Podcasts about really there

Do you suffer from Goldfish syndrome? What is success REALLY? There's a secret to getting what you want and it starts with working out what that is. Do you actually know what you want from YOUR business? Your life? Waz and Nic ask sooooo many questions and luckily, they also show you how to get the answers to these so you can create clarity in your actions.

“My whole thing is staying organized.” Mike Barugel launched FYT Virtual Assistants to help you. From creating spreadsheets during play as a child to making processes at his first job at McDonald’s, Mike has always had a talent for putting tasks in order. His own career path has not always felt orderly though. Mike shares […] The post #27 (Rebroadcast) A Virtual Assistant Who is Really There to Help You appeared first on Do Good, Be Good.

Think of it Like a Store Front One of my hobbies is music. I remember as a young child going into or walking by a music store, and there were a few different guitars in the front window and I was like, Wow, look at those guitars! Those are awesome. And then I walked through the door into the store, and there was wall to wall guitars and I was like, holy cow. Look at this. Now, you might be saying, Dave, that's a cute story and all but what does that have to do with podcasting? Well, I've talked about how Apple podcast is a little confusing. And that's because there is a store view that basically people see when they search for your show. TWO VIEWS OF APPLE You'll have your first 300 episodes and archive one, your episodes from 301 to 600, in archive two, etc, etc.  Why Do People Build Archives of Their Podcast? When it comes to Apple search, the only things that come into play is: The title of your show. The title of the episode. The author field. Those are the only three things that Apple currently uses when you do a search. So why are people doing an archive? Because when you get to episode 301, that first one that's no longer shown,  and is no longer being used for search results. And so you now have, let's say you have 1000 episodes, you've been doing a daily show for years. And you've created three-plus archives of your show so that every episode can be used in search results. Really? There's a study by Jacobs media that says 70% of most podcasters find out about other podcasts to listen to, via called word of mouth (not Apple search).  What This Does For the Listener I have to subscribe to multiple feeds to get all of the episodes (where if they were in one feed, all I have to do is subscribe). What This Does For the Podcaster You have to pay for additional media hosting so the archives can have their own feed. The archives have no built-in audience.  Your subscriber count is now divided between your archives instead of all under on show For this reason, I don't believe in making archives (if you won't put them behind a firewall and sell them to your super fans).  Need Some Help? This episode was a tad bit more "Nerdy" than usual. If you need help, schedule a call and let's get you going in the right direction.

Madi Stump, a BGSU student and winner of the ICS Student Research Award, and Chris Gajewicz, Natural Resources Coordinator for the City of Bowling Green, discuss environmental stewardship, human's relationship to nature, and restoration in local parks.   Transcript: Intro: From Bowling Green State University and the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society. This is BG Ideas. Intro Music: I'm going to show you this with a wonderful experiment. Jolie Sheffer: Welcome to the Big Ideas podcast, a collaboration between the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society and the school of media and communication at Bowling Green State University. I'm Jolie Sheffer, associate professor of English and American culture studies and the director of ICS. Today, I'm joined by two guests, Madi Stump and Chris Gajewicz. Madi's an undergraduate environmental policy and analysis major who's currently working on a research project entitle, "Listening and Learning: Lessons from the Land." She's the first winner of the ICS Student Research Award. Chris is the natural resources coordinator for the city of Bowling Green and instructor at Bowling Green State University and a BGSU alum. Welcome, Madi and Chris. Chris Gajewicz: Hi. Jolie Sheffer: Thanks for being with me. How did each of you get interested in thinking about different ideas of environmental stewardship? Madi Stump: I've always cared really deeply about the environment. Growing up, I spent a lot of time in my backyard or in my front yard or my neighbor's front yard pretending to make pizzas out of dirt and grass and just really spending more time outside than I did inside. I remember being called in for dinner and being called in to do homework rather than being told to get out and enjoy being outside. That deep love and that deep connection to being outside that I experienced throughout my childhood made me really invested in protecting the environment, but when I first came to BGSU, I was actually a music performance student. So I didn't study the environment initially in college, but after my first year, decided that music was not the path for me and really rekindled that relationship with nature and that deep sense of connection and belonging that I felt in nature and have this strong desire to protect places that other people could have that similar experience of belonging and inclusion in the natural world. That's how I found environmental policy and I'm looking to continue this work in my future. Jolie Sheffer: What about for you, Chris. Chris Gajewicz: It started a long time ago when I was a little, little kid and I spent a lot of time outside, very similar to Madi. I was outside a lot and the only rule was is that when my mom rang the bell, it was time to come in and it was a big farm bell and she would ring the bell and no matter where you were, you needed to stop what you were doing. It was really hard for me because I loved going out into the woods and building forts and digging trenches and making caves and lighting things on fire and just being like a typical kid and spending my time just being out around nature. I just enjoyed it so much and I didn't even know why. It wasn't a conscious kind of a thing. It was there. We had a huge woods behind our house that was about a mile square and that was my playground as I was a kid growing up. So I was able to kind of run around out there. Chris Gajewicz: My parents never worried about where I was, what I was doing when I was coming home. I just knew that when the bell rang, I needed to stop what I was doing and make my way back. But there was never a concern about my wellbeing or any of that when I was growing up being outside. So that sort of turned itself into going from, I guess a vocation or an advocation to a vocation and turning it into something more. By the time I was headed off to college, I realized that I wanted to be a teacher in the environment and I felt that that was a really important way to share knowledge. There was a professor I had when I was at Hocking College and she was very good at kind of laying it down. She taught us how to be an educator in the environment. Chris Gajewicz: But she said, "It doesn't really matter how much you know and how much you have inside your head. If it never comes back out of your head to other people, then it's basically dead knowledge. Once it's dead knowledge, other people have to start from scratch." I learned at that moment, that being a teacher, taking that information and being able to tell the story about that information was a really good way to hook somebody in the environment. Hopefully, over the past 30 or so years of being involved in the environment from when I was a teenager myself and now, I've had the opportunity to really help other people kind of grab onto a reason to be in the outdoors. Jolie Sheffer: What does it mean to you to have a relationship with land and with nature? Why is that important to you, Madi? Madi Stump: I think in general, having a relationship with land, with nature, with the more than human or non-human world means caring about it. I think that's the fundamental level is having a deep sense of care and love for what is not human. That relationship can look very different to a lot of people, but the commonality is that there's some sense of care or spiritual or religious affiliation connection or even a recreation connection with the land. But that care of there is something that I get and then your relationship is a two way street, so humans get something from nature, but then we also give. Part of that relationship as reciprocity to me and that is what's really important about having a relationship with the land is when you have reciprocity with nature, you can give as it's giving you. That makes it so easy to protect and conserve and be mindful of how we're using what is around us. Jolie Sheffer: What about for you, Chris? Chris Gajewicz: For me, it's a sensory experience and I want that sensory experience to be gained by others as well. When I'm out in the forest environment or I'm out in a natural environment, I can't help but be in awe of where I am. But it's not just the sight of it, it's the feeling of it, the smell of it, how it envelops me when I get into the environment, get into the woods, get into the forest. I told someone recently that I spent a lot of my childhood immersing myself literally in the environment, and I would come home head to toe in mud and my mother would stop me at the door and that was it. She was like, "All right, take your clothes off and get in the house." And I'm like, "Well, but..." "No, just do it because you're a mess." But that's how I interacted with the environment is that I became part of the environment. Chris Gajewicz: So it was more for me, Madi used the word spiritual, and I think that's a really great way to describe it. For me, it's maybe a combination of that, a combination of me being a part of the environment and not separating myself from it. That's where all the sensory awareness comes into it for me. So I think it's kind of interesting. I'll be out with a group of people and I'll say, "Now, over on your left, you can see..." and I'm not even looking that direction, but I had been a moment ago, "... and there's a cooper's hawk and it's sitting in the tree," and they're like, "How did you see that?" I'm like, "Well, I don't know. I just did," and now, been able to make a job of it. So it's being aware of all of the things that are around you, smell that, touch this, see what this is. How does this make you feel? Are these leaves, do they smell good? Do they smell bad to you? Chris Gajewicz: I think that for a lot of people, nature is somewhat foreboding and they're frightened of it, especially if they've not experienced it, like maybe Madi and I have. They find themselves separating themselves to the more comforts of being inside a home as opposed to being in nature. There's nothing about nature that frightens me. I enjoy it very, very much. There are things in nature that can be a little bit scary, but for the most part, there's really nothing to be afraid of. Luckily, living in Northwest Ohio, we're in a great place to be because we don't have poisonous snakes, we don't have bears, we don't have things to really worry a whole lot about. So you can kind of put that on the back burner and really immerse yourself in the environment and not worry about being eaten by something. Jolie Sheffer: Madi, you've chosen to use oral history as a major feature of your research project. Can you explain how oral history is different from other forms of history or research and you felt it was important for this project? Madi Stump: Oral history is, in the most simplest terms, someone's story that is recorded. So it is recorded history told from the perspective of someone who has been in the situation or has had a really unique experience that's valuable to the historical record. It is a fairly recent field of history different than the traditional forms of historical scholarship that deal with written documentation and having a written record and that is what we use to study what's happened in the past. Oral history takes that a step further and gets the experience right from the source. So that is really important, in my eyes, for environmental history because there's two facets of environmental history that a piece of history environmental, and that is the human dimension, which a lot of people are surprised. Why is the human in environmental history? But the human dimension and the natural dimension, you can't separate them. We are integrally connected in every aspects of human life. There is nature. Madi Stump: So environmental history brings these two seemingly different perspectives or experiences together. In telling environmental history, there's certain forms of historical records that we can use. We can use pollen counts, we can use tree rings, we can use journals, but you can also use the experiences of people who have really intimate connections with the land. That's what this project aims to do through oral history, obtaining the stories of people who have deep ties with nature in their personal, professional lives and hearing not only how they have created those relationships, but what have they learned, what benefits have they received from having relationships to land that we can't really see in the historical record because a historical record doesn't show how the land speaks to us in our personal lives, in our professional lives and our experiences. Oral history is the way to obtain how nature is speaking to the humans and the humans are conveying that story in the oral history interviews. Jolie Sheffer: Madi's research is about listening and learning from the land. So Chris, what does that idea mean to you in your role as natural resources coordinator for the city of Bowling Green? Chris Gajewicz: I think it's absolutely impossible for humans to separate themselves from the environment. I think that over the many, many years of a particularly, I can only draw on my European American history background, but if you go to Europe, Europeans had an idea that the environment was something to be tamed, something to be managed. Managed probably isn't even the right word. Subjugated, I mean it had to be completely squashed. So that mindset came with our European ancestors to the American continents. When they came here, they saw a lot of frightening foreboding things that needed to be controlled and whether that may have been the indigenous people that lived here, or whether it was the indigenous animal life that was here, all of it needed to be controlled. Oftentimes people say, "Well, how can you look at the environment?" And I personally just can't take people away from it. Chris Gajewicz: It's impossible because humans have interacted with environment as long as we've had opposable thumbs, and we have done things to the environment, and not to be judgmental in any way, our human ancestors have done things to the environment because that's what you did at the time they did it. That's just how you interacted with it. So it's hard for us to kind of look back. Oftentimes, I'll do talks on the Great Black Swamp where we live and what happened? And I'll start out with saying, "At one point or another, this was all swamp. It was giant oak trees that had never been cut down and they could be a thousand years old. Who knows how old they were and now, they're all gone." Inevitably, someone in the audience will go, "AW," and I'll say, "Now, stop it right now." It is not our job to judge what our ancestors did to the environment. What our job is is to understand why they did what they did to the environment and then learn from that process." Chris Gajewicz: We know that some of the things, many of the things that were done to the environment were not a good thing, but surprisingly, some of the things that were done to the environment should be done now and are not prescribed burns and we're just getting back into prescribed burning right now in the past maybe 20, 30 years. It's still a fairly, which is funny, a fairly new science that native Americans and native Australians and native cultures throughout the world used fire. Because fire was suppressed, now we start seeing things like massive fires, particularly those in Australia, which were just horrific, but the native culture was not allowed to continue to burn as they had for thousands and thousands of years. Those plants, they evolved to accept fire as part of the way they live. Chris Gajewicz: I just saw a picture, I believe it was yesterday, of the greening up of the areas in Australia. And I'm like, "Ah hah. Well there you go folks. Those plants have adapted to fire. Things are going to green up in a short period of time." We look at things sometimes like, "I can't believe that the native Americans burned down most of the United States." Well, they burned it constantly and we have the historical record, that Madi mentioned, in journals. We use journals to see what's going on, and there's a really famous passage for Northwestern Ohioans where there were a group of native Americans that... like four guys on horses walking by. So we know horses, it was fairly recent in the grand scheme of things. They walked by a group of pioneers and then later on, they noticed smoke on the horizon and the prairie where these guys were all camping was now under, completely engulfed in flames. This was all prairie just up the road in Perrysburg, Ohio not that long ago and not that far away. Jolie Sheffer: Madi, Northwest Ohio is home to a diverse array of people past and present. How are you trying to incorporate diverse voices in your project? Madi Stump: One of the things that I have found in my preliminary research is that oral history emerged as a field to highlight voices that were marginalized in the historical records. Most of history is written by and about the predominant society, which is usually white and it's usually male. So in the people that I've selected or the people that I'm reaching out to for the oral history interviews for this project, I'm seeking out women in particular because women are a marginalized group in historical records. I'm seeking out native and indigenous voices because we know that there were a lot of indigenous tribal nations that used the resources in the Great Black Swamp. They maybe didn't live within the swamp where BG's currently settled, but they lived on the outside and they came into the Great Black Swamp to obtain resources and food and medicinal plants. Madi Stump: I'm intending to interview someone of tribal nation that has its roots in Northwest Ohio, so maybe the Wyandotte nation or the Miami nation. I really hope to highlight someone who is of a black, African American or another non white racial or ethnic group because our current population in Bowling Green is so diverse. I'm really grateful that I have those diverse perspectives here that I can use and I can look at then the way that people of different identities also, are interacting with the land in different or maybe similar ways and hopefully come to some kind of conclusion of different or similar ways that people are interacting with land in our home right now. Jolie Sheffer: Chris, could you tell us about your work in the restoration of Bowling Greens parks, such as Wintergarden and some of that custodianship of making a new generation of changes to the land? Chris Gajewicz: Wintergarden park has a long and storied history in and it has been a number of different things prior to it becoming a park. Most of the prairie that's there now was at one time for about 150 years, was row crops and at the time, it would have been either corn or wheat. St. John's woods many years ago was completely fenced off with metal fencing. Some of it's still exists if you look really hard. We've tried to remove some of it, but we have left some for historical perspective as well. If you look at it from the aerial, see it's a very different area. The reason it's different is that was fenced off, it's always been a woodlot and it was fenced off for the production of hogs. This is all information by the way, that I've gleaned from oral histories from people in our community who have come to me and they might be a gentleman may be a well up into his eighties saying, "I remember as a kid coming out here and there were hogs in here and you didn't want to mess with these hogs." Chris Gajewicz: I'm like, "Really? There's hogs." Well, that makes a lot of sense because as we look through that park, we see trillium. Trillium is a very common plant in Eastern Woodlands, except in Wintergarden park. It's also delicious because it doesn't have oxalic acid in it like the May apples do and the jack-in-the-pulpits do. Well, we have tons of jack-in-the-pulpits and ton of May apples and all of those are still there as a remnant because maybe a hog would have tried it once, but they wouldn't have tried it after that because it burns your mouth. It would burn any mammals mouth by eating it. There were oil wells there. You know that there was oil spillage there, I'm sure. So there's probably a layer of oil in those particular areas. It was water wells for the city of Bowling Green at one point. It was a summer camp for kids at one point. So there's lots and lots of different things it was. Chris Gajewicz: By the time I came on the scene in 2000 when I got the job as natural resources coordinator, one of my goals and one of the things we talked about when I was getting the job was how do we manage this area and remove, or at least prescribed something for it? That was just in the early days of discussions about prescribed burns, prescribed management. When I took the staff of the department of natural resources, division of natural areas and preserves around on a tour, they were just dumbfounded at the number of non-native invasive species that were in that park. They were like, "You guys are the poster child for what can go wrong." It's everywhere. So we needed to decide, and we meaning the staff that I eventually hired, we sat down and talked about what is it that needs to go first. It's like they say, eating an elephant one bite at a time. Chris Gajewicz: Well, this was a huge elephant and we couldn't just go in and do a little dabbling here and a little dabbling there. We started with the most critical parts of the park, which we deemed St. John's woods and we started working there and we began our efforts at removing as many or as much or all in some cases, of the non native invasives that were in that portion of the park. When we did that and we went in, sometimes bare handed, sometimes with a vengeance, a removing totarian bush honeysuckle and privet and burning bush. All of these were escapees from people's yards. Japanese Barberry, Japanese honeysuckle, Asiatic bittersweet, and it just went on and on. Then of course, garlic mustard, which was four feet tall and so thick you couldn't even walk through this stuff. It was ridiculous. Jolie Sheffer: So what's your vision when... At what point will you feel like- Chris Gajewicz: When we know we're done? Jolie Sheffer: Yeah- Chris Gajewicz: We're never going to be done. Jolie Sheffer: ... or what are you working towards? Chris Gajewicz: Actually, we had to set up a goal and our staff set up the goal. We were looking at pre contact with European cultures. So that would have been roughly in this area, would have been about 400 years ago with the French. They would have been through here. The Spanish had laid claim to this area, but I doubt highly that they ever came through this area, but the French certainly did. And then after that, the British and after that, the American cultures that were moving from the East to the Western part. What would we have seen 400 years ago? What would have been here with the possible exceptions of elk and bison, which I'd be happy to reintroduce those, but I'm pretty sure the neighbors wouldn't like it. But there were, megafauna aside, we would probably do our best to make it look as much like it looked when our pioneer ancestors would have been coming through the area. Chris Gajewicz: It's going to be difficult. In some cases, we have this kind of romanticized view of what the woods looks like or what it should look like. We read a lot of firsthand accounts and like, "It was beautiful and it was pristine and it was never touched by human hands." That's hogwash. Native Americans, as long as they've been in the United States or what we call the United States now, have been manipulating the land and that is that. When the pilgrims for instance, came and said, "God hath bestowed upon us these beautiful fields," well, those fields had been managed for hundreds of years as fields. So it's not like there was nothing going on prior to the arrival of these folks. Chris Gajewicz: We had to kind of pick a date and I had a board member once that said, "Why are you doing this?" I said, "Well, you know how when you go to the car show downtown and somebody has got a 1967 Mustang and it's really kind of cool, but it's really kind of outdated? Well, well that's kind of what we're doing. We're trying to restore something to a point where we can say this is what it looked like back then and use it as a historical reference point, museum like, but at the same time a living museum." Jolie Sheffer: We're going to take a quick break. Thanks for listening to the Big Ideas podcast. Intro: If you are passionate about Big Ideas, consider sponsoring this program. To have your name or organization mentioned here, please contact us at ICS@bgsu.edu. Jolie Sheffer: Madi, your project is about connecting research to the community. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you're hoping that the research that you're doing can actually be of use within our local parks? Madi Stump: I have two end products for this research, or rather to end community based outcomes. The first one is to deposit this collection of oral history, both the recorded interview and the transcript, as well as a short environmental history, a written environmental history using resources that I have found, all of that to be deposited in the Jerome Library Center for Archival Collections. So I've been working with the folks over there to make sure I have the proper documentation and the proper technology stuff to make sure that those records can be housed there, so that the community and guests and students can go and use those resources for the future and do their own scholarly research or just do some rabbit hole jumping or digging on the history of this community. Madi Stump: The second community based final product of this research is a physical sign that's going to be placed at Wintergarden park. It's going to feature a little bit of the oral history that I conducted of the park naturalist and of the park itself. It will accompany another community based project that I did last semester with some peers, an interpretive trail of sorts of focusing on St. John's woods, but really the park as a whole, this really rich history of Wintergarden and St. John's preserve. That sign itself will feature quotes and really detailed specific lessons that other people have learned from the park. That sign will have a QR code that will link to the BGSU history department blogs page. So there'll be an accompanying blog where there'll be more information about the transcripts and some recordings of the interviews themselves, some short clips, and then a link to the center for archival collections where this oral history collection will be housed. Madi Stump: So I'm really hoping that this project gives members of our community an opportunity to learn the stories of others and to learn how others are connecting to land so that they can similarly make connections to the natural parks and natural areas within Bowling Green to develop a sense of pride and ownership of the rich parks and the rich history of this place that we all live. Jolie Sheffer: Chris, how did your time at BGSU impact your career? Chris Gajewicz: I'm one of those people who came to Bowling Green twice and then decided not to leave. So I think that it impacted me in ways I don't even know. Sometimes, you go to a place and it sort of feels right. When I came as an undergrad here to finish up my degree that I had started at Hocking, so I had two years there, I came here for three years and I initially came here as a psychology major. I didn't even take one psychology course before I realized, knew that's not where I wanted to go. So I ended up in biology, which was okay, but I felt like there was something more. Then I switched to education and that's where I ended up even going further, getting my degree in recreation. I didn't even know you could do that, but when I was here I thought, "Well, I'm going to be stuck in a classroom for the rest of my life and I don't want to have to wear a tie every day," and kind of really dumb reasons to not go into a career in teaching. Chris Gajewicz: But still I thought, "I want to teach, but I want to teach in a non-traditional setting." So that's how I ended up in Bowling Green. I went out into the world for five years after my undergraduate degree, became either enlightened or frightened and came back to Bowling Green for my master's degree. Then I got a job working with Wood County parks as an intern and that's really where it started, is that I became very comfortable having grown up in Northwest Ohio, I always knew Bowling Green existed. I'm originally from Sylvania, just West of Toledo. So my high school played Bowling Green High School and football, not that I was there other than watching from the stands, but it was like, "Okay, Bowling Green's just far enough away from mom and dad, but still far enough away from me to be independent," and that was how I kind of looked at it. Chris Gajewicz: After graduate school, everything went very well and I really seem to enjoy what I was doing, doing the educational thing. Then I became a board member for Bowling Green Parks and Recreation. I wasn't even on the board for a year and they came up with this position called natural resources coordinator and I was like, "This is a great sounding job. I think I want it." So I had to step off the board, apply for the position and I got it, which was really great. I was the first person in the history of the city of Bowling Green to be the natural resources coordinator and manage natural resources within the city. I was the first person on the board who had a background in natural sciences as well. Everybody up until then, was either aquatics or sports, or active sport, active play, active recreation, and then here's this nature guy coming along and he sees things completely differently than everyone else does, a different type of recreation. Chris Gajewicz: So I was able to couple recreation with education and so that's how I kind of ended up here. I don't know if I answered the question exactly like you [crosstalk 00:28:05]. Jolie Sheffer: I think you did. Madi, what advice do you have for other students who might be interested in doing interdisciplinary and applied research search? Madi Stump: Do it. It can be really daunting as an undergraduate student to be doing big research projects, but there are so many resources here at BGSU that support students in their endeavors and their passions and their pursuits of life changing and community changing experiences. To any student anywhere in the world, there are those resources. So seek out those resources and take advantage of them because this kind of institutional support for both financially and mentorships and advisors, that doesn't happen everywhere. I think that that's one thing that makes BGSU a really special place is that there are so many different areas around campus, academic and nonacademic, that want students to succeed and put all of their... a full faith effort to do whatever they have to so students can succeed at these big interdisciplinary projects. Even a single faculty member, if there's one person that you feel a particular connection to because you had a really great class with them or because they're your academic advisor, they know other people who can connect you. Madi Stump: While my primary advisor for this project is Dr. Amilcar Challlu in the history department, I've also worked with other history department professors and I've worked with some of my environmental studies professors because Dr. Challu has been able to connect me and because of other resources on campus that have been able to connect me. This project wouldn't be interdisciplinary without them because my program's interdisciplinary, but it doesn't include every discipline. So to include a little bit of ethnic studies and identity based research, to include the history, to have that solid background of the environment and then to also include community based research and advocacy and support, these are all things that I couldn't have done without those additional connections on campus. So seek out those connections, use the resources that we have here because the world is endless. There are so many possibilities if you utilize the opportunities you have. Jolie Sheffer: I think it's really interesting, Chris, you telling your story of kind of your winding path and you, Madi, in your research process that you're both really talking about taking risks and trying things out and you sort of don't know what opportunity may present itself. Do you have any additional advice you'd give to young people who are interested in working on environmental issues or in trying to imagine a future that doesn't feel like wearing a tie if that's not what they want to do every day? Chris Gajewicz: First of all, I think that you need to, if you're looking at going into the environment in any aspect of it, that you need to go into it with first of all, an open mind. And second of all, in my personal opinion, I think sometimes the media throws gas on a fire and sometimes it's best to just do your own research and not be an alarmist. I mean, yes, it's very important that we learn what we can about what's going on in the environment. But there's such a big story, and with Madi's research and the interviews that she's doing, this is important because people did what they did for a reason. They didn't just willy nilly go out and say, "We're going to destroy the forest today." They were cutting the forest down because they were farmers. That was what they did then. So it's important to go at it again with without judgment, but with an understanding that the reason humans do what they do to the environment is because they had good reason that may be historically based. Chris Gajewicz: So we have to go back in the history, see what was going on at the time, understand, be nonjudgmental, and then look toward a future of like, "Okay, let's learn from our past, but now let's move toward the future." We're continually learning right now and I always say that science is never settled. I heard a politician say that once, "Science is settled." I'm like, "How could science be settled? The very nature of science is that it's unsettled and we wouldn't have a need for scientists if it were all figured out." We need to continue to figure it out and there's people... It's heartening to hear somebody like Madi with the enthusiasm she has to be able to... I'm passing the torch here in a few years to the next generation of people that are going to hopefully pick up where I left off, but I'm not expecting them to do exactly what I did. There's new research and new thoughts and new processes and new educational techniques. All of this is coming our way. It's not going to be the same as it was. Chris Gajewicz: I will be kind of keeping a close eye on what the next person is doing at Wintergarden, but for the most part I have to step back and let them do what they do. I just hope that they would also consider using people like myself as a resource. Don't forget that we do have a wealth of institutional and hands on knowledge that we want to share. And again, that's where people like Madi come in, do that research and interview those people because they do know. They saw it happening or they have, at the very least, they'll have an opinion about what to do next. So the best advice is go into it with an open mind, go into it with the expectation that you're going to do research for the rest of your career, that it's never settled, there's always more to learn. Every day, every single day I go to work, I learn something new and if I stop learning something new, I'm pretty sure it's time to move on, or maybe the cosmos had other plans for me and they moved me on unwillingly. Jolie Sheffer: Madi and Chris, thank you so much for joining me today on the Big Ideas podcast. Madi's research was supported by the new ICS Student Research Award, which was funded by generous donors to the BGSU One Day Fundraising Campaign. For more information on applying for a student research award or supporting the award, please visit bgsu.edu/ics. You can find the Big Ideas podcast on Apple podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. Our producers are Chris Cavera and Marco Mendoza with sound engineering today by Marco Mendoza. Research assistance was provided by Courtney Keeney with editing by Stevie Sheurich. This conversation was recorded in the Stan audio recording studio in the Michael and Sara Kuhlin Center at Bowling Green State University.  

Illegal Immigrants are going to be deported out of the USA. (Audio Clip). (At least 1 million non-documented people have entered the border). **Democratic Chaos** Cortez 'AOC' (D) says the immigrants at these camps are forced to drink toilet water. (Audio Clip). (Not true) Equipment in the camps have two separate water spouts. (Audio Clip). Border Patrol agents are putting their lives at risk helping the people at the border. (Audio Clip). Tour of the physicality at the Mexican/US border. (Audio Clip). **Civil War D vs R** Girl (age 8) mocked a Democrat 'AOC' then, she got death threats. ((**Brian talks about his Facebook experience with friends that are Democrats, saying he was spreading fake news, and their hate with Tomi Lahren (R)**)). Are we not free to speak about conservative views? Conservative vs liberal views are challenged, at events. (Such as the broadcaster, Tomi Lahren that Brian visited in the past. She needed to have tight security). **Seriously?** (VA) Thomas Jefferson (a founding father of the country) is April 13th, and will no longer be a holiday in Charlottesville, Virginia. 'Liberation and Freedom Day' to be honored instead, on March 3rd. (Because, Jefferson was a slave owner). (Really)? (Brian talks about the lake in Minnesota that was also changed because of the person owning slaves). Jimmy Carter (D) says that if we had a full investigation there would be Russian interference of the Trump campaign when he was elected. (Audio Clip). (Really? There was already an investigation and there it showed no collusion). -Thank you for listening!-

Softy and Dick are live from Radio Row in Minneapolis before Saturday's Final Four. Before the show even started, Softy took a look at the text line and saw texters claiming that Russell Wilson is overrated. Really? There are seasons in which Russ has single-handedly saved the team. You don't just let guys like that go. Being on Radio Row is a chance to talk with some familiar voices in person. One such voice is Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News who justifies the idea of playing Final Four games in bigger venues rather than basketball arenas. Two former agents have both weighed in separately on the Seahawks contract situation with Russell Wilson and Frank Clark. We play back the audio and discuss.

Softy and Dick are live from Radio Row in Minneapolis before Saturday's Final Four. Before the show even started, Softy took a look at the text line and saw texters claiming that Russell Wilson is overrated. Really? There are seasons in which Russ has single-handedly saved the team. You don't just let guys like that go. Being on Radio Row is a chance to talk with some familiar voices in person. One such voice is Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News who justifies the idea of playing Final Four games in bigger venues rather than basketball arenas. Two former agents have both weighed in separately on the Seahawks contract situation with Russell Wilson and Frank Clark. We play back the audio and discuss.

Mostly I can roll my eyes when Blink gets a little juvenile, but this song is just stupid. And not stupid like tomorrow’s song. Stupid like, “Really? There was no other song to put in this slot” Anyway. It has a fun tempo change. But it’s mostly filler. Oh, a weird thing happened at the … Continue reading Episode 32 – Degenerate →

There are quite a number of easy wins you can get to make your podcast better. Is there any reason you wouldn't want to do them? Subscribe to Podcastification On Android | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play | Podbean | iHeart Radio | Spreaker | Email I have the privilege of spending a lot of time checking out the resources podcasters are producing, from their podcast episodes to their websites and promotional material. Do you know what I find? Lots of obvious mistakes that I guess aren't so obvious to the podcaster in question. In this episode I share with you 8 of the things I've noticed that many podcasters are messing up when it comes to their websites, the way they present their brand, and the way they interact with their following. I'm certain you will find something in here that you can tweak to get an easy win for your show. Main Points : Easy Wins (by avoiding 8 common mistakes) [1:22] How I come across the obvious mistakes podcasters are making [3:14] Things about your website you need to understand [4:23] MISTAKE 1: Taking people AWAY from your website. It’s an EASY fix [8:02] iTunes ranks podcasts on one thing only. Do you know what it is? [9:05] MISTAKE 2: No subscription options [12:53] MISTAKE 3: Wonky episode titles that ignore keyword optimization [16:52] MISTAKE 4: Where is your contact info? Social only? Really? [19:48] MISTAKE 5: Podcast listens are happening more and more via mobile - can those people easily contact you? [22:18] MISTAKE 6: Cover Art that makes me want to throw up or yawn [27:52] MISTAKE 7: The website link in iTunes should go…. Where???? [30:22] MISTAKE 8: Brand names or Cutesy show names Your podcast player can be like the glue that keeps people on your page It seems like many podcasters don't understand how and why Google chooses the websites it serves up to people who are searching for various things. It all has to do with Google's perceived value of the resources that are provided on that webpage. But Google is a computer algorithm, how does it know? Google's designers, as well as the designers of Bing and Yahoo, have programmed their systems with algorithms that look for certain indications of whether searchers are actually finding the content they discover on web pages to be valuable to them, or not. One of the most important of those indicators is the time a searcher spends "on page" once they make a selection from the search results. That simply means if you want to tell Google you've got valuable content, you need to keep people on your show notes pages as long as possible. In my opinion, a podcast player can be an incredible tool to use simply because it DOES keep people on your website pages longer. It's like glue - as long as they are listening, they are not going anywhere. So can you see what mistake number one might be? You got it! No web players on the page. In fact, some people are even sending searchers away from their websites to listen to their episodes on Stitcher or Google Play or iTunes. Find out how I suggest you remedy this problem by listening to this episode. And hey, you'll help Google know this page was helpful to you! Subscription options: Are you including them on your show notes pages and player descriptions? It doesn't seem to be common knowledge, but iTunes determines which podcasts to rank highest in its search algorithms primarily by the number of subscribers there are to that show. That means if you are not asking your listeners to subscribe to your show, specifically in the iTunes platform, you are missing out on the opportunity to rank your show higher in iTunes organic search. But that only has to do with Search in iTunes. There's a related issue here that you need to be aware of as well, and that has to do with whether people are subscribing to your show at all (no matter the directory or app). In this episode I explain why asking your listeners to subscribe is important and how it can benefit you, providing an easy win for your podcast promotion. Episode 27: Bobby Smith. - What’s wrong with that title? That's a pretty stupid episode title, don't you think? All it tells the reader is that some person named Bobby Smith is being interviewed on that episode. There's no topic, there's no appealing headline, in fact, it's so boring most people will simply click away without giving it a second thought. You don't want that for your podcast episodes. So take the time to name them effectively. In this episode of Podcastification - you can click the player above and hear it for yourself - you are going to hear what goes into a great episode title, why it is important, and how easily you can fix them the moment you're done listening. If that is not an easy win I don't know what the words mean. If you have no easy contact info on your website - you’re telling me you don’t really want to talk to me When I go to a website and want to connect with the person who has created it, I expect that I will be able to click on the contact tab and send them an email, fill out a form, or some how reach out to them directly. What do I find most of the time? Social media profiles linked from the website. And in some cases, nothing at all. It makes me think that the person behind the website doesn't really want to talk to me, no matter who I am. What if I was their ideal client with my pockets full of money? What if I wanted to hire them to do business with me? The only option I have is to reach out to them through social? Really? There has to be a better way. And there is. You'll hear about it on this episode of Podcastification. Here’s an experiment to demonstrate how important good cover art is - and how you can get an easy win by fixing yours Cover art changes are an easy win for every podcaster who needs it and to prove the point I have an experiment for you to try. I have a little experiment for you to try. Next time you're seated at your computer… Open up the iTunes directory. Go to the business category Then click on the "see all" link. Scroll through the images you see there that represent the various podcasts available. What do you notice? Some of them stand out right away, others make you want to yawn, or worse yet, throw up.  Which kind do you think is more beneficial for your podcast? Creating good looking cover art for your show is an easy win. It's one of those ways you can stand out in a very crowded podcast niche. Seriously, I will click on a nice looking piece of cover art over a boring cover art selection any day. It's just human nature. Here is an example of how I improved my cover art for this podcast. You'll see the before image, followed by the after image.   There you go. Point taken? The good news is that anytime you want to update your cover art you can do so inside your media host and iTunes and all the other directories will pull that information almost instantly. You can find out more great tips like this for getting easy wins for your podcast on this episode of Podcastification. Connect with me… Carey(AT)PodcastFastTrack.com On Facebook On Twitter

Our region is rife with stress, and stress is often thought of as an unavoidable effect of life in our lives. Really? There is always sorrow in life, but a great deal of our suffering is caused by our own self-destructive behaviors which are futile attempts to fill our emptiness. Success doesn't take this path …