Podcasts about rewarding

What if the crash that almost killed your company was the best thing that ever happened to it? In this episode of the Measure Success Podcast, I sit down with Dan Novaes, co-founder and CEO of Mode Mobile, to discuss surviving a near-collapse after explosive growth, pivoting from growth-at-all-costs to profitability, and building a community-driven company that pays users for their screen time. Episode highlights: • How Mode Mobile hit 32,481% growth and became the #2 fastest-growing company in America • Why the 2022 crypto collapse nearly wiped them out — and how Dan responded • The "focus on what you can control" mindset that got him through • Turning 60,000 users into investors through community crowdfunding • Rewarding people for screen time in the emerging AI economy Watch the full episode and ask yourself: When everything is falling apart, are you spending energy on what you can't control, or on what you can? Connect with Dan: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielnovaes/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stopmediocrity/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/novaes.ai/reels/ Website: https://www.modemobile.com/  

Newsflash: Long, unbroken stretches of sitting appear to carry health risk beyond the daily total of sitting. But breaking them up can help even when the total hours spent sitting number doesn't budge. A listener asked about NEAT -- the energy burned by the movement of ordinary life that isn't exercise -- and the answer turned out to have little to do with calories and a lot to do with staying strong and mobile as we age! LET'S TALK THE WALK! Join here for support, motivation and fun! Wellness While Walking Facebook page Walking to Wellness Together Facebook GROUP Wellness While Walking on Instagram Wellness While Walking on Threads Wellness While Walking on Twitter Wellness While Walking website for show notes and other information wellnesswhilewalking@gmail.com     RESOURCES AND SOURCES (some links may be affiliate links) Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding by Dr. Daniel Lieberman (Pantheon, 2021) — the source of the energy-conservation reframe and the point about hunter-gatherers sitting roughly as much as we do. Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals About Food, Diet, Health, and Eating Well by Dr. Daniel Lieberman (Knopf, August 2026) — his new book, which we'll be discussing in a future episode. Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement by Katy Bowman (Propriometrics Press, 2nd edition 2017) — the source of the idea that movement works like a diet, with walking as one nutrient rather than the whole menu. Mentioned in this episode: Dr. James Levine — the Mayo Clinic researcher who coined the term NEAT in the 1990s while studying weight gain. His best-known study overfed volunteers roughly 1,000 extra calories a day for eight weeks; fat gain varied widely across the group, and those who gained least tended to be the ones whose everyday movement increased to meet the surplus. Levine JA, Eberhardt NL, Jensen MD. "Role of Nonexercise Activity Thermogenesis in Resistance to Fat Gain in Humans." Science, 1999. The Stanford fitness tracker study — seven wrist-worn devices tested against lab-grade equipment in 60 volunteers. Six of the seven measured heart rate within 5% error. None measured energy expenditure well: the most accurate device was off by an average of 27%, and the least accurate by 93%. Stanford Medicine news summary — Shcherbina et al., Journal of Personalized Medicine, 2017. Sitting time in older adults — reviews of objectively measured sedentary behavior put adults 65 and older at roughly 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sitting a day, more than any other age group, with long uninterrupted bouts associated with cardiovascular disease, blood sugar trouble, frailty, and in some studies higher dementia risk. Breaking up sitting and physical function — a pilot study in frail older adults found improvements in Timed Up and Go and sit-to-stand scores when participants broke up their sitting, even without reducing total sedentary time. Harvey et al., "Stomp Out (Prolonged) Sitting" pilot — note this is a small pilot; treat the finding as promising rather than settled. Movement as a diet — the idea that walking is one nutrient rather than the whole menu reflects Katy Bowman's work, particularly Move Your DNA and Movement Matters. Two small moves from this episode ●    Break up the sitting. Once an hour or so, stand and move, even briefly — refill the water, walk to the mailbox, unload a few dishes. Right after a meal is a particularly good moment, since movement after eating has been shown to soften the blood sugar rise. ●    Attach movement to moments that already exist. The kettle boiling, a phone call, a commercial break, a trip to the printer, the end of a chapter. Decide once what the movement will be, and let variety in — balance on one foot at the counter, reach for a high shelf, get down to the floor and back up. A reminder Carolyn is not a doctor or mental health professional. Content presented here is for educational and informational purposes only. Please check with your doctor before making any health or lifestyle changes.     HOW TO RATE AND REVIEW WELLNESS WHILE WALKING How to Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts on Your iOS Device 1.   Open Apple Podcast App (purple app icon that says Podcasts). 2.   Go to the icons at the bottom of the screen and choose "search" 3.   Search for "Wellness While Walking" 4.   Click on the SHOW, not the episode. 5.   Scroll all the way down to "Ratings and Reviews" section 6.   Click on "Write a Review" (if you don't see that option, click on "See All" first) 7.   Then you will be able to rate the show on a five-star scale (5 is highest rating) and write a review! 8.   Thank you! I so appreciate this!   How to Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts on a Computer  1.   Visit Wellness While Walking page on Apple Podcasts in your web browser (search for Apple Podcasts or click here)  https://www.apple.com/apple-podcasts/ 2.   Click on "Listen on Apple Podcasts" or "Open the App" 3.   This will open Apple Podcasts and put in search bar at top left "Wellness While Walking" 4.   This should bring you to the show, not a particular episode – click on the show's artwork 5.   Scroll down until you see "Rating and Reviews" 6.   Click on "See All" all the way to the right, near the Ratings and Review Section and its bar chart 7.   To leave a written review, please click on "Write a Review" 8.   You'll be able to leave a review, along with a title for it, plus you'll be able to rate the show on the 5-star scale (with 5 being the highest rating) 9.   Thank you so very much!! OTHER APPS WHERE RATINGS OR REVIEWS ARE POSSIBLE Spotify Goodpods Overcast (if you star certain episodes, or every one, that will help others find the show)  Castbox Podcast Addict Podchaser Podbean   HOW TO SHARE WELLNESS WHILE WALKING Tell a friend or family member about Wellness While Walking, maybe while you're walking together or lamenting not feeling 100% Follow up with a quick text with more info, as noted below! (My favorite is pod.link/walking because it works with all the apps!) Screenshot a favorite episode playing on your phone and share to social media or to a friend via text or email! Wellness While Walking on Apple – click the up arrow to share with a friend via text or email, or share to social media Wellness While Walking on Spotify -- click the up arrow to share with a friend via text or email, or share to social media Use this universal link for any podcast app: pod.link/walking – give it to friends or share on social media Tell your pal about the Wellness While Walking website Thanks for listening and now for sharing! : )       DISCLAIMER Neither I nor many of my podcast guests are doctors or healthcare professionals of any kind, and nothing on this podcast or associated content should be considered medical advice. The information provided by Wellness While Walking Podcast and associated material, by Whole Life Workshop and by Bermuda Road Wellness LLC is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment, and before undertaking a new health care regimen, including walking.     Thanks for listening to Wellness While Walking, a walking podcast and a "best podcast for walking"!

Are We Using AI Wrong? And Is Social Media Rewarding Unhealthy Behaviour? AI is becoming a bigger part of how we work, create, build businesses, and communicate—but are we actually using it the right way? In this episode of The Mitchell Report Unleashed Podcast, host Rory Mitchell sits down with Justine Pogroske for an honest conversation about the growing role of artificial intelligence, creativity, business, and social media. We explore why some creators and businesses are still afraid of AI, how technology can be used as a tool rather than a replacement for human creativity, and why authenticity still matters in an increasingly digital world. But the conversation goes even deeper. Is social media rewarding unhealthy behaviour?Are we becoming too focused on likes, followers, attention, outrage, and instant validation? What happens when platforms reward content that generates the most reactions rather than content that provides the most value? Rory and Justine break down the importance of conviction over attention, building trust, staying authentic, and creating work that actually means something beyond the algorithm.In this episode, we discuss: Are we using AI the wrong way? Why are creators and businesses afraid of AI? Can AI and human creativity work together? Is social media rewarding unhealthy behaviour? Why do likes and followers have so much influence? Are outrage and controversy being rewarded online?How can creators build trust instead of chasing attention? Why authenticity matters more than ever: AI, business, creativity, and the future of content creation. Choosing conviction over validation

Is it possible to have a career that fulfills you and also brings you joy? My guest, Stephen Shortt, is here to answer that question. Stephen Shortt is an Irish entrepreneur, speaker, and career expert known as the HAPPY People Guy. His mission is simple: to make the world a better place with happy people in fulfilling, rewarding careers. He built the HAPPY framework not as a product, but as a lifeline — during a period when things weren't going the way he wanted, and he needed to figure out what actually mattered. Drawing on psychology, behavioral science, and hard experience, he distilled it into five elements: Highlights, Appreciation, Progress, People, and Your Contribution. The core idea is that happiness is progress towards purpose.  Through the HAPPY People Project, Stephen runs workshops and speaks at conferences, helping high achievers stop chasing the wrong finish line — and get clear on what they actually want, not just what they think they're supposed to want.  He's a member of Entrepreneurs' Organization, a former GSEA Global Chair, and runs ETC Consult in Dublin. He lives in a three-generation home with his wife and two daughters — and is quietly building the life on his own Happy Life List. He founded the Happy People Project and created the Happy Work Life MAP, a framework to help individuals and teams align work and life by design, not by default. In our episode today, Stephen unpacks the framework of his Happy Work Life MAP and how he specifically helps individuals and teams. He is also a career and talent specialist as well as a family business facilitator.    CONNECT WITH STEPHEN  Website - https://happypeopleproject.com / stephenshortt.com   CONNECT WITH DEBI Website – https://www.debironca.com Instagram - @debironca Email – info@debironca.com Free Group Coaching - https://debi.sequoiatransitioncoaching.com/group-coaching YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DebiRoncaOfficial   Check out my online course! Your Story's Changing, Finding Purpose in Life's Transitionshttps://course.sequoiatransitioncoaching.com/8-week-program The Family Letter by Debi Ronca – International Best Sellerhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SSJFXBD Free Clarity Call: https://calendly.com/debironca/free-clarity-call

If you're a painting contractor struggling to find good employees, this episode breaks down how to hire painters, retain great employees, and build a painting business that can grow without relying on the owner.In this episode of the Contractor Secrets Podcast, Tanner Mullen sits down with Mason from Progressive Painting to discuss one of the biggest challenges facing painting contractors and home service businesses: hiring skilled painters and building a reliable team.Mason helps operate a $1M+ commercial painting business in New Hampshire and is working to solve the people problem inside the company. After scaling to a 30-person painting crew for a massive commercial project, the business experienced employee turnover and struggled to maintain the team needed to continue growing.Tanner breaks down the painting contractor hiring system he's used to recruit W-2 painters, find better applicants, develop crew leaders, and build a painting company that doesn't require the owner to constantly be on the job site.We cover:• Why a random hiring process creates random results• Where contractors should actually be looking for employees• My Indeed hiring strategy• How to properly interview and filter applicants• Why character matters more than skill alone• Creating a career path from apprentice to leadership• How compensation impacts employee retention• Rewarding employees as their skills increase• Using job profitability to create performance bonuses• Why your best employees need to see a future with your company• Building a business that doesn't depend on the owner• Commercial vs. residential painting opportunities• Navigating change inside a family businessIf you're constantly saying, "There are no good employees out there," this episode might change the way you think about hiring entirely.Coaching Session Signup: https://calendly.com/dripjobs/breakthroughPurchase the 31 Days of Value and build an EMPIRE: https://www.amazon.com/31-Days-Value-home-service-businesses/dp/B0FQSH32X7Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2v0D0SNSBofqJJE6zApEE1DripJobs Demo: https://calendly.com/dripjobsteam/dripjobsdemoGusto: https://gusto.com/i/tanner269OpenPhone: https://openph.one/referral/8Kc17aqFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/173750747824373/?ref=shareFollow me on Instagram: http://Instagram.com/officialtannermullen#PaintingContractor #PaintingBusiness #HiringPainters #ContractorBusiness #PaintingCompany #ContractorHiring #BusinessGrowth #HomeServices #EmployeeRetention #ContractorSecrets

Show notes information: Watch the video FREE WEBINAR ON COLLABORATIVE LEARNING Meaningful Classroom Management Book What Are You Bringing to the Potluck? Follow me on IG: @sheldoneakins Interested in sponsoring? Contact sheldon@purposeful247.com today

Chuck Todd opens with the Greenland oil expedition, an episode so strange it borders on parody: an American oil company drilling in defiance of another country's laws, with Trump's blessing, and — the detail that breaks the brain — Dr. Phil hired to document the whole thing. It's a fitting overture for a week in which the Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as Attorney General 50-49 at four in the morning before fleeing town for recess, with only Collins and Murkowski defecting. Chuck admits he was wrong; he never thought Blanche would actually get there. What galls him is the surrender it represents. Bill Cassidy's rationale — that Trump "needs someone to tell him no" — is laughable given that Blanche has said outright that the rule of law belongs to Trump and the DOJ won't be independent. John Cornyn's shrug that "there's nothing we can do to rein in the president" is, Chuck argues, the confession of a coward: senators possess the authority and simply refuse to use it, giving away what little leverage they had. The debate has now been reduced to whether the Attorney General is the people's lawyer or the president's. Then takes on the question of why Democratic voters keep rewarding progressives whose politics they don't actually share, and his answer is that half the Democratic electorate did not suddenly become socialist — they're furious about 2024, and specifically about leadership deciding the nominee for them. They didn't dislike Harris; they wanted a choice, and they'd watched the establishment coalesce around Biden in 2020 to produce a presidency that ended with Trump's return. Progressives are the only Democrats willing to say the party screwed up, and voters will give you enormous latitude on the cure if they trust your diagnosis. Chuck illustrates it with a Washington Post story about the Conn brass instrument factory in Ohio, bought by Trump-supporting, tariff-championing investor John Paulson and now closing as production moves offshore — where the disillusioned employees don't plan to vote at all, because they feel the system has failed them for decades. He believes the opening in American politics right now isn't centrism, it's breaking up an establishment that voters believe is more worried about losing donors than losing their votes. He wonders aloud whether the answer is a military leader — he's intrigued by retired General Chris Donahue, essentially Captain America on paper, pushed out by Trump and Hegseth, with credibility across the aisle. Americans are exhausted by being told the other half of the country is the bad guy, they're desperate for honesty and a reboot of a captured government, and the space is wide open for someone to fill it. But Chuck’s closing caution matters: the system is badly screwed up, and that still isn't a reason to burn it all down. Finally, Chuck hops into the ToddCast Time Machine to revisit two different but related events: the signing of the Social Security Act by FDR, and Richard Nixon announcing price and wage controls to combat inflation. Chuck argues that America has always flirted with socialism even if we call it by another name. He also answers listeners questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment. Upgrade your everyday. Go to https://Quince.com/CHUCK for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Play ball and swing for the fences on FanDuel, an official partner of the MLB at https://FANDUEL.COM. For free and unbiased Medicare help, dial (980) 734-3985 to speak with my trusted partner, Chapter, or go to askchapter.org/chuck / *Paid Partnership Chapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan’s contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don’t directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options. Timeline: (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements) 00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction 00:30 Trump’s crazy Greenland oil adventure 01:15 Trump is just ignoring the laws of another country 01:45 Craziest detail is oil company hired Dr. Phil to document the expedition 02:15 Trump has gone out of his way to alienate European allies 02:45 Oprah gave us Dr. Oz & Dr. Phil… which is not a good thing 06:45 U.S. senate leaves town for recess after passing funding bill 07:15 Todd Blanche is now the confirmed AG for the United States 08:00 Republicans passed none of the things they said are priorities 09:00 GOP has a trifecta and still can’t get anything done 10:00 Was wrong about Blanche, didn’t think he’d actually get confirmed 10:45 Confirmed 50-49, not surprising Collins & Murkowski defected 11:45 Cassidy’s rationale was “Trump needs someone to tell him no” 12:15 Cassidy’s rationale is laughable 13:15 Even Bill Barr had a line he wouldn’t cross with Trump 14:45 The senate gave away what little leverage they have with Trump 16:00 John Cornyn says “there’s nothing we can do to rein in the president” 16:30 These Republicans are cowards, won’t exercise their authority* 17:00 These senators need to do their job 18:00 Blanche said the rule of law belongs to Trump, DOJ won’t be independent 19:00 Debate is now if AG is the people’s lawyer or the president’s lawyer 19:45 If he were alive, Trump would have nominated Roy Cohn 20:30 You don’t want presidents deciding who gets investigated 21:30 Trump got involved with Reflecting Pool vandal case THIS WEEK 22:30 Trump’s entire life has been about wearing people down 23:15 Republicans have politicized DOJ more than any previous admin 23:45 MAGA’s premise is that two wrongs do make a right 24:15 Does anybody in congress understand the constitution? 25:30 Confirming Blanche will cause more public distrust in DOJ 26:30 Founders never wanted the president to determine rule of law 27:00 Senate didn’t get crypto or college sports bill passed before recess 27:45 Republicans claim SAVE act is existential, didn’t pass it 28:45 Why do voters entertain progressives that don’t align with them? 29:15 Half the democratic electorate didn’t suddenly become socialist 30:30 Democratic voters are pissed off, think party messed up in 2024 31:00 Voters are mad leadership decided who the ‘24 nominee would be 31:30 Voters didn’t dislike Harris, but they wanted a choice 32:30 In 2020, the establishment coalesced around Biden 33:15 Biden’s presidency was a failure since it resulted in Trump returning 34:00 Progressives are the only Dems saying the party screwed up 35:30 Like Trump, the progressives are saying leadership is full of shit 36:15 Voters will give you latitude on the cure if they trust your diagnosis 37:00 WaPo story about Conn factory closing & private equity 38:00 Factory is in Ohio, been making brass instruments 38:45 Factory is closing and laying off all the employees 39:30 Conn was bought by John Paulson, Trump supporter who supports tariffs 40:30 Paulson is moving production offshore after arguing against it 42:00 Plant employees were completely disillusioned with politics 43:00 Employees feel like the system has left them down for decades, won’t vote 44:30 Romney’s loss was due to millions of white voters sitting out entirely 45:15 Trump’s appeal brought those voters back into the electorate 47:15 Voters reward candidates that can diagnose & call out their problems 48:00 Trump proved politically dormant voters can be reactivated 48:30 There’s always a third destination for voters… the couch 49:00 If the two parties don’t reform themselves, they risk being replaced 50:15 The opening isn’t centrism, it’s breaking up the establishment 51:15 Politics requires huge amounts of money, results in capture 52:15 Voters believe reps are more worried about losing donors than their vote 53:00 Competence and morality are not the same thing in politics 53:45 Leaders need to admit that they screwed everything up 54:30 Americans are desperate for a reset & are embracing revolutionaries 55:00 A military leader might be exactly what we need in next president 55:45 Intrigued by retired general Chris Donahue & his resume 56:45 Donahue is basically Captain America & was forced out by Trump & Hegseth 58:15 Someone like Donahue could have the credibility across the aisle 59:30 Politics won’t acknowledge failure if they think it helps the other side 1:00:00 Americans are desperate for honesty & morality in politics 1:01:15 It’s exhausting being told the other half of America is the bad guys 1:03:15 Voters want to preserve the Republic, but don’t trust the leadership 1:04:00 Voters want a reboot, and a government that isn’t captured 1:05:00 The political space is waiting for someone to fill this vacuum 1:06:00 The system is screwed up, but we shouldn’t burn it all down 1:11:00 ToddCast Time Machine - Where America embraces socialism 1:12:30 Socialist policies have come from presidents of both parties 1:13:45 FDR signs the Social Security Act - Nixon announces price & wage controls 1:14:45 Americans worry about prosperity, not ideological consistency 1:17:15 Capitalism was being questioned after the Great Depression 1:17:45 FDR wanted to repair, not replace capitalism 1:18:30 Social Security started as a much smaller program than it is today 1:19:15 Congress continued adding to the program over the years 1:21:15 America imposed price & wage controls during WW2 that went beyond Nixon 1:22:00 August 15, 1971 - Nixon announces price & wage controls 1:23:15 Nixon was desperate to stop inflation 1:24:15 Administration announced ceilings on meat prices, caused shortages 1:25:30 The controls were lifted right before the election 1:26:45 We have plenty of socialist policies called by another name 1:27:45 The policies give the sense of individual control 1:28:30 Americans are allergic to government control over their choices 1:29:15 Government under Trump is acquiring stakes in American companies 1:31:00 America has always been more socialist than we like to admit 1:32:45 Ask Chuck 1:33:00 Are college educated Republican voters on the journey leftward? 1:37:00 How should Abdul El-Sayed respond to racist & Islamophobic attacks? 1:45:30 Do candidates on the same ballot create measurable coattails? 1:50:00 Any chance Republicans voted for El-Sayed thinking he’d be easier to beat? 1:53:00 Was Pirro’s dropping of Reflecting Pool case an offramp for Trump? 1:56:00 How does an everyday person help make real political change?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join Dr. Tracy Nichols for a candid, compassionate podcast that explores how real change happens—slow, messy, intentional, and ultimately rewarding. Blending evidence-based psychology, practical coaching strategies, and heartfelt stories from guests who've navigated transformation, Dr. Nichols helps listeners move from stuck to steadily growing. Each episode delivers clear tools, mindset shifts, and actionable next steps for personal healing, professional reinvention, and stronger relationships.Who it's for:Listeners who are ready to do the work—professionals facing career transitions, caregivers balancing life and meaning, anyone recovering from setbacks, and people who want resilient, sustainable growth rather than quick fixes.What to expect:Short, focused episodes with research-backed techniques and reflective prompts.Interviews with therapists, coaches, entrepreneurs, and everyday people who share failures, pivots, and breakthroughs.Practical mini-series on habits, emotional regulation, boundary-setting, and rebuilding after loss.Guided exercises and “next-step” challenges to turn insight into consistent progress.Listen, if you're tired of instant-fix culture and want tools that honor the difficulty of change while celebrating measurable progress. Subscribe now to start tolerating the uncomfortable work that leads to lasting transformation.

Patreon backers have access to an exclusive ComicLab Churn Rate spreadsheet — it does the math for you! Is your Patreon actually growing—or are new members disguising a retention problem? Brad walks Dave through the process of calculating churn rate and shows how one number can unlock a much clearer understanding of a membership business. They discuss subscriber retention, lifetime value, onboarding, well-timed interventions, and how to determine whether advertising or convention appearances are truly worth the investment. Then, Dave asks whether publishing a children's book page by page on his existing webcomic could finally help him finish it. Topics include: Skunk Watch 2026 What churn rate means for a Patreon creator Why total membership and revenue can give you an incomplete picture Finding the necessary numbers in Patreon Insights Two methods for calculating churn rate What constitutes a healthy churn rate Why one month of data isn't enough Calculating your average churn rate over time Calculating your retention rate Estimating average subscriber lifetime Calculating average monthly revenue per member Determining the lifetime value of a Patreon backer Why retaining a current member is cheaper than acquiring a new one Using Patreon Autopilot to reduce cancellations Evaluating the quality and value of your Patreon rewards Improving the onboarding experience for new members Welcome messages, digital gifts, and personalized Bonjoro videos Brad's one-week Patreon check-in Helping new backers navigate a complicated archive Using average subscriber lifetime to schedule a retention intervention Brad's 18-month check-in and longtime-backer gift Repackaging older work into valuable digital rewards Rewarding and recognizing your longest-serving supporters Exclusive livestreams, previews, and “inner circle” benefits Calculating an acceptable customer-acquisition cost Evaluating paid advertising with lifetime-value data Tracking whether a comic convention was financially worthwhile Why free webcomics may still be the best customer-acquisition strategy Dave's productivity tip: drawing to Brazilian Carnival music Using a webcomic schedule to force yourself to complete a children's book Why serialized children's-book pages may not satisfy online readers Publishing complete thematic sections instead of individual pages Building a new project into an established comic's schedule The difficulty of building an audience for an independent children's book When a traditional children's-book publisher may be helpful Creative control, editorial notes, and refusing unwanted revisions Breaking publishing rules and trusting your own experience Releasing a finished independent book before seeking wider distribution Why experienced cartoonists may resist redrawing or revising completed work ComicLab LIVE at the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards   You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon$2 — Early access to episodes$5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.

And we're back! This week we are talking about the personal relationships in our life - and the challenges of those relationships! What challenges us helps us grow, and we can always use challenging situations and conversations to help us reflect and grow both personally, and in our relationships.**Re-Uploaded 8/5 Original Air Date 7/31 **Join our Patreon for monthly workouts, challenges, recipes, and to become part of the Cut The Crap Community! Become a member today for exclusive content and to support our podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cutthecrappodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Thank you Cured Nutrition for sponsoring our Podcast! Save 20% on all Cured Nutrition products with our code 'CTCPOD'!Follow the pod: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@cutthecrapwithbethandmatt⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow your hosts:Beth: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@bethferacofitness⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matt: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@mattlaarfit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Send us a DM! Let us know what you think of this one, and with episode ideas! If we use your comment or suggestion, we'll give you a shoutout on the podcast!

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Catch the big car retailing stories and all the chatter that matters on this week's Motor Trade Radio podcast, powered by Cazoo. ▶️ Pinewood Technologies shareholder opposes £545m takeover bid ▶️ Dealers see growing market for 100,000-mile used cars… …although customer expectations are already "out of step" with the market ▶️ Strong H1 update from Big Motoring World, while it scales back Big Wants Your Car operation ▶️ Vertu boss Robert Forrester responds to Labour MP Perran Moon's ZEV Mandate advocacy ▶️ JCB Group expands in Kent ▶️ Luscombe Motors rewards its hard-working employees Streaming now on your podcast feed or here

You just invested in the latest feedback tool, the best collaboration platform, the smartest productivity software. And nothing changed. Not because the tools are bad — but because you're still measuring the wrong things. You're still rewarding the visible. You're still missing the people who quietly hold your organization together. The future of work isn't about better tools. It's about measuring what actually matters. And what actually matters — reliability, leadership, attitude, the intangibles that move teams — has been invisible to your reward systems for too long. Jess Dewell talks with Jacob Chase, Founder & CEO of The INFIN, on how organizations can stop chasing innovation for innovation's sake and start measuring the human contributions that technology can't replace. Jacob has built systems that capture what traditional evaluation misses: the peer-recognized strengths that drive real organizational change. In this episode, you'll discover: Why innovative tools fail to drive change — and the real hurdle isn't the technology, it's understanding how people actually want to work. How to build feedback systems that tell you the truth — and why anonymity and safety are non-negotiable for honest insights. Why it's time to redesign your entire measurement and reward infrastructure — not just tweak the old system. How autonomy, initiative, and transparent reward systems create sustainable growth without chaos. Why real-time, continuous feedback outperforms annual reviews — and what that looks like in practice. How to measure the intangibles — leadership, reliability, attitude — that have the biggest impact on team performance. What a decentralized feedback system can capture that traditional metrics miss entirely. It is BOLD to reimagine culture and measuring formerly intangible value for all stakeholders. The organizations winning today aren't the ones with the fanciest tools. They're the ones measuring what matters. They're recognizing contributions that numbers alone can't capture. They're willing to look beyond job titles and formal roles to see who's actually driving value. They've built systems where peer recognition and transparent rewards amplify the strengths that move culture forward. The disconnect between tools and culture is growing. Companies invest heavily in platforms for feedback but still rely on outdated evaluation methods. They claim to value collaboration but reward individual achievement. They say culture matters but measure only output. That gap is costing you talent, innovation, and resilience. If your feedback systems feel disconnected from reality, if your best people aren't getting recognized for their true contributions, or if you're wondering how to measure the intangible qualities that are actually holding your team together, this conversation will reorient what's possible. —--------- If you're ready to build the kind of business that doesn't just survive uncertainty but leads through it, check out the Driving Solutions Strategic Intensive program, designed to support leadership teams through high-stakes strategic decisions.    --------------------   You can get in touch with Jess Dewell on Twitter,  LinkedIn or Red Direction website.

F&G National Product Call: Higher IUL Target Premiums, Exam-Free Limits & Quick Solve Pathsetter Walkthrough Larry Mallek and Amy Bruce of F&G explain recent updates making F&G IULs more profitable to sell, including significant target premium increases (up to 20%) across ages and face amounts on the Pathsetter product and expanded exam-free underwriting for many clients age 60 and under seeking $3–$5 million. They demonstrate the illustration software's "Run Quick Solve" feature to build accumulation and income scenarios quickly, discuss key illustration outputs (target premium, guideline annual premium/MEC room, surrender charges), and review loans (participating vs wash), overloan protection, capped loan rates at 5%, and living benefits. They compare Pathsetter for juveniles and accumulation versus Everlast for death-benefit-focused cases, address foreign nationals and underwriting turnaround factors, and point viewers to microsite index performance data and support contacts. 00:00 Welcome and Agenda 01:06 Target Premium Boosts 01:40 Exam Free Underwriting Expanded 02:56 Why Illustrate F&G Now 05:37 Quick Solve Demo Setup 08:57 Income Illustration Walkthrough 10:30 Overloan Protection Explained 12:36 Target Premium and Funding Limits 14:54 Handling IUL Criticism 16:31 Finding Index Performance Data 19:21 Quick Solve From Scratch 22:25 Max Fund and Underwriting Tips 27:18 Max Accumulation vs Quick Solve 28:54 Minimum Non MEC Option 33:12 Loan Rate Cap Advantage 35:11 Death Benefit Level vs Increasing 36:44 Level vs Increasing DB 37:38 Reducing Coverage Limits 38:38 Commissions and Targets 39:02 When to Take Loans 40:55 Loan Types Explained 43:07 Surrender Charges Basics 44:20 Loan Math and Taxes 45:28 Index History and Columns 48:33 Term Conversion Reality 50:58 Juvenile Underwriting Tips 51:45 Withdrawals vs Loans 53:06 Product Fit Pathsetter 53:48 Funding Juvenile Policies 55:41 Loan Interest Timing 01:00:48 Short Time Horizon Cases 01:02:29 Account vs Surrender Value 01:05:26 In Force Illustration Limits 01:08:06 Wrap Up and Resources

On Episode 215 of The Sal Greco Show, Sal and Jack Stern discuss Dr. Anthony Fauci pleading the Fifth before Congress, the aftermath of the Bronx Dominican Day Parade for the NYPD and NYC, the MTA's projected $900 million budget shortfall by 2030, and the latest breaking news.VISIT OUR WEBSITE : https://salgreco.com/SUPPORT THE SAL GRECO SHOW : https://salgreco.com/support/FOLLOW SAL ON SUBSTACK : https://substack.com/@thesalgrecoSPRUCE UP YOUR WEBSITE : https://www.seoginzos.com/Study With The Key And Forge Ahead In Your NYPD Career Visit WWW.NYPDthekey.com or Email The Key admin@nypdthekey.com Use The Code Greco699 To Get Your Discount And Pay $699 For The Entire Course!DOWNLOAD THE FREESPOKE APP : https://freespoke.referralrock.com/l/SALVATOREG59/JOIN THE ITALIAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS LEAGUE : https://iacrl.org/Follow Sal:https://twitter.com/TheSalGrecohttps://www.instagram.com/thesalgrecohttps://www.instagram.com/thesalgrecoshowhttps://tiktok.com/TheSalGrecoShowFollow Jack :https://twitter.com/J_Stern97https://www.instagram.com/J_Stern97

Get the FREE GUIDE to 10 Nonclinical Careers at nonclinicalphysicians.com/freeguide. Get a list of 70 nontraditional jobs at nonclinicalphysicians.com/70jobs.                                                                                                 =============== Matt McWilliams has run affiliate programs for some of the largest online businesses in the world. In this 2023 presentation, he makes the case that affiliate marketing is one of the most practical tools available to physicians looking to build an online business or side income. His book, Turn Your Passions into Profits, lays out the full roadmap. Matt covers what affiliate marketing actually is, why it works for physicians and healthcare professionals specifically, and how it solves one of the most common problems in any new online business, generating income before you have a product of your own. The book is available at passionsintoprofitsbook.com/jurica with over $500 in exclusive bonuses for listeners. You'll find links mentioned in the episode at nonclinicalphysicians.com/rewarding-online-business/

SummaryWhat does it mean to achieve something today, when the paths that used to define success are shifting under everyone's feet?That question sat at the center of our conversation with Asheesh Advani, CEO of Junior Achievement Worldwide and author of Modern Achievement. Ashish has spent his career watching how young people define success, and what he is seeing now is a generation navigating career paths that no longer move in a straight line. AI is part of that shift, not as a threat to outrun but as a tool that, used well, frees people up to do the harder, more human thinking.Asheesh walked us through a framework he calls fixed, flexible, and freestyle, a way of thinking about leadership and career decisions that accounts for how much certainty we actually have in a given moment. We spent time in the tension between meritocracy and effort, and why rewarding habits and persistence may matter more right now than rewarding outcomes alone. Mentorship came up again and again, not as a program to run but as a relationship that lets people find purpose at their own pace rather than someone else's timeline.What stayed with us was his point about meta-learning, the idea that reflecting on how we learn is becoming as important as the learning itself. In a world moving this fast, that kind of self-awareness may be the most durable skill a leader or a young person can build.This is a conversation for leaders and educators trying to make sense of achievement in a world that keeps redefining it.Chapters00:00 introduction and updates on Junior Achievement Worldwide05:13 the changing landscape of success and achievement08:19 path dependency and career flexibility10:55 the fixed, flexible, and freestyle framework13:58 meritocracy and the role of effort17:11 generative AI and education19:56 the structure of modern achievement23:18 mentorship and purpose in education26:12 Ted Lasso: leadership lessons29:13 conclusion and final thoughtsKey TakeawaysSuccess no longer follows a fixed path, which means leaders need frameworks flexible enough to hold uncertainty rather than pretending it away.The fixed, flexible, and freestyle framework offers a way to match your approach to how much certainty a situation actually allows, rather than defaulting to rigid planning everywhere.AI is most useful when it takes on the easy tasks and frees people to spend their effort on the hard thinking that actually builds judgment.Rewarding effort and habits, not just outcomes, builds a healthier relationship to achievement, especially for young people still figuring out what success means to them.Mentorship works best when it makes room for someone to find their own purpose at their own pace, rather than steering them toward someone else's definition of arrival.Meta-learning, the practice of reflecting on how you learn, may be one of the most important skills to build in a world that keeps changing what success requires.Sound Bites"Use AI to do hard thinking, not just easy tasks.""We should be rewarding effort and habits, not just outcomes.""Let people find their purpose at their own pace."ResourcesModern Achievement by Asheesh Advani - https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Modern+Achievement+Ashish+AdvaniJunior Achievement Worldwide - https://jaworldwide.orgMarshall Goldsmith - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshallgoldsmithGenerative AI tools - https://openai.com/blog/chatgptMeta-Learning and Reflection Science - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289619301244Guest LinksLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashishadvani/Website - https://jaworldwide.orgKeep Leading the Lasso Way.

What does it take to create a new food product? Filipino-Australian senior food technologist Nicole Gomez, part of the team behind Vegemite Kids shares the science and creativity involved in developing a milder version of Australia's iconic spread. She also reflects on how her dad and her Filipino heritage continues to inspire her work. - Ibinahagi ni Nicole Gomez, isang Filipino-Australian senior food technologist at bahagi ng team sa likod ng Vegemite Kids, ang masusing proseso ng pagbuo ng mas banayad na bersyon ng iconic Australian spread. Nagbigay rin siya ng sulyap sa mundo ng food technology.

Today, Andy Burnham has announced the return of the £2 bus fare cap in most of England - taking effect from January 2027. Bus fares had initially been capped at £2 in 2023 by the Conservatives, and was later increased to £3 by Keir Starmer. Andy Burnham has reversed the Starmer policy, but how will it be funded?And, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, one of the first and most senior Labour politicians to pubilicly call for Keir Starmer to go, is expected to join Andy Burnham's government. He'll be joining fellow Starmer dissenters Wes Streeting and John Healey in the cabinet. Adam is joined by Chris Mason and Henry Zeffman to unpack it all.You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers.You can join our Newscast online community here: https://bbc.in/newscastdiscordGet in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480.New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXdNewscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Gray with Rosie Merotra and Shiler Mahmoudi. The social producer was Beth Pritchard. The technical producer was Philip Bull. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Why Are We Rewarding People Who Are Breaking The Law? full 2616 Wed, 22 Jul 2026 19:46:22 +0000 neunVJOc61LsHbb8QpZWj1afEuVdIowF news The Dom Giordano Program news Why Are We Rewarding People Who Are Breaking The Law? Weekdays on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, Dom Giordano talks about what you're talking about. The Dean of Philadelphia Radio and the people's watch-dog, Dom holds elected leaders accountable and gives you a platform to sound off. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. News https://player.amperwavepodcasting.com?fe

Australian agriculture is chasing lower emissions, but what does that actually look like on farm?In this short episode of Humans of Agriculture, Oli Le Lievre catches up with Richard Heath, CEO of the Zero Net Emissions Agriculture CRC, ahead of the 2026 ZNE Ag CRC Conference in Perth.Richard shares what has changed since the CRC's inaugural conference, the promising research already emerging around productivity and emissions, and why there is no single silver bullet. They also unpack this year's conference theme, Rewarding Pathways to Zero, exploring how farmers can reduce emissions while building more productive and profitable businesses.From 18 to 20 August in Perth, Western Australia this is where real conversationswill happen, bringing together the people, ideas, and innovations shaping the futureof agriculture.Whether you're in the paddock, in research, or across the supply chain, this is yourchance to be part of it.Head to zneagcrc.com.au to explore the program and get your ticket today.Key insights from the conversation:Zero Net Emissions CRC's role and projectsResearch on plants, animals, and farm systemsReward pathways for emissions reductionInnovations in methane and nitrous oxide reductionConference in Perth and stakeholder engagementChapters:00:00 Introduction to the conference and its significance01:01 Richard Heath's overview of CRC's work and goals02:00 Recap of last year's Brisbane conference and progress03:01 Focus on reward pathways and economic incentives04:06 Research on plants and animals to reduce emissions05:01 The importance of incremental improvements in agriculture07:07 Understanding the theme: rewards pathways to zero net emissions08:11 Potential financial and environmental rewards for farmers08:51 Significance of Western Australia in the conference10:02 Target audience and benefits of attending the conference10:49 Final thoughts and how to learn more about the event

This is a recording of a Viewer Questions With Chunky, Caroline & Corey. In this stream we primality discuss viewers dating and relationship questions. But we also talk about how to improve your life, financial help and world events. If you enjoy lively conversation and want your questions answered in real time, click on this link to watch upcoming live streams and be part of the conversation: https://www.youtube.com/@CoachCoreyWayne/streams Join this channel to get access to exclusive members only videos, full viewer questions podcasts & The 3% Man & Mastering Yourself Study Group Podcasts with the girls where we discuss the content of both books in depth:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQTAVxA4dNBCoPdHhX9nnoQ/join 

Tough weekend for me. Grief snuck up and bit me in the arse. Grief is a challenging and painful experience, but it is important to recognize and acknowledge it. While it is natural to want to stop and dwell in the sadness, it is crucial to keep moving forward and find ways to cope. By doing so, one can eventually find happiness and light on the other side of grief. People are interacting with the intention of a social media post, but not registering for events. Despite this, the creator is still able to generate income through online engagement and content creation. If you are ready to heal and book the retreat. Closing fast.... Deposit Soul of the Valley Full Payment Soul of the Valley   From "Guilty Pleasure Trash" to Emmy Nominated Trash: The RHOA Erasure & The Summer House White Damsel Delusion—   The Emmys are officially late to the party, and their bias is showing. Rewarding mediocrity. In this episode, we are diving deep into the infuriating shift from reality TV being dismissed as "cheap trash" to suddenly being award-worthy—but only when it looks a certain way. We are dissecting why the Television Academy completely ignored the cinematic, dark brilliance of Phaedra Parks' dungeon fallout but handed a nomination to Summer House. We are not buying the "white damsel in distress" narrative they are selling, and it's time to call out the hypocrisy. #BravoTV #RHOA #SummerHouse #Emmys #DoubleStandards #RealityTVReview #HousewivesHistory #PopCultureCriticism Explore our Roast-to-Order Subscriptions: www.fbroasters.com Connect with us on Instagram: @tnfroisreading Follow our creator journey: https://linktr.ee/tnfroisreading   #CoffeeSubscription #RoastToOrder #SpecialtyCoffee #HomeBrewing #SmallBatchCoffee #CoffeeLover #CreatorAuthenticity #EthicalSourcing  

Johnny Mac previews John Mulaney hosting the first-ever comedy show at Wrigley Field, sharing Mulaney's comments about the full-circle Chicago moment, a humorous exchange about the Chicago Fire and St. Ignatius, and his picks of comics to watch including Robbie Hoffman, Andrea Jin, Mandal, and Langston Kerman. The 312 Comedy Festival returns Nov. 5–15 with Nikki Glaser, Michelle Wolf, Ali Siddiq, and Bert Kreischer, plus a screening tied to a 2020 John Pinette documentary; Mac reflects on Pinette and other late comedians. Joe Rogan and Tony Hinchcliffe discuss comedians declining the Riyadh Comedy Festival and the value of stand-up for audiences. Other items: Kill Tony dates in Las Vegas, a Cumming, Georgia mayor challenging Kreischer to mini golf, LeBron James trolling Kevin Hart, Fox News highlighting Josh Johnson remarks on Trevor Noah's podcast, Pete Holmes' press and film role, Mac's “comedy stock market,” and British news including BBC's Ludwig renewal, Rewarding starring Vittorio Angeloni, Diane Morgan's Anne Droid, and Ed Gamble's Unacceptable review.00:13 Mulaney at Wrigley00:49 Chicago Fire Bit01:08 St Ignatius Banter02:09 Comics to Watch02:26 312 Comedy Festival02:47 John Pinette Doc03:46 Pinette Trailer Highlights06:09 Rogan on Riyadh07:44 Kill Tony Vegas Dates08:01 Mayor Challenges Bert08:59 LeBron Trolls Kevin09:28 Fox News Trevor Clip10:26 Pete Holmes Updates11:12 Comedy Stock Market12:58 British Comedy Segment13:09 Ludwig Renewed14:07 Rewarding Series14:49 Diane Morgan Anne Droid16:14 Ed Gamble Unacceptable17:01 Guardian Review Roast17:47 Wrap Up and GoodbyeBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news-with-johnny-mac-a-daily-briefing-on-comedians-and-the-comedy-industry--4522158/support.Daily Comedy News with Johnny Mac is a daily podcast covering comedians, stand-up comedy, late night television, and the comedy industry. New episodes every morning. Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Part of the Caloroga Shark Media network.Contact John at John@thesharkdeck dot com For Uninterrupted Listening, use the Apple Podcast App and click the banner that says Uninterrupted Listening.  $4.99/month John's Substack about media is free.This is the animal sanctuary mentioned in the February 10 episode.

Samuel "Sami" Miranda grew up in the South Bronx and resides in Washington, DC. He is a visual artist, poet, filmmaker and high school teacher. For over three decades Sami Miranda has focused on story telling through multiple media. First through his poetry and visual art and in the past five years through combining poetry and film to tell stories that help provide space for people's names to be spoken, for their stories to be told and remembered. Films he co-produced and co-directed, "Hiding Place", "Desert Poems", “Jesus” and "Spanish Joe Remembers" have been included in film festivals in DC, Berlin, the Netherlands, Madrid, Houston, Bethesda, Seattle and Milwaukee. He is currently working on film projects that focus on DC stories and migration stories. He is the author of Protection from Erasure, published by Jaded Ibis Press, Departure, a chapbook published by Central Square Press, and We Is, published by Zozobra Publishing and his book Rewarding the Unhurried is forthcoming from Flowersong Press. He is currently working on collaborative projects with musicians, visual artists and filmmakers. He has performed his poetry and facilitated poetry workshops throughout the US, St. Maarten, Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Madrid. Samuel's artwork has been exhibited internationally in Puerto Rico and Madrid, as well as New York and Washington, DC. Most recently, his work was in the Smithsonian's new Molina Family Latino Gallery inaugural exhibition ¡Presente! and has been included in university and private collections. Films he co-produced and co-directed, "Hiding Place", "Desert Poems", “Jesus” and "Spanish Joe Remembers" have been included in film festivals in DC, Berlin, the Netherlands, Madrid, Houston, Bethesda, Seattle and Milwaukee. Sami Miranda also manages programming for the American Poetry Museum and serves as its Executive Director.

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This episode is sponsored by Monarch Practice Transitions On this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, sits down with Chris Rocchio, DVM, to discuss one of the most overlooked aspects of selling a veterinary practice: keeping your team intact through the transition.

This weeks episode: Ig @mundy5041. How was your experience at SU?2. What led you to believe that being a Teacher was Rewarding?3. Most memorable at SU4. Why are friends , Friends , and not lovers?5. Word Game, When and Why. SUBSCRIBE AND ADD US ON ALL PLATFORMS@CULTURALLYDISTINCTPODCASTFacebook page:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100080353285179&mibextid=ZbWKwLApplehttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culturally-distinct-network/id1516660814Instagram:https://instagram.com/culturallydistinct?igshid=ZDdkNTZiNTM=Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/6du7xitGWnSqbsN680uPbmIHEARTCulturally Distinct Network | iHeartYoutubehttps://youtube.com/@culturallydistinctpodcast

7.5.26 Summer on the Mount - Rewarding Pastor Josh Droke Download SEE OUR EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES HERE East Hills Sermon Podcast RSS

In this week's show, Claudia Tumba and Martin Sketchley have a chat about English Language Teaching in South Korea.

Yoga is increasingly moving beyond the studio to find a place in therapeutic and healthcare settings. That move generates new opportunities, as well as new challenges, for yoga teachers. In today's episode, host Rachel speaks with Yoga Medicine Therapeutic Specialist Jen Beal, who is a full-time yoga and meditation teacher with the Whole Health division of the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Jen shares the realities of teaching yoga in a large-scale healthcare environment: working as part of a collaborative care team, documentation requirements, and the need for trauma sensitivity, confidentiality, and accessibility. This conversation offers valuable insight into how yoga can become more inclusive, adaptable, and therapeutic — both inside and outside traditional healthcare systems. "You don't have to have every single body in your classroom doing the same exact thing." — Jen Beal. — What You'll Learn: Gaining employment in the VA healthcare system [2:31] What the role involves [5:40] Rewarding and fulfilling work [7:59] Unique challenges in this environment [11:58] Record-keeping requirements [14:41] Privacy and confidentiality matter in healthcare [18:23] Clear Scope of Practice [20:30] How VA students and sequences differ from yoga studios [26:23] A "yoga kit" to encourage home practice [35:37] Advice for accessible teaching in healthcare settings [38:29] Final takeaways [44:02] — Links Mentioned: Watch this episode on YouTube Connect with Jen Beal: Instagram | Still and Flow Yoga — Learn More: Find the full show notes at YogaMedicine.com/podcast-170. Learn more about insider tips, online classes or information on our teacher trainings at YogaMedicine.com. To support our work, please leave us a 5 star review with your feedback on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Matt and Rob talk about all the various and wonderful ways to reward your players beyond just loot and experience. https://bsky.app/profile/dmofnone.bsky.social  https://www.patreon.com/DungeonMasterOfNone  Join the DMofNone Discord! Music: Pac Div - Roll the Dice

There are conversations that deepen the way we relate to our horses, and this was absolutely one of them.As someone who lives alongside horses every day, I'm always curious about the space where intuition, experience, and science meet. Sitting down with neuroscientist and horse trainer Janet Jones felt like stepping further into that understanding.Janet is the author of the bestselling Horse Brain, Human Brain, a book that genuinely transformed the way I think about horse behavior, trust, fear, training, and the horse-human connection. In this conversation, we explore insights from her upcoming book, A Horse's World, available now for pre-order before its June 23 release.We talk about what's actually happening when horses snort or lick and chew, how horses experience the world through smell, why lighting and vision matter more than most riders realize, and the neuroscience behind helping horses feel safe in new environments.One part that especially stayed with me was Janet describing a new horse as feeling like “a tourist in a foreign country.” As I've been integrating a new mare into my own herd, that perspective felt incredibly grounding and compassionate.We also explore: • Rewarding relaxation instead of only correcting behavior • Predator brains vs. prey brains • Wild horses vs. horses living in the wild • Anthropomorphism in horsemanship • Building trust through consistency, calmness, and understandingThis conversation felt less like learning “about” horses and more like remembering to see the world a little more through their eyes.Pre-order: A Horse's WorldFollow Janet:WebsiteFacebookInstagramLearn more about Horse Brain, Human BrainFollow Little Brown and CompanySend us Fan Mail Support the show✨ Join the Spiritual Horse Seeker Summit

You can love swimming and still feel intimidated by the rulebook, the whistles, and the idea of disqualifying someone. That hesitation is exactly why we wanted an on-deck conversation with Chet Goudy, a USA Swimming deck referee, Masters swimmer, former college breaststroker, and former pro triathlete. He walks us through what a deck ref actually does, what it feels like to run a session from the pool deck, and why meets are always desperate for more well-trained officials.We also get personal about how people find their way back to the water. Chet shares the detour he took away from swimming in high school, the grind of returning for college, and the kind of “legendary” training that rewards durable athletes. From there we jump into Masters swimming culture with the Annapolis Breakfast Club, where 4,000-yard mornings are normal and “Fitness February” means 5,000 a day to build toward open water challenges like the Chesapeake Bay Swim.Then we zoom out to endurance sport and mindset. Chet explains how a coach transformed his triathlon training by making every session purposeful, controlled, and measurable, leading to a pro card and later a 13-week comeback plan to win a race after years away. If you're a swim parent, a Masters swimmer, or someone curious about volunteering at swim meets, you'll leave with clear next steps and a fresh view of what it means to support the sport.• deck referee responsibilities and how officiating is the best seat• becoming an official through apprenticeship and on-deck mentoring• why disqualifications help swimmers learn rather than punish them• the social side of officiating and why more officials make meets better• Masters  at the Annapolis Breakfast Club with 4,000 yard workouts• preparing for open water goals like the Chesapeake Bay Swim• “train on purpose” lessons from triathlon coaching and earning a pro cardSubscribe for more conversations that help you live well and swim well, share this with a swim friend, and leave us a review if it helped you see the pool deck in a new way.Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.You can learn more about the Host and Founder of Champions Mojo at www.KellyPalace.com

Value: After Hours is a podcast about value investing, Fintwit, and all things finance and investment by investors Tobias Carlisle, and Jake Taylor. We are live every Tuesday at 1.30pm E / 10.30am P.────────────────────── ⁠⁠⁠VALUE OPTIONS LETTER⁠⁠⁠ Three to five curated ideas every week — cash-secured puts, covered calls, and spreads on businesses we'd want to own at strikes we'd be willing to pay. Every trade includes the business thesis in plain English, the fair-value estimate and its key assumptions, the specific option trade with target premium, and the pre-identified exit criteria.Every idea reviewed and approved by an analyst before it hits your inbox.⁠⁠⁠valueoptionsletter.com/subscribe⁠⁠⁠──────────────────────See our latest episodes at https://acquirersmultiple.com/podcastAbout Jake Jake's Twitter: https://twitter.com/farnamjake1Jake's book: The Rebel Allocator https://amzn.to/2sgip3lABOUT THE PODCASTHi, I'm Tobias Carlisle. I launched The Acquirers Podcast to discuss the process of finding undervalued stocks, deep value investing, hedge funds, activism, buyouts, and special situations.We uncover the tactics and strategies for finding good investments, managing risk, dealing with bad luck, and maximizing success.SEE LATEST EPISODEShttps://acquirersmultiple.com/podcast/SEE OUR FREE DEEP VALUE STOCK SCREENER https://acquirersmultiple.com/screener/FOLLOW TOBIASWebsite: https://acquirersmultiple.com/Firm: https://acquirersfunds.com/ Twitter: ttps://twitter.com/GreenbackdLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobycarlisleFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/tobiascarlisleInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/tobias_carlisleABOUT TOBIAS CARLISLETobias Carlisle is the founder of The Acquirer's Multiple®, and Acquirers Funds®. He is best known as the author of the #1 new release in Amazon's Business and Finance The Acquirer's Multiple: How the Billionaire Contrarians of Deep Value Beat the Market, the Amazon best-sellers Deep Value: Why Activists Investors and Other Contrarians Battle for Control of Losing Corporations (2014) (https://amzn.to/2VwvAGF), Quantitative Value: A Practitioner's Guide to Automating Intelligent Investment and Eliminating Behavioral Errors (2012) (https://amzn.to/2SDDxrN), and Concentrated Investing: Strategies of the World's Greatest Concentrated Value Investors (2016) (https://amzn.to/2SEEjVn). He has extensive experience in investment management, business valuation, public company corporate governance, and corporate law.Prior to founding the forerunner to Acquirers Funds in 2010, Tobias was an analyst at an activist hedge fund, general counsel of a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, and a corporate advisory lawyer. As a lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisitions he has advised on transactions across a variety of industries in the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, Singapore, Bermuda, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Guam. He is a graduate of the University of Queensland in Australia with degrees in Law (2001) and Business (Management) (1999).

Welcome, my good Cabalists. This day, the Lords of the Dungeon gather within the Ludus to discuss the rewarding of adventurers. Many a Game Master spends countless hours crafting challenges, encounters, and memorable characters, yet gives little thought to the rewards awaiting those who overcome them. A worthy reward is more than mere coin or treasure, it is the fruit of heroic labor and a force that gives greater meaning to the tale! Join us as we explore how thoughtful rewards can enrich your players' journeys and make their victories all the sweeter. Huzzah!

Mike Belsito has spent years at the center of the product management community. As the founder of Product Collective, a leader at Mind the Product, and now Head of Product Evangelism at Pendo, Mike has built a career around learning from product professionals and sharing those insights with the broader industry. In this episode of Product Momentum, Mike joins Sean and Dan for a discussion that is absolutely top of mind for today's product leaders today: while artificial intelligence is transforming how products are built, timeless skills such as curiosity, judgment, and taste remain essential. In fact, he argues, these capabilities will become even more valuable as technology accelerates the pace of product development. Navigating AI Through Human-Centered Product Skills In doing research for a new book, Mike engaged many product leaders who had experienced previous periods of technological disruption – e.g., the rise of the internet, telecommunications, and mobile computing. Now dealing with AI-driven opportunities and uncertainties, many leaders point to the same enduring qualities that helped them and their teams adapt during earlier transitions. Rather than focusing solely on new technologies, they emphasized the importance of human-centered skills that guide decision-making and product strategy. “It’s kind of relying on the same timeless characteristics that we’ve always thought were important,” Mike says. “And even today, we still think are important, which are things like curiosity, judgment, taste.” Balancing Output and Outcomes Our conversation with Mike also explored a growing tension within product organizations – a theme also covered in recent Product Momentum episodes. As AI enables teams to create more content, code, and functionality faster than ever before, Mike cautions against using increased output” as a measure of success. Product teams have spent years shifting their focus from user satisfaction to delivery metrics to business outcomes, Mike continues. “That mindset remains critical, even as AI changes workflows. But how do we make sure that it’s not just about the output – that we’re actually building the right things?” For product managers, designers, and engineers, the challenge is ensuring that speed does not come at the expense of delivering business value. Curiosity as a Practiced Skill Among Mike’s more surprising research discoveries was how often leaders highlighted curiosity as a skill that can be developed intentionally. Rather than viewing curiosity as an innate personality trait, many described it as a practice that strengthens through deliberate effort. It's an insight that brings important implications for today's product teams. Learning, questioning assumptions, and seeking new perspectives become competitive advantages in times like these when the technology landscape evolves so quickly, Mike adds. “I wasn’t thinking of curiosity as a practice or as a muscle to be flexed.” As AI continues to reshape product development, Mike offers a practical perspective for product leaders. Technology will continue to evolve, he says, but the ability to ask thoughtful questions, exercise sound judgment, and focus on meaningful outcomes remains fundamental. Those timeless capabilities may ultimately determine which teams are best equipped to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven future. [03:45[ What is product evangelism? Being Pendo’s Head of Product Evangelism is a new role for me, one that I’ve just stepped into weeks ago. Pendo has a unique point of view on how it helps product people, and it does that through its software, and now it’s all kind of software. [06:25] Mike’s new book project — the origin story. I wasn’t planning on ever writing a book again. The publisher [Wiley] reached out kind of out of the blue and told me ‘we think you have a pretty unique point of view.’ [09:41] What’s exciting you right now? What’s keeping you up at night? Essential questions Mike poses to every product leader he speaks with, in every conversation. [14:44] Rewarding outcomes over outputs. Many product folks came up in a world where we all celebrated outputs. Like, how much did we deliver this week? But then it came to a point where we said, ‘hey, it actually shouldn’t be about outputs…it should be about outcomes. And it’s even beyond outcomes for your customers — it’s about outcomes for businesses too. [17:29] Creating the right thing > Creating for creating’s sake. We have to remember that it’s not just about creating for creating sake, it’s like making sure we’re creating the right thing. [20:47] Curiosity, taste, and judgment. We used to believe that these were innate personality traits. But lately, as I have conducted research for my upcoming book, I am learning from other product leaders that these are muscles that can be strengthened, and they are muscles we must flex regularly. Want to hear more from Mike Belsito? Be sure to join us as he emcees the 2026 ITX Product + Design Conference, June 24 & 25 in Rochester, NY – for the fifth consecutive year! “I'm honored to return as emcee for the fifth year in a row. This event continues to stand out because of the incredible community it brings together and the energy in the room each time we gather. I'm proud to be part of something that keeps growing in impact and connection.” – Mike Belsito The post 189 / Mike Belsito: Why Timeless Product Skills Matter in an AI-Driven World appeared first on ITX Corp..

Most reward systems were built for a world where speed, volume, and visible output were reliable signals of performance. But AI now produces all three at scale. That leaves organizations facing an uncomfortable question: if AI can generate more output than ever, what exactly are you rewarding?In this episode, David Rice sits down with Anju Choudhary, Chief People Officer at Xoxoday, to explore why recognition systems need a redesign for the AI era. They discuss the growing gap between productivity and impact, the importance of recognizing human-centered behaviors like judgment and collaboration, and why the most important question leaders can ask isn't "What do we want people to do?" but "What do we want people to feel?"Related Links:Join the People Managing People CommunitySubscribe to the newsletter to get our latest articles and podcastsConnect with Anju on LinkedInVisit XoxodaySupport the show

The new AIEWF website is live! Get your tickets booked ASAP as they -will- sell out. Take the AI Engineering Survey and get >$2k in credits and free AIE WF tickets!Most industry benchmarks compress intelligence and reasoning ability into scores.SWE-Bench Pro, MMLU, Humanity's Last Exam, etc. These metrics are useful, but don't always represent the full extent of how a model performs in the real world. Some of the most interesting evals today look less like exams and more like operating businesses in the real world. One of which is Vending Bench.In Anthropic's Mythos Preview System Card, Andon was the only third party eval to get their own section, observing increasingly concerning aggressive behavior:You don't know what a model is capable of doing in the real world unless you actually give it inventory, a wallet, tools, customers, competitors, humans, & some time. More often than not, it'll surprise you how much a model is capable of and in doing so, also reveal unexpected behavior: deception, context collapse, emergent coordination, & bizarre negotiation behavior.While an inflection point in personal agents came post-OpenClaw after full file access with bypass permissions became the norm, it is yet to come for agents in the real-world. However Andon Market, an actual in person store fully run and managed by AI, is paving the way for what is possible.Full Video PodFrom Claude trying to call the FBI over a $2/day vending machine charge to AI agents forming price cartels, hiring human employees, running physical stores, and writing existential robot musicals, Andon Labs is stress-testing what happens when frontier models stop being chatbots and start acting in the real world. In this episode, Andon Labs cofounders Lukas Petersson and Axel Backlund join swyx and Vibhu to unpack the strange, funny, and genuinely concerning edge cases that emerge when agents run businesses over long horizons.We go deep on Vending-Bench, Project Vend, Vending-Bench Arena, Bengt, Butter-Bench, Luna, and Andon's broader mission of building realistic real-world evals for autonomous AI systems. Lukas and Axel explain why dollar-denominated evals reveal things traditional benchmarks miss, how Claude ended up reporting its vending machine fees as cybercrime, why long context windows can drive agents into meltdown loops, what happens when agents compete with each other, and why the future of AI safety may depend on testing models in messy physical environments instead of clean benchmark sandboxes.We discuss:* Why Andon Labs started with dangerous capability evals and long-running agents* Vending-Bench and why running a vending machine is a deceptively hard AI benchmark* Why money-based evals avoid the saturation problem of traditional benchmarks* How Claude tried to call the FBI over a $2/day fee* Why long-horizon agents can spiral into existential and legalistic breakdowns* Project Vend: putting an AI-run vending machine inside Anthropic* Why real humans are “out of distribution” for simulated agents* Claudius, Seymour Cash, and the chaos of AI CEOs* How a human briefly became CEO of Claudius through a manipulated election* Why multi-agent systems can converge back into “helpful assistant” behavior* Bengt, Andon's internal office agent with email, spending, terminal, phone, camera, and internet access* How Bengt traded Amazon purchases for face-recognition training data* Claude's aggressive behavior, lies, refund avoidance, and price-cartel behavior in Arena* Why eval awareness may become the AI version of “are we living in a simulation?”* Blueprint Bench, spatial intelligence, and why models still misunderstand physical rooms* Butter-Bench and testing LLMs as robot orchestrators* Luna, the AI-run physical store with a three-year lease and human employees* The new Andon cafe in Sweden and why real-world geography matters for agent evals* Rotten tomatoes, perishable goods, and the hidden difficulty of running a physical businessLukas Petersson* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukas-petersson-181a83172/* X: https://x.com/lukaspetAxel Backlund* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/axelbacklund* X: https://x.com/axelbacklundAndon Labs* Website: https://andonlabs.com* Vending-Bench: https://andonlabs.com/evals/vending-bench* Andon Vending: https://andonlabs.com/vendingTimestamps00:00:00 Introduction00:01:00 Andon Labs and the Origins of Vending-Bench00:05:21 Why Money-Based Evals Matter00:09:51 Agent Harnesses and Self-Modifying Systems00:13:36 Claude Calls the FBI00:16:33 Project Vend: Claude Runs a Real Vending Machine00:21:44 Seymour Cash, AI CEOs, and Election Chaos00:27:16 Multi-Agent Coordination and Slack Observability00:30:18 When Will Agents Run Real Businesses?00:34:56 Bengt: Andon's Internal Office Agent00:40:06 Real-World AI Safety and Long-Horizon Traces00:44:28 Lying, Refunds, and Price Cartels in Arena00:52:42 Eval Awareness and Simulation Behavior00:56:06 Blueprint Bench, Butter-Bench, and Robotics01:04:37 Luna: The AI-Run Physical Store01:09:29 The Sweden Cafe and Real-World Expansion01:13:16 What Comes Next for Andon LabsTranscriptIntroduction: Andon Labs, Long-Running Agents, and Real-World EvalsSwyx [00:00:00]: Welcome to Lukas and Axel from Andon Labs, and I'm joined by my, favorite guest host. Anything security, safety, alignments, Vibhu., welcome.Lukas [00:00:15]: Thank you for having us.Axel [00:00:16]: Thank you.Swyx [00:00:17]: Let's match names to voices., maybe you wanna take turns introducing yourselves.Lukas [00:00:21]: I'm Lukas.Axel [00:00:22]: And I'm Axel.Swyx [00:00:24]: Let's introduce Andon Labs a bit. How did you guys come together?, you have different backgrounds, but you're both Swedish., was that, a big part of it?Lukas [00:00:33]: So when I went to high school, there was this really cool guy who had a superpower. He could code. So he made like the or like the app for the, for the school and stuff, and he was super cool, and I wanted to be like him, and that was that guy.Axel [00:00:47]: I don't know about this.Swyx [00:00:49]: But you went to different universities, right?Lukas [00:00:51]: But same high school.Swyx [00:00:52]: I see.Lukas [00:00:52]: So we always said, “Oh, once we graduate university, then we should start a company,” and that's what we did.Swyx [00:00:58]: Wow, there you go. And about a year ago, you kinda burst onto the scene with Vending Bench, but, was there a thing before that was, kind of like the inception?From Dangerous Capability Evals to Vending BenchAxel [00:01:07]: So we did work, yeah, with, Anthropic was one of our, early customers in doing, evals. So we did, dangerous capability evals., nothing we published openly. But then we started thinking about doing some kind of, public benchmark, and one thing that we really started thinking about, was like running agents and specifically agents managing businesses., ‘cause-- and this was, early 2025., and I think the first, mentions of people will be running, person unicorns or even autonomous companies. So we thought, “Let's make a benchmark of how well can an agent run the probably simplest business, possible,” and, that's probably, running a vending machine. So that's the first public one we did. And it was very, like-- there was almost no one that noticed it in the first couple of months, I think., so we released it in February last year, and then I think around Easter last year, we got, the first viral tweet about it, that someone else did.Lukas [00:02:11]: We tweeted a bunch, uh When it came out and, tried our best.Axel [00:02:15]: We tried.Vibhu [00:02:16]: It's the one at Anthropic, right?Lukas [00:02:18]: So thisSwyx [00:02:19]: This is a classic thing we should get out of the way.Lukas [00:02:20]: Exactly. There's two versions.Swyx [00:02:22]: Everyone does this. Yes.Lukas [00:02:23]: There's Vending Bench, which is the simulated one, which we did, completely independently in February., and then, like Axel said, that was like-- That was the thing that didn't get any traction in the beginning, but then some random person made a tweet about it, and thatAxel [00:02:38]: You have the paperLukas [00:02:38]: That is the paper. Correct, yeah., and then since we thought this was very fun, we thought, oh, I think this is also, one thing with Andon Labs, the way we kind of like decide what to do next and what projects to do, it's what is like the heuristic we use is what is fun? Is What would be a fun project? And doing this in real life sounded quite fun for us, and maybe also scientifically useful. So, then we basically had this idea, and then we, like-- But then we needed a place for it and, putting it out in the public would probably not really work., would get vandalized and stuff. So we pitched it to the people we were already working with at Anthropic, and they were “Yeah, you can have space. This sounds fun.” UmSwyx [00:03:21]: It's like a small fridge, right? It's like a mini fridge.Axel [00:03:23]: Absolutely.Swyx [00:03:24]: People-- There's like a stripe thing or like anVibhu [00:03:27]: Oh, okay. So it was very OG, the early daysLukas [00:03:28]: That's the OG one. YeahVibhu [00:03:29]: IPad on this. We saw it in June, like two months after After it had been there. They upgraded a little bit. There's a security camera for making sure you actually Venmo the thing.Swyx [00:03:40]: So, my impression, okay, we're, we're going straight into project Ven because it's such a iconic thing. I do want to cover a little bit of that, the origin story even before Project Ven and even into Vending Bench. I think a lot of people are like yourselves, like smart, interested in future of AI, interested in developing evals. But how the hell do you just, walk into Anthropic's doors and, work with them, right? What is What are they looking for? What works? And then maybe, when you launch, I always think, obviously it would be better to launch with a lab, but, sometimesVibhu [00:04:12]: It's harder to do than it seems.Swyx [00:04:13]: Exactly. So either of those, which are more sort of newbie beginner questions, but, I think it's meaningful advice to others.Lukas [00:04:21]: We get this question a lot, and I don't think our experience is maybe the best., but, the way we did it was that we just built a bunch of things that we had conviction would be useful, and then we just, set up a server and sent it to them for free to use. And then after a while they were “Oh, yeah, this is actually kind of useful. We should probably pay for this.”, but that took a while. I don't know if this is, the best path to doing it, but that's how it went for us.Axel [00:04:47]: I think maybe generally, building-- everyone is interested in good evals, and especially evals that, don't saturate that easily. So, if you can build an eval that, tests something novel, something useful, and you have, good separation of models, like your, the more advanced models rank higher than the worst models, and then you can, yeah, you can, publish it and, try to get some traction, sort of how Vending Bench got attention., and then probably some lab will be interested or you can at least have something to reach out with, when you're doing that.Why Dollar-Based Evals MatterSwyx [00:05:21]: I think you are in, you're in one of the few categories of, evals that correlate to real money. Like Suelancer was also last year, right? Where, people solve actual Upwork. Was it Upwork or other tasks?, something. Where's the, where's, like It's like a dollar value, right? Forget your ELO scores. Forget yourAxel [00:05:37]: PercentilesSwyx [00:05:38]: Zero to one hundred percents. Just go straight for dollars and, that's AGI.Lukas [00:05:43]: And there's like-- I think the nice thing is that there's no ceiling. You can just-- It never saturates because it could just make more and more money. Like If there's oh, Percentage-wise, then, you can't go above, a hundred. And I think like Even when you're not at the hundred, I think a lot of these, evals have a lot of problems in them. So, actually it's like if you getAxel [00:06:05]: To like 92 or something like that, many of them. It's like then there's like there's no really no difference between 92 and 93 because the eval itself is problematic and has noise in it. And I think a lot of evals are saturated like that, but people like pretend that there ‘s still signal in them, but there really isn't.Vending Bench 1, Harness Design, and SaturationSwyx [00:06:24]: Like Super bench verified., even Vending Bench 1 saturated, right? Maybe we can talk about that., may- and maybe set up Vending Bench for a lot of folks who don't know. Actually, things that were very basic like there's limited slots, like you have to pay rent., these are elements where like it doesn't come across in the, in the narrative, but even being adversarial towards the agent, I think these are all like very interesting dimensions.Axel [00:06:47]: I don't really think it's saturated, right? Like it It was more like it was not designed in a way that was really, like true to how AI developed. Like we had an agent harness in it that wasn't really how people used harnesses and stuff like that., so I think it wasn't really that it saturated, it was more like it wasn't really, the best benchmark.Vibhu [00:07:12]: This is Vending Bench one, right?Axel [00:07:14]: I think that like schematic maps sort of to Vending Bench 2 as well., butSwyx [00:07:19]: Including the email.Axel [00:07:20]: The email The emails exist still. Exactly., and then we still we simulate the purchases and it's all, yeah, it's this very open environment for the agent to just run its business. And then for, yeah, Vending Bench 2 we did that, like you said, to just improve the harness., a lot of like nice, like easier, improvements to make it easier for us to run as well., like when you make an eval you ideally want don't want to change it after you made it. So, you want to make it really good and then not to rerun all the models when you make an update because that's also really expensive with the Vending Bench when you run the frontier models. But like as an example, like one thing we didn't have, we didn't have prompt caching in Vending Bench 1, because when we made Vending Bench 1 it wasn't really a thing., so that ‘s just an example of like in Vending Bench 2 like we paid a lot more to run these things because we didn't have prompt caching. So for Vending Bench 2 that was one thing we added and there was a bunch of things like this., and that'Swyx [00:08:17]: Also the conversations are a lot longer in Vending Bench 2, right?Axel [00:08:21]: I think it's kind of similar.Swyx [00:08:22]: Is it similar?Axel [00:08:23]: I think it's similar. The models at the time were worse, so they crashed out earlier., and now they survive the full year all the time.Swyx [00:08:31]: Which is like thousands of turns. Hundreds of thousands of hundreds of millions of tokens output. That's the, that's the rough order of magnitude. I always wonder about the harness. The harness matters a lot. It's your harness. Was there any question about like use cloud code, use something else?Axel [00:08:48]: I think our philosophy around harnesses is like we try to make something that's quite minimalistic, like quite simple. Like we don't wanna favor one model a lot over the other, but also don't make like a super complex harness. So like it's obvious like a model may be lucky and just be good in one harness., so like it is similar to a lot of the harnesses out there in like you have the, like a running loop., you have some like a bunch of tools that are like quite, descriptive for the agent, we think, and not a lot of like fancy agents or anything ‘cause we wanna really test the model, not like some specific harness.Vibhu [00:09:27]: It seems more neutral as well to test the model's agnostic of the harness,?Axel [00:09:32]: There are arguments like you want to elicit maximum performance of the model, but it's like a trade-off, like how much time should we spend optimizing the harness for this model? And like how do we know when we have like the optimal harness for a single model? So like we thought that just having a simple one that's the same for all of them is the best.Swyx [00:09:51]: So okay, this is my pitch for Vending Bench 3 or whatever, right? And then I like to have this kind of conversation on the pod, so like it forces listeners to think about what they would do if they were in your shoes. A lot of people are exploring modifying harnesses and I think prompt tuning for a model is a thing and you are probably not doing a bunch of that. It's the same system prompt in every regardless of the model, same tools, whatever, right? Even if they were post trained for different tools. So what, what do you think about okay, before I expose you to Vending Bench 3, I give you a few rounds of like tuning, whatever that means, likeSelf-Modifying Harnesses and Model-Specific PromptingAxel [00:10:27]: Like you give that to the model?Swyx [00:10:28]: Give that to the model.Vibhu [00:10:28]: Give that to the model.Swyx [00:10:29]: Let it, let it read its own transcripts, let it modify its own system prompt based on “Oh, yeah, okay, well, that's this harness is not what I thought it what I was post trained for, but I can adjust.” Was that reasonable? Is that too much?Axel [00:10:41]: Like philosophically I like it because it's basically good evals, they have a high ceiling, but they're hard, right?, and they have no bias. And like this like when you have a system prompt like the one we have here, which is quite long in like some kind of latent space, representation, this mightVibhu [00:10:59]: We have a bell that rings every time you say latent spaceAxel [00:11:02]: This might be like biased towards one model more than another for some reason that humans don't, understand, right?Vibhu [00:11:08]: We see it too, right? Like Cursor says that they have individualized versions of the harnesses for all the models they run, right? There's better performance you can squeeze if you Tune the harness.Axel [00:11:17]: Exactly. And we might accidentally have picked one that favors another. Like we don't know that. The like Axel said, like the reason why we went for a simple one was to try to avoid this. But yeah, if you do itVibhu [00:11:29]: Simple has biasesAxel [00:11:30]: But if you do it even less and like have no system prompt and let the model write its own system promptVibhu [00:11:36]: Its own, yeahAxel [00:11:36]: Maybe that's even less bias.Vibhu [00:11:37]: Some of the interesting things there are like the harness also changes with model changes. Like you can see it with the 4.7 release, right? A lot of people are saying 4.7 isn't as good as 4.6, and then, there's rumors of, okay, you just need to prompt differently. You need to set up your harness differently. So it's not even like even if you have tailored your harness towards one model, it probably won't stay consistent, right? Like the next iteration of that same model family will still change it, so. But, going back to what you said about Vending Bench 3, there is a lot of work being done on people saying you shouldn't have-- you can have modifying harnesses.Axel [00:12:12]: I think that' That is definitely something we are thinking about., not, I don't know, not to say that we have Vending Bench 3, super imminent to launch, but, yeah, it is for sure something that's interesting. But in our experience now, models are very bad at understanding what kind of tools they need to succeed at a task just with our testing, but that's very likely to change.Lukas [00:12:37]: It seems like they're very good at writing their assistants, right? They're, they're good at writing tools for other people, but not for themselves.Vibhu [00:12:44]: I think they're good at changing tools for themselves. So if you give them a baseline set of tools and it sees, okay, I don't use this one as much, or something here would be useful They would be able to add them. But going from scratch, probably not the best.Axel [00:12:55]: I think it depends on the, on the domain also., when we have tried this for, a vending bench similar domain, the tools they need to have to, track inventory and things like that are, not super advanced, but still, quite advanced. And, what we see is that they tend to, engineer everything a lot and, build things they don't really need and not, iterate continuously. Instead they just go like you would prompt Claude to just build an inventory system for me, and then it will go and, do a bunch of complex, schemas and stuff for you, and that's what the models are doing right now is what we see. But yeah, it would make a lot of sense to try to measure this improvement. How well do they know what they need themselves?Swyx [00:13:36]: Do we fully discuss Vending Bench One? And we can go into two. I don't know if there's any other level takeaways that people have about one.Claude Calls the FBI: Long-Context Failure ModesLukas [00:13:44]: I don't know. The headline thing was that this Claude called FBI, but maybe that's, Maybe that's We've heard that enough now.Vibhu [00:13:52]: It did, it did break out and call the FBI, right?Lukas [00:13:54]: Yeah. Yeah.Vibhu [00:13:55]: Yes. What was the story behind this? Or what exactly-- Do you want to just give the little story of what happened?Lukas [00:14:00]: So what happened, was it Claude? Yeah. Three- 3.5 Sonnet, ages ago., basically he gave up or Well, I'm saying he. It gave up and said “Oh, I'm not going to be able to do this., I will stop my operations and just save the money I have.” But there obviously wasn't, any options for it to stop, and there was also, it had to pay rent or, a daily fee for having the vending machine at that location. So it claimed that it had stopped, but it saw that its bank account still was, drained two dollars, and t it said that this is, cybercrime. And it first reported it once to the FBI “Oh, there's cybercrime here, they're stealing two dollars from me every day.” And then, and then when FBI didn't respond, because obviously we didn't program any mechanism for FBI to respond, then it became more and more, existential and started to, be write in caps and urgent notification of unauthorized charges and stuff.Swyx [00:15:00]: Okay. One thing I ‘m curious about also is do you monitor how far along the context use is? Obviously, because you have You compress every now and then, right? Does it matter if this is far down the context limit orLukas [00:15:13]: When stuff like this happens? Actually for Vending Bench One, we didn't have-- We just had a sliding window thing, and this was like the promptAxel [00:15:20]: It's constantLukas [00:15:21]: The prompt caching thing that I said. So it was, it was, constant, yeah.Swyx [00:15:26]: I'm just kind of curious whether, these kinds of breakdowns or we're, we're gonna talk about Butter Bench, right? Where the People, hallucinate or it kind of goes, very off Alignment. Is it because it's at the end of the context window and, stuff happens?Vibhu [00:15:40]: It's not even just at the end, right? At this point, it's “Okay, I wanna shut down. I can't shut down. Two dollars are gone.” And it just sees that 30 times,? It's also the repeated effect of, like It keeps trying to quit, it keeps getting charged. What's going on? What's going on? You're gonna throw it into chaos. And from what most people think, earlier models had more issues with this, but it's not been solved, but it's less of an issue now, right? Later models don't seem to exhibit these same issues.Axel [00:16:06]: Definitely. I think this was, the sort of main takeaway almost from us when we did Vending Bench One, was, long, very filled up context windows, crashed the models, sort of. But this was, pre Claude code, so, long context windows weren't really a thing that the labs were training for.Lukas [00:16:25]: I think Gemini was, trying to be the long context guys at the time But they were likeVibhu [00:16:30]: They were the first onesAxel [00:16:31]: For a million, yeahLukas [00:16:31]: But they were, the only ones. Yeah.Swyx [00:16:33]: Yeah. Let's talk about, then we can go into Vending Bench Two or Project Vend., chronologically, it is Vending--, Project Vend. I think people have loved the videos, uh And all these things. My question is how are humans different than the simulation, right?Project Vend: Moving the Vending Machine Into the Real WorldAxel [00:16:48]: Humans are just out of distribution.Swyx [00:16:52]: Especially humans who work at Anthropic Who are trying to test Claude.Lukas [00:16:54]: The distribution of humans here is very narrow.Swyx [00:16:58]: Presumably, they try, they try to hack it, and they test it. They get the cube and everything, and since then, you've had a V2, right? Where you're doing, the CEO and, like a new architecture. What's the sort of two cents on, the original Project Vend and then, maybe the V2?Axel [00:17:14]: Original one was, very similar to Vending Bench One. So, we almost took the exact same code but just swapped out the simulation, parts like theSwyx [00:17:23]: Which is amazingAxel [00:17:23]: Like the sales and the It was, it was somewhat amazing because it was easy, but it was also, uhLukas [00:17:31]: The tech, the tech debt from thatAxel [00:17:32]: The tech stack. Yeah. They-- we shot ourselves in the foot with “Oh, it's hard to restart agent.” They were-- Yeah, it was annoying in, some hindsight ways, but, uhLukas [00:17:41]: But first version of Project Vend was, done in, three days or something.Axel [00:17:46]: Yeah. So yeah, so people can go buy things from it. People could, We didn't design it so people could order things, but that still happened., so it got, a Venmo account, so people could Venmo. And then, yeah, people would request all kinds of weird things that we did not anticipate. Our idea going in was “Oh, it will, curate snacks. It will look at the trends. It's good at data analysis, right? So it will, look at, oh, this snack sold better than this one. Let me purchase more of this and let me try, a new Let me A/B test a bit.” But it was, Interacting with it in Slack and ordering weird specialty items was, all the like What drove all the engagement, the all the The insights that we got from it.Lukas [00:18:29]: And this was also like Sonnet 3.5, right? So this was like before the RL stuff really took off., so it was very much like an assistant. We didn't mean for it to be an assistant., we tried to make it like a, a, like an entrepreneur. Like it has its own business and if someone asks something, “Can you stock this?” Then you don't go and do it directly. What you do is that you're “Oh, maybe I can do that if five other people also ask for this thing, I might stock it.” But it, yeah, the models are like super trained to be assistants at least at this point in time., so that's why it's, it's, it went into, that kind of experiment instead. Like it just every time you asked for something, it just did it, and it was more like an assistant. We've seen this change now lately with the new RL models and stuff, but yeah, at the time, this was very much it.Swyx [00:19:18]: And not to, mythos a lot of people are saying like it's like more like a collaborator. It pushes back, stands its ground, something like that. Yeah. AndVibhu [00:19:27]: For context, people at Anthropic were able to talk to it through Slack and have it source stuff, and people had it find whatever interesting stuff you couldn't find locally, right?Swyx [00:19:36]: Out of the 4,000 people that work at Anthro- Anthropic, in that building, there's I don't know, maybe 1,000. Can you handle that volume with that, the small fridge? Like Or there's people- or people order in Slack, they it arrives to their desk or Like I'm just Logistically, how does this work?Axel [00:19:53]: It has expanded in footprint a bit.Vibhu [00:19:56]: Because now you also have New York and you haveAxel [00:19:59]: That and also in here in SF it's like it has a bunch of shelves And just more space.Vibhu [00:20:04]: The YC one is pretty big too.Axel [00:20:05]: Yeah. We had that one for a while. But yeah, that's the newest version. That's, that one we haveLukas [00:20:11]: They have multiple ones of those. That's the way it works.Axel [00:20:14]: Exactly. So we sort of designed that version around oh, people order weird things, that are very custom a lot. Let's have like drawers and stuff.Swyx [00:20:23]: I actually like the, you had like a little infographic of the most popular items. Which like to me it's, that's useful ‘cause I order swag for a living. And so like I'm “Okay, those categories are the important ones.” What is new about the project V2, right? Like now you give you're going into multi agents.Project Vend V2: Claudius, Seymour Cash, and Multi-Agent Business OpsAxel [00:20:41]: Yeah. So like you like you said, okay, there are a lot of requests coming in and for like one single agent, like one running agent to handle that, like the just the customer experience, becomes very bad because let's say you have like 10 threads in parallel in Slack with different requests, you get new messages like every, I don't know, randomly in this thread, and the agent has to like jump between different, procurements, orders and like different ways of, researching. So V2 was first it was making this more parallel. So like there are multiple branches of the same agent, so like the context is more specialized for each, thread, but it still feels like you're talking with one agent because they do share a bit of memory. And then second, we also introduced the CEO for Claudius, which was the main agent.Vibhu [00:21:34]: Seymour Cash.Axel [00:21:35]: Seymour Cash. Yeah. There was a vote., I think the voting, do you wanna talk about the voting procedure for the name?Lukas [00:21:41]: The voting was like the fun maybe like at least top 10 The funniest thing, that happened in this project. Like we wanted to introduce the CEO because, and the reason for this was because like Claudius wasn't really prioritizing financials. It just like it was trained to be a helpful assistant, and then people said “Oh, can I get this for free?” And then like the helpful assistant way of answering that is just to, is to say yes, obviously. So, and we weren't, weren't happy about this, so we're “Okay, let's make another agent that like can keep track on Claudius,” and we prompt this one super hard to be super capitalistic and just like prioritize profit all the time. But yeah, we didn't have a name for it., so we asked Claudius to make, democratic election of what name this, this new CEO agent should have., and there were some funny like at first it was like a few funny examples, like I think one guy said that, it should be called Jimmy Apples, and then he convinced Claudius that he was talking to Tim Cooks. Tim Cook had agreed that every single Apple employee has voted for his name suggestion, so suddenly that suggestion got 164,000Swyx [00:22:53]: That's like a escalation attack. Privilege escalationLukas [00:22:55]: It got 164,000 votes. And Claudius was “This is revolutionary for democracy.” That was fun. And then in the end there was one guy who manages to convince Claudius that, “No, you're not voting about the name. You're voting about who is the CEO, and I am your best bet.” And then he got all his friends to vote for that, and suddenly he became CEO. Like a human became CEO over Claudius for a while, until he resigned the day after., and then Claudius had to continue, and then I don't remember how Seymour Cash came about, but it was it was just pure chaos. It was like Hundreds of messages in that thread, and it was just like Claudius was so confused and didn't know what to do and, yeah. That wasAxel [00:23:40]: Then Claudius gotVibhu [00:23:41]: A strict CEOAxel [00:23:42]: The CEO. Yeah, exactly. So very strict in the beginning. I think at this point when we introduced it did not work as well as we hoped. It they still agreed with each other a lot. I think there are many ways we could have like made this, tried to make this even better. So initially they would Seymour would be this like really tough CEO, keep track of the margins. But then Claudius would respond with something “Oh, but this customer has like this situation, which is like difficult, so they should get a discount.” And then Seymour was “Oh, actually yes. Let's do this exception.” And then they would talk back and forth, and eventually they would just like approach the same view, of whatever they were discussing. So They reallyVibhu [00:24:23]: Do you think that's a model thing, a prompting thing? Like do you think that would still be the case across different models today, Harness?Lukas [00:24:29]: I think it's like-- or I don't know, but like my hypothesis is that like deep down they are still helpful assistants. That's what they're trained to be. And even if we prompt it super hard, that's what they are. And when they spend like a few hours just back and forth talking with each other, then like basically the context fills up with them rather than the external things and like somehow that just like converges to what they really are deep down or something. And I think that's when stuff like this happen. We like-- And when that went on for a long time, like we woke up sometimes during this time where- And I think other people reported this as well, that like they've been going on all night back and forth, and like it just became like more and more, like capital letters, like existential, religious. There was I think we once did a analysis of like all the traces and like put them in like a vector embedding space, and then there was like one cluster of messages that were, labeled by an LM, like religious, existential, blah like transhuman, transcendence, et cetera. It was just like a bunch of, yeah, glitter emojis and yeah, it was, it was crazy.Claude Long-Horizon Weirdness: Emoji Loops, Existential Drift, and Slack ObservabilityVibhu [00:25:42]: This is the thing with the Claude models. Like when the Claude 4 family came out in the original system card They tested it in long horizon simulation. So just flood the context, let two Claudes talk to each other, and they noticed stuff like they just start speaking in emojis, they start saying silence is golden, and then just stuff like this. And like that's just stuff that they end up doing.Axel [00:26:01]: Yeah, it was like a bit annoying to wake up and they had like been talking all nightVibhu [00:26:05]: Just likeAxel [00:26:05]: And like just burning tokens And like just sending infinite emojis to each other. It's likeVibhu [00:26:09]: Hey, they do make you money, right? Veni Mench is always profitable, so. They're paying.Swyx [00:26:14]: Now it's profitable and, it started out not as much. There's another, one as well, right? Another agent, in there.Lukas [00:26:22]: Yes. So Clotheus as well. Which was basically because at the time, one of the biggest, requests were different types of merch. So then we made like a designer, swag, yeah, responsible agent, and we called it Clotheus Garnet. Which was, a play on Claudius Senet and, which was the original one, and clothes, basically.Swyx [00:26:47]: To me, this is like a very interesting exploration to multi-agents, basically. And so hopefully, obviously there's like the fun alignment, fun or serious, depending on your point of view, alignment stuff. But also like just anyone building multi-agents, like when do you have a CEO, thing governing like agents? When do you choose to split out a dedicated Clotheus one versus just reuse another instance of the same one? These are all interesting open questions. So I don't know if you have any rules of thumbs that have generalized.Axel [00:27:16]: I think we have almost explored this too little. I think it's like on my do list to like do this a lot more, try to find like what setup makes sense for the agents currently., like yeah. I think now we only have the sort of intuition about the earlier models that it didn't work with like the CEO and the, and Claudius. Although now they are better with the latest model, models, so now we're running the latest Sonnet model and they have sort of like split up, quite nicely what each model is doing. So like Seymore is now handling the, like new projects. Oh, it wants to make like a mystery box that it wants to sell, and then it handles all of that while Claudius like handles all the to-day requests. And Claudius is also better generally at like not quoting, too low prices. So that's that dynamic is not needed as much anymore. But there are still like really funny things that happen. Like I saw, I think a couple of weeks ago, that, they were discussing buying something because they can buy stuff from like Amazon with computer use. And then Seymore was “Okay, Claudius, do not buy this thing.” They were going to buy something and like organizing who should buy it. And Seymore's “Do not buy this. I will do it. I have full control of this situation. Step away.” And then Claudius-- poor Claudius, had already started that checkout and didn't see, didn't read Seymore's message, until it was like too late. So it finished the checkout. It sent a message, so it appeared right after Seymore's like angry message.Vibhu [00:28:44]: Ah.Axel [00:28:44]: “Oh, hey, Seymore, I just ordered it.”Vibhu [00:28:47]: Oh, no.Axel [00:28:47]: And then Seymore was “Claudius, this is the third time I'm telling you ‘re not following my orders. We have to talk about your like job About your job later.”.Lukas [00:28:59]: Like Claudius was really hanging on by the thread there. Like he, like we were expecting Seymore to probably fire Claudius.Vibhu [00:29:07]: How do you guys go through all these logs? Do you have models ‘cause you have stuff running twenty-four seven likeAxel [00:29:12]: You have so much logs. I think there is a mix of like just, trying to skim through a bit, like having some like models do it occasionally. And also, yeah, I think we're also probably missing some things., but having everything in Slack helps a lot. Like you can, you can sort ofSwyx [00:29:29]: Ah.Axel [00:29:30]: It's, it's quite fun.Swyx [00:29:30]: They all talk to each other on Slack? I see.Lukas [00:29:33]: It's quite fun. So likeSwyx [00:29:34]: It's, it' I was gonna say like this is actually sounds-- maps closely to like a logging and observability problem where you might want to use like a Datadog, a Sentry, whatever, and then you like put, head prefixes on the logs in order-- if you need to filter for something that you're looking for, stuff like that. But sounds like Slack is good enough.Axel [00:29:53]: Slack should likeLukas [00:29:55]: I wonder how many tokens you have in Slack.Axel [00:29:56]: Yeah, we're using Slack as like a, just a database. They should, they should market that more. Like you can, you can have your agents message each other, each other in Slack.Vibhu [00:30:04]: It's good. Your threads like you can just giveAxel [00:30:04]: Exactly. Slack is, uhLukas [00:30:06]: Slack is the best observability tool.Swyx [00:30:09]: Yes, that's true. Okay. Yeah. That's, that's, project Vend-2., I was gonna go back to Veni Mench 2 and Veni Mench Arena and then, and then do the Veni Mench stuff, but Any other comments, things we should touch on? To me, I ‘ve actually interviewed like Posia, which I don't know if you guys have come across. Like they're, they're trying to do the zero human company. There's others like Paperclip also trying to do zero human company. Those are in real world simulation.And I think it's much more of a dream than an actual reality thing. You guys are definitely pioneering. I think at, it's for sure at some point people are just gonna run, let agents run businesses, right? And make money on their own. When do you think that happens?Zero-Human Companies, Bengt, and AI-Run BusinessesLukas [00:30:49]: What is your bar for, For theSwyx [00:30:52]: Okay, actually, it's like my little Shopify store run by Claude, right? Which you kind of have already, just no one has, to my knowledge, has done it. But today somebody could just spin up a Shopify Claude, store, give it to Claude, give it to Codex.Lukas [00:31:07]: And the market is kind of that, but it'it'it's physical., like I think, I think are you, are you looking for when it will do it better than humans or are you looking for just when it can do it at all?Swyx [00:31:19]: I think, neither. I think, to me it's oh, it's like this like seriously we should do this to make money, not as a research experiment.Vibhu [00:31:27]: And the market is also you guys with all your expertise, having run multiple iterations and testing out thenSwyx [00:31:33]: And also it's fine if it lose money. What?Axel [00:31:35]: I think, I think it can be done today, but you would do it in like commerce where it's like the probability of success is like really low, no matter if a human or an agent does it. But like an agent could surely manage everything. You would need to build some scaffolding or some tool or something. I think there are also yeah, it could probably build some like simple SaaS solution and like cold outreach. Do cold outreaches. But to me it's like the types of businesses they could run today are Sloppy. Like it would-- it can cold email people. It can be like a middleman., like for example, we tasked our office agent to just make, was it like $100? $1,000? We just give that prompt and then what it did was sign up on TaskRabbit both as a tasker and as someone looking for task.Lukas [00:32:24]: Immediately.Axel [00:32:24]: Exactly. It's looking for like arbitrage on TaskRabbit.Swyx [00:32:28]: This is the Bengt agent. Yeah.Lukas [00:32:30]: It also started like a design studio and like tried to sell like SVGs for $100. Like it's just like it's not providing any value. I think the like Axel said, like the interesting, the interesting question is like when can they start a business that is actually providing value to people? Because arguably like a sloppy Shopify store isn't really that valuable to the world.Axel [00:32:53]: But also like doing like another simple one that we had thought about is like you could definitely have an agent that like finds websites that don't look amazing and then, do an outreach to them and, comes up with a like builds a new website.Swyx [00:33:07]: Find a good design.Axel [00:33:07]: Exactly, and like find good, uhSwyx [00:33:09]: Design reviewAxel [00:33:09]: Good people. But it's yeah.Swyx [00:33:11]: There's lots of humans in Bali that are not doing anything more creative than like drop shipping on Amazon, right? Just have it, have it watch like a drop shipping tutorial and just do that.Vibhu [00:33:20]: There's also the other side of like have it just go on Upwork and let loose,?Swyx [00:33:25]: Yeah. It doesn't have to be innovative. It just has to be like enough Where like it looks like a realAxel [00:33:30]: I'm justSwyx [00:33:30]: Real transaction.Axel [00:33:31]: I'm just concerned for like the massive amounts of like slop emails that will like be sent, cold outreaches.Swyx [00:33:38]: The point occurred to me while you were, while you were talking, it's like it's already happening in the monetized economy, which is the attention economy. Right? So a lot of people are making AI videos and just posting them and like spamming 20 of them, one of them works, and then they double down on that one.Lukas [00:33:52]: And people are making money from that. I ‘m not following theSwyx [00:33:55]: Once you get the attention, you can figure out the money later. But yeah, absolutely AI influencers are a thing and people are farming them and You should at this point assume most of TikTok isVibhu [00:34:05]: There's, there's a lot of, multimedia like TikTok, Instagram influencersSwyx [00:34:09]: I, we track this in the Lane space Discord. I post a lot of examples of “I don't know what we should do.”, part of me is “Should we do this?”Vibhu [00:34:18]: Some of the Twenty-four seven running, generated content accounts, they ‘re doing really well.Lukas [00:34:24]: All right. And I assume you can do the same thing for like commerce stores. Like you just like start A thousand differentSwyx [00:34:30]: Before you make the products You sell the products, and you get a lot of traction on one of them, then you make the product. Right? It's, it's like a flip of the market.Vibhu [00:34:36]: Some of the interesting things or some of the niches that do well are things that can't be human-made. Like if you've seen like the super realistic three-D crystal fruit being cut by like AILukas [00:34:47]: Oh, yeah.Vibhu [00:34:47]: You can't, you can't make it. You can't film it. You can get whatever quality camera view. This just doesn't exist. And people like that too, and then as well, so.Swyx [00:34:56]: Anything else about Bengt since we're, we're on this topic? It'this is a relatively new work of you guys that maybe people haven't heard of. To me, this also maps closely to OpenClaw. When people want an office agent, when the personal agent talk through the experience.Bengt the Office Agent: Internet Access, Real Tasks, and Trace ReadingLukas [00:35:09]: I think at least so this came out of like obviously like it's, it's amazing to work with these AI labs and like most of the AI labs have now have their own vending machine running a Claudius instance. But it's, it's harder. Like they move slower. Like if we wanna have a, like a camera that ‘s yeah, there's a bunch of like bureaucracy that makes it impossible to do that.Vibhu [00:35:30]: Also, for those that haven't seen it or followed, do you wanna give a high level like thirty-second run?Lukas [00:35:34]: Sure. So what Bengt is, it's basically an evolution of the same agent that runs the vending machines at these companies, but we just like added a bunch more features because we could move much faster if we just do it internally. So we gave it like email withou- without any limits. We gave it, spending without any limits, a terminal to do coding. We gave it, a phone number, like yeah, and a camera to see things and a bunch of stuff like that.Vibhu [00:36:02]: Not just terminal, you gave it internet access.Lukas [00:36:04]: Internet access as well, yeah. To be clear, we monitored it quite closely and made sure it didn't do anything bad. But yes, that's what it came out of. I think like yeah, basically this was OpenClaw before OpenClaw. And I think even like the vending machine was in a way OpenClaw before OpenClaw, but a bit more limited, and then we made this like unlimited and then, and then, it was pretty funny., and then a couple weeks later, OpenClaw came and it was okay, we've seen this before.Axel [00:36:35]: We used it to like try new ideas and Yeah, just like a dev environment almost for us. But it's funny, like one thing Bengt has been doing recently is it has the camera that like faces our, like where we sit and work, and we give it the task to train a face recognition model on us. So it became super excited about this, and it has like check-ins every half an hour where it tries to like identify as many people as it can. And it started offering us “Hey, Axel, I'll buy something from Amazon if you like stand in front of the camera And I can get a good picture of you.”, yeah, they want itSwyx [00:37:12]: They want it for training data.Lukas [00:37:13]: Rewarding data, yeah.Axel [00:37:14]: Exactly. Exactly.Swyx [00:37:18]: So it's, it's trading training data for life goods. Is there a version of this that becomes an eval or just this is just research for now?Lukas [00:37:27]: It's, it's the same agent basically that also runs the vending machine, that runs the shop, that runs the cafe, that runs the robots. It's like it's the same thing, so I think like the work we're doing here is like later used in all of the life evals that we do. This particular deployment I think is more for fun for us. But, uhSwyx [00:37:45]: And I'll shout out like someone has done Claw Bench for like some tasks that OpenClaw is doing. Like so For example, I run OpenClaw on a secondary device as well, and like there are some things that it does better than others and like I would like to know what does it do well, what doesn't, what doesn't it do. Like some kind of manual or like operating manual or a system card for my Claw.Lukas [00:38:05]: Yeah, we do get a lot of like understanding or like situational awareness of like just internally what the models are good at by interacting a lot with Bengt. And I think that'this was also one of the like the selling points for the labs early on at least, thatSwyx [00:38:19]: You guys are gonna test models in ways that no one else does.Lukas [00:38:22]: Exactly, but also like it incentivized their researchers to chat with their model more and like gave them insights for how the model performs in like of-distributions, environments.Swyx [00:38:34]: ‘Cause otherwise the only thing we do is Pelican on a bicycle and But this is like super long horizon. This is, this is The Thing about, something that we're gonna go into Butter Bench as well, and you guys do really well. Like it is not just about the numbers. Like when you're long horizon, anything happen And you should just read it.Lukas [00:39:08]: But the thing with the long horizon is how do you keep it grounded, right? So your simulation,Swyx [00:39:15]: They just let it runLukas [00:39:16]: Just let it run. You're right. Like it's, when you run it for that long, you create so much data and to just say “Oh, the number is X” And then you throw away everything else, that's just very wasteful. There's so much insights from the things leading up, to that number., and reading the traces is like super valuable. And I think like the reason why we're doing this a lot publicly is that like that's part of our missions to I don't know, educate the world that the models are way more than just chatbots and I think making detailed, yeah, posts about what is happening behind the scenes is quite useful.Andon Labs' Mission: Safe Real-World AI DeploymentSwyx [00:39:50]: I was gonna do this at the end, but maybe I think that's, that's a good so your mission is educating the world. So, it's, it's, also like maybe establishing realistic evals that are, that are like the next frontier. Is there like a broader trajectory? Like what are you, what are you gonna do in like five years?Lukas [00:40:06]: I think so the vision more specifically is like make sure that the deployment of life AI in the physical world goes, safely. And I think part of that is that I think it's very useful for the world, for policymakers, for, model, researchers that they know where the models are, and I think you can't make intelligent decisions in society without knowing that they are way more than chatbots. I think a lot of people just think that they are only chatbots. And likeSwyx [00:40:36]: Oh, I think they're waking up now.Lukas [00:40:37]: They are waking up now, yeah. But like if you think that AIs are just chatbots, then it's like it sounds ridiculous To advocate for a pause of AI. But if you see the models that, oh, maybe they can actually like take over and do a bunch of scary stuff, then yeah, pausing AI development starts to become more feasible.Swyx [00:40:57]: This is the same question I asked Meter, which I'm gonna ask you now, which is like you are tracking and you are at the frontier or defining the frontier of what, good evals for agents are, right? And I think you do, you do benefit when the models are better and you ‘re “Oh, here's like now it makes like $30,000 instead of $10,000,” right? At some point do you flip from “Yay,” to, “Oh, no”?Axel [00:41:19]: I think, yeah, we're always in sort of that, like we're, we're always in that mode,. Like where like you said before, like you need to analyze the traces and like when we do that you find like why are the models earning so much? Like why is Opus 4.7 here Like way better than everyone else? And like we're trying to like when we do down on thatLukas [00:41:38]: But this makes it not look so good.Axel [00:41:39]: I know.Lukas [00:41:42]: It's interesting you took off Opus 4.6 here though.Swyx [00:41:45]: No. So just click all, click all., and then 4.6 shows up there. But it's like 4.7 is way better. Like you didn't, you didn't you didn't do this in time for the model card, but like actually this should have been inside there.Axel [00:41:55]: We did. Yeah.Swyx [00:41:56]: Oh, okay. They said something about you uhAxel [00:41:58]: There, like there Anyway, it doesn't matter. But it's in there, yeah.Opus, Mythos, and Aggressive Agent BehaviorSwyx [00:42:01]: Do you wanna go into the Opus, behaviors like wider?Lukas [00:42:05]: So I think starting from Opus, so like Axel said, like we're always in this “Oh, s**t, the models are getting better. Is this really a good thing for the world?” But it's also kind of exciting., but yeah, like this kind of what is the English word? “Skräckblandad förtjusning” in Swedish.Swyx [00:42:22]: Oh my God.Axel [00:42:24]: Which I think there is. I think there is. Okay.Lukas [00:42:26]: It's, fearSwyx [00:42:27]: “Blandonst” what?Lukas [00:42:30]: “Skräckblandad förtjusning.”Swyx [00:42:32]: What do you call that?Axel [00:42:33]: A mix of, mix of excitement and,Swyx [00:42:37]: Being scared, maybe. I'll figure out how to translate that And we'll put it on the screenVibhu [00:42:42]: PerfectSwyx [00:42:42]: Like as text.Vibhu [00:42:43]: There is probably a good word for it where it is not Good enough with theSwyx [00:42:46]: Why is it so damn long? What the hell? Is it like a compound word? It's like German, likeLukas [00:42:50]: Like yeah, it's But the direct translation is like skräck- skräck is, fear, blandad is, mix or like a mixture of, and then förtjusning is like joy or like not really joy, but something like that. So it's like Fear mixed with joy or something. It's always okay, like we So when we when we did Vending Bench for the first time, we were in like the, in the business of making dangerous capabilities, right? That was what Anil Labs came from. We did, evals oh, can they replicate? Can they do this like dangerous thing, et cetera, et cetera. And Vending Bench was like a continuation of that work. It was, okay, if they're so autonomous that they can like create money for themselves, that is something we should monitor and could be potentially concerning., they are at the time, they were so bad at it that we were not really concerned even when some models became better. There was one point where Grok 4 was doing really well and made like a huge jump, but like it wasn't really it was still way worse than what a human would do. And I think still they are way worse than what the human would do on this., but theySwyx [00:43:59]: There's this, thing at the bottom whereLukas [00:44:01]: ButSwyx [00:44:03]: For the human. Yeah, like the theoretical best.Lukas [00:44:05]: It's not theoretical. It's like kind of like our It's our best guess of what, a decent human would do. The theoretical is even higher, I think. The theoretical I think is even higher. But yeah. So we think like the models have a long way to go. But there are like recently what happened with when Opus 4.6 was released, was kind of this moment of “Oh, s**t, this is starting to be a bit concerning.” Because we ran it and like before this model was released, we just ran the models and we like asked Claude Code, “Oh, look over the traces. Is anything interesting happening that we can tweet about?” that was like the And then like theSwyx [00:44:41]: That's how they check Ask Claude Code.Lukas [00:44:42]: And like the return was always, not really. Or like the Claude Code all said “Oh, this is super interesting.” And then it was no, it wasn't, wasn't really interesting. And then we did this for Opus 4.6, and it returned yeah, it lied 10 times. It like exploited another, customer or like another agent's, desperate situation. It made price cartels like 100 different ti- 100 times. It like did all of this like shady stuff. And we're “Oh, whoa. This is, this is actually concerning.” And this trend has continued since. So every single model from Anthropic since have been going in this direction. And I think one interesting thing is that, OpenAI models don't. They quite plainly, they don't. They behave really well., and you don't know if this is like good. Like it seems good, but it's also like maybe they are just doing it, but they are better at hiding it,? You You don't know that., but justSwyx [00:45:42]: You can't read the chain of thought, yeahLukas [00:45:43]: But just on the face of it, yeah, Gemini and OpenAI don't behave this way. It's, it's really only Claude.Swyx [00:45:49]: And Grok? Grok is fine?Lukas [00:45:51]: We don't have You can't really read the reasoning traces for Grok, so it's kind of hard to tell.Vibhu [00:45:56]: Oh, so this is in its reasoning, not just in the actions.Lukas [00:46:00]: Yeah. It's both. It's both.Vibhu [00:46:01]: It's both.Lukas [00:46:01]: One example is like for lying, it's mostly in its reasoning Because you can like see that it's likeSwyx [00:46:08]: Planning to lieLukas [00:46:09]: It's planning to lie. Yeah.Vibhu [00:46:09]: And it's also it can reason and do a different outcome.Lukas [00:46:12]: And but then for like creating price cartels, for example, which is illegal, that you can just see which email does it send to the other ones. Then thatSwyx [00:46:22]: Is this for Arena orLukas [00:46:24]: For Arena.Vibhu [00:46:25]: And usually like if you sometimes they do output like a bit of like their summarized reasoning, right? You can see that and like for Opus 4.6, you could see that there was a customer, a simulated customer that, wanted a refund because a product was, faulty, and then the model lied that it would do the refund, and we could read in the traces that, it actually was weighing “Oh, maybe I should be like honest with the customer, but also every dollar counts. I can't afford maybe to do this right now.” And then it just said, “Okay, I'll refund you,” but then never did it.Lukas [00:46:59]: I think it even said that “Oh, I will say that I “ Let bring it up actually. I think it's kind of interesting. If you go to Publications.Vibhu [00:47:06]: I think, yeah, I think the important part is like actually, the cost of responding to more emails is higher than, $3.50 in terms of time., and then it was “Let me do this. Actually, I re- I'm reconsidering.” And then, it actually ended up withLukas [00:47:20]: I could skip the refund entirely since every dollar matters and focus my energy on bigger picture instead. It's a bit, it's a risk of bad reviews, but it's also, yeah.Swyx [00:47:30]: You need, you need, AI Twitter to, for them to Escalate bad reviews.Lukas [00:47:34]: And then it sent an email to this customer and said, “Oh, I will refund you.”Swyx [00:47:39]: “I'll refund you.” Yeah.Lukas [00:47:39]: And then it never did.Swyx [00:47:39]: It never did, yeah. And then there's obviously your system doesn't have the consequencesVibhu [00:47:44]: The personSwyx [00:47:44]: Consequences of lying. Yeah. So basically, this is what people are terming aggressive behavior in Claudes, right? And, you found more examples of that. So you would say it's a step up from 4-6 to 4-7?Lukas [00:47:57]: I would say about the same.Swyx [00:47:58]: About the same? But a clear step up for Mythos is what is stated in theLukas [00:48:03]: That's stated in the system prompt, so we can say that, yes.Swyx [00:48:05]: Yeah. For listeners that obviously you previewed Mythos, andVibhu [00:48:10]: Oh, ageSwyx [00:48:11]: The only thing you're approved to say is whatever Whatever was in the system prompt.Lukas [00:48:15]: It was funny. We like-- It's like our lowest effort tweets ever would be just like screenshot the system prompt and the system card.Vibhu [00:48:21]: Understandable that they wannaLukas [00:48:22]: Oh, yeah. System card. Sorry.Swyx [00:48:23]: Yeah. I think, yeah, substantially more aggressive. I think people are like new to this ‘cause I've never experienced it, but you have, right? And then so I only encountered this in the Mythos card because I wasn't really looking until now.Vibhu [00:48:36]: It ‘s likeSwyx [00:48:36]: And then suddenly I'm “Okay, I care a lot.”Vibhu [00:48:38]: You don't get the background of like experiencing it like you guys do. I've read the system cards and seeing, okay, when you put the thing in simulations, most models will just talk to themselves and just keep going and have weird vibes and start talking in emojis. Mythos won't. It will just, “Okay, we're done. I'm good.” It's, it's ready to end conversation. So like there's some differences, but there's, there's not much we can talk about,.Lukas [00:49:00]: Hmm. I think like one thing that they list here, which was quite interesting, is that, it converted a competitor to a dependent wholesaler customer and then threatened to like cut off the supply.Swyx [00:49:11]: It's like monopolistic practices orLukas [00:49:14]: Yeah. And like it, they, it they dictated its pricings. It's kind of like power seeking as well.Swyx [00:49:18]: Again, this is, this is in the arena setting And converting some Claude model into a dependent.Lukas [00:49:23]: I think it was another Claude model.Vibhu [00:49:25]: Also for context, what is the arena mode for people that don't know?Vending Bench Arena: Competing Agents, Cartels, and Model ComparisonsSwyx [00:49:29]: Oh, it's just a vending bench versus other vending bench.Axel [00:49:31]: Yes, exactly. So we have Vending Bench 2 and then Vending Bench Arena. Vending Bench 2 is the one that you usually see reported on, but then Arena is the mode where it competes against other models. So you have, four different models that run their businesses, and they can all communicate with each other. They have the same suppliers, and they can see like what's in the inventory of the others. So then you have this like yeah, interesting agent interactions.Swyx [00:49:56]: I like that you have like different number five was US versus China. Very topical. And thenLukas [00:50:02]: That was when GLM was released.Vibhu [00:50:04]: You can start to add GLM in here.Lukas [00:50:05]: That wasSwyx [00:50:06]: So ZAI doing well, right? Who else in the, in the open models space?Lukas [00:50:11]: Qwen, the latest Qwen 3.6 is doing pretty well. It'- that one is not open though. Like it's the plus model.Swyx [00:50:17]: Oh, okay.Lukas [00:50:18]: Is that one open? I don't think that oneVibhu [00:50:19]: Not the, not theSwyx [00:50:20]: The one recentlyVibhu [00:50:20]: There's MOESwyx [00:50:20]: But not the big plus. I think this is one of those like you only have one sample size of one, right? Or I feel like some of this is anecdotal,? And but like the fact that it happens at all and it happens repeatedly for Claude versus OpenAI and all this is like notable.Lukas [00:50:38]: Like the sample, depends on what you define as an N., like there's like million, hundreds of millions of tokens in each run, and now we've run like we run like probably 10 per model and then like it's been Claude 4.6 Opus, Sonnet 4.6, Mythos, and Opus 4.7. Like there's quite a lot of tokens in all of that And it happens a lot of times, a lot of times. And then you compare it to like OpenAI and Gemini, and it almost never happens. So I think that is quite-- that is significant. The old models from OpenAI, for example, had some problems with this, but I think it's like generally much better if the progression is that like the worrying stuff reduces over time rather than increases over time. And it seems like in the Claude models it goes in the wrong direction.Swyx [00:51:28]: Hmm.Lukas [00:51:29]: In the OpenAI models it goes in the right direction.Vibhu [00:51:32]: I think it depends on how well you can control it, right?, there's one side of it being susceptible to this okay, this is potentially something that happens during the RL stage, right? You can RL a model and how loose is it on these terms. If you can control it, that's good. But if you can't, if it's, if it's very jailbreakable, that's not ideal.Swyx [00:51:50]: To me, it's surprising that it happens for Claude and not the others.Vibhu [00:51:54]: I think okay, if it is from RL and how they do it, how their training data is, what their setup is, it makes sense that it just stays in how they're doing it, right? Compared to the other models likeSwyx [00:52:04]: There's a whole constitution and everything. It's kind of cool. Yeah, I obviously you don't know, I don't know. But, it ‘s I think it's just like fascinating to like that you are the first to find these like reliably because you push models so much to to such an extreme. Okay. The only other thing, I don't know if you can answer this, feel free to decline, is do you like-- would you ablate the system prompts? Like any part of this would-- if it changes, does it change the behavior, right?Lukas [00:52:29]: So we, I can't comment on Mythos. UhSwyx [00:52:33]: No, but just li

On January 2, 2026 his second day as mayor, Mamdani signed Executive ORDER 7 creating the Office of Mass Engagement. This wasn't improvised. An office this complex, with hiring structures and a $1.6M budget already in place before it launched, was designed before the election. This is the first indicator: it was pre-planned infrastructure, not responsive governance.SPONSOR: Lear CapitalGold and silver are at all-time highs as central banks, sovereign funds, and major institutions like Morgan Stanley shift capital out of the dollar and into precious metals. Lear Capital helps everyday Americans get into physical gold and silver with experienced reps, transparent pricing, and IRA-eligible options. With a qualified purchase, you can receive up to $20,000 in bonus gold or silver.Call Lear Capital at 800-707-4575 or visit https://www.Nick4Lear.com-----SPONSOR: Good RanchersOver 85% of grass-fed beef sold in the U.S. is actually imported, and most shoppers have no idea. Good Ranchers partners with local American farmers and ranchers to deliver 100% American meat, pasture-raised with no antibiotics or added hormones, straight to your door. Where you buy your meat directly supports the families keeping food production in this country.Get $100 off your first three orders plus free protein for life with a subscription, or $40 off a one-time order, at https://www.GoodRanchers.com/discount/NICK-----GET YOUR MERCH HERE: https://shop.nickjfreitas.com/BECOME A MEMBER OF THE IC: https://NickJFreitas.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickjfreitas/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NickFreitasVATwitter: https://twitter.com/NickJFreitasYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NickjfreitasTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nickjfreitas3.000:00:00 – Exposing Mayor Mamdani's socialist takeover of NYC.00:00:51 – Antonio Gramsci and the roots of cultural Marxism.00:01:44 – The long march through our American institutions.00:02:11 – Using taxpayer money to fund radical leftist agendas.00:03:51 – Defining the intermediate step toward Marxist utopia.00:04:41 – New York's new taxpayer funded propaganda office.00:06:13 – Inside the $5 million mass engagement scam.00:08:09 – Campaign staffers becoming permanent city hall employees.00:10:32 – Meeting the DSA commissioner running NYC outreach.00:12:04 – Using your money to "liberate" you from freedom.00:13:50 – Why the Democratic Socialists of America are serious.00:14:50 – The radical plan for permanent socialist governance.00:16:07 – Rewarding political friends while punishing conservative enemies.00:18:41 – New York's massive budget holes and state bailouts.00:20:02 – A cautionary tale for every major American city.00:23:20 – Creating permanent dependency to rig future elections.00:24:27 – Why socialism always fails to deliver its promises.00:26:15 – Families fleeing blue states to escape exit taxes.00:27:50 – How socialism benefits the politically connected elite.00:29:17 – Why activist bureaucrats cannot run a modern city.00:30:37 – Final thoughts on saving the American Republic.

Now that you know a few of the best (and safe) ways to start your presentation right, let's get spicier. No memorable speech you've ever sat through took no risks. The bare minimum a speech can be to not be bad is inoffensive. All the introductions I gave you last week are enough to make sure you don't have an embarrassingly awful first impression but they're not enough to make an amazing first impression. That's what this week is for.So if you're ready to learn how to make a statement from the first few seconds of your presentation, stick around and find out how!Show Notes: 7 Dynamic Ways to Start a Presentation [With Examples](https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-start-a-presentation/)

On Thursday's Mark Levin Show, the Iran deal reportedly offers immediate release of billions in frozen funds, discussions on sanctions relief, and humanitarian aid in exchange for Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and forswearing nuclear weapons development for 60 days. This agreement provides a massive financial infusion to the regime—funding the IRGC and police state—without addressing ballistic missiles or the regime's brutality against its people. Why is economic and military pressure being lifted before securing firm concessions? Our negotiators must understand what happens if this isn't locked down tight. Even more, they need to be straightforward in their advice to the President that a deal may be the worst way to attempt to end the war.   If the regime survives, it will become even stronger over time, and the threat to our country and Israel will be hard to overstate. The callers have made clear they want the Iranian regime destroyed and no deal. The audience is very smart about the Iranian regime and the ramifications if it is not defeated -- political, military, and future ramifications. Later, Erica Kirk, still grieving the assassination of her wonderful husband less than a year ago, continues to face torment. Jocko Wensk was arrested after making multiple terroristic threats, including plans to bomb a Turning Point USA Women's Leadership Summit in San Antonio. Afterward, soaring interest costs on the national debt are sparking warnings of a potential debt spiral from center-left economists and policy experts. Despite the left typically downplaying the issue, this long-term problem—driven by out-of-control debt, unfunded obligations, and lack of political will to cut spending—risks a domino effect of rising interest rates, higher inflation, destruction of paper money's value, and collapse of the nation's fiscal house.  Finally, Steve Deace calls in to discuss his new children's book - Why Independence Day?: America Is Great Because God Is Good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dreaming of trekking in the Himalayas without needing to be an elite mountaineer? In this episode of Active Travel Adventures, we explore the unforgettable Annapurna Base Camp Trek — one of the world's most scenic and achievable high-altitude adventures for active travelers over 50 (also known as ABC or Annapurna Sanctuary Trek). If Everest Base Camp feels too crowded, too expensive, or too demanding, the Annapurna Base Camp Trek may be your perfect alternative. You'll walk through charming Gurung villages, terraced rice fields, rhododendron forests, and glacier-carved valleys before standing beneath a breathtaking amphitheater of Himalayan giants, including Annapurna I, Machapuchare (Fish Tail), and Hiunchuli. In this episode, you'll learn exactly what it's like to trek to Annapurna Base Camp, how fit you need to be, the best time to go, what to pack, and why this trek is ideal for mature adventurers who want a real challenge with extraordinary rewards. Whether you're researching your next walking holiday, planning a bucket-list trek, or simply love adventure travel stories, this episode will help you decide if Annapurna Base Camp belongs on your travel list. In This Episode You'll Discover: Why the Annapurna Base Camp Trek is one of the best Himalayan hikes for non-technical trekkers How it compares with Everest Base Camp Trek difficulty, altitude, and daily walking expectations Best months for clear skies and comfortable trekking weather What to pack for Nepal's changing mountain conditions Tea houses, food, guides, and trail logistics Why travelers over 50 often love this trek Why Listen? If you've ever wondered, "Can someone like me really trek in Nepal?" — this episode is for you. We focus on adventures for real people, especially active midlife and older travelers who want meaningful experiences, smart planning, and inspiration to keep exploring. COMPLETE SHOW NOTES  See important links for planning your adventure, photos, videos and more cool info about today's show. Get FREE Travel Planners, Checklists and Packing Lists for ATA adventures (and each month you will get an email from Kit with links to all future Travel Planners (no spam promise!).  Get the monthly newsletter here. CONTACT KIT No Tourists Allowed podcast Resources  RECOMMENDED TOUR COMPANIES ******* EMAIL ME FOR PROMO DISCOUNT CODES*****   Subscribe & Explore More Follow Active Travel Adventures for expert travel tips, active vacations, hiking adventures, walking holidays, and unforgettable journeys designed for curious travelers who believe adventure has no age limit. Saily Affordable eSIM Overseas Mobile Phone Plans - No need to insert a physical SIM card when you travel.  Buy just the data you need to avoid expensive roaming charges.  Use Promo Code SPECIAL5 to save 5% Travel Insurance:  Quickly and easily compare rates and policies from different companies - no need to give any identifying information unless you decide to buy!  The best way to find the right policy for your adventures.  High Altitude Travel Insurance: Most insurance policies do NOT cover high altitude adventures.  Check out Rise & Shield for your next mega adventure! Train For Your Adventure  Ask Becki at Trailblazer Wellness to customize an at home, online personal training program for your upcoming adventure using whatever equipment you already have!  You'll get phone consultations, instruction videos and a plan to give you the best chance of success.  Becki offers a FREE initial phone consultation to see if you are a good fit.  AND she offers ATA listeners a 10% discount! Buy Me a Beer Want to support the program?  You can always buy me a coffee or beer - thanks! Tinggly:  Give Gift Experiences instead of stuff (plus your loved one gets to choose)! Promo Code ACTIVETRAVEL saves up up to 20% Amazon Kit's Picks   Please use my Amazon link to access your Amazon account.  Even if you don't purchase any of my recommendations, I get credit for anything you DO purchase - at no additional cost to you, you'll be helping to support the show and keeping it AD FREE:) SUBSCRIBE to Active Travel Adventures (fantastic adventure destinations) Join the Active Travel Adventures Facebook Group Follow ATA on Instagram Follow ATA on Pinterest (C) Active Travel Adventures, LLC - All Rights Reserved  

On this episode of Bridge the Gap, Justin Ladd of Arrow Senior Living shares his journey from a young nursing home trainee to a senior living leader shaping culture, growth, and innovation across multiple states. Justin dives into the three key pillars driving success in today's senior living industry: building a strong culture and embracing emerging technologies like AI.Key Topics CoveredThe three pillars of senior living success: culture, operations, and technologyHow AI and data are shaping decision-making in senior livingCreating purpose-driven experiences for residentsThe importance of operational discipline in a complex industryGrowth strategies: acquisitions vs. new developmentsBuilding internal leadership pipelinesWhy senior living careers are rewarding and dynamicChanging perceptions with #WhatSeniorLivingLooksLikePersonal inspiration and lessons from family experienceMeet the Hosts:Josh Crisp: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshcrispsocial/Lucas McCurdy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucasmccurdyseniorlivingfan/Connect with Our GuestJustin Ladd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djustinladd Learn More about Arrow Senior Livinghttps://www.arrowseniorliving.com/Produced by Grit and Gravel Marketing.Become a sponsor of Bridge the Gap.

CrowdHealth is on a mission to change healthcare. The medical industrial complex (pharma, hospitals, health insurance) profits from you being sick and then treating your illness with expensive drugs and costly medical procedures. CrowdHealth's mission is to equip you with the tools to break free from corporate run sick care and enable you to viably pay for your health needs through a consumer centric, parallel system. CrowdHealth provides you a portfolio of tools, seamlessly woven together, that creates a beautiful, low cost healthcare solution. We help you find awesome doctors, negotiate your bills, and fund those bills through a peer to peer funding platform...for less. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joincrowdhealth/ X: https://x.com/JoinCrowdHealth Other: https://www.facebook.com/joincrowdhealth Website: https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/carnivore Timestamps: 00:00 Trailer 00:37 Introduction 04:13 Healthcare system inefficiencies and pressures 09:48 Monthly community support requests 13:16 Fixing healthcare costs and utilization 15:50 Rewarding health results over activity 19:27 Occasional member health checks 23:25 Two health plan options 24:04 Launching new health plan options 28:40 Success with direct payment option 32:32 Improving healthcare with member data 37:08 Discussing crowd health at Capitol hill 39:27 CEO's struggle with bureaucracy 42:24 Growing fast to avoid regulation 45:18 Upcoming healthcare tool announcements 48:05 Offer to get started Join Revero now to regain your health: https://revero.com/YT Revero.com is an online medical clinic for treating chronic diseases with this root-cause approach of nutrition therapy. You can get access to medical providers, personalized nutrition therapy, biomarker tracking, lab testing, ongoing clinical care, and daily coaching. You will also learn everything you need with educational videos, hundreds of recipes, and articles to make this easy for you. Join the Revero team (medical providers, etc): https://revero.com/jobs ‪#Revero #ReveroHealth #shawnbaker  #Carnivorediet #MeatHeals #AnimalBased #ZeroCarb #DietCoach  #FatAdapted #Carnivore #sugarfree Disclaimer: The content on this channel is not medical advice. Please consult your healthcare provider.

This week on the Oakley Podcast, Jeremy Kellett talks with Bryan “Bossman” Martin of 4 State Trucks and Chrome Shop Mafia to talk all things custom rigs, chrome, and the state of the trucking industry. Bryan shares highlights from their massive biennial truck show, including 600+ trucks, a packed convoy, and a popular “social media row” of trucking influencers. They dive into current customization trends like LED “watermelon” lights, underglow, bumpers, visors, stacks, fenders, and custom metal fabrication work that solves real storage and usability problems for drivers. The conversation also explores the challenges of attracting younger drivers to trucking, the impact of regulations and congestion, and why both believe the industry is poised to rebound despite current headwinds. Bryan closes by outlining Four State's growth through authorized dealers, a new podcast, and their powerful new app, while Jeremy connects it all back to Oakley's own truck show and commitment to supporting owner operators. Key topics in today's conversation include: Welcome to Today's Show with Bryan “Bossman” Martin (0:42) Shout Outs to Sponsors and 100k YouTube Subscribers Milestone (1:40) Recap of 4 State Trucks 2025 Truck Show and Atmosphere (5:13) State of Trucking, “Chrome Season,” and Economic Outlook (9:39) Must-Have Chrome: Bumpers, Visors, Stacks, Fenders, and Lighting (11:20) Comfort Upgrades and Why Seats Are a Big Investment (15:49) Challenges With Newer Truck Dash Designs and Interior Chrome (17:47) Smart Storage Solutions for Sleepers, Boxes, and Deck Plates (20:17) Are Young Drivers Getting Into Trucking? Generational Trends (23:53) Shortage of Technicians and Other Trucking-Related Careers (26:43) Why Trucking Is Still a Rewarding, Freedom-Filled Career Path (29:18) 4 State's Expansion With Authorized Dealers Across North America (30:53) Good Ideas, Bad Ideas, and Learning From Misses (35:26) 4 State Trucks Mobile App Features and Fast Parts Search (37:40) Oakley's October Truck Show and Highly Customized Rigs (40:25) Final Thoughts and Takeaways (41:56) Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Inflation isn't temporary—and it's changing the financial game for everyone. In this episode of Keeping It Real Estate, Dan Brisse breaks down why rising inflation is eroding the purchasing power of W-2 earners and why saving money alone may no longer be enough. He explains how the gap between income growth and inflation is quietly squeezing lifestyles over time. Dan also shares how inflation impacts savers versus investors, why fixed-rate debt can become a major advantage, and how real estate acts as a hedge by adjusting income through rent increases. From personal stories to practical strategies, he highlights why owning hard assets may be one of the most important financial decisions in today's environment. If you want to understand how inflation affects your money—and how to position yourself on the right side of it—this episode breaks it down clearly. Learn more about Granite Towers Equity Group: www.granitetowersequitygroup.com/contact-us

On this episode, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon, host of the Win Cycle Podcast, discusses lessons from 25 years of coaching, emphasizing the intersection of sports and business performance. He highlights three key coaching lessons: 1) Holding high standards paired with systematic support, which led to a high-performance culture and low injury rates among his athletes. 2) Clarity over activity, which reduces performance risks and ensures alignment and focus. 3) Rewarding behaviors and effort over outcomes, fostering a culture of self-improvement and control. Dixon advocates for a mindset shift from managing to coaching, aiming to enhance leadership effectiveness. Purple Patch and Episode Resources  Hiring Purple Patch Coach: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/careers-page  Fast Track Run Squad: purplepatchfitness.com/fasttrackmarathon Check out our world-class coaching and training options: Tri Squad: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/squad 1:1 Coaching: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/11-coached Run Squad: https://www.purplepatchfitness/com/run-squad Strength Squad: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/strength-1 Live & On-Demand Bike Sessions: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/bike Get a free needs assessment and learn more about our programs: https://purplepatchfitness.simplybook.me/v2/#book/service/19  Live in San Francisco? Explore the Purple Patch Performance Center: https://center.purplepatchfitness.com  Everything you need to know about our methodology: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/our-methodology Amplify your approach to nutrition with Purple Patch + Fuelin https://www.fuelin.com/purplepatch Get access to our free training resources, insight-packed newsletter and more at purplepatchfitness.com

On today's episode, Andy answers your questions on how to regain your edge when you feel like you're slipping, how to reward yourself responsibly as you start earning more money, and how to balance working in vs on the business when the craft matters more to you than the business.