Podcasts about people want

The parents of 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony have given several, emotional interviews following their son’s murder conviction for stabbing fellow teen Austin Metcalf last year. The Anthony’s believe everyone lied on the stand and their son was never innocent until proven guilty. While Anthony’s legal team has already filed an appeal, his parents are concerned for their safety, saying people want their family dead even after “they got what they wanted” with Anthony’s conviction. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The parents of 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony have given several, emotional interviews following their son’s murder conviction for stabbing fellow teen Austin Metcalf last year. The Anthony’s believe everyone lied on the stand and their son was never innocent until proven guilty. While Anthony’s legal team has already filed an appeal, his parents are concerned for their safety, saying people want their family dead even after “they got what they wanted” with Anthony’s conviction. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The parents of 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony have given several, emotional interviews following their son’s murder conviction for stabbing fellow teen Austin Metcalf last year. The Anthony’s believe everyone lied on the stand and their son was never innocent until proven guilty. While Anthony’s legal team has already filed an appeal, his parents are concerned for their safety, saying people want their family dead even after “they got what they wanted” with Anthony’s conviction. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we're joined by John Plake, Chief Innovation Officer and Editor-in-Chief of the State of the Bible research at the American Bible Society. With decades of experience as a pastor, missionary, professor, and researcher, John brings a unique perspective on how people are actually engaging with Scripture and what we should do about it. The “movable middle” is growing. // One of the most significant insights from recent research is the rise of what John calls the “movable middle”—millions of people who are open to the Bible but not yet engaged with it. This group has grown by approximately nine million people in recent years. They are curious, interested, and even positive toward Scripture, but they lack the tools, confidence, or guidance to engage it meaningfully. This represents a massive opportunity for churches willing to step in and help. People want a guide. // Through focus groups and research, John discovered that many people in the movable middle feel intimidated by the Bible. They struggle with language, context, and navigation. But perhaps most striking is they want help. Contrary to what some leaders might assume, they are not rejecting the church as a guide. In fact, many say, “If we can't trust the church to help us understand the Bible, what good is it?” This creates a clear invitation for churches to step into a more relational, guiding role in discipleship. A surprising discipleship gap. // One of the most sobering findings is that nearly half of weekly church attenders are not regularly engaging Scripture on their own. While churches invest heavily in preaching and programming, many people are not developing personal habits of Bible engagement. John suggests that churches often focus on delivering content rather than equipping people to engage Scripture themselves. The result is a gap between what happens on Sunday and what happens in everyday life. From teaching to equipping. // If churches want to close that gap, they must shift from being primarily content providers to equipping environments. This means helping people develop the skills, habits, and confidence to read and apply Scripture on their own. It also requires understanding the real barriers people face, like time constraints, confusion, or lack of community support, and addressing those barriers with practical solutions. A new tool for churches. // To help leaders take action, the American Bible Society has developed the “Next Step for Church” assessment. This free tool allows churches to measure spiritual health, Bible engagement, and key leadership behaviors within their congregation. Within a few weeks, leaders receive a detailed, data-driven report highlighting strengths, challenges, and suggested next steps. Data that leads to discipleship. // John emphasizes that data is not an end in itself; it's a tool for better shepherding. By listening to their congregation at scale, leaders can identify patterns, confirm instincts, and prioritize what matters most. The assessment surfaces both what's working and where growth is needed, giving churches a clear path forward. It also connects individuals to personalized Scripture engagement resources, helping them take their next step spiritually. Why Scripture engagement matters most. // Nothing has a greater impact on spiritual growth than a person's relationship with the Bible. In fact, Scripture engagement accounts for a significant portion of overall spiritual health. When people consistently engage with God's Word, transformation follows—affecting beliefs, behaviors, and relationships. Signs of hope for the future. // Despite broader cultural challenges, John sees encouraging trends, especially among younger generations. Millennials and Gen Z show increasing openness to Scripture, even if they are still exploring. While overall trends may appear flat, meaningful change is happening beneath the surface. For churches willing to engage this moment, there is real opportunity for impact. To explore the research further or access the free church assessment, visit church.nextstep.bible and begin discovering how your church can better equip people to engage Scripture every day. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Risepointe Do you feel like your church’s or school's facility could be preventing growth? Are you frustrated or possibly overwhelmed at the thought of a complicated or costly building project? Are the limitations of your building becoming obstacles in the path of expanding your ministry? Have you ever felt that you could reach more people if only the facility was better suited to the community’s needs? Well, the team over at Risepointe can help! As former ministry staff and church leaders, they understand how to prioritize and help lead you to a place where the building is a ministry multiplier. Your mission should not be held back by your building. Their team of architects, interior designers and project managers have the professional experience to incorporate creative design solutions to help move YOUR mission forward. Check them out at risepointe.com and while you’re there, schedule a FREE call to explore possibilities for your needs, vision and future…Risepointe believes that God still uses spaces…and they're here to help. Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. I am so glad that you have decided to tune in today. This is one of those episodes that there’s a great resource in it that going to want to make sure you engage with. There’s super helpful content. Plus it’s about an area that I know so many of us are thinking about, we’re wondering about, we’re asking questions about. Rich Birch — So super excited to have John Plake with us today. He is the chief innovator ah innovation officer and editor-in-chief of the State of the Bible Research Series, which comes from the American Bible Society. And they’re on a mission to make the Bible available to every person in a language and format each can understand and afford so that all may experience its life-changing message. ABS has really a whole bunch of different tools and approaches, and we’re excited kind of expose a little bit more about that today. John has been in ministry over 30 years. We’ll just call it over 30 years. And it served as a pastor, missionary, professor, researcher. John, welcome to the show. So glad you’re here.John Plake — Thanks so much for having me today. It’s great to be with you.Rich Birch — Why don’t you fill in the picture a little bit? Tell us a little bit about your background. You know, what brings you to your current work?John Plake — Yeah. Closer to 40 years now. Rich Birch — Nice. Yeah, yeah. That’s great.John Plake — It’s a little uncomfortable to talk about that.Rich Birch — That’s great.John Plake — Yeah. You know, I start out like a lot of people in ministry. I grew up in a home that ministry was central. Actually, both my grandfathers were ministers. My father was a minister. Ministry is kind of the family business in a way, but I really did sense a direction from God when I was about 15 years old to to pursue full-time ministry.John Plake — There was some detail around that. Ended up going to Bible college and and then started what turned out to be about nine years of full-time pastoral service. And I hadn’t been in that for very long before I realized that everything I learned in Bible College was preparing me to serve a generation that no longer existed in a culture that was gone. John Plake — And I thought, my goodness, I know God’s word pretty well. And mean, I’m a lifelong learner of God’s word. I love the Bible. And yet, didn’t really know culture very well. And I didn’t develop those tools until just years and years of practice, some missionary service, wonderful teachers at at Wheaton College and graduate school and and just a lifelong journey of learning.John Plake — So at American Bible Society, when I got here, the State of the Bible, program or this research project was already underway. And we’d been helped out by the Barna Group, which does some wonderful foundational work. And eventually it just kind of grew up and it got to a place where we had an internal team that was running it ourselves, now in collaboration with the National Opinion Research Council or NORC at the University of Chicago. We just do, I think, what is the largest ongoing study of Americans’ relationship with the Bible and faith and the church. And we get to talk about it all the time. Rich Birch — Yeah, I love it.John Plake — So, I mean, this is the best job in the world.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. It’s it’s great research, something that I think should be on the kind of list of things that we need to be paying attention to. It’s been a gift to the church for so long and something that we should continue to to pay attention through. Now, let’s talk about you specifically. You spent three plus decades. I didn’t want to say almost 40. You know, I’m not saying that. I’m not saying that. I could say that, you know, a couple years ago, I clicked across one of those numbers with a zero on the end as my birthday. And ever since then, I’m a little sensitive about the the age thing. Rich Birch — So anyways, As a ministry, missionary professor, researcher, you’ve done a lot. How does wearing all of those hats, what do you what does that bring to you as you come to the data? How does that impact you as you think about really the state of the Bible research?John Plake — Yeah, you know, I think research can be dull. You know, it can sound like it’s all about writing questions or it’s all statistics and numbers. But for me, the research is all about the people. Rich Birch — So true.John Plake — It’s all about the people in our communities and in our churches that we’re trying to understand better so we can serve them well with the gospel. I, for years, I’ve used the analogy that that being in gospel ministry is like being a human bridge across a river. I grew up not very far from the Mississippi River in the St. Louis area, and there was a big 100-year flood when I was early on in ministry. And I mean, none of the bridges worked anymore. You couldn’t get from one side to the other.John Plake — And I thought, you know, that’s a tragedy that I encountered sometimes in ministry where maybe I was deeply rooted in one bank of the river, the text, but I wasn’t necessarily deeply rooted in the other bank of the river, which was the context.John Plake — And it’s this lived experience of the people that I was I was serving. And that I wanted to serve in my community, but I needed to understand them better. So I wasn’t just spouting you know Aristotelian logic to them. Or I wasn’t just coming at them with the pat answers that I’d learned. Like I’d never heard anybody in my life walk into my office and say, Pastor John, you got to tell me, what can you describe hamartiology to me from. You know like I had to learn that in school, but that’s not what people struggle with. Rich Birch — That’s so true. Yeah. John Plake — They had totally different questions and I needed to love them and honor them enough to understand their questions and answer them responsibly and reliably from the pages of scripture.Rich Birch — Yeah, love it. Okay, well, we’re going to dig into a little bit of just a couple of the findings just to kind of, we’re trying to whet your appetite, friends, to take steps towards this. So the 2025 data showed, and we’ve seen this, a real bump in Bible engagement, particularly among millennials and men. If I’m reading it correctly, though, we saw 2026, a shift happen, maybe back down. And so what’s going on? Actually, I heard another sociologist in a kind of a related field that was about church attendance talked about the dead cat bounce, that it was like, you know, which I thought, oh, that’s a, but there’s a similarity going on here. Pull this, this finding apart. Help us understand this.John Plake — Yeah, apologies to cat lovers out there.Rich Birch — Yes, exactly.John Plake — We were we were hoping, you know, I think we were really hoping. We looked at 2025. We saw that men in particular were leaning into the Bible in ways we hadn’t seen recently. Millennials doing the same thing. There there were some interesting numbers in 2025. And so when the 2026 numbers came to my desk in late January, I thought, I hope we’re extending I hope it’s going to be a trend. But it wasn’t. It was a blip.John Plake — And there’s more to it, though, than just the fact that scripture engagement didn’t go up. It also didn’t go down. And the level of people in America who are Bible disengaged, meaning they never pick up the Bible on purpose at all, that actually didn’t go up either. What grew was this kind of curious explorer group in the middle that we call the movable middle. And over the last two years, it’s grown by 9 million American adults. Rich Birch — Wow.John Plake — And so what we do see is there’s there’s openness to the Bible. There’s experimentation with the Bible. But people are jumping in and they’re trying it and they’re not being able to get hold of it. And I think that’s largely because of us.John Plake — Because Bible people who are around them aren’t saying, please come do this with me. Let me help you. Let me honor you enough to to respect your questions, to ask what you’re dealing with, and help you explore those issues through the pages of Scripture.Rich Birch — I love that movable middle, man, that feels like the kind of group we want to connect with and reach out to in our community. Any other, when you, when you’ve been thinking about this movable middle, what are some other kind of characteristics of those people or other things that, you know, are kind of telltale signs of this group as we’re thinking about them as it, as it pertains to Bible engagement?John Plake — Yeah, they’re an amazing group, and we’re going talking more about them all year, but they are probably my favorite subject in America. There are 74 million American adults that are in the movable middle.Rich Birch — Wow.John Plake — 74 million of our neighbors who are like…Rich Birch — Wow.John Plake — …and here’s what they tend to say: They love the Bible. They think it’s a great idea. But if you handed them a Bible, they don’t know how to find what they’re looking for. They don’t know how to navigate it. They get confused by the language in in Scripture.John Plake — I remember doing a a focus group with a bunch of people in the movable middle. I was in Chicago. it was an area I was really familiar with. I used to pastor in that area. And we got them talking about their experience with the Bible. And we said, hey, does anything ever stop you or kind of you know make you check out because you’re struggling with what’s going on? John Plake — And one young lady at the table said, yeah, you know the language of the Bible is really really hard for me to understand. It’s it’s a really old book. It uses expressions I don’t understand. And a gentleman sitting across the table from her just kind of chuckled and said, yeah, what the hell’s a mustard seed? And everybody laughed.John Plake — I was behind the glass and I just about fell out of my chair because they didn’t teach me to talk like that in a Assemblies of God seminary.Rich Birch — Yes.John Plake —Things like that, you know, that’s just not the way we roll.Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah. Yes.John Plake — But it was so authentic and he wasn’t being mean.Rich Birch — No.John Plake — He was just saying, boy, I don’t I don’t get it. And then they said, you know, we really want a guide. Rich Birch — That’s good.John Plake — And so we pushed on that a little bit. At the time, there were some clergy abuse scandals that actually there were billboards up in Chicago about clergy abuse scandals that all of us lamented. And so we’re like, OK, listen, do you trust the church to be your guide? Because ee saw these billboards, you know, and it’s your city. And so what what do you think?John Plake — And they said, well, of course we do. I mean, it’s terrible when people in the church abuse their position and abuse others. And that’s not what they’re supposed to do. But if we can’t trust the church to help us understand the Bible, what good are they, really? And so, yes, we’re looking to you, church, to help us connect more deeply with the Bible, understand what it meant to the original hearers and readers and how we apply it to our lives today.Rich Birch — Okay, that’s yeah, that’s really cool. I look forward to hearing more about the movable middle in this coming year. Another thing that jumped out to me, which I feel like, man, I’ve seen this in my church. This is like you you named a group that I see, but it’s surprising, at least it’s surprising on its face. So nearly half of weekly church attenders, weekly church attenders, which is, that’s like really engaged, you know, are not regularly engaging, engaging scripture on their own.Rich Birch — Man, what, so what should we do about that? That’s an interesting, how does, how should that impact our discipleship strategy? What are you encouraging us to be thinking about? And these people that are with us all the time, but they’re not engaged with scripture.John Plake — Well, I think the first thing to do is to just recognize it. Rich Birch — Right.John Plake — You know, a lot of pastors that I’ve talked to, when we talk about scripture engagement, they tell me things like this: Everything we do is scripture engagement. I spend my whole week preparing a scriptural message. I’m, you know, we’re preparing small group curriculum and Sunday school curriculum and all of this stuff. It’s all about the, everything we do is about the Bible. John Plake — Well, okay. But I had a I had a young youth pastor come to me not that long ago and he said, John, look, you were me once a few years ago. If you knew then what you know now, what would you do differently?John Plake — And the answer is I would do everything differently, than the way I ought to do it. Because what, in my tradition, there was a lot of emphasis on the preaching event, and I put a lot of effort into those communication events, but what I didn’t put as much effort into is empowering people in my church to do what I was doing, which was dig into scripture, understand it for themselves, giving them the tools to do that.John Plake — And then in May, we’re going to be releasing a chapter, just in a few few days now, we’re going to be releasing a chapter all about parents. And one of the startling things is the time pressure that moms are under. I mean, it’s incredible. And so we need to understand where they’re coming from and where they have barriers, but also have some compassion on them and help to support them when they’re really facing struggles. Like they don’t have enough time. They don’t have the resources or the community coming around them to help them to engage God’s word ah more fulsomely, more transformatively.John Plake — We know how to do this stuff, but we’re not connecting the dots to everybody that’s coming to hear us talk every…Rich Birch — That’s good. That’s good. I know I’ve in my seat as an XP, um you know, I’ve overseen a lot of what we do on the programming side and what we do on the weekends. And I’ve, you know, it’s like, that i don’t think I’ve ever said this publicly. It’s like the kind of behind the scenes conversation. I’ve sometimes wondered, I’ve said, you know, like, what we do on the weekend to try to make the Bible understandable is so completely different than Tuesday morning in someone’s life. Rich Birch — Like, we pull out all the stops to make it interesting. We get like world class communicators, incredible graphics, you know, emotional music, all of this to try to… But then the question is, okay, so now on Tuesday morning when you’re tired and you haven’t had your coffee yet and you’re just about to go read scripture, man, like that feels like a long ways away. There’s like a gap there that I sometimes wonder maybe we’re making it worse. You know. Maybe we’re making it harder. I said that. You didn’t say that. Rich Birch — So maybe there’s pastors that are listening here and they read this kind of report. They read this kind of finding and they’re like, hey, that’s interesting. But like, how what do I do in my church specifically? So you know we want we don’t want to just leave people with a tough stat.Rich Birch — I think we see that in our church. There’s people in our church that are here all the time. They’re not that engaged. But you’ve actually developed a new tool or ABS has developed a new tool to help us think through that. Why don’t you walk us through it? Tell us a little bit about it. How’s it work? Talk us how it can help us.John Plake — Yeah, so recently we developed two tools that kind of work together. One of them you can find on the internet at nextstep.bible. And it’s just for anybody who’s like, hey, I’m on a spiritual journey. I’m kind of stuck. I don’t really know what to do next. Maybe you’re just getting started exploring what it means to be a Christian. Maybe you’re Jesus’ little brother or sister. Wherever you are in that journey, there’s always a next step for us.John Plake — And so what we’ve done is analyzed along about a million spiritual life surveys. Rich Birch — Wow.John Plake — And from this huge quantity of data, we’ve learned that people are at different places in that journey. They’re at different points on the map. And we want to make sure that they’re equipped to have the right thing at the right time. I think currently there are 21,000 scripture engagement resources available there.Rich Birch — Wow.John Plake — They’re absolutely free. They’re in English, Spanish, and French. So go check it out, nextstep.bible.John Plake — But if you’re a pastor or you’re a church leader, you’re probably wondering, well, what’s going on in my church, right? So I see all the national data, but I think our tendency is to say, well, we’re the exception, right?Rich Birch — So true. Well, that’s not our people. John Plake — I know I know everybody else is struggling, but we’re doing okay.Rich Birch — Yes.John Plake — And and so it’s good to check our assumptions a little bit. They used to say a really sad statistic that 10 o’clock on Sunday morning was the most segregated hour in America, which makes me sad. What makes me sad also is that 12 o’clock noon in America is the most dishonest hour in America. That’s the hour when pastors tend to start greeting their people after the church service closes and they hear all these comments: oh, Pastor, that was the best sermon I’ve ever heard. And it wasn’t. It just wasn’t. All right, let’s face it.John Plake — There’s somebody out there who preaches better than you do and better than I do. They’re available on YouTube. People don’t need you to be the best Bible teacher in the world. They need you to be the best pastor for them. Rich Birch — That’s good.John Plake — And the tools that are all about focusing on their relationship with the Bible, their holistic spiritual formation, and our leadership behaviors. And so for that, we built the Next Step for Church Assessment.John Plake — It’s actually standing on the foundation or built on the engine block, if you want a different metaphor, of the old reveal research that the Willow Creek Association had come out with. It’s no longer available. And we were able to acquire all of their historical learnings, but also add in things like human flourishing and e-pastoral leadership behaviors that lead to churches really being missionally effective and strong. Excellent stuff on Bible engagement and spiritual formation. John Plake — So the the big challenge we had, I was talking with Dr. Ed Stetzer about this because he was at LifeWay Research when the Transformational Church Assessment was being built. And it was always hard because analyzing this kind of data required a lot of human intervention. It’s very expensive to do. It’s very complicated to deliver. And even a small cost can be a barrier for churches that have strained budgets. It doesn’t matter if you’re a church of, you know, 2,500 25,000 or 250. There’s always more places to put your money than there are dollars that are available to do it.John Plake — And so at American Bible Society, we said, you know what, as a gift to the church, because we love the church, we need to make it completely free. And so you can go to church.nextstep.bible and you could sign up today. Literally, we’re recording this on a on a Thursday. You could go there today and by Sunday, you could be launching your survey. Two weeks later, you’d automatically have results in your own online dashboard. You’d get key highlights emailed to you. There’s a place for custom questions. There’s just all kinds of really, really rich information.Rich Birch — So good.John Plake — And it it doesn’t take the place of the kind of learning that you have as a pastor. You learn deeply in relationship with others. You’re observing what’s going on. You have a team that’s around you. But what it does is it provides this valid, reliable sift and sort function. It’s based on well, I don’t know even know how many, well over 3000 churches, well over half a million survey responses went into building this and making it a tool that that is a good benchmark for you to say, you know what, if we want to move from where we are today to where God is calling us, here are the things we need to focus on.Rich Birch — It’s so good. And friends, I want to encourage you to to go there. Just church.nextstep.bible. I know many of us have a heart for saying, listen, we want to measure more than just nickels and noses. The number of people that show up and revenue that comes in. And this a great way to kind of inject at something that’s at the core of what we’re supposed to be doing as a church. So why don’t we just give a little bit more detail?Rich Birch — What is it? You know, what’s it actually measuring? How is it? You know, how could it be helpful? How how could it kind of dovetail with some of the things we’re already tracking? Maybe give us, you know, what kind of insights are we going to gain from this if we if we put our people through this?John Plake — Yeah, maybe it’s worthwhile to just back up and say it’s based on a congregational assessment. So really this kind of work is all about just listening to your congregation at scale. So if you have 25 people coming to church, you can probably have this conversation with them if you know how to ask the right questions. Rich Birch — Right.John Plake — You can go to the website. You’re like, what’s in the survey? There’s a button you can click. You can read the whole survey. It’s fine. We’re not going to try and surprise you with anything. But really simple stuff. How’s your relationship with Jesus? How often are you interacting with Scripture? What difference is that making in your life? We ask the standard Harvard human flourishing questions. We ask about um how the pastoral team or the senior pastor, him or herself, is doing at actually modeling Christlike leadership for you. Rich Birch — It’s so good.John Plake — And all of that reporting then gets brought into a database. It’s all anonymous. So individuals don’t, they don’t have to tell you who they are. They can’t tell you who they are other than by characteristics. And you’re going to get this really good, robust picture of what’s going on at the church. John Plake — Now, what does it take for somebody to do that? It takes about 20 minutes of their time, and time is expensive, right? People always have too much to do. So in return for that investment, at the end of their survey experience, they will have already told us everything we need to know to match them to great resources at nextstep.bible.John Plake — And with their permission, not without it, they can click a button, pass that data over to the individual nextstep.bible platform. They can create an account and right away, they’re going to be finding things like YouVersion Bible reading plans that are just for them.John Plake — If you’ve got people in your church and they’re outliers, they’re they’re way more spiritually advanced than everybody else, or they’re just getting started and everybody else is way ahead of them, these kinds of tools create bespoke pathways for them so they know what to do next. All the while, the church leadership can sit back and say, okay, here’s our results. And as a team, now what do we need to do to serve the whole congregation well?Rich Birch — I love this. You know, this is what incredible tool that you’ve put together here for our churches to wrestle through and to, you know, not only help us as a church as we’re thinking about these issues, but then help individuals in our church. What what would be some of the ways that churches might use the data that’s generated to impact what we’re doing in our programming? How how could we use this to improve what we’re doing?John Plake — Sure. There are really three things we want everybody to do. First, just discover what’s going on. Just just check your assumptions at the door and and say, okay, what do the data tell us about what’s going on in our church life and in our people’s lives? That’s the first thing.John Plake — Second thing is it’s going to surface for you the top three things that you’re doing great. And it’s going to give them to you in the report. And you need to throw a party. Like there are people who make these things happen for you. No pastor is doing this all by themselves. And so plan a party, celebrate what’s going well.John Plake — The third thing it’s going to do is it’s going to give you suggestions about, okay, here’s where your congregation is today. It won’t surprise you, but it might inform you. I’ve never seen a pastor look at the report and go, ah you guys got it wrong. Rich Birch — Sure, right.John Plake — Usually they they see the report and they go, yeah, okay, yeah, you got me.Rich Birch — Yeah. Confirmed some hunches I’ve had. Yeah. Yeah.John Plake — Right? But we don’t we don’t have time. We don’t have the resources. We don’t have the expertise to be able to sit down and and kind of scientifically walk through this process. So we do that for you. We deliver the report. And then we’re going to give you two key action items that we think churches like yours in a similar place have done that have helped move them toward spiritual health and missional effectiveness.John Plake — And that’s really what it’s all about. We want your congregation to be spiritually healthy. We want your your church as a whole to be missionally effective. And when that happens, often there’s numerical growth. Often there’s financial growth. But there’s certainly more missional impact that’s coming through your congregation and its work.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s cool. So if I’m like a church of a thousand people, let’s say, and just round number to picking out of the sky, how how what kind of percentage of my congregation would I need to take this to give me a reasonable, you know, statistical, you know, feeling good about the data for it? What what kind of number um should I be thinking about?John Plake — Well, the first thing is we’ve built in a tool that will tell you how to get to a margin of error of plus or minus 3%. Rich Birch — Love it.John Plake — And that does vary depending on the adult attendance that you have. So let’s say you’ve a thousand adults. And by adults, I mean anybody in high school or older can probably take this survey. Rich Birch — Yep.John Plake — And you can cut the data like by gender or by age. All of that live filtering is in the online platform. Rich Birch — Oh, that’s so good.John Plake — So if you’re the you’re the youth pastor and you’re like, well, wait, tell me about the young people that took the survey. You can just look right at them and compare them to the rest of the congregation, which I bet will be enlightening. But nevertheless, how many do you need if you’re a church of 1,000, it’s about 275.Rich Birch — Okay.John Plake — If it’s a smaller church than that, then you’re still going to need a pretty significant percentage. So if I roll that all the way down to a church of 100, you need 80.Rich Birch — Okay.John Plake — And if you roll that up to a church of 5,000, well, you don’t need that many more than 275.Rich Birch — Interesting.John Plake — So you’re going to report that out to you. It’s very, very doable. And, you know, I’ve pastored at large churches and I pastored a small church. And I’ll tell you, when I pastored a church of under 100, I could have gotten a census of the people, like everybody, to do a survey like this. They would have been glad to tell me these things. Rich Birch — Right.John Plake — And it’s not that I couldn’t have had a conversation one-on-one with most of the adults in the congregation. It was something different in that case. I actually didn’t know what to ask. I used to run into this when I was a campus pastor at a Christian university. And I would have young people walk into my office and I was like, I know I should be able to help them, but the challenge they’re facing is different than anything I’m familiar with. I don’t have any analog for this in my personal experience. And so this sort of takes the mystery away. We don’t ask fluffy questions. We ask research proven questions that are going to give you the information you really need so you can take action.Rich Birch — That’s amazing. That’s think this is such a great tool for people. I can see how, you know, it’d be so helpful for folks that are listening in to, you know, might be be able to plug in grab this experience for their people, help their church, help the folks that are attending. That’s, that’s incredible.Rich Birch — So, you know, you’ve picked an interesting vocation to be connected with the American Bible Society. And because, you know, this is such a critical and important part of developing people’s relationship, obviously, with Jesus; its core to all of it. And we have seen a long historical downward trend, and you’re pushing against that, which is amazing. But what gives you hope in the middle of all of that? What would it when you look at the church around you know, the country, where do you see flashes of just good things going on that are like, you know, when it comes to the relationship with scripture that even, you know, even when we see maybe the overall numbers are not as great as we want them to be, what are some kind of flashes of hope we should, that we could encourage folks with today?John Plake — Well, I’d like to maybe point to just three things that leap to mind. Rich Birch — Yep.John Plake — The first of them is I never talk to anybody in the church who says the Bible is a bad idea. Rich Birch — Sure.John Plake — Everybody likes the Bible. We’re all trying to figure out how to communicate its message better, to understand it more deeply. It’s transforming our lives, and we want to be able to share it with others. John Plake — And that’s great because, number two, there’s nothing that makes a bigger difference in somebody’s spiritual life than their relationship with the Bible. I mean, absolutely nothing. And I’m saying this as a researcher. I’ve tested it. I can’t find anything that makes a bigger difference. John Plake — In fact, when we looked at Christian college and university students, 60% of their overall spiritual health across lots of domains—beliefs, practice, putting faith into action, loving God, loving others, all these things, 60% of the variance in their spiritual health is solely accounted for by their relationship with the Bible.John Plake — So if we can help people have a dynamic relationship with scripture, we win. That’s all there is to it. It’s just that simple. And so that is really encouraging.John Plake — And then the third thing, ah the third thing is how I say this nicely? I'm I’m from Gen X and so to my Baby Boomer friends, I’m sorry, but you guys don’t have the influence that you once did.Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s true.John Plake — And that’s a good thing because there’s new openness among Millennials, and Gen Z and even younger Gen X um that we just don’t see among Baby Boomers. It’s like Baby Boomers made up their minds in the 60s and early 70s and said, this is what I believe and I’m not changing. And they haven’t. John Plake — That’s not to say that someone who’s a Baby Boomer can’t have a a spiritual experience and transformational experience. It does happen. But on the population level, like when we looked at the Bay Area of San Francisco, if you look at the scripture engagement, church engagement, love God, love others data in the Bay Area, it looks like what you’d expect, until you strip out the Baby Boomers. And then suddenly it looks better than every place else in America.John Plake — You’re like, what’s going on? Well, looks like all the unreconstructed hippies that moved to the Bay Area are actually holding a lid on the population numbers. And when you remove that and you go, oh, wait a minute, let me look under the headline and say what’s happening. There’s more going on than is easy to see. And I think this happens in big national trends.John Plake — Oh, is Scripture engagement up or down? Is you know church attendance up or down? Whats what’s going… big national trends. Yeah, okay, those are helpful, and we want those to change. But what’s changing first is below the fold. Things in Gen Z, things among Millennials, things in young men, those things are starting to change, and I think those are the first glimmerings that God is at work in a new way in America, and I can’t wait to see it.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s that’s a great word. And that lines up with what we’re seeing, even just experientially talking to churches across the country. You know we’re so we’re seeing there is something going on with younger generations, which is great to see. I was I was born in 1974, the lowest birth rate year of the 20th century. I am classic Gen X. Like you know I am like statistic I’m the statistical average Gen X and has spent a lot of my time trying to hand stuff from the Boomers to the Millennials. And, yeah, there’s lots of encouraging news there, particularly with the younger generations. Rich Birch — I also want to speak to on the the work I’ve done in the church growth stuff that I’ve done and coaching I’ve done with churches, one of the things that’s just undeniable is churches that have a high view of scripture, that is, they’re trying to get people engaged with scripture. They they talk about it like it’s actually true. How do we say don’t know what’s the best way to talk about that? Those are the churches that are prevailing, and that actually works out statistically. You see that time and again. Talk to us about that dynamic, which is kind of co-related to the things we’re talking about today. From your perspective in the stats and all that, how how have you seen that work out as you’ve looked at churches across the country?John Plake — Yeah, I think you’re exactly right. The churches that are the healthiest in America, that are growing, that where where people are spiritually healthy, have a really dynamic relationship with Scripture. And it kind of it cuts across tradition. Rich Birch — Yep.John Plake — There are some traditional things going on. I was listening to Justin Brierley and his surprising Rebirth of Belief in God podcast, and it was from last season, and he he had someone on, he was interviewing, and what she was saying was there are the parts of the church that seem to be thriving are kind of the, the the older, the ancientness traditions, whether it’s Catholic or Orthodox, that what she called somewhat irreverently, the smells and bells side of of the church.Rich Birch — Sure, sure.John Plake — And on the other side, kind of my end of the swimming pool, I’m, from the Assemblies of God, so the Pentecostal and Charismatic side. And she said, what’s going on is that both ends of that spectrum are totalizing. John Plake — They’re saying, you know what, the the Bible places certain expectations and demands on people. Christ places certain expectations and demands on people. And these parts of the church aren’t sort of shy about talking about that from a biblical perspective. She said, what’s what’s dying is that part in the middle where we’ve reduced church to a PowerPoint and you know an Excel spreadsheet. And she said, that part of the church seems to be dying and no one’s coming to the funeral. Rich Birch — That’s good. John Plake — And I thought, you know okay, right?Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah, that’s good.John Plake — So if we revitalize our relationship with God through scripture, there’s a next step for every church. It doesn’t matter what, you know whether you’re mainline or evangelical or, you know, Pentecostal or Orthodox or whatever it is, but but reviving our relationship with God through Scripture is really where it’s at.Rich Birch — That’s so good. i Yeah, I call that middle group the just because it rhymes doesn’t mean it’s true group. You know, like the, you know, were just like, it’s all my thoughts. No one wants to come and find us. They want to find God ultimately. Well, I don’t want to pick any fights with anybody that’s listening in, but I really appreciate today’s conversation, John. This has been great. So we want to send people to church.nextstep.bible.Rich Birch — The the promise of in two weeks, your church could have a comprehensive report on spiritual health, on where your church is, spiritual health is at, that’s a huge promise. And so again, this is go to church.nextstep.bible. Any kind of final words as we wrap up today’s episode?John Plake — You know, you might be familiar with Cally Parkinson. Cally was the co-author of all of the Reveal books, every single one of them. She was head of communications for the Willow Creek Association when they were running this. She’s probably had more conversations with pastors and church leaders about survey results like this than anybody I know, maybe than anybody alive. And Cally likes this so much. She said, John, I want to have a personal consultation with the first hundred churches that go through this.John Plake — And so if you want to be in that group, she’s going to offer to spend an hour with you and just walk through your results and help explain it. There are videos throughout the platform that will explain it as well. And you can’t beat talking to Cally. She loves pastors. She says you’re the salt of the earth. And she just really wants to serve you because the work that you do to save people is just so valuable to her. So anyway, just wanted to offer that. And I know you’d probably love to meet Cally.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s fantastic. Well, appreciate you being here today. Thanks for the great work you do at the American Bible Society. John, appreciate you being on today. Thank you.John Plake — Thank you.

The parents of 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony have given several, emotional interviews following their son’s murder conviction for stabbing fellow teen Austin Metcalf last year. The Anthony’s believe everyone lied on the stand and their son was never innocent until proven guilty. While Anthony’s legal team has already filed an appeal, his parents are concerned for their safety, saying people want their family dead even after “they got what they wanted” with Anthony’s conviction. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if the best hire you could make is someone who has already left you?In this episode of the Build a Vibrant Culture Podcast, Nicole Greer sits down with Lee Caraher, CEO of Double Forte and author of "The Boomerang Principle," to explore why rehiring former employees is one of the most undervalued strategies in business today.This conversation dives into key topics like employee loyalty, work culture, organizational culture, leadership and business strategy, team communication, and what it really means to build a place people want to come back to.In this episode, you'll learn:Why loyalty is no longer defined by tenure (and what it really means today)How the "boomerang" approach to rehiring reduces onboarding time and boosts retentionWhat the Oprah Effect has to do with how employees think about their careersWhy the worst behavior you allow is the culture you createHow to build core values that go beyond posters on the wallPractical strategies for leading younger generations without losing your best peopleThis episode is for leaders, managers, business owners, and professionals who want to improve communication, strengthen organizational culture, and build teams that stay, grow, and come back.About Lee CaraherLee Caraher is the CEO of Double Forte, a national communications agency, and the author of two books: "Millennials and Management" and "The Boomerang Principle." She is a communication strategist known for her practical, straight-talking approach to leadership, culture, and team performance. Find Lee at: https://double-forte.com and https://leecaraher.comThe Build a Vibrant Culture Podcast helps leaders improve work culture, communication, and business performance through real-world leadership strategies and practical insights. Click here to view the episode transcript. Learn more about training, coaching, and courses at https://vibrantculture.comConnect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/build-a-vibrant-culture-nicole-greer/For speaking inquiries: https://vibrantculture.com/speaker-kit-request/Download our training catalog: https://vibrantculture.com/catalog-request/Want to be a guest? Send your request to podcast@vibrantculture.com

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk www.LearningLeader.com New Book -- The Price of Becoming www.LearningLeader.com/Becoming Austin Kleon is the NYT bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work, and Keep Going. He's a writer who draws, a former librarian, and one of the most original thinkers on creativity working today. His new book is Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again. This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver. Key Learnings   Stay light. Bill Murray told ballplayers that if you stay light, loose, and relaxed, you can play at the highest level. Same with acting, writing, anything. Austin keeps a photo of Bill in his studio as a reminder. Play is the work. A lot of Austin's best work requires a sense of play. It's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Go to the analog desk first. Austin has a digital desk and an analog desk. Nothing electronic is allowed at the analog desk. He starts there with nothing and sees what comes. Most people never give themselves the time, space, and materials to make something of what's swirling inside them.  People want to watch someone who is activated. "People will pay every night to show up and see somebody believe in themselves." (Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth) The market for something to believe in is infinite. (Hugh MacLeod) The world is full of people just doing their thing. They're hungry to see someone on fire for something. The writer's job: take what everyone is thinking and put it into words. "You gave me the words" is the highest compliment a reader can give. Effortless is earned. People say the Friday newsletter looks easy. Austin's reply: Do it every Friday for 13 years, then call me. A place to put things makes you notice more. Thoreau took morning walks knowing he'd write later, so he paid closer attention. Carry a camera, and you start seeing shots everywhere. Live for the living, not for the writing. There's a tension between living your life and documenting it. Don't lose yourself to the feed. Your attention is the most valuable thing you have. Everyone wants to take it. The real challenge of modern life is making sure you're the one who decides where it goes. The best teachers are perpetual students. You realize what you know and don't know only when you try to teach it. Toggle between knowing and not knowing. The moment you think you know what you're doing, the work gets stale. You start running on routine instead of need. To be an amateur is to be a lover. The French root means "lover of." An amateur does it out of love, not material reward. Every great CEO should be put in a room with a four-year-old. They'd both learn something. Kids knock the pompous certainty right out of you. "I don't know. How do you think we should figure it out?" Austin's kids taught him it's less important to know everything than to know how to find out. The leader isn't the one who speaks while everyone listens. The leader listens, asks questions, stays curious, and wonders how everyone is doing. Look for who's having fun, not who's successful. Fun is underrated. Serious people have a serious time. Do it with lightness and it's contagious. "A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play." (Lawrence Pearsall Jacks) He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he's doing and leaves others to decide whether he's working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both. Ask "What does the universe want to show me today?" A useful fiction. Tell yourself the world is trying to send you messages and suddenly you see a hundred of them. Have the toy before you know what you'll do with it. Austin buys typewriters, then asks what to make. Get the bicycle first. In six months you'll know what kind you actually want. Steal an idea someone only did once and turn it into a whole thing. Austin saw a single typewriter interview, made it a series, and has done more than 20. Put the human hand in the work. Austin decided 20 years ago to make it obvious a human made his stuff. In the age of AI, it stands out more than ever. People want the imperfection. Writing is thinking. People think you gather your ideas then write them down. The act of writing is the act of figuring out what you actually think. That's the hard part. Differentiate yourself by reading a book outside your field. Swim a little further out than everyone else and you find new water. Focus on what you can control. A writer controls only what's between the covers. Did you do a good job? Were you clear? Were you helpful? The rest isn't up to you. Austin's champagne moment a year from now: his kids flourishing. The older he gets, the less the books mean and the more his family does. Reflection Questions Where is your analog desk? Do you have a space with no screens where you go to make something of what's swirling inside you? Are you activated? When people watch you work, do they see someone on fire for it, or someone just going through the motions? What's one idea from outside your field you could steal this week? Where could you swim a little further out and find new water? More Learning #676: Jesse Cole - Built for the Fans, Obsession & Excellence#687: Jim Collins - What to Make of a Life#241: Austin Kleon - How to Steal Like an Artist   Podcast Chapters   00:00 The Price of Becoming - Pre-Order Now!  01:33 Meet Austin Kleon  02:53 The Bill Murray Photo: Stay Light  05:42 The Analog Desk: Where the Real Work Starts  08:51 People Want to Watch Someone Activated  15:22 Why "It Looks Easy" Is the Whole Point  16:28 The Newsletter as a Forcing Function to Notice  20:46 Who Owns Your Attention?  24:39 How Austin's Kids Became His Teachers  29:06 Why the Best Creators Stay Amateurs  31:33 Curiosity Is the Real Leadership Skill  34:09 What Does the Universe Want to Show Me Today?  35:02 Look for Who's Having Fun, Not Who's Successful  38:30 Do You Love to Write, or Love to Have Written?  41:00 The Typewriter Interviews: Stealing an Idea Done Once  47:18 The Interplay of Analog and Digital  49:02 AI and Why the Human Hand Wins  51:23 The Champagne Question: Family Flourishing  55:47 Walk-Ins Welcome  58:06 EOPC

This Easter—2026—multiple Catholic parishes across the nation saw a surge in adult baptisms and new converts entering the church. Some dioceses reported all-time records for people becoming Catholic at Easter. This trend parallels a broader trend of renewed interest in religion, especially with young people. Protestant and nondenominational churches have also had an influx of younger converts. According to a study from Barna Group, which tracks data on faith in U.S. culture, younger adults—Gen Z and Millennials—have become the most regular churchgoers, outpacing older generations.  While some are calling this a religious revival, the reality is that attracting young people to church doesn't necessarily, automatically translate into offering them a reason to stay for the long term. If young people are showing up for church because they are looking for something—are they finding what it was they were looking for? On this episode of Glad You Asked, the hosts talked to three guests from different backgrounds and Christian affiliations about what young people want from the church. Catalina Morales Bahena is Director of Learning at Faith in Action; Drew Stever is a chaplain, spiritual director, and ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and Baird Linke is an activist who currently serves as pastor of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Bonner, Montana. They are some of the contributors to a new book, Hungry for Hope: Letters to the Church from Young Adults (Edited by Jeremy Paul Myers and Kristina Frugé, and published by Eerdmans).  Learn more about this topic in these links.   Hungry for Hope: Letters to the Church from Young Adults  New Barna Data: Young Adults Lead a Resurgence in Church Attendance Rise in Young Men's Religiosity Realigns Gender Gaps Religion Holds Steady in America "Young people are seeking connection. Can the church respond?" A U.S. Catholic interview "What young Catholic peacemakers want from the church," by John Noble "Younger Catholics are seeking new models of sainthood," by Rhina Guidos "Church revival? New numbers don't show whole picture, experts say," by Brian Fraga  

The early reviews are coming in for Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day, Rosie O'Donnell says she's ashamed by her facelift and Paul McCartney wants to release a duet he did with Prince.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Everybody wants the results — confidence, abs, energy, discipline, transformation. But very few people want the sacrifice that comes with it.Fitness requires trade-offs:comfortconvenienceexcusesinstant gratificationIn this episode, I break down why modern culture pushes people to want results without sacrifice — and why that mindset keeps so many people stuck.

Adam, Joanna, and Zach discuss the quandary that faces the alcohol industry at the moment: people generally want to drink, but are drinking less than they used to. Instead of ascribing this to theories about wellness trends or shifting demographics, what if we looked at the friction points that are keeping people from drinking: cost, social media pressure, an overwhelming array of choices, and more. Please remember to subscribe to, rate, and review The VinePair Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your episodes, and send any questions, comments, critiques, or suggestions to podcast@vinepair.com. Thanks for listening, and cheers!Zach is reading: With LYTT Electric Coolers, Boston Beer Co. Is Running Out of Bright IdeasJoanna is reading: Form Over Function: Why Some Wineries Are Rethinking the Shape of the BottleAdam is reading: AI Won't Replace Sommeliers, But It Could Help Save WineInstagram: @adamteeter, @jcsciarrino, @zgeballe, @vinepair Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Crispin Rea, Kansas City's 4th District at-large council member, recently announced he will be running for mayor in 2027. He joined KCUR's Up To Date to discuss his priorities, including improving public safety, increasing economic opportunities and "getting the basics right."

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan (www.eastleighfarm.com) shares the biggest news affecting smaller family farmers, starting with the U.S. House of Representatives passing the sprawling Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (AKA The Farm Bill) by a bipartisan vote of 224–200. The multi-billion dollar, 5-year legislative package sets farm, conservation, and nutrition policies, but now faces a difficult path in the Senate.In other news, California farmers are being forced to destroy roughly 420,000 clingstone peach trees after Del Monte Foods filed for bankruptcy and permanently closed its Central Valley canneries. The sudden closures left dozens of growers with no buyers for their fruit, prompting a $9 million federal relief package to assist with tree removal and crop transitioning.Shifting focus to raw milk, a rather polarizing conversation, lawmakers in at least 18 states are actively pushing to expand or legalize the sale of raw milk, driven by consumer demand and "freedom of choice" arguments. However, this push intensifies amid a wave of recent illness outbreaks that have sickened U.S. children, drawing stern warnings from health scientists. For many farmers selling raw milk, most of them can't keep it in stock because people stand in line to buy it, even at its higher prices. This should be reason enough to allow the sale and stop hindering when consumers are wanting raw milk. Raw milk is risky if it's not done properly, if there is a crap job of milking the cows, the cows aren't clean and if the product isn't clean, then yes it could come with risky germs. When raw milk is produced right, the risks are minimal and the health benefits are incredible. Then, Doug opines the food supply after seeing stats from food producers across the country with factors of less predictable weather patterns, labor challenges from deportations, cost of feed and fertilizer going way up because of the tariffs, and more. For more on the American Family Farmer…Website: AmericanFamilyFarmerShow.comSocial Media: @GoodDayNetworks

Dr. Laura welcomes executive coach, author, and former Microsoft leader Sabina Nawaz for a discussion on what it really takes to become a manager people want to follow. Drawing from her own experience of shifting from a caring leader to one she no longer recognized under pressure, Sabina shares a deeply human perspective on how pressure, more than power, quietly shapes behavior at work. Dr. Laura and Sabina explore how even the most well-intentioned managers can fall into common traps that limit their teams, including the tendency to take on too much or unknowingly diminish others' contributions. They invite reflection on how leadership shows up in everyday moments and how small, intentional shifts can transform both personal effectiveness and team culture. Dr. Laura and Sabina unpack practical strategies to navigate busyness, create space for clearer thinking, and build feedback loops that support growth. Sabina introduces the concept of micro habits as a sustainable path to change, along with the importance of intentionally creating blank space to access deeper insight. The conversation also challenges conventional thinking about “leader” as a title, reframing leadership instead as a shared practice that can be activated by anyone. With warmth and professional curiosity, Dr. Laura guides a discussion that highlights how cultivating awareness and letting go of the need to have all the answers can unlock greater potential in managers and their teams. “It is not power that corrupts us. It is pressure, and under pressure we have a choice point.” - Sabina Nawaz About Sabina Nawaz: Sabina Nawaz is an elite executive coach who advises C-level executives and teams at Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, nonprofits, and academic institutions around the world. Sabina routinely gives speeches each year and teaches faculty at Northeastern and Drexel Universities. During her fourteen-year tenure at Microsoft, she went from managing software development teams to leading the company's executive development and succession planning efforts for over 11,000 managers and nearly a thousand executives, advising Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer directly. She has written for and been featured in Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, NBC, Nasdaq, and MarketWatch. Resources: Website: SabinaNawaz.com Book: “YOU'RE THE BOSS: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need)” by Sabina Nawaz LinkedIn: SabinaNawaz “The Anomaly: A Novel” by Hervé Le Tellier, translated by Adriana Hunter “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence” by Anna Lembke MD   “I Wish I'd Quit Sooner: Practical Strategies for Navigating and Escaping a Toxic Boss” by Dr. Laura Hambley Lovett   Dr. Laura on LinkedIn Where Work Meets Life™ on YouTube   Learn more about Dr. Laura on her website: https://drlaura.live For more resources, look into Dr. Laura's organizations:  Canada Career Counselling Synthesis Psychology Order Dr. Laura's new book today: I Wish I'd Quit Sooner: Practical Strategies for Navigating a Toxic Boss Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The local share market tumbles as rising bond yields, last week’s budget and higher oil prices hit equities. Labor and the coalition start fighting over the so-called death tax Why so many people are looking for a new job An ASX200 stock tumbles 70 per cent in minutes The federal government orders China related shareholders to exit a rare earths company Hit follow on the podcast so you don’t miss the latest news Join our free daily newsletter here And don’t miss the latest episode of How Do They Afford That? - what happens if you change your savings by just $100 a week. Get the episode from APPLE, SPOTIFY, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.Find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark & Steven discuss the viral AP x Swatch collaboration that is creating chaos on high streets all over the Western world, where everyone is trying to get a little piece of luxury.

This episode has themes of: modern life, money, fitness, relationships, mental health, career growth, entrepreneurship, politics, masculinity and femininity, parenting, dating, social media, culture, self-worth, ambition, confidence, emotional resilience, leadership, identity, purpose, personal responsibility, nervous system regulation, human psychology, and the growing battle between comfort and growth in modern society.For more information on all thing Elisa Unfiltered please subscribe to the podcast on Apple, google Play or Spotify.If you are ready to get licensed and want to join my agency, please book a complimentary call with me here: https://calendly.com/elisakurylowicz/30min

What is it about the chase that keeps people interested?In this episode of Coffee & Cleavage, Claudia Fijal and Lynnie Marie dive into the psychology behind “cat and mouse” dynamics in modern dating and relationships. From playing hard to get to emotional push and pull, we explore why people often want what they can't have and how attraction can quickly turn into a game.

This week, Erin and Sara revisit Simon's first episode of the podcast. They share the story of how Erin and Simon met and why it led to a fast-track relationship, Simon gives highly requested dating advice, and more.Executive Producers: Erin Foster, Sara Foster, and Allison BresnickAssociate Producers: Montana McBirney and Olivia GeffnerSocial Media Manager: Laura BinderAudio Engineer: Josh WindischProduced by Wishbone ProductionProduced by Dear MediaThis episode is sponsored by:Bon Charge (boncharge.com PROMO CODE: FOSTER)DraftKings (download the app and use the code FOSTER)BetterHelp (betterhelp.com/foster)Needed (thisisneeded.com PROMO CODE: FOSTER)Good Ranchers (goodranchers.com PROMO CODE: FOSTER)Beekeeper's Naturals (beekeepersnaturals.com/foster)LMNT (drinklmnt.com/foster)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Video version: https://youtube.com/live/E2Up9MF92xkWelcome to The Express, a weekly show where we take a written text and transform it into living, natural, speech. We'll go through a variety of communication techniques to leave you with a better understanding of how your voice and body can transform other people's lives, and your own.Wondering what challenge to overcome in order to become a better speaker and communicator? Wondering how to speak more naturally with richer emotion? Before you think about what to do with your face, your mouth, or tongue, or breath, think about patterns. What words and parts of words are you giving space to? What are you doing with your pitch? What direction are your pitches going in?Welcome to For Word, the platform dedicated to guiding you towards better spoken performance. We're constantly looking at techniques to add more vocal variety to how we talk by incorporating more softness and firmness to our, furrowing eyebrows, smiling, raising and lowering pitches, adding pauses in order to convey frustration, sadness, joy and nervousness, and considering how to add more breath to everything we say. Let's see how these elements of contrast, body language, and other elements of communication can lead to richer expression.#performance #poetry #speaking

A lot of people say they want results — but deep down, they want sympathy more. Real change requires discomfort, discipline, and accountability… not validation for staying the same.In this episode, I break down why sympathy has become more attractive than results and how that mindset keeps people stuck in fitness.

Dana Winkler always brings props, and this time that includes Eric Martin. This one is all about the little cuties! And, as always,this episode COULD be sponsored by MJR.

--{ "Hidden Masters Bring Disasters"}-- Living in Hope; Blaming Others - House of Lords, Labour Party - New Clear Family - Set Up Manufacturing in China - In a Talk I Did Back in the 1990s, I said, I'm Not Here to Be a Cheerleader for the People - The Mob - Wisdom, People Want to Know Secrets; They Want Power - The Great Reset - No One is Riding in to Fix This for You - The Owl - Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud - Connection to Spirit - Unconventional Warfare - Prophets - Aldous Huxley, Julian Huxley - Eugenics Promoted in the U.K. and U.S. before Hitler Got into Power - LSD, Huxley's Doors of Perception - Plato, Nothing Comes from the Grass Roots; Created by the Elite and Authorized - Paul, Creatures of Instinct - DONATE at www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com - Work Makes Free - H.L. Mencken - Religion, Protestantism - Possession, Psychopathy - You are in a Spiritual Battle - Sexual Evil Done to Children - Righteous Indignation - Agenda 21, Climate Change, Sustainability.

Scottish actor Peter Capaldi drops by the Q studio to talk about his hit Apple TV police drama Criminal Record. He shares stories from his more than 40 years in acting, and why the secret to it all might just be being yourself. Plus, having just come back from being on the road with his music, Peter tells Tom what it was like to do his first-ever headline tour, and about the punk band he started with former late-night host Craig Ferguson back in the '70s.

People often want conflicting things from work because they carry different ideas about what makes a good life. What feels meaningful to one person can feel draining to another, and those differences often go deeper than personality or preference. That is what makes Derek Sivers's book, How to Live, so useful here. It lays out 27 competing ways to live, each one convincing in its own voice. In this revisited episode, Dart and Derek discuss how those deeper beliefs shape the way people think about work, choice, and the lives they are trying to build.Derek Sivers is an author, entrepreneur, and former musician who founded CD Baby. He writes about business, creativity, philosophy, and how beliefs shape action and meaning.In this episode, Dart and Derek discuss:- How beliefs quietly shape our actions- The 27 ways to live- Why no one philosophy fits everyone- How work reflects deeper life beliefs- Why people want opposite things from work- Introverts and extroverts at work- Using beliefs as a listening tool- Nature and nurture at work- Why companies should have personality- Useful beliefs versus true beliefs- Data models as philosophical experiences- And other topics…Derek Sivers is an author, entrepreneur, and programmer best known for founding CD Baby, which became a major online seller of independent music. He later sold the company and transferred the proceeds into a charitable trust for music education. He is the author of Anything You Want, Your Music and People, Hell Yeah or No, How to Live, and Useful Not True. He is originally from California and now lives in New Zealand.Resources Mentioned:Derek's Book, How to Live: https://sive.rs/hDerek's Book, Useful Not True: https://sive.rs/uSum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, by David Eagleman: https://www.amazon.com/Sum-Forty-Tales-Afterlives-Eagleman/dp/0307389936 Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs, by Ari Wallach: https://www.amazon.com/Longpath-Becoming-Ancestors-Antidote-Short-Termism/dp/0063068737 Connect with Derek:Official website: https://sive.rsWork with Dart:Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what's most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.

Join the H-Hour Patron Community at patreon.com/hkpodcasts ***** For H-Hour #283, I welcome martial artist Joe Brooks for a wide-ranging conversation on his path in combat sports, his recent Total Kombat world title, and what makes the promotion feel different from the usual MMA startup. We dig into the fight itself — the range battle, the clinch exchanges, the scoring system, and what he felt he did well or could sharpen next time — before moving into his broader philosophy on combat, coaching, and staying dangerous across multiple disciplines. Joe explains why he likes Total Kombat's format, where clean, committed strikes and takedowns are rewarded, and why he thinks that kind of rule set gives kickboxers, Taekwondo fighters, Muay Thai athletes, and other stand-up specialists a real platform. We also get into the MMA question: whether it's better to come up through one traditional martial art first or train MMA from the start, and Joe gives a balanced view on how mastery, adaptability, and solid fundamentals all matter. We cover his enormous competition experience, including back-to-back fights at a major Italian tournament, the demands of coaching while competing, and the reality of staying sharp across hundreds of bouts. Joe also shares some great stories about knockouts, damaged toes, hard training, and the constant mindset of chasing improvement — even after winning a world title. https://www.instagram.com/joebrooks30/

A conversation between two friends.

“I find it very odd that agency is being promoted for its own sake rather than being connected to any kind of value system. Because without those things, agency looks pretty scary. Dictators are quite high agency.” — Sophie Haigney On April Fools' Day, The New York Times published an op-ed entitled “All the Worst People Seem to Want to Be High Agency.” But it wasn't a joke. Sophie Haigney — former web editor of The Paris Review, currently working on a debut essay collection entitled Future Relics — warns that “agency” has become the defining buzzword of Silicon Valley bro culture. From Sam Altman to Mark Zuckerberg, Haigney observes, our new tech overlords have made becoming “high agency” their top priority in self-realization. Haigney argues that these entrepreneurs touting high agency most insistently are the very same people building the tools most likely to rob everyone else of theirs. Like her New York Times jeremiad, it's no joke. Altman and Zuckerberg's agentic technologies are often exploitative and addictive. They will make the worst people worse. Ha ha. It will be April Fools' Day every day. Five Takeaways •       The 401(k) Is Low Agency: Sam Altman's first answer to “what skills to develop in the age of AI”: become high agency. The term has migrated from philosophy and debates about free will into Silicon Valley self-help, LinkedIn posts, and entrepreneurship podcasts. In its new form it has a gambling element the old bootstrap individualism lacked. Someone in San Francisco told Haigney that having a 401(k) is the lowest-agency thing you can do with your money. Put it all on red. The rewards for big risk-taking are so much larger now that incrementalism — get a job, save up, buy a house — looks like passivity. That's a new development, and a dangerous one. •       The People Promoting Agency Are Robbing You of Yours: Haigney's sharpest observation: the people promoting high agency most loudly are building the tools most likely to strip it from everyone else. Sam Altman says become high agency. His product — in Haigney's view — will function like social media: not liberating but addictive, another rabbit hole that makes people more stuck. The gambling epidemic is the same logic. Sports betting offers the seductive illusion that your specific knowledge can crack the system. But the system is designed so the average person can't win. High agency, in practice, tends to concentrate at the top. •       Stuckness and the Lottery Mindset: We live in a moment of extreme stuckness — people who feel two steps away from winning the lottery and yet completely unable to move. This odd combination — paralysis plus the fantasy of a big break — is what the high-agency ideology exploits. Haigney connects it to the gambling epidemic, to the male podcasters with beards, to the young men who feel the system is rigged against them and are being told: the solution is to become the kind of person who cuts in line. What nobody says is that the cutting-in-line ethos, scaled up, is what produced the system they feel rigged by in the first place. •       Hitler Was High Agency: The most unsettling move in the piece. Agency without values is just power. FDR was high agency: he packed the court, overrode term limits, used wartime powers to push through the New Deal. Dictators, Haigney notes, are quite high agency. The tech adoption of the term strips it of any moral content — agency is promoted for its own sake, disconnected from any question of what it's being used for. That, she argues, is what makes it genuinely frightening at scale. Emerson's “Self-Reliance” is the American ancestor. Thoreau, its famous practitioner, got his mum to do his laundry. •       High Agency Could Mean Repair: Haigney's counter-proposal: couldn't we be high agency and organize to build a better railway? Wouldn't it be high agency to fix the Department of Education rather than abolishing it? The NHS, railways, public education — systems people are nostalgic for — required enormous collective agency to build. The tech definition of agency is individualistic and destructive. But there's another definition: the capacity to act together, to create rather than just disrupt. That version doesn't get much airtime on the podcasts. It should. About the Guest Sophie Haigney is a critic and journalist who writes about visual art, books, and technology for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper's, and others. She is a former web editor of The Paris Review and is working on her debut essay collection, Future Relics, for Liveright. References: •       “All the Worst People Seem to Want to Be High Agency,” The New York Times, April 1, 2026. By Sophie Haigney. •       Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” (1841) — the American philosophical ancestor of today's high-agency ideology. •       Episode 2858: Scott Galloway on the male crisis — agency, stuckness, and young men. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,900 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting. WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters: (00:31) - “All the worst people seem to want to be high agency” — the April 1 op-ed (02:51) - The Silicon Valley definition: risk, disruption, cutting in line (04:52) - Emerson, self-reliance, and the new American individualism (06:44) - Is high agency essential to survive the 2020s? (08:41) - Thoreau's laundry: the gendered dimension of agency (11:04) - Male podcasters, the crisis of young men, and the seduction of high agency (12:20) - Stuckness, gambling, and the lottery mindset (16:13) - TikTok, the Grateful Dead, and the age of addiction (17:16) - The people promoting agency are building tools to take it from you (18:29) - AI: the biggest addiction on the horizon (19:56) - Agency as the new political axis: left, right, and disruption (21:29) - Is skepticism of agency just nostalgia for the twentieth century? (24:16) - California's failed railways, China's success, and democracy's agency problem (25:16) - Hitler was high agen...

Read the unfiltered memos I send my team as we scale Acquisition.com to $1B+:https://leilahormozi.com/subscribe Leadership is not about being the smartest person in the room. In this episode of Build, Leila Hormozi reveals five underrated leadership traits you should master to get people to follow you, admire you, respect you, and treat you like an outstanding leader or CEO. She describes simple yet powerful day-to-day actions to help you become better at leadership.In this episode00:00 Rule 1: Emotional regulation in times of crisis04:28 Rule 2: Sincere candor, especially when giving feedback08:11 Rule 3: Unimpeachable character in leadership11:23 Rule 4: Clarity in communicating complex goals14:57 Rule 5: Ownership when addressing or solving problemsMore Value:Get your personalized $100m scaling roadmap: https://www.acquisition.com/roadmap Read the unfiltered memos I send my team as we scale Acquisition.com to $1B+: https://leilahormozi.com/subscribeReceive a curated set of internal memos from the past year at Acquisition.com: https://leilahormozi.com/acq

年代 nián dài - era / generation身邊 shēn biān - around one; by one's side創業 chuàng yè - to start a business / entrepreneurship傾向 qīng xiàng - tendency / inclination養 yǎng - to raise / to support (e.g., children)模式 mó shì - pattern / model深植於 shēn zhí yú - deeply rooted in上一代 shàng yí dài - the previous generation價值觀 jià zhí guān - values / value system聯誼 lián yí - social gathering for meeting people (often for dating)對象 duì xiàng - partner / romantic prospect目的 mù dì - purpose / intention單身 dān shēn - single / unmarried規劃 guī huà - plan / planning彼此不適合 bǐ cǐ bú shì hé - not suitable for each other自己給自己 zì jǐ gěi zì jǐ - to put pressure on oneself完整 wán zhěng - complete / whole托嬰中心 tuō yīng zhōng xīn - infant daycare center托兒所 tuō ér suǒ - nursery / childcare center幼兒園 yòu ér yuán - kindergarten遷移 qiān yí - to move / relocate戶籍 hù jí - household registration不良 bù liáng - bad / problematic (often referring to behavior)青少年 qīng shào nián - teenagers / adolescents名聲 míng shēng - reputation家長 jiā zhǎng - parents / guardians學區 xué qū - school districtFollow me on Instagram: fangfang.chineselearning !

A new generation in Israel is rediscovering identity, meaning, and sovereignty — this conversation explores what comes next. This episode is in Hebrew.Recorded under missile fire in Petah Tikva, Yishai Fleisher and Moshe Feiglin explore the profound shift in Israeli consciousness since October 7th.A new generation is emerging — one no longer focused solely on survival, but driven by a deep thirst for identity, purpose, and connection to its roots.In this wide-ranging conversation, they discuss: The reimagining of Route 60 as the “Bible Road,” connecting Beersheba to the Sea of Galilee — and why this vision is gaining traction even among secular Israelis  The concept of “organicity”: why Torah, the people, and the land are inseparable  The Zehut vision — and why the political right has struggled to offer a compelling alternative  The two pillars of a renewed national message: identity and freedom  The symbolism of the yellow ribbon vs. the Temple patch — and what it reveals about the deeper struggle for Jewish consciousness “The people are searching for what it means to be Jewish. They didn't erase it — they're thirsty for it.”This is a conversation about leadership, identity, and the transition from a “ghetto mindset” to a confident, sovereign, regional vision.PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://yishaifleisher.com/podcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/YishaiFleisherTVSUPPORT & CONNECT:Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/yishaiFight4Israel: https://fight4israel.givecloud.coTwitter: https://twitter.com/YishaiFleisherLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yishaifleisherFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/YishaiFleisher  Support the show

What does it actually take to walk away from a high-paying job… hit rock bottom… and rebuild multiple successful businesses?In this episode, we break down the real entrepreneurial journey of Marburger—from selling cars at 18 to building multiple income streams across real estate, automotive, martial arts, and investments.This isn't theory. It's what happens when everything falls apart—and what it takes to come back stronger.We talk about:• Leaving a stable career to prioritize freedom• The reality of loss, failure, and rebuilding from zero• The mindset shift that changed everything• How EOS helped scale his business the right way• Why personal branding is driving 80% of his leads todayIf you're a business owner, contractor, or entrepreneur trying to grow while navigating real life, this episode will hit.

Rory McGowan speaks to Alan Graves, the Founder and Clinical Research Advisor at DoNotAge, about new research around what Brits want out of their old age - and how it's trending away from looking great to being healthy as the top priority. Alan knows what it's like to look older than he is, as a unhealthy lifestyle in his 20s meant that he looked like he was in his 40s. However, after founding DoNotAge, he's transformed his lifestyle and now is helping millions around the world do the same to help them be healthy and look younger.

Write better songs faster! Clay & Marty's 10-day video series will help you level-up your songs and finish them faster. CLICK HERE to begin!    SongTown Press Books: Mastering Melody Writing : Check It Out Next Level Lyric Writing: Check It Out Song Building: Mastering Lyric Writing : Check It Out The Songwriter's Guide To Mastering Co-Writing : Check It Out   Hosts:  Clay Mills : Facebook   :   Instagram Marty Dodson :   Facebook   :   Instagram   SongTown on Songwriting Podcast, Powered by Sweetwater.com - The best place for musical gear on the planet!   For advertising opportunities, email kristine@songtown.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can AI really handle accounting and tax work—or is it just creating new ways to fake compliance? Blake and David dig into allegations of fraudulent SOC 2 reports, how taxpayers are actually using AI for tax prep, and why tools like Claude are creeping into finance workflows. They also cover FAA staffing risks, threats to state accountancy boards, and what listeners should watch as AI reshapes trust in the profession.SponsorsDigits - http://accountingpodcast.promo/digitsCloud Accountant Staffing - http://accountingpodcast.promo/casOnPay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/onpayUNC - http://accountingpodcast.promo/uncChapters(00:00) - TAP 480 (01:28) - Sponsor Digits Overview (02:54) - LaGuardia Crash Breakdown (05:36) - Shutdown Staffing Fallout (07:58) - Livestream and CPE Plug (08:49) - Delve SOC 2 Allegations (15:57) - How Fake Audits Happen (20:49) - Sponsor Cloud Staffing (22:00) - Is Anyone Using AI (24:02) - AI for Tax Prep Examples (35:14) - AI Tax Advice Limits (36:04) - Tech Creates More Cleanup (36:41) - OnPay Payroll Sponsor (37:53) - Games To Beat Busy Season (40:42) - Florida Board Threat Averted (44:02) - UNC MAcc Sponsor (45:20) - Guess The Finance App (46:47) - Claude Targets Finance Workflows (50:29) - Will AI Replace The GL (55:07) - Women Partners Progress (01:00:50) - Wrap Up And CPE  Show NotesAir Traffic Audio Appears to Show Tower Was Dealing With Incident Before Crash (New York Times via DNYUZ)https://dnyuz.com/2026/03/23/air-traffic-audio-appears-to-show-tower-was-dealing-with-incident-before-crash/ Delve — Fake Compliance as a Service — Part I (DeepDelver on Substack)https://deepdelver.substack.com/p/delve-fake-compliance-as-a-service Delve Accused of Misleading Customers with 'Fake Compliance' (TechCrunch)https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/22/delve-accused-of-misleading-customers-with-fake-compliance/ What 81,000 People Want from AI (Anthropic)https://www.anthropic.com/research/what-people-want-from-ai WSJ Readers Share How They Are Using AI for Tax Prep (Wall Street Journal via TaxProf Blog)https://taxprofblog.aals.org/2026/03/09/wsj-readers-share-how-they-are-using-ai-for-tax-prep/ 10 Fun Games to Play at Work and Their Impact on Productivity (Small Business Trends)https://smallbiztrends.com/games-to-play-at-work/ FICPA Legislative Update: End of 2026 Session — HB 607 Did Not Advance (Florida Institute of CPAs)https://www.ficpa.org/news/1cee5313-ce07-47f2-841f-48a95344f6f5:legislative-update-end-of-session-still-pending Claude for Financial Services (Anthropic)https://www.anthropic.com/financial-services Glass Ceiling Shattered? Female Lead Engagement Partners in S&P 500 Audits (The CPA Journal)https://www.cpajournal.com/2026/03/13/glass-ceiling-shattered/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring The Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

We love answering your questions, folks! Gyi and Conrad have collected a series of queries from a variety of LHLM listeners, and they've got plenty of tactical insights to share. ----- Mail time! When we know what's on your mind, we can bring you the focused, valuable guidance you need to keep growing and improving your law firm business. So, what questions & answers do we have for you today? They guys address marketing mindset shifts (think like a CEO!), seemingly dubious PPC data, visibility tips, 2026 conference recommendations, and more. Also, things are a'changing at Lunch Hour Legal Marketing. Gyi & Conrad take a moment to explain the new partnerships they've been developing, and the next step in the evolution of the podcast.  The News: Greater personalization seems to be the driving force behind the expansion of Personal Intelligence across AI Mode in Search, the Gemini app, and Gemini in Chrome. Is this good? Bad? Another step toward hyperdependency? We'll see: Bringing the power of Personal Intelligence to more people Anthropic has done an extensive study on What 81,000 People Want from AI. Give it a read. Users can now ask AI about the businesses they see in Google Maps, and we think this promises to bring some significant user behavior shifts over time. Think about it: How we're reimagining Maps with Gemini. OpenAI updates: Introducing GPT‑5.4 mini and nano. Find Conrad and Gyi at ABA TECHSHOW!   Listen Next:  BS You Hear at Legal Conferences Connect: The Bite - Lunch Hour Legal Marketing Newsletter! Leave Us an Apple Review  Lunch Hour Legal Marketing on YouTube  Lunch Hour Legal Marketing on TikTok r/LHLM Chapters 00:00 Intro: LHLM at ABA TECHSHOW 2026 02:23 The News: Google's Personal Intelligence & AI 03:16 The News: Anthropic's Massive AI Study 04:10 The News: Google Maps Re-Imagined with Gemini 05:10 The News: New ChatGPT Release 05:31 Find LHLM at ABA TECHSHOW 06:43 An Evolution for Lunch Hour Legal Marketing (Sponsored Endorsement Model) 13:50 Listener Review: Invaluable 5 Stars 14:58 Opening the LHLM Mailbag 15:15 Mailbag Q1: Helping Marketing Operators Think Like a CEO 22:54 Mailbag Q2: Turned Off PPC, No Drop in Leads - Why? 29:57 Mailbag Q3: Top 3 Trends to Increase Visibility/Growth 36:20 Mailbag Q4: Legal Conferences to Attend in 2026 39:10 Wrap-Up

Claude Code didn't just change one company's trajectory, it triggered a chain reaction across every major AI lab. In this episode, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput break down how OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI, and Microsoft are all scrambling to catch up in the agent and enterprise race, and why the next three to six months could look radically different from anything we've seen.  In rapid fire: Microsoft shakes up Copilot leadership, a Meta AI agent goes rogue and causes a security breach, the Anthropic-Pentagon legal battle intensifies, Google DeepMind proposes 10 traits for measuring AGI, and more. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:04 — AI Pulse Survey Results 00:05:50 — AI Labs Refocus on Agents and Enterprise 00:29:07 — New Polling on AI and Trump National AI Framework 00:45:46 — Company Transformation with AI (Offsite Recap) 00:59:52 — Nadella Takes Over Microsoft Copilot 01:06:06 — Meta's Rogue AI Agent 01:10:01 — Anthropic vs. Pentagon Continues 01:14:42 — DeepMind's New AGI Scorecard 01:18:40  — What 81,000 People Want from AI 01:26:01 — AI Academy Spotlight 01:30:47 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. Learn more here. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Ashley Herd illuminates under-taught manager skills required of leaders.— YOU'LL LEARN — 1) How build trust with your employees from day one2) Simple ways to make meetings more effective3) The key question that helps accelerate your careerSubscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1139 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT ASHLEY — Ashley Herd is the founder of Manager Method, a leadership training organization that helps managers drive performance without driving people out the door. A former General Counsel and Head of HR with experience at organizations including McKinsey and Yum! Brands, she's also a LinkedIn Learning instructor and co-host of the "HR Besties" podcast. Ashley is the author of The Manager Method, and is known for giving practical tools that make leadership feel human and doable.• Book: The Manager Method: A Practical Framework to Lead, Support, and Get Results• Website: ManagerMethod.com— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: A Separate Piece by John Knowles— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Monarch.com. Get 50% off your first year on with the code AWESOME.• Vanguard. Give your clients consistent results year in and year out with vanguard.com/AUDIO• Shopify. Sign up for your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/better• Gusto. Get three months free when you run your first payroll with gusto.com/AWESOMESee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There comes a point in so many creative careers where what once felt exciting starts to feel heavy. The work may look successful from the outside, but internally, something feels off. In this episode of Play It Brave, I'm joined by photographer Raphaëlle Granger for an honest conversation about what it really looks like to outgrow a brand, walk away from work that no longer fits, and rebuild from a deeper place of artistic truth. Raphaëlle shares her journey from building a successful adventure elopement brand to realizing that the work she had carefully created no longer aligned with who she was. What followed wasn't just a rebrand, but a full creative reinvention rooted in intuition, artistry, emotion, and a desire to tell richer, more human stories. We talk about the difference between building a brand that performs well and building one that actually feels like home. We get into curation, luxury branding, portfolio editing, client alignment, and the courage it takes to stop shooting what you think you should shoot in order to make space for the work your soul is actually drawn to create. In this episode, we discuss: Raphaëlle's transition from adventure elopements to multi-day luxury weddings How burnout can be a sign that your brand no longer fits Why rebranding is often more about alignment than aesthetics How to know when it's time to let go of an old brand What luxury clients are really looking for in a photographer and brand experience How to curate your portfolio more ruthlessly and stop diluting your work Why "less is more" is such an important principle in luxury branding How Raphaëlle communicates her artistic process to clients before they book Why studying luxury hospitality, design, and psychology can elevate your brand The importance of trusting your artistic voice instead of following trends What I loved about this conversation is how deeply Raphaëlle trusts her own eye now. She's not chasing what wedding photography is supposed to look like. She's building a brand that is specific, soulful, elevated, and unmistakably hers. If you've been feeling the tension between what's working and what's actually right, I hope this episode gives you permission to pause, reassess, and listen more honestly to what your work is asking of you. Meet Raphaëlle Raphaëlle Granger is an award-winning wedding photographer known for her refined documentary approach and her ability to capture the in-between moments that hold the most meaning. Named one of Rangefinder's 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography, her work spans Canada, Europe, and beyond, serving couples who value presence, artistry, and legacy. In addition to her photography, Raphaëlle is the co-founder of Les Annexes, an educational platform created to redefine support for wedding creatives through curation, communication, and visibility. Her mission is to guide artists not only in refining their craft but in building enduring legacies that resonate across markets and generations. Connect with Raphaëlle & Resources Raphaëlle's WebsiteRaphaëlle's InstagramAcétate La Boite (Raphaëlle's brand designer)Unreasonable Hospitality by Will GuidaraThe Luxury Strategy by Jean-Noël Kapferer and Vincent Bastien Click here for more ways to listen to this episode.

Welcome to Meaning-Making 101 where we explore the crisis of meaning in our world today, and how we may help usher in an awakening from it. Tonight, we consider the War in Iran through the eyes of Iranian people, who en masse, are celebrating the actions of the U.S. and Israel in working to free them from a brutal authoritarian extremist Islamist regime. This is not to say Muslims themselves are bad people by any means. Rather, we speak in condemnation of the violent extremist factions therein. Join the conversation in our chat! Good News Roundup Source: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ Disclaimer: This show may include copyrighted material for educational purposes that are intended to fall under the "fair use" guidelines of Section 107 of the Copyright Act. The content is used for commentary, critique, and educational insights. All rights to the original content belong to their respective owners. If you have any concerns about the use of your material, please reach out to us directly. Join Actuali in podcast land! Links to Spotify, Apple, & more: @ https://Anchor.fm/Actuali Become a part of our community: https://facebook.com/actuali.podcast https://instagram.com/actuali.podcast https://X.com/actuali_podcast https://rumble.com/user/Actuali Thanks for listening!

Allison Dodge is back for the final livestream episode of Round 3! We discuss her recent experience at a Glee themed drag brunch, seeing Amber Riley in the flesh at Spelling Bee, and so much more. Enjoy! Songs this episode include: I Know What Boys Like Never Going Back Again Papa Can You Hear Me? Shout ---- Become a Patron for exclusive bonus episodes, guest announcements, and access to live episode recordings @ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/gleekoftheweekpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Rate us five stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy our Merch!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Leave us a voicemail @ (347)719-1160 Follow us on Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@gleekoftheweekpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on Tiktok ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@gleekoftheweekpod⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’ve been on Seattle dating apps, you may have come across the letters ENM… ENM stands for ethical non-monogamy, which is becoming increasingly popular in the US, and specifically in the Pacific Northwest. A popular form of ENM is polyamory - the practice of having multiple romantic partners at once. Now, advocates for polyamory are trying to gain legal protections in Seattle. New York Times Pacific Northwest Bureau Chief Anna Griffin will tell us more. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it take to turn real life into a book readers can't put down?In this episode, I talk with Dr. Amanda Edgar, award-winning author, ghostwriter, and founder of Page and Podium Press, about the craft and business of memoir and prescriptive nonfiction. Amanda shares how she helped document firsthand stories from the summer of 2020 for a follow-up to her 2018 Black Lives Matter book, and why she measures success not just in sales, but in impact and ongoing conversations.We also get practical. Amanda explains what ghostwriting really involves—from interviews and research to collaborative outlining and preserving a client's voice. She discusses timelines, her 3,000-words-per-week writing cadence, tools like Scrivener, and why her press avoids AI-generated prose to protect authenticity and trust.For aspiring ghostwriters, Amanda shares business advice: start with a few projects, set up your contracts and LLC, and choose a marketing channel you actually enjoy—her YouTube strategy brings in steady organic leads.Finally, we talk about the emotional side of memoir writing: interviewing people about painful experiences, honoring their stories, and knowing which projects align with your values. Amanda also previews two upcoming books, including a guide to her Memoir Method and her own deeply personal memoir about surviving a hidden abusive relationship.If you're interested in memoir, ghostwriting, or writing books that make an impact, this episode is for you.Have a comment? Text me!Support the show

This week, the fabulous Donna Kim returns to talk about her fabulous NYC wedding and Hilary Duff's big comeback. Donna knows how to throw a chic ceremony and showers her guests with fries at the reception. Plus, the time Donna stepped in as Rory's makeup artist. Follow Rory: @itsRORYjames Follow Donna: @donnakimnyc Subscribe and follow us at @superexcitedpod

Today's story rundown: 00:56 - Travel and Leasure names Detroit the most underrated city who everyone should visit at least once 05:41 - Rail survey says: More trains! 09:22 - Eastside news: City will start repairing and installing seawalls in Jefferson Chalmers to help with flooding; and new life for the St. Jean boat launch 13:31 - Dutch Girl Donuts is adding a second location on East Grand Boulevard 15:31 - Detroit City airport upgrades are coming 17:44 - Do we need a new set of ordinances for after hour joints 22:53 - Michigan Central to open a new work and collaboration hub, "The Mezz" Trivia on 313 Day - sign up! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1984004859944?aff=oddtdtcreator Feedback as always, dailydetroit - at - gmail - dot - com or leave a voicemail, 313-789-3211. Follow Daily Detroit on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-detroit/id1220563942 Or sign up for our newsletter: https://www.dailydetroit.com/newsletter/  

As lawyers we are advocates for our clients. Advocating usually means we are asking a clerk, an assistant district attorney, or a judge to take some action or rule in a specific way that will benefit our client. Essentially we are professionals at asking for favors. So how do you become a lawyer or paint your client in a way that makes other people want to help him or you out? That's the question Jake addresses on today's show.   Episode Outline: Give First  Gary Vee's marketing message: jab, jab, hook Don't be Dwight Schrute; be Corey Case Be Funny You need to capture your audience's attention – humor does it quickly Using AI to be your comedic mouthpiece – Cyrano de Bergerac Tell Stories My wife's advice to requesting special consideration: give the full story It's the same shit, until it's not Live by the Golden Rule Build a personal brand: be someone that other's know, like, and trust Chic-Fil-A's Core 4 Cinderella's identity: have courage and be kind Don't be in a Rush If you ask for something to be done quickly, you are requesting one favor for the price of two

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Use our code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/LAPLATICA10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount   Are you toxic… or just insecure?

Episode 5075: People Want To See The President Get it Done In Minneapolis; Florida Schools Restricting ICE