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Welcome to the second week of the Annual Membership Drive. The weather outside up here in the great white north is bright and clear and -30c with the windchill. So I decided that today was a good day to finish RSA and stay inside to avoid that nastiness. We've got a great show for everyone this week including a collaboration between Massive Ego and Boy George. The 80s are leaking again! Don't forget, Please visit the membership page, check out the prizes, and consider supporting us! Beyond Border - Prayer (Modular) Miss Contruction - Hate Dawn Of Ashes - Penumbra (Feat. Suicide Commando) Mastertune - Time To Leave (DirKay) Pending Position - Sexual Destruction FrontAngel - Because You Left Lifelong Corporation - The Broken Ground Massive Ego - Broken Tomorrow (Feat. Boy George) http://synthetic.org/ https://www.youtube.com/@RealSyntheticAudio
In the past year, AI capabilities have rapidly advanced across fields ranging from coding to higher mathematics. Industry valuations and capital expenditure have soared to hundreds of billions of dollars, and nations are racing to build their own “sovereign” compute capacity. Sceptics warn of an AI bubble, but governments increasingly fear missing out on what could be the most fundamental general-purpose technology since electricity. The Observer's Global AI Index aims to make sense of this landscape in the 93 countries that invest in artificial intelligence. Now in its sixth year, it's the leading ranking of countries in their investment, implementation and innovation in artificial intelligence.Hear from The Observer's data scientists as they discuss the latest rankings, trends and changes, before a conversation led by editor-in-chief, James Harding, about what this means. Speakers: Patricia Clarke, Technology Reporter, The Observer Serena Cesareo, Senior Researcher, The Observer Hannah Schuller, Data Reporter and Researcher, The Observer Chair: James Harding, Editor in Chief, The Observer In Partnership with The Observer. Donate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEaBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembFollow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYUJoin our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, sat down with Samantha Mabey, Director of Digital Solutions Marketing at Entrust, to discuss new research revealing that most organizations remain unprepared for the coming post-quantum era—despite mounting evidence that the clock is ticking. The podcast, supported by slides, walks through findings from Entrust's latest global study, 2026 Global State of Post-Quantum and Cryptographic Security Trends, and unpacks what they mean for MSPs, telecom providers, and enterprise security leaders. Mabey explained that Entrust focuses on identity-centric security, with cryptographic technologies—such as PKI, hardware security modules (HSMs), certificate management, and key lifecycle management—forming the backbone of modern digital infrastructure. These technologies underpin everything from secure web traffic and APIs to device identity, software updates, and machine-to-machine authentication. The challenge, she noted, is that today's widely used public-key cryptography, including RSA and elliptic curve cryptography, will eventually be breakable by cryptographically relevant quantum computers. According to the research cited in the discussion, more than half of organizations believe quantum systems capable of breaking current encryption could arrive within five years, yet only 38 percent say they are actively transitioning toward post-quantum readiness. Mabey emphasized that the transition will be far more complex than previous cryptographic migrations, such as the long-running move from SHA-1 to SHA-2, because cryptography is embedded across nearly every system and workflow. The risks of inaction are significant. Mabey outlined three major areas of exposure: loss of data confidentiality as encrypted information becomes vulnerable in the future; erosion of trust and integrity if digital signatures can be forged; and operational disruption, since many organizations lack full visibility into where cryptography is deployed. The report found that fewer than half of organizations have complete visibility into their certificates and keys, even before factoring in post-quantum requirements. To become post-quantum ready, Mabey described a phased journey that begins with discovery and inventory—understanding where cryptography is used, who owns it, and how it is managed. From there, organizations must build crypto agility, enabling them to change algorithms without disrupting operations. This includes people, processes, centralized policy, and automation, not just technology. Only then can organizations safely introduce post-quantum cryptography, often through hybrid approaches that combine existing algorithms with quantum-safe methods. The conversation also highlighted the urgency created by emerging standards. Guidance from NIST indicates that traditional public-key cryptography is expected to be deprecated by 2030 and fully disallowed by 2035, timelines that are likely to be followed globally. For telecom providers in particular, Mabey noted that long-lived infrastructure, embedded systems, and constrained devices increase exposure to “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, making phased migration and vendor alignment critical. As the discussion concluded, Mabey stressed that organizations making progress treat post-quantum readiness as a program, not a one-time project. Those moving forward are aligning teams, investing in visibility and automation, and working closely with vendors that have clear post-quantum roadmaps. Those falling behind, she warned, are underestimating the operational burden and waiting for a “perfect moment” that has already arrived. View the report at https://www.entrust.com/resources/reports/ponemon-post-quantum-report-2026 Visit https://www.entrust.com/
Aubrey Masango speaks to Bianca van Wyk, an independent researcher and writer, about the complex position of white Afrikaners in the democratic South Africa, amidst claims of a so-called 'white genocide' that many dismiss as unfounded. Tags: 702, Aubrey Masango show, Aubrey Masango, Bra Aubrey, Bianca van Wyk, RSA, White genocide, Afrikaners, Farm murders The Aubrey Masango Show is presented by late night radio broadcaster Aubrey Masango. Aubrey hosts in-depth interviews on controversial political issues and chats to experts offering life advice and guidance in areas of psychology, personal finance and more. All Aubrey’s interviews are podcasted for you to catch-up and listen. Thank you for listening to this podcast from The Aubrey Masango Show. Listen live on weekdays between 20:00 and 24:00 (SA Time) to The Aubrey Masango Show broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj and on CapeTalk between 20:00 and 21:00 (SA Time) https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk Find out more about the show here https://buff.ly/lzyKCv0 and get all the catch-up podcasts https://buff.ly/rT6znsn Subscribe to the 702 and CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfet Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
From debates over impartiality and political pressure to digital consumption habits and culture-war narratives, this Great Room discussion brings together leading voices to examine what a renewed, resilient BBC could become.Speakers:Alan Rusbridger, Journalist and Editor, Prospect MagazineManveen Rana, Journalist and Podcast Host, The TimesLewis Goodall, Journalist, Broadcaster (The News Agents) and AuthorHardeep Matharu, Editor-in-Chief, Byline TimesChair:Nina Nannar, Arts Editor, ITV NewsDonate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEaBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembFollow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYUJoin our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
Award season and conference season go hand-in-hand. In the PR world, CES signals the beginning of another exciting event calendar. Eric Chemi is joined by Bospar's Emily Roberts and Caroline Kamerschen to explain why integrating PR, media relations, and digital marketing efforts ahead of tech industry conferences, such as NVIDIA GTC and RSA, is a critical investment.Promoting new products through demos and feeding the customer pipeline is only scratching the surface of what's possible at industry events. Are you planning to attend or exhibit at conferences this year? This episode details how a dedicated PR and marketing partner can help plan memorable activations, seize key media opportunities, engage analysts, and sustain post-show momentum.
Manager Minute-brought to you by the VR Technical Assistance Center for Quality Management
What happens when workforce innovation stops focusing on individuals alone—and starts supporting entire families? In this episode of Manager Minute, Carol Pankow sits down with Lucas Halverson and Kathy Davis of ServiceSource to explore Families Achieving Self-Sufficiency Together (FASST)—a Disability Innovation Fund initiative that's connecting VR, TANF, employers, and community partners in a powerful new way. You'll hear how FASST: · Tackles generational poverty through a family-centered employment model · Supports disconnected youth and adults with disabilities across multiple states · Complements VR services without duplicating them · Uses AI-powered job matching and strong employer partnerships · Creates real solutions during Order of Selection and funding constraints This conversation is a must-listen for VR leaders, program managers, and partners looking for scalable, practical models that expand impact without expanding cost. Listen Here Full Transcript: {Music} Lucas: The big goal is to break the cycle of poverty. We want to create lasting self-sufficiency, reduce the need for benefits and things of that nature. Kathy: The beauty of this project is that it was originally designed for six sites across multiple states. Lucas: We don't intend as a program to supplant programs that already exist, but we do intend to supplement or fill the gaps that exist. Kathy: We are one as part of this project, and you would not have to pay fee for service or contract us. We're already being paid through the grant. Intro Voice: Manager Minute, brought to you by the Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center. Conversations powered by VR. One manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host, Carol Pankow. Carol: Welcome to the manager minute. In today's episode, we're diving into one of the exciting initiatives funded through the Rehab Services Administration's Disability Innovation Fund 21st Century Workforce Grants. And these grants were designed to spark new ideas and scalable strategies that help youth and adults with disabilities prepare for and succeed in today's rapidly changing world of work. From artificial intelligence and virtual reality to cross-system partnerships and new ways of engaging employers. These projects are testing innovative models that could reshape how we think about disability employment for the 21st century. And one of those projects, launched just this past year, is led by ServiceSource, and it's taking a unique approach to helping families move toward self-sufficiency and employment. And joining me today to talk about it are Lucas Halverson, project director, and Kathy Davis, one of the key leaders behind this groundbreaking effort. So how goes it, Lucas? Lucas: Hey, good morning Carol. Everything's going very well. Thank you so much for inviting us to talk about our project today. We're extremely excited to be here to talk about our project Families Achieving Self-sufficiency Together. We also call it fasst with two S's. So thanks again for having us. Carol: You bet. How about you, Kathy? How are you doing? Kathy: I'm doing great, Carol, thanks so much for having us. We are definitely excited to speak with you about our grant, which is short for that Disability Innovation Fund. Carol: Excellent. Yeah, I've had a lot of experience talking with other DIF grantees in like the C.D.E.F. We always give them the little alphabet soup label, but there have been different focuses each year that RSA had released the Disability Innovation Fund grant. So it's been really fun to catch up and see what things are happening. So let's dig in. So before we get into the details of your project, Lucas, could you tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to be involved in this work? Lucas: Yeah, absolutely. So my entire professional career is related to helping others. That started as an employment development specialist right after my bachelor's degree, focusing on all things employment placement, support services, community based, competitive, integrated employment. I transitioned from that into helping individuals with more significant disabilities prepare for employment. I've done a little bit of group and individual substance abuse counseling, but largely the last 15 years or so, I've been in the world of vocational rehabilitation in a variety of roles, both on the public side and the private sector side, and was happy through those wonderful years to get my master's degree in rehab counseling and my certified rehabilitation counselor credential. So to present day, I've been with ServiceSorce for over ten years, and when the grant was awarded, I looked at it as an opportunity to still stay in the world that I love of helping people, but knew it would expand my skills and really looked at it as an opportunity to bring a pretty large proposal to life. And so here we are, fresh into the second year of our project and seeing all of that happen. So very exciting. Carol: It's very cool. I love finding people's stories, like how you found your way into this world of work, because we all came in a long and winding road different ways, but make it in. And then once you're in, you're kind of hooked. It's hard to leave. So, Kathy, how about you? How did you come to be involved in this work? Kathy: Well, same. I love people's stories about how they find their vocation. And I have also been serving individuals with disabilities for a very long time, well over 20 years. I started as a volunteer in high school with Easter Seals, and from there, I did volunteer work with therapeutic horseback riding. I eventually also went back to school and got my master's in rehab counseling and became a nonprofit community mental health counselor and a traumatic brain injury program manager. And because of my background in counseling and also a previous master's degree in economics, when the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act was being discussed, and the emphasis changed to or included employers. My econ background and my master's rehab counseling background made me a little bit of a unicorn, and I was hired by a Blind services agency around 2012. And then I also did business relations for them. And then I was hired to start the first business relations program at one of the VR agencies. And really, my golden thread throughout all of my career has been starting new programs. No matter what role I've been in. I love new things, I love innovation, and so DIF has been a perfect fit for me. I'm also working on my doctorate degree, almost finished with that and doing a Pre-ETS dissertation. So I have a really strong interest in evaluation. And so evaluation actually brought me to this project. And I serve as an internal evaluator for it. Carol: Wow, you are a unicorn. Let me say that is exciting. Very fun. Thanks for sharing that. So when you two first saw the grant announcement, what caught your attention and made you want to apply? Lucas: Yeah. So this DIF grant cycle the F grant cycle was the first time nonprofit organizations were eligible to apply. So it was a unique opportunity for ServiceSource. And so our program development team recognized that our agency had the capacity to try to take this on, and also the expertise to successfully apply with a strong proposal, but then also administer and monitor the program successfully. So our organization, ServiceSource, is a leading service provider and employer for individuals with disabilities. So it made us well positioned to deliver impactful outcomes under this project. The DIF grant in general definitely aligns very closely with our mission and our vision and our values. And we have affiliated organizational model that we felt would provide a strategic advantage with this project. So it's allowing us to have a fairly large geographic reach. We have several teams across the country all working together on this project, and it also allows us to leverage partnerships and resources that have already been in existence across these teams and these affiliates to have the greatest impact that we can. And so really, the alignment and the capacity gave us confidence that we could do what this grant needed us to do. And so we're in that second year and really getting rocking and rolling now. Carol: Yeah, I hadn't realized that ServiceSource had such a big footprint because I was familiar with the work ServiceSource did in Florida, and Tina down in Florida and working with the Florida General Agency. In fact, we did a podcast about that and that particular model, and I knew there were little fingers of that kind of had spread out, I believe, into a few different states, but I hadn't realized, like, really how expansive ServiceSource was. So that is an excellent point that it really positioned you well for this. Now your project family is achieving self-sufficiency together. As you said FASST with the two S's. So no, we don't have a typo. If they read the transcript later, we didn't have a spelling error. It is the FASST you really launched at the end of June. I know that first year is always a very big planning year and getting things ready. Can you give us a quick overview of what the initiative is about, and really what motivated your focus on families? Lucas: Yeah, absolutely. Really the high level focus aims to help disconnected youth and disconnected adults with disabilities achieve competitive, integrated employment. In addition, you know, using early intervention workforce reintegration strategies to support long term success. That's where the whole self-sufficiency piece comes in, uniquely for our project. But overall, FASST is, as I mentioned, a multi-state initiative, and we want to empower disconnected adults and youth with disabilities. Our core focus is individuals that are eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF. So that's part of our eligibility requirement. And the ultimate focus is to remove barriers to employment and to independence. And so we do that by connecting families to community partners such as vocational rehabilitation, training providers, employers. But we also have staff that assist the individuals we're serving, build those critical skills such as job readiness, financial capability. And we have a case manager component to the team. Each team has a case manager to help with that kind of wraparound, holistic approach, to try to knock down as many barriers as possible. The big goal is to break the cycle of poverty, looking at kind of that two generational approach. We want to create lasting self-sufficiency, reduce the need for benefits and things of that nature. So pretty big goals. But we have a solid team that I'm confident can hit those goals with us. Kathy: So and related to goals, we really our project has three overall goals. And as Lucas mentioned, it is to connect disconnected adults to find and retain that competitive integrated employment. But I'll also add that we want to have at least one high quality indicator as part of that employment, and we're helping to support them to retain their employment for at least 90 days. But we're also tracking beyond 90 days. And that's one of the really exciting and fun parts of this project. Unlike vocational rehabilitation, where you'd see a closure at 90 days, we're able to support individuals for the remainder of the project if that's what it takes to help them maintain their employment. The second overarching goal that we have is for the youth, disconnected youth ages 14 to 24. Our goal is to help them gain work skills and then either enter employment or enter education and or complete education. And then finally, the third goal would be to build the system's capacity with all of our partners to sustain our model and be able to serve more TANF recipients. Carol: I like your holistic approach that you guys have brought up. I know back in the day, as customers would come in the door, and I was working at State Services for the Blind in Minnesota. You're looking at employment, but it's hard to just talk employment right off the get go. If people don't have food or your housing is unstable or you have all the other issues, so you've got to kind of connect all the pieces together. Employment obviously is a very important piece of this, but it isn't the only piece. You got to have it all work together. Lucas: You make a great point, because I realized I didn't touch on the motivation to focus on families as part of this, and it's largely what you just described. You know, we recognize that families are key support systems for the individuals that we're serving. Families strongly influence decisions about anything but including employment and training, career paths. And so our whole focus is trying to have an alignment to that. And again, with our case management, part of our staffing, looking at the barriers, making sure they're addressed to increase those chances of success, because just as you said, there's not transportation, there's not a job. If there's not a house over your head, there's not a job if you don't have food. So all caregiver responsibilities and so the family tie in is really looking at barriers that affect the family. So could be the parent could be a child. But we know how it impacts the household. It creates kind of that ripple effect. And so not addressing it holistically could be a key piece missing. And so kind of the core motivation I guess to capitalize on that is to increase skills, of course, relating to employment, but also to again try to reduce the reliance on benefits as part of that. So knocking down barriers, helping go to work, reducing that need. And one of the key points with our project is as things are evolving, it does align with some of the current different federal agency initiatives. So, for example, children and families is emphasizing employment as a pathway to self-sufficiency. So that's very close to what we're looking at. And another example is Health and Human Services. They're looking at employment and family as the foundation of economic and social well-being. So our project really kind of just fits and plugs into that, because that is what our goal is with the larger focus. But I do think the holistic piece is extremely valuable for this project and will continue to be. Carol: Yeah, you guys are definitely ahead of the curve because when I saw that that you guys had picked TANF, you know, at first I'm like, well that's interesting. Like how did you come to that? You know, to decide you were going to focus on those folks eligible for TANF and kind of make that the centerpiece? Lucas: Yeah. So the program development folks that really dug into the proposal, part of the application process did a lot of research and found that largely there was a disconnect. There are a lot of folks that are eligible for TANF or receiving TANF that were appropriate for other agencies, such as vocational rehab, just as one example. But the tie in often wasn't there. It wasn't happening. And so, as Kathy mentioned, one of our goals is to hopefully have some better pipelines for that. So for folks and entities that are naturally working with individuals with TANF to understanding no important programs such as vocational rehab exist and what that looks like and what the scope is and what they can help with. So it just kind of was a noticed need and kind of became one of the key parts of, of this proposal when it was getting all put together. Carol: I think that's brilliant because you always look at kind of VR can be the best kept secret. People say that all the time, and even though it seems like it would be apparent, like, why wouldn't you, you know, get connected with VR and you're in this program. People don't know that. And it's not necessary that the staff may be working in TANF, even know about VR or what's going on. We don't always do the best job at connecting with all the different partners and other folk out there. Lucas: Another part of that decision to again, ServiceSource operating many programs across the country. There are a couple TANF specific programs that ServiceSource operated for many years, one being in Virginia that partners with the Virginia Department of Social Services, and then another unrelated program in Denver in Colorado. So there's already some knowledge base of that in addition to the research they all did. So it helped us kind of align with one of our corporate strategic goals of expansion and wanting to increase our support to individuals that are eligible for TANF. And so it kind of checked a, checked a lot of mini boxes, both there being a need and interest from our company with our goal of expanding and serving, you know, additional individuals. So it kind of presented just almost a natural opportunity, I guess, as it was all coming together. And I think it gives, you know, a pretty solid opportunity to try to interrupt the generational poverty that exists within families. Carol: Well, that's where the magic happens. There's nothing better than having a project that fits with your own corporate mission. You know, the stars are aligned, things all sync up. It's not like you're having to kind of fit round, peg in a square hole or whatever, the square peg in a round hole, because it's all aligned really well. Now, I understand you recently received approval to expand your focus to include disconnected youth such as those in foster care, the justice system. How does that change the picture of your work going forward? Lucas: Yeah, so kind of a really cool example. So with the DIF grants, one of the key focuses on being innovative and being flexible in changing with what you're finding during your project. And so very early on, not long after we launched the project and began some large increased efforts with outreach almost immediately, there were a handful of situations that involve youth that met the larger definition of disconnected, but didn't quite meet our project eligibility of being in a household that had a parent or guardian eligible for TANF benefits. And so we originally had intended to focus on those youth later in the project. But we talked about it and we did not want to exclude individuals. We knew we had the expertise and interest to serve, and we certainly did not want to risk coming back in the months or years ahead trying to find them. You know, it's kind of like the hot potato. If you have youth that are interested, now is the time. And so we worked with our project officer from RSA and they were very supportive of us expanding our focus to the broader definition of disconnected youth a little bit sooner than we originally planned, of course, but so that expansion includes youth now that are in foster care, the justice system that are low income or don't have stable housing. And so they don't have to have that TANF tie in for, for that kind of subgroup, but still relates very directly to our mission of serving the disconnected youth and adults within the project. Carol: Yeah, I like that. You recognize that, you know, and take advantage of that as you're seeing that. And that's kind of the beauty of these projects, because they do ebb and flow based on how things are rolling and what you write in a proposal. As everything comes to fruition, you realize different things and you're like, oh, you know, maybe we get to pivot or do something a little differently or whatever that may be, or make this addition and it just makes the project better. I love the flexibility that RSA has with the projects to allow that kind of expansion and changes as you're going along. So I understand you've got six teams working across six states under this shared framework. How does that structure work, and what have you learned so far about coordinating across all these different regions? Lucas: Yeah, I'm proud and very happy to report that it's been working incredibly well so far. It's kind of a new experience for our organization as well because it's bringing together multiple affiliated teams, but working collectively on the same project at the same time with shared goals. So from the start, when Kathy and I were putting this all together, one of the elements that really wasn't negotiable was building a sense of community within our team. Since we're all working on the same grant, have the same expectations. We knew if everybody was working in their own silo, it would be, you know, highly unnecessary and really counterproductive to what we're wanting to do. So we spent a lot of time in the earlier stages and continue to with emphasizing cross team collaboration. It's really kind of the key driver to our success and our continued success. And so some of the efforts to make this team that's spread across the country feel like we're all sitting in the same office space together, is having weekly meetings. So Kathy and I lead a weekly meeting with all the grant funded staff, their supervisors, the executive directors for the different affiliates, other subject matter experts from our organization, and then different contractors as necessary that are on the project. And we focus on anything and everything relating to the project, so it could be updates, progress, best practices, things that seem to be going well, maybe things that we need to work a little better on any process reviews we need to do. So we go through just anything that's relevant each week, keeps that engagement there, keeps everybody, you know, interacting. And beyond that, we also knew that with having some external contractors on the project that we really needed that to be bought in from the staff as well. And so we had kick off meetings with each contractor, both with our large group and then with each individual team, really just to build rapport, clarify roles, responsibilities, expectations, how it was going to work, what the goals were, and just start those relationships strong as well. You know, there's so much going on when you launch a project that we didn't want our external folks not to feel a partner like our internal folks. And so that's been going remarkably well. And then lastly, the last comment I'll make on this is that we also recognize that because we have really three position types that are working directly with the individuals we're serving, again, spread out across the country. We really wanted them to feel together and not, again, not separate. And so each position has its own community of practice. They meet monthly, they share best practices. They discuss challenges, Brainstorm ideas. For example, case manager in Florida found a gem of a resource that's national. There's no reason our case manager in Utah should have to spend time finding that as well. They talk about it. They you know, hey, I found this. This is great. It might help each other. And so those meetings we've had a lot of positive response on and Kathy and I hop on, if they have a topic they want us to discuss or, you know, problem solve with them. And so we've really felt that's helped bridge that large geographic distance across the teams. And we're hoping that, you know, turns into high quality and impactful services for the folks we're serving efficiently, serving our individuals and not having multiple people having to spend the same time on the same need. Kathy: Yeah, I'll add something here, too, from an evaluation perspective. You might be familiar that when you start a new program and it develops into a fully developed, successful project and program, and then you start sharing it nationally. Inevitably, someone will, from another state or another agency outside of your region will say, well, that could never work for us because we're, you know, we have these resources or we're serving this population. The beauty of this project is that it was originally designed for six sites across multiple states. And so our implementation really is across varying populations and community resources. And so this project has such strong potential for successful implementation across multiple states and contexts. So we're very excited that we're really documenting everything that we're doing. We'll have a toolkit when we complete the project, and we're really looking forward to sharing what we're doing and how to do it with others. Carol: And that's a really important piece to RSA. It's one of the things you write to in the project, like how is this going to be sustained past the project ending? Like how can you then, you know, transfer this information to other folks and they can implement it. So I can see where that was very appealing to them as they're looking at evaluating the different proposals that shoot. Here's a group looking at six states. So you mentioned, Lucas, Utah and Florida. What are the other four states that you're in? Lucas: Yeah. So we're in Delaware, North Carolina and Virginia. And we're right now in the process of bringing on a team in Colorado. We have the approval. We're just doing the logistics of what it takes to bring them on. That's one of the ServiceSource teams that has an experienced TANF program. And so we looked at that as another opportunity to be able to already leverage existing relationships and expertise to just tie right into what we were already planning to do in the Colorado team was just a little bit newer to ServiceSource, so they weren't part of the original proposal because they weren't here quite yet, but they now are. So we're extremely excited to have some additional folks joining the team and fitting right into what we're doing. Carol: That's very cool. I know one of your partners. Our Ability, brings some cutting edge tech into the mix with AI powered job matching and training. How is that partnership helping you engage employers and job seekers in new ways? Lucas: Yeah, so I think as we all know, the workforce development is just kind of an ever evolving landscape. So bringing Our Ability in, I'm extremely excited. John Robinson, the CEO from Our Ability, is part of our project. And at the core of our partnership is the innovative use of technology. They have a portal that's called Jobs Ability, that uses generative AI to connect job seekers to employment based on their interests, their skills, their expertise. So the system helps focus on the challenge of both unemployment but also underemployment among folks with disabilities. And their platform reaches 15,000 people with disabilities each month, which to me is pretty remarkable. That's a lot of folks consistently visiting and using their resources. And so the job matching will assist with better connections between the individuals were serving and getting into the work world, or trying to help upgrade or increase their employment in a system that's already proven, which, you know, helps with efficiency. They already know it works. And so by us leveraging their extensive employer network within the system, you know, we're really focused on fostering the employment opportunities that encourage and again, increase self-sufficiency. Kathy: Just kind of expanding on what the Jobs Ability portal will mean for our customers. We'll be able to assist our job seekers with creating quality resumes that are keyed in on skills and experience, and there is an AI matching protocol that really matches their preferences and experiences and skills with job descriptions. It's a proprietary AI system, and so we're really excited about how participants are going to be able to be matched with jobs that actually match their skills. These are real jobs, competitive wages. As we said, we have high quality indicators for our outcomes, including wages. And if you think about it, this is a win for our participants as well as our employers, because they are going to be able to actually tap into qualified individuals with disabilities who meet the skills and experience that they are seeking. Carol: I love AI. I know there's people I've done different podcasts around, different AI initiatives, and some people have different feelings about AI. I know there's kind of the you have the dark side of it, but this sounds super cool. I had not heard of this company. And about this proprietary software. I think that's very interesting and super smart of you to leverage something already out there, proven tested, can be used right away. Instead of you trying to like, go down the road of creating something and doing all of that, you don't need to waste, you know, time and energy in that when you've got something already done. Now, I know no large project like this starts without a few hurdles. What have been some of your biggest challenges so far, and how are you navigating maybe any kind of overlap with other services or agencies? Kathy: As you said, VR is a well-kept secret. Many times that's what we hear. And so being experienced with that, when we started the project, we knew the outreach was going to be key. And so we did not wait to start our outreach. And Lucas and I developed a very thorough support system and toolkit for our staff to help them really be purposeful about their outreach. And as soon as people were hired, one of the first things they were told to do after they were up and running with knowledge about the project was to start outreach. And honestly, I think we've become an outreach machine and we're really keeping track of hundreds, hundreds of contacts across our six locations that we've made and also just really analyzing which of those resources are turning into pipelines of referrals. And so I think we're going to be learning a lot about that. One of the things that we also knew from the beginning is that we needed to tailor our outreach to the audience. So we have a library of outreach materials for students, for VR, for employers, for schools and parents. So there's many ways that we have. We also are created outreach in other languages. So we're definitely doing our best to reach as many people as we can about this project, and also equipping our staff to be able to speak about it, to really understand it and to be able to keep track of what we're doing to reach the populations that and stakeholders that we're going to serve. Carol: Very cool. Lucas: I was going to talk about the overlap with other agencies. It's been a very real discussion with our teams because, you know, how does FASST fit in with other programs that might do similar types of work. And so, you know, it's an ongoing discussion, teaching staff the significance of a comparable benefit, a very familiar term for our friends that have been in the VR world before. We don't intend as a program to supplant programs that already exist, but we do intend to supplement or fill the gaps that exist. Maybe we can move faster within a process to help somebody now that while they'll go through a process that takes a little bit longer, or maybe we can support someone a little bit longer, like Kathy said before, you know, if someone has a VR counselor and at 90 days, VR is comfortable with closing them, but maybe they might need a little bit more support. That might be a gap we can fill or a little bit more job coaching or financial literacy or something like that. And so we really focused on the design of our project to try to rapidly engage individuals as much as we can. We can serve someone start to finish on our own as a project. We don't have to have a built in external component, but we recognize the significance of resource connection, obviously. So both now and down the road for folks, if they're not receiving our support, knowing what resources exist, who can help with different things. And so it's still an ongoing process. So part of that outreach, Kathy mentioned hundreds and hundreds of outreach. We have to hit folks with the right info that makes sense to them. And so for as long as this project's going, I think it will always be a focal point for us to make sure that, you know, it's just clear what we do and what we don't do and what we can do to just try to support agencies and programs that do exist already, but then also knowing we can do a pretty good job on our own if we had to, so. Carol: So let's hone in a little bit. You've talked a lot about outreach and have mentioned VR, but let's talk about those VR partnerships. How are your teams building relationships at the state and local level, and what can VR agencies gain from working with your project? Lucas: Yeah, so the teams have done a really good job focusing on building relationships with vocational rehab. Again, trying to listen to what the needs are, what they're seeing as needs, and then versus, you know, collaboration of what we can offer teams that are working on having regular check ins set up. As with any agency, you know, some relationships have been a little more natural than others. But continuing to work together to try to establish those pipelines and that knowledge base of our existence, and then also that need for the individuals that are eligible for TANF. And so I always kind of say, you know, what's in it for VR agencies? And from my perspective, at least, our project can increase access to services and resources that could make service delivery easier or more efficient or more effective, which should then lead to increase or better outcomes. That's the goal. One of our objectives, as Kathy touched on, is to establish a system that connects. Connects the folks eligible for TANF and other entities such as vocational rehab. And so we're really continuing to focus on that and going to continue to ramp that up throughout the project. As the more, you know, line level relationships exist with the different offices and the different staff. And we've learned that adults with disabilities receiving TANF benefits are often best served by VR. As I mentioned, you know, programs can be complex sometimes, and so trying to smooth that out a little bit might be helpful for them. So we kind of see an additional potential to have connect VR teams with employers. We just talked about our ability and John and his team. They have very robust employer connections across the country. And so that'll be a regular interaction. So we might be able to connect some employers. Some of our interest is connecting educational partners as well. So looking at programs that can help foster people to get into good jobs and, you know, and other stakeholders of course, as well. So we kind of see it as a very big collaboration opportunity for our teams. And I really think at the end of the day, it really just to me looks at shared impact. So we work together. How can we all show that the good work everybody's doing is impactful and supporting the individuals that are coming to us that are needing that support? Carol: It takes a village. It really does. Lucas: It does. It takes a village. And we have one team, the state they're in recently. Just last month went on order of selection. And so we're using that as another opportunity to be a support because at least I know us in this podcast know when going on Order of Selection, the most significant disabilities have to be focused first. And so those individuals with less significant disabilities are typically the ones that have to wait. And we can serve them. So that team is working with their VR agency to make sure that's known, so that if they have folks going on the waiting list, that it might be a great opportunity to shift them to us and we can support them while they're on the waiting list. And whenever the time would come for that release, we can just catch up together and see where we're at. Carol: That's a perfect example of really great collaboration, I love that. That I'm glad you mentioned that. Kathy: Yeah, I just want to mention too, it's kind of tied into that. The reason we're seeing agencies start to use Order of Selection is because of increasing costs. This project would not cost BR to use our services because we're funded through the grant. So if you need an employment service provider, we are one as part of this project and you would not have to pay fee for service or contract us. We're already being paid through the grant, so it really helps with cost. Carol: Yeah that's perfect. So as you guys look at the year ahead, what are your priorities and what does success look like for FASST as you continue to grow and refine your model? Lucas: Many things, but I think largely continuing to strengthen the project. You know, we're still relatively new in implementation. And so we've learned a lot and will continue to learn a lot. And so we just really want to make sure we're maximizing the positive impact of the individuals we're serving. First of all, strengthen develop clear pathways. The end goal would be for this to be replicable at the end to scale our model effectively. And so I really think this second year, now that the team's together, everybody's getting comfortable with our process. This year is really where the car starts driving full speed, is how I feel. And I know Kathy, you have some ideas on quality and partnerships too, right? Kathy: Definitely. As an internal evaluator, I'm looking at quality of this project. I want to make sure that we're ensuring fidelity to our model and the key components of our model and project, and we're going to be making adjustments throughout the next year, especially based on the needs of our participants and even our staff. And we're going to be capitalizing on our successes and sharing best practices across our teams through those communities of practice that Lucas talked about. We want to be consistent in implementing our project across the teams and our locations. So again, we have process documents and we're making sure that we're doing things similarly across our locations. And then we're definitely going to be collecting data. We've already started that process, and we want to make sure that we can demonstrate our outcomes so that we can inform our improvements and just really develop that replicable model in the end. And then as far as collaborations and partnerships go, we're working with our local partners to strengthen our connections and expand resources for our disconnected youth and adults with disabilities. So really looking forward to the next year being strengthening of our program and proving our model. Carol: Well spoken like a true evaluator indeed, I love that. Oh, that is good stuff. So how could our listeners learn more about your work or connect with the FASST team? Do you have a website or something you could share with us. Lucas: Yeah, so there's a few ways. So if someone's wanting to get connected to Kathy and I quick, we have an email. It's FASST, which is FASST@ServiceSource.org. Comes directly to Kathy and I, and we can answer questions if it's specific to a team, a referral, something like that. We get it out to the appropriate folks across the different teams. We do have a website. There's a lot of hyphens in it, but so largely it's ServiceSource.org/families-achieving-sufficiency-together. The hyphens had to be in there. So it's a little much if someone's trying to write it down. So I don't know if there's a way to have that posted somehow. Carol: Yeah, we'll definitely put that in when we post the podcast. We can put that in the transcript too, to have the website linked right there. Lucas: And then, also always like to put a plug in for the National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation Training Materials, or NCRTM. They have a website for all DIF grantees that provides information about the project so you can see any of the grant cycles, what they're doing, where they're located, and of course, ours being one of them. So it has information and also ties folks back to our project site as well. Carol: Well, Heather Servais will sure appreciate that shout out to them. They have great stuff. I sure appreciate you both very much. This is interesting. It'll be fun to catch up with you in a year or so and see, like now that you said you're kind of going full speed ahead to see where things land, I appreciate you. Kathy: Thank you. Lucas: Thank you so much. {Music} Outro Voice: Conversations powered by VR. One manager at a time. One minute at a time. Brought to you by the VRTAC. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening. Lucas: The contents of this discussion were developed under Grant H421F240144 from the US Department of Education Department. The Department does not mandate or prescribe practices, models or other activities described or discussed in this discussion. The contents of this discussion may contain examples of adaptations of, and links to, resources created and maintained by another public or private organization. The. The department does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of this outside information. The content of this discussion does not necessarily represent the policy of the department. This publication is not intended to represent the views or policy, or be an endorsement of any views expressed or materials provided by any federal agency. Edgar. 75.620. Carol: Well, thank you both. I really appreciate you. Good job. Kathy: Thanks Carol. Lucas: Thank you so much. Music} Outro Voice: Conversations powered by VR. One manager at a time. One minute at a time. Brought to you by the VRTAC. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening.
Today as I finish recording and start getting this weeks show posted, I realize that today is special for two reasons! First, welcome to the first week of the Annual Membership Drive. Please visit the page, check out the prizes, and consider supporting us! http://www.synthetic.org/membership.php Secondly as of the date of "production" today RSA has officially turned 28 years old! Thank you so much for listening all these years. You are my people. AD Key - Der Bose Gott (White Noise TV) DSTRTD SGNL - Replay It! Analog 80 - The Last Age Omen Code - Atrophy Komission Z80 - If Not Now, When (Phaser One) Absurd Minds - Promised Land Ego Bliss - Afterlife Ego Salto - Stealing My Seconds http://synthetic.org/ https://www.youtube.com/@RealSyntheticAudio
Drivers of vans and small trucks are nearly twice as likely to use mobile phones while driving when compared to other road users, a new RSA survey has shown. To chat about the findings of the report was Shane O'Donoghue, Editor with completecar.ie.
Drivers of vans and small trucks are nearly twice as likely to use mobile phones while driving when compared to other road users, a new RSA survey has shown. To chat about the findings of the report was Shane O'Donoghue, Editor with completecar.ie.
AI adoption within organizations is increasingly polarized, with Gallup data cited showing that while 77% of technology professionals use AI at work, overall workplace adoption rose only marginally from 45% to 46% in late 2025. This stagnation is attributed not to employee reluctance, but to aggressive uptake by leadership without corresponding redesign of roles and workflows at lower organizational levels. In the UK, research presented notes an 8% net job loss tied to AI alongside a 11.5% productivity increase, with younger workers expressing heightened concern over future employment security.Supporting analysis emphasizes that AI utilized only in decision-making circles can compress organizations, trading resilience for short-term efficiency. Dave Sobel cautions that celebrating productivity gains without acknowledging operational fragility introduces organizational brittleness, as headcount reductions outpace tangible capability improvements across all layers. The discussion underscores the risk in pitching AI as a leadership tool without regard for its broader impact.Additional topics include the risks of encryption practices—specifically Microsoft's BitLocker—and the limits of user control over recovery keys when stored in the cloud. Dave Sobel highlights governance failures when MSPs assume encryption equates to privacy without explicit decisions regarding key custody and authority, noting that silent trade-offs can expose organizations to privacy vulnerabilities. Furthermore, coverage of CISA's absence from RSA conference outlines how diminished federal engagement increases liability and ambiguity for MSPs tasked with interpreting security policy. New video authentication features from Ring are examined as evidence of a broader shift where provenance and chain of custody outweigh convenience, directly affecting the evidentiary value of managed data.The overarching implication for MSPs and IT providers is clear: risk, authority, and liability are being systematically reallocated within the supply chain and between vendors, government, and service providers. Operational preparedness now depends on explicit documentation, governance choices, and advance recognition of liability transfer. Failing to adapt—by leaving deployment decisions, key management, and evidentiary workflows unexamined—may result in organizational fragility, legal exposure, and loss of client trust. Four things to know today 00:00 Stalled AI Adoption and UK Job Losses Show Productivity Gains Are Not Broadly Shared04:06 BitLocker Encryption Allows Microsoft Access to Recovery Keys Stored in the Cloud06:21 CISA Breaks From Past Practice, Declines RSA Conference Appearance08:36 Ring Uses Cryptographic Seals to Verify Video Authenticity as Evidence Trust Becomes a Governance Issue This is the Business of Tech. Supported by: https://scalepad.com/dave/
Les chiffres sont éloquents. En 2025, près de 44 % des personnes pauvres ont moins de 30 ans. Parmi elles, environ 30 % sont des enfants. À l'inverse, les plus de 65 ans ne représentent plus qu'environ 10 % des personnes en situation de pauvreté. En 1975, c'était exactement l'inverse : 40 % des pauvres étaient des seniors. Aujourd'hui, le taux de pauvreté des personnes âgées est autour de 4,5 %, soit deux fois moins que chez les jeunes.Ce retournement n'est pas un hasard. Il s'explique d'abord par le succès historique de politiques publiques ambitieuses en faveur des seniors. Mise en place progressive des retraites au XXe siècle, arrivée des premières pensions complètes dans les années 1960-1970, puis création d'un minimum vieillesse garantissant un revenu plancher : ces mécanismes ont fait reculer massivement la pauvreté au grand âge. Les seniors sont aujourd'hui la seule catégorie bénéficiant d'un revenu minimal quasi universel.Autre facteur décisif : le logement. Dans les années 1970, acheter un bien immobilier coûtait environ quatre années de salaire moyen. En 2024, il en faut près de douze. Résultat : trois quarts des seniors sont propriétaires, ce qui réduit fortement leurs charges mensuelles. Parallèlement, la part du loyer dans le revenu a doublé en cinquante ans, passant d'environ 11 % à plus de 22 %.Pour les actifs, la trajectoire est bien moins favorable. La fin du plein-emploi dans les années 1980, l'essor du chômage de masse, puis la multiplication des contrats précaires ont fragilisé durablement les débuts de carrière. Moins d'un jeune de moins de 25 ans sur deux dispose aujourd'hui d'un emploi stable, contre environ 80 % dans les années 1970. Les études plus longues repoussent l'âge du premier vrai salaire, tandis que même l'emploi ne protège plus toujours de la pauvreté.À cela s'ajoute l'explosion des familles monoparentales : elles représentaient moins de 10 % des ménages en 1975, contre près de 27 % aujourd'hui. Or, vivre avec un seul revenu, souvent féminin et parfois à temps partiel, augmente fortement le risque de précarité, et donc celui de pauvreté infantile.Dernier élément clé : les aides destinées aux jeunes sont moins protectrices que celles mises en place pour les seniors. Le revenu minimum pour une personne âgée dépasse 1 000 euros par mois, quand le RSA pour une personne seule avoisine 650 euros et reste inaccessible aux moins de 25 ans dans de nombreux cas.En résumé, la pauvreté ne disparaît pas : elle change de génération. La France a su, autrefois, réduire massivement la pauvreté des personnes âgées. Le défi du XXIe siècle est désormais clair : réussir le même pari pour les enfants et les jeunes adultes. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.
In the RSA's historic Great Room – the home of ideas since the Enlightenment – cognitive scientist Gaurav Suri explores how both human and AI minds emerge from vast, hidden networks of neural activity. A clear, compelling introduction to the science behind intelligence, attention and learning.Speaker:Gaurav Suri, Cognitive Scientist and Psychologist (Associate Professor, San Francisco State University)Chair:David Malone, Documentary Filmmaker and AuthorDonate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEaBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembFollow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYUJoin our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
Rob Hughes — CISO at RSA and Champion of a Passwordless FutureNo Password Required Season 7: Episode 1 - Rob HughesRob Hughes, the CISO at RSA, has more than 25 years of experience leading security and cloud infrastructure teams. In this episode, he reflects on his unconventional career path, from co-founding the original Geek.com and serving as its Chief Technologist during the early days of the internet, to leading security and systems design at Philips Home Monitoring.Jack Clabby of Carlton Fields, P.A. and Kayley Melton welcome Rob for a wide-ranging conversation on identity, leadership, and the realities of modern cybersecurity. Rob currently leads RSA's Security and Risk Office, overseeing cybersecurity, information security governance, and risk across both RSA's products and corporate environment.Rob explains his dream for a passwordless future. He unpacks why passwords remain one of the largest sources of cyber risk, how real-world incidents and password-spraying attacks have accelerated change, and why phishing-resistant technologies like passkeys may finally be reaching a tipping point. The episode wraps with the Lifestyle Polygraph, where Rob lightens the conversation with stories about gaming with his kids, underrated horror films, and classic cars.Follow Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-hughes-816067a4/Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to No Password Required01:43 Meet Rob Hughes, CISO at RSA02:05 The Role of a CISO in a Security Company05:09 Transitioning to the CISO Role08:00 The Early Days of Geek.com12:14 Launching a Startup During the Dot Com Boom14:30 The Push for a Passwordless Future18:21 Tipping Point for Passwordless Adoption20:20 Ongoing Learning in Cybersecurity26:09 Managing Stress in High-Pressure Environments33:46 The Lifestyle Polygraph Begins34:15 Career Insights in Cybersecurity36:08 Dream Cars and Personal Preferences39:58 Underrated Horror Films41:19 Creating a Cybersecurity Monster
Jean-Louis Knouwds gesels met Venessa Schoeman, Redakteur by Voelgoed Media en ook 'n gekwalifiseerde dieetkundige van RSA, oor wat regtig volhoubaar is wanneer dit by gewigsverlies kom. Navorsing wys: Mense wat gewigsverlies-inspuitings gebruik en dan ophou, tel tot vier keer vinniger gewig op as dié wat dit met dieet en oefening verloor het. Is hierdie middels 'n langtermyn-oplossing – of net 'n vinnige pleister?
Spent the week basically bedridden as I "recovered" from my flu last week, then proceeded to push myself too far. So I spent a few days taking my time and resting, and voila! I left the house and got RSA done today. It's nice to eat food. I remember that now. But it was nice to sit down and have some fun working on RSA instead of lying in bed. This week we've got a great mix of the synthie and the aggro! J:Dead - Disgusting Agnis - Vamp (Freaky Mind) Phaser One feat. Echodead - Poison Mesh - Exile (Edit) Alex Braun - Wrong Direction cut.rate.box - Reel Life (Cassandra Complex) Extize - Classic Love (Antibody) CauseNation - Nowhere To Hide (Mildreda) http://synthetic.org/ https://www.youtube.com/@RealSyntheticAudio
Vótáil scrúdaitheoirí tiomána atá fostaithe ag an Údarás Sabháilteachta Bóthair an RSA ar son gníomhaíocht thionsclaíoch an tseachtain seo caite, toisc nach féidir a dhearbhú go bhfuil siad clúdaithe faoi arachas nuair a shuíonn siad isteach i gcarr príobháideach chun tiomanaí a mheas.
Grant Asplund is a cybersecurity evangelist with over 25 years of experience helping organizations defend against sophisticated cyber threats. He travels globally, speaking at major conferences like RSA, engaging with analysts, partners, and media to advance security across cloud, mobile, and infrastructure. Grant has held leadership roles across sales, marketing, and executive management at companies including Dome9, Blue Coat, Neustar, and Altor Networks, and previously led MetaInfo through its acquisition by Neustar. He also hosts the CISO Secrets and Talking Cloud podcasts, where he explores cloud security trends and real-world leadership insights.00:00 intro03:00 Our Guest05:13 Start with a Helpdesk role10:00 Ai taking over roles13:35 AI first mindset35:10 The future of AI tools45:07 CISOs report to the board 49:05 More about Grant
#SecurityConfidential #DarkRhiinoSecurityGrant Asplund is a cybersecurity evangelist with over 25 years of experience helping organizations defend against sophisticated cyber threats. He travels globally, speaking at major conferences like RSA, engaging with analysts, partners, and media to advance security across cloud, mobile, and infrastructure. Grant has held leadership roles across sales, marketing, and executive management at companies including Dome9, Blue Coat, Neustar, and Altor Networks, and previously led MetaInfo through its acquisition by Neustar. He also hosts the CISO Secrets and Talking Cloud podcasts, where he explores cloud security trends and real-world leadership insights.00:00 intro03:00 Our Guest05:13 Start with a Helpdesk role10:00 Ai taking over roles13:35 AI first mindset35:10 The future of AI tools45:07 CISOs report to the board 49:05 More about Grant----------------------------------------------------------------------To learn more about Grant visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantasplund/To learn more about Dark Rhiino Security visit https://www.darkrhiinosecurity.com----------------------------------------------------------------------
RSA driving testers have voted in favour of going on strike. Members of the Fórsa Trade Union say their employer has failed to make sure testers are covered by the State Claims Agency while working. If the strike goes ahead, it could mean test wait times increase. To explore this further, Alan Morrissey spoke to driving instructor Chris Curran.
Driving test instructors have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action following a row with the Road Safety Authority over insurance indemnity. Fórsa has accused the RSA of failing to ensure that testers are fully and unconditionally covered by the State Claims Agency while carrying out their duties. We heard from Brenda Bolger Owner Bolger School of Motoring.
Nation-states are already harvesting your encrypted data, betting they'll crack it when quantum computers mature. It's happening now. In CXOTalk episode 904, Anand Oswal, Executive Vice President of Network Security at Palo Alto Networks, explains what business leaders need to understand about quantum security and how to address it. The impact of quantum computing on cybersecurity will be huge.Key timelines discussed:-- Cryptographically relevant quantum computers expected by end of this decade-- RSA and ECC algorithms deprecated by 2030, disallowed by 2035-- Enterprise cryptographic migrations typically take 5-10 years
Manager Minute-brought to you by the VR Technical Assistance Center for Quality Management
What happens when a VR agency stops leading with compliance—and starts leading with trust? In this episode of Manager Minute, Carol Pankow sits down with Lea Dias, Director of the Hawaii Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, to talk about rebuilding an agency from the inside out. Facing high vacancies, low morale, and years of monitoring pressure, Lea chose a different path—one grounded in listening, kindness, and belief in her people. The result? ✔ Renewed staff engagement ✔ Stronger community partnerships ✔ Improved employment outcomes ✔ A culture moving from survival to purpose This is a powerful reminder that real change doesn't start with spreadsheets—it starts with people. Listen Here Full Transcript Lea: I'm proud when I see my staff here at the administration level, thinking less about what the staff are doing wrong and focusing more on how can we help them, getting resources to help them, reaching out directly to help them. People talk a lot about rapid engagement and forget that ongoing part rapid and ongoing engagement. If you focus on culture first, the numbers I believe will follow. And if you focus only on numbers, the culture will crumble. {Music} Intro Voice: Manager Minute, brought to you by the Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center. Conversations powered by VR. One manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host, Carol Pankow. Carol: Well, welcome to the manager minute. Joining me in the studio today is Lea Dias, director of the Hawaii Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Lea recently participated in a panel at the fall CSAVR Conference, sharing Hawaii's journey to improving employment outcomes and what she calls their secret sauce. So how are things going in Hawaii? Lea: Oh gosh, a lot better now that the shutdown is over. And we got a couple of our grants came through recently. And so that's all good. I think a lot of people think, oh, Hawaii, it's Paradise, right? Carol: Yes. Lea: But we have the same sort of issues I think, that many other agencies do. But things are getting better in Hawaii. I'll say that. Carol: That is awesome to hear. It's so good to see you again. Oh my gosh. Lea: you too. Carol: So for years, Hawaii has faced real challenges, including declining employment outcomes, significant work tied to addressing findings from an RSA monitoring report. In fact, you all were monitored the same year I was when I was still with Minnesota Blind back in 2019. And so I remember having a bond with you guys. Lea: Yeah. Carol: Because we were all going through it together. Lea: Yes. Carol: Now, I know when you stepped into the director role following the former director's retirement, you really brought this stabilizing, steady calmness that the agency really needed. And under your leadership, the team is rebuilding momentum, strengthening systems and really seeing some meaningful progress in the work being done across the islands. So today we're just going to explore that journey. What's changed, what's working and what other states can learn from your experience. So let's dig in. Lea: Okay. Carol: Can you start by sharing your journey with Hawaii VR and what led you into the director role? Lea: Sure, Carol. Well, first of all, aloha, and thank you for having me. I have been with Hawaii Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, we're a combined agency, by the way, for over 30 years. And I started off about 34 years ago as an entry level VR counselor at the general site of our agency. And then in 2000, I moved over to become the supervisor of field services at our Ho'opono, which is our services for the blind branch. And Then I stayed there for a while. I then assumed the role of director of our New Visions Structured Discovery Orientation Center, and eventually I became the administrator of Blind Services, and I was honored to serve in that role until about July of 2023. So the majority of my career so far was spent at home. And I learned so much there, you know, working for a blind agency beyond what I got from my master's degree and all that. I learned so much about consumer empowerment. And, you know, the real dramatic changes that vocational rehabilitation can make in people's lives. So anyway, when the former Hawaii VR administrator left pretty abruptly, our agency was in a tough place. We had a vacancy rate of over 40%, I want to say close to 45% and rising low morale. We had that heavy corrective action plan you talked about from RSA and many staff were feeling really overwhelmed. So initially I stepped in as a temporary assignment just because I care so much about our agency. I love this profession. I care about the people we serve, and I wanted to do what I could to help stabilize and restore hope. And also, I had several staff approach me and ask me to do it, and that meant a lot to me. So I decided to apply after that. And I've been official in this job just a little over two and a half years, since July 2023. Carol: That has gone really quickly. Lea: Yes it has. Carol: Well, and when you said bringing kind of that stabilizing calmness, everybody talks about that. You've been credited with doing that. How did you approach leading through that uncertainty and kind of rebuilding trust. Lea: Oh gosh. Well, thank you for the compliment. But when I stepped in we were struggling across the board. And I know because I was part of that. Right. Coming from within the agency, we had declining successful employment outcomes way down. And a lot of the outcomes we had, they weren't really careers. In many cases, we had something like 77% of eligible participants leaving us before they even got to the point of IPE. Carol: Wow! Lea: Which is really atrocious. Super high vacancies. And because of those super high vacancies, we had counselors having to cover other counselors caseloads. So people were really burned out, overwhelmed. And because we had been working since 2019 to resolve that corrective action plan with RSA, and we had been so focused on that, staff were, I think, drowning in compliance tasks. And not that compliance isn't important because it is, of course, but there was a lot of blaming and overcorrecting in my opinion, and I think the human side of VR had been kind of pushed aside. When I was preparing for my speech for CSAVR, I kind of asked the line staff, I told them what I was going to be doing and asked them what they thought. And one counselor really summed up for me how it was by saying, just quote, we were all just Surviving. Carol: Oh. Lea: That's kind of pretty much where it was. Carol: That's quite a statement. Lea: Yeah. Carol: it really is. And I know I worked with your team too throughout that. Lea: Mhm. Carol: You know, when we were trying to work on getting corrective actions done and just kind of redoing policies over and over and fifth iteration, sixth iteration. Lea: Right. Carol: Oh my gosh. It was. Lea: Right. Carol: It was a lot. And you lose that sense of, you know, you lose the sense of the people and the reason you're all there. I can completely understand that being in the midst of that. Lea: Yeah. Carol: I know at CSAVR the whole panel was talking about the secret sauce. What do you think has been the biggest impact so far for your agency? Lea: Well, I focused on listening first and staff told me they felt hurt and they had felt mistrusted and they had felt disrespected. They talked about too many barriers to getting their work done. And, you know, I believed them because like I said, I know. Carol: Yeah. Lea: So I developed a pretty tight group of folks on my leadership team up here who I knew I could trust really implicitly to help me, you know, listen to people struggle with and overcome these barriers for our staff and our consumers. And this tight group of people, they shared my vision for the agency and my philosophy of the purpose of this great program called vocational rehabilitation. So we opened up leadership meetings. I decided to bring in frontline supervisors rather than just the people in the quote unquote, ivory tower, and line staff at all levels into our conversations. I really emphasize transparency and consistency and kindness and respect for ourselves. I demanded it to each other and to our consumers, because I really had to rebuild safety and rebuild trust. In the beginning because of the way our agency had been. When I would open up the floor, you know, for people to talk, it was crickets. People just didn't want to speak up. All of that to say, I think there's really to me and I think I said this at CSAVR, I don't think there's really a secret sauce, to be honest. We've made many improvements, but we still have a long way to go, particularly with our data collection and data analysis and reporting are performance measures. Still need a lot of work and my staff and I are learning together. I guess you could say our secret sauce is trust plus autonomy, plus removing barriers and trying to find a way to yes for our consumers and for our staff. There's lots of little examples, you know, based on feedback that we got from our staff, we started allowing counselors to close their own cases. They weren't allowed to do that, as a result of the reaction to the corrective action plan. I would say we eliminated some things that were outdated or unnecessary, like some financial needs testing language. I stopped the communicating via solely via memo. All communication via memo. Training via memo. I mean, that kind of stuff just doesn't work. It's a good backup, but you can't rely on just written stuff. Carol: No. Lea: I cut out what I saw as unnecessary multi-layers of approvals for things as simple as a payment for a service to a consumer would have to come all the way up to the administrator's level if it was, I think, over $2,500. And I was like, this is ridiculous. We really started making a culture shift, I think, from compliance first to people first from distrust, mistrust, and I would say custodialism to communicating my belief, you know, in the skills and judgment of our people tried to make it a less intimidating environment where people could speak their truths and make suggestions for improvements because, you know, like I mentioned, I'm a leader, but I'm also a leader who in a lot of ways has been where they've been. And I know the power of what we can achieve when we all work together and I really believe all those things. I think all those little examples and more have really helped to make a difference. Carol: I love that because you can always sense your authenticity. Always. I remember meeting you way back, you know, with NCSAB, and we would do work together on committees and all of that good stuff. And it's like, oh my gosh, I always just thought you were amazing because you truly, you walk the talk that you say and people believe you, you know, you're believable. And I think that trust you've put in your people. I could see a difference when we were out there, even last year as a TA center and came for a visit, there was just a whole different sense with that whole group. It was really nice to see. I can just tell. I mean, I can tell from the outside, having seen you all before in meetings where, you know, things were it just felt more chaotic and people didn't feel free to speak. And now you can just see everybody's faces. I mean, it was just their whole affect was so much better. Lea: Oh, thank you. Thank you for your kindness. That makes me so happy to hear that. I see it, too. But it, I'm always questioning. Is it enough? Am I doing enough? There's still so much to do. But you gotta start somewhere. Carol: Well, you have to start somewhere. Lea: Yeah. Carol: I think you've done an incredible job with that. Lea: Ahh. Carol: What do you feel like? Maybe. What progress are you most proud of? Or. And what maybe lessons would help other agencies because other people are going through this. You are not the only one in the entire, you know, system here. It is all over the country. Lea: Yeah. Well, I mean, closing out that corrective action plan was a huge milestone. Very proud of that, especially after so many years. So it took from 2019 till just earlier this year, 2025 for us to finally, you know, get out from under that so that we can focus on other things. But we didn't do it alone. You know, like you mentioned, Doctor Chaz Compton, Chaz and you and the entire VRTAC QM team were really instrumental in helping us get there, and you guys really walked alongside us with empathy and clarity and unwavering support. Even with the time difference and, you know, being an ocean away. I mean, you guys were always there. And, you know, after I assumed this role, you know, Doctor Compton visited us twice so far for in-person, all staff meetings. So I brought in all staff, not just counselors, not just rehab teachers, everybody on staff for in-person sessions. Zoom is great for a lot of things, but sometimes you need everyone there in person for kind of a call to action, you know what I mean? Carol: Yeah. Lea: Anyway, those sessions that we had together with Chaz were, I think, really helped us along in this transformation. His ability to connect with staff and reframe challenges helped us ignite what we're calling our Reimagine and Renew initiative. I also want to acknowledge you, Carol, you know, your leadership at the VRTAC QM and the way, you know, you mentioned you and your team guided our agency and you helped us see this journey not as a series of failures, which is how we felt, but really an opportunity more so for growth and renewal. So what am I most proud of? I am most proud when I see our line staff coming up with these fantastic suggestions and being willing to talk to me about it, and then acting on those where we can and making those changes. I am proud that I see in so many of them, their passion reigniting. I'm proud that many of them don't just see this as a drudgery, kind of 9 to 5 case manager job sitting in front of a computer all day. They're out in the community a lot more now, engaging with consumers, engaging with other agency partners. And when I say engaging with consumers, things like evenings and weekends, graduations, award ceremonies, things like that might seem like a small thing to some, but I know those consumers remember and they appreciate that and their families. I'm proud when I see my staff here at the administration level thinking less about what the staff are doing wrong and focusing more on how can we help them, getting resources to help them, reaching out directly to help them. I see a lot less finger pointing in both directions, because I know when I was on the line, I'd be like those people in administration and administration, people going, are those people on the line? They don't. I see a lot less of a lot less of that. And I'm really pleased that a lot of our partners in the community are ready to talk to us again. I think a lot of those relationships, for various reasons, had been pretty badly damaged, and that's actually been a big part of my job, too, is rebuilding those relationships. So I would say the biggest lesson for other states is this you can't transform an agency just through compliance tasks alone. You need trusted partners, you need honest conversations, and you really need a willingness to go to the mat to rebuild your agency culture, like from the inside out. Carol: That is really good advice. Lea: Yeah. Carol: I always think in this role it takes a village. Like when you were talking about assistance from the QM. And I know when we come alongside any state agency, we always refer to it like we. We always feel like we're part of you. Lea: You are. Carol: You know, even in the when we're meeting with staff and staff, it's like, okay, this is what we're going to do next, or... Lea: Yeah. Carol: ...let's work on this. And we always feel like we just become another we're another staff like in the group to help facilitate whatever getting done. And so. Lea: Yeah. Carol: That has been so fun and really fun to see. Like your people embracing all of it. You just see such a difference. It really is pretty incredible. Lea: Yeah. And I want to be really clear. It's not about me. It's not. It's the village. It's everybody together that is making progress. And I think things are looking up. Carol: But you did make it possible because you open the space and it takes time. Like you said, people at first weren't really willing to talk because there'd been a long time where you couldn't talk about it. Lea: Yeah, yeah. Carol: You know, you couldn't bring things up. I remember the whole finger pointing back and forth all the time. People were like, oh, people in Central office. They don't know what's going on out here. Lea: Yeah, yeah. And it still happens sometimes, you know, I get it, but not, not as much as before. Carol: Not like before, No, but it takes that. And that took you really coming in and opening up the space. And it's a time factor. Like look at you've been doing it over two years now. Probably another lesson would be it doesn't go quick. Like it takes time to do this and repairing relationships. Lea: Yes. Carol: That's a time factor. They've got to trust you and over and over see what you're doing. Lea: Yeah. And this is probably bad advice, but forget the work life balance thing. For me, it's like I'm at home thinking about this stuff. Like, what can I do? You know what I mean? Carol: I know I used to sleep, I'd sleep with a pad of paper by my bed, because I'd often wake up in the middle of the night and be like, I'd have an idea, and I'd write it down because I didn't want to lose it for the morning. And then I'd come in. I'd be like, I was thinking last night, and staff would be like, oh my God, you had your pad of paper by the bed? Lea: Yep, I talked to Siri. Siri, take a note. Carol: Yes! Lea: yes. Carol: Oh, that's so funny. What strategies do you think just a little bit on your, you know, the employment outcomes. And you've done better with those. Chaz was super jazzed about that. Lea: Yeah. Carol: What strategies do you think contributed most to those improvements you've had in your employment outcomes? Lea: I've been thinking about this. I think our internal strategies, people talk a lot about rapid engagement and forget that ongoing part, rapid and ongoing engagement. Talking, you know, just like a broken record, talking with staff about that and the importance of that. And I'm seeing that happening more like I mentioned with those evenings, weekends being out in the field. Carol: Yeah. Lea: Streamlining processes, as I mentioned, empowering our counselors and trusting them to do their jobs. I think those were all essential. But and of course, the partnership and the help that we got from the TAC-QM, helping us look at our systems with fresh eyes and supporting us in building some sustainable, long term solutions so that external guidance also gave us confidence and helped accelerate our progress. So with all of those pieces kind of working together, some of our results have really improved dramatically. So you mentioned our successful closures. So between program year 23 and program year 24 our successful closures more than tripled. Okay. Carol: Amazing. Lea: The numbers are the numbers are small okay. Compared to like New York or something. But you know, in prog ram year 23 we had 30 closures. In program 24 we had 107. Carol: That is awesome. Lea: So yeah, I think that's pretty cool. I'm talking some of them are real careers, too, to real success story. Carol: Oh, I love that. Lea: That whole thing with the attrition before IPE has dropped really sharply. University of Hawaii at Manoa. They do a consumer satisfaction survey right for clients post closure, and we had the highest return rates ever and the highest levels of satisfaction ever, according to the university Hawaii, who's been doing these surveys for us. And then just some other stats to throw at you. But from program year 23 to 24, we saw our applications increase by 55%. That's applications for services. Determinations of eligibility increased by 59%, IPE development went up by 52%, and our vacancy rate for our staff has dropped to about 30 something percent. It's still high, but it's a lot lower than it was, and it's continuing to drop. And I've been able to fill some really key leadership positions where we had lost some very good people over those tumultuous years. So yeah, I hope I answered your question, but it's I think it's a lot of factors. Carol: You did. It's been amazing though. And you look at that. I love that those kind of family sustaining wages, people in careers. That was always super important to me. I didn't want to just, you know, jobs and food, filth and flowers. Although people can do, you know, there are people that do want those jobs, but that isn't the only job that's out there. Lea: Right. And that thinking long term. Carol: Yeah. Lea: You know, Chaz did training with us too. I'm thinking long term, like nurse's aide. Or have you thought about nurse? Let's see. What are the differences here. Carol: right. Lea: Yeah, I like that. Carol: Chaz is great at that. Bring it all. Lea: Yeah. Carol: Oh my gosh. Good for you though. Look at I think that just shows the power of when staff are trusted and they're feeling really good about their work and they're you're all in alignment on the same mission. You can really make huge things happen and including impacting your vacancy rate for employees, because I know you were much higher. I mean, it felt like you were like at 50% or something. So to have it even down to 30 is better. Lea: Yeah. I'm also looking at revising our CSPD requirements because they're super high right now. And of course, I believe in the master's degree and the CRC and all that, but I think there's some room for us to loosen that up just a bit, still be in line with federal regulations. But that's another thing that I've heard from staff. Carol: Yeah, that's a good idea. And there's probably a lot of people we could connect you with. Other states have done something similar to... Lea: Yes. Carol: ...kind of create space and layers and ways for people to get in and all of that. Lea: Yes. Now is a good time because of the Unified State Plan is coming. Carol: Yes. Perfect timing. Lea: Yes. Carol: Good pitch to make. It's like take advantage of that state plan. Time to make those changes. Lea: Yes. Carol: So what kind of advice would you have for other VR directors navigating tough challenges based on this experience? Do you have any other things you could offer your colleagues across the country? Because we got a lot of new people in, and there's a lot of really tough situations happening everywhere. You had quite a lot on your plate. So is there any other kind of things that could help them? Lea: Gosh. Well, I would say start by listening. Trust your staff. They already know what the barriers are. Trust yourself. Listen to your consumers. Your consumer organizations encourage, expect, I should say, rapid and ongoing engagement with our consumers. Help them to dream big and to think long term. Find a way to say yes wherever possible. Give our consumers all the skills and confidence that they need to really achieve their life goals. Celebrate wins, even the small ones. Be a broken record if you have to. Keep your mission visible. And just remember, if you focus on culture first, the numbers I believe will follow. And if you focus only on numbers, the culture will crumble. Carol: Really good advice. Lea: Yeah, there's just no task too big when it's done together. Carol: Oh, Lea, look at you go. Lea: Ahh. Carol: you made it all happen. Oh my God.! Lea: Oh, stop it, I'm gonna cry. Carol: Nah, you've been great. It's so fun to talk to you. I know chaz said at the conference people were crying when you had talked. There were so many people crying and coming up to you and really feeling so engaged and energized. Lea: And I was surprised how many people came up because I thought our story was going to be like the worst in the whole, you know, all VR. And I had people coming up kind of, yeah, sharing that they had gone or they are going through a similar situation and, people, can I hug you? Carol: Oh yeah. Lea: And I was like, oh sure. You know. So no, I, I'm, I'm so humbled and honored that you even asked me to speak here because although I know we've made as a team some progress, we still have a way to go. But we're going to get there. Carol: Yeah. See I just want other people to hear your message of hope and positivity, because I think we have a lot of directors feeling pretty, pretty sad right now. I'm pretty tough there in some pretty tough spots. And it you kind of you get that all internalized. I know from being a director too. Boy, it's hard to kind of pull out of all of that when you have just all of this piled on top of you, right? And it's hard to see sort of the light at the end of the tunnel. But your, your vision and just your whole message of really the hope and, and living into that mission and really the trust and all the things you've done, you've been doing the right things. And I think other people need to hear it. So I appreciate you doing this so much. Lea: Oh, thank you so much again. Thank you. Carol: Well, so I wish you much continued success. Thanks for your time. I hope you have a great day. Thank you. Lea: Thank you, thank you. {Music} Outro Voice: Conversations powered by VR. One manager at a time. One minute at a time. Brought to you by the VRTAC. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening.
And we're back with the first show of 2026! For once when I started going through my inbox for material to play this week, there wasn't a huge bunch of discs from like August that I still have to go through. Maybe after 28 years(!) of doing this show I've managed to learn a bit. Or get organized. I'm sure it's just a coincidence. So let's enjoy a new episode of RSA before we all have to go back to work/school/etc! Dark Minimal Project - Schlafen! (People Theatre) BlakLight - Blind Vision Monochrome - Unbound Ego Salto - Take Me Up Spektralized - Run and Hide (EP) Projekt-A 'The Dark' - Tanz Der Schatten (Phaser One) Soman - To the Rhythm Mareux - The Perfect Girl (Kontravoid) http://synthetic.org/ https://www.youtube.com/@RealSyntheticAudio
Quand Lucie entre dans le cercle privé, elle vit seule avec ses filles, au RSA, dans un appartement qui fuit. Mais elle sait qu'il y a “autre chose pour elle”. Son parcours, raconté avec une honnêteté rare, est une preuve vivante de ce que la manifestation peut créer… Quand on décide de croire avant de voir.Aujourd'hui, elle est prof, autrice, créatrice d'un jeu reconnu par l'Éducation Nationale, ettoujours une élève engagée de l'HEMC.Pour aller plus loin avec moi : ✨ Rejoins le Cercle Privé : des audios puissants et spontanés pour transformer ta fréquence et ta réalité. ✨ Fais le quizz offert "quel type de manifesteur es tu ?" pour découvrir ta façon unique de manifester (et pourquoi ça change tout). ✨ Inscris-toi ici pour rejoindre l'hemc : https://www.sophiechague.fr/hemcÀ propos de l'invité(e) du jour :
Today on Galway Talks with John Morley: 9am-10am President Catherine Connolly calls for hope, peace and solidarity in first Christmas message Light rail system for Galway to be included in Galway Transport Strategy 'Challenging' for Govt to meet 2030 housing target - Central Bank Will we get a white Christmas? We speak to Alan O Reilly of Carlow Weather 10am-11am Occupied Territories Bill to be limited to goods Government U-Turn on promise to fix ‘dysfunctional' RSA means more people will die on our roads - according to Irish Road Haulage Association New research uncovers the psychological impact of home invasions 11am-12pm Galway man preparing to publish two children's book for Charity GBFM drop Christmas music video - West 17 join us in studio Sports review
Last week of the "normal" year as we present to you the penultimate episode of RSA for 2025. For those keeping track, this is episode #1367! The holiday obligations are plentiful, but I've budgeted enough time to get the show finished next week. I was actually surprised by a few tracks that I would have glanced over if I was choosing tracks visually. But listening to every show seems to always strike gold! Elektrostaub - Too Far From The Pack (diarBlack) cut.rate.box - Fireshine (Extended) DSTRTD SGNL & Talla 2XLC - Dreams (Dark Club) Dawn Of Ashes - Faith Desecration (Frontal Boundary) Pending Position - Immer Wenn Es Dunkel Ist Kartagon - Space (Future Lied To Us) Assemblage 23 - Last Zanias - Happy Endings http://synthetic.org/ https://www.youtube.com/@RealSyntheticAudio
PJ talks to Jonathan whose little fighter Evie-Mae faces Christmas in Crumlin, hears why hauliers are fuming the government backtracked on plans to end the RSA, chats to chef Rory O'Connell about making edible gifts for the holidays. And more... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this special, off-script episode of the Ranch Stewards Podcast, host Haylie Shipp flips the mic and interviews Megan Torgerson, founder and host of Reframing Rural, an award-winning documentary podcast that centers the voices and lived experiences of rural people and places. Now in its fourth season, Reframing Rural is focused on succession planning, an issue deeply important to ranching families and to the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance.Haylie and Megan talk about how Reframing Rural got started, Megan's background growing up on a farm in northeast Montana, and why rural stories are so often misunderstood or oversimplified in mainstream media. They also dig into the emotional realities of succession planning including family dynamics, communication, legacy, and the weight of passing the baton.Following the conversation, listeners are invited to hear Episode 1 of Season 4 of Reframing Rural, an intimate and powerful story featuring Howie Hammond and his daughter Andrea Lien near Malta, Montana. The Hammond family are longtime supporters of the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, and their story is one we hold especially dear.In This Episode You Will Hear:How Reframing Rural grew out of Megan's academic work and lived experienceWhat mainstream media often misses about agriculture and rural lifeThe real statistics and realities around farm and ranch successionWhy emotion, vulnerability, and storytelling are essential to succession conversationsThe diagnosis that accelerated the Hammond family's succession planningThe emotional weight of legal and financial meetings when time feels shortA daughter's fear of being the generation that loses the ranchWhy “equal is not always fair” and why the ranch has to come firstGuest BiosMegan Torgerson Megan is the founder and host of Reframing Rural, an award-winning documentary podcast sharing nuanced stories of rural people and places. She grew up on a farm and ranch near Dagmar, Montana, and began the podcast in 2019 to challenge oversimplified narratives about rural life. Reframing Rural is now in its fourth season.Howie Hammond Howie has farmed and ranched for more than 45 years in Montana's Milk River Valley near Malta. Alongside his wife JoAnn, he built a family operation spanning thousands of acres of rangeland and cropland. Following a rare muscle disease diagnosis, Howie became a vocal advocate for early succession planning and mentors families across Montana.Andrea Lien Andrea manages Hammond Ranch with her husband Wyatt and her parents Howie and JoAnn. After earning a business degree from Rocky Mountain College and working in finance, she returned home to continue her family's agricultural legacy.The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) is a rancher-led, grassroots organization, dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities throughout the Northern Great Plains. Through collaborative conservation projects, rancher education events, and local community outreach, RSA works to strengthen our rural community, economy, and culture for generations to come.For more on the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, head to www.RanchStewards.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Your feedback is always welcome. Email info@ranchstewards.org. Want to support our mission? Visit https://ranchstewards.charityproud.org/Donate.
Two men and a woman have died in separate road crashes in counties Limerick, Monaghan and Tipperary. Recently, we discussed the decision not to disband the RSA, but are we doing enough for road safety? We discussed further with Leo Leighio, Vice President of the Irish Road Victims Association.
Welcome to Season 2 of the Orthobullets Podcast.Today's show is CoinFlips, where expert speakers discuss grey zone decisions in orthopedic surgery. This episode will feature doctors Robert Gillespie, Evan Lederman, Christopher Klifto, & Peter Johnston. They will discuss the case titled "Recurrent Shoulder Instability s/p RSA in 72M."Follow Orthobullets on Social Media:FacebookInstagramTwitterLinkedInYouTube
Despite previous plans to do so, the Government has now announced that they will no longer be disbanding the RSA. Their original decision followed an independent external review, however their U-turn has left a number of groups disappointed, as they consider the organisation not fit for purpose.To discuss this further, Ciara is joined by Chairperson of road safety group PARC, Susan Grey, and Shane O'Donoghue, of Completecar.ie.
In this episode, Matt sits down with Economic Development Director Michael Scala and Chief Assessor Marybeth Walker to explore how Rochester uses RSA 79-E, a state program that offers tax incentives to developers who rehabilitate underutilized or blighted buildings. They discuss how the program works, the application and approval process, and its impact on downtown revitalization.
New figures show a sharp rise in drug-driving cases, with prosecutions up 37% nationally so far this year and a staggering 105% increase in Clare. More than 2,050 people have appeared before district courts for drug driving in the first ten months of 2025 alone — the highest level on record. 39 people before the Clare district court system on drug driving charges during that period. Ireland South Fianna Fáil MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú says these cases are just the tip of the iceberg and is calling for tougher enforcement and expanded roadside drug testing this Christmas. Alan Morrissey was joined by Cynthia Ní Mhurchú to discuss the growing dangers on our roads and what needs to be done to tackle it. Image (c) RSA.ie
Guest: Bruce Schneier Topics: Do you believe that AI is going to end up being a net improvement for defenders or attackers? Is short term vs long term different? We're excited about the new book you have coming out with your co-author Nathan Sanders "Rewiring Democracy". We want to ask the same question, but for society: do you think AI is going to end up helping the forces of liberal democracy, or the forces of corruption, illiberalism, and authoritarianism? If exploitation is always cheaper than patching (and attackers don't follow as many rules and procedures), do we have a chance here? If this requires pervasive and fast "humanless" automatic patching (kinda like what Chrome does for years), will this ever work for most organizations? Do defenders have to do the same and just discover and fix issues faster? Or can we use AI somehow differently? Does this make defense in depth more important? How do you see AI as changing how society develops and maintains trust? Resources: "Rewiring Democracy" book "Informacracy Trilogy" book Agentic AI's OODA Loop Problem EP255 Separating Hype from Hazard: The Truth About Autonomous AI Hacking AI and Trust AI and Data Integrity EP223 AI Addressable, Not AI Solvable: Reflections from RSA 2025 RSA 2025: AI's Promise vs. Security's Past — A Reality Check
Live from sunny California, Martin Hunt joins Matthew – who is live from cold, gloomy Birmingham. Martin is Principal Cornet of the Western Territory Staff Band, Songster Leader at Pasadena Tabernacle and works at Territorial Headquarters as Assistant Programme Secretary. Martin tells us about his early influences, why he moved to the USA and where his ultimate carolling gig would be!Staff Bandsman Jonathan Evans completes his in-depth look at RSA's masterpiece, ‘At the edge of time'.Major Ian Standley leaves cold, gloomy Birmingham for the hot and sunny Arid Island. Surely, being December, he's packed a Christmas album?Christmas Bandmastermind and Sparsely Scored complete another episode.Hosted by Matthew FrostProduced by Simon Gash Published by Music Editorial Audio extracts used with permission of SP&S Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode, host Kim Jones examines the rapid rise of enterprise AI and the tension between innovation and protection, sharing an RSA anecdote that highlights both excitement and concern. He outlines the benefits organizations hope to gain from AI while calling out often-overlooked risks like data quality, governance, and accountability. Kim is joined by technologist Tony Gauda to discuss why AI represents a fundamental shift in how systems and decisions are designed. Together, they explore AI-driven operations, cultural barriers to experimentation, and how CISOs can adopt AI responsibly without compromising security. Want more CISO Perspectives? Check out a companion blog post by our very own Ethan Cook, where he breaks down key insights, shares behind-the-scenes context, and highlights research that complements this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We hear from those affected across the country as well as Barry Kenny, Corporate Communications Manager with Irish Rail; Siobhan Wynne, Regional Manager at the ESB; David Martin of the RSA; and Blake Boland of Dublin Bus
After a week from hell, I did manage to spend most of my Friday night blissed out and listening to music for RSA. There's some really neat stuff in here this week, including an interesting cover. All tracks now are eligible for the best of 2026 next year. But I think I have about half of the anual year end show picked. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to email me! Spektralized - Strange Reactions Soman - The Killer DSTRTD SGNL & Talla 2XLC - Dreams (Club) Faderhead - We All Smile Here (Nothing's Fine) Assemblage 23 - Lunatics Pending Position - Starsign FragileChild - Another You SCALA - Den Sista Dansen (Peters Version) http://synthetic.org/ https://www.youtube.com/@RealSyntheticAudio
In this episode of the Ranch Stewards Podcast, we dig into the growing world of agritourism and how creative ideas can bring new opportunities to working lands. From educational offerings to niche on-the-ground experiences, agritourism is becoming an increasingly valuable way for farms and ranches to diversify and connect with visitors in meaningful ways.Guests Shannon Arnold and Tamara Robertson join the conversation to talk about what agritourism looks like in Montana today, how producers get started, and why interest in these kinds of enterprises continues to grow across farm and ranch country.GuestsDr. Shannon ArnoldProfessor of Extension and Non-Formal EducationMontana State UniversityA quiet powerhouse behind Montana's agritourism movement, Shannon has spent years building programs, gathering resources, and helping producers explore what's possible. Her work has opened the door for agritourism to grow statewide.Tamara RobertsonWandering AcresForsyth, MontanaTamara and her family run a cow-calf operation — and they added an unexpected twist: a niche flower farm that has grown into a unique agritourism experience in eastern Montana. Her story shows the creativity and adaptability that make agritourism so promising.What We Talk AboutWhat agritourism is and the wide range of activities it can includeAgritourism as an added revenue stream for working operationsReal producer perspectives on branching into agritourismWhy charging for experiences can feel uncomfortableInsurance considerations when welcoming visitors onto the landHow people discover agritourism businessesThe creation of the Montana Agritourism AssociationResources & LinksMontana Agritourism: MontanaAgritourism.comEnjoying the Show?Help us keep these conversations going:Share the podcast with friends, neighbors, and fellow land stewardsSubscribe so you don't miss future episodesLeave a rating or review to help others find the showThanks for listening and for being part of this community.The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) is a rancher-led, grassroots organization, dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities throughout the Northern Great Plains. Through collaborative conservation projects, rancher education events, and local community outreach, RSA works to strengthen our rural community, economy, and culture for generations to come.For more on the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, head to www.RanchStewards.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Your feedback is always welcome. Email info@ranchstewards.org. Want to support our mission? Visit https://ranchstewards.charityproud.org/Donate.
Manager Minute-brought to you by the VR Technical Assistance Center for Quality Management
In this powerful new episode of Manager Minute, host Carol Pankow sits down with renowned researcher and educator Dr. Jim Herbert to unpack one of the most urgent challenges in vocational rehabilitation today: counselor turnover and retention. Drawing from his brand-new national study on RSA-funded personnel, Jim breaks down the real factors that influence whether VR counselors intend to stay — or walk away. From organizational support and supervisor relationships to workload, generational values, and work–life balance, Jim reveals why retention is a "whole system issue," not a single-variable problem. He also shares bold, practical solutions for VR agencies, including flexible scheduling, paid internships, rehiring retirees, strengthening supervision practices, and his attention-grabbing recommendation of a 32-hour workweek at full pay. As a new partner with the VRTAC, Jim also previews upcoming national recruitment and retention initiatives — including a new toolkit for VR HR teams and direct clinical supervision work with a selected state VR agency. This is an episode every VR director, supervisor, and counselor needs to hear. Listen now and join the conversation about the future of the VR workforce. Listen Here Full Transcript: {Music} Jim: Supervisors play an understated but really critical role in the relationship with their counselors and how that contributes to them staying or leaving. What I suggested was moving to a four day, 32 hour workweek at the same pay. What are you doing to try to address this? What's working for you, and then be able to kind of put that in a toolkit or a resource? We want to share that nationwide. So I'm looking for a state VR agency of supervisors and say, yep, let's tangle with that academic from Penn State. Let's do it. {Music} Intro Voice: Manager Minute, brought to you by the Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center. Conversations powered by VR. One manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host, Carol Pankow. Carol: Well, welcome to the manager minute. Joining me in the studio today is Doctor Jim Herbert. Jim's a long time researcher, educator and advocate for the field of rehabilitation counseling, and I'm thrilled to share that he will also be working with us on the VRTAC grant in some exciting new recruitment and retention efforts. And today, we get to talk not only about Jim's earlier research on counselor turnover, but also his brand new national study on the long term effectiveness of RSA training and what predicts whether VR personnel intend to stay or leave. So, Jim, this makes me laugh to ask you this. How are things going in your retirement? Jim: That's right. Yes. As you know, I recently retired, quote unquote, effective July 1st. I'll just tell you that I'm in what they refer to as the honeymoon phase. So basically it's like, oh, I love it. So while I continue to do academic work, such as the project that we're working with you guys on, I'm really super busy with nonacademic projects like gardening and landscaping. And as you saw, we just got a new puppy who consumes quite a lot of my time, so it's going wonderful. Carol: I love it, I just have to chuckle because you are the busiest retired guy I know, so we were glad we could snag you. Jim: I'm glad to be snagged. Carol: That's awesome. So today we're going to dive into a topic that hits close to home for every VR professional. Why rehabilitation counselors leave the field, and what keeps others committed for the long haul. So let's start by imagining a counselor with a full caseload, endless paperwork, competing demands someone who came into this work to make a difference, but they're now struggling to stay motivated. What makes some counselors walk away while others find ways to stay the course? So let's dig into your work. So, Jim, what first drew you to studying counselor retention and turnover in VR? Jim: Well, as we'll discuss a little bit further, everything else in terms of VR and my work in VR, I have a long history and frankly, a long affection for state counsellors. 40 some years ago when I got into this field, I got to work with a lot of VR counselors and I have so much respect for them in the work that they do. And over the last couple of decades in particular, things are becoming increasingly more and more difficult. And so as we'll talk a little bit, maybe we can get into like your first questions about, well, which I think is a critical one, like, well, why is it that some counselors stay and why do others leave? And so, you know, when you look at that a little bit and feel free to interrupt me because, you know, many academicians, we tend to be a little bit long-winded. Carol: You're a talker, Jim. Jim: There you go. So, you know, when you look at it, it's really a combination of individual and situational factors. You know, when you ask counselors, well what attracted you to this? And I think people get drawn into the profession because they want to make a difference. They see people that need help and they feel like, hey, I'm in a position maybe I can offer support or direction and services can make a difference in their lives. So I think that's a big part of it. And then also as a result of that, why they get into that field, I think what happens is over the years, things start to change. They start thinking like, geez, you know what? I thought I got into this field, the job was going to be this way. And really now what I'm finding is it's not that way, or what happens is the thing that drew me in terms of the interaction with people and making the impact. I find myself spending more time with the documentation process and all the rules and regulations, and not as much time to really that I would like to having that one on one contact with people. So I think what happens is their job, their satisfaction changes as a function of kind of, you know, over that period. The other thing I'll just say to expand on why some people stay and why they walk away. I think one of the things in the beginning, especially with new counselors, their knowledge about the world of work and the job as a state VR counselor. They have a different understanding of what that's all involve. Okay. And one of the things that I think is important to, particularly those individuals, maybe in your audience who are thinking about being a rehab counselor, either switching in or pursuing training. One of the things that I try to stress with my students is make sure you get lots of experience. So while you're going to school and getting your education, do that volunteer work. Do a practicum. Do an internship with a state VR agency. I've said this a thousand, but certainly lots of times I'll say you'll learn more in the field from any lecture that I'm going to give or any rehab professor. So I think what happens with particularly newer counselors, they have a limited understanding about what is this job about and what do you need to do to be a successful rehab. So we only know what we know. So their expectations, I think they get a little disillusioned. A second thing though, as I said, the work of a VR counselor counselor's tough stuff. You know, you look at the research over the decades about things that impact rehab counselors decision and what is the things that they don't like. So lower salaries, comparison to other kind of counseling positions, high caseloads, the paperwork, lack of supervisory support, particularly in the area of clinical supervision. And we get a chance. I can talk about that a little bit further. There's also, I think, an incongruity between what a counselor has interest in their needs and what they're motivated by and what exists in the work environment. Those factors definitely contribute to work satisfaction. And the other thing we can talk about this in terms of our study, lack of autonomy, the inflexibility, you know, with work schedule and then obviously, you know, kind of personal reasons. So you've got all these factors that counselors have to have some resiliency to try to navigate all these kinds of challenges. And I think that's the key difference. What is it that counselor a can because they all have all these same challenges. Why is a say I can negotiate this whereas counselor B and I can't do that. And I think that probably over simplistic explanation is there is a resiliency for that. Counselors like I can take all of these and then I can look at yep, these are problems. But these other things still are important to me. And I can still kind of navigate that. And then the final thing, and I've become more and more aware of it over the last couple years, multi-generational workforce. So people are living longer. I mean, I, you know, I'm a baby boomer. I think technically I think I'm a late baby boomer, but so basically I'm ancient. But we have people, you have the Gen Z, and I think that's the group from 97 to 2012. You got the millennials born, you know, 81, 86. You got the Gen Xers and those when you talk with people from different generations. When I talk with my students who mostly the Gen Z millennial type. They have a different view about the world of work. And basically if I had and again, this I don't mean to stereotype, but I think there's some validity in this. And I have a son who's 28 years old and he'll say, dad, you work too damn hard. And so the thing is, is like what he's saying is, and I think others of his generation, there's more to life than work. And so when I look at work, while that's important, I don't have the same kind of importance necessary that you might attach to it. And in fact, what I'm really looking for is a better balance, work life balance. And this is where state VR agencies, I think, kind of fall down because we need to kind of how do we kind of create that better balance so that we have, particularly the younger ones who we invest a lot of money, effort, we want to retain them. We don't want to lose them. So that's probably more than what you wanted. Carol: It's all good. I have a 28 year old son, too, and we just had this conversation yesterday about work life balance, and I just said how lucky he was to work for a company coming right out of college where he was getting five weeks of vacation a year. Jim: Yes. Carol: And I talked to him like when I first started my first five years with the state. You got two weeks? Yeah. And it wasn't until five years you got a little more. And now you can get, like, two and a half or something. It was something horrible like that. But that view that this generation has, it is I think it's healthier, actually, than what we all did. We just put up with some pretty miserable. Yes. Working situations? Jim: Yes. Absolutely. You're correct. Carol: Can you walk us through the big picture, what your study set out to understand and why it's so important right now? Jim: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like your phrase of the big picture. So let me see if I can cut to the chase. Maybe. And so I mentioned a little bit earlier that my work began here a couple of years ago as a result of kind of a pilot study. But basically I was interested because RSA provides a lot of funding for people trying to work as rehab counselors. But my pilot study about 4 or 5 years ago. So the big picture, to put it simply, is we got to do a better job of screening people who are interested in doing this work. And once we do that, we have to do everything we can to make sure that they continue in that. So my research basically is trying to well, let's dive into that and figure out why is it who stays and who leaves. Carol: So what did your research reveal about the biggest factors that predict whether the counselor stays or leaves? Jim: Yeah, yeah. All right. Now this one's going to be a little bit more detail a little bit more, uh, hopefully not convoluted. Carol: For lay people Jim Lay people. Jim: Yes. That's right. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. So without diving too much in statistical models and all that kind of stuff, basically what we were trying to figure out is this if we ask a rehab counselor, are you planning to stay for the next 12 months. Are you planning to leave? So we use that as kind of. Our big question is who's likely to say yes, I'm planning to stay or no, I'm planning to leave in 12 months. So we developed based on the literature that we saw, a hypothetical model that we said essentially this the amount that an organization supports their employees. So what is it that in this case, what is it that the state VR agency does that is designed not only to benefit the organization but also benefit the worker. So providing them with a decent salary, benefits, training, the opportunity for telework, telecommuting, flexible work hours, greater contact with clients. So we said, okay, well, that we know from the literature that seems to be kind of an important component. We also know from and this is work that I've done over the last couple of decades, supervisors play, in my opinion, an understated but really critical role in the relationship with their counselors and how that contributes to them staying or leaving. And so the degree and type of supervisor support we felt, well, that will impact the employees perception of their jobs, whether they like their jobs, the career opportunities that exist within the agencies, and help them develop the skills that they'll need to grow to move on. So you've got supervisor support, you've got organizational career support. But we said, well, are there any other things? How does that kind of impact. And what we found was, well, we know that if you have a I'll just say for lack of a better simplified way to look at it, a supportive work culture that includes, you know, the supervisor that we know that that can impact the counselors hopefulness about their jobs and the level of engagement that they have. So the degree of vigor, if you will, the dedication that the worker performs, which also impacts job satisfaction. So our conceptual model basically says, well, if we could understand the complex relationship between all of the kinds of organizational supports of which there are many and we haven't identified, but just using that general term, the perceptions of how our individual council feels that they're doing in that job, the degree of satisfaction they get from it, and the amount of supervision, the level type of supervision supervisor provides. If all those factors are positive, if you will, they're more likely to stay as opposed to if they find the organization not supportive. They don't have a supervisor who's supportive, they don't feel engaged in the work that they do. So that's basically kind of what our model and what we found was that that combination of Organization support being hopeful about the job that I do. Having a supportive supervisor that promotes work engagement. Let me just use this analogy. If I had a pizza pie that said, this pizza pie represents all of people's intention to leave. Okay, well, what I just said that was if you have good support, organization supervisor, you're engaged. Half of that pizza pie is attributed to those factors. So that's a lot of pizza. All right. That's a big part of it. So what that means is if we think about for state VR agencies, what is it that we do as an organization that tries to promote that kind of support? What do we do in terms of our supervisors that are engaging with their councils and provide that kind of support? If we can take a look at those factors, then we're more likely for those counselors say, you know what, I'm going to stick around. Carol: So did you have any findings that surprised you? Jim: Yeah, there were a couple of things. One of the things I know we're talking about state voc rehab. Our study of 1000 rehab counselors did not only address state VR, but also those in private for practice proprietary public nonprofit agencies and facilities. We also looked at counselors and administrators. So we're kind of interested in, well, is the intent to leave the same regardless of what your job title? In other words, does a counselor sort of have a different kind of intent than a supervisor, than an administrator? And we're also interested in well, does a counselor's intent vary as a function of the work settings? So in other words, our state VR counsel is more likely to express an intent to leave than those in private for practice rehab or nonprofit rehab. And basically what we found was when you look at all those outcome variables that we talked about work engagement, career support, job satisfaction, supervisor support, reasons for leaving, reasons for staying. When we look at that, what we found, and this was somewhat surprising to me, we found that there's really no difference whether across setting or job type. So in other words, the factors that motivate someone to stay or to leave are pretty much the same, regardless of your work setting or your job title. So that to me was a little bit surprising, because in my conversations and talking with counselors at various settings, somehow I always, I guess going into this truthfully, I was expecting that there would be a difference and particularly be more dissatisfaction with state VR than the other settings. And what we found was that's not the case. So the reasons for staying or leaving are essentially the same across settings and work title. So I just raised this finding because I think state VR unfairly receives criticism that their work environments particularly challenging and trying to retain workers. So I'll just say that every work setting has its own unique aspects to it. Carol: Yeah, the grass is not always greener. You always think that. And I have found over time, like working with people where you have that grass is greener mentality. No matter where they go, they always run into the same issues, no matter where they've changed the job. There's some people I've known for several decades who have always been kind of unhappy in the current setting, and they go to the new one and they're happy for a hot minute, but then they're unhappy there, too. So it's kind of more about them and whatever they're bringing to that or how they relate to those new jobs. It's so interesting. That strikes me as an interesting finding. Jim: Yeah, a lot of this was gleaned from interactions and stories and things that I heard from counselors, like, why do you stay? Why do you leave? And again, to me it's just amazing Easing that the similarity that exists. So clearly, while there's some nuances that, you know, a counselor will complain about large caseloads or noncompetitive salaries, limited schedule and flexibility, those kinds of things. One of the things that while there are some differences in terms as you move up the career ladder, if you will, as an administrator, maybe a little bit different, but the role of the supervisor, I think this was another thing that was a little bit I kind of knew, but it really reinforced it was how important their role is in contributing to the work climate of the counselor. And like I've said to the supervisors, and I've trained a lot of folks across the country, counselor job is tough. Supervisor's job is way tough because they have a lot of times. And what's happening now with the vacancies, the supervisors are now asked to pick up caseloads of counselors. So not only do they have to do the job of managing 5 to 10 counselors, now they have components, so it makes it really difficult. And I think when I listen to the stories, those are the things that kind of like really strike me as unfortunately, I think just getting tougher and tougher each year. Carol: 100%, kind of in reading some of your information and you go, okay, yeah. You think the counselor, all right, now they're going to be the supervisor. And it's going to be better and easier somehow easier. And it's not like they just realize how exponentially the job gets so much tougher. It doesn't necessarily get better. You might get paid a little more as you move up the food chain, but the work gets more complex, and then you're dealing with all the people part of the job. Jim: Absolutely. And you really hit it on. An important part is that unfortunately, most super like I do training in clinical supervision. So basically I train supervisors how to help their counselors become better counselors and the relationship they have with their clients. But what you find is, I'd say 99% of the supervisors that I've worked with, what do they know about clinical supervision? And, well, really not too much. And well, why is that? Because they didn't get that in their training. So they'll get all about the administrative components, the policies and procedures. And that's important. But how do you help your counselor with the relationship that they have with their individual customers? That relationship is so critical because if that relationship isn't positive, you're going to have a poor voc rehab outcome. Carol: Well, and those supervisors may have also not been you know, they didn't get any sort of clinical supervision when they were a counselor, so they moved to supervisor. It's not like they magically had that appear somewhere, right? So they don't have no frame of reference on how to even do that. Jim: Yeah, you're absolutely correct. Carol: So I know you stated, so some VR counselors, the state VR counselors, you know, they report more stress and paperwork, but yet they still find satisfaction in stay. So what distinguishes that? Like what distinguishes those who stay from those who leave. Jim: Yeah, yeah. Well, this gets to the earlier thing. We were kind of talking a little bit about the issue about resiliency, the issue about when the stresses of the job, when things are happening, sometimes will happen. Counselors will kind of take that on and they pay kind of a high emotional price, the investment with that. And so it's the counselor who can kind of keep that in check, cannot sort of internalize that. I can still do good work. Yes. It would be nice if I had lower case loads. Yes, it'd be nice if I got more money. Yes, it would be nice if this and that changed. So I think we talked a little bit about this earlier, but I think what really kind of differentiates those two counselors is just that ability to not kind of internalize that and as a result, still able to kind of negotiate the things that are necessary to move the client forward. Because if you kind of take all this in, you know, you go home at the end of the day, you're just kind of wiped. And so that's really to me, kind of a key component. Carol: Do you think that's something that can be taught like, or is that kind of how people are? That's the thing I wonder, like, Can you really teach someone how to, like, not get so emotionally involved into the situation? I mean, I suppose there's some techniques or something, but yeah, it might very well be just kind of the person you are and how you respond to things around you just in your life overall. Jim: Right. Yeah, that's a good point. And some would certainly say, and there's something to be said, sort of the nature nurture environment kind of issue. Yeah. There's clearly people that in terms of just kind of their makeup, this is how they, you know, they just they see the world half full, the glass is half full. I had a clerical person years and was the most upbeat. In fact, I used to call her Susie Sunshine. It's like no matter what, she just didn't get down. And I thought, is this for real? Are you on some sort of happy? What's this all about? So that's there's a part of that. But yes, it can be taught. And so a lot of it is, you know, in terms of our behaviors as well, how's that influence its influence in our thinking. So you can get very catastrophic. Like, you know, I got a caseload of 150. I'm stressed. You know, I can't get to all my clients. And, you know, I should be able to, you know, answer them within a 24 hour period. And if somebody asks to see me, I should be. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of things that you should. And yes, it would be nice, but you have to kind of ask yourself, given the resources that I have, I have to be realistic about this. And so it sounds maybe a little trite, but in some ways it's kind of like, you know, you got to cut yourself some slack. You have to kind of say, yes, if I had 25 clients, yes, life would be different, but I don't. Sometimes you can explain this to your consumers and sometimes, yeah, they get it. In other cases it's not. But you can't let that define who you are because if you do, you're setting yourself up for unrealistic expectations which aren't going to be fulfilled. So you're going to be kind of frustrated and yeah, probably leave the organization. You know, I was like, hey, this isn't for me. Carol: So it's really a practice thing. I mean, it's probably a time thing and a practice to kind. Jim: Of has to be. Yeah, it has to be intentional. And this is where in terms of a good supervisor working with the council, it's like, you know, boy, you seem kind of, you know, really stressed. What's that about? What's going on. What's the belief system that you're operating from. What are your expectations you're placing on yourself? And sometimes it seems so obvious to the outsider. And I can just say in my own personal life, I mean, how many times is like, you know, hey, this is really obvious to somebody else. she's new news to me. Carol: Yeah. Jim: sometimes. Yeah. You gotta have that outside perspective to kind of like, let's take a look about what? What are those messages you're telling yourself? And are they realistic? Carol: Right. What do you think are the most actionable steps that VR agencies can take right now? Jim: Well, I wanted to give a shout out to a couple scholars. Yes, I've done some work in this. Doctor Landon from Utah State has done some work in this. Doctor Wu from northeastern Illinois, doctor McFarland from San Diego State. Yes, I know Fred's retired, but you know his legacy. So besides my own work, those folks, if you look at some of their work and my work and the team that I've worked with, there's a couple things. And this is like a long, long list because I started kind of writing a few things out here. The obvious thing is offer competitive salaries, but given the historical and current climate, it doesn't bode well for states are going to say, oh, we're going to increase your budget by 15% or 20%, which would allow you to hire more counselors at a competitive rate. So with that being said, I proposed at a CSAVR conference a couple years ago what seemed to be kind of a radical recommendation. Let me start with the most radical thing first, and then we'll get into some other. So the radical thing that I proposed was I recommended that we move from a five day to a four day workweek. Now, I'm not talking about 40 hours, ten hours a day, four days of work. Because remember, we're talking about the culture and the climate. So working those extra two hours every day is like, well, yeah, I'd have a day off, but is that really going to be meaningful? So given that states a lot of times don't have as much influence in their budget, what I suggested was moving to a four day, 32 hour workweek at the same pay. Now, I can imagine some of you... Carol: Heads blew up, They did, yeah. Jim: Yeah. That's right. Yeah, exactly. Like, who is this academic? What the heck does he know? So before you discount that, let me just kind of invite those that might push back on that and say, well, just for a moment, just indulge me. Just say like, well, let's just say if we did that. Okay. Well, first off, I would offer that the average work week, I think, for most state VR counselors is 37.5, so it's not really technically 40 hours of work. You'll remember my earlier comments about the younger generational workers. They want to see that kind of work life balance. So having greater time to devote to myself, my family, recreation, other pursuits, those become increasingly important. And again, I'll just offer this. We didn't talk about this as a result in the study, but if you need any further evidence of the support for this recommendation, one of the research questions that we asked an ancillary one, but we basically asked them about what are your thoughts or feelings about a 32 hour workweek? And we looked at intent to leave and surprise, surprise, yeah, that was a significant predictor in terms of yeah, that would cause me to stay. All right. Let's unpack this a little bit further. I would offer to the State Council because again, we know what we know. We've always been 40 hours a week. And as I talked at the conference and I wrote in a Journal of Rehab article, you know, before the work week used to be 50, 60 hours a week, that was normal. You work Saturdays. All right. And it wasn't until Henry Ford said, you know what? Maybe we gotta rethink this thing. And, you know, he was proposing. Let's move to a 40 hour. Well, that was just heresy, because we just knew what we knew. So when we asked counselors and supervisors how much of an impact a 32 hour work week with no salary reduction, 75% of counselors and supervisors say that has a significant or very significant influence in me remaining on their jobs. My thought is, given we're not going to get more tip, most likely not a whole influx in terms of additional revenue for states. What can we control? Is this something that we can control? So that's like my radical. Okay. Carol: Yeah. You're Henry Ford now Jim. Jim: Yeah, I'm Henry Ford. Carol: I love it, I love it. Jim: I wish I was, at least I wish I was. I wish I was a descendant of Henry. so a less controversial recommendation. And frankly, it's funny because I see us kind of going back now and not in a good way. State VR agencies, while they offer telework, there are more and more state VR agencies are kind of like, well, let's get back to the good old days. Well, first off, I'm not sure that was kind of the good old days. I mean, clearly the pandemic contributed to a major societal change about rethinking about our work schedule. Before that, if council said, hey, I'd like to stay at home for about three days a week and do my work. They'd say, that ain't happening. And so actually, what we find is, yes, you can do this job from home. And, you know, we have the markers, the accountability in terms of our statuses and, you know, the progress that you're making. So I mean, that's the bottom line. Are you getting closed successful rehabilitations with your clients. But now kind of what's happening is that we seems, at least what I've heard through talking with counselors and supervisors throughout the United States is there seems to be kind of a return of offering on site rehabilitation services. You know, that's something that I would ask us to really kind of take a look at that, and not only in terms of the telework, but let's think about the work flexibility. How often do we offer our counselors part time work or even evening hours? A lot of people retiring. That's a tremendous amount of experience that's going out the door. And you just wonder sometimes like, okay, so you want to retire. Great. Wonderful. But well, it's kind of like that's kind of what happened. Carol: That's what happened to you, Jim. Jim: That's right. So then the thing is kind of say, well, what if you work part time? What if you work X amount of hours a day or a week or whatever? So rehiring maybe recently retired workers. And again, let's focus on those that had proven track records. So, hey, they're a great rehab counselors and, yeah, we'd like to have them back. That's something could be done. Another thing that I think that could be done, and we used to do this in Pennsylvania, and unfortunately, it's at least as far as I know, we're not currently doing it. And if we are. My apologies to Povor, but provide paid internships and if possible, offer employee benefits to graduate students who complete their clinical internships with the state VR agency. And the great thing about this from a state VR, you get to see, you know, when you interview and screen, a candidate, maybe you spend an hour or two with them. That's a lot different from seeing somebody five days a week over a, you know, five, six month period. You got a lot of information about this person. And also you have then kind of a buy in from them like, yeah, this gives me some idea about what this job is all about. So you know, doing that and I know in Pennsylvania historically, they would hold back some of their training dollars to help kind of support that. Maybe that's something could we look at? If we do? Just a little ancillary comment I'd make. Students graduate in May, August and December. So if you can somehow when you know, like, okay, we're going to have a vacancy, it'd be wonderful if you can kind of coordinate that with the times they graduate. So if, you know, for example, someone's going to retire and maybe they're going to retire in May rather than waiting May to start that job search, maybe start that job search March or April. And then because of the two months, oftentimes it takes to go through the screening and all the documentation and all that, then you can kind of coincide that, you know, and target it with those dates. Because I've had a number of students say, yeah, I'd like to work for the state VR, but I'm not waiting around 2 or 3 months. I need to get a job. I need to start making some money. So related to that, another recommendation I have is and some states are doing this trying to reexamine their screening procedure. So let's take a look and say look, what can we do to reduce the time between when we know a vacancy exists and the time of hire. So, as I said, most people, whether you're a student or not, unless you're currently working, you can't wait for 2 or 3 months. Other things that they could do is, you know, we talked earlier about the importance of the work climate. You know, we've got to monitor that. So we said that one's intention to leave that's mitigated based on whether the counselor feels they're engaged in that process. So that's an important predictor. And as it relates to that specific variable it's about 40%. Well that's a big deal. So the message is if I feel engaged in this process I'm more likely, more likely to stay. So we talked also about the role of the supervisor and how a lot of supervisors, unfortunately, while they do really great on the administrative components, the clinical components, the sit down with the counselor and let's take a look at your relationships with your clients and what I can do to try to help you to have a good, effective working relationship because I know if the counselor has that relationship with you, they're going to be more likely to get successful rehab. So constant assessment about what's going on now, how can we do that better? And, you know, through maybe stay interviews or, or even exit interviews to find out what did we do wrong. Is there anything we could do better? It's difficult because we have to be able to hear kind of things that maybe we don't like to hear. Carol: We don't like to hear. Jim: Yeah. And as you know, that's kind of a big part of where we're going in terms of my work with you guys. Carol: Yes. So on that note, you are going to be working with the new VRTAC and some recruitment retention pieces. So you want to talk a little bit about that. What that works going to look like. Jim: Yeah yeah yeah. And you know sometimes somebody said yes I'm very excited. And no you're not. No I actually I am very excited about this work and I really feel very fortunate. You guys offer me the opportunity to partner with you. So building on some of the stuff, we talked a little bit about, one of the things that we plan to do is develop this toolkit. And basically what that means is we're hoping to provide a resource for human resource managers, in particular, who work in the state VR program to try to help them and also state VR leadership teams, but also to help them address kind of the recruitment and retention problems that have been so well documented over the years. So I've begun looking at some of the existing literature as a way to kind of framework. Okay, so we've talked about a lot of this already. What is it that predicts who's going to stay? Who's going to leave? We haven't talked too much about the recruitment aspect, but that's another thing that we're going to address to say, okay, what do we know already in terms of the literature? But that's only a part of it. And the other thing that I'm really kind of excited about is the opportunity to work with the HR Resource Professional Group, professional teams. John Walsh I know has been involved with that as well. And basically what I'm hoping to do is because I know when you talk with states leadership team, sometimes a state will be doing something. I'm getting excited. Just kind of talk about I can't even get my words out. They'll be doing something you think, man, you know, that is really cool. That's a great idea. Yeah. I wonder how nobody else, you know, knows about that. So it's amazing to me kind of the creativity that people have, but they just don't know about it. And so what I'm hoping to do is engage in a series of kind of focus groups, questions that gets to that, like not just what are the problems. I think we have a pretty good handle on that. But then what solutions? What are you doing to try to address this, what's working for you, and then be able to kind of put that in a toolkit or a resource that all states can use. So from the collective experiences from the various state VR agencies, we want to share that nationwide. And if everything goes according to plan, we're hoping to have that available in about a year, I think. Carol: Yeah, a little less than a year. Jim: Oh, a little. Carol: Okay, a little less Jim. Let's see. Jim: Okay. Carol: Reining it in. Jim: Yes, yes. Carol: And then the other fun thing, you'll get to work with a state. Jim: That's right. Thank you. The other component I've done clinical supervision training for about 12 different states. And I've met with each over the last probably 15 years. Each time I do it, I refine it a little better, a little better. And so I think I've got things down pretty good now. So I'm really interested now to work with the state to try to help their supervisors to work more effectively with their counselors, and in particular, how can I help supervisors to help their counselors become more effective as a counselor? And I have four kind of group supervision approaches that I know from. My research has proven pretty effective. So I'm looking for a state VR agency of supervisor and say, yep, let's tangle with that academic from Penn State. Let's do it. So that's the other component to it as well. Yes. Carol: Yeah, we're really excited about that work. So Jim, thanks again for joining us on the manager minute. I really appreciate you being here. And for our listeners, if Jim has said something that is sparking your interest, especially with some work he's going to do with the VRTAC, please do reach out to us if you are interested in that for your agency. And until next time, everyone keep doing the great work that changes lives. Appreciate you. Have a great day! {Music} Outro Voice: Conversations powered by VR. One manager at a time. One minute at a time. Brought to you by the VRTAC. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening.
The 2025 RDI address will be delivered by incoming Master Johanna Gibbons RDI, founding partner of J&L Gibbons and founding director of Landscape Learn.Johanna is a Landscape Architect, Founding Partner of J&L Gibbons established in 1986 and Founding Director of social enterprise Landscape Learn. She studied at Edinburgh College of Art and is a Fellow of the Landscape Institute and the RSA, and a Research Partner of Urban Mind with Kings College London with an international profile as design panellist, juror and speaker.Jo was awarded Royal Designer for Industry in 2019 for her ‘pioneering and influential work combining design with activism, education and professional practice'. She is respected for routinely and seamlessly incorporating ecology, organismal biology, urban planning, conservation, community organising, the arts, and pedagogy, being driven by a keen awareness of climate change, biodiversity loss, and social need.Her many award-winning, collaborative and innovative designs span over four decades of practice, mostly within the cultural and public realm sector. They range from urban regeneration, heritage and estate planning to artist collaboration and the landscapes of cathedrals and museums, including the Natural History Museum London, Inger Munch Pier Oslo, Horniman Museum and Gardens, St Albans Cathedral and The British Library.Prior to the Address, 5 new Royal Designers for Industry (RDI) and 2 new Honorary Royal Designers for Industry will be welcomed to the Faculty.The title ‘Royal Designer for Industry' is awarded annually by the RSA to designers of all disciplines who have achieved sustained design excellence, work of aesthetic value and significant benefit to society.The RDI is the highest accolade for designers in the UK. Only 200 designers can hold the title. Non-UK designers may become honorary Royal Designers.The ‘Royal Designers' are responsible for designing the world around us, enriching our cultural heritage, driving innovation, inspiring creativity in others and improving our quality of life.Speakers:Johanna Gibbons RDI, founding partner of J&L Gibbons and founding director of Landscape LearnCharlie Paton RDI, founder and director of Seawater Greenhouse Ltd and RDI MasterChair:Sir Loyd Grossman CBE, chair of trustees, RSADonate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEaBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembFollow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYUJoin our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
This weekend I get to play SysAdmin as my homelab (which stores all of my RSA material) had a disk failure in one of my servers. It's all parity protected, but I'm spending a good 20 hours moving data off another disk that I'm kinda suspicious of. If anyone wants to donate a stack of 16TB SATA drives to me, I wouldn't say no at this point. But because I have lost data in the distant past, I've already learned my lesson. But this doesn't directly affect RSA at all, as we've got a great show for everyone. A higher tempo than usual, but the first track I selected was 150 bpm(!), that sets the tone for the rest of the show! Zanias - Human Prometheus Flame - March On Blaze Vexillary - Kill Shot Seelennacht - Grey Apartment Show Faderhead - Cold Chrome Exsequor - Asymmetric War Phaser One - Rise From Within (Larcon) DSTRTD_SGNL - Zick Zack http://synthetic.org/ https://www.youtube.com/@RealSyntheticAudio
Cyberattacks against U.S. government employees surged by 85% during the recent government shutdown, with projections estimating over 555 million attacks by the end of November 2025. These attacks, characterized as targeted digital assaults rather than generic phishing attempts, exploit vulnerabilities during periods of financial stress, particularly affecting essential employees in agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Justice. Experts warn that the implications of these cyber threats extend beyond immediate breaches, potentially undermining recruitment and trust in government institutions.In a related development, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to remove several cybersecurity regulations established after breaches by Chinese hackers targeting major telecommunications companies. This decision, made along party lines, reverses requirements for telecoms to enhance cybersecurity measures and submit annual risk management certifications. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr argued that voluntary efforts from carriers would be more effective, despite concerns from Democratic lawmakers about increased public vulnerability. Additionally, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dismissed its case against SolarWinds Corporation, which had been accused of failing to disclose vulnerabilities related to the 2020 Sunburst attack.The episode also highlights the growing complexity in the technology landscape, with vendors rolling out new identity tools and autonomous agents that increase operational challenges for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). OpenAI introduced group chats in ChatGPT, enhancing collaborative capabilities, while RSA launched RSA ID Plus for Microsoft, aimed at improving security in regulated sectors. TeamViewer unveiled TIA, an intelligent agent for autonomous IT support, and Sophos integrated its services with Microsoft Security Suite, further complicating the identity management landscape.For MSPs and IT service leaders, the key takeaway is the need to establish a clear identity baseline and governance model amidst a rapidly evolving threat landscape and regulatory environment. As cyber threats become more targeted and regulations loosen, MSPs must proactively define their security standards and operational strategies. The increasing fragmentation of identity solutions and the rise of autonomous agents necessitate a focus on risk management and operational clarity to maintain client trust and ensure effective service delivery. Three things to know today 00:00 Targeted Federal Cyberattacks Surge as FCC Rolls Back Telecom Rules and SEC Ends SolarWinds Case, Leaving MSPs to Fill the Governance Gap05:42 Identity Wars, Agent Sprawl, and Rising Collaboration Expectations Put New Pressure on MSP Governance10:42 AI Isn't Just a Tool Anymore — It's Reshaping MSPs, Risk Strategy, and the Future of Agent MarketplacesThis is the Business of Tech. Supported by: https://saasalerts.com/mspradio/
As the Government looks to appoint a new Freelance Champion for the creative industries we delve into the findings of the latest State of the Nations report from Creative PEC on Arts, Culture and Heritage workforce.Dr Mark Taylor will unveil the findings and plot the freelancer journey in the creative industries. A panel of guests including Yasmin Khan, Director for Individual Practitioners, Arts Council England, Philippa Childs, Deputy General Secretary, of the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union, Amy Tarr, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Creative UK, and Alexander Jacob, freelance television director, will explore how creative freelancers can be better supported and what the priorities should be for the new government champion. Chaired by Bernard Hay, Head of Policy, Creative PEC. Followed by Q&A and soft drinks reception.The new State of the Nations report, Who stays and who leaves?: Mapping arts, culture and heritage careers, will be released and available to download on the day.The Creative PEC is funded by the AHRC and led by Newcastle University with the RSA.Speakers:Speakers:Yasmin Khan, Director for Individual Practitioners, Arts Council EnglandPhilippa Childs, Head of BectuAmy Tarr, Associate Director, Policy & Research, Creative UKDr Mark Taylor, Research Lead for Arts, Culture and Heritage at Creative PEC, and Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Methods, University of SheffieldAlexander Jacob, Freelance television directorChair:Bernard Hay, Head of Policy, Creative PECDonate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEaBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembFollow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYUJoin our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
Guests: Alexander Pabst, Deputy Group CISO, Allianz Lars Koenig, Global Head of D&R, Allianz Topics: Moving from traditional SIEM to an agentic SOC model, especially in a heavily regulated insurer, is a massive undertaking. What did the collaboration model with your vendor look like? Agentic AI introduces a new layer of risk - that of unconstrained or unintended autonomous action. In the context of Allianz, how did you establish the governance framework for the SOC alert triage agents? Where did you draw the line between fully automated action and the mandatory "human-in-the-loop" for investigation or response? Agentic triage is only as good as the data it analyzes. From your perspective, what were the biggest challenges - and wins - in ensuring the data fidelity, freshness, and completeness in your SIEM to fuel reliable agent decisions? We've been talking about SOC automation for years, but this agentic wave feels different. As a deputy CISO, what was your primary, non-negotiable goal for the agent? Was it purely Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) reduction, or was the bigger strategic prize to fundamentally re-skill and uplevel your Tier 2/3 analysts by removing the low-value alert noise? As you built this out, were there any surprises along the way that left you shaking your head or laughing at the unexpected AI behaviors? We felt a major lack of proof - Anton kept asking for pudding - that any of the agentic SOC vendors we saw at RSA had actually achieved anything beyond hype! When it comes to your org, how are you measuring agent success? What are the key metrics you are using right now? Resources: EP238 Google Lessons for Using AI Agents for Securing Our Enterprise EP242 The AI SOC: Is This The Automation We've Been Waiting For? EP249 Data First: What Really Makes Your SOC 'AI Ready'? EP236 Accelerated SIEM Journey: A SOC Leader's Playbook for Modernization and AI "Simple to Ask: Is Your SOC AI Ready? Not Simple to Answer!" blog "How Google Does It: Building AI agents for cybersecurity and defense" blog Company annual report to look for risk "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie "Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?" book
On today's Strategy Series program, sponsored by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Lt. Gen. Dave Bassett, USA Ret., the former director of the Defense Contract Management Agency who is now a senior counselor at the Cohen Group, former Pentagon industrial base chief Steve Grundman now with the Atlantic Council and Executive in Residence at the RSA consultancy, and Dr. Jerry McGinn, a former deputy industrial base chief who now leads the Center for the Industrial Base at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, join Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to discuss Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's sweeping drive to revamp the Pentagon's acquisition architecture to accelerate the fielding of capabilities that address operational problems, adopt more commercial products that address military needs, scale production of weapons and systems, and increase sales to allies and partners.
Markets got the treat they were waiting for with a Fed rate cut and pause on quantitative tightening, but prices still fell. Why? This week, Ryan and David break down why the markets got spooked, what Powell really said about December cuts, and what it means heading into November. We also cover MegaETH's oversubscribed ICO, Monad's airdrop, Polymarket's confirmed token, and JP Morgan's $34B Base token estimate. Plus Solana's new ETF, Western Union's stablecoin, Circle's controversial L1 launch, the X402 payment boom, and the latest on Consensys and Securitize IPOs. ------
Downtober drags on… but not all is bearish. On this week's Weekly Rollup, Ryan and David break down why sentiment feels cold despite strong BTC, and the three ways this cycle could play out. Plus, gold is ripping! Can crypto catch up? We also cover Dankrad's jump to Tempo, Coinbase's Echo deal, Polymarket's NHL play, the Fed's potential FedWire opening, and the AI trading showdown. ------
Jessica reports LIVE from Jakarta on all the details from day two of women's podium training. World Championships Headquarters Videos, Interviews, Podcasts, Fantasy, Guides Extended Episode + Live Q&A (Members) +30 extra minutes of analysis, behind-the-scenes secret stories, plus member questions. Here's how to ask questions live. Can't make it live? Add Club bonus episodes to your favorite podcast player (instructions here). Chapters 00:00 – Show Intro 01:02 – Zhang Qingying beam world champion prediction 03:00 – FIG Press Conference recap: AI D-scores and visa issue 08:40 – Spencer's updates: where to watch & fantasy game deadlines 11:45 – U.S. Women's Team podium training report (Josc, Skye, Dulcy, Leanne) 17:20 – Can Josc vault? Exclusive Olympic Channel interview 19:45 – Equipment update: white mats and “China mat overlay” 22:10 – Mixed Zone highlights (Malabuyo, South Africa, Asia's coach impression) 25:05 – Italy updates: Perotti, Asia D'Amato, Fioravanti AA potential 29:45 – Melnikova and Russia (AIN) podium impressions 31:30 – Flavia Saraiva's 10.0 leotard and Brazilian updates 33:10 – Funniest & coolest skills of the day (Chile, India, Portugal) 33:55 – BTS Teaser begins 34:00 – Embarrassing moments & Watanabe press conference story 36:40 – Beam fall hilarity (NZL gymnast) 38:15 – Opposite of Canadian medical intervention 40:00 – The great Indonesian tampon saga 42:25 – Sub 4: NZL, LIE, USA, CRO, BAN, GBR, POL 45:10 – Ruby Evans Amanar, GB bars, Alia Leat injury update 47:05 – Sub 5: MAS, SUI, ITA, FRA, VIE, ISL, MAR 49:00 – Thelma's floor, Osyssek's beam, Ming Van Eijken vaults 51:05 – Sub 6: AUS, EGY, BEL, LAT, ROU, MGL, SWE, CRC 53:00 – Voinea full Gothic mode, Golgota AA, Romanian updates 56:20 – Sub 7: INA, TUN, COL, PHI, MEX, SYR 58:00 – Finnegan & Malabuyo AA, Seema Tello debut 1:00:10 – Sub 8: NOR, BRA, QAT, IND, RSA, CHI 1:02:15 – Flavia & Brazil updates, Rooskrantz, Chilean grandmas 1:05:00 – Sub 9: AIN, NAM, POR, THA, BUL, SLO, CMR 1:07:25 – Melnikova Cheng, Cameroon floor joy, AIN medal watch 1:10:10 – Sub 10: ESP, AIN, HUN, HKG, CHN, KZN, CZE 1:12:25 – Zhou Yaqin & Zhang Qingying on beam, Deng Yalan vault 1:15:30 – Alba Petisco all-around standout 1:17:10 – Feedback: listener comments from Dr. Ben & Absolutely Not 1:21:20 – Show Close: Women's qualifying preview & thanks How Do I Watch the Competition? All sessions of the competition will be streamed on Eurovision Sport. Follow along here! Gymnastics Indonesia's YouTube channel will stream all qualification sessions Live scores from the FIG and Swiss Timing Check out NBC's behind-the-scenes mini-doc on the US Women's World Trials Headlines What happened at podium training today? Should we be worried about the US women? From the Olympic Channel: Joscelyn Roberson has been struggling to "find her block" on vault Skye's HUGE front-handspring front on beam Who else from Florida came to join the 2025 World Championships party? Giulia Perotti (Italy) looks ready to win all the medals Who will be the second Italian competing all-around? The D'Amato vs. Fioravanti dilemma Angelina Melnikova is so back How did her vaults look? WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT BRAZIL'S GENIUS LEOS Flavia showed beam and floor - how'd it go? Who wins the award for coolest/best/most fun skill from podium training? What were Jessica's mixed zone highlights? The FIG held a press conference today. What information did we learn? The FIG announced that "spectators will be able to see AI D-scores," but what does this mean? The FIG addressed the visa vs. FIG rules issue. What did FIG president Watanabe have to say? Jakarta Updates GymCastic Updates Subscribe to our YouTube Channel Coming Up 6 days of LIVE podcasts at World Championships in Jakarta Club members get extended coverage and can join us live to ask questions immediately after the meet Play our World Championships Fantasy Game! Win a Club Gym Nerd Scholarship: Go to our Forum > Show Stuff > GymCastic Scholarship We are matching every new sponsorship If you would like access to the club content, but aren't currently in a position to purchase a membership, all you need to do is fill out the form that's linked in our message board If you would also like to sponsor a scholarship, please email editor@gymcastic.com. Thank you! Support Our Work Club Gym Nerd: Join Here Become a Sponsor: GymCastic is matching all donations Nearly 50 scholarships have been awarded so far Learn More Headstand Game: Play Now Forum: Start Chatting Merch: Shop Now Thank you to our Sponsors Gymnastics Medicine Beam Queen Bootcamp's Overcoming Fear Workshop Resources Jakarta schedule & times: See our live podcast times on the Worlds HQ schedule Guides: Download the quick-reference guide on the Jakarta Headquarters page The Balance Beam Situation: Spencer's GIF Code of Points Gymnastics History and Code of Points Archive from Uncle Tim Kensley's men's gymnastics site Neutral Deductions Unlock the Extended Episode Join Club Gym Nerd → Choose a plan Complete checkout — your site account is created. Log in here → /my-account/ Return to this page and refresh. The extended player appears automatically.
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