve accordingly. What I didn't say much was, I know what it's like. I'm my own worst critic, and I have to listen to it, so you guys do now. I've changed that, and I'll get to it in a second, but we pushed everyone to do it, and it wasn't long, not only before we started seeing improvement, but before the people themselves started recognizing that they were really getting comfortable listening to themselves and that they were taking this to heart, and by the end of the year, we had people who were loving it and wanting their cassette every day or every week, and also a. Some of them went into broadcasting. For me, what I learned, and it took many years before I learned it is I'm not my own worst critic. I shouldn't be negative, as I said earlier, I'm the only one who can really teach me. I'm my own best teacher. And I think when you make that mind shift from being your own worst critic to your own best teacher, it really puts things in a much more positive light. And I've said that before on the podcast, and I will continue to say it, because I think it's a very important   Fidel Guzman ** 45:29 concept. We actually have a similar exercise for our America's Toastmasters Club, where we'll we'll record some speeches, and we'll have people listen back to their recorded speech. And a lot of people say like, man, it's cringe to hear yourself on the on the other side, on the other side of those iPhones, but it is a very useful exercise. You get a better understanding of your your filler words, your eyes, your arms, your vocal variety, your body language. And if you're looking to be a great, I don't want to say public speaker, but if you're just looking just to speak better in general, even when it's an on a presentation, on a call, or if you have to give up a toast at a wedding or a quinceanera, for you to be able to, yeah, critique yourself and gather feedback from your from your own recording   Michael Hingson ** 46:23 well. And the reality is, the more of it you do, and the more you listen to it, having been up there in front giving the speech, you also see how people react. And if you continue to observe and listen to the recordings as you go forward, you will improve, yeah, for sure, which is which is really important. And one of the things that I try to do regularly now is to record talks. When I go and give a speech somewhere, I will record it so that I can listen to it and I enjoy it, because I discover Did I really say that I shouldn't have said it quite that way, but I'll do better next time. But listening to it helps such a tremendous amount,   Fidel Guzman ** 47:13 especially with those filler words. So when you really listen to the recording, you'll be like, Man, I use a lot of likes or SOS or ands or buts, and if you want to speak eloquently, it is, I mean, like anything, you just gotta practice it. You gotta practice it, and you have to be receptive to that, the feedback. And you have to also celebrate the small wins. One thing I am a big proponent on is celebrate the small wins. Yeah. So if you are able to do your your first speech at a Toastmasters clubs like we, we give you tons of accolades, because it is not an easy fit, an easy feat. If you're able to do the second one, even better. You're, you're progressing, and you're, you know, you're increasing your understanding of some of the fundamentals of public speaking. Yeah, so you're preaching to the choir here.   Michael Hingson ** 48:05 Yeah, no, I understand. Oh yeah, it's good, but it is really important to do, and it's fun to do. If you decide to make it fun, and if you decide that you want to become a better communicator there. There are lots of us and all that sort of stuff that people do. I've heard some people say that's really not such a bad thing. Well, I've got to say that I've never really been used to having a lot of us. And you know, there's a guy out here who I don't think he's alive anymore. He used to be a sports announcer out here. His name was Jim Healy, and you may have heard him when, well, out here in Los Angeles, anyway, he was on K lac, and he had somebody, well, he had a recording of somebody, one of the sports jocks, and he announced that he was going to play this recording, and what you're going to hear is this guy in 60 seconds say, you know, 48 times, that's and he did what's amazing, that   Fidel Guzman ** 49:17 when you when you get to Some of those, it's like, what do they say? Nails on a chalkboard? You're like, Oh, yeah. Like, what are you trying to say? Just, just say it. To say, to say the damn thing.   Michael Hingson ** 49:30 Yeah, talk a little bit slower and just say it.   Fidel Guzman ** 49:33 One thing that I'm trying to be conscious, more conscious of is pauses, like those deliberate pauses, those deliberate pauses to collect your thoughts, like I often need, just to collect myself, but also to build suspense the message and the message that you're trying to give, especially when you're in front of a group of people, in front of an audience, and you're pausing there, they're just like, oh, what? So what is he? What is he gonna say next? What's up? What's going on with this pause? So it's also you have this arsenal of tools when it comes to to public speaking and to engage with an audience and to keep them, to keep them interested in what your next thought is going to be. What What am I going to say next? How am I going to, you know, align this topic to something else that I want to discuss.   Michael Hingson ** 50:24 I love, yeah, I've discovered the value of pauses. You can make a pause last too long, and one of the things you learn is how long to make a pause. But I love pauses. They really do add a lot of value. There they get. Well, you talk a lot about continuous improvement, and clearly you you really love the whole concept. What's an example of a project where you instituted continuous improvement, and how do you make that happen? Thanks, Michael.   Fidel Guzman ** 50:56 Let's pause again. Yeah, right. I know. Yeah. All right. Michaels, Michaels, throw me. Well, not much of a curveball, but yeah, no, that's good. So I know continuous improvement. And one project that I worked on, I want to say one that comes to mind is last year I hosted a series of product boot camps. And what these product boot camps really were, were product training and networking opportunities within ion. I had just gone through the acquisition of backstop into the into the ion family, and I saw a need. I saw a need there for some product training. And what I did is I started to coordinate with subject matter experts, hence the collaboration and community principles that I have with learning and development. And started to piece together a boot camp. So a series of training sessions, and we discussed location, we discussed different components that we can include on there. We discussed remote hybrid in person, what some of those options were, and we had about, I want to say, five or six of these boot camps in 2024 and what I noticed is that for each of the boot camps we would tailor it a little bit, because each of these different products that were under specific umbrellas were for certain audiences, you know, for certain segments of the business. So we had to, I had a template, but we had to tweak that template a little bit. Who do we want to come in here? Who do we want to come in for this particular topic? When do we take breaks? If it's in person, you know? Do we take longer breaks if it's in person? How do we include some interactive components to it? How do we test people's knowledge, whether it's through live polls, whether it's using an LMS platform to do knowledge checks? How do we create a certificate based program around this? And for each of those, it was a learning experience. It was a learning experience because we, every subject matter expert, is different, right? You're building different relationships with different people, and even their style of talking or their style of teaching on a particular topic is going to be different. So those continuous improvements throughout each of those boot camps really started to to resonate and just to showcase themselves. And for each of those, we had a similar template for all of them, but we made minor tweaks to make sure that it was as engaging and and thoughtful as possible.   Michael Hingson ** 53:36 Wow. Well, that's pretty cool. Um, and I think that the very fact that you would make the tweaks and you recognize the need to do that was pretty insightful, of course, because for me, I know when I speak, some people early on told me you should write a talk and you should, you should just give that talk. I tried that once. I didn't like what I sounded like when I read a talk, and I haven't done it since. And I also realized that I do better, and sometimes it isn't necessarily a lot, but when I customize every talk so I love to go early and try to hear speakers who speak before me, or get a chance to meet people at an event, because I will learn things invariably that I will put into the talk. And sometimes I'm tweaking talks up to and including the start of the talk, and sometimes I will tweak a talk when I'm speaking and I'm getting the impression just from all the fidgeting, that maybe I'm not getting through to these people, or I'm not really doing this in the best way possible. And I will change until I get what I expect to be the audience. Reaction, because I know what an audience is like when they're fully engaged, and I also know that not every audience is the same, so I hear what you're saying. I think it's important to do that.   Fidel Guzman ** 55:13 Yeah, for you to be able to do that on the fly, kudos, kudos to that. But yeah, we you got to be able to understand that audience, understand that audience, understand what's what's going on, the dynamic of that, of that situation. So you're, you're a veteran at at this, so no surprise there.   Michael Hingson ** 55:31 Well, that's a lot of fun. Well, what do you do when you're not working you, I know you're involved in various activities and so on. So what do you do when you're, yeah, not an eye on writing, doing, training, stuff and all that.   Fidel Guzman ** 55:45 A number of different hobbies. My wife calls me the Energizer Bunny, because I'm always running around doing something, but some of my main things is right now judo. I did wrestling in high school, and I did mixed martial arts when I was getting my undergrad. And I love martial arts. I think iron sharpens iron. It's good to be around a good group of, good group of people, people who are who are like minded, people who are looking to continue to develop themselves. And yeah, if you're in a room full of tough guys, you have no other choice than to start to be a tough guy yourself. So I love martial arts. I did a couple Judo tournaments, judo and jujitsu tournaments last year, where I placed. And let's see, besides that, triathlons, I love to run, I love to bike, I love to swim. I did my first triathlon last year. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a phenomenal experience. I mean, it's two three hours of non stop movement, but it was, it was great just to be part of that, of a huge event like that, besides the martial arts and the constant running and swimming and biking, the last thing I want to say is writing and poetry. I have started to compile all all my poems. Hopefully, in the next year or so, I'll, I'll launch a small book of poems. And, yeah, I'll keep you, I'll keep you posted on that. But I do, I do like to write on the sign, you know, hopefully a book of poems. And, you know, since since having my daughter, I've always liked children's books. I would, I would love it if I could launch my my own series of children books, and I'm working on a couple templates with that. So, yeah, stay staying busy, staying busy, physically active, but also mentally   Michael Hingson ** 57:40 active. So you haven't written any books yet. I have a   Fidel Guzman ** 57:44 couple ideas, a couple ideas of what, what kids books want to do, but you don't have any books published yet? No, none yet. None yet. Well, we're anxious to see that happen. You got, you got it, you're gonna, you're gonna light that fire. You're gonna light that fire as well. No, and again, right? I do appreciate you for for really, really motivating me to start my own podcast, because you had really said, like, what's stopping you? Like, like me, I'm stopping myself, you know. But even yet, yeah, even like, you know, being an author, I know that you're an author, you know, I would love to have a conversation offline with you. You know what that publishing experience was like, because I think that's my biggest interference right now with that, is like, I don't know where to start with the publishing. I know I can self publish. I know I can go through publishers and like, the internet, like we said, a double sided sword, yeah, you have information that tells you you should just self publish, and then you have other bits of information. Was like, You should go through a publishing company and just like, where do I Where do I choose? But I think that's why having mentors, you know, and getting to network with people who are experienced, such as yourself, and these different avenues of public speaking and being a keynote speaker and having a podcast, being a podcast host and being an author. I think, I think it's great, and you are definitely an inspiration to me. Michael, well, thank you.   Michael Hingson ** 59:11 You're familiar with Jackson Hewitt, the accounting and tax company. You got it? Okay? So I can't remember whether it was night, whether it was 2016 or 2017 but I got invited to go speak at one of their events, and I did. And while I was there, I met a woman, and I didn't know what she did, and she she, she worked at a Jackson Hewitt, and I just happened to say, what do you own of a firm? Because most of the people there were supposed to be company owners. And she said, No, maybe someday. And I said, why not? You ought to own a company. You ought to you ought to become a company owner. You'll go further Anyway, last year, she sent me an email, and she said, I've never forgotten that, and I think it was like a year later, or two years later, she's. After I and she met, she said, I got my first company, and I now own 10 branches. Wow. Back, I said, that's pretty cool. Oh,   Fidel Guzman ** 1:00:09 Michael, Michael, you are just making ripples in the universe. Just ripples doing something. Yeah, that's good. I don't want to get too religious, but you're doing God's work, man, well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:18 I hope so. You know, expect Hill. Hill. Guy, guide, or she'll guide, yeah, but so what do you think is the future of work, of workplace training and learning?   Fidel Guzman ** 1:00:30 Yeah, I think we, we touched a little bit upon this. But you know, AI, you know, definitely, how can we leverage AI for content creation, creating outlines and also using it as feedback. But I also want to to bring back the the in person training. I know we've all gotten very comfortable with, you know, doing stuff remote, but similar to the example that we talked about earlier, where that teacher was like, oh, all these, all these kids are using AI for these papers, and how do I really test their comprehension? That's, that's something you know, that in person activity, yeah, I think definitely has a tremendous amount of value, not just for the instructor, but for the end learner. Yeah. So I think, I think a mixture of like, okay, great, you know, how can we use AI to create content? How can we use it to provide, you know, feedback for people to continue to improve on certain areas. But how can we bring back that in person component?   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:38 Well, see, oh, go ahead,   Fidel Guzman ** 1:01:39 yeah, to, to to unify. It was probably that pause, that to to unify, to unify a vision, you know, a vision of of continuous improvement. You know that to unify, that vision of what a team might be aiming for, yeah. So, yeah. So, I think, I think, you know, long story short, it's going to be, you know, leveraging a bit of AI and still bringing back that, that in person aspect. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:05 you know, I I've done virtual presentations as well as, of course, lots of in person presentations. I much prefer in person to virtual but my main reason for that is that I can tell what the audience is feeling. I get a lot more information if I'm doing an in person talk than I would get if I'm just doing a virtual talk. Now I've done it long enough that I mostly can do pretty well at a virtual talk, but it's still not the same, yeah, and I still don't get exactly the same information, but I can do virtual talks, and I do and it, and it's fun and and I can play games with it, because I can always turn my video off and really drive people crazy. But you know what? What advice would you give to an aspiring leader who wants to to evolve and make make changes to their organization or to themselves and so on.   Fidel Guzman ** 1:03:06 So advice I would give for aspiring leaders. I think the the main one that I really focus on is opportunities and challenges. Be ready to embrace any opportunities that come your way, but just know that each of those opportunities, it's going to come with its own set of challenges, and be prepared for both, and be okay with dealing both at the same time. And you know last, but you know not least, is that there are there are lots of stories of triumph, and to really curate yours. What does your story of triumph look like? What is your passion and how does, how does all of that connect?   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:53 And it may be evolving, and it may be different in five years than it is today, but both memories are important, yeah, which is cool. Well, Fidel, we've been doing Can you believe we've been doing   Fidel Guzman ** 1:04:08 this for over an hour? Time flies and you're having fun,   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:12 absolutely. And I really appreciate you being here and being a part of this, and I really appreciate all of you who have been listening to us and watching us. We're really excited that you're here. I hope that this has been valuable for you as well, and that you've learned something. Fidel, if people want to reach out to you, how can they do that? I   Fidel Guzman ** 1:04:31 want to say LinkedIn, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. What's your LinkedIn identifier? You can find me as Fidel Guzman, comma, MBA, and I'll also give you a link so you can, you can accompany it alongside this episode, yeah, but feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. That's going to be the easiest way to get in touch with me. And I'll also have some links if you want to check out my podcast. And hopefully I'll have, I'll have that book of poems out, yeah, soon.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:59 Well, that will be. Good. Well, thank you again and again. Thank you, all of you. If you'd like to reach out to Fidel, I'm sure he would appreciate it. I would, and you're welcome to reach out to me.

Exploring Velvet Buck Wine with Blake Pederson from Velvet Buck Vineyards In this episode of the Okayest Cook Podcast, host Chris Whonsetler, broadcasting live from the BHA Rendezvous in Missoula, chats with Blake Pederson from Velvet Buck Vineyards. Blake shares his journey into the wine industry, starting from his first harvest job at 17 in Northern California to studying wine and viticulture at Cal Poly. They discuss Velvet Buck's unique branding, its vision of targeting the outdoor community, and their mission for conservation by partnering with organizations like Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and Meat Eater. The conversation delves into the wine's composition, pairing suggestions, and the process of creating a versatile wine that complements various dishes, including wild game. Blake emphasizes the importance of quality in both cooking and enjoying wine and shares plans for wider distribution of Velvet Buck. Find Velvet Buck Vineyards: Web: https://www.velvetbuckvineyards.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/velvetbuckwine/ ~ Support Okayest Cook by shopping with our favorite brands ~ Anova: We love their Precision Cooker 3.0 & vac sealers - https://bit.ly/3WT36ZR MEAT!: Powerful meat grinders - https://bit.ly/4ho5a4r Hedley & Bennett: Quality Aprons - https://hedley-and-bennett.sjv.io/EEzBq2 Yeti: The king of coolers - https://yetius.pxf.io/a1NJXq Lodge: Cast Iron cooking - https://lodgecastiron.pxf.io/zxe7dr ~ 00:00 Introduction and Setting the Scene 00:31 Meet Blake from Velvet Buck Vineyards 02:41 The Story Behind Velvet Buck Vineyards 06:10 Wine Pairing and Tasting Notes 12:48 Exploring Velvet Buck Wine Pairings 13:16 Santa Maria Style Grilling 14:05 Cooking with Quality Ingredients 15:56 Making Wine Approachable 17:00 Velvet Buck's Market Expansion 20:02 Shoutouts and Future Plans 20:39 Final Thoughts and Farewell More at OkayestCook.com Connect with us on Instagram @Okayest_Cook And facebook.com/AnOkayestCook Video feed on YouTube.com/@OkayestCook Crew:  Chris Whonsetler Email: Chris@OkayestCook.com Web: ChrisWhonsetler.com Instagram: @FromFieldToTable & @WhonPhoto

Watch this conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ihMjsKPxdA8What if your greatest strength… is also the thing that wears you out the most?In this honest and inspiring conversation, Jerrad sits down with Michael Seifert—founder of PublicSq. and EveryLife—to talk about identity, pressure, purpose, and the hidden cost of success. Though Michael leads some of the most mission-driven companies in America, he opens up about the soul battles behind his ambition—and why Sabbath rest might be his greatest act of obedience.They talk about legacy, fatherhood, and how a rebellious teenager found Jesus at a ranch in Northern California. Michael shares how a single week transformed his relationship with his dad, the real reason behind his inner drive, and the moment he realized that working for the praises of man would eventually break him.This episode is a reminder that God doesn't just care about what you build—but who you're becoming while you build it.What You'll Learn:Why your identity can't come from what you accomplishThe four roles a dad plays (caretaker, cop, coach, consultant)How pressure to succeed impacts father-son relationshipsWhat Michael learned about humility from his dadThe beauty of building with God—and learning to restHow to lead your family while healing from your own woundsWhy starting a values-driven business invites both criticism and purposeMentioned in This Episode:J.H. Ranch: https://jhranch.comPublicSq: https://publicsq.comEveryLife Diapers: https://everylife.comMichael's South Korea launch at Yoido Full Gospel ChurchJerrad's mantra: “Strong families begin with healed men”

Here are 3 big things you need to know—   One — President Trump announced he signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County.  In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the declaration will allow first responders to have access to resources they need as recovery efforts continue.  Trump called it an unimaginable tragedy that has left at least 70 people dead.   Two --- -  A team of Israeli negotiators is in Qatar for talks with Hamas about a Gaza ceasefire.  Israeli officials say  they're prepared to negotiate a truce proposal with Hamas, though they found changes in the proposal requested by Hamas were unacceptable.  The announcement came after Hamas said it had a positive response to a U.S.-backed proposal that would involve a 60-day truce in Gaza.   And number three — The remains of seven bodies have been recovered from the debris of a fireworks warehouse that exploded in Northern California.  The blast happened on Tuesday about 40 miles west of Sacramento, sending clouds of smoke billowing thousands of feet into the air.  Yolo County officials say the warehouse was not permitted to house fireworks. 

Back in Episode 11 Ejler shared some memories of farm life on the rural island of Bonholm, Denmark. One story that really struck a chord was the existence of a food called Head-cheese, a magical substance created from the boiled remains of whatever comes out of the head of a pig. Never one to turn down a challenge, Robin provided the head of a wild boar the very next chance he had to harvest one. In this Episode Robin and Ejler reminisce about the sequence of events that brought them to the mysterious flavors of Danish Wild-Boar head cheese. While eating this magical dish they also catch up over their recent adventures in South Africa and Northern California.A huge thank you to Ejler for the great conversation - and for remembering his mother's old recipe.-----------------Subscribe to this podcast so you're always up to date. Even better - share us with a friend who loves the outdoors.Follow Robin & The Wild Dispatch on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook...

Top News of the Day. Update on that officer involved shooting Saturday near Western and MLK Blvd. Update: At least 61 dead in Texas flooding; over two dozen campers missing from Camp Mystic. Some facts about Camp Mystic, where Texas floodwaters swept away dozens of girls. Video captures ICE agents allegedly urinating on Pico Rivera school grounds in broad daylight. LAPD dealing with a surge in 'kidnapping' calls because of ICE enforcement. Fourth of July Roundup. Air quality alert issued across Southern California due to smoke from fireworks and wildfires. Northern California residents to be ‘wildly surprised' by massive illegal fireworks fines in the mail.

Today on America in the Morning Texas Tragedy Tragedy in Texas as the death toll from catastrophic flooding in the Lone Star State's Hill Country has risen to 80, as search efforts continue into this week.  Correspondent Clayton Neville reports.   Tariff Threats & Confusion President Trump's 90-day pause on tariffs to many nations is set to expire on Wednesday, however, there appears to be some change to that deadline, causing some confusion and uncertainty on when the President's Liberation Day tariffs will be into effect.  John Stolnis has more from Washington.   Netanyahu To The White House For the third time since he returned to the White House, President Trump will meet with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the President is feeling very good about a possible deal to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.  Details from Correspondent Rich Johnson.    Fireworks Explosion Investigation Authorities in Northern California have found the bodies of all seven people missing since last week when an explosion and fire gutted a fireworks warehouse.   Ship Attack There's concern today in the Middle East after a cargo ship was attacked off the coast of Yemen.  Correspondent Donna Warder reports that ship is in danger of sinking.    Birthday Fight Many events have been held at the White House, from signing ceremonies to Easter Egg rolls, but President Trump is hoping to celebrate America's 250th birthday with a fight.  Correspondent Gethin Coolbaugh reports.   Death Toll Surpasses 80 The death toll has surpassed 80 after a deluge of rain caused rivers to rise past flood stages in a matter of minutes, sweeping people to their deaths including at a girl's camp where a number of youngsters are still missing.  Correspondent Julie Walker reports flash floods like the one that swept through Texas are the nation's top storm-related killer.   Texas Leaders Respond To Flooding There's both shock and outrage as to how the catastrophic flooding that killed more than 70 people in the Texas Hill Country played out.  Correspondent Clayton Neville has reaction from Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other state leaders.   Tariff Talk In Washington, the U.S. is putting the pressure on trading partners to make a new deals as the President's tariff deadline has been extended.  Correspondent Donna Warder reports.   The New Party The bromance between the President of the United States and the world's richest man may be beyond repair.  Katie Clark reports that Elon Musk is carrying out his threat to form a new political party, now that Trump's sweeping tax cuts law known as the big, beautiful bill was signed.    Chantal Threat What was once Tropical Storm Chantal is now a tropical depression, but it's still packing winds and heavy rain.   Rapper Says No Performance A popular rapper's decision to not play at a Philadelphia July Fourth festival had everything to do with garbage.  Lisa Dwyer reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Changes in the interpretation of campaign finance law could be on the horizon. It's been 15 years since the high court decided that corporations and unions can give unlimited amounts of money to candidates. But political parties have to work within separate limits when it's money used in tandem by the party and the candidate. Also on the show: the state of news consumption in the U.S. and a new approach to homeless encampments in Northern California.

Changes in the interpretation of campaign finance law could be on the horizon. It's been 15 years since the high court decided that corporations and unions can give unlimited amounts of money to candidates. But political parties have to work within separate limits when it's money used in tandem by the party and the candidate. Also on the show: the state of news consumption in the U.S. and a new approach to homeless encampments in Northern California.

The Klamath River flows some 268 miles from inland Southern Oregon to coastal Northern California before emptying into the Pacific, crossing high deserts, mountain ranges, and forests. The Klamath watershed is also the ancestral homeland of the Yurok, Hupa, Karuk, Shasta and Klamath tribes. And it's an area prime for recreation, especially in the summer months. And the Klamath River is once again free flowing after being held back by four dams for the better part of a century. Guests: Danielle Venton, KQED and Gabrielle Canon, The Guardian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Severe weather causes major flight delays across the country as Fourth of July travel hits record high. Also, 7 people remain unaccounted for following a massive fireworks explosion in Northern California, prompting fireworks safety talks nationwide. Plus, House Republicans pass Trump's ‘Big, Beautiful Bill' after hours of tense negotiations and major pushback from Democratic lawmakers – what is and is not included in the multitrillion-dollar package. And, Emilie Ikeda shares the latest concerning high levels of harmful bacteria at U.S. beaches and how to keep your family safe in the water. 

When Jason was in his mid-20s, he was stuck. He numbed out with porn much of the time, had never had sex, and struggled with dating and love relationship.Even outside of dating, it felt like something was missing in his life ... like he just wasn't completely alive. He knew he wanted something different, but didn't know how to get there.Then he attended one of his first personal growth events -- a men's workshop. When the attention was place on him, within twenty minutes a mentor had him on the floor (in a good way).He got to a place during that workshop that he hadn't gotten to in three full years of talk therapy. It was transformative, uplifting, and revolutionary to his nervous system. He released energy that had been stuck within him for decades. In a way, it set him up for the life he actually wanted to lead.If you've ever wanted MORE, you're not alone. You don't have to stay stuck. You can have the breakthrough you've been waiting for.---Work with us!Want to go deeper than the podcast? We're ready to work with you! To see if there's a fit for our flagship program, Pillars of Presence, book a call here. Start anytime. https://evolutionary.men/apply/---Come to the retreat!This year it's Thurs Aug 28th through Mon Sept 1st in Northern California (about 2 hours from SF). For more info, go to evolutionary.men/retreat. We'd love to see you there.

Join your hosts Boxman and Smark for another jam-packed episode of the Wrestling Outlet. This week, we kick things off by paying our respects to the late, great Michael Madsen, remembering his iconic roles and impact. Then, we dive headfirst into the wrestling world, starting with exciting news for former WWE star Maria Kanellis, who announced her pregnancy with husband and AEW's own Mike Bennett. We then shift gears to the squared circle's crossover into comedy with the announcement of WWE Late Night Featuring Tony Hinchcliffe set for SummerSlam weekend! The rumor mill is churning as we discuss reports of WWE's interest in signing three popular AEW wrestlers. Plus, a concerning story breaks as a Canadian man is accused of stalking WWE star Liv Morgan at her Florida home. In a truly incredible tale, we hear about a Northern California pro wrestler who was brought back to life by a fellow wrestler after a match. We also explore the new frontier of wrestling audio with the launch of "Pro Wrestling Nation 24/7," the first full-time professional wrestling audio channel.Get the inside scoop on the upcoming WWE Unreal series on Netflix, with details on all five episodes, promising unprecedented behind-the-scenes access. And in a mind-blowing crossover, we break down the news of Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes starring in a live-action Street Fighter movie!Finally, we wrap things up with our always unfiltered and sort of insightful review of the latest episode of AEW Dynamite. You won't want to miss this one!Join your hosts Boxman and Smark for another jam-packed episode of the Wrestling Outlet. This week, we kick things off by paying our respects to the late, great Michael Madsen, remembering his iconic roles and impact. Then, we dive headfirst into the wrestling world, starting with exciting news for former WWE star Maria Kanellis, who announced her pregnancy with husband and AEW's own Mike Bennett. We then shift gears to the squared circle's crossover into comedy with the announcement of WWE Late Night Featuring Tony Hinchcliffe set for SummerSlam weekend! The rumor mill is churning as we discuss reports of WWE's interest in signing three popular AEW wrestlers. Plus, a concerning story breaks as a Canadian man is accused of stalking WWE star Liv Morgan at her Florida home. In a truly incredible tale, we hear about a Northern California pro wrestler who was brought back to life by a fellow wrestler after a match. We also explore the new frontier of wrestling audio with the launch of "Pro Wrestling Nation 24/7," the first full-time professional wrestling audio channel.Get the inside scoop on the upcoming WWE Unreal series on Netflix, with details on all five episodes, promising unprecedented behind-the-scenes access. And in a mind-blowing crossover, we break down the news of Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes starring in a live-action Street Fighter movie!Finally, we wrap things up with our always unfiltered and sort of insightful review of the latest episode of AEW Dynamite. You won't want to miss this one! Check us out live every Thursday at 9:30 PM E Live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wrestlingoutletpod Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirt-sheet-dudes/id1471552947?uo=4 Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3ByZWFrZXIuY29tL3Nob3cvMzYwMzg2NS9lcGlzb2Rlcy9mZWVk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wrestlingoutlet/ Twitter: @wrestlingoutlet Email: wrestlingoutletpod@gmail.com Totally Inappropriate Team Sports

In this episode, Drew Miles sits down with Steven Laughter —Marine Corps scout sniper turned full-time photographer and passionate hunter. From growing up chasing deer in Northern California to learning recon and camera skills in the military, Steven shares his evolution from sniper to storyteller. The two dive into gritty field stories, lessons from time spent outdoors, and practical tips for staying clean and comfortable in the backcountry. It's a raw and insightful look at blending military precision with creative vision, all in the pursuit of wild experiences.STEVE LAUGHTERInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/wayupwestoutdoors/Personal IG - https://www.instagram.com/steven.laughter.media/Website - https://stevenlaughtermedia.pixieset.com/TRICER USAWebsite – https://tricerusa.com/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tricerusa/Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tricerusa/YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@tricer6985#TricerPodcast #WesternHunting #BackcountryHunter #ScoutSniper #OutdoorPhotography #VeteranHunter #Fieldcraft #HuntingGear #PublicLandHunter #TyvekTarp #HuntCampLife #HuntingPodcast #PrecisionHunter #MilitaryToMountains #ModernOutdoorsman

Sequoia National Park is known for its iconic trees - the giant sequoias. They tower hundreds of feet above the Sierra Nevada. But another draw to this park is hidden thousands of feet below. It's called Crystal Cave, and it recently reopened to the public after a parade of natural disasters left it inaccessible for years. Reporter: Joshua Yeager, KVPR Recent immigration raids in Southern California have been unconstitutional. That's according to a new lawsuit filed in Los Angeles against the federal government. Reporter: David Wagner, LAist Organizers of one of Northern California's best-loved and longest-running music festivals are scrambling to save the July 4th weekend event, amid slow ticket sales. Reporter: Dan Brekke, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald, interviewed Dr. Farrah Laurent. A former emergency room nurse turned entrepreneur and career coach, shares her journey from bedside care to building a six-figure business helping new nurses land high-paying jobs and launch their own ventures. The conversation explores nursing as a lucrative and flexible career path, the importance of mindset, and the power of personal branding.

Madre Fire Expands to 35,000 Acres, Becoming California's Largest This Year / 7 Missing After Fireworks Warehouse Explodes in Northern California. L.A. ‘under siege': Federal lawsuit targets rampant immigration raids. California's film tax credit boost officially signed into law to lure back Hollywood jobs. Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sanchez Are Reportedly 'Livid' About One Star's Ruthless Criticism of Their Wedding.

INTRO (00:23): Kathleen opens the show drinking a Kittens Summer Ale from Fat Orange Cat Brewing Company. She reviews her weekend in Charlottesville VA and Bristol TN, and prepares for the Fourth of July holiday week.    TOUR NEWS: See Kathleen live on her “Day Drinking Tour.”   COURT NEWS (9:53): Kathleen shares news announcing that Dolly Parton's Vegas residency sold out in hours, and Post Malone has broken up with his longtime girlfriend.    TASTING MENU (3:42): Kathleen samples Awesome Sauce flavored Goldfish, and Mooneyham's Kitch'n Cooked potato chips.    UPDATES (21:53): Kathleen shares updates on Karen Read's new movie deal, Bonnaroo could move their annual date, and Starbucks makes ANOTHER change.   HOLY SHIT THEY FOUND IT (43:58): Kathleen reveals that a Sierra Nevada Red Fox has been caught on a trail cam in Northern California.    FRONT PAGE PUB NEWS (45:13) : Kathleen shares articles on the St. Louis donut shop that won 2025's “Best Donut in America,”  Bill Burr's new multi-camera sitcom in the works with comedian Earthquake, Crabfest helps Red Lobster exit bankruptcy, the most Patriotic states are announced, a hero dad dives into sea to save his daughter when she fell from a Disney ship, Vogue Magazine is searching for a new chief after nearly 4 decades, a road buckles in Missouri during record setting heat wave, Southwest Airlines has issues ending free bags, the Best Airport in America is revealed, and Vegas opens a new $50M Sports bar.    STUPID TOURIST STORIES (40:39): Kathleen reads about a cruise ship passenger covered in stolen diamonds who sent selfies displaying the stolen jewelry.    SAINT OF THE WEEK (1:14:43): Kathleen reads about Sister Lidwina.    WHAT ARE WE WATCHING (17:33): Kathleen recommends watching the Wimbledon tennis tournament on ESPN, and The Better Sister on Amazon Prime.    FEEL GOOD STORY (1:09:28): Kathleen reads about a helicopter dropping thousands of dollars in cash over Detroit's Gratoit Ave as a final wish of a deceased local carwash owner.

After being incarcerated as a teenager for weed, Kevin Jodrey joined the military and trained as a deep sea diver, only to end up conscripted into performing anti-drug interdiction raids out in the middle of the ocean.  From there he slid back into the weed underground, spending the next few decades moving serious weight in from Mexico and joining Northern California's second wave of off-the-grid growers. Before at last coming out of the cannabis closet and creating yet another new life for himself, this time as an internationally recognized expert on the plant's cultivation, classification and connoisseurship as co-founder of The Ganjier, a first of its kind sommelier like program for weed.

Lake Oroville in Northern California's Butte County is one of the state's most important reservoirs. It's part of a state-spanning system that delivers water to 27 million people and hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland. Now officials are working to keep an invader out of the reservoir -- a freshwater bivalve mollusk called the golden mussel. Reporter: Sarina Grossi, North State Public Radio The American Civil Liberties Union says the federal government is breaking its promise to protect migrant families who were forcibly separated at the U.S.-Mexico border during the first Trump Administration. Reporter: Mark Betancourt, The California Newsroom Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've pulled back the curtain before on some of the insane lore of California's industry, but never with multiple guests who lived the legacy alongside more recent players that are taking over while paying proper respect to the OGs. This is an extremely rare discussion between big dogs with endless skin in the game and countless adversities faced that drive their success today.Blackleaf is joined back at the FSOTD studio by JD from Trinity Association/Domain Miel, Dustin (once again) from Watson Supply, along with none other than Sha Bud of 707 Seedbank and his partner on Automatic Genetics to discuss the game, talking genetics, pheno hunts, and selections for massive monocrops at length, Autos vs F1s and how to create S5s, as well as the best places to set up shop internationally right now, diving deep into the infrastructure of Colombia, Brazil, and the bubbling hash community in Costa Rica. We seldom get guests in the studio with as much international experience as the 707 Grows team, so you know we had to go global with some of the discussions.707 Seedbank is a