Podcasts about photoshop

Here's a Thought… #2729 with Brooks Jensen A Library of Skies How do you feel about the Sky Replacement tool in Photoshop? Is it a cheat, or a solution? Or, maybe I should rephrase that: When is it a cheat and when an acceptable tool? For my work, I've decided it is a tool I'm willing to use if it is only a matter of timing. If the replacement sky could be possible if only I was there photographing on a different day or time, I won't hesitate to use it. Does this open a Pandora's Box of fakery? Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

Send us Fan MailWe're finally back!After a short break, The Riley Black Project returns with a guest who has been dodging us for years: Kristen Thompson of Kristen Thompson Designs.Kristen joins John and Crystal to talk about her journey from corporate work at Lowe's, to Cricut crafts, Etsy digital designs, sublimation tumblers, laser engraving, full wrap tumbler designs, Photoshop mockups, and building a creative business around the products and designs she actually loves making.We get into the real maker-business stuff too: trying new things, getting over the fear of being on camera, learning full wrap tumblers, selling digital laser files, testing designs, using mockups, making finished products, and why entrepreneurship feels amazing and exhausting at the same time.Kristen also shares how she built her Etsy design shop, why she still loves the analytical side of business, and how selling designs to other makers doesn't take away from her finished product business. It can actually help more people bring beautiful cups to life in their own way.Whether you're a laser owner, tumbler maker, Etsy seller, digital designer, creative entrepreneur, or maker trying to figure out what direction to go next, this episode is packed with laughs, business lessons, and real-world maker experience.FB: The KTD Collection - Lasered By KTDIG: @kthompdesignsTikTok: @LaseredByKTDEtsy: kthomplaserdesigns.etsy.comWebsite: KristenThompsonDesigns.comYouTube: @ShesTheReasonIHaveALaserSupport the showIf you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon!! You can check out the tier options and perks here: https://www.patreon.com/TheRileyBlackProjectCheck out my Linktree for my social media links & all the different things I have to offer! https://linktr.ee/RileyBlack

On a jasé des applications dont on est incapables de se passer : Waze, Photoshop, Messenger, etc. Des Olympiques de robots humanoïdes ont attiré notre attention ce matin. Phil a initié Kim et Mike à sa Petite Vite à 6 h. Dans notre 7 chanceux, on a testé les connaissances générales de nos chums afin de leur faire remporter un passeport pour les trois jours du festival Music 4 Cancer. On a discuté de la règle des 3 secondes avec la bouffe… Êtes-vous dédaigneux ou non? Dans son Wake Up Quiz, Ben K7 est revenu sur le party d’équipe qui a eu lieu le week-end dernier… et on en a appris beaucoup! Dans sa Grosse News, notre informateur Étienne Phénix nous a éclairés un peu plus sur les contrecoups des tarifs douaniers de nos voisins américains.

Is your business creating more content with AI… but getting less attention from it?AI has made it ridiculously easy to produce images, ads, social posts, and product visuals. Unfortunately, easy doesn't mean effective. When everyone has access to the same tools, generic prompts tend to produce generic content—and generic content rarely moves the business needle.The solution isn't another 500-word “perfect prompt.” It's giving AI better context, references, brand knowledge, and creative direction—and knowing when human refinement still matters.In this episode of Leveraging AI, Isar Meitis sits down with Aastha Taneja to break down a practical workflow for creating AI-powered visual assets that look intentional, stay consistent with your brand, and are designed to generate engagement rather than simply fill your content calendar.Aastha demonstrates how she combines traditional creative thinking with tools including ChatGPT, Figma, Pinterest, image-generation platforms, and Photoshop. She also explains why she believes businesses should treat AI as an assistant—not outsource the entire creative process to it.In this session, you'll discover:Why so much AI-generated marketing content turns into forgettable “AI slop.”Why better AI creative starts before you write a prompt.How mood boards give AI a far clearer understanding of the visual direction you want.How to feed AI your website, brand assets, SOPs, typography, and existing creative to improve its output.The difference between borrowing a proven format and copying someone else's creative.How to maintain accurate product details when AI image generators get almost everything right—but miss one critical element.How AI can help businesses create high-quality Amazon listing images and other e-commerce assets.How reusable visual workflows can turn a manual creative process into a scalable content system.Aastha Taneja is a creative professional with years of experience developing digital assets for brands and through freelance work. She now combines that traditional design foundation with AI, helping businesses and professionals understand how to use AI tools more effectively for creative work and sharing those methods through corporate training.Her core philosophy is refreshingly practical: AI should amplify good creative thinking—not replace it.Connect with Aastha on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/taneja-aastha/ About Leveraging AIThe Ultimate AI Course for Business People: https://multiplai.ai/ai-course/YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Multiplai_AI/Connect with Isar Meitis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isarmeitis/ Join our Live Sessions, AI Hangouts and newsletter: https://services.multiplai.ai/eventsIf you've enjoyed or benefited from some of the insights of this episode, leave us a five-star review on your favorite podcast platform, and let us know what you learned, found helpful, or liked most about this show!

This January, four big AI × Pharma tools deals were announced at the huge JPM Pharma conference that takes over San Francisco every year. OpenAI-backed Chai Discovery (now worth $4B) was somehow at the heart despite being all of 2 years old. The Science team is proud to bring you the first podcast with cofounder Matt McPartlon and product lead Neil Patil to tell the full story! Editor's note: not to be confused with Chai AI, which was another top pod of ours.Pharma suddenly doing big AI tools dealsFor the non-pharma people, JPM is JP Morgan's annual conference for pharma deal-making that takes over San Francisco for a week in January with hundreds of side events, etc. It's a big thing. Tools deals for pharma are also a big (new) thing: companies that start as AI for Pharma usually end up building their own drug pipelines instead, and the reason is something like this: convincing pharma to use your tool requires proof that your tool works. Proof means good targets, maybe with good clinical validation. If you have that, then it's easier to raise money (with a known, if long path to commercialization) or sell (e.g payment in biobucks) for a specific target than it is to sell to lots of companies on a promise that it will work across their portfolios. The “we'll just partner / build our own drug” optionality proved to be the only good path up until January. What changed? In short, the tools got good enough for drug design teams to trust.Good-enough-to-trust unlocks the ability to scale discovery: get more, better candidates into the lab and animal trials faster. More screening for toxicity, better delivery, etc. This means that what you push to the clinic is more likely to succeed.Tools also unlock new capabilities: mechanisms that are very hard or impossible to develop using lab-based discovery. Designing an antibody that precisely triggers a very specific molecular cascade takes many years of trial and error. Designing bi-specific antibodies (that bind to two different proteins) is similarly difficult. Good design tools can unlock this.RJ: The fact that the quality of the model has jumped means you're enabling things you just plain couldn't do. So it's a step change. It's not an efficiency argument at all, or not so much.Matt: Yeah, exactly. It's kind of interesting, even for us — it took me a while to believe in the thesis, actually. I talked to Josh for months before Chai started... It's like, can I beat a mouse, and then can I do what mice can't do? And then how many levels of interaction can you just keep building on top of that?Everyone playing in the structural / binding space has an angle here, and some will be better than others, but Chai is pointing to a different unlock: getting good molecules right out of the gate (meaning they don't then need as much lab work) means that the iteration time is faster. This turns science into engineering: you can design your systems to reduce friction and hill climb towards one-shotting molecules all the way to the clinic.This, per-se, is not a new thesis: a16z articulated a version of this in 2020. What has changed is that structural models became binding models (how well doesn't this molecule bind to this molecule, aka “binding affinity). Binding models unlock design, which has been steadily improving. Chai's observation is that for engineering problems the best product tends to win, and good technology is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Photoshop for moleculesWith that in mind Chai has invested heavily in partnerships that allow them to learn from their Pharma counterparts. What is kind of cool about working so closely and supporting so many of these partners is we get to really learn about what is the stuff that would be helpful in research. So rather than doing research in a vacuum, based on what would hypothetically be cool, we're able to do informed research based on what our partners have just been organically asking us for help with.— Neil Patil, (Chai product lead)This means better UX, such as a molecule editor that is more like a CAD or graphics design program than a chatbot.Their approach has paid off: since June, Chai has announced three more major deals: Lilly, Novartis, argenx, plus an expansion of their Eli Lily program. This episode is too full of quotable moments for a short blog, so tune in to learn about * Why protein tokens have the highest downstream value of any token * Climbing levels of abstraction as models improve * How Pharma, VC, and research are all just portfolio optimization * How better tech changes the whole portfolio * How relentless focus on simplicity leads to scalePlus much more! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.latent.space/subscribe

For years the objection to AI 3D was that it could not make clean, production-ready topology. That objection is falling fast, and we show the wireframes to prove it. In a surprise move, Kitbash and Greyscale Gorilla just bought Sketchfab and ArtStation from Epic Games. We tested Grok Imagine 2.0's precise image editing live and asked whether Photoshop is still necessary. And Meta dropped Muse Glimmer, a free open-weight model that runs on a single GPU.Sources:1. AI 3D Model Generation (Future of 3D Modeling)- https://x.com/kiaran_ritchie/status/2086880051241627939- https://x.com/startracker/status/2086537093120164177- https://x.com/TencentHunyuan/status/20870685912965367552. Meta Muse Glimmer (Open-Weight Model)- https://x.com/finkd/status/2086755195535413696- https://x.com/ollama/status/2086781863490994267

THE DEVIL'S LEDGERWeek of August 10, 2026 Apparently, I've spent the last few weeks lying to myself about fall being “just around the corner.” Then the calendar rudely reminds me that it's early August, the sidewalks are hot enough to cook breakfast, and summer is still very much... summering. Hang in there, people. We'll get there eventually. This week on The Devil's Ledger, we begin with The Creepiest Thing I Heard This Week and travel to the wetlands of Southern Maryland, where Kings Landing Park has attracted renewed paranormal attention surrounding a mysterious figure known as Mary. Visitors, staff, and investigators have reported unexplained cries, footsteps without an obvious source, and sightings of a sorrowful young woman dressed in white wandering near the marsh before disappearing among the trees. Then, on The Devil Within, The New Monsters continues with Slender Man, perhaps the perfect case study in how modern folklore can be created before our eyes. We trace the legend from an online Photoshop contest through its explosive growth across the internet and into the horrifying real-world Wisconsin stabbing, asking what happens when millions of people are suddenly able to participate in building a mythology together. Criminal Mischief is taking the week off while Carolyn prepares for another ambitious deep-dive limited series planned for early next year. There's much more coming on that front, so stay tuned. Over on The Slippery, we pull back the mask on one of the strangest double lives in modern true crime: ChiefsAholic. Xaviar Babudar became a familiar sight at Kansas City Chiefs games in his towering gray wolf costume, while authorities say the high-stakes gambler was simultaneously responsible for a string of violent bank robberies across the Midwest. This week, The Slippery follows the police reports and financial trail behind the superfan whose obsession with football, gambling, and an increasingly chaotic lifestyle eventually made him a fugitive. And This Week in Horror, we head to the Italian countryside for Immaculate, starring Sydney Sweeney. Cecilia arrives at an isolated convent expecting a life devoted to faith, only to discover increasingly disturbing miracles, sinister rituals, and secrets buried within the institution around her. Atmospheric, beautifully shot, and steeped in religious horror, this one is definitely worth checking out. Stay cool. Stay hydrated. For God's sake, wear sunscreen. Before long we'll all be complaining that it gets dark at 5:30 and arguing about Halloween candy. Until then, we'll see you somewhere across the Evio Universe.

The Day We Invented a MonsterThe New Monsters – Episode One For thousands of years, humanity has created monsters. But we rarely know who created them. Vampires emerged from centuries of whispered folklore. Werewolves wandered through medieval Europe long before anyone thought to record the first storyteller's name. Ghosts belonged to abandoned houses, forgotten battlefields, and generations of frightened imaginations. Then, in June of 2009, something unprecedented happened. An ordinary graphic designer entered an online Photoshop contest and unknowingly created the first monster whose birth was documented almost frame by frame. His name was Eric Knudsen. The creature he imagined became known as Slender Man. This week on The Devil Within, Branden Morgan begins a three-part investigation into the first great myth of the internet age, exploring how a pair of manipulated photographs evolved into one of the most influential pieces of modern folklore ever created. More importantly... Why were millions of people so eager to believe? This isn't simply the story of Slender Man. It's the story of how the internet became humanity's newest campfire—and how mythology no longer requires centuries to evolve. In This Episode The horrifying 2014 Waukesha stabbing that introduced Slender Man to the world Why every civilization creates monsters The technological and cultural conditions that made Slender Man inevitable The rise of social media, YouTube, Reddit, and collaborative storytelling The Something Awful Photoshop Contest of June 2009 Eric Knudsen (Victor Surge) and the creation of Slender Man Why the monster's faceless design unsettles the human brain The psychology of the "uncanny" How thousands of strangers transformed one image into modern folklore Themes Explored Digital folklore Internet mythology Collective storytelling The psychology of fear Urban legends Horror history Media culture The evolution of folklore Modern monsters Slender Man Creepypasta Featured Topics The 2014 Waukesha case (introductory context) Eric Knudsen (Victor Surge) Something Awful Forums Photoshop Contest (June 8, 2009) The Uncanny Valley Collaborative internet culture Early social media The birth of Creepypasta Digital mythology The story doesn't end with two manipulated photographs. It begins there. Coming Next Week In Episode Two, When Fiction Escaped the Screen, Slender Man no longer belongs to his creator. YouTube filmmakers, artists, gamers, writers, and millions of strangers begin adding new chapters until something extraordinary happens. For the first time in history... we watch folklore evolve in real time. The Devil Within is written and hosted by Branden Morgan. Produced by Evio Creative. Watch full episodes and exclusive content on the Evio Creative YouTube Channel. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with someone who loves history, folklore, and the darker corners of human imagination. Your support helps us continue exploring the stories that reveal not only the monsters we create—but why we create them.

NEW! Little Big Affirmations Deck for Kids: Check it out.   Click here to Shop Affirmation Decks, Oracle Decks, and more! Use Promo code: RCPODCAST20 for 20% off your first order!   Today's Power Affirmation: I decorate my life with quality relationships, experiences, and purpose.   Today's Oracle of Motivation: The world influences our desires to crave higher quantities! More money. More sex. More friends. More followers. More cars. More undies! Sadly, higher quantities only create shallow satisfaction in the moment. To be truly happy, try befriending quality, not quantity. How can you take what is already part of your life to the next level? Instead of the job you hate that pays the most, how about one you love that pays enough? Instead of 20 Tinder dates a week with the world's best Photoshop con artists, how about 1 really strong, transparent, and beneficial relationship? The anchors of your happiness are already part of your life. How can you crack open the magic within? It's time to put on the silk undies and ditch the rest!   Designed to Motivate Your Creative Maniac Mind The 60-Second Power Affirmations Podcast is designed to help you focus, affirm your visions, and harness the power within your creative maniac mind! Join us daily for a new 60-second power affirmation followed by a blast of oracle motivation from the Universe (+ a quick breathing meditation). It's time to take off your procrastination diaper and share your musings with the world!   For more musings, visit RageCreate.com     Leave a Review & Share! Apple Podcast reviews are one of THE most important factors for podcasts. If you enjoy the show, please take a second to leave the show a review on Apple Podcasts! Click this link: Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Hit “Listen on Apple Podcasts” on the left-hand side under the picture. Scroll down under “Ratings & Reviews” & click “Write A Review” Leave an honest review. You're awesome!  

As estradas brasileiras estão ficando cada vez mais conectadas. A expansão do Free Flow, sistema de pedágio sem cancela, é uma das mudanças mais visíveis, mas está longe de ser a única. Por trás dos novos pórticos existe uma infraestrutura que combina conectividade, identificação por radiofrequência, leitura de placas e softwares capazes de processar as informações dos veículos. E mesmo quando a conexão cai, os dados podem ficar armazenados no próprio equipamento para serem transmitidos depois. A inteligência artificial também começa a ganhar espaço nas rodovias. Novos sistemas de visão computacional conseguem analisar imagens com rapidez e identificar situações como motoristas usando o celular ou sem o cinto de segurança. Mas colocar toda essa tecnologia para funcionar traz desafios. Além da cobertura de internet nas estradas, a expansão do Free Flow exige adaptação dos motoristas a uma nova forma de pagamento. Para quem não utiliza uma tag, por exemplo, é preciso lembrar de consultar e quitar a cobrança posteriormente. No novo episódio do Podcast Canaltech, Elisa Fontes conversa com Daniel Fuchs, VP de Inovação da Arqia e especialista em IoT, conectividade e transformação digital, sobre a infraestrutura por trás dessas mudanças e os desafios para tornar as rodovias brasileiras mais conectadas. A conversa também olha para o que vem pela frente. Com mais conectividade, as estradas poderão ampliar o rastreamento de cargas, monitorar condições como temperatura e peso de caminhões e criar infraestrutura para uma futura adoção de veículos autônomos. Você também vai conferir: Meta lucrou com anúncios de exploração infantil gerados por IA, tecnologia do Spotify quer transformar as compras online e Photoshop e outras ferramentas da Adobe chegam ao ChatGPT. Este podcast foi roteirizado e apresentado por Fernanda Santos e contou com reportagens de Marcelo Fischer e André Magalhães. A trilha sonora é de Guilherme Zomer, a edição de Yuri Sousa e a arte da capa é de Erick Teixeira. O Podcast Canaltech está concorrendo para entrar no Top 20 do Prêmio iBest 2026! Se você acompanha nossos episódios, curte as entrevistas e gosta do conteúdo que produzimos todos os dias, sua ajuda pode fazer toda a diferença. Vote no Podcast Canaltech aqui. É rápido, gratuito e você pode votar até 3 vezes por dia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Generative AI tools are rapidly evolving, filling social-media platforms with so-called AI slop—from Iranian-produced Lego videos to digitally manipulated campaign imagery in the U.S. In this second installment of Tech News Briefing's three-part series, "AI and the Blurring of Reality," WSJ personal tech columnist Nicole Nguyen explores how this technology is turbocharging deepfakes and shaping politics. Further Listening: When AI Grandmas Go Viral, What Even Is Reality Anymore? Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The New Monsters: Montauk - Part Three The Monster We Needed The Montauk Monster was never just about a strange carcass lying on a Long Island beach. It was about trust. Why did millions of otherwise rational people immediately believe that a decomposing animal might be the product of secret government experiments? Why did Camp Hero, Plum Island, and decades of Cold War secrecy become inseparable from a single photograph? In the conclusion to our three-part Montauk investigation, Branden Morgan explores the uncomfortable answer: perhaps the creature itself never mattered. What mattered was the world that created it. From MKUltra and government secrecy to the internet's ability to accelerate folklore at unprecedented speed, this episode examines how modern myths emerge—not because people abandon reason, but because uncertainty demands a story. The Montauk Monster wasn't simply another cryptid. It may have been one of the first monsters truly born in the digital age. In This Episode: Why conspiracy theories flourish when public trust erodes The documented legacy of MKUltra and why it changed public perception How real government secrecy gave rise to modern folklore Why Camp Hero and Plum Island became fertile ground for speculation The psychology behind modern conspiracy thinking Why myths evolve faster than facts in the internet era The Montauk Monster as one of the first internet-born cryptids What the legend ultimately reveals about modern America—not biology The Devil Within Theme The greatest monsters are rarely the ones hiding in the shadows. They're the stories we create when certainty disappears. Featured This Week When people stop trusting the institutions that once explained the world, they don't stop believing altogether. They simply begin searching for new explanations. Sometimes those explanations become science. Sometimes history. And sometimes... they become monsters. Camp Hero and its Cold War history Plum Island and the facts behind decades of speculation MKUltra and the unintended birth of modern conspiracy culture How folklore migrated from campfires to message boards Why the internet has become humanity's newest myth-making machine Next Time on The New Monsters The investigation moves from abandoned military installations into an entirely different wilderness: The internet. In 2009, a simple Photoshop contest gave birth to a faceless figure known as Slender Man. He wasn't discovered in ancient folklore or whispered about for generations. He was deliberately created online. Then something extraordinary happened. People began claiming they had seen him. The story spread across forums, videos, games, and social media before culminating in one of the most disturbing crimes of the digital age. We'll examine how fiction escaped the screen, why the human mind embraced the impossible, and whether the internet has become the birthplace of an entirely new kind of mythology. If you're enjoying The New Monsters, please follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the video editions and exclusive companion content on the Evio Creative YouTube Channel. Follow @thedevilwithinpod on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube for behind-the-scenes content, historical photographs, and updates on future investigations. Written & Hosted by: Branden Morgan A production of Evio Creative.

I thought it might be fun to look at one of the ways I use AI in my creation process.A while back I told you about the book I wrote, Don't Play With Things That Go Boom.After spending a couple of years writing the book, I set myself the task of designing the cover for this very personal project.Not being an artist, it took me several days working with Photoshop and Creative Cloud tools to come up a cover. After several revisions I was pleased with the result.I published the book in the Amazon store, and then I set about my next task — trying to sell it.I turned to my AI, ChatGPT, and gave it a copy of the manuscript and the cover and asked if it could give me some tips on how to market the book.One of the very first things ChatGPT told me surprised me.It said my cover wasn't “clickable.”In other words, when someone is scrolling through dozens of tiny book covers on Amazon, mine simply didn't stand out enough to make people want to click on it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit clintmorey.substack.com

“The human part is 99 percent. The AI part is maybe 1 percent — even if 100 percent of the manuscript was dumped onto the page by AI.” — Keith Teare on writing with AI What is “real” authorship in our AI age? For That Was The Week publisher Keith Teare, all authorship, even the most AI-enabled, is real. It's the cave-dwelling Luddites who are the sloppy ones. For Keith, true creativity, in our age of Claude and Gemini, almost requires the use of AI. A couple of weeks ago Keith confessed, or perhaps boasted, that he is writing an AI-assisted book entitled Who Owns Intelligence. This week, publishing discovered what happens when others play the same game without public acknowledgement. So we have the case of the “red-hot” debut novel, fought over by fourteen publishers, dropped overnight when the agent found AI in the mix. “It's a fantastic book,” the book's agent acknowledged, before firing its less than transparent author. Which, for Keith, is precisely the scandal. His position, argued in this week's editorial “AI Detected,” is pretty absolute. Nothing is written by AI, Keith argues, because AI has no will. It doesn't produce a single word unless asked. The human part is 99 percent, he says, even when 100 percent of the manuscript is spat out by the machine. So the real sin isn't using AI but not acknowledging its use. So, on Who Owns Intelligence, Keith makes it crystal clear that “AI was heavily used in the writing of this book.” I'm not so sure. Amazon is now infested with AI slop that requires no authorship. Besides, Keith clearly has no love of reading books. He admits to reading only a single volume in the last couple of years. And he's still smarting from being, in his mind at least, ripped off by the publishing industry for his last published book some 40 years ago. He no longer needs to read books, he pronounces, because his world-view is already set. For a man who thinks he knows everything, AI isn't scary. Maybe we should rename him Claude. Postscript. Full Keith-style disclosure: these shownotes were produced with the help of Anthropic. When I fed Claude my draft, it responded: “‘Maybe we should rename him Claude' is a closer I'm contractually obliged to enjoy.” Nothing, as Keith says, is written by AI. Although some algorithms seem to have cheeky opinions of their own. Maybe Anthropic should rename it Keith. Five Takeaways •       Nothing Is Written by AI. Keith's absolutism starts from the machine's lack of will: AI won't produce a word unless a human asks. His Who Owns Intelligence — fifteen chapters, arguments, and references — was structured in ninety minutes from years of thinking; the AI produced a manuscript he then shaped, like a color grader working sliders in Photoshop. The human part is 99 percent even when the machine types every word. And authorship was never solitary anyway: Plato's contemporaries thought writing itself degraded ideas, and no publisher will touch a book that hasn't passed through an editor and a subeditor. If editing doesn't change authorship, Keith asks, why would AI?•       Transparency, Not Technology. The week's cautionary tale: a debut novel fought over by fourteen publishers, dropped when the agent discovered AI — while conceding, in the same breath, “it's a fantastic book.” For Keith the scandal is concealment, not composition: own the tool, as he now does with a strapline under his byline. The detection regime, meanwhile, is collapsing on its own inaccuracy — universities dropped their AI detectors this week, and Substack's new detection partner scored Keith's human-shaped editorial as 100 percent AI when a fair reading was 40. Cheating exists only against obsolete rules: the question is moving from did you use AI to how well did you use it.•       “The Publishing Industry Is Basically a Scam.” Keith's response to Andy Hunter's ban on AI-generated books — from last week's Keen On interview — was one word: outrageous. There is no such thing as an AI-written book, only good and bad ones; and the true victim of publishing is not the bookstore but the author. Exhibit A: his own 1988 book sold 50,000 copies at £3.99 and earned him roughly £10,000 — about 5p a copy — while Penguin took the rest. The future he wants is direct, author-to-reader, without the middlemen. As for “organic” artisanal literature: real, elite, and tiny — the new vinyl, which is itself cut these days from digital masters.•       Sharks, Playing Their Own Book. Leopold Aschenbrenner — fired young from OpenAI, transfigured by one prophetic essay into the “Nostradamus of AI” — saw his $45 billion, heavily leveraged Situational Awareness fund lose $600 million, get margin-called, and sell to Ken Griffin's Citadel. (He is, Keith suspects, still super rich.) Zuckerberg's sudden conversion to open source as “the distribution of wealth to the people” struck us both as a bit rich; Amodei's “I'm not against open source as long as it's safe” — from a man on record that no AI is safe — translates as: against. Keith's deeper complaint, from an admiring Claude user: you can't trust Dario. And China, hardware-constrained, has made open source its national strategy — undermining American foundation-model revenue one cheap routed prompt at a time.•       Money Won't Matter by 2036? Elon Musk predicts money becomes irrelevant within a decade; Vinod Khosla — our post of the week — thinks he might just have a point. Keith, ever the economics tutor, reaches for tendency and ceteris paribus: money is a means of exchange and a store of value, and if abundance drives the labor-value of things toward zero, its irrelevance is not illogical — though between tendency and reality lies a whole ton of variables. I bet the opposite: that by 2036 money will matter more than ever. The problem, we discovered, is the stake — you can't bet money on money not mattering. Wives and children were proposed and hastily withdrawn (“We'd be losing, Andrew”). Loser buys dinner — at a free restaurant. About the Co-Host Keith Teare is the publisher of That Was The Week, the essential weekly tech newsletter, and founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. A serial entrepreneur — co-founder of, among others, EasyNet and RealNames — he was present at the creation of the UK internet and has spent four decades at the intersection of technology, capital, and ideas. He joins Keen On America every Sunday to make sense of the week in tech. His AI-assisted book in progress is titled Who Owns Intelligence. References: •       That Was The Week — Keith's newsletter, including this week's editorial, “AI Detected.”•       The Wall Street Journal — on the red-hot debut novel at the center of publishing's AI mystery: fourteen publishers, one discovery, one dropped author.•      ...

Bruce Springsteen played years of small clubs to small audiences before he became the superstar AI can now rip off. In this episode of Content Amplified, Wesley Quock, who leads the brand experience team at ExtraHop, traces the three disruptions that reshaped creative work across his 30-year career: the move to digital, social media plus smartphones, and now AI. He explains how each one accelerated the devaluation and commodification of content until, as he puts it, we are all starting to be drowned in slop. Wes uses AI every day for research, copywriting, image creation, video, and campaign strategy, and still calls it a mortal threat to creativity, because a 14-year-old can now generate a scene in the style of Miyazaki without knowing what Miyazaki went through to build it. His counterweight is craft. He shares the one-word thesis assignment from art school that still shapes how he briefs creative work, why behind-the-scenes storytelling is the thing competitors cannot rip off, and how to brief AI tools the way you would brief a junior creative. Listen if you want a clear-eyed way to use AI without handing it your creative voice.About WesleyWesley Quock has spent over 30 years in the creative realm, starting in small boutique design agencies doing branding work for banks and the Aspen Skiing Company, then moving into high tech for the last 26 years across both enterprise corporations and startups. Along the way he has done print design, event design, video production, and social media design, growing with whatever the industry needed from a creative standpoint. He is now about ten years into cybersecurity, leading the brand experience team at ExtraHop, where he owns creative and manages the web team, putting every brand channel under his purview. Wes believes AI is a genuine new medium in the hands of real artists, the way Photoshop never killed photography, but that creators have to hold onto storytelling, vision, and the unglamorous process behind the finished piece.Show NotesConnect with Wesley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesley-quock/Wesley's company, ExtraHop: https://www.extrahop.comText us what you think about this episode!

After 25 years of Photoshop, which skills still matter—and which are being replaced by artificial intelligence?In this episode of The Camera Shake Podcast, Kersten Luts sits down with PhotoshopCAFE founder Colin Smith for a wide-ranging conversation about Photoshop, photography, generative AI and the future of visual creativity. Colin explains why AI is an incredibly useful assistant, but still cannot replace taste, observation, judgement or a clear creative vision.They explore how Photoshop has evolved from its earliest days, why layers transformed digital image editing, and how automated masking, Generative Fill and AI retouching are changing professional photography workflows. Colin also shares the story behind PhotoshopCAFE, his approach to online education, and how he has stayed relevant through books, courses, YouTube and constant changes in creative technology.The conversation covers photo retouching, non-destructive editing, copyright, authenticity, creative limitations, computational photography and the future of cameras. It also offers practical insight for photographers, videographers and anyone building a photography business in a fast-changing industry.Most importantly, Colin explains why craftsmanship may become more valuable again.Subscribe to Camera Shake for weekly conversations on photography, videography and the photography business, and explore our related portrait photography episodes for more practical inspiration and ideas.#photography #photoshop #ColinSmith #CameraShakePodcast******************************************************************Get Your CAMERA SHAKE MERCH: https://www.kerstenluts.com/camerashake-merch******************************************************************SUPPORT THE PODCAST: www.buymeacoffee.com/camerashake******************************************************************JOIN THE CAMERA SHAKE COMMUNITY for the latest news and some behind the scenes insights: www.camerashakepodcast.com ******************************************************************Check out our sponsor: www.platypod.com******************************************************************THIS WEEK'S LINKS:Colin Smith on the web:photoshopcafe.comColin Smith on Social Media:YouTube: youtube.com/photoshopcafeInstagram: instagram.com/photoshopcafeFacebook: facebook.com/photoshopCAFETikTok: tiktok.com/@photoshopcafeThreads: threads.com/@photoshopcafeX: x.com/photoshopCAFELinkedIn – Colin Smith: linkedin.com/in/photoshopcafeLinkedIn – PhotoshopCAFE: linkedin.com/company/photoshopcafeBehance: behance.net/kiwicolinJOIN THE CAMERA SHAKE COMMUNITY for the latest news and some behind the scenes insights: www.camerashakepodcast.com ======================================CAMERA SHAKE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE:https://www.youtube.com/camerashakeFULL EPISODE 320 ‘25 Years of Photoshop: The Skills AI Can't Replace with COLIN SMITH' IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON: YouTube - https://youtu.be/nXFhl68D8AAApple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2Y2Lmfm Spotify - https://spoti.fi/304sm2G ======================================FOLLOW US ONInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/camerashakepodcast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camerashakepodcastX: https://twitter.com/ShakeCameraKersten's website: www.kerstenluts.comKersten on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kerstenluts/https://www.instagram.com/threeheadsinarow/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can AI make you better at Photoshop instead of replacing Photoshop? Sorg, Katie Dudas, and Dave Podnar explore that question on AwesomeCast 789 as Sorg shares a workflow for turning AI-generated concepts into editable graphics while keeping control of the final design. The crew also gets into Pittsburgh technology history with plans to preserve Westinghouse's Atom Smasher, the impressive Commercial Street Bridge replacement, and the accessibility origins of the modern audiobook. Then the geekery kicks into high gear: Xbox expands its classic-game preservation efforts to PC, Hasbro combines Transformers with Jem and the Holograms, LEGO brings Smart Play to Star Trek, Robosen releases an Optimus Prime robot designed to reopen childhood wounds, and Universal plans movies based on ten Atari properties. Plus, Chachi has gaming headlines involving Hasbro, Steam Deck and Atari, and the crew discusses the backlash surrounding a $58,000 humanoid robot proposed for use in a New York school district. It's Pittsburgh technology, AI creativity, retro gaming, accessibility, robots and pop-culture nostalgia on AwesomeCast 789.

Can AI make you better at Photoshop instead of replacing Photoshop? Sorg, Katie Dudas, and Dave Podnar explore that question on AwesomeCast 789 as Sorg shares a workflow for turning AI-generated concepts into editable graphics while keeping control of the final design. The crew also gets into Pittsburgh technology history with plans to preserve Westinghouse's Atom Smasher, the impressive Commercial Street Bridge replacement, and the accessibility origins of the modern audiobook. Then the geekery kicks into high gear: Xbox expands its classic-game preservation efforts to PC, Hasbro combines Transformers with Jem and the Holograms, LEGO brings Smart Play to Star Trek, Robosen releases an Optimus Prime robot designed to reopen childhood wounds, and Universal plans movies based on ten Atari properties. Plus, Chachi has gaming headlines involving Hasbro, Steam Deck and Atari, and the crew discusses the backlash surrounding a $58,000 humanoid robot proposed for use in a New York school district. It's Pittsburgh technology, AI creativity, retro gaming, accessibility, robots and pop-culture nostalgia on AwesomeCast 789.

Sometimes the hardest setback becomes the start of a far better life. I speak with Jeff Brown, an international photography business mentor whose path began with dyslexia, school struggles, and a fishing fly business at age 16. Jeff shares how military photography, personal branding, and business skills helped him build a successful creative career. He also opens up about losing everything through a failed pub, rebuilding his mental health, and creating a global photography mentoring business. His story shows how persistence, clear goals, strong branding, and the courage to change direction can create an unstoppable life. Highlights: 00:01:38 - How dyslexia and school struggles shaped Jeff's drive to work for himself. 00:05:58 - The first sale that showed him entrepreneurship was possible. 00:14:50 - Why passion and effort mattered more than early photography skills. 00:35:49 - How branding and marketing helped grow four photography businesses. 00:39:06 - The business failure that forced Jeff to rebuild his life. 01:01:49 - Why clear goals, strong branding, and steady action create growth. About the Guest: Jeff Brown is an International Photography Business Mentor, Best Selling Photography Business Author, Public Speaker and President of The British Institute of Professional Photography. Also working for The International School Photography Conference Team he has delivered sell-out courses and workshops around the world. Jeff works closely with photographers from all niches and photographic backgrounds having a real passion to help them grow their online brand and achieve their goals.          Jeff first dipped his toe into entrepreneurship at the age of 15 while still at school, selling handmade fishing flies to local tackle shops to boost his pocket money. After leaving school at 16 he set up his first full-time venture, a mail-order fishing tackle business. His fishing tackle business came to an end 7 years later, shortly after Jeff enlisted in the Royal Navy where he went on to serve as a military photographer and intelligence analysist.            Following nearly 10 years service he left the armed forces to set up his own photography company, and eighteen months later had a successful six-figure wedding photography company and a commercial photography business, then going on to open a separate school photography business and a Boudoir Makeover studio turning over 1,000 boudoir and model shoots per year.            In 2014 Jeff decided to follow his dreams of owning a country food pub by investing over £120k of his own money into a pub venture, which turned out to be his greatest ever failure, losing his entire investment and racking up £60k of debt in just 12 months while at the same time going through a divorce.           After suffering from depression in 2015, he changed direction again and developed an online photography business mentoring program, making it his mission to help and inspire photographers worldwide to market their businesses better.                                                Part of Jeff's major focus and teachings are in the areas of Goal Setting, Brand Message, Consistency, and Website Content including the new AI and AEO search on Google, and also his favourite social media platform which is LinkedIn. It's essential to have a mindset for success and a clear path to follow. No business can truly succeed without goals, direction, a powerful brand and a positive mindset to achieve.        Jeff has written 4 internationally best-selling photography books and recently published his first travel book – ·      The Photographers Missing Link-edIn ·      The Ambitious Photographer's Journal          ·      Help My Photography Website Needs More Customers        ·      The Photographer's Gratitude & Mindset Journal       ·      Plan Your Ultimate Northumberland 250 Road Trip   He writes for several photography magazines and associations and is also a brand ambassador for OM System (Olympus Cameras), The British Photography Awards, Studio Ninja, The Societies of Photographers, and the UK and US Brand Ambassador for The Shutter Studio App.         Jeff lives in the beautiful scenic county of Northumberland, England. He's a keen traveller having visited over 60 countries so far, as well as being an outdoor enthusiast, motorbiker and loves getting out in nature when ever he can. Ways to connect with Jeff**:** Website: www.thephotographersmentor.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/JeffBrownThePhotographersMentorLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/thephotographersmentorAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff%20Brown/author/B09M76J1XK About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:04 What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't what's in front of you, but rather what you believe? Welcome to Unstoppable Mindset, where inclusion, diversity, and the unexpected meet. I'm your host, Michael Hingston, speaker, author, and advocate for inclusion and possibilities. This podcast explores how the beliefs we carry shape the way we live, lead, and connect with others. Each week, I talk with people who challenge assumptions, face adversity head-on, and show what's possible when we choose curiosity over fear. Together, we focus on mindset, resilience, and the small shifts that lead to meaningful change. Let's get started. Hi again, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Unstoppable Mindset. You know what's really fun about this podcast is we get to meet all sorts of people who talk about all sorts of different kinds of things, and today we get to talk to a gentleman from England, Jeff Brown, and Jeff, among other things, is an international photography business mentor, best-selling photography business author, he's a public speaker and also the president of the British Public Institute of Photography. I think I said that right. Jeff Brown  01:36 British British Institute of Professional Photography. British Michael Hingson  01:40 Institute of Professional Photography. Got to say it right, but anyway, and and all sorts of other things. He's an adventurous kind of person, as you're going to learn in the course of the day. So, Jeff, I want to welcome you to Unstoppable Mindset, and we're really glad you're here. Jeff Brown  01:55 Thank you. Thanks for having me on. Michael Hingson  01:57 Well, I'm glad to do it, and I have a visitor in the studio today, my cat Stitch, who is monitoring this, and I'm sure that if she has any opinions, she's going to voice them. But we'll see. Stitch is a wonderful kitty. She's almost 16 years old, and we we love having her around. But anyway, so Jeff, why don't we start by you telling us kind of maybe about the early Jeff growing up and some of those things, and we'll go from there. Jeff Brown  02:25 So growing up, so I grew up in the northeast of England, and I was born in 1970. So I'm 55 now, and back in sort of late 70s, early 80s, the northeast of England was a was a bit of a grim place. It was gray. It was there was a lot of poverty. It was mainly coal mining and shipbuilding, and it was the old sort of mentality of you know you go to school, you study hard, you get a job, you stay in the job for for your life, you retire, and then you're dead. That's it. Yeah. So, for some reason, that didn't really, really appeal to me. And I used to love reading. I read loads of books. I was obsessed with books. Got into books from a very early age. Into sort of fantasy type books, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and stuff like that. But it was only when I got into maybe probably about the the junior schools I'd gone through the infant school I got to about eight or nine year old that I realized there was something the matter with me in the fact that I'm really struggled with with school I wasn't very good at it years and years later, I found out I was dyslexic, but I couldn't read out aloud. I had real problems with numbers. Numbers seemed to always look the wrong way around to me, and I got an instant dislike of school and an instant dislike of authority. I had I just I couldn't wait to get out of it, but I was quite creative when I got into fishing, I was good at making fishing flies. I got into photography, and that sort of gave me more of a creative mindset. Where I thought, well, I don't want to work for anybody else. I don't want to be told what to do. I want to try and make my own direction. And I decided that I was going to be self-employed or you know start my own business at the age of 14, Michael Hingson  04:23 what did your parents think of your your kind of independent mindset or entrepreneurial mindset? Because you must have voiced it along the way. Jeff Brown  04:31 Well, I did, yeah, and funny enough, you know, I said I had a real dislike of school. I mean, I actually not not overly proud of it, but I was expelled from school at the age of 16, kicked out of school because I got into quite a bit of trouble. I was I was very rebellious. I really disliked it with the passion, and I left school with zero qualifications. So I didn't I didn't pass any exams. I filled every exam that I actually bothered to turn up for, but to. It matters worse. My dad was a college lecturer, and my mum was a teacher. So, so obviously it didn't go down well with with having two parents who were in the education system. But they backed me 100% They were they they could see that I was struggling, but dyslexia wasn't really a thing that was talked about back. Yeah, and yeah, my my dad put forward at the time one and a half 1000 pound to help me get onto the you know get the equipment I needed and the the office space to start my first business. Michael Hingson  05:34 So it was pretty supportive, Jeff Brown  05:36 very supportive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and and I think it helped as well that my first business was making fishing flies and tying and exporting fishing flies to fishing businesses around the world. But my dad was keen on fishing as well, so he had he had an attraction to the business. Michael Hingson  05:54 Okay. Well, I know that my wife had lots of relatives in England. A lot of them were from the Cornwall Mosel area, and a lot of them, of course, were very much into fishing. Jeff Brown  06:05 Oh yeah, yeah. I know Cornwall. In fact, I spent a year in Cornwall on on Navy search and rescue, and that would have been 1919 98 I think it was then very beautiful place. Michael Hingson  06:19 I've not been. I'd love to go sometime. We'll have to figure that out. Jeff Brown  06:23 Yeah, it is. It's gorgeous. It's gorgeous. Michael Hingson  06:26 So you started this business. So you were basically 15 when you started the the business, which I think is kind of interesting. That's at a young age, and of course, by the time you were 16, as you said, you got expelled from school, which had to not be very very much fun. Jeff Brown  06:44 Yeah, I mean, well, to be honest, so the the starting of the business, I used to I used to go into the fishing tackle shops at weekend myself and one of my friends who who I used to go fishing with, and he was good at making flies. He was called Phil. Obviously, I'm called Jeff, and we decided we were going to create a business called PJ Flies. And one weekend, we we went into one of the local fish and tackle shops, and we were buying some some bits and bobs to make fish and flies with. And the business owner, the owner of the shop, said, "Look, says, look, if you bring me some flies down next week, if they if they if they're any good, I'll buy them off you. So we walked into the shop and took these fishing flies in the following week in a little presentation box. And I remember him individually taking each fly out at a time because he said, "How much how much how much are you going to sell me them for? And I said, "Well, I'll sell them for 10 pence each. So he was taking them out, and I was counting up in my head. And at the time, my pocket money was, I think, was three or four pounds a week, and I came out of that shop with a 10-pound note. So it was double what I was getting paid off my pocket money, and it was such a great feeling. So that was my first ever sort of dip into entrepreneurship, earning money, and and he said, and the last thing he said as I went out the door, he says, if you can if you can make the same amount next week or even double, bring them back and I'll buy them off you. So the following week I went back and made 20 quid. Michael Hingson  08:18 Wow, what goes into making a fly, I'm not a fisherman by by training or anything, so I don't know a lot about fly fishing. Jeff Brown  08:27 Yeah, so it's all feathers and so feathers and furrows, and it's all held onto the hook with with a very fine thread, like what's called a gossamer thread. It takes it takes a while to learn. So I was taught by an old guy who was a really good fisherman, and he he had a caravan on the same caravan site that my parents had that they used to go on holiday on, and because we we we never used to go abroad in those days, all the holidays were spent in England, and that he he saw that I was getting into fishing, and he came and taught me how to how to tie fishing flies, which was great. Michael Hingson  09:06 Yeah, and of course, the whole idea behind the fly is to attract the fish, right? Jeff Brown  09:10 That's right. Yeah, yeah. Michael Hingson  09:13 So that they will, if you will, take the bait. Jeff Brown  09:16 Yeah, yeah, totally. And the funny thing was, I was yeah, I used to love fishing, but I don't need fish, so I would either put you know put them back in the in in the river, or I'd I'd give them away to to members of the family. Michael Hingson  09:30 Wow. Well, and suddenly fortunes changed, and there you were making flies and selling them. Jeff Brown  09:37 That's right. That's right. Michael Hingson  09:39 So how long did you do that? Jeff Brown  09:42 So we we got we got a proper sort of business premises in 1986. So when I was I was 16 year old, and we applied for a grant with the then Prince's Trust, which was run by Prince Charles, who's now King Charles. And we were the youngest people in in the UK to be accepted for a grant. They bent the rules and they give us the grant under the age of 18. So we got the grant at 17 year old, and then shortly after, we were in a business sort of a business community, a big a big workspace with lots of offices with other creative people in, and shortly after the the center had opened, about six months after, the the the manager of the center came up and says, "Well, look, we'd like to we'd like you to make a box of salmon flies, but a really good box of salmon flies, all the best ones, and we'll pay you. And it's going to be a presentation box for a special guest who's coming to officially open the business center in a few months. But we can't tell you who it is. And anyway, it turned out two months later it was it was Prince Charles. Speaker 1  10:59 He Jeff Brown  10:59 came to visit us, and he was presented with a box of fishing flies-the the flies that we tied from. Michael Hingson  11:07 Wow, that was pretty cool. So you got to meet him. Jeff Brown  11:11 So yeah, we got to meet him. He talked about fishing. He talked about fly tying. He said he'd he'd been bought a fly tying kit for Christmas one year from his wife, who would have been Princess Diana, but he couldn't get away from get away from it. It was too. He found it too complicated and too complex. So he says, "I really admire that you you know that you guys can can tie the flies. So so yeah. So it was nice. It was nice to meet him. It was nice to be able to do that presentation box, and we had that business till I was 26 so Michael Hingson  11:45 10 years, Jeff Brown  11:46 nearly 10 years. Yeah. Michael Hingson  11:48 Now, have you met him ever since Jeff Brown  11:52 then? I haven't met him, but I have met other members of the the royal family because I was a my next stage in business, so my next stage in life was to become a a military photographer. I met a few members of the royal family in my capacity as a military photographer. So I went from so one avenue being creative, which was the fishing flies, into sort of another avenue being creative. And the funny thing was, I'd never had any intention of John in the military. None of my family were in the military. My dad had done his national service, and my granddad had served in the in the navy during the Second World War. But just on a whim, one day I happened to be walking past a military careers office, and I thought I'd pop in. I love cooking. I thought, oh look, I'd seen a picture on the window where he could train to be a military chef. Yeah, okay. So I went into enquire about being a chef, joined as an aircraft engineer, and then transferred across to become a military photographer. And funny enough, like I said early on, that I hate authority and I hate being told what to do because that came from a hatred of hatred of schools. Michael Hingson  13:10 A school, right? Jeff Brown  13:11 But I believe that the military was different because people say, "Well, you know, if you if you hate authority and hate being told what to do, why the hell did you go and join the military? But the military was very different in the fact that I put up with the I put up with the authority because the military give you adventure. It wasn't a nine foot nine to five. It wasn't a routine job, you know. So it give and I love excitement. I love adventure. I love the the idea of every day being different. So so I was happy enough to put up with military life, and I did that for nearly nine years. Michael Hingson  13:49 Well, so did you find that the military respected your creativity as you grew at being a photographer, and so you were a photographer, so that you were allowed to, to to be creative and do the things that you wanted to do, or did you find that there was just as much authoritarianism, if you will, and they kept telling you what to Jeff Brown  14:15 do? No, no, they were very good at being creative. Funny, the the military photography branch-it's only a small branch. It's about 80 people in the in the in the navy photography branch. So by comparison to all the other branches of the navy, it's tiny, and it's always also a very sought after branch. So basically, have to wait till somebody retires or somebody, you know, gives up their position that you can actually request, and I just managed to get in at the right time where somebody had left, and I applied, and I got accepted and went on to their training course, and their training course is is quite intense, 26 exams in six months, but. All the people who run it are really passionate photographers, so they're all about developing your own creativity. Yes, there's rules and regulations to follow, but it was very different than other other avenues of the armed forces. And then, you know, your average working day, you were you were given a lot of freedom. You were given a brief for a job, but then quite often you would just go off and design that job the way you wanted, you know. Michael Hingson  15:24 But why did you, since you, I guess you, as you said, joined as an aircraft engineer? Why did you decide to look at photography? What what attracted you to that? Jeff Brown  15:35 Because I didn't. Well, first of all, I didn't realize you could be a military photographer. So it was, and you can't join as a military photographer anyway. It's what's called a sidewards entry branch. You have have to have served three years in a in a another part of the armed forces before you can apply. And to apply to get into the military military photography branch, you have to pretty much do it on your own merit. So you've got to build a portfolio up. You've got to do all the application yourself, and they also look at your. It's not like the way you react to discipline, the way you think on your own two feet, sort of thing. So, funny enough, when I went through the interviews and and they looked at my portfolio, they said that my my work was pretty poor, but they loved the way I thought, and they loved the way I was driven, and would get up early and go out and do stuff. This is, you know, it's the it's the passion and the the willingness to learn. We can teach you all the other stuff, but you you know you you're showing that willingness and and going that extra mile. That's that's what got us in and and got us to be accepted into the into the branch. It wasn't my skills as a photographer because I was that was pretty useless. Pretty new, Michael Hingson  16:49 yeah, Jeff Brown  16:50 yeah. But you know they they developed that. Michael Hingson  16:55 So the the whole idea of going in and learning to cook and being a chef kind of went by the wayside, huh? Jeff Brown  17:00 It did, yes. But I still, I still, I still love cooking to this day, and I was still very passionate about it. And I always had a dream of, you know, one day owning a a pub or running a food pub, Michael Hingson  17:12 right? Well, and you know things happen, but you you clearly are an adventurous sort of person that you even chose to do all of this, and that-that's in of itself, I think, admirable to you know to do that. So you you became a photographer, and so what kind of things did you do during the time you were in the military from a photographic standpoint? Jeff Brown  17:40 So we would do everything. We do everything from portraits of sort of admirals in uniform, official portraits. We do big presentations and awards. We do a lot of PR photography. So we'd be we'd be tasked with with a concept or an idea, or being told something is happening, or we want to promote this, so they might say, right? We've got an aircraft carrier coming into your area. Can you come up with some ideas to to sort of really promote it? Something that look really exciting. It'll encourage people to to join the military because one of the one of the things military photography branch, it's it's about PR. It's trying to get pictures of the military into the into the newspapers in a positive light. So you know, young young men and women go, "Oh, that looks great! I'd love to join, and it serves them an absolute fortune in in in advertising. So so that was that was a lot of the stuff we did, we create concepts and ideas, and quite often the concept and ideas led to having a lot of fun. You know, I'd say like, well, what have I got at my disposal? And then an admiral might say, well, what do you need? I said, well, I need a few helicopters. I need some fast patrol boats. I need some marines on on on ribs lent over these these you know rigid inflatable boats all camouflaged up with their cam cream on and their rifles and they'll be in front of the in front of the the aircraft carrier then we'll have the the helicopters flying in the background and all this was was so basically controlled by us, so we would have headsets on. We'd be talking to the, talking to the the pilots. We'd be directing people, and those shoots probably cost 10s and 10s of 1000s of pounds to to put together. When you think about it, but it was great to see some of the images come out. And in those days, when I first started doing it, we were shooting a lot of the stuff on film, so we didn't have the the the the benefit of seeing the images instantly, as in you know with digital photography. Michael Hingson  19:51 I was going to say much less digitally editing it. It was all on film. Jeff Brown  19:54 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Michael Hingson  19:56 When did it migrate over to be more digital? Jeff Brown  20:00 So we were still we when I was in training we we were using digital but still preferred you to to do a bit more on the film side of things Michael Hingson  20:08 higher quality Jeff Brown  20:10 yeah and and they also I think for like an archival purposes for the idea of have negatives and hard print Speaker 2  20:18 yeah Jeff Brown  20:19 but then you know towards like the 2004 two you know 2003 2004 Then they were starting to embrace digital fully, and and you know do away with all the the film. Michael Hingson  20:33 Wow! Jeff Brown  20:34 And obviously there is the cost aspect as well. You know because you with film it costs every time you you press the shutter button, you know you can you can take a lot more images. But I suppose it does it does make you a bit more of a lazy photographer. Michael Hingson  20:49 Well, I I suppose in some senses it can. It just depends on how disciplined you are. Well, you seem to be a pretty disciplined kind of person, and so you you worked at that pretty well, and I can. I can appreciate that. So so when did you start doing photography for the military? When did you enroll in the military? Jeff Brown  21:11 So that was 1997 Michael Hingson  21:14 Okay, so you were what 2526 25 Jeff Brown  21:19 Yeah, 2026 Yeah, yeah, 2627 yeah. Michael Hingson  21:23 Well, and the the thing about photography or or any skill like that that is is pretty unique and pretty new for you is that you had to really develop the knack to doing it, but you obviously also had to have a lot of understanding about things like, as you said, PR and all that. I mean, some of that just had to be a little bit more natural, or just you observed so much that you realized the value of it. And as you pointed out, having the the whole photography branch in the military had to be incredibly much less expensive for the military, no matter what you wanted them to do, than them doing PR in other ways because it was all done internally. Yes, yes, you had to have helicopters and military people and all that other stuff, but they didn't have to pay the company to go out and, or didn't have to pay it much to go out and do the photography because you're the company. Jeff Brown  22:29 That's right. That's right. And also, some some of the jobs were required a certain level of vetting that they couldn't bring a company in unless those people were vetted. To you know, like on, I did quite a few photography shoots on nuclear submarines, which you you can't enter a nuclear submarine base unless you're you're vetted to a certain level. Michael Hingson  22:51 Right. Now that brings up a point. So let's let's go back to that. So going into a nuclear submarine base and so on, and and doing photography. What what was the purpose of pictures for that? Since it had to be pretty cleared and must have been somewhat classified. Jeff Brown  23:11 Well, sometimes some of the the shoots on board the submarine would be like award ceremonies. So okay, yeah, you know, people getting medals or achievements, and actually getting a photograph from receiving their award from the captain of the submarine. But then sometimes we would have PR photographs of of the the submarine sailing, and we'd be on speedboats going down the lock, photographing the submarine. Michael Hingson  23:41 But what you were not doing was taking pictures of things that were so classified that they didn't dare show them to the public or whatever. Jeff Brown  23:49 Yes, yes, Michael Hingson  23:50 yeah. Which which makes sense. Speaker 1  23:57 If you enjoy unstoppable mindset and would like to help us continue bringing these conversations to you each week, we've created a way for you to support the show. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and continue sharing stories, insights, and ideas that inspire people to live with purpose and possibility. If supporting the podcast feels right for you, you'll find the link in the show notes. Thank you for being part of the Unstoppable Mindset Community. Michael Hingson  24:30 So you you did that, and so you clearly found a niche to to do and to to work at, and obviously loved it. Jeff Brown  24:43 I do. I mean, it took it took a while to get the confidence. I'm quite an introverted person, so where I love taking photographs, and you know, it's easy to take photographs of things and objects and landscapes and that sort of stuff. It's. It's quite hard when you don't have a lot of confidence and you are quite introverted to start directing people and telling people what to do, especially when you had to direct, you know, entire ships, companies, or groups of 4050, people to do a a group shot at the awards ceremony. So that that was something that took a bit of getting used to and put me out of my comfort zone to to become a bit more sociable and a bit less introverted, and also direct people from behind the camera. Michael Hingson  25:31 So you you became a director, Jeff Brown  25:35 I suppose. Yeah, you do. In some senses, Michael Hingson  25:38 anyway. Jeff Brown  25:38 Yeah, yeah, and from from another point of view, I sudden realized that you know you might not like directing people, or you might be really nervous about speaking to people you've never met before and telling them what to do. But quite often, the people on the other side of the camera are just as nervous as you because they don't like having their photograph taken. They feel awkward, so you know part of your job as a photographer is to put people at ease and make people feel comfortable. Michael Hingson  26:03 Yeah, and I think about it as a public speaker. I keep hearing all the time that one of the top fears that people have is speaking and standing on a stage and speaking. And I and I finally realize that that's because we're conditioning people to think that it's scary, but the fact of the matter is that, and I still believe this to this day, audiences want speakers to succeed. Unless you're just a real jerk, audiences want you to succeed, and I would think that that some of that same level of confidence goes into what you do as a photographer. You are-they want you to succeed, and the people who are nervous about you taking their pictures and so on. Your job, as you point out, is to kind of help make them feel more comfortable about Jeff Brown  26:55 it. Yeah, and and you, you know, on from your point of view, you know, you you want somebody to love the picture? Michael Hingson  27:02 Yeah, Jeff Brown  27:02 you want someone to go, oh wow, you know, like actually take away their their dislike and awkwardness of having a photograph taken, and you know it's it's quite rewarding when you see somebody go, oh wow, I didn't know I could look that good, you know, because you've you've directed them, you've posed them, you've helped them feel more relaxed, and they see themselves in a different because it's it's quite it quite often it's not that somebody always looks awkward or you know they don't take a good picture as people say oh don't take my picture I don't take a good picture you know it's the fact that they've never been directed they've never they've always felt felt uncomfortable and awkward so it comes through in the the final image because they don't look relaxed. They don't look natural. They've got this fake smile. They look uncomfortable. Michael Hingson  27:49 I know. For me, I've I've never worried about that. Of course, being blind my whole life, I never really cared a whole lot about pictures. Yeah. So I love to pick on pictures all the time. So you know, for example, people say that a picture is worth 1000 words, and I just point out, yeah, but it takes a whole lot more memory. So, but but but I I appreciate pictures, and I've learned a lot more about photography and appreciating photography ever since September 11th. And part of that was my guide dog Roselle at the time, who became a real camera ham hound. She loved to be in front of the camera, and there was one time we were on a Larry King show on CNN, and you know his shots are and the photographers and and the and everything on the show is basically front like from the chest up, and and so on, and they take pictures. So one day we were going to be on the show, and they made a a little platform that Roselle, my guide dog, could lie on, and they said, "Okay, put her up on there, and I did, and she laid down, put her head between her paws, and that was it. And the director came like about a minute before the show started, and he said, "Isn't there anything you can do to get her to react more and to be a little bit more involved in the show? And I said, "Are the Klieg lights on yet? And he said, "No. I said, "Just wait till you turn the lights on. Everything will change. The lights came on. She lifted up her head, started blinking her eyes and flashing her eyelashes, smiling and licking her chops, and just having a good old time. She loved the camera. It was so funny. Jeff Brown  29:39 Yeah, I can't get. I can't get my dog to sit. He won't sit in front. He won't sit in front of the camera. He's a working Springer Spaniel. He will not stay still for two minutes. And there's something about it. Every time you look, you pick up the camera. I think he knows that you want to take a picture, and he turns his head away. He looks the opposite direction. Michael Hingson  29:57 Yeah. See, Roselle was exactly the opposite. Knew you wanted to take her picture, and she was going, "Bring it on! She just absolutely loved it. It was so funny, and and and it was it was a blessing. But it it as as we talked about it, as I talked to photographers and other people when we dealt with different interviews and so on, I grew to appreciate the value of pictures and what it was that they were trying to get, and it didn't take any work really to get Roselle to be involved in that. It didn't take a lot of work to get me involved with it, but I gained a greater understanding of it. So I certainly value the fact that there's there's a lot of reasons for taking photographs, although I also like audio input and other things like that that I'm going to see. But still, it's it's great that we have this technology, and nowadays, of course, because it is so digital, it makes it so much easier. Jeff Brown  30:59 It does. I think I think obviously there's you know everybody's using photographer now. Everyone walks around with a camera in their pocket, which is you know effectively a smartphone, and the quality of the images that you can take on a phone are fantastic. You know the you know the the resolution, the color saturation, the the look absolutely amazing. But sometimes I think people forget to stop and appreciate the moment. So everybody is more, you know, getting the picture taken, sticking it onto Instagram, onto Facebook, and also we have all these digital memories. But not many people are printing pictures out and putting them on the walls like we used to in the 80s and 90s. You know, family portraits, and I think that is a big thing that photographers need to be to be sort of reinventing and encouraging people to to enjoy the wall art, personalize the home, have a picture on the wall that brings a smile to your face every time you see it. Because if you take it on your phone, you you enjoy it for a second, and then it becomes a memory, and it goes in. I looked the other day. I've got 14 and a half 1000 pictures on my phone. Yeah. So, and I only ever see them, you know, seconds after I take them and I post them on Facebook, and then maybe a year later when a Facebook memory comes up and reminds me, oh, this is what you were doing this time last year. Michael Hingson  32:20 Yeah. Well. Well, and I understand that, and I, I, I also understand what you're saying about lazy photography because, as you said, you take the picture, you look at it, and it's gone, and you don't necessarily do all you can to make sure that the picture is looking as good as it as it can look, and sometimes we just rely on the automatic zoom and other things like that to make the picture look good. But the bottom line is that ultimately we're in control of it and really should make the picture as good as we can make it. Jeff Brown  32:54 Yeah, I mean that was that was what we were taught in the military right at the very beginning. And as I say, you know, was starting out on on on film cameras. It was get it right in the camera. You know, get it right in the camera. It'll look a lot better, and it'll save you hours of time in the dark room. And then there's a tendency now for photographers to think, "Oh, that'll do. I'll just sort it out in Photoshop afterwards, and which again takes time. And as a photographer, time is money. So yeah, yeah. The better you can get the composition and the and the way a photograph looks in the camera, then the less work you're going to have to do afterwards. Michael Hingson  33:35 Yeah, which makes perfect sense. And so I appreciate that. Well, so you were in the military for 10 years, and what made you retire from the military? And also, what kind of skills did you learn that you then took away from the military? One of them had to be accepting authority a little bit more, but I'm being sarcastic. But still, what what kind of skills and so on did you learn, and and did you take away, and and why did you even leave the military after 10 years? Jeff Brown  34:07 So, so being a military photographer, I was a military photographer, and there was a new a new sort of breed of like a new discipline that was coming into into the into our area into the the photography branch, and it was called IA, which is an intelligence analyst, and they believed that photographers, probably rightly, had a real attention to detail and a keen a keen eye for spotting things, and they were so they recruited intelligence analysts from the photography branch to analyze intelligence imagery, satellite imagery, reconnaissance, and then collate this information with other intelligence services. Like Lacher on I six and JCHQ, so so people on the ground, you know, and and military listening outposts, and so I got sent to work. So I did my intelligence course, and I got sent to work for with the intelligence services for about two and a half years now. While I was while I was doing my job as a military analyst, intelligence analyst, I started getting people coming into my office and saying, "You're a military photographer, aren't you? Yeah. Would you photograph my dog? Can you can you photograph my daughter at her birthday? Do you do weddings? Can you do my my my partner's wedding and stuff like that? So started doing a little bit of stuff on weekends, and then soon realized that there was actually quite a good bit of money being a photographer. So that was it. So that that set me on the path of right. I'm going to get out the military. I'm going to start with my own business. I'm going to go back to being self-employed again, but this time using my skills as a photographer. And yeah, I had good photography skills. I had other skills that the military had sort of drummed into me, which was you know timekeeping, organization, attention to detail, and that would work brilliant with a wedding because with a wedding you've got to organize people, everything's got to be on time. You've you've got to have that attention to detail, so started doing weddings on weekends, and then I left, and now decided to go into partnership with another military photographer who was working at the same the same base as me, and was also from the same the same area, the same the same city. So I left first because he was married with two kids. Alif first to set the business up and get the business bringing in money, and then about six months later, the business was bringing in enough money for him to put his notice in and and come out and and join me full time in the photography business. So and then it just skyrocketed from there. We ended up having four different photography businesses, Michael Hingson  37:03 pretty impressive, huh? Jeff Brown  37:05 It was good, but I think you know a lot of the lot the stuff that we did is when we left the military is you get a resettlement grant to resettle you back into civilian life to to to get you ready to work for other people, but obviously we were going to go self employed, so we we spent this resettlement grant of 7000 pound on marketing and branding training. So I got 7000 Kev got 7000 So we spent spent a lot of our money on understanding how to run a business, understanding what brand was all about and brand concept and and marketing. And it wasn't necessarily our photography skills that helped us succeed. It was the skills of actually understanding how to run a business and how to market our brand, Michael Hingson  37:49 which also goes a little bit back to understanding PR and just as you said, understanding all about business, which is which is pretty cool. Speaker 3  37:57 Yeah. Michael Hingson  37:59 Well, as you as you did that, how easy was it for you to integrate back into society and become disciplined enough to run your own business? Because when you were in the military, you had other people who were making a lot of those decisions, but you had to learn something along the way or figure out something along the way that allowed you to truly run your own business. Jeff Brown  38:22 To be honest, I felt I felt quite excited to be going back to it because, obviously, you know, from sort of 1415, year old, I'd had I'd had my own business, and that that was my first my first ever job. You know, working for myself with fish and fish and tackle business, and I sort of realized early on that yes, I don't have a boss, but ultimately the business is the boss because the business demands from you all the time. It demands how much work you need to put in, and if you don't put the work in, then you don't get the money. But the other good thing about running your own business is you're not on a fixed wage. You know, you have that ability to make a lot more money, without having to be promoted or or impress somebody else, you know. So for some people, it doesn't work. Like my girlfriend always says, she doesn't think she could do what I do because she doesn't like that uncertainty. Of you know, because every business is ups and downs, ups and downs. You have low moments. You have high moments, but that's life in general, isn't it? And I think you've just got to have more high moments than low moments. But yeah, I love it. I don't think I could ever work for anybody else. But a lot of, I think I'm unemployable. I don't think I can. I don't think I could go into a normal job. But a lot of those high Michael Hingson  39:40 moments are also moments that essentially you create. It's your mindset. That's Jeff Brown  39:45 right. Yeah, Michael Hingson  39:46 because you know, like failure. Everybody talks about failure. Well, you know, you're going to experience failure in your life, and I have gotten to the point where I tend to react and say there really is no such thing as failure. Because failure seems to be an absolute-you screwed up, and that's all there is to it. And the reality is, it's not. Failure isn't really the issue. The issue is okay. You made a plan. Something didn't work right. The question really is now: Where do you go from here? How do you fix it? What have you learned from what happened? And I think that's really the issue. Jeff Brown  40:20 That's totally that's totally right, and you know, but I made a a decision back in 2014 So you said, you know, I love cooking, and had the photography businesses, which which were both doing very well. They were both they were all super successful, you know, bringing in the money, and I decided, wouldn't it be nice to buy a really, really beautiful traditional country pub, one with log fires, you know, in the middle of the countryside, maybe a two, 300 year old building, and and run my own pub? So that was that was my idea. So so I found this this beautiful little country pub in Durham, in the northeast of England, and it was like a picture postcard country pub that looked beautiful. It actually had two log fires. It had, I think, it was about 300 year old. It had wooden beams, everything, and so I fell in love with it. I I bought the lease on it. I plowed 120,000 pounds of my own money into it, and within 12 months, I'd lost all that money. I was a further 60,000 pound in debt, and I couldn't see any way out. Because you say, you know, like failure. Sometimes people think failure is that's it, that's the end. They can't see past it, and stupidly, I decided that that was it. I couldn't go on anymore, so I tried to drive my car off a bridge. I was, I was drunk at the time, but you know, luckily I didn't. I just damaged the car. I didn't damage myself. I woke up the next morning feeling utterly disgusted with myself because my daughter at the time would have been seven year old. and I realized I needed to get out the pub, and I needed to change a different direction, which I did. So I ran away, and I came to the countryside where I live now in Northumberland, and moved away from all my family and and my friends, about an hour away from all my family and friends to restart my life again, and I spent probably about six months listening to positivity books and audio books, and and trying to rewind my mindset, and then take a new direction. And that's when I got into the idea of because I was in the middle of the countryside, I could run an online business training photographers in marketing and branding, and you know how to how to promote themselves on the internet, and I could do that with anybody anywhere in the world who was a photographer. So that was my idea, and that's what I went for. And you know, looking back at it, 11 years on from that, it would be 11 years in March when I tried to take my own life, and I thought that was that was the biggest worst failure I'd ever have. It was the best failure I ever had because I've never been as happy. I've never been as stress free. My work takes me all over the world, speaking and meeting photographers. I have an absolutely amazing community. No day is the same because I'm on all different time zones, speaking to different people, and and I just love it. It's stress free, but you know, if I'd stayed at the pub, that wouldn't have been stress free. So, Michael Hingson  43:33 so what happened? That why did the pub fail? Fail, or or why didn't the public pub succeed? And what did you learn from that? Jeff Brown  43:40 So, well, first of all, probably I probably fell in love with the idea of the pub, but I probably didn't do enough research. Now, funny enough, it was in an old mining village, my coal mining village, that was very, very much based around if you weren't born and bred in the area, you didn't fit in, so first of all, I think fit into the village very well. But the profitability in the pub trade is is very hard, especially if the pub, if the building is owned by a brewery and you've got to buy your beer direct from the brewery, it reduces the profit margins. And I just think everything that could go wrong in that 12 month did go wrong. We had staff stealing offers. We had a couple of sabotages to the pub, a couple of really big bills that wasn't expected, equipment going wrong and equipment failing, and yeah, the costs just spiraled out of control. Michael Hingson  44:38 Just a lot of lack of research, Jeff Brown  44:41 yeah, yeah, yeah, Michael Hingson  44:42 and I would suspect that you would say that because of that, and because you realized all that, you learned. Jeff Brown  44:50 I learned, yeah, yeah, I, I totally learned, and I think you know that I, I, I fell in love with the idea of it. I fell in love with the building, and probably, probably didn't research it. And also, you know, yeah, I was great at marketing. I was great at business, but I'd never run a pub before. And yeah, it was probably a bit of a. I'd probably sort of trying to run before I could walk. In that, you know, might have been better off going and working for somebody else and being a manager or working in a bar. And you know, the the day I opened the pub, I'd never even pulled a pint before. Never stood behind a bar and served served a drink. So, Michael Hingson  45:28 yeah, and that's that's an art in of itself. Jeff Brown  45:32 Yeah, yeah, that's right. Michael Hingson  45:34 I used to when I lived in New Jersey and worked in New York. I used to go to a restaurant called Virgil's Real Barbecue, best barbecue I think in the country, and so if you're ever in New York, it's Virgil's. Anyway, they had opened a facility in Las Vegas. Also, they opened a restaurant in Las Vegas, and so last week when I was at the Consumer Electronics Show, I went there, and one of the things I had heard early on when they I heard about them opening the restaurant several years ago, was that the people who opened the restaurant before they could open it had to go spend six months in New York at the original Virgil's, learning everything about it, so that they could make this restaurant and the food be the same as as what they experienced, because they wanted Virgil's to be the same in both places, and they did. And I can say that, from my perspective, at least, they did a really great job, and they learned from that, which was exactly what you wanted for the people in Las Vegas to do, and they survived the pandemic, and it's still open. So when you're in Las Vegas next time, Jeff Brown  46:47 yeah, I'm there next week. So yeah, I'll have to Virgil's. Yeah, I'll check it out. Michael Hingson  46:52 Virgil's real barbecue, best ribs in the country. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it, everybody. Well, that's cool. So. So, do you believe that things happen for a reason? I mean, a lot has happened, and of course, the pub closed and and all that. Do you believe that things happen for a reason? Jeff Brown  47:13 I do, and and you know now I I think one of the things as well when you get to that point where you you don't believe there's there's there's any way out, and and you know you you get that alone, you get depressed, but you you feel that you've got to take your own life. You are right at the very bottom. I think for you to go to the very bottom and then come back up again, it changes your mindset about stuff. And I I never get stressed. I am a very, very chilled out person. If something goes wrong now or something fails, I just go. Well, it's happened for a reason. Maybe something better is around the corner. Maybe it's the universe trying to direct me in a in a different path. You know, and and I think the less you live, the more you live by that mindset, the more it opens you up to other opportunities. Yeah, keeps you living it. You know, you're not living in the past; you're living in the future. It it was for the first six months coming up here 11 years ago. It was hard to move away from that failure in my mind. I kept playing it over and over again, but you know, playing it over and over again wasn't going to make that failure with the pub any different. The outcome had happened, and what I needed to do was focus on the future, get back together and get my myself back together, both mentally and also establish a new business and a new way of life. And that in itself was a a massive learning curve, but for the better. Michael Hingson  48:44 Well, and and the reality is, it it certainly has made a big difference in your life. And the fact is that, again, it goes back to failure isn't the end all, and failure is is probably the wrong way to put it. It's a learning experience, and I think that it's so important to do that. I am like you. I refuse to feel stress. I've been through too many experiences in my life that that caused stress, and I've learned that there are always ways to to deal with things, and so it's important to not let the stress overwhelm you. I wrote a book that was published in 2024 called "Live Like a Guide Dog: True Stories from a Blind Man and His Dogs About Being Brave, Overcoming Adversity, and Moving Forward in Faith. And moving forward in faith is part of it, but the whole issue is we focus on our lives on so many things. We think we need to control everything, and the reality is, we only control probably much less than 10% of all the things that we experience, but we worry about 100% of everything, and that doesn't help. And so, it builds up so much fear and causes so much stress. And if we would just focus on the things over which we really can control, we would be much better off. Jeff Brown  49:59 Saying that, you know, after leaving the pub, because my mindset was very, very delicate, and I had to build my my mental health back up, I decided to stop watching the news. So I used to used to get up and go downstairs and put the news on TV and have my morning coffee and and listen to all this negativity, all this drama, every single morning, which I've done for probably 40, you know, well, at least 30-five years, and and that was it. I've never watched the news since. I don't watch any live TV. I don't watch the news. People say, "Well, how do you manage? So, well, somebody will tell me something, but most of the time, half the stuff that people get worried about never actually happens. And if it does happen, quite often there's nothing you can do about it because it's the other side of the world. Michael Hingson  50:53 Well, even if it's in England, you don't have control over it, so why worry about it? Now, I watch I watch the news, but I do it because I want to get the information. But I won't worry about it. And there's so much that happens. But I feel that that at least there is information to be gained by watching the news. But what I had to learn somewhere along the line is don't take it personally because you don't have any control over it. And there are so many things that that go on, but the the trick is not to let things you don't have any control over really affect you to the point where you get nervous and stressful again. Jeff Brown  51:34 Yeah, yeah, and I think that you know the the same thing can be put into social media. You know, people say social media is negative. Social media is dangerous, and it depends how you react to it and what you engage on. You know, in my own social media, I follow a lot of photographers, a lot of people who talk about adventures and motorcycle rides and travel and nature. So my news feed is filled with a lot of positive stuff. And if if I see something negative or see something sensationalist, what I do is I don't unfriend that person. I just unfollow them, so I don't see their content again. Michael Hingson  52:09 Yeah. Jeff Brown  52:10 But from from the plus side, you know, social media has bought me more opportunity than anything else, and and effectively for free. And I've traveled traveled a lot because of my work. I have over 100,000 followers across my my social media platforms, and social media brings me customers, brings me clients. It helps me sell books, so there is a lot of positivity to it. I suppose it. The negative is only if you engage in the negative, then you will you'll find the the negative aspect. Michael Hingson  52:40 Yeah. Well, and the reality is that again, it's it's how you approach life, and you've clearly learned a lot about how to approach life in a much more positive way. You've developed, well, we'll call it an unstoppable mindset. You've developed a mindset that allows you to go through life and do the things that you need to do, and focus on the things that you can, and you leave the rest of it alone. Jeff Brown  53:06 Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. Michael Hingson  53:08 Which which makes a lot of sense. Well, for you, you you talked earlier about the fact that you have dyslexia, and you've been with dyslexia for most of your life, or maybe all of your life. It's interesting. I've talked to so many people who didn't know that they had dyslexia when they were in school and so on, and experienced a lot of the same frustrations and kinds of experiences that that you've experienced. And somewhere along the line, they finally discovered that they they had dyslexia. How did that when you when you finally realized that? What did that do for you? How did how did that really affect you? Jeff Brown  53:52 Well, funny enough, I I can remember a moment where I must have been about eight year old, where a teacher and you know, back in the 70s, teachers weren't as kind, weren't as kind to to schoolchildren as they are now. You know, and and this this teacher singled me out in front of the class and and told me that I was stupid and I wouldn't amount to anything because I kept struggling with this reading and my numbers. And at the time, I I was I was chubby. I had ginger hair, so I didn't have a I didn't have a lot going for us in in the popularity front, and also being you know the the stupid one in the class. So I found it really negative, and I found it really really personal because I didn't realize that I was dyslexic because nobody knew what dyslexia was now, and when I got to my mid 30s, and I went to train to go into the work with the intelligence services and be an image analyst, I had to redo my English and maths all level qualifications that I should have passed at school, but obviously I didn't. I had to do them through the military, and that was when I found out I was dyslexic, and I didn't actually know what dyslexia was until until I made up on it, and then it all made sense. You know why why I'd struggled for so long. I have my own workarounds. I know what my I know what my what my issues are. I mean, now with with with my work, there's so much out there that helps you as a dyslexic. You know, you you have you have spell checker, you have read aloud where you might not be able to see see it. You know, so quite often I'll do a social media post, and I'll I'll get Word document to read it out aloud so I can hear it. But if I if I if I read it back, I can't see the mistakes I've made because my mind doesn't process that. I know when I write a number down, I probably write write it down the wrong way. So if somebody gives me a phone number and I phone it and it's dead, I just change some of the digits around and figure Michael Hingson  55:58 it out. Do you agree? Do you use technology like Dragon, naturally speaking, to dictate? Jeff Brown  56:04 I tend, I tend to. So I started using only in the past six months. I was quite, I was quite sort of against AI, and well, not against it, but everybody was jumping on the chat, ChatGPT bandwagon, and I always tend to do something different than everybody else does. Six months ago, I jumped on a piece of software called Claude, and because I've because I've written five books now, I've written four business books, and I've written a travel book. I also had a lot of content to give to Claude to feed Claude, and then I had transcripts from my YouTube channel, and and then I gave them some do's and don'ts about you know tone of voice and language, and you know I would never say things like this, I would never say things like that. Told them that you know don't be spelling color without a U. Don't put a Z in sympathize because not American English. It's English, English, and the funny thing is, like over the over the past few months, he's he's pretty much replicated my tone of voice, so I can get Claude to write me a social media post, and then I I just tweak it slightly, and I'll make some changes, and then when I've written that social media post, I give it back to Claude and say, can you note? Can you identify the changes that I've made from what you've originally made, Michael Hingson  57:24 right? Jeff Brown  57:25 And take them on board for the next one, and then you give a summary of the changes. And it's yeah, it's it's it's quite impressive. It's quite scary as well because he he says things like, "Am I becoming more Jeff? Yeah, yeah, you are a bit. Michael Hingson  57:42 Well, the other thing is there are programs and technologies, as I mentioned, like Dragon, which is a a technology that you can get where you dictate, and it recognizes your voice, and it will then convert what you say directly into digitized form, which is pretty cool. I use Dragon when I write a fair amount, and and so that that goes back far earlier than AI. Although I'm sure that there are AI, there are AI components to Dragon naturally speaking today. But it's a it's a great program, and it makes writing a lot easier. So rather than typing on a keyboard, I'm speaking, and it is essentially taking what I write, and it just completely digitizes it by recognizing my voice and then putting it out in in in a digital form for me. I can use it with Microsoft Word and other things like that, Jeff Brown  58:41 yeah. And then do then do you listen back to that and then give edits on on what has been on what is being done? Michael Hingson  58:49 Yeah, I can. I just go back and read the word doc, and but it's but it literally is is transcription of what I say, so I can then go back and say, okay, let's fix this, or everything is fine, and I can go even go back and figure out what's misspelled if there are things that it misrecognized. But it works pretty well. Jeff Brown  59:12 Yeah, tech technology is is is fantastic. It's also got it's it's it's I suppose worrying sides for creative people, where there's a lot, a lot of creatives that potentially AI could could really damage their careers going forward. So it's it's interesting to see which direction it's taken. You know, work with it, but then also be aware of it. Michael Hingson  59:40 Yeah. Well, you still need to take control. Jeff Brown  59:43 Yeah, yeah. Michael Hingson  59:45 So, what's the most unusual or interesting country that you've ever visited since you do so much traveling? Jeff Brown  59:52 I've been to North Korea. So, 2019 I went to North Korea for New. New Year's Eve to celebrate New Year in in Pyongyang Square with another 100,000 North Koreans. There was only 12 Western tourists in Pyongyang at the time, and we were there for 10 days. So yes, I've I've done North Korea, which it took a bit getting into getting into North Korea. It's not as easy as just you can't go on and book a holiday. He can't choose a hotel. It all has to be done through a third-party agent, and it took about six months to get the whole thing to together. But it was-it was very interesting. It was a completely different than every anything I'd ever experienced before, and it's also supposed to be one of the safest countries you can travel to because you you're followed by the North Korean secret police everywhere you go, even inside buildings, when you're in restaurants, when you're in bars. That nothing could ever happen to you, but the North Korean people would never dare to come up and speak to you anyway, you know. But the the thing with North Korea is everything is everything is orchestrated. Everything is set for you alive and there in advance, so you only ever see what they want you to see. You never see the other side of North Korea. I've also been to Chernobyl, where the the last was that was absolutely fascinating, and last year I went to Transnistria, which is one of these countries that doesn't exist. It's not officially recognized by by the UN, and that was like stepping back into the 1980s Speaker 1  1:01:38 That was, Jeff Brown  1:01:39 but everywhere I've been, you know, I think that that's t

For more than two decades, Mike Frost has helped define what Houston hip hop looks like.In Episode 204 of In My Humble Opinion, Mike Frost discusses the creative journey that took him from drawing in a comic book store to becoming one of the city's most influential graphic designers and creative directors. Along the way, he shares how a cracked copy of Photoshop, a background designing rave flyers, and a willingness to learn every part of the creative process led to iconic work for artists across Houston's rap scene.Frost takes us behind the scenes of some of his most memorable projects, including the stories behind album covers for Slim Thug, Devin the Dude, Quiet Money Dot, and Yukmouth. He explains why he believes great design starts with understanding the artist, why authenticity will always outshine trends, and how some of his most recognizable work came from hours of trial and error that most people never see.The conversation also explores the impact of artificial intelligence on creative work, with Frost explaining why he embraces AI as a tool for streamlining workflows while warning against relying on it to replace genuine creativity. He also discusses his transition into the corporate world, what he learned from that experience, and why he's excited to return his focus to creative projects through his growing agency.

A reporter asked Trump if he'd pardon Ghislaine Maxwell now that the Supreme Court killed her last appeal, and he immediately went into his usual “Who? Never heard of her” routine like he was auditioning for Men in Black. It was pure comedy—he acted like Ghislaine was some random lady who wandered into his photos by accident, not someone who used to orbit the same high-society circles as him and Epstein. The man delivered his line so confidently you'd think he really believed it: “I don't know her, but I hear she's doing well.” Yeah, sure, Don—she's “doing well” in prison. Real cozy setup between chow line and lockdown. The guy could be caught holding a selfie stick with her and still swear it's Photoshop and “fake news.”Trump's selective amnesia is practically a stage show at this point. Every time one of his old pals gets indicted, he suddenly turns into a witness protection participant. “Never met them, don't know them, wish them well.” It's become a brand. The funniest part is how he says it with total confidence, like he's daring the world to remember what he's pretending to forget. When asked about a pardon, you could see the wheels spin—“What's in it for me?”—but in true Trump fashion, he skipped the answer and rewrote history instead. Because in his world, he doesn't need to pardon anyone; he just deletes them from existence. One minute you're clinking glasses at Mar-a-Lago, the next you're “Ghislaine who?”to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-moscow-murders-and-more--5852883/support.

Chad & JT join Sterling Spencer and Cousin Ryan on Pinch My Salt for a wild surf comedy podcast about surf culture, the WSL, the US Open of Surfing, pro surfers, viral prank videos, and what it really means to be “core” in surfing. Chad and JT tell the story of sneaking into the Huntington Beach US Open with a giant Subway sandwich, getting hired by the World Surf League, trolling professional surfers, making Fast & Furious prank videos, and building comedy with Strider Wilson. The crew talks Kelly Slater, Andy Irons, Bruce Irons, Dane Reynolds, Julian Wilson, Stephanie Gilmore, Felipe Toledo, Gabriel Medina, Shane Dorian, Tom Curren, Laird Hamilton, surf movies, surf clips, surf podcasts, and the rise and fall of the surf industry.Sterling also reveals the inside story of surfing against Kelly Slater at J-Bay, Andy Irons helping him during the world title race, and the Photoshop prank that helped fuel the Andy Irons vs. Kelly Slater rivalry. Chad & JT break down comedy, authenticity, algorithms, selling out, staying core, Orange County surf culture, California surf schools, wedding pressure, peptides, carnivore diets, Vin Diesel, Adam Sandler, Keanu Reeves, Nicolas Cage, and the strange path from surfing to comedy.Chad & JT also share the story behind their WSL series Get Sent, getting roasted by surfers online, pranking the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, working with Strider Wilson, recreating Fast & Furious scenes at car shows, meeting Vin Diesel at a wedding, and turning uncomfortable public interactions into comedy.The boys debate whether the traditional surf movie is dead, why Instagram and YouTube clips have taken over surfing, the most influential surf films ever made, Tom Curren's Searching for Tom Curren, the Taylor Steele era, Bruce Irons' mysterious kickflip Mandela effect, Dane Reynolds' place in modern surf culture, and whether podcasts are now more core than surf vlogs.Other topics include Billabong and Volcom, Laird Hamilton becoming the “alpha nerd” of surfing, foiling, stand-up paddleboarding, Shane Dorian, Kai McKenzie surfing with a prosthetic leg, surf schools in Los Angeles, Ocean Beach San Francisco, Santa Cruz, El Porto, Steamer Lane, the Cold Water Classic, Julian Wilson, surf-industry rivalries, comedy careers, marriage, fatherhood and Florida freedom.Who is the most core surfer in the world right now? Drop your answer in the comments.Subscribe to Pinch My Salt for more surfing stories, comedy podcasts, pro surfer interviews, surf history, behind-the-scenes WSL stories and completely unqualified cultural analysis.Like the video, subscribe and tickle that notification bell.#ChadAndJT #Surfing #PinchMySalt#ChadAndJT #PinchMySalt #SterlingSpencer #SurfComedy #SurfPodcast #Surfing #ComedyPodcast #SurferBros #SurfCulture #WorldSurfLeague #WSL #USOpenOfSurfing #HuntingtonBeach #KellySlater #AndyIrons #BruceIrons #DaneReynolds #ShaneDorian #StriderWilson #FastAndFurious #ProSurfing #SurfHistory #SurfMovies #SurfClips #SurfIndustryChad and JT, Chad Goes Deep, JT Parr, Chad Kroeger comedian, Chad and JT podcast, Chad and JT surfing, Chad and JT interview, Chad and JT full podcast, Chad and JT funny moments, Chad and JT Get Sent, Strider Wilson, Going Deep with Chad and JT, Sterling Spencer, Cousin Ryan, Pinch My Salt podcast, surfing podcast, comedy podcast, surf comedy, funny surf podcast, surfer interview, surf culture, modern surf culture, core surfing, core vs sellout, surf industry, surf industry stories, WSL, World Surf League, US Open of Surfing, Huntington Beach US Open, Chad and JT US Open prank, Subway sandwich prank, Get Sent WSL, professional surfers, Kelly Slater, Andy Irons, Kelly Slater vs Andy Irons, Sterling Spencer Kelly Slater story, J-Bay surfing, Jeffreys Bay, Bruce Irons, Bruce Irons kickflip, Transworld Surf, Dane Reynolds, Shane Dorian, Stephanie Gilmore, Felipe Toledo, Gabriel Medina, Julian Wilson, Tom Curren, Searching for Tom Curren, Laird Hamilton, surf movies, best surf movies, Taylor Steele surf films, surf clips, surfing Instagram clips, surfing YouTube, surf vlogs, surf podcasts, Orange County surfing, Southern California surfing, Ocean Beach surfing, Santa Cruz surfing, El Porto surfing, Steamer Lane, Cold Water Classic, Billabong, Volcom, Fast and Furious prank, Vin Diesel story, prank comedy, public prank videos, surfer comedy, surf stories, pro surfer podcast, surf history podcast

Ryan Summers (Sarofsky) joins us to discuss how the center of the motion design community was lost and thoughtfully responds to the debate on creativity vs AI based on his personal experience. 

When one of us doesn't have their fastball and wants to call off for the week, the other reaches down and pulls them up and drags them to a 90 minute show. That was this week! We talk TNA Lies, the rumblings from Saturday Night's Main Event, the freight train known as the AEW World Title picture, and a sign of things to come with The Middy's! No graphics this week because The Talent doesn't know how to do Photoshop, it's FWP! Thank you so much for joining us again this week for Final Wrestling Place #360. Whether you found us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or through the Soon To Be Named Network we are glad you're with us. Go to the Final Wrestling Place Linktree to see where you can find us and follow us across the board, including Patreon! Leave us a voicemail or send us a text at any time! 757-354-3070! Support Jeff Cannonball and his family on his fight with ALS - https://www.gofundme.com/f/rgs2d8 Get your Soon To Be Named Network merch thanks to TeePublic! Check out our designs at here! - https://www.teepublic.com/user/longboxheroes

AI is making creative production faster while increasing the value of human craft, imperfection, and hands-on creative control.Drew and Rory start with Netflix's 300 AI-assisted programs and somehow end up defending Blockbuster, boxy cars, greasy roommates, and the radical act of making creative work harder on purpose. Between the usual intellectual potholes, they uncover why invisible AI succeeds, why perfect outputs are becoming exhausting, and why human-made work may become the premium signal.Covered in this episode:Netflix generative AI workflows span concept development, pre-visualization, visual effects, post-production, and release. Suno, Udio, Strudel, Foley artistry, AI music licensing, Runway visual storytelling, Claude, ChatGPT, Figma shaders, Photoshop retouching, creative consistency, nostalgic design, imperfect aesthetics, and hybrid human-AI production define the broader creative shift.---⏱️ Fast Hour00:00 Why are guests returning to Fast Hours?03:45 Why does summer trigger nostalgia?10:49 How is Netflix using generative AI?20:39 Could Blockbuster have become Netflix?24:04 What AI tools has Netflix open-sourced?28:36 What did the Suno breach reveal?32:21 Should AI be used to make music?43:31 Breaking down Runway's lamp film—hy does it work?51:43 How many movie story arcs exist?53:32 Does AI increase the value of human craft?57:53 Why are creators rejecting AI perfection?01:06:16 Why is nostalgic design returning?01:17:09 Why do simple stories feel better?01:23:09 How do AI projects maintain consistency?01:25:43 Who should Fast Hours interview next?#GenerativeAI #AIFilmmaking #AIMusic #CreativeProcess #FastHours

More nice guys: https://www.youtube.com/playli... In this episode of r/niceguys, we cover some walls of text. Simps of this caliber make me want to leave the planet. It's hard to stomach, but I'll be there to help see you through it. We'll do this nice guy reddit post together friends. But there is no reprieve from the cringe, so make sure you buckle yourself in securely. It doesn't matter what your background is, you always need to treat people like people and not use them simply to get off. Neckbeards seem to learn this lesson particularly slow and it really does make my blood boil... So we must bring it to light so others don't suffer alone. For your fill of neckbeard stories we've got you covered with the freshest weeaboo, niceguy, and neckbeard happenings on reddit. Stick with ReddX for your daily dose of cringe with a side-dish of relatability. ------------------------------------------------------------ #reddit #neckbeard #niceguys Join me on Discord dude: https://discord.gg/Sju7YckUWu Check out the Twitch streams: https://www.twitch.tv/daytondo... One-time PayPal donation: https://www.paypal.me/daytondo... Support this channel on Patreon: http://patreon.com/daytondoes Stalk me on the Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/daytond... Visit me over on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReddX... Got a story? I got a subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReddX... Here's an Amazon link to my microphone: https://amzn.to/3lInsRR Wanna rock the ReddX merch? https://teespring.com/stores/r... Character animations are by: https://twitter.com/DarkleyStu... Check out my other channel: https://www.youtube.com/dayton... Wifey's channel is right over here: https://www.youtube.com/channe... ------------------------------------------------------------ Did I mention that we have playlists??: Full neckbeard story compilations: https://www.youtube.com/playli... All of our neckbeard stories: https://www.youtube.com/playli... All of our legbeard stories: https://www.youtube.com/playli... All of our RPG Horror Stories: https://www.youtube.com/playli... All of our weeaboo tales: https://www.youtube.com/playli... ------------------------------------------------------------ Podcasts can provide some ReddX on the go! Check it out! Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/... Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/reddxy iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/... Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/fe... Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/show/... Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podc... Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/show... Podcast Addict: https://podcastaddict.com/podc... JioSaavn: https://www.jiosaavn.com/shows... We are working on getting listed on Castbox, Audible, and iHeartRadio ASAP! Have you ever met a neckbeard or a nice guy? They are frustrating to deal with, but luckily you aren't alone! These r/neckbeardstories from Reddit are among the top posts of all time and include some of the funniest Reddit stories ever posted on the neckbeard stories subreddit! rSlash NeckbeardStories have all kinds of funny neckbeards in them, but especially the nice guy. And the weeaboo. There is a wide spectrum of neckbeards, and this is but a small slice of it. Listening to ReddX's neckbeard stories playlist is a great experience! These neckbeard stories Top Posts of All Time from Reddit are made for you to enjoy any time, so be sure to save my rSlash neckbeard stories playlist! While there are many rslash channels that read r/neckbeard stories and r/prorevenge from reddit, each channel has their own way of performing them. Some of the top rSlash entitled parents channels I recommend checking out are the original rSlash, Redditor, fresh, r/Bumfries, VoiceyHere, Mr Reddit, Storytime and Darkfluff. These Reddit story channels inspired me to start my own Reddit story channel, with a focus on Entitled Parents stories and at times going into the r/pettyrevenge and r/choosingbeggars subreddits. Because most of my audience prefers Entitled Parents stories of Reddit, I tend to just stick with reading the r/niceguys Top Posts of All Time. Subscribe to ReddX for the freshest daily Reddit content. I post relatable readings of Reddit posts and Reddit stories every single day! Journey with me as I relate these amazing Reddit stories to my personal life journey. I'm greatly inspired by the top reddit posts of all time videos and reddit stories! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channe... Discord: https://discord.gg/Sju7YckUWu Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/daytondo... PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/daytondo... Patreon: http://patreon.com/daytondoes Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/daytond... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReddX... Merch: https://reddx-shop.fourthwall....

¿Qué haces cuando una sesión se cancela de un momento a otro? En el episodio de hoy, exploramos cómo la improvisación creativa dio lugar a una de mis sesiones más icónicas: "Adorada".Junto a la experta en maquillaje Alejandra Castaño y la modelo/bailarina Valentina Herrera, desglosamos el proceso de crear un look de fantasía utilizando láminas de oro para esculpir el cuerpo y el rostro.En este episodio aprenderás:Esquemas de Iluminación: Cómo controlar la luz con Softboxes y Grids para evitar que el fondo se empaste y resaltar los reflejos dorados.El "Truco de la Pupila": Cómo identificar modificadores de luz analizando el reflejo en los ojos.Post-producción de Alto Nivel: Mi flujo de trabajo en Photoshop para lograr un acabado de "cuadro al óleo", incluyendo mezcla de canales, capas de curvas para dar tridimensionalidad y el uso selectivo del enfoque.Si eres fotógrafo, retocador o amante del arte visual, este análisis técnico te dará las herramientas para elevar tu próximo proyecto creativo.¡Escucha ahora y descubre cómo convertir una sesión de fotos en una pintura digital!

What does it really mean to build bridges that last for decades? I want you to meet Bircan Unver, whose lifelong commitment to responsibility, creativity, and global citizenship has shaped more than 25 years of meaningful work through Light Millennium. From growing up as the eldest of seven children in Turkey to creating an internationally recognized nonprofit connected with the United Nations, Bircan shares how art, public media, and open dialogue can bring people together across cultures. We explore why responsibility begins with each of us, how local communities can help solve global challenges, and why issues like water security, environmental stewardship, and human connection matter more than ever. I believe you'll enjoy hearing how one person's unstoppable mindset continues to inspire collaboration, education, and hope for a better future. Highlights: 06:55 - How growing up with responsibility shaped Bircan's lifelong commitment to serving others. 18:30 - Why public access television became the foundation for sharing voices and building community. 26:15 - The story behind founding Light Millennium and creating a nonprofit built on dialogue and education. 36:55 - How local communities can play a meaningful role in advancing United Nations goals. 49:45 - Why water security, cybersecurity, and gender equality are becoming deeply connected. 55:40 - Bircan reflects on preserving ideas through books, creativity, and lifelong learning. About the Guest: Bircan Ünver is the Founder-President of The Light Millennium, a Charitable Global Human Advancement Organization (LMGlobal.Org, 2001, New York); Executive Producer of the LMTV Programs; Multi-Media and Event Producer; Host, Author, Publisher, Public Speaker; [Head] NGO Representative of The Light Millennium to the United Nations Department of Global Communications since 2005 (formerly, UN.DPI); and Chair, Outreach and Partnerships Subcommittee at Global NGO Executive Committee and director for the 2021-2023 term. She has been also a Content Provider at QPTV since 1992, and she is the editor and co-founder of the U.S. Turkish Library & Museum Project. She has undertaken the Organization's e-publications, public programs since its inception in August 1999, and #LightMillenniumTV Series and Specials in all aspects of it since January 2000; along with, the LMGlobal.Org's all UN-related activity and programs since 2005. Bircan is the author and director of the Compulsory Peace & ICTs Education from Kindergarten to K-12, and Beyond Campaign, which she launched it through the Light Millennium Global in support of the Summit of the Future in 2024. The Campaign has delivered its 8th session along with the Coalition for the Campaign, which contains 22 organizations and educational institutions including The Light Millennium Global as the leading organization. Further,  she is also author of the bi-annual international high school project, “J.U.C. Media, Research, Writing & Innovation Awards”. The third of its kind was dedicated to the “Water Action Decade” and was delivered  (virtually) on the World Water Day, March 22, 2025. Bircan served as a mentor to the GPODS for three consecutive terms in Winter'22, Summer'22, and Fall'22 Fellowship Programs; and delivered lectures on “How to associate with the UN-NGO”, Public Access TVs in the U.S., and the latest one was on the #WaterActionDecade and the #2023UNWater Conference. To attach that, on behalf of LMGlobal.Org, she organized and hosted an Outside-UN Side Event ID #W175, titled, “What Is Your Commitment To The #WaterActionDecade? ~ Seven Core Ideas Toward #WaterAwareness, #WaterConscience and #GameChangers” in NYC on March 21, 2023, and was the head delegate of the LMGlobal.Org at the #UN2023WaterConference. Based on LMGlobal.Org's Commitments to the #WaterActionDecade, she launched #OneMinuteWaterActionCommitment during the #W175 Side Event, along with continues to work toward #WaterAwareness toward building up #WaterConscience.  She served as the chair of the ATAA Committee on UN Relations, guided its association to the UNDGC in 2020, and also served as the New York Regional Vice-President of ATAA (Assembly of Turkish American Associations) from October 2019 to January 2022. Furthermore, she served on several Planning Committees of the UN-Civil Society Conferences, and the Planning Committee of the High-Level Forum on the Culture of Peace (HLF-CoP). She has been a strong advocate of the UN Vision, Programs & Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030) along with the relevant UN Days, which are in line with the LMGlobal.Org's Mission/Purposes since its association with the UNDGC (formerly, UN.DPI/NGO) in December 2005. Currently, Bircan is on the Advisory Board of the Turkish Forum (based in Germany). She encourages and guides interested civil society organizations and members of academia toward their educational institutions' associations with the UN, along with engaging them with the UN Programs that are within her networks and beyond. Further, she is an Ambassador of Peace and Goodwill for Anuvrat (Anuvibha) Global Organization (Jaipur, India, since 2014); and a Member of the Global Movement for the Culture of Peace (GMCoP, since 2012). Bircan is also the founder and president of the IsikBinyili.Org Association based in Istanbul (2010), which is a sister organization and counterpart of the LMGlobal.Org. Author of the following four book titles in print (Turkish): “En Kutsalı Yaratmak” (The Most Sacred is to Create) (1995, 2022), “Sanatın Labirentlerinde” (The Labyrinths of Arts) (2016), and “Işık Yollarında (“The Ways of the Light”) (poetry, 2017), and “Bin Yıl Daha…” (2020, A Thousand Years More…). Also, she is the author of the concept and compilation of the “Hope Never Fades” (English) book (Istanbul, 2023). Bircan initially received her local and studio television production certificates at QPTV.Org in 1992. Based on this capacity, she produced and broadcasted near to 260 television programs through local channels in New York City, which are also available online through www.vimeo.com/channels/LightMillenniumTV including 36 #OneMinute #WaterAction PSAs. Bircan celebrated her 30th Anniversary at QPTV.Org through a video profile, titled, “A Turkish Experience in America” (Duration: ~9 min. Production Year: 2022). Her works through The Light Millennium Global is a recipient of various national (U.S.) and international awards and recognitions including two awards from the Foundation of Alliance Community 2023 Hometown Media Awards (F-ACM-HMA for her “GroundWater” Light Millennium TV program in Web-based Programming and Online Events / Independent Producer categories (received at Brick TV, New York), the Anuvrat Ahimsa Award For International Peace-2023 (received in Mumbai, India), and the 2023 International Volunteer President Award by Institution of Green Engineers (received in Chennai, India), and ashe is also the recipient of the 2024 Best Web-Based Program – Independent Producer for the #HopeNeverFades program by F-ACM-HMA, which was produced based on the 2023 J.U.C. Media, Research & Writing Awards (ACM HomeTown Media Awards, San Jose, CA). Bircan holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Degree from the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (Istanbul, 1988) and a Master's Degree (M.A.) from Media Studies of the New School University (New York City 1999). Ways to connect with Bircan**:** Websites: www.lmglobal.org  (active web site) | www.lightmillennium.org (serves as the organization's web archive)#LightMillenniumTV | www.vimeo.com/LMTV | www.vimeo.com/channels/LightMillenniumTV Social Media: Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bircan-ünver-7353207 X@lightmillennium Instagram@lightmillennium About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:04 What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't what's in front of you, but rather what you believe? Welcome to Unstoppable Mindset, where inclusion, diversity, and the unexpected meet. I'm your host, Michael Hingston, speaker, author, and advocate for inclusion and possibilities. This podcast explores how the beliefs we carry shape the way we live, lead, and connect with others. Each week, I talk with people who challenge assumptions, face adversity head-on, and show what's possible when we choose curiosity over fear. Together, we focus on mindset, resilience, and the small shifts that lead to meaningful change. Let's get started. Well, hello everyone, and I want to welcome you to another edition of Unstoppable Mindset, and today we get to talk to a very interesting person with a with a lot of roots in Turkey, but she is also doing a lot of work with the United Nations here in the U.S. and other places. Her name is Birchan Umfer, and I hope I got that right. And Bircan Unver  01:23 thank you. Michael Hingson  01:24 Oh, good. And Berjan is is with us, and is going to talk about a number of things that she is working on. She's working on, and for years has been involved with a program called Light Millennium, and we'll we'll talk about all that, but let's just start and and as usual we'll have a great conversation. So, Bir John, I want to welcome you to Unstoppable Mindset. We're glad you're here. Bircan Unver  01:50 Thank you so much, Michael Hingston. It's great honor and privilege to have your guests. Especially, I love the title Unstoppable Minds. It's really inspiring and triggering the mind. Thank you. Michael Hingson  02:08 Well, my pleasure. We're glad that you have the time to to spend with us, and we will we will we will do it and make it work. Well, let's start. I love to start this way because I really want people to learn about you. Tell us kind of about the early Birchan growing up, and then we'll go from there. So tell us about Birchan and growing up, and and and all of that. Bircan Unver  02:32 Thank you. This will be a little bit different than most people know about me, my work. Well, we'll get to Michael Hingson  02:38 your work. Bircan Unver  02:40 Yeah, I know. I mean, the people who already know my work. What I'm gonna say now is completely too different from Berja. So I am a elder of seven siblings, and I was born in an ancient village in Mid Anatolia, actually nearby the Black Sea region, and I'm proud with my age, 1959, and my family moved to town first from the village, and then Istanbul for our educations for their kids, and but I don't know really as a girl child growing up with seven kids, as especially with a traditional family, being older girl is not a good idea. But but maybe it was a kind of tough childhood as a girl child. I I don't feel that I never been a child. That's really what I feel. But on the other hand, and that was you know when you are growing up, living through like I was a kind of second mom, and also our home was kind of everyone our guest from the village town and stay over not only one night, like or a week, like sometimes months, even years. You won't believe that, and it was not because either. So, but those kind of build up maybe my feeling to be responsible, so I consider myself a responsible person because I was responsible for my sisters, brothers, and also washing dishes, making helping my mom to prepare the meal, lunch, breakfast, and clean up. Like you know, I was kind of second person, second mom at home. So those early things, all those stolen my childhood, but at the same time, provide me being able to do everything from very early age. Even though I remember several times at the time. The bread wasn't, you know, you you weren't buying the bread from the market, but from the bakery, real where they were baking the bread. So she was, and time to time also she was making the the bread at home, and then she she wasn't sending me to school because then I had to stay with my brothers and kids so she can make the you know breads a big amount for a couple days. So that said, also gave my idea. I want to suddenly want to work as soon as you know I'm 17, 1617, So and then I started early working at a bank, and it was my first eight years. I worked at a bank in Istanbul. It is called Istanbul Bank, and then my graphic is like life graphic is a little bit different, like curvy, not like straight line. Then after eight years working at a bank, I started to university and fine arts, and then I had kind of interest art history, especially TV production, art history, arts in in the concept is producing art documentaries. That was kind of my vision. Also, it was also my reason initially coming to the U.S. learning TV production. Of course, English as first. So that was very much my childhood until you know 18 until starting at the bank, and then the rest is another story. I have, I must say, I would have three different life. Michael Hingson  06:48 Well, you had certainly an interesting childhood, needless to say, and I, I can understand what you're saying about being the oldest and all the challenges. I was not. I was the youngest, but we only had two siblings, and neither of us we were we were both males, and so we we did not do a lot in terms of preparing meals and all that sort of stuff. Except my brother and I were both in the Boy Scouts, and so when we went camping and other things like that, we learned how to cook on an open or an open fire and and things like that. But still, I understand that you you had a a lot that you had to do. What lessons did you learn by being the oldest child? What kinds of things do you think that you you carry over to what to your life today, because you were the oldest. Bircan Unver  07:44 I think two different components of that. One is also because it wasn't only I was the as a kid at the home and as a girl, girl, but also at the time there wasn't that kind of awareness which we have today. Which I mean, my mom got married with my dad at the age of 15, and she had birth. She had given me birth at the age of 16, the reason I'm bringing up this, when we were going to shopping Kapolechar, Grand Market of Istanbul, when I was 1516, and literally we were halfway age difference between my mom and myself. And when I was saying mom, and the people were surprised, and she and isn't your sister, other sister? They were asking me, and she was my mom. So, but this is in the long later years. I always become the best friend with my mom, and even my brother was saying, "Oh, now I understood that she, you are the joy of my mom because she can kind of a joke, and the others, my kids, like they are kids, but I'm her friend because they kind of feel similar. That is one, you know, lifetime developed feeling and strong connection, different connection with my mom, and the other also, as I mentioned at the beginning, it really this whole, you know, not selected, but where you, which house you born, which condition you grow up, that build up for me early high level responsibility. I feel responsible to do everything, and I, you know, that's a little bit tiring because that's what I want to say here. You say something in our after our initial Zoom meeting. It's really very inspiring. You say something. I just took note. We can solve all the worst problem. We can. You say you don't say we cannot. You say we can. Solve all the world's problems. So, like, it wasn't possible. It's not possible, but you know, as if I could solve the problems or I could carry everything. So it's kind of you know build up my bricks in my life. Michael Hingson  10:18 One of the things that you certainly, it sounds like you learned as you were growing up, though, was was all about responsibility and and and learning to take charge, but learning about responsibility and and feeling that it was okay to be responsible for others in your family and so on. And I think a lot of people don't necessarily learn a lot of lessons about responsibility, like they should. But you were put in a position where you had to do that, which is is certainly a good thing because you clearly have have done that in your life. Bircan Unver  10:54 That's very true, and also it goes with everything. Let's say sometimes some people think maybe unnecessary action when people cut trees, even in their you know backyard or front yard, whatever trees or any type of trees or fruit trees. I really get mad and upset because it is irresponsible to nature, to their own environment, just feeling they're responsible to trees, loving the trees, loving the you know, for instance, if when I was it was two weeks ago, I was working on at my desk, a bees was you know flying around me, and I don't like you know trying to hit and chase the bees, and I just left the window open, moved the room two hours, and it's gone. So I don't want to hurt things, even though if it bites, it would hurt me, right? So to kind of find a way, being responsible, because also I have a subconscious thinking that if I try to chase a herd, if an insect, any of them, they you know they react sharp. So I'm not a threat to them. So they are not threat to me. So I kind of make a subconscious connection, communication. Michael Hingson  12:22 Well, and it's it's better to to learn to love than than not. So I I hear what you're saying. Now you didn't go to college or university, right? Or you did? Bircan Unver  12:35 Of course, I did. That's what I was just briefly brought this stair at that level. That after eight years working at at Istanbul Bank, from literally actually 17 to 24 or 23 late 23 early 24 then I started at the Fine Arts University in Istanbul, and I mainly study both as major Turkish tradition arts and also along with as a minor. We didn't have a minor, but we had we didn't have the minor degree, but we had a selected course. So I was following up several like four years in a row and also whole year around, not a quarter semester base artist troy and contemporary art. So I started writing on art and exhibit and interviewing artists while I started study at the Fine Arts University, which is top university in Fine Arts in Istanbul, Myanmar, Sinan Fine Arts University. Michael Hingson  13:44 So you learned a lot about fine arts, and Bircan Unver  13:47 yeah, Michael Hingson  13:47 and you had obviously learned about finance from the bank, which Bircan Unver  13:51 is didn't learn that Michael Hingson  13:53 much, huh? Bircan Unver  13:53 Not at all, and I didn't like it. That's why I, you know, I changed all my life line. Michael Hingson  14:00 Right, but but you enjoyed art. Bircan Unver  14:03 Yes, and because also art always for me, and it as it is today. Whatever the life problems we cannot be resolved, art is always for me a branch to hold on and to kind of feel strength, connect with the nature, with the art culture, whom I never might met, or maybe you know through art, through music, through books. So it's kind of really, I think the the best human conscious and what we leave behind is what we produce. Creative might be a little bit another discussion. What is the term defined? And now everyone using like creative for everything, but creativity is like really what stays, you know, central. And something as what is already before, and what you brought it something new, that new perspective, like cubism and faism and expressionism and all that different genres or pop arts and another one Dali's movement. So all the Dadaism, so each of them brought something what is already existed, and then you know moved to different level, and also technology and communication brought where we are today. So and music, I'm not any degree. Degree train or understand, but I love music as most people about music and arts and literature and writing is always for me. Also taking pictures. I don't trust my memory much, but this is not new, not because of my age now. But I somewhat I always like take the pictures, whether I have cell phone, the oldest, you know, digital or the manual photo photographs. So even though when I run into where where was it, where I was, who was with, who next to me? I can't remember. But why I love that? Because really, it brings, it captures your life, even you don't remember, and then reconnect. Also, I I come up with a new concept. I haven't done anything yet, but it's kind of developing in my mind, that we can, we are able to capture the past, but we cannot capture the future, because you know whether you know unexpected the one photo comes up, or an audio recording, or all those movies, musics, and documentaries and paintings throughout artistry, you can really capture the past depending on what you know your background or interest and education, but you cannot capture the future. But you can imagine, we can imagine the future. We can invest into the future. Michael Hingson  17:16 Well, and and the the reality is that that the future is based on so many things that happen in the past, and so you can learn to to use some of that information and and have a better idea of what the future might be like, and that's that's pretty fascinating too. So so, how long did you go to college Bircan Unver  17:42 in in Turkey the basic four university education is annual base, not semester base. It's a four years, and actually when I started it was five years. Then later on they the system education board changed it to like four years plus two years. So I graduated from a four years fine arts, and then I have a master's degree based in New York News School University. Michael Hingson  18:20 Ah, in New York. Bircan Unver  18:21 Yeah. Michael Hingson  18:22 Okay. So that was was that two years. Bircan Unver  18:27 Yes, but it was a little bit different again. Yeah. See, because first when I was here for the first time, 18 919, 89 to 1994, I started and I took to six credits and I love it. But I had to go back to Istanbul, so then I got the you know absence live of absence, and then but coming back three years later, I readmitted, and then I finish it. I got my graduate diploma in 1999 May 1999 Michael Hingson  19:12 Okay, so Bircan Unver  19:14 you've been dealing late. You've been Michael Hingson  19:17 dealing with school for a while, but but while all that was going on, you got interested in, and you started to to do things regarding public access television. And you started that, if I read your biography correctly, in in 1991, you started doing things with public public access TV. Tell us a little bit about that, and why did you do that? Bircan Unver  19:41 That's really the kind of key point in my life. In as for the initial one of the two reasons that I came to the U.S. as the first time, I was you know the first aim to learn English. The second also. To learn the TV production, and then my first year was in the U.S. was in L.A. and then I was looking for the schools and just I'm I I'd like to get the formal education, formal training, and then one of my friends there, whom I met there, she said my aunt is TV producer at Queens Public TV in New York, and she is looking for someone like you who really wants to get in and all that. And then I think a couple months later, I had a very brief trip to New York, and I met with her, and then I met with her at QPTV. Now she is unfortunately not with us, but she was also she was the first Turkish producer at QPTV, and I'm forever grateful in memory of her. She was the one who introduced me QPTV, so I met Victor at QPTV in 1990, and then when I went back to LA, I decided to move to New York. So as soon as I moved to New York and I registered to QPTV's both field production and studio, and at the time, there were seven, eight months waiting list. Eventually, I got it on the list, 1991, and first I got the field production certificate, and it was I think six months something, and we had a group project and solo project, and then studio and studio production. It's when the same group project after you are learning all the equipment and then shooting and everyone is crewing everyone is helping each other within the same group of the class and then also producing group project and then the individual project that it is the similar step for the field production and the studio, that also provides a certificate to enabling us to use QPTV equipment, studios taking out the equipment, inviting studios, studios. Unfortunately, after COVID 19, there has been a long dragging issue. They haven't opened the studios. This is I don't want to get in because it is beyond our concept, but because that was my initial reason also moving to New York. And then once I started producing program and airing, I really loved idea from one idea, just idea, and then put paper and develop it. Bring yes, bring the crew, especially with the manual three-inch tapes, and to present, put everything in a tape, and then submit it an ARC schedule. I really love that. So then, while I was there, and then I said, "Okay, I want to really have a master's degree on TV production. So my master's degree from New Zealand University is in media studies. So and I got my diploma May 1999 So, but New Zealand was amazing. I learned all the first my you know my life although it was 39 maybe 3839 years old when I was Photoshop and Premiere or Evid and all the first offline digital all the software program I learned at the new school and I edited my first program offline at the new circle as well, but when I got diploma, and then I had nowhere no access to continue. Also, you know, it's just I, I never been about the person. My mind and my heart wealthy, but not financial terms. And then, so QPT was always my second home because it provides me continuing the producing and provides me access, provides me equipment. It's like provides the community. That's what it is exists for, especially in support of the Article First Amendment and freedom of expression, and also QPTV format is really, really not well known, or not QPTV loaned. It is public access, pack programming, public education and government programming, non-commercial. So it's it is not much known widely, but it is really one of the best symbol of democracy. And now it's kind of a little bit diminishing because also widespreading out other web streaming platforms like this or other, so that there are so many. Discussion and issues, and also there is one petition to the New York Senate that is called Team New York that could also bring in all the web streaming to this community media access public access media. So then, Michael Hingson  25:19 oh, go ahead. Bircan Unver  25:20 No, I mean the question is so QPTV had has been the longest since 1991. I've been providing content, and as long as I am in the US, if I'm out of the country, even if I am out of the country, my previously submitted programs are rerunning in different, you know, whenever they schedule for my new programs, I determine which time slot because I have a time slot to be scheduled, and whether 28 minutes or one hour. But especially again after COVID 19, I couldn't produce anything at the studio at QPTV, but like this Zoom-based programs, and then for the late million organization, the programs I produce and then edit them, reformat them to schedule for QPTV. But it wasn't as it used to be produced at QPTV, at the studio with the crew, that's the excitement teaming up. It's really, I love it. But Zoom, this type also make more maybe manageable, but also bring more intonation speakers. You know, through online connection. If Speaker 1  26:54 you enjoy Unstoppable Mindset and would like to help us continue bringing these conversations to you each week, we've created a way for you to support the show. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and continue sharing stories, insights, and ideas that inspire people to live with purpose and possibility. If supporting the podcast feels right for you, you'll find the link in the show notes. Thank you for being part of the Unstoppable Mindset Community. Michael Hingson  27:28 So you you started in public access television and and and are still doing that essentially. But in 2000 you started Light Millennium TV. Tell us about Light Millennium Television. Bircan Unver  27:42 Thank you so much. Because Late Millennium, I still consider it's my third child because already 25th anniversary. The flyer on my back says 25th That also refers the 25th anniversary of the Light Millennium. I think a the experience and production, and also providing three platform QPTV, Queens Public TV, but actually the 1992 Communication Act and PAC programming, public government public education and government programming; those emerge with my new school education, like Fatrus, Plato, the concept of the two ways of messaging, and for the first time in my life, at the age of I think it was I was 39 I was able 3039, I was able to use. It was very new, also for the war. Internet. We had the internet at the new school as our media class, the open forum. One week media theory class. We have open discussion forum about Greek philosophy, further is communication, media theory. The other class we had the classic format. So all these together merged in my mind, and I really felt I found my medium. That medium is the internet, which me, especially someone is living in New York, who has you know 30 years first life in Turkey, Istanbul, that culture, and then I I didn't want to kind of disconnect from my root cultures, and internet provided me that connections, and also I always like to write and communicate, so so it becomes like natural medium. And then when I just graduated in May 1999 I send out by then like 40 people with my friends. Colleagues, and then I said, "Oh, I want to start a platform. This platform is going to be ours. And everyone wants to say, kind of to expand the QPTV's concept, because when I say QPTV's concept, this is the again First Amendment, and they don't control the content. They don't say anything you can do, you cannot unless it is a threat to someone's life. So it's all the content, or you are responsible as the producer. So I really love that freedom and responsibility again. And then then I was mentoring at the New York Food Moon Finance and Television, and I was kind of trying to find what I want to do, and I was already producing programs at QPTV. I never give up as as long as I could afford to produce the time and edit. Edit is always more time consuming, and then the executive director of the at the time 1999 Woman Film Man Television, she said you can form a nonprofit. I never taught it before, and I'm forever thankful to her. And then I said I don't know what to do where to start because she perhaps she saw the potential because I was producing non-commercial and publishing, trying to promote, you know, through group emails, and whatever the you know social media available at the time. Well, mostly email and group emails, and then she suggested me a volunteer lawyers of arts that she said they can help you, and I never knew and I never thought I if I never came to U.S. maybe I will never had a concept of forming a nonprofit or light minimum. So that U.S. and all combination brought me and news called Queens Public TV, First Amendment, United Nations Article of 19 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Everything together kind of merged in my mind. Also, the projects I produce, I communicate, is contact with people, I learn from them. So then, when I contacted with them, they ask me, you know, what is my statement this type? And then I drafted all of them, and they put in medical, you know, terms and terminology, and I was lucky that we got a pro bono at the time one of the you know major U.S. law firms. I I think I can say now because they even though I think merged K Shuler, but they took our case and they formed my organization on on a pro bono basis and officially the first as a non profit organization done with the 500 1c T V together. So we officially formed 2001 July 17, and we and then right after that they filed 501c3 for us, and then we granted that in September 18, 2002. Bircan Unver  33:14 My memory is not good, but I I remember that date as of today because it was kind of imprinted in my mind, but also the beauty was that the granted granting 501 c3 was effective of the formation date, which is July 17 2001 So then, since I developed started the light minimum concept, introducing speaking people trying creating an open platform that everyone can you know contribute be part of it, so then I started in January 2000 on January 13 2000 started first monthly the like TV series at like at QP TV. That's how it came about. Michael Hingson  34:02 Yeah, you have certainly created quite a niche in in the whole light millennium and all the other things that you've done, which is pretty fascinating. How did you get connected with the United Nations? Because I know you're doing work with them. Bircan Unver  34:18 Thank you. Actually, the concept with the UN use, I don't do work for them. Michael Hingson  34:29 Right. Bircan Unver  34:29 We do work with them. Right. You're connected Michael Hingson  34:34 with them. You're not working for them. I understand that. Bircan Unver  34:36 Yeah, I just you know one word, but it's key key differences. But as as I mentioned, how the light millennium concept emerged, and also my master's degree program, media studies at the New School, and also there is another person I have to mention here, also in. Separate for her respectful and loving memory, Danielle Camille. She was my advisor for my thesis project advisor at the new school, and all that TV ideas and my thesis project. And she loved, and I got all A. And my first TV ideas project was peace, reality, or utopian dream, and it was 11 minutes or so. It was just before the first Clinton administration election, just October, I think 2002 and then I interviewed many academicians, civil society, non-profits who whose focus area on peace and war and you know against nuclear or all that and and then that actually the concept peace reality or utopian dream that took me to the United Nations I don't know now as a as an outsider, at the time it was so welcoming, and I went to photo department. They share me with photos, and I got all the books I was looking for. Of course, public library. I got all the books about the peace and peace organization. So that 12 minutes program, peace rate or utopian dream, and physically led me to step in the UN for the first time, and then producing this project, searching kind of open to me new horizon, and also my advisor was persistent. Birjan, we know you are great. You produce fundamental programs on arts, but I want you to do something else. So that actually also forced me to move beyond producing something beyond arts. And so then then peace, reality, or utopian dream concept came in, but also it wasn't far topic in my life because my son was born 20 when I was 2022 Now he is 45 His name is Borush, and mean is in Turkish peace. Peace also at the time, you know, Africa hunger, and I was hoping when I get 4050, this will be over. It's not the case, but as a vision, I always look for humanistic positive for the humanity, not you know for myself well-being. Michael Hingson  37:38 Well, you you kind of act as a bridge between UN programs and local communities. Tell me more about that because you view that you view yourself as being a bridge between UN programs and the local community. Why do you why do you view yourself as more of a bridge? Bircan Unver  38:00 That's very nice metaphor, and I think it's very true for me too. Maybe I could take it two three step backs. One is the village I was born. There is a river, and and then there was a bridge, and that bridge was kind of fundamental. Really, going to where you know people are established, living in all the agriculture and large fields, and it was kind of nostalgic to me. It's a bridge, but it's a stone, short bridge. That's the the first part. The second Istanbul. You know, my life main path when I was in Istanbul, Turkey in Istanbul, and Istanbul the Bosphor and then the Istanbul Bridge. Now the name changed, and now three bridges, and not just the bridge itself, but also Turkish geographic Turkey's geographical space place on Earth and especially on in between Europe and Asia and Black Sea and then the Mediterranean Sea and then when you go down North Africa, and then you go up like Russia and North Europe. So you see that that connection physically, geographically, and troy physical bridges. We live, we grow up with this kind of as part of our DNA and vision. When I was working on this, the first the initial need you know in the non-profit world to describe the need need was to connect with my culture, people, friends, family, the internet medium, and then village is also metaphor, and when we associated with the. I let I'm proud to say it. Let the association process. That was also my vision from that small video for the class project. And then, then I realize this is also. I think today is real fact that local communities, even Queens here, people are paying 1000s of dollars to come to New York to get visas. All that trying to get the sponsor, you know, to attend a conference, and I I didn't see much interest within the local nonprofits there, and that little bit was shocking realization for me. So I brought to my programs UN visions programs, MDGs, UN days, sustainable development goals. For instance, when it was announced at the UN for the 2023 agenda, we created dreams for humanity. So we brought people from lots of life, poets, authors, and youths to really share their ideas for humanity, for peace. Michael Hingson  41:12 Well, you-it sounds like, from all that I've read and and studied, you're you're, or at some point, you kind of have moved more into dealing with a lot of things with the environment. So I know that your program has been able to get a credit accredited as an observer observer status with the UN Environment Program. How is how has that affected what you do and all of your work going forward. Bircan Unver  41:43 Thank you. This is also another important, I think, milestone for us. The first in connection with the UN, associated with the in the formerly United Nations Department of Public Information, and then it has changed to Department of Global Communications. Officially, we've been associated since 2005, active and good standing, and we are able to be presented at the UN with six representatives, and therefore we are able also to reflect back to our committee's networks from the UN and it's two ways. I really like the concept two ways messaging, and then always environment in somewhat it involves in our programs. But let's say through water, through energy, through, for instance, when the forest fires really burns my heart. So being sensible and trying to, as much as I could, to attend the meetings, especially MDGs for the first phase of the Millennium Declaration, really, it's. I consider UN is the best school I ever had, and it's for me lifetimes to call, and I learn about so many countries I will never otherwise know them much. Some of the names you hardly hear in media and anywhere else, so it's kind of opens and to see the global spectrum. Also, one of the things I really love at the UN, whether you you are a ambassador or president or prime minister of a country that has maybe a population 1 million or 2 million or 1 billion or two 1.6 billion, the largest one, so you have the same minutes of speaking time, same voting, especially of course, I'm talking about the general assembly. So those things I follow up, and we try to incorporate time to time. And water issue always, I wanted to involve. I want to do something about, but it's just not like because I love the tourists, and I'm not, you know, scientist, so I'm not officially trained. So also, I'm not able to protect the, you know, fires in the forest. And every year it's getting worse and worse. And then I'm sensible, but you know, you can't do much about it. And eventually, although our last name is same, but we are not blood connected. Professor Oljoymer, at the time he was vice president for the UN Water at the UN, and we connected. And I was following up, and I was aware his work before we met. We connected through the UN. So then, especially during the COVID era, then when I've seen his speeches, natural-based solutions, and then his piece on smart water, so I propose him if we can do something. About water, and then he was very supportive, very kind, very modest. We had our first water program on the World Water Day in March 2001 and then it has turned out an annual program, and we kind of made the global connections and collaborations, and especially first three, four of them, Professor Olja led and guide, and also we worked together in a sense that I brought one part of the speakers and he brought other parts. So it was also great, diverse speakers and also the level of the speakers from whether civil society, academia, UN, and youth, all that. So we already presented six of them, and 2023 we were part of the UN Water Conference. We presented a program, and then last year we participated and presented a program site event in Nice on the Ocean Conference, and we kind of we also had previously on the ocean again. So plastic also become whether ocean, whether water, whether land life, like plastic, is becoming a huge in every level. Not plastic, but also chemical, all all sorts of polluters on in environment. So then we become promoting, producing, and there are really great level of academicians and experts, and they also like to share and connect their research and their findings. So it's a platform to break down together, and then when it is a video, when it is posted as both a summary along with the full presentation or speech, so it becomes a really source where you know you can find diverse voices, diverse solutions, diverse ideas, and also we align them in support of the UN days, UN conferences, SDGs, sustainable development goals like Water Days. Also, we collaborate with an organization in India, IGEN Green Institution, Green Engineers Institute of Green Engineers. So they are focusing on energy SDG seven. So we contribute them, bringing speakers. Bircan Unver  47:40 So then they join us to our program. So really, it's an organic volunteer base. So that that actually, I was so proud that we got a call, invitation to submit the application for this accredited status, and it was June 2025 after the ocean conference. I think ocean conference kind of brought them cumulatively and maybe brought their attention. And then October they asked our official documents, the bylaws and and certificate of organization, which is the regular require any formal application at the UN, and then I I submitted them in I think it was October 1525 but I haven't heard anything, and then I thought maybe you know they didn't consider, and then literally a year later, in June, last June, we got approval, and with a, it's not just accredited for a special one particular conference. It is an observer status assembly to contribute draft ideas. I mean, to contribute drafts, draft resolution to observe, to participate, and then also to be responsible to provide every four-year quadrennial report. Let's say if we fail to produce contribution at any level to this cause, then you know we may lose that observed status, but of course we'll do our best to contribute and to continue. Michael Hingson  49:27 With all of the work that you've done in all of this, I want to come back to World Water Day in a moment. But with all the work that you've done and all the the the things that you've done in public television and so on, when you host these meetings or you participate in these meetings, do they get televised? Also, are you able to bring those to to the public through public television? Bircan Unver  49:53 When it is Zoom, then I edit within my time slot within the limits of. Time slots and QPTV provides two different time slots. One is 20-eight minutes, the other one is 50-eight minutes. So then, let's say if it's two-hour session, I you know a little bit edit and then title, etc. and part one, part two, and also depending on the length of the session or 20-eight minutes. So then I schedule them through the local channels, as we spoke at QPTV. Also, I make them available through our vmail.com/lmtv channel on web on the web. Also, when we have a summary or outcomes, so we also provide those links and share through social media. Try our best to make those information available, visible, and reachable. Michael Hingson  50:51 Well, that I'm glad you do that. I'm glad that it gets to be something that is a lot more publicized than you just attending a meeting-that's important, I would think, to do when when you talk about World Water Day and so on. One of the things that that I I understand you do is you compare water security directly with cybersecurity and gender equality. Those are three different sorts of things when you include water security. Tell us more about that. Bircan Unver  51:24 This was our latest program in last March, and we had in our prior program on AI a discussion on AI a public discussion on AI policy or AI arc. So he's a professor and at the SUNY, and he's a mathematician, and he's also teaching cybersecurity. And when I was talking about when we met about the water conference upcoming, actually in this December, in the United Emirates on I think December six to eight. Even I was thinking to attend, but I wanted part a bit this time virtually instead of going there. So when we were talking about and and I really like this idea and I say as I asked exactly what you asked for, and then his really statement explanation made great sense because everything is nowadays control troy some form of electronic or AI or a combination of those systems, right? Competing systems. So if or if there is a technical issues, that's one case. But if there is a hack, especially water is the life source for everyone, whether you are billion or trillion, or you are you know ordinary people on the you know everyday life. So water is the source for everything, including producing the energy. AI. So water is the life itself. So then, when he said, if any hacking, whether you know small you know some you know people with a bad intention or some maybe big corporation because some profit purpose they want to sell more you know bottled water whatever or some international security issues you you may name this many other things. So if a computer system, if the control mechanism, if the AI system, whatever that combination in that system, is hack, then everything is a huge risk, and that's number one. How it connects with the water. Also now you know we smart how everything is electronic. Everything and then when that somewhat the life collapses there. So including water, including energy. So everything is so much you know interconnected. And then how that the gender equality came. Also, we follow Michael the UN annual-based dedication team for each UN Day or conferences. For instance, last year, water and gender equality, because water and gender required is also so inseparable concept and conditions in many parts of the world, and then also our professor Emre Tokus, he also. Make beautiful connection that if woman or when woman, if and when women are more in the security, cyber security, IT technology sectors, they are more sensitive. They are more like maybe natural in their dealings, like mother protection. So more protective, so there is less risk than where it is now. So to increase the gender equality, both not burden on the woman, you know, where it's the water scarcity that woman has to carry the burden. Girls, even five, seven years old, when developing countries, when it comes to developing countries, and then if the girls are, and also that was staggering. Stats he gave sort of shocked me today because he is a professor at SUNY. So what I mean by that, he said one of his class has only four girls out of 31. of his class has only one girl. One of his class doesn't have no girl. So even though if if girls are girls are not getting in this field, how we gonna bring the gender balance in all cross-cutting sectors of society. So that's how both from the UN perspective, the dedication team, also cybersecurity, the profile from a university that girls are not showing attention, interest studying cybersecurity. That was the fact based on his class last semester. One Michael Hingson  56:46 of the things that you have done, as I understand, is you've written several books. Bircan Unver  56:53 Yes, there are more, but hopefully I could get work on them, publish them as well. The my first book was Michael, based on my interviews with artists and my reviews on art exhibits, and also when I had questionnaire surveys like with artists, galleries, academicians, professors, students. When I before my first life prior prior the U.S. So when I went back after four years and I was really eager to get in a job for as a TV producer and somewhat that didn't work despite all my efforts even I my project load and everyone was after me, but they want to take the project, but not give me the role what I deserve for. So then I kind of close myself, and then I said I want to compile my books, my articles, my interviews. So that was how my first book came about in Turkish. To create is the most sacred. So, like the value to give the highest value for the creativity, intellectual production. That is through all those interviews, reviews, and questions. So that's that was the first book. The second book is in a way a bridge again between U.S. and Istanbul, New York and Istanbul, or maybe L.A. New York and Istanbul. Because when I came in, also I've done freelance journalism, so I wrote some you know reviews and the magazine. I used to, you know, send and appear my interviews and reviews. So and it was include not too frequent, but it was include some of major exhibits, both from LA and also from the Metropolitan Museum in MoMA in New York. Also Turkish artists here. So I met them, you know, when I was living. I started living in here. So then I a combination of those, and also that was another metaphor developed in my mind when I was Istanbul. I was feeling like the labyrinths of arts. So that's my second book title in Turkish labyrinths in arts. So like you are like this kind of narrow and small world in Istanbul art worlds and very high competition, and then nobody expanding to New York and LA expansion means bringing some, for instance, Franz Bacon, Thomas Hart Benton, and Max Ernst and Marina Magritte. Those also the last part connecting with the New York Istanbul from my art based on my art background. Michael Hingson  59:51 So, were any of the books published in English? The Bircan Unver  59:54 last 120, 23 is English, but. It is a compilation concept is written me. I directed the project, and of course I have some pieces also beside the concept. But it is a compilation by 24 contributors. It is based on the JUC Media Research Writing Awards 2021 and 2023 High School Awards Project, and also it is also engaging the youth to involve the UN programs at an early age and encourage them award them. So that also the next one is going to be on the Water Action Decatur in the same line, same concept, and also I have a book project since 2022 I couldn't still 2022 2020 actually. I dream, therefore I am. I have 80% of the book manuscript is ready, but I couldn't finalize it, and so the other one also I was hoping but couldn't to have a book for the 25th anniversary of the latentium. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. It's a little bit seemingly not going to happen this year to come up 25th anniversary of late millennium, but I had 20 anniversary of the late millennium in Turkish, and so this is completely different issue because I introduced like Millennium both in Turkish and in English, so it's like Tiffany Sister is the Turkish one, and then I formed Turkish sister in 2010, and then so on the 20th anniversary of the Turkish organization, as it is association, official association. So I compile the first part, the concept vision, very much like Millennium, because it's the system. But the second part based on the programs, activities, and challenges in Istanbul. So this book also in English will be first the the manifesto and the first all the history will be very much in English, the original one. But the second part is going to be completely, you know, selected ideas and projects and programs from the website and public programs from the last 20-five years, and it's hard hard things to do. It it's very challenging. I couldn't do it. Michael Hingson  1:02:47 It's it's a lot of work. Well, Berjan, I I want to tell you that we have now been talking for more than an hour. Time flies when you're having fun. Man, I'm going to go. I'm going to have to go ahead and and end our time, but we'll have to do this again and and continue the discussion. But I really appreciate you taking the time to be here, and I hope that people will monitor your programs and and and read your books if they can read Turkish or English, whichever works. Troy Bircan Unver  1:03:18 has so many English pieces, and now everyone welcome to look out our website. And what's the Michael Hingson  1:03:26 website again? Bircan Unver  1:03:28 lmglobal.org. Michael Hingson  1:03:32 lmglobal.org. Okay. Bircan Unver  1:03:34 Yes, but the whole archive from 2019 to 2000 no, 2019 no. of course not 2019 1999 to 2018 The archive. Our initial website is light millennium.org Millennium is with double N double N. So the everything we are talking about, all the process, our UN programs, and the reports from the UN NGO briefings, some conferences we participated. If anyone has any question, I'll be happy to provide the link and you know to contact them. Michael Hingson  1:04:17 And we will put that information in the show notes, the notes for the podcast. So I want to thank you for being here. This has been absolutely informative. I really appreciate your time, and I hope the programs continue to go well. So I want to thank you again for being here, and this has just been a lot of fun. Bircan Unver  1:04:39 Thank you so much, Michael Kingston, it is great honor and privilege. Especially, you are a hero, and your your story is amazing, and you are also taking really one of the challenges works like producing these programs, and we never met in real life. And then this is also like Millennium and your work. How we connected through? Otherwise, there was no like regular environment or database environment that we could meet. Your work and your dedication and your inspiring contribution really connected us and bring us together in this session. Thank you, and I'm really grateful for that. Michael Hingson  1:05:29 Thank you for being here with me on Unstoppable Mindset. I hope today's conversation left you with a fresh perspective, a new insight, or at least something worth thinking about. If you're ready to go deeper into the ideas that shape how we see ourselves and others, I have a free gift for you. Head over to michaelhingson.com and download my free ebook, Blinded by Fear. It explores the invisible beliefs that hold us back and shows you how to reframe them so you can move forward with clarity and confidence. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, leave a review, and share this show with someone who can use a reminder that growth starts with mindset. When people think differently, we all move forward together. Thanks again for listening. Keep learning, keep questioning, and keep choosing to live with an unstoppable mindset

An interesting picture featured in Minnesota Reformer featuring a “headless” Kendall Qualls - we got Blois's thoughts on this, voter turnout and fundraising numbers. House passing a Daylight Savings bill and also there is the push for AM radio in D.C.

Join our next FASO Show Live!https://artists.boldbrush.com/p/the-faso-showLearn the magic of marketing  with us here at BoldBrush!boldbrushshow.com--For today's episode we sat down with fine artist Tony D'Amico. Tony is a full-time representational painter and draftsman based in southern Connecticut whose work spans cityscapes, landscapes, coastal scenes, interiors, and everyday local subjects, all unified by his obsession with light, atmosphere, and strong design. He began his journey in art as a child, later studying graphic design, working as a commercial artist and technical illustrator, and eventually running his own marketing and design firm before transitioning gradually into fine art. Plein air painting transformed both how he sees and how he paints, forcing him to simplify quickly, capture specific moments in changing conditions, and infuse his studio work with authentic memories of place, light, and atmosphere. Tony is highly intentional in planning his compositions—often using thumbnails, photography, and Photoshop—to design compelling paintings that go beyond mere realism and invite viewers into a story. Drawing from his marketing background, he emphasizes that artists must learn to present and promote their work, build relationships with collectors and galleries, and accept rejection as a motivator rather than a verdict. For aspiring artists, he stresses persistence, continuous learning, good materials, honest self-critique, and the understanding that developing a true artistic voice and career can easily take a decade or more. Finally, Tony tells us about his upcoming shows and his revised book!Tony's FASO site:tonydamicofineart.com/Tony's Social Media:instagram.com/tonydamicofineart/facebook.com/tony.damico.524/Tony's Book:tonydamicofineart.com/books

Dans ce tout premier épisode de Vulgaire le jeu, on te raconte la vie de Claude Monet, le mec qui a décidé en 1883 que peindre flou, c'était le futur

Everybody wants to be Mexican, Japan has apparently invented breast therapy, Bryan Johnson's anti-aging routine may have backfired, and the Deadpool delivers another collection of Darwin Award contenders.On this episode of the **Chino and Homeboy Podcast**, Chino, Homeboy, and Hate Jones dive into Mexican identity, Mexican culture, the World Cup, Japanese culture, dating in Japan, foreign men dating Japanese women, Japan's adult entertainment industry, Japanese censorship laws, and the shortage of male adult film performers.The crew also discusses **Bryan Johnson**, biohacking, anti-aging experiments, autoimmune gastritis, plasma therapy, healthy living, cancer, sciatica relief, massage therapy, pelvic traction, erotic massage, and one extremely specialized men's showerhead.Later, an angry Japanese man confronts foreigners over interracial dating and accuses white men of disrespecting Japanese culture. That launches a larger conversation about racism, racial profiling, military bases in Japan and the Philippines, Asian women dating foreign men, cultural identity, attraction, and relationships.The episode closes with conversations about AI-generated images, Photoshop, generative AI, racism in America, transgender identity, trans women, lesbian dating, LGBTQ relationships, and another edition of the **Chino and Homeboy Deadpool**, featuring a cliff selfie disaster, a pilot jumping from an airplane, the deadly dry ice pool accident, Connor Murphy, celebrity deaths, BASE jumping accidents, skydiving failures, and several strong Darwin Award candidates.This is an uncensored comedy podcast. Nothing is sacred, everybody catches a stray, and none of this should be mistaken for professional medical, legal, political, or relationship advice.Subscribe for more comedy, current events, veteran perspectives, pop culture, politics, internet insanity, military stories, and information insemination from the Chino and Homeboy Podcast.#ChinoAndHomeboy #ComedyPodcast #Japan #JapaneseCulture #MexicanCulture #BryanJohnson #Biohacking #DarkHumor #CurrentEvents #VeteranPodcast #DarwinAwards #GenerativeAI #TransgenderDebate #WorldCup #UncensoredPodcastCHAPTERS00:00 Do It Live01:14 Welcome to the Chino and Homeboy Podcast02:00 Japan, Anime, Godzilla and Tentacles06:18 Marriage, Pregnancy and the Ghost Nut07:21 Mormon Soaking Explained09:24 The Rusty Trombone Review20:44 Everybody Wants to Be Mexican23:38 Mexican Culture Takes Over the World Cup28:08 Japan's Breast Therapy Cafés33:02 Japan's Male Adult Performer Shortage35:49 Asian Dating Stories Take a Dark Turn38:35 A Coworker's Sudden Cancer Diagnosis41:09 Bryan Johnson, Biohacking and Autoimmune Gastritis45:22 Sciatica Relief or Something Else?52:06 The $80–$200 Milking Session1:01:25 The Men's High-Pressure Showerhead1:13:53 Japanese Man Confronts a Foreigner1:15:17 White Men Dating Japanese Women1:43:30 Racist Neighbor Caught on Video1:45:02 Father Takes a Plea Deal After Fatal Punch1:49:29 Skip the Military Stories—Bring Out the Deadpool#ChinoAndHomeboy #ComedyPodcast #LatinoPodcast #FilipinoPodcast #Looksmaxing #OnlyFans #PodcastClips #DarkComedy #InternetCulture #18PlusComedy #Drake #BadBunny #TaylorSwift #FilipinoCulture #SpiderFighting

Alex Murdaugh's original conviction leaned heavily on one piece of physical evidence: a white T-shirt investigators said proved he was standing close enough to shoot Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. New defense filings ahead of his retrial argue that story was built on a report that didn't originally say what jurors were told it said. According to court documents, blood-spatter analyst Tom Bevel's first write-up concluded the marks on the shirt were transfer stains, consistent with someone touching a bloody scene, not spatter from a gunshot. Defense attorneys say that conclusion shifted only after Bevel adjusted the shirt's colors in Photoshop, and the state chose never to call him to the stand to explain the change. It's one piece of a broader challenge the defense is mounting alongside a push to have unknown male DNA, pulled from under Maggie Murdaugh's fingernails, sent to the forensic lab Othram for genealogy testing the same technology used to identify Bryan Kohberger. Attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin have also raised questions about first-responder accounts that reportedly don't match up, and tips the defense says were forwarded to SLED without any confirmation of follow-up. The retrial is set for April 5, 2027 in front of a judge who has already made clear she won't be granting continuances, while Attorney General Alan Wilson keeps the death penalty on the table. This episode walks through the Bevel report in detail, lays the timeline against the David Camm case the defense is citing, and asks the question prosecutors will have to answer: if the shirt evidence changed once, what else might not hold up under a second look. The next hearing is set for August 14, and the defense has signaled this shirt fight is only getting started. Judge for yourself. SOCIAL LINKS & LEGAL FOOTER Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. HASHTAGS #MurdaughRetrial #AlexMurdaugh #HiddenKillers #TomBevel #BloodSpatterAnalysis #WhiteTShirt #TrueCrime #MurdaughTrial #SouthCarolina #DavidCamm 

Alex Murdaugh's retrial finally has a date, April 5, 2027, and a stack of defense motions that go straight at the evidence that convicted him the first time. Start with the shirt. Blood-spatter analyst Tom Bevel's original report reportedly described the marks on Murdaugh's white T-shirt as transfer stains, not gunshot spatter, before that finding changed following what defense filings describe as color adjustments made in Photoshop. The state never called Bevel to testify. Then there's the DNA. Investigators recovered an unknown male's genetic material from under Maggie Murdaugh's fingernails the night she and Paul were killed, and that sample was cataloged but never run through a genealogy database. The defense wants it sent to Othram, the same lab whose work helped identify Bryan Kohberger, and attorney Jim Griffin told the court the technology to trace it simply wasn't available when SLED first collected it. On top of that, attorney Dick Harpootlian says first-responder statements from the night of the killings contradict one another, and that tips forwarded to SLED may never have been followed up on. Judge Debra McCaslin, newly assigned to the case, has already made clear continuances won't be granted, while Attorney General Alan Wilson is keeping the death penalty in play against a man already serving multiple life sentences. This episode lays out all three motions side by side, weighs them against the David Camm wrongful-conviction case the defense cites as precedent, and gives the honest counterargument prosecutors are likely to raise. Two people are still dead at those kennels, and pieces of evidence tied directly to their deaths sat untested for years. The next hearing lands August 14. Both sides know how much rides on the next few hearings. Here is everything filed so far, in order. SOCIAL LINKS & LEGAL FOOTER Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. HASHTAGS #MurdaughRetrial #AlexMurdaugh #HiddenKillers #MurdaughTrial #MaggieMurdaugh #PaulMurdaugh #Othram #TomBevel #SouthCarolina #TrueCrime 

In this episode of The GaryVee Audio Experience, I sit down with Laura Desmond, CMO of Adobe, at Cannes 2026 for a Marketing for the Now conversation. We get into why experience maxing — IRL, in real life — is mattering more than ever, why VaynerX bet the farm on becoming an experiential agency, and why AI tools will get commoditized at scale exactly the way big data did. I share the Photoshop history lesson every fearful creative needs to hear, why the human matters more in an AI world, not less, and the jungle-gym career advice every young marketer should be writing down.You'll learn about:• Why Experience Maxing (IRL) Is Mattering More Than Ever• Why the Human Variable Matters More, Not Less• The Humility to Take a Step Backwards

Joey and Sean team up to cover the latest round of Team Blue updates. We're tracking the $22 billion Trump disclosure featuring meme coins, Binance pardons, and Larry Ellison's shadow over CBS before pivoting to the tragicomedy that is the Freedom 250 Fair. Find out why tech bros, AI George Washington, and Photoshop can't save the GOP from the ultimate crowd-size humiliation.Here's what's in the blender today:* The $22 Billion Windfall: We kick things off with a massive look at Trump's latest 2025 financial disclosures. From a casual $14 billion pulled from crypto ventures and licensing meme coins, to a $500 million UAE buy-in and a $400 million “gift” jet from Qatar, we break down how the ultimate art of the self-deal is currently operating at the highest level of government.* The Memory of Watergate: We head over to the Nixon Library to dissect Vice President JD Vance's recent comments, chortling at the historic scandal that took down a presidency. We trace Vance's fascinating, tragic evolution from a Yale-educated Hillbilly Elegy darling funded by Peter Thiel, who once called his current boss "Hitler" and “human fentanyl”, to a human weather vane whispering sweet nothings to an audience of one.* The Free Press Plot Twist: In a surprising turn of events, we look at the right-leaning Free Press dropping a devastating piece on Trump's deep financial corruption. We play out the inevitable corporate domino effect of what happens when the editor-in-chief of CBS News tries to poke the bear, and why the system treats DC insider trading like a legal perk while a military ranger betting on Kalshi gets instantly dragged down.* Fyre Festival 2.0 (The National Mall Edition): Finally, we wrap up with some high-quality crowd-size mockery at the “Freedom 250” Great American State Fair. It was supposed to be a massive Bicentennial-level blowout; instead, the 1,000 people who actually showed up got peeling columns, power outages, fake AI historical figures, and the single saddest, most depressed corn dog stand in American history.Grab your popcorn (If you're not at the National Mall) and stay amused; it's going to be a wild ride.0:00 Trump's $22 Billion Windfall 3:00 JD Vance Dismisses Watergate 3:30 Watergate History Refresher 6:30 Nixon's Resignation and Fallout 8:00 A Two-Tiered Justice System 9:30 The Free Press Exposes Trump's Corruption 10:30 Legal vs. Illegal Corruption Debate 14:00 JD Vance's Background Story 16:30 Vance's Flip-Flop on Trump 19:30 Trump's Freedom 250 State Fair Flop This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.truethirty.com/subscribe

When life crashes, it rarely sends a warning. A job disappears. An investment fails. A relationship changes. A dream you've spent years building suddenly feels like it's slipping away. In those moments, it's easy to believe you've lost everything. But what if the crash isn't the end of the story? What if it's the beginning of something stronger?In this episode, John and Chris unpack what it means to rebuild after life falls apart, why gratitude and humility matter most when you're at rock bottom, and how some of life's greatest growth happens in the moments we'd do almost anything to avoid. If you've ever wondered how to keep moving forward when everything feels like it's moving backward, this conversation is for you. Here are five key insights that emerge from this conversation:Life crashes are inevitable. Growth is optional.Everyone experiences setbacks. Businesses fail. Jobs disappear. Relationships change. Health declines. The defining factor isn't whether life crashes, but how we choose to respond when it does. Resilience isn't avoiding adversity. It's learning to rebuild stronger because of it.The second time is almost always better than the first.The Photoshop and Excel stories reveal a powerful truth. When everything is lost and you have to start over, you rebuild with the wisdom you didn't have before. Experience becomes a shortcut. What felt like losing everything often becomes the foundation for creating something better.Discomfort isn't something to escape. It's something to learn from.Our instinct is to get back to comfort as quickly as possible. But the greatest lessons rarely happen there. Sometimes we're called to patiently sit in the discomfort long enough to understand what it's teaching us. Other times we're called to take bold action. Wisdom comes from discerning which season we're in.Gratitude changes what you see without changing your circumstances.Every life contains joy and hardship at the same time. Like two sides of the same piece of paper, both are true. Gratitude doesn't deny pain. It chooses where to focus. That shift in perspective changes how we experience the challenges we can't avoid.You grow faster when you don't grow alone.Coaches, mentors, friends, and honest conversations can dramatically shorten the pain cycle. The people who ask thoughtful questions, listen well, and share lessons from their own failures help us avoid unnecessary mistakes. Growth accelerates when humility replaces ego and we're willing to learn from those around us.ONE TRUTH:Your greatest setback may be the very thing preparing you for your greatest growth. Life will crash. Plans will fall apart. Doors will close. But those moments don't define you. They develop you. If you're willing to stay humble, remain grateful, learn the lesson, and take the next step, you'll often discover that what felt like the end was actually the beginning of something better.

OLSEN TWINS SPOTTED! (Feels wrong!) Ahead of her wedding (maybe), a fan reads into Staind Guy's promo being used as packaging in Taylor's Toy Story single... If that feels confusing, that's because it is. T-Pain gets confused for footballer Tim Payne (but not really!) Plus, is SuperGirl queer? Did Arden Cho find her luggage? Is that Mia Thorton's actual body or a gorgeous Photoshop? Please stop pooping (outside the toilets) at Noah Kahan concerts, where was Brooklyn at Will Peltz's star-studded wedding and are THESE Off Campus co-stars hooking up? Logan Lerman's married, Lisa's split from a billionaire, Courtney Cox and her Snow Patrol bf broke up and JWOWW got married! Angelina wasn't invited! Neither were we! #ViQueensCall 619.WHO.THEM to leave questions, comments & concerns, and we may play your call on a future episode. Support us and get a ton of bonus content over on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/WhoWeekly⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Buy Bobby's new novel WE ARE GATHERED HERE TODAY ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and preorder our upcoming book I WANT TO BE FAMOUS ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Jeffery Lawson discusses his creative journey, from grieving the life you thought you would have to falling into comparison traps. 

⭐️ Episode 809 - Dani Vee and Emily Gale - The Wild Unknown 2045 Dear gentle listeners, In this episode I chat to Emily Gale about her new dystopian middle grade novel set in 2045. We chat about …

Tiff and Dana address one of the most popular topics for Dental A-Team consultants: overhead! They talk about what it entails, where to start when looking to reduce it, critical questions to ask yourself about needs versus wants, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiff (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Thank you for being here with us today. Thank you for listening. We say this every time, but we love what we do and we love bringing you so much valuable information. And the fact that Kiera can do all the podcasts she does blows my mind. ⁓ but she is a busy bee over there, and the fact that we get to do these as well is just really, really fun for us. It allows all of the consultants here on our team to really feel like we're giving back to you guys. So with that, I have Dana here with me today, and   Dana, gosh, we have been podcasting together for a really long time. I can't even put a number to it. And I remember, I don't know if you remember, but I remember I remember where I was sitting. I remember the thought process. And I remember it was me, you and Britt on a call on a Zoom link. And it was the first time marketing had said we want to do video with the podcast. And I was like, what? And video like was not, it was just like up and coming.   I didn't understand it. It was on Instagram. I was watching I was like, why am I watching you talk? Like the a podcast is to listen. Why am I watching you talk? And now I mean it's very normal and that's how I watch them. And I feel like I feel like it was like YouTube came back around, you know. But anyways, I remember that day vividly. ⁓ I don't remember what we were talking about, but I remember being like, I have to like do my hair. I'm gonna be seen.   DAT-Dana (01:23) Yeah. Yeah. I know it was   funny because we always could see each other, right, in those early days, but it was just like we weren't creating the video content for it. And I remember thinking exactly like who's gonna want to watch   Tiff (01:33) Yes.   DAT-Dana (01:35) us who's gonna want to watch us do this thing but then I see my kids literally like watching people play Minecraft and it's like their favorite thing and I'm like wouldn't it be more fun to actually go play? So I do feel like there is definitely this like niche of people like wanting to watch and like you know get a glimpse in of like the podcast world and just different worlds in general and so I agree with you. I remember the three of us just kind of being like who's gonna want to watch us talk to each other but hey we're so glad you're here.   Tiff (01:37) Yeah.   Yes.   It's true.   Yeah.   DAT-Dana (02:05) Yeah.   Tiff (02:06) Yes, I agree. And the three fur podcasts are hard. So hard when there's so many people virtually. And yeah, I r I remember the shock. I wish I could remember what the ⁓ podcast actually it was probably I bet you it was probably one that we did for Kiera. We probably it bosses day or something, yeah, 'cause if there are multiple of us. Anyways, that was that popped into my head this morning as I I always have to now have like prep for podcast time so I can like   DAT-Dana (02:12) Yeah.   Like Boss's Day or something like that. Yeah.   Tiff (02:35) just tame my hair or get my ring light just right. And I'm like, gosh, I remember the days that we did not have to do this. And then we have c new to Dental A Team consultants come on and I'm like, we're gonna podcast. And they're like stressed and I'm like, I get it. I just I get it. I saw them go talk yourself in the mirror for a bit first. You'll get used to it.   DAT-Dana (02:50) Yeah. Yeah.   I know   I remember in the early days I would always have to reframe my podcast because I'd see podcasting on my schedule and I'm like, ⁓ like I gotta get on. So then I just started reframing it. It was like time with Tiff, time with Britt, time with Kiera. And it's how I like kind of learn get over the like of the podcasting space. So I totally feel it when new consultants are like, I have my first podcast today.   Tiff (03:12) I love that.   Yeah,   yeah, and they all come to you, right? 'Cause I'll all schedule it and then they're like, Dana, what do I do? That's so cute. Yeah. I love the reframe. That actually like goes I think hand in hand with what we're talking about today. ⁓ but I think you can do that with anything and I have to remind myself, even like gosh, when I get up in the morning, I got up this morning and I went from for my walk and I was like, ⁓ this sucks and I was like, No, you get to be in the morning sun.   You get to move your body before anybody else in the house is awake. Like I think that's the part that's the hardest is like everybody else gets to sleep, you know? But you that reframe is so powerful. And we can look at a schedule and think I I look at my schedule and I'm like, shoot. This is so busy. Or gosh, I'm I'm like   So long today, and I have to reframe it often and be like, gosh, no, actually I get to do something really cool. And I get to wake up and go for a walk and I get to do these things or I get to go to an office and I get to be boots on the ground with other people. So I love that you mentioned that reframe, Dana. That was really smart. So today's reframe, which I love, I think this is one of the most popular conversations that we have. We get a couple of things here at Dental A Team. ⁓   We love everything that we get, but the most common, most popular things are systems, which we will help you with systems, I promise you. And there are thousands of podcasts I think that just Dana and I have done on systems and operations manual. So go look them up. We're not doing that today. And the second, which I actually really have grown to truly love, ⁓ is overhead cost reduction and and overhead analysis. And so many practice owners and leaders come to us and they're like, gosh.   what does overhead even mean? I know I had a conversation with a client last week that has been in the dental like consulting world for years and years and years. And w his question was what does that even what does it mean? Like overhead can mean so many different things to so many different people and so many different consulting companies. And for the sake of today's conversation and the sake of forever with Dental A Team know that when we say overhead, we are talking about top of the line   Whatever I always say if someone were to purchase your practice, what are the expenses they'd be taking over? Anything outside of that, your pay, your taxes, your debt, your debt will follow you typically, right? You can lump it into the loan, ⁓ but it's not overhead top of the line expense. So your debt, meaning your scanners, ⁓ your school debt, anything like that is outside of quote unquote overhead. So when we talk about overhead, it's top of the line and that had to that that   explanation, I think it can just vary. It can vary depending on who you're talking to. So today we wanted to reframe that, Dana Go. No, I love it.   DAT-Dana (06:08) and I don't want to interrupt you, but I think too just   just to be clear on overhead too, anything that you run through the business, right? Again, that's not something absolutely with your CPA, you structure it how you want. But understand that that's not an expense that somebody is going to take on when they take over the bracket.   Tiff (06:25) Yes, I love that. Thank you. Good clarification. so with this kind of reframe, every everybody's like reduce overhead, reduce overhead. And I totally agree. And a lot of a lot of companies, a lot of people, ⁓ a lot of strategists will come in and they're like, okay, what can we cut? And we for sure, like, we'll come in and look at what if there's space to make cuts, but our biggest piece is always we're not gonna spend a lot of time on it today because we've got a million other podcasts about it.   I think I just did one actually with Kristy not that long ago, but the first place we're gonna look is your collections. A lot of people will say, I need to over I need to produce. And I love the statement, you can't outproduce your problems. So if you're producing, producing, producing, producing, but you're still feeling like there's an issue. And if you're meeting the financial, like you're meeting your goal, your production goal, but you're still cash flow short, then there's an issue in your collections. And so look at your collections and Dana.   I would love to hear quick snippet, what are the areas that you tackle when it comes to overhead and it comes to collections? And then I want to talk about the reframes and the other pieces.   DAT-Dana (07:33) Yeah, so you're exactly right. The first thing I'm gonna look at is the collections number. I'll look at the total, like what is the total percentage and like what profit point do we need to get to when it comes to collections? And then the very next thing I'm gonna look at is your AR because honestly and truly I've been able to get practices out of cash flow crisis, out of really feeling that pinch simply by going after already produced   ⁓ monies. And so I think that those are usually the things that I look at. Okay, what are we collecting? What does our profit point need to be for healthy AR?   Right. And and obviously we're gonna talk about is that possible? How do we get your schedule to get you there? But then the very next thing I'm gonna look at is AR. Is there money that I can just quickly tackle that's already been produced that's gonna help the collections problem? So I'm looking at the total collections, collections percentage, and then what's sitting in AR, because if I can tackle that and make a really quick difference, ⁓ sure, we can budget things, we can line item your PL, we can we can chop where we need to, but those things are often the fastest, easiest, quickest fixes.   and like you said, you like outproducing the problem. If I can fix AR and then we can create systems that it doesn't happen again, oftentimes we don't even have to really touch production, right? Because we're already producing pretty well in a lot of these cases. So those are that's kind of where I start.   Tiff (08:46) Yeah.   Yeah, I love that. And it's something that makes such a massive difference. Knowing one, knowing your numbers, knowing what your numbers mean. So knowing your overhead, knowing your outgoing expenses is massive. And then looking to see, okay, well, if these are my outgoing expenses, what do I need to collect in order to profit? Right. And then if we're not collecting that, is it because production isn't where it needs to be? So what's our what's our bare minimum?   And is collections meeting that or is production meeting that so that collections can meet our bare minimum. If production is or is way above and our collections is just tanked, like I saw somebody the other day that was like 83% collections. They're like, we gotta produce more. And I Yeah, absolutely. If we want to maintain 83% collections and get your overhead in line, you for sure have to produce more. But also we can tackle your collections and get your collections up to that ninety-eight percent that it should be or above, and really not have to work   you harder as the provider work our numbers harder and get that collections up. It also kind of flows into Dana, I think the capacity that we just recorded a podcast. So probably the podcast ahead of this one I would assume is is about capacity. And I think that capacity conversation flows into this one really, really well. So all right, collections.   Go do it. We will harp on that for days, but go do it. If you need help with it, you're not sure, you don't know how to analyze it, you need help with your numbers, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We are honestly and truly here to help you. We will provide you as much information as we possibly can to get you on the right track. Now, something else that we like to do within that, and we talked about this on capacity, we talked about analyzing ⁓ fee schedules, right? But then we also need to analyze expenses. So when we're really looking at things and we're saying, okay.   Great, this is my overhead. I like to think, okay, does it have to be my overhead though? So a lot of people will look at staff cost, the employee cost. I actually I look at it, I kind of glaze that, you guys. I don't, I don't like to touch the staff cost unless it absolutely is extraordinary and there's maybe team members that are taking advantage or you're feeling like there's something culturally wrong in your practice, then I'm gonna say, okay, great.   Let's really take a look at this and make sure that we're being efficient with our time. We're not in overtime. We're not in those spaces. But I'm gonna kind of glaze at that unless there's a red flag somewhere else. And then I'm gonna look at those other expenses as well. And something that I really love to do is to analyze what do we need versus what we have. It reminds me of when Brody was little, we'd go to the store and he'd be like, Mom, is this a want or a need? Is it on your list? Is you have are you getting it because you just want it and it sounds exciting?   Or do we actually need this? And Dana, I love the conversation that you have around. I'm gonna say like analyze your vendors, analyze your contracts with vendors, but I love the conversation around ⁓ the wants versus needs when it comes to scanners, when it comes to mills. And I love I I miss the conversation actually. I miss the conversation of negotiate with your labs. And I miss that conversation because   I think that the mill has become such a bandwagon thing. It's been around for so long and it's such a bandwagon thing that everybody's that jumped into. But I love your your like evaluation of is it necessary? Is it actually going to save us the time and the money and get us the results that we want? And I would love, Dana, for you to talk through some of that and how you help your clients decide. Because I'm not against the mill, I'm not for it. I'm for it for the practices that it works.   And I'm for making sure that it's going to work and it's gonna do its due diligence. So what how is that conversation for you, Dana, when you talk to your practices about it   DAT-Dana (12:44) Yes. I love this conversation too, too. I   think first and foremost, I always want to know when when somebody wants to purchase something big like that. So whether it's a new scanner or whether it's a mill, like why.   Why do we want to purchase it? Is it because we have a scanner that we constantly use and we're constantly pulling and we never have it in the like appointment times that we need? So then we need to talk about adding another scanner. Is it that like we need another tool to show patients, but like could we just do IOPs a little bit more until we've got the budget set for the scanner? I'm not saying no to scanners. I'm not saying no to mills. I'm just saying, why do we want it? Is it the right time and is it going to do what you anticipate it's going to do as far as your budget goes?   Because I think we can talk about scanners and what's going to add so much more to my production. Okay, well, it is, but when are we going to use it? How often are we going to use it? Who's going to use it? How are we mapping it out to make sure that it really is putting more production on your schedule and it really is reducing your lab fees? Right. Scanner is a great tool for negotiating with a lab, but are you going to do that? Are you going to do the negotiations? Are you going to send them enough work to make it worth having the scanner?   Same thing with the mill. I'm always asking like why, right? And I know that kind of the mill is the hot spot or the mill is like the next big thing. And I think sometimes, you know, I hear a lot from doctors, well, it's gonna buy me back a lot of time. Well, it's only gonna buy you back time if you're going to let your assistant, right, help design and do the actual milling. If you're not gonna let that happen, then we're actually using more of your time than and sometimes it's not will you let them, it's do you have the capacity within your assistant team right now to be able to allow them.   Tiff (14:07) Yeah.   Mm-hmm.   DAT-Dana (14:21) to do those things because maybe we're short staffed in that area or maybe assistants are really hard to find. Well then maybe now's not the time to bring on the mill because it's actually going to use more of your time versus less of your time. And then you know all of these purchases typically come with either a large payout, right? Or a decent size loan that we're paying every single month. And so I like to kind of reverse engineer with my practices so they know cold hard facts how many crowns they have to do every single month.   to make that loan payment worth it or make that payout out of their emergency fund or their growth fund or wherever they're pulling that funds from. Hopefully not their emergency funds, but sometimes right, doctors get wild on us and it feels like an emergency to get that.   Mill. So knowing exactly how many crowns you have to do every single month. And then I'm saying, okay, let's go back through the last year. Let's see, did we even do as many? Because if we didn't do as many, then now's not the time. Let's get to that many crowns every single month, then take a look at the mill. Because so often we think, hey, the mill is going to save me on lab fees, but you have to do so many of them for it to save you on lab fees. And again, I'm not pro mill. I'm not like I'm neutral when it comes to mill. I think it's a great tool, but it's not the best tool for every   Tiff (15:25) Yeah.   Mm-hmm.   DAT-Dana (15:35) practice at that exact time. I think you really have to look   At and crunch things when you decide to make those purchases and really look at it as is it truly going to give your time back? Is it truly going to give you your lab fees back? Is it truly going to up your patient experience or up your diagnosis or whatever it is? Because that is when it makes it worth it. So I just like to like have the conversation, review the numbers together, and kind of say, hey, like this is the reality of the purchase. I, you know, I am.   Totally understand the like purchase in the feels, right? I get that. I've done it. I'm human. I think we've all been like, but this is gonna feel so good when I have it. But I think look at the numbers and make sure because these things can really hit your these these debt services can really hit your profit points if it's not set up correctly and you don't know kind of the benchmarks you have to hit to make it help with profit versus hurt.   Tiff (16:11) Yeah.   Yeah.   Absolutely. I think it's so beautiful. And a follow-up to that too is if you already have the mill, you already have the scanner, you already made the purchase or the laser, Dana, as you were talking, I was like, the lasers, the lasers. There's so many there's just so many really cool tools that dentistry has that makes us feel like we've got to jump on it to be the most progressive, to be the most exciting, to stay up with the times, to to not fall behind. And really they're just fun and exciting. It's like   ⁓ Canva and you know we only had Photoshop and then Canva came out and then we had, you know, all of these different opportunities. And it it can be easy to jump on board with them. So if we already have jumped on board, we didn't have this conversation, or maybe we did, and then gosh, we're just falling a little bit short. This is the overhead analysis as well. This all flows into that overhead analysis. So as you're looking at your overhead and you see those   those loans under on you have your bottom you have your top line and you have a bottom line. And at your bottom line, when you see those other loans in there and you're like, gosh, Def, Dana, I just I'm not using the scanner as much as I thought I did. I know both of us have I all of our consultants are really, really fantastic at having conversations like this that say, okay, great, why? Dana, you said something earlier, you said it asking more questions, right? Like I want to know, I want to know why you want it.   what it's gonna do for your practice and then reverse engineer it. And we are really great at pulling out the why for anything. So if you're not, if you bought it and you're not using it, we're gonna say, well, why aren't we using it? Is it because it's not the tool that we needed or we wanted and or we don't have the patient base for it or is it because we're not trained, we're not holding accountabilities. And ultimately, if this thing isn't working for your practice, it's not doing what you wanted it to or gosh, you just hate it. You don't like it. You don't want to use it.   This is a conversation with the company that you can have. You can call the company and say, Hey, what can I do? How can I how can I get out of this? I've had ⁓ I've had doctors that have had this conversation with them and they do have like a smaller buyout, right? They're like, Well, we'll buy it back from you, but you're gonna it's kind of like taking a car in and you you're you know, you're under.   So you you owe a little bit more on your car and then you owe on the car that you're buying. So it kind of sucks because you do have to pay that out, but could getting out of that contract early, sending the equipment back, save you in the long run because you haven't paid that total balance. Or a lot of doctors will call and they're like, yeah, absolutely. I have a doctor actually who's looking for one that might buy it from you.   And so you can you can sell this equipment as well if it's not working for you. So I don't ever want doctors to really just feel so stuck in the decisions that either they've made or that they want to make and you have that kind of decision paralysis. So as we're going through that looking at ⁓ cost control and overhead control.   Part of the conversation as well. So there's the projecting side and really looking at do I do I need this? What can it do? And then there's the evaluation side of is this working for me? And Dana, I think that same conversation when it comes to like marketing. Are is my marketing ROI coming in? Is it getting me what I what I thought it was going to? There's magazines investments, there's all of these like hottie-totty ⁓ marketing efforts that are coming around right now. They're trying to like really reinvent a lot of wheels.   And projecting and seeing, does this fit my avatar? Is this gonna work? Gosh, your telephone company, I know our like cable and internet. We don't even have cable, but it's the same company, right? And I'm like, why are we paying for cable and internet? And it just jumped like $90. And I'm like, what the heck? It's a call and a conversation with your vendors and looking at, okay, am I getting the most value for what I'm spending? And that I think Dana helps us to calm the storm.   Because what happens typically is we're like, okay, I gotta produce more in order to afford my life. And it's just like personal, right? I gotta work more in order to afford the lifestyle that I want. Well, maybe the lifestyle that you want can be had with less debt or less stuff, you know, and really evaluating your quote unquote lifestyle in the practice and out.   DAT-Dana (20:43) Yeah, I agree with you because like dental offices, do we have to spend money? Do we have expenses? Yes, absolutely. Let's make sure those expenses are doing what we need them to do and and we have an ROI on those expenses. And I do feel like just doctors highlighting like, don't forget those bottom of the line things because oftentimes it's like, hey, my payroll's in line, my rent's in line, my marketing is in line, everything's in line, but I don't have any profit at the end of the month. And I think don't forget to take a look at oftentimes I think there's an impression of doctors that like those below the   aligned things are like fixed expenses and oftentimes they are variable expenses that we can do something about it. We can make changes like you said, sell it or start using it, right? Or incorporating a way for it to help us produce or collect more. I think just don't forget those bottom of the line things and don't look at them as hey, those are fixed things, right? A lot of times those items aren't. We can either move the needle as far as using them or move the needle as far as offloading them.   Tiff (21:15) Uh-huh.   Yes.   DAT-Dana (21:42) Right. I just had a conversation with the practice. Like, why do we have two scanners? Right. Like, why do we need them? Walk me through it. If if you can walk me through why and it makes sense, totally keep your scanners, utilize them, have it help you. Right. But if we don't need them, then let's not have that sit there every month and pull from that profit that you so desperately need.   Tiff (21:45) Mm-hmm.   Yeah, I love that conversation and I think it's something that's a piece of value that the consulting team brings to our clients that I think is totally undervalued. I know I have clients that are like, Teff, I wanna buy this thing. And I'm like, Okay, cool. Like, tell me why. How are we gonna afford it? Great. I have a doctor that was like, I like this scanner better, but I bought this scanner before I knew that this scanner was better. And I was like, Awesome. Well it sounds you want that scanner. He's like, Yeah, I'm gonna get it. And I said, Cool, what are you gonna do with that scanner that you don't like?   Because that one is still being paid on. It's still in your office. And he's like, okay. So it's like we have this innate ability, right, to see things very, very cleanly. I had a conversation just last week with a client that was like, Tiff, what do I do? And it was like a personnel thing, right? I said, Listen, my job and the and the superpower that I have for you is to be very black and white in business. I'm not emotionally attached to what's going on in the practice. I I love you, I love the practice, I love the team.   And I I have emotions towards you, but I'm able to separate it out and say, hey, do this, don't do this, or these are the black and white opinions that I see. These are the pros and the cons that I can see. I'm not emotionally attached to one scanner is better than the other. I'm emotional, I'm not emotionally attached to the money that's coming in or going out. I am neutral and I'm able to say it is or it isn't. And so that value, that ROI is not always really easy to see.   in the numbers until you look backwards and say, gosh, actually I sold that scanner because of or I didn't buy that and gosh, I'm so happy. Or I was able to invest in my team because I could see my shortcomings or my accountability faults or the accountability that Dana was able to give me so that I could give my team like those spaces are just so   valuable in this overhead analysis is huge. And I know you and I do it often. I know the rest of the consulting team does. Gosh, Kristy, Kiera likes to say she's like a truffle hunting ⁓ little, you know, little piggy out there finding the dollars. And that's how she does it as well. And Nikki and Pam and all of you know, Diana, every one of us are out there looking for those dollars from that black and white kind of business mindset because it's easier for us as a pulled out   Peace, right? And Dana, I just think that is a space that doctors, I can't imagine making those kinds of decisions by myself, right? Even just as simple as purchasing a mill. Like because it's so it's like walk walking into Louis Vuitton with a credit card with no limits and expecting me to not leave with a purse, right? Because in my head it's paid for, it's done, it's it's good.   But then on the flip side, I've got expenses and other things and they've always got just gotta have that person who can be that sound mind.   DAT-Dana (24:58) Yeah. Yep. I agree with you.   Tiff (25:00) All right, Dana, so overhead cost analysis. ⁓ I would say, and I think Dana, add anything you can think of. My pro thought process is figure out your bottom line first of all. Figure out what are your costs, your fixed costs that aren't changing. If someone were to purchase your practice, then then look at what's left over. How much debt do you have? what do you want to be making? Are you paying yourself and are you paying yourself what you want to be making?   And are you saving money? So what do those buckets look like? That to me is your is your bare minimum. You have your bare minimum of this is what it takes to keep my practice open and my employees paid. And then you have your bare minimum of this is what I want my practice to look like. So I like to add that fluff in there. I know Dana does as well. We have our bare minimum and then we have our bare minimum. And our our second bare minimum is the number that I work from ⁓ and tack on a little bit extra. So overhead analysis, look at what your numbers are, look at what your   DAT-Dana (25:46) How many? Yeah.   Tiff (25:55) Collecting, always look at collections and then look at what your debt looks like and look at what your spending is. Is there anywhere in there that can be negotiated? Is there anywhere in there that maybe we need to start using a tool a little bit more to get it paid, paying for itself? Just like you want your team to pay for themselves, you want your equipment to pay for themselves as well. Dana, is there anything you can think of that I missed that I didn't add in there as an action item that they can scurry on home to do?   DAT-Dana (26:24) No, I think I think that those are great tools for them to really be able to slice and dice and look at those pieces.   Tiff (26:31) Awesome. All right, guys, go do the thing. Pull up your PLs, pull up month by month, pull up year to date, pull up last year's, and look at what your expenses truly are. And when you get to the point that you want some third-party perspective, some eyes on it, if you're a current client, you should be doing this with your consultant too. So do it. I want you to know how to do it and I want you to do it with your consultant as well. If you're not yet a consultant, you're ⁓ someone who is a listener and you want you're not a consultant, you're not a client.   You're a listener and you want help with this, please reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com There's also a link on our website, TheDentalATeam.com, that you can schedule a consult with us and they'll help you run through a lot of that information as well. We are here to help. So let us know how we can best serve you and how we can help you in the short and the long run. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. All right, guys, and we will catch you next time. Thanks so much.  

What happens when a creative mind, a startup operator, a cancer survivor, and a humanitarian all live inside the same person?In this episode of Clover, I sit down with Melissa Wood, founder of Formis and Curate, to explore the winding path that led her from a small town in North Carolina to the startup ecosystem in Austin. Melissa's story spans early tech startups, design and photography, turning down life-changing opportunities, surviving cancer, humanitarian work in Ethiopia, and building companies rooted in solving real-world problems.What stood out most was Melissa's ability to notice gaps others accept as normal;  and then build solutions around them. Whether helping homeowners navigate renovations through Formis or simplifying conference experiences through Curate, her work is driven by a simple question: “Why doesn't something better exist?”This conversation is about resilience, leadership, community, and the unexpected ways life experiences shape the companies we build.In this episode, we discuss:How an accidental discovery of Photoshop in the mid-1990s launched Melissa's career in technology and design.Why she walked away from opportunities—including an early chance to join the team behind Me.com—and how she evaluates big decisions.The life-changing impact of surviving cancer and how that experience influenced her approach to work, family, and entrepreneurship.What she learned from living and working in Ethiopia, including lessons about community, presence, loyalty, and leadership.How she built Curate, an AI-powered event discovery platform, in just days using no-code and AI tools after identifying a problem she'd personally experienced for years.Why trust breaks down in industries like home renovation and how technology can create transparency, alignment, and accountability.Notable Quotes“Trust isn't built in one big moment. It's built through patterns.”“The best products are born from real experiences.”“If the system reflects that someone is being heard and understood, it creates a feeling of partnership.”Resources & Links MentionedFormis – AI-powered platform designed to improve transparency and communication in home renovation projects.Curate – Event discovery and scheduling platform helping people navigate conferences, tech events, and community gatherings.Lovable – AI-powered development platform Melissa used to build an early version of Curate.Claude – AI assistant Melissa uses for ongoing product development and iteration.FoundHers – Austin-based organization supporting women founders and entrepreneurs.South by Southwest (SXSW) – The event experience that inspired Curate.Austin Tech WeekLA Tech WeekAustin TV FestivalMelissa's story is a reminder that entrepreneurship doesn't always begin with a grand vision. Sometimes it starts with a frustration, a life experience, or a problem you simply can't stop thinking about and the courage to do something about it.

Qué tal, queridos Curiosinautas. Bienvenidos a un nuevo CuriosiMartes, el resumen semanal de noticias tecno del tío Fabián.Esta semana viene cargada: el regreso inesperado de Commodore con un teléfono retro pensado para comunicarse sin caer en redes sociales, los problemas de Android 17 en los propios Pixel, la nueva guerra tecnológica entre China, Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea, y un cambio clave en Apple con la posible llegada de una etapa más enfocada en diseño y hardware.Además, hablamos de inteligencia artificial en serio: la salida de figuras clave de Google DeepMind y Meta, las advertencias de Sam Altman sobre una IA que podría superar intelectualmente a los humanos, el concepto de “rendición cognitiva” y el riesgo de dejar de pensar por depender demasiado de los chatbots.También exploramos el futuro de la robótica versátil junto a DEEPRobotics, con avances en robots cuadrúpedos, embodied AI, automatización y nuevos formatos como el M20 y su pequeño compañero robótico.La robótica ya no es solo industrial: empieza a mezclarse con asistencia, autonomía, seguridad, compañía y nuevas formas de interacción con el mundo físico.Y para cerrar, una noticia que parece ciencia ficción: Midjourney Medical trabaja en un sistema de escaneo corporal con medio millón de sensores ultrasónicos, pensado para analizar el cuerpo completo en menos de 60 segundos y ayudar en la detección temprana de enfermedades.

What happens when someone who grew up in the Lucasfilm Games golden era decides that today's AI tools are failing creatives? Mike Levine has spent more than 30 years building at the intersection of games, XR, VFX, and interactive storytelling—and his verdict is clear: the current AI stack is a fragmented, overcomplicated mess that turns directors into prompt engineers.Mike started as a tester at Lucasfilm Games (later LucasArts), working his way into the art department on titles like Sam & Max and The Dig before helping ship live-action Star Wars games such as Rebel Assault and Jedi Knight II. He later built rotoscoping tools used across the VFX industry, collaborated with ILM and Pixar, experimented with mobile AR games for Hasbro and HoloLens, and dipped into crypto gaming—before finally co-founding MovieFlow (now FilmSpark), an AI-native production platform designed so that filmmakers, agencies, and showrunners can move from script to screen without needing a computer science degree.The AI XR news you should know: Apple taps Google Gemini to power Siri, acknowledging that building world-class LLMs in-house makes little financial sense. Meta cuts 10% of Reality Labs, right-sizing its VR bets while pivoting toward wearables. Xreal raises another $100M amid questions about Chinese state influence and data flows. Higgs Field lands $80M at a $1.3B valuation for AI cinematography tools that many filmmakers still find unreliable. Wikipedia signs licensing deals with major AI companies after years of being scraped for free. OpenAI invests $252M in Sam Altman–backed Merge Labs, raising fresh conflict-of-interest questions.Key Moments Timestamps:[00:23:02] From Boston journalist-to-be to accidental hire at Lucasfilm Games[00:26:24] The “test pit” culture at Lucas and how Nintendo experience got Mike in the door[00:28:45] Moving into the art department, learning Photoshop from early legends, and shipping Sam & Max[00:31:15] Live-action Star Wars games: Rebel Assault, Jedi Knight II, and convincing George Lucas[00:34:38] Visiting Pixar with new VFX tools and recognizing the same creative “magic” as LucasArts[00:36:24] Doug Trumbull's influence on Mike's sense of cinematic possibility and immersion[00:43:27] The urinal meeting at Magic Leap and what early spatial computing got right (and wrong)[00:49:00] Why most AI tools are “dark ages” for filmmakers: node graphs, 10+ subscriptions, no story view[00:51:00] Building MovieFlow/FilmSpark: story-first, timeline-based AI production for long-form and vertical shows[00:53:00] The Neighborhood Podcast: a 90-second vertical murder mystery as proof-of-concept for AI-native seriesWhen humans can generate shots, scenes, and even entire episodes in minutes, the bottleneck shifts from production to vision. Mike argues that the winning AI tools will be the ones that let directors see their whole story, maintain continuity, and iterate fast—without ever feeling like they left the edit bay for a dev console. His vertical drama collaboration with Charlie, The Neighborhood Podcast, is an early look at what happens when narrative craft meets AI-native pipelines instead of fighting them.This episode is brought to you by Zapar creators of Mattercraft—the leading visual development environment for building immersive 3D web experiences. Build smarter at mattercraft.io.Watch the full episode on YouTube and subscribe to the AI XR Podcast for weekly conversations with the people building the future of AI, XR, and interactive media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the AART Podcast, host Chris Stafford sits down with renowned American digital collage artist Maggie Taylor, whose dreamlike, surreal imagery has redefined the boundaries between photography, technology, and fine art.Known for her pioneering work in digital collage, Maggie Taylor creates richly layered visual narratives that blend 19th-century photographic elements with contemporary digital tools. Her work invites viewers into imaginative, often whimsical worlds—where memory, symbolism, and storytelling converge in unexpected ways. In this intimate and insightful conversation, Maggie shares how she discovered her distinctive artistic voice, her transition from traditional photography to digital media, and how tools like Photoshop became central to her creative process.Raised in a creative environment and married to photographer Jerry Uelsmann, Maggie Taylor developed an early appreciation for photographic experimentation. Yet she forged her own path, becoming one of the most recognized figures in digital art. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in major museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the George Eastman Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.On AART, Maggie reflects on the evolution of her career, the role of intuition in her artistic decisions, and the balance between control and discovery when creating complex digital compositions. She also discusses the emotional resonance of her work, the importance of curiosity, and how artists can embrace new technologies without losing their authenticity. This episode offers a fascinating look into the mind of an artist who has quietly but profoundly influenced contemporary visual culture. Whether you're an artist, photographer, or simply someone drawn to imaginative storytelling, Maggie Taylor's journey is both inspiring and deeply thought-provoking.Maggie's links website: www.maggietaylor.com Instagram: @maggietaylor.art Some favorite women artists: Julie Blackmon, Sandy Skogland, Lori Nix, Cig Harvey, Marion Peck, Lori Vrba, Claire RosenDinner party guests: Patti Smith, Aimee Mann, Laurie Anderson, Tilda Swinton, Kara Swisher, and Eve SchoolerKeywords: Maggie Taylor, digital collage artist, American artist Maggie Taylor, surreal digital art, digital collage photography, contemporary digital artists, Photoshop art, fine art photography, AART podcast, Chris Stafford podcast, women artists interview, visual storytelling, surrealism in digital art, creative process artists, modern collage art, experimental photography, women in art podcast, artist interviews, contemporary art podcast, museum exhibited artists, digital art techniques, storytelling through images, imaginative art, photography and technology, Jerry Uelsmann influence, American contemporary artists, art podcast interviews, Women Unscripted podcast networkBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/women-unscripted--4769409/support.Host: Chris StaffordProduced by Hollowell StudiosFollow @twomenunscriptedpodcasts on InstagramOn Facebook at Women Unscripted PodcastsEmail: hollowellstudios@gmail.com

AI filmmaker and 14-time author Jason Moore joins me to unpack how artificial intelligence has reshaped the way he tells stories — without stripping out the creativity behind them. We get into a real client project that only became possible because of AI, his three guiding principles for using it well, and how he handles the inevitable wave of online critics. If you're curious (or a little nervous) about where AI fits into your video business, this conversation's for you. Key Takeaways AI works best as a collaborator, not a vending machine — the more of yourself you bring to it, the better the output. Some projects only exist because AI makes them affordable. In those cases, nobody actually loses a job that was never in the budget to begin with. Every big tech shift — Photoshop, CGI in Jurassic Park, even self-checkout — displaced some work while creating new opportunities for the people who adapted. Jason's "soul test": if you don't bring your own creativity and judgment, you get soulless results. The human stays in the driver's seat. About Jason Moore Jason is the author of 14 books on topics ranging from creativity and design to artificial intelligence. His most recent release, AI and the Church: A Clear Guide for the Curious and Courageous, is an Amazon bestseller that has sparked more than 150 national training engagements. In film and television, Jason has collaborated with Hollywood producers and created book trailers for New York Times bestselling authors including Arianna Huffington, Seth Godin, Robert Greene, Ryan Holiday, and Marc Ecko. A graduate of The Modern College of Design, Jason now returns to his alma mater as an adjunct instructor, alongside his work as a sought-after keynote speaker and trainer whose career bridges the worlds of creative production, ministry, and emerging technology. In This Episode [00:00] Welcome to the show! [05:58] Meet Jason Moore [12:06] AI Video Content [16:22] AI Video Package [27:47] Using AI Morally [38:23] Example Projects [48:35] Outro  Quotes "AI should be a 'do it with you' tool, not a 'do it for you' tool." — Jason Moore "You have a soul and AI doesn't. If you don't bring enough of your soul to your interaction with AI, you get really soulless outputs." — Jason Moore "I'm a human first, business owner second." — Ryan Koral "When the option exists, we're going to help more people tell stories in more compelling ways than we could in the past." — Jason Moore Guest Links Follow Jason Moore on Instagram | Facebook | X Links Find out more about the Studio Sherpas Mastermind Join the Grow Your Video Business Facebook Group  Follow Ryan Koral on Instagram Follow Grow Your Video Business on Instagram Get your Early Bird tickets for the Onward Summit Join the Studio Sherpas newsletter

From 05/28 Hour 4: The Sports Junkies discuss the top storylines around the celebrity world.

With both Brad and Dave nominated for awards this year, the guys spiral into a surprisingly deep conversation about awards, marketing, ego, and whether creators should plaster “award nominee” stickers all over their books. Later, they tackle a listener question about using 3D models, digital sets, and reference material in comics production — leading to a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how both creators actually build comics pages in tools like Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop. Along the way, they discuss why imperfections matter in cartooning, how typography affects visual storytelling, and why “cheating” is often just another word for “working smarter.” Today's Show Should you put an award nomination on a book cover? UPDATE: Hugo Award voter packet "WSFS Membership"  Using sets and other pre-made background materials  UPDATE: Patreon Quips is now available on desktop You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon$2 — Early access to episodes$5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.

Margo is joined by Abby for another edition of Creative Current Events—the series where they unpack the stories, launches, trends, and internet conversations shaping the creative world right now. This episode covers everything from the rise (and critique) of the "beige epidemic" in interiors to unexpected retail collaborations, bold beauty marketing, shifting brand landscapes, and artists doing interesting work outside the algorithm. Along the way, they discuss what these moments reveal about creativity, originality, accessibility, and where culture seems to be headed next. Mentioned in this episode: The Beige Epidemic – House Beautifulhttps://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/a71336893/the-next-issue-beige-epidemic/ Colorful interiors and inspiration – The House That Lars Builthttps://thehousethatlarsbuilt.com/ Jonathan Adler collection at Michaels https://www.michaels.com/shop/jonathan-adler Review video of the Jonathan Adler collection https://www.instagram.com/reels/DXkZqF7kvtv/ GIMP's redesign: Photoshop familiarity without the subscription https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/open-source-gimp-reskin-gives-it-a-familiar-photoshop-look-without-the-hefty-fee/ Explore GIMP https://www.gimp.org/ Create! Magazine – Call for Art Submissions https://www.createmagazine.co/call-for-art Garden & Gun Magazine https://gardenandgun.com/ Cover artist feature – Brian Steely https://www.instagram.com/p/DYe7ldUx2YO/ The Bitter Southernerhttps://bittersoutherner.com/ The Ordinary's skewered beauty marketing approach https://www.creativereview.co.uk/the-ordinary-markup-marche-pop-up-supermarket-uncommon/ "The Most Valuable Place a Brand Can Be Right Now Isn't Online" https://www.instagram.com/p/DWZzckqEYuM/ Shein acquires Everlane discussion https://www.instagram.com/p/DYfcq7Ik49Y/ The "tone deaf" commencement speech conversation https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYNfbyEP82q/ Wylie Welling × Carhart https://wyliewelling.com/blogs/journal Artist & listener spotlight: Renee Reid https://www.instagram.com/reneereidcreations Connect with Abby: https://www.abbyjcampbell.com/ https://www.instagram.com/ajcampkc/ https://www.pinterest.com/ajcampbell/   Connect with Margo: www.windowsillchats.com www.instagram.com/windowsillchats www.patreon.com/inthewindowsill

Car companies are beginning to use AI tools to radically speed up their development process, which could change the cars we drive forever — and have some big effects on the people who make them now. Verge contributor Tim Stevens explains. Then, The Verge's Hayden Field catches us up on Codex vs. Claude Code, Anthropic vs. the US government, the vibes at OpenAI, and more, before helping answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠!) about whether all the recent tech layoffs are really about AI. Further reading: ⁠The AI-designed car is taking shape | The Verge⁠ ⁠Pentagon strikes classified AI deals with OpenAI, Google, and Nvidia — but not Anthropic⁠ ⁠Google employees ask Sundar Pichai to say no to classified military AI use | The Verge⁠ ⁠Anthropic's new cybersecurity model could get it back in the government's good graces | The Verge⁠ ⁠Microsoft and OpenAI's famed AGI agreement is dead | The Verge⁠ ⁠Here's how the new Microsoft and OpenAI deal breaks down | The Verge⁠ ⁠ChatGPT downloads are slowing — and may cause problems for OpenAI's IPO | The Verge⁠ ⁠Claude can now plug directly into Photoshop, Blender, and Ableton | The Verge⁠ ⁠OpenAI's new security model is for ‘critical cyber defenders' only | The Verge⁠ ⁠Anthropic releases a new Opus model amid Mythos Preview buzz | The Verge⁠ ⁠Jack Dorsey's Block cuts nearly half of its staff in AI gamble | The Verge⁠ Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Timestamps are approximate.) 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:00 Today Show Preview 00:04:00 Car Design Primer 00:08:00 AI Speeds Up Design 00:13:00 Clay Models and Craft 00:15:00 Jobs Pipeline Risk 00:18:00 Software Defined Cars 00:20:00 Regulation and Safety 00:27:00 Slate Truck Update 00:34:00 Claude Code vs Codex 00:42:00 OpenAI Vibes Check 00:44:00 PR vs AI Doomerism 00:48:00 Pentagon Deals Exclude Anthropic 00:53:00 Mythos Reality Check 00:56:00 RIP AGI Moment 01:04:00 Hotline AI Layoffs ROI 01:13:00 Wrap Up and Sign Off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices