Podcasts about Outstanding

Play Now2025 is almost over and episode 391 of the Seibertron.com Twincast / Podcast is here to wrap it up in style. Some late-breaking news comes up first though, with upcoming Generations releases like Swerve, Animated Ratchet and Prime Smokescreen discussed first. The 2025 superlatives start up next, with topics covering what the cast thinks were the best toys of the year plus their sentimental favorites. Outstanding media and licensed products get their time before a pivot to the not so great, with both toys and everything else that was unappreciated under the microscope. The discussion whips around to positivity again with personal highlights of great acquisitions that weren't released in 2025 plus our achievements for the year. With all that wrapped, the episode concludes with a round of the recurring "Bragging Rights" segment.

This episode, previously recorded as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features Professor John Dunne.  John is the distinguished chair in contemplative humanities at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He works with Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practice. He is also an author of the winner of the 2025 Khyentse Foundation Prize for Outstanding […] The post Professor John Dunne: Buddhist Philosophy and the Nalanda Tradition (#223) appeared first on The Wisdom Experience.

The Bureau of Land Management in Oregon and Washington wrapped up fiscal year 2025 with a standout timber performance, and USDA approves stricter limits on what Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients can buy.

Greg Tranter, is a prominent sports historian, curator and author with a specialized expertise in Buffalo sports history. He has authored five books on Buffalo sports history including: Makers, Moments & Memorabilia, A Chronicle of Buffalo Professional Sports; RELICS, The History of the Buffalo Bills in Objects and Memorabilia; The Buffalo Sports Curse, 120 years of pain, disappointment, heartbreak and eternal optimism: Buffalo Bills: An Illustrated Timeline of a Storied Team; and Buffalo Braves: From A to Z. Greg has curated multiple sports exhibits including Icons: The Makers and Moments of Buffalo Sports at the Buffalo History Museum. He also authored and acts as the tour guide for the Buffalo Sports Heritage tour with Explore Buffalo. In addition, he writes for several magazines including Gridiron Greats, NY-PA Collector and Western New York Heritage. Greg is the Assistant Executive Director of the Pro Football Researchers Association and the Managing Editor of The Coffin Corner. In 2018 Greg received the PFRA's Bob Carroll Memorial Writing Award and in 2022 its Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”Greg is a former Insurance Executive at Hanover Insurance where he was the CIO and COO before his retirement in 2015. He received a master's degree from Tufts University in Museum Education in 2015 and was President of the Board of Managers of the Buffalo History Museum from 2017-2022.Greg is also a lifelong Bills fan and 38-year season ticket holder. He became a fan of the Braves after attending the teams sixth preseason game on September 29, 1970, a 130-88 victory by Buffalo over the Boston Celtics.#gregtranter #author #buffalobills #livewithcdp #barrycullenchevrolet #chrispomay  / greg.tranter.2025    / greg-tranter-46795771  https://beacons.ai/chrisdpomayhttps://www.cameo.com/chrispomay book a personalized video message from yours truly CDP for the holiday season! https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/chris... if you wish to make a donation to my You Tube Channel and media work. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast..https://www.barrycullen.com/Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/54200596...

Wild GM Bill Guerin joins Chad to talk about the impact Quinn Hughes has already had with the Wild, much more about the club, and the key to preparing his legendary meatballs.

As American culture drifts away from its founding ideals, the simplicity and beauty of the Christmas story may be the answer. Host Casey Harper is joined by author and cultural commentator Os Guinness for a reflection on the modern-day Christmas story and American culture. Living in a cut flower civilization, the two discuss America’s identity crisis, what the Christmas story offers to a modern world, and how this time of year is actually the foundation of equality and freedom.

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, provides an update on the health insurance legislation proposal and President Trump's order for a military blockade in

As American culture drifts away from its founding ideals, the simplicity and beauty of the Christmas story may be the answer. Host Casey Harper is joined by author and cultural commentator Os Guinness for a reflection on the modern-day Christmas story and American culture. Living in a cut flower civilization, the two discuss America’s identity crisis, what the Christmas story offers to a modern world, and how this time of year is actually the foundation of equality and freedom.

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:17532056201798502,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-9437-3289"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");pt> Click On Picture To See Larger Picture Trump is putting all the pieces together for the new economic system. Gas prices are dropping like a rock. Silver prices are now higher than oil prices. Trump is building a smelting factory in TN to compete against China. The Fed is buying the debt which will destroy the Fed. Is Trump working with Jamie Dimon? The [DS] is losing control, evidence is being dripped out against the [DS]. News is being released against them so they are attacking like a wild animal. The infiltration in this country and other countries was directed by the same [DS] players. They will use this to create chaos WW. Trump knows playbook, meanwhile Trump is dismantling their system world wide. Never interfere with an enemy while they are in the process of destroying themselves. Be prepared. Economy (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:18510697282300316,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-8599-9832"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/2000567788856119385?s=20 https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2000582117294846292?s=20   in mid-2022. Since then, silver prices have surged +206% while oil prices have dropped -44%. WTI Crude is now on track for its worst year since the 2020 pandemic decline, down -20%, while silver is on its best annual performance since 1979, up +115%. We are witnessing a major macroeconomic shift. https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2000622821697822926?s=20   some stake in the venture. The list includes: Gallium, Germanium, Indium. Antimony, Copper, Silver, Gold, and Zinc. This will be CRITICAL for producing things at home without relying on China, including defense systems and semiconductors. THIS IS HUGE!   https://twitter.com/profstonge/status/2000543866047308139?s=20 https://twitter.com/JoeLang51440671/status/2000587776232739114?s=20  years. They have been directly involved in all kinds of money laundering operations from major drug trafficking to pedophile blackmail rings like Epstein. They have done ALL of this KNOWINGLY. When you KNOWINGLY commit these types of crimes, you are participating in a massive “conspiracy.” Do you see the vulnerability? Hillary was never supposed to lose. Trump became the most powerful man on the planet, the moment he was sworn in as president back in 2017. Trump instantly became a threat to the entire corrupt system and had the military behind him. He took control of the most powerful central bank in the world and also controlled the world's reserve currency. He also controlled the DOJ. Jamie Dimon was vulnerable. But was he “leveraged” by Trump? I believe the answer is yes and the timeline of events proves it. In 2019, precious metals traders at JPM were convicted of manipulating the metals prices by “spoofing.” They would place fake orders, with no intention of taking delivery. JPM was FORCED to pay a fine of almost a billion dollars. That was the moment JPM was captured. And what has happened recently? Jamie Dimon just announced, that for the first time in its history, they have dumped their SILVER shorts and have gone long on SILVER. JPM is the largest holder of physical SILVER in the world at 750 million ounces. That is KEY. That 750 million ounces of SILVER are subject to Trump's Executive Order signed back in December of 2017, that was renewed each year of Biden's presidency. That's not a coincidence. I believe that 750 million ounces of SILVER are going to be the new U.S. Strategic SILVER Reserve. But here's what's interesting and indicates that JPM is now a tool in Trump's hand, taking down the global banking cabal. The SILVER and Gold prices are controlled by two entities. The big bullion banks associated with the LBMA (London Bullion Market Association), which sets the “spot” price of “physical SILVER” in London and the COMEX on Wall Street, that sets the “paper SILVER” price for futures trading. It's a massive derivative market used to manipulate the price, where the same physical SILVER is traded at hundreds of times its worth because most transactions NEVER demand delivery. A truly “fractional” system rampant with fraud. But suddenly something changed on the COMEX. There was a massive increase in demand for physical delivery of SILVER, instead of taking “cash.” Someone was now beginning to hoard physical SILVER. That FORCED the bullion banks in London, to start emptying their vaults and shipping large amounts of SILVER to New York vaults at the COMEX. Guess who owns the largest SILVER vault on COMEX? None other than JPM. And now we know that they were the one demanding physical delivery of SILVER as they were unloading ALL their paper contracts and hoarding physical SILVER. We have watched for months, the flow of physical SILVER leave London and head to New York. The days of the bullion banks controlling the SILVER price are over and their vaults have been emptied, which FORCED them to buy SILVER and drive the price higher. JPM, who had been in cahoots with LBMA forever, just cut the legs out from under them and caused those bullion banks to take heavy losses from their SILVER shorts. JPM trapped LBMA by demanding huge leasing rates for their SILVER supply. That FORCED them to purchase SILVER in order to fulfill orders. That's what helped to end the manipulation of the SILVER price, as JPM went fully long for the very first time. We are just finding out now, that JPM is the bank that caused all the panic at LBMA and ENDED the manipulation of SILVER. We own the most Gold and the most SILVER. Ready for a RESET Political/Rights https://twitter.com/sircalebhammer/status/2000400581316460778?s=20 https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/2000593491089559998?s=20 Just In: Rob Reiner's Son Arrested and Charged in Grisly Murder of Parents Rob Reiner's son, Nick, was arrested on Monday in connection with the murder of the Hollywood director and his wife, Michelle, and booked on $4 million bail. Reiner was open about his son Nick's drug addiction and made a movie about the family's experience with his drug problem. According to The New York Post, Nick Reiner has been charged with murder. The couple's daughter, Romy, found the couple in their home with their throats slashed. The New York Post reported: Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/BreitbartNews/status/2000563249616712181?s=20   with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace! https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1700845324942925921?s=20 Reiner said jack after the attempted assassination on Trump. Trump was honest, but still called it “sad” and said “rest in peace.” Did he need to say the other things? Probably not. But why does he have to be nice with the absolute vile shit these people have said? https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2000363854849507441?s=20 https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2000377216736334189?s=20 https://twitter.com/catturd2/status/2000174373676925123?s=20 One was banned for rejecting a deadly vaccine. The other was imported despite having a deadly ideology. https://twitter.com/ColonelTowner/status/2000517544084488656?s=20   why would anyone do that? That's simple, they want you either dead bc they view you as a useless eater or controlled using fear and psychological operations which equals terror attacks. Insert terrorist here. Operation Gladio proved beyond any doubt you own government will kill you whenever the fuck they want and don't give a shit about the blown back, especially when they own all the guns. Which is a primary goal of the US false flags so they can take ours. It worked so well everywhere else even in New Zealand. But not here. It will never work here and that really pisses them off. Plan accordingly. https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2000629428838166644?s=20   ISIS hotspot in the Philippines just weeks before the deadly attack. The 2 traveled alone to Southeast Asia, raising major red flags for authorities now investigating possible overseas radicalization. Intelligence sources say the region they visited is linked to ISIS training camps, calling it “a well-trodden path for Islamic State” operatives since 2019. Naveed Akram had been on ASIO's radar since 2019 but was not previously deemed an immediate threat. Officials are now probing whether the suspects were influenced or trained during their time abroad before returning to commit one of Australia's deadliest terror attacks in years. Source: The Daily Telegraph, NY Post https://twitter.com/mrddmia/status/2000432832557289749?s=20 https://twitter.com/nypost/status/2000549271657996678?s=20 https://twitter.com/CynicalPublius/status/2000610717016449275?s=20   blocks, so the jihadists murder Jews with machetes; Then you ban machetes, so the jihadists murder Jews with kitchen knives; Then you ban kitchen knives, so the jihadists murders Jews with large rocks; Then you ban large rocks…. ————————— You seem to be missing the constant component to these crimes, and it ain’t the weapon. https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2000529088046625122?s=20 https://twitter.com/DC_Draino/status/2000569974755311679?s=20 https://twitter.com/TimOnPoint/status/2000552644402618629?s=20 Brown University has almost 1,000 cameras across campus. No footage. No information. Nothing. – The shooter seemed to have targeted the Vice President of the Republican Club – Person of interest has been released, shooter is still at large. Just wow.They do have a tips line, so why not show the person so people can identify him/her. https://twitter.com/CynicalPublius/status/2000424946816925931?s=20 https://twitter.com/C_3C_3/status/2000413597198123046?s=20 https://twitter.com/C_3C_3/status/2000582226497389052?s=20  , law enforcement recovered two firearms—a revolver and a Glock handgun (described in some accounts as a 9mm with a laser sight)—from the hotel room at the Hampton Inn in Coventry, Rhode Island, where person of interest Benjamin Erickson was detained in connection with the Brown University shooting.  Authorities are investigating whether these weapons are linked to the incident, which killed two students and injured nine others on December 14, 2025.  Erickson was later released as the evidence reportedly shifted in another direction, and the manhunt for the shooter continues. https://twitter.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/2000589113380987097?s=20   pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government ideology. They were allegedly planning coordinated IED bombing attacks on New Year’s Eve, targeting five separate locations across Los Angeles. In the days since, @FBINewOrleans arrested an additional FIFTH individual believed to be linked to this radical TILF subgroup – also allegedly planning a separate violent attack. Outstanding work by our investigators and law enforcement partners @TheJusticeDept . Their work undoubtedly saved countless lives. @FBILosAngeles will hold a press conference later today to share additional details.  The four defendants named in the complaint are Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30, Zachary Aaron Page, 32, Dante Gaffield, 24, and 41-year-old Tina Lai. According to a sworn statement in support of the complaint, Carroll in November presented an eight-page handwritten document to a paid confidential source titled “Operation Midnight Sun” which described a bomb plot. Carroll and Page later allegedly recruited the other two defendants to help carry out the plan, which included them “acquiring bomb-making materials and traveling to a remote location in the Mojave Desert to construct and detonate test explosive devices on December 12, 2025,” the sworn statement alleges.  https://twitter.com/nypost/status/2000627062529228902?s=20 https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2000616790175461455?s=20 https://twitter.com/RamboAndFrens/status/2000614500563918985?s=20 https://twitter.com/TonySeruga/status/2000645622987473142?s=20  the digital director for California Governor Gavin Newsom, a role she has held since around June 2024, leading a small team of three that handles graphic design, social media strategy, and rapid-response content across platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Threads, TikTok, and Bluesky. She is directly responsible for managing and overseeing Newsom’s social media presence. DOGE Geopolitical https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2000344607218127143?s=20 José Antonio Kast is very much onboard with Donald Trump. He has repeatedly expressed admiration for Trump’s policies, congratulated him on his election victories, and aligned his own agenda with Trump-style approaches to issues like immigration, crime, and economic incentives. For instance, Kast has publicly wished Trump success in his presidency for the benefit of Chile, Latin America, and the world @joseantoniokast , praised Trump’s ideas on expediting approvals for major investments @joseantoniokast , and endorsed Trump’s tough stance on deportations and sanctions against countries that refuse to accept their nationals back @joseantoniokast . He also condemned the 2024 assassination attempt on Trump and highlighted the loss of life among Trump’s supporters Maria Corina Machado Says Hundreds Of Thousands Venezuelans Will Return Home Once Maduro Goes Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate María Corina Machado believes “hundreds of thousands” of Venezuelans will return to their country from all over the world once the socialist Maduro regime goes. “The day Maduro goes, you will see tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants coming back home from the United States and all over the world,” Machado on Sunday told CBS News. “I mean, our diaspora is desperate to go back to Venezuela. So even from that perspective, it is a win, win situation to have democracy in Venezuela.” Machado arrived in Oslo, Norway last week to receive the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize after spending over a year in hiding facing threats of arrest by the Maduro regime.  Hours later, she confirmed that the Trump administration helped her escape from Venezuela. source: breitbart.com War/Peace https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/2000607318229286957?s=20 [DS] Agenda https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2000559689873166522?s=20 https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/status/2000353004281794978?s=20  a perception that I’m quoting now, that forcefully tackling this issue would cause political backlash from the Somali community, which is a core voting block for Democrats” Seriously, how are Democrats not getting raided and thrown in prison https://twitter.com/AwakenedOutlaw/status/2000632685178626084?s=20   Democrat Money Laundering Discovered – Names include Gretchen Whitmer, Jon Ossoff and Cory Booker “It now appears that the six lawmakers have been found to have been heavily involved in money laundering. Investigative Reporter/Citizen Journalist, Bob Cushman, has just released an FEC data analysis that strongly suggests that Mark Kelly, Elissa Slotkin, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Chrissy Houlahan and Maggie Goodlander have been recipients of illegally laundered campaign funds. In the initial investigation, Cushman cites 22 Smurf examples that have “allegedly” contributed almost three million dollars in more than 95,000 separate donations to Democratic coffers. All six members of the Seditious Six have received funds from one or more of these “smurfs” President Trump's Plan New memos show how corruption probe into Clinton Foundation was killed: ‘We were told NO by FBI HQ' Drip, drip, drip: A newly-declassified timeline exposes how the FBI’s investigation of the Clinton Foundation was hamstrung by DOJ leaders while the inquiry into Trump-Russia collusion hoax marched forward. This isn’t the first tranche of evidence pointing to political interference. Atop Republican senator has provided Just the News a timeline written by FBI investigators laying out the repeated political obstruction those agents faced from their own bosses and the Justice Department during the 2016 election and beyond as they probed whether Hillary Clinton engaged in a pay-to-play corruption scheme involving her family foundation. “Field agents were frustrated. But HQ would not let it go forward,” the newly-released and lengthy investigative timeline reveals. “We were trying to explore the [Clinton] Foundation, and we were told ‘NO' by FBI HQ.” Not the first timeline showing interference “Shut it down!” then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is quoted as demanding in the shorter timeline of the politicized barriers that agents in New York City, Little Rock, Ark., and Washington D.C. reported. The shorter timeline — written by a DOJ lawyer assigned to the FBI under former bureau Director James Comey — was secured by top aides to Patel and was obtained by Just the News earlier this year. The newly-released and longer timeline was handed over to Grassley's office by the FBI along with a host of corroborating internal emails and was recently provided to Just the News. Agents struggled for years to investigate Clinton Foundation The longer timeline indicated that questions about the Clinton Foundation's potential criminality were raised as early as April 2010, when there was a “consensually-monitored call between [Redacted] Sant Singh Chatwal” during which there was a “description of conversations with foreign donors (Amar Singh, Lakshmi Mittal, Deepak Chopra, Praful Patel, Subhash Chandra) about giving to HRC.” McCabe stops the Clinton Foundation investigation from moving forward in 2016 The shorter timeline revealed that as early as February 2016, the Justice Department “indicated they would not be supportive of an FBI investigation.” The shorter timeline also shows that, in mid-February 2016, McCabe ordered that “no overt investigative steps” were allowed to be taken in the Clinton Foundation investigation “without his approval” — a command he allegedly repeated numerous times over the coming months. John Huber, Uranium One, and the continued stalling of the CF inquiry The Hill had reported in October 2017 that “before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin's atomic energy business inside the United States.” The Hill said that “federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.” “They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton's charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow,” The Hill reported. Source: justthenews.com https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2000621732932039106?s=20  solved by asking nicely. Unprecedented circumstances require unprecedented action. It's time for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, deploy the US MIL to every city in America, safeguard the public, completely uproot the Left-wing terrorist network, deport the illegals, secure elections, arrest the traitors who are responsible for all this, and save the Republic. https://twitter.com/drawandstrike/status/2000020569731809454?s=20   known as ‘The Federal Judiciary’ and the ‘The United States Congress’ to become actual America First branches of the federal government. This is not as easy as I make it sound just typing that out. It’s been a hard slog for Trump and his Dream Team Cabinet to get the Executive Branch where it now is after 11 months. We’re almost to the point the Insurrection Act can be invoked and most of the US Congress and a significant part of the federal judiciary can be arrested and replaced. 2026 is going to be quite awesome. https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2000686487352877517?s=20 https://twitter.com/MJTruthUltra/status/2000666864020808164?s=20 https://twitter.com/AwakenedOutlaw/status/2000329752251654517?s=20  . Oh, and note how matters regarding Tina Peters is coming to a head in parallel. Do you think that’s just happenstance? (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13499335648425062,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7164-1323"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.customads.co/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, reports on the House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the SPLC, the case before the U.S. Supreme Court on the San Jose,

Welcome back to Accelerate Your Business Growth! In today's episode, host Diane Helbig sits down with Dave Rizzo, Asia Pacific President of Teleperformance, a global leader in AI- and emotionally intelligent (EI)-powered digital business services. Together, they dive into practical strategies for blending AI and EI to create more efficient, yet deeply human, interactions with customers. Dave Rizzo shares actionable advice for business owners of all sizes on what types of tasks should be automated, and when that personal touch is not just beneficial, but indispensable. The conversation also takes us inside leadership practices that foster innovation and trust across diverse, multi-country teams, and explores what it really takes to build a culture of empowerment, transparency, and constant dialogue in today's global economy. If you're curious about future-proofing your business through digital transformation, empowering your people rather than replacing them, and ensuring your organization evolves alongside fast-moving technology, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways. Plus, you'll hear Dave Rizzo's perspective on why every team member's voice matters more than ever, and how leaders can create the conditions for everyone to engage meaningfully with change. Dave is a forward-thinking leader who has helped global organizations achieve consistency, speed, and large-scale transformation—whether through traditional or AI-driven solutions. Drawing on extensive experience across industries, Dave leverages his company's vast size and global reach to identify best-in-class partnership models for clients, tailoring solutions from banking to technology to retail. In the Asia Pacific region, for example, he connects insights from fast-moving startups and long-time retail partners worldwide, helping clients avoid reinventing the wheel. By prioritizing data and automation for routine tasks, Dave ensures his teams are freed up to focus on high-value, emotionally sensitive work, driving both customer satisfaction and operational excellence. If you are a small business owner or salesperson who struggles with getting the sales results you are looking for, get your copy of Succeed Without Selling today. Learn the importance of Always Be Curious. Accelerate Your Business Growth is proud to be included on the list of the 45 Best Business Growth Podcasts. We are also honored to be selected by FeedSpot as one of the Top 10 Growth Hacking Podcasts, Top 25 Evergreen Podcasts and Top 50 Business Growth Podcasts on the web. Each episode of this podcast provides insights and education around topics that are important to you as a business owner or leader. The content comes from people who are experts in their fields and who are interested in helping you be more successful. Whether it's sales challenges, leadership issues, hiring and talent struggles, marketing, seo, branding, time management, customer service, communication, podcasting, social media, cashflow, or publishing, the best and the brightest join the host, Diane Helbig, for a casual conversation. Discover programs, webinars, services, books, and other podcasts you can tap into for fresh ideas. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode and visit Helbig Enterprises to explore the many ways Diane can help you improve your business outcomes and results. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 When it just touches on these really profound themes and it's moving in a way that catches you off guard. Matt Nothelfer is a Committee Member of the Borrego Springs Film Festival and working documentary filmmaker.In this conversation, Matt talks:* Why small, community-driven festivals like Borrego Springs offer some of the best experiences for indie filmmakers.* How the festival creates a filmmaker-friendly environment: lounge, home-baked food, networking, and long Q&As.* The “secret weapon” of Borrego Springs: a local audience that fills a 180-seat theater from morning to night.* Why early-bird submissions matter—and when they don't.* How to spot scammy or low-value festivals on FilmFreeway through community presence, transparency, and online footprint.* Why filmmakers should focus more on storytelling and theme than technical perfection.* The blind-submission, five-category review process Borrego uses to evaluate films fairly.* Why small festivals often have the highest acceptance chances—300 submissions, 70–80 selections.* How writing a thoughtful, festival-specific cover letter can move a film from “maybe” to “yes.”* Advice to emerging filmmakers: avoid chasing 100 meaningless laurels and instead pursue festivals aligned with your goals.Thanks for reading The Creativity, Education, and Leadership Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Here is an AI-generated transcript of our conversation. Don't come for me.BEN: Hi everyone. This is Ben Guest and this is The Creativity Education and Leadership Podcast. Today my guest is Matt Telfer, who is a committee member for the Borrego Springs Film Festival. In this interview, we talk all things film festival, how to run a filmmaker friendly festival, and tips and tricks for submitting to film festivals.Enjoy.Matt, thanks so much for joining the podcast today.MATT: My pleasure. Happy to be here.BEN: So, I always like to start with a fun question, senior year of high school, what music were you listening toMATT: right off the bat with a curve ball? Alright, let's lay it out. I got the Talking Heads,BEN: the Cure,MATT: Like, let's see, what else?BEN: New Wave.MATT: Yeah, a little bit of the punk stuff. I mean, we got Pixies were, was I listening to the Pixies then? I can't remember. Yeah, so, uh, the Dead Milkman, stuff like that. The pubs, um, yeah, I had some of their records. You know, it's really frustrating ‘cause I had those records up until like five years ago and I left them at a colleague's house and they scattered to the wind.All that good stuff. Yeah. Anyway, I'm still a little bitter about that, but That's okay. My colleagues, my colleague was a friend and he, he deserved them.BEN: So you are a committee member at the Borrego Springs Film Festival. What? Yes, sir. And, and you've, you've held a variety of roles there and, and off air, you're saying sort of lately you've been focused on.You know, the pre-production of the festival, the website, getting the materials together. Correct? Correct. Reaching out to filmmakers, et cetera. Talk to me, talk to us about what are the fundamentals of running a good festival?MATT: Well, our context is that we're super small and modest. Uh, like we were saying before the interview, uh, officially started, we are literally a, a tiny little village in the middle of a giant state park.Actually the biggest state park in the lower 48 states desert community. We're actually just south of Palm Springs and, uh, there's like 3000 full-time residents here and, uh. So running a film festival in a place where there's literally. Not really a commercial market, it's a different type of animal.And um, so we kind of do everything on a very tight budget and we try to personalize stuff as much as we possibly can. We, since we can't really throw a lot of money at stuff, we just do everything we can in other dimensions.BEN: What's an example of that?MATT: Just trying to be considerate about stuff, uh, being friendly to filmmakers that are willing to submit and to get, and that also get accepted. So when they come here, it's a personalized experience. We work pretty hard on creating a filmmaker's lounge where folks can gather and network with each other throughout the entire uh.Five days of our film festival and while they're at the film festival and they're talking to each other, we also have food available for ‘em. One of our great committee members, her name's Pam, she literally will bake stuff in the evening and bring it in in the morning. So you have fresh pastries, cookies, coffee, like fruit vegetables, just everything laid out.And you know, there's really not a huge expense to do that, but you need like the right people to do that, so that's the thing that kind of makes our festival a little bit. Different, I guess in a way is like there's a personalized aspect to it and we spread that type of attitude across all our stuff.So we're gonna have like four parties during the entire festival, and all those parties have similar type of vibe.BEN: The reviews that I read online, um, on film freeway filmmakers were saying that it is, it's a film, it's a filmmaker friendly. Festival.MATT: Yeah. Because, you know, that's what we can do. Mm-hmm. Like, you're not gonna travel to a remote place in the desert and, you know, run into a bunch of industry folks.Usually there are exceptions to that. And, uh, as our. Film festival has gotten a little more solid, and we occasionally have some industry people coming in. Most of the time it's indie filmmakers. You know, we might have some elbow rubbing that this kind of neat. But for the most part, you know, these are just small independent filmmakers trying to do their thing and.Wanting to share their films with an appreciative audience. And aside from, being very personable, uh, with the committee and with the staff that run the film festival, one of the great things about our particular film festival is that the community is a huge part of what we do. The event they show up, we have 180 seat theater and it's full from 10:00 AM in the morning until eight o'clock at night.Oh wow. Every block and wow. It's been that way since the beginning, and it's not because of anything that we do on the committee, it's simply because the community wants to be a part of it. And so that's kind of our secret weapon, is like you show up as a filmmaker and like, oh man, I got, I got scheduled for the 10:00 AM block.They, and then they, they show up and like, what's going on here? This is look back. And then at the end of it, you know, there's an extended q and a. We don't. Push our blocks back to back really tight and there's plenty of time just to like relax and having interaction with folks and some q and as will go on for like a half an hour, if not more.And it's just, you know, so that's a unique thing that just kind of emerged without effort. And we take credit for it and we're excited that we can offer that. But you know, it wasn't any, it wasn't by design, it was just kind of like, cool. This is working.BEN: As far as festivals go, it sounds like filmmaker heaven.MATT: Well, you try to, we definitely try to be. And the dude that got this whole thing rolling, his name's Fred G and he has lived in this little community for a really long time, and he's a great guy and he's one of the reasons why a lot of people show up because, you know, he's just one of those kind of like community, uh, he's, he'll be really upset if I use this phrase, but he's like a town elder. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So just having that type of guidance and having that type of person that can kind of unify the entire event, I. Is really great. And again, like I said before, it's kind of our secret weapon is that we have like this great community that's willing to be a part of a filmmaker's storytelling in so much as like they'll sit there, they'll react to it, they'll ask questions about it afterwards.So yeah, if you're. A filmmaker that wants your film to be seen by actual eyeballs and actual people that are engaged. Mm-hmm. Then film festivals like ours, which there are many around, around the world. You gotta search ‘em out. As a filmmaker, you've gotta. Start getting discriminating. You've gotta really pay attention to what films are film festivals are offering and try to be a part of those kinds of environments, if that's what you want.BEN: So this is great because you're, um, you are part of the Bgo Springs Film Festival, you're also a working filmmaker. What are some other festivals that you've attended or know about that have a similar sort of filmmaker friendly vibe?MATT: Full Bloom film festival in North Carolina for sure. The WYO Film Festival in Wyoming, we enjoyed that a lot.My wife and I who are documentary filmmakers, we've taken our film films there. And again, you know, it's the exact same recipe basically, you have a core group of citizens that are willing and able to show up and be a part of an event. So when you sh, when you arrive as a filmmaker and you sit in the audience, you're not alone with, or if you're in the audience and you're only with other filmmakers there to screen their movie, you know?Yeah. You know that, you know that feeling. We've been there, right? We've been, we've all been there and, and we don't. Film festival is like what we're talking about right now. They don't wanna offer that. They want it to be something, even if they sometimes fall short, which has happened with us, we've had blocks where, maybe there's only 50 people in the audience and, you know, half of the audience might be filmmakers.But that is such a rare thing anymore. You just wanna be offering something to filmmakers. Make them feel appreciated because we know how hard it is to make these things and even and to be willing to share that in front of other people and, ask and answer questions it's a special thing and we wanna nurture that as much as possible and sort of those other film festivals.Love it. Yeah.BEN: Yeah. So we, I, I first came across you on Reddit on the film festival subreddit, and you were offering good advice and thoughts on, for filmmakers applying to festivals, how to think through strategy. So I guess for all, yeah. I mean, did you hear Yeah, help us out.MATT: Yeah. Did you, when you were reading that stuff, I mean, what kind of hit you as like the most relevant?BEN: I think it's two things and since I, I just have a documentary. I finished and am submitted a film festivals. I've read a bunch of stuff. Seen a bunch of stuff, so I may conflate some of the things that you said versus something I saw elsewhere. But two things. That's all right. I'llMATT: take credit for it.BEN: One is know what your goal is ahead of time, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. To, be it the, be it a filmmaker friendly festival with good parties and events and networking. Is your goal to get exposure? Is your goal to meet people in the industry? Is your goal mm-hmm. To get laurels? Those are all different worthy goals, but they all will change your strategy and your approach for film festivals.And the second is, you know, submit to, don't submit to 50 festivals. Submit to 5, 6, 7, see what the results are and then adjust from there.MATT: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So yeah, when we're talking strategy, that's so important and, and we can speak about it from the perspective of the Borrego Springs Film Festival because, you know, knowing the context of the type of festival we are now, if you were a filmmaker that was searching out, let's say.A bunch of like publicity for, you know, some type of, media push. It's like, would you necessarily want to come to Bgo Springs? Maybe yes, maybe no. It depends on how you played it, but. The main reason you would be coming to Borrego Springs, we feel is because you want that personal interaction and you want feel special as a filmmaker and you want to share your stuff with us, and we want you to share your stuff with us, right?So you're absolutely right when you're initial initiating your kind of film festival search as a filmmaker, you really gotta narrow down what your expectations are. And figure that out. I can speak as a filmmaker as well. It's like if you're gonna go someplace and spend money to do so, I mean, at the very minimum you squeak by on a budget of 500 bucks, then that's kind of like dirt cheap to go someplace and then return home.You know? That's still a lot of money. Mm-hmm. And that's, that's probably like. The least amount that you would ever be able to spend and you would need help, like getting lodging, which we try to offer to our filmmakers. Um, you know, how are you gonna, what are you gonna do? What are you going to eat when you get there, which we try to offer to our filmmakers.And, you know, all those things become part of the calculus, right? Mm-hmm. Especially when you're independent, mm-hmm. I would ask you is like when you're trying to submit, what are you aiming for right now?BEN: So great question. So I'm aiming for trying to get multiple laurels and I'm in, in a little bit of a different situation, I think, than most filmmakers.So I, I have an academic background, I have a PhD, and ideally I'd like to I've worked at various universities. In the ideal world, I'd like to go back overseas and teach film at a university. And so in the world, in the world of academia, you know, there's this phrase, publish or perish, right? You have to publish academic journal articles, publish.Mm-hmm. In film, in the world of filmmaking, academia, a film festival run. A film festival. Acceptance is like a journal article, right? Um, maybe if you do a feature film that's like publishing a book, this is sort of, uh, roughly equivalent to getting a, a journal article published. So I want to sort of garner a number of laurels so that I can indicate, you know, this, this short plate at these 10 different film festivals.MATT: Okay, so the credentials matter, right? Correct. It's kind of like that kind of that'sBEN: exactly right. LittleMATT: trophy on the mantle, as it were. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, um, I'm gonna ask you another question if that's okay.BEN: Yes. I feel like I'm getting a All right. Free film festival, um, consulting.MATT: Perhaps, I don't know about that, but when you are pursuing the laurels and, you know, everything's kind of like filtering through film freeway these days. Mm-hmm. So what's your strategy as far as like finding those types of film festivals that you think are going to, allow you to get those laurels on your poster or whatever?BEN: Yeah. Another great question. So couple things. One is it's a doc. My latest is a documentary short, and it's, it takes place in the world of improv comedy. And the two subjects are two black women. So looking at festivals that either are geared towards comedy, towards documentary shorts or towards black themes and African American themes. One of those three or, or, um. Themes of uh, women in, in general. Sure. Well, if I couldMATT: interrupt real quick, please. Yeah. So it seems like you're trying to basically still maintain some integrity as far as that goes. It's like, yeah, I'm not relevantBEN: all like the fly by night, if you submit, we'll give you the, you know, the UP award.Yeah, exactly. Well, that, that's why I'mMATT: asking because. Okay. Because that's why I'm asking because, there are plenty of, you know, weird little festivals that are floating around the mill fly by night, that,BEN: thatMATT: come, that come and go. And if you want to get a hundred laurels on your poster, if that's, you know, what makes you feel good, then you could definitely do that.But at least what you're saying is like, okay, let's make sure that what's happening with my film has integrity, has, has a shape, and has, something that means something after, you get accepted.BEN: Yes. Oh, a hundred percent.MATT: And the reason I bring that up is because, you know, as a small film festival we struggle with getting we just struggle competing with what's out there on film Freeway, let's put it that way.BEN: You know, because Talk about that. Break itMATT: down. Yeah. You know, it's just, as anyone knows that's trying to do this thing, it's like you hit film freeway and they're a great platform. I'm not, complaining about them at all, but there's just a lot of stuff on there that is more or less as a filmmaker or relevant.I mean, would you agree with that?BEN: Oh, a hundred percent.MATT: Unless all you're wanting to do is just get one laurel to put on your, on your poster, so you know. Maybe they offer a little bit of something. But as a filmmaker, I've been to the ones that don't offer much anything aside from a screening and even, and it's like I'm lucky enough to even go to ones that have physical screenings.A lot these days are just like, oh, we'll slap it online and call it good. So, you know, uh, let's be honest, there's a lot that are just out there and they're just trying to churn. Make some money. So as a small film festival, we're competing with that stuff and we've seen our, uh, submission rate decline, not necessarily a bad thing for us.Mm-hmm. But for other film festivals, I imagine they might be getting frustrated with it. We are actually perfectly comfortable with where we've kind of landed and the groove we've been in since the pandemic. Even a little few years before then, and we haven't tried to kind of like change our recipe much.So we're just happy with the amount that we're getting. We're happy with the amount that we're accepting and we're pleased with how we're screening stuff and the opportunities we're giving people. But I do feel, from what I've seen, it's becoming. Uh, it's just, it's a bit, it's a bit difficult to navigate the slop.Let's just break it down like that. Yeah. And I don't know if you're feeling if you're experiencing the same thing or not. I'd be curious to, to see what you, what you say.BEN: For a hundred percent, so I, I made a few documentaries in the late 20, 2011, 2012, and that was right when Without a box, which was filmed free, right withoutMATT: a box.BEN: Started and it was great because instead of having to burn a bunch of DVDs and physically mail them, you could just upload your film and then submit it to a bunch of festivals. Research a bunch of festivals. Great. Coming back to it now in 2025, it's Scam Central and I think unfortunately one of the things you, you have to spend a bunch of time doing is trying to figure out which of these festivals.First of all, which of these festivals are just legit in that they're not trying to just mm-hmm. Get money from you. They're gonna do a virtual screening and that's it. And then once you even get that breakdown, kinda like you said, which are festivals that are legit, that, that have good people working hard, good intentions, you're proud to show your film there versus they're just churning through submissions and fees.And chart, have a bunch of deadlines and a bunch of different slots you can apply for. They're not the exact opposite of how you describe Borrego Springs.MATT: Yeah. And you have to, as a film festival, at least in our opinion over here, it's like you have to bring that value to the table or else why?Why are you really doing it? And if that answer is like, you're just some guy sitting in an apartment somewhere trying to make a lot of money or a living, I don't know if you can make a lot of money doing this.BEN: Mm-hmm.MATT: Um, but. If you're just doing a film festival that is literally fly by night because you want to cash in, it's like, that's really unfortunate.Now the other side of that coin is like we see a lot of very earnest filmmakers submitting and, uh, they might not be the most technically adept. And they're fresh out of the gate as far as like trying to be a filmmaker. So they're very eager and you know, they just want to tackle everything all at once, and they end up you know, they're not really exercising any discrimination about where their films are going and they end up, you know mm-hmm.Kind of wasting a lot of money in that regard. Submitting, the, submitting, submitting without much, kind of emotional reward from it. And I think,BEN: yeah.MATT: Having some type of like positive feedback about what you're doing is great, even if it's whatever.But. It really helps to have a place to land where you feel like super special and cared for and considered and not just like, oh, I showed up and, it cost me $10 to get into my own movie and it's costing me $20 to, buy a cocktail over here and, you know, those kinds of things.If you're even lucky enough to get that, honestly.BEN: Right. What's your advice on spotting scams when you're applying to festivals?MATT: How to be discriminating as far as like submitting?BEN: Yeah,MATT: I mean I can only approach that from our, my wife and i's own experience trying to get our films into festivals. And with the insight like working on a film festival, I think that helps.But trying to spot ‘em is really, you got to. Try to get a sense if there's any type of community involvement going on mm-hmm. With the festival. And you can usually track that online if you're, you know, if you're a bit sleuthy, and you can find out if it's being supported by the community in some sort of way.Mm-hmm. And it shouldn't take you too long to figure that out with a couple of decent, online searches and follow in a few threads of information. Another thing is, is like if they're kind of nurturing their online presence, you know, it doesn't have to be super sophisticated. You just have to get a vibe that they're trying.And if, if you get that kind of sense, then it's worth the effort. Typically the other thing is you gotta really know what type of film festival that you're submitting to, right? If you're making documentaries, you're not submitting to, you know, a feature film, festival Right. In every festival.So yeah. Core effects. So I, yeah. You know, it's just being, making those obvious decisions. But when you dig beneath that superficial stuff and you get past like the obvious. Really try to get a sense about what you want yourself as a filmmaker when you go to a film festival. And for us it's like getting appreciative eyeballs on the film and giving us fun feedback and having a good time and interacting and, and doing some networking, uh, basically having a party and celebrating your film.Mm-hmm. And I think that weBEN: think about, yeah, sorry, go ahead.MATT: I think that this, that's important for us, so I imagine, and I, I would think that it's important for other people that are making movies as well. Yeah. If we, about, especially independently.BEN: Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's you were alluding to very little money in it, but, um, there are, there are rewards.Yes. One of the biggest of which is seeing your film in a packed house with an engaged audience. What from a screener perspective, from a film festival perspective, what are some tips you would give up and coming filmmakers, young filmmakers on their short films in particular mistakes that you see et cetera, et cetera.MATT: I would say the biggest mistake, especially as a, a young filmmaker, is concentrating so much on the technicalities of the craft and ignoring the storytelling. Um, you know, we, you mentioned, and we mentioned before about like when we started, uh. Kind of submitting to film festivals. This was basically what, like 15 years ago for both of us now, right?2010s, 2012, whatever. Mm-hmm. The technical back then could elevate you above everything else back then. Like today. You know, look, anyone that has a, has a mobile telephone, essentially has the skillset it takes, or not the skillset, but the technical wherewithal.AnBEN: outstanding camera.MATT: Yeah. Yeah. And the point being is like you can go out and you can create something compelling without the gate of the technical getting in the way. Uh, you can capture it. And it doesn't have to look like a million bucks. It's nice if it looks like, you did a big budget thing on a small budget.I'm not knocking the craft of anything. I'm just saying don't be so intent. Or maybe even don't even worry if like, it falls short technically a little bit. ‘cause I will. Guarantee you that a film is gonna get into a film festival based on if it's a compelling story with a good theme or not. And theme is another thing that a lot of folks don't necessarily appreciate, I don't believe.Just to give you a little bit of insight, our film festival. Is the selection committee are not industry professionals. They are regular citizens. They're just watching movies to help out our film festival. Now, try to imagine what that means. It's like folks don't focus on the technical unless it's an absolute train wreck.They will literally sit down and say, is this something I'm interested in and am, am I engaged with the story? Full stop. So that's where, that's the thing you have to focus on. And if you're not doing that as a filmmaker, okay, maybe you're just, you know, maybe your thing is gonna be, you're just a cinematographer, you're just a sound guy.You know, you're more crafty than you are. You know, a storytellers you gotta find that. You gotta find that place. That would be the main thing, because I know we, we. This, I think this is a good thing about our particular film festival is that we have taken in some films that probably weren't like technically as good as they should have been, but because they are just so.Compelling. We don't ignore it like we do pay attention to the craft, but if a story elevates beyond the craft, we're more than happy to bring those folks in. And when those folks come in, they're like, oh my gosh. You know, it was like we're having a hard time getting accepted to film festivals and we're so grateful that you took our film and we can't believe the response that we're getting.Um, they tend to be the best. Most enthusiastic filmmakers and attendance of anybody. Mm-hmm. They're not cynical, you know, they're not burnt out, they're just like over the moon.BEN: They're happy to be there.MATT: Yeah. And it, and they should be. And they're gonna spread the word ‘cause they, they've created something.Yeah. Wonderful. Now, you know, maybe it's underexposed, maybe it's overexposed. Maybe the audio's not great here and maybe the audio's okay there, whatever. It's compelling. That's the main thing. And you and you as a filmmaker really need to start analyzing. My wife and I do this all the time. It's like, what the heck are we making here?Are we making something that is compelling to us personally? Mm-hmm. Are we making something that's compelling to other people? Mm-hmm. It's two different things.BEN: Mm-hmm.MATT: I mean, that's right. So storytelling is hard.BEN: Yeah. That's the craft. It's storytelling.MATT: Yeah.BEN: Yeah, yeah. What does your, so you've got screeners, not industry folks, people just who appreciate films and filmmaking.What does your judging sheet or criteria sheet look like with your screeners, and what's the process that a film goes through?MATT: Here's another thing about our particular film festival. We're completely blind. Submissions. You know, we do not solicit anything. It's like early days we were kind of like poking around and asking for some folks to kind of consider us, but we've kind of let that fall by the wayside.Maybe that's one of the reasons our submissions have declined a little bit over the years. One of the factors, but regardless completely blind submission. So. Stuff comes in. We have a bunch of people that are at the ready and they start watching it, and we basically have a five step process.It's like, consider this, consider this, consider this, consider this. And they do that. And they mark it from scale of one to 10. And, uh, from that we kind of start our, fundamentallyBEN: what are, what are the different, consider this. Like what are the categories?MATT: Let's see. I gotta look it up, but it, it basically breaks down to, okay.Are you sentimentally engaged with this? Meaning, is it, is it a subject matter? I love that questionBEN: that,MATT: yeah, it is a subject matter that you. Like just offhand, like, okay. It's a, it's a nature movie. See, I love nature movies. Oh, I see. Are you, you see what I'm saying?BEN: Predispose, I thought, I thought you meant was the film engagement.MATT: No, no. It, no, it's, it's, it becomes both. It becomes both, right? Yeah. Because your sentimental attraction to something is going to create an engagement. So we kind of wanna know if, uh, our regular folks are like just locking into something because they just love the subject matter.BEN: They make the topic.Yeah.MATT: Yeah. Um. Then from there we do actually talk about craft, even though I was saying before, like, uh, don't worry so much filmmakers about the craft anymore, but we wanna make sure that you can hear it. Okay. It's not a total disaster with the audio and you can see everything. Okay. So we ask them to rate it on that scale.And then, um, other, you know, just more nuancey things is like, okay, is the pacing cool? In other words. Did you find it like it was dragging a lot or it was, too fast? How's the editing style? Those kinds of metrics. And there's actually a few other ones in there as well. So all that is just kind of thrown into the pile.Mm-hmm. And then from there we start to weed that out as we come to after like all the submissions come in and from. Once all the submissions come in and our, our deadline has passed, then the committee jumps in and starts doing a more nuanced type of an analytical thing to the films that have been submitted.But I will say that regardless of how we kind of shuffle things, once the deadline is closed, the people that watch our films and the committee members are usually. Copacetic. There's hardly anything that that changes. And, um. The nice thing about our particular film festival too, is like if you're a filmmaker submitting, you know, I'll just, I'll give you the numbers.We essentially get like 300 submissions, so it's not a lot. Mm-hmm. Um, and out of that 300 we are running a sub, we're running a screening rate anywhere between like 70 to 80 movies a season. Mm-hmm. So that's a really good. That's a really good, uh, opportunity to get accepted at a film festival, and that's why small film festivals might be the best bet for a lot of independent filmmakers, I think.Mm-hmm. You know, because you have that opportunity to get noticed. So I think I might have tangent, I went off tangentially a little bit there, so if you wanna pull me back in.BEN: Yeah. You went off tangentially, but in a great way. I mean that I want to appreciate the transparency with the numbers. I interviewed, um, the director of the Wyoming International Film Festival, a guy named Rudy Womack, and he was the same.He was like, here's our numbers, we publish ‘em. He's like, most festivals don't, but it just demystifies the process. So it's very helpful.MATT: Yeah. And I'll give film pre credit because they allow film festivals like ours to put those numbers online. Mm-hmm. And, and we've done that. If you hit our page on film Freeway, you can start to figure out what we're about without too much trouble.BEN: What are the, what are the different blocks you run?MATT: As far as like thematically?BEN: Yeah. Yeah. Like at a festival. What are the different categories and blocks.MATT: Aha. See now you touched on something that's kind of unique to us. Okay. So, you know, you go to a film festival and it's like, oh, this is the, this is our dog block.Every movie's about dogs.BEN: Right, right.MATT: Or something like that. We don't do that. At all. So we kind of grab bag, the whole thing. It becomes a very eclectic mix of stuff. Mm-hmm. And one of the reasons we've ended up doing that is because our community has kind of demanded it. Whoa.Interestingly enough. Yeah, so they drove the decision to kind of like stop doing thematic blocks and they wanted a better mix of things because they, again, our folks here, they show up for every single block place is packed.BEN: I just, and sorry to interrupt before you finish, like everything you're saying, it just sounds like there's an iter iterative feedback loop.Between the community in the festival, the film? Absolutely in the festival. The volunteers in the festival. So I just wanna highlight that ‘cause I'm loving everything you're saying.MATT: Well, again, like I said, it's the secret sauce. It's our, it's our weapon that we have our secret weapon that allows us to kind of like elevate beyond our like humble budget.Right.BEN: The community is, but community is letting you know, we don't want thematic blocks.MATT: Yeah. The community came in and said, we, we want mix. So when we sit down and we're sitting through movies, it's like. If we're watching something that we're not in tune with thematically, then you know, you would have to sit there for like an hour and a half and just kind of tolerate it.Whereas now, if like a movie comes on about dogs and for some reason you're just a weirdo and you don't like dogs, that movie will come and go and now you're onto something else, right? Mm-hmm. So. Yeah like you just mentioned, it, it really becomes a cooperative effort between the community, the film festival itself and, and even the filmmakers.And we're kind of proud that it is a little bit ramshackle in that way ‘cause it creates a very organic vibe and weirdly enough. Like at the end of it all because it, it's a little bit random. It is like how folks get scheduled.BEN: Mm-hmm.MATT: Themes are emergent anyway.BEN: Mm-hmm. It's, peopleMATT: start creating patterns that didn't exist and then it sometimes that becomes really profound.It's like, didn't even think of that. It's brilliant. However oh, the other thing about programming too, that we do specifically for our film festival is that we. We ask our filmmakers, say like, Hey, are you planning on coming here? And if they, if they are planning on coming here, we try our, our level hardest to make sure that we program their films to match their schedule, right?So we don't lay out our program and say, okay, you were scheduled for, you know, Wednesday at 2:00 PM. It's like, well, I'm only free on the weekend. You know, and you wouldn't, you would never be able to attend. We ask first to say, do you think you're gonna be able to be here? And if they say yes, then we try to accommodate as best we can.So again, it's, it's collaboration across the board from filmmakers down to the, to the citizens of our small town.BEN: One of the things I read somewhere, or heard somewhere, is that it's much more advantageous to apply for the early bird deadline. What's your take on that?MATT: For our film festival, not so much, but I, I definitely adhere to that strategy as a filmmaker.If nothing else, it's budget conscious, you know? Yeah, yeah. It's cheaper usually under the initial deadlines you know, you have to take advantage of that. The other thing I guess is like, I will say from our experience, uh, with our particular film festival, if you get it in under the early bird deadline, at least it's there.And you know, you've basically got like four or five, six months for the submission. Crew for that particular film festival to kind of think about it. Whereas if it comes in a last minute, you're not really gonna get as much consideration. It's just gonna have to be more like, uh, an initial one-off type of decision.SoBEN: are there other, and I mean the, the most important advice right, is always make a good movie outside of the movie. Yeah. Are there other ancillary things that. Can move the needle at all. Cover letters, director statement, press kit, stuff like that, or it's not, uh, it's negligible.MATT: Hmm. It's neg negligible to an extent in so much, it depends on how you frame it as the filmmaker.Mm. And let me, I'll try to explain. So every year as a film festival, you just basically get cover letters. It's like, oh, take my film please. It's about this, it's about that. But it's a cover lever, co cover letter. It's, uh, copy and pasted. You can tell. You can just, you just know. It's like, okay, they're making an overture to us, but they're also making an overture to like a hundred other film festivals.It's like if you're gonna write to a film festival and say you want in, just make sure that you actually acknowledge who you are sending your film to. Don't just say, Hey, Borrego Springs, I wanna be in your film. I like Borrego Springs, mm-hmm. My parents went there once and I've always been com I've always been interested in the desert and how awesome would it be?See, that tells us that you're paying attention. Right?BEN: Mm-hmm.MATT: That you're trying. We're trying. We just want the filmmakers to try as well, as far as like trying to make any requests to get preferential treatment, and it's totally cool to ask for preferential treatment. By the way. You can say, I see that you're a small community.I just made a film that's, that takes place in a small community. We might be a really good fit. That kind of thing matters, right? An email overture works. Yes. An email overture doesn't work. No. It's both things at once, depending on, it really depends on how you write that letter. So if you wanna invest the time and effort to try to impress a film festival, just make sure that.You understand what that film festival is and really think about if what you're offering, the film festival is something that they might want. And if you can, if you see a, a common thread there, write about it in a letter. And even if it's just one sentence, it's like, then we know on our side that this person's paying attention and that that kind of matters.It does matter. So at the end of the day, when you're take, when you're kind of like really trying to figure out your cutoff, if your little film happens to be on the bubble, guess what? It might get into film festival, right? Mm-hmm. Because you said that you have a connection to this place, and I think that's fair.I mean, what, does that make sense?BEN: Yeah, for sure. So the festival is coming up in January, is that correct?MATT: Yeah, we're in the middle of gearing up for it right now, as a matter of fact. Nice. I gotta run out to the, to town here in like a, like 15 minutes actually to do some stuff for the film festival.So yeah, it's, it's, well, today we're shooting, um, a little promo, uh, thing that we're gonna run, run during. At the beginning of the blocks, and I'll be doing that with Fred G the chairman of the board. Yeah, that's nice, fun stuff. We try to have fun with things, so. Yeah.BEN: We do littleMATT: skits and whatnot during the award ceremony.It's, it's goofy. I love it. Cheesy as hell, but we like doing it, soBEN: I love it. Oh, that's actually something that I sort of, in, in, in my cover letters, which I try to. You know, write tailored to the festival. Especially the ones in California say, well, the film's about this improv duo and mm-hmm. We accepted, we'll come and we would love to do a little improv performance for the festival attendees.Um,MATT: I will say this too, because we're such what you just mentioned. I just want to piggyback on that for a second. So you said in my cover letter I'll say, we're willing to attend. It's like if you say that in a cover letter and you mean it, you, and you're willing to do that. Yeah. That's good. Especially for a festival like ours.We want filmmakers to come here. We wanna treat ‘em to a good time. We want them to be part of something that's. Big in the community and the community wants that as well. So if you're here and you're willing to be here, then that matters.BEN: I love it. Well, I mean, everything I'm hearing about Borrego, like literally I just reached out ‘cause I wanted to just talk film festival submissions, but now I'm like, Ooh, next year I'm definitely gonna submit to, uh, to Borrego.MATT: Yeah, I know this was supposed to be like a strategy session and here I am bragging about the film festival. That'sBEN: No, no. It's exactly what I, what I want. It's great. Last question. What's a, what's a. Documentary that blew you away recently?MATT: So, okay, so last year at our film festival, there was this really cool documentary called Dale. Have you seen it?BEN: No. Tell me about it.MATT: So Dale is like this older woman and she's the first basic Asian American that was in the, um, uh, Los Angeles orchestra, the Los Angeles Phil Harmonic. Okay. And essentially all it is is.I say all it is like, it's a very profound kind of retrospective of what she did to get to that point and you know, her views on things and it's just, and the music that was involved, just very beautiful, very poignant and simple. And. So when, when you have like movies like this and it's, it's not even a 10 minute long movie, it's under 10 minutes.Mm-hmm. When it just touches on these really profound themes and it's moving in a way that catches you off guard. Those are the things that you can't ignore, right? Mm-hmm. And this is actually, Dale's a good example because, you know, it's not always shot pristinely, it doesn't have to look, perfect. But the story reaches kind of a transcendent level that is really, really nice. So if I would throw in Dale and let me see, uh, the the director of that, his name was Justin Strike. So if anyone, I think it's still on the film festival circuit, so you have that opportunity. Go check it out.BEN: Love it. Love it. Love it. Matt, thank you so much for taking the time. For people who are interested in Borrego Springs Film Festival, either to attend, to submit, et cetera, what where should they go and where can they find you?MATT: Oh, online search, just, you know, Borrego Springs Film Festival. It'll lead you to all the places you need to be.And, uh, yeah, just track us down that way. Pretty straightforward. Take a peek at what we're offering. We keep mm-hmm uh, we keep an archive of the stuff we've done online so you can pull back the curtain and look and say, okay, is this kind of something I'd be interested in?Um, you can get a vibe for it that way. And, uh, that's, yeah, that's kind of it. That's kind of it. I think we've tried hard to make sure that what we offered is pretty transparent, and if you take a look at it and you think it's a good fit, and by all means, send us your stuff. Including you, by the way, so, you know.Yeah, no, you have to submit as well now would definitelyBEN: be submitting early bird deadline next year. Perfect. I wish I, if I was still in LA I'd come down, uh, next month and, and just go to this upcoming festival. It sounds wonderful.MATT: Well, I know. Why don't you just do it anyway?BEN: Yeah, I'll give you aMATT: VIP pass.I that,BEN: listen, I might take you up on it. I still all, well, if you do, it'sMATT: we'll be waiting for you.BEN: You, you know, we're, we're documentary filmmakers. We always have a couple irons in the fire. So I do have one kind of idea of, uh, another doc I'd like to shoot out on la maybe I'll combine it. I'll let you know.MATT: Perfect excuse.BEN: Hey, this was fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time. I'm so glad um, we connected and uh, just listen. Our pleasure be fantastic.MATT: Yeah, we're, we're happy as a film festival to be asked to do this kind of thing, so thank you. And um, best of luck to your film too. I'm gonna check it out, so be sure to submit it straight away.BEN: I will. Thank you so much, Matt. Alright man. Thanks.BEN: That was my interview with Matt of the Borrego Springs Film Festival. Hope you enjoyed, please forward to at least one person. Have a great week. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benbo.substack.com

Send us a textA single choice can shape a lifetime. When Nigel Hughes told a careers panel he'd choose ballet over the Marines, he set a compass for courage, creativity, and connection that still points true decades later. We invite you into Nigel's “clearing”—a 1642 Suffolk cottage turned open house—where hedges host micro-moths, neighbours drop by for sugar-free Black Forest gâteaux, and leadership looks like tending land until it teaches you how to lead.The story travels far beyond the garden gate. In Papua New Guinea, Nigel and his partner used theatre—songs, stories, and dugout canoes—to help local communities see what was at stake as industrial logging closed in. Their work helped protect 2,000 square miles of primary rainforest and seeded a long-term push toward World Heritage status. He calls it global kinship, a respectful exchange that begins with listening rather than lecturing. Along the way, we meet mentors who challenged him to be “dangerous or dead,” and we hear how personal rituals—like watching evening primrose bloom at dusk—guided him through cancer and back into purpose.Closer to home, Nigel's philosophy shows in the details: a biodiverse, organic landscape that encouraged neighbouring farms to go chemical-free; a practice of meditation and deep listening; a belief that internal diversity—ballet in the morning, county rugby in the afternoon—creates stronger, more human leaders. He worries about phone addiction and the loss of face-to-face connection, yet remains relentlessly optimistic that attention, courage, and care can leave places and people better than we found them. If you're ready to rethink leadership as leaving more life behind than you took, this conversation will meet you where your feet are and invite you to stand for something that lasts.Subscribe, share with someone who loves nature and bold ideas, and leave a review to help others find the show. What's one brave choice you're ready to make today?Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website. Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com You can email me about the Show: chris@secondcurve.uk Twitter thatchrisgrimes LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/ FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860 Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :) Thanks for listening!

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, reports on the recent developments in the Indiana state legislature's attempt at redistricting, the Trump administration's

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, reports on how the Senate voted on the Obamacare subsidies, FRC President Tony Perkins's Capitol Hill testimony on Sudan,

Is gambling doing anyone any good? Host Casey Harper is joined by Les Bernal, national director of Stop Predatory Gambling, and The Washington Stand’s Jared Bridges to confront the roots and impacts of predatory gambling. Few actions by state governments harm Americans more. What does gambling truly offer? Only loss. The three break down what Scripture says about gambling, why corruption around it is so widespread, and whether there’s a real solution to this growing problem.

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, reports the latest developments on the Senate Republican health care plan, the House NDAA vote, and President Trump's

Is gambling doing anyone any good? Host Casey Harper is joined by Les Bernal, national director of Stop Predatory Gambling, and The Washington Stand’s Jared Bridges to confront the roots and impacts of predatory gambling. Few actions by state governments harm Americans more. What does gambling truly offer? Only loss. The three break down what Scripture says about gambling, why corruption around it is so widespread, and whether there’s a real solution to this growing problem.

One of the greatest sponsors of the show and the holiday store is Johnson Brunetti. Heath Grossman is an advisor for Johnson Brunetti and he stops by the Holiday Store.

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, anticipates the upcoming vote on the National Defense Authorization bill, unpacks how congressional redistricting in

Lance Reisland of Cleveland.com joins Afternoon Drive on The Fan. He talks about the Browns' two-point conversion attempts in the Titans game, Shedeur Sanders' performance in the loss, the team's struggles to stop the run, and more.

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, reports on steps to halt the expansion of IVF in the National Defense Authorization Act, efforts to increase military pay,

Mike and Bobby spoke to a WWL listener about the Saints' win over the Buccaneers. The guys highlighted rookie running back Devin Neal and second-year wide receiver Devaughn Vele. They evaluated rookie quarterback Tyler Shough's performance and the Saints' defensive line. Bobby praised first-year DC Brandon Staley.

Mike and Bobby spoke to a WWL listener about the Saints' win over the Buccaneers. The guys highlighted rookie running back Devin Neal and second-year wide receiver Devaughn Vele. They evaluated rookie quarterback Tyler Shough's performance and the Saints' defensive line. Bobby praised first-year DC Brandon Staley.

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, provides updates on a Supreme Court decision affecting congressional redistricting in Texas, a Ten Commandment case, and

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, reports on President Trump's meeting today with leaders from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an Obama

In a world being quickly influenced by Artificial Intelligence, how can Christians navigate this new reality? Host Casey Harper is joined by pastor and Dominion AI cofounder Erik Reed, along with The Washington Stand’s Jared Bridges to unpack how AI can be used in a way that glorifies the Lord. While AI provides knowledge and information, it will never replace the wisdom that actual humans can provide. The three contemplate the future of AI and the impact it will have on the workforce.

Dubs OT with John Dickinson: The Warriors nearly surmount a comeback to the 20-1 OKC Thunder but fall short thanks to yet another outstanding SGA performance.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this insightful episode, host Todd Zipper sits down with Jeanne Allen, Founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform (CER). Jeanne walks us through her three decades of relentless advocacy, tracing the evolution of education reform from the dawn of the charter school movement to today's rapidly accelerating landscape of school choice.They discuss the principles of the Yass Prize's STOP framework—finding providers who are Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless—and the monumental impact it has on scaling innovation. Jeanne unpacks the complexity of education funding, addressing criticisms of choice programs by revealing the opaque, century-old way government-run public education is funded. She also details the Parent Power Index, an initiative designed to hold state leaders accountable and truly empower parents with information on their education laws. Finally, they explore the critical need for civics education through the "Why America" initiative, the importance of foundational virtues and a moral compass in schooling, and the necessity of teacher autonomy as a means to increase student engagement and satisfaction.Don't miss this conversation on how we can accelerate the pace of change, put students first, and ensure a better future for education in America.

Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, covers the recent Ukraine-Russia negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the generous $6.25 billion donation by tech giants to

In a world being quickly influenced by Artificial Intelligence, how can Christians navigate this new reality? Host Casey Harper is joined by pastor and Dominion AI cofounder Erik Reed, along with The Washington Stand’s Jared Bridges to unpack how AI can be used in a way that glorifies the Lord. While AI provides knowledge and information, it will never replace the wisdom that actual humans can provide. The three contemplate the future of AI and the impact it will have on the workforce.

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, highlights the Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations, a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that would affect private donor

The 49ers, on Sunday, notched their first three-game winning streak since the opening three weeks of the season and won in Cleveland for the first time since Nov. 1984. The 49ers' latest win was exhibition in execution from the kickoff as they played complimentary football in all three phases. Brock Purdy played errorless football with excellent decision-making, while extending plays when needed. The special teams group bolstered the 49ers' field-position on returns and made timely kicks when needed, while the defense has been humming the last few weeks, creating turnovers and finally adding an element of pressure from the D-line that spurred San Francisco to victory. On this episode of '49ers Talk,' co-hosts Matt Maiocco and Jennifer Lee Chan break down San Francisco's decisive 26-8 road win over the Cleveland Browns at Huntington Bank Field. From Brock Purdy's bounce-back performance following a mistake-filled game, to special teams and defensive units flourishing, to a coach committed to his preparation and scheme in what might be his best coaching season for the Faithful, Matt and Jennifer detail a team finding health and success in time for a much-needed break during their Week 14 bye week.--(1:00) Recapping the 49ers' Week 13 win in blustery weather in Cleveland(3:00) Kyle Shanahan oversold weather to team to mentally, physically prepare them(5:00) Brock Purdy did what he had to do to secure the 49ers' win(11:00) Outstanding performances from Clelin Ferrell, Keion White, Malik Mustapha(14:00) Of all three phases the 49ers' specials teams group has improved the most this season(19:00) The 49ers are playing just about as good as any team in the NFC right now(30:00) Brock Purdy finally showing a bit of confidence -- rare touchdown dance proof of it(39:00) 49ers looking forward to a full week off during their bye Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, reports on a special election in Tennessee, the latest developments in the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in

In Episode 277 we discuss why and how we rate board games on BGG and run through each of the rating levels, how they're described on BGG, and provide samples of our ratings at each level. We also discuss a poll about rating board games on BGG.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction01:29 Poll Time: Do you rate games on BoardGameGeek?7:42 BGG Ratings Topic Introduction9:40 1 - Awful Defies Game Description15:34 2 - Very Bad, Won't Play Ever Again19:30 3 - Bad, Likely Won't Play This Again23:24 4 - Not So Good, But Could Play Again27:51 5 - Mediocre, Take It Or Leave It32:34 6 - OK, Will Play If In The Mood38:05 7 - Good, Usually Willing To Play42:47 8 - Very Good, Enjoy Playing And Would Suggest It47:59 9 - Excellent, Very Much Enjoy Playing53:27 10 - Outstanding, Will Always Enjoy Playing57:32 Final ThoughtsIf you enjoy the show, please consider supporting us at https://www.patreon.com/boardgamehottakesFollow us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/boardgamehottakes.bsky.socialJoin our Board Game Arena Community: https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=11417205Join our Discord server at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/vMtAYQWURd

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Angelica in Europe: John Church, London Society, and Diplomacy — Molly Beer — Following ratification of the peace treaty, Angelica and her husband sailed to Paris to collect outstanding payments owed by the French government. John Carter leveraged the wartime amnesty to settle accumulated debts, reconcile with his estranged family, and legally adopt the name John Barker Church. Angelica relocated to London's elegant Mayfair neighborhood, where she established herself as a prominent American patriot. She strategically positioned herself at the intersection of cultural and diplomatic negotiations, entertaining influential figures including Lafayette and the Adamses, while exerting subtle influence over American diplomatic representatives toward negotiated peace. 1900 TICONDEROGA

Can AI truly be Christian? Host Casey Harper is joined by pastor and Dominion AI cofounder Erik Reed, along with The Washington Stand’s Jared Bridges, to explore the foundations and future of faith-driven artificial intelligence. Even if you are not a personal user of AI chat bots, the software is everywhere. Erik shares the story behind Dominion AI, how it differs from secular platforms, and the growing evidence revealing the risks of relying on AI for companionship alone.

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, reports on the proposed Obamacare subsidy extensions, the terms of the peace agreement that Ukrainian President Zelensky

Lance Reisland of Cleveland.com joins Afternoon Drive on The Fan. He talks about what stood out to him from Shedeur Sanders' first NFL start, where can improve going into next week's game against the 49ers, Jerry Jeudy's struggles this season, and more.

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, shares the latest on President Trump's plans for Obamacare subsidy extensions, Ukrainian President Zelensky's upcoming

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, reports on NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani's White House Visit, Ambassador Sam Brownback's Congressional testimony on Christian

Troy Weatherhead from the class of 2011 was known for his accuracy and leadership at quarterback for the Chargers. The former All-American and GLIAC Player of the Year is one of the newest members of Hillsdale College’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Once a standout on the football field, he now succeeds in the medical sales field as Senior Director of Global Marketing for Stryker Sage. ------ Informative. Inspirational. Uplifting. Those are the goals of the White and Blue podcast. We are here to tell the interesting stories of Hillsdale College alumni, who number more than 15,000 strong. Our guests will share about their time and experiences while on campus, and also the impact they have had on the world since graduating. What makes the Hillsdale College graduate unique? We will explore that question and more, including how alumni have impacted the past, present, and future of the College. Won’t you join us?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, summarizes top stories, including an Israeli attack on Hamas, the 30-day countdown to releasing the Epstein files, and an

“Socialism works until the money runs out.” Host Casey Harper is joined by Cuban writer and author Yoe Suarez and The Washington Stand’s Jared Bridges to break down the core principles of socialism and its impact on society. Speaking from experience, Yoe shares what life under Cuban socialism looked like, how socialist ideology views the church and how money is not always the solution for societal problems.

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, updates us on the courts' responses to both Texas's congressional redistricting and Ten Commandment legislation, the

On today's program: Casey Harper, Managing Editor for Broadcast at The Washington Stand and Host of the "Outstanding" podcast, covers the U.S. House vote forcing the DOJ to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, White House meetings between President

Every member of the Senate has a tool that allows them to single handedly bring the government to a screeching halt. Host Casey Harper is joined by Family Research Council’s Quena Gonzalez and The Washington Stand’s Suzanne Bowdey to discuss an interesting political tool and tactic: the filibuster. Created in the early years of American government to remove the ability to end debate, the filibuster has been used by both Republicans and Democrats throughout the years. The three discuss what it is, how does it maintain balance in the Senate, and if it were removed what are the unintended consequences for a short term gain, but long term consequences.