Podcasts about Personally

1. California Firearm Advertising Law Struck Down California agreed to a settlement exceeding $1.3 million in attorney fees after losing a lawsuit over its “marketing firearms to minors” law. The law effectively banned most firearm advertising, arguing it could appeal to minors. The lawsuit was brought by the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and other plaintiffs. Core Argument Presented The law violated the First Amendment by banning truthful, lawful advertising. It was also framed as an indirect attempt to undermine the Second Amendment by financially crippling gun stores. 2. Ninth Circuit Ruling and Judicial Reasoning A Ninth Circuit judge (Judge Lee, September 2023) ruled against the law. The opinion stated: The law did not materially advance California’s goal of reducing gun violence. There was no evidence minors had illegally purchased firearms due to advertising. The court highlighted a contradiction: California allows minors to use firearms legally (e.g., hunting, sport shooting), Yet banned advertising about those same lawful activities. 3. Governor Gavin Newsom Criticism Governor Newsom is portrayed as acting emotionally and irrationally, particularly over: A .22 caliber rifle designed for youth shooters. The text argues: Youth firearms are legally owned by parents, not children. Such firearms are common for hunting and training. The financial cost to taxpayers is emphasized as a political failure. 4. Broader National Implications The case is framed as a warning to other states: Similar laws will fail and result in costly defeats. The victory is presented as: A win for constitutional rights A success made possible only by organizations with “deep pockets” 5. Shift to Federal Politics: The SAVE Act The second half shifts focus to the U.S. Senate debate over the SAVE Act. The bill is framed as an election integrity measure. Core premise: “Only American citizens should decide American elections.” 6. President Trump’s Leadership Role Trump is portrayed as: Personally directing the strategy Pressuring Republicans to unify Making the bill a top priority The effort is described as deliberate and strategic, not symbolic. 7. Republican vs. Democrat Contrast Republicans: Unified On offense Advocating for voter ID and proof of citizenship Democrats: Described as unanimously opposed Framed as defending an “impossible” position The debate is positioned as a midterm election defining issue. Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast and Verdict with Ted Cruz Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening X: https://x.com/benfergusonshowYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if you have to make the hard decision to stop running altogether? That's the heartbreaking choice Dimity McDowell, a long-time runner and sports journalist, had to make a few years ago. In this conversation and in her new book, The 27th Mile, we explore what it means to hang up your running shoes for good:  The loss of identity, community, and purpose  How to fill the hole that running once filled What the experts recommend  How to find closure after a running career ends Follow Dimity on Instagram and be sure to check out her new book! Thank you 2Before! We are supported by 2Before, a powerful sports supplement made from New Zealand Blackcurrant berries designed to increase endurance, manage inflammation, support immunity, and promote adaptation. 2Before helps to boost performance by increasing blood flow, making it more efficient for the body to pump oxygenated nutrient-rich blood into the muscles. Just like beetroot powder but more effective, 2before uses the powerful vasodilation benefits of blackcurrant berries to prime you for hard work. If you're getting ready for a big workout or race, their caffeinated version is a must try! You'll get the oxygen boosting benefits of blackcurrants, plus the performance benefits of caffeine. Personally, it makes me feel unstoppable before hard sessions. So, if you want to try to boost your performance and immune system, use code JASON for 30% off 20 packs and multi-serve packs at 2Before.com. Thank you to 2Before for supporting Strength Running! Thank you Previnex! Get yourself 15% off your first purchase with code jason15 here. Previnex is a unique supplement company - one that I trust because they do things differently when they don't have to. Their products use clinically proven ingredients, are tested before and after formulation, and they donate vitamins to needy kids. Maybe more importantly, their products do what they say they're going to do. Listen to this feedback about Joint Health Plus! "My ankle and knee pain was completely gone in a week. Amazing!" - Kim "I thought I was on the verge of having to give up running due to severe hip pain and luckily discovered Previnex - complete game changer for me!" - Anna "I am so grateful for Joint Health Plus! As a certified fitness professional and still an extremely active, competitive amateur athlete, I was getting discouraged with an increase in pain simply kneeling down, or bending down to the floor and getting back up while assisting clients, or in my own training! Once deciding to give this product a try, I was floored when I finally noticed I was not bracing in anticipation of pain when I had to kneel down; not whincing in discomfort upon standing! Thank you, Prevenix!" - Jessica Joint Health Plus is so powerful because the main active ingredient is clinically proven to reduce joint pain, reduce joint stiffness, and improve joint flexibility in just 7-10 days. It's also clinically proven, not just tested, but actually proven in double-blinded, placebo- controlled studies to protect joint cartilage from breaking down during exercise. You can get 15% off your first Previnex purchase by using code jason15 at checkout. Visit previnex.com. Previnex offers a 30-day money back guarantee where if you don't feel benefits on their product you get your money back no questions asked. And keep sending in those testimonials. They fire me up!

Tom gives us a health update of his own that is WILD and exactly what we've come to expect and love about our Tom; then, the dads answer a listener email involving choice paralysis and how to help our kids, if it's something they experience, through it. Personally, I blame the Grail Knight scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for mine. "He chose...poorly." Join the Facebook Group! facebook.com/groups/dearolddads For comments, email thedads@dearolddads.com

This week Joe and Eric were joined by Liz, and it was a great opportunity to begin discussing the abundance of Loa we've had in Midnight so far. Our cohosts discussed some of the ins and outs of becoming a Loa, and talked about what they thought they might be the Loa of one day, since none of them were nepo babied into the situation. After that they moved into Harandar and its relationship to the Emerald Dream, and how that figures in to the Rift of Aln and the World Soul.Then, they wrapped up with a discussion on revamped zones, and which ones we'd like to see in the future. While Northrend is in the offing, our hosts have some ideas on other zones they'd like to see updated. Personally, I'm rooting for the Exodar.If you want even more background story, we also have a guide to every Warcraft book in chronological order (for those of you who prefer reading that way).If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“You don't know what grace is, until you are in need of it.” Devon Franklin Lights, Camera, Faith- we get a behind the scenes look into the story of Devon Franklin, producer, bestselling author, husband, preacher, and purpose-driven leader for one of the most reflective conversations we've had on The Pivot Podcast. His story is proof that success isn't just about achievement—it's about alignment, growth, and the courage to start over when life changes direction. From Hollywood success to personal setbacks and rediscovering joy, Devon brings powerful lessons on resilience, purpose, and trusting the process. It's a raw, inspiring discussion about letting go, betting on yourself, and having the courage to pivot into the next chapter of your life. He speaks about his gratitude for Will Smith's role in his life as well as being confident enough to take the risk of leaving a "safe" powerhouse film company to pursue his own passion of filmmaking driven by passion and purpose over position. From developing major studio hits to producing faith-inspired films for mainstream audiences, Devon's career is on the rise with no signs of slowing down. Personally, Devon talks openly about the grief, self-reflection, and healing that followed his very public divorce from Meagan Good—sharing how the experience forced him to redefine love, identity, and expectations. He opens up about heartbreak, healing, and what it really takes to move forward when the life you planned suddenly changes. But this conversation isn't just about loss—it's about taking chances again. Devon shares how he found the courage to believe in love again, why faith and vulnerability are essential to growth, how embracing uncertainty can lead you exactly where you're meant to be and to always trust that life can still unfold in beautiful ways after disappointment. Pivot Family, comment, like, hit the subscribe button, we enjoy hearing and learning from you- the good and the bad, we want to know! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1. Health, Fitness, and Longevity Philosophy Dana White emphasizes personal responsibility for health, especially after age 50. Core practices he credits for major health improvements: Keto diet (low carbs, meat, fish, vegetables; no “sides”). Intermittent fasting (skipping breakfast and lunch). Extended fasting (48–72 hour water + electrolyte fasts a few times per year). Cold plunges (3 minutes at ~50°F daily) to reduce inflammation and boost energy. Light weights + cardio, not heavy lifting. Claims these changes helped him: Lose significant weight (from ~235 to as low as 191). Eliminate sleep apnea and snoring. Get off prescription medications and rely on supplements instead. Improve mental clarity, focus, and energy. Dana White: UFC to issue 85,000 free tickets for White House card (CHECK OUT STORY HERE) 2. Skepticism of Traditional Medicine Expresses distrust of doctors for general health optimization. Strongly endorses personalized blood and genetic testing (via Gary Brecka). Believes many people are unnecessarily prescribed medication. Frames supplements, peptides, and lifestyle changes as superior to pharmaceuticals for chronic issues. FOLLOW DANA WHITE on Instagram HERE 3. Early Life and Entry Into Combat Sports Knew from a young age he wanted to work in the fight business. Left a hotel job in Boston at 19 to apprentice under boxing trainer Peter Welch. Learned the fight industry hands-on rather than through formal education. Left Boston abruptly after being shaken down by associates of Whitey Bulger, relocating to Las Vegas. LEARN MORE ABOUT DANA WHITE HERE 4. Acquisition and Transformation of the UFC Helped orchestrate the purchase of UFC for $2 million when it was near collapse. At acquisition, UFC had: Minimal assets (brand name and octagon). Sold-off media and merchandising rights. No mainstream credibility or regulation. Strategic decisions that fueled growth: Embracing regulation (opposite of prior owners). Educating audiences about MMA (especially ground fighting). Securing TV exposure, not just pay-per-view. Recruiting elite global talent. Creating compelling reality and talent pipelines (e.g., The Ultimate Fighter, Contender Series). UFC is now valued in the billions and dominates live-event gates, including Madison Square Garden. 5. View on Fighters and Greatness Believes MMA is superior to boxing structurally: Fighters must face top competition consistently. Harder to protect undefeated records. Calls Jon Jones the greatest MMA fighter of all time. Views Muhammad Ali as his favorite boxer, but praises Mike Tyson’s cultural impact. Believes elite athletes from other sports (NFL, Jordan, Shaq) could have been dominant MMA fighters with proper training. 6. Joe Rogan and Media Influence Credits Joe Rogan with helping mainstream audiences understand MMA. Did not anticipate Rogan becoming the world’s biggest podcaster. Attributes Rogan’s success to: Curiosity and intelligence. Long-form, unscripted conversations. Willingness to engage controversial topics. Sees podcasts as a powerful alternative to traditional media. 7. Relationship with Donald Trump Friendship began when Trump hosted early UFC events at his casinos when few would. Describes Trump as: Personally loyal. Resilient under pressure. Charismatic and relatable in private. Publicly supports Trump despite advice not to engage politically. Views Trump as unfairly targeted and uniquely resilient. Strongly positive about Trump’s embrace of podcasts and nontraditional media. Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/verdictwithtedcruz X: https://x.com/tedcruz X: https://x.com/benfergusonshowYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 69: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump is not qualified to continue as commander in chief. Not for another five minutes. He has to resign at least that role, immediately. Trump is personally LOSING THE WAR IN IRAN. Trump is personally TURNING IRAN into INSTANT PROCESSED VIETNAM. Never mind the politics, never mind his assault on democracy, never mind his instability, never mind his corruption, never mind the details: Just MILITARILY. Just MAKING DECISIONS THAT WILL KILL AMERICAN TROOPS - Trump is NOT qualified to continue as commander in chief and he needs to resign AT LEAST his command TODAY. A week ago Trump mocked England for trying to join the war after he 'won it.' Now Trump is BEGGING England and half a dozen other countries to send ships to save him from this disaster at the Strait of Hormuz. A week ago Trump insisted Iran would NEVER CLOSE the Strait of Hormuz. Now it turns out the Iranians directly WARNED HIM they would close the Strait of Hormuz - warned him in 2019. Because it’s not just a ten dollar gallon of gas that’s coming, it’s a ten dollar STRAWBERRY. Because a third of the world’s fertilizer goes through the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping is down ooh just 97-point-4 percent. Trump is the Commander-in-Creep. Trump is the Commander-in-Cheap. Trump is the Commander-A-Sleep. He needs to turn military command over to somebody else. Because Iran could never in a million years harm this country as much as Trump is harming it right now. THE GOOD NEWS: Dick Durbin has inadvertently produced the succinct message for all Democrats and everybody else opposing Trump and the Republicans' attempt to disembowel our elections, the bill they call with bitter irony 'The Save Act.' As he explains in less than a minute, it will disenfranchise roughly 10 percent of all American voters - and generally speaking the poorer ones. This is the line we must take, and sell. Just when you thought Democratic Senators weren't worth the proverbial price of the oil required to burn them in hell. Thank you, Senator Durbin. B-Block (30:00) SPORTSBALLCENTER: How could a team retire the uniform number of a former player they had to fire as manager because of his personal moral failings ON THE FIELD OF PLAY? And yet the New York Mets are doing exactly that. (35:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Cornelius Rudd warns you of the upcoming 'Raptor.' The CBS tire fire produces hilariously bad stories about David Ellison (and Epstein), Tony Dokoupil (and a new job somewhere else), Joe Rogan, and Jeff Shell (about to get fired from yet another network presidency). And then we have one of the greatest name mistakes of all time when Brian Kilmeade gets Markwayne Mullin's stupid first name completely wrong, Pilgrim. C-Block (46:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: I'm making a special request for your help finding a home for two bonded senior Malteses, apparent survivors of a puppy mill, named Mai Tai and Soraya. (49:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: And at the opposite end of the moral spectrum, there's the upcoming 25th anniversary of the day Rupert Murdoch fired me from Fox for following the exact instructions his office gave me. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Keith sits down with the youngest guest in show history—a 19-year-old college sophomore and student-athlete who's already deeply immersed in real estate and economics, Hunter Taddy. You'll hear a candid Gen Z perspective on money, debt, and the shifting social landscape, along with what's really being taught in today's real estate and econ classrooms.  They explore how young people are navigating college costs, work, and early investing decisions, and how hands-on property management education is shaping one student's path.  If you're curious about where the next generation of investors is headed—and what that might mean for your own strategy—this conversation offers a rare, on-the-ground look without the usual clichés. Episode Page: GetRichEducation.com/597 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text  1-937-795-8989 to speak with a freedom coach Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review"  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— GREletter.com  Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Keith Weinhold  0:01   Keith, welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold talking with a 19 year old guest that I befriended last year. He's a college sophomore with a real estate investing related major. What does he think about generation Z's future is in person, social life, dead. And what do you really learn about real estate and economics in college today on get rich education.   Corey Coates  0:27   Since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors and delivers a new show every week since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads of 188 world nations. He has a list show guests include top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki. Get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android. Listener phone apps build wealth on the go with the get rich education podcast, sign up now for the get rich education podcast, or visit get rich education.com   Keith Weinhold  1:11   the same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequel and even chat with President chailey Ridge personally, while it's on your mind, start at Ridge lending group.com that's Ridge lending group.com   Speaker 1  1:44   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education.   Keith Weinhold  2:00   Welcome to GRE from Concord, New Hampshire to Concord, California and across 188 nations worldwide, you're listening to one of America's longest running and most listened to shows on real estate investing. I'm your host, Keith Weinhold, and this is get rich education. Increasingly, you know, people ask why even go to college? Is the value of higher education even worth it to drag yourself to an 8am American Lit class while living off of dining hall Breakfast Biscuits and chicken strips for $100,000 a year, it's been estimated that one in seven men are meats, n, e, e, t, that means not in education, employed or training. Why put on a suit and tie and show up at a job when you have a reasonable facsimile of life online and you have discord and Reddit and trade stocks on Robinhood and crypto on Coinbase. Now I don't think that's going to be good for you, and I still think that there are a lot of positives about attending college. At least 15 to 20 colleges close each year in the United States. And despite this, you know, most people that I talk to, they still seem to be mostly positive about college, or they have this expectation that their kids go to college. So anecdotally, this hasn't changed. I probably wouldn't even be as aware of this shift if I didn't read media like I do, if I just talked to people informally, I really wouldn't know. One thing that has not changed also is the notion of the broke college student. I used to be one of those. Now America is just a couple years removed from that wave of elevated inflation and war in Iran has positioned to stoke a second wave of inflation. Today's guest told me that he does pay credit card finance charges, even though he makes more than the minimum payment, just kind of like I did as a college student. The default state of teenage society today is different. It used to be boredom, and now that's been replaced with anxiety. That part has certainly changed, and often it tends to be teen anxiety over such nonsense things. I mean, I have a teenage niece. One example is the burden of maintaining your Snapchat streak? Oh my gosh, if you're a Gen Z or you know what I'm talking about, basically a snap streak where you've got to send a friend a photo or video every single day to keep your streak going, two people have to send it to each other, and people with long streaks, they even like send each other a photo of the floor, just. To keep the streak going. I mean, talk about anxiety over the wrong things.    Keith Weinhold  5:04   Well, today's team guest Hunter, he has a somewhat better grip on life. I haven't met his parents yet, but they've done an amazing job. In fact, Hunter's dad owns rental property, which kind of helps to fuel some of his interests and desire. But in order to cope with inflation and expenses, buy now pay later programs have really taken off. They're widely known, but less widely known. Our rent now pay later plans. They're booming. Platforms like livable, flex and affirm. They're used by lower income and lower credit score tenants that often live paycheck to paycheck. And how it works is that these tenants are extended money at the beginning of the month to pay the rent. They often pay a flat subscription fee plus 1% of the rent. And you know, hey, that could be better than the tenant paying late fees to the landlord. I learned from one tenant that had trouble paying his $1,850 in rent that flex charged him a $15 monthly subscription plus 1% of the total rent for providing the service. So his total fees for the app were around $33 a month rent. Now pay later. You're probably only going to hear more about it, but if you're a landlord, you probably do not know that your tenant is using a rent now, pay later plan, because you just received the full payment on time, and then your tenant pays back the service later. Remember, it is called rent. Now, pay later. Oh, before we bring in our guest, can I ask you for some quick help? Maybe you wanted to tell me what you think about the show. You could have been listening for years, but you don't think that you can reach me. If this show has helped you become a better investor, the best way to support the podcast is to leave a quick rating or review. It helps more investors discover the show. Just tap the five stars in your podcast app. It can take as little as 10 seconds, and I will read it myself. Thanks in advance for leaving a rating and review. Let's meet this week's guest.   Keith Weinhold  7:22   This week's guest is the youngest we've ever had in show history. He's a teenager, so he's about a generation younger than me, and it's his first time on a podcast. He is a sophomore student athlete at the University of Alaska Anchorage, where he competes in the 800 meters for the track and field team. He runs about a 155 his major is management, with a specialization in real estate and property management, and he's just into so many things beyond athletics and academics, he serves as an ambassador for the Widener property management and real estate program. He's also an officer of the real estate management and investment club from Wisconsin. He's 19 years old, a straight A student. He's also an RA that's a Resident Assistant there helping out students at the dorms. Welcome to GRE Hunter, toddy.    Hunter Taddy  8:18   Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me.   Keith Weinhold  8:20   Taddy is spelled T, A, D, D, Y. I met Hunter almost six months ago. A property manager introduced us just thinking that we might have some things in common, and she sure was right. We've gotten together a few times, including going running at one time where, well, I had more than a little trouble keeping up with an active college athlete. The last time we sat down for coffee, just last week, I looked at my watch. We were done, and we sat almost two and a half hours like how many teenagers could really hold my attention for that long? But he just understands the world and politics surprisingly well. For a 19 year old. He's confident and well thought out. He's read War and Peace. He even got some of his own cooking and avoids seed oils. And you know, Hunter being born in 2006 when GRE debuted in 2014 you were eight years old. So before we talk about you, let's talk about your generation, generation Z What do you think some of the markers of your generation are?   Keith Weinhold  9:28   Yeah, so it's as I've shared with you in the past. It's interesting, because especially at UA, I'm mostly surrounded by like, athletes. So athletes tend to be a lot more social, just like how they grown up, they're always around people that tend to be a lot more driven. But then when I talk to, like, non athletes, it's a little bit different. Like, my generation is definitely they're on their phone a lot. I mean, I've told you before, like, I avoid social media. Well, I wouldn't say like the flag, but I avoid it a lot, because I know, hey, how addicting it is. And B, just like, you know, the.The word of my generation is slop or brain rot, and which is most of the stuff on the internet, but Yeah, seems to be like, there's a lot of anxiety in my generation, a lot of, like, lack of accountability, which I've noticed a lot lot of, like, lack of responsibility. And it's almost like self indulgent in a way, where it's like, oh I'm so lazy, or Oh, I'm so this, or I'm so that, and it's just kind of weird. You don't really get that much with like the athletes. Back to the social aspect. I don't know if you've seen that headline recently, that's like, the alcohol industry has lost eight, $30 million over the past four years because he doesn't drink. The real story isn't about Gen Z not wanting to drink alcohol. It's about Gen Z, not like really being social, right? I mean, I don't see that many like, Hangouts as much as, like, when I hear from, like my parents, you know, every night you're going somewhere with your friends or your you know, you're going to the bar, you're going to a bonfire, or things like that. And it's just, you don't see it as much. A lot of people are just in their rooms or online and, you know, the online gaming, online gaming, I don't game a lot, but gaming with friends is actually really fun to do sometimes. But everything's a lot more digital, you know, from the communication to like the spaces, you know, where you hang out, whether it's video games or whether it's VR chat, and some people do that, or discord, or just like internet forums and things like that. Yeah, just lot more digital.    Keith Weinhold  11:24   Yeah, you use little or no social media. Personally, I know you manage the Instagram page for your real estate organization, but yeah, there is more of this perception of in person, social life, maybe not dead, but dying. I've learned that 51% of 18 to 24 year old men have never asked out a woman in person you were sharing with me at how you know people have anxiety just about ordering food in person at a restaurant in Gen Z.    Hunter Taddy  11:54   That's actually funny. So because of how that conversation escalated, I technically did ask her out in Snapchat, but then she was like, you have to ask me out in person. And then I did eventually ask her out in person.    Keith Weinhold  12:06   Now, when it comes to in person meetings, after a few meetings with you, I noticed something rare when it's about seeing people in person, you have virtues that I think are somewhat rare for Generation Z. I mean, you actually show up on time. This this chat we're having right now. It's the fourth time we've gotten together, and you actually showed up early each of the four times, which is something that I really notice and appreciate, which, even for people my age, it seems like it's a virtue that they've lost. I mean, showing up on time is just common decency. That's just doing what you said that you were going to do. I find that pretty interesting. But when it comes to your generation being in college now, I mean, college is tough. You know, when I went to college, I took on student loans. My parents and I each paid for half of the tuition, and also worked a part time job while I was there. So I mean, you hang out with a lot of athletes, but how is it with balancing, you know, the income and student loans? Because, you know, college kids are still pretty poor   Hunter Taddy  13:10   I wanted to run for a division two program, because you can get athletic scholarship. I came in as a walk on. I'm not on any athletic scholarship. I get free housing and free meals for being an RA. Yeah, with my RA position, I actually got the RA position my second semester. So I got it as a freshman, which was like, really, really clutch. So my dad was in the Air Force for 20 years, and I got the GI bill for like, I think, six months. So I got my two first semesters of tuition paid for, and then I got some, like, some money for, like, housing and stuff. I mean, I pocketed most of that just because, I mean, I got it for free already. I don't get any more help from the GI Bill, because I'm not in Wisconsin. But if I went to Wisconsin, I could go to any school for free, like, tuition free. So, I mean, sometimes I do think about that, but with my real estate program. I mean, oh my gosh, the scholarship deadline. Every year they give out like, $50,000 in scholarships. A lot of them are from Widener and then just other like local real estate companies in the area. Last year, I got a $2,500 scholarship to travel to the National Apartment Association's apartmentalized It's like, their yearly conference in Las Vegas, and that was pretty cool. So that stuff kind of went over my head, but a lot of the stuff about AI was, like, just really interesting to hear, especially just about property management. And it's crazy to me, because, like, AI is almost like, my generation's thing, since we're, like, growing up with it, yeah. And then hearing, like, a lot of like, the older people in the property management profession talk about, I mean, they're still talking about when they had to keep their records on pen and paper, or, like, files and stuff. And I'm like, This is crazy. So I have scholarships with the real estate program, if I'm lucky, I can get up to almost $10,000 after the spring. It's.That means I pay in state tuition because I live on campus. It was a deal they were running after covid. So that's only like $5,700 I mean, my scholarships will be able to cover that. This semester, I paid like 2000 of it or something, and then my parents were kind enough to cover the rest, and then I'm going to pay them back right away after the year ends once I get those scholarships. And then, yeah, I get $11 an hour for working desk at my RA job. It's tax free, so, I mean, it's not totally bad, but I don't working desk hours that much because we only have them at night. And then, you know, being an athlete, I don't like staying up until, you know, one o'clock sometimes. I mean, the other night, I had to work a nine to three desk shift, and that screwed my whole for an entire week. Yeah. Okay,    Keith Weinhold  15:48   so when you graduate college in a few years, you could very well come out with a lower student loan balance than a lot of others did, although you might still have an informal loan with dad in there as well. How do you and a lot of people of your generation see your financial future? They sure can be hard to predict, but a lot of people see this crushing debt with student loans, and I wonder, even though it could be far into the future if really Gen Z thinks that they're ever going to be able to afford a home. Now, when it comes to the student loans, I know I shared with you when we sat down for coffee that I had a balance. I think it was like a $20,000 balance when I graduated, because again, my parents paid half of it and I worked part time when I went to school, I shared with you that I just took that balance and paid very little interest on my student loan balance because I kept transferring it repeatedly onto these 0% APR credit cards, and when my introductory rate expired on one card, I would just transfer it onto another card. So I've long been comfortable with debt.    Hunter Taddy  16:52   So me, personally, I do not want to take out a loan from any entity. I'm very fortunate and privileged that my parents are able to, you know, front that money for me when I need it. When I need it, I try to pay them back right away. I do not want student loans like my goal is to get out of college, you know, without owing anybody any money. It's weird, because I'm from such a small town in Wisconsin, and I view trades a lot differently than, like a lot of my peers who grew up in the big cities, I know blue collar millionaires, right? People who just, you know, put their nose to the grindstone, pouring concrete. You know, working driving a semi. Only do that for maybe five or 10 years, like my cousins. My cousin pours concrete, and then the other one, I think, works for construction company, the Midwestern work ethic, they're sitting on 10s of 1000s of dollars in their savings account right now. You can make the argument. Well, their back is going to give out in a couple years. And some of that's true. But also, you know, you don't have to be the guy pouring concrete for how long. You could be the business owner, or you could be the guy who's the plumber for 510, years, and then, you know, start your own plumbing business. That's why I don't look at student loans as, like, I need this college degree to, like, make money or be successful. Like, I've met a lot of people who legitimately have that mindset. That's like, I understand that if you've grown up in that sort of, like sphere, you've grown up with those ideas. But to me, it's like, I know if I can't pay for college, or if I don't graduate college, I know I'm going to be fine. I could go, you know, work construction, or I could go, you know, mow lawns or something. I know, I guess I just view it differently. But a lot of people think they need those student loans. So, I mean, they sign up for them. And I looked it up the other day, the average time to pay off student loans is, like, 20 years or something like that. Yeah, I believe it. That is kind of sad. That's insane to me. I want my lawyers going to college. I want my doctors going to college. I want to college. I want all these people to have a good education. But I mean, like 100,000 to $200,000 I just see that, and it's like, oh, I don't know, man, I sign up for the fast flow every year, but I never get anything Free Application for Federal Student Aid, yeah, but I know some people get, like, Pell Grants. If I'm not wrong, I think the Pell Grants are just, I don't know they have to pay those back. It seemed like I was applying for the Stafford Loan. I was lower middle class. I don't think we quite qualified for the Pell grant. The grant being like, free money and a loan of stuff that you need to pay back. Yeah, of course. And of course, in addition to student loans, we regularly have students using credit cards and probably not being able to pay the full balance, is they make their way and try to pay their way through college. That's certainly one thing that I did.    Hunter Taddy  19:28   Here's something for you, DoorDash, my generation and DoorDash is so crazy. I mean, I look at some of these people we have like a desk, at some of the halls, and the amount of people who just DoorDash some of these people are doordashing every night. And that's not cheap, like, that's sometimes it's like 30 bucks just to get Taco Bell or, you know, Wingstop or something like that, and then Klarna, it's like, finance a pizza. Like, what are we doing here?    Keith Weinhold  19:54   Sure, yeah, you're making a down payment on a blooming onion and financing it and making the last payment on it. Years later or something. Yeah, crazy like that, 100% and yeah, I would imagine home ownership is just seen as something that's so far into the future, it's almost unfathomable.    Hunter Taddy  20:12   Yeah, it's funny to me, because, you know, I come from, again, very small town, the cost of living is, like, extremely low compared to the country. I'm pretty sure Green Bay was voted number one place to live by us, News and World Report couple years ago, number one place to live in the United States. But more of the people back home who work these jobs in the trades, like the thought of owning a home seems a lot more real to them than my friends who are in college. And a lot of that has to do with, you know, like we're in bigger cities. Again, people have more debt, but yeah, I mean, you look at those prices of homes, I think the median home price in Anchorage is like $426,000 and just, you know, looking at that numbers like, how am I ever going to afford that? One of my friends, he's in the real estate program. He's got $40,000 saved up. He's got his Roth IRA maxed out. It's weird, because this is one of the points I want to make. So in my generation, you have people who have all these resources, you know, especially with the internet, and they're doing very well with it. They're taking it and they're running with it. And then you have the other part of my generation who's doing the buy now, pay later option. It's almost like a upside down bell curve or something like that. The people who are good are getting so much better, and the people who are making the bad decisions are getting so much more worse.    Keith Weinhold  21:25   Ah, the K shaped economy starts young.   Hunter Taddy  21:27    It's just interesting to see sometimes, because you have some people like, I can't afford this, I can't afford that, and it's like, yeah, being college student is hard. But then it's like, you buy your $6 coffee every day, and it's, you know, I'm guilty of that too. My spending habits aren't the best. And then you look at like home ownership inflation is real. Cost of living is getting higher. But also my dad talks about this a lot like our standards are getting so much higher, too great. Our houses are getting bigger. Kids don't share bedrooms anymore. All our kids have to have our phone. All our kids have to have the newest thing or the newest coat. And you know, you want nice things for your family. I get that, you know, I don't have a family, so I can only talk about this so much. But I mean, our standards are getting a lot, a lot higher as well. I mean, you look at our grandparents houses, and they're like, these, just small, one story houses, one bathroom. You know, I look at the house that my dad grew up and he shared a room with his brother until he graduated, right? And then you look at all these families kids live in their bedroom, it's so weird to me that like siblings, they know each other, but they don't know each other because they're sitting in their rooms all day and they're looking at their phones.    Keith Weinhold  22:31   You surface a good and salient point hunter that a lot of people don't bring up because the K shaped economy that means a widening disparity between the haves and the have nots, but the entire K also keeps moving up, so standards of living continue to get better for both the haves and the have nots, even though the disparity between them continues to widen, and yes, a poor person today has Wi Fi and has Air Conditioning and a lot of minor conveniences that poor people didn't have 75 years ago. You're listening to get rich education. We're doing something different this week, talking to the youngest guest in GRE history. His name's Hunter toddy. We're going to talk more when we come back about what he's learning in classes, economics and real estate classes, because that is one thing that college students do. Remember, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold.    Keith Weinhold  23:24   Flock homes helps you retire from real estate and landlording, whether it's one problem property or your whole portfolio through a 721, exchange, deferring your capital gains tax and depreciation recapture. It's a strategy long used by the ultra wealthy. Now Mom and Pop landlords can 721, the residential real estate request your initial valuation, see if your properties qualify@flockhomes.com slash GRE. That's f, l, O, C, K, homes.com/g.R, E,    Keith Weinhold  24:00   you know, most people think they're playing it safe with their liquid money, but they're actually losing savings accounts and bonds don't keep up when true inflation eats six or 7% of your wealth. Every single year, I invest my liquidity with FFI freedom family investments in their flagship program, why fixed 10 to 12% returns have been predictable and paid quarterly. There's real world security backed by needs based real estate like affordable housing, Senior Living and health care. Ask about the freedom flagship program when you speak to a freedom coach there, and that's just one part of their family of products, they've got workshops, webinars and seminars designed to educate you before you invest. Start with as little as 25k and finally, get your money working as hard as you do. Get started at Freedom, family investments.com/gre,or send a text. Now it's 1-937-795-8989, yep, text their freedom coach directly. Again, 1-937-795-8989,   Robert Kiyosaki  25:12   this is our rich dad. Poor Dad. Author Robert Kiyosaki, listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold don't quit your daydream   Keith Weinhold  25:26   Welcome back to get rich Education. I'm your host. Keith winehill, we're talking with Gen Z and student athlete Hunter toddy. He's a sophomore college student, and he's got a management degree with a concentration in real estate investing. So yeah, Hunter, tell us some of the things that you've learned about in an economics class or two that you've taken there at UAA.    Hunter Taddy  25:51   So I had an economics class last semester, but the teacher is basically tenured, and he only posted YouTube videos and like three quizzes was like the entire grade. He made us great at 2000 wasn't gonna say and didn't even grade it. So I didn't learn anything about economics, but that was macro, and now I'm in micro. And this professor, he's fantastic. He talks to Anchorage and Alaska legislators all the time. He was on Meet the Press Like he's very, very, very, very smart and well spoken, one of my and professors, and he's also Yale educated, as I understand. Yeah, I always get crap from my cross country teammates because most of them are STEM majors. There's a lot of engineers, and then there's, you know, you have people who are in, like, kinesiology, and then a lot of aviation, but they always give me crap because, like, oh, business, it's supply and demand, blah, blah, blah. But then, like, legitimately, economics has been so fascinating for me, just like, you know, consumer behavior, opportunity cost, trade off. One of the things is rent control, right? Definitely a big conversation, especially in, like, my generation, you know, because of all these rising prices. And then, you know, the landlord always gets the negative connotation, right? Landlords are greedy. I wouldn't even as a college student. Well, you think about rent control is like as soon as you put that binding price ceiling on the rent prices in an area, that's why there's not enough housing on the West Coast. That's why landlords are painting over the light switches, or they're not fixing your toilet, or they're not fixing the leaky sink. There's just a lack of understanding general society about, like, just how markets work and why. You know, businesses make certain decisions that they do. That's one thing with, like, a lot of my generation, is a lot of them are almost anti business, in a sense, right? In a sense, but they love being consumers. What my dad talks about a lot is as the business owner, like when you work for a company, a lot of the times you can clock in, clock out, you go home and you lay your head on the pillow, and you don't have to worry about anything, right? But when you're the business owner, like my dad, and if you have a lot of anxiety, like he does, about certain things, and you stress a lot, you're up at 2am wondering if the LVP you put in someone's kitchen is going to buckle, well, then you're gonna have to go back and fix it all and all these things, and so I definitely have a lot more to say understanding for like business owners and like landlords. Yeah, the economics classes just broaden my understanding of how the world works. I think that's a class everyone should take, and it is a general ed but I think it's a class everyone should pay attention to as well.    Keith Weinhold  28:18   Sure, rent control gives landlords no incentive to make improvements to a property. So yeah, it's good that you're learning about this in econ class. Tell us about some of the other things that you've learned in economics or in your more real estate investor centric college courses.    Hunter Taddy  28:36   So I'll focus more on the real estate stuff. So Dean Widener, Widener apartment homes, one of the top five, I think, largest owners of apartment homes in terms of units like in the United States, right? He basically came to Anchorage, and he wanted to build the Widener program, basically like a farm for property managers, like, you know, give this education. And then they, you know, they come work for widener. They come work for, you know, whoever a lot of the education has to do with property management. So there's leasing, asset maintenance. Talk a lot about operating budgets, risk management. All students in the program memorize the cash flow performer by heart. So, you know, you have gross potential income loss to lease, vacancy, net revenue, other income, expense reimbursements. Maddie poo, which is maintenance, admin, taxes, insurance, payroll and utilities. Have you heard that acronym before? What is it? Yeah. Maddie poo, I pretty sure my professor, like, that's kind of like his thing. I didn't finish it all, but we have it all memorized, and then we do, like, a lot of fair housing and landlord tenant law. Yesterday, in my Real Estate Investment Finance course, we were analyzing loans, and we were making like amortization tables, yeah. And then so we were looking at like interest rates, how a balloon loan works, variable interest rates. I took real estate Maintenance and risk last semester, and that was really awesome. We got to visit buildings all across Anchorage and talk with the property managers, talk about maintenance systems, general maintenance of the property, property management, the day to day, things like that. And then leasing, we actually had us basically go undercover. We have to have three properties, and we go do a showing at all of them, and then we had to review them, and we did a presentation about them, and, like, we basically reviewed them and graded, like the leasing agent, and how they did that one was really cool.    Keith Weinhold  30:33   Okay, so the mock tenant, grading a leasing agent, yeah, then showing you amenities, explaining lease length, things like that,    Hunter Taddy  30:41   and then seeing if, you know, they violated any like Fair Housing things. He said, Don't necessarily try and bait them, but one of the questions that one of my classmates asked, so what kind of people live here? And then the good property manager, you know, it says we rent to anyone that fits our criteria. And then you have some people that's like, oh, you should have said that. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty touchy, age, race, family status, right? Yeah. So we definitely have that drilled in our heads as well, like landlord tenant law and then, like, fair housing, you    Keith Weinhold  31:11   told me something interesting when we got together, when you run the numbers for property, that the numbers always work better in one condition than they do in another.    Hunter Taddy  31:20   So we do cap rate. And so cap rate is noi over value, I believe, yep. So we analyze the cap rates for all the properties, and then we see what is our return if we pay cash or whatever is our return when we pay leverage. And sometimes it's better if you pay cash, or sometimes it's better if it's leveraged. But I always think even if you could pay cash, you pay, say, $3 million for the whole complex, well, you could put a $500,000 down payment on six other properties. So I always thought that was weird, because that's just, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, after my dad recommended it to me, and then it just talking to my dad about leveraged investments. Yeah, why don't you do that instead? Oh, he said,    Keith Weinhold  32:00   right, as long as you control your cash flow and pay the mortgage and the operating expenses. Yeah, we typically talk about getting the leverage here, because the appreciation grade has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of equity that's in the property. Is there anything else interesting that you learned from going out in the field and actually seeing some properties or talking to some managers? And I think this is really interesting, because a lot of times when people graduate college, they tend to broad brushstroke students or new graduates, and say, Yeah, but they haven't gotten out in the real world yet, but you actually are as a student.    Hunter Taddy  32:33   Yeah. So that's one thing I really love about our program, and I really love our professor. He owns properties himself. It's not like a pyramid scheme thing where, like, almost like, you're going to college to learn how to be a professor, and sometimes that we need those people for, like, research and stuff. But like, he's actually done the work. He knows what it's like. He can relate to things that we're talking about. Yeah, we get a lot of that real world experience, which is really awesome going about that, like the leasing experience. One of the things with, like, a lot of the managers, especially in Anchorage, because there's such a housing shortage, a lot of them didn't really like try, because they like, almost don't have to, because, I think a lot of them assume you're gonna lease someone anyways, no matter, because it's not necessarily really competitive. So because the vacancy rate is so small, yeah. So it's just like, here's the kitchen. You know, we're actually taught in leasing class, leasing strategies. And also, what's really good about our classes, we read, like, a lot of personal growth books in our classes. So like in our leasing class, our professor had us read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey and yeah. And then I think for our real estate investment class, we're going to read the compounding effect. I don't know what it's about, but I mean, I really appreciate how our professor gives us, like, those books and that knowledge that's not just, you know, specific to real estate. It's like how to become like a better person, or how to become better at personal finance in general.    Keith Weinhold  33:58   All right, so some conceptual and some mindset stuff, along with more of the hands on and more of the numbers. Well, before I ask you, what's next for you, do you have any last thoughts with what you've learned in class, or just anything overall about your generation and lifestyle and getting along financially? For a college student,    Hunter Taddy  34:18   in April, I'm going down to Austin for the property con, which is Institute of real estate management, big conference. I think they have this one every year too. I think John Quinones, the guy from what would you do, is going to be like one of the keynote speakers. So looking forward to that, definitely looking forward to some of, like, learning more about, like AI, and how it's used in, like, the property management, like real estate sphere, and then I'm kind of interested in green building, because it almost seems to be like, Win win, right? Because better for the environment and then better for the investor most of the time, you know, like, through these retrofits, like you're just switching to LED light bulbs, we actually, we ran those numbers a lot in my.In its class. Like, you know, what would it be like if you switch from iridescent to LED light bulbs? And it's like, that's like, what are the things that all property managers should do? Because you're saving, sometimes 1000s of dollars and seven or 10 year period, or whatever it is, improve the cap rate, right there? Yeah, I want to definitely learn more about, like, the green building. And also, just because, you know, I'm a healthy person, when I build my house one day, I don't want to have, like, a lot of toxic materials and stuff as well. I have one friend. He's really, really dialed in his health. They're talked about him with you before, but he, like, he's not even have drywall in his house because there's some, like, toxic thing in drywall, or something, like, he's gonna build it out of brick and mud or something, I don't know.    Keith Weinhold  35:39   Oh, he can't just go live in any rental. Yeah, well, Hunter, this has been really good. Your dad owns rentals in Wisconsin, and like you mentioned, he's red, Rich Dad, Poor Dad himself. So that's kind of an influence on you. And you do have a management internship back in Wisconsin this summer. But before we go on, you mentioned to me that your dad owns a certain type of apartments in Wisconsin, and I've never heard of that type before. What are they called? And then, what does that mean?    Keith Weinhold  36:06   I think the name is local to the city itself in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. So they're called custerdales. I think there were homes built after World War Two, I believe, for like GIS and things like that so well. Just before he got in the Air Force, he was in Saudi Arabia for a year, and he was thinking about, you know, what am I going to do when I retire? Because he knew after the year was done, he was going to retire and come back to Wisconsin. And one of his friends got him into real estate, and he talked to my mom a little bit, and they just started buying properties. So that was in 2018 and now they own about 70 units, mostly duplexes, with their biggest being a five Plex. They also have a 18 bed assisted living facility. Most of the the 70 units are called custerdales. They're all like, cookie cutter, like, the same they're basically the same layout, you know, sometimes it's just flipped or whatever. And he basically did the same thing each time, a lot of them were, like, really run down ones that they purchased had someone with a chicken living on top of the refrigerator. And then when they locked the place up after they bought it, he broke back in and took stuff. And so they've really, actually, like, helped the community in a way, by remodeling a lot of these homes. And then my dad would refinance them, and then he would take that money and then invest it into another property. And he just kept doing that again and again and again. Yeah, so buy and hold we self manage, because there's not really a reputable property management service in the area. This is near Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Maybe you've heard that name before. Manitowoc, they make heavy construction equipment, and you are going back to Wisconsin this summer for a management related internship, yeah, well, Hunter, well, this has been great talking about what your generation's like, what you do in your classes, and the practical experience that you're already getting as a 19 year old. I mean, you're just substantially further ahead than I was as a geography degree student and major way back in the day, if anyone wants to reach out to you, see what you're doing, or contact you. What's the best way for them to do that? Hunter.    Hunter Taddy  38:09   So I don't have Instagram or Facebook, but I do have LinkedIn. So if you just search Hunter toddy again, T, A, D, D, y, on LinkedIn, you can find me there. Also just give my email. It's H hottie 007 at Gmail.    Keith Weinhold  38:26   All right, look that up if you want to reach out to Hunter. Yeah, it's been great having you here. Thanks so much for coming on to the show.    Hunter Taddy  38:32   Thanks forhaving me.    Keith Weinhold  38:40   Yeah, a fresh perspective from college student, Hunter toddy today. He has got his act together amazingly well for a teenager, and you know, talking to him made me think about something like I said when I graduated college, and it was just with a bachelor's degree. By the way, pretty humble bachelor's double major, geography and regional planning, I had that 20k in student loan debt, which I transferred onto 0% APR credit cards, over and over again and inflation adjusted terms, that might be 40k in today's dollars. I had no incentive to pay it down, let alone pay it off, since my finance charges were essentially zero, so that's why I probably carried that balance for close to 20 years. But this is the first time that I thought about the fact that that very habit was probably a benefit to me, not because it saved me from paying interest on student loans, but because it got me comfortable withholding debt for the long term and rationalizing that there would be an opportunity cost of paying off that debt, because a payoff would have meant that I would forego the opportunity of investing those dollars to get gains, that habit got me comfortable with prudently using debt and leverage as a real estate investor, and that helped me own and control more property sooner. So it was a somewhat autodidactic approach to good debt. Today, we talk with a young, likely soon to be investor, oppositely next week here on the show. We're talking about the book end, on the other side of the shelf, and that is when you're ready to retire from real estate, you can exchange your properties into a fund, pay zero capital gains tax or depreciation recapture. And unlike a 1031 exchange, what you've done is you have totally exited the direct real estate business with a 721, exchange, and you still get financial upside with zero management duties retired. Finally, if you've ever wanted to tell me what you think about the GRE podcast, if this show has given you some fresh perspective or helped you become a better investor. The best way to support the show is to leave a quick rating or review. It helps more investors discover the show. Here's how to do it inside the get rich education Show page on Apple podcasts, scroll about halfway down to ratings and reviews. Tap the purple stars to rate, and then tap the purple words write a review on Spotify from the get rich education podcast, tap the three dots near the top of the show page, tap rate podcast and leave your star rating. That's all it takes. It's crazy that this show has almost 6 million total listener downloads, but yet, across all platforms, we have perhaps only 1000 reviews, and that's probably because I rarely ask for them. I would greatly appreciate it. Until next week, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.   Unknown Speaker  41:59   Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively   Keith Weinhold  42:27   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth, building, get richeducation.com  

Ehhh kia ora e te homies! Here's what you missed on the show today: A lil bit of a loose poddy for yah Friday! Sports update from Martin Devlin We are all about getting the cost per wear down (tegs hates polyester) Myshaan chats about his new song Banned baby names of 2025 Pros & Cons of being born in each month (month to 463 to read yours) Shot for listening, From Eds AKA Eric AKA Edith AKA Eteni

In this episode of Personally Speaking Msgr. Jim Lisante is joined by Monsignor Thomas Powers. Msgr. Powers currently serves as the Rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, America's seminary in Rome. He talks about his life,  his family, his vocation, what the Pontifical North American College means for the Church in the United States, and his hope for seminarians and young priests.Support the show

Parenting 0-18 With an Eternal Perspective: An Interview with Jessica Smartt (Episode 286)   Hebrews 12:11 NIV “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it"   *Transcription Below*   Jessica Smartt is the author of Come On Home, Memory-Making Mom and Let Them Be Kids. She graduated college with an English degree, a religion minor and a hankering to pour into kids. After teaching middle school literature for five years, she was promoted to her current position and dream job: wife, homeschooling mom, author, and Professional Encourager of Intentional Moms. She lives in sunny North Carolina on a family farm with horses, chickens, and an ever-increasing number of beloved cats. She and her husband, Todd, have three beautiful children. She loves to energize everyday moms to save childhood and build close-knit families. Jessica's favorites include: bike rides, spinach quiche, a clean kitchen, being warm, national parks, and food that anyone else made. Connect with Jessica through Instagram or her website.   Thank you to Our Sponsor: WinShape Marriage   Questions and Topics We Cover: What questions can we ask ourselves as mothers to take inventory and get real about our capacity, health, and gifts? How can we purposefully make our home a place our family loves to be and we do too? Will you share a handful of your other favorite practical tips for building a strong family that we haven't covered yet?   Other Episode Mentioned from The Savvy Sauce: Making Family Memories with Jessica Smartt   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:14)   Laura Dugger: (0:15 - 1:23) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   I'm thrilled to introduce you to our sponsor, WinShape Marriage. Their weekend marriage retreats will strengthen your marriage while you enjoy the gorgeous setting, delicious food, and quality time with your spouse. To find out more, visit them online at winshapemarriage.org.   My returning guest for today is Jessica Smartt. She has authored another brilliant book entitled, Come On Home: A Grace-Filled Guide to Raising a Family Who Loves (and Likes) Each Othe. You're not going to want to miss a minute of this episode because she answers every question with kindness and eternal wisdom, yet she still manages to share plenty of fun ideas and applicable tips.   Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Jessica.   Jessica Smartt: (1:25 - 1:28)  Thanks so, much for having me. I'm excited about our conversation.   Laura Dugger: (1:29 - 1:44) Well, I've been looking so, forward to this, and it's been a few years since you were a guest on The Savvy Sauce, so, as you're looking back, can you just walk us through how your motherhood experience has changed from the early days to now currently?   Jessica Smartt: (1:46 - 3:36) Yeah, it has changed so, much, and I actually was thinking about this just on my own. God is so, good, and I don't know if everyone's experience is kind of like this. I look around and see very high-functioning young mothers, so, I'm thinking maybe not, but I just feel like those first couple years were such a struggle with a lot of mental illness and just anxiety, and probably that led into depression, too, and just feeling really overwhelmed. I do feel like a lot of it was sleep deprivation, which is a literal torture technique that armies use, so, I think just caring for my body better has actually been a huge thing, but also just God is just so, kind, and I think I mentioned in the book of just really early on having this moment where I thought I'm not any good to anybody, and I didn't fast-forward to see any of this, right?  I didn't know how it was going to end. I just knew I felt terrible, and I couldn't function and overcome with anxiety, and everything was blurry and overwhelming, and so, to then fast-forward and see personally in my own life the rewards of my kids are doing well, and I like being a mom a lot, and professionally that I'm even writing about it is stunning, so, it's a real redemption story to me, and just proof that also God uses those pits because it was out of that that I was able to actually gain traction even on my blog sharing about my personal experience and loss and weakness. God used that, so, I'm really grateful.   Laura Dugger: (3:36 - 3:45) That's incredible to get just a little picture of that journey, and can you update us with your kids' ages now as of today?   Jessica Smartt: (3:45 - 3:59) Yes, so, I have a 16-year-old boy. Last week we were visiting college, and that is very weird, and then a 14-year-old boy and an 11-year-old daughter.   Laura Dugger: (4:00 - 4:19) Okay, wonderful. So, regardless of what phase we're in as parents, do you have any recommendations for questions that we can begin to ask ourselves so that we can take inventory and get real about our capacity and our health and our gifts?   Jessica Smartt: (4:20 - 7:00) Right, yes, so, in Come on Home, that's kind of how I kick it off because I say, you know, you can't have the family that if in order to have the family you want or the home you want, you have to be honest about what you actually have and what you're starting with, and so, part of that is taking inventory of yourself and your life, and that's not something we often stop to do in the chaos and busyness, so, I asked what your capacity is and really just trying to help mom just think through preaching to myself here, like all the things that are on our plate, and is there something on our plate that the Lord maybe is not calling us to or that doesn't correlate and match to what our really core values are in life, and those are hard questions to ask, but they actually bring a lot of relief to just be honest with yourself about what's happening in your life and coming before the Lord and saying, you know, I'd literally say, like, make a list of all the things that you're doing and look at it and see if you should take any off, and the list is, you know, stunningly long for a lot of us, but yeah, so, that's just capacity, just kind of thinking through where we are and what we actually have the bandwidth to do, and then I talk about health and actually asking, like, your husband, if you're married, you know, how would you like me to care for myself better? What's one thing that you like when I do? And a lot of times I think we're really surprised when we hear the things they appreciate or what they'd like us to do, and they might just be giving us a really wonderful gift to go invest in an area in our life that we've been overlooking. So, and then gifts, that's a really fun one, too, because I'm not you and you're not me, and we're not the listeners, but God has uniquely equipped all of us to be the mom and the homemaker, you know, in our particular callings.   So, saying, like, are you a good organizer? Are you, you know, the fun mom, right, that I wish I was and I'm not? Are you, you know, the adventurer mom? Are you the crafty mom? You know, God has given, do you cook well and, you know, enjoy that? And everybody has a gift, that you're, whether you're, you know, a soft place to land for your kids and a good listener, or you're, you know, more drill sergeant-y, like those firstborns tend to be, and that is me, so, that's why I can say that. But just thinking about, like, what skills and gifts did God give me to lead my family well? And so, that was just kind of the ground-tilling up work before you think through, like, how can we build the family that we really want with the life that we actually have and the person we really are?   Laura Dugger: (7:01 - 8:14) And I love, that was one of the aspects of the book that I just appreciated. You sprinkle all these insightful questions throughout, and it is really great to reflect on those with the Lord or with the journal or in conversation, but you're encouraging us repeatedly to get a long-term vision of this parenting journey. And so, it makes me think, my husband works with Chick-fil-A, and oftentimes he's encouraged to be careful not to just get caught up working in the business, but to pull back and work on the business, and it's actually better for everybody. And I just think as parents, we need that same reminder to kind of lift up our eyes, get a different view, and get above these urgent, incessant needs of today and look at where we're going. And I think the Bible speaks a lot to that with being prudent. And you challenge us with that long-term view to actually take an eternal view in parenting, which is inevitably going to impact how we steward our time and our decision making. So, can you speak to both of those?   Jessica Smartt: (8:16 - 10:23) Yeah, I mean, the eternal, the perspective, I think I said, you know, there's the Bible verse about you reap what you sow, and we think of it as like a cautionary warning. And it is, but it's also just a true statement of how life works, meaning what you invest in, and what you spend your time in, what you care about, what the things you're actually doing is where you're going to see growth. And so, if I am investing in my home, I'm going to see fruit in there. Now, of course, it's not a one-to-one, it's not a slot machine. So, you know, we don't know exactly what it's going to look like. And God is so, good to cover up even over the areas that we've done a bad job in. But in general, you can't expect to grow cucumbers if you've been planting tomatoes. Like what you've been planting in the ground is what's going to grow up. And so, that's just like, even though it's kind of like fancy wordy language, it's always just a good reminder to me to think like, what am I actually spending my time doing?   I want a family that, like I was a recipient of, that's warm and inviting and you want to be around. And in order to get that, like you have to plant it. And so, that's a lot of being present as a mom and which is so, hard, very hard. But I just wanted to not lay a burden on moms, but really just encourage them like, do those things that are going to reap the life you actually want in the long term.  And of course, you mentioned the word eternity, that's planning, building disciples. And so, that is a very long road. You know, you're not going to always see the fruit of that, you know, immediately. But keeping our eye on, you know, I want to raise kids that are living out the calling that God has placed on their lives and are going out into this world to be truth and light. Like, oh my goodness, so, many hard, boring conversations that you have to have, but you have to, like that's, that's part of the equation.   Laura Dugger: (10:26 - 11:35) I think that even that piece is with discipline too, which is one of my least favorite parts of parenting. I don't know if others relate to that, but a verse that I find so, encouraging is Hebrews 12:11, that "no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful later on. However, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." And so, I love that encouragement you're giving to a parent for the long view, and you bring up your family of origin. You write so much about this gratitude you have for your parents and something you wrote really stuck with me where you say someone was always home, both physically and metaphorically, someone was paying attention. So, Jessica, what caution do you want to share with any parents today who may be tempted to let go a little too early, a little too soon and too young, whether that's with technology or even just being physically present?   Jessica Smartt: (11:36 - 14:25) I think it's just so, important for moms and dads to receive their instructions, not from the world, but from the Lord, because the culture right now is okaying and even encouraging parenting that is not godly parenting. We have so many distractions and we are pulled towards our phones, towards our own personal growth and flourishing, which is okay. You know, of course we want us to be healthy as we just mentioned, but at the expense of the kids that God has put in our lives, that is what, that is the messaging you're going to receive from the world. If you're hanging out with people who do not have a biblical worldview, that is going to be how they're spending their time.  And it's not a judgment statement. It's just, it is an observation that they, that is not, the focus is not, I'm going to sit and, you know, maybe at one point culturally years and years ago, it really was more family oriented, but it is not anymore.  It just simply is not. And, you know, it masquerades under that as, you know, oh, we're all going to the soccer game together and we're going to go watch the gymnastics performance or whatever it is. But that, that is not always true discipling of your children.   That's kind of being present in a cursory way and not truly and really, to really pay attention and really be present with your kids is going to look vastly different than what the rest of the world is doing.  And if it doesn't, you got to check. And I, I'm saying this as absolutely of myself, you know, there are moms that are just on their phone, and I can do that as well. I've had to put in, we can talk about specifics, but I've had to put in like specific things in my, in my actual phone, you know, and in my life parameters and guidelines so that I'm not doing that. But no one in the world is going to tell you not to, that's normal to just be stuck on your phone as a mom, as a kid, whatever. And so, a like, where are you getting your voice? That's saying how to parent, who are the voices that are speaking into your life?  Are you listening to older and wiser mentors? Are you reading really good books? Are you putting yourself in the word first thing in the morning or are you just floating around with whatever culture says to do? And I don't mean to sound judgy here because I am deeply convicted even as I'm speaking this of like, am I living this? I'm not always, it's very, very hard. But I just think we first, first step is, you know, to orient yourself to the Lord and how would he have you parent?  Not what is everyone else okay with doing? Cause it's going to look very different.   Laura Dugger: (14:26 - 16:54)  Okay. I love that with kind of the emphasis on; it does require a sacrifice from us with that quality and quantity time. And it makes me think on page 38 of your book, you encourage us to take the time to know each child, helping them find their passion, abilities, gifts, and interests.  And that really does bless both the child and the parent. And now a brief message from our sponsor.   Friends, I'm excited to share with you today's sponsor, WinShape Marriage. Do you feel like you need a weekend away with your spouse and a chance to grow in your relationship together at the same time? WinShape Marriage is a fantastic ministry that provides weekend marriage retreats to help couples grow closer together in every season and stage of life. From premarital to parenting to the emptiness phase, there is an opportunity for you. WinShape Marriage is grounded on the belief that the strongest marriages are the ones that are nurtured, even when it seems things are going smoothly, so that they're stronger if they do hit a bump along their marital journey. These weekend retreats are hosted within the beautiful refuge of WinShape Retreat, perched in the mountains of Rome, Georgia, which is a short drive from Atlanta, Birmingham, and Chattanooga. While you're there, you will be well fed, well nurtured, and well cared for.   During your time away in this beautiful place, you and your spouse will learn from expert speakers and explore topics related to intimacy, overcoming challenges, improving communication, and more. I've stayed on site at WinShape before, and I can attest to their generosity, food, and content. You will be so grateful you went. To find an experience that's right for you and your spouse, head to their website, winshapemarriage.org/savvy.  That's W-I-N-S-H-A-P-E marriage.org/savvy. S-A-V-V-Y.  Thanks for your sponsorship.   So, Jessica, what has this looked like in your home? And can you give us some ideas?   Jessica Smartt: (16:56 - 19:19) Yeah, I just think it is so, easy for us to have our own expectations of what our kids are, and even to speak that over them from the minute they come out of the womb, whether it's, oh, we've just pinned them as to be this, or it's something that we are, or something that we want them to be. But instead to look and see like, who is this actual child that's been created? And I thought of, you know, years and years ago, my son was like, itching to do something, you know, they get to be like nine, 10. And they start feeling like, you know, they need something other than mom in the house. And we were kind of praying about it and thinking it through. And he said, “I think I really would like to play soccer.”   And at the time, we were pretty, pretty committed into the baseball world. And I was like, no, you know, I had friendships with the parents, and we liked the coach, and we were already there. And soccer was this whole thing I didn't even know, you know, I was like, no.  And honestly, I waited for a year or two. But now my both my boys are in a semi travel league. It's not like all out driving all across the country, but they've been able to play at a higher level.  And they're doing amazing. It's clearly what they were meant to do. And I couldn't miss out on that just by being like, no, you know, that's not what you do.   Like, you know, so, just being open as a parent to really like, what are they good at? And it may not be what you thought it may not be what you are good at. My daughter loves to make a giant mess in the kitchen, giant and cook. And oh, my goodness, it is very hard for me because I'm like a keep it clean.  Don't use all the ingredients. But I've been convicted to really, you know, let her explore these gifts. I have a friend whose daughter is making these elaborate birthday cakes. I mean, like the most crazy food network kind of thing. And I saw it and thought, I know what that kitchen must have looked like when you let her do that. That was a lot of days and afternoons of you letting her waste the flour and make a big mess.  But the fruit is, it's incredible. And, so, yeah, sacrificing what we want to let them grow into, you know, and God is so, good.   Like if we don't know what it is, pray with your kid, like you, what did you, what is your thing?  What do you think God's made you to do? We, you know, need an activity. What, what, let's ask God, like what he wants you to do. I've never prayed a prayer like that that hasn't been answered and never.   Laura Dugger: (19:20 - 19:47)  Oh, that's so, good. I mean, we think of for friendship for ourselves or with our children or activities that they want to do, just hopefully that's what we keep being reminded of is bring it to the Lord rather than seeking out those voices and culture and see what his perfect plan is. But you also write an entire chapter on the power of time. So, will you share some of your applicable wisdom here?   Jessica Smartt: (19:49 - 22:15)  Yes. And you know, don't mind me while I actually get out the book, because even though you wrote it, sometimes you're like, what exactly did I say? Um, but thinking through like activities that our family has signed up for, as I mentioned, you know, I was kind of like connected in that baseball mindset.  And so, was it actually the right thing for my kids? Maybe or maybe not. And so, I talked through like at questions to ask, you know, as a husband and wife about where our family's going and what activities our kids are doing, which is a giant question today.   I don't think parents are thoughtful enough about what they're signing up for and what they're doing. And you get, you know, mid-November and your schedule is completely packed and your kids having meltdowns and you're never eating dinner together. And you're like, how did we get to this life? But it was a little bit of like, not quite following the path ahead mentally to see what it would look like. And I would just encourage anybody right now that it's not too late to rearrange, even if you have to quit something, even if it costs a deposit, even if you have to back out, like we are not as trapped as we think we are. And if you're doing something in your family that's not healthy, or, you know, it's not benefiting you stop, like no one's gonna, you know, anyway.   So, as you're thinking through activities, I talked about the interest question, which means like, is your kid actually there? Or is it like you that's kind of getting more out of this? And then I talked about the mealtime question.  And maybe we'll get to this, but family meals are so important. They really are. Even if it is, you know, not hours of sitting there with candlelight, whatever, just to have that checkpoint together. So, is your activity schedule, allowing you to uphold whatever your values are with meals? I'm not gonna tell you what they are, but is that what you want, really? And then the whole family question.   You know, I've seen a lot, and we've lived it too, of like the younger kid being getting drug around to the older talented kid's activities.  That's really a hard one, right? And so, I'm not saying don't do that. Sometimes families are gonna just look like that for seasons. But I do think it's worth stopping to say, what is it like right now to be that youngest child? What are they going through?  And am I being kind to them? You know, are there switches we can kind of make in the family? Because it's, you know, the family is not about one person and their talents. It's a holistic, healthy, functioning unit.   Laura Dugger: (22:18 - 23:21)  Absolutely. So, even, I hear you saying, evaluating, again, kind of taking inventory. What is on the family plate? How is that affecting every human in the unit of the family?  Is that taking us where we want to go? Just being, I love how you use the word thoughtful. Just being full of thoughts of this and taking it to the Lord of what's the wise thing to do. And for all of us, I think with that time question, it does lead us to the question of, who are we spending the most time with? Because that will significantly impact our lives.  It'll impact our children as well. So, do you have any other, I love those questions. Any other lessons that you've learned? I'm thinking especially related to activities and youth sports come to mind because our culture really has gone to the side of idolizing it and catering everything else around that. So, do you have any other wisdom to share on that topic?   Jessica Smartt: (23:23 - 25:48)  Yeah, I mean, I'll just share. Personally, we have decided to have our kids play at a level that is probably sub what their talent could be. And I don't know.  I guess time will tell. If they look back and they were like, mom, I really, you know, could have, but I have a hunch that they won't. I more often am seeing in my friends and stuff that it's like, they get into high school, and the kids are kind of starting to feel burnt out. Or they're like, you know, it's so, hard right now to be, I mean, not even a professional, let's say soccer player, but at college, it's like unheard of.  It's the elite, elite. And so, it's like, why are you doing this anyway?   And we've had several opportunities to compete at higher levels and try out for things that we have said no to, you know, because it would require being gone more nights, it would require tons of time in the car, it would be families away on the weekends.  So, we have some of that. I think it's important when you have boys, especially to let them have an outlet to compete as we, if you know, I homeschool as you do. And so, if you have a homeschooled teenage boy, they should probably be doing something right. So, I am not saying sit at home and, you know, play Monopoly every night as a family. But, we have chosen to prioritize other things.   And so, so far, I am super grateful for that. We had a season where we were way too busy with baseball. And it was the boys were like 10 and 12. And Monday through Thursday, one of them had a different we were never eating together Monday through Thursday, Saturdays, we were taking off different directions. I could never understand why we had to drive two hours to play a team. I'm like, there's so, many baseball players right in this neighborhood.  Can we not find a team? And God use that it's fine. But, but I don't I don't envy that season.   And I'm really grateful for some of the breathing room that we've had. And also, I would say my son, my oldest son is a gifted guitar player and singer. And he would not be able to do that. If we were 110% in one of those other sports, he would not have any time to even pursue those other interests.  You just never know. You know, I think white space and mental white space and time, I talk about this and let them be kids is so important for just developing as a person. No one flourishes well with a completely jam-packed schedule. And so, how would we expect our children to, you know, that is good.   Laura Dugger: (25:48 - 26:02)  That is so, wise. And how can we strategically connect with our kids so that they do feel seen, and known and loved and liked?   Jessica Smartt: (26:03 - 27:54)  Yes. I mean, that feels overwhelming, doesn't it? But and I talked through in the book kind of each one of those categories. But I know this is going to sound cliche, but I would just say a like recognizing that if a kid doesn't feel like you like them, they're going to notice that. And so, it doesn't matter all the extra things what you're getting them for Christmas, and where you're they're taking them if they really genuinely feel like you're kind of annoyed with them. They know that.   And that's, that's not great. So, I would say first step before you get into any practicals and pancake breakfast and all that is just like, if you are feeling that way to your kid, a don't feel guilty. It's natural.  We all have that at times. And be come before God and just say, these are the feelings I'm dealing with. Can you please help me here? And again, to quote myself, I've never prayed that prayer and it not been answered.  God has always shown up in some way. And so, often what it looks like I talk about in being liked is just like genuinely working on something that you have in common.   I think my parents did that so, well with us. And it wasn't the same thing because my siblings and I are all different. But they really worked to always find common ground and always have that relationship bucket full, right? My mom is like big on, you know, don't make too many withdrawals unless you have made a lot of deposits. And they lived that for years and years and years of pouring into us and genuinely connecting with us. So, way harder to do than to say, but that's our goal. And I do actually have a lot of specific ideas in the book of random ways you can love your kids, love languages and all of that. But yeah, asking God for help.   Laura Dugger: (27:55 - 28:09) And sometimes it's just helpful to hear what somebody else does, even if that's not exactly how it'll apply to our situation. But can you just give one example of a way that you use your child's love language, maybe both for one of your sons and your daughter?   Jessica Smartt: (28:11 - 29:33) Well, I've learned a lot about my middle child, and he loves the comfort things in life. So, if I see him struggling with school or something, I can bring him, you know, yogurt parfait or he likes coffee. So, we give our kids coffee.  Don't sue us anyway. But if I make him a cup of coffee, oh, you can just see it in his face. It's like, oh, mom loves me, you know?  He's one that even like if I go make his bed, he'll appreciate that. Not every kid is like that. But just kind of seeing and noticing the things that he likes.   That's been kind of something that we do. And then my daughter loves to tell stories, long, long stories. And I'm working so hard to not only like, I want to listen, but also, you know, teach her how to condense. Because Jordan Peterson says, don't let your kid become someone that is, you know, not pleasant to be around.  If you're struggling with something, someone else will, too. And she's an absolute delight.  I mean, truly. But so, just listening to her stories and kind of working on the art of conversation. My mom always said, play tennis, conversation tennis. So, you hit the ball, and then I hit the ball back to you. So, we're working on that, you know?   Laura Dugger: (29:35 - 30:05)  Absolutely. That reciprocity is huge. If you take turns asking questions, it reminds me, a previous guest, Jodi Berndt, had also said, in addition to that, let's also teach our children how to serve the ball. So, to initiate that, I just thought that that's so good. I'll work that in. Jessica, how can we purposefully make our home a place our family loves to be? And we do, too.   Jessica Smartt: (30:07 - 31:52) I have been learning so, much about this in this stage of life, you know, in my 40s.  And again, it's hard when you have little kids. So, I think you can probably say across the board, it's going to look different when you're raising little kids to have a warm and wonderful inviting home than it is in your later years when your kids are older, and you have more time.  But I would just challenge moms. Well, I look back and I think, if I hadn't been so, stretched thin and put unrealistic expectations on myself in other areas of life, I maybe could have invested in my home a little bit more. And the thing I have learned is that having a home that's peacefully run just reaps so, many benefits for a woman and her family.   And I am behind the curve, I feel like, on this. But as I have learned to organize my space and really pour myself into my home, not feeling like it's a waste of time to organize a pantry. It is amazing how it blesses my family.  People notice it. And it's hard to even articulate it because you wouldn't even think that if you clean out a closet, it's going to bless your family. But it really actually does.  And my husband benefits from it. He's not even like a strict, everything has to be clean. But when I've worked on something in the home, he sees it and notices it and appreciates it. So, God has just been teaching me so, much about what it looks like to really be like a homemaker, a godly homemaker and pour myself into my home. And I have reaped so much joy and peace from living out that role and calling in my life.   Laura Dugger: (31:53 - 32:23) That was one of the quotes I wrote down that observation that you made on page 142. And I'll just quote you, "when I do something to invest in our home, every single member of our family brightens." And I exactly great and you gave practical ways of how we can do that. And I also like it because it gives a little freedom because we're one of the family members too. And I think we brighten when we get that space in order.   Jessica Smartt: (32:24 - 33:06)  Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Again, back to our earlier like cultural, cultural narrative versus biblical. There's like a, there's a lot of messaging about that it doesn't matter to really invest in your home and your family. And that's just not how God made the world to operate. So, I would challenge moms that even if they are doing what the rest of everyone is doing, and it's like, ah, it looks like a bomb went off in here. Like, um, you know, that may not be how God is calling us to live with a giant disclaimer that there are seasons of life that it truly does look like a bomb went off.  And that is okay. We are doing good gospel work, raising children.   Laura Dugger: (33:07 - 33:46)  Absolutely. But then also I think Proverbs 31 sometimes gets a bad rap, but really there's a lot of freedom in it for women because it is how the Lord created us, but she does look well to the ways of her household. And I think that just summed up, she's one of the members of the household, but so is everybody else. And that's one thing that can bless everyone, but you are just full and abundant with ideas, and you have an appendix in the book full of resources to help us maintain and take care of all our responsibilities. So, will you share a few of those ideas with us?   Jessica Smartt: (33:47 - 34:46) Um, yes, I, and maybe this is my homeschool mom speaking, but I have just learned so, much from other good books. I have, it's truly changed my life just in whether it's talking about personal health or discipline or marriage or prayer or my home. So, the thing I'm really actually most proud about in the appendix is my list of recommended resources. And it's just all the books that have impacted me as a mom and also impacted my writing too.  Um, I'll, I'll mention one. I think, uh, I don't know if everyone has read A Praying Life, but that has completely transformed not only my walk with the Lord, but my prayer life.  And I've implemented, um, it's Paul Miller, I believe his idea for prayer cards. And I do that every morning. Um, it has been the sweetest thing, and I've really reaped a lot of blessing out of kind of modeling what he sets up in that book.  So, that's just one example. If you haven't read A Praying Life, you should definitely go read it.   Laura Dugger: (34:47 - 35:20)  That's awesome. And I don't know if this ties in, but I'm just remembering back one of the podcasts that I heard you speak on. You share your definition of godly self-care, and you say that it's whatever helps you do your job well and not at the sacrifice of others. So, can you elaborate with some encouragement for how we can make sure that we don't go to either side, that we don't neglect ourselves, but we also continue with this merrymaking for our family.   Jessica Smartt: (35:21 - 38:22)  Right. Yes. And, um, that definition, I always want to be like, you know, the end part about not to the sacrifice of someone else. When I had a young, I think I had two kids and my baby was six weeks old.  I had a very qualified, loving teenage girl. Watch my two kids while my husband and I left for literally an hour to go to five guys and get burgers.  And my youngest was not thrilled. He did not prefer the bottle. So, in some ways his life was unsettled for a brief moment, but that was okay. So, I think everyone knows when I say, um, you know, not to the sacrifice of everyone else.   What I'm saying is like looking at the family and certainly we shouldn't be like living this plush and well-watered life and someone else's withering away. So, it's a general statement of, you know, that it would be too far, as you said, on the extreme of, and I do think that happens honestly, because we're all self-centered.  It's not that we don't love our kids. We're just trained to care about ourselves. But many women struggle on the other side of, um, maybe neglecting some areas in their life that could truly help them to be better wives and better moms. And, um, it's a really fun activity to think like, what, how could I change my life a little bit in a way that I would be a better wife and mom.   And I'm not meaning that to justify any sort of behavior that, you know, you want to do, because you certainly could use that for almost anything. Um, but really to think like, how can I be the best mom and wife that I could possibly be? And it might mean making some, giving yourself some breathing room. And I would also encourage women to, um, one of the best uses for that time is to work on your marriage because there's direct overflow into the family. And so, best case, I gave some ideas of like family adventures that can kind of fill your cup along with everyone else. And I would say maybe next best or equal would-be husband, wife stuff where you can check out, connect, and you're overflowing and ready to enter back into family life.   And then finally things that it's certainly fine to just step out and find those things that are life giving to you, but just trying to keep an eye on, you know, how is everyone in the family doing? And there might be seasons.  I think of my mom caring for her mom who had dementia. She wasn't really well watered in that season. She was, she was quite depleted, but that's what the Lord had been calling her to do at that period of time. Um, and we often were like, mom, you've got to like, we thought she did too much, you know?  Um, but looking back, I think she really is so grateful that she laid down her life. There's not regret.  And so, I'm like, well, maybe she was right all along. I don't know.   Laura Dugger: (38:23 - 38:58)  Good though. The both and to have seasons of that, where we can refresh so, that when we go into a season where it's a little bit prior, we can be serving hopefully still from the overflow. But you also just blew me away in the book with your knowledge on roots. And the subtitle of that chapter is "recipes, relics, relatives, and other things that keep kids grounded." So, will you just teach us a little bit more about roots and share how it applies to building a strong family?   Jessica Smartt: (39:00 - 40:51)  Yes, I would like to shout out to my husband who is in the landscaping business. So, he helped me. I was like, hey, can you please give me some fun facts about roots?  And he was thrilled. But um, one thing I mentioned is that most plant problems are caused by root issues. And gosh, have I seen that in real life, like even as an adult, you notice somebody that is carrying still issues that they're working through from their childhood. And so, what a gift we're giving our kids by giving them those strong, good roots and a healthy, you know, childhood to enter into adulthood, not crippled by things, but that they can give out of strength.   And my husband and I feel like, you know, although our families of origin were not perfect, we lived that story, we were able to go out in strength, and not, you know, carrying all this emotional baggage. That's what I would like to give my kids. So, um, but then yeah, at the end, I share that the most integral roots to the plant's wellbeing are the ones right near the surface. And I thought, what a kind of cool parallel that even if we, you know, I've shared about my experience, but someone listening may not have good roots, and they really might struggle with having support and partnership. But they can give a new story to their kids. They can give them the roots that they did not have through the Lord's strength.  And I have found friends that I'm literally seeing them do it. But they are they are crippled. And you know, in therapy and dealing with all this trauma, but they're passing a different story on to their kids.  And how cool is that? I have so much admiration for that. It seems like it's something that really only can be done through the Lord's strength, but he does it. He writes those stories.   Laura Dugger: (40:51 - 41:11)  And he seems to delight in redemption stories. So, I appreciate you sharing that. And I'd love to continue kind of this idea time. Will you just share another handful of your favorite practical tips for building a strong family that are topics we haven't covered yet?   Jessica Smartt: (41:13 - 43:16) Well, I would start with one thing I have seen huge rewards is if we do sort of like a secret Santa idea, and we actually do it also before Valentine's Day and do you know, your cupids arrow, whatever, because it just changes your whole mindset when you're suddenly thinking, how can I, you know, love this person in my family, you're in a better mood.  And so, we divide up names. And then we also do like acts of service. And that is just such a fun, like low keyway to kind of get your kids to think about loving their siblings instead of being annoyed by them. We have loved doing game nights, and we're not like big game people. But finding ones that I think my encouragement would be that it doesn't have to be like this long three-hour thing.   If your family's not into that, we've done like minute to win at games that I just pulled up online.  We have a lot of games that are like, no mental stress. They're very easy, like Slopsy. If anybody has not played Slopsy, they need to pick it up. It's you could play it if you were extremely tired, which I often am at the end of the day. So, to find some like quip, there's also what do you mean family edition.  And that is a fun one. And I have some other games listed in the book too, for readers who are interested. So, those would be two. We also do like one-on-one activities with the kids. And I always thought you had to do it like really, really regularly. But I would just give the encouragement that some is better than none. And so, even if it's only a couple times a year, kids just soak that up. And it doesn't need to be, you know, this whole long thing, it could be like, hey, you need some new winter pants. Let's get a Chick-fil-A milkshake beforehand. You know, just to kind of keep your eyes open for those activities and opportunities.   Laura Dugger: (43:17 - 43:47)  Guess what? We are no longer an audio only podcast. We now have video included as well. If you want to view the conversation each week, make sure you watch our videos. We're on YouTube and you can access videos or find answers to any of your other questions about the podcast when you visit thesavvysauce.com. Can you also share this genius idea about something that you put on the notes app of your phone?   Jessica Smartt: (43:48 - 44:50)  Yeah, so, I talked about the power of stories. Kids love hearing stories from our, you know, youth or young adulthood or even, you know, married years, whatever. So, I got in the habit of sharing a story with my daughter before bed. And of course, at night, you aren't always on your A game. So, I just have a note app on my phone to track different things that I might want to tell her. And my encouragement was that it doesn't need to be, we think it needs to be like this long, significant story, but even just little tidbits of things she has been delighted to hear over and over. You know, just like a passing, you know, anecdote that didn't seem to me to be too pregnant with meaning, but she just ate it up and loved hearing about all of the different things. So, yeah, that was just again, it didn't cost a lot. It's not hard, but just a little thing that kind of connected us and also connected her to a deeper sense of like, here's your roots of the people that raised you.   Laura Dugger: (44:53 - 45:36) I loved that idea because my daughters or our daughters will just catch us off guard and say, hey, share a story about us share a story about when you were little or when I was little. And so, I love your system that you have in place that when that idea comes to me, I can jot it down. And then when they ask unexpectedly, I'm prepared.  So, thought that was wonderful. And you've written an entire book on memories. So, I'll link to our previous episode where we talk about that.  And we dove into that topic. But you've updated your ideas in this book and come up with the most epic list of memory making ideas ever. So, could you just share a couple of those to give us a taste of what you include?   Jessica Smartt: (45:37 - 46:43) Yes, so, I think my favorite was at the end the chapter talking about surprises because I love the idea of surprising your kid. And when I talked about when I was little, my grandparents showed up at our school in their RV to take us camping. So, just thinking through like just different, a lot of those are like the big, you know, birthday or vacation or Christmas gifts. But even if you did it just one time, that's like a that can be like a core memory in you know, your kid's life.   When I was researching this, for the appendix, I reached out to a lot of my readers, and they had the most fun ideas of just creative family memory making things. And one that I remembered that I thought, I don't know if I have the guts to do this, but I think that this family came up with it during COVID. So, they were a little bit bored, and they packed a picnic and went to a stop sign. And when they got to one, they would roll a dice to see which direction they would turn until they ended up at a good picnic spot. She said it was harder than you would think.   Laura Dugger: (46:45 - 47:02)  That's hilarious. I love the creativity and that element of surprise. That is so, good. Well, I hope that everybody goes out to get a copy of your amazing book. But where else would you want to direct us to connect online after this chat?   Jessica Smartt: (47:03 - 47:15)  Yeah, definitely come say hi on Instagram. I'm Jessica Smartt with two Ts. And you can tell me what you enjoyed about our conversation. And I'm usually every so, often we'll check the messages, but I do get back to you.   Laura Dugger: (47:16 - 47:34)  Love it. We'll add links to that in the show notes for today's episode. And Jessica, you're already familiar that we're called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical. And so, my final question for you today, what is your savvy sauce?   Jessica Smartt: (47:36 - 48:09)So, what has changed my life, I really think is, and this isn't like the most exciting thing, but walking every single day, and I walk with my weighted vest. So, I look like every other 40-year-old woman that is out there. We have a little trail around our farm. So, I, it's, I honestly have like seen so, much change in my mental health and physical health. And I know they say that on all of these, you know, resources and stuff. And I never thought it was true. But it really has changed my life just to walk every day.   Laura Dugger: (48:11 - 52:21)  Amen, sister, I totally agree with that. That is so, well said. You are just a brilliant and faithful and godly and humble woman. You're gifted with your communication with your words in this conversation and in the books that you've shared with the world.  And I am just so grateful for you, Jessica. Thank you so much for being my guest today.  Well, thank you for those kind words.   One more thing before you go, have you heard the term gospel before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you, but it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior, but God loved us so much. He made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life. We could never live and died in our place for our sin.   This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished. If we choose to receive what he has done for us, Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   So, you pray with me now. Heavenly father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you.   Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life? We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus name we pray.   Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me. So, me for him, you get the opportunity to live your life for him.   And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you're ready to get started.   First, tell someone, say it out loud, get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible and I love it.   You can start by reading the book of John. Also get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.   We want to celebrate with you too. So, feel free to leave a comment for us here. If you did make a decision to follow Christ, we also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

upgrade life The Upgrade Trap | Episode 600 It's incredibly easy to fall into what I call the upgrade trap. Phones, laptops, TVs, cars — companies are constantly pushing the newest version of everything. The marketing tells you your current gear is outdated, slow, or missing the latest features. So people upgrade every year or two without really thinking about the long-term cost. Today we're talking about how this trap works, why it's so effective, and how you can break free from it. The Phone Upgrade Cycle Smartphones are probably the most obvious example of the upgrade trap. Every year there's a new iPhone. Every year there's a new Android flagship. Folding phones, bigger cameras, faster processors — and most of the time people are paying more for features they barely use. For years I fell into this trap myself. Back when the first Android phone came out — the T-Mobile G1 with the flip-out keyboard — I jumped on it immediately. After that I kept upgrading every couple of years. And phone companies make it easy to do. They'll happily “upgrade” your phone while quietly adding another $20–$30 per month to your bill for the next couple years. If you're doing that for every device in your family, you might be adding $100 or more every month just to keep chasing the newest gadgets. That's money that never stops leaving your pocket. A Smarter Way to Handle Phones These days I take a completely different approach. First, I stopped paying for phone insurance. That alone saves around $18 or more every month. If you take that same money and just set it aside, you'll have enough to buy a replacement phone every year if something goes wrong. When my phone breaks, I simply go to eBay and buy a model that's a couple years old. Usually I can get one for around $100–$200. Then I sell my old phone — even if it's damaged — and recover some of the cost. People buy broken phones all the time to repair and flip them. So instead of paying monthly fees forever, I just replace devices when I actually need to. It's simple and it saves a ton of money. Planned Obsolescence Everywhere Phones aren't the only place this happens. Software companies do it too. Microsoft recently caused a lot of backlash by ending support for a bunch of devices that aren't even that old. Suddenly perfectly functional computers are considered “obsolete.” Laptop manufacturers have also leaned heavily into planned obsolescence. Cheap laptops in the $300 range often seem designed to last only a couple years before something fails. Hard drives die. Performance slows down. Parts wear out. For years I would just buy a new laptop every few years because it seemed easier than fixing the problem. Eventually I stopped doing that. Now I'm still using a desktop that isn't perfect, but it works. Sometimes a simple upgrade — like adding RAM or doing a fresh operating system install — can breathe new life into a machine. Companies want you replacing devices constantly. But most of the time you don't actually need to. The Worst Upgrade Trap: Cars Phones and laptops are expensive enough, but the worst upgrade trap is cars. The average car payment today is around $400 per month — and many people are paying far more than that. I've seen car payments pushing $900 a month. That's basically a second mortgage. And people get stuck in this cycle where they trade in a car every few years and start the payment clock all over again. Personally, I've almost always bought used cars. It's not glamorous, but it works. The better approach would be saving money in a high-yield savings account and paying cash when you need a replacement. Even if you don't do that perfectly, buying used vehicles can save you an enormous amount of money compared to constantly financing new ones. Yes, the used car market has been weird lately. But if you're patient and willing to look around, you can still find good deals. Don't Keep Up With the Joneses At the end of the day, the upgrade trap is really about keeping up with the Joneses. People want the newest phone. The newest car. The newest everything. But every upgrade comes with hidden costs: higher bills, more debt, and less financial freedom. Breaking the cycle means asking a simple question before upgrading anything: Do I actually need this? Most of the time the answer is no. Keep your gear longer. Buy used when possible. Repair things instead of replacing them. Your wallet — and your long-term resilience — will thank you. Final Thoughts The upgrade trap is everywhere in modern life, and companies are counting on you falling into it. But once you see it, you can start making smarter choices. Delay upgrades. Buy used. Fix things when you can. That mindset doesn't just save money — it builds the kind of independence that survival is really about. Amazon Item of the Day A great tool to help avoid the upgrade trap is being able to repair things yourself instead of replacing them. iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit – Electronics, Smartphone, Computer & Tablet Repair Kit This toolkit has everything you need to repair electronics like phones, laptops, game consoles, and small gadgets. Instead of tossing something and buying the newest version, you can often replace a battery, screen, or small component and keep the device running for years longer. Learning basic repair skills is one of those quiet survival skills that saves money and reduces your dependence on constant upgrades. Think this post was worth 20 cents? Consider joining The Survivalpunk Army and get access to exclusive content and discounts! Don't forget to join in on the road to 1k! Help James Survivalpunk Beat Couch Potato Mike to 1k subscribers on Youtube Want To help make sure there is a podcast Each and every week? Join us on Patreon Subscribe to the Survival Punk Survival Podcast. The most electrifying podcast on survival entertainment. Itunes Pandora RSS Spotify Like this post? Consider signing up for my email list here > Subscribe Join Our Exciting Facebook Group and get involved Survival Punk Punk's The post The Upgrade Trap | Episode 600 appeared first on Survivalpunk.

A new MP3 sermon from Founders Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Truth Applied Personally Subtitle: Galatians (2026) Speaker: Richard Caldwell Jr. Broadcaster: Founders Baptist Church Event: Sunday - AM Date: 3/8/2026 Bible: Galatians 3:1-5 Length: 51 min.

We've all read the book where the world is ending, but the last-second actions of our hero save the day. But…what happens next? “Almost the End of the World” attempts to answer that question. Personally, I think that the real apocalypse would be after the asteroid missed. The book follows Corey Walker, an 18-year-old who is ready to die. When last-second heroics save the world, Corey tries to return to his real life. However, the world is a wreck – economies are broken, millions are dead, and people aren't ready to live again. Meanwhile, Corey's school has been invaded by a strange cult, The Refuge, which targets the most vulnerable students on campus. Corey and his friends push back against the cult – making themselves a target in the process. The book tries to answer key questions that I think are deeply relevant to teenagers and young adults today. Chief among them is this: What are you willing to fight for? How far will you go to protect people you love? This book will be available for pre-sale shortly and will be released on June 9. It's my third book and second YA novel. You can find more info on me at my website: http://www.mikeschlossbergauthor.com.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

What if the most powerful thing you could do for your life takes less than 30 minutes and costs nothing? Morgan brings on Walter Green, founder of the global Say It Now movement, former CEO turned purpose-driven changemaker, and author of This Is the Moment. After losing his father at a young age and later witnessing the powerful tributes spoken at funerals, words the person would never hear, Walter made a life-altering decision: stop waiting. They talk about why we save our deepest gratitude for eulogies, why the loneliness epidemic exists, the one specific question that can transform relationships, and why "I love you" matters, but isn't enough.

Mar. 07 & 08, 2026 - You Need To Know Him PersonallyPastor Ed TaylorEphesians 1:15-18 | Study #14906EPHESIANS

Welcome to the Art, Life, Faith Podcast, and I’m your host, Roger Lowther. This week on March 11, 2026, we remember the 15th anniversary of that terrible earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that struck the northeast coast of Japan. In memory of that event, last month, we had a big gathering within JEMA, which is the Japan Evangelical Missionary Alliance, the organization that represents every missionary and every mission organization in Japan. We all met in our new church space, Grace City Church Tokyo’s space and spent three days looking at the earthquakes and floods since 2011 and trying to see what we could learn from them and prepare for the next one. Some of the stories that they told were actually quite funny. There was a group that came to mud-out a house. The seawater had gone clear up to the ceiling, and so the walls and the insulation were all soaked and full of mildew. But this group, instead of starting with the ceiling and then the walls, and then the floor, started with the floor. They not only removed the floors but cut through the beams and very foundations of the house. Well, that next team that came in to take out the walls, first had to fix the foundations and then put the floors back before they could work on the rest of the house. And so, at the gathering, they were talking about the need for someone who can lead groups who actually knows what they’re doing. And hopefully, knows a little something about how a house is built. Basically, the problem that kept coming up over and over again during the course of the gathering was that the Church of Japan felt like they had to start from scratch every single time a disaster happened. They needed to try to find new resources: new people, new networks, new money. And so to that end, recently, a new network was formed called Zenkisai, which is the Christian National Disaster Network. And little by little, it’s growing. And also, after this past earthquake, the Noto Earthquake, within Mission to the World, I led a committee to form a disaster relief project account that is for every disaster in Japan, not just for one. When that next disaster comes, we will be ready to receive your help. I’ve put the details for that in the show notes for this episode. So now, through this project account, we can receive funds that will be used to buy food, water, supplies, and also cover costs of sending groups of Japanese people to the disaster area from our churches in Japan. And also very important, we will be able to pay Japanese workers to aid in the relief effort. That next disaster is coming. We know it is, but we’re doing what we can to plan for it. Anyway, before we move on to two conversations I had with people at the gathering, I want to let you all know about a sale coming up. On March 11, on the 15th anniversary of the earthquake, for one day only, all of the ebooks I’ve written about the earthquake will be available for $0.99 on Amazon in the US, and just 100 yen on Amazon in Japan. This includes both children’s books, “The Tsunami Violin” and “Pippy the Piano and the Very Big Wave”, in English and in Japanese. The sale also includes another book I wrote called “Aroma of Beauty”, with a beautiful foreword by Makoto Fujimura. Personally, I think you should get the book just to read what he wrote, his experiences after 9/11. And by the way, we also have an exhibit going on in our church space with “The Tsunami Violin”, showcasing the beautiful artwork by the very talented Holly Rose Wallace, as another way that our church community is remembering the people and towns affected by the disaster. A big thank you to all of you who’ve already bought all three of these books and left reviews. Thank you so much. Okay, now let’s turn to my conversation with Dean Bengston. Roger We are here at the JEMA Gathering (Japan Evangelical Missionary Alliance), spending three days talking about disaster relief and trying to prepare for the next disaster. There’s been quite a few ways that many of us here in this room have been involved over the past. But, Dean, I really wanted to talk with you. You moved into a disaster area soon after the 2011 earthquake. Can you tell us a little bit about who you are? Dean I am with the Lutheran Brotherhood Mission in Japan. We were living in Sendai at the time, and through a number of circumstances, we ended up connecting with Abe-san in Ishinomaki and delivering necessary goods. We soon realized there were a lot more needs and started mudding-out houses. I commuted from Sendai for a year and 10 months before we moved. Roger I have very fond memories of a concert that we gave in that home you started up there. Can you tell us a little bit about how arts played a role in your ministry there? Dean I think early on, we realized that people needed healing in many ways. And we had a friend, Shizu-san, who’s a singer-songwriter, and we invited her to come. She wanted to come to mud-out houses, but we said, Shizu-san, you have to come and sing and minister to people through song, that people need healing, and music brings healing. And so she reluctantly agreed to do a concert in an open space, a lot that we were using for gatherings for takedashi cookouts. Shizu had lived in Ishinomaki in her junior high years, but she explained to people, I don’t know how to really sympathize with you. So she started by singing songs that everybody knew, old Japanese songs. And after several songs and people singing along, she said, Well, I just like to sing a song that I wrote. Singing old Japanese songs or popular songs that people knew drew people in. And then they opened the door for her to sing songs that she’s written and to share a part of her life and her faith in a very natural way. Roger Do you feel like that was surprising to her or to the people in the room that it had the impact that it did? Dean I don’t really know, but all I know is I think for several musicians, it changed their ministry so that even when they were doing concerts in churches, they moved from doing all “Christian” music to actually starting out their concerts with songs that people maybe knew. And Kosaka Chu is really good at this. He could share a testimony and weave it in with that there’s somebody loves you, and he would just sing a song about love, and then he’d share about God and how he loves you. I don't know, I think it changed people’s lives. An awful lot of musicians volunteered, and they were well received. So we really appreciated it. We’ve had a lot of concerts. Roger Yes, you sure have. What was the name of the house that you were… Dean House of Hope or Kibou no Ie. Roger And how often were you having concerts there? Dean At least once a month. But before House of Hope, we were having them outside in empty lots, empty parking lots that we were using or empty house lots that we were using. Then we moved into the community center and had several concerts in the community center and very varying concerts. Everything from a Hawaiian Luau to gospel choirs to vcontemporary singers, and Roger, you on organ, and also the koto. Roger Right, the koto player, Chieko. Dean Yeah, that was beautiful. And we have a small place, so people were just enamored with being able to be so close to the koto and watch the keys on the organ. And also, wasn’t there a flute? Roger I was trying to remember if it was flute or violin or something. Dean Flute, I think. Roger It was so moving for me to be there and see the people… I mean, it wasn’t like background music. Everybody was so focused on what we were doing and interacting with us. It really was a moving time. Dean I think music has played a big part in bringing healing to people. Roger Tell us a little bit about your son. He’s a visual artist. Dean Yeah, he was actually starting art school, but it got delayed because of the earthquake. And so he volunteered with us at the beginning. And then he was able to, because he speaks English fluently, he was able to not take English and got Fridays off. So he volunteered for the first semester every day, every week on Fridays with us. And through that, he did one project, a byobu folding screen made out of cell phone parts. Roger Cell phone parts? Dean Yeah, the old flip phones. And there was a farmer who’s a small farmer in our neighborhood with a cell phone factory next to it. Now, as the waters came in, it drove all the parts of the cell phones into his ground, and we cleaned out his field. Joshua also did a number of things. He made paint from the muck and did some paintings with that. Roger Wait, I don’t understand. It was out of mud? Dean Yeah, out of the muck, he created paint. Roger No, I didn’t see that work. Dean Yeah. Actually, most of his art shows are interactive. He’s an interesting character because he always wished that he could touch paintings when he was a kid. So he did one show where he had all the paintings hanging at different levels, and you could walk around and touch them because they were all at touching level. So usually, his art shows are interactive. Roger Well, the cell phone project, that wasn’t just him looking for pieces. Wasn’t it collaborative in some way? Asking for people to bring in things? Dean Oh, that was a different project. He’s had a lot of different shows. Roger But just that way, too, of inviting people in, whether it’s volunteers who are there or people in neighborhood, too, is another connection point through the arts. I thought that was such an important message. Thank you so much for sharing. So Dean and his family were one of the many who moved into the disaster area after the earthquake. And every time I visited up there, I loved seeing the trust built with the community and the ways they were accepted. They were not seen as outsiders. And they're still there now, 15 years later. Okay, so I also want to introduce you to Stephen Nakahashi. He was one of the young men who answered the call to help in the disaster area shortly after the earthquake. So this big organization, Samaritan’s Purse, came in not only with a lot of supplies, but with money to hire workers. And a call went out across the nation of Japan to send them people who could work full-time. Steven was one who answered that call, along with a lot of other young people. My wife’s sister, Virginia, also moved up there as a missionary through Mission to the World as she had just graduated from college. And there was Ryo and Mami Amano, Jordan Foxwell, and so many others that went up there as well. And eventually, through their work, Ishinomaki Christian Center was started. Also, in a past episode, Episode #43, we talked with Rachel Reese Kollmeyer who also came as a missionary through Mission to the World. She is a very gifted violinist and worked with the others to teach and perform and help with the children’s music clubs and a gospel choir for kids and the annual arts festival and so much else. They also had craft-making with the kids. I was particularly moved by a musical that one of the students wrote inspired by all this, and then worked with us for the production of their musical. After the earthquake, it was especially hard for the children. The men, whose livelihood had been the coast, now had long commutes to work in other places, and the women had to go to work as well. Not only did the kids not have their parents around as much, but they also didn’t have as many resources available to them as before. The parks were gone. Many school programs had shut down. And so they did what they could to help the children dream again. And so many relationships came out of that time. Now let’s hear from Stephen. Roger So, Stephen, thank you so much for taking this time to talk with me. This is the Art, Life, Faith Podcast, and with the 15th anniversary of the 2011 earthquake, I wanted to talk a little bit about the role that the arts played in the relief effort. But before we do that, please introduce yourself. Stephen Thank you for having me. My name is Stephen Nakahashi, a pastor’s kid. I grew up in Japan from the age of 11. Prior to that, I lived in Scotland with my family. So I’ve been in Japan for 33 years and counting. I became involved in disaster relief from 2011 with Samaritan’s Purse and then I subsequently started working with Ishinomaki Christian Center and lived in Tohoku for 14 years. And currently, I am serving with Noto Help in the Hokuriku region since 2024. Roger So, you were just in a panel discussion here. You’ve had quite a few experiences with disasters. Can you list them in order with earthquake and floods by year? Stephen Okay, 2011 was the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku. Then the 2016 earthquake in Kumamoto. Then heavy rain and flooding in Kumamoto in 2020, just south in Hitoyoshi. And then in 2021, there was again heavy rain and flooding in Saga Prefecture, north of Nagasaki. And then in 2022, there was flooding again in Aomori, in the northern part of Japan, which was a bit of a surprise as that has not happened before. And then in 2023, there was again heavy rain and flooding in Akita, again in the north. All of those happened in the summer of those years. And then in 2024, on the first of January, was the earthquake on the Noto Peninsula. Roger And then after you were brought in, I know you went in giving advice, helping in any way you could, but then you moved there. Stephen I did, yeah. Roger And you’ve been there for a year and three months. Stephen Yeah, that was a big decision for us. It was mainly driven by the importance of my family to be together. For 10 months, I had commuted from Miyagi to Noto. I would be down there for two or three weeks before going back home for a week or so and then repeat. So that became quite difficult, and we thought it’d be important for our family to be together. Roger Yeah, I was able to go twice to Noto Help while you were working there. We were in this big room with, I don’t know, maybe there were 60 volunteers or so broken up into four or five groups. You’re introducing, “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do today. This group is going to do that. This group is going to do that.” You were the man in charge, telling everyone what was going to happen. For some, maybe it was their first disaster, and they don’t know what’s going on, but you gave them this assurance, “It’s going to be okay. Your driver is going to get you there safely. They’re going to bring you back. We’re going to serve the Lord in this way.” Really was a powerful experience. Stephen Really? I’m glad you thought so. Roger I think one of the interesting things about the Noto Help situation was how, those who are listening probably don’t even know this, the roads were really hurt by the earthquake. Basically, transportation was almost shut down. Finally, when they were able to open up the roads, they made one road to go up north, one road to come back. It used to be a two-way road, and they made it a one-way road. A police blockade stopped anyone from going because it was bottlenecking the whole peninsula, so y'all became the entrance point for working throughout the whole region. Was that a big responsibility? People contacting from all over the country and all over the world to wanting to help? Stephen Yeah, I think it was really a tricky balance to maintain. We really understood how much people wanted to help, and we knew how important that was for the recovery as well. So we wanted to make sure that we were not getting in the way of first responders, like ambulances or any vehicles like that. It did seem like it would be wise to try to, as a Christian community, to be responsible for that. So we were glad we could help in that way. Roger Let’s back up to 2011. The 15th anniversary is coming up, and so many memories. I mean, Community Arts Tokyo, this organization, was started through the experiences of that. When I was in the shelters in that disaster, in the chaos, and in the anguish, the anxiety people are feeling, and saw how the arts brought healing, to see how they brought comfort, how they helped us build relationships. During a time when people are saying, “We don’t need goods. We don’t need the food and water. We’re good.” And yet there was still an entry point, a way to connect through the arts. And I, experiencing the power of that, I wanted to bring that back to Tokyo. So we started Community Arts Tokyo, building community through the arts in Tokyo. But it was experiencing that with you up in Ishinomaki, in the Tohoku area, that was my first connection to it. I was just wondering, I’d love to hear your memories of that. As you look back and think about those times, what could you do to help me process that and those who are listening to try to understand, especially as artists, what role they can play in a disaster relief situation? Stephen I remember fondly the time that we ran the Junior High School Kids program in Ishinomaki, and I really could connect with those kids over a longer period of time. Where we taught the kids at the local junior high schools for three months from April through July. And then we had the Ishinomaki Gospel Festival. So there was a goal of something beyond just practicing, but to actually have a stage at the end of it for the kids to perform and experience something different. And the catch copy, so to speak, was for the kids to be able “to dream again.” And yeah, in the midst of the devastation at the time, there were lots of kids whose parents were really struggling with the aftermath of the earthquake. In Ishinomaki, especially, there was a lot of parents, the dads of the family who are fishermen, often were gone for a long time. But then post-disaster, the mothers also started working, and the kids didn’t really have anywhere to be or to go. And they didn’t really have that sense of looking forward to something. I think that played a really important role in helping some of those kids at the time to experience something new. Roger I loved those gospel festivals because it was like the whole town was coming together for all the businesses. There were stalls so they could offer food or whatever they made. On a personal note, I also loved giving organ concerts outside. I brought my portable organ up there and I’m playing, and I don’t get to play outside very much as an organist, so that was really fun. Stephen Yeah, that was really an amazing combination of the local people coming with their stalls and then so many different artists coming to serve and to play. We also had a play area for kids, because a lot of the parks had been damaged, there was really not many safe places for kids to play. So that was another aspect that we added to it. So the kids could enjoy something different. It was an amazing coming together of communities through music and through the arts. Roger It definitely was. Thank you so much for all the work you put into those. You were in Ishinomaki right after the disaster and for a long time afterward. And then Ishinomaki Christian Center started. And as I understand it, part of the vision for that was to be a meeting place for creating community. People had their own homes. They had their food and water. But still, that community building aspect was an important part of what was needed to help people recover. Now you had a spot to do it. You had the land. You had the building. I really enjoyed being able to come up, not as often as I wanted to, but when I did, to hear, what the situation was then and how people were doing. And to see you building that community, especially right where that building was. It almost felt like a wasteland from the first couple of years of my memory of that spot. Now it’s a thriving place. It was right next to the train station. When you look back, how would you put it in your own words? Stephen As we were just talking about today, if you approach the situation with the mentality of being the caregiver and then people receiving care, and especially in a physical way, once that need is no longer there, then the relationship also ends there. Music and the arts in many ways is something that we don’t always realize that we need. And it’s a really good way to bring the community together, even after the physical needs are met and people don’t really need those types of support. But whether it be a disaster or not, and all the more so after a disaster, the people in the community were going through a lot of uncertainty. Opportunities often provided by music and different means of the arts has provided the opportunity to continue to build relationships with people. That was really important to continue the relationships with the people that we had come to know. Roger Are you seeing that now in Ichikawa, on the Noto Peninsula, where you’re living now? Is that part of the vision? I know a lot of people ended up moving away. And you were sharing in the panel how a lot of the older people living there are being encouraged by their children to leave and move in with them. They’re answering, “No, this is our home.” But there’s a lot of resistance against rebuilding their homes, rebuilding their towns. What is your vision for that and how do you see the arts playing a role? Stephen I think so. I think as we move into the phase of that physical need not being so much of a need. And we are now reaching out into the temporary housing unit communities, and we are trying to build those relationships with the people. And so definitely, I think from this year onward, and even to this point, there’s a role for the arts to play in this phase. One of the challenges in Noto is that unlike maybe in Tohoku, a lot of the temporary housing unit communities are quite small, and sometimes they don’t really even have a gathering place. If they do, it can only house maybe 10 to 15 people. So it’s hard to reach people in that way. But yeah, I think now that we do have a center in Anamizu that hopefully we can start to connect to people more there. And we look forward to being able to coordinate people coming along. Roger Thank you. Well, I look forward to our next trip. Maybe we’ll bring some artists this summer. Stephen Yes, definitely. I look forward to it. Roger Thank you. Thank you so much. Stephen You’re welcome. Thank you. You’ve been listening to the Art, Life, Faith Podcast. And don't forget to pick up your own copy of “The Tsunami Violin”, “Pippy the Piano”, and “Aroma of Beauty”. As we say in Japan, “Ja, mata ne!” We’ll see you next time.

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All speakers are announced at AIE EU, schedule coming soon. Join us there or in Miami with the renowned organizers of React Miami! Singapore CFP also open!We've called this out a few times over in AINews, but the overwhelming consensus in the Valley is that “the IDE is Dead”. In November it was just a gut feeling, but now we actually have data: even at the canonical “VSCode Fork” company, people are officially using more agents than tab autocomplete (the first wave of AI coding):Cursor has launched cloud agents for a few months now, and this specific launch is around Computer Use, which has come a long way since we first talked with Anthropic about it in 2024, and which Jonas productized as Autotab:We also take the opportunity to do a live demo, talk about slash commands and subagents, and the future of continual learning and personalized coding models, something that Sam previously worked on at New Computer. (The fact that both of these folks are top tier CEOs of their own startups that have now joined the insane talent density gathering at Cursor should also not be overlooked).Full Episode on YouTube!please like and subscribe!Timestamps00:00 Agentic Code Experiments00:53 Why Cloud Agents Matter02:08 Testing First Pillar03:36 Video Reviews Second Pillar04:29 Remote Control Third Pillar06:17 Meta Demos and Bug Repro13:36 Slash Commands and MCPs18:19 From Tab to Team Workflow31:41 Minimal Web UI Philosophy32:40 Why No File Editor34:38 Full Stack Cursor Debate36:34 Model Choice and Auto Routing38:34 Parallel Agents and Best Of N41:41 Subagents and Context Management44:48 Grind Mode and Throughput Future01:00:24 Cloud Agent Onboarding and MemoryTranscriptEP 77 - CURSOR - Audio version[00:00:00]Agentic Code ExperimentsSamantha: This is another experiment that we ran last year and didn't decide to ship at that time, but may come back to LM Judge, but one that was also agentic and could write code. So it wasn't just picking but also taking the learnings from two models or and models that it was looking at and writing a new diff.And what we found was that there were strengths to using models from different model providers as the base level of this process. Basically you could get almost like a synergistic output that was better than having a very unified like bottom model tier.Jonas: We think that over the coming months, the big unlock is not going to be one person with a model getting more done, like the water flowing faster and we'll be making the pipe much wider and so paralyzing more, whether that's swarms of agents or parallel agents, both of those are things that contribute to getting much more done in the same amount of time.Why Cloud Agents Matterswyx: This week, one of the biggest launches that Cursor's ever done is cloud agents. I think you, you had [00:01:00] cloud agents before, but this was like, you give cursor a computer, right? Yeah. So it's just basically they bought auto tab and then they repackaged it. Is that what's going on, or,Jonas: that's a big part of it.Yeah. Cloud agents already ran in their own computers, but they were sort of site reading code. Yeah. And those computers were not, they were like blank VMs typically that were not set up for the Devrel X for whatever repo the agents working on. One of the things that we talk about is if you put yourself in the model shoes and you were seeing tokens stream by and all you could do was cite read code and spit out tokens and hope that you had done the right thing,swyx: no chanceJonas: I'd be so bad.Like you obviously you need to run the code. And so that I think also is probably not that contrarian of a take, but no one has done that yet. And so giving the model the tools to onboard itself and then use full computer use end-to-end pixels in coordinates out and have the cloud computer with different apps in it is the big unlock that we've seen internally in terms of use usage of this going from, oh, we use it for little copy changes [00:02:00] to no.We're really like driving new features with this kind of new type of entech workflow. Alright, let's see it. Cool.Live Demo TourJonas: So this is what it looks like in cursor.com/agents. So this is one I kicked off a while ago. So on the left hand side is the chat. Very classic sort of agentic thing. The big new thing here is that the agent will test its changes.So you can see here it worked for half an hour. That is because it not only took time to write the tokens of code, it also took time to test them end to end. So it started Devrel servers iterate when needed. And so that's one part of it is like model works for longer and doesn't come back with a, I tried some things pr, but a I tested at pr that's ready for your review.One of the other intuition pumps we use there is if a human gave you a PR asked you to review it and you hadn't, they hadn't tested it, you'd also be annoyed because you'd be like, only ask me for a review once it's actually ready. So that's what we've done withTesting Defaults and Controlsswyx: simple question I wanted to gather out front.Some prs are way smaller, [00:03:00] like just copy change. Does it always do the video or is it sometimes,Jonas: Sometimes.swyx: Okay. So what's the judgment?Jonas: The model does it? So we we do some default prompting with sort. What types of changes to test? There's a slash command that people can do called slash no test, where if you do that, the model will not test,swyx: but the default is test.Jonas: The default is to be calibrated. So we tell it don't test, very simple copy changes, but test like more complex things. And then users can also write their agents.md and specify like this type of, if you're editing this subpart of my mono repo, never tested ‘cause that won't work or whatever.Videos and Remote ControlJonas: So pillar one is the model actually testing Pillar two is the model coming back with a video of what it did.We have found that in this new world where agents can end-to-end, write much more code, reviewing the code is one of these new bottlenecks that crop up. And so reviewing a video is not a substitute for reviewing code, but it is an entry point that is much, much easier to start with than glancing at [00:04:00] some giant diff.And so typically you kick one off you, it's done you come back and the first thing that you would do is watch this video. So this is a, video of it. In this case I wanted a tool tip over this button. And so it went and showed me what that looks like in, in this video that I think here, it actually used a gallery.So sometimes it will build storybook type galleries where you can see like that component in action. And so that's pillar two is like these demo videos of what it built. And then pillar number three is I have full remote control access to this vm. So I can go heat in here. I can hover things, I can type, I have full control.And same thing for the terminal. I have full access. And so that is also really useful because sometimes the video is like all you need to see. And oftentimes by the way, the video's not perfect, the video will show you, is this worth either merging immediately or oftentimes is this worth iterating with to get it to that final stage where I am ready to merge in.So I can go through some other examples where the first video [00:05:00] wasn't perfect, but it gave me confidence that we were on the right track and two or three follow-ups later, it was good to go. And then I also have full access here where some things you just wanna play around with. You wanna get a feel for what is this and there's no substitute to a live preview.And the VNC kind of VM remote access gives you that.swyx: Amazing What, sorry? What is VN. AndJonas: just the remote desktop. Remote desktop. Yeah.swyx: Sam, any other details that you always wanna call out?Samantha: Yeah, for me the videos have been super helpful. I would say, especially in cases where a common problem for me with agents and cloud agents beforehand was almost like under specification in my requests where our plan mode and going really back and forth and getting detailed implementation spec is a way to reduce the risk of under specification, but then similar to how human communication breaks down over time, I feel like you have this risk where it's okay, when I pull down, go to the triple of pulling down and like running this branch locally, I'm gonna see that, like I said, this should be a toggle and you have a checkbox and like, why didn't you get that detail?And having the video up front just [00:06:00] has that makes that alignment like you're talking about a shared artifact with the agent. Very clear, which has been just super helpful for me.Jonas: I can quickly run through some other Yes. Examples.Meta Agents and More DemosJonas: So this is a very front end heavy one. So one question I wasswyx: gonna say, is this only for frontJonas: end?Exactly. One question you might have is this only for front end? So this is another example where the thing I wanted it to implement was a better error message for saving secrets. So the cloud agents support adding secrets, that's part of what it needs to access certain systems. Part of onboarding that is giving access.This is cloud is working onswyx: cloud agents. Yes.Jonas: So this is a fun thing isSamantha: it can get super meta. ItJonas: can get super meta, it can start its own cloud agents, it can talk to its own cloud agents. Sometimes it's hard to wrap your mind around that. We have disabled, it's cloud agents starting more cloud agents. So we currently disallow that.Someday you might. Someday we might. Someday we might. So this actually was mostly a backend change in terms of the error handling here, where if the [00:07:00] secret is far too large, it would oh, this is actually really cool. Wow. That's the Devrel tools. That's the Devrel tools. So if the secret is far too large, we.Allow secrets above a certain size. We have a size limit on them. And the error message there was really bad. It was just some generic failed to save message. So I was like, Hey, we wanted an error message. So first cool thing it did here, zero prompting on how to test this. Instead of typing out the, like a character 5,000 times to hit the limit, it opens Devrel tools, writes js, or to paste into the input 5,000 characters of the letter A and then hit save, closes the Devrel tools, hit save and gets this new gets the new error message.So that looks like the video actually cut off, but here you can see the, here you can see the screenshot of the of the error message. What, so that is like frontend backend end-to-end feature to, to get that,swyx: yeah.Jonas: Andswyx: And you just need a full vm, full computer run everything.Okay. Yeah.Jonas: Yeah. So we've had versions of this. This is one of the auto tab lessons where we started that in 2022. [00:08:00] No, in 2023. And at the time it was like browser use, DOM, like all these different things. And I think we ended up very sort of a GI pilled in the sense that just give the model pixels, give it a box, a brain in a box is what you want and you want to remove limitations around context and capabilities such that the bottleneck should be the intelligence.And given how smart models are today, that's a very far out bottleneck. And so giving it its full VM and having it be onboarded with Devrel X set up like a human would is just been for us internally a really big step change in capability.swyx: Yeah I would say, let's call it a year ago the models weren't even good enough to do any of this stuff.SoSamantha: even six months ago. Yeah.swyx: So yeah what people have told me is like round about Sonder four fire is when this started being good enough to just automate fully by pixel.Jonas: Yeah, I think it's always a question of when is good enough. I think we found in particular with Opus 4 5, 4, 6, and Codex five three, that those were additional step [00:09:00] changes in the autonomy grade capabilities of the model to just.Go off and figure out the details and come back when it's done.swyx: I wanna appreciate a couple details. One 10 Stack Router. I see it. Yeah. I'm a big fan. Do you know any, I have to name the 10 Stack.Jonas: No.swyx: This just a random lore. Some buddy Sue Tanner. My and then the other thing if you switch back to the video.Jonas: Yeah.swyx: I wanna shout out this thing. Probably Sam did it. I don't knowJonas: the chapters.swyx: What is this called? Yeah, this is called Chapters. Yeah. It's like a Vimeo thing. I don't know. But it's so nice the design details, like the, and obviously a company called Cursor has to have a beautiful cursorSamantha: and it isswyx: the cursor.Samantha: Cursor.swyx: You see it branded? It's the cursor. Cursor, yeah. Okay, cool. And then I was like, I complained to Evan. I was like, okay, but you guys branded everything but the wallpaper. And he was like, no, that's a cursor wallpaper. I was like, what?Samantha: Yeah. Rio picked the wallpaper, I think. Yeah. The video.That's probably Alexi and yeah, a few others on the team with the chapters on the video. Matthew Frederico. There's been a lot of teamwork on this. It's a huge effort.swyx: I just, I like design details.Samantha: Yeah.swyx: And and then when you download it adds like a little cursor. Kind of TikTok clip. [00:10:00] Yes. Yes.So it's to make it really obvious is from Cursor,Jonas: we did the TikTok branding at the end. This was actually in our launch video. Alexi demoed the cloud agent that built that feature. Which was funny because that was an instance where one of the things that's been a consequence of having these videos is we use best of event where you run head to head different models on the same prompt.We use that a lot more because one of the complications with doing that before was you'd run four models and they would come back with some giant diff, like 700 lines of code times four. It's what are you gonna do? You're gonna review all that's horrible. But if you come back with four 22nd videos, yeah, I'll watch four 22nd videos.And then even if none of them is perfect, you can figure out like, which one of those do you want to iterate with, to get it over the line. Yeah. And so that's really been really fun.Bug Repro WorkflowJonas: Here's another example. That's we found really cool, which is we've actually turned since into a slash command as well slash [00:11:00] repro, where for bugs in particular, the model of having full access to the to its own vm, it can first reproduce the bug, make a video of the bug reproducing, fix the bug, make a video of the bug being fixed, like doing the same pattern workflow with obviously the bug not reproducing.And that has been the single category that has gone from like these types of bugs, really hard to reproduce and pick two tons of time locally, even if you try a cloud agent on it. Are you confident it actually fixed it to when this happens? You'll merge it in 90 seconds or something like that.So this is an example where, let me see if this is the broken one or the, okay, this is the fixed one. Okay. So we had a bug on cursor.com/agents where if you would attach images where remove them. Then still submit your prompt. They would actually still get attached to the prompt. Okay. And so here you can see Cursor is using, its full desktop by the way.This is one of the cases where if you just do, browse [00:12:00] use type stuff, you'll have a bad time. ‘cause now it needs to upload files. Like it just uses its native file viewer to do that. And so you can see here it's uploading files. It's going to submit a prompt and then it will go and open up. So this is the meta, this is cursor agent, prompting cursor agent inside its own environment.And so you can see here bug, there's five images attached, whereas when it's submitted, it only had one image.swyx: I see. Yeah. But you gotta enable that if you're gonna use cur agent inside cur.Jonas: Exactly. And so here, this is then the after video where it went, it does the same thing. It attaches images, removes, some of them hit send.And you can see here, once this agent is up, only one of the images is left in the attachments. Yeah.swyx: Beautiful.Jonas: Okay. So easy merge.swyx: So yeah. When does it choose to do this? Because this is an extra step.Jonas: Yes. I think I've not done a great job yet of calibrating the model on when to reproduce these things.Yeah. Sometimes it will do it of its own accord. Yeah. We've been conservative where we try to have it only do it when it's [00:13:00] quite sure because it does add some amount of time to how long it takes it to work on it. But we also have added things like the slash repro command where you can just do, fix this bug slash repro and then it will know that it should first make you a video of it actually finding and making sure it can reproduce the bug.swyx: Yeah. Yeah. One sort of ML topic this ties into is reward hacking, where while you write test that you update only pass. So first write test, it shows me it fails, then make you test pass, which is a classic like red green.Jonas: Yep.swyx: LikeJonas: A-T-D-D-T-D-Dswyx: thing.No, very cool. Was that the last demo? Is thereJonas: Yeah.Anything I missed on the demos or points that you think? I think thatSamantha: covers it well. Yeah.swyx: Cool. Before we stop the screen share, can you gimme like a, just a tour of the slash commands ‘cause I so God ready. Huh, what? What are the good ones?Samantha: Yeah, we wanna increase discoverability around this too.I think that'll be like a future thing we work on. Yeah. But there's definitely a lot of good stuff nowJonas: we have a lot of internal ones that I think will not be that interesting. Here's an internal one that I've made. I don't know if anyone else at Cursor uses this one. Fix bb.Samantha: I've never heard of it.Jonas: Yeah.[00:14:00]Fix Bug Bot. So this is a thing that we want to integrate more tightly on. So you made it forswyx: yourself.Jonas: I made this for myself. It's actually available to everyone in the team, but yeah, no one knows about it. But yeah, there will be Bug bot comments and so Bug Bot has a lot of cool things. We actually just launched Bug Bot Auto Fix, where you can click a button and or change a setting and it will automatically fix its own things, and that works great in a bunch of cases.There are some cases where having the context of the original agent that created the PR is really helpful for fixing the bugs, because it might be like, oh, the bug here is that this, is a regression and actually you meant to do something more like that. And so having the original prompt and all of the context of the agent that worked on it, and so here I could just do, fix or we used to be able to do fixed PB and it would do that.No test is another one that we've had. Slash repro is in here. We mentioned that one.Samantha: One of my favorites is cloud agent diagnosis. This is one that makes heavy use of the Datadog MCP. Okay. And I [00:15:00] think Nick and David on our team wrote, and basically if there is a problem with a cloud agent we'll spin up a bunch of subs.Like a singleswyx: instance.Samantha: Yeah. We'll take the ideas and argument and spin up a bunch of subagents using the Datadog MCP to explore the logs and find like all of the problems that could have happened with that. It takes the debugging time, like from potentially you can do quick stuff quickly with the Datadog ui, but it takes it down to, again, like a single agent call as opposed to trolling through logs yourself.Jonas: You should also talk about the stuff we've done with transcripts.Samantha: Yes. Also so basically we've also done some things internally. There'll be some versions of this as we ship publicly soon, where you can spit up an agent and give it access to another agent's transcript to either basically debug something that happened.So act as an external debugger. I see. Or continue the conversation. Almost like forking it.swyx: A transcript includes all the chain of thought for the 11 minutes here. 45 minutes there.Samantha: Yeah. That way. Exactly. So basically acting as a like secondary agent that debugs the first, so we've started to push more andswyx: they're all the same [00:16:00] code.It is just the different prompts, but the sa the same.Samantha: Yeah. So basically same cloud agent infrastructure and then same harness. And then like when we do things like include, there's some extra infrastructure that goes into piping in like an external transcript if we include it as an attachment.But for things like the cloud agent diagnosis, that's mostly just using the Datadog MCP. ‘Cause we also launched CPS along with along with this cloud agent launch, launch support for cloud agent cps.swyx: Oh, that was drawn out.Jonas: We won't, we'll be doing a bigger marketing moment for it next week, but, and you can now use CPS andswyx: People will listen to it as well.Yeah,Jonas: they'llSamantha: be ahead of the third. They'll be ahead. And I would I actually don't know if the Datadog CP is like publicly available yet. I realize this not sure beta testing it, but it's been one of my favorites to use. Soswyx: I think that one's interesting for Datadog. ‘cause Datadog wants to own that site.Interesting with Bits. I don't know if you've tried bits.Samantha: I haven't tried bits.swyx: Yeah.Jonas: That's their cloud agentswyx: product. Yeah. Yeah. They want to be like we own your logs and give us our, some part of the, [00:17:00] self-healing software that everyone wants. Yeah. But obviously Cursor has a strong opinion on coding agents and you, you like taking away from the which like obviously you're going to do, and not every company's like Cursor, but it's interesting if you're a Datadog, like what do you do here?Do you expose your logs to FDP and let other people do it? Or do you try to own that it because it's extra business for you? Yeah. It's like an interesting one.Samantha: It's a good question. All I know is that I love the Datadog MCP,Jonas: And yeah, it is gonna be no, no surprise that people like will demand it, right?Samantha: Yeah.swyx: It's, it's like anysystemswyx: of record company like this, it's like how much do you give away? Cool. I think that's that for the sort of cloud agents tour. Cool. And we just talk about like cloud agents have been when did Kirsten loves cloud agents? Do you know, in JuneJonas: last year.swyx: June last year. So it's been slowly develop the thing you did, like a bunch of, like Michael did a post where himself, where he like showed this chart of like ages overtaking tap. And I'm like, wow, this is like the biggest transition in code.Jonas: Yeah.swyx: Like in, in [00:18:00] like the last,Jonas: yeah. I think that kind of got turned out.Yeah. I think it's a very interest,swyx: not at all. I think it's been highlighted by our friend Andre Kati today.Jonas: Okay.swyx: Talk more about it. What does it mean? Yeah. Is I just got given like the cursor tab key.Jonas: Yes. Yes.swyx: That's that'sSamantha: cool.swyx: I know, but it's gonna be like put in a museum.Jonas: It is.Samantha: I have to say I haven't used tab a little bit myself.Jonas: Yeah. I think that what it looks like to code with AI code generally creates software, even if you want to go higher level. Is changing very rapidly. No, not a hot take, but I think from our vendor's point at Cursor, I think one of the things that is probably underappreciated from the outside is that we are extremely self-aware about that fact and Kerscher, got its start in phase one, era one of like tab and auto complete.And that was really useful in its time. But a lot of people start looking at text files and editing code, like we call it hand coding. Now when you like type out the actual letters, it'sswyx: oh that's cute.Jonas: Yeah.swyx: Oh that's cute.Jonas: You're so boomer. So boomer. [00:19:00] And so that I think has been a slowly accelerating and now in the last few months, rapidly accelerating shift.And we think that's going to happen again with the next thing where the, I think some of the pains around tab of it's great, but I actually just want to give more to the agent and I don't want to do one tab at a time. I want to just give it a task and it goes off and does a larger unit of work and I can.Lean back a little bit more and operate at that higher level of abstraction that's going to happen again, where it goes from agents handing you back diffs and you're like in the weeds and giving it, 32nd to three minute tasks, to, you're giving it, three minute to 30 minute to three hour tasks and you're getting back videos and trying out previews rather than immediately looking at diffs every single time.swyx: Yeah. Anything to add?Samantha: One other shift that I've noticed as our cloud agents have really taken off internally has been a shift from primarily individually driven development to almost this collaborative nature of development for us, slack is actually almost like a development on [00:20:00] Id basically.So Iswyx: like maybe don't even build a custom ui, like maybe that's like a debugging thing, but actually it's that.Samantha: I feel like, yeah, there's still so much to left to explore there, but basically for us, like Slack is where a lot of development happens. Like we will have these issue channels or just like this product discussion channels where people are always at cursing and that kicks off a cloud agent.And for us at least, we have team follow-ups enabled. So if Jonas kicks off at Cursor in a thread, I can follow up with it and add more context. And so it turns into almost like a discussion service where people can like collaborate on ui. Oftentimes I will kick off an investigation and then sometimes I even ask it to get blame and then tag people who should be brought in. ‘cause it can tag people in Slack and then other people will comeswyx: in, can tag other people who are not involved in conversation. Yes. Can just do at Jonas if say, was talking to,Samantha: yeah.swyx: That's cool. You should, you guys should make a big good deal outta that.Samantha: I know. It's a lot to, I feel like there's a lot more to do with our slack surface area to show people externally. But yeah, basically like it [00:21:00] can bring other people in and then other people can also contribute to that thread and you can end up with a PR again, with the artifacts visible and then people can be like, okay, cool, we can merge this.So for us it's like the ID is almost like moving into Slack in some ways as well.swyx: I have the same experience with, but it's not developers, it's me. Designer salespeople.Samantha: Yeah.swyx: So me on like technical marketing, vision, designer on design and then salespeople on here's the legal source of what we agreed on.And then they all just collaborate and correct. The agents,Jonas: I think that we found when these threads is. The work that is left, that the humans are discussing in these threads is the nugget of what is actually interesting and relevant. It's not the boring details of where does this if statement go?It's do we wanna ship this? Is this the right ux? Is this the right form factor? Yeah. How do we make this more obvious to the user? It's like those really interesting kind of higher order questions that are so easy to collaborate with and leave the implementation to the cloud agent.Samantha: Totally. And no more discussion of am I gonna do this? Are you [00:22:00] gonna do this cursor's doing it? You just have to decide. You like it.swyx: Sometimes the, I don't know if there's a, this probably, you guys probably figured this out already, but since I, you need like a mute button. So like cursor, like we're going to take this offline, but still online.But like we need to talk among the humans first. Before you like could stop responding to everything.Jonas: Yeah. This is a design decision where currently cursor won't chime in unless you explicitly add Mention it. Yeah. Yeah.Samantha: So it's not always listening.Yeah.Jonas: I can see all the intermediate messages.swyx: Have you done the recursive, can cursor add another cursor or spawn another cursor?Samantha: Oh,Jonas: we've done some versions of this.swyx: Because, ‘cause it can add humans.Jonas: Yes. One of the other things we've been working on that's like an implication of generating the code is so easy is getting it to production is still harder than it should be.And broadly, you solve one bottleneck and three new ones pop up. Yeah. And so one of the new bottlenecks is getting into production and we have a like joke internally where you'll be talking about some feature and someone says, I have a PR for that. Which is it's so easy [00:23:00] to get to, I a PR for that, but it's hard still relatively to get from I a PR for that to, I'm confident and ready to merge this.And so I think that over the coming weeks and months, that's a thing that we think a lot about is how do we scale up compute to that pipeline of getting things from a first draft An agent did.swyx: Isn't that what Merge isn't know what graphite's for, likeJonas: graphite is a big part of that. The cloud agent testingswyx: Is it fully integrated or still different companiesJonas: working on I think we'll have more to share there in the future, but the goal is to have great end-to-end experience where Cursor doesn't just help you generate code tokens, it helps you create software end-to-end.And so review is a big part of that, that I think especially as models have gotten much better at writing code, generating code, we've felt that relatively crop up more,swyx: sorry this is completely unplanned, but like there I have people arguing one to you need ai. To review ai and then there is another approach, thought school of thought where it's no, [00:24:00] reviews are dead.Like just show me the video. It's it like,Samantha: yeah. I feel again, for me, the video is often like alignment and then I often still wanna go through a code review process.swyx: Like still look at the files andSamantha: everything. Yeah. There's a spectrum of course. Like the video, if it's really well done and it does like fully like test everything, you can feel pretty competent, but it's still helpful to, to look at the code.I make hep pay a lot of attention to bug bot. I feel like Bug Bot has been a great really highly adopted internally. We often like, won't we tell people like, don't leave bug bot comments unaddressed. ‘cause we have such high confidence in it. So people always address their bug bot comments.Jonas: Once you've had two cases where you merged something and then you went back later, there was a bug in it, you merged, you went back later and you were like, ah, bug Bot had found that I should have listened to Bug Bot.Once that happens two or three times, you learn to wait for bug bot.Samantha: Yeah. So I think for us there's like that code level review where like it's looking at the actual code and then there's like the like feature level review where you're looking at the features. There's like a whole number of different like areas.There'll probably eventually be things like performance level review, security [00:25:00] review, things like that where it's like more more different aspects of how this feature might affect your code base that you want to potentially leverage an agent to help with.Jonas: And some of those like bug bot will be synchronous and you'll typically want to wait on before you merge.But I think another thing that we're starting to see is. As with cloud agents, you scale up this parallelism and how much code you generate. 10 person startups become, need the Devrel X and pipelines that a 10,000 person company used to need. And that looks like a lot of the things I think that 10,000 person companies invented in order to get that volume of software to production safely.So that's things like, release frequently or release slowly, have different stages where you release, have checkpoints, automated ways of detecting regressions. And so I think we're gonna need stacks merg stack diffs merge queues. Exactly. A lot of those things are going to be importantswyx: forward with.I think the majority of people still don't know what stack stacks are. And I like, I have many friends in Facebook and like I, I'm pretty friendly with graphite. I've just, [00:26:00] I've never needed it ‘cause I don't work on that larger team and it's just like democratization of no, only here's what we've already worked out at very large scale and here's how you can, it benefits you too.Like I think to me, one of the beautiful things about GitHub is that. It's actually useful to me as an individual solo developer, even though it's like actually collaboration software.Jonas: Yep.swyx: And I don't think a lot of Devrel tools have figured that out yet. That transition from like large down to small.Jonas: Yeah. Kers is probably an inverse story.swyx: This is small down toJonas: Yeah. Where historically Kers share, part of why we grew so quickly was anyone on the team could pick it up and in fact people would pick it up, on the weekend for their side project and then bring it into work. ‘cause they loved using it so much.swyx: Yeah.Jonas: And I think a thing that we've started working on a lot more, not us specifically, but as a company and other folks at Cursor, is making it really great for teams and making it the, the 10th person that starts using Cursor in a team. Is immediately set up with things like, we launched Marketplace recently so other people can [00:27:00] configure what CPS and skills like plugins.So skills and cps, other people can configure that. So that my cursor is ready to go and set up. Sam loves the Datadog, MCP and Slack, MCP you've also been using a lot butSamantha: also pre-launch, but I feel like it's so good.Jonas: Yeah, my cursor should be configured if Sam feels strongly that's just amazing and required.swyx: Is it automatically shared or you have to go and.Jonas: It depends on the MCP. So some are obviously off per user. Yeah. And so Sam can't off my cursor with my Slack MCP, but some are team off and those can be set up by admins.swyx: Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, I think, we had a man on the pod when cursor was five people, and like everyone was like, okay, what's the thing?And then it's usually something teams and org and enterprise, but it's actually working. But like usually at that stage when you're five, when you're just a vs. Code fork it's like how do you get there? Yeah. Will people pay for this? People do pay for it.Jonas: Yeah. And I think for cloud agents, we expect.[00:28:00]To have similar kind of PLG things where I think off the bat we've seen a lot of adoption with kind of smaller teams where the code bases are not quite as complex to set up. Yes. If you need some insane docker layer caching thing for builds not to take two hours, that's going to take a little bit longer for us to be able to support that kind of infrastructure.Whereas if you have front end backend, like one click agents can install everything that they need themselves.swyx: This is a good chance for me to just ask some technical sort of check the box questions. Can I choose the size of the vm?Jonas: Not yet. We are planning on adding that. Weswyx: have, this is obviously you want like LXXL, whatever, right?Like it's like the Amazon like sort menu.Jonas: Yes, exactly. We'll add that.swyx: Yeah. In some ways you have to basically become like a EC2, almost like you rent a box.Jonas: You rent a box. Yes. We talk a lot about brain in a box. Yeah. So cursor, we want to be a brain in a box,swyx: but is the mental model different? Is it more serverless?Is it more persistent? Is. Something else.Samantha: We want it to be a bit persistent. The desktop should be [00:29:00] something you can return to af even after some days. Like maybe you go back, they're like still thinking about a feature for some period of time. So theswyx: full like sus like suspend the memory and bring it back and then keep going.Samantha: Exactly.swyx: That's an interesting one because what I actually do want, like from a manna and open crawl, whatever, is like I want to be able to log in with my credentials to the thing, but not actually store it in any like secret store, whatever. ‘cause it's like this is the, my most sensitive stuff.Yeah. This is like my email, whatever. And just have it like, persist to the image. I don't know how it was hood, but like to rehydrate and then just keep going from there. But I don't think a lot of infra works that way. A lot of it's stateless where like you save it to a docker image and then it's only whatever you can describe in a Docker file and that's it.That's the only thing you can cl multiple times in parallel.Jonas: Yeah. We have a bunch of different ways of setting them up. So there's a dockerfile based approach. The main default way is actually snapshottingswyx: like a Linux vmJonas: like vm, right? You run a bunch of install commands and then you snapshot more or less the file system.And so that gets you set up for everything [00:30:00] that you would want to bring a new VM up from that template basically.swyx: Yeah.Jonas: And that's a bit distinct from what Sam was talking about with the hibernating and re rehydrating where that is a full memory snapshot as well. So there, if I had like the browser open to a specific page and we bring that back, that page will still be there.swyx: Was there any discussion internally and just building this stuff about every time you shoot a video it's actually you show a little bit of the desktop and the browser and it's not necessary if you just show the browser. If, if you know you're just demoing a front end application.Why not just show the browser, right? Like it Yeah,Samantha: we do have some panning and zooming. Yeah. Like it can decide that when it's actually recording and cutting the video to highlight different things. I think we've played around with different ways of segmenting it and yeah. There's been some different revs on it for sure.Jonas: Yeah. I think one of the interesting things is the version that you see now in cursor.com actually is like half of what we had at peak where we decided to unshift or unshipped quite a few things. So two of the interesting things to talk about, one is directly an answer to your [00:31:00] question where we had native browser that you would have locally, it was basically an iframe that via port forwarding could load the URL could talk to local host in the vm.So that gets you basically, so inswyx: your machine's browser,likeJonas: in your local browser? Yeah. You would go to local host 4,000 and that would get forwarded to local host 4,000 in the VM via port forward. We unshift that like atswyx: Eng Rock.Jonas: Like an Eng Rock. Exactly. We unshift that because we felt that the remote desktop was sufficiently low latency and more general purpose.So we build Cursor web, but we also build Cursor desktop. And so it's really useful to be able to have the full spectrum of things. And even for Cursor Web, as you saw in one of the examples, the agent was uploading files and like I couldn't upload files and open the file viewer if I only had access to the browser.And we've thought a lot about, this might seem funny coming from Cursor where we started as this, vs. Code Fork and I think inherited a lot of amazing things, but also a lot [00:32:00] of legacy UI from VS Code.Minimal Web UI SurfacesJonas: And so with the web UI we wanted to be very intentional about keeping that very minimal and exposing the right sum of set of primitive sort of app surfaces we call them, that are shared features of that cloud.Environment that you and the agent both use. So agent uses desktop and controls it. I can use desktop and controlled agent runs terminal commands. I can run terminal commands. So that's how our philosophy around it. The other thing that is maybe interesting to talk about that we unshipped is and we may, both of these things we may reship and decide at some point in the future that we've changed our minds on the trade offs or gotten it to a point where, putswyx: it out there.Let users tell you they want it. Exactly. Alright, fine.Why No File EditorJonas: So one of the other things is actually a files app. And so we used to have the ability at one point during the process of testing this internally to see next to, I had GID desktop and terminal on the right hand side of the tab there earlier to also have a files app where you could see and edit files.And we actually felt that in some [00:33:00] ways, by restricting and limiting what you could do there, people would naturally leave more to the agent and fall into this new pattern of delegating, which we thought was really valuable. And there's currently no way in Cursor web to edit these files.swyx: Yeah. Except you like open up the PR and go into GitHub and do the thing.Jonas: Yeah.swyx: Which is annoying.Jonas: Just tell the agent,swyx: I have criticized open AI for this. Because Open AI is Codex app doesn't have a file editor, like it has file viewer, but isn't a file editor.Jonas: Do you use the file viewer a lot?swyx: No. I understand, but like sometimes I want it, the one way to do it is like freaking going to no, they have a open in cursor button or open an antigravity or, opening whatever and people pointed that.So I was, I was part of the early testers group people pointed that and they were like, this is like a design smell. It's like you actually want a VS. Code fork that has all these things, but also a file editor. And they were like, no, just trust us.Jonas: Yeah. I think we as Cursor will want to, as a product, offer the [00:34:00] whole spectrum and so you want to be able to.Work at really high levels of abstraction and double click and see the lowest level. That's important. But I also think that like you won't be doing that in Slack. And so there are surfaces and ways of interacting where in some cases limiting the UX capabilities makes for a cleaner experience that's more simple and drives people into these new patterns where even locally we kicked off joking about this.People like don't really edit files, hand code anymore. And so we want to build for where that's going and not where it's beenswyx: a lot of cool stuff. And Okay. I have a couple more.Full Stack Hosting Debateswyx: So observations about the design elements about these things. One of the things that I'm always thinking about is cursor and other peers of cursor start from like the Devrel tools and work their way towards cloud agents.Other people, like the lovable and bolts of the world start with here's like the vibe code. Full cloud thing. They were already cloud edges before anyone else cloud edges and we will give you the full deploy platform. So we own the whole loop. We own all the infrastructure, we own, we, we have the logs, we have the the live site, [00:35:00] whatever.And you can do that cycle cursor doesn't own that cycle even today. You don't have the versal, you don't have the, you whatever deploy infrastructure that, that you're gonna have, which gives you powers because anyone can use it. And any enterprise who, whatever you infra, I don't care. But then also gives you limitations as to how much you can actually fully debug end to end.I guess I'm just putting out there that like is there a future where there's like full stack cursor where like cursor apps.com where like I host my cursor site this, which is basically a verse clone, right? I don't know.Jonas: I think that's a interesting question to be asking, and I think like the logic that you laid out for how you would get there is logic that I largely agree with.swyx: Yeah. Yeah.Jonas: I think right now we're really focused on what we see as the next big bottleneck and because things like the Datadog MCP exist, yeah. I don't think that the best way we can help our customers ship more software. Is by building a hosting solution right now,swyx: by the way, these are things I've actually discussed with some of the companies I just named.Jonas: Yeah, for sure. Right now, just this big bottleneck is getting the code out there and also [00:36:00] unlike a lovable in the bolt, we focus much more on existing software. And the zero to one greenfield is just a very different problem. Imagine going to a Shopify and convincing them to deploy on your deployment solution.That's very different and I think will take much longer to see how that works. May never happen relative to, oh, it's like a zero to one app.swyx: I'll say. It's tempting because look like 50% of your apps are versal, superb base tailwind react it's the stack. It's what everyone does.So I it's kinda interesting.Jonas: Yeah.Model Choice and Auto Routingswyx: The other thing is the model select dying. Right now in cloud agents, it's stuck down, bottom left. Sure it's Codex High today, but do I care if it's suddenly switched to Opus? Probably not.Samantha: We definitely wanna give people a choice across models because I feel like it, the meta change is very frequently.I was a big like Opus 4.5 Maximalist, and when codex 5.3 came out, I hard, hard switch. So that's all I use now.swyx: Yeah. Agreed. I don't know if, but basically like when I use it in Slack, [00:37:00] right? Cursor does a very good job of exposing yeah. Cursors. If people go use it, here's the model we're using.Yeah. Here's how you switch if you want. But otherwise it's like extracted away, which is like beautiful because then you actually, you should decide.Jonas: Yeah, I think we want to be doing more with defaults.swyx: Yeah.Jonas: Where we can suggest things to people. A thing that we have in the editor, the desktop app is auto, which will route your request and do things there.So I think we will want to do something like that for cloud agents as well. We haven't done it yet. And so I think. We have both people like Sam, who are very savvy and want know exactly what model they want, and we also have people that want us to pick the best model for them because we have amazing people like Sam and we, we are the experts.Yeah. We have both the traffic and the internal taste and experience to know what we think is best.swyx: Yeah. I have this ongoing pieces of agent lab versus model lab. And to me, cursor and other companies are example of an agent lab that is, building a new playbook that is different from a model lab where it's like very GP heavy Olo.So obviously has a research [00:38:00] team. And my thesis is like you just, every agent lab is going to have a router because you're going to be asked like, what's what. I don't keep up to every day. I'm not a Sam, I don't keep up every day for using you as sample the arm arbitrator of taste. Put me on CRI Auto.Is it free? It's not free.Jonas: Auto's not free, but there's different pricing tiers. Yeah.swyx: Put me on Chris. You decide from me based on all the other people you know better than me. And I think every agent lab should basically end up doing this because that actually gives you extra power because you like people stop carrying or having loyalty with one lab.Jonas: Yeah.Best Of N and Model CouncilsJonas: Two other maybe interesting things that I don't know how much they're on your radar are one the best event thing we mentioned where running different models head to head is actually quite interesting becauseswyx: which exists in cursor.Jonas: That exists in cur ID and web. So the problem is where do you run them?swyx: Okay.Jonas: And so I, I can share my screen if that's interesting. Yeahinteresting.swyx: Yeah. Yeah. Obviously parallel agents, very popal.Jonas: Yes, exactly. Parallel agentsswyx: in you mind. Are they the same thing? Best event and parallel agents? I don't want to [00:39:00] put words in your mouth.Jonas: Best event is a subset of parallel agents where they're running on the same prompt.That would be my answer. So this is what that looks like. And so here in this dropdown picker, I can just select multiple models.swyx: Yeah.Jonas: And now if I do a prompt, I'm going to do something silly. I am running these five models.swyx: Okay. This is this fake clone, of course. The 2.0 yeah.Jonas: Yes, exactly. But they're running so the cursor 2.0, you can do desktop or cloud.So this is cloud specifically where the benefit over work trees is that they have their own VMs and can run commands and won't try to kill ports that the other one is running. Which are some of the pains. These are allswyx: called work trees?Jonas: No, these are all cloud agents with their own VMs.swyx: Okay. ButJonas: When you do it locally, sometimes people do work trees and that's been the main way that people have set out parallel so far.I've gotta say.swyx: That's so confusing for folks.Jonas: Yeah.swyx: No one knows what work trees are.Jonas: Exactly. I think we're phasing out work trees.swyx: Really.Jonas: Yeah.swyx: Okay.Samantha: But yeah. And one other thing I would say though on the multimodel choice, [00:40:00] so this is another experiment that we ran last year and the decide to ship at that time but may come back to, and there was an interesting learning that's relevant for, these different model providers. It was something that would run a bunch of best of ends but then synthesize and basically run like a synthesizer layer of models. And that was other agents that would take LM Judge, but one that was also agentic and could write code. So it wasn't just picking but also taking the learnings from two models or, and models that it was looking at and writing a new diff.And what we found was that at the time at least, there were strengths to using models from different model providers as the base level of this process. Like basically you could get almost like a synergistic output that was better than having a very unified, like bottom model tier. So it was really interesting ‘cause it's like potentially, even though even in the future when you have like maybe one model as ahead of the other for a little bit, there could be some benefit from having like multiple top tier models involved in like a [00:41:00] model swarm or whatever agent Swarm that you're doing, that they each have strengths and weaknesses.Yeah.Jonas: Andre called this the council, right?Samantha: Yeah, exactly. We actually, oh, that's another internal command we have that Ian wrote slash council. Oh, and they some, yeah.swyx: Yes. This idea is in various forms everywhere. And I think for me, like for me, the productization of it, you guys have done yeah, like this is very flexible, but.If I were to add another Yeah, what your thing is on here it would be too much. I what, let's say,Samantha: Ideally it's all, it's something that the user can just choose and it all happens under the hood in a way where like you just get the benefit of that process at the end and better output basically, but don't have to get too lost in the complexity of judging along the way.Jonas: Okay.Subagents for ContextJonas: Another thing on the many agents, on different parallel agents that's interesting is an idea that's been around for a while as well that has started working recently is subagents. And so this is one other way to get agents of the different prompts and different goals and different models, [00:42:00] different vintages to work together.Collaborate and delegate.swyx: Yeah. I'm very like I like one of my, I always looking for this is the year of the blah, right? Yeah. I think one of the things on the blahs is subs. I think this is of but I haven't used them in cursor. Are they fully formed or how do I honestly like an intro because do I form them from new every time?Do I have fixed subagents? How are they different for slash commands? There's all these like really basic questions that no one stops to answer for people because everyone's just like too busy launching. We have toSamantha: honestly, you could, you can see them in cursor now if you just say spin up like 50 subagents to, so cursor definesswyx: what Subagents.Yeah.Samantha: Yeah. So basically I think I shouldn't speak for the whole subagents team. This is like a different team that's been working on this, but our thesis or thing that we saw internally is that like they're great for context management for kind of long running threads, or if you're trying to just throw more compute at something.We have strongly used, almost like a generic task interface where then the main agent can define [00:43:00] like what goes into the subagent. So if I say explore my code base, it might decide to spin up an explore subagent and or might decide to spin up five explore subagent.swyx: But I don't get to set what those subagent are, right?It's all defined by a model.Samantha: I think. I actually would have to refresh myself on the sub agent interface.Jonas: There are some built-in ones like the explore subagent is free pre-built. But you can also instruct the model to use other subagents and then it will. And one other example of a built-in subagent is I actually just kicked one off in cursor and I can show you what that looks like.swyx: Yes. Because I tried to do this in pure prompt space.Jonas: So this is the desktop app? Yeah. Yeah. And that'sswyx: all you need to do, right? Yeah.Jonas: That's all you need to do. So I said use a sub agent to explore and I think, yeah, so I can even click in and see what the subagent is working on here. It ran some fine command and this is a composer under the hood.Even though my main model is Opus, it does smart routing to take, like in this instance the explorer sort of requires reading a ton of things. And so a faster model is really useful to get an [00:44:00] answer quickly, but that this is what subagent look like. And I think we wanted to do a lot more to expose hooks and ways for people to configure these.Another example of a cus sort of builtin subagent is the computer use subagent in the cloud agents, where we found that those trajectories can be long and involve a lot of images obviously, and execution of some testing verification task. We wanted to use that models that are particularly good at that.So that's one reason to use subagents. And then the other reason to use subagents is we want contexts to be summarized reduced down at a subagent level. That's a really neat boundary at which to compress that rollout and testing into a final message that agent writes that then gets passed into the parent rather than having to do some global compaction or something like that.swyx: Awesome. Cool. While we're in the subagents conversation, I can't do a cursor conversation and not talk about listen stuff. What is that? What is what? He built a browser. He built an os. Yes. And he [00:45:00] experimented with a lot of different architectures and basically ended up reinventing the software engineer org chart.This is all cool, but what's your take? What's, is there any hole behind the side? The scenes stories about that kind of, that whole adventure.Samantha: Some of those experiments have found their way into a feature that's available in cloud agents now, the long running agent mode internally, we call it grind mode.And I think there's like some hint of grind mode accessible in the picker today. ‘cause you can do choose grind until done. And so that was really the result of experiments that Wilson started in this vein where he I think the Ralph Wigga loop was like floating around at the time, but it was something he also independently found and he was experimenting with.And that was what led to this product surface.swyx: And it is just simple idea of have criteria for completion and do not. Until you complete,Samantha: there's a bit more complexity as well in, in our implementation. Like there's a specific, you have to start out by aligning and there's like a planning stage where it will work with you and it will not get like start grind execution mode until it's decided that the [00:46:00] plan is amenable to both of you.Basically,swyx: I refuse to work until you make me happy.Jonas: We found that it's really important where people would give like very underspecified prompt and then expect it to come back with magic. And if it's gonna go off and work for three minutes, that's one thing. When it's gonna go off and work for three days, probably should spend like a few hours upfront making sure that you have communicated what you actually want.swyx: Yeah. And just to like really drive from the point. We really mean three days that No, noJonas: human. Oh yeah. We've had three day months innovation whatsoever.Samantha: I don't know what the record is, but there's been a long time with the grantsJonas: and so the thing that is available in cursor. The long running agent is if you wanna think about it, very abstractly that is like one worker node.Whereas what built the browser is a society of workers and planners and different agents collaborating. Because we started building the browser with one worker node at the time, that was just the agent. And it became one worker node when we realized that the throughput of the system was not where it needed to be [00:47:00] to get something as large of a scale as the browser done.swyx: Yeah.Jonas: And so this has also become a really big mental model for us with cloud, cloud agents is there's the classic engineering latency throughput trade-offs. And so you know, the code is water flowing through a pipe. The, we think that over the coming months, the big unlock is not going to be one person with a model getting more done, like the water flowing faster and we'll be making the pipe much wider and so ing more, whether that's swarms of agents or parallel agents, both of those are things that contribute to getting.Much more done in the same amount of time, but any one of those tasks doesn't necessarily need to get done that quickly. And throughput is this really big thing where if you see the system of a hundred concurrent agents outputting thousands of tokens a second, you can't go back like that.Just you see a glimpse of the future where obviously there are many caveats. Like no one is using this browser. IRL. There's like a bunch of things not quite right yet, but we are going to get to systems that produce real production [00:48:00] code at the scale much sooner than people think. And it forces you to think what even happens to production systems. Like we've broken our GitHub actions recently because we have so many agents like producing and pushing code that like CICD is just overloaded. ‘cause suddenly it's like effectively weg grew, cursor's growing very quickly anyway, but you grow head count, 10 x when people run 10 x as many agents.And so a lot of these systems, exactly, a lot of these systems will need to adapt.swyx: It also reminds me, we, we all, the three of us live in the app layer, but if you talk to the researchers who are doing RL infrastructure, it's the same thing. It's like all these parallel rollouts and scheduling them and making sure as much throughput as possible goes through them.Yeah, it's the same thing.Jonas: We were talking briefly before we started recording. You were mentioning memory chips and some of the shortages there. The other thing that I think is just like hard to wrap your head around the scale of the system that was building the browser, the concurrency there.If Sam and I both have a system like that running for us, [00:49:00] shipping our software. The amount of inference that we're going to need per developer is just really mind-boggling. And that makes, sometimes when I think about that, I think that even with, the most optimistic projections for what we're going to need in terms of buildout, our underestimating, the extent to which these swarm systems can like churn at scale to produce code that is valuable to the economy.And,swyx: yeah, you can cut this if it's sensitive, but I was just Do you have estimates of how much your token consumption is?Jonas: Like per developer?swyx: Yeah. Or yourself. I don't need like comfy average. I just curious. ISamantha: feel like I, for a while I wasn't an admin on the usage dashboard, so I like wasn't able to actually see, but it was a,swyx: mine has gone up.Samantha: Oh yeah.swyx: But I thinkSamantha: it's in terms of how much work I'm doing, it's more like I have no worries about developers losing their jobs, at least in the near term. ‘cause I feel like that's a more broad discussion.swyx: Yeah. Yeah. You went there. I didn't go, I wasn't going there.I was just like how much more are you using?Samantha: There's so much stuff to be built. And so I feel like I'm basically just [00:50:00] trying to constantly I have more ambitions than I did before. Yes. Personally. Yes. So can't speak to the broader thing. But for me it's like I'm busier than ever before.I'm using more tokens and I am also doing more things.Jonas: Yeah. Yeah. I don't have the stats for myself, but I think broadly a thing that we've seen, that we expect to continue is J'S paradox. Whereswyx: you can't do it in our podcast without seeingJonas: it. Exactly. We've done it. Now we can wrap. We've done, we said the words.Phase one tab auto complete people paid like 20 bucks a month. And that was great. Phase two where you were iterating with these local models. Today people pay like hundreds of dollars a month. I think as we think about these highly parallel kind of agents running off for a long times in their own VM system, we are already at that point where people will be spending thousands of dollars a month per human, and I think potentially tens of thousands and beyond, where it's not like we are greedy for like capturing more money, but what happens is just individuals get that much more leverage.And if one person can do as much as 10 people, yeah. That tool that allows ‘em to do that is going to be tremendously valuable [00:51:00] and worth investing in and taking the best thing that exists.swyx: One more question on just the cursor in general and then open-ended for you guys to plug whatever you wanna put.How is Cursor hiring these days?Samantha: What do you mean by how?swyx: So obviously lead code is dead. Oh,Samantha: okay.swyx: Everyone says work trial. Different people have different levels of adoption of agents. Some people can really adopt can be much more productive. But other people, you just need to give them a little bit of time.And sometimes they've never lived in a token rich place like cursor.And once you live in a token rich place, you're you just work differently. But you need to have done that. And a lot of people anyway, it was just open-ended. Like how has agentic engineering, agentic coding changed your opinions on hiring?Is there any like broad like insights? Yeah.Jonas: Basically I'm asking this for other people, right? Yeah, totally. Totally. To hear Sam's opinion, we haven't talked about this the two of us. I think that we don't see necessarily being great at the latest thing with AI coding as a prerequisite.I do think that's a sign that people are keeping up and [00:52:00] curious and willing to upscale themselves in what's happening because. As we were talking about the last three months, the game has completely changed. It's like what I do all day is very different.swyx: Like it's my job and I can't,Jonas: Yeah, totally.I do think that still as Sam was saying, the fundamentals remain important in the current age and being able to go and double click down. And models today do still have weaknesses where if you let them run for too long without cleaning up and refactoring, the coke will get sloppy and there'll be bad abstractions.And so you still do need humans that like have built systems before, no good patterns when they see them and know where to steer things.Samantha: I would agree with that. I would say again, cursor also operates very quickly and leveraging ag agentic engineering is probably one reason why that's possible in this current moment.I think in the past it was just like people coding quickly and now there's like people who use agents to move faster as well. So it's part of our process will always look for we'll select for kind of that ability to make good decisions quickly and move well in this environment.And so I think being able to [00:53:00] figure out how to use agents to help you do that is an important part of it too.swyx: Yeah. Okay. The fork in the road, either predictions for the end of the year, if you have any, or PUDs.Jonas: Evictions are not going to go well.Samantha: I know it's hard.swyx: They're so hard. Get it wrong.It's okay. Just, yeah.Jonas: One other plug that may be interesting that I feel like we touched on but haven't talked a ton about is a thing that the kind of these new interfaces and this parallelism enables is the ability to hop back and forth between threads really quickly. And so a thing that we have,swyx: you wanna show something or,Jonas: yeah, I can show something.A thing that we have felt with local agents is this pain around contact switching. And you have one agent that went off and did some work and another agent that, that did something else. And so here by having, I just have three tabs open, let's say, but I can very quickly, hop in here.This is an example I showed earlier, but the actual workflow here I think is really different in a way that may not be obvious, where, I start t

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“Welcome your enemy, welcome the darkness. Let everybody come and sit with you at the table. Welcome with open arms, with love, with light. …That is when everything dissolves, and you are free.” – Tamsyn Strydom Before discovering the Hoffman Process, Tamsyn Strydom shares that her life had “quietly begun to shut down.” She felt overwhelmed, facing unexplained health challenges and struggling to get out of bed after relocating to a new country. Coming to the Process with a Hoffman scholarship and a quiet, desperate urgency to heal, Tamsyn felt hope. She knew that doing the Process would mark a profound turning point in her life. At the Process, Tamsyn gave it her all. She met all parts of herself, the light and the dark. She faced everything with a willingness to change. Tamsyn left feeling incredible. Yet it only took a week back home for her to fall back into the darker patterns that had brought her to Hoffman in the first place. Once home, Tamsyn had shared with others how good she felt. Now, she felt shame that the patterns had returned. Rather than saying anything to anyone, she began to isolate. This is when she found a profound willingness within. With nowhere to run to, nowhere else to go, she had to surrender again as she’d done at the Process. Now, she had to do it on her own. It was time to sit with the darkness, time to come to know and love herself deeply. Listen in to hear how Tamsyn made her way through this challenge and into her new life. She credits the Hoffman Process as a pivotal catalyst that helped her reclaim her capacity, deepen her self-trust, and step fully into this next chapter of her life. Content Warning: This episode references disordered eating. Listen on Apple Podcasts More about Tamsyn Strydom: Tamsyn is the founder of Radiant Growth and Khanyisa Institute, and the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Lo Sono Integrative Health. All three are dedicated to functional medicine, well-being, longevity science, and leadership evolution. Through her work in clinical and integrative health environments, she has supported thousands of patients. She brings a rare blend of medical insight and performance-driven leadership. Drawing on her background in integrative health and experience within clinical environments, her work bridges the realities of business demands, health, and human performance. She partners with physicians and clinical teams, serving as the bridge between patients and providers to integrate the often-missing “healing from within” dimension alongside medical care. Tamsyn – Cape Town, South Africa A keynote speaker and leadership performance expert, Tamsyn Strydom helps high-performing founders and leaders elevate business results, performance, and health. Most leaders try to think their way through burnout, culture issues, and performance gaps. But real change starts on the inside. Tamsyn works with those who appear successful on the outside but feel disconnected, reactive, or stretched thin behind the scenes. She equips them to rebuild self-trust, emotional resilience, and clarity so they can lead more effectively and create real impact without burning out. Personally trained and certified within Dr. Joe Dispenza's authorized practitioner network, this is one of several dimensions that inform her approach. Originally from South Africa, Tamsyn is building a life in the U.S. that feels like a story worth telling. A story of new countries, getting intentionally lost in new cities, and deep talks at 1 AM about purpose, passion, and why we're really here. Learn more at TamsynStrydom.com. Follow Tamsyn on Facebook and Instagram. As mentioned in this episode: Willingness:  Willingness is a concept and a corresponding skill that supports healing. When we are willing, we choose to be and engage with what we are experiencing. We don’t have to like it. We don’t have to believe that what is here is okay or even good. It’s the choice we make to be right here, right now, with everything just as it is, even if it means feeling pain or discomfort. Our instinct might be to pull away, yet we can develop the skill of willingness. Self-compassion: “I define self-compassion as the ability (and practice) of holding myself amidst failure, disappointment, and suffering of any kind, and in the face of these life contractions, to still be able to offer myself love and kindness. …It is the practice of loving ourselves out of shame and into wholeness – the place where we can connect to and embody our own capacity for radical self-love.” Jasin Deegan (Read the full quote here.)

Who dares to make predictions in the current landscape? We do!  Our Predictions are back. Will our track-record continue on a high or will we be fundamentally wrong? Listen in to our Predictions for 2026 Navigation: Intro What will 2026 be all about? AI, AI and … more AI The big Hardware movements Of Start-ups and VCs Regulatory & Geopolitical Headwinds… and the Wars Fintech, Crypto and Frontier Tech Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show:   Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Bertrand Schmitt Introduction Welcome to Tech Deciphered Episode 74. That would be an episode about some predictions about 2026. What will be 2026 all about? I guess this year is probably starting with a bang. We saw the acquisition of xAI by SpaceX. We saw an acquisition from Grok by NVIDIA. What’s your take about what would be the big themes in 2026? I guess it would be for sure about AI and space. Nuno Goncalves Pedro What will 2026 be all about? Yeah. I predict a year that will be a little bit more of a year of reckoning in some way. There will be a lot of things that I think we’ll start seeing through. The fact that we are in the midst of an amazing transformational era for technology, the use of AI, but at the same time, obviously, a ridiculous bubble that is going alongside it as we’ve discussed in previous episodes. I think that we’ll start seeing some early reckonings of that, companies that might start failing, floundering, maybe a couple of frauds along the way, etc. I’ll tell you what I will not make many predictions about today, which is geopolitics. Geopolitics, I will not make predictions at all. Who the hell knows what’s going to happen to the world this year in 2026? I don’t dare making any predictions on that. Back to things where I would make predictions. I think on AI, we’ll have a little bit of reckoning. We’ll talk about it a little bit more in detail during this episode. Interesting elements around the hardware and physical space. Physical space, we just dedicated a full episode to it. We won’t go into a lot of details on that, but definitely on the hardware side, we’ll talk a little bit more about it. The VC landscape is going through an incredible transformation. We’ll talk about it today as well and some of our predictions for this year. What will happen to the asset class? It seems to be transforming itself dramatically. Obviously, that has a very direct impact on startups, so we’ll talk about that as well. And then to close a little bit the chapter on this, we will address some regulatory and geopolitical, let’s call it, headwinds without making maybe too many complex predictions. We shall see. Maybe by that time of the episode, we will be making some predictions. You guys should stay and listen to us, and maybe we will actually make some predictions about the geopolitical transformations that we will see this year in the world. Then last but not the least, we’ll talk about fintech, crypto, frontier tech, and a couple of other areas before concluding the episode. A classic predictions’ episode. We normally have a pretty good track record on some of these, but right now, the world is going a bit interesting, not to say insane. Bertrand Schmitt Yes, and going back to some news, Groq technically was not acquired, but, practically, it’s as if it got acquired. I’m talking about Groq, G-R-O-Q. The AI semiconductor company focused on inference AI, and it was late December. It was a way to end the year. This year, we started again with an acquisition of xAI by its sister company, SpaceX. I guess that’s where we are starting. AI, AI and … more AI We are going to start on AI. That’s definitely the big stuff. Everything these days, I guess, is about AI or has to have some connection with AI, or it doesn’t matter. I think every company in the world has seen that. You have to have the absolute minimum on AI strategy. You better execute on this strategy and show results, I would say. For the companies that were not AI native, you truly have to have a way to transform yourself. I guess at some point, the stretch might be too much, and it’s not really reasonable. Then you maybe better stay on what you are doing, especially if you’re in tech, you better be moving faster to AI. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Just to highlight, and I think throughout the episode, you’ll see that there’re obviously a lot of implications that would manifest themselves into capital markets. I mean, we’ll specifically talk about VCs and startups later on. But the fact that everything needs to be AI, the fact that there’s so much innovation happening right now, in my opinion, and this is maybe the first pre-topic to AI, is we’ll see a tremendous increase in M&A activity this year across the board. I mean, we’ve seen already some big acquihires we mentioned in some of our previous episodes, but we’ll see a lot more activity on M&A this year. Normally, that’s a precursor to the opening of capital markets. I predict also that there will be a reopening of the IPO market that never really reopened last year, to be honest. M&A, a lot more, reopening of the IPO market. Normally, it happens in the second or third quarter of the year. That’s what my M&A friends tell me. First quarter of year, everyone’s figuring out stuff. Then last quarter of the year, things should be more or less closed. Maybe the third quarter is the big quarter. We shall see. But definitely, as a precursor to our conversation today, I think we’ll see a lot of M&A, and we’ll see reopening of the IPO mark. Bertrand Schmitt I guess last year was not as big as you could expect on M&A given the tariff situation announced in April and May. I mean, it became quite tough to do IPO in such market conditions. Definitely, we can hope for something dramatically different in 2026. I guess talking about public markets and IPO, I guess the big one everyone is waiting for is SpaceX. SpaceX getting even more interesting with its xAI acquisition. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Do you think that because of the acquisition, it’s more likely that it will happen this year, or because of the acquisition, it’s less likely that it will happen this year? Bertrand Schmitt That’s a good question. My guess is the acquisition of xAI is all about xAI needing more financing and cheaper financing. This acquisition is a pathway to that. SpaceX being a much bigger company, a company that is also making much more revenues. I could bet that there is higher probability that, actually, SpaceX will go public in order to finance itself. At the same time, will it have enough time to prepare itself for the IPO given this acquisition just happened? Can they do that in 6 months? I mean, if anyone can do it, I guess it’s Elon Musk. It’s a strategy to present an even more attractive company with an even more interesting story, a story of vertical integration from AI to space. I guess the story as it’s presented itself right now, it’s one about having your AI data centers in space. Because in space, you have much better solar energy production with solar panels. You have a perfect cooling situation because you are in space. Thanks to Starlink, you have the mean to communicate between the satellites and with Earth itself. I think if someone can pull up a story like AI data center in space, I guess Elon Musk can. There is, of course, a lot of questions about is it practical? Is it economical? Yes. I certainly agree. I’m not clear on the mass, and can you make it work? Again, I mean, Elon Musk single-handedly, with SpaceX, managed to transform the space market on its head. I mean, they are the biggest satellite launching company in the world. They have the most satellites in the world. I mean, I’m not sure I would bet against him, and I guess I would probably believe that he could pull up something. Time frames, different story. The 2-3 years data center in space for AI as cheap as on Earth, I have more trouble with that one. I mean, it’s a usual suspect with Elon Musk. You promise something unachievable in a few years, but, ultimately, you still manage to reach it in 5 or 10. Again, I would not bet against the strategy. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Yeah. I’ve talked to a couple of space experts, people that have launched rockets, and have worked JPL, NASA, and a couple of other places, etc. For what it’s worth, their feedback is, “No way in hell, and we’re decades away.” We’ll see. I mean, to your point, Elon has pulled very dramatic stuff. Not as fast as he normally says he’s going to pull it, but within a time span that we all see it. Difficult to bet against him. In terms of actually the prediction, maybe to respond to the prediction as well, will SpaceX IPO? I’m going to make a prediction that has a very high likelihood of missing the mark, but I think Tesla’s going to buy and merge them both into it. It’s going to become a public company through Tesla. That’s my hypothesis. Bertrand Schmitt No. That’s supposed to be it. That’s how you solve that. Nuno Goncalves Pedro And Elon controls the whole universe. X, xAI, Tesla, SpaceX, all under one umbrella beautifully run. And SolarCity is well in there, of course, so wonderful. Bertrand Schmitt That’s possible. Certainly, you are not the only one thinking Tesla will acquire or merge with SpaceX. To remind everyone, Tesla is around 1.3, 1.5 trillion market cap. Depending on the day, SpaceX seems to be valued at similar range, 1.2, 1.3 trillion. It looks like it’s the most valued private company at this stage. These are companies of similar size, so that’s one piece of the puzzle. When you think about the combined company, we could be talking about a 3 trillion entity. Playing right here with the biggest companies in the marketplace today. Nuno Goncalves Pedro With a couple of tweets from Elon, it will rapidly get to 4 to 5 trillion. Bertrand Schmitt That’s so tricky. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Yes. On AI and back to AI, one thing I think that we’re about to see is this will probably be the year of agentic AI. Obviously, we predict a lot of growth on that side of the fence, in particular on the enterprise B2B side. We see a lot of opportunities coming through. From our perspective, at least at Chamaeleon, we generally believe that there’s going to be a lot of movements on agentic AI. It’s also going to be probably the year of the first big fails of agentic AI that will be newsworthy. There will be some elements about that loop and how it gets closed that will happen. I think we might see some scandals already. We’re already seeing the social network of bots talking to bots. We will see other scandals going on this year even in the consumer space and in the bot to bot space, which we now can talk about or in the AI agent to AI agent space. My prediction is we will see some move forwards. There’ll be some dramatic funding rounds along the way. We’ll see a couple of really cool things out of the gates coming out that are really impressive, but we’ll also see the first big misses of the technology stack. I don’t think we’ll go fully mainstream yet this year, so it’s probably maybe something more for 2027 along the way. That would be my prediction again. I think enterprise will lead the way. We’ll definitely see a lot of stuff on consumer as well that is cool. Then we’ll all have our own personal assistance in our hands, basically, literally in our phones. Bertrand Schmitt Going back to agentic AI, we also started the year with some pretty dramatic move. I mean, the launch of Clawdbot, renamed OpenClaw. I mean, this stuff took fire in like a week or 2. It was coded by just one person who actually didn’t even code the product but used AI to build the product, 100% used AI, proposing some new ways also to leverage AI to do coding. He has a pretty unique approach. It’s not vibe coding. I would say it’s a better way to do that. Then the surprising evolution with the launch of a social network for AI agents, Moltbook. I mean, this stuff, probably there is some fake in it. But at the same time, I think it’s quite impressive because it’s the first time we see truly 100,000 plus agents communicating directly to each other. Yeah. I mean, that’s the first time we see surfacing the possibility of some sort of hive mind on the Internet. It’s pretty surprising. Right now, all of this is a hack done in a few days. By end of year, by 2 years, 3 years, we might discover that, actually, the best approach to AI might not be the AI assistant like we are doing today, but a combination of hundreds of thousands of AI working closely together. We might be witnessing the first sign of new intelligence in a way. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Things like this social network might either be Skynet, the beginning of Skynet. They might be the beginning of Her, or they might just be a fad and nothing really happens. It’s just interesting to see what these agents are doing. Bertrand Schmitt Totally. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Obviously, there are real and clear and present dangers of some of the integrations of AI we’re seeing in the market. Interesting enough, and I’ll ask you for your prediction a bit, Bertrand. I think we’ll probably see the first big mishap of AI being used in some infrastructural decision in the age of AI. I mean, we’ve seen AI issues in the past and software issues in the past. We talked in previous episodes about that as well. Mishaps of software that have led to people dying. But I think probably the first big mishap will happen this year as well. Very public mishap of the use of AI and serve its interactions with infrastructure or something that’s very platform related, etc, that will have big impact that everyone will notice. That’s my prediction for the year as well. We’ll have the first big oops moment, as I would call it, for AI in this new age of full on AI. Bertrand Schmitt I would say first some perspective. I think today, people are not using AI directly for life and death decision, at least not that I’m aware. We’re not going to let AI fly a plane, for instance, tomorrow so you can be, reassured. At the same time, given there is such a race to AI, there definitely might be some mistakes. We were talking about the social network for AI agents, Moltbook. Apparently, all the keys used to secure the AI were shared by mistake because it was not properly locked down. We can see that indirectly, mistakes will be made for sure. Two, it’s highly probable that some people will trust AI too much to do some stuff, and this stuff might not work and might have some grave consequence. Hopefully, there is not so much of this. Hopefully, it’s mostly AI used for the good. But you’re right. I mean, at some point, the more we use the technology, the more there would be issue. I mean, it’s highly probable. Nuno Goncalves Pedro That will lead me to another prediction, which is, and we’ll talk about more of it later, but it probably will lead to the first significant movement in terms of regulatory environment certainly in the US at some point if it happens in the US in particular, where there will be some movement that will be like, “Hey, you guys can’t do this anymore.” Because this will probably emerge from mismanaged interfaces. From systems having access to stuff that they shouldn’t have access to in the first place. Talking a little bit more about what’s happening in AI. You’ve already mentioned some of the issues that relate actually to security and cybersecurity. We keep talking about AI. We keep talking about all these infrastructure pieces and platforms that are being built. I think we’ll have a lot more incidents like the one you just mentioned where things will be shared that shouldn’t have been shared, where people will break systems and get into it, etc. Let’s see where that takes us, which is a little bit ironic because, obviously, with AI, the promise is that cybersecurity becomes more robust as well because there’re agents working on our behalf on the cybersecurity side. There’s also agents working on the other side. Bertrand Schmitt It’s a constant race. It’s the attackers, defenders. Each time you have new technology, you have a new race to who is going to attack or defend the best. Each new wave of technology, it’s an opportunity to challenge the status quo. Nuno Goncalves Pedro The attackers have been winning, and I feel they’ll continue winning in 2026. I think it’s going to still be a year of attack. We’ll see more and more breaches, more and more stuff that will happen. Bertrand Schmitt I don’t know if they will win. I mean, it’s normal that they win once in a while. For sure, some infrastructure is not updated as it should. Some stuff are not managed as it should, so there will always be breaches. I don’t know if things are dramatically going to change because, again, everyone who cares who is going to update his infrastructure with AI for defense. There is no question that you have no choice. We will see. That I don’t know. For sure, AI will be used to attack directly with AI. Maybe you’re able to do bigger, larger scale attack. Or thanks to AI, you are simply able to create new type of attacks more easily. AI can be used behind the scene as a way to prepare and organise new type of attacks, even if it’s not used directly live in the battle. Nuno Goncalves Pedro One topic that we’ll come back to later is the geopolitics of everything, but maybe more broadly. On the geopolitics of AI, it’s very clear that we have an arms race going on. Obviously, the US on the one hand, China on the other hand is the two extremes, putting tremendous amount of capital into data centers just at the base of that infrastructure. Chipset development, chipset access, a huge theme in terms of the export restrictions, etc, that are being forced by the US. I think it will continue. From a European standpoint, obviously, they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, to be very honest. Let’s see what happens on that side of the fence. My view of the world is that certainly from a US and China perspective, we’re going to see a lot more movements in 2026, like big movements. The Chinese movements we always see in delay.  It takes us a couple of months, sometimes even more than that to understand exactly what’s going on. I think we’re going to see some huge moves this year in terms of the States, the United States of America, and China really pouring capital into the creation of the next big winners around AI. I think the US is obviously more visible. We see a lot of these companies. We’ve just discussed xAI and its acquisition by SpaceX or merger. I don’t know what they’re calling it exactly. Effectively, on the China side, the movements I think are already very big. As I said, it will take a while to figure out exactly what those moves are. One thing that I propose is that at some point, China will have very little dependency on chipsets from the US. I’m not sure it’s going to happen this year, but I think the writing is on the wall. Irrespective of any other geopolitical issues that is coming to the fore at this moment in time. That’s one of the key areas or in arenas of fight. Bertrand Schmitt It makes sense. If you are China, you will look at what happened. You would think that you cannot just depend on the largest of one country. It makes rational sense, the same way it makes rational sense for the US to limit exports to China because there is value to delay some peer pressure that could use these technologies for good but also for bad. If you were an ally of the US, that would be one thing. But when you are not an ally of the US, that certainly should be a different perspective. Maybe one last point concerning agents, I think there will be a lot that will revolve around coding. We can see OpenAI with Codex. We can see Cloud with code. There was, of course, [inaudible 00:18:28] that was trying to be big on agentic coding. I think agentic coding was one of the big transformation in 2025 and is going to get bigger in 2026. I think for a lot of people who do coding, there was a radical transformation in terms of what you can achieve, what you can do, how much you can trust AI to help you code. I start to think we might see this year, the replacement of not just one AI replace one coder, but one AI replace a full team because of the new ability to manage that at scale. Coding might be a common activity where you are going to think about outcomes, think about objective, think about how you organise, but not really coding by itself anymore. A big change, like you used to code, directly your hand on the stuff, but step by step, everyone is going to become a manager of agent. I think in one year, we saw enough transformation to think that in the coming year, the transformation can be even more dramatic. Nuno Goncalves Pedro The big Hardware movements Now switching gears to hardware. Obviously, a lot of movements in 2025 and over the last few years. One piece of thesis that we’ve had long-standing at Chamaeleon is that we will see the emergence of AI devices. Some of them have been tremendous failures as we discussed in the past. I predict that we’ll have a couple of really interesting full stack AI devices in the market this year. Why does that matter? Because, as many of you know, obviously, there’s compute that can happen in data centers and cloud infrastructure all over the world, but also there’s compute that can happen at the edges. The more you can move to the edges and the more you can create devices that actually allow you to have user experiences that are very distinctive at the edge, the more powerful some of these devices might become. I predict Apple will not be the first to launch anything on this. I predict probably OpenAI, after the acquisition of IO, will maybe not launch something this year, but will announce something this year. I’ll step back on that prediction. They’ll announce something this year, but maybe not launch. But we’ll start seeing some devices that have some interesting value in the market, probably devices that are AI devices, but they are very focused on very specific user flows, and so very much adequate to specific activities. I won’t make a prediction on that, but I think areas that would make sense for that to happen would be obviously around fitness, health, et cetera, et cetera, where we already have the ascendancy of products like Oura Ring and others out there. Definitely, that’s one area that might have quite a lot of developments. I think AI-first devices, devices that are very focused on compute at the edges, providing user flows that are AI-enabled to end users, we’ll see a lot more of that and a lot more activity this year. Again, I don’t think Apple will be necessarily ahead of the game. Again, maybe OpenAI will give us something to at least think about and look forward to. Bertrand Schmitt First, I’m not sure it will be that transformational because if it’s not in your phone, in your pocket, there is only so much you can do with it, and there is only so much computing power you will have. I’m doubtful it would be really impactful this year. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I feel we’ve been discussing this shift of paradigm in input and output. For me, some of these devices could lead to that shift. Because, again, a mobile phone is not a great long-term paradigm for the usage that we have because it’s really constrained by the screen. The screen is really what takes most of the battery life away. If we didn’t have that screen, what could we do? If we have the block that is as big as a mobile phone, and it didn’t have a screen, it was just compute, that’s a mini computer, a microcomputer. Bertrand Schmitt That’s a fair point, but I don’t see that transformation this year. That’s really more my point. I can see that you can have AI-enabled smart glasses, and it’s clear there is a race to AI-enabled smart glasses. My point is more to go beyond the gadget, it would take quite a while. It would need to have cameras. It would need to analyse what you see. It would need to hear what you hear. Again, it might come, but then at some point, it would be okay, what do you do with it? We have the example of the movie Her. That’s showing Her what it could be. There are definitely possibilities. It’s clear that if you take the big VR headset like the Apple Vision Pro, there is a failure from that perspective in the sense that I think it’s a great, amazing device. The big problem is that it’s doing way more that makes sense. I think there will be a clearer separation between your smart AR glasses that has to be light, that has to be always unconnected, and that’s primarily there to help you make sense of the world around you. The true VR headset that doesn’t really require much in terms of AI, and it’s just there to immerse you in a different world. For this, we know, unfortunately, in some ways, that there is not a lot of demand for it. Maybe there is little demand because you are too hidden in your own world. The technology is not working well enough yet. There are a lot of reasons. But I think Apple trying to do both at the same time, AR and VR, with the Vision Pro, was a pretty grave structural mistake. I think we would see a clearer line of separation between the two. There is bigger market opportunity for AR glasses. That, I certainly agree. There is opportunity to connect that to a computing device. As you talk about, your glasses are your screen, your phone becomes something in your pocket connected to your glasses. Nuno Goncalves Pedro For me, Apple has their way of doing things. From the perspective of what you said, they normally really plan their devices. Even if it’s a big shift in terms of a new area, like they tried with the Vision Pro, and we criticised them for launching it as a device that should have been more of a dev device that they really launched as a full-on device, but that’s their playbook, classically. I think Apple needs to change how they put products out and how they experiment with those products, et cetera. I think they have enough money to be doing everything all the time and figuring it out. If they don’t want to put it out, then they need to do a lot more hell of testing internally with their silos, but they should be playing across all these arenas, VR, AR, everything. They just should put devices out that are either ready for prime time, or they should call it something else. They should call it like this is a dev device or whatever it is. Bertrand Schmitt I agree with you. My complaint is more that it was marketed as a consumer device when it was not. It was a true developer device. Two, they tried to mix the two at once, and it made no sense. No one is going to walk in their home or in the street with their Vision Pro on their head. You have to be deranged, quite frankly, to have use cases like this. I think that for me is a crazy mistake from a company like Apple that prides itself in pure UI, pure user interface, very well-designed device for one specific use case, not mixing the two use cases. We still don’t have Macs with a touchscreen, you know?  We still don’t have an iPad with a good OS that makes use of this great hardware. For some strange reason, they decided to mix everything in the Vision Pro with a device that weighs a ton on your head and is so uncomfortable. That’s why, for me, I’m like, “Guys, what is wrong? Why did you let this team run crazy?” I hope at some point, Apple will go back to the drawing board. My understanding is that that’s what they are doing. They are going to have two devices, one smart glasses, an evolution of the Vision Pro, just focus on VR. They might actually abandon the concept of the pure VR-oriented headset. Because, from a market size perspective, it might not be big enough for Apple, quite frankly. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I read on all of the above, and people at this point was like, “Why are then players like Samsung and others not doing it. LG, et cetera?” Because those players historically have not invented new categories. They’re amazing at catching up once the category is invented, and then they scale the hell out of it, and that’s what these companies have been exceptional at. I wouldn’t see a dramatic innovation, I think, in terms of devices coming from any of the big ones on that side of the fence. Not to disrespect them in any way, but I think that’s not been their playbook ever. Again, if the origination doesn’t come from a start-up or from an Apple, I don’t see those guys going after it. My bet is that we’ll see some start-up activity and, again, hopefully, some announcement from IO now within the OpenAI world. Bertrand Schmitt I would slightly disagree with you. I see where you are coming from. But take the Samsung Galaxy Note, that sudden much bigger headphone that no one was doing that was launched by Samsung, at some point, it forced Apple to launch an iPhone Max. Let’s look at the Z Fold that Samsung launched 7 years ago, copied by everyone. Now Samsung launching a trifold. Apple has still not launched their foldable phone. I think there is a mix, actually, of sometimes- Nuno Goncalves Pedro For me, that’s not a proper new category. It’s still a mobile phone. It just happens to have a screen that folds in half. Bertrand Schmitt The iPhone was still a mobile phone, you could argue.  Nuno Goncalves Pedro No. I think the iPhone was…  I could actually agree with you on that point. Maybe Apple is not as innovative in that case. I think what Steve Jobs was exceptionally good at in terms of his ability as this master product manager was to be an exceptional curator of user flows and user experiences, and creating incredible experiences from devices based on that. That was his secret sauce. Could you say, “Wasn’t all of this stuff already around?” It was. You just put it all together very neatly and very nicely. But if you’re talking about significant shifts in how a category is done, the iPhone was a significant shift in how the category was done. The Fold is still an interesting device. I actually have a Fold right now in front of me. The 7 that you highly recommended to me that we both got, the Z Fold 7. I think they do amazing devices. I don’t think they normally are the most innovative players. Then, when they come to innovation, it comes from technology edges. Obviously, they have Samsung Display, there’s a bunch of other things. They had the ability to do foldable screens in-house themselves. Bertrand Schmitt I don’t disagree with you. I think there is an interesting situation where some companies have some strengths, another one has some strengths. My worry with Apple is that this was not demonstrated with the Vision Pro. The Vision Pro was a hot pot of technologies barely integrated together, with use cases absolutely not well-defined and certainly not something that makes sense for most of us. There is a question of has Apple lost it? While Samsung actually keeps doing their own stuff, that, yes, might be more minor improvements, but at least they are doing it. Because it looks like Apple is missing the train on even the minor improvements. By the way, you might not be aware, but Samsung launched its Vision Pro competitor. Interestingly enough, it might be a better product in some ways, being much lighter and much more comfortable. Nuno Goncalves Pedro We should play around with that and report back to our listeners. Of Start-ups and VCs Moving to venture capital and the startup ecosystem and what’s happening there, I think it is very much a bifurcated environment, and it’s bifurcated for both VCs and for startups. If you’re a startup in the AI space, and you have the hottest team since sliced bread, and you can create FOMO at the speed of light, you can raise ridiculous rounds. Five hundred million at the $3 billion, or $4 billion, or $5 billion valuation, and you still haven’t really even started. First round, you can raise 500 million. That’s back to the whole discussion on Bubble and where are we, et cetera. Some of these companies might actually become huge, some of them might not. But definitely, we are seeing really the haves and have-nots on the startup ecosystem with incredible teams raising a lot of money very, very early on or mid-stage if they’ve already existed for a while, and then the rest not being able to raise. We see a lot of non-necessarily AI sectors, some of the areas of SaaS that don’t necessarily have AI in it, or fintech, or the consumer space that are really, really struggling. If you don’t have an AI story for your startup right now, it’s extremely difficult to raise money unless your numbers are just the best numbers ever. That’s, I think, the first part of the element of bifurcation that we’re seeing today. The second element of bifurcation that we’re seeing today in terms of fundraising is for VCs themselves, and really propelled by the large VC firms raising more and more capital in recent orbits, announcing 15 billion across funds raised. Lightspeed, I think, had made an announcement a couple of weeks ago as well. They’ve raised a bunch of money as well. The big guys are all raising a lot of money. At some point in time, the question some of you might ask is, “These VCs are redeploying more and more money if they have a couple of billion for a VC fund. How does that look like? Is that still VC?” My perspective, I’ve shared before in some of our previous episodes, is that that’s no longer venture capital. At that point in time, we’re talking about something else. Private equity hedge funds, if you want to call them, maybe funds that are really driven by growth investment or late-stage investment. If you have a couple of billion under management, you’re not going to make your returns by writing a $3 million check in a series seed and leading that round.  That has implications for everyone in the ecosystem. It has implications for smaller funds that obviously have a lot more difficulty in raising capital. It’s difficult to differentiate. Last but not least, also for startups that really continue searching for that capital that is out there. Andreessen Horowitz, for example, runs Speedrun, which is a great program for companies around consumer in particular. Initially, it was a lot for gaming. But at some point in time, Andreessen Horowitz could decide that they don’t want to invest more in you. They just put money from Speedrun, which is obviously a very small check compared to the very large checks they could write mid to late stage and that will have an effect on you as a startup. What happens at that point in time if Andreessen Horowitz is not backing you up in later stages? More than that, what happens if I can’t get these big funds interested in me? Are the small funds still valuable to me? Punchline, my view is yes. Obviously, we’re a smaller fund, so there’s parochial interest in what I’m saying. Small funds can still create a ton of value for you, also in terms of credibility, ability to accompany you in those first stages of investment, and the ability to bring other larger investors later down the road as well. There’s definitely a big movement happening in terms of the fundraising for VC funds, which we shouldn’t neglect, which is the big guys are raising a lot more capital and are therefore emptying the market to smaller funds that are having more and more difficult raising at this point in time. We had discussed that there would be a need for concentration in the industry, that micro funds would need to concentrate, and we didn’t have the space for so many micro funds as we had around. But the way it’s happening is extremely dramatic at this moment in time. I think it will continue through 2026. Bertrand Schmitt Remember a few years ago, with the rise of AI, there was more and more of the question about, “What’s the point of SaaS at this stage?” Because SaaS was around for 15 years. Basically, how do you come up with something new that was not already tested, validated by the market? How do you bring something new? We say this was reinforced to the power of 10. If your product is not clearly built from the ground up for a new use case enabled by AI, anyone could then might have built your product 5, 10 years ago, and therefore, why now has no clear answer, and it’s a big problem. I’m still surprised myself to still see some entrepreneurs where you talk to them about AI because you don’t see them in the deck, and they explain to you, “It’s not yet there,” and you’re like, “What’s wrong with you guys?” Fine. Do whatever you want. Do a small business and whatever, but don’t think you can come up pitch and raise without an AI story. The second category is people who come with an AI story, but you can feel very quickly, I guess you saw that many times, Nuno, where just a story layered on top with little credibility. It’s not better. It’s not enough to just have a story. Your business needs to be radically built differently or radically proposing some brand-new use cases that were impossible to solve 5 years ago. Nuno Goncalves Pedro To stack up on that, absolutely in agreement. If you’re just adding to the story, and it’s an afterthought, and you’re just trying to make the story somehow gel, once you go into one or two layers of due diligence, your investors will very quickly realise that you’re not really AI-first or dramatically AI-enabled or whatever. It’s just you’re sort of stacking something on top of another thesis. It needs to make sense from the product onwards. It’s not just, let’s just put it together with chewing gum, and magically, people will give you money. It was true also if we remember the good old crypto blockchain days, where everyone’s investing in crypto. A lot of stories that didn’t make much sense. In that sense, it’s not very different. I would go one step further. I think in the world of the VC winter that we’re a little bit in, where it’s more and more difficult if you’re a smaller fund to raise your fund at this moment in time, there’s a lot of sources of distinctiveness still talked about, like proprietary networks, access to deal flow, fast track record, all that stuff that really, really matters. But our bet continues at Chamaeleon continues being that you need to be AI-first as a VC fund yourself. You need to have core advantages in using not only readily-available AI tools or third-party available AI tools, data sources, technology stacks, but actually building your own stack over time, which is what we did with Mantis at Chamaeleon. Again, just to reinforce that, I think we’re at the beginning of that stage. We, Chamaeleon, are ahead of the game, but we think that the rest of the market will have to move towards that as well. Still, to be honest, very surprising to me to see that many significant large players are doing very little still around some of these spaces. They have data scientists. They’re running some tools. They’re running some analysis and all that stuff, but it’s still, again, back to the point I was making for startups, all glued up with chewing gum. It doesn’t all come together nicely, which it does need to from a platform standpoint. Bertrand Schmitt It’s quite surprising. I agree with you that some VC funds might think that they can do business as usual in that brand-new world. It’s difficult to believe. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Maybe moving a little bit toward the capital formation piece. We already discussed the M&A space really accelerating. We’ve also discussed the IPO market and some predictions on that. Secondaries, there’s obviously a lot of liquidity coming from secondaries from mid to late stage. I think it will continue throughout the rest of 2026. A lot of activity in buying, selling in secondaries as some asset managers are becoming more distressed, as some very high net worth individuals and family offices are becoming more distressed as well, at the same time, where there’s a lot of opportunities to potentially arbitrage around some investments. I believe a lot of money will be made and lost this year by decisions made this year, just to be very, very clear in terms of equity, purchases, et cetera. Exciting year ahead of us. Definitely a very, very interesting market ahead of us. Secondaries, M&A, growth, and late-stage investing, also, early-stage investing will continue just for those that were wondering. Last but not least, the public markets, the IPO market as well. Bertrand Schmitt One of the big questions for the IPO market would be, will SpaceX go public? Would it be good for the startup ecosystem? Because suddenly that they go public, it would be to raise money. If they raise money, will there be any money left for anybody else? That would be an interesting test of the market. For sure, it would be proof that market are risk on financing a new IPO like this one. Or as you said, maybe there is no IPO, and it’s a merger with Tesla. Time will tell. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Regulatory & Geopolitical Headwinds… and the Wars Moving maybe to our topic of regulation and geopolitical headwinds, as we’re seeing … definitely not tailwinds. The Google antitrust verdict and, obviously, the remedies are expected to come forward now, and a lot of people are saying, “There are some risks of structural separation.” What do you think? Is it cool, but nothing will happen in the end dramatically? Alphabet or Google? I’m not sure, actually. It’s Google LLC. I think that’s the case. It’s The United States versus Google LLC. Bertrand Schmitt I’m not sure. Personally, I’m not a big fan. I think there needs to be a better way to manage some anticompetitive behavior. I’m not a big fan. There was this temptation to do that for Microsoft 25 years ago. Look at what happened. No one needed to buy Microsoft to leave space for others. I see the same with Google, and I guess they are happy to not be the number 1 in AI today, but to have an open AI in front of them. Even if they are doing a great job, by the way, to move forward and go faster and faster. Personally, quite impressed now with some of what they have released. Gemini 3 is doing great from my perspective. I’m not a big fan of this. I think to be clear, it’s important that bigger companies don’t behave anticompetitively, but at the same time, we need to find the right approach where it’s not about breaking these companies, and it’s also not about forbidding them to do acquisitions. Because then you end up with what NVIDIA just did with a $20 billion acquihire IP licensing type of acquisition, because they didn’t want to have the uncertainties. They didn’t want to wait 1–2 years in order to acquire the people and the technology, so they organised it in a different way. But I don’t like that. I think they should be able to acquire companies without facing so much uncertainty. To be clear, it’s not new. Uncertainty when you are Google, NVIDIA, or others, it happens. It has happened for a decade plus, 2 decades. I think there needs to be, for sure, some safety valves. At the same time, we want an efficient capital market. An efficient capital market need companies that can acquire other companies. If you don’t do that efficiently, it will be worse for the entrepreneurs, it will be worse for the investors, it will be worse for everybody. I think we have not reached a good equilibrium from my perspective. We need more efficient acquisition process. And at the same time, we need to also enforce faster anticompetitive behavior. Because what you talk about concerning Google, this is a case that was what? That is 10 years old. You see what I mean? This is way too long. If you’re a startup, you are dead by then. It’s like the story of Netscape facing Microsoft. They were dead long after the fact. I think we need a different approach. I’m not sure the best answer. I’m not sure we’ll get a better approach. There are probably too many vested interest. My hope is that it will get better with this current administration because, certainly, the past administration was very anti acquisition and efficient markets. Nuno Goncalves Pedro We’ve talked about the European Union AI Act a bunch of times, so I don’t want to spend too many cycles on that. The only effect that I would say is we are seeing in very slow motion the splitting of the Internet. I once had Tim Berners-Lee, by the way, shouting at me that we were going to break the Internet when we were applying for the .mobi top-level domain. I was part of that consortium that eventually did get the .mobi top-level domain, and I had him shouting at us. But, apparently, this is going to split the Internet, Tim. So in case you’re listening. Because it will create all these different rules. If your data is relating to consumers there, then it’s treated in a different way, and The US is… Well, obviously, we have the case of California with its own rules and laws. I don’t know. I feel we’re having a moment of siloing that goes beyond economic and geopolitical siloing. It will also apply to the digital world, and we’ll start having different landscapes around it. We’ll see how this affects global expansion of services, for example, around AI, particularly for consumer, but I don’t foresee anything dramatically positive. Recently, we had the whole deal around TikTok finally having a solution for their US problem where there’s now a US conglomerate magically that owns it. The conglomerate doesn’t magically own it, they just straight up own it for the US. But it was driven by many of these concerns around data ownership. Where’s the data? Where is it based? I think a lot of other concerns that have to do with the geopolitics of China, obviously, being the basis of ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, that still is a significant owner, by the way, in TikTok in US. Then also the interest in the economics of making money out of something as powerful as TikTok, to be honest, in The US. Just to be clear, I don’t think this was all about the best interests of consumers. It was also about money. Just follow the money. Bertrand Schmitt There are for sure, some powerful interest at play. But let’s be clear. I think one is data, as you rightfully said, but the other one is algorithm. It’s not as if China is authorising any competitor on its territory. They have blocked access to most of the Internet platforms from the US, either finding new rules or just trade blocking them. So I don’t think it’s fair competition. You don’t want some of that data in China about the US or European consumer. Three, it’s about the algorithm. If suddenly, you are a foreign power, and you can as we know in China, you better follow what’s required of you from the Chinese Communist Party. You cannot take a chance with influencing other stuff like elections in other countries. It’s fair from the US perspective. One could even argue it’s fair from a Chinese perspective to want that. I think the only one in the middle who doesn’t really know what they want is Europe because on one side, they want to benefit from American platforms, on the other end, they want to have some controls. On the other end, they don’t create the environment for startups to flourish. So in that weird situation where they have to accept some control by the big US providers and either provider of underlying infrastructure or provider of consumer business facing services. Then they try to regulate them. But I think they are misunderstanding the power relationship, and I think some of this regulation would get some blowback, at least by the current administration. Just, I believe, this morning, there was some news around X being under a criminal investigation in France. This is not going to end well for the French startup and VC ecosystem. This is not going to end well for France and Europe when you depend so much from your American friends. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Regulation will be weaponised. Regulation constraints around exports, all of this will be weaponised geopolitically, and the bigger guys will normally win. I think that’s normally what we’ve seen. Just on TikTok just to… And you guys, if you’re listening to us, just see if you see a pattern here, but obviously, 19.9% still owned by ByteDance of the TikTok entity in the US. It was initially said that 80% of the TikTok entity is owned by non-Chinese investors. Initially, people were saying US investors, and then they changed it to non-Chinese because MGX, I think, has 15% of it. MGX is based in the UAE, connected obviously to Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund. Silver Lake is in there, I think, with 15% as well. Oracle as well with 15%. Those three are the big bucket owners together, 45%. Silver Lake having collaborated with MGX before, and I’m sure a lot of connectivity there. Then you still see a pattern in this in terms of shareholders. If you don’t, then just Google it. Dell Family Office, Vastmir Strategic Investments, which is owned by billionaire Jeff Yass, Alpha Wave Partners, obviously involved with a bunch of things like SpaceX and Klarna, Virgoli, Revolution, which is Steve Case’s, a former founder of AOL, is also in there. Meritway, which is managed by partners, I think, of Dragonair. Vinova from General Atlantic, an affiliate of General Atlantic. Also, NJJ Capital, which I believe is Xavier Nil, the French billionaire that founded Iliad. Mostly American, I think, if the math is correct. 80% non-Chinese, which was what mattered, I think, in many cases. But do see if you saw a pattern in most of those investors. I won’t say anything more than that. Maybe moving to other topics, maybe just to finalise on regulation and geopolitics. In geopolitics, we should talk about wars if we predict anything. Not that we are nasty and one want to be negative, but what the hell is going on? Will we have ending to the wars we already have ongoing or not? But before that, the struggles on the App Stores, I think, will continue both for Apple and for Google Play Store. The writing’s on the wall, the EU keeps pushing it dramatically and Apple keeps just doing stuff. I’m on the board of an App Store company. Apple just creates all these things that basically make you not really… It doesn’t work. You can’t provision then an App Store on Apple devices. On iPhones, et cetera. We’ll see how that will continue going, but I feel the writing’s on the wall. Both Apple and Google will have to open up a bit more of their platforms. I’m not sure it will have a huge impact in the medium to long term, but definitely we need to see more openness in access to apps as given by the two big platform owners, Apple and Google, out there. Bertrand Schmitt Let’s be clear. Google is way more open than Apple. We both have Android devices. You can install alternative app stores. It’s a different ballgame by very far. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Google does other nasty stuff. It’s public. You can check which board I’m a part of. You can see what that company has done towards Google over time. But to your point, yes. It is true that Google has been more open than Apple, but Google has done their own things. Just to be very clear, so I’ll just leave that caveat bracketed there for people to think about it and maybe read a little bit about it as well. Bertrand Schmitt I can say that, me, from my perspective, that path of total control that Apple has been going through on all their devices, that includes macOS, pushed me to, over the past 2, 3 years, to completely live and abandon the Apple ecosystem. I just couldn’t accept that level of control, that golden handcuff approach of the Apple ecosystem, each their own obviously, they are golden, their handcuffs, but they are still handcuffs. Personally, that pushed me way more to Linux, Android, Windows, back to Windows after all these years. I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I want to pick my devices. I want to pick what I install on them, and I don’t want to be controlled like this by just one entity for all my tech devices. For me, at some point, it was just not acceptable anymore. It’s still very warm, very golden handcuffs, but for me, they were just handcuffs at this stage. Yes, what they are doing with the App Store is very typical of that mindset. I think it’s quite sad because I think it started with good intention in some ways. “We need a new computing paradigm, we need to make things smoother and safer,” but it has really become a way to control your clients. For me, it has reached a point where it’s just way too much. Nuno Goncalves Pedro There’s obviously the great power comes great responsibility that uncle Ben told Spider-Man or Peter Parker. But there’s also with great power comes shitload of money, and control. So it’s like, “Yeah. Should we open the server? Do we want to delay opening it up?” “Yeah.” Anyway, it is what it is. Maybe let’s end on the more difficult note of the episode, which is going to be around wars. What’s our prediction? Will we have an end to the Gaza situation with Israel? Will we have an end to Ukraine and, obviously, Russia? What will happen in Iran? Those are the three big, big conflicts right now. Then, obviously, if we want to add just bonus points, what’s going to happen to Greenland, and what’s going to happen to Taiwan, and what’s going to happen to Venezuela? Let’s throw the whole basket in there. We’ve never had like… Let’s talk about all these territories and all these countries. At some point in time, I’m saying this in a light manner, but it’s obviously more tragic than it should be light, and people are dying, and there’s a lot of implications of all of that that is happening right now. Do you have any predictions, Bertrand, for this year? Bertrand Schmitt No. It’s tough to predict on an individual basis. I think on a more bigger picture basis is on one side, obviously, the rise of China on one side. You have also the rise of other countries like India, while very indirectly connected to some of these conflicts are still part of the game, buying oil from Russia, for instance. At the same time, I think overall, the US is more clear about with the sheriff in town. I think it’s good because in some ways, you cannot pay for the goods, you cannot have such a massive advantage versus nearly every other country on earth and just not be clear about who is the boss in some ways. As a result, what are the rules of the game and how it should be played? The US is not alone, obviously, you have China, you have Russia, you have India, you have Europe. You have different other countries. But at some point, it’s not good when countries are not rational and are not clear. I think I prefer the current situation where things are more clear and where you have to assume responsibilities about what you are doing. It’s time to be rational again about how the world behave. Yes, the concept of power and balance of power. I think there has been that dream, maybe mostly coming from Europe, about the end of history. I think that’s simply not the case. It’s not the end of history. It’s still about the balance of power. It has always been about the balance of power. If you are dumb enough to think it was not about that anymore, I just have a bridge to nowhere to sell you. I don’t have specific prediction, but I think it’s clear there is a new sheriff in town. There is a new doctrine about the Western Hemisphere that has been in some ways resurrected on the [inaudible 00:51:35] train, and I think we’ll see more of it. I think at this point, the biggest question is for the Europeans. What do they want to do? Because right now, their position of being a dwarf militarily while being a pretty big giant economically, I don’t think it works. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I agreed on everything that you said. I do have predictions. I’ll stick a flag on the ground just with my predictions. Bertrand Schmitt Good luck. Nuno Goncalves Pedro They are mostly positive. I do think we’ll see an end or, for the most, end to the two big conflicts, the one in Gaza and the one in Ukraine. I think Ukraine will end up in readjustment of territory and splitting between Russia and the Ukraine, but the end of hostilities, I think that we will see an end to the conflict in Gaza also with a readjustment on what that will mean for the Palestinian territories and the Palestinians in general. That I’m not sure, but I feel that there will be an end to those two big conflicts. Iran, I have no clue. I will not put a stick on the ground that I have no clue. There are so many things that could go wrong there. I’ve been reading some really interesting thoughts about even some aggressive thoughts that this might be the time to really change regimes in Iran and for the US to have a bit more of an aggressive stance. I really don’t have a perspective. Obviously, there’s a lot at stake there. Then, if we talk about the other parts, Greenland, I will not opine too much on. Maybe we’re done for now. Maybe there’ll be some other concessions to the US that weren’t already there in the ’50s. Taiwan, I won’t bet either. I’m sad to say I think it might happen at some point in time, but I’m not sure when and what would drive it. Last but not the least, Venezuela is my only really negative prediction. I feel it will continue to be a significant dictatorship as it was before managed enough by other people with the difference now that it has a tax to be paid to the US in the form of oil of some sort, etcetera, and maybe gas, maybe other things as well that it didn’t have before. That’s probably my most negative prediction for the coming year on the geopolitical side. Bertrand Schmitt Without going into detail, I would mostly agree with what you shared. At least that makes sense. But as we know, it’s not always what makes sense, but what might happen. I can tell you 100% I would not have guessed this operation against Maduro. This was so well done, well executed, and shocking at the same time that it’s… I think it shows that it’s hard to guess some of this stuff because there are certainly some new ways to wage limited war, for instance. So it’s certainly interesting, and we certainly need to get used to pretty bombastic statements. But for Venezuela, I don’t think it can be worse than what it was before. I’m probably more optimistic that gradually it can get better. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Just to put perspective on why we’re not making predictions on some of these elements, I think this is a funny story, but I was in Madeira. Actually, first time I was in Madeira, although I’m originally from Portugal. I’ve never been to the islands. Obviously, as you guys know, or some of you might know, there’s a lot of connection between Madeira and Venezuela. There’s a lot of immigration from Madeira Islands to Venezuela. One of my Uber or Bolt drivers there in Madeira was Venezuelan. Was born in Venezuela, but Portuguese descent, et cetera. He was telling me this was still last year. Late last year. Because I told him I lived in US, et cetera, and he was like, “Oh, hopefully, Trump will get Maduro out of there.” In my mind, I was like, “Dude.” No disrespect to the gentleman, but it’s like, “Okay. Mike, your perspective on geopolitics is maybe a little bit exaggerated.” And a couple of days later, we know what happened. When geopolitical decisions are better predicted by some probably very astute Uber drivers, you’re like, “Maybe I shouldn’t make a bet. I have no clue what’s going to happen, no clue what’s going to happen in Greenland, et cetera.” Anyway, a couple of predictions on that element. Bertrand Schmitt That’s why it’s so right. You have to be careful with the prediction, but it doesn’t remove the fact that I think nations and companies that have to play a global game have to understand in some ways what is the game, what are the powers in place, what could happen potentially, but also be realistic. Not be about wish and dreams, but more about, what’s the power relationship? Who has the money? Who has the means? Who has the capacity to do this or that? Because if you start that way, at least the scope of what’s possible, what’s reasonable is more and more clear more quickly. Some stuff like happened with Maduro, I would never have predicted, but for sure, if there’s one country that can do this sort of stuff, it’s the US. I’m not sure anyone has a technology and the means in terms of support infrastructure to do something like this. It’s tough to predict what will happen a year from now for any specific country, but I think that even trying to get a better understanding about the forces in play and their capacity and understanding and accepting that at some point, it’s all about real politic and relationship of power, the more your eyes would be wide open about what’s possible versus simple, wishful thinking. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Fintech, Crypto and Frontier Tech Moving maybe to our last section around fintech, crypto, and frontier tech. For me, just two very quick predictions, views of the world. I think on the frontier tech side, I won’t make a prediction. I will just tell you all to go and listen to our episodes, the one on infrastructure, which is immediately prior to this one, and the episodes that we’ve had around a couple of other topics including AI, what’s the future of your children, because I think they illustrate a lot of the points that we’re seeing and manifesting themselves over the next year and over the next 2 or 3 years as well beyond that. I feel those tomes are complete in and out of themselves, so you can just go and listen to them. Then my second comment is on crypto. I feel crypto has become of the essence, particularly under the current administration in the US, very favored. Obviously, we are now in a world where crypto is just part of the economic system, and I think we’ll see more and more of that emerging, and in some ways, crypto is becoming mainstream. Question is what blockchains will be the blockchains of the future? Obviously, there’s a bunch of bets put out there. We, ourselves, as Chamaeleon, have one investment in one of the significant bets in the space. But besides that, who’s going to win or not, we feel that we’re past the crypto winter. It’s now mainstream days, and we’ll see a lot more activity in there. Bertrand Schmitt I must say with crypto, I’m a bit confused. As you say, we are past the crypto winter. There is much less uncertainty in regul

Some people want to live forever. Personally… that sounds exhausting. BUT -  wanting to feel good for as long as possible? That's something most of us can probably agree on.The longevity world has exploded in recent years. Billionaires are spending millions trying to slow aging, researchers are studying how our cells change over time, and there are endless protocols promising to help us live longer.So where do we even begin?Today - we take a look at insights from some of the most influential voices in longevity,  pulling out a few simple takeaways that might actually be worth paying attention to.And later in the episode, we're highlighting an interview I did with one of the world's leading telomere researchers, who answers the question many people are wondering: Can humans actually live beyond 125 years?In this episode, we explore:✔️ The habit one longevity pioneer prioritizes above almost everything else✔️ Why lowering your heart rate before bed may matter more than you think✔️ The research linking regular sauna use to better long-term health✔️ The cellular pathways scientists believe play a role in aging✔️ Why certain types of “stress” may actually support longevity✔️ What the world's longest-living communities have in common✔️ The powerful role of connection and purpose in long life✔️ What leading telomere researcher Dr. Bill Andrews says about the limits of human lifespanAs always, take what you need and leave the rest.Big thanks to our sponsor, ITL Health. More information on them, and their different magnesiums made with bioavailability in mind can be found here:https://itlhealth.ca/

In this episode of Personally Speaking Msgr. Jim Lisante is joined by legendary radio personality Kevin Matthews. Kevin was one of the most recognized radio voices in America and he built a massive audience in the 1980's and ‘90's, garnering 10 million listeners a week. At the height of his success, Kevin was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, forcing him to confront vulnerability, loss and a new identity beyond fame. Kevin experienced a life changing encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary which is described in his powerful memoir, and feature film, “Broken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story”, detailing how the radio personality found purpose after discovering a broken statue of the Virgin Mary.Support the show

Joy invites on Activist and OG mom friend, Colleen Weiss, to give us the dose of hope and motivation that we, as mothers, could all use right now. Sarah shares about her magical trip to New Orleans, Joy is applying to high schools and Colleen needs her kids to go to school for at least one full week. Trigger Warning: We discuss current events including ICE and the Epstein Files. About our guest: Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, Colleen moved to Nashville in 2009 by way of Brooklyn, New York. She’s worn many hats over the years, from waiting tables, to custom menswear slinger, to her current role as a real estate agent. Personally knowing the benefits of homeownership, she is particularly passionate about helping first time homebuyers. After the Covenant shooting in 2023 she began regularly showing up to the state capitol where she learned the ins and outs of TN state politics. Since that time her activism work has grown, most recently with the creation of the Angelic Dissenters podcast. A weekly update on the TN General Assembly and the harmful policies being introduced. When not yelling in the streets, she can be found at home in East Nashville with her husband and two daughters Mabel and Josie. Follow Momcult on Instagram @momcultpodcast.

 Hey, look at the calendar! It’s March! And that means it’s time for March Madness, where we choose eight comic book characters and make them fight for supremacy! This year, we’ve chosen characters representing various elements. What element is your favourite? Personally, I’m a boron man. And speaking of elements, before we get to the fighting, Kyle presents an ELEMENTary Sherlock Holmes quiz in the warmup! Direct Download: MP3

So a guy who has been shouting "Death to America" for pretty much my entire life actually wound up on the receiving end of "Death FROM America." Personally, I don't like the idea of my country being the world police, but frankly when you want to see me and everyone I ever cared about dead, I have a hard time feeling bad for you when you enter the FO phase of the situation. And of course people here are losing their minds because OrangeManBad was at the helm. And there are a few other things I touch on as well. And an update. ihadtosayitpodcast.com for the show stuffemberforgedspices.com for the fundraiser

​If you're ready to take your emotional growth to the next level, join the EQ Mafia at https://www.eqgangster.com/.

AI has seemingly taken over our lives in so many ways. Personally, I've seen a huge shift in the writing and journalism field for both staff and freelance writers. But one thing we often don't see is the energy being funnelled to AI data centers from our already stressed electrical grid. And it's not just a little bit of energy either– The 2024 US Data Center Energy Usage Report found that after a period of stagnation from 2014-2016, center energy demand grew, in part, due to expanded efforts to digitize data across economic sectors. And according to the International Energy Agency, data center energy use increased roughly 4% between 2018 and 2023. And by 2030, U.S. data center consumption is projected to grow by 133%.This rapid growth begs the question: Are we ready for the AI energy surge?To help explain how and why AI uses so much energy and what communities can do to prepare for increased energy demand, I'm joined by Dr. Naeem Turner. Dr. Naeem Turner-Bandele is an engineer, entrepreneur, and CEO of Latimer Enterprises, an energy technology and services company focused on helping individuals, businesses, and communities take control of how they power their world through practical, affordable energy solutions. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from NYU Stern, and has spent the past decade developing tools, policies, and planning frameworks that support energy affordability, grid reliability, and resilient energy systems across the United States.Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/outdoor.minimalist.book/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.theoutdoorminimalist.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@theoutdoorminimalistBuy Me a Coffee: ⁠⁠⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/outdoorminimalist⁠⁠⁠Listener Survey: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://forms.gle/jd8UCN2LL3AQst976⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠------------------Dr. Naeem TurnerLatimer Enterprises: ⁠https://www.latimerent.com/team/naeem-turner-bandele⁠LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/latimer-enterprises/Email: hello@latimerent.comSources:https://www.iea.org/commentaries/what-the-data-centre-and-ai-boom-could-mean-for-the-energy-sector⁠ ⁠https://www.belfercenter.org/research-analysis/ai-data-centers-us-electric-grid⁠ 

https://youtu.be/UgAJ4-221HA Josh Block, President of Block Imaging, Founder of Cube Mobile Imaging, and author of People Matter at Work, is on a mission to restore work as a positive force in people's lives. After unexpectedly stepping into the presidency of his family business at just 29 years old, Josh began asking a bold question: What if we could create a place where people love to work — and become someone they never dreamed of because of it? We explore Josh's “Me Cycle” to “We Cycle” Framework (3Ts) — Work Together, Make Thoughtful Decisions, and Be Transparent — a leadership model designed to build trust, ownership, and thriving team cultures. Josh explains how slowing down sharpens decisions, why empathy must shape executive choices, and how radical transparency strengthens accountability. He also shares how defining a clear organizational identity — including mission, values, and thriving mindsets — creates a culture that attracts the right people and repels the wrong ones. — 3 Ways to Forge an Identity for Your Business with Josh Block Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here, the Founder of the Summit OS Group, and my guest today is Josh Block, who’s been President of Block Imaging for the last 15 years. He is also the Founder of Cube Mobile Imaging and the author of People Matter at Work. Josh, welcome to the show.  Thank you so much for having me, Steve. It’s good to be with you.  I'm excited to have you because you've taken over a company as president and CEO, then changed the culture, and written a book about it. So we're going to dive into all this. But before we go there, I'm curious: what is your personal “Why,” and how are you manifesting it in Block Imaging, Cube Mobile Imaging, and your new company? Yeah, I grew up in a home that work was a positive thing. I never heard my dad complain about work. And yet as I went to college and then moved into my twenties, I recognized that work had become kind of a four-letter word in our day—more of a “have to” than a “get to.” So at 29, when I became president of our family business, the collision of my own experience and the world's experience led me to ask the question: What if we could create a place where people love to work? Culture often gets labeled as soft stuff, but not just love to work, but become someone they never dreamed of because they're challenged, they're connected to a mission, they respect their leader, and go home as better people? And so, over the last 15 years, we've sought to create that kind of place—where kids would grow up in homes and say, “I want to work at a place like Mommy and Daddy work.” And they’d actually experienced what I experienced as a young person.  That’s great that you had such a positive experience, and I agree. I mean, that’s what we want as entrepreneurs. We want to create this experience for our people as well. So how do you actually do that? How do you create this experience? Do you have a framework that will help people? Perhaps you write about it in your book to get that. I think you call it going from the “me cycle” to the “we cycle.” What does that mean, and how do you get there?  Yeah. In most organizations, “me” is the driver. Bosses are extracting from people. They're focused on themselves, or maybe they’re focused exclusively on performance. But in the “me cycle”, bosses look out for themselves, and then employees return the favor. And really nobody wins because it’s more of a cannibalistic approach. And so 322: 3 Ways to Forge an Identity for Your Business with Josh BlockShare on X Leaders set the tone. They're the ones who go first, and they create a culture where people are cared for. In the book, I talk about the “three Ts.” I didn't have them at the beginning — I kind of stumbled upon upon them over the last 15 years. And really, these three Ts allow us to create a culture where people feel safe, seen, and successful. And when they do that, they feel safe, seen, and successful, they give back in incredible ways. They take ownership of the business, and ultimately, trust builds. And when that happens, it shares the burden across the leaders and the team. Everything gets easier. Everyone wins. Performance blossoms. And so that’s really what I highlight along with sharing my story into becoming president is the shift from “me” to “we”. I loved it. So when did you recognize that this was something that needed to happen, and how did you create the vision of what it would look like if you wanted to create it? So when you came into the business, was it more of a “me” culture, and did you change it, or did you pick it up, recognize it, and articulate it even though it was already there? Yeah, I think there were positives and negatives, and maybe I'd classify it as neutral. I wouldn't say it was a thriving team culture, but I wouldn't say it was toxic either. My care for people, my love for work, and my belief in the power of business—that really was what we were looking to embody.Share on X And so it started out just trying to be the answer to that “what if” question I shared. Little by little, because of my really quick transition from sales rep to president, the three Ts emerged. The first was together—we have to work together. It was born out of humility to sharpen decisions. Then it serendipitously became the second T: thoughtful decisions, which is careful consideration of the needs of others. And then the last piece was really a T as well that was leading how I would like to be led, which is just with lots of transparency. So many leaders are keeping so much close to the vest, and it reduces trust. Yet, when we share openly and transparently with people, trust builds, and all sorts of really cool things start to happen. Those three Ts, I kind of stumbled across, and they've become the framework for embodying—not manipulating—people, but really embodying the care that we already have for people. Share on X Yeah, I love it. So working together, making thoughtful decisions, and being transparent. So let’s peel the onion here. What do you mean working together? How is it different from what most companies do?  Yeah, so in lots of companies, leaders are overwhelmed. They have too much on their plate. They're moving so fast, and it might be a big decision or a small decision that they make, and they think, “Oh, this isn't that big a deal. In fact, this is like eight on my list of 20 priorities.” And then they spend a lot of time clarifying, cleaning up, and fixing because they’ve moved too fast and they’ve moved thoughtlessly. And so this working together to sharpen decisions, whether it’s something that’s big or really, again, something that’s small. Sometimes the smaller decisions have an inordinate impact on people. So yeah, when I think about working together, I just think of using people in our organization—and even outside of our organization—to sharpen any decision of consequence.  Yeah. Many leaders don’t recognize that just because they can come up with a decision themselves, if there is no buy-in, people can't weigh in. And then they don’t realize that people don’t feel ownership of this decision. And they might not get the complete context of it, and they might have some concerns that they feel like it hasn’t been seen and heard, and that can create friction in an organization. And a lot of leaders are thinking to themselves, “Well, I don't have time to slow down. I have too much to do.” And I would say, you actually have so much to do sometimes because of moving too fast and having to clean up, fix, and address issues. I think “slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” If we actually took a bit more time in the decision, we would save time in the long run. Yeah. What about being thoughtful? If you do that—if you work together and take input from other people—isn't that going to create thoughtful decisions? Or is there another dimension that needs to be considered?  It certainly is helpful. The more people you bring in, the broader our paradigm is in making a decision.Share on X But you have to stop and think: what is it like to be on the other side of this decision? And one of the story that comes to mind is Office Space. Right now, I'm in a corner office, and I've had an office for a long time. It can be easy to forget what it's like to be in a cubicle, to work closely with 12 other people, or to deal with different lighting or temperature—whatever it is. Stopping and recognizing that there was a time when some things were important to me, but are not important anymore, and yet they're still important to the people I lead—that's thoughtful. This careful consideration of the needs of others asks: how does my decision impact them? And that requires knowing people and knowing what's important to them. I also share in my book, People Matter at Work, that compensation and workspaces are two topics that are really sensitive when it comes to making thoughtful decisions.  Can you give an example where you used this principle and you made a different decision because you wanted to be thoughtful and the outcome was positive? Yeah, it is. It's a daily endeavor. For me, oftentimes in my role today, it's working with our leaders and asking them: how would you feel if the decision that we’ve just talked about that you’re getting to ready to roll out? How would you feel if you were 24 years old, or you were new in your role, or you were concerned about your next house payment, or your spouse was having health issues? It's very interesting to see people stop and say, “Yeah, I think my 25-year-old self would not have been happy with the 40-year-old decision I'm about to make.” That's really important. There's a danger in seeing everything through our own lenses and forgetting what was important to us 10 years ago. That's where I find myself in this coaching season—working with leaders to ask: what would you be thinking if you were on the other side of this decision 10 years ago?  That's interesting. Alright, let's go to the next one: being transparent. This is a big topic, and different CEOs have different sensitivities to it. Some are willing to be completely transparent with all their numbers, while others are very conservative. They don't even want to show gross profit, let alone net profit numbers. Some even hesitate to show revenue because they feel that if people know it, they might get carried away or ask for a raise. So how are you thinking about transparency, and what is your experience with the pros and cons of transparency?  Yeah, a lot of people start from the lens of, “How little can I share with my people?” And really we have tried to go with maximum transparency is what absolutely has to be kept transparent. So there's performance assessments, owner's box information, health, and sensitive HR situations. But other than that, what can we share with people? Ultimately, it comes down to: do you trust your people or not? It starts to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If I trust our people with information and believe that information is power, the more I empower them, the more likely they are to make good decisions and take ownership. Personally, in our experience, this comes down to answering three questions over and over again. Every one-on-one and every all-team meeting asks: what's going on? And that ranges from the parking lot expansion that we’re working on to our relationship with Siemens, who acquired us two and a half years ago. What’s going on? What is the leader thinking about? What am I reading? What am I concerned about? What am I thinking about in the year ahead? And then the last—and perhaps most important—is: what am I thinking about them? There’s a veil that so many leaders are holding back, and our best people want to know more about what we’re thinking about them. And so this last piece is just a feedback loop. We keep short lists of items that haven't been shared with team members, giving feedback early and often. Yeah. I completely agree. The more you can share with people, the more context they have. They can expand the business, make better decisions, and they don't have to nag you all the time because they can connect the dots themselves. Feedback—especially positive feedback—is always appreciated. Of course, negative feedback might be the “Breakfast of Champions,” but it's not necessarily pleasant. Still, it helps. It's better to get constructive feedback early in the year rather than waiting in your personal appraisal, right?  Absolutely.  That's too late to do anything about it. One thing that really struck me in our pre-interview is the idea of the identity of the organization. And I have always thought at least the recent years that identity of the CEO is very important for them to be able to live the identity they want, whether inside or outside the company. It's critical during transitions. But I haven't thought about identity in relation to the organization, at least not in this context. So please tell me: what does organizational identity mean, and how can you create the right one?  Yeah, so lots of organizations have some sort of mission, vision statement, and values. For us, it looks like what we call the Block Bullseye. At the center is our mission: because we believe that people matter most, we seek to create a thriving team culture that serves healthcare providers in offering a second chance at life for patients.Share on X The middle of the bullseye represents our best self—living out our belief that people matter. And then right outside of our bullseye, we have three different ways of looking at our values and our approaches, which I just shared. The three Ts represent our leadership approach, and the last piece is our thriving mindsets. This is really a way of like inviting people people in: this is who we are when we're at our best. We're imperfect. We don’t do any of this perfectly all the time, but that organizational identity becomes a roadmap or a compass of sorts for guiding our attitudes, actions, and behaviors.  What does it mean thriving mindsets, and how do you get people into a thriving mindset?  Yeah, so I was just sitting at my desk, maybe 10 years ago, and was just trying and looking at the hundreds and hundreds of people we had hired over the years. I was trying to reverse engineer success. What are those mindsets that tend to lead to people thriving, growing, and taking on more responsibility at our company? And what are the mindsets of those who haven't done as well? I mapped them out, and they were on a spectrum. For example: one is scarcity and abundance, another is blame and responsibility. And then another one is stuck in the past and shapes the future. And so while none of us are to the right side all the time. Oftentimes, in companies, success becomes like a popularity contest: “Oh, they just get along,” or “he likes the way she does this,” or “she likes the way he communicates.” While those things are important, instead of leaving it up to chance or every leader having a different perspective, we actually say, “Here's what we're after.” From our mission, to our values, to our approaches, to these thriving mindsets, it allows people to self-diagnose: “Hey, I'm thinking through a scarcity lens.” It also gives us a roadmap for performance assessments and one-on-ones—something consistent that doesn't change. Brene Brown talks about clear is kind, and it's incredibly kind to say, “This is what we're after.” And then ultimately, that organizational identity that we just talked about becomes a magnet that it draws certain people who want to be a part of a culture like that. And then consequently, it also repels those who maybe don’t connect with the organizational identity that we’ve set forth.  Yeah. Essentially, you help these personas understand what it looks like to be in abundance vs. scarcity, or shaping the future vs. stuck in the past. Then you coach people: “Hey, we are about shaping the future. We have a balanced mindset.” How do you coach people on this? Yeah. So I mean, it becomes situational in nature, right? For example, we might have a difficult customer challenge, or we're hiring someone, and we can stop and ask: did the interview answers that the person gave? Did that seem like someone who cares about people? Do they walk with integrity? Do they have a mindset for shaping the future? This allows us, on a situation-by-situation or day-by-day basis, to make better decisions. We had one example this morning: a vendor was disappointed with how we had handled a situation after an audit. I asked our team members, “What would it look like to honor this vendor?” We have a longstanding relationship with them, and so going back to that core value of honor actually allows us to grab onto something that’s tangible, that’s hung on the walls that we talk about often, and it ends up being much stickier than just picking our values on the fly.  So these are part of your values? The shaping the future is a core value, or it’s a different dimension?  I'm happy to share our organizational identity, and you can put it in the show notes. But around that people matter, our center mission, we have three pieces to the pie. One is values, the other is those approaches, those three Ts I talked about, and then the last piece is those thriving mindsets.Share on X So those three together allow us, and some people would say it’s too much, but for us it’s very clear and something you can grab onto when we’re looking to develop, or frankly, even hold ourselves accountable to the right thing to do in the moment, even when it’s uncomfortable or unpleasant. I love it. So tell me about your book, Josh. Are all these concepts in your book, and have you essentially described how Block Imaging works in your book? Or what is the book, how did this come about, and what is your purpose with it?  Yeah, so I became president over a weekend. I was a sales rep on a Friday and became president on a Monday. And so that is part of the story is kind of sharing the transition into leadership, which while many don’t face it as quickly, when they become leaders, they often feel like they weren't trained the same way they were trained to be a technician or whatever job they were hired for. So this book is really my story of coming into leadership and then learning about the shift from the “me” to the “we” cycle.Share on X The purpose of writing the book was the question: What if we could create a place? This was the question I was asking 15 years ago, and it has evolved into: What if we could share our story, the lessons learned, and the principles we've carried along the way to create the culture we have here? What if we could invite other leaders, and not just encourage and equip, but empower them to create cultures that are healthy, where people thrive and performance blossoms?  Awesome. If the listeners would like to learn more, is the book available on Amazon? When is it coming out?  Yeah, so the book is coming out on March 3rd. It will be available everywhere books are sold, including Amazon. If they'd like to know more about Block Imaging, they're welcome to go to blockimaging.com. And if they'd like to know more or connect with me in any way, they can reach out to peoplematteratwork.com or email josh@peoplematteratwork.com. Okay, well, if you're listening to this and you want to improve the culture of your organization, make sure it has a robust identity that attracts the right people, perhaps repels the wrong people, and ensures people have the right thriving mindset. Also, make it a transparent, thoughtful culture where people work together. Then do check out Josh Block's book, People Matter at Work. If you liked this conversation, keep coming back, because every week I have a thought leader, CEO, or business owner who shares frameworks that worked for them and their companies, which you can pick up and implement in your company to scale much faster. So thanks for coming, Josh, and sharing your goodies, and thanks for listening.  Thank you so much for having me, Steve. Important Links: Josh's LinkedIn:  Josh's website:  Josh's email: josh@peoplematteratwork.com

Much like an elevator stuck in a college dorm, or the house guests from Night of the Living Dead, its going to be a long night in this final episode of our thrilling one shot series. Each player has an interest besides the apparent survival of the group, including a fruitful imp who seems to have a certain hold on Asmos. Will they all make it out alive... find out on episode five of this ender of all enders.   Thanks again for listening. Truly its a DIY operation with a manic style of presentation. Personally, I wouldn't have it any other way. As I think Games Brown, Kellen, and Virus of Ideals would also agree, as I thank them for their artistic contributions. The sound of a rewinding awia VHS tape was found at freesound.org.    Join us next episode for a fresh session one with a fresh and familiar cast. Have a magical adventure.

Morgan is joined by professional matchmaker Alessandra Conti for an honest, behind-the-scenes look at modern dating. From screening clients and asking tough compatibility questions to spotting anxious-avoidant dynamics in real time, she explains what actually makes a match last, and what quietly causes relationships to fail. They unpack why so many people feel like their city is the worst place to date, how burnout and “city fatigue” impact our mindset, and why boundaries, attachment styles, and shared values matter more than surface-level traits. They also talk about the scarcity trap, the abundance mindset, and how to date intentionally without losing yourself in the process.

This title might sound like stupid advice but the truth is we can't always "be ready" for every potential challenge, problem, variable and outcome when we step into a new goal, endeavour, situation or role. More often than not we don't really know WTF is coming our way when we start something new. Personally, if I had waited until I had all the requisite skills, knowledge, confidence and understanding to succeed, I'd still be standing at the starting line of virtually all of my goals and dreams - including this podcast. Dr. Sam and I went far and wide in this chat and I'm pretty sure I started coaching her at some stage. Oops. Lol.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join us as we welcome Pastor Geoff Buck as he shares a messaged titled "The Message of Grace." Pastor Geoff Buck has retired as an assistant pastor at Calvary Monterey for the past 15 years. He is a veteran of 52 years overall in church planting, conference speaking, establishing a Bible College, and pastoring. His passion and burden is to make the Bible practical in all areas of life to all ages. Personally he loves running, snorkeling in Monterey Bay, reading, motorcycles, and hanging out with wife Denise and their 4 kids and 7 grandkids. Geoff is now pursuing this ministry called Strengthening the Churches to serve and support pastors around the country. Geoff can conduct a number of different conferences, but more importantly he will minister to the personal and private needs of pastors and their families.

We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay and it's time for your February Indulgence Gospel!Today we are talking about influencers who show their expensive influencer grocery hauls, as well as people who spend A LOT OF MONEY on food delivery. (If you too had feelings about that ChrisLovesJulia reel...let's get into it!) We also talk about our own spending on groceries and food delivery....and our complicated feelings about both.

In this encore episode of Personally Speaking, Msgr. Jim Lisante is joined by Senator Josh Hawley who represents Missouri in the U.S. Senate. Before his election to the Senate in 2018, Senator Hawley worked as a First Amendment lawyer and law professor and served as the attorney general of Missouri. Senator Hawley has written a book called “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs” which addresses the question, “What gives a man's life purpose and meaning?” He talks about his concern over our culture's impact on boys and men, and solutions for men to restore the virtue of manhood.Support the show

Season 11 of Fixing Healthcare continues its shift away from the traditional top-down model of interviewing CEOs, policymakers and medical leaders to focus this week on something new, different and fascinating: listening to the generation that is inheriting this American healthcare system. In this episode, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr speak with Grace Lynn Keller, VP at Executive Podcast Solutions, former Miss America contestant and the show's first-ever Gen Z guest. Grace brings a rare vantage point: Professionally, she is immersed in conversations with healthcare executives. Personally, she is part of the generation that consumes health information through social media, wearables and AI tools. For healthcare professionals, the conversation offers an important lens on how Gen Z gathers health information, how they decide when to seek care and what they expect from clinicians, insurers and government leaders. One insight stood out immediately. When asked where she would turn first with a non-emergency symptom, Grace answered without hesitation: ChatGPT. Her answer signals how much the healthcare landscape is changing. While Gen Z may turn to generative AI for initial medical advice, that is only one piece of a broader shift. In this conversation, Grace outlines how her generation is redefining health, prevention and trust. Key insights include: Verification Over Blind Trust. Gen Z does not simply accept what it reads online. Grace describes a culture of cross-referencing, double-checking and comparing sources across platforms before acting. Prevention As Identity. Her generation emphasizes whole foods, ingredient awareness and minimizing processed products. Health is considered a long-term lifestyle investment rather than reactive medical intervention. Wearables As Standard Equipment. Smart watches and rings are commonplace. Continuous data on sleep, movement, heart rate and hormonal cycles shape daily decisions and reinforce prevention. Convenience And Cost Sensitivity. Time away from work, co-pays and scheduling delays influence care decisions. If reliable AI-based treatment were available for routine conditions, many Gen Zers would use it immediately. Mental Health As Mainstream. Therapy is normalized. Work-life balance is considered protective, not indulgent. “Mental health days” may frustrate older generations but are viewed as necessary boundaries by younger workers. Skepticism Of Bureaucracy. Insurance complexity is a major frustration. Deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums and opaque pricing create confusion for first-time independent users. Demand For Transparency. Grace compares healthcare to e-commerce: if nearly every other industry offers clear pricing and frictionless purchasing, why not medicine? Alcohol And Cultural Moderation. Among her peers, alcohol consumption is more situational and less habitual. Health-conscious decision-making extends beyond diet and exercise. Education Gaps. Public school health education was limited largely to sex ed and anti-drug messaging. She sees schools as the only scalable venue to improve health literacy nationwide. There's so much more to this episode. Tune in to find out what the next generation of patients expects from doctors, nurses and healthcare leaders. Helpful links “From TikTok to Telehealth: 3 Ways Medicine Must Evolve to Reach Gen Z” (Fulcrum) “Why younger patients turn away from doctors & toward GenAI” (Fixing Healthcare podcast) “Healthcare Regulators' Outdated Thinking Will Cost American Lives” (Forbes) “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Doctors and Patients Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” (Pearl's newest book) * * * Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn. The post FHC #206: What Gen Z expects from healthcare & why it matters appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

Faith For Our Covenant Rights (1) (audio) David Eells 2/25/26 I want to talk to you today about some possible misconceptions some of God's people may have regarding receiving God's blessings and why some people don't receive them when they are prayed for.   Satan Reads Minds & Inserts Thoughts I was asked this question: Can you substantiate in Scripture where it is written that Satan can put thoughts into our minds? My answer was: In order for Satan to put thoughts into our minds, he would also have to be able to read our minds. I will try to explain this in a moment, but first, you might want to entertain another question: Can anyone substantiate with Scripture that Satan cannot put thoughts into our minds or read our minds? Since we can't do this, then we shouldn't believe it because it is not Scriptural. It says in (1Ch.28:9) ... The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts... In the spirit realm, thoughts are audible to the mind of God and demons. God and demons can, in turn, impart the gift to read minds. I have read the thoughts of men by the power of the Holy Spirit. A man once asked me if I knew what he was thinking. At that moment the Holy Spirit gave it to me, and for several minutes the man was awed at the power of God. Also, when I first went to a full gospel Church I witnessed Christians attempting to exorcise a demon-possessed man who thought he was a woman. He also demonstrated the ability to read minds when the unbelieving Christians asked for a demonstration. He did say that it was easier to read the mind of one person there and pointed to the only person there who was not filled with the Spirit, even though he did not personally know anyone there. Familiar spirits or spirits of divination in magicians, wizards, mediums, etc., have demonstrated the power to read minds in front of audiences of people. We wrestle with principalities and powers in the mind. The Bible says in Eph.6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places].... 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We see here that with the renewed mind of the Word, our thoughts are guarded as with a helmet because we won't accept foreign thoughts. We learn to discern the illegal thoughts of the enemy. Then we are able to take back our thoughts (by repenting and agreeing with the Word) and we cast the enemy's thoughts down. 2Co.10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh 4 (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds), (The principalities and powers hold the strongholds in the thoughts of the mind.) 5 casting down imaginations (thoughts and images), and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. We win the battle by rejecting the enemy's thoughts and replacing them with God's thoughts. We are at peace with God when we are full of His thoughts, and our minds are guarded from the demonic attacks that, if heeded, cause outward actions of sin. We are told in Php.4:6-7 In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. Satan is able to insert thoughts within our thoughts. Act.5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back [part] of the price of the land? and also 1Ch.21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. Now, here we can use a little Holy Spirit reasoning. How could Satan insert his thoughts in the midst of our thoughts unless he knows the context of our thoughts? If you went into your computer to edit a paragraph, how could you do this if you couldn't read the original? How could you insert the right text unless you could read the context of the original thoughts? If you just inserted words anywhere without knowing the context, you would make a nonsensical statement, and anyone would know that someone inserted something that was out of place. So it is with us. If Satan or demons inserted something that didn't fit the context of our thoughts, then everyone would know that they are at work. They do their best work undercover, and they know it; they're crafty and work to deceive us. How would Satan be able to tempt us if he were so dysfunctional? We would know it was him immediately. How then would it be a temptation? Now, here is the really important thing. Our battle does not depend on whether the enemy can read our minds or not. It depends on what he can do about what we know. When we read the Book of Job, we can clearly see that God put restrictions on Satan's ambitions for Job. Satan has to obey God's rules of engagement even when he knows what we think. Satan admits he did not have the power to get at Job because of God's hedge around him, and the same is true of us. Job.1:9 Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? 10 Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath, on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. It is not important for our thoughts to be hidden from the enemy when he can do nothing about them. And he can do nothing about our thoughts unless by them we give him permission, for we have authority over him. Luk.10:19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall in any wise hurt you. 20 Nevertheless in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. It doesn't matter what the demons know that we know, for as sons of God we are their lords just as it was with Jesus. Joh.20:21 Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace [be] unto you: as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. Mat.18:18 Verily I say unto you, what things soever ye shall bind (forbid) on earth shall be bound (forbidden) in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose (permit) on earth shall be loosed (permitted) in heaven. Our faith permits the sovereignty of God to be manifest through the Body of Christ and forbids Satan, no matter what he knows of our thoughts. Jesus' condition for receiving His benefits is plain: “As thou hast believed, [so] be it done unto thee” and “According to your faith be it done unto you” and “Thy faith hath made thee whole”. As we believe, God's benefits will be given. Unbelieving thoughts and actions forbid God's benefits to us because He has made a condition, and He cannot lie. Unbelief permits Satan to continue administering the curse. Mar.6:5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. 6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. So we see that even Jesus was forbidden to do mighty works for those who would not believe. Whether we know it or not, we are constantly forbidding or permitting Satan, demons, and God's angels by our thoughts, words, and actions. Since all authority in heaven and earth was given to Jesus and He, in turn delegated it to His disciples, where does Satan get his authority? He gets it from our unbelief, words, and disobedience. If the devil can convince you to listen and accept his thoughts of doubt, worry, fear, anger, etc., you won't be able to stand against him with faith. When we add to or take away from God's Word in thought and deed, this permits the curse by Satan and forbids God's blessings for us or through us. This is by God's design to motivate us to come into agreement with Him. It clearly says in Rev.22:18 I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book (19) and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book. So, in coming into agreement with God, we forbid Satan to administer the curse to us. In order to win this battle, we have to cast down the thoughts of Satan that he sends our way, which would otherwise give him permission to destroy us. So again, 2Co.10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh 4 (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds), 5 casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Here's another misconception. Many think that the reason God gives the gift of tongues is so that Satan cannot understand what we say to God, and his purposes will be thwarted. This is false. Satan and his fallen angels are much smarter than Christians give them credit for. They certainly know the “tongues of men and of angels,” or they couldn't communicate with one another and put their thoughts in our heads. 1Co.13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. When prophecy is uttered in one's own known language, the mind, doctrine, and desires are permitted to be involved in what is said, and the Word is polluted as it says in 1Cor.13:9 “for we know in part, and we prophesy in part”. In other words, the Prophecy can be part God and part man. However, the reason we speak with tongues is so that WE will not know what we are saying and will have no carnal reason to change it or add to it. In this way, it will be a pure Word given of the Spirit. The Bible says in Rom.8:26 And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity (We have problems sometimes and we don't see the things we need to see. We don't know ourselves as well as we may think we do.): for we know not how to pray as we ought; (It is so true! God gives us the gift of speaking in tongues because we don't know what we should pray, but the Spirit does know what to pray. The apostle Paul really appreciated this gift, and he said, 1Co.14:18 I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all.); Continuing in Rom.8:26 but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for [us] with groanings which cannot be uttered (that is by man); 27 and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to [the will of] God. So once again, we gain wisdom concerning the work of the Holy Spirit in us in how to defeat the enemy.   Faith in Balance Another misconception some people may have is how they use faith for things that they don't understand are wrong; things that are not good for us or others. Mar.16:17 And these signs shall accompany them that believe... 18 they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Should we always eat what we want, drink what we want, and breathe what we want because we are not under the curse, according to Galatians 3:13? Possibly the key words here are “what we want,” not “what we need”. God said He would supply our every need. Some think that because we are not under the curse, we shouldn't tell people that certain things are poisonous to their bodies. Where is the balance here? No one should tempt God by taking poison on purpose when there is a choice. That is like the snake handlers who often die tempting God to prove who they are. Permit me to paraphrase the devil when he tempted Jesus: “Throw yourself off this temple, Jesus, because God said the angels would catch you”. His answer was, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God”. Like the angels' promise, God also said you are not under the curse. Does that mean you should put poison in your mouth on purpose when you have a choice not to? That would be tempting God in the exact same way. Notice the devil tempted Jesus to use His promise of protection and His deliverance from the curse to jump off the temple. He tempts you to use your promise of protection and eat known poisons for no purpose, or eat after your own lusts. There is no difference, unless that is all you have to eat, like the man who said to Elisha, “There is death in the pot,” because, in their foraging for food, poisonous gourds had been thrown in the pot. Since that is what they had to eat, he blessed it, and they ate it. When I lived in Pensacola, I drank the water there, I've driven my motorcycle through the chemtrails, and I ate whatever food was put before me because I needed to and was blessed. I knew an otherwise strong Christian who believed with all his heart that he could eat anything he wanted because he was not under the curse. I agreed with the principle, but not the way he was using it to justify his lustful eating habits. He was using the doctrine to eat in an unhealthy manner, and he was overweight and under-exercised. To make a long story short, he died with his arteries clogged and dying because of a lack of circulation. And he confessed constantly that it was all good and he wasn't under the curse. The Lord said we ask and don't receive because we want to consume it upon our lusts. The demons jumped on the seven sons of Sceva, who thought they had protection, but their own lives were not right with God, and so they were under the curse. The promise that ‘if you drink any deadly thing it will not harm you' is for those who have to drink the water they have and eat the food available to them, like when Moses blessed the bitter waters in the barren wilderness. When we are given poison secretly to kill us, as ‘the powers that be' are doing now, we are protected. When we know about it and have a choice between poison and pure, we should choose that which is pure. Of course, if you have something to prove, like the devil was tempting Jesus by saying, “If you are the Son of God,” prove who you are. Jesus had no such lust, and He proved it. There was another way down from that temple roof. Some religious people today would say to someone like him, “You don't have any faith”. But Who is the teacher here? The man who said there was death in the pot was not wrong. Now they had a choice to make: believe God if you need to eat or opt out if you don't believe. Many Christians don't truly believe that God will protect them from poison. Should we just let them die because they do not believe in God's promise? Is it all right to say to them, there is death in the pot? They would die and never have a chance to grow up and learn that they are not under the curse. The Lord said in Hosea 4:6 that His people would die for lack of understanding. Let us have mercy on them and tell them with grace and wisdom that fluoride, chemtrails, chemotherapy, and many drugs they take, etc., are poison. “Cursed is the man that trusteth in man.” But should they be forced to take them or deceived into taking them, they should believe they are not under the curse. Now we know serpents are also demons, but Paul did not take up that serpent on purpose. It bit him, but when it happened, he shook it off by faith and was none the worse in Acts 28:3. I knew a couple who believed they were not under the curse, but they were under a law of their own making, instead of grace through faith; they were under pride, Jezebel and worshiped a false Jesus. God didn't care what their doctrine was; He refused to answer and protect them. In short, walk in holiness and under the protection of God, but don't try to prove who you are in pride, don't put yourself under a law, and don't be competitive with others, for God will humble you. We are not looking to make or find the line in this balance for others; we just share Biblical principles to help them find balance. Let everyone find their own line in their conscience and according to the measure of their faith. We don't want to be caught making laws for others here. Those who truly trust in the Lord are covenant people.   Covenant People Have Rights through Faith Some time ago, I received an email from a brother who was following a man who taught his followers that we should heal everyone like Jesus did. I responded to him with the following: First of all, I am glad for all the people who get healed. By the grace of God, what this brother teaches is right. I have taught for over 55 years with multitudes saved, healed, delivered from demons, and provided for by many kinds of miracles, even physical creations, resurrections, etc.; many were by phone or online, etc. I have searched the scriptures diligently for over 50 years, and there are many that this brother does not consider and put into his puzzle. In his video, he says, “There are no verses that say a person's unbelief will stop them from getting healed.” He has not believed his Bible, throwing out all verses that do not agree with his theory, just like the people he criticizes. According to Jesus, both the minister should have faith AND the one being ministered to. Here are just a few scriptures that come to me quickly: Rom.1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Mar.9:22 And oft-times it hath cast him both into the fire and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. 23 And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth. 24 Straightway the father of the child cried out, and said, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. 25 And when Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. 26 And having cried out, and torn him much, he came out: and the boy became as one dead; insomuch that the more part said, He is dead. But Jesus showed them not so. Mar.6:4 And Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. 5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. 6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages teaching. Luk.8:47 And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people for what cause she touched him, and how she was healed immediately. 48 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. 49 While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Teacher. 50 But Jesus hearing it, answered him, Fear not: only believe, and she shall be made whole. 51 And when he came to the house, he suffered not any man to enter in with him (none who disbelieve), save Peter, and John, and James, and the father of the maiden and her mother. Mat.8:13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And the servant was healed in that hour. Mat.9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to YOUR faith be it done unto you. Real faith puts us in covenant rights. Mat.21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. We cannot add to or take from God's Word under penalty of a curse (Revelation 22:18,19). So I told this brother who had been captured by a deceiving spirit, “You would do better to study where ALL the scripture is respected.” When Jesus went from town to town, He healed the people who came to Him. They came because they heard and believed He healed, or they would not have come. For this reason, Jesus rarely went to anyone to heal them. When He went to the pool of Siloam, He went to just one man and healed him because Father gave Him a word of knowledge. He healed no one else there. If Jesus wanted to heal everyone, why didn't He do it for all the rest lying around the pool, who were waiting for the waters to be troubled by the angel? Jesus can heal without faith in someone, but He doesn't have to because of the command for them to believe. This is the exception and not the rule. He requires faith, especially for those who know better. Babies get milk when they cry. Adults are expected to get it for themselves. So if you want to guarantee they have a right to healing, deliverance, and provision, preach the Gospel and see if they believe. This preacher did not do this and he mostly prayed to take pain away. He would ask specifically, “Does anyone have pain?” This may remove a symptom, which by nature, points people to the real disease that he is not dealing with.     Also, Jesus taught that if you don't forgive, you will not be forgiven. Addressing this man, I said, Your friend proved that in the video. When people forgave, they got their healing. He came to the wrong conclusion because he was not accepting all of the scriptures. I have seen the same thing for many years when people repent of willful disobedience, which always brings judgment; they get healed. Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, 27  but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. Jesus taught that when a person is forgiven, they can be delivered from the tormentors, which are demons that bring spirits of infirmity.   He demonstrated this in Mat.9:6 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath authority on earth to forgive sins (then saith he to the sick of the palsy), Arise, and take up thy bed, and go up unto thy house. And Luk.5:24 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath authority on earth to forgive sins (he said unto him that was palsied), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go unto thy house. The clear proof that they were forgiven was that they got healed, as Jesus said. Jesus showed that you can give healing or deliverance to even a child of God, but he will not keep it if he doesn't become a disciple and fill his heart with the Word. Mat.12:43-45 But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not. 44 Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation. Jesus said those who received these benefits from Him also lost them, and it's still true today. Your friend said that every time he prays, he will get healing, which is not true. As he was speaking, the Lord had me test him. He looked square into the camera, saying a person did not need faith; all they needed was his faith. He told the people to put their hands on their infirmity, and he would pray, so I did too. I put my hand on a small thing on myself that had not yet manifested. I was not believing when he prayed because he said it wasn't necessary. When he prayed, nothing happened to me, just like most of the people who watched that video. By the grace of God only, I have been praying for the sick, casting out demons and performing miracles of all kinds for about 55 years, and far less than 1% send me a testimony of their benefit, and most that are sent to us are not on our site. Here you can see that I have taught others to heal and see miracles of all kinds, and they, in turn, are teaching others. But we have to speak as Jesus did and the main condition is faith. I have also taught the real Gospel and the disciples have seen many saved. All the people your friend sends out to witness and heal have the same experience as you. Some are healed, and some are not, and they don't know why. They feel condemned because they haven't got enough faith. You say you believe this man is a Man-child. The Man-child will speak all of the Word and have all kinds of miracles like Jesus, not just the removal of pain, which he specializes in. Also, the Man-child will go to the covenant people and send disciples to the covenant people, just like Jesus the Man-child. History must repeat, or the Bible is wrong. When you speak the gospel FIRST to a person, and they believe it, they are a covenant believer, and they are entitled to healing, deliverance, and miracles. Jesus said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). They were the only ones who had the Covenant. The reason Jesus was healing all, which your group is not doing, is because He went to the people who had covenant rights of healing. Exo.15:26 and he said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his eyes, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon thee, which I have put upon the Egyptians: for I am Jehovah that healeth thee. Today, we offer healing, and if anyone believes the simple Gospel, they will receive. The Syrophoenician woman wanted healing for her daughter, but Jesus said, “It's not right to cast the children's bread to the dogs” (or unbelievers). She said, “But even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the master's table”. Jesus said, “For this saying (of faith) go thy way; thy daughter is healed”. Jesus was bringing a New Covenant for all those who believe. They have a right to healing and deliverance. Also, notice the daughter had rights through the parents' faith. The centurion's servant had rights through his faith, as with Jairus' daughter. If they believe that they can heal everyone, why do they not go to the hospitals where the really sick people are and empty them? Taking pain away is one of the easiest things. Keep on preaching the Gospel, brother, but include all of the scriptures for more success. Read the free book on our site called The Real Good News. You will find many more scriptures there AND the real Gospel. Now, another area people may have a misunderstanding about is…   Repenting for Others and the Sins of the Parents I received this question from a sister and put my comments in red. She writes: I'm forwarding this to you as it is in line with your ministry. Personally, I have mixed emotions about it. On one hand, God said in the Old Testament that He no longer holds the sins of the Father against the children. My Reply: This is because for those who believe, Jesus broke the genetic curse of Adamic sin, which is passed on through the blood of parents. We had a woman in our assembly who adopted three babies from birth but didn't know the biological parents. As each child entered puberty, they started manifesting fornication, lying and stealing, and the mother was confused because she had raised them all to be Christians. She wanted to find out who the biological parents were and was able to because an HRS worker turned her back while she looked at their files. She went to see the mother and found out that she was just like the children with the same sins. Even though the parents did not raise these children, their sins were passed on through their blood. As we prayed for these children, God saved them and the genetic curse was broken. Now they do not suffer for the sins of their parents. Many Christians still suffer for the sins of their parents and need to believe the Gospel to be delivered. She continues: Eze.18:1 The word of Jehovah came unto me again, saying, 2 What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? 3 As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, ye shall not have [occasion] any more to use this proverb in Israel. My Reply: Those in true spiritual Israel are delivered from the sins of the parents by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus became a curse for us (Gal.3:13,14). She continues: Eze.18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. My Reply: “For each man shall bear his own burden” (Gal.6:5). She continues: That being so, then this admonition to repent of the sins of the Fathers before us, or we will be punished, seems contrary, although every generation has those who are prejudiced and mistreat others, for which they as individuals should repent. Is every generation of America going to have to repent for what their forefathers did? When does it end? My Reply: We can repent for the sins of our parents, which are genetically in us, but we cannot repent of their sins for them, as some say. Everyone has to repent for themselves. :o) A sister we know of thought this would work for the City of New Orleans, but God quickly told her that it would not. She continues: “We stopped over in New Orleans on July 2nd. We repented and interceded for that city. Afterwards as we turned to leave, the Lord spoke clearly to two of us. What He said to me was startling. He said, “I will destroy this city in a day!” Obviously, repenting for someone else doesn't work; two months later, the city was gone. (Hurricane Katrina)” My Reply: Some believe verses like this prove that to be a false doctrine. Neh.9:2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. This is for Christians who are separated from their nations. Our sins, which ARE the iniquities of our fathers in us, can be confessed and forsaken. She continues: Secondly, as one scripture verse points out, Psalm 130:3 If thou, Jehovah, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? The idea that Nashville, Las Vegas, or New Orleans are more sinful than other places is possible, but if God wants to, He could pick any big city and would be able to find enough reasons to punish the people therein. However, from the Old Testament, I get the impression that, in spite of men's sinfulness, God is looking for reasons to spare people, such as for the sake of any righteous persons therein. When messages calling for repentance come through, I take them seriously because I don't want to take a chance of destruction coming. My Reply: “The wicked is a ransom for the righteous” Pro.21:18. When God judges the wicked, the righteous get the fear of God and repent like when God judged Egypt, and Israel came out from among them. God is gathering sinners into cities to give a demonstration for the righteous, who, like Lot, will come out from among them. The judging of the wicked is a ransom, which is the price God is willing to pay for the righteous to be free from bondage. Ten judgments fell on Egypt, and Israel tempted God 10 times in the wilderness.

Some comments linger longer than they should. A tone, a look, an offhand remark from your partner, your child, or a friend can spiral into a story in your head before you even realize it. This conversation unpacks what it really takes to not take things personally, especially in the relationships that matter most. From defensiveness and truth triggers to slowing down your reactions and separating someone else's mood from your responsibility, we share practical mindset shifts that create more peace at home and in your friendships.Key Topics Covered:• The connection between defensiveness and hidden truths.• Why pausing before reacting changes everything.• Separating your partner's emotions from your own sense of worth.• The role tone plays when giving and receiving feedback.• Helping kids regulate before expecting repair or apology.• Teaching children awareness of how their words impact others.• Navigating the sting of feeling like a means to an end as a parent.• Modeling reciprocal conversations and emotional awareness at home.• How past friendship wounds shape present reactions.• Real life examples of working through friendship conflict without escalation.LINKS AND RESOURCES:HERSELF AMAZON STOREFRONT: https://amzlink.to/az0BrkLl5pX9u HERSELF PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/herselfpodcastLet's connect!HERSELF INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/herselfpodcastMEET AMY: http://instagram.com/ameskieferMEET ABBY: http://instagram.com/abbyrosegreenThis episode was brought to you by the Pivot Ball Change Network.

What happens when love slowly turns into manipulation? Ginny Priem shares her journey from a successful corporate career and a life that looked “perfect” on the outside to a relationship filled with gaslighting, financial abuse, infidelity, and emotional trauma she didn’t recognize until it nearly broke her. Together, we unpack how narcissistic abuse hides in plain sight, why red flags are so easy to miss, and how stress and intuition can show up physically when something is deeply wrong. This episode is about trusting your gut, understanding why “just leave” isn’t that simple, and learning how to rebuild your sense of self after betrayal. If you’ve ever questioned your reality, ignored your intuition, or wondered how someone ends up in a relationship like this... you are not alone. Plus, we explore what comes after leaving: breaking generational patterns, letting go of hustle culture, redefining success, and learning how to “unsubscribe” from people, habits, and expectations that no longer serve you. Content note: This episode discusses infidelity, emotional abuse, and medical trauma.

Michele and Ralph both return after a long absence. Ralph is retired and is enjoying doing whatever he wants. Michele is the opposite of retired, choosing to vie for a senate seat here in Minnesota. Personally, I'd take the French cafes over attempting to talk sense into Minnesota, but someone's got to do it.Topics:Plastic surgery and dentistry among actorsBurt Reynolds financial woesCelebrities all wear wigsMichele Tafoya's senate runJude's healthRalph Bashioum's trip to France and ItalyVaping is not so goodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Double Tap - Ep 449 This episode of Double Tap is brought to you by: Gideon Optics (Code: WLSISLIFE) Die Free Co. (Code: WLSISLIFE) Rost Martin (Code: WLSISLIFE) Flatline Fiber Co (Code: WLS15) Second Call Defense Otis Technology (Code: WELIKESHOOTING15) Text Dear WLS or Reviews +1 743 500 2171 New Public notes page. DEAR WLS Question from Duke of Crude from Texas Duke of Crude: Hey Fam, When you travel, do you have a different carry gun you take than your normal EDC? The hard case I need for my witness tanfoglio to fit is bigger than I want for my checked bag. There is a fair deal on a shield plus at a local pawn shop and i was thinking it would be good for when I travel for work. What thoughts do you have or am I just wasting money? I do have to travel to Houston, Memphis, and New Orleans quite a bit and would like to know of what options you might carry for this application. Also, is carrying a big bore revolver into meth country (44 spc/mag or 45 Long colt) better than a typical 9mm micro double stack or is this just boomer lore? Thanks for the great show! Duke Question from Matt A from FL Matt A Recently I attended a concert and had to go through a metal detector and scanner. It got me thinking about large crowd events and what if there was an active shooter situation and here I am unarmed with my family and unable to protect them. So, reference gun free zones or large crowd events; what is the crews thoughts about going to large crowd events/places that prohibit firearms or carrying in areas that do not have metal detectors or scanners and are considered gun free zones or do you just avoid these places all together? In listening I believe Jermey is the only one with small children. So, do you not go places like amusement parks or places that would have metal detectors or scanners or schools events? Thanks for the insight, Love the show!! Question from LagDemon from MN From LagDemon I want to get a mp5k, I'm leaning towards the ptr 9rs. is there a difference in recoil from the reciver sizes because the mp5k has a shorter reciver than the reverse stretch version? both have the same 4-5″ barrel Question from Zach from CA Listening to double tap 444. Nick brought up doing something similar to Roadkill but for guns. This is a great idea for the dangerous freedom YouTube channel. Because some of you have FFLs, could you not buy firearms across state lines? Fly or drive some where with a set budget in mind. Purchase your firearm(used or maybe from agents?), accessories, whatever kit you may need, tools, etc. and compete in local events. Would be awesome to see. Maybe same premise but with loner firearms and agency members if way out of budget. Just a thought, thanks Zach Question from Anonymous Coward from NC Question for the cast from talk number two text You were talking about suppressor cages on a previous episode and about how you could use a hub mount to potentially mount a suppressor cage what if it was like a free float Darryl free hand guard and attached to the hub mount just the way that a free hand, guard attaches barrel nut. We know that most cans have a specific size. Yes some smaller some larger, but it's gonna be somewhat universal in the shit in the diameter . What if you had the hub mount have a portion of it that could lock on the cage for the suppressor talk amongst yourselves talk to text sucks while driving #WLS. Question from Jeff from NH Hi, this is Jeff from NH. Is a red dot on top of an LPVO too tall? Putting a dot at a 45 degree is not an option as im not a boomer fudd. Personally i think top dots are the way but some others say it practically unusable. Notes – XOXO GUN INDUSTRY NEWS Safariland Recommends Essential Gun and Holster Hardware Kit Items Safariland's blog post outlines a comprehensive kit of hardware essentials for maintaining and customizing gun holsters. The article categorizes items such as screws, posts, T-nuts, and tools necessary for holster repairs and adjustments. It emphasizes having these components on hand to ensure reliable holster performance in professional and recreational use. Rost Martin RM1F Full-Size Pistols Announced at SHOT 2026 Rost Martin unveiled the full-size RM1F pistols at SHOT 2026, expanding their RM1 series with a larger frame designed for enhanced ergonomics and capacity. The RM1F features a roller-delayed blowback system in 9mm, maintaining the striker-fired, modular design of the original RM1. Available in multiple configurations including optics-ready slides and threaded barrels. Desert Tech Introduces Carbon SD Handguard for SRS at SHOT 2026 Desert Tech unveiled the Carbon SD Handguard for its SRS precision rifle platform at SHOT 2026. The handguard features a carbon fiber construction designed for reduced weight and improved suppressor integration. It enhances the SRS's modularity for long-range shooting applications. Daniel Defense H9 Pistol Review The Daniel Defense H9 is a 9mm striker-fired pistol featuring a patented ‘Earthquake' trigger system and a low bore axis design for reduced muzzle flip. It incorporates a cam-assisted slide that unlocks earlier in the recoil cycle to enhance control and speed. The review evaluates its ergonomics, accuracy, reliability, and performance in various shooting scenarios. Black Rain Ordnance Freedom Fighter US-Made AK Introduced at SHOT 2026 Black Rain Ordnance unveiled the Freedom Fighter, a fully US-made AK-pattern rifle, at SHOT 2026. The rifle features a cold hammer-forged barrel, enhanced trigger, and ambidextrous controls for improved reliability and ergonomics. It represents a milestone in domestic AK production with high-quality components sourced entirely in the United States. MK Machining Showcases StraightBull Rifle at SHOT 2026 MK Machining unveiled the StraightBull rifle at SHOT 2026, featuring a distinctive straight-pull bolt action design. The rifle incorporates innovative machining techniques for enhanced performance and reliability. It is positioned as a modern take on straight-pull technology for precision shooting. WOOX High-Grade Bravado Rifle Stock WOOX has released the High-Grade Bravado, a premium rifle stock featuring hand-laid carbon fiber construction with a vertical grip design. It is compatible with AR-15 and AR-10 platforms, offering enhanced ergonomics and aesthetics. The stock incorporates WOOX's signature walnut wood accents and is available in multiple configurations. Palmetto State Armory 300 Blackout Rifle Setup Guide Palmetto State Armory's blog details a complete 300 Blackout rifle build using PSA components for optimal performance in suppressed and subsonic applications. The setup emphasizes affordability, reliability, and versatility for home defense or hunting. Key parts include a PSA PA-15 lower, 10.5-inch upper, and specific optics and accessories. Mauser M98 DAS Original Priced at $12,000 Mauser has released the M98 DAS Original, a premium recreation of the historic Model 98 rifle built with exceptional craftsmanship for longevity. The rifle features a hand-fitted action, premium walnut stock, and traditional Mauser design elements. It is positioned as a heirloom-quality firearm engineered to last generations. Magpul Sub-Compact RG9 Holster for RXM Magpul has released the Sub-Compact RG9, a Kydex holster designed specifically for the Ruger RXM pistol. The holster features an appendix-inside-the-waistband (AIWB) design with a claw and wedge for improved concealment. It is compatible only with the RXM model and emphasizes modularity with adjustable retention. Before we let you go – JOIN GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA We'd love if you supported the show, join Agency 171 at agency171.com. Lot's of prizes, rewards and kick ass swag. No matter how tough your battle is today, we want you here fight with us tomorrow. Don't struggle in silence, you can contact the suicide prevention line by dialing 988 from your phone. Remember – Always prefer Dangerous Freedom over peaceful slavery. We'll see you next time! Nick – @busbuiltsystems | Bus Built Systems Jeremy – @ret_actual | Rivers Edge Tactical Aaron – @machinegun_moses Savage – @savage1r Shawn – @dangerousfreedomyt | @camorado.cam | Camorado Posted on February 16, 2026

Love isn’t just romance. It’s friendship, family, self-worth, trust, and the way we show up for ourselves. In this Valentine’s episode, I open up about what real love actually looks like after heartbreak, betrayal, and learning the hard way. Drawing from anonymous listener questions and my own lived experiences, we talk about trusting again after abuse, learning to believe in good people, navigating anxiety in healthy relationships, and why you can’t scare away the person who’s meant for you. We explore dating without controlling outcomes, staying present in singleness, rebuilding communication in relationships, finding love later in life, and why choosing the right partner is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make. This episode is for anyone who has ever felt behind in love, struggled to trust themselves or others, wondered if safe, calm love really exists, or needed permission to stop settling. Love is all around us, sometimes we just need help learning how to recognize it, choose it, and believe we deserve it.

Get lost in someone else's life. From a mysterious childhood spent on the run, to a courageous escape from domestic violence, each season of Personally invites you to explore the human experience in all its complexity, one story — or season — at a time.In the latest season of Personally: Creation Myth, Helena does not want kids. Her husband believes she'll change her mind—she has so much love to give, she would be a perfect mother. That will never happen, she tells him. Again. And again. Until one day, he leaves.In the silence, doubt starts rushing in. So she asks her close friends, her mother, her sister, even a perfect stranger—did she make the right decision? What is the purpose of life? Center your pleasure, says one friend. Go for adventure, says another, and isn't parenthood the biggest adventure of all? Be true to yourself, says a father who regrets his decision. But the voice she needs to hear is her own. More episodes of Creation Myth are available wherever you get your podcasts and here: https://link.mgln.ai/CMxAALS

Money isn’t just math. It’s memory, identity, fear, hope, and survival. Shannah Game, certified financial planner and author of Unraveling Your Relationship with Money, shares why so many of us feel anxious, ashamed, or stuck around money... regardless of how much we make. We talk about financial trauma (the obvious kind and the subtle kind), why “being good with money” is a myth, how shame keeps us frozen, and why women in particular carry so much silent stress around finances. Shanna shares her own story of losing everything after divorce, the patterns she sees again and again in high-performing women, and simple ways to start rebuilding trust with money without perfection or punishment.