Podcasts about rutgers

The Rutgers Rant interviews Rob Sullivan, the general manager for the Scarlet Knights men's and women's basketball programs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The Knight Report podcast, hosts Mike Broadbent, Richie O'Leary, and Alec Crouthamel discuss Rutgers Football adding yet another talented cornerback in South Dakota transfer Mikey Munn, who was an FCS All-American last season. 00:00 Introduction to Mikey Munn's Commitment 02:57 Mikey Munn's Athletic Background and Skills 05:57 Evaluating Rutgers' Cornerback Room 08:52 Mikey Munn's Performance Metrics 12:02 Potential Impact on Rutgers' Defense 14:56 Discussion on Other Transfer Prospects 17:58 Fan Reactions and Future Outlook 30:51 Injuries and Player Performance 33:03 Defensive Strategy and Coaching Impact 39:20 Coaching Changes and Future Prospects 44:11 Recruitment Strategies and Development Focus 50:36 Quarterback Concerns and Team Dynamics 01:02:02 Basketball Team Updates and Performance Review Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nebraska vs. Iowa College Basketball Pick Prediction by Tony T. Nebraska vs. Iowa Profiles Nebraska at Iowa 9PM ET— Nebraska sits at 22-3 on the year and 11-3 in the Big Ten with road wins against Illinois, Ohio St, Indiana, Northwestern, Minnesota as well at Rutgers. They lost a road game at Michigan. Iowa is 18-7 this year with 8-6 in the Big Ten with home wins against Maryland, UCLA, Rutgers, USC and Northwestern. Home defeats came against Illinois and Purdue.

C-Lo's got Jerry on the call as Rutgers beat Maryland. University of Wisconsin Green Bay head coach Doug Gottlieb went nuts at a press conference. St. John's & Providence brawled and we heard John Minko on the call. Gerrit Cole met the media after his first bullpen session. The Moment of The Day: Joe Benigno loves Olympic ice dancing, if you know what I mean.

Brian Windhorst hears East teams calling the Knicks the conference's best. Gio lists his five favorite NBA players by position. C-Lo's final update notes John Harbaugh's wife is a Nets fan, followed by Jerry Recco on the Rutgers win. Doug Gottlieb goes off at a press conference, St. John's and Providence brawl, and Gerrit Cole hits the bullpen mound. After the Moment of the Day on Joe Benigno's ice dancing obsession, the show closes with snow-covered cars, sleep cycles, and valuable sports cards.

Boomer is out; Gio & Jerry lead with Kevin Durant burner account rumors; real or not. They discuss the odd Michael Jordan video from the Daytona 500. C-Lo updates with NBA All-Star sounds and the Rovell-Bondy X fight. Joe Benigno talks Olympic ice dancing, Jerry Recco calls Rutgers beating Maryland, and a caller reacts to the Jordan clip.

C-Lo is in with sounds of All-Star Weekend. There was a weird fight on socials between Darren Rovell & Stefan Bondy for some reason. Plus, Joe Benigno is pretty into the Olympics especially ice dancing. The Olympics runs out of an important product. Plus, Rutgers beats Maryland (with Jerry on the call).

The Scarlet Knights snapped a seven-game losing streak behind a strong second half performance to beat the Terps on Sunday. Harun Zrno made a trio of shots from behind the arc, Kaden Powers hit some big shots and Tariq Francis was automatic from the foul line. With five winnable games remaining and Keli Zinn promising a competitive NIL budget moving forward, there is some actual hope for this program. Steve Pikeill has a real chance to build much needed momentum if they can string together victories and make the right hard decisions this offseason.#rutgersbasketball

Indiana vs. Illinois College Basketball Pick Prediction by Tony T. Indiana vs. Illinois Profiles Indiana at Illinois 1PM ET— Indiana has a record of 17-8 overall along with 8-6 in the Big Ten with road wins against Maryland, Rutgers and UCLA. Losses on the road came against Minnesota, Michigan St, Michigan and USC. Illinois is 20-5 with 11-3 in the Big Ten winning at home against Rutgers, Minnesota, Maryland, Washington and Northwestern. They dropped home games against Nebraska and Wisconsin.

The Huskers do it again! A weird, kind of bad half, and then they run away with it, beating Northwestern 68-49. But before the good, the guys dissect the unusual turnover-fest, where the Huskers through basically the same amount of interceptions in one 10-minute stretch of basketball as Aaron Rodgers did the entire 2025 NFL season. And while Rienk Mast seemed completely recovered from his illness a week ago against Rutgers, he had a hard time of it today. The guys try to identify how much of that had to do with a minor pregame injury and evaluate their level of concern.But, like beautiful Spring morning, the sun rose in the second half as Nebraska held Northwestern to 15 points over the last 17ish minutes of the game. Kaleb identifies the key adjustments Nebraska made to turn the tide and how Sam's defense turned into Pryce points (was that a "quiet" 29?). And meanwhile… was this Cale Jacobsen's best ever game at Nebraska? Are we victims of recency bias?It's a Split Vote on the Ryan Anderson Memorial (he's not dead) MVP award; you tell us if Jack or Kaleb was right! Finally, another wet spot on the floor, the lights randomly going out, more stories from Kaleb at PBA, an oddly favorable Big Ten Tourney situation that may be developing, and a look ahead to a late night roadie to Iowa on Tuesday.The Nebrasketball Hour is proudly sponsored by Nebraska Realty! Stop in and view the real estate listings Tim Shanahan and Kurt Maly have to offer at Nebraska Realty in Wahoo. You'll appreciate great service and an enjoyable sales experience while working with the most aggressive, professional and friendly group of real estate agents in the area at Nebraska Realty. Call them today at 402-480-1708 or find them online at https://www.nebraskarealty.comMusic: Ian AeilloFor more from the I-80 Club, become a Patron and get bonus episodes, access to the I-80 Club Discord server, and so much more: patreon.com/i80clubSubscribe to the I-80 Club YouTube channel and don't miss any of our public episodes, see shorts, and other videos! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UCLA vs. Michigan College Basketball Pick Prediction by Tony T. UCLA vs. Michigan Profiles UCLA at Michigan 12:45 PM ET—UCLA enters play at 17-7 on the year along with 8-4 in the Big Ten with road wins against Washington, Penn St and Oregon. They lost on the road against Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio St. Michigan has a mark of 23-1 and 13-1 in the Big Ten with home victories against Rutgers, USC, Indiana, Ohio St, Nebraska along with Penn St. They dropped a home game against Wisconsin.

The Rutgers Rant is back to discuss defensive coordinator Travis Johansen's introduction on Thursday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike and Alec break down everything Greg Schiano and Travis Johansen had to say at Johansen's introductory press conference! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On this edition of the Steve Pikiell Podcast, Coach Pikiell and Jerry Recco discuss the 'Knights of Honor', Rutgers ties to NBA All-Star Weekend, and the upcoming game vs Maryland.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rob and Jeremy took some time from Friday's BBMS to preview this weekend's Maryland vs Rutgers matchup.

Michigan St vs. Wisconsin College Basketball Pick Prediction by Tony T. Michigan St vs. Wisconsin Profiles Michigan St at Wisconsin 8PM ET— Michigan St is 20-4 on the year with 10-3 in the Big Ten with road wins against Penn St, Washington, Oregon and Rutgers in OT. They lost on the road against Nebraska and Minnesota. Wisconsin checks in at 17-7 with 9-4 in the Big Ten with home wins against Northwestern, UCLA, Rutgers, Minnesota and Ohio St. They dropped home games against Purdue and USC.

Join Jordan, Commish, Pitt Girl, Beth, our VP of Podcast Production, Arthur and SPECIAL GUEST RODGER SHERMAN. We talk the wrestler I.R.S. for some reason, then the Winter Olympics, Norwegian biathlete wins bronze medal reveals he cheated on his GF, she left him, and he wants to apologize publicly hoping she takes him back, Germany's Phillipp Raimund, Olympic gold medalist in ski jumping, WHO IS SCARED OF HEIGHTS, the Swedish Mixed Curling assassin wins gold but the US's Corey/Korey wins silver, UNEXPECTED BRONZE IN WOMEN'S LUGE, Rutgers keeps stealing FCS Head Coaches, shortest retirement ever for Bobby Hauck, RIP to the Detroit Based bowl game and oh so much, much more!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Colter kicks off the show by sitting down with FCS expert and HERO Sports contributor Sam Herder to break down the latest news from around the FCS. The two discuss North Dakota State's transition to the FBS, Bobby Hauck's brief retirement before taking the defensive coordinator job at the University of Illinois, South Dakota head coach Travis Johansen's move to Rutgers, and other major storylines shaping the subdivision.Later in the show, Colter visits with Montana State freshman guard Jamison Phillips to recap recent conference results, including a big win over Eastern Washington, and to preview the upcoming rivalry matchup against the Montana Grizzlies.

We started with more about the card giveaways at St. John's & Rutgers basketball games. There's a documentary series about the 49'ers on AMC and Boomer's friend told him he was in it. Jerry has more sounds of the Knicks losing to the lowly Pacers at MSG. David Stearns talked about Lindor's hand injury and if Bo Bichette would play SS if Lindor's not ready. Klint Kubiak met the media, Mike Vrabel talked about the message he had for the team, and a caller likes the ‘big ass' quarterback at Ole Miss.

Most people don't fail—they drift.In this Rutgers seminar, Jonathan Cohen delivers practical frameworks for staying clear, disciplined, and intentional under pressure. He unpacks the Straight Line Method, how your future self can guide better decisions today, and tools like mental aid stations and the Map of Consciousness to manage stress and silence imposter syndrome.Subscribe for more conversations on clarity, discipline, and intentional living.

With Valentine's Day around the corner, we take a look at the 2025 storylines we secretly loved. Whether scrappy teams held things together with gum and chicken wire, coaches who turned programs around overnight, or the moments that didn't make national headlines, we talk through the things that got our hearts pumping. Think Wisconsin winning games with their punter as the leading passer, Houston quietly going 10-3, Arch Manning actually getting better when pundits left him for dead, and much more. In this episode, we share our own picks before opening it up to the Verballerhood, whose submissions cover everything from Kenny Dillingham staying at Arizona State to the absurdity of Lane Kiffin's move to LSU, Arkansas fans learning to love heartbreak, Indiana fans debating whether to protect their hearts or go all in on Curt Cignetti, and much more. Plus, a brief Super Bowl debrief, a Timothée Chalamet conversation, and the debut of Dan's bucket of wrenches. Timestamps:0:00 - Intro / Super Bowl recap6:27 - What we're doing today8:51 - Dan's "winning despite" teams (Duke, Mizzou, Minnesota, Wake Forest)10:58 - Steve Angeli and Syracuse's collapse without him13:34 - Wisconsin as a bucket of wrenches17:08 - Northwestern's what-could-have-been season19:21 - Jason Eck and New Mexico's nine-win season22:16 - Penn State's leaked Pat Kraft audio25:08 - Ty's Quick Hits: Mason Heinschel, Houston's quiet 10-3 season, Arch Manning actually got better29:29 - Dan's Quick Hits: Arizona's nasty defense, SMU's post-playoff rebuild, Double transfers31:51 - Kenny Dillingham staying at Arizona State35:15 - Arkansas tried37:20 - Indiana, Curt Cignetti, and protecting your heart44:19 - Fernando Mendoza's F-bomb and industry plant theory45:34 - Cal, the Wilcox era, and the Mendoza that got away46:56 - Lane Kiffin-LSU drama49:23 - Georgia ripping rivals' hearts out50:17 - North Texas's record-setting season51:38 - Player shoutouts: Jeremiyah Love, Ahmad Hardy, Jacob Rodriguez, Jayden Maiava53:40 - Quick fan hits: Ohio State, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma, Oregon, Purdue57:34 - Ball State tried to be the worst57:47 - Florida State's first month58:26 - Rutgers' top-50 offense / Arizona retaining Seth Doege and Noah Fifita59:54 - ESPN cinematography and best broadcast productionSupport the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbalSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We share one more Crab Creek Chronicles excerpt to wrap up the show.

-Let's go back first to Saturday's game at Rutgers and hit on the One Piece Anime promotion…what was the crowd like and when didthey get the cards?-Rienk Mast had been off of his ‘A' game for a month and delivered a 26-point performance on Saturday at Rutgers…how importantwas that to him AND the team to see him play well again?-What's the scouting report on next-level for this Nebraska team? Is Pryce Sandfort an NBA option, and are the scouts looking atBraden Frager?Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Join Jordan, Commish, Pitt Girl, and our VP of Podcast Production, Arthur. We record as the Super Bowl ends, a $180 LX Hammer Burger complete with Beef Shank, Marist's Super Bowl Dominance by Jason Myers, do you consult Eastern Michigan University on how to train Emus? North Dakota State to the Mountain West, Sac State to CUSA? the MAC? whomever will have them? Bobby Hauck stepping down at Montana and Bobby Kennedy (not that one) taking over, THE B1G TRIFECTA, C-Unit, Rutgers hiring South Dakota's Coach as the DC, THEN IT'S WINTER OLYMPICS TIME, Skisprung-Verband reagiert auf Penis-Wirbel aka the Ski Jumping suit hack, Opening ceremonies, Gold Medals for the US, Jordan begrudgingly watches Figure Skating, Poland's emotional support Pierogi, Gold Medal Luger aka The Fruit Ninja, soccer controversy in the Maldives and oh so much, much more!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After picking up a road win over Rutgers, Nebraska is back at PBA tonight against the Boilermakers. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Nebraska MBB Tops Rutgers and Faces Purdue, Wrapping Up the 2026 Recruiting Cycle - February 9th, 3:00pmAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Purdue vs. Nebraska College Basketball Pick Prediction by Tony T. Purdue vs. Nebraska Profiles Purdue at Nebraska 7PM ET— Purdue has a record of 19-4 on the season and 9-3 in the Big Ten with road wins at Rutgers, Wisconsin, USC and Maryland. They lost at UCLA and Illinois. Nebraska checks in at 21-2 and 10-2 in the Big Ten with home wins against Wisconsin, Michigan ST, Oregon and Washington. They lost at home against Illinois.

The Cover 3 crew is back to break down the latest news around the college football world. Plus the boys debate the top 10 stories that defined 2025. What are the biggest storylines from last season? (00:00:00) - Intro (00:00:50) - General Banter  (00:02:10) - North Dakota Joins Mountain West  (00:08:20) - South Dakota State HC to Rutgers   (00:11:20) - LA Bowl Shuts Down  (00:14:10) - Cover 3 Yearbook  Cover 3 is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Visit the betting arena on CBSSports.com for all the latest in sportsbook reviews and sportsbook promos for betting on college football. Watch Cover 3 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/cover3 Follow our hosts on Twitter: @Chip_Patterson, @TomFornelli, @DannyKanell, @BudElliott3 For more college football coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-There was absolutely zero shame in either of the 2 losses coming into Saturday's game---at Michigan and home vs. Illinois----butHusker fans don't know what a successful basketball team looks like and had some trepidation-That fear was eased by a 14-point halftime lead and a comfortable lead the entire 2 nd half….and Rienk Mast looked great, scoring 26points on 11/20 shooting. That's a real reason for a sigh of relief. Up next: Purdue at PBA tomorrow night at 6pmOur Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Monday Hour 1: Super Bowl recap, the fall of Phil, Drake's Joe Woodley goes to Rutgers

The Rutgers Rant is back to discuss where the men's basketball stands as it approaches the longest losing streak of the Steve Pikiell era, President William Tate's guest column defending Rutgers' spending and a big weekend in the Olympic sports. We also welcome Remy Cotton, the hero of Rutgers wrestling's historic upset over No. 6 Minnesota on Friday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TOP: Grant Billmeier on how he built 1st-place NJIT 27:50: Seton Hall therapy session 37:20: Rutgers roster evaluation 49:20: NJ mid-major shout-outs

This is a preview of Unemployed With Mike Schaefer! To hear the entire podcast, subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! Or, watch on the I-80 Club YouTube channel.Kaleb Henry joins on a Monday to talk Nebraska basketball getting back on track, assessing Nebraska's offseason in football and offering Free Advice for those in need.Music: Ian AeilloFor more from the I-80 Club, become a Patron and get bonus episodes, access to the I-80 Club Discord server, and so much more: patreon.com/i80clubSubscribe to the I-80 Club YouTube channel and don't miss any of our public episodes, see shorts, and other videos! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With a rise in the number of Flu and Cold cases this winter, it's helpful to know what the difference is between these two ailments, and how to know if you have it or not. Dr. Cecilia Baradhi Garduno joins our host Dr. Jonathan Karp and student producer Kaya Basatemur to discuss what to do if you start to feel sick, and how you can take care of yourself. Dr. Cecilia Baradhi Garduno is a board certified DO from New Jersey who practices Family Medicine at Capital Health Medical Center Hopewell in Pennington, NJ. Dr. Baradhi studied Nutrition at Rutgers as an undergraduate and received her medical degree from Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine. In this episode, Dr. Baradhi also talks about her journey to becoming a family medicine practitioner and how her background in Nutrition and Osteopathic Medicine gave her additional resources to use to treat her patients today. Don't miss this episode of Health 411, and find out more about Dr. Cecilia Baradhi Garduno at:https://providers.capitalhealth.org/family-medicine/cecilia-baradhi-garduno-do

On this episode of The Bluebloods, Zach McKinnell and Timothy Rosario of FCS Football Central discuss all the news from this chaotic week across FCS football. The duo discusses North Dakota State's potential move to the FBS level as a football-only member, Montana head coach Bobby Hauck's retirement, Travis Johansen stepping down at South Dakota to go to Rutgers, and what's next for the FCS after NDSU's departure to the Mountain West. All this and more right here on The Bluebloods! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send us a textThe Bums are back in the rail yard with S6:E0146, a pre-Super Bowl extravaganza of NFL updates and premonitions; the case is made for “taking the fucking points” (and responsible use of data & analytics); NFL head coaching changes are reviewed (our O/U of 5.5 was not close); the Steelers are very “unSteelery”; the NFL HoF committee inexplicably snubs Coach Belichick (make it make sense); College Athletics is a dead man walking Harvard Business case in what not to do; FSU and Rutgers are deep in the red; and the Bums are in awe of Lindsey Vonn.The second half buckles down with another infamous beer review, featuring Lyon, IL's BuckleDown Brewing and their “Crackle and Pop” (ABV 6.0%) winter brown ale that presents like a barrel-aged stout by drinks like an ale (delish); a very limited preview of cinema's own Super Bowl, and associated nominees— the Oscar's; McDonald's has lost it's mind with a special freebie stunt; latest RIP alum features beloved actress Catherine “reverse heart” O'Hara and actor Demond “Lamont” Wilson; Ts & Ps to Savannah Guthrie and family (as the search for MIA mom continues); Paddy and daughter take on the Big Apple's largest borough; and close with a shout-out to Prime Video's ‘The Night Manager — Season 2' (a decade late).  Get some and catch up before SB LV kicks off!Recorded on February 5th, 2026 at B.O.M.'s global headquarters ‘East Bunker' in Chicago, IL USA. 

The USC Triple-Double Podcast -- the Peristyle's basketball-focused podcast -- returns with co-hosts Shotgun Spratling and Connor Morrissette (aka Mr. Triple Double) breaking down USC men's basketball hanging on to beat Rutgers, 78-75, and earning a Quad 1 win over Indiana. The duo also discusses the USC women blowing out Rutgers at home and Northwestern on the road. Spratling and Morrissette then interview USC men's basketball forward Ezra Ausar to discuss Ausar's breakout season, why he's better in the second half of games, his brother winning a Grammy Award and much more.  The USC Triple-Double continues with a look at where the women's and men's teams stack up nationally in multiple statistical categories before moving to a preview of a week where both programs will have the chance to continue to make up ground in the Big Ten standings. The men play at Penn State and Ohio State next, and the women play at Illinois and then host Indiana.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We hear stories from Connor and Jake's time at major golfing events. Jake has takes for the upcoming Super Bowl and Nebraska's bounce back opportunity against Rutgers.

Accident or injury in New Jersey? Visit NJinjury.com or call (833)GO-NJ-LAWBUY OUR MERCH HEREJoin the mail bag by leaving a voicemail at: 908-67-9999-3Our personal Instagrams:SoboChomikJimmyJordanWelcome back to The Garden State, the only NJ podcast that gives you all the news you need to know this week. Thanks for tuning in once again and for supporting the podcast. If you're enjoying the show, make sure to leave us a review! We love reading those!Follow us on all our socials to keep up to date with that and everything else happening. https://linktr.ee/thegardenstate

Despite Mother Nature's best attempt to sabotage the start of the 2026 season, D-Fly & Dixie are back in the saddle to soothe your soul, make sense of the madness and get you excited for the new year. The prolonged cold weather continues to wreak havoc on the schedule with many games moved, postponed or cancelled for the second week in a row. But fear not. There are still many games to look forward to this weekend, and the guys preview the top matchups as usual, set the table for the season and interview a fascinating guest. Let's get it!This week's interview is with Georgetown's All-America goaltender, Anderson Moore. For the second week in a row, the Hoyas had their game postponed. The guys start by addressing the disappointment of postponing and then discuss his journey from Birmingham's Briarwood Christian school to the highest levels of lacrosse, the rules for wearing sweatpants, Coach Warne's shoe game, the high expectations for the 2026 Hoyas, friend of the pod and Hoyas assistant coach, Ted Moon, Moore's experience as the Team USA U20 goalie, the beaches of South Korea, Vincent's Clam Bar and much, much more. You won't want to miss it.GAME PREVIEWSFRIDAYUtah (1-0) at No. 11 Duke (1-0) | 5 p.m. | ESPN+ | Duke -5.5/26.5SATURDAYLoyola at No. 1 Maryland | noon | BIG+ | Maryland -6.5/22.5No. 12 Army (1-0) at No. 18 Rutgers (1-0) | 1 p.m. | B1G+ | Army -2.5/21.5SUNDAYColgate (0-1) at No. 14 Virginia | noon | ACCNX | UVa -4.5/23.5GIVE & GOIn this week's storm-themed Give & Go, the fellas discuss the most essential items you need to pick up at the grocery store before the next apocalyptic storm. Dixie insists on soup and viral Japanese cheesecake. Enjoy the games.

-Final thoughts on Nebrasketball tomorrow vs. Rutgers….and Super Bowl official predictionsOur Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com* Check out Kalshi and use my code SB60 for a great deal: https://kalshi.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

-Nebraska will no-doubt enter as a favorite for tomorrow's game, their first time on the court since losing to Illinois at PBA onSunday…has any doubt crept in from the fanbase or the players?-A loss tomorrow brings a lot of problems to light---the good news being that it's still over a month until March Madness---but any shotof winning the B1G regular season probably ends if you lose at Rutgers…can Rienk Mast find his game?Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com* Check out Kalshi and use my code SB60 for a great deal: https://kalshi.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Rutgers Rant went live to react to the Scarlet Knights (finally) hiring a defensive coordinator after a 64-day search. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike, Richie and Alec break down the projected DC hire in South Dakota HC Travis Johansen! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

BC joins us to talk Nebrasketball and their potential trap game against Rutgers, conference rooting in college football, spring ball for Husker Football, and more.

A full discussion on the ever changing landscape of college athletics, the challenge for AD Keli Zinn and how she appears to be making progress, Greg Schiano still searching for a Defensive Coordinator, Steve Pikiell getting support despite longest losing streak in 8 years and why Rutgers must be really good in other areas in the NIL/transfer portal era.#rutgersfootball #rutgersbasketball

BC shares his thoughts on the new changes with the Nebraska special teams and a bounce back opportunity for hoops this weekend at Rutgers.

It’s actually a good thing that some books push you to the edge of your ability to understand. But there’s no doubting the fact that dense, abstract and jargon-filled works can push you so far into the fog of frustration that you cannot blame yourself for giving up. But here’s the truth: You don’t have to walk away frustrated and confused. I’m going to share with you a number of practical strategies that will help you fill in the gaps of your reading process. Because that’s usually the real problem: It’s not your intelligence. Nor is it that the world is filled with books “above your level.” I ultimately don’t believe in “levels” as such. But as someone who taught reading courses at Rutgers and Saarland University, I know from experience that many learners need to pick up a few simple steps that will strengthen how they approach reading difficult books. And in this guide, you’ll learn how to read challenging books and remember what they say. I’m going to go beyond generic advice too. That way, you can readily diagnose: Why certain books feel so hard Use pre-reading tactics that prime your brain to deal with difficulties effectively Apply active reading techniques to lock in understanding faster Leverage accelerated learning tools that are quick to learn Use Artificial Intelligence to help convert tough convent into lasting knowledge without worrying about getting duped by AI hallucinations Whether you’re tacking philosophy, science, dense fiction or anything based primarily in words, the reading system you’ll learn today will help you turn confusion into clarity. By the end, even the most intimidating texts will surrender their treasures to your mind. Ready? Let’s break it all down together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9HLbY4jsFg Why Some Books Feel “Too Hard” (And What That Really Means) You know exactly how it feels and so do I. You sit down with a book that people claim is a classic or super-important. But within a few pages, your brain fogs over and you’re completely lost. More often than not, through glazed eyes, you start to wonder… did this author go out of his or her way to make this difficult? Are they trying to show off with all these literary pyrotechnics? Or is there a deliberate conspiracy to confuse readers like me? Rest assured. These questions are normal and well worth asking. The difficulty you might feel is never arbitrary in my experience. But there’s also no “single origin” explanation for why some books feel easier than others. It’s almost always a combination of factors, from cognitive readiness, lived experience, emotions and your physical condition throughout the day. This means that understanding why individual texts resist your understanding needs to be conducted on a case-by-case basis so you can move towards mastering anything you want to read. Cognitive Load: The Brain’s Processing “Stop Sign” “Cognitive load” probably needs no definition. The words are quite intuitive. You start reading something and it feels like someone is piling heavy bricks directly on top of your brain, squishing everything inside. More specifically, these researchers explain that what’s getting squished is specifically your working memory, which is sometimes called short-term memory. In practical terms, this means that when a book suddenly throws a bunch of unfamiliar terms at you, your working memory has to suddenly deal with abstract concepts, completely new words or non-linear forms of logic. All of this increases your cognitive load, but it’s important to note that there’s no conspiracy. In Just Being Difficult: Academic Writing in the Public Arena, a variety of contributors admit that they often write for other specialists. Although it would be nice to always compose books and articles for general readers, it’s not laziness. They’re following the codes of their discipline, which involves shorthand to save everyone time. Yes, it can also signal group membership and feel like an intellectual wall if you’re new to this style, but it’s simply a “stop sign” for your brain. And wherever there are stop signs, there are also alternative routes. Planning Your Detour “Roadmap” Into Difficult Books Let me share a personal example by way of sharing a powerful technique for making hard books easier to read. A few years ago I decided I was finally going to read Kant. I had the gist of certain aspects of his philosophy, but a few pages in, I encountered so many unfamiliar terms, I knew I had to obey the Cognitive Load Stop Sign and take a step back. To build a roadmap into Kant, I searched Google in a particular way. Rather than a search term like, “Intro to Kant,” I entered this tightened command instead: Filetype:PDF syllabus Kant These days, you can ask an LLM in more open language to simply give you links to the syllabi of the most authoritative professors who teach Kant. I’d still suggest that you cross-reference what you get on Google, however. If you’re hesitant about using either Google or AI, it’s also a great idea to visit a librarian in person to help you. Or, you can read my post about using AI for learning with harming your memory to see if it’s time to update your approach. Narrowing Down Your Options One way or another, the reason to consult the world’s leading professors is that their syllabi will provide you with: Foundational texts Core secondary literature Commentaries from qualified sources Essential historical references Once you’ve looked over a few syllabi, look through the table of contents of a few books on Amazon or Google Books. Then choose: 1-2 foundational texts to read before the challenging target book you want to master 1-2 articles or companion texts to read alongside In this way, you’ve turned difficulty into a path, not an obstacle. Pre-Reading Strategies That Warm Up Your Reading Muscles A lot of the time, the difficulty people feel when reading has nothing to do with the book. It’s just that you’re diving into unfamiliar territory without testing the waters first. Here are some simple ways to make unfamiliar books much easier to get into. Prime Like a Pro To make books easier to read, you can perform what is often called “priming” in the accelerated learning community. It is also sometimes called “pre-reading” and as this research article discusses, its success has been well-demonstrated. The way I typically perform priming is simple. Although some books require a slight change to the pattern, I typically approach each new book by reading: The back cover The index The colophon page The conclusion or afterword The most interesting or relevant chapter The introduction The rest of the book Activate Prior Knowledge Sometimes I will use a skimming and scanning strategy after reading the index to quickly familiarize myself with how an author approaches a topic with which I’m already familiar. This can help raise interest, excitement and tap into the power of context-dependent memory. For example, I recently started reading Doubt: A History by Jennifer Michael Hecht. Since the Renaissance memory master Giordano Bruno comes up multiple times, I was able to draw up a kind of context map of the books themes by quickly going through those passages. Take a Picture Walk Barbara Oakley and Terence Sejnjowski share a fantastic strategy in Learning How to Learn. Before reading, simply go through a book and look at all the illustrations, tables, charts and diagrams. It seems like a small thing. But it gives your brain a “heads up” about upcoming visual information that you may need to process than prose. I used to find visual information like this difficult, but after I started taking picture walks, I’m now excited to read “towards” these elements. If still find them challenging to understand, I apply a tip I learned from Tony Buzan that you might like to try: Rather than struggle to interpret a chart or illustration, reproduce it in your own hand. Here’s an example of how I did this when studying spaced repetition: As a result, I learned the graph and its concepts quickly and have never forgotten it. Build a Pre-Reading Ritual That Fits You There’s no one-sized-fits-all strategy, so you need to experiment with various options. The key is to reduce cognitive load by giving your mind all kinds of ways of understanding what a book contains. If it helps, you can create yourself a checklist that you slip into the challenging books on your list. That way, you’ll have both a bookmark and a protocol as you develop your own pre-reading style. Active Reading Techniques That Boost Comprehension Active reading involves deliberately applying mental activities while reading. These can include writing in the margins of your books, questioning, preparing summaries and even taking well-time breaks between books. Here’s a list of my favorite active reading strategies with ideas on how you can implement them. Using Mnemonics While Reading On the whole, I take notes while reading and then apply a variety of memory techniques after. But to stretch my skills, especially when reading harder books, I start the encoding process earlier. Instead of just taking notes, I’ll start applying mnemonic images. I start early because difficult terms often require a bit more spaced repetition. To do this yourself, the key is to equip yourself with a variety of mnemonic methods, especially: The Memory Palace technique The Pegword Method The Major System The PAO System And in some cases, you may want to develop a symbol system, such as if you’re studying physics or programming. Once you have these mnemonic systems developed, you can apply them in real time. For example, if you come across names and dates, committing them to memory as you read can help you keep track of a book’s historical arc. This approach can be especially helpful when reading difficult books because authors often dump a lot of names and dates. By memorizing them as you go, you reduce the mental load of having to track it all. For even more strategies you can apply while reading, check out my complete Mnemonics Dictionary. Strategic Questioning Whether you take notes or memorize in real-time, asking questions as you go makes a huge difference. Even if you don’t come up with answers, continually interrogating the book will open up your brain. The main kinds of questions are: Evaluative questions (checking that the author uses valid reasoning and address counterarguments) Analytical questions (assessing exactly how the arguments unfold and questioning basic assumptions) Synthetic questions (accessing your previous knowledge and looking for connections with other books and concepts) Intention questions (interrogating the author’s agenda and revealing any manipulative rhetoric) One medieval tool for questioning you can adopt is the memory wheel. Although it’s definitely old-fashioned, you’ll find that it helps you rotate between multiple questions. Even if they are as simple as who, what, where, when, how and why questions, you’ll have a mental mnemonic device that helps ensure you don’t miss any of them. Re-reading Strategies Although these researchers seem to think that re-reading is not an effective strategy, I could not live without it. There are three key kinds of re-reading I recommend. Verbalize Complexity to Tame It The first is to simply go back and read something difficult to understand out loud. You’d be surprised how often it’s not your fault. The author has just worded something in a clunky manner and speaking the phrasing clarifies everything. Verbatim Memorization for Comprehension The second strategy is to memorize the sentence or even an entire passage verbatim. That might seem like a lot of work, but this tutorial on memorizing entire passages will make it easy for you. Even if verbatim memorization takes more work, it allows you to analyze the meaning within your mind. You’re no longer puzzling over it on paper, continuing to stretch your working memory. No, you’ve effectively expanded at least a part of your working memory by bypassing it altogether. You’ve ushered the information into long-term memory. I’m not too shy to admit that I have to do this sometimes to understand everything from the philosophy in Sanskrit phrases to relatively simple passages from Shakespeare. As I shared in my recent discussion of actor Anthony Hopkins’ memory, I couldn’t work out what “them” referred to in a particular Shakespeare play. But after analyzing the passage in memory, it was suddenly quite obvious. Rhythmical Re-reading The third re-reading strategy is something I shared years ago in my post detailing 11 reasons you should re-read at least one book per month. I find this approach incredibly helpful because no matter how good you get at reading and memory methods, even simple books can be vast ecosystems. By revisiting difficult books at regular intervals, you not only get more out of them. You experience them from different perspectives and with the benefit of new contexts you’ve built in your life over time. In other words, treat your reading as an infinite game and never assume that you’ve comprehended everything. There’s always more to be gleaned. Other Benefits of Re-reading You’ll also improve your pattern recognition by re-treading old territory, leading to more rapid recognition of those patterns in new books. Seeing the structures, tropes and other tactics in difficult books opens them up. But without regularly re-reading books, it can be difficult to perceive what these forms are and how authors use them. To give you a simple example of a structure that appears in both fiction and non-fiction, consider in media res, or starting in the middle. When you spot an author using this strategy, it can immediately help you read more patiently. And it places the text in the larger tradition of other authors who use that particular technique. For even more ideas that will keep your mind engaged while tackling tough books, feel free to go through my fuller article on 7 Active Reading Strategies. Category Coloring & Developing Your Own Naming System For Complex Material I don’t know about you, but I do not like opening a book only to find it covered in highlighter marks. I also don’t like highlighting books myself. However, after practicing mind mapping for a few years, I realized that there is a way to combine some of its coloring principles with the general study principles of using Zettelkasten and flashcards. Rather than passively highlighting passages that seem interesting at random, here’s an alternative approach you can take to your next tour through a complicated book. Category Coloring It’s often helpful to read with a goal. For myself, I decided to tackle a hard book called Gödel Escher Bach through the lens of seven categories. I gave each a color: Red = Concept Green = Process Orange = Fact Blue = Historical Context Yellow = Person Purple = School of Thought or Ideology Brown = Specialized Terminology Example Master Card to the Categorial Color Coding Method To emulate this method, create a “key card” or “master card” with your categories on it alongside the chosen color. Use this as a bookmark as you read. Then, before writing down any information from the book, think about the category to which it belongs. Make your card and then apply the relevant color. Obviously, you should come up with your own categories and preferred colors. The point is that you bring the definitions and then apply them consistently as you read and extract notes. This will help bring structure to your mind because you’re creating your own nomenclature or taxonomy of information. You are also using chunking, a specific mnemonic strategy I’ve written about at length in this post on chunking as a memory tool. Once you’re finished a book, you can extract all the concepts and memorize them independently if you like. And if you emulate the strategy seen on the pictured example above, I’ve included the page number on each card. That way, I can place the cards back in the order of the book. Using this approach across multiple books, you will soon spot cross-textual patterns with greater ease. The catch is that you cannot allow this technique to become activity for activity’s sake. You also don’t want to wind up creating a bunch of informational “noise.” Before capturing any individual idea on a card and assigning it to a category, ask yourself: Why is this information helpful, useful or critical to my goal? Will I really use it again? Where does it belong within the categories? If you cannot answers these questions, either move on to the next point. Or reframe the point with some reflective thinking so that you can contextualize it. This warning aside, it’s important not to let perfectionism creep into your life. Knowing what information matters does take some practice. To speed up your skills with identifying critical information, please read my full guide on how to find the main points in books and articles. Although AI can certainly help these days, you’ll still need to do some work on your own. Do Not Let New Vocabulary & Terminology Go Without Memorization One of the biggest mistakes I used to make, even as a fan of memory techniques, slowed me down much more than necessary. I would come across a new term, look it up, and assume I’d remember it. Of course, the next time I came across it, the meaning was still a mystery. But when I got more deliberate, I not only remembered more words, but the knowledge surrounding the unfamiliar terms also stuck with greater specificity. For example, in reading The Wandering Mind by Jamie Kreiner, memorizing the ancient Greek word for will or volition (Prohairesis) pulled many more details about why she was mentioning it. Lo and behold, I started seeing the word in more places and connecting it to other ancient Greek terms. Memorizing those as well started to create a “moat of meaning,” further protecting a wide range of information I’d been battling. Understanding Why Vocabulary Blocks Comprehension The reason why memorizing words as you read is so helpful is that it helps clear out the cognitive load created by pausing frequently to look up words. Even if you don’t stop to learn a new definition, part of your working memory gets consumed by the lack of familiarity. I don’t always stop to learn new definitions while reading, but using the color category index card method you just discovered, it’s easy to organize unfamiliar words while reading. That way they can be tidily memorized later. I have a full tutorial for you on how to memorize vocabulary, but here’s a quick primer. Step One: Use a System for Capturing New Words & Terms Whether you use category coloring, read words into a recording app or email yourself a reminder, the key is to capture as you go. Once your reading session is done, you can now go back to the vocabulary list and start learning it. Step Two: Memorize the Terms I personally prefer the Memory Palace technique. It’s great for memorizing words and definitions. You can use the Pillar Technique with the word at the top and the definition beneath it. Or you can use the corners for the words and the walls for the definitions. Another idea is to photograph the cards you create and important them into a spaced repetition software like Anki. As you’ll discover in my complete guide to Anki, there are several ways you can combine Anki with a variety of memory techniques. Step Three: Use the Terms If you happened to catch an episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast back when I first learned Prohairesis I mentioned it often. This simple habit helps establish long-term recall, reflection and establishes the ground for future recognition and use. Expand Understanding Using Video & Audio Media When I was in university, I often had to ride my bike across Toronto to borrow recorded lectures on cassette. Given the overwhelming tsunamis of complex ideas, jargon and theoretical frameworks I was facing, it was worth it. Especially since I was also dealing with the personal problems I shared with you in The Victorious Mind. Make no mistake: I do not believe there is any replacement for reading the core books, no matter how difficult they might be. But there’s no reason not to leverage the same ideas in multiple formats to help boost your comprehension and long-term retention. Multimedia approaches are not just about knowledge acquisition either. There have been many debates in the magical arts community that card magicians should read and not rely on video. But evidence-based studies like this one show that video instruction combined with reading written instructions is very helpful. The Science Behind Multi-Modal Learning I didn’t know when I was in university, or when I was first starting out with memdeck card magic that dual coding theory existed. This model was proposed by Allan Paivio, who noticed that information is processed both verbally and non-verbally. Since then, many teachers have focused heavily on how to encourage students to find the right combination of reading, visual and auditory instructional material. Here are some ideas that will help you untangle the complexity in your reading. How to Integrate Multimedia Without Overload Forgive me if this is a bit repetitive, but to develop flow with multiple media, you need to prime the brain. As someone who has created multiple YouTube videos, I have been stubborn about almost always including introductions. Why? Go Through the Intros Like a Hawk Because without including a broad overview of the topic, many learners will miss too many details. And I see this in the comments because people ask questions that are answered throughout the content and flagged in the introductions. So the first step is to be patient and go through the introductory material. And cultivate an understanding that it’s not really the material that is boring. It’s the contemporary issues with dopamine spiking that make you feel impatient. The good news is that you can possibly reset your dopamine levels so you’re better able to sit through these “priming” materials. One hack I use is to sit far away from my mouse and keep my notebook in hand. If I catch myself getting antsy, I perform a breathing exercise to restore focus. Turn on Subtitles When you’re watching videos, you can help increase your engagement by turning on the subtitles. This is especially useful in jargon-heavy video lessons. You can pause and still see the information on the screen for easier capture when taking notes. When taking notes, I recommend jotting down the timestamp. This is useful for review, but also for attributing citations later if you have to hand in an assignment. Mentally Reconstruct After watching a video or listening to a podcast on the topic you’re mastering, take a moment to review the key points. Try to go through them in the order they were presented. This helps your brain practice mental organization by building a temporal scaffold. If you’ve taken notes and written down the timestamps, you can easily check your accuracy. Track Your Progress For Growth & Performance One reason some people never feel like they’re getting anywhere is that they have failed to establish any points of reference. Personally, this is easy for me to do. I can look back to my history of writing books and articles or producing videos and be reminded of how far I’ve come at a glance. Not only as a writer, but also as a reader. For those who do not regularly produce content, you don’t have to start a blog or YouTube channel. Just keep a journal and create a few categories of what skills you want to track. These might include: Comprehension Retention Amount of books read Vocabulary growth Critical thinking outcomes Confidence in taking on harder books Increased tolerance with frustration when reading challenges arise You can use the same journal to track how much time you’ve spent reading and capturing quick summaries. Personally, I wish I’d started writing summaries sooner. I really only got started during grad school when during a directed reading course, a professor required that I had in a summary for every book and article I read. I never stopped doing this and just a few simple paragraph summaries has done wonders over the years for my understanding and retention. Tips for Overcoming Frustration While Reading Difficult Books Ever since the idea of “desirable difficulty” emerged, people have sought ways to help learners overcome emotional responses like frustration, anxiety and even shame while tackling tough topics. As this study shows, researchers and teachers have found the challenge difficult despite the abundance of evidence showing that being challenged is a good thing. Here are some strategies you can try if you continue to struggle. Embrace Cognitive Discomfort As we’ve discussed, that crushing feeling in your brain exists for a reason. Personally, I don’t think it ever goes away. I still regularly pick up books that spike it. The difference is that I don’t start up a useless mantra like, “I’m not smart enough for this.” Instead, I recommend you reframe the experience and use the growth mindset studied by Carol Dweck, amongst others. You can state something more positive like, “This book is a bit above my level, but I can use tactics and techniques to master it.” I did that very recently with my reading of The Xenotext, parts of which I still don’t fully understand. It was very rewarding. Use Interleaving to Build Confidence I rotate through draining books all the time using a proven technique called interleaving. Lots of people are surprised when I tell them that I rarely read complex and challenging books for longer than fifteen minutes at a time. But I do it because interleaving works. Which kinds of books can you interleave? You have choices. You can either switch in something completely different, or switch to a commentary. For example, while recently reading some heavy mathematical theories about whether or not “nothing” can exist, I switched to a novel. But back in university, I would often stick within the category while at the library. I’d read a core text by a difficult philosopher, then pick up a Cambridge Companion and read an essay related to the topic. You can also interleave using multimedia sources like videos and podcasts. Interleaving also provides time for doing some journaling, either about the topic at hand or some other aspect of your progress goals. Keep the Big Picture in Mind Because frustration is cognitively training, it’s easy to let it drown out your goals. That’s why I often keep a mind map or some other reminder on my desk, like a couple of memento mori. It’s also possible to just remember previous mind maps you’ve made. This is something I’m doing often at the moment as I read all kinds of boring information about managing a bookshop for my Memory Palace bookshop project first introduced in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utcJfeQZC2c It’s so easy to get discouraged by so many rules and processes involved in ordering and selling books, that I regularly think back to creating this mind map with Tony Buzan years ago. In case my simple drawings on this mind map for business development doesn’t immediately leap out at you with its meanings, the images at the one o’clock-three o’clock areas refer to developing a physical Memory Palace packed with books on memory and learning. Developing and keeping a north star in mind will help you transform the process of reading difficult books into a purposeful adventure of personal development. Even if you have to go through countless books that aren’t thrilling, you’ll still be moving forward. Just think of how much Elon Musk has read that probably wasn’t all that entertaining. Yet, it was still essential to becoming a polymath. Practice Seeing Through The Intellectual Games As you read harder and harder books, you’ll eventually come to realize that the “fluency” some people have is often illusory. For example, some writers and speakers display a truly impressive ability to string together complex terminology, abstract references and fashionable ideas of the day in ways that sound profound. Daniel Dennett frequently used a great term for a lot of this verbal jujitsu that sounds profound but is actually trivial. He called such flourishes “deepities.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey-UeaSi1rI This kind of empty linguistic dexterity will be easier for you to spot when you read carefully, paraphrase complex ideas in your own words and practice memorizing vocabulary frequently. When you retain multiple concepts and practice active questioning in a large context of grounded examples and case studies, vague claims will not survive for long in your world. This is why memory training is about so much more than learning. Memorization can equip you to think independently and bring clarity to fields that are often filled with gems, despite the fog created by intellectual pretenders more interested in word-jazz than actual truth. Using AI to Help You Take On Difficult Books As a matter of course, I recommend you use AI tools like ChatGPT after doing as much reading on your own as possible. But there’s no mistaking that intentional use of such tools can help you develop greater understanding. The key is to avoid using AI as an answer machine or what Nick Bostrom calls an “oracle” in his seminal book, Superintelligence. Rather, take a cue from Andrew Mayne, a science communicator and central figure at OpenAI and host of their podcast. His approach centers on testing in ways that lead to clarity of understanding and retention as he uses various mnemonic strategies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlzD_6Olaqw Beyond his suggestions, here are some of my favorite strategies. Ask AI to Help Identify All Possible Categories Connected to a Topic A key reason many people struggle to connect ideas is simply that they haven’t developed a mental ecosystem of categories. I used to work in libraries, so started thinking categorically when I was still a teenager. But these days, I would combine how traditional libraries are structured with a simple prompt like: List all the possible categories my topic fits into or bridges across disciplines, historical frameworks and methodologies. Provide the list without interpretation or explanation so I can reflect. A prompt like this engineers a response that focuses on relationships and lets your brain perform the synthetic thinking. Essentially, you’ll be performing what some scientists call schema activation, leading to better personal development outcomes. Generate Lists of Questions To Model Exceptional Thinkers Because understanding relies on inquiry, it’s important to practice asking the best possible questions. AI chat bots can be uniquely useful in this process provided that you explicitly insist that it helps supply you excellent questions without any answers. You can try a prompt like: Generate a list of questions that the world’s most careful thinkers in this field would ask about this topic. Do not provide any answers. Just the list of questions. Do this after you’ve read the text and go through your notes with fresh eyes. Evaluate the material with questions in hand, ideally by writing out your answers by hand. If you need your answers imported into your computer, apps can now scan your handwriting and give you text file. Another tip: Don’t be satisfied with the first list of questions you get. Ask the AI to dig deeper. You can also ask the AI to map the questions into the categories you previously got help identifying. For a list of questions you can put into your preferred chat bot, feel free to go through my pre-AI era list of philosophical questions. They are already separated by category. Use AI to Provide a Progress Journal Template If you’re new to journaling, it can be difficult to use the technique to help you articulate what you’re reading and why the ideas are valuable. And that’s not to mention working out various metrics to measure your growth over time. Try a prompt like this: Help me design a progress journal for my quest to better understand and remember difficult books. Include sections for me to list my specific goals, vocabulary targets, summaries and various milestones I identify. Make it visual so I can either copy it into my own print notebook or print out multiple copies for use over time. Once you have a template you’re happy to experiment with, keep it visible in your environment so you don’t forget to use it. Find Blind Spots In Your Summaries Many AIs have solid reasoning skills. As a result, you can enter your written summaries and have the AI identify gaps in your knowledge, blind spots and opportunities for further reading. Try a prompt like: Analyze this summary and identify any blind spots, ambiguities in my thinking or incompleteness in my understanding. Suggest supplementary reading to help me fill in any gaps. At the risk of repetition, the point is that you’re not asking for the summaries. You’re asking for assessments that help you diagnose the limits of your understanding. As scientists have shown, metacognition, or thinking about your thinking can help you see errors much faster. By adding an AI into the mix, you’re getting feedback quickly without having to wait for a teacher to read your essay. Of course, AI outputs can be throttled, so I find it useful to also include a phrase like, “do not throttle your answer,” before asking it to dig deeper and find more issues. Used wisely, you will soon see various schools of thought with much greater clarity, anticipate how authors make their moves and monitor your own blind spots as you read and reflect. Another way to think about the power of AI tools is this: They effectively mirror human reasoning at a species wide level. You can use them to help you mirror more reasoning power by regularly accessing and practicing error detection and filling in the gaps in your thinking style. Why You Must Stop Abandoning Difficult Books (At Least Most of the Time) Like many people, I’m a fan of Scott Young’s books like Ultralearning and Get Better at Anything. He’s a disciplined thinker and his writing helps people push past shallow learning in favor of true and lasting depth. However, he often repeats the advice that you should stop reading boring books. In full transparency, I sometimes do this myself. And Young adds a lot of context to make his suggestion. But I limit abandoning books as much as possible because I don’t personally find Young’s argument that enjoyment and productivity go together. On the contrary, most goals that I’ve pursued have required fairly intense periods of delaying gratification. And because things worth accomplishing generally do require sacrifice and a commitment to difficulty, I recommend you avoid the habit of giving up on books just because they’re “boring” or not immediately enjoyable. I’ll bet you’ll enjoy the accomplishment of understanding hard books and conquering their complexity far more in the end. And you’ll benefit more too. Here’s why I think so. The Hidden Cost of Abandoning Books You’ve Started Yes, I agree that life is short and time is fleeting. But if you get into the habit of abandoning books at the first sign of boredom, it can quickly become your default habit due to how procedural memory works. In other words, you’re given your neurons the message that it’s okay to escape from discomfort. That is a very dangerous loop to throw yourself into, especially if you’re working towards becoming autodidactic. What you really need is to develop the ability to stick with complexity, hold ambiguous and contradictory issues in your mind and fight through topic exhaustion. Giving up on books on a routine basis? That’s the opposite of developing expertise and resilience. The AI Risk & Where Meaning is Actually Found We just went through the benefits of AI, so you shouldn’t have issues. But I regularly hear from people and have even been on interviews where people use AI to summarize books I’ve recomended. This is dangerous because the current models flatten nuance due to how they summarize books based on a kind of “averaging” of what its words predictability mean. Although they might give you a reasonable scaffold of a book’s structure, you won’t get the friction created by how authors take you through their thought processes. In other words, you’ll be using AI models that are not themselves modeling the thinking that reading provides when you grind your way through complex books. The Treasure of Meaning is Outside Your Comfort Zone Another reason to train for endurance is that understanding doesn’t necessarily arrive while reading a book or even a few weeks after finishing it. Sometimes the unifying insights land years later. But if you don’t read through books that seem to be filled with scattered ideas, you cannot gain any benefit from them. Their diverse points won’t consolidate in your memory and certainly won’t connect with other ideas later. So I suggest you train your brain to persist as much as possible. By drawing up the support of the techniques we discussed today and a variety of mnemonic support systems, you will develop persistence and mine more gold from everything you read. And being someone who successfully mines for gold and can produce it at will is the mark of the successful reading. Not just someone who consumes information efficiently, but who can repeatedly connect and transform knowledge year after year due to regularly accumulating gems buried in the densest and most difficult books others cannot or will not read. Use Struggle to Stimulate Growth & You Cannot Fail As you’ve seen, challenging books never mean that you’re not smart enough. It’s just a matter of working on your process so that you can tackle new forms of knowledge. And any discomfort you feel is a signal that a great opportunity and personal growth adventure awaits. By learning how to manage cognitive load, fill in the gaps in your background knowledge and persist through frustration, you can quickly become the kind of reader who seeks out complexity instead of flinching every time you see it. Confusion has now become a stage along the path to comprehension. And if you’re serious about mastering increasingly difficult material, understanding and retaining it, then it’s time to upgrade your mental toolbox. Start now by grabbing my Free Memory Improvement Course: Inside, you’ll discover: The Magnetic Memory Method for creating powerful Memory Palaces How to develop your own mnemonic systems for encoding while reading Proven techniques that deepen comprehension, no matter how abstract or complex your reading list is And please, always remember: The harder the book, the greater rewards. And the good news is, you’re now more than ready to claim them all.

Boomer on Hall of Fame snubs of coaching legends Tom Coughlin and Mike Shanahan. Will Gisele will attend Tom Brady's eventual induction. A caller brings up video of Jon Gruden and Rich Gannon calling plays on the streets of San Francisco. Plus, Mike Vrabel revisits his "Super Bowl sacrifice," Lindsey Vonn eyes an Olympic comeback on a ruptured ACL, and we discuss the financial deficit facing Rutgers athletics.

The Jets coaching search takes center stage this morning as we break the news of Frank Reich being hired as the new OC, despite a whirlwind of conflicting reports and drama between Shaun Morash and Craig Carton. The Giants have landed Matt Nagy and we discuss what his strengths are. From Hall of Fame snubs to Mike Vrabel revisiting his infamous "Super Bowl sacrifice," it's a packed show. Plus, we have a wild Marshawn Lynch podcast appearance, the mystery of Boomer's Food Network "wiener" cameo, the financial struggles facing Rutgers athletics, and a lot more.