Podcasts about Rao

Ctrl+Alt+Doubt offers a new way to understand why conspiracy theories grow and persist. Rather than treating them as cognitive errors, psychological pathologies, or products of echo chambers, Rao and Greve analyze conspiracy theories as linguistic constructions—stories built from recognizable semantic patterns. Using tools from distributional semantics, they map the semantic space of conspiracy talk and show how meanings are assembled, recombined, and diffused online.Book Link:https://amzn.eu/d/0bzPaFXC

Toyota didn't beat Mercedes by getting cheaper. It beat Mercedes by getting closer to the customer first. Here's the six-year research obsession behind the Lexus LS 400, and why undercutting your way to a full panel is a strategy that has already failed in a dozen other industries, and what Harvard's own pricing research says to do instead. By Michael Tetreault, Editor-In-Chief, Concierge Medicine Today "I'm a car guy, so bear with me on this one. There will be some good points [in this article], I promise. I know enough about engines to self-diagnose and wrench on them myself. Driving an old car with lifter problems through North Dakota and southern Canada in the '90s will teach you that." ~Michael Tetreault Today's article isn't about concierge medicine directly. It's about a distant cousin in the subscription-based healthcare world, direct primary care, or DPC. Over the past two decades, I've noticed more and more that there is a moment almost every DPC or low-cost, membership-based practice hits around year two or three, when the patient panel quietly stalls (catch the car pun). Growth that used to feel automatic starts to flatten out, and you notice it before you can quite explain it. That's usually right about when a competitor down the road launches at $59 to $93 a month, and a quiet voice in your head says: just drop the price. Fill the seats. Worry about margin later. That instinct is understandable. It is also, according to decades of business research and a growing body of data inside concierge and membership medicine itself, one of the fastest ways to damage the very practice you built to serve patients better. This is not a scolding. It is a strategy conversation, grounded in evidence, for low-cost subscription-based physicians who left, or are considering leaving, the insurance-driven system specifically to build something sustainable that has a low cost for the patients because you feel your altruistic nature pulling you to do so. But, if the goal is sustainability, the tactic matters. What "racing to the bottom" actually means Let's zoom out for a moment. A price war is what happens when competitors inside the same market repeatedly cut prices to undercut one another, creating a cycle where each side matches or beats the last cut. This "price-cutting momentum" pulls in competitors who feel forced to follow the initial price cut, and while it can create short-term benefits for the buyer, it erodes the profit margins of everyone competing. Harvard Business School researchers Akshay Rao and Mark Bergen, writing in Harvard Business Review, built a career studying exactly this dynamic across industries. Their conclusion, echoed by strategists since, is blunt: most price wars are avoidable, and the businesses that start them or get pulled into them rarely come out ahead. The Kinsta business blog, summarizing HBR's own internal analysis of the question, put it plainly: when businesses were asked whether they should engage in a price war, the overwhelming answer was "no." Instead, the research points toward differentiation as the more durable response to a low-cost competitor. There is a second, quieter finding in that same research that some physicians should sit with. Price itself shapes how a buyer perceives value, and a price set too low signals that the product is cheap, in the way a price set too high can signal it is a ripoff. In other words, the discount that was supposed to win the patient can be the very thing that tells the patient your care is not worth much. It's indeed, a delicate balance and it's different for every practice and every doctor. Why? Because of who you work for and serve: the patient. Every patient is different. Every practice is different. That makes this topic challenging but it's a conversation worth having because I want to see your practice thrive and more importantly, survive in your community. The framework underneath the instinct Michael Porter, the Harvard strategist whose work still anchors most first-year MBA curricula, described three durable paths to competitive advantage: cost leadership, differentiation, or a focused niche strategy. A company chooses to compete either through lower costs than its rivals or by differentiating itself along dimensions the customer actually values, in order to command a higher price. What Porter warned against was the position most panic-driven price cuts land a practice in. Porter's phrase for it is "stuck in the middle," and it describes an organization trying to be all things to all people, with no distinct competitive advantage as a result. Businesses caught here typically perform the worst in their industry precisely because they never committed to one strength. A DPC practice that quietly lowers its price to compete on cost, while still trying to deliver same-day access, unhurried visits, and so-called affordable white-glove service, is not competing on cost leadership. It is trying to sell a premium product at a discount price, and the math does not hold. Today, a medical practice or a company stuck in this position cannot beat a true cost leader on price, because it never built the operational discipline or scale to sustain that price, and it cannot beat a differentiator on the experience it promised, because the discipline required to deliver that experience costs money. Both promises erode at once. What the data inside DPC and low-cost membership medicine is already showing This is not theoretical for DPC and low-cost membership medicine practices. It is visible in the industry's own numbers. The 2026 State of DPC survey, distributed through the DPC Alliance and Hint Health's network, found a direct relationship between panel size and price. Practices with fewer than 200 patients averaged $105.93 per member per month, practices with 201 to 500 patients averaged $99.28, and practices with more than 500 patients averaged $77.74 per member per month. Read plainly, the larger the panel, the lower the average price charged per patient. That pattern is exactly what Porter's framework predicts happens to practices chasing volume without a differentiation strategy to protect price. It is worth noting this figure comes from Hint Health, a technology vendor with a commercial interest in DPC's growth, so it should be read as directional industry data rather than an independent audit. It is nonetheless the most comprehensive dataset the movement currently has. At the same time, the broader market is not short on room to compete on value instead of price. More than half of private healthcare consumers rank the cost of care as the most dissatisfying part of their current healthcare experience, and DPC's growth has been driven in large part by employers and patients who are tired of opaque, escalating costs elsewhere in the system, not by DPC being the cheapest option on paper. Employers now fund the majority, roughly 60 percent, of active DPC memberships, according to Hint Health's 2026 trends report, which signals that the buyers filling panels today are increasingly sophisticated purchasers evaluating value, retention, and outcomes, not simply hunting for the lowest sticker price. Regional pricing tells a similar story. Northeast DPC pricing rose 33 percent over five years, from $60 to $80 a month, even as national demand for the model accelerated. Practices in that region did not grow by discounting. They grew while raising price, in a market that was simultaneously expanding. The altruism problem no one names out loud Here is the part of this conversation that is specific to medicine and does not show up in a typical business school case study on price wars. Physicians are trained, deliberately and repeatedly, to put the patient's welfare ahead of their own. Medical professionalism itself is defined in the literature by principles of excellence, accountability, altruism, integrity, and humanism, all oriented around the patient relationship. That formation is not incidental. It is the point of medical education, and it is a genuine strength of the profession that should never be coached out of a physician. But that same formation has a side effect worth naming honestly. A rigorous study out of the University of Cologne and University of Rennes, published in the Journal of Health Economics, measured patient-regarding altruism in 733 medical students at different stages of training. The researchers found that patient-regarding altruism is highest among freshmen, declines significantly through the middle years of medical study, and rises again in the final year as students begin assisting in clinical practice. Students with lower income expectations showed higher altruism scores overall. Sit with that last finding. The training that makes physicians excellent, trustworthy, patient-first clinicians also correlates with a documented discomfort around charging what care is actually worth. That discomfort is admirable in the exam room. It becomes a strategic liability in the business office, where it quietly nudges a physician toward the lowest defensible price rather than the price that reflects the value delivered, the access provided, and the sustainability required to keep serving that same patient for the next twenty years. This is not a call to abandon altruism. It is a call to separate two different questions that get tangled together under stress: am I a good doctor and am I running a sustainable practice. A price built out of guilt is not more altruistic than a price built out of strategy. A closed practice serves no one. What other industries learned the hard way Medicine is not the first field to face this exact temptation, and the businesses that raced to the bottom on price rarely tell a happy ending. Rao and Bergen's HBR research spans industries from B2B and agribusiness to healthcare and the nonprofit sector, and the throughline in that body of work is consistent: firms that respond to a low-price competitor by cutting their own price usually shrink the whole market's profitability without gaining durable share, because the competitor simply cuts again. The winners in price wars, when there are any, tend to be the largest players with the deepest balance sheets, the ones who can absorb losses the longest. A solo or small-group physician practice is almost never that player, and should not try to be. The lesson for low-cost DPC physicians is not abstract. It is Porter's choice, stated as a decision every practice has to make deliberately rather than by drift: compete on being demonstrably, operationally the lowest-cost, highest-efficiency provider in your market, which requires real scale and real systems, or compete on being demonstrably different in a way patients value enough to pay for. Trying to hold both at once is what leaves a practice, in Porter's words, stuck in the middle, with margins too thin to sustain the very things that made the practice worth choosing in the first place. The Lexus Lesson: Price Is a Result, Not a Strategy Circling back to my car guy roots, there is an automotive story worth every physician's attention here, because it is one of the clearest business case studies ever produced on the exact question this article is asking you if you're a DPC physician. It comes from Hagerty's "Revelations" series, hosted by Jason Cammisa, on the origin of the 1989 Lexus LS 400, and it has been retold in detail across automotive trade press and in Chester Dawson's book Lexus: The Relentless Pursuit. The origin story matters as much as the engineering. Toyota's first American export, the Toyopet Crown, was a flop, selling only a few hundred units before Toyota pulled it from the market in the late 1950s. Twenty five years of steady rebuilding later, Toyota had become the largest importer of vehicles into the United States, and that success triggered a protectionist response. In the early 1980s, the U.S. government pressured Japan into so-called voluntary export restraints, capping Japanese auto imports at roughly 1.7 million vehicles a year. With volume capped by government policy, Toyota USA's Yukiyasu Togo pushed a different lever: if the company could not sell more cars, it needed to sell more profitable ones. That constraint, not ambition alone, is what pushed Toyota into the luxury segment. In 1983, Toyota's then chairman Eiji Toyoda greenlit a secret effort known as Project F1, for Flagship One. Where a typical vehicle program of that era might use around 200 engineers and a few hundred million dollars, F1 was reportedly given no fixed budget and a development team of roughly 1,400 engineers, 60 designers, and thousands of additional technicians and support staff, spread across a six-year effort widely reported to have cost in the neighborhood of a billion dollars. What that team actually did is the part physicians should study closely. Rather than guess at what luxury buyers wanted, a team of designers and engineers relocated to a rented house in Laguna Beach, California, and spent months directly observing affluent Americans: watching valet stands outside country clubs, studying the furniture in high-end homes, and even analyzing the leather scent inside Jaguar interiors closely enough to reverse-engineer the tanning process. They tested switchgear and steering wheel ergonomics against how women with long, manicured nails actually interact with a dashboard. This is the practice Toyota calls genchi genbutsu, going to see for yourself, rather than relying on assumptions about the customer. Separately, Toyota's research uncovered something more specific and more useful than "people want a cheaper luxury car." Mercedes-Benz owners loved the prestige of their cars but consistently described the dealership experience itself, the pressure, the wait, the sense of being talked down to, as miserable. Lexus rebuilt the entire buying experience around that single insight. Sales moved from an elevated desk to a shared coffee table, removing the physical power imbalance of a traditional car sale. Only 80 of roughly 1,500 dealer applicants were approved to sell the car, each required to invest several million dollars and submit to ongoing customer satisfaction audits. The product and the experience of buying it were treated as a single, inseparable offer. The engineering discipline underneath all of this was, by most independent accounts, extreme. Chief engineer Ichiro Suzuki pursued a drag coefficient of 0.29, well below the S-Class's 0.36 to 0.37, without relying on a rear spoiler, which he considered an inelegant shortcut. Interior noise was engineered down to roughly 58 decibels versus about 60 for the S-Class, and multiple road tests reported the LS 400 was as quiet at 125 miles per hour as its German rivals were at 95. Prototypes logged well over a million miles of testing, and engineers reportedly disassembled competitor vehicles to study exactly how they failed over years of use, then engineered around each weakness. When the LS 400 launched in 1989, it was priced at roughly $35,000, commonly cited as about half the price, or as much as $30,000 less, than a comparably equipped Mercedes-Benz S-Class. The price gap was so large that BMW reportedly suggested Toyota was selling the car at a loss. Within two years, Lexus had overtaken Mercedes-Benz as the best-selling luxury import brand in the United States and topped J.D. Power's quality and service rankings, and Mercedes is reported to have lost roughly a quarter of its U.S. sales in the aftermath. Here is the part physicians should sit with. The low price was not the strategy. It was the output of the strategy. Toyota did not set out to build a cheaper Mercedes and work backward. It spent six years and enormous resources removing the specific frustrations its own research showed were driving prestige-loving customers away, then engineered a manufacturing process disciplined enough to make that quality repeatable at scale, and only after that work was done did it set a price the market would reward. The aggressive price was possible because the operational excellence and the customer research underneath it were real, not because anyone at Toyota decided to compete by cutting corners. This is the distinction that gets lost when a DPC or low-cost membership medicine practice drops its membership fee simply to fill a panel out of fear. Toyota's price was earned through relentless, well-funded engineering and firsthand study of exactly what its target customer resented about the existing options. A practice that lowers its price without first doing that same work, actually going to see for yourself what frustrates the patients you want to serve, and building a practice that removes those specific frustrations, is doing the opposite of what Lexus did. It is cutting the price before it has earned the right to. The translatable lesson is not "charge less." It is this: find out, directly and specifically, what your patients are actually frustrated by in the healthcare experience they already have, build a practice that removes that frustration with real discipline, treat the entire patient experience, not just the clinical visit, as part of the product, and let price follow from that work rather than substitute for it. Toyota spent six years in the field before it touched the price tag. Most practices considering a discount have not spent six weeks asking patients what specifically is broken in the care they are currently getting. What to build instead None of this means price is fixed or that access should be reserved only for the wealthy. It means the starting question changes. Instead of asking what is the lowest price that will fill my panel, the more durable question is what does my practice do that a patient cannot get anywhere else in this market, and does my price reflect that honestly. That might be same-day access. It might be visit length. It might be a specific clinical focus, a specific population, or a specific relationship to a local employer. Differentiation does not require the highest price in the market. It requires a clear, honest reason for the price you have chosen, one you can say out loud to a patient without flinching. Panel growth built on discounting tends to attract patients who are price-shopping and will leave the moment a cheaper option appears next door. Panel growth built on a clear, differentiated value proposition tends to attract patients who stay, refer, and tolerate a price increase because they understand what they are paying for. This article is intended for educational and informational purposes for physicians and healthcare leaders. It does not constitute financial, legal, accounting, or medical advice, and practice pricing decisions should be made in consultation with qualified financial and legal advisors familiar with your specific market and regulatory environment. Sources Rao, Akshay R. and Bergen, Mark E. "How to Fight a Price War." Harvard Business Review, March-April 2000. hbr.org/2000/03/how-to-fight-a-price-war "Price war." Wikipedia, accessed August 2026. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_war "How a Race to the Bottom Hurts Your Business's Bottom Line." Kinsta, July 15, 2024. kinsta.com/blog/race-to-the-bottom Porter, Michael E. Competitive Strategy (1980) and Competitive Advantage (1985), Harvard Business School Press. Summarized via "Porter's generic strategies," Wikipedia, and Strategic Management Insight, strategicmanagementinsight.com/tools/porters-three-generic-strategies "State of DPC 2026: Key Takeaways From DPC Alliance's Physician Survey." Hint Health, July 18, 2026. blog.hint.com/state-of-dpc-2026-key-takeaways-from-the-dpc-alliances-physician-survey "Hint Health Releases 2026 Direct Primary Care Trends Report." Hint Health, April 23, 2026, distributed via PR Newswire, Yahoo Finance, and Morningstar. "DPC Membership Pricing Trends." Hint Health Blog, June 24, 2022. blog.hint.com/dpc-membership-pricing-trends "High cost of health care may be boosting direct primary care membership." Medical Economics, November 16, 2025. medicaleconomics.com/view/high-cost-of-health-care-may-be-boosting-direct-primary-care-membership Sagebien, Julia; L'Haridon, Olivier; Wiesen, Daniel; et al. "The formation of physician altruism." Journal of Health Economics, Vol. 87, 2023. sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629622001308 (also indexed on PubMed, ID 36603361) "Professional identity formation of clinical medical students during and beyond the pandemic." PMC, National Library of Medicine. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11150932 Cammisa, Jason. "The Absurd Engineering Obsession Behind the 1989 Lexus LS 400." Hagerty Revelations, YouTube, youtu.be/i15Ii4yetLM "How the Lexus LS400 Crashed the Luxury Party." Autoblog, October 2, 2025. autoblog.com/features/how-the-lexus-ls400-crashed-the-luxury-party "How Lexus defeated 'the best car in the world.'" Motoring Research, July 25, 2024. motoringresearch.com/car-news/lexus-ls-400-review "Lexus LS 400: 'the finest V8 engine in the world.'" Cult Classics, Adrian Flux, August 21, 2023. adrianflux.co.uk/cult-classics/lexus-ls-400-the-finest-v8-engine-in-the-world Dawson, Chester. Lexus: The Relentless Pursuit. John Wiley & Sons, revised edition. Publisher synopsis via AbeBooks, abebooks.com/9780470828045 A detailed companion recap of the Hagerty Revelations episode, covering Project F1 staffing, the Laguna Beach research house, the coffee-table dealership model, and Suzuki's engineering targets, was supplied directly by the editor. Its original publisher and byline could not be independently confirmed at time of writing. Facts drawn from it (drag coefficient, price gap, engineer count, dealership vetting) were cross-checked against sources 11 through 15 above before inclusion, and the editor should confirm original attribution before publication.

The first large number of Chinese immigrants began arriving in the United States in the 1840s, and Chinese opera troupes were not far behind. In Inside Chinese Theater: Community and Artistry in Nineteenth Century California and Beyond (U Illinois Press, 2025), Nancy Yunhwa Rao writes the story of the flourishing and resiliency of Chinese opera in America. Chinese opera troupes brought with them an important cultural reminder of China that helped immigrants to build community and maintain connections with their old home in their new one. At the same time, anti-Chinese violence, legislation, and prejudice was a constant and growing threat to Chinese immigrants and Chinese theater. As Chinese theater became part of California and San Francisco culture, popular Chinese actors advocated for their art alongside appeals for civil rights. Rao draws on personal accounts and artifacts to place theater within the everyday lives of Chinese people. She also describes the costumes, singing, staging, and storytelling that impacted mainstream reception and influenced how Chinese communities saw themselves. Rao makes a convincing argument that more attention to the transpacific connections between the US and Asia is vital to telling the true story of America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

In 1988, eight men in Kingston, Jamaica, begin rehearsals for a play. Though strangers to one another, they share an inescapable truth: All of them are gay. And they live in a world that refuses to accept them. One night they are beaten and one of them is killed.  In this episode, Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James speaks with Mythili Rao on his newest novel The Disappearers. Described as a reckoning, the novel explores a violent incident that was rumoured to have happened but was never proven, its aftermath and retribution.  James and Rao discuss the hitherto unexplored impact of the AIDS crisis in eighties Jamaica and why fiction is ideally placed to explore the consequences of such a violent encounter.  Marlon James is the Booker Prize–winning and New York Times bestselling author of A Brief History of Seven Killings; the bestselling and National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf; as well as the bestselling Moon Witch, Spider King; The Book of Night Women; and John Crow's Devil. Mythili Rao is a podcast editor and book critic living in London. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events  ...  Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first large number of Chinese immigrants began arriving in the United States in the 1840s, and Chinese opera troupes were not far behind. In Inside Chinese Theater: Community and Artistry in Nineteenth Century California and Beyond (U Illinois Press, 2025), Nancy Yunhwa Rao writes the story of the flourishing and resiliency of Chinese opera in America. Chinese opera troupes brought with them an important cultural reminder of China that helped immigrants to build community and maintain connections with their old home in their new one. At the same time, anti-Chinese violence, legislation, and prejudice was a constant and growing threat to Chinese immigrants and Chinese theater. As Chinese theater became part of California and San Francisco culture, popular Chinese actors advocated for their art alongside appeals for civil rights. Rao draws on personal accounts and artifacts to place theater within the everyday lives of Chinese people. She also describes the costumes, singing, staging, and storytelling that impacted mainstream reception and influenced how Chinese communities saw themselves. Rao makes a convincing argument that more attention to the transpacific connections between the US and Asia is vital to telling the true story of America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The first large number of Chinese immigrants began arriving in the United States in the 1840s, and Chinese opera troupes were not far behind. In Inside Chinese Theater: Community and Artistry in Nineteenth Century California and Beyond (U Illinois Press, 2025), Nancy Yunhwa Rao writes the story of the flourishing and resiliency of Chinese opera in America. Chinese opera troupes brought with them an important cultural reminder of China that helped immigrants to build community and maintain connections with their old home in their new one. At the same time, anti-Chinese violence, legislation, and prejudice was a constant and growing threat to Chinese immigrants and Chinese theater. As Chinese theater became part of California and San Francisco culture, popular Chinese actors advocated for their art alongside appeals for civil rights. Rao draws on personal accounts and artifacts to place theater within the everyday lives of Chinese people. She also describes the costumes, singing, staging, and storytelling that impacted mainstream reception and influenced how Chinese communities saw themselves. Rao makes a convincing argument that more attention to the transpacific connections between the US and Asia is vital to telling the true story of America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-american-studies

The first large number of Chinese immigrants began arriving in the United States in the 1840s, and Chinese opera troupes were not far behind. In Inside Chinese Theater: Community and Artistry in Nineteenth Century California and Beyond (U Illinois Press, 2025), Nancy Yunhwa Rao writes the story of the flourishing and resiliency of Chinese opera in America. Chinese opera troupes brought with them an important cultural reminder of China that helped immigrants to build community and maintain connections with their old home in their new one. At the same time, anti-Chinese violence, legislation, and prejudice was a constant and growing threat to Chinese immigrants and Chinese theater. As Chinese theater became part of California and San Francisco culture, popular Chinese actors advocated for their art alongside appeals for civil rights. Rao draws on personal accounts and artifacts to place theater within the everyday lives of Chinese people. She also describes the costumes, singing, staging, and storytelling that impacted mainstream reception and influenced how Chinese communities saw themselves. Rao makes a convincing argument that more attention to the transpacific connections between the US and Asia is vital to telling the true story of America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/performing-arts

The first large number of Chinese immigrants began arriving in the United States in the 1840s, and Chinese opera troupes were not far behind. In Inside Chinese Theater: Community and Artistry in Nineteenth Century California and Beyond (U Illinois Press, 2025), Nancy Yunhwa Rao writes the story of the flourishing and resiliency of Chinese opera in America. Chinese opera troupes brought with them an important cultural reminder of China that helped immigrants to build community and maintain connections with their old home in their new one. At the same time, anti-Chinese violence, legislation, and prejudice was a constant and growing threat to Chinese immigrants and Chinese theater. As Chinese theater became part of California and San Francisco culture, popular Chinese actors advocated for their art alongside appeals for civil rights. Rao draws on personal accounts and artifacts to place theater within the everyday lives of Chinese people. She also describes the costumes, singing, staging, and storytelling that impacted mainstream reception and influenced how Chinese communities saw themselves. Rao makes a convincing argument that more attention to the transpacific connections between the US and Asia is vital to telling the true story of America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

The first large number of Chinese immigrants began arriving in the United States in the 1840s, and Chinese opera troupes were not far behind. In Inside Chinese Theater: Community and Artistry in Nineteenth Century California and Beyond (U Illinois Press, 2025), Nancy Yunhwa Rao writes the story of the flourishing and resiliency of Chinese opera in America. Chinese opera troupes brought with them an important cultural reminder of China that helped immigrants to build community and maintain connections with their old home in their new one. At the same time, anti-Chinese violence, legislation, and prejudice was a constant and growing threat to Chinese immigrants and Chinese theater. As Chinese theater became part of California and San Francisco culture, popular Chinese actors advocated for their art alongside appeals for civil rights. Rao draws on personal accounts and artifacts to place theater within the everyday lives of Chinese people. She also describes the costumes, singing, staging, and storytelling that impacted mainstream reception and influenced how Chinese communities saw themselves. Rao makes a convincing argument that more attention to the transpacific connections between the US and Asia is vital to telling the true story of America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/music

The first large number of Chinese immigrants began arriving in the United States in the 1840s, and Chinese opera troupes were not far behind. In Inside Chinese Theater: Community and Artistry in Nineteenth Century California and Beyond (U Illinois Press, 2025), Nancy Yunhwa Rao writes the story of the flourishing and resiliency of Chinese opera in America. Chinese opera troupes brought with them an important cultural reminder of China that helped immigrants to build community and maintain connections with their old home in their new one. At the same time, anti-Chinese violence, legislation, and prejudice was a constant and growing threat to Chinese immigrants and Chinese theater. As Chinese theater became part of California and San Francisco culture, popular Chinese actors advocated for their art alongside appeals for civil rights. Rao draws on personal accounts and artifacts to place theater within the everyday lives of Chinese people. She also describes the costumes, singing, staging, and storytelling that impacted mainstream reception and influenced how Chinese communities saw themselves. Rao makes a convincing argument that more attention to the transpacific connections between the US and Asia is vital to telling the true story of America.Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-west Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Academic Summary:A massive, population-based study out of Eastern China analyzed nearly 10,000 individuals to determine how daily tea consumption impacts liver cancer risk. Researchers discovered that drinking just one freshly brewed cup of tea per day—specifically green tea—significantly drops the overall odds of developing primary liver cancer. Astonishingly, this protective "shielding" effect was highly effective among high-risk groups, including regular alcohol consumers and those positive for Hepatitis B. The active polyphenols and catechins (like EGCG) in the tea appear to actively neutralize the severe oxidative stress and inflammation caused by alcohol, pathogens, and environmental toxins.#LiverHealth #GreenTeaBenefits #CancerPrevention #Biohacking #NutritionalScience #TheCatalyst #HarmonicNexus #Longevity #HealthOptimizationFormal Citation:Liu, X., Baecker, A., Wu, M., Zhou, J., Jin, Z., Mu, L., He, N., Rao, J., Lu, Q.-Y., Li, L., Zhao, J.-K., & Zhang, Z.-F. Tea Consumption and Liver Cancer: A Population-Based Case–Control Study in Eastern China. Nutrients. 2025; 17(16), 2647. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17162647Medical & Legal Disclaimer:Disclaimer: The information provided in this content is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional health advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet, health routine, or medical treatment plan. This content is strictly non-monetized and produced for the advancement of public scientific literacy.Alchepharma,Ralph Turchiano,tea consumption and liver cancer,green tea liver benefits,EGCG cancer prevention,how to protect liver from alcohol,hepatitis b liver cancer prevention,green tea polyphenols,reverse liver damage naturally,liver health optimization,tea brewing temperature for health,catechins and antioxidants,best tea for your liver,natural liver detox,alcohol oxidative stress liver,EGCG anti-inflammatory,daily tea consumption benefits

Links For The Occult Rejectshttps://linktr.ee/theoccultrejectsOccult Research Institutehttps://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/Substackhttps://substack.com/@theoccultrejects?r=7auau0&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-pageCash Apphttps://cash.app/$theoccultrejectsVenmo@TheOccultRejectsBuy Me A Coffeebuymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejectsPatreonhttps://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejectsBibliographyRepetition, Fluency, and BeliefBacon, Frederick T. “Credibility of Repeated Statements: Memory for Trivia.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 5, no. 3 (1979): 241–252.Begg, Ian Maynard, Ann Anas, and Suzanne Farinacci. “Dissociation of Processes in Belief: Source Recollection, Statement Familiarity, and the Illusion of Truth.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 121, no. 4 (1992): 446–458.Dechêne, Alice, Christoph Stahl, Jochim Hansen, and Michaela Wänke. “The Truth About the Truth: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Truth Effect.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 14, no. 2 (2010): 238–257.Fazio, Lisa K., Nadia M. Brashier, B. Keith Payne, and Elizabeth J. Marsh. “Knowledge Does Not Protect Against Illusory Truth.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 144, no. 5 (2015): 993–1002.Hasher, Lynn, David Goldstein, and Thomas Toppino. “Frequency and the Conference of Referential Validity.” Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 16, no. 1 (1977): 107–112.Reber, Rolf, and Norbert Schwarz. “Effects of Perceptual Fluency on Judgments of Truth.” Consciousness and Cognition 8, no. 3 (1999): 338–342.Unkelbach, Christian. “Reversing the Truth Effect: Learning the Interpretation of Processing Fluency in Judgments of Truth.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 33, no. 1 (2007): 219–230.Zajonc, Robert B. “Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 9, no. 2, part 2 (1968): 1–27.Memory, Spacing, and RetrievalCepeda, Nicholas J., Harold Pashler, Edward Vul, John T. Wixted, and Doug Rohrer. “Distributed Practice in Verbal Recall Tasks: A Review and Quantitative Synthesis.” Psychological Bulletin 132, no. 3 (2006): 354–380.Ebbinghaus, Hermann. Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. Translated by Henry A. Ruger and Clara E. Bussenius. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1913. Originally published 1885.Karpicke, Jeffrey D., and Henry L. Roediger III. “Repeated Retrieval During Learning Is the Key to Long-Term Retention.” Journal of Memory and Language 57, no. 2 (2007): 151–162.Roediger, Henry L. III, and Jeffrey D. Karpicke. “Test-Enhanced Learning: Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention.” Psychological Science 17, no. 3 (2006): 249–255.Tulving, Endel, and Donald M. Thomson. “Encoding Specificity and Retrieval Processes in Episodic Memory.” Psychological Review 80, no. 5 (1973): 352–373.Whitehouse, Harvey. Modes of Religiosity: A Cognitive Theory of Religious Transmission. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2004.Semantic Satiation and Verbal TransformationBalota, David A., and Sarah Black. “Semantic Satiation in Healthy Young and Older Adults.” Memory & Cognition 25, no. 2 (1997): 190–202.Jakobovits, Leon A. Effects of Repeated Stimulation on Cognitive Aspects of Behavior: Some Experiments on the Phenomenon of Semantic Satiation. PhD diss., McGill University, 1962.Kounios, John, et al. “On the Locus of the Semantic Satiation Effect: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials.” Memory & Cognition 28, no. 8 (2000): 1366–1377.Pilotti, Maura, John S. Antrobus, and Monica Duff. “The Effect of Presemantic Acoustic Adaptation on Semantic ‘Satiation.'” Memory & Cognition 25, no. 3 (1997): 305–312.Ströberg, Kim, Lau M. Andersen, and Stefan Wiens. “Electrocortical N400 Effects of Semantic Satiation.” Frontiers in Psychology 8 (2017): 2117.Warren, Richard M. “Illusory Changes of Distinct Speech upon Repetition—The Verbal Transformation Effect.” British Journal of Psychology 52, no. 3 (1961): 249–258.Warren, Richard M. “Illusory Changes in Repeated Words: Differences between Young Adults and the Aged.” American Journal of Psychology 74, no. 4 (1961): 506–516.Speech, Song, and Musical RepetitionDeutsch, Diana. “The Speech-to-Song Illusion.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 134, no. 5 (2013): 4241.Deutsch, Diana, Trevor Henthorn, and Rachael Lapidis. “Illusory Transformation from Speech to Song.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 129, no. 4 (2011): 2245–2252.Jakubowski, Kelly, Sebastian Finkel, Lauren Stewart, and Daniel Müllensiefen. “Dissecting an Earworm: Melodic Features and Song Popularity Predict Involuntary Musical Imagery.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 11, no. 2 (2017): 122–135.Margulis, Elizabeth Hellmuth. On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.Marjieh, Raja, Pol van Rijn, Ilia Sucholutsky, Harin Lee, Thomas L. Griffiths, and Nori Jacoby. “A Rational Analysis of the Speech-to-Song Illusion.” Preprint, 2024.Vickhoff, Björn, Helge Malmgren, Rickard Åström, Gunnar Nyberg, Seth-Reino Ekström, Mathias Engwall, Johan Snygg, Michael Nilsson, and Rebecka Jörnsten. “Music Structure Determines Heart Rate Variability of Singers.” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013): 334.Breath, Vocalization, and Autonomic PhysiologyBernardi, Luciano, Peter Sleight, Gianfranco Bandinelli, Simone Cencetti, Lino Fattorini, Jacek Wdowczyc-Szulc, and Andrea Lagi. “Effect of Rosary Prayer and Yoga Mantras on Autonomic Cardiovascular Rhythms: Comparative Study.” BMJ 323, no. 7327 (2001): 1446–1449.Lehrer, Paul M., and Richard Gevirtz. “Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback: How and Why Does It Work?” Frontiers in Psychology 5 (2014): 756.Shaffer, Fred, and J. P. Ginsberg. “An Overview of Heart Rate Variability Metrics and Norms.” Frontiers in Public Health 5 (2017): 258.Zaccaro, Andrea, Andrea Piarulli, Marco Laurino, Erika Garbella, Danilo Menicucci, Bruno Neri, and Angelo Gemignani. “How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 12 (2018): 353.Meditation, Chanting, and NeuroscienceFox, Kieran C. R., Matthew L. Dixon, Savannah Nijeboer, Manesh Girn, James L. Floman, Michael Lifshitz, Melissa Ellamil, Peter Sedlmeier, and Kalina Christoff. “Functional Neuroanatomy of Meditation: A Review and Meta-Analysis of 78 Functional Neuroimaging Investigations.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 65 (2016): 208–228.Kalyani, B. G., G. Venkatasubramanian, R. Arasappa, N. P. Rao, S. V. Kalmady, R. Behere, H. Rao, M. Vasudev, and B. N. Gangadhar. “Neurohemodynamic Correlates of ‘OM' Chanting: A Pilot Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.” International Journal of Yoga 4, no. 1 (2011): 3–6.Travis, Fred, and Jonathan Shear. “Focused Attention, Open Monitoring and Automatic Self-Transcending: Categories to Organize Meditations from Vedic, Buddhist and Chinese Traditions.” Consciousness and Cognition 19, no. 4 (2010): 1110–1118.Ritual, Attention, and Embodied PracticeBell, Catherine. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.Hobson, Nicholas M., Juliana Schroeder, Jane L. Risen, Dimitris Xygalatas, and Michael Inzlicht. “The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 22, no. 3 (2018): 260–284.McCauley, Robert N., and E. Thomas Lawson. Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.Xygalatas, Dimitris. Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2022.Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. 

Have you fallen victim to the "Pinterest Pantry?" Are you trying to figure out why you can't ever seem to find what you need in there despite having just gone to the store? Constantly questioning your sanity because you were sure you had a jar of Rao's in there but all you're finding is 14 flavors of instant oatmeal? The problem may be that your kitchen is organized for the wrong kitchen type. This week's episode is for YOU my friend! Once you know your kitchen/cooking style, you're ready to dig in to the organizational side. Get ready to tear apart your pantry, my friend! Connect with Lauren: Facebook Email: lauren.declutter360@gmail.com Instagram: @Declutter.360 If you found value in this episode, please leave a review and share it with a friend. Your support helps me continue to create great content for YOU! Don't forget to subscribe to the Declutter 360 Podcast so you never miss an episode!  

The Rao family in Maryland knew that something was different about their younger daughter, Ayoni, almost as soon as she was born. But it took them until she was five to get a diagnosis of Prader-Willi Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes extreme, insatiable hunger. Food needs to be locked away from many of these patients, or they might eat until their stomachs actually rupture. Dan visits the Raos at their home to learn more about how they manage Ayoni's condition, then cooks and eats dinner with the family. Dan also talks with Zayd Anwarzai, a 25-year-old with PWS, about what it's like when he knows he's eaten enough, but his stomach tells him otherwise. And Dan speaks with Dr. Jennifer Miller, the leading PWS expert in the country. Check out Colors of Hope, the organization that Dini Rao founded to help families of color who are living with PWS. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Kameel Stanley, Jared O'Connell, and Glydel Go. Right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. Get all your favorite podcasts, more than 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era, and live sports coverage with the SiriusXM app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We kick things off discussing the upsetting news of the layoffs at BrooklynVegan, Revolver and AltPress. We move on to learn that fans passed around a bag of urine at Lollapalooza last weekend. Then, we were blown away by legendary singer Martha Reeves' not-so-legendary rendition of the national anthem at a women's pro baseball game, and her attempt at redemption. We try to compare it to Fergie's infamous rendition and Fergie somehow comes out on top. We enjoy the Undertaker singing Happy Birthday, and we spend some time roasting Jonah Hill for his poor takes on jiu jitsu. We wrap up the show discussing infamous Italian restaurant Rao's and the ridiculous steps you have to take to get a table.Watch the episode on Youtube for free. Got a comment? Leave us a voicemail!240 - LIVE - CAS‪(240) 548-3227‬ Join our Patreon and get a bonus episode each month, and other behind-the-scenes goodies. More info here.Follow us on: Twitch, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and our Discord Chat. Also don't forget about our Spotify playlist. We also have merch if you're into that kind of sharing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi! Woah. I leave for the East Coast to start my Make It Fast (please for the love of ME, pre-order it!!!) book tour in less than 48 hours. My literary agent just called to check in on my mental state and I'll tell you what I told her— I'm honestly feeling great. I haven't started packing, but I've got a million outfit options strewn about my closet, and I'll get there eventually. The flights are booked and the hotel reservations are made. It's go time, baby. I'm also thrilled to announce that I have officially entered phase 5 of the creative process:With my last book, I was firmly still in phase #4 (“I suck”) until the book had actually been published and all of you started to cook from it and share your photos and reviews and love of the book. But with Make It Fast, I hosted a party and gave the book to my friends and family two weeks before pub day! I created an Illegal Bookclub and roped in my friends all across the country to share advanced copies of the book with their communities! And, comically, Indigo (the main Canadian seller of the book) accidentally sent all of the pre-orders like two weeks early, so all of the Canadian What To Cookers out there have had their books for a week now! And Canadians are so nice — they are sending so much positivity my way!So there are a LOT of people out in the world, people who I love and trust, who have already seen it, and cooked from it, and told me how much they love it. Thus launching me into phase #5 (“this might be ok”) a few weeks earlier than my last book publishing cycle. I guess, if I'm being honest, what I'm saying is that I require external validation to feel good about my work? Is that pathetic? I don't think so. I think it's a real, honest part of most (all?) people's creative process. It feels really scary and vulnerable to launch a piece of work that you've worked so hard on out into the world. It feels a little bit like dropping your deeply feeling, sensitive, absolutely incredible child off at Kindergarten for the first day of school. Will he make friends? Will the teachers understand how creative and kind and cool he is? Will they be patient with him and let him finish his art project because he really doesn't like when he doesn't get to finish his art project? Will the world love him as much as I do? This analogy is not random: I am dropping my deeply feeling sensitive child off at Kindergarten for his first day of school tomorrow, and the jitters and unease of that feel so akin to publishing a book. By next Wednesday when I send this newsletter, Make It Fast will be in your kitchens, if you've pre-ordered (have I mentioned I'd really love it if you could pre-order?). I'll have already been on Good Morning America two mornings in a row (bless them, what an invitation!), spoken with Jenna Bush Hager in front of an audience of you in Brooklyn, yapped with Dan Pelosi in Boston, chatted with Kerry Diamond in DC, and I'll be en route to Charlotte where I'll be in conversation with our very own Molly from What To Cook. I am excited, and I am nervous, and just like I've been telling my five-year-old, it's OK to feel both of those things at once. And Phase 6 (“this is awesome”) is just around the corner for both of us. There are lots of other book tour dates — check them all out here!Today's So Into That is sponsored by FP Movement. We've talked about our love for their Carpe Diem shorts many times before (a truly perfect athletic short at a very good price point!), but FP Movement has many more athleisure pieces we love. From Molly from What To Cook: I'm on vacation at the beach this week and have been living in this dress and shorts combo when I'm not in a bathing suit. It's so so comfy and easy to throw on for beach walks — it'll also be great to wear on the sports sidelines when it's 100 degrees outside. I'm a shortie (5'3”) and had to shorten the straps a tiny bit (worth the effort!). We also love these biker shorts with this boxy short sleeve and this oversized long sleeve! * Dr. Becky invited me to plan the menu for a REALLY special dinner celebrating Good Inside Baby on Monday in LA. I got to hang with MALLY K. GOLDMAN and Megan Roup and Elaine Welteroth and so many incredible, smart women who make motherhood safer, more fun, stronger, and more fashionable. The dilly feta salad with feta brined shrimp, flank steak with elote salad, and bbq chicken are all straight from the book! My menu concept was elegant California BBQ and I think we nailed it! PS If you're in LA, Heirloom catered and they rule. PS because I know you all want to know, Becky is awesome IRL. She is a fellow insomniac romance book lover, she values her female friendships so highly and they come up in conversation all the time (this is always a green flag for me when I meet new people), and she's just so incredibly smart, insightful, and cool. This is not sponsored but we've swapped codes for each other in the past and my Good Inside code still works — you can use code WHATTOCOOK to get 20% off a subscription to Good Inside if you could use a little parenting assist (like with how to get your deeply feeling kid to dread the first day of school less!). * I recently worked with Groundwork to hire a new team member (woohooooo, Meg!) and it was such an incredible experience that I wanted to share. Three in four U.S. workers are also caregivers, and as that caregiving work collides with mid-career years, most end up forced to choose between staying all in at real personal cost or stepping away entirely — becoming a hugely qualified, "off-market" talent pool that's actually eager to work, just on slightly different terms. Groundwork connects people like that with employers building smarter, more flexible teams. In my case, I knew I needed help in a certain space but had no idea how to define the role or find the right person. They sat down with me, helped flesh it out, wrote the job description, sourced candidates, and ran interviews, and took it all off my plate. And brought me the most INCREDIBLE CANDIDATES! Like lights out brilliant women. If you're a small business owner stuck in hiring limbo, or you're job hunting and sick of the LinkedIn black hole, Groundwork is worth a look.* From Molly: A go-to breakfast of mine this summer has been avocado toast inspired by some Caro made for our team last time I was in Carmel. Mashed avocado seasoned with salt and pepper, slathered on a thick slice of GOOD toasted sourdough, and topped with chili crisp, pickled red onions, flaky sea salt, and fresh cilantro. So good.* From Molly: I've been slathering on this body oil after time in the sun this week — it's very luxurious feeling and makes my skin glowy! From Caro: Oh I love this too!!! It really does not make you feel oily at all, it absorbs so nicely.My publishers are dropping a few more advance reader copies of Make It Fast in the mail to some of my media/Internet friends this week, and I told them to save some for WTCers!! We are going to mail three of you a copy of Make It Fast, along with a Butter Pants spatula and a Caraway kitchen timer! To enter to win, comment on this post with the meal you cook most often when you absolutely do not feel like cooking. It doesn't have to be from scratch! For example, mine has historically been frozen dumplings and peanut sauce, and Molly's is pasta with Rao's marinara and frozen meatballs. Comment between now and August 10 — we will randomly select three winners next Tuesday, August 11, and alert them by Substack DM! Every week, we dig into the What To Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation. Here's this week's lineup. 1. salmorejo, 2025Oooh, this is such a good one. Traditional salmorejo! From José Andrés! If you have boatloads of ripe tomatoes that need to be used up, make this creamy chilled tomato soup. It gets its creaminess in part from blended artisanal bread, so if you have any leftover sourdough from this week's summer shrimp panzanella, use it here! 2. skillet cheddar turkey burgers, 2024Juicy, cheesy turkey burgers seared in a skillet and served with a tangy, punchy burger sauce — this recipe (which is an excerpt from What to Cook the book #1!) is just so good. Go classic with buns, or shake things up and make sliders for a party, meatballs for dipping, or crumbled patties in pita for lunch the next day.3. turkey meatballs with corn butter rice, 2023These juicy turkey meatballs are packed with flavor, but the real star of the show is the buttery corn-studded rice. It's sweet, savory, summer perfection. While you're cooking, double the meatballs and freeze half for later — future you will be thrilled.4. healthy (or not as healthy…) corn chowder, 2022Sweet corn gets blended into a creamy, cozy chowder that tastes like summer in a bowl. Keep it light with coconut milk, or go richer with heavy cream — both versions are equally delicious. Make it on a Sunday and thank yourself all week — it reheats beautifully and somehow tastes even better on day two.5. sheet-pan crispy pork chops with fennel and peaches, 2021These roasted peaches are iconic — soft, jammy, and caramelized at the edges. Add in sweet, roasty red onions and fennel, plus golden, crispy pork chops, and you've got an easy dinner that feels delightfully fancy. The method works just as well with chicken breasts or sausages if that's what you've got.We use affiliate links when sharing product recs, which means WTC may earn a small commission off of purchases you make through those links. This does not cost you anything extra and is a way to support the production of and team behind What To Cook. Sponsorships are another way we partner with brands that we authentically love and can personally vouch for. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whattocook.substack.com/subscribe

Arch Rao is Founder and CEO of SPAN, the company behind the smart electrical panel that has expanded into utility grid management with SPAN Edge and distributed AI infrastructure with XFRA. What began as a smarter way to manage home electricity has evolved into a platform designed to digitize the electric grid, enable mass electrification, and unlock new AI compute capacity using existing residential infrastructure. In this episode of Inevitable, Rao explains why SPAN's vision has grown beyond the home electrical panel, how utilities are using software-defined power management to avoid expensive infrastructure upgrades, and why distributed AI inference could become a new class of digital utility. He also discusses the intersection of electrification, grid modernization, and AI demand, arguing that the next major energy transition is the digitization of the electric grid itself. Note: SPAN is an MCJ portfolio company  Episode recorded on July 8, 2026 (Published on August 4, 2026). In this episode, we cover:  (0:00) An overview of SPAN (1:53) How SPAN evolved from smart panels to grid infrastructure (3:41) The inspiration behind XFRA and distributed AI compute (5:21) What an XFRA node looks like and how it works (6:04) Why homeowners would host AI compute infrastructure (8:06) The homeowner business model: free panels, batteries, and lower utility bills (10:48) Why SPAN is focused on new home developments (11:56) How SPAN Edge helps utilities avoid costly service upgrades (16:35) SPAN's go-to-market evolution (17:16) Lessons from customer behavior and software adoption (20:53) How SPAN Edge creates value for utilities (26:16) Securing distributed AI infrastructure in residential neighborhoods (27:48) Who is buying XFRA compute today (29:45) Why distributed infrastructure offers flexibility over traditional data centers (31:04) XFRA as a new form of digital infrastructure (32:50) How SPAN differs from virtual power plants (VPPs) (34:56) Why the real energy transition is analog-to-digital (36:43) Why talent is SPAN's biggest hiring priority Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Re-release | Host Jason Blitman talks to Shobha Rao (Indian Country) live at Camino Books in San Diego. They discuss Laura Ingalls Wilder, the title's double meaning from Rao's childhood experience as “Indian,” the book's central themes of water and rivers, the recurring power of three, and much more. This conversation originally took place on August 14, 2025. Shobha Rao moved to the United States from India at the age of seven. She is the author of the short story collection, An Unrestored Woman, and the novel, Girls Burn Brighter. Rao is the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction and was a Grace Paley Teaching Fellow at The New School. Her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories. Girls Burn Brighter was long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the California Book Award and the Goodreads Choice Awards. She lives in San Francisco.Sign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERESUBSTACK! MERCH! WATCH! CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When is the right time to sell your CPG brand?In this episode of CPG Insiders, Mark Young and Justin Girouard break down one of the biggest—and most emotional—decisions every entrepreneur faces: when to exit. They explain why the best time to prepare for a sale is years before you plan to sell, how buyers actually value brands, and what separates a $50M exit from a $500M+ exit.You'll learn why buyers aren't purchasing your history—they're buying your future.In this episode:Why founders should start preparing for an exit 3 years in advanceThe biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make before sellingHow strategic buyers value growth differently than private equityWhy momentum matters more than current revenueThe 10 signs your company may be ready for an acquisitionThe exit readiness scorecard every founder should useReal acquisition examples including Rao's, RXBAR, Kind, Native, Cremo, - Primal Kitchen, and moreHow to build a company that can thrive without the founderOne of the biggest takeaways:"The right price to sell your company is when someone offers you more than you'd pay for it yourself."Whether you're planning to sell next year or ten years from now, this conversation will change how you think about building enterprise value.

Highlights from the PER® CME activity "Hot Seat: Which Agent, and When? Integrating Next-Generation Endocrine Strategies Into HR+/HER2– Breast Cancer Management" — this podcast is not certified for credit. To participate in the full accredited activity and earn CME credit, use the link below.In this podcast, experts Ruta D. Rao, MD; Kamel Abou Hussein, MD; Jame Abraham, MD, FACP; and Paolo Tarantino, MD, PhD, discuss the data supporting the approvals of next-generation endocrine therapies for ESR1-mutated hormone receptor (HR)–positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer, and how they think through these data when individualizing treatment recommendations for these patients.Earn CME credit by completing the full accredited activity (available through June 30, 2027): https://www.gotoper.com/courses/hot-seat-which-agent-and-when-integrating-next-generation-endocrine-strategies-into-hrher2-breast-cancer-management-rjgdThis podcast, including the narration, was developed by PER® (Physicians' Education Resource®, LLC) editorial staff from the full online CME activity developed with these faculty. The narration was voiced by a PER staff member or by an AI tool. The podcast contains no product advertising. The full activity is supported by educational grants from Stemline Therapeutics, Inc; and Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc..This content is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for the independent clinical judgment of a health care professional. Faculty may discuss investigational or off-label uses; consult prescribing information for any products discussed.

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use.In this episode, Elena and Rob break down why proving ad ROI is far harder than most marketers assume, even with millions of dollars and millions of customers. They also unpack why the Super Bowl might be the hardest ad buy of all to measure.Topics covered: [01:00] "The Unfavorable Economics of Measuring the Returns to Advertising"[02:00] Why the spirit of ROI gets abused[03:35] Why customer spending is too noisy to spot small ad effects[06:00] How targeting bias can inflate results by 30 times[07:00] Why the Super Bowl isn't a coupon, it's fame[09:00] Could anyone actually solve the ROI theorem?To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter. Resources: Lewis, R., & Rao, J. (2015). The unfavorable economics of measuring the returns to advertising. The Economic Journal, 125(585), 1–27.  Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

On this  re-release episode of the Live Greatly podcast, Kristel Bauer sits down with organizational psychologist, Stanford professor, bestselling author, and leadership expert Robert Sutton to discuss how leaders can reduce unnecessary workplace friction, build stronger teams, improve organizational culture, and create environments where people can thrive. Drawing from his book The Friction Project, Robert shares insights on identifying "bad friction," making work more effective, receiving feedback with greater resilience, building self-awareness as a leader, and why his famous "No Asshole Rule" continues to be so relevant in today's workplace. Whether you're leading a team, managing organizational change, or looking to improve workplace performance, this conversation offers actionable insights to help you become a more intentional and effective leader. Tune in now! Key Takeaways From This Episode What workplace friction is—and how to recognize it How great leaders remove unnecessary barriers to success Lessons from The Friction Project The leadership principles behind the "No Asshole Rule" How to build greater self-awareness as a leader Why receiving honest feedback is essential for growth ABOUT ROBERT SUTTON: Robert I. Sutton is an organizational psychologist and professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School. He has given keynote speeches to more than 200 groups in 20 countries, and served on numerous scholarly editorial boards. Sutton's work has been featured in the New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Atlantic, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and Washington Post. He is a frequent guest on various television and radio programs, and has written eight books including The Friction Project, and two edited volumes, including the bestsellers The No Asshole Rule; Good Boss, Bad Boss; and Scaling Up Excellence. About the book THE FRICTION PROJECT: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder (St. Martin's Press; January 30, 2024), bestselling authors and Stanford professors Robert I. Sutton and Hayagreeva "Huggy" Rao present a decade's worth of research on what ought to be easy and what ought to be hard in organizations, and how to change things for the better. Based on their research, case studies, and hundreds of engagements with top companies, the authors reveal just how widespread this affliction is, and provide a roadmap for readers to take up the mantle and blaze a path out of the muck. Sutton and Rao tease out the most common and destructive forms of friction, and share proven tactics, tools, and practices that can help us avert these traps and move forward. Ultimately, THE FRICTION PROJECT makes the case for a new philosophy that empowers us to build positive, productive, and humane organizations that make life better for their people and those they serve. Website:  https://www.bobsutton.net/  Order the book, THE FRICTION PROJECT - How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder: https://www.bobsutton.net/book/the-friction-project/  Social Media Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobsutton1/  Twitter:  https://twitter.com/work_matters     About the Host of the Live Greatly podcast, Kristel Bauer: Kristel Bauer is a corporate wellness and performance expert, keynote speaker and TEDx speaker supporting organizations and individuals on their journeys for more happiness and success. She is the award-winning author of Work-Life Tango: Finding Happiness, Harmony, and Peak Performance Wherever You Work (John Murray Business November 19, 2024). With Kristel's healthcare background, she provides data driven actionable strategies to leverage happiness and high-power habits to drive growth mindsets, peak performance, profitability, well-being and a culture of excellence. Kristel's keynotes provide insights to "Live Greatly" while promoting leadership development and team building. Kristel is the creator and host of her global top self-improvement podcast, Live Greatly. She is a contributing writer for Entrepreneur, and she is an influencer in the business and wellness space having been recognized as a Top 10 Social Media Influencer of 2021 in Forbes. As an Integrative Medicine Fellow & Physician Assistant having practiced clinically in Integrative Psychiatry, Kristel has a unique perspective into attaining a mindset for more happiness and success. Kristel has presented to groups from the American Gas Association, Bank of America, bp, Commercial Metals Company, General Mills, Northwestern University, Santander Bank and many more. Kristel's work has been featured in Forbes and she has had multiple TV appearances including NBC News Daily, ABC News Live, FOX Weather, ABC 7 Chicago, WGN Daytime Chicago and more. Kristel lives in the Chicago, IL area and she can be booked for speaking engagements worldwide. To Book Kristel as a speaker for your next event, click here. Website: www.livegreatly.co  Follow Kristel Bauer on: Instagram: @livegreatly_co  LinkedIn: Kristel Bauer Twitter: @livegreatly_co Facebook: @livegreatly.co Youtube: Live Greatly, Kristel Bauer To Watch Kristel Bauer's TEDx talk of Redefining Work/Life Balance in a COVID-19 World click here. Click HERE to check out Kristel's corporate wellness and leadership blog Click HERE to check out Kristel's Travel and Wellness Blog Disclaimer: The contents of this podcast are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Always seek the guidance of your physician for any recommendations specific to you or for any questions regarding your specific health, your sleep patterns changes to diet and exercise, or any medical conditions.  Always consult your physician before starting any supplements or new lifestyle programs. All information, views and statements shared on the Live Greatly podcast are purely the opinions of the authors, and are not medical advice or treatment recommendations.  They have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration.  Opinions of guests are their own and Kristel Bauer & this podcast does not endorse or accept responsibility for statements made by guests.  Neither Kristel Bauer nor this podcast takes responsibility for possible health consequences of a person or persons following the information in this educational content.  Always consult your physician for recommendations specific to you.

Track progress with grip strength, HRV, and sleep. Dr. Rao explains how fasting, cold exposure, and plant diversity boost resilience. #HealthTracking #FastingBenefits #LifestyleOptimization

Dr. Aruna Rao is a pediatric dentist, practice owner, and president elect of the Minnesota Dental Association. She also teaches one day a month at the University of Minnesota, where she helps run the clinic for dental students during their pediatric rotation. Dr. Rao comes on the podcast to talk about why it's critically important for private practice dentists to adjunct at their local schools so that we can train the next generation of dentists. Many programs are lacking in having faculty members who can provider real-world experience. We even joke about how many GPs can do molar endo, but don't feel comfortable placing a stainless steel crown. Dr. Rao can be reached at arunarao611@gmail.com

Ctrl+Alt+Doubt: Decoding the Language of Online Conspiracy Talk (Oxford UP, 2026) offers a new way to understand why conspiracy theories grow and persist. Rather than treating them as cognitive errors, psychological pathologies, or products of echo chambers, Rao and Greve analyze conspiracy theories as linguistic constructions, that is as stories built from recognizable semantic patterns. Drawing on cases from COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests, Rao and Greve show that conspiracy theorizing is a form of bricolage. People tinker with cultural fragments to craft explanations that reduce uncertainty and threat. New conspiracy beliefs are most likely to take hold when they are linguistically close to beliefs people already hold. The book traces how conspiracy theories spread through superspreaders, fear-laden language, bots, and shared hashtags, revealing conspiracy theorizing as a form of proto-coordination that generates community, amplifies outrage, and enables collective sensemaking among opponents of social movements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Ctrl+Alt+Doubt: Decoding the Language of Online Conspiracy Talk (Oxford UP, 2026) offers a new way to understand why conspiracy theories grow and persist. Rather than treating them as cognitive errors, psychological pathologies, or products of echo chambers, Rao and Greve analyze conspiracy theories as linguistic constructions, that is as stories built from recognizable semantic patterns. Drawing on cases from COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests, Rao and Greve show that conspiracy theorizing is a form of bricolage. People tinker with cultural fragments to craft explanations that reduce uncertainty and threat. New conspiracy beliefs are most likely to take hold when they are linguistically close to beliefs people already hold. The book traces how conspiracy theories spread through superspreaders, fear-laden language, bots, and shared hashtags, revealing conspiracy theorizing as a form of proto-coordination that generates community, amplifies outrage, and enables collective sensemaking among opponents of social movements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/language

Ctrl+Alt+Doubt: Decoding the Language of Online Conspiracy Talk (Oxford UP, 2026) offers a new way to understand why conspiracy theories grow and persist. Rather than treating them as cognitive errors, psychological pathologies, or products of echo chambers, Rao and Greve analyze conspiracy theories as linguistic constructions, that is as stories built from recognizable semantic patterns. Drawing on cases from COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests, Rao and Greve show that conspiracy theorizing is a form of bricolage. People tinker with cultural fragments to craft explanations that reduce uncertainty and threat. New conspiracy beliefs are most likely to take hold when they are linguistically close to beliefs people already hold. The book traces how conspiracy theories spread through superspreaders, fear-laden language, bots, and shared hashtags, revealing conspiracy theorizing as a form of proto-coordination that generates community, amplifies outrage, and enables collective sensemaking among opponents of social movements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

Ctrl+Alt+Doubt: Decoding the Language of Online Conspiracy Talk (Oxford UP, 2026) offers a new way to understand why conspiracy theories grow and persist. Rather than treating them as cognitive errors, psychological pathologies, or products of echo chambers, Rao and Greve analyze conspiracy theories as linguistic constructions, that is as stories built from recognizable semantic patterns. Drawing on cases from COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests, Rao and Greve show that conspiracy theorizing is a form of bricolage. People tinker with cultural fragments to craft explanations that reduce uncertainty and threat. New conspiracy beliefs are most likely to take hold when they are linguistically close to beliefs people already hold. The book traces how conspiracy theories spread through superspreaders, fear-laden language, bots, and shared hashtags, revealing conspiracy theorizing as a form of proto-coordination that generates community, amplifies outrage, and enables collective sensemaking among opponents of social movements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

Ctrl+Alt+Doubt: Decoding the Language of Online Conspiracy Talk (Oxford UP, 2026) offers a new way to understand why conspiracy theories grow and persist. Rather than treating them as cognitive errors, psychological pathologies, or products of echo chambers, Rao and Greve analyze conspiracy theories as linguistic constructions, that is as stories built from recognizable semantic patterns. Drawing on cases from COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests, Rao and Greve show that conspiracy theorizing is a form of bricolage. People tinker with cultural fragments to craft explanations that reduce uncertainty and threat. New conspiracy beliefs are most likely to take hold when they are linguistically close to beliefs people already hold. The book traces how conspiracy theories spread through superspreaders, fear-laden language, bots, and shared hashtags, revealing conspiracy theorizing as a form of proto-coordination that generates community, amplifies outrage, and enables collective sensemaking among opponents of social movements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day

Why Clinical Conversations Matter: Leading Human-Centered AI in Healthcare Host Russ Branzell, President and CEO of CHIME, connects with Dr. Shiv Rao, Founder and CEO of Abridge and practicing cardiologist, for a compelling discussion on the evolving role of AI in clinical care. Drawing from his unique vantage point at the intersection of medicine and technology, Dr. Rao shares how firsthand clinical experience is shaping the development of ambient, generative AI tools designed to reduce cognitive burden and restore focus to patient care. Together, they examine the growing importance of trust, the responsibility of leaders to guide ethical AI adoption, and how human-centered design principles can scale alongside rapid innovation. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen

India is witnessing an unprecedented expansion in higher education. Over the past decade, thousands of new colleges and universities have been established, producing millions of graduates every year. Yet unemployment of the educated remains a growing concern. Nearly one in three graduates are unemployed.  Is India producing more graduates than what the economy can absorb? Here, we discuss the question. Guests: Rajan Wadhera, Former President, Automotive Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra; O. R. S. Rao, Vice-Chancellor, ICFAI University, Sikkim Host: M. Kalyanaraman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this final panel from the Gray Center's October conference, moderator Aaron Nielsen (UT Austin) speaks with Judge Naomi Rao (D.C. Circuit) and Judge Steven Menashi (Second Circuit) about their role as judges after Loper Bright ended Chevron deference. Rao and Menashi describe their interpretive approaches—text-first, but attentive to context, structure, statutory purpose, and legal terms […]

In this final panel from the Gray Center's October conference, moderator Aaron Nielsen (UT Austin) speaks with Judge Naomi Rao (D.C. Circuit) and Judge Steven Menashi (Second Circuit) about their role as judges after Loper Bright ended Chevron deference. Rao and Menashi describe their interpretive approaches—text-first, but attentive to context, structure, statutory purpose, and legal terms of art—and emphasize that interpretation involves judgment. They argueLoper Bright largely restores courts' independent duty to decide questions of law under the APA, while still allowing agencies discretion where statutes leave open-textured implementation choices or explicit delegations. The panel discusses D.C. Circuit practices, post–Loper Bright arguments about expertise, “express delegation,” Skidmore, forum shopping, major questions doctrine, scientific complexity, and how the debate may shift toward Article I and nondelegation.Sign up for email updates from the Gray Center here

Health Calls Season 6, Episode 17 explores how health systems across the United States can improve outcomes by connecting health care, nature, and community partnerships. Host Brian Reardon and Executive Producer Josh Matejka welcome Dr. Sheetal Rao, Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, to examine the growing evidence linking green space access to better physical, mental, and community health.  Dr. Rao shares how the COVID‑19 pandemic revealed stark inequities in access to nature, introducing concepts like tree equity and “nature deficit” in underserved communities. The conversation highlights how hospitals, acting as anchor institutions, can partner with local organizations to expand tree canopy, support biodiversity, and reduce environmental risks like heat, flooding, and air pollution. With U.S. health care contributing significantly to climate impacts, Dr. Rao underscores how nature‑based solutions, from native plantings to urban forestry, can strengthen resilience, improve health outcomes, and advance more equitable, sustainable care nationwide. Health Calls is available on the following podcast streaming platforms:Apple PodcastsSpotifyYouTubeLearn more about The Catholic Health Association of the United States at www.chausa.org.

Positive mindset is powerful medicine. Dr. Rao reveals how optimism, breathwork, and emotional awareness transform your nervous system and reduce inflammation. #GratitudeHealth #MindBodyHealing #Resilience

The following question refers to Section 7.1 of the 2025 ACS Guidelines. The question is asked by Thomas Jefferson medical student and CardioNerds Academy Intern Dr. Grace Qiu, answered first by University of Michigan fellow and CardioNerds FIT Ambassador Dr. Kayla Secrest, and then by expert faculty Dr. Sunil Rao. Dr. Rao is an interventional cardiologist, Professor of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Deputy Director of the Leon H. Charney Division of Cardiology, and the Director of Interventional Cardiology for the NYU Langone Health System. He is the Editor-in-Chief for Circulation Cardiovascular Interventions and was the Chair of the Writing Committee for the 2025 ACS Guidelines. This episode is part of our comprehensive Decipher the Guidelines Series covering the 2025 ACC/AHA/ACEP/NAEMSP/SCAI Guideline for the Management of Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes. Question #1 A 68-year-old man with a history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, stage III chronic kidney disease, and prior tobacco use presents to a local emergency department with reports of chest pain while raking leaves at home. Upon arrival, he is hemodynamically stable with a heart rate of 86 beats per minute and a blood pressure of 133/85 mmHg. His EKG reveals ST elevations in the septal and anterior leads (V1-V4). He is given 324mg of aspirin and is promptly evaluated by the interventional cardiology team, who elects to take him emergently to the catheterization lab. Upon arrival to the catheterization lab, the nurse asks the interventional fellow which access sites they should prep for this case? How should the interventional fellow respond? A Right radial artery only B Radial + bilateral femoral C Bilateral femoral only Answer #1 Explanation  The correct answer is B. Radial and bilateral femoral Radial artery access is the preferred vascular access site for coronary angiography and PCI in patients with ACS. Transradial access has been shown to reduce mortality, bleeding, and vascular complications compared with transfemoral access (Class I, LOE A). Radial access also allows earlier ambulation and is associated with greater patient comfort. Although the right radial artery is the most widely studied upper-extremity access site, alternative sites such as the ulnar and distal radial arteries have demonstrated similar outcomes. However, the radial artery may be required as a bypass conduit for CABG. In institutions where the radial artery is routinely used for surgical grafting, this potential future use should be considered when selecting vascular access. In addition, transfemoral access—preferably performed with ultrasound guidance—should be considered in patients in whom temporary mechanical circulatory support (MCS) is anticipated or in those for whom radial access is not feasible due to anatomical or technical constraints. Prepping bilateral groins in addition to the radial artery provides a backup strategy for urgent MCS placement or for transition to femoral access should radial access fail. For these reasons, prepping both the radial artery and bilateral groins is the most appropriate response. Radial-only preparation is incorrect because, although radial access is preferred, patients with STEMI may still require emergent MCS or alternative access if the radial artery is unsuitable. Preparing only the wrist without backup femoral access may delay care should hemodynamic instability occur. Femoral-only preparation is incorrect because transradial access provides superior outcomes in ACS, including significant reductions in all-cause mortality, major bleeding, and vascular complications. RCTs and meta-analyses, including MATRIX (which showed lower MACE and net adverse clinical events with radial access) and SAFARI-STEMI (which showed no difference in mortality but was underpowered)—support radial as first-line access when feasible. Main Takeaway For patients with ACS undergoing PCI, radial access is strongly preferred to reduce mortality, bleeding, and vascular complications. Guideline Loc. Section 7.1  

Join me as I welcome Dr. Gautham Rao to discuss the evolution of policing and its slave and white supremacy origins as expertly outlined in his book White Power: Policing American Slavery. Our conversation explores the legalization and deputization of whiteness, how pivotal the Prigg v. Pennsylvania court case was, how class tensions impacted the enforcement of the Posse Comitatus doctrine, and more!To learn more about Dr. Rao's amazing scholarship, check out his website: https://gauthamrao.comYou can find a copy of Dr. Rao's book at my bookshop affiliate shop here: https://bookshop.org/lists/civics-coffee-guestsSupport the show

What it takes to lead as a communicator and communicate as a leader.Leadership isn't just about making decisions — it's about how you communicate them. As Matt Abrahams puts it, “Communication is operationalized leadership.”At a recent Me2We event, in connection with Stanford GSB's Executive Education LEAD program, Abrahams held a live discussion with four of the podcast's most popular guests: Celine Teoh, facilitator of the GSB's famous Interpersonal Dynamics course; Huggy Rao, organizational behavior professor and co-author of The Friction Project; legendary Stanford basketball coach Tara VanDerveer; and Dave Dodson, lecturer and author of The Manager's Handbook.In this special live episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, the panel shares frameworks and lessons for leading and communicating more effectively. From Teoh's five A's for inviting dissent to Rao's warning against “jargon monoxide,” from VanDerveer's relationship-first approach to Dodson's case for leading like a teacher, this conversation explores what it takes to communicate as a leader — and lead as a communicator.Episode Reference Links:Celine TeohTara VanDerveerHuggy RaoHuggy's Book: The Friction ProjectDavid DodsonDavid's Book: The Manager's HandbookEp.194 Live Lessons in Levity and Leadership: Me2We 2025 Part 1 Connect:Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart PremiumEmail Questions & Feedback >>> hello@fastersmarter.ioEpisode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart WebsiteNewsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> FasterSmarter.ioThink Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTubeMatt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn Chapters:(00:00) - Introduction (04:18) - Encouraging Dissent (06:40) - The Addition Bias (09:57) - Coaching Through Encouragement (12:12) - Leadership in the AI Era (16:24) - Teaching vs. Managing (17:46) - Making People Feel Appreciated (19:06) - Slowing Down Decisions (21:24) - Listening More (24:24) - Avoiding Jargon (26:31) - Giving Better Feedback (28:53) - Preparing for Communication (29:44) - Using Communication Frameworks (31:15) - Skills for Future Leaders (37:47) - Conclusion

“Friction for us has to do with obstacles,” says Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “Obstacles can disable you. Obstacles can enable you.”Rao compares friction to cholesterol: Some is good, but some is bad. “Good friction actually slows you down, gets you to pause, and most of all, gets you to reflect,” he explains. “But there's also friction that overwhelms you, exhausts you, confuses you.” On this episode of If/Then, Rao explores how to cultivate the productive kind of friction, reduce the unhelpful kind, and manage your team's most precious resource. “Great leaders are people who think of themselves as trustees of other people's time,” he says. Do you have any favorite examples of good or bad friction? Share one with us at ifthenpod@stanford.edu.Related Content:Huggy Rao faculty profile The Friction ProjectHow to become a friction fixerChapters:00:00:00 Airport baggage claim, waiting, & good friction00:03:20 Introduction00:03:48 What friction means in organizations00:05:42 Where friction comes from00:07:52 Scaling through smart subtraction00:08:24 DropBox's approach to meetings00:10:45 The problem with meetings00:13:53 What good friction looks like00:16:56 Friction, trust, & institutional legitimacy00:19:31 Why Huggy Rao started studying friction00:22:20 ConclusionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If you have ever felt like something is off in your gut and nobody has been able to explain why, this episode is for you. On this episode of the Medical Disruptor, I sit down with Dr. Supriya Rao, a quadruple board certified gastroenterologist, to talk about what chronic gut symptoms are actually telling you, why the gut-brain connection is one of the most undertreated areas in medicine today, and what it looks like when a doctor goes beyond the standard workup to find real answers. We cover the truth about IBS, how hormones affect gut health in ways most people never get told, where GLP-1s actually fit into the picture, and the one question Dr. Rao says almost no patient ever thinks to ask. Your gut has been trying to tell you something. It's time to listen. Want more practical health tips? Join my newsletter! https://freechapter.lpages.co/newsletter-opt-in/ Check us out on social media: https://www.instagram.com/drefratlamandre https://www.facebook.com/drefratlamandre https://www.tiktok.com/@drefratlamandre #functionalmedicine #drefratlamandre #medicaldisruptor #NPwithaPHD #nursepractitioner #medicalgaslighting Chapters:00:00 - Intro00:51 - Why Quadruple Board Certified04:42 - What Is IBS Really?08:39 - Her Motility Program Explained11:55 - Women's Gut Health & Hormones16:11 - Advice for Women Who Feel Dismissed17:33 - Her Take on GLP-1s19:14 - Who Should NOT Use GLP-1s24:49 - The Supplement Myth27:50 - Final Thoughts Guest Links: FB: https://www.facebook.com/gutsygirlMD IG: www.instagram.com/gutsygirlMD YT: https://www.youtube.com/@UC9kajE017PYU9eew6ijVLuA Website: www.gutsygirlmd.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kate O'Brien is a prominent media executive and entrepreneur who is actively disrupting the traditional advertising landscape. Before launching her own venture, she built a formidable reputation in the performance media space, notably leading a 200-person agency team and driving massive revenue growth (over 30%) by securing heavyweight clients like DraftKings, Virgin Voyages, and Rao's. In May 2024, she took her company, Powers of Reasoning, out of stealth mode. Key Takeaways on Her and the Agency:The "Guaranteed Performance" Model: Kate founded Powers of Reasoning to fix a major flaw she saw in legacy advertising. While traditional agencies make "esoteric" promises about brand savings, her agency utilizes a unique business model that legally guarantees specific media results or financial returns for clients. Cutting the Agency Markup: Her philosophy centers on extreme data transparency, AI-driven Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) made for modern operators, and completely eliminating hidden agency markups. The Procurement Gap Advocate: As the head of a certified Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE), Kate is a vocal advocate for changing corporate procurement. She frequently highlights the stark statistic that despite massive corporate DEI promises, only about 1% of Fortune 100 companies actually procure services from certified women-owned agencies.She is based in Brooklyn, New York, and is currently a rising star in the independent agency space.

Thanks to everyone who joined for today's Substack live cooking demo — if you couldn't make it, find a full replay above!In the demo, I cooked smoky mole chicken enchiladas with lime crema, a recipe that turns a few humble pantry staples (peanut butter, chocolate chips, tortillas, tomato paste, spices, and chipotles en adobo!) into a delicious weeknight dinner. The only fresh ingredients you'll need are chicken breasts, white onion, a red bell pepper, some shredded cheese, sour cream, and a lime!Recipes that rely heavily on pantry staples are easy to make on nights when the fridge is mostly bare — they can also be more budget-friendly, since the cost-per-use of ingredients like peanut butter and spices is often quite low.Thank you to Thrive Market for sponsoring today's live cook-along, which allowed us to make it free for all subscribers! Thank you also to Thrive for making it so very easy for me to keep my pantry stocked up with high-quality ingredients (at an excellent price point!).In addition to pantry staples, Thrive is my go-to source for kids snacks and clean home products — I love that everything they sell is free from more than 1,000 artificial, synthetic, and GMO ingredients. I also LOVE their app and use it to immediately add ingredients to my cart as soon as I finish them, so that I don't have to write them down or try to remember later.Sign up here to get 30% off your first order (STOCK UP!) and a free $60 gift. Now's a great time because everyone — new and existing members — can get 25% off many products right now during their Friends & Family sale, which runs through Saturday, May 2nd. Also FYI that new-to-Thrive What To Cook Insiders get $100 off their first four orders!While we're talking pantry staples, here are a handful of ingredients that pack a TON of flavor that I always keep on hand. We've linked WTC recipes to cook with each! * Coconut milk — Coconut milk's a great dairy-free sub for cream that you can use in curries, smoothies, and soups. In my house though, it's most often used to make coconut rice! * Chipotles en adobo — We used these smoky, spicy peppers today for our mole chicken enchiladas! You can also use them for chipotle black bean enchiladas and cheesy chipotle shrimp tacos. Rarely does a recipe use the whole can, so store your leftover peppers and sauce in an airtight bag in the freezer.* Creamy peanut butter — My house is never without a jar! Again, we used it here in our mole sauce, but I also love mixing it with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and honey for a peanut sauce to serve on noodles or alongside potstickers. This peanut veggie curry is delightful, as are PB&Js, apples with peanut butter, smoothies bulked up with PB… the uses go on and on!* Curry paste — Curry paste packs SO MUCH flavor into just one spoonful! Keep your pantry (or fridge, once you've opened it) stocked with red curry paste (Mike's is my favorite) and you can cook thai chicken chops, one-pot pumpkin chickpea curry, and thai tofu curry noodle soup! * Jarred marinara/tomato sauce — You could make a homemade marinara… or let someone do it for you! I've written many recipes with store-bought jarred marinara/tomato sauce listed as an ingredient because if you get a high-quality brand (my favorite is Rao's), it really does taste homemade and will save you so much time and effort. Stock up on a jar to be able to cook 30-minute chicken Parm meatballs, messy meatball sliders, shortcut shakshuka, and 5-ingredient eggplant marinara. What flavor-bomb ingredients is your pantry never without?! For a complete rundown on what I consider to be a perfectly stocked pantry, click here. And for a fun take on this topic, read “If My Pantry Were to Disappear, Here's What I'd Restock Immediately” — a Bon Appétit article written by Alaina Chou that I recently weighed in on! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whattocook.substack.com/subscribe

Read more from VPM News:  On the agenda: Henrico code updates, Charlottesville PCOB special session    Other links:  Spanberger signs remodel of VCU Health board, removing Rao as chair (The Commonwealth Times) RPS will consider selling naming rights to school facilities (The Richmonder) Founding GWAR Member Chuck Varga Battling Cancer, Band Launches Blood Donation Campaign (Consequence of Sound) Charlottesville vineyard faces uncertain season after freeze kills some vines (29News)  *This outlet uses a paywall.  Our award-winning work is made possible with your donations. Visit vpm.org/donate to support local journalism. 

Lalita du Perron talks to Rahul Rao about his book The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire (Pluto Press, 2025), the challenges of keeping one's writing up-to date in a rapidly changing world, and his recent talk at the Stanford Center for South Asia. Learn about Dr. Rao and his work here.

Quick Summary:The Space Show hosted science journalist Rahul Rao to discuss his new book on nanotechnology, focusing on applications in space and other fields. Rao explained that while humans have been using nanoscale materials for centuries, the field as we know it began developing after World War II, with significant breakthroughs in the 1980s and 1990s including the discovery of carbon nanotubes in 1991. The discussion covered both promising applications like medical nano surgery, spacecraft coatings, and environmental cleanup, as well as current challenges including material defects and scaling issues that limit practical implementation. While some applications like enhanced carbon fibers and aerospace coatings are already happening, more ambitious uses like space elevators remain in the future timeline, with widespread implementation likely in the 2030s rather than the near term. The conversation also addressed potential risks including environmental pollution from nanoparticles and weaponization concerns, though these were deemed less immediate than current technical challenges.SummaryRahul Rao, a science writer and journalist, discussed his focus on nanotechnology and space topics, highlighting the common use of nanomaterials in various scientific and engineering areas. He explained the historical development of nanotechnology, noting its origins in the post-World War II era and significant advancements in the 1980s and 1990s, including the discovery of carbon nanotubes in 1991. Rahul also addressed the current and potential future applications of nanotechnology, including the use of nanomaterials and the possibility of creating molecular-scale machines, though the boundaries of such advancements remain uncertain.David discussed his experience with the space elevator concept, noting its popularity in the early 2000s but questioning its current feasibility. Rahul explained that while carbon nanotubes and graphene are being developed at large scales, the materials remain too defective for a space elevator. The conversation highlighted the distinction between carbon nanotubes and carbon fiber, with Philip clarifying that they are different technologies.Phil explained the differences between carbon nanotubes and carbon fiber, noting that while carbon fiber is widely used in industries like aerospace and sports equipment, carbon nanotubes remain challenging to scale up effectively due to manufacturing limitations. Rahul discussed his interest in nanotechnology, highlighting its diverse applications beyond ambitious concepts like space elevators, including practical innovations like mRNA vaccines and CO2 storage using MOF nanomaterials. When asked about technology readiness levels, Rahul indicated that while the CO2 storage application is still in laboratory stages, similar substances are being tested in pilot projects. Marshall mentioned his interest in 2DPA-1, a two-dimensional polymer with properties similar to steel, though development in the past four years has been limited to improving manufacturing methods.Rahul discussed the timeline challenges with nanotechnology materials, comparing them to historical examples like aluminum, which took decades to develop into widely used materials. He explained current nanotechnology research areas, including nanoparticles for targeting disease pathogens and nanoscale tools for medical applications like cancer treatment. When asked about self-healing cables for space elevators, Rahul was not aware of any proven or published research on this specific technology, though he noted it was mentioned in discussions. David shared information about self-correcting undersea cables from the 1990s that could reroute signals around damage, though these are now losing economic value due to satellite technology like Starlink.Rahul discussed current and future applications of nanotechnology, highlighting medical applications as likely to receive significant attention in the coming years. He mentioned the development of enhanced carbon fibers with carbon nanotubes for use in aircraft and spacecraft coatings, as well as the potential for using carbon nanotubes in small electronics within the next decade. Rahul also explained that quantum dots, another form of nanotechnology, are being used in QLED televisions and discussed the challenges in producing defect-free carbon nanotubes. When asked about potential “nano nightmares,” Rahul identified environmental pollution and the risk of nanoparticles entering the human respiratory system as significant concerns.Rahul explained that incidental nanomaterials, which naturally exist, pose less immediate hazard than engineered nanomaterials that might escape into the environment. John Hunt raised concerns about potential misuse of nanotechnology for weaponry, though Rahul considered this a less pressing issue than environmental pollution. Marshall inquired about the relationship between nanoparticles and radiation, to which Rahul responded he was not aware of specific issues but acknowledged the potential intersection. Rahul outlined several applications of nanomaterials in space, including thermal insulation, heat shields, and nanoparticle-enhanced propulsion, suggesting these could emerge within the next 5-10 years.Rahul discussed the current state and future potential of nanomaterials, particularly carbon nanotubes and graphene. He explained that while nanomaterials are already being used in aerospace applications and will continue to grow in the next five years, broader applications like those in automotive industries or advanced tires are likely still decades away. Rahul noted that increased private sector interest and startup activity could drive progress, though he expected any impact to be gradual rather than revolutionary. The discussion also covered potential applications in space exploration, environmental engineering, and construction materials, with Rahul emphasizing that while theoretical possibilities exist, practical implementation timelines remain uncertain.Special thanks to our sponsors:American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Helix Space in Luxembourg, Celestis Memorial Spaceflights, Astrox Corporation, Dr. Haym Benaroya of Rutgers University, The Space Settlement Progress Blog by John Jossy, The Atlantis Project, and Artless EntertainmentNo Program for Friday, April 24, 2026 | Friday 24 Apr 2026 930AM PTGuests: Dr. David LivingstonNo Program todayNo program for Sunday, April 26, 2026 | Sunday 26 Apr 2026 1200PM PTGuests: Dr. David LivingstonNo program todayThe program resumes its regular schedule on Friday, May 1, 2026.Our Toll Free Line for Live Broadcasts: 1-866-687-7223 (Not in service at this time)For real time program participation, email Dr. Space at: drspace@thespaceshow.com for instructions and access.The Space Show is a non-profit 501C3 through its parent, One Giant Leap Foundation, Inc. To donate via Pay Pal, use:To donate with Zelle, use the email address: david@onegiantleapfoundation.org.If you prefer donating with a check, please make the check payable to One Giant Leap Foundation and mail to:One Giant Leap Foundation, 11035 Lavender Hill Drive Ste. 160-306 Las Vegas, NV 89135Upcoming Programs: Get full access to The Space Show-One Giant Leap Foundation at doctorspace.substack.com/subscribe

Did you watch The Oscars? Did you formerly watch The Oscars but don't anymore? Do you only consume The Oscars via clips on social media? Well guess what? No matter how you answered, you're not alone! In this week's episode, Hannah and Marcelle talk about the changing zeitgeisty-ness of the Academy Awards through a deep dive on the awards' early days, its legacy and what we might make of the show's move to Youtube starting 2029.Drawing on theorist Robert Boucault's new book, Oscar Bait: The Academy Awards & Cultural Prestige, Hannah helps us understand the complex ways the Oscars navigate various forms of capital in the field of filmmaking. We talk elitism, cultural capital, symbolic capital and capital intraconversion!Happy listening!Related ListeningBook 4, Episode 8: Magical Capital (from Witch, Please Reboot)Dopamine x Health Capitalism with Jesse MeadowsBarbie x Petro-CapitalismWorks CitedBaragona, Louis. “How the Oscars has changed over the past 92 years.” Business Insider 23 April 2021. https://www.businessinsider.com/oscars-over-the-years-2018-3. Boucault, Robert. Oscar Bait: The Academy Awards & Cultural Prestige. New York: Routledge, 2026. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.4324/9781003597605. Feinberg, Scott. “Oscars' TV Ratings Headache Turns Into a Migraine.” The Hollywood Reporter 2 March 2022. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/oscars-tv-ratings-live-telecast-1235102498/. Feinberg, Scott, and Alex Weprin. “Oscars Bolts From ABC to YouTube Starting in 2029.” The Hollywood Reporter 17 December 2025. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/oscars-bolt-from-abc-to-youtube-starting-in-2029-1236453188/. Rao, Sonia. “Why do the Oscars Matter?” The Washington Post 16 April 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/04/16/oscars-academy-award-significance/ Richardson, Kalia. “A Decade After #OscarsSoWhite, Can Hollywood Do Better?” Rolling Stone 2 March 2025. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/oscars-so-white-10-years-1235276085/.Thomson, David. “The House That Mr. Mayer Built: Inside the Union-Busting Birth of the Academy Awards.” Vanity Fair 21 February 2014. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/02/secret-oscar-history.Support Material GirlsTo learn more about the show, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca (you can also find transcripts here!). Want to support the podcast and our tiny, hard-working team? Check out all the content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease. Bonus episodes, bloopers, merch, watch-alongs, and more! Need a last minute gift for a friend or family member? You can gift a Patreon subscription at this link: https://www.patreon.com/ohwitchplease/gift!Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

351: Today you're going to be listening to two friends in the influencer space have a conversation on all things food brands, products, scams, and our own thoughts on how the health and wellness industry has taken a turn. My friend Jared Ralskey (AKA: @the.health.goat on Instagram) joins me today as we have a fun, light, and educational conversation on how consumers are being scammed and how we should be going back to basics. We talk about Whole Foods Grocery Store, Rao's Homemade Pasta Sauce, the Vital Farms Eggs controversy, and what the biggest health scams are on the market today.  Topics Discussed: → Vital Farm Eggs → The Biggest Scams in the Health & Wellness Space → Rao's Homemade Pasta  → Gruns → Organic Snacks As always, if you have any questions for the show please email us at digestthispod@gmail.com. And if you like this show, please share it, rate it, review it and subscribe to it on your favorite podcast app.  Sponsored By:  → Our Place | Go to https://fromourplace.com/ and use code DIGEST for 10% → Seven Sundays | Go to https://sevensundays.com/ and use code: lilsip for 20% off Timestamps: → 00:00:00 - Introduction → 00:02:38 - Rapid-Fire Questions → 00:03:14 - Meet Jared → 00:04:29 - Rao's Homemade Pasta → 00:08:02 - The Vital Farms Controversy → 00:11:12 - Single-Ingredient Foods → 00:15:16 - Organic Certification → 00:19:03 - Social Media & the NBA → 00:24:25 - Whole Foods Disclaimers → 00:29:34 - Grocery Store Hot Food → 00:32:03 - Food Safety → 00:34:25 - What I Eat in a Day → 00:38:09 - AG1 & Grubs → 00:41:42 - Health Food Scams → 00:44:04 - Protein, Fiber, + Keto → 00:48:26 - One-Size-Fits-All Further Listening: → How Social Media Degrades Your Brain, Memory, & Emotional Response + Tips to Help | BOK Check Out Jared Ralsky: → Instagram Check Out Bethany: → Bethany's Instagram: @lilsipper → YouTube → Bethany's Website → Discounts & My Favorite Products → My Digestive Support Protein Powder → Gut Reset Book  → Get my Newsletters (Friday Finds) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The delicious, healthful prune has long had a cross to bear: It's best known for making people poop. In the late 1990s, the California Prune Board set out on a quixotic mission to amend this sales-flattening reputation. It would attempt to rechristen this ancient fruit in the hopes the prune could one day be as unencumbered as an apricot, a raisin, or a fig. In a world where every product and person increasingly believes it's one good rebrand away from changing how they are seen, the story of the prune's attempt to become the “dried plum” is a telling tale about the impossibility of escaping who you really are—and the freedom that comes with self-acceptance. You'll hear from Richard Peterson, retired Executive Director of the California Prune Board; food writer and chef David Liebovitz; lawyer and lobbyist Dan Haley; and Kiaran Locy, Director of Brand and Industry Communications at the California Prune Board.This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was edited by Evan Chung, our supervising producer. It was produced by Katie Shepherd. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Sources for This EpisodeBarry, Dave. Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, Ballantine Books, 2002. Brasher, Philip. “FDA Approves Prune Name Change,” ABC News, Feb. 1, 2001. Brasher, Philip. “Where's the beef? Kids give prune burgers the taste test,” Associated Press, Jan 29, 2002. Cimons, Marlene. “A New Wrinkle for the Prune Industry,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 1999.Crespi, John M., Harry M. Kaiser, Julian M. Alston, and Richard J. Sexton. “The Evaluation of Prune Promotion by the California Dried Plum Board,” The Economics of Commodity Promotion Programs: Lessons from California, Peter Lang USA, 2005. Davis, Glenn. “French History in Your City: San Jose, California - the Pellier Brothers,” Yale National Initiative, Sep. 2015. Fabricant, Florence. “In France, the Prune Holds a Noble Station,” The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2001.Fabricant, Florence. “Responsible Party: Richard Peterson; Rejuvenating The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Aug. 13, 2000. Fabricant, Florence. “Underapprecaited: The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Oct. 12, 1983.A Fortune In Two Old Trunks. Sunsweet, 1947. Fullan, Genevieve. “In Defense of Prunes,” Eater, Jun 21, 2022. Gellene, Denise. “New Wrinkle in an Old Story,” Los Angeles Times, Oct 16, 1997. Good Wrinkles. Sunsweet, 1951. Kamen, Al. “Sunday in the Loop: Plum Outta Luck,” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1999. Koger, Chris. “Dried plums no longer: California prunes have new brand,” The Packer, Nov. 15, 2022. Lucas, Greg. “Who'd Have Thought? Pruneburgers / Juicy, tender and low-fat, they're surprising hits in school cafeterias,” San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 9, 1999.Martin, Ronda Beaman. “Stan Freberg—His Credits and Contributions to Advertising,” M.A. Thesis, Texas Tech University, Dec. 1986. McKay, Leonard. “Louis Pellier,” San Jose Inside, Sep. 25, 2006.Morse, Rob. “Hold the prunes, hold the lettuce,” San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1999. “Prune gets $10 million makeover -- as dried plum,” CNN, Sep. 13, 2000.Rao, Tejal. “In Praise of the Prune,” The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 16, 2017.Roach, Mary. “The power of prunes,” Salon, Nov. 5, 1999.Waters, Michael. “When the Dried Plum Lobby Tried to Make Pruneburgers Happen,” Atlas Obscura, April 13, 2018. Zasky, Jason. “Prunes: Turning Over a New Leaf,” Failure Magazine, Apr. 16, 2002. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The delicious, healthful prune has long had a cross to bear: It's best known for making people poop. In the late 1990s, the California Prune Board set out on a quixotic mission to amend this sales-flattening reputation. It would attempt to rechristen this ancient fruit in the hopes the prune could one day be as unencumbered as an apricot, a raisin, or a fig. In a world where every product and person increasingly believes it's one good rebrand away from changing how they are seen, the story of the prune's attempt to become the “dried plum” is a telling tale about the impossibility of escaping who you really are—and the freedom that comes with self-acceptance. You'll hear from Richard Peterson, retired Executive Director of the California Prune Board; food writer and chef David Liebovitz; lawyer and lobbyist Dan Haley; and Kiaran Locy, Director of Brand and Industry Communications at the California Prune Board.This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was edited by Evan Chung, our supervising producer. It was produced by Katie Shepherd. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen.Sources for This EpisodeBarry, Dave. Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, Ballantine Books, 2002. Brasher, Philip. “FDA Approves Prune Name Change,” ABC News, Feb. 1, 2001. Brasher, Philip. “Where's the beef? Kids give prune burgers the taste test,” Associated Press, Jan 29, 2002. Cimons, Marlene. “A New Wrinkle for the Prune Industry,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 1999.Crespi, John M., Harry M. Kaiser, Julian M. Alston, and Richard J. Sexton. “The Evaluation of Prune Promotion by the California Dried Plum Board,” The Economics of Commodity Promotion Programs: Lessons from California, Peter Lang USA, 2005. Davis, Glenn. “French History in Your City: San Jose, California - the Pellier Brothers,” Yale National Initiative, Sep. 2015. Fabricant, Florence. “In France, the Prune Holds a Noble Station,” The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2001.Fabricant, Florence. “Responsible Party: Richard Peterson; Rejuvenating The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Aug. 13, 2000. Fabricant, Florence. “Underapprecaited: The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Oct. 12, 1983.A Fortune In Two Old Trunks. Sunsweet, 1947. Fullan, Genevieve. “In Defense of Prunes,” Eater, Jun 21, 2022. Gellene, Denise. “New Wrinkle in an Old Story,” Los Angeles Times, Oct 16, 1997. Good Wrinkles. Sunsweet, 1951. Kamen, Al. “Sunday in the Loop: Plum Outta Luck,” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1999. Koger, Chris. “Dried plums no longer: California prunes have new brand,” The Packer, Nov. 15, 2022. Lucas, Greg. “Who'd Have Thought? Pruneburgers / Juicy, tender and low-fat, they're surprising hits in school cafeterias,” San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 9, 1999.Martin, Ronda Beaman. “Stan Freberg—His Credits and Contributions to Advertising,” M.A. Thesis, Texas Tech University, Dec. 1986. McKay, Leonard. “Louis Pellier,” San Jose Inside, Sep. 25, 2006.Morse, Rob. “Hold the prunes, hold the lettuce,” San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1999. “Prune gets $10 million makeover -- as dried plum,” CNN, Sep. 13, 2000.Rao, Tejal. “In Praise of the Prune,” The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 16, 2017.Roach, Mary. “The power of prunes,” Salon, Nov. 5, 1999.Waters, Michael. “When the Dried Plum Lobby Tried to Make Pruneburgers Happen,” Atlas Obscura, April 13, 2018. Zasky, Jason. “Prunes: Turning Over a New Leaf,” Failure Magazine, Apr. 16, 2002. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The delicious, healthful prune has long had a cross to bear: It's best known for making people poop. In the late 1990s, the California Prune Board set out on a quixotic mission to amend this sales-flattening reputation. It would attempt to rechristen this ancient fruit in the hopes the prune could one day be as unencumbered as an apricot, a raisin, or a fig. In a world where every product and person increasingly believes it's one good rebrand away from changing how they are seen, the story of the prune's attempt to become the “dried plum” is a telling tale about the impossibility of escaping who you really are—and the freedom that comes with self-acceptance. You'll hear from Richard Peterson, retired Executive Director of the California Prune Board; food writer and chef David Liebovitz; lawyer and lobbyist Dan Haley; and Kiaran Locy, Director of Brand and Industry Communications at the California Prune Board.This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was edited by Evan Chung, our supervising producer. It was produced by Katie Shepherd. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen.Sources for This EpisodeBarry, Dave. Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, Ballantine Books, 2002. Brasher, Philip. “FDA Approves Prune Name Change,” ABC News, Feb. 1, 2001. Brasher, Philip. “Where's the beef? Kids give prune burgers the taste test,” Associated Press, Jan 29, 2002. Cimons, Marlene. “A New Wrinkle for the Prune Industry,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 1999.Crespi, John M., Harry M. Kaiser, Julian M. Alston, and Richard J. Sexton. “The Evaluation of Prune Promotion by the California Dried Plum Board,” The Economics of Commodity Promotion Programs: Lessons from California, Peter Lang USA, 2005. Davis, Glenn. “French History in Your City: San Jose, California - the Pellier Brothers,” Yale National Initiative, Sep. 2015. Fabricant, Florence. “In France, the Prune Holds a Noble Station,” The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2001.Fabricant, Florence. “Responsible Party: Richard Peterson; Rejuvenating The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Aug. 13, 2000. Fabricant, Florence. “Underapprecaited: The Humble Prune,” The New York Times, Oct. 12, 1983.A Fortune In Two Old Trunks. Sunsweet, 1947. Fullan, Genevieve. “In Defense of Prunes,” Eater, Jun 21, 2022. Gellene, Denise. “New Wrinkle in an Old Story,” Los Angeles Times, Oct 16, 1997. Good Wrinkles. Sunsweet, 1951. Kamen, Al. “Sunday in the Loop: Plum Outta Luck,” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1999. Koger, Chris. “Dried plums no longer: California prunes have new brand,” The Packer, Nov. 15, 2022. Lucas, Greg. “Who'd Have Thought? Pruneburgers / Juicy, tender and low-fat, they're surprising hits in school cafeterias,” San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 9, 1999.Martin, Ronda Beaman. “Stan Freberg—His Credits and Contributions to Advertising,” M.A. Thesis, Texas Tech University, Dec. 1986. McKay, Leonard. “Louis Pellier,” San Jose Inside, Sep. 25, 2006.Morse, Rob. “Hold the prunes, hold the lettuce,” San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1999. “Prune gets $10 million makeover -- as dried plum,” CNN, Sep. 13, 2000.Rao, Tejal. “In Praise of the Prune,” The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 16, 2017.Roach, Mary. “The power of prunes,” Salon, Nov. 5, 1999.Waters, Michael. “When the Dried Plum Lobby Tried to Make Pruneburgers Happen,” Atlas Obscura, April 13, 2018. Zasky, Jason. “Prunes: Turning Over a New Leaf,” Failure Magazine, Apr. 16, 2002. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.