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I haven't shared this post with other relevant parties – my experience has been that private discussion of this sort of thing is more paralyzing than helpful. I might change my mind in the resulting discussion, but, I prefer that discussion to be public. I think 80,000 hours should remove OpenAI from its job board, and similar EA job placement services should do the same. (I personally believe 80k shouldn't advertise Anthropic jobs either, but I think the case for that is somewhat less clear) I think OpenAI has demonstrated a level of manipulativeness, recklessness, and failure to prioritize meaningful existential safety work, that makes me think EA orgs should not be going out of their way to give them free resources. (It might make sense for some individuals to work there, but this shouldn't be a thing 80k or other orgs are systematically funneling talent into) There [...] ---Outline:(04:41) FAQ / Appendix(04:51) Q: It seems that, like it or not, OpenAI is a place transformative AI research is likely to happen, and having good people work there is important.(05:02) Isnt it better to have alignment researchers working there, than not? Are you sure youre not running afoul of misguided purity instincts?(07:06) Q: What about jobs like security research engineer?.(07:12) That seems straightforwardly good for OpenAI to have competent people for, and probably doesnt require a good Safety Culture to pay off?(08:09) Q: What about offering a path towards good standing? to OpenAI?(10:44) Q: What if we left up job postings, but with an explicit disclaimer linking to a post saying why people should be skeptical?--- First published: July 3rd, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DjCXPkGDisS6oj6Ga/80-000-hours-should-remove-openai-from-the-job-board-and --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

I haven't shared this post with other relevant parties – my experience has been that private discussion of this sort of thing is more paralyzing than helpful. I might change my mind in the resulting discussion, but, I prefer that discussion to be public. I think 80,000 hours should remove OpenAI from its job board, and similar EA job placement services should do the same. (I personally believe 80k shouldn't advertise Anthropic jobs either, but I think the case for that is somewhat less clear) I think OpenAI has demonstrated a level of manipulativeness, recklessness, and failure to prioritize meaningful existential safety work, that makes me think EA orgs should not be going out of their way to give them free resources. (It might make sense for some individuals to work there, but this shouldn't be a thing 80k or other orgs are systematically funneling talent into) There [...] ---Outline:(04:40) FAQ / Appendix(04:50) Q: It seems that, like it or not, OpenAI is a place transformative AI research is likely to happen, and having good people work there is important.(05:02) Isnt it better to have alignment researchers working there, than not? Are you sure youre not running afoul of misguided purity instincts?(07:05) Q: What about jobs like security research engineer?.(07:12) That seems straightforwardly good for OpenAI to have competent people for, and probably doesnt require a good Safety Culture to pay off?(08:09) Q: What about offering a path towards good standing? to OpenAI?(10:43) Q: What if we left up job postings, but with an explicit disclaimer linking to a post saying why people should be skeptical?--- First published: July 3rd, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DjCXPkGDisS6oj6Ga/80-000-hours-should-remove-openai-from-the-job-board-and --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

truLOCAL linkNatura Market code: ALICIA10 on your first order of $59.00 or more.In this week's episode, I'm talking about practical vs optimal health practices, an unfiltered Love is Blind recap, recapping parents weekend, and answering your HOT FIRE questions from Instagram:⬇️Q: Can you go into a deep dive on Zone 2 Cardio for a total newb who wants to incorporate cardio for health but is really nervous about losing strength?Q: I absolutely hate Glute bridges and hip thrusts, are they an absolute to build a booty? Am I able to swap them out and still build? If so, what would be some great swaps?Q: Collagen seems to work for my hair and nails, but I've heard it's not a complete protein. Can I count it at all towards my daily protein goal?Q: It seems like you don't eat a lot of carbs with your meals, do you eat Keto or just lower carb and higher fat?Q: 6 weeks into a cut with custom macro count, down 5lbs with fluctuations along the way. Feel like this is slow progress, keep going or lower calories? I'm getting above 8k steps about 5 days a week.Q: How much alcohol do you personally drink? What is a reasonable amount when trying to healthy, like per week or month?Q: How do you support clients with fat loss when they don't want to track?Support the showInterested in working together? Here's how I can help:fill out my application form Body recomposition: Sustainable fat loss--for good. If you feel like you want personalized support in taking the final steps towards improving your relationship with food and your body, I am here to provide one-on-one guidance. This may be especially helpful if you have already been working on this for some time and are looking for additional support to make further progress. Establishing and focusing on healthy habits (movement, nutrition, sleep, stress management), and/or Finding a balanced, flexible, & sustainable approach to achieving your body goals, then I'd love to connect: info@wellnesswithalicia.com OR fill out my application form. Send me a DM on Instagram: @aliciamayconnorsCheck out my Website: www.wellnesswithalicia.comCheck back every week for a NEW episode! Currently available on Spotify, ...

On this week's show, Adam Leventhal posed questions from Hacker News (mostly) to Oxide founders Bryan Cantrill and Steve Tuck. Stick around until the end to hear about the hardest parts of building Oxide--great, surprising answers from both Bryan and Steve.They were also joined by Steve Klabnik.Questions for Steve and Bryan:[@6:38] Q:Congrats to the team, but after hearing about Oxide for literal years since the beginning of the company and repeatedly reading different iterations of their landing page, I still don't know what their product actually is. It's a hypervisor host? Maybe? So I can host VMs on it? And a network switch? So I can....switch stuff? (*)A:Steve: A rack-scale computer; "A product that allows the rest of the market that runs on-premises IT access to cloud computing."Bryan: agrees[@8:46] Q:It's like an on prem AWS for devs. I don't understand the use case but the hardware is cool. (*)I didn't understand the business opportunity of Oxide at all. Didn't make sense to me.However if they're aiming at the companies parachuting out of the cloud back to data centers and on prem then it makes a lot of sense.It's possible that the price comparison is not with comparable computing devices, but simply with the 9 cents per gigabyte egress fee from major clouds. (*)A:Bryan: "Elastic infrastructure is great and shouldn't be cloistered to the public cloud"; Good reasons to run on-prem: compliance, security, risk management, latency, economics; "Once you get to a certain size, it really makes sense to own"Steve: As more things move onto the internet, need for on-prem is going to grow; you should have the freedom to own[@13:31] Q:Somebody help me understand the business value. All the tech is cool but I don't get the business model, it seems deeply impractical. You buy your own servers instead of renting, which is what most people are doing now. They argue there's a case for this, but it seems like a shrinking market. Everything has gone cloud. Even if there are lots of people who want to leave the cloud, all their data is there. That's how they get you -- it costs nothing to bring data in and a lot to transfer it out. So high cost to switch. AWS and others provide tons of other services in their clouds, which if you depend on you'll have to build out on top of Oxide. So even higher cost to switch. Even though you bought your own servers, you still have to run everything inside VMs, which introduce the sort of issues you would hope to avoid by buying your own servers! Why is this? Because they're building everything on Illumos (Solaris) which is for all practical purposes is dead outside Oxide and delivering questionable value here. Based on blogs/twitter/mastodon they have put a lot of effort into perfecting these weird EE side quests, but they're not making real new hardware (no new CPU, no new fabric, etc). I am skeptical any customers will notice or care and would have not noticed had they used off the shelf hardware/power setups. So you have to be this ultra-bizarre customer, somebody who wants their own servers, but doesn't mind VMs, doesn't need to migrate out of the cloud but wants this instead of whatever hardware they manage themselves now, who will buy a rack at a time, who doesn't need any custom hardware, and is willing to put up with whatever off-the-beaten path difficulties are going to occur because of the custom stuff they've done that's AFAICT is very low value for the customer. Who is this? Even the poster child for needing on prem, the CIA is on AWS now.I don't get it, it just seems like a bunch of geeks playing with VC money?(*)A:Bryan: "EE side quests" rant; you can't build robust, elastic infrastructure on commodity hardware at scale; "The minimum viable product is really, really big"; Example: monitoring fan power draw, tweaking reference desgins doesn't cut it Example: eliminating redundant AC power suppliesSteve: "Feels like I'm dealing with my divorced parents" post[@32:24] Q (Chat):It would be nice to see what this thing is like before having to write a big checkSteve: We are striving to have lab infrastructure available for test drives[@32:56] Q (Chat):I want to know about shipping insurance, logistics, who does the install, ...Bryan: "Next week we'll be joined by the operations team" we want to have an indepth conversation about those topics[@34:40] Q:Seems like Oxide is aiming to be the Apple of the enterprise hardware (which isn't too surprising given the background of the people involved - Sun used to be something like that as were other fully-integrated providers, though granted that Sun didn't write Unix from scratch). Almost like coming to a full circle from the days where the hardware and the software was all done in an integrated fashion before Linux turned-up and started to run on your toaster. (*)A:Bryan: We find things to emulate in both Apple and Sun, e.g., integrated hard- and software; AS/400Steve: "It's not hardware and software together for integration sake", it's required to deliver what the customer wants; "You can't control that experience when you only do half the equation"[@42:38] Q:I truly and honestly hope you succeed. I know for certain that the market for on-prem will remain large for certain sectors for the forseeable future. However. The kind of customer who spends this type of money can be conservative. They already have to go with on an unknown vendor, and rely on unknown hardware. Then they end up with a hypervisor virtually no one else in the same market segment uses.Would you say that KVM or ESXi would be an easier or harder sell here?Innovation budget can be a useful concept. And I'm afraid it's being stretched a lot. (*)A:Bryan: We can deliver more value with our own hypervisor; we've had a lot of experience in that domain from Joyent. There are a lot of reasons that VMware et al. are not popular with their own customers; Intel vs. AMDSteve: "We think it's super important that we're very transparent with what we're building"[@56:05] Q:what is the interface I get when I turn this $$$ computer on? What is the zero to first value when I buy this hardware? (*)A:Steve: "You roll the rack in, you have to give it power, and you have give it networking [...] and you are then off on starting the software experience"; Large pool of infrastructure reosources for customers/devs/SREs/... in a day or less; Similar experience to public cloud providers[@01:02:06] Q:One of my concerns when buying a complete solution like an iPhone (or an Oxide rack

The conversation on Geopolitical Implications of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine during the International Studies Association 2022 Annual Convention featured Audrey Kurth Cronin, distinguished professor in the School of International Service and director of the Center for Security, Innovation, and New Technology at American University; Charles A. Kupchan, CFR senior fellow and professor of international affairs in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Government at Georgetown University; and Kori Schake, senior fellow and director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. James M. Lindsay, senior vice president, director of studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg chair at CFR, moderated the discussion. LINDSAY: Good afternoon everyone. I am Jim Lindsay, senior vice president at the Council on Foreign Relations. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to today's on-the-record CFR luncheon discussion on the geopolitical implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It is also my great pleasure to introduce a stellar set of panelists: Audrey Cronin, Charles Kupchan, and Kori Schake. I am going to keep my introductory remarks short even though I could talk at great length about each of them and the wonderful work they have done. Immediately to my left—at least geographically; not necessarily politically—(laughter)—is Audrey Cronin. She is distinguished professor in the School of International Service and director of the Center for Security, Innovation and New Technology at American University. She is the author of How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns. Her most recent book, Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists was short-listed for the Lionel Gelber Prize and won the 2020 Airey Neave Prize. So congratulations on that, Audrey. CRONIN: Thanks, Jim. LINDSAY: In the center of the stage—not necessarily politically—(laughter)—is Charlie Kupchan. Charlie is a senior fellow at the Council, and a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University. From 2014 to 2017, Charlie served as special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs on the staff of the National Security Council under President Barack Obama. Charlie's most recent book is Isolationism: A History of America's Efforts to Shield Itself from the World. Finally, to my far left—again, geographically; not necessarily politically—is Kori Schake. Kori is senior fellow and director of foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute. She has held policy positions across government including on the staff of the National Security Council, and at the U.S. State Department where she was deputy head of policy planning. Her most recent book is America vs. the West: Can the Liberal World Order be Preserved? So Audrey, Charlie, Kori, thank you very much for joining me. We have agreed that we will engage in a conversation for about twenty-five minutes. At that point we're going to open it up to everyone else in the room. Given that the title of our session is Geopolitical Implications of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine, I'd like to focus our conversation more on what the invasion means or doesn't mean for global order rather than focus on why Russia invaded or why Putin didn't get the quick victory that he anticipated. So where I'm going to start is a question for all of you. Vladimir Lenin once remarked that there are decades where nothing happens and weeks where decades happen. Now it certainly feels like we are in the latter situation right now, but is this really an inflection point in the global order, and if it is, is the best historical analogy for the current moment 1815? 1857? 1905? 1914? 1939? Pick whatever you want. Since I introduced you last, Kori, you get the first crack at the question. SCHAKE: No, I decline. I give Charlie the first crack at the question. (Laughs.) KUPCHAN: I was—you were going to buy time for me to think, so—(laughter). The era that most resembles—I'm going to— LINDSAY: I'm going to ask you the first question. Is this an inflection point? KUPCHAN: It's definitely an inflection point, and I guess the decade that most immediately comes to mind would be the 1890s, and that's because I think it's in the 1890s that a series of developments took place that enabled us to actually see the changes in the global balance of power that were taking place slowly, but it brought them to the surface. And that's because during that—it was during that decade the United States came online as a power with geopolitical ambition outside its neighborhood, picked a fight with the Spanish, turned into a colonizer of the Philippines and other places. Germany embarked on its High Seas Fleet in 1898. And so there was a kind of consolidation of a multi-polar setting that I think looked similar to today. And there was also a lot of domestic change and political fluidity that was the product of industrialization in Germany, in the United States. This was the progressive era dealing with large corporations, trusts, how do we tame them. This resonates with our age, both in terms of what's happening in other places, but also in here. There's a lot of economic or socio-economic dislocation that is taking place because of globalization. So that's—I think I'd say 1890s. SCHAKE: So can I now confess that I was actually reading the ISA tribute to the Trail of Tears so I had to punt to Charlie because I actually didn't know what question you were asking. I wasn't listening, Jim—(laughter)—and now that I know it's is this an inflection point—thank you, Charlie for stepping forward when I was unprepared—I don't actually think it's an inflection point. LINDSAY: Why not? SCHAKE: I think we are still litigating the end of the Cold War, that we assumed that the end was 1991 and 1992 with the unification of Germany, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the expansion of freedom, but in fact, Russia is more continuous with the Soviet Union than it is different from the Soviet Union under Vladimir Putin. And so, I think what we are seeing is a resurgent effort by the countries of the West to restrict Russian power when it is used for the suppression of the sovereignty and freedom of others. So I think we are still litigating the end of the Cold War. I hope it will be an inflection point because we succeed and we will end up with a Russia that either lives within the existing rules of the Western order or changes. LINDSAY: OK, Audrey, so we have a vote for an inflection point. We have a vote for no inflection point. Where do you weigh in? CRONIN: Well, I think that whenever we talk about historical analogies, I get really nervous because Ernest May's book had a huge impact on me early in my career—Thinking in Time—and I think personally I'm going to split the difference, and we can choose from different analogies. So I think we do have a lot of what Charlie has talked about; certainly at the end of the nineteenth century you had globalization, you had inequality at tremendous levels. You had a huge monopolization of major companies that were controlling more and more. You had the maturation of fossil-fuel-based economies, which is quite similar to the maturation of digitally based economies, and also the equivalent to oil, I would say, is—many have said—the equivalent to oil and coal is data. The data economy is becoming quite mature. And so I think the broader context is more the way that Charlie laid it out. But I also agree with you, Kori, because I think that, you know, 1947 is a period where I would look back and say we were—I mean, I did write my first book on the negotiations over Austria, so I see that as being very comparable to what we're thinking about in some ways with respect to Ukraine—or what the Ukrainians are thinking about. So I can certainly see the continuation with respect to the Soviet Union and Russia there, too. So I think we—you know, we have to pick and choose a little bit. LINDSAY: OK. Kori, I want to come back to you, and you can throw this question to Charlie or Audrey if you want— SCHAKE: (Laughs)—I'm listening now, I promise. LINDSAY: OK. You know, you have written a book asking about whether the liberal world order can be preserved, and you have mentioned that we have seen a remarkable show of unity and action in the West. I think the West as a term has sort of gotten a new lease on life. But the fact that there is unity at the start of the crisis doesn't mean there will be unity at the end of the crisis. How do you assess the chances for Western cooperation to continue to be sustained? Do you think it's temporary? Or is there an opportunity here for it to be long lasting? SCHAKE: That's a really good question, and the honest answer is I don't know. But I do see—and things are about to get a lot more painful for the countries of the West economically and possibly even politically to sustain the very hard line we have taken, and not just because it looks like Russia is going to turn off the gas pumps unless Western countries will pay in rubles to get Russia around some of the creative economic sanctions that the West has put forward, but also the inability to export wheat from Ukraine and natural resources from Russia. This is going to be a huge humanitarian crisis. We are going to have a food crisis, most particularly in the developing world. And that, too, will put pressure on Western governments. The good news is the amazing creativity of the treasury departments of the Western countries to come up new tools to try and impose economic costs on Russia. The bad news is it's not yet clear what the second-order effects of those tools are going to be, and who they're going to hurt, and who they're going to help as they—as they sink their roots. So we have set sail in very choppy waters. We did it for very good reasons, and I think, though, that two things will help Western countries hold together. The first is Russia is so obviously in the wrong here, and in a way, that's dangerous—not just to Ukraine; it's dangerous to this system of rules that have made the West safe and prosperous; namely borders only changed by consent, and sovereignty is inherent in any state—large, small, weak, powerful. So having the German SPD chancellor almost triple German defense spending this year, to commit to the NATO 2 percent next year as opposed to 2035, which was Germany's opening position, to start sending arms to Ukraine, and to agree to wean Germany off of Russian oil and gas by the end of this year—I don't see how you walk that back. He planted his sword, and I think that will hold—since Germany is one of the weakest links in Western unity on the sanctions that have been taken against Russia, it will be very hard for others to walk back if Germany holds the line. And the second thing is the war in Ukraine is taking on the trappings of a moral crusade, right? There are good guys in this and there are bad guys in this. And it will be very hard for a country of the West to—after all they have already said, look in the face what Russia is doing—you know, kidnapping mayors from towns they have occupied, shelling apartment buildings, and it was easier for us to look away in Afghanistan, in Syria, and in other places. It will be harder for them to look away in a neighboring country as it takes on this overtly moralistic overtone. LINDSAY: Let me ask you, Audrey, since you have written about Austria, do you see the potential for a negotiated deal that could stick, particularly in light of the point that Kori just made that this is starting—at least in the United States—to turn into a moral crusade, and it's very difficult to compromise when you are supposedly fighting over good versus evil? CRONIN: Yes, well, neutrality is not necessarily good versus evil. I mean, it's a different plane altogether, right? So you're talking geopolitics. You can have good or evil regimes that are neutral. So I don't really see the question of whether Ukraine could be neutral in those kind of crusade terms. I think it's all up to the Ukrainians and whether or not they can negotiate a deal that serves their interests. And there's a bunch of key things that I'm really worried about. One of them is they are talking about not joining any kind of foreign alliances. So the details on that are very, very important. So if that's part of an agreement, who decides what a foreign alliance is, is going to be very important. The second thing is that security guarantees—they want security guarantees, and they're saying from the United States, France, and Britain, and that's essentially an Article 5 commitment. That is quite potentially dangerous to NATO, so it could be quite destabilizing depending upon the details. What if the security guarantor were China, as well? What if Russia were insisting upon that as the agreement. So the devil is in the details in this agreement and to what degree are the Russians going to insist that there be demilitarization? I think that if the Ukrainians become neutral, it's going to have to be very important that they maintain robust defenses. And then the last thing I'm really worried about is what's it going to look like. What is the territory going to be? Because there is going to be partition, probably. They are going to have to give something up, and it would be the Donbas and Crimea probably—I'm guessing—and this is up to the Ukrainians, not us. But, where is that line going to be? Some people think that it could be along the Dnieper River. Some people think it could only be the Donbas region in Ukraine as I've just said. But exactly what it is that they're neutralizing is crucial. We could have actually a divided Ukraine that begins to look a little bit like the divided Germany after the Second World War. LINDSAY: Charlie, you have written in the pages of Foreign Affairs just last year, that there is a need for a great power concert. But given what we've just talked about and Kori's notion that we're really sort of moralizing this conflict, what are the prospects for a concert of great powers, and what would they cooperate on in this current context? KUPCHAN: Let me tie that question back to Kori's comment because you all—you clearly want us to disagree to get some friction here. LINDSAY: I want you to disagree nicely. (Laughter.) KUPCHAN: I will be very nice, but I—you know, I think there are some differences that should be delineated. Is this a moment of Western rejuvenation? Yes, on some level. But I also think it is a wake-up moment that will force us to confront the prospect of liberal overreach that we, at the end of the Cold War, thought that the order that we built was going to be universalized, and to some extent I think we are seeing blowback from that assumption, and may need to take a more conservative approach to the expansion of the liberal rules-based system that is more focused on us than it is on bringing others in. And I would point out that there is a big liberal democracy out there called India that has not decided to stand with the liberal democracies of the world in this conflict. Second point: I'm more worried than you are, Kori, that this kind of resurgence of moralism and Western strength will last, and that's because all the problems that we were concerned about before February 24 are still there, and in fact, they're getting worse. Gas prices are going up, egg prices are going up, grain and bread is going up. What—four million or close to four million refugees have arrived in Europe, and not too far off the Europeans are going to wake up and say, holy crap, most of these aren't going to go home. Where are we going to put them? How are we going to deal with this? And immigration has been really one of the toughest issues for Europe. So I do worry that as this clock moves forward, as we head into the midterms here in the United States, this kind of burst of bipartisanship will be just a burst, and that the Republicans are going to get their knives out—I'll defer to you on the Republican Party—but I don't think the America First crowd is gone; it's just quiet for now because it doesn't play well. I expect it to come back vocally as we get closer to the midterms. Final comment: I think the impulse, Jim, is to say forget a global concert; it's over. And to some extent I agree with that because Richard and I wrote a global concert depends upon the absence of an aggressor state. We have an aggressor state. It's called Russia. It has invaded its neighbor. But I would also point out that we cannot afford to go back to a world that looks like the Cold War. We are in the boat together on pandemics, on climate change, on proliferation, on global economic interdependence. So I do think we need to talk about either a post-Putin Russia or even a Putin Russia, and what can be done after the dust settles in Ukraine to figure out how to make sure that the broader global agenda that we face doesn't go by the wayside. LINDSAY: Kori, I want to get you to respond to Charlie's point that India has not joined in the effort to sanction. And I should note it's not just India; it's Brazil, it's South Africa. Indeed most of the countries of the global south have not rallied behind Western sanctions and in fact have criticized them. So what does that mean for the future of the rules-based order that you have spoken about? SCHAKE: I think it's a fabulous challenge. So I have a couple of reactions to it. The first is I would be doing exactly what they are doing if I were a developing country, an emergent economy because Germans can have the luxury of paying double gas prices. It's an incredibly wealthy country. The government can float bonds and pay for things in the future because there is a lot of confidence in the dynamism of the German economy. That's not the case for most emergent economies, and they have more pressing problems than the problems we are worried about. And so I think the first thing is we need to not be so judgmental about the fact that they are solving other harder problems than what we are trying to recruit them to help us with. Second, I also think that's good alliance management because allies very often disagree. They even disagree on really important things, so it's reasonable that people who are not tied as tightly into the benefits of the liberal international order are questioned more what they're going to offer for its continuation. So that's the second thing. The third thing is I think there's a difference between not wanting to be counted on something and opposing it. And India is an interesting case in this point—example in this case, sorry—because on the one hand they get a lot of their military equipment from Russia, and they have a budding, burgeoning relationship with the United States, Australia, and Japan; not because of Russia but because of China, and trying to figure out how to synchronize the gas pedal and the clutch on their series of concerns is actually genuinely difficult. And so, again, I don't think we should be too judgmental about this. But we should work hard to win the argument and explain to them why it is in their interest that countries cannot change borders by force. That's what Pakistan has attempted to do to India. That's what China is attempting to do to India. And they have a stake in a system in which all of us work together to prevent that. LINDSAY: Do you want to jump in here, Audrey? CRONIN: Yes, I was—so jumping off of that point, actually, Kori, isn't it interesting that China, the great defender of sovereignty, does not seem to be interested in defending Ukraine's sovereignty, and is quite interested in supporting the aggressor in this case. But getting back to India, I think the fact that only within the last two years the Indians have been fighting the Chinese in the Himalayas. You know, they have a lot of other things to worry about. And the other thing I would say is that, what major power war can you think of where what is essentially the non-aligned movement in the world has ever aligned with those who are currently defending the global order. And then the last thing that I'll say—to disagree a little bit since I think that's what you want—disagree a little bit with Charlie is that I don't think we could have a concert of Europe right now or a concert of great powers because we have a lot of new actors that are as powerful as great powers are in certain dimensions, including the major tech companies who are having a massive influence geopolitically on this crisis. So, we are not in 1815. We are in a different situation with a lot of new stakeholders and a different economic situation than the one that existed then. LINDSAY: Audrey, can I draw you out on that point about technology companies and the role they are playing? Can you just sort of spell it out for me—how you see them influencing or being influenced by the conflict? CRONIN: Yeah, so in some respects the tech companies have been—have sort of been bunged by reality because they have been very poor at dealing with situations of war. So you've got Meta that has been—you know, Facebook, and Instagram, and WhatsApp have all been shut down in Russia, and now Meta is being criminalized by the Putin administration—Putin regime—and so, because Meta claimed that they would go to an exception of their moderation rules and allow the Ukrainians to cry for blood against the Russians, this made them seem hypocritical and gave the Russians the excuse to criminalize them within Russia. So this whole concept of neutrality where—neutrality in terms of communications that they have sort of tied their whole identity to for many decades is proving to be extremely frayed. Meta is now being, you know, as I said, criminalized, and it's giving the Russians a greater argument for why it is that, you know, they can clamp down within Russia. And so, as a result, the Russian people are getting less information. For the first time that I can remember, the New York Times has pulled its people from Moscow. All of the major bureaus have either closed down or pulled people. You've got a, you know, crackdown that started to occur before this crisis where Google and Apple representatives were being harassed and, you know, very, very severely. There is kind of a hostage-taking approach to making sure that there were people there that the Putin administration could control. So I don't see Meta as having been very successful. However, then you've also got Elon Musk and Starlink. Look at the role that Starlink has played in Ukraine. I mean, he's the one who in many respects are keeping the Ukrainians connected, and that's not unrelated to how this crisis is going. Starlink, with its two thousand individual-sized satellites which are very difficult to shoot down—this has been a huge boon and a support for Ukraine. So I think that major tech companies are an important stakeholder in the international geopolitical realm that we don't put enough emphasis upon. LINDSAY: Kori, did you have a two-finger? SCHAKE: Yeah, I wanted to tag along on Dr. Cronin's very good—Dr. Cronin's very good point and say that it's not just— CRONIN: Kori, call me Audrey. We've known each other for decades. (Laughter.) SCHAKE: Thank you, my friend. It's not just the big tech companies. What we are looking at is a war in which civil society—business, private charities—all these different dimensions are playing extraordinary roles, right? Chef José Andrés is not only buffeting Poland and other countries that are taking in enormous numbers of refugees, he is also running aid convoys to Odessa. We could be in a point before this war is over where you have private charities breaking sieges of Ukrainian cities and the Russians trying to hold the sieges. You see the hackers group, Anonymous, going after the Russians something fierce, and that's where the values, the moral crusade part of this matters because civil society in free societies are taking it upon themselves—often beyond the control of the government and without the government's blessing—to do things that they think will help the people they think are good guys in the war. LINDSAY: I see you've done a two-finger, Charlie. I'll let you do that, but I'm going to ask one last question of you before we bring the rest of the room in. And it is what do you make of President Xi's decision to back Russia rather than to stand up for the principle of sovereignty? Are Russia and China now joined at the hip? How should U.S. statecraft respond to that? But I know you wanted to get a two-finger first. KUPCHAN: Yes. One quick two-finger to Dr. Professor Cronin. CRONIN: Oh, please. (Laughter.) KUPCHAN: And that is that—and this will just be in defense of the concert system, and I just came from a roundtable—I see Chet Crocker and others who were there—on concerts, one of their assets being the flexibility to put at the table Google, and Meta, and International Rescue Committee, and other groups precisely because they are not formal U.N. Security Council bodies. But you seem skeptical— CRONIN: You are—you are redefining the terms. KUPCHAN: —so let's not let you talk. (Laughter.) To your question, Jim, I think that the Chinese were a little bit uncertain at first, and they said some things that suggested that they were going to back Russia and some things that said they weren't so comfortable with the disruption that's being caused. My sense is that they have now coalesced around standing fairly firmly behind Putin. And I think that's because this is a war that, on balance, is probably good for China. And that's because it pushes Russia more fully into China's embrace and turns Russia irretrievably into the junior partner. It distracts the United States and Europe from the Asia-Pacific. We're going to be focused on the new central front for the foreseeable future, and I think the Chinese like that, just like they like the fact that we were spinning our wheels for twenty years in Afghanistan and Iraq. The big question mark in my mind is will they go the next step. Will they provide economic assistance and military assistance? Will they bail out a Russian economy that could be collapsing? And I don't know the answer to that. My guess is they're going to be careful not to see secondary sanctions get imposed. But one issue that I do worry about—and then I'll throw this out for discussion—is, are the Chinese going to look at what's happening here, and are we going to look at what's happening here, and say globalization and interdependence has become too dangerous, and as a consequence, we're moving into what could become an era of deglobalization? That's scary in a world in which two-thirds of the countries in the world already trade more with China than with us. So deglobalization may be unstoppable, but it's not necessarily good for the U.S. LINDSAY: OK, fair enough. On that note, I'm going to bring the rest of the room into our conversation. I want to remind everybody that this meeting is on the record. If you would like to ask a question, raise a hand, and please stand. Wait for the microphone to arrive, then state your name and affiliation before asking your question. And I do ask that you ask a question. Right here in the front—right here. CRONIN: (Laughs.) The race is on. Q: Thank you. Victoria Hui at University of Notre Dame. These days people talk about today it's Ukraine, tomorrow it's Taiwan. So do you think— LINDSAY: Can you hold it a little closer? Q: Oh. LINDSAY: Thank you. Q: People say today it's Ukraine; tomorrow it's Taiwan. So do you think that today it's Ukraine means— tomorrow it's Taiwan means that there is a bigger chance that there will be a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, or Ukraine—the experiences that we are seeing is actually going to make Taiwan safer? Thank you. LINDSAY: So have the chances of an invasion of Taiwan gone up or gone down? SCHAKE: So I honestly don't know. Let me tell you the two arguments. The first argument would be what the Chinese could learn from Russia's invasion of Ukraine is it's shocking that the Western world actually can pull together when it's serious. Second, the diabolical creativity of Western financial institutions to develop new tools in market—to affect markets, again, should be scary to them. Third, the only way to tell whether a military is any good at what it's doing is to fight it, and I—like a whole bunch of other people thought the Russian military was an awful lot better than it is. And China hasn't fought in a long time, and so whether they would have the grit for this fight or the ability to do the orchestration of logistics and air power, getting across a hundred miles of choppy water in an amphibious operation on Taiwan—that's a pretty sophisticated military task. So lots of reasons they should take caution from that. Not at all clear to me that Xi Jinping will take caution from that—that he may very well be arrogant enough to think, well, of course the Russians are terrible at this, but my military is great at this. And of course the Ukrainians feel Western. The Taiwanese are starting to feel Western; we'd better shut this down before it goes much further. Like I could see arguments where he would think the West would never have the stomach to impose on China the kind of economic restrictions they are imposing. So it's touch and go I think. KUPCHAN: Two quick thoughts: the first is that I think on balance it makes a Chinese attack less likely, and that's simply because the Chinese are watching what's happening to Russia, and they're probably going to calculate we don't want to go down that rabbit hole; that does not look good to us. My second observation is that I think it probably makes sense for the United States to end strategic ambiguity—not to change the One China policy, but to say we're going to defend Taiwan because I think part of what happened in Ukraine is we were ambiguous, and the Russians called our bluff. So if we intend to defend Taiwan, let's say so. If we don't intend to, let's say so. But living with this ambiguity, it seems to me, invites trouble. We just learned that in Ukraine. LINDSAY: Charlie, how do you square that with your observation earlier that you worry that the America First movement is just sort of in abeyance right now and will come back with great force? Because that would seem to be the kind of commitment that they would oppose. KUPCHAN: You know, it is a huge and interesting question, and if Trump is reelected, I don't know what the future of NATO and U.S. alliances in Asia will be. I do think, though, that the impetus for the America First movement came out of the forever wars, and that if you look at the Trump administration, they were actually pretty tough on China and supportive of Taiwan. LINDSAY: The administration was; the president wasn't necessarily— KUPCHAN: President not so, but the Republicans are—you know, they're pretty gung-ho on China, and so I think that this geopolitical realignment that we have been undertaking: out of wars of choice in the Middle East let's focus on meat-and-potatoes issues in Eurasia is good because I think that's the sweet spot in American politics. LINDSAY: Audrey, do you want to jump in here? CRONIN: Just two things on the Taiwan question and also the relationship between Russia and China—I think firstly that China is going to find that it has developed a kind of a vassal state now and, you know, the Russians are going to be depending upon China for weapons, for buying their oil, for technology, for evading sanctions, and I'm not sure that China, over time, is going to find that this is a good deal for them, so I think that may—in theory—change the desire that they might have had to take aggressive action against Taiwan. I think you can see it both ways, though. I agree with Kori. I'm not sure that it's possible to say definitively that way. But the second thing I would say is that Taiwan has a lot to learn from what Ukraine has done. So, you know, urban warfare; using easily accessible and cheap technologies; engaging in, you know, skirmishes; fighting forward; not depending upon huge legacy systems—instead using the kinds of tactics that we associate with insurgents. I think that Taiwan would be extremely good at that, and they're going to learn from Ukraine. LINDSAY: I think it's a really important point that both sides can learn from the events in Ukraine. If you want to ask a question in the back of the room, you're really going to have to stand up and wave because I'm not sure I can see that far back. But we have a question right here. Q: Hi. Jim Morrow, University of Michigan. LINDSAY: Go blue! Q: It's clear that the Europeans are going to come close to meeting their commitments to increase their military spending. My question is do you also think that they'll go further to create something like a really unified European military, and also to take the political changes to have a coherent European foreign policy? And then the other part of the question is should the United States encourage this because it seems to me there's two sides to this. One is greater burden sharing—the Europeans can carry more, but at the same time, it will decrease U.S. influence on security and defense issues. SCHAKE: Those are great questions. So I think the result of Russia's aggression is going to be Europeans clinging more tightly to the United States because when we are scared, we like to hold hands with each other. And even watching how awful the Russian military is at the profession of arms doesn't appear to be making our European friends and allies any less desirous of having the United States in the mix of it. So I don't anticipate that the increased spending is going to be external to NATO or to build European capabilities autonomous of the United States. I do think, however, we should be encouraging closer political and even military cooperation among the Europeans for exactly the reason you said, which is after watching the performance of this Russian military, the Poles could defeat the Russians pretty easily. And once you start mixing all the NATO countries in, our opposition to greater European autonomy has actually encouraged the Europeans to think of themselves as weak, and they are not. And we should want allies that feel their strength and are confident in their strength as a way of better balancing the risks all of us run together. KUPCHAN: I would just add, Jim, that I think what's going on in Germany is an inflection point because if there were to be a development on the European side that changed, in a consequential way, Europe's defense capability, it had to happen in Germany. And Germany was the laggard. I mean, its military has atrophied, deteriorated in a way that's hard to overstate. And if there is to be a kind of European pillar, it has to start with Germany, and it looks like they are starting. But I agree with Kori that this is not the beginning of Macron's strategic autonomy, and that's because France is alone in having a view of Europe as standing apart from the United States and flexing its muscles on the global stage. Just about every other EU member state wants a stronger Europe that's tethered to the United States; not that goes off on its own. That's good for them, and I think it's good for us. CRONIN: Yeah, the only thing I would add is let's look at what the non-NATO members have done to get a sense of how important this shift is. I mean, if you look at the tremendous increase in spending—defense spending in Sweden, increase in defense spending in Finland; the fact that Switzerland, which is not a member of NATO or the EU is now abiding by the sanctions—you know, this is an inflection point if only from that perspective. The Europeans are drawing together in anger and frustration, and it is unprecedented. LINDSAY: We'll go over here to the right side of the room. Q: Hi, deRaismes Combes from American University. Thank you so much for an interesting conversation. I'm still thinking about this notion of historical analogies that you started with, and I'm wondering if you think Ukraine is teaching us anything about 21st century geopolitics in the digital age that we just haven't really grasped before in terms of where this is heading, both specifically with Ukraine, but also with Taiwan and with the broader geopolitical system and the liberal world order. So thank you. LINDSAY: Do you want to take first crack at that, Audrey? CRONIN: Yes, I mean, that's a huge question, and the answer is yes—(laughs)—it's teaching us a lot about geopolitics in the digital age. Some of this I've already talked about. I think that major digital actors need to be parts of this Concert of Europe that we're talking about, the concert of the great powers, because I think they play an enormous role in affecting the future and how things are evolving. You know, I think that we see a lot with respect specifically to Ukraine, which is that the fact that Ukraine had a pretty advanced technology element to their economy; they are very advanced in aeronautics; they had their own drone industry, and their use of drones has come very naturally to Ukrainian citizens—you know, those who are volunteering. You know, this shows you that—again, getting back to the question on Taiwan—countries that are advanced in terms of their digital capabilities, and their populations are able to use digital technologies effectively, are going to be, I think, more successful as we move into the 21st century. LINDSAY: Kori, you want to jump in here? SCHAKE: Yeah, two quick, additional points. One is that one of the surprises of this war was that we all expected it was going to start with a cyber Armageddon, right, that power stations were—power systems were going to go down all over Ukraine, that the government wouldn't be able to communicate. All of these fancy cyber things were supposed to happen, and they didn't. And it looks like they didn't happen for three reasons: first, is the Russians gave us so much lead time of what they were potentially doing that NSA and CYBERCOM were able to forward deploy to Ukraine and other places teams to assist in the defense of the architectures. Second, the Russians—for reasons I don't understand—were evidently more restrained than anybody anticipated. Maybe it's the nature of cyber tools that once you unleash them your adversaries can use them back against you. Maybe we are seeing an assured destruction leveling. And the third thing is it's just easier to blow stuff up—(laughter)—and so the Russians blew stuff up. And so one big thing we expected was going to happen actually turns out not to be as significant in modern warfare. But Audrey's point about the technological sophistication—I mean, the Ukrainian government dispensing an app so that people can identify Russian troops as they come. That gave them country-wide situational awareness. A couple hundred thousand people are actively using the app, so you get societal resilience and you also get better information. It is really extraordinary. LINDSAY: Did you want to— KUPCHAN: Just one quick sentence on the—how important the information space has been. You know, the Biden administration I think deserves credit for stealing the march from the Russians, right? The Russians have spent the last five, ten years cleaning our clocks in the information space. I think that the Biden people reversed it. They got out ahead. They released intel that they probably shouldn't have released, but they did it anyway, and I really think it has made a difference. LINDSAY: Going to go all the way to the back of the room. Q: Thank you. I'm Chandler Rosenberger from Brandeis University. And I wanted to follow up on this point about resilience because I think we've talked a lot about tactics. We've talked a lot about specific things that the Ukrainians have done. But I think the most impressive thing about them is how resilient they have been militarily and as a society. And I wonder if that tells us something about the advantages of a kind of, you know, liberal, democratic, civic order in which people feel deeply invested and its ability to survive an assault from an authoritarian states where the soldiers seem not to know what they are fighting for, that there's—maybe we can have more faith in that kind of democratic social resilience than we might have had otherwise. LINDSAY: Who wants to take first crack at the question? CRONIN: I will. LINDSAY: OK, Audrey, you're closest, got your finger up first. CRONIN: All right, well, so yes, I think that we are going to learn a lot about societal resilience, but I think we have to wait. I think we have to wait and find out how this plays out because Kori's point about it being a lot easier to just blow things up, that is also still true. So if all you want to do is crush a country and, you know, occupy that country by killing a lot of civilians and, you know, targeting corridors of humanitarian fleeing civilians, if all you want to do is kill a lot of people, I think the Russians are capable of doing that. And I don't think we can yet come to full conclusions about how strong that resilience is going to be to stand up to that. We're still pretty early in this fight. I hope from my heart that what you are saying is what we learn from this conflict. But we're only, what, about a month and a half into it—five weeks into it, so I hope that resilience is what we get out of it. SCHAKE: So it clearly makes a difference in the willingness of soldiers to run risks in a fight, right? We see the comparative difference in Russia and Ukraine, and I do think that that's partly about societal resilience. In better militaries than the Russians there's also the professionalism that gives resilience, right? They're not fighting for me; they are fighting for the guy standing next to them kind of resilience. Temperamentally I want so much to believe it's true, and yet, I think there are a couple of factors that make Ukraine uniquely resilient against a Russian invasion. First, the terrors of Soviet occupation. There are still Ukrainians alive who experienced the Holodomor that Russia—the Soviet Union imposed on Ukraine. They feel like they are fighting for survival. They don't feel like they are fighting for a particular kind of government—in addition to a particular kind of government. The second thing is that I think it matters that the World War II generation is still alive in our countries because I think they have a slightly different perspective. But let me add one hopeful note. When Jim Mattis and I did the surveys of American public attitudes about military issues for our book, Warriors and Citizens several years ago, the weirdest anomaly in the data was that the attitudes of people under twenty-five most closely approximated the attitudes of people who had lived through the Great Depression and World War II: that the world feels fundamentally uncertain and unsafe to them, and that does give a kind of resilience that I think the intervening generations might not have to the same extent. LINDSAY: Charlie? KUPCHAN: Yeah, what I'm sort of ruminating on, vis-à-vis this question, is how did Putin get it so wrong, right? Because we will look back at this crisis and say Putin made Ukraine great again. The Ukraine that he envisaged did exist, but it was—it was pre-2014 and probably all the way going back to the Orange Revolution. You know, you used to go to Mariupol, or Donetsk, or Lugansk, and it was full of Russians, and they felt like Russians, and they affiliated with Russia. That's gone, right? They have come together around a strong Ukrainian national identity, including the president, who grew up speaking Russian, right? How did he get elected? He got elected by, you know, pro-Russian and Russian speakers in eastern and southern Ukraine. That's gone, right? He's now a rock star because he's giving his middle finger to Putin. And so the country has really come together as a consequence of Russian aggression. It's a kind of blowback that the Russians are going to have to live with forever. LINDSAY: This gentleman here with the dark jacket. Q: Fen Hampson from north of the border. The panel—I've forgotten who it was—raised the interesting question about Russia with Putin and Russia without Putin. And I'd like to ask you, if and when this crisis ends, what sort of relationship do we have with Russia if Putin is still around? Do we walk back sanctions? Do we take oligarchs off Magnitsky? Do we stop proceedings in the International Criminal Court? Do we welcome them back to the various organizations they've been thrown out of, and that includes the G-20? And if he leaves—for whatever reason—you know, is Russian going to be easier to deal with or more difficult to deal with? And I would say, you know, be careful what you wish for because he has provided stability—and I'm not defending him—but one can envisage a scenario where the security vacuum extends now to Russia as others see weakness in Moscow. LINDSAY: Charlie, do you want to take a first crack at that? KUPCHAN: A lot depends, Fen, on how this ends, and my best guess is that it will not end cleanly, and it will not end well. Audrey already mentioned some of the provisions that are tentatively on the table. I have a hard time imagining them seeing the light of day. Who is going to guarantee Ukraine's security? Is Zelenskyy going to get the support of the Rada to change the constitution? Is he going to have the domestic support to recognize Crimea, Mariupol, and Donetsk, and Lugansk as Russian? So I'm guessing that what will end up here is another frozen conflict in which Russia takes a big bite out of eastern Ukraine, probably doesn't go into Kyiv because it's not going very well, and then we sort of have to say, well, the fighting is over. They did more, they took more; now what? And I guess I'm enough of a realist to say that, you know, we're going to have to go back to something that looks more like the Cold War which mixes containment and engagement. And that's because there is simply too much at stake to put Russia in the penalty box and throw the key away. And so I would say that even in a post-war Putin Russia as opposed to a post-Putin Russia, we're going to have to find ways of getting some difficult hedging cooperation on arms control, on the question of energy issues—I mean, there's a lot of stuff here that we can't just throw away. LINDSAY: I want to get in one last question because we're nearing the end of our time, so we'll go to that young lady over there, if we can, and then I'll have to ask the panelists to be short in the response. Q: Hi, I hope this won't be too long. My name is Eve Clark-Benevides. I'm from SUNY Oswego. And I—there was an editorial in the New York Times yesterday that infuriated me, but it has been really coming up during this whole talk. Bret Stephens argues maybe we're being a little bit too premature, kind of celebrating that Putin has miscalculated. Maybe actually Putin really only wanted eastern Ukraine all along. He never really thought—and that a lot of the goals that Putin has wanted over time—getting rid of the free press, getting the moderates to move out, and really having full power over the Russian society—is really coming to pass. So this is kind of a piggyback off the last question that, really, are we going to see sort of these steps to disengage economically and politically with Russia—you know, Britain realizing that maybe having Russian money completely floating their economy—we're trying to divest. Do you think that maybe in this new Cold War—whatever occurs—that we're going to continue to really try to get away from oligarch money in the political systems in the West? LINDSAY: OK, Audrey, you had your hand up first so— CRONIN: Yes, so when it comes to our analyses of Putin, I think it's a mistake for us to personalize this as much as we are. You know, put aside this unfortunate comment about potentially regime change in the way that it was interpreted. I think that the Russians have always, throughout their history, gone back and forth between kind of a Slavophile approach and a Westernizer approach, and Putin is a Slavophile. So what we're seeing right now is a reawakening of Russian nationalism, a move back exactly along the lines that you just suggested to having greater control over their domestic population, getting rid of some of the threats that Putin personally feels are quite dangerous; you know, domestic movements within Russia. I hate to see all of this happen, but yes, it does feel quite familiar. I mean, I spend my—some of my teenage years living in Moscow in the American embassy. I remember the Cold War; I'm old enough to remember all of that. And I think we are going to have to move back to that kind of relationship where sometimes we can deal on certain things and at other times we can't deal on those things, we deal on other things. But the worst thing that we could do would be to make Russia a complete pariah because, if you understand European history, you also know that anytime you have a complete pariah that is aside from the whole system, you are more likely to end up in a major war. LINDSAY: Charlie or Kori? SCHAKE: So Putin—I don't buy the argument that Putin is a grand strategic genius and invaded Ukraine in order to crackdown domestically for two reasons: first because he is already cracking down. It was just a slow strangulation—CREF, Nemtsov, and Navalny—and so he didn't need the Ukraine invasion to be more repressive domestically. But the second thing is I think the failure of Russian force and arms in Ukraine is actually making his domestic position much more tenuous in ways that I think are unpredictable from the outside to understand. My answer to—just quickly, my answer to the what do we—how do we deal with Putin still in power, I think it would be a good thing for us to find ways for a strategically smaller, weaker, and humiliated Russia to have a U.S. counterparty on some things that are important to them and to us. It will make Ukraine's longer-term future and Russia's longer-term future easier to handle if we, who have had so little invested in this fight, step forward and help integrate Russia in ways that we can. KUPCHAN: To the question of was Putin a grand master and he intended this from the beginning, I don't see it, and that's because he could have done the eastern bit at any time, and he wouldn't have needed to put almost two hundred thousand troops all around Ukraine, including in Belarus. He could have just gone into the separatist territories, turned south, gone to Mariupol and connected to Crimea, and called it a day. I think what's happening here is he's changing the goalposts because his original goal of regime change and the occupation of the country, it does not look feasible anymore, although I agree with my colleagues that he might just keep bombing for another few months. Who knows what will happen? But the key question in my mind is whatever that ultimate disposition is, can he portray it as a victory? Can he sell it—not just to the Russian people, but to the Russia elite system, which is showing more discontent than I think we've ever seen in modern Russia. I don't think Putin is about to go, but I do think that this is a war that is going to loosen his grip on power, and anything could come of that. It could mean he goes and we get a worse outcome. After all, a lot of the people around him share his views. It could also be that we get a more benign outcome. We don't know, and as a consequence, I think we just have to hedge our bets. LINDSAY: Well, that brings us to the end of our time here. I want to thank everyone in the room for joining us for this conversation on the geopolitical implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I want to do a shout-out to Irina Faskianos and her team— AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yay, Irina! (Applause.) LINDSAY: —for arranging today's thing. And I want to say thank you to our three guests: Kori Schake, Charlie Kupchan, and Audrey Cronin for their expertise. (Applause.) (END

Q: I will begin by asking you the Covid story. What happened to the Indian real-estate sector really during that time? Ans: >First impact of Covid-lockdown was on the ongoing constructions >Another impact on the sector was investor decision-making becoming slow, because of the uncertainties   Q: But, you know, it is said that there was a minor blip on the real estate sector and it was not really a major blow. Is that a correct assessment? Ans: >Impact of the extended lockdown could have been much worse for the real estate sector >Recovery was substantial in a short period of time   Q: When you say recovery, are you talking about the residential sector or commercial space? Ans: >Recovery witnessed in all segments of real estate >Recovery in the residential sector started picking up first, because of the pent-up demand >Low interest rates also drove demand in the residential sector >India's office market is primarily driven by technology firms   Q: In your recent outlook report, you have charted a growth-path for Indian real estate in 2022. Are you betting on commercials more or on the residential space this year?   Ans: >Expects the residential sector to thrive, as people are increasingly looking at a better quality of life >Office spaces are expected to do better than last year >Real estate in India undergoing expansion on the logistics side >Data centres, co-living spaces and student housings are coming back to life after Covid-restrictions     Q: Isn't office space the tricky one? Because you don't know whether it's going to be a hybrid model or it is going to be back-to-office. Still there are mixed signals. So many companies have given up office space during the pandemic. So, how is it panning out? Ans: >Hybrid work model is here to stay >Technology companies in India are expanding >Young people want to go out to work >Tech firms, BPOs, software development companies can leverage a lot of facilities when employees work from office     Q: There was an interesting survey recently where about 50% of the samples said that they would prefer real estate to any other asset classes like gold or stocks. Do you think the confidence is real?  Ans: >The confidence is real specially in Asia, where the mindset is physical asset gives maximum comfort to most investors >Real estate is an essential part of diversified investment >Historically, the returns on investment in real estate have been unparallel in India  >Since it's an overall undersupplied market, real estate investment will continue to give returns >Anyone investing in real estate should take an informed decision     Q: It is interesting that you are talking about informed decisions. Recently there was a case of Supertech, which has gone into insolvency. There are other bad stories in real estate. So, where is the check and is there any clean up that's happening in the sector? Ans: >Too much regulation slows down development, but RERA regulations should be followed >Investors and home buyers should do their legal due diligence before investing in real estate     Q: Finally, question on prices. There has been a buzz that construction material prices are going up. Do you see real estate prices going up in the near term?  Ans: >Prices are expected to go up, but it's difficult to calculate how much >Reason for the price rise, besides demand, is inflation >Input cost have gone up >Abnormal price rises are not likely to happen

Jody Freeman, the Archibald Cox professor of law and director of the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard University, leads the conversation on global climate policy. FASKIANOS: Welcome to today's session of the Winter/Spring 2022 CFR Academic Webinar Series. I'm Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach here at CFR. Today's discussion is on the record, and the video and transcript will be available on our website, CFR.org/academic. As always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We're delighted to have Jody Freeman with us to talk about global climate policy. Professor Freeman is the Archibald Cox professor of law, founding director of the Environmental and Energy Law Program, and a leading scholar of administrative and environmental law at Harvard University. From 2009 to 2010, Professor Freeman served as counselor for energy and climate change in the Obama administration. She is a fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a member of CFR. She also serves as an independent director on the board of ConocoPhillips, which is an oil and gas producer. Professor Freeman has been recognized as the second most-cited scholar in public law in the nation and has written extensively on climate change, environmental regulation, and executive power. So, Professor Freeman, thanks very much for being with us today. We just saw the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, Sixth Assessment Report, that was quite pessimistic about the outlook on the future. Can you talk a little bit about that report and connect it to what we are going to see the effects on climate policy and what we need to be doing to really remediate what's happening in the world? FREEMAN: Well, thank you very much for having me. It couldn't be a more important or interesting moment to be having this conversation, and mostly I look forward to you, students, posing some questions and us having some back and forth. So, Irina, I will be as brief as I can in trying to really encapsulate what's going on now to set the stage for the discussion that I hope we will have. First, as you noted, the IPCC, which of course is the UN-established organization that since 1988 has put out periodic assessments of the science of climate change and their consensus-based assessments written by about six—about two hundred scientists from about sixty countries, so to give you a sense of the authority of the documents they've put out. This assessment was quite bleak, and really—I can read a couple of the top line conclusions to you, but the essential message is that climate change is accelerating. It has already been wreaking havoc and doing significant damage to human health, environment, and ecosystems. It is already causing and will cause increasingly devastating wildfires, historic droughts, landslides, floods, and more intense hurricanes. The long list of things that you all are witnessing around the world—think of the Australian fires, the California fires, the historic flooding we've seen here in the United States. The report basically says this will get worse if we continue without significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions soon, beginning immediately, and cutting them quite drastically. There are many conclusions here about the need to accelerate the pace of our efforts, the need for the governments of the world to do more than they have pledged to do under the Paris Agreement, which we can talk about, which is the international climate agreement that the overwhelming majority of the world's countries have pledged, have made commitments to. And the U.S. has renewed its commitment to the Paris Agreement under the Biden administration saying that it will achieve 50 to 52 percent of emissions reductions here in the United States below 2005-levels by 2030. So a very significant upping of the U.S. commitment recently at the Conference of the Parties last year in Glasgow, Scotland. That agreement is the prevailing international agreement, but this report says it's not enough. Even if the countries of the world were to meet their pledges—and that's an open question—what the report essentially says is we need to do more, and so there's a consensus on the science. I don't think there can be reasonable disagreement about the science of climate change at this point. There is significant evidence that it is already happening, already changing the world's—the patterns that we have seen in, again, weather patterns, storms, floods, droughts, heat waves, and it is already threatening communities. The question now is, how do we close this gap between what the report—what the IPCC report is telling us is happening, the risks that the report is warning us about—how do we close the gap between that and what the governments of the world have agreed to do under the Paris Agreement? And I want to note just two other contextual developments here that make this problem even more challenging. One is what I think you're all very conscious of now, as we all think about daily, the war in Ukraine, and the fact that that is scrambling in the geopolitics of energy. Russia, as one of the world's top three suppliers of oil and gas, produces about 40 percent of Europe's natural gas, and now there are sanctions that the U.S. has imposed, and that other countries have announced they will gradually phase in, against Russian oil and gas supplies. The price of gas, as you may all have noticed the United States, is sky high. That's not just because of the war in Ukraine, but it hasn't helped. And attention has moved to what this war means not just for the devastating human consequences, but also what is it doing to the—how to encapsulate this—to the power relationships among the world's nations that are anchored in oil and gas, and how is it shifting the relative power of the oil-producing countries vis-à-vis each other. That conversation about how we're going to produce enough oil and gas to meet Europe's needs in the absence of or in the presence of sanctions against Russia, where are we going to get the extra supply from? In some sense, that conversation about the short-term need for what is admittedly fossil energy has edged out, has moved out of the main frame of the climate policy discussion temporarily. And the concern among communities, institutions, organizations, people who care deeply about climate change at the moment is, that edging to the side of the climate discussion is the wrong direction to go, is an unhelpful event. And especially in the United States where we now are looking at the dynamics in Congress to see if major climate investments will be part of a legislative package that the Biden administration has been advancing— the Build Back Better package—as the discussion is focused on Ukraine, the short-term need for oil and gas, who will produce and meet the extra demand, that conversation, the worry is it's not helping climate policy move forward in the United States. And as you all know, the Build Back Better bill has essentially been shelved, and there are ongoing discussions about which pieces of it might move forward. As time passes and we get to the United States' midterm elections, which are upon us very soon in the fall, the question is, will anything significant in terms of additional climate investments and climate policy come from the United States Congress? Or are they essentially done with the pieces they put into the big infrastructure bill that, as you know, was passed this past fall? The bipartisan infrastructure bill contained significant investments in things like electric vehicle infrastructure, grid investments, and other things that are beneficial for our climate policy. But as you all know, this is not nearly enough, and nothing regulatory went into the Infrastructure Act, and just to be clear about that, there was nothing in the bill that passed Congress in November that operated—that went through a process called budget reconciliation. This really was passed as a budgeting mechanism. Nothing in there regulates industry greenhouse gas emissions, and that's because regulation can't go in a budget bill. And what this means is, in the United States we are challenged now to put in place the policies necessary for us to meet our commitment to Paris, and the main vehicle left right now, if Congress remains fairly inactive, is using existing law like the Clean Air Act by which the Obama—listen to me, the Obama administration. I'm remembering my time in the Obama—the Biden administration can use existing law to regulate sector by sector by sector the greenhouse gas emissions that come from the power sector, that come from the transportation sector, that come from the oil and gas sector. That's what the Biden administration is right now doing. They're issuing regulations through agencies like the EPA to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the economy on a sectoral and piecemeal basis. And what this all means is that a war is raging in the Ukraine that is refocusing attention on the need for short-term fossil fuels, while a longer-term discussion is happening about how to wean the world off fossil energy, and this dynamic is a very challenging, complicated dynamic in which to have both of those conversations simultaneously. The only thing I'd mention, before now turning to your questions, in addition, is that there is no small irony in the fact that this report that Irina cited, the new installment of the IPCC scientific assessment was issued essentially the day before the Supreme Court of the United States heard argument in a really important climate case in which what's at stake is the EPA—the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to set far-reaching standards to reduce our emissions from the power sector. And by all indications, the Supreme Court is poised to restrict the EPA's ability to set standards that would really force quite forward-leaning change, quite aggressive, ambitious change—speedier, deeper reductions from the electric power sector. It looks like the Court may well constrain the agency, and I can talk more about that for those who are legal eagles and want to know more. But the fact that that argument was heard the day after this report as sort of the juxtaposition of those two things was quite striking. So let me leave it there with these sort of broad observations about what's happening and turn to you all and see if we can dive deeper into some of these dynamics. FASKIANOS: Thanks a lot for that overview. You can all either raise your hand to ask your question, or you can write it in the Q&A box. So I'm going to first go to Babak Salimitari. Q: I had a question regarding the Paris climate accord. This is a non-binding agreement in which it seems like the United States is the only country going above and beyond to limit emissions and pollution and whatnot, but we're also the ones suffering the most. You have, like Germany building coal plants. China and India are extremely dirty, filthy countries, to put it bluntly. They admit they destroy environmental places, not just in their own country, but all over the world. But we're the one paying six bucks for gas. Oil is like a hundred dollars a barrel. FREEMAN: Yeah. Q: Things are getting very expensive and very annoying. So what's the point of this agreement if we're not reaping any benefits from it? FREEMAN: Yeah, I hear the question and—but let me add some perspective here. First of all, the ones suffering the most, it's not us. There are really serious consequences from warming temperatures for countries around the world that are already being inundated because their low-lying coastal populations are at risk. And they're much more vulnerable because we can afford adaptation measures, we can afford to respond to disasters, and we can afford to invest in resilience or adaptation, whereas many parts of the developing world cannot. They will be swamped. There will be massive migrations. There will be flooding, heat wave and tremendous suffering, and there already are some of these effects around the world. So I just add that perspective because I'm not sure it's quite right that we're the only ones or the ones who are suffering the most currently or that we will be in the future. We're actually, in the United States, fairly well-positioned, even if some of the worst risks we anticipate befall us. We're just a rich country compared to the rest of the world. I also would just comment that prices for gasoline are sky high here, and I understand that this is, as you say, annoying and quite difficult for folks who, you know, must purchase gas to get to work or must purchase gas in order to move around, they don't have an option. But I will say that in many parts of the world gas prices are much higher, and they're much higher in places like Europe and Canada and elsewhere because the governments have chosen to reflect in the price of gasoline more of the harms caused by burning fuel. In other words, they're internalizing the cost that otherwise people have to bear in terms of health consequences from burning gas, climate consequences, et cetera. So this is all me just saying gas may seem really high and I understand it, but actually many countries choose to impose high gas prices really as a signal to populations about the cost of being dependent on these fuels. But the point of your question, I think, is what's the value of the Paris Agreement? It's not binding, and why are we bothering to commit to do so much? And I will say we're not the only country to make a significant commitment. The EU countries have made significant commitments, even China. To put it in perspective, China's commitment to level off emissions by a deadline is important. There are very significant pledges that have gone toward this agreement, and the fact that they're nonbinding, I just want to shed a little light on that. You can say, well, it doesn't matter because nobody can force these countries to deliver on their pledges, and there is some truth to that. There's no grand international body presiding over this that comes knocking on the door of the world governments to say, you know, you said you'd pledge to reduce your emissions by X and you're not even close, so we're going to penalize you. There's no such international enforcement system. But it turns out that the format of the Paris Agreement—which is to make a pledge and then to periodically every five years have to do what's called a “stock take,” where the world countries come together and take stock of where they are in the progress—there are mechanisms to hold each other to account, that's the theory of the agreement; and that there are regular meetings of the parties called Conferences of the Parties that are meant to be the vehicle for forcing a kind of truing-up and disclosure of how far countries have come. Now that's an imperfect system, I will concede to you, but it is a big improvement over prior international climate regimes, which purported to be binding. But, for example, the Kyoto Protocol, the prior agreement to the Paris Agreement, only bound the world's developed nations, meaning the rich countries of the world, and the developing world, which was fast overtaking the developed world in the amount of emissions being produced—so think of China, think of India, Brazil, et cetera—they weren't part of the agreement. They had no obligation. So, while Kyoto was binding, it was binding on not the entire world, and it's not the even—who were soon to be the largest emitters, including China. So Paris is an inclusive agreement. China's in it. India's in it. Brazil's in it. Every country that's a significant share of the world's emissions is committed, so the inclusiveness of it is thought to be an important advance. Your question is still important. The proof is in the pudding. Are these countries going to come anywhere close to delivering on their pledges? But I guess what I would suggest is, we need an international vehicle in order to continue to press forward. And if the U.S. is in a leadership position in that international agreement, that's better for our chances than if the U.S. is not. The strongest position to be in is the U.S. and China together. When the Paris Agreement was signed, Obama and Xi combined forces and both supported it. China has now backed off. President Xi did not show up in Glasgow for the meeting personally, whereas the Biden—President Biden did. So now we're seeing a bit of a different approach. It's a very long answer, but that's because how these agreements work—their value, why they're an improvement or not over the prior—is actually quite complicated. FASKIANOS: Now the war in Ukraine and how China's going to align with Putin. FREEMAN: Yeah, I mean, this is really interesting—and I don't know if any of the students have a question about that—but everything is speculative right now. For example—I mean, in terms of how this will come out for China and China's relationship with the other powers of the world. China's in a very delicate position, and it may turn out that its alliance with Russia, depending on how that plays out, will leave it in a position of trying to look for opportunities build back relationships with the rest of the world, and it might turn out that climate policy is an opportunity to re-establish itself. And so we can't see how this will evolve, but a situation that looks at the moment like China's aligned with the bad actor—Russia in this case—may actually open up opportunities in the future for it to readjust its behavior, and climate may be one of those opportunities. Historically, the United States and China, even when tense relationships existed over trade policy and other things, cooperated on climate. It became an opportunity, especially in the Obama years when I was in the White House. We had a lot of good agreements with China around climate policy, both bilaterally and multilaterally. It was sort of an area—it was a bright spot of relations. That may turn back around and come back following this conflict. FASKIANOS: A written question from, let's see, Jackie Vazquez, who's in undergraduate school at Lewis University in Illinois, asking: Is there any possibility for all countries to come together to make a global movement to combat climate change? Would that even make a difference? FREEMAN: I think that the Paris Agreement is meant to be at least an instrument of a global movement to address climate change. But I think if you're talking about a political movement, that is people, not negotiators, representing governments, but populations and communities—I think we're seeing some of that. I mean, I think this generation, your generation, has really given voice to a real need for climate action faster. And I give a lot of credit to young people. I say this—it makes me feel 150 years old when I say this—but I think this generation, at least in the United States, it's taken the form of something called the Sunrise Movement and other youth movements. Of course, Greta Thunberg is the most famous young person putting a face on climate change, insisting that the older generations have let you all down, and I think there's something to that. I can understand your frustration, and I would feel the same way if I were younger that the people with the power have not taken the steps necessary when they should have taken the steps to mitigate a global problem. And I think that we're seeing movements all around the world; youth action all around the world. The problem comes in translating that political enthusiasm and political energy into policy, into laws and rules and requirements and incentives and subsidies and investments and inducements to change the trajectory to require over time—and quicker than—than many in industry want—require reductions faster, to translate it into investments from the private sector, because we need trillions of dollars of investments in low carbon technologies, in innovation. Translating that energy into real political action is the challenge. And I guess the one thing I'd say to you all is you have to vote. You have to put into power the people who support these policies, and you know, the youth vote is tremendously and increasingly important. So, in addition to activism, which is—which is critical, you want to vote in state, local, national elections at every opportunity. FASKIANOS: Earlier on, you talked about how the Supreme Court case is going to restrict the EPA trying to regulate. So there's a question from Nathaniel Lowell, who's at Skidmore College: Could you talk a little bit more about that Supreme Court decision, what that means for the Biden administration efforts to push forward within an act of Congress? You know, and what can be done? Because that's pretty significant, and certainly just putting in executive orders, the next administration could just roll back on those—roll those executive orders back. FREEMAN: Yeah. So here's what I'd say. First of all, I'm speculating a bit when I say the Court seems poised to restrict EPA's authority. I think most observers think that's what we got from oral argument. You know, we watched the oral argument, which is when the counsel for both sides—in this case, it was the government represented by the Solicitor General of the United States—that's how the government is represented in the Supreme Court—and the challengers from the state of West Virginia and about seventeen other states, Republican-led states, along with the coal and mining industry on the other side, arguing this case to the justices. And you know, you can listen to these arguments, by the way. You can go to SupremeCourt.gov and click on the audio portion of these oral arguments. It's fascinating. So I highly recommend and you can read the transcripts. And what we heard from the argument were the questions of the justices, the back and forth as the advocates were stating their positions, and basically, the petitioners in this case—that is, the mining industry, coal industry and the Republican-led states, including West Virginia—are basically saying the Environmental Protection Agency is overreaching. It's stretching its authority under the Clean Air Act too far, and the courts should read the language of the Clean Air Act narrowly and limit what they can do. And the government, the Biden administration, and the power sector petitioners—sorry, the power sector respondents—these are legal terms of art, but this describes who's on what side in the case—the power sector itself, this is the industry being regulated by these standards; this is the coal and natural gas plants across the country. The owners of the utilities that own these plants, they're the ones who are going to be regulated and required to cut their carbon pollution, and yet they are on the side of the Biden administration because they want to preserve EPA's power to set standards. They don't want this to be a free for all in which they get sued in a bunch of different lawsuits. They want a coherent, consistent, implementable, realistic, cost-effective set of standards, and they're prepared to make reductions. They want this done in an orderly fashion, and they don't want the Supreme Court making a mess of things by, for example, restricting the EPA so much that the agency won't take into account the reality of the power sector and how it works and allow them to average emissions—cut average emissions across their fleets; trade where it makes economic sense to trade emissions allowances. The industry wants all these flexibilities, and they're worried that the Court will be on too much of a mission to cut the agency's power, which will make the rules less economically sensible for the industry. So I hope that was an understandable explanation of what's at stake and how unusual it is that the industry being regulated is on the side of the government in this case, supporting the idea that the EPA has the authority to do this, and the consequences of the case here are quite significant. Because if the Court limits EPA, the bottom line is the standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal and natural gas plants won't be as stringent as they could have been. They won't move as quickly as they could have moved, and the cuts won't be as deep as they could have been. And that's a loss—that's a loss of a tool we would have in our toolbox to cut emissions from the sector in our economy that is the second largest sector in terms of its emissions. So we want a robust program to control those, and Congress didn't pass one. And Congress doesn't look like it's passing one, so this is our second-best strategy. And if the Court crimps EPA so much that it limits the stringency, it's like losing some ability that you thought you had to constrain your domestic emissions, which means it's harder to fulfill our Paris pledge. That's the bottom line. The last thing I'll say—again, kind of a nerdy point, but for those of you who think about law and are interested in law—the Court should never have taken this case. You know, when—when people are unhappy with the decision in a lower court they can appeal to the Supreme Court. They ask the Court to grant review. Our Constitution requires that the Court only take cases where there is demonstrable harm or injury. You can't go to the Supreme Court and say, you know, I'm not injured, but I really care about this, can you—can you help me out? You have to be injured. In this case there is, actually, currently no rule regulating anybody in the power sector, no federal rule, because the prior administration's rule way back in the Obama days never went into effect. It was caught in litigation, and it was challenged in court. It never went into effect. And the Trump administration came in and repealed that and put out its own rule, which was a very minimal rule that did almost nothing to reduce emissions, and that got challenged and struck down by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. So, as a result, the bottom line people, there is no current federal rule regulating the power sector. Why would the Supreme Court take a case from West Virginia and other states and the coal industry complaining about something when nobody is being asked to do anything? There's no harm. So it's very unusual that the Court granted review in a case like that, and that is why many of us think they're eager to do something that will constrain the EPA's authority. I hope that made sense to folks. FASKIANOS: That was really helpful to clarify and give context to what's going on. Thank you for that. So Terron Adlam has written a question, but also has a hand up. So just ask it yourself and give us your university. FREEMAN: You know, I see my former chancellor, Chancellor Carnesale from UCLA where I started my career. I'm just thrilled to see his name there. That's great. Q: Hi there. FREEMAN: Hi. Q: Hi. So my question is, do you see any possibility of change of behavior of humans, especially during the global warfare/pandemic? I mean, ice caps are melting. Greenhouse gases are rising so much that—can we go past the differences, you think? FREEMAN: Yeah, I mean it's very interesting you say that Terron. I do think we talk an awful lot about how we need to require industry to do things and that's, of course, terribly important—you know, the auto makers and the oil and gas companies and the power plants and steel companies and how we do agriculture around the world. But in the end, there's demand for energy and we are the demand. I'm sitting here on Zoom consuming a bunch of electricity. I got professional lights that you can't see that are consuming a bunch of electricity. My phone is charging next to me consuming a bunch of electricity. And you know, I'm probably going to—well, I drive a Tesla—I'm lucky enough to have a Tesla, so I won't be consuming gas later. But my point is just we all pull on energy, and you know, no one of us can transform the situation. We can't accomplish the energy transition all by ourselves. But we can start thinking about the decisions we make, and we can start thinking about those implications and consequences. Your generation—I mean, I have a niece and nephew in their twenties, and I hear a lot about how nobody really wants a car anymore, apparently. I'm shocked at this, but there are generational shifts in how people think about consumption. Do you need your own vehicle or can you do ridesharing? Are we going to see ourselves in a world in the next fifteen, twenty years with autonomous vehicles that are electric vehicles, that we essentially share, at least in concentrated urban settings? These kinds of transformations, I think, are in part being driven by the demand from your generation. Likewise, I think as you build wealth—you guys will build wealth over time, right? You're getting an education, right, and that education is directly connected to your earning power. You will build wealth over time as a result of becoming educated, and when you build wealth, you'll have a decision about where to invest that wealth. And we see increasingly, social action investors, social commitments being made through people's investment decisions, and they say we want to put our wealth into these kinds of stocks, these kinds of companies, these kinds of enterprises and not over here in these other ones. And I think that is another kind of behavior—where you put your capital is going to be another kind of decision that can help spark change. So, from the lowest level, most local decision about what you consume and how you consume it to bigger decisions later in life about where you put your money, I think there's a lot of opportunity for you to make really consequential decisions. But I'm not somebody who believes that all of this will be fine if people just stop consuming energy because we all depend on energy, and we can't stop consuming energy. For some of us, we can make decisions about where we want to get it from. Some of us live in jurisdictions where we can choose, quote/unquote, “to pay a little more” to be assured of getting more renewable energy as the provider. Not all of us can do that, and so, really, you need your governments to act. This is the kind of problem at the kind of scale where all of our individual activity can't possibly be enough. I would say we have to do all of it. FASKIANOS: Well, I am going to go to Al Carnesale, your— FREEMAN: Oh! FASKIANOS: —your former chancellor. FREEMAN: My former chancellor! FASKIANOS: Your former chancellor and a CFR member. So, Al, over to you. Q: So we—since we traded places, I left Harvard to come to UCLA, you left UCLA to come to Harvard. FREEMAN: Yes! Q: Congratulations. So here's my question is about nuclear power. For a number of years environmental groups have been opposed to nuclear power largely because of the waste problem. And then they—in light of climate change, they sort of changed their view and became reluctant supporters. And then came Fukushima and they again opposed nuclear power. Now, as we look ahead with the additional problems you've been talking about that may stymie some of our plans to deal with climate change, where do you think we might be headed on the nuclear problem? FREEMAN: You know, it's interesting—well thank you and it's just delightful to hear from you and see your—see you again. Here's what I'd say. There's a domestic conversation about nuclear and there's a global conversation about nuclear. And of course, as you know, many countries in the world have made a big bet on nuclear. France has always been dependent on nuclear power, for example. China is investing heavily in nuclear power along with every other kind of energy because of their tremendous need as the population grows, and as they, you know, grow into the middle class. So there's a lot of opportunity for nuclear to be built, especially updated sort of smaller more modular reactors, the next generation of reactors all around the world, and I think we're going to see a lot of nuclear deployment. I don't expect to see it in the United States, and the reason I don't think we're going to see it is the legacy you've cited, which is this historical discomfort with nuclear, and the ambivalence that is felt in this country about nuclear and the sort of unwillingness to tolerate the risks that are perceived from nuclear. We haven't solved our long range—our long-term radioactive waste problem. You know, we never decided on Yucca Mountain or anywhere else to put the radioactive waste, so it's being stored on site for—in large measure. And I think there's still kind of a very local NIMBYism, a bad reaction to the idea of nuclear power. The challenge for us in the U.S. is right now nuclear provides about 20 percent of our electricity, and as these facilities are retired, where are we going to get that share of our electricity from? Will it be more renewable energy supported by natural gas for baseload? These are the questions if we lose even this relatively small share of nuclear that we have. The only other comment I'd make—and you may well know far more about this than me—but from my understanding of the cost comparison now, nuclear power, at least in the United States, is just far too expensive to build and not cost-competitive with the alternatives. Natural gas has been cheap because of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. There's sort of abundant natural gas reserves released from shale. It outcompetes coal, and renewables have dropped so much in cost that they are extremely cost-competitive, so I don't think nuclear competes in the American market, at least, this is what the experts have said to me. FASKIANOS: Al, given your expertise in this field, do you want to add anything? Q: It's not to add anything, it's to agree, largely. I think the catch is, how caught up are you in climate change? Because natural gas may be better than coal, but it's not better than nuclear. But it would have to be government-subsidized, which basically in France it's a national security consideration. So it would have to be subsidized as we subsidize many other things. FREEMAN: Right. Q: But I don't see it happening. I think—I was actually on the President's blue-ribbon commission, who tried to come up with a strategy for what to do about the waste. FREEMAN: Yeah. Q: And the strategy said it had to go someplace where the people agreed to take it. FREEMAN: Yeah. Q: And that's not—that's not happening. So I think your conclusion is right, but it is a tension for those of us who are concerned about climate change. FREEMAN: Yeah, it is a tension. And I think you rightly point out the evolution in thinking in the environmental community about this that initially opposed then, sort of, wait a minute, this is a zero-carbon source of energy and we should be for it. And you know, I—this is—for the students, you know, I always say to my students you can't be against everything. You have to be for something. You can't say, well, fossil energy, a disaster; nuclear energy, we're not interested in that, that's too risky et cetera, and all we want is wind and sun, when, at least currently without storage capacity, wind and sun alone without some support—this is in the electricity sector—wind and sun alone without some baseload support to regularly supply the energy when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining, you need something else. And that's what Chancellor Carnesale and I are talking about. What is that baseload? Is it going to be natural gas? Is going to be nuclear, et cetera? So you have to be for something, people, is the upshot of this exchange. FASKIANOS: Thank you. So I'm going to go next—there are two written questions from Kai Corpuz and Natalie Simonian, and they're both undergrads at Lewis University. I think they must either—must be focused at Lewis University or both taking the same course. Really talking about wealthy nations helping developing countries. Developing countries are not equipped with the funds to push for a green future. How are they supposed to participate in this? And you know, what is—what are the wealthy nations' obligation to help assist developing economies in dealing with climate change? FREEMAN: Yes, I mean it's a really good question. And of course, the developed world has an obligation to assist the developing world through technology transfer, with financial support. If the developed world wants other countries that have not had a chance to get as far in developing their economies yet, if they want their cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they're going to have to make a contribution to support these countries in all these ways—financing, tech transfer, help with adaptation and resilience. And that commitment is part of the Paris Agreement, but it is true that the pledges that governments have made so far to produce annually billions of dollars for the developing world have not materialized to the level that was promised. So we are behind on that, and this is a significant problem. There is a very legitimate equity claim being made here, which is that the developed world has enjoyed economic growth. GDP has risen. We've all achieved a level of wealth and middle class. I mean, I'm talking on average for the developed world, obviously not everyone. We have tremendous income inequality in this country and around the world, but relatively speaking, our societies have evolved and become richer because of industrialization. We've already produced all our greenhouse gas emissions to achieve this level of prosperity, and the notion that now countries that haven't gotten there yet should just reduce their emissions to their own economic disbenefit, I think everyone agrees that is not a legitimate position to take without offering assistance and support. So I think the leading countries of the world understand this and agree to this. The question is, how do you operationalize this? How do you best support and help the developing world? Where are the investments best made? How do we make sure the governments of the world are held to their commitments and produce the money they promised to produce? And that is an integral part of the Paris Agreement process. So, you know, I don't want to suggest this is an easy problem, but I do agree the question is absolutely the correct way to think about this, which is we do have to help the countries of the world if we expect for us to achieve our climate mitigation and adaptation goals. FASKIANOS: Thank you, I'm going to go next to a raised hand from Sally Eun Ji Son, I believe at Columbia. Q: Oh, yeah. Hello. My name is Sally. I'm currently at Stanford engineering and an incoming PhD student at Columbia in the Political Science Department. And sort of relevant—related to, like, how different countries are in different stages, what I've noticed, as someone between Gen Z and Millennial—what I've noticed is that I, as an individual, like to take environmentally-conscious decisions. Yet, there's some—there's sort of this, like—a debate going on, like your action will not do anything to the Earth, your action will not do anything to climate change. And when I sort of encounter those debates, how should I navigate myself? Like, should I say it's maybe not a direct environmental effect, but it could be a symbolic effect, political effect? Sort of, like, how do I navigate that individuals could also have power or, like, have a stance or position in shaping climate policy around the world? FREEMAN: Well, first of all, I applaud you for engaging in those debates, and you know, sometimes when we come up against viewpoints that we don't agree with, we run away because we're not interested in engaging. And I would just encourage you all to engage, and I mean in the most respectful way. I'll get to the heart of your question, but it just gives me this opportunity to make this one pitch to you. So allow me—indulge me in making this one pitch to you about engaging in the way you're suggesting. You know, my law students what I ask them to do is in the classroom if they hear something they disagree with, sometimes very strongly, I ask them to put it at its highest—in other words, make it the best version of that argument before you criticize it. So, if somebody didn't make the best version of their argument and it's easy to take them down, actually elevate it and say, I think—I think what you're saying is this, and then what I'm hearing is this and give it the best, most legitimate form you can, and then engage with it on the merits, not them as a person. You don't attack them as a person, but say here's where I think differently. Here's my perspective on these issues. So just the idea that you're prepared to go back and forth on this, I think, is very laudable, and I encourage you to do it in that very respectful way. And you may not convince people of your point of view, but you may give them something to think about. And so what I'd say is—a little bit following on my earlier comment—that individual action can be impactful cumulatively, of course it can. If an entire community makes a decision to compete in their consumption of energy—you know there are these competitions among neighborhoods to be more energy-efficient. You know, you get this little notice in the mail that says your home is good compared to your neighbors, and your home is—in some communities this works. It actually promotes competition. In other communities it annoys them. It really depends on the politics of the community. But the point of this is just to say, communities are just—it's just a cumulative set of individual actions, right? So I do think there's something to changing individual behavior, and if lots of people do that, that makes a difference. So I don't accept the idea that nothing you do matters, so don't do anything. I mean, that argument is a recipe for never doing anything about anything. That is a large problem—because your share is necessarily small, so why should you change, and that, to me, is an excuse for inaction and apathy so that can't be the right argument. But you can accept that individuals alone, even aggregated behavior alone, can't change the world's energy systems, that the scope and scale of that challenge—that's a hundred-year challenge that requires the governments of the world to lead. So you can talk about the individual difference you can make, but that's not enough, right? And all of these things have to be done at the same time, and they fit together. You know, local, national—state level, national, global, this all must be done at the same time. That's the scope and scale of this problem. It's a really—climate is a really hard problem because the world's energy system is important for everything from our economic prosperity to our national security, and you can't transform the world's energy system overnight without affecting—first of all, you can't transform it overnight no matter what you do. But even as we transition, we have to think about national security implications, which is what the Ukraine war makes us do. There are geopolitical implications to how energy moves around the world, and who has energy power around the world. And as we shift to a different energy profile, those the power dynamics will shift, and we need to think about that. You know, we need to make sure that the United States has an energy policy that is strategically in our interest, and you can't think about climate without thinking about that. Likewise, you can't think about climate change without thinking about economic development and—and the flourishing—the ability of societies to flourish. So—and you can't think about it without thinking about equality and equity and justice. So it's a really hard problem, but that's why it's so fascinating to learn about. FASKIANOS: Thank you, the next question is from Chaney Howard, who is a senior honors international business major at Howard University. Going back to the war on Ukraine, how do you feel the argument for infrastructure development can be introduced into this conversation as new strategies and allegiance pledges are emerging? FREEMAN: I'm not sure I fully understand that. Can we have a little bit of clarification? FASIKANOS: All right, Chaney, are you able to unmute yourself to clarify, because I can't divine from the written question. Q: Can you hear me now? FREEMAN: Yes, excellent. Q: OK, perfect. So my question is really surrounding ways that the conversation can be a little bit more direct. So you mentioned how there needs to be a development of infrastructure for overall environmental, like, sustainability, and you were talking about electric cars— FREEMAN: Right. Q: —and just kind of having that conversation with global powers. And so I'm curious how you think—now that we're in this transitional period and some of the nations that are supporting Ukraine are working to develop new strategies and new partnerships, what are ways that we can encourage the government and then the global commerce centers to kind of establish those new strategies for environmental sustainability? FREEMAN: So I'm not a 100 percent sure how Ukraine fits there. But let me talk more generally about this idea of infrastructure and investment because I think what the IPCC report that we were talking about that's projecting climate-related risks and saying what's necessary to do in order to avoid them and what the Paris Agreement represents and what I think the current conversation around what's necessary tells us—the strong message from all of these vehicles and processes and meetings, the strong message is we need massive investment from the private sector and government combined in partnership into what the new energy system of the globe has to look like. Meaning, you have to build the power plants of the future. You have to support commercial-scale renewable power. You have to build the charging infrastructure to electrify the transportation fleet to the extent possible. You have to build a modern grid, not just in this country but all around the world, that is capable of supporting the level of electrification that we need. Because to move sectors like transportation off oil and gas, you're going to need—off oil, rather—transportation is mostly dependent on oil—you're going to need to power them differently, and right now we're thinking of mostly powering cars and many trucks from electricity, which means fortifying the nation's and the globe's grids. All of that is infrastructure. All of that requires investment. And there are massive R&D investments, you can imagine, necessary in the low carbon technology of the future. Hydrogen—eventually producing green hydrogen as a fuel source. There are techniques for removing carbon from—direct air capture. Carbon from the atmosphere, things like direct air capture. Or, you know, other carbon removal technologies, they're controversial but they may be necessary. Carbon capture and sequestration, putting it underground, carbon dioxide underground—again, controversial. But if any of these future low-carbon technologies or remediation techniques are going to succeed, they will require trillions of dollars of investments. So, the kind of level of investment that people are talking about—I'll just give you an example. At the latest COP meeting, the Conference of the Parties, meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, which is—these meetings are part of the international process of updating and checking in on the Paris Agreement. The world's biggest companies and financial institutions came together, and 5,200 businesses pledged to meet net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and 450 banks, insurers and investors representing $130 trillion in assets. Those are the assets they invest, which is 40 percent of the world's private capital. And I'm giving you all these numbers because I want to impress you with the scale of the commitments you're seeing from the private sector, from banks and lenders, investors and businesses. They committed to making their portfolios climate neutral by 2050. My point is there is a lot of activity in the private sector, both committing to net-zero goals themselves and also committing to investing capital, big money, trillions of dollars—up to $9 trillion annually is what is projected to be needed, that's $105 trillion over thirty years. That's how much money we need to put into the infrastructure you're talking about, the new—next generation energy infrastructure. All of the things I've discussed—the future of power plants, the future of transportation, new breakthrough technologies, new remediation techniques, new resilience—all of this requires massive investment. And the governments of the world and the private sector are nowhere near what they need to do combined to pull off what amounts to a moon-shot kind of level of investment. So this is a long answer, but it's a way of saying the infrastructure we're talking about in a really concrete way is the energy system of the future, and it's going to require a massive level of investment. FASKIANOS: Thank you. We're going to go next to William Naeger, who is a law student at Washburn University. Q: Hi. Yeah, like she said, I'm at Washburn Law School. I'm wondering if your impression is that these kinds of issues will continue to mainly be governed internationally by COP or the Paris Agreement? Or, if over time, as it becomes more and more extreme, whether it will just become one factor in, like, national security and trade agreements and migration issues and kind of just run through everything else that we do already? FREEMAN: Well, I think this is very astute of you, because, in fact, I think climate change as a global challenge has actually come into the mainstream of all of these other fields. I do think that it is part of the discussion around national security. I do think that climate is part of the discussion around trade and that it will become more embedded and more central to these other domains over time. And I think that—people talk a lot about how we could pair climate commitments of countries with trade measures that countries— the trade relationships that countries have with each other. And people talk, for example, about eventually having countries pledge to reduce their emissions, and if they don't reduce them, they may suffer a border tariff on goods that are produced in countries that don't have climate policies, that impose costs for greenhouse gas emissions. So they'll have to—there'll be a tariff or a border tax on goods that are basically being produced and sold cheaper because they're not subject to carbon constraints. That's a merging of climate and trade policy that we may well see over time. Likewise, I think we're learning to talk. We're not there yet entirely, but we're learning to talk about national security and climate together. Climate is really a national security issue. And you saw the Department of Defense and its reports and testimony to Congress from members of the military who are frequently called on to testify about the impact of climate change on the—they will acknowledge that climate change is a threat multiplier for the military and it's a national security issue. Likewise, when we talk about the Ukraine conflict, the war, and we talk about the need to supply the world with oil and gas in times like this when one of the largest suppliers is engaged in very bad action and being sanctioned for it, how do we meet those short-term energy needs but stay on path with our climate goals? That's a very hard thing to do. You have to be able to talk about the short-term, the medium-term, the long-term all at the same time. So I think your question is very smart in the sense that you understand that climate has to become embedded in all of these other fields and conversations, and I think that's already happening. The Biden administration, I think, to its credit has announced what it calls a whole of government approach to climate, and I think it's trying to do basically what you're talking about, which is say the entire federal government that the Biden administration runs, right, say to all the agencies across federal government—from financial regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, which makes sure that markets are open and transparent and investors have the right information—even the financial regulators are saying, listen, companies, if you want to trade on this exchange, you better disclose your climate-related risks so investors can make decisions that are appropriate. That's bringing climate into financial regulation. And so the Biden administration has basically said this issue should appear and be relevant to all the things we do. And so I think we're seeing what you're talking about happening to a greater extent, more and more. FASKIANOS: So, Jody, we're at the end of our time. There are a lot of questions that we could not get to, and I apologize for that. Just to sum up, what do you think we all should be doing at the individual level to do our part to affect change and to help with the climate change crisis? FREEMAN: Well, like anybody who's had media training I'm going to not answer your question and say what I want to say anyway, which is— FASKIANOS: Perfect. (Laughs.) FREEMAN: —yeah—because I actually think I've talked a little bit about what we can all do and why it makes sense to take individual action. But what I think I would say, rather, is just I know that there is a lot of reason for pessimism, and I really understand it. And I certainly sometimes feel it myself. I mean, you know, you guys have been through a very, very tough time—a global pandemic, which has been just an awful experience, scary, and disorienting. And you're doing it while you're trying to go to school and live young lives, and that's been hugely disruptive. You now see this war in Ukraine, which is deeply, deeply upsetting, a horrific assault on the Ukrainian population, and you're living at a time when you think climate change is a major challenge that, perhaps, the governments of the world aren't up to. And you see a divided country and, in fact, divisions all around the world and threats to democracy, and restrictions on voting rights. I see what you see, and I can see why you would be upset and worried. But I also want to suggest to you that things are also changing, and there are lots of opportunities for good things to happen. And there's a tremendous amount of innovation and creativity on all kinds of low carbon technologies. There are innovations all the time that open up possibilities. Just look at what's happened with solar power and wind power, renewable power over time. The costs have dropped. The potential for wind and solar has increased exponentially. That's a very hopeful thing. So technology change is very promising. There's a possibility to affect politics in a positive direction. I encourage you to affect politics—this sort of answers your question, Irina. So affect politics in a positive direction, be active, be engaged, because you can effect change by—through activism and through voting. And I also encourage you to pursue professions where you can make a mark. I mean, you can make a difference by engaging with these issues from whatever professional occupation you choose. You can engage with one or another aspect of these challenges of climate, energy, national security. So I have reason for optimism. I think, as frustrating as it is to say, well, the Paris Agreement isn't enough, there's another way to look at it, which is there is an international agreement on climate change. It does have a level of ambition that is an initial step and can be built upon, if we can keep the structure together, if the U.S. continues to lead and look for partners in leading along with the EU. Maybe China will come back to the fold eventually. In other words, things change. Stay tuned, be engaged, and stay optimistic because I, frankly, think there is tremendous opportunity for your generation to engage with these issues in a really constructive and transformative way. And that is where I would leave it. FASKIANOS: Thank you so much, and I'm glad you left it there. It was a perfect way to end this webinar, and thanks to everybody for joining. You should follow Jody Freeman on Twitter at @JodyFreemanHLS, so go there to see what she continues to say. Our next Academic Webinar will be on Wednesday, April 6, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. We'll focus on China, India, and the narratives of great powers. And in the meantime, I encourage you to follow us at @CFR_academic and, of course, go to CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org for research and analysis on global issues. So thank you again, and thank you, Professor Freeman. (END)

Q: It is clear to me that this relationship is not meant for marriage; how do I break-up with kindness?  

In this episode of The Long Run Show, we chat with Richard Chan, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder at CoverRight about customized medical insurance. "I got into Insurance specifically because that was a space that is about five or 10 years behind lending in terms of innovation.""Medical Insurance was always kind of focused on the younger population assuming, they use technology more anyways, so we'll create solutions for them.""There are 10,000 people retiring every single day." "The statistic is there's going to be 20 million net new retirees over the next 10 or 15 years. And so it's a big population." "Most of the industry that we're in doesn't believe that seniors can't use technology, which we fundamentally don't agree with""The problem that we saw was that the current experiences that are in the market really disempowered consumers, particularly Medicare. ""What we sold was it's a very high anxiety decision for someone turning 65 for a lot of people""health and finance. as you get older, those two topics start to intertwine.""And so on average, a person has over 60 options to choose. And our goal really is to build a, we call it a digital concierge model and sort of internally we call it TurboTax of Medicare, where it is sort of a concierge service where you can start online, get educated, be part of that decision and really empowering the consumer to own that healthcare decision that they're making, which is obviously important one as you get, get older."Guest:Richard Chan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rkfchan/ Website: https://coverright.com/Hosted By:Austin WillsonMichael O'ConnorTranscript:Hey everyone. And welcome back to another episode of the Long Run Show. This is Michael O'Connor here with the lovely Austin Willson.That's me the lovely Austin WillsonAnd here with our extra special guests today, we have our second guest-based episode. I am, I am loving this. I'm loving the conversations Austin.Q: We are here with Richard Chan CEO and co-founder CoverRight. How are you doing today, Richard?Richard: I'm well, and thanks so much for having me on the show. I'm excited.Great to have you. I know that a lot of, a lot of the discussions we've had recently have centered around psychology have centered around a bunch of, kind of. Broad topics. And we just had an episode about insurance. So the timing seems to be perfect, to really pick your brain on CoverRight. Pick your brain on insurance as a whole, where you've been, where you're going. Uh, so I'd love to just start off with like, you know, who are you? What's your journey?Richard: absolutely. So in case your audience is wondering, accent is from Australia. So grew up in Sydney, been in the states for the last five or six years. but started my career really on the financial services size and capital markets, and providing, advice to companies in the financial services and FinTech it tech and consumer sectors. I'd always been. You know, fascinated about how important the five natural services industry as a whole is to both the economy and in everyday lives. And I think- the issue is not everyone understands it well. And so I was really drawn to FinTech at my time, covering these financial services companies the ability for technology to help the broader population on items like personal finance.And so in 2017, I actually left that career to join a company based out in San Francisco. That was actually tackling a very interesting problem. on the other side of the demographic spectrums, what I'm doing now in the student loan space which I found fascinating at the time you know, there's been this whole wave of student loan refinancing.The company is credible.com is one of the first student loans refinance marketplaces at the time. It was, you know, you guys probably remember I know. And it was like just after the financial crisis and just prices were really low. Uh, and, but the federal rate for student lines was like high single-digit.And so it didn't make sense. It was kind of a weird dislocation. And so that's how it goes. when FinTech that company ended up, selling a couple of years ago. And, you know, I wanted to dive in and do something else in, in sort of the personal finance space. And we looked around, insurance specifically because I think that's a space that, you know, it was about 5 or 10 years behind lending in terms of innovation. landed on, on, you know, CoverRight which is in the Medicare space. the same use demographic, primarily, as like a super interesting problem that, that, that really hasn't been solved yet. It's like the textbase is always kind of focused on like the younger population assuming, they use technology more anyways, so we'll create solutions for them.So what was the, what was the impetus behind going after kind of the. kind of older demographic and making a solution that's FinTech based, obviously it has a tech solution to it. So it's going to, you're going to need to make sure that they're tech savvy enough.Q: What was the, what was the impact?Richard: I think a rapidly changing dynamic, in the way, people who are aging into 65 today, I in the digital savviness compared to those a decade ago, the demographics that are aging of 65 and English statistics and the 50% more of them had a college education. And then also the fact that one of them has spent the last 30 years within the workforce and have actually been part of this whole internet boom. And so it's really no longer the case in my eyes that people turning 65 are not digital savvy. I think everyone's got a smartphone from my own experience, on CoverRight. People are going through these experiences. I think there's a little bit of differentiation between the millennial generation, where there is sometimes still a. need for a concierge type service versus purely digital. And that's kind of what we cater for. but I think what we're seeing is a huge change in demographics.There's 10,000 people retiring every single day. There's been no technology really to seniors at all. It's been a very overlooked part of the industry and frankly, most of the industry that we're in doesn't believe that seniors can use technology, which we just fundamentally don't agree with. Right. I had a little bit of background, in the kind of financial services space myself in a financial advising firm for about a year and a half.And, and it was the case that, the underlying assumption was always the case. they don't want to use E forums. they don't want to use e-signature and free clients out, you know, and I think there probably is some truth to. Some of these advisors, you know, they had a 20 year old practice. So some of their clients would not be comfortable with that.But I would say probably the newer ones definitely be comfortable with that. I mean, like you said that a lot of the folks that are retiring right now, I've been a part of this big boom in computing and the internet, and that they've been in the workforce during those, those kind of addition years. So they've been a part of that.Q: So that's a good insight and probably a good, a bias to check. At least on my end, I would probably assume like the rest of your competitors in the space, you know? Oh yeah. Seniors. They might not, they might not like that. And I probably shouldn't even say seniors, that's probably insulting to some of your clientele.So lead us through insurance. We were talking about this last time.. it seems antiquated a lot, especially when it comes to health insurance, life insurance. It's always very difficult. So what was, the idea we want to make this like a one-stop shop or is it more we want to kind of basically facilitate via technology and easier experience for Medicare?Richard: it's a bit of both actually. And so the problem that we saw was that the current experiences that are in the market really disempowered consumers. And so the way health insurance, particularly Medicare. So there's either a field agent comes to your house, sits at your kitchen table, which obviously not happening as much the last 18 months.typically that agent might only represent 1, 2, 3 plans. And so you never know if you're getting a full, comparison to the most. The second experience settings that is prevalent in the market is like tele sales. And, you know, I'm sure you can imagine, like how that goes. Then you say you see these ads on TV, you call in and kind of get sold a policy.And it's never a great experience. What we want. What we sold was it's a very high anxiety decision for someone turning 65 for a lot of people. It's the first time you're sort of leading group insurance and having to pick your own individual insurance plan. There's a lot of red tape because there's public and private programs in Medicare.And so on average that a person has over 60 options to choose. And our goal really is to build a, we call it a digital concierge model and sort of internally we call it sort of turbo tax and Medicare, where it is sort of a concierge service where you can start online, get educated, be part of that decision and really empowering the consumer to, to, uh, own that healthcare decision that they're making, which is obviously important one as you get, get older.The best way to think of us as a digital concierge service, it is a one-stop shop. We help you understand, we educate you and we advise you on which, which plan is best to you. So this being the long run show, obviously you must believe in kind of the law. The long-term adoption of a more technology based model for selling, uh, Medicare insurance and specifically Medicare insurance in this case.But you can speak to other insurances as well. have the background clearly in FinTech .Q:So do you think that, what, what do you think, or I guess where you think we're at, uh, Sort of adoption phase. What are you seeing with your platform as far as you know, how many users versus, you know, market share out there?I'm sure since it's a, it's a fairly new, you're still breaking in, but, but where do you see kind of the, the entire space going? I know we've seen robo-advisors in the last few years. Um, there's a lot of debate around whether those are going to replace or compliment regular financial advisors or financial planners.Richard: We've seen into it with, with TurboTax. when it comes to insurance, what are we, what are we seeing as far as kind of where we're at in the adoption phase of the FinTech solutions there? There's always like a few different ways., insurance, you know, for, from our perspective at coverright, I, we obviously believe this next decade of people who are aging into this 65.year old phase of their lives is going to be much more digital. And our goal is to actually follow them through that process and continue to be a partner and have a conversation around health and finance. Because obviously as you get older, those two topics start to intertwine. I think taking a step back in terms of, you know, where insurance is, uh, we're starting to go through this first wave, which we saw in lending as well as, um, digitization of the distribution and the consumer experience, which is where coverage sits as well. It's already happened, you know, a little bit earlier within other types of insurance in auto, uh, in life through companies like PolicyGenius. Um, and it's, you know, Medicare for us, it's kinda like one of the last frontiers really, because no, one's really focused on the demographic.I think where you go from there similar to other pots is, um, FinTech is the next wave of InsureTech will start coming from areas that are more behind the. Uh, more sort of infrastructure based, uh, improvements where there's, you know, interconnectivity issues at the moment or the inability to share information or underwrite quickly.Q:I think that's where, you know, as we move over the next decade as well, you'll see this first site, which is tackling the consumer part and the second wave is really tackling infrastructure behind it. Gotcha. So it's almost like we got to build out the infrastructure now that it's like, okay. Proof of concept people like.And insurance, I would have assumed that because it makes it way better. It makes it a far better experience. So then it's like, okay, we've, we've proved that the consumer likes it. Now, the, the companies are willing, or the investors with the capital are willing to, to put capital behind the solutions for the infrastructure side.Richard: I think that's right. Cause the, the, you sort of solve the consumer issues. That's really what, a lot of cases, the first problem, uh, it's going to be a better consumer experience and you kind of, um, allow some of the accumulation on the backend of the process that you kind of take that away through a digital experience.Q: That's nice. And then over time as a consumer drives what the experience needs to be, you start figuring out like, okay, we really do need to build some of this infrastructure to enable that to be a much better excuse. And that's, what's going to continue driving eventually. That makes sense. So another kind of tangentially connected question, cause, of course, this being the long run show, how do you guys see or position yourself or future changes?Because, you know, you're, you're planning, you're going to have to be planning years and decades into the future. Future changes with, uh, when it comes to the political landscape. Medicare, because that plays into the insurance world a lot and different administrations, different political powers have different ideas of where to take that.So how do you, I guess, almost hedge against the risk there, the political risk involved in the, in the space it's kind of almost baked in.Richard: that's a, that's a good question. I think, I think for the listeners who don't know Medicare, just to cover that, that base is the federal program that basically provides health insurance when you're 65.So whether you are taking it directly from the government or through like a private plan through United health care, that's kind of the general. Grouping of sort of these Medicare plans. there's, there's a few reasons for that. I don't think Medicare is going away and that's one thing. And secondly, I don't think Medicaid baggage is going away. private Medicare plans that are become. More popular. That is expected to increase about 70% and the reason for that is this strong bipartisan support works.I think that only plays into our platform because there's more choice for. there's more players who want to increase in terms of the benefits that they're brand new consumer, like how they position themselves and more choice in my eyes is always better for the consumer. So I think that basically enables us to have add more value because you need more of navigation through that.There's some other things that also are tail winds. You know, the current administration wants the Medicare to succeed, The digital savviness is everyone who's sort of going onto the platform. there's talk about, you know, adding routine dental, hearing and vision care into regular Medicare, which again, we think is better for the consumer and it will drive the private plans to innovate in more.So they, a lot of these plans over the last few years, dental vision and hearing have been like a great. extra benefit that the provide that the default government program doesn't have. but if that becomes standard, then they really have to start innovating on other areas to provide better services to the consumer.we get asked about Medicare for all. I think, I wouldn't say I'm qualified enough to talk about the fiscal budgeting issues around that, but obviously that, that would change the scene entirely. I don't think it's really going to happen.That's kind of my, my sense on, the landscape. It's hard. And I don't think for a single-payer system, you know, you look at the, you look to the UK where they have an NHS system, and it's really just, you end up with a system where you get average health care for everyone, which is probably not necessarily solution.Q: I think it's a great point on both. I like, because I like the question Austin , those political, it's such a unique spot that you guys are in. Um, because it's like, you know, there's almost a, kind of a classic idea. Have a working tandem with government of like defense contractors.Some, this is, this is so different, but, but, so that's an interesting spot where, and I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like there hasn't really been innovation where you guys are in decades. I mean, is, is this kind of, I I've never heard of anything in the sector and I mean, I've got older family members who could use your as services.I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like you guys are really the prime movers here. Yeah, it's definitely an industry that has, um, that hasn't had innovation. There's actually a few good reasons. Not good reasons. A few reasons. I think that that's that's happened. One is it's an actually a mandatory decision.Uh, Medicare, when you turn 65, if you're not still working. Uh, and so what that allows is the, the incumbents basically go, well, they're going to have to make this decision anyway. And no matter how hard it is, they have to go through it and do it. So there's actually no impetus to actually innovate, uh, on that experience with they're going to come basically.Richard: that's kind of exactly why we think, you know, building what we're doing right now is, is the right time. Like we think we consume. Mindset for that age group is, is changing rapidly. Um, and alongside this whole theme of consumerization in healthcare, um, you know, people want, they're only going to be looking for better experiences and they got to really vote with their wallets really over time in health care and in health insurance.Q: Yeah, and I love the idea of bringing more choice architecture, um, because that's, I mean, I didn't even know that that was a mandatory decision. You just, you just forced to choose, make, make a decision. So that's having. Having that for the consumer is, seems just like a no brainer, but I mean, it makes sense that there's been constraints.There's been less incentive to innovate. do you think that's kind of a, where insurance as a whole seems to be trending? Cause we've talked about, you know, we talked about specifically with Medicare, but I mean, Austin, like we talked about a couple episodes ago of insurance going more digital, more choice centric, consumer centric, seeminglyThere's kind of these broad currents that are moving insurance in general, more than that direction.Richard: Yeah. I definitely think choice is going to become a huge thing, particularly, uh, in health insurance in general. So the current dynamic in the health insurance market is the shift is there's a shift in the burden. the cost of healthcare that is moving towards the consumer. I think the statistic right now is like over 50% of people gain employee group plans are in high deductible health plans, which means consumers pay more, um, for their health care and. The healthcare system in the us has historically being one where there's been a lot of inertia because of The prevalence of group insurance.And so what that, what group insurance does is the person who decides what you do with your health and the person who pays for what you do and the person who gets the benefit of 3g, different entity. The person who decides is typically your doctor, who, you know, you have to go to the doctor within that health networks choice.The person who pays is the health insurer and the person who gets the care is the ultimate test is basically you. That's not the case in anything else that is consumer product. Those three are the same. And so as the burden shifts, you're going to see a healthcare move to a more direct to consumer model where people are going to start.Like I said before, voting with. and we've already start starting to save. These people are circumventing the healthcare system going to health insurers like direct primary care models. One that one medical is like that, where you pay a subscription, just get access to primary care. And what I think is going to happen over time is, and I think, yeah, you guys actually mentioned this in your last episode, health insurance is going to shift to catastrophic coverageAnd you're going to see employers going to provide more benefits, uh, that, uh, relate to these direct consumer, um, experiences. And it could be, you know, uh, and that's because, you know, people are going to want to be able to compare like how much the knee surgery from here from A versus B overtime, if they're gonna be paying for it.whereas before, if you're not paying for anything. Th the insurances is working with your employer directly. Then you have, you have no say in where he's at to get that care. But I think I'm always going to stop start changing rapidly.Q: It's really interesting. I've never heard the breakdown into those three categories of the person who decides what you do, the person who basically pays for it. And then the person who perceives the care. It's a three different. Um, and that's very different from even, even other, other insurances, right? Like auto insurance, you can shop around. You're the one paying the premium and you're the one also receiving the service. you're obviously not the.Yeah, right, but you're, you're the, you're the person directly choosing right?We're in healthcare. I think that's really, probably the only product that I've ever have. Where three different entities, all involved in that choice. What's driving the shift. What's the, what's the leverage point there. Uh, you mean as in the shift to, uh, the consumers or paying more or what's driving that, that shift in the burden you were talking about?Richard: I mean, it's really, um, again, it's, it's the way the system is set up. So if you think about employers are trying to shift the cost more to employees, because the cost is. And then cost is going up because the person who is paying for it, um, uh, you know, the, the providers, basically, when you go, when you go to a doctor, they basically charged the insurer. The insurer doesn't want to pay. And so you have this perverse incentive where the provider will start pushing up the prices that they're quoting to, to the provider. So you have this negotiation in the background. And so there's this whole, uh, opaqueness around what healthcare costs are, which are drive overall dry. No, just healthcare costs in general. And so people are now going well, we can't really afford this. We have to push this into the consumer. And I think as that burden such shifting more to the consumer, then, you know, consumers, then that sort of alignment between the person who decides specific pays and benefits starts, you know, consolidating again. And that's where we will start seeing, you know, people again, like circumventing some of these, uh, insurance. Networks to go get care and direct primary care is a good example. There's like startups like RO and like these men's health, where people are paying out of pocket themselves. and I think an interesting thing that will happen over time is as, consumers take on more of the health burden health will actually become a bit of a financial asset to people, right? Because the healthier you are, the less you have to stand. And I think the services. Help you stay healthy. Uh, are going to be the ones that, that are going to win and what you're going to say. Like I said, particularly in over 65 insurance where we play is kind of slightly different, but I think under 65, I think you'll probably start seeing, and it's already happening because it's high deductible health plans, catastrophic coverage becoming where the health insurance play in. You know, I I'm, I'm from M&A capital markets, like a very well with this really plays out, you know, 10 years down the line. You could probably say some of these insurers acquiring these direct to consumer health services and really health insurance becomes an ancillary product at the back, the catastrophic coverage.Q: Interesting. So over time, do you think we're going to see, as, as we see these kind of tectonic shifts in where, how everything aligns with health insurance, do you S do you think we're going to see that? Um, I guess maybe a better question is how are we going to see that chain when it comes to employer benefits? Is it gonna go like completely away from employers trying offer that. Fit and so much so that it's, you know, it's such a super biotic. Now we get very far away from group, you know, over the long run. Is that where we're headed? Um, or, or do you tend to see it as maybe a complimentary situation where the consumer has their own direct to consumer product plus some benefit from their employer? I would imagine there's some transition process in between, but yeah, the long-term and.Richard: I think it's, it's, it's hard to say exactly because you know, I've done, it depends on how the incentives play out over time. But I do think, and I think it's already starting to happen. You're already starting to see employers provide these ancillary benefits that are not.Typically like health insurance land and et cetera. And so I think one medical actually has a program within employees is, is, is an example. And so I think you might see employees because of the cost burden is increasing start to ask for some subsidization or some of these direct to consumer experiences.And then that means the role of the health insurers starts to narrow as well. I think that's, that's probably the dynamic I think we'll start playing out over time. but you know, It's hard to say. It's like, it's, it's, there's a lot of moving parts in the healthcare system.Q: One question I have kind of going off of these, you know, we're seeing these big changes in a lot of these large systems. What do you think generational differences has to play in that deep? Because one thing we're always talking about, you know, boomers versus millennials versus like, do you think that it seems like as we've seen, I mean, pensions are another kind of example, just talking about moving away from the employer on the consumer, is there a. Especially as we move through the generations closer to more of the digital generations. Do you think a lot of these trends will continue or kind of shift? Or do you think a generational differences is playing a part in this?Richard: I definitely think generational differences. Um, do play a little. Into this because you know, you, and I I'll say more open to having these direct to consumer experiences. And, you know, as the, the, the generation that is growing up in these sort of high deductible health plan environments, like, yeah, like I do want better care, better quality. I don't want to have to go down to, you know, um, X plans specified doctor. I would rather. You know, like a one medical, I keep saying that name, but all these other direct primary care as well. I know I have access. Like I pay $100 a month. I'll have access to it. If I can get that subsidized by my employer in bed. And these services are proactive, like educating the healthy like there's using technology to talk to me. over time, like if, if this all works out correctly, You know, health care should move away from this model where there's this huge, basically these huge real estate companies, where you have to go to the hospital, the one centralized location we should be, you know, staying healthy monitoring our health outside of that whole system becomes much more. I think that's kind of, I think that's kind of where it said,Q: yeah, that plays into something you just said, being more proactive with your, with your health. And I think that's something people probably over the last two years, of course, nobody wants me to say COVID, but I said it. Okay. But, um, as to, you know, two years, all this craziness has really put like your health and. And how you're treating your body and how you're prepared to fight off diseases or pandemics or any of that. It's put it into everyone's front of their minds. Right. Because it's just been there for everybody. Right. And so I wonder if the, the shift from healthcare being more kind of reactive, proactive, Well kind of, direct to consumer model where the consumer is looking to be more proactive and preventative with the care, because it seems like to me, whenever I've kind of looked through a health, health benefits at an employer. It's always been kind of more on the reactive side, right? Like, oh, you need care for this. Okay. Well, we'll get you care. You're broken. We'll fix you, but let's prevent you from getting broken. That'd be, that'd be a cool idea. Right? Obviously breaking an arm skiing. That's different, but let's, let's prevent you from getting sick. That seems to be like an afterthought in general, across healthcare at the moment. Um, so maybe that may be part of this is, is kind of spurred, who knows what, what long-term, you know, shifts we're going to see coming out of the pandemic and how people just following up on Austin's thought there. I love the Warren buffet quote. and I'll paraphrase a little bit, but that your, your own body is one of the most important assets has missed the most important asset. You have that to take care of it and to, uh, to keep it running fit and fiddle is, is so crucial. And I, yeah, I have to echo what you were bringing up, Austin.It seems like a lot of healthcare is that, that reactionary mindset. Um, do you see that as a trend coming up that proactive? And are you seeing pushback? Because it feels like there's a lot of incentives for maybe, maybe I don't want to, I don't want to speak too, too, too harshly, but it seems like there's a lot of incentives for the big insurance companies and a lot of the legacy players to kind of keep things the way they are.Richard: there's definitely, uh, incentives to do so, but you are seeing them starting to move in that direction. Uh, and I said earlier that I think, you know, there's some differences between under 65 and over 65, because I think, you know, over 65 they'll always be a Medicare program. But what you're seeing is that the Medicare advantage providers, which are these private plans are focusing a lot more on preventative benefits and they are competing a lot more as a plan themselves as a consumer product. Because they want people to select them and use them for, um, you know, also use them as their benefits provider and use their systems and things like that. And so, you know, there is like a whole,world of sort of health campaign or value based care that is starting to take its own sort of. Form and traction across the country. And people are focusing on it more because people assigned to realize that this old model of service, where it's really, you get paid for how many operations or surgeries you have in the, in the hospital, like doesn't benefit the consumer.Q: Going off of that a little bit, you know, looking at the ecosystem that you guys are in right now, um, pushing that change forward, pushing, you know, for the productivity, what's the long run view for cover, right?Like what do you guys kind of have in the pocket right now? And what are you excited to do in seeing the.Richard: Yeah, we're really excited about, uh, one of the buildings, counties for product within the Medicare space, as a navigation platform, to help consumers through this difficult decision and high anxiety decision where we see a lot of opportunity is no one has really built a platform that follows through on this phase of people's lives, across personal finance.So Medicare is a very interesting conversation for us because one, we get to build a brand new relationship with a consumer because, you know, The positive for the 65 to, we have an interesting angle because we're talking about insurance. Uh, and what we see within the technology space is there are a lot of companies building in FinTech and health tech for this population.And I think if we over time, what we're excited about can become this concierge. We just kind of where we started in Medicaid and help guide them through. Okay, these are some financial. Product of situations that we can help you with give you some advice or like, you know, even on the health side, Hey, these are some services preventive services that you should be using.I think there's a really interesting conversation for us to have with that. Consumer has the agent to, uh, you know, this retirement phase of their lives. And that population is only growing. I think the statistic is there's going to be 20 million net new retirees over the next 10 or 15 years. And so it's a big population.Q: That's crazy to think about. And to, I mean, globally, it seems like there's a lot of, uh, talk of aging populations, uh, around the world and kind of the need for better health coverages, insurance, you name it and it's, it's a, it's a growing long-term problem. It seems that needs, uh, needs smart people like you guys working on it and kind of to follow up on that a little bit. 'cause talking about the kind of the here and now, like how did you guys get to where you are now from the past? Like what, what did it look like? The journey from, I mean, a ground level to, you know, operating the way you guys are right now. It seems like a big leap. How did it, how was that journey?Richard: Yeah, I think like, every startup founder will probably tell you it's it's like a. Eating gloss, sometimes trying stay up as a startup company. It's been a, there's a lot of twists and turns. Um, you know, at the end of the day, like we're a small company and we have to work with these big carriers that are in the space. And not only that there's insurance regulation, there's Medicare regulation.And so there's a lot of navigating around regulatory pastry on the carrier piece. And then not only that we have to build the platform. Um, behind it. And one big difference that I think a lot of FinTech or insure-tech firms would tell you is that, and even health tech, like it's unlike, you know, e-commerce or these other consumer products, you can't deliver something that is broken.Because you lose a lot of trust and everything in financial services is just about trust. And so it was a long, like a long we knew what I'd say. It's been, it's been an up and down journey. There's a lot we had to do, um, you know, the platform, you know, kind of, I think we currently take in about 23 million data points on benefits, available, , and.we got, uh, 12 carriers, uh, which represented about 20 brands across the country. And so, yeah, it's been fun, but it's a, it's been a hard journey as well.Q: Definitely. I can imagine that one thing we always try to do in the show is we, uh, try to pull something, pull something out for the listeners of actionable tips or, uh, just kind of stuff.So like what, what would you recommend for the average. The average listener, who is either interested in the healthcare sphere, what's going on, what you guys are doing, um, learning more, or, you know, if they're older getting involved or for like loved ones, what would you recommend this kind of action steps for, for anyone who's interested?Richard: And obviously I want you to print out and promote ourselves too much, but you know, if you're turning 65, it is, uh, it's important to find a partner that can help you through that process. And obviously say, come to coverup.com. Um, I actually think there's an interesting, um, conversation in for those who are under 65 and maybe you're making a decision for your parents. Like you said earlier. There's a, there's a lot of people who helped with that decision. Um, I think, you know, if you're interested in, in healthcare in general, there's a lot of problems to be solved out there and a great place as a book. , I think it's called unhealthcare. Um, that is a great place to start it's by,a partner. I think who's at general catalyst who just said venture capital fund and they talk about where they see the world going. I think that would deliver a lot of inspiration. If anyone out there who's. Trying to figure out like where we've been, where we're going in terms of healthcare.Q:Awesome, awesome, great resources and kind of, uh, just a final personal question that I had. Like, how did you, how did you get from Goldman Sachs? You know, the M&A all of the finance deep in the trenches to, to insurance, because it's such, it seems like such. A wild leap, but I mean, you know, like I said, it's financial services at the end of the day. It makes sense. But I'd love to just hear a little, a little backstory on that.I find that fascinating.Richard: So, like I said, when I was at, in sort of in, in banking and M and a, I was covering financial services. So I did sort of have a more traditional view of, you know, banks and insurers. And I also, at that time, FinTech was starting to become hot. This is sort of early in 2012, 2013. So Pfizer was starting to come out and so. I just got really fascinated in FinTech in general. And to me, you know, whether it's companies like a buy now pay later companies that are really popular, whether it's infrastructure companies like plan, like I'm fascinated by all pots in tech. And I think, you know, I would say I actually, uh, came across Medicare just by accident.Cause I was looking at insurance in general. I spent a lot of time. Uh, property and casual, a lot of time in commercial and, you know, coming from Australia, we don't, we don't have a program that's similar to this. And so I just thought this was a fascinating, um, a fascinating space. And then too, like I do think, you know, with 10,000 people retiring every day, there is the need for technology for this demographic.And so someone wants, needs to go and build it. I think we have a really exciting, interesting conversation to have with people who are going through this retirement.Q: Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so so much, Richard. Uh, this has been a great episode, loved the conversation, loved to be able to deep dive a little more into health insurance.nSpecifically, we get to talk about insurance in general, but now hopefully for our listeners, they have a lot deeper understanding. please go check out all the things that Richard Chan is doing over at coverright.Thank you so much for being on the show today.And this has been The Long Run Show here with my co-host Austin Willson.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-long-run-show/donations

Q: It has been all boom in the global equity markets for the most part of 2021. Will they perform with the same enthusiasm in 2022 as well?   >> Enthusiasm of investors will not vanish overnight; in India it will stay high for a while   >> Indian economy still expanding despite headwinds; can outperform the world   >> Globally, we need a market correction   >> Too much optimism among investors, especially those who do not have experience   Q: Equities, commodities, cryptos, inflation – everything is on a rise. Will it all end badly for the investors in a year or two from now?   >> Value stocks have underperformed across the globe   >> FANG, FANG-related stocks, stocks like Tesla and semiconductor stocks did well in the US   >> Market and hedge fund favourite will underperform; money will shift to value stocks   >> Europe and Asia will outperform the US in 2022   Q: What has been your investment strategy in the past one year?   >> My strategy has been to diversify.   >> Do not wish to make speculative gains; own value stocks   >> Also prefer dividend stocks – own utilities in Europe, banks in Asia and tobacco companies   >> Own resource companies as commodity prices will not likely collapse   >> Have real estate around the world, precious metals and fixed income securities     Q: Do you own any Indian securities in your portfolio?   >> Own some bonds of Indian companies in my portfolio; have held Indian ETFs.   >> No exposure in India as of now   >> Indian markets are fundamentally sound, but expensive   >> Find more value in other Asian markets   Q: So, which markets would these be?   >> Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore     Q: What's your advice to investors? How should they approach equity markets in 2022, especially in India?   >> Perseveration of is capital more important now than doubling money   >> For someone who wants to invest for the future or his family, diversification is necessary   >> Diversify across asset classes – equities, gold, real estate, fixed income, commodities and even cryptocurrency   >> Diversification also means investing in overseas markets Watch video

Q: It said in Genesis Cain took a wife from the Land of Nod. How did the people in Nod come into existence when God only created Adam and Eve who bore Cain and Abel at that time. Did they all come from Adam and Eve since they were the first creation? Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Venerable Robina Courtin continues teaching about the Buddhist approach to developing compassion. WHY ENDLESS COMPASSION? Sometimes it feels like the world's problems are demanding so much of our attention that our compassion reserves will run dry. How can we develop strong, resilient compassion that allows us to help others? Venerable Robina says: “You don't harm others even slightly if you love, have compassion, generosity, forgiveness - it's not possible. It's the delusions that cause us pain and cause us to harm others. So when we deeply understand that, it's like we've got compassion for ourselves. That's what qualifies us to have compassion for others - and that doesn't just mean the victims, it means the people who do the harm. This is a really tough level of compassion but we can not have it until we know ourselves, until we know what causes us pain.” Course notes: https://bit.ly/EndlessCompassionNotes *** Even if you're drowning, you might as well stay perky...(6:58) Q: How to recognise authentic compassion, compassion with wisdom? (7:36) Practices to develop compassion (14:55) Q: If removing the dirt from the water (as a metaphor for overcoming delusions) is possible - what is "the water"? (39:15) Q: How to apply equanimity to ourselves? Should we look at our afflictions with equanimity? (46:05) Q: How does talking about others destroy our equanimity? Is it because we can do it with anger. Is there ever a time that talking about others is okay and in line with our equanimity? (53:22) Q: It's difficult to fathom how one person is able to hold all beings with genuine love. If we forget about a stranger's headache in 1 minute - does a Bodhisattva keep thinking about it? Can we think about 7.5 billion peoples' headaches all at once? It seems like too big a job for a single person - how is that level of concern experienced by a Bodhisattva? (1:00:00) Q: I don't understand the suffering of change. (1:03:03) Q: What is the mudra when offering the mandala? (1:09:43) Q: Is it so: that which my mind labels as pleasure is actually a delusion and a kind of poison (1:12:24) Q: Could you please talk more about the connection between the mind and the body? Is this something that we can only experience/ observe through meditation? (1:22:32)

Note: The time signatures [00:00] below indicate the start of a question if you'd like to skip to a particular one of interest in the audio file.[06:32] - Q: Were God the father, son, and spirit all present at the beginning of creation? How can we know this?A: See Colossians 1:16 - For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.John 1:3 - All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.REVELATION / ESCHATOLOGY / END-TIMES[10:13] - Q: Do you personally see and feel the rise of the spirit of the antichrist throughout the world? All Romans 1 items checked within just a years time:Pastors thrown in prison, churches fenced off, their homes burned with their children in them, US churches gladly shuttered in the name of "saving just one is worth it" while bowing to the alter of health, wealth, and science (the new religion)Atrocities by world governments such as human trials of genetic modification supported by corporate coercion, suicide inducing lockdowns, planned starvation, destruction of small business, purposeful separating of sheep and goats due to testing and vaccination requirements, technological explosion ripe for the markFree speech removal, big tech takeover, cancel culture, woke culture, UFO/UAF disclosures, twisting of language and logic in that we have birthing persons because biological men can have babies, menstruate, and compete with girls in sports, amen must include “awomen”Big tech takeover of everyone's lives: biometric data prepared for payment, cashless society by a false coin shortage, the US dollar move towards the digital dollar, shadow-banned to free speech isn't allowed on this platform to digital jail to digital exileIsrael: a new wars with many around them, a new government mixed with Jew and Muslim power, global antisemitism, US funded enemies, and the continued push for a 2 state solutionNation fighting against nation with BLM peaceful protests, white guilt turned in to all whites are racist, Christians are racist, stolen elections, NWO schemes, and Israel is the oppressor of the world...to name just a fewThat wedding feast seems to be getting really close now. So, personally how close are you feeling that the removal of His bride church is now?[17:16] - Q: It seems like Christ's return is imminent, I believe that he's coming back soon. I can't wait to be taken up to heaven. I just don't know how to live day to day with that type of mindset, knowing that I'm going to be taken away. How do I live "normally" worrying about work/job, finances, buying cars/stuff, upkeep for my house, etc. In first 1 Thes Paul tells the believers there that they haven't missed it and they need to keep on working. So I know I need to continue on, I'm just challenged by how to do that. Christ's love is in me and yes I can share that with others and try to get as many to heaven as possible, but really preacher, I'm exhausted from what God has given me. I'm ready to go. Can you give a few pieces of advice for how to persevere? How should I be praying? ThanksA: See Matthew 24:45-51, 1 Thes 5:6-11[24:16] - Q: In Revelation John sees the events of the end times and since John is a saved man, would he also be seeing himself in the future? Meaning that there would be a past John and a future John. Also, if John is there for the end times, that he had already seen, wouldn't he have known that the Lamb was worthy to open the scroll and break the seals?A: 1 Corinthians 4:6 - I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written...OLD TESTIMENT LAW / DOCTRINAL ISSUES[30:22] - Q: Were multiple marriages in the Old Testament considered a sin? For example, David had multiple wives, if that was considered a sin and he continued to live in that sin seemingly unrepentant why did God still use him?Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines and God still used him... what? Was Solomon saved?[35:16] - Q: Why are there so many different versions of the Bible? Specifically the message, I know it gets the same point across but it says it completely differently than my NIV or ESV.[39:15] - Q: How do we know the Bible we have today is God's complete word? How does the apocrypha and other extra-biblical literature factor in? How can we be confident in it when it was seemingly assembled and decided by humans during various meetings/councils?A: Luke 24:27Any question that was missed due to time constraints during the service Pastor Jeff will address the answer on the blog.Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Small Group Questions (Whole Group):Review the questions submitted above. Discuss any of these that stuck out to you, or that maybe your group finds particularly interesting.Breakout Questions:Pray for one another!

Resources by J.P. MorelandFinding Quiet: My Story of Overcoming Anxiety and the Practices that Brought PeaceJ.P. Moreland's WebsiteQ: I'm really interested to know how a philosophy professor ends up writing a book on anxiety and depression.I approach philosophy as an attempt to learn how to live a wise and flourishing life that honors Christ. I was born with a problem with anxiety that led me to wanting to continue to develop my emotional health and spiritual health. I was born with a genetic disposition towards anxiety from my mom's side, and as a little boy I also observed her worry and be anxious a lot. So by the time I got out of high school, and was well-taught and predisposed to being an anxious person. In 2003 I had an unbelievably stressful year at university. I had panic attacks and had what I could call a nervous breakdown that lasted 7 months. I got on medications, got into good Christian therapy, and began to practice some things that I've learned from Dallas Willard. After 7 months I got better. But then it happened again for 5 months. So I devoted myself to learning about anxiety and coming up with a list of practices that would help me.Q: The other thing you do that I found really helpful is that you help address a lot of concerns that Christians might have about mental health or medication or self-compassion. Have you found that to be well-received or have you gotten pushback from that?I did get some pushback. I was actually preaching at a church and I talked about the importance of medication for those who need it, and I was not allowed to speak at the second service and was never invited back. They were pretty upset with me. The Bible itself emphasizes the importance of non-biblical knowledge. If something in psychology contradicts the Bible, then I don't accept it. But if the Bible doesn't speak about it, then I'm free to follow the evidence wherever it goes. Psychology and psychiatry have a tremendous amount to offer us in our tool bag.Q: One of the pieces that I found really helpful in the book is you continue to go back to all these practices and very practical things that have worked for you, yet leaving it open for not being totally prescriptive for people. I'm curious to hear a little about your journey with contemplative prayer and how that has helped you with anxiety.It's been life changing. I needed to learn how to attach to God. This form of prayer has opened me up to attaching and connecting and experiencing the presence of God with more intensity than I had before. It has drawn me closer to the Lord. Contemplative prayer has a lot of different ways of doing it. The bottom line for me was finding a way to sit in the same place every morning and be quiet and to learn how to focus my attention by the use of some repetitive phrase. I want to get in a position of receptivity where I'm open to being guided or connected.Q: could you say a little about the four-step solution process?It is one way of dealing with the kinds of negative self-talk that we are habituated to that tears us down and makes us afraid and depressed. It was generated by Jeffrey Schwarz. It's a way of re-training your self-talk. The first step is that you invite the Spirit to search you and help you notice when you're doing this. Step 2 is to label it (there are 10 typical thought disorders), to name it, which takes the power out of it. Step 3 is refocusing, where you turn your mind away from it, and go to something that gets you into what's called flow. Step 4 is evaluate how you did in handling it. After 2-3 months of doing this daily, those grooves that automatically trigger anxiety are replaced with triggers that automatically cause feelings of joy and peace.Q: How did your friendship with Dallas inform your writing.He was my main professor and my dissertation supervisor. Part of his influence was realizing that it is actually possible to make tremendous progress in this journey. He really lived this, and that attractiveness of his heart and life drew me in, motivated me to dive in a learn a new era of the Christian life that I had not been taught before.Q: It reads like formation work applied to mental health challenges. What was it like to crash for all those months?It was terrorizing. What I learned quickly was that my typical approach to the Christian life was not adequate to deal with it. I felt like I was letting people down.Q: Are you healed?I haven't come close to having mild anxiety in 5 or 6 years, and it's been 8 years since the breakdown. In 2015 and for the next 2 ½ years I had 8 surgeries – one was life threatening for sure. I had chemo and 2 rounds of radiation, and I went through that whole time filled with joy and peace. And that's because I was reaping what I had sown for years in these practices. They worked; they actually re-formed my character to where the natural thing for me to do was respond in a trusting manner. Cast your anxiety on the Lord and he'll care for you, and the peace of Christ which surpasses understanding will guard your hearts and minds – those are not so much promises as ideals that you strive to achieve through practices and through praying through things. After a while, those texts become effective because you have developed the habituation that makes them a part of what you've now become.Q: How important were Biblical passages for you?The first appendix in Finding Quiet is a list of verses that are solid gold. Dallas told me that as, or more important, than getting in the Word and reading it, is to commit a handful of verses to memory that are there and you love them, they just do something for you, and make those the rails on which you run your life. As I began contemplative prayer, I would begin to quietly pray through a few of those and orient myself to contemplative prayer sessions with these verses. Pick a list of 4 or 5. I would try to express them emotionally to God, rather than cognitively reciting them.Q: What would you say to someone listening who is really struggling with anxiety and maybe has some self-condemnation or shame?Remember that Peter says that there are brothers and sisters all over the world who are going through the same things and that you're not alone. This is an epidemic, so you're not unusual. If this is a hard thing to handle, why not go to a Christian therapist and get some Christian counselling; go to a psychiatrist (rather than a GP) and consider getting a little help with meds until you get over the hump. And begin sharing what you're experiencing with trusted people so that you have a place to share it to get it off your chest. And then begin some of these simple practices. Guilt and shame is not needed. I don't think Christians should ever feel guilt or shame because of Romans 8:1 that says there is no condemnation and Colossians says that what we've done, our certificate of debt, was nailed to the cross. We should feel something else, and that is godly sorrow. The difference is that shame and guilt and self-oriented and self-condemnatory and puts me down. Godly sorrow is a form of sadness that draws me toward the Lord where I can acknowledge things and agree with God. It moves me toward the Lord and creates a hunger to conform to the way he is and continue on the journey rather than beating myself up.Q: For folks who have friends and family, spouses, that are struggling with anxiety, is there a word you might have for the best way they can love each other through this?The first thing is to be present to your loved one and give them opportunities to share and talk. And without you initially trying to fix it. Just be a presence and listen, even if you've heard it every day for 20 days now. That's going to give a feeling of support. Be careful to preserve your own boundaries. You're going to need time away and you just have to communicate that with them. You have to keep yourself from going down or you're not going to be any good to anybody.Q: How was your wife?She was worried. She was just there for me and listened to me and supported me. I didn't feel any condemnation on her part.

Here are some important points to know about a reverse mortgage. Lately, I’ve been receiving a lot of phone calls and emails from clients who have questions regarding reverse mortgages: Are they safe? Should I get one? Do I even qualify? Due to all the intricacies of this topic, I’ve asked our team’s reverse mortgage specialist, Tim Baudis, to help provide an informative overview: Q: What’s needed to get a reverse mortgage? Can anybody get one?  A: No; presently, you need to be over the age of 62 and have a certain equity position in your home to be eligible for the loan.  Q: What’s the benefit of a reverse mortgage?  A: There’s a bunch of different benefits, but a few of the main ones include the fact that there’s no income or credit requirement. You can take cash out of the home and choose whether or not to make a payment. Here’s another huge perk: Interest rates are in the 2s right now, which is record-breaking.  Q: Can I still qualify if I have bad credit?  A: Absolutely; even if you’re facing a foreclosure situation, you can still qualify.  Q: It can’t be perfect, right? What are some of the drawbacks?  A: Truthfully, there aren’t many drawbacks, and that’s because today’s updated reverse mortgage is a far cry from the troublesome old version (e.g., investors taking the title of your home while you get charged exorbitant rates). This loan product has been taken over by the Federal Housing Administration, which, along with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, now guarantees and insures it. We’ve heard plenty of horror stories in the past, but the fundamental flaws of the loan have been fixed.  Hopefully, this information has been helpful if you’re someone who’s been contemplating a reverse mortgage. If you have further questions about this or any other topic, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send an email. I’d love to hear from you and have a more in-depth, one-on-one conversation.

In today's Daily Download episode HW+ Managing Editor Brena Nath is joined by HousingWire Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler to discuss the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. In today's Daily Download episode, Brena and Sarah discuss Dave Stevens' recent in-depth article that covers the adverse market refinance fee.For more background on what is discussed, here is a preview of today's interview:Q: In your opinion, what's one piece of news that you think people need to be paying attention to?Sarah Wheeler: We just published a piece from Dave Stevens, who is of course the former CEO of the MBA but also the former senior vice president of single family at Freddie Mac, executive vice president at Wells Fargo, and assistant secretary of housing and FHA Commissioner, so a guy who kind of knows what he's talking about. We asked him last week, [to] look at the adverse market fee, given the third quarter earnings of Fannie and Freddie, which came out last week.We really wanted to get his thoughts because there's been a lot of questions on the adverse market fees on refis. It's 50 basis points for the average homeowner right now in the middle of a pandemic. So we asked him to give us his opinion on whether that's really needed. The GSEs had different reasons for doing that and said it was because of risk. They also said it was because of all the work that they're doing with refis and origination.Dave Stevens gave an amazing take on that today that I'd not miss out on reading. I think anyone in the industry would be really interested to see what he says, and he really feels like it has absolutely nothing to do with risk. And given their third quarter earnings, it's really a travesty to put that on homeowners right now. It also affects our industry. But really, it's the bottom line for homeowners who are trying to refi to get into a better economic spot.The Daily Download examines the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsroom that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Victoria Wickham.Q: It's a big week this week. What can we expect to come out of the newsroom today, tomorrow and the rest of the week?Sarah Wheeler: We obviously have the election this week, which is the biggest thing. So, we're going to be interviewing different industry experts on the results. Whether it's the mortgage industry or talking to people in the real estate industry, we want to talk about it. Some top housing issues are really hanging in the balance, like Fannie and Freddie exiting conservatorship, what happens to the FHFA director, what happens to the CFPB. Be sure to tune in starting really late Tuesday night and into Wednesday.We'll definitely be keeping you up to date, especially on the things how the 2020 election impacts housing. While there's tons of election coverage out there, our goal is really to give you the news nowhere else. And if you're in our industry, who else is going to be covering the specifics of how this impacts your business? So that's really our goal.HousingWire articles covered in this episode:

Venerable Robina Courtin teaches on "Mahamudra: How to Discover Our True Nature.", a book of Lama Yeshe's teachings edited by Venerable Robina. The original teachings by Lama Yeshe were given in Bendigo, Australia in 1981; hosted by Atisha Centre. Lama Yeshe tells us that mahamudra is “the universal reality of emptiness, of nonduality” and its unique characteristic is its emphasis on meditation: “With mahamudra meditation there is no doctrine, no theology, no philosophy, no God, no Buddha. Mahamudra is only experience.” (http://bit.ly/MahamudraFPMTShop) Lama Yeshe's famous teaching style is fully present in this book, according to the book's editor, Ven. Robina Courtin: “His words are not only experiential but also direct, funny, deceptively simple, and incredibly encouraging—enlightenment seems possible.” (from the FPMT website http://bit.ly/Mahamudra1) Q: The best way to view our mind habits.....is to focus on it? ie viewing a child with love or annoyance...and see the mind habits behind this? (1:13) Q: Does the guru have to be a "lama" .. can it be a venerable? (5:45) Q: When Lama Tsong Khapa saw the Light Buddha Manjushri - did he then describe what he saw and an artist then drew an image of this? And is this how we know what Green Tara, Medicine Buddha and all the Light Buddhas look like? (7:12) Q: I see such new level of lack of morality and fear in society now and I feel and see this everywhere I look...this has really unsettled me and I am asking your opinion on how to not get so upset about all the horrible pervasive anger /misery in the world. (8:07) Q: I have ‘restless leg syndrome' (inability to sit for long). My question is on the authenticity of practising Calm Abiding while walking (maybe slowly & mindfully)? (10:55) How to "Meditate on your mind" (25:08) Letting go (of anger) (48:12) Q: I found it difficult to not label it. (1:03:10) Q: I get lost in the words "watch" the mind. Am I only interested in the vision that I see when my eyes are shut (the tv screen) or am I "watching" or listening to the conversation that comes up as well? (1:03:47) Q: What are the antidotes to excited energy and sluggishness when they appear? (1:04:47) Q: Where should one start if in an acute emotional/psychological state? (1:08:20) Q: It felt (mahamudra meditation) like I was in a bathroom with a wall mirror on each side and you look in the mirror and see your image reflected endlessly (1:10:15) Q: In regards to the story of the sherpa monk, couldn't the monk have purified his karma by the buddhist practice without having died at that time when he went back home? Also wouldn't the decision to allow him to die by not getting the doctor for the monk cause bad karma because of the decision leading to his death even though it was done with a compassionate mind? (1:11:19) Venerable Robina reading Lama Yeshe's teaching about emptiness (Chapter 8 from the Mahamudra book: https://bit.ly/MahamudraFPMTShop) (1:15:21) *** May anyone who sees, hears, thinks of, remembers or has anything to do with even a moment of these teachings, create the causes for enlightenment within their mindstream. The merit created through the uploading and accessing, viewing, listening to or remembering of these teachings is dedicated to the long life and continued teaching of all teachers of the Mahayana, to the immediate rebirth of Judy and (all those beings who have recently died) into Amitabha's pure realm, to the benefit of the people whose names were added to the dedication list during the weekend course and to all beings in all the six realms.

Q: It seems to my knowing that the pain and the constant difficulty in the body brings me to a new place of surrendered-ness and openness. Yes, it has taken me to a place where I'm noticing surrendered-ness. That's the flow. B: Yes, there's nothing like pain to move an awakened being on, really. Just a little bit of pain, ouch, and you could move in the deep or in the shallow. If you're really awake, then a little bit of pain somehow loosens the grip of the conditional forms that are hanging around. Whether you, whether in the field, it really doesn't matter, but a little bit of pain says actually I don't belong to this pain. I'm not trying to get rid of it, this pain inspires me to be ultimately true. But get to the point where you don't need pain to be ultimately true. I think that's pretty good. Q: The pain seems to constantly bring me to my knees. It's like giving up of condition, how it should look like, how the body should be and it's just constantly like giving up. B: Yes. Well it's total. Well what we are really is total surrendered-ness. We arrived. Not through wanting or needing, we just arrive. And yeah to return you'll need to return the way you arrived. So you'll have to follow that streaming, and you didn't stream to hold onto anything, you didn't stream to change anything, you didn't stream to get anything, you streamed. Remember when you were a baby if you can, you streamed up to form and back as easy as the sun shines and clouds pass in the sky, you just, you knew the way. But what you didn't know was that the purpose and meaning of form and how form behaves. You didn't know how it behaves. You didn't know how mind behaves, that's a form, you didn't know how thought behaves, that's a form, you didn't know how feelings. You didn't know anything, so you had to enter all that form is and really know yourself before you could love yourself and release you of yourself. And then be, instead of being intimate as somebody, return to intimacy as Being, Knowledge.

Q - Why do you think the killing of George Floyd has grabbed worldwide attention and ignited a movement to rectify injustice, institutionalised racism and police brutality?Q - What can white disciples do to support and comfort our black family that are hurting?Q - What are unhelpful responses from the white disciples to these events and why?Q - What are unhelpful ways that black disciples can engage with their white brothers and sisters on this topic?Q - It can be hard to have conversations on these issues. From Whites there is guilt, fragility and fear saying insensitive things that only make things worse.  What can they do to educate themselves?Q - How can all minority groups in our churches worldwide forge a way to help the church value them and their cultural sensitivities?

Reclaiming your Power with Marina Sigalova  Marina Sigalova: Coach & Theta Healer  Helps women awaken to their highest potential    Q:  Can you share with us your personal journey?  A:   I'm so excited to be here with you and to share my journey  Reconnecting women to their power is a big topic for me because I had to go through this myself. I had many ups & downs through my life  I started searching for different healing modalities  A few years later, I found myself really stuck. My career was successful but I really hated my job  I was successful on the outside but deep within I felt like an absolute failure I discovered how the subconscious mind works and how my beliefs were attracting certain things into my life  We internalize many things from our childhood and form deep beliefs  I realized that I was being abused I realized that many women live in destructive patterns and they don't know why I discovered within myself that I was also carrying old, outdated genetic patterns as well  Deep inside, a lot of us believe: “I am nothing as a woman” and it's really important to heal this  When I healed my beliefs, everything changed in my life  I created the life that I really, really want only after I was able to change my subconscious beliefs   Q:  It takes doing healing work, and having an honest look at your beliefs. I think a lot of us are just not aware of some of the subconscious beliefs that are really dictating our lives. Can you explain to us how Theta Healing works?  A:  This test is actually from kinesiology  The way it works: Our muscles connect to our nervous system, which is connected to our subconscious mind  The muscle test can reveal what is being held in the subconscious mind  How the healing works: Our subconscious mind is 90% of our brain. We're not aware of it. It holds all the feelings, memories, emotions & beliefs from our experiences  It runs our lives, and we're often not aware of it  In Theta Healing, we go into the brain waves associated with meditation  Through this, we get access to our subconscious mind  We go to the bottom belief, and change it - Everything on the top just dissolves  We heal beliefs on a core level, a genetic level, a history level, and soul level We change limiting beliefs, and teach the person what it feels like to be in love and joy We heal using the energy of creation     Q:  How long do people typically have to work with you before they see results in their life?  A:  It all depends  Sometimes one session is enough, beliefs can be changed instantly  Theta Healing is the fastest & most effective modality, in my opinion    Q:  What are some of the most common beliefs that you're working with, with your clients?  A:  The feeling of being unworthy is so common  Almost all people are lacking love in their live: true, creation love    Q:  Where do you think unworthiness stems from?  A:  It comes from so many things, but I often start with childhood  If the people who are supposed to love you actually criticize & punish you, you can create feelings of unworthiness based on this feedback  It's not about blaming, our parents only did their best  It's really important to heal the story, heal the resentment   Q: When you're working with people, do the clients that you're working with have to remember a traumatic event, or can you heal through the theta brain state without having to remember specific events?  A:  They may not remember, but as we start going through this process, they will start remembering  I guide them by asking questions  Usually people remember. You don't have to relive it. It doesn't have to be traumatic, but it's important to observe    Q:  In your opinion, does everyone have something to heal?  A:  Some people are just not ready for this work, and that's ok   I'm not sure it's correct to say everyone needs healing, but most people more-or-less need it  Even just existing in our society, we need to release    Q:  Yes, we pick up a lot of stress from the collective, the media. It creates fear based beliefs. The topic of this interview - reconnecting to your power. What is this power?  A:  For me, power is knowing who I am  Having a clear vision of what I want in my life, and following that unapologetically  Currently, when I work with people, we work on beliefs that are covering this  Being powerful, is actually being YOU  To step into your power actually means to connect back to the soul    Q:  Being powerful is being YOU. It's connecting to your truth and knowing why you're here. So many of us are caught up in living up to expectations and being busy. What advice do you have for the woman listening who feels disconnected from her purpose?  A:  All people have good intuition, for some people it's just buried very deep down  My advice is actually to stop asking for advice from other people  Listen to YOU  Start tuning in to your body on a daily basis to tune into your intuition  Clearing beliefs around connecting your intuition and connecting to your soul can be helpful    Q:  It can be a fear of being judged as well. For example, women who are already on this path, but a part of them is ashamed of putting it out there A:  Yes, and I think it's really important to have faith & persistence on this path    Q:  If you want in this lifetime to connect with your power and your truth, do the work. If anyone's listening to this today, and they're ready to do the work, how can they work with you?  A:  First of all you can book a call with me: tell me your story and what you'd like to have in your life  I work with women in person and online  I do one off sessions  Usually I work on a 3 month basis, 6 month basis with packages  Packages help to build momentum with the healing  I work with women who want to step into their power, heal beliefs, health issues, helping with anything that women would like to achieve in their life    Q:  No matter where you are as you're listening to this, you can be healed and you can change  A:  The creator supports you, if you suffer or if you are happy There is no need to suffer  LINKS: Clarity Call - 20 minute call to discover if we are a good match and decide on the next steps Instagram - www.instagram.com/marina_sigalova Work with Marina - https://www.marinasigalova.com/book-an-appointment-2

Driving is often the key to independence with many older adults and family members struggling to make the best decisions around this ability and resource.  Terry Cassidy, Occupational Therapist, certified Driver Rehabilitation Specialist for Fitness to Drive and owner of Health Promotion Partners shares this discussion with Maile Gray, Executive Director of Drive Smart as they talk about signs that driving may be at risk, the evaluation processes they use and most importantly how to transition out of driving and yet keep on living. Aging with Altitude is recorded in the Pikes Peak region with a focus on topics of aging interest across the country.  We talk about both the everyday and novel needs and approaches to age with altitude whether you're in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida or Leadville, Colorado.  The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging is the producer.  Learn more at Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging. Transcript:  Today's episode is about transit and independence. My name is Michaela Nichols and I'm here with Terry Cassidy and Maile Grey. Terry is a licensed occupational therapist and a certified driver rehabilitation specialist at Health Promotion Partners. Miley is the Executive Director of Drive Smart Colorado.   Q - Can you both give a short introduction about what you do?  A – Sure. I'm the director like you said of a small community traffic safety education program. We're a non-profit and we've been around since the 1980s. We have a series of programs, kind of from birth on up through you know teenage years, working with communities and we have a very, very, robust program geared toward the older driver. Our entire focus, our mission for the nonprofit, is to reduce crashes. Thus, reducing injuries and fatalities. So, our work with the older driver, is to focus on making sure that they drive as long as they can safely do so. So, we have some little tips we give presentations, we partner with Terry, and basically have a good time with the aging population.  Michaela - Thank you   Terry - I'm Terry and I'm the owner and operator of Health Promotion Partners. Our main program is the Fitness to Drive Program. And so, through that problem, we do driver evaluations. I really see our role as helping individuals and helping families to make decisions around driving. So, certainly when we're talking about older drivers, really looking at skills related to driving, really helping people make decisions. Do they need to cut back, do they need to change some things, or maybe they need to find alternatives to driving in order to get around in the community?  Q - As people age, they can begin to experience decreased ability to safely drive. Can you talk about some of the signs that people may be losing the ability to drive safely?  Terry - Sure. You know there are definitely warning signs, and there's a list of them available, there are some good lists, we can give you some resources for those. but one piece I would like to mention, is it's not to me that ability or losing the ability drive, isn't related directly to age. so, there are factors like are physiologically that tend to be more common as people get older, but certainly when I'm looking at someone's ability to drive it's really about function more so then the date they were born. but in terms of the driving ability things that are commonly changing with age would be things like vision. the amount of light someone needs to have good vision. also, that reaction time, making quick decisions in the moment. sometimes some physical changes, neck range of motion can really impact safe driving in terms of being aware of what's going on around your vehicle. and even moving hand and foot movements can be issues there. I think in terms of warning signs that a family member would notice, or maybe someone drivers themselves, and things we ask families to keep an eye out for would be dents or scratches on car that there's maybe not an explanation for. certainly, somebody getting lost in a familiar environment is a warning sign the third should be a little more investigation done. and you know one that we mention a lot is if there's people in your life who are not wanting to ride with you. so that might be your child sometimes it could be a very good friend who is trying to help you out there so listening to people around you sometimes and   Maile - to tag on a little bit to Terry, oftentimes the family members don't necessarily notice the changes in mom or dad driving because say you go to visit them it's pretty typical for the younger, the adult child the adult family member, to actually take over the driving while they're visiting or such. and so sometimes you might say well yeah my mom or dad is just doing great, well when was last time you actually let them drive? you know so that might be something to keep in mind that periodically, you as a family member, let that person drive you around a little bit. and then you might have a better understanding of where they're at when it comes to their ability to safely drive. and like Terry said, I think I think most people can drive from their house to the grocery store, or their House or to the doctor's office, in the perfect world. but we don't live in a perfect world, and there are people out there who are who do things like run stop signs and run stoplights and are very distracted these days and for that reaction time to really be keen you know to be able to really slam on their brakes, or to be able to really maneuver out-of-the-way of somebody else. might not be your driving, but to be able to protect yourself and people in your car. That's kind of a tricky situation.  Q - Can you talk about the process of assessing someone's driving and the steps that you take?  Terry - Sure, so as you mentioned in the beginning my background is as an occupational therapist so really my evaluation all comes from that standpoint. but we're really looking at the skills related to driving. so, some of those warning signs or factors that I mentioned earlier we do a really thorough evaluation of vision. so not just the eye chart, but an interesting vision piece is contrast sensitivity, and something that's not measured very often, and that is a visual skill that does tend to decrease with age. There is actually more evidence linking contrast sensitivity to crashes than acuity. so it's just kind of interesting.  Maile - Can you explain Terry what contrast sensitivity is?  Terry - I can try, yes. so, I explain contrast sensitivity as really being able to tell foreground from background. so, I think of somebody driving, around here, I think of seeing a deer at dawn. like you're going down the street, if your vision is crisp and you're awake, you'll notice it- but it would be easy to drive by and not even notice that there was a deer on the side of the road, or somebody in a dark sweatshirt in the evening. so really pertains to low light conditions and so that's just one piece of what I could look at. So, what I would look at but a lot of times somebody would decrease contrast sensitivity in my recommendation might be that may not drive at night, for example.  Maile - so, it does not necessarily mean you can't drive at all it just means you might need to self-limit or have some serious suggestions made to you about where you should drive and when you should drive  Terry - so aside from vision. I would look at strength and range of motion. some of those things I talked about. movement, being able to check your blind spots, or turning your head. and then I do have some equipment that looks at brake reaction time. so really just testing that motor speed of going from gas pedal to brake pedal, based on what that person is seeing the red or green lights there. I always do some sort of cognitive assessment. so, it's just a screening, but really looking at memory. working memory and cognition to some extent as part of it. really because it's driving involves so much brain work. We just, it's such an overlearned task we don't realize that we're working so hard when we're driving, but really there's a lot to it  Q - Can you talk about some of the small adjustments that can be made to help assist with safer driving?  Terry - yeah, I'm going to let Maile talk about car fit for little bit here  Maile - So, car fit. I actually was taught car fit by Terry, but she's been real busy doing all of our other things. For the most part I kind of have done a lot of car fit trainings and events in our community. Car fit is an international program that was developed in 2006 by AAA, the American Occupational Therapy Association, and AARP. So those folks got together and thought, can't we just do something that helps seniors, or really anybody, make sure that they fit in their car properly. That they can do things simply, like eliminate the blind spot, which really helps in the range of motion for your neck. If you eliminate blind spots out of your sideview mirrors, you don't have to careen your neck so far in order to see a car coming up on your side. That does a couple things, in these days of extreme distracted driving, the longer you take your eyes away from the windshield and from what's in front of you, even to look behind you to see who's coming up on the side of you, could mean the difference of a crash or not. So, the less time that you take your eyes away from the road the better. So, we have little tips. You know, simple, simple, things that all, and i really want to stress this, is really for all ages. When people buy a car these days, they're taught about Bluetooth, they're taught about the little blinking lights for, you know in the side view mirrors, they're taught about all the info-tainment section, on maps. They're taught about all this stuff. But they're not reviewed on how they should sit, how far away should you sit from your steering wheel, which is really not just your steering wheel but it's where the airbag deploys. So, we remind people that they want to keep that 10-inch zone between their chest and the steering wheel, airbag deployment zone. You don't ever want to sit real close to the steering wheel, like you see a lot of people driving, sometimes more the older person. because perhaps they've shrunk a little bit, they're not quite as tall as they once were, so they are sitting closer to the steering wheel to see things. So, you know, those are very simple to show them and remind them how you tilt your steering wheel so that it's tilted down toward your chest and not your face, because you don't want the airbag coming up at your face. Most people do not realize that their seat belt up by their shoulder actually can slide up and down to accommodate a taller person or shorter person, so that you make sure that that seat belt is riding across your collarbone and not like across your neck or down low on your shoulder. You really need that seat belt to be sitting across your collarbone, and then the lap portion to be low on your hips below your tummy. Those little reminders can actually make the difference between life and death, or at least severe injury. So, this is a 12-point check, this car fit event, a 12-point little checklist that we go through. And I am telling you every single person that gets out of there has some kind ‘ah-ha!' moment that they didn't realize. And so, anything that we can do for them, the more we can educate the public on how to make sure that their car actually fits them properly. We don't look at their driving. We don't evaluate their driving at all. We only wanna see how they sit in their driver seat, and it can even be used for the passenger as well, some of these little tips. So, it's just really important to remember that, when you get in the car, make sure your steering wheel is not tilted up towards your face, make sure your sideview mirrors and your rearview mirror are all adjusted properly. Make sure that that you're just ready to go, that it fits you and not your spouse who is 6 foot four and you're 4 foot 11. You're not seeing things the same way, but oftentimes people don't make those personal adjustments every time they get in the car. So, these are all just super simple and it's a very, very, enjoyable free service. And you can find a car fit technician by going to car-fit.org and you can find a technician in your area.  Terry - and if I could just add to that, car fit is really fun and great program. as I said it's not an evaluation of driving, it's really, I think of it as how well someone is using the safety features of their vehicle. For a lot of individuals, safety features have changed quite a bit since they started driving so there's..  Maile – Well there ARE safety features  Terry -..to me,  I would say along the lines of small adjustments. In terms of helping your driving ability, to me, really goes along with healthy habits for life. Things like exercise, getting your eyes checked, taking your medications, walking keeping your brain active. You know, the kind of things that I think are good for our bodies and our brains throughout our lives. Those things are going to impact your driving as well.  Maile - To tag on to that. I was chatting with a woman one day at the Senior Center, and so she was a little bit elderly, but she's just walking along, and she just did a car fit with me. I said ‘well you did great', she said ‘I learned so much' and she goes ‘you know, I didn't drive for two years because I couldn't move my neck and everything, now I've been taking an exercise class and I'm back in the driver seat'. She goes, it made all the difference for her to get physically active again. So like Terry said, it is really important to maintain that physical fitness, along with everything else, your hearing, your eyes and what not because that is just going to help maintain your health as long as possible so that you can remain as active as possible.  Q - Driving is often seen as a way to stay independent. how would you help convince someone who may no longer be a safe driver to stop driving or limit their driving?  Maile - I do have this conversation with individuals that I see, I wish..  Terry - Its terribly difficult  Maile - ..that I didn't ever have to have this conversation, because nobody wants to.  Often, I'm coming at it from the perspective of, I want to keep somebody, when I look at independence. I'm looking at, are you able to do the things you want to do in your community? So often, we think independence has to mean alone, like I got there by myself. But to me it's very independent if you were able to do the things you need to do. If you're able to get to church, if you're able to get groceries, if you're able to socialize with your friends. And if we can emphasize more on the outcome in that perspective and less on that, (more on) things like did you independently schedule your ride with Silver Key or with Envida or with… you know there's a lot of ways to be independent and not drive yourself, but that's a shift in thinking  Terry - In our community, you know we're fortunate to live in a city of pretty good size. We're a substantial sized city, we're not as big as, you know, Los Angeles or even Denver, but we have over a half a million people living in this community. We're fortunate that we have some programs out there. Transportation options for people. and it depends on your own ability, your own mobility, but you can take the bus, you could ride a cab, or a ride sharing program like Lyft or Uber. But there are, in the Colorado Springs Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments region. There are many open public transportation options that are pretty cost efficient and don't cost a lot of money, and you can find those by the mobility coordinating committee page on the Area Agency for Aging website. But, besides that, they often also rely on family members or friends. But it is the most difficult, probably, conversation that anybody has with a family member, for sure. Because I think that people do associate loss of driving, which they've been doing almost all their lives, with… well it can be very depressing to people. Our goal is to not let those people get to that point of depression by helping suggest other (options like) Silver Key or some of our other programs in our area. Now it is a little more tricky if you live in rural communities, where there are not as many options. And that's a very serious problem and there could be some innovative ridesharing. You know, if you're older and retired and you still have a car, perhaps you can offer your services to help drive somebody to their doctor's appointment, or to get their hair done. Something as simple as getting your hair done is one of the most important things that a lot of women do, and a lot of these transportation options take them to medical appointments, but not necessarily these other social engagements that are part of keeping you a whole person. So, we want to be able to suggest some other options to them so that they can maintain that feeling of being who they have been without driving. It's really a tough it's a tough situation.  Maile - And I will add a little bit here just my belief that as a society where we're going to have to shift to having this conversation more often. Honestly, because people are living longer if you look at generations, in the past it was not as big of a topic as it is now. And the research (shows that) men will outlive their ability to drive by 6 years, women by 10 years. And I often share that with clients, just to know that they're not alone in this, and they're not really being singled out by their family for some reason. This is something that as a society we need to find solutions to. And I think if we get closer to that, then it may not be as difficult of a transition. Because ‘Oh my neighbor down the hall says this service' and ‘my neighbor here', you know as more people are doing it my hope is that it's normalized.  Terry -absolutely  Q - It sounds like you already talked about alternate transportation options, but what do you see in the future of transportation in this area and the surrounding area?  Terry - I think the new buzzword is like autonomous vehicles right and that would just be amazing. Just dial up an autonomous car and they come and pick you up, and off you go to wherever you want (and) whenever you want. That is a ways off. The way people talk about it these days, is they really think this is going to happen within the next five years (for) that type of independence. They are testing them for sure, but when you think of an autonomous car, they do operate on a lot of things, for sure technology, but even as simple as infrastructure the road condition. If we think right now about the roads that we drive on, and the potholes, and the broken lines, because oftentimes they guide themselves on lines and on guardrails and what not. And there's just still a lot of that that needs to be fixed, so that's gonna take a little while. But I think at some point we will be, that will be a reality. I'm not exactly positive when that's going to happen, when it does it's going to be amazing. So that's one thing that we hear a lot about these days, ‘oh autonomous cars, driverless vehicles', it's just going to be a little while. In the meanwhile, we need to do these other things that we've been talking about.   Maile - And I think too, finding ways, I think really turned courage community members to be involved in these discussions. With vehicles, or things along those lines, there's a lot of different ways it could look. And so, there's an ideal way, where there's coordination so that there's not just duplication of services (where you would have) 10 cars on the road for every one car you have right now (and) half of them are empty. You know there's a lot of pieces to that, but I think if it can be coordinated with public input. And I think a really important piece is to look at all the stakeholder. So, is there access for somebody in a wheelchair into an autonomous vehicle or a bus system, whatever that is. Is it appropriate for people, maybe who have low vision or even? So, looking at aging and disability and whatever the future for transit in this area is, I think is an important piece and then really looking at collaboration so there is not duplication.  Terry - And you know (as) we are here talking, we're sitting in the Area Agency on Aging, but honestly the services that like, for example I'm the chair of the mobility coordinating committee through this organization. And a lot of that deals with the disabled. So, it's not you know, we're talking about ability for everyone to be able to get where they want to go, when they want to get there, safely. Not just the older folk, who sometimes are also a little bit disabled in various ways, but it could be someone who's young but has some type of disability, who has a difficult time navigating this situation too. We want everyone to be able to get wherever they want to go safely and efficiently.  Q - Do you have anything else you'd like to share   Maile - If you have any questions about driver evaluation services, I'd be happy to talk to you/ go ahead and give us a call health promotion partners number 719-231-6657 or website is www.healthpromotion partners.com   Terry - and Drive Smart Colorado can be found up at 719-444-7534 and our website is drivesmartcolorado.com, even though we're a non-profit, I don't even know if .org was around when we started, we've been around so long. But it is drive smartcolorado.com. I do want to guide people to the older driver page on that website because it has a lot of good information. It also has a copy that you can download of the Colorado's guide for aging drivers and their families. This is about a 60 page guide, that is we can also send hard copies if you want, but it talks about everything from how to drive a roundabout, what did some of the bike lanes mean and how do you navigate them, because that's confusing to a lot of people. It also talks about Colorado's laws on how you get, how you renew your driver's license and that sort of thing. It also goes through some tips on car fit (like) how to make your mirror adjustments. We also have a planning table. Let's say you want to reduce your driving amount of time, so maybe each week you sit down and you write ‘OK Sunday I'm going to go to the grocery store into church and Monday I'm gonna do this' I mean it's a planning table to kind of help you guide your decisions in your week of driving as well. So, there's a lot of good information in there, so it's Colorado's guide for aging drivers and their families   Michaela - thank you so much Terry and Maile for joining me on this episode of aging with altitude for those interested in learning more about what the Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging offers you can go to ppacg.org or call 719-471-2096. Thank you.  

Inner Child Healing & Healing Following Narcissistic Abuse    Jen Peters  Galactic Soul Guide  Transformational Healer   Q:  Can you give us a better understanding of your story? Can you explain a little bit more about your journey?    A:  In my childhood there was a lot of toxicity  I had no idea until I started healing when I was well into my 30's I had a lot of wounds from early in childhood This built the foundation for how I was living my life  In my 20's, I became desperate for someone to rescue me  I married a man who I thought was perfect for me, but we divorced 14 years later  It was my unhealed wounds that attracted him as a match  Our separation was a big catalyst for change for me  I want to describe what narcissistic abuse is: We hear a lot about narcissists. They are everywhere.  Narcissistic abuse is the systematic destruction of another person's identity, their internal belief system, who they are   Q:  Are narcissists doing this intentionally?    A:  It's quite sad actually  The truth is that narcissism and codependency are two sides of the same coin  It is unhealed wounds from childhood that attracts narcissists in  Their entire survival depends on them doing what they're doing  I do believe that it's possible for people to overcome narcissistic personality disorder, but I've never seen it  They are created from the environment that they're born into   To answer your question: Yes, they know what they're doing, but their survival depends on it. They believe if they stop they will die.  Q:  When you were in this narcissistic relationship, what did your world look like?    A:  It was very dark   To be honest, I was high for a lot of it  As soon as I moved out of that space, I didn't feel the need for drugs anymore  With co-dependent patterning you feel absolutely powerless  A friend of mine put me in touch with a healer  There is no way I could have gotten out of that relationship without the healing work.  We were dissolving patterns that were keeping me stuck in the same situation   Q:  What are some examples of these woundings and patterns?    A:   “Not Good Enough”, “Not Enough”  This causes patterns that lead us to overcompensate because we believe that we're not good enough  Children may become caretakers  Abandonment is also very common  Narcissists need your energy, they want someone who has no boundaries and lets them do what they like They want someone to fix them so they don't have to be responsible for themselves    Q:   I really enjoyed the session with you. For me, it was a beautiful experience. You pretty much meet a younger version of yourself and give them love. I noticed after the session that unconscious behavior dissolved.   Can you explain to everyone listening what a typical inner child session is like? A:  We look at the inner child wound, and work with a trigger for that wound  We'll look at what physical sensations you notice  We'll look at what emotions are there  I'll guide you through connecting with the child that is sitting in that part of your body  We'll go to that child and find out how it is that they're feeling  We connect with the part of the child that never got to be seen or heard We let them know that it's not about them, we give them space to feel loved We ask: “What beliefs have you formed?”, “What patterns have you formed?” We let them know that they don't need to play out those patterns anymore In the process beliefs, wounding and patterning will dissolve Whatever we work on will no longer trigger you. You can notice and step out of your patterns    Q:  Can you speak to how you are able to facilitate this? How do you take us on a journey to meet a younger version of yourself?   A:   I don't exactly know, it just happens  It's one of my gifts You'll be connected with your soul, and your soul knows how to be whole  I'm guided by a Galactic Group  I work a lot with master Jesus, sometimes Buddha and Krishna    Q: How did you tune into these gifts?    A:  I don't know, just by doing it  I knew a year or two into my healing journey that I needed to be helping other people feel the inner peace that I was feeling  With every layer of trauma that we release, we come closer to our own true essence  The closer we are to our true essence, the more clearly we can see what our gifts are    Q:  Do you think everybody has things that need to be cleared?    A:  Yes  Even if you had an amazing childhood, there are likely some beliefs that keep you from who you really are    Q:  It's about new levels of joy and expansion. If you're still falling into the same patterns, inner work is what needs to be done   A:  A lot of people put a lot of time and energy into healing, but a lot of the transformational stuff really needs to be done on a subconscious level    Q:  How can people work with you?    A: My offerings include:   Free Guided Healings available on IGTV, YouTube and Insight Timer To accelerate your healing process I offer Powerful Private sessions, either email me, DM or book via my booking system on my website  I offer a free Guided healing to ‘Meet Your Inner Child' available on my website or click the link in my bio on Instagram   LINKS:    Website: www.jen-peters.com   Instagram: www.instagram.com/Jenpeters_soulguide.healer   Email: jen@jen-peters.com   YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCvtleltp5w7Xh-Qn4RKGbMg   InsightTimer: Jen Peters

Acceptance & Forgiveness - Forgiving Other People & Forgiving Ourselves    Kyla Edwards  Self Mastery Coach, she helps women overcome negative thinking & self doubt  One-on-one coaching program called “Elevate”    Q: What was your story of Self-Mastery & Forgiveness?    I grew up in a very white environment in the Caribbean, I'm mixed race  From an early age, I struggled with acceptance  I wanted to be white like everyone else around me My mother's partner was abusive to me.  I really resented myself, I had a lot of guilt & shame  I wanted to be anyone other than myself The environment I grew up in was very turbulent. It didn't feel safe to be who I was or show emotion  I grew up resenting myself & who I was, including my sexuality  I couldn't look myself in the eye. I got into unhealthy behaviors, and I had a deep sense of loneliness & not feeling fulfilled.   I would do whatever I could to avoid that pain inside  I was in a 5 year relationship, and when that ended I went even deeper into the pain & my addiction intensified I had an incident where I got in trouble with the police, and that was the beginning of my path of change, my awakening  I moved to Australia with the hope of starting a better life  I said a prayer, asked for help, and my recovery process started It was a journey of going back to my childhood & letting go of resentment, accepting who I am  Now I'm proud of who I am, I own my story  We've all done things to hurt others, we just may not be aware of them  I want to help others understand and grow awareness of their inner world and how their thoughts & actions affect others    Q:  When you were at that crucial time, and you chose the process of self-discovery, what was it that really helped you go inwards & heal?    A:  Connecting to a higher power, something that was far greater than me  Looking at my story, realizing that it had happened in my past and I couldn't do anything about it.  It was done  Realizing that all I could think about was what was happening in the present moment  I wanted to be a better person, I didn't want to feel lonely and empty anymore What I was doing wasn't working. Nothing was changing, I was repeating the same mistakes  I knew it was time that I had to do something different  I started to take action to work with source  I started to look at why I was afraid, and what my contribution was to the resentment or fear (accountability)  I started understanding which point in the process I contributed to my own problem  I stopped seeing myself as the victim In the beginning it was a lot of letting go of resentment, and now it's more of a soul journey    Q:  I can feel that the acceptance piece was such a huge part of your evolution. What do you feel acceptance is, and forgiveness is?    A:  Acceptance is the sense of belonging to yourself Accepting the parts of yourself that you want to hide away or reject  Accept your current situation as it is, even the parts that you'd rather not admit  Understanding that who you are & what you're experiencing right now is what you're meant to experience.  Letting go of attachment to the outcome and to the emotion.  Forgiveness brings inner peace & joy  If you can't forgive somebody, that's the ego-mind seeing it as a sign of weakness  Really, forgiveness is letting go of anger. It's acknowledging that something happened, but you're not going to let it hurt you anymore. Understanding that others are in pain, or they wouldn't have done the things that they did  Look at things with compassion  Make a decision not to let the anger & resentment control you anymore  If you hang on to pain, you're literally re-traumatizing yourself over and over again  It takes courage to let go  If you want space for new energy to enter, you have to forgive When you forgive, it's surrendering your ego, practicing humility & aligning more with your true nature  Forgiveness is probably one of the most important teachings to be able to create a new life for yourself    Q:  At what point do we completely accept, or at what point do we try to transcend or change our energy?    A:  When I was trying to change my emotions, I wasn't able to feel the more vulnerable feelings.  What I've learned is that sometimes I need to just sit in the feeling & accept it  Sometimes I ask my body/emotions questions: “What are you trying to tell me? What is your message?” I practice acknowledging what is within me without getting too attached to it  You can practice soul healing  Sometimes initially, the practice is really feeling into whatever is there It took me a while to get that. For a while, I used spirituality as another addiction to avoid my emotions    Q:  It reminds me of the saying “You've got to feel to heal”. I want to move into forgiveness now. How can people actually forgive? Events & people outside of themselves, as well as themselves?    A:  This is a long term practice  I think one of the key things is forgiving from your heart  If it's coming from the head, it can still have toxic energy I started by writing a letter to people who had hurt me, and told them how they actually made me feel.  To get my feelings that I may have repressed out  I didn't send the letters  Forgiveness practice:  I started to talk to the other person's soul.  I would just start speaking, and allow whatever was in my heart to come out  I started to wish for the people who had hurt me the same things I wish for myself.  Even in the beginning if you don't believe it, keep going through the process  When you forgive someone, you let them go & they no longer have ownership over you  For me, it's taken years  You know you've forgiven someone when there's no emotional reaction when someone mentions that person's name to you  For me, I believe in the law of karma, so I also apologize to them Forgiveness is letting emotions out instead of letting it fester inside  You can also say a prayer and ask the Universe for forgiveness  Even if it's intense in the beginning, by the end there is a sense of freedom The Law of Attraction will only bring to you what resonates with your vibration If you hold on to resentment & anger, that's what you'll attract back  It's become an important part of my daily practice to recognize when I make mistakes and do a forgiveness practice    Q:   How are you helping women through your Elevate Program?  I love your description of “Purging the Past” Can you tell us a bit more about the program?    A:  13 week program  I'm a certified emotional coach  I use applied kinesiology (muscle testing) & channeling  We look at entities and past lives  We'll start to look through your fields, emotion codes  We'll release the heart wall - a protective wall that can restrict your flow of abundance  I like to test to see where your self-esteem sits on the scale of consciousness  If your vibration is low, we'll start to release blockages Workable content: Self compassion, acceptance, forgiveness letters  Worksheets to look/reflect on yourself  You have everything you need within you, this is a practice to cut away what's blocking you from your own power Compassion, acceptance, forgiveness We'll break down fears & start to make them rational  I connect with source and give soul guidance  Start being able to look at things from a different perspective Practicing gratitude Transforming old negative messages into positive messages Teaching people how to be aware of what's going on in their internal world  Checking abundance levels & blocks  It's a process from the past, to reset the mind, and check your magnetism to what's you're attracting  Learn exactly where you're at, so you know exactly what you need to do  LINKS:    Free Breakthrough Calls - Learn more about working with Kyla - https://awakenher.as.me/   Instagram - www.instagram.com/awaken_her_with_love

Serial Entrepreneurship - How to Use Spirituality for Success   Geraldine Convento  Business Woman  Influencer  YouTube Personality  Has her own marketing, SEO, Web Optimization Company    Q:  How did you become an entrepreneur?  A:  From San Francisco Bay area  I grew up in a family with siblings that were a lot older than me, I grew up around a lot of adults  I noticed that everyone was really busy working for other people, and sometimes worked multiple jobs I thought if I had my own business I could make more time for myself  I was working in the corporate world, I decided to go to business school so I could start my own business. I had no idea what kind of business I was going to run.  I started all these different businesses  I really enjoyed creating my own business, putting hours into my own creations and fulfilling my own dreams & desires  Over time, my capacity became limited as a solo entrepreneur, it became really discouraging  Later on I discovered the power of having business partnerships & teams, and it totally transformed my experience as an entrepreneur, and that's what led me to having multiple businesses today    Q: When you say serial entrepreneur, you're talking about multiple businesses and multiple revenue streams, not necessarily the trap of jumping from one to the next. You're talking about aligned, grounded businesses and revenue streams, correct? A:  Yes, it's having multiple income streams that are all aligned.    Q:  For those listening, that might be starting one business and jumping to the next before it takes off - what advice can you give them to ground and build a business that is aligned and purpose driven?  A:   When I was starting businesses and it wasn't working, it came down to identifying what my limiting beliefs were This is where the spirituality comes into play  If something isn't working, there may be a limiting belief  I started taking seminars and finding resources to get to know myself I've come into a direct relationship with self-love, and finding the best way to connect with spirit I had to learn communication styles and understand how other people think and feel  Entrepreneurship is a self-development journey In that journey, there can be a lot of trial & error    Q:  I love how you mentioned that entrepreneurship and personal development are one in the same  I want to go into the topic of limiting beliefs a little bit. What were some of the limiting beliefs that you had to uncover, and what are some common limiting beliefs that you see? A:   I'm not good enough  I don't have the skills, I can't do that  I find people might set their prices low because they believe that they don't have the skills or experience, but then they don't have the money to add more education Whether it's a product or service, the value has to be energetically aligned    Q:  Pricing is one aspect of your business to look at and feel into any beliefs around worthiness and how it's showing up in your pricing strategy  What are some of the things that you did to uncover and transcend your limiting beliefs?  A:  The uncovering came through crying or feeling bad  I was someone who liked to keep uncomfortable emotions in the background  Early on in my career, I would reach out to people who seemed to be really successful, and I discovered they were going through the same thing as me  Building community  Reaching out to mentors and coaches Finding a network of people to build you up when you're feeling down    Q:   I want to talk more about the spirituality side of things As we grow our business model to have multiple businesses or team members, how can we leverage spirituality?  A:  Having access to your creativity and inner genius is critical in this process  I used meditation to connect to spirit  Epsom Salt baths - to clear any negative energy  Sage  Having crystals & stones around  I've also tried things like sweat lodges and moon clearing ceremonies    Q:  Those are great for clearing lower vibrational energies What about the work aspect? How often can we sit in meditation and how often do we have to take action? What is the balance?  A:  I think we have to set aside time  Breathing has always been a huge resource for me. It is the one thing you can control that no one else can   If I get caught up in the day-to-day hustle or anxiety, breathing can really help with that   Q:   It's important to have tools that keep you grounded when there's a lot going on  To help us understand where our actions are coming from in the moment  A:  One of the things I've come across is the map of consciousness by Dr. Hawkins  It helps me to understand the levels of emotion and where they lie    Q:  Having a tool or a system to check in with yourself throughout the day is really helpful and a great way to be accountable  A:  If you want to learn more about the map of consciousness I highly recommend the book: “Power vs Force” by Dr. David Hawkins    Q:  What are some other ways that you are using spirituality for success in your serial entrepreneurship journey?  A:  I'm starting to build communities around spirituality  I used to keep my spiritual practices in the background, but now I'm sharing it more  I'm learning to feel comfortable with spirituality being more of who I am    Q:  A lot of women in our community are “In the Spiritual Closet”  We need to share to give other people permission to stand in their power as well  It helps to light the path for others  Can you tell us about your upcoming events?  A:  I've been doing some immense study around subconscious beliefs & Law of Attraction.  These upcoming events are in the Bay Area:  Jan 18th - SAGE & RISE http://bit.ly/sage-rise-bay-area  Divine Feminine & Masculine, Clearing Limiting Beliefs, Understanding true potential  Jan 22nd - BEYOND SELF SABOTAGE http://bit.ly/beyond-self-sabotage  Getting to know what self-sabotage is, why it happens, what you can do to recognize it and get rid of it    Q:  How do you have the time to do all of this?  A:  I have teams are in place to make sure everything gets done  Structures & processes  Commitment   Q:   As you show that this is possible, you're inspiring so many others. Thank you for sharing your story If people want to get in touch with you, but they're not in the Bay area, how can they work with you?    A:   LINKS:   Jan 18th - Sage and Rise - http://bit.ly/sage-rise-bay-area Jan 25th: Beyond Self-Sabotage - http://bit.ly/beyond-self-sabotage Instagram - www.instagram.com/geraldineconvento Website - www.geraldineconvento.com - Content Form   I offer coaching re: serial entrepreneurship. I like to connect first and see how we can work together   Power vs. Force  (Book) - https://www.bookdepository.com/Power-vs-Force-David-R-Hawkins/9781401945077

In this finale episode of Season 1, Barry O’Reilly takes the time to answer questions posed by listeners. He reached out via social media and allowed his followers to ask him anything about himself, the podcast, or things they might want to learn and unlearn. Here are several of the questions posed and Barry’s answers: Q: What takes up too much of your time? (Helen, Melbourne AUS) A: Noisy notifications. Non-specific interruptions that disrupt my flow are frustrating for me. I don’t like interruptions or context switching because it limits my progress. Q: How do you measure success for the podcast? (Caroline, New York USA) A: I’m more interested in outcome-based measures of success. I know it’s going to be a great show when a guest says “I’ve never shared this story before,” or “I never thought of it like that.” Those authentic conversations, and getting feedback from listeners that they feel they’re part of them, are really powerful for me.  Q: What has been the single best day of 2019, and why? (Prithi, Bangalore IND) A: Being sent a photo of Serena Williams reading Unlearn. It was especially poignant because watching her story on TV was a major unlearning moment for me. It forced me to acknowledge that there were things I needed to adapt in myself to achieve the outcomes I wanted. Seeing her reading my book was inspiring and felt like a closed feedback loop. Q: What’s the most counterintuitive skill to unlearn? (Simon, San Francisco USA) A: Definitely the concept of coaching. We seem to think that only people who are underperforming need coaching. However, the highest performing persons have and actively seek out coaches to help them improve. Coaching has certainly been one of the best investments I’ve ever made in myself. Q: Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is nearly impossible for me. What do you do to actively get uncomfortable? (Kirstie, Helsinki FIN) A: Actually, I feel uncomfortable if I’m not doing something uncomfortable! Trying new things, embracing counterintuitive ideas challenges your thinking and your belief systems, but it also gives you evidence that either supports your original beliefs or the new idea. I encourage you to think about one small step you can take on the edge of your comfort zone. How can you improve by even half a point? Get someone you trust to rate you in that area at the beginning, then at the end of one week. Q: It’s often said that the biggest blocker to success is fear? How do you unlearn fear? (Adrian, Johannesburg, SA) A: By thinking big but starting small. Taking small steps lets you find out what works and what doesn’t. You being to feel successful. As you continue to take those small steps, you improve and gain momentum. You start to see change happening. This is the antidote to fear: small wins create belief, show evidence and make it safe to fail. Q: What’s the best piece of advice you have been given? (Yuko, Tokyo JPN) A: That you don’t only get one shot at success, there are actually many. Entrepreneurship for me is about life and life is about growth through learning experiences. When things don’t go the way you want, the trick is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get ready for your next shot. As my cousin Phillip would say: “if you’re still breathing you haven’t failed. Make sure you learn something for the next spin and go get inspired and do it again.” What To Expect in 2020  Barry says that in the next iteration of the Unlearn Podcast, he will be interviewing guests from a broader range of industries, not just technology. He’s excited to hear about their journey to unlearn.

Emotional Support for the Holiday Season    Christine Thethi    Essential Oil Practitioner  Diamond Doterra Rep  Mother of two  Committed to showing people how they can live more holistically using essential oils    Q:  What drew you to essential oils?  How do they support you and your health?    A:  I have 2 kids, my kids are 9 and 6  I was dealing with a lot of emotion, postpartum depression  I was a full time dental assistant at the time One of my friends reached out to me about essential oils, I was asking if she had anything to help with anxiety & depression  For me to ask & share my emotions was a very big deal (5 - 6 years ago this was spoke about even less)  My friend gave me some samples I started to create a new habit of using the essential oils  I felt so many benefits, both for myself & my children  Your body can heal itself if you have the proper tools  I became extremely passionate about learning about them  Frankincense was the key oil that helped me at that time   Q:    They are potent and powerful.  Can you explain how essential oils work?    A:  They are volatile aromatic compounds from stems, roots, seeds (parts of plants)  Doterra sources their oils from their natural environment. For example, they get their lavender from France where it grows Doterra is safe to take internally because of its purity  Anyone can create an essential oil and label it “100% pure”  There isn't a governing body around this Doterrra does sourcing & testing to make their oils safe - powerful + potent Oils are essentially nature's medicine    Q:  In my conversation with Elaina a few weeks ago she was talking about how every plant has medicine to support us.  What kind of emotional conditions are people working through & getting great results from essential oils?    A:   Stress, anxiety, depression  We're living in a crazy world right now with mental health  The biggest thing I'm finding right now is people looking for emotional support  Doterra has seen this shift in what people need, and have created a blend called “Adaptive” to help with mental health  They have a mental health line - 6 different blends I experienced the benefits of these oils… when I first started using them I thought they smelled awful  I realized that I needed them and now I love them  Everybody is different in how the essential oils affect us, and also, your body can change  For example, lavender may not work for someone, but after some time, it may have a different effect    Q:   What top 3 oils would you recommend for support this holiday season?    A:   Frankincense:  Is literally the oil that is good for everything.  It supports your cellular health, as well as your emotions  Frankincense will enhance the effectiveness of other oils  Eg.  If you take peppermint for a headache, frankincense will enhance its effect    Adaptive:  Calming Blend    Balance - Grounding Blend    On Guard - Blend for Immunity in the Winter    Q:  It's so beautiful how the world is waking up to the essence of nature and how it can support us    A:   I love helping people  It lights me up to hear how essential oils have helped people    Q:  It's a way of helping people understand their own healing power. How can people listening get started with all of this, how can they work with you?   A:   Find me at Be Pure to You (I'm in the process of a rebrand)  I offer samples to anyone for free.  Send me a message and I'll happily set you up with some samples For Dec, doterra is offering free frankincense and $50 free for anyone getting started  I will help, support & guide you on how to use the oils.  I'll be there every step of the way  Essential oils can be used for skin care, making cleaning products, and so much more  LINKS:    Instagram:  www.instagram.com/be.pure.to.you/    Facebook:  www.facebook.com/bepuretoyou   Website: www.cpurelyessentials.com   

Connecting to Our Sacredness Through Nature    Elaina Cochran - Elated Earth    Works with flower & plant Essences Facilitates guided healing through nature connection   Q:  What has been your personal story, and how did you come to be more connected to nature?    A:   Over the past 10 years I've been on the path of Shamanism  The beilef in Shamanism is that everything has a spirit  This was something that I had always felt, but Shamanism gave me a language and a way of understanding it more  I was doing this on the side while I was doing my photography and portrait business  I started to shift my photography to show that we live in an artful and beautiful world This was kindof a starting point, as I used my photography to connect others to nature A few years ago I started getting intuitive messages about plant energy work  I felt a drive to connect to essences, I started to hear messages about the healing properties of plants, and when I looked it up, it always matched the messages I was receiving  I worked with my husband one day and I could see where the energy was blocked in his body and how the plants were helping him, so this led to me doing individual sessions    Q:  You mentioned experiencing nature with your heart, not your eyes.  How can everyday women make the shift from enjoying nature with the mind to feeling it with the heart?    A:   I feel like that is “the journey” for everyone… to remember that our hearts are our actual guidance system, and our brains our here to help us process what we know in our hearts  Sometimes we want to overcomplicate things… something simple like consciously being barefoot can really help you connect to nature  Remembering that there is no separation - we are a part of nature and the beauty that we see  Step into our connection to nature as a relationship, in gratitude  Be curious & conscious, connecting to everything around us    Q:  What are some other ways that you can suggest to make this connection and open ourselves up to nature?    A:   Shift your perception about what nature is   You can connect to a houseplant… Connect to your breath as you would to prepare for meditation.  Focus your gaze on the plant and explore and shifts that you feel - no matter how subtle Make yourself an empty container, and be open to what you receive.  Be curious.  You can do this with trees, or a flower - treat it as a friend.  It shifts how you are interacting with the world around you    Q:  Do you think we all have this ability to channel these messages from plants?    A:  Absolutely.  We're all intuitive, we can all open up and practice using our intuition    Q:  Does every plant have a message?    A:  Everything has its own message and vibration.  We can all communicate with our natural world.  I feel like it's a source of deep healing for our society.  Our society has become more and more disconnected from nature.   It's about shifting our understanding and perspective of what's around us    Q:  Tell me some examples of how you've worked with people, and how you've been able to use plants to heal them?    A:   A lot of people have come out of curiosity, it takes a desire and a willingness to step into the unknown  In sessions, there's a lot of clearing that can happen.  A lot of times when we have truama, pain, or negative patterns we have energetic residue left in our bodies  I can see this in people Plants want us to be in our power… so the practice is about “clearing house” or clearing out things that hold us back  When we operate under the understanding that we can keep our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies healthy - we can clear old energy  I had a woman who worked with me and it changed her physical experience, her chiropractic adjustments were different & had to happen a lot less often  I've had a lot of people have emotional releases    Q:  How does emotional trauma affect our physical body?    A:  Even though something happens in one body, it can have an effect on all others (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual)   Q:  Do the flower/plant essences treat all levels?    A:  Yes, they can treat all levels. It may not be an immediate effect, but it can be a gentle and powerful modality    Q:  Does someone have to be conscious for them to work?    A:  No, but I feel that they are more powerful when you are conscious and participating actively.    Q:  What are some common plants that you use, and their benefits?    A:  Cedar:  I have a real connection to cedar.   It's grounding - Tree energy helps you ground and be present in the physical, practice rooting in confidence Heart medicine, connecting to ancestoral medicine  We are in our highest place of power when we use our entire energetic system, the tree shows this truth.  PokeBerry (A medicinal herb/weed)  A lot of people stay away from this because you have to know how to work with it.  It's great for clearing energetic stagnation Red Clover - Beautiful, gentle for working with anxiety and calming your nervous system  I probably have 40 or 50    Q:  What's the difference between essences & essential oils?    A:   Essences are just a vibration, you're not using the plant material - we're working with the vibration of the plant to bring ourselves back into balance & healing  An essential oil is a very concentrated version of the extracted plant oils    Q:  How do you bottle vibration?    A:   There have been studies that show how water will change form in response to a particular vibration (Dr. Masura Emoto) He captured under a microscope that vibration effects water Using this understanding, we use the idea that water will capture vibration Bringing in a plant allows the water to capture the vibration and act as a conduit for people to work with it    Q:  Can you open to the vibration  of nature without the essences?    A:  Yes, the essences are like a way to learn and start to become open to the experience    Q:  If people want to learn more and work with you, how can they do that?    A:   I do healing sessions where I make a personal blend for my clients, it's tailored to whatever healing they're doing at the time  I offer remote sessions as well  I'm also offering a Virtual Circle:  At the Beginning of Each Month  Starting this Sunday Can join for one month or multiple months  I'll be highlighting a specific plant/essence  Discuss the properties of that essence, how to deepen your relationship with the plant  Giving guidance on how to continue to work with the essence for the remainder of the month  To help bring people back to the understanding that we can be in relationship with our natural world  Introducing people to the potential, create community around going deeper and exploring the natural world Once you have this connection, you can really live in your truth, and help with healing others and healing the planet    Q:  It sounds like a really sacred container to do the inner work and leverage what's available in our external world.    A: Once we cross through the threshold of personal healing, there's always a gift that we can share with others.  LINKS:    Instagram:  www.instagram.com/elated_earth   Website: https://www.elatedearth.com/   Virtual Circle: https://www.elatedearth.com/workshops-1/december-essence-circle-datura/  

Facebook Live Interview - Nov 21    How to Find Love - Discover What's Blocking You from Romantic Love and Become and Energetic Match to your Dream Relationship    Natasha Virdy - Relationship Expert, Mentor, Coach    Q: What has your journey been?  WHy are you called to coach and mentor other women about relationships?    A:  My journey started when I was 19, I went to Italy. I fell in love with someone, had a deep soul connection, and I was only there for 2 weeks  After that, I kept meeting the wrong guys and having toxic relationships  I started my own healing journey, I learned so much of the spiritual practices to heal and see my shadows  I kept experiencing betrayal, abandonment and loss - I was experiencing the same trauma with different guys.  I received a download from my higher self/spirit that it was time to call in my twin flame/true partner  Within 5 months I manifested divine love  I realized that this was my purpose, I didn't go through all of that trauma for no reason.  Now I can help women call in their soul - aligned partner    Q:  Through the process of finding relationships and losing them, what was revealed to you about the work that needed to be done?    A:   I kept calling in partners who reminded me of my father.   I had a traumatic experience when I was younger, and I kept calling in that same experience  I was re-experiencing things from my past and my relationship with my father  I realized I needed to stop attracting these type of men    Q:  If there is a father who is emotionally unavailable, what kind of men do women attract?    A: Men who don't want to commit  Narcissists Men who don't want to get to know you, to be in a serious relationship   Q:  Do you think the personal work needs to be done to attract this divine relationship?    A:   It depends on your romantic blueprint    It depends on what you believe to be true about love on a subconscious level  It's important to do inner work and rewire your beliefs to create a reality that invites love in  Most of our core beliefs are formed from 0 - 7 years old   Q:  The work in our life presents in different areas for different people.  You spoke in your IG story about a spiritual relationship. How would you define this?    A:   There's a difference between a soul mate and a twin flame/divine counterpart  A twin flame is your own soul in another person's body… this can be really intense  The higher frequency the relationship, the more shadow is revealed  A soul mate is a mate to your soul, that you can love and grow with  Twin flame can be a friendship, it's scripted before you came here.  Your purpose is to help each other grow. It's like an accelerated karmic clearing.    Q:  How do you know if you have your twin flame in your life?    A:  It's your exact energetic match.  You'll know, it's like seeing your own soul reflected back to you.  Not everyone is signed up for this. It might not be part of everyone's experience.    Q:  What are some of the main things you see in the women that you work with?    A:   The main issue I see is that these women have never actually taken inventory of what they believe about love.  In my work, we dive in and re-program those beliefs and stories.  Throw the old stories away and decide that you want to believe something else.  Create space, have clarity and intention about the partner that you want to be with, and really get into alignment with it    Q:  It's not just the Law of Attraction for your own reality, you're bringing another person into the mix.  How do you maintain those relationships or know when it's time to move on?    A:  In a relationship, it only works when you're in vibrational alignment.  If one person grows and changes, the relationships can change    Q:  How would you coach someone in a relationship (with kids) going through fluctuations?    A:  I work with more single women, or women who have already made a choice to leave the person that they're with    Q:  What would you say to someone who is in a relationship who feels it's dragging on, but isn't ready to leave?  Is it possible to elevate your partner?    A:  It depends where she's coming from.  If they're really in love, or if they're feeling attached and afraid to let go.    Q:  What kind of dating advice can you give?  3 Hot tips for calling in a divine energetic soul connection?    A:    Tools:    I have a free meditation to call in divine love.  Feel love on a daily basis as if you were already in this relationship  Get super clear on the kind of partner you want to call in - are you embodying those qualities yourself?  Deeper qualities. We can't call in something that we're not embodying  Realizing that all your past relationships gave you contrast, which can create clarity  Have fun and play with the Universe.  Visualize what you want to create    Dating:    Be yourself.  Feel comfortable & confident with who you are  Not playing games, be real & transparent with who you're dating  You have to be the most authentic version of yourself for your soul mate to recognize you  Realize that rejection is just redirection    Q:  Can you tell us about the mentorship that you offer?    A:  It's tailored, no 2 women are the same  This is for the woman who is over being single, who doesn't want to attract the same guy and the same lesson again  First month is about looking at old stories and beliefs  Second month is about changing your identity  Third month is about calling in your match  Be more confident, increase your self-esteem, recognize what you're calling in right away  Tap into your core essence, you can't help but call in your match from there  LINKS:    Free Aligning with Divine Love Meditation: http://bit.ly/2XNatashaVirdy Blog: https://medium.com/@natashavirdy

Session 47 There are lots of moving parts to the medical school application. How do you know if you’ve got a good shot at admission to an MD program? We record these LIVE on Facebook at 3pm Eastern on most weekdays. Like our Facebook page to be notified. And don't forget to check out our amazing Facebook group. [00:38] What Are Your Chances? It's a very common question students are asking as to what their chances are for getting into a medical school. The answer that I always give is "I have no idea what your chances are!" I have zero clue on what your chances are. Nobody out there knows what your specific chances are. You can look at the AAMC. They have a graph and table where it has MCAT and GPA. You can find where your MCAT and GPA are that table. And based on historical data, they cite the number of people getting into medical school. You could see your chances based on that data, but it's still not accurate.  First, that's historical data. And if you're involved in the stock market, past performance does not predict future gains or performance. [02:30] Variables to Consider There are so many variables that you should take into account when you're talking about your chances. Are you an underrepresented minority? Are you Caucasian? That comes into account. Other factors include your socio-economic status, your parents' education levels, your state residency (depending on where you're applying), your extracurriculars, your personal statement. When to apply also comes into account as well as who wrote your letters of recommendation. Did they write strong letters or just generic letters?  What does your MCAT score look like in each section? Your grades and your trends are huge factors too. [03:40] Chances in an Allopathic (MD) Medical School Why does "allopathic" matter? DO or MD, it's a physician at the end of the day, so it doesn't matter. What specifically draws you to an MD school? Why MD vs DO? Do you have any sort of bias? Or you probably got information that you don't want to go to a DO school since you won't be able to do xyz residency. That's not true! So you have to take this into account as well as to why allopathic and not osteopathic. [04:40] The Biggest Variable As you go through this process, your chances of applying or getting into medical school are zero if you don't apply and more than zero if you do apply. There are so many pieces of the application process that need to go into your favor. You need to have good enough GPA and MCAT score. You have to have a great personal statement, extracurriculars, and great letters of recommendation. You need to apply on time. You have to write good secondaries and turn those around on time. You have zero idea, specifically, what that medical school is looking for that year. Every medical school is trying to build a foundational core of students every year.  They may be looking for LGBT or underrepresented minority students. They could be looking for the nurse or the nontraditional students. Every year, they're looking for something specific to bring into their class. This year, it might be your turn, and next year, it may not be. You don't know. Or you might be the perfect candidate at school A and you're not at school B. Stop worrying about what your chances are and maximize each part of the application as you go through this process.  Focus on your GPA and MCAT score. Get those extracurriculars and some leadership experience. Get shadowing and clinical experience. Apply early. Turn your secondaries around fast. Prepare for your interviews. [07:20] Working Overseas and Skeletal Manipulation Q: My only concern with DO programs is I'm possibly working overseas. Some don't view the same. Generally speaking, the programs are equally acceptable, except skeletal manipulation is woo. A: Not all skeletal manipulation is woo. There's the chiropractic way of manipulation. The DO involves some of that, but so much more! But don't consider it ALL woo. There's not a lot of research, unfortunately. In terms of working overseas, it's becoming less and less of a concern. There are around over 100 countries that allow osteopathic physicians to practice. So it's not big of a deal. [08:28] Thoughts on Research Experience Q: Thoughts on research experience for the application. ER nurse for 8 years, EMT since 2006. I won't be applying until 2019. Finishing up prereqs and MCAT. Is research necessary? A: No. Research is not necessary at all. You've got a ton of great experience so that's awesome. Since you're in the ER now, you might look at any clinical research going on that maybe you can get involved in. Maybe screen patients in the emergency room as you're working to get involved. [09:10] What Makes Someone Disadvantaged Q: Looking at the application, it asked if I was from an underserviced area. If I grew up in an Amish community, does that count? A: One of the questions in the application is whether you're a disadvantaged student. And when you read the definition, it will say, are you from a medically underserved area? And I would say the Amish are part of that. The application service gives you a lot of freedom with classifying yourself as disadvantaged. If you want to check that box, you just need to make sure you put a good disadvantaged statement/essay in that box to explain why you're checking it. Then every school will evaluate what you say. And they could either say you're disadvantaged or say no and remove that part of your application and just look at the rest of it. [10:40] Clinical Research in the ER Q: I was asked to do clinical research in the ER NYU this summer. I'm not sure what to expect as a North Carolina native going up north but it sounds like a great opportunity. A: Take advantage of it. Crush it! As far as what to expect, it's going to be very busy and there are lots of people. Just check it out. [11:40] First-Generation College Student – Disadvantaged or Not? Q: I am the first in my family to go to college. Does that count as disadvantaged? A: No, that doesn't. [12:00] Pre-Matriculation Prep Q: Do you have any info for pre-matriculation prep for the next year? A: If you want to take a class, just take the loop as a student to continue to hone your studying skills and test-taking skills. That's the only thing I recommend. I wouldn't take a full semester of classes. Just one class here and there is fine. You can take it online. Other than that, relax. Travel. Work. Save some money. [13:25] First-Generation Immigrant Q: What if I'm a first-generation immigrant in addition to being a first to go to school in my family? A: If you want to mark this as disadvantaged, you have a lot of leeway to it. So if that's what you want to do, go ahead and do it. But for that, I probably wouldn't. [13:53] Work + Medical School Q: Is it possible to work and go to medical school? I'm worried about paying for everything. A: Yes, it's possible. I actually worked my first two plus years of medical school. Before med school, I worked at a Boston sports club as a personal trainer first and later on a fitness program manager. I delayed matriculation into med school for a year so I could keep working. I was managing and learning a lot. And when I started med school, I transferred down to a New York sports club and continued to work as a personal trainer during medical school for about two and a half years. I worked 5-10 hours a week. That said, I would not recommend it. Those hours took away from me being a successful student. And I regret that. So don't have regrets. Focus 100% on your studies. There are loans you can get and that's how most students live. Focus on saving as much money now. Live off as much savings as you can and then take out loans for the rest. [15:55] Overturning a Disadvantaged Mark Q: Does it look negative if you mark disadvantaged but they overturn it? A: It's not negative. But they may question why you're marking it as disadvantaged. I've heard some admissions people laughing at some of the things students say why they're disadvantaged. [16:13] RELAX! Q: It feels so wrong to relax. There's got to be something to do to improve my chances? A: Relax. It will be okay! Links: Meded Media Check out the MSHQ Facebook page and Facebook group.

Topic : Blissful Business by Design    Lauren Messmer    Co-owner of MeetGeraldine - a brand & web strategy company, and co-host of the entrepreneurship YouTube talk show: "Doin the Damn Thing" A business coach that understands the spiritual side of running a business!  Q:  What was your entrepreneurial journey?    A:  Being an entrepreneur was probably In me from birth       -     Lemonade stand when I was 6  Babysitters club when I was in Junior High Voted most likely to be a used car salesman Both of my parents ran a business out of my home  I couldn't see myself taking over my Dad's business, so I did a degree, but was still unsure of my path  I went to beauty school, wrote my first business plan  I was an assistant to a woman who taught me a lot about business and introduced me to the Law of Attraction After all of that, I decided to go to business school to help my Dad Seeing how my parents ran their business gave me an example, getting an MBA taught me structures & strategy  I had a promotion company for a Hip Hop CD, and a health & wellness business I Teach How to Start a Business at a local University in the Bay Area (California) I've had a lot of experience with what works and what doesn't work    Q:  To anyone listening, let us know if you're an entrepreneur    Q:  What was your process in creating this Blissful Business?    A:  -     I loved the word “Bliss”  For people listening, think for a moment about “What is Bliss” or what is a recent moment when you felt bliss?    Eg.  Connection to other people and to yourself, connection to nature, water + trees    Channel your higher self, connect to bliss  I noticed in South America and other countries people really take time to connect to each other    Some things about being an entrepreneur really appeal to me:  Being my own boss  Being in control of my own money    The phrase “If you own a business, it really owns you”  I was like, “Why?”     So we declared that this is not what we're interested in.  My business partner and I set the intention that we both wanted 3 months/year off.    We started to create a team that could support us and our desire to be able to take time off.  There wasn't any step or system that only one person knew how to do, so we could share the work.    We set up the systems so we can have the same philosophy with our team, and allow them to take time off as well.      Q:  What other ingredients have you injected to create this “Blissful Business” feel?    A:  Declaring it.  Tell other people, tell your teammates.  Make it happen    Communication:  Between my partner and I, and with our team   We schedule meetings while we are away on our trips, do a check in call every other week.  Clear systems of finding documents, clear calendar and schedule.     Commitment.  Commitment to unplug, step away, and allow yourself to be absent.   Honour your promise to yourself to take a break  Q:  *It's hard as an entrepreneur.  When you have an identity that is attached to your work.  When you take time off, is there a part of you that wants to work, or feels drawn back to work?    A:  No. It may be from watching my Dad work while we were on vacation when I was a kid.  I love my personal time and nurturing the other sides of myself. It's all about balance.    Asking:  “Do you really want work to be everything for you?”    Q:   Can you share about the article that you wrote for Clouds & Dirt?  How you incorporate “Woo Woo” and spiritual aspects into your business?   A:   We've incorporated a lot of spirituality into our business over the years.  We had someone come and bless our office.     We have a money corner that we use to attract money.  We do a money dance whenever we get a cheque.     Affirmations are key.  We write pages of affirmations every day.  It's reinforcement of how to keep yourself going    We also talk about it if we're feeling down.    We have money spray, money candle.  We use sage to clear the energy and re-set for abundance the next day.   Meghan: *Link to the article in the show notes*  Q:  It's so great to work with someone who understands the business landscape but also works with spiritual laws and universal laws as well.    A:  A lot of successful people have used these laws, they just haven't necessarily labelled them as spiritual.    Q:  What is your process?  If you're working with a client, how do you help them create a blissful business?    A:  First & Foremost:  Getting really clear on what you want  What is your perfect dream day?  It can be a hard thing to answer.. What do YOU want? Allow yourself to dream… create some context.    Once you have an idea of how you want your business to support your life:    What is your brand?  How is your brand going to attract the right people to support your business and your dream life?   Ask:  “If your business was a person, what would they be like?”  Embody what your brand is.    This separates you from your business  Allows you to make decisions based on what your business is portraying  Get more clear on decisions about marketing, language, etc Get clear on who your target audience is  You get to choose how your business is going to be structured   Talk about systems.   Think about how you can build support and create your team Create systems that are documented, well thought out, so you have references to teach others   Implementation    It's 4 steps, but it takes a lot of thoughtfulness.  It will take some intention over a period of time.  Q:  How can people work with you?    A:  Entrepreneurship coaching    I can work online  Sessions 1 - 1.5 hours  Launching a program… to take people through a process to build their dream life    *Sept 17th - 6 week program:  Includes 4 group sessions online for 1.5 hours  Go through each step of the process  Plus two one-on-one coaching sessions $550 https://bit.ly/Urdreambiz *Common Genius  Book one-on-one sessions for any amount of time (eg 15 min - 2 hours)  https://commongenius.com/   Watch any of the YouTube episodes  Talk about entrepreneurship https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC177RGY914sMRscSLaNKkiQ   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_real_laurenmessmer/      Clouds + Dirt Article:  https://cloudsanddirt.co/spirituality-and-business/ If people are looking to create a vision, get clear, it sounds like your 6 week program is a great option.    If you want a conversation or consultation, “Common Genius” is a great resource. 

Topic - Manifestation Made Simple   Megan Elias - Manifestation and mindset coach   Q: What was your journey to becoming a manifestation and mindset coach?   A: A few years ago, I was feeling depressed and out of control about my life. Reached a point where I knew that something had to change   Said out Loud: "I need help"   Next Day – Received a message about a workshop, and went. Learned about manifestation and the Law of Attraction. The host of the workshop became my personal coach.   Literally asked for something and received it the next day   Q; Did you recognize it as manifestation at the time?   A: I felt it was a coincidence, serendipitous, luck Q: How would you describe what manifestation is?   A: You're manifesting all the time, whether you know it or not Bringing your thoughts or imagination into reality   You're already doing it, you may not be doing it consciously   To me, it's something to do consciously, so you can have more choice about what you're creating in your life Q: How would you describe it to someone who has created a reality that they're not happy with?   A: Remove the idea of blaming yourself, realize it's just conditioning and beliefs that you've picked up from your life. It's not your fault, but once you're aware of it, it's something that you can change   Be aware of where you're currently at, what you choose to focus on. Where are you believing thoughts that aren't actually true?   Q: It sounds simple, but how easy is it to be aware of your thoughts?   A; You can start by focussing on your emotions, they can guide you to the thoughts. Q: Why do you think people overcomplicate it and feel resistance? Why do we make the process of manifestation hard?   A; It depends on your own experiences, and what you're good at. You might be good at manifesting in one area, and not another. It's all based on what you believe.   Some areas will be more challenging based on your beliefs.   Use awareness and your emotions as a compass   Q: Example of someone unhappy in a 9-5 job manifesting a new job/life   A: It depends on how much you're willing to expand your beliefs. Think of it as a ladder of changing your beliefs. Move incrementally so you can really believe in it.  Move in steps until you can get there   Q; Process : Ask, Believe, Receive. How much do we need to be attached to the outcome, and how much do we need to be in joy?   A: A combination. Make a very clear decision about what you want, and why you want it.   Firm, clear: “This is happening, this is how things are now”... from a very decisive space   Big Piece: Gratitude, appreciate where you are right now. Understand the journey Trust that it will come at the right time, and in the right way Know what we want, but not be too rigid   Appreciate what is here and now, and also open to receiving more   Q: What are some of the ways that you coach people, that you teach manifestation to make it easy to apply?   A: Break it into steps. Recognize the middle piece where the old beliefs and resistance come up   Middle mindset work makes the process easy, when you address your mind and it's objections and old beliefs. Find the beliefs that aren't helping you. Tell your mind: “That's not true anymore”. Tell it what you want (repeatedly)            Bridge conscious and subconscious (affirmations)   Q: What is the manifestation process that you give to your clients?   A: With affirmations, they need to be emotionally charged. There has to be some personal meaning behind it.  How you can get something into your mind as frequently as possible?   Q: What are some other ways that we can make manifestation simple?   A: Trusting in it. Having an overall knowing that everything is ok, everything's working out, it's going to happen in the right time in the right way   An overriding feeling of "everything is ok" , knowing that you're supported TRUST**   Trust, surrender, allow it to happen   Affirmation example: "It's already done"   Q: Do you have any affirmations or techniques to get into the feeling of trust?   A: Keep that word in my mind   Eg; " I am enough" Trust that this is true, trust that it's real.   Do what feels good, use that as a compass. Allow your emotions to guide you.   If you're not feeling good, go back and check what you're focussing on   Worthiness is a foundation – Believe that you can have and create what you desire   *If you get to the core of that, manifesting becomes easy   Q: Negative Connotation on the word desire   A: I try to use language to make it accessible and understandable. I think we're taught to not ask for what we want. We're willing to take less than what we deserve.   *Taking out words like vibration, frequency, so that anyone can join the conversation.   Make it more practical, down to earth, so it makes sense to people.   Q: Example of words that you use instead?   A: Explain it as a way of focussing on your mindset, rewiring your brain. Relate it to applying scientific ideas.  Letting go and allowing things to happen.   Q: What can someone expect from the Manifestation Daily community?   A: To answer questions, make it simple, apply it to your everyday life. To make it become a lifestyle, a way of living your life.   LINKS   Manifestation Tool Kit       -  A Step-by-step guide to manifesting anything you want.         -  Prompts, fill in with your own thoughts, a guide to get back on track Manifestation Daily – FB Group  https://www.facebook.com/groups/meganaelias/ IG – @meganaelias  www.instagram.com/meganaelias Website www.meganaelias.com 

Episode 1: Join Heracane Anne & Big Steve for the first show of Wolf Pack Radio. We will be testing the sound & music. This is our first episode and we are super excited. On tonights show we will be discussing QANON. So many people ask us, "Who is Q"? It is not a conspiracy, it is not a guy hiding behind a keyboard... it is so much more. Q or Q anon is a high level government source who is clearly in President Trumps inner circle. Since October of 2017 Q has been posting on the back channels of the internet regarding the fight to take down the "deep state" corruption or as President Trump has stated "draining the swamp." Q has communicated that he/they aren't a single person, but are rather a group of under 10 who all post anonymously as Q or Q+. The detailing of what they are exposing and bringing down is so shocking that main stream media refers to it as the Q Anon conspiracy theory. Not surprisingly the main stream media has been directly implicated by Q as being complicit with the entire deep state's web of corruption. Q's evidence is quite compelling on this matter. Tonights show features 2 you tube videos by the Praying Medic, "Q Anon for Beginners Part 1 and Part 2." From our perspective & many others the Q Anon phenomenon is not a conspiracy theory, but a credible behind the scenes detailing of how the process of draining the swamp of corruption is actually progressing. Beyond what has already taken place that very few seem to be aware of, this exposure of evil is designed to prepare us for the even more shocking revelations that are to come. So buckle up... All aboard! The train is loading now... QQ Trump Train #WWG1WGA A special thank you for our intro music produced by Cai Irving with music by JT Wilde "WWG!WGA", & N Beats: Wolves Howling Sound Effect in Best Quality. 

对付一天四门考试以及万圣节，保龄球，生日聚会。高中生活的紧张需要好好管理时间（time management）对付拖延症（procrastination）。全英文对话，感受语速语感。 S:Hello，ximalaya, this is Stella from New York. I had a very busy, but fun week. Q: Well, tell us more. S:Last week, was Halloween. I went out with my friends. We walked from school to a friend’s house instead of taking the bus. At my friend’s house we dropped off our school stuff and painted our faces. We then went trick or treating. The weather was nice. Q: So you still enjoy trick or treating. S: Yes.I love candy and I’m a child at heart. One little boy was handing out candy. When he saw my friends and I he said to his mom “look, it’s grown ups!” It was funny. Q: I also think it is funny. Will you trick or treat next year? S: I don’t know. I think I’m getting a little too old for it. Q: It’s good to grow up. You will have more independence. What els...

After weeks of texting back and forth about the rumored Picard TV series, CT and PLee got on the internet phone to discuss the confirmation of the news that Picard is indeed coming back. They speculate on what might happen, give ideas for what the show could cover and offer opinions about themes the show should delve into. They answer questions like what other Next Generation cast members should show up, what's should the first shot be of the series and what about Q? It's a rare moment when our podcast is jumping in on the discussion. So strike while the iron is tea Earl Grey, hot!

GAYLE SAN on: - Facebook: www.facebook.com/gaylesanofficial - SoundCloud: @gayle-san HOW I MET THE BASS on: - Facebook: www.facebook.com/howimetthebass - Twitter: www.twitter.com/howimetthebass - Mixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/HowIMetTheBass 3 QUESTIONS to GAYLE SAN: Q: Talking about your mix. It´s really exciting but also really different to the music you´re now playing. Please tell us a bit more about your roots. A: Yeah I hope the music selections reflect how I grew up listening / dancing to. In those days, starting out, I was the DJ on stage alongside Kool & The Gang, Earth Wind & Fire, Commodores & many more when they finished their performances, I was the in between DJ for these bands on stage (when they have their 2 performances breaks) in a famous club (of that time) called Top Ten Club in Singapore. Also, I grew up listening & danced to these bands, to Micheal Jackson / Prince/ Janet Jackson etc. before I got exposed to electronic music. That's the time I moved to London after high school when I discovered and got more into the electronic scene. That’s pretty much my musical journey. Q: It´s a long time you´re inside the scene as you started your career in the early 1990s yet. If you would have the chance to restart from the same point: would you do it and would you go exactly the same way? A: Yeah, a long time in the scene, indeed. NO, I wouldn’t change a thing ! I had the best learning curve then when I was starting out in London playing alongside all the big names of the 90's and then established my DJ career and travelled the world for more than 18 years straight, all of that vast experiences mostly good but also I ve seen the ugly / pretentious sides of the scene too has made me even more business savvy / level headed /more grounded person / DJ I am today. I still love DJing although I do it just 30% of the time in the last few years as 70% of my time, I'm dedicating to my other business projects (outside the music scene). I guess it’s a natural phase, for me anyway, that after so many years of touring, this is the way for me in the last couple of years to get my best life balance. So, yes, I wouldn’t change anything of how the last 25 years has got me. Q: Which future Gayle San projects are on the way? A: I don’t have much time unfortunately in the last few years but I do make time a couple of months a year to get in the studio and get involve in a few studio projects etc. My upcoming release for this year after the summer will be my ep on Janowitz Records, plus 2 remixes. I don’t have the exact release date yet but after summer go sure. Also I've got projects lined up on Lehmann Musik for it's Various Artists projects this year too which has it's first Various Artists release in July already. I'm planning to squeeze 1-2 more studio projects this year, I still love all that creative side being in the studio , I just wish I can find more time which is challenging with my schedules.

I'm joined by Jake Eisenberg, president of Reach Digital Group. Jake shares his approach to local marketing and explains how he uses social media to boost lead generation and acquire solid leads. His company specializes in helping local businesses, but his approach works for national brands as well.   Q: Jake, you're president of the Reach Digital Group. How did you get into this business and why did you choose to start your own agency?  Originally, I got started with a mixed martial arts blog that I had in 2009, before MMA really took off. This website was gaining a lot of traffic, and I was generating money through ad revenue, and I saw how to bring new traffic in. I started getting familiar with search engine optimization and started thinking to myself, "What are other ways that I can bring this up?"  As I was going through school, and working, and all these other things, I started working on other projects and I stumbled across doing some e-commerce websites, and I got familiar with doing Google AdWords. That lead to search engine optimization, Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, and running social media calendars.  I was having great success with these strategies that I was working on and building through time. Some friends or family members started to approach me and say, "Can you give me a website for my business? We liked what you were doing; let's kind of see what you can do for us."  These strategies were working at a local level and at the national level. Actually, it’s easier at a local level, because there's not as much competition.  So, I started having success with that and it quickly turned into family members who had businesses, became my testimonials, or my case studies. I was able to then get new business through referral. That's how I got started with it: I tapped my own network, did the work well, and was able to use that to leverage new business.  Q: What are some of the biggest changes that you've seen since you started that MMA blog in 2009? Technology changes at warp-speed, so in the online marketing space, what have you experienced in terms of changes?  A lot of the changes I've seen are from the platforms growing. Search engine optimization used to be something where you could just do what they call "keyword stuffing." If you wanted to rank for a certain keyword, you could just put a bunch of that same keyword on a page and you would rank. That's changed, because now there are so many more websites out there. So everyone's doing that, and now you've got to find new techniques, and new ways to do it.  The same thing with Google AdWords. The pay-per-clicks have gone up a lot, because more people are using those channels. Facebook advertising is still relatively new and it's just gotten even more acknowledgment in the media world, because of everything that's just happened. So, we can still kind of consider the Internet to be new.  There are a lot of unknown territories and directions that we can go. We're all learning and it's constantly changing and evolving. There's just so much more competition that you've got to come up with new strategies, and the platforms have become a lot more advanced.  Q: I'd like to explore that a little bit more. For your peers, what should they be focusing on, in terms of skills they need to be honing or new platforms that they need to be becoming more adept at using?  With how the marketing world is changing, it's a content-first world. You've got to build this customer loyalty. If you're selling a service or a product, you want to provide the information to the potential customer, what it is that you have that leads to it. You can put content out there in the form of video or blog posting, and be able to share that.  The two top converting platforms right now are still Facebook and Instagram. If you're able to meet your customers at least on those two channels, as well as having a blog to explain what your business is, because that will help bring in keywords and maybe some backlinking to boost it; start with those.  You don't need to be on every single channel. You just want to be able to meet them on at least the two biggest channels. I recommend tapping those three sources and provide information about yourself and your service.  Q: There are many platforms, and it seems like new ones popping up every day. Obviously, it's better to go where your audience is and Facebook and Instagram are where they are. It seems like a lot of people feel compelled to be on as many platforms as they possibly can, almost like the shiny object syndrome, "There's this new thing; I have to do it." What is your advice for people who feel like they're getting spread too thin?  Realistically, it's because they are getting spread too thin when you're trying to keep up with all the new trends. Coming from a business perspective, you look at the analytics and ask, "Where's my engagement coming from? Where am I getting the most clicks, the likes, the shares?" I would focus on those and chop off the ones that you think you're getting spread too thin on. Because you're wasting valuable time or effort that you could be putting towards something else to just try to keep up with these other channels to maybe meet a small percent of your client base.  Q: So you focus your efforts where there's the likelihood that you're going to get the biggest return on that investment?  Exactly; just make sure to keep checking on that and making sure that your engagement is there, because it can change.  Going back to the idea of how this world is evolving and new technology, one platform could be big now, and in two years it could be a different one. Keep an eye on it and make sure you know where you're actually getting the best benefit.  Q: You mentioned analytics and following this data-driven approach. What are some of the key performance metrics that you use, and what platforms or tools do you use to gather data and analyze those metrics?  That really depends on the approach. If it's paid outreach, look at your cost per conversion and your cost per click, because if your cost for conversion is too high, there's already going to be something wrong there. Always look at it from the monetary standpoint.  For social media, do the posting and look at engagement; see what posts are working, what posts aren't working.  I take a different approach than most: I actually track through my own spreadsheet. I'll give a score to posts that I think were better or worse, and how they did. And I'll go back at the end of the month and review those scores. It's just a method that I found to work.  Q: The only wrong way is one that doesn't work for you.  Right, and I just feel that the analytic software is -- it's data driven, but they don't understand how people are responding to a certain question. So, if you're asking a more human-type question than one that's systematic, those programs aren't going to be able to tell you that. That's something that it's easier to keep track of by going through and judging those type of posts … and constantly seeing if you're going up, what pages were doing better, and focusing on where those numbers are going.  Q: With Reach Digital, you focus on, primarily, helping local businesses?  Local and small businesses. We started locally and have now grown into doing some business at the national level, but we've got a lot of local businesses.  Q: To what extent do you find that small business who tend to do business locally, have more limited resources? How does that affect how you start to help them? That's one of the reasons they'll approach us. A small business might not have the resources to hire someone in-house for marketing. So we're able to offset those costs. Often they're saying, "We want to be on social media; we want to be on blogs; our expertise is focusing on the business; we want someone else to handle the online efforts."  Working with us is a way to offset the cost of getting someone with knowledge. They don't have to train, they don't have to get benefits, and so that's kind of where we found that connection point with local businesses.  Q: Can you describe for me who your ideal client would be?  Our ideal client is someone who has a little bit of knowledge of online marketing, already started to attempt it, and is looking for repairs and someone to monitor it. So we're kind of looking for that now, companies with semi-established to established online presence.  Q: When you have a conversation with a potential client who has some knowledge, and has attempted it on their own, do you find that they come to you with a better sense of where their limitations are, where their needs are, and where their particular pain points are?  Oh, yeah, 100%. When they've actually rolled up their sleeves and attempted it and have got it going, they know where their weakness is and where they need help. They also have a better idea of the message that's going to connect better socially with their customer base from actually trying it. So, it's not as much of a learning period. For us, as a business, we're able to go in there, talk with them, get their knowledge that they've already learned from their client base, and then apply that to help correct those challenges.  Q: What are the typical questions that they ask you when you have that first conversation?  They actually all range. Some of them say, "We know what we're doing, but can you just help us schedule?" Or, "Can you show us how this will bring us ROI (return on investment)?”  That's one of the biggest things. With online marketing, a lot of companies have a hard time seeing how social media can bring a return on investment. That's when we tell them that, “Let's look at the analytics, let us show you where your traffic is coming from, and let's set up some type of conversion campaign to show you that people are calling or signing up.” That's really what they're looking for.  Q: When you're looking at metrics like cost-per-conversion, that gets right at their bottom-line. Right. So they're able to see exactly what's going on, if it's making them money. Because, if it's not making them money, they don't want to pay us. We have to show them that what we're doing is working.  Q: You have a Chief Barketing Officer; tell me about him.  That's my good boy. Actually, it's his birthday today.  Congratulations! Happy birthday.  I'll be sure to pass it along. So, yeah, my dog Bear is a black Lab mixed with a Newfoundland, so he's a big boy, and he keeps the spirits up. He makes sure that everyone is happy (when he's not sleeping), he's always got a toy in his mouth, and he gives us some good suggestions [laughter].  Q: Having a Lab around the office is always a good idea, I think.  Oh, yeah. It keeps morale high!  Q: As you're paying attention to what's happening in the marketing space, you see organizations that do some things that you think, "Wow; that was really brilliant." And then you also see others do things where you just feel like smacking your forehead and going, "What were they thinking?" Tell me about something that fits the latter category, where you wonder where their brains were on that day.  People are starting to take Twitter a lot more seriously than they did a couple of years ago. You'll see now a lot of gaffs on there. They say something that may offend a group of people, and the next thing you know it's a public relations nightmare. I'm seeing people and businesses making that problem. Then having another problem cleaning up that problem, either by over-addressing it (and upsetting other people because they over-addressed it), or not addressing it at all.  Everything is about finding that middle ground. In social media, now, with the way everything is going, is like stepping on glass. A lot of companies are starting to realize that they shouldn't have said something. And especially recently, that's really the biggest thing. I'm like, "What are you guys doing? Filter.”  Q: The feedback that you get when you misstep, as an individual or as an organization, can be swift and severe.  Right. Public opinion can crush you.  Q: Yeah, it seems like there are examples of that in the headlines just about every day. Let's flip that around; for an organization that's done something in the online marketing space that was really quite clever, have you seen any where you said, "Oh, I need to make a note of that; that was brilliant?" Yeah. A lot of it is becoming these grassroots campaigns, especially with e-commerce, how people are tying in with social media influencers. I've seen a lot of really funny campaigns that they've mixed in their products with an influencer and it’s gone viral. I always kind of take note of what the campaign was, how they did it, and just something to keep in my back pocket if I feel that I have a similar product. You've just got to be funny and it's got to connect with the audience. It's amazing how quickly something can go viral.  Q: Are there any that are particularly memorable for you?  There are so many. There's a phone case company that every time they put out a video, it was just using real-world situations that people could really relate to: Dropping your phone or leaving your phone on top of the car, or needing to take a selfie. It was a self-adhesive phone case that could stick to surfaces and it was just using those situations like walking by a mirror wall and they just stuck it on there and took a picture. It was really creative how they tied in actual people’s situations to connect consumers with their product  Key advice Q: What advice do you give to CEOs or business owners when you're advising them on how to increase their return on investment for their online marketing programs? When it comes to social media marketing, it's: Stay consistent with what you're doing Stick to the brand message Never stop marketing, because once you stop marketing, you're going to stop getting sales and you're going to stop getting leads. The importance of testing And another thing I tell them is to constantly A/B test, which is split testing. Try different headlines. Try different subject lines. Make sure you're mixing it up, because you never know what message will stick. It could be one word that could change the complete engagement of an entire campaign. So always test to find that right messaging. Online Marketing Tools  Q: Are there particular tools that you use to do that split testing, or any other testing, to continue to improve the ROI?  For email marketing, MailChimp has an option for you to do that (split test). If it's building landing pages, there are a couple of companies (Leadpages and UnBounce) that already have those options built in. Whatever program you're using, just check to see if they have an option for you to be able to test different headlines, different subject lines, different blocks of text, images, all of that.  Q: How big is the Reach Digital team now?  We have four people who are full time and we have a couple that freelance for us on some bigger projects. Five if you want to include my Chief Barketing Officer.  Well, you got to include him. You have to feed him, so he needs to work, too.  Right, there you go.  Q: Are you guys all co-located or are you geographically disbursed?  We are a mix; it just depends on the service. We are a mix, because with it being a digital world now, everyone doesn’t need to be working in one location. We've found that we have some better employees that we've worked with who are located in different parts of the country and it's just easier to keep them working from their location.  Q: That's another one of those big things that's changed in the last decade that you don't have to all be in the same building and the same room to do work really well.  Right. We've found that using Google Hangouts, you can video chat with everyone at one time, so if you need to have a meeting, click of a button.  Management Tools  Q: What are some other tools that you use to effectively manage the team?  We use a project management tool called Asana. It's just really easy to keep our clients in there. We'll give our clients the connection to it and they can see the projects they're working on. Everyone can effectively communicate and it's a really good way to stay focused.  Another tool that we use for our back end and CRM is Zoho One.  Those are the two main ones that keep us on our path.  The Future: Voice, Video, Bots, and AI  Q: We talked about changes since you started in the online marketing space almost 10 years ago. Look 10 years into the future, where do you see that space going and what should we be doing to prepare ourselves to be effective as we move into the future?  A lot of the future is going to go to voice and video. Most of the Google searches right now are being done on voice. So, it's preparing those new search keywords to work that way.  Another part will be messenger bots. Having messenger bots using artificial intelligence technology is allowing small businesses to compete with big business. They're able to build these messenger bots through Facebook and other tools that are allowing them to, almost, build out a full support staff, to where they can really have all the customers’ questions answered.  They don't need to have these big rooms of customer service reps, and it keeps the customer happy because they're able to handle business without leaving the app.  Voice, video, and artificial intelligence are where I see us going. In 10 years, who knows; look how much technology's advanced in the last 10. So, I can only imagine the next 10.  Q: It could be both scary and very exciting, with a lot of opportunities.  Right. It's going to be a roller coaster!  Q: Are you strapped in and ready for the ride?  Oh, yeah. I love it.  Going back into your history a little bit, you got a bachelor's degree in media and information from Michigan State. Any chance you'll go to the University of Michigan for a master's program [laughter]?  Our family is divided. My entire family went to the University of Michigan, and my sister and I are the only two to go to Michigan State. We've had that in-house rivalry for a while, and it's been great, because Michigan State, athletically, has been on top the last six or seven years now. It's been good that I've been winning the argument.  Q: That's wonderful; congratulations. I was at an event recently with the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and he's from Lansing (Michigan) and is a big fan. So he was singing the school’s and the team's praises. So I think he's there as much as he can to cheer on the Spartans.  Some of the best experiences of my life. Online Marketing for Local Businesses  Q: There you go, that's perfect. Reach Digital focuses primarily on five areas of work, in which you're able to help small business owners: Local marketing Website maintenance Facebook advertising Search engine optimization (SEO) Business listing management Tell me about business listing management. What is that?  Business listing management is where, if you have a business, it will be in any of the business directories: Yelp, Citymapper, Google, My Business, Bing Places, Yahoo, there's so many different directories.  A big, big thing about that with your search engine optimization on a local level, especially, is having yourself listed correctly in all these directories.  There's something call the NAP, which stands for “Name, Address, Place.” Search engines want to make sure that the name, address, and place are correct for all the businesses listed, that is, all the business directories that you're in.  If it's incorrect, they see inconsistencies and it's harder for them to score it. It's harder for them to give you that trust score or ranking, because they see that there's some inconsistency. So it's good to be consistent across the board.  Another thing we're able to do is monitor reviews that come across those listings. If you get a bad review, we're able to let you know so you can respond to it. If you get a good review, we're also able to let you know, so you can thank them and be engaged with your client base.  Q: I would think that would a critically important service, and a strategic investment that small business owners could make to continue to build those key relationships and manage their online reputation.  Yes, online reputation is very important. A lot of people will look at reviews before they even decide to call you, and it's just that extra trust factor. So, you want to make sure that you're on top of it.  Q: In terms of your overall business, how would you rank order those areas of work in terms of where the team spends the majority of the effort and time?  Regeneration Campaigns  For the majority of our effort and time, we do a lot of regeneration campaigning. Which is, if someone's got a service to offer or a product to sell, we're trying to get them leads, so they can call. A lot of our time and effort is spent building those landing pages, and then running page campaigns, mainly through Facebook advertising to send traffic to generate those leads. The main effort is testing and building those pages, and building out those campaigns.  Q: When you do that, do you manage the CRM on your end, or do you use the CRM and relationship management tools that your customers already use?  We will integrate within their CRM. We'll have it set up to where those leads are going to go right into the clients’ systems. Their ads are all run into their own ad managers.  We're not like a normal agency where we'll say, "Okay, you’re going to spend $1,000 a month, and we're going to hit you with 10% on top of it," or something like that. We say, " It's in your ad manager. Those campaigns are yours. Once we're done creating it, it's yours, and we run it.” We'll optimize it, but everything is through their programs.  Q: To what extent are you agnostic about whatever platforms they're using? Really good question. There are a lot of these programs and platforms. Most of our clients are using the bigger CRM platforms, and point of service systems that we've had experience with. A lot are using Salesforce, Zoho, and Lightspeed, which is a point of service, point of sale system. Q: Your team is capable of helping them regardless of how they've implemented on their end? We'll tie into either their email marketing platform, or we'll tie into a web form that was created within their CRM. That web form will link to their system. We will format that form to have the same name to match, so if something is typed in on that form, and they hit submit, it will automatically be properly implemented into that lead form. It's really matching the field names that they already have set up. Q: Jake, what have I not asked you that I should have? Let’s touch on the local business aspect. If someone has a new business, one that's struggling, I can help them get that domain name, web hosting, or a contact management system that they should probably be looking at to use. Q: Sounds like they need to give you a call. They should. Q: If you've got a small business and you need help getting online, or you've already gone online to increase your marketing, and you've realized that you need some expertise and some more horsepower, Reach Digital sounds like a really great place to go. How do they get in touch with you?

Q: When you hear John the Baptist's message about the kingdom and repentance, what conclusion do you draw about God's heart for his people and his design in sending John before Jesus?Q: It had been 400 years since God had sent a profit to his people; this silence was basically broken by one word: repent. What comes to mind when you hear the word “repent”?Theologian D.A. Carson says that the word repentance has often been explained as “to change one's mind” or to “be sorry for something” but that neither is really adequate. He says that “what is meant is not a merely intellectual change of mind or mere grief, still less doing penance, but a radical transformation of the entire person, a fundamental turnaround involving mind and action and including overtones of grief, which results in “fruit in keeping with repentance.”Q: How do you see yourself responding to John's message if you lived in those days?Q: Some really took John's to heart, admitting their sinfulness and need to repent, but others scornfully rejected him. What about his message made people react in the way they did?Q: John quotes from Isaiah 40 - a passage we studied as a church not long ago. Why does it matter that he is drawing from this passage? Is there anything of significance that stuck with you from what we learned on Sunday morning?Q: Isaiah's message of a coming King (and kingdom) figures prominently in John the Baptist's words and ministry. As a group it might be helpful to read through Isaiah 40 together, and think about/discuss how Jesus fulfills the kingly role Isaiah is anticipating.

In this episode of China Money Podcast, guest Jixun Foo, managing partner at GGV Capital, spoke with our host Nina Xiang, on GGV's new funds, China's travel and education sector, and why Chinese companies have a better record of avoiding "down rounds." Don't forget to subscribe to China Money Podcast for free in the iTunes store, or subscribe to China Money Network weekly newsletters. You can also subscribe to China Money Podcast's Youtube channel or Youku channel. Foo spoke to China Money Network on the sidelines of the 29th Annual AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Forum in Hong Kong. Q: In April, GGV raised a massive US$1.2 billion across a number of funds, with a first time discovery fund geared for early-stage investments. What are the considerations behind these new funds? A: Yes, the new US$250 million discovery fund is a first, and will allow us to invest in seed and series A rounds, mostly in China but also in the U.S. Our main fund generally invests in late series A, or series B and C rounds, which are our sweet spot. During our 15-year history, we have built a good network of entrepreneurs who we have strong connections with. That is leading us to some early-stage companies. Also, after having backed a lot of successful entrepreneurs, we are getting good deal flows but also seeing serial entrepreneurs who want to start up something new again. These are the factors driving us to raise a discovery fund. Q: U.S.-China is a key element in GGV's investment strategy. If you can divide between U.S. vs. China investments, what are the ratio between the two? A: I guess when we started the firm, we were more U.S. centric. But we have a bottom-up methodology. We are driven by companies and opportunities in the market, not by certain asset allocation guidelines. Q: It seems like GGV has slowed the pace of investment this year, supposedly to around ten deals in 2016, compared to 30 to 40 investments annually during the past two years. Why? A: It really depends on what number you look at. In 2014 and 2015, there were a lot of new start-ups driven by the whole mobile revolution. But we've seen a slowdown in the market and industry consolidation during the past 12 months. But we are still actively investing. It should be more than ten deals this year. In terms of our investment pace, we have gone earlier stage, which means the check size has become smaller. On the other hand, we have also done more follow-on investments. The number you mentioned probably doesn't include our follow-on deals. Q: The increased number of follow-on deals is because the valuations are more attractive? A: It's the companies we know well, like Wish (a San Francisco-based e-commerce mobile app) just announced they raised US$500 million led by Temasek. Q: Has GGV participated in a follow-on investment where company's valuations dropped, in a down round? A: There are a few situations in our portfolio. So far, these are U.S. companies, not Chinese ones. Q: It seems Chinese companies are more capable of avoiding a down round, why do you think that is? A: Chinese companies are more efficient in capital, so they will survive without needing to raise financing. Usually, down rounds are not easy to execute and insiders will resist. In the U.S., it is very much a norm. Chinese companies can control their "burn rate" very quickly, so they will either survive, disappear, or get bought out. A down round is usually a sign of weakness. Are investors prepared to back a company whose valuation is going down? You really need to understand the risks. It's easy to ride the momentum, where everyone is fighting to get in, that's an easy sale to an investment committee. But if you go to your investors and say "I'm going to invest in this company in a down round, and it's a great deal," that's much harder. Q: Let's move on to some of your key portfolio companies. Iwjw, a Chinese online real estate agency,

In this episode of China Money Podcast, guest Stuart Leckie, chairman of Stirling Finance, spoke to our host Nina Xiang. Leckie shared his views on how China's provincial pension funds should diversify their investments, and the possibility of China establishing more national level funds to manage its pension assets. Don't forget to subscribe to China Money Podcast for free in the iTunes store, or subscribe to China Money Network weekly newsletters. You can also subscribe to China Money Podcast’s Youtube channel or Youku channel. Q: You have done a lot of work with the Chinese central government on reforming and restructuring the pension systems. Can you first give us a brief introduction on China's current pension system? A: You have to differentiate between people with urban and rural residence cards. The rural part is very tiny and backward in terms of pension provision. But the urban system is becoming more sophisticated. Part of it is unfunded. It's pay-as-you-go. The other part is funded, but very conservatively funded, typically in government bonds and cash deposits. Its returns have been equal or a bit ahead of price inflation, but have been way behind salary increases because salaries have been growing very rapidly in China in the past 20 years. Q: The government realizes this and is seeking to change the situation... Q: Yes, actually during the stock market crash in the summer, the government said that it would allow some provincial pensions to invest in the stock market. But back to China's urban pension system, all urban employees, whether employed by state-owned enterprises, private companies, joint ventures or foreign companies, should pay 8% of their monthly salary as contributions. Employers will pay around 20%. They are very high contribution rates, which is to pay off the "legacy" pensions from the old state-owned enterprise pension system. The so-called enterprise annuity in China is indeed a kind of corporate pension plan. They can invest up to 30% in equities. So they have much more flexible investment parameters than the state benefits have. Q: How big is the enterprise annuity plans now? A: It has been growing reasonably quickly. There are over 20 million people in China with enterprise annuity plans, but as a proportion of China's total work population, it's still very small. Q: The biggest pension fund in China, the pension fund of last-resort, is the National Social Security Fund (NSSF)... A: Well, the NSSF is generally classified as a sovereign wealth fund, not a pension fund. A pension fund should know who are the beneficiaries, but we don't know who will be the beneficiaries and how will NSSF's money be used. Sometimes, I am asked to comment on the diversification of the NSSF. My answer is that if you can tell me exactly the nature and duration of its liabilities, I will tell you if the diversification is good. But we don't know much about NSSF's liabilities. Q: The NSSF was able to achieve a 11.69% return for 2014, really not bad? A: Yes, the NSSF is able to hire Chinese returnees who have worked overseas for decades. But still, I remember a few years after it was established, it sent out a request for proposals, all in Chinese, to the international fund management community on the day before Christmas. But the document spelled out everything it requested, including the tracking error. At that time, nobody knew that the NSSF knew what a tracking error was. But they did end up awarding eight international investment managers for different international equity mandates. They went for the big names, understandably. Q: It's pretty impossible for any small alternative investment manager to get in the door with NSSF or China Investment Corp (CIC)? A: Yes, because these are monster funds. Their minimum investment will be perhaps hundreds of millions U.S. dollars. But the Chinese funds also bargain hard for fees.

KEVIN OVER on: - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kevinovermusic - SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/kevin-over HOW I MET THE BASS on: - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howimetthebass - Twitter: https://twitter.com/howimetthebass - Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/HowIMetTheBass 3 QUESTIONS to Kevin Over: Q: How did you choose the music for these 60 minutes? A: I liked the idea of getting away from the typical podcasts featuring peak-time club tracks and straight grooves. So I decided to put some tunes together which are easy to listen on a walk through the city or while travelling with the train. All the music is influencing my life in a strong way since I started doing music. This mixtape has a range from 4/4 - grooves to Funk, Soul, Rap and Jazz. All I love. Q: It´s not normal to listen to a podcast in 2015 and there are real vinyl sounds inside. Are my ears right? A: No, thats just a Crackle-App I put on the mix to simulate that oldschool feeling. But maybe there are some 12 inches in it aswell. Q: Your current EP "Touch" on Noir Music is a big success, especially the track "Jus A" is pushed and supported by lots of international DJs. What´s coming up next? A: I finished a lot of tracks in the first weeks of 2015. At the moment I am just planing different EPs on some great labels. Watch out!