Podcasts about jk rowling

Top headlines for Tuesday, September 16, 2025In this episode, Pastor Jim Cymbala of the Brooklyn Tabernacle addresses a disturbing trend among some Christians celebrating the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Meanwhile, musician Forrest Frank remains unfazed by losing thousands of followers after expressing his views on the same topic. We also explore a significant legal decision where an appeals court has empowered the Trump administration to withhold Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood, sparking intense debate across the nation. 00:11 Jim Cymbala rebukes Christians celebrating Charlie Kirk's murder01:02 Forrest Frank lost 30K followers for Charlie Kirk post01:50 Hamas preventing civilians from fleeing before Israeli offensive02:46 Trump can defund Planned Parenthood: Appeals court panel03:36 Baptist pastor gunned down by family friend of 30 years04:37 House of Prayer leaders indicted on $26M fraud charges05:25 JK Rowling says she has a 'God-shaped vacuum' in her heartSubscribe to this PodcastApple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle PodcastsOvercastFollow Us on Social Media@ChristianPost on TwitterChristian Post on Facebook@ChristianPostIntl on InstagramSubscribe on YouTubeGet the Edifi AppDownload for iPhoneDownload for AndroidSubscribe to Our NewsletterSubscribe to the Freedom Post, delivered every Monday and ThursdayClick here to get the top headlines delivered to your inbox every morning!Links to the NewsJim Cymbala rebukes Christians celebrating Charlie Kirk's murder | Church & MinistriesForrest Frank lost 30K followers for Charlie Kirk post | EntertainmentHamas preventing civilians from fleeing before Israeli offensive | OpinionTrump can defund Planned Parenthood: Appeals court panel | PoliticsBaptist pastor gunned down by family friend of 30 years | U.S.House of Prayer leaders indicted on $26M fraud charges | U.S.JK Rowling says she has a 'God-shaped vacuum' in her heart | LivingCharlie Kirk's assassination shocks, horrifies America | Podcast

Scottish poet and writer Jenny Lindsay's artistic career was derailed when she spoke out against the violent tactics used by gender identity activists. Today, Jenny is the author of "Hounded: Women, Harms and the Gender Wars," and her story illustrates what she calls the "secondary harms" of gender ideology - the ripple effects that occur when competent voices are silenced through systematic harassment campaigns.We explore how Jenny went from being "one of Scotland's leading performance poets" to being completely ostracized from the Scottish arts scene, not for discussing gender issues directly, but simply for defending women's right to meet and discuss proposed legal changes. Her experience reveals the parasitic nature of this ideology as it hollows out liberal institutions from within.Jenny breaks down what she identifies as the three core beliefs that get women labeled as "TERFs": that women are a materially definable category, that we have rights based on this reality, and that we deserve freedom of speech on matters affecting us. We discuss the psychological tactics of this movement, the economic warfare against dissenting voices, and why competent women across fields are being systematically targeted. This conversation examines not just what we're losing when reality becomes negotiable, but what happens to a society that rewards ideological conformity over truth-telling and competence.Jenny Lindsay is a writer, poet and essayist based in Scotland. She has a weekly column in The Scotsman and writes for numerous publications including The Spectator, The Daily Mail, and The Times. Her debut book Hounded: Women, Harms and the Gender Wars was published to great acclaim by Polity in 2024, being described as 'one of the most important political books ever to have been written about Scottish culture and politics,' by The Herald, and 'one of the definitive chronicles of these times,' by author JK Rowling. A former poetry performer and live literature programmer, she gained several accolades in the arts prior to her own 'hounding' over gender identity issues in Scotland, including a John Byrne award for Critical Thinking for her film-poem The Imagined We in early 2020, and a Creative Edinburgh Award for Leadership in 2017.Get Jenny's book on AmazonFollow on X @msjlindsay Read Jenny's Substack, The Schism Ring00:00 Core Beliefs and the Hounding Phenomenon06:49 The Existential Question of Gender Identity12:53 Understanding Core Beliefs and Their Implications18:07 The Parasitic Nature of Ideologies24:44 The Sociopathic Dynamics of Hounding32:44 The High Road vs. The Low Road41:33 The Personal Toll of Ideological Conflicts45:54 The Edinburgh Arts Scene and Its Challenges52:56 Cultural and Economic Impacts of Activism01:01:24 The Intersection of Gender and Racial Dialogues01:09:20 Hope Amidst Ongoing Struggles01:19:28 Navigating the Future of DiscourseROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2025 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesTALK TO ME: book a meeting.PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.SUPPORT THE SHOW: subscribe, like, comment, & share or donate.ORGANIFI: Take 20% off Organifi with code SOMETHERAPIST.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order.SHOW NOTES & transcript with help from SwellAI.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Welcome to Episode 63 of 1 800 Drama! In this week's Reddit Stories r/ AITA and r/ 1800drama deep dive, we hone in on two stories that explore LGBT+ pride and identity. Can you go to Universal Studios and still be a trans ally? What happens when you think you've come out but your partner doesn't recognise it? And is it okay to excuse biphobia? Grab a cuppa and let's go fishing!

It's funny that they all suddenly care about censorship, free speech, and cancel culture, isn't it? And the chilling effects that had on open expression? Have they looked at Hollywood lately? Ever hear of a culture of silence and a climate of fear that has all but gutted a once-thriving industry? Do they remember why Elon Musk had to buy Twitter?How many people did we watch unpersoned, disappeared, and banished from utopia? How many lives have been ruined just for daring to speak the truth about the differences between biological men and women? Remember All Lives Matter? Remember Blue Lives Matter? Remember the MAGA hat and all of the ways people were assaulted, screamed at, spit on, and shunned just for wearing them?Do the hundreds of names in the database for Cancel Culture register at all? Remember the Harper's Letter and how so many were canceled just for signing it? Now, we're all supposed to feel bad because those who chose to dance on Charlie Kirk's grave are now losing their jobs? Well, my friends, turnabout is fair play. What drama queens. They get fired, and it's the end of the world? They lost their jobs, try losing everything. Your family, your marriage, your friends, your status. The Right doesn't have that kind of power. And besides, no one is banning them from social media for posting things like this:I know I'm supposed to care and play the game of saying that firing people is wrong. Maybe it's wrong, but honestly, I don't care. If we just move on and pretend all of this is on par with using the wrong pronoun or questioning masks or the results of an election, then how can we ever absorb something as serious as someone being shot and having his throat exploded in front of his wife, his kids, and a rally full of students? Here is someone who was there and witnessed it. How can we just move past this with all the usual memes and mocking, sneering posts?Look at these awful women mocking Erika Kirk. If they get fired for this, I have not an ounce left in me that cares even a little bit. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite and a bad person, but I would not want these soulless monsters working for me.I wouldn't want a guy like this working for me either, partly because he is awash in mass hysteria and trapped inside a delusion of his own making, and partly because he seems to think it's necessary to keep killing people he thinks are “fascists”:Cancel culture was always about power. It was wrong when it began after Trump's win in 2016. It existed before that, mostly as a joke on Black Twitter, and in the murky, icky depths of Tumblr circa 2013. But it became frightening and chilling when institutions got involved. And when the government got involved, it was authoritarianism. Julie Kelly has a story on the crackdown after January 6th that should make anyone's head spin about what they did to American citizens, most of whom were practicing their First Amendment rights when they were treated like terrorists. Kamala Harris herself compared that day with 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, as if to justify everything that was about to happen to them (aka internment camps and Gitmo), from the show trials to the absurd charges thrown at many of them, policing their thought and speech, convicting them in the Court of Public Opinion with “spectral” evidence. They were accused and convicted “racists.”I have stood up to cancel culture for the last five years, even longer. I stood up for those wrongly accused, whose lives were ruined over the same things, either imagined crimes of their past, or one wrong word spoken, or a joke made on Twitter, like Gina Carano, who was fired for joking about COVID and pronouns.Why is it always on MAGA to take the high road? Imagine if a prominent left-leaning influencer of Charlie Kirk's stature (they don't have one, but let's say they did) was assassinated at a rally. Millions would pour into the streets all over the world. MAGA can't. Why? Because they'd be once again demonized as dangerous extremists. Their right to protest was eliminated after January 6th.Imagine if, in 2015, the Right had done this to Democrats:Yes, January 6th was bad, but so were the protests when Trump was inaugurated. Yet, it's always one group that is punished and one group that is either ignored or celebrated.Sure, you get the fake Patriot Front out in force in an attempt to continue the lie that Charlie Kirk was a “fascist,” but the Right doesn't riot and rally and protest like the Left. They can't, but also, contrary to popular belief, it's not who they are.For the record, the side that shoots the guy in the neck because they don't like his opinions is the fascist side. Supporting those celebrating his death is to support fascism or extremism. Do I think Stephen King's books should have been removed? No. Do I understand why MAGA would want to use its power to pay them back? Absolutely. When the Left rampaged through the cities all through the Summer of 2020, leaving violence and mayhem in their wake, the media barely covered it. No one was punished for it. In fact, all were rewarded. Anyone who criticized the protests even a little bit was canceled for it. I remember. I was there. When January 6th unfolded, there was violence, just as there had been all Summer. Yet, only one side was demonized for it. All the American people saw for months, years after, was the January 6th footage on a loop. Even now, they bring it up as though the Summer never even happened.After Biden took power, he weaponized the DOJ to go after Trump, indicting him four times after the Democrats impeached him twice. They tried to throw him off the ballot in several states. He defeated them all and won again, impossibly, in November. When Trump's DOJ went after John Bolton, the Left clutched pearls — how could he be using lawfare against his opponents!? When does the Left take any accountability for the bed they made? Ever?In theory, I don't agree with Cancel Culture. But I guess I don't care that much now, not after everything I've seen them do, not just what they did to me, but what they've done to MAGA for the past ten years, or anyone who broke their rules. They had all of the power, and they abused that power. This is their precedent. They've never apologized to those who have been canceled, like me, Graham Linehan, JK Rowling, and Joseph Massey, and hundreds of others, for making a joke or having an opinion. So cry me a river.But sure, if they all step forward and say, “We're so very sorry we canceled all of you. You are now officially uncanceled,” then maybe MAGA should think about feeling bad about it. But until then, they're having to lie in the bed they made — tastes like victory.And besides, on the Left, they fail upwards. If anything, they'll be celebrated for getting fired. Look at Stephen Colbert, who has now won an Emmy and will be getting a standing ovation tonight at the ceremony and a pat on the back for condemning political assassinations. Just not character assassinations. He'd never condemn those. He wouldn't have a career. As they gather at the Emmys tonight to hand each other gold statues none of them really deserve, they will all pretend for one more night that they're the good guys as a heartbroken MAGA gathers at the Kennedy Center to honor Charlie Kirk, something they will see as a desecration. They probably think it will be a Nazi rally. Instead, they might be surprised to find them honoring Charlie the best way they know how, by praying. They won't be able to avoid thinking about Charlie Kirk at the Emmys. They'll pretend to care about Cancel Culture because the worm has finally turned. But his death, that brutal public execution, has embedded itself in our culture, yes, even on the Left. Sooner or later, they will have to confront the truth about who Charlie Kirk really was. Because, even in the afterlife, he still knows how to encourage people to question their core beliefs with amazing grace. // This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sashastone.com/subscribe

In power for nearly a decade, Nicola Sturgeon is Scotland's longest-serving First Minister. She reshaped Scottish politics, leading the SNP through moments of crisis and opportunity, from the 2014 independence referendum to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since stepping down in 2023, Sturgeon has remained a powerful and sometimes polarising figure in public life. She reflects on this in her new memoir, Frankly.She joins Anoosh Chakelian to discuss nationalism in Scotland, the shadow of Alex Salmond, and her public row with the author JK Rowling. In her words, “  where does she get the time to obsess about me?”LISTEN AD-FREE:

Charlie Kirk assassination 2025 demands answers, patriots—@intheMatrixxx and @shadygrooove unleash unfiltered fury with Season 7, Episode 173, “The Charlie Kirk Tragedy; Remembering 9/11,” airing live today, September 11, 2025, at 12:05 PM Eastern! These battle-tested truth warriors, forged in the fires of Twitter's deep-state ban and rising to awaken a sleeping giant, plunge into the gut-wrenching details of conservative powerhouse Charlie Kirk's fatal shooting in the neck on September 10, 2025, during his electrifying American Comeback Tour at Utah Valley University in Orem. As the FBI's $100,000 reward sparks tips and a person of interest's photo floods X, Jeff and Shannon rip apart the inconsistencies—like the leaked ATF report on a high-powered Mauser .30-06 bolt-action rifle engraved with trans and anti-fascist markings, found in woods after a sniper fled 200 yards away in 10-15 mph winds, per police scanners and bystander videos. Utah Governor Spencer Cox brands it a blatant "political assassination," amid detained-then-released suspects George Zinn and Zachariah Qureshi, foreign intel whispers from John Solomon, and Blue Sky threats targeting JK Rowling, Matt Walsh, and Elon Musk. They torch the radical left's bloodlust, from Jezebel's cursed Etsy witches scramble to MSDNC dumping analyst Matthew Dowd for his bile, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker's Trump-blaming deflection—proving how globalist hate from the likes of the Minnesota lawmaker slaying and Pennsylvania arson fuels this war on America-First voices, birthing a million Kirk-inspired fighters armed with ballots, not bullets. Igniting Kirk's fearless legacy, the hosts blast an "Inspire someone today" rallying cry to embolden youth against tyranny, syncing with Jesse Watters' Fox News bombshell: a "turning point" where "they are at war with us," swearing vengeance via media rat hunts and political accountability. They amplify President Donald J. Trump's Oval Office thunder—"My Fellow Americans," dubbing Kirk "the Great, and even Legendary" youth whisperer, unveiling a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to etch his Turning Point USA triumphs into eternity. Pivoting to sacred ground, the show vows "We will never forget" 9/11's 2,977 heroes lost 24 years ago at Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and Flight 93—first responders charging into hell, a generational shift now led by their children's solemn recitations amid toxic legacy deaths topping attack tolls. DJT's Pentagon address with First Lady Melania, secured indoors against threats, fuses 9/11 resilience with Kirk grief, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's tear-streaked eulogy hails Charlie as a "good and faithful servant" and "incredible American patriot" whose arena roar demands "full hearts, clear eyes—you will never be forgotten." Echoing the live chat's WWG1WGA fire—prayers, unity blasts, and psyop calls—the MG Show forges unbreakable patriot bonds, shunning reactionary traps for constitutional steel. This is the crucible where America-First legends are born, delivering live intel blasts, savage wit, and narrative-shredding analysis that crushes deep-state deceptions and rallies the republic's guardians. The truth is learned, never told, and the constitution is your weapon—tune in at noon-0-five Eastern LIVE to stand with Trump! Charlie Kirk assassination 2025, Turning Point USA, 9/11 remembrance, never forget 9/11, political assassination, Trump Kirk tribute, MG Show, @intheMatrixxx, @shadygrooove, Utah Valley University shooting, FBI manhunt, Jesse Watters reaction, Pete Hegseth eulogy, America First, political violence, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Ground Zero ceremony, Patriot Day 2025 mgshow_s7e173_charlie_kirk_assassination_911_remembrance Tune in weekdays at 12pm ET / 9am PST, hosted by @InTheMatrixxx and @Shadygrooove. Catch up on-demand on https://rumble.com/mgshow or via your favorite podcast platform. Where to Watch & Listen Live on https://rumble.com/mgshow https://mgshow.link/redstate X: https://x.com/inthematrixxx Backup: https://kick.com/mgshow PODCASTS: Available on PodBean, Apple, Pandora, and Amazon Music. Search for "MG Show" to listen. Engage with Us Join the conversation on https://t.me/mgshowchannel and participate in live voice chats at https://t.me/MGShow. Social & Support Follow us on X: @intheMatrixxx https://x.com/inthematrixxx @ShadyGrooove https://x.com/shadygrooove Support the show: Fundraiser: https://givesendgo.com/helpmgshow Donate: https://mg.show/support Merch: https://merch.mg.show MyPillow Special: Use code MGSHOW at https://mypillow.com/mgshow for savings! Wanna send crypto? Bitcoin: bc1qtl2mftxzv8cxnzenmpav6t72a95yudtkq9dsuf Ethereum: 0xA11f0d2A68193cC57FAF9787F6Db1d3c98cf0b4D ADA: addr1q9z3urhje7jp2g85m3d4avfegrxapdhp726qpcf7czekeuayrlwx4lrzcfxzvupnlqqjjfl0rw08z0fmgzdk7z4zzgnqujqzsf XLM: GAWJ55N3QFYPFA2IC6HBEQ3OTGJGDG6OMY6RHP4ZIDFJLQPEUS5RAMO7 LTC: ltc1qapwe55ljayyav8hgg2f9dx2y0dxy73u0tya0pu All Links Find everything on https://linktr.ee/mgshow

This week we are discussing all of the flashbacks in Manacled! This is really where the meat of the story is and when we learn SO MUCH about the background of how we get to where we are at the beginning of the story. We just love this story so much and cannot wait to be able to talk about the entire story! Make sure to keep us updated on all of your thoughts in our Fable group!   Come hang with us on Instagram!   Currently Reading: Manacled by SenLinYu Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune Drive me Crazy by Lizzy Dent Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling  

In this episode, we get to yapping about one of my favorite fics of the year (so far), Turning Pages by Jenetica. A story based on a film, based on a book, based on a fic!! A hall of mirrors, if you will. Along the way, we manage to get into fandom etiquette, how not to be a dick, the joy of works in progress, and epic chicken stories that transcend the human experience. All of the recs from this episode can be found HERE!You can find Jenetica on AO3 and Instagram. Follow Ohmorefina on AO3 and Instagram. Follow The Dramione Effect on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky for all the unhinged recs and updates. **JK Rowling created and owns the Harry Potter series. We do not own the rights to the series or any of its characters. This podcast offers views and opinions and is meant to be a fun discussion about our love for the Dramione fandom. Fanfiction is an entirely voluntary pursuit and is not meant to be reviewed as a published work.Please refrain from engaging in the buying or selling of fanfiction. It is illegal and also assholery.Warning: This episode contains explicit adult content. Please be advised.

Break the cycle of self-sabotaging decisions and finally create the life you've been wanting. If you're tired of repeating the same mistakes, struggling with career direction, or wondering why your choices keep leading to frustration instead of fulfillment, this message will give you a clear framework for change. Pastor Vance reveals three foundational choices that successful people make consistently - choices that can transform your career, relationships, and personal growth starting today.

Yes we did promise yoiu Licence to Kill but you will have to accept our feeble excuses and a return to the Harry Potter universe for the fifth installment of JK Rowlings magical stories.Along the way you will learn about our school disciplinary record and which character Lucy Galore really hates the most in this series. Tim also sends a shout out to an old school "friend".As always your Negligent Discharge is a feature and you can send your comments to Licence to Podcast on Facebook, X and Instagram or email hello@licencetopodcast.com 

00:00:44 – Trump Blocked as “Police Chief” A judge rules Trump cannot act as a national police chief after his attempted troop deployments in U.S. cities, raising alarms about his dictatorial impulses. 00:09:47 – Venezuela Drug Strike Trump brags about a U.S. military strike on a boat off Venezuela, alleging drug cartel ties. Critics warn this mirrors past failed wars. 00:35:04 – Martial Law by “One City at a Time” Commentary warns Trump and GOP leaders are normalizing martial law city by city under the guise of fighting crime, mirroring pandemic lockdown logic. 00:52:25 – Trans Migrant Murders Father An illegal Indian transgender individual murders a Massachusetts father after being confronted for graffiti. Media and police suppress the story despite his prior violent record. 00:54:21 – UK Comedian Arrested for Tweets British comedian Graham Linehan is arrested upon arrival in London for anti-trans tweets. Police deploy armed officers, strip-search him, and gag his speech—praised by JK Rowling as proof of UK totalitarianism. 01:13:57 – AI Seances: Talking to the Dead Discussion of new “digital afterlife” tech that lets people chat with AI simulations of deceased relatives. Critics call it ancestor worship and a dangerous psychological manipulation. 01:22:47 – Mental Health Surveillance in Schools Illinois and other states push universal mental health screenings, funneling kids into psychiatric labels and drugs. Commentary ties it to Trump's lockdown damage and Melania's push for total child monitoring. 02:15:12 – mRNA Declared Bioweapon Florida's World Council for Health declares mRNA injections weapons of mass destruction. A proposed Bioweapons Prohibition Act argues these shots are already illegal under state laws. 02:21:11 – Trump's Vaccine Cover-Up Trump now demands Pfizer “prove” vaccine effectiveness—five years late. Critics argue he's running a cover-up inquiry like JFK or Climategate commissions, designed to whitewash his own Operation Warp Speed. 02:29:38 – Generational Slaughter in Care Homes Scottish and English inquiries reveal COVID policy killed thousands in care homes through lockdowns, ventilators, and midazolam. Critics stress this was state-orchestrated culling, not viral inevitability. 02:36:26 – Turbo Cancers in Italy Peer-reviewed Italian study of 300,000 people shows vaccinated individuals face 35% higher hospitalization for cancer, with sharp increases in breast, bladder, and colorectal cancers. 02:39:38 – Woody Allen Praises Trump Woody Allen lauds Trump while railing against cancel culture. Critics highlight his Epstein ties and pedophilia allegations, framing his defense of Trump as another elite protecting elites. Follow the show on Kick and watch live every weekday 9:00am EST – 12:00pm EST https://kick.com/davidknightshow Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silverFor 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHTFind out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

00:00:44 – Trump Blocked as “Police Chief” A judge rules Trump cannot act as a national police chief after his attempted troop deployments in U.S. cities, raising alarms about his dictatorial impulses. 00:09:47 – Venezuela Drug Strike Trump brags about a U.S. military strike on a boat off Venezuela, alleging drug cartel ties. Critics warn this mirrors past failed wars. 00:35:04 – Martial Law by “One City at a Time” Commentary warns Trump and GOP leaders are normalizing martial law city by city under the guise of fighting crime, mirroring pandemic lockdown logic. 00:52:25 – Trans Migrant Murders Father An illegal Indian transgender individual murders a Massachusetts father after being confronted for graffiti. Media and police suppress the story despite his prior violent record. 00:54:21 – UK Comedian Arrested for Tweets British comedian Graham Linehan is arrested upon arrival in London for anti-trans tweets. Police deploy armed officers, strip-search him, and gag his speech—praised by JK Rowling as proof of UK totalitarianism. 01:13:57 – AI Seances: Talking to the Dead Discussion of new “digital afterlife” tech that lets people chat with AI simulations of deceased relatives. Critics call it ancestor worship and a dangerous psychological manipulation. 01:22:47 – Mental Health Surveillance in Schools Illinois and other states push universal mental health screenings, funneling kids into psychiatric labels and drugs. Commentary ties it to Trump's lockdown damage and Melania's push for total child monitoring. 02:15:12 – mRNA Declared Bioweapon Florida's World Council for Health declares mRNA injections weapons of mass destruction. A proposed Bioweapons Prohibition Act argues these shots are already illegal under state laws. 02:21:11 – Trump's Vaccine Cover-Up Trump now demands Pfizer “prove” vaccine effectiveness—five years late. Critics argue he's running a cover-up inquiry like JFK or Climategate commissions, designed to whitewash his own Operation Warp Speed. 02:29:38 – Generational Slaughter in Care Homes Scottish and English inquiries reveal COVID policy killed thousands in care homes through lockdowns, ventilators, and midazolam. Critics stress this was state-orchestrated culling, not viral inevitability. 02:36:26 – Turbo Cancers in Italy Peer-reviewed Italian study of 300,000 people shows vaccinated individuals face 35% higher hospitalization for cancer, with sharp increases in breast, bladder, and colorectal cancers. 02:39:38 – Woody Allen Praises Trump Woody Allen lauds Trump while railing against cancel culture. Critics highlight his Epstein ties and pedophilia allegations, framing his defense of Trump as another elite protecting elites. Follow the show on Kick and watch live every weekday 9:00am EST – 12:00pm EST https://kick.com/davidknightshow Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silverFor 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHTFind out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

Alex Hormozi recently broke a Guinness World Record for most non-fiction books sold in 24 hours and rose the charts of all time releases leaving only JK Rowling at the top. This was no accident and mutinously planned. So much so he recorded a Youtube episode before the launch calling his shot of selling 3 million plus books.  How does this apply to you as a coach? There are key takeaways we must talk about both on what to do and why this wouldn't work for most coaches. I'll break all of this down in today's episode. Let us know if you enjoy this timely style episode!   Time Stamps:   (0:08) Alex Hormozi's Recent Record Breaking Book Launch (4:14) What Hormozi Did (5:28) #1: Personal Brand (6:10) #2: Email (7:34) #3: Give Bonuses Not Discounts (8:34) #4: One Simple Funnel (9:52) #5: Show Up Consistently and Sell Hard (12:45) What To Do This Week (14:30) Ads Episode ----------

With heavy hearts, Anika and Liz discuss "Four and a Half Vulcans", the worst episode of Star Trek's streaming era, and possibly one of the top five worst episodes of Star Trek ever. So that's fun.  Liz keeps returning to the question, "Is this worse than 'Code of Honor'?" "I understand that this is meant to be funny."  Genetics and hair don't work like that "I felt disrespected as a viewer." The whole "feminist career women can't cook, amiright?" trope was tired when they did it with Janeway in the '90s and it's more tired with Chapel and Batel now Anika: the only person on the whole internet watching "Amok Time" for the Spock/Chapel Comedy mind control rape (for the second time in a season) Uhura this season generally has whatever personality is required for the plot, but using her for TERF propaganda about groomers is unforgivable Romula'an is almost a good storyline, provided you don't know anything about genetics, Romulans or how "Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow" went Why is Marie's professional future wrapped up in a plot from I Love Lucy? Pike uses Marie's chronic condition to try to sabotage her career, because apparently their relationship is now a horror story from r/BestofRedditorUpdates You have to be really incompetent to come up with a dance-off that we hate this much!

We're already looking forward to QED and nominations for the Ockham Awards are still open – if you know someone who deserves it nominate them! After some listener feedback we go to TWISH and hear about the Swing Riots. Then, it's time for the news:EUROPE: Spread of mosquitoes in EuropeUK / EUROPE: Country on a bumpy road of climate U-turns…SWEDEN / INTERNATIONAL: Crying nurse goes viral and get tons of support – she doesn't existINTERNATIONAL: Duolingo calls JK Rowling mean, then backs down and apologisesThe UK government has still not acknowledged their part in the tragedy of forced abortions from British ‘Mother and Baby homes', and for that the get this week's Award for being Really Wrong.Enjoy!https://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-494.htmlSegments:0:00:27 Intro0:00:51 Greetings0:09:23 TWISH0:19:07 News0:50:48 Really Wrong0:55:03 Quote0:56:42 Outro0:58:04 Outtakes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode was a long time in the making. If you've been listening, you'll recognize the name Caroline Sedgefield. I've gushed about her fics in many episodes and have gotten lucky enough to call her a friend. We got to chat about ALL of her fics, learn about her travels, and what inspires her. Along the way, we manage to yap about Draco fancasts, the undead, being bilingual, creature fics, and a whole lot more. You can find Caroline Sedgefield on AO3, Instagram, and TikTokThe Dramione Effect is on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky. Follow us for more unhinged recs and updates. **JK Rowling created and owns the Harry Potter series. We do not own the rights to the series or any of its characters. This podcast presents diverse views and opinions, aiming to foster a fun discussion about our shared love for the Dramione fandom. Fanfiction is an entirely voluntary pursuit and is not meant to be reviewed as a published work.Please do not engage in buying or selling fanfiction. It is illegal and also assholery.Warning: This episode contains explicit adult content. Please be advised.

Iain Dale speaks on his LBC show with former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon about her divorce, her friendship with Alex Salmond, what she thinks about JK Rowling and more.

Nicola Sturgeon opens up on her resignation, divorce and JK Rowling

Kent Lewis grew up in the Seattle area. In college he studied business and marketing. After college he went to work for a PR agency but left to go into the digital marketing industry in 1996. Kent has formed several marketing agencies during his career. He is quite up front about challenges he faced along the way as well as what he learned from each issue he faced.   Kent's philosophy about community is quite interesting and well worth adopting. He believes very much in giving back to his community. Today his day job is serving as “Executive Director of NextNW, a non-profit trade association that unifies the Pacific Northwest advertising & marketing professionals interested in professional development, sharing best practices, and collaborative problem-solving”.   Kent gives us many relevant and timely business insights. I hope you agree that this conversation gives us some good business lessons we all can use.     About the Guest:   Kent Lewis, Executive Director, NextNW Lewis is currently Executive Director of NextNW, a non-profit trade association that unifies the Pacific Northwest advertising & marketing professionals interested in professional development, sharing best practices, and collaborative problem-solving. He is also Founder of pdxMindShare, Portland's premier career community, with over 12,000 LinkedIn Group members. With a background in integrated marketing, he left a public relations agency in 1996 to start his career in digital marketing. Since then, he's helped grow businesses by connecting his clients with their constituents online. In 2000, Lewis founded Anvil Media, Inc., a measurable marketing agency specializing in search engine and social media marketing. Under his leadership, Anvil has received recognition from Portland Business Journal and Inc. Magazine as a Fastest Growing and Most Philanthropic Company.  After selling his agency in March 2022, he became a CMO for the acquiring firm. Beyond co-founding SEMpdx, Lewis co-founded two agencies, emailROI (now Thesis) and Formic Media. As a long-time entrepreneur, he's advised or invested in a host of companies, including PacificWRO, Maury's Hive Tea and ToneTip. Lewis speaks regularly at industry events and has been published in books and publications including Business2Community, Portland Business Journal, and SmartBrief. For twenty years, he was an adjunct professor at Portland State University, and has been a volunteer instructor for SCORE Portland since 2015. Lewis tours nationwide, averaging 30 speaking engagements annually, including a regular presenter role with the Digital Summit conference series. Active in his community, Lewis has been involved in non-profit charity and professional trade organizations including early literacy program SMART Reading and The Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO).  Industry recognition and awards include Portland Business Journal's Top 40 Under 40 Award, American Marketing Association Oregon Chapter Marketer of the Year, and Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers by BuzzSumo.   Ways to connect with Kent:   Links https://kentjlewis.com/   And LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentlewis/     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Today. We get to chat with an award winning entrepreneur, and he just told me a really interesting factoid. We'll have to, we'll have to talk about it, just because it is about one of the most fascinating things I've heard in quite a while, and a very positive thing. But I'm not going to give it away, because I'm going away, because I'm going to let him talk about it, or at least start the discussion. I'd like you all to meet Kent Lewis. Kent has been an entrepreneur for a while. He helps other entrepreneurs. He works in the non profit arena and does a variety of different kinds of things. And rather than me telling you all about it, you could read the bio, but more important, meet Kent Lewis and Kent, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Kent Lewis ** 02:05 It's, it's a pleasure to be on the show. Thank you for having me, sir.   Michael Hingson ** 02:10 Now where are you located? I'm based in Portland, Oregon, yeah. So you're, you are up up the coast, since I'm in Southern California. So yes, you know, one of these days I'll be up that way again. Well, Alaska Airlines will fly me up there.   Kent Lewis ** 02:27 Yeah, totally right. Yeah, good   Michael Hingson ** 02:29 to have you, unless you come this way first. But anyway, well, I'm really want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. And why don't we start? I love to do this. Tell me a little bit about kind of the early Kent growing up and all that stuff.   Kent Lewis ** 02:44 Yeah, so I grew up in Seattle, Washington. I think something that's influenced me is that my dad was is, or is, a retired architect. And so there was always this design esthetic, and he was an art collector enthusiast, I should say. And so I was always surrounded with art and mid century, you know, furniture and there's just style was a it was a thing. And then my mom was always in when she was a social worker and went into running nonprofits. And so I grew up around that as well of just giving back. So if you ever heard that common term, you know, learn, earn, return. Start your life you're learning, then you're maximizing your earnings during your career, and then when you in and around later in life, you start giving back, right, returning, right. And I learned from my mom that you never stop you never stop learning. You never stop returning. And my my mantra as an entrepreneur is never stop earning right? So, so I've always been giving back and donating my time, and I've always appreciated sort of good design and well thought out things. And I think that's influenced my career in marketing and as an entrepreneur, business owner, and now more of an advisor, Coach type,   Michael Hingson ** 03:59 well, so growing up in Seattle, did you visit pikes market very often?   Kent Lewis ** 04:04 My dad used to work right, right, like, two blocks away. So I would go there all the time. In fact, I remember when there was just one Starbucks when I was a kid, yeah, at Pike Place Market, and they used to sell large chunks of delicious, bitter sweet chocolate, I know, you know, in the behind the counter, and it was a very hi and you could smell the teas and all that. It was a very different experience, very cool place. And so, yeah, love   Michael Hingson ** 04:33 the pipe waste market. I understand that they don't throw the fish anymore. No, they do. They do. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Maybe it was just during the pandemic that they decided not to do that, but   Kent Lewis ** 04:44 think you're right about that. But they definitely, they, they're still, it's still a major attraction. It's too big of a thing to stop.   Michael Hingson ** 04:51 Wow, that's what I was thinking. And that's just way too big of a thing to to stop. My probably not the greatest fish fish catcher, I've been there, but I. I never caught a fish.   Kent Lewis ** 05:02 Yeah, that's only got, like, one or two in my life. And I don't, I don't do it much, but   Michael Hingson ** 05:08 Well, well, that's the place to go anyway. So where did you go to college?   Kent Lewis ** 05:13 I went to Western Washington University in Bellingham, uh, just 1020 minutes from the Canadian border, because, in part, when I was in school, it was a 19 year old drinking age in Canada, so I was 20 minutes away from my earlier drinking age. Turns out, I grew up going to Vancouver, BC quite often for the soccer exchange program when I was a real young youngster. So I fell in love with Vancouver, and as I've had been fortunate enough to travel the world a bit, I realized that it was one of my favorite cities, and it still is. It is such a global, amazing egalitarian, like, no matter your color, race, creed, you could be a millionaire or you could be a bus driver. There was no not the same class, classism you see in other US cities or around the rest of the world. It's truly an amazing and it's also, of course, beautiful   Michael Hingson ** 06:04 there. I found that true throughout Canada, and I've enjoyed every Canadian city I've ever been to. One of my favorites is really going to Toronto. I was always impressed as to how clean it really was.   Kent Lewis ** 06:17 You know, that's true. I've been there a couple times in conferences, and I found it to be clean and impressive, you know, and then, but my, one of my favorite, other cities I only spent overnight, there was Montreal. What a beautiful, beautiful place, absolutely stunning. I   Michael Hingson ** 06:35 spent two days in Montreal once when I was selling some products and turn the TV on at 1131 morning that I was there and watched the Flintstones in French. That was unique. That was unique. Cool. How cool is that? Yeah, it's awesome. That was kind of fun. But, you know, so you, you went to college. What did you major in?   Kent Lewis ** 06:58 I majored in business with a marketing concentration, which is great because I ended up doing marketing for a career, and for 22 years ran my own agency, or my own business, basically.   Michael Hingson ** 07:10 So what did you do when you got out of college?   Kent Lewis ** 07:14 I went immediately into the world of public relations agency life. I always wanted to be a found out after college that I, what I really wanted to be was a copywriter, you know, writing ads. I just coolest thing as a kid. I just didn't know that. It's, I didn't realize what it, what it you have to go to Ad School. You can't, you can't graduate regular college and become a copier. At least you weren't able to when I was, you know, back in the mid 90s. So I started in PR because it sounded hard to pitch the media and try and get them to say what you want them to say about your brand, your client and your brand. And that did me well, because when I got in from went from PR in 94 to digital marketing, SEO, search engine optimization 96 my PR background was extremely helpful. You know, in in that, in that whole world. So because doing PR builds Domain Authority, which builds your rankings in Google, and the rest is history. So, so it was very helpful. It gave me a bit of an edge. And then my business background meant I was better equipped to to go from doing the work to managing people, they're doing the work, to doing my own thing, you know, and running a instant running team, I was running a business. So that was super cool. You   Michael Hingson ** 08:38 know, it's interesting. I've especially because of the World Trade Center, but not only, but before it as well, I learned a lot about dealing with the press. And I've, I've watched a lot of press interviews today, and it's, it's amazing how often and then people have said that this is the way you should do it. No matter what the press person asks you, you answer with the with the answer you really want to give, whether you answer their questions or not. And I think that's an interesting approach, and I suppose it can be positive, but especially for for politicians who don't want to answer the tough questions. But I I know that for me, I've always tried to structure my answers in such a way that it gets them to take the question that they originally asked that I might sort of answer and reframe it so that I will answer a lot of times that, for example, talking about blindness and blind people, there are just so many misconceptions about it and and all too often, like first time I was on Larry King lives, Larry was asking questions about guide dogs. And he said, Now, where did you get your guide dog? And I said, from San Rafael, California. He said, well, but the but the main. School is a new is in Michigan, right? And I said, No, it's a different organization. And what we learned after doing that interview was that the way to deal with Larry was to program him and send him questions in advance with answers. Then he did a lot better, because the reality is, he didn't really know necessarily the answers in the first place. It's just amazing how you know how a lot of times it's just shallower. The Press tends to over dramatize. But I appreciate what you're saying about marketing and PR, I've done so much of that over my lifetime, and for so many reasons, in so many ways, I know exactly what you're talking about.   Kent Lewis ** 10:47 Yeah, yeah. That's, yeah, it's, it's a fascinating world that I've, that I've, you know, been live, living and working in. And I, yeah, I'm impressed, yeah, Larry King Live. That's pretty cool. And, you know, hopefully you've helped people just side note, you know, get a clear understanding of what it is, what it is both like to be blind and then how you navigate this world successfully, as if you're, you know, fully sighted. You know,   Michael Hingson ** 11:18 well, one of the things that I actually learned over the last couple of years is something that I've actually written an article and had it published about, and that is that we've got to change our view of disabilities in general. People always say, well, disability is a lack of ability. And I say, and I always say, No, it's not. And they say, Well, yes, it is. It begins with dis. And I said, then, how do you equate that with disciple, discern and discrete? For example, you know they begin with D is the reality is, disability is not a lack of ability. You think it is. But I've added to that now when I point out that, in reality, every person on the planet has a disability, but for most people, their disability is covered up. Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb, or at least we give him credit for it back in 1878 so for the last 147 years, all we've done is spent so much time improving on the technology that provides light on demand, which just covers up your disability, but it's still there. And I realized that one day I was at a hotel in Los Angeles at three in the afternoon when we had a power failure, and everybody started to scream, even down in the lobby, when they had all these nice big windows that were letting in all sorts of light, but it wasn't giving them the light that they wanted and the amount that they wanted, and people panicked. So I realized then, oh, well, now the reality is they're light dependent, which is as much a disability as my light independence is. It's just that it manifests itself differently, and there are a whole lot more light dependent people than light independent people. But we've got to really change our definition and how we view it. So   Kent Lewis ** 12:58 that's really insightful. It's good to think about.   Michael Hingson ** 13:01 Yeah, it's kind of fun. But, you know, so, so where did you, where did you go off and go to work in the in the marketing world? So you did? You didn't go to Copyright School? Or did you? No, no,   Kent Lewis ** 13:13 I just know. I once I talked to the creative director at this agency in Seattle where I did my first internship. He's like, Yeah, you'd have to go back to art school. And I was like, what school I just finished? So, you know, it didn't really matter. And we So, with that said, we, you know, I moved into PR, and then I moved to down to Portland from Seattle, because I could actually get a paying job because the internship I did three months full time, virtually, basically no pay, I found a low paying job instead in Portland. So I moved I only knew one person here in Portland, my cousin. She's still here. We both have families now, and I know a lot more people, but I basically have, since moving here to do my second agency job. I've been, I've been a part of 10 agencies in my career. I've been, I founded two, co founded two, fired from three and exited the four that I created, or co, co founded, basically. And so right now I have a consultancy. I could say that's my 11th agency, but I don't even really count it as an agency. I'm just a fractional CMO, you know, marketing advisor at this point, just a few hours a month, because my my day job as of January, is running a nonprofit called next northwest.org which is a it's a trade organization for marketing and advertising and creative community, the creative services world. And it has 119 year history in Portland. And now it's, it's now expanded to five states and into Canada. And so I've got this I'm working. I manage a board of, you know, decent sized board, and a decent sized advisory. Committee that I created, and just the last couple months, and we do learning events for the creative community and networking events and celebrations, like, you know, awards, award shows to celebrate the work. So that's kind of my day job. And then I also speak and write a lot you and I share a passion for for education and learning and sharing knowledge. And so I've been, I've probably averaged 25 speaking engagements a year for the last 20 years, and last year was 30. For instance, I fly yours, mentioned your your travel. I'm flying to Tampa on Sunday to present on Monday, on a panel about AI in the senior care space, for instance. And then I come back and I, I, you know, got it. I got one or two more. But I, you know, I typically do a dozen fly flying gigs, and then I do a lot of webinars and local gigs as well.   Michael Hingson ** 15:55 So what are you what are you going to say? What are you going to say about AI in the senior care space?   Kent Lewis ** 16:01 That's a great question. So what my focus as a marketer is, here's how you can use AI to streamline and automate and maintain or improve quality. So it's not meant to it's not a secret hack, cheat code to lay people off. It's a It's get more out of your current resources, basically, and do more with less, and do it more effectively. That's kind of, that's, you know, that's my, what I'll be talking about is the how you know how to use it for research, ideation, content creation, content editing, reporting, synthesizing information, customer service, that kind of thing. So I only have, you know, it's a panel event, so I'm only doing like a 10 to 15 minutes part, and then there are other presenters doing their part, and then we have a little Q and A, usually, I'm a sole presenter on whatever topic, usually digital marketing or employee engagement, which is what I got passionate about. Once I sold my agency. After 22 years, I became an employee at that the agency that acquired my company, and I was immediately underwhelmed and disappointed in what it was like to be an employee, and wanted to fix it. So that's what I had been focusing on when I given a choice. I want to evangelize. You know, what I learned from my experience, and I've done a good amount of research, and, you know, two weeks ago, I presented in Portland on the topic to entrepreneurs. Then the next day, I flew to Denver and did the same presentation to a group of agency owners. And then the next day, I did a webinar for similar group of entrepreneurs, you know, so three versions, three days in a row, a 3060, and 90 minute version. So,   Michael Hingson ** 17:42 pretty fun. Yeah. So how many books have you written?   Kent Lewis ** 17:47 Ah, I knew you'd say that so or ask that. I have not written any books, but I have, darn but I've written, you know, probably 200 articles. I could easily AI them into some sort of book, if I wanted to. You know, I went from writing 80% to 90% of my art content was on digital marketing for the first 20 years. And then the last 10 years, I focused almost exclusively on writing about entrepreneurship and and business ownership, leadership and employee intention, retention, engagement. And, you know, so I mostly syndicate my articles, like business journals, occasionally in Ink Magazine, etc. So if I were to write a book, it would be about the business side of things, instead of the second, I would write something about digital marketing. Not only am I no longer an expert, and consider myself an expert relative to others, those books are outdated the second they're printed, right? So, so it doesn't make sense to really write a book on digital marketing, and everything's already been said, etc. So, so if I wrote a book, it would be probably more on the employee engagement side versus anything. But I will say that I don't know if you know who Seth Godin is. He's the number one marketing blogger in the world. He's written many best sellers, Purple Cow, permission, marketing, etc. He's remarkable guy. And I had was fortunate to talk with him and then meet with him over lunch in New York City 15 years ago. And he said, after our two hour lunch, he charges $75,000 for speaking engagement. So it gives you a sense of who he is. He has for for 20 years. And so he said, Kent, you've got a book in you. I was like, I wish you hadn't said that, because now I don't want to, I don't want to disappoint him, right? So there you go.   Michael Hingson ** 19:31 Well, if you write one at some point, you have to send us a picture of the cover and we'll stick it in the show notes whenever. Yeah, that sounds great, but yeah, I you know, I never thought of writing a book, but in 2002 we went to the AKC Eukanuba canine championship dog show in Orlando. It was in December, and among other people I met there. Here I met George Berger, who was at that time, the publisher of the American Kennel Club Gazette, and he said, You ought to write a book. And I went, why? Well, because you you have a great story to tell. You should really write a book. Well, it took eight years and a lot of time sitting in front of Microsoft Word to get notes down, but eventually I met someone named Susie Flory who called because she was writing a book called Dog tails. And it was a story of what she wanted to write stories of, actually, 17 different dogs who had done some pretty interesting and miraculous things. And she wanted to write a story about my guide dog at the World Trade Center, Roselle. And she said, Tell me your story, if you would. And I did. And when we were done, there was this pause, and then she said, You need to write a book. And since I've written books, I'll help you. And a year later, underdog was published, and it became a number one New York Times bestseller. So that was pretty cool.   Kent Lewis ** 21:01 That's fantastic. Congratulations. Very impressive.   Michael Hingson ** 21:04 And then last year, well, in 2013 we published a children's book called running with Roselle, but more adults by a thing kids, because it's not a picture book, but it tells the story of me growing up and Roselle growing up, and how we met, and all that. So it isn't really as much a World Trade Center book. But then last year, we wrote, live like a guide dog. And the intent of live like a guide dog is to say to people, look fear is all around us, and so many people just allow themselves to be paralyzed, or, as I say, blinded by fear, so they can't make decisions. They don't learn how to control it. But if you learn how to control fear, you can use fear as a very powerful tool to help you stay focused, and you'll make better decisions. So we use lessons I learned from my guide dogs on my wife's service dog to write, live like a guide dog. And so it is out there, and it's it's a lot of fun, too. So you know, it isn't the easiest thing to write a book, but I would think you have a book in you, and you should, well, I   Kent Lewis ** 22:03 appreciate that vote of confidence. And hey, I mean, you did it, and you had an amazing story, and you've done it multiple times. Actually, it's great inspiration for me.   Michael Hingson ** 22:16 Well, I'm looking forward to reading it when it comes out. You'll have to let   22:20 us know. Yeah, will do so   Michael Hingson ** 22:23 you at some point, switched from being an employee to being an entrepreneur. How did that all happen? Why? Why did you do it? Or what really brought that about?   Kent Lewis ** 22:38 Well, I kept getting fired.   Michael Hingson ** 22:40 So why'd that happen?   Kent Lewis ** 22:42 Yeah, so that's the fun part. So I I've never been fired for cause like a legit clause. I'm a high powered, high performer, and so I actually, that's why. So the first time I was fired was by the guy that invited me to co found an agency. His name was Ryan Wilson. He was my he was my boss. And then he was fired by our larger agency. He ran a team that I worked on. I worked for him. I was inspired by him. I I was mentored by him. I thought the world of him. So when he came to me three months after he got fired, it was about, it's always about a girl. So he he basically, he got divorced. And so this other woman, they met at the office, and they were soul mates, and they he had to clean up his life. And he did, and he said, I've got an agency die. I've got two clients ready to sign. I need key employees, and you're one, one of them, then I would hope you would join me. I said, No, the first time he got his act together. I said, yes, the second time, and that. So I we built an agency together with, you know, we start with six people. I brought in two other people and another gal that ran the PR side. I was running the digital side. She brought in somebody said we had six of us on day one, and a year later, we didn't have a formal share shareholder agreement for our percentage of the company that went from being worth zero to being worth a few million dollars, and we felt that we should have something in writing, and before he could, we could get something formally in writing. My, my other partner, she, I didn't really want to do the business with her, but I didn't really have a choice. I want to do the business with him. She said, I'm asking for more equity. I said, Okay, I feel like that's fair. I think we've earned it, but, and I'll, I'll be there with you, but I wouldn't have done this if she hadn't said, I'm going in. Are you with me? So when I we asked, she asked me to make the ask. I wasn't necessarily prepared or thinking about it, and it really offended him. He was really mad, and he was playing to fire her, and by me teaming up with her, he felt, you know, slight. And he fired us both, and the next week, I started anvil, my agency, Anvil Media, that I ran for 22 years, I did a couple other starts, one with a college friend and a guy I had met at that that at one of the first, one of the earlier agency agencies I'd worked at. He and we, he and I and my college buddy started an email marketing agency in 02 and then I decided, well, this isn't for me, but I now learn it's not that scary to hire employees. So then I started hiring employees at anvil and late 03 and so I ran anvil with employees for, you know, 20 years. Two of those first two years were just me and some contractors and and then, oh, wait, I started a second agency because I needed a more affordable solution for my partners in small business called Formic media. Ran that for five years before I merged it with with anvil. But in between, I was also fired. When I first started anvil, I was it was just a hang of shingle in 2000 to do some consulting, but I wanted a full time gig, and a year later, I had an opportunity to run my my team from the agency. I was fired from that company. That agency was sold to another agency for pennies on the dollar. And when my old boss died, rest in peace, we hadn't really cleared the air yet, which is it still is one of my greatest regrets. You know, for nine months we didn't talk, and then he passed away. Everybody peace, not before he passed away, I was able to get, yeah, his his soul mate. They weren't married yet, but they were going to get married. She told me that two weeks before he died, he expressed regrets and how we had ended the relationship, how he had fired me, and he was looking forward to reconnecting and re engaging our friendship. And so that made that meant the world to me. I had a lot of peace in knowing that, but I so the first the second place I got fired was this agency again about a girl. So the first time was a girl telling me, you need to ask the boss for more money or more equity. And I did, and that offended him. And the second time was my girlfriend at the time, who's who moved over from that agency to the new agency where my my old boss died before he could really start there. She was dating on the side the Creative Director at that agency, and he'd been there over 20 years. And so when I started there, I saw something was up, and I was like, Is there anything going on? She's like, No. And so eventually I just broke up with her anyway, because I just it wasn't working, even if she wouldn't admit that she was having a side relationship. But I was eventually fired because he was a board, you know, he was on the board. He was, he wasn't my boss, per se, but he was one of the senior partners, and they just wanted me out. You know, she might have money. Wanted me out. He definitely wanted me out. So that was the second time I got fired. And then the third time I got fired was it kept the stakes get given, getting bigger. When I sold my agency 14 months later, they fired me, really, not to this day, not for any cause. It's that they asked me to take an 80% pay cut a year into my buyout, and I and then I they were going to close my Portland office, which I was, I own the building, so I didn't want to lose my own myself as a tenant, so I offered to reduce my rent 30% so I basically, for two and a half months, worked for free for this agency that had bought my agency. So they were making payments to me. I was carrying the note, but they they couldn't. A year later, they're like, I'm sorry. So they a year later, I took a pay cut for two and a half months, and when I asked them, you know, when am I getting back to my pay? They said, Well, you know, we can't guarantee. We don't have a path for you back to your full pay. And I was like, Okay, well, then I told my wife, let him inform them that we're going to go back to, we are going to go back to our full rack rate on our rent. And when I, when we notified them, they they totally, they totally fired me. So they canceled the lease, and they fired me, and so they so it. And you know, I, my team was slowly being dismantled, a 10 of us, 11 of us, I guess 10 or 11 us went over, and within a year, there were only two wait. Within two years, there was only one person left on my team. So it was a really sad, sad experience for me. It wasn't as hard to sell my business as I thought. It wasn't as hard, you know, just emotionally, it wasn't as hard to sunset my brand after 22 years. Wasn't easy, but it was way easier than I thought. What was hard for me was watching them was was closing the office. It broke my heart and and then watching them dismantle my team that I spent, you know, two decades building, most of that team was within 10 years, the last 10 years, last even five years of of our business. Us. There was a relatively new team, but we were so tight, and it was just heartbreaking. So, you know,   Michael Hingson ** 30:09 yeah, wow. So what do you think was your biggest mistake in running your own agency?   Kent Lewis ** 30:19 That's a great question. I think the biggest, biggest mistake was not understanding the Hire great people and get out of the way. Lee Iacocca, you know, to paraphrase him, I hired great people and I got out of their way. But what I didn't do was make sure they had all the proper training, alignment of core values that they had, there was enough trust between us that they could come to me with they were struggling or failing. Apparently, I was a fairly intimidating figure for my former my young recruits, but most of that time, up until the last five years, I always had a senior VP my right hand. I hired her with the attention that she might take over the business someday, she was totally creating a wall between me and my employees, and I didn't know it until 2012 and so, you know, I had 10 years to try to undo what she had created the first 10 years, basically of a fear based management style, so that that didn't help me, and I didn't believe it. I didn't really see it. So then I rebuilt the company, and from the ground up, I blew it up in 2013 so 10 years after of having employees, 13 years of having the business, I completely dismantled and blew it up and rebuilt it. And what did that look like? It started with me just not wanting to go to work in the building, and I realized I can't quit because I'm the owner, so I have to fix it. Okay? I don't mind fixing things. I prefer to fix other people's problems instead of my own, but I really a lot of people do, right? Yeah. So I wrote a credo, basically, what would it take for me? What are, what are it got down to 10 truths, what? What are the truths that I need to go into work and that others around me, co workers, team members, need to also agree on so that we can work together successfully. So it went from being about clients to being about the team and being about accountability. And you know, it was so it was so decisive. It was so radical for my current team that had been with me five to 10 years of they lose clients, I get more clients. And I eventually told them, I can't replace clients as fast as you're losing them. It's not a sustainable business model, so you need to be accountable for your actions and your decisions. That's the new anvil. You and you're out. I gave them 72 hours to think about it and sign it. Signed literally to these credo. It's not a legal document, it's just a commitment to credo. And half the team didn't sign it, and they quit. And then within 12 months, the rest of the team either quit or we've I fired them because they did not fit in the new anvil. And it's funny because everybody else that I brought in didn't even it didn't even register. The credo was so unremarkable to them, because we were already aligned by the time we hired them, we'd done our research and the work to know who fit, and so they didn't register. So eventually we just dropped the credo was no longer needed as a guide or a framework. It's still on the website, but, but you don't, you know it doesn't really matter. But that's what I got wrong, is I did not build the trust. I did not have I had processes in place, but but without the trust, people wouldn't tell me how they felt or that they were struggling. So a lot of process wasn't recognized or utilized properly. So I rebuilt it to where and rebuilt the trust to where the team that was with me when I sold I was very close with them. There was 100% trust across the board, a mutual respect, arguably a mutual love for the craft, for each other, for the company, for our clients, and it was a lot of fun to work with them. I didn't sell because I was unhappy. I sold because I was happy, and I thought now's a good time to go and find a good home. Plus my wife was my operations manager for five years, and she wanted out. Frankly, I thought it was easier to sell the business than try to replace my wife, because she was very good at what she did. She just didn't like doing it, yeah? And she also didn't like, you know, me being her boss. I never saw it that way. But once she explained it, after I sold, she explained, like, you know, you boss me around at work, and then you try to boss me around at home, and I'm not having it. You pick one? Yeah, so, so I was like, I think, like, I bossed you around. And she's like, Hey, you just, it was your company. It was always going to be your company. And, you know, that's fine, but you know, I want to move on. I was like, Okay, why don't we just sell and so that, yeah, they the operational people. And so it took her, took that load off of her. She's worked for. Nonprofit now, so she's happy, and so that's good.   Michael Hingson ** 35:05 Well, it also sounds like there were a lot of people that well, first of all, you changed your your view and your modus operandi a little bit over time, and that's why you also got you fired, or you lost people. But it also sounds like what you did was you brought in more people, not only who thought like you, but who really understood the kinds of goals that you were looking at. And so it was a natural sort of thing. You brought in people who really didn't worry about the credo, because they lived by it anyway.   Kent Lewis ** 35:38 Yeah, that's exactly right. And that was, that was my lesson. Was, you know, I always knew there's a concept called Top grading. You know, you thoroughly vet client, you hire slow and you fire fast. Most entrepreneurs or business owners hire fast and fire slow, and it's very, very expensive and but, you know, I got that part and I just better. I was far better at, I was far better at, what would I say, creating processes than kind of feeling, the love? And so once I figured that stuff out, it got a lot it got a lot better.   Michael Hingson ** 36:16 It's a growth thing. Yes,   36:18 exactly, yeah. Well, you   Michael Hingson ** 36:21 have something, and you sent me something about it. You call it Jerry Maguire moment. Tell me about that.   Kent Lewis ** 36:28 Yeah. So that's, you know, I just, I just sort of backed into the story of just being unhappy. But what ended up happening more specifically that Jerry Maguire moment was putting my son to bed in March of 2013 and I mentioned that feeling of not of dread. I didn't want to go to work. I was frustrated with my team, disappointed in my clients, not appreciating the work we were doing, frustrated with some of my partners. You know, in the business, I felt disconnected from the work of digital because I'd worked on the business for longer than I'd worked in the business by that point, and so I just, it was, it was, I was a bit of a mess. And I realized, like, I need a reason to get up and go to work in the morning. And that's when I came up. I was inspired by Jerry Maguire's manifesto from from the movie, and apparently you can find it online. It's a 28 page manifesto. So I ended up distilling into those 10 truths that we called the credo, and so what happening is just again to recap, it took me a like a couple days. I had instant clarity. I like I fell asleep like a rock. Once I realized I had a plan and I had a framework, I felt better about it, even though there was much work to do. So as I mentioned, you know, half the team quit within the first week, the other half bled out over the next year. That meant 100% employee turnover for two years in a row. As like as I upgraded my team, that was painful. I had to hire three people in order to keep one good one. You know, as I as I search, because we don't have formal degrees in the world of digital marketing, right? So it's hard to find the talent, and you want to hold on to the good ones when you get them. So it took a long time to get the team dialed. Meanwhile, my clients got tired of the turnover. As I was trying to figure it out, they started leaving in droves, and so in 2014 in March, a year later, exactly, I lost my five biggest clients in a 30 to 45 day period. So I lost, you know, 40, over 40% of my revenue vaporized, and I could not replace it fast enough. So I didn't take a salary for nine months. I asked two senior execs to take small pay cuts like 10% and as we hunkered down, and so I didn't have to lay off any good talent, and so I didn't, and we sprinted, we rebuilt, you know, the pipeline, and brought some new clients in. By the end of the year, I paid back my my two senior employees, their 10% that they pay cut. I paid them back, but I didn't take a salary for nine months of that year. It was the worst year I'd ever had, and the only time I ever had to take a pay cut or miss a paycheck myself. So that was the price I paid. The plus side is once I realized that the focus should be on the employees, which was what the credo was, I didn't realize at the time that it wasn't about my clients anymore. They were the life blood. They were the blood flow, right? But we have this organism that needed love, so we I breathe life back into it, one employee at a time until we had a higher functioning group. So it took me five or six years, and in 2019 so six years after I blew the business up, I had an offer on the table, had a sale agreement finalized, and we were less than a week away from funding, and I backed out of the deal because I felt, one, it wasn't a good cultural fit, and two, there was more work to do. It wasn't about increasing my valuation more. It was about finishing my journey of an employee first agency and. Three years later, I sold for one and a half x higher multiple, so an additional seven figures to to another agency based on a stronger profitability, even though the revenue is about the same, stronger, you know, profitability right better. Happy clients, stable clients. It was a lower risk acquisition for them and the so that was the high point. The low point was becoming an employee and wanting to be the best damn employee that agency had ever seen to being a very disappointed, disengaged, disheartened, disheartened employee. And I then I decided I started writing notes of everything, not to do that they were doing wrong. And I decided, once they let me go, I need to focus on this. I think I needed to help my other fellow entrepreneurs ways to avoid going through what I went through as an employee, because I had just been one, and most of my employ, my entrepreneur friends, haven't been an employee for over 10 years. You easily, quickly forget what it's like to be an employee, and I want to remind them and as other senior leaders, how important it is to put your employees first, otherwise you can never deliver on your brand promise no matter what it is, because they won't deliver to your standards. Because it's you know, they don't feel the same attachment to a business if they as if they're not owners, right?   Michael Hingson ** 41:22 But it sounds like you also, when you did sell, by that time, you had employees, one who had bought into the credo, into the philosophy, and two were satisfied. So it was a much better situation all the way around. Anyway,   Kent Lewis ** 41:38 exactly. It's right? And that's, that's the thing is, I realized it's not about throwing money at a problem. It's about throwing time and care at a problem. And the problem is that most employers, there is no loyalty employ to employees anymore, and therefore there's no employee loyalty to brands anymore, to their employers. And so I'm trying to unwind that. And it's not about pension plans, per se. It's not about bonuses, really at all. That's one of 120 items on my punch list of auditing and employee journey is, yeah, do you have a bonus program? Mine was basically spot bonuses, little spot bonuses for timely things, because the big cash bonuses blew up in my face. You know, i i the biggest bonus check I ever wrote. The next day he quit and created a competing agency. Now, he had planned that all along it, the bonus was only helped him do it faster, but I realized there was no appreciation for the bonuses. So stop doing that. So instead, I would bonus, reward the team with experiences rather than cash. And they the cash they got from a really, I paid over market, so that money was not an issue, and so that experiences were the memorable part and the fun part, and it helped motivate when we'd have a little contest with, you know, the wind being a dinner or whatever it was, something fun, right?   Michael Hingson ** 43:00 I was, earlier today, talking with someone who's going to be a guest on the podcast. He's in Germany, and we were talking about the fact that there's a major discussion in Germany right now about the concept of a four day work week, as opposed to a five day work week, and in the four day work week. Inevitably, companies that subscribe to the four day work week have higher productivity, happier employees, and some of those companies have a four day work week with a total of 36 hours and up through a four day work week with 40 hours, which is, of course, 10 hours a day. And what he said, I asked the question, did it make a difference as to whether it was 36 or 40 hours? What he said was mainly not, because it was really about having three days with family, and that that whole mental attitude is really it that we, we have forgotten, I think, in this country, about employee loyalty so much, and we just don't see anything like what we used to see.   Kent Lewis ** 44:09 100% you are correct,   Michael Hingson ** 44:13 and so it is. It is an issue that people really ought to deal with in some way. But you know now the new chancellor in Germany wants to go back to a five day work week, just completely ignoring all the statistics and what's shown. So the discussion is ongoing over there. I'll be interested to see how it goes.   Kent Lewis ** 44:36 Yeah, yeah, totally. I would be in Troy. Yeah. We know for whatever reason, for whatever reason that they've you know that well, I guess it kind of makes sense. But you know, you wouldn't think you could be more productive fewer days a week, but the research is showing that these people, that you know, that the like the Northern Europeans, are the, you know, Finnish and Scandinavians are like the half. People on the planet, despite not being in maybe the friendliest climate, you know, 12 months of the year because of a lot of how they value, you know, work life balance and all of that. And I think that's the thing, you know, we we came from an industrial age where unions got us the weekends off. You know, it's a very different we've come a long way, but there's still a lot more to go, so I, I will be interested to see what happens with the with that concept that four day work week.   Michael Hingson ** 45:26 Well, the other part about it is we had the pandemic, and one of the things that came out of the pandemic, at least, I think, in the minds of a lot of employees, was even working at home, and having to do that, you still got to spend more time with family and people value that. Now I don't know how over time that's going to work, because I know there's been a lot of advocating to go back to just everybody always being in the office, but it seems to me that the better environment would be a hybrid environment, where, if somebody can work at home and do at least as well as they do at the office. Why wouldn't you allow that?   Kent Lewis ** 46:04 Right? Yeah, I think it's that's the other thing is, I do believe hybrid work is the best solution. We were doing three three days, two days in the office, required, one day, optional flex. I ended up going in most days of the week before I, you know, even after we sold and we sell at the office, because I like, I'm a social being, and I really enjoyed the time at the office. And it was, it was, I designed the space, and it was, you know, as my place, and it was my home away from home, you know. So I feel like I've lost a little bit of my identity, losing that office. Yeah, so, but yeah, I do think that it makes sense to be able to do remote work, whatever, wherever people are most effective. But I do know there is a reality that companies are fully remote have a struggle to create cohesiveness and connectiveness across distributed teams. It's just it's just science, right? Psychology, but you can be very intentional to mitigate as much as you can the downside of remote and then play up as much as you can the benefits of remote people having their life and they see, on average, I heard that people valued their remote work about to worth about $6,000 on average, that there's a number that they've quantified.   Michael Hingson ** 47:21 Wow. Well, I know I've worked in offices, but I've also done a lot of work at home. So for example, I had a job back in the late 1970s and worked and lived in Massachusetts until 1981 and the company I worked for was being pursued by Xerox. And the the assumption was that Xerox was going to buy the company. So I was asked to relocate back out to California, where I had grown up, and help integrate the company into Xerox. And so I did. And so that was the first time I really worked mostly out of home and remotely from an office. And did that for two and a half, almost, well, a little over two and a half years. And my thanks for it was I was terminated because we had a recession and the big issue really was, though, that Xerox had bought the company and phased out all the people in sales because they didn't want the people. They just wanted the technology. And I've always believed that's a big mistake, because the tribal knowledge that people have is not something that you're going to get any other place. Totally, totally agree. But anyway, that occurred, and then I couldn't find a job, because the unemployment rate among employable blind people was so high, since people didn't believe blind people could work. So I ended up starting my own company selling computer aided design systems, CAD systems, to architects. Some of the early PC based CAD systems. Sold them to architects and engineers and so on. So I did have an office. We started, I started it with someone else, and had an office for four years, and then decided I had enough of owning my own company for a while, and went to work for someone else, and again, worked in an office and did that for seven years. Yeah, about seven years, and then I ended up in at the end of that, or the later part of that time, I was asked to relocate now back to the East Coast, because I was selling to Wall Street and New York and Wall Street firms really want, even though they might buy from resellers and so on, they want company, companies that make products to have them an office that they can deal with. So I ended up going back and mostly worked out of the office. But then, um. I left that company in 1997 and it was, it was a little bit different, because I was, I I had my own office, and I was the only person in it for a little while. We did have some engineers, but we all kind of worked in the office and sometimes at home. But for me, the real time of working at home happened in 2008 I was working at a nonprofit and also traveling and speaking, and the people who ran the nonprofit said, nobody's interested in September 11 anymore. And you know, you're you're not really adding any value to what we do, so we're going to phase out your job. Yeah, nobody was interested in September 11. And three years later, we had a number one New York Times bestseller, but anyway, your face yeah, so I ended up opening the Michael Hinkson Group Inc, and working out of home, and I've been doing that ever since. I enjoy working in an office. But I can work at home and I can, I can adapt. So my exposure to people and working not at home is when I travel and speak and get to go visit people and interact with them and so on. So it works out   Kent Lewis ** 51:05 that's, that's fantastic, congratulations. That's awesome.   Michael Hingson ** 51:10 It is, it is, you know, sometimes a challenge, but it works. So for you, what is your philosophy? You obviously do a lot of giving back to the community nowadays, is that something that has kind of grown over time, or you always had that? Or what's your philosophy regarding that?   Kent Lewis ** 51:29 So I I believe that, as I mentioned, I believe earlier that learn and return us. I believe that you should giving, giving back your entire life, as soon as you're able to, in whatever way. And so I, you know, when I first moved to Portland, I barely knew anybody. I was volunteering at this local neighborhood house where it was, you know, as tutoring this kid, and ironically, in math. And I'm terrible at math. Then I went to Big Brothers, Big Sisters for a while, and then I for the last 19 for last 25 years, I've been a volunteer, and for eight or nine of those years, I was on the board of smart reading. It's a, it's a, it's not a literacy program in that you're not teaching kids to read. You're teaching kids a love of reading. So you just sit with, you know, title, title, one school kindergarteners in an area near you, and you sit and read with them for 10 to 15 minutes, that's it. And it's a game changer, because some of them didn't own any books. And then they get to take books home with them, you know, like scholastic style books. So anyway, I I decided, of all, like I have friends, that their their passion is pets, others, it's like forests or planet or whatever. To me, I think I can, I can solve all of those problems if I invest in children, because they're shaping our future, and we can put them on a trajectory. So for instance, statistically, prison capacity is based on third grade reading levels in blue. So if you're if you can't learn to read, you can't read to learn, so you need to have a be a proficient reader by third grade, or you're left behind, and you're more likely, 10 times more likely, to be in the system, and you know, not in a good way. So I realized, well, if I can help these kids with a love of reading, I was, I was slow to learn reading myself. I realized that maybe we, you know that one kid that you find a love of reading, that finds books they love and is inspired by the books and continues to read and have a successful educational career, then that's that person may go on to solve cancer or world hunger or whatever it is. So that's kind of how I look at so that's my theory in general about giving. And then specifically my passion is children. So that's kind of my thing, and I think there are a lot of different ways to do it. Last night, I was at my wife's auction or the fundraiser for her nonprofit, which is around the foster system. It's called Casa court, important court, court appointed special advocate. So these kids in the foster system have an advocate, that that's not a lawyer or a caseworker, you know, by their side through the legal system. And I think that's a fantastic cause. It aligns with my children cause. And I was, I had seven my parents fostered seven daughters, you know, Daughters of other people, and the last two were very that I remember were transformative for me as an only child, to have a sister, you know, foster sister that was living with us for, in one case, two years. And it was invaluable and helpful to me. She helped me find my love of reading, helped me learn my multiplication tables, all that things that your parents might be able to do, but it's so much cooler doing with somebody that's, you know, I think she was 17 when she moved into our house, and I was, like, nine, and she was so helpful to me, so inspiring. So in a nutshell, that's, that's what we're talking about   Michael Hingson ** 54:55 when you talk talk about reading. I'm of the opinion and one of the best. Things that ever happened to reading was Harry Potter. Just the number of people, number of kids who have enjoyed reading because they got to read the Harry Potter books. I think that JK Rowling has brought so many kids to reading. It's incredible.   Kent Lewis ** 55:14 Yeah, yeah. 100% 100% I Yeah. I think that even you may, you know, you may or may not like rolling, but I as a person, but she did an amazing thing and made reading fun, and that that's what matters, yeah, you know,   Michael Hingson ** 55:33 yeah, well, and that's it, and then she's just done so much for for children and adults. For that matter, I talked to many adults who've read the books, and I've read all the books. I've read them several times, actually, yeah, now I'm spoiled. I read the audio versions read by Jim Dale, and one of my favorite stories about him was that he was in New York and was going to be reading a part of the latest Harry Potter book on September 11, 2001 in front of scholastic when, of course, everything happened. So he didn't do it that day, but he was in New York. What a you know, what a time to be there. That's fantastic. But, you know, things happen. So you one of the things that I've got to believe, and I think that you've made abundantly clear, is that the kind of work you do, the PR, the marketing, and all of that kind of interaction is a very time consuming, demanding job. How do you deal with work and family and make all of that function and work? Well,   Kent Lewis ** 56:41 good question. I, I believe that that the, well, two things you have to have, you know, discipline, right? And so what I've done is really focused on managing my time very, very carefully, and so I have now keep in mind my oldest, I have three kids, one's graduating college as a senior, one's a sophomore who will be a junior next next year, and then The last is a sophomore in high school, so I'm there at ages where two are out of the house, so that's a little easier to manage, right? So there's that, but similarly, I try to maximize my time with my youngest and and with my wife, you know, I built in, you know, it was building in date nights, because it's easy to get into a rut where you don't want to leave the house or don't want to do whatever. And I found that it's really been good for our relationship at least once a month. And so far, it's been more like almost twice a month, which has been huge and awesome. But I've just intentional with my time, and I make sure 360 I take care of myself, which is typically working out between an hour and an hour and a half a day that I'm I really need to work on my diet, because I love burgers and bourbon and that's in moderation, perhaps sustainable, but I need to eat more veggies and less, you know, less garbage. But I also have been at the gym. I go in the Steam Room and the sauna, and I'm fortunate to have a hot tub, so I try to relax my body is after my workouts, I've been sleeping more since covid, so I work out more and sleep and sleep more post covid. And because I'm working from home, it's really I find it much easier to get up and take breaks or to, you know, just to manage my time. I'm not traveling like I used to, right? That's a, that's a big factor. So, so anyway, that's, that's kind of my take on that. I don't know if that really helps, but that's, that's kind of where I'm at.   Michael Hingson ** 58:59 The other part about it, though, is also to have the discipline to be able to be at home and work when you know you have to work, and yeah, you get to take more breaks and so on, but still developing the discipline to work and also to take that time is extremely important. I think a lot of people haven't figured out how to do that   Kent Lewis ** 59:19 right exactly, and that is so I do have an immense amount of, I do have an immense amount of, what would you say discipline? And so I don't know, yeah, I don't have that problem with getting the work done. In fact, my discipline is knowing when to stop, because I get into it, and I want to get things done, and I want to get it off my plate, so I tend to do sprints. But the other lesson I have from covid is listening to your biorhythms. So, you know, we're a time based society, and we look, you don't want to be late for this and that I you know, that's great, fine. But what's really more important in my mind is, um. Is to, is to be thinking about, is to let your body tell you when it's tired, if and and more importantly, is to not stress about in the mornings when I wake up early. By that, I mean between four and 6am before I really want to get up at 630 and I just if I'm awake, then I'll write stuff down to get it out of my head, or I will just start doing my start my day early and and not stress about, oh, I didn't get enough sleep. My body will catch up, yeah, it will tell me to go to bed early, or I'll sleep better the next day, or whatever it is. So that was important, and also to learn that I'm most I can get a lot of tasks done in the morning. And I think bigger picture, and that's what, that's why I wake up early, is all the things I need to do that I forgot. I didn't write down or whatever, and I think of them at between four and 6am but the other is that I do my best writing in the afternoon, like between four and six. So I told my, my wife and my, you know, my my kids, you know, my first figures out when they were both in the House. I was like, I may be working late, jamming out an article or doing whatever right before dinner, or I might be a little late. Can we can wait for dinner for a little bit? They're like, Yeah, that's fine. We don't care, right? So, but normally I'd be like, I gotta get home because it's dinner time. But now that I'm already home, I just keep working through, and then, and then, oh, I can take a quick break. But my point is, they're totally adaptable.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:27 But you communicate, yes, communication issue is key. Is key, absolutely. That's really the issues that you do communicate.   Kent Lewis ** 1:01:36 It's all about setting expectations. And they had no expectations other than eating dinner. And we've been eating dinner later. Just, just a natural evolution. So it's not, it's not even an issue now, because I don't want to, I don't want to, what, right? What? Late at night, I just found it late afternoon, I just in a zone. Anyway, yeah, you listen to your body, and I'm way less stressed because I'm not worried about, oh my god, I have to get to bed at a certain time or wake up at a certain time. It's like, just kind of run with it, you know, and and go from there. So what's next for you? What's next? So I want to shift from going from speaking for free to speaking for a fee. There you go. And the re the reason why is I never asked for, and I'd even waive, you know, honorarium or pay because I got more value out of the leads. But now that I don't have an agency to represent, two things. One is, I want to get paid to do my employee engagement retention talks, because it's I'm getting great feedback on it, which is fun. But I also am being paid now by other agencies, a day rate, plus travel to go speak at the conferences. I've always spoken on that like me and want me and I just represent. I just changed the name that I'm representing. That's it, you know,   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:56 well, and there's value in it. I realized some time ago, and I k

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Data centres to be expanded across UK as concerns mount Strictly Come Dancing Presenter Ross King added to 2025 line up Jeremy Bowen The divides within Israel over the war in Gaza Ex RAF test pilot says Chinook crashed on safety show flight EasyJet planes clip wings in Manchester Airport collision My family may be killed if deported, says son of Afghan caught in UK data breach Nicola Sturgeon book reignites trans row with JK Rowling Surrey Police crack down on jogging harassment and catcalling Alaskans share anger and hope as Trump and Putin fly in Labour councillor Ricky Jones cleared of encouraging violent behaviour

In the last two episodes of our Kanreki tribute last month to the life and work of Joanne Rowling Murray, a.k.a., ‘J. K. Rowling' and ‘Robert Galbraith,' as celebration of her 60th birthday, we first explored perhaps the most ubiquitous and mysterious ‘Golden Thread' that runs through her work, namely, that of a ‘Lost Child.' We reviewed the forty plus appearances of this plot point in the just over twenty books she's written and searched for possible ‘Lake' sources in her life for this persistent, prevalent, and essential plot point.The most credible but entirely speculative possibility was that Rowling had had an induced abortion during her relationship with ‘Michael,' her off-and-on for seven years boyfriend from Exeter. On Rowling's birthday, we discussed the value this possibility has for interpreting her work, specifically in understanding the Harry Potter novels; most notably, the hypothesis would explain why every book features the exteriorization of something dangerous or deadly within and its beneficent elimination. In brief, the Hogwarts Saga, when read through this unresolved issue of Rowling's unconscious mind, seems to have been inspired and written as a defense for the intentional death of her child. In addition to explaining how this view of induced abortion as simultaneously necessary for women and the murder of an innocent, defenseless, and voiceless human being is the view of contrarian feminists such as Germaine Greer and Camille Paglia, we offered the Induced Abortion Hypothesis as the most obvious explanation for the Lost Child Golden Thread and demonstrated its potential critical value, if true. We asked repeatedly for listeners to share their objections to the hypothesis as well as alternative explanations for the Lost Child Golden Thread.And you did!The listeners who had followed us through the thirty-one Kanreki Lake and Shed conversations voiced in the comments beneath those posts both their discomfort with the idea and their admiration for the sober way we presented it. There were three challenging responses, as well, to our request for alternative explanations to the Lost Child Golden Thread: an argument from the biological make-up and consequent concerns of women everywhere, the point that “exteriorization of an evil within for elimination” is at least as easily read allegorically for the Christian doctrines of original sin and grace, and a find that the Gloria Conti story, the only explicit abortion narrative in Rowling's work, was lifted straight from The Godfather, Part 2. [See below for links to the sources of these three alternatives.]We discuss these three alternative ideas in the video above, their strengths and weaknesses, and applaud the one listener who shored up[ the weakest part of the Induced Abortion Hypothesis reading of Harry Potter, namely, how Prisoner of Azkaban fits the ‘exteriorization for elimination' pattern in that series. We close with thoughts about the imminent arrival of Hallmarked Man and our first thoughts of how we will be reading it at Hogwarts Professor — the subject of our next conversation in addition to our thoughts about the first releases and conflicting synopses for Strike8 that are in circulation.Please share your thoughts about alternative theories for the Lost Child Golden Thread and your ideas about how you would like us to cover Hallmarked Man. Thank you, as always, for joining us and for your support!Hogwarts Professor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Links to Alternative Explanations for the Lost Child Golden ThreadNikolaus Wandinger, Christoph Drexler, and Teresa Peter: The Christian Alternative Theory to the Induced Abortion Hypothesis (June 2004)* Harry Potter and the Art of Theology 1: A Theological Perspective on J. K. Rowling's novels - Part One: Healing, Grace and Original Sin* Harry Potter and the Art of Theology 2: A Theological Perspective on J. K. Rowling's novels - Part Two: Sacrifice and MissionAurore's argument from the Biological Facts of Life about Being a Woman:* Whether or not Rowling herself has had an abortion, I think it makes sense she'd want to comment on the topic given her golden threads about violence against women & girls, pregnancy traps, and mothers' love.* It occurred to me after writing that comment: I don't think a woman has to have personally experienced an abortion to have spent most of her life thinking about the subject… I reckon a big part of the female psyche, from the time one is a girl, is a strange combination of awe and terror at the fact that falling pregnant is a power we have, but not necessarily one we can guarantee will always be in our control. * In my country, a 2023 landmark study showed 1/3 girls are victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse. But much more mundane than sexual and domestic abuse, I've known straight friends to fall pregnant by accident, even while using contraception. * I think it's a very unique issue in a girl or a woman's psyche because, on the one hand it is one of the worst possible consequences of rape, and therefore is part of women's (as Mad Eye would say) constant vigilance about the threat and reality of male-pattern violence. But on the other hand, and however an individual woman feels about children, it is something both inspiring and grave. As Spider-Man's Uncle Ben said, “with great power comes great responsibility!”.David Martin about The Godfather 2 as the Model for Gloria Conti's Abortion in Troubled Blood* In re Gloria Conti's abortion that Margo arranged for her: You will recall that Gloria Conti became interested in what seemed to her to be the “glamourous” Mafioso lifestyle by seeing the film The Godfather (1972). It may be worth noting that at the end of the film The Godfather: Part II (1974) Michael Corleone believes that his wife, Kay Corleone, has had a miscarriage and that her sorrow over that miscarriage is what has made her depressed. In an angry rant Kay tells him instead that she had an abortion, aborting what would have been his son, because she does not want his crime family to go on and she wants out. So – We have two (fictional) women, each seeking to limit or escape their involvement with a mobster and using the same means to do it. Even if Gloria Conti did not see The Godfather: Part II it's perfectly possible – perhaps even likely – that JKR did and so may have borrowed a bit of the plot.* "Strike paid in pain for the walk through the woods at Chiswell House the next morning. So little did he fancy getting up out of bed and heading downstairs to work on a Sunday that he was forced to remind himself that, like the character of Hyman Roth in one of his favourite films, he had chosen this business freely. If, like the Mafia, private detection made demands beyond the ordinary, certain concomitants had to be accepted along with the rewards." Lethal White ch 45Ed Shardlow's Prisoner of Azkaban Notes supporting Induced Abortion Hypothesis* Hi ladies and gents, I've been on holiday and just catching up on the end of the Kanreki series. I see that Snake Wood wasn't the big reveal because you were saving that for the final chapter!* Even the penultimate episode enumerating all the lost children and speculating on that theme's lake origins didn't dilute the impact of seeing how the classic Rowling themes of coercive relationships, motherly love, pregnancy traps, the protection of family and so on, not only come together in that one golden thread, but how it does indeed illuminate the whole HP series. * It certainly has the ring of truth for me. It certainly explains why morality and mortality are the crucial core to its meaning. The last episode was definitely one of those lightbulb-moment experiences for me. Love it!* I feel like there may be more abortion analogies in Azkaban... Perhaps the wolf inside Remus? I think there's something quite uterine about the shrieking shack... And maybe something obstetric? There's also the execution of the innocent Buckbeak. And the Dementors taking the souls of their victims, against whom the remedy is a reassuring and inspiring Patronus. Perhaps that's the embodiment of the good dad, saving the innocents under their guardianship.* This thread also offers another interpretation of The Christmas Pig - the traumatically obliterated DP, forever consigned to the land of the lost, and the replacement CP, carrying the love of his lost brother. Get full access to Hogwarts Professor at hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

Today, Adam speaks to the former first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon. Ahead of the release of her new book, 'Frankly', Nicola Sturgeon reveals details her time in office, her row with JK Rowling over gender in Scotland, her relationship with Alex Salmond, and her sexuality. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhereGet in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a whatsapp on +44 0330 123 9480.New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was by Miranda Slade with Shiler Mahmoudi. The social producer was Grace Braddock. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Endlich reden wir mal wieder über Muggel! In dieser Folge gibt es 5 Momente von Dudley Dursley. Es wird spannend, denn wie viele traurige oder schlimme Momente gibt es? Auch ein lustiger Moment ist nicht für alle Beteiligten lustig. Dafür sind wir uns einig beim überraschenden und verwöhnten Moment. Hier gibt es Schokofrösche Merch: https://www.seedshirt.de/shop/schokofroescheshopIhr wollt uns FanArt schicken oder Sticker von uns bekommen?Schreibt uns an:Postfach 71053281455 München

Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpScWes_g_Z95ViTF5vdkiA/joinLink to the song at the end of the video - https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/neenab/diagnosisLet us know if you agree in the comments below! Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. ----email us at----thepanicbuttonpodcast@gmail.comNew REACTIONS Every Week!SUPPORT THE CHANNEL

Well, I seem to always be inspired by the person who is considered marginal. Firstly, their spirit of survival, their resilience, their lack of self-pity, the ability usually to laugh in the face of having nothing and to create a kind of sense of flamboyance and life at any cost, despite having you know no resources of any kind that are visible. That's what inspires me and I think in making portraits of the so-called outsiders, I'm also then allowed to question what is that society that deems us an outsider? — Mira Nair on BBC “Masterpiece”, 11/29/04 When official America speaks of good and bad Muslims, we must not think that they are speaking of the attitude of Muslims to Islam. They are actually talking about the attitude of Muslims to the U.S. A good Muslim is simply a pro-American Muslim and a bad Muslim is simply an anti-American Muslim. This is not about Islam, it is about America. — Mahmoud Mamdani, C-Span's Book TV series, hosted by the University of Michigan on April 15, 2005. Want to better understand Zohran Mamdani's intellectual and emotional heritage? Want to understand how he seems to be thrashing the culture war with, well culture? Matthew did, and so he looked into the films of his mom Mira Nair (Part 1), and the scholarship of his dad, Mahmood (Part 2). Show Notes Masterpiece - Mira Nair - BBC Sounds  Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Author Mahmood Mamdani  Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Penguin Random House Secondary Education  Reluctant Fundamentalist, The Ben Affleck, Sam Harris and Bill Maher Debate Radical Islam | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)  Sam Harris on the Reality of Islam - Truthdig   Samuel Huntington's Great Idea Was Totally Wrong | The New Republic #ZeeJLF2018 | Mira Nair A timeline of JK Rowling's anti-trans shift  Mori Araj Suno lyrics  My secret debate with Sam Harris: A revealing 4-hour dialogue on Islam, racism & free-speech hypocrisy - Salon.com  New Atheists and old prejudices - The Chronikler The Clash of Civilizations - If Books Could Kill - Apple Podcasts  President Reagan welcomes al-Qaeda and Mujahideen leaders to the White House, May 1986   For Zohran Mamdani, Mom Mira Nair's Films Were a Formative Influence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, I seem to always be inspired by the person who is considered marginal. Firstly, their spirit of survival, their resilience, their lack of self-pity, the ability usually to laugh in the face of having nothing and to create a kind of sense of flamboyance and life at any cost, despite having you know no resources of any kind that are visible. That's what inspires me and I think in making portraits of the so-called outsiders, I'm also then allowed to question what is that society that deems us an outsider? — Mira Nair on BBC “Masterpiece”, 11/29/04 When official America speaks of good and bad Muslims, we must not think that they are speaking of the attitude of Muslims to Islam. They are actually talking about the attitude of Muslims to the U.S. A good Muslim is simply a pro-American Muslim and a bad Muslim is simply an anti-American Muslim. This is not about Islam, it is about America. — Mahmoud Mamdani, C-Span's Book TV series, hosted by the University of Michigan on April 15, 2005. Want to better understand Zohran Mamdani's intellectual and emotional heritage? Want to understand how he seems to be thrashing the culture war with, well culture? Matthew did, and so he looked into the films of his mom Mira Nair (Part 1), and the scholarship of his dad, Mahmood (Part 2). Show Notes Masterpiece - Mira Nair - BBC Sounds  Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Author Mahmood Mamdani  Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Penguin Random House Secondary Education  Reluctant Fundamentalist, The Ben Affleck, Sam Harris and Bill Maher Debate Radical Islam | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)  Sam Harris on the Reality of Islam - Truthdig   Samuel Huntington's Great Idea Was Totally Wrong | The New Republic #ZeeJLF2018 | Mira Nair A timeline of JK Rowling's anti-trans shift  Mori Araj Suno lyrics  My secret debate with Sam Harris: A revealing 4-hour dialogue on Islam, racism & free-speech hypocrisy - Salon.com  New Atheists and old prejudices - The Chronikler The Clash of Civilizations - If Books Could Kill - Apple Podcasts  President Reagan welcomes al-Qaeda and Mujahideen leaders to the White House, May 1986   For Zohran Mamdani, Mom Mira Nair's Films Were a Formative Influence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the full show for August 7, 2025. We ask the American Mamas what clues make them think a marriage is in trouble. We Dig Deep into the Census that President Trump announced. Plus, JK Rowling is defending the right to free speech, and it's a Bright Spot. And we finish off with some words of wisdom from JK Rowling that will make you say, "Whoa!" 

We cure your Fear Of Missing Out this week with stories like our first one, the convict who assaulted to senior citizens gets no prison time. The Democrats in Texas are running away from the state and the FBI is now on the case. The war in Gaza may soon be over and the UN has data on how much of their food aid has been lost to Hamas. JK Rowling is blasting liberals over free speech. Lastly we are trying to put a nuclear reactor on the moon in the next 5 years.

Join me for a break down of Chapter 2 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 'The Vanishing Glass', in which JK Rowling fat-shames Dudley, Harry reads a snake's body language, and Harry is immune to infantile amnesia... 'Breaking Down Bad Books' is a podcast analysing trashy bestsellers from a literary perspective.Sign up to be a patron at www.patreon.com/breakingdownbadbooks for access to exclusive bonus episodes breaking down Midnight Sun, 365 Days, Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed, and The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.Read along with me and let me know your thoughts on Instagram @breakingdownbadbooks or email me at breakingdownpod@gmail.com.Hosted by Nathan Brown, who you can find on Instagram @nathanbrown90 or YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@nathanpatrickbrown. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/breaking-down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wir sind zurück aus der Sommerpause mit einer neuen Folge "Spion der Nächte" - es ist mal wieder eine Mischung aus lustig, absurd und spannend. Hier gibt es Schokofrösche Merch: https://www.seedshirt.de/shop/schokofroescheshopIhr wollt uns FanArt schicken oder Sticker von uns bekommen?Schreibt uns an:Postfach 71053281455 MünchenWir s

Apologies - this is version 2 - we needed to change the format so that Spotify could accept it.....This week we look at Corbyns new party; the Russian earthquake; Proof that Australia pays women to abort babies;  the Climate Crisis and Colonisation; Cleo Laine; Netflix's Pride and Prejudice;  Gladiator; Trump in Scotland; Why are Rapes in Poland so low compared with other European countries?;  Trump's Tariff triumphs; Robyn Williams on Golf; Sydney Sweeney and the Nazi Blue Jeans; JK Rowling on the Sandi Peggie Case; Country of the Week - Algeria; Israel and Gaza; Keir Starmer and Palestine; James O'Brien and the Jewish Blood Libel; Bret Stephens on Israel and Genocide; Killing Christians in the Congo; Cherry Vann - New Archbishop of Wales; Lots of Feedback; and The Final Word - Psalm 122; with music from Carole King; Cleo Laine; Hans Zimmer; David Dundas;  Tarwan n Darwed ; Adam Gabeli and Saeed Miryaghoobi

This week we look at Corbyns new party; the Russian earthquake; Proof that Australia pays women to abort babies;  the Climate Crisis and Colonisation; Cleo Laine; Netflix's Pride and Prejudice;  Gladiator; Trump in Scotland; Why are Rapes in Poland so low compared with other European countries?;  Trump's Tariff triumphs; Robyn Williams on Golf; Sydney Sweeney and the Nazi Blue Jeans; JK Rowling on the Sandi Peggie Case; Country of the Week - Algeria; Israel and Gaza; Keir Starmer and Palestine; James O'Brien and the Jewish Blood Libel; Bret Stephens on Israel and Genocide; Killing Christians in the Congo; Cherry Vann - New Archbishop of Wales; Lots of Feedback; and The Final Word - Psalm 122; with music from Carole King; Cleo Laine; Hans Zimmer; David Dundas;  Tarwan n Darwed ; Adam Gabeli and Saeed Miryaghoobi

Happy birthday, JK Rowling! We may not have a table at the Ritz or a donkey balloon on standby, but we're celebrating you with heartfelt thanks for stories that resonate so deeply and characters we love like old friends.With love from Kenz, Lindsay, Pools, and all of The Strike and Ellacott Files listeners Special thanks to:Iris, Ali, Ashlyn, Bastian, Beth/Mike/James/Lily,  Carrie, Chloe, Deb, Denise, Ricke, Ginger, Heather, Jack, Jen, Mr Magspie, Kurt, Mary, Mayan, Nathan, Ntongase, Patricio, Rachael, Ragnhild, Tharsila, Beatrice, Virginia, MozartGalbraith, Glenda (Let Women Peak), Katie, Marcus, Svitlana, Kairos, Raven, Domenico, Amanda, Annachiara, Emily, Jyoti, Lisa, Mojca, Nina, @RowlingMore Team, Anaïs, Natasha, Ira, Armando and AbbyLinks:www.thesefilespod.comwww.ko-fi.com/thesefilespodwww.facebook.com/thesefilespodwww.twitter.com/thesefilespodwww.instagram.com/thesefilespodhttp://thesefilespod.tumblr.com

Satirikerin Jana Fischer enthüllt, was J.K. Rowling und Bundestagspräsidentin Julia Klöckner mit Drachen zu tun haben. Und wer ist an allem schuld? Harry Potter, der seinen 45. Geburtstag feiert. Von Jana Fischer.

Happy 60th Birthday, Joanne Rowling Murray! Thank you for close to thirty years of challenging, even edifying fiction, for the joys of community your serious readers enjoy in discussing your work, and for your philanthropic efforts on behalf of women and children everywhere. The faculty at HogwartsProfessor all wish you many, many years.As a birthday gift of sorts, Nick and John close off their month-long celebration of Rowling-Galbraith's life and work with a follow-up look at yesterday's review of the ‘Lost Child' Golden Thread that runs through her stories. After cataloging the almost forty ‘for instances' taken from the opera omnia in the penultimate entry in this series, Nick and John ask, “So What?” How does the possibility that Rowling had an induced abortion and is sufficiently unsettled by it that it inspires many even most of her books at least in part make any difference in understanding their artistry and meaning?John's answer is that, if read through the induced abortion lens, one can see shades of character reflecting Rowling's thought on this subject. More importantly, each Harry Potter novel can be read as a defense of induced abortion, i.e., that each features something evil within a person having to be exteriorized and eliminated, a process that readers celebrate as a ‘win.'A Kanreki celebration is a time when friends and family recognize the ending of a cycle and the beginning of a new life to the 60 year old celebrant. Here's hoping Rowling Studies, as with Rowling herself, will enter another era with this idea, one that the author can confirm, deny, or ignore. Regardless of her answer, Serious Readers are left with the mysteries of the Pregnancy Trap and Lost Child Golden Threads for them to ponder.Please do share your thoughts and questions in the comment boxes below. Nick and John hope to put together a Q&A post to answer the questions listeners have asked this month that they haven't answered and new ones sent in by Monday. Paid subscribers will be invited to join them live for that discussion.New to the Lake and Shed Kanreki Birthday series? Here's what we're doing:On 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, will be celebrating her 60th birthday. This celebration is considered a ‘second birth' in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR's Kanreki, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, are reading through Rowling's twenty-one published works and reviewing them in light of the author's writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed' metaphor. The ‘Lake' is the biographical source of her inspiration; the ‘Shed' is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age. You can hear Nick and John discuss this process and their birthday project at the first entry in this series of posts: Happy Birthday, JKR! A Lake and Shed Celebration of her Life and Work.Tomorrow? The hope is that, after sleeping in for the first time in a month, that we can put together for easy reference an Index post that has links to every Lake and Shed post we've sent out this month — and news of our plans for August and beyond. Stay tuned! Get full access to Hogwarts Professor at hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

Get yourself a friend who knows how to make stuff, specifically bound copies of your favorite fanfics. It was an auspicious day for me to get to call Sam my friend!! In this episode, we manage to yap about all things Dramione, learning how to drive, AOL chat rooms, blocking your family on social media, and play a variation of FMK. You can find Sam on Instagram as sjs_bindingFind The Dramione Effect on Instagram, TikTok, or Bluesky for all the latest updates and fic rec mania!! **JK Rowling created and owns the Harry Potter series. We do not own the rights to the series or any of its characters. This podcast offers views and opinions and is meant to be a fun discussion about our love for the Dramione fandom. Fanfiction is an entirely voluntary pursuit and is not meant to be reviewed as a published work.Please do not engage in buying or selling fanfiction. It is illegal and also assholery.Warning: This episode contains explicit adult content. Please be advised.

It's the Day Before Rowling's 60th birthday so Nick and John tackle by reader request the never before discussed subject of the Lost Child theme in the author's more than twenty published works. They re-introduce the Golden Threads idea — see their Pregnancy Trap podcast or the two Kanreki series on this subject (here and here) — then they do a deep dive into the crowded waters of Lost Children in her work, and then they go out out on a high-wire to speculate about what specific spring in her Lake subconscious mind is responsible for this recurrent inspiration. Enjoy!New to the Lake and Shed Kanreki Birthday series? Here's what we're doing:On 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, will be celebrating her 60th birthday. This celebration is considered a ‘second birth' in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR's Kanreki, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, are reading through Rowling's twenty-one published works and reviewing them in light of the author's writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed' metaphor. The ‘Lake' is the biographical source of her inspiration; the ‘Shed' is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age. You can hear Nick and John discuss this process and their birthday project at the first entry in this series of posts: Happy Birthday, JKR! A Lake and Shed Celebration of her Life and Work.Tomorrow? John and Nick pull out all the stops on Rowling's 60th birthday to challenge the status quo of Rowling Studies with a reading of her work in light of a possible inspiration for the ubiquitous ‘Lost Child' Golden Thread in her work. Stay tuned!Links to posts mentioned in today's Lake and Shed conversation for further reading:'Pregnancy Traps' in the Works of J. K. Rowling: A Rowling Studies Podcast* The Golden Thread of Coercive Love that Runs Through Everything She has Written* The seven Hogwarts Professor weblog posts that John and Nick reference in that conversation can be found here:* Rowling Pregnancy Traps: Merope Gaunt* Rowling Pregnancy Traps: Casual Vacancy's Krystal Weedon, Kay Bawden* Rowling's Pregnancy Traps: Bellatrix Lestrange and the Cursed Child Delphini* Rowling's Pregnancy Traps: Leda Strike* Rowling's Pregnancy Traps: Four Strikes* Rowling's Pregnancy Traps: Last Strikes* Rowling's Pregnancy Traps: Fantastic Beasts, The Ickabog, The Christmas PigRowling's Real Reason for Going to Portugal in 1991?Where was Rowling for her 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, and 50th birthdays?Strike Fans!* Emily Pirbright* Josh Blay* Edie Ledwell* Alexander Graves* Cherie Gittins (Carine Makepeace) Get full access to Hogwarts Professor at hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome back! John and Nick finish their back-and-forth challenge to come up with three examples of the ‘Fourteen Golden Threads' in the work of J. K. Rowling, the plot points and story features that run through everything she writes.In this second overview of the Golden Threads, Nick and John talk about Kanreki red caps and tackle three Threads each. Nick gives at least three examples for Evil Government, Occult tropes, and the Embedded Author. John responds with three or more 'for instances' of the Search for the Real, Embedded Texts, and Shadow Doppelgangers. Enjoy!New to the Lake and Shed Kanreki Birthday series? Here's what we're doing:On 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, will be celebrating her 60th birthday. This celebration is considered a ‘second birth' in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR's Kanreki, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, are reading through Rowling's twenty-one published works and reviewing them in light of the author's writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed' metaphor. The ‘Lake' is the biographical source of her inspiration; the ‘Shed' is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age. You can hear Nick and John discuss this process and their birthday project at the first entry in this series of posts: Happy Birthday, JKR! A Lake and Shed Celebration of her Life and Work.Tomorrow? John and Nick respond to two readers' requests for a brief introduction to Ring Composition. John reviews the four essential elements in a proper story ring and uses Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as his example. He shifts from his Shed (garage) to the backyard ger (‘yurt') to deliver his message about the ‘meaning in the middle.' Stay tuned!Links to posts mentioned in today's Lake and Shed conversation for further reading:* David Martin reveals the Role of Books in the Hogwarts Saga* When in Doubt, Go to the Library: The Books Within the Books (David Martin Podcast)* Troubled Blood: Every Tarot Card Spread* Rowling Talks Tarot on 60 Minutes (1999)* Harry Potter and The Hanged Man: Part 1 Rowling's Most Loaded Tarot Reference* Harry Potter and The Hanged Man: Part 2 The Historical and Occult Interpretations* Harry Potter and The Hanged Man: Part 3 Its Meaning in Rowling's Written Work* Troubled Blood: A Jungian Reading Get full access to Hogwarts Professor at hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome back! John and Nick, having finished their Lake and Shed review of the seven Harry Potter novels, the first seven Strike-Ellacott adventures, the three Fantastic Beasts screenplays, and the three stand-alone stories Cursed Child, Casual Vacancy, and Christmas Pig, are open to suggestions about how to fill the remaining week of daily conversations until Rowling's birthday on July 31st. The first request we received was one asking for more on the ‘Twelve Golden Threads' in the work of J. K. Rowling, the plot points and story features that run through everything she writes.In this first overview of the Golden Threads, Nick and John go back and fourth with four Threads each. Nick gives at least three examples for Bad Dad, Writing about Writing, Violence against Women, and the Evils of Fleet Street. John responds with three or more 'for instances' of Mother Love, Ghosts, Pregnancy Traps, and the Lost Child with Grieving Steward. Enjoy!New to the Lake and Shed Kanreki Birthday series? Here's what we're doing:On 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, will be celebrating her 60th birthday. This celebration is considered a ‘second birth' in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR's Kanreki, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, are reading through Rowling's twenty-one published works and reviewing them in light of the author's writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed' metaphor. The ‘Lake' is the biographical source of her inspiration; the ‘Shed' is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age. You can hear Nick and John discuss this process and their birthday project at the first entry in this series of posts: Happy Birthday, JKR! A Lake and Shed Celebration of her Life and Work.Tomorrow? John and Nick talk about the six remaining Golden Threads, namely, Bad Government, Occult Tokens, the Search for the Real, Embedded Texts, the Embedded Author, and Shadow Doppelgangers. Stay tuned!Links to posts mentioned in today's Lake and Shed conversation for further reading:'Pregnancy Traps' in the Works of J. K. Rowling: A Rowling Studies Podcast* The Golden Thread of Coercive Love that Runs Through Everything She has WrittenThe seven Hogwarts Professor weblog posts that John and Nick reference in that conversation can be found here:Rowling Pregnancy Traps: Merope GauntRowling Pregnancy Traps: Casual Vacancy's Krystal Weedon, Kay BawdenRowling's Pregnancy Traps: Bellatrix Lestrange and the Cursed Child DelphiniRowling's Pregnancy Traps: Leda StrikeRowling's Pregnancy Traps: Four StrikesRowling's Pregnancy Traps: Last StrikesRowling's Pregnancy Traps: Fantastic Beasts, The Ickabog, The Christmas Pig Get full access to Hogwarts Professor at hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

In August 2005, YouTube was a 6-month-old beta test, the iPhone was still years away, putting music on your iPod required a cable, and MuggleNet was *the* destination for news and conversation about Harry Potter. The books and movies were still coming out, and online fandom was taking shape in novel ways. One of which was a “podcast” — it's like a radio show, but you download it from the Internet and listen on your computer, burn it to a CD for the car, or dare we say load it onto your portable music player. Very few existed, but the excitement for them among niche communities was palpable. At the suggestion of a MuggleNet staffer/volunteer, MuggleCast was born. The show began as news segments about the books and movies: casting, release dates, trailers, and more. But its extremely likeable and relatable hosts (some of whom were teenagers at the time) quickly built a thriving fan community unto themselves. The show became a forum for granular, chapter-by-chapter literary criticism of the books, and lively discussion of their wider cultural impact. MuggleCast is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary, making it one of the longest-running podcasts ever (mere months behind the medium's earliest adopters like Leo Laporte and “This Week In Tech). Eric and Micah, two of MuggleCast's four current hosts, join Matt to discuss their entry into the HP fandom, podcast production in the days of dial-up, that time Steve Jobs mentioned the show on stage, their commitment to inclusivity, reckoning with JK Rowling's transphobic views, and why we need the anti-fascist themes of Harry Potter (and other fantasy fiction) more than ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It seems like the people most vocally against gender affirming care have no idea what it is. Also, JK Rowling sucks and Harry Potter is mid. Shame on LA Children's Hospital for shutting down the gender affirming care center. They abandoned the people they were supposed to serve, capitulating to a bigoted tyrant. -o-www.everythingispublichealth.comBluesky Social: @everythingisPHMastodon: @everythingispublichealth Email: EverythingIsPublicHealth@gmail.com   Photo Credit: Photo by Nikolas Gannon on UnsplashSupport the show

A 'romantasy' author is seemingly getting 'cancelled' because her new book was based on her Harry Potter fanfic. And Harry Potter is problematic now because of JK Rowling's tweets. So even third hand problematic is problematic? Julie Soto is no longer attending Romance Con because of online outrage.Watch this podcast episode on YouTube and all major podcast hosts including Spotify.CLOWNFISH TV is an independent, opinionated news and commentary podcast that covers Entertainment and Tech from a consumer's point of view. We talk about Gaming, Comics, Anime, TV, Movies, Animation and more. Hosted by Kneon and Geeky Sparkles.D/REZZED News covers Pixels, Pop Culture, and the Paranormal! We're an independent, opinionated entertainment news blog covering Video Games, Tech, Comics, Movies, Anime, High Strangeness, and more. As part of Clownfish TV, we strive to be balanced, based, and apolitical. Get more news, views and reviews on Clownfish TV News - https://news.clownfishtv.com/On YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/ClownfishTVOn Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4Tu83D1NcCmh7K1zHIedvgOn Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/clownfish-tv-audio-edition/id1726838629

A 'romantasy' author is seemingly getting 'cancelled' because her new book was based on her Harry Potter fanfic. And Harry Potter is problematic now because of JK Rowling's tweets. So even third hand problematic is problematic? Julie Soto is no longer attending Romance Con because of online outrage. Watch this podcast episode on YouTube and all major podcast hosts including Spotify. CLOWNFISH TV is an independent, opinionated news and commentary podcast that covers Entertainment and Tech from a consumer's point of view. We talk about Gaming, Comics, Anime, TV, Movies, Animation and more. Hosted by Kneon and Geeky Sparkles. D/REZZED News covers Pixels, Pop Culture, and the Paranormal! We're an independent, opinionated entertainment news blog covering Video Games, Tech, Comics, Movies, Anime, High Strangeness, and more. As part of Clownfish TV, we strive to be balanced, based, and apolitical. Get more news, views and reviews on Clownfish TV News - https://news.clownfishtv.com/ On YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/ClownfishTV On Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4Tu83D1NcCmh7K1zHIedvg On Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/clownfish-tv-audio-edition/id1726838629

Os assuntos estão pegando fogo no Café com Divas Pais de hoje! O que acham de exposed de traição? Porque não se discute a transfobia da JK Rowling quando se fala de Harry Potter? Estamos afiados!Episódios novos toda sexta-feira, 00h. Comente o que achou do episódio ou mande um recado para a gente diretamente no Spotify!Apoie o Divã da Diva e tenha um episódio a mais, exclusivo, no Divã da Diva para Íntimos!Apoia-se: https://apoia.se/divadepressaoOrelo: https://orelo.cc/podcast/65c0ddb1243feaaede3cea6c

Support #Millennial! Pledge on Patreon and receive lots of perks: https://patreon.com/millennial Visit our merch store: https://shop.millennialshow.com Watch episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@millennialpodcast This week, we dedicate a few minutes to breaking down what's actually in the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” and when it all goes into effect, because spoiler alert: not everything is happening right away, and some of the so-called perks have built-in expiration dates. From SNAP changes and new work requirements to the temporary "no tax on tips and OT" provision (yes, there's a cap and it won't hit your wallet until tax season), we lay out what starts now, what kicks in later, and what quietly sunsets by 2028. But when we're not thinking about healthcare, we're thinking about the things we can do to keep ourselves sane, like going to concerts! Sabrina Carpenter got some attention recently for her thoughts about banning phones at concerts. Could this be the future of live music? We're not so sure. And Andrew unpacks a viral story about a San Francisco bookstore pulling Harry Potter from its shelves over JK Rowling being, you know, shitty. Is this an extension of the banned books movement—or something else entirely? And in this week's installment of After Dark: Andrew overcame his fear and did something his past self would have n.e.v.e.r done! What do to about neighbors who don't take responsibility for shared property? We all have some personal gripes about neighbors - is Laura weird for not welcoming new neighbors when they move in? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do Trump, JK Rowling, and some feminists have in common? Based on history, more thank you might think.In this episode, Brittany and KQED's Nastia Voynovskaya explore the roots of modern-day transphobia through the story of one music producer, Sandy Stone. Then Brittany is joined by journalist Imara Jones to get into how Trump and JK Rowling's rhetoric matches some of those early feminists.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Joy Reid needs a history lesson after claiming that if we “stick with white folk we will be a slowly dying and aging empire” and “that is how the Roman Empire died”. Dana fact-checks Reid. Democrats are spending $20 Million to study ‘syntax' so they can learn how to talk to men. Actress Kyra Sedgwick says is afraid she's going to lose her right to vote under Trump.  The Nova Scotia police chief started off with a land acknowledgment at a press conference about two missing Nova Scotia children. Biden says he wasn't surprised about Harris' 2024 loss, pinning it on sexist and racist attacks. Squad Member Ayanna Presley demands slavery reparations NOW. Dana explains how this is historically inept. Dana is wondering how to calm her dog down from the thunderstorms. Rep. Jasmine Crockett gives advice to black students to “use a chair' against the haters. Conservative Writer & Creator, Sean Salter, joins us to discuss the state of Hollywood, his new non-woke comic INDIEGOGO, his limited edition Silence Dogood cover and much more.Thank you for supporting our sponsors that make The Dana Show possible…Allio CapitalReady to take control of your financial future? Download the Allio app from the App Store or Google Play, or text my name “DANA” to 511511. Download the Allio app or text “DANA” to 511511 today.Relief Factorhttps://ReliefFactor.com OR CALL 1-800-4-RELIEFTurn the clock back on pain with Relief Factor. Get their 3-week Relief Factor Quick Start for only $19.95 today! Byrnahttps://Byrna.com/danaGet your hands on the new compact Byrna CL. Visit Byrna.com/Dana receive 10% off Patriot Mobilehttps://PatriotMobile.com/DanaDana's personal cell phone provider is Patriot Mobile. Get a FREE MONTH of service code DANAHumanNhttps://HumanN.comFind both the new SuperBerine and the #1 bestselling SuperBeets Heart Chews at Sam's Club!Angel Studioshttps://Angel.com/danaStream King of Kings, check out fan-picked shows, and claim your member perks.

TDC Podcast topics - Senate passes the Big Beautiful Bill, RFK jr. claims autism vaccine connection was covered up, why are we vaccinated infants for Heb B?  Is pride in America dropping?  Oh great, another protest, guy who attacked JK Rowling as a transphobe sentenced for child rape, Lorde shows off her vageen, AI Jennifer Aniston and Mark Zuckerberg are scamming morons, and robot walking around 7 mile in Detroit and email

Matt Rogers, comedian, actor, writer, host, half of the duo behind Las Culturistas and multi hyphenate extraordinaire is on Getting Better this week to enter our queer millennial world on all things pop culture, pride heroes, lgbtqia+, Celine Dion, Tony Awards, Ariana Grande, Epic Universe and of course... JK Rowling. He tells us his and Bowen Yang's origin story, how Las Culturistas came to be, what's next for him, and of course - Tony predictions! Matt Rogers is an actor, comedian, writer, podcaster and television host. Named one of Variety's Comics To Watch in 2021, he is co-host of the popular podcast “Las Culturistas” alongside SNL's Bowen Yang, which was named Time Out New York's #1 Comedy Podcast and Time Magazine's “50 Best Podcasts to Listen to Right Now”. Matt can be seen in SEARCH PARTY, SHRILL, AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS, OUR CARTOON PRESIDENT, the animated Netflix series Q-FORCE, and as the host of the HBO Max competition series HAUTE DOG. Matt has written for comedies such as THE OTHER TWO and Q-FORCE and co-created the short form reality series GAYME SHOW to critical acclaim. He most recently can be seen in Searchlight's FIRE ISLAND and as a series regular in Showtime's I LOVE THAT FOR YOU. Matt's special HAVE YOU HEARD OF CHRISTMAS recently premiered on Showtime and has received wide acclaim, including being named by Variety as one of The Best Comedy Specials of 2022, and New York Times best comedy of 2022. Full Video Episodes now available on YouTube. Not A Phase. Trans Lifeline Matt Rogers is on Instagram @mattrogerstho Follow us on Instagram @gettingbetterwithjvn Jonathan on Instagram @jvn Senior Producer, Chris McClure Producer, Editor & Engineer is Nathanael McClure Production support from Julie Carrillo, Anne Currie, and Chad Hall Our theme music is also composed by Nathanael McClure. Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices