Podcasts about Pacific Ocean

Pristina is accused of undermining efforts to normalize relations with Serbia, which has puts its army on high alert. Also: a Russian border region bordering Ukraine comes under heavy bombardment, and the discovery of thousands of weird and wonderful species in an untouched area of the Pacific Ocean.

Eddie Rickenbacker shouldn't have survived—his childhood, his auto racing career, the first World War as he became America's greatest ace, the many plane crashes that had taken others' lives but yet, not his. A Medal of Honor recipient, he became a genuine icon and hero to the American people, providing a reason to celebrate during the Depression and inspiring them to face life's daily challenges. But then, in his 50s in 1942, Rickenbacker faced his worst odds yet: a B-17 bomber forced to ditch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with only inflatable rafts to survive the searing days and freezingnights—and no way to contact anyone. To tell Eddie's story is today's guest, John Wukovits, author of “Lost at Sea: Eddie Rickenbacker's Twenty-Four Days Adrift on the Pacific.” We look at his fight for survival with seven other men adrift on the Pacific. We also look at how many times Eddie Rickenbacker actually defied death—including one airline crash when a dislodged eyeball dangled on his cheek, and yet he tried to help the otherpeople escape while he remained pinned inside the plane.

Is tapping the Pacific Ocean for drinking water a solution to decades of drought and overuse of the Colorado River? "Parched" explores the possibility. Then, Colorado's betting big on hydrogen as a green fuel of the future. And later, the "Weird Foothill Guy" hits the slopes like surfers hit the waves.

As the Takeaway comes to an end, we get one last set of movie prescriptions from Kristen Meinzer, a culture critic and host of the podcast "By The Book" and Rafer Guzman, a film critic for Newsday, and they bring us movie prescriptions about embracing change and fresh starts. Together Kristen and Rafer are the co-hosts of the podcast, Movie Therapy. KRISTEN'S PICKS: Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar, 2021 When middle aged best friends Barb and Star lose their jobs, they decide that a restorative vacation in Vista Del Mar is just what they need to help them ease into the next chapter. But things don't go quite as planned - with mysterious men, villains, and more throwing monkey wrenches into their getaway. Fortunately their friendship, optimism, and sense of humor keeps them strong and ready for anything that's thrown their way. The movie stars Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo.  The lesson: Things in life don't always go as planned. Sometimes we lose a job, and then things get worse from there. But leaning on our friends, and laughing at the absurdity of life can make it all more manageable.  Sister Act, 1992 Whoopie Goldberg stars as a nightclub singer who's forced to go into witness protection in a convent after witnessing a mob hit. While there, she struggles with the regimented life of the nuns. But thanks to her outstanding musical talents and charisma, she's able to turn the convent choir into a soulful chorus complete with a Motown repertoire. The lesson: Sometimes we're thrown into situations that feel wildly out of our purview. But that doesn't mean we can't handle them. In fact, those situations combined with our unique skills mean that we might excel in new ways.  Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, 2010 This documentary follows one year in the life of Joan Rivers. It was filmed when Rivers was 75, and coming out of what she considered a down year...after 40+ years of ups and downs as an actor, writer, and comedian. Along the way, she reveals some of her darker moments, biggest struggles, and incredible work ethic...along with lots of her biting wit.  The lesson: Even a legend like Joan Rivers has had lots of down years...times that could have broken her...but she chose to keep working, evolving, and trying new things. I'll also add that this film has a special place in my heart because when she was on her press tour for it, Rafer and I got to interview her...and she ended up being our first celebrity interview for the Movie Date podcast. RAFER'S PICKS: Harold and Maude, 1971 This is kind of the original cult movie, from 1971 -- before Rocky Horror, before Pink Flamingos, there was Harold and Maude. It's the story of Harold, played by Bud Cort, and he's a very rich, very mobrid young man who spends most of his time staging fake suicides to upset his mother. He hangs himself, cuts his throat, immolates himself and so on. For fun he attends random funerals, and that's where he meets an 80-year-old woman named Maude, played by the great Ruth Gordon. And Maude is a rebel, even kind of an outlaw -- she's kind of a hippie, she poses nude for artists and for some reason she love to steal cars. She just loves to live. And these two start a friendship and despite their vast age difference, they fall in love. There was a time when you could see this movie at an art-house theater just about once a week, and I pretty much did, but I think it got oversaturated and it's really fallen off the radar these days. But I think it's worth revisiting. I like this movie because it seems morbid and perverse, and the humor is very dark. But as it goes on, it gets more and more tender and sincere, and these two characters start to feel very real. And in the end, Maude changes Harold, she gives him a new way of looking at life, she gives him a new spirit and she gives him a new way of expressing himself. She teaches him to play the banjo (and like Steve Martin always said, it's impossible to be in a bad mood when you play a banjo.) And the final scene in the movie, which involves that banjo, it's a really hopeful, happy scene that tell us Harold is about to embark on a whole new life.   Castaway, 2000 Probably most adult humans have seen Castaway but just to refresh you: Tom Hanks plays a guy named Chuck Noland. Happy, likeable guy, works for Fed Ex, he has a girlfriend, played by Helen Hunt, they're both deeply in love. He's really got it all. And then he's in a plane crash. He wakes up on a tiny island, somewhere in Pacific Ocean, surrounded by junk and debris from the plane, completely alone. And he's stuck there for FOUR YEARS. And of course, the most famous thing about this film is probably Wilson, a soccer ball that becomes Chuck's best friend as Chuck starts to go a little crazy. The scenes that always get me are in the second half of the film. Spoiler alert, Chuck gets rescued. And now he's facing a world that moved on without him. His girlfriend is married! She thought he was dead, so she he had to move on. (What a scene that is -- I can't believe Hunt didn't get an Oscar nomination for that.) Anyway, in these scenes, Chuck actually starts to miss his life on the island. He misses sleeping on the hard ground, he misses the act of trying to spear a fish for food. And that really struck me as true. The thing about people is, they can adapt to anything. And once they do, they love it. But then things change and you have to adapt again. So I guess the lesson of this film is that no matter where you are, you aren't at the end, you're always in the middle. You're always between the past and the future. But if you want to keep living, you've got to get to that next future. Inside Out, 2015 I loved this movie so much back in 2015 that I just fell all over myself praising it. I'm pretty sure it was number one on my top ten that year. It's the story of two emotions, one named Joy, with the voice of Amy Poehler, and one named Sadness, voiced by Phyllis Smith. And this is your classic Pixar buddy comedy, with two opposing personalities, and it all takes place in these imaginary realms of your brain and your personality, like the Train of Thought and Friendship Island and Dream Productions, which is basically a movie studio in the mind. And it does a great job of bringing abstract concepts to life in these really, clever funny ways. But the reason I picked this movie is because Joy and Sadness live in the brain of a pre-teen girl named Riley. Her family has just moved from Minnesota to San Francisco when her father gets a new job. It's a huge change, Riley doesn't want to leave her old life, and she's afraid of what her new life might be. So what we're seeing as Joy and Sadness go on their adventure, is what's happening in the mind of Riley as she grapples with change. And I really like how this movie shows that Sadness is important -- you have to feel it, you have to express it, and you can't just bury it or shut it off, if you're going to move forward on to the next thing.

This week's show features stories from Going Underground, Radio Havana Cuba, NHK Japan, and France 24. http://youthspeaksout.net/swr230512.mp3 (29:00) From AFSHIN RATTANSI- Afshin spoke with John Perkins, authour of an updated version of his book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman." John describes the work of the World Bank and IMF as the death economy, using debt to control countries in Latin America and Africa. The military industrial complex bloomed after 9/11 and again now with the war in Ukraine. US corporations make much larger profits developing infrastructure in indebted or war torn countries than at home. And banks can commit economic crimes and are let off with small fines. From CUBA- Australian lawmakers are urging the US Ambassador Carolyn Kennedy to drop charges against Julian Assange and send him home. Days before the Coronation, indigenous leaders in former British colonies called on now King Charles to apologize, pay reparations, and acknowledge genocide. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that the Israeli military takes no accountability for killing at least 20 journalists over the past 20 years, including 18 Palestinians. From JAPAN- In Russia at the annual Victory Day parade Putin said civilization was at a crucial turning point. The Foreign Ministers of China and Germany disagree about the invasion of Ukraine., but agreed to work together on climate change. Japan is trying to quell South Korean objections to the upcoming release of radioactive waste water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean. In Pakistan a court directed the release of imprisoned former Prime Minister Khan. From FRANCE- Press reviews on a new ban on far-right demonstrations and college paper ghost writers in Kenya and the advent of AI writing programs. In Alberta Canada nearly a million acres of forest have burned, causing large evacuations. Available in 3 forms- (new) HIGHEST QUALITY (160kb)(33MB), broadcast quality (13MB), and quickdownload or streaming form (6MB) (28:59) Links at outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml PODCAST!!!- https://feed.podbean.com/outFarpress/feed.xml (160kb Highest Quality) Website Page- < http://www.outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml ¡FurthuR! Dan Roberts "Fortunately, somewhere between chance and mystery lies imagination, the only thing that protects our freedom, despite the fact that people keep trying to reduce it or kill it off altogether." --Luis Bunuel Shortwave Report- www.outfarpress.com YouthSpeaksOut!- www.youthspeaksout.net Dan Roberts

For nearly 50 years, a group of Hawaiians have been sailing on traditional voyaging canoes using the methods that early Polynesian explorers relied on to navigate the Pacific Ocean—without maps and modern instruments, and relying on the stars, ocean waves, birds, and other natural elements to guide them. We meet National Geographic Explorer Lehua Kamalu, the first woman to captain a long-distance voyage on Hōkūleʻa, a double-hulled Polynesian canoe that was built in Hawaii in the 1970s. She describes what it's like to navigate in incredibly rough waters, what it means to keep Polynesian navigation alive in the 21st century, and about her next big adventure: a four-year circumnavigation of the Pacific Ocean. For more information on this episode, visit natgeo.com/overheard. Want more? Learn about the Polynesian Voyaging Society and their upcoming voyage, Moananuiākea, a 47-month circumnavigation of the Pacific.  Read about Hōkūleʻa's 2022 journey to Tahiti, which involved traveling 3,000 miles over three weeks.  Also explore:  A small number of people speak ‘ōlelo, Hawaii's native language, which teetered on extinction during the mid-20th century. Learn about how some young Hawaiians are using TikTok and Instagram to make the language more accessible.  Hear Nat Geo Explorer Keolu Fox on a previous Overheard episode share how he's working with Polynesian and Indigenous communities to study how their genomes have been shaped by history and colonialism, and how that data can help them reclaim land and improve health outcomes for their communities.  Visit National Geographic for more stories throughout Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Book mentioned: “Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World” by Cal Newport - https://calnewport.com/writing/   https://theAPSociety.org/AWW2023/   Remember, we welcome comments, questions, and suggested topics at thewonderpodcastQs@gmail.com. S4E16 TRANSCRIPT: ----more----   Mark: Welcome back to the Wonder Science-Based -Paganism. I'm your host, mark. Yucca: and I'm Yucca. Mark: Today we're going to talk about bringing the natural world that's outside where we live. More into integration with the natural world that's inside where we live. Having more of a sense of connectedness between the two of those and kind of a, an approach to worldview that helps to feed us and help us to be happier. Yucca: Right, so really talking about cultivating our environment. Environments, both on an external level and on that emotional internal level as well. Mark: Right. Yucca: Yeah. So I think this is a really fun one, especially as we're getting more into spring and into this warmer kind of time of the year. But yeah, let's, let's go ahead and get into this idea of kind of, Bringing that in, or as you were saying before, kind of blurring the lines between the outside and inside. Mark: Sure, and I really agree with you. I think that springtime is a great time to talk about this because. There's so much that's really beautiful that's happening in the world right now in the, in the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere, and a lot of how much we're going to get out of that depends on our mindset, Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: and it depends on what kind of habits we've developed for ourselves. We were talking before we started recording about how the, the human sensorium is geared to look for problems. Because problems threaten us. Right? And so solving problems becomes a way that you keep yourself from getting eaten, Yucca: Right. The person who didn't worry about that, Those weird noises that they heard around the campfire got eaten and then didn't have babies. So those people aren't our ancestors. The ones who were anxious and worried are our ancestors, right? Mark: Exactly. So we're already swimming against the current a little bit when we decide that we want to cultivate a worldview that actually reaches out for what makes us happy, for what brings us awe and wonder and contentment, and a sense of hope and aspiration, all those kinds of things. So we're gonna be talking about all that stuff today. But to begin with, there's this nature in nature outfit, Yucca: Right. Mark: and if you're anything like me and all the pagans, I know you've got rocks and sticks and plants and dried flowers and just all kinds of stuff, seashells and. Fossils and just all kinds of things from the natural world inside your house because those things bring you joy. Yucca: Mm-hmm. Yes. A lot of those things end up in our pockets and you know, first they end up in the laundry pile and then it all has to come out of the laundry, and then it gets arranged around the house and, and all of that. And I think that's, it's about what are we paying attention to? Right. Because those things are everywhere, the beautiful, I mean, next time you're sitting next to some gravel for a while, right? Gravel seems like it might be boring, but if you are sitting there because you're waiting for a bus to come or whatever it is, just start looking at each of those individual rocks. And just the way that the light is shining off of each of them and thinking about the history of how that rock formed, how many millions of years ago, and how it's been tumbled and all, what has happened to it. And I think that the, the collecting of those things is a reflection of the interest that we have in them and the interest that we have in the world around us. Mark: Right. Right. And that kind of curiosity, which of course is one of the Ethiopia Pagan principles, that kind of interest in the world is part of what engages us with the world, gives us a sense of being connected to the larger whole. Gives us a sense of valuation of. Of all that is right. So, yeah, when you're looking at that gravel, I mean, you'll, you'll see there are stones of different colors and obviously very different derivations all there kind of mixed together in that gravel. And each one of those has a geological story. You know, it's, it's got a chemical story. You know, the reason that they are particular colors is because they're made up of particular chemicals and. Being curious about those things and. To be, to be completely honest, you don't need to have a deep background in geology or in chemistry in order to appreciate this, to understand that, that in the earth, these rocks were formed. And then tumbled in the, the process of erosion, usually by water, but sometimes also by air. In order to form those little beads of gravel that you have before you. And when you have that revelation Sometimes what will happen is the, the, the ground will drop out from underneath you metaphorically, and you'll find yourself falling into this sense of amazement about the whole nature of deep time and the fact that we're here and the fact that we're a part of this wondrous, amazing hole that is planet Earth. Yucca: Hmm. Mark: And you'll probably take the rock with you. Yucca: Yes. Now if you don't, right, if you are practicing some form of very strict minimalism or anything like that, no judgment, Mark: That's fine. Yucca: fine. Mark: It makes you happy Yucca: Yeah. Mark: that, you know, we, we as, as we keep saying in naturalistic paganism, in atheopagan, there is no. Cosmic task master that wants you to do things a particular way, there is no Pope who's going to lay down the rules for you. It's about developing a practice and a perspective and a set of personal habits that feed you on a spiritual and emotional level so that you can be a happier and more contented and more effective person, and you can experience more joy out of your life. Yucca: Right. Mark: That's the deal. Yucca: Hmm. Mark: Yeah. It's amazing. It's, it, it's amazing how rarely you hear anybody say anything like that in our society. You know, do what? Just do what feels good. Yucca: Yep. Mark: anybody, just do what feels good. Do that, do that some more. Cuz it's, cuz it's good for you. Yucca: Right, Mark: But we're here to tell you weekly that, that's, that's. That's what we recommend. Yucca: right. So what are some of the things that you particularly enjoy in terms of do you, you know, is it dried leaves or sticks, or, you know, is there something that you really enjoy bringing into your home? Mark: You know, it depends on the season. I live about 30 miles away from the Pacific Ocean, and I don't get out there nearly as much as I would like to because 30 miles is enough to be a little bit of an impediment. I. But and I have to go through all this magnificent redwood country to get there, which kind of sidetracks me sometimes. But when I do go to the beach, I inevitably come home with a bunch of rocks and maybe a shell or two. And it's because. It's a combination of them being polished very to, to a pretty high gloss for nature. And also that they're often wet and so you can see their colors and their patterns more vividly than when they're dry. And so I'll end up, you know, bringing those home I Anne, a participant in our Saturday mixer on a regular basis. Had a suggestion this morning that she says she puts them in potted plants. You know, the, okay, I got a cool rock. Now it's going into potted plant. If you're getting them from the ocean, rinse the salt off first. Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: That's important because you know, most plants are not very salt tolerant. They don't like it. Yucca: Right. We actually do that as well for very practical reason as we have a cat in our house. And sometimes he decides that other things will be his litter box, and so we put pine cones and, and rocks and things like that into the potted plants and that prevents him from doing that. Mark: Oh, wow. I, I have not heard of that problem before, but that Yucca: Oh, really? That's a, that's a cat. Yeah. I mean, he's pretty good about not doing it now. But when we lived in a smaller apartment, yeah, sometimes he would just decide that that was gonna be his litter box instead. So, but the shells and the wet rocks we actually, so. Two weeks. But the reason we missed the podcast a couple weeks back is that my family, we went out to Florida for my brother's wedding. And so I took the kids to the beach for the first time in their life and they were, they were delighted. And of course, we came back with several gallon bags of shells because that was, we, I mean, how, how could you not, right? Shells and rocks and little you know, dead. Dried up coral things and, and all of that. And one of the things that we've done is taken a big vase and put some of the water in it and them in the water, in the, the glass vase. Because there just is something about it being in the water, right.  Mark: They're just much more visible that way. That's wonderful. That's a great idea. Yucca: Yeah. And of course we have ones that aren't, and you know, they're, they're being sorted by color over and again and all of that. But that, that's just been my favorite thing so far. And actually we took a few little pieces of dried up seaweed that was left on the, and that's in there too. That won't last quite as long as the rocks and shells will. Mark: Well, that's really great. I am, I mean, I love the desert and I've spent a lot of time in the American desert, but the op, having the opportunity to see a place that's, that has the ocean and is very wet and all that kind of stuff, you know, for your kids, I'm sure was just really magical. Yucca: I have to share just one thing as we were, we flew there. And so this was also their first airplane trip and we went, we. We stopped in, you know, Dallas on the way to get there and my daughter was looking out the plane and she looked down the, cuz I made sure to get window seats for the kids since, you know, they're gonna be first airplane try ride. And she's looking down and she goes, mom, the ground is green because, you know, we, the farthest we'd ever been is, is into Colorado with her, which is very similar. Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico are very similar. So she hadn't really seen anything like that before. And just them seeing that kind of grass, we have plenty of grass here, but it's golden. Right? And it will pop green for like a month during the, the monsoons, but the rest of the time it's just this golden brown. And so they were just fascinated at seeing. You know, grass on the ground and seeing all those kinds of trees. So yeah, we spent a lot of time and there were so many things we, you know, they wanted to bring back, but I had to inform them and we, unfortunately we can't take this on the airplane. And, and those big, giant beautiful leaves are not gonna last when we Mark: Oh yeah, yeah, like the giant monster and the banana trees and you know, Yucca: Yeah, Mark: wonderful things. Yucca: and we have a banana tree plant in our house, but of course it gets to like three feet tall. And the ones that we were looking at, I mean, they were just humongous. The leaves were as big as their bodies and going, you know, we're gonna take some photos, but those aren't gonna come, those can't come home with us. You know, we could take the cool rocks and the shells, those will last. So that's something to think about in your own environment. You know, you know, we cut things and bring them in sometimes, but some things are gonna stay very well in the home and some things aren't gonna stay very well, Mark: Right. Yeah. So you were asking about what kinds of things I bring in, and one example was, Rocks from the, from the coast. For whatever reason, we have very few shells on our coast now, and that was not the way that it was when I was a child. There's been a tremendous die off of of Yucca: acidification maybe? Mark: probably from a combination of warming and acidification. Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: So I don't see that as much as I did when I was a child. But. But the rocks are there and of course the, the, the California coast is very rugged, that's got these sort of cliffs and bluffs and stuff, and it's really just very beautiful to be there. And even on a weekend, I can usually find a cove on the Sonoma coast where I'm entirely by myself, Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: which is amazing. Makes you feel like the last person on earth. Yucca: Yeah. Mark: So yeah, bringing in those things. And you asked about dried leaves as well. I actually go on an excursion to get colored leaves for my focus, my altar. Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: In the fall there's a particular breed of a tree called a liquid amber, which I believe on the east coast is called a Sweet Gum. Yucca: Okay. Mark: And they, they hold their leaves for much longer than many other trees. They'll hold them sometimes as long as into December Yucca: Okay. Mark: they. Yucca: Is this a broadleaf tree or is it Mark: It is, it's a broadleaf tree. And they go through these beautiful evolutions of color until they're, they're sort of a maroon red when they're, when they're at the end of the whole cycle. But you can, you can pick them in various stages of development. And then you have these. Leaves that are sort of green at the root and then yellow fading into orange and then red at the tips of the leaves. Just, just very, very beautiful things. And I like to decorate for the fall for, for harvest and for hellos with those kinds of things. There's just an awful lot of wonderful nature out there and, and it's, it's hard not to want to bring it all back. Yucca: So do you have a certain, so you've got your focus, do you have certain places in your house where you gather things or is it just sort of spread out everywhere around the house? Mark: we, we have a joke that our, you know how people talk about architectural themes, Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: different kinds of architectural styles? Well, In our house, the theme is Welcome to the Museum of Natural History. We have glass cases with all kinds of various interesting things, historical things and natural things. We have you know, bookshelves and all that kind of stuff. And, and to be fair, every horizontal surface has some cool thing on it. And. If it doesn't look like a cool thing, when you've heard the story about what it really is, you'll know what a cool thing it's, Yucca: Nice. Mark: Like here, here's an example. I, I have a piece of obsidian that's about this big, it's kind of, heart Yucca: about a golf ball to your, your whole, the audience can't see your Mark: Oh, that, of course. Yes. It's, it's flat, but it's about as big a round as a golf ball, and it's sort of heart shaped and it's heavily worn and eroded. And other than that, it just looks like a piece of obsidian that's been eroded and worn and all that kind of stuff. But what that is is a dinosaur gastro lift. Yucca: Oh. Mark: You, you find them in the rib cages of fossil dinosaurs and they're, it's from the gizzard of the dinosaur, right. That collects gravel to help them digest their food. Yucca: Right. Mark: So, I mean, it's an amazing thing. My grandfather found it. And I've had it since I was a kid. So even the Yucca: rock swallowed by a dinosaur to help it digest ground up and digest its food. Mark: That's right. Yucca: Wow. Mark: Yeah. Cool thing to have, eh? So, I mean, it's gotten to the point where I actually wrote an interpretive guide for our house so that people know what all the, the various exhibit things are that sense of wonder. Is something that, and we'll talk about this later on in this episode, that's something that I really cultivate Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: that sense of amazement. Like, wow, maybe a hundred million years ago, a dinosaur swallowed this rock. And then it did duty for long enough to get all the edges worn off of it into a nice, smooth pebble until the dinosaur died.  Yucca: Yeah. Mark: know, just extraordinary thing to think about. Yucca: Hmm. Mark: So how about you? How about I. I, I didn't really answer your question. We do have other places where we'll put things like colored leaves in the fall and stuff like that, but it sounds like you do more elaborate kind of household changes over the course of seasons. Yucca: Yeah. Our house is constantly moving. Right. And, and part of that is simply the, the age range of the people who live in the house. You can't really have something on a. Flat surfaces that are low down do not get left alone for longer than 10 minutes. So there are certainly, you know, we have got bookshelves and things a little bit higher up that are slightly more permanent, but most things are, are changing very constantly. And there's just. Mark: kids are getting taller. Yucca: And the kids are getting, they're always getting taller and they're climbing, right? No, they're pretty good now about not climbing onto things that they shouldn't, but they've, they've learned, Mark: Hmm. Yucca: And. That the gravity has helped them learn about that. But, you know, things are, are changing and I purposely change things as well throughout the season. It's just something that, you know, ev I, I just start to kind of get that itch of I wanna change things around. And, you know, things are coming into the house and things are going back out of the house, and it's a just a, it just seems. To flow quite a bit. Things are always flowing and moving out. There are a few things that do end up staying for, that are more kind of treasures that'll stay for longer. Like those seashells, right? Those are, some of them will probably make their way outdoors eventually, but those things will probably stay Mark: Sure. Yucca: right. Mark: Yeah. I, I have seashells. I'm, I'm looking at one right now that I picked up on the Costa del Soul in Spain when I was 11, and it's still here with me. Yucca: Yeah. And so, but then there's certain, like most of the windows are full of the, I really like the glass Vs. With things in them, right? So we've got lots of those things and there's a snake skin in the window that we found a couple weeks ago and a, you know, that kind of stuff. And so it's just a very. I dunno, it just feels to me like the house is cha changes with the season so much. And that's. Some of that is just the style of how we live, and some of it was very purposely cultivated. You know, it's, and some ways it's easier for us because we are on this kind of homestead out, away from people and live kind of half outside anyways. But when we did live in a city that was, that was kind of a way for me to try and feel more connected because I, I definitely would start to feel very overwhelmed with the city of everything. So I would try and change the colors. I would bring things in. I don't do this anymore because where we live is so surrounded by creatures and things, but I used to play bird songs, right? I had recordings of water, of water flowing. I'd have recordings of, and birds, and I would just have that going on in the background as just a way to kind of, One to block out the sound of the city, right? Cause I found that very stressful of there's the car alarm and then the police car going off and the this and the that, and the, you know, all of that. But, but just being able to sort of cultivate that. But now, you know, now the bird is like two feet out my window and, and being plenty loud, so. And then certain places seem to collect certain things. There's around the bathroom sink, there's just rocks of all kinds, and I think that's because they get brought in and washed off and then, then they start to live there. And so now it just feels like, yes, of course bathroom sinks is where rocks go, right? Yes. Mark: Sounds reasonable to me. Yucca: Yeah. Mark: I mean, I can't think of anywhere else in the house that's more reasonable for rocks to go set maybe in a potted plant. Yucca: In a potted plant. Yes. My four year old seems to think the shoes by the door. But you know, it's amazing how often Legos end up in shoes by the door. Mark: You know, as you talk about all this and and I give my own examples and stuff, the word that comes to mind is curation, Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: and it seems as though. One of the things about being alive is that there's this fire hose of information that's just kind of blasting us all the time. Right. All the different sensory information and the news and the internet and, you know, the, the community events and scuttlebutt and gossip and what's happening with all the different people. We're connected with all that stuff and it is, so we're kind of being bombarded all the time and. I think a part of the, the life that we, you and I Yucca envision for folks living in naturalistic paganism, and certainly I do for myself, is one where we curate our experience in a way that's empowering and happiness. Producing rather than stress inducing or depression inducing or anxiety producing. Yucca: Yes. Yeah, I love that. I, I think that's a wonderful way of putting it. Because really there's, there is so much around us, right? And, but what do we choose to focus on? What do we choose to bring into focus? That's something that we do have. Power and influence O f R. Right. Mark: Mm-hmm. Yucca: You know, we don't get to, there's a lot of things that we don't get to change in life. There's most things, the vast, vast majority of things we have absolutely no control over, right? But what we're focusing on, what we find important we do have control over that. And that really changes our experience of what it's like to be us. Mark: Right. Yeah. We do have control over those things and. It's, it's one of those situations where you have to make the decision to grab the wheel, right? Because otherwise you're basically at the mercy of two things, which is the randomness of whatever information is flying towards you, and that evolutionary pre predilection for looking for problems and the negative. Yucca: Right. Mark: So if you choose to be in more control around this, if you choose to be a curator of your experience, then you can get in the habit of smelling the roses along the way when you're walking from the parking lot into your workplace. Stopping to look at what the clouds are doing. Stopping to watch tree branches blowing in wind. You know, enjoying those rocks and shells and leaves and seed pods and all the cool things that nature makes. Yucca: Mm-hmm. You know, this reminds me of a book actually that I read a few years back and it was really, really influential and it was, it's called Digital Minimalism. It's by, I believe, Cal Newport. And it isn't what the title sounds like. At first the title sounds like being like anti-tech or like a Luddite or something. But it's actually about really. Being thoughtful about the role that the screen and digital things play in our lives. And he does this a very beautiful job of one he does spell out. Kind of the, the terrible state some of that is in and how the attention that that's all designed to hold our attention as long as possible. And it's not really done in a way that is, that's thoughtful about our wellbeing. It's more about the pockets of the people designing these programs. But it, it does a really lovely job of, of. Walking one through to think about what are the things that they, that you really value, and how do you cultivate that? And how do you create a life in which you can focus on those things? And how do you use tools like the, how do you use digital tools to help you do that? And how do you let go of the ones that aren't helping you to do that? So I just, Mark: great. Yucca: Yeah, so I'd really I, I like quite a bit of Cal Newport stuff, so that's digital minimalism if anyone is interested in Mark: Why don't we put a link to that in the show notes? Yucca: Yeah, let's do that.  Mark: Yeah, because when you think about it, one of the few things that we really have choice about in our lives is our attention. Yucca: mm-hmm. Mark: Right. We, we can make considered thoughtful, informed decisions about where we're going to apply our attention, and that can be on things that. Bring anxiety or bring, or, or help us to, you know, re-experience trauma and we call those triggers. I heard a wonderful term in the mixer this morning from our community member Summer who said that she heard this term glimmers, which are like the opposite of triggers. They're things that fill us with hope and inspiration and a sense of joy in living. Yucca: Hmm. Mark: can, we can look for those things. Right? I had this moment yesterday. I was sitting in a cafe waiting for a friend, and the door to the cafe opens and this little boy trots in. He's on the move. He's, he's, he, he must, he couldn't have been more than four. I don't think he was three Yucca: Okay. So real little, little Mark: Yeah. Beautiful little black kid with this gigantic grin on his face. And his mother comes in behind him and closes the door and he was just, and, and then he stands there with his feet planted and his hands kind of out by his side. He's like, this is a cafe. Wow. And you could just see that he was drinking In this experience of having come into this new space and looking around, you know, what are people doing? What are they doing? This place, what's it all about? And you know, with, with this, this. Just this glow of happiness and I just, I, I couldn't help but smile. I wanted to watch that kid for a while, you know? So that was a glimmer. Yucca: Hmm. That's such a delightful idea about a glimmer. Right. Because, and I, I think that there could be a lot of power in just taking a moment to think about what are the things that, that are your glimmers or could be your glimmers, right? Because we can, we can choose to have those associations as well. That you're taking the time to focus on, okay, what are the things that inspire awe in me and that make me hopeful, or whatever it is? And just taking the, the time to think about those I think is really, is really great. And then finding them throughout the day, right. Mark: right. And, and figuring out maybe some. Rules of thumb for how to keep yourself in that state to as great a degree as possible. Now, I'm not saying never watch the news. You know, I, we ha I feel like as a responsible person, I have to be engaged with what's happening in my society, and I need to make what effort I can to have things go in, in a way that's consistent with my values, but that there's a difference between that and being obsessed. With the news and it's just wave after wave of, oh my God, they can't do that if they're, oh my God, they're doing that. You know, this, this terrible, terrible, you know, wave of feelings. So you can curate that. You can narrow it down. You can tell yourself, okay, I'm gonna log on to my favorite news site once a day and I'm gonna read the headlines and I'll read a couple of stories that seem like they're useful. You know, for me to know, and then I'm gonna move on and I'm gonna do other stuff that feeds me more. Yucca: Right. Yeah. I think that's really important and to create that balance and that by, by choosing to log off after that time, you're not being. A bad citizen, right? You're not being a, like, you don't have to buy into the, the guilt around it because those moments of joy, like you were talking about the little kid coming in that is as valid as. Any of the other stuff, right? That is as much valid part of existence and this life in this world and giving it your attention is something that it's one, it's worth the attention in its own, but also it's good for you. Mark: Mm-hmm. Yucca: are gonna do a better job being a more effective person in the world when you are. More balanced and, and healthy and happy. If you are miserable, you're not going to do it. You're not gonna be able to do a good a job taking care of the things and helping whatever the situation is that you want to help. Right, Mark: because despair is disempowering. Yucca: right. Mark: Fundamentally, when we despair, we throw up our hands and say, well, that's the way the world is. Nothing I can do about it. And it, it just sucks. But that's life, and that's a terrible message to tell to yourself and to anyone around you. I, you know, I, I frequently go back to the deathbed test, right? How am I gonna feel about how I chose to operate in my life when I'm dying? And what I hope is that I'm gonna look back at all this and go, wow, what an adventure. There was just such amazing stuff all along the way with that and just such beautiful times and moments, and what a world this is. Rather than, well, I didn't solve world hunger, so I guess I failed. Right. You know, something like that. Some kind of unreasonable expectation that's informed by a, a situation that's really kind of beyond any one individual's capacity to change. Yucca: Right. Now I think that there's also another part, another kind of side of this is when we're looking for the things that are going to bring us joy and the things that make us hopeful and inspire awe and all of that, that there will be times in our life when we don't feel those things. Right. There will be times when we aren't happy about something. There will be times when you get cut off or in traffic or your spouse says that thing again, or all of those. And that's, those things are part of life and those are things that for the most part, we really don't have control over. Right. And that's okay. But Mark: Yeah. I mean, if you're in Yucca: yeah. Mark: if you're in grief, you should not be expecting yourself to. You know, carefully cherry pick all the, the beautiful things about the world because you are in grief. And the same is the same, I, I have to say, as someone who has lived with major depression since I was a little kid depression does not indicate a failure of what we're talking about in this podcast. Yucca: Hmm. Mark: Depression is a neurochemical condition. It's something you can't help. It's something that's not your fault. It's not a moral failing. And if you find that your world is really dark and gray and and dismal because of it, don't pile on top of it. All the other messages you're getting from your brain that you should be, you know, Looking for butterflies. That's, not fair to you and it's not accurate to the situation That is, that's, that's not a realistic statement. Yucca: Right. It's not a, and it's not a failure on your part. Mark: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yucca: So there's, there's things in the world that we really, we do not have control over. But. But a lot of the things that we're talking about today are the things that we, that we can influence and focusing on which of those things can we influence And, and those are the, those are the places where I think we have a lot of power is figuring out what, what do we actually have power? Over, which isn't a lot, but actually when you really get down to it, it is right. I don't have pow power over what you're doing, mark, but I do have some influence over how I'm gonna respond to whatever you're doing is. And that's gonna take time, right? It's not like I can just magically say like, oh, I'm not, you know, I'm gonna respond this way. Like, no, it doesn't really work that way. It's something that we practice, and that's where I think a lot of the stuff that we talk about on the podcast, like rituals and different kinds of practices can really help because they're a way for us to practice and learn how to change our responses. Mark: Yes. Yes. That's really well said. I'm, I mean, I know, I know some Pagan people, just a few. A handful who's, Ritual practices have fallen way off after years of, you know, religiously, literally religiously observing all the sabbaths and, you know, having a personal practice and all that kind of stuff. And what's happened is they've gotten to the point where they're able to curate their lives. that there is a sense of celebration and interconnectedness and appreciation going on most of the time. And when it's not, it's for good reasons and they have tools for, for working with that. Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: So, you know, when we talk about having a ritual practice, The point of having a ritual practice is not to have a ritual practice. The point of having a ritual practice is to create moments. Moments when we celebrate, moments when we're joyful, moments, when we're connected, when we see ourselves in the true magnificence of what we are. Right. And. So that, that's why we encourage a ritual practice, right? But, but the point, the point was always the outcome. The point was the happiness and the improvement of happiness in the world. That's, that's, that's where we're going with all this. So if you don't have much in the way of a ritual practice, And you still find yourself feeling very contented and appreciative, and humble and connected and all those things. Well, good for you. Yucca: Yeah. Mark: You, you know, if it ain't broke. Yucca: Right. But you know, there's, the great thing is that there's a lot of different ways to, there's a lot of different ways to live, Mark: Mm-hmm. Yucca: right? And each of us is gonna have something a little bit different and our goals are gonna be a little bit different and there's gonna be different ways of, of meeting those goals. And so that some of the things we've been talking about today are, are tricks and. Tools that we can use to cultivate some of that, right? And sometimes that may be really paying attention to that gravel and bringing a little peace home with you. And sometimes it, maybe it's that finding what your glimmers are, and maybe it's having a nightly practice with your focus, right? Or a circle. At the solstice or something like that. So I l I really appreciate mark, that we get to explore some of these ideas on the podcast and that all you folks are here listening and sending your emails in and being part of that discussion. Mark: Oh, me too. So much. And it is so gratifying when I see. On the atheopagan Facebook group or the Discord server, or in one of the Zoom gatherings, when people say, you know, oh, I, I discovered this through the podcast, or you know, that podcast episode two weeks ago really resonated with me and it's changed how I do X and y. I mean, that's what feeds me and keeps me going, right? The idea that you know, it's not like you and I have all the answers. But we can share what perspectives we have Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: and collectively we can all get better. Yucca: Yeah. Mark: Which is you, you know, the rising tide, right? Raising all the boats And so, you know, that's, that's really what I find moving and, and motivating about, you know, doing this. And once again, I am so grateful that you you suggested doing a podcast and we were able to collaborate in this way. I think it's worked out so well. Yucca: that's, it's been a joy really. So, Mark: This sounds like we're stopping. We're, we're, we're not we're, we're Yucca: oh yeah. Mark: we're just a mutual admiration society. Yucca: Yeah. But we do have something that we wanna mention another venue format for more of this great stuff, Mark: Right. Yucca: that's coming up. Mark: You, you may, if you're in the atheopagan community in one way or another. You have probably heard by now of the atheopagan Web Weaving Online Conference, which is going to be held by Zoom on June 3rd and fourth. And we just wanna remind you that that's gonna happen. If you, and we'll put a link to the, the. The webpage where you can go to register and download the program and all that kind of stuff. In the show notes, the the keynote speaker is going to be Jared Anderson, who also goes by the crypto naturalist. He's this beautiful poet of nature and appreciation for the cosmos. Just really lovely stuff. And I was interested to learn, he's, he's actually got a book coming out, I think in two years which is about his struggle with depression and how that has led him to the natural world which sounds awfully familiar to me. Yucca: Hmm. Mark: So I'm looking forward to reading it when that comes out. But in the meantime, we get to hear him as our keynote speaker. And so really encourage you to register for that and to come to that event. It's over those two days, June 3rd and fourth. Lots of interesting workshops and activities, opportunities to socialize. So, go ahead and click that link down below and we hope to see you there. Yucca: Yep. Mark: So thank you so much, Yucca. This is, this has just been another lovely conversation. I really appreciate it. Yucca: likewise, and we'll see you all next week.

Today, we bring the one who played a role in helping get this podcast off the ground by creating the ORIGINAL theme song for the show (you'll hear it start this episode). Jay is a podcaster, musician, producer, and the greatest IT professional this side of the Pacific Ocean. We go on bunny trails, but the conversation is perfect. To find Jay on social media, head on over to TikTok and search @atdmusic -------------------- PODCAST SOCIAL MEDIA: YouTube & Facebook: The Notes McGotes Podcast Instagram/TikTok: @NotesMcGotesPod Email: TheNotesMcGotesPodcast@gmail.com BRANDON SOCIAL MEDIA: TikTok/Twitter/Instagram: @brandonalberda and Brandon.alberda STEVE SOCIAL MEDIA: TikTok: @stevemadole Music used throughout the show created by Jair Driesenga Follow him @brotherjair on Instagram, Facebook, Bandcamp, and Youtube. Logo was created by Grand Rapids comedian Carl Sobel. Our podcast is sponsored by: Spotifyforpodcasters.com Leave us a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thenotesmcgotespodcast/message --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thenotesmcgotespodcast/message

When it was completed in 1914, the Panama Canal nearly halved the travel time between the U.S. West Coast and Europe and revolutionized trade and travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It's construction, overseen by the U.S. government-Isthmian Canal Commission (ICC), has long been hailed as a marvel of American ingenuity. Less well-known was the project's dependence on the labor of Black migrant women. In this episode, Joan Flores-Villalobos demonstrates how Black West Indian women's intimate lives and labor were at the center of the Panama Canal's construction, explaining how they built a provisioning economy that proved critical to the canal's development and the maintenance of the West Indian diaspora.

Kurt and Scotty read listener confessions about not knowing the Pacific Ocean has salt in it, copying a friend's art project and winning an award, throwing a dead turtle out the car window, scamming neighbors into giving money for Model UN and being a below average taster!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the #174th episode of The Athletes Podcast, where we bring you the stories, insights, and experiences of athletes from all walks of life! Today, we're thrilled to feature Hannah Huppi, Team USA Rower, Ocean Adventurer & Gym Owner.An athlete, entrepreneur, and mom of a toddler based in New Orleans. With a passion for scaling start-ups she's successfully taken two companies from start-up to acquisition within the real estate technology space. Recently, she shifted her focus to the fitness industry and launched ErgoFit, an indoor rowing studio (goergofit.com).In addition to her career, she is also an elite coastal rower. Some of her athletic achievements include representing Team USA, winning a bronze medal at the Beach Sprint World Championships, placing top-20 at two Coastal World Championships, and being recognized as USRowing's 2021 Female Coastal Athlete of the Year.Hannah is excited to announce that in 2024, she will embark on her biggest challenge yet: a row across the Pacific Ocean. Hannah and her team Horizon Racing will be pushing the limits of human endurance and going for a world record. They are currently seeking corporate sponsors. For more information on this opportunity, please visit: www.horizonracingusa.com/sponsorship.Episode Breakdown:00:00 - 04:00 Who is Hannah Huppi04:00 - 05:20 Finding Coastal Rowing05:20 - 06:30 Playing Multiple Sports Growing Up06:30 - 08:30 Entrepreneur Athletes08:30 - 10:40 School in Berlin & Living in New Orleans10:40 - 14:50 Crazy Events & Natural Talent14:50 - 19:00 What Made the Success 19:00 - 22:00 Balancing Your Sport & Parenthood22:00 - 29:20 Training & Nutrition29:20 - 32:45 Sharing the Wins & Loses with Your Partner32:45 - 37:50 Upcoming Races37:50 - 40:25 How Hannah Was Raised40:25 - 48:40 California to Hawaii Ocean Rowing48:40 - 51:58 Advice for the Next Gen & Outro Check out our Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Tiktok

Baby Alfonso is finally on the throne, and boy is his reign a doozy! Come hear about the creation of the Camino de Santiago, lots of Scrabble games, and Peter not knowing where the Pacific Ocean is in King Alfonso II's episode!   Tracks used "Castanets, Multi, A (H4n).wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org "acoustic_flamenco_imitation.wav" by Noise Collector of Freesound.org    Recommendations The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 A Perfect Manhattan

Commander Matthew Kroll, U.S. Coast Guard Matthew currently serves as the Chief of Media Relations and is the primary spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard. He has more than 18 years of operational and public relations experience in the military. Originally from Southern California, Matthew received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications Studies from Sonoma State University and a Master of Arts in Communications from San Diego State University. He began his professional career as a radio broadcaster before enlisting in the Coast Guard. Shortly after joining, Matthew was selected for Officer Candidate School, received his “wings of gold”, and flew the MH-65 “Dolphin” helicopter as aircraft commander and instructor pilot. He served as the unit public affairs officer at Air Station San Francisco and Air Station Atlantic city before being selected for the Coast Guard's public affairs advanced education program. Upon completion of his graduate degree, Matthew managed all external communications for the Eleventh Coast Guard District, which includes the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, as well as all rescue and counter-narcotics operations in the international waters of the Pacific Ocean off Central and South America.            Specializing in crisis communications, he led public information teams for multiple national-level incidents including Hurricane Harvey in Texas, Hurricane Lane in Hawaii, and the Conception Dive Boat fire in California. An expert on Coast Guard public affairs history, Matthew researched and published multiple articles documenting the service's notable communicators and overall public relations program.            Matthew holds a Public Information Officer (PIO) qualification for type-I incidents (highest level), is an adjunct communications professor, and has been recognized with multiple awards from the Coast Guard.Commander Kroll's book  - Public Relations in the MilitaryCommander Kroll's LinkedInSponsored by the Social Media Strategies Summit. Check out their website to learn more about their upcoming social media conferences for Public Safety and Government professionals. https://bit.ly/3IrRdDL

Fighting in Khartoum between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces is spreading throughout Sudan. Violence in the western Sudanese region of Darfur threatens to revive the civil war and genocide that engulfed that region 20 years ago. And, there's no May Day parade this year in Cuba due to an acute fuel shortage crisis on the island. Also, pollution from the Tijuana River to the Pacific Ocean have long plagued swimmers and surfers on both sides of the US-Mexico border. We hear about how a recent court settlement is bringing hope for cooperation. Plus, a new book, "Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage," explores a fraught political partnership. 

A handful of surfers were out catching waves at Imperial Beach, California, the first US beach town north of Mexico, when the lifeguard station blasted a panic-inducing announcement.“The water is currently contaminated, and we are under a 72-hour rain advisory. Lifeguards strongly recommend exiting the water,” the warning said. Pollution and trash carried from the Tijuana River to the Pacific Ocean have long plagued swimmers and surfers on both sides of the US-Mexico border. But in recent years, particularly at Imperial Beach, it's gotten worse. Some locals and experts are hopeful about its cleanup after a recent court settlement. Surfers in the water at Imperial Beach, California Credit: Fabian Garcia/The World Toni Cunia, who strolled along the pier, said she has seen the issues firsthand.  “I used to live on the corner over here, so I know how bad it has gotten, and it's breaking everybody's heart. Because this was our playground,” Cunia said.She gestured down the beach to where the Tijuana River flows into the Pacific. “So much junk comes with it. It's not just the water. It's so much trash. So, yeah, it's a problem, a major problem,” Cunia said.And not just for swimmers: the paths along the estuary where the Tijuana River flows into the Pacific are a no-go-zone now, Cunia said. It all starts with the Tijuana River, which collects rainwater from the surrounding watershed and flows only when it rains, explained Paloma Aguirre, who is the mayor of Imperial Beach and holds a master's in marine biodiversity and conservation from UC San Diego.  The river discharges south of Imperial Beach, but it goes through the entire city of Tijuana before releasing into the ocean, Aguirre said. Along the way, it collects tires, trash, and worst of all, sewage. As a result, Aguirre said, she has been unable to surf there since last September — which was what drew her to the area in the first place. Mayor of Imperial Beach, California, Paloma Aguirre Credit: Marco Werman/The World “A lot of us moved to IB because of its waves. It's one of the core reasons I chose to live [here] in 2003,” she said. The pollution is so bad that she's actually gotten sick, "not by ignoring the signs, but by getting the impact of the plume that you don't even know is coming sometimes,” Aguirre said.A plume is a concentration of contaminated water that is prone to being dragged north by the current.On the US side, the attitude has long been: “Tijuana, just clean up your act.”But Margarita Diaz, who lives and works in Tijuana as executive director for the Environmental Education Border Project, said she thinks that criticism is unfair and ignores some fundamental differences between how things operate in the US and Mexico.Tijuana is “a city with two countries, different economies, different politics and different realities,” Diaz said, adding that its economy “[doesn't] have a lot of money invested for the infrastructure.”Tijuana has long faced criticisms from the US that little has been done and nothing has changed. But Diaz said that Tijuana has barely kept up, given its rapid growth.“The population in Tijuana, in 30 years, has increased by millions,” she said. According to Diaz, the city has built some infrastructure, and the situation is the same.“I don't want to say that it's OK. It's bad. It has to be clean. I'm not saying that I'm happy with what Mexico is doing. No, we have to do more,” Diaz said.The pollution impacts Tijuana's residents, too. Diaz said the Tijuana city government, just over this past spring break, realized it had to protect its citizens and visitors and shut down its beaches.The state of the beaches, she said, “is one of the most severe and egregious environmental injustices in the nation.” Aguirre said she sees the pollution as a result of free-trade agreements that have led to the rapid development of Tijuana. “This is a negative externality from the original NAFTA trade agreement,” she said. “We knew that we were going to see these environmental impacts associated with the free trade that was signed 20, 25 years ago.”Some hope things may turn around with a recent legal decision.The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) and its Mexican counterpart are tasked with settling water disputes between the two countries. In a recent lawsuit by the Port of San Diego and two California border cities, the agency was instructed to do more to stop wastewater from flowing north from Tijuana. Credit: Marco Werman/The World According to the reports and Aguirre, the IBWC is committed now to more rigorously monitoring and mitigating the pollution in the water on the US side and better coordinating cleanup with their counterparts in Mexico.Aguirre said that at least both sides are starting to listen to one another.“Communication between both agencies is crucial but not easy,” she said. “Because you have the most basic barrier, which is language. So, it's kind of like they're being compelled to do it. In the past, there wasn't that much will to do it.”Diaz said she also is cautiously confident that attitudes are changing in Tijuana and US towns like Imperial Beach.“I hope that the governments share information and also the NGOs can help and we can move the things to a better place,” she said. 

From pre-contact times to today, tuna have interacted with the people of Hawaii. William Aila shares his knowledge about traditional and contemporary fishing techniques and dishes, management and conservation. This episode offers a window into the lives of these fish in the Pacific Ocean, cultural connections to them, and a local perspective of a globally significant group of fishes.

Taiwan's status in the world has never been clear and neither has the United States' position on the issue. In this Congressional Dish, via footage from the C-SPAN archive dating back into the 1960s, we examine the history of Taiwan since World War II in order to see the dramatic shift in Taiwan policy that is happening in Congress - and in law - right now. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536. Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! View the show notes on our website at https://congressionaldish.com/cd272-what-is-taiwan Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD259: CHIPS: A State Subsidization of Industry CD187: Combating China Taiwan History and Background “In Focus: Taiwan: Political and Security Issues” [IF10275]. Susan V. Lawrence and Caitlin Campbell. Updated Mar 31, 2023. Congressional Research Service. “Taiwan taps on United Nations' door, 50 years after departure.” Erin Hale. Oct 25, 2021. Aljazeera. “China must 'face reality' of Taiwan's independence: Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.” Stacy Chen. Jan 16, 2020. ABC News. “Taiwan weighs options after diplomatic allies switch allegiance.” Randy Mulyanto. Sep 26, 2019. Aljazeera. U.S.-Taiwan Relationship Past “The Taiwan Relations Act” [Pub. L. 96–8, § 2, Apr. 10, 1979, 93 Stat. 14.] “22 U.S. Code § 3301 - Congressional findings and declaration of policy.” Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. Current “China moves warships after US hosts Taiwan's Tsai.” Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. Apr 6, 2023. BBC News. “Speaker Pelosi's Taiwan Visit: Implications for the Indo-Pacific.” Jude Blanchette et al. Aug 15, 2022. Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Pelosi in Taiwan: Signal or historic mistake?” Aug 4, 2022. DW News. “China threatens 'targeted military operations' as Pelosi arrives in Taiwan.” News Wires. Feb 8, 2022. France 24. “Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan would be 'ill-conceived' and 'reckless.'” Dheepthika Laurent. Feb 8, 2022. France 24. Presidential Drawdown Authority “Use of Presidential Drawdown Authority for Military Assistance for Ukraine.” Apr 19, 2023. U.S. Department of State Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. U.S. China Relationship “America, China and a Crisis of Trust.” Thomas L. Friedman. Apr 14, 2023. The New York Times. Laws H.R.7776: James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 Full Text Outline of Taiwan Provisions TITLE X - GENERAL PROVISIONS Subtitle G - Other Matters Sec. 1088: National Tabletop Exercise By the end of 2023, the Secretary of Defense is to assess the viability of our domestic critical infrastructure to identify chokepoints and the ability of our armed forces to respond to a contingency involving Taiwan, including our armed forces' ability to respond to attacks on our infrastructure. TITLE XII - MATTERS RELATING TO FOREIGN NATIONS Subtitle E - Matters Relating to the Indo-Pacific Region Sec. 1263: Statement of Policy on Taiwan “It shall be the policy of the United States to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist a fait accompli that would jeopardize the security of thepeople of Taiwan.” Fait accompli is defined as, “the resort to force by the People's Republic of China to invade and seize control of Taiwan before the United States can respond effectively.” Sec. 1264: Sense of Congress on Joint Exercises with Taiwan Congress wants the Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command to carry out joint military exercises with Taiwan in “multiple warfare domains” and practice using “secure communications between the forces of the United States, Taiwan, and other foreign partners” Taiwan should be invited to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in 2024. RIMPAC is a multinational maritime exercise, now the world's largest, that has happened 28 times since 1971. The last one took place in and around Hawaii and Southern California in the summer of 2022. 26 countries, including the US, participated. TITLE LV - FOREIGN AFFAIRS MATTERS Subtitle A - Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act PART 1 - IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ENHANCED DEFENSE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND TAIWAN Sec. 5502: Modernizing Taiwan's Security Capabilities to Deter and, if necessary, Defeat Aggression by the People's Republic of China Grants: Expands the purpose of the State Department's Foreign Military Financing Program to “provide assistance including equipment, training, and other support, to build the civilian and defensive military capabilities of Taiwan” Authorizes the State Department to spend up to $100 million per year for 10 years to maintain a stockpile of munitions and other weapons (authorized by Sec. 5503). Any amounts that are not obligated and used in one year can be carried over into the next year (which essentially makes this a $1 billion authorization that expires in 2032). The stockpile money is only authorized if the State Department certifies every year that Taiwan has increased its defense spending (requirement is easily waived by the Secretary of State). Authorizes $2 billion per year for the Foreign Military Financing grants each year for the next 5 years (total $10 billion in grants). The money is expressly allowed to be used to purchase weapons and “defense services” that are “not sold by the United States Government” (= sold by the private sector). No more than 15% of the weapons for Taiwan purchased via the Foreign Military Financing Program can be purchased from within Taiwan Loans: Also authorizes the Secretary of State to directly loan Taiwan up to $2 billion. The loans must be paid back within 12 years and must include interest. The Secretary of State is also authorized to guarantee commercial loans up to$2 billion each (which can not be used to pay off other debts). Loans guaranteed by the US must be paid back in 12 years. Sec. 5504: International Military Education and Training Cooperation with Taiwan Requires the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense to create a military training program with Taiwan by authorizing the Secretary of State to train Taiwan through the International Military Education and Training Program. The purposes of the training include enhancements of interoperability between the US and Taiwan and the training of “future leaders of Taiwan”. The training itself can include “full scale military exercises” and “an enduring rotational United States military presence” Sec. 5505: Additional Authorities to Support Taiwan Authorizes the President to drawdown weapons from the stocks of the Defense Department, use Defense Department services, and provide military education and training to Taiwan, the value of which will be capped at $1 billion per year The President is also given the “emergency authority” to transfer weapons and services in “immediate assistance” to Taiwan specifically valued at up to $25 million per fiscal year. Sec. 5512: Sense of Congress on Taiwan Defense Relations “The Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances provided by the United States to Taiwan in July 1982 are the foundation for United States-Taiwan relations.” “The increasingly coercive and aggressive behavior of the People's Republic of China toward Taiwan is contrary to the expectation of the peaceful resolution of the future of Taiwan” “As set forth in the Taiwan Relations Act, the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan should be maintained.” The US should continue to support Taiwanese defense forces by “supporting acquisition by Taiwan of defense articles and services through foreign military sales, direct commercial sales, and industrial cooperation, with an emphasis on capabilities that support an asymmetric strategy.” Support should also include “Exchanges between defense officials and officers of the US and Taiwan at the strategic, policy, and functional levels, consistent with the Taiwan Travel Act.” PART 3 - INCLUSION OF TAIWAN IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS Sec. 5516: Findings “Since 2016, the Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Burkina Faso, El Salvador, the Solomon Islands, and Kiribati, have severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor of diplomatic relations with China” “Taiwan was invited to participate in the World Health Assembly, the decision making body of the World Health Organization, as an observer annually between 2009 and 2016. Since the 2016 election of President Tsai, the PRC has increasingly resisted Taiwan's participation in the WHA. Taiwan was not invited to attend the WHA in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, or 2021.” “United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of representation of Taiwan and its people at the United Nations, nor does it give the PRC the right to represent the people of Taiwan.” Sec. 5518: Strategy to Support Taiwan's Meaningful Participation in International Organizations By the end of Summer 2023, the Secretary of State must create a classified strategy for getting Taiwan included in 20 international organizations. The strategy will be a response to “growing pressure from the PRC on foreign governments, international organizations, commercial actors, and civil society organizations to comply with its ‘One-China Principle' with respect to Taiwan.” PART 4 - MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS Sec. 5525: Sense of Congress on Expanding United States Economic Relations with Taiwan “Taiwan is now the United States 10th largest goods trading partner, 13th largest export market, 13th largest source of imports, and a key destination for United States agricultural exports.” Audio Sources Evaluating U.S.-China Policy in the Era of Strategic Competition February 9, 2023 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Witnesses: Wendy Sherman, Deputy Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State Ely Ratner, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, U.S. Department of Defense Clips 17:40 Wendy Sherman: We remain committed to our long standing One China Policy and oppose any unilateral changes to the cross-strait status quo. Our policy has not changed. What has changed is Beijing's growing coercion. So we will keep assisting Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability. 41:30 Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL): I want to get a little broader because I think it's important to understand sort of the strategic vision behind our tactics on everything that we do. So if we go back to the late 80s, early 90s, end of the Cold War, and the gamble at the time was, if we created this international economic order, led by the US and the West, built on this global commitment to free trade, that this notion of that this trade and commerce would bind nations together via trade, via commerce and international interest and economic interest, that it would lead to more wealth and prosperity, that it would lead to democracy and freedom, basically domestic changes in many countries, and that it would ultimately ensure peace. The famous saying now seems silly, that no two countries with McDonald's have ever gone to war. That's obviously no longer the case. But the point being is that was the notion behind it. It was what the then Director General of the WTO called a "world without walls," rules-based international order. Others call it globalization. And basically, our foreign policy has been built around that, even though it's an economic theory it basically, is what we have built our foreign policy on. I think it's now fair to say that we admitted China to the World Trade Organization, Russia as well, I think it's now fair to say that while wealth certainly increased, particularly in China through its export driven economy, massive, historic, unprecedented amount of economic growth in that regard, I don't think we can say either China or Russia are more democratic. In fact, they're more autocratic. I don't think we can say that they're more peaceful. Russia has invaded Ukraine now twice, and the Chinese are conducting live fire drills off the coast of Taiwan. So I think it's fair to say that gamble failed. And we have now to enter -- and I think the President actually hinted at some of that in his speech the other night -- we're now entering a new era. What is that new era? What is our vision now for that world, in which not just the global international order and World Without Walls did not pacify or buy nations, but in fact, have now placed us into situations where autocracies, through a joint communique, are openly signaling that we need to reject Western visions of democracy and the like. So, before we can talk about what we're going to do, we have to understand what our strategic vision is. What is the strategic vision of this administration on what the new order of the world is? The Future of War: Is the Pentagon Prepared to Deter and Defeat America's Adversaries? February 7, 2023 House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation Watch on YouTube Witnesses: Chris Brose, Author Rear Admiral Upper Half Mark Montgomery (Ret.), Senior Director, Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation, Foundation for Defense of Democracies Peter Singer, Strategist at New America and Managing Partner of Useful Fiction LLC Clips 1:16:30 Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery: We don't have weapons stowed in Taiwan. In the last National Defense Authorization Act you authorized up to $300 million a year to be appropriated for Taiwan-specific munitions. The appropriators, which happened about seven days later, appropriated $0. In fact, almost all of the Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act, which you all pushed through the NDAA, ended up not being appropriated in the Consolidated Appropriations Act that passed eight days later. 30:10 Chris Brose: Nothing you do in this Congress will make larger numbers of traditional ships, aircraft and other platforms materialized over the next several years. It is possible, however, to generate an arsenal of alternative military capabilities that could be delivered to U.S. forces in large enough quantities within the next few years to make a decisive difference. Those decisions could all be taken by this Congress. The goal would be to rapidly field what I have referred to as a "moneyball military," one that is achievable, affordable and capable of winning. Such a military would be composed not of small quantities of large, exquisite, expensive things, but rather by large quantities of smaller, lower cost, more autonomous consumable things, and most importantly, the digital means of integrating them. These kinds of alternative capabilities exist now, or could be rapidly matured and fielded in massive quantities within the window of maximum danger. You could set this in motion in the next two years. The goal would be more about defense than offense, more about countering power projection than projecting power ourselves. It would be to demonstrate that the United States, together with our allies and partners, could do to a Chinese invasion or a Chinese offensive what the Ukrainians, with our support, have thus far been able to do to their Russian invaders: degrade and deny the ability of a great power to accomplish its objectives through violence, and in so doing to prevent that future war from ever happening. After all, this is all about deterrence. All of this is possible. We have sufficient money, technology, authorities, and we still have enough time. If we are serious, if we make better decisions now, we can push this looming period of vulnerability further into the future. The Pressing Threat of the Chinese Communist Party to U.S. National Defense February 7, 2023 House Armed Services Committee Watch on YouTube Witnesses: Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr., USN (Ret.), Former Commander, U.S. Pacific Command Dr. Melanie W. Sisson, Foreign Policy Fellow, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology Clips 28:15 Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL): China is the most challenging national security threat America has faced in 30 years. If we fail to acknowledge that and take immediate action to deter it, the next 30 years could be devastating for our nation. Under President Xi, the Chinese Communist Party has nearly tripled its defense spending in the last decade alone. The PLA has gone from an obsolete force barely capable of defending its borders to a modern fighting force capable of winning regional conflicts. The CCP now controls the largest army and navy in the world, with a goal of having them fully integrated and modernized by 2027. The CCP is rapidly expanding its nuclear capability; they have doubled their number of warheads in two years. We estimated it would take them a decade to do that. We also were just informed by the DOD [that] the CCP now has more ICBM launchers than the United States. The CCP is starting to outpace us on new battlefields as well. They have leapfrogged us on hypersonic technology, they are fielding what we are still developing. They are making advances in AI and quantum computing that we struggle to keep pace with. Finally, their rapid advances in space were one of the primary motivations for us establishing a Space Force. The CCP is not building these new and advanced military capabilities for self defense. In recent years, the CCP has used its military to push out its borders, to threaten our allies in the region, and to gain footholds on new continents. In violation of international law, the CCP has built new and commandeered existing islands in the South China Sea, where it has deployed stealth fighters, bombers and missiles. It continues to intimidate and coerce Taiwan, most recently by surrounding the island with naval forces and launching endless fighter sorties across its centerline. In recent years, the CCP has also established a space tracking facility in South America to monitor U.S, satellites, as well as an overseas naval base miles from our own on the strategically vital Horn of Africa. These are just a few destabilizing actions taken by the CCP. They speak nothing of the CCPs Belt and Road debt trap diplomacy, it's illegal harvesting of personal data and intellectual property, it's ongoing human rights abuses, and its advanced espionage efforts, the latter of which came into full focus for all Americans last week when the Biden administration allowed a CCP spy balloon to traverse some of our nation's most sensitive military sites. Make no mistake, that balloon was intentionally lost as a calculated show of force. 44:15 Dr. Melanie W. Sisson: Since 1979, the United States has adopted a constellation of official positions, together known as the One China policy, that allow us to acknowledge but not to accept China's perspective that there is one China and that Taiwan is part of China. Under the One China policy, the United States has developed robust unofficial relations with the government and people of Taiwan consistent with our interest in preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. US policy is guided by an interest in ensuring cross-strait disputes are resolved peacefully and in a manner that reflects the will of Taiwan's people. This has required the United States to deter Taiwan from declaring independence, and also to deter the CCP from attempting unification by force. The 40 year success of the strategy of dual deterrence rests upon the unwillingness of the United States to provide either an unconditional commitment to Taipei that it will come to its defense militarily, or an unconditional commitment to Beijing that we will not. The U.S. national security interest in the status of Taiwan remains that the CCP and the people of Taiwan resolve the island's political status peacefully. Dual deterrence therefore remains U.S. strategy, reinforced by U.S. declaratory policy which is to oppose unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. 45:28 Dr. Melanie W. Sisson: The modernization of the PLA has changed the regional military balance and significantly enough that the United States no longer can be confident that we would decisively defeat every type of PLA use of force in the Taiwan Strait. This fact, however, does not necessitate that the US abandon the strategy of dual deterrence and it doesn't mean that the United States should seek to reconstitute its prior degree of dominance. Posturing the U.S. military to convince the CCP that the PLA could not succeed in any and every contingency over Taiwan is infeasible in the near term and likely beyond. The PLA is advances are considerable and ongoing, geography works in its favor, and history demonstrates that it's far easier to arrive at an overconfident assessment of relative capability than it is to arrive at an accurate one. Attempting to demonstrate superiority for all contingencies would require a commitment of forces that would inhibit the United States from behaving like the global power that it is with global interests to which its military must also attend. This posture, moreover, is not necessary for dual deterrence to extend its 40 year record of success. We can instead encourage the government of Taiwan to adopt a defense concept that forces the PLA into sub-optimal strategies and increases the battle damage Beijing would have to anticipate and accept. 46:45 Dr. Melanie W. Sisson: U.S. military superiority in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean allows us to threaten the maritime shipping upon which China depends for access to energy, global markets, and supply chains. The inevitable damage a use of force would cause to the global economy and the imposition of sanctions and restricted access to critical inputs needed to sustain China's economic development and the quality of life of its people, moreover, would certainly compound China's losses. 1:04:50 Adm. Harry B. Harris: We're going to share the crown jewel of America's military technology, the nuclear submarine and the nuclear reactors, with another country and that's Australia. We have not done that with any other country, except for the UK, back in the late 50s, and into the 60s. So here we have the two countries with with that capability, the United States and the UK, and we're going to share that with Australia. It's significant. But it's only going to going to be significant over the long term if we follow through. So it's a decade long process. You know, some people the CNO, Chief of Naval Operations, has said it could be 30 years before we see an Australian nuclear submarine underway in the Indian Ocean. I said that if we put our hearts and minds to it, and our resources to it, and by ours, I mean the United States', the UK's and Australia's, we can do this faster than that. I mean we put a man on the moon and eight years, and we developed a COVID vaccine in one year. We can do this, but we're going to have to put our shoulders to the task for Australia, which has a tremendous military. For them to have the long reach of a nuclear submarine force would be dramatic. It would help us dramatically. It would change the balance of power in the Indian Ocean, and it will make Australia a Bluewater navy. They are our key ally in that part of the world and I'm all for it. 1:32:05 Adm. Harry B. Harris: I think this issue of strategic clarity versus strategic ambiguity is critical, and we have been well served, I'll be the first to say that, by the policy of strategic ambiguity with Taiwan over the past 44 years, but I think the time for ambiguity is over. I think we have to be as clear about our intent with regard to what would happen if the PRC invades Taiwan as the PRC is clear in its intent that it's ultimately going to seize Taiwan if need. 1:41:25 Adm. Harry B. Harris: I used to talk about during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, almost every branch of the U.S. government understood that the Soviet Union was the threat. You know, I used to joke even a park ranger, Smokey Bear, would tell you that the Soviets were the bad guys. We didn't have that comprehensive unified view of the PRC. You know, State Department looked at as in negotiation, DOD look at it as a military operation, Commerce looked at it as a trading partner, and Treasury looked at it as a lender. So we didn't have this unified view across the government. But I think now we are getting to that unified view and I think the Congress has done a lot to get us in that position. 1:49:45 Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL): We have the capability to block the transmission of information from the balloon back to China, don't we? Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr.: We do. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL): And in this type of an environment do you think it's probably likely that we did that? Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr.: I would only guess, but I think General van Herk said that -- Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL): Well you can't see any reason why we wouldn't do that, right? U.S.-Taiwan Relations March 14, 2014 House Foreign Affairs Committee Witnesses: Kin Moy, [Former] Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State Clips 7:20 [Former] Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY): Taiwan is a flourishing multiparty democracy of over 20 million people with a vibrant free market economy. It is a leading trade partner of the United States alongside much bigger countries like Brazil and India. Over the past 60 years, the U.S.-Taiwan relationship has undergone dramatic changes, but Taiwan's development into a robust and lively democracy underpins the strong U.S.-Taiwan friendship we enjoy today. 14:00 Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA): I think that it's important that we provide Taiwan the tools to defend itself, but Taiwan needs to act as well. Taiwan spends less than $11 billion on its defense, less than 1/5 per capita what we in America do, and God blessed us with the Pacific Ocean separating us from China. Taiwan has only the Taiwan Strait. On a percentage of GDP basis, Taiwan spends roughly half what we do. So we should be willing to sell them the tools and they should be willing to spend the money to buy those tools. 1:11:50 Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX): I think Chris Smith raised the issue of a One China policy. Does it not bother you that that exists, that there are statements that people have made, high level officials, that said they they agreed on one China policy? Does the administration not view that as a problem? Kin Moy: Our one China policy is one that has existed for several decades now. Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX): Okay. Well, I take that as a no, but let me follow up with what Jerry Connolly said. So you haven't sold submarines yet, you don't take Beijing into account. People around the world watch us. Words and actions have consequences. Would you agree that y'all would be okay with a one Russia policy when it comes to Crimea and the Ukraine? Is that akin to the same kind of ideology? Kin Moy: Well, I can't speak to those issues. But again, we are obligated to provide those defense materials and services to Taiwan and we have been through several administrations, I think very vigilant in terms of providing that. U.S.-China Relations May 15, 2008 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Witnesses: Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations Harry Harding, Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University, 1995-2009 Clips 1:46:42 Richard N. Haass: The bottom line is China is not yet a military competitor, much less a military peer. Interestingly, I think Chinese leaders understand this. And they understand just how much their country requires decades of external stability so that they can continue to focus their energies and their attention on economic growth and political evolution. China is an emerging country, but in no way is it a revolutionary threat to world order as we know it. 1:47:20 Richard N. Haass: We alone cannot bring about a successful us Chinese relationship. What the Chinese do and say will count just as much. They will need to begin to exercise restraint and patience on Taiwan. There can be no shortcuts, no use of force. We, at the same time, must meet our obligations to assist Taiwan with its defense. We can also help by discouraging statements and actions by Taiwan's leaders that would be viewed as provocative or worse. 2:03:47 Harry Harding: Now with the support and encouragement of the United States, China has now become a member of virtually all the international regimes for which it is qualified. And therefore the process of integration is basically over, not entirely, but it's largely completed. And so the issue, as Bob Zoellick rightly suggested, is no longer securing China's membership, but encouraging it to be something more, what he called a "responsible stakeholder." So this means not only honoring the rules and norms of the system, but also enforcing them when others violate them, and assisting those who wish to join the system but who lack the capacity to do so. It means, in other words, not simply passive membership, but active participation. It means accepting the burdens and responsibilities of being a major power with a stake in international peace and stability, rather than simply being a free rider on the efforts of others. Now, China's reacted to the concept of responsible stakeholding with some ambivalence. On the one hand, it appreciates that the United States is thereby seeking a positive relationship with China. It suggests that we can accept and even welcome the rise of Chinese power and Beijing's growing role in the world. It certainly is seen by the Chinese as preferable to the Bush administration's earlier idea that China would be a strategic competitor of the United States, as was expressed during the campaign of 2000 and in the early months of 2001. However, Beijing also perceives, largely correctly, that America's more accommodative posture as expressed in this concept is conditional. China will be expected to honor international norms and respect international organizations that it did not create and it may sometimes question. And even more worrying from Beijing's perspective is the prospect that it's the United States that is reserving the right to be the judge as to whether Chinese behavior on particular issues is sufficiently responsible or not. Taiwanese Security August 4, 1999 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Witnesses: David “Mike” M. Lampton, Founding Director, Chinese Studies Program, Nixon Center Stanley Roth, Assistant Secretary, East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State Caspar W. Weinberger, Former Secretary, Department of Defense James Woolsey, Former Director, CIA Clips 9:00 Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE): Taiwan security, in my view, flows from its democratic form of government's growing economic, cultural and political contacts with the mainland and, ultimately, the United States' abiding commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan question. In my opinion, we should concentrate on strengthening those areas rather than spend time pre-authorizing the sales of weapon systems, some of which don't even exist yet. 20:10 Stanley Roth: There are three pillars of the [Clinton] administration's policy. First, the administration's commitment to a One China policy is unchanged. Regardless of the position of the parties, we have not changed our policy. The President has said that both publicly and privately. Second, we believe that the best means to resolve these issues is by direct dialogue between the parties themselves. We have taken every opportunity, including on my own trip to Beijing last week with Ken Lieberthal from the NSC, to urge the PRC to continue this dialogue. It strikes us that it's precisely when times are difficult that you need to dialogue, and to cancel it because of disagreements would be a mistake. China has not yet indicated whether or not these talks will continue in the Fall, as had been previously anticipated, but they put out a lot of hints suggesting that it wouldn't take place, and we are urging them to continue with this dialogue. Third point that is integral to our position. We have stressed again, at every opportunity, the importance of a peaceful resolution of this issue and the President has made that absolutely clear, as did Secretary Albright in her meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Tong in Singapore last week, as did Ken Leiberthal and I in our meetings in Beijing. But China can have no doubts about what the United States' position is, with respect to peaceful resolution of this issue. 1:29:15 Caspar Weinberger: So I don't think that we should be hampered by or felt that we are in any way bound by what is said by the communique, nor should we accept the argument that the communique sets the policy of the United States. 1:32:50 Caspar Weinberger: There are two separate states now, with a state-to-state relationship, and that the unification which was before emphasized, they repeated again in the statement of Mr. Koo, the head of their Trans- Strait Negotiating Committee, that the unification might come when China itself, the mainland, changes, but that that has not been the case and it is not now the case. 1:41:15 David “Mike” Lampton: Once both the mainland and Taiwan are in the WTO, each will have obligations to conduct its economic relations with the other according to international norms and in more efficient ways than now possible. 1:45:20 James Woolsey: The disestablishment of large, state-owned enterprises in China over the long run will bring some economic freedoms, I believe, that will quite possibly help change China and Chinese society and make it more conducive over time to political freedoms as well. But in the short run, the unemployment from the disestablishment of those enterprises can lead to substantial instability. U.S.-Taiwan Relations February 7, 1996 Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs Witness: Winston Lord, Assistant Secretary of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State Clips 16:45 Winston Lord: The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 forms the basis of US policy regarding the security of Taiwan. Its premise is that an adequate defense in Taiwan is conducive to maintaining peace and security while differences remain between Taiwan and the PRC. I'm going to quote a few sections here because this is a very important statement of our policy. Section two B states, "It is the policy of the United States to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area, and of grave concern to the United States. To provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character, and to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security or the socioeconomic system of the people on Taiwan." Section three of the TRA also provides that the "United States will make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self defense capability." 18:00 Winston Lord: The key elements of the US policy toward the Taiwan question are expressed in the three joint communiques with the PRC as follows. The United States recognizes the government of the PRC as the sole legal government of China. The US acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan as part of China. In 1982, the US assured the PRC that it has no intention of pursuing a policy of two Chinas, or one China, one Taiwan. Within this context, the people the US will maintain cultural, commercial and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan. The US has consistently held that the resolution of the Taiwan issue is a matter to be worked out peacefully by the Chinese themselves. A sole and abiding concern is that any resolution be peaceful. 19:30 Winston Lord: The U.S. government made reciprocal statements concerning our intentions with respect to arms sales to Taiwan, that we did not intend to increase the quantity or quality of arms supplied, and in fact intended gradually to reduce the sales. At the time the joint communique was signed, we made it clear to all parties concerned that our tensions were premised on the PRC's continued adherence to a policy of striving for peaceful reunification with Taiwan. 21:30 Winston Lord: The basic inventory of equipment which Taiwan has or will have in its possession will, in our view, be sufficient to deter any major military action against Taiwan. While arms sales policy aims to enhance the self defense capability of Taiwan, it also seeks to reinforce stability in the region. We will not provide Taiwan with capabilities that might provoke an arms race with the PRC or other countries in the region. 21:55 Winston Lord: Decisions on the release of arms made without proper consideration of the long term impact. both on the situation in the Taiwan Strait and on the region as a whole, would be dangerous and irresponsible. If armed conflict were actually breakout in the Taiwan Strait, the impact on Taiwan, the PRC, and indeed the region, would be extremely serious. The peaceful, stable environment that has prevailed in the Taiwan Strait since the establishment of our current policy in 1979 has promoted progress and prosperity on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. The benefits to Taiwan and the PRC have been obvious and I outline these in my statement. All of these achievements would be immediately put at risk in the event of conflict in the Strait. Conflict would also be costly to the United States and to our friends and allies in the region. Any confrontation between the PRC and Taiwan, however limited in scale or scope, would destabilize the military balance in East Asia and constrict the commerce and shipping, which is the economic lifeblood of the region. It would force other countries in the region to reevaluate their own defense policies, possibly fueling an arms race with unforeseeable consequences. It would seriously affect the tens of thousands of Americans who live and work in Taiwan and the PRC. Relations between the US and the PRC would suffer damage regardless of the specific action chosen by the President, in consultation with Congress. For all these reasons, we are firmly determined to maintain a balanced policy, which is best designed to avoid conflict in the area. Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

Interview with Gerard Barron, Chairman & CEO of The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC)The Metals Company is an explorer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules, on a dual mission: (1) supply metals for the clean energy transition with the least possible negative environmental and social impact and (2) accelerate the transition to a circular metal economy. The Company through its subsidiaries holds exploration and commercial rights to three polymetallic nodule contract areas in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean regulated by the International Seabed Authority and sponsored by the governments of Nauru, Kiribati and the Kingdom of Tonga. 

Zach, Amin and Mayes are determined to beat Lewis and Clark to the Pacific Ocean in this ribaldrous romp across the American West at the turn the 19th century, wench. Subscribe to Cinephobe! Then Rate 5 Stars on Apple or Spotify.   Follow Cinephobe on Twitter & Instagram:   Zach Harper @talkhoops IG: @talkhoops   Amin Elhassan @darthamin IG: @darthamin   Anthony Mayes @cornpuzzle IG: @cornpuzzle The show page @CinephobePod   Email: cinephobepodcast@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zach, Amin and Mayes are determined to beat Lewis and Clark to the Pacific Ocean in this ribaldrous romp across the American West at the turn the 19th century, wench. Subscribe to Cinephobe! Then Rate 5 Stars on Apple or Spotify.   Follow Cinephobe on Twitter & Instagram:   Zach Harper @talkhoops IG: @talkhoops   Amin Elhassan @darthamin IG: @darthamin   Anthony Mayes @cornpuzzle IG: @cornpuzzle The show page @CinephobePod   Email: cinephobepodcast@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TODAY'S SPONSORSYour blood sugar levels can significantly impact how your body feels and functions. Nutrisense combines cutting-edge technology and human expertise so you can see how your body responds to different food, exercise, stress and sleep in real time. By pairing a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) with their app and expert dietitian guidance, Nutrisense can help you reach your health goals.Head to nutrisense.io/sugar and use the promo code SUGAR to get $30 off and one month of free dietitian support!TODAY'S GUESTIrene Lyon, MSC. and nervous system expert, teaches people around the world how to work with the nervous system to transform trauma, heal body and mind, and live full, creative lives. To date, her online programs and classes have reached over 9,500 people in over 90 countries. Irene has a Master's Degree in Biomedical and Health Science and also has a knack for making complex info easy for ALL of us to understand and apply to our lives. She has extensively studied and practices the works of Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais, Peter Levine (founder of Somatic Experiencing) and Kathy Kain (founder of Somatic Practice). Irene spends her free time eating delicious food, hiking in the mountains or walking along the Pacific Ocean in her hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irenelyon/Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/lyonireneLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irenelyon/Twitter: https://twitter.com/irene_lyonON TODAY'S EPISODEHow Irene's ski injuries led to her career in mind body methodologyHow and why unhealed trauma limits our ability to heal What is somatic unconscious trauma and how it effect our bodiesAll about a healthy vs. unhealthy nervous system and the sympathetic vs parasympathetic nervous systemWhat is generational trauma and how it can effect our bodiesWhat is somatic trauma work and what goes into itWhy we can't biohack our ways to healing generational traumaSTAY IN TOUCH WITH ME:You can find me:On Instagram @daniellehamiltonhealth On Facebook at Danielle Hamilton Health.My website is daniellehamiltonhealth.com (scroll down to sign up for my Newsletter!)

David Harper hears about Microsoft's $68.7bn (£55bn) deal to buy US video game company Activision Blizzard being blocked in the UK by the Competition and Markets Authority. The proposed takeover would see Microsoft acquire such hit titles as Call of Duty and Candy Crush. The Bank of England's top economist has said people in the UK need to accept that they are poorer otherwise prices will continue to rise. The Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is one of the world's busiest shipping routes, accounting for around 6% of global maritime trade. But it has a major problem. A severe lack of rainfall has forced the authorities to limit ship traffic for the fifth time during this drought season.

The President of Palau has called plans to mine the Pacific Ocean sea bed "insanity", saying the untested industry could have catastrophic environmental consequences. Surangel Whipps Junior is calling on the Australian government to show leadership, as the largest nation in the region, and elevate the voices of seven Pacific nations who oppose deep sea mining. But the Australian government has refused to be drawn on the divisive issue

Despite being separated by 4,700 miles and the Pacific Ocean, Ari and Chris sit down to celebrate the third anniversary of the TEC Talk Podcast! We share our highlights from the last three years and hopes for the future of the show - thank you to everyone who's come along for the ride with us and supported the show by listening! Have a questions or a topic you'd like us to discuss on one of our future episodes? Let us know at podcast@naturalencounters.com!

The race for critical minerals to power a green energy transition has led resource companies to the sea floor. Large deposits in the Pacific Ocean mean it could be the site of the next big mining boom. But scientists say mining the deep sea could have a catastrophic global impact on the environment.

This week we sit down with Bovine Classic founder, Bryan Yates to learn more about the 2023 event. Run out of the central California town of Atascadero, the event highlights this unique part of California with its combination of wineries, rolling hills and views of the Pacific Ocean. Bovine Classic  Support the Podcast Join The Ridership  Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the show. We welcome Brian Yates, the founder of the bovine classic gravel event in California. Brian. And I got connected last year, which was the inaugural year of the bovine classic. And I was super excited about his concept. Super excited about the location of the event. Down there in the mid section of California by Morro bay and San Luis Obispo, being that closest major city to the event in arrest the Darrow. As you'll hear Brian has put together a course that highlights the rolling Hills, the larger climbs. The vineyards, the breweries, the single track. Everything you'd want to touch in that region. And packaged it all together for a great weekend for family and writers alike. As you'll hear the event has a couple of warm-up rides and shakedown rides in the days approaching it. And then four options of routes to explore the area, depending on how big of an appetite you have for gravel in that given weekend. The event happens in October. And I encourage you to check it out and I encourage you to listen to the conversation. I'm going to apologize in advance for a few technical hiccups we had during recording. I did my best to edit it down, but certainly didn't want to lose this conversation and wanted to make sure, obviously that everybody is familiar with the bovine classic. Before we jump in, I did need to thank this week. Sponsor hammerhead. And the hammer had Caru to computer. The hammer had crew two is the most advanced GPS cycling computer available today with industry leading mapping navigation and routing capabilities that set it apart from other GPS options. As Brian describes the course later in this podcast. I couldn't help, but think about. The climber with predictive path technology feature that hammer had rolled out last year. This is the type of feature that'll let you know. Are you facing, what are those 45 minute long climbs ahead of you? Or is it some of the punchy stuff that Brian will describe? I found that invaluable when going on routes that I hadn't been on before, because it just gave me, uh, the right mindset for approaching a longer climb or potentially trying to push a little bit. If I knew it was. Are rolling climb. That's just one of the many features I enjoy on the hammerhead. Kuru to hammerhead software updates and new feature releases allow your crew to, to evolve and improve. Ensuring that the device you get today will be even better tomorrow. I've got my personal device connected to both Strava and ride with GPS. I can import routes directly to the device. I can export routes. I can do everything that you'd want to do. I also just became aware since I'm borrowing an e-bike right now. That the crew too has a new e-bike integration that delivers detailed battery usage rights to your display. So I need to set that up. If I'm going to be hanging onto this e-bike for a little while. Right now our listeners can get a free heart rate monitor with the purchase of a hammerhead kuru two. Visit hammerhead IO. Oh right now. And use the promo code, the gravel ride at checkout to get yours today. This is an exclusive offer. So don't forget to use the promo code, the gravel ride. You'll get a free heart rate monitor with your purchase of the Karoo to computer. Just visit hammerhead. Dot IO today. Add both items to your card. Use that promo code and boom. The heart rate monitor price will disappear. With that said let's jump right in to my conversation. Brian, welcome to the show. [00:04:15] Bryan Yates: Craig. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. [00:04:17] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it's good to finally get you on the podcast to record and see you face-to-face. I know we first connected about a year ago, and it was gonna be the first year of the Bovine Classic, and there was a lot of unknowns. You hadn't done it before, so great to finally have you. [00:04:34] Bryan Yates: Yeah, it's great to actually earn my spot in the seat this time, [00:04:38] Craig Dalton: I'm sometimes sheepish about bringing first year events on that haven't actually happened yet because it's so much of an unknown. Um, not that I had those fears for you because I know in talking to you and just seeing the materials around the bovine classic, you were putting a lot of energy and intention. On making the event a success, but at least now we have 2022 behind us and we can talk about it in real terms and we can talk about what's changing and why people should be excited for 2023. [00:05:09] Bryan Yates: Well, let's be clear, I'm still PT baring this thing, right? It's still a lot of smoke and mirrors and a lot of just my enthusiasm. [00:05:16] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I mean, it seems like the first five years of any event, there's just a lot of learning that goes. Oh, [00:05:21] Bryan Yates: for sure. Yeah, for sure. I mean, we learned a lot. So [00:05:23] Craig Dalton: let's start off by setting the stage a little bit, Brian. Yeah, for sure. Let's set the stage where, where are you in California? Just to set the stage for the listener. [00:05:33] Bryan Yates: All right. I am exactly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, so it is exactly the midpoint. We are about 17 miles inland from the coast, so. Cambria. Moro Bay is out on the coast, but those are our neighbor, neighbor towns. We're on the inland side where things look ranchy farming and Tuscan. And we're also, so our nearest big city is San Louis Obispo. [00:06:08] Craig Dalton: Got it. So stepping back for a second, how did you get involved with the idea of creating events? How did you get into cycling? I know there's a lot to this question, but I think it's important as so much of event organizing and course design is sort of a love letter to where you've been riding. So how did you arrive at this point and how did you get into gravel cycling? [00:06:30] Bryan Yates: Oh man, I love that question. That's like one of my favorite questions. So I, I was a really avid cyclist as a teenager. I was the kid who had, you know, spent all of his allowance on in the eighties, the $3,000 Italian bike. Right. And then, Uh, and then I, I, I left the sport behind for a lot of bad habits for a while, and came back. Came back, you know, like a lot of us do. I kind of popped my head up in my late thirties. What have I been doing? What have, and I came back to cycling, came back to racing. Uh, Racing, uh, cause I'm not very good at it. Right? Completely, uh, completely just above average. So I came back to that and then I'd been coaching, I started really coaching cyclists for about 10, 12 years. And had been deeply involved with a pediatric and pediatric cancer ride that I'd been the team director and Cocha for many years called PAB Bluff across America. And I'd been living in Los Angeles for, you know, a long time. And about four years ago, uh, my wife and I decided that. We were done with Los Angeles and that our careers were portable enough that we were looking for a place to move, and we ended up in this town called Atascadero, which is just below, uh, pastor Robles California. For those of you who know that, you know, basically what we're known for here is. It's essentially like the frontier land of Disney. It's sort of a flyover town. We have the mental hos state mental hospital and uh, it's an emerging, it's an up and coming emerging town. But we moved here and we were. Really welcomed by the community super fast, and I took a gap year that first year. Ended up riding my bike everywhere, riding all the time. In fact, we moved here and I dropped my bags and. I was taking a group of cyclists to New Zealand to go ride and I dropped my bags and said, I gotta go train cuz I'm gonna be riding like hundreds of miles per week for the next, you know, three weeks. And my wife's like, great, get outta here. I don't want you actually putting anything away. She was like, go ride. Went to New Zealand, then came back, came back and was riding a bunch here. It was like, it's 2019 and it, we had a lot of rain that year as well and everything was super green and I end up all of these places. You know, writing in a new place is a lot like learning a new language. I think it rewires your brain in a different way because you have to sort of get lost intentionally and find this new persona. Yeah. And find your way around. And I started discovering all these things like this is every bit as good and all of these things I was doing in New Zealand, this is stunning. And I'd ridden through here a bunch, taking the Pablo crew, but I'd never gone deep. So let's fast forward a little bit. I'm a big Yuri household and I, I have been friends for a million years and I'm a big fan of his Bantam Classic race. It's this little underground race. Can I say that, Yuri? I hope so. It's his, uh, I, it's a little less underground now, and I, I love it. It's up in Petaluma. It's not a gravel race, but it is, you know, as we talked about Sonoma Road. So come with fat tires. And I kind of thought I got down here, I was like, you know, maybe I'll do a, a fall answer to that, something really cheeky, and we'll call it the bovine Classic, and then I put it away. And I had been working out of the Atascadero Chamber of Commerce, had my office there for a little bit and was checking out cuz my home office was built. And at the time I was going off to go work with a bunch of the executive athletes that I was coaching and the president of, uh, the Chamber of Commerce said, oh, what are you doing? I said, this is what we're doing. Gonna go ride a bunch. He said, anywhere Interesting. I was like, yeah. Here, here, here, here. As a complete aside, this was a complete throwaway comment, like I didn't think twice about it. I said, and we have world class cycling here and nobody's talking about it. Nobody's telling that story. And said, do you wanna do an event? I was like, absolutely not. So what we ended up doing is I've done a bunch of work. Yeah. I've done a bunch of work with Peloton Magazine in the past as a consulting brand manager and digital manager, and also have had written a bunch for Peloton. I thought, why don't we bring my crew down and we'll do a full on. Like year long, tell the story of what's going on here and really market it as a, as a cycling destination, as kind of like a Lake Garda minus the lake for cycling. Well, here's the thing. Anyone who's gonna give you money for that wants an immediate return. And so what I quickly found was the only way anyone was gonna do anything is if we were putting heads in. So the idea of Yeah, that makes sense. Taking Yeah, the idea of taking the slow approach wasn't gonna work. And so all my internal resistance was futile. So we, I, we pivoted and we, I hate that term. We, we, we changed directions and put together a really great story. Um, and a, you know, a long time ago I used to be a, a, a producer at Disney. And so, you know, you can take the boy outta Disney, but you can't take the Disney out of the boy. And so it was all about the story and started creating this great story and started getting local buy-in. And once I got local buy-in, it was like, crap, we have to do this thing now. That's the long story for our, and now we have to do it. [00:12:20] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I love that. You know, it's so interesting the different welcoming reception you get from a smaller community that can benefit from 400 more people coming into the community. And that can have a really significant impact on the livelihood of the hoteliers, the, you know, the, the restaurants, et cetera. And everybody can get stoked. Versus in larger communities, there's a resistance to bringing anybody else in. [00:12:48] Bryan Yates: I don't think we could have done this in San Lu Obispo, I don't think. We certainly couldn't have done anything like this in Los Angeles. It, it, it had to be somewhere small and it had to tell a story where people were going, oh, hey, that's interesting. You know, it's so funny. That's why I, I presented in front of. The tourism board here in Atascadero and like the former mayors on the board, he's like, okay, I want you to come over a Friday and we're gonna have, we're gonna have drinks and dinner with the mayors of San, of, of Pastor Robles and Atascadero. You're gonna tell, because I love your story. We're gonna, so you know, the next thing I know, I'm like sitting there having, having, having happy hour with the mayors, which is just so. [00:13:32] Craig Dalton: I love that. It's probably a l I suppose, in the, in the, again, in these like rural markets, like you do get that kind of reception and the event organizers are kind of brought in in a collaborative fashion, which I imagine just sort of opens up a lot of doors for you, whether it's. You know, going through ranch private learn ranch land, and just getting the right introductions to allow access to some of these areas that may not push through in, you know, non race day. [00:13:59] Bryan Yates: That's really a great, a great question and point, and it's absolutely true. You can get things done a lot more quickly, uh, in these smaller communities when they're receptive. Um, you know, atascadero in some ways. It is in the heart of the Pa Robles wine region, which is arguably one of the most beautiful regions in the world. And by the way, I, I wanna come back to that just a moment on a, from a cycling standpoint, and yet most people don't know about Atascadero. So some of the work that we had to do was, is around the marketing of saying we, this is the wine region. It's not just the town of Paso Robles. And I think. There might have been a little resistance from, say, the Paso Hotel Ice, which have more money than a Tascadero a hotel ice. Like, why are we doing this even though you're not gonna be here? So cuz we're selling the whole region and people are gonna stay with you, and we're. Pitching that, and the, the downstream effect is that people are gonna come to your resorts and stay with you when they're not here at the race. So, yeah. And, but it, it's definitely, it takes a little bit of work. But, you know, we, at one of the meetings with the Paso people, the, the city's, um, deputy manager or economic development director has seen my pitch, seen my pitch a couple times. He piped in, he was like, yeah, let's give this thing money. And frankly, I'm absolutely ecstatic and delighted to know that our dirt roads are actually a luxury item that we can, that we can market. So when you're telling a story to people that they're not used to hearing, that also goes a long way. [00:15:42] Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. You talked a little bit earlier about how you fell in love with the area through all the riding and exploration you were doing. As you started to think about specifics for the bovine classic, based on the terrain you had available, kinda where did you net out? Like what was your philosophy going in? A lot of races have mixed terrain. A lot of races now have single track in it. How did you net out in expressing like, what's the. The area has to offer. [00:16:12] Bryan Yates: So the first thing that I want to come back to, and I'm gonna get into this cuz it's related, is that if you look at the Paso Robs wine region, that total mass is about two thirds the size of the land. Mass. Mass. If you've put Sonoma and Napa together. But, so we're about two-thirds of that size, so we're huge, but we have one-tenth of the population. So the easy story there is that what happens is that you, I can go out on a five hour bike ride and see 15 cars. So from a cycling standpoint, it's like, this is what happens if, uh, you know, Disneyland creates bicycle land. Right. And the other thing that, that we really had while moved here is that a couple of bonds came, came due, and there's been a ton of investment just in the actual. Roads themselves. So the tarmac is, the roads themselves are, are a joy to ride on. So the way it went netted out is that we have some public roads that include, uh, that include these dirt roads that are all just marvelous and they cut through different climates within the Paso region. So, you know, east Paso is very different than what happens to West on on the West Paso. And there are a lot of little surprises that happened on these public roads, just like visual surprises. And uh, we wanted to showcase those. And, you know, there are other rides that have gone through here and done this. And we haven't done anything incredibly unique with the course. We just let the course be for this year, for last year, and this year as it is. I mean, one thing we did want to add is that because we were coming back into a task at Arrow, pardon? What we wanted to do is that we have, uh, lawn Branch Saloon was one of our, is one of our sponsors, and they're out in, uh, the town of Creston, which is about 15 miles east of Paso. And we do a pre ride out of there on Fridays called The Fried Pickle Ride cuz it's known for their fried pickles. Uh, but it also has this amazing single track and probably one of the most beautiful that ends up on one of the most beautiful dirt farm roads I know. In the county. I was like, well, we gotta, we have to find a way to put that in. And it was really, we wanted, there's no way you could do a hundred miles of straight gravel here. Right? I just don't know that that exists in most of California. But what we could do was, Was a course that I sometimes like to call the Estrada Bryon, and it was this combination of dirt to asphalt, to dirt, to asphalt. And you know, when people come, when riders come off onto the asphalt, they're greeted with beautiful asphalt, with twisty, windy roads. So everything was gonna be. Part of the experience. And then we wanted to hit some wineries along the way. Like we have, we had one winery that opened up doors and they said, yeah, cut through, we'll let you cut through our vineyards to skip this thing. And I mean, I think it freaked some people out a little bit cuz it had a really hairy descent. But for the ones who were at the front, I was like, yeah, this is great. I love it. Others were, you know, sliding about. That's one of the things that we're also working on is, you know, this is getting that trust that you alluded to, um, down the road. Like one of our mission pillars is to. Make friends with the, uh, ranching community so that we can change our course up and so that we can do different things to get access to areas that others don't have access to. And so, you know, right now we start with getting small, segmented at. Access to, to vineyards cuz there's all these awesome roads that go through vineyards, dirt roads. So we get access to that and then hopefully just keep earning trust and keep expanding and earning trust and expanding. And, you know, down the road maybe we will get lucky and be able to turn this into something like Rebecca's the, you know, Rebecca's, uh, stage race. And so we have multiple days of official rides. That would be, that would be the dream. Amazing. [00:20:31] Craig Dalton: So where did you net out on sort of the available course distances and course options for riders [00:20:39] Bryan Yates: for this year or last year? [00:20:40] Craig Dalton: Uh, if you want to contextualize it with last year, but let's, yeah. We can talk about this year as well. [00:20:45] Bryan Yates: Yeah. We had, uh, three courses last year. We had the big bovine, which was about 97 miles and 9,000 feet of climbing. So, you know, I call us America's fourth hardest Cal themed gravel ride in a California wine country in America. Partially cuz we're cheeky. But I think the other part is that it's no joke. I mean, you know, 9,000 feet and 97 miles is no joke of riding. And we're very serious about that. We want it to be a challenge. So we had the big bovine and then we had, uh, the happy bovine, which was. 65 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing. We had the baby bovine, which was 42 miles and 2,800 feet of climbing This year. This year we have the big bovine again. I keep wanting to add this river section that's as a last segment That is right. That skirts a tascadero. But we pulled it out last year cuz it seemed kind of unduly cruel at the end of the ride. And we thought, okay, we're gonna put it in this year. And now that whole section has been decimated by all of the rain. So I'm still not sure that we could, like we said, we'll put it in, but I don't know that it's gonna be worth it to go in. But assuming we can, the big bow vine goes up to 101 miles. And just over 9,000 feet of climbing. Then there's the feisty bovine, which is about 76 miles, and we've added a fourth course, which is the new new happy bovine course, which. Gis, a couple of climb, but it's still like 70 miles and that goes out on some single track. So that cuts off a different part of the course. And then we have the happy bovine, which is pretty much the same as last year. [00:22:46] Craig Dalton: On the, longest course, how is that climbing accumulated? Are we, we talking about, you know, a thousand foot long climbs or 25 different a hundred foot climb? [00:22:57] Bryan Yates: That's a, it's, it's just a proper mix. You know, the funny thing is, okay, when I moved up here from Los Angeles, I used to be a pretty binary rider, cuz that's how the climbing was. You go up and you come down and you go, and here it is way more Belgian, right? There's so many rollers. Just so, so many rollers. And, uh, you know, those rollers can. Pitch up at 17%. It's no joke. Right? So you accumulate a lot of a rolling and this is a, this is a great question that I should go back and look at the specific percentages, but then we have several long climbs. There's Kyler Canyon is a five mile ish climb, and so you probably gain 900 feet. Cyprus is. A good 45 minute climb. And so that's probably another, another 900, 900 feet or more. And then Santa Rita Road will probably get, what is that, 1300 feet of climbing and then, And then the single track out on Rocky Canyon is about a mile or so. So you don't get that much climbing, but you get some tech. It's technical, so, and it comes at mile 72, so it hits you when you're hot and fatigued at that point. For sure. But again, that's all, all that stuff is punctuated with a lot of that, a lot of the rollers. [00:24:20] Craig Dalton: How long do you think it takes? The bulk of people to finish that. Is this like a, a 10 hour day at that point? [00:24:27] Bryan Yates: You know, I think our final rider actually, we took off at 8:00 AM last year. And I think our fi, our lantern moge came in at four o'clock. But I mean, he just got sidetracked by something. Um, it wasn't really anything. So I think he came in at four or four 30, was our final rider last year. So yeah, it's a long day, but I don't think it was a 10 hour day. I mean, I've definitely, um, you know, I was kind of slow last year and actually I was really slow last year and I sat out and did it myself one day to just as a little empathy check for our riders. And I think it took me seven and a half, eight hours to do it. [00:25:05] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I was gonna ask about aid stations and what your philosophy was there. [00:25:10] Bryan Yates: Great. I love that. So our f. Philosophy. You know, we did well in some parts of our aid stations last year, and we did less well in others. The overall philosophy is that I want them to be expressions of what's cool about the area. And we have a lot of businesses doing a lot of boutique stuff. I mean, it's a wine region, right? So people are inherently doing creative storytelling through wine and distilleries and products. So our first aid station is a beautiful winery and they were excited to have us, and it came at about mile 20, and it was kind of a bummer that a lot of people skipped it. Uh, their thing was they were serving hand ups of homegrown home cured homemade prosciutto. So, uh, like stuff that they had grown from, grown and made from their farm was like, here you go. And they were serving it with these apples that the, that the pigs had been fed on. They're like, oh no, you have to taste it with the apples. So, uh, so we want it to be those kinds of things. And then STR did an amazing aid station out. Top of one of these mountains where people get up, they're exhausted, they're pissed off at me, and slams up there throwing a party, and then people go, wait, that's the Pacific Ocean. Holy cow. They, we have these great bakeries. And so what Ram did last year was basically created a bake shop. They went and bought all of these amazing pa uh, pastries and people get up there or just chow out on locally made pastries. And then our third aid station needed needs some tlc. We need to put some paninis and things like that in. Then I want people to be, you know, I sort of want people to, to go back to the finish line, you know, heavier than when they left. And if that means they also get a case of like type two diabetes from good food, then that's, I'm okay with that too. Um, and then our fourth aid stop was out at Long Branch Saloon and. It's so funny. They're like, what should we do? I was like, fried pickles. Give 'em fried pickles, give 'em fried pickles. And so they were serving up fried pickles and that was, you know, people were stopping and, uh, I'm not supposed to tout this for liability, but people were stopping and ordering b ordering burgers and beer at mile 80, hanging out at the a, at hating it out at Long Branch and then, you know, poodle their way back the last 20 miles. So it's all about showcasing what's cool and what's the character of the place and what makes it special. And I think there was also someone who hopped in. Did an unofficial aid station where, uh, you know, they were serving beverages that they shouldn't have been serving, but they did it in the middle of nowhere. They, we love, we loved that they were there, but at the same time it was like, Ugh, I don't wanna own that liability. [00:28:04] Craig Dalton: may have to check in with that Lantern Rouge winner and see if they ordered a burger at the brewery and, and stopped for libations at mile 80. , given the, the course you've laid out, what type of equipment are you recommending riders arrive with in terms of like tires, for example? [00:28:23] Bryan Yates: So I think it's gonna be a little early to tell, because I don't know what the turf is going to be. I will tell you what my standard tire is and then y'all can make decisions what however you want based on this. But we will get a little, we'll get more to it as we get closer. So generally, I will run, um, The Pathfinder 40 twos because I'm old and lazy and like a plush or the Pelli Cido ages because there's a lot of, there's a lot of, of terrain of asphalt and. And I don't want you to be bummed out by the asphalt. It's actually super exciting. People get so stoked on those descends because it turns into like roller coasters. So the centra h uh, I mean, during the winter I've been running the rmba, the specialized rambus up front and a pathfinder in back. But it's gonna depend on what kind of trail work gets done on Rocky Canyon, which is our single. It's going to depend on what happens to some of the dirt roads that we go on because we've had some, some of the dirt roads that y'all road last year have basically fallen into the ravine cuz they've just been so saturated. So the county's been really great about getting in there and fixing stuff. But let's wait until we get a little bit closer. But right now, you know, the, the Pathfinder's a pretty solid choice. It rolls beautifully. It holds the road beautifully, and you know, it actually for like a 42 seat tire has a relatively low rolling resistance, which makes it fast and fun. [00:30:03] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I think that's so much fun when, I mean, you wanna hate your bike or your tires at least once during an an event to sort of push you and force a decision one way or the other. Where do you want comfort? Do you want speed? At some point there's gonna be a trade off. [00:30:17] Bryan Yates: It's gonna be true if I talk to, uh, I mean a lot. The guy who ends up in a lot of our Instagram photos, this is my usual ride buddy. And, you know, he's leaps and bounds stronger than I am and he is talking about riding 32 c Pathfinders for next year is like, you be you, dude. That's, if that's what you wanna do, go for it. It's definitely rideable. You know, I would ask someone after we have Yuri and Allison out, I'd get their feedback and see what they want. But I think that, you know, I think that on the long course we're not gonna see a lot of improvement on the Rocky Canyon single track, which has turned into a proper mountain biking climb. So that's that, uh, for me says stick with, stick with a wider pathfinder and just go cuz of where it lands in the course. [00:31:07] Craig Dalton: Yep. Got it. There's a couple other things I wanted to point out about the event. As we were talking about offline, you know, there's many rides and events that people roll into that day, do it and go home. It really seems like the way you're orienting this event, With activities several days before. You expect and have experienced that people are staying in the region for a few days. Can you talk about the sort of notion of planning a long weekend down there and what the riders might experience? [00:31:36] Bryan Yates: Oh God, I, I can talk about this all day on all night. I didn't know that when I grew up, I was gonna end up being a tourism guy by accident. Yeah, I think so. I, I think, let's, there are some challenges here for the Sprinter set. All right. Slow County is relatively strict about what it can, what it deems as public outdoor camping. Uh, in fact, they, it, the county has technically made it illegal to even RV camp on someone's property. It's un unpleasable, basically. So I would just say, you know, if you're coming down with a sprinter, call me and let's put, let's hook you up with some, some place where you can park that. But like as far as events go, come down with your family. Like there's so much. To do. It doesn't just have to be about wine. I mean, it's a beautiful place to tour. Uh, there is south of here a really fun zip line tour, for example, that is over, that goes over a vineyard. And so that's really fun to take kids to. You can go out to the coast and, I mean, it's a 30 minute drive to the coast and hang out at the beach, go to Cambria or Bay. So there's all of that. I know. We have one of your, you're in Marin and we know, I know one of your, your Marin crew is coming down. We've got about a crew of 15 of yours who will be coming down and kind of staying together. And one of the things that we've done is, Set them up with a private in-house wine tasting from a, a well-known winemaker who doesn't happen to have a tasting room, but really wants to show up. So, you know, you know, there's sorts of things that we can do. Like you can get introductions to say, wine winemakers who are doing interesting things where you may not actually figure, find out where they are. Um, and there's, you know, there's great restaurants. Like one of the things we did last year that was a little, that was different than other rides is we don't do t-shirts. Mostly cuz we find like 40% of the people want t-shirts and 60% saying no, I'm just gonna clean the chain with it anyways. So in our rider bags last year we really tried to keep it with local products and there's a company that makes beautiful, fresh and dried pastas and so our rider bags were had. Pasta had local, locally made granola bars from a bakery. And so we try to keep it with local goods and kind of give people a bag that's like, here's a taste of pasta, or there was locally made jams. So we, that's sort of the approach is really all about showcasing the cool stuff that's being made here. [00:34:14] Craig Dalton: And what about riding before the event? Do you have pre rides organized? What does that look? [00:34:20] Bryan Yates: I should have picked up on that question before you. Thanks for teeing me up. So, Thursday night we will have, uh, Thursday evening we'll have a little ride out of Pastor Robles and that, you know, last year we were totally, we were surprised as heck by our, our pre rides last year. Um, on Thursday we did one. We'll do one out Paso. You know, we had 20 people show up for that, which was fantastic. And uh, canyon was there. And I Canyon, if you're listening, I certainly hope that you'll be there again. Uh, canyon was there. They, they hosted that ride and we did, you know, 20 miles that Thursday evening, Friday we met out at Long Branch Saloon, where the fried pickles are and. We did a pre ride out of there and it was so funny, like none of us expected what we got. Like we were there, we figured, oh, we'll have 25, 30 people. Uh, we had 70 people show up for that pre ride. It was so it was, you know, people were full on, ready to come out and play, and then everyone stuck around and had had lunch and beers at the saloon afterwards. We did another pre ride that day. Um, vole the local kit maker. Which is made and manufactured down in, um, in Pismo Beach. So about 30 minutes from here. They hosted a pre ride out of Atascadero in the afternoon for late comers. I don't think we're going to do a third one this year. It's just a lot to juggle. I think we'll focus on the two Thursday and Friday, and then we have the packet pickup party on Friday evening, and we had 80% of our people picking up the packets the night before, which I think was a reversal. What bike monkey usually experiences, and I do wanna say this is a bike monkey production, like this couldn't happen without them. And we're really incredibly grateful to be part of their, their network of rides. So that's a, it's a special thing to do a bike monkey event. Yeah, [00:36:18] Craig Dalton: absolutely. And for those, listen. Listening if you did not hear my interview with Carlos a few episodes back with respect to Truckee Gravel, we do talk about Bike Monkey as a production entity and some of the other great events that Carlos has been working with the last decade. So certainly a top class organization to have behind you and provides a lot of confidence. I also wanted to make a personal note about the region you're talking about. I've had the pleasure of riding down there a little bit, and I remember when you announced the event last. I was so enthusiastic about it because I totally agree that it's this gem that's within good driving distance of both LA and San Francisco, where you can get down there and have a completely different experience than you're having to the north or to the south of [00:37:06] Bryan Yates: that area. It is such a unique experience for sure. I, I, I still, after four years, I still get up and I will end up at certain sections of this, of the, the region is go, I, I, I can't believe, I can't believe I have this, this is phenomenal. [00:37:23] Craig Dalton: What's, the cycle camp? What's the story behind that? [00:37:26] Bryan Yates: Yeah, so, uh, this'll be our third. We have a camp coming up in at the end of April, and this is the third annual one that we've done. It usually brings about seven to 10 riders and people just get here and, you know, for a lot of them it's their opportunity to. This year we have a lot of new riders, but in general it's like for people to come together and just enjoy some different, the course sliced up in different ways over four days. So, you know, we have it coming back up again in a couple, in a couple of weeks, and everyone's, you know, The, uh, the ribbing has already started and people are already talking about their favorite segments that they're looking forward to. And so, um, you know, and they get, they, they all come back and like, this is great. I love coming here. This is, is amazing. And I forget that it's, you know, three hours from LA and three hours from the Bay Area. [00:38:15] Craig Dalton: Love it. A couple other things I wanted to mention and a final question for you. I, I did note in your materials that you have discounts for groups, which is amazing. So if you're listening and you want to go down there, whether you're three people, five people, or eight people, they provide discounts, which as we all know, these events are more fun when you go down with your crew. And then the final thing I wanted to just ask you about and give an opportunity for you to talk about is you've always had a charity component for the event as well. So could you talk about that charity and why it means [00:38:44] Bryan Yates: something to you? Yeah, this is really, this is really special to me. You know, just because our theme has been all about the local, we found a local charity that's doing really important national work. It's called Operations Surf. There is a, uh, movie on them on Netflix, and then there's been a, a, a piece that's done on them on E S P N, and it is an organization that creates surf camps and surfing and ocean education for injured returning veterans. As, uh, as, as a gateway to, to a pathway to recovery. And working through P T S D and really, you know, helping save people's lives. And I got a chance to do that. I go to one of those camps last year as a volunteer and it's absolutely touching and powerful. So what we have done is we have created, it costs $5,000 to send a vet to one of those week long camps. And so last year we created the mor Mariah Will Wilson ride, like Moe. Operations surf scholarship to raise $5,000 to send one female veteran to a camp. And thankfully, you know, we hit that $5,000 last year and that felt really great. And if. We got to send two female veterans to a camp this year. That would be so, such an impressive legacy for, for mo. And you know, we thought that surfing, surfing communities and gravel communities, there was a lot of interesting overlap in the two of those, and we felt like, They're both strong about the community. They're both strong about sense of place. They're both strong and so many about being connected through outdoors in a way that a lot of other sports aren't. So that's So Operations surf, check 'em out. It's operations surf.org. We're really, really fortunate to have them as charity partners. [00:40:43] Craig Dalton: Yeah, that's awesome. So good that you were able to kind of cross that threshold of getting at least one person to attend, another veteran to attend that camp. And hopefully we can get to this year, I'll make sure to put links to the event, which is the last weekend of October this year so people know how to register. And I'll also share a link to that operations surf so everybody knows how to get in touch with that and familiarize themselves with the importance of that charitable organiz. [00:41:10] Bryan Yates: I appreciate it. I know they will too. It's absolutely lovely. . [00:41:13] Craig Dalton: Brian, thanks so much for all the time. Thanks for the efforts in putting together an event in this region. I'd love to see it and I look forward to seeing it firsthand this year. [00:41:24] Bryan Yates: Thanks so much for having to me on. We love talking about the event. We love talking about it with passionate people and I love what you're doing with the podcast, Craig, so thanks so much. [00:41:37] Craig Dalton: That's going to do it for this week's edition of the gravel ride podcast. Big, thanks to Brian from the bovine classic for joining us. Make sure to check out the bovine classic. You can just search for it, or you can find the URL in my show notes. Continued. Thanks and appreciation goes out to our friends at hammerhead and the hammerhead kuru to computer. We very much appreciate your support of the show. And if you're interested in that free heart rate monitor, just visit hammerhead.io, but a heart rate monitor in your cart with a crew to computer. Use the code, the gravel ride, and that heart rate monitor is all yours. If you're interested in connecting with me, please visit the ridership that's www.theridership.com. That's a free global cycling community where you can connect with other gravel and adventure athletes from all around the world. If you have a moment, ratings and reviews are hugely appreciated. And until next time. Here's to finding some dirt under your wheels.    

Controversy erupts over immigrant child labor, the media tracks down a leaker of classified documents, and life teems in the Pacific Ocean garbage patch. Sohrab Ahmari, Nina Power, and Geoff Shullenberger join Matthew Schmitz.

In her new book “Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock,” Jenny Odell takes a tour of the Bay Area. She begins at the Port of Oakland and travels as far as the Pacific Ocean before turning around and heading back to Mountain View Cemetery in the East Bay hills. Along the way, she also brings readers on a different kind of journey. At each location, she uses these physical spaces to illustrate different ways of thinking about time itself. Are there really 24 hours in a day? By the end of this book, you won't be so sure. I interviewed Jenny onstage at the Backroom in downtown Berkeley on April 4, 2023 in front of a live audience. The conversation covers everything from deconstructing linear conceptions of history to traffic jams on 880. Original music for this episode was produced by Mark Pantoja. Thank you to KPFA's Brandi Howell for recording this event and Kevin Hunsanger for production. To see photos related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/time-is-not-money/ If you want to hear my interview with Jenny about her first book, “How to do Nothing,” check out episode 46 of East Bay Yesterday. That conversation was recorded in 2019 at the dearly departed Wolfman Books in downtown Oakland. East Bay Yesterday can't survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

Did you know that one simple rainstorm in the Colorado Rockies can drop some rainwater that heads to the Pacific Ocean and also some rainwater that heads to the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles away? That's because the storm was at what's called the Continental Divide. Likewise, we all face “Continental Divide” issues in our work lives, our careers, and most importantly, our spiritual journey that precipitates any ultimate rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Join Kevin as we discuss where “Continental Divide” and “closed basin” issues that we all face in life! // Download this episode's Application & Action questions and PDF transcript at whitestone.org.

Doing this show, we have been lucky enough to speak with anglers from all across this great country. But one area that hardly gets mentioned is the Pacific Northwest. Tonight on the Bass Fishing for Noobs show, we happily welcome Luke Johnston! Luke lives just outside Portland, Oregon, and has been fishing in the Pacific Northwest for most of his life. Luke starts by letting us know how he got into fishing then talks about what makes that particular area of the country such an amazing fishery. Luke talks about some epic days fishing the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, including some of the best smallmouth bass fishing in the country, rivaling the Susquehanna that Sean raves about. Luke also talks about some of the other species available including salmon (both native and hatchery-raised), trout, and steelhead, not to mention all the saltwater species available given the proximity of the Pacific Ocean, making the area on to the most diverse fisheries in the country. Luke shares some of his favorite techniques and some tricks he has picked up as well as some tips to be safe while out on the water. So add the Pacific Northwest to your bucket list of fisheries and get out and enjoy this scenic and amazing place! Find Luke online at: https://www.instagram.com/luke_johnston_pnw/ If you live in the Portland area and are looking for a kayak, check out: https://www.nextadventure.net/ And https://aldercreek.com/ Check out these apps to stay safe out on the water: https://windy.app/ https://www.windfinder.com/apps/ https://www.wunderground.com/ https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt https://rivergages.mvr.usace.army.mil/WaterControl/new/layout.cfm Sign Up For Dale Hollow Event- https://tourneyx.com/leaderboard/standings/paddlenfin-open-at-dale-hollow-2023 Dale Hollow Lodging- www.eastport.info Waypoint TV- https://waypointtv.com Podcast & Website- www.paddlenfin.com YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/paddlenfin Email- paddlenfin@gmail.com Social Media- @paddlenfin Yak Gadget- www.yakgadget.com Pelican Professional- www.pelican.com Rocktown paddlesports - rocktownadventures.com JigMasters Jigs- https://jigmasters.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A former “Top Gun” fighter pilot, Retired Admiral Mike Manazir's distinguished U.S. Navy career spanned 36 years and included multiple commands: VF-31 ‘Tomcatters' F-14D squadron, USS Sacramento, USS Nimitz, and Carrier Strike Group Eight in the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. He completed 15 overseas deployments, and flew more than 3,750 fighter hours with 1,240 arrested landings on multiple aircraft carriers. His five tours at the Pentagon culminated in his role as the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Warfighting Systems. His new and best-selling, “Learn How to Lead to Win,” features 33 powerful stories and leadership lessons based on real life events in the chaotic and risky business of operating off the decks of U.S. aircraft carriers. At its core, the book reflects Manazir's selfless passion for developing people. In episode 350 of the Fraternity Foodie Podcast, we find out why Mike decided to go to school at the US Naval Academy, what the popular "Top Gun" movie franchise get right and what does it get wrong, how he got the call sign "Nasty", when his father finally said he was proud of him, how he survived when he planted a $75-million jet into the Pacific Ocean, how he helped to land a crippled jet with the navigator hanging out of the blown canopy, how he was able to steer a nuclear aircraft carrier into a horrific monsoon in the Indian Ocean while the flight deck is awash and flooded, why mentorship is so critical, and what it's like to work for Boeing today. Enjoy!

Dr. Elizabeth Nguyen, author of Aloha Vietnam, discusses "a  rich journey across the Pacific Ocean to find one's true home and identity amidst loss, grief, and mental illness."https://aloha-vietnam.com/aloha-vietnam/ Tweet us at @podcastcolors. Check out our partner program on international affairs Global with JJ Green on YouTube. Please subscribe. Email us at colors@the colorspodcast.com.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 15, 2023 is: contraption • kun-TRAP-shun • noun A contraption is a usually mechanical or electronic device or gadget. // The students worked as a team to create a Rube Goldberg contraption that can fill a pet food bowl at the press of a lever. See the entry > Examples: “In October of last year, an enormous new creature appeared on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean, about 1,400 miles southwest of San Diego. It was a remote-controlled, 90-ton machine the size of a small house, lowered from an industrial ship on a cable nearly 3 miles long. Once it was settled on the ocean floor, the black, white, and Tonka-truck-yellow contraption began grinding its way forward, its lights lancing through the darkness, steel treads biting into the silt.” — Vince Beister, WIRED, 28 Feb. 2023 Did you know? In the words of one Little Mermaid, “I've got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty.” It would have been on-theme (though perhaps a bit clunky) for the aquatic princess to include in her siren song the word contraption. Synonymous with both gadget and gizmo, and widget too, in referring to mechanical and electronic devices, contraption is also one of a raft of terms people reach for when talking about various human-made bits and bobs, whether mechanical or not. (It's thought to have possibly been formed as a blend of contrivance, trap, and invention.) Want more thingamabob words? Try doohickey, thingamajig, dingus, or doodad.