Podcast appearances and mentions of Robert Frost

Visit our website: https://www.thewealthwarehousepodcast.com/Welcome back to another episode of Wealth Warehouse!In this week's episode, Dave and Paul take a look at the central theme of the poem, “The Road Not Taken”, by Robert Frost – and why it's the perfect analog for IBC and controlling the banking function in your life.Additionally, the guys explore what control actually gets you, how you're able to not only “see” new opportunities, but also take part in them – to build your wealth and your family's for generations to come – and as Dave will explain: why you need to care about more money (and not just for yourself)Becoming Your Own Banker by Nelson Nash: https://infinitebanking.org/product/becoming-your-own-banker/ref/46/Episode Highlights:0:00 - Introduction1:16 - Episode beginning3:41 - “The Road Not Taken”10:49 - The unseen, and how “they” make it easy17:22 - What's the road ‘not taken' look like?25:24 - Controlling your own capital30:53 - Building your wealth (for others)34:44 - Closing thoughtsABOUT YOUR HOSTS:David Befort and Paul Fugere are the hosts of the Wealth Warehouse Podcast. David is the Founder/CEO of Max Performance Financial. He founded the company with the mission of educating people on the truths about money. David's mission is to show you how you can control your own money, earn guarantees, grow it tax-free, and maintain penalty-free access to it to leverage for opportunities that will provide passive income for the rest of your life. Paul, on the other hand, is an Active Duty U.S. Army officer who graduated from Norwich University in 2002 with a B.A. in History and again in 2012 with a MA in Diplomacy and International Terrorism. Paul met his wife Tammy at Norwich. As a family, they enjoy boating, traveling, sports, hunting, automobiles, and are self-proclaimed food people.Visit our website: https://www.thewealthwarehousepodcast.com/ Catch up with David and Paul, visit the links below! Website: https://infinitebanking.org/agents/Fugere494 https://infinitebanking.org/agents/Befort399 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-a-befort-jr-09663972/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-fugere-762021b0/ Email: davidandpaul@theibcguys.com

Robert Frost ended his famous poem “The Road Not Taken” with the words:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.It just reminds me of the “two paths” motif we find in the biblical narrative, and the “Narrow Gate and difficult road” Jesus contrasted with the Broad and easy road most travel by. This Sunday, in our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we'll be reading chapter 8:18-22, where the story will give us examples of why the road of following Jesus is considered “narrow”.Jesus sure has an odd sense for how to achieve church-growth, doesn't he? I love how v18 reads in the Message: “When Jesus saw that a curious crowd was growing by the minute, he told his disciples to get him out of there to the other side of the lake.” Suddenly his ministry is becoming popular and attracting attention, and his response is to bail out immediately. Why do you think he did that?When faced with sudden popularity, Jesus doesn't begin the process of working the crowd and taking polls to see what will generate a greater favorability. He doesn't try to drum up as many supporters as he can by offering give-aways or doing his best to present himself as culturally hip. Nope. He does his best to evade the masses who have only a surfaced curiosity, and when some do seek to commit themselves to him, he does his best to dissuade them!Jesus was clearly not reading all the email articles that get sent to me. He's doing it all wrong, at least according to the experts. And they are experts – they seem to represent gigantic, massive and wealthy churches.v19-20 – Why do you think Jesus responds the way he does to the teacher of religious law who offers to join the cause? Jesus had places to sleep – he stayed with Lazarus in Bethany, he stayed at Peter's house in Capernaum…and Peter had a house to stay at. There is some hyperbole in this, but there is a sharp, deeply cutting message in it, especially to 21st Century American Christians. What message does this speak to you?V21-22 – On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being “not at all” and 11 being “this goes to 11”, how harsh does Jesus' response to the man who wants to bury his father seem to you? Why do you think Jesus would say that? What do you think the phrase “let the dead bury their dead” means? We'll take some time to gain a better understanding of his response by getting a clearer picture of the culture of that place and time, as well as some potential idioms that were in use.While this section of Scripture is challenging, my hope is that it will encourage us as well – persuading us to commit our all to the Savior of our lives.Click here for a pdf of the teaching slideshow.

The Search for Fulfillment is a new short series released each Friday where we uncover lessons of the greatest minds to help you live with purpose, passion, and peace. In today's episode, Brian asks, "What imperfections in your life can you embrace today, and how might accepting them lead to a deeper sense of fulfillment?" Enjoy Episode 29 of The Search for Fulfillment. #BeNEXT

Charles Douthat is a poet, retired litigator, and visual artist. Born and educated in California, he practiced law for many years in New Haven and began writing poems during a long mid-life illness. His first collection, Blue for Oceans, received the PEN New England Award, as the best book of poetry published in 2010 by a New England writer. Concerning Douthat's newest book, Again, the poet Alan Shapiro writes, “This book is impossible not to love.” Douthat lives in Weston, Connecticut, with his wife, the artist Julie Leff. Robert Frost was born in 1874 in San Francisco. When he was just ten years old, his father died, and Frost's family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts to live with his paternal grandparents. Though Frost attended Dartmouth College and Harvard University, he never earned a formal degree. He spent much of his twenties and thirties farming and teaching. In 1912, he moved, with his wife and children, to England where publishers were more receptive to his work. But he moved back to the States in 1915 after the start of the First World War. He lived for the rest of his life mostly in Massachusetts and Vermont. Robert Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes and the Congressional Medal of Honor. He died in Boston in 1963. Links: Read "Polk Street" and "Mercy" by Charles DouthatRead "After Apple-Picking" by Robert FrostCharles DouthatCharles Douthat's website"Charles Douthat Unbound," Authors Unbound podcast"A Few Minutes After Nine" in The Los Angeles Review"The Planting" in The Nature of Our Times"Grounds" in Leon Literary ReviewRobert FrostBio and poems at Poets.orgBio and Poems at The Poetry Foundation's websiteMentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser

Charles Douthat is a poet, retired litigator, and visual artist. Born and educated in California, he practiced law for many years in New Haven and began writing poems during a long mid-life illness. His first collection, Blue for Oceans, received the PEN New England Award, as the best book of poetry published in 2010 by a New England writer. Concerning Douthat's newest book, Again, the poet Alan Shapiro writes, “This book is impossible not to love.” Douthat lives in Weston, Connecticut, with his wife, the artist Julie Leff. Robert Frost was born in 1874 in San Francisco. When he was just ten years old, his father died, and Frost's family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts to live with his paternal grandparents. Though Frost attended Dartmouth College and Harvard University, he never earned a formal degree. He spent much of his twenties and thirties farming and teaching. In 1912, he moved, with his wife and children, to England where publishers were more receptive to his work. But he moved back to the States in 1915 after the start of the First World War. He lived for the rest of his life mostly in Massachusetts and Vermont. Robert Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes and the Congressional Medal of Honor. He died in Boston in 1963. Links: Read "Polk Street" and "Mercy" by Charles DouthatRead "After Apple-Picking" by Robert FrostCharles DouthatCharles Douthat's website"Charles Douthat Unbound," Authors Unbound podcast"A Few Minutes After Nine" in The Los Angeles Review"The Planting" in The Nature of Our Times"Grounds" in Leon Literary ReviewRobert FrostBio and poems at Poets.orgBio and Poems at The Poetry Foundation's websiteMentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser

An exploration of Robert Frost's poem "Directive" by poet, storyteller, and musician Jay Leeming.   www.JayLeeming.com

There may be no poet more integral to the American identity are more widely known among Americans than Robert Frost. Yet, his life and the extent of his influence are unfamiliar or misunderstood by many. In the new book “Love and Need: The Life of Robert Frost's Poetry” Adam Plunkett challenges previous biographers' interpretations of Frost's life and work breaking away from what he sees as “clichés” to construct an original portrait of the poet.

"Poetry in Times of Reverie" Sunday, July 27, 2025 Poetry is a moment distilled. Sometimes it is life pressed into the pages of a book or, more vividly, as Robert Frost said, it is a way of "taking life by the throat." And Alice Walker said, "Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness." In the deep valley of summer, we will sit with some poetry. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of Congregational Life; Kathleen McClung; Galen Workman, Moderator, Board of Trustees; Reiko Oda Lane, organist; Rami Bar-Niv, pianist; Mark Sumner, songleader Eli Boshears, Camera Operator; Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Kelvin Jones, Jose Matias Pineda, and Francisco Castellanos, Sextons; Judy Payne, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher

"Poetry in Times of Reverie" Sunday, July 27, 2025 Poetry is a moment distilled. Sometimes it is life pressed into the pages of a book or, more vividly, as Robert Frost said, it is a way of "taking life by the throat." And Alice Walker said, "Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness." In the deep valley of summer, we will sit with some poetry. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of Congregational Life; Kathleen McClung; Galen Workman, Moderator, Board of Trustees; Reiko Oda Lane, organist; Rami Bar-Niv, pianist; Mark Sumner, songleader Eli Boshears, Camera Operator; Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Kelvin Jones, Jose Matias Pineda, and Francisco Castellanos, Sextons; Judy Payne, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher

Free episode cross-over with the Bang-Bang Podcast. The question of “Which side are you on?” haunted me (Van Jackson) intermittently throughout the long Global War on Terror. It was a beat that I would hear during occasional moments of consciousness, which I tried to suppress or rationalize away…until I no longer could.On my other show, The Bang-Bang Podcast, I ended up having a surprising conversation with our guest, George Dardess. Before we started the actual episode, we talked at length about memoirs and stories of conversion.George is an expert in the lost art of close reading, which we get into. And his favored genre—which also happens to be mine—is the memoir. My co-host Lyle Rubin wrote a memoir, and his wife, Colette Shade, just came out with a memoir too (both are excellent). In that context, George started asking about my story, and the beginnings of my own memoir inadvertently came pouring out.The conversation has stuck with me everyday since. Although I have no shortage of distractions, I've begun putting pen to paper, reckoning with the slow-burning crisis of conscience that took me from being an agent of the national security state to one of its fiercest critics.As we discuss in this short episode, there are a few factors that might account for my political consciousness.Hip-hop not only acquainted me with the Black Freedom Struggle from an early age; it provided a soundtrack, a musical coda, to my life. And I think that made a difference.Spending time in Monterey, California, at the Defense Language Institute, was a pivotal experience. In a twisted way, so was my immersion in “hustle culture,” which was so strong that I basically lost my 20s to obsessive self improvement. When my humanity finally thawed in the 2010s, the world had changed dramatically and I started questioning my place in it.Physically getting out of Washington—an idea whose appeal grew during my alienation in Obama's second term—was almost certainly crucial too. It feels like I've always been on some Robert Frost shit. Few roads are less traveled by than New Zealand, and it has made all the difference!But I also grew up precarious working class. The lives of the people surrounding me had no connection to the foreign policy world I strived so hard to enter. At first, I saw that as a problem of social mobility. Eventually, I would see it as a problem of class antagonism—national security takes its legitimacy from the people but forsakes them in its every decision. The most generous thing I could say about foreign policy is that people like me faced problems growing up that were never made better by anything happening in national security.Anyway, I have a lot to work through. But if you're interested in memoir as a form, close reading as a practice, or some of the details in my personal evolution, you'll find this impromptu conversation as stimulating as I did.Subscribe to the Bang-Bang Podcast: https://www.bangbangpod.comSubscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/

“Poetry is the prince of the literary arts to me. It's at the very top because it's language refined to its apex of memorability. I am interested in poetry as memorability and poetry as something you live by. These are the words you live by. These words stay in your brain and guide your life. That's what I am interested in. My memoir slash autofiction is called Borges and Me, and as you know, it's a story of my time in 1970 when my best friend Billy was drafted for the Vietnam War, and so was I. He went to Vietnam, and I went to Scotland to hide out and do my graduate work. I spent nearly seven years in Scotland, but I certainly spent the next five years definitely in Scotland. I was there before as an undergraduate for a bit, too. During that time, Billy was killed in Vietnam, and I was a nervous wreck. My memoir talks about my depression, my anxieties, and then, through my friend Alastair Reid, I met Borges, the great Argentine writer. We went on a little road trip through the Highlands, and this conversation with Borges really restored me back to myself and what was important in life. I felt that I owed a huge amount to that contact with Borges… I was lucky that suddenly, out of nowhere, came a wonderful director-producer named Mark Turtletaub. He had read my book and loved it, and he approached me. We had a conversation, and he said, ‘Look, I want to make this movie.' So off we went.”It's a real pleasure today to welcome a writer whose voice has been a guiding force in American letters for decades. Jay Pariniis the author of acclaimed biographies of literary giants like John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, and Gore Vidal—as well as an illuminating portrait of Jesus in The Human Face of God. He's also a celebrated poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher whose work reflects a lifelong devotion to the arts, the humanities, and the power of language to tell the truth, gently. From his poetry to his prose, Jay's writing brings rare insight and deep compassion to the page. He doesn't just study his subjects—he inhabits them, helps us hear their voices, and see the world through their eyes. And of course, he's one of the few people who can say they've gotten into the heads of both Jesus and Gore Vidal...and lived to tell the tale.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“Poetry is the prince of the literary arts to me. It's at the very top because it's language refined to its apex of memorability. I am interested in poetry as memorability and poetry as something you live by. These are the words you live by. These words stay in your brain and guide your life. That's what I am interested in. My memoir slash autofiction is called Borges and Me, and as you know, it's a story of my time in 1970 when my best friend Billy was drafted for the Vietnam War, and so was I. He went to Vietnam, and I went to Scotland to hide out and do my graduate work. I spent nearly seven years in Scotland, but I certainly spent the next five years definitely in Scotland. I was there before as an undergraduate for a bit, too. During that time, Billy was killed in Vietnam, and I was a nervous wreck. My memoir talks about my depression, my anxieties, and then, through my friend Alastair Reid, I met Borges, the great Argentine writer. We went on a little road trip through the Highlands, and this conversation with Borges really restored me back to myself and what was important in life. I felt that I owed a huge amount to that contact with Borges… I was lucky that suddenly, out of nowhere, came a wonderful director-producer named Mark Turtletaub. He had read my book and loved it, and he approached me. We had a conversation, and he said, ‘Look, I want to make this movie.' So off we went.”It's a real pleasure today to welcome a writer whose voice has been a guiding force in American letters for decades. Jay Pariniis the author of acclaimed biographies of literary giants like John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, and Gore Vidal—as well as an illuminating portrait of Jesus in The Human Face of God. He's also a celebrated poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher whose work reflects a lifelong devotion to the arts, the humanities, and the power of language to tell the truth, gently. From his poetry to his prose, Jay's writing brings rare insight and deep compassion to the page. He doesn't just study his subjects—he inhabits them, helps us hear their voices, and see the world through their eyes. And of course, he's one of the few people who can say they've gotten into the heads of both Jesus and Gore Vidal...and lived to tell the tale.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“Poetry is the prince of the literary arts to me. It's at the very top because it's language refined to its apex of memorability. I am interested in poetry as memorability and poetry as something you live by. These are the words you live by. These words stay in your brain and guide your life. That's what I am interested in. My memoir slash autofiction is called Borges and Me, and as you know, it's a story of my time in 1970 when my best friend Billy was drafted for the Vietnam War, and so was I. He went to Vietnam, and I went to Scotland to hide out and do my graduate work. I spent nearly seven years in Scotland, but I certainly spent the next five years definitely in Scotland. I was there before as an undergraduate for a bit, too. During that time, Billy was killed in Vietnam, and I was a nervous wreck. My memoir talks about my depression, my anxieties, and then, through my friend Alastair Reid, I met Borges, the great Argentine writer. We went on a little road trip through the Highlands, and this conversation with Borges really restored me back to myself and what was important in life. I felt that I owed a huge amount to that contact with Borges… I was lucky that suddenly, out of nowhere, came a wonderful director-producer named Mark Turtletaub. He had read my book and loved it, and he approached me. We had a conversation, and he said, ‘Look, I want to make this movie.' So off we went.”It's a real pleasure today to welcome a writer whose voice has been a guiding force in American letters for decades. Jay Pariniis the author of acclaimed biographies of literary giants like John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, and Gore Vidal—as well as an illuminating portrait of Jesus in The Human Face of God. He's also a celebrated poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher whose work reflects a lifelong devotion to the arts, the humanities, and the power of language to tell the truth, gently. From his poetry to his prose, Jay's writing brings rare insight and deep compassion to the page. He doesn't just study his subjects—he inhabits them, helps us hear their voices, and see the world through their eyes. And of course, he's one of the few people who can say they've gotten into the heads of both Jesus and Gore Vidal...and lived to tell the tale.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“Poetry is the prince of the literary arts to me. It's at the very top because it's language refined to its apex of memorability. I am interested in poetry as memorability and poetry as something you live by. These are the words you live by. These words stay in your brain and guide your life. That's what I am interested in. My memoir slash autofiction is called Borges and Me, and as you know, it's a story of my time in 1970 when my best friend Billy was drafted for the Vietnam War, and so was I. He went to Vietnam, and I went to Scotland to hide out and do my graduate work. I spent nearly seven years in Scotland, but I certainly spent the next five years definitely in Scotland. I was there before as an undergraduate for a bit, too. During that time, Billy was killed in Vietnam, and I was a nervous wreck. My memoir talks about my depression, my anxieties, and then, through my friend Alastair Reid, I met Borges, the great Argentine writer. We went on a little road trip through the Highlands, and this conversation with Borges really restored me back to myself and what was important in life. I felt that I owed a huge amount to that contact with Borges… I was lucky that suddenly, out of nowhere, came a wonderful director-producer named Mark Turtletaub. He had read my book and loved it, and he approached me. We had a conversation, and he said, ‘Look, I want to make this movie.' So off we went.”It's a real pleasure today to welcome a writer whose voice has been a guiding force in American letters for decades. Jay Pariniis the author of acclaimed biographies of literary giants like John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, and Gore Vidal—as well as an illuminating portrait of Jesus in The Human Face of God. He's also a celebrated poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher whose work reflects a lifelong devotion to the arts, the humanities, and the power of language to tell the truth, gently. From his poetry to his prose, Jay's writing brings rare insight and deep compassion to the page. He doesn't just study his subjects—he inhabits them, helps us hear their voices, and see the world through their eyes. And of course, he's one of the few people who can say they've gotten into the heads of both Jesus and Gore Vidal...and lived to tell the tale.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“Poetry is the prince of the literary arts to me. It's at the very top because it's language refined to its apex of memorability. I am interested in poetry as memorability and poetry as something you live by. These are the words you live by. These words stay in your brain and guide your life. That's what I am interested in. My memoir slash autofiction is called Borges and Me, and as you know, it's a story of my time in 1970 when my best friend Billy was drafted for the Vietnam War, and so was I. He went to Vietnam, and I went to Scotland to hide out and do my graduate work. I spent nearly seven years in Scotland, but I certainly spent the next five years definitely in Scotland. I was there before as an undergraduate for a bit, too. During that time, Billy was killed in Vietnam, and I was a nervous wreck. My memoir talks about my depression, my anxieties, and then, through my friend Alastair Reid, I met Borges, the great Argentine writer. We went on a little road trip through the Highlands, and this conversation with Borges really restored me back to myself and what was important in life. I felt that I owed a huge amount to that contact with Borges… I was lucky that suddenly, out of nowhere, came a wonderful director-producer named Mark Turtletaub. He had read my book and loved it, and he approached me. We had a conversation, and he said, ‘Look, I want to make this movie.' So off we went.”It's a real pleasure today to welcome a writer whose voice has been a guiding force in American letters for decades. Jay Pariniis the author of acclaimed biographies of literary giants like John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, and Gore Vidal—as well as an illuminating portrait of Jesus in The Human Face of God. He's also a celebrated poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher whose work reflects a lifelong devotion to the arts, the humanities, and the power of language to tell the truth, gently. From his poetry to his prose, Jay's writing brings rare insight and deep compassion to the page. He doesn't just study his subjects—he inhabits them, helps us hear their voices, and see the world through their eyes. And of course, he's one of the few people who can say they've gotten into the heads of both Jesus and Gore Vidal...and lived to tell the tale.Episode Websitewww.creativeprocess.info/podInstagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

So, in the part 1 write-up, I referenced this speech class I took in the summer in high school. This is probably the closest in my experiences to doing something like a Project Runway or Top Chef-style reality show–where you are expected to pump out creation after creation on long hours with very little time to recoup or really think through the thing you're making. You're basically just getting a crash course, then expected to pop out some genius.  Unsurprisingly, I don't remember many of the presentations I put together for this class. Except for one. It starts out much like any episode of Project Runway or Top Chef–Heidi or Padma come out to the contestants, say a witty, scripted preamble, then go into the “Challenge” for the day: prepare a dramatic reading, complete with at least one physical prop. Must be at least three minutes in length. You have one day for this challenge. (I do not remember the teacher at all but am willing to bet she was not Heidi Klum or Padma Lakshmi levels of hot–few of us are.) So after sitting through the presentations from whatever nonsense was assigned yesterday, we are released and allowed to go work on what is due tomorrow.  I hear many people joke about snagging a skull from the science department to do Hamlet, in that sort of desperate way where they're trying to gauge how this would land, because no other ideas are coming and they're dying inside. The idea of trying to learn and be able to recite Shakespeare with one evening's worth of prep did not sound appealing. So like many successful competition-based reality show contestants, I thought about what I knew and how I could fit this challenge to it. Like most moody teens from the early 2000s, I did not know Shakespeare. I did not have Robert Frost or Henry David Thoreau committed to the dome. What did I have embedded in my brain? Song lyrics. The metaphorical lightbulb of genius clicked. I knew what I had to do. And what I had to do was walk over to the nearest Walgreens and buy a puzzle.  The next day, presentations began, and we saw a fair amount of fumbling through Hamlet and other Romantic poets. Someone recreated the space landing audio with a toy spaceship. It was a lot of uninspired mediocre dishes. It was a ton of napkin-style mini-dresses in the unconventional materials challenge. I started to panic–either I messed this up royal, or I've done this better than anyone ever has, and I won't know until I volunteer to get up there and present.  I finally get the nerve, go up there, quiet with my unopened puzzle, knowing I only had one shot at this. This was pre 8 Mile coming out, so I couldn't even mom's spaghetti to hype myself up. I just had to commit. What was I committing to? Well, ripping apart the box of a puzzle, throwing pieces around the room for a full minute before reciting the lyrics to Dashboard Confessional's song “This Ruined Puzzle”. I also apparently committed to giving myself a few gnarly cardboard cuts on the stupid box, but…it landed. I got a 100 on the assignment and Padma would've definitely named me the winner of the challenge. Heidi gave me immunity for next week's show, so I'm definitely not getting eliminated. Love that for me. Shout out to Claire from the last writeup, whose feedback included the joke “But not all of the pieces were face down :( ” which is still objectively hilarious, good job Claire.  What does this have to do with part 2 of our 2024 Musical Wrap-up conversation? You have to embrace who you are and let it drive you. If you are an emo teenage dirtbag, Shakespeare doesn't got you, Chris Carrabba does. Also, a healthy dash of chaos and Committing to the Bit ™ always helps. And that's the TLAT way. Enjoy the episode.

Streets Ahead's presenters, well at least two of them, have been gallivanting around Europe in recent weeks, coming back together in this episode as a trio to embark on an audio roam through some of the current topics in cycling. From the link between bike racing and everyday cycling, to the spending review's implications, to the rise of 'fake e-bikes', a recent report which Laura and Adam worked on, we have it all here.Links from the show:The Robert Frost poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42891/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-eveningCycling superstar, Cat Ferguson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_FergusonThe Spending Review: https://transportactionnetwork.org.uk/spending-review-cuts-active-travel-funding-by-40/Transport for New Homes' research on car dependency in new housing. https://www.transportfornewhomes.org.uk/the-project/building-car-dependency/ and its award for the Bath Riverside housing development: https://www.transportfornewhomes.org.uk/transport-for-new-homes-award-bath-riverside/And the recent e-bike report, by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Walking and Cycling, authored by Laura Laker: https://appgcw.org/resources/inquiries/unregulated-and-unsafe-the-threat-of-illegal-e-bikes/For ad-free listening, behind-the-scenes and bonus content and to help support the podcast - head to (https://www.patreon.com/StreetsAheadPodcast). We'll even send you some stickers! We're also on BlueSky and welcome your feedback on our episode: https://bsky.app/profile/podstreetsahead.bsky.social Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It takes a village to make our favourite TV show and films....On this episode we get to indulge a little bit of our fandom as we get to dive into what made the 4th season of 'Slow Horses" streaming now on Apple+ tick.We sat down with the editing team of Robert Frost and Harrison Wall to get some insight on working on a season of a show like 'Slow Horses".  How soon are they involved in the process, how editing scratches creative itches and the joy of getting to be involved on a show like 'Slow Horses''Slow Horses' Season 4 is streaming on Apple+ now and we selfishly hope that both Robert and Harrison get nominated for Emmy's because we want to see more of their great work on the future episodes to come.'Slow Horses' is streaming on Apple+ now.

After a long 3-year hiatus, your favorite wine-reviewers and horoscope-tellers return! Erin and Jack try desperately to catch up on all the fads, news events, and milestones they missed since their last episode from June 2022. They do not succeed. Then, Jack makes Erin take his worst quiz yet (according to her) - is it a Panic! at the Disco song, a Fall Out Boy song, or a Robert Frost poem? Finally, Erin gives all you Geminis some hard truths in this week's horoscope reading - even if she has some trouble starting. Welcome back, haters!! Follow Erin and Jack on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/2toesup/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/jacksfilms/?hl=en To watch Erin Is The Funny One on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jackisanerd Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://bit.ly/erinisthefunnyone Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

​Daily QuoteI cannot choose the best. The best chooses me. (Rabindranath Tagore)Poem of the DayThe Road Not Takenby Robert FrostBeauty of WordsNorwegian WoodHaruki Murakami

Daily Dose of Hope June 2, 2025 Day 1 of Week 9   Scripture – Matthew 7:1-14   Prayer:  Abba Father, We come to you today with gratitude.  Thank you for loving us.  Thank you for wanting a relationship with us. Thank you for never leaving our side.  Help us to follow you more closely, Lord.  We need your truth.  We need your guidance and direction.  With every fiber of our being, we need you.  As we read your Word today and reflect on it, Lord, speak to us.  Help us grow closer to you.  Let us know where we are falling short so that we can be the people you have called us to be.  In Your Name, Amen.   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, a Deep Dive into the Gospels and Acts.  Happy Monday!  Yesterday, we had a big baptism celebration at New Hope and it was such an amazing event.  We had roughly 30 people get baptized or remember their baptisms between the English and Spanish-speaking congregations.  What a day of joy, as we celebrate new life in Christ!   Today and tomorrow we are finishing up the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus has been teaching us that while outward actions matter, what really matters to God is our heart.  We are to behave and think fundamentally different from the world around us.  Up until this point, we have learned about the different groups that God honors, such as the poor in spirit, the merciful, and those who are persecuted for belief in Jesus.  We've learned about what it means to be salt and light in our world, pointing others to Jesus.  We have also talked a lot about how Jesus took concepts like divorce, adultery, giving to the needy, fasting, and prayer, and turned them on their heads.  Jesus is raising the bar for his people.    Today, the teaching is just as difficult and yet, critically important.  The first portion of the chapter deals with judging others.  Judgement is something that has gotten Christians in a lot of trouble with the world around us.  In fact, being judged by Christians is one of the main reasons people say they have avoided the church or left the church.  This should be heart-breaking to all of us.  Something has gone terribly wrong.    Jesus is saying you will be judged by the same measure you use to judge others. Think about this. How do you want to be judged? I can tell you that I want to be judged with mercy and compassion. Jesus talks about not trying to take the speck out of a friend's eye without taking the plank out of our own.  Why do we obsess over others' specks, over their short-comings? Well, because it's easier, it's more fun, but most of all we feel so much better about ourselves when we point out someone else's stuff. It distracts me from dealing with my own stuff.  I wonder if sometimes we don't even notice the plank hanging from our own eye. Maybe we just aren't very self-aware or we don't want to be self-aware. We are happy being ignorant about our own issues.    Jesus brings up hypocrisy again.  It's worth a review.  A hypocrite is someone who is more concerned with what's wrong with someone else than what's wrong with themselves. Urban dictionary has three definitions:1) A person who engages in the same behaviors he condemns others for. (2) A person who professes certain ideals, but fails to live up to them. (3) A person who holds other people to higher standards than he holds himself.  Sounds about right.  And as Christians, we have often been accused of hypocrisy.  Some of it has been fairly earned.   Jesus is saying, before you start pointing out other people's issues, examine yourself. Stop to see where you have traces of sin in your own life.  We all have it. Sometimes when we notice sin in the lives of other people, it's time to do a self-examination.  We need to examine our own behavior, speech, and thoughts.  We have to look deep in our own hearts and see what we need to fix. Just FYI – we all have something to fix.   So do we just stop there?  No.  Following Jesus means we never stop with what's in it for us. Sure, we've looked at someone else and seen their mess and it's been a big signpost to what's wrong in our lives. But that is not where it ends. Jesus says, “First get rid of the log in your own eye; THEN you will see well enough to deal with speck in your friend's eye.” This is where it gets really hard.   One of the main points of Jesus' ministry was teaching his followers to love each other. Love your neighbor. Love one other. John 13:34-35, So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.  This teaching on judgement is not just about letting people do whatever they want, about never confronting people. Judge not is not just about letting people live and think and speak in whatever way they want to because, well, Jesus said “Don't judge others.” It is so much more than that. It's not just about dealing with our own stuff either, although we do need to do that. When we see others' issues, it should be an impetus for us to look at ourselves and say, “Do I have that issue? Am I addressing it? What issues do I have that I need to address? What do I need to do to become more like the person Jesus wants me to me?” This is called being self-aware, knowing where your weaknesses are, and trying to deal with them.   But Jesus' lesson on not judging is more than that. We deal with the log in your own eye and then we may need to approach someone else about the speck in their eye.  Part of loving others well is holding other believers accountable.  We need each other.  Judge not does not mean care not.  It doesn't mean act not.  It doesn't mean don't get involved.  We need to keep our motives in check and be humble, but there will be times in Christian community where we truly need to get involved and let others know that while we care about them, they are off the mark.   Moving on in the passage, Jesus then teaches about praying expectantly.  This is the ask, seek, knock passage and many of you have probably heard this a lot.  It's powerful.  But does this mean that if we ask, God will give us whatever we want.  Not exactly.  But it does mean to pray expectantly; pray expecting that God will us an answer.   This can be a difficult scripture to teach. Some of you might be thinking, “Well, I prayed for my mother, or my son, or my husband to be healed and I prayed both persistently and expectantly, and it didn't work. They still died.” How do we make sense of this? I believe that part of it is understanding the context. Just as Jesus often used parables in his teaching he also used hyperbole in his speech, which is an overstatement or an exaggeration.  This was a really common way of explaining things at that time, in that culture, and it would have just made a lot of sense to first-century people. We, on the other hand, are products of twenty-first century modern life. In our culture, we tend to read everything very literally. And this isn't a bad thing–we just need to consider that Jesus was trying to make a point.   The reality is that this world would be even more chaotic if Jesus' words on prayer were actually meant to be taken literally. For instance, if we could just pray to have money and it appeared, well, then why work a job? If we could just pray to have an A on that Calculus test without studying for it, then everyone would have A's and grades wouldn't really have much meaning. That doesn't mean we don't pray, and it doesn't mean we don't pray boldly, because God intends for us to do so.  He says to pray without ceasing.  But it means we know that prayer isn't a get rich quick scheme or a way to get all our dreams to come true, but rather a way to get closer to God, a way for God to sustain us, a way to know that God is always with us. Pray expectantly because prayer does change things, but not always the way we want them to be changed. Pray expectantly because God always answers prayers, sometimes just not the way we want them to be answered.   The last few verses in today's reading are short but powerful.  Jesus tells his listeners to enter through the narrow gate.  This means following him and his ways.  Most people will enter through the wide gate.  On first glance, the wide gate seems easier.  It's the way of the world, it's living for yourself, it's doing what you want when you want and how you want.  Less people choose the narrow gate but it's that road that leads to Jesus which leads to life.   This Scripture always reminds me of Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken.  Many of you probably know it.  I would close with the poem except for Frost was a complicated man who was never that clear about his faith.  He had some kind of belief but never professed Jesus as Savior.  I think he struggled with this narrow door/wide door issue.  And there really isn't anything more important in life, getting the doors and roads correct.  Yet, elements of Frost's work point to exactly what Jesus is saying, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”    Which door have you chosen?  Which road will you pursue?   Blessings, Pastor Vicki

Poetry, butterflies, and original music oh my! With some help from poets Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth, and John Keats, along with original music by composer Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal, Jacke tackles the topic of butterflies. Yes, yes, we all know that butterflies are symbols of beauty and transformation - but can great poets get beyond the clichés? Why did Keats imagine himself as a butterfly in his love letters? Did Robert Frost mansplain poetry to Emily Dickinson (and do we agree)? In this episode, we flit and float and fleetly flee and fly through literature, life, music, and poetry - like a butterfly, maybe? (Maybe so!) Additional listening: John Keats  More John Keats 700 Butterflies at Rest The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com . "Two Butterflies" performed by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal and Allison Hughes. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate . The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Love and Need: The Life of Robert Frost's Poetry is literary critic Adam Plunkett's first biography. His exploration of the life and creativity of one of America's favorite 20th-century poets was published […]

fWotD Episode 2940: Ezra Pound Welcome to Featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Friday, 23 May 2025, is Ezra Pound.Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a collaborator in Fascist Italy and the Salò Republic during World War II. His works include Ripostes (1912), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920), and his 800-page epic poem The Cantos (c. 1917–1962).Pound's contribution to poetry began in the early 20th century with his role in developing Imagism, a movement stressing precision and economy of language. Working in London as foreign editor of several American literary magazines, he helped discover and shape the work of contemporaries such as H. D., Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce. He was responsible for the 1914 serialization of Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the 1915 publication of Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", and the serialization from 1918 of Joyce's Ulysses. Hemingway wrote in 1932 that, for poets born in the late 19th or early 20th century, not to be influenced by Pound would be "like passing through a great blizzard and not feeling its cold".Angered by the carnage of World War I, Pound blamed the war on finance capitalism, which he called "usury". He moved to Italy in 1924 and through the 1930s and 1940s promoted an economic theory known as social credit, wrote for publications owned by the British fascist Sir Oswald Mosley, embraced Benito Mussolini's fascism, and expressed support for Adolf Hitler. During World War II, Pound recorded hundreds of paid radio propaganda broadcasts for the fascist Italian government and its later incarnation as a German puppet state, in which he attacked the United States federal government, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Britain, international finance, munitions makers, arms dealers, Jews, and others, as abettors and prolongers of the war. He also praised both eugenics and the Holocaust in Italy, while urging American GIs to throw down their rifles and surrender. In 1945, Pound was captured by the Italian Resistance and handed over to the U. S. Army's Counterintelligence Corps, who held him pending extradition and prosecution based on an indictment for treason. He spent months in a U. S. military detention camp near Pisa, including three weeks in an outdoor steel cage. Ruled mentally unfit to stand trial, Pound was incarcerated for over 12 years at St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital in Washington, D. C., whose doctors viewed Pound as a narcissist and a psychopath, but otherwise completely sane.While in custody in Italy, Pound began work on sections of The Cantos, which were published as The Pisan Cantos (1948), for which he was awarded the Bollingen Prize for Poetry in 1949 by the Library of Congress, causing enormous controversy. After a campaign by his fellow writers, he was released from St. Elizabeth's in 1958 and returned to Italy, where he posed for the press giving the Fascist salute and called the United States "an insane asylum". Pound remained in Italy until his death in 1972. His economic and political views have ensured that his life and literary legacy remain highly controversial.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:31 UTC on Friday, 23 May 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Ezra Pound on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Salli.

Hello fellow humans! Thank you for your patience this last week as I finished up my work with the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, but guess what? I now have oodles of time to create beauty! (and podcasts). *You lucky ducks!* This time I get to introduce you to Ash Perrow, who has quite a story to tell! After suffering an NDE, Ash tells of what happened after, and the promise that he made in that diffuse and dark place, one which earned him the right to return to the land of the living! And as Robert Frost said, in his poem "The Road Not Taken," Ash's choice has made all the difference. It has meant that he is able to show up for those who need help, show up for all of us when he models what a true life looks like, and show up for my show, to inspire all of us who listen! To read a bit more about Ash and his work, click here! Your bit of beauty is this poem, by Robert Frost, one that urges all of us to live a life full of our uniqueness, and our unique choices...choices that will make all the difference. The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Love you babes...have a beautiful week! xo

Hello fellow humans! Thank you for your patience this last week as I finished up my work with the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, but guess what? I now have oodles of time to create beauty! (and podcasts). *You lucky ducks!* This time I get to introduce you to Ash Perrow, who has quite a story to tell! After suffering an NDE, Ash tells of what happened after, and the promise that he made in that diffuse and dark place, one which earned him the right to return to the land of the living! And as Robert Frost said, in his poem "The Road Not Taken," Ash's choice has made all the difference. It has meant that he is able to show up for those who need help, show up for all of us when he models what a true life looks like, and show up for my show, to inspire all of us who listen! To read a bit more about Ash and his work, click here! Your bit of beauty is this poem, by Robert Frost, one that urges all of us to live a life full of our uniqueness, and our unique choices...choices that will make all the difference. The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Love you babes...have a beautiful week! xo

Feeling stuck on the same road you've always walked? In this episode of the One Second of Strength Podcast, Tanner explores how habits shape our choices and how to break free from the familiar path to create real change. Inspired by Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken, this is your invitation to choose a new path—one that leads to growth, courage, and transformation.________SHARE – this episode with one other person who is on your mindSUBSCRIBE – Never miss another episodeFOLLOW – Follow Tanner on Instagram and share this episode to your stories and TAG @realtannercarkDo you have kids with social media? My digital course can help with that. Check out 4MParenting.com and use code PODCAST to save 25%.

In this episode, I sit down with João Esteves, founder of DiVERGE Sneakers, a brand that's rewriting the rules of footwear from the ground up.   We discuss why customization matters, how DiVERGE puts the customer's individuality front and center, and what it truly takes to build a business rooted in purpose, not just profit.   João opens up about his entrepreneurial journey, including the emotional resilience required to stay the course and the people who believed in him when the business needed it most. From launching a brand inspired by a Robert Frost poem to becoming a B Corp committed to people and the planet, João shares how DiVERGE is challenging mass production and the wasteful norms of the fashion industry. We also dive into the brand's incredible social impact program that helps underprivileged youth design their own shoes and share their stories with the world.

April 17, 2025 - "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost, read by Richard Cogliandro by The Desmond-Fish Public Library & The Highlands Current, hosted by Ryan Biracree

Guest Bio:  Dave Snowden divides his time between two roles: founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Cognitive Edge and the founder and Director of the Centre for Applied Complexity at the University of Wales.  Known for creating the sense-making framework, Cynefin, Dave's work is international in nature and covers government and industry looking at complex issues relating to strategy, organisational decision making and decision making.  He has pioneered a science-based approach to organisations drawing on anthropology, neuroscience and complex adaptive systems theory.  He is a popular and passionate keynote speaker on a range of subjects, and is well known for his pragmatic cynicism and iconoclastic style. He holds positions as extra-ordinary Professor at the Universities of Pretoria and Stellenbosch and visiting Professor at Bangor University in Wales respectively.  He has held similar positions at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Canberra University, the University of Warwick and The University of Surrey.  He held the position of senior fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang University and the Civil Service College in Singapore during a sabbatical period in Nanyang. His paper with Boone on Leadership was the cover article for the Harvard Business Review in November 2007 and also won the Academy of Management aware for the best practitioner paper in the same year.  He has previously won a special award from the Academy for originality in his work on knowledge management. He is a editorial board member of several academic and practitioner journals in the field of knowledge management and is an Editor in Chief of E:CO.  In 2006 he was Director of the EPSRC (UK) research programme on emergence and in 2007 was appointed to an NSF (US) review panel on complexity science research. He previously worked for IBM where he was a Director of the Institution for Knowledge Management and founded the Cynefin Centre for Organisational Complexity; during that period he was selected by IBM as one of six on-demand thinkers for a world-wide advertising campaign. Prior to that he worked in a range of strategic and management roles in the service sector. His company Cognitive Edge exists to integrate academic thinking with practice in organisations throughout the world and operates on a network model working with Academics, Government, Commercial Organisations, NGOs and Independent Consultants.  He is also the main designer of the SenseMaker® software suite, originally developed in the field of counter terrorism and now being actively deployed in both Government and Industry to handle issues of impact measurement, customer/employee insight, narrative based knowledge management, strategic foresight and risk management. The Centre for Applied Complexity was established to look at whole of citizen engagement in government and is running active programmes in Wales and elsewhere in areas such as social inclusion, self-organising communities and nudge economics together with a broad range of programmes in health.  The Centre will establish Wales as a centre of excellence for the integration of academic and practitioner work in creating a science-based approach to understanding society.   Social Media and Website LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/dave-snowden-2a93b Twitter: @snowded Website: Cognitive Edge https://www.cognitive-edge.com/   Books/ Resources: Book: Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World by Dave Snowden and Friends https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cynefin-Weaving-Sense-Making-Fabric-World/dp/1735379905 Book: Hope Without Optimism by Terry Eagleton https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hope-Without-Optimism-Terry-Eagleton/dp/0300248679/ Book: Theology of Hope by Jurgen Moltmann https://www.amazon.co.uk/Theology-Hope-Classics-Jurgen-Moltmann/dp/0334028787 Poem: ‘Mending Wall' by Robert Frost https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44266/mending-wall Video: Dave Snowden on ‘Rewilding Agile' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrgaPDqet4c Article reference to ‘Rewilding Agile' by Dave Snowden https://cynefin.io/index.php/User:Snowded Field Guide to Managing Complexity (and Chaos) In Times of Crisis https://cynefin.io/index.php/Field_guide_to_managing_complexity_(and_chaos)_in_times_of_crisis Field Guide to Managing Complexity (and Chaos) In Times of Crisis (2) https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/managing-complexity-and-chaos-times-crisis-field-guide-decision-makers-inspired-cynefin-framework Cynefin Wiki https://cynefin.io/wiki/Main_Page   Interview Transcript Ula Ojiaku:  Dave, thank you for making the time for this conversation. I read in your, your latest book - the book, Cynefin: Weaving Sense Making into the Fabric of Our World, which was released, I believe, in celebration of the twenty first year of the framework. And you mentioned that in your childhood, you had multidisciplinary upbringing which involved lots of reading. Could you tell us a bit more about that? Dave Snowden:  I think it wasn't uncommon in those days. I mean, if you did… I mean, I did science A levels and mathematical A levels. But the assumption was you would read every novel that the academic English class were reading. In fact, it was just unimaginable (that) you wouldn't know the basics of history. So, if you couldn't survive that in the sixth form common room, and the basics of science were known by most of the arts people as well. So that that was common, right. And we had to debate every week anyway. So, every week, you went up to the front of the class and you were given a card, and you'd have the subject and which side you are on, and you had to speak for seven minutes without preparation. And we did that every week from the age of 11 to 18. And that was a wonderful discipline because it meant you read everything. But also, my mother was… both my parents were the first from working class communities to go to university. And they got there by scholarship or sheer hard work against the opposition of their families. My mother went to university in Germany just after the war, which was extremely brave of her -  you know, as a South Wales working class girl. So, you weren't allowed not to be educated, it was considered the unforgivable sin. Ula Ojiaku:   Wow. Did it mean that she had to learn German, because (she was) studying in Germany…? Dave Snowden:  She well, she got A levels in languages. So, she went to university to study German and she actually ended up as a German teacher, German and French. So, she had that sort of background. Yeah. Ula Ojiaku:  And was that what influenced you? Because you also mentioned in the book that you won a £60 prize? Dave Snowden:  Oh, no, that was just fun. So, my mum was very politically active. We're a South Wales labor. Well, I know if I can read but we were labor. And so, she was a local Councilor. She was always politically active. There's a picture of me on Bertrand Russell's knee and her as a baby on a CND march. So it was that sort of background. And she was campaigning for comprehensive education, and had a ferocious fight with Aiden Williams, I think, who was the Director of Education, it was really nasty. I mean, I got threatened on my 11 Plus, he got really nasty. And then so when (I was) in the sixth form, I won the prize in his memory, which caused endless amusement in the whole county. All right. I think I probably won it for that. But that was for contributions beyond academic. So, I was leading lots of stuff in the community and stuff like that. But I had £60. And the assumption was, you go and buy one massive book. And I didn't, I got Dad to drive me to Liverpool - went into the big bookshop there and just came out with I mean, books for two and six pence. So, you can imagine how many books I could get for £60. And I just took everything I could find on philosophy and history and introductory science and stuff like that and just consumed it. Ula Ojiaku:  Wow, it seemed like you already knew what you wanted even before winning the prize money, you seem to have had a wish list... Dave Snowden:  I mean, actually interesting, and the big things in the EU field guide on (managing) complexity which was just issued. You need to build…, You need to stop saying, ‘this is the problem, we will find the solution' to saying, ‘how do I build capability, that can solve problems we haven't yet anticipated?' And I think that's part of the problem in education. Because my children didn't have that benefit. They had a modular education. Yeah, we did a set of exams at 16 and a set of exams that 18 and between those periods, we could explore it (i.e. options) and we had to hold everything in our minds for those two periods, right? For my children, it was do a module, pass a test, get a mark, move on, forget it move on. So, it's very compartmentalized, yeah? And it's also quite instrumentalist. We, I think we were given an education as much in how to learn and have had to find things out. And the debating tradition was that; you didn't know what you're going to get hit with. So, you read everything, and you thought about it, and you learn to think on your feet. And I think that that sort of a broad switch, it started to happen in the 80s, along with a lot of other bad things in management. And this is when systems thinking started to dominate. And we moved to an engineering metaphor. And you can see it in cybernetics and everything else, it's an attempt to define everything as a machine. And of course, machines are designed for a purpose, whereas ecosystems evolve for resilience. And I think that's kind of like where I, my generation were and it's certainly what we're trying to bring back in now in sort of in terms of practice. Ula Ojiaku:  I have an engineering background and a computer science background. These days, I'm developing a newfound love for philosophy, psychology, law and, you know, intersect, how do all these concepts intersect? Because as human beings we're complex, we're not machines where you put the program in and you expect it to come out the same, you know, it's not going to be the same for every human being. What do you think about that? Dave Snowden:  Yeah. And I think, you know, we know more on this as well. So, we know the role of art in human evolution is being closely linked to innovation. So, art comes before language. So, abstraction allows you to make novel connections. So, if you focus entirely on STEM education, you're damaging the human capacity to innovate. And we're, you know, as creatures, we're curious. You know. And I mean, we got this whole concept of our aporia, which is key to connecting that, which is creating a state of deliberate confusion, or a state of paradox. And the essence of a paradox is you can't resolve it. So, you're forced to think differently. So, the famous case on this is the liar's paradox, alright? I mean, “I always lie”. That just means I lied. So, if that means I was telling the truth. So, you've got to think differently about the problem. I mean, you've seen those paradoxes do the same thing. So that, that deliberate act of creating confusion so people can see novelty is key. Yeah. Umm and if you don't find… finding ways to do that, so when we looked at it, we looked at linguistic aporia, aesthetic aporia and physical aporia. So, I got some of the… one of the defining moments of insight on Cynefin was looking at Caravaggio`s paintings in Naples. When I realized I've been looking for the idea of the liminality. And that was, and then it all came together, right? So those are the trigger points requiring a more composite way of learning. I think it's also multiculturalism, to be honest. I mean, I, when I left university, I worked on the World Council of Churches come, you know program to combat racism. Ula Ojiaku:  Yes, I'd like to know more about that. That's one of my questions… Dave Snowden:  My mother was a good atheist, but she made me read the Bible on the basis, I wouldn't understand European literature otherwise, and the penetration guys, I became a Catholic so… Now, I mean, that that was fascinating, because I mean, I worked on Aboriginal land rights in Northern Australia, for example. And that was when I saw an activist who was literally murdered in front of me by a security guard. And we went to the police. And they said, it's only an Abo. And I still remember having fights in Geneva, because South Africa was a tribal conflict with a racial overlay. I mean, Africa, and its Matabele Zulu, arrived in South Africa together and wiped out the native population. And if you don't understand that, you don't understand the Matabele betrayal. You don't understand what happened. It doesn't justify apartheid. And one of the reasons there was a partial reconciliation, is it actually was a tribal conflict. And the ritual actually managed that. Whereas in Australia, in comparison was actually genocide. Yeah, it wasn't prejudice, it was genocide. I mean, until 1970s, there, were still taking half -breed children forcibly away from their parents, inter-marrying them in homes, to breed them back to white. And those are, I think, yeah, a big market. I argued this in the UK, I said, one of the things we should actually have is bring back national service. I couldn't get the Labor Party to adopt it. I said, ‘A: Because it would undermine the Conservatives, because they're the ones who talk about that sort of stuff. But we should allow it to be overseas.' So, if you put two years into working in communities, which are poorer than yours, round about that 18 to 21-year-old bracket, then we'll pay for your education. If you don't, you'll pay fees. Because you proved you want to give to society. And that would have been… I think, it would have meant we'd have had a generation of graduates who understood the world because that was part of the objective. I mean, I did that I worked on worked in South Africa, on the banks of Zimbabwe on the audits of the refugee camps around that fight. And in Sao Paulo, in the slums, some of the work of priests. You can't come back from that and not be changed. And I think it's that key formative period, we need to give people. Ula Ojiaku:  True and like you said, at that age, you know, when you're young and impressionable, it helps with what broadening your worldview to know that the world is bigger than your father's … compound (backyard)… Dave Snowden:  That's the worst problem in Agile, because what, you've got a whole class of, mainly white males and misogynism in Agile is really bad. It's one of the worst areas for misogyny still left, right, in terms of where it works. Ula Ojiaku:  I'm happy you are the one saying it not me… Dave Snowden:  Well, no, I mean, it is it's quite appalling. And so, what you've actually got is, is largely a bunch of white male game players who spent their entire time on computers. Yeah, when you take and run seriously after puberty, and that's kind of like a dominant culture. And that's actually quite dangerous, because it lacks, it lacks cultural diversity, it lacks ethnic diversity, it lacks educational diversity. And I wrote an article for ITIL, recently, which has been published, which said, no engineers should be allowed out, without training in ethics. Because the implications of what software engineers do now are huge. And the problem we've got, and this is a really significant, it's a big data problem as well. And you see it with a behavioral economic economist and the nudge theory guys - all of whom grab these large-scale data manipulations is that they're amoral, they're not immoral, they're amoral. And that's actually always more scary. It's this sort of deep level instrumentalism about the numbers; the numbers tell me what I need to say. Ula Ojiaku:  And also, I mean, just building on what you've said, there are instances, for example, in artificial intelligence is really based on a sample set from a select group, and it doesn't necessarily recognize things that are called ‘outliers'. You know, other races… Dave Snowden:  I mean, I've worked in that in all my life now back 20, 25 years ago. John Poindexter and I were on a stage in a conference in Washington. This was sort of early days of our work on counter terrorism. And somebody asked about black box AI and I said, nobody's talking about the training data sets. And I've worked in AI from the early days, all right, and the training data sets matter and nobody bothered. They just assumed… and you get people publishing books which say correlation is causation, which is deeply worrying, right? And I think Google is starting to acknowledge that, but it's actually very late. And the biases which… we were looking at a software tool the other day, it said it can, it can predict 85% of future events around culture. Well, it can only do that by constraining how executive see culture, so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And then the recruitment algorithms will only recruit people who match that cultural expectation and outliers will be eliminated. There's an HBO film coming up shortly on Myers Briggs. Now, Myers Briggs is known to be a pseudo-science. It has no basis whatsoever in any clinical work, and even Jung denied it, even though it's meant to be based on his work. But it's beautiful for HR departments because it allows them to put people into little categories. And critically it abrogates, judgment, and that's what happened with systems thinking in the 80s 90s is everything became spreadsheets and algorithms. So, HR departments would produce… instead of managers making decisions based on judgment, HR departments would force them into profile curves, to allocate resources. Actually, if you had a high performing team who were punished, because the assumption was teams would not have more than… Ula Ojiaku:  Bell curve... Dave Snowden:  …10 percent high performance in it. All right. Ula Ojiaku:  Yeah. Dave Snowden:  And this sort of nonsense has been running in the 80s, 90s and it coincided with… three things came together. One was the popularization of systems thinking. And unfortunately, it got popularized around things like process reengineering and learning organization. So that was a hard end. And Sanghi's pious can the sort of the, the soft end of it, right? But both of them were highly directional. It was kind of like leaders decide everything follows. Yeah. And that coincided with the huge growth of computing - the ability to handle large volumes of information. And all of those sorts of things came together in this sort of perfect storm, and we lost a lot of humanity in the process. Ula Ojiaku:  Do you think there's hope for us to regain the humanity in the process? Because it seems like the tide is turning from, I mean, there is still an emphasis, in my view, on systems thinking, however, there is the growing realization that we have, you know, knowledge workers and people… Dave Snowden:  Coming to the end of its park cycle, I see that all right. I can see it with the amount of cybernetics fanboys, and they are all boys who jump on me every time I say something about complexity, right? So, I think they're feeling threatened. And the field guide is significant, because it's a government, you know, government can like publication around effectively taken an ecosystems approach, not a cybernetic approach. And there's a book published by a good friend of mine called Terry Eagleton, who's… I don't think he's written a bad book. And he's written about 30, or 40. I mean, the guy just produces his stuff. It's called “Hope without Optimism”. And I think, hope is… I mean, Moltman just also published an update of his Theology of Hope, which is worth reading, even if you're not religious. But hope is one of those key concepts, right, you should… to lose hope is a sin. But hope is not the same thing as optimism. In fact, pessimistic people who hope actually are probably the ones who make a difference, because they're not naive, right? And this is my objection to the likes of Sharma Ga Sengi, and the like, is they just gather people together to talk about how things should be. And of course, everything should be what, you know, white MIT, educated males think the world should be like. I mean, it's very culturally imperialist in that sort of sense. And then nobody changes because anybody can come together in the workshop and agree how things should be. It's when you make a difference in the field that it counts, you've got to create a micro difference. This is hyper localization, you got to create lots and lots of micro differences, which will stimulate the systems, the system will change. I think, three things that come together, one is COVID. The other is global warming. And the other is, and I prefer to call it the epistemic justice movement, though, that kind of like fits in with Black Lives Matter. But epistemic justice doesn't just affect people who are female or black. I mean, if you come to the UK and see the language about the Welsh and the Irish, or the jokes made about the Welsh in BBC, right? The way we use language can designate people in different ways and I think that's a big movement, though. And it's certainly something we develop software for. So, I think those three come together, and I think the old models aren't going to be sustainable. I mean, the cost is going to be terrible. I mean, the cost to COVID is already bad. And we're not getting this thing as long COVID, it's permanent COVID. And people need to start getting used to that. And I think that's, that's going to change things. So, for example, in the village I live in Wiltshire. Somebody's now opened an artisan bakery in their garage and it's brilliant. And everybody's popping around there twice a week and just buying the bread and having a chat on the way; socially-distanced with masks, of course. And talking of people, that sort of thing is happening a lot. COVID has forced people into local areas and forced people to realise the vulnerability of supply chains. So, you can see changes happening there. The whole Trump phenomenon, right, and the Boris murmuring in the UK is ongoing. It's just as bad as the Trump phenomenon. It's the institutionalization of corruption as a high level. Right? Those sorts of things trigger change, right? Not without cost, change never comes without cost, but it just needs enough… It needs local action, not international action. I think that's the key principle. To get a lot of people to accept things like the Paris Accord on climate change, and you've got to be prepared to make sacrifices. And it's too distant a time at the moment, it has to become a local issue for the international initiatives to actually work and we're seeing that now. I mean… Ula Ojiaku:  It sounds like, sorry to interrupt - it sounds like what you're saying is, for the local action, for change to happen, it has to start with us as individuals… Dave Snowden:  The disposition… No, not with individuals. That's actually very North American, the North European way of thinking right. The fundamental kind of basic identity structure of humans is actually clans, not individuals. Ula Ojiaku:  Clans... Dave Snowden:  Yeah. Extended families, clans; it's an ambiguous word. We actually evolved for those. And you need it at that level, because that's a high level of social interaction and social dependency. And it's like, for example, right? I'm dyslexic. Right? Yeah. If I don't see if, if the spelling checker doesn't pick up a spelling mistake, I won't see it. And I read a whole page at a time. I do not read it sentence by sentence. All right. And I can't understand why people haven't seen the connections I make, because they're obvious, right? Equally, there's a high degree of partial autism in the Agile community, because that goes with mathematical ability and thing, and that this so-called education deficiencies, and the attempt to define an ideal individual is a mistake, because we evolved to have these differences. Ula Ojiaku:  Yes. Dave Snowden:  Yeah. And the differences understood that the right level of interaction can change things. So, I think the unit is clan, right for extended family, or extended, extended interdependence. Ula Ojiaku:  Extended interdependence… Dave Snowden:  We're seeing that in the village. I mean, yeah, this is classic British atomistic knit, and none of our relatives live anywhere near us. But the independence in the village is increasing with COVID. And therefore, people are finding relationships and things they can do together. Now, once that builds to a critical mass, and it does actually happen exponentially, then bigger initiatives are possible. And this is some of the stuff we were hoping to do in the US shortly on post-election reconciliation. And the work we've been doing in Malmo, in refugees and elsewhere in the world, right, is you change the nature of localized interaction with national visibility, so that you can measure the dispositional state of the system. And then you can nudge the system when it's ready to change, because then the energy cost of change is low. But that requires real time feedback loops in distributed human sensor networks, which is a key issue in the field guide. And the key thing that comes back to your original question on AI, is, the internet at the moment is an unbuffered feedback loop. Yeah, where you don't know the source of the data, and you can't control the source of the data. And any network like that, and this is just apriori science factor, right will always become perverted. Ula Ojiaku:  And what do you mean by term apriori? Dave Snowden:  Oh, before the facts, you don't need to, we don't need to wait for evidence. It's like in an agile, you can look at something like SAFe® which case claims to scale agile and just look at it you say it's apriori wrong (to) a scale a complex system. So, it's wrong. All right. End of argument right. Now let's talk about the details, right. So yeah, so that's, you know, that's coming back. The hyper localization thing is absolutely key on that, right? And the same is true to be honest in software development. A lot of our work now is to understand the unarticulated needs of users. And then shift technology in to actually meet those unarticulated needs. And that requires a complex approach to architecture, in which people and technology are objects with defined interactions around scaffolding structures, so that applications can emerge in resilience, right? And that's actually how local communities evolve as well. So, we've now got the theoretical constructs and a lot of the practical methods to actually… And I've got a series of blog posts - which I've got to get back to writing - called Rewilding Agile. And rewilding isn't returning to the original state, it's restoring balance. So, if you increase the number of human actors as your primary sources, and I mean human actors, not as people sitting on (in front of) computer screens who can be faked or mimicked, yeah? … and entirely working on text, which is about 10%, of what we know, dangerous, it might become 80% of what we know and then you need to panic. Right? So, you know, by changing those interactions, increasing the human agency in the system, that's how you come to, that's how you deal with fake news. It's not by writing better algorithms, because then it becomes a war with the guys faking the news, and you're always gonna lose. Ula Ojiaku:  So, what do you consider yourself, a person of faith? Dave Snowden:  Yeah. Ula Ojiaku:  Why? Dave Snowden:  Oh, faith is like hope and charity. I mean, they're the great virtues… I didn't tell you I got into a lot in trouble in the 70s. Dave Snowden:  I wrote an essay that said Catholicism, Marxism and Hinduism were ontologically identical and should be combined and we're different from Protestantism and capitalism, which are also ontologically identical (and) it can be combined. Ula Ojiaku:  Is this available in the public domain? Dave Snowden:  I doubt it. I think it actually got me onto a heresy trial at one point, but that but I would still say that. Ula Ojiaku:  That's amazing. Can we then move to the framework that Cynefin framework, how did it evolve into what we know it as today? Dave Snowden:  I'll do a high-level summary, but I wrote it up at length in the book and I didn't know I was writing for the book. The book was a surprise that they put together for me. I thought that was just writing an extended blog post. It started when I was working in IBM is it originates from the work of Max Borrasso was my mentor for years who tragically died early. But he was looking at abstraction, codification and diffusion. We did a fair amount of work together, I took two of those aspects and started to look at informal and formal communities in IBM, and its innovation. And some of the early articles on Cynefin, certainly the early ones with the five domains come from that period. And at that time, we had access labels. Yeah. And then then complexity theory came into it. So, it shifted into being a complexity framework. And it stayed … The five domains were fairly constant for a fairly long period of time, they changed their names a bit. The central domain I knew was important, but didn't have as much prominence as it does now. And then I introduced liminality, partly driven by agile people, actually, because they could they couldn't get the concept there were dynamics and domains. So, they used to say things like, ‘look, Scrum is a dynamic. It's a way of shifting complex to complicated' and people say ‘no, the scrum guide said it's about complex.' And you think, ‘oh, God, Stacey has a lot to answer for' but… Ula Ojiaku: Who`s Stacey? Dave Snowden:  Ralph Stacey. So, he was the guy originally picked up by Ken when he wrote the Scrum Guide… Ula Ojiaku:  Right. Okay. Dave Snowden:  Stacey believes everything's complex, which is just wrong, right? So, either way, Cynefin evolved with the liminal aspects. And then the last resolution last year, which is… kind of completes Cynefin to be honest, there's some refinements… was when we realized that the central domain was confused, or operatic. And that was the point where you started. So, you didn't start by putting things into the domain, you started in the operatic. And then you moved aspects of things into the different domains. So that was really important. And it got picked up in Agile, ironically, by the XP community. So, I mean, I was in IT most of my life, I was one of the founders of the DSDM Consortium, and then moved sideways from that, and was working in counterterrorism and other areas, always you're working with technology, but not in the Agile movement. Cynefin is actually about the same age as Agile, it started at the same time. And the XP community in London invited me in, and I still think Agile would have been better if it had been built on XP, not Scrum. But it wouldn't have scaled with XP, I mean, without Scrum it would never have scaled it. And then it got picked up. And I think one of the reasons it got picked up over Stacey is, it said order is possible. It didn't say everything is complex. And virtually every Agile method I know of value actually focuses on making complex, complicated. Ula Ojiaku:  Yes. Dave Snowden:  And that's its power. What they're… what is insufficient of, and this is where we've been working is what I call pre-Scrum techniques. Techniques, which define what should go into that process. Right, because all of the Agile methods still tend to be a very strong manufacturing metaphor - manufacturing ideas. So, they assume somebody will tell them what they have to produce. And that actually is a bad way of thinking about IT. Technology needs to co-evolve. And users can't articulate what they want, because they don't know what technology can do. Ula Ojiaku:  True. But are you saying… because in Agile fundamentally, it's really about making sure there's alignment as well that people are working on the right thing per time, but you're not telling them how to do it? Dave Snowden:  Well, yes and no - all right. I mean, it depends what you're doing. I mean, some Agile processes, yes. But if you go through the sort of safe brain remain processes, very little variety within it, right? And self-organization happens within the context of a user executive and retrospectives. Right, so that's its power. And, but if you look at it, it took a really good technique called time-boxing, and it reduced it to a two-week sprint. Now, that's one aspect of time boxing. I mean, I've got a whole series of blog posts next week on this, because time boxing is a hugely valuable technique. It says there's minimal deliverable project, and maximum deliverable product and a minimal level of resource and a maximum level of resource. And the team commits to deliver on the date. Ula Ojiaku:  To accurate quality… to a quality standard. Dave Snowden:  Yeah, so basically, you know that the worst case, you'll get the minimum product at the maximum cost, but you know, you'll get it on that date. So, you can deal with it, alright. And that's another technique we've neglected. We're doing things which force high levels of mutation and requirements over 24 hours, before they get put into a Scrum process. Because if you just take what users want, you know, there's been insufficient co-evolution with the technology capability. And so, by the time you deliver it, the users will probably realize they should have asked for something different anyway. Ula Ojiaku:  So, does this tie in with the pre-Scrum techniques you mentioned earlier? If so, can you articulate that? Dave Snowden:  So, is to say different methods in different places. And that's again, my opposition to things like SAFe, to a lesser extent LeSS, and so on, right, is they try and put everything into one bloody big flow diagram. Yeah. And that's messy. All right? Well, it's a recipe, not a chef. What the chef does is they put different ingredients together in different combinations. So, there's modularity of knowledge, but it's not forced into a linear process. So, our work… and we just got an open space and open source and our methods deliberately, right, in terms of the way it works, is I can take Scrum, and I can reduce it to its lowest coherent components, like a sprint or retrospective. I can combine those components with components for another method. So, I can create Scrum as an assembly of components, I can take those components compared with other components. And that way, you get novelty. So, we're then developing components which sit before traditional stuff. Like for example, triple eight, right? This was an old DSDM method. So, you ran a JAD sessions and Scrum has forgotten about JAD. JAD is a really…  joint application design… is a really good set of techniques - they're all outstanding. You throw users together with coders for two days, and you force out some prototypes. Yeah, that latching on its own would, would transform agile, bringing that back in spades, right? We did is we do an eight-hour JAD session say, in London, and we pass it on to a team in Mumbai. But we don't tell them what the users ask for. They just get the prototype. And they can do whatever they want with it for eight hours. And then they hand it over to a team in San Francisco, who can do whatever they want with it in eight hours. And it comes back. And every time I've run this, the user said, ‘God, I wouldn't have thought of that, can I please, have it?' So, what you're doing is a limited life cycle -  you get the thing roughly defined, then you allow it to mutate without control, and then you look at the results and decide what you want to do. And that's an example of pre-scrum technique, that is a lot more economical than systems and analysts and user executives and storyboards. And all those sorts of things. Yeah. Ula Ojiaku:  Well, I see what you mean, because it seems like the, you know, the JAD - the joint application design technique allows for emergent design, and you shift the decision making closer to the people who are at the forefront. And to an extent my understanding of, you know, Scrum … I mean, some agile frameworks - that's also what they promote… Dave Snowden:  Oh, they don't really don't. alright. They picked up Design Thinking which is quite interesting at the moment. If you if you look at Agile and Design Thinking. They're both at the end of their life cycles. Ula Ojiaku:  Why do you say that? Dave Snowden:  Because they're being commodified. The way you know, something is coming to the end of its life cycle is when it becomes highly commodified. So, if you look at it, look at what they are doing the moment, the Double Diamond is now a series of courses with certificates. And I mean, Agile started with bloody certificates, which is why it's always been slightly diverse in the way it works. I mean, this idea that you go on a three-day course and get a certificate, you read some slides every year and pay some money and get another certificate is fundamentally corrupt. But most of the Agile business is built on it, right? I mean, I've got three sets of methods after my name. But they all came from yearlong or longer courses certified by university not from tearing apart a course. Yeah, or satisfying a peer group within a very narrow cultural or technical definition of competence. So, I think yeah, and you can see that with Design Thinking. So, it's expert ideation, expert ethnography. And it still falls into that way of doing things. Yeah. And you can see it, people that are obsessed with running workshops that they facilitate. And that's the problem. I mean, the work we're doing on citizen engagement is actually… has no bloody facilitators in it. As all the evidence is that the people who turn up are culturally biased about their representative based opinions. And the same is true if you want to look at unarticulated needs, you can't afford to have the systems analysts finding them because they see them from their perspective. And this is one of one science, right? You did not see what you do not expect to see. We know that, alright? So, you're not going to see outliers. And so, the minute you have an expert doing something, it's really good - where you know, the bounds of the expertise, cover all the possibilities, and it's really dangerous. Well, that's not the case. Ula Ojiaku:  So, could you tell me a bit more about the unfacilitated sessions you mentioned earlier? Dave Snowden:  They're definitely not sessions, so we didn't like what were triggers at moments. Ula Ojiaku:  Okay. Dave Snowden:  So, defining roles. So, for example, one of the things I would do and have done in IT, is put together, young, naive, recently graduated programmer with older experienced tester or software architect. So, somebody without any… Ula Ojiaku:  Prejudice or pre-conceived idea... Dave Snowden:  … preferably with a sort of grandparent age group between them as well. I call it, the grandparents syndrome - grandparents say things to their grandchildren they won't tell their children and vice versa. If you maximize the age gap, there's actually freer information flow because there's no threat in the process. And then we put together with users trained to talk to IT people. So, in a month's time, I'll publish that as a training course. So, training users to talk to IT people is more economical than trying to train IT people to understand users. Ula Ojiaku:  To wrap up then, based on what you said, you know, about Cynefin, and you know, the wonderful ideas behind Cynefin. How can leaders in organizations in any organization apply these and in how they make sense of the world and, you know, take decisions? Dave Snowden:  Well, if there's actually a sensible way forward now, so we've just published the field guide on managing complexity.  Ula Ojiaku:  Okay. Dave Snowden:  And that is actually, it's a sort of ‘Chef's guide'. It has four stages: assess, adapt, exert, transcend, and within that it has things you could do. So, it's not a list of qualities, it's a list of practical things you should go and do tomorrow, and those things we're building at the moment with a lot of partners, because we won't try and control this; this needs to be open. Here's an assessment process that people will go through to decide where they are. So that's going to be available next week on our website. Ula Ojiaku:  Oh, fantastic! Dave Snowden:  For the initial registration.  Other than that, and there's a whole body of stuff on how to use Cynefin. And as I said, we just open source on the methods. So, the Wiki is open source. These… from my point of view, we're now at the stage where the market is going to expand very quickly. And to be honest, I, you know, I've always said traditionally use cash waiver as an example of this. The reason that Agile scaled around Scrum is he didn't make it an elite activity, which XP was. I love the XP guys, but they can't communicate with ordinary mortals. Yeah. It takes you about 10 minutes to tune into the main point, and even you know the field, right. And he (Jeff Sutherland) made the Scrum Guide open source. And that way it's great, right. And I think that that's something which people just don't get strategic with. They, in early stages, you should keep things behind firewalls. When the market is ready to expand, you take the firewalls away fast. Because I mean, getting behind firewalls initially to maintain coherence so they don't get diluted too quickly, or what I call “hawks being made into pigeons”. Yeah. But the minute the market is starting to expand, that probably means you've defined it so you release the firewall so the ideas spread very quickly, and you accept the degree of diversity on it. So that's the reason we put the Wiki. Ula Ojiaku:  Right. So, are there any books that you would recommend, for anyone who wants to learn more about what you've talked about so far. Dave Snowden:  You would normally produce the theory book, then the field book, but we did it the other way around. So, Mary and I are working on three to five books, which will back up the Field Guide. Ula Ojiaku:  Is it Mary Boone? Dave Snowden:  Mary Boone. She knows how to write to the American managers, which I don't, right… without losing integrity. So that's coming, right. If you go onto the website, I've listed all the books I read. I don't think… there are some very, very good books around complexity, but they're deeply specialized, they're academic. Gerard's book is just absolutely brilliant but it's difficult to understand if you don't have a philosophy degree. And there are some awfully tripe books around complexity - nearly all of the popular books I've seen, I wouldn't recommend. Yeah. Small Groups of Complex Adaptive Systems is probably quite a good one that was published about 20 years ago. Yeah, but that we got a book list on the website. So, I would look at that. Ula Ojiaku:  Okay. Thank you so much for that. Do you have any ask of the audience and how can they get to you? Dave Snowden:  We've open-sourced the Wiki, you know, to create a critical mass, I was really pleased we have 200 people volunteered to help populate it. So, we get the all the methods in the field guide them. And they're actively working at that at the moment, right, and on a call with them later. And to be honest, I've done 18-hour days, the last two weeks, but 8 hours of each of those days has been talking to the methods with a group of people Academy 5, that's actually given me a lot of energy, because it's huge. So, get involved, I think it's the best way… you best understand complexity by getting the principles and then practicing it. And the key thing I'll leave us with is the metaphor. I mentioned it a few times - a recipe book user has a recipe, and they follow it. And if they don't have the right ingredients, and if they don't have the right equipment, they can't operate. Or they say it's not ‘true Agile'. A chef understands the theory of cooking and has got served in apprenticeship. So, their fingers know how to do things. And that's… we need… a downside.. more chefs, which is the combination of theory and practice. And the word empirical is hugely corrupted in the Agile movement. You know, basically saying, ‘this worked for me' or ‘it worked for me the last three times' is the most dangerous way of moving forward. Ula Ojiaku:  Because things change and what worked yesterday might not work Dave Snowden:  And you won't be aware of what worked or didn't work and so on. Ula Ojiaku:  And there's some bias in that. Wouldn't you say? Dave Snowden:  We've got an attentional blindness if you've got Ula Ojiaku:  Great. And Dave, where can people find you? Are you on social media? Dave Snowden:  Cognitive. Yeah, social media is @snowded. Yeah. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Two websites – the Cognitive Edge website, which is where I blog, and there's a new Cynefin Center website now, which is a not-for-profit arm. Ula Ojiaku:  Okay. All these would be in the show notes. Thank you so much for your time, Dave. It's been a pleasure speaking with you. Dave Snowden:  Okay. Thanks a lot.

Sabiduría, Karma y Autoconocimiento: El Camino hacia tu Mejor Versión ✨

Melanie St. Pierre-Bednis, Neil Bednis, and Fraser McClean from Casper Skulls discuss their new album Kit-Cat, the TV show character Frasier Crane, the significance of alt-rock radio and MuchMusic on young minds, Robert Frost poems and being goth, the Bunnies in Berlin record made at the Romano brothers' studio in Welland, moving from stark post-punk to heartfelt indie-rock, loving bands like Sonic Youth and Silver Jews, inspirations like “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, a Richard Hell biography, and There Will Be Blood, upcoming shows, writing new songs, other future plans, and much more!EVERY OTHER COMPLETE KREATIVE KONTROL EPISODE IS ONLY ACCESSIBLE TO MONTHLY $6 USD PATREON SUPPORTERS. This one is fine, but please subscribe now on Patreon so you never miss full episodes. Thanks!Thanks to Blackbyrd Myoozik, the Bookshelf, Planet Bean Coffee, and Grandad's Donuts. Support Y.E.S.S., Pride Centre of Edmonton, and Letters Charity. Follow vish online. Support vish on Patreon!Related episodes/links:Ep. #958: Nels ClineEp. #910: The Hard QuartetEp. #734: Bonnie TrashEp. #713: Built to SpillEp. #677: PavementEp. #673: Sonic YouthEp. #481: David BermanSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/kreative-kontrol. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sabiduría, Karma y Autoconocimiento: El Camino hacia tu Mejor Versión ✨

The poet Robert Frost famously talked about two roads diverging in a yellow wood. In Psalm 119:101, the psalmist talks about forks in the road of our life that we encounter every day.Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

It seems like such a simple question, but how to read a poem, like poetic interpretation itself, can be answered in many different ways. But what's the best way to go about reading a poem? Katie turns to art criticism for a process that guides the episode to a deep reading of poems by: Billy Collins, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, and John Ashbury.At the table:Katie DozierTimothy GreenJoe BarcaBrian O'SullivanDick WestheimerNate Jacob

Benjamin Franklin was a little bit of everything: inventor, diplomat, statesman, author, publisher, a Founding Father and a bad boy. He helped guide America through the growing pains of becoming a constitutional republic guiding its own destiny separate from Great Britain. Philadelphia became his home and the caretaker of the cemetery where he was buried in that city once said, "If Ben Franklin haunts the city and the streets of Philadelphia, he haunts it with his personality and his invention." And it might seem that he haunts a couple of places with his actual spirit as well. Join us for the history and hauntings of Benjamin Franklin. The Moment in Oddity features Pound Cake and This Month in History features a Robert Frost poem published.   Check out the website: http://historygoesbump.com Show notes can be found here:    Become an Executive Producer: http://patreon.com/historygoesbump Music used in this episode:  Main Theme: Lurking in the Dark by Muse Music with Groove Studios (Moment in Oddity) "Vanishing" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (This Month in History) "In Your Arms" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Outro Music: Happy Fun Punk by Muse Music with Groove Studios Other music used in this episode: Franklin Theme created and produced by History Goes Bump Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Right now I'm reading a book titled “Star Splitter” written by Matthew J. Kirby. In the book they reference the poem “The Star-Splitter” written by Robert Frost. That's what we are going to read today.   Website: http://www.thefightingmoose.com/   Blog https://thefightingmoosepodcast.blogspot.com/   iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fighting-moose/id1324413606?mt=2/   Story (PDF): http://ww.thefightingmoose.com/episode444.pdf   Reading List: http://www.thefightingmoose.com/readinglist.pdf   YouTube: https://youtu.be/7tG4cE8dBmk/   Book(s): “New Hampshire” http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58611   Music/Audio: Artist – Analog by Nature http://dig.ccmixter.org/people/cdk   National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): http://www.nasa.gov   Song(s) Used: cdk - Sunday by Analog By Nature (c) copyright 2016 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/cdk/53755 

Philip Dusenberry once said, “I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes.”I can testify that Dusenberry is correct. The best ad writers make more money than the most highly paid lawyers and heart surgeons.Great advertising makes an enormous difference in the top line revenue of a company. A reputation for being able to write great ads makes an enormous difference in your bank account. But only if you get paid according to the growth of the businesses you write for.Did you notice that I ended that sentence with a preposition? A pedantic will tell you that I should have said, “But only if you get paid according to the growth of the businesses for whom you write ads.” But I chose not to do that. If you can tell me why, you might have the makings of an ad writer.Do you have a friend who reads the books of the world's most famous authors?If you say, “Call me Ishmael,” and your friend says, “Moby Dick,” your friend has the ingredients to bake a wordcake.Say to your friend, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.”If your friend says, “Robert Frost,” he or she has the ability to lead people to places they have never been.Say, “The price of self-destiny is never cheap, and in certain situations it is unthinkable. But to achieve the marvelous, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.”If your friend looks at you and says, “Tom Robbins died last month,” they definitely have the makings of ad writer.“As you read, so will you write.”If the cadence and rhythm and unpredictable phrases singular to poets, screenwriters and novelists are echoing in your brain, your mind will spew rainbows of words like ocean water from the blowhole of a whale.Luke records Jesus as having said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” If you want to know what is inside a person, listen to what they say and read what they write.The minds of great writers are filled with the music of other great writers. Music cannot flow from your fingertips if it does not live in your mind.I don't mean to be unkind, but most writers have no music in their mind.Tom Robbins told NPR in 2014, “I would tell stories aloud to himself, but always out in the yard with a stick in my hand. I would beat the ground as I told the story. And we moved fairly frequently. We would leave houses behind where one section of the yard was completely bare from where I had destroyed the grass. But I realized much later in life that what I was doing was drumming. I was building a rhythm. Even today as a writer I pay a lot of attention to the rhythm in my work.”When Tom Robbins died, hypnotic passages from his bestselling novels were quoted by NPR and The New York Times in their eulogies of his life.Character dialogue written by Aaron Sorkin is the standard by which all screenwriting is judged. Aaron says, “It's not just that dialogue sounds like music to me. It actually is music. Anytime someone is speaking for the purpose of performance, whether they're doing it from a pulpit in a church, whether it's a candidate on the stump or an actor on a stage, anytime they're speaking for the purposes of performance, all the rules of music apply.”The workload of my 81 Wizard of Ads partners will soon be at maximum capacity.I am looking for brilliant ad writers. Between now and the end of the year I will onboard a small group of writers who are worth a lot more money than they are currently being paid. They will attend the partner meeting this autumn.Selection, orientation, and enculturation requires diligence and patience on both sides.Our journey will begin when you send exactly 12

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 9, 2025 is: wend • WEND • verb Wend is a literary word that means “to move slowly from one place to another usually by a winding or indirect course”; wending is traveling or proceeding on one's way in such a manner. // Hikers wend along the marked trails to the top of the mountain, which provides a panoramic view of the area towns. // We wended our way through the narrow streets of the city's historic quarter. See the entry > Examples: “Otters do not like to share food.... There is a flickering movement of jaws before they swallow and dive again. For a moment I think they have left, then they surface once more and I make out two long shapes, one just ahead of the other. They wend their way further down the waterway before insinuating themselves back into the dark.” — Miriam Darlington, Otter Country: In Search of the Wild Otter, 2024 Did you know? “Out through the fields and woods / And over the walls I have wended …” So wrote poet Robert Frost in “Reluctance,” using the word's familiar sense of “to direct one's course.” By the time of the poem's publication in 1913, many other senses of wend had wended their way into and out of popular English usage including “to change direction,” “to change someone's mind,” “to transform into something else,” and “to turn (a ship's head) in tacking.” All of that turning is linked to the word's Old English ancestor, wendan, which shares roots with the Old English verb, windan, meaning “to twist” (windan is also the ancestor of the English verb wind as in “the river winds through the valley”). Wend is also to thank for lending the English verb go its past tense form went (as a past tense form of wend, went has long since been superseded by wended).

It seems like such a simple question, but how to read a poem, like poetic interpretation itself, can be answered in many different ways. But what's the best way to go about reading a poem? Katie turns to art criticism for a process that guides the episode to a deep reading of poems by: Robert Frost,  Carolina Ebeid, Alex Dimitrov, Ezra Pound, and Billy Collins. At the table:Katie DozierTimothy GreenJoe BarcaBrian O'SullivanDick WestheimerNate Jacob

Barry continues to think through how to get back to civil discourse, using Robert Frost's poem, The Gift Outright, to remind us of what we have in common. Simplifying our differences to one or the other side of a political divide does very little for either side and does no justice to our beautiful, complicated […]

You have probably encountered poet Robert Frost through his famous poems “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” or "The Road Not Taken." But how much do you know about the man behind the poetry, and the rest of his poems? This hour, we learn about the life and poetry of Robert Frost, and discover how he's helped to inspire other poets. You can hear Adam Plunkett talk about his new book on Monday, February 24 at 7 p.m. at The University of Saint Joseph. GUESTS: Adam Plunkett: Literary critic and author of Love and Need: The Life of Robert Frost’s Poetry Sydney Lea: Former Poet Laureate of Vermont, and a recipient of Vermont’s highest artistic distinction, The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. He is the author of sixteen poetry collections, seven collections of personal essays, and two novels Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There may be no poet more integral to the American identity are more widely known among Americans than Robert Frost. Yet, his life and the extent of his influence are unfamiliar or misunderstood by many. In the new book “Love and Need: The Life of Robert Frost's Poetry” Adam Plunkett challenges previous biographers' interpretations of Frost's life and work breaking away from what he sees as “clichés” to construct an original portrait of the poet.

Another day in the last days of the "Grand Experiment" in liberal democracy. No One Elected this South African Sociopath Billionaire But here We Are. We discuss the madness. _________________________________ Head on with Robyn Kincaid is on 5 nights a week! https://headon.live/ Tarabuster is among the independent media voices at APSRadioNews.com Tarabuster is also on https://rokfin.com/tarabuster BECOME A "TARABUSTER" PATRON: www.patreon.com/taradevlin Join the Tarabuster community on Discord too!! https://discord.gg/PRYDBx8 Buy some Resistance Merch and help support our progressive work! http://tarabustermerch.com/ Contact Tarabuster: tarabustershow@maskedfort.com Buy some Resistance Merch and help support our progressive work! http://tarabustermerch.com/ Donate to Tarabuster: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/taradacktyl 00:00:00 Introduction 00:04:50 Meet Boudica and Francis: Adorable Pets on Camera 00:09:00 The Concept of Soft Voter Suppression 00:13:03 The Debate Over Renaming West Virginia's River 00:16:49 Robert Frost's Influence on Modern Storytelling 00:20:57 No, Traitor Trump Does NOT have a Mandate 00:25:06 Political Stalemate: Senate Holds and Filibuster Debate 00:29:07 Traitor Trump is Enacting Project 2025 00:33:07 Political Discourse on Employment and Economic Decisions 00:37:07 A Psalm's Harsh Wishes and Modern Interpretations 00:42:15 Elon Musk and his Toddlers in the Oval Office 00:45:24 Discussion on Leadership and Democracy 00:50:53 Criticism of Elon Musk and Billionaires 00:54:09 Fundraising and Survival Tactics 00:57:38 Linguistic Origins of the Ligature 'Æ' and its Pronunciations 01:02:03 Speculation on Future Leadership Changes 01:06:02 Criticisms of Elon Musk and Donald Trump 01:10:09 Judge Limits on Executive Power 01:14:00 Controversy Over Nancy Mace's Hotline Initiative 01:18:19 Allegations and Accusations: A Closer Look at Controversies 01:21:53 Musk's Government Efficiency Layoffs 01:26:16 Understanding Internal Political Coups: A Fascist Perspective 01:29:39 Cost Overruns in Military Shipbuilding 01:33:50 Judge Temporarily Blocks OPM Buyout Plan 01:37:30 Critique on Donald Trump's Leadership and Censorship 01:41:38 GOP Response to Trump's Impeachments 01:44:49 The Historical Continuum of Political Figures 01:48:48 Critique of Government Corruption and Economic Inequality 01:52:31 European Security and the China Threat 01:57:00 Upcoming Show on Political Voices Channel 02:00:13 Reflections on Being on the Right Side of History

Text your questions, comments, & topic suggestions here! You can also email billy@mindfulmidlifecrisis.com.In this episode, I unpack one of life's most relatable dilemmas: whether to go all in on a dream or play it safe. Drawing inspiration from Robert Frost's “The Road Not Taken,” I explore my recent decision to either go all in as a digital nomad coach or honor a teaching contract in Seoul. Along the way, I reflect on social perfectionism, fear of failure, and impostor syndrome while sharing practical steps to navigate uncertainty and make aligned, confident decisions.Key Talking Points:Living at a Crossroads: Reflecting on my recent life decision to choose financial stability over pursuing a high-risk dream.Social Perfectionism and Anxiety: How the pressure to be perfect influences decision-making and how mindfulness can help ease that burden.Courage vs. Confidence: Why leading with courage, rather than waiting for confidence, is the key to making bold decisions.Balancing Risk and Stability: How to weigh the thrill of chasing a dream against the value of a safety net.Logic Meets Intuition: The importance of integrating practical considerations with gut instincts to make well-rounded decisions.All of our episodes are available at www.mindfulmidlifecrisis.com.Need a place to start? Check out our Fan Faves Page!Join the Mindful Midlife Community Newsletter!Thank you for listening to The Mindful Midlife Crisis!If this episode resonates with you, please share it with your family and friends.Follow us!Instagram:  @mindful_midlife_crisisFacebook: The Mindful Midlife Crisis PodcastLinkedIn: Billy LahrThis Week's Sponsors:The B.E.L.L. Center: Expand your understanding of mindfulness and breathwork with their MindHacking Meditation Course.Kari Schwear: Explore what drives your habits, refocus what truly matters, and develop daily tools to start moving forward with Decide30.Genie Love: Schedule your FREE consultation to empower your neurodivergent strengths!Brian Gallagher: Download your Solo Business Blueprint and escape the 9-5 grind!This Week's Affiliates:Buzzsprout:  Launch your podcast today and get $20 worth of credit towards your account!Fiverr:  Get your next project done brilliantly by skilled professionals and earn 10% off your first purchase.Systeme.IO:  Simplify your online business.Riverside.fm:  Record your podcast in studio-quality audio and video.Please leave us a 5-Star ReSupport the show

“How many things have to happen to you before something occurs to you," says Darice Auston, quoting Robert Frost. In Episode 206, Darice joins Cynthia and Susan to share some of the things that have occurred to her, and where those insights are leading her now. It's a conversation that illustrates the ways our unique experiences can shape and inform our spiritual life and church engagement, leading to a truer expression of our deepest personal beliefs.

Cranberries are the heart of Thanksgiving dinner. You don't want a gourmet dinner that distracts you from your life blessings, so you serve turkey, a profoundly average dish. Every turkey dinner is about as good as any other turkey dinner. Same with pumpkin pie. But cranberries are terribly exciting. They are the Robert Frost of fruits, the Flaubert, the Frank Lloyd Wright, the Gabriel Fauré. You can overcook the turkey and serve a pumpkin pie that is just pudding with a crust, but if you serve cranberries you're okay.Be happy, my dears. America will soon see the return of the dopiest president in our history. Anyone who nominates Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General and Bobby Kennedy Jr. to be Secretary of Health needs GPS to show him the way to the bathroom, but keep this in mind: many of America's cranberry growers voted for him and many people whose cranberry sauce has the power to make you stand on your tiptoes and yodel. Think about that for a moment. There is some good in all of us, maybe more than we know. And be happy on Thanksgiving. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit garrisonkeillor.substack.com/subscribe

How to Give Critical / Negative Feedback In a Loving, Constructive Way AND How to Avoid the Common Traps Today's podcast features Dr. Jill Levitt, Director of Training at the www.FeelingGoodInstitute.com in Mountain View, California and co-leader of David's weekly TEAM-CBT training group at Stanford. Rhonda and I are psyched, because every podcast or teaching event with Jill is almost certain to be fabulous. And this podcast is no exception! Rhonda asks members of her Wednesday training group (see below for contact information of you think you might want to join) to take turns teaching the group.  One week she was puzzled because almost no one filled in their feedback forms, and when she asked them why, they said that they had some concerns about the teaching but didn't feel comfortable criticizing the person who taught. Some of the criticisms they share with Rhonda were: It was boring. I didn't learn anything new. The teacher didn't explain anything in a way that I could understand. Is this a problem that you have as well? Do you find it hard to criticize others, and keep quiet on the assumption that saying nothing is better than opening your mouth and saying something hurtful? If so, I have some good news and some bad news for you. First, the bad news. Tonight, you'll discover exactly why and how saying nothing is actually a pretty hostile and mean thing to do. But here's the GOOD news. You'll also learn the secrets of how to deliver criticism in a way that's loving, authentic, and helpful if—and that might be a big IF—that's something you're willing to do! A sage—cannot remember who—once said that “When you say nothing, you're actually shouting quietly. What in the world does THAT mean? And Robert Frost, in his famous poem, Fire and Ice, wrote: Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. Essentially, Frost is saying that if you're angry, there are two classic ways of being aggressive; you can be fiery and agitated and attack the other person, verbally or physically, or you can be cold and withdraw, saying nothing, so as to freeze the other person out. These are opposite extremes but are equally destructive. And, for most of us, difficult impulses to resist. But there's a third alternative, which might be, according to Robert Frost, the “road less traveled by.” You can express your negative feelings, including anger, in a respectful, or even loving way. And that's the focus of today's show. My show notes will only give an overview, but the richness of this particular podcast is in the actual dialogue and role-play demonstrations with critical feedback. We began with an overview of some of the key techniques when giving someone negative feedback, including stroking and “I Feel” Statements, but emphasized that your tone, goal, and spirit is the entire key to how you come across, and how the other person responds. Jill told a moving and dramatic story of an interaction with her mother, who has been quite ill, and she'd been having a really hard week. Her mom sent Jill a lengthy text outlining all of her problems and ending with, “you guys don't really know how I'm hurting,” and the implication was, “you don't know--or care.” This was understandably hurtful to Jill. Jill's about the most awesome daughter any mother could have. Jill wanted to clear the air and tell her mom how she'd felt, rather than keeping her negative feedback hidden. Her mom clearly felt lonely, so when Jill saw her in person, she said something along these lines: “I know you've been struggling, but I felt hurt and discounted when I read your note. I felt like the things I've done didn't matter, and I felt hurt.” Her mom began to cry and said, “the last thing I want you to feel is that I don't appreciate you.” This conversation was challenging, but brought them much closer together. The podcast crew discussed the important question of our mixed motivations about sharing our feelings, and our confusion about how to do this in an effective, loving way, if you do decide to open up. Rhonda confided that she'd never had those kinds of open conversations with either of her parents, and that these kinds of difficult conversations can come from a place of love. You can review the Five Secrets of Effective Communication if you click HERE. The Five Secrets are all about talking with your EAR: E = Empathy, A = Assertiveness, and R = Respect. However, there's a lot of intense resistance to using the Five Secrets, so I promised to include my list of 12 GOOD Reasons NOT to Listen (E = Empathy) Share your feelings (A = Assertiveness) Treat the other person with respect (R = Respect) That makes 36 reasons in all! You can link to the list HERE. People want to feel understood, and the best way to make that happen is by giving what you hope to receive. And you can learn how to listen more skillfully If you read my book, Feeling Good Together, and do the written exercises while reading. You'll learn a ton that can change your life and greatly enhance your relationships with the people you love. Thanks for listening today!! Jill, Rhonda, and David

Rhina P. Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. After Espaillat's great-uncle opposed the regime, her family was exiled to the United States and settled in New York City. She began writing poetry as a young girl—in Spanish and then English—and has published in both languages.Espaillat's numerous poetry collections include And After All (2019); Her Place in These Designs (2008); Playing at Stillness (2005); Rehearsing Absence (2001), recipient of the 2001 Richard Wilbur Award; a bilingual chapbook titled Mundo y Palabra/The World and the Word (2001); Where Horizons Go (1998), winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize; and Lapsing to Grace (1992).On Rehearsing Absence, Robert B. Shaw wrote in Poetry, “To Rhina Espaillat the quotidian is no malady … it is the source of inspiration. Hers is a voice of experience, but it is neither jaded nor pedantic. She speaks not from some cramped corner but from somewhere close to the center of life.” Awarding Espaillat the 1998 T.S. Eliot Prize for Where Horizons Go, X.J. Kennedy noted that “such developed skill and such mastery of rhyme and meter are certainly rare anymore; so is plainspeaking.”Espaillat's work has garnered many awards, including the Sparrow Sonnet Prize, three Poetry Society of America prizes, the Der-Hovanessian Translation Prize, and—for her Spanish translations of Robert Frost—the Robert Frost Foundation's Tree at My Window Award. She is a two-time winner of The Formalist's Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award and the recipient of a 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award from Salem State College. She is a founding member of the Fresh Meadows Poets and a founding member and former director of the Powow River Poets. For over a decade, she coordinated the Newburyport Art Association's Annual Poetry Contest.-bio via Poetry Foundation Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

Who will win today's cage match?Welcome to The Smackdown! For the next several weeks Brittany is hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places. This episode Brittany lands in Concord, New Hampshire, the Granite State, and debates with New Hampshire Public Radio reporters Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, the hosts of the excellent podcast Civics 101. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy