Podcasts about reassuringly

The Conference's partner IKEA hosted a talk during Wednesday's Getting Grounded session focusing on IKEA most recent findings on play, design and why it all matters more than we think.Why is play important? And why is IKEA so obsessed with playfulness? Anna Granath and Maria Törn are ready to answer those questions, freshly armed with insight from IKEA's recent children's play report. Simplicity, Inclusivity, and Playfulness. Those three words guide IKEA's design philosophy. Play is seen as the ticket to learn better, to improve psychological safety, and subconsciously acquire maths, physics, and social skills. But the clearest answer is the one we hear from children. It's fun to play. We get to imagine. It makes us happy.Adult concerns affect children's play. Global worries about the pandemic, war, climate, and economy have created stress for children. And play is not fun anymore. Struggles with money, space, and even playful capacity, mean that not all children have the same kind of play. Reassuringly, the best cure is play itself. IKEA's report reveals that families are prioritising play and spending more time playing together.“There's a little bit of a play revolution out there”What can we do? Embrace the diversity of play, from imagination to exploring outside, playing sport and being creative. Adopt play as a mindset. Imbue everyday situations with the possibility of playfulness.So, maybe we should all be obsessed with playfulness and for good reason.

For 2Q24, the findings of the HKTDC Export Confidence Index indicate a significantly improved current performance, as well as a more optimistic business outlook overall. Reassuringly, all of this is underpinned by rising sales, new orders, higher prices and a likely increase in procurement activity.

In today's episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we embark on a reflective journey through the lens of history. We examine the perceived hardships of modern life compared to past decades like the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on personal experiences, I note how some aspects of the human condition remain unchanged despite technological and social evolution. Shifting to practical topics, we discuss strategies for leveraging intellectual property, especially during economic downturns. Adapting to changes and maintaining resilience emerge as significant when transforming ideas into tangible assets. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS In this episode we reflect on how technological advancements have transformed personal and societal challenges compared to past decades. Dan examines the prevalence of mental health discussions in contemporary society versus the silence around such issues in the 50s and 60s. We explore the philosophical implications of our tech-saturated age through the ideas of Italian philosopher Augusto del Noce on atheism and technology. Dan and I question if the abundance of knowledge and advancements in AI truly contribute to happiness or complicate our understanding of the world. We consider whether technology, like virtual reality, adds new dimensions to life or repackages what has always existed. discussions on the military's use of advanced technology, such as eye-controlled systems, and its trickle into civilian life. We share insights on the transformation of media consumption habits and the strategic benefits of converting intellectual property into tangible assets. I underscore the importance of adaptability and resilience, especially when leveraging intellectual property during economic challenges. Dan and I share personal experiences, noting that while the geographical footprint expands, human connection and existence remain constant. We ponder the impact of innovations on our daily lives and the need to adapt to chase tangible achievements in the face of technological change. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan, Dan: Mr Jackson, Dean: it would be a tragedy if these calls were not recorded. It really would. Dan: That would be the truth. Dean: Isn't it nice? Dan: that they're automatically recorded and we don't have to remember to do it. Yeah, just feels organic, so welcome back. Yeah, it's been a few, a couple of weeks here. Dean: Yeah, you know, here's a, here's a thought that I was just pondering, that it seems to me that, as cloud by India expands people's real world experience not real world, but mainland experience they're both. Mainland experience seems to be more challenging and seems to be, in some cases, more vaccine and more traumatic. Okay, do you have some exhibits? That's my thought, that's my cheerful thought for the day. Dan: Do you have some exhibits for your argument? Dean: Well, there's such an emphasis now on meltdown, people having nervous breakdowns, which I don't remember at all growing up, you know 50s 60s? I don't remember any talk like this, but now it's constant, every day. You know people. Dan: And it's everywhere right. Dean: Like now this is. Yeah, I mean everywhere that I know it's much of the world in humanity that I don't know, but everywhere I know, it's not so much that the people that I'm talking to, our experience, and it's not that it's a narrative. You know that. You know these are the most trying times that humans have ever had, and I said well, first, of all. I don't even know how you would know that you know? Dan: how would you know? How would you know? Yes, I mean, if you haven't been there, you probably your knowledge of 150 years ago is probably pretty slim. Dean: How about the dark ages? That would have to be pretty yeah. Dan: Well, I, you know, I don't know, you know, I don't know. Dean: I mean, I think it's a comparison, and I think somebody's got a point to make. When they say the dark ages. Well, they probably weren't dark for the people who were in the dark ages. They probably weren't dark for the people who were in them. Dan: Right, exactly, that's so funny. Dean: Well, the Roman. Dan: Empire seemed to have a pretty good time, didn't they? Dean: Yeah, well, you know, life is life. You know, you know, and yeah, it's a discussion I have with people who are talking about the future and I said I'm going to guarantee you one thing about the future is that when you get there, it's going to feel normal. Dan: And we're going to. It's funny. Dean: I think that would be disappointing to a lot of people, because they think that the future is going to transform them. And I said well, not anymore than the past. Did I remember how? Dan: to find the old. I would say these are the good old times. Yeah, like that's the reality. Is wherever right now. It's just the distance of it right Like if you're thinking. You know, in the past, that was just a reflection of a moment in the present. At one point you know, yeah, well, the reason was we were thinking about the future. Dean: The reason was we were. We were at Genius Network this week and the subject of Apple's new Provision goggles came out. Okay, I don't know if you've experimented yet I haven't. And not, but they said this is going to change everything. Dan: And I said wait a minute. Dean: You're in a half. Ai was going to change everything. And you know I got up this morning and you know my life doesn't feel that much different than when the day before AI was introduced. Yes, at. Dan: GVT. Dean: Yes, and I said and so I began thinking about that that you're using basically a Cloud Landia phenomenon to save. That phenomenon is going to change everything. And and I said, well, you know, I mean who's talking. I mean my question is who's talking? Maybe it's going to change you, but you know, for most people there I mean half the world won't even know about it 10 years from now. Dan: Yeah, like that's. You know, it's so funny. It reminds me of the. You know, how do you? It's like asking a fish how do you like the water? Yeah, yeah, they don't have any recollection of what you're reading. The water, yeah, gen Z is now. You know, all the Gen Zs have no idea about a world without Internet and social media and everything on demand. I mean, they have no idea about there being three channels on TV that broadcast everything to everyone at the same time and not when you watch what they put out. I mean, that's pretty, it's pretty amazing, right, and it was in black and white. Dean: In black and white, on a dream. Dan: Yeah. Dean: You had to jiggle with the antenna to make sure that you're receiving that day. Yeah, you didn't think anything strange about it, that's just. You know, that's just what you had to do. Dan: Eating your TV dinner and it's tinfoil plate and your Jiffy popcorn. Dean: I remember those as being quite tasty. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Isn't that? Dan: funny though, dan. I mean, I do think about that a lot. I just I extended the southerly boundary of my footprint on the planet a couple of weekends ago. I was down in. Miami, in Brickle, at Giovanni Marceco's Archangel event. He invited me down and yeah, so it was just a you know another world. You know expand everything happening. You know people bustling around all in there, certainly a lot of traffic, every you know on the mainland things are Largely status quo, you know, and getting more. Dean: Yeah, you got to pick your time. You got to be more intelligent about picking when you decide to travel these things you know, but I got a feeling that's been that way, you know, Since we could transport ourselves. But I think the question I have is. What is it about, the president? That's not okay with you you know, and. I did this diagram, which I'm going to develop into a thinking exercise. I love that. Yeah, and it's, and I think you've seen it, I think you've seen it and what I have is a sheet of paper and the diagram goes from lower left to upper right. Okay, and down at the bottom there's a little circle and that's at the upper left. Upper right is a bigger circle, and underneath the little circle is here, and under above the Bigger circle in the upper right-hand corner is there, and then I draw a line that's got an arrow head you know, it's a straight arrowhead and it's called striving. Dan: And I said I'm. Dean: This is a portrait of your entire life. I'm going to tell you your as entrepreneurs. So I'm just going to tell you your entire life is. You're here and you're striving to get there. Striving, I said how many of you remember, this is the way it was at 10 years old, 30 years old, some of you 50 years old. I can remember 70 years old. Okay, that was just what I say. So let's say you start at 10 and now you're 60 years old and One thing is absolutely true you have a lifetime, 50 year habit every day, lifetime habit reinforced, of being here but striving to get there. I said so With that very pure habit in place. What do you think the chances are? At 60, you're going to be there. Dan: That's it's so, it's profound Right, but it fits in with the cap and the game too, in a way. Dean: Yeah, so actually 10 years ago. The reason I'm bringing this up is 10 years ago I Decided that I'm there and now, the job is not to get anywhere. The job is just to expand the quality and quantity of the there that I'm at mm-hmm okay and, and I had this exercise and you did, which is called your best decade ever, and I decided, when I look back, that I've achieved more Between 70 and a couple months, 80 70 to 80. I've achieved more in the last 10 years than I did in the previous 70 years. Dan: And what do you? Did you set out with that as your intention, or did you know? Is that my? Dean: intention. I just made a decision. I remember that 10 years ago, when I was 70 and yeah, there was, if you remember, there was a big party and I mean, how can I forget? Dan: you just recently forgave me for lying to you. Yeah there was a. Dean: Dirty lying culprit Involved in that and I love him in spite of that. Dan: I love, there we go, thank you. Dean: Thank you and anyway, but I was reflecting that I'm there, you know, I'm there and there's no. And it shows up in two ways, dean, and it is that I've noticed, and I this just occurred to me one day, because people say Would you like to meet so-and-so, and I said not really right really, and I don't have any particular reasons, it's like yeah, somebody said who's the person that, if you could, you would love most to have dinner with and I said Jackson. I said, certainly someone I know, certainly some what I know knows. You haven't met them yet. And I said, nah, I can't think of anyone you know. And they said yeah, but you know, yeah, I mean, is there anyone in the you know that's gonna be different in the future and I said yeah, but that just that's built into the formula. I said you know, every year we bring you know close to a thousand new entrepreneurs into the program and I know a lot of a thousand there's gonna be. You know a handful of them that I really get to know and they're you know, they're bright, they're exciting, they're ambitious, they're creative, they're doing all sorts of interesting things. I so, just as matter, of course, I'm gonna meet them and they said no. But you know, I mean, would you like to meet Taylor Swift? I said no, what would we talk about? And somebody was gonna introduce me Actually the I was described to this person. That person said I'd really like to meet him and it was a famous politician. They'd like to meet this guy. And so they said would you call him because he'd really like to talk to you? And I said but I don't have anything to say. He may think of a reason for meeting me, but I don't have any reason for meeting him, you know. And I've got so many really bright people that I know. That I'm having great conversations with I don't you know, I don't really want to. It would be a lot of effort, you know a lot of effort. Yeah it would be a, it would be a guess and a bet. Dan: Where I'm working with I'm working with guarantees, you know so. Dean: Anyway. But the other aspect of this where's the place in the world? You haven't been yet. I said can't think of any. You know that you'd like to really go to. I say I can't think of any. Right you know, maybe when I'm in London I'll head in the northwest direction rather than you know the other directions. Have already gone in to see what's five or six streets away and I know in. London. You're in London, you're always running into something new. No longer, no matter how long you're there, you're doing that. So I've got those two things and I think it's a function of the decision I made 10 years ago. You know that there's nobody I particularly want to meet. There's no one, a particular Place that I want to go, and I think the reason is because I've decided that. Dan: I'm there. Do you know? What's so funny, dan, is that is very similar thinking to what I did in 1999 with the. I know I'm being successful when I'm thinking about that. It's being is the state of being here. You can only, you can only be in the present doing it's being right being yeah, it's really interesting. Dean: I've been reading this several volume series by this Italian philosopher, truly a philosopher. Augusto del noce died around 1990 and it's on atheism. As it seems, that is Last 25 years of his life. He was just zeroing on this one subject of atheism, which is kind of a new thing on the planet, you know, goes back the beginning of it is maybe 400 years ago and it probably coincides when we to have the tools and we started to have a financing to do things scientifically, you know, and people notice that as they, they develop scientific concepts and then technology enabled them to measure In a way that they hadn't been able to measure. They discovered brand new things and they just said, since we have this growing ability and it seems like it'll grow forever why do we need God? So, why do we need heaven when we can create our own heaven here? And that was a guess in a bet and it's. It Seems to me that they haven't really been successful. But anyway, I was, I was just. I've read a couple of them twice and I'm on a new one right now, and he's just introduced this vast universe of different thinkers who contribute some aspect To what we would call atheism today. You know which is essentially the denial of that One there is a God and number two, that a God is needed. You know that perfectly okay, ourselves. And and since I've been writing that, I've just been increasingly aware of the topic, the subject I started the conversation with, on my part today. Which was, it seems to me, as we develop these incredible technological abilities. So there's no question that AI. I don't know anything about the new ones, so I don't have any opinion on it, but to that it's not making people happy right Like perfect. Dan: You know, there's great words that I heard Peter Diamandis talking about one time a perfect knowledge that you can see that we're moving to a place where we're wearing let's call them sunglasses now you know like goggles, not the big thing that apple just put out, but that's if we liken that to the first cell phones that were those big brick Cell phones. If we, you know, link that down to, if we take the progress of those, you know VR and AR, you know goggles to be more like, you know, super thin Sun glasses that just look like glasses and we couple that with the advancement in VR or in, you know, ai, in our pocket or attached to our Wrist or whatever, however that goes, that we will reach a point where we know we would have access to knowing everything about everything that's known by visual or auditory cues, right like being able to walk through A city and have, through facial recognition, everything about a particular person, or to walk through a forest and see every, you know, animal butterfly, you know all of those things then there's not going to be any mystery of things. I think you know, like if you just Fast-forward these things, the speed. Dean: Friction is what you're getting out of Peter D Amonus saying this. Dan: I'm saying, I'm looking, what Peter D Amonus said he was the one that I first heard say those words perfect knowledge and I'm translating it into when we're headed now, where we see that it's not too far of a stretch to see the combination of chat T AI and the, you know, ar Sunglasses augmented or virtual reality Sunglass or glasses to be able to view the world through those lenses and have reflected up on the screen or in front of us All the data about somebody or about anything that it sees. You know, it's really almost the way. You know, the need for the more friction Involved ways of gathering knowledge would have been like if you had to let's say you saw this amazing Flower or something out on a walk you'd have to remember, remember it or draw or make notes of it. Then you'd have to go to the encyclopedia you know a botany and you'd have to go through, or even go to the library and look in the dewy decimal card catalog system for Flowers and look for a book that you could scan through to find that maybe somebody has documented what this particular, what this particular flower is. The friction of gathering knowledge was so, you know, so involved in friction, and the more that you Knew, the more that you could store in your, in your brain. That was sort of a measure of Intelligence, right, or a measure of the fact that you knew stuff. That's an advantage for Things. But now if we get to a point where everybody has perfect knowledge, you don't. You have to look at it and see okay, that's the, you know Whatever that, whatever that is, or that person is this, or this product is this or that I'll get you. Dean: I'll give you someone who has a yearly experience of I'm very smart. You know him Peter Steven Poulter. The. IVF doctor and he says you know the thrill of being in this field because the all, basically most medical breakthroughs happen in the Pregnancy and like the first year of life. So most you know if you watch where the money goes and Medical science, it has to do with pregnancy, conception, pregnancy, birth and then probably the first year of life and the other one is the last 12 months of life. Okay, and that's Experimenting to see if we can keep someone alive. You know, beyond, yeah, normal and he says that. He says from my perspective as a Doctor and a scientist, he said every year it seems to me that we know 10 times more About pregnancy because he's an IVF doctor and vitro realization, and he's a great you know, and the Statistics gathered by the US government Indicate that's true he's in the top top. You know five and and he says but the problem is that when you know 10 times more, you're is set with the 10 times greater Universe of what you don't know. Dan: That the 10 times new knowledge has opened. Dean: Yes, yes okay. So, and I was just pondering this, as people are saying well, dan, have you tried out? There's a new provision, yet I haven't. Dan: I said no, I haven't. Dean: I haven't answered two questions. I don't have the answer to two questions. They said what's the questions? I said does this Experience a provision? Does it increase or decrease? Dan: I bet it just where would you put your main line, dopamine? Yeah, you don't even have to move your hands anymore. Dean: Yeah, yeah, that's the first question. The second thing, the second question I have if I don't do it, am I missing anything? Dan: I, you know. What's very interesting too is that to me, the visual that I'm getting also is that Even chat, gpt and all of those things are decidedly backward-looking, meaning it's only trained on what's known knowledge. Dean: Yeah, I'll actually. All creativity is backward-looking. Okay, I mean if it's worth anything, you know. Dan: I mean. Dean: I mean, the apple is really great at this, because apples never first to do anything, you know as right. Dan: There's a highly valued. Dean: You know on a consistent basis they're most highly valued corporation in the world. But they've never actually Done anything new. Just do what already exists a lot better. Dan: Wow, yes, so you wonder what is? So the probe and there is anything new. Dean: What I can see about the provision, because the goggles already exist. It's you know, it's an upgrade on you know what, palmer, lucky probably created the bag and then, you know emails already. They say you can do emails with your eyes and you know you can do search with your eyes. Dan: You can you know everything else. Dean: But I said, these things already exist. They're just pulling together and integrating something that wasn't able to be done. That the same time, you know, and you know it's really pricey, I mean it's, you know, I mean it's reassuringly expensive. They've tried other goggles how much is your program? Reassuringly expensive, that's that I'll tell you. The sales team is gonna have that line tomorrow. It's what? And they say, well, why is it? Reassure me? And I said you know, you know who's not going to be in the room. What they're doing is already exists with the US Air Force, and then All the pilots, that everything they, those pilots, do, is done with their eyes. They have this screen. That's not a screen. I mean, there's no screen, but they see a screen. They see the and they operate with five other planes. So almost every Mission where they sent one of the new hyperjets, the pilot feels himself as a group of six. He's a member of a group of six and he can tell exactly what the other five are doing. You know he doesn't have to turn. It said he doesn't because he can see it on the screen. Plus, he can see 500 miles in all direction. This is all done with the eyes. These pilots have to train themselves to do Everything with their eyes. Well, that already exists. You know they're bringing that down to a civilian, civilian thing. But you know the whole question I have are the stakes big enough that I would teach myself a new skill? Dan: Mmm, right, or does it fit, can you? Well, that's it right. This is. I've been Test-driving, by the way, dan the, and it gets good reaction. They can I. Is there any way for me to get this without doing anything Is a good place to start. Dean: Well, check your limit on your card. Yeah, and first of all it's an anti-social activity because you're putting goggles on, so nobody's going to be around you when you have your goggles. But Mike Kenix was there the other day and Mike said you know, he says you have your mind, has no grasp of you until you've done it. And I says that's fair. I said that's totally fair. I understand that the question Is there enough of a compelling offer that I would even want to have experience? And I think that would be measured measured in the mainland, not in, not in Kauvalandia, I think, whether it was worse. I think whether anything is worth it. It really has a function. Does it register? Is it measurable? Progress in the mainland, right, I think you're right. Well, I'll give you an idea, your studio, your great studio which, yes, we'll have our will have a copy of in September or October of this year. I'll see that the team is in there now. We have eight studios. I have eight studios and they're gonna be you know, up-to-date technologically and and but the thing that compelled me to, first of all, for us to Follow your lead and really investigate what your studio is doing, one of our team members whose key to the Execution here came down to Orlando you know, yes you're. And went there and they said it's fantastic and they're very helpful and they'll help us any way we want, and. But the thing was suggest how much you get done in the mainland was what prompted us to look into it. Dan: Yeah, I mean, that's it's so. You know, that was kind of that before you brought it up, even thinking, I remember the day sitting in the cafe writing in my journal about okay, I want to start doing more video stuff, and asking myself the equivalent of that. You know thinking, because I'm definitely trained in thinking who, not how. But I caught myself really going down a how path of thinking okay, what do I need? You know, at least two of these. I need two cameras, I need lighting, I need what am I going to have for the background? I was already visualizing how I would rearrange one of the rooms in my office to be the, you know, always ready studio kind of thing. And then it really dawned on me about that that it's already there. Is there? That's the equivalent of is there any way I can get this without doing anything? And we literally went, you know, straight there and set up, signed a contract and recorded the very next morning. I mean, it's just so funny that the pressure not allowed and I realized that was you know. I was at the end of the 12 weeks. I signed a 12 week contract that. I had already, you know, I had 12 weeks worth of content in you know, created and already documented, and we hadn't even reached the point of what one of those cameras would cost. Dean: Like. Each of them got three cameras that are $6,000. Dan: You know the microphones are $1,000 each. The that sound for the studio environment. I mean the whole thing, the software, the all of it. It's a crazy thing when you really start thinking about it's the only way to do this without doing anything, and that's part it's so parallel you know I've been talking about. Imagine if you apply your self SELF, sphere is things around you. Is there somebody else as a service or someone that you know that could just do this without you having to do anything? Dean: Yeah, the thing is that I'll you know, I can think of some team members that. I'll encourage and we'll you know we'll finance it. Have some finance. Who would be interested in looking that provision and see what application it would have to the normal course of business, of speeding things up, making things easier, you know, and everything, and so funny. I was having a conversation with someone and he said I mean, he was texting you know and about. We were with him for about two hours and he probably texted you know 15 times to our hours and received text and you know and to our he's excuse me, I just have to take five minutes to do this. And so I said what would you see on the average day that you're involved in texting busy? And I said, and I suspect, if you do it on five days a week, you actually do it on seven days a week. Dan: Yeah, exactly. Dean: I don't think you take a weekend off from this habit. So so anyway, and he says well, you know, a light day is maybe a hundred texts and you know, a really filled, filled up day is 400 texts. Dan: And. Dean: I said you know that you're lower number, 100. That's more than I've done in my lifetime. Dan: More than more texts than you've done. Yeah, yeah, 100. I haven't done 100. Dean: I haven't done 100 texts in my lifetime. I mean, yeah and it's, and that would be 95% to Babs, you know and you know, and mostly I use emojis. I've become very Egyptian. I can do. I can do hieroglyphics with emojis and I can get a message and I like it. You know thumbs up times three. You know times. Dan: Smiley guy with sunglasses you know, I mean, you can do a lot of creative work with emojis, but except that we're apart. Dean: The only reason I'm doing this because we're apart, you know we're not in the same location, otherwise we just chat. But the thing is that this person, when I look at what he gets done, I get sometimes more done than he does in a day, certainly in a week or a month, you know, a week, a month or a quarter I get 10 times more done and I don't do any of it. You know, I don't do any of that stuff. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I bet. That's part of the I mean it's not profitable productivity, it's the feeling, it's dopamine busyness yes, I agree 100%. Dan: That's exactly where I that's what I've been catching myself, you know is this is really taking a look at that and realizing how much of this is, you know, really counterproductive. You know a lot of ways. I was saying I had a breakthrough blueprint at celebration last week Monday, Tuesday, wednesday and we were talking about, you know, 19,. I was bringing up the idea that you and I had been talking about the 25 year frames, and you know we're talking about your 70 to 80 best decade ever, and how. You know, three years I'm going to be 60 and then it'll be 20. The next 25 year framework I'll be 85, you know. So, looking back 28 years ago you're not discussed like that takes you all the way back to, you know, 1996, 1995, whatever that, whatever that is and realizing that everything that we look at right now that is so important to our lives wasn't even in existence. Then you know, like we, I still remember in 1997, when internet was just starting to become mainstream and it was definitely a place out there that you went to go to. You know you would go to the internet from your primary world on the mainland and it was a distraction, it was something it was starting to dip into. Maybe you know TV time or something that you would do otherwise. And then I remember, you know, gradually it became more and more, and 2007 I view as the tipping point, when we started with the iPhone bringing the internet with us and the app world becoming vital functions for going through our days. And now we're at a point where it's so woven into our existence that it's like water and we don't even remember, you know, I mean, all the talk now is what would happen if the grid went down. Indeed, dan, what would happen if the grid, the internet, went down? Not the power, not electricity, but let's say that the network goes down. So many things would be, you know, so many things would be messed up. We don't know how to survive without it. I was joking about that article. I remember, in the New York Times or GQ, I think it was magazine had a journalist that they sent, you know, to try and survive in New York City for a week where their only means of contact with the outside world was the internet see if he could make it. And he searched, you know, in this bulletin board, and he found this restaurant, this Chinese restaurant that had a menu and they would. You could order delivery on the internet, you know, and he slowly survived with those things. But now it's so exactly the opposite that it would be challenging to survive in New York City a week without the internet you know, it's just so how things have switched. You're the closest thing you're the closest thing I know of to being, you know, amish in the I've been involved in it. Dean: Yeah, I mean yeah, and one is, my life is not that much different. I mean, I certainly made use of the technology. I mean there's no question and I enjoy the. You know, I enjoy the internet and I mostly enjoy it for YouTube, I would say YouTube yeah, because I can get really in-depth, one-hour explanations of a particular topic you know, and Peter Zion is very good at his eight minute, 10 minute, 15, very, very good at it and. I really enjoy that. And then I'll watch all the action scenes out of Denzel Washington's new Sicily film, you know and. I mean, you don't have to watch a whole Denzel Washington movie to get the essence, you know it's about 20 minutes of really hardcore violence, you know. Dan: Yeah right. Dean: And he, you know, and he wishes the other person hadn't gotten him into this situation. He says no, I was just going about my life here. You know, it would have been better if you left me alone but here we are, you know and you got about 10 seconds to decide whether you're going to live or not, you know. So I'm just looking at my watch right now and three seconds to say you know, and I enjoy that, it's like a little you know palate, you know refreshing. And then I'll go back and I'll look at some question that occurs to me. I wonder you know what happened in this historical situation? Sure enough, you can find one or two or three you know, yeah movies, or you know videos, or something on the internet. you know and you can do that and it's very conducive for my ADB brain to have that activity and people say well, how much. You read a lot. No, I told people you know I haven't watched television at all, and Joe I. It'll be six years that I haven't watched nothing. All the football. I haven't watched any of it, Nothing. I haven't watched anything, but what I've discovered is that no football game has more than 10 minutes of action. And so I just watched the highlights. And then I don't want to see the highlights for the other teams, I just want to see the highlights for my team. That's about six minutes. And I said, geez, all those games I spent watching hour after hour on television. I could have gotten 10 or 15 of the men and the time it would take to do it, but you know, you kind of zero in on what's the dopamine part of the exercise. You know the activity so, but I resist the notion that this is going to change my life. I just resist the idea. Well, this changes everything. And I said, well, you know, speak for yourself you know, change anything for me, right? Dan: And we're both tourists. Dean: We're both tourists, yes, and we will sacrifice no pleasure for something new. Dan: Right, oh man, that's so funny. Dean: Any existing pleasure. We will not put that on the table as a bet. Dan: Yeah, we like our current pleasures, that's right. Dean: Oh yeah, so you know, and the thing is, the world is made up of all sorts, and so you've got to have the people who are, you know, the people who are just crazy nuts about the future, you know and you know, and there's people who say well, you know, as far as human nature goes, I haven't seen anything particularly new in 79 years. Right, interesting, I'm not saying not interesting. I just haven't seen a lot of new stuff happening with the fundamental change in people. Dan: Right yeah. So how are you? How are you looking at your next best decade ever? You're months away, days away. Dean: Yeah, the big thing is that we've discovered a great capability in the last two years, and that is that our thinking tools, coach tools, seem to translate easily into patents. Okay, so we started in April with a big batch. We you know we put in dozens of applications and they're starting to come in and we've got 12 now since April, we've got 12 patents and these are, you know, these have asset values. They're like every patent is like you created a house, you know, and it's got a marketplace value. The moment you get the asset, you know, you get the you know notification from the patent bureau that this is now a patent. And there seems to be something good about our thinking tools. You know strategy circle, pre-focus and buffer days. There seems to be something about our thinking tools that resonate with what they consider to be a patent. You know, something that can be granted a patent. So this is very exciting, because all we're doing is taking stuff that's been created over the last 35 years and giving it an asset value beyond just getting paid for it in workshops, you know. So it's it's growing and we're not doing that. It's a whole team of other people. We just write it a check. And you know a year later, we get back an asset that is, at the minimum, 10 times more you know, greater than our investment. Dan: I mean that's you know 10 to one in a year is pretty good to return that investment. Dean: So I'm very excited about that because we just have vast Dean. You can't believe how much stuff we've got in the store room. You know just a sheer number of ideas that we have and all of them are popping up in my mind. We're going back through documents I created 25 years ago. I said, geez, that was a great idea, but it had no present use so it didn't have a value. But here you can take everything and increase the value. I would say, the next 10 years, the amount of asset value we will create in intellectual property and on patents will equal the total amount of, will be the total amount of revenues we've created since 1989. Wow, yeah. So that's what I'm excited about. Dan: Wow, and that's where the program is. Dean: That's where the program is going. I mean, Dean, if you went through all your, all your notes, all the notebooks that you created and everything else. I bet there's a gold mine there that it can't. Dan: No, I understand that intellectually, I understand that there's lots of that. I get that. I just I can't. When I have a hard time wrapping my mind around is to what end? You know like. I wonder what the. Dean: If you were ever in, you know. First of all, that tells you that its property is the fact that you can barrel against it, not that we need it. Dan: Right. Dean: And I will tell you, we had this scamper a little bit during COVID and we had this scamper a little bit during the meltdown in 0809 where we lost the bottom of our program. I mean the revenues for the people who were at the lowest level. We just instantly lost it, you know, for a year and a half or two years, and unfortunately we went into our own reserves, our own personal reserves. Dan: Absolutely. Dean: And we could. You know we could finance the company but it was nervous. Used up weeks of her time you know, I don't want to hear you just call a number and you say I'd like to. You know the way it's all set up now with the, you know, the appraisal companies and then the loans loan companies. It's all set up and we'll get to know all those people. So the assessed value is up to date every day, and so it puts you in a position where your cash confidence. I like the game that the strategic coach represents and I just wanted to go on and on, and I don't want to be, wasting time with nervous crises, right exactly. Dan: Yes, it's a good way of putting it nervous crises, that's a. Dean: Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's creative crises, but the nervous ones I could do without, right? Oh, that's so funny. Is there any way I can solve this problem? By doing nothing? That's right, I'm not doing anything. Dan: Well, that's as close as you could get. I guess, when you think about it like that seems to me perfect knowledge. Dean: Yes exactly All this numbers. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I don't get the value of knowing everything you know I don't get the value of instantaneously knowing what would. Yeah, and besides, we already created that technology. Dan: Who was that? Who was the famous? You know the old story of the gentleman that said he doesn't need to know those things. He has a button on his desk and whenever I need to know anything I'll push that button and seven men will show up in here and one of them will know the answer to what I'm looking for Henry Ford yeah it was Henry Ford, that's right. Dean: Yes, I could summon someone, but we've already created the technology for perfect knowledge. And you're going to say, dan, what is the technology? Dan: for perfect knowledge. Well, what is it? Dean: Dan, it's called God. Okay, so they don't have access to it. But they said, no, we're going to get off, we're going to get away. You know, and I'm not joking here, because when you read these books, you realize that it's a desire not to be dependent upon at all, upon the entity that created you. And I said, well, I'm okay with it, right, right. And they say, well, it's like you're dependent upon God. And I said, hey, well, first of all, I'm very comfortable to know that he exists, or she, whatever, in this transgender age Anyway. But I have a feeling. You know, I've had a feeling since I was a kid that I'm connected to something that's transformative and it's way above my ability to know things, and you know I'm okay with that, I don't lose any energy over that, but I think there's this one of the. In reading these many books on atheism I automatically translate. When I read a lot that is very deep subject and a person has spent their whole life doing it I always think is there some aspect of this that I can just capture and write a quarterly book on? And it came to me after I've been reading El Noce, the Italian philosopher, for about a year and what I came to is a title. I always go for the title. Dan: Yeah, of course that'll see. Dean: Yeah, and the title is atheism is very hard work. Dan: Oh boy. Dean: It's very hard work. Yeah, these guys people were atheists just have to. I mean, it's 24, seven. I tell you there's no harder work on the planet than being an atheist, oh my goodness. Because they're on the lookout for anybody who even suggests that there's a God, and you know it, they get angry and they you know they have to get into an argument. I said, geez, that's a lot of work, that's a lot of work. Dan: Yes, it's so funny, dan, and observant and true, it's like those things. It's funny. It's like those isms, right, like veganism. Yeah, you know, yeah. Dean: I mean you can't sleep, compel even jelly. I mean you can't relax, you can't sleep. I mean isms. Dan: I mean you know except quick start ism. Right, yes, you watch Dan Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin. Dean: Yeah, I think Tucker Carlson did himself a lot of good, uh-huh. Dan: I think so Absolutely. Dean: Yeah, I mean, he wasn't any different with Putin. Dan: You know, I mean, this is the guy who's gonna get you thrown off the top of the building. Dean: You know he didn't see many more you know, yeah, he's got more sex than he is with anyone Anyone. You know he just Right, right right. As a matter of fact, there's a couple of situations where he just kind of broke out laughing. Yes, exactly. Dan: I can't believe. Dean: You just said that. Dan: Right, but it was very interesting to hear Putin's history lessons. You know, going all the way back. Dean: Yeah, well you know, you gotta look at it from their point of view. They are the easiest country historically to invade. I mean they have about 13 different gateways where enemies can send their troops. It's a flat country, you know. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I mean US has 3000 mile moat on the east and they have a 5000 mile moat on the west and they've got pot smoking Canadians on the north, you know, I see their no threat, oh my goodness. And then you have the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean on the south and then where they're connected to Mexico, it's 200 miles of desert mountains. I mean you can die before you can get across that thing. So the US, but Russia is just the opposite. I mean not only can people invade, they've been invaded 50 times since his 800 number, you know, whatever the year is. I mean Right, they have real honesty, got reason for being paranoid. Dan: Yeah, it's so funny. I thought it was funny when he was saying how you know, he asked about joining NATO. I thought to myself because this isn't the whole purpose of NATO to protect against Soviet expansion. Well, let's get in on that. Why don't we join that too? Dean: But you know you got to look at it from his you know, I mean you don't have to agree with his point of view, but you at least have to know what his point of view is. And if I was his point of view, I mean he was born to nobody and he you know. Through diligence and hard work he got to be a colonel in the KGB. And I have to tell you if you were in the Soviet Union before it collapsed there was no more better job and status in the world than being, you know, a, you know, up and coming officer in the KGB. They got to travel, they had their own stores, they could have somebody arrested and killed. You know, you know pretty easily, and everything else I said you know. You can see it. He took his career, took a real drop when the wall fell. You know so well. Dan: Dan, we said it all. How do we do it? How do we do? I mean, we said it all really, but there's always knowledge though there's always more. Dean: That's exactly right, yeah, the one thing about what knowledge is being made up on a daily basis, so I don't know how the word perfect fits in there, right? I mean, we just created over the last hour, we just created some new knowledge. Dan: That's exactly right. That's what. So it's visually like. It's really interesting. That's my vision of that. It's future blind. You know that GPT it's all only feeds on what's already been created. Dean: Yeah, you know but there's still got to be some, if technology had feelings, which I don't think it does. I think AI should be more nervous about humanity than humanity should be nervous. Dan: Right. Dean: What are they going to come up with today? You know? I mean I feel like we've got it all organized every night and you know, at the morning and the morning we get back and the rock is down at the bottom of the hill again. We've got to push it up. That's so funny. That's so funny. Yeah, I think it's technology that's trying to keep up with humanity, and not the other way around. Dan: Well, I'm excited, dan. It's almost a couple of weeks. Yeah, we've got a calendar date. Dean: Yeah. I tell you we're going down the Thursday before we're arriving in the evening of the Thursday before. So, we've got Friday, saturday, sunday, monday. I think we got four days and we're at the four seasons. Dan: Yes, that's great. When are you leaving? Dean: Wednesday, the day after you know the day after the yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. Dan: So we will have some time. We're on track. Dean: We're on for next week. We're on for next week I like that, okay, perfect. Yeah, great Dan, we'll have a great week then. Great Dan, I will talk to you next week. Dan: Thanks Okay, bye.

A Future of Finance interview with Max Heinzle, CEO of 21X21X is a Frankfurt-headquartered token issuance, trading and settlement platform built on blockchain technology, and underpinned by a group of long-term investors, that expects to be the first to receive a licence to operate under the EU DLT Pilot Regime that allows operators of market infrastructures to test blockchain technology in the issuance, trading and settlement of tokenised financial instruments. The boldness of the company strategy is evident in its preference for a public, non-permissioned blockchain network, and the fullness of its commitment to automating as many functions as possible by the use of smart contracts. That said, the founders of 21X are astute enough to recognise that it will be easier to attract issuers and investors by working with rather than against the incumbent institutions that currently own those relationships, and within the regulatory frameworks that institutions prefer. They are confident that the shareholders of 21X support their long-term strategy and that the regulators would like to see the business succeed and thrive within the parameters set by investor protection and financial stability. Interestingly, 21X has also chosen Germany, the surprising market leader in digital asset market innovation in Europe, as its initial base of operations. Dominic Hobson, co-founder of Future of Finance, spoke to Max Heinzle, CEO of 21x, about where the company came from, where its I now, and where it intends to be in five years' time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Naked Scientists, A future proof covid jab that combats variants that don't even exist yet. Reassuringly for theoretical physics, signs that antimatter does obey the rules of gravity, and why one doomsday scenario is predicting we'll all be wiped out in 250 million years time, when plate tectonics give us a new supercontinent. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade.TV's inflection point is coming. Any time now (or maybe it happened in the last few weeks), the proportion of the Australian population who watch television the traditional way will fall below half for the first time.But as fast as traditional ways of watching are falling, new viewing habits are forming - or that's what the data in Think TV's regularly produced Fact Pack suggests.Analysis of OzTam data for the second half of last year by Think TV suggests that commercial audiences are on the move - from television consumed via their aerials, to video streams.In today's Unmade podcast, Tim Burrowes talks to Think TV's director of research, insights & education Steve Weaver and to the organisation's CEO Kim Portrate about the meaning behind the numbers.In the first half of 2022, just over 14.1m Australians - or 54.3% of the potential viewing population - were watching TV and only doing it the linear way, via their aerials or Foxtel dish.By the second half of 2022, that number had fallen to 13.3m, or 51%.A question Portrate and Waver address during the conversation is whether in the early months of 2023, we have since passed the inflection point, and less than 50% of Australians are now watching TV the old-fangled way.Also revealed in the data is that in the first half of last year, 3.6m (or 13.7% of the population) were watching commercial TV on a combination of linear TV or via streaming. That rose to 4.1m, or 15.6% of the population, by the second half.The number of people giving up on their aerial or dish to watch broadcast TV only via streaming also rose sharply - from 1.5m to 1.8m. With some smart TVs, the viewers may not even have realised that's what they were doing.Reassuringly for the TV industry, the jump in streaming viewing seems to be going up almost as fast as the linear switchoff is occurring. Total reach across linear and BVOD (broadcast video on demand) only dipped from 19.23m to 19.17m, a fall of just 0.3%.It's worth noting that all of the analysis is based on OzTam data which only covers Australia's broadcasters, not streaming-only platforms like Netflix or Stan.During the wide ranging conversation, we raise the issue of the TV industry's slow implementation of a daily total viewing number to move away from the fast-fading overnight metro metric.Portrate says that will happen this year. In the conversation she was also challenged to predict how long until the TV transmitters can be turned off altogether as streamign becomes the only means of viewing. It might be sooner than you think. And we canvassed both Weaver and Portrate on whether the likes of Netflix would be welcomed onto OzTam in the same way the streamer has been allowed onto the UK's audience measurement service.The full Fact Pack is available on the Think TV websiteTim BurrowesPublisher - Unmadetim@unmade.media This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, MD of Rubber Cheese.Download our free ebook The Ultimate Guide to Doubling Your Visitor NumbersIf you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcastCompetition ends January 31st 2023. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references: https://www.romanbaths.co.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonaddison/ Simon is the Business Manager, Roman Baths and Pump Room, Bath, and heads the finance and business planning functions at the Roman Baths. He is responsible for business analysis, pricing strategy and leads the benchmarking work. Simon started his career in the financial services industry, where he qualified as a chartered management accountant with the Bank of New York. He moved to the National Trust in 2012, where he held roles in the finance team. Latterly he was responsible for the Trust's finances in Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire. Simon joined the senior leadership team at the Roman Baths in 2017. Simon joined the Board of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions in May 2022. Transcriptions: Kelly Molson:  Welcome to Skip The Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host Kelly Molson. Each episode, I speak with industry experts from the attractions world. In today's episode, I speak with Simon Addison, Heritage Business Manager at the Roman Baths.We talk all things pricing, and the phenomenal impact that introducing variable pricing has had at the Baths. If you like what you hear, subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip The Queue. Kelly Molson: Simon, welcome to the podcast. It's lovely to see you today.Simon Addison:  Thanks for having me. I'm excited. I'm nervous about the icebreakers though.Kelly Molson:  Everyone always is. You shouldn't be. What is your favourite season? And why?Simon Addison:  I think autumn. Yeah, the colours on the trees, kick through the leaves with the kids. You can go on those walks, you get the crisp mornings. We're starting to get them at the moment. But you still get sort of a bit of warmth at the end of the day in the afternoon. You can still sit outside on a good day. Yep, definitely autumn.Kelly Molson:  Totally agree. You are my people. Simon. Autumn woolly hats. Simon Addison:  Yeah.Kelly Molson:  Cold but bright. Simon Addison:  Yes. Kelly Molson:  Frisbee, dog walks and Halloween. Simon Addison:  Not so much of a Halloween person but it could be an unpopular opinion territory here. But yeah.Kelly Molson:  All right. Well, save that. Okay. Have you ever been told off for touching something in a museum?Simon Addison:  Yeah, I have. I think the last time was at Lanhydrock. Which is a National Trust place down in Cornwall. We were in the kitchen. They had some plastic fake food on the table and I got told off for touching the plastic fake food.Kelly Molson:  Did you just touch it? Oh, you're trying to juggle with it.Simon Addison:  I was just touching it, Kelly.Kelly Molson:  Okay, don't touch plastic fruit kids. Right. What is something you're really good at? And is a little bit obscure. I'll give you an example of one of mine. I'm really good at; if I hear a song. Or like songs. I can tell you what film they've been in.Simon Addison:  That is a good question. I'm pretty good at motorways around the UK. Where you want to go. I could probably tell you roughly what motorways would be involved in that journey. Don't ask me now though.Kelly Molson:  And I'm really dreadful as well. That's exactly why that really made me laugh. It made you sound like an absolute nerd. Sorry, Simon.Simon Addison:  You asked an accountant on your podcast, Kelly.Kelly Molson:  That's very true. It's very true. I should have been more prepared for the nerd answers. Sorry. All right. So good at motorway so you could have been like London cabbie. You'd have been good at the knowledge.Simon Addison:  Yeah, I reckon that's a different level of knowledge, though. Isn't it? Just those trunk roads around the UK? It's quite a niche building is that detailed. I think we're just talking about my major routes.Kelly Molson:  We would need to find like a really niched pub quiz for our talents wouldn't we? One that covers music from films and routes around the UK using motorways only.Simon Addison:  Yeah, pretty tough.Kelly Molson:  Anyone knows a pub quiz team that needs those skills on them? Hit us up. Right. What is your unpopular opinion?Simon Addison:  Well, I was gonna go with something about Crocs as being an abomination of a choice of footwear. But I feel like that might have come up before. So my unpopular opinion is that golf is the greatest amateur sport to play.Kelly Molson:  Okay, you are a clean golfer, I take it. Simon Addison:  I am a keen golfer. But I think more than that, like the handicap system, so you get a handicap if you're a golfer tells you how good you are. And that means that golfers of different abilities can play competitively against each other on a level playing field, I could go out and play against a professional and have a competitive match. I don't think there are many other sports that you could do that in. And I think for me, that meant that, you know, when I started playing golf in my early 20s, I used to play quite a bit with my granddad, who was quite a lot older than me. And once I was working, I still used to play with him a few times a year. Although I was a better golfer than him on paper, I reckon I only beat him once. Every time I turned up to play with him. I wanted to show how good I was and played like a muppet. But I don't think there are many sports that an eight year old could be a 25 year old app. And if you want to spend silly amounts of money, you can go and play courses where professionals play and you can see how much better they are than you and you can really measure your ability against what a professional sort of standard is. My seven year old son's just getting into golf at the moment. And so this summer, walking around the golf course with him has been sort of the highlight of my summer. And now he's got his handicap. He's seven and he'll probably beat me in a couple of years. And again, I don't think you know, I don't think there are many sports where seven or eight year old could turn up and be a fully grown adult. So for me, that's why golf is the best amateur sport. Kelly Molson:  Yeah, I'd never thought about it like that at all. I think that's brilliant. My husband is a keen golfer and I am a golf widow, although not on the weekends, because he's a wedding photographer anyway, so the weekend so he does fit it. He is quite kind and fits it around times when he should be working when he's not working. But yeah, I hadn't ever thought about that. So it kind of puts you on a really good, I guess you get to learn from people that are really experienced as well because you can actually play against them. Whereas you would never get that opportunity at all, do you?Simon Addison:  Exactly. And you can go out and play with someone who's way better than you and see how they play and it can improve your game. Yeah. And my wife is also a golf widow. I reckon she's playing the long game. I think she's seeing everything. If my son plays as well, then, in years to come, she'll get those Saturdays back. You know, maybe if the other son also takes up golf. Maybe it's just a long game. But right now she's definitely a golf widow.Kelly Molson:  She knows she's plotting because I'm doing exactly the same. I pluck up the hours that he plays golf, and I work out how many hours I can spend doing things that I really want to it's just I haven't found a hobby. That takes me four hours. Yeah, that's what I need.Simon Addison:  Yeah, there is that? Yeah, it's yeah, it was the might be, in my opinion, the greatest sport for an amateur to play. It isn't a short sport, and it isn't a cheap sport.Kelly Molson:  It is not. That's a great opinion, though. Let's see what our listeners think. Thank you. Okay, Simon, as you mentioned earlier, you are an accountant. I don't think we've had an accountant on the podcast before but you're not really a traditional accountant, are you? So tell us a little bit about your role.Simon Addison:  So at the moment, I work at the Roman Baths in Bath, for Bath and North East Somerset Council. So we're a council owned and run visitor attraction. As well as the ruin bars, we operate the Fashion Museum and the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath, and also the record office in the city. My role is Business Manager, I'm responsible for all aspects of sort of finance and business planning, benchmarking and trend analysis, I sort of try not to take offense at my profession, when people say you're not a traditional accounting, but I think it means that I try and look a little bit further than just what the numbers are telling you. I think the accounts are only ever a symptom of what else is going on in the operation. So if all you do is look at the accounts each month, you're probably not going to understand what's driving those numbers. So I think, you know, maybe it's about trying to sort of relate all of that performance data to operational outcomes and objectives.Kelly Molson:  Yeah, I think because we've spoken in the past, I always very much saw your role. Well, the conversations that we've had about your role, and will have always been that you've been on the side of the operations as well. So you, you know, you do have that kind of contact with the visitors. And you have that you kind of broach that in between bit between the accountant and the ops department. If that makes sense. That's how it came across to me anyway.Simon Addison:  Yeah, I think that's fair. I think before I came to the Baths, I was at the National Trust my job title there was Finance Business Partner. And I think that really was, that was much more. Well, my role now is similar, but it's about working with operational staff and helping them to achieve their objectives. And I think people can see finance can see budgets, as, you know, an intimidating subject. And actually, really, their tool to achieve your objectives. And I think, you know, particularly in an organisation like the National Trust, you join the National Trust as a gardener or arranger or conservator, because you're passionate about those things, if you're good at them, you get given a budget. And I think, then all of a sudden, you're responsible for not just, your garden, but also how much you spend looking after it. And I think sitting down with those people who may be wanting to spend more money or needed new equipment, and sort of demystifying the accounts, how they worked. That's what I find really rewarding, churning out a set of accounts or a budget in and of itself, isn't a particularly rewarding process. It's about, sitting down with someone who didn't think they could achieve X or Y that year and making them realise that actually, it's it is achievable if they manage their money slightly differently. I think that's a really rewarding place to be.Kelly Molson:  Yeah, absolutely. And that's that kind of alludes to some of the stuff that we can talk about today, because you've been through a really interesting pricing journey at the Baths. And I want you to talk us through what you've done. And then we can talk about some of the impacts that's actually had because it's incredibly impressive. And I think people listening will be really, really intrigued by this. So variable pricing. Tell us why you took that direction in the first place. How did this come to happen?Simon Addison:  Sure. I joined the Baths in autumn 2017. So we've just come out of the summer over the summer at the Baths we open 13 hours a day. So open the doors at nine o'clock in the morning through to 10 o'clock at night. We've got the gas flares going Torchlight experience. It's a fantastic time, but it takes its toll on staff opening for that length of time, and we just had our busiest ever summer. So in the Spring, in early summer of 2017, there were some terror attacks in London and in Manchester. And one of the consequences of that is that we saw an almost immediate spike in visitors to Bath I think people perceive Bath as being a relatively safe city, you can drive pretty much into the centre of it. And people who get to their own bus without needing to engage in public transport and, and so almost overnight, you could see that sort of spike in visitors. And frankly, we weren't prepared for it. So the staff had come out of a summer where we'd seen huge numbers of visitors that we perhaps weren't ready for. But actually, over the course of the previous three or four years, visitor numbers have been growing steadily. And we were doing nothing to really manage those numbers or influence when people came. So we could start the year telling you what our busiest day of the year was going to be. And all we did was brace ourselves.So coming out of that sort of 2017 year, I was new in post, we also had a new commercial manager, new in post, we started to think about what we could do differently. And I went to an Alpha Finance Directors meeting, where Baker Richards, the consultants did a presentation on pricing strategy. And Debbie Rich's talked about the fact that if all you do is increase your price by inflation every year, you haven't got a pricing strategy. And we weren't even doing that we were just putting 50 P on it, not linking it to inflation. And all we were doing was making a bit more money each year. But we weren't really shaping anything to do with our visitor behaviour. All of the visitors arrived in concentration in the summer, as you would expect. But also within an individual day, we would have peaks at 11 o'clock and two o'clock, which will be familiar to lots of people who work in attractions. And again, we didn't try and do anything to smooth those visitors through the day, obviously, the experience suffered at our busiest times. And also, because we're not a particularly big site, anyone that's been will know that, you know, there are quite a lot of enclosed spaces, and visitors get very close to the Roman monument. And if you've packing in six or seven thousand people in a day, or with rucksacks on or turning round all the time, there's a sort of a conservation impact of those, that number of people coming through the monument. And if they're knocking off bits of Roman stone, you can't really just stick it back on.Kelly Molson:  Not plastic fruit, is it, Simon?Simon Addison:  It's not plastic fruit. No, it's not. And so we were, yes, we were making money, but our visitor experience scores were suffering. And also our conservation objectives were not being delivered by having that concentration of people through the year. So after that, we sort of engaged Baker Richards or we went through a tender process, and ended up appointing Baker Richards to help us with a pricing strategy.Kelly Molson:  So what did that look like in terms of your team? Because I'd love to know who you got involved in that process. Because I think sometimes things can happen back office, that there's an agreement that this is what we're going to do, but we don't necessarily get all of the right members of the team involved from the start. So what did that look like for you?Simon Addison:  For us, it looked like a multidisciplinary team. So we have people from across the business involved in that we set up a Project Steering Group, and we had members of staff from the on that group, I thought was particularly important to get the staff involved early, because ultimately, they're the people that are going to sell the ticket to the customer. So if a customer walks up and the member of staff, the visitor experience host that greets them doesn't feel the tickets worth the selling price, then that will come across in the welcome. And equally, if they do you feel it's worth the price, they understand the reason that we've implemented this strategy and the journey that we're going on, then they can sell it with confidence, and they can articulate it. And if someone turns around and says is expensive, they're ready to defend that price.So we had V involved from the start, it was also really important to get senior leadership buy in from across the business. So making sure that the curatorial staff understood that we were trying to manage down the numbers, or not done the numbers overall, but manage the numbers of peak times and smooth the visitors throughout the year for a specific conservation objective was really important, because I think, you know, in visitor attractions, usually, there's a tension between the conservation objectives and the provision of access to that, whether it's a museum, whether it's a historic garden or house. The more people you let through a space, the more impact it has from a conservation objective. So holding those two things, intention, conservation and access are usually when, in my experience, we deliver best as a business, meeting the needs both of our visitors, but also the collections and buildings that we're caring for. So making sure that everyone was signed up for the objectives at the start was really important. And then obviously, we had marketing involved, because again, they need to be able to be confident that we can sell these prices that we're not gonna get a load of feedback that was too expensive. And sort of the commercial professionals that you'd expect as well.Kelly Molson:  So what did it look like? When you started to go through this process? How did you work out what that pricing was going to be?Simon Addison:  When we engaged Baker Richards, the first sort of phase of the project was a discovery phase. So we gave them access to lots of historic data. So they took our ticketing data, they could look at how many people we had day by day, week by week, and they went back over five years, they also took the retail sales data so that, you know, because one of the things we didn't want to do was to make more money Front of House as people walked in, and then compromise our retail spend. So they looked at the range of data that we had available. And one of the features of the bars that they were able to identify is that we were quite predictable. As a site, our visitor numbers were fairly predictable; month by month and week by week. And what that meant is they could be quite confident about the level of demand, we were seeing whether that was from domestic or international visitors, and that gave them more confidence in the recommendations they were making. Because we had a regular repeatable pattern of visitation, they were then able to stay with confidence, this model shouldn't impact on that, if we were a less regular site was prone to more I don't know whether or seasonal fluctuations, then it might have been more difficult to have those that level of confidence. So we sort of the initial phase we went through was that discovery phase, they took the data, they analysed it. And we also gave them a really clear brief, we didn't just want to make more money. We felt really strongly that actually as a heritage site, we didn't want to just become a luxury product that was only available to middle classes. So we gave them a brief that we wanted some of our prices to reduce. And we wanted to not price up every school holiday, you know, what you might call the Centre Park pricing model where you can, you can sort of identify when the school holidays are by the fact that price triples. So we gave them a really clear brief. And they went through that data discovery phase initially, and came back to us halfway through the project and sort of presented back the data analysis that they'd done and said, "This is our picture of your business, does it chime with your own understanding?" And for me, that was one of the biggest, you know, as well as getting a pricing strategy out of it, having some consultants look at your business, and effectively validate all the analysis that you do yourself was really helpful. Reassuringly, for us, they didn't tell us anything we didn't know. But it is a validation of the quality of the performance, management and the business analysts that I have working in my team that, you know, they're producing EMI, that that was consistent and telling a consistent story with what Baker Richards did.Kelly Molson:  And so what decisions did you come to about the pricing? And how does it work now, and because I want to talk about how it works then but also, this was pre pandemic, right? So then you had the pandemic to deal with as well. So what did you put in place?Simon Addison:  So to start with, we ended up with a relatively simple pricing structure. We had three price points during the year, we had that sort of summer, peak price period, if you like, we had the shoulder months, so spring and autumn, and then we had the off peak period through the winter. And within that, weekdays were always cheaper than weekends. Every time a visitor looked at our website, there was always a choice to be made about what price they wanted to pay. And when we were first speaking to Baker Richards, they gave this great example; it was one of the kids theatre shows it may have been Peppa Pig World or something. And parents were taking their kids to see Peppa Pig at the theatre. And there was a balloon on sale and was four pounds for this balloon. And they were getting loads of complaints about people not wanting to spend four pounds on a balloon. Next year, they sold two balloons, they sold one balloon for four pounds, they sold one balloon for eight pounds. Not only did they get no complaints about the balloon, for four pounds, they sold a load of eight pound balloons, because all of a sudden, people go into the theatre, we're presented with a choice. They could either buy no balloon, but if they did want to buy a balloon, they could choose to buy a four pound balloon or they could choose to buy an eight pound balloon. And so it's then been their choice as to the price they've paid. And so for us with visitors, they're looking at the website, there's always a choice that they can make. So when they choose to come on a Saturday, they know that they could have chosen to come on a Friday and it would have been cheaper, but the Saturday met their needs. So the price they've paid is a choice they've made based on the needs they've got. And so that was introducing that element of choice was a really important feature of the pricing structure.Kelly Molson:  Yes, you're empowering them to make the decision about it, not forcing them into a decision.Simon Addison:  Absolutely. And I think the other thing we did in that first iteration of the pricing strategy was introduced an online discount because we knew lots of people looked at our website before they came, but very few people committed to purchase on the website. Most people came in and joined the queue. And that meant that we couldn't manage their arrival time because they just joined the queue and they'd get in when they got in. So we were seeing sort of five or 7% pre booking before the pandemic, and before we introduced this strategy, we introduced the strategy we put in a 10% online discount. And overnight, we saw a doubling in the number of people that were pre booking. So for us, that was really helpful in terms of predicting their arrival time, but for our marketing team as well, all of a sudden, we had the postcode of where these people were coming from is valuable data that we weren't getting beforehand. Pre booking has become slightly more important over the last couple of years. And we no longer have that discount for online because it's been a necessity. So but that was one of the features of that first iteration of the strategy.Kelly Molson:  Amazing. And how did your visitors engage with it? What was the feedback when you launched it?Simon Addison:  We didn't get a lot of direct feedback about the fact that we had a new pricing strategy, because the Baths is, you know, one of our features is that we're a tickbox destination. So we're 80% first time visitors. So in implementing a new strategy, we didn't have to concern ourselves too much with the person that said, "Oh, you were cheaper last year, or you've done something different to last year", because those people by and large, don't come year after year. Most people who've been before came on a school trip as I came 20 years ago, it's changed a bit. And so it's definitely a different model, we operate to some other attractions. But what we did see, we saw some complaints, but we saw complaints before the strategy came in. So we saw no more complaints on price than we did beforehand. And we saw many fewer complaints about crowding. And our value for money score increased, and has continued to increase each year with since we increased our prices. Kelly Molson:  That's brilliant.Simon Addison:  And I think it comes back to that choice element. So your visitors are standing there, and they've made a choice to pay that money. And so they didn't feel like they wanted to come to the Baths, and they had to pay the price. They wanted to come to the Baths, and they were able to choose which price met their needs and the day that they wanted to come and I think that's translated through to those scores.Kelly Molson:  Absolutely. I'm definitely never gonna pay a pound for a balloon. No, I'm just putting that out there. It's not happening.Simon Addison:  Me, I wouldn't pay four pounds either. Kelly Molson:  Who needs a balloon? You're just gonna let it go.Simon Addison:  And then you gotta pop it. And it's gonna be a source of disappointment. Kelly Molson:  Wow, in the wrong business. Right. This was pre pandemic. So this was 2017, you started this process 2017? Simon Addison:  Yeah, yeah. 2017, I joined, we did the sort of discovery and design the strategy 2018, implemented in 2019. And we had our best ever year in terms of visitor numbers in 2019. But all of the growth came outside of the June, July and August period. So our growth came in April and May and September and October. So from that sort of objective of smoothing out the visitors through the year, we achieved that by pushing people out into the shoulder months. And also, we didn't have one day over 7000 visitors. In fact, we didn't have one day over six and a half 1000 visitors. Now, that's still a lot of people through quite a small space. But we certainly drove out those peaks that we were seeing before we implemented the strategy. And as importantly, we made 2.3 million pounds extra revenue in the first year of the strategy. And Baker Rich's modelling suggested that we'd make 2.4 million. So they were really incredibly accurate terms of the modelling that they'd done. And the returns that were possible through this strategy. And it delivered so accurately to that really impressive bit of work.Kelly Molson:  I mean, that is a phenomenal impact, isn't it? The difference that has made is just so impressive. But that was 2019. What has happened since COVID?Simon Addison:  So I think, because we had multiple price points through the year before COVID, it was much easier for us to reopen with a model that was reactive. I think if we'd only ever had a fixed price point, changing the price would have been a really big thing for us. Whereas we changed our price twice a week. And so being able to sort of reopen in the summer of 2020. With our plan summer pricing, we came to the end of August. And we were still seeing really strong demand against a much reduced capacity. And so we kept the prices at our peak price through September and October. And because we already had those price points built into our pricing structure, it was really easy for us to just take that decision to continue with the higher prices and maximise the revenue from the visitors that were coming through. And I'd say that arguably the 300,000 pounds of additional revenue we made from the pricing structure in 2020 was more useful than the 2.3 million that we made the year before because you know there was revenue was so scarce at that point. And so, being more reactive was really important. Obviously, we ditched the online discount because online booking became a mandatory feature of going anywhere. So you don't need to discount something that visitors had to do. And I think also it just having gone through a year where we charged more, we had the confidence that visitors were prepared to pay for that. And so coming out of COVID, in late 2020, we did a phase two piece of work with Baker Richards, looking at what happened in 2019. But also what was happening in our sort of COVID reopening. And what that showed is that even though we'd increase the prices quite significantly through the summer, in 2019, it had a negligible impact on the demand. So that gave us the confidence to be even punchier in that sort of that June, July and August period, with our peak pricing, and we don't articulate it this way on our website. But effectively, we introduced a super peak price going into 2021. So having never charged more than 17 pounds in 2018, this summer, we've charged 27.50. Not for a long period of the year, it's only at the weekends. And it's only during June, July and August. So it's only 15 days a year or something. But having that headline price, I think Dom from Mary Rose talked about decoy pricing when he was on, it's almost that sort of if you've got that high headline price, then everything else feels comparatively good value, as you as you trade down from that. So people are saying, "Well, you know, let's not go on Saturday, we'll go on Wednesday, because it's three pounds cheaper or whatever", or if you're buying a family ticket even more. So I think using that sort of that headline price as a decoy having real confidence about the quality of your product. So yes, it's worth it, because people are prepared to pay for it. But also, if you look at what else people are prepared to spend 27 pounds on, people have spent 27 pounds on lots of different things. So why is the Roman Baths or why is the Tower of London or Stonehenge? Yeah, they're all equally valid cause on people's leisure spend. And we should be confident about the quality of product that we we give to people.Kelly Molson:  You mentioned earlier about retail spent, and this not having an effect on it. What was the effect on retail spend, once you transition to the variable pricing?Simon Addison:  There was no impact at all. So we didn't see an increase in retail spend pre pandemic, we just saw no impact at all. For anyone who's been to the Baths, we've got a really small shop, we're confined by being in the centre of Bath, we'd love to be able to expand our shop. But when we do, our benchmarking, we're consistently performing in the top two or three sites for sales per square metre. So we just know that we can't fit enough people in that shop for the number of people that come through the site. And the work that Baker Richards did showed the display visitor numbers increasing year on year, the number of transactions that were taking place to the shop hadn't been keeping pace, basically our busiest times the shop had reached saturation point. So it may be that some people decided not to go into the shop because they'd paid more to come in. But for anyone that decided that there was someone who has bypassed the shop before, because, you know, they just looked in when Bath was too busy. So for anyone who was not going into the shop, there were other customers who were prepared to go in. And since COVID, our retail spend has been through the roof. And you our spend per visitor this year is 50 pence a visitor higher than it was pre COVID. And I can't tell you why, Kelly. Kelly Molson:  I was gonna ask, why?Simon Addison:  Obviously, high quality ranges and my retail colleagues would not forgive me if I said it was anything other than the quality of product in there. But I think certainly when we first reopened from COVID people were just glad to be out. There was a sense, particularly if you've had a lot done experience like mine with small children, you were just glad to be anywhere other than your own house. And our top selling lines before COVID were toiletries because we bought the bars, spa and well being but people didn't want to buy toiletries, because you know, in 2020, no one's picking up anything and sniffing it. That felt like quite a risky thing to do. But we saw gin and that was a genius move. So we sold gin and children's books. And I think, you know, most people's lockdown experiences was similar to mine, not enough gin and not enough children's books. So they came to the Roman Baths and they bought both of those things in spades. But you know, as toiletries have come back through that they're picking up in terms of sales, but people spending a lot of money, buying high priced jewellery product. I wish I could tell you why. You should have asked Callum when he was on.Kelly Molson:  Yeah, yeah, I should. Well, I'll post the question to him and see if he knows. Yeah, it's interesting. I wonder if it's that. I mean, I was very conscious of visiting attractions and spending money in the retail stores because of the fact that they'd been shut. I wanted to spend more money. I wanted to do my bit because I wanted those places to stay open. So I wonder if there's still a residue of that happening when people are visiting?Simon Addison:  I think in 2020, we would definitely put it down to that and you could almost see it as well. And there was a sense that people had saved money. Whether that was on commuting costs or childcare bills or whatever, there was a sense that people would save money during the lockdowns and therefore they had more disposable income. But we're coming up with the cost of living pressures. We're coming into winter with massive uncertainty. And every month, I look at those returning members, and I'm waiting for that spend per visitor to drop, and it hasn't done yet. So I think it's more than just a sort of an altruistic desire to support the attractions. Or maybe it's about people choosing to prioritise this activity of their spend over, I don't know Netflix subscriptions or something. So, yeah, I can't answer that question. But we're glad to see it.Kelly Molson:  I'll ask Callum. I'll ask Callum Lumsden of Lumsden Design and see if he can tell us and shed some light on it. All right. So what I'd really like to know, if you could give me your top tips for people that are thinking about going through this process, what would they be if anyone that's listening? Now that's thinking this is a genius thing to do, I would like to add 2.3 million to my revenue, please.Simon Addison:  I think the first thing is being really clear on your objectives. So for us, it wasn't just about making more money, we'd have ended up with a pricing strategy that looked different if we wanted to just make more money. So the ability to deliver something for visitor experience objectives and conservation objectives was really important, and really featured heavily in the brief that we gave to Baker Richards. So starting out with that clarity of purpose, I think would be my first tip. I'd also say if I know budgets are tight at the moment, but if you can pay for the analysis, then firstly, it's such a helpful validation of your own business analysis that you're doing yourselves. But when you need to sell this inwardly, so we're part of the council, we needed to sell this strategy and inwardly to local politicians and the council leadership. But if you're in a more sort of typical attraction, you're going to need to sell this to your trustees. And having that sort of analysis as a validation of your strategy. And your approach will hopefully give them the confidence that increasing prices by a significant percentage is not a ridiculous thing to do, certainly involving your front of house teams. And that's not linked to pricing strategy that's just linked to anything you do in your attraction, your Front of House Team are the people that are going to hear from the visitors what they think about it, they're the person who has got to explain your own strategic direction to the visitors when they're in front of them. But particularly when it comes to pricing, I think making sure that they're involved, they've got a chance to ask questions. And also that you're giving them that feedback as well. So that sort of regular communication, once you've implemented it, tell them whether what you're seeing is what you expected to see. Because otherwise, if there's a void in that communication, they'll fill it with their own analysis, or we didn't seem very busy last Saturday, and it might not have been busy last Saturday, because it was pouring with rain, as opposed to your pricing strategy is not working. So making sure that you're having that regular dialogue with those teams on an ongoing basis. And I think the final thing is holding your nerve. And that, you know, when we'd never charged more than 17 pounds before that first Saturday, when our prices were 22 pounds, there's a level of nervousness that is associated with that. And so holding the nerve when price setting, we could do a whole separate podcast on communicating with the travel trade. But it's safe to say, that was probably the most challenging aspect of the project in terms of moving the travel trade on to a variable pricing model when they have a, you know, they sell in advance, they sell through third parties. And that was a really difficult set of conversations. But we held our nerve. And despite being told that they wouldn't be able to work with us, they wouldn't be able to bring us the volume. 2019, they bought us more people and they never bought us before. So so there is a bit about holding nerve. And I think post implementation, don't be tempted to tinker too much. Because otherwise you won't know if the strategy didn't work or whether you fiddled with it, and then it didn't work. So I think if you change too many things at once this is the nerd in me, you change too many things at once, you can't tell what's made the difference. So trying to only change one thing, will tell you whether that one thing works or not. Obviously, go through a pandemic, you change everything all at once. And it's very difficult. But generally speaking, if you can sort of make change in a stage where you can measure the impact of an intervention, whereas if you change four or five things at once, you don't know what's caused it, cause the effect that you're seeing. So those would be my top tips. I think Kelly.Kelly Molson:  Absolutely excellent advice. Simon, I know that you are an ALVA member, I know that you're really keen to speak with other attractions. I know that you're very well obviously you've come on the podcast to share your insight and I know you're very keen to do that. So I'm sure if anyone does have questions around the OTA challenge or variable pricing, I'm sure that you'd be super happy to talk to people.Simon Addison:  Yeah, always happy to.Kelly Molson:  We will pop all of Simon's details in terms of, we will put his LinkedIn profile and a link to the Roman Baths in the show notes. So if you do want to reach out to him and ask him any questions, please feel free. Simon, a book that you would recommend to our listeners something that you love or something that shaped your career. What do you have for us today?Simon Addison:  This was a difficult question. I tried really hard to think of a workbook that had changed my career. And I really could I've read workbooks, but there's not one that I go back to time and time again. So, so I've picked fiction books, I've picked 1000 Splendid Suns, which is a novel by Khaled Hosseini, which is set in Afghanistan. And I don't think many people are going to choose this book after I describe it. It's not an uplifting read, it's a really challenging read. The central characters are women living in Afghanistan, forced into marriage during a time when the Taliban influence was growing. But I think I read at a time when Afghanistan was in the news a lot. And we were probably presented with a relatively one dimensional interpretation of Afghanistan, in the way that the news coverage came through. And so it offered me an insight into sort of, I guess, Life beyond the headlines. And despite the fact that it was a really harrowing read at times, there was a sense of hope that came through even the most difficult situations. And I think that really stayed with me. And as somebody who's probably we're very interested in sort of world affairs and politics, I think, it really challenged me to make sure that you sort of read around the topic. If you before coming up with a really definite position or opinion on a world situation, the need to sort of read around something. And I know, this wasn't a it wasn't a fact book. It was a fiction book. But I think it really changed my perspective on Afghanistan. So I don't think many people want to read it. But if you want a really harrowing read, but you know, that sense of hope and really difficult times, it is a great book.Kelly Molson:  Thank you. Well, thank you for sharing. I'm sure people will want that. And if you do, if you go over to our Twitter account, @skip_the_queue, and you retweet this podcast announcement with the words "I want Simon's book", you could be in with a chance of winning it. Simon, thank you. It's been lovely to chat to you. I always enjoy chatting to you. Even though I called you a nerd earlier. I apologise about that. Simon Addison:  I forgive you, Kelly.Kelly Molson:  If you do have a little pop quiz that you'd like me and Simon to join that you think would be useful for, please do let us know. On that note, I think we'll end the podcast there. Thanks, Simon. It's been fun.Simon Addison: Thanks, Kelly.Kelly Molson:  Thanks for listening to Skip The Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip the queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast.

This is the third in a series of re-released episodes from the Feel Better Live More archives. In this conversation, I speak to arguably one of the world's leading and most original thinkers on modern relationships, the wonderful, Esther Perel, who has long been on my dream guest list. We talk about the many differences between relationships of the past and the relationships of now. How we are now all under pressure not only to have the perfect relationship, but also to portray this illusion to others as well. Esther believes that it's the quality of our relationships that determines the quality of our lives. And who we are is actually a combination of how we see ourselves and how others see us. We only really get to know ourselves through our interactions with others. We talk about the idea that we are not one person but different with each person – and rather than being one-way, all interactions are reciprocal. We discuss the value of couples' counselling and whether it's something all relationships, healthy or otherwise, need. Reassuringly, we learn that there's no such thing as a perfect relationship, they all follow a rhythm of harmony, disharmony and repair. Esther and I touch and expand on our own situations and how the family history and values you bring to a relationship or marriage impacts the dynamic between you. She talks us through how much the concept of marriage has changed over the past century, and how it's a tall order to ask just one person in our lives to meet all of our needs – needs which once would have been shared across our extended families and communities.This episode is a joyous celebration of all the relationships in our lives. It's challenging, poignant but ultimately hugely practical. Esther offers some wonderful examples of practices we can all start implementing today, from rituals to build strength in our intimate relationships, to advice on reframing criticism or starting difficult conversations at work. The upshot? Rather than hoping others will change, we can be the change ourselves.It was a great pleasure to speak with such an incredible lady and I know that you will get a lot of value from hearing what she has to say.Thanks to our sponsors:https://www.leafyard.com/livemorehttps://www.athleticgreens.com/livemoreOrder Dr Chatterjee's new book Happy Mind, Happy Life:UK version https://amzn.to/304opgJUS & Canada version https://amzn.to/3DRxjgp Show notes available at https://drchatterjee.com/256Support the podcast and enjoy Ad-Free episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/3oAKmxi. For other podcast platforms go to https://fblm.supercast.com.DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or qualified health care provider with any questions you have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's “In the News…” Got a few minutes? Get caught up! Our top stories this week include new information about the temperature at which insulin can be safely stored, a warning about men taking Metformin, news about sexual health and women with diabetes, and a heads up about a virtual mental health conference coming up for people with diabetes. Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Episode Transcription Below (or coming soon!) Please visit our Sponsors & Partners - they help make the show possible! *Click here to learn more about OMNIPOD* *Click here to learn more about DEXCOM* Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I'm Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. we go live on social media first and then All sources linked up at diabetes dash connections dot com when this airs as a podcast. XX The news is brought to you by The World's Worst Diabetes Mom: Real Life Stories of Parenting a Child With Type 1 Diabetes. Winner of best new non-fiction at the American Book Fest and named a Book Authority best parenting book. Available in paperback, eBook or audio book at amazon. XX Our top story.. a look at how insulin holds up under real-world and often hotter conditions than is recommended. Doctors without Borders found that a range of insulins can be stored at warmer temperatures than previously recommended. They showed it's okay above 77-degrees all the way up to 99 degrees for four weeks. This is really important not just for emergency settings like refugee camps but for people who live in areas without refrigeration. They often have to travel to health clinics which may be far away and which can't send them home with the insulin. The group now says pharmaceutical corporations should urgently submit to regulatory authorities for use of insulin under expanded temperature ranges. This came out a few weeks back, but I haven't seen it anywhere. https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/msf-study-shows-some-insulin-can-be-stored-warmer-temperatures XX Big headlines this week about Metformin and the risk of of birth defects in the babies of men who take it. Metformin is a very common diabetes drug, taken by tens of millions of people around the world. Sons born to men taking it were more than three times as likely to have a genital birth defect as unexposed babies. These problems were relatively rare, occurring in fewer than 1-percent of all babies with dads who took Metformin but it's significant because tens of millions of people worldwide take metformin. These researchers say the paper's findings are preliminary and observational only.. and that men with diabetes should NOT abruptly stop metformin before trying to conceive. Reassuringly, the researches saw no effect for men who took the drug earlier in life or even a year before. Expect a lot more research to come on this one. https://www.science.org/content/article/rare-genital-defects-seen-sons-men-taking-major-diabetes-drug XX Grain of salt needed here, but new research may show that people with type 1 are more likely to manage better if they have high levels of psychological resilience. This was a British study that followed 18-hundred people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. They used a questionnaire to determine how they adapted to change and focused under pressure. The researchers found that people with type 1 diabetes who had low psychological resilience also had poorer blood sugar control after two years. The idea is that something like this would offer the opportunity to identify those who might benefit most from additional support when they are first diagnosed. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03-psychological-resilience-future-high-blood.html XX Among patients with diabetes, women are just as likely as men to suffer from sexual dysfunction, but their issues are overlooked. Big session on this at the Diabetes UK Professional Conference this week. Reserachers say women with diabetes can experience reduced sexual desire, painful sex, and other issues which can increase the risk of depression. But these issues are usually untreated despite help being available. They talked about the embarrassment factor and the idea that many women with sexual dysfunction don't realize diabetes could be a factor. They encourage health care professionals to go beyond conversations about contraception, pregnancy and menstruation. A recent study led by Belgian researchers found that among more than 750 adults with diabetes 36% of men and 33% of women reported sexual dysfunction. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/971208 XX Concerning new trend about pre-diabetes.. it's doubled among children over the last 20 years. The increase was seen over almost all subpopulations of young Americans, regardless of income, ethnicity and education. The study in the journal JAMA Pedatirics included kids 12 to 19 years old from 1999 to 2018. The rate of presdiabetes went from 11.6-percent to 28.2-percent. Pre-diabetes means blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet at the diabetes threshold. These researchers are quick to point out, they don't know the reason why this is happening.. while diet and exercise are usually what's pointed to.. it's not entirely clear that's the reason behind this rise. https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/28/health/prediabetes-children-study-wellness/index.html XX Huge new study of more than 3-million people says people with type 2 have a higher risk of 57 other health conditions. Experts described the findings as stark and alarming and said it underlined the urgent need to reduce the risk of more people developing type 2 diabetes. The study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, focused on people over 30. These researchers say the higher risks occurred when people were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes under the age of 50. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/mar/29/type-2-diabetes-results-higher-risk-57-other-conditions-study XX Want to let you know about the Diabetes plus Mental Health virtual conference coming up in May. This two-day event will highlight ways in which living with diabetes affects mental health. There will be 2 tracks - one for patients and one for caregivers and providers. I'm excited to take part – just in a light hearted way. I'll be hosting a game show type session where you can meet some of the presenters and participants. Lots more information lined up.. registration is open now and early bird pricing ends April 3rd. https://dmhconference.vfairs.com/?fbclid=IwAR2BiuxasHL0bBGe_6JpDzMnhY__kr6HptYFGpfdwEO0ftDL7pTbMyFycIY XX On this week's long format episode we're talking to JDRF about the new non-profit insulin they've backed. Why will this effort from Civica RX be different? We'll talk about it. Next week we'll have a conversation with one woman in the Joslin Medalist Study. Diagnosed nearly 70 years ago she shares her story and why she's excited about part of this incredible group. Listen wherever you get your podcasts That's In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.

In part 2 of The Great Rejection, Peter Brindley and Tim Caulfield return to continue their discussion of misinformation in the world of health science. This episode examines how to teach the public to think critically, how to deal with uncertainty as a clinician and how to better understand the pros and cons of transparency. How do we teach science in an ever-expanding world of knowledge and information? Tim suggests going back to first principles and reinforcing to the public that science is a process. Secondly, Tim highlights how basic educational tools can make a big difference when teaching the public to cut through the noise. Moreover, creating engaging content with accurate messaging can help turn the tide on misinformation in the public realm. This brings Tim and Peter to the idea of uncertainty and how it sits with the public. The research suggests that the public wants the scientific community to be honest about uncertainty. Reassuringly, the same research tells us that by being honest, an institution or medical body does not lose any credibility. Tim points out the incredible uptake of mask wearing in some countries. This is despite misinformation being disseminated online, an indication of the willingness to acknowledge uncertainty and still act in accordance with advice. Tim discusses the downsides of population engagement. Whilst transparency is positive on its own, it may not achieve the aims originally intended. Tim highlights public reactions to literature retractions, medical debates, and conflicting results as an example of scientific transparency being counterproductive. However, that is science! And it is messy – as such it does not always lead to good, especially in the short term. However, Tim contends that whilst the ‘backfire effect' (the negative ramifications of debunking scientific claims) exists, the real-world implications are small. Therefore, scientists and medical professionals should not worry too much about retracting or debunking previously established evidence. Finally, for more like this, head to our podcast page #CodaPodcast For more on Tim Caulfield, click here.

The one thing this government needs to start doing real quick is getting honest. Fewer and fewer people are tolerating the smoke and mirrors, the spin, the fudging. The best example of this was Friday's press conference where Ashley Bloomfield admitted he'd advised Cabinet that Auckland should in fact stay in Level 4 until August 31st. The PM equivocating on this only does us, and her, a disservice.It's dishonest because we all know as of today, odds on she'll announce Auckland's indeed staying in level 4 until August 31st.So why did she drag that news out? Why would she not want to give businesses, families, schools, some certainty in extremely uncertain times? Why don't we get all the facts when they have them?Instead of some government controlled timeline? Is this micromanaging of when we get information a control thing? What's the point in being disingenuous with people who are already feeling uncertain? It's treating us with contempt to leave us in an information vacuum, until it suits you politically to do otherwise.Here's the other issue at play – apart from our excruciatingly slow vaccine rollout, we have no plan B. The government, whose had 18 months to prepare for this very eventuality, has not prepared for it. The elimination strategy which they used successfully initially, still appears their only strategy. I don't understand how on the one hand they tell us Delta changes the game, and then on the other hand – we're still employing the same game plan. Everything's changed, so why aren't we changing?I think the PM will rue the day she dug her toes in on elimination, if you just look around internationally, you'll see it's a pipe dream.Reassuringly, Covid Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday alluded to the fact the government may now be waking up to that reality. He admitted that they are now having to look closely and ask “some pretty big questions about what the long term future plans are”. No kidding. Pity they didn't do that sooner.And for those still buying the elimination strategy, which I guarantee we'll eventually abandon because it's ridiculous, think about how many times plunging in and out of lockdowns is acceptable to you. Once the novelty of Netflix marathons and baking binges has worn off and the cold hard reality starts to hit, how appealing is elimination really? Look around at the rest of the world. It's open. To put a closed sign up on New Zealand now, is condemning us to a future as a tiny isolated backwater at the bottom of the world. Admitting you got some stuff wrong, admitting you need to change course, would be the most open honest and transparent thing this government could do for us right now.Let's hope they see the light soon.

While you may feel like selling something is difficult remember that buying is difficult too. Our customers are always conscious about whether they're making the right decisions. When choosing a product or service they're always looking for signals that reassure them that they're making a safe choice. One of those signals is the price. It's an unfortunate rule of thumb but most people think that high price equals high quality and low price equals low quality. That doesn't mean that just by doubling your prices customers will come flocking. What you need to do is understand what is going through your customers mind and which signals they are sensitive to. It could be that one of them is price. We don't advocate over-charging in order to con a customer. We just want you to be aware that the price you set shouldn't be about what you think the value is, but what your customer thinks… and how that price makes them feel. During this episode we talk to this at length and answer some questions from our live viewers. These include: Should I charge wonder 450€, 750€ or 900€ for my course? When selling my course should I set a lower price in order to get more customers? Is pricing a service harder than pricing a product?

Hugh Osmond, the businessman behind the Punch Taverns group lands on Planet Normal with some disquieting words about the failure of business groups to speak out for the one in ten Britons who work in hospitality. Plus, he gives Telegraph columnists Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan the inside track on his legal campaign to accelerate the sector's reopening.Also on the podcast: Allison shares exactly what was on her mind as lockdown marked a grim first anniversary, Liam tells us why he feels let down by some of his media colleagues, and (drumroll please) our co-pilots pick their listener of the week, winning a coveted Planet Normal mug.Allison and Liam will be replying to comments beneath this article on Thursday 25th March from 11am-12pm: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/03/25/business-groups-silence-lockdown-completely-pathetic-says-former/ |Read Allison's column from this time last year: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/lying-said-wasnt-anxious-coronavirus-have-faith-britain/ |Complete our podcast survey here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/planet_normal_survey |Listen to Chopper's Politics: https://www.playpodca.st/chopper |Need help subscribing or reviewing? Read more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ |Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk |For 30 days’ free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal |

This week we talk to Josie Rayner-Wells, National RSHE advisor, about the new Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)  requirements that came into effect in September 2020 but that schools still might be working to respond to. Josie gives very practical advice about how to consult parents, pupils and staff on RSE and move their provision on. Reassuringly she explains how schools that feel stuck in their progress on parental consultation can use remote methods to their advantage and take some more creative and potentially fruitful approaches.   We talk about:  Josie’s hugely varied experience working and training on RSE Why new guidance and legislation is necessary  The important focus on relationships and health in the new guidance Why consultation is a “need-to-do”, not a “nice-to-do”  Practical ways to address concerns staff might have about teaching sensitive material and how to make sure staff understand how the school’s policy supports them  How to do effective remote parental consultation and why it is important to talk to parents early in the process  How to collect meaningful feedback from pupils  The responsibilities of governors and how they can support during this process  Practical strategies to support staff when they teach these topics How RSE fits into your school’s wider values and ethos  

... In our best  installment yet (and our 9th episode) , we meet  Aphrodite. You might think of her as Venus, but the Greeks knew her as Aphrodite, the eternal Goddess of Love.Her origins are amazing, and her decision to devote herself to the arts of love are an amazing decision, as you will see. What happened to this seductress? Reassuringly, nothing. Of all the gods and goddesses, Aphrodite remains the most engaged in the modern world.Narrated by mythologist and best-selling author, Patrick Garner,  Garner's Greek Mythology is unlike any other Greek history series.  Here these divine beings are viewed as if they were anything but mythical...If you love these podcasts, you'll also enjoy new stories about the gods in Garner's novel Homo Divinitas, now available as an audio book on Amazon.com and Audible.com.(Musical score includes selections from Fesliyan Studios and Free Sounds Library. Many thanks to both. In addition, thanks to "klankbeeld" and freesound.org for the choir music at 10:54; thanks also to Capella Ducis, Organ Axel Wenstedt, Cello Angela Heetvelt, and members of Scordatura.)Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/garnersgreekmythology)

Today we're talking about how to increase your profits with every client. How to have a price that fits your value. Today's LIVE Video talks about the best way to close a sale after you've sent the proposal.

Professor John Kay has held a host of the UK’s leading economic advisory and academic positions. In early 2020, he published an incredibly prescient book alongside Lord Mervyn King which lays out the dangers of economic modelling when attempting to deal with crises. Reassuringly, Radical Uncertainty: Decision making for an unknowable future, shows that we can make good decisions, even in a very unreliable world.In this interview, Mary McDougall talks to Professor Kay about how he came to write his book, how its conclusions can be applied to the threats facing the world at the moment and whether or not he did indeed read all the sources in the book’s 39-page bibliography!Professor Kay also divulges his vast knowledge on the UK’s equity markets, building a pension, fighting climate change and what ESG should really be all about. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ulrike Jager, from Petersfield's twin town of Warendorf, in Germany, spoke with PCR's Alan Cosh regarding life in lockdown for the town's residents. Reassuringly, even the much-vaunted German organisational skills couldn't anticipate the early rush on toilet roll ... See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Some of us are already open! And others very close And at the time of writing this, it's looks like some US states may be on the path towards a second lockdown :( I am very much hoping that by the time this goes live it's not the case FYI for those who want to know I try to prerecord the episodes and use a template to fill out and pass on the the rest to my awesome admin guru Jo. So it's actually 26th June as I write hiding in the kitchen from the kids in my dressing gown! So what the heck should we expect our diaries to look like when we reopen? Reassuringly it looks like most therapists who have reopened are having a very good first few weeks. And this is EXACTLY why you should listen to this weeks episode. Because this is likely NOT to continue. But you can very easily know what to do if you know what's coming. Come join us over in the Massage Business Growth Strategies FB group at: www.facebook.com/groups/1806608596288134/ Or Join the Waitlist for Clinic Business Growth: http://www.massagetherapistbusinessschool.com/clinicbusinessgrowth

As human beings, relationships are fundamental to who we are. We know that relationships can be a big source of happiness and fulfillment in our lives but they can also be one of the major sources of stress. So, why is it that we often find relationships so hard?In this conversation, I speak to arguably one of the world’s leading and most original thinkers on modern relationships, the wonderful, Esther Perel, who has long been on my dream guest list.We talk about the many differences between relationships of the past and the relationships of now. How we are now all under pressure not only to have the perfect relationship, but also to portray this illusion to others as well.Esther believes that it’s the quality of our relationships that determines the quality of our lives. And who we are is actually a combination of how we see ourselves and how others see us. We only really get to know ourselves through our interactions with others.We talk about the idea that we are not one person but different with each person – and rather than being one-way, all interactions are reciprocal. We discuss the value of couples’ counselling and whether it’s something all relationships, healthy or otherwise, need. Reassuringly, we learn that there’s no such thing as a perfect relationship, they all follow a rhythm of harmony, disharmony and repair.Esther and I touch and expand on our own situations and how the family history and values you bring to a relationship or marriage impacts the dynamic between you. She talks us through how much the concept of marriage has changed over the past century, and how it’s a tall order to ask just one person in our lives to meet all of our needs – needs which once would have been shared across our extended families and communities.This episode is a joyous celebration of all the relationships in our lives. It’s challenging, poignant but ultimately hugely practical. Esther offers some wonderful examples of practices we can all start implementing today, from rituals to build strength in our intimate relationships, to advice on reframing criticism or starting difficult conversations at work. The upshot? Rather than hoping others will change, we can be the change ourselves.It was a great pleasure to speak with such an incredible lady and I know that you will get a lot of value from hearing what she has to say.Show notes available at: https://drchatterjee.com/119Follow me on instagram.com/drchatterjee/Follow me on facebook.com/DrChatterjee/Follow me on twitter.com/drchatterjeeukDISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alisa talks to all the crazy bitches out there. Reassuringly.

In this episode, Majeed is joined by Brad Hart. With 20 years as an entrepreneur and 16 years managing wealth under his belt, Brad is committed to helping entrepreneurs and investors reach their full potential. From co-leading a mastermind of 52 people in China and Hong Kong, to holding mastermind groups in Bali, Italy, Greece and all over the US, Brad has been a part of 28 masterminds and started 10 himself, including a local weekly mastermind group with 500 members.   Also In this episode: The 8 Minute Mastermind  CROPS - Connecting Resources Opportunities People and Systems Adding 100K to your business with a mastermind Reassuringly expensive - Get good at delivering value first Raising your price, scarcity vs abundance  You control the value you add Travel anywhere for free Paid speaking engagement Booking stages Hosting events - mindset, tactics and implementation   

In this, our 2nd episode, the Assetfirst investment committee consider political and economic influences to their model portfolios. Coming this month:-Nothing can go wrong now! - Did the markets breathe a sigh of relief when Parliament took no-deal off the table?Trade Wars; A New Hope? - Following Trump's decision to delay further tarrifs, is the trade war nearly over?Reassuringly expensive - US p/e ratios are above their long term range. Is this cause for concern?Too good to be true? - Assetfirst models have delivered consistant top quartile performance for over a decade now. Could this success be repeated? If you have any comments or queries, please get in touch at pbailey@assetfirst.co.uk

Dr Carolyn Lam:                Welcome to Circulation on the Run, your weekly podcast summary and backstage pass to the Journal and its editors. We're your cohosts. I'm Dr Carolyn Lam, Associate Editor from the National Heart Center and Duke National University of Singapore. Dr Greg Hundley:             I'm Greg Hundley, Associate Editor of Circulation, Director of the Pauley Heart Center at VCU Health in Richmond, Virginia. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Greg, guess what? We are going to be talking later about non-inferiority trials. Now, you're going to go like, "Huh? What?," but then we see more and more non-inferiority cardiovascular trials. And do we really know the advantages and limitations of this type of trial design? Which is so important to understand, because we need to understand the factors that may impact our confidence and interpretation of these results. So, that's going to be a really important feature discussion, coming up right after our coffee chat. Greg, what are your papers? Dr Greg Hundley:             Thanks Carolyn. Boy, I can't really wait to get to that feature discussion. That's something that we deal with all the time, and I look forward to that explanation and that discussion. I'm going to talk a little bit of basic science, with two papers right in a row.                                                 And the first one involves catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia through inhibition of calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II. The lead author is Dr Vassilios Bezzerides from Boston Children's Hospital.                                                 Carolyn, this paper focuses on treatment of catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, an underlying diagnosis in at least 12% of pediatric patients who present with unheralded cardiac arrest. ICDs, as you know, are frequently implanted, but are problematic because of increased complication rates in pediatric patients, failure to convert ventricular arrhythmias, and the risk of fatal ICD-induced electrical storm. Modulating CaM Kinase II within the heart shows promise to treat this, but CaM Kinase II is essential in other tissues, most notably the brain. Dr Carolyn Lam:                How interesting. So, what did the study show? Dr Greg Hundley:             Well, the investigator used adeno-associated viral gene therapy, which is proven to be a safe and efficient vector for sustained gene transfer into many cell types to selectively inhibit CaM Kinase II in cardiomyocytes. They were able to express the specific CaM kinase II inhibitory peptide AIP in cardiomyocytes without significant extra cardiac expression, and an inhibition of CaM Kinase II effectively suppressed ventricular arrhythmias in a murine model of catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia after a single therapeutic dose. So thus, in animal models, delivery of a CaM Kinase inhibitory peptide by AAV represents a novel single dose gene therapy for catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia. How about that? Dr Carolyn Lam:                Wow. You've got a second paper? Dr Greg Hundley:             I sure do. So now we're going to jump into, again, looking at polymorphic VT from engineered human heart tissue. And this article is from Kevin Parker at Harvard University, "Modeling of Human Arrhythmias Using Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes has Focused on Single-Cell Phenotypes."                                                 With this said, it is important to realize that arrhythmias are emergent properties of cells assembled into tissues and the impact of inherited Arrhythmia mutations on tissue level properties of human heart tissue. And therefore, newer technologies are needed to develop more satisfactory therapeutic interventions. Ones that encompass all of the tissue, not just single cells. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Interesting. So, what did this particular study do? Dr Greg Hundley:             So, Carolyn, in this study, the investigators report on an optogenetically-based human-engineered tissue model of catecholaminergic polymorphic VT, which as we have discussed in the previous article is promoted by mutation of the cardiac ryanodine channel 2, which is promoted by mutation of cardiac ryanodine channel and triggered by exercise. They developed a human IPSC cardiomyocyte-based platform to study the tissue level properties and investigated pathogenic mechanisms in polymorphic VT by combining this novel platform with genome editing. The authors found that engineered heart tissue, fabricated from human pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes, effectively modeled catecholaminergic polymorphic VT caused by dominant mutations in the cardiac ryanodine receptor, including induction of arrhythmias by conditions that stimulate exercise. Using selective pharmacology and genome editing, the authors identified activation of calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II, or CaM Kinase II, and CaM Kinase II mediated phosphorylation of ryanodine at Serine 2814 as critical events that are required to unmask the latent arrhythmic potential of catecholaminergic polymorphic VT, causing ryanodine mutations, highlighting a molecular pathway that links beta adrenergic stimulation to arrhythmogenesis in this disease. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Wow Greg! So, two very interesting and important linked genetic papers. Well, we're going to switch tracks a little bit and talk about, well, my favorite topic: heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and the whole complex issue of the diagnosis of this syndrome. Now we know that the diagnosis is kind of complex and there is currently no consensus but several proposed definitions. So how do the clinical and hemodynamic profile of patients vary across the different definitions of HFpEF?                                                 So, this question was answered by Dr Jennifer Ho from Massachusetts General Hospital and her colleagues, who examined consecutive patients with chronic exertional dyspnea and an ejection fraction above 50% who are referred for comprehensive cardiopulmonary exercise testing with invasive hemodynamic monitoring. They applied societal and clinical trial HFpEF definitions and compared the clinical profiles, exercise responses, and cardiovascular outcomes by these different definitions. So, of 461 patients, 416 met the ACC/AHA definition, 205 met the ESC definition, and 55 met the HFSA criteria for HFpEF.                                                 The clinical profiles and exercise capacity varied vastly across the definitions, with peak oxygen uptake averaging 16.2 for those with the ACC/AHA definition and down to 12.7 in those satisfying the HFSA definition. Dr Greg Hundley:             Wow. What a difference from these societies. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Mm-hmm (affirmative). Dr Greg Hundley:             So Caroline, it sounds like they looked at all comers with exertional dyspnea. Now how about those that had hemodynamic evidence of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction? Dr Carolyn Lam:                Yeah, good question Greg. So, you caught me telling you that all these patients had hemodynamic cats as well, and a total of 243 had hemodynamic evidence of HFpEF, which was defined as an abnormal rest or exercise feeling pressure. Of these, 222 met the ACC/AHA criteria, 161 met the ESC criteria, and only 41 met the HFSA criteria. Over a mean follow-up of 3.8 years, the incidents of cardiovascular outcomes range from 75 for the ACC/AHA criteria to 298 events per thousand-person years for the HFSA criteria.                                                 The application of clinical trial definitions of HFpEF similarly resulted in distinct patient classification and prognostication. So in summary, the authors demonstrated significant diversity in the number of patients meeting HFpEF criteria. And using different HFpEF classifications variably enriched for future cardiovascular events, but at the expense of not including up to 85% of individuals with physiologic evidence of HFpEF. Comprehensive phenotyping of patients with suspected heart failure really highlighted the limitations and heterogeneity of current HFpEF definitions and may help to refine HFpEF sub-grouping to test therapeutic interventions. Now, these are all discussed in an important accompanying editorial by Michele Senni, Sergio Caravita, and Walter Paulus. Dr Greg Hundley:             Wow Carolyn. It appears, depending upon the definition, we could really classify patients drastically differently. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Yeah, an important paper indeed. And again, I would strongly encourage everyone to read that editorial as well. For my second pick, we're going to switch to CPR in children.                                                 So these authors, now led by Dr Rohan Khera from UT Southwestern, examined the prevalence and predictors of survival of children who progress from bradycardia to pulselessness in in-hospital cardiac arrest despite cardiopulmonary resuscitation. So they looked at almost 5,600 pediatric patients age more than 30 days to under 18 years of age, who received CPR at hospitals participating in the Get With The Guidelines - Resuscitation during 2000 to 2016 each CPR event was classified as bradycardia with pulse, bradycardia with subsequent pulselessness, and initial pulseless cardiac arrest. And the authors assessed for risk adjusted rates of survival to hospital discharge. Dr Greg Hundley:             So Carolyn, what did they find? This is really interesting. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Well, among hospitalized children in whom CPR was initiated, half had bradycardia with poor perfusion at the initiation of chest compressions and nearly one third of these progressed to pulseless in-hospital cardiac arrest despite CPR. Survival was significantly lower for children who progressed to pulselessness despite CPR compared to those who were initially pulseless. So, these findings suggest that pediatric patients who lose their pulse despite CPR are at particularly high risk and require a renewed focus on post resuscitation care. Dr Greg Hundley:             Very interesting, Carolyn. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Well, that wraps it up for our discussion. Let's go onto the featured discussion. Shall we, Greg? Dr Greg Hundley:             You bet. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Non-inferiority cardiovascular trials are increasingly being published and in the highest impact journals. Yet how much do we really know about these designs of the trial, of the non-inferiority trials? Well, I have to admit not much in my point of view, and I was so pleased to see our feature discussion paper really published in this week's journal, which really digs deep into non-inferiority trials and talks about time trends and perhaps some lessons that we should all bear in mind when we look at these. I'm so pleased to have the first author, Dr Behnood Bikdeli, to tell us about the study. And he is from Columbia University Medical Center, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Yale Center of Outcomes, Research and Evaluation Core, as well as the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York. We also have Dr Naveed Sattar, associate editor from the University of Glasgow. Behnood, could you tell us, so what made you look at this question and what did you find? Dr Behnood Bikdeli:        For a while we've been very interested in profiling the cardiovascular trials, trying to understand a little better, what are the specific characteristics of the major child that we rely upon for research but also for clinical practice? Years ago, we did some studies for surrogate outcome trials and this, let's just say subsequent piece, where we tried to look into a randomized cardiovascular trial that use a non-inferiority design. We had a series of features in terms of quality metrics and methodological metrics that we wanted to look into. The over eight almost 27-year period, we identified 111 of these trials. Reassuringly, most of these trials inherited several important quality and methodological metrics that we were looking into. However, we also saw a significant room for improvement. There were quite a few quality or methodological metrics that some of these trials were not adhering to and we think it's important because ultimately for the design reporting and last reading of these trials, knowing these pluses and minuses would help inform people. Dr Carolyn Lam:                That's great, Behnood. Now for those of us listening who don't think about this every day, could you give us some examples of the top errors perhaps to look out for? Dr Behnood Bikdeli:        For example, in the typical superiority trials, when we want to test an intervention a versus intervention B, all that matters is we do a very good and adequately sized trial and rest of it is up to the study and how it goes to see whether or not something panned out. There was a significant difference between the new intervention versus the older ones, but in non-inferiority trials we have something called the non-inferiority margin and that's very highly relevant when it comes to the outcome that you're assessing when it comes to the ultimate results of the trial.                                                 If the investigators choose a very lenient y non-inferiority margin, they may end up calling an intervention non-inferior. They may give it a pass. While in reality the intervention has quite a lot of a risk or harmful profile compared with standard of care. But in the other side, as a clinical example, we have several interventional tools at hand, like transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Most of the indications where it's currently used came from large bell designed non-inferiority trials. Where they showed that it was almost as good as surgery, in some cases better, but also it had a lot of ancillary advantages. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Thanks, Behnood. And you know here, I just want to call out to the readers. You have to look at this paper. Look at the tables and figures which are really so helpful. And Naveed, can I bring you in on this now? I mean, I just love this paper. It's such an important topic and I've never seen it addressed like this before. Could you tell us a little bit about what the editors discussed when we looked at this? Dr Naveed Sattar:            I've been involved in a few non-inferiority trials and some of the factors that many of us discuss and some of course associated, sort of our clinical trials, and I've been involved normally in superiority trials, but increasingly we have cut our teeth in non-inferiority trials. So, some of the points that the paper picks up resonated well with us in terms of, one of the examples was Behnood and his team found that around about 40% of trials didn't even justify what their non-inferiority margin was. And that's something I've actually had detailed discussions involved in various trials with. And that's a really important point, but it isn't a, you have to be able to justify why you choose particular margin and what that margin would mean to the community. Otherwise you potentially could just pick something out there which really doesn't allow you to make a really strong non-inferiority claim. And I think that's one of the factors that you found, Behnood. Is that correct? Behnood Bikdeli:              Absolutely. And that's a great point. Thank you. To us, there were two things about it. One was whether or not they provided any detailed justification for it exactly as you said, not that they're just picking up something because that's the sample size that they could achieve or that's the number that they felt comfortable with. But also the second piece of it, a respective of how they calculated or came up to the number, their readers have a right to know how this was calculated or were this came from, so it's the reporting part of it. Sometimes they reported both in the published paper and a study protocol or a design paper. Sometimes it was only in one of them. Sometimes as you mentioned, it was not mentioned in either, which puts the reader in a very difficult situation.                                                 So we think, and these were the best of the best trials in the highest impact journals. Probably if we look high and low elsewhere it's going to be even more challenging. So, we think there's a lot of room for improvement for the readers to expect cleaner, more comprehensive papers to come, but also for the trialist to report them with more clarity. Dr Naveed Sattar:            And going forward, issue a nice figure that shows that the trend is that we are going to see more of these trials probably because you've got lots of better treatments now. So, you know it's getting harder, in the sense, in many areas of cardiovascular medicine to show superiority. So, there is a need for more trials which actually show benefits beyond just perhaps the main outcome in ways that you've explained in the particular paper.                                                 Do you think the FDA does enough in this particular area in terms of this helping investigators decide what the non-inferiority margins are? Or is that something in terms of the quality of the trials that needs a bit more investigation? I think your papers partly are pushed to say, "Actually we need to do these better. We need to justify them better. We need to look at them better." Because actually they do have a greater influence going forward. Dr Behnood Bikdeli:        First, I cannot agree more. We are going to see a lot more of non-inferiority trials sort of, maybe because we have reached a ceiling effect when traditional intervention for superiority, but there's a lot of room to find interventions that are at least as safe or as good but have a lot of side advantages and ancillary benefits that's happened with some of the anticoagulants among other therapies available.                                                 In terms of the regulatory aspects, one of the things we were fortunate about was within our team, we had people with expertise on the trialist side while communicating with the regulatory bodies and also from people who were consulting to the FDA for assessment of non-inferiority trials. So, we were fortunate to look into several of the methodological or quality metrics that were being thought of and we consulted with the in-source guidelines and FDA guidelines. That said, I completely agree that, for example, the suggestions that you provided in one of the tables could hopefully help shape some of these trials in a more rigorous way. Or at least a reporting, which is also an important piece, would be more transparent ultimately for the readership. Dr Naveed Sattar:            Absolutely. And transparency is really pivotal so that the readers completely understand what was done, what was predefined, and what was found so that they can make a proper judgment. And probably the final question I have in terms of, you make a good point that actually if the trials are not done well and there's a bit of slippage either in terms of loss of data or methodological issues, that then really pushes a trial towards a "no", in a sense you get a false reassurance of non-inferiority, but partly because the methodology wasn't robust enough. And it's really very critical for these trials, perhaps at least as critical as they are in superiority trials, but perhaps even more so. Is that a fair judgment? Dr Behnood Bikdeli:        No, no, no. You're absolutely right. That's another very important point in the typical superiority trial, if any bias drives the results toward no difference. Investigators are naturally guarding against that because it's going to be very problematic in non-inferiority trials. Depending on the effect measure that they choose, it could actually falsely favor the intervention of interest because it might show a false assessment of non-inferiority, and there are ways to work around it. There are ways to correct for it, such as choosing both absolute and relative effect measures, which practically addresses this concern. Again, gets back to the importance of appropriate design and appropriate transparency to report the results in a robust way, both intentions to treat and has treated or per protocol, both relative effect measures and absolute effect measures. Dr Naveed Sattar:            My sense of and getting back to you, but I think this will be a really seminal paper for the community to look at and really help us as a community to improve our conduct of such trials in the future because there will be more of these coming forward. Dr Carolyn Lam:                And I couldn't have said that better, Naveed. I think the take home message is right there. Pick it up, have a look and especially have a look at those tables and figures. It's really going to help you read many, many journals.                                                 Thank you so much, Naveed and Behnood. Thank you audience for joining us on Circulation on the Run. Talk to you next week.                                                 This program is copyright American Heart Association 2019.  

Surya and Jitish have been married for 3 years or 3 and half years as I learnt when the two had different answer to my question of how long they have been married for. Reassuringly though, they have consensus on so many areas of their marriage and my best summary of them two is the phrase; Ying and yang. Surya enjoys laughing and Jitish loves making her laugh. That's the arrangement that they worked out which made them both significant other to themselves

Words. Boy, they’ve really fallen off their perch. They used to be so respected, as were the people who knew how to use them. They could breathe life into cold, dead facts, in their hands ‘our beer costs a lot’ could become ‘Reassuringly expensive’. Better and shorter. Writers would often burn the midnight oil in an effort to get the maximum meaning from the minimum word count. It’s odd, because people have never read more than they do today, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Google, emails, texts, not to forget books, magazines and the odd newspaper. In fact today, there’s no part of the communication process that doesn’t rely on words, including the deck that explains the communication process. But for some reason, the skill of using them effectively is no longer being taught or even valued. Tim Riley has been choosing his words carefully for three decades now, we had a great chat about his time using them at some the best agencies in London. Hope you enjoy it.

In this wonderful answer from the Spirit of Wayne Dyer we are given advice on how to maintain our joy and energy when our loved ones are struggling or of a different vibration. Reassuringly, we are told it is something we learn and are given simple guidance we can all use. "The sharing of one's joy is what benefits the planet as a whole and aptitude in this is vital." (5 mins)

Reassuringly late, it's our review of "Thin Ice". 

Do you sell a product or service that is reassuringly expensive?Ronny is selling $700 vacuum cleaners through a direct-response television campaign he created after attending, “How to Sell Upscale Products and Services” at Wizard Academy. That ad campaign began as a $100,000 experiment. Ronny told me he's currently spending nearly a million dollars a week on national advertising and making a marvelous return on his investment. Funny thing: we teach that class under the assumption the techniques will be used by brand builders, not direct response marketers. But Ronny proved those same techniques can also work when you have a short time horizon. We taught Ronny something.He taught us something in return.Direct response marketers usually sell products that have a short purchase cycle. They want us to make an impulse purchase. This is why the return-on-investment for direct response ads can be measured accurately and immediately. But not everything can be sold that way. Brand builders are companies whose products or services have http://wizardofads.org/are-you-the-right-client/ (a long purchase cycle.) The goal of a brand builder is to be the provider you think of immediately and feel the best about when you finally need what they sell. It takes courage, confidence and patience but it works better and better the longer you invest in it. The essence of brand building is emotional bonding.Direct response marketing, on the other hand, is typically intellectual. Features and benefits and added value, “But wait! Order now and you'll also receive…” It is that world of product demonstrations and money-back guarantees, limited-time offers and upsell incentives. Direct response ads don't work better and better as time goes by. They work less and less well until you finally have to come up with something altogether new and different. Right now you're thinking, “But hey, if I make enough money on my direct response campaign, I'll just retire and live happily ever after.” That sounds like a good plan but I've never actually seen it work out that way. Most of us have the fundamental inability to quit while we're ahead.A glittering city in Nevada is proof of it. Wizard Academy teaches powerful concepts. How you use them is entirely up to you. Ronny is winning and winning big. I like him. He's already taught me one lesson. I'm hoping he will teach me another. Roy H. Williams

Entirely unintentional, but Ian and Sideshow run off on a retro-flavoured tangent this week, in an all-new WANTS A WORD... with YOUR feedback and questions, Random Acts, and a story about a bus. Go find @iancollinsuk and @sideshow_kev via that Twitter. facebook.com/iancollinsuk

 GTA V, SUPERHOT, BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS, VOLGARR THE VIKING, LAST GUARDIAN, DELVER, SHELTER, VVVVVV, ESCAPE GOAT,  RASTAN, CASTLE OF ILLUSION STARRING MICKEY MOUSE, SONIC'S ULTIMATE GENESIS COLLECTION, GAIN GROUND, SPIDER MAN: THE ARCADE GAME, PUNISHER: THE ARCADE GAME, CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE AVENGERS, CAPCOM CLASSICS COLLECTION REMIXED/RELOADED, BIONIC COMMANDO ARCADE/NES, CAPCOM AVENGERS, RETRO CITY RAMPAGE HOTLINE MIAMI, SHENMUI, ANIMAL CROSSING, BRAID, SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS, DARK CLOUD II. Twitter: @GoForRainbow Email: GoForRainbow@gmail.com We love you. (': ')/     |       /   | Please rate us on iTunes as it really helps us!

By Guest Blogger, Nathan Edge This month Nathan Edge discusses the nature and operation of nuclear devices being used in unmanned space operations. As an aside, I can't believe I wasn't the first person to type into Google, "nuclear engine...USS Enterprise"?! Nathan provides links to sites for more information throughout the piece. Anyway, on with the article!-------------------------------------------------Nuclear power isn’t just applicable to terrestrial electricity generation; it has also been used in space travel since 1961 – whereby it is still a tremendous source of potential for propulsion mechanisms. Many well known space vehicles such as the deep space probes Voyagers 1 & 2 – which are over 18,000,000,000 and 15,000,000,000 km from Earth respectively – rely on nuclear power. It is even being used on NASA’s Curiosity Rover, which made a spectacular touchdown on Mars last year.Voyager 2. One of the most distant man-made objects in existence.The popularised spacecraft don’t actually use conventional nuclear reactors. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) - which harness Plutonium-238 as fuel - are the primary propulsion source. These so-called “nuclear batteries” exploit the principle that plutonium undergoes alpha-decay to produce heat. This is subsequently converted in to electricity using thermoelectric generators. Since they have no moving parts, RTGs are very reliable; the RTG on Voyager 2 has worked continuously since 1977, and is expected to continue working until 2025.A general RTG configurationThis is not to say, however, traditional nuclear reactors have not also been used in space operations in the past … albeit with some serious modifications. For example, the Soviet RORSAT satellites used 90% enriched uranium fuel as a power source. The safety implications of using such a system in earth orbit are obvious, and any fears of utilising such a technology are not exactly unfounded. The nuclear-powered Cosmos 954 satellite, for instance, fell into Canada in 1978 after a systems failure, distributing radioactive debris over 124,000 square kilometres. Due to events like these, it is likely that any future reactors will be confined to deep space like RTGs. However, this does not mean that they will only be used for unmanned exploration probes. NASA has its eyes on a manned Mars mission, but traditional chemical rockets would take six to seven months to reach Mars. A 1MW fission reactor powering 100-400 kW electric ion thrusters would take 3 months, thus limiting the health degradation astronauts face on long space journeys.Modern RTGs are designed to survive the possible accidents which could befall it during operation, including propellant fires during launch and land/water impacts. Reassuringly, RTGs cannot explode like nuclear weapons: the plutonium associated with weapons is Pu-239, not Pu-238. A similar safety feature which has been specified for nuclear reactor propulsion tech is that they are not activated until they are confirmed to have reached space successfully. Ultimately, this is to ensure fission fragments and other components of nuclear waste are not present if failure occurs during launch. Space: The future of waste disposal?Lastly, when using an RTG some additional thought must be applied to the disposal of the spacecraft when they come to the end of their working life. This is not just a nuclear issue: it’s important not to disturb any areas which potentially harbour extraterrestrial life. For example the RTG-powered Galileo spacecraft was sent into Jupiter’s atmosphere and destroyed to stop it crashing into a potential ocean under Europa’s crust. The disposal of RTGs and future nuclear reactors actually touch on one of the more outlandish proposals for dealing with nuclear waste: firing it out of the solar system.In short, the space and nuclear industry have a surprising legacy: nuclear power has already been used successfully for near-earth and deep space missions in the past, and its use has continued into the cutting edge-missions of today. Only time will tell whether or not it is the key to future exploration, both manned and unmanned, into our universe.DOCUMENT LINKS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)NASA, 2013 Where are the Voyagers? [online]. Available at: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/index.html[Accessed 02/02/2013]Atmos, J. 2012. Curiosity rover made near-perfect landing [online]. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19219782[Accessed 02/02/2013]Snyder, G.J. Small Thermoelectric Generators [pdf]. Available at: http://www.electrochem.org/dl/interface/fal/fal08/fal08_p54-56.pdf[Accessed 02/02/2013]NASA, 2013. Voyager – Spacecraft Lifetime [online].Available at: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/spacecraftlife.html[Accessed 03/02/2013]Encyclopaedia of Science, 2013. RORSAT (Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite [online]. Available at: http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/R/RORSAT.html[Accessed 03/02/2013]HackCanada, 2013. Cosmos 954 Satellite Crash [online]. Available at: http://www.hackcanada.com/canadian/other/cosmos954.html[Accessed 10/02/2013]King, L, 2012. Manned Mars mission still on track [online]. Available at: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/story/2012/09/12/manned-mars-mission-still-on-track/57767950/1[Accessed 11/02/2013]Rousseau, I.M. 2007. Analysis of a High Temperature Supercritical Brayton Cycle for Space Exploration [pdf]. Available at: http://web.mit.edu/rsi/www/pdfs/papers/2005/2005-ianr.pdf[Accessed 01/10/2012]Discovery, 2013. Known effects of long-term space flights on the human body [online]. Available at: http://www.racetomars.ca/mars/article_effects.jsp[Accessed 10/02/2013].US Department of Energy, 1982. Nuclear Safety Criteria and Specifications for Space Nuclear Reactors [pdf]. Available at: http://www.fas.org/nuke/space/osnp-1.pdf[Accessed 20/02/2013].NASA, 2013. Solar system exploration  -Galileo Legacy Site [online]. Available at: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/[Accessed 21/02/2013].The Space Review, 2013. Nuclear waste in space? [online]. Available at: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/437/1[Accessed 22/02/2013]IMAGESSpace Today Online, 2011. Voyagers are leaving the Solar System [online]. Available at: http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Voyagers20years.html[Accessed 02/02/2013].Wikipedia, Radioisotope thermoelectric generator [online]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator[Accessed 02/02/2013]Gunter’s Space Page, 2013. US-A[online]. Available at: http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/us-a.htm[Accessed 05/02/2013]The Space Review, 2013. Nuclear waste in space? [online]. Available at: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/437/1[Accessed 22/02/2013]